A clueless noob reaches 1000 hours of live 1/3 NL

A Clueless NL Noob Reaches 6000 Hours of Live 1/3 NL

Hi, I’m gobbledygeek! I’ve just reached 6000 hours of live 1/3 NL!

Took me almost 15 years to do. Lol @ me, ldo.

The lol 1000 hour breakdowns in all their glory / ugliness. I included the maximum rake + BBJ drop + high hand promo at the end of each segment; just trying to keep my head above water while getting tossed more and more bricks?

1st: $28.94 (5+1)
2nd: $27.72 (5+1)
3rd: $13.74 (6+1)
4th: $12.33 (7+1)
5th: $19.19 (8+1)
6th: $23.68 (9+1+1)

To be honest, I’m shocked my last two 1000 hour segments went as well as they did due to the ever-increasing rake being such a massive burden. For one fleeting moment after a recent session on March 28, 2024, my winrate sat at $21.00 (officially 7 bbs/hr, yah!)… the first time it has been at $21.00+ since December 31, 2019. On the other hand, it hasn’t been under $20.00 since September 27, 2011. So I got that goin’ for me.

As always, I’m pessimistic about the future. The rake will no doubt go up again soon enough, and it is scary to note that we aren’t even close to what some rooms back east are raking. And after playing 10 handed all this time, last month our room finally went to 9 handed… which my method would not prefer. Like everything, I’ll guess we’ll just see what happens.

Gmuchlikelife,itiswhatitisG

Cause of inflation they should make 2/5 the minimum.

Congrats on an amazing achievement.

Excellent results as always GG

that is a strong giraffe. very nicely done mang.

Congrats gg. Do you think there were any adjustments you made from 3rd & 4th to 5th & 6th that might have increased your win rate, or is it just down to variance?

March 28 -- my birthday! Well done, GG.

Our 1/3 NL game replaced our 1/2 NL game in 2010, so not a matter of "if" but "when", imo, which will undoubtedly prevent me from getting to 10K hours of 1/3 NL at my current snail's pace.

GcluelessLLSNLnoobG

It's funny, after some recent discussions with other players, 6000 hours feels extremely underwhelming.

The long time pro at my table my last session guesses well over 20K hours for himself. Another pro I talked to a couple of months ago is nearing 14K hours over very little time, including putting in over 3K hours last year "just to see if he could".

Even the pleasant retired OMC I've played with for a decade+ admits he doesn't keep track of his hours, but he's a machine who puts in 4 hours pretty much 300+ days a year, so easily 1200+ hours a year for him (basically just as something to do).

It's really hard to guesstimate, but at times I feel like over half the room has far more hours than me.

GcluelesshoursnoobG

Thanks fellas!

GextremelyboringgiraffesismybusinessandbusinessisgoodG

I definitely did make an adjustment as I switched to my Super Nit method. Not a 180 degree on anything and more just going harder down the same road I was already on, with the three main tweaks being (a) BIing / topping up for 66bbs instead 100bbs, (b) tightening way up in all positions / facing raises, and (c) having a 0% raising range in LJ- (and needing very specific conditions to consider raising the HJ). The last year or so I think I'm also quitting games better (and is something I'm forced to do now thanks to nursing an injury), which I think benefits my shortstacking wheelhouse, so we'll how that plays out.

*But*... it still all could be just simple variance, as I played the exact same style over my first 2000 hours versus second 2000 hours (which have a fairly massive difference in hourly).

GcluelessingeneralnoobG

Happy birthday Java!

I'm guessing you've piled up some impressive poker hours over the years?

GcluelesspokerhoursnoobG

Thank you. I have, but I'm too lazy to keep track 😉

What's the theory behind this?

The idea behind my method was stolen from PNLHE regarding the concept of setting up desirable SPRs / situations postflop.

Limping/overlimping in EP/MP (with a tight range, a lot which I'm planning to limp/reraise against certain raisers), I'm able to setup good situations for myself. If I get in the limp/reraise and it takes down big dead money preflop (much more $$$ than a raise would ever do taking down a lol meaningless bb or two), unraked at that OOP, fine. If the limp/reraise is called, it mostly sets up a trivial and very profitable commitment spot postflop. And if it limps around, whatever, I play a high SPR multiway pot where I have lots of streets to use my postflop skillz to make decent decisions (leaning to making nitty folds of one pair hands very multiway, with incorrect folds being at worst a small mistake thanks to being in a small unraised pot). Meanwhile, I avoid stoopid postflop situations that an EP/MP raise will often create: a multiway handcuffing SPR OOP where I can easily make big mistakes postflop (committing with the worst of it versus not protecting / folding with the best of it in big pots, often facing commitment decisions on early streets with very little info) against players that made at worst a very small preflop mistake (having all gotten fine IO).

And so preflop I basically limit my raising to the CO+, where I have a lot more information available (how many people / who are interested in their hand and to what extent, their stack sizes, etc.) to make much better decisions in an attempt to get myself in good spot postflop.

Anyhoo, that's the general idea and it works well for me / my skillz set / in my game.

GcluelessNLstrategynoobG

GG do you actually enjoy playing poker?

I probably have more lol's at the table than anyone else (which may even rub some people the wrong way, is there anything more annoying that the nittiest guy at the table attempting to have the funnest time?).

Obviously I'm extremely disciplined in order to maintain as best a giraffe as I can. But if I didn't find the hours more enjoyable than a lot of alternatives then I wouldn't play (as the money won is relatively meaningless to my life).

GclueslesslifebalancenoobG

word

Bump

I had aces in back to back UTG. The first one I got 6b jammed on in a clicking war with a noob. The second one I got overlimped by queens :O. I folded to heavy action and she won with unimproved queens.

I tried to channel my inner GG. Do the regs still fall for your limp raises? Do you ever limp raise with suited connectors in a juicy squeeze spot?

I can’t find it but there was a thread back in May about a guy who turned $100 into $10K in a year doing daily H&Rs.

Be nice to be able to track how you did by the hour regardless of session length. You & opponents probably have some diffences in how you play when first sitting down regardless of session length.

But the money is not irrelevant. It’s $120K taxfree cash on the barrelhead over a decade.

There's no point in learning to fish if you're content just eating whatever washes up on the beach.