I have read a ton of these so I figured I would give a little back and start a poker goals thread of my own. I have been playing off and on for a few years with my most success playing SNG's 3 years ago. I am now playing cash 6max on FTP since I finally have rakeback.

As of right now I have exactly $500 on FTP and am playing 25nl 6max Rush. I'm playing 4 tables so I'm getting 1k+ hands an hour on average. I work full time so I want to try and encourage myself to play more and to get some advice from others. I'm sure there are plenty of other people in the same boat, at the same levels as me. I am new to rush but really like being able to multitable without spending a ton of time table selecting and monitoring when tables turn bad.

My goals are to progress to 100nl and to play 40k hands a month. Doesn't sound like much but an hour of Rush 4 tabling is mentally draining. The swings are fast and I'm sure 20 buyins are probably not enough. However, if I go broke I have a steady income and can take more shots. I will not move down from 25nl. I will move up when I have 20 buyins for the next level and move down if I lose 5 buyins. I might try mixing in a couple tables of each at the beginning of moving up.

I'm going to try and share session info and a few hands here and there for some constructive criticism as I'm sure I need it.

So far I have 9200 hands in my database and up about 6ptbb/100. I would be really happy to keep this winrate but I'm sure this isn't quite sustainable.

Here is my session stats from tonight.
1098 hands +$19.25
BR $500

I felt like I played pretty bad as a whole this session but also ran pretty horrible on a couple hands. Set vs Set for a stack. 2 outter on the river but those are the breaks. Here is hand that I'm pretty disappointed with.

No read on opponent. Felt like he would be raising smaller on the river with the flush. One big thing I have noticed in big pots is almost all pot sized plus bets on the river are for value. There are quite a few bluffs with half pot bets though. As most people seem to agree with at these stakes you aren't going to do well bluff catching and trying to get people to fold.

Full Tilt Poker $25.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 938618
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $20.99
UTG: $25.00
MP: $25.85
Hero (CO): $28.41
BTN: $30.30
SB: $25.00

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is CO with Q T
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.80, BTN calls $0.80, 2 folds

Flop: ($1.95) 8 9 K (2 players)
Hero bets $1.40, BTN calls $1.40

Turn: ($4.75) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($4.75) J (2 players)
Hero bets $2.90, BTN raises to $28.10, Hero calls $23.31 all in

Good luck man, I think I will be following this, since I can't beat 10NL 6max rush at the moment

I agree with you that almost all overbets/shoves on the river are for value and this line is a flush really most of the time I think. He would and should bet the turn with any hit that you beat on the river. (straights, sets, Kx, 2p) except for QT, but then his flopcall is quite loose.

Didn't play today but plan to play quite a bit over the next few days.

Good thread. Right now i play .25/.50 rush 6max and i agree with your presumption that most potsized+ bets are for value and not thin value either as they usually have 2p+ however i found it mostly applies to the fish at the level.
The regs and good players have balance to their game and i've found that big bets can be for value or to push you off a weak holding. While its just a generalization I look to see how many tables one is playing to roughly determine if player is a reg/good player or a fish. Fish usually play 1 or 2 tables at the most and good players will usually play 3-4. I played 4 tables at .10/.25 level and moved up to .25/.50 and struggled their for a while losing 10 buyins after 50k hands but this month i've cut back to 3 tables and found its really helped out my game. I'm up 20 buyins this month and found i'm not as rushed(no pun intended) and can make better reads. This has cut my hands/hr down to 700 so that sucks but i think it makes up for it with a better win rate. But i would def. play 4 tables at .10/.25.

As for your hand, I think the river is a fold but I usually call in real time as well, it just sucks to hit gutshot and make a str8 and fold but I would make a 4.50 bet on the turn and not check behind. After the flop his calling range is Kx, 9x, 8x, TT, JJ, QQ(player dependent as some will 3bet PF with these hands), flush draws, gutshots, and JT, 76s for OESD. While normally a blank 5 is not a good card to continue bluffing if this case its a good card as the majority of his range is flush draws which i find most nits and fish will fold on the turn for a pot sized bet, and often he'll have hands such as J9, T9, 87, A9 etc and the 5 misses all those hands and he'll have a tough time continuing. He'll call with Kx, and 76s but thats a small portion of his range and i wouldn't be worried about a slowplayed set of 99 or 88 as he would likely raise on the flop since its a drawy and very wet board and KK would 3B preflop. You'll also fold out alot of similar hands like yours such as QT and QJ.

Good luck in your pursuit.

Played a session earlier tonight. Went well. Not much to talk about. Betting for value is the recipe for success.

728 hands
+$69.00

BR $569

Steve thanks for following. Hopefully I can jump to 50nl within a few weeks. What are some of the biggest swings you have seen say over 20k hands or more? Curious as to how cautious I should be with my BR.

Sessions like this are why I started this challenge. Playing just because I want to qualify for iron man is bad idea. Loss 6 buyins and ran 3 buyins -ev. No biggie though. Been doing so well that a session like this was bound to happen. Need to stop stacking off top pair when there is a very good chance villain has an over pair.

698 Hands
-$153.50

BR $415.50

About 1 buyin coming back tomorrow in rakeback. Hopefully I can get in a better mood to play later.