Hoopy stops procrastinating

I figured it was time to start an operation, been posting here for about a year on and off in the BC and decided to take things more seriously.

Bit of background info I'm 19 years old and go to Uni full time in the UK. Main hobbies apart from poker are badminton and football. I started by depositing $50 on stars and grinding my way up to 5NL and just recently to 10NL all at 6 max.

The main reason that I've started this op is to simply try to think more about decisions and stop auto piloting the tables. I've got a very ABC robotic style of poker and while it can likely beat 10NL it's something I want to improve while still at the lower levels. I'm also using this blog as a way to stop my procrastination - it's easily my biggest weakness in life.

So I'll set out some goals of varying timescale.

-Move up to 25NL when my roll is around $650 and I feel 10NL is successfully beaten.
-Post a HH every other day (rest of April).
-Reread NLHE Theory and Practice.
-Get comfortable 4 tabling and put some volume in!
-Buy PT and learn how to use it properly.


My bankroll starts at $308, time to get busy.

Start by posting a hand which was played like a monkey on acid.

weaktight | Hand Poll | KQo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Guy I'm playing is a complete unknown.

Pre flop I think is ok, I don't know much about his range but I feel a 3 bet vs an unknown won't serve much purpose and a fold is too weak.

On the flop all I have is a gutshot - problem is I don't plan the hand through I just check to him without thinking. He cbet's as expected and I decided to call and barrel a spade,K,Q,T turn - really though it's better to fold vs this guy .

I bet the turn for no reason - and the river is very spewy FPS.

Point of this - I need to be planning the hand from the start rather than making it up as I go along.

hey good luck dood. haven't seen you on the tables since you stalked me that day.......moved up at the end of march and hoping to stay here .Hit me up for a sweat one night but will have to be next week as working long hours this week.
Trouble with calling pre is that you are giving up the initiative in the hand, if you hit and donk liable to get raised.Found since moving to 25 that flatting in the blinds you get crucified on later streets. Will he fold to a 3bet. If he doesn't he's quite likely to then fold to the cbet as he's going to be putting you on big pairs , big aces,sets, possibly big flush/straight draws (depending on the board) on the flop, if you flat then he'll probably be thinking weak aces , broadways etc. if he doesn't fold to the cbet then you can shut down unless you have loads of equity.

Hey man good to hear you've moved up to 25NL, hope things go well up there.

What you say is good advice, I tend to have a very static flat call range from the blinds {AJ,KQ,AQ,JTs,low PP's} against most MP openers but I should probably fold most of this against an unknown range and maybe call the PP's. Guessing with 100BB stacks just calling from the blinds is going to tough to make profitable without good post flop skills and reads.

PT will help a ton. Good luck with your progression.

Couple of hands for review.

weaktight | Hand | KK - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Guy I'm playing is 45/6 over 25 hands, not a good player. Hows my line + would you call the river?


weaktight | Hand | KAo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Villein is unknown. I raise the flop donk bet to get value/protect from pair + spade, and from KsX and JsX type hands, I really don't think an an A would bet the flop so small but I guess it's possible.

By the turn I really don't think he has any made flushes in his range due to the flop action, the donk bet line is usually a weak hand trying to get to showdown right?


Been messing around with PT trial - I'll post some stats when I get a decent sample, also going to start reading NLHE T+P later tonight.

Played 1183 hands in the past 2 days which is way more than I normally do. +$16 over all, felt I played ok but there were a few moments were my thought process should have been clearer.

Much better at 4 tabling already.

Two hands for review.

weaktight | Hand | KK - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Villein is a very bad player 81/19/Afq 25 , this guy peels flops like crazy.

Thoughts, I should just bet the pot on this flop he's calling with so many hands I beat regardless of sizing. Turn is a very bad card since his range includes straight draws, I guess b/f is ok because he will still call with one pair hands. River is a stubborn/bad call.


weaktight | Hand | TAs - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Same guy - I was tilting a little after the first hand. Think the hand is fine up to when I call his check min raise on the turn, his range is super strong after this action so it's an easy fold. The Baluga theorem applies here right?

Played about 500 Hands tonight for a net -$1. Felt I played fine but just didn't really have any big hands that got value - lost quite a few small pots to a station who had position on me. Standard hand I'd raise something like AQ he'd call, missed every flop and I quickly figured out that cbetting air against this guy was -EV because he never folded. Was hoping to get a seat change but nobody felt like leaving.

Quick HH. Short stacks first hand at the table.
weaktight | Hand | ATs - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
I think I opened ATs UTG because there was a fish in the BB who I wanted to play HU with if possible. Fold or just get it in?

Played a so so 582 hands today. Dropped 3.5BI's in about 170 hands mostly through coolers and folding decent hands on later streets when awful cards came. Grinded some of it back for a total of -2.2BI's for the day. I'll post a few HH in the BC.

Halfway through NLHE T+P, also played some 2NL PLO yesterday - pretty fun game +3BI's.

Originally Posted by HoopyDude

Played about 500 Hands tonight for a net -$1. Felt I played fine but just didn't really have any big hands that got value - lost quite a few small pots to a station who had position on me. Standard hand I'd raise something like AQ he'd call, missed every flop and I quickly figured out that cbetting air against this guy was -EV because he never folded. Was hoping to get a seat change but nobody felt like leaving.

Quick HH. Short stacks first hand at the table.
weaktight | Hand | ATs - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
I think I opened ATs UTG because there was a fish in the BB who I wanted to play HU with if possible. Fold or just get it in?

Interesting hand in that

1. ATs is pretty dam hard to play out of position, you'll find yourself playing dominating aces and pocket pairs a lot as villains should be sticking you on a strong range to open UTG so should be calling with a strong range too , and to raise you should an even stronger range.

2. Whats your fold to 3bet stat?.with his raise being half his stack he's committed to calling your raise. And you calling/raising his bet means you have to accept him getting the rest in.

3. His raise size probably indicates he's a bad short stacker(unless he had a monster that he's hoping to get another caller with) 3betting a UTG open for half his stack rather than shoving.Hard to tell on a first hand though.

4. playing ATs to play against the BB when your UTG is a bit silly , you have position on him most of the time so why do it when you're out of position on most of the table and BB may not even come along anyway.

5. do some work in pokerstove to find out what range is stronger than a short stacks shoving range so that you can make a profitable call. Then you can modify it depending on whether you are up against a good short stacker or a complete idiot.

Bear in mind though a shortie with 8/7 stats is going to be shoving a much stronger range than a 18/15 shortie.

Cheers for your reply Keith.

1. On reflection it's probably best to just muck this hand - even though the guys in between me and the BB are tight I can end up in some very bad spots postflop if they just cold call.

2. Fold to 3 bet is 83%.

3. I find that it varies so much at 10NL - though I'd say the majority just want to gamble it up.

4. Yeah after all I can iso him fairly easy in most hands.

5. Ok assume I open to 4BB preflop - short stack shoves for 20BB everyone folds and I have to call 16 in order to win 25.5 so need 39% against his range.

8/7 nit stack shoves {99+,AQo+} breakeven range for me is {KQ,22+,ATo+}
Bad short stack shoves {22+,A2o+,K9o+,QTo+,JTo} breakeven range for me is any pair or broadway down to 87s.

Opening to 3BB means I can fold some more hands to his shove.

Sound right?

decent short stackers can be shoving A8+KQ 55+ etc especially if theres raisers and callers, bad ones can be shoving any crap.Generally I tend to work on 99+and AQs+ so that I tend to stand up better against the stronger part of their shoving range.
3bet fold % seems good and I'm tryingto get mine nearer that sort of area, went through 10nl at about 66% but a lot more 3betting and 4 betting at 25nl so too low a fold% is just spewing money.

Check your pms are enabled

Played 850 something hands with Keith_MM sweating me, was quite interesting as I had to say my thought process out loud - definitely helped me especially in cbetting more flops and turns therefore picking up so many more uncontested pots. Cheers for your help Keith.

"lolz" hand of the day.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($15.10)
BB ($18.20)
UTG ($10)
MP ($11.75)
Hero (CO) ($13.50)
Button ($12.90)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 4, A
2 folds, Hero bets $0.30, Button calls $0.30, SB calls $0.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($1) K, A, J (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.70, 1 fold, SB calls $0.70

Turn: ($2.40) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.60, SB calls $1.60

River: ($5.60) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $10.90 (All-In), SB calls $10.90

Total pot: $27.40 | Rake: $1.35

Results:
SB had A, Q (two pair, Aces and Queens).
Hero had 4, A (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $26.05

for the readers ......Hoopy had to be persuaded to shove the river rather the $4 he was planning to do.

Been busy the past few days with no time to play. Put in 413 hands tonight then decided to give up as I just wasn't concentrating. Nothing really interesting to note overall -2BI 1 of which was AK vs AA in BTN vs SB, AK is such a big loser for me in terms of stacking off and postflop play.

Note to self : at 10NL unless a player is a confirmed LAG/maniac they are almost never 4 betting as a bluff.

New tables are interesting, 20-50BB are full of fish and SS pro's, 40-100BB is mainly regs nits and a few fish,100BB-250BB is almost all 10/25NL regs with few fish.

12.5K hands since I got PT and I am +1BI overall. Seriously fed up of this break even run - mainly due to stupid hands like this and never getting paid off with my good hands.

weaktight | Hand | QQ - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Time to quit for the night

No stats for the villain but whats his 3bet calling range likely to be ? AA AK KK QQ. How do you fare against this range? you're choppping with QQ and crushed by everything else.

Originally Posted by Keith_MM

No stats for the villain but whats his 3bet calling range likely to be ? AA AK KK QQ. How do you fare against this range? you're choppping with QQ and crushed by everything else.

Opponent was 31/24/1.6 with a fold to 3 bet of 71% over 170 hands. Hadn't see him do anything crazy yet.

I can get value by 3 betting since he probably continues with {AJo+,99-QQ} - probably flats 1 combo of AA/KK sometimes but I still have 68%. I haven't been 3 betting much so he probably thinks my range is strong.

Not really sure about postflop turn shove is bad right - he's only going to call with better hands like AA,AK and KK.

How would you play it?

I'd probably have done the same pre and flop . When he calls both I think they we are probably in trouble against his continuing range. Hopefully get a cheap showdown by checking but if he bets I think its a fold as there isn't much that he continued with that you beat.

Still grinding away and trying to read NLHE T+P with the group study. Feel that I can 4 table quite easily now and still take decent notes/reads. 5 tabling might be a bit of a stretch for me since I play on a laptop so it starts to get a little cluttered.

So after 14k hands at 10NL I should probably give a few impressions, more regs who play like 10 tables yet aren't great (weak tight) and a few who stack off TPGK vs anyone , I find it's important to take notes on these guys more than fish since a fish's play style can vary so much/don't usually play with them again. Starting tables is more important as well.

I'll post a few HH in the BC after lectures + badminton.

Alright quick update so far I'm at 9434 hands for the month and 14980 overall at 10NL 6m. Bankroll was $250 when I moved up now it's around $330 which I'm fairly happy with. Probably play another 10k hands then post some stats for review. Sometime in the future I'm going to try FR as well to improve my skill set.

yeah man FR is where it's at. actually i was thinking about switching it up as well and attempting to dabble in 6max after playing exclusively FR for so long. nice work on 10nl so far. keep up the good work.

I seem to be struggling not to tilt at the moment - usually with bad beats I just don't care but last few days they seem to subtly frustrate me causing spew in other hands. Got to find the root of it/get it under control quickly.

Around 300 hands today for -3.5BI.

However I feel like I've gotten better at narrowing down opponents ranges.

Need to finish reading this week NLHE T+P.

Still break even at 10NL since I got poker tracker - seems like I make progress then lose it all back so time to take a break for a few days, post some hands and try to focus.

New Goal - Focus more on hands that go to showdown (that I'm not in) and take notes to give me better reads.

Anyone recommend some good poker videos to watch?

So I've been looking through PT at all the 3 bet pots I've been in and it seems to me that I've got a leak regarding 3 betting in general.

My F23B stat is 86% which seems very high - I also 3 bet only 3.5%. If someone is stealing a ton BTN vs Blinds I'll 3 bet one or 2 more hands than before but honestly my 3 bet range is QQ+,AK normally with TT JJ making an occasional appearance.

While it may not be that exploitable by people at 10NL I think at 50NL it's going to be a real problem.

Any suggestions?

Put ATS on your opponents if it is 30+ start 3 beting with A2s-A7s. This is only vs buttong or co steal. against opponents that have at least fold to 3 bet of 70+

as you saw from the sweat hoopy , 25nl will mean that you automatically end up 3 betting more. It is "the game" at that level and people have a better understanding of when they should be calling and folding to 3bets. At 10nl theres nothing like that knowledge and you could end up spewing large amounts of money against people who can't fold.
steal stats and 3bet stast on your HUD will help you.

Wow I've been lazy recently updating this due to lots of exam revision - time to play might be non existent in the next few weeks. I'm at 19k hands at 10NL 6m - post some stats and decide where to go at 20k.

Random hand.

weaktight | Hand Poll | JJ - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Reads posted with hand - are we happy stacking off here?

I'm really not sure what to make of this.

So yeah 3 weeks later I return to this op after having revised my ass off for the exams, couldn't play at all apart from the last 4 days.

I'll update more fully in the morning - right now my body is like "sleep you masochist".

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/6217/picture1zbj.png

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7156/picture1ngg.png

All comments appreciated.

post em bigger for us oldies to read them

Hoopy, I was at one of your tables today.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4364/picture1jmu.png

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/662/picture2otk.png

Hopefully these should be better - !Luck which table were you on?

So I posted the stats in the IRC, got good advice from the guys saying to increase my ATS and decrease my fold to steal (by calling and 3 betting more). Also try to put people on calling range when value betting to be more effective + also start to open up my game OTB.

Some more goals;
-Read one COTW post from 2+2 each day.
-Finish NLHE T+P.
-Change my HUD setup.

Today was mainly 2 tabling 10NL (300 hands) and 2NLPLO - really happy with the way I played.

Been taking a break since the world cup is on plus didn't feel like playing much poker, I'm the only one left here since most of my housemates have already gone on holiday so mainly I'm just laying around in the sun doing nothing.

weaktight | Hand | JJ - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Guy is a random over a few hands - I maybe perceived as aggressive/bluffy due to having won 3 pots that didn't go to showdown in the last 10 hands. He instantly min-raised, I think stacking off on the flop is fine in retrospect; thoughts?

Indeed, ship flop.

2 short term (2 weeks) goals to help with the spew/tilt recently
- Don't check roll.
- Meditate each day.

Talked to dozer + others in the IRC about defending against steals which was really interesting since I suck at it currently. Stuff about 3 betting loose LP openers from the blinds with hands that suffer from RIO (Axo,Q9o etc), by reducing the stack size by 3 betting we can play it profitably assuming some FE pre flop. Also SC's generally aren't great to 3 bet with 100BB deep, thats one tiny leak fixed.

Over all my game is getting better, restarting meditation has helped me - I used to do it regularly but fell out of the the habit.

Sounds like you're doing well man, keep up the good work. Btw, when you start to open up your game don't go too overboard. That is one thing I've done recently and I had to tone it back down a little bit. Remember to analyze each decision as its own separate situation and not just auto raise in marginal spots.

Also,

Originally Posted by HoopyDude

Some more goals;
-Read one COTW post from 2+2 each day.
-Finish NLHE T+P.
-Change my HUD setup.

What is this?

Originally Posted by kfaess

Sounds like you're doing well man, keep up the good work. Btw, when you start to open up your game don't go too overboard. That is one thing I've done recently and I had to tone it back down a little bit. Remember to analyze each decision as its own separate situation and not just auto raise in marginal spots.

Also,



What is this?

Wow I've been lazy updating this thread.

COTW stands for "Concept of the Week" and is basically a thread made on the 2+2 FR micro stakes forum each week. Loads of different topics which are interesting to read about.

Check it out.

****Concept of the Week" Schedule and Table of Contents**** - Micro Stakes Full Ring Games - Micro Stakes Poker Strategy Forum

I'll be posting a session review like daven's soon, +7BI so far in July.

Ok so here is the session review, it was only 250ish hands.

Firstly I filtered for VP$IP true and NOT saw flop to see hands that had no flop, focusing on the ones were I folded.

Guy is 18/9/0% 3B over 85 hands with no other reads.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: PokerTracker - Online Poker Software, Player Stats Tracking & HUD

BB: $9.45
UTG: $6.22
Hero (CO): $10.36
BTN: $13.57
SB: $10.00

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 5s 5c

fold, Hero raises to $0.40, fold, SB raises to $1.20, fold, fold

SB wins $0.90


11/9 over 206 hands - he's a multi tabling reg with 3% 3B

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: PokerTracker - Online Poker Software, Player Stats Tracking & HUD

SB: $9.05
BB: $5.39
Hero (UTG): $10.47
MP: $10.00
CO: $9.95
BTN: $13.17

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has Jh Ad

Hero raises to $0.40, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $1.20, fold, fold

SB wins $0.90

His 3B range is {QQ+,AK} at best - INSTASNAPFOLDFTW.

Both BB and SB have been at the table for 10 hands - both seem on the tighter side so this is an easy steal for me.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: PokerTracker - Online Poker Software, Player Stats Tracking & HUD

MP: $9.15
CO: $5.39
Hero (BTN): $10.77
SB: $10.00
BB: $9.50
UTG: $11.73

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 8h 7s

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.30, fold, BB raises to $1.10, fold

BB wins $0.65



limper is 50/15 over 40 hands and isn't very good. Raiser is 30/27 over 66 hands - I had a note on him saying he turned 66 into a bluff on a 4 straight board, so probably semi aggressive.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: PokerTracker - Online Poker Software, Player Stats Tracking & HUD

BB: $10.00
UTG: $24.05
CO: $16.62
BTN: $15.21
Hero (SB): $10.00

Hero posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has 5h 7h

fold, CO calls $0.10, fold, Hero calls $0.05, BB raises to $0.40, fold, fold

BB wins $0.30


Limping sucks in this spot as BB will often raise and my hand isn't very good against the fish's range (I'd much rather have K8o since it can make top pair type hands).

Raising also sucks since fish has a 100% limp/call and a 0% F2CB so I'll be building a pot oop with no fold equity.

Folding seems best.

Really appreciate comments guys.

I'll post more in the morning.

When I said morning I meant 2 days later at night.

Opponent is a bad fish - I saw him get it in with 44 pre.

weaktight | Hand | 99 - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

So I folded in this hand but think this might be a call as he was a spewtard postflop, not sure though.


His stack size suggests fish. We've been playing for 15 hands, only thing of note is he once opened BTN I called and c/f to a 1/2 pot bet.

weaktight | Hand | A4o - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Need more of a plan when I c/c this bet, obviously I gin the turn. C/r seems better than leading if I want his stack but needs to be bigger. River is bad.


weaktight | Hand | JAo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Hand right after the one above he's definitely tilting so AJ is a snap call.


weaktight | Hand | JTo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

No reads. Most of the time I cbet this flop but betting for value means I have to check turn and river + lose less when he has an A. Turn is a value bet because more draws are possible now QT KQ T8 flush draws, on the river he reps nothing apart from 9x and I have great pot odds = call.


weaktight | Hand | KK - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

No reads, thoughts on flop sizing?


weaktight | Hand | 9Ks - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

73/12 over 26 hands. Should be betting flop and turn vs this monkey. As played I think his range is mostly Ax with that sizing so folding seems best.


Roll is now $439 which is an all time high mostly due to studying and improving my game. Got 4k hands for July and going to try for 10k by the end of the month, don't laugh too hard 16 tabling FR nits .

Currently reading "Putting it all Together" which spoon gave me a link for cheers Dude!

450 hands last night I spewed off a BI in the last 50 but overall was happy with my play.

Roll is up to $454 with 5113 hands this month.

Also 26 betting ftw.

weaktight | Hand | QcTc8h5d - $0.01/$0.02 Pot Limit Omaha Hi

July was a good month for me in terms of learning and playing, I'm going to start logging my sessions on here and posting a few more hands for review.

Short Term Goal
-Finish reading "A Guide to Improving".

Quick update, I'm at 1894 hands and 8.27 hours for the month. Running kinda shit but that's ok.

Also <3 deep tables, so many fish.

4180 hands and 18.4 hours, must keep up the grinding.

Hand of the day, opponent is 42/3 over 90 hands and has lead TPGK before in other pots.

weaktight | Hand | 65s - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Leak found; I value bet too small and try to bluff catch too much at micro's since fish's calling range doesn't change and people are bluffing enough at 10NL.

Case in point, b/f 1.20ish on river.

weaktight | Hand | JQo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Time to plug it.

6.2k hands and 28.5 hours so far.

9009 hands and 38.85 hours at 10NL +2.35 hours tournaments means I'm on track for the prop so far.

weaktight | Hand Poll | TAo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Unknown player, posted this hand in IRC for analysis.

Preflop
I think he's going to flat here with 22-TT and most broadway combo's excluding AK, maybe a few SC's as well.

Flop
TPTK for me, he leads for 2/3 pot. We discussed how he has a narrow value range in this spot and also assumed this guy has a small bluffing range. Plan is to call down to keep his range wide + exercise some pot control as I have no reads on this guy.

Range {33, 55, TT, JT, QT, KT, AT, 67s} 65% equity

Turn
Flatting is still best as it keep his range the widest, I have 65% equity due to combo removal. When I raise and he flat calls his range seems fairly weak to me, as I'd expect Tx, 55, 33 to shove. So I figure he has a hand like JJ/99 or a random semi bluff along with one or two slowplayed Tx.

River is an easy call due to pot odds, better plan would have been to call flop+turn and bet/raise the river.

Results below (white)
He had 64c

45.2 hours at 10NL and 10607 hands, JKDS's mind games aren't going to stop me.

Talking in IRC about dealing with 3bets, I thought I was folding too much but really unless I have reads that someone 3bets lite frequently in certain spots or has a >6% 3bet over a good sample the best course of action is to fold. Obviously the kind of hands they 3bet has a big effect on my decision.

BR is $572, I'll put in 4 hours minimum today.

Edit : OMG second page!

omfg hoopy, post your time updates in the thread DSFJ@$#FRD^TF$#W
I know you need excuses to keep your OP going but come on now

Ya jfc! Also stop being tied/on pace with me all the damn time!

By the way hoopy - on the topic of 3-betting - what is your 3b % at 10NL? I've found that despite a conscious effort to start including a bluffing portion to my preflop 3-bet range, I'm running at a ridiculously low 2.6%.

There are a few dynamics that might be swaying this a bit... For example if I play against opponents who will pfr a good amount but almost never fold to 3-bets (over a decent sample) then it makes little sense to 3-bet bluff them. This much is pretty obvious I guess... I'm thinking my problem might not be finding opponents to 3-bet light against, but finding (probably much more frequently given the level of competition at FTP 10NL) opponents to expand my 3-bet value range against. I'm not at my home computer but I feel like I might be just flatting hands like AQo or AJs to a pfr against dudes running 32/25 who are either spewy or fit or fold post... meh...

Originally Posted by JKDS

Ya jfc! Also stop being tied/on pace with me all the damn time!

@Penney
Just about to eat dinner so I'll respond to your post when I get back as it's something I've been thinking about a lot recently.

At 10NL 6m my 3bet is 3.7% though it varies by position. Highest is BB then SB then CO, I definitely want to start 3betting more on the BTN and folding more in the SB since I play too many hands there. Though in general I don't think having a low 3bet% is a big leak at 10NL.

When we are IP against people who open fairly wide (say a 32/25 in the CO) but hardly ever fold to a 3bet (discount them 4bet bluffing for now) we should first expand our 3bet value range to include hands like JJ/TT/AQ and value town him.

I think how they play post flop matters a lot in deciding the other hands we 3bet. If they are extremely fit/fold then we can 3bet hands that aren't quite good enough to flat call IP like T7s, 53s, 84s, etc but won't be dominated too often, and cbet most boards knowing that he's going to fold so much of his wide range. OTOH if he's a station post flop (eg flats K8s then calls 3 streets on an K hi board) we should add hands like KQ AJ AT to our 3bet range.

Like recently it's been hammered into my head that playing 3bet pots IP is so good especially vs people that don't adjust (AKA nearly everyone at 10NL), so what I'm trying to do is start 3betting more in position gradually at first and 3betting OOP mainly against people who steal a large % from the BTN but fold to 3bets a ton.

Ok I'm posting a hand that I played really bad which I think shows up a lot of my leaks in general, resulted in me feeling annoyed for like 5 mins and playing my C game.

weaktight | Hand | TQo - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Unknown guy who just sat down.

Pre flop is fine.

Flop is good obv, both a c/r and leading out are ok though I prefer the latter. Now my first problem is that I c/r far too small, since he bet 1/3 pot I need to make it at least $1.20. Now he makes a min reraise and clearly the best play is to shove since he doesn't have much of a folding range at this point. Also if another heart comes on the turn I lose so much value from hands that will pay me off now.

Things to take from this
- Always think about the pot odds you offer your opponent (LDO).
- Don't worry about people soul reading you and folding their value range to a slightly big shove, case in point this guy doesn't folds J9 J8 JJ or AhX to a shove here.

So leaks to work on are BET SIZING and FPS'ing less.

A Game = Focused and paying attention to every table; taking notes and thinking how to exploit people. Planning hands and really trying to put people on correct ranges.

B Game = Usually doing other things at the same time as playing, giving up on too many pots and not really thinking about people's ranges deeply.

C Game = Playing my only hand and not really taking any notes or trying hard.

D Game = A brew of tilt and spew.

I'm good at noticing when tilt is affecting me and quit quickly, time to start doing the same if I feel myself playing my C game for more than 5 minutes.

Also whenever playing more than 2 tables I won't do anything else in the background so I can focus properly.

My A game easily slips to somewhere between C and D before I even know it. Taking breaks helps me get focused again. When the breaks stop helping it's time for me to stop grinding. Plus, I suck at note taking.

Originally Posted by supahaole

My A game easily slips to somewhere between C and D before I even know it. Taking breaks helps me get focused again. When the breaks stop helping it's time for me to stop grinding. Plus, I suck at note taking.

Yeah taking breaks helps me as well, usually I play around 500 hands in a session but sometimes if I'm playing well I keep going and vice-versa. With note taking my approach is to just write down facts on how they played hands to start with and later draw conclusions on their tendencies and how they think. Generally the only time I just label people as "Regs" or "Fish" is when their stats indicate it but I haven't seen any shown down hands.

Putting in some good volume later today.

I've been watching loads of videos recently and taking notes and have been sweated by a few people, it's definitely helped my game just having to explain my thought process for each decision. Going to read some more COTW's in the next few days.

Probably going to move up to 25NL soon with 4-5BI stop loss and only playing 2-3 tables so I focus, I'll still play 10NL when I'm not playing great or don't feel like playing 25NL.

In b4 50BI downswing.

good stuff hoopy, damn seems like I'm the only guy from our prop not shot-taking 25 en els yet. I am beating 10 NL for 22.5 BIs as of last night and my roll is over 500, but I still feel like I should be a BR nit and wait until 650 or so before taking a proper shot. I really think I need more seasoning though... being "ready" for the higher stake is like 50% mental so until I'm there I wont set myself up for failure.

If you feel you're ready, though, defo go for it. Rooting for you bud.

Originally Posted by Penneywize

good stuff hoopy, damn seems like I'm the only guy from our prop not shot-taking 25 en els yet. I am beating 10 NL for 22.5 BIs as of last night and my roll is over 500, but I still feel like I should be a BR nit and wait until 650 or so before taking a proper shot. I really think I need more seasoning though... being "ready" for the higher stake is like 50% mental so until I'm there I wont set myself up for failure.

If you feel you're ready, though, defo go for it. Rooting for you bud.

Thanks for the support dude.

I think waiting until you're happy with your game and are in the "right" mental state for playing slightly higher stakes is a really good thing rather than just basing it on BR. Much better to play 10k more hands then evaluate from there rather than moving up when you aren't focused and getting crushed/disheartened.

Hoopy just dropped in for the first time. First let me thank you for letting me set in and watch you be a balla player the other day. Now if I can just do like you..Let see it was something like "Get PP, flop set, take money." Yeah that was it. LOL Seriously though it was good and made me think about some of my issues. I have been running pretty good though.
Good luck with the 25nl I'm sure you'll rock'em hard!

Lazy updating this due to RL stuff and not playing poker for the past 3 days because I haven't felt the urge to play. My move up to 25NL didn't go that great as I lost 3BI's fairly quickly to coolers and bad play, so if I lose another 2BI's I'll move back to 10NL. Plan is to play 2-3 tables of 25NL and actually start posting hands in IRC/BC again.

August graph, last 1.5k is 25NL.

Hmmm so basically no volume in September so far (1.1k) and still don't have much of an urge to play. 25NL is easy once you realize that the people aren't any better than 10NL and all you have to do is play your regular game and make small adjustments when needed.

Not going to bother posting about roll or running bad since how does that help me? I'm 2BI's from my stop loss and will move down if necessary.

Random quote of the day.

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right."
Henry Ford

keep your head up big mane youll do fine just stay focused on playing your A game...also if you ahve no desire to play, then obviously dont, forcing the issues not gonna make you love the game more

Been grinding some more the past few days with mixed results. Hit 5BI stop loss so moved down to 10NL to regrind which is no big deal. I definitely feel I played ok at 25NL but ran bad in the small sample of hands.

Looking Ravageur and Genitruc posts/blogs makes my tiny bit of run bad irrelevant on a bigger scale. So time to get better at poker imo.

I'm away for a week with no internet from tomorrow, so I'll read books and watch video's.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
Mark Twain

Been very busy the past week going back to Uni and sorting out a lot of shit to do with the new house we're renting, I've got free time in the next few days and plan to grind out hands.

I'm trying defend wider in the BB vs SB steals. Some of the regs steal fairly wide so it's a great spot to flat/3bet a decently wide range especially since many of them are terribad post flop. Also need to keep reminding myself that beating micro's is about Vbetting well and being able to fold against opponents who have very unbalanced range.

Roll is currently $441, gogogo regrind!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by HoopyDude

I'm trying defend wider in the BB vs SB steals. Some of the regs steal fairly wide so it's a great spot to flat/3bet a decently wide range especially since many of them are terribad post flop.

This!
I 3bet the regs in the SB relentlessly with an absurd amount of junk any they almost never adjust. Everyone seems to have it in their head that SB steals are +EV vs every opponent instead of just against nits. Flatting big aces/strong broadways is also neat as they tend to barrel a ton expecting you to have garbage

September was a shitty month, time to play better in October.

Just read COTW : Thinking about combo's.

Hoopy it's over bro now lets grind out a great October! GL

in all realness i liked spoons post on combos in the BC a lot more, it was a lot more in depth and had ways to remember shit easier like i still remember "6310" when thinking of PP combos

Long time no update must mean everything's going fine right?

University has been keeping me busy meaning I've only played 2.5k hands this month. Down 6BI's and I'm not at all happy with my play which has been spewy and lacking focus; that stops right now. Until I've reviewed these hands I won't play higher than 2NL.

First hand, this guy had only been at the table for 15 hands and seemed semi loose/aware. Note that we are 139BB deep.

weaktight | Hand Poll | JQs - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Preflop is std. Flop is a value bet, I like betting turn then checking back river as a general plan here.

Flop calling range - T9s, 76s, 98s, 87s, 54s, A5s, A8s, KJ-J9, 66, 77, 99, TT
Add in some gutshots like 97s, I think this type of player will 3bet JJ a decent % pre flop, maybe slowplays a set sometimes or c/r's the OESD's.

Turn is an interesting card, I'd really like to know what people think about bet size on this card, personally I think I can bet bigger due to TT-99 8x and maybe 77-66 calling because it's not a scare card for them. Checking is a possibility but I think betting is very +EV.

So he c/r's pretty big, his line is usually a set/trips so normally QJ would be a easy fold. Even with the FD I think it's still a fold.

c/r range - 88, 54s, A5s, JJ, 55

Looking at combo's I think we can forgot JJ since he 3bet's some % pre and I have J. Total combo's are 3(88), 4(A5s, 54s), 1(55).

9 spades left, 4s and As give FH's and bad RIO for me and I'm dead to 88/55 already. I don't think he's bluffing much either.

c/c flop c/r turn line at micro's is 90/10 nuts/air imo, you've just got to be able to fold nearly everything in your range and be ok about it because no one is actually exploiting you.

Comments appreciated.

Moar hands.

69/17 over 30 hands - seems like a terrible fish

weaktight | Hand Poll | 66 - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Easy river bet/fold imo.


No reads.

weaktight | Hand | KK - $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem

Don't really like my flop sizing, what do you think about bet/calling the the turn?