Really been wanting to write a bit about poker as I enjoy reading poker blogs or any type of poker/gambling related story. Especially the blogs by regular players who grind.

My name is Rob, I am a 20 year old amateur poker player and college dropout (full-time job atm). I have been playing the game for about 4-5 years, seriously for 1. As most probably were, I was a huge fish when I started playing online, with several 50$ deposits and what not. I used to think poker was unbeatable, and like most people (read:idiots) thought online was rigged and viewed it on the same level as betting the ponys at the local track.

Then I discovered 2p2. A website where a vast majority of poker players (read:degens) claim to be winning players? And some of these guys play professionally, why aren't they on TV? The coolest thing I found about this website is that it essentially is the poker community. Many top pros, whom are millionaires, post here regularly. The players the fish see on television, post here regularly amongst the low limit grinders. It's also amazing to know how many professional players there actually are in the world. There are people that I play against at 25nl who are pros, relying on this as an income, which is crazy to think about.

Among my discoveries on this site was also the fact that poker is not rigged, I just sucked. I spent a lot of my free time perusing BBV when I first found 2p2, as I was a pretty avid gamer and enjoyed the lolz. Then I realized that when people say you should spend "x" amount of time reading twoplustwo to better your game, that's not what they meant. I spent a good amount of time reading the beginners forum, the micro stakes NL forum and the theory forum. After reading these forums I realized that the amount of intelligence of these forums is pretty much unparalleled by any other forum or pocket of the internet I've ever been apart of. It amazed me how by using math you can come to a conclusion of folding/calling/raising based on my equity vs certain ranges. This is when I started to take poker more seriously and try to better my game.

As I would imagine most people did, I used to mass-multitable nanostakes. For those of you who are reading this, and find yourself playing 16-24 tables of nl2/nl5/nl10 STOP. You are moving sideways. The rakeback bar at the top of the pokerstars client is not where you want to make money playing this game. My bankroll skyrocketed as soon as I dropped my tables down to 8-10. Even though you may make more money grinding nl5 rakeback across 24 tables, as opposed to playing 8, its a bad idea. As you move up, people are better at adjusting to you, and mark you as a 24 tabling nit. My reasoning behind this is that you need to better your game. You need to learn how to adjust to people, and readjust to people when they adjust to you. I used to blindly 3bet AK, because its AK and I'm playing 24 tables. I then played 8 tables and realized that 3betting AK against a 10/8 raising UTG is not the most profitable play. You need to think while you play. Rakeback grinding = robotic = no progress.

I learned this the hard way, after playing 10s of thousands of hands of 10nl, my bankroll was pretty steady around 300 dollars. One day I decided to drop tables and actually try and actually think while I played poker. Although my rakeback bar didn't progress as quickly, my bankroll had a steady upward swing. I see people in uNL or the BQ forum complaining about the nittiness of 10nl all the time. You cant beat it because your probably a nit who isnt playing ABC yourself. Checking behind on rivers where you can valuebet is a big spot I used to miss as well, 2p2 fixed that for me.
Villian is a weak reg.



This hand is from a while ago and looking back on that hand I misplayed preflop and the flop, I still have leaks. But how many of you are checking behind on the river? Work harder! This was one of my biggest leaks and I'm very proud of my value-shove there even though I'm sure its standard for alot of you guys.

These nano-stakes can be beaten, trust me, you just need to apply yourself.

My initial deposit on pokerstars was 40$. I am now healthily approaching 2k. This is from playing part-time. I do absolutely have aspirations to play this game as a career some day. Obviously with my minute bankroll and being only 20 its not feasible right now, but I continue to grind, and keep my graph moving upwards, expecting it to get harder and harder. I am about to try and move up to NL50, and hopefully not get crushed.

I just wanted to post a little piece of my story as an inspiration for the guys who work hard on their game but stay stuck in the super-nanos, as I once was. I never recieved coaching, never read a book, just active learning. Discuss your hands, join a skype group, ask why, and most importantly think! while you play the game, it helped me. Progress is addicting. Its fun to notice myself floating a flop of J 4 9 with 77 because the guy has a cbet of 94%. Poker is more fun when you actively apply yourself

I don't know how many people care about a 25reg posting a story, I dont even know if I'm a good 25reg, but all I know is that with a little bit of workhard and a little bit of volume, you can make progress at this game. If your at a standstill just keep moving forward. I used to blame variance all the time, its an easy excuse, now I just work even harder at improving my game.

Thank you for all the help 2p2.

Raise flop.

grats on the grind OP.

nice read - keep it up rob

very inspiring man. working on my cash game too. i'm currently a losing player. i'll turn it around though if i keep putting enough into my game. thanks for the advice. i will be following for sure.

Thank you. I used to play sngs way back in the day, but cash is where you learn the most in my opinion, because there really arent any 100% standard decisions as far as being on the button with 4BB's and A7 offsuit, that type of stuff.

I really cannot stress enough that you should play no more then 12 tables.

Good luck!

What's your winrate at NL25? Just curious as you say you are moving up to NL50.

GL

Gl man. Enjoyed the read

Go Rob

Not on my computer right now but my winrate is around 2.50/bb100...
Also running about 13 buyins under in my 70k hands, so IDE estimate my true winrate is around 3...

Nice read and agree with everything u said.
Whats your stars sn?

gl!

Robfarha on stars. Have logged hands on ft under the same name

Good read and good job, im trying out cash micro limits myself atm so very inspirational gl with your further progress.

cool read man, keep up the work

GL Sub'd

Hope the move up to 50nl goes well

Out of curiousity, how did you conclude that is a value shove on the river? Would like to see the tought process. I'm guessing it ties in with cutting down on tables and engaging yourself more to adjust to villains.

Villian is a weaker reg that I've concluded plays some screwed up form of abc. I also know that I can make this play without the nuts, and have before. His thinking should be- if he had a jack, he'd bet small to induce a call. Knowing this, I bet fullpot because it's designed to look like I'm trying to steal the pot. He never checks a straight there.

My top set is way ahead of his bluffcatching range, I've also seen this guy look people up light (not a callingstation, but he can make light calls).

Simply put, I knew I had the best hand, and tried to make it look like a bluff to induce a call from a 2pair.

--obviously if I'm playing 24 tables and have 5 seconds to decide, my thought process is top set on a 4 card straight- check.

In essence losing around 7-10$ in ev ( assuming he calls there a little less then 50%)

good read, any relation to sam farha?
=p

Good post- made me reconsider my poker schedule. I primarily play SNGs along with some cash games and considering going mostly cash games (25NL and 50NL)
GL with 50NL

Nice post. I'm a 25nl reg as well but I don't think I've ever played you. Good luck at 50nl!

good read, good luck

Keep some bluffs in your range.






Ez game.

Attempting to jump to nl50 in about 30mins. Feeling pretty good about it, owned some nl25 today... Up a few BI in about 2k hands and I got coolered a few times.

Hoping this goes well. Probably giving myself a 2BI stoploss for the day.

Feeling good about this shot cause tables are fishy due to milestone/saturday.

Here we gooooooooooo

Hey great post. Enjoyed the read and liked the way you presented yourself so you didnt sound like an arrogant nit.

Good read, good player and good lucK!

Just quit my crappy job as a technician for AT&T. Gonna grind for a while till I get my head on straight.