Got Fired - now I want to live the Poker dream

Hi Schoggi,
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Cheers,
VS

Thanks man

Haha you are absolutely right. Its not a good Idea to have the money pressure. I have a 3 month notice where Ill be paid, also I will be applying to new jobs.

But I want to use the first months to study a lot and get to somewhere like NL 25 asap.

Hope you stick around tho

Good luck with you're challenge and hopefully you will find a new job as well
Most people can't life of poker alone. Only a few can do that an even than it's tough to do for a long period of time.

Cheers,
SDK1987

You will get there for sure
We can talk some hands if you want. Check my blog, I recently updated it

Handhistory:
Had this Hand vs a guy who jammed his stack like times in the last 6 Hands after losing a big pot. At this point I guessed that it must be Air sometimes. When he did it vs me on the Flop I thought that my 2 overs and backdraw flush are good enough vs his tiltrange. well see for yourself and tell me if you would have called.

Hero (BTN): 107.5 BB
SB: 244 BB
BB: 85.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q:club: A:club:

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 4:spade: 5:heart: 4:club:
BB bets 83 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 83 BB

Turn: (171.5 BB, 2 players) T:heart:

River: (171.5 BB, 2 players) 6:club:

BB shows 5:spade: A:heart: (Two Pair, Fives and Fours)
(Pre 27%, Flop 83%, Turn 93%)
Hero shows Q:club: A:club: (One Pair, Fours)
(Pre 73%, Flop 17%, Turn 7%)
BB wins 165.5 BB

I think its very unncesary hero call for this stakes and his stack size. btw was that regular table or zoom?

Was a reg table - so i had him marked as a whale + the read. I come across those spots a lot and tend to call now and then when my hand allows it, just because some people are just too crazy to never call them shoving like that. I think AQ is just way too wide - because i do not already beat him but need the outs.

well ..if he does that a lot then You have a lot of time to catch him with better hand. Thats just my logic about fish

What you could do here is increase preflop sizing as you know "whale" is sitting on BB. I would open at least 4 bb and would be happy to stack it preflop

You have 60% vs whole range lolz. In a little bit less optimistic scenario you are flipping

Board: 4:spade:5:heart:4:club:
       Equity     Win     Tie
BTN   60.06%  58.44%   1.62% { AcQc }
BB     39.94%  38.32%   1.62% { random }

I guess you are right that I do have better hands in that spot to call him off there.
That thougtprocess Is still pretty hard for me because I always want to get the money "now" and not later :P.

Thanks for the advice tho! J♥:

Welcome and good luck on the poker dream ♠_drink:

First off all good luck.
Second off all about the moving up or down, I prefer the aggro way of moving up in stakes because you will learn more. The downside is that that you will have to regularly drop in stakes when things go south (check my blog for examples ). But each time you have new knowledge and more experience. Lots of BI is imo only usefull when you are regularly want to withdraw (and be a (semi)pro).

Day 4:

BR: old: 101,63 $
Profit: - 20,23 $
Limit: NL2
Hands: 3370
BR: new: 81,4 $

First Recap after some days of playing:

How the hell did I come up with 25k Hands per week on reg tables that is like 4 Tables x 60 H/h x 6 days x 17h a day??? haha well thas not gonna happen.

Also I am really having issues with my mental game. Usually iam very calm and relaxed and badbeats dont matter. But the last 2 Days I lost 10 BI.
That did really crack me. Its not the getting sucked out vs a worse hand - I can easily see that I am winning money in those spots. But rather the ones where V just has it over and over again. At some point I start tilt calling just because I think that V cannot have it every time. Sure its stupid, but I am not at that point again where I am confident enough in my play to know that my desicions are at least decent.

Any tips on how to handle these kind of Days? I do already have a stoploss at about 5 BI but I feel like that is not good enough. After I get to the table some hours later or the next day I still am too inclinded to call down way too light.

Things I want to work on the most right now:
* Laying it down tighter vs aggression from the fish (or rather general pool)
* Not tilting when I make a "good" or rather reasoned call and I am wrong this time.
( It is hard for me to understand that my calls dont have to work 100% of the time )

PS: How to post pictures?

Originally posted by Schoggi
PS: How to post pictures?

Hi Schoggi,
As a basic member you're unable to do certain things, and posting pictures is one of them.
The point system is explained here: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/status-points/
The quickest way to become bronze is to take advantage of one of the bonus offers or perhaps one of the free money offers. If none of those are available, it is possible to purchase points.

In the meantime though, just upload your picture to an image sharing site like https://imgur.com/
Then put the image URL in a post and change the " https://" to "httpx //x "
When a friendly neighbourhood mod see it, they can fix it.

Cheers,
VS

It helps to have a routine before playing that helps you to stay calm and focused. This could be exercise, such as running or working out, to help clear your mind and reduce stress levels. You'll be better prepared to make rational decisions and avoid tilting

This can be big game changer if you didnt try before

* Laying it down tighter vs aggression from the fish (or rather general pool)

it's important to realize playing tight is basically a winning strategy on 2nl.
Build solid bankroll through tight play, you can gradually move up to higher stakes games where you can experiment with more loose strategies once you learned more.

Avoid ego battles. If you feel like for exampe someone is 3betting you too much try to not get your emotions involved. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and think, "Oh my god, this motherfucker 3-bet me again. I'm going to 4-bet him with literally everything now!" But thats not how you become profitable. Think only about how you can adjust your range to make the most money in that spot. If you dont know what to do just fold and go figure out after a session.

* Not tilting when I make a "good" or rather reasoned call and I am wrong this time.
( It is hard for me to understand that my calls dont have to work 100% of the time )

You dont play to get lucky. You play to be profitable in the long run.

Avoid ego battles. If you feel like for exampe someone is 3betting you too much try to not get your emotions involved. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and think, "Oh my god, this motherfucker 3-bet me again. I'm going to 4-bet him with literally everything now!" But thats not how you become profitable. Think only about how you can adjust your range to make the most money in that spot. If you dont know what to do just fold and go figure out after a session.

Solid advice

Thanks for the advice guys!

I think especially the "ego battles" are a problem.
Well maybe moreso the general patience to wait for the right spot to put the money in vs whales and not just calling them off just because i feel like it.

Will try to be calmer and play less tables for one or two days to reduce stress a little.

Here comes the first weeks recap:

It had it ups and downs, mentally and of course EV wise. See graph below.

After the bad mindset + cooler session I sat down and started to journal 2 or 3 sentences before playing something like:

I am calm and patience, I will be tight vs aggression and only call the very best hands on the river. I will not act out of curiosity! I will not engage in ego battles!

That really helped me stay focused and make tight laydowns even with good hands.

The following 2 sessions were very good (see graph 2 here) and I think I managed to regain my old confidence. Iam planning of taking shots at NL 5 as soon as I hit 10k NL 2 hands when Iam still winning! So more or less after next week. Stay tuned

Everything combined my weekly results are (graph 3 week):

Days played 7:
Limit: NL2
BR: old: 81,4$
Profit: -7,61$
EV Profit: + 2,76$
Hands: 5270
BR: new: 96,03$

Here come some Hands for your entertainment:

The badbeat of the week:

The soulread of the weak:

The punt of the week:

The second week did well better than the first one. I was playing more consistant. I still made some stupid calls I think but they got reduced so muhc that I was winning 5 BI for the week.

The results for my Game were:

Days played 7:
Limit: NL2
BR: old: 96,03 $
Profit: 10, 9$
EV Profit: 8,86 $
Hands: 4134
BR: new: 106,93 $

Last weeks Graph is the following:

I will move up to NL 5 now. Moving down when I lose 10 BI with a Session stoploss at 4 BI.

The next things I need to tackle is general studying of 3 and 4 bet pots where I feel lost especially with AK AQ when nothing hits.

If anybody is interested in talking poker from time to time let me know