Last few days a lot of things were happening regarding my challenge including massive swings, new realizations and repeated concerns. I will tell you all about them in short...


On Sunday I started watching Luuk's Small Stakes Course on Jnandez Mastermind. I realized I need to tighten up my game a lot. He goes into much detail why folding more hands than in GTO setting is a good idea. I am working on tightening my game since and brought my stats from 25/19.5 to 21.5/17. My 3 bet stayed about the same at 7.3.
I am not the type of person who likes to play like a nit, but I too believe it is the only way of surviving in an high rake environment where fold equity pre-flop is non-existent. I look forward to seeing the impact of this adjustments on my win rate.




On Monday I faced one of the the biggest swing so far. I went from being up 4 buyins to finishing down 12 buyins over 3 sessions.
That gave me fuel for extra focus on Tuesday where I had to clear 1000 remaining points to get 90$ spin. In the last hour (you have 7 days to collect 15000 points) I managed to clear the bonus and spin my way to 30$. I booked 2 winning sessions.


Graph this month:


Please note that Poker craft does not include rake.


I am still troubled by the amount of rake I am paying. My actual winnings are 84$ post rake. I will persist until the end of the month to have a very clear idea if it is possible to make decent money with high rake or not. Playing very tight might make it work.

Ok, so things are really not going my way this month. With another loosing session today (down 11 buy-ins with rake) I don't think there is any more hope of completing the monthly challenge.
On top of running 18 buy ins under EV this month (that does not include multi-way pots), I am keep on getting out flopped in 3-bet and 4 -bet pots.

I am actually down 10 buy-ins after rake and rake back so far.

I am trying to find some positives in this situation:

Against a tougher competition or on higher stakes I would be down much, much more with this run.

Despite the bad run I have mainly kept my cool, except from one day last week when I lost my focus during a long loosing session and made a huge blunder misreading KKQx for KQQx on Q hi board going all in. I closed the session straight after this hands.

I keep thinking of Galfond's tweet when he was loosing against Venividi. He was saying that his main focus is playing his best, staying logical and not trying to force a comeback. I am gonna stick to this strategy.



Few hands from today:

One of my followers suggested 2 days ago that I should try streaming less tables. He reminded me of JNandez message in 10 week transformation course where he says: ''Stop grinding, start crushing''.
First my ego kicked in with resistance thinking: ''I can easily play 6 tables, I could play even more, I am making the best decisions...''. Fortunately, I recognized the resistance and thought to myself: '' OK lets give it a go and play only 4 tables''.
The result was amazing. I think I have played way better, I've made some bluffs that required a lot of attention and because I had more time I was able to dive much deeper into the thinking process. Although I played less tables I was actually more engaged and also the chat was more engaged as I was sharing more insights. Thanks ''Mango'' and JNandez for the tip!

I finished the session 6 buyins up and to make it sweeter also hit a Royal Flush Jackpot! You can check out the video on this link... https://clips.twitch.tv/BlazingTenderKalePanicVis .



This month so far...

BAAAM !

The monthly challenge is over, but unfortunately, I have not reached most of the targets.

You can read about my experience with this challenge in this post. For those of you interested in more details about the rake calculations on GG Poker please read a post underneath.

Goals and results

My goal was to make 2500$ pre-rake I made 626$.
My goal was to play 50.000 hands I played 37.000.
My goal was to have a win rate 20bb/100 pre-rake it was 6.9bb/100.
My goal was to reach 300 followers on Twitch I reached 142.

My goal was to stream every day from Monday to Saturday and I did.

The Disappointment

It is hard to write this post as I am disappointed with the result. By challenging myself I put additional pressure on myself. After just a few days of playing I realised it would be very hard for me to complete the challenge as I started off running very poorly.

There were days where my motivation was low, I felt like a looser and didn’t even want to stream. Around the 10th of May, I accepted the fact that it is mathematically very unlikely that I would reach the 20bb/100 goal. I thought of what Phil Galfond must have been experiencing when he was down 900k vs VeniVidi.

Although I wasn’t happy with the poker results, I was happy with the growth of my Twitch channel and the support I got from my followers. So, I decided to continue to play and stream no matter the result. For another week or so I felt a bit relieved, but the resentment and disappointment came back again when the month was coming to an end.

With my low win rate also came doubts about my game. I was studying my EV graph and found some comfort in the numbers. I was consistently running under EV, finishing 627$ (25 buy-ins) under the expected value.

That was proof to me that it was not just my game that needed fixing but I was also in the middle of a bad run. Even if I ran with EV however, I would not meet the targets. Ironically on the 1th of June I was up 400$ pre-rake, 300$ over expected value in just 1700 hands. Variance is a beast.

Small Volume

I have played relatively small amount of hands for the amount of time I was playing. Most of my sessions were streamed live and I learned I can only play 4 tables doing so.

Gratitude

First of all, I am very thankful for everyone that followed my challenge on Twittch, 2+2 or Facebook. Thanks to my wife for bring me sandwiches and drinks while playing and supporting me in my pursuit. Special thanks to omfghsdb who gifted more than 15 subs. Thanks to all of you with whom I have connected even further through PMs (I won’t type all the names but you know who you are).

Highlights

Some of the highlights were definitely the raids I got on Twitch from JNandez and Luuk Botter. Also hitting a Royal Flush Jackpot for 155$ on 14th May was nice (link to video here: https://www.twitch.tv/manwithdplan/c...erKalePanicVis).

Takeaways

The realization that I was not meeting the targets gave me an extra motivation to work on my game. “Mango” suggested I should try Plo Mastermind course Crushing Small Stakes form Luuk Botter and I am very grateful for his advice. The course is eye-opening. I am still watching it, but the value I've got from it so far is immense. It made me think of so many details I would not have thought off myself. It is transforming my game. It came at the right time as at the start of May I ran out of first deposit bonus on GG which meant I would pay more rake. With higher rake you have to adjust your preflop ranges and this is exactly what the course dives into.

I think I have grown a lot as a poker player and streamer as well. I also started a Manwithdplan YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-P...i0KrOB2fWOdexg). Altogether I am happy I decided to create this challenge.

Finally, I have learned to spell “challenge”. 😊 I spelled it “challange” before.

What next?

I am very exited about the new Rush format for Omaha on GG that opened on 1st of June. I will try it out over the next few days and decide which format I want to play. I will also decide on a new stream schedule. I think I will be streaming 3-4 days a week from now on as I also want to put more content on YouTube, play more volume and continue to work on my game. If I decide Rush is my preferred format, I might put in some extra long sessions to compete in the Leader board. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Twitch for more updates. I will also take a few shots at Plo50.

Twitter https://twitter.com/TimeTrapAA/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TimeTrapAA/

Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/manwithdplanhttp://

GG.

Very interesting, as I'm in the same spot as you.

We are going in the right direction I think with the Mastermind.

My "aha" moment was when I realized that I had a lot of leaks still and switched to a "learner" mode, my study to play ratio is now 2 to 1 (it was 1 to 3 before).

GL

With a bit of delay, I got the challenge done. I am very happy with the result after a break even May. Things started to go my way in June. I was excited to try a new format Rush and Cash format on GG and it is all I played since. Love the speed. I took maybe 5-10th shoots at PLO50 and finally managed to stay on the limit.

Most of these hands are played on PLO50 (42k out of 50k).

I was competing in daily Leader-boards and found a lot of success there. Made a lot of rake back trough it.

Just to explain before I go into the stats how rakeback works as it is a sum of 4 cash flows in Rush and Cash.
First, there are cash drops on Rush and Cash tables. So the graph that you see already includes that portion of rakeback as it goes into your winnings.
Second, you are collecting points in Fish Buffet for money spins.
Third, you compete in Daily Leader-board.
Fourth, I get extra rake back from an affiliate.

For win rate calculations I am going to simplify as if I played all hands on PLO50. Actual win rate is bit bigger as I played 8k hands on PLO25 but I will neglect that as it wont change it too much.

Here are the stats:
Number of Hands: 50.000
Winnings including cash drops: 3660$
Winnings including cash drops EV adjusted: 2700$
Win rate including cash drops without other rake: 14.6 bb/100
Sum of all leader-board rewards: 1230$
Sum of all Fish Buffet rewards: 200$
Affiliate rake-back: 280$
Actual winnings (including all rake-back): 2650$
Actual win rate: 10.5bb/100
Win rate EV adjusted: 6.8 bb/100
Rake payed: 1010$
Rake per 100: 4bb/100

Comments:
I payed very little rake as I got so much back trough daily Leader-boards. On days I played, I played a lot. Rake-back is gonna vary a lot based on how much you win in these daily challenges.

For all of you out there who missed my stream, sorry for not streaming much. However I found it very beneficial for me not to stream. I had much more time to work on my game and I could play more tables at the same time. I also worry that streaming on PLO50 Rush is not the best idea as player pool is smaller and players are better. My opponents could use that information against me.

I am very happy with a result and looking forward to play some more.

For my stream followers I am not promising anything as I am happy the thing are going now without streaming. Also live games might come soon, so I won't play as much online if that happens.

GG !

I will try rush and cash this weekend. I didn't like it much. The regular games are so fishy compared to rush and cash. I still had straddling and no look 40bb at PLO50 regular yesterday.

Congrats man. Yeah RB on GGpoker is insane. YOu have to hit daily challenges when u play in order to make some good coin. Its why I don't want to play on GG anymore, don't play enough hours. Keep it up

Hi, thanks for the kind words guys. My next goal is to make 2500$ in a week. For that I will start playing on Party as their bonuses are even higher, although competition is better. That will force me to work on my game even more.