yehudi

Thank you for your advice. I will take a shot at 10NL probably this month (I have already but only to unlock some freeroll money from 888 - it went pretty well).

Anyway, September was very unlucky. I saw a lot of coolers and it just felt like I couldn't win a hand. In one session one day I also remember I made mistakes and lost at least 2 stacks because I was very sleepy. School has started again and, being a teacher, my job is mentally draining in the morning. I also have private classes in the afternoon during the week, and my free time is just much less useful right now for poker. When I do have time in the afternoon and evening, most of the time I have this feeling of sleepiness that makes the game very, very hard. I tried forcing myself to play at times, in order to keep up with my 1k-hands-per-day goal but I have failed multiple times. It just feels painful because I lack the focus and thinking power. I believe I have a good sleep routine, the thing is that I have to wake up very early in the morning. I will try to go to bed earlier (now I usually go to bed at 11PM or little after that).

So I decided I will play less but when I'm 100% ready to think and able to use my knowledge the way I'm supposed to. I think forcing myself to play more just to hit a volume target, despite that being quite low, would just result in bad play, more mistakes and not developing a good feeling with the game itself. The last thing I want is get to the point where I feel like the game is a job I have to do or even worse, something that causes me mental fatigue.

I have to accept that during the school terms I will only be able to play something around 70% of my monthly volume goal.

What matters the most is I enjoy the game and I that play at the best of my capabilities right now.

So here's how it went this month.

Alright, no losses but still, not the happiest time either.

I have now reached my initial BR goal, but the full goal isn't accomplished yet: My target is to have at least 80k hands at 10NL with some decent winrate.

The big news is I feel much more confident at my 3bet and squeeze game. This is totally new for me and it's just feeling great.

Now I'm trying also focusing on the 4bet game and at the same time on the check-raise spots when defending the BB vs CO and BU opens.

BANKROLL GOAL REACHED TODAY!

Starting BR: 40€
Starting stakes: 2NL
BR Goal: €500

My Stake Goal was 10NL so I was planning to level up pretty soon. Initially I'd thought of 50buy-ins, but I'd like to have a larger sample of hands played at 5NL before moving up.

As of today, I have 41k hands played at 5NL with a winrate of 6.7bb/100

Anyone sharing their thoughts / advice?

Hi all!

My September is still kind of dull. In the meantime, I have played a few hands at 10NL in order to unlock the 888 bonus money. It turned out to be a lucky strike.

Anyway, in this period I'm really working on my PF 3bet lines and I can say I seem to have made some improvements. My PF 3bet % has gone up from the premium-hand-only blackhole and I'm also more confident in playing 3bet pots: I seem to just have better command on the reason why I should take or should not take certain lines post flop. At least at 5NL, it's working out okay.

The 4bet game is one thing I'm trying to slowly implement.

All good for now and BR is going up (now €490), especially thanks to the RB I'm getting on PS and the leaderboards and chests.

This community is awesome, it's the second time I've been offered a hand by other players willing to help me improve my game.

Hi! That’s such a great idea! Thanks for your support :) I’ll dm you

Hi there! Thank you! I hope I can say "see you at the tables" pretty soon :)

It's interesting to see a comparison between ZOOM and regular tables played so far, in the last 100k-150k hands or so.

ZOOM 2NL only --- 0.91 bb/100

REGULAR TABLES 2NL and 5NL --- 7.5bb/100

I cannot get off the site :) I'd only get into deeper waters lol.
But anyway, PokerStars is still the best scenario because the field seems softer than the ipoker one, due to the fact that the ipoker network offers so many RB deals. So many regs play on ipoker. It is true that the rake is high but I found this PT4 stat some time ago and it shows the rake in bb/100. PokerStars wins by a lot when compared to other IT networks so it's very advisable to play there.
888.it is pricier but the field is so soft that it compensates.
Yes, it's true that it's best to play much tighter, which I think I do. I'm especially trying to improve my 3bet game and call less.

So I guess I have decided to not take any more shots at the ZOOM tables. In our small network, it seems to just be a reg party. I find it very hard to have a positive win rate there. While on regular tables everything comes much easier.

What's your experience with ZOOM (or fast fold kind of games) vs regular tables?

This month I've been running pretty well. Which is a nice welcome to 5NL :)

I did a lot of table selection, for what's possible today.

I dedicated a lot of time to studying, analyzing hands and putting together notes. I have made a few changes in my game but for now I still need major work on:

1) my PF 3bet
2) probably my lines when calling a raise PF

I had difficulties unlocking the money (€25) I won in a free roll on 888. The support gave me contrasting answers to my questions. Once they told me that to use that money won in that freeroll I need to "lose" (that's the exact expression that the operator used) all my regular money playing, and only then the bonus money becomes available to use and to play. Another time they told me I need to play 10 times the amount of my bankroll to unlock it. This is unheard of. So I will not count for the sake of this BR challenge, also because I will probably never be able to use it.

BANKROLL Aug 2022
So now what I have is 61€ on 888, 43€ on ipoker, and 287€ on PokerStars. For a total of €391. (Always including RB and bonuses).

So to recap, since the beginning of this BR challenge it's now +351€

Here's AUGUST 2022 graph so far, mostly 5NL

And this is since the beginning of the year.

Overall I'm very happy so far.

My next goal is to have at least 100k hands played at 5NL with a decent win rate before moving up to 10NL.

When it comes to the BR, I was thinking around 50buy-ins before moving up.
What do you think?

Results at the end of July:
BR (including bonuses and rakeback): €213.62€

So it's +173€

Finally I see some light this month, after very dull and flat 25k hands, I hit a nice upswing.

Results since the beginning of the challenge:

Results from May and June 2022:

+€41.96.
Overall win rate: 4.17bb/100

Initial bankroll was 40€.
Bankroll at the end of June: €146.33

So, +106€ (Not only from table profits, this includes a few lucky hits with PS promos, leaderboards prizes and temporary RB deals.

I play on PokerStars IT where the rake is 5.5% and the cap is 100bb. What changes should I implement into my pf ranges?

I block some Js villain could have raised from CO. But I don't know if that's enough to bluff this river. Is it?
I don't see many hands that could check raise this river. J9 is one.

This hand leaves me quite confused.

Yeah the rake topic is also very interesting. In Italy the Pokerstars rake system is 5.5%. I've read in another thread that this fact should be a sufficient reason to choose a tighter approach preflop. What's your take on this? So should I also raise 3x from any position? I usually raise 3x from SB, EP, and HJ; and 2.5X from CO and BU.

Thanks for your help! So it’s bad even considering their high fold to 3bet % pre flop? If it were JTs would it be suitable for the squeeze range here?

And How about my bet on the turn?