Day 1 of my 500k hands NL holdem challenge

Hands played: 1052
BR: Up! I will post how it has changed over time every 10k hands.

The rain is pouring down outside. I am finishing my first day of officially being back at the poker tables feeling good about the project. I don’t want to invest too much emotions into this. Just do my roughly 500 hands and then get on with my day. I want to detach from playing a little bit and attach myself to studying which is also so much fun.

Right now my first focus when playing is to have a solid preflop game. The preflop opening ranges are going to be the whole foundation of this project. I try to think about what happens if I open all 500k hands this loose or tight for every hand I do. Also post flop becomes easier to sort out when playing correctly from the start.

Mindset: If I get annoyed during a session, I try to think about the situation and may conclude that everybody played the hand fine and that I would have done the same again. Then I find it easier to let go of that outcome. Today I had a hand like that and felt annoyed. After thinking it through I could let it go and continued to double my starting stack in the end. I also have to learn to quit if I can’t work through that frustrated feeling.

In studying I am focuses on out of position play and turning that inside and out. When to bet, check, check raise, board textures & ranges etc. I have a document where I conclude what I know so far.

For the most part being out of position means checking more so I try to check or bet small if I am unsure whether to bet or not. I am really trying to eliminate betting big to mask my bad confidence in what to do, because that usually compounds into bigger mistakes than necessary.