Hey guys, I’m a relatively unknown live grinder who goes by AdvantagePlayer. This thread is mainly to track my progress for my online results, but who knows what it may entail later down the road.

Background:

I started poker when I was around 16 on FullTilt and Stars. Post black-friday, I was a “winning” weekend-reg (while going to college) playing $1/3 NL live. I wouldn’t make the jump to $2/5 NL until a couple years later. During this time, I would pick up card counting blackjack. In the next few years, I would bust/run up several bankrolls from poker and dump it back into blackjack (or vice versa) playing a very high RoR strategy (I was young). These bankrolls would probably range from $5k to $15k iirc and be 99% of my networth at the time. Eventually my blackjack EV would cap out around $300/hour (as of 2019), which resulted in most places banning me and leading me back to poker.

For the last several years, I’ve been grinding $2/5 NL live, but probably around 1k hours each year if even that (I played too much dota back then). During this, I’ve taken my shots at higher stakes online and live, playing stakes near $7/14 (asian currency converted to usd) and $15/30 NL. Unfortunately I ran pretty bad each time. I remember live streaming about my worst year on IG about ~2-3 years ago, losing over $100k of my net worth and had to restart from $2/5 NL all over again. Luckily I had a quick succession of heaters after one of my worst downswings; with a 152nd place in the WSOP main event as the public highlight for $60k.

By the time Covid took over 2020; I had already experienced massive swings in my bankroll once again. In the beginning, I was fearful of the idea of busto at the rate I was losing at (like one month losing $40-50k with 100% myself and this downswing continued for a few months). Bittersweetly to be responsible and sane, I sold my action and out of nowhere, quickly scooped back $60K+ in a matter of weeks. I’m sure I missed some timeline events in there, but you can inquire for better details. Since then, I’ve been running it up and moving up the stakes aiming for an annual salary I never dreamed of in prior years.

Challenge/Goal:

To transition from a bread and butter $2/5 NL live pro of ~5 years to winning $500k/year from whale hunting. It'd also be cool if this thread became proof that anyone from low stakes can still make it to the nosebleeds even in today’s environment.

https://www.instagram.com/advantageplayer/

In on the ground floor. Good luck sir

Thanks! Gonna need all the luck to catch up with my EV line. Though if I do, I assure you it's gonna a be a sick monthly graph.

To start things off, here's my August so far. I played 19 out of the 21 days.



Around the 5.6k hand mark, it dawned on me how heart breaking my graph was. To go from an amazing beginning to August to realizing I might be severely stuck. But one of my only few good capabilities in life is mental fortitude and that I could still play a solid B game in that swing ($35k under EV).

Also if I had this kind of determination, I could've completed my previous challenge of $50K rake in a month. Since in 3 weeks here, I paid $32k in rake already.

Gl Josh!
Also a live grinder stakes of 2/5 - 5/10 who's aiming to make the transition.
Personally not as brave as you to dive right into the deep end online, trying to do it the hard way especially have rough start to Covid grind apps :'(
Mental game has always been my downfall regardless of stakes, will turn to your thread for inspiration, keep up with the sick month, volume all nlhe or some plo?

In, gl. How dod you transition from 2/5 to where you are now, what stakes, live/online, nlhe/plo etc? If I remember correctly you play mailny 500-4k plo now ?

Well to be fair, I took many dips in previous years before fully jumping in like now. I'm not that yolo anymore! NLH is my main game, but my online volume is 90% PLO.

My mindset is strong. My hairline not so much. Hair is rapidly thinning. Might be true for poker players.

The short note, over the years taking shots where I could. Eventually up to 10/20, then 20/40, etc. I got set behind numerous times throughout my career, but the normality and getting used to the stake settled in. My skills improved and with a lot of luck; this year is where I'm finally coming out far ahead.

Yep those are my main. Recently moved up to 5k plo if the game is soft.

In. GL

How long did it take you to learn card counting?

Very compelling thread title. Best of luck, will be following!

One of my friends told me I got my first itch at an indian casino when I was 18+, but frankly I don't remember that. I'm pretty sure without a doubt I was pretty horrible in the beginning (even though I was using a basic count). Not really sure on the the time frame tbh, but if I had to guess without guidance 6 months playing semi-seriously. These days I could train someone within like a month to be 90% effective probably.

I've failed most/all of my challenges in the last few years, so figured this was more reasonable than the milly I was considering aiming for lol.

See you around!

Should have named this "From V log to B log"

gl

of course im in. Gl bro

gl dude, im along for the ride

That's actually gold! Loved it. Perhaps in one of the actual vlogs I'll use that title if that's okay

Thanks for everyone's energy! Need it! (Didn't play yesterday or today much)

I didn't play much lately been just chilling and half-ass studying. Bought action of a friend's $10k, he final tabled it on the GG today. Definitely helped a bit.

My EV is actually a lot higher than this, but PT4 cannot track 5 cards properly. And it missed like 2, 2k pots that I scooped =X.

I would be honored

Good to see another plo challenge going. Especially at the high steaks/stakes

Let's keep this momentum going.



Decent results today for profit & rakeback.

Completely negated that $30k loss from a few days ago. Let's keep this momentum going!



Taking it easy and sipping on rose now while watching impractical jokers. I feel like I can breathe again.

So here's the first month of the $500k goal challenge.

August Graph:



EV wise we're really on track. Our green line is a bit under EV, but I'm used to being behind it for the past few years.. Also with rakeback taken into consideration (we did pay $40k in rake), very strong start to this 12 month marathon. Looking forward to the next month.

I did feel semi-guilty that I lacked my usual volume and on numerous days I played like 2 hours or less (but I did try to play everyday even if a little). But it's hard to find a balance between playing 24/7 and just grinding max income and personal life with friends/family/fun/SO etc.

Where do you play online? Gl!

I play most of the asian platforms like pokermaster, pokertime, clubs through pokerrr, pokerbros and the likes. There's a few more. It's been a while since I grinded on a more traditional site like global.

Once a particular pool dries up, move on the next. Ty for the luck

sub, glgl

Beast

If anyone could answer this or even guide me in the right direction (or thread), I will owe you <3

How would I begin to solve/understand the difference in equity/edge between a random 6 card hand versus a 4 card hand?

Update: I'm playing a variant of PLO, you can consider it as 7 card PLO. Playing lower at 5/10 PLO and dabbling at 10/20 if I spot "that just cant be right". Anyways no HUD, not that PT4 can even pick up 7 cards. Last 2 days of playing it, up like $2.5k.

I'll post graph of PLO4 towards the weekend if the graph changes either direction.

Personal Life stuff:

Recently my parents decided to work again, to keep their customer base of 30 years (they stopped since like jan or w/e) (they are near retirement but need a few more years to collect SS). Between me and my brother, I decided to be willing to slave out the next few months and just give ~$60k to my parents so they dont have to work through covid and stay affloat for the next 2-3 years. (This way I cant just lose it and lump sum give it to them). He's starting a new family soon and with his purchase of new home etc, I'm not sure he can do at such an amount. Tough spot. Mortality rate is like 3%+ if my dad gets it (he has diabetes #2? - the less severe one but still higher risk). What's money worth?

Games come and go... Situations always changes. This will def slow down my career growth that is rapidly expanding right now. It is what it is. Anyways we're deciding about it as a family soon. The biggest issue is they don't want to stay sheltered in, they want to socialize through the means of work.

Just my random thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Classy move man. glgl subbed.