40 hours of poker + a 40 hour work week good god that’s a lot. I talk about this a bit and around 10 hours of table time + some sporadic studying is what I can manage without feeling like my whole life is a grind. I do 15 hours or more when I’ve been running hot. And If I do more than that it’s because I’ve been losing sleep for it.

If the money is irrelevant in the long run why don’t you spend some on a coach or something? You sound like someone with a lot less time and a lot more spare income than myself, so coaching definitely sounds like it’s for you and will put you on track for 50z. You want this PGC to be different to the other ones, you must try something different.

You’ll miss a ton of value with 25% sizing only. Raise or fold strat will be dangerous because it requires making some tough folds. To me it sounds like a coach will save you literal months of your life.

I’ve personally never had a coach but then again I’ve spent nearly 100k hands of my challenge hardstuck at 10z for 0.6bb/100

Those hours are what I'll be reaching for. Whether or not I can do that, I'm not sure yet.

As for the money, I can't really afford to spend much more than that. That's what I can afford to spend on poker right now without it hurting me financially. I could probably get an hour or two of coaching from that. Could be helpful, but I don't know how helpful. I'd rather try to figure things out on my own first. I was at one point in BPC's CFP program. Helped me with NL2 and NL5 (reg tables), but that's about it. Left the program at that point cause I had started working around 60 hours a week then.

Regarding missing value with 25% pot sized bets... That's the issue I first thought about. But then I realized that I'll get called so much lighter with my weaker value hands. And with my stronger value hands, I'll probably still get value because they'll most likely raise me. Possibly not the passive fish, but I can always use bigger exploitative sizing against them.

Plus, by using a bigger sizing, I would have a check-calling range. I'd potentially have to call big bets with my marginal hands. By betting small, I minimize the losses with those hands. If they raise, I fold, but they'll pay when I have the strong hands. Just a theory, and something I was wanting to try out. I could be wrong. I was using close to pot-sized bets during the last few weeks, and it wasn't working too well, so thought I'd try the opposite lol.

Raise or fold strategy is not something I plan to use long-term as I move up higher. It's again something I was thinking about trying out at the lower stakes to simplify things while starting to build more solid ranges. And it does involve making tough folds, but I'm using a frequency-based approach, so I'm defending a certain frequency vs raises. The tough folds I will have to make will be more or less worked out on paper so that the decision itself won't be tough. Obviously will be rough at first, but will be smoothed out over time.

Appreciate the coaching suggestion by the way, as it didn't even enter my mind. Something to think about. Just not sure whether or not it's the right step right now.

You got me thinking ToiletBowler, and I'll hold off on depositing more money right now. I'm not sold on the idea of buying coaching at this point, but I was thinking about just saving more money and then using it towards live poker. Eventually, it would be nice to go to the casinos again maybe once every one or two weeks. Online poker will continue to be my main focus though.

NL2z (this week):


All Stakes (from the start):


Luck Bell Curve (from the start):


Spent most of the week studying, working on my open-raising ranges. So play time was limited. In the end, my work with the small cbet sizes had similar results to my large cbet sizes (although sample size is tiny so far). But found a possible exploit that could have a small impact to the winrate if I calculated it correctly. That is, unless the players start adjusting. Will keep the small sizing for now, but will most likely work on something closer to 60% pot as I move up. Or maybe split the range into two sizings, somewhere around 25%, and pot size.

Some hands that demonstrate the small cbets:

Looks like they’re spazzing out a fair amount vs your sizings. Pretty handy with value hands, will hurt with middling hands though. Seems to be working so GL

Yeah I hate to reference it again but I also talk about depositing money in my PGC. I deposited an extra 100 dollars at the beginning of my challenge but I justified it because it’s a slippery slope between depositing 100 to save some time and depositing 100 dollars five times because you can’t beat a stake. And it was a good decision for me, I saved months of grinding at 2z and made a promise that if I had to redeposit again at 5z, I wouldn’t because it meant I was out of touch

A live roll is definitely the goal but with my savings (and skill level) at the mo it’s not an option

Been keeping the small bet sizing; seems to still be working fairly well I think. I noticed a few spots where I'm missing some value, where they haven't raised and would most likely call a little bigger bets. But I've been called down a lot more with worse hands. So I think overall, it may be ok. Probably helps too that most people don't know how to defend properly vs this kind of sizing.

I'm thinking of experimenting about increasing the cbet sizing for turn and river though, but keeping the small size for the flop. Maybe 50-100% pot on the turn, and overbetting the river. Won't start doing that yet, maybe will experiment with that next week.

The last couple days, I've opened up my ranges preflop. I went from around 22/18 to 28/24. I think by using such small sizing both preflop and on the flop, I can play a wider range more effectively. Also am 3-betting a lot more. My biggest winrate was coming from 3bet pots, so tried to really open that up. Went from around 3-4% 3bet to 8-9% (I think). Still nothing too crazy. Will continue to play like this for this week and see how things go.

For this week, will just focus on playing; no studying or off-table work. Will aim for 20k+ hands. Then I can further analyze how the changes are working and where I need to tweak things.

NL2z (this week):


Last couple days since I started using wider ranges:


All Stakes (from the start):


Luck Bell Curve (from the start):





More induced spazzing






Light call-downs.







I knew I was beat.

Ok, so I'm a pretty big gamer. Love videogames (as you might know if you've followed me). I also used to play around with creating games as well. I've always wanted to get back into that some day. I was talking to a guy at work who I've know for quite a while; he's kinda the same way with respect to gaming. I've always had the passion for playing and creating games, but after talking to him, I just further realized that this is something that I want to do more than playing poker right now.

My passion for poker has been dwindling a little bit, and I think that's why I struggle to put in the hours these days (although work doesn't help lol). On the other hand, working on developing videogames again is something I constantly think about. Always thinking of ideas for the time I take up this hobby again. So I'm gonna take a bit of a break from poker and pursue videogame development. It may not be a complete break. I may play from time to time for fun, and will update when I do.

I do plan on getting back into poker in a more regular role again at some point though. Not sure if my focus at that time will be live or online. But for now, time to go create games!

Best of luck mate! Have you got any ideas in mind?

Thanks Pippadoc, yeah, have a lot of ideas lol. The first idea I'll work on will be a 3/4 view metroidvania-inspired action/puzzle based game with 2D platforming sections. Kind of a tribute to Actraiser in a way. I don't know if my explanation made it seem interesting, or if it was just confusing hahaha.

I'm Back!

Was good to get away from the game for awhile. I did play a little here and there just for fun. Just playing around, trying stuff like a fish lol. But it was good to just have some time off, and reflect on things. Things like what I might have been doing wrong strategy-wise, and with respect to progressing through the stakes. I was spending too much time trying to balance everything, and be unexploitable. Trying to complicate things too much, when probably a simpler more exploitive approach would likely be much better.

About a week ago, I felt my passion for the game coming back. So I came up with some decently balanced preflop open-raise, 3Bet, and cold-call ranges. Aside from those three preflop situations, I've thrown balance out the window. My stragegy is extremely simple now, and is developed by reflecting on how the player pool plays, so as to exploit the way they play.

A Fresh Start

I will be continuing this challenge to reach NL50z by the end of the year, but I will be treating it as if I were starting anew. I've lost two and a half months, but I still think it could be doable to reach NL50z. So I would like to reach 50z by the end of the year, and then next year would like to focus on becoming established at NL100z. It is at that level where I think I can shift my focus into switching to poker as my main stream of income. That is my short-term goal. If I can reach that point, then I can spend a lot less time working, and more time with my other passion (creating videogames). By the way, if I'm able to reach that point, I wouldn't want to stop there. I'd of course want to keep pushing myself to see how high I can go.

Not trying to get ahead of myself, as I know there's a lot of hard work needed to get to that point, if I'm even able to get there. Maybe there's a good chance I'm not cut out for poker. Maybe my passion will wane again. I can't predict the future. All I can do is to start heading down that path with a belief in myself, and see where things go. Keeping the goal in mind as I restart this journey will hopefully help serve as motivation through the rough stretches.

My Plan

The plan is to use this simplistic approach for NL2z. As I move up and start playing higher stakes, I will collect data while shot-taking. If I notice any situations where I need to start becoming more balanced (or less exploitable), then I will focus on improving my strategy in those areas.

I also came up with a new BRM plan that I will try and keep until I have established myself at NL100z. The size of my shots will be dependent upon my skill at the previous level. Basically, if I have a longer winning sample at the previous level, then I will stay at the previous level longer to build a bigger shot for the next stake.

This means taking 1BI shots when I don't have as much winning experience at the previous level. This allows me to scout the next level a bit, and get some experience and start collecting data. But more likely than not, I will have to drop back down. This will allow me to continue gaining more experience at the previous level, while allowing for the slight chance that I may have a successful shot and advance quicker.

As I establish myself as more of a winner at the previous level, I can give myself bigger shots at the next level, allowing myself a better chance of succeeding. And by waiting to build a bigger shot, when I do take that shot, I will be even closer to the point of taking 1BI shots at the level above that one.

BRM Plan:

These are the shot amounts I will take depending on how long of a winning hand sample I have at the previous level.

Less than 30k hand winning sample: 1BI shots
30-50k hands: 2BI shots
50-60k hands: 3BI shots
60-70k hands: 4BI shots
70-80k hands: 5BI shots
80-90k hands: 6BI shots
90-100k hands: 7BI shots
More than 100k hands: 8BI shots

And these are the minimum amounts I need in my BR to take the shots.

Min. for NL2: $0
Min. for NL5: $45 + shot amount
Min. for NL10: $90 + shot amount
Min. for NL25: $255 + shot amount
Min. for NL50: $905 + shot amount
Min. for NL100: $2955 + shot amount

I will move down once the shot amount has been lost (obviously). There is a chance that I could lose most of the shot amount, and then lose another full BI. So I've added in a bit of a cushion when coming up with those numbers.

This will give me 20 BIs at NL2, 8 BIs at NL5, 15 BIs at NL10, 25 BIs at NL25, and 40 BIs at NL50, in the case that I need to drop down.

My BR at the start of this challenge restart (Mar. 8) was $25. So will be building from there. Current BR is $37.70.


(NL2z since restarting challenge Mar. 8)



Just a fun hand to leave you with

Started this past week horribly, spewing a lot, and then kept running bad. Was a bit disheartened by that, and didn't get much volume in. But also because I did more work on videogame development. I'm pretty sure I'll have some periods where I'll focus more on poker, and other periods where I'll focus more on game development. Just not sure what kind of balance I'll have between the two.

NL2z (this week):


All Stakes (since challenge restart Mar. 8):


Luck Bell Curve (since challenge restart):




Villain was 30/21/19 over 108 hands. Was 4Betting almost anything versus these types of villains. An exploitative adjustment that I may back away from for now, as I found I was losing too much when getting 3bet (in general). 4Betting might be profitable against these guys, but will have to look closer into the database.





I like to flat with some of my monsters, to protect my cold-calling range against squeezes, so I can have a polarized back-raising range. I'm not really sure if this is good or not (either in theory, or in practice).






This is one of those awful spew hands.

A Reflection of My Play

This will not be a good update, so you have been warned lol. I have been running very badly at NL2z. At times was getting frustrated, and making some bad plays. I also started altering my gameplan in an attempt to try and defend more in spots where I wasn't defending enough (from a theoretical view). However, I did it by using "feel", rather than by doing off-the-table work. One area was defending my open-raises vs 3bets. I added preflop ranges by doing the work. But postflop, was just winging it and probably spewed too much. Didn't get any good volume this week because I wasn't happy with how things were going.

I was doing fine when "nitting" it up before, so will go back to that as a basic gameplan. That means, for now, overfolding vs 3bets. I believe the NL2z population in general doesn't 3bet enough, so this should be fine for now. Will work on defending properly vs 3bets later as I move up.

My winrate when I 3bet was good, around 3.3bb/hand (all-in adjusted). And my 3Bet% was 8.5. So I think that area of my game is good enough for now.

When calling open-raises, my winrate is at least decent, but not great. About 1.2bb/hand (all-in adjusted). Need to work on that also, but not as urgent.

My all-in adjusted winrate for when I RFI is about 0.2bb/hand. This is one of the areas I need to spend time working on.

But the most shocking discovery I made was when I iso-raise. I was losing at a rate just over -2bb/hand. I was not expecting that, and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm trying to iso-raise too wide.

So my first order of business is to create specific iso-raise ranges, and not just using my RFI ranges like before. After, I will start working on proper postflop play for when I RFI. I will work through various flops/turns/rivers, and slowly build my ranges bit-by-bit. Starting with cbet ranges, and X/C ranges, and adding more stuff later (like defending ranges vs flop raises, etc.). If I haven't worked out a range, such as when facing a raise, my default play will be to fold. Unless of course I have the nuts or a good price for a draw.

Time to Redeposit

My balance on Stars is sitting around $4-5 now, so will deposit more money. Will probably deposit $40 for now and try again. If I can prove to myself that I can win at a decent rate at 2z and 5z in the next month or so, then in May, I will be at a point where I would be able to deposit a bigger amount and try to get some experience higher (10z or 25z). At any rate, I'm still having fun playing, and that's what matters most.

Graphs

NL2z (this week):


All Stakes (since challenge restart Mar. 8):


Luck Bell Curve (since challenge restart):




One of my hands defending vs a 3bet. I don't know to how bad an extent I misplayed this, or whether I played it alright. But this is a situation where, at NL2z, I think I should probably just fold this preflop for now.





This one's just a fun hand. Didn't know what to expect from such a large open size, but decided to shove vs what seemed to be a fish. Don't know if it's a good long-term move, but got in good in this hand at least.





This is one of those hands where I don't know what I was thinking.

Two hands are spew imo

H1: xraising on that board is value owning yourself. You force the weaker hands to fold. And you are almost dead vs his calling range.

H2: unlucky

H3; weird, Again just call turn!

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G925F met Tapatalk

To be brutally honest I wouldn’t deposit a bankroll for 10z/25z with the expectation to run it up if I were you. Not at this stage anyway, you have a looooong way to go.

Best of luck to you though and as long as you’re having fun with it, go for it!

mikeajax15: Thanks for the input. H1, that's along the lines of what I was thinking. H3, that's why I posted the hand, cause of its weirdness lol. I was looking back at that hand history, and wondering why I played it like that.

ToiletBowler: That wouldn't be the reason for depositing more later. It's not a bankroll for 10z/25z, and I wouldn't be expecting to run it up.

It would just be to allow me to play those stakes, just to get some experience and have some fun playing those stakes. It would let me get some data on those stakes, and let me see how profitable my few "exploit strategies" would work there. It would also provide me with the ability to further see what areas of my game need the most work, so that if/when I have to move back down, I have a clearer idea of what I need to work on most before working my way back up there.

And if I should be fortunate enough to start winning there out of the gate, so much the better. But don't worry, I may not end up doing that anyway. Depends on how much I think I've progressed by then, and whether I still feel like spending the money.

Update is a little late this week. Was pretty sick the last week (still a bit sick), so chose to relax more than play poker. Played through Super Mario RPG (SNES), for some classic fun lol. Did manage to play a bit of poker though. Volume was low, but pretty productive week.

I created separate iso-raise preflop ranges, and changed my cbet sizings. And I went from losing over 2bb/hand to winning over 1bb/hand. So huge improvement there. I also adjusted my play when RFI. Adjusted my play vs 3bets, and adjusted a little postflop in SRP when RFI. Went from .2bb/hand to around .7bb/hand. Small sample size, but seems like it's going in the right direction.

Managed to take 2 shots (1BI each) at NL5z this week. Lost the buy-in both times, but things are moving in the right direction.

NL2z (this week):


NL5z (this week):


All Stakes (since challenge restart Mar. 8):


Luck Bell Curve (all stakes since challenge restart):


So far, been resting more again this week while trying to recover from being sick. Will likely just spend some time doing off-table work on my SRP cbetting strategy. Did a little bit of that already. So update next week might not be much.



My big misplayed hand at NL5. I was so close to folding to the flop check-raise, but got stubborn and called. I had a gut feeling I was up against a set, but chose to ignore that feeling. I think raising the donk bet was probably ok though?





Don't know why I called the river raise. Is this even a bet on the river though? Or is it too thin? After he bets pot on the flop, maybe I shouldn't be betting here. Against a fishy opponent though, probably ok?





Dream flop, dream turn. Couldn't have asked for more.





Another of those spots where I flat an open with AA to protect my calling range against squeezes. Still not sure if I should be doing this or not. I may be losing some value by not 3betting with aces in those spots, but I'm also gaining value against squeezing ranges. So undecided on this still, and open to criticism. Lol at his call though.

Been doing a lot of work on setting up how to compose balanced cbetting and check-calling ranges postflop in SRPs as preflop aggressor. Kind of feel like I've had a bit of a breakthrough in my understanding of things. Will post a few of my ideas, and would be interested in hearing any thoughts about whether or not I'm on the right track.

1) All of my flop/turn/river cbet% are about 40-45% (betting 2/3 pot), with the river cbet having a split range where some of the range I shove. When I don't cbet, I call around 40-45% of the remaining range to a 2/3 pot size bet on the flop and turn, and around 30% on the river. The calling %s are based on MDF from the start of the hand on, not just on the current street. And the flop/turn calling frequencies are slightly higher due to the opponent's range having some equity against ours. For simplicity, I'm just using one bet-size for flop and turn, and two sizes (67% pot, and shoving) for the river.

2) I should be more inclined to use draws to the nuts as cbet bluffs, and check weaker draws. So that means going against advice I've read, and cbetting with nut flush draws more than with weaker flush draws. I want to build pots where I'm most likely to have the best hand, so I can be more polarized by the river and win the most with the best hands. I would rather draw more cheaply with my weaker draws.

3) I shouldn't cbet bluff with any draws that I wouldn't keep bluffing unimproved until the river. In other words, any draws I bluff on the flop, I should continue to bluff on the turn and river if they have not improved to a pair or better. Any other bluffs should be comprised of the best hands I do not bet for value or check-call. So the other bluffs should be things like weaker pairs, or good Ax, depending on how wide the range is.

This is for two reasons. Firstly, when I give up with some of the bluffs, those that I give up with should still have some showdown value. I may not call bets with them, but they will be protected by me calling the required amount of time with other hands in my checking range. And secondly, by betting the weaker pairs/A-high as bluffs, it protects them somewhat from getting outdrawn. And if my opponent calls too wide, they will lose more money as my bluffs will be beating some of their calls.

These are the main points I've contemplated so far. Would love to hear any flaws in my thinking. Otherwise, am starting to build my postflop ranges based on this thinking.

Did some work on cbetting/check-calling ranges. Will keep going on that at a later point, when I need to start playing more balanced. For now, I need to just put in the hours at the table.

I did play a little bit, but really had a bit of a setback. I kind of tilted away around 15 or so BIs (at NL2z). Started opening wider, 3betting wider. One thing led to another and my BR was down to $11. I don't know why I did that, and a bit embarrassed about it. But now I gotta work hard to undo it. With a solid week of volume, I can probably get back to where I was before. So that's my main focus this week.. get those hours in and get my BR back up. Will include the (horrible) graph in next week's update.

Hi PokerPhilosopher, I'm very impressed with your persistence and belief in yourself because I also tried many challenges before and failed all of them and I gave up lol!!

I however would like to advise you to focus on your mental game at the moment because tilting 15BI should be avoided, I have tilted +25BI before at 2nl, no big deal BUT it hurts your mental state and sets a precedence for a bad habit.
I remember in the past I started with $40 bank roll and aimed to grind it to $80 and then take shot at nl5, what happened is that I managed to grind it up to $76 then ran very badly losing like 7 buy-ins in one hour to something like $62 bank roll so I tilted and I basically bought into a 100nl zoom game with the $62 to try and get to $80 in a few hands lol. Of-course I got AKs after 3 hands and raised, got 3bet and I 4-bet and all the money was in the middle for a +$124 pot, villian had KK and I lost it all!!!
So I lost my bankroll that I spent time building due to tilt and lack of mental strength.

Now I'm on another challenge but I'm starting on NL5 zoom with a 30BI ($150), I will take shots at NL10 when I have 40BI + 4xNL10BB = $240.
If my roll drops to $80 I will sadly move down to NL2.

Thanks mypokerphd, I will never give up unless the passion dies lol. But as long as I enjoy the game, I will keep going.

I don't usually spew away buy-ins like that. My main source of tilt is when I make bad plays, knowing that I made a bad play. If I can stick to the gameplan, I usually have no problems. If I do tilt/spew, it's not usually that much either. Usually, if I lose a lot, it's because my strategy isn't sound. 15BIs shouldn't be too difficult to build back up, but definitely will have to make sure I don't do something dumb like that again lol.

How's your newest challenge going? Did you just start it? I can't see any thread for yours, but if you have one, I will follow along.

Started turning things back in the right direction. As mentioned, I'll post the graph for the last two weeks, which includes the big spew. There was a big exploitative play I was making in SRPs as the preflop aggressor. It was working quite well before, but seems to be dropping off lately (maybe as more people catch on.. or could just be variance). It's still slightly profitable, but I'm going to look at trying to figure out something else there. I still have an exploitive play that works well in 3bet pots (as preflop aggressor). So those are still doing well.

Also, the luck bell curve in PT4 lately has taken a ton of time to load/display. Anyone know what causes this? It used to display almost instantaneously after pushing the LeakTracker tab. Now takes at least a few minutes.

NL2z (last two weeks):


All Stakes (since challenge restart):

Didn't get much time in at the tables this week. Real life got in the way a bit, and also started doing more off-table work last couple days. I'm focusing on flop play right now, as I really want to make sure I'm minimizing my mistakes on the flop. The flop is where the hands change the most, so I think it's crucial to get the ranges down there to set up play on the bigger money streets.

Most regs probably have decent preflop ranges worked out. But if I can at least have good flop ranges worked out (along with preflop), I think that will put me at an advantage over most regs at the micros. So am trying to go over those spots. Which hands to cbet, on which board textures. Which hands I should check-call, or call/3bet vs a raise. Which hands to call/raise with when I'm the preflop caller, on which board textures. My aim is to be balanced on any flop, with whatever line I use, and to gain an edge when my opponents are making mistakes. Then I will be in a better place on the turn and river, and hopefully be making less mistakes there as a result of having better continuing ranges from the flop.

Once I'm satisfied with my work there, I will move up to NL10z. I have requested my vacation pay next paycheque, so hopefully I will have some extra money to deposit to support playing at 10z. Depends how much gets taken off for taxes lol. I think with solid preflop/flop strategies, I should be able to beat at least NL10. But I will probably play only one table when I move up there. So will invest in myself and hopefully provide more entertainment in this thread.

NL2z (this week):


All stakes (since challenge restart):


Luck Bell Curve (since challenge restart):


Still would like to know if anyone knows why it's taking several minutes to load the luck bell curve, and what can be done to speed it up (if anything).

Some hands from this week:



Don't know whether or not this was played ok. I think it probably was though. I haven't usually called 3bets with suited connectors before. But I thought I would try adding a few into my calling range, as I think they play better than more marginal high card hands, and balance the ranges better.





I think the river raise is ok, but calling the 3bet was spew.





Fun hand.





Another fun hand. Villain was something like 50/40 over a small sample. I've been making an effort to call more often when fish bet small on the flop and/or turn and then bomb the river. Seems like they show up with junk more often than not.

I'm still alive. Been kind of off and on with the studying over the last month. At times I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work I was planning to do to set up my strategy's framework. So found myself procrastinating a lot. I've gotten a decent-sized chunk of it done now, so I should be finding more motivation to continue doing the work.

The plan still is to continue setting up the "framework", and then coming up with approximate ranges/lines for a GTO-style balanced game. Every time I move up stakes, I will revert to this strategy until I get a decent-sized sample (maybe 100k hands). At that point, if I'm still playing the same stakes, I'm probably not doing well. So, I'll look through the database and find ways to tweak the strategy to exploit player/player pool tendencies.

Planning to take as long as needed to get this studying done; might be another month or so until I get back to playing. When I do return, I still plan to deposit a few hundred and start at NL10z. Would still like to reach 50z before the end of the year, so hopefully all the studying will help make things go smoother.

Played a little bit at a NL2 reg table a couple days ago for fun, just to get a little bit of action in. Played 1 table, and was mainly focused on getting under my opponents' skin (in a fun way), by doing a lot of chatting. And trying to focus on the meta-game lol.

Hey, been close to a month since my last update. Study has gone poorly. I've attempted to try and develop a pseudo-GTO, balanced strategy to use as a default strategy. The problem is, it's terribly time-consuming to come up with such a strategy without taking a lot of shortcuts and using a lot of approximations. And even then, it takes time. It's difficult to stay motivated to do that when you don't even know if what you're doing is correct. The approach I was taking depended upon some base assumptions, such as rough open-raise percentages from each position. I'm sure the strategy I was working on would have resulted in something half-decent, but it was based on a foundation built on guesswork and common "knowledge".

I didn't spend a ton of time over the last month on this, as my motivation waned quite often. But I'm gonna scrap the work I've done so far, as I'm not satisfied enough with the direction I was heading. I'm going to come up with a different approach based on my views of NLHE, the maths, and how most others seem to play. I don't expect to spend much time on this at the start. Mostly just getting the preflop ranges down at this point. I want to get back to playing full-time again. I'm only working 5 days a week now, so the plan is to play poker 40 hours a week and then to study with whatever time I can squeeze out from the rest of the week.

So just a few thoughts.. First, I've decided to revisit the idea of RFI less, and having an open-limping range. I've been reading a couple other PG&C threads (by rapidash, and someone with pastor in the name). The former was spending some time experimenting with it, and the latter seems to have an established winning strategy including open-limping). It's always been something that I've been interested in studying, and that just makes me want to continue to look into it further. Part of me still thinks we're using RFI%s that are too wide, which makes it harder to profitably play when our opponents defend against our opens (either by 3betting or calling). I was doing some rough math, and it seems like, for me, that I could profit more by splitting my open-ranges.

I won't get into the other thoughts now. I did some playing yesterday. Used most of my tournament tickets I got from Stars rewards chests, but didn't win anything from those. Tried some showdown holdem (whatever they call that new variant) for a little bit. Lot of fish there, but max buyin is really short. Played NL5, with 40bb BI. Switched to 1 reg table at NL2. Table broke, and then went back to Zoom for a bit. Up about $11 in that short time playing. Most of the time, I was open-limping 100% (but trying to play fairly solid postflop). Mainly trying to get another taste of whether I think open-limping can be profitable.

Got an email from Stars about a deposit bonus offer if you deposit at least $40. Get a random reward from $3-$5000. Calculated the EV, which was around $8 if I remember correctly. So will deposit $40 on top of current BR of $45. Which means (according to my earlier BRM plan) that I'll be moving to nl5z, and taking nl10z shots when the BR reaches $100 (3 more BIs at nl5). And hopefully bink a nice bonus prize lol.

graph across all stakes yesterday:


Decided I'm going to try not to look at any aspects of luck. So no all-in EV, no luck bell curves, etc. I'm just gonna play and only look at the green line. I'll just trust that all variants of luck will even out over time. Looking at different aspects of luck just messes with your head. If I want to know my "true" winrate (not affected by luck), I should just play more hands and get a bigger sample.

Hey mate, reaching 50nl in 2018 starting from 2nl is defo doable. GLGL

Boy how did I miss this one. You sound exactly like one of those gto geeks I mention that could probably talk theory for hours but can't even beat 5z but in this case I might have to downgrade that to 2z.

Going over your posts I have to say your approach is wrong on literally every level. You should be focusing on exploit highest ev strategy otherwise you are never going to beat the rake and get anywhere. Limping at micro with the rake is awful. Cbetting a default small size, awful. Focusing on being balanced at micro, awful. copying anything rapidfish does, extra awful. Opening 65o in CO awful. You are way over complicating everything. All that bs you wrote above, just forget it all.

Take a step back and just play basic solid poker, its not hard. Just don't bluff BIG, and value bet heavy simple.