Hey everyone,

I'm a young guy with a day job, but I've been taking poker more and more seriously as a weekend warrior/part time grinder. I played quite a bit in college, mostly on Stars to some moderate success.

My goal is to play 500hrs+ of live cash games this year, and to hopefully take shots at 2/5 by the end of the year. I live in South Florida so the games are plentiful and juicy.

I'll try to update this thread once a week for anyone that cares to follow. Either way I'll be updating to just track my progress and keep myself on track.

January so far:

50 hours played at 1/2nl
+$1073
$21/hour

Subscribed, good luck man! Post some interesting/funny hands too.

I think you're playing at the Isle, right? Im there all the time. Let me know if you want to meet up. Id be happy to play some 1/2 with you and see if I see any glaring leaks or just talk strategy or whatever.

Im a 2/5 and 5/10 player but I just finished a month long prop bet playing 1/2 at the Isle so Im sure I can help you out if youre interested

Absolutely interested Mike. PM me and I'll let you know next time I'm there.

Last 7 days, 2 sessions played 13.5 hours, +$202.

January
64 hours at 1/2NL
+$1275
$20/hr

Last 7 day stretch was pretty great for volume goals. Put in 4 sessions totaling 26.5 hours, +$690. Month closed out as:

January
84.5 hours at 1/2NL
+ $1740
$20.5/hr

Way more volume than expected this month. This will probably be my highest volume month of the year, but that's awesome! Very pleased with the start.

January Lessons:

Stop making hero calls. Players at 1/2NL don't bluff nearly as often as they should, so we should be making thin calls very infrequently. I probably made 4 hero calls this month and 3 were wrong. That's lost profit.

Goals for February:

Concentrate harder on my bet sizing.

Towards the end of the month I started to notice that I was able to increase my opening raise sizes a lot against certain players in position, and got them to put more money in with much weaker ranges. For example opening to $20 over 2 limpers in position.

I also need to make my thin river value bets smaller so they can be called by weaker hands. Fat value bets should be fat, and I need to not be afraid to overbet the pot.

Funny hand from last night that illustrates the best of 1/2NL:

Button straddles to $5, 4 limpers to me in the CO and I have QQ. I raise to $35, Folds to SB who had just called the straddle previously. He moves in for $90. One of the limpers calls all in for $85. I call.

The limper that called for less won the pot with 45 with a flopped straight. When I sincerely told him nice hand he explained to me that he called all in because he figured we must have high cards, so his cards were live. I nodded and agreed.

Well February was an interesting month for me. I think I put in closer to what will be my average monthly volume, as opposed to January. I booked my biggest winning session at 1/2 +$915, and also two really nasty losing sessions.

February:
57.5 hours at 1/2NL
+$773
$13.5/hr

February Lessons: 4-bets at 1/2nl are always AA. Always.

March Goals: Try to table select more actively. Biggest winning sessions have all come at deeper tables, so I need to actively seek them out. I can't win money that's not on the table.

Nice to see another live grinder, best of luck! I agree with Feb lesson, I'd even extend it to say a min 3bet is almost always AA or KK. With you March goals, table selection is key. At one time I table selected based on deeper stacks, now I take a different approach outlined by Bart over at CrushPokerLive. I look for the table that's having a good time. They aren't afraid to splash around and aren't full of hoodie/sunglass/headphone characters. I also don't mind the short stacks live. Unless proven otherwise, I assume those are some of the weakest players and I can adjust my range fairly easily.

I look forward to watch your progress.

Thanks PotLuckNeeded! I definitely feel like the short stacks at 1/2nl are quite weak, but my skill edge is harder to leverage vs. their stack size. When they make big mistakes I can only punish them by taking what's in front of them.

I definitely agree with the point of a table having fun. I always try to start conversations at my table and never wear headphones even though sometimes I'd really like to.

The table talk at a 1/2 table is so tilting.

"I had to see where I was at"
"I had a flush draw. I wasnt going anywhere"
"Wash the cards, please"
"You're lucky I folded. I had a boat"
"Where was that flop last hand when I had 22?"
"I know I had the best hand".....but he folds anyway.
Ect

I think I heard all of those just last night.

March has gone very well so far. I haven't been able to put in a ton of volume due to other obligations, but run goods + better table selection= profit.

March 3/1-3/19:
31 hours at 1/2NL
+$1501
$48/hr

I also managed to go to my first local home game since moving to Florida last week. Everyone was super nice, rake paid for food, professionally dealt, and the game was soft. I ended the night even but this is a spot I'm going to try and hit more frequently.

Just picked up The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler. I've heard great things and while I think my mental game is my strength I'm sure the concepts he goes over will only help me get further ahead.

Goals for the final two weeks of March: Put in 20+ hours, continue to table select when possible, start the book.

Played the home game again last night and this time I crushed it. Everyone at the game was complaining that none of the usual "big whales" were there but honestly, everyone was just pretty loose passive.

Example: Almost every player at the table was limp calling AK and AQ. Complaining vociferously when they missed and had to c/f.

As I continue to play this game and get to know the players better I think it could be a really profitable spot for me. Will also be good to help me learn to study specific players tendencies, tells etc that I rarely get to do at casino 1/2.

4 hours played, +$232.

March wrap up and April goals. March was light on volume for a variety of reasons, but results wise it was pretty great. Even though my last session of the month was cooler city, we still had a good one.

March:
45 hours at 1/2NL
+$1784
$39.5/hr!

March lessons: Reading Tendler's "The Mental Game of Poker" so there's really too many to list.

April Goals: It's the 5th and I'm going to play my first session of the month tonight, but I'd like to put in 50 hours of play, and at least 10 of study this month. First time I've given myself a study goal.

Hi Jace, sub'd to the thread and GL I'm very much in the same position as you. Played a lot in college, got a decent day job, and now looking to get back into poker again to move up in stakes. I also started reading the mental game of poker and looking to do more prep work and talk more hands on 2+2. Here is my thread if you'd like to discuss hands I post with me:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17.../#post52029594

Thanks for the sub. I look forward to many future discussions.

Played Monday night as my family is up north and my grandma was there for Passover. This left me Seder free and able to pursue the gefilte fish at the table!

I had a swingy session that ended on a nice high note. At one point the table had a player that went from playing about 50% of hands pretty passively, to 100% of hands. It was the kind of tilt you dream about, and he went through $600 (3x200) pretty quickly.

Finally, I played a giant hand pretty poorly in my opinion. I have 99 in the SB, with $300. The cutoff (reg) opens to 12, the fish playing 100% calls OTB, I decide to call the SB, and the BB (nit reg) also calls. While I think 99 is an ok 3-bet hand here I think the initial raiser is likely to call with his opening range and the fish is likely to fold.

I really don't want to fold out the fish as he's just giving it away. I decide to turn my 99 into a set-mining/underflop hand.

Flop is QQ9 with a flush draw. I check, and it proceeds to check through.

Turn is the 4th 9. I lead for $30, BB (nit reg) calls, everyone else folds.

River is a blank. I decide to bet $100, and the BB quickly calls w/ AQ. I win a nice pot, but am disappointed. I need to find a way to get stacks in here. The BB consoles me by saying that was the most he was willing to call, and that if I shoved the river he would have folded because "I'm not calling $250 to hope to chop". I don't think I believe him.

All of that said, I think I should check the turn. Any Q will bet there, and I can't hope to get much value out of anything else at this point. If I check call the turn, I think I can check raise the river to get stacks in. Still thinking about this hand 2 days later and trying not to be results oriented.

1/2NL
4 hours
+$470

You played that hand perfectly fine. It was the nit with AQ that misplayed it horribly when he didn't shove over your $100 bet on the river. He would have called your jam most likely, but you don't jam because then AA, KK, JJ, TT wouldn't call when they might call your 100 thinking it's a bluff (or hoping). But when you're against a Q anyone with half a brain will go all in thinking decent chance you have a 9, worst case he chops, who the hell is scared of quads?

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Honestly I think you can probably just donk into the field in the flop. No queen folds ever and might raise. JT calls. Flush draws call. You might even get raised by some of those.

Also bet much bigger on turn. Queens are never ever folding and that's all that's calling now anyway.

I haven't been able to put a ton of volume in this month due to all sorts of other obligations, but am trying to rectify that this week. Had a nasty 300bb losing session last week that I actually felt ok with. More than any winning session or particular hand, I think the way I handled that has made me realize my growth.

To put it bluntly, I played just fine. I ran into a couple of nasty spots where my hand was too strong to fold and my opponents were at the tip top of their range. Realizing that, not tilting, and getting up when I determined that I might not play optimally on another 150bb stack all were things I can be proud of.

I was out of town this weekend but have had that poker itch, so I decided that I was going to play Monday and Tuesday of this week at the Isle, and then cap it off with the homegame Wednesday.

Monday- A big win. +$782

Was running well and did a pretty good job maximizing my big hands. This is easily the most important concept for beating 1/2nl. Still find myself struggling to correctly evaluate opponents ranges when they donk to me.

I'm studying range analysis right now, today if someone donks into me I put them on a scared made hand for live low stakes games. For example top pair on a wet board, did you get to see any hands shown after donk bets or they just mucked?

Indeed I did.

Hero ($1K) raised CO to $10 with QTcc, get called by SB ($200) and BB ($250). Flop is Ac9h4s, and the BB leads for $5. I raised to $25 (too small) and get called by the donk bettor.

Turn is the Ks, bringing me a gutshot. BB checks, I bet $55 into the pot of $80 putting my opponent on a range of weak A, 9x, sets, and A4. I'm betting here with the intention to triple barrel most rivers if checked to, and folding to a raise. Villain calls after a lot of thought.

River 7s bringing an unlikely backdoor flush. Checks to me and I bet $75 into the pot of $190. This was a huge mistake in my opinion. I think if the plan is to triple barrel here, we have to shove the river. As it stands, I'm giving myself a great price on my bluff, but also a great price on Villain's call.

Villain tanks for 2 min and calls with AQ.

Yuck.

Yeah that's the other point I was going to make is when someone is too Fishy then it really is a donk donk bet haha. At work now but will take a look again at this hand and let you know my thoughts, personally I would not put him on a set cause even the fishiest of players will check flop with it. Even fishier is seemed he was scared of a dry board just because he had 2 opponents