In this thread I will document grinding up from 2NL in US regulated online poker cash games.

Why Start at 2NL?
I don't know what level I can beat since I have not played much at all for ~6 years. I want to get back into it and improve and starting from the lowest possible level will allow me to get back into it naturally and move up. I will use aggressive BR management to move up fairly quickly.

How Much Will I Play?
I'm going to try to play 15 hrs in a normal week (i.e. not vacation and/or holiday) and study ~5.

Poker History?
I've previously beaten $1/$2 live for ~$20/hr, $2/$5 live for ~$35/hr, up to 100NL online (in US regulated games) for ??/100 (I don't have my databases from back then, but I was winning fairly solidly, but this was quite a while ago).

Bankroll?
I will reinvest 100% of winnings back into the bankroll for the foreseeable future. Starting bankroll will be $30 in my Stars account. I will probably play all of my volume on stars until (if) I reach stakes where I need to use other sites to get enough action. There seems to be plenty of action on Stars up to 200NL. If I reach 500NL I may need to play elsewhere. This is subject to change if I have any reason to switch sites.

I am starting at $30 on 2NL. Move up thresholds will be:

5NL - $100
10NL - $200
30NL - $600
50NL - $1,000
100NL - $2,500
200NL - $6,000
500NL - $17,500
1000NL - $40,000
Anything higher - 40 buy-ins

Unfortunately I don't have too much opportunity to play live, but if I do:
200NL - $2,500
300NL - $3,750
500NL - $7,500
1000NL - $20,000
Anything higher - 20 buy-ins

Tables
I started out at 2 tables because I haven't been playing. It was pretty easy. I may do another session of 2 tables but will probably go up to 4 ASAP. Then maybe 6. We will see how long it takes to get comfortable. I was never really a big multi-tabler in the past; my max was ~6 tables.

Other Goals
Fitness / lose weight. I am 5'9". I started the year at 226.4lbs, 31.4% BF. Currently down to 195.0, 24.4%. Still overweight, but good progress.

I 2-tabled for ~1.5 hrs yesterday as the beginning of this challenge. I was up $2.96 (51.93bb/100) so obviously I will be rich in short order. As an aside my strat for the nanos is going to be to play on the tight side, raise to pot pre, c-bet in position a LOT, and be pretty much value heavy otherwise.

Biggest win:
PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $1.36
BB: $0.55
UTG: $2.39
Hero (CO): $1.97
BTN: $1.07

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 6 7

fold, Hero raises to $0.07, BTN calls $0.07, SB calls $0.06, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($0.28, 4 players) 7 K J
SB bets $0.02, fold, Hero raises to $0.12, BTN calls $0.12, SB calls $0.10

Turn: ($0.64, 3 players) 4
SB bets $0.31, Hero raises to $1.23, fold, SB calls $0.86 and is all-in

River: ($2.98, 2 players) T



(I forgot to turn the auto-reloader on as you can see.)

Biggest loss:
PokerStars - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: $5.18
MP: $1.71
CO: $2.00
BTN: $4.22
Hero (SB): $3.20
BB: $1.02

Hero posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02, CO posts penalty blind $0.01

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.04) Hero has J Q

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.09, BB calls $0.07

Flop: ($0.19, 2 players) 5 Q K
Hero checks, BB bets $0.09, Hero calls $0.09

Turn: ($0.37, 2 players) K
Hero checks, BB checks

River: ($0.37, 2 players) 5
Hero bets $0.12, BB raises to $0.24, Hero calls $0.12



I probably should've folded river there. The plan was to fold to a raise but the "lol minraise" part of my brain kicked in. I definitely would've folded to any larger raise.

Hey TiltedDonkey!

I hope luck will be with you on your journey.

Follow.

if you just do a bit of table selection on PS and sit on the left of the NL2 whales you will print money everyday basically, pretty soft field imo.

good luck for you.

Good luck, bro! What poker clients are you going to play in?