freenachos

Hey man, thanks for asking. Results-wise I've been doing pretty poorly. I've been focussed on the wrong things, short term results, playing more tables so I could hit a higher cashback target, setting the wrong goals. I lacked direction, hence my last post. A few things got me back on track though. Now I actually feel like I got a map that will get me to the path of consistent growth. Very excited! I'll post a more comprehensive update with details tomorrow.

Nice blog man. Will surely be following this. GL man!

Okay, thanks a lot. Needed to clear that up for myself.

So:

Scenario 1 - Raise
I raise to 2.5bb. Villain folds exactly 57%. My winrate in the sb is 0bb/100.

Scenario 3 - I fold
My winrate in the sb is -50bb/100

I get that I already lost the sb in both scenarioss, but what let's say I find a scenario where villain folds 56% of hands. This will mean I lose slightly on the raise, but still by giving up my sb I will 'lose' more, right? I

I'm yet too see the light, still
I felt like writing a mid-week update. I have been playing and studying a fair bit. I've finished crafting flop strategies for all 74 textures bu vs bb. It has helped to get a better understanding of range interactions and I can already tell that I have a clearer idea of where I am ingame. I also played roughly 10.000 hands, playing 3 tables max, managed to win a few buyins and generally feel like I'm slowly moving forward mentally and technically. Baby steps. Besides that, I'm at 3 of 7 videos and the weekend is het to come.

Still, I feel a bit disappointed with myself. I'm still not where I want to be. I'm still trying to shape my playing and study process in a way that yields maximum results. I'm still yet to commit in a way that's going to really change my results. I felt like I needed that of my chest before going to bed. Sigh :(

SHAPING THE PROCESS
Things have been pretty intense. My goals were a little too ambitious. I especially underestimated the time it took to review the 74 flops. The first boards I reviewed extensively, also looking at our strategy on various turns in different branches of the three. After a while, I realized I had to keep it simple. Now, I'm almost finished and I have a base strategy for in position on all 74 boards. I suspect however that I'm going to need more time too evaluate the results for the 'SB vs BB' sim, because there will be a lot less rangebetting and a lot more mixing going on. I still like the way of studying though, so that's good. Also I'm going to play 3 tables instead of two from now on.

RESULTS
Videos watched: 8
Hands played: 5.889
Net won: -$8,84

NEXT WEEK GOALS
- Play 10.000 hands
- Watch 7 videos
- Finish reviewing 'BU vs BB 74 flops' sim
- Run 3 extra 'SB vs BB' scripts in order to speed reviewing process next week
- Study notes on videos bij Julian Kopansky on underbluffing and overfolding.

The "I think this session can be summed up as me making ridiculously large bluffs and getting called" comment got me laughing out loud haha.

Nice video, as allways. Especially liked the last three minutes. Very relatable :)

PERSISTANCE IS KEY
As i've lined out in my previous post, I've created a plan for the next couple of weeks. The goal is to keep playing zoom 10nl, build the roll a little further and try to learn as much as possible in the process. Here are my main goals for the next 10 weeks (school period + spring break). This week I set the following goals.

The bankroll is at €1119,18

THE END OF FREEDOM
The school holiday has come to an end. This morning there were 16 children (aged 12-14) from Syria, Eritrea, Hungary, Portugal and Spain lined up in front of the class, eagerly waiting for school to start (well, at least some of them were) and for me to take them to the 25 square foot room some might call a class.
Within the last months I haven’t posted much in my poker journal. I have been busy enough with making sure these children get everything they deserve, and since it’s my first year as a full-time teacher, that takes a lot of time. A LOT OF TIME. (Oh, and did I mention that I’m planning for a wedding in July?) The limited time I had left I spent on studying and playing, rather than writing about my progress. Today, as school started again, I felt like it was as good as time as any to write this update.

RESULTS & REMINDING MYSELF I SHOULD STAY PATIENT AND HUMBLE
When I started this journal, I hadn’t played a hand in months. Still, I felt like I had the skillset to beat 25nl. I had beaten 2nl, 5nl and 10nl over reasonable samples and I had acquired a roll in the process that allowed me to take shots at 25nl. Off course, I hadn’t been able to play much, but I figured I’d wipe of the rust on my game with a couple of sessions on 25nl zoom. Needless to say: I was wrong. I quickly dropped 8 buy-ins. I had to take a step back. I studied a lot, got Run It Once Elite, and moved back to 10nl. It took a while to remember myself that the stake I play now is irrelevant, it’s the stake I play three years from now that matters. All I can do now is study and improve. Here are my results for the past 8 months:

From now on forward, humble is the way to go. I’m not done at 10nl, and I shouldn’t feel like I am. I still have a lot to learn and 10nl is probably the best place to do just that. It is difficult to face, but I’m just not as good as I sometimes like to think I am.

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE: FOCUSSING ON MOST COMMON SPOTS
I’ve asked myself the following question: what skills do I need, or what parts of my game do I need to improve, in order to make the transition to 25nl as comfortable as possible. The plan I made for myself is loosely based on the Perato Principle. The idea being that 20% of the work leads to 80% of the results. This works the other way around too, sometimes 80% of the work leads to 20% of the results. Granted, it’s an gross over-simplification of reality to state that 20% of the work will always yield 80% of results, but I still think the concept translates to poker in a way. I could study some rare spot that only occurs once every full moon, but rather than spending a lot of time studying 4bet pots bb vs ep, I figured it was better to get a better understanding of basic spots that occur often (flop play on single-raised pots btn vs bb and sb vs bb is my main target). Not only are those the most reoccurring spots in poker, they are also really hard to play, because ranges are wide. A lot of EV to be gained.
Other things I want to focus my attention to are polishing my preflop game and strengthening my mental toughness (also a lot of work to be done there). I will share the plan here later this week and I will evaluate and share results when spring break ends early may.

MOVING FORWARD
I will try to update this journal more often. Not that I cherish any expectations about anyone missing this journal when I stop writing. It’s more for myself than for any of you. So expect graphs, hands, thoughtfull insights and maybe a video or two!

When will there be two factor authentication? Is this spmething that has priority for you guys? I promiss I'll haul over my entire roll and action the day you implement it:)

It's mainly on boards where GTO+ (the one i'm using) is allready using a 90%+ cbetting strategy for small sizing. The minus difference is also microscopical. I think it probably is the deviance I selected in the solver.

Thanks a lot for commenting. I'm in the process of reevaluating the ranges I created a while ago as a baseline. This helps out a lot.

Is there any other way, besides Monkersolver, to get an realistic idea on what a gto approach would be? I do understand the concepts in this video, I just need a baseline to go with these concepts, or at least a way to get one. So how wide does a solver go in certain spots (considiring microstakes rake)? The bu vs co seemed wide for me, basing my ranges of Snowie.

And how did you translate the complex gto ranges to a simplified 3bet or fold strategy? (based on the 'human' frequencies i assume you made an educated guess yourself?) I hope you can lead me in the right direction.l

I have two questions:
1. Is there a eta for two step verification, or can you guys at least tell me if it has any priority. I would haul over my roll in an instant if I knew it was safe, regardless of any other hickupa you guys might have.
2. I feel an urge to show my support, especially after the words of borh Phil amd Farrah about making just a small deposit, but I wanted to know if the full bonus would still be available for when i get the rest of my roll on the site (when you guys have implemented 2 step verification).

Now I come to think of it, I have a third question, when will there be a new phase with more interlining stakes (10nl especially).

Oh and I dont agree woth the splash the poy critiques on capping potsize etc. Just get it in and run it once:-)

Agree, most recs are not even going to reach the appropriate xr frequency by a mile. (As do most regs, at least at the stakes I play, myself lf included).

What stakes are avaiable?

I agree with this. I dont want to deposit a large amount (for me) as there is no 2 step verification implemented yet. However, depositting a small amount doesnt seem reasonable at this point, because I will valuecut myself :)

Will there be a 2-step-verification login feature? I would very much like to support the site, but I've been hacked once, and since then I'd rather be on the safe side of things:)

Hi, I teach in a place called Den Helder in the Netherlands:)

Meh
This week has been mediocre to be honest. I've played 12.6k hands, ran moderately bad. Nothing too crazy though. I've been playing too much on autopilot though, playing 3 tables when I should play 2, not taking breaks as regulary as I probably should. Given these circumstances I've played reasonable, it's just that I miss a few too many small spots. Another thing is that it's harder to actively mark hands.

I've watched roughly 10 video's, so I got that goal though. Still, I didn't get far with my GTO+ work. I've been running sims with a standard subset of flops and let my laptop run them overnight. Will be a few nights till I have a few spots.

So this week I'm going for a change in pace:
- Play 4.000 hands (max 2 zoom tables or 4 reg tables).
- Mark as many hands as possible.
- Review every marked hand.
- Review 5 boards of my bu vs bb sim.
- Up my WWSF by 2 percent point.
- Up my button rfi by 3 percent point

First week
It has been a decwnt first week. I've been busy with an assessment at work in order to get a permanent position, but it paid out, because they offered me one. Pokerwise Ive been playing well, running not too good. Sunday, when it was my grindday, I was sick. So I didn't reach the pokergoals. Did do the study goals through the week though, so thats a win. And I still haven't checked my results.

This weeks goals:
- Play 10.000 hands
- Watch 5 videos
- Run a script of marked hands for 'ep vs ip cc', 'sb vs bu 3b pot' and 'sb vs co 3b pot'.
- Respond to 10 hands in low stakes subforum.
- Post an update in this Journal.

Your 3bet is defibitely too low. Try 3betting wider for value vs weaker players. Nothing stands out too much other than that. You could watch database review videos in the learning paths section to study more in depth.

I'm assuming the 6bb raise pre is because of this seemingly soft table. I think in general betting and shoving rivers is best in these games. This is all very dependent on context though and I could easily decide otherwise ingame depending on stats/reads. If villain is playing super weak passive I might go for a b/f c/f line.

Think youll have to call the donkshove by the rec otr. When the other villain ships, you're allmost allways beat. You'll need about 15%, would be surlrised if you'd get to that, but calling cant be a very big mistake.

Read The Grinders Manual by Peter Clarke. Still the standard work for every starting cashgamr player imho.

Then watch the videos of Cameron Couch, Paul Atwall and Peter Clarke.

I think in most microstakes games (z10 and z25) there are still a reasonable amount of weaker players that any reg can still be profitable, espacially if you play less tables thrn they do. You're not going to be rich in terms of short-term $ev, but you will become a better player in the long run. This is especially true if you take the time to look at spots after or do focus sessions (google this concept if you're not familiar)

Last, you can decide to split your roll between two sites, one where the learning environment is very good (like the zoompools) and sites with high rakeback and fairly soft games. Good luck