Hi everyone,

this presentation post is going to be a little bit long,
sorry for my English I just learned it as a self-taught
and I think writing here I will improve a lot.

I'm Emanuele, I'm Italian (Naples) and decide to open this blogging thread because I'd like to share my experience and confront with LLSNL players.

I'll use this "blog" to keep track of my sessions, make some post-session hand review, talk about strategy, mindset, bankroll mgmt, but mostly to make friend with everyone will follow me during this adventure.

MY POKER STORY
My poker background is not so small, I play since 2004 when NLH was totally unknown here, because I had the luck (?) to be friend with some of the best italian players even before they started to play as a pro. Than for some years I owned a little cardroom (mostly a private club than a real cardroom with just one cash game running 3 times a week) and after that in 2013 I almost give up poker in any form.

Lack of time and even lack of money pulled me away from this world (I NEVER asked anyone for playing money that i couldn't afford or pay) but I always silently kept following, studing some free stuffs and since 1 years I started playing again more and more.

I didn't use to keep track of my results but I think I was a little ahead between losses and wins, I used to pay all travel expenses everytime I went around for holydays.

I've played live cash game in Barcelona (twice), Lanzarote, London (5 times), Prague, Budapest, Berlin (twice), Cannes, Nice, Sanremo and I always won some money in order to freeroll the hole vacation.

I've never been a good online player, I had some little random results in MTTs and I played seriously NL50 for some months but I never considered myself as a "PRO" while some friends of mine, started from ZERO, reached the highest allowed stakes in Italy earning 100k or more/year.

I was sincerely happy for them, they worked hard for it but it was also frustratig admitting to myself that I could have do it but I "lost the train" when i decided wisely to focus on my university and sport commitments but in my heart I always wanted to be like them.

By the way, coming back to the present, I've started grindind the live cash games here in my area (mostly the single big club around here) and I started tracking my sessions every day.

My first goal was to rise my little bankroll from 1k euros to 5k and I did it just last month with a decent run and a lot of grinding nights playing 1-2 for 3-4 nights per week.

POKER IN ITALY
Situation here in Italy is not so easy for poker players.
Poker has been persecuted for some here and nowadays only tournaments are "almost" legal (only if played under 30$ buy-in) while cash game is totally illegal, but you can always find a private cash game running if you know the right people.

Police seems to "tolerate" private clubs because there's a hole in our legislation that lasts from 2010 due to our political instability so I have to play this barely legal games and pray not to be involved in a round-up.

I don't think this is gonna ever happen, private clubs in Italy are freely sponsored on facebook and everyone knows where they are so no big deal about it, but I wanted you to undestarstand that is not the same thing to step inside a regular casino and play knowing that you are guaranteed but some laws and not just the common-sense of the club owners.

Closing this long intro, let's talk about what will be my goal now.

I've booked a Flight for VEGAS for June (15 days of pure grinding) and now my bankroll is 5,5k euros.

I would like to leave with another 2k so 7,5k total more or less and than try to improve it until 10k by the end of 2018.

I've planned to play 4 times/week:
monday, tuesday, thursday, sunday and if possibile even friday
playing the only game I have here available that is

1-1, straddle allowed to 4 (so it becomes a 1-1-2-4),
full ring games,
min buy in 100 / max buy in 800
rake 5%, cap 50.

Yes. You read it well my friends.
The action is crazy because you can enter with 800 BB (actually 200 when the games become though with double straddle) and the rake is very hard.

I've spoken several times to the host to explain (as an ex-club owner) that this rake is too heavy but as they have a full ring table everynight (sometimes 2 table running togheter) and as long they have the "monopoly" in the whole area, they are not changing anything of their commercial offer.

[continues ]

Hi there, I'm sorry I left my first post incomplete.

So I was talking about my usual location and the whole scenario where I live in and that makes reaching my goals quite harder than if i lived in a city with a regular casino.

The first issue is that cash games runs usually from 9 pm till sunrise so I have no possibility to grind in the afternoon and I'm forced to plan all my daily activities on that.

So I usually go to sleep around 4-5 am,
wake up around 10am (so i take just 4 or 5 hours of sleep)
than use the day until 7pm for
study / go to gym / work
(I'm a copywriter so fortunately I have don't have to follow fixed timetables)
and finally get to the club at 7,30pm for my daily session
for 4-5 times a week

I don't play saturday (they're closed) and try to earmark Friday night as the free day from everything and go out with my girlfriend.

Living with this routine, I calculate I can put in around 25 hours of poker a week while I continue doing my stuff in the morning and by now, this seems to be balanced even if I'd like to play more and more.

I read several times that a players with a win rate of 10/15$ at 1-2 is considered crushing the game.

After the first 5 months of "regular" grinding (I'm playing more now but in the first 2 months i could play just one or twice a week) my update stats is that I have reached:

5,5k profit
204 hours played
50 session total
37% ROI (14k total buy-in, 20k cash-out more or less)
26$/hour
108$ each 100 hands

I also had very BAD sessions (sometimes on tilt, sometimes very unlucky) thay cost me 500$ or more in a raw but I can't complain about my average run.

I use to play sessions of 5-6 hour (from 8-9 pm when the table starts until 2-3am) for 2 reasons:

1) when the table is just open, people use to buy in with reasonable stack (100-200$ mostly) while after 3-4 hours everybody use to own stack around 500$ or even more (remember this is a crazy 1-1 table where 800$ buy in is allowed!) so I know I can play my A-game untile stack are not too big

2) I have to be disciplined and go out after 5-6 hours because if I play with no time limit, I will messing up the following working day.

My "bankroll strategy" if we can call it like this, is to bring just 500$ with me.

My first buy in is 100$ and I try to play it more spewy.
If I double it i'm fine and I can play with a stack that is an half-freeroll, If i lose my first 100$ than I buy in for another 200$ and keep the last 200$ to add on if my stack goes lower than 150$.

If unfortunately I lose all my 500$ I leave the room and come back the day after avoiding tilts and avoiding me to find in situations where I'm losing 500$ so I have to buy in at least for another 500$ and I have to play pots of 1k BB that are very tought for me.

Maybe someone can tell me this is not the right way to approach the game but playing this way I sign regular profits of 150-200$ average and thats how I build my actual bankroll as a little ant.

I also use to leave the game if after 3-4 houres the table goes too spewy and aggro while I'm winning a decent profit or I'm break even but I have put on the table my whole 500$ stack and I don't want to risk it all just in one pot.
(This situation happens frequently when some of the "whale" of the club are loosing too much and get angry or whent 2 or 3 specific players are at the same table and you find yourself in a 5/10 game without knowing "how")

So my only will is to preserve my bankroll, my investment on the table and to play just in situation I consider +EV.

One of this is when there's a MTT running while we play cash game and a lot of young and unexperienced players sit at the cash game table after busting the tournament. They buy in for 50/100$ and play it the worse than they can. It's very easy to win they're money while they don't seems to be a danger at all because of their little chips stacks.

Sometimes the game is full reg (and I try to leave as soon as possible) and sometimes there is just one big fish at the table and we all attempt to play the right spot against him.

After 5 months I have a lot of history and info about almost everyone (I think that there are 100 players that comes cyclically and just 10-15 of them are regular as me) and I feel pretty sure that my hourly winrate can also increase if I continue to improve my game and my commitment.

So after all this long intro, I'm going to post on a daily basis my handreview starting from tonight, hoping I will reach my next to goals:

bring my bankroll to 5k to 7k until I move to Vegas
(I'm living the 21th june for a 2 weeks staying)

than I hope I will do good thins in Vegas and in July
in order to bring my $$$ to 10k before late august
(I will go to London for 5 days of full immersion in poker with some friends)

Good luck to me and to everybody with my same goals
that will follow and support my struggle.

Wish you the best.

So here I am.

before i started this 3d I've played and tracked exactly 50 sessions.
so let's start from session #51
@gamblerclub - 1/1/2
buy in 450 - cash out 750 (+300)
7 hours

This session has been quite different between the first and second part. For the first 4 hours I almost didn't play a hand, taking micro pots around 10 euro that allowed me to float on my initial entry stack of 150.

Than when the room was full (3 tables running) I moved to the table was starting because I saw 2 of the worse players of the club and decide to quit my table that was no profitable at all with 8 nit players and 1 friend of mine.

I took down some little spot than I lost my stack with an aggro and spewy play against a player that owned 2 pair e didn't fold to my c/raise OTF + jam OTT.

Than I reloaded for another 200 and than lose this one:

Blind 1-1-2, V1 UTG (the craziest and unpredictable player I've ever seen) opens to 12,
V2 MP flats the 12, Hero on BTN squeeze di 35 w/ KJoff.

I know in the average consideration KJoff is a hand that can be folded while now I'm raising but trust me that against THIS specific player and HIS range, KhJd is almost a top range hand, even because there's a lot of history between us and he often folds on my bets because he thinks I just play top range.

V1 calls we are HU, flop comes Jh 6s 8h
V1 (stack 250) leads out for 20, Hero (stack 200) raise to 60
V1 just calls

Turn 3h V1 checks, Hero checks
River 6c V1 checks, Hero "value bets" 100
V1 calls w/ AA...

He never played so tricky before and I NEVER EVER tought he could have AA or maybe QQ cause he always use to be very very aggressive with a lot of c/raise or 3barrells. I think he is improving a little his strategies and this misread left me with just 40 because he just called my bet.

The very next hand while thinking about quitting for making such a bad plays, the games goes on and EP opens to 10, HJ call, me on the CO push all in for this last 40 w AQ, EP goes all in for 120ish, HJ calls.

showdown: EP J8 offsuited, JH 9sTs, Hero AQ
board is 7 8 5 A T and I get it

I reloaded another 100 having a stack of 230ish/450 and than I started play my A-game and cashed out 750 after taking down 2 pots w/ a semibluff and one w/ Aces paid my the guy owned Aces against me before (he bluffed on me OOP with gut shot on 3 streets, just to let you know how spewy he is and "why" i played KJ like that)

Well done, I could have avoided 2 bad plays but I'm happy about how I played the first 3 and the last 2 hours, making good decisions and taking down easy pots with the good timing of squeezing and bluffing

my profit now is just a little more than 6k that was my first goal until Las Vegas so now I have 50 days while I can increase my bankroll playing the more that I can, the best that I can.

Tonight I'm going to rest for a night,
than I will join the game for the next 2 day for at least 10-12 hours.

Good luck man!

forza fiorentina prima e dopo napoli per me, minga al amerda juvegobbo di merda, ma la fiore po ancore se qualificare per la europa league.....grande napoli, fock my ultras al artemio last game. napoli per il scudetto!!!! viva

copa italia prima volta nella la mia vtia vito sono per il rubentus..........


et buona fortuna a te!!! et il tuo blog.