***uNL Microbrew Thread*** NOV 2007 (ot)

[Sean Fraley]

I haven't been here for a bit, but thought I would drop in for a brief moment to brag/offer encouragement.

On August 26th of this year, I had dropped from a roll of about $1500 at the start of the month to about $110 and was about to give it all up. Luckily I thought I would give the sats to the Sunday Million and Sunday 100k a try and make one last go at becoming a winning player. I won a few and sold the T$ for $670 which was basically the same as getting a little over 20% rakeback for all of the rake I had paid up to that date in one lump sum. I then reread PNL and NLTAP and dove back into 25NL intent on grinding it out and working hard on improving my game.

As of the end of today's session I have $4000 in my roll and tomorrow I take my first shot at 200NL. Not bad for being close to busto less than three months ago.

The point of this is to let all of you guys here who are being roughed up by downswings or are having trouble getting yourself beyond being a shade better than break even that if you take a deep breath and work on it, it will happen. You just have to focus and keep the faith.

[PJo336]

sean what helped u turn it around the most? session reviews? coaching? books? etc.

[Wilpro]

If NLHE stopped after the turn, and there was no such thing as a river, i would be a serious winner. Maybe thats where i am going wrong, playing the wrong game.

[Sean Fraley]

[ QUOTE ]
sean what helped u turn it around the most? session reviews? coaching? books? etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that what did it the most was a combination of session reviews and the knowledge available in books and these forums. Really, almost everything you need to learn is here for the taking, the actual difficult part is tracking down what you need to do to improve and then diligently applying it. The session reviews let you find the habits in your game that lose you money, either by getting it in while behind or failing to get it in when doing so will win you money. The next part after this is finding out what the best way to solve these habitual mistakes are and disciplining yourself enough to make the changes. You would be surprised what you can gain from simply taking one night every month and rereading every single last item in the uNL and SSNL stickies. I would also suggest every couple of months taking the time to reread any NL Hold 'Em books that you have. In both these situations things that seemed completely inconsequential to you the last time you read the information are suddenly very applicable to a problem you find yourself constantly confronted with now.

I've not had any coaching yet, but plan on getting some in the next week or so. I think that outside opinions help tremendously.

[Mr_Pathetic]

i agree. that essential sticky is great. i have read everything on there three times at least. session reviews are the bomb too. I go through all my stuff after every session. slowly but surely i am making less and less mistakes across the board.

my biggest problem now is getting the max in the thin spots when I know I am good.

for those that don't know i have had a rough go at nl25 over the last 23k hands. I am beating it for like 2.45PTBB mostly due to poor game selection then changing how aggressive i am postflop. finally over the last 11k hands things are ironing out and I have a decent 5.15PTBB. Had a few really thin spots went my way i would be up a lot more but w/e. over my last 11.8k hands where things are ironing out my biggest losing hand is AA and 99 for two buyins each. followed by 98s and J9s for a buyin each.

[Sean Fraley]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. that essential sticky is great. i have read everything on there three times at least. session reviews are the bomb too. I go through all my stuff after every session. slowly but surely i am making less and less mistakes across the board.

my biggest problem now is getting the max in the thin spots when I know I am good.

for those that don't know i have had a rough go at nl25 over the last 23k hands. I am beating it for like 2.45PTBB mostly due to poor game selection then changing how aggressive i am postflop. finally over the last 11k hands things are ironing out and I have a decent 5.15PTBB. Had a few really thin spots went my way i would be up a lot more but w/e. over my last 11.8k hands where things are ironing out my biggest losing hand is AA and 99 for two buyins each. followed by 98s and J9s for a buyin each.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I hadn't read these for a while and decided to go through them again after 20k hands of break-even at 100NL. Suddenly I was like "so that is how I should handle that" in a lot of circumstances. Once you have one set of problems out of the way, problems that were there but never caught your attention jump right out at you. This is why I really think that they should be reread once a month.

[yellowbluebus]

[ QUOTE ]
i agree. that essential sticky is great. i have read everything on there three times at least. session reviews are the bomb too. I go through all my stuff after every session. slowly but surely i am making less and less mistakes across the board.

my biggest problem now is getting the max in the thin spots when I know I am good.

for those that don't know i have had a rough go at nl25 over the last 23k hands. I am beating it for like 2.45PTBB mostly due to poor game selection then changing how aggressive i am postflop. finally over the last 11k hands things are ironing out and I have a decent 5.15PTBB. Had a few really thin spots went my way i would be up a lot more but w/e. over my last 11.8k hands where things are ironing out my biggest losing hand is AA and 99 for two buyins each. followed by 98s and J9s for a buyin each.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice recovery, Mr_Pathetic. I am on a 7K breakeven and I am definitely looking for leaks in my game but most of the time it's my own fault where I tilt or do things in spite -- the opposite of what common sense is telling me to do. BTW, you were at a couple of my tables today so I assume you are getting better at following fish. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Mr_Pathetic]

i am doing better in the game selection department although sometimes i get impatient with the waiting lists and just jump on an open seat. but so far i am getting better in that aspect. i been trying to datamine 16 tables and pick out 6 to wait list on and then take notes on what i see going on while waiting on the seats so i already have some reads about how they play with others so i will hopefully know how they are adjusting to me.

Edit: also I am a 26yo living with my parents after getting a masters trying to play this poker for a living lol. will be interesting to see my progress as i attempt to gradually increase my bills as i hopefully move up the ladder. i can't even count how many times i've said i was going to quit and go sell insurance or some other gig till i find a local govt job.