Greetings. I’m a 25y/o grinder from the uk who’s been playing poker about a year. I play 6max nlhe cash only and am currently grinding 10nl after moving up from 4nl in November. 10nl hasn’t been going so good for me, but I still think if I sort my mentality out and put in the time I’m able to I can be relatively successful at the microstakes. My poker goal is really just to move up to 50nl, beating the stakes on the way up and learning lots on the way.
I’m usually one to ramble a bit, but I’ll try and keep this relatively brief, I’m sure I’ll take lots of opportunities to ramble in future blog posts. My friends tell me I spend too much thinking and talking about what I’m going to/need to do to get better and not enough time doing it (which is true)

Anyway here’s my nl4 graph (ongame) until i stopped it in nov last year



The next 2 graphs are my 10nl graph, first from ongame, and then my current graph from this month after moving to ipoker.





As it’s all been going so wrong for me I’ve decided to drop down to 5nl for a while and re-evaluate. I have no intention of quitting and believe that with the right approach and work ethic I can beat the microstakes. I still really enjoy playing poker and trying to improve at poker and think overall it has a positive influence on my life in many important ways. I’m going to avoid being too results oriented throughout and will try posting a proper update every week or two (whatever works out best) though between times I will be posting up interesting hands and thoughts etc.

PS. My biggest stumbling block is sleeping too much and putting off doing the hard work. My friends always post this video to me in skype and give me abuse for not ‘wanting it’. One of them made a meme in my honour....

/GL dude

Subbed obviously. Gl sir.

Heya mate, I'm in the same position as you, UK grinder playing 5nl 6max on Stars. All the best with the challenge, PM me if you wanna talk hands over skype at some point!

cheers for the replies folks, gonna list out some weekly goals

Poker

- 20 hours play
- 10 hours study
- monitor mental game

Quite simple really, just need to play lots of hours. I'm dropping to 5nl for a while as bankroll is running low and confidence is quite low. I'm aware of lots of leaks and ways i can quickly improve my game (thinking things through more thoroughly and taking my time) so I just need to stay patient.

My studying will mostly be looking through sessions, reviewing marked hands - seeking advice from others to generally develop my thought processes when I'm playing a poker hand.

I'm going to monitor my mental game as like most people I noticeably go on tilt. I don't flip out and get angry and smash things very often, that's not me...but I do have various problems like drifting concentration, auto-piloting, losing confidence/feeling a bit lost if I'm getting played back at or make an obvious mistake etc. I think if i can cut these problems out I'll improve at a quicker rate. To do this I plan on just keeping a very brief log of how my mindset is affected at the table to see the common causes which affect my play and cause me to make mistakes, from here I can understand the problems better to try and overcome them.


Non-Poker

- Go to the gym 3 times
- 6 hours work on my university stuff

I used to be really into exercise when I was a bit younger and was very fit and played some sports, but now I've become a sloth and after a couple of years of no exercise have been a bit overweight, and my fitness is terrible. I wanna try and get back in shape first by losing the extra weight I've put on, if i get to the gym 3 times a week for now I'll be happy - just gonna be a cardio monkey for a couple of months.

I was doing an undergraduate degree in social policy but didn't complete it. I have the option to finish my final year, so I'm working on that with intentions to start final year in september....just going through a textbook i got in my first year and never looked at /o\ trying to catch up for lost time for the years I spent at uni and didn't do any work, I'm sure there are a few who can relate to that.

These are the only 2 non poker goals for now as they're both very important to me. In the future I would like to add some other non-poker goals. I'm a big music fan and bought a harmonica a few months ago which I'd like to get better at. I also used to play guitar and piano before I got a bit bored of them, but I'd like to pick both instruments back up again eventually.

Anyway this has been quite a ramble. I won't be posting daily graphs or results as I just don't see the point. I may throw up some interesting or funny hands though...good luck with the grind

Seems you are on the right track. Moving down to 5nl can never hurt, since the only thing u have to do now is to improve, and it doesn't matter really for that what stakes u play. As I see, u have a 2:1 ratio of playing and studying, and what works for me (I use 3:1), is really playing like 2 sessions (in ur case), and after that 1 study session. If u don't stick to a certain routine, it is very easy to think ''will do the studying later'', and at the same time you don't fall into the trap of studying toooooo much. Gl gl

true dat. i actually had the problem of studying a bit too much before with no purpose. like many people i sorta looked at poker like i would a school subject - learn the theory inside out and you'll crush it...thats clearly very naive but i'm not the only one to fall into this trap. now i see theres a clear balance required between playing, learning the theory and practicing.

i would just write notes and look at all sorts of different concepts and like you said worry a bit too much about leak busting and stats and stuff when what i needed to do is get back to the fundamentals and focus on the key spots. now for some thoughts on the mental game...

i just moved down to 5nl after playing 10nl slightly losing for the past few months. i was crushing donks at 4nl over a short sample and as you can see in my first graph i spiked pretty hard and the abc game clicked and i had the roll to move up to 10nl so i did. since then though ive struggled to move beyond the abc game and step up and find myself struggling too much and often lost with too much stuff spinning around in my head and an inability to direct it into good poker decisions.

when i first moved to 5nl the other night id been running like **** and playing like **** for a very long time and accumulated tilt had just really kicked in. i normally consider myself quite patient and friends have mentioned before when sweating that im really chilled about bad beats a lot of the time...its something i take some pride in and consider it an edge over a lot of players. the other night though as has been the case recently i tilted pretty bad at 5nl and just started clicking buttons and not giving a f*ck.

this contrasted greatly to last night/this morning when i was playing and getting coolered constantly, one or two times guys hit their 2/3 outers on 2 tables at the same time for my stacks but this time i just smiled and didnt tilt in the slightest. i think the biggest difference was that before i was concerned about my results because id been losing, not just for the money...but because my confidence was at rock bottom and i needed to start booking some wins. this time though i was playing a lot better and paying more attention and realised how absurdly soft the games are and realised with 100% clarity that all is required is to play sensible and i would win money. i ended a couple of sessions down but with positive expectation and that to me = winning.

so really the breakthrough here is the association between confidence and tilt. when i play 4nl which im comfortable i can beat (had close to 6bb/100 over 70k hands when i moved up...small sample yeah but who wants to play 500k hands of 4nl when theyre rolled and ready to move up!) now i feel like the bad beats and coolers are entirely insignificant. i can disregard factors which may cause tilt because i know they dont matter and wont affect me winning. i think the difference at 10nl is that im less confident and so losing becomes a much bigger issue, losing flips seem to actually matter. how to use this to my advantage? im not really sure, but i think i will play at 4nl for a while. obviously there is a part of me HATES it, but i think my game will improve significantly faster playing at a game i KNOW i can crush, so that tilt factors are pretty much removed. i think this is the key point - i think poker players often associate fixing the mental game and reducing tilt as effecting winrate immediately by cutting out on spew, but i think more than that playing without tilt allows you to improve - and thats the ultimate goal for a whole plethora of reasons i dont need to explain to you.

so yeah, thats my ramblings on my mental game for now. i had a pretty ****ty week apart from that 'eureka' moment - as i say confidence was bad and i had trouble just sitting down to play, and when i did play at times definitely just played hands for the sake of playing hands, cause i needed to put the time in - but it was a waste really as i wasnt really focussed on what was happening and trying to improve. ill grind 4nl for a month now i think and then ill update with a graph at the end of march. as ive said before i think graphs/results on a daily or session to session basis is silly and reinforces a strong results oriented mindset a lot of players think they dont have - but really do.

anyway, peace out and happy grinding

yo, time for a weekly update.

so im a spreadsheet monkey and my friends laugh at me for it but i think its a good way to monitor my work ethic and some important qualitative/quantitative goals.

The Goals

My longer term 8 week goals for poker are to play 150 hours and i'm working to develop fundamentals of paying attention (sounds silly but i auto-pilot too easily so one of the best things for my game will be to actively work on my focus), and focussing on fundamentals: player type, board textures and ranges. i too often neglect factors like stack sizes and table dynamics, i need to consistently play obsessing over these factors to the point where its intuitive and quick. thats not to say i neglect them currently, but when my focus drifts off it's something it's clear to see can go missing.

The results

150 hours a week is just under 19 hours a week on average, this week i played just over 12, though i didnt play on monday or sunday. not overly concerned, will definitely improve this week. most important thing is that the hours are quality so that i have the best chance of playing good poker and improving my game..i think thats been happening.

i did 11 hours study which may seem a bit much compared to game time but i started the week on horrible tilt and the majority of that was spent with my nose in the mental game of poker along with a coupla sessions at the start of the week with more experienced winning players to look through some hands with me and look for spots to improve and see how im not thinking them through properly. i think that went really well and gave me clearer direction. funnily enough the best piece of advise regarding where im thinking poorly in hands is: 'youre not thinking'. thats why for now im playing 4 tables and working on my focus to make sure im always applying the best poker logic i can in my decisions.

regarding the mental game of poker, to re-read the opening chapters about the process model, ALM etc was very refreshing. that combined with the sweat sessions made very clear that while i make bad poker decisions, a lot of that can be prevented from just taking a more clear focus in my approach to poker and stop overcluttering my mind with too many vague concepts.

Non-Poker Goals

for my studies ive been working through a 'students companion to social policy' textbook i got in first year. i didnt really do anything subject related but i looked through a chapter at the end about 'careers in social policy' which was good to clear up some thoughts/ideas about where i want to be in 5/10 years...there are more options to me than i worry about, provided i take the right approach. i did 3.5 hours early in the week then called it quits cause i was in a poker crisis, im happy enough with that...can easily do 4.5 this week to compensate. eventually i will up the work load as september approaches and i may start up again but for now 4 hours a week slow and steady progress is fine. probably move up to 6h a week for april.

i also wanted to go to the gym 3 times but only made it once - still an improvement on the 0 times the previous 2 weeks. as i said previously i used to train a lot and be in good shape but it's been so long now that getting a step on the bottom rung of the ladder is hard. ive been monitoring my junk food intake though and cut most of that out which should alone be good for me. in the one gym session this week i ran for 30 minutes and only managed 3.5km but it is what it is...can only get better, and easier.

aside from that i got a call about a job offer. since not finishing my degree and moving home ive been on jobseekers allowance for 18 months, i've applied for dozens of jobs, had no interviews and barely even a rejection letter...it's a strange environment in the uk at the minute. because ive been unemployed so long i have to do a mandatory work placement for 30h a week, i get £85 a week which sucks for working 30 hours, but with this offer i most likely get a permanent position at the end of it and pay will go up to like £180 a week which will be great to get some savings as im still living at home and have no overheads. obviously it will reduce my poker playing time but i think it may also help me get a better routine and want to use my free time better which could have a positive knock-on effect on my poker.

so that's where i' at. another long update...well done if you read it all, i hope you run good this week.

Good luck!

Seems good man!

Great work ethic - best of luck to you!

Hi man, for some reason my messages on skype don't get delivered to u anymore when ur online, so if u need me, just send me a pm here and we will figure something out.

GL GL, currently playing 5nl so message me your skype if u wanna discuss hands etc...

howdy blog followers, hope the grind is treating you well. it's been an interesting few days. here's some hands!



hurray, felt good getting this...3rd royal flush lifetime i think, just a shame it wasnt for more monies. shortly after...



pretty frustrating but i don't think i played it badly really. villain is 14/14 over 64 hands so i think vs his range im ahead, just seem to be running into the top of peoples ranges. overall im getting crushed at 4nl but as im only playing 4-6 regular tables sample size is pretty small. its a bit frustrating as i think im playing well but i guess thats the main thing, playing good poker and improving the areas i want to improve on. im pretty card dead really and have hardly won any big pots, when i am hitting decent hands the amount of value i can extract is often tainted by horrible boards. mindset has been better though, taking the punches pretty well and not getting tilted by beats - maybe the odd grumble but for the most part keeping control of my emotions

wont be able to play over the weekend as im going out of town to see some friends which will be good as im more of a social recluse these days so will be good to do something different, i just dont bother going out much in my hometown anymore as im a bit bored of it and there's nowhere good/different to go

ill probably post again on sunday to lay out some goals for next week. gl at the tables...

argh, so i took some time away from the tables to do other stuff then did some deep breathing stuff and a warmup to prepare me to play another session - mindset: solid. though it didnt take long for my mind to just implode in a way im not used to, i guess the accumulated tilt of hitting nothing while constantly getting pwned with my strong hands is getting to me - spewed off were id normally maintain control.

im not normally the type to cry about bad beats and understand variance and the like but im in the mood to vent so here it is



this is the spewy hand which made me quit my session early. basically the guy had been 3-betting me a ton with a 10% 3-bet as had others. i pretty much didn't 4-bet as i wanted to play a pretty tight, controlled game and 4-bet frequencies/bluffing isnt something ive worked on. at this stage i thought i was getting pounded on because i was so exploitable so i took a good hand and 4-bet pretty light in position. the flop was total spew, it was just a case of 'ffs this guy just cant have anything here, he's taking the piss' and thinking about it and calling off dead with my flush draw. some of the previous hands also led to that overflow of emotion and a combination of gamble, not giving a **** anymore and trying to chase money back. total fish mindset



sorta similar to the hand in the last post - villain is unknown this time, only 4 hands. not really sure how this looks vs an unknown. based on him opening UTG and calling my 3-bet oop i figured he had most likely: KA, TJ/9Th, AJ/AQ/ATh and KK to crush me but overall i think vs an unknown it's fine to call the flop and jam turn? feedback welcome on this one



this one came 2 minutes after the AA hand above, btn is 55/38 and utg is 43/13. obviously KK doesn't win everytime but given the lack of good action ive had recently, the fact i always get f*cked when i do have strong value hand etc and the fact im up against a fish with a pretty weak hand it annoys me. i dont really think its entitlement tilt, most days i take these beats with a smile but yeah...it all adds up sometimes.



and finally the one that got the ball rolling for this session - 'ok ive been getting it bad recently, but i'm still in control and i flopped a set, finally things are going my way. hmm that turns not nice, FFS!'

again small pot and it happens but the consistency of the beats made a huge blow to my mental game.

im really frustrated now - thats me down $60 now in 7k hands at 4/5nl in the past few days when i think ive been playing fairly solid with only a coupla spew hands and bad bluffs. all i wanna do is play poker and work on my game, ive pretty much lost interest in other things...but im psychologically a bit of a mess again poker wise so im feeling a bit lost.

bad, i hate this game sometimes....roll on the weekend to get it out of my system.

Keep working hard on your game, that is most important now. When u become better, ur confidence will grow, and u will play better too. Stay strong, u will get there.

Skype not working again mate. Dunno why this is all the time...

Goal setting for success

I dont know if there are many other people like this, but on my poker journey there are many times I feel like im on a steady path to improvement, my thoughts are clear, I know what I need to do to improve and I work hard and do it. Unfortunately there is another side to me where I feel lost, I don't know what I know, I know there's lots I don't know and I'm not sure where or how to improve or where to begin.

Right now I'm in the latter place. I still have all the time in the world to work on poker yet I feel lost and don't know where to begin or what to do. It's like I was working my way through a forest with a torch on and finding my way but suddenly the light has gone out and I'm going round in circles in the dark. Obviously playing is at the heart of it but I don't feel like playing at the minute as I don't feel like im in the right place mentally.

So I'm using my blog to air my confusion and absolute sense of being 'lost' in my journey. Obviously the direction I take to improve is an individual thing but maybe some people can contribute advice.

What goals have you set yourself over the course of learning poker? I think generally I respond well to goal setting but right now I don't know what goals to set myself. Obviously there are volume goals - I'm going to aim for 15hours a week minimum average over the next 8 weeks (ignoring # hands as thats not as important).

Outside of this what goals can I set myself for improving as a poker player? How do you break your game down to pick apart areas to focus on over a certain period of time?

I know of ways to improve technically: videos, hand discussion, forum posting, session reviews, books etc but I mean a more general, broader structure to working to lay down the building blocks to improve your game via logical goal setting. I don't know if I'm making any sense - just feeling like a helium balloon cut loose and drifting off into the atmosphere right now!

Nice thread! Subbed...GL mate!!!

boom.. and its back from the dead.

thank you sir. ill have to post an update shortly, poker has been going well, confidence is high <o/

i suppose its time for an update

poker's been going well for me recently. i'm seeing progress in my play, thought processes and mental game. also seeing how i will advance my game and take it to the next level and keep moving up through the micros.

i had some coaching with IveGotUrOuts which went well. i've dropped to playing 1 table of zoom and started the month at 5nl looking to rebuild from scratch working on the fundamentals. i always played multiple tables cause i thought i was capable of it and it's the done thing but i realised by going back to 1 table that i was playing really sloppy and some really bad autopilot reactions where i wouldnt think things through clearly. id say going back to 1 table has been the biggest thing ive done to improve my game recently and feel like i'm going forward again.

i am bankrolled for 10nl so after winning some bi's at 5nl i had some 10nl shots which have been going ok - i'm pretty much exclusively playing 10nl now and don't really want to go back. i've started playing 2 tables again sometimes when i'm feeling focused, just to test the waters. when i have all the things i need to consider clear in my head it's not a problem and i don't think adding a 2nd table has made me sloppy when i'm at my best. with that said there's still lots of things to work on so i'm going to remain playing mostly 1 table.

no graphs til end of the month! i'm trying to play about 1k hands a day, which isn't a lot by most people's standards but quality > quantity for microstakes players looking to patch leaks, develop clearer more accurate thinking and move up. i'm slightly behind schedule but should bring the average up with some good grinding this week.

i'm going to do more session reviews just for the spots i'm trying to work on where i'm losing money needlessly. for now that's calling, mostly from sb and btn/co. i'm also looking to take good opportunities to 3-bet in the small blind, particularly those who steal wide from the button.

also need to keep in mind not to get too wrapped up in stats and to think first of villains range and board textures which sometimes goes missing if i get too comfortable and lose focus.

so there's a long overdue update. i may start posting hands in here, just to make it less boring...

Can't wait for the graph, must be good b/c or ur coach Gl again sir

2 months since I last updated? shiiiiiiet

Anyway, my HEM2 is down again (I blame windows 8!) so I thought it was a good time to fire up a quick update. I obviously intend to use this journal more but struggle to do so. Regardless - the grinding goes on, and has been going well.

As stated in the last post - I dropped down to nl5 for a while. I have continually been rolled for 10nl since Nov 2012 but my results there have been slightly losing/breakeven over many months so I made the decision to move down. I also decided to drop number of tables to one for a while.

The result? Big success. I had good success at 5nl and became comfortable with my game again. Moving to one table helped me remove a lot of autopilot type, spewy play from my game and just become more solid overall. Another very big advantage to my spell one tabling on zoom was that I was very tuned in to what was going on and my thought process - where I had doubts I had only to hit 'sit out next hand' and ask some winning and experienced friends how to play in certain spots as default and what factors to consider.

Another change is that I removed my bankroll from William Hill (ipoker) where I had a good rakeback deal and moved it to stars. I have obscure and sporadic sleeping times, often awake and most alert between midnight and the morning and the traffic was very poor on ipoker at this time. It was often reg battling and there were times were it was hard to get action at all.

On stars even at 4/5am uk time there were several hundred players on at all levels of nanostakes zoom so games were good with lots of fish on. I've played exclusively 10nl zoom since the move and have had very positive results with my bankroll now very close to taking shots at 25nl games.

I've returned to 2-3 tabling now, and aim to close out goldstar before the end of this month. Next month I will aim to continue with solid poker at 10nl and at some point take shots at 25nl. I think when I do move up to 25nl I will most likely once again go back to 1 tabling until I am comfortable and confident at the new stake.

I'm continuing to get coaching from IveGotUrOuts which is going very well - I not only learn consistently through coaching but I believe it helps with my mental game and work ethic as well as confidence. On top of this coaching I just signed up to run it once essential membership to watch some videos. I'm just watching the first james hudson video and paused it to update my blog

Outside of poker I have booked a holiday to spain to stay with some friends from university who live in Seville so I'm looking forward to that. I go from 23rd-30th july so I can still get a good month of grinding done in july, have a week off at the end and then look to hit the ground running again in August.

I have got pretty out of shape in recent years compared to my usually athletic and active self so have rejoined the gym for a one month membership and got an exercise bike for my house to do frequent cardio work at home. I'll keep a monitor of that in this thread from now on top of my poker goals as I think it will help spur me on and keep working hard.

The only other ambition of note is my hope to return to education in september with the commencement of my social policy degree after a 2 year break. I have completed 2 years and only need to complete the 3rd one so I plan on doing that from home over the open university due to financial constraints.

Thanks for reading - It's been a long one as always. Hopefully future updates will be both briefer and more frequent. As said above - HEM2 is currently broken but I will put up my monthly graph for june at the end of the month as I know the PG&C readerships hunger for the graph.

Wp man, u deserve it.

End of month update/Goals for July

The HEM2 error I encountered last week was a database error so I lost my results and graph for last month. Basically I won at 10nl and at the end of the month took a shot at 25nl which has exposed the swingy side to my mental game

[IMG]http://************/image/jh74os89p/full/[/IMG]

I've achieved goldstar for this month so to start with I'm going to play just 1 table zoom and work on playing with my full focus and taking time to think things through. My game on the whole is good I feel, but I still find it hard to make those tough folds which are easy folds (eg. when I have overpairs/TPTK facing aggression)

As I said before - going to spain on 23rd July so I'm only aiming for 25k-30k hands this month, but we'll see. I'm going to resist temptation to play 2 tables until I'm up a bit for the month. Last month I think played about 50k hands but was 2-3 tabling at times.

Other goals:

exercise 14 out of 23 days!
25-30h poker playing per week
do more off table work and stop being lazy
actively work on mental game issues

so yeah - off to play my first session of the month...I won't be posting results but hopefully a brief update every day or 2 of how many hours I've put in and how I feel my game is progressing

peace.