Ah thanks man, could well be that! Be interesting to see if it goes without that on. Thanks for taking time to let me know, much appreciated!

Keeping private for now mate, dunno who is reading. Not so much an "opportunity" as just normal business etc. Not working for someone else though. Hope you are well.

Er yeah, that is slightly embarrassing! Wouldn't use the word "empire" though, I'll save that for when it is £200 million. As I always maintain, I am not exactly CASH rich but then that is a lifestyle choice and clouds the truth somewhat!!!

Btw, I am not asking to BORROW money (I think it looks that way without me realising). I have asked around 10 people to return money to me that is owed to me!

I did not play on Wednesday night. My head was too frazzled even for a chill out session!

Yesterday I was home a bit earlier than usual as I was at the dentists in the afternoon so I played a few hands...



I notice my sessions are not starting so well these days but I am not 100% focused imo so I think that is why.

I also made a couple of call downs which were probably a bit too GTO but at these games I could exploit overfold river. Don't really mind about that too much if my reasoning is good and I learn something.

So session started badly and then everything ran pretty smoothly again thereafter. In general things go up up up!!!

Have a good weekend amigos!

Hahahahahahaha!!!!!



FML...



Fun session waiting for kids to get back from activities!

Don't look at redline please...



Might play tonight which would be my first Saturday evening session for a couple of years... Any fishes out there for me!!!!!?????

I decided to stop folding...



Resulted in swingy blue line and steady (winning) redline!

Way more fun than folding all the time - you get to see what they had.

Generally the nuts of course! (Talking about how they play NOT how I run btw)

Oh I also bluffed into the nuts a couple of times when I thought they were capped!

---

Yet again it has come to my attention how bad I am at taking in information. I was taught quite a few new things at Wing Chun last night and within seconds I had retained somewhere around 1% of the information. Maybe less!!!

So (in all things) I am trying to find ways to learn that are better tailored to my erm, erm, erm... Inadequacies!!!

Still got no cash. Gonna use poker roll next (yes, before "investing in real estate" roll). Anybody care to stake me???

Don't want to be accused of NOT posting losing graphs!!!



Whiff, whiff, whiff. Honest!

P.S. Got a little bit of cash!!!

Mate, would you keep playing poker if you knew that you will at BEST be breakeven for the rest of your life?

If the answer is no, you should probably quit right now.

Its only getting harder, and harder. Dont see anything changing here. Sad to say.

Understand i might come of as a douche, didnt mean to do so. Im actually asking a very rational question in this situation, imo.

And was just hoping for you to realize, that i think most of us out here, think that your progress is just too slow to be able to beat the games.

So at best you might always be breakeven at z10 or whatever.

But is it worth it then?

Wish you all the best.

Another fun session!

Probably spewed one off trying to make a fish fold, other than that my station calls turned out pretty well last night!!!!!



Wish I could play a bit more lately, seem to be running well.

Maybe I am getting a bit better at last!!!!!??????? Oh come on... Just a tiny bit!?

---

Quite possibly yes. Quitting is something I constantly guard against. Quitting something that I enjoy AND gives me valuable life lessons would be a disaster for me.

Not at all, you are in the majority I am sure.

Deep question... What is "worth it"?

Thanks very much, really appreciate it! Now quit going round telling people to quit!

Really fun session last night!

Felt like I played really well, best ever in fact!

I did do a few bluffs which are probably spew but this is not a bad thing for me as I used to think bluffing was illegal!!!!!!

All my 4b bluffs whiffed and got raised or called which hurts in a small sample so overall I am really happy with my play...




Looking forward to this weekend...

Tomorrow afternoon I am going out for a few beers with mates and watching some footie.

On Sunday we (family) are driving up to see my brother, have a meal with our mum for her birthday AND watch the Christmas lights get switched on in his town. Kids will LOVE that and I think I will too!!!

Shame it will be spoiled by having to work Saturday morning but once the clock strikes 12.00 it will be fun fun fun!!!

Have a great weekend amigos!

I feel like online poker is slowly dying exactly because people that would quit in such case brought their "shark mentality" and disgusted a good part of the recreational player pool. Even people that are making money, in 95% on the cases, it's surely less than what one could earn if he decided to dedicate the same amount of time to a side hustle. There is this ambiguity in that community. So many poker players are winning a ****ty hourly rate and a content with it, but if they would get break even now suddenly it's not worth it. I wonder the % of "reg" that actually love this game. As KP puts it, what does "worth it" means? Poker can give you so much more than $EV if you look at it correctly.

Still running good!!!



I am not getting many hands in lately (as I have got so much going on) but practically every time I play I feel that I get better!

The recent results are really good but of course it is so hard to take anything from results over small samples.

However, the fact that I am feeling really comfortable at the tables is a good indicator of at least some progress imo.

217 minutes til pub time...

---

So true.

Poker has probably been the best life coach I have ever had. Maybe more specifically my struggles to improve at poker have been my best teacher but I sure am grateful for it.

**** me it's been a tough journey but **** I have learned so much. So many life skills. Life skills you possibly never learn if you don't keep going at something you really suck at.

You know, if by some freak of nature I did ever get good at this game then I am pretty sure I would find something else to do that I suck at. OMG! Maybe I would take up art or drawing. I cannot even draw a circle without it looking like a square. So bad!

I had a really, really good weekend...

After work on Saturday morning I went straight to the pub (for 7 hours whoops) to have a "few" beers for my mate's birthday.

Nearly got into a brawl when some Scouse lads started giving my Scottish mate some stick but soon sorted that out!

On Sunday, feeling somewhat delicate, we drove up to my brother in Newark and had a meal for our mum's birthday and then went to watch their Christmas Lights switch on. Had a great day out and the kids loved it... Fireworks and rides FTW!!!

HOWEVER!!!

I need to be careful... That was 3 nights of drinking! Only one was "heavy" but I know all too well how easy it is for me to fall back into the trap of drinking daily!

Some of the problem for me at the moment is that work is so bad that I am finding it all too easy to "have a drink to relax". Fortunately I have not had a drink on a work night though so hopefully it is all in check!

Just something to watch out for!

Especially as I need to focus on preparing for if the worst does happen at work...

So... Not much poker over the weekend either.

Last night I played a few hands...



I flopped a straight early on when I 3b SB v BTN (JTss on KhQh9c) but it ran out to have 4 hearts on board so had to XC turn XF river.

Flopped another straight soon after BB v SB with A4o on 532ddx and we got it all in on the flop... he had AQdd and I won the first run out but he won the second!

Soon after I got-it all in pre BB v CO with QQ versus AKo and for the first time in ages I didn't look at the board!!!

Managed to hold that one though and then things ran smoothly thereafter to book another 2 buy in win!

The heat is good lately!!!

Played another chilled session last night but unfortunately it was a foldfest!

I haven't been this card dead for ages!



I felt afterwards that I was very lucky to only be 50bb's down.

I was talking yesterday to a guy who has played 300k hands in November at 200z and 100z and is up $30000!!! Pretty incredible!

Doubt that I will play tonight... I've got to see a man about a dog!

So wtf is going on here???

To summarise...

Work is going ****!

I spent the last few weeks making some preparations to make things as smooth as possible for me if/when the company I work for goes bust/makes me redundant/tries to sack me!!! So I am kind of ready for it...

Poker is going okay...

I have not played much since I realised we have problems at work.

The results have been "quite" nice though...

Recent graph of "chilled" play!



Most of this is at 10z but these last few days I have been playing some 16z...

16z graph



It feels like I should be okay at 16z so hopefully bad variance will stay off my back for a while!

The Future

Well work is kinda bleak but as I say I have made some preparations.

I can draw a small income from my property portfolio (money I never usually touch but instead re-invest) if I am suddenly out of work (plus will get some redundancy) so my situation is certainly not as bad as some of my work colleagues might face.

I am going to try to push all of that to the back of my mind now. It is mostly out of my hands.

I particularly want to make sure that we have a good Christmas at home and a good holiday in January and it won't help that to happen if I am being negative talking about work issues!

As for poker I do still feel that I am approaching the end of the road...

I think I initially said I will give it until April 2018 to see if I could get out of the micros and I still feel I should do that.

What I don't really want to do though is to just fizzle out of the game slowly. I kind of want to try to give it one final last "push".

Unfortunately December is not the best month for me to start this. Having kids 6 and 8 and Christmas approaching means our schedule is really packed!

We've got my daughter's birthday AND my birthday before Christmas as well as all the Christmas performances at school to attend AND we are going to Center Parcs January 2nd too.

But, other than that, I am going to re-focus my efforts into poker a little bit.

I am not exactly sure how, I am just working on figuring that out. I will probably have to sacrifice some sleep (again) to get done what I need/want to do but I am not going to go back to the 4.5 hours per night routine as that was beyond crazy.

I'll let you know as I work things out!

In before the haters say "quit now ffs" and if anyone has any good ideas for me to finish off with a spurt it will be most appreciated!

Wish me luck amigos, surely we want A SUCCESS STORY here right???

I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to figure out the best way to attack my (possible) last few months of poker...

One good friend advised me to still take it "easy" in December until I get back from holiday January 6th with "still 3.5 months to go". It doesn't sit too easy with me but he has a good point as December is pretty bonkers for us at home!

However, I want to be as productive as possible in the small amounts of time I will have in December. So somewhere in the middle ground...

My target last night was to study 19.30 - 20.30 and then play 20.30 - 23.00

Of course the kids didn't go to bed too easily so I got to the PC to study at 19.45 and did 45 minutes watching an old (but recent) coaching session and making notes.

I then played 1 table of 16 Zoom until 23.00 (with a 20 minute unplanned break).

Focus was:-
- Taking time to make better decisions
- Avoid auto piloting as much as possible
- Think about how ranges interact with the board
- Be more aggressive

I have to apply myself to finishing my session then getting to sleep as quickly as possible IF I want to optimise my time management and last night I did a pretty good job. I think I was asleep within 20 minutes of shutting the table down!

I considered getting up at 06.00 to do some study but in all honesty I woke up but decided to let nature make the choice. I fell back to sleep for another 20 minutes and by then it is not quite worth starting anything as I leave for work at 07.15.

It was a good day. Especially the quiet time I have during my car journey. In particular it seems to be helping me form questions about what it is I need to be working on. Namely range v range, leading to bet frequency, leading to bet sizing.

Hopefully it will be a similar poker day today. It will almost certainly start late again as Grandad is here for a few more days meaning kids will be spending valuable time with him.

Can we get a long term graph/results? And maybe more info about you, age/where do you live/your job? Thanks!

So it did NOT quite go to plan...

Wife and father-in-law decided we should go out for a meal (again)! As I don't get home from work until 18.00 we did not get home after the meal until 20.20... Kids settled in bed by 20.45... Finally got on PC at 20.50.

So I did 15 minutes of study. This probably seems as though it is not worth it BUT for me it is about forming the HABIT of doing a bit of study before playing. It is also a good warm up for me and resets my mind for poker.

I then played (one table of 16 Zoom) from 21.05 until 22.40 and to be honest I was too tired to carry on AND it was obvious I was starting to lose focus/play weak and passive.

I learned some pretty cool stuff about ranges/equities/boards these last few days. I am computing it slowly but surely...

Tonight I will be late to the PC as I have got Wing Chun but should be on it by 20.10...


Hi there!

Not sure what graphs I have got but lifetime I made about £6000 at poker.

Since June 2016 I have been around break even (slightly above) playing mainly Zoom NL10 but some 5z and a tiny bit of 16z and 25z too.

Before that (early 2016) I made around £4000 bumhunting heads-up NL50 and NL100 and before 2014 around £2000 playing MTT's on Skypoker (before I knew the rules properly).

I am 46.95 years old. I am happily married with 2 children aged 8 and 6.

I live in Warwickshire in the middle of England.

I work in a builders merchant buying "weird" goods for maintenance companies (21 years for my sins).

I have got a small property portfolio that I (mostly) rent to students.

Any other questions please fire away!

Thanks KP24. Good luck in your life and poker career, I'll be following.

Just curious, what stakes do you think you need to be playing in order to make a decent living? It is kind of hard for me to imagine that playing even NL50 is enough to make a decent living in UK, especially considering you are not a single guy just out of school who can live in a crappy room in a crappy house with eight other mates.

If you are talking about ME then I would probably need to be a decent/consistent winner at 100z to carry on living the same lifestyle (maybe 200z but don't think so).

I could be wrong but I would guess that I would/do work (quite a lot) more hours than the average UK citizen though ("most" people here are seriously lazy/entitled).

I know a UK citizen who is a pro who plays 50z but then he does not live the same lifestyle as I do and (WAY WAY) more importantly does not have two young kids!

However (and this is only about ME again)... I do have other income streams available that I currently do not touch so if I was beating 50z at a good clip then I would be in a pretty good situation still!

No, thank you!

Got back from Wing Chun 19.50, said g'night to the kids, washed up and was at the PC by 20.15...

Studied a coaching video for 30 minutes and hit the tables feeling confident!

Played (one table of NL16 Zoom) from 20.45 to 22.45

Focused on:-
- Taking time
- Avoiding autopilot
- Being aggressive
- Mind control

The session was one of the most enjoyable I have ever had!

I made a couple of big bluffs (neither of which "worked") and I did not care about the outcome at all (usually I have some sort of negative reaction).

Overall I can see/feel my thought process during hands is improving.

One tabling, getting good coaching and talking to people who actually understand this game seems to be helping!

Only time will tell...

I should get a full evening at the PC (from 19.30) tonight. The poker outlook for the weekend is practically non existent though as my beautiful daughter will be 9 on Saturday!!!

I put in a solid 3.5 hours last night.

Girls were out at Girl Guides so I put my son to bed and hit the PC at 19.30.

Studied for 40 minutes (recent coaching video) and hit the 16z table at 20.15

Played until 23.00 (2h 45m) and played super solid.

I was running pretty bad and had to fold often to raises and 4bets so I was really pleased to see I only lost 40bb overall.

More importantly my mindset was brilliant. I would have expected that I was down a couple of buy-ins and in those instances I am usually starting to tighten up but last night I stayed aggressive.

I am still only playing 1 table! This takes tonnes of discipline but it is SUPER helpful in improving my hand reading skills (not hard to improve those I guess). Last night was a bit too much folding going on but I managed to stay on track and play my A-game. Very pleased.

---

I am looking for a poker mentor. I would consider being staked/CFP/paying hourly. You can see my work ethic so if you fancy a challenge hit me up. Skype is chinnyandhels

My bank roll is small now (I used some of it to invest in myself in case my work goes bad).

I could do with buying some coaching but cannot afford it out of my roll (and always refused to use IRL money for this).

I have spoken to a couple of staking stables (and also chatted with some other very helpful people - thank you) and it seems my low volume is putting them off accepting me.

All this one tabling and taking things a bit easier because of work has worked against me there!!!

So I am going to up the volume now and put in a couple of 30,000 hand months.

I am sure the quality of my play will drop by adding a table which is a shame as I have been on a nice upswing lately.

I will drop down to 10z for a couple of sessions to get used to playing 2 tables again and if that goes okay will play 16z again.

Target is 30,000 hands by end of play 11/1/2018... I have got a vacation, Christmas, my birthday, loads of stuff on with kids so it will be tough but I will do it.

In fact I got up at 05.45 this morning to set the ball rolling!

Target for today is 1100 hands. I played 320 this morning so it shouldn't be a problem if everything goes smoothly at home tonight!

Bankroll is $596.

Bankroll management will be to move up to 25z at $750 and to move down to 10z at $448.

Let's go!

[x] Play 1100 hands...



Fortunately I played 10z as I wanted to get used to playing faster again and 2 tables of Zoom (one tabled for few weeks to improve hand reading).

Graph



I really played terribly to start with. The first ~300 hands were at 06.00 before work and I was playing too quickly AND much too loose.

In the evening I started in exactly the same way, even though I had told myself to take my time and just settle down!

At around the 420 hand mark I lost a 60bb pot through bad play and sat out.

I decided that I needed to improve my self awareness as I was not in control and could not seem to do anything about it.

I logged in to Headspace and decided to go back to the very beginning and do the Basics pack Session 1.

After that things improved a lot. I was calmer, more deliberate and much more self aware. I still made quite a few mistakes but at least I was around break even for the rest of the session (and redline improved which is usually good indicator for me).

Cliffs:-
- Daily hand target surpassed.
- Played really badly to start.
- Got better after meditating/improving self awareness
- Still played B game

Target for today is 1100 hands again. I got up at 05.40 this morning to get some play in before work.

Bankroll = $545

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HH 1

This is super strong at these games imo. What's best?



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HH2

Is this ok? 3bet size ok?




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HH3

Just want to be 100% this is okay for 70bb v fish (got to be!)?



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HH4

Looks okay?