testing out the possibility of (semi)- pro in the 18man on pokerstars

From the beginning, it was clear for me that I wanted to test or it was realistic to go (semi) - professional. My first test was poker cash games. This wasn’t going that bad, but the current settings(of max 4 tables/waiting tables) doesn’t look ideal for the moment. My first choice was of course back to the 45’s. But there are no real long term prospects anymore. So then I stumbled on the ’30s. That have solid volume and good prospects of higher buyin’s.

I started a small month ago direct with a solid good run on the 1.5’s. Mostly pretty small sessions. I was more than 100 up in the first 100 games. Started mixing in the 3.5’s although not yet 100 bi’s, but still more than 100 average bi. After that started running worse, running around be for the next 100 games. Probably for 200 games being up 112 is still running really good.

For the moment I still believe that in mid-long term a monthly profit of at least 1000-1500 is possible, but to get a clear picture first I still need to wait what the level on the higher limits is. We will see in the future, first getting the volume up.

BR: 305.18$

Last night I read my old blog in the Dutch forum. The original plan was to read maybe a bit and then maybe slowly over some days read it through, but it was such a wild read and trip back to memories I completely forgot I read it completely through. It was a wild one. I for example totally forgot how I often had quite some railers back then, but also pretty hard to read sometimes how I was totally unready to handle the money/use the opportunities. By reading back I realized how much I have changed since then(the blog was 2011-2013). Also not that unexpected since it was not even 18 when I started to win some decent money and I was combining playing poker with being on the verge of alcoholism. Although the worst part in the latter was probably after the blog stopped.

The way how that blog and my short blog in English was also pretty sad. I just disappeared without any posts after the talk with my parents. My mindset seemed better than ever before and I was working seriously on my game. I survived a more than 100bi under ev run on the 6 max hypers and I was nicely settling in them ( sharkscoping me seems to confirm that). It seems almost a year later I made a couple of posts in the blog of my best poker buddy of back then and we maybe had a talk on skype and that's it.

On the other hand, also read some inspirational fun stuff.
-I was playing 28/26 on average in 45 mans, with the first levels being without antes(I think until bb 200 even). So pretty tight.
-I was able to do sessions of 200+games back then. That is around my total for now:f_biggrin:
-by the end, I started running/my first contact with chess. I came a far way since then

Today played a session trying to get my inner lag back in action. I don't know or I was inspired by the read/ I found my luckbox of back in the 45's time or a combination of both, but I started as a train. It was going so hard I stopped even faster than planned with regging(was anyway going to be a short session after short night of sleep due to the reading). The increase of actions per minute was a bit to much. I surely didn't play my A-game yet at the end of the session. Finding the healthy balance of playing a bit more lag will take some time. Also probably will need to split general gameplay(without extra adaption at certain players) a bit on 1.5's/3.5's

Ending up after only 15 games 43.11 is always nice

BR: 348.29$(highest since the comeback. Already pretty close to doubled)

In the future, I will also try to add one interesting discussion hand per post. I have already saved some, maybe will add one later today

Hi liessens,
Interesting blog!

Are you in the bankroll challenge?
(see https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=523971&page=1)

I'm also impressed by the chess -- although I admit I don't know what the numbers mean.
Can you provide a link to the Chessrunner stream?

I played a lot of chess in high school and was near the top in our school, but I got crushed in university.

My twitch is I haven't been active since the beginning of August. It is difficult for me to say something about the high school chess level. Since I only started in my twenties and real start only at 25.
Not yet signed up for the bankroll challenge; I will do right now

I had last 2 nights a classical chess game. Friday I hadn't really time for a session. So I decided to just try 3 7 $ game to test the level. The first impression was still very beatable, but not any luck with this little shot so 3blanks. Yesterday started with 16 blanks in a row for total of 20 blanks and 63 downer made me stop my session 10 minutes early for my chess game. I also hadn't had the best night of sleep so probably my play wasn't optimal. Although in review not found any misplays.

Today started again with blanking everything up to the point where I virtually probably needed to move fully down to the 1.5's back. So I decided it was time to put the luckbox on. Had at one point 10 tables left all ft. Ending session 60up of the low point. I think this was my biggest session since being back with 34 games

BR:320.66

Misplay(level) of the day. On turn, my first idea was to fold. But then I taught wtf does he do this with. Then the river I outthink myself again in a hero call. Just shouldn't do this to myself

PokerStars, $3.16 + $0.34 - Hold'em No Limit - 200/400 (25 ante) - 2 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

JBFF11 (SB): 13,004 (33 bb)
ZatlapVerm (BB): 13,996 (35 bb)

Pre-Flop: (650) Hero (ZatlapVerm) is BB with T♦ 8♥
JBFF11 (SB) calls 200, ZatlapVerm (BB) checks

Flop: (850) K♣ 7♥ T♣ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (BB) checks, JBFF11 (SB) checks

Turn: (850) 4♠ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (BB) bets 425, JBFF11 (SB) raises to 2,125, ZatlapVerm (BB) calls 1,700

River: (5,100) 3♣ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (BB) checks, JBFF11 (SB) bets 10,454 (all-in), ZatlapVerm (BB) calls 10,454

Total pot: 26,008

Showdown:
JBFF11 (SB) shows 4♥ K♥ (two pair, Kings and Fours)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 58%, Flop: 79%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

ZatlapVerm (BB) shows T♦ 8♥ (a pair of Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 42%, Flop: 21%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

JBFF11 (SB) wins 26,008

Monday/Tuesday, I visited some friends so no poker sessions. Yesterday I realized they switched mttsng completely up. It seems 18 man is still the goto. So that is at least one positive, but a mix of 2$ and 5$ is a bit too aggressive of BRM for now. Also, the volume looked relatively low yesterday on the 2$(for sure during the afternoon)

Started yesterday session a bit late and ended at the usual time. So played only 6 games. Happy with the play and ended up 7$

Did a smallish second session in the evening, with a lot more volume. Running like a trainwreck, but the level was so weak that the damage was limited. Ended the day with 26 games in total. A 1.87$ up

BR:323$

I started a session now, but it looks volume will be even lower.

To finish it off. Hand of the day. It is a hand already from almost 3 weeks ago. So didn’t remember it and was thinking at first wtf did I fold here, but probably makes sense.

Villian is probably a reg and at tighter sight. Almost 500hands(by now, not yet then), and 16/14. So first of all 88/TT are full in his range, also AK/AT are both at least partially in his range. The best I can hope for is AJ, but that would be overplayed against my strong range here and maybe KQ/QJ/KJ of diamonds, but that are at most 3 combo’s with still some equity. And those he only can play like this if he thinks I am capable of herofolding. So all in all looks as a pretty easy correct fold.

PokerStars, $1.32 + $0.18 - Hold'em No Limit - 10/20 (3 ante) - 8 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

ZatlapVerm (UTG): 1,497 (75 bb)
paulnokudosurd (UTG+1): 1,457 (73 bb)
AAdiniz (MP): 3,111 (156 bb)
markus52it (MP+1): 1,497 (75 bb)
Lunyt1st (CO): 1,497 (75 bb)
katanian (BU): 1,487 (74 bb)
Prajiturica80 (SB): 1,477 (74 bb)
Insane332 (BB): 1,477 (74 bb)

Pre-Flop: (54) Hero (ZatlapVerm) is UTG with Q♥ A♣
ZatlapVerm (UTG) raises to 60, 1 fold, AAdiniz (MP) calls 60, 5 players fold

Flop: (174) 3♦ 8♠ T♦ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (UTG) bets 100, AAdiniz (MP) calls 100

Turn: (374) A♥ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (UTG) bets 220, AAdiniz (MP) raises to 578, ZatlapVerm (UTG) folds

Total pot: 814
AAdiniz (MP) wins 814

So that first session thursday was indeed slow in volume, but the longest session so far. Overall not a good session didn’t feel like my A-game although in review not finding any big mistakes. Except sitting out one time AA/KK on rather high blinds. Of course, costs quite a lot. On top of that running rather bad, so ended up quite some bi down.
Added also an evening shorter evening session where volume went faster. Play better/ran better. Recovered a decent amount.

Ended after 50games 11$down

I was getting sick already Thrusday, but starting of Friday was getting really worse. So in afternoon I decided to review some regs. In the evening I tried a short session. Wasn’t the best decision. Since I got really bad headache. Was then also totaly not happy with my level play. Ended 20games only 2$ down which was real damage control.

Saturday took the day off, since sickness got even worse. Decided today to play a smallish session only 6tabling tiled. Combined with Sunday was ideal moment to test out the 5$. I got big time good run over 11 games combined with happy about play. Ended up 50$+ ,getting new peak BR.

BR:360$. So 50/50 bi 2$/5$ would be 100avg bi, but probably will a wait bit longer for that. But surely on weak hours will mix the 5$. And maybe also a bit to get volume up in dow hours. In this first test was for sure not stronger reg heavy.

Very interesting spot this session. Is a reg with most likely a r/f game here too. Probably his range is capped. So A5s+ A7o+ KJo KTs 55-TT would give JJ/QQ 50% chance. Altough I think they are best in push range. Interesting to check this with icimizer(but I have only free version for now). Until I decide to go (semi) pro. till really unsure for the moment. But even not easy with icmizer, since it is hard to evaluate the positive edge in this post(even using fgs).

PokerStars, $4.52 + $0.48 - Hold'em No Limit - 200/400 (25 ante) - 3 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

Rothen2911 (BU): 6,166 (15 bb)
vonBaranow (SB): 4,409 (11 bb)
ZatlapVerm (BB): 16,425 (41 bb)

Pre-Flop: (675) Hero (ZatlapVerm) is BB with 9♦ 9♠
Rothen2911 (BU) raises to 6,141 (all-in), 1 fold, ZatlapVerm (BB) calls 5,741

Flop: (12,557) A♣ K♠ J♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (12,557) 7♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (12,557) 5♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: 12,557

Showdown:
Rothen2911 (BU) shows Q♣ K♥ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 44%, Flop: 87%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

ZatlapVerm (BB) shows 9♦ 9♠ (a pair of Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 56%, Flop: 13%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

Rothen2911 (BU) wins 12,557

Today slowly getting back into the rhythm. Still started relatively late. Combined with the games weren't running that hard. I decided to mix in 2 5$ games. Kept it 6 games max. Happy with play. Happy with good run. The only stupid mistake being lazy being on time after break with a hu 5$ game where I lost 5k ish sit out. Lesson learned. Posted my first hand in the hand discussion section. Planning to do that a bit more.

Tonight no time for the second session.

BR 395.91(I can start mixing in the 5's a little bit more freely)

Hand of the day off earlier this week. I think 3rd time I look at it. The villain is a reg. In the beginning, I was leaning to b/f river, but now I am quite sure it was indeed a misplay. I am not really worried about full houses in their range(ofc there are some, but mainly flushes). The problem is, they are worried about my full houses in my range. Since they are all in my range). So probably his range is 90% Kdx, very low % Jdx and I see them never bluffing here

Then knowing how easy my fold should be(and I have a lot of full houses in my range). Is their raise even good?

PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - Hold'em No Limit - 40/80 (10 ante) - 6 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

pokergenius879 (UTG): 1,395 (17 bb)
ocravce (MP): 2,595 (32 bb)
Electrosens (CO): 2,103 (26 bb)
celtal (BU): 2,243 (28 bb)
ZatlapVerm (SB): 2,280 (29 bb)
KevinsNinety (BB): 2,884 (36 bb)

Pre-Flop: (180) Hero (ZatlapVerm) is SB with Q♦ 5♥
4 players fold, ZatlapVerm (SB) raises to 160, KevinsNinety (BB) calls 80

Flop: (380) A♦ 7♦ A♣ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (SB) bets 152, KevinsNinety (BB) calls 152

Turn: (684) 9♦ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (SB) bets 274, KevinsNinety (BB) calls 274

River: (1,232) 6♦ (2 players)
ZatlapVerm (SB) bets 493, KevinsNinety (BB) raises to 2,288 (all-in), ZatlapVerm (SB) calls 1,191 (all-in)

Total pot: 4,600

Showdown:
KevinsNinety (BB) shows K♦ 5♠ (a flush, Ace high - higher flush)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 75%, Flop: 87%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

ZatlapVerm (SB) shows Q♦ 5♥ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 25%, Flop: 13%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

KevinsNinety (BB) wins 4,600

Yesterday had the first session happening exactly the biggest risk with playing a 'mixed BI BRM strategy'. So basically the highest bi being a bit too aggressive, but the overall risk lowered due to the smaller bi. My good run in the 5's ended. With 2 abysmal sessions. While running like a god in the 2's. Result 94roi on the 2's. -48.63 on the 5's. A little bit more 2's. So ended 11.5 bi up, but still -4.66$. Ofc for a bad running day at my higher bi that is a wonderful result.

BR: unknown, around 390

I played for 2 sessions. One in the afternoon and one in the evening. Maxing out at 5 5$ which stayed permanently tiled and unlimited 2$ which went in the 6th spot stacked and could fill the open tiles when not maxed out in the 5's. First sessions like this went good., although still, some getting used to mistakes of course. One horrendous call 4handed where I misread his stack due to not being a good setup.

Overall very happy with the way my play is going with now also my overall EVbb/100 up to 9.19. Ofc not saying everything(card run/non-allin allin's misrepresented/...)

Today I wanted to go first time for a longer 4hour session. Ofc is exactly today stars updating. Stars give me a message of max 2hours and now after 2hours I see on Twitter that it is expected to be 3hours In the downtime, I finally took some time to set up tableninja2(free trial). Setting up apps is really nothing for me. I just can't myself check every single setting. I know it is+ev to take some time in setting everything up, but I can't get myself to it. I am just playing or reviewing. Back in the past when I ground 200+games a day I never even took the time to set up good and my setup was just a complete mess.

I have now a basic setup of multi-stack(I will try 12 tiles for now) which will be a max of 11 games 5's and then 2's in the 12th spot. And will set up for this in sng sensei too(I guess it is not possible to make it automatic that with a full grid. 2's in tiles get automatically switched with new 5's in the stack) Last I also have some betting functions turned on. So also testing how that works. I think I have everything else turned off for now. So any suggestions of must-do features, feel free to share.

So the table ninja didn't work out for now(nothing of all settings) Not sure or the problem is with the update of PokerStars or something is wrong in my settings. So back to manual for now. Of course, losing some ev there. Also not ideal that I can't comfortably contact support since my Holdem manager account is on an email that I no longer have access to(has been hacked in the past)

With little delay still managed to get in 2 solid sessions with the old settings. Another day of struggling on the 5's, but almost getting be) and crushing the 2's. So after a max volume of 63games, I ended up +28.91(after 24 games I was up +72, but after that blanked almost all 5's).

Then today went with a day delay for the first 'monster' session. Decided to switch up the setup a bit. Went for full-stack with only 3 spots open. Mostly used for ft 5's or already deep stack f2t. Occasionally filling in with a 2 around the bubble. Also full regging both the 2's and 5's. Played for exactly 4hours, ending at 62 games. Only near the very end stopped a lit bit early in regging 5's. Since they felt very reg heavy and lowering tables near the end session made some sense. Had again a run nice on 5's, worse on 2's session Ending up +87$. Was maybe thinking of adding a second session tonight to get in that first +100 game day, but was already pretty late and felt the first session. So decided against it.

During the prolonged weekend, I will play a chess tournament. So break of poker for a couple of days. Looks like the ideal moment for a first graph.

No idea what I am doing wrong with the graph

BR:507.72. So I could switch fully over to the 5's. Probably will still mix in some 2's during relative quiet hours. But still undecided on that. The next goal is the first shot at 10's.

Originally posted by liessens

No idea what I am doing wrong with the graph

The link in your post points to a page, not an image.
If you go to that page, then right-click on the image, choose "copy image link" from the menu.
When I do that, this is what I get:

 https://i.ibb.co/ZMrXr8J/GRAPH.png 

That URL points to an image, and it should work.
Try to edit your post to see if it does.

Thanks

It has been some time since my latest update. Around 3 weeks. I started writing a post 2weeks ago but looks like I never finished it.

So first the chess tournament was result-wise not that good, but I had a nice weekend.

The next week back to the poker grind, but with a slow start. I couldn’t use my second screen, only my laptop screen. So it was 100% stack(without popout for high action tables. Most of the time not that big a factor, but were some quite high attention tables in the sessions. (this was the end of what I had written). So I will try to fill in, but not really sure anymore how it went, nothing specific I can remember. Looking back at the graph looks quite steady. After a couple of sessions, I switched fully to the 5’s when BR broke 600. The 2’s felt like a steady cash printing machine, but the long term plan is to move up to the highest 18man limits so I want max experience agaisnt strongest regs(but still doing some game selection).

The full switch to 5’s didn’t go super easy, with a couple of moments where I came quite close to needing to move down to at least mixing back. With blanking everything beginning of the session, but minimizing damage with some good run in the end. Moneywise also had the biggest downer of around 120. Bi wise pretty equal to the previous 25 downer. Of course, all are still pretty small and I am expecting bigger downers in the future. Yesterday/today fully recovered from it, hitting a new high. Volume-wise hasn't been super high this moment with both the chess weekend. Playing 2 other days OTB chess and also weekend with friends

BR:695,12

I started today also tracking of keeping track of the best hours to play. Most likely will switch to playing during my evening hours and analyzing(regs) during my afternoon.

$-graph

BI-graph

The last 2 weeks have played quite a low volume, only 270 games. A couple of reasons. I went maybe a bit too far in table selection. With playing a longer time I have noted a higher% of regs. So it is normal that there is a higher amount of noted regs in the game. So I need to readjust there a bit. Probably will also just mix in some 2's too in really bad regging hours. On top of that since 26/11 is world chess championship started which I am following very closely, so less time for poker?

Still reached quite some milestones those weeks. I reached back gold. I watched a couple of videos of the big mtt's final tables. But for now, it seems not that much recent material. Platinum in future months should be very reachable too.

Reached level 3 in PokerStars rewards. Internationally that is the higher base rakeback? But it looks like Belgium is still on the old system.

My EV chips won became higher than my net won chips. I started out playing the 18mans running super hot. Now since stepping up to the 5's my luck has changed. Running in total 200k under ev, almost 4bb/100 under ev. I know it doesn't say everything, but it still is a confidence boost that I am still 300$ up in them despite that. Also getting very close at 1M up in chips, a fun milestone, with not that much meaning. Also creeping up to EVbb/100 of 10.

Lastly, I keep also logging when good hours/days for playing are. Already some interesting data, but still need more before I can draw conclusions

BR:737,63

Edit: I also bought ICMIZER with Black Friday discount. Really accelerating review sessions+ doing some sng coach training sessions

Almost a month since the last update. I got back to the grind, playing more volume. Shifting a bit more my table selections methods.; To decide or to start the session. Full regging always. And being one of the factors when to stop the session. 68 of the games were still 2's. Partly to try to grab a sharkscope star over 500 games:f_biggrin: Missed just out, needed only to get be in those last games, but didn't manage. After that hopefully for good left the 2's behind me. Played also 16 10$ games back when it was still more a shot. By now I am quite comfortably rolled so will slowly start to switch fully over.

No new year goals, since nothing good comes of that. But will do some month goals. First month will be more testing what are realistic goals for the future

-play 1500 games this month(at the very least 1000 games)
-play 100+hours
-get comfortable at the 10$'s
-platinum star should be in reach with these goals, will come automatically by them
-keep reviewing every session with icmizer
- run every day

BR: 1102,38

These are spins you're playing? Or SnGs?

18man on PokerStars. It is in the title of the blog.:f_biggrin:

Originally posted by liessens
18man on PokerStars. It is in the title of the blog.:f_biggrin:

🤦Doh!

I had the idea to update every week. Failed after one week:f_biggrin:

Made a 'mistake' in one of the first sessions decide to play a full reg session of the 10's. Shortly after making the decision to at least test grinding for 2months "full time". Only afterwards made the realisation that I then couldn't afford anymore to have a relatively aggressive BRM. After even a decent start, I started to brick every single game dropping 250. Losing more than 1/5 BR on the way. Did the smart thing to stop the session as fast as possible. Since I for the first time felt some real tilt(game remained ok). The next day I moved back to the 5's. And again started the session bricking everything. Immediately quit the session since I felt the tilt of the night before. Even somehow recovered a bit after stopping regging.

After that, I decided that I need something to relax which is intense enough to stop the brain from keep thinking. So for example meditating/reading/yoga/.;. are all good to relax, but not really to let out steam. The fact that I am struggling with some health problems and can only run very limited isn't helping either. So I downloaded AOE2 DE. For the first time doing some gaming in 10years. In the beginning, it was searching for a healthy mix, since did some (too) long grind sessions. But after a couple of days evened out to a more occasional thing. Was the main reason for not updating, wanted to get first back to some sort of rhythm.

After 3days break of poker slowly got back into the grind. Playing full 5's and couple 6tabling 10's. By now already fully recovering from that little downer. Also by now started full the search for a new place. So decided to switch to the new grind rhythm. Which will be in the evening full regging, for now, the 5$'s(to at least BR 1500, but probably even more), when I decide to only play 6tables(all tiled) I keep trying the 10's$. In the afternoon I will be reviewing.

So little summary of the year so far.
108 10$ -17,85$
378 5$ 168,65$
36hours played

The A-goals volume-wise will be hard to reach this month after the little break. B-goal in volume of 1000 and thus biggest month since comeback should still be well in reach.

Current BR: 1184