Operation: Ben learns poker and builds a roll

OK, yesterday went much better. On review there were 2 "bad" hands like above, one I lost a big pot, the other I won a medium pot. Overall, played good tight aggressive poker and ended up between 1-2 buyins. Then again if it hadnt been for those two bad hands it would have been close to 3. Goes to show just how much a couple of mistakes can hurt your ROI.

Some things I'm doing much better now which I really think is helping:

1. Session reviews. After each session I sort my hands by biggest winners and biggest losers and check all pots over about $2. This is really helping me keep focused and keep on top of issues.

2. I post about 6 hands per day for a mate to review. They're not necessarily all big pot hands (although most are), but they're hands I have questions over. The question might even be "is this standard?", because I think one pitfall a lot of players get into is they only review the hands they "know" they got wrong, whereas there could well be hands you think you played well which you really didnt.

Again, even number 2 makes me think about my game more, regardless of feedback, because I really have to think about why I played the way I did, what concerns I have over those hands, ways I could have played differently, etc.

This kind of self-review HAS to help more than just looking at your ptbb each session and deciding you had a good or bad day.

Thinking about the idea of expanding the reviewing myself and mate do, to a small group kind of situation. Basically help each other try to improve, talk poker with, move up somewhat together, etc. I know other groups have done it and its worked well for them. Got some ideas, need to flesh them out though, and of course find suitable peoples.

http://weaktight.com/223491

So...if I'm 91% to win there, when do I get my 9 200bb pots coming my way?

keep on getting it in good and you'll be fine...

I actually question that hand on retrospect. Even against weak opponents, is getting AI on the flop with TPTK on a 3-bet PF pot for 200 bbs a good idea?

I mean, I know the theory is if you hit TP, get it in, but for 200 bbs is that still right?

it depends obv.

if you can put JJ in his range then omg yes stack off.

nice blog, keep posting

Thanks.

Tried another session tonight, started horribly with a set v's straight (chased gutterball to the river) for a stack, then TPGK v's bottom two pair (called a PF raise with K6o...) for half a stack. A few more coolers/beats (overpair v's gutterball AI on flop which hit...) and was down a couple buyins. Started up a whole new bunch of tables (first set became tight), and managed to make 1.5 back by overbet shoving the river with the nuts twice into obvious hands that wouldnt let go. Right at the end though I ran a flopped flush into a set that turned a fullhouse and I couldnt let it go for over a stack Sad

.

So, not a fun day. Some bad hands, some bad luck. Heck, all else aside if that 90% hand above had held up I'd have been only a little down for the day, as it is I'm down about 5 buyins.

I'd like to say I played well, generally I did, but definately had some bad hands in there. On the other hand I made some good plays based on reads which helped get some $'s back.

Pretty tired, will do a more solid review of the days session tomorrow, just took a quick look at my biggest losers and I'd say half were ok but need closer look (sent to a friend), and the other half were split between coolers/beats and badly played hands. However even 25% of my big losers being bad hands is way too high.

hey man don't let any of this shit get to you. Keep getting your money in good, especially over 90%.

Nah, I keeps going. If I can get my money in good I'm happy. Been going through my hands, and I've had a few suckouts myself. It just seems like I suckout on the smaller ones and get sucked out against on the bigger ones, but I guess I could say that means I'm getting my money in good on the biggest pots which is something.

Want to take a sec to chat about something thats been going through my mind lately, and thats the value of 1 or 2 hands per session. Just how much difference they can make. This came up in a chat with Swiggidy which I'll get back to towards the end of the post. First, lets set up and look at an example. On my new site, I tend to play sessions of approx 1hr at a time, and 4 tables at a time. I want to really focus on improving my poker atm. Now in that 1 hr session my average results would be +/- 2 buyins. Meaning if I make more than 2 buyins I consider it a really good session, and if I make less than 2 buyins its been a terrible one. So thats our setup, lets look at an example session, Friday evening:

84 mins -> 369 hands -> +$5.87 -> $4.19 p/h.

Basically a break even session. Now lets look at two hands from it:

1st hand: http://weaktight.com/226572

Played fine, got my money in as a 54% favorite, shorty hits a 2 outer to take the main pot (he was about 7%) of $52. If my hand had held, then instead of $5, I've made $57 for the session putting it into my "really good session" range. 1 hand.

2nd hand: http://weaktight.com/226573

Again, I think played fine. Was concerned about TJ on the turn, but I cant fold with those odds and a fair range of other hands he'd play like that. Anyway, I suckout and win about $16. If I'd lost that hand, then instead of a slightly +ve session, I've had a -ve session and walk about feeling despondant about that.

So just these two hands if results had been different could have had significant effect on my $ p/h in that session.

So how is this relevant? How can thinking about this help our game? Well back to my conversation with Swiggidy, what if instead of two hands played well and affected by variance, we looked at two hands played badly? What if we make just two mistakes per session that cost us over half a stack? Thats 1-2 buyins that can make the difference between a winning and a losing session. Or the difference between an average and a great session, or a terrible v's slightly losing session. You get the idea.

We all focus a lot on how to play our winning hands well, but we cant (especially early on while learning the game) forget that its often our mistakes that cost us the most. Working on our focus and discipline, minimizing tilt, avoiding distractions. They're all as important (or moreso) than learning the best way to play KK on an A high flop.

So my focus atm, is just to play good simple ABC poker. Nothing fancy, most of my $'s will come from raise pf - cbet, and value betting strong hands. I will be actively focusing on NOT making mistakes.

Now, onto todays session. It was fun, but interesting. Played around 1pm my time, so square into "drunk Saturday" for most of my opps. Wow. This hand was like the 2nd I played:

http://weaktight.com/226571

43% to approx triple up my equity there. Gotta be happy about that even if I lose. Wow at hands that got AI though. It pretty much set the tone for the session. Won $54 in a short session of 48 mins.

http://weaktight.com/226574
http://weaktight.com/226575 (first set to be paid off on Everest)
http://weaktight.com/226576 (iffy on this one, but that river raise was sooo small)
http://weaktight.com/226577 (lol slowplay, notice the river overbet shove, these guys cant help but pay that off Smile

).

Biggest mistakes were a couple hands where I called flop chasing draws and had to fold turn to big bets. I should either raise or fold flop I think if I think I'll face a big turn bet, probably just fold. First hand posted was the only big pot loss though.

Main thing was less c-betting (they just dont fold), charge lots for draws (as before, they dont fold), and value bet like crazy. If I could get a big hand AI PF I would. AA/KK were such a small part of their calling ai pf range its hugely +EV to get AK, JJ+ in the middle fast.

Most of the hands look good but on the 3rd hand posted from yesterday I would cbet that flop readless. As played, you have a bluffcatcher on the river. Why are you betting?

Keep up the grind! Good to see you switching to cash Very Happy

Yeah, definately unsure about that hand. River raise is definately for value because I can see him being capable of calling with worse, but then how much of his range will even a terribad player call with? I think you're right that bluffcatching is better there. C-bet on flop I'm not sure about. Again, I can easily bet there for value, but a raise on the flop would be harder to call than on the river. Against people who just dont fold, I c-bet less flops.

Really enjoying cash so far Smile

. Down so far, but basically if I'd won that $100 pot I was 90% on I'd be break even.

Man your site is different than how stars 25nl is. Anyways, yeah a lot of times betting/raising draws on the flop is the best move. Pretty sick all-in pre range at your site haha.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up what I've been doing. Basically c-betting becomes a value bet, but I'm prepared to value bet high card hands against them. I probably go from c-betting like 90% to about 70% though.

Quick update and a couple of thoughts that have struck me so far today. 1 hr session for $55 profit, nice Smile

. Really, two big hands and a bunch of blind trading. One of which was this hand: http://weaktight.com/228078 where I pushed PF, got called by AK and held up. It was a fold PF, but mainly because I didnt consider all the information, which brings me to the first thought.

DaGoat checked that hand for me, and he pointed out that since BB probably assumes shorty will call him a lot, he has to be prepared to showdown the best hand, making it less likely he's bluffing. Also, as mentioned in the comments, I made my play based on his HUD stats, but those stats were over a small sample, making it a poor read. When making a decision, especially a close/risky one, you really need to take into account ALL of the information available to help you make the right one.

Second thought came to me when considering some hands I'd had trouble with. Part of the problem was, I had medium str hands that I really couldnt decide if I was value betting or bluffing. The AK hand on the TT55x board above (third hand) is an example. I bet river, but am I betting it for value, or for bluff? I dunno, and thats a problem. Anyway, as I wound my head around it, something occurred to me. Now this is probably painfully obvious to most people, but it was a way of looking at things that made sense to me. Looking at that hand, I questioned "would I play Tx (i.e., the nuts) like that?". Usually you'd play a bluff like the nuts, after all, thats how you convince them to fold. So the question then was, if I had Tx would I value bet the river, or c/r the river? Obviously I only value bet if I think theres a chance to be called, otherwise I'm better off hoping he bluffs (no value in betting). So then I related that to bluffing:

1. If you'd bet for value with a strong hand expecting to be called, a bluff is bad.
2. If you wouldnt bet for value because you dont think you'd be called, a bluff is good.

Now as you play against better opposition they may start to 2nd level you and realise you wouldnt bet for value, so you must be bluffing, but against weak players, I think its probably a fair rule of thumb.

Thoughts?

Updated my operation sig thingy for the first time in months. New goal, $2k. Might change it to $3k, since thats a 100NL type roll. From now on though I'll keep it updated.

$750 (approx) starting roll today. Doesnt include some spare cash on stars and FTP. For now I'll just be tracking cash in my Everest account.

BR - $750.

Only a short update after tonights session. I might start updating a little less regularly, maybe weekly or so?

Anyway, a cooler and 3 beats in about 30 minutes convinced me to call it an early night tonight. Fairly tired after a day in the office (3hrs trip in morning, about 2.5 home so early start), and whilst I didnt tilt, I could feel it coming. I wont turn this into a bad beat thread, but of my 4 biggest losers tonight, 3 of them my equity when the $'s went in were 80%, 91.6% and 86.4%, including another fun 2 outer (2 outs twice to keep da goat happy Wink

). Ahh well, variance, good players suckout less, yadda yadda, keep on trucking Smile

. At least even with all that I only dropped $40, could have been worse.

Graph shows me as -$138 with all in -EV at exactly $0, so hopefully things will change around soon.

Annoying night tonight (excluding the beats). I kept joining tables with better than 40% vpip and large average pots, and they just kept breaking down or tightening up. I must have closed at lease 7 tables tonight, 3 for breaking down and the rest for vpip dropping below 25%.

BR - $710

OK, so not a week yet, but I wanted to update. I didnt even realise this till I went through it, but I actually dropped 8 buyins in my first 4 days on Everest (almost 6 in that one shocker day, and the rest in 2 of the 3 others, only 1 profitable day out of the 4). Well, woke up early this morning and got a 50 min session in to get back to even (actually like $2 up).

Been running pretty hot, havnt found how to get ptBB/100 per session in HM, but the last few days I've been running around $50 per hr 4-tabling 25NL, so at 2 stacks per hr thats right at the top of my 'good' range.

A good question to reflect on is if its just been a variance swing, or if I'm playing better. I think a bit of both. Dont forget I hadnt played cash for a fair while prior to moving to Everest, and wasnt that successful before anyway. I definately took some bad beats early too though, with 6 hands in my 3.5k sample where I was 80% or better when the money went in and lost. In the last few days I havnt taken any of them, so thats definately variance swinging back around (no suckouts either, just been getting my money in good and holding up).

As for playing better, I think I'm getting good value out of weak hands now, and I think I've had a good mix of making good folds, and making good calls. Since I havnt really developed soul reading skills, some of that will just be luck I guess. Even the fish start to notice I make laydowns on later streets, so I've found some value in calling with some weaker hands. In some cases they've obviously played and floated with ATC just to bluff me off pots, which may be concerning, although its tended so far to mean I've layed down some small pots then called to win some big ones, so probably need to think it over more.

Definately still make mistakes and bad plays, but I think I'm making less of them.

BR - $860.

Upsy downsy...

Hot ran ended with a 6 buy downswing over 24 hrs. To be honest, I just didnt adjust to full tables of maniacs. Well, borderline maniacs, like 50% fold to cbet and a lot of turn betting/etc, lots of donk betting. Didnt help that I barely flopped a TP hand with my isolations any session, only 1 set for the whole time (got paid off, but only by shorty) and no action on my AA/KK hands.

Anyway, took a day off, read some articles, thought about it away from the tables, and came back today to put in a 2 buyin winning session. Not as many maniacs, but played them well the ones that were there.

Omg, I had a money tree to my right on one table. Like 80% vpip, never once limp/folded, and best yet, if he hit the board he always donk bets. So he's 100% fold to c-bet. Not only that, but he turns into a maniac with a weak hand. He called with J50, and donked PSB v's 2 opps on a two tone J high board, then when the 3flush hit on turn he called 2/3 PSBs on turn and river. So I was somewhat selective about my hands, but if I hit a TP hand I'm more than happy to either let him take himself to valuetown or do it myself if he slows down on turn. On the other hand, any time he checks flop I can bet ATC. Thats free money guys!!!

I also got my first AA ai pre in like 6k hands. I'd raised like 3 in a row (table was sooo nitty, but there was one huge stack all the regs were gunning for), and raised 4th time UTG into a fairly decent TAG regs BB who was unfortunate to have QQ and think I was running over the table. Who knows, maybe he gets ai regardless of recent history, but it sure didnt hurt. AA held, poker is fun again Smile

.

So I managed to get a bit of a poker group going. Bunch of us who have formed a group on weaktight, so we can review and comment on HH's etc, as well as chat a bunch on aim/msn/email/etc. Hopefully that will help us all improve. On the other hand, its meant I dont post many hands on here anymore, so I figured I'd change that.

Theme of the day: Bluffs.

I bluff very little outside of c-betting in this game. Makes me a bit weak-tight, but they pay me off anyway, so I stick with it. Against certain opps though I will attempt some plays.

Hand 1
53/13/3. Fairly aggressive postflop, takes lots of stabs.

$0.15/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG TheVotary ($24.20)
CO TheLoon ($109.05)
BTN GOCHITOTCHRA ($16.65)
SB PouiLastico ($24.75)
BB Hero ($56.60)

Pre-flop: ($0.40, 5 players) Hero is BB Nine of Clubs

2 folds, GOCHITOTCHRA calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: Eight of Hearts

($0.65, 2 players)
Hero checks, GOCHITOTCHRA bets $0.65, Hero calls $0.65

Turn: Seven of Clubs

($1.95, 2 players)
Hero checks, GOCHITOTCHRA bets $1.95, Hero raises to $7

Villain steals a lot of orphan pots. I figure I can call with my hidden gutshot, if I happen to hit I'll just call turn and let him value town himself on river, if I miss (most likely) I can represent a wide range to take it off him on the turn. 7 is perfect, just the kind of thing I might happen to call flop with and from BB my range is ATC.

Hand 2

Raiser callers are all decent TAGs, shorty is a moron who got ai with J8s the previous hand.

$0.15/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG dirtydoerk ($31.40)
UTG 1 webzock60 ($6.50)
CO TheLoon ($76.60)
BTN taflouf ($12.55)
SB PouiLastico ($31.90)
BB Hero ($23.05)

Pre-flop: ($0.40, 6 players) Hero is BB Jack of Clubs

1 fold, webzock60 calls $0.25, TheLoon raises to $1.15, taflouf calls $1.15, PouiLastico calls $1, Hero raises to $6.25, webzock60 raises to $6.50, TheLoon folds, taflouf folds, PouiLastico folds, Hero calls $0.25

Bit more borderline here, but go for a squeeze play. The 3 players already acted are all semi-decent TAGs, and read me the same way. This is basically a level, I show extreme strength v's a very strong looking range, so I expect them to fold a LOT of hands here. Shorty wasnt part of the plan, but he's an idiot doing this with any two cards the same color, so I'm not worried about being ahead of him, more that the others will actually see me show this down. Dunno, maybe good for image, now I think about it, this happened about 5-10 mins before my AA hand, so maybe it helped there too.

Hand 3

33/4/11 seen him run this line in a few limped pots.

$0.15/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG svinkelz ($25.40)
CO jfnice31 ($34.40)
BTN andaluscia ($24.60)
SB AXIV ($24.60)
BB Hero ($25.25)

Pre-flop: ($0.40, 5 players) Hero is BB Six of Hearts

1 fold, jfnice31 calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: Eight of Spades

($0.65, 2 players)
Hero checks, jfnice31 bets $0.65, Hero calls $0.65

Turn: Ace of Diamonds

($1.95, 2 players)
Hero checks, jfnice31 bets $1.95, [color=#cc0000]Hero raises to $6

Same as hand 1 basically. Hidden gutshot v's maniac on flop. A is a good scare card to bluff on turn v's a non-thinking opponent. Less so in limped pot v's thinking opp, but maybe they'd put me on a 2 pair Ax type hand... Anyway, all this drooler will consider is that I could very well float flop with an A and another high card.

BR - $760.

Crazy day yesterday, played another session that night for another $90 profit over 267 hands, thats about 3.5 buyins. I ran super tight, 13.5/10.1/5.7 for the session. WTSD 27% with Won$@SD of 80%! Over both sessions for the day, I ran at 118 bb/100 (59ptBB/100). Most importantly for my winrate, my biggest losing hand was $3.25, and there were only 3 losing hands above $2. Compare that to 3 winning hands above $20 and about 25 winning hands above $2.

Favorite hand for the night was some moron who I've seen call shorty flop pushes with like J high decided his best option with QQ in the SB was to complete when I had 84s in BB and flop came J84 and he happily got all in with me for slightly over a stack.

Fun way to finish, right as my wife called out that dinner was ready, I got dealt AA as the table bigstack, and some guy with slightly over a stack got ai with me with pocket queens. In one day I went from no AA ai pre, to two times, both held!

Even after that awesome day I'm still down, but only slightly, about $25.

BR - $840.

1: Trust your read and it should be an OK play. You say he steals a lot of pots, but does he value bet them as well (is his range merged?)? This flop hits a lot of ranges in different ways and we are really feeding off FE as opposed to actual equity so we need him to fold quite often. That's really all I can say. If his folding range is huge then go for it. You'll get a better feel as you keep playing.

2: Yeah if the shortstacker sucks then I like it. It's a risky play with so many callers but you don't want to do this much with nitty shortstackers.

3: Same deal with barely any equity if called.

I'd assume all these are pretty marginal. I'm kind of out of it right now so I didn't get too in depth but the gist is that if you can't put him on a very narrow range of cards that WILL fold often you are going to need some actual hand equity.

Hmm, I'm basically working on the opposite theory, his range for betting flop and turn is 100% of the range he calls PF with, which is very wide in both, and fairly unlikely to have connected often (moreso on 1 than 3, but I represent a really strong hand here).

I guess marginal, these are literally the 3 bluffs (beyond c-bets) that I did for 300 hands in the whole session, so its not like this made up much of my play.

End of week update. Pulled in a couple of decent sessions to end up the week (and whole Everest time) slightly up in HM. Have also cleared $75 of Bonus, so my roll is looking the best it has since I made this switch.

I've identified a weak point in my game. Heres a copy of what I sent a few friends via email:

Gah, frustrating session. Played for almost 1.5 hrs on some shitty tables, but actually ran fairly well. Would have ended up about 3 buyins up, which would have been enough to tip the $1k mark, but I spewed off two buyins. One was an iffy bluff. Called a 3-bet PF with TT ended up 3-way, flop came AJJ and 3-bettor c-bet 1/2 pot. I came up with a theory that this looked like KK/QQ that was scared of the A but c-bet anyway and shove/bluffed. He did tank for a fair while, but then called with AK.

Second one I tried to isolate a chronic limper/CS PF with AQs and got called by the same guy as above (he was in SB). Flop was AK7 two-tone. Fairly big c-bet called by both opps. This set off the flags, but I was hoping decent player had a draw or thought maybe I was just c-betting or tilting and I still had him. PSB left on a blank turn and he called with KK, bad player folded. Alarm bells did ring, but again I talked myself into making a read that was wrong.

Fairly tired, big few days. Wanted to get a session in though. Won a stack back on that table from the bad player shortly after, and picked up some nice big pots on other tables as well. Ended up making $28 for the night. $1k in sight, but need to play a lot better.

BR - $967

You're learning though for sure. You'll get to the $1k mark and stay over VERY soon imo. A lot of people get to their "mark" and drop down like 5 times but I really think you have the tools to stay up there.

I honestly feel like I've learnt more about poker (or improved my game) in the last month as in probably the 6 months before that. Committing to making a dedicated effort has really seemed to be paying off. Obviously lots of leaks and improvements to work on yet, but I definately feel like if I can keep control of my emotions while playing I can easily beat this level.

Doubt I'll get a game in this afternoon, maybe this evening. Want to get some exercise in and am going out for dinner tonight, and still have some work to get done as well as other things keeping me busy. Thought I might spend a few minutes detailing where I am and what I'm doing in regards to poker atm.

The history Those who have read the whole blog will have realised I built up from about $100 to $1k playing STTs on stars from a very poor poker playing beginning. Moved most of my roll to Full Tilt to clear the Bonus and learn cash. Didnt really take it seriously though (thought I did at the time, but know now that I didnt). Dropped down to around $600 so moved back to STTs on Full Tilt this time, and fairly quickly bumped the roll back up over $1k. Then I hit a big downswing, dropping 19games OOTM in a row and a 25 buyin downswing over about 40 games. Down to approx $500, worked on my game built up, dropped down, built up, dropped down, all around the $500-$750 range until I finally got fedup. I still think I had what it took to beat it, but I decided to get serious about my poker and switch to cash.

Now

I pulled money out of FT and Pacific Poker and moved it all into Everest. I think a starting roll of about $800. I still have money on stars and FT, but more just play money for FTR tournies and stuff. I play 25nl 6-max on Everest under a new unknown name (which screwed me over when a friend moved there and tried to give me as his signup Bonus member but used bjsaust instead of my new name, anyone planning to play there PM me for my screen name Wink

). I play 4 tables at a time, and table select religiously. On some sessions I might switch tables up to 8 times if they turn bad. I dont play the speed tables hardly at all. I really want to work on improving my game, and theres a common thought that less tables and taking time to develop reads/etc is better than robotting many tables.

I plan to move up aggressively to 50nl. Probably at $1k (20 buyins) I'll add 50nl tables to my filter, and just table select the best tables irregardless of buyin. Once I hit 30 buyins I'll switch to just 50nl. I also plan to move aggressively to 100nl probably following the same plan once I hit my $2k goal, however after that I'll slow down. Build up a really solid roll at 100nl and be less aggressive about moving (still do so, but with healthier bankroll margins).

Depending on how Everest treats me, and their followup bonuses I may decide to Bonus whore around all the softer non-US sites for a while also. That'll be a bit of a wait and see thing.

A session for me is usually about an hour long. I dont want to get too tired and play poorly, and it also is just easy to slot into my days. Some days I may get two sessions in, and some days I may miss altogether, but I'm really trying hard to be consistant about the 1 session per day thing to keep my practise up.

After every session I do a review. Biggest winners, biggest losers, hands that stood out, a few random pots, etc. I'll try to take some postgame notes on some opponents, especially if they stand out during any of my hand reviews. I probably spend around 15 mins doing that after every session, and post a few hands on weaktight for my group to review. I then spend some time going over any comments they've made on previous hands, and commenting on any hands they've posted.

I would normally talk to at least one person per day on msn or aim about poker. Maybe following up on a comment they made on a hand, talking in more depth about my thoughts on a hand they posted, or just chatting about games, strategies, problems, solutions, whatever.

I try to pick the crop of the posts on FTR and focus on the threads that will benefit me by reading them, and really try to think about the comments in those threads. I often spend a few mins on the 2+2 uNL forum, but its largely a cesspit of stupidity. Sometimes you find a diamond amongst the turds though.

I have a grinderschool membership, and went through and downloaded every 6-max vid they've done a while back. Sometimes if I have time I'll watch another one. I really should study them properly, even take notes/etc, but I dont really. I just watch them and try to let stuff sink in. Maybe because watching a video seems to be my option when I want to do something to improve my game, but my heads not right to play and I dont want to think too hard reading articles/etc.

Something I've been doing lately, is if I find a good post, or maybe an article on the internet somewhere that seems solid, especially if I dont have time to give it a lot of thought, is save it to my HD and then print it out later. I then clip them all together, and if I'm travelling or something I can take them along and read when I'm away. Sitting on a train or passenger in a car I can really muse over whats being said and think how it can apply to my game. Seems to be working well for me so far.

So all in all, I'm really trying to make the time I spend on poker count atm. Rather than just mindless entertainment for hrs a day with little playing and no real thought, I'd prefer to concentrate when I'm "on poker", and then let it go and do other things the rest of the time. Seems to be working so far, but its still early days.

Anyway, that me in poker. Thats what I'm about right now. Heres hoping this approach will work out Smile

.

gl gl

Havnt had much time for poker for the last week or so, but trying to get some time into it now.

Played yesterday for about an hr. 25nl tables were so few and so bad that I ended up playing a couple of good looking 50nl tables as well. Then as the 2 25nl tables I was on broke down I just closed them and focused on the 50nl tables instead. Got $50 up on one table fairly quickly, so for a brief while I must have broken my $1k roll, but then played one hand badly to drop $30, then got my money in as almost 75% favorite with set v's OESD for stacks and lost to drop another $50. Ended the session down about $50, so that was frustrating, would have ended up $50 and past $1k if I'd held up.

Played 4 tables of 25nl for about 40 minutes just now. Didnt play great, and tables werent great, but fortunately some bad players who had position on me kept spewing chips my way anyway. Stacked one short stacker 3 times in about 10 minutes for about a full stack all up (he'd buy back in for $7 each time). Some iffy call downs that paid off, but I'll address those later in another post, but short version is that if people bluff a lot, I believe we can make some fairly thin call downs against them, even though it means we pay them off sometimes.

Anyway, rolls a touch over $950, so knocking on the door of $1k, and I think I'll throw in the occassional 50nl table if theres just not enough good ones at 25nl, but $950 starting the session roll would be a hard limit for that.

Another quick session, got my $50 that I needed to hit $1k, although it did include probably the most dubious calldown I've made yet:

77/6.7/1.7 over 45 hands, no good postflop reads.

$0.15/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG forban5962 ($4.60)
UTG+1 pokeralille ($25.85)
CO bloomg70 ($10.25)
BTN DTK29 ($14.09)
SB Hero ($28.60)
BB hoolsdu42 ($43.33)
[bloomg70 posted $0.25]

Pre-flop: ($0.65, 6 players) Hero is SB Ten of Hearts

2 folds, bloomg70 checks, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1, hoolsdu42 calls $0.75, bloomg70 calls $0.75

Flop: Jack of Hearts

($3, 3 players)
Hero bets $2.25, hoolsdu42 calls $2.25, 1 fold

Turn: Five of Diamonds

($7.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, hoolsdu42 checks

River: Jack of Spades

($7.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, hoolsdu42 bets $40.08, Hero calls $25.35

Villain had 22 Smile

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Earlier on I had my first ever set under set loss, so I was happy to finish up nicely. It was also the first time I've suspected I might be set under setted and been tempted to fold:

ahmima is pretty terrible and will get ai with TPNK, but harrie97 seems like a decent tag over a small sample.

$0.15/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG harrie97 ($25.25)
UTG 1 daywalkker ($24.75)
CO NIEDER67 ($18.45)
BTN AndreSiToOo ($13.60)
SB Hero ($47.11)
BB ahmima ($31.70)

Pre-flop: ($0.40, 6 players) Hero is SB Five of Clubs

harrie97 calls $0.25, 3 folds, Hero raises to $1, ahmima calls $0.75, harrie97 calls $0.75

Flop: Nine of Hearts

($3, 3 players)
Hero bets $2.50, ahmima raises to $10.50, harrie97 raises to $24.25, Hero raises to $46.11, ahmima folds

Turn: Ace of Clubs

($83.86, 2 players)

River: Two of Diamonds

($83.86, 2 players)

Harrie97 had 99 Sad

.

BR - $1003.

nice call in hand one! I think you should be betting the river for value though against this fish.

wp hand 2 as well.

Swingy day.

For those who dont know, my wife gave birth to our first child (a son) 2 weeks ago. Havnt played much poker, and last night was a bad one with only 3 hrs sleep. Woke up early, no shower, no coffee and decided to take the drunks on, and not only that but take a shot at 50nl while I'm at it. My 4 golden playing rules:

Dont play tired
Dont play before coffee
Dont play before shower
Dont play after drinking.

I broke 4 of them and took a shot with 20 buyins at a new level.

Lost $130 in 30 hands of poker. Thats a new record.

Came back a few hrs later after taking care of shower and coffee and won $65 back. Then after lunch lost another $75 in a session (havnt reviewed it, dont think I played too bad, just seemed like opps continued to call with draws and hit and leave me thinking "theres only 1 hand in his range that beats me" and they always had that hand. Played a session tonight while wife went to bed early to take care of baby if need be and won that $75 back, although I finally had some variance come back. JJ > AA ai pre (for 30bbs) and 77 > QQ on a 456 flop for a stack.

So umm, down to around $910 (had a small losing session another day). Might rethink my early shots at 50nl. More to the point, if I cant play often and not at the top of my game, I think I'll take it cautious and stick to 25nl unless I fly up to $1500, but if I can string together a bunch of sessions and get back on top of my game I'll go back to early shots.

meh, poker sucks.

many congrats on your news tho!!!!

I finally have internet back and read this?! Benjamin! Seriously, no worries as long as you take this as a lesson obv. Also, be stubborn in an "I played horrible" way and look for any possible better lines if you are going to review your session.

Thanks Badgers.

Man, things seem swingy now. I dont know if I'm running hot and cold with deck/results, or just my play is running hot and cold. Sometimes I feel on top of the game and able to dominate everyone. I played one session on 4 tables full of TAGs and just ran over them by exploiting what I know their weaknesses are, then later I just lost again and again. So did I exploit them with superior skill and reads, or just hit cards at the right time? Are my losing sessions coolers/cold decks, or poor play?

I've gone over a year without ever getting set under setted, and now its happenned twice in less than a week, and it seems time and again people are calling with crap cards PF, weak draws postflop and hitting unlikely hands all the time.

Umm, think I'm still around $900 after another couple small uppsy, downsy sessions.

I do need to do some proper reviews kmind, head just hasnt been in it, bit foggy. Trying to get poker in when I can and dont feel too bad, but sessions are tending to be shorter and stopping when I feel done in, so not getting the post game reviews in Sad

.

Swings continue. Played two sessions today after almost a week off. A 2 hr session and a 1.5hr one. Concentration definately wanes in the longer ones, but I ran hot at the start of the first session and some solid grinding in the end of the second one to end the day up 5 buyins and yet again nudge over the $1k mark. I REALLY want to move beyond that :p.

EV winnings were about even over the day. Ran bad at holding up in the first session but good in the 2nd. Honestly, seemed like any time I got ai against a draw in the first session they always hit, but I guess I should feel good that I could run like that and still post a solid winning session Very Happy

.

No review done yet, maybe soon or tomorrow. Staying up a bit to handle first feed for the baby in the next hr or so, so might get renewed energy to do a review soon.

Congrats on the baby man. Two weeks ago from July 6th, is he a Gemini too I presume? Best sign in the world!

My advice to you about pokah: drop the HUD, and play less tables. If you currently play 6, try playing 4 or so, MAX. Screw Rakeback, try making money playing pokah first, with rakeback coming in second.
Don't worry about numbers, you are not a baseball player. Fuck EV graphs, money lines, etc. Try and develop your "intuition", which is the most important thing. Try and develop your "hand analysis" intuition.
Don't follow any guide nor any video. Try and figure out things on your own.
Don't stress yourself over monetary goals. Pay attention. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
You'll be fine. Also, Ryan Fees seems to agree with me.

i disagree

you'll never drop below $1k again

Other than the HUD I'm already with you Jack Wink

. I play 4 tables max (except occassionally if I have one or two extras open trying to decide which are the best ones). I table select religously. I close down everything else except poker. I play on a site without Rakeback, and even without any Bonus clearing atm, and I make a lot of read based plays.

I just use a HUD to enhance those reads.

I probably should ignore all the EV graphs/winnings and session totals/etc though. I dont think they affect me much, but when I'm looking at say $10 down for the session and am telling myself to just get even first, I'm probably not playing at my best (although yesterday I turned a $30 loss into a $40 profit doing that, so I guess sometimes its worth perservering). I mainly use the EV winnings stuff to confirm whether I really did just run bad or if there was more to it. If I had a break even session but my EV winnings were $50 then I know I just got some beats but got my money in good. If they're close together then I just didnt have a winning session, plain and simple.

Thanks for congrats Smile

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Thanks kmind, I'll try to manage that!

Short session this morning, 30 mins before Wallace needed attention, but put together a $30 win in that time. Nice since I think this is actually the first time I've started a session above $1k and actually had a winning session. Hopefully a sign of things to come Smile

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BR - $1039.

Im in the exact same boat as you Ben. Same Roll, same stakes...same country.
Nice work on breaking the 1k barrier. I keep hovering over it..then dropping back to 900..back to 800..then up to 900 . I spose it's all apart of 'the grind'.
I hate not being able to string to winning sessions together, it tilts me. Ohwell.
Good Luck with the roll buildage, Hope everything goes well for you.

God, nearly f'ked it up tonight. Bent a rule and played kinda tired, but hadnt got any games in for a day or two, so wanted to have a go. Not many 25nl tables suitable, so compounded the risk by opening two 50nl tables as well.

Didnt start well. AQ v' KJ on QTJr ai on flop v's 1/2 stack and an A came to give him the straight v's my 2P. 4 bet a maniac with TT and he called with position and the flop with AQ4r and he pushed over my c-bet so had to fold and lost 1/2 a stack. I tilt-shoved over his 100% 3-bet (this guy was on my direct left and 3-bet every time I raised from any position) with KJo and whilst he folded, another guy called with TT and I didnt improve. Dropped $175 in about 20-30 mins.

Took a chance and closed the two 25nl tables, openned another two 50nl tables and really tried to clear my mind and play solid poker. Took about another hour but I ended the session up $0.49. I guess the frustrating thing there is if I'd played better, it was a night I could have WON $175 instead of breaking even. More lessons in there I guess.

Weaktight is down atm so I cant convert any hands. Some questionable spots in the session.

Biggest lesson was on table/seat selection. With this maniac (something like 70/50/7) on my right I thought I could wait for a spot and stack him, but in reality having a deep stacked maniac on my left is just about the worst position to be in. I should have just closed that table down and moved on. Must bare that in mind.

Darn it!!

Taking some advice from Spenda, rather than run 2 tables of 25nl and 2 tables of 50nl, tonight I just ran 2 tables of 50nl so I could really concentrate on them. Ran well, played well, and 35 mins in I'm up $114 for my biggest session ever. Tables break down, I move, getting tired but keep going anyway...

AA v TT on T96r flop ai to lose a stack (this was against a fairly solid TAG, may have been a fold...) and then J9 v 88 on an 899 flop for 2/3 a stack. AK river shove on 9JJ6J board called by 88 for another 2/3 a stack. A few smaller questionable pots and I'm lucky to walk away after 85 mins with a break even session.

Wtf Ben, when you're tired and ahead, just quit!!

NO ONE FOLDS FULL HOUSES!

and stop taking advice from fishhhh.

Thanks for the late lesson!!

Reviewing session there was another 2/3 stack loss to a flopped flush ai on the river (I semi-bluffed flop and turn with NFD and he just called) when the river brought a 3rd 9. Wtf!! J6999 and he calls a push with a flush. I mean, I guess this is why I like playing these people normally, but WTF!!

Ahh, obviously being tired and playing sub-optimally tilts me just a touch. Probably lucky to get away break even learning that.

I played another 1hr session yesterday that broke even, making 3 out of 4 sessions that I ended within $10 of even. I was like $40 down halfway through but clawed my way back. Either been lucky or been able to bring my game up as thats a few times now I've dug my way out when I maybe should have just quit.

Anyway, hopefully I've learnt some lessons and come up with a plan to adjust. I woke early this morning and couldnt get back to bed. Even though I hadnt had a great nights sleep, I felt fairly good, so opened up Everest to check out a more peak hour user base. I gave myself a strict deadline of 30 mins. In that time I made over $70 playing well on good tables. Even though there were some good targets still on the tables (the bad players kept reloading) I was getting tired and quit while I was ahead. Yay me!

BR - $1193.

Another 1/2 hr session, +$21. Lol, seems so small compared to other opps and even other sessions of mine, but at least I'm stringing together some winning sessions. I think this is what poker will be for me for the next month or two (or longer). Until I can get into a regular sleeping schedule again it'll be a matter of making fast lightning attacks then getting back out before my game suffers. Up over 1.2k now. Feels good to moving past the $1k barrier, hopefully keep moving in the right direction. Heck, another $300 and I'll be rolled for the games I'm currently playing :p.

BR - $1214.

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