I'm a 19yo college student at Rutgers, who loves poker. I'm a math and computer science double major and just transferred from Fordham. I learned about journaling in my second semester and the positive mental health effects it has, so I started doing it for the gym and it helped me, so now I want to do it for poker. I'm a sophomore in college right now, but a semester ahead because of college credit obtained in high school. I mainly started playing poker at the end of my senior year of high school with my friends. In my stats class, we would play on Pokernow for play money, and eventually played home games. After AP tests were done, our teacher had to be absent for 2 weeks so we started playing for real money in class too lol. Basically that whole summer I spent playing home games every other day, and into the start of college, I would come back home every few weekends for more home games.

Eventually, my mom got me a poker table, and that whole winter break I spent playing poker 4-6 hours a day with my friends. Around that time I started playing online poker at school, mostly on ACR since in NY that's where the most volume is. I remember Jlittle did a thing where he made his site free and I binged his cash game course and learned a lot from where I was. I basically never bluffed until I learned from that course, and I think it serves as a pretty good starting point for cash games. My bankroll started from literally zero, the first home game I played I didn't even have the money with me, and basically spun it up from there. It sits at around $1,200, and that's with being stiffed for around ~400, but the people that I'm playing with are so bad that I really didn't care that much. If they paid me 50% of what they owed I was still printing.

For online I depo'd 200 into Acr around February of this year after playing a decent amount of 2nl first. I went from 5nl - 25nl in around 2-3 months and turned the 200 into 1k online. So technically at that point, my br was around 2k. However, I ran into some bad variance at 25nl Zoom where I ran around ~25 buy-ins below all in ev, and that basically sent me back down to $200. At that point, it was near the end of the school year in May, so I took out the $200 because I knew I was transferring schools, and no longer would have a NY address, even though I really didn't in the first place. ACR I know asks for verification if you withdraw too much so I figured I'd play it safe.

This summer, I didn't play that much poker. I had a little MTT arc where I was break even ish, and ran into some bad variance there because the one tournament where I ran deep, which was like a 4.40 1k, ACR had to do some server maintenance so I had to take an icm chop on the ft with like a 2-1 chip lead. The score didn't even register in my tracker or shark scope, which was like $120. I played a pretty decent amount on coin poker, which I already played on previously, and that was the only actual site that was available to me in NJ. However, I don't really like the ante format and don't want to pay the money required to learn it. Especially since coinpoker traffic isn't high and even though there was an ad campaign recently, still is really reg heavy. Basically, 2-3 people would play every table from 10nl - 200nl and win the leaderboard. Shout out S0nofFinches.

That leads me to today and my plan for my future of poker. Right now in NJ the next best option is either risk it with ACR, which I probably can't do now making this thread lmao, pay like 200 ish dollars to buy ranges and solves to learn ante cash games and play on coin poker, or go even less unregulated into app and clubgg games. I am choosing the last part, since like it seems like the only way for me right now. I already am good enough at 6max and 9max to comfortably beat these games at my stakes. Which is 20nl and 40nl. Also at Rutgers, I've been making friends for home games. I know already of 2 but they are running super small stakes like .10/.20, which for a home game is super small. My roommate is rushing a frat, and they run games, but I think they only allow brothers to play in them. So maybe he can get me into some, but he also asked if I can teach home to play, so maybe ill do a cfp thing with him. Also the day I turn 21 I'm playing on wsop and stars but that's a given.

When it comes to bankroll, I usually did 20bi to take a shot at the next stake-up. I might be more nitty with that right now online because getting money in and out of these apps is pretty annoying. I am using poker bros and clubgg. Still deciding if playing in the emulator games is worth it, or if I should just play Pokerbros only on my phone. I am staying at 4-6 tables, even though 12 tabling has worked for me pretty well in the past. I want to play my A game because there will be less variance that way.

Some of you may recognize me because I used to be in swerbs22 study group. If that is still open to join, I recommend for you guys to, I just never got anything out of it. Mostly because of the hours I'm awake and don't enjoy collaborating that much. A lot of people there were Euros, shout out DeeKayBee(really nice guy), so I would never be awake for study sessions because I would play poker till 6am est. Also onepunchpanda(don't know if he is on 2+2) was always open to helping which was cool since he was at like 100nl-200nl on ACR which is a pretty tough pool.

Another reason I'm making this post is to accurately track my bankroll because sometimes I get lazy with that. I'm probably going to do Sunday night posts, and see how to track my Pokerbros hands, and see if I can get them into hand2note. If I can I will post that graph, and if I can't then I will post an excel sheet. I mostly use GTO+, and do my own MDA with math that I find to study. Also, I watch Ceegee Poker (who plays the highest stakes 6max on twitch?), and he has a very educational style which means I learn a lot from matching him. Basically, him and Weazel_1991 taught me how to play bomb pots correctly which is a mainstay on these app games. Hope to able to play a lot since the only hard classes I'm taking is physics 2 and Linear Algebra. I basically have to find out in this next year if I can climb stakes since I might(fingers crossed) have an internship with a pretty good quant firm this summer. From everyone that I've heard aka makepokersimple and just other people's stories, if I don't rise up far in stakes within 2 years, I would just be better off working a regular job.

Fellow NJ player here, rooting for ya!

My advice is to focus on your career even if you do do well. The home games you can get into as a quant trader will make every other stake feel like peanuts.

Good luck, looking forward to following along! I assume you can’t play on the legal NJ sites because of your age? I would assume those pools are much softer than ACR.

Fully agree with this!

Good luck man, crush it.

Ok, so week 1 has gone well in general. To start with poker, I am only up one buy-in this week, but tbh I'm happy with that with my card distribution. One of the first things I learned is that I really don't like the poker bros app. I'm guessing it is anti-reg friendly on purpose, but it does not feel good to use. Also, when I started playing on poker bros I was under the impression that I could just use an emulator, but I quickly learned that clubs make emulator-only tables. I tried playing on my phone, but following the action when flipping through screens, with a very small time bank isn't really feasible. To unlock things like show stack in bbs and have a time bank you have to pay monthly, so I decided to just move away from it. I know you can spoof it with Asian Hand Converter, but it just doesn't seem worth it. Also, even the mobile only games aren't that soft, and really nitty, so I decided to move away from it. Like even if there are rec's they shortstack, so there just isn't enough value.

Clubgg on the other hand has been great. Basically if I never depo's on pokerbros I would be up a decent bit more, but you live and learn. The games are pretty soft, and I like that they block most European **** reg countries and Latin America **** reg countries. Meaning its mostly Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. I have been playing bomb pot games on there since its either that or 7 max ante. I already have experience with bomb pots on ACR and can play them better than most of the people that I see making huge mistakes.



This is my spreadsheet so far, and how I'm going to track my br. I remember before I was able to use Hand2Note 4 with Clubgg, but I think they got rid of it, and make you pay for an Asian Hand Converter now. That kinda sucks I can find mda stuff with HH, but most of them are so bad anyway that it really doesn't matter. Another reason to buy a hand converter is that in order to get a cfp deal or a staking deal you usually need a decent db that the backer can look at, which means that I can't provide that. So I think once I start playing 50nl consistently I will buy it because every high stakes player I have heard talk about their story always gets a cfp deal. Or maybe they can just take my word for my spreadsheet. I am trying to figure out when I want to take a shot at 50nl, and I don't know at what number. Using regular br conventions I already should, but the games are super swingy with bomb pots every 5 minutes, so I think I should wait maybe until 2k or 1.75k. At least until I feel like I don't need to depo into the clubs anymore since every time I do that I'm taking a risk.

In terms of live games, I couldn't find any this weekend, but on Saturday I was on call with my friends all day, so the session was pretty fun. I have like 3 contacts now though that run games on the weekend so hopefully I can find something above the .10/.20 games I heard about. My course work has been easy so far. In physics I did electric potential energy and in linear algebra it was just some reduced echelon form stuff. I basically figured out my schedule and where I have time to do things, so I will have most of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to play poker. I am going to get my PC setup to my dorm soon, so no more laptop grinding thankfully. Still lifting 6-7 days a week too. Talked to an advisor this week and I will be able to do a math comp sci major and graduate on time.

I do appreciate the support already, and to answer fast11375, I have considered that because to think that Nik Airball at one point was up 1 mill on stream and be as bad as he is makes it seem really profitable to in those circles. I do think that even if I get to the stakes that I want, I will still pursue something math-related for a few years, just to make sure I have no more loans. Also, yes I don't play on stars or wsop yet because I don't want to risk getting banned on them incase I want to play on them in the future. Will update once a week since more than that the posts don't have enough in them.

got hand2note 4 working, but im still gonna use a spreadsheet so I can include live results.

some run good

So this week has been a bit more interesting on the poker side. Firstly I finally found a home game. The guy that is running it is pretty cool, and people there aren't very good except for the guy that runs it so as long as he is still inviting me I'm super happy. The people there were fun to play with, there was a guy that does audio and video editing for podcasts, a couple of people from other colleges, and then the standard people from Rutgers that were there just responding to a post like me. I think I won like $22 which is definitely worse hourly than online since its the same stakes but one table and slower, but its basically guaranteed money, and I get to make friends so win-win. Also, the guy said he was always looking for people to take a road trip to Canada or Turning Stone for a poker trip so that would be fun, but I only met him once so I don't think I'm at that stage to plan it yet lol. Online was good, I played some 50nl and ran good at first, but then ran into set over set in a bomb pot and got it all in with 48% equity on the turn, ran it 3 times and missed all three lol. Overall I only lost like $18 at 50nl so its not really anything to cry about. Im crushing the 20nl games, because even despite losing at 50nl I still was up $96 online, so basically 5 buyins. And 2 buy ins below ev so could have been better. I think if I'm still winning for over 15bb per hundred by 10k hands, right now 22bb, I will move up to 50nl no matter what, even if I have to depo to have enough in there. But I think that if I keep winning like I am I will have more than enough liquid in the clubs in order to not worry about the balance.

Lifestyle wise I got midterms coming up this week so there is going to be a lot less playing this week and next week, since I won't have Thursday or Fridays to play. I think I'm finally getting my computer next weekend, so looking forward to that, I have a bunch of hands I want to run in GTO+, so only up from here.

♠♥♦♣

Hand History from home game

~50 effective
.10/.20
Preflop

HJ limp, Hero in CO with A♠Q♣ raise to .8, Villan in BB raise to 1.60, HJ call, Hero Call
In these small stakes home games I don't like 4 betting because for one, people don't like it, and two, people slow play AA and KK way too much that they will call, I'll barrel off, and lose. So keeping the pot small in my eyes is good, and I have a huge postflop edge. Also, with a guy behind I don't even think AQo in theory is a good 4-bet bluff.

Flop
Pot ~ 4.9
A♥2♠7♣

BB leads for 2, HJ fold, Hero call

A lead is super strong here, but like it could just be any Ax doing this like Aj, At, A9, A8, and if I raise he might stop barreling these hands so I just call. Also, just calling keeps his bluffs, which is anything since this is just more of a for fun home game for not a lot of money. Also, 72 game is on, so could be that also.

Turn
Pot ~8.9
2♥

A♥2♠7♣2♥

Villian leads again for 10, Hero call

I sat and thought about it for a second here and just called, don't really think there is another option here with AQ.

River
Pot ~ 28.90
5♦

A♥2♠7♣2♥5♦

Villian shoves all in for about 36.40

So now I think for about 30 seconds, and he calls the clock. It wasn't something malicious because this was genuinely his last hand because his mom was calling home to come home. He was one of the people from another college, so I just set a timer for 60 seconds and said I'll make my decision by then.

My basic thought process was value, AK, 8 combos, AJ, 8 combos, 77, 3 combos. And then bluffs I really couldn't think of anything except 72o which is 12. So even against value I think its a call since I'm getting 3/1 so even if it is never a bluff I'm always calling. I remember I said call and only 20 seconds has passed since he said clock.

Villan shows: 8♣8♠
Hero collects a pot of ~101.70

Yeah idk. I mean obviously theoretically this is never something, but definitely was very close to a fold, since this is just never a bluff. Overall I don't like it when someone that is one of the better players tank so I tried not to, but this was a pretty close spot. I remember I have joked to my friends before that I don't mind if they take awhile because most of their thought process isn't about the hand, its more like, "how much am I up, how much will I be down if I lose, how much longer are we playing,how dumb will this look."

Also, this whole hand history I try not to think of things in BB because they don't, and I think that can cause me to lose on value like this hand here. He said he will try to get a bunch of people so hopefully its regular thing.

Didn't have much time this week since I had a midterm on Friday and I have two more this week. Still played a bunch this weekend, but don't have time to type about it. Basically, I played live Friday and got ****ed by the deck, but ended up profitable playing online. I said before I won't play the ante games, but they move a lot faster than the bomb pot games so I'm just going to play them. That's basically it, going to buy GTOwiz probably next week for the preflop ranges for the ante games if no one puts them out for free in that time. Hopefully, physics isn't as hard as linear algebra.

Live is going ****, online is great. Going to move up to 50nl this week because I think I'm wasting my time at 20nl. I used HRC for preflop ranges for 7max ante, so I at least have something to go off of. Midterms are over so I want to put in a lot of volume. Probably going to sit out of the next poker game this weekend if I end up doing good at 50nl during the week.

first 50nl session. Almost insta quit because I got aces cracked like 10th hand lol.

Good results at home games, bad results online this last week

GL!

Not having the best time playing tbh. I'm back to coinpoker because I'm tired of 4 tabling and don't want to play different formats. While the games are soft in clubs I don't really get that much enjoyment out of them because of stuff like vpip requirements that I'm worrying about instead of playing good. Back to 6-8 tables of coin. Probably not going to play that much for the next two weeks as I have 3 midterms, but in December I'm buying gtowiz for the 7max ante ranges and am going to grind that over winter break so that I have that knowledge when I'm back to grinding at school. Also probably going to play on wpt when that comes out so excited for that. I know they have unorthodox formats like straddle + ante so hopefully that come out when I still have my gtowiz subscription and I can screen shot all of the preflop ranges.

Also playing on coin means that I'm back to only spreadsheet results as trackers are banned on there to my knowledge.

Thanks, just gotta get through this next month and a half and its gonna be a month and a half of 8-10 hour days

Not playing that much poker lately, but school is going well. First time in a little bit I understood my linear algebra hw right away. Got two midterms this Thursday and Friday, and then nothing until finals which is around mid-December. I think I want to set a goal of a 10k bankroll by the end of this school year or end of next summer to give myself a tangible goal.

Rough week with school, but back on the grind till finals.

officially at 2k br

Online you are reaching a point where the games start getting harder, somewhere around nl50-nl200. If your aim is to be a professional right away at this, find stakes you are beating at a good clip and stay there for a period of time. Don't mess around with NL100 with a 2k bankroll, take yourself seriously.

Hopefully your journey goes better than the last "pro from NJ" thread on this site. RIP

Ok, I get what you are saying. So what do you think my next steps forward should, like play 25nl 50 nl till I get something like 4k, or look into getting coaching?



Also hh for the thread

GGPoker, Hold'em No Limit - §0.10/§0.25 (§0.02 ante) - 7 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit

Hero: §30.89 (124 bb)
MP: §25 (100 bb)
MP+1: §33.75 (135 bb)
CO: §25 (100 bb)
BU: §45.96 (184 bb)
SB: §9.41 (38 bb)
BB: §29.93 (120 bb)

Pre-Flop: (§0.49)
Hero raises to §0.63, 2 players fold, CO 3-bets to §2.25, 3 players fold, Hero calls §1.62

Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (§4.99) K (2 players)
Hero bets §1.56, CO calls §1.56

River: (§8.11) J (2 players)
Hero bets §27.06 (all-in), CO folds

had 5s5h


GGPoker, Hold'em No Limit - §0.10/§0.25 (§0.02 ante) - 7 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit

UTG: §49.33 (197 bb)
Hero: §25.75 (103 bb)
MP+1: §31.32 (125 bb)
CO: §25 (100 bb)
BU: §25.37 (101 bb)
SB: §44.63 (179 bb)
BB: §35.91 (144 bb)

Pre-Flop: (§0.49)
1 fold, Hero raises to §0.63, 2 players fold, BTN 3-bets to §2, 2 players fold, Hero calls §1.37

Flop: (§4.49) 6 8 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets §2.17, Hero calls §2.17

Turn: (§8.83) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets §4.27, Hero raises to §21.56 (all-in), BU folds

had 9s8s

This is the most recent graph. Had a good time playing live, and I have made a friend with someone that is almost as dedicated to poker as me however he is not really that good. But, its at least nice to now talk to someone who understands why I play 9-hour sessions just to lose 4 buy-ins. I'm playing some 6 max on global poker, The games are soft and nice.

Something mindset-wise I have always struggled with is playing on one site instead of moving my roll around like playing on another site is going to be the secret to winning when time after time it just hasn't. I had that just today when I see now that betonline has a 10nl zoom pool running and zoom is always a format that I like to play since its easy to redline at the lower stakes. And I contemplated putting a couple buy ins, but I don't even know if I'm able to withdrawal in jersey so I just decided against it. Global is good through, but man is it annoying with the bet sizing and having to click a bunch in order to get the sizing that I want.

I also experimented with heads up sngs, since now global gives rakeback for them and heads up is another game type where redlining is important. The problem though is that I don't think it will keep my attention because of having to play differently on different stack sizes. I really feel that if heads up nlh cash was still around I would be good at it, but I doubt that will happen. I also might play live in Montreal over winter break with the friend that I made. Going to sell some action to my friends and probably not play over 1/3. Its Candian dollars too so 1/3 is more like 1/2 and 1/2 is more like .75/1.50.

On the studying side aggregated reports have been my best friend. A lot of lines that I wouldn't think to take that are deep in the game tree that I haven't reviewed ever come up more often than I thought, so being able to sort through different bet sizes to use on them has opened up my game past the flop since I think for now my flop strategy is good enough for 25/50nl 6 max and hopefully being well studied on the later streets is what puts me above the 50nl regs.

Finally, the college home games are as profitable as always, and I am just happy that I ended up transferring since I love New Bruniswick and all the different types of people that I'm meeting. Hoping by the end of the year I have something like $2500 in my bankroll. And another thing its so entertaining watching stefan11222 stream, he is unironically so funny even though a lot of it is in Russian. He just talks **** and fires off insane bluffs playing 500z ,10knl, and plo all at the same time. Here is a couple clips that I think are funny.

https://www.twitch.tv/signumclub/cli...e=7d&sort=time
https://www.twitch.tv/signumclub/cli...e=7d&sort=time

I'm hoping to do a better job to save hand histories for this thread, probably just going to start posting links to the hand history instead of converting it so I don't forget and I messed up the last one anyway so while its worse for reading at least there will be something coherent on here.

br 2068.25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_7_595mDE

also inpiring poker doc that I recently watched

what did you study?

what is your current study process?

what is your volume and stats?


why pushing this now? why not just enjoy your time in college? poker is long dead, there's no golden era to take advantage of right now with access to easy money - it's going to be more or less the same ecosystem now as when you graduate - just take it easy and enjoy your youth while you can