MartaIMrko: The Croatian Grinder Dominating NL200 Cash Games with 9+ EV bb/100

There are poker players who never make it to the high stakes tables, yet still earn significant recognition in the online poker world thanks to their outstanding performance at the midstakes level. They may not be as famous as Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger, Wiktor "Limitless" Malinowski, or Barak Wisbrod, but within their own tier, they’re true stars – respected, well-known names with loyal followings.

This may be because high stakes poker remains an unreachable dream for most, while midstakes levels offer a realistic and tangible goal. For those who take the game seriously, NL25 and NL50 are well within reach – and from there, NL100 and NL200 are not far off. At these stakes, real money can be made, which is why so many players focus on climbing to this level.

As a result, the midstakes scene garners considerable attention. Many grinders know exactly who the top performers are, who’s worth following, and who you can actually learn from.

One of the standout players at NL200 is Croatia’s Marko "MartaIMrko" Leko – a true midstakes legend. He consistently maintains a long-term win rate above 9 EV bb/100, and in 2023, he was the biggest winner at the stake.

A few years ago, MartaIMrko shared his journey to becoming a professional poker player in a series of blog posts. These entries not only reveal his dedication to the game but are also deeply personal and surprisingly inspirational.

What follows is a curated, lightly edited translation of his original blog content – with all substance preserved, but refined for clarity and flow in English.

Let’s start at the beginning. After finishing law school, I spent a year working in the field and successfully passed the bar exam. A legal career was right in front of me – but I made a different choice. I quit my job and walked away from the legal world for good. You might ask: who does something like that? The answer is simple. I’m the kind of person who either gives something my full heart or not at all. And poker was something I wanted to give 100% to.

This was during the European financial crisis – a time that hit Croatia especially hard, plunging many into deep poverty. It was then that I made the decision to take poker seriously. For me, the game wasn’t just entertainment; it was a chance at a borderless career – an opportunity to take control of my own destiny.

I only had $300 in savings and whatever poker experience I’d picked up playing casually with friends. But there was one thing I knew for certain: I loved the game. Whenever we played, I was always the last one to leave the table. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t get enough. It didn’t take long to realize that poker wasn’t just about luck – it was something deeper, more complex. I was probably the worst player in our group, but I had something they didn’t: passion, determination, and the drive to get as good as I possibly could.

When I decided to give up my legal career to become a professional poker player, my family was in shock for a long time. I grew up in a conservative environment, where poker players were seen as mere gamblers – people who lost their cars, houses, and lives to addiction. My parents had always wanted to be proud of what I did. They sacrificed so much so I could go to law school – they gave me everything they possibly could. And in their eyes, I threw it all away and stepped onto an uncertain path. It wasn’t the future they had imagined for their son.

But I had something rare: an iron will. Michael Jordan once said that hard work beats talent 99 times out of 100 – and there may be no field where that’s truer than in poker. I believe poker was my calling. Even if that’s not where I started, all my choices eventually led me here.

I began playing NL2 on the Microgaming network. From the start, I was strict with bankroll management: I wouldn’t move up until I had at least 150 buy-ins for the next stake. Back then, there were no solvers and very little strategy content online. You had to figure everything out yourself. I took tiny steps forward, and the climb was slow and difficult – but I never strayed from the path.

I never cared who I sat down to play with – I’ve never table-selected, and I still don’t. It was never just about the money. My main goal was always to be the best player at the table. Poker, for me, is like a passionate love affair – you can’t settle for average. You want to be the one.

I played every day and studied relentlessly. I gave every session my full focus – not just my own hands, but my opponents’ too. I took notes even when I wasn’t in the pot – how they thought, how they reacted, what patterns defined them. Then I studied those notes, identified what gave me trouble, and built counter-strategies to beat it.

That approach worked well at first, and I steadily climbed the stakes. Then came NL50 – and that’s where I hit a wall. I still remember the pain of that failure vividly. One night, after a particularly tough session, my girlfriend and I went for a walk and talked until dawn. She didn’t know anything about poker, but she listened – to every hand, every doubt, every mistake. I felt like I had failed, and somehow, she felt it too. She didn’t need to understand the game to feel my pain. That, to me, was real love – when someone carries your burden with you, even if they don’t quite understand why it weighs so much.

That’s when I realized something that has stayed with me ever since: there’s no such thing as losing – only giving up. Failure isn’t the end of the road, it’s just a temporary state on the path to growth. If you’re losing, work harder. If that’s not enough, work twice as hard. Then three times. Ten times. Sooner or later, you’ll see results. Success belongs to those who refuse to break and are willing to give everything.

I moved back down to NL20, but this time I came with a different mindset. I played and studied with more passion, humility, and dedication than ever before – as if every hand was my last chance. I knew that the next time I took a shot at NL50, I wouldn’t look back. This time, I would make it.

I’ve always been confident. I believe that if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. And if you don’t love yourself, you won’t be able to truly love others either.

I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to test myself again at NL50 – and soon, it came. This time, there was no stopping me.

I crushed the limit. I didn’t stay long at NL50 – soon, I was playing NL100.

When I reached NL100, I tightened up my bankroll management. From that point on, I set 210 buy-ins as the baseline before moving up to the next stake. But that was just the foundation – I also needed to earn additional profit beyond that to take a shot. If the shot failed and my bankroll dropped back to 210 buy-ins, I immediately stopped and rebuilt my roll at the current stake before trying again.

NL100 also went well. Around this time, I started diving deep into range vs. range thinking, because I realized that the true strategic depth of poker is built on this concept. Every decision – whether it's a c-bet, check, fold, or donk – stems from how your range and your opponent’s range interact in a given spot. If you have the range advantage, you can c-bet more frequently; if you don’t, you need to tighten up and may even check back strong hands to protect your range. The board texture always determines whose range has the edge – and over time, I didn’t just feel this intuitively, the solvers confirmed it too.

After that, I moved up to NL200 on Microgaming and soon started mixing in some NL400 games as well. When Microgaming shut down, I switched to iPoker – but I ran into serious issues with script users. While Microgaming had waiting lists, iPoker tables constantly open, close, and reopen, making it much harder to grab a good seat without using a script. That was the main reason I started playing on PokerStars about a year ago (this was in 2021).

Despite all this, I still like iPoker. The software runs smoothly, and I get a great deal there – a 45% gross rakeback.

Four years ago, I got married, and soon after, our daughter was born. My life changed completely. People say you meet the most beautiful woman in the world when your daughter is born – and in my case, that’s 100% true. I had never experienced a love like this before. I would give my life for her without hesitation.

But it wasn’t an easy transition, and nothing really prepares you for it. Every day brings a new challenge. That’s why I’m no longer focused on constantly climbing to higher stakes – even though I believe I could. Instead, my priority is creating the perfect home for my daughter and supporting my wife, who takes on the majority of responsibilities at home. I still play poker with passion and keep studying the game, but I’m not willing to take big risks anymore. I’ve chosen to stay within my comfort zone.

In the meantime, I switched from Holdem Manager to Hand2Note. I built my own custom HUD – first in HM, then later in H2N – including everything I consider essential for making informed decisions. These days, I alternate between PokerStars, iPoker, and the Croatian site SuperSport Poker.

In recent months, I’ve also started playing MTTs, moving up from lower stakes to buy-ins as high as $1,000. Below, you can find my cash game results from iPoker and PokerStars, as well as my MTT performance over the past period.

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