Nice blog man!

Ill give you some advice as playing pro for couple of years.
Since you can play only 60-80h per month,I highly recommend you to continue playing zoom to get some volume. Get some decent sample size.
Hourly is higher at reg tables if you table select, however you said you have well paid job and not playing for a living ( at least not yet )

Playing 3 tables of zoom is just fine, I also find it hard to play 4 tables. Need to be really focused for 4 tables.

Thx man! You make some great points here which I completely agree. Playing zoom when not playing full time is a good way to get a decent sample sample size while balancing it with other stuff.

I also do not have the financial pressure to succeed in poker. However, I want to take it seriously and for me having a substantial side-income would mean playing 200NL and winning.

By taking the study part seriously I think that I can beat 100z long term. But by just playing at pokerstars I think past 100z it gets very diffcult to beat the zoom pools as someone who invests just ~80 hours overall in poker. Especially since the 500z pool doesn´t run always and a lot regs move down to 200z. Then I think that for part time players reg tables become more attractive.

But I think making step by step is the way to go and when/if I ever reach this point I can look for the most +EV decision. Until then there´s still a lot of work for me to do

Week 06 Update:

Shot at 100z going really well so far. Running extremely hot. Playing well, but tbh it´s not that difficult to play well when people keep donating everywhere. Started to work with GTO+ and have done some sims respective BTN vs CO 3bp. Played a bit with the inputs (ranges, bet sizings, etc) to see how this affects the solver output for certain boards. Quite shocked to see how our strategy might change even when we make some small input changes.

Graph


Some HH´s:

H1: vs reg, protecting our xc range with some 9x OTT doesn´t seem to bad despite 2 FD´s on board.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 108.05 BB
SB: 135.18 BB
Hero (BB): 130.22 BB
UTG: 85.51 BB
MP: 107.21 BB
CO: 173.04 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 9

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 11.5 BB, BTN calls 9 BB

Flop: (23.5 BB, 2 players) 4 9 9
Hero bets 7.37 BB, BTN calls 7.37 BB

Turn: (38.24 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 18.17 BB, Hero calls 18.17 BB

River: (74.58 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 71.01 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 71.01 BB



H2: vs weak reg

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 123.12 BB
Hero (SB): 109.54 BB
BB: 190.1 BB
UTG: 188.46 BB
MP: 115.35 BB
CO: 53.16 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 9 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) 3 8 Q
Hero checks, BB bets 5.64 BB, Hero raises to 18.5 BB, BB calls 12.86 BB

Turn: (55 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 15 BB, BB calls 15 BB

River: (85 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 67.04 BB and is all-in, BB calls 67.04 BB



H3: vs reg, not sure about this one.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 100 BB
SB: 120.05 BB
BB: 243.87 BB
UTG: 204.28 BB
MP: 351.13 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, fold, fold, CO raises to 21 BB, Hero calls 13 BB

Flop: (43.5 BB, 2 players) 5 7 A
CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: (43.5 BB, 2 players) T
CO checks, Hero bets 15.5 BB, CO calls 15.5 BB

River: (74.5 BB, 2 players) 4
CO checks, Hero bets 63.5 BB and is all-in, CO calls 63.5 BB and is all-in



H4: vs reg, should defo find a fold OTR. People never bluffing with this line at 100z.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 258.18 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 112.08 BB
MP: 92.23 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 Q

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) K 5 6
Hero checks, BTN bets 1.57 BB, Hero calls 1.57 BB

Turn: (8.64 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero checks, BTN bets 12.32 BB, Hero calls 12.32 BB

River: (33.28 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN bets 46 BB, Hero calls 46 BB



Not sure how much time I will have for poker until 18th Feb. My mother came to visit me for few days and she is leaving on the 18th. Fitness going well this month. Have run already 5x this month. However, until now didn´t include any bodyweight exercises into my fitness program. Hope to change this until the end of month.

GL at the tables

Congrats on your results man, looks very solid, thanks for sharing hands also. I really like the turn check in Hand 1, but I think a bit lower stakes regs are not aggressive enough to valuebet JJ there (seems absurd I know), altough here vs reg it seems wonderful.

About hand 4: Seems like one of the best hands we can have there right? What do you think about raising flop sometimes also?

GL to you too

Subbed!

Thx man.

Hand 1: Agree with you that people will not go too thin for value. However, even at lower stakes people go nuts with their bluffs (even with hands which are not supposed to be bluffed) in these spots when we check to them after having a pretty wide range OTT because of our range bet OTF. I am mostly targeting his bluffs here (he will have plenty of them) and at the same time I protect my xc range to not get run over in these spots.

Hand 4: This hand might be a xr OTF with a smaller frequency. When xr-ing these 2nd pair hands OTF I prefer something like 46cc, 86cc, etc which gives us additional equity with the backdoor straight and cleaner outs when making 2pair compared to Q6cc where we still might be behind to villains KQ combos.

OTR I think we can overfold vs this line (especially at lower stakes). When people overbet turn and river they mostly will have a very nutted range. Most of the regs nowadays aggressively overbet OTT after range betting, but are then heavily value oriented with their river overbets. Without additional info or vs weaker regs imo calling here is a mistake.

GL to you too, mate

How big is the difference between 50z and 100z player pool in your opinion? Nice results.

Thanks mate

Imo the skill difference between the player pools is marginal. The fish:reg ratio in both pools is pretty good. The average 100z reg is slightly more aggressive, especially preflop. Postflop tendencies are similar where postflop aggression over several streets quite often means = I got the nuts so please pay me off.

However, you will find also a handful of regs like bianchini, peixe felix, steinutz, etc who are imo way ahead in skill level compared to the average 50z/100z reg and can give you a hard time at the tables.

Really nice results OP. GL!

Nice results OP! I like a lot of your HH's. Will be following. Can't really say "see you in the pool" because when I reach 100z you are probably playing 5 hundo already

Thanks vrbik. Hope you catch some heat this month.

Let's hope we crush this year . Gl with your own journey!

Great start man, keep up the great work.

Subbed!.

One another note, I have the same issue with white patches on the skin as well. Never officially got diagnosed but it's pretty much like yours mostly one the hands and only really visible in summer when my other skin tans.

Ty!

What you describe sounds like vitiligo. It mostly affects the face and hands. The progress of the white patches is different from person to person. Some people lose 60-70% of their pigment in few months and others get few small white patches and never develop new one their whole life. If you have fair skin and live in a country where you are not exposed to sun a lot, then the white patches are barely visible and people often do not have any issues with them.

GL mate!

In & gl man

Hey, seems like you are of to a good start!

It´s a small sample size , but do you think that something has "clicked" for you? Perhaps something from MMA´s course?

gl in 2020!

Ty.

I am a long time lurker of your blog. You have a very interesting life story and admirable work ethic. You have also my appreciation for transitioning from your regular job to poker in this age. Many people would choose the "safer" route even on costs beeing unhappier with what they do. Hope you continue to update us regularly in your thread. GL mate!

Yeah a good start defo. As you said the sample size is way too small to make any conclusions from it. I didn´t have any "aha" moments, instead of that I made small improvements in many different areas. We will see if I can continue with this thru 2020 and if it will result in long term results.

Thanks & GL to you.

Week 07 Update:

Low volume as expected. Positive thing is that I have analyzed in detail few 3bet BTN vs CO spots in GTO+. Overwhelmed with the amount of information but also confused with some results which the solver proposes especially when choosing our triple barrel bluffs in these spots. Knowing on which runouts it is better to choose weak pairs and on which good blockers to TP is still quite difficult to find out for me. Still looking for some patterns here to get a better understanding for the concept behind it.

A very negative thing this week is that I have checked my results several times during the sessions in PT4. Something which I try to avoid at any circumstances. I am still so much attached to results that it is quite embarrassing. For next month I might throw in some freerolls regarding this goal for motivation. Let’s see.

During the week I started few sessions where I played few hundreds and had to stop them because I had other stuff to finish. In future I will avoid this and try just to play when I am sure that I have at least few hours without any distraction. Not getting in the zone is a problem for me.

Graph


Some HH´s:

H1: vs reg

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 128.32 BB
SB: 135.62 BB
BB: 288.88 BB
Hero (UTG): 103.9 BB
MP: 108.16 BB
CO: 68.1 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 7

Hero raises to 2.3 BB, MP raises to 7.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 5.2 BB

Flop: (16.5 BB, 2 players) 3 9 4
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: (16.5 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 5.17 BB, MP calls 5.17 BB

River: (26.84 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, MP bets 17.09 BB, Hero raises to 91.23 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 58.52 BB
Rake paid 2.5 BB

H2: vs good reg. Nice to find a bluff finally. I like villains line a lot in this hand.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 95.61 BB
SB: 116.81 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 115.1 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 463.24 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 4 8 6
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (6 BB, 2 players) K
SB checks, Hero bets 4.28 BB, SB raises to 18.98 BB, Hero calls 14.7 BB

River: (43.96 BB, 2 players) T
SB bets 94.83 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 78.02 BB and is all-in



H3: vs reg. Big mistake from my side OTR. Not sure where my head was during the hand.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
Hero (SB): 102.98 BB
BB: 100 BB
UTG: 139.8 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 89.84 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q A

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, BTN calls 7 BB

Flop: (19 BB, 2 players) A T 9
Hero bets 5.96 BB, BTN calls 5.96 BB

Turn: (30.92 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero bets 20 BB, BTN calls 20 BB

River: (70.92 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero bets 68.02 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 68.42 BB
Rake paid 2.5 BB

H4: vs reg. Not sure about this one tbh.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 391.54 BB
SB: 177.89 BB
BB: 167.67 BB
UTG: 123.13 BB
MP: 153.32 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q A

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 8 BB, fold, fold, fold, UTG raises to 20 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

Flop: (41.5 BB, 2 players) Q 4 3
UTG checks, Hero bets 11.5 BB, UTG calls 11.5 BB

Turn: (64.5 BB, 2 players) 5
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (64.5 BB, 2 players) 5
UTG bets 75.02 BB, Hero calls 68.5 BB and is all-in



H5: vs nit rec. This guy is passive af. Looks tight but don´t think that we have 43% pot odds vs this type of player.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 28.75 BB
Hero (BB): 107.84 BB
UTG: 91.93 BB
MP: 118.81 BB
CO: 85.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q A

UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop: (4.5 BB, 2 players) A 8 2
Hero checks, UTG bets 3 BB, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, UTG raises to 89.93 BB and is all-in, fold

UTG wins 24.22 BB
Rake paid 1.28 BB

I will be quite busy tommorow and on saturady/sunday on a bachelor party from a friend. Hope to have more time for poker from 24.02. Getting 30k hands this month will be challenging. In March I will then have much more time for poker again.

GL to everyone

Week 08 Update:

Short update this week. Will be on a bachelor party over weekend, so no more poker this week for me. Nothing much to report. Low volume as thru the whole month. Was busy with work and other stuff. 100z pool seemed fishy af this week. People donating everywhere. Unfortunately didn´t have much time to capitalize on this.

Graph


GL at the tables!

Graph


Stakes Breakdown


Hope everyone had a good month. GL in march!

March 2020 Goals


Poker Goals:

[] Play 60h+. This should result in 30k hands at least.

[] Study for 8h+. Run script ing GTO+ for BTN vs CO 3bp and study outcome.

[] Check results/stats in PT4 just once a week (sundays)

[] Mark interesting hands while playing and update blog once a week (sundays)


Fitness Goals:

[] Run on average 3x per week for 7km

I will be going for Istanbul and Beirut on the 27th March for a friends wedding. Hope until then to get a decent sample size. As mentioned in my last post this month there will be a freeroll.

***Freeroll: I am allowed to check results/stats in PT4 just once a week (every sunday). If I fail to do so by checking results from Monday until Saturday the first 3 posters after this post will get 50 USD/person. Eligible are just players with a stars account so that I can sent them the money via stars if I fail. If I fail I will PM them for their stars SN.

GL to everyone in march!

GL. Nice results in Feb!

Nice feb GL!

In 4 freeroll GLGL

Gl thx for the update

Thx guys. Booked you 3 for the freeroll. GL to me
Ty mate.