[CG] From Poker Donk To Winning Monk

[P0kerM0nk]

So I've taken off my bankroll just leaving €150 in it for the occational sports bet who knows lol.

Playing poker in the web browser is so bloody tilting, can only play 4 tables max, can't tile tables so can only see one at a time, can't check replayer if you play the max 4 tables either. Hard to follow hands as action is always jumping from table to table.

@Stubbe-Unibet if there is any way you can refund my bonus points I spent on the €500 playthrough bonus that would be great and you can cancel the playthrough bonus to do so, thanks.

 

[P0kerM0nk]

So I have had my bonus refunded so tyvm and still not able to log on the client on desktop, trying to work on it together with Unibet but so far no joy.

Have added the stats from 50NL from January to the rest from last years sample from end of November and +€1,839.69 / 46,462 hands = 7.92 bb/100

PartyPoker, think I was down to £150 something after the 100NL bankroll tilt but had some rakeback coming back so was about £250 after that, since then worked it back up to £500 and haven't played on there since. So basically my PartyPoker adventure was no win no loss as that's how much I put on when I started 😅

Since not being able to play properly on Unibet as can't really put lots of volume on a mobile, ipad or in browser I signed up to GGpoker, a new sign up bonus of $600 (released per $1 lol) + another bonus worth up to $350 for doing all kind of missions, final bonus is $150 but you need to complete all 30 missions so very unlikely but we will see, atm I'm on 10/10.

Lots of people online playing all kind of stuff, I'm amazed how many people still play 9max, sounds so dull to me but hey ho. Just been playing 25NL Rush&Cash and normal tables, not got far so far, up because of 50% rakeback promo but probably break even if you exclude all bonuses etc. Rush&Cash looks very nitty again having tried it a few times, I can't seem to wrap my head around that variant or something, regs in general seem so nitty in every zoom variant on any site I've tried. Guess people just fold and go to the next hand much quicker so play less mediocre hands in general, I don't know. Also not sure what to think about the extra rake on there but there are quiet a few cashback promo's etc so f knows. Once I completed my deposit bonus we can revaluate. Games are definitely beatable if you ignore rake.

Still working on Carrot Corners courses, I'm so fecking slow in doing these, slacking my arse. Hope I get them done by the summer 🤭

[Rushbie]

Still after ubbreak stats elsewhere seems to be running positive, eh? 😀👍

Stay strong, bro 💪

 

[P0kerM0nk]

@Rushbie Yeah I guess it's going ok but still room for improvement. Think it's nice that even when it's not going the way I want I still end up breakeven or with a small loss. I think there was a episode on carrot corners twitch where they were just saying that poker is just about surviving till you hit an upswing and then embrace the upswing and take full advantage of it. Poker is tough even if you are a full time pro crusher (which I am not) and that's maybe hard to realise for people like us who don't really put in enough volume and or don't improve enough to make it to the top. Continuous suffering is actually normal 😭 😂

[GR1ZZL3R]

Great keeping the winnings going while you've been having problems, hope they sort it for you soon.

Meanwhile, "Rush" "Zoom" whatever, I agree, I see the regs as being nittier but the recs still making rec moves. Being able to colour code or make notes on them seems to make it much easier, a simple red orange green system works for me. Red raises utg I fold, orange raises from mp I think about it, green shoves 20 bb from the button I call (mostly.) It seems to work without a lot of thinking time. 🤔

And stop slacking. 🥴

 

[P0kerM0nk]

Still can't get on Unibet but I guess I can still update in here once in a while.

GGpoker going well now taking full advantage of the 50% cashback promo they had running when I joined end of January. Started playing 50NL when I hit 1k.

Initial deposit of $635 (£500 - all in dollars as site is in dollars) my bankroll is now at $2.3k.

Lots from cashback and promos, so far:

$233 Deposit bonus so far (max $600)
$583 Weekly cashbacks (6 weeks in now)
$94 ThanksGG (bad beat/good hand promo)
$50 Chinese NY Promo
$57 Daily Leaderboards

Leaving us with about $650 real poker profit, more or less.

There is a honeymoon period promo for newcomers where you have to complete a certain quest every day for 30 days to then win $150 end prize. Pretty much impossible to complete, I ended up with 22/30 done and picked up a few extra bonuses but also lost some money on the tables trying to complete some ofthese, so hard to know what I really won or lost. Worst quests were win a tournament, beat your opponent holding suited JJ in Ohama all in or fold (Banzai type), win the jackpot at all in or fold (as if), etc... if you want any advice, don't bother with these, you'll never get to the end and it's not worth the time/prize. Just do the easy ones and pick a few smaller prizes on the way.

Been playing Rush&Cash lately as kind of adjusted to the nitty pool, actually quite surprising how many nits there are. I'm not used to see stats so it's a bit of an eye opener and I think I have a better feel for the pool now compared to when I started, also tag most people in the pool to have a better idea who is at my table, table after table being zoom.

Not ran the purest but getting better now, still a while to go but might jump in to 100NL once I hit 3k bankroll.

Off work till next week Thursday and planning to get through as much of Carrot Corners courses as possible, I promise 😂

[P0kerM0nk]

I know some people are wanting updates and I will do one once I finish my cashback promo on GG, i have till the 5th of May to complete the required rake so not that long to go and should be able to get there. Have been playing 100NL since the 11th of March which is good as kinda need it to complete the promo.

Promo is just to keep a certain rakeback % for rest of the year I guess, or a year from completing, although all this PVI stuff is really unclear. Once I get this promo done I will re access where to play etc. Still have 100k BP on Unibet and don't really want to waste those so guess I'll be playing on Unibet again at some point anyway.

Played 60k hands at 100NL Rush & Cash so far. Not been plain sailing but it never is in poker right? Made a profit so far but still have to see what is actual profit and what is from bonuses etc which I will check once I get the promo done.

Have yet to be dealt in a Bad Beat Jackpot, losing one would be a nice bankroll boost. Wouldn't say no to a free 55 ish buyins lol.

Still lots to learn, still working my way through the courses although will have to wait a bit till after the 5th of May, but I keep watching stuff day in day out. Carrot Corners video subscription coming out on Monday too so that will be more interesting content to watch. So much to do and learn and I just feel like I'm getting dumber and dumber when playing poker 😂 Poker is hard.

[Stubbe-Unibet]

@P0kerM0nk have you tried to estimate your true rakeback from the killer whale promo? Curious to hear how the PVI impacted you as my assumption is you are extremely far from the advertised value 🙂 

[P0kerM0nk]

I've almost reached my target for the promo which ends tomorrow, just about 2h to play today and then I'll see to get a summary together in the next couple of days. I haven't had a decent look into PVI but the promo says up to 50% cashback so that could be any % really.

I did notice a big drop not long after I started playing and wondered if that was the PVI kicking in 😄 but I'm not going to lie that checking/calculating rakeback % isn't that important to me, as long as my balance goes up and the player pool is sound I'm happy.

I remember seeing a twitch video at carrot corner I think where there was a guy on who started with this promo as well and was meticulously going to check real rakeback, was all a bit too geeky for me tbh 😅 but nonetheless interested to see the figures if he continued with it. I might have a look and see if I can find who it is.

 

[P0kerM0nk]

Right, here we are, about 100 days after signing up to GGpoker and signing up to the killer whale promo, managed to get to the required 400k points to retain the rank for another year. Bit tight in the end and I started 4 tabling Rush & Cash (R&C aka zoom) about a week and half ago.

Not my cup of tea 4 tables of R&C as it's sometimes hard to keep up with the pace especially when you want to think about a spot or play it more exploitative etc. I often sit out whilst playing to concentrate on a hand lol. Lots of people play 4 tables and I kind of understand why the pool is quite nitty overall. Easy to just keep folding till you get a good or better hand.

So deposited £500 end of January which was $635 as GG is in dollahs, started at 25NL which was meh but with bonuses moved up to 50NL once I had 1k in the bankroll. Moved up to 100NL at 3k which was the start of March.

50NL went pretty decent for a short sample but then at 100NL it was a bit of a meh start, breakeven and maybe insecurity was part of that, kind of overestimating the pool while lots of them are pure nits, regs and fish.

 Took till 2nd part of April to start running pretty decent, or playing better I don't know. I don't feel like I've changed much in my game but I started hitting a lot more so def running better than when I started at GG.

So pure winnings from playing are $3,730.81 (don't forget it's in dollahs!) over 122k hands and 3 stakes but most at 100NL.

For graph ref:

25NL:

50NL:

100NL:

As for actual rakeback % during this, I have no idea as this PVI is all of a secret more or less and I haven't tracked it up to now and no idea how to check this in retrospect so I'll check my PVI out in the next couple of sessions and see if I can work it out.

The promo stated up to 50% and even on the fish ranks it says average cashback so no idea how to interpret this all, just a complicated system where they hand less rake back to regs and hand it back through other random schemes.

What I did notice from my weekly cashback was that the amount I received after moving up to 50NL and then 100NL that this wasn't in perspective with what I received when I started at 25NL so I can only assume that they fiddled with my PVI at some point.

As there are different ways of rakeback etc on GG I recorded these and here are the numbers for the 100 days:

Total cashback (paid out weekly):  +$2,004.08
Participated once in a bad beat jackpot (by folding lol):  +$412.42
ThanksGG: +$541.63
Chinese Promo: +$50.48
Daily Leaderboards: +$253.5
Deposit bonus: +$600 (completed)

Current bankroll is sitting at $8,800 

All the numbers don't add up exactly to my bankroll (think I also played some regular tables) but can't remember whatever else I received when I started etc, doesn't matter. Also took some money off so that's only the theoretical balance. 

Total profit everything included (excluding deposit): $8,200 / €7,600 / £6,500

Going forward, want to focus more on learning again, need to get these carrot corner courses finished and I've now also signed up to carrot corners video subscription, I like the content and today is the last day if you want to get a discount btw (6th of May). Also want to get into GTO wizard again a bit more so got enough to do rest of the year 😅

 I'll keep on playing 100NL R&C but might mix in some regular tables and see how that goes.

And as said in a previous post, still have 100k BP on Unibet and guess I could buy a 1k 50NL ticket, 20 buy ins and 3k flops to be seen sounds more manageable than 10 buy ins on a 100NL ticket.

And that's about it, will come back when I have an idea of my actual rakeback %, and going forward on GG, I have this platinum whale rank for a year but it will be hard to maintain this as the required points are slightly higher than what I managed so far so I guess I'll have to move up at some point 😃  

[HardGain]

Great numbers there! 💪 Seems you took full advantage of promos 👍 and its great to see you back on track.
Because I want to fully understand, I dare to ask a noob question: what is PVI? 🧐

[Stubbe-Unibet]

14 hours ago, P0kerM0nk said:

Right, here we are, about 100 days after signing up to GGpoker and signing up to the killer whale promo, managed to get to the required 400k points to retain the rank for another year. Bit tight in the end and I started 4 tabling Rush & Cash (R&C aka zoom) about a week and half ago.

Not my cup of tea 4 tables of R&C as it's sometimes hard to keep up with the pace especially when you want to think about a spot or play it more exploitative etc. I often sit out whilst playing to concentrate on a hand lol. Lots of people play 4 tables and I kind of understand why the pool is quite nitty overall. Easy to just keep folding till you get a good or better hand.

So deposited £500 end of January which was $635 as GG is in dollahs, started at 25NL which was meh but with bonuses moved up to 50NL once I had 1k in the bankroll. Moved up to 100NL at 3k which was the start of March.

50NL went pretty decent for a short sample but then at 100NL it was a bit of a meh start, breakeven and maybe insecurity was part of that, kind of overestimating the pool while lots of them are pure nits, regs and fish.

 Took till 2nd part of April to start running pretty decent, or playing better I don't know. I don't feel like I've changed much in my game but I started hitting a lot more so def running better than when I started at GG.

So pure winnings from playing are $3,730.81 (don't forget it's in dollahs!) over 122k hands and 3 stakes but most at 100NL.

For graph ref:

25NL:

50NL:

100NL:

As for actual rakeback % during this, I have no idea as this PVI is all of a secret more or less and I haven't tracked it up to now and no idea how to check this in retrospect so I'll check my PVI out in the next couple of sessions and see if I can work it out.

The promo stated up to 50% and even on the fish ranks it says average cashback so no idea how to interpret this all, just a complicated system where they hand less rake back to regs and hand it back through other random schemes.

What I did notice from my weekly cashback was that the amount I received after moving up to 50NL and then 100NL that this wasn't in perspective with what I received when I started at 25NL so I can only assume that they fiddled with my PVI at some point.

As there are different ways of rakeback etc on GG I recorded these and here are the numbers for the 100 days:

Total cashback (paid out weekly):  +$2,004.08
Participated once in a bad beat jackpot (by folding lol):  +$412.42
ThanksGG: +$541.63
Chinese Promo: +$50.48
Daily Leaderboards: +$253.5
Deposit bonus: +$600 (completed)

Current bankroll is sitting at $8,800 

All the numbers don't add up exactly to my bankroll (think I also played some regular tables) but can't remember whatever else I received when I started etc, doesn't matter. Also took some money off so that's only the theoretical balance. 

Total profit everything included (excluding deposit): $8,200 / €7,600 / £6,500

Going forward, want to focus more on learning again, need to get these carrot corner courses finished and I've now also signed up to carrot corners video subscription, I like the content and today is the last day if you want to get a discount btw (6th of May). Also want to get into GTO wizard again a bit more so got enough to do rest of the year 😅

 I'll keep on playing 100NL R&C but might mix in some regular tables and see how that goes.

And as said in a previous post, still have 100k BP on Unibet and guess I could buy a 1k 50NL ticket, 20 buy ins and 3k flops to be seen sounds more manageable than 10 buy ins on a 100NL ticket.

And that's about it, will come back when I have an idea of my actual rakeback %, and going forward on GG, I have this platinum whale rank for a year but it will be hard to maintain this as the required points are slightly higher than what I managed so far so I guess I'll have to move up at some point 😃  

Impressive numbers. Well done! Based on your hands data, I guess you paid 9-11k in rake, but that really is just a guess 🙂

[P0kerM0nk]

@HardGain PVI stands for Player Value Index, copy paste from the internetz:

"The GGPoker network monitors your game patterns and results, and on their basis, you get the so-called — Player Value Index (PVI). In theory, its value can vary from 0 to 2. It's common to believe that the PVI of amateurs tends to 2, and of winning grinders is always less than 1. But, the exact calculations are only known by the network."

Apart from that it seems or people seem to think your PVI rating can change depending on how you play or on how you run and even by changing game type you play and what not. GG likes to keep things quite hazy as when you go to PokerCraft (GG external tracking site) they show your stats in dodgy ways where it might look like you win more than you actually do. Downloading hands is probably the best way to actually track your game. 

I did play some hands on regular tables when I joined GG btw so that's where the small discrepancy is in bankroll numbers. I'm interested to see how the next 100k hands at 100NL R&C will be and if I can keep it profitable pre rakeback. Doesn't feel like it's the hardest pool but the amount of fish nits and reg nits is sometimes baffling. I'd guess 200NL R&C will be harder as that's the biggest limit for R&C so that's another reason I want to get more theory in before moving up which might well be end of the year who knows. But I will try regular tables again as well, I prefer the dynamics on regular tables and it feels easier to build up reads of the moment.

@Stubbe-Unibet Have no idea how you come to that number but then my rakeback would have been 25% ish, I'll def have a look at calculating my PVI and see if it maybe changes over time. And I just continue keeping track of all the other indirect rakeback features like I did and see if there is a difference now the promo has ended although technically I'm on the same rank, might not be in reality who knows.

Edited May 7 by P0kerM0nk

[Stubbe-Unibet]

7 minutes ago, P0kerM0nk said:

@Stubbe-Unibet Have no idea how you come to that number but then my rakeback would have been 25% ish, I'll def have a look at calculating my PVI and see if it maybe changes over time. And I just continue keeping track of all the other indirect rakeback features like I did and see if there is a difference now the promo has ended although technically I'm on the same rank, might not be in reality who knows.

Super quick guess based on GG rake % and cap and hands per stake and roughly remembering how much rake it'd equal on our end. But it's from memory, so take it for what it is: a guess 😄 

[Livertool]

20 minutes ago, P0kerM0nk said:

@HardGain PVI stands for Player Value Index, copy paste from the internetz:

"The GGPoker network monitors your game patterns and results, and on their basis, you get the so-called — Player Value Index (PVI). In theory, its value can vary from 0 to 2. It's common to believe that the PVI of amateurs tends to 2, and of winning grinders is always less than 1. But, the exact calculations are only known by the network."

Apart from that it seems or people seem to think your PVI rating can change depending on how you play or on how you run and even by changing game type you play and what not. GG likes to keep things quite hazy as when you go to PokerCraft (GG external tracking site) they show your stats in dodgy ways where it might look like you win more than you actually do. Downloading hands is probably the best way to actually track your game. 

I did play some hands on regular tables when I joined GG btw so that's where the small discrepancy is in bankroll numbers. I'm interested to see how the next 100k hands at 100NL R&C will be and if I can keep it profitable pre rakeback. Doesn't feel like it's the hardest pool but the amount of fish nits and reg nits is sometimes baffling. I'd guess 200NL R&C will be harder as that's the biggest limit for R&C so that's another reason I want to get more theory in before moving up which might well be end of the year who knows. But I will try regular tables again as well, I prefer the dynamics on regular tables and it feels easier to build up reads of the moment.

@Stubbe-Unibet Have no idea how you come to that number but then my rakeback would have been 25% ish, I'll def have a look at calculating my PVI and see if it maybe changes over time. And I just continue keeping track of all the other indirect rakeback features like I did and see if there is a difference now the promo has ended although technically I'm on the same rank, might not be in reality who knows.

I joined that promo too as it sounded sweet and no doubt it was for you but after i read t&c and PVI i had no clue what was going on and hence quit even trying. Why the f they have to make things so complicated???

[P0kerM0nk]

@Livertool you must be one of the few who reads T&C 😄

I heard of the PVI before and higher rake but never had a good look into it, also had a deposit bonus so why not sign up and then see how it goes, only thing I didn't like about the deposit bonus is that it released in increments of $1 lol, so you basically never feel like you are getting much back as it's drip feeding back into your account, all 600 of them 😂

Rake has never been a major factor for selecting a site for myself, sure less is better but I'm not a pro and playerpool and software are probably more important. Unibet is still up there, only thing missing is probably traffic (although not terrible) and hotkeys 😁

Now let's see if we can double this one 😋

 

 

[Livertool]

1 hour ago, P0kerM0nk said:

you must be one of the few who reads T&C 😄

Lets rephrase it, i tried to read and understand t&c but gave up after few tens of lines. On top of that i came up with that PVI at some point and as i googled it things got even more difficult to understand. Not that i play for rb but would be nice to understand how it actually works but as it turned out it is impossible for PVI. As i understood it recs get more and regs less but it ain't that simple in the end.

I also played via olybet, first week i got 20€ back straight to my account for losing 200-300€ in cash tables, second week didn't get anything which i informed cs about and they just said rb will come later until i found out that i need to redeem them myself from app. So while first week rb of 20 seemed like goldmine, in the end don't know if it were all from that promo or added value from olybet side and apparently neither did cs. Conclusion was just to leave it as i wouldn't ever play so much that i could keep killer whale level.

Also their app is pretty heavy and don't offer option to play split windows on tablet so wasn't for me. Liked the squeeze option of cards and the promo but downsides of heavy app and who knows what you get for playing made me quit.

[Samba]

Glad you're back I enjoyed reading the blog.

Dunno why you're wasting your time on carrot corner the only thing that guy is good at is sales techniques. (IMO) 😉

[P0kerM0nk]

Imo he gets too much hate, I read the post on 2+2 where he gets a lot of stick haha. I'm not even sure why people are even that bothered, if you don't like him or his content just move on. Sure he hasn't played for a long time and that's what most of the negativity comes from but I do like the way he explains hands and concepts etc. It's also on the level I play so that's maybe why it suits me. And you can criticize everyone really so whatever.

Bad start with my Unibet ticket, just over 3 buy ins down 😂

Hand of the session, splashy whale in CO, which I wasn't totally aware of at that point of how splashy, he limps, BTN fish reg iso 4BB, I call, whale calls, I check, whale 1/2, reg folds I call, he 1/2 turn again and I just x/r all in and he called it off 53o and we don't get there 😭 welcome back at Unibet 😂

[Samba]

He uses lots of buzz words and some of his content is good, specifically the stuff with clanty. Just don't think any of his stuff is worth money since he is recycling and rebranding all of the free content that is already out there - apart from the clanty stuff.

[RichardB]

I would agree with @Samba on carrot corner. I think it's way overpriced for what it is - you can get better content elsewhere for much better value if you want to study.

He has some decent concepts but you can pick most of these up for free on his youtube channel.