I am currently grinding 200NL part-time from the USA. I grind bovada regular tables, occasionally zone. I started at 10NL in February of 2020. If you want to know more, I have a more detailed opening in my first blog. I will link previous blog success and failures below.




My graph displayed is from 50NL-200NL past 8 months or so. (5.17bb/100 won, not $ won)



The goal of this thread is to document my battle to 500NL and produce a consistent sample at that stake.

I have a full time M-F job and can only dedicate 12-20 hours per week for study and grind. My goal is to play about 12,500 hands per month.

Currently beating 200NL 40K hands at 3.6bb/100, but over 5bb/100 EV. The beginning was scarred money shot taking in addition to many awful plays by me. After this sample I am confident I can beat it.

I have a 1k NL coach I've been working with and recently purchased GTO+. I had gotten to 200NL without ever running a solve.

I leveled myself often and fell into the trap of over estimating opponents abilities. Despite what you may read on the internet, 200NL grinders are no champions and I believe there are still big edges to be gained. We are constantly bombarded with information online from players claiming how tough the games are, even at micros! In my experience, I find this to be false.

My biggest setback was my mindset assuming the "regs" are some super sickos that have access to some exclusive info. Most poker players are actually lazy bums. What attracts them is the lure of easy money. After joining several discords, I've realized most players just call themselves regs and pretend they know what they are talking about. Players with self edited or 20K hand graphs offering coaching. They also cry about variance constantly. It's a joke. I love crushing bad regs and I'm coming for their money. Players who put in the work will succeed. The fact is most players will not be winners long term and will look for any excuse other than accept accountability it's on them that they are losers. I will reevaluate this opinion once I hit 500NL

I was always in between on writing blogs. Had one good one and one I gave up on. Actually reading on my previous blog success from 10NL on is motivating. Several of the players I respect most have one, so that swayed my final decision. Think blog is good for keeping me on track with long term vision.

We are all very fortunate to be able to log online and play a game we love with the potential to earn a profit.

I will update end of each month.

God Bless America!

Good luck!

And yeah, if you are playing on ignition it's still laughably soft. I play 200nl + some 500nl there and it's crazy how soft it is, it's like 50nl on other sites. The regs are not sickos and it's very achievable to hit a 5bb winrate. I literally only started playing poker 3-4 months ago and barely used a solver, so I think a lot of people who believe the midstakes are unbeatable just lack a solid work ethic/fundamentals.

Didn't mean to be too negative, good luck and hoping for updates.

Speaking facts! Not what we want to hear but what we NEED to hear. I definitely relate with what you said. My biggest enemy at the table is myself. Keeping the motivation to keep improving when results are not meeting my expectations has been very challenging for me but eventually a fire gets lit and I persevere but the journey to get there is so bumpy that I don't enjoy it at the time. But learning to enjoy the process, good and bad, is what separates the end boss from the shiiitregs.

You mind sharing your BRM strategy for moving up/down? I'm in the same boat as you and curious how others approach the grind. GL my friend.

Thanks.

When i was in 10NL-50NL I would try to keep 25-30BI for the current stake and when I got 35-40BI, I would fire 5 BI for the next level shot take. Sometimes I stuck first shot, sometimes it took like 4+ shots.

I've gotten more conservative from 100-200 and want 50+BI as I dont want to start over or risk having to drop stakes. For a 500NL shot I'm thinking I'm going to have 10BI shot set aside.

Thanks. I don't see it negative at all and agree
with what you said.

The games are very fun and I can't wait to jump in 500. Best of luck to you as well.

500nl is significantly tougher than 200nl. Good luck.

Ended April with 8bb/100 over 17k hands of reg and zone tables mixed. Actually above EV for the first month in a while. I do believe I played a lot of C-game and still made several punts over the sample.



Last 5K hands my redline seemed to flatten out after some adjustments I've made. Hopefully I have it under control. I'm not really shooting for a positive redline, but I think I need it breakeven at least before jumping in 500NL. Finished my last prepaid coaching session this week. I feel like my game is improving immensely and my confidence level is at an all time high. I still need to work on some things this month and hopefully take my online 500NL shot early next month.

My diet has been complete garbage. At work, the break room is constantly filled with garbage and my food addiction is winning the battle. I start dieting again today. I'm not as big as I was before, but I'm still around 20lbs overweight.

I've got a poker trip planned for Memorial Day weekend, where I'd be playing 2/5 live. I'm still debating cancelling the trip though, unsure if I want to risk massive waitlists.

May Goals

1. Lose 8 lbs (current 181)
2. 12,500 hands @200NL
3. 7 hours studying solver

I'm grateful to be able to have such a passionate hobby that can generate a side income. God Bless America!

results for the month. Almost 15k hands with 7.8bb/100.

I took a live trip and played some 2/5. basically broke even with around a $300 win. I played like a rec fish. I took an Adderall on both days and it made my anxiety go through the roof and my focus go out the window. I ended up drinking with it, which just reassured that I have no control once I put any foreign substances in my system. Some people can handle alcohol and stimulants, but I cannot. I have friends that can handle it and some that are like me (even though they may not admit it). Based on my experience, the people who experimented with drugs + alcohol at a young age <16 seem to have issues controlling their behavior. People who didn't experiment until 18 or older have less of a problem controlling their behavior and limiting their use.

It was exciting and the "pros" were making huge technical mistakes consistently. I think it would be pretty easy to earn a decent living at the 2/5 games here. It was a good time overall even though I dumbed it down with the substance abuse. I'm very optimistic about the future of poker.

The PLO bug is starting to bite me again. NL is just so monotonous. I played some PLO100 over the weekend and down 1.5 buy ins. The players are absolutely wild. Typically more fish at the table compared to NL. I still want to play higher stakes and my best chance to do so is in No Limit.

My diet has been totally wrecked and plan to start back tomorrow. Going to take a few days away from poker to recharge. Will be back ready to crush the summer.

I'm very grateful to be an American where we aren't locked down anymore, it's truly a blessing.

God Bless America!

Just want to mark this day in my log. This will be a turnaround point from my slacking ways study wise. I've only put in a few hours the last week, but already feel much improved. Why is it so hard to consistently do things that make us feel good?


Below are my results for 200NL in 2021. 50k hands with a 4bb/100 win rate. This is majority reg tables with some zone.



I've spent <5 hours with a solver and had a 5 hour coaching package. I've done some random hand and database review estimating at about 2 hours. That is the extent of off the table work I've put in during 2021 to receive above results. There is still good money to be made from poker and I can't waste this opportunity.


I think caffeine and poor diet were slowly killing me. I'm officially on day 6 with no caffeine. I'm never going back to caffeine. It was a rough week, but I'm finally feeling refreshed. It's an unnatural position to have to be reliant on a substance to get motivated to do things.

My study to play ratio is going to change drastically. I will be starting with a 1-3 split per week. So, every 1 hour I study, I get to play for 3 hours. I will see how this goes and maybe go more study.

The point of this post is to compare this 6 months of little to no study, to the upcoming 6 months of my new study plan.

Going to knockout 100 burpees and some kettlebell swings to get ready for the Saturday grind. I'm grateful for this opportunity and will make the most of it.

God Bless America.

Devastating month of June.

Including the end of May and all of June I'm down close to 20 BI.



I'm just under 70k hands @ 200NL for the year winning 3bb/100.

Pretty gut wrenching for me. I've spoken with several players in study group and they assured me they have had 20-45 BI downswings before. I also went through caffeine withdrawals that included heavy brain fogs, which undoubtedly effected my play as well. I am suffering with confidence and it's forcing me to play badly. EV wise isn't even that bad, it's seems more like I'm running into top of range at a high frequency.

I've been debating all week whether to drop down to 100NL for a couple weeks or not. I still have over 50 BI for 200NL, but I wouldn't be able to replenish if lost. I'm leaning heavily towards just grinding some 100NL to regain some confidence. It's cringe to drop down though, you lose some of the exhilaration of the game. Not as cringe as busting a whole roll I built from $250 though.

On a good note, Monday will be 4 weeks without any caffeine. No coffee, tea, soda, or anything. Starting to feel a lot better. I actually can grind longer sessions and stay awake easier without it. Each week feels like my brain is gaining more gears. I will never go back to habitual caffeine use.

Off to 100NL for the time being.

God Bless America.