My name is Mark and this is my first post here.

Over the next six months, I'm going to challenge myself to a serious poker regiment. I want to be a professional poker player. Yeah yeah I know a lot of you think I'll fail- maybe you're right. It's a good thing this is a quantitative game, and we can assign metrics to my success. Any of the following will be a success in my book:

• My bankroll is over $10k
• I can beat 100NL for 8BB/100 over a 10K sample

My bankroll will start at $500. Right now I beat 50NL on ignition for a little over 15BB/100. I cannot beat 100NL yet.

I will play/study for an average of 3 hours per day for 6 months, with a bunch of extra rules:

• No playing under the influence (duh)
• Each session must be played with a focus on a specific skill
• Each week I will choose a new set of skills to focus on (I can keep skills from the prior week if I don't think I've mastered them)
• I can't sit down to play a session without writing down the skill(s) I'm focusing on
• I can't sit down to play a session unless I've lifted or ran already that day
• Each session must be preceded with at least 5 minutes of mindful breathing

To keep me honest, I'm going to post my PT4 charts every week, as well as bankroll updates. Maybe some analysis or things I hope you might find interesting, too.

The skills of this week are playing the river IP and OOP and better theoretical flop C-Betting. These are two of my biggest leaks at the moment.

Right now the plan is to play 6 handed 50NL until I hit $1k-$1.5k in my bankroll.

I'll start posting the charts next week. I'm considering this a "fresh start", so I haven't played a hand yet.

Finally, I want you all to know that I'm extremely open to your advice and/or opinions. If you're going to disparage without evidence, though, I probably won't listen. Please add evidence if you're going to **** on my analysis or call my goals impossible. I'll be receptive as long as you back it up.

Let me know what you think! I'll see you all next week

GL Mark! The rules seem good but "river IP and OOP" is way too broad of a focus.

Your winrate definitely doesn't drop anywhere close to 15BB/100 at the next stake

8bb at 100 is 50cents more than 15bb at 50...
And a 10k sample means nothing.
Playing 50$ tables with less than 1k is not a good idea, imo. Which stakes you wanna play when you hit 1k-1.5k?

I selected river IP and OOP because there's a chapter in the book I'm reading (GTO Simplified by Dara O'Kearney) just about the river. How would you narrow it down?

Ok you're probably right about the win rates between stakes. I think both of the samples are too small to tell anything. I haven't played much 100NL, and maybe I'm not really winning at 50NL

If I hit 1.5k, I figured I'd play 100NL. I know the conventional wisdom is 20BI, but I don't plan to just switch over all at once... I would probably mix 100NL tables in with my 50NL tables.

As for bankroll... the biggest swing I've had at 50NL has been 6BI. I think variance is a bigger factor when people are better and there are real points of indifference. I think at 50NL many spots are dramatically underbluffed which makes for easier decisions and less variance. Does that make sense or am I delusional lol?

Maybe

Protecting OOP checking/block ranges when necessary
and/or
Bluff catching aggressively vs wide ranges

Really depends on where you are in terms of proficiency with certain concepts

You can find your standard deviation with PokerTracker4. It might be lower than a high stakes reg due to a lack of aggression from your opponents and possibly yourself, but it won't be by a huge amount.

Total guess on my part but you probably ran very well at 50nl (I certainly did)

20 buy-ins is very aggressive BRM but that's fine for some people

Thanks a ton for the advice TripeBerryJam!

I will integrate those into my studying today. My standard deviation at 50NL is 120 BB/100. This seems pretty normal. I could have definitely just run very well, though.

Seems ambitious but ambition can lead to great things if you don't put your financial situation at risk! GL anyway!

Hey guys! Had a rough go of it this week: -$230 (Current BR is $280).



To be completely fair, this was due to my own impatience. I'm realize now (and I was warned) that I'm not properly rolled for 50NL at $500, and I also shouldn't play zoom. I totally spewed playing zoom... I really need the time to think + the pool is a bit harder.

This forced me back down to 10NL, where I will continue to grind until I'm back at $400, which I expect to take 1 week.

Here's what my 10NL winrate looks like:



Despite a rocky start (part bad luck, part adjusting to the 10NL pool) and running more than a BI under EV, I'm winning 11 BB/100 here.

Gl to your journey.One advice i would have to give you, would be to focus on things you can control over things you can not control.Many times player at your stakes fall into the trap of paying too much attention to results!Enjoy the journey

Thank you! I definitely have had trouble with that, especially because I really want to move up stakes, but learning theory and exploring the game makes it more fun and less about money.