Hi everyone, I'm Peter. I have been playing NLH for three years with limited success and now I want take it seriously by giving it the best I can.

In 2015 I started playing NL10, won a little, moved up to NL25, lost, lost some more and after being down 2k I moved back down to NL10. I did improve somewhat over the following months but was still a losing player for the rest of the year and also in 2016. In 2017 I grew my bankroll from 200 to 750 by the end of November. In December I started what I was thinking to be a shot at NL25 and lost it all by the end of March 2018. So much for bankroll management.

Then I decided to commit to the challenge to move up from NL10 to NL200 in 12 months and give poker everything I can. However, being now two weeks into the first month, it doesn't look promising (stuck 4 buy-ins ... and its not variance). The same patterns as in the past which did not get me very far. So I made another decision to put up this challenge here and get some accountability. I am aware that this goal is a long shot and that I can't directly achieve it. After all it's poker and I can't choose how much I win in what period of time. However I use this goal as motivation which will help me to put in the work ... and some more work, the only thing I have control over.

So here's what I will do in terms of games I want to play. I will focus on mainly one game type and play online 6-max No Limit Hold'em on four tables starting at NL10 with a bankroll of USD 367. I will adhere to strict bankroll management and take shots at the next level when I reach 30 buy-ins of that level. When I loose 10 buy-ins I will move down again.

Additionally I will occasionally through in a tournament or a live cash game session to mix things up. However this will go against a budget and not my regular online cash game bankroll.

I have a regular job which means that Monday to Friday I can start playing or working on my game at 8pm earliest. I commit to at least 50 hours play per month and to 20 hours off table work. This includes taking courses, reading books, analyzing and discussing hands, updating this thread etc. It does not include watching random youtube videos unless I am watching actively which means with pen and paper, incorporating into my game what I have learned.

First priority in terms of off table work is to reduce tilt induced spew. Right now this is more important than improving poker technical skills because no level of technical skill will ever compensate my tilt induced losses.

I will update this thread weekly with results from past week and goals for next week. Additional posts include hands and other things on my mind.

Last session was the worst and I lost 10 buy-ins. Called down too light and got my bluffs called with anything from overpair, top pair and worse. I need to reconsider how long I play as the first four hours were actually fine. I also need to bet larger when betting for value as it looks like this is more likely to be considered being a bluff.

Gl, man.

Yes losing 10 buy ins isn't fun.

10nl is very beatable. Maybe posts some hands in here and we can give you our thoughts.

Also you have a hud and how are you studying?

One of the hands I am not sure whether I should have folded is the following. I have only 41 hands on villain with the following stats: 40/25/11. Eventually I called the river because he unlikely had KK (would have raised pre-flop) and besides 53 I gave him all the lower sets and two pair hands. Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

After playing a 1h session on Thursday and loosing 1BI without doing anything terribly wrong, I played a 6:40h session Friday night (see graph below). In the first hour I had to fold everything after getting raised by nits on several turn and river cards. Additionally I ran QQ into AA pre-flop against a maniac and in another hand I rivered quads just to loose against a straight flush. Villain slow rolled my by nearly letting his time bank expire.

However luck turned to my favor and I made it back into profit territory. Then I lost 1BI against a better flush (may have overplayed my hand here) and just ran terribly for another hour to then rebound and finally book a nice win.

What I am most proud of is that I managed to play well the entire six hour session (the flush hand may be the exception). I will post the flush hand and another hand I lost where I am not sure about my river call.

GL

Following the hand I am interested in your opinion. Villain stats were 29/24/5 (108 hands). RFI on the button was 5/6. My bet on the flop was a mistake imo because I had no value and there was little chance to fold out better. What's your view on how the action went down on the three streets?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 158.3 BB
BB: 143.6 BB
UTG: 116.6 BB
CO: 100 BB
BTN: 100 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9 J

fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, BTN calls 9 BB

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) 3 2 2
Hero checks, BTN bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

Turn: (49 BB, 2 players) J
Hero checks, BTN bets 17 BB, Hero calls 17 BB

River: (83 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, BTN bets 52.9 BB, Hero raises to 105.8 BB, BTN calls 6.1 BB and is all-in

You have range advantage OTF and should bet, if villain only has a range of 33 and A2s and some FD combos in this spot then x yes

Or you can just have a strategy where you check all your overpairs and hands like this and look to play turns lmao

I would still say leading the flop is probably best. You still have all overpairs in your range that would 3! pre. He doesn't since QQ plus would 4! and not flat. He likely doesn't have any pocket pairs on that turn other than 88-TT and maybe JJ but we block JJ and so does the board.

I feel either lead flop lead (this) turn is best.
Then we have to decide whether J9 with the flush draw on this board could be a check raise or not. Very borderline. I usually semibluff check raise with flush draws of Q or higher. The 7 high through J high flush draws are usually calls. and the flush draws 6 high and lower are bluff raises.

However, I still feel a lead is best because we can rep a flopped two pair better than villain. And even if he flopped two pair on this board say 88-TT, that range is now behind to our top two pair on the turn. We lead turn and scoop.

As played... the check raise is absolutely horror. You will never, ever, ever get called by a worse hand. The J high flush is actually a bluff catcher at this point and should have been a call not a re-raise all in. If you were good on the river a call showdown would be proper. Your jam only ever gets called by K high or better flushes, full houses, and quads. Any bluff now folds. Your jam folded out any hand you beat.

You can do this but it takes a more middle of the road approach.

Thanks. Check raising with J9s on this specific J high board given that villain did not 4-bet pre-flop, does probably also make sense. I am unlikely behind, even against what villain actually has. 2 overs and a higher FD.

Fully agree. Given pre-flop action I am most likely ahead on the turn, except maybe against JJ. So check-raise on turn would make some sense. However raising the river was just throwing money away. Unfortunately I did this way too often in this month why the results are below disappointing.

April is over and the first month of the challenge didn't go well. At some point I was down 30 BIs and had to reload 20 BIs. I made back 10 BIs in the past week so that together with 6 BI rakeback I netted a loss of 14 BIs.

I played 54 hours of poker but did not come even close to the 20 hours of studying. For structured learning I have signed up for an Upswing course and I have also started to work with Jared Tendlers's Mental Game of Poker. To improve on disciplined studying I will log all the learning sessions as does PT for online play.

Given the deposit of USD 200, the rakeback of USD 60 and winning approx. USD 100 during the last week, I started May with a bankroll of USD 436.

Goals for May
1. Study for at least 20 hours and focus on tilt reduction
2. Play for at least 50 hours
3. Improve sleep which means at least 7 hours per night

Played a good session today except for the following hand which I am unsure. It is my usual weak spot where I call off my stack with TPTK or over pair. I know that this is no good against anybody who plays tight. However, against loose and aggressive players it feels too tight to just fold all over pairs.

Villain is a 27/21/3 (3bet: 13%) over 132 hands and in the current session most stats were doubled (I had only 18 hands).

What do you think, is the river jam a clear fold? Villain could have a missed flush draw or straight draw but he could also have all the value hands of which there are quite a lot of combos.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 102.5 BB
BTN: 139 BB
SB: 117.4 BB
BB: 136.2 BB
UTG: 134.4 BB
Hero (MP): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K K

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to 5 BB, Hero raises to 15 BB, BB calls 10 BB

Flop: (30.5 BB, 2 players) 4 7 J
BB bets 14.6 BB, Hero calls 14.6 BB

Turn: (59.7 BB, 2 players) Q
BB bets 57 BB, Hero raises to 70.4 BB and is all-in, BB calls 13.4 BB

River: (200.5 BB, 2 players) 4

I haven't posted for a long time so here's an update for May

Goals for May
1. I have only studied about 10h which is short 50% of my goal. I need to shift some time from playing to studying in June
2. I have played 59h cash and about 13h tournaments which exceeds the goal. Results were roughly breakeven with a small win of USD 5 (50bb). Results went up and down and I had to many loosing sessions because of bad play (usually bluffing / calling too much and in the wrong spot).
3. Sleeping 7 hours a night did definitely not happen. This needs improvement as well.

I will keep my goals for June unchanged.

Just another quick update for the current month. It started pretty well and I was up about 6 BIs before last weekend started. However the two sessions on Saturday and Monday were just absurd. I think I have not had that much bad luck for months.

In the Saturday session I eventually lost 5 BIs with results being 4 BIs below adj. all-in equity. Additionally I had to fold numerous pots in which I was a huge favorite but the board run out just terrible. E.g. flopped set with 2 to a flush and turn and river being of the same suit and the nit going all-in on the river (there went half my stack).

I thought that must be it now with the next session hopefully being "normal" (I know, there is no normal in poker but you know what I mean). Wrong, wrong and wrong again. In today's session I managed to loose 7.5 BIs .... and I actually didn't do anything particularly bad. Results were 3BIs below adj. all-in equity and additionally I got coolered in nearly every big pot: Set over set, I lost. All-in on the turn and villain having 3 outs, I lost. I lost KK against AK and run QQ into KK against a crazy LAG who 3bet over 30% pre flop (the other stats looked similarly crazy and I had more than just a few hands on him). Finally I lost what felt like all mid sized pots by being out-kicked one notch etc.

I don't write this to claim that I am the unluckiest player on earth. I know that I'm not. The fact that this was actually my best session from a mental game point of view drives me crazy. The majority of past loosing sessions were simply because I made to many big mistakes. And today I play this session where I get destroyed without punting off my stack once. It is just so frustrating that for once I play well and instead of adding to my winnings I get slaughtered.

How do you deal with such horrendous outcomes? I lost 33bb/100 over 4 hours of play on 6 tables .... 33bb/100!! Can you just shrug it off because it's only two sessions? My brain tells me that this is nothing in the grand scheme of things but the stomach has a different opinion.

Whatever, complaining doesn't help much so I focus on the positive of the two sessions (no silly all-in bluffs or stupid all-in calls) and hope that I can maintain the discipline in the next sessions.