Broke in South East Asia

todays session wasn't that interesting, down half a buy in. feel i played okay, not amazing the entire session, C game in the morning, B+ later in the day, will try again tomorrow.

i haven't shared any hands yet so thought I'd share a bluff i thought was kind of cool. it was towards the end of my session. I'll share the hand then a share my thought process afterwards.

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 120.28 BB (VPIP: 25.19, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 6.00, Hands: 265)
SB: 40 BB (VPIP: 16.24, PFR: 13.10, 3Bet Preflop: 5.38, Hands: 556)
Hero (BB): 121.16 BB
UTG: 117 BB (VPIP: 24.23, PFR: 21.08, 3Bet Preflop: 10.98, Hands: 2, 008)
MP: 114.4 BB (VPIP: 25.24, PFR: 22.33, 3Bet Preflop: 9.38, Hands: 107)
CO: 102.4 BB (VPIP: 29.55, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 46)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Ac 5c
UTG raises to 2.48 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.48 BB

Flop : (5.36 BB, 2 players) 6c Jh Ah
Hero checks, UTG bets 6.16 BB, Hero calls 6.16 BB

Turn : (17.68 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, UTG bets 21.24 BB, Hero calls 21.24 BB

River : (60.16 BB, 2 players) Kh
Hero bets 91.28 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 57.44 BB

This player is a Korean reg, but they're a little agro, too agro in my opinion.
They choose to over bet this texture which I don't think they should have many or any over bets on as they don't have a significant nut advantage, I have JJ at a high frequency, 66, AJ, A6s plus flush draws. I think a texture like AK6 rainbow would be better to over bet, but they do. They choose to over bet the turn also, part of me thinks they actually have a hand like a set but I think my hand is too good to fold yet. I would rather call A5s here than say AQ, AK or AT as A5s unblocks all the QTs, KTs and QK combos that may take this line.
By the river when the K of hearts comes all of a sudden it's really hard for them to have a flush given 3 Broadway hearts are on the board, they can only really have QT of hearts, Q9s, T9s but that's only 3 combos, maybe some lower flushes occasionally but they won't be opened at a high frequency from EP if at all if they're not mixing, and they may not take this line, so it's very few combos. I on the other hand have all the 6x of hearts that get here, and some Qx of heart combos. With it being so hard for them to have a flush I think it's a good spot to turn it my hand into a bluff and jam. They tank for a long time before folding so I do think they had a strong hand. I'm not sure how good my bluff actually is, but that was my logic. I thought it was cool at least haha.

I currently don't have a subscription to GToWizard so I'm unable to check if my bluff is good or if it's a line ever taken, I'm not sure if it's good. When i have a subscription again perhaps I'll check. I do think my logic is sound however, and it's not like the machines answers need to be followed religiously, I'm playing humans not machines.

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the bankroll is now at $987.50 dollars

Good to chat today! GL with the blog and the grind! I'll see ya at 50NL.... and stay out of your way.

Flopped set turning to a boat in a 4 bet pot with 99. Outrageous behaviour. TD. ; )

haha it was a good session for sure! I'll see you at 50nl! Well eventually. I may have to withdraw my roll to buy a caravan when i get to the UK. I'll be doing a seasonal job for 7 months. Save up, play and study poker on the side, then head back out here. If i have to withdraw it I will re-deposit once i get paid so I'll be back for sure.

yeah rub it in why don't ya. half of that's my stack. brutal session. (wp though)

Haha I'll be playing tomorrow, if you're around you can try to get your vengeance! Try being the operative word 😉

I tried to play but I'm too tired, I did not sleep well. So I took a rest, now I'm getting food and coffee.
I think it is important to take breaks, and make sure I only play when I feel good. The time after and before a session I see as part of my preparation routine, I'm not directly playing but I'm trying to optimise for when I do. If I play when I'm tired, or malnourished, or not feeling good, then I increase the chances I'll make sub optimal decisions.
Hopefully after food and coffee I'll feel ready to play and have a good session. I'll aim for a couple thousand hands.

Today's session did not start well, I hit some negative variance and was running into it constantly. At my lowest i was down 7 buy ins.
I took a break however as usual, tried to mentally reset and play again. The second half went much better and i finished down just 3 buy ins and close to a 40 dollar bonus, so a good recovery.

I think days like today are a good opportunity to asses my game, consider was that a good bluff or a good bluff catch. When losing I think it can be easy to want to win the money back quickly, and perhaps that can at times sway my thoughts more towards calling or bluffing as i know if i give up i win zero percent of the time. this may be a mindset leak, if a spot is close then perhaps i should just fold when it's a loosing day, if it's that close it will be close to break even anyway and calling and losing or bluffing and losing will not get the money back quicker.
I'm really noticing how important the mental side of the game is, more so than all the theory I believe. if your mental game is not on point then things can quickly spiral. Like today two hands stood out, one a bluff, the other a bluff catch. The bluff catch I had in theory a very good bluff catcher, but i also know from the sizing and texture that it's going to be under bluffed. That desire to win though made me ignore these instincts and i call, they had a house.
Poker is a very complex game and no-one is perfect, but I'm grateful for days like today. it causes me to pause and think about my mental game, my strategy, make sure everything is okay and what can i improve.
Anyway tomorrow is a new day, time to rest and go again tomorrow.

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This blog may be ending. It's only a couple of days now until I'm joined by my girlfriend, that means I'll be doing touristy things here and not playing. I've also had to withdraw a portion of my roll as after almost 4 months travelling South East Asia I'm pretty broke, it's likey once I'm back I'll have to withdraw the rest until I'm able to re-deposit. If I play now it may be back at 10nl for the next couple of days, minimise the chance of big swings as I'll soon need the money.
Once I'm set up in the UK, back at work with my external monitor and a more comfortable set up I'll start the grind again. The exciting thing about that is I won't need to use my bankroll for anything as I'll have an income, I'll be able to just keep grinding and see how far I can go.
The period between now and then I'm mainly going to be working on my game, looking at ways to simplify my strategy so I can execute with higher accuracy, I'm also starting to learn about data analysis and how it can be used to exploit my opponents.

I think when I return to the grind properly I may start another blog, although I may make the next one on run it once.

Anyway good luck grinders ✌️ see you soon.

It's been about three months since my last update. The last post in this blog ended with me in Vietnam, where I ended up cashing out most of my bankroll. I'd been travelling for almost five months and needed the funds, so poker had to take a bit of a back seat for a while.

I'm now back home in Wales, UK, and have started rebuilding. I began again with $250 and have managed to grow that to $787 so far. It's still early days, but it's been nice getting back into a routine and putting in some volume.

As for this blog, I'm not entirely sure what direction it'll take. I don't think I'll be sharing that much strategy, it'll probably be more of a place to post updates on the bankroll challenge, talk about how things are going, and share the occasional interesting hand or spot that comes up along the way.

Looking forward to getting this thread going again and seeing where it ends up.

I'm currently at 25nl and looking to move up as soon as possible.

Today's session, just under 2k hands played and $63 dollars profit.

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Just under 160k hands played this year and $1,178 dollars profit.

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An impromptu post. Usually I post with a graph or progress update, this time I haven't really been playing much. Mostly due to work. I'm working a lot at the moment, which is good, it means I'm saving for winter and can take almost 5 months off to travel and do nothing but see the world and play online poker. But it also means a lot of the time I'm too busy or too tired to play.
Also I like to stufy, not studying makes me lose confidence and working so much means I haven't been studying or playing much.
Tonight however I had a few whisky and cokes, I finally have a day off, and decided to play after drinking. Just for fun, listening to music not a serious grind session.
One thing I realised is I'm very far ahead of my competition. It's almost like we're playing a different game, so perhaps I need to worry less. I get performance anxiety at times when it comes to poker. I think if I'm not studying I'm falling behind, but the truth is the majority of the people I play against are barely studying at all.
I also need to trust my instincts more. I don't believe in any kind of psychic ability, but I do believe that my years of studying and playing have led to pretty accurate pattern recognition when it comes to things like bet sizings and timing tells. And when you combine these with a very clear picture of what I think the ranges look like it leads to a situation where I feel very confident in most spots v the people I play against.
So although I've not been playing much due to work, I'm still very confident I will progress and will at least be beating mid stakes one day. For now however I'm at 25nl. But one day I'm very confident I'll be beating at least 200nl.
That confidence is something else that I believe is important to succeed or progress. I don't believe it's delusional, but I believe it's necessary to have the belief you can to get there.
Anyway hopefully once I have the time to put in proper sessions I'll have more to update. Just 4 more months then I'm completely work free of work. I'll once again be in south east Asia, hopefully not completely broke this time...

Op, I read a fews your previous posts. It looks more to me, Poker just something on side to enable you get extra funds to travel. Traveling the world where your heart feels happy. There’s really no need proof playing big limits if you always finger dipping into the bankroll. Maybe just make goal earn enough to travel and enjoy life. Best wishes 👍