Hi,

This is my blog for my poker journey from 2017 onwards.

I'm 20 years old and this is my blog about my poker journey in 2017.

I have dabbled with poker since I was 18 but have been very inconsistent at tracking results, analysing my play, planning for the future and have never really treated poker entirely seriously. Right now I see myself as one of those fairly outgoing poker jargon nerds that understands the language of poker but has nothing to show for it. I know that I annoy people when i'm in a conversation about poker, it is laughable. But WTH, it's what I enjoy and nobody can take that away from me. I've logged way to many hours on YouTube learning from and laughing about the poker culture thanks to DougPolk/JoeIngram1/JaimeStaples/TonkaP etc. but the thing is, I don't want to just be a fan of the game anymore.

Currently, I am an undergraduate studying Sport Psychology & Coaching Sciences which should be self explanatory- I enjoy studying how people behave and think, they're interesting. I'm in my 2nd year of a 4 year course and I'll be going on placement next year, probably somewhere associated with mental health. If I plan on devoting a large proportion of my adult life supporting others, I think it's important to have selfish goals and I can't think of anything more selfish than poker. To say I thought about my career prior to poker would really be BS, but I do think that balance is important between serving others and doing things you enjoy, which is probably why I've delayed committing to poker.

Last year I took a shot at micro MTT's using some of my student loan/grant and made a handful of deep runs but rarely converted. Getting bombed out of tournaments late at night (early morning) ruined me, my diet sucked, I had no social life and when I lost I hated myself. I was barely even getting anything from the game I had put SO much time into.

I have studied a considerable amount over the past 4 months and enjoy seeing the game differently as I carry on developing. Coming into the new year I was pretty sure that cash games, my least favourite variation, was probably the only way forward if I was going to have a healthy sustainable relationship with poker, so here I am!

People seem to think that "poker is dead" and "anything past 10NL is unbeatable! The climate of poker is just different now, everyone's a 27 year old wizard." Another thing I hear people saying is "I am gutted that I wasn't born 5 years ago, I would be so rich" Well... honestly I think these people are just losers and I include myself in that group in times where I've chosen self-pity after losing over a more strategic review.

Although poker is getting harder and I may be unsuccessful I at least want to try. I just don't want to be that guy that said he didn't ever give up, but actually never tried. If I spend the rest of my adult life playing Live Cash as a part-time hobby then so be it, but first I want to get one of those sexy steep online graphs while it's still possible.

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I'm probably not going to post many hands in here or strategy talk but focus more on how I'm feeling about how I'm playing and my thoughts so that it might be a little interesting? I also won't post an updated graph for all of my sessions but I will if I have time.

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Poker Goals for 2017:

[] 05NL ZOOM 01/03/17
[] 10NL ZOOM 01/05/17
[] 16NL ZOOM 01/07/17
[] 25NL ZOOM 01/09/17
[] 50NL ZOOM 01/11/17
[] $5K

[] Weekly 4Hrs Study
[] Weekly x1 Blog Post

Session 01

A short session, I'm just glad to have started my blog, deciding when the best time is to review my hands from the session because at the end I just feel exhausted, maybe 30 mins before I start my next session will be a good idea.

If I had to be honest, I think that my knowledge of the game is probably something like 5/10 and my application of that knowledge is close to 3/10 so I know I could do better, it's just about dedicating that time to actually reviewing good and bad hands- something I have not previously done.

Excited but knowing this motivated/inspired phase will soon pass.

gl! what's your bankroll strategy?

hey, thanks!

As 2NL is the easiest stake I am a little looser with my BRM ~ I feel comfortable with 40 Buy Ins ($80) and if I drop then I drop! If I get to 30BIs for the next stake then I'll start shot-taking.
30BIs (1 BI / 1 Table)
40BIs (2 BIs / 1 Table)
50BIs (3 BIs / 2 Tables)
60BIs+ (4 BIs / 2 Tables) until i'm comfortable beating the stake
I actually have no idea whether this is a waste of time but I guess it's better to have some sort of system than none to maintain some kind of BRM, lol?

I have seen a 20-40 buy in recommendation before but would rather know I am crushing a stake first before moving up, I understand this may hold me back concerning my goals, but I think I play a lot worse when i'm thinking about the money so need that safety to play better!

Session 02

Having looked back at my previous session, I think I am trying to play too many hands too quickly and am really not focusing so I am going to restart the challenge and remove the goal of 1M hands~ I think this goal would be good for somebody already a profitable cash game player aiming to make a living but that is not my goal.

I still have over 30 days to reach 5NL so I should really be taking my time at this point.

Session 3

Playing very differently today, I am pretty sure I need to stop cbetting and barreling with supposed equity as I'm just getting called down all day. Need to up my aggression preflop, and stop calling IP so wide, maybe this will reduce my red line.

Going to update the graph maybe once every 5 sessions or so as it takes up a lot of spaces and I don't need to be posting it every day.

At first I thought playing for the lowest stakes consistently would be demoralising but i'm definitely getting a kick out of winning pots, I wonder how long that will last.

Session 4

Short Session just now, probably going to try and get a minimum of 2k hands in everyday and play a higher volume on the weekends.

Clearly doing something wrong but can't quite put my finger on it, I think it partly may be from chasing with OESDs & FDs, 2NL pool very defensive when draws hit so when I did hit i'm not getting paid.

After having played tournaments for the majority of last year, i'm sure I need to be kicking some habits out.

Graph up with analysis post-Session 5.

Session 5 - Update 1

Graph 1


Report 1


Had an absolute blunder with the preflop nuts (I don't want to talk about it haha). Felt good to be able to come back from losing two big pots and not tilt so hard!

Is it me or is my graph ridiculously slow? In ZOOM poker are you supposed to make most of your $ from rake back or am I just playing terribly? I'm actually not sure how ZOOM BB/100 compares to normal tables but I can't help but feel like ZOOM is just like playing a tighter, more difficult game for the sake of +hands- I really would prefer to play standard tables at this point, at least then you can build history and exploit people much faster..

I have played for almost 20 hours now and to be honest I have had to make and am still making adjustments away from tournament poker. I.e. betting big with TPTK is over committing so I need to tone bet sizing down with 1 pair. It feels like everybody is only playing the nuts but also I am seeing a lot of 88/99/TT call me 3 streets on various J-high and Q-high flops.

I could review my progress now but I am tired and have to prepare for tomorrow as I am moving back to uni. Before session 6 (likely Monday) I will definitely be looking into my stats and specific hands and post my analysis here.

Review 1

It's hard to properly identify leaks from approx 2k hands from each position where the data will be skewed from anomalies (200BB+ pots) but I'm pretty sure I know a few spots where I'm a nit doing great in

Interesting Points

-I'm profitable in all positions besides the blinds
-my cbet frequencies are consistently low
-vpip/for/3bet stats look okay (to me) although I think I am playing too wide in the blinds, getting called by tight ranges and then losing a bunch to better hands

Plan

- Focus on studying and sessions on blind play, especially the ranges I should be using
-learn about 3bet pots a little more, especially when I flat as I'm not sure what should be in my range
-Start following through with bluffs as opposed to cbetting and giving up, I think this is one thing affecting my red line
-I have a tonne of offsuit broadway cards I don't know how to play from CO/BTN,BB should I be 3betting, with which, and there are just so many, how do I decide?!

Interesting Hands

AQ on AKQ 3-way in a 3bet pot
I am not sure if I played this hand too nitty but I did not know what was calling me if I lead flop or turn besides from Jx and Tx with a spade OR AK/JT which crush me. I think the flop check is reasonable as to not bloat the pot. The turn action I am still unsure whether betting is better than checking. I know that I probably have the best hand besides from JT slowplayed, but should I check to induce and bet river to get value from Ax/Kx, not sure...



turned the nut straight in a 3bet pot oop, but the river pairs the board. Unsure whether I should be jamming to polarize our hand to a boat or missed flushdraw or check/folding. I cannot see villain betting river without a boat, I think villain has something close to TT+ AQ+ and in which case they have more boats than me but am I lose value from Ax like AK because it always checks back? I have blockers to KK and JJ which check back which is why I think check/folding might actually be the best play. I just figure that even AK ****s themselves when the Q hits the river. (at 2NL)


Leading turned trips but folding river to a big raise. I'm not sure I should even be leading at these stakes or at all. I guess villain will continue to bet with top pair and overpairs, in which case I should either lead river or check/raise river. I feel like leading river for 80% pot or so would be good as overpairs may only go for 2 streets of value.


Final Thoughts

I've got a bunch of notes on strategy videos from over the past couple years just sitting on an excel sheet, is this just useless crap/how are other people keeping strategy info?

I'm not exactly beating the stake right now but it doesn't matter so much, As I've been experimenting with some different strategies, using different bet sizing and overall just learning cash game poker. Albeit there are leaks in my game but I am of some of the more important inflection points, so there are positives to be taken

I've put in a decent amount of hrs this past week, but I'm wondering how this will be possible with uni from next week and not being able to put in as much volume might get to me.