Hi

This is my little journal to keep myself accountable and motivated.

Background

I got into poker back in 2013 playing home games and wanted to improve. I started learning, started doing quite well, probably thought i was a lot better than i was and then the variance hit. I ended up not taking the downswing so well and stopped playing still a decent amount in profit (in microstakes terms). I then had a family etc. and no time to play.

Fast forward to 2020, I suddenly have a lot more time and an inclination to pick it back up again.

Ambition

I work full time as a lawyer, and have a family to support, so it's unrealistic to think i will quit my day job to play full time and I am going to struggle to put in big volume. Equally i dont need to withdraw my bankroll so i dont have that pressure. So i would like to just see how high i can get in terms of stakes. I would like to think i could get to 100NL in time. If i could make a bit of pocket money on the side of my job, that would be great.

I deposited £20 ($24) in April and started playing 2NL. My intention with bankroll management is to have 25 buyins to move up in stakes, and then to fall back down if i get to 20.

I am using HM3 as my HUD

April to July
Hands for month: 23,713
Net won for month: $52.66
bb/100 for month: 25.91
Balance at end of month: $76.66

Education wise i watched From The Ground Up and have been going through all of Doug Polk's old poker hands videos. i also then did Elliot Roe's A-Game masterclass

July update

Hands for month: 14,872
Net won for month: $211.53
bb/100 for month: 20.44
Balance at end of month: $388.66

A really good month for me and having passed $250 i decided to move up to 10NL. Target to reach $625 total to move up to 25NL

Education wise, I have started going through the Upswing Lab and i am also reading The Grinders Manual by Pete Clarke.

August update

Hands for month: 14,379
Net won for month: -$79.80
bb/100 for month: -5.55
Balance at end of month: $307.67

After initially doing well at 10NL, I had a very significant downswing. In one day i lost 11 buy ins, and over the next day i lost another 7. This is over about 4k hands. Strange feeling to go from feeling like i was crushing these stakes to wondering if i am a losing player.

I felt like i lost my way a bit and the Upswing course confused me rather than developed me. I decided to take a little time off to re-centre and rather than moan about my bad luck try to focus on what i was doing wrong and study more theory. I started re-watching FTGU. I also reviewed my big losing spots and posted some hands on these forums. Although i did have bad luck, i compounded my losses with bad decisions. My preflop play needed work - e.g. getting too loose with 3bets etc. and putting myself in difficult positions. I should have taken time off sooner to do this analysis. it was an expensive lesson, but one i hopefully wont forget. Really now focusing in on my RFI, vs RFI and vs 3 bet ranges to get these embedded into my game and dropped to one table whilst i do this. I finished the month well, with 7 winning days making back about 4 buy ins.

I responded to a message from someone wanting to start a study group, so I have someone to talk to more frequently about spots. Hopefully that will help.

September update

Hands for month: 10,055
Net won for month: -$139.40
bb/100 for month: -14.91
Balance at end of month: $168.07

After finishing August OK, i moved back to 2 tables and things fell apart again. I lost 13 buy ins over the first week. No longer rolled for 10NL, I have moved back to 5NL to recover my roll a bit. I have had some obscene bad luck, but i also seem to have an issue with multi-tabling, so I moved back to 1 table. I also decided to spend more time studying theory than playing to get my confidence back and focus on improving rather than results. I finished FTGU a 2nd time. I continued to have bad luck at 5NL on 1 table. It's been a really testing period.

I moved back to 2 tables to put in more volume, and in the 2nd half of the month things seemed to improve a little. I have bought gto+ as a solver, and my play is definitely improving. I want to continue focusing on theory rather than results, but it would be nice to have a positive result next month.

October update

Hands for month: 6,315
Net won for month: $19.77
bb/100 for month: 6.26
Balance at end of month: $187.58

A strange month. The headline is that it was profitable month which was welcome after the last 2, and I have been multi-tabling so that doesn't seem to be such an issue. However, i didn't play as much as I'd have liked nor have I studied a great deal. I have been very busy with other things in life and, if I am being honest, the last 2 months had left me quite battered and lacking a bit of motivation to play. The good news is that my luck seems to be 'normal' now, which makes me realise just how bad my luck had been over the previous 2 months. It really was quite ridiculous, and I do think that did hit me mentally. My plan for the next month is to try to establish a regular routine of study and play and pick up my motivation a bit more.