Jorj is certainly an exception with how many tables he can play at a time in the hypers. Most regs that can beat the $100s currently 12 table max. While 24 tabling cap may seem natural and easy to you now, consider the ICM repercussions in hypers as well as winding up short handed, on top of a push/fold style means the action gets to you a lot faster than it does in cap games, IE more decisions per minute per table than in CAP. Ability to focus and make optimal decisions 3 handed is absolutely essential.

I don't play the PokerStars hypers unfortunately as I'm from the US but I doubt anyone is capable of beating the $100 6 max hypers for more than 2% (and to get 2% table count would need to remain relatively low in order to adjust as quickly as possible and keep ranges super dynamic).

I do pretty well grinding up to $216 hypers on Merge but would be clueless where to start in cap games. If you are comfortable spending a hundredish hours learning ICM and developing good dynamic ranges though, I'm sure you could crush these games. Pretty sure cap would still be more profitable for you long term.

Thanks for +1 on the idea guys, occurred to me while reading through this blog in particular.

I personally think B3RT if you posted your story then you could make it seem like not gambling. Well obviously some people are going to shun it and just call you a degenerate but then they cant argue with your bottom line can they?

My parents used to hate me playing poker and all the connotations that came with it. But over time they got used and once they saw i was winning, even if only very little, they got used to it and "almost" encouraged it.

Your rise to success is incredible and highly motivating and if you did publish it i feel would help remove a chunk of the stigma surrounding the game.

Recently heard about a bbc documentary covering sam Holden rise and WSOP success. Would be nice to have a cash game story as well

Hope your goals are going well

Just to put in a little word about the grinding at uni discussion...

IMO poker won't stay in it's current form forever - at some point it's gonna be taxed in the UK, and games are at risk of becoming increasingly regulated and thus edges smaller and smaller.

If you've got a chance to make $500k a year now playing poker, take it. If you delay it for 2 or 3 years and then you lose that opportunity because the market has changed and you just can't make the same sort of money, you'd regret that and the lost opportunities which $2mil over 4 years would bring far more than missing a few nights out at uni.

I'm not sure. I don't recall getting an email last year.

Hopefully the powers that be at Stars think the same

My parents still want me to get a "proper" job after uni

It really depends on what your goals are and what's important to you. As someone else said: who knows how long the window's open for making money and most jobs aren't going to pay close to it. You can always take a few years out and then come back to some grad scheme if you so wish. Might be worth speaking to coopah about it. When you make $500k / year it's hard for the parents to tell you to go bust your balls training to be a chartered accountant making mid £20k.

Another big session today. 32,245 hands and 23,046 VPP's according to HEM2 (looks like I actually got more but I'm not 100% sure)

I played a lot better than in the last long session but I lost my focus towards the end which was a bit disappointing. A decent day overall though!





It's sad to think how much more I would have made if I could have stayed more focused and not made stupid plays like this (it wasn't tilt, just a misclick)


Poker Stars $3/$6 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $369.56
BB: $121.92
UTG: $337.05
Hero (MP): $400.96
CO: $120.00
BTN: $134.35

Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is MP with 2 7
UTG calls $6, Hero raises to $120, 4 folds, UTG calls $114

Flop: ($249.00) A 9 J (2 players)

Turn: ($249.00) 4 (2 players)

River: ($249.00) A (2 players)

Final Pot: $249.00
UTG shows K Q (a pair of Aces)
Hero mucks 2 7
UTG wins $246.20
(Rake: $2.80)

Wow, what a great day. Keep it up

32k hands? How long does that take?

You are such a sicko dude, how many hands do you think you have played lifetime?

Thanks That was my best day ever by far. I only made like $35k pre-rakeback in the whole of last year I made ~$3k rakeback yesterday too which is a nice extra.

I was going to spend some time learning ICM so I could grind the hypers around SCOOP for 18 hours/day and earn crazy VPP's but days like yesterday are making me reconsider if it's worth it.

HEM says I played around 18 hours yesterday. I tried to play at a more leisurely pace yesterday so I could keep my concentration for longer. I'm not sure how much this worked though because I just started talking on Skype and at the tables instead and managed to fold KK+, AK 8 times preflop! If somebody was completely focused on just playing as many hands as possible I'm sure they could do it quicker.

I'd guess around 3.25 million. I haven't been playing poker for that long so I'm sure some sickos like WizardOfAhhs or chisness have played way more.

Another decent day today. My VPP/hand was really high (0.84) because I started to sit every 5/10 game that runs. It's my goal to be able to sit in any CAP line-up on Stars and feel +EV even when 24 tabling by the end of the year.

u are too good

U Wow ur doing really well lately! Keep up the good work! How r u doing at the 10k cap tables??
Have u ever thgt about doing any coaching vids?

Any chance of u posting a graph of ur progress so far this year?

D3nBr0

Dude how the hell do you play 18 hours a day? How long do you sleep for every day? What are your break patterns like if you dont mind me asking? Do you have any brain food to munch on during your sessions to improve concentration?

For some reason all of my hands from uni didn't export home so I only have about 60% of them here. I'm going back to uni tomorrow so hopefully I'll have access to all my hands and I can post some overall graphs again. When I get back I'll post my 50/100 results too

I think playing long sessions is somewhat similar to distance running in that with no training you have no chance of running a marathon. But if you slowly increase your mileage each week (i.e. try to play a little longer each week) then eventually you get to the point where these sessions are possible.

I think I average 8 hours sleep/day.

I prefer to try not to take long breaks because it takes forever to get back on the tables if you get kicked. If I start to lose focus or lose my timebanks I'll sit out for a minute and just walk around and then come back and carry on. When I'm at uni I have to cook for myself though so I'm taking breaks frequently to cook food.

I posted my diet and some good nutrition links a few posts ago.

just started playing fr cap (i know fr urgh). and im finding at 50nl everyone just wants to punt thier stack in the middle with any pair and ak aq etc etc. what lvl does this stop at? im winning at like 3.8bb/100 over 9k hand lol sample but ev is 7bb/100 but ive been running imo horrible, is 50nl beatable before rb?

I too would be interested on what b3rtstare things about the lower limits of CAP! For sure it is beatable, just seems it because by the time you find out you have beaten it you are playing higher stakes. Same goes for 100nl i think.

Be interested to know how hard you think it would be to become a 100nl grinder though? As in if you work on your game for like 10hrs a day

I just read a good amount of this thread and I must say this is pretty impressive. I have mad respect for a person who can grind this hard and crush life and school simultaneuosly.

Do you expect someone to fold AQ/AK for 20bb's?

People are getting it in with pairs, AK and AQ at all levels.

I think 50NL is beatable before rakeback. Just make sure you table select well because there are so many super soft tables at small stakes yet so many regs seem happy to play on a table with 5 other regs and then complain that small stakes is unbeatable. There is a reason why you hardly ever see a table full of regs at high stakes

I don't play any full-ring at all (mainly because my HUD won't fit on the table!) but I think these games are the most +EV at small stakes because rake is less of a factor (the VPP multiplier is higher in full-ring I think).

If you can play a lot of tables then it's really easy to earn a lot of money at 100NL via rakeback and you could even afford to lose a little at the tables and still make great money.

Becoming a pre-rakeback winner in those games is significantly tougher but not impossible imo. Unfortunately there's not a lot of CAP material out there at the moment so it makes the game a lot harder to learn. However the plus side of this is that it's the same for your opponents too and so most of them are pretty bad.

I think that's why I enjoy CAP so much. There's so little information available so you have to do a lot of thinking for yourself if you want to be successful.

Very inspirational thread. Thanks for the great read and updates. All the best, will def be following. When I'm rolled I'll try some cap for sure.

Edit: oh, and all the best with the exams too!

I don't tend to table select at the moment but I probably should, if I remember correctly you have said that you don't like getting it all in pre as a rule. I don't suppose as a fellow uk grinder you could find time to add me to skype and I could ask your advice on a few hands, mainly calling ranges bvb when I'm sb raise and get jammed on.

I know what you mean about the hud too, I changed my stats yesterday so It covers some stacks so sometimes I end up effectively jamming because I presume most have full stacks. Also I don't rebuy after my initial 10 what are your thoughts on this? I'm starting to think this is a leak at these stakes as I'm probably losing value.

Thanks

I'm not sure why they don't offer smaller stakes CAP. I know a lot of my friends would like to try it out but they just can't afford to play 50NL.

There are still some hands I like to jam pre, such as the ones you mentioned before. It's pretty hard to beat the EV of jamming those hands in most cases.

Calling a shove BvB is purely mathematical (well there is an argument that you should call slightly wider in some cases so BB has to tighten up his 3bet range but I'm not sold on that idea, especially if BB would flat the hand instead or just not adjust) so you should spend some time in CardRunners EV plugging in some ranges and seeing what the correct calling ranges are. Remember to pay attention to how your opponents play the top of their range. i.e. if they are flatting or small 3betting their premiums then their jam range is weaker so you can call wider.

Letting your stack run down looked to be more +EV when I done some analysis on the results of the top players that do this. I tried it for a bit and my results were poor though. For myself I find it easier to have a 20bb stack on every table so there is less to think about. I also didn't do any work in CR EV so that's probably why I sucked

nooby question but I'm assuming when people say 'rakeback' on stars they're just talking about the VPP milestones and $4k for 250k FPPs?

yes. plus how u use your fpps and other bonuses you get.