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Over the last 2 years I have been playing poker on and off mostly because I have gone broke days after a deposit. I have gambled through about $10-$15k in that time. I kept going broke for the same few reasons every single time.
- Lost my focus
- Went on tilt
- Go my ego involved and play longer or in a game I shouldn’t of played
- Playing under 20 Buy ins of a given stake.
After going broke, losing most of my savings I decided that I either get good at poker or quit.
I had just gone broke again and picked up Barry Greenstiens book “Ace of the River”. I knew everything in that book, there was one thing that truly changed the way I thought about poker. In the book Barry talked about playing a smaller game them moving up to the bigger game, he said hte smaller game was an apprenticeship to the big game. Without winning at the small game he might of not won at the big game.
I then went to make a $10 deposit and played the smallest stake on PokerStars (2NL). I built that $10 to around 724 with a mix of cash games and low stakes multi tables sit and gos. At this point I thought I was ready to play heads up poker at the 50NL stake. I lost a bit and just played until eventually went broke with the same factors stated above.
This time I gained somthing:
- Knowledge
- Confidence in my HU game
- A potential stake in the next few months
I then took a break and waited for a stake, in the time I did deposit a few times out of boredom and went broke again. I then made a choice that I would not play poker with my own money until I know I am good enough to consistently win or at least not go broke. I finally got the stake and got really unlucky, and played bad and went broke. At least this time I played within my limit.
My backer decided to give it one more go, giving me $300 to play $10NL which I lost a lot running 16 buyins under E, in which event I got mad and just played Heads Up at 200NL with my last 150 and got lucky enough to win $650. I then moved down to 25NL, got some unlucky hands, played some bad hands and ended up going back to heads up and going broke.
A Second Chance
I am not completely broke as I have $109 from rakeback which will be coming in tomorrow. I have another chance to prove to myself, and my backer that I can be a success at poker and not go broke again. I know I can beat the higher limits because players play more solid and you can get a better read on their range as opposed to players at the micros who play just about any 2 cards with or without the pot odds or implied odds to be profitable play, they just chase wins.
I have a history of making a little bit of money because I played well, focused and didn’t take big risks but once I get a bad beat, make a bad play I just snap into degenerate mode and try to win it back by playing higher or more aggressive.
I also want to succeed because I want to use poker as an income, I know if I had more money I’d fund myself and play the higher stakes but I just have to adapt to micro stakes play and build up to limits I will enjoy.
What to expect from Bottom Up Poker…
Over the next months I will be recording my play and posting videos. This will allow me to stay focused as well as show new players how to start their journey right and not gamble away all the money they have every month until they hate themselves enough to change it.
I will be posting graphs and other stats on the blog along with the videos. I will also select key hands I play and do a voice over to explain what I was thinking.
My goal is to get to the very top from my leftover bankroll of $109 and play Tom Dwan Heads Up for rolls. (Seriously.) I at no point feel I’m ready to play him but over the next couple of months and maybe years I will be learning and adapting my play to play against the best.
On Full Tilt Poker, when you generate FTP points you can use them towards a subscription to CardRunners for anywhere from 1-6 months and it doesn’t affect your rakeback.
So I will learn even more from there and hopefully become a big shark in the big game and play Tom Dwan and beat him!
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