Hey PG&C,

I've been a poker fan and casual player for a few years now and I have had some success at the micro tournaments I used to enjoy. I final tabled the $0.55 BB twice and turned my initial deposit of $30 into ~$200 but haven't played much since. My university exams finished a couple of weeks ago and now I have a long summer ahead of me, which I intend to spend taking poker seriously, properly learning the fundamentals, playing lots of hands and hopefully moving up the stakes.

I am going to switch to cash games, I think I will be able to learn them more effectively and also the flexibility of being able to start and stop whenever I choose means I can live my normal life around poker, I am committed but don't want to be restricted by the poker I'm playing. I've withdrawn some of the money, leaving myself with a $75 roll and am going to start right at the bottom, playing 2NL zoom. I've chosen zoom mainly so I can play more hands but also as the speed of the hands means I'm less likely to get frustrated and start doing stupid things.

I've set myself some weekly poker and non-poker goals for the thread, which will probably change as I go on:

[] Study 10-15 hours
[] Play 8-10k hands
[] Eat well 6 days
[] Exercise 3 times
[] Read half a book

Finally, I played the first session tonight, which started roughly but I ended up booking a solid win to start it all off:



I'll post regular updates with graphs, interesting hands (probably some terribly played ones as well) and goal updates, it'd be sweet to have some people along for the ride. Hopefully the end of this thread will be me holding my own at the mid stakes tables, but I have a lot of work to do before then!

Thanks and gl,
Gards

Played about 2000 hands today and was all over the place which is really frustrating. Felt lost quite a few times and was struggling to play hands which I think should be straight forward. Need to reacquaint myself with the fold button pretty badly, and was way too attached to KK and QQ, ignoring myself when I'd told myself to fold.

I struggle taking 2NL seriously as its for such little money, spewing away money because it doesn't matter. I know you're supposed to dissociate the money from the chips, but I can't help but think "its only 20 cents" or whatever to call, even when the play is obviously wrong. Maybe some software that displays stacks in BB would be a solution to this?

I'm also considering studying for a while, then rolling myself for 5NL instead, which I think would solve the problem, as that starts being real money for someone like me. Really demoralising day, wasn't planning to play much Saturday or Sunday anyway, but will make sure to get some good studying in. I'm still missing some of the basics.

Gl and come on England!
Gards

Having Saturday and Sunday off was a good idea. Had a really nice weekend (partly thanks to Sir Harry Kane and co) and got some solid studying in too, which paid off. Felt a lot more confident today, ran a couple of dollars above ev which is always nice but made way more correct decisions. Still played a couple of hands awfully I'm pretty sure, need to slow down a little post flop and realise when I have obvious folding spots. Overall, definitely felt I played better than last session, which I guess is always the goal. Here's a couple of hands I'm uncertain about:

Too loose a call on the turn? Should I raise river or is a call good?




I know I misplayed this but not sure what to do differently. Fold flop? Just call turn as played?




Looking forward to another session tomorrow.

Thanks and gl,
Gards

3b with KK is too small, make it 20c, fold to flop raise

Thought as much, thanks for the reply. Been lurking on your threads for ages, you're such a crusher dude!

It's like this ability to actually make those sick folds, already on the flop, regardless of your mood, no ego, no convincing yourself that villain has baby OP or pair + OESD lies that makes a winning micro reg

If you do all the rest ok, but can't fold you're prob. breakeven or a very small winner because all those weak tights who only bet when they have it exploit you if you call off

Never had to work so hard for $2 in my life

Wasn't really in the mood to play poker last night, and played that way for the first 1500-2000 hands. After that, played solid and am pleased with the way I chipped back up. For some reason I didn't tag any hands as I played, so will dig through the session later today and hopefully post a couple of hands I'm unsure about.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I had some computer issues over the weekend, they seem to have all gone now which is a relief. I did end up losing the first 4k hands from the thread, break even so hardly the end of the world! Not sure if I'll play today, I have a lot to get done in the daytime and then England play this evening (its coming home) but maybe I'll get some hands in after the game.

Until next time,
Gards

Found a couple of hands I'm pleased with, and a couple I think I misplayed:

This guy was a bit of a maniac, was still a little nervous calling it off with jacks but glad I was right. He blasted off with a couple of other hands as well, so I have him noted and hope to make more money off him in future.



Think they literally never bet that big with any hand that beats me, pleased with my read and the call, even if its not that tough.



Now onto the not-so-good hands. Easy fold on river but really not sure about my turn check or the call that follows?



Easy fold on the river? I check thinking he has hands exactly like KQo but still call, not following my own thoughts on the hand.



As always, would appreciate any thoughts!

Man poker is so much fun. Such a ridiculous session, really thought I'd keep losing the longer I played but so pleased with the way I recovered. I was bossing everyone around a lot on the way back up, really felt in control on all tables, I'm going to go over those hands to try and replicate it when not in a 6+ buy in hole!

It was also the first time I've ever played throughout the night, I sat down at 9pm Friday night and stopped playing around 8am the next morning. Had a non-poker day today but will get a good session or two in tomorrow.

I'll also post a week-long graph and update on the goals set at the start of the thread, Sunday seems the best day to do all of that. I'm really enjoying poker at the moment and can tell I'm getting better as I play more and more hands, I'm losing less in bad spots and winning more in good spots, hopefully I'll be able to post a more linear graph tomorrow.

Good luck on Sunday,
Gards

Good, small session today. I was feeling tired pretty quickly and didn't want to end up spewing away the money I'd won, my internet has also been dodgy, dropping pretty often for no reason which is frustrating. Ran super good, full house vs nut flush, flopped nut flush vs queen-high flush, and a guy open shoving for 100BB with K6o so wasn't the hardest time I've ever had at the tables. But of course I stacked off KK vs AA, there seems to be a decent number of people who literally only have aces when getting it in pre. I'm not sure how to account for this when others can spew and have random cards as well.



Graph to date so far, running a buy in or so above EV, but still an okay win-rate so far but I want to increase it over the next few sessions. Aside from the graphs, I'm pleased with how I'm playing and know I'm getting better. Obviously huge amounts left to learn, even at the micros, but I'm looking forward to learning more.

Weekly goals:
[N] Study 10-15 hours (7)
[Y] Play 8-10k hands (15k)
[Y] Eat well 6 days (6)
[N] Exercise 3 times (1)
[N] Read half a book (1/3)

Studying time was largely replaced by World Cup watching, which I'm fine with really, it only comes around every four years and has been a ridiculous tournament. The games are less frequent now so should be able to up the study this week. Got the hands in easily, will look for 10k a week from now on. Ate well, could have been better but no takeaways or anything like that, though on the other hand was pretty idle and only exercised once, need to move more! With the World Cup interrupting playing and studying time, playing and studying interrupted reading time, again I should have more time this week. Each time I finish a book I'll post in ITT and give a brief opinion on it.

I'm going to sweat JRB on the $5k WSOP final table now, he's a nice guy and easy to root for, and really wants a bracelet so hopefully he takes it down. I get my university results for the second half of the year tomorrow, little bit nervous but think I did well, none of the results should be too much of a surprise either way. Apart from that, there's more football to watch tomorrow and more poker to play!

Here's to a good week,
Gards

Another decent, long session tonight. I started spewing a lot in the middle of the hands after losing AA v 76o v AQ for a 600BB pot, it seems PT4 doesn't track/doesn't correctly track the EV in spots where one player is all in before other go all in, as my EV line dived straight down with the cash line.

Often my red line is pretty diagonally down, so its nice to see it be flatter for the session, I'm folding one street sooner with bad hands and getting more folds from appreciating our relative hand strengths the more and more I play. It'd be nice to have a positive red line for a session in the near future.

Got abused in the chat for the first time which is nice, good to know I got under someones skin I suppose, though I can't recall the hand that set them off, I'll try and find it tomorrow.

I feel comfortable at this level now, I'm sure I'm towards the top of the pool and find myself in a good portion of hands outplaying my opponents. I'm excited to take a shot at 5NL soon to see what the difference is (not much from what I've read).

Overall, I am up just under 11 buy ins after 20k hands, solid progress so far.

On a more personal note, my university results were a little better than I was expecting which was really pleasing, it gives me a good shot at getting a first overall, which I'd be really proud of. If I put the work in when I go back for final year I've got every chance.

I'll post some hands tomorrow,
Gards

A shorter session today, started to lose focus a lot sooner than I normally do, think I must be more tired than I realise.

Gap in EV came from JJ holding vs AK all-in pre. I mis-clicked minraised an UTG limp, he shoves for 106BB effective and from what I've seen so far, weird things like this are far more often AQ, AK and small pairs rather than QQ+ so I called and held. Nice.

Also flatted a four bet with QQ*, flopped a set and stacked KK on the river. Also nice. Apart from those two hands, nothing too exciting happened really. I'm pleased with my red line again, I think that has been the difference in my play the last session or two.

I'm going to study a lot more over the next few days to work up to taking a shot at 5NL, probably on Monday night. Though I assume the weekend will be softer so I might do it on Sunday instead.

Good luck at the tables,
Gards

*This is the hand. Obviously post flop is gross for him, great for me and isn't that interesting. I was just wondering about my play pre:

I think I'm obviously not folding, especially to that size, but his four bet is KK or AA so often, maybe always, so I don't think five betting/shoving achieves anything? Is calling then proceeding very carefully, in position, a fine play?

At higher stakes I think this is an obvious spot to get it in but at the micros I think five betting with queens is actually a losing play. I'd love to hear some thoughts!