I've been playing poker professionally for 3 years, however I was at university for the majority of that. I finished studying around 9 months ago and have started taking poker a lot more seriously. I've decided to write this blog to help me keep on top of my goals, be more accountable and ultimately make more money

I played heads up for a couple of years and then moved into 6max, however I have moved back into only playing heads up. I have only recently got a HUD for the new sites I'm playing on so I don't have many results from there. I am currently just recovering from a ~140k USD downswing from the start of the year, this was a big test for me as my mental game has always been a weakness of mine but something I have and still am working on greatly. Seriously - do not underestimate the importance of mental game!!

Here is a screenshot of my results from HU on stars. However I haven't played on there for around 1 year now. Although the HS hu zoom pools are looking juicy so will probably jump back in to some games in the near future.



ugly af graph



I've put in a ton of work since this and I'm playing a lot higher now. (1k-5knl) You can expect much sexier graphs in future.

Results so far since I got my my hud. It's not converting from the currency I'm playing in to USD so it should actually be around 6x less. This will be fixed soon hopefully.




My main goals for this year:

1) Play 300k hands
2) Study 10 hours per week
3) Move up to the highest stakes possible
4) Get in the best shape I've been in for the summer
5) Improve mental game even more

Some fun pictures from vegas this summer..

The legend baby! He was standing by the side entrance of the RIO letting everyone in, high fiving and wishing everyone "good luck baby." Funny guy



After a night out my friend and I seen (heard) phil playing cash in the Aria so obv we went over to troll him and get some pics. The game ended up breaking and we ended up going to a bar and drinking the most disgusting shots with ben lamb til 7am. He was being a bit of a dick at first and offering us out to play him heads up (LOL) but turned out he was actually a nice guy.



This is actually from 2016 when I ran deep in the main event. Super fun to go so deep in a live tournament, however went 0/~15 last summer in vegas, including bubbling the 10k HU to charlie carrel which was not so fun



Finally, here's me losing my biggest pot of my life. After watching matt play since this hand, it is clear that I should never ever ever bluff him (even though bluffing j8 here for this size is so0o0o GTO)
Even though I lost the pot, it was fun to humour my idol that is jungleman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugGbK-o1AG4



I will be updating this blog every few days with interesting hands, my general thoughts on how I played and how I can improve. Will also post none poker stuff too. I've never blogged before so don't expect too much - 5nl blogger!

where can you even play HU this high nowadays?

hes obv playing on pokermaster. The 100/200 is essentially 3knl.

Sick start to a pgc gl doooood

oh u can convert the hands onto HEM2 on PM?

boss results
you looked really nervous in that vid. Ive noticed watching berkey on these vids he seems to make big calls

gl

Subd, will be interesting to follow another HU reg

Thanks

Haha yeah I did look nervous! Not sure it mattered too much though as he had no idea who I was and could've quite easily just been acting nervous. Maybe I shoud've wore my shades https://youtu.be/xvH2-mWgoe4?t=5m52s

I forgot to post some hands so here's a few from my sessions. Going to keep strat to a minimum but don't mind answeing questions in not too much detail!

Winning Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (2 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com/

BB (t55,212)
Hero (SB) (t94,788)

Hero's M: 315.96

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7, 6
Hero raises t600, BB calls t500

Flop: (t1,400) 10, 2, 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1,066, BB calls t1,066

Turn: (t3,532) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t5,598, BB calls t5,598

River: (t14,728) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t87,324, BB calls t47,748

Total pot: t110,224

Results:

I should give up the river with this hand



Winning Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (2 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com/

BB (t29,033)
Hero (SB) (t50,967)

Hero's M: 169.89

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, J
Hero raises t600, BB raises t2,900, Hero calls t2,400

Flop: (t6,200) K, 10, 7 (2 players)
BB bets t3,200, Hero calls t3,200

Turn: (t12,600) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t12,600) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t44,567, BB calls t22,633

Total pot: t57,866

Results:

Maybe a bit thin for this size



Hand Information
, 100 BB (2 handed).
Hand History converter courtesy of pokerhandreplays.com

Table Information
Seat: 1 Player 1 ($38080) Dealer
Seat: 2 Player 2 ($41920) Small Blind
Seat 1Player 1 Ante: 50
Seat 2Player 2 Ante: 50
Dealt to


Preflop (Pot:250)
Player 1****RAISE $350
Player 2****RAISE $1700
Player 1****CALL $1350

Winning Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds (2 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com/

SB (t38,080)
Hero (BB) (t41,920)

Hero's M: 279.47

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, 10
SB raises t300, Hero raises t1,600, SB calls t1,350

Flop: (t3,400) 7, 7, J (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t2,333, Hero raises t6,700, SB calls t4,367

Turn: (t16,800) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t8,450, SB calls t8,450

River: (t33,700) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t21,180, Hero folds

Total pot: t33,700

Results:




PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $100.00 BB (2 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

Hero (SB) ($18,150)
BB ($21,100)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 10
Hero raises to $350, BB raises to $1,550, Hero raises to $3,683, BB calls $2,133

Flop: ($7,466) 9, 2, A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2,488, BB calls $2,488

Turn: ($12,442) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($12,442) 10 (2 players)
BB bets $14,879 (All-In), Hero calls $11,929 (All-In)

Total pot: $36,300 | Rake: $0

Results:



Winning Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (2 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com/

Hero (BB) (t79,865)
SB (t40,135)

Hero's M: 266.22

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, A
SB calls t100, Hero raises t600, SB calls t600

Flop: (t1,600) 8, 2, 4 (2 players)
Hero bets t600, SB raises t2,600, Hero calls t2,000

Turn: (t6,800) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t3,500, Hero calls t3,500

River: (t13,800) K (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t14,000, Hero calls t14,000

Total pot: t41,800

Results:



Winning Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (2 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

SB (t95,918)
Hero (BB) (t94,782)

Hero's M: 315.94

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2, K
SB raises t600, Hero calls t500

Flop: (t1,400) 7, 7, K (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t800, Hero calls t800

Turn: (t3,000) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t2,400, Hero calls t2,400

River: (t7,800) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t16,000, Hero calls t16,000

Total pot: t39,800

Results:

A spot where I don't recall ever getting bluffed, or ever folding this

Didn't grind yet today, ran some sims going to watch football shortly. Will probably grind after watching football, going to try and sort my schedule out though as I'm often getting up waaayy later than I want and grinding at stupid hours in the morning which isn't too healthy imo.

GL Mate!

ty buddy you too.

Not sure what happened with those hand historys.

Hand 1 - K8cc
Hand 2- AcAd (Should prob fold!)
Hand 5 - 6d7h
Hand 6 - Qs7d

26/02-04/03 Review

Week went good in terms of poker, did a bunch of pio work and had an ‘aha’ moment which is always good! Action was pretty slow though and didn't get in as many hands as I wished, currently avoiding this one reg who plays very well but battling anyone else that sits me. I lost a huge pot near the end of my one of my sessions and although it didn’t tilt me at the time I did feel a bit down afterwards. Trying to not let results affect me though and have been doing much better with that, mainly just get annoyed/down when I feel I’ve made some big mistakes I didn’t need to make. The games are super swingy so it’s important I don’t let it affect me. I had one huge fish sit me for the first time in what feels like forever, so that was nice, playing deep hu poker vs fish can be pretty fun. It’s nice to have a HUD again, looking forward to gathering a significant sample size and plugging any leaks I find. (why I went 2+ years without doing this I will never know.) I’ve been recording my sessions and going over them and reviewing and marking any mistakes I see and writing why I think I made that mistake in game then review the hand further in PIO. This has been a very good exercise for me and I would highly recommend.

Results breakdown



Around 40k usd

Graph in BB




I didn’t gym this week which I’m annoyed about, blaming the heavy snow that’s here in England at the minute but that ain’t an excuse. I’ve always underestimated the importantance of balance and just thought I could grind grind grind but that isn’t how it works, at least not for me. It’s a double whammy as well as I tend to eat worse when I don’t go to the gym. Decided that next week I won’t turn on my computer until I’ve been to the gym (on gym days obv) that means no gym, no poker! Also struggled with my schedule, staying up late on my computer, albeit doing work, but I’d rather to get up early and go to bed earlier. Will work on this. No exercise, getting up late = NOT GTO for my sanity.

I’ve been looking into AI research a bit and that ****’s scary. Ordered “The Master Algoritm” by Pedro Domingos, looking forward to reading that. If anyone has any books on the subject to recommend then let me know! Most of my friends think I’m crazy as I keep telling them that the bots are coming For anyone interested this article is a good read – https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artif...olution-1.html

Weekly goals

Gym 4x
10 hours PIO study
No poker after 12pm
Eat clean
Get up before 12 every day

Getting creative





Got em





Didn't enjoy this spot





500bb poker is not for the faint hearted





Nice when you're running good though..





This hand was tiltttttt. Hit the tank so hard, had my reads and reasoning for folding. Soo bad from him





No pair, no care





No club, no care

Great job man, impressive.

What would be your three best tips/advice on how you improved your game to get where you are at now?

lollll sick, I was watching that J8 hand in real time and thought there was a good chance one of you would go for it, thought jungle would be more likely tho.

Obv if you're going to bluff all in is sizing here, but like, of the times you have QJ in this spot, how often are you actually going to play it this way? Even if you check turn, surely you're fairly likely to bomb river 2nd to act when berkey is capped and won't be vbetting THAT much (yeah he had a set in this spot but prob checking back a ton w/ most of range). kudos for having the balls to pull the trigger on a gto massive over-shove vs a high-stakes pro for the biggest pot youve ever played

btw im confused, so the $100/200 hands aren't actually 100/200? What game is it rly then?

100/200 chinese money, so it's more like 16/32 USD, those games usually play deep though so it's probably equivalent to like 25/50

also really not sure about your last hand, nice that you ran into the bluff though

Thanks!

For me personally, in order of importance

1) Mental game - My A game has always been very good (relative) but my b and c game were so terrible it would cost me lots of money. Learning how to play my A game 80% of the time and improving my b and c game has helped me immensely.

2) Obsession - Poker was more of just a side thing for me at uni to help me get by and didn’t take it seriously. After uni and having the realistiation that it was poker or a “real” job really made me want to get much better. I became a lot more obsessed with poker with this came a much better work ethic. A good work ethic is important in anything but especially with poker when it directly correlates with how much money you will make. Important to maintain balanced lifestyle though.

3) Solvers - I was very lucky in that my friend was already crushing poker so I’ve always had good fundamentals and understanding of the game. However the use of solvers helped me see the game in a different way. I don’t fully agree with them and you need be to careful as they’re based on complete information. With that said, using them to see why it calls/value bets/bluffs certain hands over others i.e. blockers is super useful and then after that it just becomes a question of frequencies based on our opponent. It’s also useful to see why it chooses certain bet sizes on certain boards and with what hands.

Haha if only jungle had went for it I would check QJ a lot here and the reason being I can’t lose money if I play all my j8 and QJ this way. (don’t be fooled by the 100k pot I lost ) That being said you’re right that he’s probably checking back a lot so that strat is obviously not making the most money. Honestly I hadn’t play a huge amount of 6m before this and felt a bit rusty *in b4 ginger jokes*

Games are 3k nl

Yeah it’s very dicey. It’s a spot I thought he was taking the piss in though. I have a bluff catcher in a spot that gets overbluffed. I ran out of time bank in game though and after looking at the hand I think it’s actually a bad call.

Enjoying this thread man, will be following for sure!

Thanks very much for the detailed response man, very helpful. Glgl

in

ye in terms of 6m rivers getting checked back very high % of time, esp because jungles still technically uncapped (according to you, you are as well, but not sure if thats a good strat as mentioned). Would imagine going 1.5x+ otr is better w/ value and bluffs

yeah i agree

6 high vs the double x/r

what do you put him on tho

Your bust out hand was quite controversal wasn't it? Where you were trying to look up push charts from bits of paper mid hand at the feature table, so brazen lol.