You stole my idea :)
I thought about making a "road to CFP" journal.

Subbed
GL

forCarlotta join me! lets take the journey together.

Good luck! I have outlined my journey to my application in my journal.

I'm going to play a 100k hand sample and then apply starting today 01/06/2020.

Do you have a timeframe to do this? They expect 50k hands/month under the staking. So it might be good to do this before 14/08/2020. They review applications from the 15th to the 20th every month. With that you'll get 50k+/month and be in time for the application proces in August.

lIlCitanul I'll check that out later today. I haven't had the chance to read it yet.

I don't really have a timeframe but like you say if you were in the program your expected to play 50k hands/month so that will be my minimum volume goal I guess.

At the moment I two table zoom so that limits my volume a little but I'd rather put in good volume then bad.

I think at the moment 2 zoom tables is the right amount for me any more and I seem to auto pilot too much, so the trade off of getting more volume in isn't worth it. When I get into BrPC I will look to increase the table amount but for now I still need to focus on quality and improving.

I'll post weekly graphs I think as more often than that It isn't worth it. 4k hands so far 6bi up and then back down again so about breakeven so far.

Hi man, awesome blog! You seem to be the exact type of personality we want in the team, humble and dedicated. I hope to be giving classes to you very soon!

U started with a great attitude!! GL on your path!! I´m a member already, playing NL100 on Bodog and PS, and all i can say is THIS THE BEST CASHGAME TEAM IN THE F WORLD!

Hi thanks for the support, it really does give me encouragement.

I wanted to do this update on Monday’s but I couldn’t yesterday. It doesn’t really matter as I didn’t play any hands yesterday so the update is the same.

I was really hoping this was going to be a straight path to joining the team and each update/graph I posted would be showing an upwards trend. In reality this isn’t how poker works. You can’t just look at results to gauge your progress, especially over small samples (6k hands this week).

Graph

At the start of each week I look over my previous hand sample to try and spot any trends or themes. This week I’ve spotted the following areas I need to work on.

• Not ranging villain well enough given the previous action in the hand. This isn't in all spots but definitely in some.
• Being too passive – this is probably my biggest leak right now and has been a long-term leak which still slips back into my game, more so If I fall back into auto piloting ways. This leak has a knock-on effect in all areas of my game. It leads to me missing value bets, bluffs and over folding bluffcatchers in some spots.
• Calling out of frustration – This has been something I’ve worked hard on and has improved a lot this year but it’s something I still need to be mindful of. At least three calls in this sample were made due to emotion and not logic.

These three points as with most leak are interlinked. Failing to range villain properly in certain spots – leads to me naturally taking a more passive line.

Also not ranging villain properly – leads to calling out of frustration. Instead of having a logical thought process*, I make the calls due to either an emotional reaction or for some non-logical reason like “villains is full of shit, call!”.

*Pot odds - is villain betting worse - can villain have air - does this make sense for value - is this spot under or over bluffed = logical thought process

I want these posts to be honest and fully transparent. Even if that hurts my chances of getting into the team.

That’s it for now.

Nice blog, hope to see your application soon. Out of curiosity, are you brazilian?

Thanks for checking this out @sauloCosta10. To answer your question does it increase my chances of getting in if I'm Brazilian? If so I'm definitely Brazilian :) …… But no I'm from the UK.

Great idea, great iniciative, glad to see this here, congratz, hope to see your application soon aswell :)

Good luck! I've tried applying for a few other CFP's in the past, so I'll be interested to hear about your journey and how you get on.

I didn't update on Monday I had a few problems at home. We're building an extension and we didn't have power/internet for a couple of days so that effected my volume last week. Everything is sorted now so back at it. Played about 6k breakeven hands since then but I'll update with graphs etc on Monday.

MY improvement areas are the same from my last post. Still need to up the aggression in some spots and stop being so passive. My mental game is coming on nicely, I've ben watching RYE - Unchained and it seems to be helping.

Dan Self which CFP did you try?

Update

So volume isn't were I wanted it to be but that is down to the reasons stated above. Results haven't really got off to the best start but I can't control results all I can do is try and play my A as much as possible.

I'm still working on the same areas to improve, being too passive in some spots and I need to work on my big blind play too.

I'm going to go over this sample tomorrow and double check where I'm making the most mistakes. I'll post tomorrow with my findings and focus areas for the coming weeks.

One area I'm really pleased with is my mental game. It's took a lot of work and time but It's so much stronger now than It has ever been.

85,525 Hands before application lets hope things start to pick up :)

So after doing some digging into this sample. Variance does have some role to play but there are areas I've notice need my attention and are a continuing themes from previous samples.

Before looking I thought I had a tendency to be too passive in some spots, the leaks I've pulled out are -

*River call efficiency is too high especially from the big blind (2.45 from BB). So I need to watch for spots where I'm over folding too much, to double or triple barrels.
*Big blind play in general - SRP's and 3 bet pots (playing OOP just sucks balls).
*I did notice a few weeks ago that I was having trouble playing 8BB - 20BB pots but they seem to be improving lately. This leak was down to 3 betting and not CBing or double barrelling enough or calling 3B's and playing them to passively. like I said this area seems to be improving but I still need to be mindful of it.

That's all the digging I'm going to do into this sample. I think any more and it's too much to focus at once.

Seems like you're working hard. If you apply yourself consistently with a growth mindset, the chances of you not succeeding are slim to none.

Update - Things aren't really going to plan and it's fair to say I'm not getting into the program with this sample.

I still want to be honest about all of this and I have to accept this is my reality. This is where I am, all I can do is regroup, study and grind. I clearly have some big leaks in my game The sample size is small but the big things I can see are, Redline crashing, BB/SB play needs to improve, CB Freq and I still need to be mindful of my over-all passive tendencies.

The plan was to put a enough money on to play at least 16nl maybe 25nl in the hope of getting into the program. It doesn't really feel right at the moment to keep grinding out these games, I think I need to take a step back in order to take two steps forwards. I have to accept this is going is effect my getting into the program, at least in the short term but it is what it is.

Here are my results from 16NL so far and some stats if anyone wants to give me some pointers :)

Positional stats

Hopefully the images are better now.

lIlCitanul Yeah that sounds great ! I'm up for that. It seems I can identify some areas but I don't seem to be able to fix them, as it seems to be the same problems over and over.

It's great that you're still able to identify leaks despite things not going your way, instead of chalking it up to 'running bad'. What are you doing to work on those leaks you identified?

Thanks Dan Self . Even so things aren't going the way I wanted, I'm still kind of happy with my mental state. In the past I would of stopped playing for a few weeks or longer but this time, I've kept playing and I'm still trying to study/look for leaks.

The way I'm trying to improve those leaks is reviewing plenty of hands, hand review/sweats with some poker friends, I have gto+ and I use that to run some hands through but I like more interactive/social learning if I'm honest. I joined a couple of discord groups but there very hit and miss to say the least.

A few tips to help you along the way:

Most micro/low stakes players have the same leaks: passivity and overfolding tendencies.

Your redline is quite bad, and it seems you have 59 w@sd in this sample, despite the fact that the blueline didnt really win much. So this indicates a huge unwillingness to call with non premium hands against river bets, and most likely a big inclination to not run many multi street bluffs and/or river bluffs in big pots.

Those two things often come from 2 assumptions that many micro/low stakes players have about their pools:

1) "No one folds at low stakes"
2) "No one bluffs at low stakes"

As long as you have these two assumptions running in your subconscious you likely won't get past your passivity problems, even after studying with solvers or whatever. When we perform under pressure - which is the case in poker - , these assumptions will almost always override whatever rational thought you are trying to come up with on the fly.

So what you need to do, instead of trying to run hundreds of sims and discuss hands with your buddies, is to, first of all, challenge the validity of those 2 first assumptions up there. You need to come up with a way to prove to yourself whether they are true or not.

I could tell you that they are false, because I know they are. However, if you do the digging yourself you will learn much more than by just taking my words for it.

There are multiple ways you can prove that to yourself. I'm sure you can find 2 or 3 if you give it enough thought.

The most important part though comes after you have proved to yourself that those 2 assumptions are false. You need to then build your strategy around this new perspective you just opened yourself to. If people do fold and they do bluff, then the immediate consequence is that I can't be underbluffing and overfolding if I want to make more money.

But then another problem arises, which is that bluffcatching and bluffing on the river work under a model that is hard for our brains to understand. You can run a good bluff multiple times in a row and still fail. You can call the same bluffcatcher repeatedly over a few sessions or days or weeks and lose every time. These events will serve to feed your confirmation bias for the 2 first assumptions you previously had, and you will start questioning the validity of your new perspective. Its important to keep in mind that these investments work under the pot odds model: they only have to work a fraction of the time to be profitable investments, and since we are talking about river decisions (aka big pots) and the EV wont be extremely huge, the dispersion will be high so you will experience a great deal of variance with them.

If you can overcome the temptation of going back to old habits, then you will be setting yourself up to building a solid winrate in the games you play. Most, if not all, of the greatest players in NLHE fold little and bluff a lot. Accept that as soon as possible.

There is also a 3rd problem that can come up after this shift in your strategy towards a more aggressive approach: you will likely feel the urge to be perfectionist. "Ok, I have established that people do fold a lot and that they do bluff a lot, on average. But which lines? Which sizes? Should I bluff this board? Should I call on this runout?". This one will be the hardest to overcome. You will likely fall in the trap of believing that more complexity = more winrate. You will try to figure everything out before you try to apply a more aggressive strategy. And this will cause you to improve extremely slowly, because the perfectionist mindset will be often accompanied by the risk averse mindset. You want to figure everything out beforehand because you dont want to spew at the tables and feel the pain of "losing a stack" with a silly call on the river. And then, every time you do that and fail, your confirmation bias comes in and says "didnt I tell you? You need to study WAY more before you try this. You are still not good enough to apply this".

Thats bullshit. Do it. You are not at 16nl to make money, you are there to improve. And there is no great player in the world that didnt spew MANY stacks in the process of becoming great. You are better off spewing at 16nl than at 500nl ;)

Fire away. Delete the fold button. Dont look back

What a great post. In fact even the biggest callingstations fold to much against Multiple barrels. Makes Sense if you Think about their Range they arrive at the Turn if they call everything on Flop.

sauloCosta10 What a fantastic post and advice to give someone who is looking to get onto your team. I suspect this information alone is worth many hundreds if not thousands of dollars to upcoming micro regs like the OP (and also myself) over the long run.

10/10

Thank you sauloCosta10 for taking the time to respond. After reading your response I decided to take a few days off from playing. I've used this time to do as you said above and try to challenge my assumption in these two areas, "1) "No one folds at low stakes" 2) "No one bluffs at low stakes". There's definitely a few trends I'm noticing all ready, in a lot of spots I need to be betting more or calling down more.

I've re-read the post a few times now and It may be one of the most influential/eye opening post I've ever read.

Going forward I've decided to drop down in stakes. This week I've dropped down too 5nl, mainly to rebuild some confidence in my game but also I would like to play slightly low whilst I try a more aggressive style.

Long term I would still love to get into the program but with the way things have gone and with me having too move back down, it's not looking very likely it'll happen anytime soon. I have to admit it's a little disappointing having to say that but that's the reality of where I'm at right now.

That's all for now, I'll make a post about my plan going forwards soon.

So the original goal of getting into BrPC still stands but the way I go about getting into the program needs to change.

Results clearly haven't went as I wanted for the start of this journey. It's not all negative, when I take a step back I should still be pleased with the progress I've made this year. At the start this year I was basically clicking buttons when I was playing, no thought process, no study routine, no pre session routine, no poker friends, my mental game was terrible. All of these things are 100% better it's night and day, when I look back. Yes these areas still need improving more and I still have a lot to learn.

Results are only one part of the bigger picture and just because they aren't going the way you want/expected doesn't mean you haven't improved or aren't a better poker player than you were!

I need to focus on improving the leaks I have (which are in above posts). Continuing to grind 16nl doesn't make sense to me at the moment. With the way things have gone so far, it's caused me to doubt if I was even beating previous stakes before starting at 16nl. So I've decided to move back down in stakes. I'm going to start at 5nl and move back up when I feel I'm ready. It's seems like a step back but I think long term it will be a positive thing.

So my aim/goals going forward are as below;

Main goal - Get into the program !
To help me achieve this goal I'm going to do the following
1. Move back down to 5nl - I'm not sure yet how I will be moving back up etc.
2. Work on my leaks the main one now is still being to passive and I need to improve my BB play asap.
3. Review every session - challenge my assumptions

I don't think I need to make huge drastic changes If I'm honest. I need to keep doing the good things that have got me to this point. Pre session warm ups, review all sessions, working on my mental game, stop play when tilted etc

That's it for now.

sauloCosta10 what an amazing post. Has to be one of the best posts that I have read on the poker forum and I have been around. Thank you! GL saulocosta10 with his project and OP with your goals.

Just a quick update - I moved down to 5nl like I said I would and really focused on increasing my aggression and bluff catching this week.

I'm moving back to 10nl, I have no reason to play 5nl at this point, I'm well rolled for 10nl. I just want to regain some confidence and I think it's worked.

• I plan on playing at least 50k hands at 10nl and then reassessing how things have gone.

Graph for last week

No-one bluffs @ NL11.

Update 18/09/2020

So it's been a little while since my last update. For the last 2 months I've just been chipping away at the leaks listed and pointed out above. I've also spend a decent amount of time working on my mental game.

I can't post my last couple of months graph because I had to get a new computer, restart a pt4 database etc and for some reason stars won't send my hands so I can't import them again.

I feel I have made decent progress towards my goals over the last couple of months. On September 4th (I remember it well :P) I decided I was going to try 25nl for the first time since I had been improving nicely and I was feeling a little more confident in my game. This is my 25nl sample so far.

For now I keep working on my game and building up a decent 25nl sample. Hopefully I can apply to the program soon enough or zinhao sauloCosta10 feel free to take me on now :-)

Thanks again sauloCosta10 for the amazing post it really did help me out a lot.

Don't be too self critical.

As aspiring poker players I think we have all at some point in time been guilty of being too self critical and not taking the time to acknowledge how much we have improved over time.

It's been nearly 4 months since I started this blog. I may not have achieved my main goal of this blog yet but I feel I can still be happy with the last few months and the progress I've made.

One of my main leaks and something sauloCosta10 pointed out too was my redline/being too passive. This was a combination of things I'll generalize and say the main problems were/are OOP BBvsIP SRP, SB SRP/3B pots and also not attacking capped ranges enough. These areas have really been my focus areas since starting this blog and I have seen good improvements in these areas. They still need working on but now they are going in the right direction.

Another area I've been trying to improve is the mental side of the game. I think a lot of players still avoid this area because maybe it doesn't "feel" like it's improving your game as much as improving a technical area does. I'll not go into much detail because I feel mental game improvements are much more individual. One thing I will say is I feel two things have had a big impact on my mental game and they are 1. Becoming more process oriented rather than results oriented. 2. Speaking out loud whilst playing, this won't work for everyone but it's been a game changer for me.

Another thing I'm happy with is I moved up to 25nl which to some may not be a big deal but for me it was a big step in the right direction. I'll post my graph below.

These are just a couple of things I'm happy with over the last few months.

I just wanted to make a post, take a minute and acknowledge that I may be a little disappoint with the way things have turned out. I'm not in BrPC yet :( but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be happy with the progress I've made in this time.

Hopefully if you read this it will prompt you to do the same.

The Grind Continues ...

Patience as time goes on I'm learning the importance of patience.

Looking back now I can see how my first goals of this thread where a little unrealistic and that I feel I've needed this time before jumping into a program like BrPC. I still take inspiration from all the BrPC coaches and the journeys they've all gone through. It helps me see what is possible and what it takes to get there. I'm still determined to become part of the team and prove my worth.

As I get closer to applying I need to remind myself to be patient. I want to build my sample up so I can apply but if I start forcing the action or increasing volume to much now. I'll build up a nice sample quickly but the quality won't be there.

I really do feel that I'm in a good position to succeed I've made some decent improvements both technically and mentally over the last few months. On a personal note I have a fully supportive wife and I'm able to dedicate the time needed. That's a big reason why I feel joining the program would be great for me. I feel like everything is lining up nicely and joining the program would accelerate my learning.

Thanks.

Here's my 25nl sample so far;

I'm going to play until I have 50k hands at 25nl. I'm hoping that is enough if you include everything above as well. Hopefully that's enough to get the ball rolling.

The graphs 25nl on ps and GG.

I think I might reach out to them now and explain the situation. What's the worse that can happen?

So I've decided I'm going to apply today. It's a long shot I have to admit. I'm hoping with the 25nl sample I have so far (graph below) and also the info in this thread that they will at least give me some consideration.

Dan Self I think I can break my improvements down into three categories.

1. Technical improvements. For the last few months I've been working on improving my technical leaks listed above. My main general leak was being to passive in most areas, which explained my tanking redline. I've also being working on my oop play from the blinds.

As sauloCosta10 said in his above post a lot of players assume these two things 1. "No one folds at low stakes 2. "No one bluffs at low stakes". In a lot of case these assumptions can be way off. There's some many spots where people are over folding or over bluffing, you just have to try and identify them that's the hard part. Thinking about this has helped my game in a big way, I still have a long way to go but "rome wasn't built in a day" and all that :).

1. Mental game improvements. This is a hugely underestimated area I think and wasn't something I had gave enough consideration to until this year. It's hard for me to say much about what people should do to improve because it's such an individual journey and I'm by no means an expert.

2. Routine and life style. For me personally I'm more productive when I have a routine and again in the past I've underestimated the importance of it. We all only have so much time. Creating a routine helps maximize the time you have and helps limit the time you spend procrastinating. I also try and follow "The Process Model" from the mental game of poker "Analyze - Prepare - Perform - Evaluate". It's simple and effective and has really help me be less results oriented.

Life style I all ready had a decent healthy life style but just a small change has made a big difference. I've always been an active gym goer but due to lock down/covid I stopped (gyms shut). I've been back in the gym since August now and it's important to remember the importance keeping active is to my mental health. Both for poker and life in general.

You've shown consistency and determination throughout your journey here. Would honestly be surprised if they decide to not sign you!

Thanks for the good luck guys and thank you freenachos for the kind words, I really appreciate them.

I got invited to an interview :), which was last night. I have to admit I was nervous but I tried to answer the questions they had honestly and in the best way I could.

There's not alot I can do now other than wait. I've either did enough to be accepted or I haven't.

There's alot of paths you can take in poker to make progress. Noone really knows which is the right path to take. You just have to pick a direction and give it 100%. After doing my research and talking with the guys last night, it's confirmed to me even more that BrPC is still the direction I want to take.

I'll post the outcome here regardless, good or bad.

Well I'll get straight to the point I've been accepted into BrPC !

There's still a couple of formalities we need to sort out before I can start playing but these shouldn't take to much longer.

I'm really excited to get started and I think this is a great opportunity for myself. Like I said in my previous post after speaking with the team it's confirmed to me that this is the best path for me at this point in time.

The goal of this blog was to document my "Journey to join BrPC" so in that regard the blog has been a success. It seems odd to end this blog when I've only just started my journey.

Maybe I need to start a new blog Hmmm

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and supporting !

Awesome, congrats mate!!

Any update? :)

Congratulations

How's it going so far?