The journey

Posted 8 years ago

I'm new to PokerVIP website so I decided to make this topic as both an introduction and a small story time. I do not have any fancy graph's or similar to offer yet, so I'm sorry if I've missed the point of this thread a bit but hopefully it will be fine. I am currently a 23 year old student of Business and Computer sciences from Serbia, Belgrade.

The story starts about a year ago. Poker was one of those distant things I did not care a lot for nor were surrounded by. I'm a person that likes to try new things and respect skills most out of all things. At this time I was focusing on Photoshop basics and things like that when I realized that one of the friends I've met on the international student festival abroad is a poker player. He is a 4-5 year player playing at NL50 tables.
Casual chatting with him about it for a while made me realize that poker is a proper skill that can be learned and improved, more than it is pure gamble. Over night I decided that I want to lose some money, simply to satisfy the curiosity. Plan was to invest 10$ into wherever he is playing (turned out to be PokerStars, I did not know any poker websites before that) and see what I can do with it or at least, how long will it take me to lose it all.
However, when I asked him about this website and told him of my plan, he spammed me with few poker websites on the terminology, basics, positions and other. It was seriously overwhelming but I was still curious.
I spent some time reading into the poker theory and finally I deposited my first 20$ into PokerStars. I got a welcome bonus of 20$, giving me a bankroll of 40.
For the first month I played spin&go games and after that I switched to NL2. My fish period has started. I still remember how I couldn't play for more than 15 minutes because I was really nervous and my hands were always going ice cold.
I very quickly lost 50% of my bankroll, leaving me with 20$, which I was around for a long time. 40$ bankroll was just a distant dream at this point. I was constantly falling and going up again, ranging from 4$ total to 17$ most of the times and this lasted for most of my poker life.
Although I've felt the huge pressure coming from my personal desire not to lose the entire bankroll, I've kept pushing forward and surprisingly did not go bust.
I've started watching streamers, reading books, articles, WSOP hands and although I was still not a winning player, situation gradually started getting better as my play style changed over and over again.

I've analyzed a hand Daniel Negreanu played publicly and was approached by a poker agent offering me staking. I was seriously flattered and happy by this turn of events. The willingness of someone to put their own money behind my game was the first sign I've gotten that I might be doing something right and not simply wasting my time. However, this did not happen because I already created many accounts for various websites and the one that was still available for me to claim this staking was seriously broken. At this point, poker really grew to my heart though. It became a fun game that I loved, despite all the tilts it was giving me.

After a lot of time, my play style changed for the final time in NL2. I've passed 40$ total. I celebrated this big moment, passing the original amount of money on my account. Then I passed 80$ and finally 100$. This happened about 3-4 days ago.
Hitting a 100$ milestone, I've started playing NL5 which again rocked my world. I've noticed that the difference between NL2 and NL5 players is huge, which I was not expecting. However, despite my current feeling that could best be compared to the adventures of Alice in Wonderland and her discoveries, I'm remaining profitable still. Right now I am at 125$ bankroll and well, here i am.

That is my poker journey. Of course, nothing of this would happen without my Lithuanian poker friend to whom I may only give a big thank you.
And what the future holds... Well, I guess we will see that together Smile

Now, back to me being new at PokerVIP, I would really appreciate any tips about the website that you may give me as more experienced users. Advice such as what I should follow, participate in and do for both fun and poker improvement would be highly welcome! You know, the average daily routine of a poker player on PokerVIP Smile

Thank you! AA
Zeroni

Last Post 8 years ago by

Zeroni

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Posted 8 years ago
Epic first post and a warm welcome to you zeroni!

You will here this time and time again, over and over; if you want to improve your game post hands int he forum for our really knowledgable members and coaches to analyze for you. It's like having free coaching!

If you don't know how to do that, just take a look here and if you're still a little lost just ask in the forum and someone will always know what to do.

I doubt an I.T. savvy person like yourself will have much trouble there though.


Also, take a look at the Coaching Videos section for videos at your level or close to it, there are loads of them and they are getting updated daily so keep a look out there!

My own recommendation adn my personal favourite is the Strategy Section where the Poker Courses are. I love these, they take you through what you need to know a step at a time and you go at your own pace of learning without any pressure to get it right straight away. Oh and you earn points as you go to which help you move up the levels.

...and remember to ask questions, always ask questions.

I hope you have fun here which is what it's all about really, having fun - and winning of course!

Good luck. Yes
Posted 8 years ago
Thank you for the welcome and the advice!

True, I think I already like the community!
I've already watched a couple of videos but I totally forgot about the Poker Courses! They're a blast, it looks like I will be occupied for quite some time! Nerdy
Finished the beginner courses, already a level 3. The points required for level 5 seem scary! Laugh haha

Thank you once again, best of luck to you too!
Posted 8 years ago
I've just bought HM2 from the PokerVIP store (thank you PokerVIP) and managed to extract my first graph! It contains the last 20k hands and I decided to share!

Attached Image


The big drop at the end was me adjusting to NL5, before that moment I was playing NL2 Smile
Posted 8 years ago
Ye but look at that big climb up after it at nl5! Cool
Posted 8 years ago
great start...following
Posted 8 years ago
Subscribed! Glad you found the discount in the store helpful Smile

Whats the plan for this week?
Posted 8 years ago
Well I have been to a student conference in Maribor, Slovenia for the past 10 days so there was not a lot of time to play. I have 2 more conferences coming soon together with a final exam on my college and a thesis.

I've been playing a bit though and I have to say that I'm starting to feel comfortable at NL5 stakes. Even though I am breaking even at +5 from the last hand in the chart, I've had some bad runs (gotta love villain quads vs pocket rockets Laugh ) but every time it was a good enter so I don't feel bad about it. Just normal variability I guess.

As far as plans go, I'll just play whenever I can and move to NL10 around 200 bankroll. It is still surreal to think that I am actually playing poker and a part of this website. Crazy how life goes in unimaginable ways Laugh
Posted 8 years ago
life will sometimes take over...just remember "There will always be a game tomorrow"
Posted 8 years ago
Yep Smile
While I'm not playing, do you guys know some good NL5 zoom holdem videos? Preferably on PS. I can at least study in meanwhile Laugh