The Evolution of a Poker Player’s Blog

In reading other people’s blogs I’ve found it pretty amazing (and amusing) how similar a path everyone seems to follow, myself included. So I give you my take on the evolution of a poker player…’s blog.

Admittedly it’s basically my entire blog in a nutshell (with a few fun alterations) but I wonder how close it is to yours?

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Stage 1: The excitable beginner

Hey guys! My name’s John and this is my first blog post. I’m a 20 year old college student studying Finance at the University of Detroit and have been playing poker for three years. I played mostly for fun in high school at first but now I want to take it more seriously and really get better. Hopefully my subscription here at CrackingCards.com will take me to the next level! Wish me luck!

Stage 2: The goal setter

I deposited $100 and currently have $107.37 in my bankroll. I’m going to try to win 10 buy-ins at 10NL at 4PTBB/100 before taking a shot at 25NL. If I lose 2 buy-ins there I will move back down to 10NL and try again. I hope to finish the year as a 25NL regular with a $500 bankroll. Anything above would just be gravy!

In addition, I’m aiming to:

a) Work out more
b) Maintain a 3.0 GPA
c) Watch 3 videos a week and take good notes

Stage 3: The hand history machine

I played a nice 438 hand session in 52 minutes today and booked a solid $31 win. I think I ran pretty well but also played really well. Here are the more interesting hands from the session.

[insert HH 1]
[insert HH 2]
[insert HH 3]
[insert HH 4]
[insert HH 5]
[insert HH 6]
[insert HH 7]
[insert HH 8]
[insert HH 9]
[insert HH 10]
[insert HH 11]
[insert HH 12]
[insert HH 13]
[insert HH 14]
[insert HH 15]

Thanks for reading through them, I would love any feedback!

Stage 4: The obsessive statistician

My VPIP/PFR is currently 23/15 but it’s meant to be 23/19 so I’m going to try to raise more preflop. I am showing a profit with most of my big hands but AK is still a majorly losing hand for me…must fix that somehow! I also seem to be losing too many 20-40bb pots and my W$SD and WWSF are a bit low.

Poker is going very well overall though…I’m currently winning at 3.27PTBB/100 (3.93 EV-adjusted, I run so bad). I’ve only played 3132 hands though, and apparently you need to play 10,000 before you can be sure you’re definitely a long-term winner. Hopefully my form will carry through!

Stage 5: The heads-up convert

I’ve started playing some 50NL heads-up and I have to say I absolutely love it! I think it really suits my game and my personality. I really love how it’s just one man versus another, a raw battle of wits and psychology; there’s mind games, there’s leveling, there’s the triumph of victory when you stack your opponent and send him scurrying away. HU is just the purest form of poker, and I’ll definitely be playing it more from now on.

Here’s a sick hand where I got into a leveling war with my opponent on a dry 442r flop. We both knew that it was hard for either of us to have a hand on this board and we both knew that we both knew this, so we get into a bit of a raising battle on the flop since it’s a spot where either of could easily be bluffing and re-bluffing. In the end though he had JJ while I had QQ so I guess it was a bit of a cooler.

[insert HH ]

*** Fast forward a few years***

Stage 6: The red-line obsession

My red line has always been in constant decline and it’s really starting to bug me. All the sick high stakes players have really positive red lines so if I want to ever get to high stakes myself I need to try to make mine go up as well. I’ve thought about it a bit and decided that the following changes to my game will help my red line.

1. Every hand I’m going to roll a dice. If it lands on 1, I’m going to triple barrel bluff no matter what.
2. If I have the nuts on the river, I’m going to tell my opponent before I shove. That way he will fold and I will win a non-showdown pot instead of a showdown pot.

Stage 7: The HUD-less Horseman

After watching Sam’s video, I decided to experiment playing without a HUD. Man, has it been an eye-opening experience! I feel like I’m suddenly so much more in tune with the game. I’m making much better reads, understanding my opponents much better and really just have a great handle on the flow of the tables that I’m on. I can’t imagine ever playing with a HUD again!

Stage 8: The expert live player

I decided to mix it up and play some live poker this week. LOL were they bad! I started with some 2/5 cash on Tuesday. Limpers everywhere, passive play all around…what a goldmine! There was this one hand where an old Asian lady called a 3-bet cold with J5s, flopped a pair of 5s on AK5 and then called three streets versus KK! So funny! Unfortunately I ran pretty bad and ended up losing $800 or so. It was so frustrating because no one would fold preflop or on the flop and needless to say my AK never hit!

Stage 9: The MTT non-convert

I played the Sunday Million today and OMG what a joke! I had 25K by the first break because MTT players are just clueless postflop but then the blinds got bigger and I got in AA v 88 for a 60K pot and what do you think hits on the river? F#$king unbelievable. I’m 80% to have a 60K stack and would have been one of the chipleaders but nooooooooooooo, I’m left with 2K chips and got knocked out the hand after. Not playing an MTT ever again!

Stage 10: The down-swinging Emo

Man I can’t catch a break! I lost a little over 7 buy-ins today at 2/4 NL, all in all about $5000. The session started off well but then I lost 3 races in a row and got sucked out on with a set versus a flush draw. I seriously run worse than anyone in the world! Here’s the graph.

[insert graph with brutal EV line]

I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m now down 20K for the month and 15K below-EV. I think I’ll take a break and drop down in stakes to regain some confidence. I really thought I was going well and going to hit my goal and move up to 3/6 by the end of the month, but the poker gods have f#%ked me again and it looks like I’ll be slumming it down here for a while longer.

Stage 11: The inspired philosopher

Winston Churchill once said that “failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.

Ne’er have wiser words been spoken.

And thus, though I may have been brought to my knees…though my confidence may be shattered and my bankroll decimated, I shall persevere.

I shall continue.

I shall be courageous.

And I shall succeed.

Stage 12: Reborn and rejuvenated

I watched a couple of videos from Ben’s new series and have been implementing some of his plays into my game. It’s been working out great and I really feel like a new man! I’m really glad I took a break, I’m actually excited about poker again and feel like I’m playing better than ever! I don’t want to jinx myself but here are my results for this week. Pretty sick!

[insert graph]

*** Fast forward several years***

Stage 13: You’ve made it!

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t updated in a while. I’ve been busy travelling across Europe and Asia. Just got back from Thailand yesterday actually, it was simply awesome. Great location, great views and a great time. Here are some pics.

[insert pic 1]
[insert pic 2]
[insert pic 3]
[insert pic 4]
[insert pic 5]

I haven’t played much recently but I did log a short 30 minute hand session yesterday and made about 500K. Mostly standard spots, although there was this one fun hand:

[insert link to HH instead of the HH itself :(]

I’m going to a friend’s house for New Years Eve tonight, should be fun to see everyone again. Take care, happy new year and have a great 2010!