2019 has been like the opening scene in Rounders on a loop. The scene where Matt Damon gets destroyed by Teddy KGB with a boat? Where he loses his entire bankroll to some whale on an insane cooler? Yea, that's me. Except I don't have his boyish good looks and a Jewish professor to loan me 30k. In the Spring of this year, I started playing high stakes NL and PLO on a pppoker club. I started running like young Forrest Gump with leg braces. By the end, I was running like Lieutenant Dan. Enough with the movie references, you get it.

Long story short, I need to rebuild after torching the roll. How much did I lose? Let's just say I wish I bought a Tesla instead. I'm moving back down to where they won't respect my raises. 5NL.

This thread will keep me accountable as I grind against the elite micro regs going on insane 2 figure swings. To prepare for this journey, I have purchased a pack of Oreos and a gallon of bleach. Wish me luck.

Sick opener. Insta subscribed. Lfg 🚀

haha 2 figure swings gl

How much you planning on winning now?

Right now the focus is on studying and progressing through the stakes. Not going to set up a monetary target. I'm also going to mix in some live and MTTs to keep things interesting.

What site/format are you playing. I swim in the Stars micro 6max zoom cess pit and it has never been softer. Never tap the tank and suck up the suck outs.

Playing on Ignition 6max zoom. Plan is to play 10k hands of 5NL and evaluate.

At 2k hands, slow and steady.

30bb/100 so far huh. What’s your goal evbb/100?

In, (loved the opener as well). What are you studying to improve?

Going through PIO Unlocked, Sauce play & explains and running 1 sim a day.

5k hands update, running above EV but I got bamboozled by the 5NL wizards today.



Feel like I should be able to find the fold here, I just don't see him turning Jx (something like JTxc) into a bluff here.

No need to find fold, just a bad beat.

10k hands! Grinded 4k hands today to wrap it all up. Some observations:

1. Rake is brutal, almost equivalent to money won
2. The notion that micro players don't bluff or are calling stations turns out to be just a meme, I've caught plenty of bluffs (albeit they choose really bad combos), gotten lots of folds
3. I can get a ton of volume with 2 tables of zoom

Trying to decide whether or not to move to 25NLz or 50NLz, obviously there is a skill jump but effective rake will be lower... I'll decide tomorrow.



They got me with the value bluff here...

^That was either a 200 IQ or 20 IQ play.

Yes, there is a ton of bluffing, even at 5nl.

you had me at the title, subbed

gl grinding lunchmoney OP

Horrendous start in 50NLz, feels like the doomswitch is back on.



First hand I play... whatever it's a flip.



Just a cooler, I'll live.



Hmm... this is getting weird



Sweet, I binked river... or not



Two pair against capped (?) range



GG



Can't just post the bad beats though, I got lucky in one hand!

Second session went a little bit better and I played some interesting hands.



I actually like villain's hand selection for this line but I'm going to run this in PIO. Easy call down with our hand.



Villain should probably fold pre and I think he has enough SDV to not turn his hand into a bluff assuming I have QJs, QTs sometimes.



I misplayed this hand, I think jam turn might be the move assuming he's taking this line with some 9x such as 98dd, 9Tdd and maybe even some 7x like 78dd. OTR, my assumption was that he would jam Ax and two pair+ for value so I decided to bluff even though our hand does block a good amount of his bluffs. I'll run a solve on this hand too.

Um, why did you jump from 5nl to 50nl? How about a little 25nl?

My assumption was that the skill difference between 25NL and 50NL wouldn't be too high and the effective rake would be lower. Might be wrong about the first part though.

I play on ignition. There is more gto (not a lot, but more) at the 50nl level. 25nl still plays a bit like 5nl, though more bluffs with the Ax variety vs Kx variety on 5nl. All of this is Zone, of course.

My suggestion is to take shots at 25nl, keep studying, and when ready (solid win rate at 25nl) take shots at 50nl.

You'll be fine at 50nl. You seem competent so aggressive shots are good, especially since we're talking micros. Plus 50 FF on iggy is a joke.

Ran the sims from yesterday. Hand 2 is a punt by villain, pretty cut and dry. PIO likes to use some lower pocket pairs with a spade or backdoor hearts such as AThh as a bluff.

Hand 3 was somewhat interesting. Against his line, QKhh is a pure call OTT. OTR, PIO was mixing QKhh as a 50% bluff but had villain shoving A5hh+ and A2hh for value. The bluff frequency is likely lower if he's checking a lot of Aces here. QThh looks like a better bluff candidate unblocking the K high fd and blocking the nuts.

Played 1500 hands of 25NL today, it went alright. Play level is close to 5NL than 50NL for sure.



Couldn't find the Mike McDermott fold here haha.

Mikey would have folded on the flop, though that 2bb bet was weird.