Maried with childrens, and a 1 million poker hands.

Congrats on your blog. Solid schedule, better to have a systematic plan than having no. However, don't count on your kids falling a sleep in 15 mins unless of course they are all day running around and have no energy left to keep their eyes open

GL Paulius. I am surprised that with such a full schedule, 5 hours sleep is enough for you. Me myself, especially when I am learning new things, need a lot more hours to recover.

gl!

Hi SirPaulius,
5 hours sleep?
Wow -- I wouldn't survive.
I'm old though, so maybe I would need more.

Even in my 40s though, I found I needed 7 minimum in order to be intellectually at the top of my game.

If you can do it though -- fantastic.

All the best,
VS

Cool intro, I remeber TwiceT as well, wonder what happened to him.
Your schedule looks great and you look like a very disciplined person, I have great hopes for this blog.
GL HF

I did not see coming so much attention. This forces me to finish my challenge even more Challenge a little bit delayed, and will be started from a weekend 06/19 th. I have realized that I need to adapt at first, cause NLHE and 6+ a completely different. and I am 100% sure I will be misplaying a lot. Nothing really changed I woke up at 5 AM, and watched couple of videos, and was taking some notes.

Congrats on your blog. Solid schedule, better to have a systematic plan than having no. However, don't count on your kids falling a sleep in 15 mins unless of course they are all day running around and have no energy left to keep their eyes open Tendencies have showed that they are falling asleep in ~15 mins, I take care of the bigger one 4 y.o, She's a little bit more predictable, and she does not really mind if leave just before falling a sleep.

GL Paulius. I am surprised that with such a full schedule, 5 hours sleep is enough for you. Me myself, especially when I am learning new things, need a lot more hours to recover.

Thanks ! Yes it does seems kinda low, but once You adapt no problem, anyway I could not sleep more than 6 or 7 h.

Hi SirPaulius,
5 hours sleep?
Wow -- I wouldn't survive.
I'm old though, so maybe I would need more.

Even in my 40s though, I found I needed 7 minimum in order to be intellectually at the top of my game.

If you can do it though -- fantastic.

I'm in my early 30's now, and I never liked sleep for too long, as far as I remember I always been sleeping like 6 or 7h. But if this schedule somehow will be hurting me, it will be changed for sure.

i think 5 years back TwiceT went into affiliate marketing or some other sort of business and transitioned somwhere else after that, not too sure what he's up to these days

I will finish my first 30 K hands tomorrow / today evening and will make an update. Today was going trough my hands, and I have found a couple of interesting ones, please keep in mind, that questions, and reasoning from me will sound and look very obvious to most of You. But I'm doing my best to learn poker to best possible level for me.
PartyGaming - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 118.8 BB
SB: 112.2 BB
BB: 116.8 BB
Hero (UTG): 118.8 BB
CO: 118.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T♣ T♥

Hero raises to 3 BB, CO calls 3 BB, fold, SB calls 2.6 BB, fold

Flop: (10 BB, 3 players) 8♣ 7♥ T♠
SB checks, Hero bets 4.8 BB, CO calls 4.8 BB, fold
Flop has quite a few draws, there is plenty hands to call me with. My reasoning is value.

Turn: (19.6 BB, 2 players) A♦
Hero bets 9.4 BB, CO raises to 18.8 BB,
My cbet range was quite value heavy, however it did included draws, and some Ax hands. In villain eyes A on turn is a good card for me to barrel again.
When he check raises me here. It means only 2 things, 1. he does not believe A fits me, and want me to fold draw, 2nd. He hit an A, which most likely will not let go since he improved most of the time it will be strong A, two pair, Top pair + draw, smaller sets, some straight ofcourse too. I was not sure, should I 3b him here, or call / check , call/donk. My question is how to get here max value.

PartyGaming - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 160.2 BB
BB: 100 BB
Hero (UTG): 116.4 BB
CO: 134 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 8♠ 8♣

Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (9.4 BB, 3 players) 6♣ 5♠ 5♦
BB checks, Hero bets 4.4 BB, BTN calls 4.4 BB, BB raises to 16.6 BB, Hero calls 12.2 BB, BTN calls 12.2 BB
We will not have a lot of value streets here, I decided to Cbet flop, plenty hands will call me here. after I get raised, I think I had to fold. his range here is very strong I assume, and I do not see many hands bluffing since we do block nut straight draws.
Turn: (59.2 BB, 3 players) 7♠
BB bets 4 BB, Hero calls 4 BB, BTN calls 4 BB
nothing to comment here, with this odds I will never fold OESD.
River: (71.2 BB, 3 players) 4♣
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 67.8 BB, fold, Hero calls 67.8 BB
one of the best card for us. We block very hard nut straight, BB checks which is safe for us to have a best hand. decided to check too, and let BU bluff him self or desperate value bet overcards, slowplayed 5x. and ofcourse there's a chance, that we're doomed against BB. When BU shoves, and BB folded. I had quite easy call if we give him value range 5x, 44-AA.

However my question is: Should I bet/fold flop, or check/call ?

Originally posted by mbml
i think 5 years back TwiceT went into affiliate marketing or some other sort of business and transitioned somewhere else after that, not too sure what he's up to these days

I am pretty sure he's doing just fine no mater what he's up to.
Which leads me to a question. Is poker is just barrier to pump money quite fast ? It is very unlikely in most of the Country that you will start earning like 5-10k or so after 3-5 year of Your regular job. Because it almost always depend on current market price, and 3-5 y is not even close to a good experience. As for poker from what I have seen, heard. If You put a lot of work, it is still possible to make very descent amount after couple of years. Which later could be invested in Your own business, or used as investment. So my question would be:
How poker pros looks at their poker carrier is it just a period to get relatively big, and fast money. Or is just like any other carrier ?

I personaly fold to flop raise with the 88.

UPDATE: 30 000 / 1 000 000 hands
it took me 16 days to finish first part of 30K hands. average ~1875 hands / day.

Graph looks like a standard TAG player, I will share my stats after I will be half trough challenge. I think I am over folding to 3B, but I just do not feel yet comfortable to play OOP.

Limits played NL 2/5/10, with most of my hands hands at NL5. Sometimes there's no games at NL 5, so I have to play NL2, or if games are runing at NL10. All the games I played is fast forward, I think I could play regular tables at mornings, when pools are empty.

I will post an bankroll update every 150k hands. 30K hands sample is nearly nothing, my winrate could be a lot higher, or even negative, there fore there's no point to update bankroll after small samples.

I had very slow start at first couple of days, as I have mentioned I previously played 6+ holdem. NLHE is a lot different compared to 6+, I had to adapt my playing overall, so I just played NL 2 with 1 table. It still seems that I do overplay my suited connector, and draws. But I think I am getting used to NLHE. Had a 12 BI downswing for ~6k hands. But I think I managed not to tilt completely, but I think it would be wise to have stop loss at 4 BI, cause I lost 8 in a 1 day.

Games are a lot tougher than it used to be, I am not sure if it is just at PP or all networks, but there's a lot of nits, who's not willing to stack off. This month I will have my vacations, I will have less volume. I hope that I will hit 30k hands during July.

As for my schedule I managing to keep it more / less. Sometimes I wake up at 6 not 5, because I just feel like a zombie. Need a little bit more time, to adapt to my new schedule, overall I thought it will be a little easier, looks like it will be a very long term challenge.My Volume should increase a lot when I will be able to play NL25, I saw pools are playable almost always at my morning play time.

easy bet fold with 88, i even fold with AA, it's not close at all. 50% of people don't raise here without a 5X and the others will have a OESD at the very least (which you block). Only a small fraction of people raise here with top pair or overpair and you lose to many of these combos.

Originally posted by mbml
easy bet fold with 88, i even fold with AA, it's not close at all. 50% of people don't raise here without a 5X and the others will have a OESD at the very least (which you block). Only a small fraction of people raise here with top pair or overpair and you lose to many of these combos.

Thank You for advice, this pretty much same what I thought, but I am 100% sure I would never fold AA here, potential leak spoted.

GL Sir, Father to two Girls, so know how it is to Juggle everything🤗

UPDATE: 77 978 / 1 000 000 hands
My holidays is over, it was a short one, I think I take 1 more week at last week of August.
Most of the hands was played at party poker FF, limits played NL2/5/10/25. In general pool is very hard, most likely because of leader boards, and RB, but it's beatable for true grinders.
During my play trough, I have managed to climb 4 times to leader board's for following:
0.5 BI , 1 BI, 2 BI, 4 BI, in various limit, I made quite decent profit trough RB too. I find this room best choice for hardcore grinders (which I am obviously not) those Who are able to 9 table FF tables (which is very doable with some legal multi tabling apps) Have tested by my self, I think most I played 12k hands / day. I it is possible to achieve over 100% RB or at least close to 100% if my calculation is not wrong. Also I think it is not possible to achieve positive results pre RB over NL50, but I guess it is definitely possible to make a very descent income.
- My graph at PP overall:

However I played a little bit on pokerstars too mainly NL25 ante games. Pool is willing to stack off way lighter, I played just a couple of hands there, I don't think I will continue at least for now.
- My graph at PS (quite a lot of hands missing because played over the phone)

Some of the GG poker skins have legally came back to Lithuania, and again I am able to play there, which will be my main choice, I will play there Rush cash games, short deck, some WSOP satellites. RB for short deck, and MTT's if I am not mistaken is not affected by the PVI, maybe someone can confirm this.
However now I have played only some Rush cash games NL25 / 50, with my routine is more than easy to grab those satellites tickets from leader boards. Who knows, maybe I will be able to grab an entry, which would be awesome. As regarding Rush cash I don't think I pay more than 8bb/100 in rake pre RB (incl. cash drop) over a quite low sample, maybe someone can advice of true rake BB/100, because I thought it will be twice as much, but this looks beatable , which I will let You know of course.
My next update will be again after 30K hands or more.
Stay tuned, and see You soon.

I was not planning an update, but this hands is keep bugging me. the more I think about it, the more I'm afraid that I am overthinking it.
Hand was played against a reg at Fast fold tables, my thoughts, and results under spoiler,
GG Poker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 256.52 BB
SB: 81.4 BB
Hero (BB): 255.98 BB
UTG: 143.34 BB
MP: 110 BB
CO: 121.86 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♥ K♦

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 10 BB, UTG calls 7 BB

Flop: (20.5 BB, 2 players) 8♦ T♣ 3♥
Hero bets 12.3 BB, UTG calls 12.3 BB

Turn: (45.1 BB, 2 players) J♠
Hero checks, UTG bets 23 BB, Hero calls 23 BB

River: (91.1 BB, 2 players) 8♣
Hero checks, UTG bets 98.04 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 98.04 BB

So what was the over-thinking?
Here's mine...
What beats us
 any hand containing an 8 (88 combos)
 88 (1 combo)
 33 (6 combos)
 JJ (6 combos)
 TT (6 combos)
 AA (6 combos)
 97 (22 combos)
 9Q (22 combos)
147 combos only beat us - rather a lot
The hands that flop trips would never fold, so shoving flop won't help.

I wouldn't worry terribly much about the 97 really,

OK now I look at the spoiler...

Oh crap.

Just unlucky, say I but I'm curious to read what the real experts think though...

After sometime passed I think I had to:
Bet flop, turn. bet/fold river. wonder about sizing my standard would be 40-50% all 3 streets. I don't really like to shove river by self, therefore I do not want to set my self for river shove, if he has set, and I hit K by the river stacks will go anyway.

Can anyone run a solver for this one, and let us know best approach from GTO perspective on all streets?

1) he doesn't have KQ so you blocking KQ is not too relevant. KQ doens't call on T8X flop, it's not a JTX flop. Maybe only KQs with backdoors.
2) Is he the type of guy to turn 8X into a bluff (98s for example) on the Turn and improved on the RiveR? A good player wouldn't so you can discount 8X combos.
3) Does he have AQ? I think AQo is a very reasonable float on this rainbow flop and when he turns a double gutter many people will continue firing.
4) Will he valuebet a hand like AJ? I think some people will.
5) WIll he value bet TX? Most people wouldn't.

I think as played you certainly have to call since you beat AQ and AJ and that's already way too many combos.Question is whether you can bet the River yourself or not. Vs a passive/calling station type of guy perhaps a halfpot bet/fold could be better, to get more value vs J9s/JTs/AJ/ATs/KTs/QTs/T9s/T8s. And fold because passive guys won't shove with so little behind as a bluff or with weaker value hands.