About Me

I’m a recent University graduate from Canada. I’ve been interested in poker for many years watching videos, reading books etc. but quite honestly, I’ve been all over the place with my focus/goals and therefore never achieved any true success in today’s poker environment. I have had a bit of success in live low stakes NL games and have basically been break-even in NL micro stakes online (NL5-NL10). I also studied and played PLO exclusively in my final year of University moving from PLO2 to PLO10 on Pokerstars/Euro sites with shots at PLO25 mixed in. But I feel as though I need to move back to NL for the time being while also shifting the majority of my focus to live poker. The reason for this is that the climate of online poker is currently not a good one. Even though in Canada things are alright for the time being I do not want to depend on it. The way I look at it is if online poker ceased to exist today I would then have to play 100% of my volume live and NL is the obvious game variant to be focusing on if that were to happen. People talk about PLO taking over but the reality is although it has clearly gained popularity NL dominates the live scene in my area and most likely will for a long time. Also, it’s well-known that live is softer than online although there are some major adjustments that need to be made.

As far as my NL game goes, it obviously needs work and as you’ll see in my plan and goals I have a pretty clear idea of was I want to do to improve/what exactly I want to accomplish. I’ve been lurking 2 + 2 for a long time and have tried to learn as much as I can about the scope of poker both online and live while making this plan to achieve my dream. Threads such as the one Meale has made chronicling his live poker journey are great and while I completely agree with his viewpoint that working for yourself and having the freedom to make your own hours is much more gratifying than working for others I know myself, and realized when I got out of school that this grind would go a lot smoother (at least at the beginning) with a solid income. I have recently secured full time employment in a business role for a well-respected company. The one thing to note is that my job has me working weekends some weeks but along with that I’ll also have certain weekdays off too (avg. 45hrs/week, 180hrs/month). This can be looked at as a good and bad thing but I guess we’ll see. I know that this makes it substantially harder to play/study but in my eyes I NEED to make this work. Poker is my true passion and it’s one of those things that until I make this work I won’t ever be satisfied. It will also be nice to show some of the non-believers in my life who hear about my love for poker and just label me as a degenerate gambler that’s wasting his time, through hard work and dedication being a successful poker player is possible.

Plan

Play live 200NL (1/2) and 300NL (1/3) with the plan to move up to 500NL (2/5) when I have the confidence and my bankroll allows it.

Play NL ZOOM exclusively online starting from NL5 and moving up. Why zoom? Well I want to get better in the fastest way possible and by 2018 I’m looking to transition a considerable amount of my time and focus to live poker and I feel as though the amount of hands I can see in ZOOM will improve my game the fastest not to mention better competition.

Goals (By The End of 2018)

Be a live 500NL 2/5 regular

Reach Zoom25 or higher

Play 1000+ hrs live

Play 500,000+ hands online

Bankroll

Live: $4000 (20 buyins)

Online: $250 (50 buyins)

What I Want For This Thread

Essentially, I see a ton of value in being held accountable to this thread and by making my results and goals public I know I have a better chance accomplishing them. I also see a lot of value in receiving insight from this community. I am definitely not a great poker player, but I do dream of becoming one and I know there are many great players in this community that I can learn from so if anyone has any advice for me throughout my journey I’m all ears.

Gl man, First sub, along for the ride!!!

gl from a fellow Canadian!

Thanks man! I appreciate the support. Hopefully I'll make it an interesting ride to follow

Thanks brother, nice to have some Canadian support!

Update: Sept 27

Hours Played: 6

Final result: -$238

Actually feel like I played pretty well. Got it in good multiple times but just didn't hold in my three biggest pots of the night. I did have one hand that I feel like I may have butchered and can use some advice on (I'll post it below). Essentially I turned my flopped set into a river bluff and just don't know if at this level I can ever really expect enough folds in this spot to make it profitable.

Hand:

Preflop: 2 limps to Hero, Hero BTN ($205) raises to $10 w/77, SB ($160) calls, UTG+1 ($190) calls, MP folds.

Flop ($34): 237

UTG+1 donks $14, Hero raises to $40, SB folds, UTG+1 calls

Turn ($114): T

UTG+1 donks $35, Hero calls

River ($184): 4

UTG+1 checks, Hero goes AI (for $120), UTG+1 tanks for a few minutes and then calls.

UTG+1 shows 58 and wins.

My thoughts: This is a relatively straightforward villain who raises pre with big hands and is pretty fit/fold postflop. I think the flop raise is pretty standard as straight and flush draws aren't going anywhere and I'm never just flat calling a donk for less than half pot with top set at live low stakes on this board especially. When villain calls my raise I know based on his play that he's on either a flush draw or a straight draw (or potentially a combo draw). When the turn completes the flush and he leads I don't really see much value in raising here as I still have outs to a full house although he can technically be donking an open ended straight draw here I highly, HIGHLY doubt after my flop raise he would be making that play. The river is when things get super interesting and I want some opinion. The river obviously brings the 4th heart and after his check and based on his preflop limp I was very confident he probably had me beat with a hand almost exactly like he showed up with. It's also worth noting that he can obviously have a suited Ace high flush himself but I do feel as though this player was raising hands like that pre and based on his river check it just didn't seem likely at all. The thing is based on my actions I felt as though I can rep a lot of over pairs with a heart and also some combo draws that I would have raised the flop with which would get him to fold out basically his entire preflop limping range with my bet OTR. Obviously that didn't happen and I just want some input. Can we ever expect villain to fold in spots like this at live low stakes?

In there like swimwear.

77 hand just overlimp pre. You hardly get much fold equity by isoing live and this hand plays poorly post. We just wanna hit a set as cheaply as possible and then mash the value button postflop. As played, raise the flop bigger and X behind OTR.

Yeah in hindsight X behind OTR was definitely the better option thanks for the input. And as far as limping pre I thought 7c7s on the BTN was close to where I should be putting in a raise but what you said makes sense I'll make sure to just overlimp next time. Thanks meale I appreciate the feedback

Update: Sept 28

Hours Played: 6

Final Result: +$312

Subbed. GLGL

Need more hands TWoods, maybe your fellow PGCers will be able to help out

gl on the grind.

Thanks man!

Cool thread, where about in Canada?

Ok sweet nice to have you here in my thread! I can always use some advice. I didn't have that many interesting spots in my last session and I work 12hrs/day today --> Tuesday so I won't be able to get back to the casino until later next week. I'll try and play some zoom though in my limited time and get at least 30mins-1hr of studying in each day too.

I do have one interesting spot that came up vs a relatively solid player (as far as live 1/2 players go) that I'll post below

Hand:

So the villain (BB) in this hand has been at my table for a few hours and seems to be relatively solid. Also from what he's seen I haven't played too many hands nor have I gotten out of line when I do get involved. Also note that it shows that I started the hand with slightly less than 100bb this is unusual for me but happens since I top up once my stack is $175 or less since I don't really feel like adding small denomination chips after every single hand that I play.

Preflop: UTG+1 ($160) raises to $6, MP ($280) calls, Hero ($190) CO calls w/T 9, BB ($420) raises to $18, UTG+1 calls, MP calls, Hero calls

4 ways to the flop

Flop ($73): T 2 8

BB leads for $45, fold, fold, Hero calls

With position, top pair, BDFD and BDSD I don't think I can ever fold here in this spot so I see a turn.

Turn ($163): A

This is a super interesting turn card. Villains actions here greatly dictate my line...

Villain checks, Hero goes AI

With a pair and now a flush draw I have a solid amount of equity even if he calls. But breaking this hand down in terms of what I was thinking at low stakes, I don't know anyone who on this wet of a board would ever check to trap. I know most villains at this level are hoping for a check behind to get that reassurance that I am in fact on a draw but I don't give it to him. His most likely holdings are an overpair (JJ-KK we can discount AA and sets since there's really no way he's checking OTT) a flush draw, or just complete air that wanted to C-bet one and done.

Final Result:

Villain mucks K K face up.
Hero doesn't show and takes down the pot.

Anyways let me know what you guys think. I'm always looking for feedback in order to improve as fast as possible.

Thanks! and I don't want to get too specific but I'm from the GTA in Ontario. What about yourself?

I see you had a pretty good live session, any updates on your online play??

Right now I've been working 12hrs/day which is pretty draining and doesn't leave time for much else so I've just been making sure I get at least an hour of studying done before I sleep mainly reviewing a lot of tough spots that I get into live (I may post a few of these common spots to get some advice), just no online play. When I do play I'll be sure to post about it. I may not post the profit loss though until the end of each month since it won't be that significant playing 5nlzoom online as compared to 200nl live.

So it’s been 6 days since my last post and I’ve been working a ton so I haven’t been able to play as much as I want so I’ll give a quick summary:

Hours Worked: 60 (I work 12 hr shifts and have had 5 in the last 6 days)

Hours played live: 4 (1 session)
Result: -$300

* I actually felt like I played great in this session I just got it all in 3 ways with middle set ahead OTF in a $1300 pot (one of the bigger pots of my life live considering I just play 1/2 and 1/3) with 1 whale and one reg and didn’t hold but such is life.

Hours played online (5NLZOOM): 10

Also worth noting: I’ve listen to 9 CLP podcasts (9hrs) in the past 6 days (which are great because I can have them on whenever I’m driving. And I’ve also put in another 1hr/day into watching videos and reviewing hands (from online) before I go to bed each night.

So total hours between work and poker: 89hrs in 6 days

I do have one question I’d like to ask anyone in my thread. Where should I put the majority of my time (Majority meaning ~80% - here are the options).

1) Live 200NL and 300NL with the hopes to grow my ~$4000 bankroll into $10000 to move up to 500NL.
One thing I will say is that live poker has its negatives… being
- the people you’re around generally aren’t happy
- the pace of play is super slow
- I don’t feel that my game develops much especially at these stakes
- I live 45mins-1hr from the casino so its 1.5-2 hrs of driving for each session.
*** The top win rate at 1/2 (before rake is considered) is lets say $20/hr and after rake ~$10-$14 with 1/3 being $30/hr and after rake ~$15-$18 so in other words it’ll be a long grind.
2) Online 5NLZOOM with the hopes of moving up the stakes
3) Grind online as my main focus and hopefully by the start of 2018 I can be beating NL10ZOOM and then maybe I up my live bankroll with my own money (from work) to and just start playing a mix of 1/3 with regular 2/5 shots on weekends.

If you’re reading this and have an idea of what you think is best and why please reply and let me know.

I'd say live poker is the best way to go if you're sole purpose is to make money, competition is generally weaker and you're also playing higher stakes. If you are trying to work on the fundamentals of your game and put in a ton of volume then I'd recommend online. I'm no expert tho, I'm sure there's some other people/threads here that talk about these type of decisions.

I'd avoid playing live if working that many hours. Commute time is killer, fuel rake etc. Is your goal to win money or improve your game?

If you’re working this many hours, I’m sure the $$ is not as much of an issue for you. Because of the commute, etc, I’d stick to online, build your game, and go from there.

I understand where you're coming from for sure and of course I want to make money, I'm just trying to sort out what's best long-term for my improvement as a player and love of the game. Thanks for the input !

Thanks for the advice! Yeah the fuel and time commute is frustrating no doubt and the past 6 days I worked a lot more hours than I usually do (40-45hrs/week) but still I know that's not great at all and the more I've been thinking about it I agree with you, I may have to lean to playing online at least for now to improve starting from NL5ZOOM (which I obviously dislike for things such as extremely low rakeback, but as far as game improvement goes I think it's the best option).

Thanks for the input man! You're definitely right the advantage I do have is a steady income stream outside of poker so I don't have to focus on this as my sole income right now so maybe the online approach like you and Meale have suggested for the time being is best. Especially since I know definitely need to work on my game starting with the micros. I'm actually really glad I started a thread for answers like you guys have provided.


Conclusion:
I'm going to focus the majority of my time at least in the near future to online play (starting at NL5). As I touched on in my intro I know I have a ton to learn in NL as I was solely focused on PLO prior to this (turning a $200 bankroll to just over $1500 online which was withdrawn). So I'll get grinding NL5 and post some results maybe monthly? but I'll post hrs played and hands a lot more regularly if I can get some feedback. I do want to say though that I will still try to play live maybe once a week because I don't want to forget about it entirely. And once or if I ever get the roll and the confidence to play 2/5 regularly then I think I can consider shifting more time back to live.

A wise decision!

Down below is a link to today's session. It's only just over 1000 hands since I worked 12hrs today. Also for the most part I'm just 2 tabling zoom to be as focused as I can in specific spots and learn as much as possible. I do think that playing PLO for a bit should helps me with hand reads and bet sizing tendencies of villains. So far this month I've played 17hrs online.

I actually have a pretty cool bet going on with a buddy of mine who's trying to improve through both online and live poker as well

--> 50,000 hands played by December 8th. (I plan on having this done earlier but he said that's whats reasonable for him).
--> The biggest winner wins the bet and gets 50% of the difference between their winnings and the losers winnings (or loses). Ex: If I won $100 and he won $20 he would owe me $40.
-->Also if you don't complete the 50,000 hands by December 8th you owe the other guy $20/week until they are completed.

*I know this isn't a big bet by any means but it's nice solely for the competition aspect of it as he's a good friend and someone who I don't want to lose to.

https://gyazo.com/77152028cd48ace702ec8223e0e9a5f9