Hi, I recently started a poker bankroll challenge with 50 bucks, I've been wanting to share my progress with someone but was unsure where, so figured why not 2+2 ��.

I've always loved poker ever since I discovered a late night episode of "High Stakes Poker".

I'll keep my intro short, I've started with 50 bucks on stars, I'm not sure where my goal to end up is? At least 50nl, a roll for 100nl world be awesome. I'm not bothered about getting rich, I just love the game and want to become a good cash game reg, good enough to not have to deposit again and stay in action.

I have a regular job, but get lots of time to myself to play. Some days I may fit in a 7 or 8 hour session, others just 2, but I'll try to play most days. As I go I'm continuing to work on my game as I expect at some point the games will get harder, possibly 25nl?


I started at 5nl, so a whole 10 buy ins, I was prepared to re-deposit if needed but luckily it all went smoothly And I was quickly up to 180 bucks, I'm not sure where my risk tolerance is for moving up stakes buy in wise, how many I'd like before taking a shot, I imagine the higher the stake the more buy ins I'd like. Anyway at 180 bucks I took a shot at 10nl, and again the pool is super soft at 10nl as expected and I'm crushing again for a crazy win rate over 20bb/100. I'm playing 2 tables of zoom at a time, so seeing around 450 ish hands an hour. My first session was on the 5/05/24 and I'm up to $346. I'll post graphs and sessions here, I'm not sure how often, perhaps weekly. I think before taking a shot at 25nl I'd like at least 25 buy ins, so I'll be grinding 10nl for a little longer. I've collected some money in bonuses, I'm hoping the bonuses will help the more I play.

Anyway I guess that's all I have to say, I'll post my graph and most recent sessions. BTW my username is Spac3m0nkey [Uploading Image...]

I thought I had added this.

I played another session today before work, 3 hours 23 minutes. I'm looking forward to reaching 100k hands to see how my win rate is effected as I move up and as I get a larger sample size. Currently I've only played just over 20k hands.

Nice work mate, I'll be following your progress. Best of luck on the tables!

Looks great, gl mate.

@AussiePheonix

Awesome man, thanks for the support.

I've been playing for a few hours so far today, and so far it's going very well. I'm looking forward to having enough to take a shot at 25nl.

I just thought I'd take a break to make a post and mention some things that others may or may not be doing, and people's thoughts on them.

1 thing which I think many probably do is I don't have a flatting range from the HJ or CO and hardly any in the SB, I play a 3 bet or fold strategy. I think this helps keep my range uncapped and also lowers the chance of being squeezed and also forces out some equity from the blinds. On the button I play a mixed strategy.

Something else I'm doing which I'm not sure how common this is, but I'm playing limp only from the SB.
My reasoning here is that I don't want to bloat the pot when OOP, also I believe people play very poorly vs the limp node, it also allows me to get some big c/r in with top of range.
For example with AA, if I raise and get called the pot will be what, 7-8bb roughly. Getting all the money in when deep is tough with such a high spr. So I play limp only so I can get a big c/r in vs an iso. I 3 bet to at least 4x, I'm not bothered about loosing value vs the bottom of their range, I'm more interested in lowering the SPR and getting as much in as possible vs the top of their range. If I limp, vs and iso I get to raise to 16bb, when called that's a 32bb pot and way easier to get the money in. This is my reasoning for playing limp only from the sb. If anyone else has experimented with a limp only strategy from the sb I'd be interested to hear about it.

Anyway back to the grind

Keep up thebhard work, GL mate.

Why not figure out if BB is folding a lot?
If he folds more then he should, you are leaving money on the table.
Against some other players you can play a limp/raise strategy.

Yesterday I played for over 9 hours as it was a day off, another day off today so another day of poker. First though, breakfast, coffee, some exercise and a walk outside. Then back to the grind.

I'm now just under 25k hands, getting closer to 400 bucks and another bonus, yay. I really want to move up to 25nl but must respect the game and have enough buy ins to protect against variance. I'm confident I can beat 25nl, I just want more money first. I'm thinking I'll allow myself a 8-10 buy in shot, if I drop below that then I'll move back down. So perhaps around 750 bucks? That's 30 buy ins and take a 10 buy in shot.

Anyway after my walk and coffee I'll have a brief study session then get grinding. I'm not focusing massively on studying atm, more volume. As over the years I've done a lot of studying! I believe most the knowledge is there to beat these stakes, obviously as I move up I'll encounter tougher opponents and the edges will become smaller so I will still continue to study and fine tune my game, it's just not my main focus atm. My main focus is building the roll and getting a lot of volume in.

Anyway I wish everyone who's embarking on a similar journey good luck, and those who have already built their roll it would be good to hear from. Any advice is welcome, peace and love

Well my graph has taken a nose dive since taking a shot at 25nl yesterday, I lost less than 4 buy ins but it's still a large portion of my current roll, looks like I'll be grinding 10nl for a little longer, I was hoping it would go smoothly and I'd boost the bankroll.
One good thing about the experience is seeing just how soft the pool is again, the players are just as bad at 25nl, if anything it was even fishier than 10nl.
I lost some big pots, a whale jammed 33 into my QQ pre for a 60 buck pot, then another spiked a straight on the turn with 97o in a 3 bet pot vs my KK, then lots of other similar situations.
But hey I guess I can see this as an opportunity to be disciplined and work on my mental game. I'll move back down to 10nl, grind it back and take another shot.
Pretty annoying it has ruined my beautiful graph which was all positive, but experiencing the first downswing in my challenge may be good for me.

Keep the faith! Handling the bigger swings at NL25 will be the key so you indeed need to be correctly rolled!

GL and keep writing!

@ Captain Runners

For sure, I need more money to take shots. I was a little impatient, I don't feel I lost to bad play however just variance, 25nl is very beatable.
For now though I guess I'll have to be patient and build a roll at 10nl.

Today I'm working, after work I think instead of going straight back to the grind I'm going to go on a hike for a few hours up this small mountain that's next to me, then put a short 2 or 3 hour session in afterwards. Hopefully the exercise and time in nature will give me some clarity and focus.

At least I'm confident in my ability, I just needed a good run yesterday but unfortunately it swang the other way. I'm sure at some point though I'll break through and will be grinding 25nl and aiming for 50nl next.

I'll keep the updates coming. Thanks for the encouragement

Where are you? looks like a very nice place!

Patience is the key, the good run will come eventually

I'm in North Wales, it's pretty awesome here, I'm only a short walk from Snowdon, or Yr Wyddfa as it's now called.

I have been thinking about my bankroll and my strategy for moving up to 25nl, I'm beating 10nl comfortablly, and I'm confident I can beat 25nl, so I don't want to waste time unnecessarily building a big roll at 10nl, I think I'll take a more aggressive approach.

My current roll is 285 dollars, my plan is to grind it back to at least 350 dollars at 10nl. Then take another shot at 25nl, if I drop back to 250 or 200 at most then I'll return to 10nl and re build. So I'll be giving myself a 4-6 buy in shot at breaking through. Hopefully my next attempt goes smoother than the last.

Played for a few hours at 10nl and quickly ran it back up from 287 to 340, so gave 25nl a shot and after a couple more hours I'm back down to 260. A frustrating day. Perhaps I need to practice some patience and stay at 10nl for a while. Maybe I should aim for doubling my roll at 10nl first before attempting again.

Put in the first of the recovery sessions at 10nl, back up to 283. I must stay disciplined this time and not be tempted to take shots too early without the roll for it. I feel as though not having enough buy ins may be hindering my play at 25nl, I care too much about losing a hand.

I've come to a decision with my roll. Atm I don't have a GTOWIZARD subscription, there's spots I'd like to study and payday is a few weeks away yet. My current roll sits at $283 having started with $50, I have withdrawn $83 to help pay for the premium membership, this leaves me with $200. 4x what I started with and enough for me to keep grinding 10nl for now. At least now I can study the spots I'm unsure of, the coachings may also be useful.

I have done a similar challenge before, during covid I had 3 months off, I successfully turned 100 bucks into 4.5k and was beating 50nl for over 5bb/100 over a large sample, so I'm sure I can achieve the same thing again, I feel I'm a much better player than I was, hopefully this subscription helps me fine tune things and correct any mistakes I may be making. I cashed my old roll in when I went the US for a few months, this time however I plan to keep playing. I'm not sure how long it will take exactly to break 1k but it will be interesting to see.

Today I'm taking a break from playing, I've spent a few hours hiking in the mountains and now I'm getting in a study session before work. Although I feel I'm good enough to beat the micros, I feel it gives me more confidence to keep learning.

Last night and today I'm working on fixing a leak in my game which is the lack of depolerized strategies, particularly out of position in 3 bet pots. I feel this is something I've been struggling to implement and want to get down, even at the micros I feel it's an important concept as people are going to be responding sub optimally vs these depolerized bet sizes.

Just played a short session of 1 hour 40 minutes, 699 hands. Not my best win rate wise, I finished down $3.40, although I feel I played well and did a good job trying to implement some of the things I've learned. Specifically having a more depolerized strategy in certain of spots when OOP.
I've also being trying to think more about bet sizings and which portion of my opponents range I block when betting, do I block the checking range and want to check myself, or do I block the calling range and want to pick the appropriate sizing. For example with KK on a K high board I'm choosing a smaller sizing than I would with AK as KK blocks a larger portion of their calling range. Before I may have gone for max value but could have been losing ev in the long run by picking a less than optimal sizing.

Now another study session before work and perhaps a little more poker if there's time.

My graph is starting to level out a little after my two failed attempts at trying to break through 25nl, I guess I'll be waiting until I'm sufficiently rolled to take another shot. I'm now over 31k hands into my challenge.

It's been a few days since I've updated, I had a few days off while I went to visit family, but I'm back at work and back at playing poker whenever I can.

On my graph you can see my two failed attempts at 25nl, then a small downswing afterwards. I'm now almost at 35k hands played. My roll is $194 it would have been $276 however I withdrew $83 dollars to go towards a premium membership of GTOWIZARD. I feel the membership has been so worth it!
My downswing and failed attempt to break through 25nl inspired me to work harder on my game. I realise now how unbalanced I was in some spots! And how I had some big leaks in my game.
Although these things won't be exploited too much at 10nl if at all, I feel I want to get my strategy down for when I do eventually move up.

For anyone considering investing in GTOWIZARD I say it's absolutely worth it! With the premium menu have access to the weekly coaching videos of which there's a huge archive to go through, a lot of it is high level stuff that can add a lot to your game. Some coaching sites would charge a lot for just one of these hour long videos! Yet for 89 bucks a month I get access to the whole archive, plus the solver itself to look up spots. I think it's pretty awesome.

I'm now splitting my poker time almost 50/50 between play and study, although I want to get volume in I know realise how many holes I have in my game and I'm excited to keep learning.

Managed to fit a 3 hour 17 minute session in before work. Went really well, the bankroll is on the mend. I'm trying hard to implement some of the strategies I've been studying. I'm very happy to see my red line continue to increase, I believe one function of this may be a more polerized pre flop strategy which may be generating more folds. I'm using bigger sizes from the bb and focusing more on blockers, I think at 10nl most people aren't 3 betting to 13.5bb and vs this sizing people respond incorrectly, folding too often and not 4 betting often enough, I believe this combined with implementating larger sizes on certain flop textures and betting a more polerized range is resulting in my positive red line. Anyway unfortunately I must know work. Tomorrow is a day off however so I'll be back on the grind soon.
Good luck grinders ✌️