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From Poker Donk To Winning Monk


P0kerM0nk

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No clue what to call this thread so there you go 😛

I'm a 35y old Belgian guy living in the North East of Scotland after moving in with the gf in 2013.

Background: started playing poker in 2010 and never really been a winning player, more like a break even slight winner. I'm a guy who can play forever with a bankroll and not win nor lose anything 🤣 think I started out with some donkaments on PokerStars but then changed to cash games as that suits better with a full time job. Eventually found Unibet and loved the anonymity and the ability to play without software.

Always had a full time job as a CNC Machinist so definitely never relied on poker as an income, no chance either as explained above lol. I started playing again start of this year after some years off (since 2016 maybe?) and taking it a bit more serious this time. Deposited £100 I think to start at 4nl and had to add another £50 bit later as bankroll had a skydive and I wanted to stay at 10nl at that time, again I think as can't check deposit history anymore.

I ended up down in March, then doubled my bankroll in April and been going strong since then, working my way up to 50nl atm. 25nl was where the real struggle started to become better as regs become a bit tougher. Been playing 50nl since end of last month so feel really comfy playing at this level now and bankroll sits at $1780, had a good day yesterday with $250 up after playing 5-6h maybe. And that's probably the biggest 'problem' , getting enough volume in. Not always easy when you have a fulltime job and a dog, cooking, watching tele, gf etc. Even during this Covid19 crisis I've not been off work at all beside a week of holiday where I managed to make about €100 a day at 25nl.

My goal: well I don't really have a goal, just becoming a winning/stronger player and if I can beat 100nl easily (this year?) I would find that a pretty decent achievement. I used to play 100nl on PokerStars (don't ask me how I got there) so doing that again maybe this year but better and proper bankroll management then this would be great.

To end I'll give you some stats from my cashgames from this year up to end of May, hope the calculations are right 😀 and just ignore 50nl as small sample size. I'll get some proper number after this month as only played 50nl.

NL04 hands played: 10167 won: €113.45 => 27.9 bb/100
NL10 hands played: 10002 won: €86.75 => 8.67 bb/100
NL25 hands played: 45130 won: €858.27 => 7.6 bb/100
NL50 hands played: 1305 won: €101.34 => 15.5 bb/100

For the rest, won't be daily updates as don't play that much but I'll try to do at least one a week. Also be looking for some kind of (free) hand replayer as Unibet obviously doesn't make it able to share hands that easy and that way I could maybe share a few hands here.

End of the month is also the end of the quarter before the challenge points reset and I'll try to get to 250k, I just passed 175k now giving me some extra bonus points which I'll use to buy €5 hexapro tickets and hope to add some €€ to my bankroll.

I sometimes do play a tournament here and there too, mostly bounty ones but my MTT strategy knowledge is very limited so if I ever win one it's by lots of luck lol. And actually all these buy-ins do bite a bit in my bankroll too over time so I try to limit it. I do like to play the €5000 Ice Giant Bounty every Sunday for lolz and I'm already happy to get my buy-in back haha.


Thanks for reading the long intro and good luck at the tables (except against me :Cheeky:)

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Thanks guys 😃

Didn't manage to get back on the pc sadly enough for another session but played 9x €5 hexapros bought with my bonus points. Only €30 return, 2x €7,5 and a €15.

Not getting much luck with these €5 hexapros.  I had a dabble before in them and played 165x €2, winning 67 and making €72 profit. Then I switched to €5 ones and so far played 95 of them, winning only 23 and down €190. Not hitting big multipliers either. Won the 10x multiplier 3 times on €2 but have yet to win one on the €5 and maybe only seen it 2 or 3 times. Damn variance :waterfall:

€44 up today, bricked the £25 buy-in bounty tourney so no gain there. So being end of the week, that's me up €370. I'm happy with any positive number

 

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Just an update from this week, not too much has happened. Seen about 400 flops on Unibet so not the most volume but something I didn't mention is I also play on Run It Once (RIO) from time to time and played a few sessions there start of the week when there was enough traffic going. Much harder than Unibet for sure with no table selection at all if there are already tables running to start with. I've got €130 rakeback to grind out and not sure if I'd stay playing there or not. Initially went up €300 playing 4nl and then 20nl (10nl does not run at all) and hit a big downswing leaving me with just €100 at some point but got it back up to just under €300 now. Very swingy, games are tougher but I see it as an opportunity to improve my game. Not sure what I did right in the first place building up my bankroll there and wrong to destroy it lol. Some bad play / tilt for sure along the road, which doesn't happen a lot to me anymore compared to years ago.

Run It Once is also the place I watch training videos and love the content so far, some decent teachers there for people like me who are starting from the micro stakes.
I have watched From The Ground Up (Peter Clarke) when I started again this year and I'll be revisiting it again but this time I'll be taking notes so I don't have to re-visit again in the near future. I've also watched all of Iain Salter's videos and they are gold as well, and again I will need to re-watch these and take notes of things to remember. 

I'll be off for 2 weeks in 2 weeks time and will be going through some more learning then. Also the start of the 3rd quarter on Unibet so I will be able to start that at 50nl this time round and hopefully get a bit further into the rewards for some bigger returns.

Bankroll sitting at €1750,  played a bit of the new Hexapro Banzai this week with the promo running but obviously no luck, it's all about winning the biggies which I haven't 😛

Plan for the weekend: watching a few vids and getting in some volume. 194k reward points atm, not sure I can make it to 250k before end of the month but will see.

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Quick recap of yesterday, 560 flops seen so did put some volume in and passed the 200k rewards, €35 cash and clearing the last €15 of €25 bonus. 
€227 up in total, reward/bonus included so far, so had a good day. On 212k points now but not sure I'll get to 250k by Tuesday, would like to get the 10k bonus points as that would be 20 free €5 hexapro's. Probably be playing the banzai version, think I prefer the faster format.

2 hands of yesterday on same table, start of the day was a lot like this hand, villain is pretty much a whale, getting it in good 🆒

hand1.png.b497fce9d164d25e994e6d1dd53ddb89.png

Doh!
hand2.png.5daaea391429e057c5156de235235d1b.png

Then later on the same table and same villain,  can't remember how preflop action went, think I opened UTG, sb (reg) 3b, whale called and I obviously called as well.
sb just 3 barreled off with whale and myself calling it off, don't think sb thought much about what I could have as he was insta betting whilst I was hoping I didn't come accross another set but thankfully just raked it in, wouldn't mind winning a pot like this every session :Inlove:

hand3.png.a42941bf85b9857676002b5e58eaf7c5.png

Also Unibet should fix the history page in our profile, can't look up a hand ID by number nor rank all hands from biggest to smallest pot etc, annoying as would be nice to have a look at some hands later on.

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Nice blog. Looking forward to see your NL50 sample the NL25 results are quite impressive and @ 45k hands its starting to get interesting variance wise. Great job and GL moving forward!

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Thanks, I'm just waiting on the results coming in, Unibet employees are slacking I'm sure a few people are waiting on their results from the past month.

I'll also drop by in your blog as I saw you had a question about the stake differences. Didn't play today as was too tired and it's not bad having a day off at times, time to reset the brain as sometimes you get stuck in a poker rabbit hole lol.

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Yes I did, so it was interesting to see ur results here. I def know what u mean. Some days its better to take a break. Anyway if u wanna talk a bit more about Cash games or anything u can hit me up anytime. Again all the best ;)

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Still waiting on the June results but I'm up anyway. Unibet bankroll end of June was €1800. Bit of a break even ish stretch in the last week but made €577 profit for the month. Made €162 profit on RIO playing some NL20 so total I'm up €739. Had a better month in May on Unibet but not if I include RIO. All in all, it doesn't matter, I'm up and happy with that. It's also hard to judge if it's variance or bad play or something else on Unibet as you can't track much. I do know I played a wee bit too laggy or without enough discipline against some weaker players where I tried to force too much and not happy with that.

Prob staying on NL50 for a while, not sure when I might give NL100 a shot, I just want to improve some things at my game first before moving up. This is more important for myself as I'm sure I could give NL100 a shot now but I rather keep the bankroll growing as it is and don't want to end up with losing a few buyins at NL100 making me feel miserable lol. Eventhough it isn't really about the money but it would tilt me 😀

Had a small session today, 62 flops seen, up €160 😃 bankroll €1960 ran hot today, probably going to be a crap weekend haha, variance😏

*** forgot to note that I will only know my real profits of last months NL50 when I get the stats as some money gets donked away in hexapro's and some tourney's :haha:***

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And the numbers are in! @ReCorpH 😏 😉

25214 hands played and €626.95 profit aka 4.97 bb/100 guess I'll take that thanks! 

Got €50 less profit on the actual Unibet bankroll so I've lost €50 on tournaments and hexapro's etc, not bad I'd say as I'm not a 'specialist' at anything else than cash games.

Played the Ice Giant Bounty again today and the 2 Mission tourney's, bricked em all. I really need some tourney basic strategy and I might buy the From The Ground Up MTT version on RIO for when I'm off in holiday in a week. I loved the cash version of this course and I'm sure the MTT version will be excellent for someone like me.

Not done too much learning lately and put in bit more volume instead. Another week of work then off for 2 weeks and will see to get stuck in and appoint some proper time to RIO training site etc.

Current bankroll €2136 that's €336 up for the month already, played around 4500 hands probably (based on flops seen) so think I'm running a bit hot so far, on Unibet anyway, RIO not so much.

Also facing redundancies at work (pretty sure I'm safe for now) so at least with these poker profits I'll still be able to buy bread every day 🤣

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Forgot to post a nice hand, I just joined the table and this is the 2nd hand I was dealt. Button openshoved so happy days, 3-way pot and a small sweat but we got there, 2 free buy-ins thank you very much 🆒  Guess some history between button and big blind. Say again online poker is dead 😛

HandKK.png.e82b559b0e6af0a4402bfe2dd9d641f6.png

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Well that's me on holiday for the next 2 weeks, had a lazy day today so never fired up a table but watched a poker video and will watch another one before bed. That will be the focus for the next few days, starting with From The Ground Up course on RIO, watched it before but will do again and take notes this time to sharpen up my current game.

So far so good this month, played poker on 7 days and only lost on one of those days with only €11 down 😛
Running pretty good and Im up €670 on Unibet for this month and hope to keep this trend going but guess variance will hit back at some point but not gonna worry about that for now lol. Played a bit on RIO but games are just too mad there, low traffic and lots of shorthanded play and probably 10x more aggro than Unibet. Can't find my way in those games, not sure if it's variance or my game just doesn't work for the aggro games. My small bankroll there is pretty much stagnant atm, bit of a headscratcher.

Maybe the studying will improve my game on there but Unibet will be the main focus anyhow, not sure when I'm taking a shot at NL100. Bit of a mental barrier maybe as not sure how the games are or how good the regs are compared to NL50. Probably isn't that big of a difference as long as there are enough weaker players but moving up always requires a small period to adapt I find. Maybe try and reach €3000 first and then give it a shot. Or maybe try it tomorrow night, weekend evenings are mostly a bit softer so we will see.

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Let's do a recap of the weekend,  been watching some training videos although still have to start that From The Ground Up course which I will as of today. 
Poker been going ok, hit a high of €2545 on Saturday and had a feel at NL100 just to see what betsizes people use and how the pool plays compared to NL50. 

Started on NL50 but lost about a buy-in, nothing special but then played NL100 on Sunday night which was pretty rocky, feel like the regs are much nittier and my play has to be more on point and also less random players than at NL50 as well. Was down 3 buy-ins, got most of it back and then ended up with some bad flips and called it a day lol. Bankroll now sitting at €2105. Quiet a bit of regs who play both NL50 and NL100 and overall I don't find NL50 amazingly hard so still trying to find my feet a bit at NL100. Probably will be playing bit of both stakes from now on depending on how many tables are running and be a bit more selective for NL100. And revert back to NL50 only if the bankroll takes too much of a hit. That's the plan!

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Monday madness! Had another session at NL100 but seems I've won too much lately and Unibet switched on the doomswitch, can not flop a thing, nor win a flip and what not, lost a few buy-ins again and now back at NL50, even there I lost like 4 buy-ins and bankroll sitting at €1400 which is pretty absurd. Had a break even stretch last month lasting a week but not experienced a downswing like this for ages, excellent timing Unibet 😠 
New plan will be grind NL50 till €3000 then give NL100 a shot again. 

Finished the July Mission Part 4 today giving me 20 free slot spins, won exactly €0.00 from 20 spins, sums up my day!

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Not much luck either today, barely started a session and lost 2 buy-ins vs the same reg 😞
luckbox1.png.69f705dec6a6926167c97f624bc677d2.png
Then lost AK vs his QQ, no screenshot as standard.
Then the same reg went AIPF vs another person, all these hands happened like within 5min of each other lol, when is my turn again Unibet?
luckbox2.png.a69a806ea8afd6d6524780a682423680.pngAnd not all bad, ran better at end of session for some damage limitation, this one was a nice one:
StrFlush.png.920820bb36235834d54a6fb16149143b.pngMight play some more hands later so will see, Unibet runbad continues, €80 up at RIO at NL20 in last few days so it's not all doom & gloom 😀

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So haven't played as much as I thought I would being a holiday but can't really be an antisocial *beep* all day long when gf is home as well 😛

Battled a break even stretch for most of the week since last update not making much progress, not winning flips and facing lots of regs there top ranges... not much to be said. Friday was a better day and just been playing on my phone for most part but managed to get up over 4 buy-ins at NL50 and now bankroll is back at €1820, back in the profit as started the month with €1800 lol.

2 hands vs a whale at the same table
flippingit.png.a2a7a5607aacc9d411f82f91ee2cafbd.png
Deuces.png.c8c062f79210da09f4d05f2f4ef8f659.png
Hope we can start building up the bankroll again from here on and I have a decent weekend, still got another week of holiday to go and Im still working my way through From The Ground Up and watching other videos so eventhough volume has been a bit low I've not given up lol.

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Can not seem to get away from this runbad stretch which kinda started when I took a shot at NL100 😞  ended the day yesterday with almost 6 buyins down at NL50, very frustrating period of time, every pot I enter with some value hand always ends in disaster, rivers in particular have been very brutal lately where villains hit there 4 or 2 outers.

This is the last hand I played last night when I finally had enough of it, not the best example and it is what it is.
UTG opened and I overcalled with whale in the BB, BB checked, UTG cbets I call, BB raises UTG folds and I just chip it as nothing else to do with SPR.
Happy to see the turn, river not so much.

fail.png.8af1af726351314b07d05756a8d7db8c.png

Unibet this has to stop! 

Now please!
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Not too much happening on Unibet, was up for the month but then lost 6 buy-ins again on Saturday lol which I have so far recovered 3 of, have played a bit more on RIO as seem to be running a bit better there on NL20, up €330 for the month there and they have a rakerace going on this week so depending on traffic I might play a bit more there when possible. 

Wasn't going to bother with part 5 of the July Mission as need to end up in the money during 2 consecutive days in a MTT but kinda managed to reach the final table of the Sirius Banzai Bounty twice so I'll finish up that mission now for the 500 bonus points and €5 banzai CG ticket. Been buying €5 hexapro tickets with my bonus points but haven't had much success with winning lots of them so think I'm going to switch back to the €2 hexapro ones and hopefully get a better return there.

Also have the double trouble and super double trouble freeroll to play so fingers crossed I bink em both for a potential €440 bankroll boost :happy: but I'm keeping my expectations low haha. Bit of a weird month so far, think with losing a bit at NL100 it feels like I haven't got anywhere this month as it screws the overall balance but don't think NL50 has been that bad overall, 2 weeks to go and we will find out when I request the results of the month. So for the meantime, keeping on grinding!

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Just keep going. Variance can be devastating. Started playing NL25 at the start of a month, took a shot at NL50 – had to back down – grinded NL25 again for a while – took another shot. Last week I continuously ran into villain’s top ranges with the 2nd nuts (on draw heavy boards, obviously). Then, yesterday, out of nowhere I got dealt multiple setups – still ran into better hands sometimes but managed to suck out in huge spots.

 

You just have to keep going. If you are a winning player you will get out of that downswing. Eventually. Good luck at the tables (not against me, though)!

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@GamesDean wrote:

Just keep going. Variance can be devastating. Started playing NL25 at the start of a month, took a shot at NL50 – had to back down – grinded NL25 again for a while – took another shot. Last week I continuously ran into villain’s top ranges with the 2nd nuts (on draw heavy boards, obviously). Then, yesterday, out of nowhere I got dealt multiple setups – still ran into better hands sometimes but managed to suck out in huge spots.

 

You just have to keep going. If you are a winning player you will get out of that downswing. Eventually. Good luck at the tables (not against me, though)!


Very well said. Mental game is one of the most difficult aspects for me. I was on such a downsing, losing every flip and pretty much running into incredible setups that I withdrew most of my BR. I think the downsing is ending and I'm trying to work on my mental game to avoid doing this.

Anyways, this blog is an inspiration, keep up the great work!

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@Legend_Kileer  @GamesDean  @conmebol99  thanks for the visit and the comments all 😃

I agree that mental game is a special part of a poker players arsenal and it can affect you in all kind of different ways. So far I feel pretty impartial about the downswing and the bad shot I had at NL100 probably because I still have enough money sitting in my bankroll and I'm pretty confident I can grind my way out of this. My game has evolved a lot since I started again almost 6 months ago now and I think I can see myself as a winning player now (even if its marginal) but that doesn't mean there isn't space for improvement as I still make bad plays and also recognise that I can still improve in a lot of spots vs decent players.

I still enjoy playing and if I could improve my game let's say by the end of the year so I could play NL100 on a more regular base and with a solid game then I'd be happy with that. As long we don't go broke it's all good 😏

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@conmebol99 wrote:



Very well said. Mental game is one of the most difficult aspects for me. I was on such a downsing, losing every flip and pretty much running into incredible setups that I withdrew most of my BR. I think the downsing is ending and I'm trying to work on my mental game to avoid doing this.

Anyways, this blog is an inspiration, keep up the great work!


Imo, the mental game is the most overlooked part of poker strategy. It’s absurdly easy to tilt – and it will affect your winrate massively.

 

Nowadays, my mental game is stronger but I’m still struggling with entitlement tilt when running bad. What helped me tremendously: Focussing on decision making. If I’m happy with my decision (while understanding that I can still lose the hand) I’m tilting way less. If I’m then running into villain’s top range (when I beat 90 % of his calling range), I’m like: Yeah, that sucks, but that’s part of his range.

 

You just have to accept that even the biggest whale rarely gets it in drawing dead – even if you are 90 % to win the pot, you WILL lose every tenth time.

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