Hey guys, I'm Josh/AdvantagePlayer and back with another goal/challenge. A little background for those who don't know; basically been playing poker my entire life since 16. Been able to grind out a decent enough income from $2/5 NL at Lucky Chances and other casinos. However in the past few years I've really been struggling to make it, make it.

I failed my last $500k/year challenge in 2020 (was $70,000 below EV in like 1.5 month or something silly). This time around, I'm entering with a new frame of mind. That I most likely will fail, but it's still obtainable, within reach, if the poker god(s) obliges. If I work hard enough, put in the volume. That $300,000 in a year is possible from poker.

My plan is to own as much of myself as possible at 5/10 and 10/20 PLO (there's forced action buy in these private games for the connection). And own far less for the 25/50 PLO and higher games if the opportunity presents itself. I generally work out good deals, so I'll vaguely and generically post these miscellaneous rakeback/rebate/equity as the thread comes along with the hand history and graphs if possible.

I also will mostly likely be game selecting up the whazoo, camping the computer for 8-10 hours a day, just to probably play 4-6 hours with the right VPIP whales. Hopefully with years of gamble and some luck, I can hold my own against Wizards who will undoubtedly be in the way of my delicious fish.

I don't know how long this thread will last, but hopefully we get there someday!

Here's some of the hands I had time to remember to screen shot for Jan.



I 3bet pre. He calls. I cbet small flop. He calls. Turn I check, he checks back. All the bets go in on river.



I usually never full scoop, quite the opposite, so prob SS'ed because of that notion.



SRP and the guy manages to call pre and somehow get in like $800 by the river. I luled. Probably wanted to share it with my discord.



I lul'ed again.



The yellow highlight is me. I did not win this $7-8k multiway pot (or w/e I was entitled to).

I would go on to have a couple other $8K pots, but I was too shocked to SS.

For Jan, I won a close estimation of $17,800 (rb included). With an est $1300 in additional rakeback for the month.

Some hands from Feb 1st to Today:

Yellow highlighted is my screen name.



I could've had this guy in pretty bad shape. Managed to scoop this.



I think I 4bet squeezed this UP. And the guy defends with A722ds, and then overjams (ty for the protection though) and we go heads up. What a WHALE. He could've lit every dollar on fire there.



I 3bet/4bet pre to iso the fish. He calls. I go full pot flop (leaving him with like .25 SPR on turn) and he tanks a minute to call. Bink for him. I miss river for the NFD.



I 3bet the BU from SB. BB calls. BU calls. I flop the trippps. I go for the X/R, check. BB bets his stack in, BU calls, I full pot. Everyone gets it all-in.

I full scooop baby.

Feb is off to a rollercoaster start, was up like $5k day 1, lost like $8k day 2, and then won heaps $10K+ on day 3. (estimated)

Have a guy in our club who is up over 100k playing 5 card plo with blinds of 1-2-5. It’s ridiculous.

Yeah these private games are iNsAnE sometimes. I'm basically hunting in two private-private games, whale A, is down like $40-60K last week 4 tabling 5/10 PLO only. I just witness the biggest spew for hours and hours on end.

Whale B, the one I'm mostly battling at 10/20 PLO and higher currently, was down over $125K in a single night (down $100K at a single table). I've been hunting him for the past week for my piece of the pie.

Anyways crazy game, in a crazy market. Poker far from dead if someone knows the right connects.

Today's Hands:



I back raise pre, orange flats, purple flats. Bingo flop. Jam my short stack in, both call. They both check back turn though #whew? Naice river. Little full scoop.



Full pot flop. Best turn ever for my no pair hand. Infinite wrap, every card in the deck. Brick. Missed.



I thought there was fold equity, so I resqueezed pre, hoping AA would raise the 3rd out guy, and my wrap outs would become far more live. But turned out to be a good thing with his dumpster hand lol (ish). Though if I just flat, I could've technically won this specific spot with trip J and not allowing KKT5 to peel and get there.

Overall for the day: Up about $600 w/o RB.

Looking forward to taking my weight gain bet seriously now; the last bet I had of running the 8 minute mile, I clocked exactly 8:00:01 or something with about 6 hours left to keep retrying the lap time, we agreed on a wash. I also paid out the last weight gain bet a couple/few years ago. Looking on amazon for a generic barbell, going with a 6/7ft 45 lb bar. Since I won't be loading more than 100 lb plates on it, I won't worry about it snapping/bending even if the metal is cheap.



Apparently a guy who I thought was kinda reggish ABC, got it in like completely dead against the two of us with his hand. So I'm literally printing every dollar of his stack. Somehow I brick against both.



lol @ KQQ57. Stacking off.



Cant pair up. Though to be honest, I should be happy he has a wrap, and not AA. At least I had a chance of scooping.

Not to mention I did play some spots a little splashy, spazzy. I mean getting in 1.5 SPR at 35% does not feel great.

Feb's Profit: $1,405 w/o RB included. Kept losing flips pre. There goes profits!

Why you trying to gain weight bro? How tall are you and what do you weigh now? I feel like putting on too much muscle is bad for your organs or something. Look at centenarians they're all usually on the smaller side.



Good luck with the poker.

Just trying to be healthy, I actually lost about 10-12 lbs during Covid despite my gf gained like 18 lbs eating the same meals as I. Mcdonalds, chickfila, ubereats 24/7. Racked up like almost $1k/mo in ubereats alone on my side of the bill (she orders too). So eating isn't the problem. I certainly eat more calories than burn. Sadly my CPA says it's nearly impossible to expense that right now, since everyone's working from home, and it's a high chance of audit. Rip.. I'm 5'7 120 lbs. Def need to put on some mass.

Poker Highlight:



This guy went full-pot river. How greedy even w/ 1 jack blocker. Also full pot flop is suicidal. W/o spades, 2/3rd the deck is gonna ruin him, or at least build my equity on turn. Not to mention A outs won't even be good for him at times. Just thought it was interesting he didn't check back. No reason to re-raise, if he calls it'll be a chop-pot.

Today's profit: $3379 w/o RB.
Cumulative Feb profit: $4784 missing RB.

I'm basically the same as you 5'8" 125 no need to put on any mass imo. Go for the Brad Pitt Fight Club look. Lean and strong. Putting on mass won't make either of us taller, in fact it will probably make us look shorter. Stay lean. Too much mass puts stress on the heart muscle to pump blood to all those muscles. I mean I guess you could probably add some muscle but my suggestion is not to overdo it. Good luck.

Actually gave up a really good seat in a really amazing game, weekend and want to spend it with the gf. Figured I'd either be stuck around $9K, or up $3-6K. Unlikely to walk around even, unless it was for 3-4 hour grind, so I have food money from RB.



Not that uncommon in PLO6, but still feels good to have it locked at like 98%.



My bread and butter after stabbing and folding. The $15 antes hurt after a while. Guy had naked JJxxxx low rundown cards. Cleanest turn ever. Scoopppp.

Today's Profit: $2542 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: $7326 w/o RB

Woke up earlier than usual, which is good so I dont miss my costco washer-delivery guys (they do the old haul-away)! Cat wanted attention at like 5am, so super disrupted sleep. His brother though, not a peep.

Anyways started the usual scouting of the tables for the green/purple tags, found 2 delicious/decent tables. Figured I have at least a good two hour session before I have to stop before house sitting.

The highlight was I opened UTG with my ok 6c Axxxxx, then the BB squeezed 3bet me to almost $1K. I call. Flop is AA5. He checks, I go small. He folds. Interesting he'd 3bet me without an Ax in a 6c game when I'm UTG opener. I like that kind of action. Though tbf AA in 6c isn't a big deal, unlike the fact of having suited Ax which is the real POWAH.

Will be scouting the tables throughout the day, waiting for another good spot to whale hunt.

Today's Profit w/o RB:



Feb's Total Profit: $11,528 w/o RB

Great read. good luck mate!

Second Session, Profits Almost Gone



Off to an amazing start in the second sesh, got the guy almost locked with AA/J clubs. Somehow he peeled the backdoor hearts and got there.



Ouchy. Against a massive VPIP whale too, who's down like heaps everyday. Set over setttttt



It's only fair I pick this hand a little later against the same opponent as the hand above, who set over set me. We're even! Set over settt.





Just balancing out the profit and losses. I basically generated a decent amount of rakeback in my second session. Accounting that in, we didn't give much back. Totally cool with it. Was almost in the red at one point.

Today's Profit: $3,064 w/o RB

Feb's Total Profit: $10,390 w/o RB

"Start Your Own Tables"

I got a DM stating that winners are always welcomed (they do have action buy). However share the love, and open sit tables for the whales/recs. Battling pros/decent regs in 10/20+ HU in 5c/6c PLO sounds like a nightmare for my mind and wallet.

Interestingly enough, I mentioned private game A and B. Private game A whale hasn't been on for almost a confirmed week. I think this DM isn't a coincidence. Whoops if so. But thats the nature of bum hunting =/

Hard to say how much action should be given back to these types of situation. Sorta like straddling. But for a lot more variance.

$14,000 Down Because My Cat Woke Me Up

So technically true, but I slept really early around 9pm yesterday. And kinda woke up a couple times throughout since my body isn't adjusted to sleeping that early. The usual, scanned the tables from the bed to computer monitor (I leave the tables up and look for color coding). Saw the green/purple tags even w/o my glasses on, sat in immediately in the middle of the AM.

Got immediately dumpstered and fast.



I ended up x/c pot, x/c pot, x/f to pot. I was thinking about donk potting the turn and ripping all the bricks, but today bluffing whales hasn't gone too well.

--> 6c PLO, I have Kd (nut block), I was PFR. I go 2/3rd flop on monotone diamonds, 1/2 turn (sized correctly), and pot jam river, he snaps me with like 56dd on AT7ddd!!



I think just going to value town and pressing pot does the job against whales. They cant seem to fold, ever. I had AcQcxxxx in 6c.




^ Got it down before quiting after the whale table changed.



I played a couple other tables, but these were the highlights I guess.

Call it a cumback

Today's Profit: $803 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: $11,193 w/o RB

I went for another session. Yikes.

I basically have 7 screen shots of me on average around 53-55% equity, losing some of them TWICE, and not even included when I got it in poorly around 20%. I didn't win a single board, let alone scoop a pot. If you think about the % frequency of that, it's less than 1%.

That results in this.

Today's Profit: -$16,323 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: -$5,933 w/o RB

OUCHHHYYYYY. Just when you think you're invincible from surviving a "bad" session and turning it around. Poker slaps ya straight back down, sometimes.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Started doing screen capture recording, because I plan on building a compilation and uploading these to youtube in the future. But I'll have to edit out the other people screen names and what not. So it'll be a while.

Basically have 11 screen shots, that I can dump later or whenever from today. Lost about 8/11 flips between 45%-55% equity, some ran twice. I think I only quarter a guy once, and full scooped once. Tied the other.

Ofc there's scenarios where I took people to value town and what not. But that money is just negated when I run into a higher set from a perceived whale. So there's that.

Idk why my poker luck is like this sometimes. I've always ran FAR FARRRR below EV. And this was confirmed in games where I could like pt4 track. ZZZZZZ.

Today's Profit: -$13,987 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: -$19,920 w/o RB

Losing this many 40-60%s in a row, getting full scoopppeeeddddd WHYYY

Confirmation bias. Perception. Lack of volume is going to make bad beats stick out. Just play tons of volume and let the bad beats roll off you.

While a downstreak/downswing is inevitable, the way this occurred is ridiculous and isn't confirmation bias. I have the session/HH's after all. Basically 7/8 flips (some run it twice) from yesterday, and out of the 11 "45-55% equity today, I won once out 11 (x2 boards). -- I have every big hand recorded.

In the grand scheme of things, yes this frequency will occur throughout a big enough sample. However it's estimated 50%^10 in this exact runout (probably worse if I really look through it).

Anyways took a nap since earlier, restarting another sesh.

Guy just nukes in bare naked AA w/o a single back up in the world, for 2.25 SPR. He went pot flop, I x/R'ed and we get it in. He has 5% equity, in PLO.

Managed to win back $6400 exactly.

Today's Profit: -$7587 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: -$13,520 w/o RB

My RB is gonna help me a lot.

Goodnight.

Early Session, Early Roller Coaster

Saw a really great lineup, and with the earlier comeback winning 50% of our losses back, I felt motivated. I was off a quick start, one of the fastest. Was almost up $11,000 in an hour or so, single tabling. However I would lose (I did a recording, instead of HH/SS), double suited AA in a 4way all-in, against triple suited AA. The other two, one was ahead of us, the other dead. Pot was around $13,000. I lost to the AA with a 46dd flush for the bigger main.

I would proceed to blast off against the same whale twice, using NFB even though i had "some" showdown value with a rivered straight. I went for it, he snapped me off with 9-HIGH-FLUSH for like $1.8k river bet.

20-30 mins later, this hand.



He tank, folded. My session was saved.

I will sky rocket to +$11K, lose all profits and be negative -$4K, and finally ended up.

Today's Morning Profit: $4844 w/o RB
Feb's Total Profit: -$8676 w/o RB

I think the fact that sometimes I'm grinding at 3am, 8am, 2pm, 5pm, etc I don't have a fluid sleep schedule. And after finishing my most recent session, I was exhaustingly tired. Like my brain just shut down, I couldn't enjoy a show (despite a nice win) and went straight to bed for a nap for few hrs.



Seems like I have a history, of going running-runner-runner Quad-Queens. Feels good.

Today's Profit: +$6026 w/o rb
Feb's Total Profit: -$7494 w/o rb

I noticed some of the whales (just 1 in particular) play differently to my account, perhaps it's because of my location, my generally tighter stats, or the fact that I basically bum-hunt. Anyways bringing in a new SN, so my starting will either be F or I.



Yeah could've been down like $30,000 for the ****** day. Brutal session. Not sure which HH/SS would do this justice.

I played before the new day started, so the numbers might get a little mixed. To avoid that, I'll put yesterday session as counting as today instead (for the ones I didnt mention, so yesterday profit of $6K is still a keep).

Today's Profit: -$6585 w/o rb
Feb's Total Profit: -$14,079 w/o rb

Just when I'm about to get unstuck, I get stuck again. Could've been much worse though.

I have a bad mentality where if I lose money, I'm sad for the day. Therefore I don't play poker if it's an "important" day, like GF duties. Problem is, GF has taken like 7 days off into next week for Vday weekend. And if I lose like $10K, how can I enjoy wii sport with her.

But 7 days of no poker, is literally like 5 figs of EV gone. And who knows when the game will disappear. Sigh.

LOL after a quick read through this thread. Surely you are joking in some of these posts??

99% of 2nl grinders have a better mental game than you do, the emotion you put into a few buyins won or lost is absolutely pathetic for a supposedly long term winning player. Also the whole “hu4rolls” battle you were so insane about in your last thread with two random trolls....

My guess is that you are underrolled or maybe you win because you only play the softest games available on the internet, who knows. but I find it hilarious that you are looking to coach/stake people in some of your posts.

Who would want to go into business with someone who acts like you do??