I started getting into poker at the end of 2013 (when I was 19) I used to play pub poker and free rolls and stuff online. I was 100% a losing player for like 6 months when I started playing online on Pokerstars. I played mainly hyper sngs.

I think around mid 2014 I started playing on 888 and started to build a bankroll. Eventually I started playing 888 as a part time side income thing whilst I went to university (I studied Economics and Finance). I was a regular at 50nl fast fold but would always table select on the 100nl and occasionally the 200nl tables. I think I played like 600k hands on 888 IIRC. After a while I started realizing I was paying way too much in rake and not getting RB so I decided to move over to Stars.

Moving to Stars was a huge shock. I tried playing 50nlz and was getting crushed. I moved down to 25nlz still got crushed. I lost quite a bit during this period and realised that 888 was incredibly soft and I just wasn't good enough for Stars. So I studied really hard on my game. I thought the best way to get better was to start at the bottom - so I did and started at 5nlz. I graduated university in mid 2016 and at this point I was comfortably beating 25nlz. I then moved up to 50nlz and put in serious hours getting decent rake back from Stars. Eventually I moved up to 100nlz and started beating the game for ~4bb/100. At the end of 2016 I decided that I was going to blow my entire roll (Poker and part time job income) on a 6 month Europe trip in 2017 because online poker was going to cease in Australia.

I went on my trip and came back in December 2017. I had like ~450$AUD next to my name when I got back. I decided to borrow some money from my friend (shoutout to Jez) and grinded some money on ignition during the holiday period (as it is generally difficult to find a job during this period). Since December I have just been grinding on Ignition and occasionally on ACR (heads up + Tournaments).

Poker is not something I solely do, I also manage the administration element of a coconut water company as well as being in the planning phase of an Esports project. However, Poker, at the moment, is my number 1 priority.

I currently don't really have any aspirations in terms of moving up stakes on Ignition. The only thing that would motivate me to work hard on my game would be to beat 500nlz on Stars but unfortunately I cannot play on Stars living in Australia. My current poker related goal is to create good cash game content on youtube as I think there is a massive gap for online poker cash game content. I personally think youtube is currently saturated with the same old live cash game poker vlogs which, for me, are becoming too mundane.

^this was longer than what I hoped.....

I ask myself that question everyday....

Day 31/60


Here is the graph for day 31:



I played probably my worst session in the challenge. The second session I ran like god but was being the biggest idiot. I think even the fish thought I was a spot. I quit my tables and had a nap and came back and played marginally better.

I am not sure if you guys are interested to see how I take notes but here is a screenshot of my notes. I thought it was funny reading over them particularly when I am playing badly.

BEWARE - LOTS OF SWEARING:




Overall Progress:

Winrate: 5.97bb/100
Hands: 59,468/100,000
Donation to Charity count: $10

Hand converter didn't load an extra 150~ hands for Day 31.

I won't repost graph but changes my winrate to 6.15bb/100. I must have stacked someone in these 150~ hands.

Ha I use to take notes on notepad almost identical to those, swearing and all. Would always write HH & hand numbers to review 25hrs later when you could see everybody's hands and what not. I would always write down when I was running awful or sun running also, just funny to see that someone else does the same thing.

lol at that "punt of the day" hand. I play 25z and I was wondering if people still played like that at higher stakes. I find Ignition a bit difficult sometimes for this reason; I've had a lot of river bluffs snapped off by hands I would never put in their calling range. Of course I've also had times where I've flopped top two and got all three streets of value, only to find they were calling down with low pockets or a gutshot turned into 4th pair or whatever. So probably a net positive but I'm still trying to figure out how to adjust - I know I should do more mergey-type bets but I'm having trouble finding those spots consistently.

I have never played 25nl zone but I did play 30k hands of 50nl zone when I first came back to poker in December. 200nlz is definitely no where near as fish as 50nlz but if you get lucky you do find spots.

Cool story man (srs), enjoyed reading it.

How do you find Stars comparable to Ignition in terms of toughness?

I definitely agree, cash is 100% lacking on YT and I subbed to your channel almost through your content.

If I could offer some tips, I used to be involved in creating YT content and have studied sales and marketing for a long time, personally I love your channel because it's simple and informative. However I am a bit of a weirdo as I'll watch 3 hour lectures without problem if they interest me, so I'm more of a sicko than most, especially in our ADDed world.

What people love are:
Lists (10 ways to do xyz, these 6 things are screwing this up for you, my biggest 3 mistakes)
How tos (How to determine cbet size, how to 3b, how to make hero folds)
Personal stories (How I went from being crushed at 5NL to beating 100NL with ease, How the poker bug bit me and how I made my way up)

I think if you focused on that, you could easily grow your channel, maybe one you could do is 10 favorite lines where you describe sizing/streets and runouts and how you like to play your range in those spots, specifically talking about overbets as people seem to love those.

Day 31 Video is up now. Sorry for delay in posting.

https://youtu.be/gayeSDVuo5k

Thanks for the advice man. I totally agree with this. Youtube is filled with this type of content. After this challenge I am going to take a week off of poker and study both my poker game and youtube content so I will keep this in mind when I get to that stage.

Thanks

Day 32/60

Here is the graph for Day 32:



Literally break even day. Not very exciting. I played about a 6/10 however I made some very good notes.

Overall Progress:

Winrate: 5.93bb/100
Hands: 61,679/100,000
Donation to Charity Count: $10

Day 33/60

Here is the graph for Day 33:



Overall Progress:

Winrate: 6.33bb/100
Hands: 64,121/100,000
Donation to Charity Count: $10

New Video up:

https://youtu.be/0hvuJ60UfnU

[Day 34/60]

Here is the graph for day 34:



I was planning on playing quite a bit of volume on this day (Saturday Australian) but I was just getting super frustrated by the pool doing weird stuff. I decided to go watch my friend's football match instead so only got 3 hours. The first session of the day started strong but an hour of facing constant min raises made me want to quit enjoy the sun outside.

Overall Progress:

Winrate: 5.96bb/100
Hands: 65,882/100,000
Donation to Charity Count: $10

Not much content for this day so no video for day 34

Day 32 video at 1:07 you decide to fold a straight against a sb potsize bet on double flushdraw board in a spot where he rarely has any 6x yet he has all the possible flushdraws (and bunch of hands that you chop with). What's your reasoning behind this? I can't see this being right unless you got some super read on him that he only pots with the absolute nuts.

I can't remember what happened on flop but I remember something unusual happened. Also stack size is really annoying. Also population are not making huge mistakes in this spot. but it was definitely flop action

I’m loving your YouTube vids - perfect length for my smoke breaks at work. Keep it up!

I have a ques about one hand - u open 78cc Co, BU calls. Flop is T83cc and u check and he bets pot. U end up saying once he bets pot u know he’s not a good player. Why is that?

Thanks a lot man!

Generally speaking, no one has a pot flop bet. I can't remember a time where a good reg had a pot bet on flop strategy. Don't get me wrong, you can probably construct a strategy around having a pot size flop bet but its is very uncommon. From what I have seen it seems like weaker players think this is a good size to use to bluff or to deny equity with top pair (and in some cases I have seen them use this for middle pair) because it is scary. It could also be because they cannot be bothered typing in a size and just click pot.
^This assumption could all be wrong but this is just from experience. I will do some population characteristic study after my challenge so I can review these kind of bets in more detail.

in this pool, the **** regs use half to 3/4 pot for cbet sizes and the fish generally use pot or like 80% with bluffs and value ranging from weak pairs to to strong holdings.

there are very few players who will range bet spots and use alternate bet sizes

Im personally finding my redline suffering calling a pot bet on flop with a tp hand then having to fold to turns when fish pot again

Day 35/60

Here is the graph for day 35:



Really short session. I played for a bit then my friend came round so I had to leave the tables. Obviously things went well in the 300~ hands.

Overall Progress:

Winrate: 6.31bb/100
Hands: 66,194/100,000
Donation to Charity Count: $12

Had a bit of a rant today about some hands so added another $2 to the charity count.

Currently finishing the editing for Day 33 & 34 video (combined the highlights into one video) so hopefully will be out in the next couple of hours.

*also got a new microphone so hopefully the sound quality is a little bit better. I am still having trouble with editing audio. I am not sure how to optimise the sound for both headphones and speakers...

Day 33&34 Video out now!!:

Check it out here:

https://youtu.be/-216IWWf4do

Slightly longer than normal. Tried to condense as much as possible.

Enjoy

Great vid & content as always! Gawd DAMN at that 77 vs TJs hand lol, tilting AF. What can ya do though, never folding as played. Congrats on the winning session though and hopefully the heater kicks in fully some day soon. gl

Kind of karma for what he did with the 54s though

Which is harder..

25NL on WPN or 200NL on Ignition!?

Thanks and I hope so too!

^ Very true hahahah

I have never played 25nl on WPN, only 50nl+

I will say:

If you are not winning comfortably on 50nl or 100nl with a decent sample, don't expect to just waltz on in to Ignition 200nl zone. Just because there are a few threads at the moment of regs beating the games for sick winrates doesn't mean it has been easy. Brokenstars thread started in 2015. That means it took him ~3 years to start crushing.

For those of you who want to try play at midstakes on ignition make sure you:

- Grind your way up through the stakes - show some volume and a decent win rate (at least 150k hands per stake)
- Make sure you are rolled correctly
- Train yourself mentally

To be 'good' at poker in the long run, it is much more than being fundamentally sound at the tables. Bankroll management, discipline and mental state are all just as important as your fundamentals. So even though you think you might be crushing a lower stake on a different site, if you have not had at least a million hands behind you, you will definitely struggle.

Pretty sure he crushed from the word go lol.

[Day 36/60]

Here is the graph for day 36:



Great day for volume. Played just over 7 hours.

Overall Progress:

Winrate: 6.30bb/100
Hands: 69,849/100,000
Donation to Charity Count: $12

Video will be uploaded tomorrow morning (AEST)

dont fold turn and river, red line problem solved