About This Blog/Getting Started

Hi everyone!  Thanks for checking out my Poker Project/Bankroll Building blog.  This first entry will be a tad long, and will explain things on a pretty basic level so my friends who aren't card players can follow this and won't be lost entirely.  So if you're already a solid card player, sorry, bear with it for the first entry!


The Story
About 3 years ago I had been crushing the $2-180 person tournaments on Pokerstars and had built up a decent bankroll.  Then I unfortunatly had to cash out most of it (about $700 or so.  damn bills...who needs electricity and heat anyway..), leaving myself with about $200.  So I started playing games that I had been playing, but was now so under bankrolled for them, I was staring at $50 after a few months of that.  I realized If I didn't get serious and start using proper bankroll management, I was going to go bust online and thats it.  No more online poker since I don't have extra cash to deposit.  So I reread a famous article written by one of my favorite poker players, Chris "Fox" Wallace, about bankroll management that can be found here.  I'm following the "Protected" collumn since i can't replace a bankroll easily by depositing and im not a pro making my income from this.  The best way to BUILD would be following the middle collumn.  But what to play?  Well around the time I almost went broke, my then newborn daughter stopped sleeping for 16 hours a day and I had less time to play.  I would play at night when she went to bed, but when she'd wake in the middle of the night, I'd have to sit out of live tournaments to tend to her with my wife.  That's where I lost a lot of money due to sitting out and folding key hands at middle to late stages of the tournament.  I decided to rebuild using cash games since it better fit my lifestyle.  I can set my own hours of play, sit out for a few hands if I need to (in cash games, if you sit out you just don't get dealt a hand, a tournament would still deal you in, then fold for you) and I like not having to worry about making a decision for my tournament life.  In cash if you go all in and lose, you can just rebuy in and keep going. 


Starting Out - $50 (April `10)
This blog was started for a few reasons.  I want to show that 1) poker is a skill game with some elements of luck (mostly skill) and 2) managing your bankroll properly is one of the most important skills a serious card player can posess.  Without this primary skill, a player can almost certainly go broke regardless of how good of a player they are.  I started with $50 on Pokerstars, playing the absolute lowest stakes possible (.01/.02 No Limit Holdem) and the goal is to grow my bankroll and move up in stakes as I go.  I buy in for $2 at each table, playing 4 tables at a time and the point is to gradually move up to more tables and bigger stakes/buy-ins.  Currently, my bankroll has reached $142.05, while 9-12 tabling .01/.02 with $2 at each table.  I was documenting my progress on facebook and decided to go to a blog.  The program I'm keeping track of my win/loss with is called PokerScore and it's free.  As far as other programs and HUDs (heads up display, they display stats on your opponents like how agressive they are, what percentage of hands they are playing, and how often they fold in certain situations), I'll have to buy those on my own when I'm able to.  HoldEm Manager and NoteCaddy (takes detailed notes on your opponents for you) are both on my wish list...maybe even TableNinja.  So...once I jump to .02/.05 (I'll be looking to play with about $150-175 in my account), I'll be sure to have Hold`Em Manager, Note Caddy, Poker Score, and Poker Stove (an expected value calculator).  I also just got renewed (ty Ben!) to pokerxfactor.com, which is a goldmine of valuable poker information.  Beating $2NL was fairly easy.  Playing solid, fundamentally sound ABC poker is sufficient enough to show a profit at these games.  $5 and $10NL I assume should be around the same.  I don't plan on encountering any solid play untill $25NL, but to play that I'll need a bankroll of approximatly $650-$700. 

Where I'm At Now - $168 (Jan `10)
I started the journey playing $2NL (I will refer to the no limit poker games by their general buy in of 100 big blinds, In this case, .01/.02 has a 100 big blind (BB) buy in of $2 and .02/.05 will be referred to as $5NL, and so on) and am now ready to go through $5NL.  The profit graph at the top represents all my playing through $2NL.  Each "game" was an average 60-90 minute session 4-12 tabling.  I won't be 12 tabling as I did with $2NL, just 2 or 3 to start, gradually working up to 6.  I won't play any more than that because I'm also transitioning from full ring (9 players) to 6max (6 players obv).  This will create more hands per hour and a much faster pace.  I'd get BURIED playing more than 6 tables!  I'll also take most of January as a study break.  Sure I'll play a table or 2 here and there to get my feet wet at 6max (the dynamics change drastically from full ring), but for the most part I'll be reading my new book Harrington On Online Cash Games by Dan Harrington.  This book is geared specifically for micro/low stakes 6max NLHE, so it should be a huge help.  I just read the section on fundamentals (always ALWAYS a good refresher, I can't stress enough) and now reading the section on tracking software and note taking.  This is by far the best book I've read concerning online poker!  I'll also be watching some of the 6max cash videos on pokerxfactor.com.  When tax returns come in, I'll be using about $100 to purchase HoldEm Manager and Note Caddy since they work together.  Once I aquire these programs, it's back to the grind!  I'll post updates at the end of every month!

If anyone is interested in bankroll building along with me, or just improving their game in general, I strongly suggest reading a few books, join a forum (I reccomend twoplustwo.com) and absolutly join a training site (I reccomend pokerxfactor.com or cardrunners.com).  You can also follow along in this blog, post hands to discuss with each other and just talk poker.  The internet is LOADED with information how to better improve your poker game, so why not take advantage?  To date, my poker learnings are as follows -


Books I've read -
Harrington On Holdem Vol 1-3 and Harrington On Cash Games Vol 1 all by Dan Harrington
Sit N Go Strategy by Colin Moshman
Theory Of Poker by David Sklansky
52 Tips (Limit Holdem) by Barry Shulman

Currently I'm reading Harrington on Online Cash Games (6max NLHE) and next on my list are No Limits by Chris "Fox" Wallace and No Limit Hold Em Theory & Practice by David Sklansky

See you at the tables!
Oh by the way, if anyone can help me shrink down my profit graph pic at the top of the screen I'll love you forever!