Hi all, actually 15 yrs ago, I managed to grind from the very microsstakes to 50NL (fullring )where I was a winning player, made up to 4K unfortunately I don't have HHs and stats, but my bankroll's spreadsheet is testifing the winnings
A month ago I decided to play online poker again, and found out, that Full Tilt is no longer there , and even if always hated Pokerstars I have to play there, since the player pool in these summer days is pretty thin (you know Italian player can play against Italian players only by law... That sucks as well....).

Even if I could start playing 25NL, I decided to get rid of the rusty skills playing 10NL (6max as I learned there is no fullring tables), no rakeback, sadly....

After 5k hands I was winning 10 buyins, and I was like, cool I still remember how to play a good game....
Then I started to miss and miss again, lost some set over set pots, full house vs full house, vs quads....
And that's OK it's variance, I know, but It's been 7K hands where I couldn't win basically, and kept loosing, and then tilting sometimes with some stupid call, or over aggression against passive fishes calling with the nuts....

Then I tried to play a more aggressive game, opening up a little (I use to be a TAG nit), and 3betting more in certain spots, but I think at 10NL it's no good.... Especially while running bad....

Here is the graph that is making me sick (red line, I know.... but at 10NL I can't really pull it up, just because I'm getting called too much)





Stats after 12500Hands, Won: 1851hands
BB/100 : 1.30
VPIP : 22.06
PFR : 15.92
3Bet PF. : 4.72
Fold PF 3Bet. : 73.63
4Bet PF : 3.52
Fold to PF 4Bet : 61
WTSD : 25
WSD : 51
WWSF : 42
CBET F : 68.84
CBET T : 52.51
CBET R : 51.90
Call F Cbet. : 37.64
Att. To Steal. : 31.30
3Bet Steal. : 8,49
Fold To Steal. : 76.43
Total. AF : 3.09
Total. Fq : 50.66

When I started losing I thought that maybe it is just because it is the summer holidays here in Italy and the rec players are not playing... There are 60 players max online playing 10NL on Stars.it, 90% Regulars.... And some are even pretty good, 3Betting me a lot, and playing solid 23vpip/21pfr . Nits and regs basically, so not easy to win pots when running bad and adjusting for the nits and the 3betting regs at the same time.....

What do I do ?
I quit ?
Or do I go directly to 25NL and lose even more ?
Study GTO ? And then try again when the fishes are back ?
Oddly enough it's august that started to go downhill....



Any comment is appreciated ;-)

OK, I don't know what's happened with that 3K hands downswing but within the last 1K hands I'm almost back where I was....
So I'm gonna go on... I plan to put some more volume, maybe 15K more, and then start taking shots at NL25.

Also I made a 40% rake back deal on ipoker, leaving Pokerstars for a while, maybe for good...



Then I feel I'm folding too much in some spots, especially to Aggro Villains, or Aggro donks, at least just before I begin figuring'em out...
Here some bad played hands where I probably got pushed out of the pot too easily...

PokerStars - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

Hero (MP): 180.2 BB
CO: 100 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 6.12, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 52)
BTN: 172.4 BB (VPIP: 47.12, PFR: 22.12, 3Bet Preflop: 4.44, Hands: 104)
SB: 69.7 BB (VPIP: 31.71, PFR: 4.55, 3Bet Preflop: 1.87, Hands: 650)
BB: 18.7 BB (VPIP: 46.88, PFR: 1.56, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 64)
UTG: 182.6 BB (VPIP: 23.17, PFR: 16.46, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 164)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB, CO posts penalty blind 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has 6 A

fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, CO calls 1.5 BB, BTN calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (9 BB, 3 players) 3 8 6
Hero bets 4.3 BB, CO calls 4.3 BB, fold

Turn: (17.6 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 14.7 BB, CO raises to 29.4 BB, fold

CO wins 44.5 BB

PokerStars - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

SB: 103.3 BB (VPIP: 21.40, PFR: 17.61, 3Bet Preflop: 9.38, Hands: 888)
Hero (BB): 97.5 BB
UTG: 143.9 BB
CO: 108.2 BB (VPIP: 35.18, PFR: 13.30, 3Bet Preflop: 6.20, Hands: 366)
BTN: 102.4 BB (VPIP: 24.17, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 124)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J J

fold, CO calls 1 BB, BTN raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 2 BB, CO calls 2 BB

Flop: (9.5 BB, 3 players) T 9 9
Hero checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: (9.5 BB, 3 players) 8
Hero bets 4 BB, fold, BTN calls 4 BB

River: (17.5 BB, 2 players) A
Hero bets 8 BB, BTN raises to 16 BB, fold

BTN wins 31.7 BB


PokerStars - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

UTG: 116.4 BB (VPIP: 17.25, PFR: 14.45, 3Bet Preflop: 11.19, Hands: 430)
MP: 183.4 BB (VPIP: 57.89, PFR: 21.05, 3Bet Preflop: 23.08, Hands: 20)
CO: 130.7 BB (VPIP: 26.03, PFR: 18.73, 3Bet Preflop: 11.86, Hands: 320)
BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 24.37, PFR: 19.75, 3Bet Preflop: 6.38, Hands: 244)
Hero (SB): 100.1 BB
BB: 171.3 BB (VPIP: 24.24, PFR: 19.70, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 69)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4 5

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 2 9 3
Hero bets 3.9 BB, BB calls 3.9 BB

Turn: (13.8 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 10.1 BB, BB raises to 40 BB, Hero calls 29.9 BB

River: (93.8 BB, 2 players) K
Hero checks, BB bets 124.4 BB and is all-in, fold

BB wins 88.7 BB

down to almost 0 after 27K hands, yesterday it was the most brutal downswing since... It looks like there's some evil resistance at 1000BBs (also the graph looks a lot like a double top - head and shoulder pattern wiich is predicting a downswing )
Got coolered a lot, two time with a full house my side (flopping a set) and lost against quads... 6buyins gone in 2k hands, maybe I steamed off 1 or 2, the rest is really getting coolered (often enough by donks calling 3bets with trash, but ending up cracking AK, AA, KK, or always hitting 2nd best hand, when hitting, just because In the dowsing I could rarely hit, and when I hit it was the losing hand, but that's what a dowsing in poker is like.... Probably I couldn't cut the losses ) .
But I'm going to review the losing hands for sure...

review em all. never know where you're making overall strategy mistakes

Just a quick update, I know I have been running like real ****, for a while, but just two words after 50K hands:
WTF !
Luckily enough I'm up with deposit bonus, and the PS rake bonuses, but exactly breaking even after all the hours sucks big time

You are basically starting from scratch. Whatever happened 15 years ago doesn't really matter. I think your approach should depend on your goals.

Let's say you set a goal to make six figures a year and you want to achieve this goal in one year. In this case, I would study GTO, get high-stakes hand histories (HH), and study them as well. Analyze their stats and try to understand when they deviate from GTO and why. I would probably not play poker for 3-4 months—just study really hard every day for 8+ hours. Playing doesn't really improve anything; playing makes you money once you know how to play +EV.

If your goal is just to play for fun while making a little bit of money, you could continue with what you're doing now. But if you're tilting and the game affects you negatively in day-to-day life—for example, lack of sleep, irritability, lack of physical exercise—then I would recommend quitting and doing something else.