Was gonna write a background history about beginning poker a year or 2 ago and getting burnt out trying to reach gold star but there's nothing of much substance in that...

This is just a personal blog as I, like many others here feel that throwing the gauntlet down and writing about it might help them stick at it and improve. Intend to set myself long-term and shorter-term goals in hope of moving forward both in poker and in life. (perpetual procrastinator) I generally need to become a more motivated and determined person and hope this venture will contribute to that.

We'll pretty much be starting from the bottom here at 2NL and working up. With the idea being to make regular reading and study become a habit, aswell as improving math skills. The blog itself will likely contain the days progress, some hand histories and anything interesting I've read or thought about. Everyone is welcome to comment of course, though it will probably be more tailored for people at my level or with similar goals. All advice is appreciated.

Would like to update it daily if possible but you never know.

Here we go!

So this hand happened earlier today;


UTG: 100.5 BB (VPIP: 15.28, PFR: 8.80, 3Bet Preflop: 7.23, Hands: 220)
MP: 104 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
CO: 43.5 BB (VPIP: 29.68, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 160)
BTN: 111 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 20.29, 3Bet Preflop: 9.68, Hands: 70)
SB: 107 BB (VPIP: 24.39, PFR: 17.07, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 41)
Hero (BB): 139.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 2 3

fold, MP raises to 3 BB, CO calls 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (9.5 BB, 3 players) 4 5 J
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets 3 BB, Hero raises to 14 BB, MP calls 14 BB, fold

Turn: (40.5 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 23 BB, MP calls 23 BB

River: (86.5 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 99.5 BB and is all-in, MP calls 64 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 2 3 (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 17%, Flop 42%, Turn 5%)
MP shows 5 5 (Full House, Fives full of Jacks)
(Pre 83%, Flop 58%, Turn 95%)
MP wins 207 BB

At the time:

I was thinking, ok I'll just complete in the BB and see where we go from there..

On the flop when the PFR checks I assume he likely missed with some kinda KQ, AT or has some PP lower than a J, 66-88. The CO leads quite small so I'm thinking he either has a weak J or is just trying to steal the pot. with my open ended straight flush draw I go for the raise and surprisingly get a call from the PFR. CO folds.
I'm not quite sure what to think here.. Id assume he would bet a J on the flop.

Turn comes another J and I'm not feeling too bad because that makes him less likely to have a J himself, unless he was wanting to keep the pot small on the flop with a weak J. Anyway I decide to bet again, a little over half pot with my draw and he calls again.
Here on the turn I don't expect him to fold pretty much any J but If i check and he bets I don't really wanna fold my draw.

The river comes an off-suit 7 and my draw misses. The pot is pretty big (85bb) and his stack is about 2/3 pot. Anyway I shove all in. I don't really know what I'm expecting to happen at this time.. If he has a flushdraw he might fold and on the off-chance he somehow has 99 or TT or something, he might fold those also? And he'll call with any J in which case I still have outs.
Anyway he calls and show me the full-house.

For some reason I wasn't even considering 44 or 55.

In hindsight:

*Preflop I probably should have squeezed or folded. The PFR and CO would likely have both folded and this disaster would have been avoided.

*I can also note that he didn't cbet and slowplayed middle set on what, to me, is a draw heavy board.

*can also probably rule out him having a flushdraw and calling on the flop as he would probably bet those himself.

*On the turn when the board pairs should I have slowed down and gave up when he inevitably bet? or should I bet again and give up on the river. Probably the former.

All in all, to me it was a pretty exciting hand.

Today started with a short break-even session. Decided I would study a little and go back to square one where I began.. Re-read through 2/3 of Harrington on Online Cash-Games and took some notes where necessary.

I think in my 2+ year hiatus from playing I've become sloppy and simply wanna play too many hands.. or play too many hands passively.
"Hell I'm in the BB with J8s facing a raise and a call infront of me.. Let's just call behind and see the flop"; then end up with K82 rainbow and wanna call again with my weak 2nd pair hoping to hit or them to slow down.. or to somehow have the best hand..
Somehow I've become the fish ... Granted I'm not playing 50/4 or something ridiculous.. more like 25/12.

Anyway from today's reading I think I can take this away from it;

At the lowest of the micros where I currently reside, I need to concentrate mostly on offensive poker. I find myself trying to emulate streamers and overthink situations postflop. Of course, I am not at their level of analysis or logic, but I think I still try to level myself too much thinking, "But if I raise with the 2nd or 3rd nuts, won't he only call or shove with better?" I feel like this is my downfall at the moment. Playing too passively with speculative hands, and not wanting to go to the mat with the best of my hands, and giving too much credit to my opponents.

So from here I am going to tighten up my range a lot and be much more aggressive preflop. With a tighter range I should also be able to continue this aggression in later streets as most of my hands will be stronger.

AFK all day tomorrow so no poker but would like to take a look at some distribution and how the board effects a players hand strength given their position, their action and their stats.

Had an annoyingly busy week which is unusual because I usually have nothing but free time. had a short 3 hour session yesterday and tried to implement what I learned last week. Tightened up range and played more aggressive preflop. Always trying to be the aggressor post flop.

Finished a 3 hour session up about 5 buyins. Had a few donations but also got my hold on for once when I needed it. not a lot of interesting hands.
Fingers crossed today goes in a similar direction.

Just finished 6 hour session for today.. Another 3000 hands. Up about 4.5 buyins.
After the first hour or two I was up about 3 buy-ins, probably closer to 4 and found that I started to loosen up and call more preflop- both in and out of position. Playing more suited aces and electing to call more instead of raising. Ended up losing about 5 buy-ins; a lot of it due to just leaking money and call call calling. Decided to take a break for an hour or so and come back fresh. Immediately tightened up and began raising much more preflop again, much to my success. Intended to add in 2 hours of study today but its looking unlikely. Don't wanna be dedicating all my time to playing. Need to focus on learning and growing but atleast the bankroll is increasing.

Intend to get to 40 buy-ins at 2NL and then move up to 5NL. Looking to do that somewhere between early and mid August. Most likely mid. Also want to increase amount of tables slowly.
Have been keeping a session spreadsheet outlining date/stake/tables/hours/hands etc and will post soon when there are enough inputs for it to be worthwhile.



All in all, only managed to play 11 hours in the last 3 days. Kinda disappointing but its looking up from last weeks disruption. Hopefully put in 30 hours total by the end of the week.

Peace

Also this hand happened:

PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 188 BB (VPIP: 58.00, PFR: 34.00, 3Bet Preflop: 19.05, Hands: 52)
UTG: 17 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 5.41, Hands: 70)
MP: 100 BB (VPIP: 28.78, PFR: 17.99, 3Bet Preflop: 3.77, Hands: 283)
CO: 112 BB (VPIP: 18.52, PFR: 14.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 27)
BTN: 133 BB (VPIP: 21.70, PFR: 14.15, 3Bet Preflop: 5.41, Hands: 108)
Hero (SB): 119 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 6

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, Hero calls 2 BB, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (7.5 BB, 3 players) 7 5 4
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 4.5 BB, Hero raises to 15 BB, fold, BTN calls 10.5 BB

Turn: (37.5 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero bets 23 BB, BTN calls 23 BB

River: (83.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 78.5 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 78.5 BB

Hero shows 6 6 (Straight, Seven High)
(Pre 20%, Flop 41%, Turn 23%)
BTN shows A A (Straight, Five High)
(Pre 80%, Flop 59%, Turn 77%)
Hero wins 232 BB


not quite sure what to think of it at this point.

I feel like if I wanted to play the hand I should have 3bet pre.. tho in this case I would have ended up getting 4bet and folded..
Nice run out tho...

GLGL dude!

How are you finding trying to be more motivated? I feel like I was in a similar spot to you having an extended break from taking poker semi-seriously. I think having a blog to force you into it helps once you've gotten into the habit of posting in it regularly.

Are you playing all normal tables and what sort of volume are you currently hitting/working towards hitting per week?

Thanks man!

Well, for years I was heavily into esports.. playing 10 hours + a day trying to be the best. Somewhere in the last 3 years though I started drinking and it eventually became excessive.. During this time I started poker.. Took it very serious for a few months.. few $10 deposits until I started winning. made it to 5NL and finally 10NL with probably a +1k graph. Near the end of the month I was a decent bit off gold star and decided I'd do a 30 hour session to get it (moron).. Ended up losing about 8 buyins or something and thought I'd take a break for a day or two.. turned out to be months.. so.. I guess you could call it a successful grind lol..

Only played on and off over the following months while making withdrawls and ended up with hardly anything left in the account. Though I stopped playing poker I continued to watch it, streams, youtube etc but if I played again I didn't wanna do it half assed.. 1 hour here, half hour there.. Just seemed too recreational to bother.

the present
Motivation wise, I recently watched one of Joeys podcasts with Bill Perkins on it and just by chance he mentioned a documentary called "The great porn experiment." Gave it a watch and decided I'd try to kick all addictions. The start of this blog marks that for me. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no... masturbation? Gonna go head first into a healthy lifestyle and see where it gets me, and with that I'm going back to something I enjoyed; poker.

Currently I'm playing 6-max cash-games at 2nl.
As for volume, I'd love to be hitting 8-10 hour days but work makes it difficult. I've introduced goal setting into my life in general hoping to make each day more productive, so for poker I'd like to start by hitting 4 hours a day + 1 hour study. Playing 6 tables currently, should up it to 8-12 in the next week or so.

They say when you lose your excuses you find your results.. Lets give it a shot!

Actually pretty creeped out at how similar our stories are, although I've never attempted the famous 30 hour grind!

I've been listening to Joeys podcasts during my sessions for the last few weeks and have been listening to the Perkins ones recently and I don't know whether it's what he says or the life he leads (probably a bit of both) but it sort awoke an ambition in me to be better at whatever I'm doing.

Gl go crush it!


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Yeah! The guy is just high on life! I think he pretty much reiterates what everyone already knows,, if you want to be successful at something you need to dedicate your life to it.. "I'm going to redefine what it means to sweep the floor!" or just that fact that you know something is wrong and do it anyway. (in poker or in life)
Words of wisdom from Bill Perkins.. Does this mean If I ever become successful I have to dedicate it to him? :@

anyway GL man and hopefully I'll see you at the tables one day!

100%, if you make it 100nl Bill Perkins tattoo!

I've got a similar thread if you want to hop on there, might be helpful to stop each other getting out of line once that initial motivation surge wears off


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Haha! gotta be done! Should get him to prop bet me; if I reach 100nl in 6 months, 40k. Else I'll get the tattoo!

Alright, for sure man, I'll definitely drop by!

If I get to 100nl by the end of 2017 I will commit to the Bill Perkins face tattoo! Not sure how that motivates me to actually follow through with it but we'll see!


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Alright just logged another 5 hour session with 3k hands. Very swingy day.. But we end up in the positive up just over a buyin... I'll take it.

Had some success today growing some balls and triple barreling with TpTk type hands on dry run-outs.. or sets on a 4 straight board but knowing it wasn't in his range. I usually get it into my head that if I bet and get raised, I'm probably folding.. Or If I bet and get called I'm likely behind.. but in some of these situations there's just too high a probability I'm in front so today I decided I'd bet.. Ended up getting called with worse 2nd pairs or getting folds so pretty successful day even if the bankroll doesn't show it.

On a side note, getting pretty addicted to using my VPP's on The Deal. Fun stuff.

OK just starting todays session.

The goal today is to tag as many hands as possible for review later. Any spots where I was even slightly confused or did something I think could have been avoided I will tag.

Hand review was always a weakness of mine.. Infact even when play 8-10 hours a day for a few months I can't remember tagging a single hand.. I always seemed to be winning steadily at 2nl and his 5nl cousin and it was a case of "if it ain't broken don't fix it." Trying to be more studious this time round so, leggo!

**Random Thoughts**

*What should I do with pocket pairs on the button facing an open raise? call and set mine? 3bet? only 3bet later position opens? What should I do with a hand like ATo? JTs?

*If I open the button with a connector, suited or unsuited and get 3bet by a super tight player in the blinds; should I just fold? or call and know that if I hit the flop hard I'll have super good implied odds?

At the micros you can probably peel most PP's from the button, you have position so if you do make a set you have control over getting money in the pot and people at the micros often get a bit too attached to their single pair hands. Always pay attention to the blinds though, if you've got a couple regs both 3betting 15% then flatting is obviously not great as a lot of the time you wont get to see a flop to set mine.

As for JTs I would be peeling the button with that + some other suited connectors (QJ/T9/98), with ATo it depends what you think UTG is doing, if he's super tight and only opening 88+, AT+, KQ (8%) for example then you're not going to be in great shape vs that with ATo (35% equity), but if he's opening all suited broadways, 22+, ATo+, KJ+, QJo (15%) then you're are more respectable 44% equity vs that, including a lot of 22-77 in his range that he'll struggle with on any flop he doesn't make a set on.

As for the calling 3bets with connectors I'm not sure with 100bb stacks so I won't just make some **** up. But as you get deeper (150bb+) I'm calling with more of the suited stuff just because the implied odds become bigger when there's more stack to be won.

Thanks for the input Toady! Appreciated

OK So played about 4.5 hours day.. Another 2.5k hands. Up 9 buy-ins. Pretty successful so far.

Gonna take a break of an hour or two to regain composure and hopefully grind another 1-2k hands later tonight. No promises tho.

I'm finding that I call too much and fold too much.. Seems paradoxical but it just comes down to the spots I'm in. I think i fold too many flops when I'm likely ahead and call too many rivers when I'm probably behind.
Something to work on!

Ok broskis.. pretty successful day again.. Pretty good week in general..
Up 25 Buy-ins this week I think.. Up about 7 Buy-ins today..
Logging about 3k hands a day which is on target.
Lots of hands tagged, gonna try to review them tomorrow.. Big task. Lots of hands. Wish me luck.

Pretty successful day yesterday, increased my total amount studied by 100%

Time for an update.. I'd be updating more often but theres not alot of substance other than "won another stack today huhu"

Been trying to get in hours whenever I can.. work and gf taking up a lot of my time but meh. excuses.

Started reading through each of the articles on here: https://dwarrior.wordpress.com/22-poker-anthology/ which is basically an archive of useful material on 2+2 for beginners/ssnl players to study. Granted a lot of the posts are from back in 06 but fundamentals are fundamentals. So far I've gained some knowledge and thats all that matters.

From starting this blog I've played 51:27 hrs 29,160 hands with $77.67 profit (or 38 buyins) I'm pretty happy so far. Most of my sessions have been pretty short, sub 3 hours so want to increase that over the coming days/weeks and put in more volume.

Graph for this month looks like this:


Not quite sure what to make of the red line..

That'll do for now. pz.

obligatory end of month graph

Aubergine Emoji, Water Splash Emoji


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Graph for this month so far



winning at 7.5bb/100 over a 17k sample..
Only just over a week in and we're up 12 buyins or so.. If we keep going around this rate we should be able to move up to 5nl by the end of the month or there abouts. considering taking a shot around $150 or so, so 30 buyins instead of the planned 40 but we'll see how we're running when the time comes.