Learning Blog

In an attempt to better myself Im going to begin posting my biggest win/lossing hands each day now. Ive been inspired by spoons thread to learn to play cash games. Ive built my bankroll to support 5c/10c games through SnGs but Im going to begin with 1c/2c but move up to 5c/10c reasonably quickly.

For the most part im going to post my biggest win/loss hands for each day and any other hand that troubles me. I have been playing poker on and off for a year now but have really got into it in the past 3months or so and ive been playing around 20+ SnGs a day easily.

So here goes a quick post today - this hand is infact not my highest winning hand today, I won 2allins today which were easy decisions but here is my first hand...comments welcome

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB ($2.48)
Hero ($4.98)
UTG+1 ($3.73)
MP1 ($4.92)
MP2 ($0.89)
MP3 ($2.58)
CO ($1.26)
Button ($3.60)
SB ($3.21)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, A.
Hero raises to $0.06, 3 folds, MP3 calls $0.06, CO calls $0.06, Button calls $0.06, 2 folds.

Flop: ($0.27) 7, K, A (4 players)
Hero checks, MP3 checks, CO bets $0.1, Button folds, Hero raises to $0.2, MP3 folds, CO calls $0.10.

Turn: ($0.67) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.3, CO folds.

Final Pot: $0.67

Obviously some hands play themselves, but could I have played this better and got more money out of him?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

SB ($0.77)
BB ($2.68)
UTG ($2.47)
UTG+1 ($2.89)
MP1 ($1.49)
MP2 ($9.21)
Hero ($4.80)
Button ($1.92)

Preflop: Hero is CO with , .
UTG calls $0.02, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.06, 1 fold, SB calls $0.05, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.04.

Flop: ($0.20) , , (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.12, SB folds, UTG calls $0.12.

Turn: ($0.44) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.14, UTG calls $0.14.

River: ($0.72) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: $0.72

Results in white: capellt: shows [4s 3d] (a flush, Ten high)

Thanks in advance and please keep checking in

Ok so I got myself some direction and took a $100 reload at party poker. Apparantly the bonus clears at the same rate at 2c/4c as it does 5c/10c so Im going to be playing alot of poker from now until the deadline - 1st Feb 11:59
I need to get 600PP and after my first hour as a test, 6tabling FR i got 12PP, so i need to get in about 4hrs of poker a day 6tabling for the next fortnight.

After 1,063hands -- +$7.45 -- +17.52bb/100 (I use big blinds)
So im about 1.5 buyins up at the moment which is a nice start, I want to have around 100PP by the end of the weekend...optimistic approach but shouldnt be unattainable unless something happens.

Unfortunately I am in my final year as a Finance student so Im going to have a fair amount of work to be doing, not to mention I have a parttime job i need to keep up with - busy 2weeks for me :P

Will post an update on Sunday where I hope to have hit my 100PP target and still be in the green!

i think you need to bet harder on almost every street in both those hands. make them pay more to try and catch up to your good hands.
in hand 1, this may be nitpicky, but i prefer a 3.5xBB raise pre or even 4x. and i absolutely do not like the flop check. i realize you have a great hand, but you should still bet out and hope someone hit an A and calls you, especially in a 4 way pot. turn bet isn't a horrible size but i would still bet something like .45-.5 because you want to try and build a big pot with top two.

in hand 2, you absolutely must raise more pre. after UTG limps, you have to jack it up to at the least .08 preferably .09 or .10. and on the flop, again, bet stronger. you need to bet around .16. i don't mind a bet on the turn, as long as you plan on folding to a raise, but again would like it to be bigger. river check is standard.

Thanks alot for the feedback - I realise Im quiet a weak player, heres a prime example of that here, I have absolutely no idea why i decided to limp here with this hand in this position....but in reply to ur previous post i tend to standardise my preflop raises to 3bb, or 4bb with prime hands. I also know about the 3bb +1bb / limper rule, but when theres 4/5 people limped in and him holding say AKo, at this level, i really feel if i was to raise from 0.04 to even 0.15+ i would still get alot of callers, so i usually limp and hope to flop well then attack it- what should i be doing instead?

heres the ultra weak hand...

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.04 BB (9 handed) Party-Poker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

CO ($2)
Hero ($5.89)
SB ($7.83)
BB ($7.51)
UTG ($1.80)
UTG+1 ($2.66)
MP1 ($2.94)
MP2 ($4.96)
MP3 ($3)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, Q. CO posts a blind of $0.04.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.04, 3 folds, CO (poster) checks, Hero calls $0.04, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($0.24) A, Q, 6 (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets $0.04, UTG+1 calls $0.04, CO folds, Hero raises to $0.1, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 calls $0.06.

Turn: ($0.48) 8 (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.15, UTG+1 calls $0.15.

River: ($0.78) K (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.3, UTG+1 raises to $0.84, Hero calls $0.54.

Final Pot: $2.46

Results:
etownrule shows [ 6d, Kd ]two pairs, Kings and Sixes.
kimberger shows [ Ac, Qc ]two pairs, Aces and Queens.
kimberger wins $2.30 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Aces and Queens.

ATM i have a Total AF of 1.07
Preflop: 0.59
Flop: 2.19
Turn: 1.81
River: 2.08

VP$P 13%
PF raise 5.15%

when you are holding a hand like AK in position with lots of limpers, you should still raise it up, even if they will all call. when you have an equity edge, you want them to put a lot of money into the pot because you will win it more often than anyone else.

on that hand...ugh, you are right in your assessment of that hand, you played it extremely weak. preflop you should definitely raise to something like .2 (3xBB+2xBB for limpers). you are in position, with a great hand, why would you not want to be playing for more money after the flop? along with the stuff i said before, bet more on every street. on a board this dry you will basically always be wanting to play for stacks with top two, but you need to bet more on the flop to make a bigger bet on the turn seem reasonable to make a bigger bet on the river seem reasonable. does that explanation make sense?

Yes it does - i guess i need to change the way i think because one reason i bet smaller is to encourage a call, and i dont really concider pushing in cashgame because i guess i expect a fold, and lose out on the money i could have won by betting half pot or so.

I bet larger tonight, since reading ur first reply, it worked out and i ended up 100bb up although i was getting queens left right and center, think i got them 4 times in the hour.

But tomorrow Ill try and build these pots more when i flop top2 and ill try and get some pushes in.

Quick question, when i do raise with AK and get say 3+ callers and i miss the flop, say something like Q 8 5, how do i play it in EP and LP and if theres flush draw or not? Because i tend to resign to the fact that 1 of the 3 have called the raise with something like AQ KQ

btw thanks for the feedback papal - heres a hand where i tried building the pot, actually got AA about 5 times in 1 hour across 6tables, think i won with them twice :P one time ran into some1 hitting a set on a Q high rainbow road with pocket 6s - took him allin for about $2 and another guy in the same hand for ~$4 who i beat so i made 7c on that hand with 3 way allins on theh river :P

Here are 2 other times, shamefull both AA but v. diff outcomes

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.04 BB (10 handed) Party-Poker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

UTG ($5)
UTG+1 ($4.74)
UTG+2 ($5)
MP1 ($12.06)
MP2 ($4.70)
MP3 ($4.46)
CO ($6.31)
Button ($4.85)
SB ($4.92)
Hero ($7.25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A. UTG+2 posts a blind of $0.04.
2 folds, UTG+2 (poster) checks, MP1 calls $0.04, 5 folds, Hero raises to $0.18, UTG+2 folds, MP1 calls $0.16.

Flop: ($0.48) 3, Q, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.3, MP1 calls $0.30.

Turn: ($1.08) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.7, MP1 calls $0.70.

River: ($2.48) 8 (2 players)
Hero calls $7.21 (All-In), MP1 folds.

Final Pot: $9.69

I realise here that the pot is, although big in relation to blinds, in terms of our stacks it made it easier for him to fold - perhaps if he only had $3 or $4 left he would have called it

Second hand....

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.04 BB (10 handed) Party-Poker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

UTG+2 ($0.74)
MP1 ($1.24)
MP2 ($4.96)
Hero ($4.94)
CO ($3.18)
Button ($3.62)
SB ($5.06)
BB ($2.94)
UTG ($1.98)
UTG+1 ($5.99)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with , .
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.04, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, Button calls $0.15, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.11.

Flop: ($0.51) , , (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.3, Button calls $0.30, UTG+1 folds.

Turn: ($1.11) (2 players)
Hero bets $0.7, Button calls $0.70.

River: ($2.51) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button calls $3.62 (All-In), Hero calls $2.47.

Final Pot: $7.45

Results:
kimberger shows [ Ac, As ]three of a kind, Aces.
koko6154 shows [ Ah, 8h ]a flush, Ace high.
koko6154 wins $7.08 USD from the main pot with a flush, Ace high.

His allin with the river hearts set alarm bells ringing but i thought my betting would have forced a draw out, guess i put him on AK more than a nutflush draw. But i guess with him hitting it own A on the turn he was more likely to call the turn bet than if he was still only on flush draw.

your AK question, if you raise it up pre, and get 3+ callers and whiff completely, just check fold. continuation betting into 3 players with essentially air is not smart. i don't know if you have read the stuff on here about continuation bets, but against 2 or especially just 1 opponent on the flop when you were the preflop raiser, c-betting with air can be very profitable. if you don't know much about c-betting, do a search and look at some of the (many) posts on the topic. (don't just start betting at every flop if you raised pre)

as for the AA hands, id strongly recommend at least a raise of 3.5xBB +1 for each limper to get more money in when you have an equity edge and to cut down their implied pot odds. in both hands, id again prefer bigger bets on the flop, something like 4/5ths of the pot. as you saw yourself in hand 1, you got to the river with a lot of money behind, and its very hard to get someone to commit there stack when you have to bet 3 times the size of the pot. but, if you raised it to .22 pre, then bet 4/5ths pot on the flop, followed by 3/4ths of the pot on the turn, the pot is significantly larger by the river and a bigger bet isnt so unreasonable for them to call (although a 2xpot shove probably still wont get called by much, but you wont be playing 200bb deep everyhand either).

hand 2, more of the same advice, raise it to at LEAST .18 pre. bigger bets on flop and turn. chances are he still calls you and sucks out, but at least you force him to make a bigger mistake by calling. and if the pot is significantly bigger, the river decision will be more trivial.

So my weekend goal was to get 100PP ... i got 99PP, so still ahead of the 86PP i should have minimum by now.

Wednesday goal:
250PP (minimum 215 required)

My secondary goal is to make $30 profit from clearing this bonus

Current stats
After 3,474hands -- +$16.83 -- +12.11bb/100 (big blinds)

Its not too bad, Im pretty happy with the way its going so far, I dont think there should be any problem clearing this $100 bonus and after I do ill move onto $10NL. I think Ill stick to partypoker untill i hit $25nl at stars because i dont earn VPP at stars below that level so I may aswell get some points at PP.
Although I get really annoyed by how partypoker tables popup everytime they deal cards

Wednesday goal:
250PP (minimum 215 required)

Result:
226PP - which isnt too bad, above the minimum required in order to complete this bonus tho which is good, however Im not going to have much time to play tomorrow as I have alot of hours in uni (3hrs of lectures) then the uni poker tournament which happens every week in the evening.

Sunday goal:
420PP (Minimum 386PP required)

Current stats now are:
After 7,177hands -- +$29.58 -- +10.30bb/100 (big blinds)

Sunday goal:
420PP (Minimum 386PP required)

Result:
392PP - again - just about keeping up with the minimum required - which is pretty good considering I practically had friday off. Started playing $10NL aswell - my results so far are below. Its been pretty hectic though, got KK busted by 22 twice in first 30mins of playing it, was pretty gutting but I think in the long run Ill be beating $10NL with no problem.

Wednesday goal:
600PP (515PP required)

Current stats now are:
$5NL After 10,590hands -- +$49.33 -- +11.65bb/100 (big blinds)
$10NL After 1,727hands -- +$12.29 -- +7.12bb/100 (big blinds)

Set myself the goal of clearing this $100 bonus - its ambitious I know - but this week is an easy week with not alot of work to be doing so it would be nice to beable to clear it a couple of days earlier. I also want to keep playing above +5bb/100 at $10NL and aim for +10bb/100. Once I have cleared the PP bonus Ill draw myself up a monthly goal for February.

Chin up chuck

Ok its been awhile and not keeping this up to date has started to affect my motivation. So heres a round up.

Started the year with a $450 BR, started playing SNGs on pokerstars clearing the $50 signup - which I still havent cleared as of yet, cashed out $500 to do a $100 partypoker reload playing $5NL, which I successfully cleared \o/.

At the start of February I had $600 which Ive taken over to Fulltilt for their $600bonus and 27% Rakeback. Now the rakeback is very insignificant at the moment because my bonus is deducted from it, so im getting roughly 10%RB instead of 27%. Ive cleared $60 of that so far but am only ~$30 up due to losing some of it messing around with limit.
I also got a free $40 from Partypoker, also offered me $100 reload again but I wont have tim eto clear it, however I turned the $40 into $110 with a mixture of poker and a sports bet on liverpool to beat Inter (they won 2-0 scoring both in last 5mins so was a tense game for me )

So as it stands my BR is at $740 - $140 profit this month so far although I still need to clear the requirements for the $40 partypoker bonus - I will also have enough partypoints to buy the $10 cash from their store by the end of it which is an added bonus.

Bad news is due to an accident with water my laptop is currently out of use which means Ive lost my pokertracker for the time being and probably the databases so im having to play on my PC till thats sorted.

What am I doing for the rest of the month? Well Ill finish clearing the Partybonus playing $10NL then return to Fulltilt and play $10NL there clearing the bonus.

So all in all
January: $150 profit - Main game is $5NL
February: $140 profit (Pending) - Mixture of .10/.25FL and $10NL

February
Just got back from a weekend in Edinburgh with girlfriend and some friends so not played recently, but this month I ended up $160 up - which doesnt include the $50 of bonuses im going to be clearing in the next couple of days. Also got PT for my computer - still waiting on my laptop to get fixed, so far in $10nl ive run,

5,200hands :: +7.91ptBB/100

March
Ok so this month I have my dissertation due in for the 14th and am moving house in the next few days which will result in a period of no internet or poker however, from the 14th onwards Ill be on holiday and have lots of time to catch up. What are my goals this month? Start taking shots at $25nl and hopefully stick to it, Ill probably take my first shot once Ive got ~15khands at 10nl with the new PT, or maybe after my dissertations handed in, tough to say.

Will finish off the Partypoker bonus I got then head back to Fulltilt because I still have $540 of the bonus there to clear + rakeback.

So goal is to be perminante $25NL player by end of the month!

January: $150 profit - Main game is $5NL
February: $160 profit - Mixture of .10/.25FL and $10NL

Good luck Joe.

Ok so Ive finally moved into new house and got the internet. I did take a shot at $25nl but I ran really unlucky with a couple of allins and dropped back down, but I definately feel as if I can beat that level easily, I was the favourite everytime i got my money in, ended up losing 4BIs ($100) which I am now trying to rebuild, once my BR hits $800 again ill take another shot, should be in the next couple of days.

Back at fulltilt now and only have 5 or 6 days till I have to finish my dissertation so wont have alot of time for poker booo, getting maybe 600hands in a day instead of the ~2000+ a day I hope to get once Ive finished my dissertation.

Still beating $10nl for over 7ptBB/100 which is nice works out about $7/hour for me. Good news less time for poker will mean hopefully i spend more time learning and reading the forums hoping to improve my game.

Thought it was about time for an update, so finished my dissertation and got that all handed in now, but best of all I seem to have finally made it into $25nl.

4,400 hands @ +3ptBB/100

which includes the -3BIs from my first try and $25nl, after something spoon said to me, Ive set myself the mini task of playing 70k hands on my easter holidays which are ~5weeks long. By which time Id hope to net +$1,000 profit and be looking to move up to $50nl by the time I come back to uni for my last term ever

Ill leave updates every 10k hands till then so hope it all goes well >:]

Originally Posted by Jamjoe

Thought it was about time for an update, so finished my dissertation and got that all handed in now, but best of all I seem to have finally made it into $25nl.

By "finished my dissertation" do you mean you have a Ph.D.??? There must be something lost in translation because that is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> making it to $25nl...

Get an avatar Joe.

Originally Posted by kingnat

Originally Posted by Jamjoe

Thought it was about time for an update, so finished my dissertation and got that all handed in now, but best of all I seem to have finally made it into $25nl.

By "finished my dissertation" do you mean you have a Ph.D.??? There must be something lost in translation because that is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> making it to $25nl...

lol no, its just a part of a normal degree a long way of Ph. D - and finishing it didnt feel great because i wont do that well on it hate writing essays much better at the exams

and i will get an avatar 1 day