Hi 2+2,

About me:
30something, european, english isnt my native language

Im playing poker for a couple of years now. Most of the time I grind low limits until I get bored and use my whole bankroll for 1tabeling high limits or high buyin MTTs. So BRM is non existant. Afterwards I stop playing for a couple of months until a big tourney or some other interesting thing is happening.

My main game will be PLO zoom.

Second reason to start a PGC is to motivate myself and satellite into some live events. I played some big events in the past and loved the experience. Also it gives me a reason to travel a bit and the time playing poker is relaxing (no work, free my mind, away from everybody and everything,...). Would love to go to the EPT Prague, PP Millions UK, ... To be honest short term I would need to get very lucky. But there are a couple cheaper events in the near future where I can try to sat into.

Big reason why I failed in the past is that for me the poker money has no real meaning. Dont know how to explain it but everything up to a couple of k$ online doesnt look real.
Nevertheless I could use a couple of k$ and Im not willing and/or able to buy into an EPT where I know that my chashing chances are low.

Main Goals:

• reach PLO100-500zoom
• qualify for live events
• BRM!

Bankroll ~$200

Im allowed to deposit some more for sats on different sites. Also I will divide my bankroll into cashgame and Sats/Shottaking roll.

Will add small goals like read poker book, play x hours or cashout x$ for sats,...

Wish me luck

Short update. Played around 8k hands the last days, which is a lot for me. Shows how motivated I am. Also Im remembering why I love and hate PLO. Some suck outs are beyond belief. Breath in/out, mark the player and next time get 2 outered again. One of the reasons I should keep to proper BRM.

I have seen that Stars started the EPT Prague sats. Not sure for which event I should aim. The main or national event? Also depends on the possible side events. Have discovered, that for the national event there are live sats where you win a seat or cash for each xk tournament chips. For the main event there is no option for cash or a second seat.

Bankroll 230$

Wasnt able to play any sats on stars yesterday. Had to choose between poker and beer. Afterwards played a short session but was able to stop myself before I tilted.


poker week is ending early because Im going on a weekend trip. Not sure if Im able to play on sunday night. Depends if Im sleep deprived or not

bankroll 180$

Deposited 100 bucks on a small site to play a sat on sunday but wasnt able to get a seat. Structure of the sat wasnt really good. At the end of rebuy the average was around 15BB.
The rest of the 100 bucks went up in smock on the PLO tables. Very juicy game wich a guy playing 90/80/20. He had a 1500BB stack and I hadnt enough money on the site to profit from it. Balance now at 0$

Maybe I need to change my plans regarding which live events I should target, because my small bankroll is split onto different sites. Nevertheless good thing is, that I won the lost bankroll on my other site. bankroll change +/-0$

wanted to add some hands but the hand history converter on 2+2 is offline?

When the opponents rivers quads or if you call down your underfull with the blocker the EV line doesnt look very sexy.

Sometime PLO is very easy and you feel you cant lose, but other times you feel like playing near your A game and cant hit any board.

Also as said before if you split your bankroll over a couple of sites you arent rolled for the swings in PLO.

Sunday MTTs were the worst. First bubbled the sat into the Stars EPT again and on a smaller site also bubbled the seat to the live event. Had a crazy guy on my left who built up a big stack and punished the table. Was able to win some chips from him but eventually my AJs was no match to his 78s. Afterwards I thought about it some more and realized, that it was my error to push against him in. The other two bigger MTTs on the site were also a miss.

On the other sunday is the best day to play cash games. Tilted away some chips when I bubbled the sat but overall Im up a bit.

Played a couple of hands this week --> breakeven.
Tried a new game PLO5cards. Crazy plays and highest VPIP Ive seen in a long time. In a timeframe of 10 mins I sat with a stack of 500BB only to loose most of it in the next 2 hands. Nevertheless was able to book a win and will definetly play again. Need to adjust to the extra card. You have much more drawing outs and most of the people in my player pool are looking to flip.

Im again going on a short trip this weekend. So no poker on saturday.

Next weekend there is a two day ~$200 tournament and Im struggeling if I should attend. In a local casino there are also small $30-50 tournaments running on a regular basis. But my biggest issue with MTTs (online or live) is the duration. The small tournaments attract up to 100 people and the bubble bursts at 1 or 2 oclock in the morning for a mincash.

Maybe I will flip a coin.

YEAH I have won my first seat into a live event.

Was really short coming to the final table, hat to play very tight and luckily I was able to double up in the right moment. Was picking my spots carefully and busted another player. A very big stack on my right was punishing the table and I doubled through him with AA vs KK. Afterwards I was the chipleader and it was easy to push the other people around. As an online qualifier I will play Day1A. Need to check the whole schedule, structure and so on. Very happy right now.

On the other hand I busted my roll ($100 ) on stars. Need to deposit some money but I only will do that after cashing out on my other site.

Goals:
[x] qualify to a live event

Stretch goal: EPT prague national

Wow I played so f-ing bad. Visited a small cardroom to play a live tourney. First time since a year or more. To give you an idea of the level of play: the guys live straddle / blind raising to 5-10xBB Nevertheless I busted early and its my own fault. I misplayed some hands (check when I should bet, betsizing,...) and the rest was bad luck KK vs 33 and QQ vs 42o!

To be honest I never played many NL touneys. Also Im a losing NL player and dont really enjoy the game. In NL I much more feel it when Im outclassed. Additionally the long hours to finish ITM in the slow online MTTs dont attract me. So the majority of all MTTs I ever played are hyper turbos, sats and main events (SM, coops,...)

Need to play some more and look into some strat videos or texts.

Sunday deep run in a tournament. Because I know how bad I am at MTT, I played a sunday MTT on a small site. (~400entries) Picked my spots, thought about my bet sizings, when to bet and so on. Also was able to get it in 9 out of 10 times with the best hand. the 10th time I won AQs vs QQ and was finding myself as the chipleader with nearly 20% of all chips @ 20 left . Slow going to the FT and I think I doubled 4 or 5 opponents with like AK vs A8, TT vs AT, JJ vs 55, ... Nevertheless was always able to chip up und keep my chiplead. Until 5 left my AA ran into AK of the 2nd biggest stack preflop Allin and he somehow won with a straight Couple hand later QTs vs BB 96s and out in 5th place.

Happy to had a deep run but realizing the fact, that tournament poker is scary swingy. If you are out you are out - no rebuys,... Especially the AA vs AK hand showed me that it can end in an instance.

Im writing about my goals like I only want to qualify to live events for the fun, holiday,... but to be honest a mincash at the minimum should be possible. I havnt played any qualifiers this sunday, because after my bad live play last friday Im also thinking about going slower. Day1A for the event I qualified is starting at the end of this month. Will play the event, look for studying material and depending on the results rething my stretch goal.

I need to be honest to myself. A poker holiday without any successful experience isnt going to keep me happy. If I bust with AA vs AK ok so be it, but if I bluff in a spot where I cant explain what hand I represent and get called its on me.

cashgame:
lastly I suck at PLO and cant win a hand. Found myself a nemesis who is able to win every hand when he gets it in against me. Im running way below EV and missing a lot of hands on untracked sites.



Also the graph doesnt include my excursion into PLO 5 cards. HEM cant import the hands. Would love to see the graph for my PLO5 hands Im ahead but the graph wouldnt look pretty - maybe something like an earthquake graph

bankroll ~$700 (exluding a 600$ cashout)

PLO:
My run bad continues and I dont know what to do. I also play on a site without Handhistorys and I hate it. You dont know anything about your play. Are you only running bad, playing bad,... I do know that sites are trying to help rec players and fighting against bots but it cant be the solution to keep the players completely in the dark.

I dropped down the limits and will play there to gain some confidence.

Live MTT:
Tomorrow I will attend Day 1 of my won MTT seat. Have watched and read a lot about strategy the last couple of days. Whats really funny is, that I recognized some really big leaks in my game. When I first started playing for fun I played in two EPTs (somehow won the seat online) and even though I havnt cashed I was deep in day 2 on both. Now thinking back, I dont know how I was able to not bust earlier. There is so much information Im not really aware of. Another bi leak is, that I never really played NL holdem. I dabbled around but over 90% of my play comes from PLO.

I do know that variance is a very big factor but will try to play my A game.

Goals:

After the weekend I will reevaluate my goals. First of all I need to rebuild my confidence and grow my bankroll. On the other hand if I try to qualify for live events Im aware that its more a holiday than +EV play. For such endeavours I need free capital.

Another big questionmark is, if I should learn NL for real. As written I dont have much NL experience. I know that online MTTs are not for me - cant find the time to sit there for xx hours.

Maybe I will look for some coaching or coaching sites to polish my game.

Live tourney recap:
Firstly had fun but didnt cash
The tourney was nice to play. Players on my table were fun, some high VPIP but mostly good aggressive players. The structure allowed slow play and I was able to chip up nicely. In the first levels I only played one bad hand where I payed off a set when I hit top two pair on a dry flop. Villian was a limper who played very passiv and only lead out on the river. Curious me payed him off

There was one big hand were Im not sure if I would have been able to make a play so that villian would have folded. Result was a chop but otherwise I would have been sitting with a nice big stack. Afterwards I hovered around average and was very much carddead. Made some small mistakes or bad cards like AT vs AJ and A8 vs A9 - happy that I lost the minimum (PFR + CB) both times but my chipstack was dwindling down. Add the calls with 66 and some BB defending and I found myself short stacked. Carddead and aggressive play on the table prohibited me from finding a good spot to chip up. A negative point was, that the two players to my left started playing very aggressive after they built a stack (3b,4b,..) Last hand I shoved AQs into KJs and was out. Very sad about the result but I enjoyed the expierience and think that I havnt made to many mistakes.

I do understand my level of play compared to the other players and think that overall I was competing nicely. Luck is a factor in tournaments, e.g. a player to my left was sitting with 3 times starting stack in the 4th level after he got payed with his set vs. twopair and set over set. Average end of day 1 was around 4x starting stack.

On the positive side I won my hotel costs at a 2/2 PLO table. Lost my fist shortstack bullet second hand I sat down with QTJTds but very next hand KKJTss trippled up and afterwards nothing really intersting happend and I left with ~200 in profit.

Goals 2019 live events:
The only event I can somehow squeeze into my schedule would be the EPT prague national but only if I can choose Day1B/C and then it would be the morning after a birthday party. Would need to travel to the event on the same day as Day1B and arrive just on time tired and maybe still slightly drunk. The good thing about the EPT they have a lot of other tourney running. The day after the 2day 330€ EPT Cup is starting. The PS package includes ~300€ spending money, so would be a perfect fit.
On the other hand I wont force it and give myself a limit of 3 bullets for the feeder sats (sat into the EPT package sat)
Goal for my local cardroom is to play in min 3 tournaments in 2019 and cash of course.

- three bullets for EPT national sat
- min 3 small local tournaments

Online play:
Im running hot (20BB/100) after I dropped down the limits. Nevertheless I need to play min. 10k hands before I move up again. I hate it to run over EV on the low limits and under EV on the higher limits

- 10k hands

played 10k hands and my confidence is back:

But I think you can clearly see were I added tables. Was playing mostly 2 tables. The first shot for the next level was swingy but I gained some foothold now.

EPT sat:
First bullet wasnt sucessful. Will try to play the next/last bullet on sunday. If Im not able to qualify for the EPT prague I will look for the next goal. I recognized that Im to fast in trying to achive bigger goals. According to my bankroll Im not really allowed to play such high buyin sats.
Ive looked into the Partypoker live sat system and I find it better than the system on stars. On PP you are able to win $$$ packages like 1100, 3300,... and so on. The interesting thing for me is, that if you are able to win a 3,3k$ sat you can use the amount for lower events (new as T$). Because my bankroll istn big enough to play 1k events live after I finish the EPT national or main I wouldnt be able to play any other event.

Goal:
10k hands + evBB > 10
or
20k hands + evBB > 10 of last 10k hands
and so on

Sometimes PLO is easy:

Omaha Pot Limit - $0.10/$0.25 - 6 players

UTG: $28.37 (113 bb)
MP: $17.16 (69 bb)
CO: $56.99 (228 bb)
BU: $78.08 (312 bb)
SB: $25.10 (100 bb)
BB (Hero): $70.19 (281 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with 8♣ J♦ A♥ A♦
3 players fold, BTN calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.85, BTN calls $0.60

Flop: ($1.80) A♠ T♦ 4♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $1.52, BTN calls $1.52

Turn: ($4.84) 5♦ (2 players)
Hero bets $4.17, BTN raises to $8.34, Hero raises to $29.65, BTN calls $21.31

River: ($64.14) Q♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $38.17 (all-in), BTN calls $38.17

Total pot: $140.48 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 8♣ J♦ A♥ A♦ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 68%, Flop: 95%, Turn: 100%, River: 100%)

BU shows 2♣ 4♠ 7♦ 8♥ (a pair of Fours)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 32%, Flop: 5%, Turn: 0%, River: 0%)

BB (Hero) wins $138.48

Also one of my biggest pots so far. Nice for the bankroll and for the stats - having a day with 50bb/100 over 2,5k hands warms my heart.

So more money to donk away in hypers and sats...

Shottaking & overplayed Aces
The multiway pots are bad for the EV line but would have been good for the bankroll.

Omaha Pot Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players

UTG (Hero): $48.50 (97 bb)
MP: $72.72 (145 bb)
CO: $22.25 (45 bb)
BU: $58.58 (117 bb)
SB: $52.89 (106 bb)
BB: $40.30 (81 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 4♦ 6♥ A♥ A♠
Hero raises to $1.75, 1 fold, CO 3-bets to $6, BTN calls $6, SB calls $5.75, BB calls $5.50, Hero 4-bets to $36, CO calls $16.25 (all-in), BTN calls $30, SB 5-bets to $52.89 (all-in), BB calls $34.30 (all-in), Hero calls $12.50 (all-in), BTN calls $16.89

Flop: ($216.83) 2♣ 6♣ 3♣ (5 players, 4 all-in)

Turn: ($216.83) T♣ (5 players, 4 all-in)

River: ($216.83) 2♦ (5 players, 4 all-in)

Total pot: $216.83 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
SB shows T♦ T♠ Q♦ Q♠ (a full house, Tens full of Twos)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 23%, Flop: 6%, Turn: 29%, River: 100%)

UTG (Hero) shows 4♦ 6♥ A♥ A♠ (two pair, Aces and Twos)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 20%, Flop: 4%, Turn: <1%, River: 0%)

CO shows A♦ K♦ J♦ K♥ (two pair, Kings and Twos)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 22%, Flop: 4%, Turn: <1%, River: 0%)

BB shows 7♠ A♣ 8♠ 7♣ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 20%, Flop: 82%, Turn: 71%, River: 0%)

BU shows 9♣ 9♠ J♣ T♥ (a flush, Jack high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 15%, Flop: 4%, Turn: <1%, River: 0%)

SB wins $214.83

Last bullet in the EPT sats?
As written before I fired my last bullets to try and qualify for the EPT prague.
There is good and bad news. Was able to qualify for the sat twice (16,5€ and 7,50€ sats into the 162€ qualifier). So now 162€ T$ are sitting in my stars account. On the other hand the main sat itself was a short run. Was astonished about the general play. Very early 4b shove allins with 40-50BB was standard. I myself was calling with QQ vs AK in a blindbattle and the Ace on the river was the end of my tournament life.

Found out that the TEuros are only useable for €Tournaments. So I have to use them for another "last" bullet. Not sure if I buyin directly or if Im going to win some feeder sats. I dont think T$ can expire and maybe I save them for the upcoming EPT schedule next year.

cash game:
Last couple of sessions are going poorly. Im +/- zero but I cant get any momentum. If I had any decent rakeback it would be ok, but my last starchest gave my around 5$ for 10500 points so its 5%RB?
I think I will look for another room for my main cashgame play.

Good luck on the tables

Won another 162€ seat into the qualifer but K6 vs K9 in a blindbattle on K96 rainbow flop crippled me and shortly thereafter I was out.
I still have around 145T€ in my account and will maybe try one or two more times to get a seat. Need to get a little bit lucky.
Lastly I cant cash in any MTT (except sats ). Donked away nearly 100$ on MTTs this sunday.

Transfered some money to partypoker after my rant about PS rakeback. Compared to Pokerstars I get showered in rakeback and promo$. At the moment Party is having a Spins Promo and my account is filled up with around 100 Tickets (from 0,25$ - 20$). Hopefully I can win some of them to get the $$$. But the stars software is vastly superior compared to party. I find it much easier to play on stars. Couple of thinks I miss like custom hotkeys,.. Also PLO is much more rigged on party than on PS. I have HEM2 so no handhistory import possible but hopefully soon I can whine regarding my EV line.

Its so difficult to understand poker. I struggle with the idea of playing 1000s of hands were often big pots go around and in reality you fight for the 1 BB/100. Im not sure why but a big percentage of my sessions I lose 1 or 2 stacks in the beginning and then need to fight back to get even.
For example last two hands of my session - we are risking much more compared to the overall win of ~$2.

3way AI on the river - NO made hand - everybody is drawing
sadly nearly 40%ev 3way is not enough to win

Omaha Pot Limit

UTG: $109.93 (220 bb)
MP: $25.00 (50 bb)
CO: $39.86 (80 bb)
BU: $88.87 (178 bb)
SB (Hero): $104.70 (209 bb)
BB: $34.20 (68 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with 5♦ A♦ 9♥ 6♣
1 fold, MP raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, BB calls $1.25

Flop: ($7) J♣ 3♦ T♦ (4 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $5.50, MP folds, CO calls $5.50, Hero calls $5.50

Turn: ($23.50) 4♣ (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $22.32, CO raises to $32.61 (all-in), Hero calls $32.61, BB calls $4.63 (all-in)

River: ($115.67) A♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $115.67 (Rake: $2)

Showdown:
CO shows K♦ 9♦ Q♥ A♥ (a straight, Ten to Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 41%, Flop: 34%, Turn: 36%, River: 0%)

BB shows K♣ Q♣ 9♣ 7♦ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 25%, Flop: 22%, Turn: 25%, River: 100%)

SB (Hero) shows 5♦ A♦ 9♥ 6♣ (a pair of Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 35%, Flop: 44%, Turn: 39%, River: 0%)

CO wins $11.32
BB wins $102.35

At the same time won some back Call looked like set and/or flushdraws.
I also block the straight with the king and he would have called or shoved a straight on the turn.

Omaha Pot Limit

UTG (Hero): $147.23 (294 bb)
MP: $75.06 (150 bb)
CO: $82.35 (165 bb)
BU: $50.00 (100 bb)
SB: $98.72 (197 bb)
BB: $71.96 (144 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with A♥ 2♥ 5♦ K♦
Hero raises to $1.75, MP calls $1.75, 4 players fold

Flop: ($4.25) A♦ T♥ J♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $2.75, MP calls $2.75

Turn: ($9.75) 9♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $9.26, Hero raises to $37.04, MP calls $27.78

River: ($83.83) 7♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $55.64, MP folds

Total pot: $83.83 (Rake: $2)
UTG (Hero) wins $81.83


Result of the session: 1k hands | $2.82 won | 43$ rake

Cashgame: had the darkest day of my PLO history. Lost every hand, super crazy setups,... I wasnt running bad, but if button behind you isnt raising AA doublesuited and the board runs out AKKxx you lose your AKxx stack every time. Also even if you feel like villian has quads I cant find the fold button.

MTTs: I have phased into the micromillions envent 01 last week. I have a nice stack way above average and today I will try to play my best. I think I wil add some more sunday mtts and make it a sunday mtt grind:

• (maybe Doubledeuce $22)
• (maybe Hotter $11)
• MM#142 Main event $22
• MM#001 Phase 2
• MM#145 - Turbo $1,1R
• MM#146 - NLO hyper $3,30
• MM#147 - PKTO hyper $3,30

additional will mix in some hyper MTTs or Turbo KOs. Overall up to a $100 total. If I feel I run/play good I will add another EPT shot.

Im no MTT player:

• double deuce - 99 vs 77 on 456 allin 3 on the turn +$35.41
• hotter 11 - KJ vs JJ vs AK $0
• hyper ko - 33 v AQ $0
• hyper 5.5 - KQ vs 33 bubble $0
• EPT sat €7,5 - KJ vs AT vs AT lol €13.85
• MM Main Event - skipped it after feeling and running bad
• MM phase 2 - crippled vs 3 outer and then K6s vs doesnt matter anymore +$19.62
• skipped the latter MTTs cause I wasnt in any other MTT at the time

Overall +$10 but not happy. Another bubble on the feeder sat.

Cashgame:
goodbye pokerstars - last couple of sessions just destroyed my confidence and gameplay.


Stats look nice even if the samplesize is small. Without looking at the graph I was feeling and playing my best game @PLO25. The nice feeling when everything clicks into place.


To be honest couple of pots in my last sessions I tilted away. When you have the nuts and the 4outer hits the river you cant believe that your opponet called until the river with nearly nothing. You know you are beat but you need to see it

Switched to another site and plan to put in more hands, to earn some rakeback.

Live MTT:
Still have some T€ in my pokerstars account but will wait to use them. I will look into the schedule for early 2020 and will set my goals then.


I planed to play some small live MTTs this year but the time is short and if I can attend more than one event I would be supprised.

Nice 4way 150BB pot allin in a MTT with over 50%ev. Was step2 in a 3 step qualifier. With this pot the step 3 ticket would have been in my pocket.
Maybe I should take a break or go out and have fun irl.

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

820 trials (Exhaustive)

board: 843

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
8c8h	54.76%	449	0
3c3d	4.76%	39	0
as9s	21.59%	177	0
6s5s	18.90%	155	0

Another sunday another grind. Tonight my plan is going to grab millions

Have won 2 x $109 tickets during the week on Party and will try to play my way into the 10k main event day 1A. Little bit out of my league I know. They also have a deposit bonus right now, but I hope that 2 shots are enough.

There are two steps; 109 into the 1k sat which leads to the day 1A MTT.
Will only play the hyper sats and hope to get lucky. Not sure if I can play my A game today, because had a little bit to much beer and gin tonics last night.

will update later tonight. wish me luck

SN on Party? Seems we play similar games (SATS and PLO) so might run into each other!

For sure played together - fast PLO pool is much smaller but dont want to reveal my sn.

Im playing a mix of PLO10/25/50 and there are some funny guys playing. One reg on PLO10 is only folding or 3 betting and most of the time he gets his stack in preflop with a very wide range of hands. Dont know if hes doing it for the sake of the leaderboard?

In my opinion Party made some mistake with their fastforward promotion - they divided the promo for 2 levels each - so you have zero players between.
It is difficult for my BRM - one day you have all players playing PLO25 and the next day only PLO50 is running.

My super sat sunday was short lived - both time ran into the blinds holding AA. But its to be expected when playing hypers. There are still other starting days and will try to work my way into them. I find the 22 sats are easy to play but my bankroll is stagnating, when i use my PLO winnings do donk them of in MTTs and sats.