Haven't been motivated to play much this year so far. Experiencing a lot of variance I am not that used to and being stuck for multiple days now. I always keep winning small - mediums then dusting all the profit when I get coolered in a 250bb+ pots. I still love the game but its hard to find motivation after getting 1 outered in a 350bb pot :P

Enough with the bad beat stories which no-one cares about. I have made a lot of progress within my game both mechanically and mentally. I have been watching many play n explain vids from players way better than me and learned a lot of new helpful information. My work with solvers has been close to 0 recently but I dont think learning to play like a GTO bot is the best way to make money against micro stakes belugas. I still try to play a balanced strategy and so far it has been working decently.

Another horrible session. First time I hit a set this year I got set over setted. Haven't had even 1 good day this year. Earlier I posted about the improvement in my mental game but honestly recently it has been getting worse. Getting smashed by variance for multiple days in a row took a toll on me no matter how stoic I have tried to be. I honestly don't mind at all losing a stack against a good bluff catch. However, constantly losing pots where I played perfectly and got sucked out on the turn or river starts to get tilting. Especially when villains make massive -ev mistake and get rewarded for it. For example I had a hand where a villain made an atrocious call with just a naked gutshot and obviously binked the 4 outer on the river in a big pot. I know I should be grateful being able to play in games with many fishes but hands like that always hurt.

I have done some reviews after sessions and come to a conclusion that indeed over 90% of the big pots I lost recently were just standard coolers / suck outs. On the other hand my bluffing / redline game has really improved recently. I am now much better in finding combos to bluff and knowing when to give up. The amount of buyins I have lost doing bad bluffs has drastically reduced. In contrast I have picked a great deal of pots by applying more aggression on boards which are good for my range.

I think this mental game issue is part of feeling entitled to win every day. Poker has a major luck aspect to it and short term variance can be brutal. If I want to succeed as a poker player I just have to deal with it and not let it influence me.

I think I'll go back to NL5 for a few days just to get my confidence back. I did withdraw around 150-200€ for additional life expenses and also invested some of the profits to the New Year Series MTTs on Pokerstars without success. Hence I am not rolled for NL20 anymore.
My NL20 graph looks like this:


So yeah I did withdraw the profits from that stake while tilted :P


Btw, I have reached my first 50k hands since the start of the blog:



Not sure if I should try to achieve a positive redline in NL10-NL50 considering that the players there like to call too much. My so called downswing looks insignificant on that graph but it's still painful to run below ev constantly. Hoping to update next time with positive news.

12bb/100 is a more telling result than the red line

Good job!

Haha thanks

I have certainly learnt not to underestimate variance. For instance I just lost 5 buyins in a row to preflop flips in a span of 15 minutes. Even running it twice didn't help because I always lost both runouts :P. Using an aggressive bankroll management allowed me to rise through the stakes faster but I wasn't obviously running horrible back then. I thought I understood variance back then but I certainly didn't.

I plan on switching to more conservative bankroll management to avoid dusting a large % of my bankroll in a few hours or even minutes. Losing sometimes in poker is normal no matter how big the edge is.

Had a meh breakeven session. Ran into AA 5 times SB vs BB with AK QQ etc. Still managed to turn it around and made a little profit. Perhaps I can turn the downswing around


Had an interesting hand I'm not sure if I played correctly. The villain I was against is a hyperagro shitreg so I decided to give him some room to blast off. Not sure if my line makes sense theoretically. Turn & river check good?



Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 5 5

Hero raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, BTN raises to 9.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 7.2 BB

Flop: (20.2 BB, 2 players) 9 5 K
Hero checks, BTN bets 7 BB, Hero raises to 20.6 BB, BTN calls 13.6 BB

Turn: (61.4 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (61.4 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, BTN bets 87.4 BB, Hero calls 87.4 BB

Hero shows 5 5 (Three of a Kind, Fives)
(Pre 55%, Flop 95%, Turn 100%)
BTN shows A Q (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 45%, Flop 5%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 229.2 BB

50k hands is decent volume but if you can try to double it. You need to focus on beating variance. It looks like you can beat the games so play more hands.

Going to take a break for a while. Motivation close to 0 because I have been running so terribly for basically the entire month. I also have to put more focus into studying for my finals and can't realistically fit poker into my schedule. Especially the last few days I have found 0 enjoyment in poker and always end up being tilted after just playing for 5 minutes.

I have been seriously considering trying to get a staking contract. Grinding micros feels so unfulfilling and a waste of time. When I started the blog I thought that it would be a cool challenge to built a huge bankroll from nothing but I didn't really know how badly variance can **** up my profits. I really like watching mid - high stakes games because the people seem to have a brain there. I would most likely be way more determined to grind & study the game if I was properly rolled for something like NL200.

Perhaps I'll find motivation later but right now I'll focus on my education.


Ps. If you know a quality stable I'd appreciate if you dropped the name below

Took few days off then grinded 10k hands of NL5 to get my confidence back


I have been a bit busy for the past days but I will still try to get atleast 10 hours of poker per week.

Tried some NL10 after a while. Won 2 buy-ins at first then I lost AK & QQ to AA 5 times in a row then lost KK vs AK twice.

Back to NL5 I go

2nd attempt was much better:



Switched to short focused sessions and I have noticed how much better I play. Soon properly rolled for NL20 again.

Nice result mate, gl

Thanks for the support everyone



Had my best session of the year so far. All in ev still disgusting but nothing I can do about it. Started to review every session afterwards with GTOwizard and already seen noticeable improvement in my game.


H1 - Chose the fancy option

iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 120.9 BB
CO: 110.35 BB
Hero (BTN): 111.55 BB
SB: 94.65 BB
BB: 118 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A J

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, SB calls 1.7 BB, BB calls 1.2 BB

Flop: (6.6 BB, 3 players) 6 J Q
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (6.6 BB, 3 players) 5
SB checks, BB bets 4.95 BB, Hero calls 4.95 BB, SB calls 4.95 BB

River: (21.45 BB, 3 players) 2
SB checks, BB bets 19 BB, Hero raises to 104.4 BB, fold, fold

Hero mucks A J (One Pair, Jacks)

Hero wins 57.65 BB


H2 - Blundered every sizing theoretically but somehow managed to get the money in against a whale

iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (UTG): 233.1 BB
MP: 135.75 BB
CO: 128.15 BB
BTN: 138.35 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 138.95 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 6

Hero raises to 2.2 BB, fold, CO calls 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop: (5.9 BB, 2 players) 9 3 T
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (5.9 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 7.35 BB, CO calls 7.35 BB

River: (20.6 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 5.15 BB, CO raises to 18 BB, Hero raises to 223.55 BB, CO calls 100.6 BB

Hero shows 6 6 (Full House, Sixes full of Threes)
(Pre 81%, Flop 77%, Turn 82%)
CO shows 3 4 (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 19%, Flop 23%, Turn 18%)
Hero wins 252.8 BB

Hello mate, in and gl

I think you're being hard on yourself, some very nice results

Zoom variance is beyond sick. Not exactly motivating when you run 5BI under EV in one day for example. so i feel you. I plan to take a break also, but maybe you are back playing now? I need to look at the state of the zoom pools. Not a good sign when 50z regs are playing 25z and 200z doesn't run 24/7. do you only play reg tables now?

I quit zoom entirely, only playing regtables atm.

Took few days off after the "break" post then came back while playing less volume. Currently I play 1-2 short sessions a day with deep focus and review my play afterwards.

I may do that, deffo need a break. A 200nl+ reg I watch is down like 6k in less than a week at 200z. Kinda demotivates lol

How many reg tables do you play?

6. Sometimes 9

Swingy day, flips are hard to win


Few hands


H1 - Wanted to be a nit for once

iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 100 BB
Hero (BTN): 145.8 BB
SB: 105.6 BB
BB: 39.6 BB
UTG: 206.35 BB
MP: 114.55 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A 4

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 4 T 4
UTG bets 4.55 BB, Hero calls 4.55 BB

Turn: (15.6 BB, 2 players) 3
UTG bets 10.9 BB, Hero raises to 36.2 BB, UTG calls 25.3 BB

River: (88 BB, 2 players) Q
UTG checks, Hero checks

UTG shows Q Q (Full House, Queens full of Fours)
(Pre 67%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
Hero mucks A 4 (Three of a Kind, Fours)
(Pre 33%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
UTG wins 85.35 BB


H2 - Disgusting but if I fold AA here I am folding way too much?

iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 22.95 BB
SB: 140.1 BB
BB: 74.55 BB
UTG: 217.7 BB
Hero (CO): 225 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

UTG raises to 2.2 BB, Hero raises to 6.6 BB, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls 4.4 BB

Flop: (14.7 BB, 2 players) 2 5 4
UTG bets 4.85 BB, Hero raises to 29.25 BB, UTG raises to 211.1 BB, Hero calls 181.85 BB

Turn: (436.9 BB, 2 players) 4

River: (436.9 BB, 2 players) K

UTG shows 5 5 (Full House, Fives full of Fours)
(Pre 20%, Flop 80%, Turn 95%)
Hero mucks A A (Two Pair, Aces and Fours)
(Pre 80%, Flop 20%, Turn 5%)
UTG wins 431.9 BB


H3 - blastin


iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 110.3 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 234.1 BB
BTN: 102.1 BB
SB: 64.25 BB
Hero (BB): 151 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J K

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.2 BB, fold, SB calls 1.7 BB, Hero raises to 12.4 BB, CO calls 10.2 BB, fold

Flop: (27 BB, 2 players) Q 3 8
Hero bets 8.9 BB, CO calls 8.9 BB

Turn: (44.8 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 33.6 BB, CO calls 33.6 BB

River: (112 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 96.1 BB, fold

Hero mucks J K (One Pair, Sixes)

Hero wins 108.65 BB


H4 - Villain was agrofish so I decided to look him up


iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 200.85 BB
BB: 101.2 BB
UTG: 100 BB
Hero (CO): 152.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 5

fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, BTN raises to 7 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 4.8 BB

Flop: (15.5 BB, 2 players) T 2 3
Hero checks, BTN bets 4.45 BB, Hero calls 4.45 BB

Turn: (24.4 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, BTN bets 22 BB, Hero calls 22 BB

River: (68.4 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 66.55 BB, Hero calls 66.55 BB

Hero shows 5 5 (Two Pair, Fives and Threes)
(Pre 51%, Flop 71%, Turn 86%)
BTN shows Q J (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 49%, Flop 29%, Turn 14%)
Hero wins 196.5 BB


H5 - Folding pre 90% of the time but HJ was 3betting really loosely all the time. Had like 5 sec timebank on flop so didn't really have time to make the correct decision. Doubt that he is capable of slowplaying AA & KK pre and would mostly slowplay Qx. Checked GTOw and my hand calls 45% of time so ig not a total blunder.

iPoker - €0.20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 286.65 BB
CO: 38.4 BB
BTN: 122.25 BB
SB: 100 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 159.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T T

UTG raises to 3 BB, MP raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 23 BB, fold, MP calls 14 BB

Flop: (49.5 BB, 2 players) 9 Q 5
Hero bets 12.35 BB, MP raises to 263.65 BB, Hero calls 64.65 BB

Turn: (203.5 BB, 2 players) 8

Players agreed to run it twice.

Turn #2: (203.5 BB, 2 players) K

River: (203.5 BB, 2 players) 9

River #2: (203.5 BB, 2 players) A

MP shows Q A (Two Pair, Queens and Nines)
Board #1 (Pre 43%, Flop 88%, Turn 86%)
(Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
Board #2 (Pre 45%, Flop 88%, Turn 86%)

Hero mucks T T (Two Pair, Tens and Nines)
Board #1 (Pre 57%, Flop 12%, Turn 14%)
(One Pair, Tens)
Board #2 (Pre 55%, Flop 12%, Turn 14%)

MP wins 99.25 BB
MP wins 99.25 BB

Depends on the type of opponent. Against a fish who can overplay his Over Pairs, it looks okay. But against a reg, I would be inclined to fold with such deep stacks.

Games were going well in NL20 so I decided to mix NL50 today.


February so far = +794.93€

Congratz! Can I ask u in which room do u play and %of rakeback?

Thanks mate

I play on Stars and IPoker. Unfortunately I get no rb on IPoker and I think my Stars rb% is less now bcuz of the wnb supernova update (

NL50 shot




Ran really good at the start then got hit by variance. Running it twice has saved me countless times lately

I still feel pretty confident playing that stake and the most of the players there don't seem to be that tough. Sessions have been a bit swingy but there is sometimes nothing much to do when getting AK vs AA in pre 3 times in 2 minutes. Just kept it cool and played my A game regardless of previous beats.

Let's see if I can keep my winrate after 50k hands :P




February so far:

Sunday graph


In poker everything can go wrong in a span of few minutes which resulted in me having my first losing session of this month. Honestly don't even mind the loss because I couldn't really do much in the spots where I lost money. I should have kept to my 3 buy-in stoploss rule since I felt like I wasn't playing my A-game anymore after losing so much in a span of 5 minutes.

While it's hard to study how to win preflop flips, I believe that a losing session can be really beneficial for my progress as a poker player and it gives me motivation to review my play more deeply and notice & fix possible leaks. While being on a heater for multiple days in a row it can feel unnecessary to study alongside playing due to already having good results. Todays session actually gave me a reason to go drill some common spots in GTO Wizard since I noticed some leaks in the hands I played recently.

I hope in a few months I can look back at my previous self and laugh at the fact that a 300€ loss seemed substantial. I am still proud of myself for the progress for the fact that I only started 2 months ago with just a 20€ bankroll. I set a goal of making 2500€ this month from poker and I believe I have a chance of achieving it. After 11 days the result is + 1025.64€
Staying optimistic

H1 - Felt stupid after this hand but it seemed correct after all

iPoker - €0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 104.18 BB
BB: 102 BB
CO: 126.22 BB
BTN: 130.5 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T T

CO raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, CO calls 9 BB

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) K 9 7
Hero checks, CO bets 12.5 BB, Hero calls 12.5 BB

Turn: (50 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets 25 BB, Hero raises to 79.68 BB, CO calls 54.68 BB

River: (209.36 BB, 2 players) 6

CO shows A 5 (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 33%, Flop 43%, Turn 100%)
Hero mucks T T (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 67%, Flop 57%, Turn 0%)
CO wins 206.36 BB

H2 - Thought about checking the river to allow him to blast off missed draws but decided to just jam to get value from weak aces...

iPoker - €0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 104.24 BB
CO: 113.12 BB
BTN: 228.78 BB
Hero (SB): 106.24 BB
BB: 40.3 BB
UTG: 51.3 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

fold, MP raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 11.4 BB, fold, MP calls 9.2 BB

Flop: (23.8 BB, 2 players) A 8 2
Hero bets 7.84 BB, MP calls 7.84 BB

Turn: (39.48 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 19.74 BB, MP calls 19.74 BB

River: (78.96 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 67.26 BB, MP calls 65.26 BB

MP shows 4 A (Straight, Five High)
(Pre 30%, Flop 13%, Turn 16%)
Hero mucks A K (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 70%, Flop 87%, Turn 84%)
MP wins 206.48 BB


H3 - This hand actually tilted me because the villain was super passive and nitty shitreg who I considered terrible. I think I can actually consider folding AK here because solver doesn't take in account the fact that villain might miss a chromosome

iPoker - €0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 111.5 BB
MP: 184.52 BB
CO: 107.42 BB
BTN: 114.32 BB
SB: 133.42 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 4 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, SB raises to 133.42 BB, Hero calls 90 BB

Flop: (200 BB, 2 players) 7 K Q

Turn: (200 BB, 2 players) 3

River: (200 BB, 2 players) 3

SB shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Threes)
(Pre 93%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
Hero mucks A K (Two Pair, Kings and Threes)
(Pre 7%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
SB wins 197 BB

I don't think i would of played any of these hands differently except of TT, he double barreled and i would just fold TT on turn and fight for another day, i always tell myself to avoid crazy plays on micro stakes because putting large sum of stack on a bluff catcher always makes me lose in the long run.

Nightmare graph indeed, wish you luck next sessions but you still up 1k so it's all good, you're on right track.