Hi all,

I am creating this thread to document the next step in my poker journey. I am a 24 year old from Australia, considering quitting my full time corporate job in Consulting to become a full time live bad reg.

History:

2013:
I first started playing poker during my first year of University, whilst studying to become a Glorified Massage Therapist (Physiotherapist). I played 5c/10c home games with my friends, without the slightest clue that this game would quickly become one of the most important things in my life. The more I played, the more I became interested in the game, and its complexities. I tracked from my very first session, and can proudly say I grinded 1.5k in this 5/10c home game in my first year as a recreational poker player.

2014:
Having learnt about bankroll management, I moved up to a local 25/50c home game. This game was insanely soft, and I often refer to these as the “golden days” in my poker career. I was able to run a 1.5k roll to 5.7k within a year. I had begun to read some poker books and consumed every single poker video on YouTube I could find.

Meanwhile, my interest in becoming a Physiotherapist was quickly dwindling. By 2nd semester, I had decided to drop out. Poker lead me to take an interest in Economics, more specifically, game theory. I decided to start a Commerce degree majoring in Finance and Economics

2015:
With a new degree, I slowed down on the poker, but was still playing once or twice a week. I decided my 5k was worth taking a shot at some 1/2 and 1/3 games at my local casino, Crown Melbourne. Things went really well, and I was steadily grinding out a solid hourly. I had managed to build my roll to 17k by the end of the year

2016:
This was my toughest year in poker to date, but also the year I learnt the most about myself as a poker player. Despite increased the amount of studying and putting in more hours at the Casino, I was struggling to win. I worked on everything from theory, to mental game, to game selection, but my poker graph continued to plateau. After endless hours of reflection, I realised that a lot of the new concepts I was learning, was being misapplied. I self diagnosed myself with ‘fancy play syndrome’. Once I realised this and made the correct adjustments, I was able to start recouping some of the years losses.

This was my last year of University, so I had a poker trip planned at the end of the year as a reward to myself for graduating. I went to Asia, and played poker in Korea and Macau, and had an absolute blast. By the end of the year I managed to turn a big losing year into a small losing year, with my bankroll ending up on 15.5k

At the start of the year I had considered taking a gap year to pursue poker full time after graduating. However after the humbling experience of run bad / play bad, I reconsidered that option. This in retrospect was probably a very good thing for me.

2017:
The first year in a full time graduate role. My passion for poker was at an all-time high, however the intense demand in consulting meant poker was difficult to play. I decided to spend what little hours I had focused on studying. During this time, I found out about the soft online games on the private sites, and decided to move into that space as it aligned to my work schedule a lot better. These games were ridiculously soft, and with the help of a nice tournament bink along the way, and found myself breaking the 20k milestone mid 2017. By the end of the year, I had managed to run my roll up to 28k and was playing 2/4 online.

2018:
I have recently just come back from a 6 week trip in Asia, playing poker in Manila, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Again, I had an extreme blast, and really sparked my passion to take a gap year to travel and play poker full time.

So that’s my poker Journey so far. I intend to continue to grind recreationally for the remainder of the year. With a volume goal of playing 50k hands by the end of the year. I am currently on 13k hands for the year, beating the 2/4 game at 10.8bb/100. I also have set goals of playing at least 5 live MTT’s this year.

2019-2020:
I will re-evaluate my life and consider if this is the right time to make the leap. The main factor currently holding me back is that I have not built myself a solid enough foundation in my Career to fall back on if Poker is not for me.

I have been working since I was 15, and have managed to save all my winnings poker, and on top of that have well over a year of travel and living expenses saved up. When I finally decide to take the leap into full time poker, I will have equipped myself with the best possible chance of succeeding.
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Going forward:

I’m not too sure how often I’ll be updating this thread, I did it more so for myself to read and reflect upon in the future years to see how my poker journey has developed. I'll try to post updates, hand histories, and interesting stories.

Thanks for taking the time out of your day to read all of this, maybe you’ll follow me on my exciting journey!

D
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Graph of my bankroll to date:

Sexy backstory! Really inspiring to see the journey of literally a live microstakes player at 5c/10c as he progresses and beasts his way to midstakes making real cheddar. And holy shizmaballs, dat 15,000bb winnings at 5c/10c hahaha :')

Subbed and gl <3 Looking forward to what lies ahead

Thanks fam!! ❤️

Nice story (and graph). Rooting for you!

Thank you, Fahrrr! (:

Looks like you have everything in order which makes for an exciting thread to follow, best of luck man!

Thanks for stopping by! The only thing missing is a pair of balls to pull the trigger and quit my job when the time comes haha

what stakes are you looking to play live? Any goals to move up? GLGL

Impressive●

I'm currently playing 2/5 live, however I have plans to move up in stakes at some point (maybe 5/5 when I have a 40k roll). 5/5+ barely gets up in my local casino, so it's a bit tough. I planned on taking shots at 2/4/8 online when the lineup is soft and when my BR is above 30k.

Currently on the biggest downswing of my career, stuck 5.5k in the past two months playing 2/4 online (Took a shot at 2/4/8 too). Just trying to put more hours in the lab, and grind through it.

Also have a tournament series coming up where I plan on playing a $550 and a $1650 and not selling any action. Very aggressive from a BRM standpoint, but I barely take shots and won't be too hurt financially if I brick both MTT's. GL us

Thoughts on this hand?

$1650 main event

300/600/75 (40k eff)

Hero open Kd9c to 1300 on HJ
BTN calls
BB makes it 3300
Hero calls
BTN calls

Flop (11k)
Flop comes Q92dd
V makes it 4000
Hero calls
BTN calls

Turn (23k)
Turn is Ks
V checks
Hero makes it 8000 ( too small imo, I was scared of 10J and was prepared to bet fold).

BTN calls
V calls

River (47k)
River comes Qx
V checks
Hero checks
BTN jams 18k
V calls

Hero folds

V shows AA
BTN shows A10dd

The biggest downswing of my short poker Career continues... Current bankroll = 21k

Bad News:
- In the past two months I'm down 7k playing 2/4 on the Chinese games and 2k from bricking MTT's.
- Feeling tilted / playing bad during sessions when things aren't going my way, this hasn't been a problem for me for a long time. I used to get tilted quite easily when I first started playing online poker, but have worked hard to get rid of this problem.

Good News:
- Still beating the game at 5bb/100 15k sample size
- Not financially stressed about this situation
- Still very eager to study and keep grinding

Not sure if the Chinese games have evolved and become too tough for me to beat, or if I'm just running bad. I spent some time playing on http://www.pokerdope.com/poker-variance-calculator/ which was an interesting tool that helped put things in perspective about short sample sizes.

Send help fam

At the end of the day playing chinese games is not good for your growth as a poker player because anyone who plays on chinese apps is there to bumhunt. There are close to no opportunities to implement any GTO or exploitative based strategy that you've studied off the tables because none of that applies when you're playing fish. One could even argue that any 'study' you do to beat chinese games is a waste. You don't get any regwars like you do online which means no chances to play a high level of poker where GTO concepts actually matter (to some degree).

Time to make the switch to iggy and play some real poker?

Downswing continues, currently stuck 11k over the past 3 months. I've managed to lose all my profits from the Chinese sites.

Deciding to take a break from the virtual felt and play some live poker at Crown. Problem is that I work a full time job, so I can only realistically play once a week, putting in 6-8 hours. I plan on using the extra time I'd normally be spending playing online to study.

feelsbad.jpg

At least playing live you know the field is level.

My thoughts are you don't understand ICM if you are saying 40k effective. This isn't a cash game stacks matter. Unless you have many multiples of your opponents stack and you're in or near the money K9os is an open fold. Def a fold to a 3bet.

Yeah I’ve seen some pretty suspect things on the Chinese games, but don’t want to blame conspiracy theories as to why I’m losing atm haha.

I’m primarily a cash player, so my ICM knowledge is definitely not A1. But what does including the effective stacks have to do with not understanding ICM?

We’re nowhere near the money, and IIRC K9o is on the cusp of the opening ranges in the HJ with antes according to the upswing charts in Pratush’ MTT course. I don’t mind folding this in tougher lineups, but table was pretty soft imo.

Against the 3b, I think this is a pretty close spot, with such a good price idm taking a flop (upswing reccomends we defend against small 3b pretty wide). I’m OOP against BTN though which is kind of gross for realizing my equity, so wouldn’t hate a fold either.

UPDATE:

Decided to take a two week break from poker, besides from watching some upswing content and minimal work crunching some things in the lab. Being able to spend my weekends relaxing, playing sports, and spending time with my friends and family has helped me feel recharged. I felt mentally ready to get back into the grind this weekend.

Things are a bit uncertain with Chinese Black Friday happening so I decided to revisit the old stomping grounds and play some live 2/5 at crown. I had one of those dream sessions where most things go right: your all ins hold, you run AA into KK, you flop a set or two in some key pots. Cashed for ~ +$3000. Only 8k to go before I climb out of this deep dark hole!!! #feelingpositive

Thoughts on this hand I played over the weekend? (Besides folding pre, I admit I got a little bored)

2/5 Crown 1k effective

Preflop
5 limpers
Hero flats BTN with J8hh (probably can squeeze, also don't mind taking a very cheap flop)
SB + BB comes along
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Flop ($40) comes Ad75hh
checks to Hero, I bet $20
One caller from MP (young-ish player, very loose aggro, plays by feelings rather than fundamentals)
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Turn ($80) comes 10d
MP leads $50
Hero calls
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River ($180) comes Qc
MP checks
Hero bets $140
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I have not done enough lab work on river bluffing. It sucks having hearts in my hand. I didn't think it would be a good idea to check back J high.

I chose a big size to give him a bad price on a call, hoping he would fold his weak Ax, although not sure what exactly he's donking out with on that turn to check river.
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V calls and rolls over 910o and destroys my soul :'(
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Update: 3 hour session +2k! SUPER INTERESTING SPOT

I played a short 3 hour session today at 2/5, straight forward blue line session, played 4 key hands:
1. AA Vs 79s (allegedly) in a 3b pot, all in on turn on 39744
2. 57dd on the button in a limped family pot on a 468 flop (BINK!)
3. JJ on the BB against a spaztard who opened $40 EP and triple barrelled on K2455 with 72o (no bounties)
4. 66 against QQ on a 678 board

Feels good to be running well and not having to face too many tough decisions. Definitely forgot what its like to have back to back big winning sessions. Roll is on $24500, only $5500 off my peak! Plan on putting a 6-7 hour session in tomorrow as there's a public holiday on Monday. Let's keep this heater going!

A very interesting spot came up that I wanted to discuss.
- We start off on the turn with about $500 in the pot
- V1 bets $150, with $150 behind
- V2 announces all in
- V3 announces all in
- V1 is wearing noise cancelling headphones and does not hear the all in, the chips aren't pushed forward by the other two players either. Normally the dealer will throw in an all in triangle when a player shoves, but in this instance, did this not happen. More importantly, at Crown we have 10 seconds to act before we face a 10 second shot clock, we have the option to buy time. V1 is a rec who does not know about the shot clock. Time runs out and his hand is declared dead.

My argument is that his hand should not be dead because the dealer did not physically communicate that the players were all in, and their chips had not been pushed forward. The example I have to back my argument is what if the player was deaf? There are plenty of deaf players who play live poker in Australia (we even have a deaf poker league). Poker should be able to be played without needing to make any verbal communication. Thoughts?

Gl

GL mate. Interesting read on how you got to where you were over a few years, seems very disciplined.

Thanks guys!

I try very hard to take a disciplined and wholesome approach to poker. I think that discipline is the number 1 most important thing in poker, you can be a mediocre poker player but be highly disciplined and still be winning (me hahaha)

As a full time live bad reg, I welcome you to the ranks.


K9dd hand:

I don’t play tournaments, but I don’t think we should be betting small because we are worried about TJ. Button should only have the suited combos and BB has close to zero combos as played. On top of that, we have about 30% equity against TJ with our sweet draws.

J8s hand:

Nice try, what a whale that guy is...

While it’s better to bluff without hearts in your hand, his line is super weak, I really don’t think he has much Ax here at all.