Journey of a Thousand Miles: 1/2 to High Stakes

Another session. 4 hours, slightly longer. Playing well and running good. Will post interesting hand history later

Hours played:
10/1000

Profit:
730

Add 6 hours and 250 in profit to the totals. Really happy with how I'm playing, especially with disciplined folds.

HH1: 300 effective
I raise LJ to 10 with AhKs
HJ 3-bets to 30, CO cold 4-bets to 75, I fold. In game I thought that AKo was 0 EV in theory (just checked am right), and with CO very likely underbluffing this is just a fold

HH2: 400 effective
I raise UTG 9-handed to 10 with QhQs
BTN - reg suspected on the slightly tighter side - 3-bets to 25, I call.

Flop: JhTh2d (Pot 53)
I check, BTN bets 25, I call

Turn: 3s (Pot 103)
I check, BTN bets 50 , I fold, they show aces.

I knew this was a call preflop UTG vs BTN and I'm really glad I found the call here instead of mindlessly 4-betting to get it in because "queens are a 4-bet hand" or some other nonsense. Also the 3-bet is likely underbluffed so even easier call compared to raise pre. I think calling the flop is a no-brainer as they can easily barrel with AK, AQ, the occasional AJ or KJ (although I doubt these show up too often in the 3-bet range vs UTG) and the other QQ. By the turn I find it hard to believe we beat any value, and I think in a 3-bet pot this is going to be underbluffed. Anyone have thoughts on the fold?

Hours played:
16/1000
Profit:
980

In terms of my goals for the first week (1 Jan to 5 Jan), here is how I went:

Week 1 Goals:
sleep at least 8 hours every night 3/5 - NYE screwed me for one of the nights
2400 calories/day of food - averaged 2300, no day above 2450
Gym/weightlifting at least 4 times - went 3 times
15 hours of poker play - 16 hours played
Note down all unsure/interesting hands to study later - did somewhat but often hard to note down full hand details
Review other identified study areas - will continue to review preflop first, in particular studying any solutions I can find that involve larger raise sizes so I can adapt better to population tendencies

I would call week 1 a success. Not all goals were fully achieved but progress has been made in all areas and I feel ready to keep going.

Now, on to week 2:
Jan 6 to Jan 12
I will be going camping with friends and thus occupied on Monday, Tuesday so goals have been designed around that, in reducing a couple of gym and poker commitments

Week 2 Goals:
Sleep at least 8 hours each night - (Wednesday to Sunday only)
2300 avg. calories/day of food, at least 180g protein each day
Gym 4x in the week
15 hours of poker play
4 hours dedicated poker study, and search for potential coaching/course to buy to help with this in the future

This seems fairly reasonable to achieve in the 5 day span I will be present to do things.

I'm really happy with how I've been playing and my edge vs population - there are very few regs who I would consider "solid" players, and I feel really confident in potentially beating the game for over 10BB/hr in the long term. I acknowledge that I am way above that right now, very likely running way over EV/have an incredibly small sample size so very hard to gauge a true winrate - but it certainly is positive. As I play more and get accustomed to population as well as specific individual regs (and fish) I think I can push the winrate higher, and gain a real bankroll to move to 2/3 as quickly as possible.

+4 hours
+120 profit

Hours played:
20

Profit:
1100

This is for sure my true win rate and not just a temporary upswing lul. I haven't lots of coolers go my way or anything like that but also no coolers against me, bluffs have been working relatively effectively, no one has really put me in difficult decisions with bluff catchers in huge pots.

Hard to tell how much of this is because 1/2 players suck, I'm playing well or it's just lots of running good (I suspect both reasons 1 and 3 especially to be true).

Keep it rollin'!

Just curious if you are doing a lot of 3betting and how players are responding to 3bets at 1/2? Are you one of the more aggressive in your player pool?

Yes, I've been primarily playing 3-bet or fold preflop, even despite the games being time-raked so no effect on pot odds. When I do play lots of 3-bets it seems like players seem to drastically underfold and under 4-bet so it's great to just make it big with a strong, linear range, trying to avoid multiway hell and play heads up pots IP seems to be working great.

I would say I'm one of the more aggressive players in my pool, but I don't think my opponents would think that. It seems, from table chatter by other people, that they associate VPIPing and being loose a lot with being aggressive, and so instead they just put me in the "nit" category because I don't call a lot preflop. However, when I am playing a hand, I often find I am more aggressive, c-betting a very high frequency and making thin value bets.

Thanks for the support!

I spoke too soon...

KK under AA twice...

+3 hrs, -450 profit, lost everything I brought with me and was too tilted to rebuy and get back to playing

Hours played:
23

Profit:
650

+5 hours, +300 profit

Downswing over.

Hours played: 28

Profit: 950

+5 hours, +540 profit

Hours played: 33

Profit: 1490

Will update on goals and progress later in detail, but I can't be bothered rn

Week 2 Goals Recap:
Sleep at least 8 hours each night - achieved
2300 avg. calories/day of food, at least 180g protein each day - achieved
Gym 4x in the week - achieved
15 hours of poker play - yet to play sunday but already achieved
4 hours dedicated poker study - achieved

Week 3 Goals:
Sleep at least 8 hours each night
2250 avg. calories/day , at least 180g protein each day
Gym 5x in the week
20 hours of poker play
4 hours dedicated poker study

The first two weeks have gone very well, better than planned. No real hiccups so far, just have to keep on putting the hours in and churning out that winrate so I can move up stakes as quickly as possible. Also have been watching the cash game world championships on coinpoker, obv the games are ever so slightly different to my 1/2 game but hearing the way the regs are talking through hands is motivating me to keep studying and improving.

+6 hours, +90 profit

Hours played: 39

Profit: 1580

Nice hourly so far, even if this session was pretty stagnant and completely card-dead, with no major pots whatsoever. Let's keep it rolling.

One thing I do need to work on a little bit is tilt/discipline towards the end of my longer sessions that has prevented them from going even longer. In the first few hours I can happily fold low pocket pairs from EP without batting an eye, but closer to the end of sessions, things like 64s on the CO seem appealing, when in reality with the larger raise sizes of live low stakes they just aren't hence why I leave whenever this starts slipping into my game (although I still think I'm beating the game for a decent clip at this point despite the leak given how bad live 1/2 players are, it would certainly be for less, and I want to maintain self-control when it comes to only playing when I'm playing close to my best) . Will keep that in mind for the future, and perhaps devote some time to specifically address this, as over the long term it allows me to play longer sessions, and maintain a higher standard of play within those sessions.

+5 hours, +165 profit

Hours played: 44

Profit: 1745

Even though I'm up 165 I'm really tilted about this session.
There was a MEGA-whale at my table, and I was directly to his left (the dream seat of stealing whale money) yet I just couldn't pick up a single good value hand against him the entire time, meanwhile the rest of the table is loving life. EV is dumb I want actual money, and against this bozo I only won theoretical dollars, that unfortunately can't be put in my wallet and taken home. Just have to keep grinding I guess, and eventually it'll be my turn to take the whale's money, as opposed to winning small pots vs nits which is where most of my winrate is right now.

Also, I might play a $300 donkament tomorrow since a couple of friends will be playing it, I haven't decided whether to include this in the challenge or not, will update the thread anyway. This will likely count for hours played in the weekly goal, since it is a large time commitment dedicated to poker, but not the overall tally of profit and hours played as it isn't a cash game and I am not expert at tournaments, the goal of the challenge is to climb the stakes of cash games, not donk around in tourneys.