reading this just makes me feel very sad that you are wasting your time constructing your range on something like this and considering to limp in early position, maybe smallblind, dealer button, okay.. but UTG limp lol, don't bother even wasting your time doing this, why do something that no professional at 6max who has made money doesn't bother doing. It's simply way too complicated and there is easier ways to generate money.

edit: the day you see OTB start doing this, then by all means figure it out, if OTB is not doing it you should not even bother.

Thanks for chiming in here ImaChampion, appreciate the advice. It may not be the best idea, but it's something I want to play around with. I feel I can develop a solid strategy with open-limping ranges. I wouldn't consider it a waste of time, because I'm having fun. I don't mind developing my own style (assuming it works). And if I have success with this approach, it would be even more satisfying.

I agree, it's more complicated, but that's ok. I'm willing to put in the work now. Just because no professional has done something, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. It just means that there is a greater chance that doing so might be unsuccessful. Again, I don't think the difference in EV would be too different. But I think there is a lot more potential for opponents to make more mistakes against me.

I'm not trying to dismiss your advice. I appreciate that you're only trying to help. If things don't go well with the limping, then yeah, I'll go back to just open-raising everything. But it's an idea that I came up with (which I think has potential), that I want to try out. No harm in it; If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Would like to hear any creative strategies for BRM if anyone has any. Something that will get me to nl25 or nl50 quickly, but not something that has a good chance of wiping out my roll lol.

I've come up with a different version that I think I like more than the previous one:

-Grind nl2/nl5 until I have a BR of $300 (or just deposit to bring my BR up to $300).
-Play nl10 until I make 2.5BI.
-Play nl25 until I make 1BI.
-Play nl50 until I make 1BI.
-Play nl100 until I make 1BI.
-Play nl200 until I make 2BI.
-If at any point I drop below $300, drop back down to nl5 and start the process again.

If I succeed in making these 7.5BI, I will have made $600 profit (so will have a BR of $900). I will then go back to nl25 and take a 24BI ($600) shot. If I lose those 24BI, then I start over again. And probably work a bit more on my game also lol.

I think this has a bigger probability of quicker success. With a bit of luck, I could quickly build a decent roll to play at nl25. And once I build my roll a bit at nl25, I can take more regular shots at nl50. If anyone has any other BRM ideas, I'd be interested to hear them. Still haven't definitively decided on anything.

I was initially thinking I'd be ready to get back to playing mid-August, but progress has been slower than I'd have liked. I'm going to set Sept 1 as my tentative return back to playing. Still have a lot of range work to do, and still working 55 hours a week.

Studying's going well, albeit slow. It's hard work trying to come up with as complete a set of ranges (both preflop and postflop) as possible. Will take a break with the studying for now and get back to playing.

I have about $130-ish in my bankroll. I want to start a new challenge with a more structured approach, $100 to $x (haven't decided what 'x' is yet). That means I will need to bring my BR to $100. So once I get my BR to $100, I will create a new PG&C thread (and link to it here), with a detailed process of the plan of my BRM and how I will get to the target goal. It should provide for good entertainment, as I plan to be creative in getting out of the nanostakes.

So I want my BR to start at $100. I was originally going to just cash out the excess money, but then I thought, why not gamble with it? So I am playing nl25 either until my BR falls down to $100, or until I win enough to start my new challenge a bit higher. So maybe $250 to $x or something. Either way, will keep you updated here.

Don't create another thread imo, just keep going.

I'm new but what you're doing makes no sense.


Don't try and re invent the wheel, if you have $130 play nl5 then when you get to $200 play nl10 etc etc etc....

There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

Thanks Brokenstars, will keep going in here then.

Well, I feel I've still put in a lot of work. I'm just trying to find a way to speed up the process. But the main reason I want to speed it up is because I feel the strategy I'm working on won't work as well at the lowest levels. My strategy is based on balance and more "GTO-oriented" play. I think rake will be a much bigger factor in determining how successful this strategy is, and so I'd like to be able to play higher, quicker. My strategy involves getting my stack in quite a bit more, so having a lower rake cap would be helpful.

As for playing nl25 with the "extra" $30.. Firstly, I just wanted a chance to get a feel for nl25 using the strategy I've developed so far, and to get a feel for how nl25 plays these days. Not sure how high I'll try and run it up, but I'll keep going for now, and start the revamped challenge soon.

Played a quick session before work. 36 hands (told you it was short lol), made $9.89. So BR's at $140. Will play another session, and then update with a graph for both.

Another short session. 3-tabled nl25, and feeling like I'll do well here once I do more theoretical work on my strategy. Will do that eventually, once I have a high enough bankroll to give nl25 a serious shot.



BR is at $135.64. Again, freerolling with the extra $35. Still not entirely sure what to do with the extra money if I'm able to run it up to a "sufficient" amount. Might keep it in the bankroll, or cash out at some point to go back to $100.

EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention.. won $1 for the Stars Jacks or better challenge (if I remembered the name correctly). Would be nice to win a bigger prize though

Decided against playing anymore nl25, and just cashed out everything over $100 (which was about $35USD, or $45 here in Canada). So my BR is at $100 exactly and I'm ready to start the revamped challenge!

This will be more structured, and will be goal-oriented. I will have one main goal, divided into a few different stages. And I will post weekly goals, which will hopefully keep me on track to complete the bigger goals. I will post weekly updates, instead of the daily updates I was doing before. Weekly updates will consist of results/graph(s), progress towards the bigger goals, and which weekly goals were met/ not met, and new weekly goals for the next week. Oh, and also interesting/entertaining hand histories. Weeks will start on Wednesday, and go until Tuesday. This is how my work scheduling is done, so I want to keep it consistent. Easier for me that way lol. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I work about 55 hours a week. So poker will be done outside those hours.

Ultimately, I decided against those more crazy BRM ideas above, as I don't want to keep my bankroll stagnant until succeeding. I want my bankroll to grow, so that I can withdraw from it if the need arises (such as unexpected expenses).

So here's hoping for the best. Appreciate all comments, and will post the intro for my challenge shortly.

==================== GOALS =======================
==
== Overall Goal of this Challenge: $100 to $10,000 in 10 Months
==
==
== Sub-Goal #1: $100 to $300 at NL2 (1.3 weeks)
==
== Sub-Goal #2: $300 to $1100 at NL5 (1 month)
==
== Sub-Goal #3: Finish developing my "GTO-like" strategy (2 weeks)
==
== Sub-Goal #4: $1100 to $10,000 at NL100 (8 months)
==
================================================


By the end of this challenge, I want to have established a winning game at NL100, and have a bankroll of 100BI for NL100. This will allow me the opportunity to be able to go pro if I should so desire. Chances are, I will still prefer to at least work part-time. But I should be able at this point to not have to work 55 hours a week.

Time estimates are based on winrates of 10bb/100 at NL2, 3.5bb/100 at NL5, and 2.5bb/100 at NL100, with 3-4 failed NL100 shot attempts. Obviously, I don't know what my NL100 winrate will be, but I chose something that seems reasonably doable (hopefully).


------------------------- BRM -------------------------------
--
-- NL2: $0 - $300
-- NL5: $300 - $1,100 (Move down to NL2 at $200)
-- NL100: $1,100 - $10,000 (Move down to NL5 at $600)
--
---------------------------------------------------------------

Once I get my BR above $200, I always want to have a minimum of 100BI at NL2 when dropping back down. So I will grind enough for 20 NL5 BIs (above that $200) before moving up. Then I just keep grinding at NL5 until I reach $1100.

The reason for this is that I have a strategy that works for me while 24-tabling, but it has only worked for me at NL2 & NL5. But because I can mass multi-table with this strategy, it will still provide me with a higher hourly than trying to take shots at NL10 and NL25 with a few tables. My ultimate goal is to become settled in at NL100 with my more "GTO-oriented" strategy (which still needs more development), so I want to build my bankroll enough for NL100 shots the quickest route, which is probably just grinding away at NL5.

This BRM approach will give me 5BI shots at NL100 each time I grind up to $1100. If my BR drops back down to $600, I will move down to NL5 to grind back up. I plan to 4-table NL100 during these shots, with the possibility of adding a couple more tables once my bankroll increases a bit more, and once I become more familiar with my newer strategy. Of course, this challenge is dependent upon my new strategy being able to win at NL100. But I am confident it will be.

Will post again shortly with my weekly goals for week #1.

Goals for Week #1 (Aug 23 - 30, 2016):

(I'm including Tuesday Aug 23 in this week)

1) Play for 45 hours
2) Play 81,000 hands

I think this is doable. I don't have any more goals for this week, as I don't expect to be able to complete Sub-Goal #1 this week (getting BR to $300). I expect to almost make it though. I want to get off to a good start though, and accomplishing these two weekly goals will do that.

You seem to be playing more hands this week than I've played this year, and I'm not sure if I should be ashamed of my lack of work ethic, or smug about it. Good luck with your "insane" volume target!

Well, you can feel better knowing I'm nowhere close to those goals this week. I had one session, but I just lacked the motivation to grind like a madman. I feel like I need to finish the theory side of things first, before resuming playing. Probably just a mental thing, but gonna switch the order around and gonna finish working on my ranges/lines first. Then hopefully I'll have the peace of mind to continue grinding.

Can't post a weekly summary yet, since PT4 won't run for me at the moment. Started happening a few days ago; currently communicating with support to try and fix this. But not much of an update anyway. Probably somewhere between 5-10k hands only. As I mentioned above, wanting to get more of the theory/range work out of the way first. Just feel like I have a bit of a mental block.. I know I have a ton more work to do off the tables to (more or less) complete my strategy. And I kind of get discouraged a little to play knowing that sooner or later I'm gonna have to get around to finishing that. So that's why I'm doing it now.

Oops, accidentally hit post before finishing post

Overall Goal of this Challenge: $100 to $10,000 in 10 Months [$98.81 - 0% complete]

Week 1 Results:

Total Profit: -$1.19


Goals:
1) Play for 45 hours [Not complete - only 4 hours]
2) Play 81,000 hands [Not complete - only 7198 hands]

Recap: Decided to spend most of the week on theory instead of playing. Trying to get that out of the way so I can just concentrate solely on playing most of the rest of the way.

Hit a road bump though, and will have to redo all the work I have done. Before, I was just guessing (an educational guess, mind you) on the size of my open-limping ranges. Yesterday, I had an "aha" moment where I realized the size of my open-limping ranges were wrong (too small). In the back of my mind, I had a hunch they might be, but couldn't figure out how to determine how wide I should be open-limping. So I just went with my original guess.

Last night, I believe I figured out a more accurate way to determine how big my open-limping ranges should be. Or at least I hope it is. So I will have to go back and redo my work, which should set me back another week or so. But it will be worth it. I want my ranges to be as good as possible.

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

Goals for Week #2 (Aug 31 - Sep 6, 2016):

1) Redo preflop ranges for open-limping, calling an iso-raise (when open-limping), open-raising, calling 3bets (when open-raising), 4betting (when open-raising), calling a 5bet (when open-raising & 4betting)
2) Redo postflop ranges/lines for single-raised HU pots where I was the preflop raiser, and where I'm IP postflop.

Just thought I'd pop in to update things. I haven't posted here since the last update, because I kind of felt it would be a bit pointless. But it's been a while now, so just letting you know I'm still alive lol. Still working on my game off the tables.

A few times, I'd work on my ranges, and then realize a better way to construct them. Or find a better way to design my lines. I've finally settled on the final GTO-like strategy, and now it's time to systematically build my ranges until I have a fairly complete strategy.

I'm 100% finished with my preflop ranges. I'm currently working on my postflop ranges for single-raised pots as the preflop caller. Basically, I listed all the lines I can take with my strategy (such as call-bet-bet, etc.), and am designing ranges for each line. This will result in a lot of information, but I figured out a way to organize it all and be able to look through it fairly quickly in the heat of playing.

I have no plans to change my strategy further, so hopefully I can finish this up in a decent amount of time. I'm hoping I will get back to the tables before the end of October. I really miss playing, but I want to get this finished first.

Ok, I need to start getting some playing in. It's mentally draining to be doing all off-the-table work all the time lol. So I'm thinking about splitting my time in a 2:1 or 3:1 play-to-study ratio. So I will play with my new ranges (as far as I've developed them), while playing to the best of my ability in spots where I haven't completed my ranges yet. As I do more theory work bit by bit, I will incorporate them into my play. I figure just having my complete set of preflop ranges is good enough for nl2 anyway. And as I move up, I should have spent enough time working on my new ranges by that time to have a decent enough strategy for the next level.

That all being said, I will re-start my challenge. I have one main goal I will start with. I want to be able to play professionally starting at NL100. To do this, I want to have 100 BIs to be able to play with at NL100 (before having to move back down to NL50). According to my BRM below, I move back down to NL50 at $2650. So my main goal is to achieve a BR of $12,650. After that, it'll be time to set a new goal.

Goal #1: Achieve a bankroll of $12,650.

BRM Guidelines:

Level-Up [NL2 -> NL5]: $150
Level-Down [NL5 -> NL2]: $100

Level-Up [NL5 -> NL10]: $200
Level-Down [NL10 -> NL2]: $100

Level-Up [NL10 -> NL25]: $650
Level-Down [NL25 -> NL10]: $400

Level-Up [NL25 -> NL50]: $1,650
Level-Down [NL50 -> NL25]: $1,150

Level-Up [NL50 -> NL100]: $3,650
Level-Down [NL100 -> NL50]: $2,650

Level-Up [NL100 -> Goal Complete!]: $12,650

(Disclaimer: At any point, if I feel like I can earn more $/hr by reverting to mass multi-tabling NL2/NL5 with my old strategy, I may choose to do so. This may help me speed more quickly through the early stages, but at the expense of getting practice time in with the new strategy. I may also choose to make a small deposit --maybe a couple hundred or something -- to my BR for the same reason. My goal is to reach $12,650 (and to more fully develop my strategy) so that I have the option to play NL100 full-time. If I feel my new strategy is fleshed out enough for the next level already, I may try to speed up the early stages by one of those two other options.)

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

This is it! No more changing things around! I need a solid BRM strategy and need to stick to it. I also need a solid plan for continuing my theory work, and have that as well. So now my real journey begins!

Current BR: $98.60 [0.78% Complete]

Theory Work Done:
- Preflop Ranges Complete
- Open-Limping (non-raised pots), heads-up and 3-Way, finished B-B-B postfop lines for each position.
- Open-Raising (non-rasied pots), HU, finished B-B-B postflop lines for each position.
- Calling an EP open-raise, HU, finished complete set of postflop lines

Would you mind sharing your study methodology for developing your theory work?

My sides. I love it.

I can't believe how delusional some people still are about poker. Are you still in BPC? Because, if you can't beat micros for 10bb+/100 after years of playing and struggling, poker just might not be for you. Take a ****ing brake and come back, go do something else than poker and enjoy life. Why the **** do you emphasize so much about poker, you have zero balance whatsoever. I was in same shoes like you, trying 5-6+ hours a day, 6 tabling +, blablabla. This is complete stupidity. Go and play 3-4 tables of regular tables, TAKE IT ****ING EASY AND CHILL and come back to me with your results after a week.

You don't need to put in 8 hours if you are still a losing player, just make ****ing sure you know why you are winning at a certain limit and making ''gto'' moves here and there. Making goals like 'this week I'm gona do this and this' is fine, but don't ****ing overestimate and burn yourself. As I said, I thought doing the same is what a beginner needs to do and in some extreme cases it might work.

The thing is you HAVE TO take poker EASY from the beginning and if you enjoy it and know and understand what the **** you are doing + winning, your love is going to develop naturally. You won't need to set weekly goals, because you are just going to play whenever you feel like it.

There is much more to be said, but just keep in mind what I told you. Table select, don't play more than 4 tables and be AWARE of your opponents and position at the table. I really wish looking back, I had a friend that would punch me in the face as I've gotten into poker and just take it easy from the beginning and not dream about being Isildur or whatever brainwashing happened to you. The only thing your dick should get a hard on from, is you watching strategy videos and reviewing hands. Stop playing poker completely and review hands for 2 weeks straight and buy RIO essential and watch some videos. And please don't ****ing watch and learn 8-10 hours per day, just ****ing take it easy and do like 4 hours of poker work per day. I f you really love poker, this is all you should care about right now. Having fun understanding hands and theory, then when you feel ready, hit the tables.

Forget about what others do in Progress and Challange, that's entertainment. There are of course people that somehow crush from the beginning they start playing, but that is not you. It's nothing wrong if you don't crush like some people and have unreasonable wok ethic. Just make sure you see yourself for what you are and not compare yourself to some other siickos and crushers out there.

Sorry, but you are delusional pathetic guy that has failed at poker for years I guess. Take it ****ing easy, before poker consumes few years of your life and you are going to keep lying to yourself how you are going to start this week and do this and this. TAKE A BREAK AND CLEAR YOUR THOUGHTS FROM POKER THEN COME BACK WITH REALISTIC GOALS AND NOT SOME GOALS YOU READ ON INTERNET. I swear to god you are not better than sluts posting motivational and life quotes on facebook and they keep being earthworm brain dumb.

You know why some people that are much stupider and have zero work ethics comapre to you crush? Because they play 1-2 tables or 3-4 tables and have fun playing, enjoying themselves, laughing as they play and sometimes lose money. However, they have balance, they know where they stand and that's what you need to have in order to win. Forget about everything else.

rickroll: Sure. Most of my time so far has been spent figuring out how I want to go about things lol. Such as how to figure out how to best model my game after a GTO approach. Started by coming up with all my preflop ranges. Then for each of these ranges, I need to come up with postflop ranges for each possible line.

So, take open-raising for example. When I open-raise preflop, one possible postflop line is to bet all three streets (B-B-B). So I come up with a B-B-B line for each position that I can open-raise preflop. Other lines include stuff like B-X-X, or X-C-C, or X-B-B. You get the idea. I figure out what percentage of my range I want to include for each action in the line (based on game theory-type math), and then figure out the hand-values to do it with. So I might bet the flop with 2 pair or better, and Q-high or worse (for example). Just a rough outline of how I'm doing things.

Egption: Yeah, I've bounced around a bit between ideas lol. Hoping to have found something to stick to this time.

N0M3RCY: Not in BPC anymore. I can beat NL2/NL5 with their approach, but not NL10. I have had some success in the past, but at some point my game just deteriorated. You say to stop playing for a bit.. I actually haven't done much playing at all over the last couple months. Most of my "poker" time has been study/theory work. I work 50-60 hours a week, so I wouldn't say poker has consumed my life.

417 hands, -$8.97.
Current BR: $89.62 [0.71% Complete]

Played almost 3 hours earlier, got off to a rough start. Played a couple hands badly, but mostly just ran into some bad luck. I'll post some hands, and you can let me know your thoughts.

-----------

This hand was spew by me, I think. The guy was a 45/3 fish, so when he just shoved the flop like that, I just thought it was a fish playing around. Should have probably folded, as I don't need to defend very much against such a large overbet.



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

4bet pot, probably standard?



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

Standard cooler?



---------

Don't know if raising the river is the greatest play here. At NL2, I think they might be calling with enough worse. But probably borderline at best.



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

2nd nuts vs nuts.



---------

This hand I'm ok with, as I'm making money all day long here. He's calling overbets like that with a gutshot, which means in the long run, I'm profiting. Just how my session was going lol.

What I meant was how is it that you go about this not what you are doing but how. I find it very strange you're trying to reinvent the wheel and wondering how you are going about tackling it. What software, in details could you please write out a step by step. Is this software derived, gut instinct, modifying a published gto plan?

Given how much of the game has already been gto solved already in theory, I'm very interested about why and how you are going about it. If you'd rather pm me that kind of stuff I'd happily read it there as well.

I've been wondering about this since I first read the thread, as well. I hesitated in asking because I thought there might be a reason you hadn't gone into it in detail, but if there's no reason I'd love to see a laid out example of your strategy construction.