Will do, I'll try not to bleed the games dry this week. I've got an end of May trip to Tennessee planned and am going to miss my online gambling time.

April is in the books. It was a swingy month but a profitable one, helped by some early rungood at 200NL. 50NL is mostly behind me now, however I've jumped into a few tables when I can't find 3 good tables of 100NL, which has occasionally happened.

I may post a graph later. It's sort of weird. In terms of raw BB's I'm on about a 15K hand breakeven stretch. But thanks to bonus $ (I managed to clear $400 of a possible $500 deposit bonus), rakeback, and the fact that I'm running better in the bigger games, my overall profit has headed in the right direction. I'm moving up a bit aggressively, and am planning on moving down aggressively if I have to, but so far going from 5NL to 200NL I haven't had to yet.

Overall here's my April results:



I'm getting a bit more comfortable at 200NL. I was at a nice table yesterday with a couple of really bad players, one of whom went on a massive heater racking up an over 1K stack. He got a good chunk of mine here. These are folds I'm getting better at making, but they still sting.

PokerStars - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
Hero (SB): 105.68 BB
BB: 165.18 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 403.85 BB
CO: 140.35 BB

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

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

fold, MP raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 11 BB, fold, MP calls 8 BB

Flop: (23.5 BB, 2 players) 9 T 7
Hero bets 10.05 BB, MP calls 10.05 BB

Turn: (43.59 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero bets 27.78 BB, MP calls 27.78 BB

River: (99.15 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, MP bets 97.65 BB, fold

MP wins 97.65 BB

I finally found a really fishy 1/2 table and this was my first hand. Dude bounced right after it.

PokerStars - $2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 100 BB
MP: 204.56 BB
CO: 180.11 BB
BTN: 107.77 BB
SB: 38.03 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, MP calls 1 BB, fold, BTN raises to 4 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB

Flop: (12.5 BB, 3 players) A J 3
Hero checks, MP checks, BTN bets 3.57 BB, Hero raises to 12.12 BB, MP calls 12.12 BB, fold

Turn: (40.3 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 25.61 BB, MP calls 25.61 BB

River: (91.51 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 58.28 BB and is all-in, MP calls 58.28 BB

Hero shows A J (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 76%, Flop 98%, Turn 95%)
MP shows 5 J (Full House, Fives full of Jacks)
(Pre 24%, Flop 2%, Turn 5%)
MP wins 206.57 BB

I played my first donkament in almost 3 years (not counting the occasional $1 spin-n-go I play during work meetings) and it was quite an emotional rollercoaster. It was the 80K guaranteed $100 MISCOOP tournament. I feel like I played really well, but ultimately bubbled out. I think I may have gotten karma'd a bit. I made a fishy play early on when I made a -EV call with a FD & Gutshot thinking that if it didn't pan out I would just fire bullet #2 rather than ride a shorter stack to the rebuy bubble. It worked, and a bit of rungood later and I was in 2nd in chips in an 800 player field.

One hand in the middle that got me a bit was this one. I think it's a good river fold but it stung because that would have been a monster pot. Preflop may have been a little loose but given that it was a minraise + the antes in the pot, I'm not folding this. Flop I'm ready to mostly give up. Then when I turn a double gutter, I figure I can fire small because he has a lot of give ups. It probably could have been a little bigger, but what's he really doing with KQ no diamond here? Then I get there OTR and make a smallish value bet. I discounted this shove being a blocker play because I'd expect a bet from the A a lot, but slowplaying the nuts made more sense. Still this opportunity had me wondering what if.

PokerStars - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 42.51 BB
MP+1: 103.15 BB
MP+2: 19.94 BB
CO: 54.18 BB
BTN: 29.31 BB
SB: 18.15 BB
Hero (BB): 52.87 BB
UTG: 35.75 BB
UTG+1: 10.17 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 6 5

fold, fold, MP raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop: (6.02 BB, 2 players) 7 T 3
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: (6.02 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 1.81 BB, MP calls 1.81 BB

River: (9.64 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 4.34 BB, MP raises to 38.38 BB and is all-in, fold

MP wins 18.32 BB

Then the big crusher. This took me from a solid stack that could easily fold my way into the money and then some, to crippled. Not much to see here other than one of the bigger BBV beats of my life. I've lost tons of 200BB pots this way, but something about going from a top stack in a big tourney to crippled just hurts way way more.

PokerStars - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 46.44 BB
BB: 13.19 BB
UTG: 103.93 BB
UTG+1: 53.04 BB
MP: 22.87 BB
MP+1: 7.42 BB
MP+2: 8.51 BB
Hero (CO): 43.65 BB
BTN: 35.23 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 8 8

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.25 BB, BTN calls 2.25 BB, fold, BB calls 1.25 BB

Flop: (8.37 BB, 3 players) 6 8 6
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 4 BB, BB raises to 10.81 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 10.81 BB, BTN raises to 32.86 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 22.05 BB

Turn: (84.9 BB, 3 players) Q

River: (84.9 BB, 3 players) T

Hero shows 8 8 (Full House, Eights full of Sixes)

Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 90%, Turn 2%)
Side Pot#1 [44.09 BB]: (Pre 20%, Flop 91%, Turn 2%)

BTN shows Q Q (Full House, Queens full of Sixes)

Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre 55%, Flop 9%, Turn 98%)
Side Pot#1 [44.09 BB]: (Pre 80%, Flop 9%, Turn 98%)

BB shows 5 K (Flush, King High)

Main Pot [40.81 BB]: (Pre 27%, Flop 1%, Turn 0%)

BTN wins 84.9 BB

I actually crawled my way back up to a stack that had a decent shot at the money before my bust out hand, which is probably a close decision. On one hand I have JJ and 20BB so getting it in seems trivial. I know JJ shrinks up against a 3-bet, but I felt this guy was 3-betting wide enough to go with it here. In a deeper cash game this is probably a fold, but here, I felt like I can just rip it and let what happens happen.

PokerStars - 5000/10000 Ante 1250 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 21.32 BB
BTN: 36.38 BB
SB: 18.23 BB
Hero (BB): 20.6 BB
UTG: 84.93 BB
UTG+1: 50 BB
MP: 15.06 BB
MP+1: 40.65 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has J J

fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2 BB, fold, BTN raises to 6 BB, fold, Hero raises to 20.47 BB and is all-in, fold, BTN calls 14.47 BB

Flop: (44.45 BB, 2 players) T 3 K

Turn: (44.45 BB, 2 players) A

River: (44.45 BB, 2 players) K

Hero shows J J (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows Q Q (Two Pair, Kings and Queens)
(Pre 82%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins 44.45 BB

Overall I think I played the tourney OK. It's probably not something I will make a regular habit of, both from a schedule standpoint and a regular game comfort thing. At least I made almost all my buyin back playing a 100NL table on the side. In the past I think I have been too passive in tourneys not wanting to bust early. I was definitely much more aggressive in this one. If Stars does more of these series with big top payday tourneys, I'll definitely try to play them. A few times a year seems about right.

Damn loldonkaments. They are like that one girl that ****wd you over but for one reason or another, no matter what you tell yourself, you can never stay away. I blinked a small one early this year to get me off the ground and running but man the luck involved truly is unbelievable. Example, at FT of tournament I won I get AIPF with 88 and bink an 8 otr to survive. Guy in chat says he folded an 8. I end up going from busting out for peanuts to shipping for 1k thx to a 1 outer. I ****ing hate tournaments but man does it feel good when you win. GL on the next one mate!

Thanks. I have a weird relationship with tournaments. Back in 2005 I used to play them a lot, almost an MTT daily. Usually $5 or $10 buyins. I didn't keep great records, but I'm pretty sure I was profitable in them. I had some deep runs and FT's in some large (1K+) fields, and also took down a $10 tourney with about 100 players. I liked them as a change of pace even though I primarily played cash (and limit cash at that). But since then I have hardly played them at all. Yesterday was my first online MTT since probably early 2006. I'm not sure how many live MTT's I've played, but I think I can count them on my fingers, or maybe I need a toe or two. My last one was that WSOP $365 I played in 2018 where I basically got blinded down to about a 5BB stack and then was forced to shove with 44 and ran into QQ. Looking back on that one, I was way way too passive. I think I sometimes get caught in the trap of not wanting to bust early.

Here's a fun stat, I have never cashed in a live MTT. I have no idea the process of even getting paid out in one. I am very MTT curious though. The idea of the big $$ score and the weak fields they attract are very intriguing. As of right now I think there is an $1100 MSPT tourney coming to my home casino in October. As long as my fellow Michiganders can get their **** together and get vaccinated, there's a decent chance it happens. I'm thinking if I can get my bankroll to $5K, I'll take a shot at it. Either by buying in directly or trying to bink one of the many satellites they have.

That's crazy I have nearly identical story with mtt. I used to grind them in the old merge days after BF but as soon as I built a decent roll it was always back to cash. Never cashed live. Have come close. I definitely love to play them from time to time but with my lifestyle (wife&kids) it's hard enough grinding enough cash hours much less playing for 6 to 8 hrs trying to bink. We are bizarro twins. I am you in PA. And you are me in MI haha.

Minor update - still going strong. I'm only slightly profitable in May, and my volume is way down. The summer is likely to be slow, but my hope is I can pick back up hard in September when kids are in school full time. I suspect that my June/July/August volume will be roughly equal to my March/April volume. My current course is to still 3-table 100NL and table select aggressively at 200NL. So far so good.

After nearly 2 weeks away from the tables for vacation, I'm back! Not only did I win last night. Not only did I set my record for biggest winning session, I DOUBLED my previous biggest session win. It was a good feeling. I actually ran my stack up to $1400 at $200NL. May was shaping up to be my least profitable month yet, but in one strong session became my biggest.

I managed to find some really fishy tables but a lot of my winnings came from one poor sap who seemed like an OK player other than he was 3-betting preflop too much and I stacked him 4 times. Once I 4-bet him with AK, he called, then stacked off with KK on an A-high flop. Then we GII with my AK beating his QQ. Next up he called my 5-bet shove when I had KK and he had JJ. Finally he 5-bet shoved against my AA with 66. I even let him stack me once when I had K4 on a K64 flop and he hit 66 (I should've folded the river but got a bit stubborn).

I've noticed the table selection at 100NL getting smaller and more people gravitating towards 200NL. I guess I'm fine with it as my roll is getting more robust to handle 200NL. I just figured the game selection would taper off more gradually. I'm still being somewhat table selective at 100 & 200NL, so I'll occasionally mix in some 50NL as I wait for my spot at the good tables.

Looks like you're killing it. Grats on the big winning session a couple days ago

Thanks. I've since given about half of it back. It actually would have been all of it if not for some run good. I actually had my biggest AIEV losing session yesterday, but I sucked out twice when I got it in OTF vs. sets. Once with an overpair hitting a set OTT and another with TP+FD that hit the flush, and the session ended up only being a moderate loss.

I'm up at 200NL right now but am running 4BI's above AIEV and would be losing without that. My sample size at that stake is still really small at about 4K hands. I'm still table selecting fairly aggressively, but I'm not even sure I have an edge when I play at a table with 4 solid regs and 1 fishy player. I'm continuing to study through Red Chip, and definitely see the need to continue my study as well as pick up GTO+ to work through some tough reg v reg spots that I'm increasingly finding myself in. I've started playing more tables at the stake if I can find good ones. It seems to be more popular on stars now than 100NL. I've also found myself playing more 50NL during times when I can't find 4 good tables of 100/200.

One fun lol thing at 200NL is seeing the live players jump into that stake online and start opening $10. It usually doesn't last, but it's funny to see it.

GL OP! Haven't read through the thread, just skimmed a little. So take this with a grain of salt.

I think you are selling yourself short in that pool. It's likely that your hourly online can be significantly higher than your live hourly if you get up to speed. Not to mention, the rate of improvement and all that.

No disrespect to Red Chip, but that's not a great resource for online poker unless something has changed.

If you are serious about having a solid win rate at 200nl+ (even recreationally) I would drop the $100/month on RIO Elite without hesitation as well as investing in a solver, GTO trainer, etc. The $ investment is just a small part of it of course, you would have to invest the time and energy more importantly.

But you will likely make it all back and more easily if you do, at least wrt EV.

Thanks for the advice. I've also looked into RIO. They are on my list of possible next places. My current struggle is I know I need to spend more time studying the game. Right now I'm studying maybe 15-30 minutes a day, with around 2 hours playing. That's not bad, but what I really need is like a few dedicated hours of nothing but study every week, and that kind of time has been hard to come by. I do think Red Chip has upped their game with some of their newer training material that they said was specifically catered around low to mid stakes online games. They also have several courses on solver/GTO play, mostly in their $50/mo pro membership, which is what I am probably going to get once I finish their CORE course.

You mentioned GTO trainers. Do you have an example of one? I was considering GTO+ as an affordable solver option, as I've heard good things, but are there separate training tools?

I'm still sort of feeling out the right amount of time and investment for my poker future. Between a busy summer and my current schedule I'm sort of relegated to a couple hours a night a few days a week. My life significantly changes in the fall when all of my kids will be in school full time.

In 10 days I leave for a work trip. 6 nights in Colorado, 4 nights in Vegas. My plan is 4 nights of poker, one in CO and 3 in Vegas. I'm pumped. I haven't played a hand of live poker since March of 2020 and probably won't until I get to CO.

postflop plus (an app) is an example of a gto trainer that’s more recreational friendly and also affordable

GTO+ is fine, but a solver is only one of many available training tools

After my boasting of my huge win, I proceed to give almost all of it back over 4 straight losing sessions. But then I followed it up with a nice win last night, so it's not all bad. It's still been a pretty lucrative week. Plus I cleared my June rakeback bonus, as well as hit nicely on their sports betting and casino game promos.

I'm still in the green at 100 & 200NL, and continue to game select aggressively. I'm analyzing my game for mistakes. I seem to get caught bluffing a bit more frequently than others at the table. I'm not sure if I'm overbluffing, not blocker selecting properly, or if it's just noise.

On one hand if you told me in February that in June I'd be playing 200NL and winning, I'd be ecstatic. But my winrate is pretty poor, and I'm losing as far as AIEV is concerned. I know I have room to improve my game and get better, and lately have been feeling even more motivated to do so. I want to start beating the regs in these games, not just bumhunting fishy tables.

I capped off the weekend by withdrawing my Vegas budget. I'm going to take $1500. My plan is to play mostly 1/2 & 1/3, but if I run well enough, I'll jump into a 2/5 game to close out the trip. I think my plan is on Friday the 18th to try and hit one of the Black Hawk casinos. Then in 3 nights in Vegas (20th thru 23rd) hit 3 new poker rooms I've never played at. First Wynn, then Sahara, then Caesars. I might do a 4th night of poker or just a night of drinking and gambling with co-workers. It depends on what they all want to do.

I hate to piggyback Koss's thread, but I've been considering purchasing postflop + for some time. I'm assuming you've used it and find it an acceptable training tool?

I'm only playing 30nl right now because I'm risk adverse (started playing 30nl at roughly a 80bi roll 2-3 weeks ago), but am thinking of mixing in some 50nl later this month or in July.

I'm subbed to RIO essentials (cuz playing 30nl right now) and have purchased GTO+ / Flopzilla Pro, Preflop +, and considering grabbing Postflop + in preparations of playing higher stakes. I've asked around about thoughts on Postflop + before I drop $149.99 on a lifetime purchase....but no one has really given me any thoughts.

30nl graph

If koss doesn’t mind..

Yeah, it’s perfectly acceptable. Can always try it out and then buy the lifetime afterwards.. A GTO trainer is nice as it can open your eyes in so many ways if you put in the time/use it correctly regardless of the games or environment you play in

Hijack away. Training tools are an area I'm very interested in at the moment.

One of the things I had been looking for when studying was something that was going to significantly alter my postflop play, at least in certain spots I may have been playing wrong. I've finally found one. It looks like I am too aggressive OOP when I'm the PFR and am at a range disadvantage OTF. It looks like on these types of boards solvers prefer a lot of checking, with the strongest hands and draws being check raises. I was often barreling a lot of my strong hands and draws, which meant my checks were often weak or middling hands. I have some anxiety on checking boards where a lot of turn cards may be bad for me (TT on a JT8 2-tone was one example), but if it leads to more $$ for me, I'm sure I'll get over it quickly. In my first session after the lesson I booked a nice win. I'm not sure how much it helped, but I definitely found myself checking in a few spots I would have normally bet, and it worked out for me, so that's a good feeling.

I'm not sure if I will get any more online play in before my work trip. If not, my next session will be live. I'm a little worried I've lost some of my live edge, being a multitabling HUD player for the last few months. Going back to 5x+ opens at 1/2 will be a bit of an adjustment.

Don't have anything to comment on postflop+, but you're definitely being too conservative. 50NL isn't that much tougher, if at all and you've already shown that you can beat 30NL. Koss would be playing 1kNL on that roll already.

Don't be ridiculous! As far as I can tell Poker Stars MI doesn't really ever get 1kNL running.

So far my strategy hasn't let me down too bad. I haven't really felt the crushing downswing yet. For transparency, so far I have turned $100 into about $3650. Only about $2200 of that is poker winnings per my database. That means the rest is rakeback, deposit bonuses, and other casino/sports bonuses.

I'm playing anywhere from 50NL to 200NL. Right now I hop on and look for 200 and 100NL tables with at least one known fish or several unknowns and throw my name on the list, and fill the rest of my time with 50NL tables that I'll play until I can get into good bigger games.

I appreciate the positive vibe I'll be working in some 50nl tables this week.

Transparency isn't important, but appreciated I started with a $30 stars deposit back in end of January and have about $2k winnings between 2nl / 5nl / 10nl and 30nl (mostly at 30nl....also where most my volume is at). Between my wife and I, we've cleared close to $25k this year on sports bet promos / NCAA tournament (went really heavy on Baylor in NCAA Championship) / casino promos. The $25k includes the $9k profit, in May from the Draftkings Casino VIP promo they have going on through June.

I've been "re-investing" a portion of our casino winnings into poker training courses (RIO / Upswing / RYE etc) and my personal poker roll. I more-so really spent the first 3-4 months of the year focusing on bonuses / promo's in Michigan to build a poker roll. I've played more hands already at 30nl in the past 3 weeks than I have at all the stakes below it combined all year.

The wife and I did just take a vacation to the US Virgin Islands for a week totally paid for by Michigan Casino / Sportsbook promo's That was pretty awesome!

Enjoy your trip and good luck at your next live session. I feel like I may need to go to Firekeepers soon...and get some live hands in myself.

I'm back to some live 1/3 action. I made it to the Wynn last night. I guess it's a nice room, but it had been hyped up as some amazing room that's a level above the rest. To me it felt just like every other room I've been in. The drink service was frustratingly slow at times, especially after the afternoon shift left.

A couple fun hands though. I open to $11 with KQ in EP. I get a couple calls. Flops is JTx with 2 hearts. I check, a tightish woman on my left makes it $15. Folds back to me, I make it $55. She calls. Turn is a blank. Pot is $140 and I have $180 left. I rip it in because why not. She calls with JT, I get no help.

I get it all back and then some later when I bink 99 on a 975 flop. Turn is a K, I lead, and a guy rips his stack in with K9 and I double through.

4 nights of Poker in Vegas. I had brought $1200 to play with. My plan was to start at 1/2 or 1/3, and then move to 2/5 if I'm winning or at least not losing.

First night was in the post above, a fun session at the Wynn where I leave up $115.

Second night was 1/3 at Aria. It was an OK table with a few ups and downs, no hands of note, and I left down $17.

Third night was Caesars. I start at 1/3, about even, but it's a really boring table and I'm card dead. After an hour I say F-it and ask for a move to 2/5 and top off to $500. This table is more fun. More ups and downs. I'm down to about $350, and get it all in with QQ preflop and hold against a hand I never saw but suspect was JJ based on his comments. I'm a lot more card dead, and end up leaving the session down $135.

Final night I want to play Sahara. Their $4 rake is a good incentive, but their single 1/2 table is a turn-off. So Wynn it is. I buy in to a very deep $2/$5 game with what is a short stack of $500. I get an early double where AA holds vs. a flush draw. It's a really fun table. We're doing $25 bomb pots every dealer change. I win one when my J3 hits a JT3 flop and holds. Everyone is pretty fun, gambly, and drinking. I decide to cash out $2300.

My final Vegas total is +$1763. Not bad. I have a quick turnaround to a camping trip starting Wednesday, so I'm not sure if I'll get back to online play this week. It will likely be July before I get back to the grind.

Minor bump time. I've played a total of 3 sessions of online poker the last two weeks and am up about $30 to show for it. I knew the summer would be slow, but damn that's not a lot of volume. I have to work on the house a lot this weekend to get it ready for an appraisal as we are doing yet another refinance and hoping to take out a bit of equity as well.

The good news is that I'm up quite a bit more bonus chasing at online sportsbooks and casinos. We've chatted a bit in the Pokerstars MI thread about it, but the daily blackjack insurance being offered is pretty intense. It's about $20 of EV per day. I've been grinding away at draft kings to the tune of about $800 in the last few months, and have $600 on the Padres -1.5 tonight to earn a $300 free bet.

But the big one was last night. I took $1K of my Vegas winnings and threw it into Fan Duel to take advantage of their first bet risk free for $1000. While the risk free part is nice, betting $1000 on one sporting outcome was a psychological hurdle. I like the O/U on last nights Tigers game at 9.5. I didn't think their offense was up to the task and took the under. (note: I have 0 ability to handicap sports, I just chase +EV bets through promos). I was feeling good when it was scoreless through 3, and even the tigers 2 run homer in the 4th didn't have me sweating too much. The Twins pitcher got in and out of a few jams along the way without too many runs put up. But then the Twins went on a run in the 7th for 3 and I'm lucky it wasn't more. I was sort of rooting for the Twins just so I didn't have to sweat any bottom of the 9th scoring. Thankfully the bullpens did their job and the final score of 3-5 netted me a nice $952.

I'm not sure what sportsbook/casino to do next. Any Michigan peeps have any recommendations? I'm thinking the $1K Deposit Match at Bet MGM. I have been meaning to try out their poker room as well. Does the $1K match have to be cleared through the casino or can it be cleared through poker as well? I'll actually post that question over in the BetMGM MI thread, so no need to answer here. I do wish we had a general MI online gambling thread. There are some good resources online, but there's nothing quite like first hand testimonials to explain the finer points of these promos to assess their relative value.