confessions of a teenage grinder.

[mondatoo]

Like I said, even for the best regs, 300 buy in aren't uncommon.  Just gotta stick at it and make sure you're rolled for it.

Don't think I've ever had a 300 bi downswing and I'm definitely one of the more aggro regs ?

Had a 200 bi downswing in all my games at once which wasn't a whole lot of fun.

200 is fairly common and I have a few over the course of the year, pretty certain polerization will be playing lower variance than I do though.

GLGLGL.

180s are a walk in the park compared to mtt's.

[theprawnidentity]

Like I said, even for the best regs, 300 buy in aren't uncommon.  Just gotta stick at it and make sure you're rolled for it.

Don't think I've ever had a 300 bi downswing and I'm definitely one of the more aggro regs ?

Had a 200 bi downswing in all my games at once which wasn't a whole lot of fun.

200 is fairly common and I have a few over the course of the year, pretty certain polerization will be playing lower variance than I do though.

GLGLGL.

180s are a walk in the park compared to mtt's.

Some rare brags in this forum today!!!!!

[polerization]

Yeah im not really rolled to play them tbh playing like 150bi , feel like ive been playing good and should have won a lot more than i have lost 2 big pots that would have put me chip leader in both AA vs KQ vs KJ im sat with aces obv both beat me haha then AK vs AQ vs AJ once again i lose to both these both hurts i cant really think off many bad hands but ill check when i look over my HH's, thanks for the advice guys would just like peoples opinion would you say its better to start aggressive in these i play really tight aggro at the start and open up as it goes on is this the wrong way round?

[theprawnidentity]

Nah I generally play really tight early, then when antes come in, shit gets real.

[titaniumbean]

Nah I generally play really tight early, then when antes come in, shit gets real.

Game's the same, just got more fierce!

[polerization]

Haha aggression is key right? Was just thinking anyway monda aren't you basiclly a god variance doesn't effect you lol.

[polerization]

So just played a couple on the mobile app and wow pokerstars mobile app is good! But lost 2 ridic tilting pots AA in BB cutoff jams 20bb on me i call my 15bb stack off for him to hit a 4 card flush on me with AJ niceeeee..... Then button mins i jam my 15bb from the BB for him to call off with Q10 and hit his queen gg.

[polerization]

so woke up this morning and i thought about playing some 25/50c heads up on BWIN these are the softest games and dont think ive lost at these, so put $50 on and made this into $150 in about 10 minutes (they really are bad players) then decided to shot take further cashing in my original $50 and playing 50/1 these players seem a bit better but still not special really i was up to like $140 against a guy who was playing like $180 when i tried tripple barrel semi bluffing on KQ56ddxx the river bricks Ax i have 78dd he checkstheres about $68 in the pot so bet $40 (felt like a nice number) for the guy to flat with J10 sigggggh think the xxx were clubs, then ended up getting my last $60 in with JJ on 569 flop for him to turn over 78 haha gg. but feel like i played really well bar these two hands which i think were just unlucky, i really need to get rolled/staked for the 50NLHU its so easy pretty much don't think ive lost at this stake so far.

So excited atm go to Ayia Napa in a week with my friends this should be epic think its time for a break of poker now till i get back so like 3 weeks probably longest i wont have played in so long hopefully it'll help my game fingers crossed

[david3103]

so woke up this morning and i thought about playing some 25/50c heads up on BWIN these are the softest games and dont think ive lost at these, so put $50 on and made this into $150 in about 10 minutes (they really are bad players) then decided to shot take further cashing in my original $50 and playing 50/1 these players seem a bit better but still not special really i was up to like $140 against a guy who was playing like $180 when i tried tripple barrel semi bluffing on KQ56ddxx the river bricks Ax i have 78dd he checkstheres about $68 in the pot so bet $40 (felt like a nice number) for the guy to flat with J10 sigggggh think the xxx were clubs, then ended up getting my last $60 in with JJ on 569 flop for him to turn over 78 haha gg. but feel like i played really well bar these two hands which i think were just unlucky, i really need to get rolled/staked for the 50NLHU its so easy pretty much don't think ive lost at this stake so far.

So excited atm go to Ayia Napa in a week with my friends this should be epic think its time for a break of poker now till i get back so like 3 weeks probably longest i wont have played in so long hopefully it'll help my game fingers crossed

Recommended reading...
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=56559.0


Good luck

[polerization]

Thanks for that really enjoyed reading the early bits ill read more later.

[polerization]

So decided that it would be an amazing time to play the GP when i come to nottingham going to try and sat in with a chip but wont have a lot of time after my holiday/ if theres any chips left! Would be amazing to win and played the GP before i liked the torno and met some nice ppl but bust AAvsKK playing like 15bb on the 2nd to last level of day one GG.

[SuuPRlim]

Hi Mate,

Been reading this diary over last month or so and it's interesting, I've been talking on facebook to a guy for a while now who is just starting out at poker, he reminds me of me when i was 18-20 and you remind me of him lol you guys should chat!

Few things i've noticed, and this is pretty much the same advice I gave the other guy, at the moment your poker has no direction at all, you're trying this one day, that the other $50 punt here, $100 punt there and so on. Now there is nothing wrong with this AT ALL, if this is what you want, but i'd strongly advise that if you're going to do this then you have something else to do as well, a job, maybe a uni course IDK whatever you want, because you're going to find it quite frustrating to approach the game like this if you're relying on it for money - if that makes sense? What will happen ofc is you'll find a format of the game you just really like more than most of the others, or one you seem to be naturally better at and you'll spend more and more time doing that.

I think atm this is the right thing to do, but without the pressure of saying "I wanna do this for a living" all that will do is put extra pressure on yourself, and it will deter from the most important aspect of the game for right now, which is your enjoyment of playing. I remember very fondly when I was first getting seriously into poker and I used to do 25c/50c HU one wednesday, then try some tournaments on Thursday, casino on Friday and play some live cash games and so on. Goes without saying I was not a winner in any of these formats at that time but I just LOVED playing so much...It actually makes me a little sad on reflection that nowadays it takes massive massive games to get me back to that same level of "Fresh Enjoyment" of the game.

With this in mind my advice would be to keep plugging away things outside of poker and just make poker your "main hobby" and keep playing and enjoying the game. Get yourself to some live events like the £50 ones at DTD and down your local casino/card club and you'll quickly meet some other people your age who are in a similar spot and you can talk about poker, go to tournaments with etc but don't ruin all this my putting pressure on yourself to win, as (and I dont mean this with any malice AT ALL I hope that's obvious) you're very unlikely to be in a position where you can actually play profitable poker atm. The key to making money from poker is to have a "bread and butter game" that you know backwards+forwards, have a record of beating and a bankroll to play comfortably, everyone who is successful at poker has this but it takes a long time to develop. I started playing poker at 16, got serious at 19 and I was 21 y the time I could actuallly say I was successfully "BEATING" poker. So there is nothing wrong with not being in that position JUST YET, its exactly natural and right.

Before you can learn to be good, you need to first learn HOW TO LEARN to be good (if this makes sense?) It begins as "sub-concious incompetence" where you're still at a point where you don't actually KNOW what you DON'T KNOW, this is evident from the way people report hands, everyone shares the JJ vs A4 type hands as you did which are very standard/unlucky hands and spending their time ruing those hands and completely ignoring the mistakes they are making in the small pots which is where the money is being lost atm. Luckily you're in a great position with blonde where there are tons of great players who are enthusiastic about poker and also great guys who'd help you along the progress. Tomsom+Monda for example very successful in the 180 mans and I bet either of them would give you 30minutes one day to watch you play or vica versa and chat poker with you, for someone in the early stages of development you can't put a price on that. The community spirit one Blonde is fantastic and if you get stuck into thing over here, then people will put their time into analysing your hands and giving you advice.

I think the biggest problem with players coming up nowadays is people want to be printing immediately, and the huge influx of educational material out there and social media with people sharing poker experiences/lifestyles it's all about patience, realism and like I said 100 times already, ENJOYING yourself. You read "An Ape and a Notebook" its fascinating stuff, but  good example of what I mean - John rushes into everything at 1000 miles per hour and expects to be destorying every poker game within 15 minutes. It's a long process, it takes a lot of time so just accept that right now and have fun whilst it's going on, but in the meanwhile from a practical angle and also to stop yourself going mental (lol) have something else to do in life as well cos it's pretty much a freeroll if you're gonna be crushing the pokers in 2 years right?

GL mate.

[polerization]

Hi Mate,

Been reading this diary over last month or so and it's interesting, I've been talking on facebook to a guy for a while now who is just starting out at poker, he reminds me of me when i was 18-20 and you remind me of him lol you guys should chat!

whats his name? type of game? but could be helpful thanks.

Few things i've noticed, and this is pretty much the same advice I gave the other guy, at the moment your poker has no direction at all, you're trying this one day, that the other $50 punt here, $100 punt there and so on. Now there is nothing wrong with this AT ALL, if this is what you want, but i'd strongly advise that if you're going to do this then you have something else to do as well, a job, maybe a uni course IDK whatever you want, because you're going to find it quite frustrating to approach the game like this if you're relying on it for money - if that makes sense? What will happen ofc is you'll find a format of the game you just really like more than most of the others, or one you seem to be naturally better at and you'll spend more and more time doing that.

really thinking that atm i can support myself playing poker find playing 10/25c on any site but stars a really easy, this sort of counts as a spin up but made a $400 bankroll sort of think playing these of £30 this has now been cashed in but i will have a roll of about £600 to play these in september im really looking forward to the grind and feel that even though yeah i will have pressure for rent/expenditure i can get a job as a back up and already have one as a back up i feel that the 10/25c ive been playing on BWIN recently and these are incredibly easy so i see this as an opportunity to earn the 10/15bi a month that would cover my rent coupled with a live staking deal and the potential to crush these games i could build a roll so easy in these is this being niave? or is that a high win rate?

I think atm this is the right thing to do, but without the pressure of saying "I wanna do this for a living" all that will do is put extra pressure on yourself, and it will deter from the most important aspect of the game for right now, which is your enjoyment of playing. I remember very fondly when I was first getting seriously into poker and I used to do 25c/50c HU one wednesday, then try some tournaments on Thursday, casino on Friday and play some live cash games and so on. Goes without saying I was not a winner in any of these formats at that time but I just LOVED playing so much...It actually makes me a little sad on reflection that nowadays it takes massive massive games to get me back to that same level of "Fresh Enjoyment" of the game.

With this in mind my advice would be to keep plugging away things outside of poker and just make poker your "main hobby" and keep playing and enjoying the game. Get yourself to some live events like the £50 ones at DTD and down your local casino/card club and you'll quickly meet some other people your age who are in a similar spot and you can talk about poker, go to tournaments with etc but don't ruin all this my putting pressure on yourself to win, as (and I dont mean this with any malice AT ALL I hope that's obvious) you're very unlikely to be in a position where you can actually play profitable poker atm. The key to making money from poker is to have a "bread and butter game" that you know backwards+forwards, have a record of beating and a bankroll to play comfortably, everyone who is successful at poker has this but it takes a long time to develop. I started playing poker at 16, got serious at 19 and I was 21 y the time I could actuallly say I was successfully "BEATING" poker. So there is nothing wrong with not being in that position JUST YET, its exactly natural and right.

Before you can learn to be good, you need to first learn HOW TO LEARN to be good (if this makes sense?) It begins as "sub-concious incompetence" where you're still at a point where you don't actually KNOW what you DON'T KNOW, this is evident from the way people report hands, everyone shares the JJ vs A4 type hands as you did which are very standard/unlucky hands and spending their time ruing those hands and completely ignoring the mistakes they are making in the small pots which is where the money is being lost atm. Luckily you're in a great position with blonde where there are tons of great players who are enthusiastic about poker and also great guys who'd help you along the progress. Tomsom+Monda for example very successful in the 180 mans and I bet either of them would give you 30minutes one day to watch you play or vica versa and chat poker with you, for someone in the early stages of development you can't put a price on that. The community spirit one Blonde is fantastic and if you get stuck into thing over here, then people will put their time into analysing your hands and giving you advice.

I think the biggest problem with players coming up nowadays is people want to be printing immediately, and the huge influx of educational material out there and social media with people sharing poker experiences/lifestyles it's all about patience, realism and like I said 100 times already, ENJOYING yourself. You read "An Ape and a Notebook" its fascinating stuff, but  good example of what I mean - John rushes into everything at 1000 miles per hour and expects to be destorying every poker game within 15 minutes. It's a long process, it takes a lot of time so just accept that right now and have fun whilst it's going on, but in the meanwhile from a practical angle and also to stop yourself going mental (lol) have something else to do in life as well cos it's pretty much a freeroll if you're gonna be crushing the pokers in 2 years right?

GL mate.

read a lot of Johns diary which has been very helpful and would absolutely love to be in his spot with Pleno, but this is obviously not an option till i've sort of proved myself. Nothing to do with that your a pretty sick cash player if i've read right do you teach/analyse sessions with people?

I pretty much always analyse my game/ always think about how to improve this but its really hard to do without advice from much better players im sure when i eventually start 'regging' DTD then i will meet a lot better  players than myself and get talking to them.

I read Alex Goulder's diary from the start over the christmas/ jan feb period and found this very helpful in making up my mind.

thanks.

[SuuPRlim]

I cant really talk with any intelligence  on your poker game right now at all ofc, IDK your bankroll, living expenses etc but 25c/50c will require a decent amount of volume to pay your way, you'll find a lot of your winnings will go towards expenses (obviously the freedom poker gives you will result in you wanting to enjoy yourself a little more - I have some experience of this ) so you won't be able to move up that easily, which means you'll be spending much of your time just grinding to pay rent. Pretty dull way to live at 19 imo.

I just can't stress enough how depressing poker is when you NEED to win, and DONT, and how incredible it is when you DON'T NEED to win, but DO. This is why I'm strongly advising you keep on it with something else for the meanwhile, to ease pressure and aid your enjoyment and whilst you're finding a game you can win in, and learning and experimenting in different type of poker.

John's staking arrangement with Pleno was, imo, the worst thing for him (in heingsight, at the time I thought it was incredible as well) any sort of staking agreement for you at the moment would be a very bad idea, just take your time, build it up and work up slowly. There is a lot of rush these days to get staked when it's a huge strain on your mental approach.

Patience Patience Patience.

In regards to coaching etc, I don't coach really anymore not worth it, although I do sessions with people I like you can add me on skype if you like (same name as here) and if you want to ask about a hand (as long as its not a SnG hand you're better off asking your nextdoor neighbour lol) then il be glad to talk it through with you.

Just playing loads and thinking objectively about situations, don't focus on the badbeats and suckouts and think about your overall game and which situations (might be as small as times you call from the SB and fold the flop etc) are the ones you never seem to win.  When you play and play the same games the same sort of spot continues to arise and you always seem to lose the pot you gotta think, what am I doing there, why do I always lose that pot? and so on.

I hope none of this seems like a dig btw, I have been asked recently for an interview "what is the one piece of advice you would give yourself when you were just starting now" and the answer to it is that I just wish I'd had someone on board with a little bit of realism - I actually had a job well into when i was playing poker full time and it was a great decision as much as it didn't feel like it was at the time. You got a great chance to get to the right place much quicker than I did (chances are you;re prolly naturally a better player than me too) but don't rush yourself or get too carried away cos it'll just cause you a LOT of stress!

Obviously one of the best times of my life was when I was just starting out rocking around with Jamie and Ash scrapping about so I'm really just saying you gotta enjoy this time of poker and dont criple your morale with too much pressure.

[redsimon]

quote "I just can't stress enough how depressing poker is when you NEED to win, and DONT, and how incredible it is when you DON'T NEED to win, but DO. This is why I'm strongly advising you keep on it with something else for the meanwhile, to ease pressure and aid your enjoyment and whilst you're finding a game you can win in, and learning and experimenting in different type of poker. "


top advice Dave