Rag

As you predicted, my little endeavor to start a bankroll from scratch failed pretty rapidly. I was going to go at it again but then I read about Ferguson's $6.50 after grinding from nothing for 9 months and I remembered just how hateful freerolls are, so I decided that it was a pretty stupid way to go about it.

I deposit $50 into pokerstars and, long story short; I'm down to $1.50 after 5 days. I wont go into details, you already know it all and heard it all. I'll just state the obvious and say that it was a combination of bad play, an amazing string of bad-beats and tilt (in that specific order).

When I got over the initial shock a fog started to clear in my head and things became very clear. I realized that I don't know shit about poker. I was slammed in the face with a lesson on how emotion and wishful thinking will fuck up your decision making and ability to see things for what they are. The brutal beating dealt to me by variance forced me to appreciate the reality of what it means to gamble and made me aware of the knowledge and skills necessary to put the odds in my favor--knowledge and skills that I don't have.

I thought I knew these things, which is why I tried to start my bankroll from scratch. I learned that I didn't know the first thing about it. Obvious stuff, but some people need to have it beat into them. It was a great learning experience, I'm just glad I got it so cheap.

1 votes

Comments (6)

I finally squeezed out $1 today after playing 12,000-player freerolls for three straight days on PokerStars. My plan is to turn this $1 into my poker bankroll and it was the only reason why I played those ridiculous tournaments. This might seem like an inefficient way to build a bankroll, especially with those huge deposit bonuses, but I just learned how to play poker two weeks ago so I thought this was the best way to go about it for various reasons that you can guess.

Anyways, I was planning to hit the micro stakes tomorrow. I was really anxious to play but I held myself back, thinking I should be in best condition and well prepared when I commit my precious $1 to a game. 1:30 AM and I couldn't go to sleep, I had to play. I told myself I would only play a few hands extra tight just to get a feel for it. I had butterflies and was seriously nervous, as pathetic as that sounds.

After playing a little I started loosening up. My stomach was still turning with anxiety but my brain was calming down. I felt control as I watched my opponents and saw the patterns in their plays. After two orbits of folding crap I made my move.

My first cash pot ever won (nothing special, pretty stupid actually, but must post it for sentimental value):

PokerStars Game #13250839716: Hold'em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) - 2007/11/15 - 03:09:24 (ET)
Table 'Adonis III' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 4: IamBob1987 ($1.19 in chips)
Seat 5: ragbop ($0.93 in chips)
Seat 6: Wektjano ($3.26 in chips)
[The table was 4-handed but one left after the last hand]
IamBob1987: posts small blind $0.01
ragbop : posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ragbop [Tc Kc]
Wektjano: folds
IamBob1987: calls $0.01
ragbop : raises $0.04 to $0.06
IamBob1987: calls $0.04
*** FLOP *** [5d Kd 8h]
IamBob1987: checks
ragbop : bets $0.12
IamBob1987: calls $0.12
*** TURN *** [5d Kd 8h]
IamBob1987: bets $0.30
ragbop : raises $0.45 to $0.75 and is all-in
IamBob1987: calls $0.45
*** RIVER *** [5d Kd 8h Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
IamBob1987: shows [4s 6s] (a pair of Kings)
ragbop : shows [Tc Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
ragbop collected $1.81 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1.86 | Rake $0.05
Board [5d Kd 8h Kh 2h]
Seat 4: IamBob1987 (small blind) showed [4s 6s] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 5: ragbop (big blind) showed [Tc Kc] and won ($1.81) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 6: Wektjano (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


The guy went broke so I left to find a bigger table. I was feeling really tired and my migraine was acting up, but I couldn't just end it here. Besides, I was so excited that I didn't notice. I played 27 hands, and played aggressive from the start, winning 8 hands total and only lost 1 relatively big hand because of a careless play on the turn (should've bet instead of checking, had some sort of stupid brain fart).

The initial rush started to wear off and the fatigue hit me, so I decided to quit there. I felt bad about leaving the table so fast, but I didn't want to play feeling like shit. I raised my $1 to $2.65.

So, this is two hours after I stopped and I can't go to sleep. I'm feeling pathetically giddy like a school girl with a crush, so I thought writing this would get it off my back so I can get some rest. Seems to have worked, nighty night.

P.S: Even though I'm excessively happy, it's mostly chemical reaction. I understand that this doesn't mean shit. (Just in case that I'm coming off as an overconfident fish).

2 votes

Comments (5)

PokerStars Game #13213910851: Tournament #66645598, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2007/11/13 - 09:03:20 (ET)
Table '66645598 886' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: ragbop (4210 in chips)
Seat 2: vituky (1380 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: sen22 (7545 in chips)
Seat 4: LamerK (7710 in chips)
Seat 5: Petronas1 (1360 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: TimB10 (6430 in chips)
Seat 7: f.hessie (4570 in chips)
Seat 8: ZZ430 (1355 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: Cornello (1825 in chips)
ZZ430: posts small blind 25
Cornello: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ragbop [Kh Kd]
ragbop : raises 150 to 200
vituky: folds
sen22: calls 200
LamerK: calls 200
Petronas1: folds
TimB10: calls 200
f.hessie: folds
ZZ430: folds
f.hessie is sitting out
Cornello: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ad 3c]
ragbop : bets 450
sen22: raises 450 to 900
LamerK: calls 900
TimB10: folds
ragbop : folds

Was this a good play? How should this flop be played?

Thx

2 votes

Comments (9)