First Three 0.25-0.50 Sessions

Ok so I will be posting a summary of 0.10-0.20, but that will have to come a little (perhaps more than a little) later on. So here are my first three sessions of 0.25-0.50. Of course there would be no justice in the world if I moved up limits and hit an upswing, so of course, my first session (graph below) is a beautiful -$9.70.

I came back a little stronger on my next attempt and my next two sessions show a very nice profit.

+$26.20
+$17.15

And there you have it!

The great thing about 0.25-0.50 is that I'm starting to earn Frequent Player Points (FPPs) which means I can start to use them for entries into tournaments, bonuses (basically a version of rakeback) and anything else sold in the store. I'm going to try to use them on bonuses when I can since this will help improve my bankroll.

The MEGA-UPDATE

Well, finally back up and running. I was originally going to post all of the graphs, and say something about each one, but I think that there's no point in showing 20+ graphs with not much to talk about since I vaguely remember the sessions anyway. So I'll just make comments on the relevant ones. Here we go!








Started off with these (swingy I know). But my winning sessions were much higher than my losing sessions making it still profitable for me. Then this happened:

+30.28

Finally got an edge and ended up raking in about 7 Buy-ins this session. Felt good to get a grip and hit a solid run of cards. Then...













Again, there they all are, pretty standard stuff the whole way up to about a bankroll of ~$230. This gave me 460BB for the next level 0.25-0.50 ! :) At this point I decided it was time to move up. But I'll end the post here and give a 0.10-0.20 summary first, then to be followed by my first two sessions at 0.25-0.50 Enjoy!

Non-Poker Update

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Well... my laptop screen broke and its currently in being repaired. (not due to a bad-beat frustration smashing, just a random hardware problem).

Since I have Pokertracker installed on it and I want to properly show the graphs for my sessions, I'm waiting until I have it back before I load it up with the hand histories (all in the same database) and make a new post.

Stay tuned; I'm still playing during this down-period, so they'll be a larger-than-normal post when I get the computer back!

December's First Session

+$12.70

A pretty good session in general. Once I had the feel for the good players / bad players at the tables I started to grind my way up. (FYI, I'm not using a HUD for these games at all as I don't find its necessary). One note, my PokerTracker seems to have gotten out of sync somewhere (or maybe I missed posting a session), but my account actually stands at $121.43 as of right now. I'll make the right column bankroll sticky update to the current amount on this update. A good start to the month!

November Summary

Another month, another summary! First, for everyone's enjoyment, my November graph:
Just after the peak of this graph is when about I started playing the 0.10-0.20 game, and as you can see it started with a massive downswing. I was able to pull through though, and with my last session of November (posted earlier) I brought my 0.10-0.20 game in the green, and redeemed (well, not really) the monthly graph.

As far as stats go:
Only 14, 553 hands, so not too much considering I had the entire month to play. But work has been busy, so I haven't had time to play every night. 40 hours over the whole month isn't too bad when u consider that's just over an hour a day. The amount won of $52.83 brings my current balance to a respectable $104.11 (from a November starting balance of just under $60). Due to the massive starting downswing my hourly rate actually decreased a little to $1.34 / hour (however, there isn't really enough hands to say this is an accurate number). Here's to better luck in December!

I figured it out

Ok, really good update today. I'll start by being consistent and posting all of my recent sessions (first two losses, 3rd is my nice session).

-$4.92
-$4.75
+$20.58

So my best session yet at 0.10-0.20 LIMIT. I actually was able to 9-table here reasonably well. At the beginning I really thought this was going to be another horrible day of suckouts, but things started to look up and I ended up doing really well this session. To give you an idea of what I face on a daily basis here are two hands from this most recent session (I've hidden the results of the hands, see if you can guess what the opponent had in each case):

HAND #1:

Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, 9
Hero calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 2 folds, CO calls, Button calls, 2 folds, Hero calls

Flop: (9.5 SB) 2, A, 9 (4 players)
Hero bets, MP1 calls, CO calls, 1 fold

Turn: (6.25 BB) K (3 players)
Hero bets, MP1 raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, MP1 caps, Hero calls

River: (14.25 BB) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP1 raises, Hero calls

Total pot: $3.65 (18.25 BB) | Rake: $0.17
Results in black below:

Hero mucked A, 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).
MP1 had K, K (full house, Kings over twos).
Outcome: MP1 won $3.48

Standard? Perhaps. But the Kc is what ultimately loses me some extra bets. I actually was giving him respect for AK when I get 4-bet on the turn.

HAND #2:

Limit Hold'em, $0.20 BB (9 handed)
Preflop: Hero is Button with J, J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, MP2 calls, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls

Flop: (24 SB) 5, 2, 6 (6 players)
SB bets, BB calls, UTG+1 raises, 1 fold, CO calls, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 caps, CO calls, Hero calls, SB calls, BB calls

Turn: (22 BB) 4 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, 1 fold, Hero raises, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, SB calls, BB calls, UTG+1 calls

River: (38 BB) K (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets, Hero calls, SB calls, 1 fold

Total pot: $8.20 (41 BB) | Rake: $0.20
Results in black below:

Hero had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
SB mucked Q, 5 (one pair, fives).
UTG+1 had 7, Q (high card, King).
Outcome: Hero won $8

So it doesn't always work out bad. I'd be surprised if anyone guessed their hands here. So many bad preflop calls, bad peels and bad play in general. Yea for microstakes!