Introduction + Day 1

I'm a decent poker player, and though I've seen more success in live games than online, I've been playing a lot online due to the convenience of being able to play at any hour.   Unfortunately, though I've been able to win a fair portion of the SNGs I do, it hasn't been enough to break even, and my net is in the red.  Not grotesquely so, but enough for me to finally decided to dedicate myself to becoming a better player.

In the past, I've spent lots of time reading though poker strategy books, and browsing online for more ideas, but in the end, I kept losing money.  So that's what brings me here today.  I'm starting off new, and with a plan.  This blog will keep track of my (hopefully) success.

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So this is the plan -

I'm starting out on Fulltilt with 15x buyin for the $2+.25 games I do = $33.75
Each day, I will risk no more than ~10% of my BR, so as to keep me sane = ~$3.37


Day 1)
I'm feeling pretty positive about this.  I think part of my problem before was that I kept buying in for only $10, the min deposit on fulltilt.  The problem was that it kept me in a losing mentality.  To start, I only had just over 4 buy-ins, and if you're reading this, I'm sure you know how painful the variance in poker can be.

Summary-
Starting BR - $33.75
2 $2+.25 9max SNGs
Finishes - 1 loss, one 1st.
Loss - $4.50
Gain - $9
Final BR - $38.25 (net gain of $4.50)


The first SNG was terrible.  I tied for last in what was a pretty bad beat.


Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 2.25 Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com


BB (t2865)
UTG (t1350)
UTG+1 (t1755)
MP1 (t1455)
Hero (MP2) (t1455)
MP3 (t15)
CO (t1410)
Button (t2015)
SB (t1180)
Hero's M: 24.25

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, K
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t40, 1 fold, Hero bets t160, MP3 calls t15 (All-In), CO calls t160, 2 folds, BB calls 120, UTG+1 calls t120

Flop: (t675) J, 3, A (5 players, 1 all-in)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t460, CO raises to t1250 (All-In), 2 folds, Hero calls t790

Turn: (t3175) 2 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3175) 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t3175

Results:

Hero had A, K (one pair, Aces).
MP3 had 8, 9 (one pair, eights).
CO had 8, A (two pair, Aces and eights).

Outcome: CO won t3175


After that, I was pretty much bust, having only 45 chips left, so I didn't cash.  Looking back on it though, I was about 87% to win on the flop, and so even having taken that beat, I knew that I made the right call, and I moved forward to the next SNG, trying to stay off tilt.

In the second tourney, I had a bad beat against someone else, JA vs KK with J on the flop, and ended up catching a J on the turn, so I lucked out.  But like I said, I'm trying to make this a serious attempt at creating a solid bankroll, so I kept in mind that though the first bad beat was the right decision that gave bad consequences, and the second was a wrong decision that gave good results, I'm not letting confirmation bias rule my play.

Overall, I'm quite happy with today's results.  Even though it wasn't perfect, I still made profit.  Now I just need to keep it up.