Well January was crap for many reasons.

Only played 8363 hands and lost 670bb, just did not get going at all.

February has to be different otherwise im just wasting my own time.

Studied a fair bit and updated some of my HEM2 pop ups for specific spots.

Really have to put in a meaningful hand sample this month to see were i stand at these 6 max tables.

Good luck to everyone in February.

Not the start i was hoping for.

Being up 2.5 BIs EV in 1k hands is a fine start to the month.

I know your right ...

Today is another day ... Im going to continue playing 2 tables of Zoom and persevere a little more.

The challenge for today is not to check my results after each session and only check at the end of the day.

This is something ive never done so it will be beneficial to start learning this process.

Done for the day ..

Getting a little tiresome working up a 130bb profit only to lose it all in stupid spots were players are flopping trips with 64 in 3 bet pots vrs my KK.

I dont think 6 max is for me tbh.

I enjoy the game but im going through a common theme with it.

I have a good win rate at FR but every single attempt i make at 6 max ( and ive made a few ) i fall flat on my face and just seem to run like crap every single time.

Ive played nearly 21k hands at 6 max Zoom ( so i feel ive given it a try this time ) and although i really think ive improved im just not winning at all.

Im basically break even in that time but its taken 4 months to reach it. ( EV is +2.07bb )
If i add in the 7.6k hands of 6 max regular tables then its a 237bb loss overall ( EV is +1.96 )

I was considering stopping yesterday but thought i would give it another go .. this happened against a unknown straight away.

Maybe raise preflop, maybe find a fold on that turn but jesus i would hate myself if i did.



Anyways ... $hit happens.

I may try full ring again or try some random site for a while.

Yea, 6max sucks mate. Any fr playing attempting to make the switch will learn that

Actually it's quite the same, I would say that FR players have a ton of skills that help playing 6-max, most players are super nitty in both forms of poker. The worst thing a 9-max player can do to get owned in a 6-max table is to call really light, thinking they're getting ran over. Nitring teaches us how to make really sick folds, which are usually right vs most villains, specially super passive guys like this one.

PokerStars - $0.50 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 139.98 BB
SB: 104.62 BB
BB: 48 BB
UTG: 41.92 BB
MP: 112.76 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T A

fold, MP calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 4 BB, fold, SB calls 3.5 BB, BB calls 3 BB, fold

Flop: (13 BB, 3 players) A A 6
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 4.08 BB, SB calls 4.08 BB, BB calls 4.08 BB

Turn: (25.24 BB, 3 players) 6
SB checks, BB bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB, SB calls 12 BB

River: (61.24 BB, 3 players) 2
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 19.26 BB, SB raises to 84.54 BB and is all-in, fold, fold

SB wins 95.76 BB

The one good thing about 6 max is i think it improves you overall as a player.

Or makes you realise you need to improve as a player

But saying that ... ive played 17k hands in exactly 2 months and im down over 12 buy ins ( over 8 buyins below EV ).

Sure 17k hands is nothing for most of you but it feels like 2 months of constant bollocks !

My own fault for not putting in the volume required but i find it hard to motivate myself when im just playing for fun and it becomes not much fun at all.

Ahhh well .... its only $10nl and being down $120 is not the end of the world especially as ive recouped over half of that in daily challenges and cashing in a couple of coins thingy.

I will go back to FR for now ... try and play more .. i find it easier to get more volume in at FR so ill see how it goes.

I would be quite happy reaching $25nl and making a little side money each month so my goals are not huge.

Maybe once i get there my aspirations will get bigger

This 6 max situation got me thinking about my previous attempts .. so i looked at my previous HEM databases.

They go back to 2014 but i also hardly played for at least 2 years since that period.

3 databases at $10nl gave me a total of 70046 hands at 6 max.

I made a loss of $148.14 and my EV was a profit of $131.65 .. so that is nearly 28 buy ins in EV difference.

Granted the results are not great either way and many people have run worse than that for 70k hands ..

But my FR stats at $10nl show 139751 hands at a profit of $1025.62 ( 7.34bb ) EV was 6.33bb.

I can see why i keep having a mini strop and returning to FR

Was a lot of the 6max action at Zoom?

6.3 EV bb/100 @ 10NL FR means you are comfortably beating that game.

How about 50k hands at 25NL FR and see how that goes?

So you are marginally winning evbb in 6max? This is a massive success, you only have to improve a little bit more to hit higher winrates at these stakes.

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This does appeal somewhat but i do not have the bankroll for $25nl yet.

I went back to FR the other day and played 1k hands and was in such a great mood because the tables were so different to 6 max and felt it was going to be easy money.

Got raped in the next session

Since the 5 December ive played 19k hands and its been a real struggle to motivate myself to play because im losing most days.

Im down 14 buy ins overall .. a lot of that in EV but still its not been fun to see my won at showdown stat stay at virtually even throughout.

Im not going to whinge too much because i dont play poker for a living so its not really a problem.

Saying that ...

Ive moved my bankroll out and will be switching to Party Poker to take advantage of the reload bonus and additional rakeback.

Hopefully i can build it up a little quicker this way and then maybe i could come back to Stars and play $25nl FR.

Just think ive stagnated on Stars and a change might do me good.

Hi all ...

A while back i had a bankroll that was approaching $400 and everything was going nice and steady upwards.

Then the Stars poker god decided that was enough fun for one person and duly put the kibosh on everything.

Over 15 buyins down later i withdrew my $247 and limped away from Poker Stars and turned up at Party with cap in hand hoping the bots would find it their hearts to give this dog a bone.

So .. i deposited $300 and got a $300 reload bonus with the intention of working my way through that without going broke and hopefully turning the $300 into something much better.

Did not start well ... just could not get the HUD to work on the fast tables but managed to finally get there due i reckon to a random ticked box and not remove 50 pieces of software according to HEM support

Anyways ... just got cracking yesterday and ran below EV again ..

Today ... the $10 FF tables just do not get going at all until at least lunch time so i faffed about with $5nl FF for a bit and then decided to switch to the normal tables and see how the HUD works on these.

Not great is the answer as its Player 1, Player 2 etc but you can get a idea of what they are doing and im taking a few notes when i get the chance and sticking them in the note box provided by Party ... i presume these stay there so hopefully will help moving forward.

Apparently there is software out there that records the hands on HEM2 using their names but no idea what it is and im not a cheater so i wont be using it.

Its just a shame that many others do apparently.

Ahhh well .... would like to clear this bonus in a month or so and then i will decide what to do next.

Well the Party Poker experience lasted about 5k hands.

All in all it went ok, deposited $300 and withdrew $370.

Ran good in the 987 hands at the $10nl 6 max reg tables and finished up 6 buy ins.

The rest was a mixture of $5nl and $10nl FF tables but also won the 3 $5 DONs i played in and $7 in missions achieved.

Its a real shame Party refuse to get to grips with the bots on the FF tables and also deciding to stop allowing HUDs on the regular tables but ignoring the fact everyone is using a converter is borderline disgraceful.

You just end up facing a lot of bots or players being able to use a proper HUD so your cheated either way.

Unless they get to grips with this then they are always going to be miles behind Stars.

This was the final nail in the Party coffin for me.

I was looking at my bonus progress and it was making quick progress to 10% and i thought my first $30 bonus was on its way.

Then once i reached that milestone and checked further i realised it was 10% of the first 10% so a fairly huge cock up there by me lol.

Ahhh well ... back to Stars for me it seems ...

Back again ...

Ive put $350 back into Stars and realising most sites suck compared to Stars and even though im not a big fan of Stars there is not much alternatives.

I just dabbled at full ring and quickly realised that i do not want to be there anymore so need to knuckle down this month on 6 max and see where it takes me.

Lost 155bb at the FR tables, AK v TT in a 4 bet pot .. flop is ATx .. its just the way it is on Stars at the moment ... 16 buy ins down in the last 19k hands.

Goals for March ...

1. - Put some volume in ... want to play 50k hands ... ive never done this before so im going to learn some poker mental muscle and grind through the dodgy times.

Hopefully i will learn that poker is a long road journey and not what happens each day.

2. - Im not going to check my results until the end of the day ... I get too hung up with results which affects my desire to play and hence i get nowhere.

Good luck in March everyone. #runwell

OK ... my decision to return to poker back in October may have been a mistake.

The last 20k hands which stretch back to 6 December has been brutal.

Im down 1860bbs and just running the worst ive ever run.

Every small session is the same and nothing is holding up.

Sure 20k hands in 3 months is a huge issue but i have no desire to play when its like this.

Sooo .. ill bugger off and see if i can put in some volume quietly and return at the end of the month.

If you dont hear from me by then , then ive probably found another hobby

Have you started using StarsHelper yet?

Whilst I was re-installing recently I noticed some new features. There is a table-HUD option where you can add hands played and it will show you a live update on how many hands you have played for the session.

I have added that and stuck it in the corner of my tables. Now when I play I can set a target of say 1k hands and play until I reach that target. Give it a try, it might give you extra motivation to play another 30 mins per session to hit your hands played target.

I use a expired trial version of Tilt Breaker for this.

It still gives you a black box showing how many hands you have played in the session / day.

You can also add profit / loss if you want but i choose not to use that option.

Like always .. I just have issues motivating myself to play when im running bad .. and this is the worst ive run so motivation is just not there at the moment.

I will see how the rest of the month goes ... its no biggie either way tbh.

I was thinking of buying PokerSnowie but i will have to read up a bit more on it to see if its worthwhile.

lol me ... not played a hand since the 4th.

Hence im getting heckled by Dev at 3am for being a slacker.

Well we all have to draw the line somewhere !

So im going to be back playing tomorrow and will guarantee 1k hands a day with daily updates to prove it from here on in.

Ill post some hands that might show scenarios im struggling with to hopefully improves some spots.

Sounds good boss. Some of us are on tha grind til 3am. If you keep slacking I will start phoning you at 3am and you can explain to your Mrs why you have dudes calling you at all hours of the night

I will make some kind of effort this month

Played one 354 hand session since the 4th March.

Lets try and get 30k hands in this month.

One goal i will attempt is not checking results until ive finished for the day, never been able to do this so going to try again.

Really not bothered about results .. just want to get some kind of momentum going with the volume.

I might have to lower my 30k hand goal as ive decided to drop to 4 tables.

6 tables and i feel im not paying enough attention and clicking buttons so im going to try 4 tables.

Sure .. this is going to feel pretty damn slow but hopefully it will help me develop a better mindset moving forward.

I will also be a little more aggressive with my bankroll management .. i have around $300 for $10nl but will take a shot at $25nl if i somehow reach about $600.

Sat down and spent 20 minutes waiting for a table to pop up using TST.

Nothing happened.