Starting out...

[chiphungry]

I’m Mike. I live in Nottingham, so I’m one of those who is blessed to have DTD on my doorstep! I’ve been playing poker for about 3 years but now it’s 2012 and I’ve told myself I’m gonna start taking it a bit more seriously. So, I’ve set aside some poker funds and I’m constantly trying to improve my game, books, blogs, online videos... the usual!

I suppose it was going to Vegas last year that gave me the kickstart. I chopped an $80 tournament 3 ways for $1313 each and made about $500 profit on cash, not bad for a weeks holiday! That added nicely to the £1365 from DTD’s six max earlier that month, giving me my second birthday win in a row (happy 21st!) Junes a good month really, I satellited into my first £300 deepstack at DTD too!

I’ve always been a regular at DTD’s £20 tourneys so I thought I’d use those to try and build a bankroll, but I realised pretty quickly that’d be basically impossible! I cashed a few times but not enough to show a profit, it seemed like I was cursed to finish about 10 spots from the money which frustrated the hell out of me. So, I decided it was time to put more efforts into my online game... though I’ve not got all that much experience in it... and even less on cash!

March pretty much came and went, but when April arrived I played a few live events. I was at DTD for the Incredible 100 last Saturday and in Coventry for the APAT too. I made day 2 of the APAT, but my curse of going out around about 10 before the cash haunted me again! I got holdem manager 2 to track my progress and give me a HUD, decided to be tight though and took the free trial first . I deposited $100 onto my Pokerstars account and started with the $1 SNG/MTT’s, 45/90 man, which gave me 100 buy ins to ride the variance. I set myself a target of playing 100 tournaments in my first month (got to fit in work and keeping the girlfriend happy too!) I cashed in my first tournament, 5/90 players so I was off to a good start! After another 5 tournaments I’d had another 2 cashes so was starting to feel a bit big headed ... then I didn’t cash for 17 tournaments in a row, which brought me back down to earth!

I needed to look at my game, so I reviewed all my hands to find any leaks, which taught me how much I hate AQ if nothing else! I also noticed I was running massively below my EV line, so this restored a bit of my confidence. I watched some more training videos and got back to the game.
Over the next couple of weeks I kept playing and, slowly but surely, I was building my bankroll.

We’re on the 27th April as I’m writing this, and I’m up to tournament number 86 so I’ll easily hit the 100 marker this weekend, but I’ll be taking time out tomorrow to play a pub game with a £1k 1st place prize... from a field of 12! My game of choice has changed to the $1 90man turbos, playing 2 tournaments at a time (my computer dies when I open anymore!)

So, May is nearly here, my plans are:
1.   Pay for holdem manager... that free trials gonna run out soon!
2.   Play some more of DTDs weekend deepstacks and take one of those down.
3.   Play the Cardiff APAT, try to beat that curse. Maybe it’ll help that I’ve booked a nicer hotel than I had in Coventry... no pull down metal shutters on the windows this time!
4.   Boost my bankroll with another $100 deposit ... maybe! But it would mean I can move up to the $2.50 MTTs and beat those too.

[leethefish]

 

[paulhouk03]

welcome

Re
the mtsng.

I suggest you keep grinding the same tourneys but increase the number of tables you play instead of going up.
If your pc cant take more then 2 tables. I suggest you buy a new one as it will be worth it when you will grinding more tables

gl with the grind

also get table ninja

[jgcblack]

welcome

Re
the mtsng.

I suggest you keep grinding the same tourneys but increase the number of tables you play instead of going up.
If your pc cant take more then 2 tables. I suggest you buy a new one as it will be worth it when you will grinding more tables

gl with the grind

also get table ninja

+1
HELLO!

and defo get TN, its the bollux.

[Longy]

Sngwiz is probably the best tool for learning quickly in the tournaments you are playing online as it is a lot of push/fold. They do a free 30 day trial.

[istrabraq]

Welcome . Just enjoy playing  don't let it take over make time for girlfriend . And when you win use winnings for holidays and remember there's always another game next week .

[flushthemout]

seems u have set ur stall out well, but play to enjoy, winning is a bonus, but dont be to critical about loses. gl and keep us informed of ur progress.

[SuuPRlim]

Hello Mike!

Try to keep three things in mind when you're starting out tracking your progress and reviewing your results...

1) Winning does not = playing well, losing does not = playing bad. Stay objective.

2) There is no way you can immediately start playing solid winning poker, it takes a lot of time to develop into a winning player - so enjoy the learning, enjoy the game and enjoy getting better whilst understanding that you might not be able to see improvements straight away, and don't worry about hitting targets etc just play cos you want to play and it's fun. There is a chance you might never be a winning poker player, some people might just not have it in them - but a LOT of people love to play and from those people, some people with the right mentality and approach will becomes winners, if not, WHO CARES - JUST GO WITH IT

3) It's a game. It will frustrate you at times but if it makes you angry ever you shouldn't be playing!

It's all about the game, everything else comes second. Best of luck!

David

[kinboshi]

Welcome to blonde! Listen to what Dave says, he's blonde's resident Yoda - small in physical stature, but wiser than most.

Good luck with the poker, and see you in DTD soon.

[Matt.NFFC.]

Welcome mate, I also like to get to DTD every now and then being local too.  Your story was so similar to mine way back in about 2005 or whenever it was when I first started playing poker.

The difficult part is keeping to a plan, I'm virtually no further on in 6 years due to the time involved (kids, wife etc), but if you can keep the missus happy and remain focused when playing, and keep to your bankroll level, you will be in good shape.

Good luck and keep at it, this is one of the best places to be to learn.

Oh, and finally, DO NOT log on when you get back from the pub!!!!

[paulhouk03]

Do log on after the pub

More fun stories

If u wanna take poker super seriously having a gf isn't a good idea IMO

Women don't understand that you have to grind to make some money to build a roll

They soon come round to the idea when u buy them a louis vuitton tho


Also don't listen to me as most ppl don't. And join the clique for full benefits

[Sulphur man]

Great start to this i shall follow with intrest. 

[Rod]

Look forward to an epic rise through the poker world. Keep the diary up.

[chiphungry]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome, I am surprised I got this many responses so early on!

This weekend did not go exactly according to plan as I did not hit my 100 tournament target for the month. However I was playing live poker all weekend instead, so I can't really complain!  I still managed to rack up 91 tournaments for the month though! Thought you might be interested to see my results for April:
Tournaments played: 91
Total staked: $91.10
Total won: $141.22
Total profit: $50.12
Not bad for the first month, I am very pleased with this although I know I should focus only on my decisions not my results.

On Saturday we played a pub game, which had been organised for a while, sadly i had to miss the Grand Prix but it's not all bad. The pub game consisted 12 players, we had each paid in £5 a week for about 40 weeks. I had also paid my girlfriend in as she likes to play the odd poker event when she isn't studying. The payouts were as follows: 1st £1k, 2nd £800, 3rd 490, 4th 130. I started off well but lost a couple of key pots and was down to less than 10bb, i found AQ in the small blind, shoved and the big blind found 99, a four card flush for me and I doubled up.
I managed to make the final table and chip up my 8k stack to about 25k within a few levels without a showdown. 9 dwindled down to 5 and the it was now the bubble, both me and my girlfriend were still in, she is sat directly to my left (best not raise her big blind or I will be on the sofa for the night!). The blinds are 1/2k I raise to 4k, UTG with KQ, it gets folded round to the big blind who shoves for about 10k, I call and he shows JJ, Q on the flop and the bubble boy exits.
Next interesting hand... my stack is about 34k, the blinds are 1/2k I raise to 4k UTG with AK, my girlfriend ships for 20k, the big blind then reships and has me covered! I pondered for a while and eventually find a fold. My girlfriend has KK and the big blind has JJ, KK holds and she doubles up.
A couple of hands later... the blinds are 1500/3000 it is folded to me in the small blind I look down at 10’s, I shove, my girlfriend calls with AQ, flops a Q to take me out in 4th.
The last 3 then exchange the chip lead back and forth, they eventually decide to chop for £760 each. I was over the moon for my girlfriend (I think she was too!) This was her biggest win to date. We then when to McDonald's for a celebratory burger (nowhere else was open at that time!)

On Sunday I had a crack at the Super50 at DTD, I started off well, I was up to 40k by the second level when the average was only 18k. But then I was card dead for a while and I made a move at the wrong time which saw me exit the tournament. I decided not to re-enter but to go home to spend some quality time with the girlfriend, we watched some TV and had a takeaway. Cracking way to end a fun-filled weekend.

Taking some advice from the replies above, I have decided to keep at the $1 90man tournaments online but increase the amount of tables I play (with the help of table ninja). Still unaware why my computer crashes when I try to open 4 or more tournaments, as it has plenty of power to run them, but I will try to fix this problem somehow... big hammer comes to mind!

Well it's Monday now and it's back to the day job, but with a bank holiday just around the corner I am debating whether to take a shot at a satellite for DTD’s £500 deepstack. If not I will definitely be playing the Incredible 100, so hopefully I will see some of you down there!

I will keep you posted...

[chiphungry]

Well I think I have solved my computer problems, turned the power settings to high performance and I haven’t had a problem 4 tabling yet!
As for this month, online isn’t going so well for me as I am down 12 buyins, however I am very confident I can turn this around!
On Sunday I thought I would drive to DTD and see if my luck was any better in the live tournaments. I entered the £30 tournament and was off to a good start, being the table aggressor until I lost one big pot which made me tighten up my game.
I then managed to double up, my QQ vs JJ all-in pre-flop, I was back in the game! I continued with my aggression and it was paying off. Then I  came across this hand... my stack 20k blinds 800/1600, I raise to 3200 UTG with 88, folded round to the BTN (20k) she calls, the SB hates the situation and eventually jams for 15k, I re-jam for the rest of my stack. The BTN says “do I need to gamble?” and eventually puts in her stack. The BTN has AJ, SB has 44. The flop comes A57 (sigh), turn is an 8 (air punch!) and the river is another 8 to give me quads! I now have a stack which is about double average.
I continue to play my game and we finally get to the money. I now have about 10bbs left, due to the monstrous blinds and I am just trying to steal the blinds and antes to build my stack. The blinds are 2.5/5k it’s folded to me in the hijack, I look down at KJ and ship all-in for 55k, the BTN then re-ships for a similar amount the BB then takes ages before folding 10’s! The BTN flips over AQ, first card out is a Q, second is a K, which holds. I now have over 100k, I start to play even more aggressive and build up my stack further.
The blinds are now 5/10k, I am in the SB and the cut-off (150k) raises to 42k, I look down at 10’s, I think for a minute and shove all-in (170k) he snap calls me with AJ, the board runs out and I scoop a 300k pot for the final table.
The eliminations on the final table are swift and we are soon down to 6 players. It is now 3am and we have been playing 6 handed for a while, the tournament director tells the table “we close at 4am so you can play until then but a chip count will be done at 4 and play will stop.” I was second in chips at this point, the table then agreed to do a chip count deal after one final hand. This final hand put me 3rd in chips, but there wasn’t a lot between all the stacks anyway so I was still happy to do a chip count deal, which gave me £615 (3rd place was paying £500 anyway, so I think I got a pretty good deal).
Overall a good bank holiday weekend!