Hey there everybody.

You can find out a bit of my poker history and results by checking my old PG&C Threads. Here's a summary:


Timeline Since Grinding for a living:


Goals for 2016:
1.) Make $20,000 in commission at the real job (roughly $1,200,000 in written premium).
2.) Earn $25,000 on the poker tables on Bovada. A combination of NLHE 6/9max, 9 man triple ups when in the mood, MTT's on Sundays and the occasional Saturday, perhaps another attempt at PLO once I'm properly rolled for $0.50/$1.00+.
3.) Update this thread no more than once a week! (expect every 2-4 weeks). I'll respond to comments and such but not doing session/daily recaps or anything.

I currently have ~$1,000 on Bovada and am not looking to make another deposit. If I reach a point where I feel I would be better off playing on a stake rather than risking my own cash to comfortably move up, I may consider approaching some old colleagues or new ones.

Here's some BR Management for ya:
NLHE Cash - 10 buy-in shots when I have 40 buy-ins for the next level if I feel my play is capable of beating that level.
SNG's - 20 buy-in shots when I have 100 buy-ins for the next level.
MTT's - 100 buy-ins for the highest stake.
PLO - 20 buy-in shot when I have 100 buy-ins for the next level.

I don't anticipate playing much PLO as I recently made a run at it and couldn't stand the variance in the micros where the games should be lol, but I have a feeling I was leveling myself a bit. May re-approach @ 50-100PLO if I deem it a good idea at the time. I'll be sticking primarily to NLHE cash for when I don't have 4+ hours of continuous grind time (most of the time). Will play SNG's alongside MTT's on Sunday's when I can get in a grind session.

All Bovada results from the last 3-4 months since I depo'd (lol at me not being a winner in much). I feel my game has improved dramatically in the last 5-6 weeks. RIO is a godsend (and is the first time in my 10 years of playing poker that I've utilized anything other than an ancient book or self study to improve my game). I practically live on there now, not always actively studying, but usually falling asleep to videos and watching anytime I have a spare 30-60 minutes.

NLHE Cash:

PLO Cash:

SNG/MTT:

Just a quick update for everyone out there that's not reading this thread

Feel like I'm playing really well in most games at the moment. I definitely feel like I need to avoid Zone tables though (Bovada's version of PS Zoom). The completely anonymous nature makes it really akward to play. Trying to gauge reg vs rec is quite the challenge (unless they are under a full stack).

I also feel based on my lol sample size (10 occurrences) that I need to stop 3bet/5bet getting it in with KK against a UTG open in these games. Little easier to gauge whether that's ok on a normal table where you can develop reads and HUD stats, but a hell of a lot tougher in Zone completely readless and seems like it's been AA every time. As a matter of fact, it has been AA every time...

Anyways, here's the month of December so far. Running fairly well but not absurdly so in terms of $$. Volume was a bit light while I was home thus far on the month but things are finally slowing down at work (no more 80 hour weeks in my near future I don't think). Spent a lot of time on my long weekend this past Fri-Mon grinding Zone as I was playing shorter sessions and didn't have HUD on that comp. It didn't go so well (but not terrible either I guess.

6/9 Max 10NL & 25NL Normal Tables:


6 Max 10NL & 25NL Zone:


Triple Ups and couple MTT's:


Still @ 25NL as my top stake, long ways to go before 50NL as I was just shot taking 25NL when I started this thread. Looking to move up ASAP though pending my bankroll requirements stated in OP. Next level of SNG's ($14+1.4) is coming up soon though. I'd really like to have a couple opportunities over the next few weekends to put in some serious SNG + MTT grind sessions to boost the roll up a bit.

Dabbled a little more on WPN recently, not sure why other than 35% rakeback is better than 10% via FPP's on Bovada. Sadly, even @ 5NL there's like 1 fish per 6 max table (the regs are bad, but FML compared to Bovada where it's 3x 60/5 rec's and 2 terrible regs).

Anyways, will update again at the beginning of the year assuming no big tourney binks before then!

Have you had much experience with Bovada cash outs how do those go?

And is there a limit on tables?

Cashouts by check ($750 max I believe) take less than a week. I know of folks who cash out via other methods for significantly more, just have to go through CS to do it.

As far as table caps, you are capped at 4 tables of Cash/SNG's. No cap on MTT's.

Going to try to stick to 4 tables of FR when it's running and run my roll up on WPN a bit with some aggro BRM to supplement volume rather than playing Zone on Bovada.

Alternatively, the best hourly for me would be playing SNG/MTT @ the stakes I'm currently rolled for, however, I simply don't have large blocks of time frequently available much during the week. I also want to invest my time a bit into cash as long term, the hourly will be much higher in low/mid stakes NLHE or PLO rather than MTTs.

Deposited a bit on Bovada playing NL25 9max As well see you around!

Good times. The 9 max games are soft but a lot more weak tight than 6 max wherr thr fish tend to be more loose passive. Still pretty easy to nut peddle and crush though. Trying to stay a little on the laggy side in 9 max myself (19/14 or so) as I'm super super focused on isolating the loose passives present on thr table. 5 way flops with medium hand strength sucks a lot of the time but almost always getting paid when you have it (P.S. Don't bluff).

Very happy with the volume I was able to put in over the holidays. It was a solid bonus that the games were also a little softer than usual I believe. Yes this volume looks pitiful to most, but when you are 4 tabling full ring (~200 hands per hour) on a site that plays slower than normal, it's actually fairly impressive!

Since last update (including a little WPN 5-10NL 6/9max):


No tournaments or SNG's outside of a Freeroll for the 100k on Bovada. I managed to slink down to 4th after having a decent run early on earning me a $16+1 ticket to a semi-final. Will try to play the semi-final in the next week or two.

I have been going back through Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" and while I'm not confident that I have many tilt based leaks, I do find myself not always playing my A game. Will continue to push through the book again and start to formulate a plan for my mental game improvement as time goes on.

For now I have one set of things I'd like to accomplish:
1.) Review 2016 Goal before each session
2.) Set a goal for the session (not monetary but play based, IE don't station off a river without calculating how often I need to be good, etc).
3.) Review how I performed for my session goal at the conclusion of the session (record the result).

At least for my style of game, I have found 100 MTT buyins to be way to small. I use 50 buy-ins for SNGs and 200-500 MTT buy-ins depending on the number of players in the tournament.

Hey there fellow Bovada grinder. I agree with your view on reg tables vs. zone. Zone can be pretty tilting for me because of the completely anonymous nature of it. I also used to grind super turbos for a living but stopped and transitioned to cash when black friday hit. From the looks of your past it's only a matter of time before you're moving up to the small and mid stakes. Just stay away from the PLO tables because there's really no reason to play them with NLHE as soft as it is. GL!

For average buy-in in large field events, if that was the only source of boosting the roll I would certainly agree. In this particular situation though, it'll suit me just fine. Losing 15-20 buy-ins is no big deal as it's made up for in my next 6-8 hours of cash grinding. I'm also using 100 BI's for my largest buy-in, where in reality my average buy-in is about half of that. I'm also primarily playing small fields (90% under 500 players). In the end though, it's the ability of the roll to recover via cash grinding if it takes a hit in MTT's like it did today =).

Haha, I hope NLHE is good at the mid-stakes. PLO looks surprisingly soft even @ PLO200 though so I still may make the transition eventually.

No real updates for y'all for another few days. I actually wiped my database yesterday and put in a decent grind session today where I basically broke even in cash games and lost about $120 on MTT's (bricked em all).

Definitely need some MTT review sessions as all of my effort has been focused on cash for the last 2-3 months.

Thanks for following everyone!

Nothing too exciting going on the past few days. I did get in a decently long grind session yesterday (first one in a few days) unfortunately, I was more or less breakeven after the session.

I'll post an update with some graphs here, hopefully tomorrow, of cash hands since the last update. I wiped my database and am giving myself a fresh start for 2016 (first time in 10 years it's been wiped, OMG). Was well overdue.

I've also started dabbling a bit in the Jackpot SNG's (aka Spin & Go's) on WPN. I must admit that I really enjoy the format and they are lol soft. Unfortunately, I also reset my Sharkscope this morning so no graph of profits for you guys, but here's my cEV from HEM. Format is identical to the Spin & Go's on stars I believe (500 starting chips and 3 minute levels, not sure if stars has antes though, these don't). From what I see of most folks on stars, 55-60 chips per game is super solid. All of this volume was in the $2s though which is just lol. Will continue to dabble and move up as I feel more comfortable with my ranges in 3bet/calling 3 bet spots. They are nice since they are fast, they are great for me for short sessions. 9 max on Bovada can take me 20-25 minutes before I complete my first orbit pretty easily on 4 tables so if I only have an hour or two to grind, it's kinda annoying.



100 chips per game = good? Still a ton of work to put in but could be fun down the road if I can move up enough and start earning some leaderboard winnings out of these.

Update: More to come tomorrow. Haven't been grinding a ton thus far in the new year but things generally speaking are going really well.

The last two days I put in about 5000 hands of NLHE cash, unfortunately, I was set over set 3 times, flush over flushed twice and boat over boat (OTR). All in all I was getting my ass kicked but walked away from the past couple days about break even.

Fired up a small handful of MTT's Friday night as I was watching some movies and I managed a solid run in the $10, $10k guaranteed, 10k stack, 10 minute levels...**** 10s.

Anyways:


Ran like Jesus and managed to take it down. I will say I played exceptionally well also, 0 errors, a few tight folds for ICM on the final table that I hated making but ICM taken into account they were correct.

My experience the last week or two dabbling in the Jackpot SNG's on WPN really helped with my 3 handed and HU play as well I think. In the end though, gotta run good to take em down.

First actual bink since being back in the game and happy to take it down. Likely withdrawing some for a new computer. Replaced my ~9 year old custom built about a year ago with a cheap $300 pre-built Acer from Best Buy. Thing runs like **** and keeps locking up on me while on WPN due to memory leaks.

Will look into pricing out a tower with SSD and some other fun stuff with ~$1,000 of this bink.

BR will be over $2k after I withdraw so I'm able to move up to 50NL but may stick to 25NL and try to improve some at 6 max (can double my hands per hour in 6 max on Bovada compared to FR).

Anyways, will throw up graphs and **** tomorrow.

YTD Update: Delivering on my promise of 2-4 updates a month. Here's the first of many to come over the next 12 months.

Currently grinding 25-50NL, primarily full ring but mixing in some 6 max tables when games are good, SNG's $7.70-15.40, MTT's $5.50-22 (and any satellites $3.30-11) for tickets to $27.50+ events.

Year to Date Graphs:

Please PM or text me back immediately. Thanks.

I miss you sir!

_______________________________________

Quick update. Won't have much time to play this weekend and haven't grinded a ton the last few days. No new graphs for y'all just a quick update. Put in about 1500 more hands of 50NL (a smidge of 25NL as well). All full ring, all on Bovada. Up ~$300. Lost a bit more in MTT's but nothing crazy. Full ring tables were very juicy tonight which made me smile. Unfortunately the wife has plans with her friend tomorrow so I'll be watching my son the majority of the day. Will try to get in some grind sessions Saturday and Sunday night though. I will be out of town next week Thursday-Sunday, will take a laptop but no HUD so not sure what the plan is yet for then, might play some MTT's if I have the time but I doubt it as I'll likely be out drinking with other folks from the conference .

Ugh. It's been ugly since last update. Nothing too exciting and have had very little time to play. Like a donk since my sessions have been so limited I've been playing Zone instead of regular 6 max or FR. No more tournaments played since last update.

Cash Results are sub par...

Month To Date:


Zone Games Only:


Month To Date excluding Zone:


So yeah, I'm officially banning myself from Zone. If I don't have more than like 60-90 minutes to play, I simply won't play. Looking forward to getting back on the grind at some point, but work is picking up a ton and generally speaking, I'm just too damn busy.

Will continue to chart my progress throughout the year when I do play, but I'm going to relieve myself of my arbitrary $25,000 profit goal for 2016 and focus more on enjoying the game and playing my A game. Will continue watching videos and studying when I can as well as I enjoy that part of it, almost as much as I enjoy playing. The money is arbitrary to me at these stakes though so just need to focus and make sure I'm playing to the best of my ability so I have the confidence I need when I eventually move up to 200NL+.

Good luck everyone!

January Recap:

Tourney Net: $1,691.48
Cash Net: $61.31
Total: $1752.79
Pace: $2,083.33

Cash Excluding Zone (25-50NL):


Cash Including Zone (25-50NL):


Tourneys:


Throwing 1k on BetOnline in a week or two so I can bump up volume. Would love to be putting in 500 hands/hour instead of the 200/hour I'm getting on Bovada at the moment. That said, I'm bouncing between 50NL and 25NL depending on my mood. I'll likely wait to play 50NL full time until I make another 1000 so I have a liquid 30 buy-ins on each site for my current stake and keep moving up in that fashion. It'll also be tough to play 8+ tables on two ****ty skins if I'm mixing stakes.

Would like to see myself playing 200NL by September which means I'll likely wind up short of my goal but that's ok. Just looking to have some fun and improve along the way. The money is just a bonus at this point.

Super excited for work at the moment, things are looking highly likely to be a breakout year and in the process I'm developing some systems and processes that I could transfer to another agency/business in the future to churn a quick $1,000,000 in revenue. Hopefully things work as planned and I have a nice year.

Good luck everyone!

Nice month. glgl in February!

Thank you. Looking for 12,000 hands of 25-50NL Full Ring in February. Still weak but it's a short month and I have a crazy busy schedule! Would like to get up to 20,000 hands/month in March and be @ 50NL full time by the end of March. 100NL in June puts me in good shape for 200NL around September shot taking 400NL by the end of the year.

I think my WR of 12evbb/100 since beginning of December is likely unsustainable but I don't think 8evbb/100 is unrealistic.

Played a 6 hour live session of 200NL today as I had the itch. Finished +$68.

Only 1 semi-interesting hand and it wasn't really all that interesting. A4ss in BB, EP raises to 7, get 6 calls and I overcall. Flop T53 with one spade. I check overcall a $15 bet 4 ways against MP (getting 7-1). Turn Jd bringing a flush draw, checks to MP who bets $23, other callers fold and I check raise to $90 expecting loads of fold equity against that bet size. He calls relatively quickly. River my gutter and jam for the remaining ~$140 effective stacks and get snapped by what I guess was JT but not sure. I take it down and everyone thinks I'm a crazy lucky donky fish.

Only other hand of note was not interesting but made me chuckle. Bunch of limps and I make it $17 from the SB with TT get 3 calls. Flop T73cc. I make it ~$45 and the next to act shoves for ~$180, other two fold and I snap. Board runs out KK and villain flips over KT. Chuckled.

Will be depoing this cash back in the bank tomorrow and throw it on BetOnline for the weekend. Looking forward to some solid 25 NL FR grinding for a little bit.

I think your c/r is a little ambitious to say the least. lol He just doesn't have any air here since it is a multiway pot. His T's are checking back, his J's aren't folding, and his 2pair+ isn't going anywhere. But good job getting all the money once you hit. And that KK runout is just gross. haha

So are you moving your grind to BetOnline or are you still grinding Bovada?

Good luck at the tables.

Yeah it was definitely ambitious but this guy had been really splashy thus far without committing his stack. His $27 or whatever into like $120 was why I made the move/had the room to do it.

I'll be playing on both for sure. 4 tables FR on Bovada and 4-6 more on BetOnline. Actually just finished up my first session on both. Annoys me how long it takes to get a session started but played for about 2.5 hours once I had 9 tables up and got in ~1200 hands in 2.5 hours. Much better than the 500 i'd have had if I was only on Bovada.

Nothing too crazy to report at the moment. Had an extremely slow start to the month being busy with work. Fortunately, now that I have a few bucks on BetOnline my hourly volume is more than doubling. Put in nearly 4000 hands in 2 days (less than 10 hours). Just grinding away. Starting to get a solid feel for the BetOnline games and starting to open up my ranges accordingly. Games are certainly tighter than Bovada but at least at 25NL they still have plenty of weak spots.

February (excluding last ~500 hands on Bovada as they haven't uploaded yet):


YTD in BB of FR Only:


Going to be a very busy work week. We'll see how much energy I have left in the evenings. Just to give you an idea, my Monday is going something like this:

8:30 Meeting (Vendor)
9:30 Meeting (Strategy)
11:00 Meeting (Networking)
1:30 Meeting (Training)
2:30 Meeting (Prospect)
3:30 Meeting (Client)

My whole week pretty much looks like that and plenty to do when I'm not in meetings...

Update time! Nothing crazy going on, just slowly putting in some volume. Played another session of live 200NL today. Game was meh in general but managed to flop a set and get paid by QQ on KJ7K8 with 77. Finished +$261. Had a good last few days online as well with a +$200 day on Friday, and another $100 earlier today. 200NL on Bovada was looking ultrasoft early this afternoon. I didn't want to violate my bankroll requirements so I wound up short stacking for $60 buy-ins. Had a little fun, swung around a good bit but finished +$100 after 2-2.5 hours.

February Online MTD (excluding today's Bovada hands):


February Totals:
Online: +$356.64 (not including today)
Live: +$329
Total: +$685.64

Going to try to stick to 50NL on Bovada and 25NL on BetOnline for the rest of the month. Good luck me!

I used to read your old thread when you played hypers. Have you only sold insurance on the commercial side? Ever sold any home and auto? I used to be in retail sales but the hours sucked, I've thought about getting into selling insurance. Gl on the grind!