Proving I'm profitable before moving up in stakes
I will play 50 000 hands of 10NL zoom on GGpoker and try to maintain a winrate of 10bb/100. If I can accomplish this I m
I have about 20k hands left so I will just do this as a mini challenge now that I'm playing reg tables since they are so different. Goal is to have 10bb/100 winrate after rake. I honestly think it's
doable since the games are so soft. I bought H2N small stakes but can't seem to get it to work so GG graph will do. Ran way under EV but so far safe to say we are doing better than 10bb/100.
Also got $20 in rakeback spin so the GG account is at a new equity high yay. Just have to keep grinding until 1) challenge is done and 2) 30 BIs for 25NL then we go hard in the 25NL nosebleeds.
3200 / 20 000
OP close to completing the challenge?
Here's what happened: I reached 50k hands but I don't think my wr was 10bb/100. I learned that there's way better sites than gg so I played partypoker for a while, then pokerstars 10-50NL for like 100k hands. I eventually found a geolocked site which is the softest one I have ever seen so I only played there. I became a solid winner at 50NL but eventually just got bored, took some shots at 100NL, lost a lot, got demotivated and withdrew my roll of a little over 1000€. I didn't really even need more money so I saw no point in playing.
However, I recently had to get a real job. Now I realize that playing poker is way better than sitting in a cubicle and I could legit make more at 50NL against a soft playerpool than this office job. Both things are just sitting in front of a computer clicking buttons so it's barely any different really. It's my first office job and I don't really wanna be here for the next 40 years so I should at least try right?
So I'm going to run it back now from the lowest stake available, 4NL. I apparently had 61.33€ left on this site for some reason, maybe some rakeback bonus or something. 20BI bankroll management, moving back down if I go under 15BI. For 50NL I'm increasing the BRM to 30BI, moving down if I go under 25BI. Maybe 40BI for 100NL but we'll get to that later. No random shot taking.
I have played 8067 hands so far and am up to 143.56€ on the roll, winrate of 25bb/100 lmao. Here's the most important things I have learned in my poker journey:
1. Poker is about taking the money from the fish. There's no glory in being the best reg at 50NL or whatever. Just bumhunt to the max. Site select, table select.
2. Everyone is way worse at poker than you think. The fish are playing extremely face up. The shitregs that beat 25NL 4bb/100 are playing face up. If they x/r flop and bet big turn just fold. Massively overfold vs confident aggression. Massively overbluff vs passivity. Thinking your opponents are smarter than they are is a big trap.
3. Even if you are good, without proper brm you will never win longterm. You wont have the balls to make the +EV river jam if you have 10% of your bankroll on the table. Just commit to grinding out for a few weeks more instead of "taking a shot".
4. This one is kind of personal to me, I have found immense value in strategy simplifications. Things such as removing cold calling preflop from your game, always having the same betsizes postflop, etc. It makes your life so much easier when instead of 200 options you have 2. You barely lose any EV anyway and if playing vs a huge whale you can always take the max exploit route if you really want to ofc.
Next step, 10NL at 200€ bankroll. Lets go!
Played 2634 hands today. Funny thing is my first ~1000 hands I played really bad and lost 1 buyin, although I also ran kinda bad. I did a full mental reset, cleaned my apartment etc. Then I came back and won 14.5 buyins in the next 1500 hands lol.
roll 196.96
hopefully 10NL tomorrow
boring to grind it out but I have to earn it. I can't just shot and hope to get lucky. 25NL by the end of the month, leggo leggo
Here's what happened: I reached 50k hands but I don't think my wr was 10bb/100. I learned that there's way better sites than gg so I played partypoker for a while, then pokerstars 10-50NL for like 100k hands. I eventually found a geolocked site which is the softest one I have ever seen so I only played there. I became a solid winner at 50NL but eventually just got bored, took s
Welcome back. Those observations are good and also true. About the office job vs. poker thing. I recently heard someone say something along the lines of "If you go for your dreams and fail, the worst outcome is the life that everybody else is already living." It's a good way of looking at trying to follow your dreams or trying out something and just enjoying the ride.
I think in poker, it's quite easy to get "lost in the sauce" thinking about different strategies, bet sizings, frequencies etc. because of the massive game tree and the options you have, but at the end of the day, most of your winrate will come from the recs/fish and even the "solid" low-midstakes regs won't have the energy or focus to observe how simple you are playing (i.e. you could probably rangebet everything and they will still under xr/raise) when they are multitabling for leaderboards or rakeback.
I also think one of the biggest, if not THE biggest hurdle for success in poker is the stuff outside of the actual technical gameplay. Especially playing with intent and staying focused + tilt-management are so so important. This article from Patrick Howard imo hits the nail in the head
when it comes to low-stakes. Treat it like its your job to succeed, keep grinding and the results will come. GL!
This article from Patrick Howard imo hits the nail in the head
when it comes to low-stakes. Treat it like its your job to succeed, keep grinding and the results will come. GL!Hi again and thanks! I really think that I am like the overachiever in that article. I have no problem playing a lot for like a few weeks but then I have a tendency to kind of just... stop, lol. It sounds really dumb but it's honestly something I've done in most areas of my life including studies, competitive gaming, everything. Like I play to get results and prove myself, right? Then once I have the result, I know I'm good so no more reason to play and I just quit.
I have a tendency to think "if I get X then I will be happy and motivated", like "once I hit 50NL and have a 30€ hourly then I will grind hard". But now I am learning how to approach the game from more of a "I play to learn things and enjoy the process of just being in the moment and figuring things out" instead of playing specifically to win or to move up in stakes.
The moving up in stakes part is automatic, focusing your energy on it is paradoxically a hindrance to it happening. I already know I'm good enough to crush microstakes fish for a really high winrate, so I'm just focusing on my breath and being in the present moment now.
Bankroll crossed 200€. Hopefully we never have to play 4NL ever again, but I will absolutely move down if I lose 5BI at 10NL today.
Hands played at 4NL = 10 769. € won = 148.33, bb won = 3708.25. winrate = 34bb/100.
Anyways, focusing on breathing and staying present instead of thinking about stakes, bankroll, win/loss etc.
The move to 10NL is going well so far. Played 4026 hands today, up about 15 buyins on 10NL. Roll at 349.69€.
One thing which is annoying is that the best times to play BY FAR are 6pm and later. But I really like to focus and work more during the morning/day. I've been wondering if playing on asian or south american apps is still a thing? It would be nice to be able to play when fish are drunk in asia but it's like 1pm here in europe. Anyone know any good apps/agents?
I will of course finish my current mission first but once I'm a bit more established I want to look into this.
Played some hands, roll down to 312.78. I just played really badly. Saw this 2000NL reg on youtube say he goes for a run before playing so I guess I will too. Definitely need more exercise and it can't hurt my playing. I need a pre game routine for sure.
Running made me feel better but I'm still playing like ****. Just making these calls that I know are trivial folds vs weak opponents. Also lost two flips and got set over set but whatever. Gonna quit before it gets worse, roll at 298.01.
The difference between my A game and B/C game is really big because of two things that I don't yet have in my unconscious competence: folding vs big aggression and pulling the trigger on bluffs vs passivity. Overfolding a lot vs 3bets, 4bets, flop x/r and turn barrel, triple barrels, etc. Pulling the trigger on the river 70bb overbet when villain is capped. These types of things. If you can do all that correctly the edge you have is really big but I can only do it when I'm really at my best.
I definitely think I can get to a place where I'm playing my A game far more often, there's some low hanging fruit that I can fix in my lifestyle. I got myself a pre poker routine too, gonna try it out tomorrow.
