Greetings everyone! I'm back and ready to start a new PG&C thread.

My background:

I'm a 25 year old guy from Melbourne, Australia, who has been playing poker for the past 5 years. I took my first shot at going pro almost 2 years ago, and whilst I was winning money at the poker tables, I ultimately went busto due to lack of volume and wasting money on unnecessary expenses like bars and restaurants. After that, I took a 1 year hiatus where I barely played poker. I worked for a bit and played a lot of chess in my spare time.

But now, the itch for poker has come back. I quit my job, cancelled my chess membership and I'm ready to take another shot at becoming a poker pro. So I'm starting with a bankroll of roughly $900 (USD) and grinding on the apps. I'll be playing primarily 40nl and 60nl for now, and I'll be looking to take some shots at 100nl soon as well. I consider all of these games to be quite soft.

My living situation:

My wife and I currently live in my mum's house and don't pay rent, so I shouldn't need to withdraw too much from the roll. My only real expenses are: food, phone bill and gym membership.

My wife works full-time at a 5 star hotel and poker is my only source of income now. We're pretty broke right now as we just got back from a 1 month trip to Thailand, but I'm confident that I can grind it up with what we have left.

My weekly routine:

So 4 months ago, I signed up to the gym, and apart from taking a bit of time off when I was sick, I've been going consistently 3+ times every week. This was one of the best decisions I ever made. I've noticed that since getting into this routine, I've been feeling way healthier, more lively and more energetic. It's like I'm suddenly ready to take on the world again.

I feel that sticking to this gym routine is going to be essential for my success, from a psychological perspective. So thus my plan is to basically just gym and poker. That's it. I want to grind poker at least 40 hours per week, and I want to go to the gym at least 3 times per week for 1 hour each session. When I'm not grinding poker, I'll be either posting on poker forums or watching poker videos.

Short, medium and long term goals:

Short term: I want to make sure I stick to my plan of 40+ hours of poker and 3+ gym sessions per week. I also want to build the bankroll up to $2000+ and move up to 100nl before the end of February.
Medium term: I want the roll to become big enough that I can take shots at live poker again, primarily 1/3 NL and 2/5 NL.
Long term: I plan to go back to uni next year and finish off a degree. In the past, I completed 33% of a Science degree (Maths+Stats) and 50% of a Commerce degree (Economics+Finance), so I'd like to return and graduate with one of those. In the meantime, I want to save up as much money as possible through poker.

Thanks for reading! I shall make regular updates here regarding the bankroll and also any interesting hands that come up.

Oh man, this is gonna be good.

I am currently reading your old thread, I am on page 60~ so it will be a long read, but it's epic so far. Don't spoil it more than you already did, by this time I was hoping that you've turned it around, got more disciplined and eventually did something good out of it, but now I've read that you went busto. Oh well, not surprised tbh, but I hope you've changed and it will be better this time.

However, allow me to start with some pieces of advice if I may. First and most important, before starting, and I am dead serious about it: make a membership on Upswing Poker Lab and study everything in the lab. Do it for a few hours per day. I thought I know something until I've studied the Lab.

Second advice: GET A MEMBERSHIP ON UPSWING OR RIO OR WHATEVER AND STUDY HARD! there are so many good things over there.

Third advice: read "The mental game of poker", it's a cool book and it will help you out. Playing high volume online might get you through some crazy swings, I had days when losing 20 buyins in 1 hour of playing zoom on PS, it can be brutal. Online player pool is way better than 1/2 live. For NL100 you need at least 5k if you are serious about going pro, BUT WITHOUT STUDYING YOU CANNOT BEAT THOSE GAMES. YOU JUST WON'T, so please study.

You've mentioned in your old thread that you want to start studying only when playing 2/5+, and that was a huge mistake. Idk what happened next, like I said I am only at page 60 for now.

Good luck with your new journey, I will keep an eye on your progress. And don't forget to study.

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So you have quit your job while currently being essentially broke, and grinding on a sub 20 bi bank roll, ensuring you have already put yourself under maximum pressure and stress all while being rusty at poker after a 1 year break. Looks like we are in stupidville already.

Please no, not again.

Seek help.

Why not? Let him do it, what am I gonna read after I finish his first thread? Prepare for 2$ downswings

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So let's start things off with a couple of HH's that I played within the past 2 days. I may have remembered these slightly wrong but it should be close enough:

Hand 1: Bluffing off a chop

40nl, $180 effective
Villain (MP) limps $0.40
CO limps $0.40
Hero (SB) raises $2.40 with AQdd
Both call

So we're super deep against 2 fish and we have a premium hand. Looking good so far...

Flop ($7.60, 3ways) is Ah Kh 9s

Hero bets $3.80
Villain calls $3.80
CO calls $3.80

Turn ($19, 3ways) is Ah Kh 9s 7s

Hero bets $17.50
Villain calls $17.50
CO folds

River ($54, HU) is Ah Kh 9s 7s 9d

Hero bets $54

My logic here is that villain is very unlikely to have trips or any slowplayed monster when he calls down every street like this, so I'm basically freerolling him. He either has a missed draw which won't call any bet, or he has an Ax hand which might get scared and fold to a huge bet, given I have all the AK/KK/AA in my range. I'm hoping to bluff him off a chopped pot.



Hand 2: Battling against a follower

So a player in the chat asked me if I was 6bet me from 2p2. He told me he was a fan, and since I had direct position on him, I started 3betting him a bit, which eventually led to this hand:

60nl, $95 effective
Villain (CO) raises $1.80
Hero (BTN) 3bets $6 with QQ
Villain 4bets $18
Hero calls $18

Whilst there is an argument for 5bet jamming pre, I decided that being in position, I can play most of my range as a flat call. I should be uncapped here, since I'll always be flatting AA in this configuration.

Flop ($36.90) is T77r

Villain bets $11.50
Hero raises to $30.50

I decided to get a little bit fancy here and raise the flop, since I figure villain probably isn't going to fire 2 barrels with his bluffs, so I might as well deny equity from his Ax hands.



Let me know what you guys think of these hands.

**** the haters, crush it dude. also against someone who calls you out as 6bet me I think a 5 bet is mandatory with QQ.

So you are going to be posting hands histories from your memory that are roughly accurate? lol..

honestly though, I think you need to just grind long hours at live poker and nit it up. don't make so many moves, just stick to value betting whales. be a huge nit.

Why did you raise the second hand with QQ? if he is bluffing he will keep on bluffing, if he has you crushed you will get stacked anyway

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@nnandrei: I already bought an Upswing course in the past and it was basically just me paying several hundred dollars to watch some Eastern European guy with a strong accent plug some high stakes hands into PioSolver and not really explain it properly.

Poker Detox was a little bit better because at least it went into the mental game and I found Nick Howard way easier to understand, but I still don't think it was worth the money, especially on such a limited bankroll and with all the free videos available on YouTube.

Thanks man! I appreciate your support

Yeah I considered 5betting pre. I'm still not sure what the best play is. Probably if it was SB vs BTN I would've 5bet jammed to avoid playing OOP.

All the key features of the hand are correct. I might've just rounded like $54.30 down to $54 or some tiny detail like that that doesn't affect anything.

Live poker is expensive though. I'd need at least a 5k roll to be comfortable grinding the $1/$3 games. I've tried taking shots but they didn't always work out so well.

Nitting up works to an extent, but there is such a thing as being too nitty. You sometimes have to make risky thin value bets instead of checking behind. You sometimes need to bluff catch. And so on.

I didn't think he would barrel in to me with his bluffs, at least not at any decent frequency. I thought he would just Cbet flop then shut down if called.

Your logic behind the QQ hand makes no sense. Upswing doesn't only have an "european guy", probably the most important lessons for you are given by Doug Polk and Ryan Fees, none of them are european.

If you want to be an "online pro" you desperately need Poker Tracker for your database (and HUD). You cannot learn without analyzing your plays properly. You are starting on the wrong foot again

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Your old thread is one of the most entertaining ones on 2+2, you will crush this year no doubt.

how do you get on the apps? I live in perth Australia. do they have mtts on them?

get em hotshot!

Slightly ahead or way behind?

60nl 6max, $120 effective with donkey, $62.79 with reg
Hero (CO) raises $1.80 with Qh Qd
Reg (BTN) 3bets to $5.40
Donkey (SB) cold calls $5.40
Hero 4bets $16.20
Reg calls $16.20
Donkey calls $16.20

Flop ($49.20, 3ways) is Th Ts 5h

Donkey donk jams $103.80
Hero ???

I've seen the donkey make some very loose calls preflop and make some zero equity bluffs before, but usually for much smaller amounts of money (50bbs or less). When he puts his entire 200bb stack at risk, I'm quite confident that he has at least a flush draw or weak 2pr. The fact that I have the Qh in my hand reduces the chance he's semibluffing with a FD, and having another player to act behind, who could potentially show up with a decent amount of Tx combos, makes it a very tough spot.

Why are you not tracking hands with poker tracker like every other legit poker player?

Online poker was recently banned in Australia. We can only play on the apps nowadays. And since I've been playing on my phone, I can't use a HUD.

I do tag people though; there's a different colour code for nits, fish, donkeys, regs and aggrotards. Plus you can click their icon and see their VPIP.

Thanks Greippi!

So first you have to choose an app you like (Pppoker, Pokerbros, Pokermaster, etc.), then you have to find an agent (someone that runs a private club within the app for real money), you request to join their club, they approve you, then they'll explain how the deposits and withdrawals work (usually bank transfer).

I've been in a few clubs and they've all run MTTs, NLHE games, PLO games, PLO hi-lo games, and a few other variants. But ultimately, it comes down to what club you join.

You can still play on the ignition website in Australia, and pro grinders use those poker apps on their pc's with trackers not 1 tabling on their phones like a rec fish. You have started your 'pro career' with the level of preparation of some random person off the street who has never heard of poker before in their life.

So today I grinded for about 5 hours total + went to the gym, and made just over $200 profit, putting the bankroll up to a healthy 1.1k USD now. I feel that that's a fairly successful day, even though I could've done better.

I'd rate my game B+ today. Didn't really spew, and I made fairly logical decisions that were consistent with my overall strategy. I did have one hand though where I cold called a 3bet with KJs when we were short-handed, and then proceeded to value own myself on a QJxx board when the 3bettor checked to me with his QQ. If I was playing my A game, I would've just folded pre.

I'm having my wife's friend over to cook a Thai BBQ lunch with us tomorrow, which should be nice, and then I'll try to put in at least 6 hours of grinding after that. Should be a fun day.

Ok good but did you understand what GarbageReg told you? Are you gonna ignore everything again and go full ******?

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in

This should be on your headstone.


Let us all welcome back the undisputed king of PG&C!

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