Okay today was a test.

The residual tilt from earlier in the week came back for me & I was bleeding $'s. I actually started to lose my motivation and started questioning whether everything up to now was just run good. Luckily we managed to pull ourselves away, refocus, move down to 2nl and build a bit of confidence and ended the day up about $16.

Planned a 15k hand weekend, actually hit 5.3k today so we're well on the way. Hopefully the run bad is behind us, but either way I'm feeling better equipped to deal with it than I have been in the past.

LEGGO.

Gl mate no matter what the results you should be proud of your work ethic, that is some serious volume

Thanks man! I've got a history of sinking unknown amounts of hours on weekends into video games so just replacing most of that with poker keeps it feeling like a game and not a grind. You've just got to enjoy the process and try to separate that from the results as much as you can.

Harnessing all my willpower and discipline to not splash around in micromillions sats today. Give me your energy 2+2.

Pretty much a breakeven weekend.

Have a decent amount of hands to review over the next few days. Was going to up my weekly volume goal from 15k to 20k but I've had a bit of a U-turn and decided to focus on just playing two tables of zoom instead of three and working on my decisions rather than just trying to mindlessly grind.

Hopefully we can pick up a bit of a hot streak this week, need to get back into the swing of things and settle back down after 3 days out of my routine. Review 10 hands tomorrow, read/recap what I got to in the grinders manual.

Best U-turn ever

Hi there wanna exchange Skype or make a group or smth to discuss hands and discuss grinding through the micros?

Thanks. Dropping a table and working on actually being present and focused while playing really helped me play consistently over the weekend, hopefully the results will follow.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($5.51)
SB ($5.32)
BB ($20.73)
UTG ($9.83)
Hero (MP) ($7.60)
CO ($4.59)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 4, 4
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, Button calls $0.15, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.37) 4, 5, J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.20, Button calls $0.20

Turn: ($0.77) K (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, Button calls $0.50

River: ($1.77) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $1.28, Hero calls $1.28

Total pot: $4.33 | Rake: $0.18

Vs a 28/19 likely weak reg 3betting ~10% on the button (So assuming he doesn't often have AQ/JJ/KK/TT). Does the average villain have enough bluffs/value bets with two pair for us to call here?

Looks fine although I fold pre. Pretty sure we have had that discussion before.

I feel like I couldn't buy a winning session at the minute. The frustration is real.

Okay slightly more upbeat update today.
Managed to have a 3BI winning session today at 5nlz which has raised confidence/morale a reasonable amount.

Impressed that my motivation has stayed on track regardless of results, sure I've been salty for half an hour after a bad session but the next day I keep coming back keen to talk about poker which then gets me keen to play poker, so it's a pretty nice cycle to be in.

Downloaded Fedor's Primed Mind app earlier and started the determination course, don't really have anything profound to say about it. Session 1 felt like it helped get me in the right frame of mind to be productive but it wasn't some sort of lifehack that turned me into a boss. Maybe they're saving that for session 2.

Absolutely shattered though, should have probably gone to bed a couple hours ago. Back at it again tomorrow.

Another reasonable winning day today, nice bit of reassurance that I am beating these bloody games.

The Good
PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($7.04)
SB ($5)
Hero (BB) ($12.37)
UTG ($5.18)
MP ($4.65)
CO ($5.31)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
1 fold, MP raises to $0.15, CO calls $0.15, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.47) 6, 10, 9 (3 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $0.15, CO calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.80, MP calls $0.65, CO raises to $5.16 (All-In), Hero raises to $12.22 (All-In), MP calls $3.70 (All-In)

Turn: ($15.29) 2 (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($15.29) 7 (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: $15.29 | Rake: $0.63

Results:


The Bad
PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($5.05)
SB ($5.84)
Hero (BB) ($13.34)
UTG ($6.20)
MP ($6.64)
CO ($1.96)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
1 fold, MP raises to $0.15, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.50, MP calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.02) 7, Q, K (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, MP calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.22) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.30, MP raises to $3.60, Hero raises to $12.24 (All-In), MP calls $1.94 (All-In)

River: ($13.30) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $13.30 | Rake: $0.55

Results:

The Ugly
PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

Hero (Button) ($9.74)
SB ($6.58)
BB ($5.04)
UTG ($2.85)
MP ($4)
CO ($5.25)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 6
1 fold, MP raises to $0.15, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.15, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.37) 4, 3, 4 (2 players)
MP bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20

Turn: ($0.77) 6 (2 players)
MP bets $0.35, Hero calls $0.35

River: ($1.47) A (2 players)
MP bets $0.70, Hero calls $0.70

Total pot: $2.87 | Rake: $0.12

Results:

Really should have raised turn to avoid rivers like this that kill my action. Villain seemed weak (small sample but that + short stack) but I don't think he's folding overpairs to a turn raise but is far more likely to let it go on this particular river. Probably still could have raised river but I'd (probably incorrectly) narrowed him down to mainly PP's that would likely fold to a shove on river (possibly also incorrect) or be Aces full. But yeah didn't raise turn, bad.

Went on a bit of a hand marking spree for the first hour of my session so have ~9/10 to go through tomorrow. My marking of hands has slowed down over the last month or so, which I'm hoping is because there's less spots where I feel lost. But really trying to be picky now and marking anywhere there's the slightest bit of doubt about the right choice.

I am slightly concerned about my lack of volume since dropping to two tables. But I have noticed a lot of wasted time between when I'm free to play poker and actually playing poker, so if I can be more efficient with that then I can keep focusing on less tables without it being as big a dent in my volume.

Id flat 99 pre. QQ I'd add one more BB pre but yeah, gross. 66, yes, raise turn, raise river. The last hand hurts to read lol. The guy should have been stacked.

Thanks!

And yeah it was filed under the ugly for a reason :'(

If you don't embrace your mistakes you don't learn... or some othermotivational speaker bull****!

----

Managed to squeeze in a really good hour session, was up pretty nicely and ran AK into 77 on a AK7 board for a pretty big pot to end up slightly above even. But actually starting to feel the benefits of my new meditation kick, tried the 'headspace' app after watching a TED talk from the founder of it. I felt it was a lot easier to just focus on poker today instead of ocassionally refreshing twitter, going on discord etc. Also I think setting a timer on your session (whether that's an end time or just a break) think really helps maintain your focus. When you sit down to grind with no specific end I feel you're obliged to do other things because there's not a specific time for them laid out in your plan. Should be back for another session this evening.

GLGL

subbed, obligatory gl

interested in doing a similar challenge

post overall graph from start?

Thanks, GL with your challenge whatever you decide to do!

Next week is a month since starting the blog (2 months since returning in general) so I'll have a big post with graphs and all that lovely stuff. In short this month hasn't been great but we started out the first month pretty hot so I can't really complain.

Rumour has it we've had three winning sessions in a row!

Starting to feel like I'm applying the stuff I've studied a lot more efficiently, mainly down to just continuing to put in those hours away from the table & also trying to be more focused and slow things down during my sessions.

The meditation thing is really growing on me as well. I noticed today I was much more focused at the table and it was a lot easier to bring myself back to the game when my mind drifted to other things.

Winning days or not, I need to keep working on my game and improving my edge. Marked 13 hands to look through before playing tomorrow, forever grinding.

Haven't updated for a few days and 2+2 seems pretty dead, update your blogs mother****ers, I need something to procrastinate with.

Weekend wasn't great, got some decent volume but was down about ~4 buy ins overall. Pretty frustrating but I don't think it's so much down to poor play, just running really meh for the last couple of weeks. That being said we can always improve and make these dry spells a little more fruitful and that's what we're trying to do.

I think break even stretches when you're trying to climb are so tough on your mental game. I guess it's pretty much down to impatience, combined with the knock on confidence that a break even stretch in the micros can cause.

Just need to keep strengthening my edge over the field, keep getting in the streets and it'll be gucci. Here's to a better week!

They told me online poker was dead.


PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com/

Button ($2.50)
SB ($6.84)
Hero (BB) ($15.53)
UTG ($10.53)
MP ($5)
CO ($8.38)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q
UTG raises to $0.10, 1 fold, CO calls $0.10, 1 fold, SB calls $0.08, Hero raises to $0.60, UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($1.40) Q, 5, A (2 players)
Hero bets $0.80, UTG calls $0.80

Turn: ($3) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.20, UTG calls $2.20

River: ($7.40) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $7.10, UTG calls $6.93 (All-In)

Total pot: $21.26 | Rake: $0.88

Results:

Feeling really quite confident in my game lately. The only depressing issue is having to keep grinding up the roll at 5nl, but I'm past doubting whether I'm a winner or not so that's always good. I've noticed I haven't marked any hands for a while, not sure whether that's been negligence or not finding myself in as many confusing spots but it's something I'll keep an eye out for. Gonna try to really kick up the hours in the lab as we get nearer to taking some 10nl shots just to give ourselves the best possible chance of making it stick up there so lets go.

I believe Friday marks the 1 month birthday for the blog so will hit you up with some graphs and next months goals this Friday.

lets go McToady show em what u made of !!!

Quick Q for any lurkers, does anyone else have any issues with stars seemingly not saving labels after a session? It's getting to the point where I feel like I'm tagging the same regs every day?

Havent noticed this myself.

Hmm weird, I think the majority are still getting saved but some seem to slip through, I'll keep my eye on it.

Okay so it's officially the 1 month anniversary of the blog (woohoo) and just over two months since we started our comeback (27th May), time for some graphs.



June Graph


Overall Graph


Was basically break even for the first 3 weeks of the month which was slightly frustrating as the bulk of my updates this month might have suggested, but this week has been pretty insane and we're up ~$70 since Monday. Pretty relieved, this update would have been quite dull if I was up $20 in the last month. But as it stands we're in a range where we can do a little shot taking at 10nl over the weekend and see where we stand after that.

As far as our initial monthly goals go:

1. Try to play 60k hands (We need another 3k in the next 3 days to hit 60k for July which should be easy enough).
2. Finish the Grinders Manual (We have 2 and a half chapters left and I think my kindle unlimited expires today so need to get working).
3. Posting hands here regularly (I haven't posted a ton for reviews on 2+2 but I did end up setting up a study group which has been pretty productive so we'll give ourselves the benefit of the doubt here).

Reflection time
Positives
- Pretty good mental game despite prolonged break-even stretch.
- Grinders Manual has strengthened my fundamentals and made me more confident my plays are correct.

Stuff to work on
- Fearing inevitable downswings when winning (and subsequently playing shorter sessions).
- Getting into sessions quicker when I'm ready to play, currently wasting time when I could be putting in more volume if I was efficient.

Monthly Goals 2.0

- Aim for 60k hands again (playing a bit slower and 2 tabling but should be able to manage it if I work on that efficiency)
- Review 30 hands (I have a folder of hands I've really looked into with Flopzilla etc which I've been slacking on, nothing done since the 21st, oops)
- Read The Mental Game of Poker, it's been sitting half read on my iPad since 2014, maybe now is the time to polish it off.

Here's to a strong August.