GL!

GL mate!

Week 1 - Month 1
*days 1 - 7

Allright, I had a bad volume so far, but that's because I had a lot of shows to do this past week, I play the guitar and sing. You can check it out the rehersal and the show if you're interested.

So far I'm running so so, the regs at 200z are a little tougher than 100z regs (as expected), but I don't have enough sample to draw any conclusions yet. Also I've being playing reg tables.

Here is the graph.

GL all!

GL!!

Hey guys, just a quick update, things are going fine, I'm studying a lot and focusing on understanding some GTO defense stuff, I will only post monthly graphs from now on, unless its a best day ever type of thing.
GL all!

MONTH 1

Hey guys, just finished my first month of the challenge and it went super well. I'm feeling comfortable playing 200z, and I'll keep improving as much as I can.

I've been working hard on my game, especially on GTO, this is a part that I've always left behind but now I can see how important it is to understand the theory, also it's super complex making it very interesting and cognitively stimulating. Each day that goes by I fall more in love with the complexity of this game, and also the endless adjustments in strategy that is needed to be playing poker on a high level.

Of course I'm very thankful to Saulo and Zinhao for giving me this opportunity and for all the knowledge that they keep sharing with me, I'm extremelly lucky to be friends with these two and I remeber that everyday. I keep thinking on what would've been of my poker carrer if I wasn't willing to invest more than 50% of my bankroll on being Saulo's first student as a breakeven nl25 player exactly 1 year ago, without ever seeing anything like his way of thinking the game before, and just going with my gut + intuition that the methodolgy presented by him was the thing that made more sense that I've ever seen, it was literally a leap of faith.

Here's the graph:

graph

stakes

I'm actually running a little bit more above than EV, but PT4 has problems with certain hand histories.

Allright, so the month went very well considering it was my first time playing 200z, running well helps a lot too. Now its time for some monthly goals:

1. More volume - I want to play at least 75k hands
2. Studying - I don't like to put an exact number of hours in studying, but I just want to remeber myself to study everyday, focusing more on some days of the week than others
3. Gym - I want to go to the gym at least 3x times a week, if I only go 2 times in one week I'll go 4 times the next week
4. Mental game - Always keep improving the mental game, everyday that goes on I can see how important this is, I just can't put into words how much you need to take care of your mental game. I'll do this by re-reading "The Art Of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin this month, watching some videos from Gabriel Goffi than is an brazilian ex high stakes PLO poker player, I identify a lot with his way of doing things and the place where he speaks from really reasonates with me, especially the self denvelopment stuff, not so much the entrepreneurs things, since I'm not one (yet). I'll see if I can write some things about mental game stuff on this blog too.

Ok, so that's it guys. GL all and make the choice to make this month be the best of your carrer so far.

MONTH 2

Hey guys! We just finished April, this was the month that I had the most variance in poker in my career to date, and it was the month that the negative variance least affected me. When I say that the mental is important I mean seriously, a while ago a swing of 10 buy ins would already left me tilted, questioning my game and etc, this month I had a downswing of 22 buy ins (I lost 5.5k USD from my highest point to my lowest) and I was super calm, I'm not saying that I was perfect, I'm sure I made some mistakes that I would not have committed if I wasn't running so bad, but when you put things in perspective you see how much a swing does not matter, as long as you are a winner at the game, keep playing well and studying hard.

In relation to the studies I started the month very well but I noticed that more at the end of the month I studied less, I was very focused on playing and putting in volume. I'm happy that I was able to play more than my 75k hands goal.

The results were not so good but I found it ok considering this negative variance that I suffered in the middle of the month and that I've been playing 200z only since april, my winrate is still not as high as I want it to be but I will continue working on it and studying a lot. Oh, and I ended up failing my goal of going 3x a week at the gym or some exercise, I ended up averaging 2x a week.

Anyway, that's basically it. This month of May I will keep the goals that I set in April, that is, play 75k hands, go 3x in the gym / physical activity per week, and in relation to the studies I want to force me to study more effective as possible and studying the spots that will most impact my winrate, that is, spots that I have most leaks and that happen more often.

I also played a little of 100z in April and I saw how much this limit is easy compared to 200z (I never thought I'd say 100z is easy 1 year ago), but really, the regs still make a lot of mistakes, they do not put enough pressure, too much overfolding and so on, in addition to having a lot more recreational players. I want to feel like it playing at 200z because I bet that the best regs of the 500z feel the same way I feel with 100z compared to 200z. Anyway, I'm very far from being satisfied and I want to keep raising the stakes and evolving, I do not see the point in settle for one limit in my life situation.

graph

stakes

congrats for everything. i have a question for you guys: I currently struggle (breakeven /very small winner) at 10 nl . What should i do to improve my game? I can not afford to hire a coach and i kinda run out of options.

The importance of not feeling sorry for yourself

I was watching a video of James Obst, today on mental game and he touched on one subject that I think is EXTREMELY important and that will lead to an improvement in all other mental leaks of all players. Basically it's the concept of not being considered unlucky or complaining about how unfair the world is with you, man, considering that you're reading this forum, I already know some things: first, you have access to the internet, you have access to online poker, you have a cell phone or computer among thousands of other privileges, so consider yourself more lucky than a lot of people.

If you have access to online poker, you have access to something that about 20 years ago was considered impossible: making money at home any time you are willing to work without having to justify yourself to any boss, sometimes I think that people have no concept of how this is a huge privilege, if I open the lobby of any poker site there will be games from micro stakes to at least midstakes at any time of day, so just think a little about this. Another thing I see happening too much is a lot of people saying that today poker is difficult, it used to be easy to earn money and blah blah blah .. What I think when I see these kind of people is a lot of crying babies wanting easy money with as little work as possible, if you are one of those people, I recommend you to quit poker today, because the games will not get easier from now on.

Where do I want to go? Dude, try at least make the experiment to save your "bad luck" for yourself, NOBODY cares if you took a bad beat, if you're running bad, if the regulars have improved .. Instead, start to post those hands that you hit your draw and extracted the stack from the guy, about that recreational player that decided to bluff you when you had the nuts and etc, in this community if what you want is to get out as this unlucky person, it's the easiest thing in the world, there will be a lot of people to tell you that you don't deserve this run, that you're the most unlucky guy in the world, among other things.

If you post on forums or share hands with friends, try sharing those you were "lucky", try to talk about how you're doing well, and if that's not the case, learn to keep your lamentation to yourself and do something that in fact it will help you improve your winrate. I see a lot of people saying that the solvers and the dissemination of knowledge killed the game, when I see these things I see from another perspective: if a person really wants to do well in this game, he has ALL the tools needed for this, compare it to having to know that restricted group of people who only talk about strategy between themselves, now you have the opportunity to search for information, buy a solver and learn to use, for example, you can send me a message here about what to study and where to study or which coaches I recommend.

Finally, if you have the chance to win money with this game, STOP FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF, YOU ARE LUCY.

MONTH 3

Hey guys, May is over and it's I did some different things than before. Because of SCOOP I decided to dedicate myself more to the grind and didnt study much, but still studying something in about 4 to 5 times a week. The field was easier with but nothing of another world, I believe that the WCOOP may be better because it's winter in europe and ppl stay more at home, but just trying it to find out.

This month my emotional control improved even more, and it was not by chance, 80% of the days before I started the daily grind I did some kind of meditation of 10 minutes, I used Elliot Roe's Primed Mind or Headspace, both apps have different approaches, Primed is more to make you stay very focused on what you are going to do and think a little more about things, put a clear intention. On the other side Headspace is much more traditional meditation, very quiet every moment and is a little more mindfull in my view. In the old days I hated Primed Mind for the fact that the guy is never silent and let you focus on your breathing alone, but today I can see that the proposal is really different and I'm enjoying it. It's quite interesting to realize that the days I'm less willing to do this mental preparation are the ones I need it the most, it's only 10 minutes that can make a good difference during the game.

Another thing I wanted to say is that one of the most important things to be successful in this industry is to create a routine, you will not have any boss to tell you to do something or someone forcing you to study / play x hours a day , so it's you who have to be your own boss. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from poker is the creation of discipline, I was never a very organized guy with what I did or the environment that I was, mainly because I did not see value in what I was doing, in the case things related to school. I will not even begin to dwell on this subject because we all know how the school environment can be discouraging.

My daily routine is something like this: I wake up between 9 and 10 in the morning, I drink my coffee with butter, coconut oil and cinnamon, start studying some specific theme or hands played the day before, try to understand the spot deeply and study more or less 1 hour and a half. After that I play of about 2 hours, normally I play 50 minutes and rest 10 (best thing of zoom is to be able to do this). Then I have lunch (little carbohydrate here to not make me sleepy), I play or study about 1 to 2 hours and I go to the gym, I get back, eat, have a cold shower (very important to put the mind in the right place and get more focused), do the mental preparation with Primed or Headspace and start the grind, usually playing around 5 hours and end my day, but the nightly routine can be a little unpredictable.

When you put a routine that you create yourself and are trying to improve every day, you begin to see meaning in everything you do, and it becomes very difficult to be unmotivated to do what has to be done. You have created the routine, you know why this is important, you have all responsibility for your performance, you know you need constant hard work, you understand more and more why each detail in your routine and how each detail will help you perform better in what demands the greatest concentration and mental effort of your day.

Anyway, I hope I have helped those who feel unmotivated to grind / study by sharing a little of what I do, when you already have everything programmed it is no longer necessary to spend mental energy thinking about what will be done next, and it makes procrastination more unlikely, everything is easier. Consistency is imperative to reach the top of this industry.

Pokerwise it was a very good month, I ran well obviously but also felt very comfortable playing 200z, each time realizing more places in the game tree that the regs still make mistakes, as you can see by the graph, I ended up changing to HM2, because of the filters and some specific HUD stats. I'm really enjoying it, it's much better than PT4 in general.

I am very satisfied with my volume too, I admit that there were moments that I had to "force" myself to play, I think that happened because I did not study much, one of the biggest motivators to play for me is to study, apply new concepts that I learned by putting my hand in the dough and see how the field reacts. I think now in June I wont do 90k hands again, but who knows.

I also started coaching and it is very interesting, just reviewing simple concepts already helps me when studying and further refining this base. It's also interested in working on my didactics to really get the student to understand why the strategies and concepts are the way they are.

That's it, GL all!
graph

stakes

Really nice read so far. You are mentioning some really interesting topics. I think some of them are nowadays as important as the technical game and often players do not focus on them or neglect them completley by not understanding how important they are for our winrate in 2019.

MONTH 4

Hey guys, June is over and it was a month that I ended up doing less volume than I wanted, I really focused more on studying than the previous month, but I still consider my volume good

I had a bad period in the middle of the month and it ended up affecting my game a little bit, but I ended up recognizing these things and managed to change, by the end of the month I was already playing my A game very focused again.
One thing I don't hear often about downswings or breakeven periods is that they don't really exist in the present and that they are a great opportunity for you to see what was wrong with your game instead of crying all day because of the variance.

Downswings usually look like this:

negative variance> mental game affected by negative variance> the player starts to play worse than before> his winrate decreases> minor winrate = more variance> starts to make plays that he would not do before because he wants to recover the money> he is no longer playing in the level that was in relation to the beginning of the downswing> starts to lose by the fact of playing badly> the whole thing turns into a snowball and he ends up losing for much longer than he "should"

As you can see, just the fact of saying "I'm in a downswing" is already a tremendous victimization, downswing is not a thing you are in, downswing is just a set of results in the past, the present has nothing to do with these results, the previous day does not influence anything today, it is the same as saying that a coin has more chance of falling in "heads" in that move because in the previous fell "tails".

Very rarely a player has a large period of losses on account of only variance, almost always it will be because he is playing worse in that period than in the period in which he was winning (I include myself in it), thus leading to a extended period losses.

Another thing in those periods is that they give us a chance to see mistakes that we do not see when we are winning, that is, when we start to be called more often and lose we can start to analyze these spots more deeply and see if everything is ok (since nobody plays perfect poker, there's always room for improvement), so you can use those losses to evolve your game.

Changing the subject a little bit, this month I'm going to travel to BSOP Winters with Rodrigo and Zinhão so we can meet Saulo there in SP, so my volume will suffer a bit from that, but I'll take advantage of it to try harder and increase my daily hands volume, I want to make 80k hands in July.

That's all folks, GL all!

graph

stakes

My biggest mental leak

Yesterday I had a bad session, I lost 10 buy ins, I usually have this type of session 1 or 2 times a month, but every time I have this type of session I realize that I did not lose just because of the bad variance (although I had a lot ), but I also lost because I made mistakes, so I want to learn from these mistakes to avoid them next time.

Usually something happens like this: I start losing 5 buy ins in a row, this already starts to shake my emotional a little, so I stop the session and I give a break to recover mentally, but if when I return I lose I realize that it is It's easier for me to start making mistakes. My mistakes are always calling too much, it seems that consciously, or maybe even unconsciously, I want to recover the lost money as fast as possible, causing me not to want to fold the pot, because every time I fold I make my chances of winning the pot zero.

This is something I've noticed previously in me, and I'm better than before, but I'm not satisfied, I was seeing some pots of yesterday and I clearly saw some 4 hands that I didnt need to have made the 50bb + investment. Do not get me wrong, I know that losing 10bi in one day is quite possible to happen, and I'm kinda "used to it", but when it happens I have 2 options:
1. I ignore and say that it is variance
2. I accept that it had a bit of variance, but most likely I did not play as well as I play when I am winning and I see it as a chance to find my leaks that I would not otherwise I would've won.

If you have ever read something from my blog you realize that I'll take option number 2.

What do I do then? The next time I realize that I'm losing a lot in a row, I'll force myself to fold in close spots because they're already close anyway, and if I call 3 of them for example and I'm wrong, it's very likely that I'll start to invest my money in spots that aren't even close anymore.

Anyway, I recommend this approach for y'all readers, always looking for evolution and responsibility, never victimizing yourself by what happens. When we accept that we made mistakes, analyze them and create strategies to minimize them, next time the situation arises we will have a much clearer vision and will be able to instantly recognize those things and adjust properly.

GLGL

good stuff OP - love the part on downswings, so true.

MONTH 5

Hey guys, as you know this month I traveled to SP for the first BSOP Winter Millions, it was a very nice experience, I met a lot of people from the Poker community that I didn't know last time I went there, I always find it very nice to talk to these people, all of them very nice. I ended up playing the Main Event and 6-max, I didn't itm but I only shot 1 bullet in each. I think in the next BSOPs I will not play the Main anymore, I find this tournament format extremely boring with the 8 or 9 handed table, I really enjoyed playing 6max and I want to play HU next time, I know about the EV of the Main Event and etc. but for now I have no desire to play this tournament again.

I also played a bit of 10/20 and 5/10 there in H2(biggest poker club in Brazil), but it was only about 3 days out of 6 I was in SP. I shared an airbnb with Zinhao and Rodrigo, Saulo also stuck there a few days, and it's always great to meet personally the people you chat online everyday, lots of good conversations and changing perspectives, that's the main reason I travel to BSOP, tournaments and cash are just a plus.

I'll leave you some photos of the trip here:

The Crew!

Regarding Poker, as you can see I had a downswing of almost 30 buy ins, of course there was a lot of variance but I was also leaking in some spots, I putted a lot of focus on playing the spots that I was leaking and also focused a lot on preparation before grind.
One thing I want to focus on in my game is to be even more vigilant against each individual player I'm playing against, at this point in the championship I believe this is the factor that has the potential to increase my winrate as quickly as possible because I already have some domain over the general lines to beat the field.

Overall I'm feeling good playing at 200z, but I still have a lot to evolve. Also, my ultimate goal is to play the highstakes, so I have a lot of work to do ahead.

Regarding goals for this month, they will be:

• 90k hands
• 28 hours of study (1.5h from Monday to Friday)
• gym with aerobic 3x per week

graph

stakes

Why are YOU still at microstakes?

Since you are a player who has the intention to evolve, and not just play for fun, why can't you move up?

If we look at this situation as broadly as possible, we will come to the conclusion that the problem comes down to logistics and management.

Most players do not treat their career as a company, when we compare the career of a player struggling to move up with a businessman who is succeeding with his business, the differences are clear.

If you are unwilling to treat this poker player career with the necessary professionalism you'll never move up, and it's nobody's fault but yours. Okay, but then what are the factors that you should put emphasis on? I will list a few:

1. Monetary Investing: I can speak with property because I was a person who took a long time to really invest money in my career, the first time I invested was in a cash game course that Claudio Davino (PeixeFeliz) did (beginning of 2018), which I've had some very interesting learning - the course was made by one of the best cash game players in Brazil - helped me get a better sense of online cash games (since I only played live at the time), but I already knew poker since 2015. And the point of the journey that really was the breaktrough in my career was when I invested almost half of my bankroll in coach with Saulo Costa. I was his first student at a time when there were some people at MaisEV accusing him of being a break even player and just trying to make money with coaching (lol). And to be honest, I had these doubts myself, but as soon as he showed me the methodology I saw that it was the most interesting thing I had seen so far, and I decided to invest as a break even player at nl25. 1 year later I would be at nl200.
* whoever wants to see this journey of mine I have all documented in my first blog here

2. Professionalism: Although it's a very broad concept, it applies to all areas of poker. Do you have times to start your session every day? Plan what will be the days and hours you will play? Are you always prepared to perform at your best? This career is very similar to one of a professional athlete. You not only need to know what to do, you also need to be able to always perform at a high level, otherwise you will not get results.

3. Organization and planning: Perhaps the biggest leak in the community, and ironically one of the main factors to be successful. The career of a poker player requires you to be disciplined and organized simply because you have no boss to do it for you. If you don't have the time to play, how much you will study, what you will study, plan on which sites to play, organize your routine and etc, your chances of succeeding in this career are very close to zero.

4. Career Plan: Again a very broad but very important concept, because most players simply have no idea how poker works. People who simply despair of a 20 buy ins downswing, who start tilting after losing 4 flips in a row, who have no idea how to convert winrate to profit after x hand numbers among others. And for the most part it's not even their fault - although this "excuse" doesn't exist since this is an individual career, so nobody owes you any explanation - nobody explained how the game works. These players keep trying to make small technical upgrades but with no solid foundation underneath, when things start to go wrong they hit burnout and give up their career for a while, only to try it again the same way and keep failing.

Anyway, as you can see there are several points that make up a player's career, and if he doesn't have those points all aligned, the chance of success is very low. Imagine the following scenario:

A player who has known poker for some time decides to take the game seriously. He sets aside $ 500 to be his bankroll, knowing that he will start playing at nl10 and will move down if necessary. He has set aside more money than the bankroll himself to invest in classes with one of the best coaches. He researches a lot until he finds that coach who has great and consistent results and has a methodology that he sees as meaningful. Basically someone who has done exactly what he wants to do.
So he hires the coach, plans to play at least 100 hours a month and study 25 hours, plans his schedules and days from Monday to Sunday, including those he won't play. He eats well, does some exercise, has a social life outside of poker and is in no hurry for quick results.
This player begins to execute the plan, day after day, without apology and victimization, simply puts the consistent hard work necessary to succeed in this career. He saw that he was having some difficulties with the mental part of the game related to variance, and has started researching how variance works, started asking for recommendations on what to do for this mental part for the coach, begins to understand even more deeply how the career works and solving these mental game problems. He is still taking classes and studying how it was planned in the beginning. So they go on their journey day after day, with extreme consistency.

6 months later what happens?

There is simply no scenario in which one person performs all of the above and after 6 months has not started to succeed. Show me a player who did all of the above and still in the same place I show you where he went wrong.

Will there be unforeseen difficulties? Yes, but if you have everything mapped out, have willpower, and have mentoring from someone who has done exactly what you want to do, you will get through these obstacles.

In this industry there is no other way. It is not enough simply to work hard and keep hitting your head against the wall, it takes hard work and intelligence to succeed.

PS1: This post was inspired by one of Patrick's posts in his blog, so I decided to expand on the subject

PS2: Forgot to post my August results here, I'll post them together with September results at the end of the month

MONTHS 6 & 7

Hey guys, I forgot to post here last month, so I'm posting this for the last 2 months. Basically August was a very tough month, I was focused on putting in volume and my quality of game decreased, so I decided to play less tables on September and don't focus on volume, I'm playing 2 zoom tables + 4 reg tables nowadays, and I feel much better than playing only 4 zoom in general.

For this month of October I'll have some goals:

• study 10h per week
• never play unprepared, always remebering hwo preparation is key for a good performance
• go to the gym 3x per week

So that's it guys, here are the graphs:

AUGUST:

graph

stakes

SEPTEMBER

*in H2N cause HM2 messes up with all of the hands that had allin cashout

graph

stakes

That's it, GL all!

that's a lot of green, you must be enjoying yourself.

Hey man, great blog, but those pictures look really small, try to use gyazo :)

Hello, why not trying HM3 instead of switching to Hand2note?
HM3 includes the all-in cashout hands

MONTH 8

Hey guys, October is over and it was a month that I did a few different things than usual. I greatly reduced the zoom volume I was playing on stars (who always keeps an eye on the lobby there noticed that) and started testing GG Poker, playing regs tables there with Bodog. I don't have a formed opinion on the site yet, but my first impressions are:

• Few spewy recreationals, most are shortstack and play more nitty

• Very high rake

• Good rakeback (and for those who want more rakeback on the site send me a MP here or on instagram before creating the account)

• Weak regulars overall, but some can put some pressure

I'm going to keep testing this month on the site, but nothing prevents me from continuing to play on PS for a few days, and that's probably what I'm going to do.

I traveled in the last week of the month and went there to Rio De Janeiro, very nice trip. I went with my girlfriend and we stayed at Barra da Tijuca, went to the "Praia da Reserva" beach and enjoyed it a lot. The other time we went to Rio we stayed in Copacabana, I found the beaches very full and I didn't feel so safe. But I had the opposite impression this time on "Praia da Reserva", very few people, several kiosks, and I had no problem leaving things in the chair and going into the sea, I didn't feel "threatened" at any time. Anyway, for those who want to go to Rio and enjoy a much calmer beach and with a good sense of security, I recommend staying at Barra da TIjuca and going to the "praia da reserva" beach. The only problem is that you can't do almost anything without a car (uber in my case), but there's also the public transportation that I sued to go to downtown Rio.

Regarding poker I felt I made a good volume this month considering that I played practically only reg tables and traveled 1 week. Unfortunately it is not possible to track hands in GG poker, they have a thing there called PokerCraft that you can see how many hands you played and your graph, the problem is that the graph is rake free, so it is very unrealistic.

Pokerstars + Bodog Results:

graph

stakes

GG Poker (rake free graph):

gg poker

In total I finished ~$4k up this month, just counting the rakeback I get directly from the GG Poker website. Soon I'll still get more rakeback, but I won't count here.

That's it guys, GL everyone!

My first video of my new youtube channel! In portuguese only

video

Second video up!

video

New video on Youtube!

video

MONTHS 9 & 10

Here are the results for the last couple of months. I decided to stop playing reg tables on bodog and really focus on 200z only, I want to grow my wr to be able to move up to nl500.

I also became a BrPC instructor (the first one besides Saulo and Zinhao). If you want to apply for the team, here's the link

Additionally, I recorded a vlog of my BSOP Millions trip with the BrPC crew! Here it is -> I almost won a HU event but ended up in 3rd place :(

That's it guys, I'm studying very hard and coaching some students for BrPC, very pumped right now. GL to all!

graph

stakes

GL subbed.

MONTHS 11 & 12

Allright guys, so the one year period is over. I'll make a huge post later showing all my results and with a lot of reflections. But for now these are the results for the last 2 months. I started to play nl500 on January and it's going good so far.

Graph Jan

Stakes Jan

Graph Feb

Stakes Feb

Alright, the 1 year period has ended for a while now. I have everything prepared but I was just
procrastinating to post it here lol. Anyways, I'll post my huge text soon

FINAL POST AND RESULTS

It was March 2019 and I had just accepted the proposal from Saulo Costa and Mateus "zinhao" Moraes to be the first member (along with my friend Rodrigo Bianchini) to join the newly founded BrPC. At that time the team didn't even have a name and it wasn't even a team so to speak, we were just 4 players, with Zinhao and Saulo alternating classes and passing on all their knowledge to us.

Before I joined the team I was already confident that I was beating nl50 zoom (I did 8bb / 100 in 80k hands) and was already taking shots at nl100 reg on the bodog. I was starting to play nl100 zoom on ps when they made me the proposal to start playing staked by them sharing the profits.

But there is a detail, I was starting to move up to nl100, and they wanted me to start playing nl200 zoom on ps and bodog (I hadn't even done 10k hands on 100z yet). I admit that I was a little afraid, but at the end of the day it was a call that would help me to break this fear of moving up once and for all (I'll talk a little more about that later). So that's how my journey started on the nl200, never to look back ...

In the beginning despite playing extremely focused, studying hard, and trying to absorb everything that my coaches passed on to me, I'll admit that I also ran well, and this is a very good thing when you are moving up. With this added confidence of already having solid results at nl200 (in addition to the confidence I already have in myself), it was easier to establish myself on the stake.

I was playing in a very simplified way on pokerstars zoom nl200 and having good results, it was around August that I realized that some regs were starting to make some adjustments against my exploits, so that was when I really started to dig deeper into GTO strategy. This in-depth look at the GTO has been going on until today, and getting more and more detailed, but my basic game plan is based on what I learned from the beginning. And besides, you can still be profitable in the nl200z playing very simplified (mainly on anonymous tables at bodog).

In December 2019, at BSOP Millions, Zinhao and Saulo made me the proposal to enter as an instructor at BrPC. I admit that this was a very important reason for my decision to join the newly formed team over there in March/2019, the whole thing of being among the best in Brazil, taking classes with them, and in the future not depending 100% on my poker earnings, having more constant incomes and with less variance made me join the team. After some negotiations I accepted and became the first instructor of BrPC besides the founders, I stopped giving private coaches (before anyone asks me, I do not give coaching outside of BrPC anymore), and I totally focused on the evolution of the team.

Willingness to reach the top ...

Since December I was biting my nails to start playing nl500 lol. I am the type of person that once decides to take something seriously, wants to reach the top, I will never want to be stuck in the comfort zone, I always have been and will be like this. So in January 2020 I started playing nl500 and I have been stabilizing myself more and more on that limit, playing zoom and regular tables at pokerstars and bodog. With each passing day I feel more motivated to study more and move up the stakes, I am very happy to have managed to reach nl500, I know how difficult it is and how few players in the world play that limit, but I am definitely not satisfied, I will keep studying and playing a lot to always reach the next step.

Some people may even say something like "oh, but hitting the nl200 you already get a very good amount of money, especially in Brazil", and I agree, but my mind doesn't work that way. In December I was sick of playing only nl200. I want to play against better regulars at higher limits, I want more adrenaline. I respect those who feel ok in the comfort zone, obviously, but I'm not like that. I've been realizing that few people really have this spirit of reaching the top, and I'm okay with that, even maybe in a way in relation to having a more stable, comfortable and less stressful life this is the best decision. But for me wanting to reach the top is not a will that I force myself to have, it is my nature, so it is not even a tremendous effort, it's just the logic of what the walk should be like for me.

I don't even need to say how much I learned in the last 12 months, the opportunity I had and continue to have within BrPC is something priceless, friendships that will last for a lifetime have come out of there, and moreover, when you surround yourself with people who see as normal what you once saw as very difficult (in 2017 I thought the top of poker world was to do 3bb / 100 on the nl100 LOL), your perspective on the world changes, you change. As much as it is something that has been talked about since forever, every day I see how much is true. The people you surround yourself with will shape and define you. Simply the purest truth.

Think in two groups:

Group 1 sees nl200 as something extremely good, very difficult to achieve, nl500 would already be a bonus.
Group 2 sees nl500 as something normal that anyone can beat with A LOT of study and dedication, and sees arriving at nosebleeds (nl5000 +) simply as something natural of the walk. Which group do you prefer to be with?

As I said, this ambition is not for everyone, sometimes you just want to have a comfortable life, and again, everything is fine with that. But if you are an ambitious person, who is not satisfied with the midfielder, group 2 is an insta call, and you do anything to be in the middle of that group, it is your nature.

What did I learn from poker?

Now going back a little bit about poker, specifically about cash games. What can I say about this game?

Simply the best opportunity I have ever encountered in my life, something that speaks directly to me, something that has made me evolve like nothing I've seen before. It seems that it was made for my competitive spirit, this game forces you to an absurd process of self development. When you think you're the best the game will slap you in the face and a downswing of 30 buy ins will happen. It is an experience that requires a lot of emotional control, a lot of discipline, a lot of study, a lot of work and a lot of desire to make it work, it is difficult to find something that matches this in the world. You will study every day, do everything right, play hard, work on your mindset, and even then the variance will put you down, it will show you that you are not as good as you thought you were, it will make you question even the most easy decisions. And you will have to find the strength to continue this process, to continue studying and playing, day in and day out, taking cooler after cooler, bad beat after bad beat, because that's what it will cost you to get to the top, and everyone who are there have gone through this many times, there is no escape.

In addition to all this evolution that you are forced to have, there is an extreme financial opportunity in this game (if you are a good player - which is not easy - at nl100 you can already make around 8 thousand reais per month for example ), placing a very good volume and working very clear, especially with the high dollar as it is recently. Where else would I find such an opportunity?

Something that depends ONLY ON ME, who has no one else to blame if I failed, has no government, has no boss, has no excuse, has nothing. You have only yourself, your success or failure is 100% your responsibility. Oh, and how I love to have that responsibility, to assume everything for my success or failure, to know that it is up to me. And I know that although pure meritocracy does not exist, poker is what I found that comes closest to that, after you have a basic socio-cultural level, you are not in the poverty range, that is, you have internet, high school complete, computer and a house to live in, it just depends on you, given certain proportions. There will be no contact to make you go up faster, there will be no gift from the father to give a boom in your business. You'll have to climb from the lowest limit, play games of cents, to the highest limits and play games for thousands of dollars.

But honestly, I'm at a point where I don't do it for the money anymore, I could just stay in the nl200 making my money relatively stable, giving some coaches here and there, and I would be winning very well by the Brazilian standard. But no, I do it because of my desire to rise, to be the best player I can be, this desire to compete and reach the top. And how long will it last in poker? I don't know, but in my life it will be forever.

As different as poker is, music is also my passion. But because it is so different from poker, I don’t have to choose one or the other, I keep both, and it’s very good for my mental game, and actually, I recommend all poker players to engage with some kind of art, it will help a lot in downswing periods. And since when I started playing the guitar at the age of 12, I became obsessed with music, I played daily 6 to 8 hours, I composed a lot, and obviously I also had to go to school beyond that (my grades were never good by the way, my head always been in music during that period), and then I started to discover even more my tendency almost obsessive with the challenges. And that was obviously reflected in poker.

Anyway, what I mean is that you don't have to have this tendency to be extremely workaholic like me to earn good money in this game, but if you are, don't waste it and do your best. The worst thing you can do is not reach your full potential.

Finishing...

So that's it, I still have a LOT to evolve, I am VERY FAR AWAY from being among the best in the world, but you can be sure that while I love this game I will do everything to get there. I am leaving here my results in a totally transparent way for the past 12 months. But that's it, I hope you liked the text, maybe I'll do another blog here someday, but for now I'll take all my thoughts to my YouTube channel "Max Lacerda Poker", so if you're interested, subscribe there. But it's in portuguese.

Thanks to everyone who followed, I don't even have to say that when I made the goal of "5bb / 100 on the nl200 in 1M hands" I was very naive not to think that I would want to focus on doing the move up well before reaching those 1M of hands, and it would not make sense to continue at a limit that I was already beating at 5bb / 100, you should move up before that the vast majority of times (as I did). Besides, I don't see much advantage in pursuing an absurd volume these days, unless you play on some site with a lot of rakeback, but even so, I think that the best way for evolution is to always go up.

Good luck to everyone on each of your adventures, and remember: in this game, your success or failure depends only on you and how much you are willing to sacrifice. There is no big hit in the cash game, there is no jump in level, you will have to start from the lowest level to go to the highest level, and this walk is the best thing that this game provides. And for those who want to join me at the tables, my nickname is "maxlljr" at pokerstars. Instagram: @max.lacerda1 and @brazilianpokercrew

graph

stakes

GRAPH AND STAKES

Nice read! See you at the tables! GLGL!

I respect whole your work. Congratulations!

our Golden pony (L) nice work as always my friend!

Congratulations maxlljr ! You are an inspiration! I'm really privileged to can work with you"

Good luck for the future. :)

Great journey. Very Good Journal.

From what I saw it is not a lie to say your blog is the real deal.

Hey everyone, I'll be streaming on BrPC's twitch channel this Monday (April's 19th). Come check it out!

Link to the channel here

Hey guys, it's been a while, but I'm here to announce 2 very good news!

1st is that now I'm a RIO coach! I'm joining RIO's coaching team as an Essential Coach. My first video was released today and it's about how to exploit the overall population tendency to underraise the river. I show all the GTO numbers, trees, reports, make some node locks and so on... I'm sure you'll enjoy it! You can check it out here!

2nd news is that I'm opening a Micrsotakes team alongside with BrPC! Since BrPC only accepted players that played at least nl50+ I talked to Zinhao and Saulo about creating a micro division... After some meetings and negotiations it was decided that we'll indeed open the Micro division and I'll be the CEO of this company branch!

Basically I'm responsible for the selective process, recording videos, managing the team, coaching, hiring coaches, building the methodology (adapting actually) and a lot more, but of course all of that using all of BrPC's structure and resources.

Another thing, since BrPC is pretty big here in Brazil we decided to make a separate English and Portuguese division, so all students can get the best of it based on which language they feel the most comfortable with! And there's a very good sidenote here, the longtime RIO coach Steve Paul will be the responsible for coaching the english division! I'm very happy that he accepted the invitation.

The team is divided into 2 groups > Micro (nl5 to nl10) and Low (nl25 to nl50), but you can apply with a sample as little as nl2. One important note is that this Microteam is a division of BrPC, so it's only one contract of 2 years for the whole BrPC, so we really expect that all players move up at some point and start playing in BrPC's "main" team (nl100+).

Anyways, you can check all of the details here. The selective process will only be open till August 4th (at the time I'm writing this post, ofc we'll open it again in the future, I just don't know when), so if you're interested go check it out!

Also to not leave this post just as just a wall of text, here are my results for the last 200k hands on stars:
(I've been playing a lot of 200z cause I've been getting that juicy stars 40% rakeback challenge - didn't include rakeback on the graph tho)

So that's it, life's good, I'm pretty pumped up with these 2 new projects, and I'm giving both of them my best.

I already knew that I'd enjoy building a cash game team, but not as much as I am enjoying it hahah. There's something about orchestrating the whole team and methodology that's really exciting and stimulating to me.

So that's it folks, see ya!

Are it still grinding gg rush and cash? You think rake is too high there and stars is a better option?