Hey everyone.

I'm Perry, a 28 year-old male from England who is a born-again keen recreational player. From 2006-2012 I loved the game and started a blog/vlog series along with it. I had the small successes that any casual players get, the small profits over the month and the occasional cashes in MTT, my passion for the game even got me a job as Head Writer for PokerVIP and PokerUpdate. However, personal issues made my love for poker wane and since then I've only played the odd game.

Now I am itching to play once more and I've started to work on the very same challenge that I began with way back when, turning $50 into $10000 and finally prove that I can be a winning player at this game. I am starting with Full-Ring Cash Games at 2NL on Pokerstars and will continue with that number of buy-ins until I get to 25NL, where I will re-evaluate what game I will play. I have Equilab and PokerTracker 3 on my PC right now (I'll get PokerTracker 4 when I know how to play this game), a hard drive with every poker video and book I ever kept and DragTheBar is free (BlackRain79 videos FTW).

I've started the challenge already and......I've lost 5 buy-ins in less than 700 hands.....great.

I stopped playing for a couple of days to figure out what was going wrong.

PokerStars - $0.02 NL - Holdem - 8 players

SB: $2.01
Hero (BB): $2.00
UTG: $2.00
UTG+1: $3.78
MP: $1.35
MP+1: $2.22
CO: $2.00
BTN: $3.71

SB posts SB $0.01, Hero posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero has A A

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $0.06, fold, Hero raises to $0.20, BTN calls $0.14

Flop: ($0.41, 2 players) J J 9
Hero bets $0.32, BTN calls $0.32

Turn: ($1.05, 2 players) Q
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.51, Hero calls $0.51

River: ($2.07, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.20, Hero calls $0.97 and is all-in

BTN shows A 7 (Flush, Ace High) (Pre 12%, Flop 35%, Turn 20%)
Hero shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks) (Pre 88%, Flop 65%, Turn 80%)
BTN wins $3.87

Should of perhaps continued to bet on the T because of the limits, definitely should have folded on the River. Before this challenge I was doing that, but not now. Nor in this hand:

PokerStars - $0.02 NL - Holdem - 8 players

CO: $2.00
Hero (BTN): $2.00
SB: $2.00
BB: $1.55
UTG: $1.26
UTG+1: $2.18
MP: $1.80
MP+1: $4.31

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero has Q Q

fold, fold, MP calls $0.02, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.10, fold, BB calls $0.08, MP calls $0.08

Flop: ($0.31, 3 players) T 2 3
BB checks, MP bets $0.14, Hero raises to $0.50, BB raises to $1.45 and is all-in, fold, Hero calls $0.95

Turn: ($3.35, 2 players) A

River: ($3.35, 2 players) 4

BB shows 2 2 (Three of a Kind, Twos) (Pre 18%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows Q Q (One Pair, Queens) (Pre 82%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
BB wins $3.23

Or this hand:

PokerStars - $0.02 NL - Holdem - 8 players

UTG: $4.19
UTG+1: $0.83
MP: $2.23
MP+1: $0.33
CO: $2.00
BTN: $2.59
Hero (SB): $2.18
BB: $3.70

Hero posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero has Q J

fold, fold, fold, MP+1 calls $0.02, fold, BTN raises to $0.04, Hero calls $0.03, fold, MP+1 calls $0.02

Flop: ($0.14, 3 players) Q 9 4
Hero checks, MP+1 checks, BTN bets $0.14, Hero calls $0.14, fold

Turn: ($0.42, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30

River: ($1.02, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.70, Hero calls $0.70

BTN shows K K (One Pair, Kings) (Pre 83%, Flop 81%, Turn 89%)
Hero mucks Q J (One Pair, Queens) (Pre 17%, Flop 19%, Turn 11%)
BTN wins $2.34

OK, this hand I feel like I was unlucky:

PokerStars - $0.02 NL - Holdem - 9 players

SB: $2.01
BB: $2.15
UTG: $1.45
Hero (UTG+1): $2.26
MP: $2.00
MP+1: $2.02
LP: $2.38
CO: $2.00
BTN: $2.08

SB posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero has 7 7

UTG calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, MP raises to $0.06, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls $0.06, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.04, Hero calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.27, 4 players) 7 T 4
UTG checks, Hero checks, MP bets $0.15, fold, UTG calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.50, MP calls $0.35, UTG calls $0.35

Turn: ($1.77, 3 players) 6
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.70 and is all-in, MP calls $1.44 and is all-in, UTG calls $0.89 and is all-in

River: ($5.54, 3 players) 9

Hero shows 7 7 (Three of a Kind, Sevens) (Pre 29%, Flop 56%, Turn 21%)
MP shows 9 8 (Straight, Ten High) (Pre 29%, Flop 41%, Turn 79%)
UTG shows J Q (High Card, Queen) (Pre 43%, Flop 3%, Turn 0%)
MP wins $5.35

But this one seems the same as the other ones:

PokerStars - $0.02 NL - Holdem - 8 players

Hero (SB): $2.01
BB: $2.27
UTG: $2.00
UTG+1: $2.00
MP: $2.04
MP+1: $1.93
CO: $2.08
BTN: $2.08

Hero posts SB $0.01, BB posts BB $0.02

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero has K A

fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.06, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls $0.05, fold

Flop: ($0.14, 2 players) 9 6 K
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.08, Hero calls $0.08

Turn: ($0.30, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.21, Hero calls $0.21

River: ($0.72, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.51, Hero calls $0.51

UTG+1 shows A 5 (Flush, Ace High) (Pre 30%, Flop 37%, Turn 100%)
Hero mucks K A (One Pair, Kings) (Pre 70%, Flop 63%, Turn 0%)
UTG+1 wins $1.68

I was making these folds before, I swear I was. I am guessing it's the change of mindset. Before I started to do this challenge again a loss was just a loss, I moved on and took notes from when I made mistakes. For whatever reason, I'm now in a fit of rage every time I lose a hand. I'm taking this too seriously because I want to succeed so badly. The couple of days off this has given me an idea on what I need to do:

1) Play for the enjoyment, not for the money - Should be easy now because I'll be playing for change, but it's good to remember that later on when I get the ball rolling. I just need to take losses positively and learn from them. I'll also look for ways to keep calm off the tables, as the stress of work does have it's negative effects.

2) Keep It Simple - At 2NL, I am against a lot of players who can only think about their hands. With the QJ and AK hands above, I call because I wanted to try and keep the hands that they bluff with in the hand, in the hopes they hit something that they'll call later on or they bluff in later streets. I like that, but at these limits it's not needed. If they're betting, there's a good chance they call a raise or raise further (if they're bad). At this level it's about maximising my value, I'm going to get more aggressive against the bad players. Now, if the player seems to be pretty good (for the level) I'm going to consider calling for the above reasons....then just probably shove the nuts because it's 2NL, they can't all be learning the game.

3) Learn - I am going to figure out the fundamentals. Starting Hands, Position, Bet Sizing, Pot Odds, I am going to make sure I have this and more figured out. Red Chip Poker had an article and podcast that is useful for this:
  • I'll take a concept.
  • Read a couple of articles.
  • Watch a video.
  • Give it extra thought when playing
  • Repeat with new concept.


From what the podcast said, it should be possible to get to 25NL with free learning resources. By that point, I'm going to have to spend money to improve and get to better stakes (which I'll be OK with, because by that point I'll be making it rain...with, well, just dollar bills to begin with....but a lot of them.)

That's it for now. I'm going to start with a bit of the studying and look into some of the other threads.

Starting Bankroll - $50.01 (Thanks exchange rate)
Current Bankroll - $41

Good luck at the tables.

Perry.