That's pretty wild someone will lose 30% of the time even with a 5bb/100 winrate. Also, when I was at 2NL I literally wouldn't mind running bad, and it felt like I was in control, and was going to win at some point, no matter what. It was a great mindset to have, and the first time I have actually had that. I wouldn't have moved up to 10NL if it weren't for someone I trust in the game suggesting to playing 10NL Blitz to find spots that I can later run in the solver. It was definitely my fault that I lost the money, but my point is that I wasn't shot taking because I got bored with 2NL/5NL. Either way, I am still hoping to figure something out and keep this thing going. Posting on here and discussing hands in the forum has helped my game quite a bit, and I hope I can continue on with this thing.

Thanks for the follow, and I hope to have some good updates going forward.

I've heard great things about it, but I am not sure yet if it is for me. I thought I was going to be able to listen to the videos, absorb the information, and then really be on my way to crushing the micros. The problem I have with learning from videos, is I have questions for the content creator during the video that I can't ask. Furthermore, when I do have questions on something, I generally have follow up questions until I get to the root of the question. Some questions may take a half hour conversation before I get to that "ahah" moment, and so for me, overall, videos are a limited learning source.

So the jury is still out on whether or not it is worth the money.

Why don´t you look for, and get a good coach? Pretty sure you'd have a lot of opportunities to make questions, discuss poker, and if he's a nice guy, keep some discord or the likes open for future follow ups?

I mean, having a good BRM is important IMHO as you probably noticed from my post but if you know you´re serious about this game, and your desire to succeed and move up is big enough, not INVESTING money in the tools to get there, because you think it´s too much given the limit you play, you´re afraid you might still fail and will lose this investment etc is a very big and costly mistake. So, be responsble with how much you risk playing, but be very aggressive with how much you invest in the tools and people who can help you to succeed.

And, about "you´re afraid you might still fail and will lose this investment", you really need to put thoughts like this one in the garbage bin if you have them. Self trust x 1.000.000, always my friend.

Cheers

Thanks. I've thought about getting a coach for awhile, and may have something in the works. I can discuss that later. But otherwise, my wife isn't terribly happy about the idea of paying for a coach/playing poker part time. From what I've seen, microstakes coaching is a minimum $100/hour. In order for it to be worth it, I personally think I would want a coach to teach me how to beat 10NL Blitz. In my estimation, it would cost me a minimum of 5 hours, plus 25 BI's, and that's $750 alone. If I was single, I would do it in a heartbeat, but when someone else has a say in our finances, yada yada yada... you get my point.

Quick Update:

I usually kick myself for setting goals, a plan, and not sticking to it. Since this is my thread, my goals, and my bankroll, I'm going to give myself a pass this month, despite how lame it is to give yourself a pass the first month of a long term plan. Right now, I'm debating on whether or not I want to commit a significant amount of money into a solver, as well as the possibility of having to reload my BR, as both of those items are a lot of money. I could swing one, but not sure about both. With that said, one reason why I wasn't playing my regular schedule this month is because I was "grinding" 10NL in an effort to find situations to plug into my solver. Well, some things happened, and I haven't been able to work with a solver yet, so I went essentially bust, and now have been playing 2NL with 10BI's.

I've played some 2NL over the past few days and my continued streak of run bad is full steam ahead. I think I went from 4BI below EV to 16BI below EV. I'm bound and determined to not let this get to my head and just continue to play good poker. Thankfully I have been able to stay afloat with a few minor tournament cashes, so I am still sitting at $20 for a bankroll. I need to figure out a way to reload soon, and plan to do so hopefully this weekend.

I'm looking forward to writing my June Month in review. I'll need to know what route I'm going to take poker-wise going forward.

Hopefully you have found good resources on how to work with a solver, what to look for etc, otherwise you might have spent a lot of your roll on it only to find yourself lost or worse than before.

Two tips I'd give you (they are not my ideas btw, got them from good sources )

1) You want to simplify as much as possible to an executable strategy, as the solver raw output is pretty much impossible to memorize (no point in memorizing one scenario when you have thousands of others for example). One sizing per flop (not one to all flops, but you'll find you can group textures and there are patterns, lots and lots of textures you can range bet without losing much at all). Two per turn max.

2) Don´t use the solver to check specific actions you took with specific holdings, to see if you were correct. This is the worst sin. Solver mixes a lot and thinking you made a good call or a good fold only because solver also does it, or you made a good call defending the flop when you're actually supposed to check/raise it at some frequency (or even check/fold it sometimes, so it's a mix of three actions), will exacerbate your leaks, not plug them, because of this BS positive confirmation/validation you got.

Thanks Faz. Your suggestions likely saved me a lot of time. I am someone who would get caught up in "did the solver say to B33 here 20% or 40%" and therefore run into paralysis by analysis.

Id just take a short break until you can reload $100 without it being so seemingly painful financially currently. Playing underrolled doesn't seem like good conditions for learning / success imo. Your down days are going to mentally hurt that much more even tho its just a few bucks in the long run. There are 2 coaches right now that are coaching for $40 an hour and I can personally recommend Duncelanas as I did a coaching session with him.

It really helped bring together a lot of the concepts I had been studying on my own but couldn't yet put it all together. Helped a lot and added a level of depth to my thought process each hand. Likely will do more lessons with him but I gotta spread them out since even $40 a session adds up for a micro stakes player. Definitely could see 2 sessions helping a lot though via db review + theory discussion + teaching you how to learn on your own efficiently.

Thanks for the recommendation. This might be something I will look into at a later date. I actually got my wife on board with spending $330 on a solver, and another $200+ to reload. So I think there is some room to reload and find a coach on the cheap.

June Month Review:

What a month. What. a. month. I don't want to beat around the bush on this, but I had, melodrama aside, the most roller coaster of a poker month I have ever had. I came across this thread https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...d-16k-1738987/ started by a guy who claims to be the single biggets loser in online poker history, and he likely is from a BB/100 standpoint. Then, after finding his thread an interesting read, I come across him at not only one table, but three tables, and two days in a row. I was unfortunately only able to siphon off 2 or 3 stacks from him, but incredibly wild nonetheless.

Then, a high stakes poker pro was trying to give this worst player (Paisting) coaching advice, and he wouldn't take it, and long story short, I was offered the coaching, for free. I was stunned, elated, thankful, all in one, for this great opportunity that fell in my lap. I had a hour or so conversation with this poker pro about what coaching my look like in the future. The first step, which I have previously mentioned, was to log some volume at 10NL Blitz, mark any questionable hands for review, and study said spots later in a solver that I was going to be getting for free. Everything was too good to be true. I thought this was my big break.

Unfortunately, at this time, I went on a run of bad luck/a few punts, and lost my roll at 10NL Blitz. Further unfortunate, is I am not quite sure the original coaching arrangement is going to play out. I would of course love for it too, but I imagine the poker pro has a lot of obligations, and teaching a nanostakes grinder how to play, let alone give him a solver, is towards the bottom of his list. If you are reading this Koshko, no sweat, but I would still love to work together in the future if you can find the time.

June Graph

- Overall, very small sample size, but man I ran like ****, plus a few punts. The majority of my volume was from 10NL Blitz, with some 5NL and 2NL mixed in.
- Honestly I have flashbacks to my last challenge, and quite frankly my poker journey in general, with running under EV and having a Luck Bell Curve that looks like this..

- I get it, it's poker, it should even itself out... yada yada yada. I don't care about that. It's annoying to feel like there is constantly a glass ceiling on running above EV, and not getting lucky on my Bell Graph. Will that come one day? Maybe. But it hasn't seem to come yet, and it makes it twice as gruesome when trying to grind through the microstakes. I just want to sun run for 20k hands, make it through 10NL and have a semi decent bankroll. Is that too much too ask? Right now it is, especially with calling down/off too light. I think I've watched too many YT videos of pros playing 10NL and calling down way too light. I need to stick to my game. I also am not going to let this mindset hold me back from completing my goal.

I'm going to reset my goals going forward as last month was a learning month, with a break to attend to the above situation.

Goals for July:
- Play 15,000+ hands
- Actually review hands I mark for review. On top of this, I need to figure how HOW to review hands. I have a general idea, but I don't have an approach yet that I feel is super beneficial.
- Find two major leakes and learn about them
- NOT CALL DOWN SO LIGHT
- Follow up in the July Month review on how each of these went

BR: Unsure, deciding on how much to reload
Total Hands - 20,612
Total Won - -$11.73 (sigh)

2NL:
Total Hands - 17,952
Total Won - $20.26
BB/100 - 5.64

5NL:
Total Hands - 1,238
Total Won - $8.12
BB/100 - 13.12

Here's to a good month of July. Happy 4th of July everyone, GL at the tables!

Reloaded $50. I wanted to buy-in $100, but my wife thought $25 was a good amount, so we comprised to buy-in $50. It is actually really demoralizing to have to grind back up to $100. I don't think I'm in a great headspace right now with poker. I'm tired of reading about people crushing the micros, moving their way up fast, and **** like that. I want that in the worst way, but it seems like I have a glass ceiling on my bankroll. I'm in a similar spot right now as I was in previous "challenges." I feel like I run super poor, punt off a few stacks, run into a few coolers, and the sun-run never comes. I've won $18 at 2NL and have a $36 All In EV. Literally ****ing double over 20k hands (not interested in anyone's sample size comments.) It just never stops. With all of the studying/playing I have done, along with a long line of average to below average luck, I feel like I am owed a good run of cards. Of course I'm not owed anything, but it's tough to feel like it's never my turn. I was hoping I was going to have fun tonight, as I haven't played in awhile, but that's not the case.

The only thing I have can do is pick myself up for what feels like the 1,000th time and grind away at it when I feel like I can play my A game.

I'm not going to claim to be a poker expert, I only play 10NL but clearly your main issue is a mentality one. From a mental perspective I can comment, as I do a large amount of mental health work/improvement for myself e.g. meditation every day etc.

With that said, does this really appear to be the sort of person you want to learn from on the internet - link - Not referring to their poker ability, rather the fact that you need a calm influence currently in your poker journey.

From the stuff you've posted I think running bad is the least of your concerns.

If you aren't in a good mental state, there's no point in trying to pursue poker. Even if you play well 99% of the time, the 1% of hands you tilt and make -70bb EV plays will obliterate your winrate. It sounds to me like you have entitlement tilt, and it's something you should work on ASAP. I'd recommend reading the Mental Game of Poker. Once you understand the different types of tilt and where they stem from, you'll be able to not only improve your own game, but also to exploit other players better. For example, vs. entitled players you can 5x overbet shove a really wet board with the nuts and get snap called by an opponent's AA 100% of the time despite it being a clear fold.

Good luck buddy.

Thanks for the comments guys. I agree that my mental game needs a lot of work. Entitlement tilt feels like it is something I struggle with. Not sure yet how to approach mental game struggles, but I appreciate you guys identifying this large leak.

Just like any sort of training, you have to work at it if you want to improve the skill. The plus side of working on your mental game for poker is that it will positively effect your entire life. A strong mindset puts you ahead of 90% of the people you'll meet, in all walks of life. Read books, do guided meditation (I recommend Simple Habits), cut out noise from your life (social media, drama queens etc). All helps.

Again, not speaking as a poker player, speaking as someone who does a lot of mindfulness work due to my job (day trader).

Had a better mindset today, which was the biggest win of the day. I definitely ran the worst I have so far this challenge, but I'm not going to let myself fester on negative thoughts. It's actually very freeing to "forget" about losing to a rivered set 5x in a day, followed up by a runner runner vs. aces. That is quite literally poker, and I am playing a poker challenge, so I better get used to it/through it if I want to accomplish my goal. I am going to persevere through whatever comes my way and figure out what comes of this whole thing.

I played around 2k hands today, mainly 5 tabling 2NL. It was refreshing to play a longer earlier. It felt like I could take a step back and not press too hard to make money. I'm going to try play another longer session tomorrow and see what I think.

Other Musings:
- People don't pay you off as lite as I thought at 2NL. I've given up on betting 75% or full pot for value on the river. It just hasn't worked so I am going to experiment with a different approach.
- Poker is a cruel game that is very unforgiving. I can't believe the how poorly someone can run, and I likely haven't seen the worst of it.
- ACR had a decent size update within the last week, and changed their max BI at 2NL (maybe other stakes too) to 80bb. Super annoying. I emailed them asking about this, and I'm sure I won't get a sufficient response. Not that I'm owed one, but c'mon, changing the max BI is changing the landscape quite a bit.
- On a positive note, I have ran very poorly today, and also am getting unlucky on my Luck Bell curve, however, I am only down 1.5 BI's atm from my second deposit, and still up 8ish BI's at 2NL. I want to move up asap, so I plan to take a 3 BI shot once I get to $75 (or 15 BI for 5NL).

gl bro you got this

My advice stop listetning to GTO and solver **** at this limit or even think about it.Thats for gameplay above 50NL even 100.

2NL should be crushable by just following this steps.
Construct ur opening range properly.
Follow ur bankroll management.
Put enough volume.
And try to experiment.It's really stupid to say ppl on 2nl don't call off 75% pot on the river.It all depends on their holdings and the board texture.You can't expect ppl to call u off super light on scary boards even at that stake unless they're a whale.
Experiment with playing more aggressive and use overbets and more check/raises on textures where they can't have much.

You've mentioned multiple times in a post that you're in a good mental spot and then proceeded to complain about variance, multiple times.

It's always easier to blame luck than ourselves. If you're losing over a decent sized sample at 2NL then it's down to the player, not variance.

Sorry if I miscommunicated, but my intent was to point out I was experiencing variance, as opposed to complaining about variance, and was still able to keep my head above water. I think this is a good testament to my raw skill level and is a sign of a high floor (for the stake I play). Also, I'm not losing over a decent sample at 2NL, not sure where you got that from. I've won 9 Bi's over 20k hands (since my challenge started) and am 18 BI's up on All-In EV. Nothing earth shattering ofc, but not losing either.

No need to apologise.

If you read back through your thread you'll see that all you've been focussed on is variance, which is a natural part of poker, rather than trying to pick out spots you can learn from (mistakes/leaks etc). It's the same as only remembering bad beats, like many players do, never the times we sucked out etc. You have to be careful or it quickly creates a victim/weak mentality (which in turn clouds judgement at the tables), that's all. Just advice from someone who see's it day in day out in their field of work, crushes people.

Enjoying this thread and good luck! I myself have started playing again - first time really grinding since black Friday. I also play ACR 10nl Blitz, so I'm sure we'll run into each other at some point.

It seems like you're putting in the effort and the results will follow. The only tip I have for you is to find a "routine" that works for you, this will really help with the mental aspect. Blitz is different than standard, so the routines might vary depending on what you are playing.

Here are a couple examples that have helped me for Blitz specifically -

I found that after longer, continuous sessions I would start "spewing" while playing Blitz. You're playing so many hands quickly that this can really add up or was for me anyways. Now, I try to completely reset after about an hour of play time. This includes closing all tables and the app, and taking a 5-10 minute break to refresh. So far, the results have been very positive for me doing this.

The second thing for me is I realized when I would run up a big stack in Blitz, I would start to struggle with deeper stack play. I've got to where I'll "bank" my stack if I get over 250bb. I understand some might think this is -ev because you are missing the opportunity for monster pots, but deep stack play just isn't the thing for me while playing Blitz. I've ran a stack up to 750bb and then get in odd situations where I'm facing a 4bet/5bet oop with AKo. I also would find myself with a 300bb stack making plays that I normally wouldn't make with the mindset of "I have 300bb, let's gamble" and then the next thing I would know is my stack is back down to 150bb because I was spewing. So resetting has really helped me out here. Instead of having 900bb across 3 tables and playing too loose or differently than I should be, I reset and lock myself back in with starting stacks and it helps me play sharper to help grow my stacks again.

Again, these are just things that helped me and I'm sure everyone will have different opinions on routines. More or less pointing out things that helped out my play that really didn't have to do with actual in game strategy. I think it's important to put yourself in a place where you feel sharp, comfortable, and refreshed.

You mentioned in one of your early posts that someone is doing a youtube series playing Blitz on ACR - I would like to check it out, what's the title?

This is helpful. I was actually going to reach out to the community regarding what the fundamentals of beating 2NL are, so I appreciate this a lot. My goal for this coming week is to study opening ranges and get a better feel for pre flop play. I think I already have a decent grasp, but learning and or confirming what I already know will help me improve, whether that is through a more positive EV opening range, or confidence in what I am doing.

Yeah, I get it a blanket statement of "ppl don't call off 75% on the river" sounds a little ridiculous. I've been annoyed at the lack of frequency as to which I am getting paid off on the river when betting 75%-150%, and a lot of articles/videos i've read people are quoted as saying how the 2NL pool will payoff with top pair weak kicker and lesser holdings, which I haven't found to be true, at least with the 75%+ bet sizing.

Thanks. Yours, and others, direction on the mental game has been very helpful these past two days. I ran worse today, over 2,500 hands, however, kept a positive attitude and just moved onto the next hand after I can't how many runner-runner/bad beats. I literally want to do anything within my power to be a good poker player and having a strong mental game is something I can control. Onward we go.

No problem mate, I hope things improve for you soon.

I wouldn't worry about run bad in a short/small session like 2500 hands. Just keep playing the best you can and study interesting spots etc.