Some background on me. I am married, have a 7 month old, and have been away from poker for the most part for 3 years. I am starting to get back into poker after finally getting my life in order.

I used to play online like most. I have played everything from 5NL to double or nothings to 200 PLO. I have always enjoyed all forms of the game and have been a winning online player in pretty much all the games I took time to study and dive into. I used the winnings that I had from those games to go back to law school, get a house, ect. After finally graduating and getting my personal life and professional life on course, I am getting back to playing poker.

I have played live in the past and have a decent handle on the live game. I know I could go back to grinding online, but I would rather enjoy my time playing the game instead of being stuck in front of a screen. I do enough of that at my job.

I won't be starting with a certain "bankroll", but instead taking 3 buy-in's and playing 1/3 a few times a week until I am comfortable moving up to 2/5 or the PLO games. Most likely, I will not move up to 2/5 until I have about 10k profit or 600 hours played. I have the blessings of my wife for this, as she understands the hours I would put in.

This thread will be dedicated to my progress in my journey, posting some interesting hands, and talking a little bit of strategy. Be warned if you follow this thread: I think about the game differently than most of you. I tend play by feel instead of ranges, I often think about maximizing profit on any given hand as opposed to ABC poker, I am not a nit or LAG (instead I constantly shift gears), and I play a lot of hands preflop as I believe postflop is where my edge lies.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will follow and participate in my new endevor.

Best of luck. $10k for live $2/5 PLO unless its a capped buy in seems very risky IMO considering most are $1k buy in games and well PLO variance can be brutal at times. I would suggest just grinding up a bit more then that before shot taking anything higher then $1/2 PLO if available that is.

The 2/5 wold be NL. the PLO games when the run are 1-2 with 5 dollar bring in. Which I would still be comfortable with 10k. The other is 5/5 which I wouldn;t play for a long time.

First session I played today: +172 in 2 hours.

Played pretty aggressive for the most part. Picked up a lot of uncontested pots, so I ended up really opening up my preflop play. Had only 2 interesting hands.

Hand 1: Hero has Js 8s in CO. 2 limpers, hero elected to lim after raising frequently recently. SB limps and BB checks. BB is only player of consequence for the rest of hand. He is 40 something and literally hasn't bet more than $25 regardless of pot size in the hour I've been playing and Is completely unaware of what I may limp here. I haven't play a hand past the flop with him

Flop: As Ks 3d

SB check, BB bets 12, 1 limper calls, hero calls, SB fold

Turn: 7c

SB bets $20, limper folds, hero raises to $55, BB snap folds.

I raised as he is the type who always wants to get to showdown cheap. I feel he wont call anything except what he perceives as the nuts. I would have done with same with pretty much anything that had little showdown value and I felt I wouldn't get paid if I hit.

Hand 2

SB is only villain that matters. Splashy player, who I cant tell is good an playing loose because I am, or if he is generally terrible. Literally calling 50% or more of my raises at this point. Nearly 2 hours of playing with him before the hand.

2 EP limpers. Hero raises to 18 with 74o. The EP limper likely on broadways after seeing their limping and raising habits and are in general really nitty.
SB calls and limpers fold.

Flop: 5d 6d qc

SB check, hero bets 25, SB calls

Turn: 5s

SB check, hero bets 45. I think he likely was not strong as he had raised flop with two pair on 2 other hands and TPTK previously. As I had been paying 5 actually could have hit me. He thought for about 15 seconds before checkign turn. He then snap called my 45. At this point I feel he most likely has diamonds. He ha previously snap called with draws over the course of playing with him. Literally no though went into the call.

River: 2c

He checks after about 5 seconds. I elect to give it one more try as missed diamonds is what I think he most likely had. I bet 85. He thinks for 15 seconds and calls. He wins with K9 offsuit. I guess he got fed up with me?
Really one of the weirdest calls. Even most of my bluffs there beat him.

Okay ya much more reasonable then, I wasn't sure if that was what you had mean't but either way good luck on the live grind.

Played another session today: +590 in 4 hours

Not too many interesting hands. Got called and my set held up against over pairs in a couple hands. I didn't have to show down many hands. Got a reply nice passive table where limp calling was the norm. I will post the only interesting hand I can think of.

Hero: 5c 2c in MP. Two limbers, I call expecting to go multiway. Limbers literally ATC. 2 more limps and blinds go to the flop.

Flop: As 3d 4s

Yes I flopped gin, but this is where the hand tally gets interesting. SB leads for 5, which he had done many times. Could be anything. EP limper both call. Limper 1 has about 175 behind and limper 2 ha about 300. Here's where noticing the little things helps. Limper 2 looked at me before calling, grabbed 30 in chips and then there in 5 for the call. Yes I flopped the nuts but how do I get the most out of this hand...

I elect to raise here to bigger amount to make it look like I'm just trying to steal it, which had been doing frequently. I raise to 40, which was large for these players. Other fold to limper 1. Who calls after thinking for a bit. Limper 2 immediately raises to 125 as I expected. With exactly what I was looking for, I go all-in. Limper 1 folds and Limper 2 snap calls. HE confidently tables A 4 off. Having a plan paid off and I was even farther ahead than I thought.

Could have been an even bigger win but Chopped an 800 dollar pot with AK vs. AQ and flush draw on an Ad 10d Ac 7c 10s run out. Got it all in on turn and AQ got the chop on the river.

Best of luck with your challenge! There seems to be an unusually high percentage of law students and lawyers that grind poker on the side.

That's a pretty insane hero call haha. I'm guessing you had a super loose image?

Yeah, I guess we like to think we're smarter than other people or something. Just kidding, but I really do enjoy the mental aspects of the game.

As far as my image, maybe my aggression just got to him. I never showed a bluff during that session. Was just getting folds very often. I won't even pretend to know why he made that call.

Booked a +590 session earlier today. Built my stack without ever getting all in in just over 4 hours of play. Made quite a bit of profit from one player who was playing very LAG and must have thought I was full of **** a lot. He had run his stack from 300 to 900 when I hadn't really played a hand for the first 45 minutes.

One interesting hand:

Hero 8d 9d in BB. 1 LP limp and villain raises to 13 in SB. Hero calls limper folds. Hero has seen villain doing this a lot vs the limper. Hero calls with 280 and has a pretty strong sense of how villain plays. He has check raised quite a few time big when holding premium hands on the flop. Has made some pretty Good value bets as well.


Flop: 8c 3s 10c. Villain chew Ks. Hero bets 15 and villain raises to 30. Hero calls. At this point the checkraise seemed like either the nuts or complete air.

Turn: 9h. Villain insta checks. At this point he seems genuinely weak. Still not sire what he has, but I elect to make a bigger bet to try to get him to overplay a bigger pair or 10. Actually didn't have a plan for if he x/r again, but I bet 70. Villain calls after thinking for maybe 45 seconds.

River: 7h. Villain thinks for about 15 seconds and brings out a stack of chips well over 150. Brings them back adds some more, then announces a bet of 95. At first I'm confused the 7 is obviously a scare card, but what hands should I really be scared of from him? After weighing the fact that he shouldn't have too many 6s or J's I call. His whole line didn't make sense unless it was J9. The fact that he brought out more chips and announced a smaller bet seemed like he wanted to bluff but didn't want to commit too much. That combined with the longer turn action made it seem like he had planned on bluffing scary rivers.

Villain showed AQ offsite and hero wins.

Played 3 sessions since my last update. I will post some of them later. I had a 2 winning sessions and 1 losing session. Lost 2 buy in in about 2 hours on Saturday...

Session 1: -600
Session 2: +256
Session 3: +547

Total since starting: +$1,555

I have a "history" some of the players in the room now. Hands will get more interesting now

Played a few sessions since the last update. I lost the exact amount of hours due to the fact that I had to wipe my phone. It was somewhere around 30 hours though. I actually played really well, but lost a few big pots when way ahead. Still up overall but could have posted some monster profit if not for the bad run of luck.

Total profit: $1,134

Examples of bad luck:

KK loses to 77 on K Q 7 flop when all in after the flop

33 loses to 4c 7c on 10c 3h 2c Kd board when all in on turn

66 loses to 5s 8s on 6h 6s 7s As board when all in on turn

Those were like 2500 worth of hands. Lost a few other more standard pots to runner runner flushes and straights, rivered boats, ect.

I will try to get back to posting some hands soon. During my bad run I stopped recording interesting hands and instead started writing sown the rough run of cards in non-interesting spots.

10k isnt really much for 2/5nl. anytime you run up a stack at the bigenning your goin to have a large % of your roll on the table. grind 1/3 til u hit 20k

Since I have other income and more money in the "bankroll" it's really more about getting comfortable in the games before I move up. I am currently rolled for 2/5 if I wanted to jump right in to it.

Played another session today but only got in 2 hours. Table was incredibly slow. Bunch of players were raising to 30 as a standard open and AK was the nuts to half the table if they had top pair. I meanwhile had to scrape by and bluff my way to winning as I was completely card dead. Left when I couldn't take the slowness anymore.

Session:+251
Total: +1385

Played 2 more sessions over the last 2 days. Ended up playing 9 hours and winning $931

Total since start: $2,321


The two sessions were pretty weird tables. The first was a pretty fun table with lots of big bets and preflop raises and calls.. The second was a super passive table with lots of preflop limping and 3 of us who were competent and trying to isolate the weak passive players. I had to switch gears drastically from one day to the next.


Two interesting hands from the first day when there was a lot of agg. One where I won and one where I thought I took a good line, but ended up getting called and couldn't hit.

Hand 1: Hero is in CO with Kd Js. There is an UTG straddle to $6. 2 limpers and I limp along as well, since I like the ability to play this hand somewhat cheap and in position. BB called. Straddle raises to 25. 1 limper calls, I call, and BB folds. Effective stacks are basically $375


Flop: Ad Jd 5d


Straddle bets $20. Limper folds. I take Straddles bet as either a verrry strong hand or something he wants to get to showdown cheap with. Literally, I'm thinking AA, JJ, maybe Qd 10d on the strong end. On the weak end I'm thinking 10 10 with a diamond, or maybe AQ, A10 with no diamond. Watching his body language while I thought, he really wasn't giving any useful clues. So I did something I don't do very often and raise looking for some information, with obviously a lot of outs. I raised to $90 (which I did previously with a flopped nut flush and villain saw). Now he thinks for a while and with some genuine hesitation makes the call.


Turn : 10c


Straddle checks. I wait about 10 seconds and go all in. This was my plan, to shove any non pairing card. He thinks for about 2 min. Does some complaining and eventually makes the call. HE turns over AQ with no diamond.


River: brick. Thought it was a pretty good spot for this play...even though I could have just called with the odds on the flop. I hate playing these spots passively, but maybe I should when chips are flying around the table.


Hand 2: Hero covers everyone except BB with about $450. Hero 6s 8s in MP. UTG +1 raises to $12. Actually seems like he wants to get 3-bet. 1 caller immediately to my right. While the table loose and splashy, there were not a lot of 3-bets going on. I call, button calls, BB calls. Yes, I'm playing a speculative hand here, but I know its going multi-way.

Flop: 8d 6d 2c


BB donks $41, UTG +1 calls, MP calls. Action to me... I literally have no clue what MP has. Button could have anything. BB donk to me seems like an overpair, UTG +1 call seems like he also likely has an overpair based on my observations preflop. I think UTG +1 would flat a good flush draw here with overs though, hoping he gets better flush. MP in front of me is the wild card in my opinion. I actually think 22 is likely going to flat trying to induce more calls behind, as is nut flush draw. I decide to raise after nearly a minute (which I didn't mean to take that long) but decide to raise to an amount that looks like I might actually fold if reraised. I really felt I was ahead of the donk and call. I raised to $141 and button folds. BB folds and says I have to have a set under his breath (douche) which gets UTG +1 to fold. MP snap shoves for like 150 more. I didn't really like it but I had to call at that point.


Turn: 2


River: 8


MP shows 2d 5d. Literally something I never thought he might have was pair and FD. Really hard to see him have anything like that, but I guess I underestimate people sometimes. I re-hit and won the pot, which was nice after some brutal beats in a couple prior sessions.

BB later said he folded jacks and UTG +1 said he folded KK so at least I had that right.