Hello everyone, this week I saw that two youtubers I like started a 10NL zoom challenge, so I decided to do the same.

I am currently a student in the last year of a master's degree in computer science and I started poker around February 2021. I play for fun, if I can climb the stakes it's cool but if I cannot, I don't really care for the moment it's just a pleasure to learn this game. I like the challenge that it represents.

I mainly play on pokerstars.com, sometimes on GGPoker, Bwin and Unibet. I come from a country where rakeback is not allowed by law, so I cannot rely on it to make up for my mistakes.

At the moment, I am a slightly winning player but I have a lot to learn and I still feel like a lost fish in a lot of situations. You can see my progress on the graph (from pokerstars) below. On the graph I started on 2NL zoom until around 40k hands then I tried 5NL zoom until my first upswing above 100$ that was my shot at 10NL regular. At 250$ on the graph, I started to shot 16 and 25NL where I am currently sligthly winning but the sample is not big.



My zoom challenge is simply to see if I can be a winner on 10NL zoom on a sample of 100k hands. See my graph below for the start of the challenge.

100K hand is a massive number of playtime.
Would be silly to not shot take after 50K. Keep us update and GL.
SK.

I'm almost halfway through the challenge.

To make 100k hands takes me time because I also play at the regular table. Unfortunately, my shot in NL25 regular didn't go very well so I spent quite a bit of time in NL10 regular to make up for my losses.

25NL regular shot



10NL regular after my shot



10NL zoom / rush and cash challenge

Between 20k and 30k hands, I had a big downswing. It appends just after my downswing at 25NL after which I worked on my game by studying GTO...
My problem is that I started to become a big calling station, I started to hero call underbluff lines in order to be balanced. Got check raise on the turn? No problem, I can call, they bluff sometimes and I need to defend x% of my range, on top of that, I block villain's value hands... Got 3 barrel all in by out of position player? No problem, they bluff enought, I can call... Villain represents AK making a straight when he goes all in river? I don't believe him, he didn't 3bet...

My other problem is that I started bluffing lines that are overcall. Villain overfold flop, villain overfold turn, my database told me that the field overcall river, but I don't care, I am playing GTO, I have to find bluffs on the river... Villain comes to the river with only nutted hands, but maybe he can still find a fold? I have to be balanced if I want to be a crusher...

Around the 30k hand, I realized that I had to play my usual game again, start exploiting the field again, continue to improve and regain confidence at the tables and a more controlled aggression.

I have the time, poker is difficult, 50k is a small sample for zoom, I don't even know if I'm a winning player yet.

Thank you and GL to you at the tables.

Nice blog, will be following. Maybe share some hands from time to time, where you didnt know what to do.
I would comment on some for sure.

Hi, thanks for stopping by. I will start posting hands from next week. At the moment, I have a lot of IRL work, I'm taking exams at university. Because of that, I had my smallest week in terms of volume since I started playing.

Results of the week (super small sample)




Overall results on 16NL-25NL

I just noticed that I lost on the button in 16NL+. Usually this is the position where I win the most, I have never been a loser in this position over 20k hands... For 25NL regulars on pokerstars, what are the best times to find as many recreational players as possible? I played Sunday evening, couldn't find any loose recreational players. Should I use waiting lists at these stakes? It was not necessary in NL10.

Hi, I wonder if it's a good fold against a stranger on a rush and cash 10NL field? I know I just need to win around 28% of the time to make this call but I am not sure about if the field is bluffing enough. That guy seems to be a nit player who play all day for the rakeback, he had already played over 13k hands (we can see that info on ggpoker) during this session and was probably on autopilot.



GG Poker - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 283.5 BB
SB: 218 BB
BB: 343.2 BB
UTG: 146.4 BB
MP: 118.6 BB
Hero (CO): 101.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A Q

fold, MP raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 7.5 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 6.5 BB, MP calls 5.5 BB

Flop: (23 BB, 3 players) Q 8 T
BB checks, MP checks, Hero bets 11.5 BB, fold, MP calls 11.5 BB

Turn: (46 BB, 2 players) 4
MP checks, Hero bets 23 BB, MP raises to 99.6 BB and is all-in, fold

MP wins 87.5 BB

I like the 2+2 name, lol. Best of luck

Yes, I think it's a good exploitative fold on the turn if you don't expect bluff raises from the villain.

Nice blog and Good Luck!

Another new week ending, a volume still ridiculously low. I should have more time to play from next week. I also tend to work on the game more than I play. Another thing, it's been a year now since I started playing poker, I'm super happy with how far I've come and super excited to know that I still have so much to learn.





I should also change the title of the blog (I don't know how to do it) because in the end, I won't just talk about the zoom since I like to vary the pleasures by also playing on the regular tables.

If you report your original post and ask for a title change I believe a mod can change it for you.

Hi, here are my results for this week, I think I played well most of the time. Reviewing all my sessions with my working group, I realized that I lacked a bit of value river in certain spots. I have to improve this point. However today I think I made a pretty big mistake, I took my third dose of the covid vaccine, so I have a little brain fog and I think I made a very bad call. I think it's a pure fold river.?

Especially at NL10 it's pure fold yeah. Solid week nevertheless!

Good week man, you're really coming along! If you want hand reviews done quickly, I have a study space in my Discord, there's a fair few microstakes players working together to get better. You're more than welcome to join!

Hi, I took a little break from zoom for a few weeks to play regular tables and not to be disgusted too quickly.

I have recently found the motivation to continue my challenge, which is to try to win in 10NL zoom on 100k hands. Last time, I was breakeven
with about 45k hh.

Now I am three quarters of the way through the challenge and slightly winning. I still play on ggpoker and pokerstars and have been lucky enough
to win a badbeat jackpot of over $600 (All in preflop, I loose AAATT against ATTTT). This makes up for the fact that my country forbids me to receive rakeback.

Thanks to this stroke of luck, I allow myself a small shot in zoom 25, just to see.