GOALS:
1. Build a 10k bankroll (if possible before 2019 ends).
2. Move up to at least 100NL by the end of the year.
3. Play at least 160 hours a month.
4. Move up when you have 30 buy-ins of the next highest stake.
5. Update this thread at least 3x a week.
6. Workout at least 4x a week.
7. And have fun while doing all of this.

Information about me: Don't want to talk too much about personal matters but I used to be a 100NL FR 24 tabler at PokerStars with a 4bb winrate a couple of years back. Right now I am at a position in my life where I can play poker again and want to see if I can still make some cash playing this game.

Started playing again last June 20, 2019 starting at 5NL 6max (decided to go with 6max this time to have a different perspective/challenge for the game).

Starting bankroll: $400
Current bankroll: $646.35

Will be including rakeback and bonuses in my profits computation.

Current stake: 10NL 6max

And here are my latest graphs. Really hoping I can still improve my winrate.

Overall Graph for 2019


Overall 10NL


Overall 5NL


Overall Stakes


Overall Summary


Currently I am 6 tabling. Will add more tables when I can.

How do I post using the HH converter btw? I can't seem to get it to work. I right click the hand in HM2 and click copy then paste it in the converter here but it keeps giving me an error. Tried it with the 2+2 format but still giving me a failure to convert.

im doing a road to nl100 as well.

Im sub, gl

Done for the day. Really tough day. 10 hours in and couldn't get anything going. Hope to run better tomorrow.

Thanks man!

Do you happen to know how make the Hand History Converter to work? I keep getting a failure to convert message.

i use pt4 so i dont know how to help u sory.

OK. Thanks anyway.

Copy paste your hand history into this: https://upswingpoker.com/convert/

Check/Uncheck what you want and the click submit.

Copy paste the result into your post and voila!

* Oh and GL btw!

Finally figured how to post. Didn't have to use the Hand History Converter after all lol. I can just paste it immediately.

Hand of the day.
BTN is reg and BB is fish.



This is vs a solid reg. Didn't have a history of him bluffing raising the turn. But it was 4 handed so I thought he probably has a wider range than average in this spot. What do you guys think?



Against a 36/22 with 58% Agg% and 55 WWSF in 91 hands.

My bad on the lack of updates. Just really busy putting in the hours.

TLDR - microstakes grinder still at microstakes lol. Deposited money to move up, got crushed, moved back down.

Anyway, just finished my first month since I started playing again last June 20 and here is what I was able to accomplish.

GOALS:
1. Build a 10k bankroll - working hard on it. Bankroll is currently at $402.93 although I deposited more to play 25NL but got crushed. More on this later.
2. Move up to at least 100NL by the end of the year - "Cheated" my way to play 25NL for a while but had to move back down to 10NL.
3. Play at least 160 hours a month - on pace to hit this. At 108 hours so far.
4. Move up when you have 30 buy-ins of the next highest stake. - transferred to a site with a better rakeback deal and deposited enough to play 25NL, got crushed for 20 buy-ins and moved down.
5. Update this thread at least 3x a week. - obviously failed on this. My bad. But I've been literally playing and studying poker except when I am asleep or hitting the gym.
6. Workout at least 4x a week. - Doing 3x a week to have more poker study time.
7. And have fun while doing all of this. - Really enjoying my time. I might not be getting the results that I am expecting (yet), but I am really optimistic and believe in hard work and I like to think I've been working hard to improve my game.

Some things I was surprised with 6max.
1. People are tighter than I expected. I thought recs and/or regs were gonna stack off looser pre and postflop but it feels just like FR but with more hands played.
2. x/c - x/c - pot bet lead OTR from recs is usually the nuts. I don't think I've ever won a pot calling down a line like this lol.

That seems to be all for now. Now here are some graphs.

Enjoy the "ride" with my 25NL graph. I sure did.

July 25NL - I moved to WPN to get rakeback expecting to improve my hourly. Reality had other plans lol. Deposited enough money to start at 25NL. Got crushed. Moved back to 10NL. Cool story bro.


July 5-10NL - still beating 5NL. 10NL, close to breakeven now.


Overall 10NL - I like to think that I'm starting to see and understand what I'm doing wrong at this stake. Hope I'm correct.


All Stakes July - a really wild July. Only positive is that I feel that I'm starting to understand 10NL more (fingers crossed).


I believe that's all. To everyone who took the time to read this, thank you for your time.

PS. Currently looking for a course to purchase and/or subscribe to. Any recommendations? So far leaning towards subscribing to Upswing Poker Lab. Been watching too much Doug Polk YouTube on the side during my grind sessions.

i read you, interesting post.

I was on nl25 1 month ago crushing it 8/bbs i had to cash out for a emergency and now i deposite 100dlrs and is so hard to beat micro levels nl2/nl5/nl10 i have a agressive style and it was more efficen on nl25 then nl2, im really struggling to adapt.

Greetings SGR, and GL on the Challenge

Can u explain the above in more detail? I've been trying to figure out a way to post a nice clean version of hands (such as you have); but nothing I've tried so far, has worked. With WPN, my hands won't convert at all.

If you use HM2, right click the hand then click VIEW. Then on lower right there's a clipboard icon and a up down icon, click the up down and choose Two Plus Two (2+2) then just copy paste directly in the thread.

I've been struggling as well. Good thing I'm breakeven now at 80k hands of 10NL. It's really hard to try to make people fold at 10NL. I get called by really bad hands (3rd pair or worse in really good turnouts for my range - or I like to think they're good turnouts for me at least). So I stopped doing that. What I did was I started doing a lot of pot bet/overbets with made hands against the recs and even regs. Seems to be working. Only bad thing is if I have bad cards, it's hard to get fancy resulting in me having a very bad red line and a lot of swings because if it's wrong I usually lose a stack even in SRP's.

Rakeback is what's keeping me afloat. I currently have the 27% RB at WPN + the first deposit bonus which is like another 20%.

My last 45k hands at 10NL have me winning at 5bb. Really working hard to win with a higher winrate.

Last 45k 10NL


Last 45k Red Line


Overall 10NL

Not beating 10nl fr atm (I play on stars), and it seems we´re facing almost the same issues lol. Yes, they are very sticky with dumb holdings, and the solution right now seems to be focusing on value and tightening up postflop (accepting the increased variance), rely heavily on stats if I´m gonna do any "plays", and bluff 3b/4b/5b a little more often.

GL, hope you succeed.

Thanks man! GL to us both!

I used to be a FR reg circa 2011-2014 at PS (started at 2NL all the way to 100NL and some shot takes at 200NL in a year or so until I finished school and got a job). If the games is still like back then, all I can say is just go for strict value. I remember being a solid nit back then and I was able to win at 4bb 24 tabling 100NL. Literally folding to all cbet raises and just stacking off with top 2pair+. Strictly played hands with the rec, avoided hands with regs unless with AK+ and flips as much as possible. That gave me solid fundamentals in my opinion but wasn't really setting me up for long term development as a player. I was in college back then, so I was ok with the extra cash I was making with that style. If you're ok with that, I suggest go for that robot like style. But again, like I said, it's prob not good for long term development if you plan to make it to midstakes+++.

Nice graph, keep it going! What about database analysis, have you run that?

Review my database? Yeah, I do it every 10k hands. What I notice is I suck at 3bet pots as caller. That's where I'm losing the most money. Not as much the last couple of thousand of hands though compared to my earlier hands.

good luck man, also if can spare any tips too be appreciated ha.

What works for me is to tighten up my flat 3b range, esp oop and in ep battles. UTG vs UTG+1 (fr), I go as tight as QQ-KK only. Then you scale down as you´re moving towards the CO, as you don´t want to fold too much of yuor range. IP is another story, then I prefer playable suited hands (+pps ofc).

Having a balanced 4b strategy is also importante imo.

This way both my 4bets and call vs 3bets are very profitable.

The sizing of the 3bet we´re facing is also of huge importance.

*Talking about 5nl, the limit I actually beat nicely . I also play 13/11 and open 2.4 bbs from all positions except for the sb, so I don´t need to defend marginal holdings for the most part.

Cheers

I love PGC and threads like this, best of luck to everyone here. I recently started at plo10 (i have a NL MTT background) and if I can get to a 10k roll that'd be a dream. Super inspiring stuff, and your work ethic is very obv fire. Keep it up everybody!

These types of "absurd" but accurate adjustments are necessary at lowstakes plo too up to at least plo25 but I don't know if higher than that. Soul-crushingly nitty would be the way I describe it. Pay our dues then graduate to midstakes where people are trying harder..

Too much time at these stakes and we'll become vegetables so let's get out the trap ya?

GL, I need a thread.

Subbed.

Would love to give tips, but not really confident giving tips just yet since I seem to be not beating 10NL at a decent sample. There are more qualified people imo.

Nice man. It's good that you have a gameplan. Just keep reviewing your game and plugging those leaks slowly but surely.

Thanks man!

If you don't mind me asking, what stakes NL MTT's were you playing back then? And how is the hourly rate there?

I'm looking into MTT's and I'm starting to wonder if they're better of than playing micros due to the rake (it's at 10bb/100 where I'm playing).