Road back to HS PLO
ABOUT ME:
My screenname is portemilio. I've been playing Poker since I was 16. I started off playing poker on Runescape gambling sites where you'd buy coins ingame which had a $ value and deposit them on runescape poker sites. I found myself obsessed with the game since I was young. I specifically loved the HU format. At 16 i ran up 100$ to 20k when BTC was around 1.4k playing 6 max and 9max nlhe but ultimately got destroyed headsup because i lacked a lot of discipline and had major ego issues wanting to be the best. I always wanted to be the best and would get extremely angry when dealing with variance on top of the fact that I was an unstudied player. In college I transitioned to PLO. I got staked and coached but I wasn't winning no matter how hard I tried because of my serious BRM issues. I'd run up a couple of thousand dollars then instantly shot take 5/10 and lose it all and then go back to the lowest stakes to rebuild, rinse, and repeat. My senior year of college I decided I really wanted to give it my all. In class I'd bring my laptop and drill spots and this was the first form of studying I'd ever experienced (other than hundreds of hours of youtube videos and poker content that I consume). I significantly saw a change in my game. I've always been a highly intuitive player but with the baseline theory I developed I quickly skyrocketed though the ranks. I still had really poor mental game and not great BRM but I was able to run up my first 30k ish month in April of 2022. Unfortunately, I lost it all back shot taking 10/20 on ACR (very commend trend in my poker career). I had to take6 a fifth year of college because of a couple of other reasons but I always knew I was going to end up being a poker player. I dreaded school and felt it was the reason I wasn't succeeding because I still had to commit so many hours to school (studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Fluid Mechanics). I come from an Arab household and poker was not accepted at all but that didn't deter me. My fifth year I had the same routine where I'd study in class and play countless hours when I was back. I was also gaming a lot (League) so i decided to cut that out because I figured it was a waste of time if I really wanted to succeed. After I graduated (May 2022) I moved to Lebanon where my parents lived. I finally had no obligations, nothing holding me back and barely any expenses. I devoted all my time to poker (literally 15h days). After 6 months playing 1/2 - 10/20 on mainly bovada and BOL I made roughly 170k in profits. My mental health really suffered. I longed for social interaction; I had none of my friends in Lebanon and I started to not care about poker anymore. My health declined heavily and I felt despite the fact that I was winning that there was a constant judgement surrounding what I was doing. Once I showed my parents how much money I was making they couldn't complain about the journey I was decided to take ( as much anyways) but they were still greatly against it. My biggest mistake came when I decided to shot take 10/20 on Bovada. I was absolutely crushing Betonline and Bovada midstakes for atleast 8bb/100 over a sample of 400k+ hands, but when I played 10/20 nothing I did worked. I got absolutely crushed. My mental game was very strong at this point and I wasn't disheartened, I just figured it was variance. I ended up losing 45 ish buy ins (90k) running 70k below EV. This was almost 2/3 of my roll. I had heard rumors about collusion and cheating rings going on at 10/20 Bovada but I just figured that was bad regs crying about losing because the same was being said about every stake that I was consistently beating. I will never know if I actually got cheated as I have no definitive proof but I highly highly suspect that I did. At this point despite convincing myself that the loss of the money didn't affect me in reality my play began to change because nothing I did was working so I thought i had to deviate. I ended up going to EPT Barcelona in 2023 because I felt the need to prove to myself and everyone that what I was doing was a real job. I had around 50k to my name. I ended up losing 20k there playing 25/50 live (brm issues started coming back I really began to chase what I lost). Once I returned back to the US, started paying rent I prolonged into a 4 month period of break even/losing. I really thought at the time I was playing well I dont know maybe it was variance but looking back at it I had basically given up. I was playing 3h a day max and not putting in any volume at all (20k hands/month max). I'm using this 2+2 thread to hold myself accountable. I'm not going to give up on poker because I know I truly have a talent. I'm at a crossroads right now because im 24 and have little to no job experience so If I want to get a real 9-5 I'd really have to start looking now. I have a couple interviews with some investment banks just to appease my parents but it isn't something I'm taking seriously. On top of that it's really hard to explain to friends and family the journey I've been on because they don't understand variance at all. I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes I definetly did, but to lose that amount of money is definetly gut wrenching I finally made it and saw it gone at the blink of an eye. I have a lot of fuel in me now and I'm ready to play atleast 50k hands/month. I'm not going to let anyone pressure me or feel the need to prove to anyone (online or IRL) that what I'm doing is valid, I'm just going to do it. It may get lonely but this is truly what I love and I know i will get rewarded.
I'm going to attach this month's results. I had very little money to my name, I moved to my uncles house where I'm paying no rent and felt a lot less pressure on my bankroll. I started at .5/1 and 1/2 and slowly started to shot take 2/5 and very little 5/10 volume. I played almost 72k hands this month, which is the most volume I've ever put in in a month in my life. Attached is the graph. Eventually when I fix my old computer I'll export the DB to my new one and merge them. I will be posting interesting hands and lines I play here as well as weekly-monthly updates. I want to hold myself accountable no matter what and am interested to hear people's thoughts. I only have the last two months of my play tracked I'll post them shortly as I had to buy a new computer
GL ME!
my honest opinion- you're very good but do the airball and make a ton from finance and come bac to poker when you're set for life (y)
if i had any finance experience i would. im the type of person i have a lot of trouble getting into something but once im in, im in. i wouldnt even know where to start. ive never had a real job lol. i do have a degree though atleast and i am still relatively young (25 now) but i wouldnt want to get in a job that pays 60k considering my 0 business experience unless i got an MBA or something
my honest opinion- you're very good but do the airball and make a ton from finance and come bac to poker when you're set for life (y)
if i had any finance experience i would. im the type of person i have a lot of trouble getting into something but once im in, im in. i wouldnt even know where to start. ive never had a real job lol. i do have a degree though atleast and i am still relatively young (25 now) but i wouldnt want to get in a job that pays 60k considering my 0 business experience unless
it's a double edged sword. on one side you're young, smart, capable etc. and poker isn't "going anywhere", you could snap up an MBA and work on becoming a finance guru and go from there, retire by 32 and have a most baller lifestyle. on the other side AI is here and most disciplines in the tech industry, if not all are going to succumb in the wake of its potential destruction. downside to your career choices is that both disciplines involve systems that can be manipulated by AI, upside is that most industries have measures in place by the very programmers who developed AI, working on it's resolution and its absorbtion of any negative volatility.
skip to the end: you're in a strong position - talk it through with your family and make the highest lifeEV decision you can and don't look back. it's easy to avoid mistakes in hindsight but given the option of choice, both are good decisions - I'm sure you'll pick the right one. don't do what you think is good for the short term, work on long term strategies to improve your life.
also l2paragraph and get some exercise kid <3
not much traction going slow progress but we'll get back to unstucko soon. had a good day yday that i didnt add to the graph yday as well. i was just playing too many tables when i went on the downswing and wasnt thinking properly about each spot kinda went into auto pilot think thats why i lost so much so fast, also was playing hu while playing 6m. so cutting down on hu and sticking to 3-4 and i should be good.
with the downswing i lost like 30-40 bis in the span of 3k hands which was pretty qu
I can relate to playing too many tables, especially heads up tables while playing 6 max, pure money/time burner imo. Been having problems with my ego lately, hold tables on all sites and when reg sits I feel forced to battle and prove myself, pretty ******ed stuff. Worst thing about auto piloting and button clicking is knowing you would never have lost those buyins if you were fresh, thinking properly, exc. Hard rules on amount of tables allowed and hours played per session is magic.
almost back :O
it's a double edged sword. on one side you're young, smart, capable etc. and poker isn't "going anywhere", you could snap up an MBA and work on becoming a finance guru and go from there, retire by 32 and have a most baller lifestyle. on the other side AI is here and most disciplines in the tech industry, if not all are going to succumb in the wake of its potential destruction. downside to your career choices is that both disciplines involve systems that can be manipulated by AI, upside is that m
how does getting an mba turn me into a finance guru, id probably still play poker while getting my mba but what would be the next step? i also feel like i would just stick with poker but i wanna do more for sure as a just incase
im not sure pursuing an MBA is an optimal step to take ‘just incase’, seems like a bad use of resources most importantly time
invest all of into poker or maybe generating passive income if poker is what you think you will stick with anyways imho
good luck dude
im not sure pursuing an MBA is an optimal step to take ‘just incase’, seems like a bad use of resources most importantly time
invest all of into poker or maybe generating passive income if poker is what you think you will stick with anyways imho
good luck dude
Agreed, best chance of succes is to burn the ships and not look back. Dude is clearly talented and poker ain’t going anywhere.
tough spot overall on every street.
270bb effective i 3b tt99 ss and he calls. flop i cb 2/3 ish he calls. turn im pretty much checking range here and he tank bets 3/4. its annoying cuz he doesnt really have bluffs, his bluffs mostly come from high equity hands. especially this opponent specifically. so check jamming and leaving 1k sucks but check calling also sucks. anyways i pot turn this time and he tank tank calls. riv i pretty much decided im checking almost every river except a brick. i check and he snap pots ip. i guess i fold. he tanked flop and turn pretty heavily and decides to snap jam river ip he prob has it but these types of spots are weird
I’m not a HU reg, but I dabble.
Do we really have to CB our hand here when we can’t tripple any runouts and can’t bet - call our hand?
I would XC
I like bet folding other typ of hands with better blockers and less equity/playabilty on later streets.
As played I like betting our hand. I get that our range needs to do a lot of checking. But not as much checking as when multiple straights get there on (T,9,Q)
We unblock spades, diamonds and all the pairs/2pair/sets that is calling in his range. Also most of these hands are checking back and like you said we can’t XR our hand without any added redraws.
When XC turn I like XF river.
tough spot overall on every street.
270bb effective i 3b tt99 ss and he calls. flop i cb 2/3 ish he calls. turn im pretty much checking range here and he tank bets 3/4. its annoying cuz he doesnt really have bluffs, his bluffs mostly come from high equity hands. especially this opponent specifically. so check jamming and leaving 1k sucks but check calling also sucks. anyways i pot turn this time and he tank tank calls. riv i pretty much decided im checking almost every river except a brick. i ch
I like X/C flop as we do not want to B/F this combo, especially with the double pair in our hand. This combo seems like the nut combo to X/C turn as well to protect our range, but more importantly as you stated we do not push equity vs IP get in range. As played of course folding is fine but I like X/C, X/C, decide on river.( probably pure fold when front door FD completes and mix when back door FD completes. I do not use hud or give to much effort into timing tells so I just rng these spots.
unstucko! graph tmr
dec graph:
Travelling to india for the holidays until Jan 6th. Likely won't be playing a lot, if any. Probably just gonna rest and enjoy my time exploring. Definetly a little nervous because everytime i take a break I come back rusty etc but who knows maybe this time it will be good for me. Im bringing my laptop with me just in case but i doubt ill have the time to play. Happy holidays boys!
nice bro enjoy India and the food! <3
Don't you think you have many leaks in your game with this redline? Just wonder ��
Thats a misbelief, only line that matters is green. (Though, EV line is most important for long term)
2 players can play in the same pool and have completely different red with similar winrate.
I lose with red even with 20bb wr.
Im good at getting max value with my good hands, other guy is better at equity denial and call downs. Lines depend on so many factors.
Players can even learn from same sources, but still develop different personal styles.
Thats a misbelief, only line that matters is green. (Though, EV line is most important for long term)
2 players can play in the same pool and have completely different red with similar winrate.
I lose with red even with 20bb wr.
Im good at getting max value with my good hands, other guy is better at equity denial and call downs. Lines depend on so many factors.
Players can even learn from same sources, but still develop different personal styles.
agreed. funnily enough every month i have a winning red line im losing. players in the pool just call down a lot so pretty low ev in bluffing in the games im playing. a lot of the downswing from this month came from "redlining". just play solid and win is better than caring about losing red line. my redline has always been on a downwards trend but my wr has always been high
I had a quick 40 minute gym session today did bus and tris and light cardio. ****ing felt fantastic. First session this month and I’m excited to get back into that grind when I’m back. Also excited to get back into better eating habits I still have been eating like **** this month and once I start working out that’s gonna go with it naturally
I had a quick 40 minute gym session today did bus and tris and light cardio. ****ing felt fantastic. First session this month and I’m excited to get back into that grind when I’m back. Also excited to get back into better eating habits I still have been eating like **** this month and once I start working out that’s gonna go with it naturally
Ya diet plays a huge role for me in life and poker. If I eat like shot I feel and play like ****. Recently added walking treadmill to my work desk…I think probably one of best things I’ve gone in a long time.
Hello happy new year! Can we have 2024 graph bro please? How many hh? 6 number $?
Goals for 2025?
Will post an update when i return from my holidays on jan 6/7 dont have access to my PC rn
Do you use a hud while playing? How important do you think it is on a site like ignition where most of the time you will only get a small sample on your opponent each session?
