INTRODUCTION

Pretty boring challenge but I feel that if I'm constantly updating this thread I'll be reflecting more on my play and progress than I would of otherwise so I think this will be a huge help to me.

Basically, I started with a $13 BR because I blew like $20 on playing some horrible poker in HUSNGs. I will 5/6 table 2NL until I have a sufficient bankroll for 4NL and continue to move up the stakes. My goal is to be playing at 50NL by the end of the year which may be optimistic but I will be heading off to university in September/October so during the summer (June-October) I will be able to put in a high volume of hands.

I've been playing Poker for a couple months now but blew my stack normally due to tilt and not controlling my emotions well at all. I feel I have a much greater edge now and at the micros it is fairly straightforward to make money which is what I've finally understood now.

As well as 5/6 tabling NL2, on the weekends I will be looking to play a couple of tournaments to try and boost my roll. I've always liked tournaments and when I was on PartyPoker I turned a small profit playing them so I normally seem to play generally well in them but the long sessions usually left me playing too aggro because I was getting frustrated.

GOALS

• To generate 25,000 hands in the first month (January)
• To review my weak points after each session
• To be playing at 4NL by the end of January

These are some short-term goals and I believe they are very much achievable as long as I stick to my plan.

I will be updating this thread every session hopefully, I don't expect many to follow - nor do I really care if they do as it's really to primarily help me grow as a player.

Thanks for reading.

GL OP!

Pretty boring challenge

~~not really. Many on here are in the same boat and will hopefully share their insights, while learning from yours.

I assume you're going to play 6-max or full ring?

Good luck!~~~subscribed.

2NL I like to play full ring but as I move up I'll probably go to 6 max - definitely when I reach NL10 I'll be playing 6 max.

FIRST SESSION

Had some ups and downs during this session, I ended up losing a buy-in at the end which really frustrated me but ended in profit which is a good start although it should of been better imo.

Not sure how to upload the graphs that I see all over this section so just had to upload this one, shows the same things anyways.



The first downswing was when I ran QQ into AJo - he hit a miracle straight, thankfully he wasn't fully bought in so I lost the minimum. The second one I help T2hh in BB, was a limp pot so I checked behind. Caught a flush draw, ended up hitting it to lose to J9hh - once again this guy wasn't fully bought in for so lost the minimum again.

Then I played and ran pretty well, no real problems - played solid and I slowly gained. Went like this till the end when I held AA in the BB, I 3bet and got a call from the cut off. The flop came 9 T K rainbow, he donk betted so I raised, he 3 bet all in which I called thinking that there was no way he would call a 3bet with QJ as he seemed like a solid player. Ended up having KJo and hitting his queen for the straight. Was pretty pissed as I lost over $2, made a couple of bad moves throughout the session but only for small amounts of money - when I got it all in I was in fairly good shape each time which is what I'm happy with.

BR: $14.18

SESSION 2



Had a great session - finished up $2.99 in just 314 hands so everything went well. As you can see from the graph it was a fairly straightforward session without any downswings, I got a good read on a couple of regs and managed to adapt my play to beat them as it was obvious they were ABC Micro players like me so I adjusted slightly to them.

I was making good reads for the first time - although it is fairly simple to put people on hands in the micros but it is still good progress which means I can get away from good hands in the future I believe.

I also entered a $0.50 Turbo 90 Player MTT which I came 10th for a min. cash at $0.99 which is a small boost.

BR: $17.64

Sorry .

Good luck!!!! Will be reading!

Hahaha it's alright, I was doing alright - not making any profit but not losing any but then I ran horribly for about 5 games (I think 8 times I had 70%+ equity and lost) then I tilted off a few more buy-ins so I just decided to give up.

SESSION 3

Absolutely horrible session - severely card dead, ran awful and a sick cooler to end it. Ended up down $1.99 so could of been a lot worse and I don't think I played bad - just suffered from the downs of poker I guess.



The first downswing I got it in with AQ on the turn with the board A 2 A 5 board against a huge fish - he had A3 so I had him crushed, then a 3 came on the river to give him the pot so. Thankfully, a few hands later I picked up Queens and I raised, then had 2 AI behind me - both were fairly shortstacked and quite fishy so I called (bit of a tilt call - had it not of been for pot just before I may of layed it down) and both had AK which was about as good as I could of wished for. This time the board help me so I picked up just as much as I lost in the other pot.

Unfortunately, throughout the session I picked up barely any hands and the board never helped me so I was really just getting blinded down slowly. Apart from the 4 big pots I won & lost, the most I won/lost after that was $0.2 so that shows how little action I had all session.

Then I was happy with how I was taking the session, I was generally card dead but had kept my emotions in check which is a good sign for the future. However, then I got a sick cooler. I opened 77 for $0.06 and was 3bet to $0.16 - normally I fold to 3bets but he was a reg and I was pretty sure his range was TT-AA here (possibly AK) and he was giving me a great price so I decided to set mine. The flop came K J 8, we both checked and the turn came a 5 in which I decided to lead to see if he had completely missed but he called. Unfortunately for me the river gave me a set - I got it all in to see JJ so his slowplay enabled him to get maximum value. Not really sure if I'm ever getting away from a set but looking at it now the slowplay seems fairly obvious.

Tough session overall but could of been a lot worse. Also suffered a cooler in another $0.50 90 Man MTT, had QQ on a 8 3 10 (rainbow) flop to lose to a set of 3s. Bit tilted now so probably won't go on again today.

BR: $15.17

Good luck, will definitely keep reading.

Having gone through the 2NL grind, I will wish you LOTS of patience!

I started a challenge myself today to go from 5NL to 25NL so I hope we both make it!

Thanks AbsolutPeche - yeah I hate the 2NL grind, I can't wait until I have enough roll to move up to 5NL. I'll follow your challenge when you get it up and running since hopefully I'll be doing that challenge as well soon.

SESSION 4

Thought I'd get one more small session before I go to bed - this one went very well. It went bad near the end of the session but I was hit with the deck a lot (although I didn't get as much action as I would of liked) - I got AA 7 times, KK once, QQ twice and JJ 5 times in just 296 hands. Most of the times my PFR would take it down but I when I got action I normally stacked the opponent which was good.



I got it in bad against a fish but I did have straight outs which I managed to hit so it was good to suck out on a fish for once.

Session went well, I got it in good multiple times and folded most of my marginal holdings (hence why my non-showdown winnings was below even) - I kept getting forced off my marginal holdings (e.g. 2 barrelled when I have 2nd pair), anyone who has grinded 2NL got any advice for this kind of spot? I'll post a couple of hands as an example.


















Tough spots where I normally just lay it down as I don't think there's a need to get in marginal spots in the micros but its up for debate.

Ended the session on a downer as I lost a big pot (-$1.36) with an overpair against a set. I played it pretty cautiously so I lost the minimum which was good but overall very happy with how the session went.

BR: $18.24

SESSION 5

Had another great session - was only a small one but I got bombarded with pocket pairs (had 30 of them in 316 hands) and they account for 75% of my profit in that session. In addition, the one time my KK got cracked it was against a short stack so I only lost $0.6 so everything went for me.



Luckily I ran into a couple of fish who attempted ridiculous moves on me which were easy to pick off for a bit of money. I may of ran well but for the first time I was really happy with how I was playing - a couple of good folds with overpairs etc to nits which normally I'd just crying call so I'm definitely developing as a player.

Unfortunately my trial for HEM2 runs out at midnight so I'll have to wait till the 28th until I can put money in the bank (I'm a student - very much skint) and start playing again - although I might play a few tournaments as I don't need a HUD for that.

I also cashed in a MTT so my bankroll is getting healthier which is good news. Only $73 more until I can move to NL5!!

BR:$27.01

My HEM2 trial ran out so I was waiting till tomorrow to put some money in my bank account to purchase the full copy - I decided to play a few tournaments and I've ran my BR down to $10 - absolutely sick. I lost a few tournaments (not sure why I was entering them) and decided to gamble (please don't ask me why - tilt of losing) with a $7 18 man. Putting me at $10 - well just to rub salt in the wounds I had the sickest bubble EVER.

I was doing well, 5th in chip stacks then a short stack went AI I raised AI on top with 77 and the BB called. Shortstack flipped over QJs and BB had 25o. I had BB covered by about 1,500 chips - well the flop came A 3 4. I wasn't too bothered by that, then with about 6 people to go I'm a huge shortstack. I have around 1,500 chips (literally folding everything) and one other guy has around 800 chips. Three others had around 3000-5000 while the chip leader has around 20,000 (playing every hand and just crushing everyone since it's the bubble). Well one of the medium stacks battles with the big stack and loses so we're on the bubble (top 4 cash). I'm just folding everything until the bigger shortstack is out, well he's doing the same but he gets blinded down to nothing and is AI with a SB - two others go to the flop. One guy bluffs the other out and the shortstack wins with J high (I was absolutely furious as was one of the other players). This makes me the shortstack so I go all in with the big stack (blind v blind) and hold out. So same thing starts all over again - he goes all in and then the big stack raises the rest of us out of the pot with 46o and he wins. Finally I'm UTG with 860 (shortstack has 400 on BTN) and I have K8o - the blinds are now 600/300/50 so basically I go AI here on get blinded out. I go AI, everyone but the shortstack calls and the big stack flops a full boat. I was knocked out on the bubble because of other players stupidity - the first guy who bluffed someone out of the pot did it not knowing he was wrong I think but the big stack was just trying to be a dick to everyone else.

I'm down to $10 - everyone will be like this is so little money (which it is), the actually amount of money I lost means nothing (I'm not like "OMG I just lost £12" it's just that I have no money to reload. Now I have no BR (the 2NL grind is so grueling and tough that to get $17 back it's probably 2000 hands approx.) and have to purchase HEM2. I have £70 to my name which will cover the cost of that but I can't reload my BR so I'm stuck ha. Plus the way I lost it is so sick, I should of had a healthy stack if it wasn't for a miracle straight and if it wasn't for players doing ridiculous things I would of cashed - nevermind the fact I was tremendously card dead the whole of the final table (best hand I picked up was A9o). Rant over.

Well GL OP your gona need it...now stop playing SNGs and tourneys. Your money is not good to anything but some NL2 1tabling and playing those 0.02 superturbos

Anyways about you claiming the others were stupid on the bubble. No not really. When you go all in with not much more than BB its standard that everyone else call this and check it down (unless they flop the nuts like thistims) but the entire idea is to have maximum amount of hands against your shove so its more likely you will loose the hand to ATC from the other players. Thats what you do in bubble when someone is so low on chips. Risk a small amount of chips in order to maximize the odds to bust out the shortstack, nothing stupid there. Worst case scenario the shortstack gets a hefty 5xbigger stack than the initial shove as in this case 5 players on the table but its worth the risk as your odds to win the hand are slim after you are against 4 other combos.

GL to your grind. I will check your thread. Hope you succeed but atm your BR is very slim to begin with and NL2 is horrid. Well maybe the new contributed rake system will open up the microtables in stars too.

That is not what I was saying was stupid - I meant when people bluffed others out of pots when the other shortstack was in a pot. There was a sidepot of less than a BB and the guy bluffed the other guy out, shortstack had J10 and villain had J9 so I had no idea how he thought it was a good idea. Then the shortstack shoves for 375 (BB is 400) and the chip leader raises to 1200 - the guy in the BB shows his hand as 39s and folds and in the end he would of hit trip 9s so on two occassions if it wasn't for ridiculous mistakes by others I wouuld of cashed.

Well I bought the HEM2 Microstakes version and deposited another £15 into my account so I should be up to around $30-$35 so the NL2 grind can begin again.

All the best with it. Stick to games that are within your bankroll is all i can say. i have been from 2nl to 50nl 5 times on 4 different sites and then tilted off all the hard work HU once i've had one of those run 6-10BI under Ev, not allowed to win a hand sessions. Now i'm back at 5nl atm, sucks big time, don't bring all the good work undone with trying to make a fortune overnight

Yeah I feel you man. Feels so sickening punting away money that has taken you thousands of hands to grind - really will try and stay away from tournaments from now on because one buy-in to a tournament is probably around a BI to a session and the fish on tournaments just anger me. However, from my experience at a $7 18 man - I feel my play is much more suited towards regs and would probably do better at low stakes than micros. But enough of that because I can actually beat the cash micros so hopefully I can just stick to that forever!

SESSION 6

Had a pretty poor small session today - played pretty bad and was card dead throughout. Only had one AI which I won and only really lost two fairly noticeable pots (one I had two pair while the other guy had a straight) and the other I double barrelled a guy putting him on a flush draw (I had AQ high) then the river completed the flush draw but gave me an Ace - he checked to me and I just thought it was far too thin to value bet so checked behind and he had the flush so lost a bit there. Made some loose calls for most of the session but I sorted my play out by the end so ended on the positive side.

Thanks to postgres (this **** never gives up eh) I had to start a new database and I hadn't backed up the last one so I lost all the data (guess I can view it as a new start).



BR: $32.88

gl OP. I just wonder why are you gonna play FR up to 10NL and then move to 6-max?

I just prefer FR at NL2 - I'll be moving to 6-max when I move up to NL5 - I feel my game is already more adapted to 6-max but I have a personal preference for FR at NL2.

SESSION 6

Had an awful session - ended it early because I was getting nothing and had just lost a big pot to a fish (god he tilted me). I'm not catching any cards at the moment (before the last two sessions my graphs were normally just filled of showdown but now it's all non-showdown which is obviously creating a lot more ups and downs. My biggest hate at the moment is everytime I get AA or KK I'm getting no action (I'm not a nit, just no one else seems to have hands when I do unfortunately) but I'm getting a lot of heat everytime I have a marginal hand.



Although it's far too early to have any idea if I'm running bad, playing bad etc I'm going to review some hands tomorrow before I begin just to see if I'm happy with how I'm playing. For anyone that has done the NL2 grind, what would be your advice about marginal holdings? Do you just try to avoid them and win all the big pots?

Had one funny hand where I had TT on the button - I raised 3x, SB 3bet, BB called so I had good pot odds to call and set-mine. Flop came J 9 6 r, both checked so I thought my hand was good - I bet and SB shoved, BB called so I thought this was an easy muck. SB turns over KQd and BB turns over AKs - could of won a huge pot but obviously it's an easy fold everytime.

SESSION 8

Had another awful start to this session and it wasn't looking promising for a while. At first I was calling too loose and made a terrible read on a fish that cost me a bit, then for over 300 hands literally nothing happened. Most of the time I would open the pot and take it down there, all my tables were just filled with nits so as you can see on the graph it just stays basically level for so long then the action picked up and I got some hands and made some good reads to maximise my profit - could of been up a lot more if I hadn't played so poorly at the start of the session. Unfortunately, the last hand didn't go to plan - I had TPTK and I put him on a flush draw, I gave him an awful price to draw on both the flop and turn - flush hit on the river and he lead out so was an easy fold.



There were two hands (I think they were my two huge winnings hands) where both times I hit the flop huge and felt like I had been out-drawn on the turn/river. The first time I had a set of 2s - then a flush hits the board on the turn and the villain min-raises me. At this point, I'm so certain he has a flush and everything in my body is telling me to fold but I did have a note on him that he stacked off with TT with 2 overs on the flop once and that he seemed generally spewy so I made a crying call mainly hoping for the board to pair on the river. River was a blank so I checked to him and he went AI - by this point he only had $0.30 behind so I had priced myself in - if I was up against a reg I would definitely of layed this down on the turn but I thought this villain was definitely capable of pulling this bluff off - in the end I was correct.

The second one I had 88 and opened from UTG+2 and got one call from UTG+3. This guy is a huge nit - I have around 200 hands on him and he's running 8/2/5.5 so I'm quite scared by his call. Flop comes 9s 7s 6d which is a great flop for my hand so I continuation bet and he min-raises me - not sure if he'd do this on a semi-bluff so maybe he's protecting his hand as it's a draw heavy board. Turn comes 5s which is a great and bad card for me, if he was semi-bluffing then I'm in big trouble but the only suited hand I can put him on is AKs, AQs, KQs but not much else as he's definitely not playing suited connectors and I doubt he's even playing AJs, A10s etc with a VPIP of 8. I call and see what the river brings, river is another awful card as it pairs the board so if he had a set he's now ahead. He overbets putting me AI, I tank for ages - using all of my time bank and I definitely don't think he has a flush because his range is so tight, he might have a full house but according to pokerstove 8% wouldn't play anything less than 88. In the end I reckon he value bets if he has a full house to get value off flush and straights, I had a feeling he might be using his image to win him the pot so I make a crying call and he has AA. Not sure if he was going for value or if he turned his hand into a bluff, either way he played it very peculiar.

Just finished 567th out of 9133 in the $2.20 Turbo $14K GTD tournament - was going to avoid tournaments but the low buy-in, huge prize pool reeled me in. Pretty standard play though, was just a shove fest and I picked up my fair share of cards. In the end I got knocked out by aces, I was in BB and BTN min-raised me - I had 99 so was a pretty standard shove especially since I was becoming short-stacked.

SESSION 9

Decided to take a stab at NL5 (I know - I'm a sucker for BRM) because NL2 is destroying me soul. Had a great session, there was one or two fish but mostly I was up against the same 3 regs in all my tables (decided to only 4-table so I could concentrate on my play more) so I was normally tangling with them a lot. I ended up just under a BI and had no huge hands - all were accumulated through non-showdown winnings.



I made one bad move where I should of just gave up but other than that I was happy with my play and my reads. Definitely enjoyed the poker a lot more in NL5 than NL2, NL2 is so repetitive and boring imo. Just got to wait until you hit big to get any value whereas in NL5 the play is a lot more creative. If I lose 1 or 2 BI's I'll definitely drop down but hopefully I should be able to deposit some more money after new yer.

Running like absolute **** at the moment, cooler after cooler. Not playing great either, suffering from tilt too much but everytime I build my bankroll back up to what it was then I suffer another beat.

Just lost a huge pot to a fish at NL5 - I have KQo but he unfortunately has position on me. Flop comes 4 7 2 (2 diamonds), I cbet and he calls. Turn comes a Q (I'm almost absolutely certain that I have him beat here) but I check because I know he will barrel again - he does and I raise to try get max. value out of him. He tanks a little then calls (he only has about 1.50 left behind at this point), although he's a bit fishy I'm sure he has a draw at this point so I'm putting him on a flush draw. River brings another 4 - what I think is a blank. I lead out to put him all in, he calls and turns over 94dd. At least if there was a diamond I might of been able to get away from it but a 4 I could never put him on.

Another hand I mis-played slightly cost me, BTN limps and I'm in the SB and I raise. BB calls and BTN shoves (he's very shortstacked), I call with 88 (I should of re-shoved as I'm pretty sure I'm ahead of BB's range as well), BB calls too and the flop is T high so I cbet (dry flop), BB shoves over me so I have to fold. Turns over K10, couldn't believe it - who calls a 3bet 3 way with K10? Played it badly. Lost another pot with JJ against AA with a 9 high board. My graph is not looking impressive at NL5 - it's going to be a long grind back up. I don't think I'm really get outplayed but just mis-playing in some crucial spots and running pretty awful too, also I never seem to get action when I have a monster so going to try and mix my play up a bit.

ill be following, playin almost same stakes myself gl!

Great thread, maybe I can learn from it a little. I started at 2nl too if you'd like to check out my challenge thread, I'm having a little bit of trouble at the moment lol.

All I can say is, although it is good that you are dabbling in the 5nl tables, with such a low BR I wouldn't play it too much until you have a comfortable 30~40 Buy ins for 2nl, then I'd move up, but thats just me

Ill keep an eye out for you and if I see you on the tables ill steer clear looks like your turning into a solid player.

Good luck!

Nice thread Good Luck ...Im almost at the same position as you.Why not follow me?whats your BR @?

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