Hey guys,

I've always considered myself a recreational player. I would play on Ignition on some weekends but mostly for entertainment.

This November, I decided to turn poker into a serious hobby, and started putting in the hands. I loaded up on PokerStars (US) and played about 70K hands over the last 3 weeks.



While I've been crushing the volume, I've been losing at an overall win rate of - 1.70 BB / 100. I'm still slightly up due to the bonus / rake-back system.

It's time to turn this win-rate around. The first stop is to achieve 3 BB / 100 over 100,000 hands. Then, I'll be taking shots at NL50. The 12 month dream is to beat NL100 for 2 BB / 100.

Today's graph!



Overall, I ran pretty well, and had some spots where I felt I played well.



In the biggest hand I won of the night, I placed the villain on 99 - JJ. I was able to defend on the turn against a shove.

On the other hand, I lost most money tonight through my red line.



The villain was 3 betting me quite frequently, and at about 13-15% frequency over a 2k sample. I decided to 4 bet AQo against his BB 3 bet, but had to fold to a shove.

Fairly happy with my play today. Looking forward to putting some more volume in the next few days, as Christmas break is coming up.

Some days, I ****ing hate poker. Today was one of those days. I just couldn't hit boards with AK and AQ hand that I raised pre-flop.

Also, there were so many limpers that were calling my raises, despite eventually opening 4x - 5x bb that I couldn't c-bet the flop.

In short, I felt ****ed by the end of the session and went on to lose 4 buy-ins by the end.

Here and subbed! Also playing micro cash over on Stars. Looking forward to following.

Thank you for the follow!

Played about 5,000 hands today - ended up losing ~$75. I had two punts today - although the 2nd one might have been alright considering that I put my opponent on a strong pair.

Some things I need to improve on:
- Increase my continuation bet. I'm only c-betting about 35% of my hands, with a 40% success rate. I need to find spots to increase my c-betting by another 15-25%.
- Balancing my 3 bet range with mediocre hands.
- Working on my post-flop play to find more bluffs. Right now I feel my lines are too straightforward, so villains can fold easily to value hands.\
- Playing AK pre-flop. Upswing's charts say that I should be 4 betting AK frequently, but boy, I haven't had many flops with an A or K, so it's difficult to navigate post-flop decisions in a multi-way pot or out-of-position.

Edit: I'll add images in a following post once Imgur is back up.

subbed, gl with the grind!

Thank you JHT!

Played two sessions today - ended up dropping the # of tables I was on, felt the cards were going more in my favor today, and overall did fairly well!



Some interesting hands of the night:



Took down a huge pot where 4 players called a 3 bet from the SB. Ended up with bottom two pair, and called a shove. Definitely felt this could have went either way - I think I would have folded here if it were a regular.



Lost a sizable pot where the villain called my pre-flop raise with 92s and a 10.5bb raise on the turn with a gut shot. Unfortunate spot, but I don't think I can fold since this is the 2nd strong hand, and the villain could be doing the same with any triple, two pair, or an outright bluff.



A spot I found quite difficult. This probably should have been a fold, but I think I have to call down some trips here, and having a boat helps.

Today was a rough day. Ended the session down 4 buy-ins



Had a few coolers tonight: KK vs AA, and K high flush vs. A high flush.

In a third spot, I called a turn shove with KK vs. a straight. I should have thought about my opponent's range more - I was playing against the SB, so it was totally possible for him to have trips or a straight in his range.

In a fourth spot, I was flipping a FD and OESD vs. JJ.



Here's a hand where I called an over-bet river bluff. Thought through my opponent's range, and it felt like he could be bluffing here with busted straight draws, or overvaluing AQ.



Luckiest hand of the night: KK beats AA post-flop with a K high flush




Some thoughts
- It feels that most players in NL30 are only 5 betting with AA (shove vs. 4 bet). Feels crazy, but I wonder if I should be laying down KK in this spot when I'm raising from the LJ.
- There were only two big spots I was unhappy about in my play today. The K high flush and KK vs. the straight.
- In terms of mindset, I'm not disappointed by today's results. Going to focus on improving my post-flop play. I might do a xx thousand hand challenge - was getting pretty inspired by an OTB Baron challenge, and he mentioned that doing challenged helped him get into the mindset of playing well and avoid spewing in spots.

On H2, why are you checking turn and river? Is there something in particular about the Th that makes you want to check?

Hmm, not really. I've seen a lot of over-folding on these tables, so I wanted to give my opponent the chance to bluff on the turn. Once the villain bet on the turn, it made sense to let him bet again on the river.

Yet another time I've gotten stacked KK vs AA. This is insane, but I'm going to fold KK pre-flop vs. a 4-bet - I am almost always getting stacked with KK vs. a min bet or a 5-bet shove. Population at NL30 only raises AA or KK.

Two back to back hands this morning... are you kidding me?

Slight derail, but where are you playing? I don't know of $30nl?

Don't worry about the coolers, you can't escape them. They will even out in the end.

Pokerstars PA!

made some progress from a crazy session this morning, where I was down 6 buy-ins.



Made some loose calls with top pair against some players who play wide and set a lot of traps. Putting down some notes in the future to exploit their patterns (i.e. calling river checkraises with 2 pair+).

Made two big bluffs this morning - the first wasn't great, the second I thought was fine. The villain hero called with 88, where I 3b, then bet heavy on flop and turn. The lesson here is to under bluff calling stations.

I also made some adjustments in my game play towards the 2nd half of the session where I started betting more aggressively against players with high cbet fold ratios. This turned out to be great, as my red line stabilized a bit. Usually my red line is really bad.

Kept running it up!



I felt really good this session - didn't run into any major suck outs, and I didn't spew against any hands. I kept stealing pots from villains, and felt that my cbet play has definitely improved. Also, I felt pretty aware of my opponents' hands and their play style.

For example,



This player limped in with hands, especially with small pocket pairs. Against his shove, I'm almost always behind.

This was another hand I really enjoyed playing:

I shoved the turn to protect my trip J against any FD and OESD, given how wet the board was. There were two opponents who called pot sized bets on the flop, so there's a good probability that at least one was fishing for a FD/OESD.

My CBet frequency has come a long way. Previously, I was only cbetting about 35% of my hands. I've since increased it by ~15%, allowing me to steal more pots

For comparison, here's a snapshot of my stats when I looked at PokerTracker statistics for the first time.

I've decided to start investing time into learning poker away from the games, and started reading The Grinder's Manual.

So far it's been great. It teaches with no assumptions about my current level, which has helped me fill in gaps in my theoretical knowledge. Previously, I always heard "50% study, 50% gameplay", but it never made sense to me. In the introduction, it actually explains how studying is important for identifying problems (leaks) and in crafting a suitable strategy to solve that issue before putting it in practice through actual gameplay. That may have been obvious to other people, but it wasn't to me! I'll be much more deliberate about identifying problems and defining adjustments moving forward.

Also, I really like how it explains core concepts. Just a few weeks ago, I hadn't materialized the importance of continuous betting, as I was cbetting at such a low frequency. I was able to adjust that leak, with a +15% increase in cbetting. I'm looking forward to learning this new material, improving stats, and refining the scenarios where I apply the concepts.

Finally, the Grinder's Manual suggests that mastering the concepts it teaches is enough to help a player play NL100 profitably. I really excited to put that claim to the test !

Today's results: ~$10 won over 1,000 hands

I didn't lose any big hands today, but my red line started to deteriorate towards the end of the session. This resulted in about -$35 to $40 in earnings that I had won earlier in the session.

One thing that I read in the Grinder's Manual is using VPIP, PFR, and Fold to BTN statistics to adjust my opening range against the table. Towards the end of the session, I definitely felt the player pool getting more nitty. I should have tightened my range, so that I'm not just throwing out blinds for free.

Today I played a fairly short session. I ran poorly in some important spots, but also found that I need to improve on my play against short stacks! There were 3 hands that I've shown below that I thought I could have played much better.



Largest pot of the night was AA vs KK for 250BB, with the villain getting a K on the turn.




My red line today was really good. I found some great spots to steal 3b pots against villains. I made three big mistakes today in the following hands:

- Rivered the nut flush on a QQ board. The villain check-raised me with a river bet. I had a feeling that he rivered the boat given that there was no action on the flop and turn. I think I should have folded some % of the time there, and bet on the turn some % of the time.



- I cbet a 3bet pot against a very short stack. I should have gotten it all in pre-flop given his stack size.



- In another pot against a short-stack, I should have shoved on the flop given his stack size.




That said, I'm happy with the improvements I'm making with my red line. I feel that I'm stealing more 3b pots. The main problem I've had with this session is dealing with short stacks.

Another short session today! Ran slightly below EV. I found myself leaking pretty badly in my red line by opening too much against a sea of limpers. As a result, I was putting money and having to contend in multi-way pots.



I reacted by tightening my opens, and focusing on good post-flop play. Overall, fairly standard session with a few spots that were a bit challenging:

I ran well in today's session:



The contentious hand of the night:



In hindsight, I should have thought longer about this spot. I think the villain usually has 99 - AA here. I called the shove because he went all in on the J, which made me think he had triple JJ's. This is a weird hand for the villain to 3 bet with because he should almost always call with his AT and KT hands.

In another spot, I triple barreled against a villain. TBH, this villain had a 20% fold to cbet frequency, so it wasn't the best person to be taking this line against. That said, I thought the line was fine given that I'd be taking this line with all my OESDs.



I've also finished reading the first three chapters of the Grinder's Manual. Found the limping section pretty helpful, especially with the way the author has categorized different fish. It's helped me realize that my red line is suffering because I'm cbetting aggressively against players who don't frequently fold to cbets. I'll be more careful of this moving forward.

Today was a rollercoaster! Ended the day in the green thanks to one of the final hands on the session.



My redline isn't doing well I've noticed that the player pool changes throughout the day. Bled in the red line during the morning/afternoon, but stabilized in the evening session.



Yesterday, I played a hand against this villain, where I shoved AK on a 4 to a straight board. He called me down with a pocket pair.

Today, I shoved on the river with AA vs. his 77 on a 666 board. I'd imagine he had a hard time, but might have decided to call this if it were an ace bluff.



One of the few bluffs I made on the night. This player was pretty tight, so he most likely calling with 99 - AA here. I thought I could represent a better pair, but he probably had triple JJ or AA.



This is a bizarre hand. I called down river, but I wasn't sure what he was betting with. Could have been a missed flush draw, and I thought he had very few 9's in his range here. In hindsight, could have been a fold - I had a note on this player that he raises big on river for value.



This is definitely a mistake. I check raised the flop, so I have a good number of flushes on the river. Given the bet, call checkraise, call, bet this could have been a fold.



This could have been another fold. Noticing a pattern here where I should be putting opponents on stronger hands when there's a bet after a checkraise.

On another note, I read the Grinder's Manual chapter on cbetting. I tried including some of its concepts in today's session. I'll be reviewing my cbet frequency & success rate to see if there's any improvement. So far, there hasn't been a big difference in stats.

Yesterday's stats



Today's stats