Francesco, he has a sticky in the coaching section. Too early on to say too much but I'm pleased with how it's going so far and his prices are great. Started with a 3 day package and I'll be taking him up on his 2 week package assuming all goes well.

A bit of a mixed week really. A good one in terms of results I guess, but it should've been alot better. Still overadjusting way too much at 25nl and calling off stacks OTR when I shouldn't be. I also ended up playing on Friday night on the back end of a night out and dropped 4 BI's almost instantly at 25nl otherwise that would have been my biggest winner so far. Beat myself up a bit over it, learnt from it and moved on. Also had my first 2 coaching sessions with the 3rd tomorrow. We've done a database review and a video review, I've been sent a written review and then tomorrow we're having a theory lesson on the topic I selected (Playing pots/3B pots OOP). I was initially going to do the theory lesson on 3 betting but between the first session and now I've become alot more comfortable and the stat is now looking much healthier at over 8%.

Anyway, heres some results:





Giraffe:



Challenge so far:




Not the prettiest graph in the world but I definitely could've got off to a worse start. Just gotta keep putting in the work and stay patient and determined. Cashed in like $170 worth of StarsCoins as well this week which felt pretty good.

BR: $1045.39
SC: 2284

So ye, all in all a positive week for the most part. Still have some serious mental game leaks when it comes to results. I just want to win all the time and it has a big impact on my game after a while. I'm aware at least and have gotten alot better at just ending sessions when I feel I'm not playing at least my B game. I've spewed so many stacks since I started this challenge and in a ****ed up way it's kinda reassuring to think of how my results would look if I hadn't. I'll get there...

Regarding BR: I'll be dropping back down to 16nl @ $750, but I'll still be mixing in 16nl hands when I'm not feeling too comfortable at 25nl. Maybe a little too optimistic, but Monday will be my payday for the next few weeks. I know it's not the done thing to withdraw from a growing bankroll, but I'm pretty skint IRL at the minute and if poker could actually make my life a little easier in the short term, then it's gotta be done. I'll be leaving $1000 in my account and then withdrawing the excess on a Monday. The first of this money (if any) will be used to buy an intensive 2 week coaching package and go towards sorting some more permanent accomodation. Once I'm a bit more settled in a few weeks I'll stop any withdrawals and start making my way towards 50nl.

See you all in a week with more of the same hopefully

Update as of yesterday:

Hands: 35,557
Profit (or lack of): -$352.96

Worst week of the challenge so far in terms of play and results. That being said, it was probably the best week so far in terms of developing as a player. I had 6 losing days in a row. The first 2 or 3 I put down to variance but I was playing horribly for the last few. I was waking up, already on a bit of a downer, and firing up a session without any warm up/preperation. Saturday's session I was literally spewing (shout out to ChipsnCrisps ) and ended up rage quitting and throwing my mouse across the room. This was so out of character for me. I don't actually tilt very often and when I do it's usually muttering a few words to myself here and there and making the odd marginal call/raise. Anyway, long story short, I beat myself up pretty badly to begin with until eventually I was able to start putting things in perspective. In the grand scheme of things, losing 10-15 BI's at 25nl over the course of a week whilst playing my C game really isn't the end of the world. It probably would have been a winning week had I not blown up towards the end of it. I'm most annoyed at myself for not moving back down to 16nl when I should have, as not following BRM rules is suicide if I'm looking to play the game with any degree of seriousness (won't happen again).

I spent most of Saturday night/Sunday morning on RIO's mental game section and took some notes on things I think could help me in game. I also went through my tilty sessions to see where I was spewing most and I now have post-it notes stuck around my screen with "rules". Pretty basic stuff like: "Don't do x unless the following criteria are met". Following these might mean I make less when playing my A game but this is far outweighed by the BI's I'll save when playing my C game. This being said, I've actually gotten alot better at just ending sessions when I'm not playing well but then I just end up beating myself up for wasting the day

I felt much more at ease when I sat down to play on Sunday. I dropped down to 16nl, prepared myself properly for the day and managed to end the week with a decent winning session. Cashed in $100 worth of Coins to ease the pain a bit and then yesterday I had my biggest winner so far, but I'll save that for next weeks update I'm at a new BR peak but I'm going to keep playing 16nl for a while. I'll probably save my 25nl shots for the weekend. That's something else I haven't really put too much thought into either. I've been playing the vast majority of my volume on weekdays in the afternoon which is probably the worst time to play. I don't really have much choice atm because of my living arrangement but as soon as I get myself sorted then I'll definitely be looking to fit my poker schedule around the weekend/fishiest times

As of yesterday:

BR: $766.50
SC: 8334

Just been having a look through my database and it seems my bb/100 is falling well short in some positions so thought I'd do a mini update with some goals.



I did some research to try and find out what winrates were achievable in each position but everything I found was either really outdated or regarding another game. Still, from what I've read it seems like I'm losing way too much from the blinds and not winning nearly enough from the BTN. It struck me the other day during a session that I was just auto-folding loads of profitable opens OTB and the stats confirm this. I don't wanna reveal too much but it's pretty low vs what it was when I was doing ok at the micro's a couple of years back. So I'm gonna be looking to be more vigilant OTB and be more aware of who the blinds are. I also tend to just 2x as a default so I'll be looking to size up with fish ahead.

I think there's a couple of things I can do to help me along in the blinds. For the past couple of months I've had quite a wide flatting range from the SB vs LP opens and I'm probably getting myself into alot of tricky spots OOP that I'm not good enough to play profitably. I'm gonna tighten up my calling range and look to 3B more and I'll see how that goes.

Think my problem from the BB is pretty similar - I'm calling with a really wide range vs steals (min steals in particular) when I'm OOP. Like BU opens 2x, SB calls and then there's not many hands I'm folding. In theory I'm probably correct in making most of the calls but in practice I reckon it's costing me money. Gonna try tightening up a lil bit and folding some of the ****tier hands, pot odds or not Could probably look to add some more 3Bets vs SB as well to help the ol' bb/100 along.

In other news, been mixing in some 25nl and it's going OKish so far, up a few BI's. Finally got a place sorted as well. Been packing **** up for most of the day, ready to go on Tuesday. I'll be sharing it for a couple of weeks and then I've got it to myself until January. Just sorted out a 4GEE 2x speed router with 64gb/month too so now it won't cost me £80 a month in add ons to satisfy my data needs. So ye, expect some ridiculous volume in weeks to come once I'm settled and have a lil' workspace set up.

Be back Monday with the weekly update.

That's some nice monthly volume, well done

bb/100 from EP/MP looks very good, meanwhile rest of positions should prob be better as you say but seems like you have some ideas on how to fix that so gl

And while it's obv theoretically correct to defend a lot vs steals and minraises, just remember that rake also comes a fair bit into play at these stakes since it's so many bb/100. I think a good 'solution' to that is to up our 3bet ranges, not sure how much you are 3betting but you can get away with 3betting a lot at micros vs the right players. That being said, it's important to have a wide flatting range as well, so I'm sure you are doing fine.

Thanks, some good advice all round. Didn't even consider the rake aspect, makes a lot of sense. And ye I'm definitely not 3Betting as much as I should be (a little over 7% this month). Like most of my leaks I think this is largely due to autopiloting in a lot of preflop spots. I'm gonna brighten up the F3B stat on my HUD so it catches my attention more and look to find more spots to get in them raises.

Gonna try for 250k hands next month so stay tuned

I'm following this one! Have a blog of my own if you want to pass by :P gl !

Weekly Update:



A winning week overall so no complaints here although, as always, it could've been a lot better. Still too spewy at 25z. Looking through my database most of my big losing hands (coolers aside) go against one of the main "rules" I laid out last week. I just need to make sure I have concrete reasons for going super exploitative and that I'm taking certain lines against the right players and not just as a default. Something else I picked up on as well is how some days it's almost as if I'm tilting from the moment I sit down, for no apparent reason. Like on saturday I barely played an hour and dropped over 4 BI's, all of them pretty much avoidable. I guess it could be down to a number of things; diet, sleep, not warming up properly etc.. I just took the day off in the end but I definitely need to put some work into making my day more structured to help with consistency.

I wanna come clean as well in that I've been smoking again since I first got back to England. Ended up moving back into the house I was in before I left and I'm surrounded by smokers so it was always gonna be a tall order to keep clean. Still, I'm moving tomorrow so this is gonna be a fresh start. I'm going to Cambridge where my bro runs a boxing gym so I'm gonna knock the weed on the head for now and start training/eating properly. Shout out to BananaPanda as well your thread was pretty inspiring in this regard. When you spoke of how good you were feeling after you gave up it reminded me of how good I was feeling when I semi-gave up. So, if all goes to plan I'll be weed free from tomorrow. When I gave up last month I found that it was a lot harder to put in long sessions and I was losing concentration/getting restless but this could've just been short term withdrawals or something, who knows.

I said the other week that I was going to withdraw anything over the $1k bankroll but because I like going back on myself I'll scratch that. I think I'd rather be broke a bit longer and be that step closer to actually making a sustainable living. Plus some silly **** at barclays gave me 4 bags on my credit card so there's always that if I get stuck. Still looking to start the 2 week coaching package too but I'm trying to hold off until I can get these tilt issues completely under control. I feel like I'm finally getting there in this regard. It helps to see that I'm winning over 250k hands pre rakeback. Then I think of the hundreds of stacks I've spewed away mid-tilt and it's apparent how much better I'd be doing had I not. I really do think this is the biggest hurdle for any aspiring online poker player. Certainly held me back for as long as I can remember...

Aaaaanyways:

BR: $1241.60
SC: 84

Cashed in $205 worth of SC this week and also added an $80 bonus to HEM to account for the Pyramind and Jacks or better bonuses.

Here's a few funny hands:

Mini update with some hands from yesterday cos it was an interesting day. Won over 5 BI's in less than an hour and then in my second session I dropped over 6 BI's almost instantly (250 hands).

Here's the graph:



Here's the biggest hands from the second session in the order they were played. I'd like to think they were mostly coolers but I undoubtedly misplayed a few of em. Appreciate any feedback


1: Vs Unknown Rec






(HH converter stopped working at this point)
2: Vs Reg playing 26/21 with 58% F3B

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($53.69)
SB ($26.51)
BB ($27.63)
UTG ($33.57)
MP ($25)
Hero (CO) ($26.29)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, Q
1 fold, MP raises to $0.75, Hero raises to $2, 3 folds, MP calls $1.25

Flop: ($4.35) 3, 3, 4 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $2, MP calls $2

Turn: ($8.35) 4 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $5.31, MP calls $5.31

River: ($18.97) 10 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $16.98 (All-In), MP calls $15.69 (All-In)

Total pot: $50.35 | Rake: $2

Results:[spoiler]
MP had 4, 5 (full house, fours over threes).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and fours).
Outcome: MP won $48.35[/spoiler]



3: Vs Unknown

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($26.66)
SB ($29.98)
Hero (BB) ($25)
UTG ($32.71)
MP ($30.07)
CO ($25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, K
3 folds, Button raises to $0.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.60) Q, J, 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $0.75, Hero calls $0.75

Turn: ($3.10) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $3, Hero raises to $7.48, Button raises to $25.16 (All-In), Hero calls $16.02 (All-In)

River: ($50.10) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $50.10 | Rake: $2

Results:[spoiler]
Button had K, A (straight, Ace high).
Hero had 9, K (straight, King high).
Outcome: Button won $48.10[/spoiler]



4: vs Loosish reg over small sample.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($30.13)
SB ($19.56)
BB ($39.92)
UTG ($1.22)
Hero (MP) ($27.62)
CO ($30.39)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, A
UTG raises to $1.22 (All-In), Hero calls $1.22, CO calls $1.22, 2 folds, BB raises to $4.25, Hero raises to $27.62 (All-In), 1 fold, BB calls $23.37

Flop: ($57.78) 3, 8, 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($57.78) 3 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($57.78) 7 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $57.78 | Rake: $2

Results:[spoiler]
BB had 10, 10 (two pair, tens and threes).
UTG had 9, Q (two pair, nines and threes).
Hero had K, A (one pair, threes).
Outcome: BB won $55.78[/spoiler]




5: Most unhappy about how I played this one. Vs solid looking reg

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://handhistoryconverter.com/

Hero (Button) ($30.63)
SB ($62.07)
BB ($33.90)
UTG ($25)
MP ($28.76)
CO ($35.74)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 5
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, BB calls $0.25

Flop: ($1.10) 5, 8, 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.78, BB raises to $2.80, Hero raises to $6.93, BB raises to $33.40 (All-In), Hero calls $23.20 (All-In)

Running it twice

First Turn: ($30.68) 3
First River: ($30.68) 2

Second Turn: ($30.68) Q
Second River: ($30.68) K

Board 1: 5, 8, 9, 3, 2
Board 2: 5, 8, 9, Q, K

Total pot: $61.36 | Rake: $2

Results:[spoiler]
Hero had 9, 5
Hero had two pair, nines and fives on the first board
Hero had two pair, nines and fives on the second board
BB had 8, 9
BB had two pair, nines and eights on the first board and collected $30.68
BB had two pair, nines and eights on the second board and collected $30.68
Outcome: BB won $59.36[/spoiler]



6: And a quick bit of spew squeezed in once the 2 minute tiltbreaker timer popped up before it kicked me off my tables

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Converted at http://www.handhistoryconverter.com

Button ($25)
SB ($25)
Hero (BB) ($25)
UTG ($43.82)
MP ($61.86)
CO ($17.69)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, A
2 folds, CO raises to $0.50, Button calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.20, CO raises to $5, 1 fold, Hero raises to $23.60, CO calls $12.69 (All-In)

Flop: ($35.98) 5, 6, J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($35.98) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($35.98) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $35.98 | Rake: $1.62

Results:[spoiler]
Hero had Q, A (high card, Ace).
CO had A, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: CO won $34.36[/spoiler]

Barely played at all last week so it's gonna be a bit of a **** update. Played just under 2k hands on monday and basically broke even (-$11) and that was it for the week. I've been moving all my stuff into my new place and trying to get everything sorted. Finally got my desk moved in today so I'll be grinding again from tomorrow. Also, I ended up withdrawing $330 to cover the cost of the coaching package so the BR currently stands at $899.70. Coaching starts today and is 5 days a week for the next 2 weeks so hopefully I should see some noticeable improvements to my game in that time.

I'll be resuming play at 25nl when I start back tomorrow and will drop down to 16nl @ $800. I'm also gonna set myself a pretty stupid goal for this month and say that I'm gonna play 250k hands before the month's over. That works out to be 10k hands a day for 25 straight days. I'll be updating daily for the duration of this challenge with hands and progress. Wish me luck, feel like I'll need it

GL! Subbed!

Cheers mate.

Right, so I was trying to work out a schedule last night and it's gonna be pretty much impossible to play 250k hands in 25 days given my other commitments. This will make it all the more satisfying when I do it

6-8 hours sleep
1.5 hours for food (conservative as I only really eat out)
2 hours training (An hour cardio first thing in the morning and then a weights session in the afternoon)
1 hour+ Coaching
And then my brother (who's old place I've moved into) runs a boxing gym with which he'd like me to help of an evening on weekdays (6-9). Granted this isn't compulsory but given that he's helped me out quite a bit I feel a little obligated. So another 3 hours on weekdays

So this totals 13.5 - 15.5 hours a day, leaving me 8.5 - 10.5 hours a day to play 10+ hours of poker, assuming nothing else needs to be done (highly unlikely). I also haven't included the arbitary things like showering, travelling, updating this and having any sort of life

I'm not gonna give up on a challenge before I've even started it so I'll go ahead as planned regardless. I'll have to mix in a couple of days a week where I get less sleep and then skive off with helping out at the gym a few days a week too. Got my cardio workout out of the way this morning, just finished breakfast and getting ready to fire up some tables. Haven't played in over a week so hopefully I'm not too rusty. Here goes....

Good luck!



Just bought this in case I see you need motivation

That's a busy schedule!! In and GL!

Hey buddy,
Had a look at those hands, tbh they are played very poorly and don't consider ranges. You need to learn more, do some off the table work. Not just get in when you think your best, this will help you once you get to higher stakes. Shoot me a pm...

Can you be a little bit more specific. Saying I played the hands poorly and nothing else isn't really that helpful. Also, most of the hands I post are either funny ones or hands that I myself think I played poorly. Of course they consider ranges lol but again, you'll have to be more specific. Got a real dislike for such negative, condescending criticism. Either make it constructive or keep it to yourself please.

Tell me about it. It's gonna be a struggle, especially if stuff keeps popping up in the day and eating into my poker time Thanks and thanks

Thanks, might need it

Day 1 of 25 day challenge:

Hands: 5591
Profit: $77.94

Had something unexpected come up which took 3 hours, hence the ****ty day 1. Can't afford to be having 5k hand days if I'm to get anywhere near the target so I'll have to either get up earlier or go to bed later over the coming days to catch up a bit. It's gone 1am here and I'm falling asleep already so I've just wrapped up for the day. Bit of an up and down session tonight. Started just autopiloting for the last 1-2k hands and this is reflected in my redline on the graph for the day. Did my usual +5 BI's -> -5 BI's and tiltbreaker kicked me off. Pleased with how I played in the morning though. All in all, not bad for my first day back after my weeks break. 3Bets looking much better at just under 10% over the last 5k hands so the work I've been putting in there is paying off. Probably gonna play lots of little sessions tomorrow with short breaks in between because I have a tendancy to lose concentration after 2-3 hours and end up just playing robotic breakeven poker. Sorry for the essay See y'all tomorrow.

BR: 976.79
SC: 2856

Hey buddy,
Sorry I wrote this on my phone and it may have sounded a bit blunt haha. At the bottom of my message i said PM me. I was in a similar spot to you a few years ago and want to shoot you through some pointers and materials for you to get a hold of.

No worries mate it just hit a bit of a nerve. I've beaten 10nl and 16nl over 200k hands in less than a month and am now beating 25nl. I see you play alot higher so you're obviously a lot more clued up than me and are probably lol'ing at this, I just felt a bit insulted regarding the comment about me needing to think about ranges. If you look through my posts I'm quite a bit further along than you gave me credit for, albeit still pretty awful vs regs at higher stakes. I basically read your initial post as "you're bad, you don't understand how ranges work, you need to study". Whether or not I'm bad is subjective and to you that may well be the case. However, I've put in over a hundred study hours in the last couple of months alone, many of those with an experienced coach who plays much higher and all of this is documented in this thread. I apologise for biting anyway. I'm just working really ****ing hard and it hurt my ego a bit for someone to imply that I'm not. Thanks for replying.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Tried to pm you also but it seems you have them turned off.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Day 2 of 25:


Hands: 3648 (lol)
Profit: -142.65

Not a great day today, felt really unmotivated for some reason. Thought it would be a good idea to increase the tables from 4 to 6 and whilst it was alot more managable than I'd thought it'd be, my 3b and redline dropped too significantly for it to be viable at the moment. Definitely something I'll be looking to do in the future considering today wasn't a complete disaster but now certainly isn't the time

Anyway, C gamed away a few stacks over the course of my second session and took a couple of hours to chill out. I think it's really important to have a schedule and most of my sloppy play and C game sessions are a result of me not having much of one. Pretty disappointing day but it got me thinking and I've got something I'm gonna try out over the next few weeks.

Gonna adopt a night time schedule because I know for certain that post 11pm I'll have 0 distractions or reasons to avoid playing. This way I can set a more rigid routine and not be so affected by things that pop up during the day. Also, I worked nights for a good few years and one thing that struck me was how many more hours there seemed to be in the day. I think the reason behind this is that your free time is leading up to your shift starting as oppose to the other way around. Maybe I'm just talking BS but either way I'm gonna give it a go.

So, the new un-****able shcedule is as follows:

12pm-1pm - Get up, eat and get myself sorted
1pm-5pm - Session 1 (including 1 hour coaching)
5pm-10pm - Free time (workout, food etc..)
10pm-1am - Session 2
1am-1.30am - Short break
1.30am-4.30am - Session 3
4.30am-12pm - 7.5 hours sleep

I've always thought I play worse at nights so this might be a terrible idea but I think most of that comes from me being high, tired and on the back end of a 10 hour losing session by the time night comes. This schedule is also only 9 hours of playing per day and given the current hands p/h I'm getting is probably only gonna work out to about 8k hands per day. Still, this is actually doable and will help to ease some of the pressure. I'll still keep the challenge as is cos it'll be interesting to see how close I get and how realistic my expectations were. Gonna be a bum and skive off for the rest of tonight, watch some videos, drink loads of red bull and try and stay awake until 4.30am-> Will be up bright and early tomorrow afternoon at 12pm to get this (4 table) show underway!

Thought I'd do a mini update and shame myself because the short session I just played was utterly appauling. Was just spewing off stacks/half stacks for no apparent reason and lost almost 6 BI's in 500 hands LOL. Annoyed at myself but it's getting boring now and I need to sort this **** out before I end up breaking over the next 300k hands too. Gonna revisit Jared's The Mental Game Of Poker and try and incorporate some of the techniques. Not expecting it to work miracles but it can't hurt to try. Also gonna revert back to the rules on sticky notes for now just to keep me on the straight and narrow in certain spots that I tend to spazz out on. And thirdly, and finally, I'm jumping back to 16'z for a bit because I feel like the jump in the size of the pots is affecting me for sure. And also because I'm not rolled for 25 anymore Will start shot taking again as and when I can play an hour without spewing off a stack. Might be a while

For now my focus is to stick to the schedule and to get in the volume, play my A game or the closest to it I can manage and of course to avoid tilting.

Day 3 of 25:

Hands: 5649
Profit: -67.40

I actually played the full schedule today (minus half hour tilt break) and got in just under 9 hours. I was only playing 2 tables for the first couple of hours, hence the low hand count. Didn't start playing until around 11pm last night so added an extra hour on to make it up and crawled into bed about 6am(ish). Feels quite good grinding of a night, even better I'm sure once once I get used to the new sleeping pattern. Anyway, as mentioned in my previous post I played like a prick to start the day. Dropped back down to 16 and played alot better for the most part. Played kinda LAGgy but not spew LAGgy. Was trying to concentrate and apply pressure in the right spots. Made a few bad river calls as a result but they were outweighed by the good one (today at least). Off to a late start again today but I'll begin an hour earlier tonight to make it up. Hopefully we can get in the 9k hands today...

Max Value

Gonna end this 25 day challenge before it gets any more depressing lol. Barely played at all since last update. I ended up getting dragged out on Friday night, spent most of yesterday recovering and most of this morning regretting it. So I'm gonna go back to splitting my poker time between playing and studying rather than trying to get in loads of volume. I'm a little disappointed, I didn't think I'd burn out so easily but clearly 2 months of grinding with barely any days off has taken its toll on me. This thread's becoming a bit bipolar Not sure how many times I've said one thing and done another but it feels like alot. Anyway, rest assured that I'm doing my best to stay focused and improve and hopefully I'll look back on these 3 stagnant pages in the future and laugh.

Back to the grind