I'm 33 years old and have been playing poker for around 8 years now. I started with illegal live homegames, 0.10/0.25. Homegames just aren't allowed in Belgium. It was a good learning course where I was playing super tight and still make a small profit despite everyone calling me tight. I did eventually transition to online without much succes at 10NL. Joined RIO essential, joined a study group from here with Samu Patronen and 4 other members. The study group went great for most people but I still felt like I was limping behind. Samu and Scream started playing for a living, 2 others went deep into solvers, the last vanished into a drug habit. I became a rakeback grinder, often not understanding what my fellow study partners where doing. I was winning in live games, losing a bit online but all around I was winning so I didn't care.

But eventually my government decided that people in my line of work shouldn't be allowed to gamble. I got banned from casino's, banned from online play, I was blacklisted. Only illegal homegames existed and I stopped trying to study as I was already winning live. Eventually I started going to bigger, raked homegames. One was robbed at gunpoint with a person shot (wasn't present, he lived), another was raided by the very police force I work for. My luck had it that I cancelled half an hour before the game would start because I felt tired. So those illegal home games weren't an option anymore. I only had my 0.10/0.25 games that had now evolved to 0.25/0.50 games.

Through these games I got the opportunity to play on someone elses account. So back to the online grind it is! I subscribed to Upswing Lab to see what that was all about and learned a better strategical concept. But I still felt like I lacked some things. I decided to buy From the Ground Up and some things just clicked. You might have seen me being a bit more active on the lower limits forums and that's because I am now full on active again.

On to the poker! I'll be playing two tables 25NL Zoom on Pokerstars to get used to this strategy and get in some volume. Then I will likely transition to regular tables as I find that there are much weaker players there.

My strategy:

• Selective betting vs range cbetting: This is something I never really thought much about. It always felt weird to me when people bet
  small on the flop and then bet big on turns and rivers. But after FTGU
  I now realise that it's a range cbet followed by selective betting.

  • Never enter a pot passive (except BB): This is a rule I will adjust from for exploitative reasons but in general I won't be calling
    preflop except from the BB. 3-bet or fold all the way. The way I will
    3-bet will depend on how the 2-better reacts.

  • Range check OOP often in SRP: This seems to be a decent way to simplify my strategy, start with a check OOP on most boards.

  • Always keep range in mind: Something I struggled with and plenty of weaker players will likely do. "I could have Aces so I'm
    just going to be barreling." Always will try to keep my range in mind.

My goals:

• Play solid poker: That's it. I have no other goals, no monetary goal, no volume benchmark. I just want to get better at this game.

This journal:

• Updates on the strategy: Is something not working, does the strategy need a change or something else added, etc... .

• Hand histories: I often go over spots I was unsure about. I am planning on writing some out here with my full thought process.

• Updates on how it is going: Am I winning, losing, tilted my roll? You will find out all that and more.