If/when I get a second job, that would be an option. But until then, the last thing I need is another monthly expense.

It’s called investment

Register there for free and post HHs there also. Read HHs from other players, here and there. Learn from them.

Thanks guys. About subscribing, I know it's an investment. But I'm not wanting to go that route yet. I think things are improving a little, and I'd like to see how things go first.

I had some help from reloadonsashagray yesterday. He sweated me for a bit, and offered a lot of pointers and wisdom lol. Actually, the biggest takeaway from that for me was mindset-related. It wasn't anything that he was trying to help me with (I don't think), but hearing him talk about the players at nl5z, just gave me a sense that nl5 should be so easy to beat. Through all the poker advice he was giving, that might have actually been the most valuable takeaway (not to discount anything else lol). Think I made about $10 during that sweat session, bringing the BR back up to $85.

So, tonight, after a long tiring day at work, I was almost tempted to just go to sleep right away. But being a Friday night, thought better of that idea and decided to play some poker first. And I decided to try playing some nl10 while my mindset was in the right place.

The plan was to play nl10 until my BR went below $50, and then drop to nl2 to grind it back up. But after a confidence-boosting session today, I may be willing to just risk all ~8 BIs at nl10. I have a tax rebate coming up this week for about $140, which I was just thinking about. So it's a little extra money coming in that I had forgotten about. So if my BR busts, I can redeposit (and maybe even still play a bit more at nl10 before dropping down).

As far as my playstyle goes, I tried to incorporate into my strategy a few things he pointed out. But I also didn't want to change too much too soon, especially while playing higher than I'm used to. Over time, I'll try and work on those areas more, and incorporate more of that stuff into my game as I get more comfortable.

NL10:

Good luck with your challenge! Some quick tips:

1) Don't ever limp preflop. It's just not good and you'll never see a good reg do it (except at the nosebleeds, but forget that for now).

2) Don't ever donk bet. Okay, donking is correct maybe 10% of the time and incorrect 90% of the time, but until you gain a good understanding of exactly which board textures are good for donking, it's safer to just never do it.

3) Always bet between 50% and 100% pot postflop. Okay again, there are some exceptional circumstances where making tiny bets even as low as 25% pot is optimal, but until you learn what those spots are and why, it's safer to just never do it.

4) Never flat call a raise preflop. This might sound insane but you can actually win a lot of money by playing a 3bet or fold strategy, and the vast majority of the time when someone flats a raise or flats a 3bet preflop, they're doing it incorrectly.

3) Sure, but choose very wisely the type of hands you want to play on a bloated pot, esp when oop.

4) seems bad advice, many pp's you'll want to flat, and from blinds some hands fine to flat, especially defending bb bvb.

Obviously from BB you should call a lot of hands, calling with pocket pairs from other positions not so good though.

Not sure I agree with all of those 4 points. #1 & #2, I might be closest to agreeing with. I think you can split your range preflop and have a limping range. But that would complicate things more, and it's easier just to have a raising range (which btw is how I'm playing now -- no limping). And I'm not donking anymore right now also. But I do think donking has its place.

#3 I don't agree with. I think having smaller bet sizes than 50% (in some places) is better. I'd be interested to hear why you think it's safer to always bet between 50% - 100% pot. And as for #4, as the others have mentioned, I think there are preflop situations where we need to call. And actually, calling preflop is not my problem area. Typically, my calling range has had a decent win-rate.

Some more quick tips.

5) Don't listen to advice from 6bet regarding literally anything unless your looking for the optimal way to go broke

rip?

lol no. Sadly, my extended shot at nl10 didn't go well. I mean, it went ok, but I ran badly. I lost just under 1 BI in all-in EV, but lost 5 actual BIs. And if I hadn't have called a Russian nit's all-in with trips/top kicker when it's obvious I'm beat (and a couple other spews), my all-in EV would have been positive. So although the results weren't great, I do have the confidence I can beat that level. Looking forward to shot-taking there again in the near future.

When things don't go well, you spend time working on your game. I spent a lot of time working on balancing split RFI ranges using two raise sizes. I know what you're going to say, but I really feel that this is optimal. I know how I'm going to continue to work on my game in the future, but for now I'm just going to get back to playing lots until I start beating nl10 or nl25 (at which point I'll put in a lot more study time).

Challenge 1 Complete!

Ok, so I cheated somewhat. I took advantage of Stars' deposit bonus (deposit $120 and get $30 in Spins tickets). Lost most of my all-in spots while playing the Spins lol, and only made $6 out of that. Also, probably didn't play anywhere close to optimally, cause I haven't really studied Spins. But that brought the bankroll up to around $180.

There's really no reason for me to keep playing nl2 with the new BR, as I know I can beat it, and I have enough BIs to play NL5 entirely with minimal risk of ruin (assuming I'm beating it with a decent winrate). So I started playing NL5, and will keep playing there. No plan to drop back down should things go bad. Will just stick with nl5 to the end.

The Future:

As far as my money issues are concerned, they still exist. My plan was that if I got off to a bad start at nl5, I'd start looking for a second job in the next few days. If it goes well, I can then withdraw monthly from my nl5 winnings. Any extra money won in the month can be used for nl10 shots.

I'm aiming for a nl5 WR of around 8bb/100. If I can achieve that, then things will be looking good. I'm also looking into ways to decrease my grocery spending for the next several months to give me the best chance of success. Then I won't need to withdraw quite so much.

So not sure how I'm gonna do things moving forward. The original plan was to create a new thread for the next challenge (nl5 to nl10). But, not sure how much I want to update right now. I want to spend more time playing, until I can reach some stakes where I don't need to play 40 hours a week (while still working full time). So I don't want to spend too much time updating here.. for now. Maybe I'll just update with graphs once a week or every couple weeks or something.

Will put up graphs of all stakes so far in the next post.

Across all stakes:


NL2 reg tables:


NL2z:


NL5z:


NL10z:

Not hating, I really want you to win and move up asap, but you should lower your expectations a little bit. 8bb/100 for zoom, even at nl5, seems too high for someone who is not on top 2% of pool and knows all standard lines and exploits by heart. If it is a long term goal, then fine, but you should work really hard on your game. Or go to normal tables and tableselect.

A better approach imo is to grind hard, build a reasonable sample, work on your game, use the pathetic stars rewards (you play on stars right?) to pay for a RIO subscription, and see the improvements coming step by step.

Anyway, good luck, hope you suceed.

I cringe when I see micro players use the word GTO, when most 25/50 stars regs hardly understand it. Just stop. Exploit the crappy players, play every hand in a vacuum, print. The end.

Agreed, but op should know the optimal play in every situation before he can learn how to exploit the crappy players right? Even if we don´t know what is gto right now, poker theory seems to be well advanced nowadays.

Ehm no. Why would you ever need GTO (whatever that means in micros) to exploit the obvious flaws of fish? These are the players you get your money from so you need to beat them first, which means exploiting the living crap out of them.

To exploit someone you need to know how they are deviating from a more optimal strategy first. The more you understand how people are deviating the better you can exploit them.

Ok, when I (and most others) use the term "GTO", we're not actually referring to GTO. I think it's obvious that we don't really know (or can't be sure of) what GTO truly looks like, and thus, we can't actually build a GTO solution. What we actually mean by "GTO" is something fairly balanced and unexploitable, and probably somewhat resembling true GTO. "GTO" is a lot easier to say, and gets the point across.

Regarding GTO being necessary, or being a waste of time at the micros... I think it is very beneficial preflop, and becomes less so as you get to the river. If you're going to exploit, the best time to do so is on the river. I think GTO is very important preflop, and somewhat important on the flop.

To some extent, you don't need to know what GTO looks like to expoit. For example, if someone is playing in a way where you can auto-profit a lot by betting/raising any two cards, then you can exploit them. However, there are other areas where knowing GTO can give you a better idea of what mistakes others are making that you can exploit. And there's also the fact that playing "GTO" can also profit from certain mistakes your opponents make.

As for aiming for an 8bb/100 winrate at nl5, I think it's possible. My winrate at nl2 was around 7, and that included plenty of spewing. And I've done a ton more work on my RFI ranges (including defense vs 3bets), which imo is the most important area of your game to work on since it's the most frequent spot. I feel this area of my game is probably better than most, if not all, of the other nl5 players. Then I just need to play somewhat tight and solid in all other spots that I haven't done the work on yet.

Time will tell what my winrate will be. I'm not saying I'm expecting it to be up there, but rather that I think there's a chance it could be. Even if it ends up being around 5bb/100, it's not the end of the world. I just need to take more nl10 shots sooner, and if I get some early success there, I'll probably be ok. All I can say is that I've probably done more off-table work than the other players at this level. Most of that work has resulted in mistakes and faulty ideas. But it's also gotten me to this point where I'm starting to figure out how this game works (math-wise), and how to start developing a strategy one step at a time. And I've had a lot of help from you guys along the way, helping me to realize a lot of my mistakes, and spots where my thinking was incorrect. Now it's time to apply what I've learnt and start moving forward, seeing how far I can take this. Or see how far I can crash and burn lol

I think it's about time for an update lol. So I wasn't making much progress after the last update. My postflop play was horrible, I was playing quite undisciplined at times, and just started lacking enthusiasm. Didn't do much playing after that. I was almost ready to subsribe to RIO, but didn't really want to spend hours on videos at this point. Was starting to think about just not playing anymore and focusing on other stuff.

Well, one thing drew me back in. Just playing for the love of the game. I don't care anymore whether or not I win or lose. I am just going to have fun playing. I mean, I'm still trying to win. But I'm going to do it my way, or else I'll just have fun losing. If I end up being a fish, so be it.

So I started creating a new strategy from scratch, one that will provide more enjoyment for me. It involves a lot of open-limping preflop (yes, back to that lol). Actually, my main motivation was to figure out ways to make my opponents make the most mistakes. Because that's fun. And I figure, most people don't spend much time working on isolation ranges, and so I can take advantage of that. I know I'm going to get people posting here telling me I'm crazy, or playing terrible. I don't care. As long as I'm having fun.

I'll post some hands from my first session back today, for some entertainment. And hopefully, I'll keep updating with hands, and graphs (once in a while). As long as it's fun.

----------------

This hand didn't go so well lol

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $2.74 (VPIP: 66.67, PFR: 66.67, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
SB: $2.58 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
Hero (BB): $2.02
UTG: $3.43 (VPIP: 22.95, PFR: 21.31, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 63)
MP: $2.00 (VPIP: 40.63, PFR: 29.69, 3Bet Preflop: 14.81, Hands: 64)
CO: $2.00 (VPIP: 17.90, PFR: 13.10, 3Bet Preflop: 4.40, Hands: 238)

SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 8 8

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $0.05, fold, Hero raises to $0.15, BTN calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.31, 2 players) 9 9 9
Hero bets $0.17, BTN calls $0.17

Turn: ($0.65, 2 players) J
Hero bets $0.35, BTN calls $0.35

River: ($1.35, 2 players) 4
Hero bets $1.35 and is all-in, BTN calls $1.35



------------------------

Don't know why he's not betting the flop. I'm a fish after all.

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $2.02 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
SB: $2.75 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BB: $2.00 (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
UTG: $2.60 (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 16.28, 3Bet Preflop: 18.18, Hands: 45)
MP: $2.62 (VPIP: 21.67, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 63)
Hero (CO): $2.56

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has A 4

fold, fold, Hero calls $0.02, fold, SB raises to $0.08, fold, Hero calls $0.06

Flop: ($0.18, 2 players) 4 T A
SB checks, Hero bets $0.17, SB calls $0.17

Turn: ($0.52, 2 players) 9
SB checks, Hero bets $0.50, SB raises to $2.50 and is all-in, Hero calls $1.81 and is all-in

River: ($5.14, 2 players) 6



-------------------

Weird donk by him.

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $1.05 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
SB: $1.99 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
BB: $2.91 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
UTG: $1.05 (VPIP: 22.34, PFR: 1.52, 3Bet Preflop: 1.14, Hands: 204)
Hero (MP): $2.03
CO: $1.93

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has J J

fold, Hero calls $0.02, CO raises to $0.06, fold, fold, BB raises to $0.24, Hero raises to $0.55, fold, BB calls $0.31

Flop: ($1.17, 2 players) A 2 7
BB bets $2.36 and is all-in, Hero calls $1.48 and is all-in

Turn: ($4.13, 2 players) 6

River: ($4.13, 2 players) 8



-------------------

People seem more aggro towards me now lol

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $4.61 (VPIP: 21.71, PFR: 13.18, 3Bet Preflop: 4.65, Hands: 132)
SB: $6.07
BB: $2.00 (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
UTG: $5.76
Hero (MP): $2.33
CO: $0.77 (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 100.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has Q Q

UTG raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.18, fold, BTN calls $0.18, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.57, 3 players) 2 8 J
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.18, fold, UTG calls $0.18

Turn: ($0.93, 2 players) 8
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.30, UTG raises to $5.40 and is all-in, Hero calls $1.67 and is all-in

River: ($4.87, 2 players) 9



-------------------

And again

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $3.73 (VPIP: 14.81, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 27)
SB: $2.03
BB: $2.44 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG: $2.32 (VPIP: 38.64, PFR: 29.55, 3Bet Preflop: 28.00, Hands: 44)
MP: $1.80 (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 12)
Hero (CO): $2.61

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has K A

UTG raises to $0.08, fold, Hero raises to $0.24, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.16

Flop: ($0.51, 2 players) 2 K K
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.28, UTG calls $0.28

Turn: ($1.07, 2 players) 5
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.66, UTG raises to $1.80 and is all-in, Hero calls $1.14

River: ($4.67, 2 players) 2



---------------------

Limping is fun

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $2.11 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: $8.46
BB: $2.00 (VPIP: 5.26, PFR: 5.26, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
UTG: $3.87 (VPIP: 27.84, PFR: 16.49, 3Bet Preflop: 6.98, Hands: 100)
Hero (MP): $2.00
CO: $2.13 (VPIP: 14.58, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 2.08, Hands: 148)

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has Q Q

fold, Hero calls $0.02, fold, fold, SB calls $0.01, BB checks

Flop: ($0.06, 3 players) 8 3 7
SB bets $0.04, fold, Hero raises to $0.12, SB calls $0.08

Turn: ($0.30, 2 players) Q
SB checks, Hero bets $0.58, SB calls $0.58

River: ($1.46, 2 players) T
SB checks, Hero bets $1.28 and is all-in, SB calls $1.28

I think you put a lot of pressure on yourself when you said you needed the money for your life expenses. Obv our goal when playing poker is winning money in the long run, but you should detach yourself from that, and instead treat it like a sport.

Don´t give up taking it srsly sir, there´s nothing more fun about this game than winning a lot from it. You don´t need to be a genius in order to be able to do that. Even this can help you a little bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcuu...VtwvZcRp6oDXg6

Cheers!

What can I say other than..lolz?

It could be worse. Read the last post from Rapidesh.

lol

Thanks for the youtube link; started watching, and looks interesting. You are probably right; I did put a lot of pressure on myself (probably too much). I haven't given up on taking it seriously, but my main goal right now is just to have fun playing without any expectations.

Even though you guys might laugh at me open-limping, I do think there is some merit. I think there's merit to any play that puts your opponents into situations that they haven't spent much time working on. Mind you, I'm talking mostly about the regs. As for the fish, I think they'll stack off with many hands, no matter how much goes in preflop. So I don't think it's too bad. It's basically making small mistakes to force your opponent to make larger mistakes. I was being isolated with A2o vs my EP open-limp yesterday.

Plus, it's fun. It's fun playing a strategy that is different from the norm, that has the potential to be a winning strategy. Much more fun than trying to copy what everyone else is doing. To do things that my opponents don't know how to counter properly. I will continue doing this for a bit, and see where it takes me.

Just played a short session tonight, cause I spent some time watching hockey after work. So not very many notable hands today.

------------------

A bit unfortunate

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $2.00 (VPIP: 19.05, PFR: 4.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
SB: $2.61 (VPIP: 22.58, PFR: 16.13, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 35)
Hero (BB): $2.11
UTG: $2.11
MP: $2.17 (VPIP: 28.89, PFR: 8.89, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)
CO: $2.30 (VPIP: 14.13, PFR: 8.70, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 93)

SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has J A

fold, MP calls $0.02, fold, BTN raises to $0.09, fold, Hero raises to $0.27, fold, BTN calls $0.18

Flop: ($0.57, 2 players) K T Q
Hero bets $0.30, BTN calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.17, 2 players) 8
Hero bets $0.62, BTN calls $0.62

River: ($2.41, 2 players) 8
Hero bets $0.92 and is all-in, BTN calls $0.81 and is all-in



---------------------

Ugghhh, don't think I like the call down that much

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $3.79
SB: $2.09 (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
Hero (BB): $2.15
UTG: $4.30 (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 14)
MP: $3.61 (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 24)
CO: $1.97 (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 100.00, 3Bet Preflop: 100.00, Hands: 1)

SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has 6 7

UTG raises to $0.06, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.18, UTG calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.37, 2 players) T 7 2
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.17, Hero calls $0.17

Turn: ($0.71, 2 players) Q
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25

River: ($1.21, 2 players) T
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.42, Hero calls $0.42



------------------------

Don't think I've shown any bluffs yet, so since there's not very many big interesting hands..

PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $3.80 (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 29)
SB: $2.00 (VPIP: 8.86, PFR: 6.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 83)
BB: $2.26 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
UTG: $0.98 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 5)
Hero (MP): $2.07
CO: $2.33 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 40)

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.03) Hero has J A

UTG calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, fold, BTN raises to $0.09, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.07, Hero calls $0.07

Flop: ($0.30, 3 players) 3 K Q
UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.25, fold, Hero raises to $0.70, fold,