Quick update.

Unfortunately I have had a rough October so far. I have yet to have a winning session, and I seem to be on my first downswing. I am luckily only down about $1.9k, which for my roll isn't a significant amount, but it is frustrating.

I am luckily that I haven't had too many big losing sessions, but I have generally been really card dead, and had a lot of bad luck in small/medium pots. This is the first time I've actually felt card dead over numerous sessions. I have gotten 27 and 32o a crazy number of times, in addition to the other junk and barely had strong hands.

I suppose I should be grateful this is more of a time downswing that it is monetarily, but it really sucks because I came out to Calgary for 7 weeks to grind a lot more live than I do in Ontario, and I really thought I would do great in these lower raked games.

I think I have been playing okay, but I recognized a few sessions ago that an old mental game leak from online has come back. Basically, I was getting into an old, bad habit of calling river bets (regardless of size/pot size) when my gut and logic said I was beat.

I have made a point of working on that, and generally I have been much better at that the last 2 sessions. Other than this, I think I have been playing solid, but I am maybe too passive.

I don't plan to make any other big changes in my game, as I know variance like this is very normal in live, especially since I've only lost one massive pot. I just hope it'll turn around in the next two weeks before I head back to Ontario.

Quick update!

Things have finally turned around a bit for me. After starting October on a small downswing and having 8 consecutive losing sessions, I got 3 wins in a row, and FINALLY got a big winning session.

I had yet to have a $500+ winning session this trip, so booking an $1100 win at Cowboys on Tuesday was huge for me. It was great to get a big win, and awesome to finally get back to winning on the trip, even if small.

It was mostly thanks to this huge cooler in my favour:https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/93100

It was also, imo, maybe the best session I've played (non-results wise) on this trip. I overall felt I played very well, and was trusting my gut and my reads, and generally making solid plays all around. I felt like I knew where I was in most spots, and made the disciplined decisions.

Looking forward to another session tonight, hoping I can keep playing well.

My time in Calgary is almost over, I'll be starting the drive home next Friday, and hopefully will be able to put in a short session in Regina next Friday night.

It has been a great trip, and I have learned a lot about live play and improved a lot. Hoping to finish it on a high note.

Just catching up mate, good adventuring!

The slower pace isn't killing you ? Sustainable? Sounds like you're having fun anyway

Some days it does! For the most part I enjoy it. I think when I get back to Ontario I'll shift more of a focus to online and ease off live for a couple weeks.

I definitely enjoy live, but wouldn't want to do it full time.

Quick update!

I played a session on Thursday at Cowboys. It started good and was running really well, up a couple hundred.

Then I played this sick hand against a guy who I believe is a pro, who ran a SICK bluff against me:https://pokerbankrolltracker.net/replayer/93265

I know basically everything about how he played it makes him look like a massive whale, but I'm pretty sure he is a pro. He had a GG hat, told me he is a pro, and when he sat down, several other regs made joking comments that alluded to him being a crusher.

I really have no idea how he made such a sick read or bluff. I guess if he is a crusher the loose straddle defend is okay, but no idea why he calls my flop XR. Turn I think was my big mistake, I think I checked to fast and showed I was scared of a flush.

OTR, I think this is just a spot you have to fold against 99% of live players. I think it is a good fold, he is just a sicko who can run a wild bluff here. So good for him.

I finished up that session shortly after, as I weirdly got tired and decided to go home early. However, only a small $130 loss.

I played my last session at Deerfoot last night (Friday) and I ran great. I finished up $1500, and had some sick spots like AAvsKK holding, and turning the nut gutter straight MW and stacking them both.

I'm back on a bit of an upswing, which is nice, after starting October on something of a downswing.

I leave Calgary next Friday, so I am going to enjoy my last week here. My plan is to play tonight and Tuesday at Cowboys during the Flames games, with those being my last two sessions. I hope the rungood continues so I can book an even bigger win.

yikes
aggro fish tag please

Or a psy-op.i have no idea how you could balance this because it's so far from optimal.

Yeah his line is pretty wild. I'm quite confident he is a good reg, so not sure why he would continue after I xr flop.

I played my last session in Calgary yesterday. Small $200 loss, not many noteworthy hands.

It has been a great trip. I'm up almost 3k on the tables which I am quite content with.

I start the drive back to Ontario on Friday. I'll play a short session on Friday night in Regina, otherwise driving straight back in 5 days.

Looking forward to getting back to grinding the soft Ontario pools. I will probably mix the live and online for the foreseeable future.

Thinking of getting either the upswing elite exploits or upswing live cash course. I'm not sure though as they are quite expensive. If anyone has any thoughts on either please do share.

Hey bro I enjoyed the blog. I think you should focus on the ontario online action it's very fun right now.

I am also interested in the elite exploits course. I really find Ure's coaching helpful because his thoughts are actionable right away.

Have you checked out his run it once videos and his YouTube channel?

Cheers

Yeah, definitely jumping back into the Ontario action when I get back. Going to be back in Ontario tomorrow, so I am going to get the pokerstars ontario deposit bonus $600 match and grind that out.

Yeah, big fan of his youtube channel. Some great content on there!

What's up guys, just want to give a quick little update.

I made it back to Ontario from Calgary on Tuesday. The drive was pretty good overall, I got really lucky and there was no snow anywhere.

Actually saw a wolf when driving around Lake Superior, it had just crossed the road that as I was coming over a small hill. It stopped on the other side of the road, and turned around and looked at me. It was a surreal experience, and I wish I hadve gotten some pictures.

I made the deposit on PokerStars and have jumped in the 50nl pool. It is unsurprisingly very very soft, and there's tons of fish basically everywhere.

I'm really enjoying playing back online, and I'm six tabling on stars. I didn't realize how much more focus and effort six tables feels like it takes for me compared to two zoom. So right now I'm just focused on getting comfortable with that.

I'm really enjoying it though and I'm going to keep primarily grinding online for the next few weeks to get as much of my deposit bonus as I can. I'm probably going to start adding some shots at 100nl shortly. If it's anything as soft as 50nl, I'll definitely be a winner there.

I also got a second language scholarship that I applied for at work, which means I'll be going on French training full time, starting sometime in the coming weeks. I'm absolutely elated and excited about this, as I definitely want to become fluent in French and that's something I've been working on over the past couple of years.

I'm not entirely sure what this means for poker for me, but when I first heard I thought that it was going to mean I was going to have less time for poker play and study. I'm definitely right now at the moment until I start the full-time training, I'm studying poker less because I want to use that time to do some French.

However, I was thinking that when I actually start the full-time training I might have more time for studying poker, as I probably won't want to do any french in the evenings after doing it for 8 hours during the day. But we will have to see how things play out. French is definitely more important, but that's not to say that I want to stop poker. It's important that I don't try and put too much pressure on myself to do French constantly, because I don't want to burn myself out.

For the moment I'm going to just keep grinding PokerStars Ontario. I really enjoying that so I'm going to do as much as I can to release all of my deposit bonus.

I played a ton of live while in Calgary, and so I probably won't play much live in the coming weeks. Going to focus primarily on online at the moment, but definitely will do the occasional session here and there. Probably will do more live after I finish my deposit bonus or it expires.

But in any case, it is nice to be home back in Ontario. I will post some graphs in the coming months.

Hey guys, quick November update! I put in lots of volume only this month in the Ontario Stars pool, almost matching my highest month ever with 35k hands. I have almost completed by 33% rakeback deposit bonus challenge, and going to finish it up soon and then take a break for a ew days before redepositing again for the new one Stars just launched.

I split my volume between 50nl and 100nl, and am lucky to have ran really well at 100nl.

50nl:

100nl:

I am grateful to have run so well. A lot of suckouts in my favour. The pool is crazy soft at 50 and 100. Tons of fish and spewy whales everywhere. One thing I worked on as the month progressed was flatting my redline. You'll see I managed to slow the decline at 100nl, and that is something I worked on by attacking small pots, and it seems to really help the WR. The blueline will always skyrocket (unless running bad) in these pools, but limiting redline decline helps the WR alot.

With these crazy results and the insane rakeback I've gotten from chests, deposit bonus and leaderboard (I ran really hot in cash leaderboard easily more than $700 from that) I have 25BI for 200nl.

I am going to start shotting 200nl. However, it looks noticably tougher than 100nl. There are a lot more regs, and clearly several grinding it as an income source.

I didn't play live once in November, as I was really enjoying the online grind. I kept telling myself I would go, but its hard to when my hourly is unreal at 100nl. I am thinking I may go tonight, though I probably will still focus more on online for the foreseeable future, especially if stars continues with these $600 deposit promos every other month.

I thought I wouldnt have much time for poker having to do more French for work, but it hasnt really been the case. I am able to do 1-2 hours a day of French at the end of my work day, and still have time to grind in the evening. I will be starting full time language training in January, which will be during work hours, and will mean I have even more time to study poker in the early evening. Games on StarsON dont really run under after 6pm, so the 4-6 window will be for study.

However, I am not really sure what to do for study. It feels weird, because I am obviously comfortably winning probably 5-8bb in this pool without doing much. I am thinking of working through the Upswing Elite Exploits course, starting over the holidays.

Beyond that, I am thinking of getting into some H2N MDA stuff. I have never used it before, but there are numerous regs I have 3k+ samples, which will only get bigger. I am thinking MDA might be a good tool to study against the regs I play often. However, I have no idea where to start with this, and would probably want to get some H2N coaching.

Any thoughts on this? How would you study when you are in a super soft pool? I want to avoid becoming complacent and not studying just because I am crushing.

Great stuff Draws. You're killing it/them

RE: training. Alv's Bluff Barbarian goes into how to use the hand2note MDA stuff, though it's mostly about beating regs and thinking players. it would teach you the principles of how to apply alpha against your pool though if that's what you're after. I've seen the old detox Ether stuff too now, which reaches/uses many of the same conclusions. I'll be jumping on the H2N/mda train as soon as I'm profitable enough, although you can theoretically learn the exploits independently. Maybe RIO has some decent stand alone vids on it? I think once you've got the general idea of how to identify when pools are overfolding you can construct your own customised metrics based on your DB for whatever spot you like.

e.g. if pool is folding >33% to a half pot bet in spot X we print with ATC
e.g. if pool is folding >50% to a full pot bet in spot X we print with ATC etc

The one thing about H2N and MDA though is setting up the reports. One thing I would like to get some help with is how to do that and generally use the H2N software.

At one time, this course helped me with the functionality of H2N.
https://courses.poker/courses/hand2n...tures/14423550

Nice results.
GL!

I've been planning on doing a year wrapup for a couple days, but have been slacking, so I am going to quickly do one now.

2022 was definitely my best poker year yet.

On the live front, I played live for the first time, and really got into live play at my local casino in Brantford. Starting in April, I was there 2-3 times a week, putting in decent volume through August. I was really enjoying playing there live. To get away and see some of Western Canada, I went to Calgary for 2 months in September October. Comparatively, I played a ton in Calgary, almost 25-30 hours a week. The games were great out there, and I really enjoyed then. Way better structures, action, lower rake.

Since returning from Calgary, I've only played two live sessions. With the soft online Ontario pools, I have really been enjoying playing online, and after playing in way better games out west, I have little desire to play at my casino here. I've also had two awful sessions since returning, down almost 2k.

In 2023, I plan to focus my energy on Ontario online games. Playing the occasional night of live, maybe 1-2 times a month. This may change and my desire to play live could return, but it likely won't until I move somewhere else.

My 2022 live results: +$4260 for $16.06 an hour over 265h. Obviously not crushing, but I am really happy to have proven I can win live.

Online, this has been my best year by far, and almost all my results are since I returned home in November, so the past 2 months.

Here is my graph:



Despite initally being very very angry that the Ontario gov was regulating online poker, the geofenced pool has been super EV. Before this, I was basically a breakeven winner in microzoom pools (you see in my last thread I finally was beating 10z, but got crushed every 25z shot), and was probably around breakeven lifetime with RB in the global zoom pools.

However, I have been lucky to have been both crushing and sunrunning in the Ontario pool. You'll see I am running a ton over EV, and I am grateful for that, but I know I am crushing at 100nl. 200nl, I have recently started playing, but it is noticably tougher and I table select alot more.

While this graph shows I am up 4.5k, I am actually up over 7k, as I have been making a ton of rakeback. The $600 match deposits basically give me 33% additional rakeback, and the leaderboard promo has been huge. I think I've probably won almost $1800 on the leaderboards.

For 2023, my plan is to primarily focus on grinding 100 and 200nl in the stars pools. I am comfortable 6 tabling, as it is a good mix of volume and enjoying playing. Beyond that, I just feel like I am mindlessly button clicking and not enjoying it. While my EV probably is higher despite just button clicking more tables, I don't really enjoy it. While the money is nice, I play poker for fun first.

I really hope pokerstars continues the $600 match deposits , which they have done Oct 1st and Dec 1st so far. If they do, I plan to build my grind around those, as they take about 30k hands at 100nl. Those are nice as I can have periods where I grind and then breaks that fit in between them.

But overall, I don't have a ton of strict goals or targets for 2023. I would like to make $15k playing online, which I think is very feasible, and probably something I could make in rakeback alone. Volume wise, I would like to do 200-250k hands, but this is flexible, and will depend on if the deposit bonuses continue. If they don't I will probably only play 10-20k hands a month.

Study wise, I have admitted been quite lazy recently. I haven't had much drive to study given I am crushing these fishy tables, and I prefer to bumhunt rather than reg battle. I don't have any desire to play higher online, as it is very pro heavy above 200nl, with few games running. I have been working through the Upswing Cash Exploits course, which I will continue to do, and am implementing some suggestions from it.

I have been toying with the idea of starting to use H2N for MDA. However, I only have about 50k hands on this pool, so nowhere near enough for pool MDA. I have been thinking about using it for special villain analysis (mostly regs) as I have 5k+ hands on many regs. However, if I am bumhunting so much, is that really beneficial. However, I am honestly not sure if or when I will take up H2N work. Hopefully if my drive to improve or regbattle returns like I had at the zoom pools.

I definitely have a bit more of a relaxed approach to poker this year, unlike in past years where I had specific goals to study or move up stakes. I just plan to enjoy the soft online grind, make some cash, and play the occasional live session. I don't want to put pressure on myself to grind alot online because it is so soft and the money is good. Poker is for fun first! I am not, and will never be, a pro.

Off the table, life is good. I will be starting full time French training at work for 7 weeks soon, which I am looking forward too. Surprisingly, that hasn't taken up too much of my time recently.

I am exploring other jobs, and probably will end up moving to Ottawa to advance my career, but I don't know when that will be. Could be in 3 months or 3 years. But otherwise, life is good and I am happy.

My overall results are roughly +4k live and +6.5k online. By far the most actual money I've made in poker after years of BE or slightly losing in zoom pools.

Hey man, I really like your thread.

We have a lot of similarities as I am from the exact same area as you (Southern Ontario) and have put in many hours in Brantford so it is nearly certain that we have played together at least once before.

The rake is definitely insane, but I’ve personally done quite reasonably in both the 1/3 and 2/5 games.

I’ve also transitioned slightly more into online, currently playing 200nl on Bodog, and I am looking to shot-take 500nl soon. I’ve been considering trying my hand at the WSOP/Stars games. Currently, I'm getting no rakeback, but the games are really soft and I have seemingly been running really well.

Anyway, best of luck with the grind, both with poker and with French!

Oh hey man!

Glad to connect with another local reg!

Do you have a decent sample in the non-match 1-3 at Brantford to say that it is beatable?

I am not convinced that it is beatable at an average table given the rake, so I mostly stick to 2-5 and 1-3 on match nights.

But best of luck on your grind, let me know how the shot taking goes!

Yep, you are definitely the first Brantford reg of sorts that I've seen post on here.

Yeah, I probably have a win-rate of about $25-$30/hr over around 200-300 hands if I was to guess in the 1/3 non-match. Unfortunately, my phone that I used to track all my sessions died though haha. But, it is almost certainly beatable.

Normal rake is 10% max $5 which likely generates around $125 in rake per hour ($15/player). Winrates of $30 in 1/3 are almost certainly possible. Rake of 10% max $15 likely generates closer to $300 in rake per hour or about $30/player. So, in my estimation, this high rake would slash about $10-$15 off one’s winrate. In order to be profitable in an absurdly high-raked game, you need to have a very good winrate in a standard-raked game (assuming equal player pools). I would presume the higher rake weakens the player pool a bit as breakeven regs leave to play elsewhere which increases the winrates of top regs. So top regs may only have their winrate slashed by $5-$10/hr or less. However, there is a high degree of guess work to make these estimates. That being said, I do think these highly-raked games are profitable.

I appreciate the well wishes by the way.

Happy days

Sounds like you're in a very good place squire and I hope 2023 continues this trend.

Appreciate the insights and thoughts. Hopefully I can convince myself to play more regular 1-3 when the 2-5 doesnt look great.

hey mate, good luck on your journey, results looking decent so far.


that T4s play is a massive punt pre and on the flop. this guy seems to be one of those hyper agressive live players. that style can be +EV against the right opponents because the games are just very soft but i do not think it is optimal. after he got to the turn i do not really mind applying max pressure on this runout but pre + flop are just completely out of line.


once you see somebody do this in general you can basically always click call against them in close spots. people tend to stick to their tendencies and spewtards gonna spewtard. ( i can refer to this because of my own massive punting history).

Quick January wrap up!

All stakes online:



100nl:



200nl:



It was a tough month online. I started on a rough downswing and ran really bad the entire month at 100nl. Luckily I was able to get a bit of a heater at 200nl to finish the month BE overall.

I was able to finish the last of mydeposit bonus, so I am up a about $600 with all the RB considered. Which I will happily take after being down $1200 on the tables.

Pretty happy to have positive results after starting the month like that.

I went for a live session last Saturday, my first in a month, and ran pretty solid for a nice $1800 win. It kind of helped me get the desire to play live back, so I've put in a couple sessions since then.

I will probably play some more live, mainly the 2-5 game, probably once or twice a week Wed, Fri, or Sat.

If you play at Brantford, and want to connect, let me know.

Will probably mix some live and online this month. No real specific targets for either.

Well, as much as you weren't too happy about the segregated Ontario pools, they seem to be working well for you. Glad to see you're enjoying the poker, hopefully you can get a bit of run good this month.

Are you enjoying the live or online more?

Not a bad return to the live felt with that +$1800 session.

Maybe we’ll link up in the future, but I’m quite focused on the online grind atm. Haven't been at Casino Brantford in 2-3 months at this point.