Hi guys.

A few words about me: I have been playing for 7 years now, I got hooked to poker the moment I discovered the game (for me, it was watching WSOP ME YT videos). Since then I have played loads and loads of poker - both live and online, but have dedicated almost none time to studying. I could say that I'm a degen at heart who seeked shelter in poker, as it was the only form of gambling that you aren't deemed to lose in. After 7 years of playing and breathing poker, I somehow felt a burnout along the latter years, but after starting a job which resulted in me taking a short-ish break from the game, my passion has been restored and I want to give poker one last proper go, and want to have your company along the way to keep my sanity and push my motivation.

Poker is a very humbling game. It alters your mind and the way you think, and the experience each player has within poker is going to shift this said alteration in different directions. One of the lessons which I learnt is the significance of bankroll management, and this time I'm going to strictly follow a rule of having at least 100-ish BIs before moving up the stakes. I'm doing this challenge purely as a hobby: luckily I have a somewhat stable job with other sources of income, so I'm comfortable with taking as much time as needed to be overrolled for the games. Ultimately, the goal is to move from 2NL to 200NL. I'm not really thinking of setting any time-related goals, I only care about playing as good as I can. Admittedly, at some point I might consider GTOw or another software to study, but I think that looking too much into solver strategy at the micros (espsecially <50NL R&C) is pointless.

I've started on the 26 Oct 2024 after depositing 100 bucks in GG, and have already played 50k hands in GG in the 2NL R&C streets. You'll be able to refer to my results so far in the graph below.



So far I'm not really happy with my performance. I'm feeling rusty and too often I find myself not folding some obvious spots. Maybe I'm underestimating the 2NL streets too much, but I reckon that even autopiloting at my C/D game is sufficient to be winning with a respectable winrate. I'm looking to improve my mindset when approaching the games, but honestly I cannot see myself taking things seriously until I reach 25-50NL. Hopefully journaling my challenge will have a positive impact on my approach to playing.

The bankroll currently stands at a little over $325. Once we reach $500, we'll be ready to move up to 5NL. I'm not sure how often I'll be updating this thread - I'll try to do it once a week. I'll also post some fun hands along the way, but honestly I don't know an effective way to post GG hands here, so I'll start off by posting them as SCs, and my request is that if someone can advise me on how to post them going forward, it would be much appreciated.

Starting off:

Perhaps a punt, the line I've taken ITH is something that I'd rarely even consider: flatting to the 3! PF and calling down, but here we are.


Terrible play all things considered


Unorthodox line, worked.

I'm looking forward to hearing back from you guys at some point. I'll try hard to keep you updated, and hopefully I'll be able to rely on your company. Until next time!

Good luck!

If you can afford it, I suggest playing slightly higher than the shekel games. You will probably make more money. I understand this is not about the money for you, but poker always kind of is about the money. If you're physically able to put in 50k hands winning in .01/.02, and post a winning graph, you can probably just move up.

Mostly forget about solvers for now, just find a strong, proven coach for your chosen variant. You are paying them for the solver work they put in time to and interpreted, you will probably get better faster.

Thanks, guys. I really didn't expect feedback at the beginning stages of this journey and thread, so I just want to address how nice this made me feel.

Makes sense, Sleeve. 90%+ of my volume online has been playing in 25NL anyway. I've played some 25R&C on GG in the past, and although I've accumulated an insignificant sample size of ~15k hands, I'm positive that I can beat or at the very least be slightly winning at these games (graph included below)




Anyway, my current BR stands at 336, and while I can either deposit some more, or can realistically move up to 5/10R&C while still being confident that my game is tailored in such a way that ROI is going to be fairly low, I still prefer being overrolled for the games which I play in. To put it another way, I want to test if starting from the lowest stakes and moving up to the highest stakes R&C games is something that I can achieve.

I do disregard solvers for now, and while I appreciate the idea of finding a coach to help elevate my game, I reckon that I'm still at such a point in my journey where financially it wouldn't make much sense to work with a coach. I'm not familiar with the exact pricing for coaching, but considering the size of the games I play in (and how mostly soft they are), I'm sure that the investment at this point will be a lot bigger than the margin which I will gain as a result of the coaching process. Furthermore, I have consumed tons and tons of theory through video material and being connected and spekaing to players who are far greater than I am. Even if that sounds naive or arrogant, I think that I have a good understanding of how far my skillset and knowledge of the game can take me, and at what point I'll be required to take a step back from playing and take a deep dive into fixing my leaks and working towards improving my game.

Yesterday I put in some volume at 2NL, and came close-ish to hitting the BBJ (AIPF, 8%-ish to hit the BBJ). Would've been a nice little boost to move up to the next stake, but we'll hopefully get there by playing well soon rather than later.



I want to share some HHs, but I think to put in some more volume and wait until Monday in order to have geniunly interesting spots to share with you and hopefully discuss. Let me know if you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it!

Until next time, guys.

Was lurking around the forum and it came to my attention that the level of commitment and knowledgeability of some players is fascinating to me. It provides me with a lot to think about, both in terms of game theory, and in a personal aspect. I realise how little I know about poker with each passing day. If I could have said honestly to myself that I'm doing everything to my ability to stay ahead of the curve, I'd be happy, but that would just be me lying to myself. At least I can use it to draw motivation to improve my game.

Looking at another thread, I also learned how to post hands w/o screen names, but alas the damage of revealing my SN has already been done. I thought that at least I can use my newly acquired skill to post a few hands with my thought process. I'd really love to hear some feedback.

Hand1

PF is as standard as it gets.
Flop I think I can have a small sizing and a big sizing with my hand. I'd assume theory prefers a big bet on a relatively wet board texture, but I prefer a flop sizing as I think villain can start to get active with hands we're doing extremely well against. I think betting big forces most of the 2R&C pool into being overly passive and leaning more towards value when C/R-ing. V's CR sizing is very small, I think every Qx hand that I have here is a clear cut call, I think there's no merit in 3! flop. Perhaps in real time I'd be tempted to 3! with holdings such as 89cc 89dd, but I'm still not sure that I like building a 3-betting range on the flop at all. I'd for sure continue against a bigger sizing as well, but will most probably thread with more caution on the future streets.
Turn Kc is as wet as it gets, obviously completes no draws but opens clubs BDFD. I reckon it should be better for me, I still have all KK&QQ, while V is capped at 55-77. Still think that top of V's value range likes betting big, but he's repping very few value combos here. There's an argument for calling vs raising, but generally I don't think that raising against pot-sized bets/overbets makes lots of sense on a 2NL level, I think if anything raising here allows V the opportunity to play their hand straight-forward. It's 2NL so some players will be happy stacking off with a pair+FD, or even in rare-ish instances with bare FDs, but still don't like raising too much here. A counter-argument I can think of is that there's too many bad rivers where I might play awkwardly.
River compeltes 68 only, which is still possible, but I think in an extremely small frequency. Once V checks he's capped at Qx mostly, perhaps Kxdd being their strongest possible holding. Kxdd might call a larger bet, but 1/3 sizing is designed to target Qx region of V's range. In hindsight it obviously allows them to get crazy, but I think that this is as massive of a punt as it gets, especially considering their holding in this particular instance. I guess that theory might not hate OB jamming for 2x pot, and would like to make a mental note for myself here that if I ever come back to these posts while studying with solvers, I want to check how far off I've been with all my "I guess that theory this and that" guesses. Anyway I don't hate it, I think V might start putting us on some missed draws as there's an abundance of such on this board. Still think that they'll call Qx here no more than 25-ish % of the time, as the field is nitty in my opinion and loves folding to any overbets, esp 2x+.

Hand2

PF vs UTG 2.5x RFI, I think that 3! JJ is as standard as it gets. Facing the 4! I think we have an easy call, fold looks too nitty and jamming just never gets the money in ahead in my opinion. From my experience 4-bets in 2NL, especially UTGvHJ are QQ+,AQs+, and a very occasional Ax spazz exclusively.
Flop facing 1/3 sizing, I don't think that we have any decision here other than calling. Folding and jamming are not out of the question, and I think I prefer the latter rather than the former. I hate the idea of folding here vs just a 1/3 flop bet, and I don't like jamming at all as V gets to fold all their two naked overcads that might continue stabbing on future streets (excluding AQhh,AKhh which I'd almost always assume are stacking off). If we get called when jamming we're flipping/dead, so I think only calling makes sense here.
Turn I think is extremely interesting. V checking is a good sign, but nothing that I'm overly happy with, after all SPR is <1 here, so it's not like getting the money in with QQ, KK & AA will be a hard task here. I'd assume that V always continues here with QQ as the field plays straight-forward here and doesn't like to allow overcards to hit OTR. Same goes with KK, I think the field continues betting QQ&KK 75-80%-ish OTT. I might give them the benefit of the doubt for having AA here when checking. What I think is bad for me is that I would assume the field continues bluffing their AK combos here, while starting to give up some of their AQ combos (esp w/o a FD). Now we have a decision to make, I geniunly had no idea if I liked checking vs betting in real time. Betting and getting jammed on is very sad, and I'm not sure that V could take a C/R turn line as a bluff ever, so I decided on checking back.
River not ideal, as it improves even a small part of V's give-up range OTT (AQ). Facing a jam is quite miserable here, V still has better hands than ours, but I think that if we're folding JJ we're folding everything exc AA when slow-playing PF v/ a 4! (which I never do if you're a 2R&C reg, I'm scared of you and will get it in always when ahead!!! ). Maybe it's a whatever break-even-ish decisiond as I still expect to see all AK combos. I guess I was quite confused of seeing AKhh in particular. I'm not sure whether V is turning their hand into a bluff, and why would anyone consider turning AKhh into a bluff when taking this line. I guess it might make sense to do occasionally in theory, but still have no idea what it actually accomplishes: does V ever get worse to call off? better to fold?

Hand3

PF facing a CO squeeze I'm not sure how much I like having a cold calling range with one player left to act behind. I think that going forward I should be using a 4-bet/fold strategy, and I think TT might lean towards folding more often than 4-betting here from UTG. If we consider MP a rec who we want to play hands against I'm fine with peeling TT v CO 3!, if we assume that MP will overcall a ton, but I'd lie if I say thats the case. I don't put labels on players, which I think is quite lazy of me and will work to change going forward, as it can only positively impact my WR. Anyway...
Flop checks through
Turn our hand is vulnerable and requires a lot of protection. I don't think that half-pot sizing makes sense, I usually hate using this sizing in most scenarios. I don't really think it accomplishes anything here, yes, maybe we charge some draws but I'd much prefer if to use a small/very big sizing here. I think betting very big makes a lot of sense as we have a player who cold-called twice PF so is obviously passive. Sure, being passive PF has no bearing with their turn strategy, but I'm more happy with betting here than I am with checking. I think a larger sizing makes sense, but as played we use 1/2, MP calls, CO OG squeezer folds. Once MP calls I expect them to never have a straight, to have all the flush draws and all the pairs. I expect MP to be fast-playing a 2-pair or set holding more a lot more often than not given the board texture and the fact that they have another player to act behind. I think that a call here makes MP very 1P/FD heavy.
River I actually really like a 1/3 sizing here. We arrive OTR with a very awkward 1.25-ish SPR, so maybe when we bet we use either a small 25-33% sizing or we jam. I think that V is most likely to be overly stationy with pairs given the fact that a lot of draws missed on this runout. They can have a bunch of Kxcc/Kxdd, but I'm suspicious of how often they'd value-jam river with a King: I think that the fields prefer taking a relatively easy call-down spot a lot more than trying to get max value here. Called it off relatively quickly in real time, but to this point I don't really hate V's line. I think he also gets better to fold here at least some percentage of the time. We also block T9,JTcc so it doesn't look like the perfect canditate to call off here, especially considering the fact that we still arrive with a lot of Kxdd/cc, that'd obviously be better calls not blocking a part of V's bluffing range as we do with Tc.

I'd really love to hear back from you guys. Until next time.

Hi, guys.

Exactly a week after I started this thread, I'm really excited to review and reflect and what has happened since. Being back here to report on my slow and steady progress is ticking the box off for a very tiny goal which I'd kept in my mind, and that is just being here to update this thread (I kind of doubted that I would ever come back to the thread at all). So cheers to that, hopefully many more updates are to come in the future!

What happened? Well, not much and a lot at the same time. I played just about 13k hands, which is less than what I imagined. I have no regrets about this fact, as I had never set myself any goals related to the amount of hands that I'll be playing. My main focus is on playing when and until I'm in the right state of mind anyway. The p&l for this sample amounted to 31.53 cheeseburgers net, and 33.58 cheeseburgers adj. Graph for reference can be found below. Today a BBJ hit on one of our tables netting us a further 5 BIs, and rakeback and leaderboards amounted to ~3-3.5 BIs more.





Once again this week I played like crap. Deep down in my heart I'm kind of ashamed of the fact that I'm winning ~10bb/100 on !!!2NL!!!r&c but in reality I really am not affected emotionally by results in the cheeseburger stakes at all. Also NLHE is so overly-solved that I question my sanity about the game format which I chose to carry this challenge out in. That's the excuse which I'm using: the pool is bad but do not blunder/take huge -EV decisions as often as I had expected prior to starting this (I haven't had played a hand in 2NL like ever/maybe a couple of hundred at max). Nevertheless, I really want to cross the finish line with this challenge, so you will probably here more of me whining about the NLHE micros going forward.

Let's share some hands:

Hand1

PF not much to comment on tbh.
FLOP maybe a cb range makes sense on any Axx boards - I will be more than happy to agree with such statement. What I want to say is that my observations about such spots are that on BvB A-hi boards I expect the field to be overfolding, and not ones which the field starts getting overly creative with bluffs on... which further solidifies the common sense approach of cbetting range. However, I think it makes sense to protect our check/calling range with some Ax combos, and weak Ax hands make more sense to me to check with, while I'd be mostly betting stronger Ax hands with the obvious idea of pilling some money in against weaker Ax holdings that will never fold flop&turn at least (maybe river as well almost always in SRP BvB pots). Sizing makes calling super easy here, as there's absolutely no sense to either raise or fold. So long story short I checked. And then I called. Some seriously advanced stuff going on already and we're still yet to see a turn...
Turn Obvi check. Facing a pot-sized bet, I don't think that there's anything to do here rather than call. Raising accomplishes nothing, folding is out of the question v a 76vpip opponent.
River again a really straight-forward call AP. V's sizings throughout the hand makes it even more of a slam-dunk call imo. He's repping polar and the value-region of what he's repping is tiny, A6&66 exclusively. V is vpiping 76% so they might have some weird 2P combos, but I think stacking off with any Ax is a no-brainer here.

Hand2

PF not much to say here. A note that I want to make is that I'm aware of the fact that theory prefers a 9BB 3! sizing v/ a 2.5x open, but I've mostly settled on a 3x 3-betting raising size.
Flop is where I'm confused a ton. Facing a ~6x overbet donkjam is where I'm totally lost. What hands do we want to call here with? I assume that given the huge size that results in some terrible pot odds our MDF should be around 15-ish percent, but I can't visualize where this threshold begins and where it ends. Do we call AA, JJ, AJ, and the low-frequency A7s/77 PF 3-bets? Do we start folding off AK&AQ? Sucks that I post the hands with results, I think I'll be sharing this one in the micronlforums to see how people would approach this spot. It doesn't make any sense to take this line with value, but it also doesn't make any sense to take this line as a bluff at the same time. And generally I think that huge overbets are value A LOT more often than bluffs. The simple reason is why would a player, especially in micros, forces themselves into placing such a bad prize on their bluffs? An answer may be to fold out a huge portion of their opponents' hands, but still I highly doubt that a micros player is capable of 6x OB jamming with a bluff. On the contrary, it's extremely intuitive to think that if there's ever a place or time for someone to spazz off their stack on an airball it'd be 2nl. IDK, no idea about that one, any advice or alternative points of view would be extremely interesting to hear and discuss.

Hand3

PF sizing might be something to work on, maybe 5x oop makes more sense. From my observations sizing doesn't matter too much as Vs play the same-ish hands against a 4x 3-bet that they will play against a 5x 3-bet and fold the same hands. Still pretty standard imo.
Flop reveals the absolute rec which I am, as I geniunly believe that 1/3 sizings are the universal truths for 3-bet pots - I find myself using this sizing a lot more often than I think theory likes to. Here is a spot where I think that a bigger 2/3-75% sizing makes sense given the fact that we're playing the driest flop ever and we have the rage adv due to the huge discrepancy in our overpairs v villain that all want to pile money in on such boards. The only positive that I can think of is that an enormous part of V's range should contain 2 overs here that might take a peel vs a 1/3 sizing. This allows us to pile in some more pressure on future street v a weak region of v's range that we might fold out with bigger sizes OTF.
Turn is an obvious spot to bet big. A problem that I see looking back at the hand is that in-game I'm starting to develop a X-ing range OOP with some 88-99-TT a lot, and JJ-QQ about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time. But we still have AA,KK,AK which V doesn't (though V still has some AK combos, maybe suited in particular, that do not 4bet 100% pf). Still I'm sure that continuing on a K is a no-brainer as the PF 3-bettor, as the field starts massively overfolding turn Ks and As in 3&4-bet pots. I expect that V starts folding out some hands as strong as 99-TT, even JJ here. And whatever combos they continue with are going to have an extremely tough time realizing equity on rivers. I can't think of a single river that I'm not going to be jamming on. Maybe a K/A river would make sense to start developping a small size as well, as we have all the AA, KK, AK that will be extremely nutted and blocking all of the calls so I might be using a smaller sizing trying to get called sometimes instead of folding out everything and getting no value. But luckily we have a different type of combo in this particular instance where we're not really worried about that.
River could have been any card really, I think the hand plays itself and there's nothing else to do other than jamming. Maybe QJhh in isolation is the best bluffing combo, obviously unblocking bdfds that peel flop, but still really like my hand's properties, never giving up here AP, not even against a 10/8/4 player.

This is how the graph looks exactly 1 month after I started playing the 2NL games on GG. BR is at 370 right now. A little beat which I took was accidentally somehow opening a 10NL table on one of my three tables, and losing a stack there before realising that I'm playing a different stake there. But anyway it's just 8 cheeseburgers less than what we would've had otherwise. Let's say that the random BBJ redeemed my mistake.



Once we reach 500 cheeseburgers we'll be moving up to 5NL. I really don't know why I'm following such a strict BRM model but I'll die by it on this challenge. I'll be moving up when we have 100 BIs for the level, and will play at each level until I win 100BIs. All prerake/leaderboards/BBJs. I'll really love to hear back from you. Until next time!

Updating the thread a little bit earlier than usual today. It's my second update, and third week since the intial post. Last week was very demanding at work, as I was scheduled to work 6/7 days. As a result of working so much I didn't put as much volume, I didn't even play 10k hands, but I haven't really set any volume-related goals for myself anyway. Now I'll rest today and tomorrow, and I'll be back at work on Wednsday. I will try to improve on last week's numbers, but will try to not do it solely for the purpose of putting in more volume. Quality over quantity...

Veeling of the established subject of conversation (poker) I just wanted to share that I decided to quit my current work. I worked there for 6 months, and at some point in the last couple of months the conditions started getting progressively worse with each passing days. The "cherry on top" was when a quick meeting was scheduled for the whole company, in order to inform us that the home-office (work from home) option will no longer be available effective immediately. Now given the fact that I had started in June, I wasn't eligible to go work from home until 6 months passed since I started working there, and as I was just about to be able to go work from home, they totally removed this option. Some people have it a lot worse though, as we have employees that work from home and from different cities, even some cases where a few people work from their hometown that's 400km (~250 miles) away from the office. I'm 24 and I live a 15-minute car drive away from the office, so I really felt bad for people who are 40-50 yo with families to support that will really be effected negatively by this change. I was also kind of pissed off with the attitude and lack of empathy during the meeting when informing the whole team. Anyway, as I said I decided to quit, as I was really looking forward to working from home. I had submitted my one-month notice already, my last day working there will be 25 Dec. Altough I haven't done so yet, I will start to actively search for alternatives, as I really want to work throughout 2025. Hopefully I manage to reach my poker goals set in this thread by then as well. If I find myself in a position where I don't find a suitable work option, I might take a month off to play poker, but I really don't want to do that. I have one additional source of income: an airbnb which I rent out. For 2024 I ran extremely hot with how many bookings there were, and I even had a few bookings where the guests stayed for 1,2 months. It's in a very central part of the city, and the price is extremely reasonable, so while I hope that the trend continues (I started renting it out early 2022, and since then it has been booked ~85% of the time) this doesn't really depend on me... Anyway, having a full-time job also meant that I had a good routine in my daily life, and I played poker in the right state of mind. Back in the days I have had months where I had no other sources of income different than poker, and that really carried me out mentally... Anyway, here's the graph for last week:



Funnily a BBJ hit on a table of ours twice in this past week:

... which is now the 4th or 5th time we were part of a BBJ in a little over 70k hands which might be an unreasonably high frequency. Hopefully saving the one where we have the losing hand for when we move up the sakes.

Some hands from last week:

Hand1


PF is a clear defend imo. Very easy to play post.
FLOP I think that there might be an argument for raising, but given how strong it would look I prefer calling OTF. Donking 80% into two players should be relatively strong-ish, but I'm not sure that it's a range that can sustain calling a flop raise, and a couple of bets on turns and rivers. Want to allow as much airballs as possible to see a turn as the aggressor. I think both raise flop/bet/bet and call/raise/bet (or call/bet if checked to/bet) lines look very strong, but I think that the field is more afraid of the former rather than the latter.
Turn is awesome, brings in bd clubs, gives any 89 more equity. I'm don't that V has many Tx hands here. V chooses a big size again. I'd raise against any =<50% sizings, but I think call makes more sense against big sizings, as they're more polar in this line and I don't want to allow them to fold out marginal hands just yet. I still think that raising is very intuitive in this spot, but I'm not sure that it achieves more than calling. I'd love to hear opinions, I think that there's arguments for playing both streets (flop&turn) differently.
River great I think because a flop donk is very 7x heavy I think. What we didn't like was the check, as normally I'd assume that 7x holdings always tend to bet in this spot. Sizing is interesting here, and I'm not sure whether 2x makes sense. Obv V can have 7x when checking river, but I'd normally assume that once they do not lead continue the aggression OTR the 7x region of their range gets very scarce. I can think of one realistic bluff: 89s (dd preferably) in order to block 7x combos (esp diamonds) that can call down. I'm not sure how relevant that is though, as I already mentioned that I'd assume V to bet their 7x. Anyway the result was in our favor this time, but I kind of feel that I might have butchered this hand a little.

Hand2

PF 89s might be a little too fancy of an UTG open, but I like it against this field. Kind of strange to see a SB flat from what looks like a reg, probably low-to-mid pocket pair heavy range.
Flop in a SRP I think we do like a lot of betting on such broadway heavy boards. We have all the strong hands while we assume V 3-bets their strong hands on this board pre. V can do a lot of folding and we can barrel lots of turns.
Turn perhaps the best card in the deck for our hand in particular that doesn't give us a made hand. Mandatory barrel spot imo. Doesn't really help V's range at any way either as 66 I assume folds flop a lot. Sizing is a question here, idk if overbetting doesn't make us more polar than we would like to be with our hand in particular. Looking back a 66-75% sizing might just do the same trick that overbetting does. That being said sometimes field gets overly passive vs overbets, so I don't necessarily think that it's a massive misplay, I'm just not sure whether I didn't get the sizing wrong.
River I don't like having hearts when bluffing, I especially hate my particular hand combo to bluff with, but that being said we're left OTR with 9 high and an opponent who still has some QJs, JTs, KQs hands that will be faced with a tough decision. I think that overbet turn/2x jam river might make my range too polar here, and I might only be taking this line with AQ&Q9s. Idk if I'd put KK/JJ/TT in the 80% flop/OB turn/OB river - JJ&TT make a lot of sense to bet huge as they unblock Kx holdings that V might call with, but I still think that I use a big sizing that isn't 1.5x pot turn, 2x pot river. This might be a huge punt.

Hand3

PF nothing to say here.
Flop I like bit bet here. Board seems to be better for BB rather than CO open, so when betting I think that a big size makes sense. I think that I'd like to see 75-80% size more than the ~55-ish% size which I used here. Anyway still doesn't seem to be a blunder.
Turn once called I think a turn that pairs the top card allows me to start betting huge. Overbetting allows us to pile in money against a Tx holding which is great, but I also think that it passes the treshold for a sizing that the field will generally start to feel worried about.
River is where I have a question for anyone who might have read my post up to this point (TY!): can we start folding here? I mean once we OB river and face a jam, ingame it was obvious to me that I was beat, so do we start folding out 77? If we do, what is the treshold? Do we also fold 88? I think that it's very counter-intuitive, and I also think that theory will never fold 77/88, 88 especially, but why put money in when I know that I'm behind? Would love to hear some feedback...

... as I said I have today and tomorrow off work, so I will now go play some poker. Once the BR reaches $500, we will move up to the next level. We might have to play a couple of tens of thousands of hands past the 100BIs win mark, in order to make sure that the BR is at 100 BIs for the next level, but I'm comfortable doing so. As I previously have said, I think that I might be too strict with the BRM but let's see where that takes us. Until next time!

First update that felt a bit tough for me to even log, but still... Played trash this past week. Victim card was active, lost at least a couple of stacks, was geniunly tilted. As a result of this I took a 3-day break from playing to reset mentally, so volume sucked again for the second week in a row now. Here's last week's results:



The positives that I can take out of the past week is that at least I barely came out on top. I also never really went on a monkeytilt or punted off relentlessly, it's just that the spots were pretty meh and lot of losing setups occured throughout. I took 3 days off from playing after a poor start, but managed to put in ~5-6k after that and feeling like I might be starting to pick up some pace.

The negatives outweighed the positives this week, and it was all because of me. I still do not understand variance and poker. I still have this feeling of entitlement, that I should win easily just because it's the micros. I let the accumulation of a few unlucky spots affect me to the point where I'm no longer really running bad, I'm just playing bad. I think that I do not currently have even 20% of what it takes in order to really complete my challenge. Mentally there's a long way to go.


At least graph is still OK-ish since the beginning of the challenge. ~11BB/100 is OK considering how high the rake is I think. Really looking forward to winning 100BIs so that I can move to 5NL R&C.


No HHs this week. Not sure if there will be many going forward, at least not with brief analysis like I used to do in my last few posts. Just don't think that my blog thread requires strategy.

My goals for next week is to improve on my volume. I will try to hit 15K hands for the next week. I also want to go work out at least 3 times. Will also stop seating out/closing tables when I reach 250-300BBs, and will try to build as deep of stacks as I can. On Friday and Saturday I will be off work, so I'm looking at those two days to maybe battle for the leaderboards. I'm saying maybe because the volume that's required to get to the meaningful prices is absolutely ridiculous. I think that I might have to play 14-15h to get to the Top 5 (which I'm not really willing to do, poker is a hobby for me and not a profession) (but maybe I will).

That's it for today I think.

Gl
Great Thread by the way.
Will be following.

TY!

Hi, guys. This is the first time that I'm updating the thread twice in the same week, and it happens to be for a good reason. I'm happy to announce that... *drum roll*

Over the course of 92,385 hands I have won 99.02 BIs with a WR of 11bb/100. First hand was played on 26 Oct 24, last one 12 Dec 24. I played mostly on days where I was off work, but still put in ~1-2k hands at night after I had finished work. Average time spent playing per day was probably about 3 hours.
The initial goal was to win 100 BIs in order to move up to the next stake, but I don't want to possibly have to go through another ~10k worth of hands to chase 1 BI in the lowest possible level. To be fair there were moments where I was mentally affected, even tiled to the point where I questioned the whole challenge. Disclaimer, these moments were far outweighed by positive emotions, as I geniunly had some fun throughout. Also, I won at least a few dozens worth of BIs in RB & leaderboards that aren't displayed in the graph above, so I'm fine with drawing the line being 1 BI short of the initial goal.

Some presumptions which I had about the field prior to starting this challenge were confirmed, as it was generally soft and nitty. However, they were a few outliers which surpised me, as I faced some generally sound play as well. There are some solid players, but it's so easy to make the money in spots v recs/bad regs that it doesn't really matter. I think that players were generally more solid (perhaps borderline nitty) preflop and start blundering post. Initially I thought that strategy in this games should be heavily shifted towards value betting and being quite reserved from bluffing, but at some point I just started thinking through spots and actually playing my game and found it more beneficial.
What I consider to be a lot more important is that I also learned a lot about myself, my game, and variance. I think that remaining humble is super important in poker (there's a recent YT vid from Jungle that covers this topic; not that any vid will beat the ayahuasca-based brainstorm of a vid of his; that best describes the type of humbleness I'm referring to itt). I also use this as a way to cope with variance when things aren't going well. I'm far from where I want to be, but at least I think that I'm getting better with handling losing streaks with each and every new one. My game also needs a lot of working on, but I still think it's too early. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that it's not justified working with a solver/coach, as financially I'm still at levels where it doesn't make sense to invest hundreds of BIs worth in getting better. I'm not going to (or at least I hope that I'm not...) play 1 million hands in 5NL or the dime/nickel games, so a GTO Wizard subscription worth 80usd/month or hiring a coach (which I have no idea what rates are tbf, but I'd assume it's even more than GTOw) both make no sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that I'm at a level where I'll be doing okay up until 50NL R&C, only time will tell...

All thing considered, it was lots of fun. We had some big wins:


... and even bigger losses:


We went through some ridiculous losing stretches, because that's variance. Even more so, we went through some funny sunrunning stretches, because... well because that's variance. Graph suggests that I'm runnning ~11 BIs above EV, and I'm not sure whether that comes to some ridiculous spots where folding would be ludicrous piling up, or I am actually running hot and should be grateful to be on the positive side of variance. Maybe it's a combination of both, maybe I'm delusional and am just insanely lucky, idk. Only time will tell...

Well, come on... I wouldn't do this to y'all, would I? Time to share some HHs from the 2NL R&C streets for one last time :')

Hand1

I had two more hands that I wanted to share, but I already spent too much time on this post anyway. Until next time - this time it will be 5nl r&c.

It really bothered me being 1BI short of the challenge, so luckily I completed it within a couple hundred hands. 5NL R&C here we come.

This time the weekly Monday update comes a lot earlier than usual. It's my last week at work, and as a farewell gift they've decided to schedule me the worst possible shift: 15h until 00h. Hence I'm posting now, as in a couple of hours I'll have to be at work.

The past week was fun. Maybe the first week since the start of the challenge where I felt that I was in the zone and played decent.



Despite reaching my goal in the 2NL streets, I put in some more volume and won 15-20 BIs on top of the 100BI goal. I won a further 8 bucks from RB&leaderboards.



Only put in 2k hands in 5NL R&C, but this game will now be my main focus up until we manage to win 100BIs at the level. This is my first time 'moving up' when following a strict BR management and actually approaching pokerzz in a sensible manner (prior to that, I've always been a stakes lurker, even though I've acually put a couple hundred thousand hands in 25NL in Party but the games there were dead years ago, IDK what it is like there now)... I've never really 5NL before, so it might take me some time to get used to the field. I don't suspect that it'll be much different than 2NL, but let's see...

Managed to hit the volume goal, very disappointed that I didn't even work out once. I also had the chance to do so today, but here I am providing the weekly update instead of going to the gym. Rest of it I'm pretty content with, but really need to put some emphasis on working out and eating clean. Once this week ends, I plan to focus on sports and diet until I start my next job, which at this point might be in the beginning of February. I've been referred to another employer that a colleague of mine from our previous firm went to. We will now be scheduling an interview, and apparently they will be employing a new wave in the beginning of February. Until then, I'll have lots of free time, and I really want to focus on my physical shape and well being in order to boost my mental state. Of course I also plan to put in some meaningful volume in the GG R&C streets. Hopefully I will manage to win the 100BIs in 5NL before the beginning of February.

Here's the hand of the week:


The goals for next week are: hit >10k hands in 5NL R&C (my shifts at work are such this week that it'll be very tough to put in volume when the field is large and game is better, so I may have to battle some of the 5nl regs ), work out >3 times, and start eating better: basic nutrition, no processed/fried foods.



Alright that seems sufficient of an update. See you next week!

No poker-related updates this week. I was working during the week and then met with some friends on the weekend, so the volume which I put in was so insignificant that it doesn't really warrant an update.



Friday was my last day at work, I'm now unemployed but on a positive note at least I'm free to spend the holidays with my family and to celebrate NYE with friends. My current plan is to take a rest month in January and then get back to work come February.

Right now I feel a little loss of motivation for playing, and I don't really want to force anything. I'll be back when I feel fresh, and will spend some time with my family during the festive period. That's what life is about and I also urge anyone who might have stumbled upon this thread and is somehow reading this post: take a little break from playing and focus on spending some time with your loved ones. Happy holidays to everyone!

Time for a yearly wrap up, as in the next few days I will be off to celebrate NYE with a bunch of friends. *Yearly* wrap up is a bit of an overstatement given the fact that I started playing in late October. I still would like to take some time to reflect on 2024.

Some results:

NLHE R&C:


PLO5:


BBJs & rakeback:




MTTs:


After depositing about 100 bucks towards the end of October, managed to spin it up to 885$ currently (and about 15 bucks in rakeback that will be unlocked in 48h). Quite happy with the fact that I'm winning but I didn't crush the games as hard as I expected prior to starting the challenge, and I think that this comes down to two main factors: I'm not actually that good, and the rake is huge. For the former there is a lot I can and plan to do, I will start studying with GTOw in 2025. For the latter, there's nothing I can do unfortunately so I will not be focusing on rake as an excuse, I just acknowledge it. Mental game is crucial as well, and I'm at least happy that I'm improving in that aspect. This may also be a result of positive variance and not really having had my mentality tested, but that's just speculation. I remember how hard I tilted in the first few years of playing poker, and I think that I have come a long way since then and am gradually improving as time passes.

As it is the end of the year, it seems quite fitting to assign myself with some goals for 2025. To put some context, the initial challenge itt is to reach win 100 BIs in every NLHE R&C level in GG from 2NL to 200NL. Currently I'm playing 5NL R&C after winning ~110-20BIs in 2NL, and the goal for next year is to be playing in 50NL R&C (which means to have won 100BIs in 5,10&25). I also want to return to playing live. I haven't played live since 2023, and if I'm properly rolled (and if you follow this thread a.k.a. nobody you'll know that I like to be quite overrolled for the games I play in) I will be giving it a go. Here are my live results for reference:


... half of the volume was in private games that were extremely soft with quite the low rake that unfortunately no longer exist. There's two casinos that have games running where I live, but the games are infested with bad but ultranitty regs and are a pain to play in most of the times. Games are only good on weekends, and I plan to put in volume in the casinos only when some fish are playing, otherwise it's just not worth it to waste my time and ruin my mood alongside miserable degen wannabe regs for 3-4bb/hour in 1/2. FYI, 2/5 rarely runs in my casinos and when it does it's a bit tougher than 1/2. 1/2 plays v deep (often there's at least a couple of 500BB stacks on the table and the rake is super reasonable: 3% with a 12.5BB cap) so I play this level instead. PLO4 runs as well, and I suspect that it might be super soft but never played in these games. Might do so in 2025, let's see...

On a personal note, I'm currently unemployed (my last day at work was a week ago), and will be starting a new job in February. Hopefully the new company has some good working conditions and I'd really love to settle in well. I want to have some stability, and really loved the way that working gave me a sense of routine and purpose in 2024. I will be focusing on myself in January, I will be eating good, working out at least 3x a week, and hopefully I can put in a significant amount of volume in the pokerz as well. I will try to win 100 BIs in the 5NL R&C level in January, let's see...

Until next time guys. Take care and wish you all to be healthy and happy in 2025!

Nice update OP, gl with the new job

Happy new year! I had a blast the last few days, spent some quality time with some great friends of mine. I'm grateful that I'm in a position where this is possible, having some close people that you know that you can rely on each other with is such an amazing fortune.

Haven't played poker since last Saturday, and when I logged in today I had a nice surprise to start the year off...


My goals for this year is to feel fulfilled and happy, and to work on improving myself in all possible ways. Here's to a good year everyone, let's crush it!

So this update won't regard the 2NL - 200NL R&C challenge, because I haven't put in any significant volume at all (I won 3-4 BIs in a couple thousand hands). I got back to playing this Monday and have focused exclusively on PLO5. The field seems generally soft and given the fact that I currently do not have a job it only makes sense to play stakes where I can make some meaningful money. I haven't studied theory at all, I depend entirely on my experience and feel for the game, but currently that seems to be going well. Here's this week's results:



I think that I have previously mentioned in this thread that I'm running an Airbnb. I've been running somewhat hot with how booked it was, but unfortunately there still hasn't been a booking for 2025. Also for some reason Airbnb removed my Superhost status even though my reviews are through the roof (~4.9/5 out of 30-ish reviews), so I suspect that this might have resulted in my listing showing down in the pecking order which additionally doesn't help at all. Anyway, there's not much that I can really do about that, so I'm just crossing my fingers that someone decides to book it.

Also have thought of incorporating some live poker in my schedule this month. Weekends make most sense to play on, but I missed yesterday (Friday) as I gathered my parents and paid for dinner. It was very beneficial mentally and I'm grateful to have been able to spend an evening out with my family. However, I might go play tonight and put in 6-8 hours of play if the games are good.

Will be returning to the 2NL - 200NL R&C challenge once I start my new job in February and find myself having less free time than now. As of now, I'm really focusing on the $$$z as I have no other sources of income.

Also invested 1100$ in NVDA, and 250$ in XRP. I will be looking to expand my portfolio of investments this year, my initial idea is to invest 20-25% of my monthly income in stocks (perhaps going forward I will be buying S&P500 and just pile the money in there as it seems the most safe and sound). However, I must admit that I'm a megafish in the field of investing and crypto, so would be extremely interested to hear some feedback from someone.





Until next time!