This is an accountability journal as I grind through the live streets starting at 1/3 and working my way up. Might also share some other things along the way such as fitness goals and any other big life events!

Some background:

I've played poker for years but really started to take it seriously the past year or so. I work a full-time 8am-4pm job (40 hours) making about $45k/year and also play 4 days a week at my local Casino (Thurs-Sun). Part of me wanting to take this seriously is to see if we can make some side income to help increase my yearly savings. My starting bankroll is $6000 (20BI) as the max buy-in for the 1/3 game is $300.

July results

- 20 sessions
- 145 hours total (7.25hr/session on average - typically my Sat/Sun sessions are longer than Thurs/Fri)
- Around 3600 hands played
- 11 winning sessions, 10 losing sessions (52% winrate)
- Finished $1 positive over the month

August Results so far

- 5 sessions
- 30 hours total (5 hr/session on average)
- Around 750 hands
- 4 winning sessions, 1 losing session (80% winrate)
- Currently +$527 for the month

I plan to update this on a daily/weekly basis. Depending on time. I'll also provide hand histories of some interesting hands I get myself into. I use Poker Bankroll Tracker to track everything and use GTO Wizard + PIO to study when I'm not playing. I also play 10NL/25NL Monday-Wed when I have free time to get more hands in and practice. Feel free to provide me with any tips/tricks/advice!

Aug 10th - Aug 13th (Thurs-Sun)

- 4 sessions
- 27.5 hours
- Around 680-700 hands
- 2 winning sessions, 2 losing sessions
- +$108

* Friday session was 13.5 hours while the other sessions were 5, 5 and 4 hours. The 13 hour session I finished down $108. Was trying to grind back to even and felt like I was playing well with no tilt. Normally I wouldn't play that long.

- Thursday +$87
- Friday -$108
- Saturday -$246
- Sunday +375

August totals

- 9 sessions
- 57.5 hours
- Around 1450 hands
- 6 winning sessions and 3 losing sessions
- Total Aug winnings to date = $614

Some hands of note from this week

Saturday I'm in the BB with 3d3s. HJ opens to $10 and I defend.

Flop is 2h5h7s

HJ bets $10, I call

Turn is 3h

HJ bets 25, I call (should probably raise here - I'm just an idiot and trying to slow play for some reason)

River is a Td

He bets $50, I raise to $200 putting him all in. I get snap called.

Villain has Ah4h for a straight flush on the turn.

The thing about this hand is the Bad Beat is minimum quads over quads. So by the turn we had a straight flush over trips with still the river to come. All I needed was the 3c to hit the bad beat. The BBJ is currently at $260k and the loser (me) would of got $130k. After the hand I asked the table if anyone folded the 3c and everyone said no. So it was either in the deck or one of the burn cards. So close!

Not many other hands of note. This week was really slow. The first 3 sessions from Thurs-Sat were very slow and I spent most of the sessions either even or slightly negative. Wasn't playing bad, just not getting many hands or hitting on many hands. It happens. Sunday was a pretty fun session. Was pretty card dead in the first 2.5hrs and at one point was in for $500 after topping off a few times. Eventually we got pretty lucky and flopped a full house with Ad9d and winning around a $200 pot. The very next hand against the same guy I flopped a straight with KdQd and ended up stacking him as he missed his flush draw. Since the week wasn't going to well and it's been a grind, I decided to rack up shortly after that and book the green week.

Also, on Saturday after playing live I played ~2 hours of 25NL and won $80. So altogether were up about $188 this week.

Total numbers to date

- 29 sessions
- 202 hours
- ~5052 hands
- 59% winrate
- 17 winning sessions, 12 losing sessions
- +$614
- Average win: $420
- Average Loss: $543
- ~4bb/100 winrate
- ROI 4%
- $3/hr
- Session fee/rake paid: $2828 ($14/hour session fee + 202 hours = $2828. They also take $1 per pot for the BBJ so its even a bit more than that)
- This all started since July 1st

So as you can see from these numbers the glaring issue here is the $420 average win and the $545 average loss. I figured this would be the case because 5 out of my 12 losses were for $900 (3 buy-ins). So there is clearly some sort of pattern/something going on. Maybe its been soft tilt. Maybe its playing loser to try and get back to even. It's honestly probably a little bit of both. So this past week I have made it my mission to not get on tilt or to chase the loss. I've just been trying to play every hand the best I possibly can. Not worrying that I'm down $100 or $200 or whatever. Just looking at my cards and making the best decision. Then the next best decision. If I've played 4-5 hours and I'm just not feeling it or its just not my day - we rack up. So far this week its worked pretty well. On Friday (the long 13 hour session) I was at one point in for $700 and had only $250 in front of me (-$450). I was able to run it back up to $592 and decided to rack up and book the small loss. Saturday I was up to start the session (+$350) but after some bad play I found myself down to only $150 and went all in on the flop with a club flush draw (3 way) with the chance to triple up but I missed. I re-buy for $300 (in for $600) and played for about a half hour more but was not really feeling it and left booking a $250 loss. So while those two days didn't go as planned, I'm quite happy I was able to book small losses rather then losing a few more buy-ins.

So now we take Monday and Tuesday off (and possibly Wednesday). I also plan to play some more 25NL this week as well.

Next post should be on Aug 20th. Cheers!

Current BR at $6605

Might make a few more posts before Aug 20th. Have tomorrow/today off (Monday) so thinking about heading to the Casino tonight. Typically don't go Mondays but a little more volume couldn't hurt right? I'll check the Bravo app when I wake up (4:47AM where I am right now) and see how many tables are running.

Looking to quit smoking as well. Kinda hard to do it while playing Poker haha but its such a -EV life decision that needs to stop.

Enjoying your blog so far:

Where do you play?
Do they rake via time charge or just rake each pot?
Good you recognized average win is less than average loss as a problem....

Suggestions:
Play with a 2 buy in stop loss. If you can't win with 2 buy ins either game is too tough or you're playing poorly.
With live poker, track win rate as BB/hr, not BB/100.

Good luck!

- I play at Casino Niagara (Niagara Falls, Canada)
- They rake via time charge every half hour (every dealer change). $7 for 1/3, $8 for 2/5 and $9 for 5/10. Plus $1 per pot for the bad beat jackpot.
- Yup my average win/loss needs to be fixed for sure. Because of this I had the same idea as you, I am just bringing two buy-ins and hopefully that should help a bit with my max losses.

Played tonight for 5 hours. Lost $600.

First buy-in I kind of just chipped down after not hitting many flops or getting many hands. There was 1 or 2 hands I called light down to the river that I probably should not have. That cost me $100 most likely. I think I was getting a bit too loose pre-flop as well in some situations. My second buy-in I lost with a full house Aces over Tens to a straight flush 9h-Kh. So after that I just left. Like mentioned above, we are only bringing 2 buy-ins from now on. Overall I'd say I gave up around $150ish dollars to bad play.

- 5 hours played
- Approx 125 hands
- $70 in rake paid
- (-$600)
- Total bankroll: Back down to even ($6005)

Goals for this week: Keep playing my game. No tilting what-so-ever. We are still even over my first a month and a half of taking this seriously so it could be worse. Just gotta keep playing every hand the best I can.

Played tonight from 7:00pm - 2:00am

Was probably one of my best played sessions. Only won $110 but played really well and made a few really nice lay downs as well as a nice call with top pair Queens. Here's the hand:

UTG opens to 15

I'm sitting in UTG+1 with QTcc and raise to 45. (I can just open fold this sometimes as UTG open is pretty strong, but I like to mix this hand into my 3! range once in awhile)

Flop comes QJ4 rainbow

He checks and I continue for $30, He calls

Turn is an off suit 7

I bet $50 into a pot of $150, He calls. (My logic here is I could probably still get called by a jack or a straight draw. Since there was no flush draw I sized down. If there was a flush draw I'd probably size up to $100-$120).

River is a 2, he now leads out for $150 into a pot of $250.

To me this was really weird. I'm not sure what check calls the whole way down and then just leads out on the river. I thought maybe AQ but I feel like I'd be check raised on the turn at least. I guess he could be slow playing a set? Anyways I have to put $150 to make $550. Getting over 3 to 1. Thinking I probably win this 1/3rd of the time I called and he turned over AKo. I'm not sure if I played it correctly on the flop/turn but I do like my call on the river there. If you guys have any suggestions on how I could of played it differently please let me know. Even though I won the hand I feel like theres plenty of room for improvement.

Lost a few big pots one with trip 9s while he turned the straight. Lost a flip when a guy went all in for $100 and everyone folded. I'm in the BB with TT so I called. He had AJ and hit a jack on the turn. I got 2 really big bluffs through as well. One was with KTcc I missed the straight but the diamond came out on the river to complete a diamond flush. I lead out on him with a big bet and he folded a flopped 2 pair. The other hand I'm not sure what he had but the board was 22334 and I had the Ace of spades. I check called him the whole way down and on the river he bet $35 and I raised it to $135 blocking the straight and some A2/A3 combos, he folded.

Stats:
- 7 hours played
- About 175 hands played
- $98 in rake paid
- (+$110)
- Total bankroll: $6110

Along this journey is anyone has any suggestions or tips/improvements I can make on my game, please feel free to reach out. I'm always trying to learn and know that theres still tons of room for improvement.

Back to the grind tomorrow after work.