I love it man, keep up the good work!
Remember as long as you don't give up - you don't lose!

Nothing that's close which kind of sucks but if I play it's either in Niagara or at Rama

Thanks man!


NOVEMBER UPDATE:

I've played a very low volume this month which has been disappointing. Things haven't been going well and I'll post a graph by the end of the week. Good thing is I have improved as a player despite my poor results. Still hoping to move up to nl10z for good in the near future.

Here's a graph from some of the quick nl10z shots I've taken so far this month. I'm pretty much going to stop playing nl10z until I play at least 50k hands at nl5z which I originally set out to do. It should be done soon as I'm close to 40k hands now. As far as the nl10z pool goes - I feel like I'm playing fine I'll need a much bigger sample though to get a true feel of where my game is at at this level.

GTA guys, how do the live games at Niagara compare to online? It's been like 7 years since I played live.

Is 500NL like 50NL online?

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If you're comparing regular tables online (not zoom) to live in terms of difficulty I'd say the following (remember I only play 200nl and 300nl live currently but I have friends who play 500nl and 1000nl regularly).

*note I'm assuming at each online limit the player is a winner with a WR of 4+bb/100, if I were comparing zoom I'd assume the same but with a WR of 0+bb/100. So essentially anything better than break-even at each limit for zoom players*.

COMPARISON:

5NL = 200NL & 300NL

10NL = solid winner at 200NL & 300NL. Break-even to small winner at 500NL

25NL = solid winner at 500NL

50NL = crusher at 500NL + slight winner at 1000NL

100NL = solid winner at 1000NL

Just my opinion but from what I've heard from players in these games along with what I've read from other players online I'd say that it's pretty accurate. Remember if you're reading this and disagree or even agree with me feel free to comment below this is just my opinion. It also should be noted as many 2+2 users have pointed out in the past that live plays A LOT different from online and there are many adaptations that need to be made so it's not like I'm trying to say live is going to be a cakewalk for anyone to just go and crush. I do however feel as though playing live can be a lot tougher mentally. Downswings can be brutal and can last what seems like an eternity compared to online with so few hands per hour (and you'll also encounter people that you really don't enjoy being around somewhat regularly). Also in my opinion it's a lot more draining to play live so I have a ton of respect for those who do it and put in a ton of hours every month.

Anyways I hope that helps.

Awesome breakdown, thanks for that.

I'm a winner at 50NL so 500NL seems like the game for me. Only thing is I play heads up so full ring live is going to be a bit different.

I expect a lot of multi way pots with 4+ players seeing the flop.

Yeah no problem man. And yeah heads-up is obviously quite different (and a game that I have very limited experience in) but I'm sure you'll figure it out and be fine. Good luck !

Update:

Hours Played (Live): 7hrs 15mins

Final Result: +$260

Overall I'm happy with how I played today. I'm also considering playing live again tomorrow or I guess today since it's Sunday now, I'm just not 100%, so I'll have to see how I feel in the morning.

Update:

Hours Played (Live): 5

Result: +$168

So today was one of those sessions where I definitely felt that I could have played longer but this quote sums up how I felt:

"When you are winning, and you reach a point in the session when the happiness you will gain by winning more money will be much less than the pain you will endure if you lose, quit. Away from the table you can examine how and why this imbalance occurs. Meanwhile, learn to trust the quitting voice, and to react without question."

It's not even that I care so much about losing money (I'm not afraid to lose) it's more the fact that my buddy wanted to have a few beers and watch Sunday Night Football and to be honest booking a win and just having a relaxing night > potentially staying and ending up booking a loss or winning a bit more money.

Session note: my focus live seems to be pretty good and I'm making a lot of correct folds in spots where I know the majority of players would be burning money.

Not sure who gave this advice and in what context, but it seems horrific. If you're +EV in a lineup, leaving is essentially giving away $$ (assuming you can/want to continue playing.) If for example you had just said "I want to go watch football" Then that's the only reason you need for quitting. But the above statement is just saying that you are not adequately rolled for the game you're playing.

Agreed this is not good advice because it'll just end up cutting your sessions shorter. Which is fine if you have no volume targets but if you do it'll just work against you.

If you're rolled still, not fatigued, and the game is still good (quality wise), you should stay til you either are fatigued, no longer rolled (heaven forbid), or if the quality becomes poor. Or if you're tilting or whatever.

If I did that I'd play like 20 hours a week max. :')

I understand what you guys are saying for sure. In the context that I was using it in I more so just meant that if I decided to stay I really would have only set myself up to potentially be pissed off. If I stay around the same profit or lose anything I’d just be thinking why did I stay and miss having beers and watching football with a good buddy of mine. I love playing poker and making money, but this was a time where I knew that leaving and enjoying the night doing something else would make me happier than making a bit more money at the tables that’s all. But in no way will I be doing this often I already have a hard enough time putting in hours online and live since I work 45hrs/week.

Also I probably should have put it in that previous post but the quote comes from Tommy Angelo in his book: Elements of poker. He is very well respected in coaching the mental game and tilt. He has coached well known players such as Peter Jennings, Ben Sulsky, and Phil Galfond.

But my conclusion here is that you guys are correct in that I need to make sure to:
--> Stay in +EV lineups as long as I possibly can - assuming I have the time, am not fatigued, am still properly rolled and am not tilting.

* To be honest looking back I feel as though the quote was misapplied by me in the scenario I used it in because as you stated tellypl and meale touched on as well the quote seems to mainly be about not being adequately rolled.

Also as a side note:
I found my old phone which had my live results during my time at University (mainly my final two years playing very sporadically).

I was up $6,117 over 456hrs for ~$13/hr with my longest downswing being -11.5 BI. But anyways I decided that since the majority of my live volume will probably be at 1/3 now which takes a $6,000 roll to have a comfortable 20BI's I increased my starting roll from $4,000 to $6,000 - so essentially it's just my lifetime profit from live play (this is a true bankroll and money I will never need to use for life expenses). And since the start of the thread about a month and a half ago I've played 36hrs 25mins live for a profit of +$783. Which puts my bankroll at:

Live Bankroll: $6,783

Online Bankroll: $385

So you're driving 2+ hours for every live session?

Damn, commitment.

It's about 1.5 hrs total, but yeah it's not ideal and it's a main reason why when I go I need to be playing longer sessions. If there's a decent amount of traffic though then yeah 2hrs. If I played full-time I would definitely move closer to either of the casinos. I try and carpool though as much as I can (the last two session I played I carpooled and split on gas with a buddy of mine).

Damn, hopefully you run very good while playing live then.

Live Session Review

Just got home from a super short session where I was down $600 (two buyins) thirty minutes in, including getting stacked my very first hand of the session lol. Anyways I ended up down $514 and left after both of the whales left and the table was breaking. I sometimes wouldn't even fire a third bullet but the game was nuts and I just ended up on the wrong side of variance.

This one hurt even more since I got it all-in on the flop (second bullet) 4 ways ($325 effective) w/ JJ on:

AJ5

Villain 1: AK
Villain 2: AK
Villain 3 (whale): QQ

Ended up losing to Villain 1's running flush.

So that would have been a real nice $1300 pot had it held but it is what it is.

First hand of the night that I got stacked on was vs. a whale I had played with once before who makes ridiculous bets and bluffs and was sitting with ~1400.

I open CO to $12 w/ AT, BTN ($200) calls, SB ($450) calls, BB calls.

Flop ($48): KQ4

I c-bet $30, BTN calls, SB folds, BB (whale) announces all-in, I call (super easy call he'll do this with so many hands including gutshots, open ended etc. , BTN folds, whale shows K2 and holds.

Wow that first hand would make me sick live.

That's unreal.


Hopefully the variance turns your way soon.

Thanks man! But yeah it was pretty gross. Threw it in equilab when I got home and had 85.49% once all the money went in OTF. I honestly don't think I'll ever get a 4-way all-in again in my life with that much equity haha. But variance happens to everyone so all I can do is move on and hope to run better next session.

Hero starts Thursday!

Me realizing today is finally the day that Tiger Woods makes his return to professional golf:



and a nice little flashback:



(for all you guys that couldn't care less about golf don't worry 99% of my posts will be poker related I just had to post this update since my 2+2 name is TWoods and all)

Ok so quick update. November did not go well in terms of online play. I didn’t play much, I ran poorly (and probably played poorly too but it was an extremely low volume) and kind of convinced myself I needed to focus a lot more on studying over playing. So I essentially used the month to really look at my game and fix some leaks. Today I made kind of a random decision to test myself vs significantly better competition in the nl50z pool. The way I justified doing this with nl5z being my main game was as follows:

1) It was a Saturday and of course that’s the best day if I’m going to mix it up in a better pool.
2) I set a stop-loss of 2 buy-ins ($100) with the thought that I’m over-rolled for my current game nl5z and even if I lost the 2 buy-ins I’d still be ok bankroll wise. And also at the end of the day I’m trying to get better online and eventually make some real $$$ and the absolute worst-case scenario is I can add money to my account BUT I don’t want it to come to this so I promised myself that 2 buy-ins and I’m done and I’ll work my way up the correct way.
3) I wanted some motivation to get my ass in gear and eventually permanently move up.

Anyways it wasn’t a long session I didn’t run well but I had zero tilt and was super happy with myself.



After I got back to even I made the smart move and went back down to nl5z and played about ~1400 hands there:



It was nice to run well in this session of nl5z after what I felt was a very poor November.


*Also the 50k hand challenge with my buddy @nl5z ends on December 8th. So I'll post my graph and maybe I'll even post his too if he's ok with that.

UPDATE: 50,000 Hands @ nl5z:



So my buddy didn't get the 50,000 hands done for our challenge by our agreed date (Dec 8th) so he owes me $20/week until he finishes. But anyways some takeaways from 50k hands at nl5z:

1) I'm super happy to be moving up
2) nl5z is a lot less fun than PLO lol... but I still love NL and it feels good to be improving so I'm glad I have left PLO for the time being.
2) My game feels better each day and I really hope and can achieve a positive winrate at nl10z over a 50k hand sample but even if I don't I feel like eventually I'll get it done.

Also takeaways from my graph:
1) I had a 20k breakeven stretch
2) My longest downswing was about ~13BI's
3) My win-rate dropped since my 25k hand update but I'm definitely still happy to be 6bb+/100 in the nl5z pool.

Man that graph has a really familiar trajectory.

Ah, I know why now.

Haha this post is gold

Decided to mix it up a bit in the nl25z pool for one of my sessions this weekend. I'll almost exclusively be playing nl10z but if my bankroll allows it I'll throw some shots in at nl25z on weekends. Ran into what seemed to be the top of everyone's range all session and if I got it AI pre I was behind every time but that's going to happen some days. Overall though I'm happy because I honestly feel like it was easily one of my best sessions with regards to my focus and decision making since starting the thread.