I fuc*ing love poker.

For years I've played this epic game with various levels of intensity, commitment, success and failure.

Reflecting recently on what I want from my life (Yes, after a break up...) I came to the conclusion that poker is the one true passion in my life and I shouldn't be afraid of it, I should embrace it.

So the back of the napkin plan is... play loads of poker, travel the world, meet cool people, do good things.

YOU are one of those cool people, which is why I am putting myself out there a little bit (I'm naturally a lurker) and starting this thread.

I won't bore you with details now. I can share more over time if I don't go busto and disappear within a week.

P.S. Someone told me you all like graphs & sh*t so I haven't come empty handed, I will leave you with my first 10k hands from 50nl for now.

So I've started a downswing the past couple of days and it's entirely my fault.

There are three reasons for this:

1 - Playing too much

I've been playing tired for long periods of time when I'm not thinking clearly and it's led me to make some aggression mistakes. (I am naturally an aggressive player, but made some stupid punts without sound reasoning behind them)

2 - Playing too many tables

I have noticed that when I four table zoom my decision making and results go down. With two tables, I am able to focus more and spot more things which help my winrate. I have been chasing leaderboards and lost more than the bonuses by doing so.

3 - Fancy play

I am a creative player and I have confidence to go with my hand reading. However, I have been doing it in bad situations, mostly due to the two reasons above.

What are the root causes?

To address these issues, I need to understand the root causes behind them.

1 - Boredom

I'm currently under quarantine with COVID (ends today), I need to find more balance and do other things besides just work and poker. I need to only play when I'm in a good place to and can bring my A game.

2 - Want to move up/win too fast

I've been playing again for less than a week and I'm expecting too much. This was exacerbated by my god-mode start which was never sustainable. I need to understand that I'm in this for the long term and stop chasing short term quick wins.

3 - Ego / fancy play

I think I sometimes make calls or bluffs to "prove" something or because it's "clever". This is ego and is completely unnecessary. It only really happens when tired or playing too many tables. So fixing the other two issues should help with this.

Fixing the problems

I have created some rules to help my address these issues.

1 - Play two tables only. No exception.
2 - Play only when feeling focused, if not, then study poker instead
3 - Read "the mental game of poker 2" (just bought this)
4 - Remember the mantra KISS (keep it simple stupid)

Here's the latest chart

My first week of taking poker seriously again is complete! I've really enjoyed it overall.

Made some big mistakes, but that's okay at this stage as long as I learn from them and I have my new plan to follow based on these mistakes. (See last post)

I took a little break and did shorter sessions and stuck to only two tables. I also managed to kept it slightly more simple. The downswing has started to reverse so it seems to be working.

I still ended up with a positive winrate despite all the mistakes, which means there is a lot of potential to be gained. The rakeback and leaderboard bonuses have been really good too.

If anyone else is playing 6 max cash around 50nl and is interested in discussing hands etc, let me know! Would be good to connect with some fellow players.

Here is a breakdown of the sessions by day



Any feedback on my stats would be appreciated too. as I'm not sure what leaks are here. Still need to study more about the stats side of things.

And finally here is how the chart is looking




Thanks for taking the time to read this! Sub if you want to follow my journey

20k Hand update.

Seems to have turned around since I made the changes, been running good too of course.

Will stick with this strategy and see how it continues.

Going off your graphs and stats Shakey you dont need any advice from me.
You have also come to sensible conclusions about your mistakes. I like the red line by the way.
Nose to the grindstone and I dont see a reason why you cant progress further.

What site is this, are you doing stuff off the tables to help with the problems you identified? like lets say if you improve your physical condition you will be less tired even after hours, or if you meditate and set your mindset to not be ego oriented you can achieve improvement there too

Thanks for the compliments, but I'm about to post my 30k hand update and you may change your mind haha.

I will definitely stick to the grind though as you say, going to work hard to make this happen.

Thanks for the off-table tips. Meditation and fitness are both things I do see the value in, but struggle to find the time to prioritise between work, poker, projects and normal life stuff.

I know that the time spent on these things will pay for itself though, so will find a way to squeeze some fitness and meditation into my schedule.

Can anyone recommend any apps for meditation? I used HeadSpace years ago, but there are so many more options now. Is there one particularly good for poker?

Ok so it's my 30k hands (two weeks) update and things are not going so well and I need to be honest with myself as I've broken a few of my own rules.

I've definitely had some run bad, but I've also not been playing my A game. When I'm running bad it's harder to make the big decisions.

I've also had a tough week at work, having to work lots of hours, so have been operating on little sleep with far too many hours in front of computer.

Here is one hand example, where I knew I should fold but during time bank I clicked call "hoping".

6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: 1aeab526 ($50 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($54.79 in chips)
Seat 3: 57afc12e ($51.87 in chips)
Seat 4: 8748a87d ($51.32 in chips)
Seat 5: 46c0d673 ($87.79 in chips)
Seat 6: 1d46f941 ($54.58 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind $0.25
57afc12e: posts big blind $0.5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 1aeab526
Dealt to Hero [As Kd]
Dealt to 57afc12e
Dealt to 8748a87d
Dealt to 46c0d673
Dealt to 1d46f941
8748a87d: raises $0.75 to $1.25
46c0d673: calls $1.25
1d46f941: folds
1aeab526: folds
Hero: raises $5 to $6.25
57afc12e: folds
8748a87d: folds
46c0d673: calls $5
*** FLOP *** [Ah 5s 3h]
Hero: bets $7.13
46c0d673: calls $7.13
*** TURN *** [Ah 5s 3h] [Qc]
Hero: checks
46c0d673: bets $9.91
Hero: calls $9.91
*** RIVER *** [Ah 5s 3h Qc] [Kh]
Hero: checks
46c0d673: bets $37.5
Hero: calls $31.5 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($6) returned to 46c0d673
46c0d673: shows [5c 5d] (Three Fives)
Hero: shows [As Kd] (Pair of Aces and Pair of Kings)
*** SHOWDOWN ***
46c0d673 collected $109.33 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $111.33
Board [Ah 5s 3h Qc Kh]
Seat 1: 1aeab526 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Hero (small blind) showed [As Kd] and lost with Pair of Aces and Pair of Kings
Seat 3: 57afc12e (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: 8748a87d folded before Flop
Seat 5: 46c0d673 showed [5c 5d] and won ($109.33) with Three Fives
Seat 6: 1d46f941 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I know some will say this is a cooler, but I don't think players shove AQ here (and most bet bigger on turn, 3bet pre etc) and probably only 1% of players have bluffs here at this level (67s)

I've also not even started the mental game of poker book I bought (one of my rules).

Wednesday was the worst, I played too many hands (4704) and lost 10 buyins.

I'm still just about positive, and with leaderboards, rakeback and some other prizes the profit is okay. But I don't want to grind out for these, I want to play my A game and focus on winrate so that I can improve and move up.

Anyway, this week I need to turn things around, I will:
- Start the book (seriously!)
- Start a mediatation app
- Spend at LEAST one hour EVERY day outside away from work/poker/computer
- Implement a stop loss of 3 buyins

And here's the ugly looking graph you've been waiting for, enjoy the schadenfreude!

GL in your challenge.. Your AK hand seems like a bad-ish river, I think I would jam river myself to get value from AJ/AQ type of hands that mayy check back the scare card. From a GTO perspective checking seems good though.

Thanks for the feedback, I agree.

Time for a week 3 / 40k hand update.

The good parts
I have started TMGP2 and I'm up to chapter 5
I've started taking notes during play, doing warm-up and warm-down reviews
I've been spending over an hour walking each day
I played a local pub tournament and won it (just 14 players)

I also started moving up the stakes, based on something I read in the book about playing at the right level of challenge. I was getting bored at .25/.50 because it plays so tight and I thought this could be a reason for my fancy play.

Things went well at first, but then I went on a crazy tilt when things started going against me and started playing very badly and gave all my profits back.

The mental game is definitely my biggest issue. I've got a lot to work on here and it won't be easy. I need to remember that this is a process and I'm still in my first month so I will keep on working on it and improving.

I will continue with the book, the notes and trying to stay focused.

Here is the latest chart



There definitely seems to be a pattern, whenever I reach new heights I tend to start playing badly and go on a big downswing.

If anyone has experienced anything like this before or has an idea why I may be doing this, please let me know.

**** the meditation if able-bodied not got some ****ed up physical health or serious injuries just exercise or do a sport depending on the exercise sport that's shits meditation in and of itself flow state baby (miss it).
Or music learn instrument, listen music.

Meditation is overated even poker when in the mood has flow states.

Maybe I'm just misinterpreting what mediation is though to be fair, but anything that makes you zone out or focus purely at what's at hand or feel **** probably does the trick.

Gl

I wouldn't set a stop loss makes you money focused instead of game hand board opponent focused, also I'm not good at this I'm always checking balance in game but if can are genuinely rolled just play 2 weeks and dont look or look twice a week or something just try not make it regular (I'm gonna try that myself some point).

Gl again