Hi Guys,

INTRO
I'm a UK based full-time Structural Engineer who enjoys casually playing poker when I'm free but this time I want to take things a bit more seriously.
I've tried poker challenges before and failed many of them. Although some of it is probably due to being a weak player I think most of it has been due to my weak mental state which usually resulted in me busting my bankroll due to ill-discipline and failing to adhere to my roll management.

However, I hope this time things will be different. I like doing a thread because it motivates me more than anything. So here we go:

BANKROLL MANAGEMENT:

STARTING WITH BR = $150 AT 5NL ZOOM
MOVE DOWN TO 2NL IF BR DROPS TO $80
TAKE SHOTS AT NL10 IF BR = $5X40 + $10X4 = $240
MOVE DOWN TO NL5 IF BR DROPS TO $200
TAKE SHOTS AT NL16 IF BR = $10X40 + £16X4 = $464
MOVE DOWN TO NL10 IF BR DROPS TO $400
TAKE SHOTS AT NL25 IF BR = $16X40 +$25X4 = $740
MOVE DOWN TO NL16 IF BR DROPS TO $640
TAKE SHOTS AT NL50 IF BR = $25X40 + $50X4 = $1200
MOVE DOWN TO NL25 IF BR DROPS TO $1000
TAKE SHOTS AT NL100 IF BR = $50X40 + $100X4 = $2400
MOVE DOWN TO NL50 IF BR DROPS TO $2000
TAKE SHOTS AT NL200 IF BR = $100X40 + $200X4 = $4800
KEEP GROWING ROLL AT NL200 OTHERWISE
MOVE DOWN TO NL100 IF BR DROPS TO $4000

PLAN
I know this looks too ambitious but I plan to take as much time as necessary to reach this goal and why not? The worst that can happen is bust my bankroll at NL2 after which I have to seriously consider my next poker options.

I will try to post a summary of my day everytime I play. I work full-time so I will not be able to play everytime and some days I wont even be able to play. Midweeks I will try to but in at least a 3hr session daily with weekends maybe a total of 5hrs per day.

I will mainly post bankroll amount profit/loss and maybe a special hand. This thread is not about discussing specific technical progress or studying, it's mainly to expose my progress to keep myself motivated.

I HOPE YOU GUYS WILL ENJOY IT, THANK YOU!!

PS: HOW I GET MY $150 BANKROLL

So basically I deposited $13 twice attempting to build it to $60 at NL25 so that I can have a starting ROLL for NL2. I lost it then third time I deposited $25 and bought in at NL50 to build it to $60 for my NL2 bankroll.
After a few hands, it went up to $35 and I doubled up to $74 AND THIS HAND HAPPENED!!




AND THAT WAS HOW THE BANKROLL WAS AGGRESSIVELY BUILT

Gl, and stick to your brm plan

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G925F met Tapatalk

SESSION 01 - 1036 HANDS PLAYED

START OF DAY BANKROLL $153.49
END OF DAY BANKROLL $133.49
DAY 01 PROFIT/LOSS -$20.00
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$20.00

Guys the challenge did not start well, I've dropped exactly 4BI in 1000 hands played. Here are the defining hands.

HAND ONE: CHASING THE STRAIGHT AND CATCHING IT BADLY



HAND TWO: WHEN TOP PAIR IS NOT GOOD



HAND THREE: SET OVER SET




HAND FOUR: WRONG CALL WITH FLUSH DRAW, I HAD JUST BEEN TILTED WITH A COOLER BEFORE THIS HAND



So yes, a bit depressing on first session losing 4BI. I'm worried that my skill level is not great but I will keep leaning. Mostly I also need to stop chasing draws that has cost me a bit in this session. There was some positives to take like when I chipped up from $5 to $18 without major double ups but by grinding it up then losing it badly through mainly the 4 hands above.

thank you, I will stick to this bank roll plan for sure although it has started badly losing 4 buy ins already in first session.

SESSION 02 - 529 HANDS PLAYED

DAY ONE STARTING BANKROLL $153.49
START OF SESSION BANKROLL $133.49
END OF SESSION BANKROLL $144.39
SESSION 02 PROFIT/LOSS +$10.90
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$9.10

So I managed to put together an additional 529 hands at NL5 zoom and I'm glad to report our first profit session. I ran very well and I played pretty solid by my own standards. We are still $9.10 in the red but I feel encouraged that I had a session where I won some money, this gives me hope that I'm not completely useless

No special hands to report at this point but I'm off to the tables to put in maybe another 500 to 1000 hands. Wish me luck!!

SESSION 03 - 1999 HANDS PLAYED

DAY ONE STARTING BANKROLL $153.49
START OF SESSION BANKROLL $144.39
END OF SESSION BANKROLL $114.34
SESSION 03 PROFIT/LOSS -$30.05
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$39.15

ALL DOWNHILL, A SAD SESSION
Disaster in this session, I'm too shocked to even try to explain what happened. I will cool off and then study the hands carefully to check my flaws tomorrow. I will consider coaching as well.

Hey mate! I made a similar challenge going from $150 to $1500 in 60 days.

Best of luck to you. I'm in for the thread.

Hi mypokerphd, good luck in your journey. I'll follow along and try and help out. Here are my thoughts on the hands you posted..

1) I don't know if I'd be calling 3bets UTG with hands like 97s. But with that small squeeze sizing, calling's probably ok. At these stakes though, I think it's ok to fold most hands to a 3bet. I think people are under 3-betting, so we can exploit that by folding more. It'll get yourself into less trouble against those stronger ranges too.

As played, I would bet the flop. You have a hand which has a good chance to improve to the nuts, which I think is the best kind of hand to bluff with. The river, I'm unsure about. Don't know if you should be raising with a straight on a paired board in a 3-player pot.

2) Once again, save yourself some trouble and fold to the 3bet preflop. May be nitty, but will save you from getting in trouble postflop. Once you progress more as a player, you can look to defend more vs 3bets. This is just from my personal experience. I noticed I was losing more when calling 3bets than I would have if I just folded every time. I'm not saying it's the best play, but judging by the fact your first two hands are lost in called-3bet pots, it might be a good adjustment for now. Play profitable spots, and then look to turn unprofitable situations into more profitable ones. Just my advice, but not telling you to do that lol. Whether you do or not depends on whether you agree with me.

3) I think raising the flop is better. As played, I think all you can do is call on the turn. But the river, why aren't you shoving instead of leaving that small amount behind?

4) I think flatting the flop bet is better than raising in this case, since you have a weaker draw. I'd rather keep the pot smaller, since even if you hit, you might have the second best hand.

But once again, fold to the 3bet preflop and avoid all the trouble (for now)!

Thanks Scharfkoko, much appreciated. I will keep on with this challenge regardless of all these hurdles. How did your challenge go, are you posting here, I will check it out

Many thanks PokerPhilosopher such comments are very helpful and looking at those hands with your perspective I can clearly see the benefits of your thought-process. I will definitely narrow my 3-bet calling, I lose most of my money that way.
But also my calling range also seem to be terrible generally so today i will try to be very strict with my calling. I will stop calling with hands like QJo especially calling early position raises.
On another general note, i think my opening ranges are not correct. I will try to study that area a bit more.
I will fight on until I complete this challenge, even after my big loss yesterday I remain resolved to continue!
Thanks

Yeah, if you're calling opens with hands like QJo, I think you're calling way too wide. If you're unsure about any of your ranges, feel free to PM me any of them and I'll give you my feedback/suggestions, for whatever it's worth.

Thank you I will be doing that soon!

SESSION 04 - 1036 HANDS PLAYED

DAY ONE STARTING BANKROLL $153.49
START OF SESSION BANKROLL $114.34
END OF SESSION BANKROLL $97.61
SESSION 03 PROFIT/LOSS -$16.73
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$55.88

HEADING TO NL2
It is quiet clear to me that I can't beat NL5 at the moment, it's not about a downswing. My game needs to improve massively for me to even be a break-even player at this level. So I played this session and dropped more buy-ins. I have 3.5 more buy-ins to drop before I take a step down and play at NL2. It's probably what I need, I already realised that I need more study than playing but since the challenge needed to keep going, I had to play as originally planned. Will keep you posted.

SESSION 05 - 718 HANDS PLAYED

DAY ONE STARTING BANKROLL $153.49
START OF SESSION BANKROLL $97.61
END OF SESSION BANKROLL $102.79
SESSION 05 PROFIT/LOSS +$5.18
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$50.70

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES....
I've been trying hard to pluck out my main leak which is too much calling and in this session it seemed to pay off. This is encouraging but overall I think I'm still not yet comfortable at NL5 so I think it's likely that I will probably drop more buy ins and drop to NL2. Its a long learning process but I can't complain. There is definitely a lot to be learnt.

Do not call preflop. Fold or 3bet. Mainly folding. And 3bet light in position. Position. Position. Position!!!

QJos is garbage. So is KQos and to a lesser extent AQos. Fold for a single raise all day, everytime. You can 3bet QJs in position against opponents wide opens.

Never call with QJos it is lighting money on fire. Might as well skip playing poker and just get a garbage fire going and throw your money in it if you are going to call with QJos.

Yeah, in spots where your opponents aren't bluffing enough, you don't need to call as much. At the lower limits, I'm guessing there are plenty of spots where people aren't bluffing enough, especially on the river. So continuing to not call as much in those spots is a good adjustment. But be aware if you find spots where people are bluffing too much (by analyzing your database). I'd be willing to bet that flop cbetting would be one of those. In such cases, make sure you don't fold too much.

Thanks man it's very very useful advice from you, I appreciate. I've just had my biggest profit this evening i will post the bank roll update soon

Sure, I'm having to learn the hard way. I will post shortly my biggest result so far. I've tried to play solid although i got very lucky too

SESSION 06 - 876 HANDS PLAYED

DAY ONE STARTING BANKROLL $153.49
START OF SESSION BANKROLL $102.79
END OF SESSION BANKROLL $123.26
SESSION 06 PROFIT/LOSS +$20.47
OVERALL PROFIT/LOSS -$30.23

BIGGEST WINNING SESSION
This session was the first time I made a profit of 4 buy ins, I'm really happy. I tried to cut out too much calling and I also narrowed my 3Bet calling range. I however also got lucky in several spots. The interesting hands were:

PASSIVE BLIND ON BLIND WITH BOTTOM SET
I decided to limp my small blind with deuces but things quickly got tricky

SHOULD I BE 4-BETTING HERE AND SHOULD I BE CALLING HIS SHOVE

In this spot I thought villian was just trying to squeeze me out after I raised a limper. I actually put him on a bluff thats why I 4bet. But when he goes all in I was stubborn and thought in worst case I'm up against AK so I thought the price was ok for a race.



Anyway the good thing is that the session was a big winning session despite this big loss

Good to see you climbing back up there. I don't think 4betting was the mistake here. But I do think calling the 5bet was, being 163bb deep. But even then, you might be able to call QQ some percentage of the time. 100bb deep, I think calling is standard.

Good luck with your challenge!

The last hand you should open to 20c after a limper. 15c would be a fine raise sizing if there were 0 limpers but you need to raise bigger preflop when you're trying to isolate one or more limpers.

As played it's okay to flat and okay to be 4betting this, but with a caller in the middle, we probably want to 4bet larger like $1.60ish. And we want to fold to a 5bet because a 5bet is almost exclusively KK+, with only the occassional AK.