Some history about me:

I was beating the games for a few thousand $$$ per year back in the day when they were still soft. But i was always a nit and never managed to improve my game as far as i wanted since i lacked the skills and time due to attending a university at the same time. My main game was HUSNGS regular and turbo speeds.

Before 2,5 years i had to join the army for a full year since it is obligatory by law in my country Greece for all males. After that, when i started playing again i was break even at the most popular and profitable game of the time: hyper HUSNGS:



After that i realized i was left behind the average player and the games were way harder than i thought so and i had to put real effort to become even a slight winner.

Not only that but a similar situation to USA's black Friday was about to happen in Greece. So i thought about the pros and cons and decided i should quit and find a real job or start some kind of business.

At that point the economy in my country was in really bad shape and was getting worse each day that passed. After testing all the other options i had for several months with nothing working as i had expected i realized i live in an economic prison with no escape.

What changed? Why i am here posting all this?

Some months ago i was about to start working in a "job" (after many months of unemployment) where i had to work 10 hours per day for 400$ per month after expenses... Meanwhile in my country youth unemployment was at 60% and overall at 30%, while average monthly salary sits at 700-1000$ per month with a huge cost of living.

At the same time and while i was depressed with my current situation suddenly the corrupted politicians of my country decided to make a deal with pokerstars and some other sites and actually legalize online poker to milk some more taxes from the idiots that voted them.

After calculating my ridiculous hourly rate from that "job" and the fact that i could finally play legally and use my earnings from poker after all those years it existed in a grey zone i decided to get back into it.

My goal

I figured that if i can grind 1000+ $ per month with up to 8 hours of work per day (including studying the game) i would be in a 10 times better situation than the one i am now.

That converts to about 3% ROI at the 7$-15$ stakes of hypers along with rakeback single or two tabling.

Why do i believe i can succeed this time:

1. I have acquired psychological skills that will allow me to stay tilt free.
2. I am more organized now.
3. I am more focused.
4. I have better self control.
5. I am more motivated.
6. I don't have high expectations any more.

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What i have done so far:

My plan is to play about 1k hyper HUSNGS games at each lvl to slowly progress and feel confident about my game while i spend 20-30% of the time studying and 70-80% playing. I started right after new year and these are my results after 30 days:

Beating the 1,5$ hypers:



Beating the 3,5$ hypers:




So far i am staying positive that i will manage to hit 7$ stakes and beat them this month maybe even move to 15$! I will try to update this thread once per day. Wish me luck

BTW if you have any recommendations of what to study or what else i can do to reach my goal faster i would love to hear you!


TL;DR: Getting back into the game after poker legalization in my country to grind 1k+/m. Wish me luck!

gl !

Ty sir! Good luck to you too

As for todays grind:




I hope i will be able to move to the 7$ stakes by the end of the week!

GL...will be watching

Thanks


Today i was playing and running like a gawd:



10+ buyins. I could easily move up tomorrow based on mersenaries bankroll management or half Kelly criterion but i want to be 100% sure about my game.

Once a nit....always a nit.

Wish me luck

best of luck sir

Thank you Keren!

Didn't play many games today:




because i spend most of my day studying new strategy adaptations and trying to find my leaks and fix them. Probably most of my time went on checking old hands and find better lines on most common spots.


I ve also read around some threads and found out that the 7$ and 15$ stakes are pretty much the same in difficulty in pokerstas hypers HUSNGS. If thats true then i am very close in succeeding to my main goal!

If anyone has a similar experience over a decent sample while climbing those lvls please share it.

Managed to put some real effort today and play allot of matches:



Run into some sick spots/coolers etc. but still crushed the stars lag donks.

Unfortunately running 10 buyins under EV is standard at HUSNGS...

This is why i need as many people as i can get to wish me luck

gl

Hey,


Love your motivation to give yourself a better income and lifestyle. Best of luck mate, keep working hard and you will get where you want to be in no time at all.

P.s On the bankroll side, Hypers can be very swingy. Move up when you think it is right for your mindset and Not what others say/do. Your the one that has to check the cashier after a horrid run ( Hope it doesnt happen ofc) But you get my drift

GL and keep us updated.

gl!

Thanks guys!

Wise words Ghandroo, at this point i just try to have atleast 1000 games with positive roi at each stake in order to be sure i can beat the game.

I had a very hard day again today being down 10 buyins after 15 minutes of play from sick situations and coolers. Along with yesterdays minus 10 buyins under EV felt soul crushing even thought i am 99% sure i can crush this lvl.
The swings at this game are indeed crazy.

Here are the games:



Fortunately i managed to end the day breaking even. I need 100 more matches and i will have my 1k games at this lvl and if my ROI is positive i will move to the 7$ stakes.

Lets see what will happen tomorrow. Wish me luck

Great day today:




Finally i can say with 90+% confidence that i beat the 3,5$ stakes as you can see on my final graph on these stakes:



I am pretty sure i will be able to beat the 7$ stakes too if there are no huge differences in skill level but even if there are i will try my best to improve my game.

I will take the next day off having some fun (maybe study a few hours since i enjoy that too) talking to friends and drink some beer and after that i will move to the 7$ stakes and try to beat that lvl too!

Stopping by to wish you luck, buddy

Thank you fine gentleman

So finally after taking one day off i moved to the 7$ stakes today:



I am not sure if the average 7$ player has similar or better skill to the lower stakes players since i run to some big fish but also allot more "decent" LAGS than in the lower stakes.

Surely the lower rake helps too. Anyway i am pretty happy about my first performance in these stakes. If i manage to have a similar ev line for the next 1k games i will be super happy since i will be able to make a decent living just by playing 6-8 hours at these lvls especially with multi tabling.

Woke up late today. Need to improve my sleeping patterns.

Studied for at least 4-5 hours various videos and HUSNG concepts.

Then right before i started grinding real life distractions and problems hit me in the form of toxic people/situations that sucked my time. I have to avoid them and stay focused.

Overall mediocre day, only managed to play 20 games:



The positive part is i feel more confident about my game every day that passes. For example i run into some sick coolers today and still managed to lose the minimum and extract the maximum.

Also i find the games to be allot weaker than i thought (unless i am getting lucky or my game has improved tremendously).

Anyway i feel that in 1-2 months from now if i remain focused at studying and playing all the issues i face right now will seem like a bad joke.

Similar problems today with annoying distractions. The only difference is i replaced studying hours with playing:



On top of that i run to another 10+ buyin downswing under +EV.

Plus its the first time today since i started playing that i lost 2-3 buyins from bad plays while trying to expand my ranges and experiment with more advanced lines. Anyone who plays hypers can tell you that this is a disaster since we grind all day for those 2-3 buyins....

Maybe i should add to my study sessions more knowledge on the mental aspect of poker before things get worse. I will research about it tomorrow.


Edit: I just did some calculations and i am 19+ buyins under +EV (i should have 5% ROI) since i started the 7$ stakes...FML

Ok i analyzed a bit more my past games in order to see if this variance is normal and common and realized that back then when i was breaking even in +EV i was also running like a god in profits at some point +70 buyins...lol

So after checking all my "recent" games in stars looks like after the recent downswing i still own then ~25 buyins at 7$ stakes:



This means that i will have to go down a lvl even if i am winning at 4-5% ROI until my green line gets corrected. This will also give me time to study more the game and experiment at lower stakes.

I will use Mersenneary's bankroll management from now and on moving up at 40 buyins and moving down at 35 buyins at each stake lvl while always trying to have a significant sample size at each lvl (1k+ games).

Here is the plan:

-For 3,5$ i need 140$ (drop at 122,5$)
-For 7$ i need 280$ (drop at 245$)
-For 15$ i need 600$ (drop at 525$)
-For 30$ i need 1200$ (drop at 1050$)


My bankroll right now sits at 256$ (+some more from FPPs) so i will step down at 3,5 and instantly move up when i hit 280$.

Lets see how it goes.

Ok so i have played about 55 games at 3,5$ stakes (first time two tabling them) and the rest on 7$ single tabling:



My bankroll is at 284$ now. I will continue tomorrow with more 7$. The more i play the faster i will move beyond those evil downswings.

Hey man keep it up challenge is going well! Dunno if we've played each other I'm grinding the $7 stakes - my screen name is 'you spud' so hit me up in the chat box if we bump into each other!

GL!

Thanks bro gl to you!

For today the same pattern persists:



The downswingaments are getting unbearable even thought i play like a robot with almost flawless game.

The most annoying part is that half the time i get destroyed by sick coolers like TP vs floped straight/flush or agrro villain with 100% 3bet preflop has 3 times in a row KK etc and half the time they suckout on me. Thus even after all the coolers i still get 3% positive adjusted +EV ROI...lol.


Anyway bankroll is down to 224$ now and i will have to start back in the 3,5$ again. Overall 27+ buyins under EV.

Took one day of yesterday to do some real life unfinished jobs that i should take care earlier and distracted me.

Today i studied 2-3 hours about various mathematical concepts in relation to husngs and grinded 2 hours at 3,5$ two tabling with mediocre results:



My bankroll is 225$ right now and i am trying to move back to 7$. I am so close to my target but running under EV just keeps me back. Maybe if i get the entire forum to wish me good luck that will change?

gl to you sir!

hey man i dont wnat you to take this the wrong way but i seriously think you need to look at your BRM as these games are sooooo swingy you shoud be looking to be more at 100 buyins per level possibly more maybe taking some shots at the lower $$ buyins with 60-70 but im not 100% sure on that.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback. I had the same approach too but after reading about proper bankroll management and the kelly criterion i realized that if you move up and down in stakes your risk of ruin is still low and your bankroll growth is very fast.


I other news i now have to fight with more sick card distribution (along with running under EV) even in the lower stakes (3,5$) that i was crushing before a week:



Probably the worst day since i started grinding. I could post over 20 coolers like KK vs AA just from today. I even had an opponent typing in chat he is sorry for me...ROFL

I just need to stay focused and disciplined until this storm passes. Tomorrow i will only single table and try my best to turn the tides.