The Coinflip Chronicle

Hey everyone,

A Lithuanian here. Poker has been an on-and-off thing for me for years. I’ve played everything—from cash games to MTTs—and to be honest, I never had any real results. I even joined spin stables at some point and did alright there. But overall, I never really took poker seriously. It was always something I did on the side, part of the routine.

I’m 35 now, a father of two, and I’ve got a regular job that pays the bills.
But here I go again—with a different mindset this time.
No illusions. I’m not trying to be the best or make a ton of money playing NLHE.

This time, my focus is Short Deck.
My goal is to prove that Short Deck is beatable—at least at the micros.

I’ve always liked playing short-stacked. Even back in 2009, when some sites handed out free bankrolls, I chose to grind the original Short Stack Strategy (SSS). Some of you OGs might remember that. That mindset kind of stuck with me. I naturally gravitate toward formats where people make big mistakes with short stacks.

I played quite a bit of Short Deck in 2022-2023 on PokerStars and had solid results—around 20 EV bb/100 over 100k hands across SD25 and SD50 (which was the highest limit with traffic).

So, why now? What brought me back?

Mostly because hardly anyone plays Short Deck—and those who do, especially at the micros, are still really weak. I can’t speak for mid or high stakes, but at the lower levels, there’s clearly room to exploit.

Add in the recent changes at GG—like the 40 ante stacks and being able to continuously cash out everything over 40A while staying 40A deep—and the whole thing gets even more interesting.

Short Deck, when played 40A deep, is mostly push or fold, with some exceptions. Equities run super close, so it often comes down to coin flips. And we all know GG’s rake is brutal—I’m averaging around 27 antes/100 hands in rake.
So yeah, let’s break it down:

- 27A/100 rake
- Marginal edge in most spots
- Seems like a rake trap
- PVI screws your rakeback
- Leaderboards are the only real grindable reward

Sounds like a setup nobody should touch, right?

But here’s the thing—I actually think I can beat micro Short Deck pre-rakeback with a decent margin. The first 9k hands are promising (mix of NL5 and NL10). It keeps me somewhat motivated. I’m not saying I’ll crush it or make something big out of this, but I do believe I can hit double-digit EV bb/100 winrates up to NL25.

So yeah, this isn’t a bankroll challenge.
It’s more like: beat micro-stakes Short Deck over 250k hands with a double-digit EV, and maybe get more people interested in the format along the way.

Mix of a NL2 / 5 / 10

Each day I rank at around middle of LBs

Don’t expect frequent updates—could be once a day, once a week, or even once a quarter. I check my graphs very infrequently. Sometimes only once a month.