Hi,

I'm 34, married with kid, 9-17 real job working poker lover... I've been playing the game since late 2007. During that time, i've tried almost all games, all softs, played MTT, cash, Full ring, short handed, whatever in poker comes to your mind... I've played stakes as high as 200nl and as low as 5nl. Had periods with decent cashouts, and (probably more of them) with decent deposits...

Let's be honest. I suck at poker. I spent thousands of hours at poker tables and haven't managed to achive anything at all. I had dreams to play major live MTTs, win big prices, live poker pro live, but that never arrived. And probably never will. The only possibility taking me to WSOP or EPT that i can imagine right now is being succesfull at my carrieer and make direct buyin somewhere in the future At that will for sure happen.

So why i am here in this topic? I can't stop thinking about poker and playing it. It is so much fun for me. It makes me relax at some difficult to understand level. At the very moment of playing, my brain is so busy that i don't need to think about anything else. At the other hand it always made me tilted and money oriented as hell... Even though i've never risked loosing life changing amount (that could negatively impact my life), i was always furious about loosing. I wanted to win fast, overplayed hands, was over agressive, donking donk, without any profit from cash games ever.

Last year i've given MTT one more shot. Made ~1500 from 400$ to just spew it out in few days playing ZOOM. I don't even remember why i started to play cash. But the more i was loosing, triggered me to loose even more (as i was profit oriented and wanted to earn it back fast). I have problems with foldind the hands. Keep thinking everyone is bluffing or outplaying me...

You can only laugh seeing this:


Just after that i banned myself from PS for some period of time

I didn't miss poker during that time. This is not an addiction. Was doing many different things and lived my life. But the idea to try another time is coming back to me.

Why this time will be different? No idea. I have not even remote grounds to believe i will succeed. Something inside of me just keep pushing me to the game. So i give it another try. It cost me nothing... (or at least not a lot).
At most i will loose it all again. Been there, done that

Assumptions:

• I prefer to play MTTs, but because of other responsibilities i simply don't have time to play them nowadays. Thus 6max regural tables.
• I start with 100$ on my account and play NL5.(can redeposit once).
• I change limit if my BR will be 40BI for next lvl.
• ~50k hands/month
• I was always tired, sometimes disctracted playing in the evenings, after job. This time i'm going to get up at 5:00 am and play 2h session before even my family opens their eyes keeping evenings for them only.
• Dream scenario would be if I could spend III-IV at 5NL, V, VI at 10NL, VII- X at 25 NL and reach 50 NL somewhere around XI, XII...
• I play untill i go broke (and if so i will take another few months of poker holidays

and... here i was going to upload screenshot presenting 100$ on my account, but a) i lost my link with it, b) i've already played my 1st session this morning so i can't made another one

First week summary.
Everything is going according to plan. Hands target is on schedule.

Result -~6$

But this is actually not so important to me... What really matters is the fact that i can find the fold button. And i do this a lot. I'm not sure if this is because of the limit, or anything else... But i stopped putting to much ego in every hand.

What i lack most for now is cheking back turn. And i will work on it.

Getting up early, even though difficult, works perfectly in terms of "work enviroment". Nobody interupts me, and i can focus only on tables. First two days i was a little bit "half waked" but this will for sure change with the time.

Little bit of stats:



I was trying to find some interesting hands, but there wasn't really any... Just a bunch of regulars you see every day...

However i have i question to ask. Would you ever consider this to be good bluffing spot?

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players

CO: $8.33 (166.6 bb)
BTN: $4.99 (99.8 bb)
SB: $5.08 (101.6 bb)
Hero (BB): $5.22 (104.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9 T
2 folds, SB raises to $0.15, Hero calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.30) 7 T 6 (2 players)
SB bets $0.21, Hero calls $0.21

Turn: ($0.72) 3 (2 players)
SB bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40

River: ($1.52) Q (2 players)
SB bets $0.75, [color="red"]Hero ?

Your wasting your time. Honestly if you have played poker that long and can't beat 5nl then poker is not for you. If your serious about poker then study, study,study. Watch videos, read and take in all the info possible. Then deposit 4 or 5 hundo and start at at least 25nl. No one your age can possibly take 5nl seriously.

This is disastrous advice.


HH- I'd say no OP. He bet 3 barrels and you'd have to be rapping the BDF which most Vs who are looking for excuses to call aren't going to give you credit for (correctly so usually). That said river raises are almost always nuts type hands but a lot of these guys will call it anyway. Just fold to the river bet.

Why is the such bad advice? Explain? I say playing 5nl is a waste of time period!! Op said he's played poker since 2007. So obviously he's not a beginner. He probably has tilt and discipline issues if he can't beat the game by now. So study,study,study, work on discipline issues and take the game more serious. Then actually play at a stake where you can make a little money. I would even go as far as saying playing 5nl hurts your game more than it helps unless you are a true newbie, which op is obviously not.

If he can't beat 5NL why in gods name do you think he'd be able
To beat 25NL? Would they respect his raises? This is pure stupidity. He should start low and learn to win. Playing for higher stakes is almost never the right answer to BR/tilt issues.

Well I pretty much said he should take the time that he would be playing 5nl and study,study,study. Then start out at 25nl. 5nl is for true beginners, just to learn the basics and it is just not worth anyone's time imo unless your are absolutely new to the game of poker. Playing that low can create some very bad habits imo where as playing 25nl you can actively learn concepts that will help become a better player. 5nl is like whiffle ball. It is a joke. Almost like playing for play money. He would be WAY better off only playing 1or2 tables of 25 nl and actively thinking and learning as he plays. The guy is in his thirties, cmon 5nl really?

What can i say? I believe you are complerely wrong in this and your advice flies in the face of all logic and widely accepted bank roll strategy Hopefully OP will not take this advice. Enough detailing his thread I say. Let's agree well not get any further on this together.

@Discipline12

I appreciate your feedback, but not willing to make use of it.
Of course i could deposit more and play higher limit. But i don't see any point for doing so. I was playing higher stakes before, and playing 2 tables 25NL will not teach me anything new. Earning money from poker is not an issue for me ATM as well. I know what i am looking for when multitabling 5NL. And this is ability to keep good play during card dead periods, ability to not heat myself, ability to make as little mistakes as possible. I realized the fact that 1 spewed BI every 1000 hands is 10bb/100 winrate drop. Thats freezing...

Playing two tables is easy, but will not teach me how to act/play in multitable sessions. And playing 2 tables i can't put enough volume to progress with stakes (even if i'll be winning). As i said, i don't need money from playing poker right now. I treat is a strategic game, like a hobby. I focus only on bb/100.

@spikeraw22

Actually i did small raise on that river. Villain fold but i wasn't really happy from that play.

I have some problems with hands like these two:


Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
UTG: $4.80 (96 bb)
MP: $11.62 (232.4 bb)
CO: $5.31 (106.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): $5.24 (104.8 bb)
SB: $10.70 (214 bb)
BB: $5 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K J
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, SB raises to $0.45, BB folds, Hero calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.95) Q T 3 (2 players)
SB bets $0.50, Hero raises to $1.44, SB calls $0.94

Turn: ($3.83) J (2 players)
SB checks, [color="red"]Hero ?




Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
MP: $3.95 (79 bb)
CO: $5.23 (104.6 bb)
BTN: $5.43 (108.6 bb)
Hero (SB): $8.72 (174.4 bb)
BB: $5.07 (101.4 bb)
UTG: $5.12 (102.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q A
UTG folds, MP calls $0.05, CO folds, BTN calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.30, BB folds, MP calls $0.25, BTN folds

Flop: ($0.70) K 8 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.54, MP calls $0.54

Turn: ($1.78) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $0.50, [color="red"]Hero ?




And hands like this. I just called as he had high 3b fold, and high cbet flop.
But is stacking on this flop concidered at all?

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
CO: $5.29 (105.8 bb)
BTN: $5.93 (118.6 bb)
Hero (SB): $7.23 (144.6 bb)
BB: $5.60 (112 bb)
UTG: $5.07 (101.4 bb)
MP: $4.14 (82.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J A
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.12, Hero calls $0.10, BB folds

Flop: ($0.29) 6 5 J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.16, Hero raises to $0.50, BTN raises to $1.46, [color="red"]Hero ?

One thing I've had to learn the hard way is that at the lower stakes, the value of draws is really in just hitting the draw. There's not a lot of FE especially in pots where V showed some interest. Instead of raising in hand 1 you could just call and bink it. When FE is low IO is high and visa versa. It kind o goes against what we've learned (be aggressive push draws for FE). There's just not much FE and you end up in high variance questionable EV spots.

Hand 2 seems like a pretty standard call.

Hand 3 is ick. I udderstand your thinking, but kind of on the same lines it sucks to get raised and have to fold gobs of equity and implied odds.


Take it with a grain of salt though. I don't claim to be an online savant. I've played up to 50NL but BF and Lock poker killed me in succession. I'm just grinding through 10NL right now so we'll see how that goes. I've been more of a live guy the last few years. Just came back to online recently due to being married now with time and $ restraints.

Hand 1 fold preflop. Just too many hands have you dominated. Hands 2 and 3 jam all in!!!

I have strange feelling that i'm having really bad luck. Rarely hitting the flop, complete the draw, and most often have to fold to a raise. I don't want to complain here in this topic as i have this "you are just a noob" think in the back of my head... Anyway, in yesterdays (great) session i managed to turn into profit this month. That's motivating


Yesterday session:




And March overall:

I had limited access to computer lately, so i couldn't post earlier this week. Just after finishing my last post i ran into biggest loosing streek ever. I droped roughly 28 Buy-ins in 2 days...



Of course i made few mistakes during that period. But after cold analysis performed few days later, i can say there was no sigths of monkey tilt in my game. Most of the times i was hitting against top of their range, got outdrawn, faced set vs set, full vs full etc. My stats look similar to usual.



I had to reload 100$ to keep playing. Actions taken:
- Starting hands range decreased
- Lower 3bet
- Lower 3bet call
- Lower missed Flop CB OOP
- Higher bet with made hand
- Pair fold vs rase, xR

All of the above in order to decrease variance. I stoped fighting for thin ages. I assume balancing is not important on this lvl at all.

In result red line is heading down with higher angle, blue the oposite. Last 10k hands i managed to regrind half of the looses.

OK, I officially start hating playing on weekends... Tables are full of 70/50 agro types and i still i can't complete winning session...

My laptop started to work really slow on Sunday, so i spent almost whole day on reinstalling windows (first time since i bought it, what is actually good result).

This month is not even close to my plans/expectations. Fortunately is almost finished and i will have few days to perform deep analysis of my game.

3 yesterdays biggest loosing hands.

I bet 99% of people will disagree, but if the money isn't an issue (5NL???), and you actually want to get better - you should be playing more hands. Your biggest leaks will be postflop, and learning how to navigate various streets with a wider range will probably help.

3bet more, tighten that pfr to vpip, and stop bluffcatching so much.