Hello,

I'm 23, from the Czech Republic, currently doing my master's degree and this will be my last PG&C thread ever. I've made 2 or 3 of them and given up every time after some runbad/frustration or loss of motivation. I haven't played a hand since the beginning of the year and I just recently caught the bug again so I want to give it one last shot.

While the primary focus of this thread will, of course, be poker, I will also set a few non-poker related goals that I hope to accomplish. The main reason for giving this another try was an epiphany I had the other week: I tend to give up too quickly. This is a trait I really want to get rid of and I hope poker will help me with that.

I've grinded MTTs, SNGs, cash and live donkaments before and I intend on playing all of these (with the exception of SNGs) in hopes of increasing my BR. I feel most confident in my small-field MTT game, so a majority of my volume will come from there. I've deposited on 3 different sites and I'll obviously pick whichever games are the best on each network. I also have some backup money on MB in case I need to redeposit. I'm hooked up with nice RB deals as well. The sites I play on and the respective amounts I have on there:

Stars: $107
Betsson (Ongame): $50
Betmost (iPoker): $100
Live BR: $200

I'll start off playing NL2 on Stars and Betmost, depending on whether I feel like masstabling or not, 27-180man SNGs on Stars and larger field MTTs on Betsson and live. I'll try to update this thread about 1-2 times/week with a brief summary, interesting hands etc. To get things started today I played a 180man and 45man SNG on Stars while 4-tabling NL2 and some freerolls on Betsson. Broke even on the tourneys and won some in cash, but I'm not gonna bother posting the graph for a 500-hand sesh. Instead, here's my lifetime graph:

This weekend i have the 10k VIP freeroll on Betmost, so I'm excited for that since I won ~500 there last month. Other than that I'll be looking into which tourneys to play tomorrow. In the meantime, if anyone has some good resources for 90mans or 180mans, let me know!

Lifetime NL2:


Nothing impressive, I run kinda bad in cash and I feel like I have tons of room to improve. I ran terribly at NL5 with like a ~1bb/100 over a large sample and even worse at NL10, where I ran 7 BI under EV in like 5k hands. I'd like to try to beat those levels quite easily asap. I'm capable of putting in ~30k hands/month at this point in time. I want to stay away from specific numbers as far as my goals are concerned, but here's the basic rundown:

Goals:
[ ] Beat NL5 and NL10 comfortably
[ ] 5k BR combined by the end of the year
[ ] Start working out again
[ ] Learn some mixed games/PLO

Any questions/comments/suggestions are always appreciated. Good luck at the tables.

Felt like clarifying some of my non-poker related goals a little more precisely. I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I should stop wasting time and start doing meaningful things. I've known for some time that I have the potential to be successful at whatever I'll end up doing, but I tend to be way too complacent, lazy and I definitely give up too easily whenever I hit the first roadblock. In order to combat these detrimental characteristics, I'll force myself into some discipline by starting to:

- Work out again
- Get in better shape for tennis
- Focus more on school & educating myself in my spare time

Finally, I feel like I'm too selfish and egoistic. I will look up some meaningful charities and donate somewhere between $50 and $100 every now and then.

As far as poker is concerned, I've been getting my feet wet playing some NL2 cash, mostly 6-8 tables. Up like 4Bis in 1k hands, so nothing worth even posting a graph for yet. Also been randomly loading up some 45-180man turbos and managed to bink a $1 180man for $50, putting my Stars roll up to $150 before tonight.

The plan for tonight's MTTs:
Ongame:
$1.20 $500 Gtd Turbo
$2.25 $800 Gtd
GSOP Malta Freeroll
$1.20 $600 Gtd Turbo SH

iPoker:
$0.55 $500 Gtd Turbo R/A
$0.48 Wed $30k stage 2 sat
$1.10 $500 Gtd freezeout

PokerStars:
$3.30 $4k Gtd NLH
$2.70 $7.5k Gtd Turbo Knockout

Busy night ahead, hopefully I'll be able to make a few deep runs. Whenever I get below 6 tables I'll throw in a couple of 90mans or cash tables to make sure I don't do anything stupid.

Tomorrow I'm set to play live cash (~10c/20c) and a $5 R/A donkament as well.

Terrible run at the MTTs tonight; didn't cash in any of them. I'm fine with the way I played, made a few good hero folds, but didn't win flips & got 2-3outered a bunch. Broke even on Stars at least because I was playing some cash on the side. Done for today, gonna grind a bit tomorrow during the day and then live in the evening.

My Stars SS for completion:



Clearly sustainable. Definitely disappointed with the MTT results today, but profited about $40 across all sites, so I gotta be pleased. Finally today's NL2 graph:



Got a little lucky there towards the end with my QQ>AA.

Stars: $150 (+$43)
Ongame: $48 (-$2)
iPoker: $97 (-$3)
Live: $200

I've been playing a variety of MTTs and MTSNGs across all sites, without any success. No cashes in the last ~20 I've played, including a live $25 donkament that had ~1k GTD with only 19 runners, so it felt like a reasonable shot to try to take, but I busted super early after only having played 3 hands all tournament (KK<AT, TT<QQ and busted AK<TT). There was definitely at least one spot where I felt like I might have made a mistake by not squeezing pre, but overall i feel quite confident about it just being completely standard run bad.

Online has been pretty much just not winning any flips, shipping AJ for 10bb and having someone wake up w/ AK or just getting 3-outered. Fortunately I've been supplementing my Stars roll with NL2, where I'm winning all my 70/30s, so I'm actually some 3BIs over EV over the last ~2.5k hands.

It definitely feels like this is the right way to try to grind up a roll though, one of these times I'm bound to make a 3-digit score in some donkament and until then I'll be pretty much even/slightly up thanks to cash.

Last 2.5k hands of NL2:


Up $27 in 2603 hands for a completely sustainable winrate of 26bb/100. Taking the rest of the day off to try to find some good materials on 45-180mans or some good videos on uNL 6max.

Unfortunately I'm still not 100% healthy, so working out/playing tennis isn't an option yet. 10k VIP freeroll on iPoker tomorrow + live donkaments on Sunday are my immediate weekend plans. Might throw in some MTSNGs today if I get super bored.

Stars: $177 (+$27)
Ongame: $45.80 (-$2.20)
iPoker: $97
Live: $175 (-$25)

Subbed GL keep updating

@Real Madrid: thanks a lot

Finished 2nd in in the iPoker VIP freeroll for $1.6k. Played just about as well as I can, although I think I made one big mistake HU. Busted A9<AK, when he 3bet shoved so I think it was a standard cooler.

Still obviously very happy with the score. I'm most likely going to disperse the money among the different sites or buy something nice. Live donkaments tomorrow.



Stars: $178
iPoker: $1697 (+$1600)
Ongame: $46
Live: $175

I've decided to withdraw $1400 for now, which puts my iPoker roll up to just under $300. I'm going to let the money sit in my Skrill account for a while and decide what to do with it in a few days. Meanwhile, I busted a few places shy of the money in yesterday's live donkament, but I was very happy with how I played.

Today I played just under 1k hands of cash and I'm up small. The preliminary MTT schedule for today is:

iPoker:
$2.20 $200k Stage 2
$2.20 Freezeout
Stars:
$2.20+R NLH $8k GTD
$1.10 PLO $500 GTD
$4.40 NLH $2k GTD
$1.10 NLH $2.5k GTD
$2.20 NLH Turbo $5k GTD
Ongame:
$1.20 NLH $300 GTD

Will probably add a few as I go along. I'm also going to play a $5.50 satty into the $320 Live Event qualifier.

Decided to combine all my BRs into one for the sake of updating simplicity.

Gl at the tables.

Absolutely horrendous day with the MTTs. Played probably 15ish of them and only cashed one for $10.50. Still playing 4 but they're each fields of 3k+ so its pretty much a lottery. Looks like I'll be down a bunch for the day.

Oops, spoke too early. Ended up coming 45/27,000 in the MicroMillions $1 Turbo Rebuy for $225. MTTs went absolutely terribly today, so I'm really lucky with this score, which puts me up quite a bit for the day. Time for a little more detailed update, seeing as I'll be moving up to NL5 on Stars & NL4 on iPoker.

I'm obviously done playing NL2 now and I'll be supplementing my MTT volume w/ NL5 instead. Since I started this thread I played about 3.5k hands and had a winrate of 18bb/100. Hopefully I'll run better at NL5 than last time around, ran ~20BIs below EV in 30k hands about half a year ago when I last played.

Today I've cashed in exactly 2 tournaments out of 20-25 that I've played:

$2.20 NLH - 84/3391 for $10.51
$1 Turbo Rebuy MicroMillions - 45/27000 for $225.50

Both were on Stars, where most of my volume comes from. I'm down for the day on all other sites.

I decided to load up another $100 onto Ongame in order to be able to play $5 MTTs there as well.

Total Bankroll: $814 (+~$200)

The plan for tomorrow is to play some NL5 in the morning, then take the rest of the day off to hang out with my gf.

Yesterday I grinded pretty hard from about 4pm to 5am. MTTs continue to be a pain as I tend to just lose flips and get sucked out on a bunch. Didn't cash at all on the smaller networks, where I've been running pretty terribly. I was going deep in the Big $4.40 on Stars which was going to pay over $3.5k to 1st place, but I came ~80/6000 for something like $31.

Pretty disappointing to play that tournament until 5am and only cash for a few cheeseburgers but combined with NL5 cash I'm actually up over $30 on Stars for the day. Obviously down a bunch on the other sites, where I even took a few shots at $5.50 tournaments that didn't go well by any means. Gonna stick to cash for a few days and watch some videos today.

Here's my updated Sharkscope graph:



And my super swingy NL5 session:



I think I'll have enough time to put in some serious volume this weekend and I hope I can turn things around in the MTTs.

Shipped another $50 onto Ongame to make sure I'm rolled for the occasional $5 shot, which puts my BR at:

Bankroll: $872 (+$6)

On another note, my desktop is shutting down frequently during my sessions, so I assume the motherboard is overheating. It's still a pretty high performance PC, but it's not the newest so I'll probably have to use my winnings to buy a new one soon. I'm also finally starting to recover from my health problems and I want to start doing some light workouts either this weekend or starting next week. And lastly, I'm currently looking into a meaningful charity to donate $50 to. For the karmaz. Good luck at the tables.

Played another frustrating set of MTTs today. Betsson has some of the softest fields I've ever played in, but the stuff that's happening to me there is just plain ridiculous. Played 2 $5.50's and lost AQ<AJ and KK<QQ, then mincashed a $2.25 for something like $8 (I'm not even sure).
Stars seems to be going more in my favor; mincashed some $1.25 $2.5 GTD MTT and was going rather deep in the $2.25 R/A $150k GTD that had over $22k up top. Obviously busted 554/17500 with 99<AJ for $56. Sure would have been sweet to final table that one but it's not meant to be these days.

Also sattied into the Big $8.80 where I turned my AKs into a (somewhat marginal, maybe bad) bluff. Gonna have to review that one later, but if I'm not results oriented I think my play was probably OK. Overall I'm up for the day, but it doesn't feel like it.

I'm looking into maybe getting a stake specifically for Ongame, because at the rate that I'm losing flips & getting raped by 3outers there I can't really afford to keep depositing $$$ on there. The fields are much smaller and super soft, which makes me believe my edge is likely pretty significant in their tournaments.

Also played about 1.5k hands of NL4 on iPoker today, was up 3 BIs but got coolered a bunch to put me up only like $3.50.

Most likely gonna call it quits for today and maybe watch some videos & review some hands from today's session. Still hoping to get that big score.

Bankroll: $912 (+$40)

Looks like your doing great.

About the charity thing-- don't bother. It's good that you recognize your selfish/egotistical, but I wouldn't "work" on it. It's the way you are. If it makes you feel good to do good.. do self-less acts for the ones you love, not give $$$ to charity.

Thanks. And I appreciate your comment as well. You're 100% right in that I need to do more self-less acts for the people that are close to me. But I also just want to force myself into being a little less careful with money by donating to a charity that actually has some meaning to me. Still looking for one though.

I think it's a good characteristic to have, but too much of it really isn't that great either imo. One of my friends has been calling me out on it all the time (although I believe he's exaggerating to some extent) and my girlfriend has said something along the lines of me being "cheap" as well, despite the fact that I've spent more money on her in 2 years that I have on myself in my entire life...

I've recently been giving out small $$$ to street musicians etc. Gotta start somewhere right? Good deed every day

Taking it easy today; played a $2.25 and a $3.30 on Betsson and busted both in a ridiculous fashion again. Then played the weekly VIP freeroll quali, which honestly had the softest field of 19 monkeys I've ever seen. Came 4th for $13.33 and the ticket into the $1k freeroll, which will be played tomorrow. Also played some NL5 on Stars this morning and, as usually, was up 3BIs and then got set over set and KK vs AA to put me at something like +$3.65.

On another note, decided to snap buy 2% of UncaJ5's Sunday grind package for $154. He's currently 12th on the Stars yearly TLB and he'll be playing something like 30 MTTs today, so it seemed like a good investment. I'll be sweating him all day, hopefully he'll make me some $$$ which I can put on Betsson. If I can somehow get a roll big enough to play $5.50+ on there I'd be thrilled.

Bankroll: $923 (+$11)

Today was honestly probably the worst day I've ever had in terms of how I ran in tournaments. Played 4 MTTs on Betsson again + the VIP freeroll. No cashes, 3outered in every single one of them. Also played several turbos on Betmost, was going deep in all of them and then busted w/ AT<KQ in both.
The worst today, however, was Stars where I played 5 MTTs I think and a few 180-mans. Mincashed in one of the MTTs after BTN shoves 20bb, I have AKs in the BB, snapcall with my 15bb stack, he shows up w/ A3o and rivers a flush, gg. Would have had 30bb in a hyper turbo, which would easily put me in top 30 with 400 players left, $1.5k for first. Obv no cashes in the 180-mans.

I started open shoving JJ+/AQs+ on Betsson and so far I've probably gotten called about 80% of the time and lost most of them, one of which I got called by KJ, K7 and A3o all at once. I also just busted the last MTT of my day, the $3.30 $5k GTD, where I lost exactly like I always do:

PokerStars - $3+$0.30|100/200 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

UTG+1: 8,995.00
MP: 6,082.00
MP+1: 3,200.00
LP: 19,684.00
CO: 5,515.00
Hero (BTN): 4,851.00
SB: 4,320.00
BB: 7,017.00
UTG: 8,082.00

UTG+1 posts ante 25.00, MP posts ante 25.00, MP+1 posts ante 25.00, LP posts ante 25.00, CO posts ante 25.00, Hero posts ante 25.00, SB posts ante 25.00, BB posts ante 25.00, UTG posts ante 25.00, SB posts SB 100.00, BB posts BB 200.00

Pre Flop: (525.00) Hero has K A

fold, fold, MP raises to 420.00, fold, LP calls 420.00, CO calls 420.00, Hero raises to 4,826.00 and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, LP calls 4,406.00, fold

Flop: (11017.00, 2 players) J 6 3

Turn: (11017.00, 2 players) 4

River: (11017.00, 2 players) T

LP shows J 9 (One Pair, Jacks) (Pre 35%, Flop 76%, Turn 86%)
Hero shows K A (High Card, Ace) (Pre 65%, Flop 24%, Turn 14%)
LP wins 11,017.00




Pretty sure I lost every single 60/40 I've been in today. Here's my favorite from today:



PokerStars - $2.28+$0.22|15/30 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

CO: 1,370.00
BTN: 1,535.00
SB: 590.00
Hero (BB): 1,770.00
UTG: 1,470.00
UTG+1: 1,855.00
MP: 1,740.00
MP+1: 1,980.00

SB posts SB 15.00, Hero posts BB 30.00

Pre Flop: (45.00) Hero has T T

fold, UTG+1 calls 30.00, MP calls 30.00, MP+1 calls 30.00, CO calls 30.00, fold, SB calls 15.00, Hero raises to 270.00, UTG+1 calls 240.00, fold, MP+1 calls 240.00, fold, fold

Flop: (900.00, 3 players) 9 6 5
Hero bets 540.00, UTG+1 raises to 1,585.00 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 960.00 and is all-in

Turn: (3900.00, 2 players) 4

River: (3900.00, 2 players) 2

Hero shows T T (One Pair, Tens) (Pre 68%, Flop 84%, Turn 75%)
UTG+1 shows A 3 (Straight, Six High) (Pre 32%, Flop 16%, Turn 25%)
UTG+1 wins 3,900.00



Onto the good news: UncaJ5 ended up binking one of the last tourneys of his day, which was one of the bigger ones he played that day. He won over $11k, which means I profited about $110 from my 2% share of him. Shipped that money right to Betsson so that I can lose more there . That POS site drives me crazy.

I also played some 830 hands of NL5 and ran pretty amazingly:



Up close to $25, which should likely bring me somewhere close to even for the day.

Bankroll: $1058 (+$110 staking, ~-$10 loss)

Note: This number doesn't add up with regards to where my BR was at last time, which is because I left some extra $$ in my Stars account from what UncaJ5 sent me back from my initial investment of $154.