Crush it in 2021

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey just back for end of session. Pleased to say it went pretty well on the whole. I was pleased with my play. 

Here's a fun spot that came up early in the session, this was first pot I won of the 50nl campaign, so thought I'd record it for prosperity 🆒

And here's another spot... this one I'd like your thoughts on! What do you think here? What would you have done?

Really interested to hear your thoughts on both, no matter if you think you are right or not! 

Finished at midnight on the dot, as I had planned, even though I lost a fairly big pot a few hands before, pleased with the discipline :)

Bankroll:

 

[GamesDean]

Hand 1: Well played. Flop sizing is fine but personally, I would either bet smaller (33 %) or bigger (75+ %). By sizing small, you allow your oppponent to a) float more hands and b) make him raise with worse draws that you are miles ahead of. If you bet small and get raised, you could play your draw more aggressively by 3-betting flop, or you could just call, knowing that your K high is good a decent amount of the time (while having the benefit of half the deck improving your hand). By betting big, you build a pot more effectively. Additionally, you make it harder for your opponent to float your c-bet. That makes a lot of sense if your opponent is very tough to play (floats a lot in position / forces you in tough spots by constantly raising and betting big with air as well as good hands).

 

Hand 2: Well played. Flop shove is really player dependent. Against some, it’s awful. Against others, it’s very reasonable and effective. Although, you don’t shove because it’s tough to play future streets (which is true). You shove to protect your equity against hands that almost flip against your AK, e.g. KQ of clubs, KT of clubs, T9 of clubs. Even a hand as weak as T9 of diamonds has 23+ % equity on the flop. By shoving you take all that equity away. Of course, a hand like T9 of clubs could call the shove but if they ever fold a flush draw here, that’s a big win for you.

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey @GamesDean thanks alot for your feedback. Intetesting to hear your ideas about bet sizing on flop in #1 you make some great points, thank you!

And hand #2 also, was helpful to hear the shove should be player dependent, and you make a really excellent point that I shouldn't shove because later streets are difficult but to protect equity vs some players! 

If a spot is difficult to play, guess I just need to get better at playing it! 

Thans Dean!

[P0kerM0nk]

Hand 1 isn't a bad spot for a c/r if villain likes to stab a lot. Rest of the hand plays itself pretty much, never folding K high flush.

Hand 2, keep an eye on 3b sizes, OOP you are better raising 4x minimum. Big bet on flop is good, don't block FD's, minraise is weird and probably fishy. Honestly no idea what I would do, prob won't jam but re-raise anyway which effectively should be the same result although weaker players do sometimes call of 80% of a stack to 'get there' and then fold when they don't lol.

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey @P0kerM0nk  thanks appreciate the feedback, will keep an eye on the 3bet sizing!

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Yo guys. 

Dropped a little over 2 stacks today. 

Pleased with my play though. 

This was the second stack I just dropped (literally 2 minutes ago). 

I'm very pleased with my mental game. It was a bit annoying for a few moments then I just shrugged it off as poker, and fact I can do that with such a small bankroll, I think speaks a tonne for my mental game, so I'm confident this challenge will be in profit at some point soon. 

This player called a 3 bet with KQs, then c/raised flop to 14, then called my flop shove... 

for a total pot of 132 euros... to hit queen and king on river , that's poker, very happy with the result, happily get it all in on the flop there all day long :)

Bankroll update: 

[SkilfulPoker]

What up people. 

Just settling down to play a bit. Today I want to get clear on my goals for the next while with poker, because I am still inwardly a little confused about what I want. You should never play poker to win money. Of course that's the end result we want, but when you play or think about scheduling your sessions or your true motivation for playing, we shouldn't put to win money in that list. 

Because variance exists doesn't it. Despite fact I didn't tilt yesterday I still did feel myself attached to the results. I was sad I had a losing session. 

Anyway I did manage to win some money back before I eventually finished after my last update. Playing some sng's. Nothing higher than fifty euros as per my original guideline I set (and most were 25 euro) - so that's nice. But the bigger point is, I really do need to detach from swings in sessions at a fuundamental level. Also get clear on healthy positive reasons for playing that are within my control , such as, because I want to: 

- Master the mental game. 
- Become a better player technically. 
- Level up (move up in stakes... when the time is right etc.)

etc. etc. 

So yes will give all that some more thought. 

In meantime here is bankroll at start of today's session. 

I haven't decided if I'm playing SNG's or Cash or both tonight, but as always nothing will be higher than fifty euro's what ever I play. 

Will report back how that went in about 3 hours! Going to try to get a couple of hours play in and about an hour of study tonight. 

[SkilfulPoker]

Another pretty brutal session... back down to 47 euros. Didn't win one all in that counted in the HU SNG's I just played, also lost KK vs QQ aipf at 50nl. 

Bankroll 47.48. 

From now on I'm just going to play within reccomended bankroll management rules. 

So am going to wait until I can deposit 25 stacks for whatever limit I want to play. In a week I can deposit another £100, thanks to deposit limit here, so I might start back at 4nl in a week with 25 stacks, or wait until I can deposit more and play higher.  

[SkilfulPoker]

hmm ended up punting £200 on a betting exchange, on a tennis match, and it won. :cash: 😏

 

and had same bet (but placed earlier in the match) on Unibet with £40 odd I had left after post above, so unibet balance is currently: 

 

Unibet was streaming the match which is how I found it.

So I'm pleased to say we got lucky, and I'm no longer down £300 since starting this blog but up £698.00 

I spent about £100 this month on poker training resources also, so overal deducting that, am up £598.

I do realise that gambling on sports events isn't a get rich quick scheme and I had a lucky result which is nice, and how it should be or you will always go broke thinking you can just continue after a win and win more. 

I'm still sticking by the rule I posted above of following BRM from now which means I'm not going to move into a limit that I don't have 25 buy ins for. Have just increased deposit limit so after a day to think things through I can deposit an amount I'm comfortable with to play poker properly (bankrolled).

Because going broke with 6.4 buyins earlier wasn't fun. 

A lucky happy ending to the night/morning :Happy:

[GamesDean]

Well, 25 buy-in BRM still is somewhat aggressive. More so, when you feel attached to your results. The lower your winrate, the more downswings you will experience – therefore, the more buy-ins you need to even out said downswings. It’s not surprising that you went broke playing with 6 buy-ins. Swings for 10+ buy-ins are a given if you play long enough, no matter how good you are. Personally, I start taking shots at a new limit with 40 buy-ins. I used to play more aggressive (similar to your approach) but it didn’t suit me. While not playing overly scared, there still were some scared money effects in play. Ultimately, it’s your decision and your money. Do what’s right for you. Good luck!

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey @GamesDean thanks for your points about bankroll management. You've practically just reinforced exactly what the training content I've been using said, which was use 40 buyins, if you must use less never use less than 25. It's good to hear feedback that is solid, thanks, and I think I did need to hear that reinforced.

Just so you know where my head is at, I want to get to 100nl and to be a winning player there within this year. At 100nl even just playing a hour a day and at weekends I think i could have a part time hobby for next while that pays for it's training materials and earns a little bit on the side as well as paying for my entries to some online mtts and sats

If we ever get out of lockdown I want to travel to different cities playing some live cash poker, and some larger MTTs 

So thats basically my medium term poker  goals for next ~ 1 year.

In meantime my main goals are:

- Play in a way that allows me to enjoy the experience of playing. I'm really big on quality of experience and enjoyment in whatever I choose to do in my life now, it's all about quality of experience for me these days.

- Become a technically strong player. Which I hear is really important if you want to move up in stakes etc. And not stay at low stakes forever.

Given those are my goals and what you just said, I think I will start back at 25nl with 30 buyins, knowing if I bust that I can have another go in a cpl months. 

Then not move up to 50nl until I have 40 stacks, and follow 40 buy in move up rule going forward, and always move down the stake below if ever I hit 25 buyins for stake below. 

I think it might help rate at which I get back to 50nl, if I mix in some 25 sngs so will give that some thought as well. 

By the way, do you have a blog? Can you link it if you do, i'd like to read it, and if not can you mention a bit about your own game, am interested to hear!

 

 

[GamesDean]

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@SkilfulPoker wrote:

By the way, do you have a blog? Can you link it if you do, i'd like to read it, and if not can you mention a bit about your own game, am interested to hear!

 

---

First of all: Sounds like a good plan. Good luck!

 

To answer your questions: I don’t have a blog. Never occurred to me to have one. Regarding my background: I’m 28 years old and I’m playing online poker since the age of 18. Deposited once, never looked back. Didn’t really ever make a living from playing poker, though. Whenever I won more than €1k and I wanted to buy whatever, I would make a withdrawal. Don’t want to do that anymore. So I’m in an interesting spot right now, actually. Currently playing NL50, close to playing NL100 (40 buy-ins rule).

 

I don’t know how good I really am but I’m definitely somewhat knowledgeable. Never used tracking software, never really studied using solvers or anything. Learned from playing poker, watching other players play on YouTube / Twitch, discussing hands like we did here etc. I’m not trying to emulate GTO. It’s way more fun to tackle players psychologically and force them to do what I want them to do at the tables. Still, against strong regs I’m obviously applying some kind of GTO (e.g. bluffing when it makes sense and I have decent blockers).

 

By the way: Especially liked your bullet point regarding quality of experience. A couple of days ago I was almost at NL100 but had some unlucky spots. Impatiently, I tried and tried again and experienced a bad run. In the heat of the moment, I was convinced I was just unlucky. But, as it turns out, there was some entitlement tilt, for sure. It all went so well – I had an enjoyable upswing – that I didn’t want to wait. So I played although I didn’t feel like it. Took a couple days off, and it’s better now. Have to rebuild some of the damage I have done to my bankroll, though.

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey Gamesdean, thanks for the background, yes I really like your approach to the game. To be honest if I just had to learn GTO all day long, I don't think I'd even bother playing. I want to enjoy the experience! 

So I have taken a couple of days to think things through and here's what I've decided (slight change to my original plan). 

Instead of starting at 25NL I'm going to start at 25 euro 5man SNGs. I think the skill required to beat them is likely less than the skill required to beat 25nl. I also think I will be able to build a bankroll quicker playing them for 50nl, than I would be able to by playing 25nl. The reason I think this is because with cash you are always at 100bbs pretty much, which means you have to have a very rounded game postflop. 

With SNG's you need to be comfortable with shoving ranges / reshoves etc at 20BB and less, plus be reasonable at HU I think, and I think I already am pretty much. 

So we'll see how this goes. I just deposited £500, to bring my total bankroll to 712 euros, so just over 28 buyins. I will still play some cash for learning from time to time, but my main focus to build bankroll will be on SNG's, mostly 5mans, and 25 euro Headsup. 

 

 

Plan is to make 52 buyins profit at 25 SNG's... which will be 2k, and 40 stacks to move up to 50nl!

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey guys, 

Session went well yesterday from a profit point of view but terrible from a mental point of view. I think it's good to be aware of both those elements when you are looking at how well a session went. Well probabally you shouldn't even care about the profit in a session, just how well you played and the quality of your experience while playing. 

I'm very pleased I played as well as I think I could have, and I'm pleased that I didn't play anything higher than 25 euros which was always my goal. At one point in the session I was down to about 520 euros so down about 8 stacks (pretty regular really) but I found myself mentally affected by that, despite consciously fully knowing this was all part of playing poker, perfectly natural and totally just part of the game every day, some part of me refused to accept that, which meant I was tilted a bit while playing even if I didn't let it blow up into affecting my actions at the table. My mood was terrible. 

and I'm not playing to feel tilted when playing, I'm playing because:

• I want to enjoy the experience of playing
• I want to enjoy learning and getting a real and decent edge over the field of opponents I'm playing against
• because I want to make some poker friends, and
• when we get out of lockdown have a decent game to play live and do a bit of travelling

So why did I get tilted? It wasn't losing the money it was getting temporarily further away from what I really want to be doing (playing 50nl) and learning and improving at those stakes. So... I know bankroll management says 25 stacks minimum, but I'm going to start playing 50nl anyway, I have about 19 stacks, so risk of ruin shouldn't be too bad, especially as I'm just max 2 tabling. If I go broke I can always have another go in the future not end of the world. 

So tonight (or tomorrow) depending on when I have time to get another session, it'll be back at 50nl. 👍

Rules going forward are simple! 

Not moving up to 100nl until I have 40 stacks for 100nl.
Majority of play going to be at 50nl cash. 
If I play any SNG's/MTT's/Sats I can't play anything higher than 25nl. 

Here's bankroll after yesterday's session:

 

So P/L since I restarted is: + €231.14

From now on I'm not going to update profit in my session updates here, but just update profit and bankroll once per month (at the end of the month) because daily fluctuations in bankroll don't mean anything, so I'm not going to give them undue attention by reporting them every session!

 

 

[GR1ZZL3R]

@SkilfulPoker Good luck in your attempt to play higher but the br rules seem to be changing far too often. :teardrop: I'd suggest turning off your view of your account and just playing until you feel you've done enough or anything dramatic happens. I switched mine off a while ago and I think it helps. Fluctuations can be wild and stressing so updating or checking your br daily looks like it's not really helping.

 

I'm only updating my blog weekly if that, or if there's a sudden upswing. Keep it going. :Thumbsup:

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey @GR1ZZL3R I think that's great advice, and yes I will do that, I was thinking of doing that. It's great we got this feature in Unibet to be able to do that I think. 

Yeah the bankroll ideas have been kind of all over the place haven't they! When I started this blog, I was coming back to poker with a fresh mind, and virtually tilt free which is great, after working on myself a lot over the past 3 months or so away from the tables. But for the last 8 years I always had pretty stupid ideas and justifications for why I was the exception to having to follow propper bankroll management. 

Then before the recent redeposit I lost with 6 stacks which was not nice, and for once I was present enough to realize bankroll had a lot to do with that, and then I decided to take bankroll management more serious. So for sure I'm going to be more dedicated to following rules I set up from here on out. 

Given my goals at the moment aren't to make money but improve my game, it's not the end of the world if I bust (but would make me a bit sad lol), so starting out at 50nl now, I've struck a balance between wanting to play, and at least trying to not completely laugh in the face of bankroll management, 19 stacks isn't too bad I guess. I'm not going to move up to anything higher than 50nl unless I have 40 stacks for it. Those are rules I'm going to stick to from here on out. 

Thanks for following! 

[Merenitsu]

@SkilfulPoker  From a medical point of view. If you play at 50 nl, you feel an increase in heart rate and indorphins. More simply, adrenaline. This is not for you. I recommend downgrading. The greater the joy of winning, the greater the grief of losing. I just came up with this phrase myself. Now I understand what my advantage is. I have no joy in winning, but I have grief in losing 😃 GL.  But you have your own head on your shoulders, you decide 😃

[Merenitsu]

@SkilfulPoker  There is another positive quality of adrenaline. For a short time, your brain works on everything that your reserve is capable of. 😃

[SkilfulPoker]

ooh how fun! we have a valentine's date and it's at the poker table!

Let's see if we can hit this tonight :)

[SkilfulPoker]

got the valentines ticket

also got sucked into playing hexa's at 10 euro level because a few 1k jackpots were flying about so am still up at 3.29am :sad:

Oh well... lesson learned for next time... stick to finish time no matter the promos. 

Challenge going pretty well. Will update again in a bout a week 

gl at the tables 👍

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey guys, 

Poker has been going ok, but I haven't been playing much as I've been really busy which I am a bit dissapointed with! But I have been playing well when I played, and the bankroll has been going up and down. For the last week it was sitting at around 1100 euros. 

2 days ago my friend told me about an alt-coin called ecomi, which he thinks will do well. I decided to back it with £780 but of course just as I did that, it started to drop in price lol. Now the coin's only been out about a week so the drops etc. are normal and you shouldn't be looking at the chart price daily! But anyways. I was thining about this and I was a bit annoyed at myself for investing what was over half of my disposable income on it for time being. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I thought about things, and decided to place a sports bet!

What what you say? How does that make sense?! 

My thinking was if I risk 1k, at a decent price and the bet wins, my disposable income situation would be hugely improved. So that's what I decided to do. I wasn't risking my bankroll, but It would mean I would have half of my bankroll to play this month if the bet lost, as I could only re-deposit about 8 stacks, until next month. But to be honest the way things have been going with my poker that's not the end of the world, as I'm only playing 1 table over weekends, and the odd session in the evening. 

Anyway... Here is what happened guys, I made a video to share with you: :Happy:

No more sports betting today :) this was a very lucky bet. I have already submitted the withdrawal request! 

Poker bankroll currently: 

Poker is going very well, I have another session with my new poker friend scheduled this week. I met him in another forum, and he is also playing 50nl, and we meet once a week now to talk about our games and review some hands. And am enjoying learning poker when I get the time to study! One thing I'm going to do going forward is set volume goals. and playing goals. 

Also have these tickets from a week or so ago:

 and am looking forward to playing these on first of March, thanks for following guys, good luck at the tables! and thanks for sharing in my awesome good luck today!! 

From poker point of view I mention 100nl in video, I'm really not sure tbh, I might move up to 100nl, but I'm going to take some time to think on that. Going for a walk now to process the huge win :) 

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey guys, hope you are all doing good :) 

I contacted Unibet to ask if I could get a tournament setup for us. I was going to pay for some prizepool to share a little bit of the good luck I had recently with you guys :) Stubbe replied and said he will not only set it up... but what's more Unibet will pay the €100 prize pool!! How cool of Stubbe and Unibet , class act! Thank you @Stubbe-Unibet 

I know we all have our own games and sometimes luck on the felt sometimes not,  so hopefully this might share a bit of luck and also be fun

For entry I wanted to include anyone that has interacted with this blog before this post, so I went through and counted anyone that posted or liked any post in the blog, here is the list! 

@MetalWolf 
@P0kerM0nk 
@nightshopper 
@FreedoM 
@HardGain 
@LeVsKaRa 
@Merenitsu 
@Boby 
@pinki 
@GN1991 
@tatuaj7 
@Stubbe-Unibet 
@GR1ZZL3R 
@GamesDean 
@WuDu 
@psrquack 
@Livertool 
@MadAdo 
@Sparrow473 
@SCOBY (_Scoby)
@Rushbie 
@OmahGAWD 
@Thurddzz 
@HardGain 

Thanks for sharing the journey so far guys, great to be able to share it with you, and good luck at the tables! Once setup I'll post the date here , which will be a Wednesday and time of 6pm GMT :) it will be (non turbo) structure , and pretty small field so should be fun to play, please use your community alias or similar, so everyone knows who they are battling against in the community :) once I have password, I'll message it to everyone in above list 1 hour before tournament starts

 

[GN1991]

Nice idea @SkilfulPoker , but sadly Unibet no longer operating in my country, thank you for invitation anyway ♥️ Good luck everyone who will participate :)

[Livertool]

Always up for free money, thanks for invitation @SkilfulPoker :)

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Oh really sorry to hear that @GN1991 :teardrop: