Hello there

I'm a 33 years old guy originally from Canada that's been living in Thailand for a decade now. I've been playing poker on and off since 2007. In 2013 I started taking it seriously and poker became my main source of income. At that time I was playing NLHU NL50-200. I then stopped in 2016 due to sites removing HU tables and health problems.

With all the craziness going on around the world today, I've decided to start playing again but this time I've decided to learn 6max and only play that format. I think now is the best time more than ever to set a goal for myself and start to be more disciplined towards my goals. I deposited 50$ on GGPoker at the end of November and have been starting at NL5.

This is my NL5 results from November 26th until the first week of January (Taken from GGPokerCraft so this is pre-rake):



And this is my NL10 results from this month (January 7th until today):



I am giving myself 90 days to not only reach NL100 but also have at least 2k hands played there. During that period of time, I can't deposit or withdraw anything and I can't use the money in my BR to play MTT (I can however deposit for a specific MTT but not for CG).


I don't have any kind of $ goal of where I would like my bankroll to be (and that would just be more stressful for no reason) but anything above 3k would be great. Oh, and I almost forgot - I need to play a MINIMUM of 50,000 hands per month. The BR stands at 357.98$ as of right now.



I actually started this challenge on the 23rd of this month. I actually made my blog on another poker site but the community over there was quite inactive so decided to move here. I will, in separate posts, update this thread with my results so far in this challenge.

I'm also looking forward to meeting new people that love poker as much as I do and potentially new friends to discuss hands with and a bunch of other things. Beside poker, I also love MMA, Meditation, and anything (whether it's a book, documentary, movie, etc..) that relate to self-improvement.

GL to us

DAY 1 - 1/23/2021
Results: +22.67$
Bankroll: 378.65$
Hands: 1192


Nothing much happened TBH. Quite a ''boring'' session in the sense that there weren't any interesting spots besides a flip that went our way PF (AK vs QQ). Starting Monday I'll post graphs from PT4 instead of GGPoker as their graph isn't really reliable and doesn't take the paid rake into consideration.

Even though this is the first time since I started playing poker (2007) that I only play 6max, I have to say that I feel quite confident. My days mainly consist of doing a little bit of PIO (not too much though as I think playing a GTO game at the micro is a horrible idea but I feel like doing a little bit of study with it will prepare me when it's time to move up.

The game has changed quite drastically since the last time I was playing full-time (4 years) and the games definitely got tougher. I do however think that they're still beatable and it's part of the reason why I wanted to start this challenge. I have no idea if I will succeed or no but I am really confident that we will get it done. As long as we put the volume in, study, and keep learning then it can be done.

I was planning on making this update yesterday but I wanted to wait to be able to post graphs and hands to make the read more enjoyable for you guys. I am in the middle of day 2 now and I won't reveal the results yet since I will play a bunch more but so far so good.

I would also like to add that if anyone is interested in joining a study group to improve their game let me know! We're 7 people right now playing between NL5-NL20 and we're always looking to meet new friendly people and learn with each other.

DAY 2 - 1/24/2021
Results: +16.76$
Bankroll: 395.41$
Hands: 3088

Today was the total opposite of yesterday - Lot of coolers, variance & hands. Ended up running well AIEV wise (AK over KK, QQ vs AK) despite losing a big cooler (will post it here below). One table particularly was probably the fishiest I've seen with 2 fellow Canadians playing over 80 VPIP and basically calling everything. Unfortunately, this ended up being the table where I've lost the most (nearly 3 BIs) with all of it to the same guy (he's the one that coolered me actually).

But overall I'm happy with the volume that I've put in and planning to do the same for day 3. One thing that I've noticed though: WTF RAKE

I've finished at +16.76$ which mean that I've paid a little bit more than 3 BIs in rake (34.63$) which is insane Please feel free to correct me if the numbers are wrong but if I'm correct that's like 13bb/100 that I've paid yesterday. I did a session review today and found ALOT of spots where I've bled money to rake by overcalling with hands that I shouldn't.

Is there any advice/tips that some of you guys can give me in terms of studying hands and improving in spots where I'm bleeding money away? For example, I know that while it's ok to call a 75%p bet w/ a FD on the flop despite the rake (it's actually almost BE lol) but there's so many other spots where I just don't know and I would like to learn more about it.

I was at 21bb/100 @ NL5 after 115k pre-rake but after rake, it was around 8bb. Right now I'm probably at 4bb/100 post-rake at NL10. If I can get a hold of these spots and manage (or at least - try to) lose as little as I can then I'll definitely see an improvement.

Ok time for the biggest winnings & losings hands of the day! Starting on day 5 I'll use PT4 to show graphs & hands but as of right now I have to wait a little bit more before I do so please forgive me

BIGGEST HANDS OF THE DAY:


Nothing to say really. I think the hand is kind of standard. I check river to bluff catch since everything has missed (beside T9). I snapped river and unfortunately we lost it.


This was the biggest cooler of the session. I was like SHIP IT when I saw the river and thought I had it 100% of the time especially against that guy (he's one of the 80% vpip fish).


The guy with AA had a shortstack if I remember correctly (or I should say his stack was smaller than mine and the other guy). I played this hand really poorly IMO. My sizing on the flop is too small (ESP multiways) IMO and my check on the turn is simply horrible. I should've sized bigger on the flop and bet big on the Turn. I give myself a 3/10 there. Played really poorly.


HU I'll cbet this from time to time but multiways I don't really want to bet it with my backdoor and get CR. I rather check and re-evaluate on the turn. Obviously once we hit the turn then the hand kinda plays itself. As for the overbet shove on the river well I thought draws missed and I don't really have a 4 in my range. So i expect him to call


I have no idea why he did what he did. Tilt I guess?


Nothing to say


Cooler for him.

DAY 3 - 1/25/2021
Results: - 37.81$
Bankroll: 357.60$
Hands: 1817

What a day that was! Despite losing a little bit under 4 BIs and being down at one point near 10 BIs, I have to admit that I've absolutely enjoyed the ride. Obviously, the results suck and I'm not happy about that but I did enjoy the ups and downs of the day and after reviewing my play I'm satisfied with the way that I've played and feeling good. I did run bad but I'm not the kind of guy to complain about things that are out of my control so I'm not gonna emphasize too much on that today.

The most interesting about this session is that 95% of my loss came from the SAME TABLE which is a crazy thing to think about. Not only that but I went down 9 BIs on the SAME TABLE in less than 3 hours (350 hands). And I'm not talking about spewing and shoving all-in random hands preflop here. Anyway, that was a crazy day and I don't know if it's because of my HU background where we're kind of used to lose 10-20 BIs in a session but I'm surprised at how well I've been able to handle it (I have to admit though that a nap was needed between sessions haha).

BIGGEST HANDS OF THE DAY:


This was the first BI that I've lost on the ''Red 6 table''. Remember the Japanese guy has he's the one that took a bit over 4 BIs from me.


Trying to climb things back up on the same table only to run into a cooler.


That was a couple of hands after the 500bb pot.


My Japanese Nemesis


The biggest pot that I've ever played so far at NL10 - 500bb.

Against competent regs I would NEVER get it in here but as you can see in the previous hand with his KK and in the jackpot hand that guy was calling down and shoving really thinly. And to be honest, if he has TT or 88 here then it is what it is but I'm never folding against him. I genuinely thought he had an overpair here and was more than happy on the turn. I was shocked when I saw his hand and unfortunately, we didn't get there.


Meanwhile we're winning on other tables...we actually won around 5 BIs overall on the other tables.




Catching someone getting out of line :P


Good News: WE HIT A JACKPOT HAND!
Bad News: WE LOST IT ALL IN THE 500bb POT! xD


So yeah, that was it. Quite an intense day.
Catch you guys later )