Welcome to my Poker Journal

I didn’t know what poker was until the second term of my year 1 undergrad. I started playing weekly in my third term (last term) of year 1, playing .05/.I0 with a 10 pound buy in. I still remember the very first night of those weekly games where i turned the 10 pound buy in to 40 pounds. I was so happy. I rushed to tell all my friends about it. The feeling of winning was great and I suddenly had some extra change I could use for my expenses. Getting hooked could not have been easier. Even though I make it sound like that, what made me fall in love with the game wasn’t the potential of making money, or solving complex problems, but the people. I spent some of my happiest moments playing with the Balliol Poker Society. When some crazy hand happened we all would shout and jump like a bunch of children and I would never be able to replicate that feeling after uni. As time went by, my chief interest in poker became the problem solving aspect. I love poker because you need to be a perfect logician but that isn’t enough. I need to know and quickly calculate the probabilities, memorise the charts, logically narrow down opponent range and make ideal bet sizes but even then I can’t guarantee if that would be the best strategy against the way my opponents are playing. Even if I happen to know the most exploitative strategy which has the highest edge against anyone, i would still be relying on a dice throw. Surely the chance of me winning is higher, but it is still a chance. I am a risk-neutral individual and am willing to take any positive EV bet I can, but i could have a 90% chance of winning a bet and still end up broke if I dont manage my risk. Poker till date has been profitable for me. I have made around 6000 pounds in live poker with an outrageously high BB / 100 measure. I chalk this up to variance as I am nearly not good enough to be considered a long-term positive EV player. I am running hot or playing against weak opponents. Maybe both. Irrespective of the possible reasons which have left me in this fortunate scenario, my sole goal remains to improve my quality as a player and have fun. If reading people still gives me joy, if table talk is still something I can’t live without, if I still dream about the Implied Odds after I hit my runner runner nut flush, you would find me at the table at 5 in the morning.

This page is meant to share my thoughts, any (hopefully useful) insights, and most importantly my stats. It is missing the poker i played up until 4 weeks back which is unfortunate but I had to start recording somewhere and this is that point. Let’s see how my game evolves over time (also I am starting recording the hours from 13 June, so the hours played for the games before then is based on my memory which can be imperfect).

Date	Buy In	Cash Out	Hours Played	BB won
17 – 05 – 2025	320	0	4	-320
21 – 05 – 2025	100	100	6	0
26 – 05 – 2025	175	312	8	137
26 – 05 – 2025	10	12.7	1	27
27 – 05 – 2025	300	440	4	140
29 – 05 – 2025	100	135	6	35
30 – 05 – 2025	200	662	8	462
01 – 06 – 2025	500	400	3	-50
02 – 06 – 2025	200	0	2	-200
02 – 06 – 2025	40	1289.5	8	2500
03 – 06 – 2025	500	316	5	37
07 – 06 – 2025	200	2900	10	1350
08 – 06 – 2025	700	0	6	-350
11 – 06 – 2025	100	845	3	1490
11 – 06 – 2025	1000	2000	3	100
13 – 06 – 2025	1000	1500	1	50
13 – 06 – 2025	50	0	.5	-100