Time to get ready for the show. What will we need? A solid understanding of poker basics. A poker room, a bankroll, and a plan. If we’re serious about this, tracking software will also come in handy – it lets us monitor progress, learn from our mistakes, make better decisions at the tables, and more. And last but definitely not least – we’ll set up a poker challenge!
Basic Poker Game Plan
What do we need before launching our first challenge? Naturally, a solid grasp of poker fundamentals. We’ll be starting at the micro stakes, but these days even most low-stakes players know they can open wider from the button, that playing in position is better, and other basic concepts.
But we’re going to take it a step further by defining a basic open-raising range, including 3-bet and 4-bet ranges against each position in preflop play. By sticking to a simple, structured strategy, we’ll make the preflop phase much easier to navigate—and that, in turn, will make our postflop decisions far more manageable.
Postflop play will be fairly straightforward at first. I’ll stick to small bet sizes and look to c-bet frequently on the flop. On the turn, the plan depends on whether the card favors our range or the opponent’s. If it favors us, we keep betting. Most micro stakes players will fold to a second barrel unless they have a decent hand or a draw they’re willing to shove with.
In multiway pots, I’ll keep things simple as well—continuing only if I’ve got at least a decent pair or some drawing potential. It’s also always important to consider the effective stack sizes and whether the risk is worth it for a shot at winning a big pot later.
Choosing the Right Poker Room – Low Rake and Soft Fields
There are plenty of poker rooms to choose from. But be sure to check which ones you’re legally allowed to join from your country. For this challenge, I’ll be playing on CoinPoker. The site offers relatively soft player fields, supports tracking software, and has solid traffic around the clock—around 3,000 active players, with plenty of tournaments and cash games running in both Texas Hold’em and Omaha formats.
Another big plus is the extremely low rake (the fee you pay to play), combined with a generous 33% rakeback—no strings attached, available to everyone. That alone can give us a solid boost in building our bankroll.
CoinPoker offers games starting from NL2 and includes freeroll tournaments and satellites for just a few cents. At the same time, you’ll also find high-stakes cash games and tournaments on the platform. The selection is more than enough for any kind of challenge. Plus, the site supports tracking software so you can easily monitor your results.
Poker Software
I’ll be tracking the results of the challenge using Hand2Note, which is fully compatible with CoinPoker. With a bit of effort and some additional tools, you can also get programs like PokerTracker 4 or Hold’em Manager to work as well.
At the start, I’ll mainly use hand tagging to mark spots where I’m unsure about my decisions, then review those hands after each session. Having a HUD (heads-up display) will also come in handy—it shows basic opponent stats like open-raising frequency and other useful info directly at the table.
I’ll be posting regular updates and graphs on poker-grinders.com in the blog section, roughly every XX thousand hands played. I’ll evaluate my performance, make strategic adjustments if needed, and track my current win rate in big blinds per 100 hands (BB/100). Based on those results, I’ll set up the next stage of the challenge and focus on studying the specific strategies that will have the biggest impact on improving my game.
Poker Challenge
So what’s the goal of all this preparation? I’ve decided to kick things off with a challenge: starting with a 100 USDT bankroll and trying to grind it up to 500 USDT by playing micro-stakes cash games. I’ll begin at NL2, NL5, and NL10—depending on how the early sessions go—so I can move up efficiently as results allow.
Of course, this is just the initial blueprint. First, I plan to play at least 20,000 hands to get a rough idea of my expected win rate and to find out whether I can actually beat these games. Sure, 20,000 hands isn’t much—variance plays a huge role—but the more hands I put in over time, the clearer the picture will become. I also expect my game to evolve as I gain experience and spend time studying.
See you in the first blog update!