"..where she stops nobody knows"

Hi all, back again with my usual Sunday evening roundup.

Made a decision earlier this week that I had been putting off for quite a while. I started the process of moving up to NL25. I normally play 4 tables NL10 and early
this week I dropped 1 table and added a NL25 table. I used the switch from cash to bb in the display (as pointed out to me by Untiltable, thanks again for that) initially at least. I did the same on all tables to normalise it despite knowing very well which was the NL25 table.

As the week went on I've switched to 2 tables of NL25 and this evening I had all 4 tables at NL25 and was just having the cash displayed, with the occasional switch to check just how many bb a bet was. The BR took a $10 hit overall which I was reasonably happy with finishing up at $845. Still short of my high point but significantly, it's still well above even a conversative BR for NL25.

I've been reflecting on why I've not made the change sooner. I think its partly due to familiarity. I've become quite familiar and relaxed at NL10, I don't think twice about getting 100bb+ AIPF with QQ+, AKos, AKs. I will also happily call off a short stack (<50bb) with lesser hands depending on how I've evaluated their play. I don't think about the cash, just the decision. Is it the right call given the information available?

Another reason for putting off the move is the fear of losing. Not a huge fear but more a, not really wanting to risk what would be 2.5BI at NL10 in one hand feeling. It's not really a huge sum in the great scheme of things and I've had $100 losing weeks before but that concern was there.

Then there is the, how different is the play? Are the players really that much better? Will I be able to hold my own or will I just get outplayed constantly? All these thoughts rattling around in the back of my brain somewhere and really all they were doing is getting in the way of a decision. Maybe just being an excuse to put off the move without actually contributing to the making of the decision.

When all is said and done the only way to find an answer to these questions and concerns is to give it a try. Maybe I would be the fish at the table, maybe they would outplay me, maybe the play would be so different as to be unrecognisable to me .......... or maybe I would find a fish on my first table (spoiler I hit a set of Js and doubled up early on). Maybe the play would not be that different and I might not be the biggest fish around.

So I took the leap and went for it. Surprisingly I might not be the biggest fish there judging by some of the play I've witnessed. The standard seems roughly the same from what little I've seen, maybe a few more 4 bets, less limping, less calling raises OOP PF.

So the outcome of finally making the decision is - I'll be hanging around NL25 for a while and see how it goes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Take care out there

Fagin

Good luck playing the higher stakes!
Feeling comfortable playing a certain stake is most important if you ask me.
You might even find more gamblers on NL25 or NL50 compared to NL2-NL5-1NL0, because those type of players generally want to make some quick cash fast.
Hopefully you will run into a lot of those type of players and win some nice pots ♠_drink:

Originally posted by Timmaywin
Good luck playing the higher stakes!
Feeling comfortable playing a certain stake is most important if you ask me.
You might even find more gamblers on NL25 or NL50 compared to NL2-NL5-1NL0, because those type of players generally want to make some quick cash fast.
Hopefully you will run into a lot of those type of players and win some nice pots ♠_drink:

Thanks for the good wishes Timmaywin, I could do with a little luck. About 500 hands at NL25 so far and having a "you will not get good cards and if you do you will miss every flop" type of experience so far. Just waiting this out and I'll hit a few in good time.

Interesting point about the gamblers, I saw a $50 pot earlier today won with 2nd pair. I folded top pair no kicker to the 35bb 3bet on the flop

As always when I've moved up it takes a little while to get used to the stakes. NL10 didn't take too long to get used to, the bets were just twice what I had been playing before, a little scary at first but manageable. NL25 the bets are that much bigger again and I expect to lose a few $ at first but hopefully pick them up again later as I get used to the play. It does seem a little scary having nearly 1/8 of my BR on the tables at once (4 x $25) but the upsides should more than make up for that lol.

Cheers

Fagin

Well, update time has come around quickly again. An interesting week and my first full week playing NL25. My BR is now $823 which is $21 down on last week but I feel ok about that.
On Wednesday I dropped to $750 and began to doubt my decision to try NL25. Couldn't get to play Thurs or Fri and Sat morning I loaded up and thought, just keep at it for a while. So I( carried on and within 30 mins I had picked up $35. I thought about how I might struggle to pick up that much in one session at NL10 and just carried on.

I've switched from bb display to $ and strangely the money difference doesn't seem to bother me. Previously on NL 10 I've had a mini celebration when winning 100bb in a pot ($10). Yesterday I won a $60 pot (about 240bb) and just went to the next hand on another table!

Did have a strange hand on Sat where I was on the B and called a R from MP with 55. Flop comes 10, J, 6r and he checks so I check back thinking "thanks for the free card!".
The turn is a 5 "yippiee". He checks again so I bet about 1/2 pot just expecting him to either fold his rubbish or raise with maybe a set or 2pr. He calls.
The R is a beautiful 5 giving me quads! He checks and I'm then left with the problem of how much to bet. I decided he was probably folding everything except boats and maybe only calling some of them so I just put in 2/3 pot expecting a fold. He tanks for about 30 seconds and then calls. He turned over AQos ????? I suppose he could beat some bluffs but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Enough rambling from me.

Catch you all next week.

Take care out there

Fagin

Keep it up, playing NL25 like a boss!

I would say: focus on the PROCESS and the results will follow.
Biggest hurdle for you seems to be the mental difference between playing NL25 and NL10, in the end they shouldn't be that different from each other.

GLGL

Cheers Timmaywin

I think you are probably right about my biggest hurdle. With the 2.5 x increase in stakes I suppose I expected a corresponding increase in quality of play or skill level of opponents. From my first 3K hands it seems that assumption was incorrect. The play is very similar to NL10, the skill level appears similar, there even seems to be more fishy play at times (can't fully confirm this as not seen enough of the right showdowns yet).

I'm going to focus on playing well, mostly ABC poker, just getting the decisions right and the bet sizes right at the right times, making a few laydowns and fewer "hero calls".

Even dropping $100 over a few sessions, I surprised myself by seeing it as dropping 4BI, not as $100 cash. Viewing it that way it was easy to manage as I'm used to picking up or dropping a few BI in a session at any level I've played. It's one of those things that happens to any poker player, no matter how well they play. I see players I respect dropping even more in live games and accepting it.

I'm going to stick with it for a while at least and see how it goes.

Have fun

Fagin

Back again with another Sunday evening ramble

Not played a lot this week as been finishing work late so only 1600 or so hands. Managed to finish with just under $850 which is $25 up on last week :f_drink::f_thumbsup:
Just what I needed. Feel like I've been playing well mostly, 1 session I played less well and dropped about $30 but the other 5 sessions were fine. Play at NL25 seems very similar to NL10. Big river raises are still what they represent and there are still a few players who will call 3 bets OOP with thrash, fine until they flop 2pr or similar Had a short stack (45bb ish) call a 3 bet OOP with 53s earlier and shove the turn with a flush draw vs my flopped top two pr - he hit the river of course

I'm finding I'm translating things to NL10 terms as I go, by this I mean I'll see someone with $100+ at a table and think Oh, that's like having a $40 stack at NL10, which I've not seen every day but at NL10 it's not unusual to see $40 stacks. It takes away some of the "they've got a lot of $s in front of them" and to me anyway makes it more relatable.

I still feel like I'm at least holding my own at NL25 so happy with that. Now just loading up 4 x NL25 tables every session and getting on with it. Finding at the moment that I'm generally only getting 3 bet when I'm OOP to them and have raised with the lower end of my range so having to fold to quite a few 3 bets. Bluff 4 bet someone from OOP earlier with A9s and they folded so they don't always have it.

Been interesting seeing the rake back building so much more quickly. I'm on Platinum Octopus at the moment and getting over $10 back per week which is nice - $12.71 this week from 1629 hands works out at 1.28 cents per hand, I think it was about 1.36 cents last week. That's about $27 waiting to be collected when I fancy it.

That's about it for now.

Catch you all next time

Take care

Fagin

Wow, update time already ... been a busy week with an 11 hour day at work on Friday but I survived it. I've been on 06:30 starts at work which means getting my sorry ass out of bed at stupid o'clock (04:30) so I can get there in time. Managed to play nearly 2k hands too which surprised me.

Finished the week down $31 with $818 in my BR but can't really complain, I was down about $60 more than that at one point! I just keep making the same mistake of getting all my cash in the middle with the best hand!! Typical example I flopped a set of 5s IP on a monotone board vs 2 players. I called a reasonably large bet on the flop (it went ck, bet, call, call), thinking I'm either way ahead or way behind. I figured I was up against maybe an over pair with a spade and a FD. The turn pairs the board and it goes ck, bet, I raise, fold and the bettor shoves, so I naturally call. I'm up against A9os for turned trip 9s. The river of course is an A

Variance getting it's own back lol. But I managed not to lose faith and got back to over $800 with some good play and some luck with them not sucking out yesterday and this evening. I've over $40 in rake back waiting for me too so might wait until it gets over $50 and then take it for a quick 2 BI boost.

That'll do me for now. Off to bed for another early start tomorrow.

Take care all

Fagin

Somehow managed to post twice, OOPSIE:f_frown:

So, back again with the usual Sunday evening update.

A good week overall showing a profit of $62 over 3k hands finishing on $880. Still getting it in good and losing to suckouts but that's just poker. I got up to just shy of $900 and then down again to $825 but a good session this evening pulled it back. Just noticed when reporting for the BR Challenge that I'm only 4 weeks shy of a year posting updates there so must be similar here, (Edit - just checked and I'm 5 days short of a year blogging, never expected it to last that long!), sure don't feel like it. When I think about it it makes sense but without checking I would have guessed about 8 months at most. Time is flying as the saying goes.

Got a 25c "Mystery Bounty" tourny token in the 12 days of Christmas thing. Decided to play 2 so invested another 25c and played them this evening. It just served to remind me how much I dislike them. It must have been about 20 - 25 mins play for a $1 prize + 18c for the one bounty I got for knocking out the 2nd place finisher, (bubbled the other one). Much preferred the previous iteration of these.

The new job seems to be going well. Vented some frustrations at the assistant manager recently and was told I was doing a good job Had a 4 week review a few days ago and it seems they are very happy they took me on

I've seen some news from my last job and it seems the recent storms in the UK have done some serious damage there. I've got some time off next week so going back to advise on repairs etc.. It's kind of a speciality and I have plenty of experience at the repairs there so why not. It'll be good to catch up with my ex colleagues.

Rakeback is over $60 now and not taken it yet although been tempted. Trying to resist the temptation and just watch it build. 3k hands has gained me about $20 in rakeback this week. Hoping to get in a similar volume next week.

That's about enough from me for now.

Take care out there

Fagin

Well, Sunday evening is here again and so am I!

Been a real roller coaster of a week. Started out dropping a couple of BIs on Monday (no biggie, just not hitting and/or getting sucked out on). Dropped a bit more on Tuesday, mainly through not playing well and ended up on about $803. Felt down after that and not hitting so didn't play Wed and then Thurs just broke even. Fri I picked up a few $ ending up on about $818. Started Sat not looking forward to Sun and having to post a loss (nobody likes to post a loss in public, it's far easier to hide it by not saying anything). Then picked up a few $ on Sat and played Sun morning and picked up a few more to finish on about $880. Almost left it there but decided to press ahead with my planned after dinner session and finally finished a few mins ago with $903 :f_drink::f_drink: First time I've been above $900 for a few weeks so feels good.

Feeling very comfortable at NL25 now. Recognising a few regs and a few fishes. Seen some strange play - a good example from this evening - MP raises and I'm in the SB with AQos. It folds to me and I 3 bet. BB folds and MP calls. Flop comes AQ4 (starting to hit flops again). I lead out for 2/4 pot and MP calls. T is an off suit 8 and I bet again for 1/2 pot, not wanting to commit too much to either scare him off or get shoved on by a set. He tank calls? R is a J. Don't like it but feel I have to bet, he could have AA, K10 but I need to get value from some hands at least so I go for 2/3 pot again, thinking I'll fold out all his worse hands and a few of his better ones. He tank calls again and shows KK :f_drink::f_thumbsup:

As long as they keep playing like that I'll be fine lol!

Have fun out there and I hope everyone has an enjoyable festive season and a prosperous New Year.

Fagin

Here I go again with another Sunday evening update. Another positive week despite dropping about 3BI over the last 2 days! I finished the week up $52 on $956. At one point I was on $1025 but variance and people playing bad hands and getting lucky took a toll

Got gold status here again now which is nice, and it looks like I'm likely to keep it while I play at NL25. Just generating so much rake!

Can't complain too much mind as the trend is upward and the 4 figure BR is getting close! I had winning sessions 5 days straight this week and then the weekend hit. I normally do well at the weekend but not this time. Could blame yesterday on not playing my "A" game but today I felt I played well. Just found that every time I went for thin value I was getting called by a hand that only just beat me or sometimes split the pot with me. I got it in with the best hand against a few SS players and generally lost to them hitting their 6 outer.

Still feeling positive, and getting very used to NL25. Dropping $25 is just losing a BI and that happens at every level. There's no point seeing it any differently to dropping $2 at NL2 or $10 at NL10. If I didn't have the BR for it I wouldn't be playing NL25 I'd be playing NL10 and dropping a BI there instead. It has a similar effect on the BR, which is minimal realistically as I know if I stick to playing well I'll get it back eventually.

Had a lot of cases over the weekend where I had a strong draw on the turn only for villain to bet pot and deny me odds to draw. I had a few hands where they bet 3 x pot and it felt like they were buying the pot but with a weak hand there was little point calling. The problem I had was all to often when I looked back at the hand in the HH I saw the river and I would have hit :f_cry::f_cry:

That's poker I guess. If we always knew the cards to come it would be an easy game.

Have fun out there and best wishes for the New Year. Hope you all have a profitable one

Take care

Fagin

I'm back with another update so that means it's probably Sunday evening!

A good week this week, actually probably the biggest winning week so far with a total profit of $102. That is despite losing my biggest pot so far of $102 with KK. I iso raised over a limper, villain 4 bet to $25 (we both have approx. 200 bb) which I've seen lots of players do with AK at this level so I call. The flop is Q high and I shove, he insta calls with AA and it's goodbye $50 :f_cry::f_cry::f_cry:

The BR now stands at $1058 even with that loss, and is getting ever closer to the magic $1,500. I now have nearly $100 in rake back to collect and I'm holding off on collecting it just yet. I am thinking of using it to get me over the hill for the last $100 or so of the challenge.

Felt I have played reasonably this week. Not my best although a couple of sessions I've felt I was playing my A+ game, but mostly been more like my B+ or just B game. Feeling quite comfortable at this level and not intimidated by the players or stacks I see. I can see that if I can maintain my A game through a number of sessions I should expect to profit each session. It's partly to do with my mental state as I approach the session, which has mostly been great, and partly to do with interruptions etc during the session taking me away from my desired headspace and so losing concentration.

Looking at the reporting thread my post this evening is week 51, almost a year, scary stuff. I've somehow managed to keep this blog going now for over a year, I started on 20/12/23. Never would have thought I'd keep it going for that long. My first note in here of the Bankroll Challenge is from the 14th Jan so nearly there now. I've played over 157k hands in the challenge and am kind of expecting to complete it before I get to 200k. I'm playing 3 - 4k hands per week and expect to keep up the same amount of play going forward.

Realistically I need to get another $350 in profit and the rake back will sort the other $100.

Hope you are all over the NY hangovers! I managed to avoid one by the simple expedient of being in bed by 21:30 - something to do with having to be in work for 06:30 on New Years day (not a lot of fun I can assure you).

Take care out there

Fagin

Well, here I go again with another Sunday evening round up.

This week marks the 52nd week of my Bankroll Challenge and also my biggest winning week so far. I managed to post a profit of $165 after only 2736 hands. That leaves my BR on $1,223.98, less than $300 from my goal of $1,500, and virtually $1k up in a year! I'm now quite confident of achieving my goal. It's seemed very far away for a long time but is now finally almost within touching distance.

I still have just over $100 in rake back to collect (I'm still on Platinum Octopus until May) so realistically less than $200 to pick up from the tables.

The week even started off with a 2.5 BI loss on Monday night which annoyed me so much I didn't play on Tuesday. I was playing tired on Monday and just thinking of getting some hands in rather than focussing on playing well. That all changed on Wednesday and since then I have not had a losing session. It was a matter of readjusting my focus and thinking more about decisions instead of just playing on autopilot which is where I was on Monday. Playing on autopilot like that can work at times but is never a good idea. Better decisions require more focus and thought and not only lead to better results in the long term, they leave me feeling more satisfied after a session, even if it's not a winning one I'm probably coming away feeling like I've lost the minimum. There have been quite a few hands this week where I've folded to a 3 bet because I would have been OOP where I had been calling and check/folding on Monday, or I've checked behind on the river to find that I was always going to be called if I bet and I ended up losing far less than I would have if I was less focused.

The BR Challenge has been one of the primary motivators for my keeping this blog going. It's kept me accountable and encouraged me to play better poker. I'm not sure where this will go once the challenge ends. That's one of the things I'm thinking about, another is whether I do another challenge or not and how I set that up. I'm thinking of cashing out up to 2/3 of my BR to help with IRL issues and that would set things up nicely for another challenge to help rebuild.

Decisions for another day.

Enough rambling for now.

Take care all

Fagin

Sunday evening seems to have rolled around quickly this week so here I am again!

Not played a lot this week, had a bad session on Monday dropping a couple of BI and took Tuesday and Wednesday off, just tired and not feeling able to focus properly. Played Thursday and had a pleasant surprise when I logged in finding that I had C$178 added to my total! A little check on pokercraft showed I had cashed in the Resolution Flipout .

Seeing this gave me some resolve. Being able to play without risking my BR was interesting and not something I had experienced before. It was to prove a profitable experience and I played Thurs, Sat and Sun for a total of only 1,594 hands this week, managing to have my most profitable week yet finishing up $218 :f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

BR now stands at $1,442 !!! Only $58 short of reaching my BR Challenge goal of $1,500.

I said last week that I might cash in my $100 rake back to get me over the finishing line but over the last week as I've been aware of getting within reach of my goal, I have felt that I want to do it on the tables. I'm going to carry on until I get to my goal and then probably take the rake back.

My timeline shows a couple of BIG hands this week - "Won $1.51 with Four of a kind, 4s" and "Won $1.36 with a straight flush, Q". just goes to show that it's not always the big hands that make the most.

That's about it for now.

Catch you all next week.

Cheers

Fagin

hi nice blog what do you do when you reach 1,5k ?

cheers,
taavi1337

Originally posted by taavi1337
hi nice blog what do you do when you reach 1,5k ?

Thanks for your comment taavi1337, you have asked the question that I have been asking myself for a few weeks now ever since I felt that my goal was finally in sight.

The simple answer is that I'll keep on playing. I play because I enjoy the game, the money is a nice incentive to improve and is a good way of keeping score. While my balance keeps going up I know I'm doing something right

I will probably withdraw at least some of the cash as I have an upcoming use for it. I am considering setting a new goal, currently thinking about starting from $500 and playing NL25 but not sure yet. After struggling so long to get to over $1k it could feel like a step backwards to drop down to $500 again. I'll probably keep the blog going, at least in the short term, but no definite decision for now.

Cheers

Fagin

Well, what a week!

Started off on Monday getting up to $1,558, considered calling a halt there and calling the BR challenge done and dusted, but decided that as I was reporting weekly I should carry on and do just that so I missed a couple of days and then played some more. Up until then I was running at or about even EV and then I hit this hand.

Since then I have been running more and more -EV as the week has gone on finishing up with reporting a loss for the week of $30. The BR now stands at $1,412. It has been an appaling few days with every raise with a premium hand just picking up the blinds and every raise with less getting 3 and 4 bet to oblivion. When I have called the 3 bets IP I haven't hit and am getting check raised out of pots. When I have managed to get to showdown I have been losing to villain getting lucky so often it's ridiculous. Typical hand sees me on the button raising with Q♥:T♣:, fairly standard. The BB calls and we see a flop of Q♣:4♦:T♠:. He checks, I bet 1/3 pot and he calls. Turn is 7♥:, a blank as far as I am concerned. He checks and I bet 1/2 pot. He raises pot and I call. the R is J♠:. He checks and I am tempted to bet but decide to check behind. He shows Q♦:J♣: and takes it down :f_frown::f_mad:

I have struggled to win a pot without bluffing for three days now I even flopped a boat and got it all in on the river only to split the pot!!

Sorry, just letting off some steam. Been a lousy few days and feel the need to vent.

I still have over $110 in rake back to collect so I guess technically I'm over the finishing line but not until it's in the top line. I'll get there soon, just frustrating to drop 5BI after such a good start to the week.

Ah well, back to the tables tomorrow and see what happens.

Take care all

Fagin

Back again after another disappointing week. Dropped $49 over the last week leaving the BR at $1,362. Just been a week of repeatedly managing to get on the wrong side of variance. 3 out of 4 times today I have gotten AIPF, twice with QQ and twice with KK. In 3 of 4 cases villain hit an A. My QQ held up once and that was it.

Been similar throughout the week. Raise pre and get called. Hit my A, C-bet 1/3 pot and get called. Safe T and I still reckon I'm ahead so I bet again, 1/2 pot this time and get called again. Unsure where I am exactly on the R so I check behind to find he hit his 2nd pair on the R calling my bets with 2nd or 3rd pair on F and T. Or worse is when I bet big on the R because it seems like a blank only to find he played 95os OOP and get called by bottom 2 pr. While I am happy that they are calling me with these marginal hands it's infuriating when they hit a 3 or 6 outer the R to win.

Still can't complain too much. I have managed to pick up a few pots here and there or I would be down a lot more. Just got to keep playing good poker and let variance come back to me when it's ready.

It feels like this seems to happen when I'm near a target. I seemed to get stuck on or about $850 for ages and then suddenly I started finding myself on the good side of variance for a while.

Not played that much through the week but played a fair bit yesterday and today. Work is primarily a mental challenge and I'm coming home some days mentally exhausted, struggling to even play solitaire lol. Not the best idea to play poker when I'm like that

That's about it for now.

I'll be back next week with the next thrilling instalment of Fagin failing to reach his goal lol

Take care all

Fagin

Well, another week over and this time a little profit to show for not much play. Only played 1,300 hands this week as I've been working early shifts and by the time I get some space to play in the evening I'm either too tired or it's bed time!

So, profit this week of $14 with the BR standing at $1,376. Made a few good calls and a few bad ones which I think more or less evened out. I noticed that I can win an AI at some point in a session, (the AIPFs are getting a bit rare lately), and despite being up on 3 of 4 tables I can come out with just 2 or 3 $ profit from the session. Getting 3 and 4 bet PF when I have hands I'm not prepared to get it in with and getting folds when I have premiums. Not liking getting shoved on when I only have 1 pr on the T or R and that is getting fairly frequent for some reason

I have started making the occasional overbet on the R when I am sure I'm ahead. Many of these get folds but a reasonable number are getting calls, mostly from bluff catcher type hands which is lovely!

Had to miss the Italy vs Wales game in the Six Nations yesterday due to work. That's the first Six Nations game I've missed in quite a few years. felt a bit pissed off about it but nothing I could do. Recorded it and watched it later but it's not the same as watching it live, the whole feel of the game is different somehow. I've noticed this with Fi races previously. They are just not the same when they are recorded and watched later on.

That's about it from me for this week.

Take care everyone

Fagin