Hello Ladies and Gents,

I've just recently been reading people Goals and Challenges the last few weeks and I thought it would be fun to start a goal/challenge thread myself. I am a professional just not in poker That being said I have played poker for quite a while and I take the game fairly seriously. I usually put in about 15 - 20 hours of live poker a week and a few hours studying. I live in a state where Online Poker is not legal at this point, so my challenge will strictly be live poker focused. The games I play in are mostly unraked (Card Club), but I do play Casino/Raked poker from time to time (mostly when out of town for work).

On an average week: the hour breakdown will be approximately 10 hours of NLHE, 5 Hours of PLO and 5 Hours of 10/20 O8. I don't always make the PLO game every week, in those weeks I will play more hours of NLHE.

Starting Bankroll: $5,000 (will add $1,500 if bankroll dips below $2000, but those funds will be taken back out at a later TBD amount).

Will take 2-3 buy-ins with me for the game that I plan on playing that day.
Buy in amounts:
1/2 NLHE- 1 Buy-in equals $300 - $400
1/2/5 bring-in PLO - 1 Buy-in equals $500
10/20 Limit 08 - 1 Buy-in equals $500

The NLHE game is a 75% max buy of big stack game, If my starting stack dips below $175 I'll top off up to $450. Games can play quite large.
PLO is a $1,000 max buy game. If my starting stack dips below $200, I'll top off up to $500
10/20 Limit 08 I'll add $200 anytime I dip below $200.

Any suggestions or other rules I should implement to help me on this challenge? Should I lower the amount I buy in for in PLO to $400? I'll be posting some notes and hand histories throughout the challenge as well, feel free to add your feedback.

1st session in this challenge will be December 1st 2017 and logged that day or the next day.

1st session NLHE: -$400 ��

Key hands in this session that caused the loss:

Hero: AsAc
Villain: KsJs
AIPF for $175
Flop: T83r no spade..
Turn J
River K....booooo

Other key hand that contributed to loss

Hero in UTG/straddle $4: 2s2h
Couple limpers, middle position raises $16, goes total 5 ways to flop including hero.

Flop: 2c7s8c (bingo...)
Hero checks, original raiser bets $45, button flats, back to hero ships all in for little over $240 total.
Original raiser tank shoves and the button open folds KQcc
Original raiser shows A9cc and hits flush on River.

These hands happened 5 hours into the session almost back to back, was quite frustrated and decided not to reload.

Any questions or suggestions on how to make this thread more entertaining for you 2+2ers?

Update #2

Tournament - Squeezed in a little $60 daily tournament on Saturday, came in 2nd out of 30 for $410 (+$350). Lost a pot for 98% of chips in play HU with AJcc vs 56o AIPF haha. Not going to count tournament results into this challenge though.

Cash Game Challenge - 10/20 Limit O8 - Played 4.5 hours of 10/20 Limit O8, net result +$1030. It was a great game, lots of 6-7 way pots and lots of really good action. Two pots with more than $1,000, which is quite a bit for a limit game. I would have played another or two, but I committed to picking up a friend at the airport -

I did manage to get half of one of the $1,000 pots with the nut low on the turn. It was a half kill pot ($15/$30), it went 5 ways capped on the turn ($120 per person) and I had the only pure nut low.

Won another nice half kill pot with TT96 (LOL bad starting hand) in which it was capped 6 ways pre flop. hit trip 6's on a no low board and scooped.

Updated Challenge Results ATM - $630/$15,000

Total Hours played: 11.5
Total NLHE Hours: 7
Total PLO Hours: 0
Total LO8 Hours: 4.5
Total Profit: $630
Total NLHE Profit: -$400
Total PLO Profit: $0
Total LO8 Profit: $1030
Total Hourly Profit: $54.78
NLHE Hourly: -$57.14
PLO Hourly: $0
LO8 Hourly: $228.89

NLHE Session #2: +275 over 7 hours

Pretty boring night for the most part, didn't play many hands at all. VPIP was probably in the teens. recap of 3 most "interesting" hands of the night.

Hand 1: V1 is a bit of a loose cannon, will shove over a person pretty light if he thinks person is bluffing. Usually plays for an hour or two then takes a break to do shots, rinse and repeat. V2 usually buys in for about $150, plays pretty loose and is looking to get the money in and double up. Will get the money in super light. Has already busted on 1 $150 buy-in.
Hero ($385) in BB - 10 Handed
UTG+2/V1 ($360) opens to $15
Folds to cutoff
Cutoff/V2 ($180): Calls $15
Folds to Hero
Hero($385) - 3-bets to $55 with KK
both V1 and V2 flat

Flop ($156) - KT3
Hero ($330): bets $40
V1 ($305): Raises to $120
V2 folds
Hero: Goes all in
V1: calls all in

Pot ($785)
Run-out: KT348

Hero shows KK for top set and V1 mucks


Hand 2: 6 handed, V1 has busted on 1st buy in of $300, re-bought for $200, looks like and playing like he is ready to lose the rest of his $$ and go home.
UTG straddle $4
V1/Button ($100): Limps $4
SB folds
Hero/BB (Covers): calls $4 with AQo (mixing it up a bit in this spot)
UTG/Straddle checks

Flop ($7): A93
Hero checks
Straddle checks
V1: bets $15
Hero: raises to $100
Straddle folds
V1: tank calls, shows 98o and asks if hero "once or twice", to which hero responds once. (only run it twice if the pot is 150bb or more, live with variance for small pots.)

Pot: $204 - Runout: A93k8


Hand 3 - moved to the main game and playing 9 handed, mandatory $4 straddle. V2 is same villain from Hand 1, had just lost a $550 in a pot and looked like he was on tilt and ready to spew the rest away.
7 limpers, including both blinds, to hero
Hero/straddle $450): KT raises to $40
V1 ($250) calls
V2 calls ($430), everybody else folds

Flop ($136): AJ7
Hero ($410): bets $80
V1 folds
V2 ($390): calls

Turn ($296): AJ7J
Hero: Jams for $310 effective
V2: folds relatively quickly showing an A...

had AK a couple of times and bet preflop, got 3-4 callers, whiffed and folded to donk bets...Pretty boring night of actual poker overall. Was +$400 pretty quick in the session, dwindled down to -$50, then ended up +$275, after 7 hours of total play...so much for not playing for a few days.

Updated Challenge: $905/$15,000

I'll try to get some footage of some hands or some pictures...something fun to add to the thread at least.

PLO Session #1: Total Cash Session #4: -$740

Bought in for $500 initially, was up to $1300 in the first 45 minutes getting. It was all down hill from there, even though I don't feel like I played poorly. I ran pretty atrocious in just about every big spot. Multiple big hands where I was a significant favorite 3 handed pots with hands like top Set + bdfd, Top pair + 4 card wrap, AAK3<A237 on 24j board... 1 guy drilled 3 consecutive 4 outers against me on the turn and then faded anywhere from 14 - 24 outs on the river every time...

Not sure how often I'll play PLO in this change early on. Seems it might be better avoid the variance until further down the road when I have more profit established in the bankroll.

Updated Challenge: $165/$15,000

Some pics from the session, I forgot to snap a pic of the stack when it reached zero though....oops

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Cash Session #5/ HORSE

Got my haircut yesterday after work and went to the Gym. I've set a goal of benching 185 by the end of the year, and it's going to be cutting it close. I'm on pass to be at 180 by the last week of December, so hopefully I can make it. My Gym/Lifting routine is getting a bit stale, what kinds of Gym routines do you guys and girls do? I had a date planned for yesterday, but she had to reschedule last minute so I decided to go play some POkeRz. I've been finding a bit more motivation to play more hours with this challenge going on.

On to the session, I played 6.5 hours of HORSE+Triple Draw for a profit of $650 (also played 1 hour of NLHE in the middle of the session for a $36 dollar profit). the Stud Hi level we played Super Stud instead of regular Stud. Was up $1150, but got absolutely brutalized in the last session TD losing $500. Truth be told, I played pretty poorly in the last session of TD and should have left before it started. It was almost 4:00 AM and I was playing far from my A-Game.

I struggle leaving when my game has fallen off a bit due to exhaustion, I don't tilt very often anymore but I definitely have a tendency to stay too long. Trying to break that habit of staying past my A-Game, any tips?

Updated Challenge: $851/$15,000

Pics

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Thanks for the response in the other thread! I just noticed you were doing some 2018 goals as well and I wish you luck. I noticed you haven't posted much recently? Interesting read so far and I hope you will continue updating.

I mostly play at the Hollywood Columbus now although I did play at the Shark Tank often a couple years ago when it was a lot closer to my house than the casino. I may try and make some more visits here as it looks like the 1/2 action seems pretty good? The action at the casino recently has been pretty nitty to my standards. Do games normally kick off for 1/2 NL at around 7 during the week? I just hate to stand around doing nothing waiting for a game to open.

Every day of the week except for Saturday, you can expect games to be started by 7:00 pm if not before. They run a promo where if you buy your cash chips for NLHE before 7pm, then you get a $10 gas card. There is significantly more action in the 1/2 NLHE games at the Shark Tank in comparison to the 1/2 Casino games. A good player can probably profit as much if not more playing the 1/2 Shark Tank game then they can at 2/5 at casino. plus no rake!!!!

Would it benefit you if you focused on one game type? I know that it took me four years to become a winning NLHE player so I wouldn't spread myself too thin.

Cash sessions 6-27

Summary of the last 5-6 weeks (I'll start posting more regular updates again):
Took a huge downswing in the middle of December with a combination of playing bad and running bad (it's weird how when you play bad, you also tend to run bad....wonder if there is a correlation haha). All of that was in 4 sessions of NLHE and 1 session PLO.

At one point the initial bankroll of $5,000 was down to $1,927. I took about 10 days of from poker and focused on Work and Investing/knowledge gathering in the Cryptocurrency space. I joined a couple of Crypto Groups, and met some cool people that were/are very knowledgeable. It's a space I plan to spend more and more time in 2018 in.

Back to the poker part of this challenge.

The downswing included a trip up to Motor city Casino and Hotel in good ol Detroit, MI. I tried my hardest to win the 1mill BBJ but ultimately I did not succeed or win any money haha. I was however impressed with the floor and employees working the poker room at MCC. The room itself is kind of lame, but I'd consider going back due to the staff.

January has been incredible so far.
I have played 3 sessions of PLO totaling 20 hours for a profit of $1,007.
Was up $4,000 in one of the PLO sessions, but played well longer than I should have and gave almost all of the profit back.

I have played 4 Sessions of Mixed Games including 2 session of strictly Omaha8 and 2 sessions of Horse. About 20 hours total for a profit of $575. I'll be abstaining from HORSE for the indefinite future until I am able to improve in Stud Variants. Any limit games played will be strictly Omaha8.

I have played 10 NLHE sessions this month, totaling almost 77 hours for a profit of $5246. On top of that, I have won 2 HH promotions for $1,000 each and 2 hours earned promotions for $250 each pushing the total NLHE profit to $7,746. 8 of the 10 NLHE sessions have been winners, including 1 win of roughly 2700. Of the 2 losing sessions, 1 was a $1400 loser and the other was a $140 loser.

Currently the Bankroll is healthy and the challenge is heading back into the right direction at a faster rate then I could have ever imagined. I obviously don't expect to continue this pace at all, but if I can avoid any major downsings and keep my mind focused I might accomplish this goal by end of Q1.

Updated Challenge (profit only): $6,255/$15,000

I'm definitely going to cut out HORSE permanently, or at least for a long time until I learn more about Stud Variants. I just don't have a solid enough understanding in how to play the games outside of Omaha 8 or better. The 2 sessions of HORSE I played were pretty close to break even (slightly in the positive). But I really was just clicking buttons and getting lucky in games that were not O8 tbh.

The PLO and O8 games I play in are fairly soft, and I actually enjoy those games more than NLHE. If those games ran more often, I probably would only play those games and cut out NLHE completely as I feel that my NLHE game is not as strong overall. I have been putting a lot of study time into NLHE over the last 4-6 months though and I feel greatly improved in that area.

I think more importantly that game type at the moment, is maintaining mental composure. If you have any books or general suggestions on how to maintain mental composure through adversity, I am all ears. I've been looking into meditation, as I have heard from several people that I trust that Meditating has made tremendous impacts on their lives.

I meditate daily but I have never read any books like the Mental game of poker or anything like that.

NLHE Cash Session #27: 01-19-18.

Played a short 2 hour session earlier, +335

No real hands that stand out for hand reviews or analysis. Played a couple of top pair hands OOP and caught bluffs for most of the profit. There was actually a ton of action in the 2 hours that I played, but unfortunately most of it was other players. Will be playing a session later tonight, hope I can keep the win streak going.

Updated Challenge: $6,590/$15,000

NLHE Cash Sessions #27-28

Squeezed in 2 shorter NLHE sessions (about 2 hours a piece). Pretty uneventful, lost $78 in one and won $57 in the other. Blah...

Playing 10/20 Limit Omaha8 tonight, will post results and pics tomorrow

Updated Challenge: $6,569/$15,000

Limit 08 Cash Session #29

played a 7 hour cash session last night, strictly 10/20 Omaha 8 or better. Was stuck for a good majority of the night, down over $700 at one point. Was able to grind it back up and ended up cashing +$510 for the night. Got on a good hot streak the last 2 hours of play or so and cranked out a decent win.

Might play some Hold'em after the gym today, might take the day off. Regardless, PLO is tomorrow so I'll be back by Wednesday with another update.

I did not get any chip stack pictures or in game action pictures. I'll have to come up with a plan to get some shots

Updated Bankroll Challenge: $7,079/$15,000

It was great meeting you on Friday! You were right on the games at the Shark Tank and they were rather juicy. I will definitely add that to my rotation.

Good luck on your continued journey and goals. You are doing very well so far. I just need to get more play in but the snow and cold has kept me not wanting to drive. It must be nice being a few minute drive from being able to play!

Thanks man, good luck to you as well. I'll see you around.

NLHE Cash Session #30

Played 4.5 hours for a profit of $535. The game went in swings from being not good, to really good with no involvement in the action, to not good, to very good again. Was down about $280 until I held with KK>QQ AIOTF with all unders. That got me up about $200. Over the next 2-3 hours I didn't really win many hands and was stuck about $100, then this hand happened:

Villain Information/History: Super Aggressive player, in my experience only plays poker when he is drunk and doesn't care about losing money. Will shove with 4th pair on the board, will bluff or raise ATC. Just got caught shoving the river on a completed flush board and his opponent tank called. Villain just mucked and said nice hand.

Very Deep 1/2 NLHE (Over 14,000 on the table)
UTG open to $15
1 calls
HJ/Villain ($525) 3-bets to $45
Folds to hero (Covers) on button who 4 bets to $125 with AQo
Action folds to Villain who takes his time and calls after about 20 seconds.

Flop ($285): 762
Villain: Checks
Hero: Checks

Turn ($285): 7628
Villain tanks for about 25 seconds and then shoves for about $400 effective
Hero tanks for about 10 seconds and then calls.

River ($1085) 76282
Villain shows A9
Hero shows AQ and scoops

Fun hand, Villain just as easy could have been shoving 84o or some **** and scooping me. I just made up my mind preflop that I wasn't folding to anything he did haha.

Over half way there to the goal of $15k, and this is going way faster than I anticipated. Hopefully I can keep this pace up, or even slow down by half

Updated Bankroll Challenge: $7,614/$15,000

Cash Session #31: 1/2 $5 bring in PLO

Played 8 hours of PLO last night, net result +$1,662. Another good night at the tables, I managed to get my starting stack All in on the turn with 2 pair vs a flush draw/straight draw hand and it held. That propelled me up the ladder and it was pretty smooth sailing from there. Wasn't in many other tricky spots throughout the night, didn't have any big hands against some of the aggro players that push the action. Just slowly chipped up throughout the night.

Taking the day off from Poker today, me and a couple of my gym buddies are switching up the routine and taking a title boxing class. If I have any energy left after, I'll be going on a date tonight as well. Next session will potentially be a Thursday home game or the weekend. Good luck to you all on the felt.

Updated Bankroll Challenge: $9,276/$15,000

Cash session #31 - #33: 1/2 NLHE & 1/3 NLHE

Played 3 sessions the last 3 days for a total 11 hours and +693 in profit ($40 + 115 + 538)

Weds: played 6 hours and was super buried in the game. Did not stick to the buy-in plan, was in the game for $2500, and stuck $1600 of that. I then rivered a straight and stacked someone for about $450 to get a portion back. A super drunk guy also joined the game and was routinely shoving $600+ into the pot preflop with only 7-10 dollars in dead money. I called him 3 times on his shoves and nobody else was calling. I called a shove of $387 with a garbage hand just to see what he was doing this with and lost, I think called a shove of around $750 with 66 and flopped a set to win. He reloaded, and I called a shove of $530 with KQ and won. High variance flips but I believe the last two were good profitable calls against a drunk aggro shoving any 2 cards. After being stuck a bunch, I somehow ended up winning $40.

Thursday: Played a home game for 2 hours, but wasn't in the mood to play and left up $115. I did manage to flop bottom set against middle set and get to a river showdown only losing 30% of stack...that was cool

Friday: played 3 hours and won $538.

Next session update will most likely be monday

Updated Bankroll Challenge: $9,969/$15,000

Cash Session #34 and #35: 1/2 NLHE and 10/20 Limit Omaha 8

Played a 4 hour session of NLHE on Friday for +$460 and a 5.5 hour session of LO8 last night for +$1,555. Had to be up for a 6:00 AM gym session this morning, or I would have kept playing LO8 last night. Was in a great groove last night making lots of good hands and just really enjoying the atmosphere of the game. LO8 always seems to be the most enjoyable game I play.

January continues to be the most profitable month of poker I've ever had and while I've been running good (probably a little bit above expected EV), I feel like I am also playing the best poker of my life. Hope to keep this up and crush the goal by the end of February.

Back to work/Crypto Research. Any Crypto ICO's or coins to look into this week??

Updated Bankroll Challenge: $11,984/$15,000

Little bit of chip porn from last night

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Sub'd. I used to play small stakes mixed games a ton. They are so profitable if you know what you're doing because most people just don't. Looks like you're way ahead of schedule! Keep going man, GL!!