Make Poker Great Again
Hey everyone,
My name is Matt I am 24 years old from Canada. My goal is to document my journey from mid stakes to high stakes and show that you still can make money and move up the stakes in 2019!
Background
I have been playing poker since I was probably 16-17. So probably around 2010-2011. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up. I just knew I wanted to be rich. I saw people on TV making millions of dollars playing poker and thought it looked fun and I liked math so I could do that.
After a couple years of not having much success, playing on and off, experimenting with all types of games and strategies, depositing with prepaid visas since I wasn’t 18 yet to be legal or have my own credit card, I was fortunate to find a group of somewhat successful MTT players on Two Plus Two. I started to work with them and this is when I first started to take poker seriously. As you can see from my sharkscope the end of 2013-2014 was pretty good playing micro mtts.
https://www.sharkscope.com/#Player-Stati...
Unfortunately, around 2014 because of University and some other businesses I was working on, I wasn’t able to put the time into MTT’s anymore like I wanted. So I had to take a break from taking poker seriously. I still played poker every other week at the local casino because I loved the game and always stayed connected with what was going on in the poker world. I just wasn’t trying to get better or make money at that time.
Finally, in the fall of 2017 I decided I wanted to take poker seriously again. Now that my businesses were off the ground and running smoothly, I had a lot more time on my hands. Although this time I wanted to play cash games instead of MTT'S because I could still have that freedom I desired.
I knew I couldn’t do it on my own and I needed a coach or course, so I started with buying Upswing. I thought it was a good framework to start to construct a basic default game plan, but I knew that if I wanted to reach high stakes I needed to learn more, so I applied to a few CFP’s and I got accepted to one on December 2017.
I worked with them up until the summer of 2018. With them I was able to work my way up to 50z, but then couldn't seem to beat that limit. Since I couldn't beat that limit I started changing a bunch of things in my game and ended up not being able to beat 25z anymore. It was unfortunate because I loved the guys at the CFP, but at 50z we were supposed to get 1 on 1 coaching and since they were in Vegas I never got any coaching for 3 months. That is why we mutually agreed to part ways.
Shortly after that instead of a joining another CFP I decided to get hourly coaching from a few different coaches with different styles. I didn’t always agree or get along with all of them, but I did learn something.
I’ve taken all the information I’ve learned over the past year and made my own. I also started to connect and work with some other players at my stakes. Since the summer I have been able to win again and last month I took my first shot at 100z.
Current Results
Just this week I hit my first 100k hands at 100nl. I am not crushing by any means and I still have a lot to work on, but I am happy with my start.
What To Expect
I want to start this thread to document my journey from mid stakes to hopefully one day high stakes. I want to show that you still can make money and move up the stakes in 2019. Is it as lucrative as it once was? No, but that doesn’t mean poker is dead. I feel like there is a lot of negativity in the community and not enough positive success stories.
Strategy/Philosophy
Everyone asks should you play “GTO” or should you play exploitative. In my opinion, this is a flawed question because we don’t yet know true GTO and even if we did as humans it will be impossible to implement. I think the question that should be asked is should we play like PIO vs PIO or use node locked strategies. When I first started playing cash games again my goal was to learn “GTO” as best as I could. When I say GTO I mean PIO vs PIO. I thought if I could do that I will never lose and I will win by default. I quickly realized that it’s impossible to remember how PIO plays on every board and even if i did if you change the ranges or bet size parameters PIO’s strategy will change. So instead of copying PIO what I do is get an idea of how PIO vs PIO would play in a spot. Then I compare that to how I believe population or an individual player is playing. If I think they are playing like PIO I will try my best to play like PIO in that spot. If I don’t think they are playing like PIO (Which is most of the time) I will node lock and use that strategy as my default strategy. If you understand how solvers work you will understand that this is the highest EV play and the true “GTO” solution for that spot. Not PIO vs PIO. So my style is exploitative, but it is actually what is theoretically correct.
Goals
My long term goal is to make as much money as I can over the next 3-5 years to reinvest into my businesses and hopefully into other business ventures in the future. I think for me this is the most realistic path to make a significant amount of money in that short period of time
My 2019 goal is to beat 200z over a significant sample and then start to play some higher stakes on softer sites.
I feel I have the right plan and a good group of friends to help me achieve this goal and I’m excited for a great 2019! Let’s make poker great again and show that the dream is still alive even if it's a bit different than it was before! 😀
This is true. sadly he still should play where he makes the most money XD
Nice results man gz on the year! Is the rakeback you get on gg an exclusive rakeback deal or is it just their standard system?
January Update
Still on the 1k downswing...
PokerStars:
Party:
GG:
Total was -$10804.33 + $12763.36 ($11588.36 GG $1000 PS $175 Party) = +$1,959.03
Other
Not much else to say this month... Hopefully next month is better. I am due for a 20k+ month 😃 It has been awhile...
February Update:
I thought we were back! But then half way through the month it turned out we were not back at all lol.
PokerStars:
Party:
GG:
Total was -$8938.20 + $21983.46 ($20268.46 GG $1250 PS $465 Party) = +$13045.26
Last March & April were my best months last year... Just saying...
March Update:
Still can not seem to win at 1k or on GG this year even with rakeback 😃
All Sites:
PokerStars:
Party:
GG:
Total was -$22,440.50 + $20501.96 ($18,505.46 GG $1750 PS $246.50 Party) = -$1938.54
Off to Vegas for two weeks. Going to play some live. There will be some fun mixed in, of course. It will be my cousin's birthday this weekend, so we have some fun things planned, and then the following week, I have to go for a day or two to ISC West, a security conference for my business. I was hoping for some run good before then, but what can you do!
April Update
Still not where I want to be, but at least I was able to recoup some of the Vegas costs!
All Sites:
PS:
GG:
Party:
Total was -$5690.76 + $11119.24 ($10255.24 GG $750 PS $114 Party) = +$5428.48
Vegas was a lot of fun for two weeks. I put in 30 hours of poker at mostly 5/10. Honestly, those games were not the best. 2/5 was a lot better. I started to play that towards the end. When I ran some sims, the difference between 5/10 timed rake and 2/5 at 10% 1bb wasn't that big at all. So, for that time of year, that was probably the play.
It was my cousin's 25th birthday, and we celebrated that by getting bottle service three nights in a row, lol. The best night was at Omnia when Tiësto was there. We went to a bunch of good restaurants; my favorite being Carbone. Prime at Bellagio was a close second. We went to the Grand Canyon on a helicopter tour, to a gun range, and checked out the Sphere. The Sphere was pretty overrated. I wouldn’t really recommend it. Overall, it was a good time and a nice break from online.
I meant to do a quarterly update last month, but since I was leaving on the first, I was in a rush to update the thread and forgot to add it.
Here are the combined results for the first four months:
All Sites:
PS:
104039 Hands
+$26657.81 + $4750 (Rakeback)
=$0.302/Hand
GG:
188973 Hands
-$72222.70 + $60617.52 (Rakeback)
=-$0.061/Hand
Party:
37706 Hands
-$2308.90 + $1000.50 (Rakeback)
=-$0.04/Hand
Total:
+$18,494.23 or $.06/Hand
So far this year, I am pretty disappointed in my results, especially at 1k. Games are still really good (some might say the games are drying up, but I disagree), so I feel like I should be doing a lot better. Compared to last year, I was averaging $0.16 per hand across all sites: $0.13 on GG, $0.17 on PS, and $0.28 on Party. It's likely that my 1k results are dragging this down quite a bit, and it doesn't help that I am way under EV. Hitting a BBJ would help too 😃
About two months or so until I likely go to Vegas again for a week during the WSOP. I plan to really focus and try to do my best, and hopefully, this next quarter will be back to expectation.
May Update
This month was ok. I took a week and a half off in Florida, which resulted in a lower volume than usual. Interestingly, I had better luck at the 1k tables but ended up losing at the 500 tables. The opposite of the usual this year.
All Sites:
PS:
Party:
GG:
Total was +2759.24 + $11710.67 ($11110.67 GG $500 PS $100 Party) = +$14469.91
I decided to go to Vegas next month for a week around July 4th. I probably won't play in the Main Event this year, but I love being there and seeing some friends. The FOMO is real right now!
I said I was unlikely to play the Main this year but....
Good luck in Main sir and spend some good time at Vegas 😀
June Update
Crazy month. One of the worst runs I've ever had. It is what it is. It's funny because I said I wouldn't complain about running under EV if I won the main event seat. But then it seems I got punished for it 😃 As long as I save the good run for the main event, I will take it!
All Sites:
PokerStars:
Party:
GG:
Total was -$12839.57 + $20622.04 ($18872.04 GG $1500 PS $250 Party) = +$7782.47
Quarterly Update:
This quarter was better than the first, but this year has been rough EV wise
All Sites:
-$15771.09 + $43,451.95(Rakeback) = $27,680.86
PokerStars:
+$8188.21 + $2750 (Rakeback) = +$10,938.21
Party:
+$8188.21 + $464 (Rakeback) = +$6,131.28
GG:
-$29626.58 + $40237.95 (Rakeback) = +$10,611.37
Halfway through the year, it's a bit disappointing. It's tough because if I ran at EV, it would be slightly better than last year, especially at 1k. Hopefully, things will turn around soon, and I can end the year strong, ideally before we potentially go back to ROW. Rumors suggest it could be sometime in early 2025 after a November vote. A GG BJJ would help too. Hopefully, it starts with the main event next week!
u guys seeing this, op runs terrible at poker and his worst month is still +7k
I bet there's plenty of 1k regs struggling to win 7k in their best months these days :rofl
What is a good win rate for gg ontario though? Are almost all regs breaking even/slightly losing and just making piles off rakeback?
+7k is pretty bad in ontario tbf 😉. 27k over 6 months for his stakes is pretty much despair
also in canadian :(
u guys seeing this, op runs terrible at poker and his worst month is still +7k
I bet there's plenty of 1k regs struggling to win 7k in their best months these days :rofl
27k % 6 = 4.5k avg. Ontario poker is just different. there are nl50 grinders making more then nl1k row grinders. it helps alot that they dont have pvi so we pretty much get 2008 supernova elite rakeback
Jumped to find where the switch to Ontario happened
" but the whole Ontario Online Poker thing https://pokerfuse.com/online-gaming/...g... has really demotivated me. Obviously there are still some sites I will likely be able to play. I am just having a tough time justifying studying when I don't know what the future holds. It's funny you think this would never happen to your country/area and then overnight everything changes. Some people say an Ontario only site will be good because there are a lot of recs from Ontario. But let's be honest ring fencing countries/areas is never a good thing."
😃
good shiz
I thought the same thing, I was pissed that my 25zoom was gone, turns out Ontario seg turned me into a pro inadvertently
+7k is pretty bad in ontario tbf 😉. 27k over 6 months for his stakes is pretty much despair
also in canadian :(
What is your point? No BBJ hit, and over 30k in EV, most of which is at 1k and 2k.
I am happy to make a bet with whoever you pick playing 50NL max that I will make double what they make for the rest of the year. I hope it is you..
wtf are you talking about. you said you ran bad I was explaining that to someone who suggested you didn't run bad. but tbh I might be interested in that bet in the future altho im taking a couple months off.
Its not like we cant see what you made before that to know its way below average. I know this is quite below. I know of the variance
also I did the math wrong thinking it was a half year result update and not a quarterly. who does quarterly's wtf. you had never done a quarterly
who give the deets not calling out cheaters is what they want.
Playing only on stars is certainly a choice I knew who you were from looking at the lobbys a couple times
who give the deets not calling out cheaters is what they want.
Playing only on stars is certainly a choice I knew who you were from looking at the lobbys a couple times
You must not play on stars very often cause everyone knows who he is already but that's a good point. Baal_enci_aga13
oh I'm literally the person who caught him cheating fyi. I trolled him into posting his graph in discord and he posted a datamined hand sample and quickly deleted it after 5-10 seconds but not before I took the screenshot and gave it to people who reported him. datamining's bad but way more worse cheaters in Ontario then him tbh. The good cheats dont get caught :(
I only play on wsop because its way better if your playing mass volume unless your average stake is like 1k then you just play all 3 like roberts
