Her goes nothing...

So I finally moved up to 5NL a few weeks ago when my BR on Stars hit $110 and proceeded to go on some big swings up and down and up and down due to a combination running under EV --> tilt spew --> poor BRM and now my account is back at $30 more or less where I started about 150k hands ago.

This has happened once before, and in the aim of taking a different approach I've decided to blog my progress on here. Even if no-one follows this thread, I like the idea of having some accountability and the extra thought it will force me to put in post session.

My 'short term' plan is to update this thread to the point where I am back playing (and beating!) 5NL whilst comfortably rolled. I want to adhere more strictly to proper BRM. I have always waited until being above $100 to move to 5NL, however I have never been able to swallow my pride and move back down to 2NL when things have gone south, each time leading to nearly busting my account.

Areas of my game I feel like I need to address to properly succeed at the micros:

1 - Stop set mining from the blinds vs people stealing wide only to fold when I miss and they cbet their air and I miss, or only win a tiny pot when I do smash my set and they still just have air...

2 - Be more liberal about when is appropriate to flat pre with suited Ax, low suited connectors, unsuited Broadways . i.e. stop calling pre vs nits who will never give me the implied odds required when I rarely smash, and who I'm likely to have reverse implied odds against if I hit TP with a hand like KJo.

3 - Severely tone down how often I 4bet bluff with blockers vs players who are 3betting a lot. Recently I've had sessions where my raise to 4bet has been double my fold to 3bet. For some reason I just can't help myself when I see someone has a 3bet of 17% from the blinds. Need to learn to just let it go in the micros!

4 - Stop calling large donk bets when the flush gets there

5 - Stop calling river raises or check raises when villain takes a line which makes no sense to me, particularly on dangerous boards when I have TPTK.

6 - Stop calling flop raise all ins by nits for 10x the pot when I have AK/AQ on Axxr boards

Day 1 Progress: -$3.39

Here are some snapshots from HM2 for the session. I will start posting some notable hands once I figure out how to use the converter...


Not the best start, but for the first time I've played 2NL in a couple weeks I'm satisfied with a break even EV session.

I'll be back shortly with another update after my next session, but in the meantime I welcome all feedback and any suggestions as to how I can improve my little blog here.

Peace!

Day 2 Progress: +$4.71

Had a pretty good hour session after work today before heading out to dinner shortly. Smashed some flops hard and got paid off:




Now for some notable/hands from the session:

Nothing special here, just think I need to keep making folds like this when previously I might have called because 'perhaps he has a flush draw':



Flopping quads and doubling up is fun:





Flopped top set and took this line when the turn brought a 4 straight. Turned out pretty well and I don't think I get much value continuing to bet:



Hoping to get some decent volume over the weekend. Maybe around 10K hands as it looks like its going to be a rainy one! Anyway it's good to be back in the positive.

Day 3 Progress: +$11.09

So I didn't play any online yesterday as I ended up heading to the a local casino to play some live. Had a pretty nice session though, I played for 7 hours and cashed out +320bb.

Now back to my online ventures - played a short session this morning and ran pretty well, here's the session graph:


To put some perspective to how many hands I'm fitting into the time frames, I'm played two tables of zoom.

One notable hand where crazy villain kindly donated to my progress:

Day 3 Part 2 Progress: +$11.75

Played another session after the gym today, pretty much break even:

Day 3 Part 3 Progress: +$12.00

Squeezed in another session at the end of the day. Lost a few flips so about 2 buy-ins below EV, however I think that a couple of the spots I was lucky to be getting it in with as much equity as I did. Definitely my B game and probably not the best idea playing late Sunday evening when tired. Noted.

Day 4 Progress: +$14.28

Today's session was a little frustrating made a terrible 5bet shove with AK vs a an UTG 4bet from a villain who had super nitty stats, then a terrible call down after being check raised on the flop. The session was rescued back in to profit however when I was gifted two stacks back by some similarly call happy fish, at which point I immediately booked the win and shut down Stars.


Bad shove:



Awful call down:



Villain didn't want to fold their Jacks:



Sorry bro Tens are never good here:

Day 5 Progress: +$5.06

Terrible session on Stars today. It's been a really hot day so wasn't that comfortable playing at my desk, which meant I got tilted pretty quickly after losing a few really weird pots.

One positive side note is that I signed up to Unibet Poker and got a free 4Euro super satellite ticket to one of their live tournaments here in the UK. I won that and got placed into a 25Euro satellite which I came second in and now have a ticket for the 100Euro satellite that awards a package to 1/5 players. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, here's the graph:


Should never have called the flop here, awful play. I was watching a youtube video during this hand and snap called not even thinking that I was 150bb deep:



Couldn't find the fold button on the turn or river here with top Trips:




I expected this guy to have AA/KK so was pretty tilted after seeing he rivered 2 pair:



Saw this guy open shove all in on a few hands prior so figured my Ace was good here. Turns out it was and got in 50+ bb preflop with 2/3 of the equity but wasn't meant to be:

Day 6 Progress: +$10.43

Another hot day yesterday so didn't play a whole lot of hands. Ran pretty well won an all in my QQ vs AA so slowing balancing out my overall EV line!

Wrong post, gl op!

Day 7 Progress: +$12.11

Another short session today! Is's been really hot weather these last few days so it's been hard to squeeze in any lengthy grind sessions:


Also I've just passed 10k hands, so here is a look at the overall graph: