Hi all. I have been a long-time reader of this forum but never created an account and engaged with it. I have played poker for maybe 9 years or so - used to grind mtts back in 2013-2015 but haven't played much poker at all really since 2016 as I have been studying. Right now I am a postgrad student due to finish my course in June. At the start of the year, I started getting back into poker, subscribed to Upswing and have been trying to get good at cash games. Since then, I have spun my bankroll up to just over $1k. I started off playing 5z on stars.



I started to find the zoom games on stars pretty frustrating. So once the bankroll was around $600, I moved it to GG (around 2 weeks ago) to take advantage of the deposit bonus and the better rakeback on offer (have made silver crab on the fish buffet). I initially started playing the rush tables but have moved to the reg tables as they seem much softer and I am less prone to tilt on reg tables. My first shot at the 25nl reg tables went well and I am now bankrolled for that stake. I have played around 14k hands at 25nl with an evbb/100 of just under 12:



Obviously the sample is way too small to make any conclusions about winrate. However, the reg tables on GG seem very easy and I feel I will be able to move up to 50nl fairly soon. The overall aim is to hopefully get to 200nl by the end of the year.

I am basically creating this thread to keep track of my progress, hold myself to account and to hopefully provide some entertaining reading. My goals for the rest of the month are:
- Finish off coursework (two assignments due before the end of the month) and make a start on writing up my dissertation.
- Play a total volume of 30k hands at 25nl for the month.
- Review marked hands before every session.

I will post some interesting hands from my last few sessions in the next post.

GG Poker - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): $53.33
BB: $24.75
UTG: $26.14
CO: $44.75
BTN: $87.63

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has Kh Qc
fold, CO raises to $0.75, BTN calls $0.75, Hero raises to $3.75, BB calls $3.50, fold, BTN calls $3.00

Flop : ($12.00, 3 players) Ah 4h Kc
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN checks

Turn : ($12.00, 3 players) Ac
Hero checks, BB bets $4.21, fold, Hero calls $4.21

River : ($20.42, 2 players) Th
Hero checks, BB bets $6.74, Hero calls $6.74

BB shows 8d 9d (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 40%, Flop 1%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows Kh Qc (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 60%, Flop 99%, Turn 100%)

Hero wins $31.97
Rake paid $1.68

This was a pretty funky hand. The BB here was pretty fishy and felt he likely peeled my squeeze with a much wider range than he should have here. When flop checks through and turn is another A, I felt we likely have the best hand. Turn is a mandatory check/call. On the river is where things got interesting for me. I felt that I had a great bluff catcher in that I block AQ and the nut flush. Also given how spewy villain seemed I felt the calldown was justified (and they gave us a great price).


GG Poker - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: $26.36
BTN: $25.00
SB: $25.00
BB: $28.61
UTG: $25.84
Hero (MP): $40.56

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has Jc Kd
UTG raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.60, fold, fold, fold, BB calls $1.35, UTG calls $1.10

Flop : ($4.90, 3 players) Qc 9c Td
BB checks, UTG bets $2.45, Hero raises to $5.15, fold, UTG raises to $10.17, Hero calls $5.02

Turn : ($25.24, 2 players) Jd
UTG bets $14.07 and is all-in, Hero calls $14.07

River : ($53.38, 2 players) 2d

UTG shows As Qh (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 63%, Flop 4%, Turn 7%)

Hero shows Jc Kd (Straight, King High)
(Pre 37%, Flop 96%, Turn 93%)

Hero wins $51.13
Rake paid $2.00


Iso'd villain here pretty light as he was a whale and wanted to play as many pots in position as possible v him. Flopping the nuts and having a whale donk lead into you is always nice. I could maybe size up the flop raise as he was never folding a Q. When he reraises, I think I play my entire continuing range as a call and give him the opportunity to fire it in on the turn.


GG Poker - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (CO): $67.33
BTN: $26.02
SB: $27.01
BB: $33.02
UTG: $83.22
MP: $38.29

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has Qc Qh
UTG raises to $0.58, fold, Hero raises to $1.80, fold, fold, fold, UTG raises to $5.25, Hero calls $3.45

Flop : ($10.85, 2 players) Js 6c Ts
UTG bets $7.17, Hero calls $7.17

Turn : ($25.19, 2 players) 7s
UTG bets $16.63, fold

UTG wins $23.70
Rake paid $1.24

Was unsure about the turn fold here. He reps huge with the 4bet from UTG. Guess he could be bluffing with AK one spade. But felt his range on the turn was overpairs, top set, AKss/AQss and AK/AQ one spade combos.


GG Poker - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): $25.10
BB: $25.35
UTG: $20.02
CO: $25.01
BTN: $4.71

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has Jc Ks
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.75, BB raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.50

Flop : ($4.50, 2 players) 8s 9d Th
Hero checks, BB bets $1.49, Hero raises to $5.00, BB calls $3.51

Turn : ($14.50, 2 players) Ah
Hero bets $17.85 and is all-in, BB calls $17.85

River : ($50.20, 2 players) 3h

Hero shows Jc Ks (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 13%, Flop 34%, Turn 18%)

BB shows Ad As (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 87%, Flop 66%, Turn 82%)

BB wins $47.95
Rake paid $2.00

Maybe a bit on the spewy side here. Preflop here in the SB, I call 50% and 4bet 50% with KJo. When I saw the flop, I thought it's a pretty scary board for over-pairs and AT so let's put villain to the test. The turn shove is probably bad given that we block KK and JJ and he may find the call with QQ as he blocks the nuts.

Hey man GL with the challenge and nice graphs! I started my challenge today at 2NL and hopefully move up to your stakes soon TM

Very impressive results so far. I play 10NL on GG i am dreaming of havin a nice flat redline like this. And I'm also dreaming of having a 12bb winrate too.

Thanks man. GL to you too! Hopefully see you at my tables at some point in the future.

Do you play regular tables or rush? I started off 4-tabling rush 10 on GG to try and earn as many fish points as possible as make a good start at clearing the deposit bonus. I was probably not playing great, find 4-tabling rush pretty hard. The winrate is definitely not sustainble I'd say - have run good over the sample. I'd guess that 5/6bb+ is possible at 25nl though.

Im not a winner in rush 25 after rake. Played 50k hands. Played 3k hands reg. Picking your spot in reg table with dynamic around the fish is different.