Grinding: live cash and life 2026 and beyond

If you play 5/10 why not dedicate yourself solely to poker?

At those stakes, you could win a lot of money

I'm still not sure if poker will be a long term thing for me, and dedicating myself solely to poker will eliminate a lot of other potential pathways. I can always come back to poker easily, but its harder to come back to a high flying job without completing college, recruitment and getting my foot in the door.

Ok now that I've set this up, and had a couple of days to ponder and think, to head into the new year I feel like I need to set up actionable goals to hold myself accountable - part of the reason I decided to post this publicly instead of just privately .

Given I'm going to be trying to balance my life more adequately, from a poker standpoint main focus will be on session quality rather than volume. I don't really have the flexibility to grind out a nitty Tuesday night 2/5 session every week like I have done the past year that I'm only slightly winning in, and would much rather prioritise high quality sessions rather than just putting more hours in.

Not going to be playing live at all until early January after getting back to within casino range from home, but gonna be doing a bit of study, and some online, pretty chill 50nl, 100nl play before then to sharpen up and get in some hands vs people who can put their pants on in the morning to actually improve before getting back to the live felt of people who require help to get dressed every day.

That's pretty much it for until January 1st, when the real challenge begins. So before new year, I'm gonna set a small target of 5k online hands, and accompanying review on all of these to set me up well, but apart from that just resting and relaxing.

I'll leave you all with a fun little hand I played recently - something I'll try to do on all of my main update posts from now on. Feel free to call me an idiot or a genius below.

5/10 at secret location so you can't find me:

1.5k effective

I open QJss in the lj to 30, btn ( ok but not great reg ) flats, blinds fold

(75) Ts 6d 2c x, btn 25, I raise 80, btn call

(235) Ad I bet 80 btn call

(395) Ac I bet 130 btn fold

Standard lj open for me, btn flat is ok - i dont play btn flats personally given live rake but its fine - I imagine from a weaker reg its lots of pairs 22-88, suited Ax, and maybe some weaker suited broadways, and overall more loose and capped than it should be without the 99-JJ and with more weak pairs and weak suited Ax

On flop im going to be range checking this specific board oop, i just have a range disadvantage with a lot more offsuit broadways that whiff. His 1/3 ish sizing seems fine, and i imagine it's high frequency, potentially he rangebets. I think I have a really good x/r candidate, with backdoor straight and flush draw potential, while also folding out some potential KQ, KJ, AQ that dominates us.

On turn I think I want to bet small with a large portion of range, and picking up a gutty this hand seems reasonable to do that with. Get to fold out low pockets, 65s type hands, and some weaker straight draws as well.

On river, I think we can continue to bet small with value hands like JJ-KK even KTs, can also go small with some Ax as well. QJs folds out some other potential broadway gutties, 6x etc that gets here for a cheap bluff.

It worked, yay.

The first of many potential punts that I will report on here...

Ok since I can't sleep, even tho its way beyond my bedtime, one more hand history being thrown out into the void:

I call this one 'Luckbox behaviour'

2/5/10 (good 2/5 game where the whole table agreed to straddle continuously towards the end of the night) 1.4k effective yet again at said undisclosed location so noone can stalk me or find out my secret identity - although I guess eventually as I add more detail it might become obvious.

co (meh reg) opens to 30, I'm on the btn with JThh and 3bet to 90, co calls.

Note: meh reg to me means no glaring horrendous give me all their money leaks, but not a great player, likely breakeven or slightly losing after rake. Not a shitreg or a fish or any type of aquatic marine life, but not good by any means.

(200) flop Ah Ts 4d x, I bet 65, call
(330) turn Kh x, I bet 250, call
(830) river Td x, I jam for 1kish, and he folds

Pre seems standard, although I don't 100% know 3 blind ranges thoroughly, mainly just extrapolate from 2 blind ranges, play slightly tighter and figure it out on the fly. Playing 3bet or fold on the BTN in 2 blind games, so for sure will in straddle game with another person behind, so JTs seems like a normal 3bet.

Flop I think rangebet small makes sense on AT high board

Turn I feel like I don't really have showdown value - will I ever x turn x river and win? maybe rarely against like T9s or a loose flop float with underpair - and have really good equity and properties to barrel, with a second nut flush draw - although what Q high flush draws can they have that beat me apart from a v v loose Q9s both pre and on flop - gutshot, and potential outs to trips and two pair.

River I luckbox trips, and have a standard value jam to try stack Ax, esp AQ, AJ

Standard luckbox behaviour from me tbh, but I think I also played the hand well anyway 😀
That's all from me until I scour my notes for an actual punt to post next time - there are some real stinkers.

gotten the into the first hands of online today. It's so sweet getting in many more hands than live and always having a decision, but it's ****ing annoying having to 100% nail down my preflop ranges, and it's ****ing annoying that I can't play an absurdly exploitable strategy as I can do live. Lots of spots where thinking is actually required. Got in 1000ish hands, made 50 bucks and called it a day.

That is all from today

Uneventful past couple of days, just grinding some more online to relatively breakeven and get some low intensity reps in. Actually had to research how to face a min open cos I've only really studied 2.5x and 3x opens playing live lol.

Trying to get the blog consistently going and to become one of my habits to set myself up for the new year, so I'm writing up a quirky hand history where I probably just punted in a 4bet pot but noone really knows what they're doing in 4bet pots anyway, and especially not live poker players.

5/10 1200 effective

Fish opens LJ to 25, I 3bet CO with AhKs to 75, SB (good aggro reg) cold 4bets to 200, LJ folds , I call

(435) Flop Qh 9d 6h SB bets 110, I call

(655) Turn 3c SB checks, I bet 300, SB calls

(1255) River 2h SB checks I jam 600ish, SB calls and wins with QQ :(

Im playing 3bet or fold pre from the CO facing rfi, and AKo is obviously a good 3bet. While I try to stick as close to theory as possible especially preflop, there is a slight dynamic going on here. The fish does raise quite a bit first to act pre, incentivising me to slightly loosen up 3betting them, and therefore passing on the same pattern to SB being incentivised to cold 4bet me slightly wider. Tbh I don't think this is a good exploit for the SB vs me specifically as I kinda just try to play preflop theoretically correctly (except just pure opening or folding mixes and not randomising) unless something wacky happens or an absolute whale is involved, and neither of those apply here. I know theoretically I could play both jam or call here at 100bb leaning towards jam, at 120bb it seems slightly thin to jam facing a 20bb 4bet so just call. Something to note is I'm continuing extremely tight to a cold 4bet here. In game I thought I would jam some but not all of my AKs, KK, AA, and defend with JJ+, AQs+, AKo. If SB was a nitty reg I'd literally just defend QQ+, AKs, but I've seen him be light and have some preflop 3bet and 4bet bluffs in some spots, so playing JJ+, AQs+, AKo makes sense.

On the flop I suspect SB is rangebetting here for 1/4, and with AhKx, I don't think I can fold, although I will fold AKo no heart, and AKs with no backdoor.

On the turn, knowing what my actual range is in game, AK is the only unpaired hand I can have on the turn, and I'm not gonna start blasting with JJ. Also **** it we have good blockers to SB's best hands, and flush draws that call turn, and also 6 potential outs to top pair.

On river, when flush completes I feel like AhKx is my only bluff here, so **** it. They had QQ which seems very reasonable, but we end up dusting 120bb rip.

That is all from me today, hope you enjoyed the punt, I enjoyed talking into the void. Will be back with more punts as I trawl through past hand histories from December that I have yet to review. No online hands cos they often more check-able by solver, and I'm a live player at heart. If I still can't sleep later tonight I'll post another fun one, in which I merge bluff punt instead of my usual air bluff punt.

Ok one more, it's very very late (some would call this morning lol) but my sleep schedule is shocking anyway so oh well time to explain my merge bluff/value/equity-denial/punt

5/10 1.1k ish effective (v start of session)

I open BTN with JTss to 25, SB (meh reg) 3bets to 100, I call

(210) Flop Ks Jh 9d SB bets 70, I call

(350) Turn 7s SB bets 275, I jam for 1000, SB tank calls and I lose to AA lol

Preflop seems entirely standard. Could chuck in a very cheeky 4bet if I was feeling spicy, but call is standard.

Flop I assume he rangebets this, and I obv have a call, or cheeky raise but its a bit **** to fold this if I get flop 3bet, and I have a bunch of other no pair gutters to choose from like AQ, AT in particular and if I were to bluff with a pair + gutty I'd prefer bottom pair like a T9s or Q9s, although I doubt I'd do that much at all. Call seems like the normal way to go.

Turn is where it gets spicy. Pick up the bdfd. They bet geometric-ish, and I get a really dumb idea. If I jam I fold them off of all of their dominating flush draws, a bunch of their other bluffs, and also fold them off Kx. Also when I do get called I just have infinite equity anyway, with middle pair, a flush draw and a double gutshot and most importantly BLOCKERS to their value range. The fact that he tanked a good while with aces shows that I had a bunch of fold equity, just didnt get through this time and didnt hit my outs.

Ok it is way way way too late now imma try sleep again

Where do you play online

How’s the 5/10 at commerce these days? How many games usually run?

Play online on ACR and ignition.

Not gonna say where in the US I play live, don't wanna leak who I am. From what I hear though, commerce is a shithole with beatable but reggy 5/10 games

Another day, another 1k ish online hands, pretty uneventful.

Daily questionable hand, but this time it's a bluffcatch, and a decent part of my downswing was just this one hand lol:
5/10/20 4k ish effective

Straddle on and its a pretty good game.

I open LJ to 50 with A8cc, and very good reg calls in the HJ, the rest fold

(135) Flop Ah 8s 7s I check, HJ bets 100, I call

(335) Turn 2d I check, HJ bets 500, I call

(1335) River 5h I check, HJ jams 3300, I hate my ****ing life, call and get shown 88

A8s is just a standard pure raise. We are kinda already in la la land away from theory as soon as HJ flats imo. I imagine that HJ shouldn't play many flats in theory, and from playing with HJ a bunch I know they largely play 3bet or fold pre, so I assume they flat here to play more pots with the worse players who are in the blinds. Ultimately this doesn't end up working as everyone else folds. Also, HJ is a very good aggressive pro who consistently just plays the biggest game in the room, so I imagine this flatting range is somewhat balanced and less capped/obvious than an average reg. However, I am completely guessing as to what it looks like considering the whales in the blinds incentivise flatting a little more, and unsure just how low he will go in flatting suited connectors, lower pocket pairs, weaker suited Ax and weaker suited broadways. I guessed in game his range contained some A9s-AQs, some KTs-KQs, some QJs, JTs, 55-JJ, maybe even some QQ, AKo playing more trappy, as well as lower suited connectors 54s-76s. Some of these might 3bet a portion or fold a portion, but that's the broad structure of his range imo.

On the flop, I am range checking here, HJ just has a stronger range with no offsuit broadway whiffs like KQo, KJo. HJ (in my opinion correctly) plays big bet on this flop given the flatting range polarises easily on this board with pocket pairs and middling Ax that want to check, and some draws and strong value hands that want to bet big. I decide I'm going to raise very infrequently with range, and somewhat infrequently with my specific hand. I'm going to try and play as balanced as possible against this player, and that includes randomising on early streets to make sure I'm not ****ed and capped on later streets. Against 90% of my opponents I don't randomise ever but this guy is an exception. I roll for a 25% raise, and land on call.

Turn I think again HJ picks a good size, could even go bigger but it's good. Here I think A8s becomes slightly too thin to raise vs such a polar turn range, and when I have so few other value hands to raise. So I call.

River, again HJ picks a good size and I ****ing ****ing hate life. I never beat value, which I assume is legit just 77 and 88 for this size. From here it's just a maths problem, as I'm gonna assume this specific player very much knows his ****. I need to call 29%ish of the time. Also I have good BLOCKERS to their best value hands. I think I should call AA, 88, 77 (although I don't have much 88, 77 left after flop and turn) first. Then after that 87s (although I lowkey don't have this much preflop cos I'm a nit) blocks so much value I feel like I should call, and I feel like I also have to throw some A8s and A7s in there as well although it seems really cuspy, it seems so so so cuspy I could see folding as well, but when I have to call 30% of range I can't just call with sets that beat value. A8s is the next best hand, so I sigh, call, and get shown the goods. This was the hand that broke the me's back as the peak of the downswing and I decided to not play for the last week I was in town, and just retire until next year lol.

Speaking of next year, I'm excited to get back into it. Big plans of gambling and otherwise ahead. Will report more on these plans in the coming days before the big 26 arrives

Some of the best HH analysis on here since Matt Moore's blog, seems like you have all the tools to think critically about the game and be successful

dont expect this level consistently! im just at home with a lot of free time right now!

A couple of things for today:

1. A potential punt turn call, but I get there

2. Outlining my goals for the coming year in greater specific detail

Also please don't expect the posts next year to be nearly as frequent or detailed, I just have A LOT of free time on my hands right now, and want to get the habit of posting here burned into my brain

So, in that order:

1. Should I exploit fold the turn?

5/10 1k effective

I open 65cc from the CO to 25, SB (meh reg) 3bets to 100, I call

(210) Flop Tc 5d 2h SB bets 150, I call

(510) Turn Qs SB bets 250 I call

(1010) River 5h SB checks, I jam for 500ish , SB tank folds

Preflop could just fold first in but blah blah soft live game, skill edge blah blah I'm never folding 65s pre here i dont care if the solver says I should mix it and it's 0 ev theoretically, I'm gonna open it pure here especially into a fish BTN and fish BB. Vs 3bet 65s is theoretically ever so +EV, and the same yada yada skill edge live pro nonsense justifications to call here, but also it's just a correct pure call anyway.

Flop even vs big size I definitely can't fold any 5x here, although I might fold some 66-99 that has only 2 outs vs value.

On the turn I know this is for sure a pure theory call again, being ahead of and unblocking all bluffs, having a few outs vs most value, and facing a 50% size on the turn only needing 25% equity. However, I think maybe in practice this could just be a fold, with SB likely being slightly too value heavy for the big flop size, and then turn continue. I think I can just find a fold here.

On the river it's obviously a standard value shove not even close, the interesting decision was the turn. That's the luckbox moment for today. I should also figure out how to make the suit icons work to make my HH look nicer but oh well that's for me to do tomorrow.

Also I've found creating the habit of posting a daily HH has forced me to study and review spots consistently, and I think I might continue this daily HH habit throughout 2026 and beyond - although might prep a few days ahead at points in case I get busy, but gonna try analyze and post daily.

2. My goals for the upcoming year

So, the big 26 is upon us, and big things are in the works. A couple of things to focus on in the upcoming year, I'll start with the poker goals today, and outline my broader goals later upon further reflection in the coming days.

Poker:
The plan is simple - Play 1000 effective hours
In the past year I've moved up from 2/5 to 5/10 successfully, clocking around 1400 hours in the process. I feel like it would be reckless to keep moving up as quickly as possible until I'm outclassed for large sums of money, and so I'm going to stay the course at 5/10 for the next 1000 hours of poker to get a very good sample size and improve my game. This may seem extreme considering I've already clocked 750 hours at 5/10 for a decent winrate, but staying at 5/10 for the year regardless of whether my bankroll is ready to move up will help me develop but also allow me to sometimes focus on college and future work and things apart from whether I should 3bet K9s.

So 1000 hours, diligent note-making, HH noting and review of all interesting hands - it's live poker after all, plenty of time to do this, and relevant study alongside.

That is all for today.

Once again in what normal people call the morning, but I call just extremely late night, you know the deal.

Today's two HH are again vs the very good reg, and this time because I'm against a top reg I pretend to be a solver in game (or at least try to). Again, don't expect multiple daily hand histories next year, I'm just getting into the habit of doing it now to set me up for the future.

HH #1
5/10 1.1k effective
I open CO with AhQd to 25, very good reg on BTN 3bets me to 75, I 4bet to 220, he calls
(450) Flop Jd Tc 5s I bet 150, he calls
(750) Turn 3h I bet 275, he calls
(1300) River Kh I jam 500 and he TANK calls 😀

Preflop open is standard, and 4bet I RaNdOmIsEd ooooh. In all seriousness against this specific player I'm going to try just play correct poker, especially preflop, not expecting any exploits to be had. AQo CO vs BTN with these sizings mixes between 4bet and call, primarily 4betting. I mixed 75% 4bet and got the 4bet so that's what I did. Solver approx. agreed with me, played like 85% 4bet but that doesnt ****ing matter does it.

Flop on this double broadway board imma just be rangebetting 1/3, correct and straightforward. Solver rangebet, but mixed between 50% and 25% sizings which is dumb and unrealistic so I played this fine as well. Villain probably assumes I'm a spewtard 4bet bet bet jamming AQ here and he's not entirely wrong I am a spewtard.

Turn gonna size up ever so slightly and play a geo size. AQ seems like a good hand to bluff at a nonzero frequency. Im going to have occasional KQo, KQs, K9s, and also lots of AK that I have alongside it to choose as my bluffs, and the KQ, K9 hands should probably be prioritised as higher frequency bluffs, with AK and AQ being lower frequency bluffs. However, with that said, it is incredibly easy to overfold and under-aggress in 4bet pots as BTN. They are supposed to continue pretty much all paired hands to the turn barrel (even 5x, 99 etc) and pretty much all AK high, and mix with AQ high. I thought with that that this might be slightly overfolded even for a good reg (who might also think I'm underbluffing here anyway), and it is extremely hard for this to be overcalled. So I said SCREW THE SIMS and barrelled.

River I hit a straight lol. Tbh I had no idea how my overall range, or my hand should play in theory when this river arrives. I feel like I should do some checking but frankly I have no idea, theres an SPR of 0.5, I've been the aggressor and I have the nuts, so jamming can't be bad I'm all in. Prob supposed to check here occasionally but who cares i have the nuts I'm all in. I assume when he tanks he had some weaker pair like Jx or Tx like AJs or ATs.

5/10 2.3k effective vs same very good reg villain
Villain opens LJ to 25, I call BB with 64hh
(55) Flop 7h 5h 2h I check, Villain bets 15, I call
(85) Turn 3d check check
(85) River Ah I bet 55, Villain snap folds

I'll keep the analysis shorter here bcos it's just a simpler hand.
Always defending pre vs 2.5x, never 3betting the 64s even though the solver is apparently telling me to 3bet at a small frequency that is dumb and I was not doing that in game.

Always checking flop, and I'm playing v few check raises here, and a low flush doesn't really do any check raising for me here so despit the temptation around having 2 straight flush outs I just call flop.

Turn no decision to be had lol never donking here.

River, especially once the Ah is out there I think it's pretty reasonable to go medium size with 6 high flush here, seeing as most flushes from LJ would just bet the turn. I think they have a flush a small enough % of the time to go for medium value with all my flushes so I do. Villain snap folds so prob just had some random KQss or some other air that cbet flop then gave up.

That's all for today

Good luck!

Thanks!

Back again. Technically merry christmas now as of not very long ago.

1. Another hand history

2. Reflections

The hand history:

5/10 with the 20 straddle on 1.5k effective

I open CO with 8d8c to 50, BTN (shitreg) 3bets to 120, I call

(265) Flop 9h 9d 3c I check, BTN bets 125, I call
(515) Turn Ad check check
(515) River 8h check, BTN bets 300 I jam for 1250ish effective, BTN folds

Obviously we open 88 from the CO, even with a straddle on adding another player yet to act. When BTN 2.5x 3bets we are kinda out in lalaland, but 88 I don't think I can ever fold here. Just folding my shittest opens like KTo, A9o, Q8s.

Flop always checking, and although BTN is a shitreg I can't bring myself to fold 88 here to a cbet for 1/2 pot, even if BTN under 3-bets, and is slightly too value heavy for 1/2 pot cbet I can't bring myself to fold here with a decent pair.

Turn no decision, never considered donk.

River we have decisions between betting smallish repping an ace, going all in accurately repping our fullhouse, or checkraising. I opt to checkraise (although fwiw probably all of these options are fine, we have a full house hard to do much wrong here). We unblock their river betting range, both from value and bluffs, making check raise good, and I think jam gets overfolded but I want it all so we x/r.

Reflections:

Beyond poker this year, planning isn’t about setting ambitious targets or trying to overhaul everything at once but defining the minimum standards I’m willing to hold myself to, even when motivation drops or results lag, and always trying to slowly improve. Outside of poker last year, I’d do enough to stay afloat but not much beyond that and that's not really a productive attitude to have. If poker has to be sacrificed to achieve these new year standards then so be it, and I need to focus on life first, and poker second, hopefully while still performing well in poker.

That is all,
Merry christmas for technically today but really tomorrow.

Actual merry christmas from today

I've avoided weird multiway hand histories previously because I'm less sure what I'm doing, but it has to come up eventually, especially considering this is live poker it is inevitable. My analysis will be much less concrete and much more live poker, feel poker type of play.

5/10 1.5k effective
LJ (fish) raises to 20, HJ (fish) calls, I call BTN with A9ss, BB (meh reg) calls
(85) Flop 9d 5s 2c x, x, x, I bet 25, BB calls, LJ folds, HJ calls
(160) Turn Ks x, x, I bet 40, BB calls, HJ folds
(240) River 7d x, x I lose vs KQdd

Weird hand. I never really know how to play these spots preflop. FIsh have massive sizing tells pre so I'm more inclined to raise and attempt to steal the potentially dead money, but also there's people to act behind who know this and I have a middling hand that is more than happy to call and play with a big SPR but not to call a 3bet or rare limp reraise. Theory is dumb to use in this spot, and I'm simply playing my exact hand and flatting with . I call.

On the flop once the LJ and HJ fish both check I think they are just really capped and don't really have overpairs, which they would likely bet out. My hand is v strong v these capped LJ and HJ ranges, as well as the BB not really ever having an overpair or any 2 pair here. There's a lot of equity to deny from overcards, and value to get from gutties, 9x, 5x, maybe even BB 2x, so I bet small. Again I have no clue what is "correct" to do in multiway pots, I kinda just use intuition, bet with equity, make tight folds and see where that takes me.

On the turn, I pick up the nfd, have 2nd pair top kicker, and I decide **** it I want to keep betting to get more money in the pot with my nfd, so I'm just gonna put exactly how much more money I can handle with my 9 considering they should rarely have Kx and also should rarely raise here. So I put exactly how much more money I wanted into the pot. Very GTO stuff.

On river EZ checkback, and I see a very annoying, surprising KQs from the BB that didn't squeeze pre. Miffed.

That is all from today. Just a quick hand history and enjoying christmas lunch.

This is in california? or boston? regardless of whether you want to say or not

im in the us, don't wanna leak where I am or dox myself and my truly truly disturbing sleep schedule means I could literally be in any time zone and you can't tell which based on the times of my posts lol. After writing this post it seems like I'm from california and deflecting tho so yeah I'm DEFINITELY in california. **** you caught me.

Note: I literally RNG'd my response to some of this lol I'm GTO non-doxxing myself

From your verbiage it seems like you are from california or a blue state.

In regards to your posts not sure if you are writing it to journal or whatever, but no one is going to tell you if your play is good or bad this isnt the forum for that anymore its a dog eat dog world out here.

gotta stay balanced with the doxxing range

Yeah I'm not asking for advice, just posting for the sake of accountability