Operation: Ben learns poker and builds a roll

I know the feeling. I have actually basically stopped playing this week to only study/go over hands and all that stuff. Take a few hours/days whatever off and just study and then maybe you'll feel somewhat better. Pretty gay advice but meh.

I've been away for work the last couple of nights, so it seems like sitting in a hotel room with nothing better to do, I should be able to play heaps of poker and really work on my game. In reality though, I'm tired and bored and only playing because I think I should, not because I want to, so my state of mind isnt the best. Ahh well.

Yeah man, completely understandable. Maybe just reread HH's and stuff instead? That's what I'm doing now. Sucks but def. helps.

Yeah, I've been bad on reviewing my game lately, plus its been ages since I posted any STT hands for comment. I should spend some time doing that stuff instead.

God, I am running so bad now. I think I had around $1050 on FT a week ago, I now have $710. I had a 19 game OOTM streak, 2 seconds and now just had another 4 OOTM games. Some bad play in there (trying to mix things up, get aggressive), some coolers, some variance. Probably the main thing I noticed is that I'm literally not sucking out ever in that time. Not once did I get my money in behind and improve.

I dont think theres much tilt there. A few hands I wondered if maybe I did, but I ran the ICM on them and they were +EV. I think most of the time I'm playing well. Not great, but not terrible, just like the post I made earlier about playing some when I'm really not in the mood. I dunno, I'll grind it out I guess, just frustrating.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Not once did I get my money in behind and improve.

I dont think theres much tilt there.

dude
focus

What I mean by that is, you can make +EV pushes and still be behind. Maybe I push 88 from the button with 10bbs and super tighty in the BB calls with QQ. Or I Push with AJ and get called by AQ. They're good plays, not tilt. You're behind, but sometimes you suck out anyway. Lately not.

On the other hand, it seems like every bubble whenever a shorty gets his money in bad he sucks out and survives.

Sigh, another day, more downswing.

8 games, 1 3rd.

I wont turn this into a bad beat thread, but every time I got my money in was a +EV situation, except for one push with 22 on the button. My third place was calling a 12bb push from an equal stack with AA v 66 and he hit a set. AQ called by JJ, AJ called by AQ, A high flush AI v's straight flush, it goes on.

I think I'll move down. My FT BR is down to $570 (from 1050 about a week ago). I could talk myself into having $100 on stars = rolled for $22s still, but I think I'll grind the $11s for a while until things work themselves out a bit.

Been trying to post tournies for review, but the trimmer isnt working for me. Keeps timing out. I'm reviewing my p/f game in sngpt and its been pretty spot on, but there could be other leaks someone could spot if they viewed my play. Thats frustrating too.

I signed up for a grinderschool sub. I like JGBs style when he plays STTs, so hopefully watching some of his vids might help me out. I'm trying to pull anything extra out of my game atm, and just play ABC poker. It really feels like thats what I'm doing, I'm just hitting some rough patches.

Ahh well, I guess I've had hot streaks, I'm allowed to have cold ones, just gotta try to make sure I only sit to play when my minds in it, and make sure I play my A game when I do.

I think I need to get a poker'ing outfit. Maybe just a hat, maybe some kind of hoodie. Possibly go the whole hog and some kind of robe or such, maybe some facepaint... I'm fairly sure adding a sinister look to my game could be just the edge I'm after.

Break evenish. Deposited $400 on Pacific Poker, $100 bonus immediately, wont clear the rest. 5 $11s for $25 profit so far. Seem soft. FT played some $11s (BR management yo!) about break even. Variance still running poor there.

Watching vids, trying to keep my mind clear. Not playing as much, but rather than take a break, I'm happy to keep playing as long as I can do so with a clear head when I sit down.

I think the watching vidlaying ratio should be more weighted towards watching vids right now. Sowatching them is def. a good thing for you. That said definitely don't be afraid to play, we all know you are a winning player. About your outfit, I'd say win some in the Gauntlet!...but the only time I wore mine I lost a lot...so...

Anyways, good luck Ben. I'm sure I'll talk to you soon.

Yeah, I dont want to play scared, but I also dont want to be scared to play. If I can play my A game, then doing so now or in a weeks time shouldnt affect my results at all, so might as well be now. If I dont think my heads right though, I'd prefer to watch vids, think things through, review play, discusss things with folks/etc.

I really need to get serious about my game at this point. Whilst I dont think all (or even most) of my downswing was due to bad play, I've noticed recently that my games gone to shit. Maybe as a tilt result. I borrowed "The poker mindset" off Taipan a couple months back and it has a good section on tilt. When most people think of tilt they think of aggro, spewy, bluffy play, however tilt is any unintentional change to your game to make it worse. In my case I've let some old leaks in, and generally started playing a loose/weak kind of game which is about the worst thing I could do. Not dramatically, but enough to mess things up.

I'm going to go back to the drawing board. Just like post 1 in this thread I want to identify my leaks and get to work fixing them. I need to only play when my minds right, not just when I have time. I'm not looking to get fancy, I'm not looking to "enhance my game". I want to nail down a rock solid ABC STT poker game again, get winning again, and then I can look at how to extend it later.

More to come later today.

Man, I just cannot focus properly lately. I cant even sit down and work out my leaks, something I've done plenty of times before.

I decided to only play if my head was right, and in return I basically havnt played at all. Played 2 sets of 4x$11 STTs today so far, and thats it for about a week. Got a first and a third in each set which was nice, but the 2nd set in particular I lost the plot, doing all kinds of semi-bluffs and crap I dont normally do. Just got lucky a bit.

I think I need to pull back from the not playing side of poker. I can spend a couple hours on FTR a day, but not play because I'm not in the mood. Maybe if I only check FTR like once per day and give the rest of my focus to other things going on in my life, I'll feel more urge to play...

Quick update. Back to around $690 atm, time to hit the $22s again. Had a few hickups where I'd get to $600+ then play some cash and drop back again. I really need to work on my problems with cash, I just dont think its poker ability, its mental. I just dont have the read mindset. A few things:

1) I get bored. The starts of STTs may be boring fold-fests, but theres a rush to the p/f nature of the end of them, and I get that every session. Nut-hunting in FR just doesnt cut it. Spending 20 mins folding, only to hit a strong hand but need to (read should) fold to an obvious stronger hand blows. I go through my sessions, and my losing ones are almost always dumb plays that I should know better about, but tilted due to boredom. That and the occassional cooler.

2) I react badly to variance in cash. For some reason I've conditioned myself to being knocked out of entire tournies with major coolers and just grin, but take one for half a stack in cash and it pisses me off. Played some $10NL 6-max the other day, and lost half a stack with KK v's an obv FD that backdoored a straight on the river (v's my set on the turn), and then a few hands later my KK ran into a semi-bluff push on the turn for half a stack v's a FD+gutshot (picked up on turn) and off course the gutshot came in. Overall I only dropped 1 buyin, but it was enough to make me close all my tables and stop playing poker it pissed me off so much.

Anyway, onto the STTs. I think I'm running about 30% ROI in the $11s since I moved down. Been killing them lately. Really tightened up and its payed off. I was just making bad adjustments to playing at FullTilt which worked fine early, but screwed me when things turned bad. Sharkscope atm has me at a +ve ROI, but -ve return due to the bad run at the $22s. Hopefully I'll run good when I move up and stay there this time.

I also need to start setting some more time aside for poker. I'm just not playing anywhere near enough. I'm back in the gym now, so I think I need to do some real time management and actually schedule my days, etc. Getting my lounge connected to my network properly will help, then I could play there in the evening, rather than being stuck with the choice of ignoring my wife and playing in the study, or spending time with her, but not getting any poker done.

Good luck man. Been out of town the past few days but I figured out how to transfer you your HHs. I'll try to get them to you tonight/tomorrow.

OK, last night didnt work. 6/6 ootm finishes to drop my roll back down around $550. I'm going to be irrational and say fuck fulltilt and their STTs.

New plan. Nearly started a new opp, but bugger it, might as well keep it as one long thread.

Ben is now learning 6-max and building a roll.

Yup, I'm going to withdraw my cash from FT and deposit elsewhere. Looking for a soft site, since I'd like to win money while I learn. DaGoat has mentioned Everest before, so I'm leaning that way. Party Poker might be another option, since I hear its pretty soft.

I want to concentrate on cash. 6-max I think. I need to do it properly though, I've just kind of bummed along so far, and that hasnt cut it. I started this thread by identifying my STT leaks, I think I need to do the same with my cash game. I made a start in my last post, but I'm going to spend some time reviewing my hands so far in PT, and also as he said above Kmind has offered to review some of my HHs to pick up on stuff, so hopefully he'll have some feedback.

I'm going to invest in Hold'em Manager. I've had enough of the PT guys, they've lost my business. I'm going to start all new database on it when I've setup the new site, and start from scratch. I want to make a prolonged, sustained, and directed go at this thing, starting now.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Ben is now learning 6-max and building a roll.

Yup, I'm going to withdraw my cash from FT and deposit elsewhere. Looking for a soft site,
I want to concentrate on cash. 6-max I think.

I suggest learning to play 15-12 styles to begin with, and super-focused on position - like 6-4UTG. Good luck. All sites are soft for playing 6-max at 10nl and below - I suggest staying at FT for the high traffic and crush 10nl there. Then move to a new site when you have the cash AND are playing at the right limits to max-out first deposit bonuses

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I'm going to invest in Hold'em Manager. I've had enough of the PT guys, they've lost my business.

hmmm, interesting. I don't like the problems with PT3, nor the last couple of days with PA HUD - but... whenever i had a question or problem with PT2 their responses were rapid and accurate. I suggest waiting until 3.3 comes out (soon!) and then deciding - saves a big chunk of your roll at the same time. I did some more playing around with the PT3 HUD while playing at FT yesterday, and I like it, as well as the new reporting and hand analyis options. I also expect PT3 to get exponentially better over the next few months, it's already as good as or better than PT2/PA HUD and they've only just started.
Have to admit though, I am kinda disappointed with the HUD problems - especially since I've been playing at everest recently - and the overall buggy nature of the first couple of versions.. but... I'm keeping the faith, they've earned/saved me enough money over the last six months that I'm prepared to cut them some slack...

Yeah, good tip. I think one of the main problems I had when I started playing 6-max at FT before was that I just went a bit crazy playing LAG style. It had worked when I'd been bumming around at 10nl on stars with friends, but backfired when I tried to play it as my main game.

Will think about staying at FTP, I just feel emotionally like a completely fresh start.

As for PT, I got really pissed off when FullTilt brought out tourney summaries (my main frustration with PT and FT) and the PT guys rushed it into the beta of PT3, but couldnt be bothered putting it into PT2 (the version people had paid money for). Now if I wanted to take advantage of that, I need to pay to upgrade. Then the PAHUD registration issue just now tipped me over the edge. Because they fuck up something on their website, I cant use the software I paid for? I dunno what happenned, but thats just shitty operations. HM have a low stakes version for only $55, which works up to and including 50NL, so it would keep me going for a while, and then when I want to get the full version its only the difference in the initial prices anyway (so total cost the same as buying the full version up front).



I just went through my PT2 stats over 6k hands at 25NL, looking at my biggest losers, and categorizing the ones that were due to bad play on my part. Overwhelmingly the most mistakes fell into "He's bluffing/stealing" situations. If someone raised me on the flop, I'd 3-bet them or something. Other than that, there were a couple of semi-bluffs (in big pots) which I think is a mistake at this level (if noone folds in big pots, then theres no equity in the "bluff" side of the equation), and a few bad calldowns on the river. I kept these separate from "he's bluffing" as they were more read/hand flow calls. I'm not sure they're such a big deal, as I'm also often right with those, and I suspect if I did the numbers I'd find I'm ahead overall from the times I've called river with bluff catchers.

So other than my mental/emotional issues identified a few posts up, one of my biggest leaks is not believing people when they raise me. At these stakes, its probably not a leak to just assume a c/r or raise equals strength all the time (even though it doesnt, picking the times it doesnt isnt worth it).

Originally Posted by bjsaust

HM have a low stakes version for only $55, which works up to and including 50NL, so it would keep me going for a while, and then when I want to get the full version its only the difference in the initial prices anyway (so total cost the same as buying the full version up front).

fair enough. I think PT3 will pan out better than HM, but who knows? and they'll both be good enough.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Overwhelmingly the most mistakes fell into "He's bluffing/stealing" situations. If someone raised me on the flop, I'd 3-bet them or something. Other than that, there were a couple of semi-bluffs (in big pots) which I think is a mistake at this level (if noone folds in big pots, then theres no equity in the "bluff" side of the equation), and a few bad calldowns on the river.

When you believe opp is strong, fold. PT3 has c-bet % as a nice HUD stat (I use VPIP, PFR, Steal Attempt, C Bet %, Fold to C-bet % and Turn AF - but that's only a first cut). When you believe they're bluffing, you know what to do. Don't try to push people off strong hands. Also, semi-bluffing in position on the turn is often spew vs taking the free card, semi-bluffing out of position is probably silly...

Originally Posted by bjsaust

At these stakes, its probably not a leak to just assume a c/r or raise equals strength all the time (even though it doesnt, picking the times it doesnt isnt worth it).

agreed

and good luck. I'll hunt you down if I ever switch to 6-max - we can tag-team some nit-fish

ps. Read here http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ax-t71241.html

Its not so much when I think they're strong, its when I overthink things and conclude they're weak.

Example, I raise PF with AQ, get called, flop comes J66, I c-bet and he c/r's me. This looks like a really good place to bluff, so I assume he likely is. Cant remember if I called or if he was short and I just 3-bet enough to put him in and he called, but turns out he had AJ. Now just because it looked like a good place to bluff, doesnt mean at these stakes that villain really is bluffing here very often, and I should probably just give him credit even if I'm doubtful.

dude, at microstakes, i rarely have seen a player being aggressive without holding a hand that (a) he/she wants to see a showdown with or (b) connected massively with the board [nuts]

when they are aggressive without having met those 2 criteria, they are aggressive for the sake of being aggressive, and can thus be considered maniacs, since they'll probably be playing all their hands dealt and raising every single one of them on every street


i told you before and i'll tell you again: you be careful with that tilt thing now. it destroys rolls, you know.

always keep yourself in check.

One thing I've always done is practice BRM. It wasnt tilt that killed my roll this time around, it was poor adjustments (but considered ones).

Not saying theres no tilt in there, I definately suffer from it sometimes, but I think recognising that boredom triggers it for me a lot of the time will help combat that. At least now I'm aware of that risk.

Good luck with the 6-max foray.

I've just moved from FR to 5NL 6-max on Stars, with mixed success so far. Ran at 25ptBB/100 for a couple thousand hands but have pretty much given it all back over the last 1,500 hands. I've had a bad run - its very frustrating when you push a 1.5 buyin stack in on a dry flop with KK against a 96/0 fish (yes, VPIP was 96% over 60-odd hands!) and he hits a runner-runner straight - but also some bad play.

Not a lot of bluffing at 5NL, true, but quite a bit of semi-bluffing when they think they're value-betting, and no-one can fold a draw. My problem is that I lose patience and get over-aggressive thinking they're always calling down light, and then get burned too often when they do have something decent. And because they don't take any notice I don't get enough credit for being a maniac when I do have a hand.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I also need to start setting some more time aside for poker. I'm just not playing anywhere near enough.

What the hell else is there to do in Ballarat heading into winter??

Work, gym, wife, TV, sport, reading. Minor things like those .

Turns out I cant withdraw my whole pacific poker roll. The "upfront bonus" still needs clearing apparantly, and I'm a long way off it. I cancelled that withdrawal and decided to play some 25NL 6-max there last night. Ran good. In fact, I think I only showed down 1 losing hand, and that was when a table went 3-handed and I called river with 2nd pair. Not terrible.

Made almost 3 buyins in about an hour 4-tabling. God I hate their software, its SO shitty. Even 4 tabling I timed out so often because theres no time-bank, short action times, and not that noticable that its your turn to act. Their note taking method is the worst I've ever seen. I typed half my notes into chat because it kept shifting focus to the chat box on the tables instead. Doesnt show mucked cards, and doesnt store HHs. On the other hand, soft as hell. Lots of min-raises, lots of folds to 3-bets and c-bets, very high vp$ip. Was fun the hands I played. Would be tempted to just play out my bonus there, but the lack of support for HH's (and therefore HUDs), shitty software and shitty support have convinced me its just not worth it. I've now won more than the bonus on their anyway, so I'll withdraw all bar the $100 in bonus and leave that there just to mess around with when bored. Their 3-up tourneys are a fun change of pace.

Got my first ever (I think) royal flush last night . Pity theres no HHs, it was a really fun hand. UTG limped, so I raised QKs (spades) OTB to isolate and SB came along as well. Flopped a gutshot + BD flush draw with an As,Ac,Jc checked to me so I took a free card. Got the Ts on the turn to give me the straight and a 4-flush with gutshot to the RF. Bet out 3/4 pot and got called by SB. River hit Js giving double paired board and SB pushed. For a moment I cursed his FH, then quickly did a double take as I realised I had a Royal Flush, not just a flush . So not only did I get my first Royal Flush, but it got paid off!

I think it was the very next hand I got AI pre v's an almost full stack with QQ v's JJ which held up and left me with a $65 stack on that table .

Played really well (as well as running hot) I think. I only did one total bluff all night, when someone bet like 1/4 pot on the flop so I took it off him with air. A couple semi-bluffs in smallish pots (one of which got called but I hit and got more in on the turn and river), some 3-betting with a fairly tight range, and a lot of c-betting. No stats, but I ran fairly tight, but won nearly every pot I entered using controlled aggression, and made some decent laydowns when required. If I can keep my head right like that all the time I think I'll run good.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Overwhelmingly the most mistakes fell into "He's bluffing/stealing" situations.

God, wtf. I dropped two buyins yesterday after being a buyin up, and going through my hands afterwards, if I eliminated the losses due to this (not the whole loss, just the portion after which I should have given up the hand), I'd have broken even. Of my top 8 losing hands I think 7 fell into this category.

Some of it was being tired. I'm trying to condition myself to play more at a time, but maybe once I felt things going pear shaped I should have stopped rather than push through it?

Anyway, I really need to work on this. Blowing a good session with a couple of bad hands is just dumb poker.

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 .

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 ).

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

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 . 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.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Against people who just dont fold, I c-bet less flops.

Just to widen on this thought. c/b less if your opp is c/r'ing you alot but not when he is passive and calling. c/b less if your hand is unlikely to improve or ofc board texture is a big part of it. also c/b where u have overcards since you still have some equity in the pot.

You can still c/b a high % (not your normal % but still high enough) vs these guys!

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

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

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

Turn: ($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
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
1 fold, jfnice31 calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero checks

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

Turn: ($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:

have approx 6,000 hands so far at Everest, and I've played over 22% of my hands from the SB compared to 20% from the button. My quandry is that I'm running at over 9bb/100 profit in the SB and about break even from the button.

Button - 20/15/1.9
SB - 22/11/2.9

So it seems like I'm completing/calling a LOT from the SB, but playing a lot of flops quite aggressively (stealing I guess), whereas I'm raising aggressively (and frankly, not even that loosely) from the button but then playing moderately aggressively postflop.

I think part of my problem on the button is when I'm on tables with laggy postflop players. They have like 50% fold to cbet at most, but if I check behind flop when I miss then they fire turn 100%. Now of course I could (and try to) exploit that, but either the cards are running cold, or the times I can exploit it dont make up for the times I let the pots go because I dont hit. One option is to raise/isolate less on the button, but obv from my stats thats an adjustment I've already made.

Trying to get some feedback out of HM, but not always sure what I'm looking for, this one just stood out a bit. Any advice or thoughts?

Got some good ideas off them already, but I'm always happy to hear more if anyone reads this and has some thoughts .

God my graph looks swingy. Other peoples graphs dont look like this I'm sure. I seem to run either very well or very bad, with lots of steep changes in my graph. I'm hoping as I get better (still relatively new to this ring thing) that it smooths out into a more regular upward trend. The main thing is I'd like to see it stay above the $0 line. Out of 6.5k hands in my DB I'd say its spent about 500 hands above that line so far. Still, overall the last around 2k hands have a nice upward trend, and that includes a day where I had the troubles mentioned above where I managed to at least minimise losses which was a nice change. Hopefully I'm on the right track, and will continue to improve. I dont spend any more time on "poker" than I used to, but I'm definately focusing that time a LOT more on playing (getting a LOT more game time in), and on deliberately trying to improve myself. I think I spent way too much time just mindlessly browsing FTR/etc filling in time but not really benefiting myself much. Now I'll spend time looking through HM, my own hands and also making notes on regs/donators. Filtering forum reading into really trying to get something out of good/relevant threads and not spending much time on the rest. Also of course posting and reviewing hands with my poker discussion group. Thats working well so far I think.

Whilst my current op goal is $2k roll, I'm really keen to burst through $1k for the 3rd time and this time stay beyond it.

BR - $900

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 ). 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 .

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

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

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

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


Villain had 22 .


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

Flop: ($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: ($83.86, 2 players)

River: ($83.86, 2 players)


Harrie97 had 99 .

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.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

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.

Err, I broke 3 of them. I definately wasnt drinking at 6:30 am with my son on my lap .

Lost a stack with top and bottom pair ai on flop v's top and middle pair. I think I'm ok with that one. 2nd one was a mid PP on a fairly low board that I just kept betting and villain had a set. That was just bad. Most of the rest were just c-bets/isolations/etc that didnt work.

Lessons learnt, moving on .

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 .

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 .

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 .

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.

Originally Posted by Ryan Fees

FCK numbers. Do not use a HUD, this will cause far more problems than it will create and slow you down. I wish I could go back in time and just avoid using a HUD and play 4 tables and focusing with decisive reads, but alas I cannot, don't use a HUD, focus on your opponents line and what hand (s) he is representing and how he plays certain hands, where he is weak and where he is strong, this is far more valuable than knowing a regular is 20/17 or a fish is 40/2.

Also EV graphs, won $ at showdown, showdown winnings, all that is bullshit just ignore it.

i disagree

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

i disagree

you'll never drop below $1k again

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

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 .

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 .

BR - $1214.