Greetings!

I'm a 27 year old aussie. I studied mechanical & aerospace engineering for two years after high school, dropped out basically because I didn't want to grow up, worked in sales and eventually sales management for about six years, while partying on HARD before deciding to go back and finish my degree last year. Graduating in July!

I played live cash games (mainly $1/3 casino and .25/.50 home games) pretty seriously when I was working full-time. I did pretty badly at first, but being super interested in maths and psychology I started putting heaps of effort into figuring out how to win, watched all the HSP and PAD I could get my hands on, and read poker books constantly, and started making OK money - I think. An old sales buddy of mine turned pro around this time (a regular on 2+2, now has a SCOOP tourney under his belt and over 1mil of online tourney cashes + plenty of live winnings), who also motivated me and helped me believe this game is actually beatable.

Anyway - I'm making my first serious foray into online poker. I'm not particularly interested in setting goals in terms of a $ value return within x years - I just want to eventually play with the best in the world, and give them a good run for their money I therefore want to start from scratch, starting super small and moving up once I build some decent capital.

As tourneys don't suit my lifestyle I play just cash games. I'm going to limit myself to NL2 until I build a BR of $150-$200 before moving up to NL5.

My first two days progress is below.



While I have been running wayy under EV (-1200~BB in 2500 hands BLEH), I've also been running into some disgusting spots, especially around the 1500 hand mark. Got over-setted a couple times, ran aces into sets and draws that made it... Rank. But, coolers are clearly part of the game and I'm not miffed. Am happy that my EV is on the up!!

My stats atm are:

VPIP 31.3, PFR 19.0, PF3 5.6, c-bet 57.6, steal 67.6. Are these ok for NL2? I've realised that I've been WAY too loose PF up until the past 500 hands-ish and my VPIP has settled to around 25% in the past 500 hands, an improvement I think. I'm getting away from raising/flatting hands like QJo and A9s OOP preflop which seems to be a better idea, unless the table is super tight. Thoughts?

Also, any thoughts on this hand? Villain is 20/8 at this point, only a couple dozen hands sample though. I don't think raising pre is any good. I think leading out on the flop is OK but as there was four people around on the flop I thought x/raising better. I was going to x/r the turn again, but got worried about the AJ. Once the villain bet the river I was seriously considering folding, but I thought it pretty likely he had either KJ for a split, or QJ/JT or maybe even slowplayed an overpair pre and is a ****** post-flop (unlikely but possible). Is this a bad river call?

Anyway - thanks for reading, will be posting every couple days at least, best of luck to y'all in your own endeavours!!

Raise more on the flop imo. Villain has to call $.18 for a $.44 pot.
I would also bet turn since you want to let a flushdraw pay you big time. Than evaluate on river.

Roger that. As played, the river call is ok?

Yeah as played the river call is fine I think. U didn't get much info by floating but cant fold here. Every draw missed and you beat basicly everything but a flopped set.

Oh. I just realised that the HH I posted doesn't have the result... Woops.

He had AJ.

Unlucky

Yer. I'm having some disgusting, disgusting hands.




Urgh. I'm around 1400BB behind EV in the past 2600 hands. Is this within the normal range of online poker sickness? It's bleh to see my EV go up with decent pace, but be way down money

Goodluck on your quest! I just took a little break but i'll be back soon and i'll be grinding NL4 and NL10 for awhile.

Finally a little bit of rungood \o/





Cool.




Thoughts on this? Can I actually fold here?


And lastly - this is GENIUS PLAY AT IT'S BEST. Poker really cracks me up sometimes

Thanks bud, and same to you!

Today's session.



Since I started. Am now only 1000BB below EV!! \o/

Played about 500 hands before work, broke pretty much even.

Thoughts on this hand? I had thought that villain is gonna call my flop bet with loads of draws and figured he would fold when I bet the turn - but no

I would 3bet a lot bigger 0.28, 0.26 it's ok too because we're OOP, I preffer just calling if villain is tight. otf the size is ok. ott you just gotta give up because I don't beleive villain is floating and even if he is drawing the bet you gotta make would make the pot too big and you should preffer pot controling with your showdown value. I would c/f the turn and probably the river. There's no need to complicate 3 bet pot hands without info, if they call otf and you don't have a pair just give up.

For sure. This guy likes to open with pretty marginal hands, although since he was also OOP I guess it's more likely he's not gonna fold to my 3-bet. Agreed I should have given up on teh turn, was just hoping he flopped a draw.

Rough going at the moment! 370BB below EV



Both the SB and BB were pretty tight, 15/10 and 15/8, hence my steal attempt, but should I have called the flop here?







Not sure about this one. Villain was 20/15 ish. Can't remember the 3bet stat which clearly I should've been paying attention to for this hand. Should I have folded to the check raise?

Bleh negative EV! Pretty slack day, made some $hite calls but still EV up so can't complain. 400ish BB below EV for the night though





To date:



Would love to start closing that EV gap soon.

1st hand. The raise it's ok you could have some reversed implied odds but you're up against two opponents and a club turn may kill your action so it's wp imo, everytime you have FD+SD you will be ahead even of sets I think. nh

2nd. A limp/3bet from UTG is mostly strong when opponent is tight-ish especially when he does it against two opponents, I think he face up his cards with the 3bet and you would be getting a flip in the best case scenario, sometimes you would see a smaller pair but not enough to always take the risk with JJ. QQ I don't think you could fold but JJ you can, here.

Thanks for input. Was pretty sick the 1st hand villain made his runner runner boat :/

Any thoughts on this hand? Villain is 6/4/4 over 250 hands. This was really tough to fold, but this guy had been so damn tight. However, I've been running badly the last couple k hands so I am thinking maybe I'm just being a pussy.

Bit of a frustrating session. Plenty of super loose players around tonight so was playing pretty tight, but just couldn't get it together. Cards seemed to hate me Although am thinking this first hand I should've folded the river. Guy is betting into four people on the turn, and when he barrels again I don't think there's much I can beat.






Villain here (below) is ridiculously loose. I would've called this guy with any pair.













Bleh. Should've raised that flop I think.








Pretty standard but bleh.

Overall actually I think I played ok - feel free to correct me - ended up 180BB down, but ran 150BB below EV.

Currently 1300BB below EV since started the thread - 6.5k hands. Variance is a harsh mistress. Hoping that eventually I will a) run better, and b) win some fkn flips!

Man. I'm having some rough luck Past two sets I've flopped I've run into a higher set. Poker is disgusting.

Somebody re-assure me that sometimes the other guy flops a worse hand when you have the near-nuts?? Bleh.









Villain here (below) was 45/35 over 150 hands with 80% cbet

URRRGHHH. Think I might need a break. Villain here had just sat down so no stats. FML.

Just as waiting for the BB to have a break. Villain is SUPER tight, 8/5 over 300 hands. I don't think I can call this turn? Even the flop I'm not sure about calling. Maybe I'm just snakebit after running horribly and under EV.

So far today, down 200BB, -120EV for the day. Got oversetted twice, ran bottom set into a gutshot in a HU pot... Am still thinking I'm playing ok - except that hand above with 78 on a 89T flop - not sure about that one. Other hands I think I played ok? Feedback be good!

Still can't win me any flips! Villain was 30/20, open shoving his shortstack seemed to be the only move in his repertoire.






Urgh urgh urgh. Did I play this below hand bad? Seems like a bit of a "bad luck, move on" situation. But goddamn. Getting lots of hands like this








Rough.