Operation: Ben learns poker and builds a roll

30 min session, +$107.25 after the biggest suckout of my poker career: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...th-t73539.html

BR - $1321

Originally Posted by kmind

you'll never drop below $1k again

how does it feel?

Pretty bloody good so far .

I think it was your confidence that did the trick. I couldnt let you down after that!!

Don't ever let me down!

Get to $2k asap imo

$1410ish and all is good with poker. At $1500 I move back to 4 tabling.

My main concern atm is how I'll react to whats really a hot run atm. I'm running almost $200 above expectation, which means I'm winning a lot of my flips and 60% type ai hands. I'm also making a lot of my $s with bluffcatchers atm. I guess as long as people keep bluffing like monkeys I'll be ok, but theres obviously a degree of risk in that strategy.

Likewise, hard to tell because I'm running hot, but it feels like I'm really thinking well at the table. Making reads, making laydowns which I think are good, making read based plays which I think are good, and as mentioned making calldowns which are good. I've hit a couple of tricky spots recently due to some adjustments in my game. I've really started considering my hand v's opponents ranges pre-flop, and adjusting my call/raise decisions based on them. I think I'm playing a more +EV game because of it, but it does sometimes present some interesting challenges postflop. Heres a short example:

Kokaleros is like an 80/5 fish with a huge fold to c-bet amount. leandrojose is an aggressive TAG whos been isolating the fish relentlessly with position.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG kokaleros ($32.20)
UTG 1 leandrojose ($55.90)
CO QueroJosar ($50.45)
BTN EL_JAKO ($39.75)
SB Hero ($49.50)
BB patximino ($49.75)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is SB
kokaleros calls $0.50, leandrojose raises to $2.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $2, 1 fold, kokaleros calls $1.75

Flop: ($7.25, 3 players)
Hero checks, kokaleros bets $7.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $29 ...


I flat PF because they both have such huge ranges that if I 3-bet I get folds almost always so I think theres more value calling here. I plan to c/r the TAG on the flop, he's aggressive enough to c-bet about 80% I think. Fish leading pot throws me out. Not sure I've even seen him lead flop yet, and I really cant put him on a semi-bluff, maybe a pair + FD though.

I raise because...well in the heat of the moment its to protect my hand, but I'm not sure thats best line now. Problem is my raise is so big I'm basically saying "lets play for stacks", and this guys so weak its hard to see him agreeing to that without a made flush. Obv I'm not folding, but maybe flatting the flop is better than raising here?


Umm, thought I'd briefly touch on where I'm at poker wise. Journey continues. At the moment I'm really in a place where I've realised that fundamentally, poker is a game of exploitation. We're trying to exploit our opponents to win money off them. As such I'm really starting to think in terms of what my opponents ranges are in any hand, and how I can best exploit that range in the most +EV way. I've found this has really helped my game v's the ABC TAGs. Since I pretty much know their playbook (they've read the books/websites), its just a matter of exploiting that playstyle. I think I'm getting a lot better at this. One thing I always struggled with was "so, I know what they're doing, but HOW do I exploit it?". Wish I had some great advice here, but just through time, experience, and contemplation, the answers seem to be coming a lot easier now than they used to.

So thats where I'm at. I'm sitting at tables, analysing my opponents play, and coming up with strategies to exploit their play. Seems to be working so far, but I acknowledge I'm running particularly hot atm so dont want to get too carried away.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I raise because...well in the heat of the moment its to protect my hand, but I'm not sure thats best line now. Problem is my raise is so big I'm basically saying "lets play for stacks", and this guys so weak its hard to see him agreeing to that without a made flush. Obv I'm not folding, but maybe flatting the flop is better than raising here?

top set = play for stacks 100bb deep. 22, 55, AQ are also big in villain's hand. If you flat call then you're really gonna hate it if a spade hits on the turn! Nice hand.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

fundamentally, poker is a game of exploitation. We're trying to exploit our opponents to win money off them.

So thats where I'm at. I'm sitting at tables, analysing my opponents play, and coming up with strategies to exploit their play. Seems to be working so far, but I acknowledge I'm running particularly hot atm so dont want to get too carried away.

sounds like you've made a breakthrough - never stop studying/learning. See you at 100nl shortly

top set = play for stacks 100bb deep.

Oh, I'm happy to play for stacks, I'm just not sure that sticking my stack in (in review my raise put him ai bar about $1-2) is the best way to do it. Maybe calling then letting him bet the turn? But then I'm OOP so he could just check behind. Also like you say I'm not happy if a spade hits and I could well be giving him 2 free cards if I just flat. Fairly sure this is right, but not completely sure.

ee you at 100nl shortly Wink

Thats the plan, thanks .

Weee, $1505!

Fairly tired, probably shouldnt have played but figured I'd give it a shot. Down a buyin in about 20 minutes and not really feeling it. Almost quit but pushed on a bit and started feeling better, changed tables a bit (amazing how fast these tables went bad tonight), found a particular generous 40BB shortstacker to my right on one table and took 3 of his buyins (so 1.2 full buyins) off him in about 10 minutes. That got me going and I got some other big hands in. Found a big stack maniac on one table and got ai against his OESD when he called flop and then PSB an A turn and I had KK. Given his image and how bluffy he was I put the last few $s in and breathed a sigh of relief to see he really was semi-bluffing and I held up for another 1.2 buyins. Finished off the session by completing SB with A6s with an UTG limping who'd PSB the flop the last 3 or 4 rounds when he limped UTG, and called down 3 PSBs on a 2QA98 board. He had QTs and shipped me about 1/3 of a buyin to tip me over the amount I needed.

Time to step back up to 4-tabling!

Did some quick reports in HM. I've said I was running hot, well I am. In the last 2 weeks I've played 3k hands, 1700 at 50nl and 1300 at 25nl, and I'm running at 27ptBB/100 (55 BB/100 in HM) for $625 profit.

Added a filter to that report to include only hands where I either called or check called river, to see if I'm right about making a lot from bluff catchers. Interestingly I've only done that 27 times for $40 profit in those 1700 50nl hands. So I wont knock the extra profit, but its a much smaller percentage of my winnings than I thought. On the other hand if I filter by just betting the river then its 24 hands and $96 profit, suggesting my river value betting is doing more for me than my bluff catching.

BR - $1,505

Good job on the BR man!

Man I need to learn how to use HEM properly. I feel like i haven't really played around with any of the filters and stuff.

The c/c on the river one is interesting. Any other helpful filters or what not?

To be honest I havnt played too much, but heres some stuff I have found cool in the filters:

Main filters will often be your first step. Here you can select a specific limit, and more importantly your position at the table. I havnt found a good way to group all results by position, so if I want to check position by position I need to use this filter one at a time. Then theres Filter by Action, which is what I was using above. Theres four columns, in order Pre-Flop, Flop, Turn, River and you "turn on" a column filter by ticking the box above it, then select whatever actions you want to include, theres pretty much everything you can think of.

The last tab looks interesting, but I havnt played with it much. Has a whole lot of general filters like:

Could have 3-bet
Flop continuation bet possible = False
River potsize in BBs is bigger than...
Saw Showdown = True

Craploads of stuff like that which could be pretty fascinating to go through.

You guys like HEM? PO is the ghey and I need to get a new one.

Hold'em Manager rocks. Best thing is, you get a low stakes version for like $55 which hands up to and including 50nl, and then when you want the full version you only make up the difference ($25 I think), so its great for a micro grinder budget.

Its soooo much better than PT2, so I'd assume it rocks PO as well.

oh yeah, I forgot all that sweetness.

PO doesn't work with AP, and only works with stars 1/2 the time. So it's almost worthless.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I havnt found a good way to group all results by position, so if I want to check position by position I need to use this filter one at a time.

You do know that you can choose "Position" in the "Select Report Name from List" drop box (upper left of the screen) right ?

Which part of that sentence leads you to believe I knew that?

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Which part of that sentence leads you to believe I knew that?

Well....hum...you know....when you said this thing....and then....you mentioned also the fact that....anyway you know what part I'm talking about...

Seriously though, you might have mentioned it somewhere in this thread, but what's your SN on Everest ?

I'm CrankyPants on Everest. If any villains have notes on me they probably go something like "aggressive pre-flop, lucky calling station postflop".

Gross session. Paying back my great run lately I guess.

KK < 9K on 3TJ flop for a stack. Big semi-bluff v's an obvious steal that got reraised by a nit gave me odds to stack off with a draw (didnt hit). C/R bluff v's light 3-bettor on 9k3 board got pushed over for 2/3 stack. Semi-bluff gets called by shortstacker with 2nd pair (didnt hit).

Other than one or two spots I think I played fairly well, just the things that have been working a lot lately, never worked once this session, and my big hands never got paid off. Biggest winning pot for the session was $15.

Down 4 buyins after a losing session last night too, drops me back to around $1400, so I'll step back to two tabling and go again .

Sigh, honesty time. Another bad session today, so back to basics.

Ordered my 3 losing sessions by losses and did some analysis, then went through the wins as well (both anything 4bbs or bigger):

Semi-bluff - 4
Slowplayed and let opp catch up - 8
Bad bluffs - 13
Bad Calls - 11

Good call - 2
Good bluff - 1


Now some of the bad ones were actually wins, but on review I think they were bad. So here I am down 5 buyins, but at least I have a place to start. Time to stop getting fancy and get back to my basic winning game. I'm really overthinking some spots, and definately tilting at times. I'm also back playing tired and doing longer sessions.

So...I think I'll take the rest of today off, have a nice sleep in. Will try to get some games in over the weekend though. Back to 2 tabling, and playing 30 mins max at a time. Lets hope I can get things back on track. I'd really like to have a good winning week next week.

Few extra rules:

No more HU until $4k.
If the tables arent good, quit.

I came to post you the rules you just posted!

But, GL this week!

Feeling good. Think I might print up a list of points to stick above my monitor to keep in mind.

I have a terrible habit of thinking "these games suck, I should quit. Hmm, I'm only down $3, lets get even first" and 20 mins later I'm down a buyin and wishing I'd acted on my first thought.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Slowplayed and let opp catch up - 8

Post some of these hand histories of slowplays. Just cause you stacked when someone caught up doesn't necessarily mean that they were bad.

You should calculate the EV of the slowplays. (ie: X% of the time they hit some card and you get paid off A more, and Y% of the time they hit some miracle to stack you and you lose B more) and see if X*A-Y*B is greater or less than zero.

I do this kind of play a fair amount when someone calls a big flop bet on me, and I end up stacking to their turn insider. I like to see if their call was good or not.

For example this hand was from my blog:

$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, July 26, 03:58:14 ET 2008
Table Wadsworth (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jobelu ( $1741.92 USD )
Seat 2: Hero ( $1154.00 USD )
Seat 3: JanneGul ( $1015.00 USD )
Seat 4: Ultgamb ( $702.00 USD )
Seat 5: rollDbone ( $1658.76 USD )
Seat 6: loibedo ( $932.99 USD )
loibedo posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
jobelu posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ac As ]
Hero raises [$30.00 USD]
JanneGul folds
Ultgamb raises [$90.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$90.00 USD]
loibedo folds
jobelu folds
Hero raises [$190.00 USD]
Ultgamb folds
rollDbone calls [$130.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, 6d, 7s ]
Hero bets [$290.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$290.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
Hero bets [$644.00 USD]
rollDbone calls [$644.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 8h ]
Hero shows [Ac, As ]
rollDbone shows [4h, 5h ]
rollDbone wins $2410.00 USD from main pot

Assuming I always bet flop shove turn, and he stacks me when he hits and folds turn if he misses.

approximately 84% of the time I win his flop bet and he folds the turn, and 16% of the time he hits his straight on turn and stacks me. When he misses turn I win $290 from him, and when he hits turn I lose ($290+$644 always)

ev of my play = .84*290-.16(290+644)
= 243.6- 149.44
= $94.16

So we can on avg 9.4 BB's from this hand.

But lets say we bet flop, always slowplay on turn and check (and assume he always checks through) and then we bet river and always stack if he hits. Now 32% of the time we end up stacking off.

ev of our play = .68*290 - .32(290+644)
= 197.2 - 298.88
= -101.68

So we lose 10 BB's on avg from playing the hand this way.

So clearly that turn check is a really big mistake in this particular spot, if we always stack off when he hits.

(granted, there are a lot more variables to this. Sometimes he bets turn when he misses and we get extra money off him yada yada.. so this is just a simplified example)

Just shows how giving an opponent a free card, when we intend on stacking no matter what, could possibly make a really big difference.

Slowplay might not even be the right term, since I'm not talking about times I have a big hand. I'm more talking about times I have a moderate hand and figure rather than bet, I'll check and hope someone bets a weaker hand.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG bigacemoney ($13.00)
CO Koelkast_Don ($135.05)
BTN Diejie ($57.50)
SB Hero ($59.28)
BB montecristo ($32.92)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is SB
bigacemoney calls $0.50, Koelkast_Don raises to $2.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, 1 fold, bigacemoney calls $1.75

Flop: ($7.25, 3 players)
Hero checks, bigacemoney checks, Koelkast_Don checks

Turn: ($7.25, 3 players)
Hero checks, bigacemoney checks, Koelkast_Don checks

River: ($7.25, 3 players)
Hero bets $5, 1 fold, Koelkast_Don raises to $10, Hero calls $5

Final Pot: $27.25
Koelkast_Don shows:
Hero shows:

Koelkast_Don wins $25.90 ( won $13.65 )
bigacemoney lost -$2.25
Hero lost -$12.25


$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG DutchWanker ($7.00)
CO dadafe ($13.85)
BTN dpickles31 ($94.20)
SB fetzer31 ($15.31)
BB Hero ($53.90)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BB
3 folds, fetzer31 calls $0.25, Hero raises to $2, fetzer31 calls $1.50

Flop: ($4, 2 players)
fetzer31 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($4, 2 players)
fetzer31 checks, Hero checks

River: ($4, 2 players)
fetzer31 bets $4, Hero calls $4

Final Pot: $12
fetzer31 shows:
Hero shows:

fetzer31 wins $11.40 ( won $5.40 )
Hero lost -$6.00



Hands like those.


Interesting maths, I've been meaning to work some of that stuff out. I'll go through it more when I have some more time. Thanks .

don't get caught with top pair on fourth street in a multiway limped pots


i guess this counts for multiway raised pots as well



and why did you not bet the KK IP? You essentially turned it into some kind of a bluff catcher


edit:

Slowplay might not even be the right term, since I'm not talking about times I have a big hand. I'm more talking about times I have a moderate hand and figure rather than bet, I'll check and hope someone bets a weaker hand.

oh i c

I'm on a real value kick atm. Essence of which is if my bet will only be called by a better hand, and all weaker hands will fold, then betting isnt the right play. What I'm missing however, is that one of the biggest disasters in poker is allowing a worse hand to improve past yours for free.

Both those hands I think the right play is to bet turn. If all I do is take down the pot, then thats fine.

Hand 1
-checking the turn J isn't horrible since it's so multiway. But once you get to river, I don't see why you'd lead on this river. Leading into this many ppl looks super strong so you def won't get called by worse, so you're better off at least checking and hoping someone tries bluffing the straight if you really wanna get value here

Hand 2
-Yah I prob bet this turn, but its not a disaster checking it here. The pot is small, you're not gonna make a huge mistake either way.


Jack Sawyer - checking KK on the flop in this spot is reasonably standard in position. I'd say its better to check in position than OOP, since you can catch all his bluffs on his turn leads and check through river again.

For balance its obvioulsy good to check through good aces from time to time in position as well.

If I'm not going to bet the J on the turn though, I probably should fold PF. I call to either take this away postflop, or get some value v's his weaker isolating hands. Agree on river though, dunno wtf I was thinking there.

KK is definately standard to check behind on flop, I much prefer betting turn though. Mainly to try to get some value moreso than protection (although in this case it would have been a bonus ).

I mean, I dont think either are dreadful, but if I average a $5 loss on each one, and made similar mistakes 8 times in 1k hands, thats a buyin worth of mistakes that are probably easy to fix (not to mention extra value from the times my bets are called by worse).

If I'd saved a buyin worth of mistakes on each of those groups by making less (not none, I dont expect a perfect game) which is fairly conservative amount, then thats 4 buyins (after my downswing I'd have had $1500 instead of $1300 left in my roll). All adds up.

On the train home tonight (I only travel to work 1 day a week) I tried a different approach and went through my good sessions looking for things I did different. Didnt really find any. Worth a shot though .

Great session tonight, found some good tables. Plan was to do just 30 mins (another thing I did on the train was order my sessions by $/ph and like 9/10 best sessions were short and 8/10 of my worst sessions were long), however I got stuck playing one table for like 1.5hrs. Heres the stats after about an hr:

31/16/2 100bbs
53/2/1.4 50bbs
31/3/6 150bbs
48/10/1 150bbs
59/16/1.6 150bbs
me with 200bbs

Fun fun . Ran kinda card dead so didnt make as much as I might have, but put in a solid $90 winning session, which considering 2/3 of that was single tabling I'm happy enough with.

God. Why do I spew? Took only 30 mins to lose last nights winnings plus more, basically $100 on two ai hands I had no business being all in on. Wasnt tired or distracted, but obviously wasnt in the right mindset as I just kept making bad calls for no good reason.

Gonna put together a list of rules, print them up, pin them above my monitor. Hopefully that might keep me in check. Damn, I mean if I go through and cut out half my losses from bad plays I'm probably playing 100nl by now...


1. Table select, better to not play than play a bad table.
2. No HU.
3. Dont get ai without at LEAST QQ/AK and fold those without a read.
4. Dont make hero calls without a VALID reason.
5. Dont semi-bluff push.
6. Value bet with the best hand, dont slowplay.
7. Dont bluff without a good reason for thinking it will work. If in doubt, fold.

8. Fold to aggression without a read otherwise.
9. Dont play tired or inebriated.


Feel free to add!


BR - $1250 .

Also whilst asking for advice.

I identified ages ago, that my biggest problems are psychological. When my heads right, I play well. If its not, I spew. I'm trying to come up with ideas to help with that, but I'd welcome any suggestions as well.

check this thread discipline[/quote]

your list of rules fall into three categories
good:
2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9

good, but need some explanation:
3 - good rule pre-flop and 100bb deep? - the rule changes post-flop and/or vs shortstacks <30bb. Also, big difference between calling and raising all-in
5 - unless fold equity+odds make it +EV (e.g. oesd+flush draw in a 3-bet pot on a low board - etc)

bad:
1 - very few tables are bad, some seats are bad - there is a big difference

also, to address your request for advice...
identify why you play poker. Think about it a lot. Write about it. Understand it. Condense it to a few words. Make a mantra of it. Breathe long and deep before calling a push or re-raising all-in, consider what you're doing before doing it. Note these hands and examine them later - when you win big on the hands you should post without results, otherwise results orientated thinking kicks in, and this encourages bad play in future.

where in oz are ya?

3 refers to pre-flop full stack equivalents. I expect very few people at this level to fold to an AI if we've got to that point in any sensible fashion, so it still pretty much applies to raising and calling.

5 I dont see an OESD+FD as a semi-bluff since I'm usually favorite to win the hand. If I'm pushing on a semi-bluff then its a big pot, and people at this level dont fold to a push in big pots, so a semi-bluff loses any FE in my games (pretty much the reason for the rule, I'll get called by middle pair and still only be 33% to win the hand so stacking off is just spew).

1. Meh, at times Everest has like 6 tables running with a TAG in each seat. Not that I dont think I can beat that, but the risk/reward is fairly pointless when theres other times its so much better. Now I've added fast tables back in (filtered them out when I was starting off) this is less of a problem.

Nice advice, I'll have to think on that .

I'm in Ballarat, just north of Melbourne.


Adding a few more:
10. Quit as soon as I realise I'm playing bad.
11. Set a time limit to play, stick to it. Only play longer if a game is VERY good, not because I want to get unstuck first.
12. Fold if I'm sure I'm beat, even if its "not much" to call.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

1. Meh, at times Everest has like 6 tables running with a TAG in each seat.

I'm in Ballarat, just north of Melbourne.

have you considered a move back to FT? you had rakeback there, right? and you moved to Everest for the fish, but they're not there? just a thought.... i have an everest account, but don't play there much at all...

and ballarat, never been there...

Originally Posted by bjsaust

1. Meh, at times Everest has like 6 tables running with a TAG in each seat.

I'm in Ballarat, just north of Melbourne.

have you considered a move back to FT? you had rakeback there, right? and you moved to Everest for the fish, but they're not there? just a thought.... i have an everest account, but don't play there much at all...

and ballarat, never been there...

The thing is, being smaller there are times theres only TAGs chasing the occassional fish around, but there are other times theres heaps of tables to choose from. On average its still WAY easier to beat than FT at the equivalent level. Like 5NL on FT or stars type competition. Thats kinda why if its no good, I'd prefer to just quit and try again later than hope to cooler a TAG.

I'm thinking of moving half my roll onto another site to cover the times Everest is bad. Probably not FT though, maybe an iPoker site.

Everest also has monthly bonuses that help make up for no Rakeback. I'll easily clear a $75 bonus this month, and I think they're weighted to what you play, so next months should be higher (but harder to clear).

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I identified ages ago, that my biggest problems are psychological. When my heads right, I play well. If its not, I spew. I'm trying to come up with ideas to help with that, but I'd welcome any suggestions as well.

Hrmm. I know exactly how you feel. When i make a couple of super good hero calls, im unstoppable(lol) and i really start to kick in to my 'A' game.

On the other hand...when i make a hero call With Ace high and he flips over a set or something rediculous, i begin to tilt slightly. I suppose its all apart of the natural poker learning process.

I think sticky notes are a good idea. I put some up on my monitor. Just really basic stuff, but it does help.

p.s. My Roll is the same as yours now.. lol, finally caught up.

Nice man!!! Take a lesson from me, if I took out all the spew from my game in the last week I'd probably be up around $1700 now . That shit really hurts the roll. Isnt it cool to burst through $1k finally though . Seems like such a hurdle when you cant quite make it past for a while.


Hmm, broke one rule tonight. Planned to play 30 mins before bed, ended up playing a 2hr session. Tables were ok but not great. Man, I ran REALLY card dead. I think after 30 mins I was 3/3 and 10/6 on my two tables, having been dealt AK once, QK once and nothing else of note, not even a small PP. Overall it felt good though. I did a fairly good job keeping a lid on things. Probably on review played two or three hands bad, but even one of them wasnt that bad, and only lost about 1/2 a buyin all up. Sounds bad, but for 2 hrs I'll take that any day.

Main problem was hands just werent being paid. Never got a cent out of a set postflop, and for a long time there my 2 biggest wins were $15 and $11. Then again, I think I did a good job keeping my head and playing solid poker even though things werent flowing my way. Tables broke down so openned 2 more. Had a lucky suckout on one with TPGK+FD v's made low flush on flop improving to a FH with the board pairing twice for about 1/3 a stack. It was the other table that got interesting though. Finally hit a run of cards. I think 2nd hand I 3-bet btn open with AA and he folded. Then like 3 hands later I raised with AA in MP and he 3-bet me back. I 4-bet him hoping he had something good enough to come over my obvious overaggressive play, but no good. Went that way for a while with me showing a fair amount of aggression due to cards, but nothing being paid that well. Then I had these two hands 4 apart:

53/26 pretty terrible postflop.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG _Janitor_ ($49.35)
UTG 1 Capricorn1 ($135.37)
CO Jude_AAZ ($27.85)
BTN tobestar11 ($50.00)
SB patou@21 ($57.10)
BB Hero ($50.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BB
2 folds, Jude_AAZ raises to $1.75, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5.50, Jude_AAZ calls $3.75

Flop: ($11.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $7, Jude_AAZ calls $7

Turn: ($25.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $16, Jude_AAZ calls $15.35

River: ($56.60, 2 players)

Final Pot: $56.60
Hero shows:
Jude_AAZ shows:

Hero wins $53.85 ( won $25.35 )
Jude_AAZ lost -$27.85


Fold 2 hands then:

Solid TAG.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG tobestar11 ($50.00)
UTG 1 patou@21 ($56.85)
CO Hero ($75.10)
BTN _Janitor_ ($51.10)
SB Capricorn1 ($134.87)
BB Jude_AAZ ($9.50)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is CO
2 folds, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, Capricorn1 raises to $6.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $23, Capricorn1 raises to $69.50, Hero raises to $75.10, Capricorn1 calls $5.60

Flop: ($150.70, 2 players)

Turn: ($150.70, 2 players)

River: ($150.70, 2 players)

Final Pot: $150.70
Hero shows:
Capricorn1 shows:

Hero wins $147.70 ( won $72.60 )
Capricorn1 lost -$75.10



Weee for bad table image!!!

That made it a +$89 session so even though the table looked good, I quit ahead. Embarrasingly this still left me down about $18 for the day, but it could definately be worse.

BR - $1360

Originally Posted by daven

check this thread discipline

To keep a mind running in its best shape you need to do the same for body. I play the best poker when I work out on a daily basis.

Wow, eyes open! I do the same, and during my heater I was, but last week or two have let life get the better of me and stopped working out. Maybe if I link the two more strongly I can keep both up.

Thanks for thread, will try to pick some more tips up too!

Quick post, keep thinking I should update less, but then find things to add. Was having a bit of a discussion via email with a friend about things lately, and made a comment:

"If I can keep out of trouble, I can easily beat this game at this level. I'm my own worst enemy atm."

He responded along the lines of how he feels that way too, or at least hopes it is. Heres my response, thought others might find it useful/interesting.

Heres something I do.

When I review a session, in particular a losing one, I identify the hands I played badly. I then take the portion of that money I put into that hand beyond when I should have and sum it with the same part of other hands. So say I lost $20, but the first $5 were PF raise and c-bet and at that point I should have stopped, then I add $15 to my "lost through bad play" tally. I then add this amount onto my earnings/loss for the session. VERY few sessions "resummed" this way, turn into losing sessions. Even the worst ones often come out about break even. Thats what tells me I can beat it. The more I can move those "lost through bad play" amounts out of that tally and back into my roll, the more I'll be beating the game. Thats BEFORE improving the positive aspects of my game, like learning more +EV plays or finding better ways to extract value.

Brutal night .

Really happy with how I played, probably only a couple bad hands in what ended up almost 2hr session. On the other hand, I ended up losing almost $100 for the session. How can I play well and lose that much?

-$102 : 33 v AA on AQ3 flop.
-$70 with straight v's better straight (maybe could have saved some on this one)
-$64 : AKs v T5o on 55K flop in 3-bet pot (he 3-bet because he thought I was bottom raising!)
-50 : 77 v 79 on 79KT turn rivers a 9 (I'm 95.5% when that money went in!!!).

Thats $286 in beats and coolers.

I then had two bad hands that lost about $40 each.

So without the bad hands I'm nearly even, but over 767 hands I think 2 bad ones are ok. The straight v straight was bottom v's top and I shoved river for an extra $25 or so, so maybe thats 'bad play' money too.

Only two wins over 50bbs were a BB special FH with Q3 v's trip 2s on 2Q332 board, and a suckout with TPTK v's slowplayed overpair rivering 2nd pair (AJ v KK).

Some $20 or so pots included a flopped straight v's 2nd pair turned 2P, AA v 55 ai pre, an AK steal v's donkbet on 556 board, MP+FD semibluff hit flush and got called.

Thats about it, other than that I was able to rack up just a heap of small-med pots. I think only my FH was bigger than any of my coolers/beats (it was $65).

So, sucks that I lost $100, but good that I kept it together and played good poker, putting in a session that usually would have been a good winning one. If I can keep the spew out of my game, hopefully it'll turn around. On the positive I cleared my Everest bonus doing so, so that earnt me $75 back to stay around $1325 in my BR.

Originally Posted by daven

have you considered a move back to FT? you had rakeback there, right? and you moved to Everest for the fish, but they're not there? just a thought.... i have an everest account, but don't play there much at all...

At the right times, you can still find plenty of these guys .

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG diegolipa ($53.70)
UTG 1 MrJean ($49.40)
CO tiltadoriver ($50.00)
BTN survival66 ($27.40)
SB hapi08 ($124.55)
BB Hero ($66.33)
[tiltadoriver posted $0.5]

Pre-flop: ($1.25, 6 players) Hero is BB
diegolipa calls $0.50, 1 fold, tiltadoriver checks, 1 fold, hapi08 calls $0.25, Hero checks

Flop: ($2, 4 players)
hapi08 checks, Hero bets $1.50, diegolipa raises to $3, 1 fold, hapi08 folds, Hero raises to $9.50, diegolipa raises to $30.50, Hero raises to $65.83, diegolipa calls $22.70

Turn: ($121.03, 2 players)

River: ($121.03, 2 players)

Final Pot: $121.03
Hero shows:
diegolipa shows:

Hero wins $118.03 ( won $51.70 )
tiltadoriver lost -$0.50
hapi08 lost -$0.50
diegolipa lost -$53.70

God, gotta try to stick this out.

I think I've been going really well with the mental side and playing a good game, but the cards just havnt been kind. Up and down a bit but feeling good about how I'm playing. Started todays session at $1300, and its only 10 mins before I take a 70/0 CS to value town with TPGK and he l/c preflop and calls down with AA. Stuck out the next 30 mins or so basically break even, down about another $15 and just as I'm finishing the session I get AA with $70 stack v's a TAG who has me covered and get AI v's their KK. I'm 82% to finish the session a couple $s up. I think you can guess the result .

$1150 BR.

God, I just hope I can keep my head where its been the last few days and actually get some cooperation from the cards to turn this stuff around.

Have you considered moving back down to 25 for a bit?

step a) Play 25NL until roll > $2500
step b) ????????
step c) profit

or alternatively

step a) singletable 100NL on current roll
step b) ???????????
step c) busto or profit

Starting to consider it. Fact is I'm still break even over the last 3 weeks, its just it went up at the start and back down at the end .

2 tabling 50nl was working fine. To be honest I find very little difference in skill/difficulty between the two, and think I play better 2 tabling 50nl than 4-tabling 25nl. I'm just hitting a run of beats and coolers, right after a string of bad play.

I have a BRM plan. Its more aggressive than most (initially, it turns rather conservative after I reach 100nl), but I'm also more disciplined than most about sticking to it. For now I'll stay with it.

lol @ 2nd alternative Jack. Dont tempt me when I'm feeling vulnerable to tilt!!!

LOL, believe me when I tell you you cannot be as fucking tilted as I am right now for playing with fucking ongame software. I'll clear the $170 bonus I have there and move the fuck away and never turn back.

the bad play is not worth the atrocious software, and that is some real fucked up shit
i used to be able to tolerate it, but i can't anymore. i'm too old for that shit

even my old darling UB is starting to tilt me, I guess it will be just Pokerstars (tourneys and O8 cash), Full Tilt (cash, even with its incredible amount of action turns and rivers), Bodog (no RB , but 10-man SNG's and sports), The Greek (Sports) and PKR (yay 3D and 10-man SNG's) from now on

Lol, I checked out the 100nl games and saw a 70%vpip $25 avg pot table with no waitlist, so added myself. Watched the table for a couple of minutes then finally came to my senses and unwaitlisted that and jumped on some 50nl tables instead.

+$20 in 30 min session. Better than nothing...

[edit]So I look at my sessions in HM, feeling kinda low coz my BR has taken a hiding today. I had a +$77 session Monday evening, a -$148 just before, and a +$22 right now. Now if that AAvKK hand had held up, I'd be looking at my last three sessions thinking "nice, $100 in 3 sessions, playing well, things have really turned around. I'm gonna own poker". Instead I'm looking at my lowest BR in 3 weeks and feeling like poker kicked me in the guts.

I guess this is what they mean when they talk about a conservative BR approach making the swings easier to handle. Whilst I do stick strictly to my BRM plan so dont think I suffer too much BR wise by being aggressive, I definately do suffer the swings poorly. Worth thinking about I guess. Might chat it over a bit.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I guess this is what they mean when they talk about a conservative BR approach making the swings easier to handle. Whilst I do stick strictly to my BRM plan so dont think I suffer too much BR wise by being aggressive, I definately do suffer the swings poorly. Worth thinking about I guess. Might chat it over a bit.

I'm working on 80 buy-ins at the moment, and it makes the swings a LOT easier to handle than if i moved up...

I also wonder if there is merit in suggestion that you learn to multi-table?

you could drop back to 10nl super-rolled, equipped with rakeback. Get up to playing 10 tables and kick it's arse for 5-10ptBB/100 and generate a bunch of buy-ins fairly quickly. Good for rakeback, bonuses too. Dunno, I just look at how much i get from rakeback and bonuses and I think that I would struggle to make up the difference in table earnings if i dropped to 2 tables.
depends what you're after from poker i guess!

At this point in my "career" I'm really mostly interested in becoming a better poker player. I figure I do that best by concentrating on 2-4 tables at a time and giving myself time to think. Definately means I'm probably dropping some potential profits in the short term, but hopefully will help me develop more quickly. Obviously I'd love to generate some profits and move up in the meantime, but as long as I'm not going broke my main thrust at the moment is improving. I figure its easier to become good and then learn to multi-table, than it is to learn to multi-table then learn to get better while playing multi-tables.

Maybe a balance in the middle would work though. Like take it in turns multi-tabling 25nl one session then 2 tabling 50nl the next. I'm prepared to consider a lot of ideas atm.

Plan is once I hit 100nl to drop (increase?) to a 50 buyin type plan, but I'd like to get there first.

Stick to your original BRM plan. Things will work out, just give it time. This time next week you'll be on your way up to a comfy roll again.

Havnt updated for a while coz...well more of the same.

Ran bad for a while. Generally playing good, couple of mistakes but played the sort of poker that should be profitable just the cards werent cooperating. Dropped down as low as $1,031. Felt good about my poker, bad about my results.

Things turned around a bit over the weekend. I had one -$68 dollar session that I shouldnt have been playing (drove 7 hrs during the day and decided I should play for an hr when I got home at 10pm...) and a -$20 session that was just meh, nothing exciting just gradually bled a bit. Other than that I ended up over $200 profit from the weekend. Around $1250 now. Still needs to go up more please, but its going in the right direction which is helping my mood.

Sticking to the same BRM plan. I'm tending to 3-table instead of 2-table, but close down a table if it goes bad (kinda like having one in reserve but playing it).

I think I'm playing a little passive than I should I think, playing a bit scared at times. I'm running like 15/11 playing 6-max which is a bit silly. Gotta step that up, especially from position.

Things are looking better. Played tonight after a few glasses of red. Probably shouldnt have, but the cards were hot so it worked out. Was up $75 in about 15 mins, lost a buyin with a badly played overpair (v's quads, yey! wtf, no way he has a 6 there!) a couple other bleh hands, but I also started 3-betting and even 4-betting a lot more, including my first ever 4-bet bluff (89s) v's a squeeze from an aggressive opp that worked. I then had a chance to 4-bet about 3 hands later with AA but no good. I got way too much respect for the frequency I was doing it, but I guess thats why its profits.


Mentioned in Griffeys log that I keep a SS now with comments. Thought I'd post the comments from the last bunch of sessions (some cover more than one session if I didnt update in the middle):

buyins, comment
-1.6 Bad semi-bluff then priced in with FD on scary board. Otherwise card dead.
1.5
-4 Ran TPGK into AA v's 70/0 CS for $50 and $70 ai pre AA v KK got beaten
0.5 Nice session stacked a donk, maybe a bad semi-bluff though.
-1 Set v's straight, went for value when there was none on river
-2 A flip for a buyin and two bad calldowns
0.4 Decent session, no real mistakes. Maybe a little value lost
2 Nice run, hands held up, found good tables. One big suckout though.
-1 Bad, shouldn’t be playing tired! Two attrocious "he's bluffing" stackoffs with 2nd pair ruined an otherwise winning session.
1 Nice session, one draw sucked out on me, one bad bluff cost me about $30 though.
1.5 Good session, no mistakes stood out, got my money in good v's fish.
0.2 Tables were fairly bad so quit after 20 mins. Better to not play than play bad tables
0.5 I think a bad ai with bottom 2 pair (although as he played later not so bad)
0.3 Bit of a bleh session, nothing exciting, tables werent great but not bad enough to leave
0.6
1 Nothing exciting, some reads paid off which was nice. Hands held up.
1 Could have won more, been drinking, played a couple bad, but good aggression won me some $s. First real 4-bet bluff based on a read!


BR - $1380

Ahh, pokers a funny game.

I'm interstate atm, sitting in a hotel room just about to go to bed. Played 2 fairly large sessions tonight. First for about 2 hrs and frankly played poorly at the beginning, head just wasnt right, dropped a buyin, worked my way back to even, then had the thrill of finally getting a set of aces v's a set of kings. Dunno why, I've always dreamed of that and it finally happenned! So up a buyin from a fairly meh session.

Second session I think I played really well. Made reads, made plays based on those reads, good laydowns, pot control when required, aggression when required, felt great, playing great, then I ran KK into JJ ai preflop and he hit his set . Down half a buyins I go after a good start. Takes a grind, but finally got back to even for that session and quit (I know this is bad, but man...I havnt had a losing session in a while, didnt want to start tonight).

So the session I played meh I winz monies, and the session I play well I barely breakz even.

Anyway, really happy with that second session. Looking through my big hands, and I lost $50 with the KK v JJ hand (obv played fine) and other than that only 1 $8 loss and the rest fairly small. On the other hand, my biggest winning hand was only $10. There was no big monster that made up for the beat, there was just a lot of good solid small - med pots that added up. May have lost a bit of value on some, but I think v's ranges I sized things fairly well. I just wasnt hitting big hands.

So really happy with how I'm playing poker generally atm. Not perfect, but the majority of my play time I feel I'm playing well, and pokers being kind and reflecting that in my results at last. Looking back to last week when I was playing well but not getting the results, I'm fairly happy I was able to keep my head straight and get through it playing well.

Had hoped to brag tonight about hitting $1.5k again, but not to be (if my Ks had held up I would be ).

BR - $1425

I'm happy with that. Makes me profitable over the last 21 days now. Given that my big downswing is at the start of that period its nice to have worked past it. Now to hit my old BR peak and move on past to $2k and 100nl!

Been thinking of some more pokery things to discuss, dont want to only talk results in here. Tired now, will try to get some stuff written soon. Been having some great discussions with my poker group and really openning my eyes to the game. Lots of good stuff recently on FTR and in particular other operations too that have helped me think about the game.

Ok, promised to talk some poker stuff. Heres where my thoughts have been lately. Ranges and how we can affect our opponents ranges.

Like, we all should be aware of ranges. ISF etc have ground on about them for ages, but I dunno, for me obviously it takes some time to sink in. Its kind of freaky when we think about it. Our opponent has one specific hand. Thats it. He either has a better hand than us or not. However to be profitable, we work in ranges, and somehow it works. I'm not sure why, but it does. I take it on faith.

Anyway, what has basically missed me till now, is how we can affect our opponents range. He has one, so what can we do to change it? At first it doesnt make sense, but lets look at an example:

Average TAG opp raises from the button, and we're in the SB with AQo. His range is very wide since he's somewhat positionally aware and knows he can raise profitably there with a lot of hands. We're way ahead of his range, so obviously we should raise right? However, think what happens when we raise. He probably sees us as decent tag, and we're saying we want to play a big pot OOP against a fellow TAG. He should be aware enough to know our range is fairly tight there. Maybe we're bluffing, but he's in a bad spot to find out. So he only calls us with stuff like 77+, AK. Maybe AQ. Perhaps AJs if he's confident postflop.

Look what happenned to his range. We've gone from well ahead of his range, to behind his range. So by raising, we've moved from a spot where we're well ahead of his range, to manipulating his range to now be behind it. In effect, WE changed his range.

So when playing v's an opponents range, we need to consider what effect our actions will have on our opponents range, and whether thats an effect we really want.

Gosh, mixed up day today. Played two 1 hr sessions.

First one I lost two 85%+ ai hands, fortunately both only about 1/2 a stack, but also a few biggish other hands and like nothing good all session. Lost

$100.

Then I sat down again tonight and played an hr and it was really meh. Couldnt find a good table, they werent awful, but just not good. Couldnt hit a hand, people would call c-bets with middle pair, the maniacs always had something when I took a stand, just a bleh session.

Then I got AA ai pre twice in about 2 minutes, one a 30bb stack but the other a fullstack, and they both held up. Hmm, actually the fullstack didnt go in pre, he flatted my 4-bet with AKs leaving $30 pot and $35 stacks, I c-bet $17 on a Q high two tone flop and he flatted then called the rest off on the turn with FD. Wee!

Won $100.

Numbers rounded off, think I ended the day about $10 down in poker but cleared $10 of my bonus so even for the day all up.

Heater couldnt last forever.

Its interesting, over approx 25k hands on both sites I'm running about $300 above expectation, but over 5k hands on iPoker I'm running about $200 below expectation.

BR - $1425

So I had a meh day yesterday. Fortunately due to the wonders of technology I was able to do a review.

It felt like I was running bad, losing all my flips and getting sucked out on a bunch. I was. I had a -$18 day and my expectation was about $70. So that kinda sucked. Rather than leave it at that though, I dug a little deeper. I grouped my sessions by day and fetched all hands then sorted by Equity %. That basically shows me all my hands I got ai before the river at the top in order of my equity.

Basically what I found were a bunch of pots I had no right being in. In fact, if I just add up the hands where I got ai and shouldnt have (the amount of money at which I should have folded), I'd have lost about $150 less, or put another way, ended up about $120.

Now it might not be quite that simple, maybe some of those bad stackoffs affected the good stackoffs, but maybe not. For sure though I wasnt just "running bad". I was playing bad too. I guess after 2 weeks of playing fairly well I can have a bad day, but I gotta make sure I plug that back up now.

Knew you'd pull through man, gj. I really think you have what it takes to grind it out through the levels, and start making as much as the super grinders here. You seem to have a great understanding of the game and its concepts. Keep at it.


p.s. I should really make my own operation thread sometime lol.

Thanks .

Yeah. Again its SO obvious I can beat this game (at this level) if I just play decent poker thats well within my ability. Its when I lose concentration a bit and start playing bad poker that I get into trouble. Its not even needing my A game, its just avoiding my D game .

You should make an op thread .

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Average TAG opp raises from the button, and we're in the SB with AQo. His range is very wide since he's somewhat positionally aware and knows he can raise profitably there with a lot of hands. We're way ahead of his range, so obviously we should raise right? However, think what happens when we raise. He probably sees us as decent tag, and we're saying we want to play a big pot OOP against a fellow TAG. He should be aware enough to know our range is fairly tight there. Maybe we're bluffing, but he's in a bad spot to find out. So he only calls us with stuff like 77+, AK. Maybe AQ. Perhaps AJs if he's confident postflop.

Look what happenned to his range. We've gone from well ahead of his range, to behind his range. So by raising, we've moved from a spot where we're well ahead of his range, to manipulating his range to now be behind it. In effect, WE changed his range.

average TAG op doesn't understand post-flop positional advantage and thinks our range is wide enough, but skewed towards QQ+/AK. If you 3-bet hard enough, he's folding most hands that you stated, or playing them super weak post-flop. We're abusing his range, and building image. We can fairly easily fold to a push, and we're betting any flop - maybe slow on AQQ or TJK or something..

We have an advantage in that we just narrowed his range - what we don't want is AQ without initiative, out of position, and with no idea of his cards (40% of hands are steals from the button here)

More important, he's also folding almost all ace or king high flops when you c-bet. He's only 4-betting KK+. We are behind his range with AQ, but that doesn't matter cos he can't see our cards.

Was waiting for a response along those lines . I didnt actually recommend a course of action, just explained the consequences of our actions. What we need to do now we understand this is come up with the best way to play the hand. What most people (myself included), was not really consider the consequences of raising. We just think "I'm ahead of his range, bet/raise". What we need to consider is how we fare v's his calling/raising range if we go that route. We should also be able to extend this further, and if we think he does fold MOST of his range when we 3-bet, then we can come up with some pretty logical ideas on how to setup our own range in this situation.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

We should also be able to extend this further, and if we think he does fold MOST of his range when we 3-bet, then we can come up with some pretty logical ideas on how to setup our own range in this situation.

wide and polarised until he adjusts

Yeah. So I mean, I'm still thinking things through and coming to conclusions, but its an interesting, and somewhat new to me, way to think about the ways we can develop hands. We extend this same thinking to a variety of opps. For instance v's a guy who'll fold hardly any of his range, we'd have less bluffs but a wider "value" range since unlike the first example, we now will dominate a number of hands that call.

Been ill all day, but suddenly at bedtime didnt feel like sleeping, so played a 30 min session. Heres my 3 biggest hands:


Hand 1

Rueb is around 40/30/3 with close to 50% attempt to steal (not a huge sample, 50ish maybe). Zamalik is a total fish, I'm confident he'll overcall pf.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Smileees ($63.06)
CO zamalik ($20.19)
BTN Rueb ($53.66)
SB fmm440 ($48.75)
BB Hero ($51.10)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BB
1 fold, zamalik calls $0.50, Rueb raises to $2.25, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.75, zamalik calls $1.75

Flop: ($7, 3 players)
Hero bets $5, 1 fold, Rueb raises to $11, Hero raises to $48.85, Rueb calls $37.85

Turn: ($104.70, 2 players)

River: ($104.70, 2 players)

Final Pot: $104.70
Rueb shows:

Rueb wins $101.70 ( won $50.60 )
Hero lost -$51.10
zamalik lost -$2.25


Ooops, but I really think QQ is the very top of his range here, I think I have great fold equity (usually) and it turns out I have about 45% equity anyway, so while it sucks to get it in as a dog I think the play was good.



Hand 2

Errm, fmm440 was about 10/10 over small sample, and I assumed the fish zamalik would come along. Smilees was somewhat new to the table with tagish stats.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Rueb ($155.05)
CO fmm440 ($50.75)
BTN Hero ($50.00)
SB Smileees ($49.50)
BB zamalik ($25.31)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, fmm440 raises to $2, Hero calls $2, Smileees calls $1.75, zamalik calls $1.50

Flop: ($8, 4 players)
Smileees bets $8, 2 folds, Hero raises to $22, Smileees raises to $47.50, Hero calls $25.50

Turn: ($103, 2 players)

River: ($103, 2 players)

Final Pot: $103
Smileees shows:

Hero wins $100 ( won $50.50 )
Smileees lost -$49.50
zamalik lost -$2.00
fmm440 lost -$2.00

Could definately 3-bet this PF, especially without enough hands to get a good read on fmm, but I chose to flat and play some postflop. Didnt expect it 4-way but the flop obviously rocks for me and is likely to have hit someone elses range. The pot sized donkbet is just gravy. I think the hand pretty much plays itself, and I learn that Smilees will get in a lot wider than I'd have thought.


Hand 3

Villains first hand at table I think.

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG fayce ($22.58)
CO Rueb ($178.36)
BTN fmm440 ($46.50)
SB Hero ($101.45)
BB Mehrzweckgnu ($50.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is SB
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, Mehrzweckgnu raises to $6, Hero raises to $101.45, Mehrzweckgnu calls $44

Flop: ($151.45, 2 players)

Turn: ($151.45, 2 players)

River: ($151.45, 2 players)

Final Pot: $151.45
Mehrzweckgnu shows:

Hero wins $148.45 ( won $47.00 )
Mehrzweckgnu lost -$50.00


BvB against an unknown I think this is ok.


Pity I didnt hit the draw, but a $53 session in 30 mins is nice.

BR - $1394.61

Short and sharp. Hit and run! They're my new motto's . Especially while I'm a bit under the weather, even a 15-20 min session with 1 big pot is better than playing off my game for long periods. 20 mins just now for another $30. Would have been...well $40 or $50 if a TT had held up v's a shorties A9 bvb for $20, but then I won almost $10 back off him the next hand so if I'd stacked him the first hand I may not have got the $s in the second.

Been talking to a few guys lately about how much better it is to finish sessions up. The amount of times I've been up nicely and decided to just play a bit longer and end up losing it. Sometimes its a cooler, sometimes a beat, sometimes I just play bad, but I'll often be $50-$80 up after 20-30 mins and end up playing for an hr or more and either break even or end up down. Rather than get tired of wishing I'd quit while ahead, I'm trying to actually quit while I'm ahead . Even if 30 mins later I start again, just finish that session up and refresh myself.

Ok, not so happy now. Just finished my worst session ever. -$210 shoots my roll back down to around $1215 or so I think.

A couple of bad "stands" against people who'd been 3-betting me regularly. Then capped off by this beauty:

40/30/5 somewhat small sample

$0.25/$0.5 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG iwannabegabe ($50.40)
UTG 1 fmm440 ($50.80)
CO buhuhu20 ($73.65)
BTN HotPotGuy ($95.90)
SB crayonkid ($63.35)
BB Hero ($63.10)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BB
3 folds, HotPotGuy raises to $2, crayonkid calls $1.75, Hero raises to $8, HotPotGuy calls $6, crayonkid folds

Flop: ($18, 2 players)
Hero checks, HotPotGuy bets $10, Hero raises to $55.10, HotPotGuy calls $45.10

Turn: ($128.20, 2 players)

River: ($128.20, 2 players)

Final Pot: $128.20
HotPotGuy shows:

HotPotGuy wins $125.20 ( won $62.10 )
crayonkid lost -$2.00
Hero lost -$63.10


I obviously stayed at the table for a while longer trying to get in good v's him, but cards wouldnt come and I decided to end the session rather than risk it turning even worse .

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Been talking to a few guys lately about how much better it is to finish sessions up. The amount of times I've been up nicely and decided to just play a bit longer and end up losing it. Sometimes its a cooler, sometimes a beat, sometimes I just play bad, but I'll often be $50-$80 up after 20-30 mins and end up playing for an hr or more and either break even or end up down. Rather than get tired of wishing I'd quit while ahead, I'm trying to actually quit while I'm ahead . Even if 30 mins later I start again, just finish that session up and refresh myself.

if running up a profit early and burning some/most towards the end is an establish pattern, it may be because your level of focus regularly drops off after a certain length of time. i know i read somewhere that for most people 30-45 minutes into a mentally intensive activity like poker ones concentration lowers considerably.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Been talking to a few guys lately about how much better it is to finish sessions up. The amount of times I've been up nicely and decided to just play a bit longer and end up losing it. Sometimes its a cooler, sometimes a beat, sometimes I just play bad, but I'll often be $50-$80 up after 20-30 mins and end up playing for an hr or more and either break even or end up down. Rather than get tired of wishing I'd quit while ahead, I'm trying to actually quit while I'm ahead . Even if 30 mins later I start again, just finish that session up and refresh myself.

if running up a profit early and burning some/most towards the end is an established pattern, it may be because your level of focus regularly drops off after a certain length of time. i know i read somewhere that for most people 30-45 minutes into a mentally intensive activity like poker ones concentration lowers considerably.

Yeah, I think thats the case.

Calmed down a bit, thought about things. I think I've started getting ahead of myself. Been doing some plays like the above after reading stuff from the higher stakes guys (Griffey/Zook/etc). Gambooling v's the fish, semi-bluffing overs in 3-bet pots, stuff like that. I think I need to remember that the basic theory of making money at $50nl is that people dont fold, so we value bet a lot and bluff a little.

Hopefully I'll get back on track and turn this around quickly enough. Hmm, $380 below expectation on noIQ, wouldnt mind some of that in my roll .

BR - $1208

That -$200 session really hurt me.

Had another -$80 session where I was up a buyin then lost the plot (1 cooler, 1 beat, then spewed off a stack). Really reinforced the need to keep my sessions short (god, I keep getting the same lessons, you'd think I'd learn). Then played a nice one this morning to win $40. Played a good one at lunch time but ran into 43s after raising AA in EP and getting called by a maniac and getting ai on 43T flop. I'd consider that a cooler, his range was huge there. Just had another one where I only found one good table, but had Jyms on my left. Nearly left, but a real mega-fish on my right made it too juicy. Set of Ts and he calls my bet/3-bet (he minraised) on the flop for 60% of his stack with a draw, of course draw hit on the turn and with $60 pot and $20 behind theres no way I'm not getting it in v's him. Then I isolated him with A9s and hit a FD on 822 flop and he min-raised my c-bet again so I just shoved it in this time. He had J2o and of course my draw didnt hit. Maybe didnt play that right, could have taken my good odds on flop, especially since he can have a draw a lot there, but I also thought he had a bluff a lot (like 3rd time he'd done it in 3 hands v's me) so thought it was best to use some FE too. Not sure about that.

Other than those two hands it was actually a good session, I was winning a lot of small pots and building my stacks well. I ended up getting $30 off a LAG with KK on a JJXXQ board when he 3-bet me pre with 99 and bet both flop and river (heck, why not turn his showdown hands into bluffs). Only lost $70 which isnt bad when I lost $120 in those two hands v's megafish.

So, I actually consider all 3 sessions so far today as having been played well, but the decks slapped me around and I'm down about $85 for the day, bringing me dangerously close to the $1k mark again. Really need to make sure I only play when I feel good, only play short sessions, and really stick to my rules.

BR $1013.

Down $450 on expectation on iPoker now...

Originally Posted by Jack Sawyer

step a) Play 25NL until roll > $2500
step b) ????????
step c) profit

or alternatively

step a) singletable 100NL on current roll
step b) ???????????
step c) busto or profit

And btw fuck ipoker with its 2% plyrs-per-flop tables


believe me, pokerstars is better, since all of twoplustwo micro- & smallstakes is on ipoker and they want to outfold everybody while making some rakeback


their modus operandi: just fold fold fold everything, then pick up AA, and go cry in BBV about how their aces get craked everytime



or at least this I heard

I am in nearly the same situation. My roll keeps going between $800-$1200 and I need to learn to consistently beat $50nl.

Ending sessions when you start playing bad is important and I also have trouble with it. I chase one buy in that I dropped and end up down 3 BIs argg.

You playing heads up at all or just 6 max? I started playing heads up and am liking it but there's alot of adjustments to be made. But when you find fish it's fantastic.

Anyways good luck and gogogogogogo.

HU is on my banned list atm. I enjoy it, and will once I'm well rolled at 100nl again, but its just too high variance for me atm.

I find good players (err, bad players) often enough at iPoker. Enough to practise good table selection. You do sometimes find nits though. 4-way raised preflop pot and hit set on A high flop and donk out and they all fold. Wtf!!

Anyway, deck played along a bit this morning with two good stackings and one 1/2 pot lost AA v 77 on K67tt flop v's laggy almost maniac. AA is probably my losingest hand over the last 5 days with only one $20 pot won and $120 in big pot losses.

I am thinking about moving to full tilt with rakeback again. Want to see out this rakerace on iPoker and get a measure on their "loyalty" rewards. Really I should do at least one more month there to see how I go with a higher VIP status, but not sure I want to spend that much time there.

So frustrating. Its not my poker ability hurting me. I can crush 50nl. I know that, I've done it repeatedly. Its the mental thing. I need to revisit Jacks PM, get back in the gym (had the flu as well as lack of sleep recently) and really work on that. I'm sure I'll fly up if I can just get that side of things right.

I think the last few days I've played well, but until this morning havnt got the results from it. Not only running well below expectation, but getting a lot of coolers as well (so my expectation is low when the money goes in, but against their range its good). A nice session helps me feel better.

KK v's QJ on 2TJ4A flop v's maniac who checked flop (I flatted PF since he 3-bet small) then c/r'd turn and shoved river. And a nice AKo bvb hand where my trips on flop v's his FH improved to better FH on river. I think I took a good line there, posted in Tales of Poker forum. Even the bad sessions where I've been stacked by fish, I've actually been winning at a fair rate if you exclude those few big hands, so I just need to keep working it.

Post some stats/ graphs dude. I want to see how many hands your getting in.