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knoxxxy's picture
My story so far + 2014 Goals

Hi All,

I thought it was about time for me to post one of these.

So, my story so far:

I am completely self taught at poker, none of my friends were really interested in poker more than just playing casually. I mucked around on pokerstars and fulltilt for a while  just for fun before black friday until I discovered Heads up Sit and Gos. I loved being able to play almost every hand, I loved how much action were in them compared to full ring tables, and how personal the battles would get. When I was younger I won 2 junior chess tournaments in back to back years with over 200 entries in each which included people 1 year older than me. I played interschool chess without ever being defeated. I have always been a strategic thinker and I loved the strategy and 1v1 thinking involved in HUSNGS, it really suited me. 

I started with regular speed heads up sit and gos on fulltilt poker in 2008/ 2009. I started low and worked my way up....I was doing really really well, I got all the way up to $30 HU sngs and was maintaining a 12% ROI over a decent sample. I won about $3000  + rakebacks and was pretty happy with how I was going. After this I moved up to $50 games, I don't know whether the games were tougher or whether I was playing nervous, or just running bad...But after 230 games there I had won 118 and lost 112, this had me slightly below break even. I was becoming very frustrated with the game and not enjoying it, I started to think I wasn't as good as I thought I was. When black friday happened I just kind of stopped playing after that. I had other things going on in my life, and the money I was making from $30 was good but not THAT appealing. So unable to move up, I just kind of moved on.

Looking back, I know 230 games was not a big enough sample, I didn't really give it a real shot. Now I realise I think it was a credit to my play that I was able to rise up to $50 husngs with no help from anybody, no training, no coaching, no forums, no friends to discuss hands with, just learning through playing and picking what I thought to be optimal play. I didn't have poker tracker or any software, so i wasn't even able to analyse my play or track my EV. Recently I have returned to poker, 25 years old and now far more mature. After discovering how much turbos and hyper turbo husngs have taken off, I was really keen to get in on the action. But I made a decision this time, If i want to get anywhere, I have to do it properly......I have to embrace help from other people, I can't just expect to be so good that I can work everything out myself. Most good players got to where they are from working with other people, talking strategy, discussing hands and improving. I would be completely naive to think I can just do it all on my own, and compete with the other top players that surround themselves with good players who all have far more experience than me, talk strategy, improve and evolve with the game.

I found this forum, I read mersennearys ebook, I purchased the premium video membership and started watching videos. I purchased poker tracker so I could track my progress...already I feel like my game has improved dramatically fundamentally. I look back and cringe at some of the things I used to do in those $50 HU sngs, I really wonder how far I could have got back then if i had the support I needed. I am now taking all the steps I think I need to so that I can be successful. The only thing holding me back is putting in the hours I want to, I have a girlfriend and a fulltime job which doesn't allow as much time for poker as I would like. But I've started putting in some extra hours after work, I work near the beach so i head down there with my laptop and play until all the traffic to drive home is gone. It's going good so far, and here are my results since installing poker tracker:

 

OVERALL:

 

$7 TURBOS

 

$3.50 Hypers

 

Showdown / Without Showdown winnings (overall, the trend is the same through hypers and turbos)

 

This is my overall sharkscope Graph since from when I started:

 

 

So that's my story up until now, my goals for 2014:

1) Move up to $15 Turbos and $7 hypers this month, put in a decent amount of volume (minimum 800 games). I will re-evaluate after I have done this, and then look to move up the $30 games and beyond by the end of the year.

2) Branch out to some other players - As i said, none of my friends play poker. I need some good experienced players that I can talk strategy with, talk to about hands and improve with. All good players say you need to surround yourself with other good players to improve.... Let me know if anyones keen to chat on skype or facebook or whatever you like.

That is all,

Ben

 

cdon3822's picture
Interested in linking up

Hey man, sounds like you're in a similar position to me.

I've always defaulted to just working stuff out on my own but I find there is a lot of value in discussing hands / strategies / adjustments with other players because you are often limited by the boundaries of your own frame of reference.

Would be keen to link up.

I'll send you a PM with skype details.

 

Cheers,

cdon

ARRONWILSON's picture
Great post Ben, ill be

Great post Ben, ill be following GL

Ryzant's picture
Good luck man! I can

Good luck man!

I can understand your situation since mine is similar to yours - no friends that play, full time job, trying to play again.  The difference is you've done quite well in the past and is currently are doing way better than me. :)

Im not really a good experienced player and I'm actually trying to learn from the bottom up.  But if you're down to share your knowledge or just want to a friend that plays poker  just add me on skype. I'll PM you my skype.

knoxxxy's picture
Thanks all, I'll post an

Thanks all, I'll post an update once I move up

knoxxxy's picture
Hi All, Just an update - I

Hi All,

Just an update - I just hit the mark where I committed to moving up to $15 turbos and $7 hypers. I now have 30 buy ins for the turbos and 64 buy ins for the hypers, I'm hoping that will be enough. I'll let you know how I go at the higher levels!

This is my progress to date:

knoxxxy's picture
Hi All, An update since i've

Hi All,

An update since i've moved up, the plan was to regularly play $15 turbos and $7 hypers, but i've mostly just been playing $7 hypers. I played 10 $15 turbos and ended up winning 1 buy in. However I have played around 265 $7 hypers....i've been running good so far, but have still maintained an EV ROI of 6.5%

 

My graph of the $7 hypers and $15 turbos combined

 

I also managed to come 3rd out of 149 in a heads up super knockout turbo tournamement, so this is my overall:

 

knoxxxy's picture
Is this enough evidence to

Is this enough evidence to suggest I might be a crushing player at the $7 limits at least and should be at the $15's?

Or not even close?

cdon3822's picture
Is this enough evidence to

Is this enough evidence to suggest I might be a crushing player

Sure. When you put a qualifiers like "suggest" and "might" 500 games would be enough to satisfy your query. 

 

If you want to know "How confident can I be that I'm a crushing player after 500 games in HUSNGs?

​I would say, the sample is too small to be statistically significant. 

 

That said, your adjusted ROI is very high, implying that over this small sample you have been a "crushing player" 

:)

 

Why not pick a dynamic move up / down bankroll multiple and move up as your bankroll allows?

knoxxxy's picture
Update:I am struggling to

Update:

I am struggling to get in the kind of volume I want, but I am very happy with my results at the $7 hypers. Looking to move up to $15 ones very soon!

7's:

Overall:

 

 

 

cdon3822's picture
What a beast!

What a beast!

knoxxxy's picture
lol tyI just hit the mark

lol ty

I just hit the mark where I committed to moving up to 15's, so i will post updates of how I go!

Also this is just for anyone who may have lost big and feel like they can't recover it...my above graph I posted is fulltilt and stars combined, but if i show you my one just from stars, once upon a time i went pretty crazy on there:

"Chaos isn't a pit, it's a ladder" - 

 

The key to recovering this graph was discipline and patience, not trying to win it all back in one go........

I think if you focus and are disciplined, you can always recover losses.....

hokiegreg's picture
Nice work. Seems like you

Nice work. Seems like you have the right attitude. Keep it up!

A few thoughts:

- When a player looks back at his game a year before and does NOT cringe, he should be very concerned. 

- You really don't need to pay attention to showdown/non-showdown winnings. They are just indicative of your style, and there are many winning styles. I think whether you tend to vbet thin or hero call in close situations has a pretty big effect on the slope of the lines as well (and those tend to be close situations in EV). 

 

knoxxxy's picture
Thanks mate, appreciate the

Thanks mate, appreciate the advice.

I have a bunch of your videos that I'm planning to watch soon so hopefully learn a bit more from you! 

knoxxxy's picture
I just played my first ever

I just played my first ever session at the $15 hypers! Only a very small session of 11 games, but the good news is I felt really comfortable playing there, the players I played seemed as soft as the $7's and I started with a small win....only a tiny tiny sample so a long way to go yet, but I was pretty nervous about going on a massive losing streak as soon as I moved up, so these few and the small win have definitely helped me get comfortable and settle in.

Here is a graph of the first session:

Hopefully I continue with many more like this!

This is how I finished up at the lower stakes, hopefully I don't need to drop back down there! I've got just under 70 buy ins for the 15's :

knoxxxy's picture
Hi All,I never got round to

Hi All,

I never got round to posting these updates from last week, I uploaded the graphs however so figured I might as well post them!

These are my overall results since installing PT4 (adjusted / EV ROI included in the stats box)

Overall HU Hyperturbo results since installing PT4:

Results at the HU $15 hypers, still a small sample:

 

knoxxxy's picture
Hi All,I have not posted an

Hi All,

I have not posted an update for a while as I have been travelling overseas....I committed to moving up the $15 HU hypers quite a while ago, however I have not managed to get in much volume. Travelling overseas has been part of the reason why, however I did manage to play a number of $7 games whilst traveling just because I knew they would be more casual and fun... I also wanted to get the sample size for the 7's up to prove my EV ROI. I now have my sample size for the 7's over 1000 games, below are the results:
 

$7 HU hypers - 1061 games, 6.24% EV ROI

It's time to stop messing around the the 7's though and see what I can really do, this is my progress to date in the 15's......my goal is to play 1500 games, then evalulate my results and consider moving up to the 30's.... 

 

$15 HU hypers - 65 games, 14.63% EV ROI

 

Also just thought I'd post some overall graph updates:

 

OVERALL HU HYPERS - 1423 games, 7.43% EV ROI:

 

OVERALL Sharkscope graph:

With the way my results are going for the stakes I'm playing, I really think I can go a long way.... Hoping to commit to this thread and my goals more now....

 

RyPac13's picture
Solid results, keep up the

Solid results, keep up the good work man!

lecsito01's picture
GL!

GL!

I think your situation is similar to mine(no friends to play and full time job). I play mainly turbos($5)

Can u add me to this skype group? I'll send pm u my skype. I'm actually trying to learn and the goal is higher stakes.

I hope I can join to this group and we can help each other in learning. GL!

knoxxxy's picture
Update: Hit the 100 game

Update:

Hit the 100 game mark

 

$15 HU Hypers - 102 games, 13.25% EV ROI

knoxxxy's picture
Update (15 Hypers, Spin and

Update (15 Hypers, Spin and go's and some other results):

I Hit the 300 game mark in the $15 HU Hypers:

306 games, 5.65% EV ROI:

 

I also experimented with some spin and go's with the following results:

I still don't really know how viable the spin and go's are....My EV has been dropping off but I have spun 2x multiplyer 88% of the time which makes it pretty difficult....overall though I don't like the fact I can play well in game with + EV results and still lose money due to the spins, I don't plan on playing many more of them. Luckily I ran good so was able to experiment without taking any losses....

Some other graphs....my final results for the $7 HU hypers which I don't plan on playing any more of:

 

And then my overall graph since installing PT4: