I have thyroid problems in my familly. It could be it. Very easy to detect and very little side effect from medication. Always though i had attention issue growing up. Because of fluctuation of the hormones.

Thank you for your response. I honestly hope I find an explanation why I'm always so tired and having bad focus. I will test this week.

I don't care about sugar especially since all the sugarfree stuff has those chemical nasty fake sugars in them like aspartaam and acesulfaam-k (dutch) etc. F that ****

old dog (49) here

you might want to try out my (prob. controversial) recommendations:

- gaining muscles: go for intensity instead of volume. look into one - set training (and later hit (with on i!)), train each muscle group only once a week

- cardio: only do low intensity, never on the day you lift weights. you should always be able to easily hold a conversation while running

- diet: use protein powder (easiest to digest), use sugar & (unsaturated!) oils, use coffein, dont consume milk products during the day. other protein sources use mostly egg-white and pure chicken/turkey meat. take multivitamin & magnesium daily.

- during the day only take proteins and eat fruits (mbe try to add a bit muesli / oatmeal, but loose it if you get tired after), use coffein (coffee, coffeintabs, energy drinks (monster juice is my favorite), green tea) & sugar & vitamin C to regulate your concentration (but no coffein in the evening!). take loads of coffein & vit C before workout. after the workout in the evening eat loads, eat once again right before sleep. add a lot of nuts and olive oil to your diet in the evening. if you train with high intensity your body needs loads of protein, but also carbo & fat to build the muscles. sugar and (unsaturated!) fats are very important, because they cause the least digestion issues that make you tired.

Thank you for your advice. Appreciated.

I have got my blood tested on multiple things that can cause tiredness like thyroid problems, B12 etc. In the meantime after getting some advice from a member in my study group I decided to still try to gain weight but in a lower pace. Which means I lower in calories for now. I was making bigfoot steps in poker before all the diets and things I tried and now I'm hitting a brick wall because of it. I think it's best to balance it a bit.

When waiting for the cause of my tiredness in general I try to reduce playing a bit. Maybe something comes out of the blood test and otherwise I will tryout other things like going to a dietician or talk to my doctor about it.

Since I don't have the most amazing hardware (And renting a server on my own is quite expensive) I think the best way to not waste my time while working on the issue above is to start with something like GTO wizard for at least a month. Start with better understanding how to play certain textures.

I still have to play quite a bit because I have to clear some rake back (trust me, my br needs it).

My main goals are:

-Avoid tilt (recently I have been tilting a bit because it frustrates me that I can't concentrate or that I'm tired)
-Play 3 tables max, I realize 4 tabling is the beginning of the end for my bankroll
-Play less aggressive

Yesterday evening decided to play for a bit, played my best poker in a while (everything in the green hahaha looks so satisfying):




I felt like going back to basics and playing all stakes up to 25 for a bit

Hi man, I've just read through the entire thread and it looks awesome to see such progress. I'm a poker newcomer myself, been playing some micro sngs and I can do fine when I'm not tilted.

I do find cash games way more fun, and reading this made me want to go back to them. I'll start playing 2NLs this afternoon.

Would you mind sharing what were you studying during these past months? How did you got from that point to where you are at education-wise?

Keep it up with the posts, man, I'll keep reading this.

Dope man great to hear, GL to you aswell! I'll PM you with some advice to startoff (haha I'm not an expert either tho) and I will leave you my discord name in case you have any further questions.

You can't recieve messages so I'm just posting this here:

Sup, first of all I highly recommend some sort off hand tracker (like poker tracker, hm3, etc. A hud comes with it which is crucial to start off IMO.

1. So starting off by far the most important thing to do is get some preflop ranges and study them/use them while playing. I think this is the best bassline to start off in 6max 100bb NL poker. A good preflop understanding gives you already an edge I think. If you don't have them I can send you some.

2. When reviewing hands of yourself try figure out what the villains range looks like. Just make range assumptions on your own preflop ranges. This way you get an understanding of what villains can have etc.

3. Start labeling player types like fish, reg(doesn’t have to be good but at least puts some time in poker so you can make range assumptions about that), Nits, Lags etc.
With this player types you can start thinking about adjusting preflop and post flop to exploite them. Exploiting fish is no1. skill you need to learn to move up. Try to recognize patters about what the pool does in general and what not. For example regs never bluffing in a certain spot you can exploit that by calling there very tight.

4. When you improve I think it's good to start thinking about your postflop moves instead of clicking buttons. I think learning GTO straight away is not necessarily. Just use common logic and keep it simple. It doesn't have to be perfectly balanced. For example betting/checking range in some spots is completely fine. When you get better and better and learing more and more you can go from there. Start using different sizes on some boards. Slowly become more balanced. I think point 5. will help you with this.

5. Try to network and just talk poker with other people really can help you improve your poker. Also reviewing your hands with a clear mind (so not right after a long session) can help you. Maybe you see mistakes you make while playing and you can learn from that obviously.

Hopefully this was helpful. Again I'm not an expert but this really helped me. I feel like I have a good basic understanding of poker from where I can improve step by step.

If you have any questions or want to talk poker maybe you can leave your discord.

GL sir!

I realised I didn't answer your questions well. The studying I did in the past 3 months to get where I'm at right now are the five steps above + I've been coached for like a month. Thanks to being coached I learned a lot how to approach type of boards in certain spots and currently I'm developping from there. Somebody leakspotted my data when I was playing NL5 and I had some major leaks I've been working on. For example, I was underbluffing rivers. After that I started tagging all my riverbluffs to see what works and what not. Also I've been mapping out villains calling ranges in equillab.

Played a bit yesterday:



I played very well again. Unfortunately I ran into AA pre like four times in the 16z pool. But for the most part I'm happy that I'm playing solid. Hopefully today I can clear the rb challenge.

Haha sometimes I like to punt, He took his whole timebank to fold:

PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

BTN: $22.03 (137.7 bb)
SB: $14.52 (90.8 bb)
BB: $31.20 (195 bb)
Hero (UTG): $20.58 (128.6 bb)
MP: $16.00 (100 bb)
CO: $35.99 (224.9 bb)

SB posts $0.08, BB posts $0.16

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.24) Hero has 5 A
Hero raises to $0.40, MP raises to $1.36, 4 folds, Hero raises to $3.68, MP calls $2.32

Flop: ($7.60, 2 players) 7 7 J
Hero bets $2.24, MP calls $2.24

Turn: ($12.08, 2 players) 3
Hero bets $14.66 and is all-in, fold

Results: $12.08 pot ($0.54 rake)
Final Board: 7 7 J 3

Hero wins $11.54

Against a supernit I already knew I was f*cked but I don't think I can get away with 2NFD on a Ahigh board:

PokerStars - $0.16 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

BTN: $12.14 (75.9 bb)
SB: $16.00 (100 bb)
BB: $40.18 (251.1 bb)
UTG: $19.11 (119.4 bb)
MP: $20.39 (127.4 bb)
Hero (CO): $17.52 (109.5 bb)

SB posts $0.08, BB posts $0.16

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.24) Hero has 6 J
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BTN calls $0.40, fold, BB calls $0.24

Flop: ($1.28, 3 players) A K 3
BB bets $0.70, Hero calls $0.70, BTN calls $0.70

Turn: ($3.38, 3 players) 5
BB checks, Hero bets $2.56, fold, BB raises to $6.32, Hero raises to $16.42 and is all-in, BB calls $10.10

River: ($36.22, 2 players) 3

Players agreed to run it twice.

River #2: ($36.22, 2 players) 4

Results: $36.22 pot ($0.00 rake)
Final Board: A K 3 5 3 4

BB shows T Q: (Flush, Ace High)
Board #1 : (Pre 68%, Flop 90%, Turn 100%)
(Flush, Ace High)
Board #2 : (Pre 68%, Flop 90%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows 6 J: (Flush, Ace High)
Board #1 : (Pre 32%, Flop 10%, Turn 0%)
(Flush, Ace High)
Board #2 : (Pre 32%, Flop 10%, Turn 0%)

BB wins $17.36

I've restarted my journey in cash games yesterday. Didn't went very well, but lost only 3.5 BIs so not that much of a problem.

Are you playing zoom or regular tables?

GLGL.

I'm mainly playing zoom. Sometimes regtables when I feel like chilling.

This is a great thread! And this advice is pure gold which i'll definitely implement..i wasn't doing that great at 2NL until last thursday and this going to be helpful ! GL to you mate!

Thank you and GL with your journey aswell

So after a sick month of april I started may with a bit of struggles here and there. As mentioned before I struggled the most with tiredness and focus issues. Also (probably because of this) I started tilting a bit. I decided to give myself some space and I put zero pressure on my performance. Also my sessions weren't structured like normally. For the last couple of days I just played untill: I did not feel like playing anymore, got tired or lost my focus.

For some reason this worked out great. I just played all stakes up to 25z and I've been trying out all sorts of new things like different betsizes and different approaches to certain spots. I enjoy poker in general, but the last couple of days I had so much fun playing.

Here are the results of today:



I was playing pretty well today and the last session I absolutely sunrunned haha.

Here is the graph of the last 5 days:



I also managed to complete the rakeback challenge.

I think it's really important that ones I take care of my fatigue problems I start putting some pressure on myself again like:

Volume goals
Play 25z only
Become structured again, tread my poker like a job

I think it's very important to make the move to 50z pretty fast. If I'm playing well 25z is not a big challenge for me. + the rake that I'm paying with my high vpip is ridiculous. I keep withdrawing, and I don't think it's a very good idea to go for a 10x bi brm. I will think of a solution. I have some crypto so maybe I can pay my life expenses with that so I can atleast move to 50. We will see.

Next few days I will be doing the same things as I did last few days. Just play all stakes for a bit, have fun playing, not really going for great volume etc.

Thanks for reading. GLGL

Very nice! Thanksfully not sunrunned against me except for that river where you had J9 tho...

How are you managing your BR?

I'm thinking about doing something very similar to what you did: going for 30 thousand hands at 2NL just to get that "base" out of the way and then start moving up. I already have a fairly comfortable BR for 5NL (40 BIs) but I feel like I do need to see that 30 to 40 thousand hands graph, just so that I can feel comfortable moving up.

I'm very motivated by this thread, I'm seeing where you went from to where you are at, and it really makes me have something to look forward to. Keep up with the posts.

See ya.

Haha Can you please stop bullying me preflop?

For now I always try to have 10/15 bi on my account. Currently I'm not that strict with my BRM because I believe if I play solid and focussed and I don't make emotional decisions I will be fine. I'm withdrawing a lot. Once I will make the move to 50z I want to start with atleast 20 bi (so for now I'm trying to not withdraw so I can make the move within a shore period of time). Once the edges get smaller variance is gonna play a bigger part I believe (which means my brm will be stricter).

Really happy you get motivated by my thread. Maybe you want to start one yourself? It can be helpfull in multiple ways (For example: motivational, network, discuss your hands etc.) and it's also fun in a way. GL with your journey!

Making great progress, well done!

As for your tiredness, do you not think it could just be long covid? you mentioned having it at the start of your thread and fatigue is one of the most common reported symptoms for that.

Agreed, if I wasn't so connected with the community I'd probably already quit when I lost 25 bi straight after moving up from 2nl.

Btw why you didn't shove the river with that A3s mr extremely laggy guy

Thanks man, still a lot of ups and downs but looking at it as a whole it's going pretty well especially skillwise.

Yes it could. I still take this in consideration. The thing is, my whole life I've been tired. But I stopped drinking alcohol and I'm sleeping well lately (So I expected it to reduce). So it's very hard to say. But again I take it in consideration and I will google it rn.

Hahahaha I was already tilting and I thought; you might be trapping the Nutflush. Painfull showdown indeed.



Yesterday I decided to play some tourneys. I love the idea of tourneys and I think tourneys are very fun when you run deep (I actually started poker with tourneys and switched to cash around the time I made this thread) but holy ****. Playing tourneys was a pretty bad idea. I registred for like $100 bucks. Everywhere limpers and other weird things going on (whine even more) and after like half an hour I was completely done with it. I started punting all my stacks away. After that I told myself, I will never play tourneys again (can't promise this because (again); running deep is exciting as fxck).

Anyway today some more cash. I will post results at the end of the day.

You shouldn't complain about bad players, they are the ones who make you money, you won't make money if you only play against good players

Completely agree. But I was playing the tourneys mainly for fun (didn't expect anything + I'm an ICM whale). And it just frustated me in a way that I didn't have fun. So I'm just not gonna play them anymore. Allthough when I'm watching some highlights on yt or whatever I always feel like playing them.