Hey guys,
I'd like to start a challenge for myself. To start off at 100 PLO and climb to 1k PLO online. I recently went through a really rough downswing and need to rebuild my roll. I really enjoy HU PLO and will try and prioritize my grinding towards that and supplement with 6-max if I can't find enough HU action.

I'll update this weekly with graphs and thoughts on the week.
I'm going to start with a 5k bankroll, and try to spread out my money on different sites. I believe party poker has the best rakeback at the moment and also has HU tables, so it's potentially a focus for this challenge. If I can figure that the rake is beatable at HU zoom 100plo, then I will also grind on stars.

I'm not into goal setting as much as creating a system for myself. In order to succeed without feeling like a failure (because of not hitting a goal) I feel it's very healthy to use a system. Creating a system is simple. Figuring out what you're doing with your day, and structure it so it allows you to be successful and achieve what you want. So if I'm going to climb from 100-1k, I want to be putting in a lot of volume, and studying a bit as well (beating 1k online is no easy task these days!)
I'll keep track of hands played, results, and whether or not I stick to my system by using a method called theXeffect. Check it out here if you're interested.

glgl ill be following

Gl mate, subbed

Thanks guys! I hope to start the first week on July 31st

Week 1

Hey guys!
I finished my first week. I have a lot of mixed feelings about everything, so I'll bullet a couple of thoughts:

• I need to work on my mental game
• My drive to play most is when I'm stuck
• I play well when I want to play
• I do better in short sessions
• I do better playing less tables
• I need to be rigid with a stop loss
• I'm happy I completed my hand goal of 5k.

Overall I give myself a 6/10 for performance. I really need to perform at around an 8/10 before I move up to 100 PLO as the jump in skill is pretty significant. If I want to be playing full time as a professional I really need to play my A game.

Next week i'm going to focus on my mental game, and really be self-aware about not rushing my play and focusing.




My biggest pot won

Week 2

2nd week finished!
So just like the last post I'll make some bullets of random thoughts about the week.

• I started off well in the beginning of the week
• I still get tilted with losing
• I have been improving with my mental game slowly
• I need to not play more than 2 tables at a time
• I played 4 tables for 8 hours and didn't play well
• Got in 1k more hands than I wanted, but the play wasn't good

6.5/10 for this week. I feel I played a bit better than last week in terms of my mental game, but still had an absolutely crazy day on Thursday (you'll see the graph)
Until I can manage to play a whole week without tilting hard, playing too fast, or adding more than 2 tables at a time, I don't feel I should be moving up to 100 and 200 yet.

So I'm starting this week a bit late as I was on vacation this weekend, but I'll try and get in as many hands as I can with more of a focus on quality play (playing slow, few tables, focused)

solid results so far dude keep it up, that graph's pretty crazy

Week 3

I wrapped up week 3 short of my hands goal. I was on vacation last weekend so I missed Monday's session. I didn't feel in the right head space for Tuesday's session either. I think this week actually went really well in terms of mental game. I've been noticing more when I start to stray away from my A-game and am able to pull it back even if I suffer a bad beat. Going forward I will continue to focus on my mental game.

• I've started playing PLO100 as I'm feeling more comfortable with my mental game
• The games at 100 are as good as, if not better than 50 at times.
• I feel more confident than when I started as I can see my edge more clearly
• I think I can move up to 200 if I keep up my mental focus at 100

The one thing that concerns me is that I sometimes let big winning days prevent me from reaching my hands goal. For example on Wednesday I was up ~4 buy-ins and felt great about that. I had only put in 800/1000 hands but didn't feel like forcing the last 200. If I had lost any back I'd be more upset than if I had won more. I'm not sure if this thought process is a leak or something good for me as I know what causes tilt in myself. Do you guys think a stop win can be bad or good?

This is pretty standard winner's tilt. Very common among players (myself included). It's likely more bad than good as if you're a winning player, you are costing yourself more by not playing more. It's also not like having a winning session will make you play worse due to tilt.

Interesting that u say this & I can definitely relate. If I'm battling away for a few hours & go from stuck to up, say 2buyins, I feel like calling it a day for the same reasoning as you. Going back to being stuck for the day would be more demoralizing than to win 2 more buyins would be satisfying, so I book the win.

Like you, I sometimes find it more motivating to play long sessions when I'm playing well but getting a bit unlucky & only breakeven or a slight loser

Week 4

The beginning of this week was great. I felt focused every day and was playing close to my A game. I payed close attention to my mental game and when I felt myself drifting away from being focused I tried hard to re-focus. The last day I played (today) was a huge test of my patience/focus. A lot of players were talking after every hand they lost or felt I played bad in. ("you're awful, no wonder you're a losing player!" etc...) It really got to me at times and threw me off my game and shook my confidence. I took a step back gathered my focus and came back and played my A game again. You can see the dip at the end of the session which was when I was getting distracted by all the trash talk and banter from the other players. The best fix for myself is to mute them and not pay any attention. They talk because they are frustrated and don't know how to deal with my game. They berate aspects of my game because they are having trouble with it. So in a sense it's a good sign, but at the same time it can shake your confidence when they keep telling you that you're an awful player etc... Moving forward I feel good about getting past that and I'll keep working hard.

• Played well for most of the week
• Felt very focused
• Getting better at realizing when my focus breaks
• Reached a tough issue and was able to resolve it
• Overall very happy with this week

Week 5

It's been awhile since I updated. I'll just start from where I left off. I recall starting off rocky in week 5, but recovering nicely. Over the last few weeks my mental game has been great and getting better with practice. Being mindful of how I'm feeling and playing is a big contributor to success for me.

Week 6

I didn't play much this week. I moved into a new apartment and didn't have my PC set up, so these hands were played on a macbook air which was really uncomfortable. I was very happy I chose not to play a lot. I think it's better in the long run to miss a few days of playing than forcing yourself to get hands in when you're not feeling 100%. With rake as high as it is, the hands you play need to be at your A game just to beat the rake.

Week 7




This was my most profitable week so far. It was not my strongest in terms of mental game. I tilted and played my C-D game. Needless to say that's why there's a huge dip in the graph. I got my money in bad, and wasn't following my intuition. It's been a tough re-entry into poker after taking a bit of time off. I find that when I'm consistent I am able to slowly build up good habits, however when I take breaks It is harder for me to be consistent, especially with my mental game. I'm looking forward to putting in more effort next week and get back to putting in closer to 5k hands a week.

If I counted correctly your BR is now sitting at like $13k without losing a single week right?

yep!

Had a rough start to the week yesterday. I ended up playing a session where I wasn't really ready to play and lost quick. It caused me to tilt pretty bad and I also ran bad. In order to bounce back the rest of the week I just need to focus on playing well and studying and forget the money lost yesterday. Sometimes I get attached to the money when I win, and It's really tough to do that in poker since the peak of your bankroll is always going to be changing. I'm going to take Monday off to study and work on some other stuff, and then come in on Tuesday focused and ready to grind

Week 8

It's been a weird week. Not a lot of focus and a lot of things going on. With WCOOP I played a few tournaments and I've decided that it's not a good idea to mix tournaments and cash games after a few bad experiences, so I didn't get many hands in. The bad start to the week on Sunday caused me to be a bit over cautious when playing. Not a terrible thing, but it did stifle my motivation to play. Next week I need to start working hard. I'm going to try and eliminate any distractions or things that may take away from poker so that I can really get into crunch mode and start working as hard as I believe is needed to get to 1k plo.

First losing week! I guess we jinxed it




For this week

• 500-1k hands a day
• Meditation in the morning
• Focus when playing or studying when not feeling focused
• Good game selection

Week 9

I decided to take the week off. I had a lot of life things to take care of, so I'll resume on week 10 as I've played the last couple of days so far!

Thood gread. Fill wollow

Week 10





This week was short and swingy. After taking a break, I felt rusty. I decided to ease back into poker by playing a full day of 100 PLO before I played my normal stakes, 200 PLO. I have to work harder if I'm going to continue this momentum in climbing stakes. I have been studying a decent amount and playing only when I feel focused. The only thing that is lacking is my hours played. I need to start putting in more hours in order to grow my bankroll. I have a fairly solid foundation for 200 PLO now, and If I can put in a few solid months I can move up to 400/500 PLO, which is starting to break into decent earning territory with a good winrate.

you need 45k to play 5/10 if you're not a degenerate. I'm starting with 2.5k at 50/1.00 and taking a shot at one tabling 1/2 with my .50/1.00 tables at 5k. then 8k, 1-2.. then 12k i'm quitting my job and living the 2/4 dream. i could afford the 12k now.. but i need to get this hud/bb100 stuff figured out and this is the best way to do it. it'll be hard getting from 50/1.00 to 5/10. impossible dream without 12 tabling and running like god.. unless you want to take years.

Week 11




This week was rough. Probably my roughest yet. I struggled with my mental game and my execution. I played my C-B game all week and paid for it. I still haven't found my flow from when I first started this challenge. Moving forward my aim will be to focus on getting back on the horse, focusing on what I can control, and putting in the time. I heard a nice quote from the late John Dunsworth "Some days things just work wonderfully and some days it's a struggle, but if you persist through the struggle...it'll still get done." I really like this quote because it sums up dealing with the variance in poker, as well as life. I'm going to try to persist through the struggle and hopefully I'll come out on the other end successful

Week 12

Mon-Thursday was great. I played my A game, I was patient, and I felt in control. Friday was a disaster. During Friday's session I was 3 tabling; one mixed game and two HU PLO games. The mixed game was a $500 buy-in and one of the HU PLO's was a $500 buy-in which are two shots for me at the same time. I have a comfortable bankroll for $200 buy-in, but $500 is a bit of a stretch. My stop loss is around 1k, and I ended up losing a few buy-ins at the mixed and hu $500 PLO at the same time to fall down $2.3k on the day, an amount I should never be losing. That hurt. Even though I felt I played OK, I don't think it was the right time to be taking shots, and if I do take shots I need to 1-2 table max. I learned another expensive lesson, and going forward I don't think i'm ready to splash $500 PLO in yet. I'm going to try and be patient and grind $200 until I feel comfortable losing ~$2k on a shot, then take the shot.




Winning at 10bb/100 and losing on the week

Subbed, gl!