Running it up 2025
hey guys, its been a very very long time and we are back with another PGC a decade since our first PGC “Running It Up 2015” that can be found here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/p...
i will keep things simple, this is a PGC for poker but also to keep myself accountable in terms of my other things: weight loss, my social media projects and finishing off uni
im grinding to pay for some stuff including potential knee surgery or rehab and other things like travel
i mainly grind during the weekend, playing live MTTs from the many circuit series running during the year (Aus been undergoing abit of a MTT boom) and if i bust or dont bag for day 2s i usually just play 5/T and 10/20 live
during the week i mainly try to study or work on my other projects, this PGC will also keep those accountable too:
- weight loss: currently 93kg, looking to get to 73kg by the end of the year
- social media: rehabbing and making sports content
- uni: finishing off assessment and exams for my almost done degree
- poker study: frabb’s hunl course, lissi’s plo mtt course, various mtt stuff, grinding simz on wizard/icmiser
however, sometimes during the week i will end up having to play, whether its live or online, i battle HUNL on various sites depending on the traffic and might play some live sessions during the week tho, but i will be doing my best to limit my volume during weekdayz
Will keep you guys posted!
10 Replies
1/7/2025
First week not much has happened, Just ran deep 1 bulleting some main in a small series and finished 28/339 which took up most of my weekend.
haven't played cash at the casino yet and didn't grind online this week too been too busy, will try to get in a quality 5/T or 10/20 session on saturday maybe
haven't done much poker study either, got an exam on wed so im cramming for that rn
Hand of the Week
13bb eff roughly
8 til ITM
we are big stack and cover
open A4o no ♣ CO, BB defends
flop: J♣T♣4x (5.5bb)
check we cbet 1bb he calls
turn Qx (7.5bb)
check we bet 2bb he calls moderately fast
river 5♣ (11.5bb)
he tank checks, we shove
Thoughts
Spoiler
I think flop + turn are both fine, turn can check, but its a pretty good turn we gonna be betting pretty high freq with everything
river we prob have enough bare Ax/Kx to bluff since we are opening wider given the spot, and maybe A4 is high enough to xb but its prob very low eq v OOP
also V prob don't xr Jx on flop often and his tank checks make me more leaning to him being capped (pop might lead flushes, also feel like he doesn't rlly tank check strong there)
Results:
Spoiler
he tank folds
my weight is still at 93kg, tho i just weighted myself after dinner
will try to get maybe 2 ball session this week, and not whale off on meals
gonna try to have a more productive week!
8/7/2025
Abit of a late post, we had more of an eventful week, went to play a 10/20 session, but the game changed to a 20/40 game and suddenly was quite big and we even had some 20/40/80 going on when the table agreed to a straddle of 80 which went on for abit. The session only lasted abit more than four hours, given I went to the cas quite late and big games like this only last for a short time. We were down around 5k all up, despite being up at some point, there were a few unfortunate spots. Overall tho, the game was quite good quality with a healthy mix of recs and meh regs
The next day, i went with a friend to play a significantly smaller game at a dodgy pub, but thousands were still being swung around. At the end of the night, two card mechanics were caught on video stacking the deck on a table that i fortunately was not on. Abit of chaos ensued especially when those two players were still being paid out, eventually a physical altercation ensured and police got involved the next day. Oddly enough, being a witness to this level of degeneracy and scummery nevertheless brought a warm sense of nostalgia to my being, i am no stranger to the eventful happenings of the degen world in my many years of this game and lifestyle
I then went to late rego a live 1k with around 50bbs, the prizepool was decent and the pool was good value. We didn't get much going, hovered mostly around starting stack, before eventually bowing out in a flip with TT v AQ. Nevertheless, we didn't have to rebuy and we don't have come back to a day 2 in a pretty far location from where i lived, which is something at least
Overall, not a run good week, but we got some volume in at least
Hand of the Week
10/20/40
5.6k eff
live reg opens 100 HJ, CO and BTN calls
we raise to 690 on straddle with AKo
HJ 4-bets to 1900
???
Thoughts
Spoiler
It feels like a difficult spot with all options (jam/call/fold) having merits, in theory i think some folding might be applicable, esp given his kinda over the top 4bet sizing, but hard to say if jamming vs that range (large 4b v squeeze) is too much, and calling also feels abit gross too. I've talked with various regs both online and live, and got a different opinion with all options being favoured by someone, so the spot def feels not trivial. what do you guys think?
Results:
Spoiler
we eventually just called pre and folded J♦9♦7
the weight progress was ok. weighted in the morning and i was around 91.7kg, but weighted after dinner and was 92.3kg, still more progress needed
I did manage to get in two ball sessions this week, which i will try to at least maintain and improve upon
This coming week i will be focused on studying and sorting out some uni related things and getting my sessions of hooping in and trying to have a productive week. I will also prioritise organising myself and cleaning the house.
12/7/2025
this time I'm posting abit early even tho the week is not over yet, it was my uni break week, so i got to play some events and cash
I late rego-ed a PLO event and was closed to CL with 2 tables left, and should probably have FT-ed quite comfortable, but then i ran some high variance plays and got rinsed very quickly
My bust out hand was:
30bb eff roughly
2 tables left
we have A♥Q♦Q♣J♣ on the button
2 limpers and we pot squeeze the on the button to around 5.5bb, big blind cold calls
SPR ~ 1.7
flop is K♣Tx2x
we just went ahead and pot get it in against KK62 triple suited...
was not sure about my pot size bet, but maybe i have to gii and run my equity
After busting out, we late rego-ed the main event of the series and was in an interesting spot that will be HOTW for this week below... Next day i played some 10/20 live, but it was a morning session and nothing much happened, other than some nit regs and short stackers punting a little bit. We ended up down a few bigs which is nothing really, basically breakeven
Hand of the Week
30bb eff roughly
blinds are 0.6bb/1bb (weird blind structure)
UTG opens 2.2bb, BTN calls, we defend 5♠4
flop: Q♠4♠3 (8.2bb)
we check call 2bb
turn: 6♠ (12.2bb)
check check
river: Qx (12.2bb)
SPR is around 2
Hero ???
Thought
Spoiler
looking at our options, we can XC, XR jam, block call/fold, block 3bet jam or even 2x pot shove and there seems to be some argument to each option, and i think the most natural options are prob block or just XR jam under normal circumstances, but it will depend highly on how he plays his flop node, and whether he bets multiway with enough Qx+/PP and just get to river with alot of hands that won't thin value (which prob also makes me like block 3bet jam less if he dont thin value raise enough v block)
Results
Spoiler
we block around 15% and got called by 88
the weight went down to 91.3kg after some food, which i think is progress (i was lighter earlier in the day after waking up, so there's some progress
I did a ball session but unfortunately rolled my ankle midway, now am recovering and i want to work more on training rather than playing atm while i get my weight down before i feel safer playing to avoid injury
I'll mostly spend the coming days just prepping for uni assignments and getting sh*t done, still haven't clean my house yet, and will maybe dabble in some cheap MTTs near my place for some lunch money while i work on uni, theres a bigger series around the corner and i would like to finish my uni work early enough so i can play more of that schedule
will also try to get some online HU in (both study and play), would be good if i can maintain some daily volume and get some graphz for the thread
22/7/2025
It has been a tough, sleep deprived week... we played a bunch of MTTs in a small local series and bricked everything, mostly late rego-ed, but had a deep run in the main off one bullet which we sattied into earlier in the week, so it wasn't that bad. The highlight of the week has mostly been the crazy sleep patterns I've been experiencing which included staying awake over 24 hours as well as sleep around 18 hours in a 24 hour stretch (which included an almost 13 hours sleep)...
Had an interesting dynamic in one of the MTT where me and this spazz fake reg who was IP of me have been 4bet **** flinging at each other the entire day, then suddenly a whale sits OOP of me, so i made some induce play multiway to get the spazz to inadvertently punt into the whale, with the hopes of essentially moving the money away from someone IP of me to someone OOP of me, without the both of them realising. I feel that this kind of thinking is definitely one of the unspoken soft skills in live poker that yields Hellmuthian-esque win rates, particularly when the pool are full of reta*ds...
On the cash games end we fare abit better, playing three sessions of 2/5/10 and 5/10/20 at the cas over the week, we booked some wins including being up over 1k in a 2/5/10 session, over all though, there been nothing too crazy tho...
Here's a particularly troll hand that I remember:
This hand wasn't a big hand, or even that well meaningful, but it was pretty troll
2/5/10
1k eff
Hero open 30 UTG, straddle defends
Hero has been pillaging the straddle a couple hands in a row now
flop: K5♥3♥ ($67)
check, we check back with a hand that's supposed to mainly bet
turn 4: ($67)
check we bet 35 he calls
river Q: ($137)
straddle leads 50, Hero calls and win
Honestly tho, a pretty tilting week and im just happy i got some good sleep now... For the next month, I will mostly be studying, I got some relatively high stakes MTT to play next week, followed by alot of catching up in terms of uni assignments. I won't be playing too much live poker at least until I travel up north to Gold Coast for a big upcoming series at the end of August...
Hand of the Week
This hand wasn't one of ours, but it was for sure memorable/insane:
200bb deep
UTG opens 3x, nit calls IP on the BTN
flop is AJ2r
UTG cbet 1/3 pot and gets called
turn A
UTG cbet 3/4 pot and gets called
river 4
SPR around ~5
UTG blocks bet 1/3 pot and BTN raise just under 4x, UTG then 3bets abit more than a click, BTN then 4bet shoves
Result:
Spoiler
UTG hero folds 22 for a full house and BTN shows KTo...
Thoughts:
Spoiler
fwiw, i think the fold is pretty reasonable, and this is just a case of some reta*d getting rewarded for some spew
While hero probably shouldn't be playing 22 UTG, its not that bad in these fields, i doubt he bluffs here in reality and 22 is around the bottom of his range, and ur basically never supposed run into a bluff here in practice
IP's bluff is definitely brave but def suicidal when ur facing a fullhouse+ range that can easily contain nuts, he does not block the nuts with his hand, even tho his line looks very strong its probably a massive spew, i can't be bothered to get into the combinatorics here, the BTN likely just misread OOP's strength thinking he can fold out trips or something, but he likely needs an A to be even thinking about trying anything, not that it would be smart to, because ppl don't fold fullhouses
the weight is now down to 90.2kg as i weighted myself in the morning, even tho i haven't been balling (tho mostly recovered from the ankle thing now), i've been dieting so feeling lighter day by day now...
mainly focused on doing my uni assignments in the next 10 days or so, but will have a three day stretch of playing some higher stakes MTT (up to 3k buy ins)
28/7/2025
Nothing much happened this week, we max late regged a 1.25k that overlayed for 15bbs that we quickly dusted and played a 3k buy in, although we started alright and gained some chips, we were eventually busted out in a slightly sus call. Most of this week has been about me fixing my sleep cycle but also catching up on assignments (which I didnt really do and now I'm kinda late to finishing one)
Hand of the Week
Day 1 of the 3k
33bb eff
SB reg opens 4x, we defend 8♣6♣
flop: J♣9♣6 (10bb)
check, we bet 3bb ish, he calls
turn 2 (16bb)
check check
river A (16bb)
SB jams around 26bb, we ???
Thought
Spoiler
our range in general is quite capped, and we are going to have mix defends with the kind of hands we have, most of our Jx are still betting turn and maybe if they perceived us to check more Ax than we should, we might looked even more capped. This i think is in general an overfolded spot, so its very ez for SB to bluff shove it. i think our hand unblocks bluffs and we prob should rng it. his Ax might not jam because of blocking calls and they should be mixed on the flops anyway, so those aren't ez finds for him, so we have to run into the obscure 2p+ to bust. On the flip side, its possible that player profile doesn't really bluff these spots for these sizings enough...
Results:
Spoiler
we call and run into 92s for two pair and bust out of the tournament
the weight is back up to 91.6kg after yday binge which is no good, even tho i had a pretty intense ball session, my eating still made the weight go up quite abit... doing assignments this coming week will prob have an effect so i will have to be careful what i eat this week to not gain too much weight
I will spend the coming week doing the many assignments that i have to as well as maybe playing some HSPLO MTTs
7/8/2025
very late post this week, we already almost at the end of the next week! this week we played the 3k buy in, just one bulleted but had fun... also played a 2.2k PLO and had alot of interesting spot but ended up running a limp jam with AKQJss into QJTTss and losing a big flip... both tournie had a pretty decent five figs first place so we were in there with a shot, quickly dusted a cash session for 1k and ran into an unfortunate spot getting rivered...
not much else have happened, i was looking forward to playing a 2.5k six max at the end of the week, but protests lead to road blocks and i ceebz getting there so i just sacked it...
Hand of the Week
33bb eff BvB late in day 1 after late rego in the 3k
reg opens 4x, we call 6♣4♣
flop J♣9♣6 (9bb)
check, we bet around 3bb, he calls
turn 2 (15bb)
check check
river A (15bb)
he shoves around 26bb, ???
Thoughts
Spoiler
had discussed this hand quite abit, feel we pretty capped here, but we do have some Ax to call. although some weaker pairs like 6x do mix in some calls because we want to block some 2 pairs, this exact combo might not be optimal
i think OB is prob pretty overbluffed, but maybe not by this guy, we might have some bad removal properties with the 4♣ but i feel their combos with that card in it, prob never mixes into the flop check often enough anyway so it might not be that bad
im also not sure he finds all the Ax river shoves that hes supposed to, its more likely he does it with something unblocking calls like those weird two pairs or traps
i run some sims and did more refined analysis of this hand earlier in the week and can't be bothered to go through it all again, but it was an interesting spot nevertheless
Results:
Spoiler
he showed 92s for two pair which i guess was a pretty natural OB to find in this spot
we went back up to around 92.1kg and that was a morning weight in so thats no good, we gaining back the weight and dusting buy ins, i need to maybe take abit of a break before i fly over to gold coast for the big series
the assignments + mtts have def added to the stress eating, although i got stomach ache from some bad food and sh*t everything out so ate less for a few days which maybe slowed the weight gain a lil...
i got a small-ish main to late rego on sunday, but until i fly off to goldie late Aug i will mostly be finishing off my assignment + studying for the few exams i have thats coming up
will try to ball a bunch and eat cheaper and less to get the weight down, i want back to sub 90kg at least by the time im at the gold coast...
12/8/2025
didn't really play much since last post (except on the day of the post!), i end up missing out on the sunday series schedule that i intended to play
i got too many exams coming up, so i prob cant play much for a while until around late august when im flying up to gold coast for the apl millions series
i won a bunch in the cash game and an interesting hand came up but it wasnt NL, it was 5 card bomb pot hopscotch (two boards, one turn, one river, best hand out of everything wins)
it was something like like T♦8♦6♦ on the top board, 739♥ on the bottom board and it runs out K♥ and another ♥ on the river and the interesting nuance in the spot is that there are two nut flush possible (both ♦ and ♥, and their rankings would be determined by who has the highest "kicker" being second highest card and third highest card and so on...
now its abit of a torch to raise weak nut flushes because you only get called by better nut flushes! Also, K♦ and Q♥ also become key cards to bluff shove to get someone to fold the nut flush that isnt highest kicker thats afraid of the other nut flush "outkicking them"
now i didn't actually had the hand to do it, but it was a hypothetical thought, and one of the regs repotted river multiway with A♦2♦xxx which i think was potentially a torch, as he only gets called by better or bluffed off by the aforementioned blockers
anyways, there wont be a HOTW this post, because there werent too much poker being played to lead to a worthy hand
now my weight has remained at 93kg, and my horror today at spending over forty bucks for a dessert in ubereats has been a wakeup call to make me think about being more responsible with my eating and spending
going to try to go on a diet or fast a little bit during this exam period and lets say if i can go to gold coast at sub 80kg...
24/8/2025
so its been a while, was studying and doing my exam, but managed to get in a few cash session, not much volume but some swings, but nothing really memorable
but now i just arrived GC to play the apl millions so there should be a bunch of mtts to fire, maybe turnover 20-30k in volume and enjoy the sunshine in this state as its been rainy asf where im from
last i weigh myself earlier in the day i was around 91kgÂ… i might try to fast abit and save some money but idk i feel like i can resist the temptation of nice food while travelling
might post some pics of the grind in upcoming posts while im at itÂ…
Best of luck in APL millions!
31/12/2025
Lol so its last day of the year and i return, kinda forgot about this thread, there was so much happening this year and i wanted to do a whole thread after APL Millions with pictures and stuff but never got the time to do it, so ill just recap sorta what happened
August
So APL millions was sort of whatever, my most significant deep run was in the 5k buy in, i was prob a flip away from a good stack on the FT and it couldve been a juicy 6 figs score but it was mot meant to be… this would be the last meaningful deep run for the rest of the year
September
After playing a small series which i had a decent run at the main, I played WPT Australia and fired all the big 5k buy ins and bricked a bunch, spending around 20-30k in the process, there was some hope in the main but our KK lost to QQ and AK in a massive three way all in pot and that was it
October
Had some deep runs in some 1ks in a local series, made like two final tables, but again didnt really hold at the end for the bink, I regret not playing more flights in the 2k main and kind of late regoing it
November
More of the same stuff, playing random series, dont really remember too much, playing a bit of cash to clear some makeup with some backers and was reminded that its just so much easier to get consistent profit in that format
December
Played a small series and a big series, i think i FTed some side event, played some more cash games and thinking if i should just play more cash in the earlier parts of 2026
So there it is, kinda a rushed summary of my year in 2025
We had our moments with some deep runs, but ultimately didn’t get the big life changing binks that we want
Next year, i would be much more focused on playing cash games
Mostly be playing around live 2/5/T, 5/10/20 and 10/20/40 stakes at the casino
But will continue to battle online HU on coinpoker and some online MTTs to prep for big series
Looking to make my tournament comeback in the Aussie Millions and maybe follow that with WSOP next year
still really keen on playing that 25k HU at Vegas and the 10k HU on GG
But in the meantime, i will also be focusing on my social media projects, while finishing uni so that i have some outs from this grind
Ill decide if i feel like making a thread for 2026
Until then… happy new year! 😀
