Hours: 123
Profit: £425.04

Few interesting hands from yesterday's session (apologies for the TL;DR HHs, blame Unibet):

Hand 1: Villain is not known but has been playing snug/timmid

Game #1919965577: Table €10 NL - 0.05/0.10 - No Limit Hold'Em - 20:12:03 2023/07/28
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: HERO (€28.50)
Seat 3: mesqueunclub (€12.63)
Seat 4: captainAA (€13.40)
Seat 5: VILLAIN (€9.37)
*** Blinds and button ***
captainAA has the button
VILLAIN posts small blind €0.05
HERO posts big blind €0.10
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in VILLAIN
Dealt to HERO [6h 7h]
Dealt in mesqueunclub
Dealt in captainAA
*** Preflop ***
mesqueunclub folds
captainAA raises €0.25 to €0.25
VILLAIN calls €0.20
HERO calls €0.15
*** Flop *** [Kh 3d Th]
VILLAIN checks
HERO checks
captainAA checks
*** Turn *** [Kh 3d Th] [7c]
VILLAIN checks
HERO bets €0.25
captainAA calls €0.25
VILLAIN calls €0.25
*** River *** [Kh 3d Th] [7c] [Ah]
VILLAIN bets €0.85
HERO raises €2.20 to €2.20
captainAA folds
VILLAIN raises €3.50 to €4.35
HERO ????


Hand 2: Villain is known and is nittier than Nanny McNit, winner of last year's Knitter of the year contest

Game #1919989491: Table €10 NL - 0.05/0.10 - No Limit Hold'Em - 20:44:32 2023/07/28
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: krmtbksp (€10.76)
Seat 2: Pangis (€4.97) (sitting out)
Seat 3: wewillfailer (€12.01)
Seat 4: VILLAIN (€21.55)
Seat 5: Winevarrel (€16.61)
Seat 6: HERO (€10.77)
*** Blinds and button ***
wewillfailer has the button
VILLAIN posts small blind €0.05
Winevarrel posts big blind €0.10
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in VILLAIN
Dealt in Winevarrel
Dealt to HERO [8d 8c]
Dealt in krmtbksp
Dealt in wewillfailer
*** Preflop ***
HERO raises €0.25 to €0.25
krmtbksp folds
wewillfailer folds
VILLAIN calls €0.20
Winevarrel folds
*** Flop *** [2s 4s Js]
VILLAIN checks
HERO checks
*** Turn *** [2s 4s Js] [Jh]
VILLAIN checks
HERO bets €0.30
VILLAIN raises €0.60 to €0.60
HERO calls €0.30
*** River *** [2s 4s Js] [Jh] [Jc]
VILLAIN bets €1.80
HERO ?????


Hand 3: Just sat at table but Tina55 has a massive stack and hasn't done anything crazy in 10mins and Mbhhfggghg seems like loose-pass fish

Game #1919981401: Table €10 NL - 0.05/0.10 - No Limit Hold'Em - 20:33:23 2023/07/28
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: gWEXFD (€20.82)
Seat 2: Tina55 (€60.62)
Seat 3: ovelakana (€31.96)
Seat 4: AllIn56 (€10)
Seat 5: Mbhhfggghg (€9.42)
Seat 6: HERO (€10)
*** Blinds and button ***
HERO has the button
gWEXFD posts small blind €0.05
Tina55 posts big blind €0.10
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in gWEXFD
Dealt to Tina55 [4s 5d]
Dealt in ovelakana
Dealt in AllIn56
Dealt to Mbhhfggghg [7d 8h]
Dealt to HERO [6s 4d]
*** Preflop ***
ovelakana folds
AllIn56 folds
Mbhhfggghg calls €0.10
HERO calls €0.10
gWEXFD folds
Tina55 checks
*** Flop *** [8d 4c 9d]
Tina55 checks
Mbhhfggghg checks
HERO bets €0.20
Tina55 calls €0.20
Mbhhfggghg calls €0.20
*** Turn *** [8d 4c 9d] [Tc]
Tina55 checks
Mbhhfggghg checks
HERO checks
*** River *** [8d 4c 9d] [Tc] [7c]
Tina55 bets €1.60
Mbhhfggghg calls €1.60
HERO ????

Hours: 124
Profit: £443.04

Nice quick session tonight, ended up adding another £18 to my bankroll.

1 more interesting hand:

Hand 4: Villain not been that active. I decided to push back on the flop given I block JK,QK which should feature a lot in his calling range. Is this on? or is it spew?

Game #1920520893: Table €10 NL - 0.05/0.10 - No Limit Hold'Em - 20:08:16 2023/07/29
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: HERO (€25.54)
Seat 2: captainAA (€10)
Seat 3: Andy222222 (€13.22)
Seat 5: VILLAIN (€9.35)
Seat 6: GreZSO (€13.65)
*** Blinds and button ***
captainAA has the button
Andy222222 posts small blind €0.05
VILLAIN posts big blind €0.10
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in Andy222222
Dealt in VILLAIN
Dealt in GreZSO
Dealt to HERO [Qd Jc]
Dealt in captainAA
*** Preflop ***
GreZSO folds
HERO raises €0.25 to €0.25
captainAA folds
Andy222222 folds
VILLAIN calls €0.15
*** Flop *** [Ks Kh 3s]
VILLAIN checks
HERO bets €0.20
VILLAIN raises €0.91 to €0.91
HERO raises €1.60 to €1.80
VILLAIN calls €0.89
*** Turn *** [Ks Kh 3s] [Qc]
VILLAIN checks
HERO bets €2

Yeah , I get it, no-one wants to analyse these ugly-assed Unibet HHs. Well I'm doing my best to hit the £600 necessary to move up to NL20 on iPoker. Then I can start enjoying rakeback and some sexy Hand2note HHs!

I hit the £500 mark today, and am beating my previous challenge by 15 hours

Hours: 135
Profit: 502.26

Don't really like this flop 3bet. Villain has enough Kx+ and nuts FD hands to continue. It is unlikely that we will get a lot of FE here.
And we usually want to 3bet hands with the potential to improve.

Forward to NL20!

Yes I need to be more aware of 2-tone boards when I'm planning to make moves oop.

With a rainbow board do our blockers make this a nice occasional bluff? Or should we be only looking at 3Betting A2s/A4s/A5s with backdoor nut-flushes?

Hours: 139
Profit: £504.26

Very swingy couple of days, but another £2 closer to NL20!

Hours: 152
Profit: £538

Well it's been one of those kinda weeks...



Money's always going in, but anything you guys would have done differently here 200bb deep?

(Ugly-assed Unibet HH incoming...)

Game #1932432085: Table €10 NL - 0.05/0.10 - No Limit Hold'Em - 22:12:23 2023/08/18
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: DionysiusD (€19.92)
Seat 2: SmoothJam (€20.97)
Seat 3: Cafeee (€10)
Seat 4: kiofspades (€34.73)
Seat 5: Fytyre (€9.70)
Seat 6: Teldako (€8.58)
*** Blinds and button ***
SmoothJam has the button
Cafeee posts small blind €0.05
kiofspades posts big blind €0.10
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in Cafeee
Dealt to kiofspades [Kc Ks]
Dealt in Fytyre
Dealt in Teldako
Dealt in DionysiusD
Dealt to SmoothJam [3h 3c]
*** Preflop ***
Fytyre folds
Teldako folds
DionysiusD calls €0.10
SmoothJam raises €0.40 to €0.40
Cafeee folds
kiofspades raises €1.30 to €1.40
DionysiusD folds
SmoothJam calls €1
*** Flop *** [Kh 2d 3d]
kiofspades bets €1.47
SmoothJam raises €4.50 to €4.50
kiofspades calls €3.03
*** Turn *** [Kh 2d 3d] [2h]
kiofspades checks
SmoothJam bets €4.50
kiofspades calls €4.50
*** River *** [Kh 2d 3d] [2h] [7h]
kiofspades checks
SmoothJam bets €10.57, and is all-in
kiofspades calls €10.57
*** Showdown ***
SmoothJam shows [3h 3c], Full House, Threes full
kiofspades shows [Kc Ks], Full House, Kings full
kiofspades wins €41.09

Hours: 156.5
Profit: £573.41

One good session away from moving up to NL20. Will post the good, the bad and the ugly hands afterwards. Wish me luck!

Money is in no matter what. If it isn’t you’re doing something wrong!

Gl, will keep popping in.

Triggered the 'one good sessions away' curse again! Dumped 6 buyins. No interesting hands, that was just all ugly.

Hours: 158.5
Profit: £525.41

Hours: 162.5
Profit: £470.41

I continued to dump buy-ins at the NL10 cash tables last night (+4 buyins at spin n gos), just running into the nuts constantly in early streets.

Like a moron I went onto Betfair again to degen at the BJ tables, but turned out well as not only did I win £20 (not included in challenge total) but I found a way to hack Betfair's very annoying self-exclusion policy which only allows self-exclusion for ALL games, not just casino.

They do allow you to set loss-limits per game, so you can set your loss-limit for Casino games to £1 a year, and voila! Degen-proofed a poker site that has decent rakeback!

Hours: 164.5
Profit: £465.41

Bled off buyins again for first half of the session but kept my cool and managed to pull back some losses with well-timed bluffs (..because god forbid I hit a freakin hand this month!)

A few fun hands:

The Good: I 3B from BB vs opponent that is raising loosely vs limps from HJ/CO. My hyper-agg style allows me to get more turn folds as opponents know a river jam is coming (also nut-adv helps). I thought the turn barrel should have a high success rate so I actually planned to c/f river in this instance




The Bad: Plain butchered. I 3B, fired 2 barrels, then made a nasty c/c on river. I thought a ton of middle pairs just check back river and a lot of flushdraws in his range. River I was getting 140/40 odds to call




The Ugly: All-in Preflop, well at least the games are good

Haven't posted in a while as I've been on a long holiday in Greece (got warnings about logging into gambling sites so thought best not risk it) and also been on a boring break-even stretch.

I fancied a site change so have gone back to crypto sites, gotta say poker is so much more fun when you can chat, make notes on and colour code players, its a whole massive aspect that's missing from the game on Unibet. Still prefer HUDless though, stats make for a dull game.

Hours: 196.5
Profit: £548.54

I've nearly pulled myself out of the slump, its been about 2 months of not hitting straight/flush draws, splitting all-ins as 80% fave + KKvAA, QQvKK..you name it! My bluffs have been frequent and highly successful though so have been treading water.

Played a short HU + 3-handed session with a couple of sick hands to share. Guy sat me and my notes from a while ago said this player was a tough agg Reg, and made a big c/r on river vs my blockbet with MPWK.

Within 3 or 4 hands HU this happened...

Hold'em No Limit (0.05/0.1 ante 0.01)
Seat 1: VILLAIN (11.85 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO (10.17 in chips)
HERO: posts the ante 0.01
VILLAIN: posts the ante 0.01
HERO: posts small blind 0.05
VILLAIN: posts big blind 0.1

*** HOLE CARDS ***
HERO [ Ad 2s ]: raises 0.1 to 0.2
VILLAIN: raises 0.6 to 0.8
HERO: raises 0.8 to 1.6
VILLAIN: raises 2.2 to 3.8
HERO: calls 2.2

*** FLOP *** [Qs 5d 6d]
VILLAIN: bets 2.35
HERO: calls 2.35

*** TURN *** [Qs 5d 6d] [Kd]
VILLAIN: checks
HERO: bets 4.01 and is all-in
VILLAIN: folds
Uncalled bet (4.01) returned to HERO
HERO collected 12.02 from pot
HERO: doesn't show hand




About 5 mins later, and player joined and posted dead, so VILLAIN is on BTN and weirdly acting last Pre-flop. I decide he's raising close to 100% in this spot so go for a slow-play with 99...

Hold'em No Limit (0.05/0.1 ante 0.01)
Seat 1 (BTN): VILLAIN (10.00 in chips)
Seat 2 : Player 2
Seat 4 (SB): HERO (15.00 in chips)
HERO: posts the ante 0.01
VILLAIN: posts the ante 0.01
Players: posts DEAD 0.1
VILLAIN: posts big blind 0.1
HERO: posts small blind 0.05

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Player 2: checks
HERO [ 9d 9c ]: calls 0.1
VILLAIN: raises 0.1 to 0.5
Player 2 folds
HERO: raises 0.5 to 1.8
VILLAIN: calls 1.8

*** FLOP *** [9s 5c 7h] [3.7]
HERO: bets 1
VILLAIN: raises 1 to 3.8
HERO: raises 3.8 to 8.2 all-in
VILLAIN: calls 8.2

*** TURN *** [9s 5c 7h 2c] [20.1]

*** RIVER *** [9s 5c 7h 2c 4d] [20.1]

VILLAIN shows [ Kd 8d ]
HERO collected 20.1 from pot

Reached 600 bones today after a brutal couple of months...



Played a sick hand with a tight-agg reg, this was one of those hands where I'm 90% sure I made the correct fold but could I have folded this on the turn? Imo not because we're still beating some small flushes, what do you guys think?...


Poker Hand #95506277: Hold'em No Limit (0.05/0.1 ante 0.01)
Table 'NL $10 III' 7-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Seat 1 (9.2 in chips)
Seat 2: HERO (13.06 in chips)
Seat 3: Seat 3 (9.04 in chips)
Seat 4: Seat 4 (6.32 in chips)
Seat 5: VILLAINS (10 in chips)
Seat 6: Seat 6 (8.73 in chips)
Seat 7: Seat 7 (12.06 in chips)

Seat 4: posts small blind 0.05
VILLAINS: posts big blind 0.1

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Seat 6: folds
Seat 7: raises 0.1 to 0.2
Seat 1: folds
HERO: calls 0.2 [9s Ts]
Seat 3: folds
Seat 4: calls 0.15
VILLAINS: calls 0.1

*** FLOP *** [5c Ks 2s] ($0.87)
Seat 4: checks
VILLAINS: checks
Seat 7: bets 0.6
HERO: calls 0.6
Seat 4: folds
VILLAINS: calls 0.6

*** TURN *** [5c Ks 2s] [Qs] ($2.47)
VILLAINS: checks
Seat 7: checks
HERO: bets 1.5
VILLAINS: raises 2 to 3.5
Seat 7: folds
HERO: calls 2

*** RIVER *** [5c Ks 2s Qs] [Kd] ($9.47)
VILLAINS: bets 5.69 and is all-in
HERO: folds

Hours: 210
Profit: £626.37

Dipped my toe into the NL25 pool tonight and pulled off a small win.

iPoker rake and RB is pretty good at NL20 so I might start splitting my games between there and crypto sites.

Feels good to finally be moving up again, wish me luck!

Guys, if you're gonna move up, be sure to time it with a stonking great heater!

Hours: 215
Profit: £762.04



Also managed to successfully cashout Crypto in the UK. I lost a weekend and £30 banging my head against a wall trying to work out exchanges, wallets, gas, networks etc last year, so this was a real win for me

Sticking with crypto sites for now as after 3 attempts by both my affiliate and myself to get an answer about ipoker rakeback from Betfair, we've both given up. Seems they offer rakeback but noone in the company actually knows how it works.

Smokin' it up at NL25 and have now hit the £900 milestone!

Hours: 219.5
Profit: £909.34

Played some very interesting hands tonight where I found some big folds and a successfull spew-bluff!

Hand 1: VILLAIN is a tight-agg ABC reg. Did I let go of AK too early?

Table 'NL ₮25 I' 7-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: (9.55 in chips)
Seat 2: 5.46 in chips)
Seat 3: VILLAIN (35.38 in chips)
Seat 4: (25.06 in chips)
Seat 5: (35.74 in chips)
Seat 6: (25.67 in chips)
Seat 7: HERO (42.35 in chips)

Seat 6: posts small blind 0.1
HERO: posts big blind 0.25

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Seat 1: folds
Seat 2: folds
VILLAIN: raises 0.5 to 0.75
Seat 4: folds
Seat 4: folds
Seat 6: folds
HERO:[Ac Kh] raises 2.25 to 3
VILLAIN: calls 2.25

*** FLOP *** [As 6c 2s]
HERO: bets 4
VILLAIN: calls 4

*** TURN *** [As 6c 2s] [9s]
HERO: checks
VILLAIN: bets 7.18
HERO: folds
Uncalled bet (7.18) returned to VILLAIN
VILLAIN collected 13.53 from pot
VILLAIN: doesn't show hand

Hand 2: VILLAIN is tight passive fish, hasn't been out of line playing a few sessions

Table 'NL ₮25 III' 7-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: (4.91 in chips)
Seat 2: (25.97 in chips)
Seat 3: (25.65 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO (28.23 in chips)
Seat 5: VILLAIN (25.64 in chips)
Seat 6: (45.68 in chips)
Seat 7: (60.91 in chips)

Seat 2: posts small blind 0.1
Seat 3: posts big blind 0.25

*** HOLE CARDS ***
HERO:[ Ac Tc ] raises 0.5 to 0.75
VILLAIN: calls 0.75
Seat 6: folds
Seat 7: calls 0.75
Seat 1: folds
Seat 2: folds
Seat 3: folds

*** FLOP *** [3s Th 4d] ($2.74)
HERO: bets 1
VILLAIN: raises 2 to 3
Seat 7: folds
HERO: calls 2

*** TURN *** [3s Th 4d] [7h]
HERO: checks
VILLAIN: bets 5.5
HERO: folds
Uncalled bet (5.5) returned to VILLAIN
VILLAIN collected 8.3 from pot
VILLAIN: doesn't show hand


Hand 3: VILLAIN is a very good/agg reg who regularly makes big moves. Went for a spew-bluff (1) banking on him very rarely not Cbetting a GS,(2) a nut blocker, (3) and a prayer to baby Jesus:

Table 'NL ₮25 III' 7-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: Seat 2 (25.76 in chips)
Seat 3: VILLAIN (25 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO (25 in chips)

VILLAIN: posts small blind 0.1
HERO: posts big blind 0.25

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Seat 2: folds
VILLAIN: raises 0.56 to 0.81
HERO:[Kh 8d] calls 0.56

*** FLOP *** [4d Ac Js] ($2.03)
VILLAIN: checks
HERO: checks

*** TURN *** [4d Ac Js] [Qd] ($2.03)
VILLAIN: checks
HERO: bets 0.87
VILLAIN: calls 0.87

*** RIVER *** [4d Ac Js Qd] [3c] ($3.77)
VILLAIN: checks
HERO: bets 1.25
VILLAIN has timed out
VILLAIN activated time-bank (60 seconds)
VILLAIN: raises 4.75 to 6
HERO: raises 22.05 and is all-in
VILLAIN: folds

Playing crypto sites mainly but need another option as action drops off quite a bit at NL25, what do you guys think?

a) Betfair (ipoker network) - Ok rake, 35% rakeback, support is shockingly bad, any rake not hitting a €50 milestone before end of month is lost.

b) WilliamHIll (ipoker network) - Ok rake, 20% rakeback, support likely a lot better, rake not hitting a €50 milestone before end of month is lost.

c) Pokerstars - V. good rake 15%-20% rakeback, great support, tough games at NL25?

d) Unibet - Bad rake, rakeback 20%ish at a guess? Great support, softer games, anon players so v little table selecting

e) Other?

betfair is nice
gg is nice

good trafic both sites

I don't know if your country is accepted but Ipoker via coolbet.com:

Thanks for the suggestions, I've got a healthy 45 buyins for NL25 so I'll stop being such a nit and experiment with a week on each site.

I'll try out the following sites in this order:

- Pokerstars
- 888
- GGPoker
- Unibet
- Betfair

i've heard UK players get less rewards on GGPoker but not sure if that is true, don't see anything online, I considered making the switch from stars but currently getting 40% weekly challenges + 20% with chests and leaderboard rewards probably add a few % points too so it is is currently a good deal until I get capped on the weekly challenges

It's possible due to regulation, but most sites don't restrict rewards in UK.

I might drop GGPoker from the list anyway just for the gall of raking 3bet pots that don't reach the flop Rampant 3+4betting is a big part of my game.

Also the shrouded rewards program and banning winning players makes me think they're worth a miss.

Hours: 232.5
Profit: £889.11

Played 2.5k of NL25 hands on Pokerstars from Sat-Tues, love the HUD/software/traffic/anti-bumhunting measures, but overall the competition is pretty competent. No real splashy players. Ended up a pitiful £8 for my efforts.

Today I ran into so many opponents flopping sets in 3B/4B pots, I'm probably just shell-shocked but at best Im probably 4-5bb/100 winrate there, so gonna quit Pokerstars early and so no thanks! Not many 'sharks' per say but a lack real donks.

Next up, 888!

They all have that extra something which others are missing:
Ps-zoom, HUD, good traffic, nice rakeback
888-a bit of zoom, weak field, low traffic, Hud, close to no rakeback, shady in terms of random banning players
GG-excellent traffic on all formats, weak field, no real Hud, extremely shady rakeback scheme
Unibet-low traffic, no Hud, easily beatble field up to (only) nl400, good rakeback (hard to achieve max due to no availability of games)
Ipoker-hud, medium availability and knowledge of players, no speed games, average rakeback, but unreliable apps (constant crashes on PC, Mac, and mobile)

So, yeah, give them all a try, but specifically for nl25 I'd stick to either Unibet or PokerStars and if you can handle the hourly automatic log out from ipoker, that's another solid option.
GG and 888 have proven to only have a good advertising team, but I'm quite reluctant of constantly grinding there as for apparently no major reason you can either get banned or receive almost no rakeback.

Enjoy the fun, in the end that's all that matters, money comes along eventually