Whatup freaks,

In 2020 I started playing poker for the first time in years. Played about 140k hands on Bovada/Ignition. Did really well at 5z, binked a tourney at one stage also, but due to there being no consistent 10z running I took a few shots and 25z there and got smoked both times.

Here's my sad 2020 graphs:

5z:


Most recent shot at 25z (small amount of regular tables mixed in):


Full stats after last 33k hands at 25z (please help if you notice any painfully obvious leaks):


Have decided to take what's left of the roll to GG, as they have more active zoom stakes and a much bigger player pool in general. The Bovada/Iggy software also blows.

Plan is to try and finally beat 25z this year, hopefully making it to 50z.

Going for fairly loose BR management to start with, aiming to be highly disciplined when moving down, something I usually suck at.

Challenge rules:

- Starting BR: $140
Start at 10z
If BR hits $80 move down to 5z
If BR hits $50 move down to 2z

- Review at least 5 significant hands for every day played.

- 5BI stop loss per day

- Update thread 1-2x per week and post at least 3 hands per update.

- 20k-30k hands per month

Looking for any 25z+ winners to get in here and tell me exactly why I suck, so please feel free to follow along and critique any stupid **** I say or do in here.

Let's goooooooo

Good luck with it man! Happy New Years!

Seems like you already know what to do for NL5 and thus NL10, I'd dig a little to see why you were doing bad in NL25 though, for NL5, NL10, and NL25, generally speaking, just play ABC poker and you'll do well. Study your micro stakes blind play for sure.

Don't slow play your hands, get value when you can. Seems like you should be fine at NL25, but since you're at 14 BI's, sure starting at NL10 seems fine for now and move up once your BR hits $500.

Cheers! Is your name Trav? That's one of the sickest names tbh. I agree with everything you've said, and re blind play I think I have been calling a little too widely from the bb. Considering I'm not great at playing pots OOP and how high the rake is at micros I might've been overdoing it. Let's hope it goes smoothly on GG.

OK so first 5k hands at 10z went terribly. Moving down to 5z immediately, bit of a lame start to the challenge but oh well.



Here's a few hands... I think I am going for value that is far too thin, and overplaying marginal hands in difficult spots. I think this is a huge leak currently and nitting it up in these post flop spots will vastly improve my results in this player pool.

Hand 1:

I 4B pre with intention to fold to a shove. I think my flop bet is good, turn I think it is better to bet a much smaller size, with intention to c/f river? As played sucks I reckon, he is never calling with worse here in a 4B pot, especially this deep. Stupid!

Hand 2:

I think this river is a pretty clear fold in this pool after what I've seen from my first 5k hands here. It feels close but I think I'm behind to this bet size here way too often. Should I be folding flop here, probably?

Hand 3:

I triple barrel here as the board is very dry and the river is very good for my range as the preflop 3bettor. I think I played this one ok? Small bet flop as board isn't good for either range, upsize on turn as I feel the 3 doesn't improve him often and am looking to fold out his overcard floats. Thoughts?

Hand 4:

I think my call here sucks. He has like every single two pair in his range and this particular turn makes the board so dangerous. Way too thin here, **** play. I should 4B pre or fold turn.

Sorry about the hand screenshots, the HH converter on 2+2 is giving me some internal server error message.

Will update after 5k hands at 5z. Hopefully the move down goes alright.

Good luck man! I'll be following! You're not the only one struggling at 10z. If you check my thread you'll see I'm right there with you.

Also the PT4 HH screenshots are great. Don't worry about those.

Hey don't call yourself an idiot

Your stats and HH's:
-Preflop is looking fine, but you should probably call a bit more vs 3bets and 4bet a bit less. Especially at these lower stakes. Try to find some preflop solves. Zenithpoker has some free charts. You don't have to be as wide with 4bets and calls but try to get closer to these ranges.
-Could cbet a bit less, especially on turns. You should be looking to bet pot or overbet a lot of blank turns after you cbet flop, because you will be mostly polarized. This means you should have a lot of checks too.
-When you know you have a bluffcatcher OTR (or anywhere), try to call combos that have the best blocker/unblocker properties. Absolute hand strength is not really viable when bluffcatching unless it beats some value. Look to overfold rivers where there are very little natural bluffs in villains range (i.e. villain will almost always have a pair of some sort by the river). Really think about what villains most likely bluffs and valuebets are and try to find the best combinations that minimize value and maximize villains bluffs. Usually start thinking about offsuit combos villain can have (because those are many compared to suited ones in many spots)
-Study sizings in different spots. Think about what most of your valuerange looks like (and what most of villains continuing range looks like), and what sizing makes most sense (usually it's a good idea to only have 1 sizing per spot, but not always. You get that sizing from what you think most of your betting range wants to accomplish. It also gets easier to play your strategy if you simplify spots to 2 or less sizings per spot with your range). There is a lot of concept going into sizing theory, like nut and equity advantage. Protection and cappedness/uncappedness are also huge factors. Make sure you understand these.

Don't know if this helps but just some quick notes without going any deeper into them. But good things to study anyway.

GL!

Hey thanks, nice thread, i'll be reading through it for sure.


Idiot is just a joke don't worry.

Thanks for looking through the stats!
I agree that I was 4b too much pf at 25z, have already reduced this as I don't think people are 3b enough at these low stakes so 4b light makes less sense. I struggle with calling 3bets, even IP. I feel if I dont hit flop I'm so easily run over, and am often dominated when I do hit. I checked my stats in PT a while back for "called 3b" and I was losing so rapidly. I guess my 3b pot play just isn't smart enough post flop?

Appreciate the bluffcatching and sizing tips also, cheers!

Those hands all seem okay, maybe a little too results oriented with your analysis?

H1; I'd size smaller on the flop, your hand isn't that keen on stacking off this deep, and you want him to continue with all the unpaired overcards in his range. Turn is close, not entirely sure how light villain would stack off here

H2; I think this is fine, it's a late position spot, so villain can have quite a few bluffs here, and may overbluff with hands like AKo.

H3; This board/formation is probably going to be relatively underbluffed. Could also bet smaller on turn the keep his lower Axs hands in. 4b pre also an option, denies equity to a lot of villain's QJs etc

Agree with all these points especially sizing smaller on H1 flop. Cheers!

Ok running pretty hot at 5z so far. Decided to stay here until the roll is at $200, to boost confidence and also just be more sensible in general. I've been playing way more nitty/abc post flop and it appears to be paying off at this stake.

I've been folding more often in spots that feel "close" but probably aren't at these limits, and have been barrelling turn a little less with low equity hands.

Few hands:

H1:


PF call was a misclick, I never really cold call in these spots. I think I should overbet turn here? I call because I have T. I'm not folding here like almost ever right? Villain ended up having AQ no diamond so I was 43% and won both runs lol.

H2:


PF I flat even though im OOP because we're like 175bb effective and I'm scared. Not sure if that's fine? Flop TPTK but am terrified as he can have all the sets and all the 2p here. Called turn with intention to fold pretty much river other than this one tbh. Another lucky runout. Not sure about this one.

H3:


In the moment this felt close and I was proud of myself for folding, looking back it seems obvious vs reg type looking villain. His line seems so nutted here, flop is so good for his range yet he checks it, he has so many houses here. He ended up showing AK and doing some emoji or something lol.

Three cool hands I thought! Will update again in another 5k hands or so. Thanks again to everyone for the feedback so far.

H1, I'd probably be 4b or folding - I know the c/c was a misclick. I don't think you really want to be overbetting such a dynamic turn multiway - your hand just isn't strong enough against villain's ranges in a 3b pot. Calling it off is probably reasonable - you may see some 2p do this, and some hands like KQ.

H2 not really sure about PF ranges 175bb eff, but you definitely don't want to stack off here pre. Though process seems sound, but you could probably get away with folding turn - you're committing half your stack for only 2 clean outs - granted you block some of his cc combos.

H3 you can probably fold pre. QTo is pretty marginal vs 3x from UTG. Nice fold on the river - not sure if I'd have found that, but seems solid

H2 Agree that turn fold is probably good here.


H3 Good point, I think I need to look at BB calls vs certain sizes and positions in greater detail. Will try to look at some solves as Shipnickle suggested.



Cheers for the critique

GL Mr Darcy. Subbing to see how you progress.

Edit: PS I call myself and (sometimes) everyone else idiot all the time too. it seems harmless to me, idk

Idiots have more fun anyway. Subbed to your thread just now, will be following.

OK that was pretty dumb. Such a stupidly big heater, wish it had been at a higher stake lol. Few extra BIs up due to rakeback also. Will be back at 10z soon to give that another go.

BR: $210

Not that many interesting hands because this was mostly just me making every river and getting paid, or getting KK in vs AA and QQ and winning haha.

H1:


This was a strange hand. Villain seemed super spewy and bad based on a previous hand, I think maybe my blocker should've been smaller on the river. Funny call from villain.

H2:


Super easy fold I think? He has some Tx and plenty of 2p/sets that river boats here considering the action I think.

Will update after 5k hands at 10z.

H1: I have literally no idea what is going on this hand from your cbet size to the donk on the river but if this is just taking advantage of a fish, fair enough.

H2: I like the check back on the flop, are you not worried about holding the b*tch end of the straight when you get 3bet? Once you call this what had changed on the river? Do you think he would play a set the same way or not just flat your turn raise and bomb river if and when he pairs?

H1: Yeah flop size is is just going for value against spewy fish, river lead was to discourage him going for a huge bluff on the overcard, which seemed to be his tendency in other hands. I don’t know if I played it well at all but it sure worked out great.

H2: Yeah good point honestly, I don’t think I can fold to the 3bet on turn. What changed on the river was the board paired, but I guess you’re implying that he wouldn’t play the turn like this with a hand where that is relevant, which makes sense. Would you say call turn, call river? Or are you folding turn here?

Cheers!

Hello !

Insane result well played ! Keep that heater

On the second hand, I don't really like get re-raise here this kind of moove are often nutted in micro's, but we're still beating hands like 9-8, all the set, ... So I think call is not that bad.
And river yeah obvious fold.

Good luck for your next shot at nl10, will be following

If i'm honest, in game I'm not sure what I do differently, will have a think.

Thanks bro - Just subbed to your thread, GL with the challenge and with your health!

First 7k hands back at 10z - the heater has started to wind down. Feeling ok about playing in this pool though.

BR: 258

Few hands i'm not sure about:

H1:


I think I like the way I played this, but maybe not on the river. I think I should perhaps be checking this, not really sure.

H2:


Don't like my flop 3b here. Better to call when board is relatively dry and I have a spade also. I feel like I probably get stacked on this turn anyway considering villain is only 70bb deep to begin with though?

H3:


Never quite know how to play these spots. I think maybe my turn barrel sucks on this texture because pocket pairs that call this flop likely aren't folding this turn? Always pretty lost in this type of spot with AK

Cheers yo!

Hand 1 is ok - could check call depending on his bet size.

Hand 2 - It's a difficult one, if you call the flop raise you then have to make difficutlt decision on later streets I guess by raising you remove the decisions but you also push out his bluffs, you're not very likely to get called by worse.

Hand 3 - I think I'm going to check turn here and make a decision on the river.

I'm in. Wish you the best of luck in your endeavors OP.

Agree with your logic on all three here.

Thanks! I’ve tuned into your stream a few times in the past - hope you’re still crushing on bovada

I am. Thanks for tuning in.