Well it's only the 5th of April and already I've achieved Silver Star on PS...lol..I've been playing a lot more than usual. Poker is so much more fun when your winning!

I've also been able to move up to NL10. I've been 16 tabling the 6 max tables there, and have been doing fairly well. I'm getting really comfortable handling 16 tables at a time. I played 2 short sessions today. In the first I played about 1700 hands and lost 25 bucks. Then I just played another 1500 hand session and won 28! The first session I had some pretty bad luck. Twice I was hit with set over set, then another person runner runner flushed on my set. 

Another weird thing happened too...I was on the button and the guy behind me raised to 3 bb. I was holding 10 10 and re-raised it up to 80c. It folds around and he calls. As soon as the flop comes 2 3 9  rainbow and he goes all in immediately. I was sort of confused at first, I figured he must be holding aces. He was a short stack though, only had like 4 dollars left so I decided to call. He shows 5 3 off....?????....anyways a 3 comes on the turn and he takes the pot lol. I guess you just have to expect things like that to happen at the micro limits. I managed to control my tilt for the most part when I was running bad. I guess I got a little more aggressive, and that definately accounted for some of the money that I lost in my first session, but I'm definately growing as a poker player.

I'm learning so much about the game right now. I'm a lot better in certain situations where I used to not know what to do, and it's definately showing in the money that I've been winning. In one of my earlier blogs (before I got felted) I mentioned I wanted to have 300 dollars in my PS account by summer, and that's definately becoming a possibility. I've already gotten the 1st two stellar rewards bonuses, and I'm over half way to my third. It's amazing how much I've grown since I first started this blog. 2+2 has been a big help to me. If anybody wants to learn more about the game, you should definitely go there. Even if it's just to browse through questions that other people have (that's all I've been doing)

Oh yeah, my bankroll is currently at $232.87. Things couldn't really be going better right now.

Peace out

Luke

The passed few days I've been able to move up to the 1.75 18 man turbos on stars. I've been playing absolutely horrible in them..lol...but my last set I managed to get a lot of cashes. I ran really really really bad for my first 50 or so and lost over thirty dollars. Over my last 50 I've won nearly all of it back, I think I'm down like 4 dollars in the 1.75's. I've also been playing some 1.10 with 45 and 90 runners, and have been playing extremely well in them. They have more than made up for my bad luck at the 18 man turbos. 

Yesterday I ran really well and my bankroll grew to 115 dollars or so. I decided to play some 5NL because my bankroll finally allowed for it. I played pretty decently, and won like 5 bucks over 1000 hands or so. Then I opened up 15 of the 18 man turbos and had some incredible luck. I ended the day with 145.24. As I mentioned in my last blog, I really enjoy playing cash games more than anything. Eventually I'd like to be able to add have some decent income by muti tabling NL50. In order to do this I need to get better at multi tabling. I usually open up 10 tables at a time for playing 6 max games. Today I tried playing 16 at a time and was extremely succesful. Made 17 dollars over 1600 hands playing 5NL. I felt a little bit uncomfortable at times, but with a little practice I think I would be able to do it no problem. I think it would be easier at higher stakes though, because at these low limits you get a lot of limpers, and so a lot of times I get to see a free flop of the bb. When I have action at like 8 tables at once, things can get a bit crazy. 

Well that's all for now. My bankroll currently stands at $162.54.  A few more weeks and I should be able to move up to NL10. Maybe sooner, as I'm getting fairly close to another 10 stellar reward on stars. Oh yeah next month I think I'm going to go for silver star. Those are my two major goals for this month. Get the bankroll to move up to NL10 and Silver Star. 

Luke

So I think I may pull a Boku and turn 5 dollars into a whole helluva lot of money. My time frame is a bit longer than a year though. The first thing I did after making my 10 dollar deposit at the beginning of March was sit down at a couple of NL2 tables. Technichally NL1 for me...lol...with 10 buy ins I figured I could grind at those limits for a couple months before I could move up to NL5. Unfortunately, I immediately got coolered in a couple of hands, and found myself with only 6 dollars left. I decided to just play the .10 360 man turbos on stars until I lost it all, then deposit another 10 dollars and continue playing the .10 sit n goes till I got a little luck. So I opened 20 at a time, and played them through. I accidentally opened a $1 turbo which I didn't cash in. I mean it was only a dollar, but I was all excited to brag about how I could turned $5 into a real bankroll. Things weren't looking good for that. I managed to do okay in the .10's though and finished my first set of 20 with just over 4 dollars. Then I got lucky the next day and managed to win one for a whopping 8.50. Then I took first in another one the next day for another 8.50! Things were beginning to look up. With several other final tables in these tourneys, I ran my bankroll up to just over 20 dollars. 

Since then I've been grinding at 2NL again, making a few bucks here and there. I feel like I've been pretty unlucky in those games, but I've still been showing profit so that's good. I also played about 100 .25 sit 'n goes and ran at like 100% ROI or something ridiculous. In any case, once I had about 40 dollars, I started playing the $1 +.20 STT on stars. I've been doing a lot of browsing 2+2 and I feel like my STT game has improved IMMENSELY. I've been super unlucky in the $1 STT's for far, but I've managed to play in 90 of them with 7% ROI. My bankroll as it currently stands is $55. But I'm like 4 FPP from my first $10 Stellar Reward so I'm effectively at $65. My plan is to just keep grinding the lower limit STT's until I can move up. I'll move up whenever I'm at 50 buy ins for that level, and IMMEDIATELY move down if I ever move below 30. I'm sticking with my plan this time, and it's going to work. I feel like it wouldn't be hard at all to slaughter $1 STT's at like 20% ROI. I've been trying to put in more volume recently, but it's tough with school. I think I can play around 200 SnG's a week if I really work at it, and do some serious multi-tabling. Lately I've just been opening 15-20 tables and once, and playing them until I get felted in all of them. This weekend I'm going to try and do like a 4 hour session where I constantly have like 15 tables open.

I think I'm just going to continue playing the SnG's until my bankroll is at 500 dollars. My real passion lies in playing cash game poker, so once I have $500, I'm planning on playing some NL10 until I'm around $700, then move up to NL25. I might try to take a shot at NL25 earlier, I'm not sure though. 

My confidence has grown immensely over the passed few weeks. Can't wait till I'm famous and can tell my story about how I ran 5 dollars up to a mil

Wish me Luck

Luke

I've been known to go on some serious tilt before, but I thought I was passed that part of my poker career. Apparently not. I spend over 2 months grinding my bankroll from 30 to 120 dollars at the micro limits. During that time I had several rough stints, but I always managed to play through them. Not this time. I was playing anywhere from 6 to 10 tables at a time, doing 3 dollar 6 max handed turbos on Pokerstars. I was playing anywhere from 6-10 tables at a time. For the first 70 dollars that I lost, I was playing solid poker. After that I just donked away the rest of my chips. I literally COULD NOT win a coin flip for 2 days straight. I lost to a lower pocket pair 4 times right in a row. I'd go all in with hands like AK and get beat consistently by A rag. If you're not familiar with the turbo structure, there comes a time when the blinds get really heavy, and you're basically forced to push. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't seem to win anything at all.

I was mad for several days after my loss. Not at my bad luck, but at myself. I didn't stick to my game plan. I told myself that I would immediately move down the the 1 dollar SNG's if my bankroll ever dipped below 70 dollars. Clearly I did not do this. I dunno what I was thinking honestly. Like I said before, I thought I was passed the point where I could let tilt take over. Normally I can walk away from the screen and just take a breather for a few hours. Not this time though. I've learned a lot from it though. Namely that I have a LOT to learn about the game of poker. I'm excited to continue learning and improving my game though. I'm very optimistic about my poker future.

I still consider myself to be a good poker player, and this definitely won't be the end of my poker love affair. I think I will stop playing for real money until summer. Who knows though, maybe I can get lucky in a freeroll and not have to reload my bankroll. I've just been playing on Full-Tilt under the name ChipWrecked. and right now I'm in 10th out of 15 where the top 2 win a seat into another tourney! Wish me luck!

Luke

Hey all, my name is Luke Arnold, and I'm here to share a little bit about myself, and my poker experiences.

 I'm 19 years old, and play online at Pokerstars. I'm currently attending Michigan Technological University, and am studying Civil Engineering. I like to think of myself as a good online poker player, and have made tremendous improvements to my game the past few months. Unfortunately for me, I never really took the time to learn about good bankroll management. I've been playing online for a little over a year now, and after losing my bankroll several times I'm finally realizing that being a winning player is tougher than it seems. I'm starting this blog so I can learn more about my game, and why I am winning/losing money, and hopefully hear some good feedback from readers.

My bankroll stands at just under 120 dollars right now. I would prefer to play no limit cash games, as this is the place where I can rake in the most money, but my bankroll just doesn't have enough muscle at this point. I guess I could play the micro limit 2c-5c games at Pokerstars, but I can't stand all of the crazy ridiculous plays that some people make at that level. My goal for this semester of school is to have my bankroll up to 300 dollars by summer, and then be able to play 10c-25c cash games until I feel comfortable enough to move up to the next level. Right now my plan is to play strictly 3.00 +.25 6 man turbos at pokerstars until the 300 dollar mark. This means I have just over 30 buy ins, which I feel fairly comfortable with. It is a bit of an aggressive strategy, but I feel it will work. If my bankroll ever moves under 70 dollars, I'm completely fine with moving down to the 1 dollar sng's.

 I'm not really sure where I want my poker career to go if I do find that I can win some decent money. As for right now, it's just a hobby of mine that I'm beginning to take more seriously. I don't work during the school year, so I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to play poker to add a little extra cash to my bank account. I guess that's about all for now, I'll try to keep you all updated in my progress as I begin my attempt to build a serious bankroll.

Peace Out,

Luke