Rags to Riches: My Quest to Poker Glory

A friend of mine introduced me to Noble Poker over the weekend. The site is good because there are a lot of Eu players on it so I can play it at lunch time over here and have it be evening for them (where I can hope that they just getting home from a night of partying and are drunk enough to donk off chips to me). I had a pretty good weekend there Running $200 up to $300+. I'll be posting proofs again soon. The Blog site was running very slow this weekend and I got too frustrated trying to update.

A friend of mine introduced me to Noble Poker over the weekend. The site is good because there are a lot of Eu players on it so I can play it at lunch time over here and have it be evening for them (where I can hope that they just getting home from a night of partying and are drunk enough to donk off chips to me). I had a pretty good weekend there Running $200 up to $300+. I'll be posting proofs again soon. The Blog site was running very slow this weekend and I got too frustrated trying to update.

So I took another $200 out of the roll to pay for more bills but then got [most of it] right back thanks to a reader's BoDog referral bonus! Thanks Zeke and I will get you your share of the bonus asap.

I have had zero time to play in the past few days. Been working 14-17 hours a day trying to get ready for this big code release we have at work. Will give more updates as soon as things settle down in my professional life.

Ok, since I took money out of my roll to pay some bills (and also lost some obviously), the best way to report my status I think is by showing my BoDog screen. I have a small amount of money (less than $50) in a few other sites and my 'Poker' dedicated savings account but you'll just have to take my word for that. Anyways, here is the pic. I think that having people to report to is going to keep me in check. It worked wonders when I first started doing this plog, so let's get back to basics.

In a way I feel a bit like I'm starting over.



Note: I plan to replace the money that I took out of my roll as soon as I can.

I will be posting updates as soon as I sort out some bills at home. I ended up deciding that I wanted to buy the MLB package with my digital cable (basically lets me watch every single game all season) but didn't have the room in my budget for it so I took it out of my roll. So once every settles back down here I'll be back with the regular updates.

Bodog is awesome by the way. If anyone wants to join me there email me at dh098017@yahoo.com and we can split the referral bonus (I'd get 40% of your initial deposit up to $200. So if you put in $500 you can max the bonus and we can split it 50-50. The best part is BoDog gives you the bonus up front, you can start playing with it right away. The only stipulation is that you have to play X amount of raked hands before you can withdraw it. So email me and we can make some free money!!)

I put $500 onto the site last night. For the deposit I got a $50 bonus (10%), and I also worked it out with a buddy of mine to split the referral bonus. How this works is I tell BoDog that this guy refferred me and he gets 40% of my initial deposit up to $200. The guy agreed to split it with me if I maxed the bonus, so I did. BoDog deposits $200 into his account and he transfered me $100 into my Stars account (thanks Grima!). So right off the bat I'm up $150 just for making the deposit. This is a huge deal for me mentally. Just seeing that I am back up close to $1k as opposed to down around $750 is a great feeling (even though I didn't technically earn it, it helps psychologically).

I'm not ready to say that I am back to 100% yet, but I am getting there. I played in two small tournaments this weekend. Both had around 700 entrants. I finished 15th in one and 20th in the other. Neither were big wins monetarily, but confidence-wise they were huge helpers. I decided to transfer all my money onto a new up and coming poker site (BoDog.com) hoping that the change of scenery will be like a clean slate for me. BoDog has been around for a while but they were mainly in the Sportsbook realm and are just now getting into poker and internet casino's. More news to come.

I spent two hours last night pouring over my PT stats and found two small leaks in my game.

1) Limping with hands like AT and KQ in between middle and late position into an unopened pot (no limps or raises). Doing this, and then flopping just enough to see another street can be very expensive over time. Sure it's only 50c or $1 each time, but over the course of a session it can add up. You can do the math.

2) Completing the small blind with crap when I'm not getting the odds. For example, I have 8/4o with 1 limper behind me. Sure it only costs me 15c but with only 50c in the pot and me having to act first for the rest of the hand. It's like throwing the money away. 15c*50 times per session*a months worth of sessions.....I'll let you do the math....(ok ok i did the math for you and believe it or not if you do this 50 times a day it at only fifteen cents a pop it ends up being over $225 lost by the end of the month).

Hope this helps someone.

Ok. I have decided to not play until my league tourney next week (Monday Night). I got "52 Tips for Texas Hold'em" in the mail yesterday (consolation prize for making the FT of the March CP Freeroll). I plan to read it and both of my HoH's again by monday night. TIME TO RECHARGE THE BATTERIES!!!!!

See you in a week.

Well I was finally able to bring myself to calculate my actual numbers tonight. They are depressing. I am officially down to $833. Since the start of my downswing I have lost 41% of my bankroll. This is really frustrating because I know I am not playing any differently. I have been able to all but eliminate the tilt from my game. The big thing that I am noticing recently though is that while I am not getting outdrawn any more than usual, I am not getting paid off when I have my big hands. A poker player needs action in order to survive, and right now, I'm not getting any.

Nothing significant this weekend. Still playing the lower stakes to work on strategy. I won $10 or so in the cash games but played in some $3 tournies and washed out of all of them so ended up pretty much where I started. I'm trying to decide whether or not to make the transition back to tournament poker. I really like the competition aspect of it, but I'm not sure that I have mentally what it takes to deal with the frustration of rarely making the big score. In tournament poker it is very likely that you can go weeks and months without winning a thing, then make the final table in one MTT and earn it all back. I'm not sure that I have the patience for that. I have a lot of thinking to do about it.