Hey guys

After a number of years of not playing, I've found my way back to the tables after maturing a fair bit and deciding that I not only wanted to be a good programmer/engineer but also a good poker player.

Motivation for me is simple, I've always enjoyed playing poker and I now work in a traditionally high income occupation which will eventually give me the ability to play WSOP events (I also travel to Vegas once a year for about 2 weeks for conferences/holiday) and visit Vegas/USA more than once a year. So I'd like to develop my game so that when I'm able to play, I don't get crushed and preferably, I do the crushing.

I was previously an employed software engineer, but after some soul-crushing jobs and COVID 1 outing the world, I took a look around and realised I'd been in a pretty bad place for the better part of 18 months and decided I was going back to University. I realised I needed the the piece of paper that will open doors/give me credentials to back up my skillset and will give me a fighting chance of getting myself into a role that would give me happiness, a feeling of challenge and to get back to feeling like I'm putting my brain to good use (as opposed to shipping deliverables for lifeless borg corporates under the guise of consulting). To put food on the table, I'm doing some contracting of my own, working doing odd jobs and figured I could probably put my poker experience to use and grind out some extra cash whilst improving as a player and having a hobby I enjoy.

What to expect from this thread:

• Semi Aggressive Bankroll Management
• Cash Games (Minimum 10NL, currently 25-50NL)
• Occasional Live Sessions (when allowed back to the tables)
• Daily Updates
• Regular Life Stuff

What not to expect from this thread:

• Crazy Volume
• Bad Beat Stories
• Nosebleed Stakes

The objective of this thread is to have somewhere to post daily updates, post some hands to get feedback and detail my progression. I'm playing on a site that makes it pretty difficult to post hand histories but I will try my best.

Shuffle up and deal.

First post:

So I've actually been playing a few weeks again now, no real volume, probably somewhere between 5-7k hands. Started off at 5nl, before jumping to 10nl, then taking pot shots at 25nl. Recently been taking pot shots at 50nl as well, usually 1 tabling it whilst mixing in 25nl.

Actually played a session of 100nl last night 1 tabling and played well enough, changed my game a bit and just tried to concentrate on the table and what was happening, the best learning I took from it was the 3betting and 4betting that is more prevalent at 100nl, which I took back to 25nl and 50nl and have been using more. Also generally playing less hands.

Today's session was 1hr, how most of these will go.

Hands Played: 196
Start of Session Bankroll: $756.62
End of Session Bankroll: $832.49
Tables: 4
3 @ 25nl, 1 @ 50nl

I mentioned that my BRM is fairly aggressive, I'm not phased moving up and down, the basic idea is to take pot shots at the higher level when I have 10BI for it, but only move up when I have 20BI.

Today's session I focused on just playing pots in position and not playing as many marginal hands, also 3bet a lot more than usual and found myself taking down more pots.

I'll start recording hand numbers and try and post those as I go.

What are you studying, if you don't mind me asking? Good luck with the grind!

No problem at all mate! Computer Science, basically I've been a programmer/engineer for 3-4 years and I looked around at job opportunities without and then with the degree and realised to be taken seriously I needed the degree and the knowledge that comes with it.

And cheers!

Poker's a nice side income between gigs. Used to do software engineering myself - it's one of the few occupations you can make decent coin without a degree. Also gone back to study as well to take things up a notch career wise though moved into mathematics. Noticed the similar'ish work which is what caught my interest in your OP. Just noticed you're in Oz, not locked down in Melbourne are you?

Just played another 200~ hand session and got destroyed, had a few bad beats in there, QQ 4bet pre vs TT and a T in the window. Another where I opened pre 3x and was flat in the blinds, turned A-10 straight with JQ in my hand, then river pairs the T and I bet, he raises all in, I call and he shows AA for the slowplayed set and FH. And then some generally bad tilt play, last hand of the session I overplayed 22 pre flop and ran them into KK, that one was a stupid play where I was feeling vengeful, which is totally stupid.

Tried to post pics but imgur throwing errors so nothing for this one.

Overall, played like garbage and knew I was playing badly, I'd pinpoint it as the fact that I was playing 4 tables, 2 full and then 2 HU and overall wasn't paying nearly enough attention to any of them. I started down straight away and thought I should pull back and didn't, and paid for it.

Also, previously I quoted my BR in AUD but it's better in USD as that's what I play in. But the conversion in the site isn't great, so be aware that I'm quoting AUD numbers but playing in USD, so BR isn't as big for limits as it seems.

Hands: ~200
Start of Session BR: $832
End of Session BR: $654

Terrible.

Also I tallied my hands and I've played 7k in the last 3 weeks.

I'll be backing away from the 50nl and just playing 25nl for a bit.

For sure if you can make it work, I probably wouldn't be looking to put in crazy hours, but if I could make some side change/pocket money I'd be happy I think. Yeah nice, what part of the stack were you working on?

Mathematics is a big choice, you doing it for academia or further career prospects? If I was taking a punt and you were an SE and now are doing maths I'd guess you're moving into Algorithmic trading or financial modelling, probably a contrived view though haha.

And cheers man, always good to talk with technical people, especially programmers.

Yeah locked down hard at the moment, we moved back from Sydney a few months ago and as soon as we got in, they raised the lockdown again. Sydney's chilled out hasn't it?

Data science is where I'm at - stats, machine learning, all the fun things. Through pure chance (also making sure I was in the right place at the right time) managed to score a data science gig without a degree, so now time to plug the gap. Initially worked with php but thankfully more with system integration type work rather than straight web dev. Would like to end up in the algo trading business in the not too distant future, money is very sweet there.

What do you work with?

Data Science is a sweet place to be, tonnes of good quality, well paid places looking for Data people, it's funny that you're doing your degree for pretty much the same reason as me, makes me feel that maybe I'm not insane for doing what I'm doing. Friends thought I was crazy walking away from well paid work to go back to Uni. System Integration sounds alright, way better than Web Dev, that kinda stuff is why I think the degree is important, less likely to end up in a meme career wondering why you can't get out and go to better places.

I was primarily a DevOps/Site Reliability Engineer. Worked with the Operations side of thing to script and automate stuff so that you can recover from outages, build better managed infrastructure. I did enjoy it in the past, my first job was at an early stage startup, built all of their stack, then the money didn't increase and I was tired of being paid peanuts, so went for more money and that's when all the head aches started.

I wouldn't mind staying in the Operations space but I'd prefer to be on kernel level systems engineering stuff than the high level cloud migration/implementation stuff. Once you've built one stack declaritively you've literally built them all. I got tired of working in a space where it was just "regurgitate vendor BS" and cargo culting as opposed to some sort of measured engineering/scientific approach.

Hello.

Small hand session again today, which will be the default monday-thursday at least due to Uni commitments but over the weekend will probably put in more volume.

Hands played: 268
Start BR: $636
End BR: $667.45
Result: +$31.45

Overall felt like I played well, I had a very brief session earlier 1 tabling where I picked up a BI at 25nl.

I've moved down to 3 tables of 10NL with 1 table of 25NL until I build up my roll a bit more. Also been working on getting a windows VM up and running so I can run HM3 with the Ignition Hand Converter so I can get some charts/data out of my play to study.

Notes from during my session:
Feel as though I'm paying more attention to opportunities to check raise bluff pots to steal when board texture allows it.
3betting a lot more since that small foray into 100NL, 3betting more of my small pockets where I'd traditionally just call to set mine and lost the money, getting folds a higher % of the time which is honestly the best result with most pockets.
Playing less passively in general. Larger bet sizing on drawish boards and charging them more. (I've been reading Sklansky No Limit Holdem and read some interesting stuff on this yesterday, specifically around not justifying their optimistic calls.
been often asking myself whether to cbet or trap with hands recently? end up betting and they fold unsure if better to give them opportunities to catch a piece to milk value but generally dislike the dea due to not wanting to give players ability to come from behind, just irrational fear? should probably do some work with flopzilla to work out when and if i should check, how often do they catch up when villain given specific ranges

Some good and bad hands today, throwing in a bit of a mix. Apologies for the ghetto screencaps, Ignition really make it hard to export hands and all that.


1: Maybe could have gotten away here, overall I don't think so though, I don't have an issue with my play on this hand and although it's wrong to be results oriented, given what he showed up with, I'm pretty happy with how I played it.


2: Raised the flop here because I was happy getting it in against draws OTF but when the T comes I give it up. I didn't like the call OTF because I think that the lead here looks suss and I think it's an ultra common bet on flushed boards. You flop a flush 0.8% of the time, and it's donked way more than that, so I put the raise in.


3: Do I 5b here pre?


4: Not super interesting but would like comments on my overall line with this one, afterwards I was torn between being too passive and going with the right play.


5: This one I wrote down as interesting but now I'm looking at it, it looks like early stage dementia.

Hey mate, glad to see you back to poker as well!

All the best! keep in touch mate.

Quick post tonight.

Total hands played: 1274
Start BR: $600-650 (I don't have an accurate due to playing small session last night which was a loser, and Ignition being a pain to identify, should write down the number before I start)
End BR: $870.58
Result for the day: +$200-250

Most hands today played at 25nl, I don't know what it is about 10NL but I never seem to have much luck, I don't know if it's a psychological thing, maybe I can't get motivated about the numbers, or if I'm just getting pwned and I'm on a heater at 25NL but I've found that 25NL seems softer.

I'll be honest, start of the day I played like hot trash, wasn't really thinking much at all. Middle of the day played again for a bit, mixture of good and bad, probably muscled a lot of pots with aggression which as we all know is swingy, then got into the zone and started doing well, then started running my overplayed hands into a few sets.

The thing that turned it around for me was reading a thread on here actually, someone else's PGC, where the person had been getting flamed for not listening to advice and complaining about their bad beats instead of accepting responsibility for their own bad play.

I went online and looked for a decent hand range chart for 9 max, put it in a new window and then followed along. The results spoke for themselves, I felt composed and in control, able to let go of trash, identify fish and then just get in position in hands against them and go to value town, let my red line slide and just focused on making money when I had the best of it. It felt like real poker pretty much.

No HH's as tbh it's a bit of a pain to do them, and it's late. I've looked at getting HEM3 set up with the Ignition hand converter, so will look at that over the next few days.

Also plan to post some goals in here over the week, both poker and non-poker related. And I'm thinking of doing a 1 week on, 1 week off rotation, play and then study. So that instead of just being some rec fish that "grinds" I actually improve, consolidate then come back and apply. Let me know if you think this sounds like an alright move.

Peace.

Good evening.

Total hands played: 613
Start BR: $870.58 AUD
End BR: $1027.87
Result for the day: +$157.29

Have some Uni study to do so not gonna type for long but overall had another pretty steady day and happily continued playing the same way I was last night, had a few weird hands here and there but for the most part played when I had it, didn't when I didn't, one thing I've been cognizant of is not trying to GII/flip (pre-flop) recently, I don't see the edge and I think for the most part you don't have too against the villains on Ignition. One thing I focused on today other than my ranges was pot control and not letting pots get too crazy when I didn't have big hands, something that I believe I've not done in the past and has been a massive leak of mine, even folding top pair when some rando villain is getting too aggressive and the line only makes sense if I take the realistic/pessimistic view that I'm absolutely crushed.

Had one hand that annoyed me quite a bit with how I played it and if it was the right choice:

We had a maniac on the table, shipping ATC for his stack, which was up and down, anywhere from 70bb to 150bb, but he was shipping every hand for about 10 minutes. Struggled to get a hand against him. Anyway, someone got it in 3 handed with him with KK, KK won, shipped a 400bb pot. Next hand I get KK in the BB, big stack limps in EP, maniac has chipped in but due to ignitions terrible rechip feature you miss the hand. So I'm mad that he's not in the hand because I 100% would have gotten it in with him. Folds round to me and I think about it and decide to open shove into the big stack. My reasoning was that seeing as maniac had been doing it, maybe I'd piggyback the insanity and get a lax call. It didn't work, and I was then annoyed that I messed up a chance with KK. Didn't tilt after or anything, just questioned whether it was a good move after all.

Definitely wondering if my BR rise is just a heater, but for the most part I've been getting it in good when I've played, I can't think of many pots won where I got it in behind (that's not me saying I'm good or that I'm playing perfect, just a general comment on how I perceive I'm playing and running).

Other than that, now at just shy of 30BI for 25NL, and looking to jump to taking shots (1 tabling 50 and 3 tabling 25) at 50NL when my BR is at 20BI for 50NL, will move up to 4 tables of 50NL at 40BI. Then the idea is shots at 100NL at 30BI, move up at 50BI.

The larger requirements for each level is just a buffer, I'm not interested in reloading if my BR busts, given the Uni situation at the moment I'm not in a position to reload and honestly I think at this point if I can't make it work I'm done with the game.

Regarding the idea to do 1 week study, 1 week play. I have a deposit bonus active until the 13th so I'll play through that (about 30% left, will easily clear it IMO) then next week have a study week. Also started listening to Essential Poker Math by Alton Hardin today, chuck it on when I'm doing housework and what not.

Enjoy your weekends. Peace.

Short post for today.

Total hands played: 787 - 239 Zone 6 Max/543 Normal FR
Start BR: $1027.87
End BR: $1118.85
Result for the day: +$90.98

Overall played well, middle of the day played a session where I played worse after getting AK cracked a few times, not getting calls on my premiums, terrible river calls when I'm obviously crushed but unable to fold, ended up going down about 2BI on that session before recovering it with some return to sanity type play.

Over the next week I have some Uni stuff to deal with so won't be playing during the week, will grind again over the weekend when I have some time free, I think the games overall are looser over the weekend anyway so that suits me.

Now sitting on 32 BI for 25NL and 16BI for 50nl. So I'm excited to get those last few BI so I can start taking shots at 50NL, feel like I'm improving but I've been feeling some anxiety around spending too much time thinking poker and not computers and my coursework, hence taking this week to just study and nail some stuff I was probably a bit lax on. I'll try and update about that and also general reading of books at bedtime and audio books, just not much grinding.

Peace.

Tiny update:

I've been looking into getting a separate PC so I can run HEM and the native client software for the sites I play on, basically so I can keep a decent HH database and can start analysing my own leaks and have the ability to drill into positions and whatnot.

Anyway, I'd thought and looked at buying a new PC, but the cost I probably would have just taken from my BR which wouldn't have been great, but luckily I realised I have a spare host lying around so I'm going to format it over the course of this week, buy HEM3 and then get a totally segregated poker host running for my sessions over this weekend. Pretty excited to get some proper analysis tools running, will also enable me to play more tables. I think recently given the situation with tightening ranges I can probably move upto 6 tables pretty easily then 8 in due time. I'm probably not too interested in going past 8 for the time being. Unsure if the network I play on could even support it, I guess we will find out.

TLDR: Real HH's and giraffes coming soon.

Short one:

Didn't play at all during the day which was pretty much what I was going for, gf had a phone call to take so I decided I'd play for 30 minutes then do some study before bed.

Short session: About 30 minutes, 2 tabling zoom.
Total Hands (All zoom 6max 25nl): 191 hands
Start BR: $1118.85
End BR: $1245.22
Result for the day: +$126.27

A pretty solid session, some pretty good flops where I managed to take max value and stack villains, flopped a straight, had the V go haywire and jam it in OTR when he hit his one card K high straight with the Jack in his hand. Another with AA and I 3bet 3x his .85c raise and he 4bet jammed, honestly expected to see him with AA as well but he showed AKs which was a nice donation. Another pot where I didn't get a call OTR but it was a 350bb pot where I flopped a set of aces in a 4bet pot OOP.

Always nice to run well and generally consistently get it in with the best hand.

Ordered a load of desks for my study today, they arrive tomorrow so will have space for my poker rig and my new 3D printer which I'm yet to use given they never sent sample filament.

Peace.

No post the last few days, honestly I got run over Tuesday and Wednesday. Started today at around $930 BR and finished session around $990 so pullled about 2 BI back.

I'll write a more detailed post later today but the cliffs of the downswing:

* Running bad, can't count how many times I've GII with KK, AA, QQ, and had some hit their set OTF.
* Compound running bad with general spew play as I cop bad beats, probably lost 40% of my losses this way, not going away when I'm obviously dominated "I'm due a set with my 33" type thinking.
* Also not hitting or getting called when I do have hands, lot of folds when I flop well or hit, that's been a big tilter for me, gotten angry a few times about it.

Been playing more 6max zoom as it's easier on schedule as I can sit down for 30-40 minutes and get a decent amount of hands in as opposed to FR non-zoom which now feels disgustingly slow at 4 tables.

G'day onste, just wanted to say I'll be following hour progress closely and all the best! If I may ask, what if anything are you doing off-table wise to improve your game, or just grinding volume atm?

Also I'd recommend trying to convert the HH and post in a more forum friendly format as my eyes bleed looking at those screen caps!

Gl and kiu!

Appreciate the comment mate, funnily enough I was about to make a post addressing your point about off-table work. So I'll post that now haha.

I've decided to stop playing for the time being, ultimately whenever I embark on something I don't like half-assing goals and I become very invested in whatever I'm going after. I know that the next logical point is to start doing a lot more hand review and mental game work as I'll need it at the relatively "larger" stakes at 50NL+.

Ultimately I know my mental game isn't good enough, I'm prone to tilt and although I think generally I can cop one or two and have it not affect too much, when I cop more I'm definitely prone to spew play. I'm also not aware enough of certain situations which I think are fairly foundational, I think I learnt a lot over this period of play but in order to increase that rate of learning, I need to insert an extra level of effort.

I'm currently doing University and ultimately feel that I'm not doing a service to either Uni or Poker. I've talked to a friend that used to be a high stakes pro and our conversation basically drummed down to if I'm not able to put in proper hours of study, then I shouldn't continue to play.

I think if I had more discipline around schedules and the ability to dedicate blocks of uninterrupted time to Uni and then also poker, I'd be able to manage all of this right now, but I think being realistic is a worthwhile trait as a human and also as a poker player. The realistic view of the situation is that I know I can't manage both right now, and poker isn't my end goal, Computer Science is, I have more on the line with uni than poker.

I fully intend to come back to the game during breaks and will have a good spot to do this over summer in 3 months, where I will most likely reload and grind it up again, I'll have a proper setup, will be able to post HH's and also dedicate time to doing real reviews. Right now though, it's just not a priority and I can't let myself off the hook in two areas of my life.

Final update:

Yesterday I played some 25NL then decided I was going to finish that day, so I took some of my winnings to 200NL and ran up a 700bb stack after copping a few lost pots and being down a buyin. Played some interesting pots, I didn't think the play was at an insane level I couldn't manage, I'd definitely say I was playing scared money though, I could feel it.

Hands: Played a few
Start of playing bankroll 4 weeks ago: $250
End of playing bankroll today: $1366.44

End result: Pretty alright.

I've cashed out for the time being, got a cheque coming in the mail (I'd take odds on it actually arriving LOL).

Thank you if you read along with me, I appreciate it, thank you if you commented, I also appreciate that.

Sorry if this post comes off as me being a flake, sometimes you just gotta know when to pull the pin and I'm in my second week of uni now and can already feel the pressure. I know I can't do poker properly, so it's time to stop for a bit and come back with a different approach.

I'll still be on the forums, and feel free to ping me. I'll also be playing again in the soonish future but not right now.

Peace.

I've been there bro, when I was at uni my mind was constantly on poker and not being able to give my full effort to either of them made it pretty frustrating for sure!

I feel you. However difficult it may be, it is possible to juggle both poker and another big commitment. Guys like Iimitless and one of the BTS coaches are well known for having large full time commitments and then still putting in huge amounts of poker hours. Max (another pgcer that recently finished) is also another great example of being successful at poker while spending most of his time running a business.

IMO if you want to go this route, read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport and it'll teach you exactly how you can block off time for extended periods of high-focus work.

That said, I also did comp sci at uni and know some of the programming assignments can take ***** forever, it's a ton of work!

Until next time! gl at uni!