Over the past few months, I have hit a bit of a plateau in many areas of my life.. Poker being one of them. I would like to use this thread to help keep accountable for my actions and maintain disciplined in growing as a poker player and a person.

I have equalled my bankroll out to $100.00 and will hope to see that climb higher over the following months to come. I believe I can run this up to at least $10,000 by the time I begin graduate school in September.

To begin I will mainly play MTTs on Pokerstars with $0-$2 buy ins and 5nl cash games

Good luck on the tables.

First day went pretty well. Was quite strange playing nothing above $2 but that is okay for now. I also add in some micro satties as I believe that can be a good way to run up the bankroll.

Managed to win a $1.50 90 man KO, for about $27, but won't play those again as they are soooooooo slow.

I also won a $0.50 90 man Turbo for about $12

Balance = $130.39

Unfortunately had a poor MTT session today and did not really manage to make any deep runs at all. A lot of tough luck, but that is the way it goes sometimes. I will be back to play some MTT's tomorrow, so hopefully I get the other side of the coin then.

I also have played about 4,000 hands of 5nl zoom since the start and that is looking pretty steady with a win rate of 5.68 bb/100 thus far.

Balance = $100.56

Nothing major to report from today's session. It felt like I did not cash in anything and it was going terribly, yet somehow managed a slight profit on the day. I have not put in as much volume as I would have liked to yet as have been starting my sessions quite late on in the night and there is not many good micro events.

Will have another session tomorrow and Sunday.
Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Balance = $110.22

Another lackluster day to report. Unfortunately once again I could not get as much volume as I would have liked in MTT's.

Tomorrow, I will just play some small amount of cash games and then in the afternoon I have a family event. Then I will play a big session on Sunday.

I did manage to use 1,000 points towards a $10 reward to keep me in profit.

Balance = $103.68

Unfortunately I could not get deep in any MTT this Sunday despite playing a tonne. I was not happy with my play at all really, I felt I was on autopilot for most of the day and my concentration was poor.

I think I definitely had too many tables up too. I struggle to know how many tables to load right now, because I used to easily play with 15-20 no problem, but I feel I am just losing too much skill against the weaker players by doing this. And especially with the current bankroll it can hurt if I do not have any deep runs in $1 events.

In MTTs and STTs I am currently down around $60.00
In cash games I am up around $50.00 @ 10bb/100 playing 5nl

Going forward for the next week I think I will actually play less MTT tables and play zoom + some of the bigger micro events that I can play with my current roll, such as the bounty builders, bigs and hots.

Will get in a fair bit of play this week before heading off to Australia on Saturday, where I will watch some Australian Open tennis. Then head on to New Zealand for a few months!

Balance = $87.17

Played quite a lot of 5nl today and was in profit, ran well today which of course helps. I feel I have a decent edge over the 5nl player pool for sure, as there are lots of fish.

I need to get a little better folding hands like TT/JJ/QQ against nits who 4b me. They pretty much only have KK or AA when they have done this so far. Of course against a lot of players it is not just kings or aces, but there are many players in the pool who are playing around 12/10 and pretty much only getting it in with KK or AA.


Balance = $111.00

Have played quite a lot of 5nl over the past few days. Went through 2 days of just breaking even, then had a successful day yesterday. Have not had the chance to play MTT's, which I wanted to do.

Cash game graph -

Ev bb/100 @ 8.38 over 28k hands. So pretty happy with this.

MTT's - I am having some problems with my pokertracker tracking of MTT's. But I am down about $70 in these right now. Hopefully can pick up the volume soon.

I am heading to Australia tomorrow for just under a week. Really looking forward to watching some Australian open tennis. Then I will be in New Zealand for a few months, will be interesting to see how the differing time zone effects the sessions.

Balance = $140.81

GL, I'm in. Nice results so far!

Gl

Thanks for the good luck messages Rick and Avro

Have not played too much lately, due to travelling to Australia and New Zealand.

I had a great time in Melbourne, Australia. I got to watch some great matches at the Australian Open, including Federer vs Sandgren, in which Federer saved SEVEN match points to eventually go on and win. I also watched Djockovic in the evening. It is incredible to see these guys compete.. they make it look so easy. Following this I had a trip down to Phillip Island and saw many great things, including penguins on the beach.

I am now settled down in Wellington, New Zealand and am right on the bay so it is really great. Signed up to a great gym and love the city here so I am feeling I will have no problem working out and putting in hours on the poker tables.

I have played mainly cash games so far, but they have been going well. 31,000 hands of 5NL @ 9.35 EVBB/100

I will now take a 4 buy in shot at 10NL and drop down to 5NL again if my balance drops to $160.

Balance = $200.08

Been trying to figure out what schedule is best to play for MTTs here in New Zealand and seems that the best thing for me to do would be to wake up early and play throughout the morning and early afternoon.

I have not been able to maintain my winning form in the cash games. I dropped a few buy ins when I took a small shot at 10nl. So I will be back playing at 5nl until I get back to $200.

Balance = $155.69

Been mostly breaking even in many of the Micro stakes MTT's thus far. I have had quite a few deep runs, but just could not hold some key hands to reach many final tables and get that big pay jump.

I have been crushing 5nl, but am struggling when I make the jump to 10nl. I feel there should not be much skill difference between those 2 stakes, so it is quite frustrating when I am crushing 5nl but getting crushed at 10nl

38,500 hands at 5nl @ 9.58 bb/100
3,500 hands at 10nl @ -12.05 bb/100
Roughly -$140 in MTT and STT entries so far.

I also received an exclusive challenge from Pokerstars, where I have 28 days to reach 10,000 points, in doing so I would receive $800 reward. This would be a great boost to the bankroll, however there is pretty much no chance I can get this reward at these stakes. I would need to obtain about 360 points per day. I am currently averaging 60 points per day after 2 days. So I will not be chasing this, unless I somehow get a big boost from an MTT score.

Balance = $181.66

Didn't play much poker on the weekend, because I played a tennis event with my friend here in New Zealand and spent some time with friends and family.

Cash games have been pretty meh over the past few days, pretty much breaking even.

Managed to get my biggest MTT score of the challenge so far, but it only helped me to be slightly up on the day. 8th in the Big $2.20 for $49.. $600 up top.. But the pay jumps are pretty crazy as 1st is nearly double 2nd place.

I am still happy with most of my stats so far over the first month:

6.82 EV BB/100 over all 6max cash games from 48k hands
9.11 EV BB/100 over all STT's and MTTs from 35k hands


Balance = $186.55

Had a few deep runs in MTT's, but no final tables today.

I won a fair amount at 5nl games during the day, I got the balance up to around $220, however I then decided to give 10nl another go and just got crushed so hard. I find it really strange, like I am crushing 5nl so easy and then right when I switch to 10nl I struggle and get destroyed.

Also won $5.70 from the deal jackpot share.

Balance = $182.43

Others that play on Stars complain about the same thing. The skill is not the same from 5nl to 10nl.

GL subbed.

There's not much difference. I've played enough of both of them to be able to say this with confidence. 10z/10nl is a nitfest.

Best of luck with your challenge

10nl is not a nit fest LOL it's incredibly soft, I think it's more mental that people see 10nl as tougher than 5nl. Probably just some runbad

Have you ran a roll up to $10,000 before?

It being a nitfest doesn't mean it's not soft. Most of 10z players I come across are running between 16/14 to 21/15 or numbers in that ball park. Nit-regfest territory. Doesn't mean dumb stuff doesn't happen. (See below)

Reg tables are slightly different/looser.

Thank you for the good luck guys, I mean I guess it should obviously be a bit tougher at 10nl compared to 5nl, but I would be surprised if the difference is crazy. Like Stewie Stag said, hopefully it was just a run bad.

I have ran up a roll to more than $10,000 before yes. In 2013 before I left to the USA I had a reasonably decent year and had quite a few MTT scores above $5,000.

Woke up too late to play any MTT's today, so I just played a few hours of cash games. I ran up the roll quite fast to reach $200 again, so took another shot at 10nl. This time I felt a little more comfortable and it went well (also ran decently). Will plan to keep playing 10nl until I drop to $180 then play 5nl.

Hopefully I can wake up at a decent hour tomorrow morning and get some MTT's in though.

Competed in a swim and run race today which was tough. It was just a 750 metre swim and then 3 mile run, but it was definitely a struggle.

Balance = $225.16

Good luck man, I play 10nlz on Stars so maybe see you in the pool!

Good to hear you keep active as well - I think that makes a huge difference to your overall mindset.

Thank you! Yes we may cross paths sometimes, however our time zones are very different if you are in the UK.

Yeah I agree, I feel I play much better after I have worked out or at least been active (so long as I am not exhausted from doing so). I usually work out 3/4 times a week and play tennis and swim so I keep quite active.

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I had a bit of a disaster playing on Saturday evening. Was doing fine for most of the night on the cash tables, but I continued to play after I had had a few beers and was very sleepy. I told myself not to play much longer, but then I lost many buy ins at both 10 and 5nl.

Nearly back to the start now, which is frustrating, but I am feeling confident about this upcoming week.

51k hands of 5nl @ 8.94 EV BB/100
11k hands of 10nl @ -11.8 EV BB/100

Balance = $128.37

Little to report over the last few days, I have not played quite as much as I would have liked to, however I am pleased with my work off the tables. Getting a lot of stuff done and working out every day.

I played one day of tournaments where I broke even with quite a few min cashes and a 3rd place in a $1 180man SNG.

Other than that I have just been continuing to do well at 5nl where I have now played 62.7k hands @ 8.30 all in ev bb/100

I will play the next few days quite a lot of cash games, possibly taking another small shot at 10nl soon. Then I will play MTT's on the weekend.

I will also post a couple of spots where I was not sure what to do in here soon.

Balance = $162.73

I have been breaking even or slightly losing for much of the last week. I have only managed to play 2 tournament sessions. I feel like I have been playing well in the MTT's but have ran quite unlucky when getting deep in events where I need a final table to give the bankroll a boost.

It is hard to track on my pokertracker my tournament winnings/losses, because it does not input money won from satellite events. My current BB/100 is 14.03 over 51,500 hands though, so I feel confident I can easily crush the micro MTT's/Sngs just need to wait for those final tables.

Cash game success has decreased quite a lot. I still feel I am doing well in 5nl with my ev bb/100 at 6.66 over 75k hands.

In other news I competed in another swim and run race and improved on my time quite a lot. I will have a lot of tennis and gym over the next few days. Therefore I will probably just get a few hours of cash games per day for the next few days.

Balance = $137.92