Hi, I'll start by introducing myself, I'm a 23 year old student from Quebec, Canada. I started playing poker at the end of 2009, read a few pages here and there from various books, skimmed through some videos, had nice results at tourneys my first year (around 4k$) and cash games up to 10NL (playing a ******ed 17/13 style at 6max which won at 10+ bb/100, until 25NL where it didn't work at all).

Since then I've played from 25NL to 100NL (6max to HU) with varying success, getting huge upswings and busting rolls. Last year before Fulltilt shut down I had coaching from a player in the top 10 (15-20?) worldwide but only a few sessions since I couldn't play anymore after my money was blocked. He guided me in the right direction and from then on I was more focused on learning.

I have a very aggressive style and I'd say my personality matches that. I'm very easygoing 99% of the time but I'm the complete opposite of a pushover, I push back right away, that's my instinct.

My biggest two leaks are showing down good hands and being prone to tilt. I've been working very hard on the tilt issue while reading mental game of poker as many others are doing. I've been setback tremendously in the past by working up rolls to 3-4k and tilting most of it away to fall back to two or three levels below. I feel like I have the skill necessary to make nice amounts of money, I certainly have the passion for the game, I simply love poker and the challenge it brings to my life.

Disclaimer : I do many other stupid things at the tables

Since this is turning into a 'didnotread.gif' wall of text I will stop here and answer questions further along into the thread if they arise.

Here are my goals

[ ] 50 NL
[ ] 100 NL
[ ] 200 NL
[ ] 2.5k profit
[ ] 5k profit
[ ] 10k profit
[ ] 25k profit

Revised

[ ] Integrate mathematics better into my game

I don't have any win rate goals since they would be estimates at best. For the moment I will be playing ZOOM 6max 4 tables, I started playing RUSH on fulltilt and liked the fast pace so I transferred my money to stars and I started playing yesterday as part of this challenge. Graph says last 2 days but that's because I played after midnight.

With EV line



With Showdown lines




Special Effort

Ok so I thought, I'm going to make a video and do live commentary. Camtasia was giving me a hard time at first and shutting down while recording audio so I loaded up audacity and recorded on the side. Great! It's working! -- Well not really since apparently I'm too dumb to talk and play at the same time, so this first video will be no audio but it's very short (16 min) and I don't do anything ******ed in it which is great. I would LOVE comments on my play, please be harsh if need be or else I'm never going to learn. I have 3 more videos recorded I think I'll do a best of good/bad hands montage for the next video, maybe with audio commentary.

Since I'm outing my SN right away I'll ask people who play with me to not comment stuff like you're a ******. Yes, I make completely ******ed moves which make me look like a total fish, no it's not some genius move that you're too dumb to understand, it really is ******ed and I'm trying to eliminate these total spew bluffs from my play.

Alright so HERE it is. I managed to find a good compromise between quality and filesize (If anyone is good with camtasia please share your settings for ideal videos, I've just been playing around with it). I think 4shared is not gonna run out of bandwith, if it does I'll rehost it.


That pretty much covers it, I will do my best to post often, play often, be respectful on and off the tables and give 100% to this challenge. I start University again on the 21st so until then it's mostly poker with spare time being spent with friends and my girlfriend.

If you want to submit my SN to the best screen names thread, please feel free to do so, here's a picture.


It comes from this meme


If you read everything, here's a threadsaver as a reward.

My first goal isn't working out for the moment, I took out my entire roll (a bit over 1k) to pay for all sorts of urgent bills. I was pretty bummed about not having any more money online but then I loaded up fulltilt and saw a small rakeback payment had come in for $4.30. I said **** it and started from the ground up at 2NL with 50bb on 4 zoom tables.

I've got 12 of the best poker books as reading material while moving up. (while focusing mostly on poker math that matters). I'm feeling really confident in my game and I'm doing 10K hands minimum at each limit, as long as I reach a good number of buyins to take shots.

I just reached 10NL after 8 days of play and have gotten from $4.30 to $172.77 (with 10$ worth of milestone rewards, 11$T money sold for 10.67$).

Here are the graphs. (I installed windows 8, started a new database as well)



With showdown lines



Here's the summary of stakes, like I said I'm doing 10k hands minimum at each stake and I'll be taking shots at around 15 buyins for 25NL , 20 buyins for 50NL and later I'll see.




Also here's the LINK TO MY VIDEO again. I didn't get a single download last time. which sucked. Comment on the play if possible, I love to learn. (Also don't be influenced by the preview quality on 4shared, the actual video quality is nice)




Quick edit : Since my first post something clicked, I talked about tilt and spewing a lot but I must have had some kind of eureka moment since I don't seem to be spewing like a monkey anymore. I'll keep you guys posted on the mental side of things.

Just noticed when trying to open the video that you might need this codec because I didn't encode it right. It's the camtasia codec so those who have it installed won't need it.

Here's the LINK

Good luck!

I got 1 lurker download for my video, not too bad.

GL man, subbed.

Had a peek at your vid, didn't find that many spots to comment on but some:

02:45 table 1, be interesting to hear your thought process for c/r turn and betting river? 77 on A 7 6 Q 5

10:00 table 4, I'd def barrel this turn once you pick up the flushdraw, checking back doesn't allow you to win the pot very often.

14:00 table 2, just give up the turn, this is a bad hand/board to be delayed cbetting.

For the 77 hand, I have to say I probably did it intuitively but it's something that I've seen myself doing often.

If we had 100bb stacks I would have gone for 3 barrels instead but now we still had lots of money left behind and I thought after calling the turn he might have an A with or without a club which he will both bet when checked to and will maybe call a c/r with (especially with a flush draw). He also could have had a PP 88-JJ with/without a club which he would fold to a 2nd bet but turn his hand into a bluff when checked to (at a higher frequency without a club I believe). I also believe there's little chance of him having a flush so I decide to c/r seeing as the previous assumptions lead me to believe he will bet almost always and I'll be able to get more value and charge him more for drawing.


At 10:00 the AQss hand on K7J3 turn I almost always barrel here (as you can deduce from my redline ). On this occasion though I remember going with my gut and deciding against it, I just felt like he had a K there almost always and wouldn't fold to my 2nd barrel so I decided to take my free card, in case I was wrong he could have a variety of draws which I'm ahead of or could hit 9 spades , most likely 3 aces and 4 tens for 32%. I'm just always so aggressive I've gotten a good feel for when people fold or not, that's the best justification I can come up with. Now I'm not sure if there's any math to prove me wrong and make a bet the best choice.

For the hand at 14 minutes, first of all I think my defend may be a bit loose , 89s against CO around 135bb deep? I'm not sure if by delayed cbetting you mean my two donk bets since I'm not the PFR? Anyways, do you just c/f? I think the first bet is not too bad, the river bet is spew since I'm getting snapped of by A high so often it seems when the two tone board bricks and pairs. What do you suggest?


Also thanks a lot for commenting and watching, I really appreciate it.

Had a rough start today but managed to come out of it. I thought I played pretty solid apart for a few hands here and there.

Here are a few major hands.



This one below is against a very aggro reg who seems to pretty decent most of the time. He plays 31/26 1.6 AF with a 16% 3b , 90% cbet, which is even higher than my 80%. Defend to take it away on the flop, turn my A and do one of my favorite lines against regs with history.


Standard cooler


And the biggest hand of the day against a major fish, this guy was playing 63/56 with a 67% 3bet. The line he took is something I've seen a bazillion times with these types of players, they don't want to lose the hand and pull this desperation move, snapped it off.


Graph for the day




Overall graph

Got in a quick 1000 hand session before studying all day for an exam tonight


JUST TO BE SURE



Another slightly rough start , Aces again bending me over like Marcellus Wallace at the beginning of the session. If someone tells me they find a fold here, you know something I don't and please tell me.

Here a 10/8 nit raises from the CO, I opt to call and then when the deep stacked BB nit donks I want to pot control and reevaluate turn and river. Seems safe for the river but he got there.

Standard call on the flop when I get c/r against a 25/20 player who hasn't shown any aggression over 60 hands. He goes ahead and snap checks the turn which is usually an indicator of the nuts at these stakes. They want to give off the image that they tried a quick bluff and are now snap giving up. I check back to take my free card and get there.

Nothing special here


On the river I guess a bet could have been better since he probably shoves a flush anyways, maybe he doesn't shove a 9 but calls with it when the spade hits?

Session Graph



Total Graph (showdown line above 0$!)




I've crossed the 200 profit mark and bankroll mark, I went from 4.30$ to 225.67$ in 10 days, hopefully I'll reach something acceptable for a 25NL shot before 10k hands at 10NL

Here's some threadsavers since I'm getting no comments.



AN ENTIRE ALBUM OF THIS (body paint btw)



Here's the link!

[x] thread saved

Sick redline, keep it up!

Subbed.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using 2+2 Forums

Oh I misread action, though u were PFR. Actually then the turnbet is fine, but as you say river is spew.

GL mate, doing great so far!

Thanks a lot!

Today was once again swingy but weird also. Got off to an amazing start... but I was playing weird I thought, break even red line, winning at showdown, etc. If I had to guess I'd say I was simply adapting to the cards I was getting dealt, which were awesome, didn't need to bluff.

Then I lost one hand by playing dumb and then played a bunch more in a dumb way (I was tilted I admit it and started spewing horribly, but I managed to calm myself down, had a bowl of Muslix Apple Cereal, and came back). Then my regular style kicked back in, combined with some run good I got my swagger back and went from C game to B- to A+ game within a few minutes.

Got Another 10$ Stellar rewards and played two more 235 FPP satellites (won both) for 22 T$ which I sold for 21.34$ so I'm having an amazing day! During the short tilt period I felt a part of my game I'm working immensely hard on eliminating (I'll be showcasing a hand or too), where my brain shuts down and monkey agression comes out.

Let's go ahead with some hands and then some graphs.


(Rewriting this for the second time since I clicked back button accidentally..) I had only 2 hands on this guy so no reads. When the flop hits I'm cbetting and he snaps it off, when I hit my set on the turn I go with general tendencies for 10NL players with this type of board texture when they flat a cbet. They tend to bet when checked to. Luckily he spazzed out and overbet AKo and snapped of my shove.

I had around 60 hands on this guy, 31/24 with an 8% 3b, sitting on 300bbs I assumed he was at least decent and/or thinking a bit. I decide to flat JJ since I like to have it in my flatting range against UTG some of the time. When he cbets here I decide to go for a call flop raise turn line which people often would take with AQ KQ, flush draws as well. He shoves over my raise to protect his equity against draws and get value from AQ KQ most likely.

Here's a butchered hand from when I was tilted during the session. 3b is ok, cbet is ok, turn is horrible. I think betting has a more value than check calling here since he fold to 40% of cbets and 0% of 3bets over 160 hands. In this case I could have easily called the turn bet profitably though, he bets around half pot which means we need 25% to continue with, I had 32% against his exact hand and could easily come up with a range which allows me to call. Instead I shove? Wtf, worst option and of course he snaps off my fishy line. (avg player, on the pretty bad reg side 21/14)

What's there to say about this hand, worst one today when I was most tilted, defend is standard for me, bet flop when checked to is also standard. When he donks out the turn I think my raise is pretty bad but not the worst, he snaps it off though which is most likely a 7 or a very weirdly played flush draw, sometimes 2 pair?. I don't think he's ever folding enough of anything to make the shove profitable, pure spew. Kill me now.

HJ is a nitty reg playing 18/16 with a 90% fold to 3b over 100 hands, additionally, BTN is an agressive 22/20 reg with 12% 3bet and a very high squeeze from btn, sb and bb as well. He squeezes (as expected maybe but wakes up with a hand), sb flats so I decide to ship it and make it look a bit like a small pocket pair (which I would definitely shove here sometimes, but when SB folds)

Here I get a gift from a reg who looked decent before this, 26/20 2.5AF 10% 3bet is not the most excessive thing but what is bad is that it's mostly from 3betting EP and BTN exactly, squeezing BB and he cold 4bets a high amount also. He snaps off my shove.

Bit thougher hand, this reg plays almost my exact stats on most things 22/18 where I'm 23/19, cbets around 80%, 4AF against my 3.2AF. This hand definitely felt off to me, I definitely am able to fold it but I was still coming off tilt. His line is just extremely strong to me and I can't see anything he does this with that I beat reasonably. He's not the type to spew with AQ AJ or to defend them against UTG for that matter. He could have AQhh AJhh maybe..apart from that my gut was telling me to fold and not look back but I ended up shoving. Swear to god I fold this **** on my A game.

Interesting hand against an aggro fish. He snap raises me small on the flop and I felt like he didn't have many made hands that he does this with, with that sizing. I decide to 4bet for value/protection and then plan to shove a blank turn which comes out.

Loose UTG fish raises, I 3b, when he raises my cbet I'm not too scared to be honest since he's a complete ****** (that was the extent of my thought process for the hand, you suck, hence I ship)


Graphs

Today



Overall 10NL graph (I'm beating 10NL for more than 2NL or 5NL for now, running a bit over EV and winning at both showdown and non showdown, although I feel my game is coming together better also)



All hands





So overall I have 265.57$ profit + 52.01$ from Stellar rewards and selling T$ for a total of 317.58$ in gain. Once again I started with 4.30$ at 2NL 11 days ago. Bankroll stands at 320.39$. I have around 5k more hands to play at 10NL and I will start taking shots at 25NL right away after that, hopefully continuing playing well (and getting better) and running hot.

Threadsavers





Tame threadsavers you say? PM me for the naked part of these two pictures

Bonus

Good luck bro, red line kicks ass, green line is what provides us with the ass

Put in another 2000 hands today. Went pretty well, I didn't run extremely hot but managed to red line to profit.





Thought this was played ok. Apart if anyone can tell me a reason for c/f turn or something. Villain is 21/21 over 69 hands, 12% 3b , 60% f3b

Got a gift which didn't get there


Here we have a reg with a bit of history. He's generally pretty bad and plays some ******ed stats. 28/17/0.8AF/11% 3b/0% f3b - 6.6% 4bet range with 40% 4bet. I think this is pretty standard and he snaps it off, probably the type to level himself all the type since he doesn't understand what he's doing.

Didn't have many hands against this guy, no special reads. I decide to flat my QQ for deception and also because of his ****** raise size with a stack over 100bb. When shortstacked fish do this they seem to have AJo type hands more often but I've seen better hands from full stacks for some reason. check flop with intention to c/r , he snap checks back, which in my experience means KK or AA to be honest. They sometimes snap check it just in case you hit a set on a plausible board. So I check again expecting him to bet, he calls the check raise once and when the board pairs I think he feels obliged to call, although he did time a bit.

I had no hands on this guy at all, he snapped of my flop and turn bet which lead me to believe he would be the type to snap raise a J sometimes or sets. When the J hits the river I'm still never check folding but I expect him to check back mid pairs very often so I jam it in.


Threadsavers





PM me for 64 picture naked album of the first three girls.

Bankroll is at 352.99$ which I consider enough for a shot at 25NL. Still have to finish around 2500 hands at 10NL though to respect my 10k hands. Hopefully I'll have around 400$ then.

Today was ok. I didn't play my A+ game at any point, A at best, mostly B, lots of C at the beginning. Chasing losses you say? I played twice my usual hands today but not for money but to prove to myself that I'm better than what I was doing at the beginning of the days/session. Swing is bigger money wise than what I've had up until now but the graph in BB's shows the real story of my game.

Today and Today with Showdown





All hands - In Winnings and BB's





I'm just sad that my showdown line is back below zero again. I guess you always want what you don't have.

Have lots of hands today, many butchered by me but I'm just gonna show some fun ones.












Alright enough fun, I honestly played like a ****** for most of the day before getting my **** together, so congratulations to anyone who took my money today, god knows I lost some ******ed pots. I also played another 235 fpp tourney and won 11$ (sold for 10.67$) which puts my total day at 29.08$ and my bankroll at 381.82$. Tomorrow I'm playing 25NL since I've gotten over 10k hands at 10NL succesfully.


Threadsavers

Now that I'm done with 10NL though hopefully. I have to say everyone there sucks.

What do you mean everyone?

I was wondering, is there an up-to-date thread which explains the best way to proceed for 'rakeback' on pokerstars? I've used stellar rewards and 235 fpps satellites (for 11$T) for now and have managed 39.5% rakeback (not sustainable I imagine). Anyone care to share a link?

I started 25NL today, went off to a rough start once again, playing dumb in the beginning and losing two pots for no reason. Then a bit of breakeven, and finally saw some profit. Overall thoughts is that regs are obviously less spewy and horrible. Didn't face too much agression overall, 3bets where maybe a bit more frequent than 10NL.

Today



Hands that I lost and thought I played badly.

I didn't have any reads on villain, I simply call since he's isoing a fish and I want part of the action in position. Flop comes down dreamy and I call the cbet to keep the fish in (notice cbet is under half pot). When the turn comes and he still bets under half pot I decide to go for a value raise against hands like AQ QJ, maybe J10 AJ for draws. When he 4 bets me I make my mistake,seeing as a call here is only slightly negative ev with how much money he has left behind (did a quick calc, would love to see the right numbers)

Interesting hand against a huge russian fish who had drawn out on me previously with a backdoor. When he raises the river I don't feel good about my call but he was way more agressive before with his great hands so I end up calling. Also I just noticed the turn bet is on the smaller side, I pressed a bet button hotkey by accident and got that smaller size

This reg was playing 31/24 with an 11% 3b, 29% from the sb and 14% vs co. He also has an 11.6% 4b. I defend my hand and flop well against his range, when he snap cbets the turn over half his stack I'm feeling that he's not thinking about his bet size at all and wants a fold so I go ahead and ship it in, he calls with a turned flush draw and gutter.

I'm kind of bored with posting more hands, I ran and played bad at the beginning, played and ran better towards the end.

Overall graph



Threadsavers





Got another 10$ Stellar Rewards and won 2/2 235 fpp sats for 22$T which I sold for 21.34 which puts my day at 108.87$ and my bankroll at 490.49$ . After today I'm making a nice 41.89% Rakeback, I'm still looking for a thread which talks about the best way to use fpps and vip levels on stars for rakeback (even though I'm currently doing well).

gl and will be following.

moar threadsavers please, litterally jizzed seeing this one

tyvm! can't believe no one sent me pms for the naked part of my first few threadsavers.

Had to go back for more, promptly lost back my profits but then



Doubled my day to 150.89$ plus 31.34$ in rewards and rakeback makes 182.23$, my best day in this challenge!

Updated day



Updated all hands



25NL regulars can be bent into shape for the most part, hopefully I'll face amazing players in the future at higher stakes who will push back hard.

Bankroll at 562.85$

Nice thread man keep the threadsavers up!
You know the good ones

You seem to have pretty aggro BR management? care to explain how you work?