So I finally decided to start my own journal, I've been thinking about it, and now I believe it's time go for it...

After reading some fellow BTPers Journals.. specially KennyG's .. I decided to take Juskimo's Advice " I encourage you to start one.".. so here I am, sitting in front of my PC at 2:00am after one of the greatest poker days in my life.-

* I finally understood poker was much more than just a natural born skill game

I'll start from the begging. Everything commenced back 4 years ago, when I was just 22yo; after watching some TV poker tourney I decided I could beat the games, so the next day while I was at my office (back then I was still at law school and was working part time on a Firm) I made a quick search for online poker rooms, and there it was PStars.. signed up and let it roll.. I think I maybe reload about 20 - 50 times there... and NEVER cash out. About one year ago, my account got to $4k after some super lucky sessions during about 2 – 3 weeks!! that was more than I’ve ever invested during my amateur poker career, and I was sure I was gonna be rich just playing poker. Everything was gone two weeks later and my account back to $0. Now I was mad, depressed, frustrated and addicted to the game so once and for all I quit! I was not going to play anymore, (at least those where my plans) poker so far only brought trouble and disorder to my life. That was it!

Did I already said I was kindda addicted to the game? Off course, I was back to the tables 9 months after that full quit determination. This time it was going to be different I would read and try to learn from experienced players, I would buy a book or so. I finally understood poker was much more than just a natural born skill game, and I was willing to pay my dues cause I really wanted to learn the game. So this one day, while I was browsing through the net I accidentally found Bet The Pot. Bingo!!! It’s been less 2 months and I can say my poker knowledge grew about 5000% since then. Now I know terms like Bankroll, Position, Aggression, SD, EV, Tightness, looseness.. etc. exist. I was completely ignorant, arrogant and now only the second is true. I’ve made my first accurate step into the endless world of poker, but there’s much ahead and I need to proceed slowly and with caution and patience.

Once again I wanted to say thanks to this great community, for it open my eyes to the real world of poker.

welcome..

• My Journal

Like I said before, I’ve been running good at the tables since I joined B-T-P, although last couple of days where very rocky for me (until today). I thought I could handle bad beats, but when those came one after another after another, I went completely Tilt, and made some donktastic moves. When I finally could calm down, I wanted to tell someone was just had happened to me, wanted to write about it so I could share with other people what I felt.- I finally found Tilters Anonymous thread and typing down on a post my feelings and thoughts helped me a lot to realize what really happened. Today was a GREAT day; my BR just took a huge boost after couple of good sessions at the rings and for the first time in my life I placed 2nd on a tourney, once again I wanted to share this great day with everyone. I want to keep track of my moods, poker evolution, and have a record for feed back as I move on, so a Journal is just perfect. Finally, I’m planning to go to Australia on January to take a Master of Business Economics, and therefore need to improve my English writing skills a lot, think writing frequently on my journal could help a bit. I’m sure I’ll enjoy writing it down, and just hope it can be useful and fun to anyone who reads it.

• Today

Well.. do I need to say it again?? LoL.. it was just unreal!! I play $20NL Fr, and my $100 deposit initial BR was now around $600 including some bonuses I made, working my way up to $1.5k before I move on to $50NL, although I was not poker happy since I had some previous crraaaappy days. I woke up early in the morning and had some work to do with but I decided not to go to my office and rather stay home and work here.- I finish damn fast so ran to the tables, morning session was good; stopped to have lunch and watch Champions League final. After that I sat down for night session, which was even better than morning one.. I was on the mood when I saw my PT graph after I finish playing it.!!




But that’s not all… since I had done so good, I though I could afford my self a tourney entry and sign up for an $8.80… Result:



Now YES I’m really happy, it’s encouraging when things go that good, yet I need to calm down before I go back to play. In just 1 day my BR made a huge jump towards my first goal, and now and I’m very close to achieve it.

(may, 30/06)

• Finally I'm moving up...

It took me 52 days and around 26k hands.. a couple of bonuses and a 2nd place in a tourney, but I'm finally moving up from $20NL to $50NL... This means I've accomplish my first goal, building up my bankroll to 1.5K.. which gives me 30 buy ins. I think I can play confidently at the 50NL with that. Although my first approach to the new level hasn’t been as good as I thought, competition is much harder, and there are times when it turns a rock garden with vpip’s around 17% in all my three tables, it’s weird cause it’s suppose that Tribeca has soft competition. Still I’m running positive with a 0.7BB/100 for my first 2.6k hands during this first 2 days, but with some huge up side downs. I guess I was a little bit nervous, and scare when I move up for the first time, but slowly I’ve been gaining my confidence again and getting use to the new lvl.. so I hope I can raise my winning rate to the 7.5BB/100 I had at the 20NL.

About, the tournaments I have played, I feel disappointed with my self, I made some huge mistakes that avoid me to getting some extra money, it’s pure lack of experience I’m pretty sure, I’m don’t play much tourneys and there’s much I still need to learn in this field. I’ve play a total of 3 tourneys with buy ins below $20 all of them.. 2 days ago, having a nice stack I dump it on a stupid mistake when it was 29 players left (27 paid) !!! Uggg.. today I was ITM and got to the final table, but I went out 9th.. Uggg again.. this time I made various mistakes that cost me a lot, just before getting to the Final Table, so I get there as short stack, and blown up at the first dealt hand. The other 2 tourneys I never got them going…

I’m still waiting my admission approval from La Trobe University in Australia, to my Master Degree program, therefore I’ve been a little anxious, but let’s hope this week it finally arrives.

At the moment I’m poker happy.. and trying to get used to my new lvl… want to work on my tourney skills a lot, and …. (This written was interrupted by an emergency call and thehn I had to go -- father is getting a transplant)

• 100%

This n Past week was awesome… starting with my father’s transplant (means no more dialysis for him) which went perfect and everything is now ok for him, he was even at home 3 days after the surgery, that makes me REALLY happy, it’s just a new life for him. That was Tuesday at 3:00am when we receive the call from the hospital telling us he need to go there fast. Now two days after that I got my letter of admission to the Master degree

Back to poker, I’m now 7k hands into my new lvl, and finally I think I’m making it work, running at 6.5 PTBB/100 and 60% winning sessions, I’ve only played 58 session.. but still is good, atm I feel I’m playing very solid poker, and my bankroll is growing super fast.. I’m close to $2.5k now, awesome scary, 3k is my next goal before moving to $100’s and again I’m not sure if I’m ready to move up, will see when I get there. .. I’ve start playing PLO8, Tribeca players are terrible and that has helped a lot, but since there’s not many tables, I mixed with some tables at Stars, to see if my basic skills (Thx again Monk n Piersmajestic) still where going to work with some better players.. and guess what.. yup they worked, and worked awesome good. Right now I’m usually playing two 50NL and one PL08 50 or 100 tables when I log.

So this is a 100% happy entry in my journal.


PD.- Still working on my writing skills.

wow that's all very cool m8.

keep it up..arriba.

• Upside Down Roller Coaster

After last entry on my journal everything was going very good, I was feeling very comfortable with my poker play and thought I was unbeatable, so I decide to go back and face my monster, this time I was going to beat it. Stars announce a June reload bonus, and I wanted that damn i-pod (FPP Store) so bad. So I prepare my self for this classic battle again, it’s me reborn and much stronger vs. the site who ate my funds during the past 2 years. I packed up each and every of my weapons and prepare my self psychologically for what was going to be a huge comeback to the battle field. Put $600 on my account and let it roll. He let me play with him for a while, and even fed me, and once I was fat enough ate me alive, again. !!! Uggg how much I hate that site!!! Everything was going good during bonus clearance period; after I was done with it I cash out my initial deposit and had left around $200 to keep on going on my venture for the i-pod and hopefully some funds; by the time I had achieve silver star status, so FPP earning would be even faster, I was playing NL$50 6 handed and 1/2 LO8, but it wasn’t easy to find tables always, so from time to time I had to play $2/4 (Amazing Bankroll Donk Strategy huh?). I’ll make it a short story, I lost my mind, lost the profit I had made so far during bonus period, had terrible and I mean Terrible luck during some sessions, reload for $150 which I lost in about 30 minutes playing limits outside my BR and again with terrible luck, reload once again for $150, and this time it wasn’t luck but Tilt and FPP greed whot made me play horrible again, … reload once again for $200 this time, (If I was able to beat the tables during bonus period, why not again?)… don’t ask me…. The dream was over, not only I’ve lost $600 to a site I’ve never been able to beat and I hate, but much more than that I loose my game, confidence, and even the mood to play, I even was loosing at my usual games at Tribeca playing terrible.

I was not going to reload again at stars; I needed to focus on getting back my regular FR game at Tribeca $50NL, which went down along with my trip to Stars. My BR suffered a huge punch, and after being very, very close to my second step goal ($3k), I was down to $1.5k, and not playing good at all, and not even in the mood to play.

So I took a couple days off, and during weekend I went on a trip with some friends. Sunday I was back at home and still unsure if playing or not, so I took some time to read forums and articles again. I think that helped my game and during the past days things went much better. I was feeling comfortable again at the tables and slowly rebuilding BR, until few hours ago...Since I was doing good and had some nice sessions during this afternoon, I decided to sign up for a $36 rebuy tourney. (I usually don’t play tourneys unless I’ve been doing very well at the rings games). Didn’t rebuy or add on, and placed 3rd for an awesome price of $1k. Huge boost for my BR, and I’ve finally made it to my second goal ($3k). Although, I’m still not moving up to $100NL, unfortunately I need to cash out some of that to be able to go to my best friend wedding this weekend which is outside of the city, but it won’t be much, so I hope next week, with bonus (about to clear a $500) and rake back money I’ll be finally moving up to the 100’s.-

Graphic



Tourney



Hand of the Day.-

So I’m at the final table of the Tourney, there’s 4 people left, blinds are 10k/5k and I have only 36k stack, got dealt QQ UTG, I push, Button who had a 60k~ stack push after me and both Blinds folded, 87k pot… Button shows AKs vs. my QQ, Board came AxKQQ, I’m back in the tourney and now there’s a heavy wounded player

• Little bit of Everything

Am I becoming a better player? I don’t know, couldn’t be sure about it, maybe it was just luck but last week I took part in two MTT and both of them I reach final table!!! Not any wonder prize, but first one was a $12 NL at Tribeca, about 120 players.. finished 5th and cashed around $90, AND, second one.. a LO8??? I mean I shouldn’t even be playing this tourney, my skills at Lo8 are basic, and I rarely play this game*.. still I finished 4th among 270 players at Poker stars… amazing… so that makes me think.. It could have been just luck.

*I been trying to focus on NL games so I stopped playing Omaha8 games regularly like I was doing few weeks ago.

Two major leaks during last week: First: Friday I was sure I would reach my second BR. goal so during the evening I put a long session, and after about 5 hours I was breaking even, frustrating. Then a got involved on a hand where I lost $50 (1 Buy-in), and since I knew I had to go in few minutes I decided to start playing very Loose Aggressive (lost another buy-in), then I thought I would had to recover my money even faster and get some profits so I went to gamble some more at the PLO8.. lost $70 more.. then I really had to go.. result ($-170), no BR goal reached and a Tilt session. Second leak: Monday night Tribeca Tables suddenly went down, when I was doing very good (had recovered what I’d lost on Friday plus a little bit more), if you’ve been reading my journal you’ve notice I had previously, not long ago, promise my self I won’t ever go back to PStars, but I really wanted to play some more poker that night, so after thinking for a while I deposit again on my Stars account again, THAT is lack of discipline regardless of the results!! uggg

If I combine right now Stars cash and Tribeca cash I’ll have my BR goal to move up to $100 tables and much more, but I don’t know why I feel Stars cash ain’t part of my BR.I made that money out of SnG’s and that MTT with a $100 deposit I was supposed to cash out from my neteller account, and I’ve been counting only Tribeca as my Br. I mean.. I’ve heard many times that playing $50 tables when you have the BR. to go for the $200 tables is –EV, but I don’t know why I don’t want to move up until I see those 3k on my account made just from ring play.
Lots of things pass my mind right now, like I’m starting to give more importance to poker than other things that where suppose to be important in my life, how is it going to be if I move up the limits and start making some real cash? I’m already making more money at poker than I make at my “job” as a lawyer. Yet who don’t want money? Or, how is this real money, I’ve been thinking about it, on one hand I have the cash, but apart from the $800 I cashed out, all of it is destined to poker playing, then how much of “I’m making more money than I do at my job it’s true? …….. I’m I still going to be a successful player as I move up the limits?

Ok I think that’s it for today, I’ll go back to the tables, I just need few more blinds to move up to $100’s, so hopefully tomorrow or even later today I’ll be writing about it .


Tourney

• Moving Up again after 2 weeks delay

It was suppose to happed around 2 weeks ago, but things didn’t came how I was expecting, had some tough sessions with a lot of upside downs, it just seem I was not going to be able to hit the $3k BR, I was always very very close, and suddenly then back to a couple buy-ins down. Finally today I had a decent session and hit the $3k… It took me 56 days and 27K hands to made it to this new lvl, …. And I ended up with a not any wonder win rate of 4.1 PTBB/100. I think – hope I can do better than that, but only time will tell.

• 2k Hands at $100NL.. Disaster!

It was too god to be true and somehow I could feel it, I was unsure about moving up but I did, and it was a complete disaster. I manage to loose 10 Buy-ins within 2k hands.. it just seems that everything (including some Tilt) was against me. I was playing bad plus having bad luck, Combo!.

After I loose that 10th buy in I was about to move down to the $50NL, but then I cleared the $550 bonus I’ve been waiting for, and decided not to do move down and give it a second chance, but this time I was going to play 6max tables. This decision I got to admit, came also from frustration, and having such a bad run at the Full Ring tables, I wanted my money back, and I wanted it fast, and 6max seem to be the option, the short way to do it. Not a wise decision since so far I’ve only played FR.

Somehow things at SH are going much better, I’ve put 4.5k hands at 6max, and so far I have a decent win rate (5 PTBB/100). Together with the Bonus, my BR is just slightly above where it was when I decided to move up and before that 10 Buy-in loose. Now I’m playing 6max, and I think I like it more than usual FR games. There’s a little bit higher variance so far, opponents will chase more often and play much wider rage of hands, which I’m trying to get use to it, but also, they pay much better my hands, So I’ll stick to 6max for a while and see how it goes. So far is good.

Hand

I've made a bluff.