Hi as you can probably can guess from the title, this is my story of starting from the bottom in poker with a dream of someday making it on tv and winning millions in the WSOP main event. Just a little background I am currently a 19 year old going to college in southern California at the moment, and my story starts back in the days when I was in high school where my dad taught me how to play poker. He actually played back in the early 2000s semi professionally, beating 50nl online and grinding the $20 sit and goes. This was during the poker craze of the moneymaker era where the fields where very soft and he was making decent money. He was extremely cautious about bankroll management though so he moved up in stakes very slowly and didn’t like to take risks. Eventually though good things came to an end during black Friday in 2011. This sudden change took his skills live to our local LA casinos where he played the 2/5 and 5/5 making pretty decent money at this point. But not liking the slowness of live and after a major downswing, he quit and decided to only play recreationally on the side and focus on his main job to support our family. When he thought I was ready to learn poker he taught me as much as he could as he still enjoyed the game and would play with me often. I downloaded some poker apps on my phone and would play occasionally for fake money for a couple years, not taking the game seriously until college. This is where I discovered that a local casino near me allowed 18+ so I took $300 (a pretty decent sum for a broke college kid like me) and ran it up bum hunting the 1/2 focusing on the fish who didn’t know what the blinds were and their first time playing. At this point I knew the basics and enough to beat clueless newbies but was totally outclassed by the regs so I just avoided them. I went on a major heater and grew my roll to over 1k doing this and thought I was the **** so while not evenly being properly rolled for 1/2 I jumped to 1/3 and even though the competition was not that much better I immediately went on a 5 buy-in downswing and lost my whole bankroll. I quit poker for a couple months as I was now broke until I discovered online where I can play the micro-stakes. Since I was already pretty experienced by this point, I started from the bottom and planned to play 10k hands at each stake just to know I can beat it and move up until I can’t, then just stay there and repeat the process learning and playing another 10k hands. Since I’m in college and have a life outside of poker I can’t put in a ton of volume so I mainly only play on weekends and can’t just grind out a ton of hands. This brings us to today where I beat 5nl and am now moving up to 10nl and go from there. The first graph is my winrate at 5nl, split between mainly zoom and regular tables. The rest are my current stats. I am always still learning and since I’m not even 21 yet by the time I get there hopefully I have enough money or win a satellite to the main event and play live cash games again (prefer live more than online just cause it’s so much softer, 1/2 is comparable to 5nl at least where I play). I don’t put in a lot of volume because I realized my win-rate suffers the more tables I play so the max I do is 4, playing 2 or 3 tables sometimes. My current bankroll is like around $300 right now so I plan to update this like one every couple months or something lol don’t expect too much as this is something I treat as a profitable hobby not something I plan to do full time. Unless I cash the main event, then thats a different story. Lol. See y’all in 2 years we got this [image]WO ploading Image...]

Keep grinding, keep learning, and keep sharing your progress and who knows, maybe one day you'll find yourself at the WSOP Main Event living out your dream.

Good luck!

pretty crazy that we now got to a point where kids of poker boom generation are starting to play themselves good luck!

Keeping the heater going at 10nl? First 1k hands, noticed slightly better pool but over all pretty similar compared to 5nl. I played a couple hands of 25nl to see the difference and noticed a pretty big jump in skill level. 1-2 limpers max and more 3 betting. Still beatable so I might take some shots on the weekend. I’m averaging like 200 hands an hour so since I’m playing full ring gonna take me quite a while to hit another 10k unless I play more tables 😅

Went on a pretty big downswing last week trying out 25nl and tilted off some stacks in the fast fold pools, but went back home for the weekend and played a couple sessions with my dad. Went well and he helped fix some of my leaks, and pretty much climbed out of the hole all in ev wise in regular pools. Running unluckily so not completely out yet but on the right track. Finals are coming up for school though so won’t be able to play much on the weekends, hopefully can hit 10k hands at 10nl within a month or two and my bankroll is close to 400-500 so I can start moving up to 25nl again. Should be doable considering I’m already a quarter finished. 10k fast and 5k regular hands at 5nl is not a big sample but I don’t think I need to keep wasting my time at those stakes considering my roll is at ≈ $260 rn and I can always move down if I take a hit. Averaging a couple thousand hands a week rn I think that’s doable in terms of volume

Current stats. Took another 25nl shot and ran terribly. Also didn’t really play that well I realized I might be a little of a calling station. 5nl and 10nl going great though.
Also I think I’m playing draws in position but without betting lead wrong, I typically just call, call and fold when I miss but I don’t think this is too good maybe I should fold them if I’m not getting enough odds or and it’s heads up. I think my biggest leak is getting too attached to my top pair top kicker and over pairs and getting stacked by a set or something. Going to try and start nitting it facing aggression, but still find some bluffs when it’s a good spot.

this is unreadable

form paragraphs and learn how to take screenshots

Windows + shift + s to take a screenshot

Anyway, the results are good.

GL!

I don’t think this is normal losing this much money with top top and overpairs 😭. If someone is raising me on the flop multi-way I gotta realize my top pair is probably beat lol. I think that’s one of the biggest differences between the lowest stakes like 2nl-10nl and the next level, they don’t overvalue stuff as much and do random things like shove with middle pair or call all in preflop with medium pocket pairs. That and they are also more agressive preflop, more light 3 betting and 4 betting and more solid postflop but still making mistakes.
(Btw I will try and take screenshot next time but I find it easier to do in my phone).

To take a screenshot you need to do much fewer steps than taking a photo with your phone.

But I'm glad that you are not looking for easy ways.

I think this might be a reality check that I may not be as good as I thought lol. Every time I try 25nl I just get my ass handed too me I think it's not that I am unlucky I think I am just not profitable, yet at least. I am nearing 10k hands on 5nl and 10nl though and am still profitable in those stakes but I think the way I play I cant just keep on doing the same thing at the higher stakes and expect it to work. Overall can't complain though, I just need to study more and put in the volume is the bottom line

The results at NL5-10 show promise, albeit from a small sample size.

If you're planning to take shots at NL25, consider shifting away from Zoom tables and prioritize selecting regular tables with good opponents. This approach can potentially yield better results and help you adjust more effectively to the higher stakes.

I will listen to you from now on slyless I played some 25nl fast folding again and dusted off like over a hundred which is a big chunk of my roll LOL. I don't even think I played that bad, but in this game mode the swings are more if I am not mistaken. It is also harder because I can't really make reads which forces people to play gto which I don't even study. If I am going to play, it will be 5nl where it doesn't cost a lot to practice gto strategy and the games are softer but at the moment I think I will stay away from that. I am thinking of getting a solver like gto wizard but at the moment it is too expensive, maybe in the future though so I can analyze my fast fold sessions. I did not add the hands to the graph yet because I haven't downloaded but I played some more 25nl and 10nl this weekend and did pretty well. I think a big difference I'm making is playing 4 tables only now instead of 6-8, that way I can make more reads and better decisions. Until I am confident that I can crush the games I don't think mass multi tabling just to play a little more hands per hour is going to be beneficial to me. I'm also running so bad though its ridiculous like the difference in the amount I won in all in ev is more than my whole winnings, just seem to be losing every flip and getting sucked out on but I know it is normal and I just got to deal with it. Also my dad staked me one buy in for live so I went to my local casino and played some 1/3. In for 300 and out for 400, first time playing live in a while, nice to book a win. After transitioning from live to online I feel like live is just so much slower In the 2 hours I played I only got into less than 5 spots where I had to make a real decision. I feel like I've gotten a lot better since my last time playiIng live , so I might play sometimes on weekends when the games are soft.

Finally hit 10k hands in 5nl and 10nl regular tables feeling pretty good about it. I also finally seem to have broken out of my hump in 25nl and am building my way back up there, hopefully will end in a decent win rate by 10k, 7k more hands to go. Going to try and transition to 4 tabling 25nl and maybe one 50nl if the table is soft. Also played a session of 50nl just to test the waters, seems pretty similar to 25nl but very aggressive preflop, a lot of 3 betting but overall not as bad as I thought. Played a live session on Friday as well, in for $300 and out for $700. It goes so slowly though, I honestly prefer online but still very soft.

Keep up the great work and I have no doubt you'll continue to see success in your poker journey!

Been a while since I updated, went on break for school and played mainly on the family computer. Missed a couple thousand untracked hands in the green, but overall running extremely under ev. I can't win a flip to save the life of me, I know it's part of the game but it's a little tilting sometimes. First 10k hands at 25nl fast doing ok, but running around 15 buy-ins below expected so I actually lost money. Same with regular 25nl tables, although I'm around breakeven there but too small sample size to mean much. Also played a little 50nl just for fun but probably not ready for it yet although I seem to be doing fine to start. I think I've actually lost money this past month or broke even, though I still think I am winning these stakes. I guess going to stay at 25nl for now unless 50nl is soft on weekends, just going to keep grinding until my ev goes back to normal and hopefully evens out.

I don't even know what to say... 25nl is just not my stakes I guess, I think I'm probably like breakeven or something but in reality I am down so much to the point where I blew my roll and had to reload. I think I can be profitable when I play with a solid mindset but when everything just goes wrong it gets to my head sometimes and I make bad decisions. It got to the point where I don't really feel motivated to play at times when I put in a long session just to lose money. I know it is just variance but jeez lol maybe I'm just not good enough, because I think if I did have a high win rate I wouldn't be so swingy. Will probably give it one more shot before moving down to 10nl again.

Finally after 18k hands just about breakeven on 25z. A big leak that I have is when I play unfocused my win rate suffers a lot. I think when I concentrate and play with a clear mind I do very well it's just when I get tilted or distracted I make a lot of mistakes. Also I should probably play more regular tables but I think I just want to put in some volume at the moment, maybe once I get my fundamentals solid I will switch back to pure regular tables because as of right now I am mixing. Also idk if I am good enough yet to be profitable with only one fish at a table and 4 other regs. I noticed when trying to transition between 25nl and 50nl there are usually like 2 fishes in 25 and maybe 1 in 50, or I could be just playing in bad times. At least my ev and actual dollar amount graphs are closing which is nice. I don't even care about ev anymore, it is nice sucking out on aces rather than having aces and getting sucked out on even though my ev line goes up but I lose money. Also still playing live mainly 1/3 100bb cap $7 max rake, easily beatable very soft but super boring. Variance is also high but if I can just sit and wait for premiums and stack drunk guys then I'll sit through it. I should get some more hobbies though lol, poker does eat up a lot of my time.

Ignition - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

P1-f69c49d4df8c0927d0e2a0bd37b75f77 (MP): 81.04 BB
P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 (CO): 369.52 BB
Hero (BTN): 320.8 BB
P4-072f85d43012c7150f844e7e9c964b76 (SB): 118.88 BB
P5-021e255540836862dc7da68159767a12 (BB): 93.56 BB
P6-6182455e3d745af5c03016d1fb364df1 (UTG): 89.88 BB

P4-072f85d43012c7150f844e7e9c964b76 posts SB 0.4 BB, P5-021e255540836862dc7da68159767a12 posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) P1-f69c49d4df8c0927d0e2a0bd37b75f77 has Q T

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 has 3 3

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A Q

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) P4-072f85d43012c7150f844e7e9c964b76 has Q 4

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) P5-021e255540836862dc7da68159767a12 has 3 9

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) P6-6182455e3d745af5c03016d1fb364df1 has Q K

P6-6182455e3d745af5c03016d1fb364df1 raises to 2.48 BB, fold, P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 calls 2.48 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, fold, fold, fold, P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 calls 7.52 BB

Flop: (23.88 BB, 2 players) 3 A T
P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 checks, Hero bets 6.56 BB, P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 raises to 24.48 BB, Hero calls 17.92 BB

Turn: (72.84 BB, 2 players) T
P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 bets 69.2 BB, Hero calls 69.2 BB

River: (211.24 BB, 2 players) A
P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 checks, Hero bets 217.12 BB and is all-in, P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 calls 217.12 BB

Hero shows A Q (Full House, Aces full of Tens)
(Pre 37%, Flop 7%, Turn 8%)
P2-2d7c1b69556c6d9bd00db69b4d7ffa49 mucks 3 3 (Full House, Threes full of Aces)
(Pre 63%, Flop 93%, Turn 92%)
Hero wins 637.48 BB


Kind of a funny hand in the biggest pot I've played in 25z. Can't believe villain called the river he should know I have absolutely 0 bluffs there, massive punt giving me a 630bb pot. I was actually scared he had quads and was slowrolling on the river, an ace snap calls and a ten snap folds I would assume so when he tanked for so long I expected to lose.