Hi all, Long time lurker first time poster here.

I decided to write this Blog with the plans to update it once or twice weekly depending on how much interest this gains. I am mainly just hoping to keep myself accountable and invite the wisdom of other players who may have a better idea on how to deal with certain hands, circumstances and spots I may find myself in.

I am 30 years old with a wife and newborn daughter. Like many I started playing poker back in 2008 but mainly in live events and a little bit on full tilt poker, sadly the country I live in (Australia) banned online poker which has made it quite hard for me to play online since my return a few weeks ago. I would prefer not to use my own money to play just yet and figured if it is easy to build a roll on this site for free then xfer off to another once I reach $500 then I should be good. There isn't a time frame for this goal.

I just happened across a site blockchain poker which actually give you 50 free btc Satoshi (3c) and have free rolls every hour. In my first week i've managed to run that up to 20k satoshi ($12usd). once I hit 4k I was able to begin a 40 buyin bankroll however due to the soft nature of players I do take shots when I see a fish on a higher stake game.

I do currently use a hud however due to the site having low traffic it is quite hard to game select or even multi table. I am lucky to get 3 tables running and normally hover between two tables. I am starting to figure out the regs and how to exploit them and generally either play tight or when possible exploit others. my goal is really to just get better at poker and build a bankroll from $0.

I'm unsure how to upload pictures on this to show my graph so if anyone could help me out with that then that would be awesome.

I don' claim to be good at poker and I am hoping through reviews of hands and the use of this post I can improve my game and learn more.
The few rules I have set for myself are -

• Keep 40 buyin's for whatever stake im playing at
• Take shots at 30 buyins
• study for 1 hour a day

Starting bankroll at time of post $12.32

Happy for any pointers or questions.

so just ran a session playing two tables the 1/2 and 2/5 due to the being the only games running I bought into both. I won 3 buyins on the 1/2 table for a profit however lost 3 buy ins on the 5/10 table (please note these tables are in satoshi not usd).

I ended the session down a little from 2 bad beats and 1 play I had made a complete donk play jamming all in with kings on an 2 A 8 rainbow board villian had ace queen. He had been 3 betting me very light on every flop and had gotten me to fold my kings previously when an ace hit the board on flop. I jammed over his 3 bet and he showed ace queen. in hindsight i probably should have check called the flop and then folded turn or river if I didn't improve. is it reasonable to fold kings on the flop to a 88vp player who 3 bets every time you cbet?

either way although I lost a little bit of the bankroll (8%) it gave me some good info on one of the regs and if he continues to 5 bet shove all in with hands like ace 3 suited and 9 8 off suit then ill be happy when he sits down again and the variance doesn't go his way. I've just Gotta laugh the bad beats off and keep playing.

due to losing 3 buy ins at the higher stake game I'm going to jump back down to 1/2 and 2/5 and grind that back up before taking another shot. I have made some good notes on the players at the stakes and have some good info on the hud to exploit them a little bit more. Will have to see how I go.


Bankroll after session - $11.53

Bit of a swingy session, got caught a few times making bluffs in heads up as well as losing an all in jam that went as follows -


Hero UTG raises with pocket tens for 5bb

Villian next to me Jams all in for 99.5 bb with a vp of 78 and pfr of 42

I tank figuring I'm dead to higher pocket pairs and am flipping with the remainder of his hands however given that it has already lost 300bb's in the session and I have seen him going to showdown quite often with any two cards I figure i am probably ahead of most of his range. Villian shows Ace 7 of hearts and flops the flush before immediately getting up and leaving the table.

I'm pretty sure I was a 67% favourite, only tilting thing is he left before I could exploit him and make it all back.

Besides that I figured I need to stop making bluffs at the lower stakes and probably cbet a lot less against call stations unless I connect with the flop harder. I managed to play fairly tight after that big pot and win majority of my chips back however fell a little short. Games seem to have dried up currently so will take a break for a bit and see what pops up later in the day.

I also cashed in a BCH free roll which helped the bankroll a bit coming in at 17k

I currently only play in BTC but am considering playing some of the bch freerolls to build a bankroll on this so that I can -

a) have access to more games
b) multi table more often
c) hit my bankroll goal a little quicker


Despite a little dip the BCH has helped build the bankroll a tad, also the site does not have fee's for BCH withdrawal so there is no harm in trying to build this up a little I think.

Anyway, off to have a break and then potentially will have another session in a few hours.

Bankroll after session -

BTC - $11.49
BCH - 0.9

Total - $11.58

pretty sure I played on tilt for an hour because i Just kept losing buy ins left right and centre just feels like those 2 outers keep hitting on the river despite always getting the chips in when I'm ahead.

Tried my hand at some heads up and lost 3 in a row to the same player, just couldn't believe my luck, getting it in with AJ vs A5 preflop, Kings into tens and finally i flopped two pair and got rivered by the flush draw.

Pretty pooped session, I think I probably need to set myself a 2 buyin loss for a session because once i start feeling my face go red and I get that mindset of chasing losses I just play stupid. I am way more apt to 3 bet jam to recoup losses and just play way more hands then I should.

I keep telling myself it is literally pennies who cares, and I guess it's much better for me to learn these harsh realities and get a grip of my tilt while it's at these stakes because I think if I was losing thousands in a session with my current mindset i'd probably feel sick haha.

Not a good run at all tonight big part of the bankroll has dropped.

Bankroll after session -

BTC - $8.57
BCH - 0.9

Total - $8.66

so had a session again today and got much better results now that the variance went the other way.

Sat down with one of the players who sucked out on me a ton yesterday and took him to value city, I picked up aces, kings and AK against him a few times to which he was 5 bet shoving all in again with ace 7, k 9 and low pockets. each time I stacked him. I played pretty tight as it was 9 handed and even if I would 7x BB due to 4 limpers in front I would still get 6-7 callers so unless I connected with the flop id would generally not cbet and the times I did would normally fold to a rearise on the turns and rivers unless I was pretty strong with nuts or second nuts.

I also cashed another two free rolls doubling my bch bankroll.

No interesting hands of note, have cut majority of the bluffs out of my play at these stakes unless I am playing into a super nit or there are obvious spots to bluff, a lot of the time these players will call all the way down with jack high or 4th pair so it just doesn't seem like a profitable line. I've also made the adjustment to check call on some of my draws as when I miss I just seem to be donating money to the call stations and can never turn the missed draw into a bluff that's profitable at all.

I might be wrong but who knows? any advice from other microstake grinders would be super valuable. I have been reading a lot from blackrain79 and his articles on microstakes and have been working a lot of this theory into my gameplay which has helped out a ton.

I know this is literally nothing to many players and probably not of any interest but for me the ability to see myself winning and being able to withstand variance due to bankroll management as well as watch the bankroll move in the right direction is a good sign.

I am the sort of person who becomes hyper focused on goals and even though I earn more through work and investments the challenge itself is more about reaching the goal rather than the money ( could deposit the $500 myself at any moment and not care).

Adding the BCH games to my game has been great, I'm now able to play 3-4 tables consistently which puts me in a great spot to just play that TAG style and get paid off, I'm sure there are regs exploiting this so I am making note and may in the future start 3 betting fairly light in some spots.


Bankroll after session -

BTC - $9.34
BCH - $0.18

Total - $9.52

One interesting hand from the session actually is as follows -

4 handed

Hero ace clubs ace diamonds
Utg limps
I raise 5 bb Pot 20bb
Sb, bb and utg call, 4 ways to the flop

Jack of Clubs 9 of spades Queen of hearts

UTG leads for 5 bb

I reraise to 20bb I figure if he flopped the straight or two pair based on recent hand history he would jam all in on me, if he flats he might be holding a weak queen or jack. hand I think ace king might call here and ace queen or jack would flat however I find them unlikely due to myself holding the two queens. Pocket Jacks or queens would have 3 bet me preflop so a kq qj type of hand would make some sense for his range. 9's would also be in his range.

Sb and bb fold UTg calls

Pot 60bb

Turn q of clubs Villian jams all in for 88bb’s.

At this point given that he tends to jam when he is strong I don't really beat any Qx type hand which he most likely has, 9's and jacks would also jam here. The villian has played pretty honest from what I have seen so I read him at king queen most likely as I think the queen jack or queen 9 hand repops on the flop.

Hard lay down as you hate to throw away aces when you wait 30 minutes for this spot. Maybe I call on the flop to see a cheap turn but then it would just price in the sb and bb to call me. Unsure if I could have played this any different im open to any challenging train of thought or even just confirmation that I took the right line.

I have recently been doing more study on exploit folding as it was something I honestly do not think I do enough, I tend to hero call and make light calls against some of these maniacs and to be honest has probably cost me more then it has made me. Laying down more of my marginal hands and hands such as two pair facing an all in after I've reraised his bet has generally been a set or some wonky gut shot that they have hit.

That said had a good session after work today, i've decided to buy into the 10/20 game which would be equivalent to a 1/2NL game and have will continue to play these stakes unless I drop 3 buyins, I figured that I can always grind the 3 buyins back up again but if I wanted to get this bankroll moving in the right direction I need to be a little more aggressive and take more shots (especially as I'm only really ever able to play 1-2 tables max). Bought in for a bit higher of the bankroll in bch and didnt cash but figured it was worth taking the shot also.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $10.53
BCH - $0.16

Total - $10.69

Moving in the right direction again!!

another good session, just continuing to play tight poker and have the variance go my way.

Lost 2 buy ins on the first 2 hands having kings put all in preflop by ace 3 and then the next hand having my queens run into his kings, kinda sick heads up when he just straight up jams on you anytime you try to reraise but hey that's poker and I knew that I could beat him as I have had hands with this player in the past.

Another player joins the table who is a maniac from the low stake tables that just does not like to fold and will call you down with king high so I decided to reload my third buy in and go again ( I was $2 down at this point)

have continued playing the 2nl game which has been going well, it's kind of funny watching them tilt and start going all in every hand once you catch them bluffing in a large pot or you just take them to value town. Had an interesting hand whilst two players were on clear tilt.

Playing 3 handed and I have pocket aces, Button raises to 11bb sb 3bets to 42bb. I jam over the top to which both call. Dealer has 7 9 of hearts and sb has pocket 8's. It holds and I pick up a $4 pot bringing us up past the $12 mark. yippie!

Going to take a short break and do some studying, I have really enjoyed using exploit folds at these stakes and just not paying them off ever and waiting for the spots where I am really strong to either bet for max value or let them bluff into me. I have also been reraising less as I have noticed I get a lot of their bluffs to fold when I do this so in some spots I have been check calling against the more aggressive players to keep the bluffs in their ranges and then re-raising them on the river for max value.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $11.98
BCH - $0.16

Total Bankroll: $12.14

Perhaps you can share recordings of some of your sessions. On Windows shortcut Win + Alt + R to start recording your screen or Shift, Command, and 5 on Mac.
I think it will be easier for our members to give you some tips if they can quickly glance over your play.
You would have to upload the video to youtube and then share a link or embed it in a post.

Thanks, those shortcuts didn't work but I was able to use a free program to screen record up to 5 minutes of my gameplay so I will post that.



I bought in to this session at 250bb which is the max and it was going off, one of the players had clearly stacked up to 3500bb and was just raising anywhere from 20x - 55x the bb.

The only hand of note from the recording is the pocket 8's which I am unsure if I should have them in my opening raise as UTG however due to it being 6 handed I think it might be ok. He ended up putting me all in with pocket 2's and I get an easy double up. also at the end of the video you see I get dealt aces which I then triple up with so I end up deciding to leave the table shortly after as I have won 6 buyins.

I also cashed in another freeroll on BCH this morning which has helped. It feels good to get back to a profit for the week after going down so much earlier in the week.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $12.71
BCH- $0.17

Total $12.88

Going to keep playing a bit and may add another recording . inviting all feedback and advice.

Pretty decent session today, continued to play TAG poker and just focus on betting hard when I have it and making folds when my hand is marginal, it's actually mind blowing what people will call you down with and pay you off with your strong hands.

I played a lot more BCH tables due to their being more action. on BTC it is very hard lately to get a game going and majority of the players that do play will just win a buyin in and dip straight away, I don't really have an issue with this because it is their money but when they bust a fish who is playing with their whole bankroll (which is very common due to people are mainly free to play) it does kill the games and actions and will break up tables quite often. Due to this and their being no withdraw fees for BCH I tend to find many more players and games on BCH.

I think once I reach the minimum withdraw which is 100k BTC (roughly $60 usd) I will be withdrawing it right away and either putting it into another site where I can get more action. It does get a little boring and tedious playing 3 hour sessions for 30c.

Nothing really crazy but some variance. The reason I am going all in so often is because most players at this bracket will just open shove their stacks preflop with any two which means when I am holding pocket jacks or higher or a suited AK or AQ I will make these calls because it is plus EV imo. I am curious though if I should extend this range to these calls. I did lose 3-4 flips early on however those same players paid me back and I ended up walking away a little over start.

On the BCH tables however I won 20 buyins on a single table and over doubled the bankroll as I was playing cash games with a large percent of the roll as I wanted to get out of playing half a cent buy ins asap.

As long as I'm moving in the right direction I don't mind. this will be a long road I expect at this rate it to take me roughly 6 months to a year but with the rakeback on the site I may be able to get there quicker.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $12.76
BCH- $0.35

Total $13.11

So a pretty decent session again, jumped back up to 5/10 on BTC and won a 2 buyins. played a bit of 1/2 so was playing two tables. I won 8 buy ins on the 1/2 table which was pretty healthy.

Grinded some BTC cash games which are surprisingly super soft adding a couple of buyins as well. haven't had much luck in the free rolls for a few days as it's a giant donkfest and I just haven't been able to win the flips but not the be all and end all.

Made some pretty good hero calls in hands that just didn't make sense from my opponents lines plus I had a substantial amount of hand history with these guys. I have hit the 20k hands played which is pretty decent for playing 2-3 tables at a time.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $15.19
BCH- $0.39

Total $15.58

Had a really solid Session,

Since moving up in stakes it's been pretty easy, players are super soft and tend to just call anything. that said i've had to loosen up my range quite a bit as the games are generally always 2-4 handed which has been good to work on my heads up and short handed play a lot more.

No real hands of interest although I have been reviewing my sessions and continuing to watch as many you tube videos as I can to improve my game. I just keep telling myself that if I can improve a fraction of a percent each day then i'll be in good shape.

it's actually amazing how many tricks you can pick up just by watching your own hands and thinking " I could have bet less/more here" or I probably should have checked here. I'm also thinking about my opponent ranges a lot more.

Current Bankroll

BTC - $21.39
BCH- $0.40

Total- $21.79

continuing to find some pretty soft spots at the 1/2 game, normally most of the games I am playing are heads pp and once you win a buy in they begin to just raise you 17bb's when they have the button and just reraise you every hand, I played the top 20% of my range and just waited till I connected with a flop, also hero called down in a few spots with ace high when I knew I had better show down value on a paired flop as I was able to pick up some sizing tells. They end up just spewing off 3-4 buyins which is good. also as majority of the games I was playing in at the lower stakes were free roll players I have found these stakes have more fish who deposit which is pretty good when I can keep stacking them.

Blockchain allows for me to review hands as a link so I will start sharing some of these, problem is the option to review the hand stops after I play another hand so can get quite hard to keep track of them. Ill start saving some of these links and include them in my next posts.

I have continued to be playing TAG however exploiting when applicable which has been going well. I understand and I have so much to learn but have been staying on track of studying an hour a day ( mixture of hand reviews, YouTube videos, 2p2 threads and various articles)

I am awaiting the negative variance to come back around but while I have been running hot I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

BCH balance dropped a little from using it to buy into a 5c tournie for 2 bullets and losing both. not too phased with this currency at current.


Current Bankroll

BTC - $24.27
BCH- $0.36

Total- $24.63

One thing that I use to check the “optimal” play and look for exploitable strategies is “Gto Check”. Watch the “finding equilibrium” channel on YouTube.

Also, I watched your hand with 88 on the YouTube video, I think that was a good shove. That dudes VPIP WAS 80% I believe. And he obviously has a trend of just trying to run his stack up on “luck”. 88 is probably the bottom of my range when exploiting that type of player. Well done sir.

Thanks, I'll have a look into it

So have continued to play fairly solid sticking to a TAG play style but exploiting when I get a good read, games continue to be fairly soft and I've got some really good notes on most of the regs.

I moved across the bankroll to BCH as thats where the most action is. I've hosted a few freerolls to give back to the community on the site by putting 10% of the bankroll up.

I'm going to start playing more on the 2nl table although I only have 20ish buyins for the table it's fairly soft and I'll drop down to 1nl if I lose 3 buyins.

I've been cashing quite often in the micro tournies which has helped boost me a little.

I'm going to try and post some interesting hands over the week.

I'm studying a lot and playing a lot. Down swings have occurred but due to bankroll mangement ive been fine, a few occasions I've had to drop stakes win some more buyins and then jump up again.

Current bankroll - $47.49

so playing at 2nl feels pretty good in terms of finding relevant info for my stake as I am no longer playing at the micro micro games and have a somewhat adequate roll for the stakes ( at time of this post roughly 26 buy ins). If I fall to 17 buy ins I will drop back down stakes, lord knows I have had to do this already since the last post when I had lost a few flips where I was a 2-1 or 3-1 favourite preflop. Personally I try to avoid all in preflop these days however when someone is jamming all in over my 3 bet and I hold queens-aces or AK I am just not going to fold here. have learnt so much recently climbing this bankroll up that it is better to wait till a good spot then to risk it with medium pairs all in. although vs some villains I am going to call their jams fairly light.

I have continued to study 1 hour a day ( sometimes even 2-3 hours). I have been finding this as a good way to unwind after work and family time and I do enjoy the challenge as a mental exercise and a way to practice discipline. in terms of volume since I have moved across I have only gotten in 20k hands so I know the sample size is not significant so I am more focused on reaching 100k hands at 1/2nl before I think about moving up again.

on an un poker related matter we are looking to purchase our 2nd property early next year to move into as our previous property we have rented out and have been renting closer to family as we moved state late last year. will feel good again being able to not pay someone else's dream and pay that mortgage towards my own ( and banks) pockets. This also reduces our cost of living by $300 a week which will mean I may be able to drop to part time work to focus on raising my daughter and focusing on my hobbies more.

any way still plugging a long but moving in the right direction.

Current bankroll - $55.64

The sun run continues and I ain't complaining one bit, tbh it can be hard to assess your game play when you win all your flips or flop the nuts when you make very marginal calls preflop.

I played in a few mtt's, as stated before they play more like sit and go's as the player pool tends to be 5-6 people with a 30c buyin and first place paying $3. I played two and won both (I'll admit I won all my flips and when I got it in ahead I held). So it's more positive variance then me being greater than the players I played into.

Cash games have gone well, even though playing tight on 1-2 tables gets boring there are generally enough maniacs that make these spots worth while when we do connect strong it seems I'm almost always getting paid off well.

Have been playing some heads up as well.

3k hands in this week which is God awful, just hard when the site struggles to get a 4 handed game of 1/2 together. If there are any Aussies out there that could PM me sites I could play on I'd consider withdrawing and moving across to another site.

Hand reviews continue to be very helpful to me, I'm learning a lot and able to make the right adjustments. I've found myself in far less marginal situations where I don't know what to do.

Anyway despite my lack of volume I have been enjoying the sun run and will continue to make appropriate adjustments as I go.

Current bankroll - $72.86

So has been a pretty good run leading up to the holidays where im most likely going to take a break and enjoy time with the family.

Have loosened up a little and been having some sick results. I decided to withdraw $50 to put into Siacoin, my train of thought is that I dont really need access to the money and if by some chance I run into some bad variance and lose the roll I can always top back up but left myself 10 buyins for 2nl. It also allows for my bankroll to grow a little through Cypto while I can continue to grind the tables.

i've run pretty insane to be honest over the last 1k hands and even took a shot at 5nl where the run good continued netting another $20 in profit which means i'm getting close to playing more 5nl and moving from 2nl. Honestly a lot of these regs tilt very easily and just start jam bluffing and 20x bb raises to open preflop which being in a few of those spots has really really paid off for me.

I understand that negative variance will come but it's part of the journey I suppose. The plan moving forwards is to continue to study and review my sessions, continue to play 2nl but if I see some wild 5nl games I am going to take a 2 buy in shot if I lose this i'll play 2nl to recoup this.

I know this is not really much money for the average player, but to build this from literally nothing is a very very good feeling.

Current bankroll - $91.59

The good approach to the game and bankroll management. This will definitely bring a positive result.
GL!


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Thanks so much! Hopefully we get this bankroll to $500 in 2022