I find a good pgc thread inspiring so I thought I might as well create one too. This thread will probably remain anonymous forever but I thought this would be a good outlet to write what's on my mind. I'm sure journaling is therapeutic and should be a decent way to unwind after sessions.

I am in my mid 20s and am a professional tourney player. With scoop coming up in 2 months and wsop 3 months away I thought now would be a good time as any to set some goals for myself.

Short term online goals
-25k profit in March
-5 outright tourney wins in March
-Final table a Scoop
-Cash in a non holdem Scoop
-Play every medium and high Scoop

Stretch online goals
-100k profit before wsop
-Win a Scoop title
-Win Scoop main

Goals for Wsop
-2 fts
-Win a bracelet
-Have a winning series

Stretch Wsop goals
-3 fts
-Cash a non holdem event
-multiple bracelets
-Win main then retire

I think my regular goals are all attainable and for all my stretch goals I don't think I'm drawing dead.

Outside of poker I would like to try to meditate and do yoga daily. Socialize with non poker friends as much as possible. Eat as healthily as possible. I also think I would like to try to read a book daily. This was a new years resolution I set for myself which lasted all of 3 weeks.

Anyways time to get to sleep and get ready to grind.

I woke up a few hours late today but I still got in a decent amount of tourneys. I had a handful of fts and won one of my smaller tourneys for around $2k. Overall I think I ran quite bad in a lot of important spots but I can't really complain. For the month I'm still down around 3k but I can feel my game really clicking.

Here's probably the funniest hand I played all day. I actually discounted AK quite a bit. My turn bets questionable but I think river check jam is winning when I don't think he can have AK and I think I have more flushes than him etc. I actually think vs the population calling on the river for him loses but what can I say he got me.

Hero (MP): 67.93 BB
MP+1: 119.3 BB
CO: 75.6 BB
BTN: 57.35 BB
SB: 80.8 BB
BB: 59.23 BB
UTG: 80.45 BB
UTG+1: 37.83 BB

8 players post ante of 0.15 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.7 BB) Hero has 5 5

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.48 BB, fold, fold, BTN calls 2.48 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.65 BB, 2 players) T 3 Q
Hero bets 2.48 BB, BTN calls 2.48 BB

Turn: (12.6 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero bets 6.93 BB, BTN calls 6.93 BB

River: (26.45 BB, 2 players) J
Hero checks, BTN bets 8.5 BB, Hero raises to 55.9 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 36.83 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 5 5 (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 52%, Flop 60%, Turn 77%)
BTN shows K A (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 48%, Flop 40%, Turn 23%)
BTN wins 117.1 BB


Just a fun 5b pot always nice to get one through


BB: 68.62 BB
UTG: 71.48 BB
UTG+1: 98.93 BB
MP: 113.33 BB
MP+1: 138.02 BB
MP+2: 81.73 BB
CO: 41.18 BB
Hero (BTN): 106.86 BB
SB: 69.5 BB

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has 3 3

fold, fold, MP raises to 2.05 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, MP raises to 12.5 BB, Hero raises to 24 BB, fold

Hero wins 27.4 BB

Another fun 3b pot I had


UTG+1: 31.64 BB
MP: 98.78 BB
MP+1: 110.44 BB
MP+2: 100.82 BB
CO: 75.8 BB
BTN: 33.4 BB
SB: 91.78 BB
Hero (BB): 66.24 BB
UTG: 71.1 BB

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has 4 5

fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 8 BB, MP+1 calls 5 BB

Flop: (17.58 BB, 2 players) J A 8
Hero bets 6.66 BB, MP+1 calls 6.66 BB

Turn: (30.9 BB, 2 players) A
Hero bets 10.18 BB, MP+1 calls 10.18 BB

River: (51.26 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 41.28 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 51.26 BB


I'm pretty tired but still have some **** to do before bed time hopefully I wake up in time for the good morning tourneys.

glgl!!

Just a quick update for today. After finishing day 2 of this challenge I'm still down money this month. Fortunately I won another tournament for around 3k and added another handful of fts to the stat sheet. Winning 5 mtts in a month might be too low of a goal. Tomorrow will hopefully be a big Sunday for me. I'm trying to decide whether I should cut my number of tables or to just go all out and play everything.

I'll just share 1 hand for today. Can't get all my bluffs through , Pretty unlucky river I think he can't really call without that extra 9.

BTN: 15.2 BB
SB: 25.3 BB
Hero (BB): 57.97 BB
UTG: 18.15 BB
UTG+1: 37.98 BB
MP: 26.48 BB
MP+1: 13.71 BB
CO: 49.83 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.57 BB) Hero has 8 6

fold, fold, MP raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 4.59 BB, MP calls 2.59 BB

Flop: (10.75 BB, 2 players) A 2 J
Hero bets 3.55 BB, MP calls 3.55 BB

Turn: (17.85 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 4.63 BB, MP calls 4.63 BB

River: (27.1 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 45.07 BB and is all-in, MP calls 13.58 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 8 6 (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 41%, Flop 1%, Turn 0%)
MP shows A 9 (Two Pair, Aces and Nines)
(Pre 59%, Flop 99%, Turn 100%)
MP wins 54.27 BB

Had a long day. Broke even 0 fts, 0 wins. I was very deep in several tourneys but ran good in the wrong spots. I might take tomorrow off but I might wake up and want to grind.

Here's the fun hands for the day:

Sunday million hand, I was a top 20 stack at this point.

CO: 25.5 BB
BTN: 34.61 BB
SB: 48.93 BB
BB: 27.14 BB
UTG: 59.66 BB
UTG+1: 16.92 BB
MP: 15.28 BB
MP+1: 12.24 BB
Hero (MP+2): 96.86 BB

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has K A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.06 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.06 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (6.52 BB, 2 players) 8 9 3
Hero bets 2.18 BB, BTN calls 2.18 BB

Turn: (10.87 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero bets 3.59 BB, BTN calls 3.59 BB

River: (18.04 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, BTN bets 8 BB, Hero raises to 88.94 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 18.69 BB and is all-in

Hero shows K A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 7%, Flop 0.3%, Turn 0%)
BTN shows A A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 93%, Flop 99.7%, Turn 100%)
BTN wins 71.42 BB


Here's two hands that people over call too much on the river when I think jamming is just superior.

MP: 45.18 BB
MP+1: 97.66 BB
CO: 20.95 BB
BTN: 22.08 BB
SB: 41.89 BB
BB: 59.97 BB
UTG: 50.88 BB
Hero (UTG+1): 27.24 BB

8 players post ante of 0.15 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.72 BB) Hero has A Q

fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (5.72 BB, 2 players) 2 3 7
BB checks, Hero bets 1.88 BB, BB calls 1.88 BB

Turn: (9.48 BB, 2 players) 3
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (9.48 BB, 2 players) 9
BB bets 6 BB, Hero raises to 23.2 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 21.48 BB



SB: 68.35 BB
BB: 49.67 BB
UTG: 32.53 BB
UTG+1: 52.63 BB
MP: 39.48 BB
MP+1: 83.8 BB
MP+2: 47.4 BB
CO: 29.23 BB
Hero (BTN): 50.92 BB

9 players post ante of 0.08 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 6 6

fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 1 BB, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 2 BB

Flop: (8.25 BB, 2 players) 7 T Q
MP+2 checks, Hero bets 2.72 BB, MP+2 calls 2.72 BB

Turn: (13.68 BB, 2 players) 4
MP+2 checks, Hero bets 4.5 BB, MP+2 calls 4.5 BB

River: (22.68 BB, 2 players) 7
MP+2 bets 11.33 BB, Hero raises to 40.62 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 45.35 BB

And finally 2 more 5 bet hands


UTG: 22.53 BB
UTG+1: 21.53 BB
MP: 15.42 BB
MP+1: 22.53 BB
MP+2: 71.44 BB
CO: 75.05 BB
Hero (BTN): 51.92 BB
SB: 24.3 BB
BB: 27.1 BB

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has 9 J

fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero raises to 4.7 BB, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 11 BB, Hero raises to 51.82 BB and is all-in, MP+2 calls 40.82 BB

Flop: (106.03 BB, 2 players) K 3 T

Turn: (106.03 BB, 2 players) 4

River: (106.03 BB, 2 players) A

MP+2 shows A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 80%, Flop 81%, Turn 91%)
Hero shows 9 J (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 20%, Flop 19%, Turn 9%)
MP+2 wins 106.03 BB



MP+2: 27.1 BB
CO: 55.28 BB
BTN: 17.49 BB
SB: 28.52 BB
Hero (BB): 39.34 BB
UTG: 19.71 BB
UTG+1: 21.86 BB
MP: 33.44 BB
MP+1: 23.12 BB

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has A 5

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 4.95 BB, CO raises to 10.93 BB, Hero raises to 39.22 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 23.44 BB

The past 4 days have been pretty unspectacular. Monday and Tuesday I got killed. Wednesday and Thursday I played smaller sessions and lost small. Overall for the month I'm down around 7k.

Whenever I have a few losing days in a row I always doubt how well I am actually playing. I think I am pretty self aware and know where my game is at but I am playing a different style that I am not 100% comfortable with. If I think about it logically I can see that this style should theoretically just do better than whatever my standard game was but it's always nice to get some results to back that up.

Also I thought it would be a great idea to completely detox caffeine cold turkey. So I went from taking 1-2 200 mg caffeine pills and drinking at least a cup of coffee and 1-2 bottles of green tea a day to nothing. I think I am probably past most withdrawal symptoms already. It just started to seem that without caffeine I was dead mentally and physically. I also hope this will help bring me more mental clarity.

For some of my side goals in the month I have been meditating regularly but I have not started reading a book. I really haven't taken any days off from playing and my sessions usually involve me regging from the big 33 to the big 162. By the end of those sessions I'm completely dead tired.

The plans for the rest of the week involve me taking tomorrow off and starting back up on Saturday but that's easier said then done. In the past month or so I've said I would take days off 4-5 times and ended up playing full sessions on all of those days. I realize that I will eventually burn out and I don't want that to happen. Things like scoop and wsop will definitely reinvigorate my motivation to play but before then I guess there's no reason to kill myself grinding out 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

My profit goal for the month seems lofty now, but if I can string a few good days of grinding together and a big Sunday I can turn this month around. I would post some hands but all the interesting ones that come to mind are vs regs who might notice and I don't feel like looking through my pt database for other ones.

Good luck m8, interesting reading.

subbed gl

First off a quick Sunday recap. I actually ran a little over ev just not in spots that mattered. I cashed in something like 15 out of my 70 tourneys but ended up losing around 3k. Its always sucks bricking every major. I had 1 ft on a smaller site but ended up getting 8th. It seems pretty easy to run up stacks but its a lot harder to keep those chip leads.

Overall for last week I think I lost money every single day which is pretty frustrating but whenever I wake up in the morning I still have the urge to grind.

Last night I woke up around 1am and was tempted to fire up another session. It's probably unhealthy for me to want to play so much. Luckily after 2-3 hours I fell back asleep to wake up at a more reasonable time. In my early tourneys I was getting unlucky, a triple barrel failed in an annoying spot and someone made an awful rejam on me and got there for cl of in one of my bigger tourneys for the day. I did recover and played a longer session than usual. I think some of my more recent adjustments have been working better than expected. All I'll say about that is I changed one of my turn sizings and I started being a lot more aggressive in 3 common spots that I was playing too passive in.

I ended up with 1 tourney win and several other final tables. I'm still down 5-10k on the month but hopefully I can string some more winning days together. It would also be nice to win a tourney on my higher buy in spectrum. The chances have been there but the cards just haven't fallen my way when they really matter.

Finally a few hands from today.

This hand was pretty funny because the villain ended up folding and showing a Ten.

UTG+1: 26.06 BB
MP: 42.67 BB
MP+1: 11.38 BB
CO: 27.29 BB
BTN: 10.41 BB
SB: 14.44 BB
BB: 28.68 BB
Hero (UTG): 34.3 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has K J

Hero raises to 2.06 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.06 BB

Flop: (5.62 BB, 2 players) 9 3 T
BB checks, Hero bets 1.81 BB, BB calls 1.81 BB

Turn: (9.24 BB, 2 players) 5
BB checks, Hero bets 4.35 BB, BB calls 4.35 BB

River: (17.93 BB, 2 players) 4
BB checks, Hero bets 11.48 BB, fold

Hero wins 17.93 BB



This probably couldn't have worked out better for me. I was scared he might jam turn. Then I was scared he would jam river. I couldn't think of a hand that he would actually bet that flop with but who knows what a random could show up with.

BB: 30.5 BB
UTG: 12.1 BB
UTG+1: 27 BB
MP: 16.62 BB
CO: 40.22 BB
BTN: 31.99 BB
Hero (SB): 28.42 BB

7 players post ante of 0.1 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.2 BB) Hero has 5 A

fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 5.6 BB, fold, BTN calls 3.6 BB

Flop: (12.89 BB, 2 players) A 8 9
Hero checks, BTN bets 3.93 BB, Hero calls 3.93 BB

Turn: (20.76 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (20.76 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, BTN bets 7.5 BB, Hero calls 7.5 BB

BTN shows J K (One Pair, Fours)
(Pre 42%, Flop 5%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows 5 A (Two Pair, Aces and Fours)
(Pre 58%, Flop 95%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 35.76 BB


I can't imagine what he folded here.

SB: 16.91 BB
BB: 104.01 BB
Hero (UTG): 32.86 BB
UTG+1: 37.79 BB
MP: 14.01 BB
CO: 34.57 BB
BTN: 43.91 BB

7 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.2 BB) Hero has K 9

Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 2 BB, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (7.2 BB, 3 players) 7 8 J
BB checks, Hero bets 2.4 BB, BTN calls 2.4 BB, BB raises to 12 BB, Hero raises to 30.76 BB and is all-in, fold, fold

Hero wins 33.6 BB



I guess I didn't play that many interesting hands today, o well there's always tomorrow.

Put up another winning day. Only booked a small win but the opportunities were there for a bigger one. I went deep in 2 of my bigger tourneys on the day with 1 ft and 1 ft bubble. I won a few seats into the 1k and luckily went 1/1 in 36 hyper double shootouts after running awful in them last week. It's funny I always feel like I have a decent edge in the hyper mtts that I play and those ds sats but I realize that probably isn't true because it would be hard for anyone to have a sizable roi in them. My lifetime win rate in them is actually pretty insane but I think I've just been fortunate. It's pretty obvious rois in hyper mtts would be way higher than sngs but by how much I have no idea.

I think I'm down around 6-7k for the month still but hopefully that will change. I assume this upcoming Sunday will be bigger than usual so I can hopefully catch up. For winning 5 mtts in a month I think its pretty safe to say that was way too low of a goal if a decent amount of my schedule consists of the weaker midstakes tourneys with 150-300 people in them.

Looking over some stats for the day I think I ran bad with ranges. My cbet success rates on flop turn and river were 34/19/16 which seems awfully low. I also got crushed in nai 3bet pots running several hundred bb/100 below ev. Sometimes people are just going to have hands.

Hands for the day:

Annoying way to bust the 1k. I guess this is pretty standard. I have the best possible hand to do this with though.

BB: 24.84 BB
UTG: 36.06 BB
UTG+1: 76.54 BB
MP: 80.53 BB
MP+1: 99.58 BB
Hero (MP+2): 53.94 BB
CO: 58.03 BB
BTN: 83.73 BB
SB: 40.85 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has K A

fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.25 BB, Hero raises to 5.55 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+1 calls 3.3 BB

Flop: (13.73 BB, 2 players) 3 Q 7
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 4.34 BB, MP+1 calls 4.34 BB

Turn: (22.4 BB, 2 players) 4
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 9 BB, MP+1 calls 9 BB

River: (40.4 BB, 2 players) 8
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 34.93 BB and is all-in, MP+1 calls 34.93 BB

Hero shows K A (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 76%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)
MP+1 shows A Q (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 24%, Flop 87%, Turn 93%)
MP+1 wins 110.25 BB


I think my turn bet could be suspect but I think its fine. On the river I contemplated checking but this was pretty much the best river I could have hoped for so I decided to bet.

CO: 127.73 BB
BTN: 35.83 BB
SB: 105.11 BB
BB: 38.71 BB
UTG: 177.1 BB
UTG+1: 18.38 BB
MP: 126.71 BB
Hero (MP+1): 102.43 BB

8 players post ante of 0.21 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 3.17 BB) Hero has K A

UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 5 BB, fold, BTN calls 5 BB, fold, fold, UTG calls 3 BB

Flop: (18.17 BB, 3 players) 2 J 9
UTG checks, Hero bets 4.63 BB, fold, UTG calls 4.63 BB

Turn: (27.42 BB, 2 players) 6
UTG checks, Hero bets 9.04 BB, UTG calls 9.04 BB

River: (45.5 BB, 2 players) K
UTG checks, Hero bets 15.01 BB, UTG raises to 158.23 BB and is all-in, fold

UTG wins 75.52 BB



Somewhat read dependent. I obviously think hes light here enough to make this play. Floating crossed my mind w/ the As but I felt like raising was strictly better. This just lets me bet turn and jam most rivers. This was pretty much how a lot of my day went. The spots I pick to do certain things usually don't turn out as well when people have good hands.

BB: 77.14 BB
UTG: 44.06 BB
UTG+1: 76.59 BB
MP: 24.15 BB
MP+1: 42.1 BB
MP+2: 51.14 BB
CO: 52.09 BB
Hero (BTN): 58.8 BB
SB: 49.47 BB

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has A J

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (6.4 BB, 2 players) K 6 3
BB checks, Hero bets 2 BB, BB raises to 5.64 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, BB calls 6.36 BB

Turn: (30.4 BB, 2 players) Q
BB checks, Hero bets 7.6 BB, BB raises to 62.54 BB and is all-in, fold

BB wins 45.6 BB

It was an interesting day. I crushed ev, ran 2x over ev and ended the day losing $100. I only had 1 second but a few other deep runs. It's always frustrating losing hu because it's a spot where your playing for the biggest pay jump and a spot I feel I have a huge edge in. I made some more minor adjustments that seemed to be a noticeable improvement in my general game plan. I'm still aware that in 2 other very common spots I am probably misplaying a lot of my hands exploitatively and optimally. I don't get that much time to study because all I do is wake up and play all day and am too tired to do anything after my sessions.

I just looked thru my pt for some hands to post but I only found one. I should just go back to tagging good hands throughout the day.

Seemed like a good overbet spot, I should really overbet a lot more but I'm always too scared.

MP: 26.38 BB
MP+1: 6.5 BB
CO: 41.94 BB
BTN: 13.13 BB
SB: 27.82 BB
Hero (BB): 39.45 BB
UTG: 18.05 BB
UTG+1: 56.1 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Q T

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, SB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 5 2 K
SB checks, Hero bets 2.32 BB, SB calls 2.32 BB

Turn: (10.64 BB, 2 players) A
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (10.64 BB, 2 players) A
SB checks, Hero bets 34.5 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 10.64 BB