In another thread someone said that if you getting annoyed/tilted by bad beats, then there are probably far bigger leaks in your game.


Sounded like good advice to me. I get way too annoyed and it's holding me back as I often cut short a session after a few bad beats where I should be congratulating myself on the correct play and entering another mtt.

Hi, amatola. Yes, there are leaks in my game, and one reason is I changed my strategy again trying to learn the new one from RYE Tournament Masterclass, I also have had a downswing anyway so I feel pretty tilted anyway. Thank you for telling me about this!

[Session review: WCOOP 27-L]

I played my first WCOOP tour for this year, for $5.50. I had an amazing start, where I busted someone's Aces with a set, bringing my stack to over 500xBB, the biggest one I've ever had. I managed to cash, although for just $12.75. I still survived over 9,000 players, so that is good. In the last hand I had 17xBB, and went all-in with AK vs 99, the latter of which held up.

[Session review]

It's been a while since I played. I had lost all my confidence and stopped playing for a few days. But now I am back in the game! I made another big cash, since I won the $1.10 Bounty builder, beating 1409 players, and bagging $180.19. Hurray! My bankroll is now at $220!!

well done! Nothing like a win to get your confidence back.

[Session review]

Today I played 16 games, including 2 x $5.50 Bounty builders and 1 x $4.40 Bounty builder. I cashed in 6, but my best performance was in a $1 Progressive KO tour, where I came 7th out of 571, and cashed $10.75. This was one of my best performances in this type of tour. My bankroll, however, is about $24 down, but I don't mind as I had a very fulfilling session.

[Session review]

Today I played 5 games, but only cashed in 1. Unfortunately the cash is low, but this was another great positioning. I came 13th out of 665. In the last hand I shoved with KJo from the BTN to be called by the SB with AQo, the latter of which held.

[Notes]

Today I found out that a Microstakes player can make about $100/month. That sounds about right for how much I have been making playing Micro MTTs.

[Session results]

Today I played over a dozen tours, including the $5.50 (x2), $4.40, $3.30, $2.20 $1.10 (x2), and $0.55 Bounty builders and some satelllites.

I final tabled the $0.55 Bounty builder, coming 8th, which is my best performance ever on this tour, bagging $16.33.
I came 18th of 3022 in the Bounty builder $2.20, and cashed $21.56.
I also made it ITM in the Sunday Storm as 755th, bagging $14.31, even though I had real bad luck and played only 13% of hands.

My bankroll is up $14.

[Thoughts and notes on profitability]

I have to start thinking about my profitability. I am making about $100/month, which is very little. blackrain79 writes

"Good poker players in small stakes online games like 1c/2c to 50c/$1 will make between $600 and $5000 a month. Good poker players in live games like $1/$2 to $25/$50 will make between $1000 and $10000 per month. Good high stakes poker players will make 100k per month or more."

"Quick Stats: How Much Money Do Poker Players Make? ($USD)

• The average professional poker player salary in the United States is $43,000 per year.
• The average professional poker player salary in the United States is $21 per hour.
• The average poker player salary is -$1200 a year.
• The average poker player salary is -$12 an hour.
• Less than 10% of all poker players ever make more than $1000 in their entire career.
• Less than 2% of all poker players ever make more than $10,000 in their entire career."

"How Much Do Poker Players Make Per Hour? (Biggest Winners)

• 1c/2c Online: $2 per hour
• 2c/5c Online: $5 per hour
• 5c/10c Online: $10 per hour
• 10c/25c Online: $20 per hour
• 25c/50c Online: $40 per hour
• 50c/$1 Online: $65 per hour
• $1/$2 Online: $110 per hour
• $1/$2 Live Cash: $20 per hour
• $2/$5 Live Cash: $40 per hour
• $5/$10 Live Cash: $65 per hour"

I find these 3 attractive:
1c/2c: $2/hour * 8 hours * 22 days =16*22=$352/month
2c/5c: $5/hour * 8 hours * 22 days =40*22=$880/month
5c/10c: $10/hour * 8 hour * 22 days = 80*22=$1760/month

In other words, I need to start playing some cash games.

[Session review: Zoom cash games]

Today I tried to play cash games. I started off really well, on the 2NL Zoom tables, and quickly moved up to the 5NL tables. I won about $15, and so I moved up to try the NL10 tables. Unfortunately I got wrecked there. I lost about $20. I moved down and played at NL2 again, but this time my luck had changed and I lost there too.

Overall I am happy that I started getting used to cash games. I will keep playing cash games until I improve.

[Session review: Zoom cash games]

The day before yesterday I played Zoom cash games again, and specifically 5NL. While I started well, I got very wrecked and lost probably about $30. While I often managed to bust players, I also got many coolers, and suddenly the coolers became bigger than my wins. My confidence is broken, and I am not sure how to proceed. I suppose the standard route is to study the hands I played and find out what went wrong, and how to improve.

hey man, you shouldn't start playing cash games just because you read in a blog that they earn this much money. You can have great profits and even a great hourly playing MTTs, as long as you play enough of them to smooth out the variance.
Cash games are a whole different game to learn and get good at. ranges are much tighter in some ways because there is no ante and you dont want to be playing big pots because of rake, but also looser in different ways because you are very deep and have much better implied odds.
If you want to get good at cash games, you need to re-learn a lot of preflop ranges which can drastically affect postflop strategy, are you ready to take on this beast?

Finally, you have to know that a lot of cash game earnings come from rakeback, which is much better if you play a lot in short amount of time. Playing occasionally/part time in low stakes cash games is called a "rake-trap" because rake is higher at low stakes and if you dont play a LOT and get good rakeback, you're trapped into losing money even if you're beating the field.

[Session review]

In this session I played 3 games and some cash. I won a ticket to the $7.50 Bounty builder from a $1.10 Sat, where I finished 209th and cashed $26.49. My balance is now back up to $36 and I got a good confidence boost, although I am unhappy cards didn't come my way in the end as I wanted to make it further.

Sooner or later you going to get a nice top 3 in a $4.40 or $5.50 mtt. You seem to always run deep in the smallest ones!

Thank you, lean. I agree with all you said. Yes, cash games are a different beast and I have to relearn ranges. I am attracted by the fact that I can win some money instantly, as opposed to wait for potentially weeks to win something. I am not 100% sure what I should do now.

Thank you so much. I can't wait for that!

[Session review]

This session I played a few satellites, 2 x $1.10 PKOs and a $1.65 Bounty builder. I won a ticket to the Sunday Storm, and min cashed in a $1.10 PKO and a $1.65 Bounty builder.

I also treated myself to the $11 Micro Sunday KO. I finished 553 out of about 1800 players, and cashed $2.45 by busting out one player, but didn't make it ITM. However it was a good experience to test out my skills.

My bankroll is now down to $17.70, and it seems I may need to reload soon.

I am still confused as to whether I should play cash games or not. As said by another earlier, the ranges are tighter, and the game is a little different., and, sofar I have been crushed.

These numbers are totally unrealistic. $2/hr at 2nl means 100bb/hr. That's 10bb/100 playing 1000 hands/hr or 5bb/100 playing 2000 hands/hr which just doesn't seem possible. If you want to play cash games, you should make the decision based on some more realistic projections at the very least.

[Session review]

I just played another $1.10 PKO and final tabled it. I finished 5th and cashed just over $22. My balance is now at $34.44

On the how much money can you earn. I guess it a combination of a fair amount of mtts to remove some of the variance and the a return on investment on the average buy in.

So if I wanted to earn $1000 pm and I felt a 20% roi could be achieved at lower buyins. Then I need to be spending $5000 pm, working 5 days a week 20days pm $250 per day.

How many mtts pm would take care of most variance? I've heard 1000 but that seems rather alot. 500 would mean 25 a session at an avg of $10. Increasing roi to say 30% would mean entering $3400 worth of mtts so $170 per session so 17 at $10.

Yikes. That's a lot of hours for less than min wage in most countries.

[Hand review: Aggro donk 3-bets A8o from MP and hits an 8]

This is my final hand in Sunday Storm $11 on Pokerstars. It upsets me even thinking about it. This aggro donkey 3-bet with A8o from MP, and then called all the way to the river. Was there any escape for me there, and would you have played otherwise?

PokerStars, $9.80 + $1.20 - Hold'em No Limit - 80/160 (20 ante) - 8 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

Tilted9042 (UTG): 8,291 (52 bb)
BNacho_11 (UTG+1): 8,029 (50 bb)
GGStarAA (MP): 9,364 (59 bb)
lonelyview42 (MP+1): 20,035 (125 bb)
GHOST9877 (CO): 13,386 (84 bb)
VollyFlush (BU): 20,385 (127 bb)
130.000K (SB): 14,507 (91 bb)
GuillaumeGirod (BB): 17,022 (106 bb)

Pre-Flop: (400) Hero (Tilted9042) is UTG with A♣ K♥
Tilted9042 (UTG) raises to 400, 1 fold, GGStarAA (MP) 3-bets to 800, 5 players fold, Tilted9042 (UTG) calls 400

Flop: (2,000) 8♣ 4♥ 4♦ (2 players)
Tilted9042 (UTG) checks, GGStarAA (MP) bets 800, Tilted9042 (UTG) calls 800

Turn: (3,600) 3♠ (2 players)
Tilted9042 (UTG) bets 2,560, GGStarAA (MP) calls 2,560

River: (8,720) 2♠ (2 players)
Tilted9042 (UTG) bets 4,111 (all-in), GGStarAA (MP) calls 4,111

Total pot: 16,942

Showdown:
Tilted9042 (UTG) shows A♣ K♥ (a pair of Fours)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 74%, Flop: 13%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

GGStarAA (MP) shows 8♦ A♥ (two pair, Eights and Fours)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 26%, Flop: 87%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

GGStarAA (MP) wins 16,942

[Playing a short stack]

Today I watched a video with Johnathan Little and I realised playing a short stack requires much more strategy than I thought, and I didn't fully know how to play my short stack.
My questions are:
1. All-in pre, or Min raise and all-in on flop?
2. If I min raise and don't hit the flop, how much do I bet, if at all?

My simplified strategy now is:

• 10 BB or less, all-in
• 20 BB or less, min raise
• above 20 BB, normal raise

[Playing with a HUD]
I started [playing with a HUD (Hand2Note). I am using 4 statistics: VPIP, PFR, 3B and F3B (last is Fold to 3-bet).

I am having difficulties labelling players with colors on Pokerstars. The reason is, for example, players which are TAGs still make bad plays on the flop. (eg one player who was a TAG called a shove against 2 more players on a AQ5 rainbow board with A2o, while having a medium stack, which was just donkey overkill).

I can label this guy in 2 ways: as a TAG, or as a Fish.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to label players effectively when using a HUD?

Thinking through this hand, I could have easily been saved. What confused me is that villain 3-bet light with A8o. I never expected him to have that hand in a 3-bet pot, and this is the whole reason why I even went all-in on the river. Another reason is that I haven't studied light 3-bets and didn't know what to do.. Surely, had he not been a calling station, he should also have folded, but that's another story.

I guess I was affected by cash games, where 3-bets are usually with a much tighter range, and players don't 3-bet light as much.