Intro:
I am on a journey. This journey has a fixed beginning and a clear ending. There are checkpoints at which point I can measure my progress to be ahead of or behind my expectations. Whatever my progress, it is what it is. Personal acceptance & inner peace are critical for success, especially for an endeavor as swingy as PLO. The iteration of reality we find ourselves hurtling down can't be changed by our reactions to it or because of our personal preferences, rather we have to accept it for how it is and do our best given the circumstances.

"I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still
Whoever yields properly to Fate, is deemed
Wise among men, and knows the laws of heaven."
Euripides

Goals:
August 2018: 2/5 zoom with $100k+
End of 2018: 10/20 PLO reg
End of 2019: 25/50 PLO reg
End of 2020: I want to be phasing out of poker with ~800k USD.

These goals are aggressive. The games are always getting tougher. But I will rise to the top. I have honed every aspect of my game and it will be obvious in this thread as it develops. I named myself BERRI SOUR so that when I am sitting across from BERRI SWEET he will know our battling will have been premeditated.

For now I will continue at the bottom of midstakes until my grind begins full time in January. At which point I will battle my way until I am comfortably settled in to 2/5 zoom on Stars at which point the objective will be to crank out 1.5k in EV each day from cash and fire off the major plo mtts.

For a life after poker, I see myself investing in rental apartments to generate passive income and enable the next segment of my life -- business and family. I recognize that poker is a net negative on society so I have some catching up to do in the next stages of my life. Thankfully my poker journey will be concluded within a few years and I will have the tools- time and money- to enact the change I want to see on the people around me that I care about and the causes I find worthwhile.

When the grind becomes difficult, when the downswing seems like it cannot possibly continue, when you want to give up out of frustration, remember that my quality of life is a dream and the challenges I face are nothing compared to my ancestors. In their words:
“Through chances various, through all vicissitudes, we make our way …. “ --Aeneid

For now I am playing hudless due to some finnicky software that I'm trying to treat gently. I don't mind tho, I know my opponents and have used a hud plenty to understand what I'm doing.
A few months ago I made my goal for this fall to win 40 buyins. I've already done that. My new goal is another 40 for a total of 80.
Today I won 4 buyins. I am currently at 54/80 buyins for my present goal.

I have a stretch goal of another 100 that would make a total of 140 buyins although I am not thinking about this much and have my attention focused on the shorter term objective.

I will have significant volume on Friday and Sunday. Until then,,

Today was a war. My first two sessions both had huge amounts of swing, with 10 buyin swings up and down several times. My last session had things finally turn my way.
At 64/80 buyins. It's possible I may blow through this goal this weekend which would be such a pleasant surprise. The stretch goal of 140 buyins is one solid day away from being necessary. I'll also be playing a few $109-$162 NL tournaments on Sunday that I've previously made deep runs in.

I made a very nice river check today in a 3 way pot 2nd to act where the button has strong incentive to bluff when we both check and it went pot & call to me with the nuts. Definitely a low frequency event to get the player first to act to look the button up but I'm quite pleased with my line given if I bet I get much less a small amount more of the time.

Would be quite a bit more interesting if you posted a few hands here and there

Gl!

To be honest I think the most interesting spots are close preflop spots for peeling 3bets or spr 1.5-2.5 spots postflop in 3bet pots but those hands without the relevant info [hudless, you don't see gameflow etc] are quite boring to read.

So what kind of hands do you want? At 100bb 6max plo there really aren't that many spots that are street poker like in NL that are entertaining to watch.

Hands that u mark for yourself? Hands that need thinking or are somehow unusual.

GL on the project.

Okay I'll keep that in mind. I actually don't mark hands since right now I'm 8 tabling hudless on three sites and don't have the time to pay attention to anything besides the tables and a few significant showdowns. If I play an unusual hand I'll screenshot it.

Today went well, off for some food then onto my last session until I'm too tired to keep playing.

Big day coming up today. First four days of this blog (by sleep cycle) were +9bi, +4bi, +8bi, -2bi. I'm firing off the bigger mtts today and considering shotting the next stake depending on how soft the games are.

I had some life stuff come up prior to my second session today. Pretty meh day, broke even, couldn't get anything going in the mtts. Punted a stack in cash that is really bad in retrospect that I thought was good at the time but otherwise played pretty well.

At 64/80.

subbed gl!

Thanks guys.
Monday was rough, down a little over 2 buyins. I punted in a frequency based spot where in retrospect villain was definitely inducing.. def have to watch out for that.

62/80.

Also I found this quote while doing some reading, really enjoyed it:
Until lately the best thing that I was able to think of in favour of civilization, apart from blind acceptance of the order of the universe, was that it made possible the artist, the poet, the philosopher, and the man of science. But I think that is not the greatest thing. Now I believe that the greatest thing is a matter that comes directly home to us all. When it is said that we are too much occupied with the means of living to live, I answer that the chief worth of civilization is just that it makes the means of living more complex; that it calls for great and combined intellectual efforts, instead of simple, uncoordinated ones, in order that the crowd may be fed and clothed and housed and moved from place to place. Because more complex and intense intellectual efforts mean a fuller and richer life. They mean more life. Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of it.
I will add but a word. We are all very near despair. The sheathing that floats us over its waves is compounded of hope, faith in the unexplainable worth and sure issue of effort, and the deep, sub-conscious content which comes from the exercise of our powers.

--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR

Didn't play yesterday because of other commitments.
I came back fresh and had a pretty strong day today, +8bi. All time high of 70/80 buyins.
Again this weekend looks like I'll be able to put in a lot of volume which is very exciting.

I am writing a paper on the unabomber's manifesto, I found his ideas to be initially very appealing but the more I go over his arguments the less merit I think they have. During some research I found this quote that I think holds volumes of truth in only a few words:
“The evils of our world aren’t a reversion to premodern primitive values, but rather are enabled by modern technology and social structures.” --Zygmunt Bauman

I extremely enjoy your writing. I found this thread and i will be following it.

I have no PLO exp or love fwiw, but i couldnt care less. I wish to u all the best and i am so curious about this journey and where it will take you.

If you want/dont mind i would love to know more about your real estate plans and your thoughts in life balance with poker/society/family&frds.

Gl Saturday-Sunday!

PS: I guess u dont want to share this, or u proly would have already, but if this isnt the case, maybe share a bit about yourself too. How old are you, past background of your life and of your poker life?

Thanks man. I'm an american college student trying to figure out my way through life as best I can.

My real estate plans are fairly rough right now, a few ideas are:
-Apartments near a university with a grad school
-Not near the East coast or Gulf (hurricanes), not in NorCal or SoCal (wildfires + earthquakes)
-A state with favorable property tax
-Buy with cash for negotiation leverage on discounts
-If I have several buildings in close proximity potentially hire someone to live there for free to take care of intaking new tenants and maintaining the properties to decrease how much time it takes of my life
-Acquire enough property to reach ~12k/month profit (not just rents charged)

I try to maintain a very balanced life which is helped by the fact that I have trouble playing more than 6 hours of online poker in a day consistently which leads me to have plenty of time for other activities and makes balance natural.

Today was a good day. I played very well, had a questionable fold. I've marked down a few hands to check later and I'll post some here. I won about 5 buyins today putting me at 75/80 buyins.
Poker is cruising for me which always feels incredible. I make sure to keep in mind these times so that when I'm struggling through a huge downswing I can keep my head up and put in quality hours.

Thanx 4 sharing this you seem pretty dedicated and to know what u r doing despite your age (imagine 20-25 since ur in college).

Best of luck buddy!

Thanks man.

Dropped 8 buyins on Friday, just running bad in aiev pretty standard spots.
At 67/80 buyins.
I just got back from a nice date and I'll be watching UFC 217 tonight so hardly any hands today.

There's something that I want to work on about myself when I grind. I have been winning and losing posts for years but I still find myself occasionally having thoughts pop into my head along the lines of "he's def getting there this time"

It only happens when i'm in a lull during my session and there aren't spots requiring my attention. I don't usually sweat allins or particular hands, I just make strings of decisions across my tables and let the result play out as that's all I can do. I know this to be true but at the same time I'll sometimes slip into negative thought processes that aren't just counter-productive, they can compound to become harmful. Recently anytime that I've had these unnecessary, pessimistic thoughts, I've made a conscious effort to switch my inner monologue and criticize myself for the error in thinking. I think that this reinforcement will eventually get rid of the problem but it is something I still have to actively work on.

I also have a problem with hero folding in situations vs spots that have recently lost significant pots but may not be impacted by the loss to make them tilt. The type of situation that really gets me is on dry textures where they have a range disadvantage and checkraise a hand that gets coolered by my nutty portion and so most players play this spot as a check call instead. For instance big blind vs button, the spot is check raising 33 on AT3r for value. If I have AQJT I'm not folding. Turn 9 I'm clicking it in on the turn. But really if you look at how they construct their ranges, some spots will only checkraise made hands in this spot that are 33+ without adding in any semibluffs. Vs this range I can even find a flop fold despite having a monster and them losing a stack two hands prior. I'm really not sure about these situations since they deal with a great deal of unknown and unknowable variables. I can't look at him across the table and gauge how tilted he is. Nor can I know in this spot if he truly ever does bluff checkraise. It hurts me to the core to fold as strong a hand as AQJT on AT3r vs a spot. I will dwell on this spot.

After my hands Sunday I'll go back and grab some from previous sessions to upload.

Subbed. GL!

I didn't play too much, just two sessions of cash, no mtts. I ended up socializing instead and watching bladerunner 2049. I don't regret it but I won't make this tradeoff too often as I know I need volume. I calculate that I need to put in roughly 250 more hours of online poker prior to hitting my stretch goal to emigrate.

With that said I won roughly 4 buyins today putting me at 71/80.
Here are a few hands from the last few days:

This hand is four handed and I have QT9



A nice little hero here in a spot I expect him to be overbluffing



Basically folding to QT9 exclusively here. It's nice to see him having what I expected in game



I actually thought 68 would show up here more than T8 as odd as that is given this particular river sizing is used sometimes by players that want to clearly bet/fold the 2nd nuts and most players cbet the majority of their T8 in this spot but hardly cbet any 68 thus making check flop, turn raise line have a ton of 68 not too much T8. Well he had the nuts anyway but sized it terribly and let me get away from it.




I can do more like this. The first hand I snipped it poorly but figured it out after that. Let me know what you guys think

dude learn how to post a HH

Lol steve.

Today was a slaughter, I shotted 1000 and lost a little over 5 buyins. Then I dropped like 8 buyins at msplo and ran it back up to only be stuck around one and a half msplo buyins on the day. A player from Italy (pro?) i've never seen before bet 3bet into my nuts on the river for 250bb so that was pretty sweet. My overall flinging poo strat gets paid in some spots I guess.
I'm taking a break to clear my mind, grab a milkshake and sweat a friend for a bit. More to come

Up two buyins or so at msplo in my last session today. 71/80 buyins.
It feels really really good to have a failed 1k shot for over 5 buyins and end up on the day.

I dropped 12 buyins in the last two days, pretty standard hands. Just running pretty bad in 4bet pots which makes it pretty easy to lose a bunch of chips. My strat is super aggressive too so having these swings isn't anything to really worry about. Right now i'm at a little under 58/80 buyins which is a minor bump as far as progress goes but I've still had a great fall so I'm not worrying and will just keep on keeping on. For now I'm taking a break today and doing schoolwork and going to go watch some live jazz. I'll pick back up on Friday and try to get some good hours in.

A lot of swing since Friday. Nothing really significant.
At 65/80 buyins. I'll be putting in another session today after dinner and maybe fire off some mtts.

All done today. Bricked my mtts today and it felt like I bricked in cash too but still had a fairly healthy win. At 69/80 buyins.
I won't get too much volume in for the next two weeks as I pound out most of my thesis. I've also got a private game coming up next Friday that will be like 200nl super deep or 2/5 with a variety of games. It'll be fun to donk around with the guys. Hopefully I'll still get some good hands in after I'm exhausted from writing.

Two months till full time can't wait!!