Hi guys,

Longtime lurker of this site as well as others, I don't even have social media outside of Linkedin for work so this is way outside my comfort zone, but I feel a necessary step on my journey to poker glory.

About Me

I'm a standard 28 year old with a relatively normal life working as a financial adviser with a decent enough standard of living but no savings (ironic given the job). Growing up I'd always been competitive with sports or any games and I was never satisfied unless I was one of if not the best. My Dad unknowingly helped cultivate this obsession and competitiveness from a young age, I remember playing the PS1 game Motoracer and setting the fastest laps on certain tracks, he would wake up at 6 the following morning with the sole intent of destroying our times before school that day so if we logged on before school we could see our accomplishments crushed, the sick b*stard haha. My Dad, sibling rivalry and numerous other events have led to the obsessive streak to my personality which brings me on to my history with Poker.

Poker Background

My friends introduced me to Poker around the age of 14 after coming back from a Skiing trip where some older kids had taught them to play. As we all are when we start out I was useless but hungry to win. At first I didn't realise how much skill was involved so I researched and learned how to fix decks and deal from the bottom, I was a young Mike Postle in the making. During one of our games I attempted to and succeeded in switching the deck for a fixed one so that I would stack two friends where I had a straight flush vs quads and a full house. A few weeks went by and I was guilt ridden, only a scumbag would rip their friends off so I confessed, returned my winnings and was banned from dealing at all future homegames. 14 years have gone by and I'm still banned from dealing and rightly so.

On my quest to learn the game and win in a noble fashion I stumbled across Twoplustwo, I spent roughly 20 hours a week studying the stickied threads, reading hand histories etc.and began to crush our home games. This site was a goldmine, logging on in the last few weeks I still recognise peoples Avatars and I still remember a few names that I don't see here anymore, there used to be a contributor called Pokey who used to put out a lot of great content. One day I stumbled across a thread from a guy who was offering Poker Coaching and as he was getting a lot of replies from people saying that his higher stakes strategy wouldn't apply to the micros so he started a bankroll challenge. I think his name was Veneer, or something similar but I haven't been able to track down that old thread. After following the thread I was hooked, this was my calling in life and I was going to build a bankroll from nothing and replicate his glory. The only problem, I was 3-4 years too young.

Fast forward to age 16, I had spent the last 18 months studying my usual 20+ hours per week and I was itching to play online. My parents hate gambling so if I was caught using the family computer I'd of been in big trouble. I had now started a part-time job though and had a small amount of money. I was able to get a laptop on finance (no idea how), through my friend who worked at Currys (UK electrical store), it was a 11 inch or so laptop and the contract included a dongle so that I could connect to the internet from anywhere (Poker apps didnt exist back then as far as I'm aware).

The journey began with $70~ and PokerTracker microstakes edition age 16 in 2008. I studied poker after school or work and in the darkness of night grinded out microstakes whilst my parents slept. In a few months I had reached $550. I had studied so much I could visualise ranges looking at HUD's, I could narrow down peoples ranges post flop with unreal accuracy, I was a god, or so I thought. I took a few shots at 50NL but I was blind without HUD, I was arrogant enough to think I could beat them without it but I was wrong. I suffered a dent in my bankroll down to $400~ went full degen and started playing 100NL heads up until the bankroll disappeared quicker than my ego.

With a $0 bankroll and no money other than the equivalent of $30 in my bank account I had no way to recoup my roll other than tourneys. I deposited my last $30 and with the last $5 of that $30 won a $4.40 tourney on Fulltilt for a little over $450, I was back baby! At this time I returned to my microstakes cash games with the occasional tournament. One day however I fell asleep mid tourney and when I was woken for work the following morning by my Dad sh*t hit the fan. I withdrew my bankroll my laptop was confiscated and the journey was over. Shortly after I spent my roll on a lads holiday and didn't return to online Poker until now - 13 or so years later.

COVID 19 brought with it the rise of the online home game and with it re-ignited my love for the game. After winning a few online home games I turned $25 into $250 then blew it all on tourneys I was underolled for. I deposited another $150 and blew most of it down to $60 on tourneys again. Then I decided it's time to get serious, I bought HM3 created a relatively aggressive 20BI bankroll strategy (slighlty lower for 2-5nl), only taking shots at 22BI and returning back down at 20BI and began my journey, creating a poker diary writing down my lessons for the day and studying hand histories.

1 week in I realise I can't do it alone, I need the TwoPlusTwo wisdom to flow through my veins once more, I'd like to invite you to join me on my journey to part time poker greatness.

The Challenge

• $60~ to $10k by 30th May 2021
• Playing 3 hours of 2 tables per day or roughly 4,000 hands per week.
• Post here 2-3 times per week with hand histories or general thoughts and strategy

Thank you for all reading this incredibly long post if you managed to get this far. Any thoughts, comments, questions and advice are greatly appreciated!

See you at the tables.

1st Week Of Play.

First 700-800 hands at 2NL and the rest at 5NL.

After posting my thread decided I would play a few hours since it was a quite day of work. Managed to 3 table for 3 hours and here are the results and some hand histories:

Free Money

Villain is VPIP/PFR: 18/12 0% 3bet. (only 17 Hands) No notes.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 4 players

UTG: $5.95 (119 bb)
BU (Hero): $8.97 (179 bb)
SB: $5.00 (100 bb)
BB: $7.58 (152 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with T A
UTG raises to $0.12, Hero calls $0.12, SB 3-bets to $0.60, 2 players fold, Hero calls $0.48

Flop: ($1.37) 4 T 3 (2 players)
SB bets $0.75, Hero calls $0.75

Turn: ($2.87) T (2 players)
SB bets $1, Hero calls $1

River: ($4.87) 7 (2 players)
SB bets $1.95, Hero raises to $6.62 (all-in), SB calls $0.70 (all-in)

Total pot: $10.17 (Rake: $0.42)




Hero Call Fail

Villain is VPIP/PFR: 32/23, 8% 3bet (77 hands). No notes other than seemed splashy.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players

UTG: $5.99 (120 bb)
MP (Hero): $8.57 (171 bb)
CO: $4.70 (94 bb)
BU: $6.89 (138 bb)
SB: $5.00 (100 bb)
BB: $6.04 (121 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with T A
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.15, 3 players fold, BB calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.32) 2 8 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.32) 7 (2 players)
BB bets $0.12, Hero calls $0.12

River: ($0.56) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $0.41, Hero calls $0.41

Total pot: $1.38 (Rake: $0.06)



Poorly played hand?

Villain is VPIP/PFR: 18/14, 3bet: 6%, 178 Hands. Notes: Weak tight aggressive, 3bets a strong linear range. Not seen bluffing or getting too out of line.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players

UTG: $2.50 (50 bb)
MP: $3.79 (76 bb)
CO (Hero): $9.89 (198 bb)
BU: $8.12 (162 bb)
SB: $4.73 (95 bb)
BB: $6.16 (123 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.12) Hero is CO with T 9
UTG checks, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.15, BTN 3-bets to $0.45, 3 players fold, Hero calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.02) 8 A J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($1.02) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.75, BTN raises to $3.23, Hero raises to $9.44 (all-in), BU folds

Total pot: $7.48 (Rake: $0.31)
CO (Hero) wins $7.17

Easy call or easy fold?

CO: VPIP/PFR: 47/11, 3bet: 7%, 47 Hands. Notes - Splashy, calls of light, value bets in spots where it wouldnt make sense. CR seems polarised to a draw or nut hand

BB: VPIP/PFR: 20/16, 3bet: 12%, 225 Hands. Notes - 3 bets a lot, but mainly as an iso squeeze, seems relatively standard, not seen anything too crazy from him.

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players

UTG: $6.66 (133 bb)
MP: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO: $3.81 (76 bb)
BU: $5.30 (106 bb)
SB (Hero): $11.03 (221 bb)
BB: $5.81 (116 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with A Q
1 fold, MP raises to $0.15, CO 3-bets to $0.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.23, BB calls $0.20, MP calls $0.10

Flop: ($1) 4 Q 5 (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP checks, CO bets $0.48, Hero calls $0.48, BB raises to $0.96, MP folds, CO calls $0.48, Hero calls $0.48

Turn: ($3.88) 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $3.72, CO calls $2.60 (all-in), SB (Hero) folds

Would really appreciate any thoughts comments or help with the hands played?

As a whole the session went OK, finished up at $111.33 so great in terms of BB/100 but left a tonne of value behind in certain spots, can't make money consistently if I play bad and just get lucky.

Fold river hand 2. I'm never hero calling here with AT. Want AQ+ to hero off ~80% pot bet. Lots of 8's and 7's in his range, you're effectively calling to catch his missed flush draws, of which he doesnt have any because you have As.

Hand 3 you can make the argument for calling or jamming for protection against flush draws. TBH with that raise size I'm amazed he didnt call off.

Hand 4 I fold and expect some random crap like 4-6 or 7-8 to show up here.

hey, gl with your challenge!

@AT herocall, I don´t think Ahi rivercalls are very +ev against most villains and then AT is not very far up in your range. Here you picked up a good read on something that you can exploit from this villain, but generally I think AT is too lose to call here.

@T9s, that´s a weird spot.. wouldn´t expect a tight player to raise/fold much here and it´s going to be hard to get your money in oop but it´s probably better to call so he can bluff or shove thin on the river. But given he´s pretty nitty he probably wouldn´t do that anyway.

@AQ, I think 4betting preflop is a lot better than calling. Playing from the SB multiway sucks a lot, so you want to isolate CO. He has only 76bb as well so you can call a shove.
As played it´s already close on the flop. Minraise is just so nutted most of the time. Turn is definitely a fine fold.

Hey Karmadope. Thank you for your reply.

Hand 2) Really interesting. How do we decide on AQ+ here? For me in the at these stakes I am purely playing an exploit style of play vs most villains. I felt there was an inconsistency in his line and that he would have bluffs far more frequently than value hands (a mixture of a player and 5nl field based read). Instead of thinking I should call with X+ here I thought a call would be profitable most of the time vs the bet and I would of probably done it with most aces (probably a leak). How do I decide what AX is good enough if we assume his range has more bluffs than value hands (that's a real struggle for me)?

Hand 3) I was surprised he didn't call off too. I was less jamming for protection and more thinking that there would be a few river cards that would complete draws and kill my action and given the raise size assumed he'd be calling off with top pair, two pair or a set given what he had behind. Given this hand I'd be making a note to semi-bluff more frequently vs this player.

Hand 4) Ye, I was happy to stack off vs cut off but when BB straight pots the turn he could just be doing this for value with KQ. When the CO fish calls I expected him to either have some two pair type hand or occasionally a straight or set. I was happy getting it in vs either of them but not both of them given the action.

Hey mate, thank you, follow along if you can!

@AT Ye i've had mixed results with these hero calls. I'll post one later today where it worked from yesterdays session. Given that we feel villain has too many bluffs in his range at river how light are you calling off? Small pairs+, AK+.

@T9s Ye, I'm still torn on this one. I think stack size is a huge consideration I wasn't paying enough attention to during the hand. Maybe if we were at 100BBs effective the shove is correct but at the stack depth calling off and hoping to get it all in on the river is correct. I'd of still jammed most rivers though and my thoughts were a club or another connecting card to the straight might kill my action. Really confused on this one.

@AQ Glad you brought that up. When I first started playing 5nl I'd apply a 3bet or fold strategy from the smallblind. After a while I noticed that the general player base over-folds to 3 bets so against conventional wisdom of applying a linear 3 bet to extract value at these stakes I've been extremely polarised in my 3 bets. Also people 3bet way too tight in general so calling often doesn't get punished (i check the 3 bet stats of the players to left before calling light) My rational for this was that I could extract more value this way and I call far more often than I normally should when facing a raiser. So I 3 bet an extremely polarised range of very strong hands and the very bottom of my range. Ordinarily I would of 3 bet but I didn't want to 4bet as it seemed like I would be turning AQ into essentially a bluff. Looking at the hand again and given the weird 3bet size I think you're right and a 4bet (with intention to fold to 5bet from UTG) to isolate the weak player is by far best so that I can play for stacks with him easily post flop when I hit. OK well atleast I didn't mess up post flop as badly as pre haha.

That's a great story! It's a shame you left the game for 13 years. Was it just a case of losing interest in poker? It seems unusual to not play at all for so long after getting really into it and having some early success.

It's strange how many parents just don't properly understand the requirement for time investment in poker. I suppose it's just a question of growing up in different eras and technology, lifestyle, etc., but it is frustrating.

I think many just liken poker to video games, yet the difference in productivity between spending hours straight on each is huge, and it's not like you can pause/save an MTT and continue later.

Sorry, I misworded hand 2. I generally like AK/AQ to call off ace highs at the micros as fish tend to like barrelling AK-AT but will check back Ax non broadway. However, in this hand I'm never hero calling at all, we block most of his bluffing hands bar pure air as we hold the As.

Yeah, definitely make that note on hand 3, good profitability there. With regard to hand 4, I'd almost be considering folding there even if CO folds. Only crazy players barrel nearly full pot with <1 pair and your read on BB is that he is competent for 5nl, and his stats, albeit short, back that up. From experience, it seems like a set and played fishily to draw the known fish in (CO).