So I played some more tournaments after my last post and ended the day at $1199.00 BR.

I was sick and played like **** but was so bored I said **** it. I was laying in bed with my laptop that I never use playing. I'm kinda a tard at times.

So today I decided I was being too nitty and wanted to take a shot at 25NL. My first session was damn rollercoaster ride. This hand put me on monkey tilt...









I can laugh now but wtf. I ran into many coolers but ended up a just over a dollar. Just played another session and it went better.

Today:



Very consistent haha. damn.

My plan is to stay at 25NL unless I dip below $1000.00 then I'll drop back down to 10NL or maybe 16NL.

Roll: $1228.87

Well that was the worst day this year I've had. Never, ever been even close to that cold decked. I think 7 people flopped sets on me vs my top pair, top kicker. Then I went on full monkey tilt. My last hand was top, top and a guy hit a set of 3's on the flop. I couldn't lay it down. Tilted to hell. So many guys turned flushes on me lol. I am shell shocked right now.



Embarrassing to say I tilted off at least 3 if not 4 bi. That has never happened to me before like this. But it is what it is, can't just post good results in here. I will rethink how I'm approaching this and come back better. Playing hungover was obviously a factor in my emotional control too. Just a lot of lessons here. I'll be dropping to 10NL if my roll goes below $1000 so I have just over a bi at 25NL. I'm going to go through every losing hand in the session now.

Current Roll:$1036.82

weeeeeeee...

Subbed man ! best of luck with all of your goals I'll be following your journey closely

Cheers man, lets do this! but.....

Ok, just finished another chilly session. So cold. So cold......




I am so frustrated. Ran $32 below EV and that's it for 25NL for me. In two days I lost all my profits for the month in cash play. Back to 10NL until I get my roll up over $1100 and then I'll take another 4 bi shot at 25NL. Part of it all, I"m off to work now and will think about how to proceed. What changes I need to make etc. If it was easy it wouldn't be as attractive that's for sure.

Gl today all, get it!

Current Roll:$965.66

Thanks! You know what I was thinking. Say, I beat $25nl ZOOM at 5bb/100 at 150k hands a month. That's $1875 a month. That is kinda s***, but not too s*** because the option to climb up higher, 50, 100, 200, 500.

Uh. As per the actual events in your challenge...

You probably need higher $10nl winrate and higher ability to control your tilt. Say, you're tilted. Shut down the computer, don't even wait for the blinds. When these downswings happen and they've happened a lot to me, a)you're tough as nails and fold because you know all the other tells and probability they have it is there or b)shut down the computer and take a day off because you're tilted.

You should not let yourself play tilted and spew off full buyins, because buyins are hard to regrind, especially if you've not established yourself as a top reg in $25nl yet.

Say, if you were a higher volume player with higher winrate in, say, $10nl moving to $25 you'd not even care and would regrind this back in under a week, I think.

Check out this guy. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...month-1703214/ or https://www.twitch.tv/freeqone Grinds all day, doesn't even give a single ***. Loses $3000, is cool, plays more, regrinds it back within' next days, that's what you play like once you're really serious and don't care anymore, he's a bit of an inspiration for me.

when you face a raise on the turn, fold all 1 pair hands. thank me later.

I'll raise you on the turn and get your dead money! Realistically, in the micros, yeah it's so often really just as simple. Your average player doesn't bluff-raise turns (or rivers, for that matter), even on flops bluff raises or check-raises are quite seldom and are still mostly semi-bluffs if bluffs.

Thanks for the response. I notmally dont tilt much at all but i think it was an eye opener that its in me to do. I wasnt just firing wild bluffs but my tilt was more "i know they have it but Call anyway. Stupid. I will check the thread out thanks man.

This would have saved me at least 3 bi yesterday. I appreciate this though, you are so right.

Thanks!

So you were not in a monkey tilt yet. On monkey tilt you do much crazier stuff, such as go all in pre with AQ vs tight MP who rarely 4bets vs his 4bet or ship 55 vs any 3bet or start cursing at your opponents out loud.

What you did is pretty standard, especially if you're a small winner, you just hate to lose. You hate that they have it again. C'mon, you're already down and you just want to get back even, you don't even want to win anymore you just want to get back even or at least get to smaller losses than you're at. But they have it again and you know you're losing even more and that's frustrating.

I dunno how big was your shot, but if I was to try to win $25 moving up from $10 NL I'd probably have 20buyin (say, 2 sets of 10 buyins) worth of shots to begin with, just to give myself room to lose and adjust or runbad or whatever till I get comfy in the new stake.

For me, personally, I think what would help me with my tilt is earning more money and buying a new PC / fancy monitor / renting a better crib, I guess?
From smaller changes, what has worked for me, is scheduling breaks between sessions. Say, playing sets of 800 hands of zoom, then, break, then, repeat and not just on paper but actually practice doing and actually practice taking the break even if last set of 800 hands was breakeven / losing, etc. For me it works way better than letting myself tilt-chase losses for 1k+ to several k hands at a time.

For you, however, I think the key is convincing yourself that you're in for the long run (e.g., like, really completing the challenge moving up and crushing nl25) and just practicing to accept losing sessions and practicing stopping them at the right time and appreciating yourself doing the right decision in those moments instead of just focusing on winnings-only.

All good advice man, appreciate it.

Ugh, the downswing continues. Back at 10NL now as I said I would do. I get it up to 1250 I'll take a 10 shot go at 25NL. Think I actually played good today overall but ran pretty horrid.




I am working at correcting some leaks I have and going through a lot of spots on snowie. I was up at 6:30 this morning, worked out, hit the grind, worked a full day and came home and grinded some more. Tomorrow same plan except I don't go in until late so all my play will be in the am.

Current Roll: $940.78

First winning session in a while. Made a terrible bet on the river on one hand. I had a straight but there was a paired board and possible flopped flush. Not smart. I'm just over 35000 hands and my goal was 40K. I made some excuse earlier about playing less tables so I might not hit it but if I were up at 6:30 every day I would have got 40K easily. Next months goals are going to be different in a few ways. I'm coasting.

1. Played 35000 hands. Missed target.
2. Used snowie every day actually so..target hit.
3. Fail. Just a day of reading all month.
4. I probably mediated 7 to 9 times this month. Fail.

Personal Goals:

1. Lost 2lbs (current weight 227.2lbs) Fail.
2. Missed by 5%. fail.
3. Exercise every day. I missed one or two days. Fail but pretty damn good.

Well that didn't go so well. Not happy about that. March goals will be somewhat different.

Cash Chart for Feb: Ugh,....that 25nl shot....




That few days really was a blow. Things were going so well then....pow right in the kisser. I've been doing a lot of thinking on my game and how I want to move forward so I'll post a March goals tomorrow. I'll post tournament graph when I finish the tournament i'm playing. Currently down to last 2 tables (7th place) in Progressive $4.40. I have zero bounties so far somehow which is mind boggling.

Good gawd. A guy called my 4 bet shove with tens and he hit a set vs my queens. Would have been huge chip leader. Instead crippled and went out with a2 vs ak in 7th place for 35.00. It's not in the graph as it's after midnight.

Tournament graph for Feb.



Current Roll: $985.91

Ok last month results wise was great in tournaments and pretty disappointing in the cash area. As for what I learned it was a great month, I leaned a ton and that is the most important part.

March Goals:

Poker:

1. Play 100 hours of cash games (last month did 85 hours).
2. Study 15 hours.
3. Mediate 5 minutes before each session.
4. Stick to max $4.40 bi for tournaments.
5. Track all this in spread sheet.
6. Do not look at my won loss amount during play.



Personal:

1. Hit sales target.
2. Stick to diet plan. (1 cheat day, the rest no sugar, no junk food and no bread).
3. Get up at 6am 5 days a week minimum.
4. Exercise every day.
5. Have fun. (I can get so wrapped up in chasing sometimes I forget this.)

The 100 hours will be a challenge but I did the math and I can do it as long as I'm getting up early to play. That means diet, exercise and most of all sleep will really be important. Maybe I'll post some cheat meals on here too for fun.

Keep learning, keep pushing myself and try not to be results focused.

Got over 2K hands in today and was able to really focus and play my A game. Just had music on, did my workout and meditation. Played 3 tables of zoom which was fine since I was focusing 100% on the game and not something else. One huge error hand early on in the session and then I played pretty solid after. That has happened a bunch to me early in sessions. Maybe I'm not warming up correctly. I think I'll try playing snowie for 10 mins or so before I start tomorrow.

+$43.62

Current Roll: $1029.30

Month so far. Have not gotten in much volume as you can see. I went out last night and although I played this morning for a bit I was hungover and played bad so I quit. Still too hungover to play tonight but plan a big session tomorrow as I work late. Will do some study first as well.

Finally had a good session today and got back on track. Had some rough days this week.

Today:



cashed in for $25 of rake back too.

Current roll: $1021.75

Have a skype meeting with a potential coach tomorrow. Will post how that goes and what I decide.


Month:

So I met with my potential coach (stoopidhead in the cash game coaching aka Michael) via skype and decided he was a good fit personality wise. I'm going for a 3 hour package and will evaluate from there. I'm using my poker winnings to finance this so bankroll will take a hit. Stars only allows so much on transfer so I have to do it a week apart but it's $375. I sent him $215 and will send him the rest next week.

Coaching will start in a few weeks which is perfect as I feel I've made a bit of a jump in the last few days and looking forward to working on those aspects before coaching starts.

Played 1000 hands today so far. Back to the grind now.

Current Roll: $823.04 (after first transfer)

good luck dude, following

Subbed. GL OP. Looks like you're on the right track.

Interesting that you bought Snowie for NL2 and 5. Common theory would be that you shouldn't use something like that until NL25 or 50+. Would you recommend it for uNL considering it's cost per year?

Thanks so much man, gl to you too.

First thanks very much and gl to you too. I'm trying haha.

On snowie let me say this:

First I had the money to buy it outside of poker so that wasn't an issue for me. That said even if I didn't, and I had my $400 roll, in retrospect I still would have bought it. It has been the best tool in understanding preflop play and to a slightly lesser extent post flop. Being able to plug in scenarios myself, dl my hand history into it and seeing my "blunders" especially has been invaluable. I think for me personally it would have taken a year to get where I am in a few months without it.

I had many bad habits from a terrible course i bought a few years ago and being able to see why these plays are bad, right in front of me on my screen in a poker situation is so helpful. Maybe some learn easier from books or forums but for me, snowie has been by far the best learning tool. You have to do the work though, of course. It's not going to magically make anyone a winning player on its own.

Gl!