Scott, poker, and other unrelated thoughts.

There’s a few things that have been going through my mind lately. And I feel the need to write them down and or express them to someone who has a clue about poker.

Firstly, this forum, FTR… IS INVALUABLE.

And while I’ve commented on plenty of hands in my ~600 posts I don’t feel like I’ve contributed any solid, helpful, easily understood information like so many others here did for me. Unfortunately I don’t feel like I’m a poker genius, or really that much better than many of the other lower level players here. Having said that, in my experience as a musician and piano teacher, I long ago learnt that you don’t have to be that much better overall than your student, you just have to know something that they don’t know or be able to present something for debate that they haven’t thought about. And I do feel that I can likely cover that criteria.

Over the next however long I intend to increase my volume. I’m now comfortable playing 6 table’s of 6max which means I’m averaging close to 600/hands per hour. And that considered, aswell as my other responsibilities, I think it’s reasonable for me to put in enough time to play 8-10k hands per week.

The inherent aim is to get back to where I was before I cashed out my bankroll years ago. That means progressing to 100NL and being able to win at 6-8bb/100. I know that this will be tougher than it was the first time. This is because the first time around I remember hitting up 100NL and still finding that half the table would be limping in all together quite often. Things will not be so easy this time. I do believe that it’s still possible though having seen other players results over sample sizes of 300K+ hands, and because I have a healthy amount of determination, strong motive, and people that support my decision to focus on playing cards.

Along the way I intend to make a really solid diary/workbook that documents my challenges and outlines how I solved them. As well as highlighting some of my study methods and how I cope with swings, get prepared for sessions, and even perhaps generally just manage the perils of trying to juggle a fulltime job (with an hour each way commute), 20hrs of poker each week, a dog that needs to be walked for at least 1 full hour everyday, a gf, and living 3500kms away from my family.

As things stand, I feel like I’m done with 10NL. I’m currently playing 25NL on a $700 50/50 split bankroll with a friend at work (he’s getting a 20% cut). If he’s willing to stay involved/possibly reinvest then I’ll hopefully be at 50NL in 3-4 weeks. But we’ll have to see if I’m pwning the 25s first ofcourse and maybe I’ll be happy to push through atleast 50K hands.

I will be posting soon (likely over the weekend) with what I would call my lessons from my first run up to 100NL (2005-06) and from my more recent exploits playing 10NL at the present time.

I sincerely hope that my thoughts are helpful for atleast 1 person that reads, though i also sincerely appreciate the more likely outcome - that I learn a bucket load from someone that responds.

GL and run goooooooooooooooooood

looking forward to reading about your progress, good luck!

In what was a somewhat unfortunate circumstance, my internet connection failed catastrophically over the weekend. And since my net is an extension of my phone, that meant that my phone was out too. I’ve been cut off.

I had planned to play ~8000 hands over the 3 day weekend I’ve just had, and instead I’ve played zero. I’ve spent most of my time either cleaning my house, cooking or being irate with the pain in the arse phone company that seems to believe that it’s ok to charge a person for a service without providing said service.

/rant

In an attempt to make a valid point though, this led me to the conclusion that if one were to look more seriously at online poker as an income source then a necessity is likely a backup connection. I also feel like it would be wise to use hardline connections, ie. not use an in home wireless network. I’ve been thinking about setting myself up a bit better, with a decent screen and such too. I’m in no hurry as I’m happy to let the hobby pay for its accessories. Maybe even look at using FPP’s if the conversion rate is anywhere near decent. I’d be interested to hear anyone’s opinion on best set ups, best screens etc. I have a strong urge to use a dual monitor set up so I can easily view the very detailed stats on villains by having HEM open on one screen and tables on the other.

As far as any strategy ideas for this post.. I’m just going to outline 1 of the stepping stones that I think was a major pivotal thing that have helped improve my game. I was lucky enough to never be a losing player. My first attempt saw me drop nearly $10 at 10NL before going up and up to a healthy 100NL bankroll. I don’t think that is at all a testament to my ability as a poker player, only that my opponents have been consistently horrible. The climate of the game now vs then is much different. The players I’m encountering are still horrible, but not so horrible that I can blissfully blunder through hours of cards thinking that my results are proof that I’m playing well. Today I find that in all sessions I find errors regardless of results. And so often highlight where my winnings should have be significantly greater, or alternatively, my losses should have been limited

So my point for today will be – Understanding, accepting and acting on the fact that I’m not good at something, and striving to improve even though my results suggest that I am significantly ahead of the competitive field. As a specific extension, acting on the fact that decisions in poker that hold a positive expectation are sometimes wrong because they do not have the largest possible positive expectation.

The latter part of this occurred for me (and still does occasionally) in situations where I hold a strong hand and make badly sized value bets. More specifically, betting small to guarantee a call when I should shove and shoving in situations where I should bet a smaller amount for value because only better hands would call a shove, ie. a small/midsized bet/fold would be the correct play. Occasionally this would also occur in situations where I should be flatting river bets or raises rather than raising over the top of them.

These mistakes always occur on turn and river and are always a result of failing to place villain on a range that considers all streets, as well as acting too much on instinct/emotion. For example, flopping a set and being emotionally attached to the idea that this is a hand where I’d make money. This led to focusing on my hand, and bet/raising in turn/river situations where I haven’t filled up and straights/flushes are likely holdings.

These situations are where I feel its easiest to make mistakes that cost you a lot long term if you’re a player that has mastered (roughly) preflop fundamentals and has a good idea of play on the flop. This is because bet sizing is getting bigger on the turn and river and therefore even small errors are hitting you a lot harder than will smaller preflop/flop leaks that bleed 4-10bb vs the 20-30+bb of their turn counterparts.

hooorah for now. Hopefully next time I'l report some pwnage.

Brief update.. volume has been short because of my bungled net connection and then i was also sick..

I have played ~6000 hands of 25NL 6max and am down $30. My Ev is up 70 though.. big woop. Aces got cracked repeatedly. I feel like I was comfortably beating the level but my graph is all like this..

UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-up-DOWN-DOWN-down-UP-UP-UP-UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-Down-up-UPPPP-DOWN-Down

doing my head in, which lead to me tilting off $50-80 over these 6K hands which is obviously bad and needs to be remedied.

To resolve this I sat at 10NL FR last night, to spend time regaining some confidence and to avoid the possibility of $100 swings that would have really screwed with my mental state.

I have however made what feel like some enormous leaps in my understanding of the game and will be making a post re-that later on today or tomorrow. This didnt really have anything to do with any hands analyised from the 25NL sessions i've been playing but rather from some decent study/thought i've put into game situations in general. I feel like I've really grasped a few valuable concepts and can possibly help some other people do the same. Then again, maybe i'm just slow on the uptake and you're all way ahead of me.