Hey everyone!

I've been grinding low stakes MTTs recently, trying to improve on my game, and I thought it would be a good idea to journal my progress a bit.

I play within the freeroll to $5 range on GGPoker, and try to satellite into some bigger tourneys here and there, such as The Weekender and GGMasters.

Here is my current progress on GG:



The goal is to build up enough money to be able to afford something like GTO wizard and a stat tracker to be able to study more and do drills. Unfortunately, my studying is limited to youtube videos and studying a handful of postflop scenarios a day using PeakGTO.

I'll be uploading here as often as possible to keep track of how I get on.

Just managed to cash 5th in a $2.20 NLHE deep stacks tourney for $23.

Quite happy with how I played, and have been paying close attention to how ICM affects late stage play, unfortunately got knocked out trying to bluff catch the big stack heads up since he was playing hyper aggressive throughout the whole final table.

Not a great day today, felt like hands where I got it in with ~70% equity preflop kept getting cracked, especially in the $5 buy in games. Managed to make a somewhat deep run in a $1 tourney but didn't make final table.

Played an in person £12 tournament and got busted early, I'm reviewing the hand currently but I think it was an alright play that got me out. Posted on reddit for some advice on the hand:

"LJ (around 65BB stack) limps, hero raises to 3BB with JhTh, SB (around 18BB stack) calls, LJ calls.

Flop comes Kh7h9d.

SB jams for remaining stack, LJ calls, I rejam and LJ calls.

LJ shows Ah8h.

I feel like my shove was a good move since my hand is so high in equity with a flush draw + gut shot to the straight, I want to try and isolate against the SB. I’m anticipating the LJ to have lots of Kx hands so even if I do get called by him, I feel like I’m still in great shape.

The only hand I think I’m crushed by is an A high heart flush draw."

BANG!

Insanely happy with how I played, I've been reading up a lot on the implications of ICM and managed to implement it really well.

Final table ended up with 4 of us, big stack with ~40bb and 3 of us with ~10bb.

I played very cautiously against the big stack, and somewhat aggro against the other short stacks, picking my spots carefully.

Thrilled as this is my biggest win ever!

Just got my first win on Pokerstars!

Was only a $1.10 Rounder tournament, and won $30.72, but I'm very pleased with how I played - especially with my 3bets preflop on the final table, which helped me to pick up a lot of loose chips.

GG well done. How many hours do you play a month?

Well done on those results, always nice if you haven't had a deep run for a while. Have you been growing you br?

Hmm around 6 hours a day, couldn't tell you per month

Thank you!

The br is a little stagnant atm, although it is at an all time high following my 2nd place in the $5 tourney. Gonna keep grinding and see if I can get more growth

Also forgot to write a little report yesterday, maybe because there wasn't much to report...

Busted out early in an in person £12 tourney, unfortunately felt like I had strong hands in bad positions, and lost a flip at the end.

We run it back today! Gonna be grinding 'The Weekender' satellites a lot today since I haven't managed to qualify for this week's one yet.

Not much to report from yesterday, a few deep runs but no final tables. I haven't been lucky with my satellites so will be trying to squeeze into The Weekender today and keep grinding some low stakes tourneys.

Been running like balls today, haven't even been able to min cash lol. Didn't manage to qualify for The Weekender this week is a shame, but it is what it is.

Gonna have a little break to reset before continuing to grind today.

Bad day today, feeling pretty tired so gonna get an early rest and grind early tomorrow.

Don't think I played badly, however as the day progressed, I became less adventurous with my bluffs. Particularly playing as the small blind (h) vs the big blind (v).

I've realised that playing from the small blind is an area I need to improve upon, and I'll see if I can find some material to review it.

Not much to report today, a few min cashes but nothing substantial. We keep going.

How's it going?

Daily report!

Had a break yesterday, and just wrapped up this evening.

Unfortunately no big scores, managed a few deepish runs but not even a final table. I've been reviewing my hands as I go along and generally think I've been playing quite solid, so I think I'm just getting crushed by variance at the minute.

I've been late regging into tourneys at around the 18-10bb range, and I'm considering registering earlier since variance is really eating into my bankroll at the minute.

I'll see how tomorrow goes!

Finally, a decent win! I played solidly, and didn't get out of line on the final table, even though I was the big stack for majority of it.



Unfortunately, my bankroll has been dwindling, and my GG balance is currently $185.58

From now on, I'm going to keep track of my bankroll here, and do a +/- per day here to see how I get on per day. I'm hoping that I won't have to top up my balance, and if I need to, I might consider taking a break...

An update on my GG graph as well whilst I'm at it:

GG Bankroll: $180
Change: -$5.58

Didn't get much volume in today. Couple min cashes + deepish runs, no final tables however.

I've been playing between the $0.25-5 range on GG. I might have to take a step back from the $5 ones because they've been absolutely burning through my bankroll.

Solid victory! Played a very exploitative big stack strategy on the final table and managed to picked up lots of loose blinds against the shorties facing ICM pressure.

Another solid score, got 1 final table that I'm still playing in. After I wrap it up I'll have a short break and continue the grind for today. Finally, a decent session!

...and a second great victory! Opponent got very lucky and was playing very aggro, so overall very happy with how I played.

BR standing: $305.16
Daily change: +$125.16

Much needed session today, managed to final table and come top in quite a few tourneys this morning which was great. Also managed to cash in quite a few others too.

I've been a bit unlucky in my 'Weekender' satellites, and although I've managed to get into 3x of the days so far, I haven't managed to qualify for Day 2 yet. Will try again tomorrow.

On the whole, very pleased with how I played. I need to be a bit careful when multitabling as I notice I sometimes miss out on some min cash spots that I could fold into when I'm on a short stack, instead of punting without realising how close the bubble is.

This is an example of why I haven't been able to qualify for the Weekender in so long, I'm getting so frustrated!!!

Very small win but something to end the night on. Shoved with 4bb with QJo and although there were a few other shorter stacks on the table, the pay jumps weren't too drastic, so I put more value in trying to build up my stack a bit as opposed to nitting it up. Ran into QQ and that's how the stroy goes.

BR standing: $240.78
Daily change: -$64.38

I've started playing a bit more exploitatively, especially against nits. As tempting as it may be to shove with AJo in the button for 12bb when the nit raises to 3.5bb off of a 12bb stack, I've realised it's honestly better to fold in these scenarios because 9 times out of 10, I'm dominated. I'm not becoming way too tight myself and overfolding, but I've realised against these specific player types, they've usually got the goods.

I've fully stepped away from $5 buy in tourneys for the moment whilst my bankroll is quite minimal. I'm sometimes playing a $3 one if the player pool isn't too large.

In general, pleased with how I played today. Real shame to not qualify for the Weekender again, but the grind continues.