Baller's Daily Grind

[sweep]

damn sweep, I went thru a downswing myself earlier. Sometimes you just have to grind out the variance. GL

Im playing right now and about to frisbee my latop into the wall.....latest cool story is 77 vs K10 of spades:

Flop 7-6-2 one spade...check, bet, raise, call....turn 3 of spades, all-in, villain calls, river Q of spades

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Sweep, can only "get it in good" and leave it to the Gods of Gambling.

So many sick bad-beats. Runner-runner for Full House, runner-runner on gutshot str8. Crazy.

[sweep]

Sweep, can only "get it in good" and leave it to the Gods of Gambling.

So many sick bad-beats. Runner-runner for Full House, runner-runner on gutshot str8. Crazy.

I agree, need to keep my emotions in check cause im tilting HARD right now Chuck LOL

[sweep]

3-bet shoving with bagels...i dont give a fukk at the moment

[Ballerholic]

haha sweep believe me I never understood variance until I went thru it, and I only went thru a small sample too..try using http://pokerdope.com/poker-variance-calculator/

Anyway guys, yesterday went very well. I ended up +$118. So far over the course of 2 days I am up 8BIs. I'm really liking this new site and the software is fantastic. I also got a job as a poker writer! So I'll be writing about poker events and news, even player profiles. A new site trying to get a bunch of content out. It was funny because I don't know how much to charge for writing articles so we agreed on $.025 per word. I think that's a pretty good deal for a non professional writer. Also I'm sure I'll be making more than that player poker soon so I wouldn't really want to go any lower. Anyway, I'll post links once I get some articles up!

[Ballerholic]

Alright guys, 3rd day has not been great. Only played about 1.5 hours, but still. Anyway, down about 2 BIs yesterday so currently the roll sites at $150 without RB. I'll be getting RB tomorrow which will be nice. It sucks that I split 50/50, but honestly I wouldn't really have a BR at the moment without them. Anyway, I'll play a little more tonight and then hopefully have a big week at the tables. My game has been improving a lot so far after 3 coaching sessions. My coach will be shot taking 200nl zoom this week so I can't wait to see how that goes. The good news is that I've average a little over $10 an hour while playing this week. I only started Thursday and got in 13 hours so far. The site is pretty soft so I really do think I should be able to average this amount on a consistent basis which would be enough to play and live on during the summer. Again, we can only improve from here.

[BeerDog99]

Wow, you are really spending a good amount of time and focus on this! Congrats on the writing gig.

[sweep]

Alright guys, 3rd day has not been great. Only played about 1.5 hours, but still. Anyway, down about 2 BIs yesterday so currently the roll sites at $150 without RB. I'll be getting RB tomorrow which will be nice. It sucks that I split 50/50, but honestly I wouldn't really have a BR at the moment without them. Anyway, I'll play a little more tonight and then hopefully have a big week at the tables. My game has been improving a lot so far after 3 coaching sessions. My coach will be shot taking 200nl zoom this week so I can't wait to see how that goes. The good news is that I've average a little over $10 an hour while playing this week. I only started Thursday and got in 13 hours so far. The site is pretty soft so I really do think I should be able to average this amount on a consistent basis which would be enough to play and live on during the summer. Again, we can only improve from here.

^^^this paragraph is worth ~$27

[Ballerholic]

Wow, you are really spending a good amount of time and focus on this! Congrats on the writing gig.

Thanks Beerdog, much appreciated! I just love poker so much, I've even been neglecting sports betting. The funny thing about the writing gig is that we both spoke for 20 minutes about it and he said he would hit me up later to go over the content I can start writing about, but he never got back to me. So I think I'll give it a day or 2 idk, and then hit him back up. At the moment poker is going very well and I don't mind just playing/studying, but writing about it would be a lot of fun too. Anyway, how's your grind going?

[Ballerholic]

Sweep- haha thanks man. You still in that downswing?


So guys I only played about 1 hour yesterday. Some personal issues came up and let's just say that the girl in the avatar is no longer my GF. So it was a pretty emotional day, but what better way to get over it by playing some poker! So I fired up the tables and started straight crushing up about $60 after 58 minutes, and then I get coolered back down to a $20 win for the hour. I open AKo from MP, Button Fish calls, SB Good Reg squeezes, I flat, Fish folds. Flop is 9A2r and he bets. I'm thinking that he can have AQ, AJ, Ax, JTs, etc. The only hand I'm worried about really is 99, because I block Ax and the only Ax that beats me is AA which is very hard for him to have. So I call. Turn is 8. He bets I call. Let him hang himself if he is bluffing, there are no draws I'm really worried about and again he has so much air. I also don't expect a good reg to bet that flop with 88. Turn is a 2. He pot shoves or w.e it was, and I call. He turns over 99. Oh well. When he jams there is definitely has air some of the time, the only thing that worries me is that there aren't any draws out there so it is less likely he has air. He would also play this way with AK sometimes, and we split with that. I obviously was very unhappy when he made that river bet, but I think it has to be called.

Anyway, after playing 14 hours over a 4day period on the site I made $190 after RB, which I will be splitting with my backers today and on to the new week...

[BeerDog99]

Thanks Beerdog, much appreciated! I just love poker so much, I've even been neglecting sports betting. The funny thing about the writing gig is that we both spoke for 20 minutes about it and he said he would hit me up later to go over the content I can start writing about, but he never got back to me. So I think I'll give it a day or 2 idk, and then hit him back up. At the moment poker is going very well and I don't mind just playing/studying, but writing about it would be a lot of fun too. Anyway, how's your grind going?

I barely play anymore. I really only play on SBR, a very small amount on Pokerstars every so often and with friends on a monthly basis.

[Ballerholic]

Beerdog- Oh alright. Once I start making some money playing I'll host some private tournies for all of us on Pokerstars. Probably Knockouts and fun tournies like that. Although, I don't think PS NJ can play with the other pokerstars players.


Well only played 2 hours yesterday. Up about $20 for the day which is pretty good. Obviously hourly is going pretty well at these stakes and the goal is to hit 50nl by the end of the month. Let's say I can play 60 hours the rest of the month and after splitting I come away with $300. I'll probably add another $400 next month to the BR and after taking away coaching lessons let's say the BR is at $600. At that stage I'll probably just go and play for myself and leave the stable. If I can then play another 60 hours by March 13th, then I should have roughly around $1200. Around that time I have 2 weeks off of school and my goal is to play some live cash. All I hear people say is that live cash is so easy and I think $30 hourly is definitely achievable? If that's the case then that's one way I could build up a serious BR for playing some higher stakes. From what I hear live 1/2 is like 5NL so as a 25NL reg and soon to be 50nl grinder I should be +ev in those games. I've never played live so I definitely need to learn the rules haha. But that's the goal at the moment, I think I'll really need to hit $1500 by that date though so that I can take a 3 BI shot at live and see how it goes from there.

Can anybody here chime in on live players and potential hourly?

[Ballerholic]

Yesterday went very well. Booked a $90 day and the BR before RB is at $600. So about $120ish after 4.5 hours of play, that's crushing in my book. I am running good above ev though. The good news is that my stars account has just been unfrozen so I might play around on there occasionally. I've also been reading all of these blogs on 2+2 about how soft live games are and people making $5k a month just playing live. I think I might even just go from 25NL straight to 1/2 live and grind a BR that way. Anyway, I'll need at least $1,500 before I can hit the casinos.

[Ballerholic]

Weekly Profit: +214 (17 hours played)

This week has gone very well fortunately. My hourly is just over $10 after RB. There are still 2 days left until I'll probably split the profits with my backers, but I am going to be very busy with school work. I've also been given topics to write about which include twitch streaming. So far I have made just over $400 in two weeks of playing poker which is 16BIs. My WR is over 10bb/100 at the moment. I think I've got a pretty good case to be moved up to 50nl.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

The bad beats continue for me. Had a couple bad ones. Should have made deep run yesterday.

One element of poker that I like = the deception. What about value-betting? I think most players do this terribly. If they have a big hand, they try to blow the doors off their opponent. Why? Bet small, u want to KEEP him in the hand. Love to string him along and give him improper odds to call.

[Ballerholic]

Chucky- Dude grind thru that variance. For every suckout you have there is going to be a bad beat waiting to happen. It will all even out in the end and as long as you play the hand well your green line will go up. I completely agree with deception. I think it definitely depends on your opponent though of course and what kind of range he most likely has. But yes, if you have a Full house on flop or top set why not check the hand back? It's not like you are getting 3 streets of value. You either are blocking the whole board, or else you are blocking top pair very hard. So give him a chance to bluff.


Anyway guys, long time no update. It's been rough after the break up and I've been so busy with soccer and school work. New coaches coming in and players trying to change the ecosystem and then projects, presentations and exams. Anyway, we booked a profit last week making just over $160 in which we made over $10 an hour again which is very good. I do aim for 30 hours a week, but I rarely get there. The good news overall is that I can definitely play poker to fund my lifestyle. I make just over $640 a month working part time, and then let's say I made $5 hourly at poker playing 130 hours a month, I could definitely live on that. Besides that I fully expect to be playing 50nl, and more realistically thinking 100nl by the start of summer. So things are looking good. Once I can make some decent money playing this game I'll be traveling the world while playing on my laptop so this blog should get more interesting. Also, don't forget I am writing poker articles as well which I'll post when finished.

So over the 1.5 weeks I have been backed by my stable, I am up 14-15 BIs and after speaking with them because it is such a small sample I'll need one or two more good weeks before I can move up to 50nl. Although I plan on leaving the stable at the start of next month so that's gonna be there lose, but I understand because I could easily hit a 10 BI downswing at 50nl and then all profits are gone.

[Ballerholic]

Been busy guys...

Down about 1.5 BIs this week, but only played about 3 hours total. The rakeback system changed which is nice so all rakeback will be evenly distributed among the players in the pot. Also, this may be my last week in this stable.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Good luck, BH. I know the boys are pulling for u.

I can report one pretty nice score (for my stakes). Finished 2nd in a tourney few days ago.

Poker is a game of incomplete information. We can surmise and do the best we can. Can never play it perfectly.

Yeah, my comment above about value-betting is really tied into displacement-theory. If WE smash the board, it's hard for our opponent to catch a good piece of the board. I understand that TopPair vs FlushDraw is a race etc. Just my opinion, but I think most players are terrible at value-betting.

In No-limit HE, u set the price. If u give your opponent inappropriate odds, you're doing it right. If u have them drawing DEAD, don't be a pig, just try to get some $$.

[slikec]

Well this month was bad in all aspects. I played bad i ran bad and i played to little. Is not good when you are calling 10x well they cant have it again lol and ofc they do. And when they actually dont they catch it 99% of time. Eventually it really penetrates you up. Thats last few days on 1 site difference is 33bb/100 EV wise lovely. MTTs also break even could change a lot if i won AKo vs QQ on bubble for decent chiplead but well eventually ill run like god i hope for short stretch again :P

[Ballerholic]

Chuck- yea I agree. People don't value bet enough. Also when we hit a board hard it is hard for our opponent to hit it as well, and we can also use blockers to tell how our opponents hit the board. Although we should be careful that if we do hit a board hard and it is a dry board, if we see aggression from our opponent he could easily have hit in harder.

Slik- Do you play more cash or MTT? Bad months happen to everybody. Sometimes you will run hotter than the sun, sometimes the opposite. All you can do is put yourself in a situation to run hot.

[Ballerholic]

So I officially terminated my staking deal, I am going solo I have a decent BR. There's no set amount because I deposit funds from work sometimes and find money other ways, but the BR will be around $400. I'll start off with a 25NL shot with this roll and we'll see how it goes from there. I'll try to strictly keep track of my profits and all else and try to get this thread lively again.

[sweep]

So I officially terminated my staking deal, I am going solo I have a decent BR. There's no set amount because I deposit funds from work sometimes and find money other ways, but the BR will be around $400. I'll start off with a 25NL shot with this roll and we'll see how it goes from there. I'll try to strictly keep track of my profits and all else and try to get this thread lively again.

Stealing $$$ Baller

Good luck, I personally think you are better off leaving that staking stable. Keep us posted

[Ballerholic]

haha you know what I mean. And yea definitely better to leave that stable. I just wanted to see if I could beat there 25NL games without risking my own money.

[Ballerholic]

Whaddup y'all. So I've only played for about 5 hours now in total out of the stable, but I am up around $30 which is a decent start. It is so much nicer being able to have 100% of myself. RB at 25NL comes out to about $3.5/hour and assuming at least a 5bb/100 winrate which is easily attainable that's $10/hour. My BR at the moment is around $400. I'll need to hit $1000 before I attempt 50nl. So that should really take about 60 hours or roughly 2 weeks to achieve. I do have to pay $75/hour for coaching 1x a week, so it may be April before I finally begin 50nl. I have to pay my coach that amount because he makes $10k a month and it definitely is worth it.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

U find the poker-coaching to be that valuable?

1) I can't possibly believe it's worth it.

2) Does coach have u doing calculations at the table? Things like VPIP, FoldToAggression, etc?

[Ballerholic]

Beerdog- Thanks man, much appreciated! How's your poker going?

Chucky- Yea I definitely recommend it. We went over hands I played a month ago and I was so embarrassed how bad I was from when I just started coaching, but proud of how much I've improved. I've really only have had 2 coaches. The first was $20/hour and I didn't really get much out of that. This guy was $50/hour and it was information overload, but it makes sense as to why he moved to $75/hour since he's one of the best 100nl zoom regs. There are 100nl worse regs charging way more per hour btw. The thing with poker is that once you become good, you can make so much money which is why people pay these high prices. Also the 2 steps to mastering anything is 1) having a mentor and 2) a ton of practice. To my BR it is a lot, but at least I'm a winning player and once I can hit 50nl then the price won't be too bad.

[Ballerholic]

March 10th Update

Total Profit: $54 Hours: 11

So after 3 days of playing I am up ~2 BIs. Which is good, but I expect better. After factoring in RB and if I were able to run equal to my all in ev then I would be up $104 which is much nicer. I also think I'm getting cheated out of RB? After doing calculations I think I should be given double the amount of RB that I am being listed at currently. If anybody is good with RB calculations I might post a screenshot and we can talk about it? Anyway, I also did place a sportsbet yesterday which was one of my only bets in about a month. I meant to post it here and in the player's talk because I was so confident in it and it went alongside one of my golden rules in sports capping. I took OKC +3, and the later unloaded more on +2.5. Basically the rule is that when I team comes back, down from a huge margin to win it then you fade them the next game. This easily hits at 60%+ over multiple sports.

Anyway, today is my last day of class for the next 2 weeks so a lot of poker should be played. I've also been watching blackjack card counting videos by ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcR303_5zAA ). I think that guy is the real deal, but you tell me. After watching his videos it seems like BJ is a really easy game to beat.

Also, do any of you guys know if we can play in a Pokerstars homegame with each other if it is play money? By that I mean USA PS alongside the rest of the world PS?

[ChuckyTheGoat]

I hear u, BH. Sometimes, I think these are "self-proclaimed" experts.

Phil Gruessem (German) does some poker-teaching. Then I watch him in tournaments, and he invariably bluffs his way out of the event. "Re-buy."

[Ballerholic]

lol. Yea honestly a lot of these players are definitely 100% "self-proclaimed" experts. There is this guy who is a 25NL reg on bovada and had been playing 25NL for about 4 years with a very low winrate. Now he got coaching 1 month so far from one of the top 200nl zoom regs and even at 25NL he now charging players $250 to be in a skype chat with him and just ask him questions. WTF. He can't beat 50nl on freaking bovada (no offense to bovada micro players-it's just probably the softest site out there) and he wants to charge this amount. But no, my coach has graphs of his winnings and you can find them here: ( https://i.imgur.com/BDlGfQr.png ) That's a mix of 50nl-100nl, but he plays just 100 now. Also, he spends probably 20 hours a week coaching so otherwise he'd have more winnings to show.


March 11th update

Total profit: $66 Hours: 13.5

Nothing special. At least we are in the profit with a long weekend to grind some hands.

[Ballerholic]

March 11th update

Total profit: $62 Hours: 18

Slightly losing day, pretty much B/E. I've got a coaching lesson today which will be a lot of help. I think I'll spend the rest of Sunday watching some training videos and playing poker. Tomorrow will be the weekly update.

[Ballerholic]

******March 12th Weekly Update******

Total profit: $183 Hours: 22

It was a pretty decent week. That is my profit after RB is calculated, although I barely got any RB. The hourly is just under $10 an hour, which is perfect. The goal is $10 and it has been around $10 for the past month now. I'm only going to be improving from here anyway. I had a lesson yesterday with my coach, so that's $75 paid away taken from the BR. Right after the coaching session I played for about 1.5 hours and won 5BIs. The BR was at $400 last week, so currently it is $508 after taking expenses away. No school for the next 2 weeks so I should really be able to get some volume in. I actually played a few 50nl hands by accident and the games seem just as soft so I don't think there will be much of a problem transitioning. I'll just need to make sure that my BR can handle any variance at those stakes and my mental game as well. The goal is to hit 50nl by the end of this month in which I need $1000. Anyway, winrate for the week is around 10bb/100 which is crusher status. Hopefully it keeps up!

I was also talking with my coach yesterday and apparently Pokerstars are creating a new player pool for 100-200nl zoom regs. Basically only the top regs are invited into this pool and these games will be rake free. This is a great idea because if the regs were to conform to this then the 100nl zoom pool would be sooo fishy. Obviously they are much better than me, but my coach has about 60% of the player pool labeled as fish or bad regs.

[Ballerholic]

March 13th update

Total profit: $52.75 Hours: 25

So a pretty big losing day. Not the end of the world though, still only a small sample of hands.

[Ballerholic]

March 14th update

Total profit: $68.41 Hours: 31.25

And the downswing continues...Another big losing day and we are down about 10BIs over the past 2 days. It's not the end of the world though. I've been thru this kind of stretch once before and variance is killer in this game. Right now one of my friends who plays the same site is 60BIs under EV! Anyway, we can't look at the short term picture. When looking at long term results I am still up $320 since February and $400 in ev. Long term winrate comes out to about 7bb/100 and hourly comes to about $7. So I'm really not concerned, it's just frustrating. The problem with these games are that the players are so bad that they will literally call your turn bet with most draws and 3rd pairs. So if we keep missing our draws it can be a bad day, but also when we are just betting for value and they hit their draw or 2 pair on river we are losing big to these players. Obviously the good days are very good so it more than makes up for it.

Anyway, unfortunately for the time being I'm going to have to step down to 10NL at least until I can get my net profit back to $0.

[Ballerholic]

March 15th update

Total profit: $92.23 Hours: 34.75

Another losing day. I've decided I'll be moving half of my BR over to Pokerstars to play some of their 10nl games. From what I hear it's pretty soft over there at the moment, and I want to be able to use a HUD. The rest of the time will be spent playing 888. I also want to move from N8 because I am unable to review hands or database. I went over a few hands from 888 yesterday and based on some mistakes in the bigger pots I could have saved myself an extra 2BIs alone. I'll be flying back to the U.S. today so I've downloaded a lot of poker content to go over while on the long flight. Mainly Nick Howard's Hand History reviews on Youtube as well as my poker coach and his private live play sessions. Some reading material as well from higher stake players. Hopefully my laptop lasts.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Props on the updates, BH.

Real-world updates are great. Most people can't stand it + won't tolerate the swings.

One thing u hear from the GREAT players. They're always going back to the drawing board, studying how to beat certain players etc.

Best of luck on the venture. I still struggle to wrap my head around some of my bad-beats.