Coaching

To all you FR micro grinders who still struggling with the game and are thinking about some coaching.

After having a coach myself during the summer who gave me a bunch good advices, with his help I have taken my game to a higher level. At the moment I am taking classes from another NL200/NL400 FR player who is helping me with selective aggression and exploiting the opponents weaknesses.


I am now heading for the NL50 and with +200K hands at the Full Ring tables on NL10 & NL25 I finally feel that I have something to offer you guys who play FR at NL25 and below.


Over the last 75K hands 12-tabeling FR25 I have made +10bb/100.

Prices:
$25 / 90 min session for NL5 & NL10
$35 / 90 min session for NL25


Send me an e-mail and your skype account and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

lillarya@yahoo.se

Cheers!

The Button is the KING!

Yesterday I was browsing a couple of poker forums and something stroke me. Many of the NL$10 and NL$25 players don't make much more $$ from the button than they do from middle position and cut-off!

I don't have any general explanation because every player has his/her own style. If you are having more or less the same win rate from earlier positions as for the late ones, I'd say that you are playing a lottery game and hope your cards are better than your opponents once you get to show down.

There should be a correlation between position and win-rate, the later your position the higher your win-rate should be. These are my hands this month playing NL25 Full Ring














PLAY WELL AND UTILIZE YOUR POSITIONAL ADVANTAGE!

From $500 to $5.000 grinding the NL25

I have neglected this Blog for a long time now. No special reason more than it’s been more important to grind out some money as I’m unemployed at the moment and the few bucks I can make from playing poker is more than welcome as they at least pay the rent. When I started in April I had set a plan for a training and development project over 100,000 hands and divide them into blocks of 5,000 hands. During each block I was focusing on one special thing e.g. C-Betting, Blind Stealing etc. In June I hired a coach and with his input and help I more or less put the project aside and started to focus on the advices he gave me. That worked out pretty well on for a few situations like defending my blinds, increasing the check-raising percentage and finding good 3-betting situations. Now when October is over I have grinded out over 170.000 hands on the NL25 full Ring tables and 80.000 before that!! Is this a World Record? Probably not with all damned short stackers. What have I learned and what have I changed since April? Before April I was playing VPIP 13.0% PFR 7.7% AF 1.7 bb/100 +4.11 After April I have played VPIP 13.6% PFR 9.5% AF 2.1 bb/100 +7.47 The last 50.000 hands VPIP 13.5% PFR 9.7% AF 2.4 bb/100 +9.28 As you can se I haven’t changed my VPIP at all and only increased my PFR with 2%. But I have more than doubled my bb/100. How come? I have developed my post flop game and I am much more aware of the value position gives me. And here are a few more things that have given me higher bb/100. I complete less from the Blinds I don’t let the SB limp in regardless of my cards I play fewer hands from the early positions and more from later positions I 3-bet a little bit more with hands from the button like 99-TT when facing a suspicious steal from the cut-off. I don't call 3-bets Out of position I call less river bets against tight players I induce river bluffs against aggressive players I don't take marginal hands beyond the flop in muliway post Results after 173,000 hands. Winnings: $3.223 Win Rate: +7.5bb/100 Bonus & Rake Back: $1.360 Bank Roll $5.083 (started with $500)

I am so comfortable playing NL25 so I ask my self…

When the hell will I have the balls to face the NL50?? Soon baby soon….

+10/bb Over 20.000 Hands

Summer time hasn't been poker time for me, but I have managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions with a pretty decent results. Over the last 20K hands I made more than 10bb/100 which was my goal for the entire project so I'm very happy with it! So what has changed? I have step by step changed my game from a "Weak-Tight" style to something that could be called TAG. First 20K hands: VPIP:12 / PFR:8 / AF:1,86 Last 20K hands: VPIP:15 / PFR:11 / AF:2,24 But the most significant change is the ability to use my possition. I have gone from +12bb/100 from the button to a very high +39bb/100 and 27,5bb/100 from the cut off. I make half my winnings from the button although it's only 11% of the hands. I play over 30% of my hands from the button. Once you get a feel for the game there are so many orphan pots that nobody wants to fight over and on NL25 you hardly ever get check raised on the turn and if you do you can just fold and are hardly ever bluffed unless you are facing a mainiac on drugs. I have also started to cold call pretty often with very marginal hands against players that C-Bet 100% on the flop and then give up on the Turn if they don't hit anything with their AK/AQ hands. This type of player is very easy to float, call the Flop and bet the Turn if they check. Tomorrow I'll have the last session with my coach and we'll be doing some leak plugging, my plan is to find as many leaks as posible and fix them during the rest of these 100K hands and then I'll be prepared for the NL50. Results after 58,350 hands: Winnings: $962 Win rate: +6,60 bb/100 Bonus: $280 Bank Roll $1,742 ($500) The Graph after 58,350 hands

Take Care and Play Well!

Half Way and Tripple Bank Roll

Long time no blogging. But I think I have very good excuses for not spending much time in front of the PC. It's summer, and rather be out in the sun having playing golf or having a cold beer on my girlfriends terrace! So what about poker? When I started this 100.000 hands project I was hoping to finish it before the end of June. But a couple of family things and a 3 weeks heat way made me decide to take a few weeks brake from poker. The first of June I started a training program with my coach and have been working mostly on plugging pre-flop leaks and slowly widen my hand range. It has worked out pretty well but there are still a bunch of leaks to plug. So what have I improved so far? I play more hands and play them more aggressively. The first 10K hands I was playing I played a 12/8/1,70 game with and + 5,1bb/100. The last 10K hands I’ve played a 15/11/2,5 game with +11bb/100. Is a wider hand range and a more aggressive play the only reason I have more than doubled my win rate? I don’t think so, but it has absolutely improved my win rate! What else has improved during these 50K hands?

1. Folding a marginal hand.
2. Inducing bluffs.
3. Floating aggressive players who C-bet almost 100%.
4. Increasing the River betting frequency.
5. My feel for the game

Today it rains and I’m back at the tables and played for a couple of hours and made almost 3 buy-ins and according to the weather forecast there will be a lot of poker this week. My bank roll needs a rain dancer! Results after 49,400 hands

Winnings: $792

Win rate: +6,41bb/100

Bonus: $280

Bank Roll $1,572 ($500) The Graph after 50K hands

Double bank roll!!!

When I started this blog I made a $500 deposit which is now above the $1,000 mark. Since the last coaching session I’ve played some 6K hands with a pretty decent outcome. I made 9,5 big blinds/100 or roughly 5,5 buy-ins. Here are the most important issues I’ve been working on this week. 1. Playing top-pair hands vs. a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all down all three streets. There are a few other ways to handle this: You can fold on the flop, raise in position and probably get afree card on the Turn or check-raise the SOB and let him make a hard decision. I have been pretty successful when it comes to lay down my TT-QQ type of hands when someone shows a very strong line on a uncoordinated board. I even laid down my Aces against a loosing Nit who loves to play small pocket pairs and always bets All-In with the Nuts. I raised Pre Flop with AA UTG and he called from late position the flop came 5-7-9 with 2 clubs, I had the Ace of clubs so he didn’t make the Nut flush. I C-Bet ½ pot and he raises me I just call for a re-evaluation on next street. The Turn was a brick off suit 3 I checked to him and he made a 5/4 pot bet and I tanked for a while before mucking my one pair hand. I have had an Over pair on the flop 37 times and won 30 of these hands, and made a nice 300 big blinds profit. I had Top Pair Top Kicker 27 times and won 20 with a 173 big blinds profit. That’s almost 5 Buy-Ins with a one pair hand folks! Have I laid down a winning 1pair hand? Yes I have but all-in-all I think I’ve been able to smell the danger to a much larger degree than before. The only hand I screw up was against a very aggressive 40/9/4 player with a who C-Bets 80% on the Flop and 100% on the Turn. I had JJ on the button and cold-called his raise from the HJ. The board was 8 high after all streets and all draws missed so I called him down and lost to 23 big blinds vs. his KK. 2. My 3-bet percentage is still too low! My coach gave me a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands, but over such a small sample as 7K hands I haven’t been involved in too many of these situations yet. I only 3-bet 31 times but took down 23 of these hands pre flop or with a flop bet. I got 4-bet four times: - Called a short stack with QQ and ran into KK - Folded AK against a tight player who raised UTG and put in a huge 4-bet. - Folded AJ to a shove. - I had Aces one and shoved hoping he had KK/QQ/AK but he folded When looking at these stats I only got 4-bet 3/31 times, hmmmm… 3. My River play is far too passive! Over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet? I’m still loosing a lot of value by not betting the River. Don’t be AFRAID of the River!!! Results after 32,600 hands. Winnings: $452 Win rate: +5,54bb/100 Bonus: $120 Bank Roll $1,072 ($500) Do you remeber the cold winters?? Get that lazy fat ass moving and enjoy the summer!!!!!!

Hey Hey Hey I finally made $10K!!!!

I finally reached a milestone profit. It has taken me about three years to grind $10,000. The first two years most of my winnings came from bonuses and rake backs and a smaller part from actually playing better than my opponents, well not playing quite as bad might be a more appropriate way to put it. For the last 6-8 months my play has gradually developed and I’ve been able to beat the SSNL (Small Stakes No Limit) for about 4-6 bb/100.

During the first 5 months of 2009 only 25% of my total winnings has come from bonus and rake backs. With the above in mind you might think that I’m a nitty coward who doesn’t have the balls to play at higher limits. While blushing a little I do agree with you tough big balls guys. But I have a few small words of defense:

- I don't have a bank roll for the higher stakes yet as most of the money won has been spent on Holidays, expensive car repairs and some other daily expenses. Not to much on booze and babes though my days will come!

- Yes, you are right if you think I’m probably “loosing” money by not playing a higher stake. I just feel that I have so many “beginners leaks” to be plugged before facing a little bit harder competition for twice the amount of $ I’m used to at NL25. That’s why I have hired a coach and found my self a poker buddy. Believe me when I say that I’ll be grinding the NL50 in September.

- If there is anyone out there who recently stepped up from NL$25 Full Ring to NL$50? I’d highly appreciate any tiny piece of advice!!

Last but not least...

Don’t neglect your prayers to the Poker Gods!

I have a coach!

I have played some 7,000 hands since the last update. The plan was to identify: A) Two loose weak victims at the table and trying to play as many hands as possible against them with position. B) Two weak tight victims at the table and trying to push them off their hands when they show weakness and I have position. It started pretty well but then I guess I got a little bit too excited and this combined with a few bad beats I lost 4 buy-ins within just a few hundred hands. Looking back at this bad short stretch, I realize I have to have a plan when things get out of control. Good players change gear back and forth many times within a session which I didn’t, I just kept hammering. I feel very comfortable at NL25 and was able to take a break and get my $$ back the next day and end this 7K hands with a 170bb profit. Not a great result but still a profit. Last week I had my first session with my coach. After talking a while about my game and my goals we did a 30 min sweating session. Afterwards I sent him my last 50K hand history which we went through together yesterday. Instead of continuing this 100K project divided into 20 different blocks I have decided to divide my training blocks into 2 weeks sessions focusing on the issues my coach considers to be the most important things to work on. Here is a quick update from our session. We went through half a dozen of common issues and situations where I loose money or where I can extract more value. Here are the most important ones:

1. Playing a top-pair hand against a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all 3 streets.
2. My 3-bet percentage is still too low. I was given a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands.
3. My River play is far too passive. over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. Hmmm, I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet?

Results after 27,000 hands. Winnings: $318 Win rate: +4,75bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $818 (started with $500)

I'm a golfer!!

For many years I have been thinking of taking up golf, I took some classes when I lived in Spain but there was never enough time to get serious as my work took too much time and once I had some time off I just wanted to hit the beach and relax with a cold beer under the parasol. Today I live only a few miles from the golf club and I also have more time. So two weeks ago decided to sign up for a beginners course and I will have my green card on Saturday. I used to play almost every ballgame available during my childhood and until I was in my late teens. This made me cocky enough to think that I will be able to get my handicap below 20 during the first summer. I guess I still have a few hours on the driving range until I can accept the mighty Dusty Schmidt and his $1,000,000 challenge (read never unless I have Bill Gates staking me). I’ll keep you guys updated on the golf and if you don’t get any golf info during the next few weeks, well blame that bloody driver! As far as poker concerns I think I have to quote a phrase from the Leatherass blog where his wife told him with a sad face after a downswing that; “I’m just so swingy”. I do love that comment! This fourth training session was focused on stealing the blinds as often as possible and change tables if I had some loose players behind me. As I was playing during the weekend nights I didn’t follow the plan 100% there is just too much money to be made if you get a few drunk fish at the tables. But I did steal a lot but I wanted to have some kind of playable hand 9-3 off suit don’t play well but 9-7 suited do. Some stats from the last 5,000 hands: Steal from the Button: 67% and I got away with it 51%. Steal from the Cut Off: 30% and I got away with it 47%. I stole 173 times and faced a 3-bet only 14 times where I happened to have a pocket pair 5 of these 14 times and could call in position and take down some of the pots on later streets. I was called 73 times of the 173 steal attempts, but playing the hands in position helped me to break even although many times I was holding pure crap. I made a profit of 23bb/100 when I raised first in from BTN or CO. I once again managed to push my aggression factor above 2 and it feels like I’m getting there. Over all winnings +10,6 bb/100 Results after 20,000 hands. Winnings: $275 Win rate: +5,5bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $775 (started with $500) Graph after 20K hands:

Lost the Pace

There has been a lot of things going on away from the poker tables lately so it took me 12 days to play 5k hands. Why? Well when you are living up here in Scandinavia you spend too much time indoors during the dark and cold winter season and when the May sun finally hits your eyes you get very keen to start up the barbeque, prepare the golf bag, but some new clothes, clean the car, have a beer on the terrace and just do what other people are doing 8-12 months a year depending on where they have their little castle called home. This time of the year also provides us with two fantastic hockey events: the Stanly Cup Playoffs and the World Championships. In spite of Sweden missing the final when they got beat by the Canadians who played a much better game than us, most of the other games have been awesome and ended just the way I’ve wished. The fantastic Russian team beat Canada, Red wings have a 3:2 lead over the Ducks and my super hero Ovechkin and the Caps are still alive and kicking (But it was damn close last night). Trough Stoxpoker I got in touch with a guy who is playing the same games as I do. We have had two sweating sessions over “Skype” & “Team Viewer” so far and it has been very helpful. Our plan is to help each other to the next level (NL50). Videos, books and forums are all great stuff, but having someone to talk to is even better. During the 3rd training session the goal was: “Focus on which limpers I can raise with any playable hand from the BTN/CO” I can’t say I did very well! I’m still too greedy and result oriented although I told my self not to. When at the table oftentimes my brain instinctively converts my chips into money. This is a “mental leak” I have to work on! I played most of these 5,300 hands during the weekend and wanted to se as many flops as possible and raising to isolate didn’t work very often. Playing a marginal hand in a raised multiway pot is hard but can of course be rewarded if you hit the board a few times. Stats: Cut Off, I limped behind 15% and raised the limper(s) 7,5%. Btn, I limped 24% and only raised 8%. These stats are POOR!! I actually think I should have played something like: CO: 20/15 and Btn: 30/20 and put my self in many situations where I would have been able to pick up a grate deal of the pots in position when the other missed or checked a scary board. POSITION IS POWER AND I MUST LEARN TO USE IT! The bankroll didn’t get much of a boost during this session, I only made 2,2bb/100 but when you get it all-in with Aces and loose twice there is not much you can do just take a note on the players that are willing to stack off with Queens and Jacks. I have already started the 4th session and running better, I’m up 3,5 buy ins after 1,300 hands but more on that next time. Keep fishing!! Results after 15,000 hands. Winnings: $154 Win rate: +4bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $654 (started with $500) Graph after some 15K hands:

10,000 hands

This morning I finished the 2nd block of 5K hands where the game plan was to play many more hands from the CO and play them aggressively pre flop and knock out the guy on the button so I would “have the button” twice per orbit. These are the stats from the CO during the 5,000 hands I have played. VPIP / 24% / (During the 1st 5,000 hands it was 18%). Opening my game from late position will help me learn how to play marginal hands. PFR / 17% / (11%). This is much better but still too low when I compare it with the VPIP. I should have raised more in order to have position on the whole table. To my defense I made sure to have a tight player to my left so even if I limped behind I was playing most of the hands in position. AF / 2,4 / (1,8) my goal was to get this above 2. I’m very satisfied with this as I think that the lack of aggression has been one of the key leaks in my game. 3-Bet / 2,1% / (1,7). Still too low should be about twice as high. W$WSF / 47% / (44) I played more hands and won a higher percentage of them so I’m on the right track here. Being in position usually helps me to choose the pots I want to play as well as having the advantage of controlling the size of the pot. Steal / 38% / (24) much better. It might be too high but I seldom get 3-bet. If I do get 3-bet from the blinds I can still have the power of position if I have a playable hand. If I get 3-bet by the button, my default play is to fold or when I have the goods I 4- bet him big. Steal Success / 41% / (50) worse, but I still win 41% of the pots uncontested. Cold Call / 7% / (3) Hmmm, higher than before, but my plan was to play many hands in position. I cold called 95 times and won more than $70 from these pots. I used to cold call 30% which can never me profitable unless I play like Phil Ivey. PFR when there is 1 limper in front of me / 7% /(6) FAR TOO LOW, I must learn to punish the limpers! Call when there is 1 limper in front of me / 17% / (20) well, it’s going in the right direction but still on the passive side. I should raise more often. bb/100 / +13 / (26) I think it should be much higher. I still suck at using my position. Conclusions:

1. I have managed too widen my range from the CO I have increased my aggression a little bit to 1,9 overall. But I’m still too passive!!
2. I was able to win more hands from the CO than before in spite of playing many more hands.
3. I still don't punish the limpers!! My 3-bet button doesn’t work!!
4. I only made 3,5 big blinds/100 overall which isn’t even two buy-ins. This is very bad! A good player should make at least 10bb/100 at NL25.
5. I still loose 9bb/100 on the Non-Show-Down-Winning graph. This must be a fundamental systematic leak; unless I get this fixed I will not be able to play at NL50!!!!

Results after 10,000 hands.

• Winnings: $125
• Win rate: +5bb/100
• Bonus: $0
• Bank Roll $625 (started with $500)

Below is a graph of the results after 10K hands:

First 5K Hands Results and Comments

Just finished the first block of 5K hands where the game plan was to play as many hands from the button as possible and trying to outplay my opponents with help of my position. These are all stats from the BTN:

• VPIP / 25% / Probably OK but I think I could raise more often.
• PFR / 13% / Too Low should be about 20%
• AF / 1,4 / Too Low should be above 2
• 3-Bet / 1,6% / Too Low should be at least twice as high
• W$WSF / 44% / Pretty good as there are usually 2 opponents on average
• Steal / 46% / Pretty high but they seldom 3-bet me so if I have a hand I can se the flop in position
• Steal Success / 52% / If it works more than 50% and only get 3-bet about 10% of the times I can still win the pot, I don’t raise with crap unless I have two Nits in the blinds
• Cold Call / 9% / much better than it used to be (30% )
• PFR when tere is 1 limper in front of me / 7% / FAR TOO LOW, I must learn to punish the limpers!
• Call when tere is 1 limper in front of me / 16% / probably good but I should raise more often Flop Raise C-Bet / 20% / I don't know
• bb/100 / +26 / I think it should be higher if I can take advantage of being in position

Conclusions:

• I am still too passive!!
• I don't punish the limpers!!
• I don't 3-Bet!!
• I made 6,5 big blinds/100, overall which is more than 3 Buy Ins. But a good player should make the double on NL25

Any Comments are highly appreciated. Tomorrow I'll start the next block:"Playing much more hands from the CO and play them aggressively, which means knocking out the button and play the hand in position" I must focus on my aggression as well!!! Cheers!

Back to Basic!

We all play poker for a very personal reason, and theses reasons vary much more from one person to another than most of the other games and sports. Poker is not a tennis mach where you just want to win 3 sets over the guy on the other side of the net. Until now I have mostly been chasing as much bonus as possible on all known and unknown sites. During this period I have focused less on learning how to win than avoiding losing as this would counterfeit my goal of collecting the bonus (at least I thought so). This has resulted in a decent amount of winnings for the micro stakes. But the down side of this is that I have adopted a very weak-tight playing style. But instead of winning a few $$ and collecting some bonus after whole evening I asked my self the question. What do I need to do if I want to become a better poker player???

After watching Jason Ho’s SS Foundation videos again I realized I needed short & long term goals. So here they are:

• Beat NL25 FR for 10/bb over the next 100K hands.
• Move up to NL50 FR and make 5bb/10 over the first 100K hands.
• Beat NL50 for 10bb/100 over the following 100K hands.

Well goals are easy to set. But what do I need to do to reach my goals? After talking to Matt Pethybridge I had almost 100 items in my note book. That’s good AND bad because where the hell do I start? I’m not sure but one thing I know for sure is that any plan is better than just fooling around without any plan at all! MY PLAN!

Play 100K hands on NL25

Have 3 different hand charts that go from Nitty – TAG - LAG. Each one of the charts will be played for 30K or 35K hands.

Only play 4 tables and always focus on table selection and look for tables that will suit the things that I want to practice.

Divide my training into 20 different blocks of 5K hands and only have one certain thing to work on.

Make one post at the forums every day.

Always take notes as I play.

Replay the 10 biggest pots from last session before I start a new one.

Reset my HUD in accordance to what I’m practicing.

MY TRAINING BLOCKS!

1. Playing as many hands from the button as possible and trying to outplay my opponents with help of my position.
2. Playing more hands from the CO and play them aggressively, which means knocking out the button. This way I will be able to have the button twice per orbit.
3. Focus on which limpers I can raise with any playable hand from the BTN/CO.
4. Stealing almost every time from BTN and CO and it’s folded to me. If I have a calling station on the button when I’m in the CO I will change tables.
5. Looking for two loose weak victims at the table and trying to play as many hands as possible against them with position.
6. Looking for two weak tight victims at the table and trying to push them off their hands when I have position
7. Start with 1/2 stack and play very aggressive
8. Stealing from the SB, when in the BB. Never let the SB limp in, raise him with what ever crap and adjust to his reaction. If he let me keep my BB and give me his SB it will make a huge difference over 5K hands, not to mention the rest of all hands I will play in the future.
9. Balancing my C-Bets, trying to figure out if C-betting or not, depending on board texture, my hand and his playing style and possible range. My C-Bet% now is far too high
10. Delayed C-Bets. Figure out how my opponents react, will they call with worse hands thinking I missed the flop or will they take a stab at the pot by betting into me on the turn.
11. Double Barreling, who will call the flop and fold to a turn bet and on what board texture?
12. 3-bet lighter in position.
13. Float the PFR and attack on the Turn
14. Raise the Pre flop raiser on the Flop
15. Check raising the Flop as a semi bluff..
16. Find out how to handle a donk bet when I raised pre flop and have position.
17. Turn play, when I have a made hand. How can I set up a plan for getting the whole stack in on the River?
18. River Play, who is bluffing with missed draws, against whom can I induce bluffs, when can I value bet with marginal hands?
19. Defending my blinds against steals, I have to win back at least 50% of the blind money I have to put in the pot, this means the SB stats must be better than (-25bb/100) and the BB (-50bb/100)
20. ???

I’m convinced that it is possible for me to make 10bb/100 at Full Ring NL$50. I am also very aware that it will take a big load of work to achieve it but I will succeed!

Here is my graph for NL25 FR this year before starting this training project: To be continued….

My First Blog

My first Blog, Hello and welcome to my contribution to the “Blog World”. My intention with this blog is to cover what my life brings and offers without limitations, but to start with I will probably cover poker a larger degree than other topics. My on-line poker experiences started about 3 years ago when my neighbor and I was having a drink and he let my play on his account and it was a lot of fun although we lost about $100. The next day I opened an account on Pacific and deposit $20 which I lost in about 30min, I reloaded another $30 and same result. In spite of this little loss I knew that on-line poker could be very profitable because another neighbor had started very early in “Party No-Foldem” days and made a lot of money. I bought a poker book, reloaded my account with another $100 and read a bunch of articles from cardplayer.com to get some basic ideas about the game. During this time I began a bonus hunting trail playing micro stakes LH full-ring and after a while I switched to 6-max and was pretty successful on $0,25/$0,5 and $0,5/$1. Until Aug last year I was not using any tracking software and was only playing on intuition and feeling. I kept my records in a spread sheet and made a little more than $7K where about $3K came from bonuses. In august 2008 I signed up for a Stoxpoker membership and bought the Holdem Mgr software. Reading the forum and watching the videos at Stox became a chock as well as a wake up call. There were so many things I had never heard of or didn’t understand what they ment; squeezing, double barreling, pot control, delayed C-bets, ranges, stealing from the SB, and of course the 2 phrases by Leatherass “Punish the Limpers” and “All-In Baby”. Neither did I know that someone could play +100K hands/month! I read the forums back and forth and printed out a bunch of post which I kept in the bedroom in case my girlfriend would have a headache… There were so many insightful comments on the hands by that I realized that I DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL ABOUT POKER!! All the videos on stoxpoker were all great some greater than others, but not a single bad one IMO. And the less great one were probably the greatest ones and they were above my poker knowledge. Last year ended like the graph below. I was mostly playing NL25 Fr and 6-max on Sun Poker due to a good rake back deal, but when they left cryptologic for iPoker I didn’t follow. In January cashed out my money from all sites and made my first deposit on Poker Stars. I have only played FR NL25 and made about 10 buy-ins on the first 30K hands. In March I got in touch with Matt Pethybridge and he helped me to dig into my HM database and give me a bunch of good tips. You are a very good plumber Matt, Thanks! Two weeks ago I saw a new video (Jedi Mind Tricks) by Jason Ho and remember that he did a few videos for beginners last year. I didn’t like them because I wanted to se some great players play poker and be as good as they are! Anyway I liked the Jedi Mind Tricks Video and went back to watch his old videos and just came to the conclusion that “The Small-Stakes Foundation” WAS THE VIDEOS TO WATCH FOR SOMEONE LIKE ME! Now I know that this was the way to learn the game, step by step and not trying to figure out why “Leatherass” squeezes a certain player with junk at 6-max NL200 when I play against the other donks at NL25 FR. Sorry Dusty, Kyle and the rest of you fabulous players, I will understand more from your videos when I have a solid foundation to lean on to! To be continued