Hello everybody, I come here with the purpose of enlightenment, progress tracking and experience exchange.

I will introduce myself...

I am newly graduated musician and piano teacher from Portugal who started playing poker some months ago (when I was still finishing the Course). I found myself deeply disappointed with the academic and professional environment in the specific location where I was studying and also with the firm conviction a lot of my colleagues have that proceeding their studies in the Education Masters (the best translation I thought of) is the ONLY future even if they don't want to do it and feel it is sucking their love for music and making music, which is at the moment an obligation imposed by the government without any kind of structural firmness and pedagogic thought.
I always regarded freedom of choice and freedom of thinking and feeling as some of the most important things we can have in life, so I didn't see myself holding almost penitently to my choice of becoming a pianist and a musician and especially a teacher, using that only as a means to get money, and I preferred to look at it as a marvelous "tool" that is capable of, not only making me able and fulfilled artistically, but also of getting money while doing so.

I am very interested in entrepreneurship and in lifestyle/well-being subjects so I thought of poker not only as game that is very fun to play with some potential of earning some money but also an activity where I could put in practice the things I learn and experiment.
The first book of poker I read was the "Theory of Poker" by D. Sklansky, It was quite enlightening and interesting and I started getting a better grip of the game and how it is so much more than just cards and bluffs.
The second was "Treat your poker like a business" by D. Schmidt and this was the real game changer because I could see clearly a guide like approach to the business quality of this game. So I kept reading more and studying business basics and stuff and elaborated my very first business plan, a formal document where I exposed the purpose, market analysis, strategy, and so on...

I got excited and went on to play with this new mindset: at first it went well, I don't have PT or HM so I learnt the basics of Excel and built myself a spreadsheet. I was starting to make some small profit but then life takes some turns and I got injured in my knee practicing my favorite sport, Judo, my life balance and discipline got a bit slacked and lazy and I stopped profiting...
I quickly forgot my business plan and mindset, my schedule, my workout routine... From the initial 50€ there are now 21€...

This post is, in a certain way, a mean to share my thoughts not only about poker and bankroll progression but also to create in me this joy of self and others acknowledgement, and to seek some feedback in a community that can really help me with my goals.

Bankroll Goals:
Get back to 50€ in late June;
Reach the 100€ Milestone (yes, it is a Milestone xD)

Strategy:
21€ - 50€: 0,25€ Sng and KO tourneys, and Freerolls.
50€ - 75€: Same but adding the 0,75€ Ko Sng's.
80€ - 100€: Cash Game Nl2, 1€ Sng's and Mtt's.

By the way, I play in Pokerstars.pt. In 2015 there was the Portuguese Black Friday, and only in late 2016 did online real money poker came back to us. At the moment only Stars as a license to operate in Portugal and with the handicap of being a closed market (we can only play with Portuguese players). I hope this is temporary and I can join most of you in the global market!

Please send some feedback and keep in touch!

Big Hugs!
Ez5betfold

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday was my first session of the challenge and...

I lost some money. I reviewed my session and found out a lot of range reading mistakes and ICM flaws.

Anyway, here goes the session breakdown:

Initial BR: 21,15 €
Freeroll: 0,09€
0,25€ KO Turbo: 0,19€
0,25€ KO Hyper: -0,25€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 20, won 3, second 4.
Net balance: -0,44

Overall balance: -0,26€
Current BR: 20,89€

Wish me luck to get the nizzles

Best regards,
Ez5betfold

Hello guys!

So, after this little session of about one hour and a half this is he breakdown and thankfully the profit:

Sng's 0,25:

Played 11, won 3, second 2.
Net balance: +0,59€

Overall balance: +0,59€
Current BR: 21,48€

Another thing! It seems that the European regulators of online gambling are reunited in Brussels discussing a possible (and it seems probable) shared market between Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, so I guess that in some time soon I won't be playing only with Portuguese people, which i think will be good for my goals.

Big hug!
Ez5betfold

Hello fellow players!

I come here with a smile on my face, another day with profit. I played mostly SnG's along with two freerolls and two KO tourneys, turbo and hyper, I ranked 11th in the turbo, which was nice, but did an unforgivable shove in the hyper that took me from 12th place to busting out two places from ITM...

Anyway here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 21,48 €
Freerolls: 0,00€
0,25€ KO Turbo: 0,49€
0,25€ KO Hyper: -0,13€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 20, won 5, second 5.
Net balance: +1,80€

Overall balance: +2,16€
Current BR: 23,64€

Best regards!

Ez5betfold

In poker a bad decision can mean alot of potential money to go down the toilet...

So today my SnG's were very bad, I felt a bit unfocused because of "a couple" of bad beats earlier in the session were enough to put me down a bit. Anyway, I played also two freerolls without any success and played 4 KO's with a final table and 8th place...

Basically I was in 3rd and decided to put almost all my chips in he middle of a three-way pot with midle pair and a backdoor straight and backdoor flush...
Actually I had about 36% equity but it was a very bad ICM move which cost me the tournament...

I have a hand I want to post to know if I can lay down my flush in that situation:

https://www.boomplayer.com/24032435_F2918D6F95


Here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 23,64 €
Freerolls: 0,00€
0,25€ KO Turbo (2): 0,70€
0,25€ KO Hyper (2): -0,50€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 15, won 1, second 4.
Net balance: -1,26€

Overall balance: -1,16€
Current BR: 22,48€

I hope this little setback is forgotten tomorrow and after I review this session I will not my idiot mistakes in order to prevent further losses like the FT one...

Best regards!

Ez5betfold

Hey!

I studied and reviewed my last session in the morning and played in the evening. I think I played pretty solid in the SnG's, however I must keep analyzing and improving my ranges.

Today I lost some money but overall I am satisfied with at least some of my play. I definitely need to 3bet bluff a bit more often, call pot bets by donks and overall be more aggressive when I don't hit anything.

Anyway, here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 22,48 €
Freerolls: 0,00€
0,25€ KO Turbo (2): -0,50€
0,25€ KO Hyper (2): -0,41€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 25, won 6, second 4.
Net balance: +0,43€

Overall balance: -0,48€
Current BR: 22,00€

Tomorrow it will be the same recipe, study in the morning and play in the evening.

See you!

Ez5betfold

Hey!

I ended up not playing on Sunday due to time lacking but managed to play about 2 hours today:

Here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 22,00 €
0,25€ KO Hyper (1): -0,25€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 22, won 5, second 5.
Net balance: +0,80€
SnG 50/50 (8-max):
Played 1.
Net balance: -0,25

Overall balance: +0,30€
Current BR: 22,30€

Cheers!

Ez5betfold

Hey!

Today I played about one and a half hours due to time lacking but I still managed to play some games and come out with profit, even though a tiny one...
In terms of gameplay I think that I did well, I've been reading some articles and watching some really interesting videos and that is really helping my game:

Here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 22,30€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 18, won 3, second 6.
Net balance: +0,60€

Overall balance: +0,60€
Current BR: 22,90€

See you!

Ez5betfold

Hey,

Can you tell me a bit about the traffic on .pt? Like are there any of the games you play that fill and run pretty consistently?

It's been over a week now, 60c profit just isn't cutting it.

So here's what I think you need to do:
-Forget about mixing up formats, playing 6 6max SnG's and 2 or 3 KO MTT's and a few 50/50's for example.
-Find what runs at those nano stakes. Whether it be Mttsng's, 6max/9max SnG's or 50/50's.
-Focus on whichever of the above it is.
-Play super tight aggressive ABC poker. At this level it will crush. Like even having a default range of 88+,AJs+ (folding all other hands) will show a massive profit.
-Idk how many tables you play but you need to play more. Add one every two days until you hit 15-20 (playing your same ABC style)
-aim for 50-100 games per day.
-stop over thinking it, the players at this level are just the worst.. really.

You can learn to play well once you have a proper bankroll.

Good luck.

Edit: Post more hands also. For the time being when ever you are unsure just fold and post the hand.

Hey DublinMeUp!

Starting from the .pt traffic:

Basically it's getting worse by the day, especially at the time I can usually play. At the reopening of the Portuguese market there was a lot of players that started playing again but soon understood that it wasn't the same, so people started to lose interest and going away from the tables. For example, in the beginning (from October, i think) there was about 2000 cash players on average, now there are about 500. So you can imagine that it is a bit dry at the moment and even in the micro-stakes there's this feel of playing against "regs" because it's almost always the same people.

Fortunately there are some news that say that an agreement will be signed between Portugal, England, Spain, Italy and France to merge markets now in June, and also rumors that Winamax is hiring Portuguese and Spanish speaking people for the support department, so I believe that it will be different and better in the future, even though it is not yet a global market.

In terms of game type I understand what you say and I am already focusing in the 6-max, both turbo and hyper since they fill a bit faster than 50/50. There are no Full Ring sng in .pt.

I am having some trouble playing more than 2 hours per day because I am not able lately to organize myself in the best of ways. This is something I have to fix quickly or I will always be short in terms of goal fulfilling.

In terms of tables, I think that I can add more but I'm not sure that I can play more than 6 at the moment, be it because of skill, be it because of screen size. But will definitely try!

Thank you very much for your comment and will try my best to improve and really crush these games because I think I really need a bigger bankroll to really start to work in my game, like you said.

Cheers!!

Ez5betfold

Stack tables, play super TAG, get yourself a good push/fold chart, add a table every few days, aim for 30-50 games a day if you don't have hours to play... Profit.

Just want to emphasize, 25c games have no regs. Nobody at the table is past level one. If you follow the above you will crush at this level.

GL man

Hey everyone!

Yesterday my pc got wrecked and I had to play in my sister's, anyway that didn't prevent me of doing a nice session with some profit.

I tried to aply DublinMeUp tips and they payed off, played a solid, TAG game and it really crushed. Thanks again

I was doing very well until a specific moment, when I made a break I came back a bit unfocused and ended up throwing away some nice profit (I was up to 3€ at the time). I will need to work on this for sure.

Here goes the breakdown, with some errors I think, because I track by hand and I think I've missed some 1st places and 2nd:

Initial BR: 22,90€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 36, won't discriminate places due to tracking errors.
SnG's 6-max 0,50€:
Played 17.
Net balance: 1,30€

Freeroll: 0,20€
Overall balance: +1,50€
Current BR: 24,40€

Cheers!

Ez5betfold

Hey!!

Finished my daily session right now and it's a Profit!!

The funny thing is that I am totaly crushing 0,50€ but I'm losing almost all 0,25€... The player pool seems the same but maybe the 0,50€ is even fishier?

Anyway here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 24,40€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 21, Won 2, Second 5
SnG's 6-max 0,50€:
Played 13, Won 2, Second 7.
Net balance: 3,50€

Overall balance: +3,50€
Current BR: 27,90€

I'm still fixing my computer but once I have it I'll start posting some hands.

See you!!

Ez5betfold

Can nearly guarantee that both 25c and 50c are as fishy as each other.

Probably just variance.

Keep at it and good job on upping the volume. Moar games needed though

Hey!!

Yesterday I had a bad session money-wise because I was a bit unfocused and tired. However I have my PC back again, and finally have a tracking program, Free Poker Data Base in which I spent most of the afternoon doing some configuration. I now have a HUD, and don't need to track my games by hand, which is very nice.

So, I will start to track here my weekly study and lifestyle goals because I think It will help me keep on track:

Study Goals:
Keep studying basic SnG strategy (especially Push-Fold ranges)
Heads-Up play, a must!!
Mindset and psychology, focusing in preparation of the sessions.

Lifestyle (and music) goals:
Go to the gym 3x;
Practice piano everyday in the morning after gym;
Study poker everyday (preferably in the morning after piano practice);
Play at least 3 hours everyday except Monday and Saturday (due to other appointments that make it impossible);
Go to Judo class in Wednesday and Friday.

Breakdown of last Session:

Initial BR: 27,90€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 18, Won 1, Second 9
SnG's 6-max 0,50€:
Played 13, Won 1, Second 3.
Net balance: -1,68€

Overall balance: -1,68€
Current BR: 26,22€

As you see, my HU play is miserable and I really have to work on that as I believe it will improve my ROI massively.

See you!!

Ez5betfold

Hey!!

Yesterday I tried to put up some more volume by the means of increasing my multi-tabling, I reached 8 tables. I think that it was a nice decision in order to understand my limits and how far can I go and still be profitable. The conclusion is that I can't be that at 8 tables, I can't create convincing lines and miss a lot of spots, also my computer gets very clunky at 8 tables but not at 6 so, being profitable at 6 tables (usually), and being the best my PC can perform, I think that for the time being I will try to get to my max capabilities at this number of tables while increasing my volume playing more hours (which has been very difficult). I will also try to figure out precisely how many games can I play per hour and try to make some calculations from there.

Anyway, I can't play today as I've mentioned the previous post but I will try to study a bit of HU play.

Here goes the breakdown of last session:

Initial BR: 26,22€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 18, Won 5, Second 3
SnG's 6-max 0,50€:
Played 10, Won 2, Second 1.
Net balance: +0,30€

Overall balance: +0,30€
Current BR: 26,52€

Like I said it has been very difficult for me to play more than and hour and a half/two hours per day but I hope this will change and I can increase my bankroll a bit faster in order to meet my goal of reaching 50€ at the end of the month.

See you!

Ez5betfold

Hey!

I finally got some time to play but it couldn't be any worse!

I have been with some stress lately due to some private issues and it really makes me deviate from the things I want to do, poker included. So what happened was that I spent the last few days craving for the moment I could sit down and work towards my goals. Unfortunately this made me start a session without preparing myself, no warm-up, no thought process preview nor mindset preparation. Basically all my progress with my bankroll and the small profit I had in the last weeks gone down the toilet...

Also, all my week goals are not being fulfilled and I have been really frustrated with this the last days and feeling really down as I am finding a lot of struggles to really do what I want.

Anyway...

Here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 26,52€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 19, Won 2, Second 3
SnG's 6-max 0,50€:
Played 14, Won 0, Second 3.
Net balance: -6,09€

Overall balance: -6,09€
Current BR: 20,43€

Today I began my day reviewing the last sessions and will start by playing 0,25€ because I think I need to regain some confidence and do so without risking too much of my BR.

Let's do this ****!!

Kind regards.

Ez5betfold

Hey!

Today session was ok, managed to play some time and played well most of the time. I didn't play many tables today, mostly 4 at a time, max 6 but I still managed to play more or less the same amount as I use to.

Here goes the breakdown:

Initial BR: 20,43€

SnG's 6-max 0,25€:
Played 34, Won 8, Second 7:
Net balance: +1,14€

Overall balance: +1,14€
Current BR: 21,57€

I became 3rd place six times, tomorrow I will look at those bubbles and see if it was my bad or simply variance.

Cheers!
Ez5betfold