Hey everyone,

I've played the micros (5NL to 25NL) 6-max cash games on PS over the past year or so. Been swinging up and down, but more down than up recently! I figured making a thread could be a good way to stay focused and give it another shot. I've got plenty of leaks, but I think the mental game leak is hurting me most (trying to book winning sessions, playing too long at night). Of course, BRM is a big one!

This article was what inspired me to make this thread. I'm going to check out his video series too: https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/t...y-160724.shtml

GOAL: $1000 bankroll by Christmas

• $150 starting bankroll - 10NL to start
• 15 buy-in rule for moving up/down
• 6-max Zoom on PS, some 6-max regular tables too
• Minimum 1 post/week here with PT4 graphs. I have a full-time office gig, so can't put in a ton of volume. I'll post some hands here, but mostly do that on other sites.

Wish me luck! Any advice/tips welcome.

15 buyins for 10nl zoom might be a bit sketchy depending on how you run. I regularly had 8 BI downswings. GL man

Yeah, f*k what people say about needing 100 buyins and all that crap to move up. You want less variance? Play a reduced variance style.

Waiting for 100 buyins will just slow progress immensely, limiting your upside.

Status update and question about results graph in PT4:

I've been off to a great start results-wise, though I've been running pretty hot. First couple sessions I was flopping a LOT of sets. That was balanced out with some recent coolers and mistakes. The problem is the graph seems to show the opposite of my results. Currently the bankroll is up from $150 to $177. PT4 is displaying "My C Won" as about $3, with the "My C All-in Adj" as $27.

I assume the issue here is me, not PT4. Any insight on what I'm missing?

Following mate.

Doing a similar challenge so be good to compare where each other is at.

-Broke

Alright, status update for the week. It's been swingy, had to take a couple trips down to 5NL once the bankroll dipped below $150. Fortunately I was absolutely crushing there. Good variance? Yeah, prob. But the population is also much more weak/tight than 10NL from my experience.

The bankroll is back up to about $164 and I'm at 10NL again - the graph below is showing a loss, but I realized it's because I started this challenge after having a losing morning and before having a winning afternoon; I can't filter that out . Ah well, not important. Here it is:

[IMG][/IMG]


Also, here's a good cooler for the week. I'll post a real hand shortly that I'll be looking for feedback on.

Here's the hand I was talking about.

Pre: In hindsight, I probably should have 4bet this. Not much info on either Villain, but both ranges are probably wide enough to cold 4bet. That being said, I can also see an argument for not having a 4bet range here.

Flop and turn felt gross...I haven't yet plugged our ranges into PokerRanger, but what do you think of raising flop instead of calling the 3bet?

Not much to say about that cooler.
I would have chosen my preflop 3-bet sizing a little higher but thats probably it. I mean, you could cold call that flop when he leads OOP just in case he plays a bluff or a weak ace and then let him hang himself on later streets, but i think there are a lot of turn cards which would have scared him off his hand. So you must have felt great when he shoves his stack in there. Unlucky he hits one of his 4 outs there xD

Where is the hand you told earlier this day?

Lol, i have a 2h time delay. So i sent my rep lie the same moment you post it...

HAND 2

In my opinion i would have definitly 4bet preflop and trying to iso the SB.
Button has a very wide range there and will fold to mostly all your 4bets.
And what would have been great is that you could either fold to a 5b shove and being happy to fold against his KK or AA or, if he just calls there's a big chance he will check into you after represent such a strong range and then you could easily represent QQ+ and make him fold his 88-JJ and Ax hands with a decent double barrel and a nice semi-bluff with ace high. And if you get check-raised all in, which is unlikely unless he puts you exclusively on AK, you can still call.

Thanks - your reasoning on both hands makes sense. I actually didn't even notice that Villain opened to 3.5x in hand 1, so I definitely should have upped my 3bet sizing again.

And your points about hand 2 are great. I've been looking for spots where I can be more confident about my range and show more aggression, so that sounds like a perfect spot for it.

Hey gang, I was away last week so I missed a post. Though not much good news to provide! Bankroll is down to a measly $80

As has been the trend so far, 5NL is great for me, but I'm very swingy at 10NL. I violated my BRM rules and hung out at 10NL too long, which is why I dipped so low. Ah well, getting back on track now and continuing at 5NL.

Here's a hand from 10NL that I was wondering about. Would you include JJ in a 3bet range vs. UTG? No info on Villain, so I probably should have flatted this pre.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 372.6 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 23.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 30)
SB: 265.1 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 15.63, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 64)
Hero (BB): 168.4 BB
UTG: 162.7 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
MP: 121.1 BB (VPIP: 19.72, PFR: 15.49, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 76)
CO: 100.3 BB (VPIP: 22.58, PFR: 16.13, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 31)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9.5 BB, UTG calls 7 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) K 4 9
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: (19.5 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 9 BB, fold,

Yo, still on the grind at 5NL. It's been going well, got the bankroll back up to $118. I've been mixing it up between zoom and regular 6-max tables. Here are the results for the past week:


Also, looking for feedback on my stats. Here's a 50k sample. Cheers!

Yes I would include JJ in the 3bet range. It's a hand that you need to 3bet for value and deny equity against his A high, etc.

On the AQs hand, you should have 4bet/fold. But once you're on that flop, you shove have raised with your flush draw. I don't think you have much showdown value (against his value 3betting range) and this way you put all his hands in a tough spot and probably make him fold by the turn or river.

Cheers, thanks for the feedback.

Here we go, another status update. Been rolling good at 5NL and back to 10NL with the bankroll back up to $157. Played tonight and had to step back to 5NL before making another trip up. Pretty happy that I've got more discipline now to move down when below 15 buy-ins for the next stake - definitely something I had trouble with in the past.

Here are the results since the last post:



What do you think of the way this hand was played? Villain is an unknown, but judging from his 2.5x open, could be a reg. Thanks again!

PokerStars - $0.05 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 106.2 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
SB: 100 BB
Hero (BB): 116 BB
UTG: 101 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 20.45, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 45)
MP: 56 BB (VPIP: 75.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
CO: 146.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J T

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 2.4 BB, Hero calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (4.8 BB, 2 players) Q T 9
SB bets 2.6 BB, Hero calls 2.6 BB

Turn: (10 BB, 2 players) 2
SB checks, Hero bets 6 BB, SB raises to 20 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

River: (50 BB, 2 players) 4
SB bets 24 BB, fold,

Alright, here's another status update since last week. Things are progressing nicely and I've FINALLY moved out of 10NL and onto 16NL (for now - bankroll is at $263). 10NL has been the bain of my existence, but I've played a lot more patiently lately and exploitatively, since there are a lot more fish than regs there. Now I'll have to think more about balance again being in a smaller 16NL pool and (hopefully soon) in the 25NL pool. Any feedback on results/hands or general thoughts welcome!

Got a little sloppy with my posting, but pretty happy with how my game is going. Moved through 16NL and starting 25NL now, bankroll up to $375.

16NL was tricky because it's not a big player pool so there were a lot of nights were I was playing with a mostly reggy population. Although it's interesting how all over the map players are with their bet sizing due to awkward blind sizes.

So far (and in the past), I find 25NL easier than 10NL. Hopefully I don't jinx myself there . I think 25NL is more of a starting point for people joining the site and looking to make some quick money with about $100 buy-in, whereas 10NL is where a lot of poker students and frugal new players go to hone their skills. I could be wrong, but that's my theory.

Anyway, you can see my graph has been fairly swingy, but I'm currently in a peak of one of those swings so hopefully that continues! Not much time left to get to $1,000, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the grind over the next couple weeks.

Less than a week left and it's getting tight!

I've been running well at 25NL and shotted 50NL the other day. It was going well, but then had a few buy-in downswing and am back to 25NL grinding it up. I had $100 rakeback that I'll be collecting, so my total bankroll right now is $689. Once I hit $750 again, it's back to 50NL for the home stretch.

This will be close! I think the main thing at this point is for me to not stress too much about hitting $1000 by Christmas if it's going to make me play my D game at any point. That being said, I'll be trying to fit in a lot of mini sessions where I can to stay fresh while still cramming some volume. Wish me luck!

Results since my last post:

Well, Christmas came a few days late this year!

I (FINALLY) completed the challenge. Definitely a lot harder than I thought, though I would say I struggled more at the lower stakes, particularly 10NL, than the higher ones.

Here are the results from the last post:



Here are a few takeaways:

1. I've had some good coaching, but a lot of the balanced play I learned didn't come in handy until 50NL. I would recommend playing much more exploitative at the lower stakes (i.e. if Villain bets 2/3 pot on the river, he's probably not bluffing).
2. Having a goal helped a lot, as long as it doesn't make you TOO results-oriented. Some of my worst sessions were the ones where I was about to achieve a milestone like moving up in stakes, or posting to this forum. If you try and force your winnings, you'll definitely pay dearly. Looking back, I honestly feel like I could achieve these results in 1/2 to 2/3 the number of hands it took.
3. The microstakes are still very beatable. While I ran into a lot of brick walls, it never ceased to amaze me what hands fish would play or how overly-aggressive (particularly x/r flop cbets) players would be in such an unbalanced way. I would recommend playing a TAG strategy, but don't be too overly-aggressive with your play - other players will do that for you and you can rake in the $$.

Let me know if you guys have any questions/comments/advice. My bankroll is now at $1045, which DOES include rakeback of $100. I'm finding 50NL way less difficult than I thought it would be, so I plan to work my bankroll up to $2K before withdrawing some funds for vacations and stuff.

Thanks for those who followed/chipped in on hands, etc. Every bit helped.

Happy trails, run well!