Hi guys, my name is Carlos I have 27 years and I'm a marine in Brazil. I have currently 1 year left of duty so I was thinking about devote some time at poker since I love the game and would love to do it for a living. However I understand that it will be a long path and I have a lot to learn yet

POKER BACKGROUND

I play poker for quite some years, however only at february of this year I started taking things more seriously and studying more the game. I'm currently playing NL2 zoom 9 max cash games, 2-4 tables at time, 200-1000 hands per hour, 3.86 bb/100.

My tactics are pretty simple and straightfoward, I just play I really tight game and wait to get premium hands, if no none did a bet I do a mini bet and get the blinds. If someone mini raised before me I do a 3-bet on him. If he 4-bet me I go all in. This is working pretty well with premium pairs (JJ+). I could say that 80% of my money come from this

When the tables are too much tight and this is not working I try to steal some blinds with medium hands and re-steal blinds with hands like AQs AKo TTo.

The most of the time the guys just fold, and when they call sometimes I flop something interesting to play against them and extract more money.

MY PLAN

I have the goal of making $200 per month until january of 2022. I know I'm pretty far from that and I also know that I have lot to learn yet, but I think I have enough time to get there if I take this seriously enough.

I have $60 on pokerstars and I'm currently playing NL2 zoom with 4 tables. My next goal is play at NL5, however I need to have at least $120 on bankroll to play there without worries.
I think I will get there soon since I have the 100% first depositors bonus, so now my goal is to put some volume to get my bonus released while making some little money here and there.

MY GRAPHS

GL! Think 6max will make you a better player than nitring but all up to you ofc

Hello, Carlos and good luck!

How play 6max can make me a better player at 9max?

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20/04/2021


Today was a profitable day however I believe I played too much more hands than I should at UTG+1 and UTG+2. I think I should just play premium hands at those positions and stop trying to steal blinds from there, even having AQo, AKo, 99o is not profitable, AKs or TTs maybe.

thanks bro

Meh also just personal preference but I would never play a game where raising AK isn't profitable

Imo waiting for nuts simulator just isn't that exciting to me and also won't improve your poker game as much as 6max will do

22/04/2021

Today I played 400 hands on NL2 at partypoker having $5.23 as profit.
I'm currently trying to sign in on a poker team of cash games called pokermagia, that way I can have access to poker coaching, video lessons and some softwares that I can't afford at the moment. Not to mention the money to level up my bankroll more quickly.

They are asking me to send 3k hands played at partypoker (they don't work with pokerstars) so tomorrow I will play 2600 hands and send it, and let's see what happens.

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I'm playing 6max also, but just on partypoker. I'm having slightly better results than on the pokerstars full ring tables, however I believe is due to the fact that there's much more maniacs spewing money with crap hands on PP.

It's commom to see someone going all in with ATo or KJs or even a total bluff sometimes.

24/04/2021

I already sent 3k hands to the poker team coach, let's see what he thinks

Today I had some losses a couple of winnings but nothing expressive, I will post here some hands to get some feedback

02/05/2021


Sorry about the lack of updates guys. Well, I've just been playing and studying for a while, trying to improve my game and remove leaks that are making me lose money. I think I should focus more in remove the bad habits that are making me lose money instead of learn new tactics to extract money from other people.

It feels like I'm good at extracting money when I have a good hand, I'm also good exploiting nit or fish oponents. But sometimes having something like a TPGK I call bets on turn/river that I shouldn't only to discover that the villain have a set, a flush, a stratigh, a full house, a quad, etc

I think I should be more suspicious about my opponents and accept to fold more hands and eat the loss instead of be so blind when I have something good on my hands. But I'm working on this.

My graph so far



not sure if 13k hands is volume enough to take any conclusions, however I'm open to any feedback about it

AK bet small on the flop, you have top pair top kicker and nut flush draw. Just unlucky this hand

AQ check to original raiser on the flop (do this always), don't put money in on 3 streets with this hand, be careful 3way on the flop without top pair and especially on this board where you could be dead already

JJ probably check turn, also a hand where you don't put money in at 3 streets

13k hands doesn't say much, I had my first 20k hands at 10nl straight losing while I'm probably a winning player there

Tip watch some videos on youtube of pro's playing the micro stakes, most of it will be 6max but you'll learn how to play hands postflop and a bit preflop too

08/05/21

hey guys, I'm currently just playing a lot and studying sometimes, working on my game slowly. I'm also reading "the grinders manual" from peter clarke, it's been really helpful, I'm learning a lot of stuff and i'm also applying some techniques.

it's a ****ing dense book with tons of useful techniques, I know that I will take some time to fully understand the book and much more time to be able to apply those tactics in a profitable way (with 4 tables).

but to be honest it's been cool to learn new tactics, use them, and see them working with other players. I'm currently learning how to use some stats at the HUD like the "Fold x BTN Open" or "Fold to Cbet"

My graph




thanks for the tips, I definetely have a lot to work on my game

about the videos, do you have any recommendations? someone that is crushing at the micros and streaming?

there's a lot of people on YT streaming they playing at the micros but how can I know if the guy is a winning player or if I'm not watching some random dude that just uploaded a video from a random lucky session?

Weazel_1991, Nick Eastwood, BluffTheSpot all have good videos, just find some of 10nl and lower to get the most accurate info

28/05/2021

Hi guys, I'm currently playing a lot less than before and putting some time on improving my game and removing some big leaks that I'm more aware now. There's no point in putting volume now.

It seems that the biggest hole in my pre-flop game that is making me losing a lot of money is on the BB position, take a look.



I just had no idea about how bad I was playing in this position, I was just playing too much tight, almost never calling a steal and thinking that I was doing the right thing.

Talking about my post-flop game, my main leak is my call/fold on the river.
After studying my game with some solvers, now I'm seeing that I'm losing a ton of EV folding decent hands on the river and also calling having weak hands. I'm losing some serious money on those spots.

So now I'm just studying and doing some exercises on the specifc areas that I'm deficient. I'm also playing one hour or two but just with 1 table and it is for the purpose of practicing what I've learned, I'm not interested in put volume now.

Pretty sure we came across each other the other day - the name stood out to me haha!

Good luck on the grind dude

30/05/2021

I will start to take things more serious now and put more time on this, so I developed a workday plan that is not so tough but I think it's good enough to make me evolve fast.

Actually, there's 2 workday's options since I also have a job.

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WORKDAY 1 (when I'm at home):

9:00 AM - 11:00 AM : PLAYING POKER PRACTICING WHAT I'VE LEARNED ON THE PREVIOUS DAY

11:00 AM - 12:00 AM : STUDYING MY SESSION, FINDING LEAKS AND PRACTICING ON THOSE SPOTS WHERE I'M DEFICIENT

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

12:00 AM - 02:00 PM : LUNCH TIME / FREE TIME

basically I just lunch, smoke a blunt, have a coffee and watch something related to poker on youtube.

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02:00 PM - 04:00 PM : TAKE A 30 MINUTES REVIEW OF MY LEAKS ON LAST SESSION / PLAY PRACTICING WHAT I LEARNED

04:00 PM - 05:00 PM : STUDYING MY SESSION, FINDING LEAKS AND PRACTICING ON THOSE SPOTS WHERE I'M DEFICIENT

END.

WORKDAY 2 (when I have to go to my job)

when I wake up

03:30 AM - 04:30 AM : 10 MINUTES REVIEW OF MY LAST SESSION + PLAYING POKER

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

ON MY JOB

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

when I get home

06:00 PM - 07:00 PM : STUDYING MY SESSION, FINDING LEAKS AND PRACTICING ON THOSE SPOTS WHERE I'M DEFICIENT

END

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I think that's a simple but solid work plan, I'm investing 6 hours of my day playing poker when at home and 2 hours when I have to go to my job.

Not to mention that the quality of these hours tend to increase with time since I will test new methods and see what works best in each situation.


thanks bro and be careful with my 3bets

My workplans are going pretty well, I'm kinda feeling that I'm evolving little by little everyday and I also believe that if I keep this pace something great will happen sooner or later.

I also think I should keep going with this while also putting some time on thinking about better ways to use my work time more effectively.

It's not enough to just evolve everyday, I want to evolve as fast as possible and this is not achievable by just putting mindless hard work, you also gotta know where to focus your effort. But I'm working seriously on this.

Enviado de meu SM-G600FY usando o Tapatalk

Hey guys sorry for the lack of updates, I've just decided to take some time improving my game seriously instead of just be putting big volume mindlessly.

I actually stopped playing zoom games and now I'm dedicating mysef just on regular tables. I'm taking much less bad beats and my win rate improved a lot, I'm using the HUD now in a much more efficient way than before, not only with the preflop stats but with the posflop ones as well.
I also developed for myself a good method for table selection that it is working pretty well.
All at all, I feel I'm starting to understand this game at a decent level now, but just starting.

23/07 - TODAY

I woke up early today at 7:00 AM, did some coffee, played with my dog then I started a short session at pokerstars.




Much of this good result was due to table selection and overbets having the nuts. Some guys just pay, no matter what.

At the micros if you have something strong like a set or better on the river you should consider to overbet the pot 3x or even going all-in. The most of the time they will fold and sometimes they will call having a simple top pair, midpair or even less. Just make sure that there's no flush draw, straight draws or pairs on the comunity cards. And if the villain is a Nit, 70% pot or a PSB is a smarter decision since his tight range will give you less equity and he also can have a set better than your set sometimes.

this are not rules guys, just my current impressions about the game

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The rest of the day I will put some time analyzing my last sessions and calculating the equity of my hands against other player ranges and take notes where I did wrong.

After that I will play 3-4 hours more today, I will play 2k hands at least.

I'm currently playing something like 4-5 hours per day and 1200-1600 hands.
I'm trying to stick with these numbers everyday since I'm planning to be playing poker for a living until feb/2022, so I should start working and thinking as a pro since now.

Keep us update if you can keep the rythm. You have a plan for playing and for study. Improve both aspects slowly and you will get there!

SESSION 2



Although my graph looks ugly this was a pretty interesting session for some reasons that I will tell below.

1. today I configured my HUD to show my stats on the table also, not just of my opponents. This is giving me some interesting insights about how wrong the HUD can be sometimes. I mean I was playing 4 tables, each table with 30 hands played but my VPIP / PFR was all over the place.

In one table I was a loose aggressive and on another I was a NIT pratically. This makes me think that I shouldn't trust so blindly on these stats as I was doing when they just have 20-30 hands played.
Not that I should ignore then and just play the standard game, but It would be smart to not be as aggressive as I would be against someone that had a decent hand sample. You guys get it the idea.

2. There's some tips/tools/tactics that I learned on "Crushing the Microstakes" from Blackrain79 that are working pretty well, I'm using a lot the "set mining" tactic against some players who call too much post flop, sometimes I have a set on flop and even barreling three times with a PSB they simply call until the showdown. And when they show their cards they just had things like a top pair, middle pair, low pair etc.

3. Other thing that are working great is overbet on the river having the nuts. When you have a full house, a flush(with a decent kicker), a straight or a set and there's no dangerous draws on the board you should consider to shove all in or at least bet 2x the pot.

Although it might look too much obvious that you have the nuts doing this I should remember that you are at the micros and a lot of people might see this as a bluff and will pay that big ammount to see what you have. Make them pay hard to fulfill his curiosity

I will keep the rythm, I'm currently dedicating at least 4 hours playing/studying poker per day when I have to go to my job(I also study 1-2 hours at the lunch break and when I'm on the bus going home).
When I'm at home I usually play/study 5-7 hours per day with 3-4 tables. It's not being that hard as I thought before.

24/07


Session 1



A lot of fishes on pokerstars today, I was playing 4 tables and I had at least 1 whale in each table. One of my tables had one guy with VPIP 75 and other one with VPIP 82 and the both of them just called until the end no matter what, a total dream for any TAG player.

I'm becoming better at recognizing when a table is profitable faster than before, I'm not losing time/money on tables where there's just SLPs and NITs and no whales.

Afternoon I will play another session and after that study a little about hands vs ranges.

What's up with the patronizing tone regarding people who just punt around with cheeseburger money?

At $1 per hour the joke clearly is on you

25/07



Today I woke up with a massive headache and I was not in good conditions to play a lot, so I basically just sleep all day and played a little at night when the headache was gone.

I'm currently playing and using a equity calculator(at my phone) at the same time in order to check the equity of some spots, however I'm needing to check way less than before.

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There was a situation where I was playing against a massive whale (VP 90 PF 8) where I almost folded my top pair and I would like to hear you guys thought about it.

I had K2o and the board was K,7,9,10,7 with no flush draw.
the whale overbeted 3x the pot on the river(I should mention that he was doing that quite frequently and sometimes with just a middle pair), I called and he won the pot having KJo.

the equity of my hand was 78% against his bizarre range and even if his range was as tight as 18 I would still have 60% equity on him.

however I just had a top pair with the worst kicker and that 7 on the river made me suspicious that he had trips also. almost all combos with one of the cards being a 7 were on his range. what do you guys think?

why the butthurt with the fishes that I play against? am I talking to one of them here?

and about the winrate, just an amateur would take 20k hands as enough sample to determine the winrate

Haha more patronizing

01/08

guys in this month of august I will start taking some aspects of my game more seriously, specially on the psychological/emotional part. I've noticed that there's some situations happening recurrently that are making me lose money on the long run and I'm determined to work on each one of them.

bad habit#1: sometimes I feel the urge to click on each table as faster as I can and all this hurry makes me sometimes fold good hands that I would usually play. this phenomenm happen 1 to 3 times per week I believe, is something that the most of the people wouldn't care about it or even notice, but I believe that when we think about the long term effects I can imagine that I'm avoiding myself to earn a reasonable sum of money.

solution: stop with this bad habit of clicking too much fast by counting to 5 before each table decision (even when the decision is quite obvious), I believe this will create the habit of take each decision more carefully.

#bad habit 2: flop c-bet against a whale having a weak hand. I noticed that I usually start doing this when I'm anxious or worried about some personal problem, I stop paying enough attention on each situation and just look my card and the board, which makes me bet 60% when having a middle pair against a whale, when just check would be the right decision.

what about the TILT?

seriously, I'm kinda dealing well with this part, not to brag myself or something but I don't lose my mind so easily when I take a bad beat.

It's actually a good thing if you think a little because this situations makes the fishes/whales stay on the table more time than they were planning before, maybe before your bad beat the fish was realizing that he sucks and everybody on the table are actually a better player than him. But after win 1 single buyin he will rethink that and start feeling like a pro again, which is good news for us.

I also believe that compare other players graph (specially the pros) with yours is beneficial on that matter because you will have a better grasp on the nature of the game, how much low or high your results can go due to variance, the more aware you are about this the better.

I believe the tilt is rooted in attachment to short term results, basically.
If you don't allow yourself to be happy or sad about daily / weekly results even on the smallest degree, then there's no room for tilt.

Of course that's easier said than done but I believe is the best route to deal with that. It's working well for me at least. hiding the account balance helps a lot also.

02/08

On today's session I've noticed that I should explore more the whales that I'm playing against everyday since I already have a decent hand sample of them (300 to 3k hands).

Some guys call 3bets 99% of time, so I should make bigger 3 bets against them to extract more money (when I have something strong of course), other ones Fold to Cbet just 10% of time, so I should consider make a PSB (or even overbet) when I have a monster. you get the idea.

I'm also trying to improve my focus on each session, I've noticed that I'm a little anxious and sometimes I feel the urge to listen to some music while playing or check my smartphone and things like that, but I'm working hard on these leaks and they will eventually go away.