Very nice results bro keep it going

Good stuff man. Not looking forward to seeing you at my 200/500nl tables when you get there. GLGL

Aww sheeeit. I knew the games would be getting tougher as I moved up but if I'm going to be facing players like you there, maybe I'll just hang back.

What are the games like there now though? From what I've seen so far on the site, 5 to 30NL were all VERY fishy. At most the player pool was probably 30% solid regs, with the rest being various levels of fishy similar to a live 1/2 game. 50NL so far seems a bit tougher. I've only played a few sessions there, but it's looking like it's maybe closer to 50 or 60% solid. I've landed at a couple tables with no obvious fish, and some others with only 1. There's been some good tables mixed in there too. As best I can remember the 25NL rush pool 10 years ago was at most 20% fish, maybe less. However some of the more solid players played a very nitty style which was common earlier in the fast fold games to up the hourly rate at the cost of bb/100, so I probably milked those guys for a few pennies.

If I keep running good I'll see you soon. If not, maybe come slum it down at the micros some time! I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to playing live on a regular basis again now that we have online back. It's just so much more accommodating to my schedule.

Another week another set of wins. I only had one losing session last week, and the loss was smaller than my smallest win. I typically play a session almost every day, averaging about 2 hours, 4 tabling. It ends up being around 700 or so hands. My roll has eclipsed 1K. I started with around $100, and according to PT4 I've only made $670 at the tables, so the rest has been bonus clearing. Some of those bonuses are through sports bets and casino games where bonuses are offered, and I've run pretty well there. It's not for a lot of money, but if I see $5 in free EV I'm taking it. I've got Gonzaga to win at even money tonight!

I'm playing mostly 50NL, however I've noticed sometimes it can be hard to find 4 good tables of $50, and I'm pretty sure a good $30 table is going to be more profitable than a reg infested $50, so I've still mixed in a bit of $30. I played one table of $100 towards the end of a session when I couldn't find an open table at my usual stakes to play. I may start mixing in some more 100NL if I can find a good table. So far I'm well ahead of my planned pace. My goal is still to move up in stakes aggressively when I can, but if I plateau off making $1K/month at the micros I'll still be pretty happy because I enjoy poker and that's some good screwin around money for my family to enjoy.

And now for a fun hand that didn't go my way but I don't regret a second of. The V's name was CallyShore and had a picture of Pauly Shore, so A+ nickname game there. I'm a fan of Pauly Shore movies, and seeing this put a smile on my face.

My thoughts on the hand:

Pre-Flop: Standard, although given our stack depths I could've gone a bit bigger.

Flop: If I'm going to have a checking range here, this needs to be in it.

Turn: I'm probably screwed but I don't feel like I can fold KK to 1-bet on an A-high board against a reg.

River: It's a bit of a blocker bet, but I don't think I can profitably call it. On the other hand I block the nut straight & flush, and feel like I can credibly rep some hands here, mostly a set of QQ/TT or a rivered AT. I guess I don't rep a flush or straight all that well since I checked back the flop, and blocking AK isn't great since that's sort of what I'm targeting here. But he probably has some AJ and AXs. He tanked for a while so he at least knew I was repping better than he had, but ultimately made the call.

PokerStars - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 103.98 BB
SB: 43.12 BB
BB: 45.06 BB
UTG: 182.7 BB
Hero (CO): 156.82 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K K

UTG raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls 6 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 6 A Q
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 2
UTG bets 11.26 BB, Hero calls 11.26 BB

River: (42.02 BB, 2 players) T
UTG bets 16.96 BB, Hero raises to 69.38 BB, UTG calls 52.42 BB

Hero shows K K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 71%, Flop 14%, Turn 5%)
UTG shows A Q (Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
(Pre 29%, Flop 86%, Turn 95%)
UTG wins 175.78 BB

Honestly man 200 isnt tough at all. I have almost 100k hands winning at over 10bb/100 EV in 9 and 6 max combined. Even the regs with "solid" stats have massive leaks that I've noticed and I've seen them doing some pretty ridiculous things in spots where it makes no sense.

I'm in the same boat as you wrt live. My hourly is way higher playing 200/500nl online than it would ever be playing 2/5 live so there's no point in going downtown to play really. If you see me below 200nl, I'm probably there trolling someone lol. GL

This punt had some serious hangtime to it. I honestly thought about mucking but nothing in his play of the hand was consistent with what he was repping.

PokerStars - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 206.7 BB
SB: 21.26 BB
BB: 123 BB
UTG: 124.74 BB
MP: 120.56 BB
CO: 99.04 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9 A

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 5 9 9
BB bets 3.1 BB, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, BB calls 7.4 BB

Turn: (27.5 BB, 2 players) Q
BB bets 13.06 BB, Hero calls 13.06 BB

River: (53.62 BB, 2 players) 3
BB bets 96.44 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 96.44 BB

BB shows Q T (Two Pair, Queens and Nines)
(Pre 43%, Flop 4%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows 9 A (Three of a Kind, Nines)
(Pre 57%, Flop 96%, Turn 95%)
Hero wins 241.5 BB

I've been running good lately. Let's fire another bullet at $100NL.

PokerStars - $1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 26.12 BB
BTN: 146.38 BB
Hero (SB): 100 BB
BB: 133.66 BB
UTG: 105.69 BB
MP: 156.52 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3 3

fold, fold, CO calls 1 BB, BTN raises to 4 BB, Hero calls 3.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (10 BB, 2 players) 3 A T
Hero checks, BTN bets 9.5 BB, Hero raises to 22.33 BB, BTN raises to 142.38 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 73.67 BB and is all-in

Turn: (202 BB, 2 players) K

River: (202 BB, 2 players) K

Hero shows 3 3 (Full House, Threes full of Kings)
(Pre 18%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)
BTN shows T T (Full House, Tens full of Kings)
(Pre 82%, Flop 96%, Turn 98%)
BTN wins 199 BB

It's all good, I made it back. This dude was a total maniac trying to punt. I knew there was a legit chance this shove could get called by worse.

PokerStars - $1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 28.47 BB
SB: 232.51 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 165.89 BB
MP: 233.84 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB, CO posts penalty blind 1.5 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 3 BB) Hero has A K

UTG raises to 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB, CO raises to 14 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 43 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 29 BB

Flop: (93 BB, 2 players) T Q 6
Hero bets 57 BB and is all-in, CO calls 56.5 BB and is all-in

Turn: (206 BB, 2 players) 7

River: (206 BB, 2 players) J

Hero shows A K (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 65%, Flop 41%, Turn 41%)
CO shows 6 4 (One Pair, Sixes)
(Pre 35%, Flop 59%, Turn 59%)
Hero wins 203 BB

Maybe I need to move up where they respect my raises and don't call with the nut low on the river.

PokerStars - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 49.86 BB
SB: 112.64 BB
Hero (BB): 106.52 BB
UTG: 112.68 BB
MP: 113.38 BB
CO: 78.52 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K 9

fold, fold, CO calls 1 BB, BTN calls 1 BB, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero checks

Flop: (4 BB, 4 players) 9 9 3
SB checks, Hero bets 1.72 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 1.72 BB

Turn: (7.44 BB, 2 players) T
SB checks, Hero bets 5.02 BB, SB calls 5.02 BB

River: (17.48 BB, 2 players) 3
SB bets 8.3 BB, Hero raises to 31.88 BB, SB calls 23.58 BB

Hero shows K 9 (Full House, Nines full of Threes)
(Pre 48%, Flop 93%, Turn 95%)
SB mucks 2 2 (Two Pair, Nines and Threes)
(Pre 52%, Flop 7%, Turn 5%)
Hero wins 77.18 BB

You really expect me to fold 3-pair?

Good luck, sir! Are you playing on Pokerstars.mi?

If it had been a snap call I'd be open to the possibility of it being a misclick. But he tanked for a while. My thoughts were he had a 3 or the case 9 and was debating call vs. 3-bet. When he called with what he did, I had to check like 4 times to make sure I saw it right.

Yep. I like it so far. It's a massive fish tank, as you can see. I'm trying to be pretty aggressive in moving up stakes, because right now I think we're experiencing another golden age of online poker, at least here. I may only have a smallish window to make some real fun money before the games dry up. Michigan is just getting peppered in online gambling ads right now. You see pokerstars everywhere. Bet MGM just came online. I think I heard Golden Nugget may also have poker at some point too. I'm not sure if we have the player pool to support a lot of games across 3 sites, but right now I have no trouble finding 4 50NL tables during primetime hours with at least 1 or 2 40+VPIP fish on them. Apparently Michigan's law was written such that merging player pools with other states should be pretty easy and may happen soon.

Between poker winnings, rakeback bonuses, deposit bonuses, and other promos offered by the site like casino bonuses, free sports bets, and +EV sports bets, I'm up over 1K this month. I will be doing backflips if I can make an additional 1K/mo doing something I enjoy in my spare time.

Hopefully within a month or two I can be playing more 100/200NL games and making some decent money there. Although my sample size is small, the jump to 100NL feels significant. The play is more aggressive, and villains are a bit stickier in annoying spots. 50NL to 100NL on the site feels like 1/2 to 2/5 live. There's still plenty of profit to be made, but the more aggressive style of play is going to make it higher variance.

I'm probably going to shell out some money for premium training sites soon. I'm going to try red chips core class for sure. I'm debating on shelling out for PIO Solver and starting to work problems through that. I think my style of play is good for exploiting bad players, but I need to be able to play breakeven against tough regs in tougher games, and I'm not sure I would do that right now. But even if I plateau/get busted back down to playing 30 or 50NL for 5bb/100 I think I'll still be pretty happy just making some side money doing something I enjoy.

If you decide to work with solvers, I recommend you to try GTO+. It's way cheaper and can do almost anything PIO does.

Same basic thing happened to me live once. Board was KAK8A and I shoved with Ax, dude snap called with 66 and then said "I thought you were bluffing."

So I went ahead and splurged $7 on the Upswing postflop gameplan. Outside of books, it's the first premium content I've ever actually paid for (my cardrunners subscription used to be through a secondary RB deal with full tilt) I'll give my brief review.

The bad: It's very light (something I sort of expected from a site that charged $500+ for most content), and isn't likely to teach much to experienced players. It doesn't really cover strategy, it's more of a guide for how to think about hand ranges. The whole course can be gone through in less than 2 hours.

The good: It does kind of give you a peek behind the curtain of how top players think about range construction and when to bluff and give up. You're not going to get a detailed how to guide, but if you're an experienced player like me whose training material is all from the boom era, you'll at least start to see a bit into building a GTO/balanced strategy.

Overall: You can probably skip this one. For new players who just need to learn some basic strategy to get their feet wet, it's probably going to go over their head a bit. For experienced players, it will seem sort of obvious and isn't likely to improve your game that much. But if you're want to work on becoming a top tier player without shelling out 3+ figures for their other content, it's better than nothing.

I think I've decided on red chip poker as the premium site I'm going to go with for now. Their Core 2.0 class is $5/week, which seems reasonable. You can get their whole sites worth of premium material for $50/mo. As long as I'm clearing $500+/mo playing online, I'm OK shelling out that kind of money to keep laddering up, and I can cancel it if I need to.

I'll be in to post my final March results in a few days. Things look good so far! Last nights session was a wild one. I have been running well above AI-EV for a while now, and the gods decided to align things all in one session. But they also allowed me to win said session. I ran $200 below AI-EV at $50NL and still ended up winning $60 on the session. The $260 win would have been nice, but all things considered I guess I can't complain.

It would be nice if by the end of April the thread title was accurate again, and I'm actually grinding $1/$2. The bankroll is pushing $1500. I may start taking $1/$2 shots at $2500 or so, which is definitely possible.

March went well. I cleared over $900 at the tables playing a mix of 10/30/50/100NL. With rakeback and other bonuses the roll is now pushing $1700. I'm still 4-tabling usually 3 tables of 50 and one of 100. Last night I mixed in a second table of 100 towards the end. I've only logged 700 or so hands at that stake so far. It's notably tougher, and I 'm down overall there, but it still feels very beatable at my skill level. There's plenty of fish to be found.

My volume so far across all stakes has been 26K hands in 2 months. So unless I up my playing time which isn't realistic, 200K hands on the year just isn't happening. With summer approaching my volume probably drops a bit, so 120 to 150K on the year seems more likely. The good news is I'm on pace to shatter my $8000 goal on the year. I'm not sure how sustainable my current WR is, but clearing well over $1K/mo seems possible as long as they keep offering the rakeback deals and occasional deposit bonuses they have been. I've been climbing the stakes much quicker than I originally planned thanks to some aggressive shots at bigger games and a 21bb/100 winrate that I didn't plan for. I'm pretty sure my old winrate was in the 5 to 10 bb/100 range. I have no plans of slowing down, but I will to protect my bankroll if I get bit by a downswing.

The graph to date:

Congrats! Impressive results!

While I'm sure this record has been set several times already since I have played way more 50 & 100NL this run then I did pre black Friday, this is my biggest pot in online poker cash history. It's not a super interesting hand, but I'm not sure how many people would've pulled the trigger on the river shove. There's also a case to be made for a turn fold, which would have been correct given his actual hand, but I don't think many would advocate for it.

My thoughts on the hand:

Preflop: Please have KK
Flop: Please don't have KK. Crap, I think he has KK.
Turn: Yeah now I'm almost sure he has KK, and I'm not even getting a great price on a call, but this is AK sometimes too.
River: Awww yeah, I'm pretty sure you have KK, and I can jam this for value. $450 pot, ship it my way.

PokerStars - $1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 73.69 BB
BB: 100 BB
UTG: 85.19 BB
CO: 228.96 BB
Hero (BTN): 290.49 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

fold, CO raises to 4 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 8 BB

Flop: (25.5 BB, 2 players) K 4 3
CO bets 20 BB, Hero calls 20 BB

Turn: (65.5 BB, 2 players) 9
CO bets 50 BB, Hero calls 50 BB

River: (165.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO bets 50 BB, Hero raises to 208.49 BB and is all-in, CO calls 96.96 BB and is all-in

Hero shows A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 81%, Flop 35%, Turn 23%)
CO shows K K (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 19%, Flop 65%, Turn 77%)
Hero wins 456.42 BB

So I started Red Chip's Core 2.0 program. It starts off like you would sort of expect, going into some basic preflop play to get new players started. I won't go too much into it since it is premium content, but I learned some things about my game that I had sort of known I was doing wrong.

I tend to flat a bit too much preflop instead of 3-betting or folding. I've known this for a while, but have justified it in my head by saying that I'm better postflop than my opponents and that in my games people are raising tighter than usual so 3-betting less is a reasonable adjustment. I'm not sure either of those are true anymore in these online games. I'm not naïve enough to think I know more than the experts, so this is an adjustment I'm going to start working on.

My VPIP/PFR/3-bet% through 30k hands has been 26/18/5. I think the VPIP is about right, and while I'm not necessarily chasing stats, bumping this more to 26/20/8 seems reasonable. Hands like SCs, QJs, or even bigger hands like AJs, AQo, were usually flats for me preflop, depending on opponents and positions. I would 3-bet some suited wheel aces and widen against aggro opponents, but against TAGs I was definitely under 3-betting. I started off last nights session with an intent to 3-bet more. I'm not saying I noticed a huge improvement, but coincidentally it was my winningest cash game session in online poker (some of it due to that AA hand above though). I 3-bet 76s, flopped a pair, and then executed a nice bluff catch against AK OTR.

The other adjustment it's recommending is valuing suited hands more. Older poker literature downplayed the value of suitedness a bit preflop, where as more modern preflop charts definitely throw in a lot more suited hands. Some even recommend all suited Qx as BTN opens. It's justified as a way to polarize while having some additional equity, which I totally understand. I'm not sure I'm comfortable playing that loose yet, but I certainly will try to look at what I used to consider "weak" suited hands as a bit more playable in the right situations.

Overall I think I'm starting to get what I wanted out of this course, which was to plug some leaks I knew were there but I could win with, while also trying to stay within my comfort zone, or at least expand it gradually. So watch out folks. You're going to see me 3-betting more aggressively and making some more raggedy flushes from my button opens.

It's been fairly rough going since my last post. It's not huge, I'm down about $300ish or so from peak, but it's felt pretty rough. The silver lining is that I'm getting crushed in all-in EV lately. I went from running several buyins above it at 10NL, breakeven at 30NL, and now about 12 buyins below across 50 and 100NL. For my financial sake I wish it could have been the other way around, but at least it gives me some confidence that I'm a winning player at these stakes.

I know AI-EV is just one measure of luck, but it does feel like I'm running bad in some other ways. I've been on the wrong side of set over set, overpair vs. set, and other coolers like QQ < KK more often than feels my fair share. The few times I've been getting it in with a big draw I have not been getting there, as seen in the AI-EV numbers.

Another adjustment I have been making and it feels like it's working is being a bit more bold with my double and triple barrel bluffs. One line I would take too often was to raise IP, and let's say one of the blinds called. The flop may go check/bet/call, where I'm betting between 1/4 and 1/2 pot. Then if I whiff the turn I was checking back far too often. Now I'm firing between 2/3 and full pot OTT more often, and getting a ton of folds. I'll fire the river big too if I like my chances.

Some of this may be old 1/2 live habits that I'm trying to un-learn, where fish were just way too sticky with a flopped top pair. I feel like bad live players would call flop and turn way too frequently. It's only on the river where you really put pressure on them would they start to fold. It makes getting value with your big hands super easy, but running a credible bluff line a lot more challenging because the chances that they just call down were a lot higher.

Maybe there's some hope for my redline yet, who knows. Although I think as long as you are playing in soft games most of your money is going to come from getting paid with value hands, so I'm probably still going to be a positive blue line/negative redline player for the foreseeable future.

The other area I'm working on is being more consistent in my pre-flop ranges. While my preflop ranges were mostly from memory of charts and books I used many years ago, lately it's been all feel based. While my RFI is pretty in-line with what all the material out there is showing, my blind defense, 3-betting, and 3-bet defense could use some attention. With those scenarios being a much bigger part of the 50 and 100NL game, I figure I should put some time into them.

Just started playing at 10NL and was curious if any other forum regulars were on. Looks like you moved up really fast and I missed you! Guess I've got some catching up to do.

Player pool doesn't seem to have any decent players at all, IMO. The best players I've encountered are pretty nitty and passive/ABC. I think anyone better moves up quickly.

Up 22 buyins in 10k hands, plus some money from promos/deposit bonus, so I guess I get to start 30NL soon/now.

Edit: Also I'm curious about your stats. I have a positive redline so far, but you said that's pretty rare?

I'm not really sure how rare it is, but I don't know anyone who plays a conventional TAG style at the microstakes who has a winning redline. I've heard of good high stakes and heads up players who do, but in 6-max & FR micro & low stakes games, every winning player I know is blue line heavy with a losing redline. That's not to say it can't be done, or can't be more profitable. But the way I play I just don't see a winning redline being that likely.

So far from what I've seen on Pokerstars MI the tables are some type of soft up to 100NL, then there's a big drop off to 200NL. There's definitely a noticeable increase in average level of play at each stake, but even at 100NL there are usually 1 or 2 easily identifiable weak players at each table. I haven't played much 200NL yet, but from what I've seen the fish get much much harder to find there.

April has been pretty rough so far. I'm up $$ wise since most of my losses were at 50NL and the wins at 100NL. But even at 100NL I'm barely above breakeven this month. I've been running pretty awful at 50NL as you can see. I definitely feel like I'm running bad at 100NL as well in terms of how often I hit vs. my opponents. But at least for now I'm winning, after yesterdays 4+BI win. With bonus $ I've been growing the roll still while weathering some rough swings.

For most of the month I have been mixing 2 tables of 50NL and 2 tables of 100NL. At this point I feel I am ready to jump into full time 100NL with a one table shot at 200NL (again). The reason for the mixing was mostly psychological. The level of play at 100NL was enough of a jump from 50NL that I needed time to get comfortable there before making the move full time. I now feel fully comfortable at 100NL after about 8K hands that I will keep it my full time stake as long as my roll supports it. For my next session my plan is to mix 3 tables of 100 and a table of 200, and if I drop $200 I'll bail out from the $200 table.

I've been struggling to find time to study. I'm paying for Core now, so I feel like I need to keep up on it better. It'll be forced, but I think I can squeeze some more study in.

The April graph:

And we're back. My last 3 sessions were all big winners and I've cleared $1100 total over that time. I've now played 2 sessions with a table of 1/2, so my thread title is pretty accurate again.

So far my experience at 200NL has been pretty good. The fish are less frequent but are possible to find. As long as there is at least 1 weak player at the table I'm pretty sure it's profitable. Some of the tougher regs from 100NL also frequent 200NL. But some of the regs at 200NL have some exploits. Many are pretty good, but some I think are too passive and value heavy. I've ran really well so far, being on the right side of a couple coolers which certainly helps.

Nice run up since the site opened up. Enjoy those 200nl games for me, I’ve been out of the state since last Thursday and won’t be back until next Tuesday.


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