Hi guys.

My name is Phil, I am a 21 year old law student from Hamburg, Germany.

I will be starting to play NLHE and PLO 6max at the very bottom and try to move up constantly with conservative BRM (I loathe redepositing). I have been beating the game up to NL25 on Ipoker, but law school, social life etc were always my priority (as they should be).

Why I am doing this now:

A couple of years back I had pretty severe cancer. I am in full remission but I have been diagnosed with something that is called cancer fatigue syndrome a couple of weeks back.

Basically I am tired a lot, sleep a lot and am exhausted pretty quickly from physical activity. At the moment I am not able to attend University or have much of a social life. I moved back in with my parents. Treatment for Cancer fatigue syndrome is basically rest, light exercise, healthy food etc. Recovery is likely, but it is gonna take time.

Since I am pretty much stuck at home with not much to do the majority of the time I'll be playing quite a lot.

This thread is supposed to become a poker journal, to keep me focused and play well. I find it a lot easier to concentrate on playing well when I know I'm gonna have to share my results with you guys.

I am starting with my left over balance on stars, which is $35.19. Due to the regulations for stars for my part of Germany I cannot play more than 10 tables at once, which isn't that much of a problem. What sucks though, is that I cannot table select. All I can do is be seated automatically at a random seat at a random position. Obviously this is going to make things a little harder but wtf, gonna do it anyway.

Hopefully some of you will find this interesting/helpful. Feedback of any kind is appreciated.

Best, Phil

Just finished my first session, I won $6,38€ at 2NL in 944 hands (33,8 bb/100).

I think I played ok, maybe I called a little too much ott and otr.


New BR: $41,47

lol micros:

Hi guys,

sorry for letting this slide from the very start. Right when i set out to commit, some personal **** came in between.

Anyway, problems resolved, second shot at keeping this blog alive. I deposited another 40$ so my BR to start was exactly 80$.

This morning I played some NL2 6-max.

Due to the fact that tonight the NL2 6-max tables were overrun, I wasn't able to play them. Apparently the total number of tables is capped at 500 (!). So I played some PLO2 and NL2 zoom instead.

Results so far:



I will probably keep playing another couple of hours and post some updated results and HH's later.

BR: 98,32$

If I had what you have I'd never consider playing poker.

Tbh there's just not much else to do. I cook, read, do some light execise and spend some time with friends, but that leaves a couple of hours every day. I have to spend the time somehow. Poker beats lying in bed doing nothing.

fair point

I was going to take a 5 BI shot at NL5 when I have 150$. Is that too timid?

NL2 should be called wait for a set and take all the money. Up 16 Buy-Ins today. Add that to a 10$ milestone, it puts my bankroll at 122.01$.

It is like taking candy from a child:

First hand:



Second hand:

This is against the same villain on the same table not two minutes later.



Biggest pot so far:

Do you table select?

I do. Unfortunately, regulations make this kinda difficult. I cannot choose an individual table to sit down at, all I have is the option to be seated at a random table.

That being said, I check my HM every couple of minutes to find out, which tables have the lowest VPIP. Then I close those and auto-sit at new tables. Obv there's no guarantee, those tables will be looser than those I closed, but it's all I can do.

Table selection at NL2 isn't that important though, most of your money comes from making a huge hand (a set at least) and getting it in. I only have a sample size of ~9k, but both 12/4 and 54/21 players call with TPTK (or worse) a lot of times when you fast play your monster.

BR is at $130, 10 more BI's and then up to NL5. Obviously running really well, 26b/100 so far at the regular NL2 6max tables over 7k hands (ev 17bb/100).



It is a challenge to keep folding good hands on the river, especially if I'm tired and/or have been playing for a while. The problem with calling in these situations ever is simply, that I know I should fold. If I call and loose, I'm immediatly on tilt because I knowingly (for a lack of a better word) make a bad play.



Not sure yet if I'm gonna try to make the 10 BI's tonight. If I keep running well and make some headway in the next hour I might.

fun:

I just had this guy at my table, who shoved every hand. He sat down with 100bb and actually survived 22 hands. He was right to my left, which was obviously terrible, since all the other guys could call his AI first. But then, nobody did, and when they did they lost!

First AI vs said player:



Second hand:



Third hand:



4th hand:






If I had lost that last one, which was close, I would have been down 3 BI to that joke.

Never seen anything like this before. Close to taking a shot at NL5, only 3BI's more. Will post graph and some hands when I'm at 150$.

I made it! BR sitting at 150.11$ aka 30 BI for NL5

Obviously I ran pretty well, which is always nice.


Regular NL2 6-max
Hands: 21.042
Profit: 64.02$
EV: 44.62$
bb/100: 15.21
Bonus: 10$

SD winnings: 136.86$
Non SD: -72.84$

Omaha and NL Zoom: 5.423 hands, -2.75$, ev +2.48$

Graph (all hands):



Biggest hand is Nr. 4 in the post above.

Second biggest:




Biggest losing hand:




This was actually more fun then I expected. Takes a little pressure off my shot at NL5, I wouldn't be devastated to grind it up again. With my BR at ~150$ I will take a 5BI shot.

If some of you are interested in some strat for beating NL2 I will write something up later. Just let me know.

NL5 here I come!

Good luck with your nl5 shot. I'll hopefully be seeing you there soon! Maybe I've already seen you at nl2 without realizing it lol. I also was playing against someone yesterday who was open-shoving every hand for the first several hands (different guy though, I think). Eventually he stopped open-shoving, but still was open-raising big, and spewing like crazy postflop. Most of the time sucking out and getting lucky. It's always fun playing against someone who's that much of a maniac!

$100/50BI at NL2. Obviously running very well. (WR: 13,47bb/100)

I'm thinking about doing the same in PLO2, prob not gonna do it though. I'm taking pain killers atm (had my wisdom teeth out), so not gonna play any NL5 till I'm feeling better.

BR: 168.60$

Edit: Can't seem to post graph atm, will figure it out.

Here we go: