I will begin this challenge playing No Limit Hold'em Zoom on PokerStars with a big blind of two cents.

My initial goal is to play twenty thousand hands at this blind level. This will allow me to very roughly determine my win-rate. I will then set new goals accordingly.

The overall goal of this challenge is a mixture of winning money, climbing the stakes, and having a good time.

First session results:



Hands:

PokerStars seems to be down so
Update 2 (results challenge-to-date):



I haven't been playing too well so far. Given the exact situations I found myself in I should have been up at least a couple of hundred more big blinds, that is, I should have been if I hadn't 'tilted' in various ways. However the game seems very soft and I'm slowly getting myself into the right state of mind to play well.

A hand. The arch-villain is a Belarusian who I do not have any reads on.


BTN: $2.35 (117.5 bb)
SB: $2 (100 bb)
BB: $2.52 (126 bb)
Hero (UTG): $2.96 (148 bb)
MP: $2 (100 bb)
CO: $2.18 (109 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A A
Hero raises to $0.06, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.06, SB calls $0.05, BB folds

Flop: ($0.20) 4 T 5 (3 players)
SB bets $0.14, Hero calls $0.14, BTN folds

Turn: ($0.48) Q (2 players)
SB bets $0.36, Hero calls $0.36

River: ($1.20) Q (2 players)
SB bets $1.44 and is all-in, Hero ???

I'm thinking that if I raise flop I will get action from ATs, KsQs-KsJs, Ks9s, QTs, JTs, 9s8s, 8s7s, 7s6s, ATo. I think he's seeing the flop with about 25 combos of this stuff, as well as about 7 combos of TT, 55, 44. When he donkey bets I think he might have a sort of 'polarized range' of mostly flush draws or sets, although I'm not sure about this.

I think he (the average Belarusian 2NLz player) is donkey betting these bluff and value hands at a ratio of about 2:1. When I raise his bet I think he's likely to continue with many of his hands.

The issue arises from the fact that against the range which I have estimated he is flop betting with I have only about 50% equity. So I'm having a hard time deciding whether I should raise or call on the flop.

After writing that out it becomes very clear that I should fold river (which thankfully I did), so I'm mostly interested in how to play flop. And, as played, is raising turn a good idea?

I thought about it a bit more and imo the line I took (call/call/fold) is probably best.

Raising flop can't be too bad but I think, when opponent has like.. [70% top pair or flush draw] and [30% sets], just calling lets them keep their range wide vs our middling hand. Because he/she is a Belarusian player we know that if they check a non-spade turn they 90% don't have a set, and we can value bet our aces appropriately. When it is a spade only small portion of his range actually makes a flush and, when he does make it, we have outs to the nut flush.

Starting tomorrow (technically today) I'll start documenting the amount of time I spend studying poker and the amount of time I spend playing it. Posting this so I can't back out

Also, I bought a small % of another twoplustwo-er, xpastoritox, in today's 5k scoop. So I'll be sweating that!

Also-2, graph (challenge-to-date):

hero ??? readless 2nlz


BTN: $5.16 (258 bb)
SB: $4.41 (220.5 bb)
BB: $4.82 (241 bb)
Hero (UTG): $2.66 (133 bb)
MP: $2.41 (120.5 bb)
CO: $2.25 (112.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q Q
Hero raises to $0.06, MP raises to $0.18, 3 folds, BB calls $0.16, Hero calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.55) 8 8 4 (3 players)
BB bets $0.38, Hero ???

swing day today, so far

:

Got some good volume in today, so far today graph:

Fun hand. .

Today's results:

converse of yesterday, today we are running a buy-in or two above AIEV

today so far (maybe gonna play more):

forgot about this thread lol. shotting 50z atm

Graph since start? NL2 and 2 weeks later shotting NL50?

will probably do a proper update later. involved beasting tournaments and being stupid. Not in the spirit of the challenge but, as i said, i forgot about the challenge (probably because literally 0 people commented the whole time lol). Speaking of tournies, just cashed an $80 one for $500 Still feels good every time.