Time to start a real journal for myself. I've started at the bottom of the barrel - 25NL and I plan to make a climb and continue on my way up. I'll move up limits at 20-25xbuyin.

I've been playing 25nl and 50nl for over a year now, but nothing ever serious. It has just provided me a little bit of extra money while in college. I've spent the money as soon as i've got it, and thus I've never been able to build a bankroll. But now it's time. I want to take this very seriously and will be reading books, studying the game, and getting help from you guys as well.

I want to be eventually be playing some of the higher online stakes, and I really believe that with the proper work .. I can do it.

Here are my current PT stats at 25NL where I have been 4-6 tabling for the last week or so.


Aggression Factor is just around 2.5
True Win Rate is $13.95

I'll be trying to update this daily, along with questionable hands/plays as well as bankroll updates. I hope to get some followers/helpers.

Current Bankroll
$507.22
Next Level (50NL) in:
$742.78

I just got finished with a short session, 5-tabling 25NL tables as usual. It started off bad when I hit a set of 9's and got put all in by a guy drawing to an inside straight. Needless to say he hit it. I recouped most of that loss by scooping up a lot of small pots, and then hit a couple other hands as well.

Sets. They are the absolute devil to me. Previous to today, I haven't been able to hit a set if my life depended on it. Today I must have hit 6 or 7 within a 45 minute time span. Nice, right? Well normally yes, but I only won with ONE Of them. It's so frustrating. Most of them were against draws, and I could bet twice the pot at them, and they still called for that flush. That's the life of 25NL though, they were calling and hitting precisely what they needed. The session still ended up, but I just had to rant a little bit about my frustration with sets lately.

I actually ended in positive #'s on all 5 tables, which is good. Usually they tend to even each other out a bit with some +/- on different ones. My session win rate jumped about 60%, and I can't complain with that either. I've been running OK lately, but I believe I'm playing with better focus and picking my spots much better than I have in the past.

Cleared 7% of $100 bonus +$7 (not included in amount won/lost figure)

Amount Won/Lost:
$42.03
Current Bankroll:
$575.54
Next Level (50NL) in:
$674.46

Wow...just wow is all that I can say. Complaining about bad beats can get annoying, but this session was just absolutely ridiculous.

BEGIN RANT

KK vs. AA, flop AK4, both all in when I had a $40 stack (he had me covered, only person at the table even close)
AA vs. KK, preflop all in
10-10, board 10-2-5, guy is all in with A-3...turn 4...another stack
Flopped nut flush, lose to runner runner boat...guy all in turn with 2 pair...ouch.

Sets again too. I can't ever seem to hit them, and the trend is continuing that when I manage to actually hit them, people are sucking out and hitting the miracles. I really hope this stops and I get on a normal run with them.

/RANT

This was my first losing session in a while, but I guess i'm still up a few $ on the day *shrug* It was a session where I was ready to smash my monitor and everything surrounding me.

Also, my BB/100 dropped a good amount..down to around 8, which I'm not particularly happy with at this level. I believe that it should be above 10, and I'll have to do some work to get it back up there. I guess it's more of a psychological thing than anything seeing it drop a little bit... 8ptbb/100 is not terrible i suppose, but it's not where I want to be at and I will work to raise it.

Cleared a good amount of my bonus though, which I suppose is a good thing. Another 13% +$13


Amount Won/Lost:
-$29.10
Current Bankroll:
$546.44
Next Level (50NL) in:
$703.56

I sat down for another session today...I'm still playing, but I'm not sure that I've EVER seen such miserable cards. I'm losing my ass off, and cannot hit a big hand for the life of me.

edit: I jsut finished... 2.5 hours, 4/5-tabling.

Totals:

Sets = 1
Flushes = 0
Straights = 2
Full House = 0

How is that even possible?

Amount Won/Lost:
-$28.64
Current Bankroll:
$517.80
Next Level (50NL) in:
$732.20

Just played another very quick session. It started out very bad when I flopped a King-high flush and my opponnent flopped it Ace-high. BLAHHHHh

I finished up a little bit and decided to just get out of there while I was ahead.

I also cleared 15% of my bonus today +$15

Amount Won/Lost:
$17.61
Current Bankroll:
$535.41
Next Level (50NL) in:
$714.59

THis seriously has to be some sort of a joke. I lost about $90 today, and I played well. This is just unbelievable....down $140 in 3 days at 25NL? What. The. Fuck. It is SOOO discouraging to lose to players who are honestly TERRIBLE. But they just call everything and hit miracles. It honestly makes me want to puke....and then break stuff.

AA, twice, lost both to low sets
KK, 6x Lost them all. 4 times, I was against AA. 2 times i lost to sets of J's.
QQ, 4x Lost them all. Worst one was the last one. Flop Q-2-7 rainbow. I bet pot, get raised, I reraise all in and get called. turn J river 10. He shows AK. Awesome.

This is on top of countless other hands that people make the most miserable calls on and manage to hit. I truly can NOT win hands, no matter how good they may be. I don't even know what to do about it. Everyone always tells me "it will even out, you'll have a great run where your cards can't lose". I've been playing for 2 years and this has never been the case. I understand that ranting like this gets old and you people do not want to hear it, but I honestly believe that my bad luck is something of another world. Nothing ever seems to change it...people just CONSTANTLY hit miracles on me. Period.

Fuck that.

If there were no bad players capable of making asanine calls, then there would be many fewer of us that could ever profit from this. You don't make money playing aganist equally skilled opponents, you get your money from fish over an extended period of time. Try not to harp on results - as long as you have plenty of bankroll backing you, you will prevail provided you play correctly.

Think about a casino - the patrons have to win sometimes or else they'd never come back - the casino has millions of dollars in bankroll. They aren't worried about players who win at craps, roullette, etc - because they know the house always wins in the long run.

Think of the fish as your patrons icon. If you don't throw them a bone once in awhile, they will all quit playing either by choice or not, then you'll be left to face people like Kenny and Ice.