[x] Play 1100 hands



I did not get started on my evening session until just after 21.00 (daughter was in Christmas Carol service) and I refused to play without meditating so didn't hit the tables until 21.15ish.

I played at 10z again whilst monitoring my self awareness/ability to not play like a mad man and I did play at a much better pace (slower and more deliberate/thoughtful).



It ended up that I did not get to bed until midnight after my session. I am not using an alarm in the mornings (yet) and I woke up at 06.10 today. I have to start getting showered and ready for work at 06.45 so it just wasn't worth getting up and doing a session.

Yesterday was a long day so I rolled over and got another 20 minutes kip instead!

So, without my pre-work poker session it will be tougher to get the hands in today...

Target for today is 1000 hands.

I will play 16z again today as I am more comfortable with my mindset for grinding "volume".

Bankroll $559

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HH 5

I've got 77bb left. Jam or XR?

Gay 3b so fish 99%.

Well jam is better than x.r just dunno if jam is optimal betsize. Most of his range is dead/5%.

Xr sucks imo unless u have specific reads.

How come you looking for coaching/staking again? What happened to the new coach? It does seem you are going back and forth trying different things while putting off doing the inevitable. Sorry if that sounds blunt but I speak from experience in that respect.

Anyway those hands, obviously Im way out of touch with how the games played so could be way out.

H1
I dont mind a flat in that position after the raise and call. We have position with a strong hand so its all good. If I 3bet there Ideally I want to get a fold off the original raiser and a call off the guy in the middle. 2 calls is still not a bad thing as it would be very easy to narrow down their ranges at that point.
Allowing for the fact that I doubt many people at this level see this as a squeeze spot and probably don't get too tricky I would imagine his 4bet is super strong and he is not fussed there is another guy in the pot. I hate it but could fold without losing too much sleep.

H2
I could make an argument for both a call and 3bet pre with the shorty behind. Again it is how tricky are people playing? If I call Im half hoping the shorty sees this as a good place to shove with a wide range getting the CO to fold so i can call. Other than that its a 3bet for value against what we are presuming will be a wide range.

Flop plays itself on that board its a really dry board so if you bet you probably will get called by a wider range than just top pair. So if Im betting the flop then I would do it with the intention to check/call the turn. If you play it like you did then its very rare anyone is bluffing the turn as well as the flop if you call and you will be beat a lot of the time but I cant see how you could possibly fold the turn given what it is costing you.

H3
I dont think a call pre against a fish is going to be that bad a thing but once you get 4bet I can't see it playing out any other way. In my experience unless things have changed you just wont win that much money getting all in against UTG with AK although with the villain looking fishy maybe it can be excused(Just noticed the min raise pre so maybe you could make your 3bet a touch smaller to give you more options).

H4
Im betting that flop every day of the week. Theres tons of stuff that can have a piece of that which are worse than what you have. if he checks behind that flop I would be shedding a tear.

H5
I hate the min raise pre unless are strat is to either flop a set or fold. I hate the check raise on the flop but that has come because of the size of the villains bet which would have been bigger with a normal size raise pre so it gets weird from that point. As played I would just shove the turn as the last thing you want is a scared AA/KK checking behind and a crap card coming on the river.

Anyway all the best as always.

Mate.

Withdraw your roll instead.

Put it into BTC / ETH / LTC.

Go hang with friends and family.

Im confident you will make 100x more money this way than playing poker.

[ ] Play 1000 hands...



Total fail.

Reason: Had a couple of people give me advice (and two possible offers) regarding staking and/or CFP. So I spent a lot of the evening talking and researching.

I got up at 05.20 this morning to try and make amends.



95% at 16z

I played well but variance was not on my side. I feel confident at 16z (as long as i play calm). I played calm > 90% of the time.

I will be talking to people again today about staking/CFP. Hopefully will also get some decent volume in tonight.

Target for today is 1300 hands.

Bankroll $527

Birthday weekend coming up!!!!

----------------------------------------------------------

HH 6

Flips...



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

HH 7

Not flips...



-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Ty mate. Agree.

Thanks for HH analyses mate.

I had to use some of my roll so can't afford "pay as you go" coaching or packages now.

So not intentionally "going back and forth". On the other hand trying a few different things seems like a fairly good idea to me.

1. I am not playing poker to make money (obv).

2. 100 x 0 = 0

3. I have got a lot of money invested but thanks for the advice amigo.

Any reason for the small 3bet sizing with QQ?

[x] Play 1300 hands





And not many more than 1300! I was absolutely knackered!!!

I got up early (05.20) to make up for the previous day's weak efforts but by the end of the day I was smashed (still woke up stupid o'clock this morning mind).

I had another chat with two different companies about staking/CFP and pretty sure I will go for the CFP option (if I do go for one). I'll let you know!

Going out for birthday beers tonight! Sure sign I am getting old... Coupla years ago there would be 20+ going out... This year I only mentioned it to about 5 people!!!

Getting a few hands in today (Saturday) while kids are at dance/scouts/etc but that could be it for the weekend.

Hangover incoming!!!!!!!

I managed to fit 600 hands in yesterday while my family was out...





Today is gonna be interesting... I had one too many beers last night... We are taking the kids to see Father Christmas later... I hope I don't puke on him!!!

I have got a couple of contracts to read today and will make a decision about CFP/Staking over the next couple of days.

I should also set a target of hands for tonight. Hmm, the way I feel right now I think around 10! I will target 750 hands today. We are going out for a meal for my birthday after meeting Father Christmas so I won't get started until late.

Bankroll $564 (move up @ $750, move down @ $448)

[ ] Play 750 hands. FAIL!





Hangover + Seeing Father Christmas and Sledging + Birthday meal (inc couple more beers) = NO CHANCE!!!

It was a "struggle" to get the hands in that I did play tbh. Was possibly EV- but at least I tried!

Still not completely made my decision for staking/CFP! I won't "make it" alone though so I need to get on with it. Looks like it would start 1/1/2018 anyway so got a few days.

Bankroll $567 (move up @ $750, move down @ $448)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meeting Santa!









If you don't like Christmas, go and get some kids, it's AWESOME!!!!

[x] Forget to set a target amount of hands to play





My wife was out for a Christmas Meal last night so I had the kids. Unfortunately my daughter wasn't feeling very well so I was up and down the stairs to help her.

Still, I managed to get a nice session in.

I got into a few marginal situations that were unnecessary but overall I would rate it as my B game.

I have signed a CFP contract and sent all the required documents in. I am just waiting for the final part of the application process to go through.

Today is my birthday!!! We are going out for (another) meal after work tonight to celebrate.

Not sure I will be up for poker after that! Maybe I will have a couple of celebratory drinks and play some 10z. Or maybe I will have some material from CFP to peruse!?

Have a great day amigos! The birthday beers are on me!!!

I am now a student of Coaching For Profit at BluffTheSpot!

It has been a very tough decision for me to make this past week or so...

I did A LOT OF RESEARCH into various CFP programmes and staking stables and, although many of them would not accept me (at this moment), nobody really came even close to BluffTheSpot.

I spoke to several current BTS students varying from NL10 to NL200 players and they are all happy with the programme.

In fact I was surprised by some of the negative reviews I received from students/players at other stables/programmes that I actually thought would be very good!

After a mostly negative experience with BPC it took a lot of convincing to make me make this commitment!

Huge thanks to all the guys that gave me feedback (I won't name names but you know who you are!).

Massive thanks to BluffTheSpot for giving me this (final) opportunity!!!

---

My contract commences on 1.1.2018 (I am on vacation 2nd Jan unfortunately!)

I am already gradually getting access to forums etc

Excited, intrigued, slightly nervous...

My contract with BluffTheSpot starts officially today!!!

However.... I am going on vacation tomorrow morning!!!

So I will be starting to play some hands around 8th January and I am really looking forward to hitting the tables again.

I have had a break from playing over the last two weeks but NOT a break from studying.

I studied 9 BluffTheSpot basic strategy videos and made extensive notes.

I have got a few changes to make to my overall strategy. Most of it is preflop.

To be honest I have always been very poor preflop ESPECIALLY since moving to 6max from HU. Also think I had some TERRIBLE preflop coaching in the past... At least it seems so now!

Postflop so far (not done too much) does not seem too different to what I already play BUT hopefully I have a slightly better understanding of WHY I will make some plays.

I am really looking forward to getting back into grinding and studying...

It will be, as it always has been, a test of finding time to fit everything in (around long hours at work and family etc) with a small amount of balance so that my head does not explode. Actually not too worried about my head exploding to start with but will of course keep an eye on it!

Going to enjoy my vacation now and some really good quality time with my wife and kids...

Happy New Year amigos...

Failing is fine, quitting is not...

Good luck in 2018!!

So, so, so....

Holiday was amazing - perfect family time, could not have been better!

Getting back into things this week has been "interesting"...

I have watched these videos so far...



Most I have studied and made good notes and a couple I have watched on the fly to see if they are applicable to me yet.

So far it has been really good for me to get into some preflop stuff. In fact, although I have watched some flop videos, I am not really putting the concepts into practice yet while I focus on nailing preflop down.

I am currently playing 2 tables of NL16 Zoom. With new preflop ranges AND concepts to think about I feel that is enough for me at the moment. Also I have only just started using Hotkeys and I am also getting used to using a HUD (properly) so there is a lot going on!

This is NOT going to be enough volume though.

I need to be playing 40,000 hands per month but my poker time is somewhat restricted due to being out at work 55.5 hours per week and having a young family at home.

I am working on it, however, and I have done long days before.

I am trying to get to poker at 19.30 each evening (as soon as we have put the kids to bed) and trying to go through until 23.30 for now.

After 3 days it is not proving very easy!

Last night my wife was out and for some reason the kids were having one of those evenings where they shout me up to them every 15 minutes! (This is one of the reasons I prefer Zoom by the way - I can sit out and re-join quickly.)

The night before that our central heating system (which is only a few months old) started making weird noises at 22.50 so I ended up leaving the tables earlier than intended to investigate!

Other than that it is going really well!

I am not "winning" or anything exciting like that but considering the changes I am making I feel that I am playing pretty well.

Focus for the short term is preflop (opening, defending, 3 betting, defending v 3b etc etc) and making my HUD better and easier to use. I have made some good colour codings for abusing customers who like to fold too much!

I don't think I need to watch any more videos just yet as I have got tonnes to work on from the ones I have watched.

Coaching sessions are at awkward times for me at the moment. I am not too concerned just yet as I have got the videos to work on/catch up with.

Once I am up to speed on those basics though I will try to persuade somebody to do some sessions during my evenings (he said praying)...

Some hands for fun...

1. Miss click goes well...




2. Fish gonna fish...




3. Protection or what!?




--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will be back with a review of my first 10k hands with BTS as soon as I get there!

Good luck with your studies amigos!


Thx mate! You too!

No images man!!

I'll try again! Thanks...

So, so, so....

Holiday was amazing - perfect family time, could not have been better!

Getting back into things this week has been "interesting"...

I have watched these videos so far...



Most I have studied and made good notes and a couple I have watched on the fly to see if they are applicable to me yet.

So far it has been really good for me to get into some preflop stuff. In fact, although I have watched some flop videos, I am not really putting the concepts into practice yet while I focus on nailing preflop down.

I am currently playing 2 tables of NL16 Zoom. With new preflop ranges AND concepts to think about I feel that is enough for me at the moment. Also I have only just started using Hotkeys and I am also getting used to using a HUD (properly) so there is a lot going on!

This is NOT going to be enough volume though.

I need to be playing 40,000 hands per month but my poker time is somewhat restricted due to being out at work 55.5 hours per week and having a young family at home.

I am working on it, however, and I have done long days before.

I am trying to get to poker at 19.30 each evening (as soon as we have put the kids to bed) and trying to go through until 23.30 for now.

After 3 days it is not proving very easy!

Last night my wife was out and for some reason the kids were having one of those evenings where they shout me up to them every 15 minutes! (This is one of the reasons I prefer Zoom by the way - I can sit out and re-join quickly.)

The night before that our central heating system (which is only a few months old) started making weird noises at 22.50 so I ended up leaving the tables earlier than intended to investigate!

Other than that it is going really well!

I am not "winning" or anything exciting like that but considering the changes I am making I feel that I am playing pretty well.

Focus for the short term is preflop (opening, defending, 3 betting, defending v 3b etc etc) and making my HUD better and easier to use. I have made some good colour codings for abusing customers who like to fold too much!

I don't think I need to watch any more videos just yet as I have got tonnes to work on from the ones I have watched.

Coaching sessions are at awkward times for me at the moment. I am not too concerned just yet as I have got the videos to work on/catch up with.

Once I am up to speed on those basics though I will try to persuade somebody to do some sessions during my evenings (he said praying)...

Some hands for fun...

1. Miss click goes well...




2. Fish gonna fish...




3. Protection or what!?




--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will be back with a review of my first 10k hands with BTS as soon as I get there!

Good luck with your studies amigos!

I have played 10,975 hands at BTS so time for a mini-review!

Sample is too small to take anything from my results so I just want to look at a few stats to start with...

VPIP: 26
PFR: 20
3B: 7.3

All seems okay. Was surprised 3B is not more like 8-9 so will check my 3b ranges (and how well I know them), BB 3B is 6 and SB 3B is 8.5 so looks like I am missing some 3 bets in those spots...

UTG RFI: 20
MP RFI: 21
CO RFI: 33
BTN RFI: 57
SB RFI: 58

I like them all. Will look for spots to get BTN and SB even higher...

Fold to PF 3B: 67.6

Woah! That is quite a bit higher than recent months. BUT... I do open pretty wide in some spots AND my villains 3B super tight as a population (often seeing like 3% 3B stat) so there is a chance this is fine as an exploit. I will run some filters and make sure though and ask a coach for some analysis...

4B:3

LOL! Well in fairness this is also a reflection of playing against nitty 3 bettors. No point bluffing into a 3% range imo...

Fold BB v SB steal: 31

Nice...

Fold BB v LP steal: 48

Nice...

XF flop as PFR: 54

Too high but not an immediate worry for me - keep it in mind...

Stab flop IP when PFR X: 52.5

Really surprised at this, should abuse them more...

Raise flop CB OOP: 6.3

Too low, working on this right now...

SB winrate: -13.4 evbb/100
BB win rate: -27.6 evbb/100

Happy with these but only ~1800 hands in each...

Volume

I was on vacation for the first week of the year. Since then I have averaged ~1000 hands per day. It is not enough BUT I have been changing a lot of things. That means I have played only 2 tables of Zoom exclusively for now. If things go okay for the next few days I will consider adding a third table.

I am NOT considering playing more hours yet. I am stretching my day as it is now and I don't want to start losing focus. If I did extend my hours it would probably go on study anyway - I have got a lot of videos I want to dissect!!!

Other

I have made considerable improvements at how I analyse hands. This is starting to show me how far off GTO I play in many spots (not that I want to play GTO). More importantly it is showing me where villains are making a lot of mistakes, and that is what I want to know about!!!

So far it is 10/10 for BTS... And I haven't even had a proper coaching session yet!!!

Good luck with your studies amigos! Keep on improving!!!

20,000 hands done so time for quick review...

I need to be doing a MINIMUM of 25,000 hands per month and it will be close this month. I guess it is okay seeing as I was on vacation for the first week of this month. Hopefully I will be able to do 30k - 40k next month...

Study is going well.
- I am still implementing a lot of preflop strategy that was terrible from before.
- I started learning more about cbetting flop as PFR and how to use different ranges (polarised or merged) depending on board texture and villain.
- I am using the forum a lot (posted 24 hands). Replies are AWESOME!
- Still not attended any live coaching sessions but fortunately they are all recorded. I also have got tonnes to catch up on.

Some Stats (last 10k hands only)
26/21/7.4 - solid, need to learn about squeezing more.
Fv3b: 53.7 - came down a lot and I think this is a really good stat for my player pool (maybe too low as nits)
4b: 5.2 - Kinda low but probably okay at my games, I am actively using HUD to exploit
RFI: I am a couple of points above "standard" which is exactly what I want atm
Fold BB v SB steal: 33
Fold BB v LP steal: 54.9 - It's okay

Summary
Very happy, game has improved a tonne just doing preflop stuff. Fingers crossed I can move up to 25 Zoom soon! Will keep posting hands and learning from great coaches!

First month at BluffTheSpot is done!

I missed the first few days due to being on holiday but since then I have worked hard (considering full time job and young family at least) and things have overall gone GREAT!



$163 profit!

Almost all of my volume has been at 16NLz on Pokerstars. My win rate there is 3.22bb/100 this month but the sample is small so it is "whatever"!

I played 26,221 hands in the month. I can do more than this because I missed some days (vacation) but I am not sure I can do more hands per hour etc. I don't feel ready to add a third Zoom table at the moment.

I will play some 25NLz now (before the profit sharing demon comes to get me!). As time moves forward I will to be more aggressive with my shots (30bi shot this time) due to the nature of CFP. Maybe 25bi and then even 20bi shots.

I posted 27 hands to the forum and am really pleased with the quality of the replies. A few different coaches chime in but they all have excellent knowledge and explain things really well to me.

Overall I am super satisfied and super optimistic! Of course I don't expect to start crushing just yet but the way everything looks here so far I just cannot see any reason not to get there given time and some hard work!

Good luck with your studies in February amigos! Keep moving forward!

I have just stopped playing for a few minutes to report that yes, after all, Stars is well and truly rigged...

Wait what!? That make no sense at all. I am gong to clean my eyes out with bleach and burn all My Mathew Janda books. #pokerisdeadmyarse

Hi guys!

The 25 Zoom Goddess is putting my mental game to the test!

In this hand the Pokerstars client crashed on me after I made the 3bet! I came back online just in time and to my relief managed to get the money in preflop...





I am not "on it" 100% at the moment (didn't even play Sunday which is really rare). My full time job has gone bad again and I am losing a lot of sleep over it. I just need to get out of there now and move on...

Still, I am just about hanging in at 25z at the moment, I just need to keep my head straight to play my best...

What are the differences between bpc and bts cfp programs?

Hi guys! Times are tough at the moment.

Or let's put it a better way. Life is testing me!

BUT... I have a quick look at the rest of the world and realise thet what I am going through is total BS and actually I am so lucky in so many ways that I just need to STFU and get on with improving myself, improving my life and giving value to the world in whatever way I can...

Work is totally **** right now... I won't give all the details as I don't know who is actually reading all my blogs but it is a horrible atmosphere to work in. I have to get out of there and I have to do it in the way that is best for my family and for me...

I can't quite afford to just walk away right now. I do have income from my property portfolio that would help me but I need another £1000 per month to carry on living my current lifestyle

So, on the positive side, I believe I can make another £1000 a month selling ice to Eskimos so the money is not really a problem.

The trouble is, I work long hours at the moment so it is a little bit tricky for me to retrain in anything! And I am definitely not qualified to do anything! Also I cannot imagine my current boss giving me a glowing reference as he is absolutely full of hate!!!

So, all this going on is affecting my sleep at the moment, I am waking up after 4 hours sleep thinking about what to do and how to go about it.

This is transferring to my poker... I am simply too exhausted in the evening to play anywhere near my best! And study is totally out of the question... Every time I try to study I start to drift off to thinking about my future.

There is a bright side to this... I am shooting 25zoom at the moment...



Small sample but it is going pretty well! Of course you can guess why I don't show the actual money graph!

Point is, I am running pretty **** BUT, considering all the IRL crap going on at the moment I am handling the runbad pretty well. It is not just AIEV runbad I have been card dead a lot of the shot too. So there is definitely positives to take!!!

All in all, I am going through a period in life where it is my mindset that is being tested (even in poker!)... I actually get a kind of masochistic enjoyment out of it (because I believe that when times are tough we make the most progress and grow the most).

I spent a lot of my life in "a dark place", wasting my life away and bringing negativity to the world. Hopefully I am past the turning point now.

Hopefully this is just another chapter in my self improvement journey. I am praying, in fact, that this is the next "growth spurt"!

So in summary...

Not studied much this past week and not putting the volume in (around 800 hands per day) but even if I did it would be wasted time...

I just need to sort my job out and redirect my life. I have got about 6 options all spinning around in my head and I need to take some time to make a good decision.

When I make that decision I will go all guns blazing!

Until then, keep studying and keep making progress amigos!!! Love you all (even the haters)!!!

I will answer this asap amigo...

Holy underpants Batman!!!!

The 25 Zoom Poker Goddess really got her knickers in a twist with me! I think I may have been unfaithful to her or something!

I had around 3 buy-ins to play with this morning and it was going fine until three hands in very quick succession (2 minutes maximum) killed me off!!!

HAND 1 - Versus Fish

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

BTN: $28.42
SB: $60.17
BB: $25.00
UTG: $25.35
MP: $25.00
Hero (CO): $26.33

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has K K

fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.63, BTN raises to $1.51, fold, fold, Hero raises to $4.00, BTN calls $2.49

Flop: ($8.35, 2 players) 2 6 9
Hero bets $6.00, BTN calls $6.00

Turn: ($20.35, 2 players) J
Hero bets $16.33 and is all-in, BTN calls $16.33

River: ($53.01, 2 players) 4

Hero shows K K (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 80%, Flop 13%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows 6 6 (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 20%, Flop 87%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins $51.01

=================================================

HAND 2 - Tagged as probable reg small sample

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

BTN: $25.48
Hero (SB): $29.15
BB: $31.17
UTG: $37.07
MP: $24.38
CO: $27.85

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has 9 9

fold, fold, CO raises to $0.75, fold, Hero raises to $2.63, fold, CO calls $1.88

Flop: ($5.51, 2 players) T 6 9
Hero bets $3.95, CO raises to $9.00, Hero raises to $26.52 and is all-in, CO calls $16.22 and is all-in

Turn: ($55.95, 2 players) A

River: ($55.95, 2 players) 7

Hero shows 9 9 (Three of a Kind, Nines)
(Pre 82%, Flop 82%, Turn 91%)
CO shows 8 8 (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 18%, Flop 18%, Turn 9%)
CO wins $53.95

=================================================

HAND 3 - No reads (MP suspected fish)

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

Hero (BTN): $25.00
SB: $70.56
BB: $26.29
UTG: $23.84
MP: $33.49
CO: $25.00

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has T J

fold, MP raises to $0.75, CO calls $0.75, Hero calls $0.75, SB raises to $3.75, fold, MP calls $3.00, fold, Hero calls $3.00

Flop: ($12.25, 3 players) 5 A 7
SB checks, MP bets $5.85, Hero calls $5.85, SB raises to $66.81 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls $15.40 and is all-in

Turn: ($60.60, 2 players) T

River: ($60.60, 2 players) 2

SB shows K A (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 60%, Flop 32%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows T J (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 40%, Flop 68%, Turn 84%)
SB wins $58.60

=================================================

So yeah, that was pretty fast finish!!!

Here is the graph of all hands of 25 Zoom shot...



BUT, the mindset is getting stronger in this warrior...



P.S. I hope the 16 Zoom Poker Goddess still loves me, she was crazy for me 10 days ago!!!!!