Hey all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this, in this thread i hope to document my progress as i begin to take poker semi seriously again, and hopefully just hopefully i can spin up a decent roll i can be proud of once more. I'll post details of what i intend to do below, but before that i'll write a little about my poker background for anyone interested.

I started playing poker about 10 years ago in my late teens. Mainly played pub poker and micro stakes online. Over the course of 2-4 years i progressed to some low/med stakes online with a reasonable degree of success. I was no high roller but i was disciplined and was multitabling 6 max sngs around the 10-20 dollar mark and making some nice extra income through this.

Around this time i also moved into playing at the casinos a lot during my student years and was regularly taking down some nice mtts in there along with decent cash success.

At this time i had about £1500 sectioned off in another bank account and some medium 3 figure number online. No massive massive money but i was certainly doing alright and poker was paying for a few nice things here and there. My main point in this paragraph is that i had suceeded in building a roll AND managing to keep it away from my normal money i had.

I can't really remember why but at some point my roll dissapeared on some non poker expenses and i lost a little interest in the game.

I am now 27, and 4/5 years down the line i have a 9-5 job. This leaves me little time to play at casinos (bed by 11pm for me) and i dabble online, mainly at MMTs for fun. I do play with mates occaisionally but it has become far too gambly and we play dealers choice with crazy variants, its more just for fun.

the last few months have not been too successful and i realise i keep dipping ino personal money to fund poker. Its no big deal, i have a good job and the money is not a big problem. Its more the principle of it all. When i was younger and a student i was way better at keeping a roll seperate as i knew i couldnt just top it up at any point. I would love to get that back.

Anyways.......

The last few days i have felt a spark of motivation towards poker and reading some other challenges and playing online not for the money but for the rewarding feeling of playing well(and hopefully padding my income.)

My challange to myself is this. I currently have approx $100 on stars. I want to prove it to myself that i am still a winning player and that i am not as lazy as i have been the last few years. My plan is to hopefully build this into a good 3 figure, if not 4 figure number. I'm not setting any set in stone goals as yet, just take it step by step. I'm planning to use this thread as a diary as such to help me write down thoughts and stick to banroll management as much as i can.

Speaking of BR, im not going to be too strict on myself as i can top this up if need be. I'm not exactly looking to do that but assed with starting at 2nl. I play to start out at 5nl zoom/$1-3 sngs/the odd mtt for a dollar etc and see how i go. I feel so fresh and ready for this, i cant wait to get started.

Lastly, i have a pretty old laptop atm, and no holdem manager or whatever. I'm planning to get a new laptop next month, if all is going well i will definitely invest in a tracker to get the most out of this.

I'm off to play an hour of 4 tables of 5nl zoom for now. I will report back before bedtime.

If anyone made it to the end of that essay thanks for sticking with me!

Cheers.

Hi,

Thats great to hear. I, too, am in the same spot as you. I look forward to reading about your progress.

- Jack

Thanks Jack, best of luck to you too. I'll try and update after each session, even quickly.

Just played about 1 hour of 4 x 5NL zoom.

Starting roll: $103.20
Ending roll: $96.28
Net profit/loss on seassion: -$6.92

Initially i feel i played well, at least for 30 minutes or so. I was nicely treading water and had picked up about half a stack between my 4 tables. Looking back i feel like the second half hour let me down, i was efinitely more tired than i believed i was during play. I definitely made a few bad calls aswell though. Nothing too huge but it would have saved a dollar here or there if i had kept my cool. Early days though and its such a smlla samply size i cant draw any conclusions yet. I lost a big hand with my AA vs KK and another big 10 dollar hand on an unavoidable flip.

Overall i cannot believe how tough 5nl is. I actually feel a little embarrassed i havnt beat it, if only over one session. Bed for now though.

Next time i think i'll keep it to 3 tables and maybe mix in some 2nl if i lose another buy in or two. fingers crossed i make some progress and take my roll back into 3 figures

Gl man will be following. Make sure you post some hands.

Thanks, ExpectedV. At the moment i dont have any kind of tracker so it makes posting full hand histories quite tricky. I'll try and get something up soon though.

Day 2.

I've played 2 sessions so far today. I got in a quick 30 minutes at work on my lunch 1 tabling on my iphone and i got about an hour in tonight 4 tabling 5nl.

My lunch session was interesting. I began at 2nl, lost about a dollar and before i knew it i had gone up to 5nl to try and chase it, and then after that i went to 10nl to try and chase the 3 dollar i was then down. I managed to win a reasonable pot at 10nl to just about break even give or take a couple cents. I got a bit annoyed at myself after for chasing the loss. i mean its only a few bucks, that really inst life changing at all. I need to be more disciplined and stick to one stake, and maybe just quit if i fee this coming on.

Evening session was a bit more like what i would like. Solidly played 4 tables of 5nl with a couple 2 min breaks. Focus stayed relatively sharp throughout. I still feel like i am sometimes paying off more than i should. that said, there were also a few hands that i should have gone broke but managed to pot control well and didnt.

I think another thing i realised is that sometimes i feel like im trying to force things to much for this stake. Playing very taggy generally works well. Sometimes i feel i get a bit too laggy and 3 bet a little too often. The results seem okay but its definitely a swingier way to play.

Starting bankroll: $96.28
Finishing bankroll: $99.77

I am fairly happy with today. Im still finding my feet and managed to make a small profit. I feel like i know what areas of my game i have to tighten up on aswell. Hopefully these can be addressed for next time and i can add a couple more dollars here and there.

Sorely tempted to play a little more before bed, try and crack that $100 mark. If i do, i will post again tomorrow to say how i got on.

Cheers.

Just played about 45 more minutes before bed of 4 x 5nl zoom.

Session started on a low getting it all in on the turn with AK vs AQ on an Ace high dry board. He hit his 6%er and scooped the $7 pot. stayed focused and got totally into the zone (thank you trance music and headphones).

started to cruise after a while and felt i was extracting max value out of quite a few thin situations. After about 40 minutes i was approx 3BI up and about to start thinking about stopping for the night when the following two hands happened.

Hand 1

Hold'em No Limit ($0.02/$0.05)
Table 'Donati' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ($10.11 in chips)
Seat 2: darkpudge ($9.72 in chips)
Seat 3: Duniel1402 ($5 in chips)
Seat 4: Lecter 777 ($4.93 in chips)
Seat 5: tmWudzy ($6.74 in chips)
Seat 6: grinsmoke ($11.53 in chips)
darkpudge: posts small blind $0.02
Duniel1402: posts big blind $0.05
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Kc Kh]
Lecter 777: folds
tmWudzy: raises $0.10 to $0.15
grinsmoke: folds
Hero: raises $0.33 to $0.48
darkpudge: folds
Duniel1402: folds
tmWudzy: raises $0.62 to $1.10
Hero: calls $0.62
*** FLOP *** [8h 6s Qs]
tmWudzy: checks
Hero: checks
*** TURN *** [8h 6s Qs] [9d]
tmWudzy: bets $0.80
Hero: calls $0.80
*** RIVER *** [8h 6s Qs 9d] [3h]
tmWudzy: bets $4.84 and is all-in

Hand 2

Hold'em No Limit ($0.02/$0.05)
Table 'Donati' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: NofAce02 ($26.31 in chips)
Seat 2: Aereesteoo ($5.15 in chips)
Seat 3: Hero ($13.83 in chips)
Seat 4: Gloriou$ ($7.06 in chips)
Seat 5: farmacevt43 ($5.74 in chips)
Seat 6: thabnight ($10.45 in chips)
Aereesteoo: posts small blind $0.02
Hero: posts big blind $0.05
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qd Ad]
Gloriou$: folds
farmacevt43: folds
thabnight: raises $0.05 to $0.10
NofAce02: folds
Aereesteoo: folds
Hero: calls $0.05
*** FLOP *** [2h Qs 6s]
Hero: checks
thabnight: bets $0.10
Hero: raises $0.29 to $0.39
thabnight: raises $0.91 to $1.30
Hero: calls $0.91
*** TURN *** [2h Qs 6s] [5h]
Hero: checks
thabnight: bets $2.05
Hero: calls $2.05
*** RIVER *** [2h Qs 6s 5h] [Jc]
Hero: checks
thabnight: bets $7 and is all-in


Hand 1

I like my call on the 4 bet preflop, i feel like its important not to auto 5 bet this hand too often as most hands i beat get out the way at this point. As for the rest of the hand i'm not quite sure what happened. I feel like i was being too cautious not wanting to lose the profit for the sessions.

As played, what do i do on the river?

Hand 2

Again like in hand 1 i feel i was a little cautious preflop as my session was wrapping up. Normally this is a 3 bet but i do mix in some calls a good portion of the time, maybe 1 in 4 or so. I feel like my hand is way more disguised doing this should i flop big. It balances up my calling range too.

On reflection, i like my pre flop and flop play but turn is questionable. As played, what do i do on the river? my thoughts are that it should have been a fold on the turn unless willing to call river jam?

Anyways,

These are two hands that i think were interesting and definitely have room for improvement, i would love any comments that may help me learn from this.

Ending bankroll for the night: $111.68
Profit for this session: +$11.91

Overall i am pleased with this session, at least up until the last 5 mins and how i played these hands.

Cheers.

KK- 5b shove, villain is very interested in his hand and wants the money in. As played, call river.

AQ- 3b pre, call flop, and as played fold river. You beat busted flush.

Thanks ExpectedV.

As played i folded both rivers.

Not really gonna have time to play much for the rest of the week unfortunately. Busy tomorrow after work then off to Glasgow at the weekend before coming home for Birthday plans on Sunday when i reach the grand old age of 27 :/

Will try squeeze in some 1 tabling on the mobile if i get 10 minutes though!

Day 3

Pretty much my first hand i got stacks in with AA vs KK and he got there, and then my sesion went further downhill.

Started out 4 tabling 5nl zoom. eventually mixed in some $3 sngs with mixed success.

Lost like another few buy ins and then elected to play 10nl zoom. I got it in on the flop with the nut flush and he backdoored a full house.

i don't know if i just not very good, running badly or if 5nl is just insanely more difficult than you would think.

BR: $72.11