Hi, guys!

I’m Mike Kingsley . Welcome to my online poker blog.

There is so much I want to tell you I don’t even know where to begin. OK, so let’s start with who am I and why would I create a blog about poker.

I’m Michael but I play poker online as YellowJeep because guess what, my first car was a yellow jeep.  I have been playing poker on and off for a few years. I have been playing everything from cash games, Sit and Go’s and MTT’s. But that’s the problem. I could never really decide upon which one to stick with. Cash games are straight, not time-consuming, Sit and Go’s give me a quick adrenaline fix and even $2 MTT’s give me a chance to quadruple my whole bankroll. But when I finally looked at my all-time money charts through Holdem Manager 2, I was stunned. It seems that throughout the last year since I was playing more seriously, I have not won, but lost over $200. This may not be much but it was indeed unexpected. I didn’t see it because I get constant increments of rakeback, bonuses, I sometimes min-cash in tournament and the losses do not really show on my bankroll. However, that’s not why you’re in poker, right?

So, I guess this is the time to make my decision. Either get better and reach mid-stake cash games within a year or play for pleasure and become just another fish in the pool. Let’s try the former first.

This is why I chose to create my poker blog. I will share it within my friends and anybody who is also looking to improve and maybe it will help move up not only for me, but for some of you, as well. What am I planning? In this blog I will post hand histories, charts, feedback from my friends and other poker players about the hands.

Bankroll Management

So, my plan for December and 2014 is to move up from 5NL to 50NL (maybe 100NL). It all depends on how well the shot-taking will go. Currently I have around $100. When I have 15 buy-ins for the next level, I will start talking shots. So, whenever I build my bankroll to $150, I will add a few NL10 tables to my sessions.

• I will play NL10 with bankroll from $200 to $350 (start to take shots at NL25)
• I will play NL25 from $425 to $750 (shots at NL50)

At NL50 I want to feel completely confident before even thinking about NL100.  According to my plan, I could start taking shots when I reach a bankroll of around $1500. However, I think 25-30 buy-ins in this case would be the right decision.

Daily Sessions

I don’t want to push it too far with playing because obviously this isn’t the problem. The problem is learning. So, for NL5 and NL10 I think I would like to divide my time for learning and playing poker evenly. Maybe 40% - 60% and later make it 30% - 70%.

I am planning to play two daily sessions of FR cash games, 2 hour-long each. As at first I will play 4-6 tables, that’s about 1000 hands a day. In a couple of months I will return to my regular 9 table sessions and maybe increase the number as I move on. Btw, I am a student in a university so I don’t have unlimited supply of time and will have to make adjustments during exams, etc.

Learning

Playing 2x two hour sessions means that 3-4 hours a day I should also spend on learning poker, improving my game at the tables as well as working on my mental side of the game. Learning will no more be a quick look at my biggest losing hands still steaming after the session or watching a few videos online. In the upcoming months I will be reading books, analyzing villain ranges in hands I’ve played, I will get a subscription at a video training site (Cardrunners, probably.). I would really love to find a Skype study group to talk about hands and maybe even do sweat sessions.  

That’s it for now. I know that you probably have heard of many such cases but those who know me will agree that whatever happens, I don’t give up easily. And even though I’ve set my timeline to 2014, I’m in no real rush. I just want to become better at cash games and move up. I am off for my first session, I’ll post hands after and also explain more about my learning plan.

See you soon.