Hi everybody.

Firstly I want to give you a little bit of a background on myself. I'm 36 and I have been playing poker from late 2008, however in those years I have took a couple of breaks that have been quite lengthy. I started playing very casually and was playing SnGs mainly. Eventually I turned to cash and I've always enjoyed the constant flow of action it provides without being tied up for however long a tourney dictates. I've always been a micro to low stakes player.

My problems in the past have mostly been to tilting off after a good stint because I've been impatient about getting results too fast. I haven't ever properly put in the long grind with discipline, and I'm sure this has been the case with a lot of players.

The issue has always been that I've put too much pressure on myself to make money at poker whilst not being in a great financial position. However at the moment things in my life are different to how they were back when I was last grinding. I have recently been on an expensive holiday away which I was saving for for a good while. I am now just generally saving and have decent hours in a my job, so with that in mind... poker can be treated as a side hustle that I put good study into and hopefully build it up to something that helps me with my general living.

I am just going to play and enjoy it.

I've put a small deposit into PokerStars as an amount to practise at 5nl with whilst I remember the things I used to know and build on the skills I already have from over the years. I've done a fair bit of study before I've even gotten back into playing any games and I've actually learnt a heck of a lot in the last couple of weeks with that study. My understanding of situations has improved a lot.

I'm doubtfully going to be grinding a lot of hands each month as I just won't have the time given I have to work. But I will do what I can. When I feel that I'm in the swing of things properly again then I'll probably be making a second deposit to comfortably play 10nl with.

For now my BR is just $80 (after a $60 deposit), I've played some cash tables mainly and a couple of $3 tournaments that I didn't cash in so far.

Here is a graph from my database of the last 69k hands, the last 6k or so are from this last week but previous to that the hands were from before I took my last lengthy break. Overall the winrate is at 8.73bb/100 for this specific sample.




I'll be mainly playing regular tables, not Zoom. I find the dynamics interesting and the games overall softer and more fun.

I'll probably update this thread weekly, but sometimes more if I have a reason to. Until next post, thanks for taking the time to read and let's get this!

Hey again! My first update here.

So this week or so I have been working a lot and I usually get home fairly late. I usually have been taking the time before work and when I get home to study.

I've been studying much more than playing, and that's great as I've been enjoying learning a lot of new concepts and ways of thinking. I'm finding poker really fun again! I do find a fair few spots that I'm not comfortable with but I think I've been handling them ok.

I'll post a graph for since I've been playing this year (which basically means this last month). I've made a couple of blunder calls in some spots which I knew at the time were incorrect but let emotion control me. However I was able to quickly identify the mistakes and just move on. It's all good.

I'll be making further addition deposit soon and moving to 10nl after payday, but I'm not rushing anything. I feel good and just want to make sure I have a rock solid foundation!

Catch you lot again soon!

Good Luck! and subbed.

I am also on a similar journey, feel free to check it out. Looking forward to seeing some progress

keep posting and good luck!

Thanks for checking out my thread.

I'll give your thread a follow too swerbs!

I will be posting when I can, I'm having so much fun playing right now. trying out a lot of concepts I've learnt lately. Making some decent red line plays that I never used to do much of. As I said, the 5nl play right now is much of practise for when I jump up stakes. However the big thing is paying attention to make those good folds as people underbluff a fair amount of spots, and also to get used to making the ballsy plays that make the difference.

Very simplified talk from me out of a lot of stuff I've been learning, but I'm having a good time and I'm sure I'll enjoy the ride!

Ok so this is a side thing from my poker, but I think it'll help me in the long run for general life and energy.

I made kind of a pact (for lack of better word) with my girlfriend the other night. She is into fitness and does multiple classes each week and runs a thing called Parkrun, which for those who don't know is a 5k run that people do on a Saturday morning in the UK (although it may be in other countries too?). Parkrun is done in hundreds/thousands of locations around the UK.

I have been a lazy ass as far as my health and fitness goes for a while now and so I said to my girlfriend that I would have to run a Parkrun by the end of July. I just came out with it because I want to force myself to have a fitness goal (as small as it may be) and get myself out there running and exercising too. I actually was exercising a fair bit in the latter end of last year into January and then stopped and I'm not happy with myself for that. So I probably have around 12 weeks or so to get myself into gear.

I'm actually excited for it and I'll be trying to get myself in to bed earlier and waking earlier, though my job doesn't always allow for that as I work the evening/nights and can't get back home until 11:30 and need to wind down. But when I do wind down, I'll make sure it's with a book rather than watching stuff on YouTube.

I'm hoping that this in turn will help me be able to create a kind of schedule in my days and have more energy for things. I want to feel alert and clear minded for my grind and take it seriously. The reason I've posted all of this here is because I want to make it known as something I have to be responsible for.

Also payday came today and I'm not sure I'll make a booster deposit yet for 10nl as I feel like I want to grind up the roll I have as well as sharpen up my game vs the micro players, but I may or may not decide to in the near future. Also I'm not sure where I want to be playing as I move up, I would like a decent rakeback deal but I have accounts already on sites like GG and such. Also I like to have my PT4 on the go (although I don't use a HUD in game as I feel like it often causes me to make mistakes when reading into it too much or incorrectly). So I like to document my results and be able to look back at hands. Also the regular tables on Stars actually are soft, way softer than Zoom. I'll be sticking to the regular tables and like the fact I can have more fun gathering reads and seeing the player types. The donations are pretty frequent on those tables too and I will be table selecting in general.

So for now, I'll go get myself something to each and get ready for work.

Catch you soon!

Ok well I've had a session tonight after a long weekend working the bank holiday shifts on my feet.

I've not been playing a lot because of being busy with work and then being tired, and this next week/month will be similar if not worse due to all the bank holidays coming. But to me it's just money and I'll be pushing to put it into poker. However because I've not felt like playing, I've been studying a lot instead. So it's all good.

Here is an updated graph because people like graphs and stuff. I've probably only played a few thousand hands this week overall. I started with $60 amd have $103 now for those who are curious. I never made a big deal of my BR as I have been planning to add to it with further deposit anyway but let's just chill for now this month and see how my game is. I feel super good though and havng a tonne of fun lately!

Hello again. I'm making this post before I have to endure the bank holiday in my other job.

I'm sure it'll be ok but hey.

I'm gonna post how things ae going and do a few calculation things. Things that are cool to think of.

In theory, if you were to make 5 buyins per week at each buyin level then it would be amazing. Like come on, 5 buyins in a whole week... what is going on with the poker population?

So for 5nl that is 20 bi for a month. If we started at 100 dollars and won 20 bi then that is 200. Basically if we assign 2 months per level then we can make 40 buyins over 2 months for each level if we just chill out and don't go nuts,

If you do the maths then you'll know that within 8 months we can be chilling at 100nl, but we have to make sure we take it easy.


I'll be studying every step of the way and making sure I'm on top of my game. Lets go!

This is the latest graph of nobody cares.

Hey dude, I have been checking in when you update fwiw lol. I like seeing it so keep em coming and keep up the work!

I thought I'd post the graph for the whole day alone.

I'm basically bored an listening to music now before I sleep and have to work a **** weekend.

Cheers dude, I've been doing the same for you too. Just trying to grind when I get my days off work right now!

Hey!

I'm gonna start by posting a graph pic of yesterday. It's my largest amount of hands in a day since the new grind. I only play 4 reg tables at once so it takes a while.



I've been working a lot and just havent had much time to play if I'm honest, but doing the usual study when I have any spare time.

This day had it all though! It was over 3 sessions. I got the money in crushing, to be out drawn in some super cool spots... I also got the money in bad only to outdraw villain. I made some big bluffs, I made some big folds, I was a station at times. It was super fun! I got crushed most of the day as overall I was running into more bad spots than good, but had a nice heater near the end with a couple of 400bb+ tables. Before the last couple of days I have been on quite a run for the amount of hands played. So I was definitely due for my graph to be brought down to earth a bit.

We're sitting at $157 at the moment. Hoping to get some crushing days on the go but I'm back to working the next few days. Maybe I can get a session in later though!

Hello fello grindotrons!

I'm posting this graph not for any usual reasons, but to show you my possible concerns.



I've been plodding at BE in the last few sessions which is fine. I've also still be a bit of a station at times talking myself into making calls on the river when it's an underbluffed spot.
This is an example of what I actually said to myself in one hand... "This guy is bad enough to make this shove with a worse two pair than mine". I was basically just randomly picking at a perceived part of a guy's range and basing a stupid call on nosensical thought. So firstly I need to calm that **** down!
I should probably be at least 2 or 3 buyins higher than I am due to silly mistakes.

But the part of the graph that concerns me is my red line. It's been starting to turn downwards and slightly accelerating. Yes I know this is a tiny amount of hands and I've been table selecting with tables that have more fun players on them which possibly means I'm not bluffing as much vs the stations. But I'm wanting to put a halt to it before it becomes worse.

I'm going to do regular focus sessions on 1 table of Zoom with some checkpoints that I've written down that I want to go through in each hand to make sure I'm reading the situation well and putting my theory into practise and thinking about if and when I deviate vs the type of player I'm facing in each hand. This will be really good for my hand reading speed in the long run and implanting good habits. I don't want to be missing spots that I should be betting in my normal sessions, or making bad folds/calls that could become the norm if I'm not careful.

I'm taking things really slow and methodical at the moment. partly because I've had a busy month outside of poker. But I also want to keep myself accountable and on top of any mistakes or leaks in my game.

That's it for now anyway. Time for food and then a small focus session!

Having a negative red line on the micros is not at all a problem. The only thing that matters is the green line.

Yes I do agree to an extent especially as the tables I’ve selected have had 3 to 4 players that are extreme recreationals due to my table selection. It’s just that I noticed a bit of a change, but then some sessions I have positive red line and some decline. I’m playing ok apart from some silly station calls here and there. But that’s just something I need to keep on top of! I’m having a lot of fun in the sessions and feel pretty clear minded in general.

What do you think of this line with this hand? I'm not sure how relevant my blockers are. Villain donks flop, can mean a lot really. By river after filtering actions can have Ax FD missed, KT, AT, not as much QJ as played but possible. QTs - JTs if they get sticky with gutshot and pair and villain is a fish type. My blockers do stop some other FD suited connectors but usually villains in pool tend to cold call PP or Broadway in SB.

I can Have KK, TT or AK possibly however I'll generally raise flop but not every time. Not sure about 22, I might often call pre if fish behind. I can have QJ too.

I am however wondering whether I have a general give up vs a fish who might have sticky tendencies, but not sure if my play works enough vs their filtering. They have kind of condensed their range a little and I was feeling punty anyway.

I might be a ble to find some better bluffs like Q9s of clubs. A lot of my range actually wants to check back river for SD value.

I thought it was a fun hand anyway.


PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 47.2 BB
UTG: 306.6 BB
MP: 150 BB
CO: 70.6 BB
Hero (BTN): 100 BB
SB: 105.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 8 7

fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 7 BB, SB calls 6.6 BB, fold, CO calls 5 BB

Flop: (22 BB, 3 players) K T 2
SB bets 5 BB, fold, Hero calls 5 BB

Turn: (32 BB, 2 players) A
SB checks, Hero bets 20.4 BB, SB calls 20.4 BB

River: (72.8 BB, 2 players) 6
SB checks, Hero bets 67.6 BB and is all-in, SB calls 67.6 BB

Hero shows 8 7 (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 39%, Flop 39%, Turn 18%)
SB shows T A (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 61%, Flop 61%, Turn 82%)
SB wins 199.4 BB

Hey man, good thread. Your journey sounds really similar to mine lol (long break from poker, struggle to want to play because of work, sometimes more time/energy to study than play).

Regarding the hand, do you have any reads/stats on the guy in SB? When people just take 3 bets to the face it can be a lot of different ranges depending on what kind of player they are.

Just pretty loose fish who I should probably not get too funky vs, but then it probably widens their range to a few more possible folds than most pool. It's a balance of them having more bad hands and also being a station.

GTO+ sim has a check-back on the turn and then, as played, a check-back on the river as well. Since our assumption is that villains are calling too much I think it's fair to say this hand shouldn't be bluffed. That being said this looks like a play I would make a lot and I imagine isn't terrible or anything.

I gave pretty wide ranges for both you and SB pre which obviously can affect things. 87s seems like an acceptable but not mandatory 3-bet here.

The thing is, real life differs so much from GTO here that we have to take it a bit differently at times. But I do see why GTO checks back turn.

Ok now I have a bit more time to reply to your post about my hand. The more I look at it, the less sure I am I should make this play. Firstly I know one thing, my opponent is a loose/passive looking fun player. I block some possible missed draws, J9/Q9s FD types that are not normally likely but maybe for this person sometimes. I unblock QJ and 2 pair hands which this person can have a fair amount of. And they may not be inclined to fold as much as some with lower 2 pairs on river. I do know that I protect my check back range on the flop however I just don’t think it’s relevant vs a person like this in this situation as I probably just raise the flop with value when they donk into 2 players on a flop that I can see them getting sticky on. I am just praying they have QT, KQ, KJ as they may find sticky calls on turn with a gut shot. However I sized about 2/3 pot on turn with further filters their river range, the 1 pair (2nd pair or 3rd) gut shots may just not find a call OOP and I’m left with a range that given preflop cold call is just too dangerous vs this player.