This is my second blog and if i remember clearly , the first one lasted for over two years and i went from 4nl to 100NL during that journey.

Well, times have changed and ever since i took a break of more than a year from poker i am having a tough time getting back on track and that's the reason why i am starting another blog. Looking back at my first blog ( which was in another site), there's going to be one huge difference from then and now. I have quit smoking and drinking and am certainly a different person, older and wiser hopefully.

I am 26 years old going to be 27 in December, not exactly a prodigy in the making. I have played many hours and seen a lot of variance , so that's going to be my tool for inspiration when i need it, the fact that i have been there and done it. My most proud moment or month was when i made 10k playing exclusively 50 NL , to be fair i ran over ev in that one.

Enough rambling about past , now look at future. I am currently pursuing a distance course in English literature. i am in my second year. And writing is not my strongest attribute but considering it's the most important element of literature i need lots and lots of practice. My teacher inculcated in me the significance of writing in Literature. And i respect him enough to not let him down.

So the challenge would be to juggle between playing and studying. I'll formulate some plans and stick to them to manage them both in future posts.

So where am i currently at? Right where i started 2nl and 4nl. Played for a month now after nearly a year and a half of absence. Playing at microgaming and pokerstars. Bankrolls are 200$ and 170 $ at stars and mpn respectively.

Thanks for reading and good luck in your journeys as well. I'll be updating every chance i get. untill then ciao.

Reflecting on yesterdays's sessions (played two sessions), The first session went well but in the tale end of the second one i could feel my game going south. It was a combination of tiredness and frustration from losing many flips. In the last hand i decided to make a play i've never made in my entire life. 5bet shove JTs(snapped off by button's KK ).

Posting a couple of hands , first one is very lucky situation and the second one would be the aforementioned hand.

Good luck. I'll follow.

Thanks and welcome aboard. Stay as long as you want , have a cup of tea.

Played a small session (in volume) and ran well to win a couple of buyins. One lucky hand.

Had an horrendous day yesterday. Lost like 10 buyins give or take a few $s. Gonna post some hands to make sense of it. Definitely exposed many leaks and things that i am doing wrong in micros.

First i think playing AK against the nitty regulars is all about pot control and you cant get it in pre with it. Allso , against the same regulars you cant continue with tptk when they c/r aise your cbet, they have it beat 9/10. So, basically there's a need to identify these nitty players and stop donating to them like a fish.

Also the fishes have different tendencies, need to pay attention to them more and again stop donating to the nitty fishes as well.

Going to post some hands that were played atrociously in my opinion and see if i can take something out of it.

Played and found out that i have many leaks still , not only in my technical game but even mental as well.
Last day went a bit like see saw , one moment i was up 6 bi and the next i was down 10 bis. Tried to play on through the tilt but but my game had deteriorated beyong repair by that point , made some inexplicable and atrocious plays tbh. Let's see some bad plays.

This hand is played fine i guess , cant be that bad to barrell that turn and river.


Dont even remember this hand, villains 15/12 and btn's vpip is 29, meh .



This was prolly the worst /inexplicable hand. Cant defend my play here, was just that tilted i suppose. We did have an exteremely aggro rapport for a while, even than it's an absolute worst play.



Gamble, gamble!


That turn call is meh.



loose passive player shows strength and i gift him a bi, gj bonehead.



This one's up there with the worst of them, note to self and drill it home. When passive players raise you in big pots, tptk is no good.

The last few days have been unbelievably harsh. Ran terrible,played worse and wasnt objective enough to see what was going wrong. So need a plan to find and fix these leaks. For now, going to record my plays and try to see what needs to be tweaked and rectified.
I know one thing that needs to be implemented immediately: playinng deliberately and slowly, playing too fast can lead to tilt and you dont think as much.

Here's mid month graph with ev. ( Notice that red line !whats happening there. )

Also, i am finding that AK/AKs is losing money all in pre. So, it might be best to not fist pump get it in at the micros. They usually have AA/KK when they 3bet get it in.

Since this is a poker goals and challenges thread , it would be pointless to keep this thread without giving myself challenges. I much prefer 'challenges' than 'goals' since challenges are much more empowering and daring comparatively.
Looking at the hem , i am averaging about 2500 hands/day for September. This is measly and is hindering the rate of improvement.

So, the poker challenge#1 would be putting up at least 5000 hands/ day this week, starting today. Don't know if its too hard/easy , don't care.

Good luck at the tables!

So, the challenge was completed today. It went smoothly except for some tilting sessions, which cost me in dropping down for a while. Zoom can be frustrating at times as it's a lot of action and a lot of beats per hour. Definitely a learning experience which'll come in handy in future.

For the week's challenge , played about 37500 hands. which amounts to roughly 5500 hands a day. So the challenge was completed successfully . However the winrate was a measly 0.58 bb/100. So already have some idea what my next challenge is going to be.
Here's the week's graph.

The challenge was not tough at all. With zoom you can easily put a thousand hands an hour.
What's puzzling is the red line. I remember the last time i played these stakes , my red line wud just be diving consistently and i remember thinking and saying it was very hard to keep a steady positive red line , and here my blue line seems have taken my previous red line's place.

But to be honest i remember how i used to play back then. i thought i was playing lag but really it was too loose/passive and that's why the red line nose dived.

Alright , so on to the next one. Challenge #2: I am thinking same challenge (5000 hands/day for a week) but with a minimum winrate of 5bb/100. which is more than achievable in micros. I am being very generous to myself here but it's still early days. Let's see if i can achieve it. failure would mean i repeat the challenge and i'll think of some punishment .

Good luck at the tables!

Had to abandon the challenge mid-way unfortunately. I was tilting like a monkey and needed some assistance/guide to put things into perspective. There's no denying that that part of my game is very flimsy and am very much susceptible to going on 'tilt' even though i seem to be on denial through out this month. So for now doing a lot off the tables study, mostly watching videos (if you can call that studying) , some people get a lot out of videos and some text. Don't know which method is suitable for me.

Here's the graph for the month and it sucks! That's what a graph with major tilting looks like.



Well, atleast the volume looks good, owing to that challenging week. Gonna kick this month off by continuing the challenge#2.

The challenge was a big let down again , didn't have motivation to grind this week.That's sad. So, what were the culprits? Playing retro game of my childhood and watched some instructive videos as well.
Played about 19000 hands this week,which comes out to about 2700 hands / day.

I've finally decided on the punishment for not completing a challenge. At first i thought of donating a few buyins to the BBV or something , but then i realized that's just equivalent to losing to other poker players.

So, while browsing through the vip store i came across 20$ donation to CARE international. Although i am not big on charity , i'll do it every time i fail a challenge.

Starting today , this'll be poker volume challenge #3 :
play 5000 hands/ day for a week. ( no win rate required this time )
Let's go!

Did not complete the challenge. That was not how it was planned. Played about 19000 hands , so 16000 hands short of the intended target.

Here's the damage from the challenge. It's not that bad.



Did't play as much zoom, been playing alot more in the prima network, since that is the cheapest and rake friendly place in the market, for micros anyways. Doesn't make much sense in playing anywhere unless the traffic is really low or they don't have the game you're looking for tbh.

This month went well , better than previous months. The blue line finally improved and rose above equilibrium. Played some on stars and some on prima. I have a soft spot for prima , as that's where i 've made most of my money in the good old days.

Graphs @
Prima:


Top two winners:




Top two losers:



Stars:



top 4 hands there.








That's all for now.

Ran hotter than the sun today.


11 buyins over ev. not complaining, since its good start to the month. quater of that is plo, and we know what plo's swings can be.

Here's the hand of the day.


in my defence , he was running like 96/44 with 40% 3bet. still dont know what to do on the turn after he bet so big, couldn't fold to him i guess .

Have shifted my focus to PLO. Played a lot more plo than NL this month. It was swingy but the action makes up for the swings. A PLO expert will make alot more than a NL imo. Trying to be better at it everyday , definitely playing miles away from optimally. Missing alot of value bets on the river. At micro stakes you can bet a lot thinner for value as people have wide ranges.


I am done for the month , so going to post a graph and will be updating or setting up a new challenge at the start of the next month.


Sad last 20-25k breakeven stretch. Pathetic Volume as well.

Take it easy guys, ciao.