Thanks guys. Hand 1, villain was bluffing with AQ. Hand 2, villain had AK.

In my new approach, AJ is a hand I have in my limping ranges, so that won't an issue.

It took me a lot longer than I wanted, but finally got my preflop ranges worked out. Part of it was that actually calculating and planning my ranges took longer, part of it was laziness. I have spent a lot of my poker time in the last month doing theoretical work, and got a bit tired lol. Ah well, am about to put in my first session now with the new preflop ranges.

Will start doing postflop ranges a little at a time, maybe in a few days. Will see where my trouble spots are and work on postflop ranges for those spots first.

Ok, so for this month, I need to focus on playing every spare hour I have. I need to get a lot more serious about putting in hands & hours. So I will stop updating for now and try to come back at the end of July with an update. Maybe if things are going well (meaning I'm playing more hours than I thought I would), I'll pop in here and there. But otherwise, my focus this month is just putting in time at the tables!

gl with the grind

Thanks mike. Happy with my volume so far. About to head to work, but cut my session 10 minutes short because I just couldn't take any more bad beats today. 2.5 hours, 6BI under EV. So I have a couple minutes to update here.

Played 12k hands since I started focusing on volume, over 2-3 days. Not bad considering I work about 55 hours a week. Just need to keep it up. Been running horribly though. Somehow still winning at 5bb/100. Anyway, that's it for this small update lol. Here's the graph.

Nice work ethic, keep the volume up.
Those bad beats will dissapear soon.

Thanks mike. Played a few more hands.. Still 8BI under EV total, but felt like my luck in other areas was finally turning around a bit. On pace for a 165k hand month while working every day 7-9 hours. If I can manage that, I'll be happy. I'm 21-22 tabling right now, hopefully will get that up to 24 soon.

Total graph since focusing on volume:

Just a small update with my goals. My estimate of 165k hands was based on my average hands per hour so far, where I started playing less tables. I will be 22-tabling (at least) the rest of the month, so my goal is to have 250k hands played by the end of the month. Might be hard to do given my work schedule, but that's the goal.

Updated bankroll management... I need to make enough to pay some bills, so will probably stay at nl2 until I make enough for that (probably around $600). Will continue to be conservative now with BRM, because now this is a part-time job. No more fooling around. Will try to amass large numbers of hands at each stake I play as I move up, to have a lot of data to analyze as I work on improving my game.

Goal is to have a base of 100BI at each stake, and then to shot take whenever I am in excess of that, and when paying bills is not an immediate concern. So for example, I can take a 4BI shot at nl5 when I have $220, and when I've made enough (and withdrawn) for that month's bills.

Updates this month will continue to be short, and I will probably not have time to post hands (unless I find a bit of time here and there). But will try to at least post graphs.

Bankroll: $138.78

do you use something like table ninja? or just stacking everything?
well if you need the side income your brm seems fine to me.

Gl

No, I don't use anything like that. Just (obviously) Poker Tracker, and stack the tables.

I spent a bit of time yesterday and today going through my financial situation. Looking at all the bills I'll need to pay, and estimating my income for the rest of the month. There's a chance I won't need to withdraw at all this month, but if I do, I might only need to cash out $100 or $200.

What I'm thinking about doing is sticking at nl2 until my next paycheque (in about a week). And then depositing what I need to bring my bankroll to $500. This would give me a bankroll of 100BI for nl5. Then I can comfortably (and professionally) grind nl5 as my "base level". Obviously, I would need to then cash that amount out, plus any additional money I might need, by the end of the month. But most likely, playing at nl5, I'll have made more than enough to cover that. Especially if I put in 200k hands the rest of the month (so variance is not a huge risk).

I already know I'm a winning player at nl5 (if I just go back to basics, and none of that GTO-type experimenting stuff). And by 22 (or even 24)-tabling at nl5, I'll be able to make enough side income to pay the remainder of my monthly bills, and continue to grow the bankroll. Or build up a bit of a financial cushion first.

The experimenting phase is over for now, but might start doing that again in the future once I'm playing a bit higher. I almost feel like I should start a new thread, as the title is misleading now lol. Except the first part, I'm still trying to go from nl2 to the top.

250k hands this month at 5nl? Think I would rather quit poker. Gl though man

nuts

i would go for the 5nl imo,
continue to grow your bankroll and with that volume you could reach 25 nl very quick imo.
and if you could grind these as a side income you will be good i think.

Thanks guys, I am nuts lol.

My paycheque is tomorrow, but I started playing nl5 today. But I only played 15-17 tables. Will most likely deposit a bit tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on when I deposit my cheque). Then ramp it back up to 24 tables.

Mike, not sure about rushing to nl25 haha. I haven't had any success at nl10 in a couple years I think, so will mainly stick to nl5 for now. When I have some extra disposable income in my bankroll, will give nl10 a try again. I think I could be a winner there without further work on my game, as I feel I've improved a little. But I'm not going to chance it until I can afford it. But still would like to play higher.

then go for the slow and steady grind haha,
gl buddy

Slow and steady it is lol. Bit disappointed in my hands played so far. It's hard putting in a lot of hours when you work 55 hours a week, but I will do better in the last half of the month.

I have 53k hands so far, but I can still easily hit 200k by the end of July. Graphs so far:

Total (NL2 + NL5):


NL5 only:


Bankroll: $213.78

Will post a challenge update just to summarize everything so far, since I haven't really done much of that lately. But a couple things first. I won't be needing to cash out from my bankroll for expenses this month, as my paycheques will cover this. So I'm free to grow my roll and/or take shots as I see fit. For the next six months, assuming the same work schedule, I probably will only need to cash out $0-200 per month. So I have a lot of flexibility in what to do with my bankroll.

I also didn't deposit anymore money into my bankroll like I was planning to do once I got my paycheque. I decided to just keep it simple. So I'm just 18-tabling at the moment. But I noticed the difference in hands per hour between 18 and 24 tables doesn't seem too big, so thinking I might stick at 18-20.

I'm going to try and be disciplined and stick to nl5 until the end of the month. I'm anticipating having somewhere around $750 US in my bankroll at that point. From that point on, I will always strive to at least have $500 as a 100BI cushion for nl5. This number will increase when nl10 becomes my base game. I'm thinking at the start of August, I will take $80 (assuming I have at least $580) and give nl10 an 8BI shot. Anyway, on to the summary.

I make the distinction of before July and after July, because that's when I made the decision to focus more on volume and what was working before, rather than experimenting with a GTO approach. Going forward, I will probably continue in this direction, and analyze my database for areas in which I'm losing more money as I move up in stakes (relative to previous stakes). At some point in time at (much) higher stakes, I may or may not go back to experimenting more.

===============================

-----------------Before July:-----------------

NL2:
Hands: 12,906
Hours: 22.7
Profit: +$23.31
Winrate: 9.03 bb/100

NL5:
Hands: 8,241
Hours: 16.3
Profit: -$3.00
Winrate: -0.73 bb/100

NL10:
Hands: 4,733
Hours: 8.4
Profit: -$51.08
Winrate: -10.79 bb/100

Total:
Hands: 25,880
Hours: 47.4
Profit: -$30.77


-----------------Since July:-----------------

NL2:
Hands: 38,925
Hours: 24.8
Profit: +$71.39
Winrate: 9.17 bb/100

NL5:
Hands: 14,756
Hours: 9.4
Profit: +$52.91
Winrate: 7.17 bb/100

Total:
Hands: 53,681
Hours: 34.2
Profit: +$124.30

-----------------Total Results:-----------------

Days since Challenge Start: 2 months
Hands Played: 79,561
Hours Played: 81.6

Starting Bankroll: $93.59
Current Bankroll: $213.78
Amount Cashed Out: $0.00
Total Profits: $120.19

Well done going in the right direction

Your volume goal sounded incredible even before I read that you had a day job. I would have predicted that you'd be breakeven at best if you played 20+ tables, but you're proving me wrong so far. Keep it up if you can.
If you've got a an "auto-pilot strategy" that beats the lowest stakes for 5bb+, you can take time off to do some deeper analysis (and make some tweaks to your gameplan) when you've reached your volume or bankroll target. If nothing else, you'll have a ****ton of stats and hand histories to pore over at the end of the month. Good luck!

Thanks Mike and Arty.

Well, I've only had success with this at nl2 and nl5. I've lost over a 150k hand sample at nl10. I have improved a little since I've used this strategy last at nl10, and I did run bad quite a lot when I was at nl10. So if I were to play today at nl10 with this strategy, I might be a small winner. I would probably have to do some work on my game first though.

A couple days ago, I lost 5.5BI due to running bad, and a bit of tilt. I can usually handle tilt alright and continue playing fine/sticking to the system. But I spewed a couple of times in 3bet pots. I then called it quits for the day. Today, played the million dollar freeroll on Stars, and came away with $12 (20870/76400). Lost a couple preflop all-in battles with KK and JJ, both vs Ax. That pretty much sealed my fate lol.

Yesterday, I had another one of those moments where I came up with an idea for a new strategy. Since I am ahead for the month (with respect to paying bills), I am going to pursue this a little. It's not anything totally radical or anything, but certainly a bit different. If I ever have moments like this where a (possibly) bright idea pops into my head, I will allow myself the opportunity to try it out as long as I can afford to without putting myself at risk financially. You never know when you might stumble across something that might work better at higher stakes.

It'll probably take a day to flesh out the framework. Then will try it out for a bit. If I have better results, I will keep going with this. If not, I'll go back to what was working before. But part of my love for this game is experimenting and coming up with ideas. So if I don't allow myself to do this when ideas come to me, I'd be stifling myself lol.

so you gonna crush mtt's :P

Lol no, cash games are still my game of choice. I played that freeroll mtt cause 75000 of 76400 places paid at least $5 (approximately). Basically, don't get knocked out in the first minute and get at least $5 lol. I enjoy the odd tourney here and there, but they're rather inconvenient time-wise. And I like cash games better.

Haha sorry i was joking, i played it too managed to get in 3000th place :P
I Always mix mtt's and cash, but ik like mtt's more. Cashgame is for me to be better than the average mtt player. and that works perfect.

Nice, you weren't one of the guys who got lucky with their Ax against my KK or JJ were you? If so, you and I are bitter enemies! Lol, kidding of course.

Not sure what you were meaning with the last sentence (well, last two sentences)..

Haha no cracked QQ two times :P. Third time againt QQ i couldn't break them :P

Haha sorry for my english writing:P.
Well ik play mtt's as my default game. but Mtt's player are mostly very bad postflop and deepstacked. (they are asualy the best in the one and done game:P)

So i decided to play cashgames on the side to get decent abc game etc. And get an edge deepstacked en postflop.

Best thing i ever done

Ok, I get what you mean now lol. Yeah, I can imagine that will help a lot.