A journey - much delayed ($8 to $8888 or quitting poker)

don't focus on this, it won't change
it's gone, forget it

I personally face this kind of problem through my whole career, it is never coming back. And thinking of it makes things worse

let it go and focus on something different, learn a new concept or something
focusing on bad luck somehow makes it even worse
trust me i know what im talking about

Might sound whiny (and I am indeed whiny at times), but for the most part it hasn't affected my game (but it did cut my playing sessions short a few times). I know, mathematically, it doesn't "OWE" me whatever EV I am behind. I am supposed to get exactly as EV predicts from any given time forward. So I am not expecting it to "return" my money =D.

I do have great respect to pros that do this as main income, it must be stressful beyond belief when you first turn pro.

You are correct, thinking about it makes it much worse. I actually typically turn off all the AI Adj stats, you can't spend AI Eq in life. Either you get money or you don't =D. The results had just been too unreal and I put the AI Eq columns back because I needed to check my game is still on point.

subd

Played A+ Game, but more of the same run bad on AI

We just gotta laugh at the absurdity of it all.
ANOTHER 5BI sent to RNG god as tribute.
OTT lost to trips vs FH | nuts straight vs FD | QQ vs AQ [7722] ... each were 400bb+ pot =(
Not proud of it, but I did take insurance on the third one to preserve a winning session as I wind down, graph would've looked alot worse otherwise (-9BI instead of -5)

Probably best played hand of the session. Used notes to get max value.
We flats to exploit V's obvious post flop leak.
We likely get 2street+ value if we hit the board because V over CB OTT.
V has no xF OTF, he's betting too many weak hands while x'ing solid range (population does not have enough 2B OTF to punish him)
Villain should have higher Riv xF given his F/T aggression, we can deduce he's bluffing / xR'ing as bluffs.
Pre: RFI32
CB F:60 T:80 R:50
Folds F:33 T:63 R:35
Notes: Loves stabs small / can xB TPwK OTF

Big brain move: RNG can't mess with us if we don't have any AI =D
Well we did have @95% equity, we held!!! OMG

We attacked the T very well this session, with both bluffs and values =).

GG: 2800
N8: 5200
Overall journey 8000/8888 (40 days remaining for ~$900 | Peak = 8100)

Bit too tired to do long recap. Had a bad session two days ago.
Quick 400 hands where we were card dead and lost 6BI winning fewer than 6 hands with 1 streets of betting in 400 hands.
We did flop Top Set and Improve to Top Boat in 4BP. Lost to Straight Flush
We did flop second nut straight to big whale. Lose to Nuts Straight.

Today we come back for 1200 hands and played better, ran better.
Cards felt normal / slightly below average but we stayed disciplined and avoid tough spots for the most parts.

Two best played hands, generating big pots in SRP hands, getting big value out of nowhere.
I think I took the optimal line given notes on villains.

We continue to attack OTT / OTR as much as possible. That's been going fine, and I am no letting the light calls get to me. It's just poker.

GG: 2900 back at the peak =)
N8: 5200
Overall journey 8100/8888 (40 days remaining for ~$900 | Peak = 8100)

We are playing well and running better (BBJP? Yes please).

GG: 3600 back at the peak =)
N8: 5200
Overall journey 8800/8888 (33 days remaining for ~$100 | Peak = 8800)

Will post a big recap if / when I finish off the journey.

Here's how I made the $7400 since Sept 1, 2024 despite being a LOSING player in game, completing my 8 to 8888 journey with 30+ days to spare.

Lost $2000 in game ... All from 25NL (still 28BI Below EV at the moment)
I definitely should've stuck to 10NL for longer. Maybe mix in 25NL more gradually would've been preferred.
25NL did not see break even play until Feb / March 2025 =T and the bonus from 25NL is not 2.5x 10NL as I assumed.

$9400 in bonuses (rakeback, BBJP, promotions, etc)
GGFlipout $2500 | BBJP $3000 | BBJP-Mini $700 | RakeRace $1550 | Rakeback $1450 | Others $100
Rough breakdown: 3600 from 10NL |5800 from 25NL

The bonuses came consistently, so BR grew almost every month
Rough Profit Split: 3800 from 10NL | 3600 from 25NL
Rough Profit Rate: $0.035 /h @10NL | $0.017/h @25NL

Ugly graph (in game) - no prize for finding the short spur of -30 BI below EV hell week:

Better graph (include bonus):

25NL "Regs" w 500+ hands 44% winning in game. Total losses (rake) 17.3k

10NL "Regs" w 500+ hands 40% winning in game. Total losses (rake) 3.1k

Rake Contributed: $9227
Weighed BB Average: $0.2
Rake: 46135 BB
Hands: 324230
Rake/100: 14.2 (significantly higher than 12.9 we calculated a few months back
~In previous calculation, I mostly played 25NL, I've played equal amount 25NL and 10NL since
~10NL rake is capped at 15bb whereas 25NL is capped at 10bb (both ridiculous I know)
~10NL players are loose, creative 30bb+ pots more frequently, triggering BBJP tax

Effective Rake: -200 =D Negative rake, imagine that
Effective Rake w/o BBJP: 2800 or 0.86/100

• I am getting 15.7 Rakeback (advertised 35%)
  
• You really need to get "something" out of rake races when you play, for me it another 1.0x rakeback
  
• Getting entry to GGFlipout if worth it (25NL and lower). Ante 9Max helps this, as Winning pot 300bb+ adds to your starting stack, this is 1.6x rakeback
  

How do you manually enter the bonuses?

I enter them as .01/.02 HU pots, so I can filter to include / exclude them easily.

-Sightwinner

How do you actually do that? I’ve googled and can’t seem to find any instructions. Just a way to put in an overall rakeback %. Do you have any guides I could use? Thanks

I wrote a simple python script replacing specific parts of a HH to reflect my bonus. Without programming knowledge, even Excel functions can generate it easily also.

Here's a sample HH from GG, the red fonts are the ones that need replacing. In this case, this was generated for a Mini BBJP of $127 on Sept 10th 2024.
Simplest is to just play one .01/0.2 HU hand and see how the HH look for your site, should be basically the same structure.

Poker Hand #HD1100000001: Hold'em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) - 2024/09/10 11:35:23
Table 'Cool-Table-Name' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 6: Hero ($6000.00 in chips)
Seat 7: FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME ($6000.00 in chips)
Hero: posts the ante $0.01
FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME: posts the ante $0.01
Hero: posts small blind $0.01
FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [3d Jh]
Dealt to FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME
FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME: raises $127 to $127.02
Hero: raises $3000 to $3127.02
FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME: folds
Uncalled bet ($3000) returned to Hero
*** SHOWDOWN ***
Hero collected $254.06 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $254.06 | Rake $0 | Jackpot $0 | Bingo $0 | Fortune $0 | Tax $0
Seat 6: Hero (button) won ($254.06)
Seat 7: FAKE_VILLAIN_NAME (small blind) folded before Flop