(BR Challenge) After >10 years of a break - from NL SSS to NL BSS

As mentioned in the initial post, I actually started the challenge 3 weeks ago. Here's a quick wrap-up of what has happened since then.

First, I played some MSS NL 5 on PokerStars. It was not very good, rather break even, and hence, frustrating. Then I carefully switched to NL 5 BSS and it went pretty well. At some point, I transferred 44$ to 888Poker, just to have more than 4 tables, and also there it went well. For unfortunate reasons, both currently untracked, but when the bankroll will grow more, I want to try TigerGaming.

I had a few small downswings and My C Won is behind My C All-in Adj, but still I am quite on the way. See the overall graph:

The current overall BB/100, including the donkaments at the beginning, is +11.21. Included are a few shots to NL 10, too (2855 hands, +105.34$), and a few shots to NL 20 when I saw a fishy table (633 hands, +32.54$). I guess I will start going for NL 10 much more regularly. Oh, and the current bankroll is 347,62$.

I have to mention that I grinded a lot in the last weeks and will have much less hours to put into it in the upcoming weeks and months. But if the BB/100 stays like this, I will be happy with it.

Didn't mean to post an update right away, but had a nice session that went up very quickly. Kept going and lost a few hands stupidly, e.g., an all-in versus a gut-shot and lost AA vs JJ all-in on a dry J high flop after 4-betting preflop. But still, the overall result is great. It was mostly NL 5 but some shots on NL 10 and NL 20 because I found a fishy table. Here's a graph of the session:

Bankroll changes: +46.22$
New bankroll: 393.71$

I recognized that the actual bankroll changes slightly since the accounts are not in $. So there will be slight modifications based on currency exchange rates.

Hello Renitz,

Nice challenge, at this rate you will complete it in no time.

So for now are you playing both 888Poker and Pokerstars? Or did you start also on Tiger?

Thanks, Mariussica88!

With certainly much less hands/day, it will take some time, but if the BB/100 stays like that, it will be very much satisfying.

Yes, I am currently only playing 888 and Stars, no rakeback, no bonus, nothing. I think I will continue like that for the whole challenge. It might be thought of stupid, but I wanna climb to a quadruple digit bankroll the hard way. If I make it and still have fun, I hope for some bonus help, e.g., on Tiger. I have no idea yet, however, how fishy the tables at Tiger really are at NL10-50 FR. I would hope they are more fishy than on ipoker.

Hi Renitz,
welcome to your challenge!
I am just adding your challenge-badge for you to show and look forward to your first hands reported!

Regarding TigerGaming: I am playing some of the fast fold tables there. They appear to be more fishy to me. That is in my opinion because players prefer regular tables because you can track hands with Hand2Note. They do have some weekly rake races that pay out pretty good, but you gonna have to put in some volume to get ITM. On the other hand they frequently give weekly challenges - giving you RB of up to 33% but those run from Wednesday to Sunday always. On top come many other promos, rarely in the form of direct rakeback. But with everyone being a fish at the table, why do you need that?

Thanks, SvenBe!

Here's another update. Since last time I played a bit more than 5700 hands only. During the week just a bit, there were not so fishy table and was not so much progress. But yesterday night went pretty well. Here are the graphs:

The last session had a few very fishy players. They were even that fishy I got confused in some hands. Here is an example for a hand against a fish that I did not feel so comfortable with:
Close hand against a fish

Bankroll changes: +79.82$
New bankroll: 473.53$

Hi Renitz,
how were the last weeks?Looking for yet another upswing graph! Or are you already on your next 10 year break?

Here's another update. As mentioned before, I had to reduce the #hands as on travels. Could not play at all since last Thursday. I'll see how much time I can get in the next days and weeks.

Since my last post it was something around 7000 hands, but at least the journey went on. In between I even made the 500$ winnings but went down a bit again.

A new aspect during these sessions is that in between I felt much less concentrated but also less worries about losing a hand on NL5, as I put more and more NL10 in. While the concentration needs to stay up, getting more resistant to bad beats and related things is a good aspect. In the future I might go to NL10 more often. Let's see.

Graph since 22/10 (including one session already reported above):

Total graph:

BR changes since last post: 48.16$
Current BR: 521.69$

Here's another report!

Something has happened: my first bigger downswing. And it kicked in. Worst was -160$ in between, roughly 80$ behind EV. It happened when I mostly stopped using NL5 tables and went up to NL10 and NL20. Good timing!
There were also some bad beats before going to showdown like sets over sets, but I guess there were also some hands I did not play optimally. It did not feel like very much tilt though. Anyway, fighting my way back step by step, still on NL10 and NL20.

Overall, it was a bit more than 17k hands, and EV nearly break even in total.

Graph since last time:

Graph since last time including showdown EV:

Overall graph:

BR changes since last post: -53.91$
Current BR: 467.78$

Originally posted by Renitz
Something has happened: my first bigger downswing. And it kicked in. Worst was -160$ in between, roughly 80$ behind EV. It happened when I mostly stopped using NL5 tables and went up to NL10 and NL20. Good timing!

Hi Renitz,
Not to worry — it was likely due to adjusting to the new limits as much as it was a downswing.

Just to put it in perspective, have a look at this page:
https://www.primedope.com/poker-variance-calculator/

Since you use PT4, you will be able to put your own numbers into the page. It is a real eye-opener!
Have a look at the difference between the brown and blue lines.

Cheers,
VS

Yeah I think I can already say that next report will be better. Stay tuned

Another report!

I was happy to recover from the big downswing even directly after it happened. So I even partly recovered from it before I could report it (see last post).

Since then, it went more up again. In total, my BB/100 is not >10 any more but 9.46. Here are the graphs of what has happened since last report (including one session from that day already included in the last graph):

and the total graph:

Some thoughts.
1) I seem to beat NL10. I am 9.75 BB/100 on 31k hands. But need to prove it over a long time and until I reached a higher BR. If it goes on more or less like this, I will have reached one of the two goals of the challenge.
2) My win rates in sessions heavily depend on how big the fishes are that I find. This is obvious. But playing without big fishes but only with regulars doesn't make any sense to me. And not finding big fishes sometimes does actually happen, even at NL10. That used to be very much different.
3) There are massive amounts of leaks. I'll try to collect them in the future and try to illustrate them with more hand discussions posted than already did. Here are some of the leaks I remember:

• What to do with 3Bets/4Bets?
  I am pretty unsure how to play when either I did a 3Bet and get a 4Bet or when I have a strong hand against a 3Bet. It feels so often to me that I (would) run into a better hand, even with JJ, QQ, AK. When playing SSS in the past, there were not so many hard decisions in these situations. It is quite obvious that I need to learn more about this.
• When to bet for value?
  This is another thing that is new for me since I just started BSS. With hands like TPTK for example (also some other hands) it is not so clear to me when to bet for value, or when to check/call for pot control. Most difficult seem to be river actions. On the other hand, I do lots of continuation bets in heads up flop situations, probably a little too often.
• Psychology.
  I don't really seem to tilt so much. My psychological leak is rather that I am variance-averse and might fold too many close +EV situations. But this needs some further analysis to know if it is true. On the other hand, I found some very nice folds of mine.

4) Although it is still +EV for me to play on 888Poker, their software is super annoying. I often lose connection to their tables, and sometimes the program just freezes. PokerStars has much more tables but there one needs to search more actively for fishes. I look forward to trying new sites after reaching my goal in this challenge.

Changes since last post: +195.81$
Current BR: 663.59$

Curious to see what the future brings.

Been a bit busy, not so much has happened. Quite break-even since last post, maybe slight minus. Will see if next weekend will be more interesting.

Busy days. Could also not play on the weekend, so here is a quick update:

Played hands since last time: 5,689
BR changes: +16.21$
Current BR: 679.80$

2/3 are done. Probably won't make it until the end of the year, as I secretly hoped, but on a good way.

No graphs this time because of less time and only these few hands. Next time will be more, hopefully.

Everything still busy, cannot play so much but had a small upswing. Even altogether, I am now a bit above All-in Adj. So why not just give some recent graphs. I had time to play two smaller evening sessions at the weekend, but it worked well.

Here's the graph since 22.11.:

Here's the overall graph:

BR changes: +83.54$
Current BR: 763.34$
Overall BB/100: 9.34

If you find the BR a bit strange because it is not equal to winnings plus start BR, this is why:
1) Some small tournament wins from bonus at 888 (maybe a few dollars, not more).
2) My currency in both accounts is not in dollar, hence, it changes a bit depending on the markets. Recently the dollar went down in comparison to my currency.
For the next challenge, I might set myself a net cash game winning goal instead.

Anyway, since I don't have so much time these days, I don't work on my game. Rather, I see if I can find fishy tables and grind when I find some free time. Still seems to work for NL10 for me. I think I can announce to beat NL10 together with table selection. So, only goal left for this challenge is to grind up to 1000$.

Also looking for new rooms, just to see which are fishy and which are not, and to get a bonus. On Chico, depositing was frustrating and in the end for me not possible or too expensive, both Tiger and BetOnline, so I might look at other rooms.

Edit: now I am donking a bit on GG Poker NL 2 shorthanded. First baby steps away from full ring.

Since I received a bonus from GG Poker and am taking part in quite nice promotions, I played more there and did only a few regular BSS sessions.

Hence, I changed my plan as follows:

* I cashed out from 888 the same amount that I cashed in on GG Poker, including the cash-in fees.
* The BR challenge will continue on all 3 poker rooms.
* When reaching the BR of 1000$, I will think over what to do next.

Pokertracker will only reflect my NL BSS FR efforts. The donkaments on GG Poker, at least as for now, are currently not tracked. I played lots of different things because of a promotion, from SNGs to short deck to Omaha. Regarding cash game, I am also out of my comfort zone because they only have 6max, and I never played anything else than FR before.

Next report will contain graphs again and the updated BR.

...wishing you the very best for a peaceful, prosperous 2023,

Here's another post showing the current state a bit more explicitly. As mentioned before, I cashed out on 888 and cashed in at GGPoker. The cash-in was 212.72$. The fees for cashing in slightly affected my bankroll since I cashed out 212.72$ plus the cash-in fees. My BR is distributed as follows:

BR Stars: 276.71$
BR 888: 242.05$
BR GG: 241.31$ (+28.59$)

Hands played since last time NL BSS 10-20 (Stars and 888): 19,407
The sessions were not really good: 0.39 BB/100, 2.45BB/100 all-in adjusted, but in cash, 25$ behind EV and in minus:

Also, I went down in BR because of currency changes.

But on GG, I went up a bit although I am just donking with small amounts and different variants, also first time 6max ever, and only 6max there.

Overall BR changes since last post: -3.27$
Current BR: 760.07$

Last steps to 1000$ can't be hard. Wait for it...