I've also never seen the cumulative VPIP games Oladipo is mentioning, but agree that they sound like a great idea.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it mantecaa. If the backer has any experience at all he'll understand that swings like this are part of the game, and if you'd been having solid, consistent results for a period, then a couple bad days won't scare him off.

One of the things about Bros is that games will get pretty deep quite often. If you're deep with a couple other solid players, it makes sense to leave the table if you aren't too comfortable, but being that deep with a fish is a spot I don't think you can pass up.

As for continuing to play after the alarm went off. You know yourself best, so if you think you function best with shorter sessions, then stick to the plan. I suspect that although you were getting tired, you were still probably ++EV in those games, but you just happened to run poorly.

Probably a good idea to take a day or 2 to reset and plan out a vision for what you want to do going forward. Do you want to stick to a strict gameplan? Will you allow yourself leeway to continue if a couple fish are playing? Plan it out now while you're thinking clearly then force yourself to stick to it during the game when emotions are sometimes running high and we don't always have our best interests in mind.

Glad to see you're back?

And that wasn't supposed to be a question

Happy to be back!


The guy is a very well respected pro who understands win rate and EV quite well. I was more embarrassed because I know, and we have discussed strat on how to maximize profitability and mitigate risk in these games. And while it's obviously +EV to play deep with fish, doing it at PLO when theres plenty of NL action is probably more gambley then necessary. So more embarrassed because it felt like a mental leak then anything else.

For sure this. Don't want to talk about specific sites but in general games starting @ 200bb deep is quite nice.

The alarm thing is more just because in the past I would start grinding and just go forever. I have other responsibilities, although much less with the quarantine, and putting in 3 hour sessions max at a time seems to work best. I can reset, eat, drink, spend family time etc. and then come back refocused for another 2-3 hour stretch.

I'm trying to put in a ton of hours right now but think in terms of best EV vs. just is it +EV or not. If I'm playing 5-9 hours a day I might as well maximize them to the best of my ability. And with nothing but time I can schedule everything to do that.

Good advice. Figuring out gameplan based on my incentives is something I need to be more cognizant of when game selecting.

Right off the bat the answer is more NL, less PLO. I'm not the mental game master you are when it comes to swings. I prefer a smoother grind.
Thanks for the input.

Since the last update I have been really putting in as many hours as humanly possible. Not sure of the exact time tables but I've played somewhere in the ballpark of 25k hands in a week which for me is massive volume.

The gov. here shut down all new rental activity until June 1 so it has been pure grind time.

Taking the full day off for mothers day today and having many drinks with the family and friends via a zoom happy hour.


Not much to report other than poker related activity.
Coaching:
I’ve really been loving coaching, and took on 2 new students last week. Just talking through hands before I start a session seems to get me in a good mindset to grind and it's fun to see incremental improvement or even foundational change in approach with some of the less experienced players.


Quick poker update:

Tracked sites = good games, very good results
untracked = amazing games but really poor results

I've had some good conversations with my trusted poker rabbis and it seems the games are pretty good everywhere atm. So definitely trying to take advantage of it while I can.

The disappointing part is that I'm winning on my own money and losing on this trial period with the backer. I'm not going to go into too many specifics about the deal but he put me in a really great spot and it hasn't worked out so far, which could shut the door on some future opportunities, so hoping to turn it around this coming week.

It's more frustrating then anything because the games are amazing, and I could definitely could have played better in some spots. I’ve had a few 200bb multi street punts against very capped ranges, but against people that are probably not good candidates to bluff. and I’ve run into some non AI run bad, basically ending up on a lot of rivers with close to the top of my range and just running into it. I’ve done a lot of review and feel solid with most of my decisions but I’ve just been on the bad end of a lot of second best hands in big pots. This wouldn’t really effect me normally but when it’s with someone else’s investment I definitely take it a little harder. He is understanding but it also just means that it’s taking me a little longer to get into some of the truly juicy spots that make playing some of my volume staked +EV to begin with.

There has also been some very concentrated run bad in specific big spots that are really crushing the results. This includes losing the biggest pot I've ever played in BB's online. A 1600bb all in pre against a maniac.
The guy had been 3 betting literally 75% of my opens from my direct left. We obviously had aces and lost Only saving grace is that it was at the lowest stake I play on that site, but playing that deep is quite the rollercoaster when people love to click the all in button. To top it off he had some kind words in the chat and some poop to throw in my face, so that was a fun one.

Q in the window, sin problemas



Played a lot of 200NL zoom, and took some shots in nice lineups on my own dime up to 2k NL and that worked out well.

Untracked been playing 200NL up to 1kNL with some PLO mixed in depending on what the games look like.


Some hands:

Against my 1 poker enemy and frequent chat warrior which made it extra sweet. He is a the ultimate chat rager which is especially fun in zoom pools where for the next 15 minutes he tried to berate me across 10 different tables.

Pacific Poker - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 163.41 BB
SB: 110.97 BB
BB: 126.5 BB
Hero (UTG): 221.26 BB
MP: 115.14 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4 A

Hero raises to 2.6 BB, MP raises to 7.8 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 20.28 BB, MP calls 12.48 BB

Flop: (42.06 BB, 2 players) 6 K T
Hero bets 13.04 BB, MP calls 13.04 BB

Turn: (68.13 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, MP bets 81.82 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 81.82 BB

River: (231.77 BB, 2 players) 6

Hero shows 4 A (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 55%, Flop 45%, Turn 91%)
MP shows 8 T (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)
(Pre 45%, Flop 55%, Turn 9%)
Hero wins 229.77 BB


Quarantine hand #1
I had the DO NOT BLUFF tag on my amigo here.

Pacific Poker - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 99.14 BB
BTN: 108.65 BB
Hero (SB): 223.78 BB
BB: 248.96 BB
UTG: 127.61 BB
MP: 52.35 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T 7

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 3 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 6 9 8
Hero checks, BB bets 13 BB, Hero raises to 32.6 BB, BB raises to 64.2 BB, Hero raises to 95.8 BB, BB raises to 245.96 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 124.98 BB and is all-in

Turn: (447.56 BB, 2 players) 2

River: (447.56 BB, 2 players) 5

Hero shows T 7 (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 35%, Flop 99.6%, Turn 100%)
BB shows K A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 65%, Flop 0.5%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 445.56 BB

Quarantine hand #2
Against unknown.

Pacific Poker - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 39 BB
SB: 101.64 BB
BB: 107.42 BB
Hero (UTG): 100 BB
MP: 115.34 BB
CO: 129.68 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 7

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 6.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 4 BB

Flop: (14 BB, 2 players) 2 6 8
SB bets 7 BB, Hero calls 7 BB

Turn: (28 BB, 2 players) 2
SB bets 14 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

River: (56 BB, 2 players) 7
SB checks, Hero bets 47.6 BB, SB raises to 74.14 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 24.9 BB and is all-in

SB shows A K (One Pair, Twos)
(Pre 58%, Flop 20%, Turn 14%)
Hero shows 8 7 (Two Pair, Eights and Sevens)
(Pre 42%, Flop 80%, Turn 86%)
Hero wins 193 BB

Catching bluffs
Pretty punty call down but in this time I have seen so many random blasts that I'm defaulting towards just calling down lighter in these spots against unknown opponents.

Pacific Poker - $2 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 49.26 BB
SB: 317.16 BB
BB: 129.36 BB
Hero (UTG): 128.32 BB
MP: 130.86 BB
CO: 251.54 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q K

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) Q 3 2
BB checks, Hero bets 1.76 BB, BB raises to 7.04 BB, Hero calls 5.28 BB

Turn: (19.58 BB, 2 players) 7
BB bets 25.92 BB, Hero calls 25.92 BB

River: (71.42 BB, 2 players) 6
BB bets 93.9 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 92.86 BB and is all-in

BB shows 3 3 (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 52%, Flop 94%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows Q K (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 48%, Flop 6%, Turn 0%)
BB wins 249.14 BB

Went for a quality over quantity approach today after getting inspired reading a post of Oladipos about limiting distraction. Put away everything, just headphones and never more than 6 tables. I also put a premium on table selection and got in some hands in non traditional locales. Was just one of those days where everything seemed to go well.

Had a great day, taking some calculated shots. Running above EV when taking shots always is obviously much appreciated as well.

I've posted so many losing graphs during the course of this PGC, so it's fun to share some good results. Not a huge fan of posting $ amounts but gotta share some good ones every once in a while .



The good luck charm, slept through the entire session.




Demasiado heart. my third hand at the table

Pacific Poker - $50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): $5,000.00
SB: $6,354.20
BB: $5,000.00
CO: $5,000.00

SB posts SB $25.00, BB posts BB $50.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $75.00) Hero has K A

CO raises to $150.00, Hero raises to $450.00, fold, fold, CO calls $300.00

Flop: ($975.00, 2 players) 5 7 3
CO checks, Hero bets $302.25, CO calls $302.25

Turn: ($1,579.50, 2 players) 5
CO checks, Hero bets $1,342.57, CO calls $1,342.57

River: ($4,264.64, 2 players) 9
CO checks, Hero bets $2,905.18 and is all-in, CO calls $2,905.18 and is all-in

Hero shows K A (One Pair, Fives)

CO shows 8 7 (Two Pair, Sevens and Fives)

CO wins $10,070.00

Forgot to post a pretty epic HH from untracked land. a truly beautiful quarantine hand.

Competition for who could play the hand worse.
Villain had shown down some truly epic hands, and was not one to give up.

I open K3hh SB 3bb, wild man BB 3b 9bb, I call

Flop 884
He half pots, we call

Turn 8
He 1/3rds, just a completely fos line

We jam

he tankssssss

One of the spewiest hands i've played in a long time. While he was in the tank I was immediately upset with myself, getting this guy to fold A/K high is asking too much, be patient and find better spots etc etc. And thennnnn....

I've been having some fun the last few days at the tables. A better attitude and less distraction + less tables w/ more selection has really been a positive recipe.

I have been trying to play (3) 200 zoom tables and 3 regular tables mostly 400-1k NL if the games look good + a few bigger shots if/when I don't recognize a SN. All on off brand and/or untracked sites. I've also played more short handed the last week than I ever normally do which I have to say I love and which really benefits from the increase in attention

I, like a lot of other posters here have been watching and loving the MJ doc, so when I sat down at 1K and one of the sad regs who had been sitting out immediately sat back in my inner Mike came out.
"Ohh this guy's gonna disrespect me like that!"
Mostly kidding but there is something infinitely motivating when that happens. FWIW we won small and he sat out again after about 100 hands.



Ok.

Package received.

Pacific Poker - $10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 129.15 BB
Hero (BTN): 100 BB
SB: 127.23 BB
BB: 149.36 BB
UTG: 162.46 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 7

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, SB raises to 9 BB, fold, Hero calls 6.6 BB

Flop: (19 BB, 2 players) 5 J 6
SB bets 9.5 BB, Hero calls 9.5 BB

Turn: (38 BB, 2 players) 2
SB bets 25.33 BB, Hero calls 25.33 BB

River: (88.66 BB, 2 players) A
SB bets 83.4 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 56.17 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 6 7 (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 61%, Flop 75%, Turn 84%)
SB shows 4 5 (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 39%, Flop 25%, Turn 16%)
Hero wins 197 BB


Redline

Pacific Poker - $4 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 240.47 BB
Hero (BB): 149.79 BB
BTN: 101.78 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

BTN raises to 2.25 BB, fold, Hero raises to 9.75 BB, BTN calls 7.5 BB

Flop: (20 BB, 2 players) 5 2 3
Hero bets 6.76 BB, BTN calls 6.76 BB

Turn: (33.52 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 20.66 BB, BTN raises to 48.32 BB, Hero raises to 75.98 BB, fold

Hero wins 130.16 BB


Punt my son!

Pacific Poker - $10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 116 BB
SB: 68.46 BB
BB: 100 BB
CO: 125.45 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 8

CO raises to 3.5 BB, Hero calls 3.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (8.5 BB, 2 players) K 3 9
CO bets 4.25 BB, Hero calls 4.25 BB

Turn: (17 BB, 2 players) 7
CO bets 8.5 BB, Hero calls 8.5 BB

River: (34 BB, 2 players) 6
CO bets 34 BB, Hero raises to 99.75 BB and is all-in, CO calls 65.75 BB

Hero shows 8 8 (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 66%, Flop 53%, Turn 0%)
CO shows A 4 (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 34%, Flop 47%, Turn 100%)
CO wins 229.5 BB


Turn? There has been some good debate on this one in a few of my chats.

Pacific Poker - $4 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 99 BB
SB: 254.66 BB
BB: 40.48 BB
Hero (UTG): 131.52 BB
CO: 42.86 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BTN raises to 6.83 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 4.33 BB

Flop: (15.16 BB, 2 players) T 4 4
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (15.16 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, BTN bets 10.1 BB, Hero raises to 26.25 BB, BTN calls 16.15 BB

River: (67.66 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 87.95 BB, BTN calls 65.92 BB and is all-in

BTN shows A K (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 74%, Flop 14%, Turn 9%)
Hero shows T A (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 26%, Flop 86%, Turn 91%)
BTN wins 195.5 BB

Sat dumbly looking at the last hand for several minutes but I got nothing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Glad your results are starting to turn!

Two days ago we took a day off as a family and got out of the house for a little one night beach camping trip about 40 minutes out of town. Had to keep our eyes open for cops as all of the beaches are closed and I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary incidental expenses (bribes) but we've still got our little secret spots off the beaten path and it was so damn nice to get everyone out of the house.

With a little distance I realized just how much I have been grinding and how I felt relief to not even have the choice to play a session. In this time I feel almost guilty or lazy if I'm not at least checking lobbies and/or have the computer open ready to go. It gave me a little time to think and I had a few thoughts on approach and mental game during this time:


Mental Game/ Shot Taking /Mental Bandwith/ Focused on Outcomes over Process

When we got back yesterday I did a review of the last 3 sessions that I had played, hand for hand, and found some little fixable leaks without having to look too hard. The level of my play in the first half of a session compared to the last half was shockingly better. I've always assumed this to be true on some level, sharper/ more focused / less auto pilot etc.at the beginning of a session. But when I reviewed it was noticeably different.

I'm not an in-game tilter at all, meaning the results are not skewed by how I was doing in that session. There were several blatant mistakes that I wasn't making in the beginning of sessions and making a lot near the end. Mostly revolving around passing up clearly good opens and being far more passive as the session goes on. I have tried to identify why this would be the case and I guess it's probably just a mix of
1. less capacity to think optimally, mental bandwith being used up
2. subconsciously just trying to end the session without pain/ some weird kind of survival mentality
3. loss of interest or focus

I think playing higher stakes means that I am probably trying to lock up wins instead of playing optimally in each spot and maybe it's a sign that I'm playing too big. Realistically in the current environment I am comfortable shot taking up to 1k NL in certain lineups on my own dime. Maybe a bit higher if I'm playing on the stake but I have convinced myself to take some shots recently at bigger games. The stress relief I felt not playing was a pretty clear sign that I,
A. needed a break and
B. am probably placing too much importance on results/playing bigger than I should be

I know with some certainty that I am never the best player in any of the 2kNL+ lineups that I have jumped in recently. I also know with some certainty that there is at least 1 player worse then me in that lineup (hence why I'm sitting to begin with). I have played several times in the last two weeks and left the game within 2 orbits because it's not clear enough that I should be playing (so I'm still retaining some perspective). But right now with the availability of good games (especially in the 400-1kNL range), is it really worth it to sit in a 4 handed game when I am the 3rd best player? At stakes that possibly are making me play less than optimally?

I've played high stakes during this quarantine because of some mix of running hot in the limited sample to start, and ego. It is hard to truly know my winrate in all of these spots, but I think it is unlikely that I am winning enough to justify the risk when I know I can comfortably win at lower stakes in the untracked world with significantly less stress. I have always been good at being honest with myself about skill level and perceived edge but I think some solid results have definitely skewed that. Either way I was happy to have a day without play to give it some thought.

I also think the prevailing idea that " this is the last hoorah of online poker" is making me push too hard, shot take too much and put in sub optimal hours. That being said I just gave tgigity the opposite advice in his thread so maybe I'm just a hypocrite.

Moving forward: in addition to continuing to cut distraction from the beginning of a session I'm going to:
-set a clear 90 minute timer. If the games are amazing, I will do some honest evaluation of how I'm feeling and keep going or quit. If the games aren't amazing I'll just quit.
- I'm also going to play predominantly 200 Zoom and 400/600 NL reg tables with the occasional shot at 1k NL when I am certain of the quality of the lineup.

My hope is this will reduce stress and get me closest to playing predominantly A game. I have genuinely been having a lot of fun playing the last few months, and would like that to continue. I guess I'm just looking to optimize the remaining time that we have access to these games.



Some quarantine life.
Trying to stay sane and do as many things outside of the house as legally possible

Slowly but surely the backyard garden is coming along, with some stuff starting to sprout.



Very sick cycling trainer that hooks up to the Tv and you can bike different maps. London is the by far the primo choice map. My nephew about to attempt a new house record.


The daily hike. Our one little pleasure, everyone especially the dogs look forward to.




Cheers and hope this finds everyone well.
GL at the tables!

Excellent thread so far- thanks for sharing! As someone who struggles to put in enough hours grinding its always great to read about other peoples journeys.

Picture from the hike is great. Keep crushing

Nice updates! Btw what is Pacific poker?

May in Review

A really nice month. Ran hot at the limited higher stakes I played and put in more volume than I ever do which was a great combo.

Played almost 65k hands and really put my nose to the grindstone in the untracked world and finally got over the hump in those games which felt good.

If I had just not played at all in this big PLO game I was invited to it would have been an all time month, comparable to some of the best live months I've had. Instead just a good one. The irony of course is that the PLO game is the softest spot on earth, but we couldn't book a win bigger than 2bi's once so that took some of the steam out of the month.

I think I am aware that I have been playing in some lineups with where I am potentially be or losing but have run quite hot to the point that it didn't really matter. But at the end of the month and moving forward I have been choosier with table selection. A better win rate and less stress is probably ideal as I've said in some past posts.

Almost all of the winnings are spent, primarily paying down debt related things but that actually feels nice. Real estate related debt, when there is almost no real estate related revenue coming in, adds up quickly so it was nice to knock out some big chunks.

Tracked Results:


Untracked Results:
31k hands.
Very Good

Big PLO game Results
About 4k hands
Very Bad

Garden Results:



some epic run good in the garden, my wife and I are completely clueless but everything we've planted has done very well. A mix of zucchini, melon, cucumber, tomato, carrots and eggplant. Very calming effect working in the garden and we're both pretty hooked.


Goals for June

-50k hands as long as game quality holds up. We are on lockdown here in Mex for at least another 2 weeks and it's looking like July 1st is probably the real open date.

-Play 75% of my volume in untracked world. I think the end is near there so I'm going to try and squeeze out as much profit as I can before it comes crashing down.

-Find a more consistent grind time and games instead of just lobby hunting for hours on end. Higher quality of life etc. etc.

-STOP PLAYING FKN SPIN N GO's. I wasted so much time waiting for games by just firing 10c and 1$ spin n gos to kill the time. Getting tilted playing 10c games waiting to play 400NL is the height of stupidity and I will stop it. I want to spend any poker down time more productively moving forward.

-Read 3 books. The downside of so much time in front of the computer last month was that I got out of good routines. Pretty much I was either at the comp, or with the family. So time to get back to some mental health stuff.

-I've been debating putting most of my roll on ignition moving forward after reading so much about the games in other peoples PGC's. So get $ on there and start putting in some volume.

GL at the tables, stay safe out there.

Great results man and very impressive work ethic in all areas of life.

I'm curious if you're making this comment b/c you believe the games will get much tougher as the real world opens/live poker returns or if you think that the apps will start to close down due to dubious legality/security and agents will start running off with money?