Hi all,

As you can see in the title this will be my last shot at poker. I have been playing poker for the last 8 months (I know I’m relatively new to poker, I started in the beginning of the pandemic) and I’m a winning player. I have never been able to build a big bankroll because I’m starting to panic at the smallest downswing which results in me withdrawing 75% of my bankroll when this occurs.

Recently I started grinding NLH 6-max cashgames and I'm slowly starting in being a decent winning player in this format. One problem, I keep tilting away all my winnings. Also when this happens I experience issues with me thinking I’m just not good enough to make it etc. In the last few weeks I made several small deposits on stars and every time when I had reached the point where I tripled/quadrupled up I tilted away my whole bankroll in one session. I also recently had COVID-19 which resulted in me being extremely tired and not been able to focus, problem is I still decided to play sometimes when actually not able to play.

Again this will be my last shot at poker, this time I will try to be very disciplined and set some goals to make this work and avoid punting my money away, posting this (the pressure of you guys ;P) will hopefully help me in achieving my goals.

Life/poker goals and rules to myself:

- Take a break after playing for 1 hour
- Go running 3 times a week
- Go to the gym 3 times a week (gyms are currently closed in my region due to COVID-19 so I will start off with some pushups etc.)
- Study 30 minutes before playing
- Stop playing for at least 1 hour when losing 3.5 buy-ins or when on tilt
- Strict BR management which I will keep you guys posted on
- Consume alcohol ones a week max (I am not an alcoholic but alcohol really affects my focus and sleep)
- Try to see my friends at least ones a week (I’m dealing with depression for the last 4 years, recently I started to feel very awkward around people which results in me avoiding my friends and not going outside, I’m trying to work on this in general)

Tomorrow I will start the challenge with a deposit of around $20 on stars. I will be playing mainly cashgames but maybe some SNG’s/tourneys in the future as well.

I will be posting graphs and hands daily. Feel free to leave a comment or suggestion!

Also let me know if anyone wants to study with me. Nobody of my real life friends play poker and I have basically no one to discuss hands/strategies with.

Hey!

I would suggest focusing on a mental game. It's a very neglected area and it will definitely help you tremendously. Because swings will happen. All the time. You have to be ready.

Good luck, you can do this!

Thank you Any tips on improvement? (like a course or anything)

I made the post on the weekend but was not able to post it because my account was not activated properly, anyway, I started the challenge yesterday with $18 in my account.

Here are the results of yesterday (2NL):



I also had an interesting hand I would like to share but I need to find out how.

I'd echo the previous comments about working on your mental game and look up poker psychology, there's loads of information on the internet and books available to help you in that department. It's a common problem for a lot of people starting out in poker, in simple terms you've just got to learn to accept that anyone who plays poker (even the very best) are going to have losing runs. In the short-term maybe try identify when you start to get titled and simply stop playing until you've calmed down, having a limit to the number of buy-ins you are willing to lose in a day is also another good way to protect your bankroll. Best of luck!

Thanks for the advice mate

Yesterday was a pretty bad day, I run a bit under ev and also had some insane coolers (full house vs straight flush). I also had 2/3 stacks punted away while on an old fashion tilt:



This is the graph of the challenge so far:



I'm still up 2 buy-ins and hopefully today I run and play good again I have won 30bb/100h in 2NL over a decent size sample before so I am confident I will move up in stakes quickly

Just finished playing for today, I had a few coolers but did not tilt or punt at all.

Results of today 2NL:



Total results of this challenge:



The bankroll is at around $43 which means I am up 12 buy-ins (and I had $0.50 rakeback #noice), I think I will start playing 5NL when the bankroll is at $75.

GLGL

Two coolers:

get "the mental game of poker" by jared tendler, helped my tilt problems a huge amount

Tomorrow I will be taking shots at 5NL, when my bankroll drops down to $50 I will consider moving back to 2NL untill my bankroll is $100. I had to readjust to 2NL but once I made some adjustments I started to do well as you can see in the graph.

Results in 2NL:





Current bankroll (I started with $18):

Today I’ve lost about 1.5 buy-ins. I could’ve won a lot but unfortunately I was playing awful. The good news is I didn’t tilt but I was just mindlessly (Idk if that is even a word lol) clicking buttons in every session I played today. I reached the $75 bankroll but I realized today was not the day to move in stakes and try to adjust simply because I was tired and not playing well. Normally this would’ve been a typical tilt day where I would move in stakes (where my bankroll isn’t big enough for, lets say 50NL with $200) and punt away my money. I’m glad for now I’m dealing pretty well with this mental aspect of poker and posting here (although probably no one reads this) helps me a lot with following the rules and it keeps me motivated to update daily and make it eventually.

I've saved around 20 hands throughout the couple of days I participated in this challenge and tomorrow I will not play but study them all. Monday I will continue fresh. I’m very confident I’ll rise in stakes in the next couple of weeks. (hopefully not overconfident)

Moving up stakes makes me tilt very easily too and even though you lost, 1.5 buyins isn't too bad. Just keep going, you will do better next time when you are rested. When you're tired try doing shorter sessions and taking regular breaks, it helps with focus. Good luck and people will be viewing this so keep at it.

Appreciated mate

After taking yesterday off (except for some studying) I have continued the challenge today.

Again I didn't play amazing today. Except for one session where I won like 6 buy-ins in +/- 20 minutes and made some nice plays. But I have managed to move the bankroll up from $62 to $75.



This means tomorrow I will start in 5NL. If the bankroll drops down to $50 I will go back to 2NL and stay there untill the bankroll reaches $100.

Total results:



6 days ago I started the challenge with some goals. Untill now I'm in full controll of my tilt issues although I don't always play good poker especially when I'm tired. Also the other goals I have mentioned in the challenge are going well. For example going for a run is added to my morning routine and I went everyday. Hopefully I'm able to continue this. Also I'm really trying to work on my depression.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

gl at your 5NL shot

Ty sir

Today I started playing 5NL. I ran pretty hot (ev-wise) but at the same time I had cooler after cooler (K high flush against A high flush,set vs higher set etc.). I end up winning a little less than 3 buy-ins and looking back how I ran I'm pretty happy with that.

Results of today:



currently my bankroll is at $93

Well done on moving up the stakes. Any profit on your first day is big success!

Results of today:



today went ok, was up 6 buy-ins at one point and after that it went pretty bad. Anyway, still up around 1 buy-in.

Bankroll is at $98

Up like 7 buy ins today



Bankroll:



I think i'm doing alright considering I started with only $18 last week. Hopefully I can keep up with being disciplined.

I'm not sure when to take shots at 10NL. I was planning to start playing 10NL when I had 15x buy-ins but maybe I'm moving up too fast. I started playing 5NL only 2 days ago. I always play 4 tables of zoom at the same time and the swings of the session can be brutal so I'm leaning towards a 20x buy in approach. Thoughts anyone?

Honestly, It really depends on where you are skill wise, and how much risk you can handle, how sound your mental game is, I could go on. I don't exactly know the details, but if you don't have a clear idea of your winrate/skill, I would grind like 50k-100k hands at NL5. The skill difference won't be huge between NL5-NL25, could be wrong but yeah. It's more important to get in a sample and understand where you are in your game rather than to rush the moving up process, if you are a sound winner at NL5, you will shoot up to NL25 as long as you dont have major mental game/skill leaks.

I'm not sure I agree with this since most can easily afford to reload $100 but the time it takes to play 100k hands could possibly turn out to cost way more than that. Time is money.

Of course there are circumstances that could sway my take in the other direction but playing 100s of thousands of hands at NL2-NL10 just seems like a colossal waste of time in the grand scheme of things unless you're just playing for fun. Then again maybe I'm out of touch, who knows.

GL with the challenge OP

Thanks for your advice. Skillwise (hopefully I don't overestimate myself, if that is even a word) I should be able to beat the stakes up to 25NL. I have already beaten that stake over a decent size sample. Mentally (as you are saying) it is a different cup of tea. I'm in full control of my tilt issues but I'm getting scared to lose when I'm up 2/3 buy-ins (no idea why) and also my confidence drops down a lot when I have a losing session.

I do agree with this. I think the higher stakes you play the more you learn skillwise. But still I need to take the 'mental part' in consideration.

I'm going for an in-between way of your answers: I will play 5NL untill my bankroll is up to $200. If I drop down to $130 I will be playing 5NL unitll I'm back to $220. Than when I drop down to $150 I will be playing NL5 to $250.

Then again I'm confident I maybe won't even drop down at all

Thank you for your answers!

Btw anyone know how to anonymously share text of hands from my hm3 database? I have some hands I really would like to share/ask for advice....

Thanks in advance