Hello

Zoom:

Always tried to beat zoom for years, now it seems even harder but I'd really like to beat it, never really got very far and have a few weeks off work so would like to try and have a positive win rate in the games, just because it seems so hard

Tournaments:

Think I'm up about £20000 in tournaments below $70 buy in
Think I'm down about £10000 in tournaments above $70 buy in

With tournaments will just try and stick to the odd few and try and make a profit, at least there is a bit of hope as I think my results over the years at lower stakes mean a bit of profit, can't say the same about zoom.

Live Cash Games:

I have heard they are pretty much the only place to make decent money these days so would like to dip my foot in at some point and as I live fairly close to the London games now

and making this blog i think just for somewhere to talk poker, play a lot but no one in my life actually knows much more than the basic rules and also think it will be good motivation, just need to stick to it

Hope it goes well, will post later with an update

Gl with your goals

ah thank you very much means a lot


So played a bit today and was down $68.90 in the tournaments - that's okay hopefully should show a profit soon-ish

Played some 50NL zoom and made about $0.20 an hour in EV - this is pretty good for me

will try and post some hands now and a graph

1. this hand yeah really bad i suppose, I was just thinking if he had a K on the river he was sure to bet, if not try and bluff him but it didn't work out

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $266.06 (532 bb)
MP: $85.40 (171 bb)
CO: $16.24 (32 bb)
BU (Hero): $75.04 (150 bb)
SB: $49.50 (99 bb)
BB: $48.68 (97 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN with A♠ Q♥
1 fold, MP raises to $1.30, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.30, 1 fold, BB calls $0.80

Flop: ($4.15) J♠ 9♥ Q♦ (3 players)
BB checks, MP bets $2.17, Hero raises to $7.25, BB folds, MP calls $5.08

Turn: ($18.65) 8♦ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $5.32, MP calls $5.32

River: ($29.29) T♥ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $45.75, MP raises to $71.53 (all-in), Hero calls $15.42 (all-in)

Total pot: $151.63 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
MP shows K♦ A♦ (a straight, Ten to Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 75%, Flop: 31%, Turn: 34%, River: 100%)

BU (Hero) shows A♠ Q♥ (a straight, Eight to Queen)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 25%, Flop: 69%, Turn: 66%, River: 0%)

MP wins $149.63


2. didn't think he would have KK as likely AA KK QQ would be raising me before so thought he had mainly AK some JJ and lesser pairs 99 88 etc

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (Hero): $57.89 (116 bb)
MP: $53.38 (107 bb)
CO: $52.58 (105 bb)
BU: $66.66 (133 bb)
SB: $56.11 (112 bb)
BB: $24.43 (49 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with T♦ T♠
Hero raises to $1.50, 2 players fold, BTN 3-bets to $4, 2 players fold, Hero 4-bets to $9.25, BTN calls $5.25

Flop: ($19.25) 4♣ 3♥ 7♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $12.44, BTN calls $12.44

Turn: ($44.13) 6♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $28.65, BTN calls $28.65

River: ($101.43) Q♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $7.55 (all-in), BTN calls $7.55

Total pot: $116.53 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
UTG (Hero) shows T♦ T♠ (a pair of Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 20%, Flop: 8%, Turn: 9%, River: 0%)

BU shows K♣ K♥ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 80%, Flop: 92%, Turn: 91%, River: 100%)

BU wins $114.53

3. so this hand thought i was probably ahead on the flop, then was a bit iffy on the turn but he didn't raise and then when an A came I didn't think it really affected his hand so it was a good card to bluff

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $74.48 (149 bb)
MP: $45.79 (92 bb)
CO: $57.00 (114 bb)
BU: $112.69 (225 bb)
SB: $54.74 (109 bb)
BB (Hero): $50.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with K♥ T♣
3 players fold, BTN raises to $1.05, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.55

Flop: ($2.35) 5♣ 7♥ T♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.23, Hero raises to $4.25, BTN calls $3.02

Turn: ($10.85) 9♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $6, BTN calls $6

River: ($22.85) A♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $14.76, BTN calls $14.76

Total pot: $52.37 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows K♥ T♣ (a pair of Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 60%, Flop: 74%, Turn: 18%, River: 0%)

BU shows 7♦ 9♦ (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 40%, Flop: 26%, Turn: 82%, River: 100%)

BU wins $50.37

Think I'll just leave it as three hands and post a graph, hopefully that works




Tournaments: -$68.90
Zoom: +$115.20
Live Cash: $0

played today and had a good day playing tournaments up $1943.32

came first in one for $1820.84 which was really nice, also had 9 times my starting stack in a $50 tournament that ended up getting cancelled and 'rolled forward' by pokerstars to give a couple of hundred profit but was enjoying it and would have rather played on - never really seen that before them messing the prizepool up and having to cancel it but anyway it was a very good day for me

zoom went atrociously, down about 10 buy-ins in EV after 8000 hands, I don't see how i could ever beat it trying to grind it maybe I could beat it one tabling when I've just woken up and am sharp or something but guess I should maybe look for better normal table games and just do the one tabling zoom every now and then and try and beat it that way instead, did run well though and only ended up down about 3 buy-ins instead of 10

so plan is just to play some tournaments, find some easier normal low stake cash tables, one table zoom if i feel sharp and play a couple of games at the casinos at some point

Tournaments Total: +$1874.42
Zoom Total: -$73.74
Live Cash Total: $0

Hi, going to try and keep doing this thread as a monthly update, as not too much happens daily and hopefully I can progress a small amount towards my goals as the months go on.

So for August I ended up doing alright at tournaments, won one of them and had a 3rd then just up and down a small amount

Zoom didn't go so well, it is hard and after playing some normal tables I didn't go back

Normal Tables have started off alright which is nice as they seem beatable

Live Cash Games...... in the one game I went to play, unfortunately let myself down and got really drunk, so I guess live cash games have to come off the cards for a while, hadn't checked how much money won or lost until a couple of days later and I had £470 after withdrawing £500 and that's the only thing cash was used for, thought I was down a couple of hundred at least, I'll write it down as a couple of hundred lost cause I was sure I was down a couple of hundred and I spent a bit at the bar too.

My goals for this month will be to stick to the tournaments and normal tables as they seem to be going well, not too bothered about zoom but maybe a few hands and definitely no live cash games.


Tournaments Total: $2136.29
Normal Tables Total: $1144.19
Rakeback Total: $39.07
Zoom Total: Down $72.68
Live Cash Total: Down £250

GL dude

Don't know how of a good idea it is to mix different formats specially if you're trying to improve at all of them. The +ev decision would probably be to completely drop zoom although I can understand if this is more of a personal goal

So if you want to keep trying at zoom here are my 2 cents, I've never had the money to play higher than NL10 so take this with a huge grain of salt but:

The rake is awful, you really don't want to be flatting, 3B a ton (as hands that end preflop are not raked), and study how to play on 3B pots, specially OOP as the caller, as you've probably noticed, you will be facing a ton of 3B, and no, the ranges are not as straight forward as it would seem, as any decent reg is mixing 3B with ALL playable hands to have huge board coverage and to be difficult to play against, for example, hands like 78 suited might be a high frequency fold with the occasional 3B in button vs UTG opens for a lot of regs. (This is of course just a simplistic example, might want to check GTO wizard, or your preferred solver for preflop charts, remember to take rake into consideration)

Stop falling in mind games against yourself, "I would assume villain would raise if he had..." Most of your assumptions will be wrong, specially vs regs, this is the hard truth and will be until you study enough to beat the format.

Zoom is hard, but not that hard, if you face it with a conviction that it is your toughest ever challenge, it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. Yes zoom is tougher than regular tables but it is filled with recreationals, and the money comes from recreationals, not from fancy play. Try to face it with a clear calm mind. And tag aggressively anyone that could be a fish, target them, don't worry about balancing anything, bet big with big hands, bet smaller with bluffs, if you hit a monster hand, over bet.

You can probably afford a coach too, it will speed things up considerably, and make it much more easier.

Sorry if this comes presumptuous or judgemental, you can check my last posts to realize I'm actual a poker no one playing for pennies, I'll probably never win a fraction of what you've made already playing poker. Just want to chip in, good luck!

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot, wow see your thread has been going about 10 years now, had a look over the years and always seems to be going well




Will add my monthly summary for September ....

Tournaments went alright for me again which is nice, think I had a 1st and a 4th place this month, quite similar to last month, happy to get the two 1st's these last two months as it makes a big difference in having a profitable month, so my profit for the month in tournaments was $1817.23.

Normal Tables ..... they started off well after doing alright at them last month, I was up quite a few buy-ins this month, then the higher stake games on the site I play don't really run very often but I played them when they did and ended up losing back some of my profit, so decided to do the hopefully more sensible thing and because I couldn't grind the higher games as they are sporadic thought I'd just try and grind the games that run and not play the higher games but then I went on a bit of a losing run at my normal stakes too, ending the month down $1058.15 at normal tables.

Zoom ..... played just 1200 hands and was down 6 buy-ins in EV, even though it's a small amount of hands, found myself having more tricky decisions in just that hour of the month than in all my other games this month, think I should give it a rest and play again when I have more time to play it and get some coaching, ended up down $319.87 at zoom.

Rakeback .... helped put a small dent in my losses and is handy to have some rakeback, $282.57

Live Poker ..... Was so disappointed in myself last month for playing very drunk, managed to play a session this month not drinking and was really happy with that, haven't had a drink now for 27 days so hopefully can keep that up, ended up having a winning session which was nice for £272.50.

For October hope to keep playing tournaments as they are going alright for me, hopefully will get in a few hours of live poker this month and play a bit less of the normal tables, then will try not to play zoom this month.

Totals so far

Tournaments: $3953.52
Normal Tables: $86.04
Zoom: Down $392.55
Rakeback: $321.64
Drunk Live Poker: Down £250
Normal Live Poker: £272.50/ 6 hours

August Profit: $2908.24
September Profit: $1090.89
Total: $3999.13

Gl mate

Thanks, funny nickname ha and great zoom graphs in your thread I saw


Here is a monthly summary for October.....

Tournaments, didn't get the nice luck I've had over the last two months this time. Think I played alright in them though and guess that is just how they go, can't really remember any top 5 or so finishes and hopefully will do better next month. Minus $1044.75 in tournaments for the month.

Normal tables, started off down $500 or so, got back to about plus $1000 and ended up down $652.86. Hopefully will start to do better in this soon.

Zoom, ugh, only played it for an hour or so again. Like most months just like to give it a try, was just thinking at the time as I was doing alright in other formats, maybe if I raise the stake a bit to get a lower rake that would help and even thought I was playing okay and then look at the graph and EV is down like $1000 quickly and lost $985.71 in about an hour. Maybe I will just play 50NL this month coming and hopefully if there is a bit of rakeback coming now from Pokerstars won't lose so quickly as the last two months.

Rakeback, another small dent in the losses for $366.10 returned.

Finally live poker, played 30 hours this month for a £1197 profit, happy with how that is going, managed 57 days of no alcohol which is good for me too.

This month coming hope to play a few tournaments, bit of cash games and zoom, will lower the stakes and try to make a profit hopefully. Will try and play a similar amount of live games as this month.

Totals so far

Tournaments: $2908.77
Normal Tables: -$566.82
Zoom: -$1378.26
Rakeback: $687.74
Live Poker: £1469/ 36 hours

August Profit: $2908.24
September Profit: $1090.89
October Profit: -$679.47
Total: $3319.66

Hi

here is an update for November

Tournaments, played about 20-30 so not very many and didn't have any good finishes this month, had a few cashes though so just ended up down $75.76

Normal tables - only played these for the last three days of the month but they went alright and I finished plus $536.13

Zoom went a bit better than the usual -5 buy-ins in the one hour a month I play it, just played around 9000 hands and ended up down about 2.5 buy-ins in ev and down $160.19 in total at 50NL this month

Rakeback gave $74.56 back this month

Live poker, played 40 hours this month and had a loss of £1029.50. I didn't play too well I don't think, and the games do play quite large for me with some £2k pots so think I might try and save towards maybe £10000 if I can do that before playing again as I feel I struggled this month.

So in total ended the month down $994.03, think for the month coming, as someone said earlier in the thread, to just concentrate on one thing rather than like zoom, live, normal tables, tournaments, just feels a bit all over the place what with working 6 days a week as well, trying to go running a couple of times a week, then any other stuff with family and friends especially over Christmas as it is busy. For the month coming I'll just play the normal tables and see how that goes.

Hope everyone has a nice Christmas period

Totals so far

Tournaments: $2833.01
Normal Tables: -$30.69
Zoom: -$1538.45
Rakeback: $762.30
Live Poker: £439.50 - 75 hours

August Profit:$2908.24
September Profit: $1090.89
October Profit: -$679.47
November Profit: -$994.03

Total: $2325.63

Sweet, I'm in your zoom pool. agree that focusing on 1 thing is the way to go. GL man!

Thanks, happy new year and hope your zoom/ poker goes well in the new year

Here is a December update, for about the first 20 days of the month I played just the normal tables, didn't play too well though and ran bad as well so my money on that site was dwindling, ended up dropping stakes and winning a bit back though and ended up being down $777.69 on the normal tables.

Played a few tournaments as the normal tables weren't going the way I'd hoped, managed around a 5th place finish in one to give me a $254.60 profit in tournaments for the month, nice just to play a bit of easier poker in those.

Zoom, did end up giving it a small go over a few thousand hands but ended up down $375.72.

Rakeback was $371.64 this month

For December I was down $527.17, not the greatest month/ last few months.

Totals so far:
Tournaments: $3087.61
Normal Tables: -$808.38
Zoom: -$1914.17
Rakeback: $1133.94
Live Poker: £439.50

August Profit: $2908.24
September Profit: $1090.89
October Profit: -$679.47
November Profit: -$994.03
December Profit: -$527.17

Total: $1798.46

For the last 5 months of 2021 and since starting this diary a profit of $1798.46, it's okay, good to try and keep the poker paying for itself. For January will lower my stakes and try to have a winning month, would be nice to start winning at the normal tables even if it is a lower stake, and just trying to win a bit more consistently. I will keep doing the diary as it is nice to actually see what I make each month, the losses as well as the profits and a month seems like a nice period of time to see how it's going - not too long term, not too short term. Don't think I will bother with yearly goals, will take it month by month and come back in a years time and see how it is going.

Happy new year to everyone and best wishes for 2022.

January update

Tournaments: played more of these than usual this month but didn't have any deep runs and finished down $1258.30, about a 13th place finish and a couple between 20-30th were the best placed finishes

Normal Tables: went well at the lower stakes and won $441.06

Rakeback: $370.98 was a decent amount to get back

Zoom: -$126.21

2022 Totals:

Tournaments: -$1258.30
Normal Tables: $441.06
Rakeback: $370.98
Zoom: -$126.21
for a total loss of -$572.47 in January

Making a habbit of losing, title of this blog isn't very accurate, for February was going to play low stakes tournaments again and the low stakes normal tables as they had been going well but I think I'll change it to just playing the lower stakes normal tables as I've just started trying to read into what makes a winner and would like to read up about that a lot this month as I'm kind of the opposite. If I just play the lower stakes tables should be able to make it a winning month rather than having the variance of tournaments as well. Haven't been running for a little while so will try and get fit too. Hopefully a better month this month.

February update

It was my plan to just play the lower stakes normal tables this month and I wasn't even beating these this month, I think I do actually need to improve quite a lot, not having success at zoom at any decent stake, normal tables at any decent stake, struggling at normal tables at low stakes and I went to play 10NL zoom this month too, to get better and try and get a decent sample for coaching and I'm even losing so far at 10 zoom.

These are my February numbers

Tournaments: After losing at the lower stakes tables I played some tournaments as even though my last 6 months results aren't great my graph still looks good especially below about $70 buy-ins, lost again this month though down $820.25

Normal Tables: yeah didn't go very well down $378.45

Rakeback: Just $77.41 this month, didn't play as much as usual

Zoom: Up $13.46, was lucky to be up though

For a total loss in February of $1107.83

Here is my 10NL zoom graph so far .......... at 10000 hands I have gone from 4 tables to 3 and stopped listening to music/ watching whatever as I'm finding it hard and will look for coaching very soon





2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2078.55
Normal Tables: $62.61
Rakeback: $448.39
Zoom: -$112.75

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
Total: -$1680.30


Plan for this month is to keep going at the tournaments and try and look into coaching for zoom.

March

Will keep updating this rather than stop doing it whilst it isn't going well and appear again in a few months or something, here is March

Tournaments: -$300.37
Zoom: -$22.01
Normal Tables: -$302.24
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours
Rakeback: $57.51

for a total loss of $1138.65 in March

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2378.92
Normal Tables: -$239.63
Rakeback: $505.90
Zoom: -$-134.76
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
Total: -$2818.95

6 losing months in a row now and puts the time since starting this diary into the minus figures. Played some live cash as I wasn't doing well at anything else and may try and just take shots at it if I get the chance in the future.

here's my tournament graphs, they are alright so hopefully things will turn around as I think just from reading this blog it makes me seem like I will never win so hopefully things will turn a bit. I just play under $70 in this blog and the downswing at the end has lasted about 6 months. In April I think I will just do a small bankroll challenge as I don't want to keep losing/ have the means of depositing - see how well that goes starting from maybe $10 and see if I can do alright and maybe in a month or two do some shots at live cash games.

April:

Hi

So in April I've just been doing a small bankroll challenge to try and replenish my bankroll after 6 losing months, think I needed to change my spending as well in life as that kind of contributes to my poker money drying up - for example in August, September, October I spent £493.08 on takeaways which over a year adds up to a couple of thousand which is 10 £200 buy-ins for a 1/2 live game which could help a lot towards a starting bankroll, there are probably other things that add up that I waste money on too - subscriptions which i don't use etc so I'm going to keep track of my money here too- although it is probably quite nitty I think it is needed for me to get anywhere in poker/ life at the moment with the way things are going, so hopefully a quiet few months of trying to save for me coming up. Trying to like the challenge of trying to be frugal and kind of trying to enjoy the struggle rather than it being stressful.

Bankroll Challenge:
£10 bankroll challenge
$0-$130 - NL5
$130-$275 - NL10 - drop at $100
$325-$1150 - NL25 - drop at $250
things get harder i think around here i think so $1150 for NL50, drop back at $1000 - start with this for a while and see how it goes.

Day 1
Starting Balance: $13.11, loss $13.11, Final balance: $0
Day 2 (second try)
Starting Balance: $13.11, profit $5.37, Final Balance $18.48
Day 3
Starting Balance: $18.48, profit $21.55, Final Balance $40.03
Day 4 - no play
Day 5 ''
Day 6 ''
Day 7 ''
Day 8
Starting Balance: $40.03, profit $1.73, Final Balance $41.76
Day 9
Starting Balance: $41.76, profit $13.43, Final Balance $55.19
Day 10
Starting Balance: $55.19, loss $16.50, Final Balance $38.69
Day 11
Starting Balance: $38.69, profit $17.28, Final Balance $55.97
Day 12
Starting Balance: $55.97, profit $15.70, Final Balance $71.67
Day 13
Starting Balance $71.67, loss $7.99, Final Balance $63.68
Day 14
Starting Balance: $63.68, profit $11.23, Final Balance $74.91
Day 15
Starting Balance: $74.91, profit $1.55, Final Balance $76.46
Day 16
didn't play
Day 17
''
Day 18
''
Day 19
Starting Balance $76.46, loss $8.32, rakeback $5.13, Final Balance $73.27
Day 20
Starting Balance $73.27, profit $20.74, Final Balance $94.01
Day 21
Starting Balance $94.01, loss $3.65, Final Balance $90.36
Day 22
Starting Balance $90.36, profit $57.07, Final Balance $147.43
Day 23
Starting Balance $147.43, loss $10.22, Final Balance $137.23
Day 24
Starting Balance $137.23, profit $20.52, Final Balance $157.75
Day 25
Starting Balance $157.75, profit $0.92, rakeback $5.10, Final Balance $163.77
Day 26
Starting Balance $163.77, profit $4.46, Final Balance $168.23
Day 27
Starting Balance $168.23, profit $12.45, Final Balance $180.68
Day 28
Starting Balance $180.68, profit $10.65, Final Balance $191.33
Day 29
Starting Balance $191.33, profit $19.70, Final Balance $211.03
Day 30
Starting Balance $211.03, loss $5.57, Final Balance $205.46

To summarise poker for the month:

Normal Tables: $175.23
Rakeback: $10.23
for a total profit of $185.46 in April

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2378.92
Normal Tables: -$64.40
Rakeback: $516.13
Zoom: -$-134.76
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
Total: - $2633.49

yeah I'd like to get good with the bank balance too so I'll record it below, bit strange but I just find here in this blog is a good place to record it as it can't be deleted - eg if I record it on word and have a bad month and delete it and start again which can't really be done with it on a blog, have also been watching videos about how to get good with money and they are interesting and so far in my life I have always been bad with money and it's something I'd like to be better at.
Started at £148.12, got down to -£80.08 and finnished at £247.75 to live off for May after wages then £1050 for bills, house food, rent and £100 investing. Did alright I think on the spending, spending about £230 on mainly lunch and leisure/ football/golf. Turned down a few chances for more football/ golf as well so think £230 is good I think and have a similar amount this month to live off.

Finally where I had been averaging over £150 a month on takeaways, will try and start investing, just to try and get into good habbits for if I ever have more to invest and I guess investing £100 a month will be better than spending it on takeaways even if I don't have much of a clue what I'm doing at the moment. So this is how I invested my first £100 and I'll try and live off the rest of my wages.

Bitcoin - £25
Ethereum - £25 - had some good advice to put money into these two a couple of years ago but wasn't the best at holiding onto my money hopefully they are still good to invest in, they seem good

Microsoft - £25 - their long term graph seems very nice and guess they will be good for the future
Chesapeake Energy - £25 - energy firms seem to be going up a bit and their graph seems nice

Plan for May is just to do the same as this month and work on the bankroll challenge.

May:

Poker

Carried on with the bankroll challenge in May, just managed a small profit.

Bankroll Challenge:

£10 bankroll challenge
$0-$130 - NL5
$130-$275 - NL10 - drop at $100
$325-$1150 - NL25 - drop at $250
things get harder i think around here i think so $1150 for NL50, drop back at $1000 - start with this for a while and see how it goes.


Day 31
Starting Balance $205.46, profit $10.07, Final Balance $215.53
Day 32
Starting Balance $215.53, rakeback, $4.93, profit $25.74, Final Balance $246.20
Day 33
No Play
Day 34
''
Day 35
''
Day 36
''
Day 37
Starting Balance $246.20, profit $41.09, Final Balance $287.29
Day 38
Didn't play
Day 39
Starting Balance $287.29, loss $35.13, Final Balance $252.16
Day 40
Starting Balance $252.16, loss $33.53, Final Balance $218.63
Day 41
Starting Balance $218.63, profit $2.45, Final Balance $221.08
Day 42
Starting Balance $221.08, profit $15.07, Final Balance $236.15
Day 43
Starting Balance $236.15, loss $3.32, Final Balance $232.83
Day 44
Starting Balance $232.83, profit $33.97, Final Balance $266.80
Day 45
Starting Balance $266.80, loss $31.64, rakeback $7.89, Final Balance $243.05
Day 46
Starting Balance $243.05, loss $41.04, Final Balance $202.01
Day 47
Starting Balance $202.01, profit $63.70, Final Balance $265.71
Day 48
Didn't Play
Day 49
Starting Balance $265.71, profit $61.13, Final Balance $326.84
Day 50
Didn't Play
Day 51
Starting Balance $326.84, profit $201.56, Final Balance $528.40
Day 52
Starting Balance $528.40, profit $34.13, rakeback $10.03, Final Balance $572.56
Day 53
Starting Balance $572.56, profit $11.49, Final Balance $584.05
Day 54
Didn't Play
Day 55
Starting Balance $584.05, profit $35.54, Final Balance $619.59
Day 56
Starting Balance $619.59, loss $86.17, Final Balance $533.42
Day 57
Starting Balance $533.42, loss $80.59, Final Balance $452.83
Day 58
Didn't Play
Day 59
Starting Balance $452.83, loss $70.54, rakeback $8, Final Balance $390.29
Day 60
Starting Balance $390.29, loss $53.61, Final Balance $336.68
Day 61
Starting Balance $336.68, profit $11.67, Final Balance $348.35


made a small miscalculation last month so will drop $7.56 from this months profits.
To summarise poker for the month:

Normal Tables: $112.04
Rakeback: $30.85
for a total profit of $142.89 in May

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2378.92
Normal Tables: $47.64
Rakeback: $546.98
Zoom: -$-134.76
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
May: +$142.89

Total: - $2498.16


Bank Balance

Had around £247.75 to live off and had like £10/£20 left by payday so did ok there. After bills, house food, rent and investing leaves me £192.03 for June.

Learning/ Trying to invest

Bitcoin - £25
Ethereum - £25

- these two went down quite a bit in the month to £33.78

Microsoft - £25
-microsoft seemed to be going down a fair bit so I switched to Devon energy around the middle of the month as this seemed to be going up- even though I think Microsoft will be good to have over a decent period of time, think I might as well just cash out and put money into something that looks like it is going up at the moment, to just try and be into stocks going up at the moment, hopefully this can work.

Chesapeake Energy - £25
-went up seems good for the next month

By the end of May the £50 invested had gone to £104.01

Two stocks for June I have chosen is: Suncor Energy - £25 and Marathon Oil - £25

Both energy firms and seem to be going up, having all of my stocks as energy might not be good as they say to have a diverse portfolio but I guess this is a lesson I will learn at some point as it seems like they should do alright still this month. As crypto seems not to be going up this month, going to try day trading alongside the longer term investing to see how it goes so will have £50 in that to try. Think this may be hard as trying to make a profit in a day as well as overcoming the fees which I think are around 2% a day might be very hard but will give it a try and see how it goes.

Etoro - £50

Totals
Crypto -£16.22
Longer term Investing - +£4.01
Day Trading -£2.75

Plan for June is to carry on with the bankroll challenge again and hopefully goes a little better.

June:

Poker

ah no good this month, had been carrying on from £10 in the bankroll challenge, this month though I went away from my bankroll guidelines as it was taking so long and with the hope of a shot going well and being able to stay there and if it didn't just to start again near the bottom so that is pretty much where I am.


Day 62
Starting Balance $348.35, profit $120.97, Final Balance $469.32
Day 63
Starting Balance $469.32, loss $50.83, Final Balance $418.49
Day 64
Starting Balance $418.49, profit $129.78, Final Balance $548.27
Day 65
Starting Balance $548.27, loss $264.96, Final Balance $283.31
Day 66
Starting Balance $283.31, profit $535.74, rakeback $61.76, Final Balance $880.81
Day 67
Starting Balance $880.81, loss $164.87, Final Balance $715.94
Day 68
Starting Balance $715.94, profit $227.94, Final Balance $943.88
Day 69
Starting Balance $943.88, loss $2.63, Final Balance $941.25
Day 70
Didn't Play
Day 71
Didn't Play
Day 72
Starting Balance $941.25, loss $576.44, Final Balance $364.81
Day 73
Starting Balance $364.81, loss $300.88, rakeback $7.03 Final Balance $70.96

played a couple of other games and lost a bit there too, here's a summary for the month

Normal Tables: -$342.50
Rakeback: $68.79
Tournaments: -$178.50
Zoom: -$7.88

For a total loss of $460.09 in June

2022 Totals

Tournaments: -$2557.42
Normal Tables: -$294.86
Rakeback: $615.77
Zoom: -$142.64
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
May: +$142.89
June: -$460.09

Total: -$2958.25

This month aim is to just play low stakes online and take any shots at live cash games. Cashed out of the small investments I was trying as they seemed to be going downhill, just for like an £8 loss, maybe try again when it is a better time to try it.

July

Haven’t got my poker laptop with me to update properly but wanted to do a monthly update anyway just to keep up the monthly updates.

Went alright this month and will update with the proper figures next month as was on holiday for last half of July and first half of August coming up.

Normal tables think I played just a bit and was down about $100.

Took a shot at zoom games and it actually went better than usual and ended up playing about 10000 hands and ended up sticking with 25NL where I hope I’ll stay for a bit as seem to be doing okay and the rakeback isn’t bad- different to the usual zoom graph that goes down pretty much straight away and feel I’ve been playing a bit better, so think I ended up about +$150 there.

Rakeback was about $100/$150 ish too so a small winning month but with a bit of hope that the zoom games might go a little better than usual in future.

Didn’t play any tournaments or live poker.

Goals for August when I can play again will be to try and keep doing ok at zoom and if I have a chance play a little live poker.

Hey, GLGL, def following your journey

I agree that focusing on one format might help you better. Or at least formats that, in my view, "play" well together, like live + tournaments, or zoom + live.

If you don´t mind, I will try and talk a bit about my experiences. I struggled for years on end trying to move up to 10nl lol. I never considered investing actual money in my efforts to improve, coaching always seemed expensive in comparison to my stakes, an actual RIO Elite? Too expensive. Solver? Too expensive. Hand2note? So cool the types of population analysis you can do, but how can I invest in this as a 5nl player? I'll never recoup this investment, etc. I always had this in my mind that I should move up first, by my own effort, before actually investing in this "business". But you know what? Things only started to click when I decided to go the other way: make a leap of faith and actually spend money in my craft (or better yet, what I like to call increase my investments in R&D ).

So, be wise on the things you spend your hard earned money, but don´t be cheap. Pretty sure a good coach will help you a lot btw.

Cheers

Update for July and August

Here are the final figures for July as I didn't have them at the time

Poker

To summarise poker for July:
Normal Tables: -$67.32
Zoom: $96.81
Rakeback: $161.82
for a total profit of $191.31 in July


Thank you very much Fazendeiro for the post and advice it was very helpful and I did invest in some R&D, ha, good to see you doing well. Yeah had a lesson with the hope of more to come.

August went very well for me and has been the best month of the year so far. After the lesson I played 100NL as the lesson was very good and I thought with the decent rakeback I might be able to hang around there for a bit and it seems to have worked so far and hope it can carry on.

To summarise poker for August:
Zoom: $965.80
Rakeback: $784
for a total profit of $1749.80

Plans for September are to just try and stay at this level

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2557.42
Normal Tables: -$362.18
Rakeback: $1561.59
Zoom: $919.87
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
May: +$105.40
June: -$460.09
July: +$191.31
August: +$1749.80

Total: -$1017.14

Glad you had a good August mate. Keep it up and you'll end the year really well!

Ah thank you very much HurtNCYDE, yeah hopefully heading in a good direction

Update for September

September went alright for me. Seems I ran about $1100 under EV this month and ended up with around $100 or so total profit so hopefully if the EV turns a bit I will do ok.

To summarise poker for September

Zoom: -$1142.28
Normal Tables: -$66.76
Rakeback: $1314
for a total profit of $104.96 in September

Plans for October are to try and keep the same as the last few months and try and improve a little, hopefully a lesson or two and try and exercise a bit.

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2557.42
Normal Tables: -$428.94
Rakeback: $2875.59
Zoom: -$222.41
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
May: +$105.40
June: -$460.09
July: +$191.31
August: +$1749.80
September: +$104.96

Total: -$912.18

October summary

It was a close month, up the first half of the month, down the second half then today wasn't expecting it to be profitable month but run luckily and ended up plus $9.58, then sat out so it goes down as a profitable month

Rakeback was quite a lot this month, $1476 which helps a lot.

Normal tables went alright being up $1059.26.

Zoom didn't go so well but hopefully with the rakeback it is alright playing it and I still want to get better at it, was down $2525.68.

Plans for November are to keep trying at online cash, some zoom and normal tables again and if I get a chance it would be good to play some live poker.

2022 totals:

Tournaments: -$2557.42
Normal Tables: +$630.32
Rakeback: +$4351.59
Zoom: -$2748.09
Live Poker: -£435/ 3 hours

January: -$572.47
February: -$1107.83
March: -$1138.65
April: +$185.46
May: +$105.40
June: -$460.09
July: +$191.31
August: +$1749.80
September: +$104.96
October: +$9.58

Total: -$902.06