I am doing a pretty basic blog here where my goal is to have an hourly win rate of $50 or more from live poker (2/5). I have an engineering career where the pay is not bad and I find it fulfilling so I'm not looking to quit for poker.

I live in British Columbia, Canada, and I’m in my mid mid twenties. Currently living with my parents :/.

I’ve always loved this game, although I'm not particularly good. I find that my biggest strength is to be disciplined and be able to play tightly for long periods of time. IÂ’m kind of going to be relying on this to beat 2/5. Table selection isn’t much of an option for 2/5 for me as there’s only like two tables at a time. I’m going to be playing like 6 to 7 hours a week live on average for now, which would add over 10 grand a year to my net income as it’s cash and untaxed. I would play more but I work a decent amount of hours at my career so I think I should keep a reasonable balanced schedule where I can still exercise and get sleep etc.

For training, I will be playing online cash (mainly FR) on stars as well as watching videos of online cash play and explains, maybe a bit of GtO content but nothing too crazy. IÂ’m currently a winner at 10NL and partly moving up to 16NL. I only play online so I can improve, all of my actual money will be from live, there's just no comparison for me imo.

I will be posting my results here and maybe online hands and live hands, asking for peoples thoughts (if they even care that is). It’s mainly for myself but if people find it remotely interesting or helpful/motivating then that’s really great!! I’ve actually played for 45 hours so far of live with a current WR of $70/hr (meaninglessly small sample and inflated WR I know) so I will post a bit of that backlog.

Thanks guys

Playing around 30 to 35 hours in total of this 2/5 scene in my area, I've come up with a few notes. Bearing in mind this is my first year of playing 2/5 as I have a secure bankroll now through work and I'm not a clueless teenager anymore, it seems way juicier than 1/3.

The play is more like online play and is harder overall, however there are more huge losers than the average 1/3 table, especially since the buyin is super deep. It kind of seems like if you just play tightly, and a bit delicately about getting your stack in, its hard not to be profitable. I think the way I'm playing is definitely profitable for these 2/5 games, it's just a question of how much. I could be over estimating myself and only be winning $10 or $20/hr, which would be quite disappointing because it's probably a bit too emotionally and mentally draining for that win rate. I could even be under estimating myself and be winning $70/hr, however I doubt that.

The other day I saw someone make a $300 mistake in my opinion, like very obvious blunder even for someone as inexperienced as me. My thought process is like, the second he makes a mistake like that, everyone's hourly winrate for that session theoretically just went up by like $10 an hour on average. I really am noticing the importance of playing with whales and seeking them out, although it kind of takes away from the game, it seems a bit greasy but oh well.

This level of 2/5 3bets a lot more than 1/3, and I think from watching online videos I have a better handle than the average person at the games I'm at with regards to 3betting and sizing. However, the odd person who appears good, I will see do quite a bit of 3bets and it is definitely hard to play against. I think I play pretty poorly to people who 3bet me a lot.

With regards to 4betting, this stake I don't think is 4betting enough (me included) compared to midstakes online cash or something.

Played yesterday night after work from about 7:30 to 12 at night (this is my usual play time, once a week for a longish session after work on every Friday).

Waitlisted 2/5 so I had to play 1/3 for 45 mins, so my results are broken up into two sessions below.

Up $303 on the night in total.

I will post overall charts maybe monthly, but weekly will just be session stats like this. I’ll include every session.

Not poker related but I went apartment hunting today. It’s motivating to get more winnings from poker. But I don’t want to turn it into this unrealistic, delusional dream.

Played yesterday for 4 hours with $545 winnings in total. 1/3 for an hour while waitlisting for 2/5. Table had a couple whales but they were on good behaviour from their usual self. I still think the table was profitable with how I was playing. Not sure what my expected hourly would be though, surprised if it was high as 50 tbh.

Below pic is from the 2 sessions:
Notable hand at 2/5:
Mp raises to 15.
Sb calls.
I 3b squeeze from BB with red KK to 65. (I realize now this is too small. I sized lower because I was doing lots of big 3bets with good hands and they were getting all folds a lot).
Call call

Flop QJ8hh
Sb Check
I raise 90
Mp re raises to 225
Sb fold
I think then call (I was really thinking I was behind here, almost made exploit fold)

10s turn
I check
He bets 300 (half pot)
I call (open ender and set outs)

As river (hit my straight)
I donk go all in for like 240
He insta folds. (900 pot for me)

I didn’t get my implied money from hitting my hand so it was technically a slightly losing call (assuming he had my KK over pair beat). I think I had 20% equity on my turn call and I had to pay 25% pot odds).

He said he had top two pair QJ.

I’ve played a handful of sessions since last post. Ran well too.

Below are my updated overall results.

Subbed. GL! I play in Van as well

Thank you!! Oh no way! Nice to see another van person

I haven’t been updating this thread for quite awhile. Attached is year end results for 2022.

Approximately 200 hours played of live 2/5 and my WR was approx 45/hr.

I’m happy with it. I’m going to continue to get more hours in and see how it goes because it’s a bit of a small sample.

I stopped playing online basically, just too busy. All of my live play and poker knowledge is just cruising off of the 2/3 months of studying and online play I started the year with. Micro stakes PokerStars here is tougher than 2/5.

A thing I want to improve on is slightly change my 3bet strat to be more linear. I was hearing that in soft live games like these it’s more profitable than doing more polarized 3bet strats that involve bluffs like in online poker. I will still 3b bluff and squeeze still but this specially towards people who are more competent.

I want to watch more live poker tutorials and play and explains as well.

Other than that an hourly WR like this at this stake is good enough for me and brings in extra cash. I don’t have a need to go bigger, unless 5/10 is soft and I feel I can have a significantly higher EV than 2/5 I would do that. That’s Pretty obvious though.

You're 20% of the way to a remotely meaningful winrate stat

Yeah itÂ’s a small sample. ItÂ’s enough to atleast know IÂ’m beating the game I think, just a question of how much still. Based on visually watching how people play I think IÂ’m between $30 to $60 an hour.

There's no chance in hell your true winrate is anywhere near 60$ per hour, that would make you one of the greatest 2/5 players in the world. You don't even know what a raise is. Unless you dramatically improve your true winrate is probably somewhere between -25 and 20$ per hour. Count your winrate over the next 1000 hands if you want to prove me wrong and I'd gladly eat my words.

1000 hours* of course, lol

You assume my win rate over like 5 hands I’ve posted here lol. Also I forgot to mention this 2/5 game is mainly 1.5k effective and has straddles sometimes.

Therefore if you can grow your stack by 4% every hour you get 60$/hr.

It’s honestly not a big deal in my opinion especially since I’m only playing Friday or Saturday nights where it seems soft.

If our accounts still exist in like 3 years when I have 1k hours I’ll let you know.

Anyways gonna keep playing haha thanks for stopping by

I think 2/5 nlh is beatable for $50/hr, esp deep, with straddle, game-selecting, and quitting when no good games around. Even in Vancouver, probably.

PLO public games still around van, or dried up?

Hi there I appreciate your input! You seem to be somewhat familiar with van?
No longer in the city?

Yeah I agree with your points. Defintely need to quit when game is bad for someone with my lack or skill to get that WR.

To my knowledge the Parq casino downtown still seems to be bumping that game all the time.

The KK hand doesn't seem well thought out, but you'll get there with experience. Flop call is ok, but the turn T is fairly close to a snap fold. K outs are no good. Ah and 9h may be reverse implied odds (you hit your hand, they hit a flush), and any A or 9 kind of kills action. So yeah, you probably have something like 7.5 outs, but almost none of them will make you extra money.

Good luck!

Thanks, yeah I've played my share of months in Van, mostly at edgewood. I went to Parq casino a few times, too.

I'm playing around with the idea of a Vancouver or Calgary trip next winter. Id much rather grind PLO than NLH though.

I could probably save ~$3-5k sourcing materials for 2024 in Vancouver instead of south central boonies BC. Everyone complains of how expensive it is in Van, but its actually cheaper for pretty much everything, except for rent.

Have you tried the Calgary games? They are almost certainly better than the Vancouver games.

Yeah the Van games are meh, regs are decent and everyone has improved. Used to be Rich Chinese Baccarat player’s punting in poker then came the Wealthy Iranians donating to the games nightly at Parq.

Not as yum nowadays, not even close.

Yeah this is a really good point. I should probably consider more deeply the reality of my out’s actually bringing me on more money. And yeah agreed that king ours are actually bull basically. This hand is near the start of my 2/5 grind so I’m hoping I’m not doing this stuff rn.

May I ask where you’re at right now?
Oh interesting, sourcing materials for your own business?

Yeah PLO seems fun and the game seems quite splashy. Not sure how good the people are there. Obviously some big whales but I’m sure some people know know a lot lol.

No I haven’t, I just missed a wsop ring event that was happening there in January. Lots of people seem to go there for poker form van. You recommend it for a poker trip? I would have to make enough to pay expense tho and hotels ffs

That’s kinda rough to hear lmaoo.

Well I’m running good rn, update from last results. I’ve played 5/10 a couple times in last month. One time because I was waitlisted for 2/5 and it seemed more profitable than 1/3. Another time because river rock opened up 5/10 and lots of people were talking about it and I was in the area. Ran pretty well.





It’s probably ****ed that I’m like posting results and not hands but it’s way more interesting I’m sorry

I took a week off work and flew to LA to do some wsop circuit tournaments.

First day here and getting settled so I didn’t get to play anything, just played 1kNL cash and ran suuuper well. Had a little rival with this Asian guy, he showed a bluff on me and it tilted the **** out of me

I’m pretty sure I got ****ed over by the currency exchange rates here because I forgot to get cash in Canada and used casino atms I’m kinda choked


Weather here is so nice compared to Vancouver ****

I’m not really a tournament player so I have no idea what to expect but it seems pretty casual. Reasonable buy in and huuge field so can’t go wrong probs.









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