What's up everybody, Iblis' here.
As you can see from my registration date/post count I'm not exactly a newcomer (I usually post in the uNL section), but I thought about opening a thread here for a while... well, I finally did today.
I play on Pokerstars.it, NL25 right now, but I hope to start shooting NL50 real soon.
The main purpose of this thread is to basically force me to some accountability, trying to set some goals and work to achieve them, while also, in the meantime, documenting my journey.
I play 4x reg tables, my goal is to grind at least 300K hands in 2020, and hopefully be at least a NL100 reg by the end of the year.

January 2020: +€448,95

Graph



Winrate by Position



Decent winrate, kind of low volume.
Getting destroyed in the BB, it could be variance, it could be something else, I'll see when I will have more hands after the database reset.
Later I will update the thread with the first february session review, and maybe some FAQs (that nobody will ever ask, but whatever.)
Bye.

I just poop'd my pants. This is the moment we've been waiting for. Subbed

.IT crusher ITT

FIRST QUESTIONS FOR FAQ:

WHAT IS YOUR POKER HISTORY?
DO YOU PLAY REG OR ZOOM?
ARE YOU THE ONLY ITALIAN POKER PROFESSIONAL?
QUESTIONS GET NOTICED WITHOUT CAPS?

In, thanks for all the advice in the micros section. Don't forget about us when you go high stakes.

FAQs

1. What's your poker background?
My mother teached me how to play "poker all'italiana" (basically, stripped deck 5 card draw, JJ+ opens the pot) when I was like 6 y.o. lol. I kind of played recreationally until I discovered NLHE when I was 13 or something, I used to play on Fulltiltpoker (play money obviously), lots of fun.
At 20 I made my first deposit (€90, started with NL5 on bet365.it), never used my own pocket money since then.
I've always played recreationally at NL10, made some money, retired some money, made some money, retired some money, rinse and repeat.
I moved on to pokerstars and stayed there since the software quality and especially the traffic are so much better in comparison to every other platform.
I decided last year to take things more seriously and actually grinded a bankroll, starting from €200 and looking to level up without retiring any money.

2. Do you play reg tables or zoom? why?
Nowadays I play x4 reg tables, pokerstars only.
Only four beacuse Pokerstars has a table cap, reg tables beacuse zoom doesn't run above NL25, so it'd be pretty pointless to grind that and then leave it when I move up to NL50. Reg tables are also easier, people play more crap so it's less of a rake trap.
Volume could obviously be a problem but as I said, I don't have much of a choice.

3. Why don't you just play on more sites at the same time?
Low traffic on higher stakes (for higher I mean NL50 and beyond), tilting software, tilting HUDs, splitting bankroll, **** that.
Some of those offer better rakeback deal than PS (not that hard lol) but low traffic means that they're useless.

4. Do you use a HUD?
Not really.
I use Jivaro which is really basic, it helps me understand who I'm playing against and eventually some extreme villain's tendencies.
I'm kind of a HUD noob, I don't want my screen to be full on numbers, it would just tilt me to no end and overload my brain.
Also, Jivaro aesthetic is too comfy, I'm too used to it. Too bad that its subscription is a total rip-off for what it offers lol, but what can I do, I'm hooked to it.
I use H2N for tracking purposes.

5. Is poker your only/main source of income?
Obviously not, I'd be a bum right now.
I'm a physical therapist, poker has always been a hobby, or, best case scenario, it could become a little side job/second income.

6. If you're not a pro, how can you even think about crushing anything?
Thread title could be quite hyperbolic, I apologize.

7. Your playing volume is ****, couldn't bad variance or a low winrate kill you for a long time?
Yeah I know, not much I can do sadly.
As I said I have a work, I have other projects/stuff to do, there's only so much time I can dedicate to poker.
I'll do the best I can with what I have.

8. How do you study? what's your routine?
That's my biggest leak, I don't have one.
My studying process all these years consisted in reading a bunch of books, watching some video every now and then, posting on this forum and reviewing ~1% of the sessions I've played (I'm actually being generous, it's probably less than that).
I will definitely have to improve my study game in the future... I will start using GTO+ sooner or later, I swear.

9. How tough is online poker in Italy?
Consider the answer above, consider that I've always breezed through NL5/NL10 (after some adjustments) at 10+ bb/100, and you have your answer.
At least up to NL25, it's mostly a ****ing joke. There are some decent regs but God if it isn't full of gambly fishes.

10. That hand you posted is ridiculous, how can you play so bad?
Yeah I **** up a lot. I will have no problems posting here butched hands if for some reason I consider them interesting, so I'm worried it will happen quite frequently.

I hope we'll reach a stage there will be so many questions that I could miss some of those, but as of now, caps are kind on unnecessary.
Trust me, I owe the micros section much more that it owes me.
The higher stake here is NL1K and it barely runs, so no need to worry about that.

How many times a week do you eat pizza/pasta?

Hi Iblis. I am italian too, NL10 regfish try to become better and moving up. I am very interested in your thread. I will follow with pleasure. Bye

PS. nice result for january

Nice to see some italians post in here as well GL

Every single day, sometimes even twice a day. Not even kidding.
Hi berti what's up, thank you very much.
Hi Rocco, thank you for your post.
@Shipnickle that's actually an Italian pro, since you were asking.

Day 1: +€78,72



Decent start of the month, I feared the first session after opening this thread would have been an obvious disaster.
Getting real close to having a decent bankroll for at least 5/6 NL50 shots, I can't wait.

Day 1

Hand #1 (Biggest Pot Won) "It was actually a Crying Call"


Hand #2 (Biggest Pot Lost) "Solid Punt"


Hand #3 "J-High, Why not"


Hand #4 "Villain taking the concept of blocking bet way too far"

Hand #5 "I should fold in this kind of spots"

Happy to hear you are moving up!

GL*

Inviato dal mio SM-A405FN utilizzando Tapatalk

Thank you compà!

Day 2: +€27,91



Really pissed off at this session, it's a green one so I'll take it, but God damn if it didn't get ugly near the hand.
Some bad plays, a lot of things to improve.
Looking for more solid and consistent play today.

Day 2

Hand #6 (Biggest Pot Won) "3way all-in preflop"


Hand #7 (Biggest Pot Lost) "******ed call-down"


Hand #8 "Big Flip"

Hand #9 "Red Line Stuff"

Hand #10 "Triple Barreling 5-High"

Hand #11 "Back-firing Trap"

Hand #12 "Villain Owned Me"

I dont see how QK can be a fold ever, i would expect to beat a lot of value stuff too

Villain's reggish, so when he donks 1/2 pot 3way in a 3BP is a huge red flag.
There's no way he's taking this line with worse Qxs/KK+ and he simply won't have any bluffs that take this line, especially since I have the K (he should give up bluffs with spades on the river anyway).
I'm pissed beacuse his line was kinda bad, so he actually gave me the chance to make an exploit fold somewhere and I missed that.

Fact that you have Ks is why its a plus as it doesnt block any bluffs :P IDK, seems to strong to me to fold, wouldnt be surprised to be shown QT kind of stuff a lot

On the river, you're right.
The thing is, population isn't able as far as I know to pull such a bluff with this line 3way, especially your average straight forward regular. Vs fish/unknown I'm snapcalling all day everyday without a second thought, that's for sure.
Going meta, villain probably knows that the chance to have someone folding Qx or overpair is really slim, so it isn't even that wrong to be value heavy.
Worse Qx, maybe, but AQ is a thing too. :[
I don't know, I could be result oriented, but I don't mind exploit folding here.

Short on time, I'll update with day 3 as soon as possible.
Little spoiler, I'm finally going to shot NL50 tonight (6 bullets, russian roulette style ) so if anyone's lurking wish me good luck pls, hopefully I won't blast all of them in a single session.

GL for the shot Iblis.

gl with the fiddy shots Iblis

Day 3&4: +36,96 (+74,54/-37,58)



A bit of a rollercoaster.
Pretty lucky green line compared to the yellow one, but I'd rather feel guilty for an undeserved green line than feel mad for a deserved yellow one.
Lost a stack and a half at NL50 in ~700 hands, we'll se what happens next, I still have some cartridges.

Day 3&4

Hand #13 (Biggest Pot Won) "Lucky stuff"


Hand #14 (Biggest Pot Lost) "Nice start of the session"


Hand #15 "The good old double min x/r"


Hand #16 "Standard Cooler?"