yesterday I finally managed to sign up at pstars.com and started off playing 25 cent/50 cent games with 25 bucks. at first i did okay, pretty much just breaking even, but after a couple bad runs i was all the way down to 3.50!!!! So I spent The next morning re-reading Slansky's Hold Em' Poker and started out in the 2/4 cent rooms (fast ones) this morning. I steadily made my way up to 5 dollars at which point i went to the 5/10 cent rooms. there I have steadily made my way up to around 9 dollas. when I get to ten I figure I will go up to the next level of rooms 10/20cent.

things I am doing to improve my game:
reading Slanky's book that I mentioned (over and over, even taking notes lol)
I've been to a few poker websites (pokertips mainly).
I tried out the free version of Texas Calculatem, but it didn't really seem to help. And I don't just want a machine to tell me what to do, I wanna have fun playing as well as make money.
I will be going on vacation day after tomarrow and I probably won't be able to play up there, So i will be studying my ass off for about a week.

here are my game stats etc:
Hold'em (Real Money):

1039 hands played and saw flop:
- 72 times out of 209 while in small blind (34%)
- 158 times out of 221 while in big blind (71%)
- 192 times out of 609 in other positions (32%)
- a total of 422 times out of 1039 (41%)

Pots won at showdown - 65 out of 112 (58%)
Pots won without showdown - 63

I also Have my entire hand history, if that would help i could post some of it (pretty long obviously).

So what do yall think? Bad? good? okay? any tips, or advice, any poker literature that helped you become good, or get better?

Thanks guys. I'll be sure and give out some grey reps

Bankroll management, homie. You need like $250 to play .25/.50.

Also, you're too loose preflop

For the best results, please have at least 400 big bets.

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Judging by the fact hes seen 1/5 of his hands in each blind he is playing on average 5 handed
In 5max Limit HE 32% VPIP is fine, I think I play 30/20 and this seems reasonably standard across all the winners at 3/6, some even play closer to 40/30 and still win.

Seriously though, if you don't want to go broke you do need to look at starting with a bankroll of approximately 300 big bets and look to build that up to 500 big bets or so. I drop 50 big bets or more on almost a daily basis when I play limit so playing 10/20 cent with $10 is just asking to be broke within a week even if you play perfect poker.

Which site are you playing at? Need to look into getting a rakeack deal/bonus if you play Limit. I actually make more in rakeback than at the tables when I play Limit, and the lower the stakes the more crucial rakeback is.

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For all non US Players I strongly recommend this site:
Red Kings: Plays on OnGame network, juicy games & continual bonuses given which clear at very good rate.
http://www.redkings.com/index.cgi?aname=jadegoody

It's been a while since I posted this link but here we go again:

http://www.pocketfives.com/5C57520F-...240CB3E59.aspx

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For Free Money, Poker Gifts and Rakeback I recommend PokerSourceOnline.

I have to recommend Cardrunners for superb poker coaching. It was honestly the single biggest improvement in my game signing up there! Sign-up fee might seem steep, but it pays itself back within weeks.

dang 250, I'll have to build up then in lower stakes.
Big bets? are those when you have a good hand and so you bet the sh1t out of it or what? I've looked through a poker glossary/dictionary a bunch, but i still don't have all of it committed to memory.
I play at poker stars. 247 more FPP's and I'll have another twenty five bucks lol. please tell me more about this rakeback that you speak of.
thanks I will be sure to read that.

thanks for yalls help. would you say my biggest problem is my crappy bankroll then? so i guess I should build it up in 2/4 cent rooms? I win pretty easily there.



also, about the two that disagreed on my preflop strategy, how do i know who is right lol?

Big Bets are the bet sizes on the turn and river in FL (fixed limit). If you are playing $0.25/$0.50 FL, then $0.50 is the big bet.




Pokerstars is a great site for it's software and customer support. But you will not be able to find any rakeback deals.

Not knowing how much you know about online gaming, I'll explain rake and whatnot. You may or may not know/understand this yet.

A site is able to operate by taking a portion of each pot. This is the rake, and is how a site is able to operate profitably. What this means to you as a player is that each pot you drag in reduced.

If you sign up with a site that you can find a rakeback deal through, then a percentage (usually 15-30%) is returned to you, increasing your win rate.

I currently have only one rakeback deal going, it's 27% on FullTilt through raketherake.com. There are many other available though.

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If you are one in a million, there's eight just like you in Manhattan.

thanks man, thats sweet about rakeback. I think I will work on my bank roll at pokerstars (the players seem pretty easy lol, in the 2/4 cent rooms anyway). once I am up to 250 FPP on pstars I will get another 25 bucks, so either once my bankroll is fat, or when i get those fpp i will begin to expand to full tilt and other rooms.

today I made about 2 dollars in the 2/4 cent rooms. not as well as yesterday, but i didn't play anywhere near as long today.

thanks guys.

Squeezy plays No limit. 32% is fine for 5 handed Limit. You can't afford to play as many hands in NL since you are usually not given as good odds preflop (people can open to 4xbb instead of just 2xbb) and also you can get in trouble if you flop a weak top or mid pair with a hand like J8 and are faced with big pot sized bets in NL, in limit however you can make the call down relatively cheaply.

__________________
For all non US Players I strongly recommend this site:
Red Kings: Plays on OnGame network, juicy games & continual bonuses given which clear at very good rate.
http://www.redkings.com/index.cgi?aname=jadegoody