Of all the various categories of "big bluff," I think the one that 25-50nl regs do the most frequently (or the least infrequently) is the river check/raise jam with a hand with showdown value. Just a hunch though.

Thanks Ceres, although I've been running outrageously well. No guarantee I'm even beating 50nl Zoom.

10k hands exactly
14 hours logged but probably managed closer to 20.

-

100nl shot didn't go well. Mostly just run bad, but overthinking some decisions and a lack of focus meant I didn't play as well as I should have. Moving from Zoom + statics back to only statics didn't help, I'm an adhd kid at heart, and in a bid to boost the table count I ended up playing on too many sites at once, getting myself into a muddle and making some costly errors. I have to remember that I've introduced a lot of new concepts into my game in a very short period of time and need time to think things through. Can't rush it.

50nl heater continues though, so only down a bit since the last update.

-

50nl since last update



100nl


Still guessing in way too many spots so going to study like a dog next week. Will play some too of course, probably mostly 50nl but I'll try to at least mix in some 100 as well.

For the week:
Play a minimum of 30 hours and 15k hands
21 hours focused study

Going to update once a week at most going forward, good luck in the meantime everybody.

Managed the second but not the first. I was on track for the first after playing a ridiculous amount at the start of the week but felt a bit burnt out so decided to take the weekend off.

-

Not the greatest week. I ran poorly but played badly throughout and outright terribly at times. Slightly annoyed at myself but I'm going to be a lot more careful next week.

-

Results


Coming week:
15k hands (no more than half Zoom)
21 hours focused study
At least 10 minutes/study or prep before every session

These are weird days to be grinding. So many reasons to do something else slightly less stressful. Have I bothered to cheer up a nurse today? Nope. Have I spent the best part of an hour checking if my A9s cbet should be polar on a QLL flop oop against a fish?

Oh dear.

Hugging nurses? Isn't that how we got into this mess?!

Online poker is super stressful, even when you're essentially playing for fun. Live my mental game is really good, but it's so much easier to maintain your poise when you're in a public setting and playing against people you know for sure you have big edge on.

-

So the week and the month draw to a close, happy with the results overall although a bit disappointed with how my 100nl shot on Stars went and with the week's worth of dodgy play I put in afterwards. Played well last week, all that studying is really starting to pay off in a lot of spots. (Even if I'm still paying off in a few too many spots as well.)

Week
I've started playing some 100nl on a few untracked sites and an app, went on a really nice heater to start but dumped it all back bar $200 or so. Think I'm more or less even for the week.


Month


Hands

In game I thought it was probably a pure call but iirc the solver mainly folds TT here. Stupid spot nonetheless. Was surprised that we can just fold flop at some freq v that sizing.

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $165.91 (332 bb)
MP: $55.67 (111 bb)
CO: $61.45 (123 bb)
BU (Hero): $60.53 (121 bb)
SB: $53.28 (107 bb)
BB: $71.34 (143 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with T♦ T♥
1 fold, MP raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $4.50, 2 players fold, MP calls $3

Flop: ($9.75) 6♥ 4♠ 7♣ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $3.25, MP raises to $13.75, Hero calls $10.50

Turn: ($37.25) 6♦ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero checks

River: ($37.25) 4♣ (2 players)
MP bets $37.42 (all-in), BU (Hero) folds

Total pot: $37.25 (Rake: $1.86)
MP wins $35.39

-

Curious to see if the solver ever checks flop - I rolled low - and whether we can fold river. My hunch is that the solver probably does fold some amount of the time. A bit tilted about the river decision, when I decide to fold and then change my mind it rarely goes well.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $51.50 (103 bb)
MP: $50.86 (102 bb)
CO (Hero): $74.59 (149 bb)
BU: $51.34 (103 bb)
SB: $99.73 (199 bb)
BB: $47.09 (94 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with A♥ A♦
UTG raises to $1.25, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $3.75, 3 players fold, UTG calls $2.50

Flop: ($8.25) Q♥ J♠ Q♣ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($8.25) 6♦ (2 players)
UTG bets $2.35, Hero calls $2.35

River: ($12.95) 2♥ (2 players)
UTG bets $16.61, Hero calls $16.61

Total pot: $46.17 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
UTG shows J♦ J♣ (a full house, Jacks full of Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 19%, Flop: 83%, Turn: 91%, River: 100%)

CO (Hero) mucks A♥ A♦ (two pair, Aces and Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 81%, Flop: 17%, Turn: 9%, River: 0%)

UTG wins $44.17

For the month
2 hours of study/day
50k tracked hands
Be established at 100nl on Stars and 200nl elsewhere

For the week
Have to do some real work today and maybe tomorrow but I'll try to get 14k hands in over the course of the week.
2 hours study/day seems reasonable. I have two weeks left of RIO elite so want to make the most of it.
No tilty sessions

Thanks for reading, gl everybody.

terrible play with the J10, something a 2NL player would do, you have to stop making mistakes like this.

I love this guy

“If you are distressed by the way he plays JT, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


Genuine exasperation at OP's donk play. Honestly, I feel his pain.

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Last week - 50nl


Playing some 100nl on mysterious untracked sites and 200nl on a private app game I have access to. The 200nl is very soft - it's basically a live game - but only runs in the morning in my current timezone. Won't be including results of any of these ventures because a) I don't know them and b) it's not "real" 100/200nl and therefore doesn't count towards the goal outlined in the thread's title.

Studying is going well, 2 hours/day is basically routine now. Feeling really quite confident in my game and going to try and commit to mixing in a lot more 100nl on Stars from this weekend.

GL!

Firmly invested in this thread for the clapbacks!

Feeling confident and winning money is cool too though... I guess.

Anybody calling themselves BestToEverDoIt? who then struggles to get past 50nl despite studying for 2 hours a day frankly deserves a bit of abuse. So far only one man has risen to the occasion.

OP way too sassy, he needs to look at that.

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Last last week was a bit of a stinker IIRC, played some tracked 100nl and lost 3 BI in <30bb pots in like 300 hands. Last week went much better though, low volume but caught some heat.

8th-21st


Volume has really tanked and continues to be low this week. I'm slightly bored with playing if I'm honest, I'm in a weird zone where I'm not good enough to really crank up the table count, but playing some combination of 2-4 statics and 2-4 Zoom tables for like 3-500 hands/hour isn't really stimulating enough. Watching the YouTube poker lot I think the ability to play lots of tables well is one of the main differences between the 200-500nl online pros and low stakes enthusiasts like myself. Obviously they're better technically as well, but I think the ability to churn out hands is underrated.

Deposited on an iPoker skin to clear a bonus. First impression was that the games are soft, but the high rake and bots make me think that I'm better off sticking to Stars. The bots add a really weird dynamic, maybe half the reg population are like myself, nice lads trying their best but not really playing very well, and then the other half are just these beastly GTO machines. Makes it quite difficult to adjust.

Still studying a lot. I've built about 8 databases in GTO+ and I just play against them and make notes. The databases are all identical in terms of the boards they contain, which makes it really easy to see how strategies change with the pre-flop positions and other variables. Quite happy with it, and playing against the solver has replaced backgammon as my main mindless time sink.

Hands

Slightly spewy, small mistake according to GTO+. In game my thinking didn't really go beyond "I have a nice blocker and you never call and win here." Calling=folding > Raising small > Jamming, according to the solver.

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.25/€0.50 - 5 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: €51.30 (103 bb)
CO: €51.25 (103 bb)
BU (Hero): €77.40 (155 bb)
SB: €50.00 (100 bb)
BB: €27.53 (55 bb)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75) Hero is BTN with T♠ T♣
UTG raises to €1.50, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to €4.50, 2 players fold, UTG calls €3

Flop: (€9.75) J♥ 2♣ 5♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets €3, UTG calls €3

Turn: (€15.75) Q♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (€15.75) 7♠ (2 players)
UTG bets €12, Hero raises to €69.90 (all-in), UTG calls €31.80 (all-in)

Total pot: €103.35 (Rake: €3)

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows T♠ T♣ (a pair of Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 54%, Flop: 9%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

UTG shows J♠ A♠ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 46%, Flop: 91%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

UTG wins €100.35

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Vs a likely bot - although I didn't know that at the time. Looks like a terrible call.

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.25/€0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: €104.18 (208 bb)
MP: €53.75 (108 bb)
CO: €50.48 (101 bb)
BU: €218.57 (437 bb)
SB: €50.00 (100 bb)
BB (Hero): €62.93 (126 bb)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75) Hero is BB with 5♥ Q♥
4 players fold, SB raises to €1.50, Hero calls €1

Flop: (€3) 8♥ 5♣ 3♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (€3) 5♦ (2 players)
SB bets €2.10, Hero calls €2.10

River: (€7.20) A♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets €5.18, SB raises to €46.40 (all-in), Hero calls €41.22

Total pot: €100 (Rake: €3)

Showdown:
SB shows A♥ 5♠ (a full house, Fives full of Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 72%, Flop: 60%, Turn: 68%, River: 100%)

BB (Hero) shows 5♥ Q♥ (three of a kind, Fives)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 28%, Flop: 40%, Turn: 32%, River: 0%)

SB wins €97

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You block the nuts - Jam!
Vindicated, solver says
But a poorer man.

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.25/€0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (Hero): €52.61 (105 bb)
MP: €57.42 (115 bb)
CO: €51.18 (102 bb)
BU: €64.02 (128 bb)
SB: €50.49 (101 bb)
BB: €50.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75) Hero is UTG with A♠ A♦
Hero raises to €1.25, 4 players fold, BB calls €0.75

Flop: (€2.75) 9♦ 5♦ 7♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (€2.75) 8♦ (2 players)
BB bets €2.06, Hero calls €2.06

River: (€6.87) 6♥ (2 players)
BB bets €5.65, Hero raises to €49.30 (all-in), BB calls €41.04 (all-in)

Total pot: €100.25 (Rake: €3)

Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows A♠ A♦ (a straight, Five to Nine)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 83%, Flop: 66%, Turn: 16%, River: 0%)

BB shows T♦ K♦ (a flush, King high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 17%, Flop: 34%, Turn: 84%, River: 100%)

BB wins €97.25

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Just wrecked. I blame every reg except myself for not value shoving wide enoiugh here, leaving my (our) bluffing range exposed.

iPoker, Hold'em No Limit - €0.25/€0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: €89.07 (178 bb)
MP: €77.47 (155 bb)
CO: €96.21 (192 bb)
BU (Hero): €83.48 (167 bb)
SB: €54.80 (110 bb)
BB: €50.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: (€0.75) Hero is BTN with A♣ Q♦
3 players fold, Hero raises to €1.25, 1 fold, BB 3-bets to €5.62, Hero calls €4.37

Flop: (€11.49) 5♦ K♠ J♠ (2 players)
BB bets €3.79, Hero calls €3.79

Turn: (€19.07) 3♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets €6, BB calls €6

River: (€31.07) 6♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets €38.83, BB calls €34.59 (all-in)

Total pot: €100.25 (Rake: €3)

Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows A♣ Q♦ (high card, Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 45%, Flop: 40%, Turn: 23%, River: 0%)

BB shows 8♥ 8♦ (a pair of Eights)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 55%, Flop: 60%, Turn: 77%, River: 100%)

BB wins €97.25

A lot of stolen valor with the HHs I post, in reality I'm still too nitty and usually talk myself out of the big river bluffs.

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I'll try to grind a lot over the next few days, I'd like to reach 40k hands for the month.

Oof. Fair play for posting those.

I got bored too, before my break. I started to wonder if I can ever handle the kind of workload required to make micro/low stakes gambling financially appetising enough to keep up the discipline to play and win consistently. Keeping the wolf from kicking down the door and doing 'a Berkey' when you know you could be using that god-given brain for more interesting times is tough.

Still, breaking even over a rough stretch at a decent limit aint too bad either.

I think Q5 is the worst of the bunch, even without the benefit of the result we can say that against pop it's a fairly easy fold.

That boredom I mentioned isn't really related to my results, although obviously playing is more entertaining when you're winning. I think as more and more decisions become standard the grind gets less stimulating, until you add more tables and the cycle repeats. All of my attempts to get above 600 hands/hour have been utterly disastrous though, so I'm just going to have to grin and bear the slower grind. Should say that even including these slower streches I still find playing net-enjoyable. (Given my current hourly I wouldn't be doing it otherwise!)

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February

Excludes -$150 at 100nl. I'm sure I lost closer to 3 BI overall there, but that's what HEM says, who knows. Cleared a $100 bonus and got about $200 in rakeback to more or less cancel it out anyway.

Happy enough with the month, played quite badly in stretches towards the end but overall I maintained a decent standard. IÂ’m going to start recording my sessions and then randomly watching them back later, thereÂ’s nothing like a stretch in the panopticon to keep you disciplined.

For March:
1.5k hands/day
2 hours study/day
15k hands @ 100nl

Great read! I'm playing 50z, and pretty similar volume goals, pretty cool thread.

In for the long haul - next PGC 100nl -1knl?

Observations (after reading entire thread):

Hand 1 is not pio range, so raising it non gto. UTG played it well pre. TT should be a call vs utg pre. Also, the 3bet size is a little smaller, 3.75 to $4. UTG should call a 3bet with QQ-88, AQs-ATs, A4s, KTs+, JTs, AQo+ from the BU. He should 4bet with stronger hands. there are only 5 combos in that range which lose to your hand. One combo ties. 8 combos beat. (I could be a bit off on the math). Not only did the flop hit villains hand, he improved by the river. A fold/call would have been wise on the River?

Hand 2: Bad beat. it happens. Doesn't look like Bot play. Your call was perfectly fine in PIO.

Hand 3: Though we love our AA, it is still just a pair, and I need to work on my jams with it as well. but solver will say call or fold, since there is a straight out there besides a flush.

Hand 4: Either shove turn or check. Personally, while building a roll, less bluffing, AQ not that great a hand. Around here, I see it very often overused the same as AK. Just my opinion.

Thanks, I missed your thread but will subscribe straight away. I really enjoy reading other 50nl grinders' PG+Cs.

I hope to be at least breakeven at 200nl on Stars by the summer, I think that's my ceiling given the amount of time I can commit to online poker at the moment. If I can get organised and properly get on the apps I'll play higher, but it's been a year since I last played live and my tolerance for swings has just disappeared.

Hi, good on ya for reading the entire thread, you're clearly made of stern stuff

1) Because of the rake, against regs I play 3B or fold from every position except the BB. Tilting because TT seems like a hand that really likes flatting pre here, although I'm sure it would still 3bet a decent chunk even if I had a split 3bet/flatting range.

2) .

3) Bluff-jamming with the nut blocker and no showdown (or, in this case, as little showdown as possible) is very rarely terrible.

4) I think I agree that a turn check is best. It feels like an unnecessary bluff given how many better bluff combos we have, although we can bluff a lot here so I don't think it's as big a mistake as it might look.

-

Managed to play a decent amount in the evening and at night so found myself in better games/pools.

Now that I have a decent sample at 50 and have developed an ok auto-piloting strategy to default to I'm not really playing as creatively/aggressively as I was before. It's hard though, the rake is just such a killer at the micros that folding - especially pre - always seems like such a tempting option.

In related news I discovered that the BB ranges I've been using are way too loose for the rake at the micros. Not a total disaster given the fact I've been playing a decent amount tighter than them anyway, but still a massive leak that I'm glad I've plugged.

Graph - missing some zoom hands but more or less correct.


For the week:
2 hours studying/day
10k hands

Cool results man, good goals although 2 hours a day is a lot I think.

About the BB thing - the sizing matters a good amount. At 50z I see regs open a ton of sizings, 2x, 2.2x, 2.5x, 3x, even 3.5x. So you can't just play ranges for 2.2x because then you are overdefending vs. a 3x. Making intuitive adjustments is probably the most practical thing to do.

It's a pretty casual 2 hours to be honest, mostly just playing against the solver/running sims and watching videos. Hopefully this coming week I'll be a bit more focused.

Yeah you're right, and even though I hadn't seen defence ranges v 2x or 3x opens I was mostly making intuitive adjustments based on an offhand Jarretman comment that ranges change more than you think v larger/smaller raise sizes pre.

-

Slightly odd week of poker. Hit a nice upswing at 50nl and then, in time-honoured tradition, dumped it away at 100nl. I'm not too concerned. I think it's very possible my hourly is higher at 50 than at 100, but I'm going to play a lot more 100 going forward, even if it just mixing in a few 100nl tables to my 50nl grind. Playing well and enjoying the grind again, at 100 I really try and focus on my decisions and the motivation to really analyse hands has returned.

100nl


50nl


Have a free week ahead of me so should be able to study and play a decent amount. Going to write down a few more specific study goals for the week as I've been procrastinating on a few things for some time:

- Double the size of all existing GTO+ databases, revise notes on all
- Finish 4bet pot databases
- Study monotone boards

GL all

Did none of these and barely studied at all. Hopefully get back on the study horse this week.

-

About halfway through the week, enjoying a little upswing, I decided to calculate my evBB win-rate for the duration of the thread. I was happy to see that it's over 5bb/100: so happy, in fact, that I decided to celebrate by dumping 16 buy ins over my next two sessions. Took Sunday off as penance but hopefully back to the grind this week.

Graph Missing +$80 at 50nl and -$200 at 100nl


Alright, let's try and actually do these this week:
- Double the size of all existing GTO+ databases, revise notes on all
- Finish 4bet pot databases
- Study monotone boards
- 10k hands

GL all.

Gotta love that rapid 8x all-in downswing at the end there.

Play well and still die, so much more fun.

It was so brutal as to almost be amusing. I felt like a bit of a dickhead.

-

Decent week, studied a good amount and played fairly well. Stayed away from 100nl and didn’t play any untracked either, so decent volume at 50nl. Something’s clicked and I’m averaging around 600 hands/hour, which is decent. I feel like I could push up to 800 fairly easily as I’ve finally got the hang of mixing fast-fold and statics.

-

Graph



Will take another shot at 100nl this week: yes, 100nl regs, after a lean 10 days, meat is back on the menu.

-

For the week:
10k hands
Stop donking off 3 hours a day playing GeoGuessr

How many tables are you playing? 600 hands an hour for 3 tables seems like you are wasting time. On 50b at ACR (20 sec time banks) 3 tables was 750 hands for me and 200b (80 sec time banks) 3 tables was at least 650.

Anyway, good results, and great volume. I miss playing zoom

Good batch B2. Slay those 100nl fakers.

Thanks mate, 600 hands was my average across all sessions that week, including periods in which I was just taking it easy and playing a few statics whilst messing around on the web. I play 2-3 tables of Zoom, averaging roughly 225 hands an hour/table. I also don't play that much Zoom, it's no more than like 30% of my volume.

@Ceres - Alas, they will remain unslain.

-

On advice from a friend I've decided to start bumhunting higher stakes on American apps and I imagine that'll be the vast majority of my volume going forward. This, coupled with the fact I'm really trying to spend less time online nowadays, means I think it's a decent point at which to wrap this thread up. Slightly disappointed I failed to get established at 100nl on Stars or iPoker, but I'm pretty sure I'm beating the statics at that stake for at least some bb/100, and I'm confident that I've improved a load.

-

50nl YTD


100nl YTD

+$600-700 in rakeback

Thanks to those who gave advice or otherwise posted itt, it was really a pleasure to read everyone's comments. GL in poker and in life.

Thread has been great so far and I'm glad you've enjoyed it! I hope the thread is reborn in many months with tales of the riches you've made. Gl on the apps

^^ yep, seconded

Thanks lads, it's appreciated!