My thoughts are that the work I put into what I'm learning now will let me do something similar to you in the future.

I bumhunt, just like 99,9999% of regs that actually make money.
My last hour of poker studying was in 2010

I'm not even sure I can call myself a reg. I look at poker like a mental challenge to get as good as I can, where there is going to be no hard cap on my knowledge.

I try to study but right now I'm trying to get in a decent sample at the micros and then do some analysis on that sample and compare it do decent winning players to see where I can improve.

Well you already know what I think of this, Mason. When tf are you moving from this gig to a proper one? And then when you get this actual non-**** job, will you hate it too? Ofc we're hoping you don't, but what happens if you end up working 45 hours in the new gig with much better pay but are still unhappy with it? Then do you get stuck in this perpetually? I think it's gg if you do. IMO try it and if it's still ****, burn your money and move to Mongolia to become a monk. I'll prob be there too.

But ya, I'm doing this full time job thing for maybe a year total, hopefully finishing up between Sept and Dec this year. After which I have zero intentions of becoming an employee again. gl me?

Yeah that's cool. Same point I mentioned to Mason though, if your light at the end of the tunnel is heightened employability, then your end game is still somewhere in the 9-5 grind world, no? Ofc this is totally fine and +EV providing you don't end up hating your job.

Copy that. Everyone says they'd like to be rich but in actual fact, what people want imo is financial freedom. Like personally if I could earn 75k a year doing whatever it was that I was doing on my terms and not hating life doing it, that's infinitely higher EV than earning 200k doing something you dislike. Ofc not the same for everyone - most people with a family I'd guess would take the second option.

How tf you survive in London for so long without being a super high roller?

Hmm, looks good on paper 4 sure. I feel like there'd be too much red tape with visas n ****. Wouldn't be opposed to it tho because I wanna get outta AUS in next <=3 years because of the lolrake.

As much as it pains me, I have to agree with you here. Like we live in a completely ****ed system and, as I mentioned earlier ITT, I also have no moral reservations about exploiting it.

Yeah that's a good attitude to have. Alternatively, get good enough to breakeven at 25-50nlz, then deposit like $10k and bumhunt 200NL so you can actually make money in the game too.

I know you didn't ask for it but that's literally my advice for someone playing low micros today. The rake is simply too high. I've camped 2+2 all day and have read every cash PGC in the last few years. I've not seen a single person move up from micros to midstakes (~200nl) since ishter. That's not saying it can't be done but my point is that it's just not being done. Max is getting raped at 100, Clanty doesn't play any hands so no one will ever know whether he's a winner. Mason and Jon have the easiest player pools on the planet (not to discredit them one bit - I take my hat off to anyone who can go from micros to 10k months). The only cnt I've seen do it lately on Stars anyway is Kiranov and his usual stakes are much higher.

lol this is funny.

All the stuff you and bots are saying about living off a perverse system created by the wealth down is a load of rubbish especially in Australia meale.

i got here 3 years ago, i went from labouring on agency to get work, did that for 6 months, then did my regional work for second year visa, then i did nearly a year as a finishing foreman on a commercial building project. Now i run a tiling company for a mate whos moved over east, ive grown the company from a start pretty much to around $500k turnover in 9 months. The system only keeps you down if you let it and you dont give stuff a punt.

If you dont want to work for someone fine, play poker. If you cant make a living at that dont live off centrelink or whatever, get a loan start a company doing something you kinda enjoy (at least youre working for yourself) and take a punt. Worst case scenario is it fails and you are in the situation you were in before.

Point 1 - Sure you can guess, had a decent start in life but trying to make my own way, hence the slogging

Point 2 - Yeah I'm sure you're right on this. I think a lot about what poker is supposed to be for me and I think I just enjoy it as a puzzle, as something I'll never be perfect at and is therefore a great pursuit to see how good I can be. There is a more than decent chance that I'll never make any decent side income through it again but if playing profitably in the micros is my place, I'm ok with that, I love the game and learning it and I'm sure any movements up will come as and when I've earned them.

You can't live off centrelink without some other form of income, so I'd have no option but to work. My earlier point was that I am willing to use centrelink to supplement my income if need be. DW, I'll never be a dole bludger but if I am legally able to receive financial assistance, I'll take it. If I had no job or no income, I wouldn't stay in AU that's for sure.

gl my man.

Friday night session after work.



Going to play live 2/3 for a while tomorrow.

Also a hand from today:



Spots like this where villain is clueless you can attack for the juicy red line!

The place I work just sucks and isn't fulfilling at all, that doesn't mean I'll hate every job. I feel as though things can only improve from here on out for me. My gf decided she wanted to extend her masters a semester so I'm stuck here a little longer than I'd anticipated, but I think I'll end up applying to jobs soon and if I get something decent I'll be moving and we'll be apart for a bit. Certainly not what I wanted cause we had a long distance-ish relationship for 4 years while we were in college and it sucked a lot, but just gotta do what ya gotta do.

In my pgc I mentioned before I'd never consider going pro unless I had a 10k+ month playing part time and last month made almost 12k, so might just do poker for a couple months too. Never know. But that was my criteria for ever even considering it and now I've done it.

Can certainly do anything, maybe I'll go back to college and get my masters/phd or move to different country. Anything is possible.

GL

Yeah tbh i think you could do quite well if you played poker as much as you do work. Prob not same as working but if you don't need the cash too badly, why not.

(home game I played at had a bunch of ridiculous masks of dictators. I got Gadafi but it was so beautiful to see Hitler stack someone. Was quite entertaining also to stare down the people not wearing masks while in something like this.)

Played some 2/3 last night and won $580. Not the best session, coolered someone AA v KK AIP about 400 deep. But this hand tilted tf outta me:

~800 deep ~8 handed

UTG opens to 15, UTG+1 calls, BTN calls, Hero in SB squeezes to 70
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, BTN calls

Flop: $225: A84

Hero cbets $100, UTG +1 calls, BTN folds.

Turn: $425: A84 6

Hero bets $180, villain calls

River: $785: A84 6 Q

Before the river was dealt, I was saying no queen, no queen, no queen in my head because I can shove on literally any other river.

Anyway, I think I have to x now since villain's other Ax like AJ/AT will x behind and AQ will shove on me.

Hero asks how much villain has behind (he says about $400), Hero checks, villain quickly shoves.

Firstly, after pondering this hand for ages, I don't think villain shoves AQ quickly, they at least tank a bit with value no?

But at the same time, I don't see any bluffs they can possibly have and at the time, I quite happily fold - annoyed the dealer gave me the nutworst river, but happy I made a disciplined fold.

At the end of the hand I was like "I'll give you $10 if you can show a card that's not an ace or a queen", he shows the 5 of spades, and I throw him two chips and proceed to vomit. The **** must have been mucking around with 55 or something and I was super mad about it because it was such a large hand.

Oh well. Cool how you can have winning sessions and still be disappointed :') This game innit! Was a 13 hour session and felt pretty horrible afterward. Don't think I'll play next weekend.

Partly because I'm having such a ball playing online:



With that session in the books, I now have a $763 BR which means (according to BRM stuff on page 6) I can move up to 50nl and drop back if I lose 5BIs.

Graph of my 25NL bumhunting escapades since depositing last. Includes FR and 6m.



20bb/100 or 16.4EVbb/100

I must admit, I do feel a lot like clanty posting a graph w < 10k hands.

GL me at 50 on the weekend.

Thread says 2/5 live mate is that a typo because this graph says 25nl

2/5, 25, sall the same ****.

Love the masks, congrats on the results as well. GLGL with 50nl shots.

Cheers boss.

Yeah probably going to not play live on the weekend so i can get more 50nl reps in at peak. Ik live is the priority but i have two 4-day weekends in April and will therefore be playing a lot in the coming month. I may try get a 5 hour session in on the weekend but won't be grinding for 13 hours again. The last game i played in (one w masks) lasted 22 hours. Don't want to degen like some of those guys.

I'm not playing any live cash anymore, enjoying getting in online volume and want to play more. Still going to be playing live MTTs in and around London though.

I'm basically doing the opposite to you. :')

I'll be back in the live cash game once I bink a live MTT and have a decent enough bankroll for 1/2 - 1/3+. Until then I'll sharpen my knives online and keep studying.

Sounds like a plan!

Update:

Played in the craziest game of my life last night. 14 hour session that was too good to leave. Had a coke dealer rock up and punt off about 6k in 2 hours at a 2/3 NLH lmao. He was playing 100/100/40 over a good clip. He originally sat down two to my left, after 10 mins he moves directly to my left and I snapmove two to his left. Jesus seat. Like we're talking opening 68o to $30 pre (10bb). Anyway, I ran decently that night and won $2565 profit. This drags me back into the black for the year which is nice.

Going to fire sunny mills tomorrow morning gl me.

Against an opponent like that the Jesus seat is generally the seat to his direct right, not left. I played with a similar opponent the other day (he was probably crazier than your guy..he also came to a $500 cap game with $50k in chips) and I was definitely at a major disadvantage sitting on his left.

How not having position on a whale is better than having position on them is beyond me.

If the whale is raising 100% of the hands, then you end up with ultimate last action every hand preflop. This means you have more information about everyone's hand than they have about yours. If you are on the direct left of a player that raises 100% of his hands then you should be throwing a lot of playable hands away because you can't call 10x raises when you still have 8 other players to act (most other players will be limping both their playable hands and monsters because the maniac will raise for them).

If players are smart (not likely) they should be raising to isolate villain. Again, this is better when last to act after his raise because you have more information on other player's hand ranges and there is more dead money in the middle.

Your logic is pretty bad imo. You only get "ultimate last action" if you're in the big blind. When this sort of player is at the table and you have zero visibility postflop, you don't get the luxury of playing "playable hands". You need to find extremely good hands and extract value in good spots - which is infinitely harder to do OOP postflop.

Okay, good luck isolating villain when you have to act before him...

LoL at not understanding how the player on his immediate right has ultimate last action preflop..dense much? If you decide that you are actually interested in learning, feel free to search the strategy forums as this exact subject has been discussed in depth multiple times over the years. Toodles.