I'm curious, how far do some of you here want to take poker? I know Fishtankz is playing professionally. What do all of the rest of you have in mind, what are your goals?

Semi pro. I work at part time job and need overtime for it to be a good wage.
It's a stable job though.

I do make ok money(nothing huge, but ok for what my expenses are) from live games though to add to my wage.

Also have a coach who is aware of what I want to achieve.

I want to have fun with it. I might end up playing professionally in the next 2-3 months for a short period (less than a year), but I don't want to do that for long. If I ever stop enjoying poker, I'll stop playing.

Get good at it, and make money on the side of uni. If I get very good, might take max 1 year off and grind full time for a short period, or take 1 year after uni.

Don't think I will ever play professionally for long period, got to the party a bit too late.

No ambition on my side to go pro or even semi-pro. Personally I'd like to make sure I can take down my donk friends when we play every couple of weeks & the 1 time a year I make it out to a casino, sit and play a competent game instead of spewing cash.

Never too late

I'll play until it stops being fun for me. That might be in a year's time, or it might be next week. There's also a reasonable chance that a new Black Friday comes along and makes the decision for us all. #PessimisticPenguin

Disagree, online NLHE will be dead soon but not so soon that pros don't get a CV gap.

Yeah kinda agree with TDA but think we can still go like 2-4 years.

After that I'll prob start clicking buttons at PLO.

I'm only playing this summer professionally. Will have to see what I do afterwards.
It's been really tough so far. Too many downswings and no upswings.
But maybe there is a big reward in the end. Maybe next time I have an upswing, it will be a huge one.

wrt. games dying. There are still plenty of bad players at mid stakes. On some sites it's not about who's the best, it's about who can afford to play the stake. You would be surprised by the amount of leaks people have at 400. Obviously I suck twice as hard, but you get the point.
i.e some players I have a lot of respect for only have 6% 3-bet.
But yeah NLHE is getting closer to solved. People will still misapply the information and not everyone has time to really put in the hours to work on their game.

Haven't played for a couple of years but decided to get back in the game.

Deposited $600 on stars for PLO25 a few days ago.



+ $100 from before I checked to save hand-histories.
+ $320 from clearing deposit bonus
+ $100 Vip stellar rewards
+ ~$125 in FPP value

Going to take shots at PLO50 when I get $200 in fpp's assuming I don't start losing too much over the next days.

I'm finished with poker... for now.
I just finished clearing a quarterly points bonus thing and I traditionally spend July watching almost every minute of the Tour de France, so I'm taking a month off. (Games are usually pretty dead in mid-summer anyway).
I'm sure I'll still post occasionally, but I feel like I've overdosed on poker a bit so need a break. Good luck to all!

vs nit, thoughts?

iPoker - €2 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: €200.00 (VPIP: 26.10, PFR: 19.85, 3Bet Preflop: 9.52, Hands: 277)
UTG: €231.70 (VPIP: 25.79, PFR: 19.77, 3Bet Preflop: 7.32, Hands: 1,504)
CO: €211.60 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 30)
Hero (BTN): €297.35
SB: €226.85 (VPIP: 23.44, PFR: 17.23, 3Bet Preflop: 4.27, Hands: 608)

SB posts SB €1.00, BB posts BB €2.00

Pre Flop: (pot: €3.00) Hero has 9 9

fold, fold, Hero raises to €4.00, SB raises to €14.00, fold, Hero calls €10.00

Flop: (€30.00, 2 players) 7 6 T
SB bets €15.00, Hero raises to €44.00, SB raises to €81.00, Hero calls €37.00

Turn: (€192.00, 2 players) 6
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (€192.00, 2 players) 8
SB bets €131.85, Hero ????

Hope to see you still posting around here Arty.

I'm kind of torn between taking a break right now myself. I've made enough money from the game to invest in a nice custom built PC which I could really use. Then since I'm in my last year of Uni, I could concentrate on school and programming for my major. On the other hand I'm the furthest I've ever been in poker (bounced back from my downswing) and could see myself continuing to climb the ladder. I see a lot of fish playing midstakes on my site. The game takes so much of my time though. I could always withdraw now and come back later when I'm making a big boy salary so I can hop right back where I left, but I'm not sure what to do.

@fishtankz
Why raise flop when his range is so strong here? You think he is betting AKs/AQs? If he's a nit he most likely has TT+ which won't fold. If he's bluffing with AK/AQ I would let him keep trying to bluff. I think rivers a fold here.

@Fish

Kinda like it. Obviously snapping river. Think V can have too many slowplays for raising to be max EV.

Mind games vs nits.
He knows that I know that his range is strong. I'm very likely getting barreled into, so I risk similar amount by raising if villain has AA. If villain is one of those players betting 90% on the turn, then I risk less.
So I'm just experimenting an aggressive semi-bluff. Some nits play with a scared mindset, some nits are stations with big hands.
Snap calling? TT and 76s are 5 combos, so need like 2-3 bluff combos. vs nit could be a case for a big fold. But nits don't play GTO, they can randomly spew off a BI while they are waiting for AA. I don't know what hands he would min 3-bet the flop with and then bluff river. Even with 76s he shouldn't raise that small. Same with sets and overpairs. So maybe there are some FD bluffs.

I'm gonna drop down to 100nl. Way too stressful to play any higher. Should not have taken my recent shots, lost 3.5k pre-RB Profitable month turned into losing one.
Will be playing at 100, games will be more simple, won't be the end of the world if some bluff catches fail etc.

Jumped into some 50nl games today (probably a bad idea since I'm only rolled for 20nl). Turns out these games are super soft on my site, ended up winning like 5 buy ins. A lot of this play pool is at 100nl too. Makes it tempting to stick with poker since I feel like there is decent money to be made. I'm afraid that if I ever got the opportunity to play on PS I would be behind the curve because my site is so soft.

If you're only rolled for 20nl then set a stop loss.. variance can be a bitch and you don't want tilt+variance come into play when you're underrolled.

Yeah don't be a donkey like me who doesn't follow BRM.
It's not fun when the losing days hit.

Holy **** Fishtankz playing 200NL ! I remember when we both played 5NL haha.

Yeah I'm all too familiar with variance...


I was 1 tabling while playing a few 20nl tables. Worked out well as I'm half way to being rolled for 50nl. I was just surprised at how weak those games are on my site. Even at 100nl the players are weak it seems.

I decided to withdraw all of my money to buy a new pc. I want to be able to concentrate on my last year of school and I know I won't be able to while I'm playing poker. I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at in the game - when I first started I couldn't even beat 2nl.

Stick around this time IMO

Haha this time I will ! How you doing ? Has the good run come around?

I won about 6k at 100NL in a pretty short space of time so I'd say so.

damn