Hey 2p2,

Hero is an average joe from the Nordics who works full-time and plays poker on the side as a hobby. I have played micro - lowstakes some years ago with "not good, not bad" breakeven-ish results, but never taken poker superseriously. Because of boredom and lack of other goals in life at the moment, I recently started to actually study poker (still a noob in GTO) and put in some effort. I am currently playing z25 - z50 and my only goal is to get better. The reason why I started this thread is to have a weekly diary where I post (+ archive) my results and chat with some poker folks since online poker can be quite a degen solo journey.

Here are my most recent graphs from GG.

RnC:

~7k z100, ~4k z50 and the rest is z25.

Reg:

~8k NL100, ~8k NL50 and the rest is z25.

Right now I am playing on Stars to see how the games are running and what the level of play is.

gl gl.

Hello and good luck on your journey!

Ty slyless

Last week I dipped my toes into the Stars z25 pools after a loong time and it went alright. There were still a lot of spots where I wasn't sure what to do and ended up making some dummy decisions, but it's all good. I try to lab out all the toughy spots in GTO Wiz. It seems like a solid software so far. Started to get a small read on how the frogs play in the pool and hopefully when I have a way bigger sample, I'm showing up on the green.

6.2 - 12.2:


I also got a deposit bonus that gave me a free $50 lottery ticket that I used on a Spin N Go and managed to comeback from a 0,4bb stack to win the heads-up for a hundo, veryPog:


gl

This week I was super busy with work and unfortunately I also got sick for 3 days, so that killed my mood to grind. On top of the irl RNG being hot dog water, my in-game RNG was also mega-scuffed. Got slapped around by the poker gods but it is what it is. My bankroll can withstand the variance at these levels so I am not stressed out. Positive sides this week were that I jumped out the tables when the tilt was about to hit and I got some study in during my downtime from work.


~4k z25, rest is a mix of nl25, z50 and nl50.


KK seems to be my new nemesis:

100% this type of pfr play means he is about to leave the tables and raises with AJo? Right?
PokerStars - $0.50 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BTN: 102.74 BB
Hero (SB): 103 BB
BB: 287.44 BB
UTG: 148.18 BB
MP: 84.58 BB
CO: 100 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, MP raises to 50 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 103 BB and is all-in, fold, MP calls 34.58 BB and is all-in

Flop: (170.16 BB, 2 players) J J 5

Turn: (170.16 BB, 2 players) 9

River: (170.16 BB, 2 players) 2

Hero shows K K (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 19%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
MP shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 81%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
MP wins 166.16 BB


Just a cooler.
PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BTN: 112.68 BB
SB: 151.52 BB
BB: 163.12 BB
Hero (UTG): 115.88 BB
MP: 869.4 BB
CO: 150.12 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

Hero raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 7.6 BB, fold, Hero raises to 20 BB, SB calls 12.4 BB

Flop: (41 BB, 2 players) 2 J J
SB checks, Hero bets 12.92 BB, SB calls 12.92 BB

Turn: (66.84 BB, 2 players) 6
SB checks, Hero bets 35 BB, SB calls 35 BB

River: (136.84 BB, 2 players) 3
SB bets 83.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 47.96 BB and is all-in

SB shows Q J (Three of a Kind, Jacks)
(Pre 18%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows K K (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 82%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
SB wins 224.76 BB


Surely if I slowplay the pfr now with Kings I will finally win with this hand? I couldn't fold the river, I tried.
PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BTN: 102.08 BB
SB: 332.12 BB
BB: 49.16 BB
UTG: 92.6 BB
MP: 100 BB
Hero (CO): 101.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.2 BB, fold, SB raises to 11.28 BB, fold, Hero calls 9.08 BB

Flop: (23.56 BB, 2 players) T 6 K
SB checks, Hero bets 7.4 BB, SB calls 7.4 BB

Turn: (38.36 BB, 2 players) 3
SB checks, Hero bets 20 BB, SB calls 20 BB

River: (78.36 BB, 2 players) 7
SB bets 67 BB, Hero calls 62.72 BB and is all-in

SB shows Q A (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 32%, Flop 34%, Turn 23%)
Hero shows K K (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 68%, Flop 66%, Turn 77%)
SB wins 195.8 BB

redline holding it down tho Hopefully you run better next week, glgl

Edit: And that first hand xdddd reasonable play (with AA) from villain hahaha just casually 50x rfi - Haters will say he is unbalanced

ty and gl to you too haters gonna hate. when I saw villains hand I just started laughing

Week 3

I changed sites for this week because of a cashback deal for $200. I managed to complete it last night and on top of that got $42 of rakeback for the week which is not bad for the stakes I played. Volume was OK, but the play on the other hand went kinda bad. I'm a bit disappointed in my play to say the least. One of my weaknesses is calling river bets or small re-raises way too lightly. I notice that the voice in my head tells me things like "okey the board hit the flush we gotta fold our trips/worse flush here" or things like that and I still sometimes end up calling because I guess I wanna see if was right?? So dumb.. I will try to work hard on the mental side and being more rational about decisions.

Graph

~6,5k nl10, ~3,8k nl25 and rest nl100 (played a bit higher to complete the cashback deal on time, ultimately ended up running hot and saved the graph and the cashback bonus)

Overall:

Games: +$90.04
Bonus: +$200
Rakeback: +$42
= +$332.04

--------------------------------------------------------

"Poker is dead" type of donation from Villain

$1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

BTN: $107.35
SB: $158.08
BB: $69.87
Hero (UTG): $153.08
CO: $105.19

SB posts SB $0.50, BB posts BB $1.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $1.50) Hero has 8 8

Hero raises to $2.50, fold, BTN calls $2.50, fold, BB calls $1.50

Flop: ($8.00, 3 players) 4 2 8
BB bets $5.06, Hero calls $5.06, BTN calls $5.06

Turn: ($23.18, 3 players) 4
BB bets $7.34, Hero calls $7.34, BTN raises to $40.37, BB raises to $62.31, Hero raises to $145.52, fold

River: ($188.17, 2 players) J

BB mucks 8 7 (Two Pair, Eights and Fours)
(Pre 13%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows 8 8 (Full House, Eights full of Fours)
(Pre 87%, Flop 98%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins $268.38


glgl

Nice update, good to see it ended up in the green. I struggle with river calling decision making too somtimes, what I do is calling super impulsive without thinking and complain after... It's a really bad habit vs pool Meditation and exercise helps me with that, when I'm clear- minded I can just chill and rationalize before snapcalling

Thanks bro. Sounds just like me hahhah. It's crazy how bad the habit is, just pure money losing stuff. I have also noticed that actually preparing mentally (and why not physically) for the games and feeling good & confident overall before the session is so important. Being a bit tired and eating **** and then just auto-piloting through a session almost always ends up on making poor decisions missing +EV gains or just straight losing $$.

$1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

Hero (BTN): $108.48
SB: $116.91
BB: $99.41
UTG: $216.35
CO: $116.43

SB posts SB $0.50, BB posts BB $1.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $1.50) Hero has A A

fold, fold, Hero raises to $2.20, fold, BB raises to $9.10, Hero raises to $22.00, BB raises to $76.50, Hero raises to $108.48, BB calls $22.91

Flop: ($199.32, 2 players) Q 5 T

Turn: ($199.32, 2 players) 5

River: ($199.32, 2 players) 9

Hero shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Fives)
(Pre 93%, Flop 79%, Turn 73%)
BB shows A K (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 7%, Flop 21%, Turn 27%)
Hero wins $9.07
BB wins $196.32

Week 4

My original plan was to play nl50 at PokerStars with a mix of zoom and regs, but last week and this week I have gotten pretty juicy rakeback offers on another site, so I have been playing there 100% and going to continue to do so atleast for this week. I have been lacking in studying so I need to step up my game in that. It definitely shows in the graphs (breakeven warrior ). Been more focused on "getting in reps" and just playing, which I think is acceptable considering I haven't played poker this actively in years. Mental this week was way better and honestly had fun playing the 2 card plo. Listening to good music or podcasts (mostly as a white noise) in the background and sippin' on some ice coffee and just enjoying the game. This week I'll try to focus more studying, especially 3b pots.

Graph

~4.2k nl100, rest nl50 (as you can see, we are not in talking terms with mrs.redline I really need to fix our relationship lol)

Overall
Games: -$2.71
Rakeback: +$256
= +$253.29

--------------------------------------------------------

sb knows something I don't (bb also just clicking buttons)

$1 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

Hero (BTN): $158.11
SB: $123.60
BB: $79.60
UTG: $113.83
CO: $81.35

SB posts SB $0.50, BB posts BB $1.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $1.50) Hero has J Q

fold, fold, Hero raises to $2.20, SB calls $1.70, BB calls $1.20

Flop: ($6.60, 3 players) J 5 Q
SB checks, fold, Hero bets $3.13, SB calls $3.13

Turn: ($12.86, 2 players) 5
SB bets $8.14, Hero raises to $22.00, SB raises to $78.22, Hero raises to $152.78, SB calls $40.05

River: ($249.40, 2 players) T

Hero shows J Q (Two Pair, Queens and Jacks)
(Pre 63%, Flop 85%, Turn 9%)
SB shows 5 9 (Three of a Kind, Fives)
(Pre 37%, Flop 15%, Turn 91%)
Hero wins $34.51
SB wins $246.40


glgl

xddd

Nice update, and for the start of NL100 (I assume it is?) it's not going bad at all imo winning after rb is good and it can only get better as long as you keep improving. Allthough I will advise you to not fall for the rb trap a lot of sites offer. Even that stars 40% chest, if you have to grind mad hours zoom to complete it than just ignoring it and focussing on winrate (which you can also do in zoom) on reg tables is better. I understand playing zoom is more fun and also fine for improvement pov (although people underestimate improvement pov of regtables because you see other people play and more showdowns etc.). I'm more talking if you are starting to become serious about making poker serious side/main income ofc.

gl next week

Thanks bro. I'm also quite happy being around breakeven @nl100 considering I've never really grinded those stakes before. I appreciate the advice Im definitely starting to take improvement and poker more seriously in general. If you wanna talk poker and other bs and got a discord you can DM me your username, would be cool to have someone to chat to about the game since none of my irl friends play.

You overplayed your QJ hand on the turn, I would have just called and called non- flush rivers (if I boat up then stack trips and so on...)

I'm playing NL100 zoom/rush currently in March you can check out my thread

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...3-3bb-1819314/

I appreciate the feedback. Calling the turn and making a decision on the river is definitely a solid option here too. Nice thread

Week 5

Played on Stars last week.
-$7xx in the first 2k hands of the week on nl100 reg tables. Absolutely rolled and smoked by the card gods and therefore also played like *****, so I can't complain about the RNG. Dropped stakes and hoped to gain some momentum and avoid being too stressed out about BR taking a hit. Lost a bit more in nl50 too.. Gonna stay in nl50 for now until I can get some wins. I know a bad week (or month) in poker is nothing crazy and it happens, but it still sucks. Started to feel a bit powerless you know. A lot of the time I ended up in a situation where I pick up the smaller pots, but in all the bigger 3b/4b pots I found myself in a tough spot (overplaying my hand, not making +EV calls, not getting good value from my better hands or just get cooler'd). I just had to get off the tables and press the mental reset button so basically from last Wednesday to this day I haven't played much at all. Been just studying a bunch, watching poker content (mostly educational + Triton series) and also doing other stuff (gaming with the homies, watching netflix, going outside etc). I'm gonna put more focus on studying from now on and this week probably play a bit smaller stakes on the side to keep my "poker muscles" active. Just gotta keep working hard and results will come with time.

if you read this, gl to you this week

Everything will be fine. Good luck to you too!

It happens to all of us man, keep it up. I've encountered many annoying losing spree's and setbacks, what helps me is disconnect a bit from poker (like you seem to be doing), and if it gets worse like completely non-poker 3/4 days does the trick for me to reset mentally

GL this week

thanks

Week 6

This is probably the first time ever I have played and studied poker for this long in a consecutive manner hahhah. It's been fun, although challenging sometimes. Still learning a lot about the game and my mental when facing tough spots or losses. I also struggle with keeping my focus on a high level for a longer period of time. This applies to anything I do in life.
About the games; Last week I played on Stars at the nl100 reg tables but also tried GG to see what's up. Let me tell you, it's a big nitfest at GG when playing RnC I promise you the % for flatting QQ+ when facing a 3bet is 100%. It's all about trapping and playing smallball little pot poker. I guess you can grind some nice $ there if you hit the Bad Beat and grind LBs. And there are more fun players compared to Stars. Do you guys have similar experiences between these two sites?

Graph

100% nl100 on Stars. Ran fairly well at some point but then the downhill started. Happy about the redline this time around though. Not gonna post my GG graph since I only played like 2k hands there to try it out so its pretty irrelevant results wise.

Although nl100 has been going a OK, I will drop stakes to fund some much needed personal irl stuff. But I can build up my bankroll with playing poker + other income soon enough to return back to nl100. I'm not in a hurry to climb the stakes yet.

gl gl

Week 7

As mentioned last week, I dropped stakes but honestly it's been a blessing in disguise. I played over 20k hands (while working full-time) so I am proud of myself hahhah. I feel super motivated to grind and get back to nl100 in the next month or two (if everything goes as planned). I even grinded as low as z5 to try some new strats that I learned in the past week. At the end of the week I played mostly z25. Shoutout to KidCudi147 who's been a mate to talk poker with. You have probably read his blog already, but if you haven't go check it out: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...poker-1785038/

Graph


GG ~10k in z5, rest is z25


Stars z25 (played Stars for the weekend, got the sunrun)

glgl

Still alive.
What happened in between this and the last post tldr; I had to withdraw a lot of money because of unexpected IRL stuff. Usually I try to keep my poker roll untouched but this time around couldn't. Started saving up from my full-time job salary for my return to the nl50-100 streets. Saved money (and studied and played small stakes a bit on the side) for around 3-ish months. Hopped back to nl50 at the start of July.

I decided to play on GG because of the traffic. Got really lucky for the first time and managed to hit the BBJ for $1k:



This was a nice boost to my roll and I'm mixing in some nl100 now. When it comes to sites, I've been switching inbetween Stars and GG. Man I wish Stars had even 40% of the traffic that GG has nowadays. And GGs client is mint. But as we all know, the rake is insane @ GG. Anyways, here are my July results so far from GG (nl50-nl100):

RnC July:


Reg July:

These are prerake but with the rakeback I'm making some money. Probably gonna play more on Stars though.


I'll try to update this blog 2-3 times per month on my progress, newsworthy stuff or when I go busto. Thank you for reading and gl.

Small update

Been studying a bunch and getting more confidence in my play. Still playing mostly nl100 but sometimes I like to drop to nl50 to try out new things that I'm trying to implement into my gameplay. It's kinda funny how studying works; the more you learn, the more you realize how noob you are/were hahhah. In my study I've been trying to focus more in 3b pots and flop bet sizings with different textures. I've been able to catch more villains bluffs and sniff out weaknesses when seeing how they bet flop and ott.

In game for the past 2 weeks though, I've been getting railed by the "run bad" + painful runouts with good holdings otf or ott. Luckily I haven't lost too much $$, but losing runouts against villains 5-10% otf can get me tilted so I just close the client and play video games or watch streams instead of monkey tilting my stacks. Just need to put more volume in and focus on ev rather than $.

thanks for reading and gl.

Last weeks results @GG + $250~ rb+promos




Slightly questionable PFR flat and then lil bro decided to go full spew OTT


Sussy small 3b sizing in this pool is usually AA - QQ. Then the classic villain wants to run it once = get cooler'd


Luckily poker gods decided to give me atleast one juicer



thanks for reading and gl