The 20NL Professional Poker Player

[Ballerholic]

Update


Monthly Profit: $139.40


Hours Played: 25


So another winning day! I deposited on Pokerstars and played about an hour of poker there only at 10NL though. I ended up 4 buyins. At the moment I’m a bit concerned with my ability to get hours played. I know I’ve got some excuses as I’ve been busy the past week, but these hours need to pick up significantly. I think I should focus my mind solely on hours played per day and not trying to hit a daily profit. My mental game definitely needs work. I’ve also got to study poker a lot more which I’m not doing any of. The only study I do is watch my favorite cash game streamers play, and I barely do that. I’ve got a lot of poker material saved on my laptop so I’ll dive into these. My plan will be to re-read all of The Grinder’s Manual and also watch some streams and videos by Nick Howard, MingtheMerciless and PokerwithRiske. I’ll also start reviewing my hands after each session while trying to calculate how much money I lost by playing a hand a different way than I know I should be playing it. I’ve also got a good mental game book I’ll begin reading.


I’ve been doing some calculations and I get my last rent covered for June. So June is technically a free roll for me with poker. So if it’s all correct and I have a good poker month I can comfortably be playing 50NL by the end of June! I will try to shot take some 50nl once my BR hits $1,000 for sure. Hopefully we can get their by the end of May!

[slikec]

I posted hand cause as i said watched HH for 3min. couldnt believe what hands other 3 guys had lol. I doubt even at NL2 you see this stuff anymore. What really astonished me is UTG calls 50bb AI with 5 high after 3 went all in lol seriously haha. This stuff doesnt happen anymore and if it does they go AI and you call not other way around lol or at least they have third pair lol or maybe A high.

[Ballerholic]

Update

Monthly Profit: $88

Hours Played: 33

So hit a downswing. Some pretty sick spots that really don't make any sense from my opponents to have, but somehow they do. Anyway, it means the games are good. I have been losing a lot of money by calling x/r on flop and turn too much. Anyway, still up and things are going alright. 4 more days to try to get this bankroll up as close as I can to $1k. No exciting hand history and most crazy hands were on untracked sites unfortunately. The games are good there so that's where I'm focusing my attention.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

baller, check out this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_xFxCouoII

Elky is the man. Check out his funny comments.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

More Elky:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB8bqsh2644

Holy shit, this guy is a riot. I thought Lex was entertaining...Elky is even funnier.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwriBhmtLfM

Pretty bad shove. If u get it in on 2 streets, you're offering Odds that are hard to fold.

Opponent surely is drawing to 2 outs. What are scared of?

[Ballerholic]

lol man Elky is funny. That's insane though for a 2k buyin tourney. I'd be so mad as well haha. Yea I don't like that shove either, should have just value bet. Maybe if it as a 100NL game, but 33k is different.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, if the Pre-Flop raiser held KK...he MIGHT call that raise. I say that b/c...the All-in guy COULD have 2 diamonds w/ Overs. By holding AA...the PF raiser has to be thinking set.

The guy holding 88...u have to stagger your bet-size to get it in on 2 streets. That way, AA will feel priced in on each of the L2 streets.

[Ballerholic]

yea. With a turn jam for a way overbet that's tough. The problem is if preflop raiser has KK or less he's folding. But preflop raiser can also have diamonds, and 99-KK all of which you don't want to fold. So I think a jam on turn would fold all of those hands you want to extract value from, and also probably fold out AA half the time because the pot is just so big, I think they were 800 big blinds deep?!?

[Ballerholic]

Update

Monthly Profit: $74

Monthly Hours: 44

Wow, I hit a pretty sick downswing since returning from vacation where I think I lost every single AA/KK hand dealt to me to sets. Honestly, I was pretty down on myself and down on the month. So yesterday, I read a few chapters in one of my favorite poker books, watched some poker videos, talked to my study group and had my best day ever netting over $100 without RB! Such a sick day, and it just shows how much working on your game can really help mentally, but also fundamentally because I learned I was making some mistakes which deep down I knew were mistakes, but because I hadn't studied in so long I didn't realize it. I also went over some of my biggest hands played and based on mistakes made I lost around $100 this month due to the bad play. Now I am owed $150 for RB, but biggest of the T&C's of the account I won't be able to get it until August. Oh well, that should be a good month.


Is this too tight? It doesn't make sense, but it's also a play that is rarely ever seen and is a play I personally think is more weighted towards a nutted hand than air.



This spot here I always think they have KK or AA, but they could also have TT or JJ and even air. Sometimes they also have sets though that wanted to x/r flop.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller:

* On 1st hand, 1) Why no C-bet on flop? Even small bet, w/ top-pair on dry board, I think.

2) I don't mind the Fold on the river. A lot of players say "I have to call" w/ top2.

...I'll present one concept that Fedor Holz has referenced. What about the Concept of Villain's inflationary bet-sizing?

I have a saying. "If the Villain had a $2 hand on the flop...and is now betting a $200 hand, warning-bells should go off."

Most players bet-size in direct-correlation to their hand-strength. No deceptions, no betting into wet-board. Big bet = big hand, period.

So, what did he have? How did the Queen help him? 2-pair? Q7?

Is he making some sort of defensive play? IE, "this guy has nothing." "He doesn't have a Jack, doesn't have overs, he didn't play the low board."

Very strange hand. So little betting-action early. He just wanted to keep u in the hand? 64? Set?

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, on 2nd hand, I don't know what else u could have done. If anything, you'd only lose more $$ there.

I like your call on the Flop. This is a Ben Sulsky play. When there is significant pre-flop action, u call w/ Big Hand in position.

On the flop, I understand his check. Even Diamonds don't scare him. So, he's super-nutted.

If he has AK that bricked, I'd expect a tester-bet on Flop or turn.

On Turn, I'm surprised he didn't bet less. Still such a safe board for AA. He wouldn't want to lose a customer.

On river, he knows u have a hand, so he can bet healthy and get a Call. Cooler hand of sorts.

[Ballerholic]

Hey Chuck, I didn't Cbet first hand because I wanted to strengthen my checkback range and I also thought he might fold to a bet as he seemed pretty fit/fold postflop. When he raises our river bet, he has all sets in his range and it doesn't make any sense for him to raise here with any 2pair. He didn't seem like a huge fish, so that combined with very little hands to bluff, with river raises usually being the nuts I folded here. It's funny because I actually got into a similar scenario last night with AQ and I had 2pair on river, I got raised to 3x and against this villain I figured he could raise worse 2 pair and he had a set unfortunately. In the 2nd hand there's nothing I can do. If I'm going to be picky about it I could find a fold on river and maybe that's where the top players make there money back. He 3bets me from SB vs UTG so he's very strong here. He checks flop here and I've just seen it way too many times where people check/raise here with AA so I check back as I don't think he has a flush draw or he would have bet. Then when he bets turn he can do it with pretty much any hand he has now so I have to call. On river when he bets, IIRC he bet big?, from the player pool/site I was on I haven't seen a 3bet pot DB bluff by anybody yet not even the maniacs. Most players are even checking back JJ/AK here from what I've seen. I even knew in my mind it was AA, but in theory I can't fold as I beat bluffs/value hands. I think that's an area where I can improve my play. I've been at 25NL for about 4 months now, so I know the player pool tendencies pretty well and I should just play exploitative vs theory oriented. Now if this was on 888 or PS it would be a clear call no doubt.

[Ballerholic]

May Review

Monthly Profit: $25.68

Hours Played: 46

It was really only 10 days of poker and maybe 1 week of proper poker. I ended up slightly down which isn’t too good, but I did put in a good amount of hours. I did happen to make a lot of mistakes after reviewing hands so there is definitely room for improvement to be made. Pretty much a breakeven month in my mind and now it’s time to get serious. I am now a professional poker player. That means I’m playing poker for a living. Does it mean I’m successful at it? No. But I think I will be. This is the first time in my life where I literally have 8 hours a day to just grind out poker and learn more about the game. Honestly if I’m not playing 50NL by the end of summer I should probably just give up. At the moment I’m very confident in my game. I’m working on my mental game leaks which has cost me dearly over the month of May. Because of tilting and spew I’d say I lost at least $200, although I only looked at big pots for this so it could be even higher. Most of these, funny enough, were in 3bet pots when I had AA or KK and my flop cbet gets raised, I would then jam over the top knowing full well it’s not a good play but against fish or aggro players I level myself into doing it and because I kept losing 3bet pots I was spewing. Time to get to work!


Cavaliers vs Warriors
Let’s also talk about the Cavaliers vs Warriors game. I placed a small wager on Cavs +230. At this price the Cavs would have to win 30% of the time to breakeven. I think that is definitely achievable with the best player in the world on your team. I do predict Warriors to win, but Lebron is just on a whole other level than everybody else in the league. I mean we are talking about a player people are considering better than Jordan! I am a huge Lebron fan, but unfortunately I do strongly believe in the Revenge factor and I find it holds true. Kansas City Royals, North Carolina Tarheels, Cavaliers, etc all won their respective titles after losing it the year before. Now as far as matchups are concerned, I’d give edge to Warriors.
Curry-Irving (Tie)
Thompson-JR (Warriors)
Durant-Lebron (Cavaliers)
Green-Love (Warriors)
Zaza- Thompson (Cavaliers)
Bench (Warriors)
Coaching (Warriors-if Kerr comes back)
This matchup is really going to come down to open shooting in my opinion. Warriors usually tend to get a bunch of open looks just because they are so good, and the Cavs have Lebron who can just drive at will and dish out for open looks. There are just key matchup all over the place. LeBron vs Durant, Curry vs Irving, Green vs Love. Man I just cannot wait for this matchup to start tonight! Any recommendations on food for the big game?

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, several questions for u (per usual):

1) How good would u rate your hand-reading skills?
...Reference some of the hands I've posted, like the 66 vs 2x hand. I've played enuf that I feel my hand-reading is pretty good. You want to have an ability where you "see thru the backs of cards", per se.

Doesn't mean u won't get coolered occasionally. As much as possible, u want to know where u are in the hand.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

2) How hard is it for u to lay down big Pocket Pairs?

AA/KK/QQ. They come around so often. As I've stated several times, my opinion is that opponents are very straight-fwd in their play. If u hold KK and Ace hits the board, if opponent is betting, most likely they hit top-pair and u are drawing thin. Not saying it's ez to lay down KK or QQ to one bet, but some times u have to lay down a big pair.

The one I see a lot. QQ is so nice. Post-flop, on an AK-board, players invariably overbet the QQ out of frustration. IE, "I waited 3 hours to get this hand. I'm not chucking it that easily."

[ChuckyTheGoat]

3) U have to see that bluff that Bryn Kenney ran on Ben Tollerene in the $300k tourney.
...I still can't believe Ben folded. See if u can find the video link.

Ben has AT on a flop of T86. Turn was a brick, I think. River was a T, to give Ben Trip Tens w/ Ace kicker.

Ben bets it. Surely, Kenney had Ben on an "overpair." Kenney overbets the pot on check/raise. He's repping a myriad of huge holdings. Straight, boat, trip 10's.

The part I can't believe is that Kenney is repping Ben's hand! Kenney surely didn't think he could get him to lay down trip 10's w/ Ace-kicker!

[ChuckyTheGoat]

4) Another general question for u. How aware are u of Effective Chip Stacks?

...This is something that the best players are acutely aware of, in my experience. I think I'm still lacking on that front, a bit. I tend to play real poker on 20BB stacks, when that may be way too shallow.

The $300k tourney was Deep-stack, and the levels moved up slowly. 5-day event, I believe. Point is that the players were more comfortable playing various holdings when they know that a "cracking hand" can pay off big.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

5) Yet another Q. (Let me know if you're getting tired of these):

* What is your feeling on small-pots where there is limited betting post-flop?

Let's say Check/Check on both Flop/Turn. Do u view this as a steal spot on River?

I go back to this idea of most players being very straight-fwd. I call them Bingo players. If their "number" is called, they bet. Otherwise, they check.

Some guys won't even bet Draws. They will try to Check UNTIL they hit their card and then bet like a madman. Of course, we don't pay off if the Opponent is that straight-fwd.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Here's another cool bluff by Kenney. Watch closely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waiutWqmZzM

[Ballerholic]

Chuck- 1) I rate my hand reading skills at above average for 25NL. There have been times I've called triple barrels down with a high and won. I am nowhere near where the better regs at 50nl and 100nl would be though. Most players at 25NL tend to play pretty straightforward which makes it really easy. One issue I've had at 25NL is bluffing turns and rivers only to get called down by 2nd pair so it seems at these micros it's hard to bluff some guys. Also, you can't really give ranges to players over 40vpip as they play anything. At higher stakes, those guys can literally see thru your cards they're that good.

2) I have no issue folding overpairs when an overcard (A) hits the flop or it's a 4 straight board and I see aggression. You have to remember folding these pocket pairs increases your winrate dramatically as most people can't fold them. That's why we make so much money when we hit 2pair+, because they can't fold overpairs.

3) Wow what a hand. I had no idea Ben would fold that! And the guy even showed his bluff LOL. I mean how do you fold there to somebody that aggressive, and I know I'm not a high stakes player, but why would he run that bluff trying to get him to fold a T there. I think Ben thought there would be no bluffs in his range there.

4) Yea effective chip stakes are so important. 78s is a hand I would 3bet from SB. But no reason to 3bet against a guy with 30bbs left as it's a drawing hand. I wouldn't realize enough equity. That's why short stacks do so well at micros. People don't realize this. I've short stacked a few times and it is very profitable to play tight because of this.

5) It really depends on the player type. Some give up, other's call down with 3rd pair if bet into. Verse regulars I'll bet and try to steal these pots if I've got decent blockers or can rep good parts of the board. Also if it's a drawy board, most players will call turn on drawy boards so you can bet river too. Also, ask all the the questions you want I enjoy them

6) Man that guy is such a stud. I wish I had his balls.

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $20

Hours Played: 11.5

I was away for a good few days as family came over here for a wedding. It was a lot of fun, but I ended up getting pretty sick. Although I grinded a few hours over the first few days of the month, my first real day was yesterday. Anyway, not too bad of a day, could have been much better. Still running pretty bad. It seems like when I win big hands, it's because I outplayed my opponent, but when I lose it's because I've been sucked out on. Now this is really just how yesterday went, but it's kind of been the theme all along. Last month I did spew quite a bit though in fairness. The goal is to play at least 8 hours a day. Hopefully we can make that work. I also think I'll start an excel sheet keeping track of my results daily and forming a graph with it. Since I play on so many sites, and some are untracked this will give a nice visual aid.

How does he have 99 here? Also, what a sick cooler. He can have TT+, AKs+

What a terrible river raise by our friend here...

What do you think of this river call? I hate it, I don't think he bets worse here and I don't think he bluffs. I even told myself that on the river, but as I timed down I called.

What do we think of river checkback? I think he's only calling 2pair+ if we bet.

This one is really sick as well. Huge pot for me to win 200bb. Oh well....

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Good stuff, Baller:

* Kenney is a known bluffer, which makes Ben's fold surprising (to me). Kenney surely thought he was trying to get Ben to lay down a hand like JJ.

[Ballerholic]

Update

Monthly Profit: $181

Hours Played: 20.50

Hit a nice little upswing. Doing well so far for the amount of hours being played, but volume is still an issue. Honestly, like some people suggested I'm not focusing on profits but mainly volume. I know profits will come as long as I play. At the moment I'm looking at getting coaching from a 600NL reg. Somehow he only charges $50/hour for low stake grinders...higher for higher stakes. Anyway life is honestly just amazing being able to wakeup and play poker and not really have to do much more. I do have a part time job, but it's w.e. and pretty chill anyway. My routine is getting much better. Wake up, watch a poker live play/theory/HH video. Then I go and play 10NL snap poker for about an hour. Once that is done I'll take a small break, and then go into playing some 20NL+ games. Ideally I would like to include some meditation in, and begin working out consistently.

SBR have given me an infraction from posting links to my hands so I'll just write out some decent ones...

3way to the flop, I am on the BU with QJo. Flop is 8c9cTd. We end up getting all in on the flop for a 300bb pot. They have AcQc and Qs8d. So we are doing very well here. Turn is a Js. River is a brick. We split the pot, FML.

Few hands later...I open AA UTG, MP calls, BU squeezes, I 4bet, MP calls, BU calls. Flop is AcJ4. I cbet 1/4 pot, 2 calls. I jam 2c turn. 2 calls. River is another 2x giving me a full house. They turn over QQ and AT. We scoop a 300bb pot.

[Ballerholic]

chuck- yea very surprising. Maybe Ben knew he was a bluffer and knew that Kenny knew that so there was reverse psychology going on?

[thechaoz]

Don't forget time to study your game

[Ballerholic]

chaoz- yea need to keep up with that significantly.

I haven't played much over the past few days. Just taking a break for a couple of days. Going to begin grinding some 20-30nl tonight and continue some heavy grinding through to the weekend. Goal is to achieve 8 hours daily Thurs-Monday. Bankroll is around $500 and still up about $150 for the month after 22 hours. I'll be getting a paycheck which will bring me over $1k, so hopefully some 50nl this weekend as long as we run well over the next few days.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Baller, levelling wars for sure:

"He knows that I know...that he knows..."

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Profit: $130

Hours Played: 40

Two weeks in and volume hasn't been that great. I really need to pick it up. Hourly hasn't been great either, but I'm not really concerned as I do think it's there. Most of my profit was diminished when I jumped into 30NL Snap and hit some coolers. Anyway, need to pickup the volume and study hugely. I need to remember this is really all I have to do and I need to go hard. The goal is to be playing 50NL full time by the end of summer. So I'll need to 1) Begin playing 50NL and 2) Be a winning player there. I'm not really sure what a good play/study ration is...maybe 80/20? I think of 8 hours, playing 6 and studying 2 is good. The good news is that I'm profitable at 20NL and if we look at my stats I've got around a 8bb/100 winrate at it. I just have run bad at slightly higher stakes in a higher variance game format although I know I can beat it even for a small amount since the pool was very soft.

Again no hands since I don't want another infraction...

[ChuckyTheGoat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZZv-s7Muco

Baller, reminiscent of the 66/222 hand I posted above. Top player in world MIGHT lay down top-boat.

[Ballerholic]

Monthly Update: $130

Hours Played: 50

Month has been pretty swingy. Most of the money I've lost have come from playing stakes above 25NL which I really shouldn't do. I'm probably down $400 from these higher stakes. Anyway, still going strong. At the moment I'm basically full force into poker and really enjoying it. My goal is to buy pio software and start learning the GTO side of poker. The good news is that I'm 100% comfortable with 25NL and I actually find this stake to be very easy. As long as I can put in another good week or two at 25NL I'll be moving up to 50NL to start July. It took me about a year from when I began playing to reach 25NL, and I think it will take about another year to reach 200NL. It sounds crazy, but it's just 3 levels away. The goal is to reach 100NL by the end of this year.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

When u say 25NL...what are the blinds?

[RisingDough]

25 NL is 10 cent/25 cent

[RisingDough]

What site are you playing on the most?

[RisingDough]

Monthly Update: $130

Hours Played: 50

Month has been pretty swingy. Most of the money I've lost have come from playing stakes above 25NL which I really shouldn't do. I'm probably down $400 from these higher stakes. Anyway, still going strong. At the moment I'm basically full force into poker and really enjoying it. My goal is to buy pio software and start learning the GTO side of poker. The good news is that I'm 100% comfortable with 25NL and I actually find this stake to be very easy. As long as I can put in another good week or two at 25NL I'll be moving up to 50NL to start July. It took me about a year from when I began playing to reach 25NL, and I think it will take about another year to reach 200NL. It sounds crazy, but it's just 3 levels away. The goal is to reach 100NL by the end of this year.

The toughest part of being a professional gambler is the thing that makes it so attractive......FREEDOM! When you don't have to punch a clock and nobody is holding you accountable it takes dedication and motivation to push yourself to meet your goals.