My poker journey...the next step (Nl400 and beyond) ***update 5 years later

hi Georg;
nice to see you're back

Maybe you should continue with your old blog, but it's up to you of course... You're the most successful active blogger in english community, so share your success with us this way at least (donations are welcome too if interested ;)).

Good luck with all your goals!

Thanks opal! I think I'll just continue on this blog now that I started it.

I played my first session today. 1.6k hands at Nl400 Sh and finished up 2.5 BI which is a very nice way to start things off. I didn't play as aggressive preflop as I wanted to, but I think this will correct it self shortly. I just needed to get back into the swing of things. Before I took a break I was playing something like 20/16 and I'd like to continue to loosen up to something like 22/18 once I'm comfortable playing that loose. Other than loosening up, I think I played ok, there were 2 hands that I think I played wrong... live and learn i guess.

I plan on playing another session tonight, so we'll see how that goes...unfortunately tomorrow I'm back at work so will have a little less time again.

BR- $17 020

Played my second session today. 2.5k hands down a little over 1 BI. This is the most hands I've ever played at these limits in 1 day and I'm relatively happy with myself. I think I kept a good mindset and played pretty well regardless of the swings, which is good.

My non-showdown winnings were terrible today...hopefully I can change that a bit as well.

BR- $16 540

Here's a hand that I got owned on...

Pre-flop: ($6, 6 players) Hero is BTN J♦ J♥
1 fold, _Theah_ raises to $16, 1 fold, Hero raises to $50, 2 folds, _Theah_ calls $34

Flop: Q♦ Q♣ J♣ ($106, 2 players)
_Theah_ checks, Hero bets $65, _Theah_ raises to $130, Hero calls $65

Turn: 3♦ ($366, 2 players)
_Theah_ bets $183, Hero raises to $693.50, _Theah_ calls $216.70

River: 5♥ ($1,459.20, 2 players)

Final Pot: $1,459.20
_Theah_ shows: Q♠ J♠
Hero shows: J♦ J♥

Hey,

I was thinking of taking a look at ladbrokes one day. I know you play SH, but do you know how many NL200-400 FR tables are opened there during the american rush hours?

Good luck with your goals

Cheers

Hi cindy. Maybe 1-2 FR tables between Nl200-400 I think. Sometimes none.

I played another pretty big session of 2.5k handst up 1/2 BI. I'm a little frustrated because I ran really well but also played like complete shit in way too many hands... I think it's because I'm tired after not sleeping well yesterday and then going to work. Anyways, at least I finished in the positive and got a decent volume of hands played. I did manage to loosen back up to 19/16 preflop which is good...I just need to stop making dumbass 'I'm only half awake' mistakes

BR- $16 740

Liking the blog, a really good read like your last one.

Also liking your goals. Keep up the good work, will revisit often.

Bart.

GL ggeorgio!
I'm participating in the rake race at ladbrokes, too
and I can assure you that if you play regularly you will get more than 1000$ out of it. After all it's not a site with huge traffic.

Thanks a lot eaglestar and finchybg! I read each of your blogs as well from time to time. GL (and don't give up finchy, just review your game/mentality/motivation so that you can get going in the right direction again )

For me, I just had the best day of cash games in my life ♦. I played a little over an hour on my lunch break and then a decent session when I got home from work. In total it was 2.5k hands up just under 8 BI. I think I played well, although I'm still trying to loosen up preflop. The thing I'm happy with (other than winning obv) is that I feel like my postflop play is improving, which is definitely something I lacked in the past.

Here's the graph of my last 2 days of poker.

...I'm thinking back 5 months ago when I was grinding Nl10 and was super happy when I made 50$!?!

BR- $19 840

hey what's ur screen name on Ladbrokes ?

I'm gonna make a indians-like dance for upswing like yours.
I hope it works

Wow! In five months from 500$ to this?!!! I MUST read your old blog! ATM i'm playing NL10 SH but started out with just 118$ because im broke.

gggeorgio is my idol
lives with his girlfriend, works and still puts in some nice volume in poker and makes sick money - achieving all that simultenously is definitely admirable

You rock man;) After 5 months you'll think about leaving your job and after another 5 you'll become pro ♦

Thanks for all the nice comments guys! It really helps me to stay positive when things don't go exactly 'according to plan'. In the last 3 days I've only played about 3 sessions of 1 hour each. In total I dropped 10 BI and am back to break even this month. As frustrating as this is, I think the majority was just really bad luck combined with maybe 1-2 stacks of small tilting at the end of a session (which I'm quite pissed off about)

The only positive is that I was able to stop playing each session the moment I realized that I was no longer playing my A game. Also since I could no longer hit the tables because of frustration a couple of nights I hit the bars hard with friends instead ♦ . I guess that pretty much sums up my last few days... the worst 3 hours of poker in my life and a couple of good nights out that leave me with a small head-acke, a little voice in the back of my head that screams 'WHY'D YOU DO THAT' and of course lots of good memories. I'm going to try to grind a bit later today if possible, but only if I'm feeling a little less hungover than now.

Oh ya, right now it looks like getting a 1k bonus will be easy, so I'm switching my goal to minimum 1.5k and hopefully 2k.

@vladz- my screen name is 'freeroln'

@slikec- no mater how much success i have in poker it will always be a hobby for fun (and a little extra cash!)... I need balance in my life and my normal job provides that because I'm a cross-country ski coach so I get to be outside exercising all day!

BR- $15 900

I 2 sessions a bit under 1 hour each yesterday. In total I dropped 4.5 BI again! Man it's a shitty feeling dropping 6k in 6 days On the positive side I think I played pretty well yesterday, and during this loosing period I've always cut my sessions short the moment I feel tilty. This is good discipline for me because in the past I've chased losses in sessions sometimes.

I'm going to post some more hands today and try to keep evaluating my game as much as possible. I know that there's a lot of luck involved, but there's no question that I'm making plenty of mistakes as well. One thing I've already noticed is that I'm seeing a lot more players on the Nl400 tables that are regs on Nl800-1000. I think this must be because of the rakeback races motivating the higher limit players to grind a bunch of lower stakes tables to get enough volume for a good bonus. I'm working on adjusting to their play now that I've realized that a lot of them are definitely playing a bit different that the average Nl400 player.

I'll play another session when I get a chance, and hopefully I can stay focused on my play and positive so that I don't have to quit early like my past few sessions.

Wish me luck...then I'll wish you luck and we'll all have better sessions!

Played another short session yesterday loosing another 2 BI. Basically just lost 2 preflop all-ins, then was too frustrated to play anymore.

Today I played a long session for a total of 3k hands up just over 1.5 BI. Over that amount of hands its not much but I'm happy that I had a session in the green. If I have time I'll play a little more tonight and tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

BR- $13 760