Congrats!

Not sure if you’ve mentioned earlier or if its secret, curious what your SNs were on apps? Thought we might have crossed paths at some point(on PB)

Hey, I was mainly playing on RGS and paradise recently, with SN “iliketopot”

And a while ago with ninjas in Diamond with “GalaxyXpress”. Those were the two users I put in majority of volume, iirc. What about you?

first 5k hands at 1/2 in the bag. Games are soft, time for grinding!

Roughly 10k hands in, caught some heat recently

Still running hot



Just 1 table of 2/4 rn in a good app game.

Congrats on running above EV the first time in like 13 pages of the thread!

Framing is a big part of it! Run good came at .5/1 and 1/2 I guess, this graph is USD. Thankful to be winning enough that I'm not stressed abt it though. Also ran 60BI over ev in 100k hands with pokerninjas iirc! Would say my luck overall has been pretty normal, just unlucky that my run good has come while backed, and my run bad has come when on my own roll

January Recap



Small breakeven stretch near the end of the month on ignition



2/4 app game



Purchased standing desk, in order to prevent my posture from getting destroyed considering how much time I spend in front of the computer

February

Focusing on getting back into the gym, getting my diet back to a healthy level, proper sleep, and not going through my days hungry (I'll often pass up on eating until dinner time and work and go to school hungry)

Focusing on ignition this month, hopefully will move up to 2/5 in the next week or so.

Will also try to convince backer to add funds onto other regulated sites, in order to table select for the best games possible.

Backer did say that if we are still working together in July, he would be willing to add some 5/5/10 live PLO in Vegas during July.

Gameplay focus this month is just to put in good volume with A/B game, and care less about results (will allow me to mix stakes playing my best game at the low stakes much easier)

Got moved up and down from 500PLO on ignition in the same day...

300 hands, backer saw 3 hands he thought I played poorly and got moved down after losing 4 BI.

Said he wants 15k more hands at 1/2.

No choice but to play 15k more hands, and prove even more that I'm winning over 10bb/100ev!

To me, and people that I've talked to, this seems like an absurd overreaction. But that's what happens when you're staked! Lose a lot of agency.

From my point of view, in the two tables of 2/5 I played, I'm probably beating that stake for 10bb/100ev as well. The games are extremely soft.

Previously I got moved down from the soft 2/4 app game after I lost money, and he saw a couple hands in a 500 hand sample that were bad. I currently have 3.5k hands in that club, with a wr of 60bb/100ev. Seems like I was beating that game, but got moved down anyways!

Feels like my development as a player is being stifled by this way of backing. It's impossible to play my best when I'm worried if I make a river call that he disagrees with I will get moved down in stakes.

In addition, unlike the time I got moved down from the 2/4 app game, I actually disagree that I played the hands poorly. Could potentially be mistakes, but wouldn't be large mistakes like he is using as the reason to move me down.

Sounds pretty harsh. Three sessions would be more understandable, sounds like you’re doing great overall. Do you want to share the hands?

Advice was "River is a clear fold here - flop bluffs got there with a straight, and he can still be vbetting as weak as a set". My thinking is he's going to barrel some hearts hands ott, which we unblock, block straights, block some sets value bets. Villain was 80vpip sorta maniacal but no real river reads. This he considered a big mistake.



Advice was "We don't want to be raising two-tone flops with wraps with no flush draw. As played turn should be a clear x/f since such a large majority of villain's bet/call range on flop is FDs."
My thinking was this is a perfect flop xj, not super behind AA with flush, have fold equity and we don't do amazingly vs a folding range, so more incentivized to end the hand immediately.
Talked to a PLO1k-2k player, he says he prefers donk, with XR being fine at 100bb, but getting worse as you get deeper since IP will have more flush draws.



Advice was "Here we don't want to be betting 5way without the nut wrap. As played, easy fold vs the flop raise because his range is JJ and higher wraps that dominate you, and you are crushed by that range."
My thinking was this hand is ok to bet with 2bdfd, check it with 1. Facing flop raise seems like an incredibly standard continue, we have 47% vs QT9x, and 43% vs JJxx. Obvs a bit worse, since he will have more connectivity to the board (not JJ23rr), but I still can't imagine this is a fold if bet, despite what my coach is explicitly saying.

as a 500-2k player who has made 70k since jan 1st on bovada, all these hands u posted asre super standard at 100bb. k79t ds can check ip, but if we bet we cannot fold non board pairing turns ever. 4567 hand generates a lot of folkd eq w 1h blocking a lot of his continues as well, but i agree deeper just lead or x/c.

if your backer is moving you down based on these hands, ur better off going solo once ur rolled for 1/2 since his plo game knowledge seems to be lacking and more results oriented . wp op keep studying and grinding.

Hm, appreciate you taking a look.

Obviously all backing arrangements are temporary, but since I was busto a couple months ago, was nice to have a way to battle and make some money. Will keep up the study and battle hard! Gl at the tables.

My take on hand one is fold turn, basically because I think we need to fold this river which we will percieve as one of the better cards for us. Easy to overvalue our blocker on river too. I think it’s a mistake but an understandable one versus a maniac, not enough to warrant any concern.

Hand two we should flat flop, but it’s not like raising is a terrible mistake, just slightly lower EV probably. Don’t like leading. The large error in the hand is shoving turn, probably have 0 outs >90% of the time, but we all make autopilot mistakes in low SPR situations sometimes.

Hand 3 I also prefer check, that being said I don’t mind your bet. Folding obviously out of the questions once we bet.

Obviously easy to analyze hands in hindsight and I could easily find 3 errors like this in my own DB from this month, think most people could. I definitely agree with you that moving you down over these hands seem unneccessary. Sorry for the unprompted opinions, wish you gl and hope you get moved back up soon!

Appreciate the feedback, turn jam with 4567 must be a mistake. That said, yeah it’s low SPR, the mistake can’t be costing me more than like $180 idk. Yeah my take was basically maybe these are mistakes, maybe they are not, but I can’t imagine they are so egregious to warrant emergency moving me down. But that’s life.

Hand 1: C/R on flop is what? Sets, top two, maybe a wrap or openener with straight draws. He almost never has hearts on the turn here. What hands does he x/r on flop that have hearts? KhQhA4??? If he has hearts, it is most likely a straight draw with 2 backdoors on the flop. And straights get there on river. There are not a lot of bluffs on the river here. Most river bluffs probably would be 2 pair turned into a bluff, and you block those also. A 5 in your hand is a better blocker to make a call here, still thin tho. Would need a clear read to call here. Maybe fold turn even. 80% vippers give you spots later to get them.


Hand 2: C/C on flop is way more flexible. You dont fold out any hands that have decent equity against you. He calls with his P+FDs, rejams sets and straights with FD. IF you just call you can get away from flush turns, or take the pot away if he checks back turn. After he calls flop x/r, you are dead. Just an awkard stack size to x/r on a flush flop. If SPR was less it makes more sense. But with room to play, C/Call has to be more profitable.


Hand 3: Why bet this flop? Its dry, yes. But you have 4 callers!!! 4!!! Your hand is very weak here. Your backdoor FDs are not high. You have no QT9.
You beat nothing and have bad equity against anything that x/raises you, and are behind most calls. Against a single opponent, this would be okay, depending on the player. But against 4 players.. and being wedged in the middle here.. you are lighting money on fire by betting this flop. When you call the c/r, you are just trying to bink your draw is isnt very nutty. If you check, free card maybe! Thats good. Or btn bets, and player5 c/r then you have easy fold, and lose minimum. The point is you are crushed everytime more than your c-bet goes in.

Thnks for the input, delivery

Last 3k hands or so on ignition have been a nightmare. Basically after getting moved down from 500, my backer has had me playing 2 tables at once because he's unhappy with my play. This is extremely frustrating, and I've been running really poorly, so have been losing a lot. He's telling me to think about stuff in different ways, which is fine, but frustrating to have immediate disastrous result. I really wish I could just be left to my own devices to some extent, instead of having somebody making knee jerk reactions every time I make an incorrect river call. Also, I'm still sour about getting moved down from 500 after a single session, I hope to be back there soon. But given how results oriented my backer seems to be, I think it's unlikely.



In addition to getting crushed on ignition, I'm down 10k already this month at 2/4 on the small club app game. He says there is no cheating or collusion, and he is basically completely sure. So if I am trusting this, the only way forwards is through the downswing.

In addition to this, my volume has been getting slashed. Because my backer is depositing only in $800 amounts, and I'm on such a downswing that I drain the account in 2 hours, and can't play until the next day.

So roughly 17k in makeup, and being told I can only play 2 tables at once is annoying. But he did say we can talk about early payout for this month, so that's something at least.

I'm not playing my best poker, but I'm playing winning poker. This just feels like a pretty sick downswing.

As for the actual play, I have been getting bluffcaught light, trapped when I have nothing, not getting to later streets with my strong hands because they are just folding early. It's pretty frustrating.

I have talked to my backer about getting vision and the upswing PLO course added to makeup, he said he wants to see another week of grinding first.

Sorry to hear about your downswing, definitely tougher to see an imminent upswing when your backer is restricting you to two tables. I know because my deposit limits are low on GG (could only deposit 2 stacks for PLO100 a couple of times a week) it was a pain in the ring to play good poker knowing I only had a certain amount of BB to work with.

Do you think you will be continuing with the backer once you get out of makeup? I don't have any advice other than being BE after 25k hands is a constant for any competent player and will happen loads, so I'm sure he understands this and he should act accordingly - It would be higher EV for him to take some pressure off you, right?

Have you used PLO trainer? In terms of applicability and training spots I think it is far superior to VISION, although I use the 5card versions I am sure it's similar.

Anyway, hope to see you posting your upswing in a couple weeks time, GLGL

At least you have a backer! I made over 75k last 2 years, and due to a car accident and other health issues I had to spend my bankroll on life and take a few months off from poker to get another bankroll!

Imagine your scenario with no backer!!! All the stress of your dwindling bankroll, with no safety net!

I would love to have someone give me money to play with and then give me advice/help in structuring my lifestyle. At least until I had enough of my own money to play reasonable stakes.

It sux to have someone criticize your play when you are losing. But even if you don't agree with them, there is a reason they see it like that, and most likely others see it that way also. Even if you plan on proving them wrong down the line, take their advice for now. Even if you study GTO just to exploit it, take their advice in the same vein. You only have to pander it to it while you are not making them big bucks.

Don't get caught in just going through the motions because your situation is not inspiring.

Get those study tools and get good enough to leave your backer!

Hi, I plan on staying with this backer until I have enough saved and I have the skills to succeed on my own. I used to use trainer, but have run into confusing outputs, I believe I posted some earlier ITT. Backer believes that vision sims are much higher quality than PLO trainer, and I agree with him.

I hope to be posting upswing as well soon! Gl at the tables

Yeah, having a backer for sure alleviates stress.
An 8k downswing as a broke student would be awful!
Agree with your advice regarding criticism of play. I still feel like I don't know as much as my backer does, but it's annoying when I'm "playing well" and making mistakes that I just don't know are mistakes. Which has happened quite a lot recently. Combined with not being able to study with vision, it's like what am I supposed to do!

100 bi is a BR 40k you lost like 10k guess he will break up after half. x) glgl

Double down on the things you can control..

Breathing, diet, exercise, meditations, life management, engaging in other rewarding activities, self analysis, etc.

If you want mainly just money from poker, you will ultimately burn out.

If you learn to enjoy the entire process, including the downs, you have a good chance long term.

Make climbing the mountain WELL your goal, you will surpass those who make getting to the top of the mountain their only goal.

Double down on YOU, and bring 100% focus on what you CAN do, NOW.

keep thinking about hand #3.. if you really want to bet/call in that spot 4 ways, betting like 5-7$ into the 35$ pot makes sense. This way, when you get reraised, it is against a slightly larger range (assuming because your bet is smaller/probier/weaker), and it keeps the SPR higher, allowing you more manuverability in later streets. And if you want bet/fold in that spot, you can bet 30-35$, because now you are up against a stronger range that you are not well against. I am personally probably only betting like less than 10% of my range in that spot, so its basically just a check, to c/c or c/r. Obviously we are not folding to most single raises on this flop, but not loving more than HU action. I dunno.. 5 way flops are kinda tricky, and have a lot to do with table dynamics.