Column★★☆☆☆📖 9 min5/21/2026

The Man Who Climbed Back from −3000bb, Ten-Four Warrior ako-ao [Konasho Monthly vol.2]

Under two years into poker, ako-ao sank to −3000bb over his first 60,000 hands on Ten-Four and paid every chip of it back over the next 60,000. His company poker club, the study group, and 'the singularity' — an interview about a comeback from rock bottom.

The man who climbed back from minus 3000bb, Ten-Four warrior ako-ao

Written by konasho (X: @konasho)

"If you give up, the game is over right there."

There is a player who proved that famous Japanese line through sheer stubbornness: ako-ao, under two years into poker. His first 60,000 hands on Ten-Four left him at −3000bb. Over the next 60,000 he made it back to the surface. When someone is backed into a corner, the last thing they can rely on is their own muscle — he benches 95kg, but that alone won't get your set to connect or your flush draw to come in. So what was it that turned ako-ao into an ironclad Ten-Four warrior?

The Dark Age: Nothing Works

A dark age where nothing you try works. This is how ako-ao looks back on that first month.

"I basically had no idea how to fight what you'd call a low-stakes environment — a tough-calling environment. I'd have a hand that should be a bluff, but bluffs mostly don't get through, right? There was a stretch where I thought I should just bluff exactly the way I'd studied. Not understanding that was the big thing early on.

I did figure that part out fairly early, so I started 3-betting more often and so on, but my precision around all that was probably poor. Which hands should I actually be 3-betting? That trial and error just kept going, my numbers kept sliding, and eventually I was down about 3300bb."

His deficit crossed 3000bb in early March. He'd registered on the app on 1 February, so on a simple count he was playing close to 2,000 hands a day. However high-variance the game is, watching a red number grow and a graph slope downward day after day is not good for the soul.

But ako-ao didn't break.

Because It's No-Rate — and Because He Hates Losing

"The fact that it's no-rate had an enormous amount to do with me being able to keep going, but I also just genuinely like poker. And I think I hated being down. I hate losing, basically.

Some of the people around me at work had played maybe 50,000 hands and were running at something like +10bb/100. I'd look at that and think, wow, that's incredible — and even as someone who can't claim to have any real tournament results, I wanted to at least drag myself back to break-even. Having people nearby who were winning was probably a big deal mentally."

Being surrounded by strong players didn't just sustain his motivation, it made him better. His company poker club held a study session on 3-bet pots, and once he got a feel for how to turn equilibrium knowledge into profitable play in the Ten-Four environment, his win rate climbed. The counter-attack from rock bottom had begun.

"The knowledge I picked up grinding hands on Ten-Four and the equilibrium knowledge I'd already had started linking up more and more, and it finally felt like the dots were connecting — like everything I'd been studying was coming together."

The Singularity

waho, a skilled player and a junior colleague of his at work, posted this on social media about the newly awakened ako-ao.

3月後半 UTG open に CO で K9s CC していて心配になった数日後に急に「シンギュラリティ」とだけ社内チャットに投稿してから全く止まらずに地上までいっててめっこもろかったけどめっこ怖かった
— waho (@waho_pk) 2026年4月14日

Roughly: "Late March, I got worried watching him cold-call K9s in the CO against a UTG open. A few days later he suddenly posted nothing but the word 'singularity' in our work chat, and from there he never stopped until he was back above water. Hilarious — and honestly a bit terrifying."

"The singularity" refers to the technological singularity, the point at which AI is expected to surpass human intelligence. Feeling the shift in his own game, ako-ao simply borrowed a favourite phrase of the strong player who had founded the company poker club.

He kept rolling, clearing the requirements for the expert tables with room to spare, and then the day finally arrived. He paid back every chip of a deficit that had peaked at 3337bb.

"That felt genuinely amazing. I kept thinking that at the time there probably wasn't anyone who'd come back from more than 3000bb down — maybe there were and they just never showed up publicly. It was an incredible sense of achievement.

Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever climb out of that 3000bb hole."

Like a Saiyan who comes back stronger after being nursed from the brink of death, ako-ao returned from the edge of the abyss with a fire in his eyes.

To the People of Ten-Four

To close, I asked him for a message for everyone on Ten-Four who hasn't yet got the results they want.

"Keeping at it matters, but not just keeping at it — improving while you do. I think if you work out what your own weaknesses are and crush them one at a time, your results follow on their own.

I'm sure there are people out there getting absolutely destroyed right now, but I think the important thing is not giving up. If you keep improving as you go, the knowledge builds up naturally, and eventually it feels like the dots connect into a line. Hang in there until you get to that point."