Hey guys,

I'm 27-year-old musician & music producer from Finland. I grinded poker quite a lot back in 2015-2016 as a teenager, mainly microstakes MTT's and MT SNG's on PokerStars, and was a winning player over a decent sample (ran good).


(Sharkscope from my past)

Now after a 7-year-long break, I have found the long lost love for the game again and have been grinding some microstakes on GGPoker. I wanted to create this blog to keep my progress as a written form and also to keep myself from donking my bankroll when I'm tilted haha. I'm, however, mostly doing this because I'm willing to study the game and I've found 2+2 hand analyzing an amazing tool in my past.

I feel I still have an edge on microstakes games, the games seem rather soft on GGPoker. I would still love to focus on MTT's, but since I have an life and actual responsibilities nowadays, I cannot commit for long tournament grinds that often. That said, I will mostly be playing cash games to grow my bankroll, and throw in some tournament sessions whenever I feel like it. So far tournaments have eaten all profits from cash games and I'm breaking even after a week of grinding. I will be making some random deposits when I feel like playing a MTT session with bigger buy-ins for shits and giggles, but I will exclude these happenstances from my grinding roll.

Bankroll currently: $33,71 (initial deposit $30)


(current graph from 2NL cash tables)


(current graph from 2NL rush & cash)

Been running quite good on the cash tables, and vice versa, quite horrible in the rush & cash games (ran set vs. set, flush over nut flush, nut flush over turned full house), but that's poker.

GL for everyone on their grinding adventures!

CJ

If anyone knows how to share GGPoker hands on text format, I would really appreciate it. Anyways, couple of hands to analyze:



Do we check-jam or call turn? Do we call river? I don't really see that he bet's A for value that often on the river. We block straights and we don't block flush draws.



Do we ever call this turn jam? My current read in NL2 games is that in these cases, villain is pretty nutted. What would be the GTO approach?

Thanks,
CJ

I think the fold is ok.
There is no reason to get involved in the GTO, since it is unlikely that NL2 players play with solver ranges.
Let's just exploit them by overfolding in lines where opponents don't have enough bluffs.

GL!

Thanks! That's what I figured about the GTO aswell.

Bankroll went busto. Still winning at 2NL cash, but have ran quite bad on MTT's.. did a $50 deposit to grind it up with more strict BRM. GL to me I guess..

Bankroll: $50
Profit since I started this thread: -$30


2NL graph atm

Couple hands:



Do we ever find a river call here?



Is this river fold too nitty? Do we need to 3bet pre, or is flat call ok?



Is this line ok? Is river call too loose without reads?


Thanks,
CJ

Time for an update: didn't feel like playing for couple of months so only made some random deposits here and there to play some MTT's. Now however I feel like grinding again, made a $10 deposit and been grinding it up from there. Let's see how it goes, my game feels a lot better than 6 months ago. Been running terrible on MTT's, plenty of deep runs but no luck on those final two table coinflips.

Bankroll: $50

2NL R&C graph (probably breakeven / slightly losing after rake, gotta get a proper tracker ASAP)


2NL graph, beautiful looking graph. Doing good.


Some hands:

Villain MP 200bb
Hero CO 160bb with TT

Villain raise to 2bb
Hero 3 bet to 7bb, Villain call
Flop 634r, Villain check, Hero bet 11bb, Villain raise 25.50bb, Hero call
Turn 8r, check/check
River 2, check/check

Do we valuebet here? Valuebet turn? If so, which hands are we getting value from?

Villain CO 175bb
Hero BB 100bb with AThh
Villain raise to 2bb, Hero call
Flop 873r, Hero check, Villain bet 1.5bb, Hero call
Turn Qh bringing flush draw to Hero, Hero check, Villain bet 6bb, Hero call
River 5 missing the flush draw, Hero bet 16bb, Villain call

Is our river bluff terrible here? I figured we have every 2pair and straight combos there. Should we x/r flop / turn?

Thanks,
CJ

Fold looks okay on the river. Also, I don't think shoving on the turn against a short stack will be a big mistake.

3bet preflop. I would advise playing without flats, but only 3bet or fold from free positions and SB.
I'm considering a fold already on the turn, to be honest.

I agree with this one. I have adjusted my preflop play to this during recent months.

A quick update:

Chopped a $1 turbo for $100. Hell yeah. Running super good on 2NL and #ThanksGG flips made my bankroll peak at $190. Did a little withdraw to buy some groceries and weed. Time to move up to 5NL.

Bankroll: $120

Couple hands:



Do we ever call here at 2 NL? In my experience people don't really do 3 barrel bluffs at this stake, let alone 2x pot the river. IMO fold is super okay here but if someone disagrees let me know.



This is probably super nitty but let's share it anyways. Do we justify the fold here on turn? We have blockers for both flush draws and we also block some straight draws. Do you ever call here?

Thanks,
CJ

Good folds