Hi, my name is CLF90 and I am a NL 1/2 Donkey!

First, who am I and why am I here?

I’m a 32 year old male who has always loved live poker. I played on Party Poker for free money as a kid and on Poker Stars as a teenager during the boom. I did it mostly for fun but the truth is…

… I never did like online poker much!

I like to sit at the table, feel the chips, BS with the other players, and really immerse myself into the live play. So while I was a bit upset on Black Friday, it wasn’t the end of the world for me.

After Black Friday I forgot about poker for a while until just before COVID hit. I went to the casino and played live 1/2 NL Holdem for the first time in a casino instead of home games.

I WAS HOOKED!

My first session I bought in for $200 and ended up cashing out nearly $500.

The money was cool but I’m a very competitive person. I also LOVE taking a deep dive into highly complex topics and fields and trying to figure out the “nuts and bolts” who how and why things work. Conquering something complex is my biggest motivator.

Yes, I’m a bit of a nerd. In fact, as a teenager I was also big into computer hacking. Spent hours upon hours learning about hacking. That lead to social engineering which lead to psychology and persuasion which again lead to hours upon hours (upon even more hours) of studying and learning about the art and science of human behavior.

When I get interested in something I tend to go ALL the way…

Back to poker! As soon as I got home from the casino I went onto Amazon and bought three books: Donkey Poker volumes 1 - 3. Collectively these books covered pre-flop, post-flop, and hand reading all specifically geared towards live 1/2 poker. I went though each, took around 40 pages of hand written notes and then purchased a monthly subscription to Advanced Poker Trainer to get some reps in.

One week later I was back at the casino on Friday and Saturday. Over 25 hours of play on both days and I broke even.

Had some stuff come up over the next month and couldn’t play. I was about to go back and play more when COVID hit.

No more poker…

Poker was done for in my state for the time being and until last week I pretty much forgot all about it and immersed myself into other hobbies.

Recently a friend asked me if I wanted to go to the casino and play some poker.

Poker?!? Yes! Of course I would.

I went back and pulled out my old notes, gave them a quick review, and played my first live session in a long while. Unfortunately I was with my friend and he busted out after only 1.5 hours so thats all I got to play as well. I bought in for $100 (The Donkey Poker book advised to buy in short stack when inexperienced for various reasons so I followed that advice) and cashed out $145.

It never really sat well with me that poker is one of my only serious hobbies that I never truly got proficient at. Now I’m going to change that little fact!

My Game Plan and Roadmap

Currently I’m a 1/2 Donk with rudimentary understanding of poker. Where I’m going to end up at is being able to CRUSH NL 5/10.

In between those two points is a gap. To close that gap and to travel from Point A (where I’m at now) to Point B (Crushing 5/10) I need to design and implement a realistic and actionable game plan.

So far my plan is as follows:

1) Sign back up to Advanced Poker Trainer to get reps on on days I can’t get to the casino. While the bots dont play exactly like real human players that doesn’t matter as I’m simply using the software as a way to practice my poker math, remembering my preflop opening ranges, getting good at calculating outs, hand/range reading and essentially using it as a way to ingrain certain things in my head away from the pressures of live play.

2) Get a book on poker math and take a deep dive into it. I hate math but I understand that it’s essential to have a grasp on it to be competitive at poker.

3) Spend one hour a day at least studying. This includes taking notes from poker books/courses, playing on APT, and going over hands.

4) I just purchased the audiobook version of The Mental Game of Poker and will be listening to that while working out.

5) I have a little journal on my phone set up where every time I have a question on something poker related I write it down so I can go research it.

6) I’m applying the Feynman Technique to learning poker. Its a way to breakdown complex topics and learn them quicker and more efficiently.

7) I also bought the book How to study poker and will be giving that a read this week. Learning HOW to learn something is just as important and spending time learning it.

8) Continue playing NL 1/2 and studying until I feel comfortable at the game, am winning, and have the roll to take some shots at 2/5.

9) I also have the books Playing the player by Ed Miller and Advanced Concepts in No-Limit Holdem by Hunter Cichy. After I feel comfortable applying everything from the Donkey Poker books at the tables and am winning I plan to go through both of those books, take notes, and do a deep dive into the material in preparation for playing 2/5.

10) After all that I’m considering signing up to a training site but I’m not really sure which one. Crush Live Poker has a 50 hour course called Beating NL Holdem in 2023 and Beyond that looks promising but I am open to suggestions.

11) Once I am beating 2/5 I plan to get a coach and also start working on using solvers and studying GTO.

That’s my tentative plan for now but I’m sure it will be modified and changed along the way.

I have thick skin and am open to feedback!

Feel free to chime in with advice, criticism, or even silly memes. All good with me!

I have no idea if anyone will read this but I plan to keep it updated with questions I am working on finding the answers to and progress reports on my journey.

Thanks!
CLF90

I was pretty nervous my first session! I think I had a lot of pressure on myself to perform well.

I had a couple of aggressive players at my table that raised a lot of their hands. The only real notable hand I had was TT on the big blind.

Limped around to me and I bet $10 (which was the standard opening raise amount on this table it seemed) and had two callers.

Flop came J-8-9 rainbow.

I donk bet 3/4 pot and had two callers (CO and BTN).

Turn: Q

I bet pot. CO fold and BTN calls.

River: 3

Honestly I don’t remember what I did there (my heart was beating and I was nervous. Gotta get more hours in live so I become acclimated to this) but we ended up showing down and both had the straight and split the pot.

I won a few other small pots by raising decent hands (no pocket pairs) from the BTN and then auto cbetting the dry flops. They would always fold if they didn’t hit.

Lost one or two smaller pots a long the way as well.

First session: +$45

Some things I need to work on:

1) Becoming more comfortable at the table. I remember the very first time I played years ago it was the same for me. Nervous and hard to process stuff. By the third session I was completely comfortable so I’m sure I’ll be fine after another live session or two.

2) Remembering my preflop range from various positions. Will be putting in more hours on APT to ingrain this.

3) Poker math!

Short Term Goal

My longer term goal is to be crushing NL 5/10 but my shorter term goal is that by the end of this year I would like to be a good winning 2/5 player.

I have to always ask myself “Is my level of input sufficient to achieve my desired level of output?”

In other words, I know I’m going to have to put in a lot of work to achieve this which is fine with me. I’m most happy in life when im either with my daughter or when I’m learning something complex and trying to conquer it.

Question for anyone reading:

What’s the best training site or course that would be useful for live cash games?

I’m thinking of signing up to Crush Live Poker and doing their 50hour course but I’m open to suggestions.

I looked at the live poker course from raise your edge but according to the graph of the coaches, they are barely beating 2/5. While they are certainty more skilled than me, if I’m going to pay someone to teach me poker (via a course) I’d like them to be higher winning players themselves.

Suggestions?

Thanks!
CLF90

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Having a firm grasp on poker math is a weakness of mine so I purchased a poker math book. I looked through a few on Amazon and selected the one with the best reviews.

I spent a few hours today going though the book, taking notes, doing the examples and I feel that it has already helped me. The math is definitely not as complicated as I imaged it would be.

I also spent a little time going back though the Donkey Poker books and looking at some information on some post flop spots I wasn’t sure about.

My next live session will be on Thursday but I’ll be playing some Advanced Poker Trainer the next few days to put what I learned about the math into action and get some reps doing it.

Interesting hand from APT. Felt like I played it ok and just got sucked out on but I’m open to opinions on how I could have played it better…

Advanced Poker Training 9-max, Table: Chips on Beach, 9-max, $2 BB (9 handed)
Hand Replay Tool from AdvancedPokerTraining.com

Hero (SB) ($143)
BB ($223)
UTG ($205)
UTG+1 ($198)
UTG+2 ($206)
UTG+3 ($199)
Hijack ($208)
Cutoff ($236)
Button ($182)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, K
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $2, UTG+3 calls $2, Hijack calls $2, Cutoff calls $2, Button calls $2, Hero raises to $12, 3 folds, Hijack calls $10, Cutoff calls $10, Button calls $10

Flop: ($54) 10, 5, K (4 players)
Hero bets $27, 1 fold, Cutoff raises to $93, 1 fold, Hero calls $66

Turn: ($240) K (2 players)
Hero bets $38 (All-In), Cutoff calls $38

Total pot: $316

Hero shows Q K, Three Kings
Cutoff shows Q J, a Ace-high Straight, wins $316

For some reason it doesnt show it but the River was an Ac

Unfortunately I won’t be able to play today like I thought I would and I have my daughter this weekend so I won’t be playing until next Thursday. I’ll Thursday - Sunday free to play as much as I want and get some volume in.

I have two casinos and a few poker rooms available to me but all are around an hour and an half away. Wish I didn’t have to travel so far but at least I have lots of options.

Been studying nearly everyday. Still working though the math book and been playing on APT with my Donkey Poker notes in-front of me.

Also decided I’m going to sign up to Crush Live Poker and do their 50 hour course.

Also found a few poker podcast I’ve been listening to during the day at work.

I’ve found that during some hand review videos I get completely lost sometimes depending how deep into poker theory they go. I’m hoping going through that CLP course will help give me a better foundational understanding of poker.

so you still play poker now ?

Yes. Unfortunately I had some stuff come up in life over the last few months that made me put everything on the back burner but I’m back now!

Instead of CLP I decided to go with RedChipPoker CORE course. I prefer how it’s structured and I’m using it to fill in some theory gaps.

Had a live 5/10 pro tell me that I should also go through the Grinder Manual even though it’s mostly geared towards online 6 max as the book explains many concepts applicable to both and does it well.

Unfortunately due to some personal reasons I won’t be able to get back to love play until January so until then I’ll be studying and working on aspects that I can.