5 buy-in downswing (~$260) on Friday, playing 50NL 6-max:

• set vs set (33 vs QQ)
• top two vs set (AQ vs 22)
• set vs flush draw (99 vs A6s)
• TPTK vs top two on 3-bet pot SB vs BTN (AK vs A9s)
• AK vs AQ all-in pre-flop SB vs BB

Finished "The intelligent poker player" by Philip Newall. This book is a good complement to "The Mathematics of Poker" with coverage of GTO and varying other subjects.

• Poker is complex; the full GTO is unknown even for HU limit poker.
• In poker, GTO vs. any non-optimal/exploitative = +EV (but not max EV!), while GTO vs. GTO = 0 EV.
• GTO and exploitative strategies are mutually complementary and necessary for success.
• Nemesis: start with GTO, observe the opposition, then deploy exploitation.
• HU limit -> more GTO; multi-way deep-stack big-bet/PL/NL -> more exploitation.
• It is easier to hide information by keeping bets the same for the range, playing many hands the same way instead of playing the same hand in many random ways.
• Small shifts against poor players, and bigger shifts against worse, unaware players.
• Risk averse in game selection (only +EV, lower Var), but risk neutral in a game.
• Loss aversion is a biologically hardwired trait -- involuntary emotional reactions to losses.
• Gains -> risk aversion (quit while ahead); losses -> risk seeking (chasing the losses).
• Attribution bias: crediting wins to our own abilities, while losses are due to external factors.
• Favorable personality traits: conscientiousness, introversion, openness.
• Unfavorable personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness.
• Cooperate with other regs, even if it is -EV, to keep games going and interesting for the fish.
• Balance high-risk poker income with low-risk illiquid investments that are not correlated with the poker economy.

Weekly Update

• 8k hands in 20NL & 50NL
• $114 in losses
• $1320 bankroll (8% down from $1434)

My current strategy of taking shots at 50NL is to step down to 20NL whenever I lose 5 buy-ins ($250) and to grind it back to $1500. I suppose this is a very conservative, risk-averse do-or-die strategy. The proper strategy is to play at 50NL till $750 bankroll before stepping down to 20NL. However, it assumes I have an edge in the game. I just can't stand the prospect of grinding $750 back; though, so far, it is negative $400 at 50NL.

Watched "Runner Runner", "5 Card Stud", "Life on the Line", "Millions - A Lottery Story".

Hey man,
Some advice, find better ways to study than reading books.
A lot of books are kind of out dated now.
There’s more efficient ways to learn poker..
Studying with software, training vids, coaching, etc are a lot better use of your time, I think.
GL, nice results recently.

Thanks for the advice.

I try to be selective what I read. It seems to be the cheapest (most ROI?) way to gain poker knowledge. There are some timeless classics (like MOP, TMGOP), so I intend to go through them all. Also, I read some old established/accessible books because that is what recreational players read -- good to know what they know.
This may not be the best material to crush specific stakes, but it should be ok in the long term.

I have been watching vids from blackrain, doug, nanonoko, parttimepoker, etc, but it is literally 100s of hours. I would argue that books are more efficient to get the essence of what these videos are trying to teach.

Software is probably the most efficient way to get my game improved, but I don't have any hand history from Global.

I would love to have a coach but cannot afford one right now. I have a study group with newbie fellas who have similar goals & challenges.

Cool man, you seem to be learning quickly and have good intuition.

Just be careful with older content.
No poker content is timeless.
Nanonoko probably hasn’t made a video in 10 years.
Black rain is good for microstakes, but that’s it, you should probably be bored by his videos by the time your playing <25nl.
I read TGM coming up and it’s a good book but some of the ranges and ideas are definitely outdated.

Check out AomIsHot22’s YouTube channel, he’s been putting out some really good stuff recently.
There are some good players who stream on twitch occasionally.
And there’s other software besides trackers. Flopzilla, equitab, solvers etc.
GL

Thanks for guidance!

I have to agree, but maybe I’m biased. I really like studying poker books (assuming it’s not outdated) because of the associated costs/ ROI vs. training site memberships and software.

I agree that there are other ways to study and maybe even they can be more current with today’s game, however; books compliment my visual learning style, and it seems to influence my retention of the material.

I also tend to favor training videos with subtitles.

Finished "Little Green Book" and "Little Gold Book" by Phil Gordon. This is a great review of the "old ways" and a gentle introduction to the "new ways" in poker.

The most important take for me from the first book is "beware of speech". I remember myself giving off this tell in live games. I got burnt so many times being unaware of this tell.

The second book is one of the best poker books I have read so far. It is a gem. I find the range analysis diagrams and graphs pretty neat. The set of questions per street is great for practice and post-game hand analysis.

Loved the story of Chris Ferguson's "Zero to Hero" challenge. It took him 9 months to go from $100 to $10k. And that's in 2006, when the games were super soft.

NLHE

• Reverse squeeze: flat calling with a monster in anticipation of a squeeze.
• Gordon's A-X rule: if X kicker is greater than the number of players remaining, you are unlikely to be dominated.
• Gordon's pair principle: P(higher pair) = (# of pairs higher than your pair) x (# of players remaining) / 2
• Suititis: any-two-suited syndrome prevalent among fish
• Floating: in position on a dry board with high c-betting opponent who also doesn't c-bet turn often; having backdoor flush or straight potential is plus; there are few cards that improve my opponent.
• Sinking: floating out-of-position, fancy play.
• Donk as a weapon: to tilt an opponent, against super-aggro players to induce action (instead of check-raise), against fit-or-fold multi-tablers.
• Turn bet size = (Effective Stack Size - Current Pot Size) / 3
• Wet boards are the toughest to play against aggressive opponents.
• Polarized ranges make thin value bets harder (no worse hands are calling but check-raise bluffing).
• Mixed strategy (randomly playing TAG/LAG/NIT) is a way to counter HUD users.
• If you have 10% of bankroll at risk on any one table, you must quit that table.

PLO

I only read about PLO in "Super System 2" and played some 4PLO for fun. I am planning to play PLO when I get sick of NLH.

• Dangers of playing weak AAXX and KKXX
• Flopped nuts may not be overall favorite
• Less floating and more donking
• Small sets 55-22 are extremely difficult to play
• Limping is a legitimate play in tournaments. Stop-and-go instead of 3-bet bluff to re-steal.
• Squeezes and 3-bet bluffs are ineffective.
• 3-bet for isolation with playable hands.
• Position is more important than in NLHE since hands are speculative.
• OOP, keep the pot small.
• Very hard to get paid on the river.
• Bankroll of 50 buy-ins or more due to the higher variance.
• Short stacks can have significant advantage.

Weekly Update

• 7.5k hands in 20NL
• 500 hands in 4PLO
• $363 in winnings
• $1683 bankroll (28% up from $1320)

I decided to build up a bigger cushion (~10 buy-ins) for another attempt at 50NL. I am trying not to mix 20NL and 50NL games in a single session because of the considerable differences between these stakes. Hope the third time is the charm.

Finished YouTube videos on MoneyNeverSleeps channel (complementary to "Little Gold Book" by Phil Gordon).

Watched "Shade", "The Music of Chance", "A Big Hand for the Little Lady", "Cold Deck".

Finished "Stages of TAG" by Ed Miller. It describes the natural evolution of a poker player through newbie/fish to nit to tag to lag.

I dare say I have worked up to Part IV, Stage 20, and employing some Stage 22 at 20NL (albeit small bets -- no more than a half a pot). I still have to finesse these skills/techniques and identify/plug leaks.

So, these are the stages for me to work on:

Stage 21: Pick-up large pots with large bluffs when the aggressor has given up.
Stage 22: Range merging on the river (thin value).
Stage 23: Line balancing, identifying unbalanced lines, and defending from exploitation.
Stage 24: Quickly identifying an opponent's skill/stage level from observation, and out-leveling them.
Stage 25: Drastically adjusting to exploit opponents' unbalanced strategy.

"From there it's refinement. Finding more unbalanced lines in their own play and balancing them. Knowing what players to expose unbalanced lines to and what players to play defensively against. Seeking out more and more subtle ways to exploit opponents. And so on..."

I will start classifying 50NL fish and regs with these stages in addition to taking detailed notes. A nice property of this classification is that a stage-N player is very unlikely to pull-off something from higher stages.

This thread is awesome. Very inspiring to see your work ethic, motivation and attitude. Watch out GlobalPoker : )

Finished "Modern Small Stakes" by Nathan "blackrain79" Williams.

This book is about exploitation on full throttle. It heavily relies on HUD and more prescriptive than the TGM (felt like a rulebook to write a bot for the small stakes). The suggestions are actually mixed strategies (play the same hand in random ways), for example, c-bet 50% of the time with QQ on king-high paired rainbow flop against TAG, which is hard to implement unless you are a bot. The percentages feel arbitrary though. Keeping (flop/turn/river) c-bet constant 60% regardless of other factors is strange (extreme information hiding).

Anyway, the major sad news is that the modern small-stakes poker is nitfest with TAG sharks. Can it get worse than this? This doesn't look fun at all (Example #83: folding a bottom set! Wow!).

• Bad Regs (super nit, nit, TAGfish), Regs (TAG, SLAG, LAG), Recreational (SLP, Whales, Maniacs)
• Judicious table selection and bum-hunting
• Jesus seat -- a seat left to the sucker
• Move-up the stakes or take shots on Weekends (softer games)
• Tighten-up in blinds if there are limpers
• Loosen-up in early positions if there are limpers
• 4bet is the new 3bet
• Be cautious with donk bets from competent opponents (prefer "call" over "raise")
• Start using donk bets, double/triple barrels, and raise/check-raise bluffs
• Going to a war with another reg => turn them into calling-stations or maniacs:
  1. 3-bet ATC and run big bluffs (or get lucky)
  2. 3-bet and bluff in slightly higher than normal
  3. 3-bet and post-flop bet only for value (thin value)
• Tilting recreational players is easier. Just remove step #2.

It’s actually pretty easy.
One way is to use the suit/order of your cards to randomize.
Ex- for unpaired hands - if the bigger card is on the left, take a more aggressive action, if big card is on right take passive action
For pocket pairs - black card first = aggressive. Red card first = passive

You could also use the time to randomize.

Or you can just use a RNG

This is nice. I use my watch in live games, but for online multi-tabling, I find it hard to be random and make decisions within a short time. It is easier to do the same thing with the whole range rather than to employ couple of random strategies with each combination.

The percentages also get awkward, like 50:25:25, 66:33, or 33:33:33. I have no idea how these are figured out for the suggestions given in MSS.

Finished "The Mental Game of Poker 2" by Jared Tendler. There's overlapping material with the first book. As with the first, this book contains months worth of work. Zone, Zone Learning Model (Intangible competence and unconscious data), focus, decision making, mental endurance.

I have to start paying attention when I am in and out of zone. Currently, I reach zone seldom and in uncontrollable manner. It would be amazing if I could snap in and off zone whenever I have to. When I am in the zone/flow, I lose the sense of time, hunger, and thirst, and, strangely, I stop caring about my balance/money whether I am winning or not. I am completely immersed in the game and unaffected by external distractions. I tried listening to some background music, but in tough spots, I found myself turning it off, which is not a good sign (and a live tell!), so I don't listen to music while playing poker.

I've had four 16+ hour live sessions so far. My longest live session was 26 hours. My longest online session was 14 hours. However, most of these sessions happened when I was super-nit, so basically, sitting and waiting for the nuts and being stuck due to coolers.

Burnout and tons of overwhelming educational material are major concerns right now. I am trying to establish two days of no poker every week.

Finished "Small Stakes Hold'em" and "Small Stakes No Limit Hold'em" by Ed Miller et al. This is the oldest small-stakes book I could find. It is full of tricks and exploits.

• "Poker is not gambling" is a misconception => the player doesn't understand the game => nit
• Do not establish the serious and intimidating image in cash games (people are free to leave or not to give you any action)
• However, do establish the intimidating image in tournaments.
• Play tight or learn how to steal
• Triple barreling on Ace-high boards is often a mistake
• Non-ace overcards are better for bluffing
• Freeze play: min raise to block further action
• You don't protect your hand. You protect the pot and your stack.

Weekly Update

• 5k hands in 20NL
• $71 in winnings
• $1754 bankroll (4% up from $1683)

Watched "The Gambler (2014)", "The Touch (1983)", "The Deal", "Lucky Girl (My Daughter's Secret Life)".

Received bad news from Global. Have to cash out till July 31. They stop allowing anymore poker players from my state. I will have to think what to do with the current challenge.

For some reason, my biggest downswings are all on Fridays. I had 10 buy-in downswing today, and the day is not over yet. This is my biggest downswing ever.

Weekly Update

• 18K hands in 20NL
• $194 in winnings
• $11 in tournament buy-ins
• $7 in tournament winnings
• $1944 bankroll (11% up from $1754)

This was quite an intense week. It is the first time I played almost 20K hands in a week. However, after 10K hands, I went on autopilot, and, when the 10 buy-in downswing hit, I got tilted. These must be my thresholds. I feel pretty wasted.

Tuesday is my last day on Global. I will play two GOAT tournaments on Monday and cash-out soon afterwards.

Watched "Oscar and Lucinda". I ran out of poker/gambling movies.

The good news about going to another site, hand histories. You can now study like the rest of us

Finished "Secrets of professional poker tournament" and "Mastering Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'Em" by Jonathan Little.

The first book is a quick review of the tournament poker strategy. I mostly learned about tournament poker from Dan Harrington's books.

Since I have mostly played cash games, I noticed that I have gained some habits that are not optimal in a tournament. I play early stages of a tournament like cash games, but I realize I need the following adjustments.

• Choose lines with smaller variance (small-ball poker)
• Avoid thin value bets (this is a hard habit to forego since this is the bread at the small-stakes cash games)
• Avoid large bluffs

I read the second book thinking that it applies to small-stakes online cash games, but it is mostly about tourneys and full of range charts per stack-sizes. It does have some useful live-game discussions of abnormal cash games, straddle, rake, jackpots, and high-hand.

Monday Report

• Didn't cash in any GOAT tournaments: -$22 in tournament buy-ins.
• Won 3 micro SNGs for $6.4 in profit.
• $1929 bankroll

Final Bankroll: $1929