Given some previous failed challenges in the past, I wanted to make one last thread to see if I am able to actually reach a $10K BR. Been inspired by some of the yt poker players making it seem very feasible to have a decent winrate in online poker in 2023.

I see poker as more of a hobby as I have a traditional job, but I still enjoy the game a lot to want to try and give it a more professional approach. I don’t want to set any deadlines but I hope to reach a 10K BR in 6-8 months. I am starting my BR at $389, and will start with 25NL. I will also count any rakeback as part of the BR. The thread is going to be a way to keep me accountable.

Here’s my 25NL graph for this month.

Best of luck with your challenge, and I hope you reach your $10K bankroll goal!

With a graph like that he'll make 10K from mimicking Picasso paintings reg-fish style

Good Luck, but for a more realistic way, you better start from NL5 or NL10 considering your current BR situation

Thank you man, hope that too haha

Thanks man, appreciate the advice. Only reason I took a more aggressive approach is because I had a small sample suggesting I was likely winning at 25NL so I took the shot being ready to move down if I got destroyed. Very unlikely I will do that for future stakes.

Here's the graph since the start of the challenge.



Here's the graph of the small sample I was referring to (including last couple of days).

25nl winning player inbound. Best of luck & remember that some HS crushers have year-long BE streaks, sometimes!

Thanks man yeah will definitely have to keep that in mind when the inevitable downswing comes!


Here's the graph for the rest of the week at 25NL.



Obviously ran extremely well, but also felt like I played decent. Volume is very poor, but I think it's a function of experimenting with playing short focused sessions. I recently watched a video where Peter Clarke talks about correlation between session length and winrate. One of his students posted a graph with a winrate difference of ~6bb/100 between samples where he played sessions >1hr vs <1hr. So I looked at my sample and took it a step further looking at the 45min threshold and noticed the same thing (~8bb/100 all in-adj difference). I think there are multiple reasons for this but I'm not looking too much into it and just applying it if it means higher winrate.

Also trying to be more aggressive but my WWSF is still a lot lower than what I think is optimal (~46.20). I get this is player dependent, but any common causes for this? For instance my c-bet % is very low, so I am looking to improve on my cbet strategy. Any other suggestions?

Here's also some fun hands from the week:

1. Vs very loose rec, turn sizing is not a thing and screamed combo draw to me. Also had a timing tell here.

BTN: 135.64 BB
SB: 39.44 BB
Hero (BB): 121.72 BB
UTG: 54.08 BB
MP: 49.4 BB
CO: 108.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K Q

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.4 BB, BTN calls 2.4 BB, fold, Hero raises to 13.2 BB, fold, BTN calls 10.8 BB

Flop: (29.2 BB, 2 players) A 3 K
Hero bets 8.36 BB, BTN calls 8.36 BB

Turn: (45.92 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, BTN bets 43.84 BB, Hero raises to 100.16 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 56.32 BB

River: (246.24 BB, 2 players) 4

BTN cashed out 32.16 BB for a fee of 0.32 BB



2. 100% equity on turn always feels good.

BTN: 121.04 BB
SB: 102.8 BB
Hero (BB): 136.88 BB
UTG: 59 BB
MP: 139.24 BB
CO: 101.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 4 3

UTG calls 1 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero checks

Flop: (2.4 BB, 2 players) 8 Q 5
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: (2.4 BB, 2 players) T
Hero bets 1.76 BB, UTG raises to 58 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 56.24 BB

River: (118.4 BB, 2 players) K



3. Vs rec who is a station. Zero bluffs in this spot.

BTN: 128.24 BB
SB: 342.28 BB
BB: 118.44 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 115.72 BB
Hero (CO): 102.44 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, BTN calls 2.28 BB, SB calls 1.88 BB, fold

Flop: (7.84 BB, 3 players) T 2 3
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (7.84 BB, 3 players) 7
SB bets 5.6 BB, Hero raises to 20.16 BB, fold, SB calls 14.56 BB

River: (48.16 BB, 2 players) Q
SB checks, Hero bets 80 BB and is all-in, SB calls 80 BB



4. Thought it was gonna be a cooler for villain, but was surprised to see how much he overplayed his hand here. Even more surprised to find out how passive he is meant to play on turn with flushes.

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 192 BB
UTG: 104.2 BB
MP: 159.68 BB
Hero (CO): 101.92 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J J

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop: (4.96 BB, 2 players) 7 6 6
BB checks, Hero bets 2.36 BB, BB calls 2.36 BB

Turn: (9.68 BB, 2 players) J
BB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, BB raises to 16.08 BB, Hero calls 12.08 BB

River: (41.84 BB, 2 players) 9
BB bets 171.28 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 81.2 BB and is all-in

First month and a half is over. I got busy playing and with other life stuff so didn’t end up updating at the end of October and then decided to wait until November. Here’s the overall graph.



Staring BR ~$400 + Total profits ~$115 + Rakeback ~$740 = BR ~$1,255

I played a bunch of different stakes including wasting a few hundred hands at HU and PLO, obviously starting at 25NL.



Things went really well for me there so I then decided to play 50NL, where I also ran good.



At this point I felt confident in my game and decided to take advantage of the rungood and start shot-taking 100NL.



The poker gods had different plans lol. Overall I feel 100NL is a much more significant jump from 50NL than 50NL is to 25NL. The regs are much better and way more aggressive preflop as well as postflop. Still, I think besides maybe a few regs that play higher, the 100NL player pool is beatable. Maybe I didn’t run too well in the sample but I also think I overestimated the pool, especially at the beginning. I also played badly and made huge punts probably as a side effect of the downswing, which increased my losses even more.

In terms of studying, I am happy with the amount of poker content I consumed (mainly RIO vids), and I learnt a few new heuristics that improved my game. I didn’t analyse as many hands as I wanted to but since I haven’t really kept track it’s hard to improve on this. Goal for this week is to keep track of how many hands/hours I do spend studying and set some goals for the rest of the month.

Overall, even though I could have had a sick month in terms of profit, I don’t regret shot taking at the 100NL tables. Learnt a lot in terms of strategy, it showed me a lot of weaknesses in my mental game which I can now work on, and it made me more comfortable playing at these stakes. After all it was still a profitable month and I tripled my BR so I guess I should be grateful for that.

Goals for this month:

[ ] Play at least 50k hands

[ ] Track how many hours I study in the first week and set weekly hours goal for the rest of the month

[ ] Meditate daily - even for just 5 min

Life got in the way and basically stopped playing (I played about 20k hands in the past 3 months). Back in December I was still delusional and played another session at 100nl and got destroyed. Since then I played a few 25nl and 50nl sessions, which went better. The goal is to pick things back up as I expect to be rusty. I am starting again more or less from where I left off with the BR currently at $1,264, focusing on 25nl and later 50nl. 10k hands per week should be achievable as well as reviewing at least 10 hands per session as a starting point.

Here’s the graph for those 20k hands over the past 3 months.



Reaching 20% of the challenge by the end of March would be great. GLGL

Ur WWSF is low ,because ur a nit.Without knowing any stats i'd say for sure from that graph ur calling way too much not raising enough and not fighting for pots enough.Somewhat loose and passive.
Try to move away from 25nl ASAP and as soon as u get decent br just move to 50nl the difference of rake will be huge.25NL is deathtrap due to rake.

Another 2 months have passed with very low volume.



I still have huge problems with aggression. I feel over the last few weeks I have made more efforts in bluffing more however I noticed I often pick spots where I get shoved on, on either turn or river and I have to fold.

Most of the money actually came from 100NL where I ran well. Whenever I played 50NL I seem to have gotten more in tough spots, but it might be a mix of variance and the fact I would only play 100NL when the tables looked great.

Here's the graph from 100NL



Here's the graph from 50NL



The rest came from 25NL.

So for the past 2 months:

Starting BR $1,264 + Total profits $114 + Rakeback $224 = BR $1,602

My plan for May is to put at least 40k hands volume on 50NL, continue reviewing hands after each session and adding on at least 1 hour of study every day on top.

I have been playing with a calling pre-flop range in particular on the BTN, CO and SB, where before I was playing a 3b/fold strategy. Is that something I should abandon completely at the micros?
The rationale being to play more pots vs recs. What's everyone's take on this?

Things have been going really well this month so far so I thought I’d make a quick update. First of all I decided to degen and play some tournaments including a satellite into a $500 tourney where I made a decent cash for about $1800. Overall I made profits of about $1900 which was obviously a great boost to the BR.



Then decided to focus back on cash games and here’s the results from all the stakes for this month so far



50NL has been the best stake where things have been going smoothly



100nl has been a bit of a challenge, especially with one session where I was battling vs some regs and lost 5bi. I have been running below ev in all-ins but I haven’t been running horribly.



Played few hands of 200nl where I thought games were good but I don’t plan to play here very often as I want to focus on 100nl and achieve a good winrate first.



Here are also some fun hands:

H1: Not sure if this is good but I tried.

BTN: 119.6 BB
SB: 104.15 BB
Hero (BB): 547.38 BB
UTG: 366.8 BB
CO: 120.48 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4 A

fold, CO raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop: (4.5 BB, 2 players) K K A
Hero checks, CO bets 1.41 BB, Hero calls 1.41 BB

Turn: (7.32 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, CO bets 2.29 BB, Hero calls 2.29 BB

River: (11.9 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, CO bets 8.48 BB, Hero raises to 29 BB, CO calls 20.52 BB



H2: I don’t think I would have got it through but I was frustrated I missed the jam on the river

BTN: 113.18 BB
Hero (SB): 100 BB
BB: 300.58 BB
UTG: 95.31 BB
CO: 103.5 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 A

fold, CO raises to 2.3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 10.03 BB, fold, CO calls 7.73 BB

Flop: (21.06 BB, 2 players) 6 9 Q
Hero bets 6 BB, CO calls 6 BB

Turn: (33.06 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero bets 20.73 BB, CO calls 20.73 BB

River: (74.52 BB, 2 players) K
Hero checks, CO bets 66.74 BB and is all-in, fold



H3: Standard cooler

BTN: 131.28 BB
SB: 63.72 BB
BB: 131.39 BB
UTG: 143.21 BB
MP: 103.75 BB
Hero (CO): 127.14 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K A

fold, MP raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 6.5 BB, fold, SB raises to 22.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 127.14 BB and is all-in, SB calls 41.22 BB and is all-in

Flop: (130.44 BB, 2 players) A 5 6

Turn: (130.44 BB, 2 players) 8

River: (130.44 BB, 2 players) K



H4: ???

Hero (BTN): 101.5 BB
SB: 244.37 BB
BB: 138.51 BB
UTG: 95.79 BB
CO: 101.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q Q

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.25 BB, fold, BB calls 1.25 BB

Flop: (5 BB, 2 players) T 9 3
BB checks, Hero bets 2.38 BB, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero calls 5.62 BB

Turn: (21 BB, 2 players) 2
BB bets 15 BB, Hero calls 15 BB

River: (51 BB, 2 players) 2
BB checks, Hero bets 76.25 BB and is all-in, BB calls 76.25 BB



H5: I did not believe

BTN: 51.38 BB
SB: 121.54 BB
Hero (BB): 173.48 BB
UTG: 122.47 BB
MP: 122.63 BB
CO: 137.81 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3 5

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, SB calls 7.5 BB

Flop: (21 BB, 2 players) 8 6 4
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (21 BB, 2 players) 6
SB bets 6.58 BB, Hero raises to 19.64 BB, SB raises to 35 BB, Hero raises to 162.98 BB and is all-in, fold



H6: This is my favourite one vs aggro reg

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 233.34 BB
Hero (BB): 226.06 BB
UTG: 103.56 BB
MP: 45.8 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A K

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, SB raises to 11 BB, Hero raises to 24.5 BB, fold, SB calls 13.5 BB

Flop: (51.5 BB, 2 players) 8 4 T
SB checks, Hero bets 14.68 BB, SB calls 14.68 BB

Turn: (80.86 BB, 2 players) 7
SB checks, Hero bets 38.44 BB, SB calls 38.44 BB

River: (157.74 BB, 2 players) 9
SB bets 155.72 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 148.44 BB and is all-in





Current BR is at $4,572 (including rakeback).

Goal for the rest of the month is to reach 40k hands and I also got a RIO elite subs so will be focusing on watching videos to improve my game - really like psek1, luke johnson, francesco lacriola, callum ross and tyler forrester but if anyone got any other recs then please let me know (I already watched all sauce videos)