Marc's attempt to start a poker career (6max cash)

Good to hear from you Marc and Good luck with your goals. Good bankroll Management! Is that a 38bb winrate??! That's enormous right, I think around 6-10bb is at top end of what is sustainable depending on limits right?

What is the red line in the tracker again? was a long time ago I used such software...

Good luck on the tables,

Tim

Ya, that winrate is enormous and I expect it to go down a lot over time.
But still, almost 8k hands.. It's not a big sample, but big enough to boost my confidence
That being said, I believe that 10-20BB on NL2 is quiet possible to maintain.
I play regular tables on Stars and their are fish spewing their stacks with Q4o everywhere..

The red line are the non-showdown winnings (losses in this case ^^)
Blue the showdown winnings and green the result of the two.

Ah, thanks for elaborating on the PT4 graph lines.

It's good you gained confidence, maintaining 20bb even on NL2 I think is really good though...

Anyhow, good luck! See you in the forums

Nice blog Marcvz and best of luck.

I am also in NL2, but doing zoom, and your graph and BRM are putting me to shame. ♦

How are you finding Upswing? (not sure if can discuss on this forum ). I had a look but kind of feel i need to get better before i would invest the money to get help getting better (wobbly logic but hay).

Again best of luck, but looks like you have the skill/discipline to keep going even without it. :f_drink::f_cool:

I have tried some zoom. But I like the aspect of exploiting players. And their tendencies and using those against them is a lot easier on the regular tables.
Also, a lot of my money spots come from tilting players..
You see them getting sucked out with AA and they immediately go allin the next hand.. That's a good spot to call with some ace-x and middle-high pockets.

I've watched a lot of vids on this site and they are very good.
But I was looking for some more structure and Upswing provides this.
It's quiet an investment if you play nl2. But its easier to learn the right things than changing bad habits later on.

I believe you can find all the knowledge for free as well. And this site is a very great resource.
Upswing just provides it in nice, ordered chunks.

Thanks for your replies and good luck at the tables guys!

Hi Marcvz, nice blog!
Also from the Netherlands and also playing 6max Nl2 atm, you sound like you know what you are talking about and your graph shows it :- ). Goodluck on the tables! Hope i wont see you there haha.

So, let's bring some new life into this blog.

I had to stop playing poker the previous time because of health issues. No problem, I don't depend on it financially.
But now, the poker itch is returned and needs a good scratch 😁

I deposited 30 bucks on PS.. couldn't afford more..
I grinded it up to 100 bucks in the past couple weeks by playing regular nl2 on 4 tables for just a couple hours a day.

A lot has changed. Cash out feature. Max 4 tables. And a lot of bad players.
Really a lot...
So at first I didn't like the 4 table limit. But I must say, the game feels much softer than last time.

I will use a more aggressive BRM. Move up with 20bi and back down with 10bi till nl10.
After that, I'll probably change to 50bi before I move up again.

Originally posted by marcvz
So at first I didn't like the 4 table limit. But I must say, the game feels much softer than last time.
.

The games are now a veritable fish pond since the four table cap. No more tables filled with 24 tabling regs. People moaned on here about the four table cap but anyone with a brain could see how 24 tabling had destroyed the game even at 2NL. I hardly ever used to play on Pokerstars despite having a bankroll there and used to play elsewhere due to the low fish to regs ratio at 'Stars making it reg central. Now I play at Pokerstars 90% of the time but unfortunately I am not linked with Pokerstrategy. Hence my Bronze status.

I'd go as far as to say at micros, Pokerstars is now the softest site online.

Hi all,

I'm back for the cold season.
Had a lot going on this summer. But now it's time to get back on the grind again.
Unfortunately, I had to use the BR I made last year for something else.
But, a week ago, I deposited 100 bucks. Started at NL5 and doubled up in 7k hands.
IT seems like regular NL5 on Stars is still very very soft.

Any new trends lately? Just 2 things caught my eye. I seem to be one of the few that still opens 3bb. And I see a lot of low cbets on the flop. Like 1.6bb in 6bb pots, usually followed by a almost potsize turn bet.
Anyone can provide or link me to some article that can provide some insight in these strata? (Especially the last one)

Originally posted by marcvz
Any new trends lately? Just 2 things caught my eye. I seem to be one of the few that still opens 3bb. And I see a lot of low cbets on the flop. Like 1.6bb in 6bb pots, usually followed by a almost potsize turn bet.
Anyone can provide or link me to some article that can provide some insight in these strata? (Especially the last one)

PF sizng:
Actually it's a debat. At 500z, people do 2-2.2 or so EP-CO, because GTO strats don't like to build big pots potentially OOP. 2.5x BT to play a bigger pot IP. Should you mimic this at microstakes? I kinda do, but I am not convinced that this is the best because raising more deters people from cold calling, and taking the pot preflop without paying rake is very valuable at the micros. There was actually a thread recently: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3180360

Small cbets:
Basically it's very tough to defend against, if villain is IP and has the range advantage (think EP-BT vs BB on 225/AK7/K54 etc. type of boards). It's a simplification of what a GTO strategy looks like apparently. People are overusing this though (because it's super convenient and again, people don't have good defending frequencies vs this size so it's super profitable), and doing it OOP or BT vs BB on 876 type of boards is not ideal, because if you are IP and face a bet like this it's super easy to float, and on 876 BB's range is actually very strong, it has most sets/2P/straights so even tough BB's range is capped PF, it can catch up on middle compact boards. I can have very small sizngs, for instance when I cbet on a Axx board in a 4bet pot, there's no need to cbet 2/3 and I go like 1/4.

The course FTGU on RIO has a video that explains this really well, I'd say overall the course is good value.

What do you think of the Upswing Lab? How much did it cost/what did you do? Still relevant?

Sick winrate btw, how many hands per hour do you get when 4-tabling? I 4-table Zoom and get 800 hands or so, I like how convenient it is but maybe that's not a good approach Also, NL10z has antes now, meaning that eventually I pay more rake per bb than at NL5, pretty nasty

Thanks for the insightful reply!

I had upswing lab last year. It's very good bang for your buck. But I don't know if anything had changed since then. I haven't a subscription now.

At 4 regular tables I play around 500-600 hands per hour. I like it more than zoom because you can spot and exploit the fish.

About the small openings and overuse of apparently a gto strat of small cbetting... I find myself calling almost every hand on the big blind and make a strong hand a lot of times on the turn. So it feels like it's misused on the micros because I see no advantage in that for the pf raiser.
That being said, I don't like GTO at all on the micros. It's loaded with fish and they don't pick up on your ranges, betsizes etc.

Little update.
Had some days I played bad (not able to fold overpairs etc when you know you're beat)
Combined with running 800bb under EV.. so my next double up took a while.

But I made it. The next double up, from 200 to 400 bucks is complete.
I'll grind another 100 bucks on nl5 and will move up at 500 bucks and go back down again if I drop below 400.

Hopefully I can get another double up before this year ends.

Originally posted by marcvz
I'll grind another 100 bucks on nl5 and will move up at 500 bucks and go back down again if I drop below 400.

Sounds like a decent plan.
I had the same idea, and made it to $497 and since then I've been bouncing around at $460 or so

Best of luck :gl:,
VS

Good luck.

Do you play 6max or Fullring?

its in the Topic. 6max :-)

best of luck (expect vs me :-P ) ... doubling ur BR within 1 month is gonna be tough, thou!

Originally posted by Incog
its in the Topic. 6max :-)

best of luck (expect vs me :-P ) ... doubling ur BR within 1 month is gonna be tough, thou!

Yeah, it will be. Took a hit this week. Played very bad for 1 day. So I've dipped under 400 again. But nothing to worry about.

I lost with KK against AA 3 times in 15 minuten. Then I got AA and villain KK, and he cracked my aces.
Wasn't playing my a-game after that anymore 😁

I should be able to get around 100k hand in before the year ends. So with a winrate of 10/100 a double up should be doable