Hey! This is my first post here. I have lurked every now and then in the past but never registered. Until now.

I haven’t had major poker successes so far, only some deep cashes in low stakes MTTs. I never knew what bankroll management was, so that resulted in me losing poker bankroll a couple of times. On 8th of September (five weeks ago) I decided to deposit 100 euros (112,81$) on my partypoker account and start playing 1,10$ SNGs. These are my stats: http://pokerprolabs.com/arsenal833/partypoker/2018/sng

I don’t use PokerTracker or any other software (I probably should...), but I am in "touch" with poker every day, I watch poker videos, read some articles, I downloaded some PDF books about tournaments and SNGs, and last but not least, I play every day for like 2-3 hours. My weekly goal is to play 60 SNGs, I am capable of playing much more though, so it is possible I will add in tons of volume in the near future.

My bankroll is 149,75$ at the moment and my next goal is to grind up to 220$, so I can start playing 2,20$ SNGs. I am also a big fan of MTTs, that’s why I might add in some micro stakes of these.

What is the purpose of this diary? To simply stay motivated and not to give up after possible heavy downswings and bad beats. What I noticed is that I don’t have a problem with bad beats where two outer destroys me. It’s poker. Things like that happen, there is nothing you can do.

I am going to update this diary of mine at least once a week. I will most likely also post some hands of mine where I will share my thoughts and hopefully get some advice from you guys.

Good luck at the tables!

Will be following GL!

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Thanks!

A little bit of update: I played 18 SNGs in the last two days, what I added was three-tabling (I was always two-tabling before that). I can play more hands, more SNGs in a shorter period of time. On top of that, I am surely never bored.

Trying to figure out how to post some interesting hands. I might leave some tables opened after I am finished with them and just copy paste some of the hands here.

Bankroll stands at 157,06$.

Planning on grinding later today.

Played 30-35 SNGs in the last two days, I am three-tabling without any problems, so far, so good.

And bankroll is up to 171,81$, which is nice too. It seems like I picked all the right spots. Sometimes it is a bit hard when (in the middle-late stages) a big stack shoves and I have to fold pocket 8s (or any other middle pocket pair) simply because of ICM pressure, but that is just the way it goes every now and then Middle stackers are often under the most pressure obviously.

Playing later today, at least 10 SNGs is my plan.

What goals should I actually have? What are "good" or "bad" goals? Monetary goal seems like a bad idea, I would assume? My main goal for now is just grinding every day, studying poker, watching videos, reading articles, and we will see what will happen afterwards.

Also, what is a good sample size? 1000? 5000? So far I only have 370 SNGs under my belt, which is not a lot obviously.

Till next time, good luck!

My last session for this week (I started challenge on Saturday six weeks ago, that’s why Friday is the end of my poker week) ended 30 minutes ago. Felt good, played okayish although there were some tough push-fold decisions and I am not sure I played them completely correctly and how I should play according to ICM. Had more coolers than in the previous sessions, also some 4:1 losses preflop all-in, most of the 2:1 situations were not in my favour, but it happens, it will all even out long-term.

So I finished this week with 77 SNGs, bankroll is at 174,22$, hopefully I will move to slightly higher stakes soon (220$ bankroll). I started with 112,81$ six weeks ago, and now we are here. Let’s hope profit will continue. But even if not, the most important thing is that I play good and that I make most of the decisions with positive EV.

Tomorrow another grinding, hopefully in the evening if possible (Saturdays are always kind of busy...)

Looking good! A sample of 1k gives an idea of what your ROI could be, but it can easily be off by at least 5%. Look up variance calcs to get some visuals of how bar it can be.

I fell in the trap of expecting things to run smoothly, which killed my motivation for a while when the first downswing happened.

So look out for setting goals based on $$$, and just keep putting in volume with good +EV decisions.

Keep up the good work!

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Thanks a lot!

Indeed, downswings can sometimes be quite brutal.

Playing later today, I managed to squeeze in a nice session of 2,5 hours yesterday (12 SNGs), again found some good spots and generally played okay.

GL everyone!

I'm back! After three months. Even though I was not posting, I have played constantly almost every day (except for a period of 20 days when I was sick, so I felt like playing poker wouldn't end up well). 4-5 tabling, I tried 6 tabling few days ago but it's quite harder to be honest. Also, I ramped up my volume, trying to squeeze in 3-4 hours a day, 30 tournaments a day. Works well so far.

Stats after around 2.5k tournaments? My bankroll is at 302,66$ which is nice; I started at 112$ and something. I'm still playing 1,10$ tournaments though. One more week, then I'm probably going to switch to 2,20$. There shouldn't be much of a difference when it comes to quality, but I'm still a bit nervous. Probably too much conservative when it comes to bankroll management? Better conservative than reckless, I guess.

KO series are coming soon on partypoker, I'm going to play some of these probably. Too bad exams are coming soon, so I'll have to study too

Oh, and I'm seriously considering switching to MTTs soon. We will see though.

Good luck at the tables!

GLGL! Will be checking back!

you're right, 2,2$ are the same as 1,1$, so start mixing them in your grind as soon as possible (your roll is more than big enough for them) so you can build your br faster and move up to 5,5

and get pokertracker or some other hud, it will work wonders you'll see...

gl

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Yes, giegling, I am seriously considering purchasing HUD too, should work wonders as you said. And tomorrow is the day I'm starting with 2,2$.

This week went quite well too, my bankroll is now at 333,87$.

I decided to play two MTT 2,2$ tournaments today; in one of them I got quite deep, ended up 50th out of 1,4k players. Felt good, there were a lot of sick spots, I obviously got lucky with some of them (it was a bounty tournament, I busted out like 6 or 7 players, so my "head" was quite pricy haha), but as it is with poker, you get lucky one hand, you get unlucky the other hand, it all evens out. So yeah, the most crucial hand was probably 3-way preflop all-in pot with my AA against KK and some weak Q (he was trying to bust both of us out), and on the river K. I would have had like 2M chips I think, but instead stayed at like 10 BB (I won side pot against Q guy and KK guy survived) Nonetheless, fun MTT tournament, planning on playing some of them next week too.

GL!

So, my first week on 2,2$ limits is almost over. And it was interesting to say the least, tons of up and downs, my bankroll is just a tad over 300$. Sadly, my ROI is not looking great at 2,2$ (only around 150 tournaments though) but I still think I have an edge over the opposition.

Today's session was brutal... It felt like I can't win a single 70-30 situation, I kept losing with hands which were dominating. I feel like it all started back on Thursday.

On that day I played a 2,2$ MTT tournament (KO series), it was looking great and everything, deep in the money, down to 9 players out of 1400, one more player to be eliminated before the final table. Then this hand happened... I had AKoff on the SB, player with 25BB raised from the button, I jammed with 17BB or so, he called. He showed AQoff, seems like a great situation to be in. Flop brick, turn ace and river..... Queen! Brutal way to go out not gonna lie. I would have been a massive chipleader with 13M chips or so. Still, cashed for 40$ or so. Although I still think about that hand a lot. First place was like 350$ or so, would have been my biggest prize ever. It is what it is though, it happens.

And today? Another 2,2$ tournament, looking great, down to 300 players or so, still far away from the money (152), I had like 400k chips, in 20th position or so overall. Then this happened: UTG (I covered him by like 10 big blinds) raises, everyone folds to me on the SB, I had aces. I 3bet, he 4bets..... And I jammed on him of course, I am going to be massively ahead no matter what unless he has aces too. He called, had AK... Flop K, turn K, river brick. I would have been a chipleader of the whole tournament for sure. I lost this hand, went on to grind with 10 big blinds, and my last hand was AQs vs. villain's KK. I got a bit lucky though in 80-20 situation where my 10s cracked aces too. If I'm a bit evil, he deserved it haha; when I jammed on him preflop, he was slowrolling, waiting all the way till the end until he finally called and showed aces. River was 10 luckily.

So yeah, interesting week... Grinding tomorrow again, hopefully it will be a better session than today was.

GL!

you better get used to that kind of days when grinding sngs
as long as you make the right decisions and put up a volume those 70-30 losses wont matter much

Hey! I'm back after 5 weeks or so. Played a lot in the last month, put in a lot of volume (currently having no girlfriend and a lot of free time certainly helps ), and my bankroll is at the moment 524,01$. Pretty good I would say. But as long as I play good and make EV+ moves, bankroll actually doesn't really matter, it's just a tool to "operate" withing certain stakes. This bankroll also means I'm close to 5,5$ SNGs. But step by step, even if I reach 550$ soon, I'm not going to jump straight into those I think.

What I changed was simply not looking at my bankroll after every session. The only time I look at my bankroll is on Sunday, so once a week.

Well, I really like playing poker, I enjoy it a lot (that's the most important thing), watching content on Twitch, watching some videos, trying to constantly get better. Although when it comes to lower stakes, I think that putting in a lot of volume is the most crucial factor.

I feel like I'm mentally quite strong, bad beats don't put me off, in fact, they don't matter at all in the long run. That's the hardest part to accept for most aspiring poker players I think. As long as you make EV+ plays, your poker "career" will be profitable. You get lucky sometimes, you get unlucky in some other spots but that simply doesn't matter.

Back on the grind tomorrow, next post in my "diary" hopefully next month.

GL!

My next post is here, earlier than promised.

Another week went by (probably not playing tomorrow), played quite a lot again, my bankroll is 577,85$ at the moment. Already big enough to start grinding 5,5$ SNGs but I'm going to grind 2,2$ SNGs probably for a few more weeks before moving up the stakes.

Felt pretty good, not sure how up-to-date it is, but I'm frequently using ICM trainer too, helps me quite a lot with certain push-fold situations.

GL!

Another month passed by, felt okay, I won some, I lost some (that's poker) and my bankroll is just a tad over 600 dollars. Started at 110+ dollars, now I'm here, I'm happy that I proved that I can be a profitable player at micro stakes (around 3k SNGs).

Perhaps the most interesting thing poker-wise that happened to me last week was the dream that I had last night... I was explaining the difference between No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Holdem to my parents I guess my mind is occupied with poker quite a lot.

Anyway, I decided to do something even more "radical" in April. For the whole month I'm not going to look at my bankroll at all. Just to see if I'm strong enough to resist the urge

If my bankroll will be above 800 dollars at the end of the month, I'm gonna jump to 5,5$ SNGs. If not, I will continue grinding 2,2$.

GL!