Operation: 'A' game

Hands 3 and 5!

I'll go with 3 and 4

Originally Posted by Ravageur

I'll go with 3 and 4

This

and in hand 3, 4bet pre is super standard, no?

hands 2 & 4

Originally Posted by kmind

Hands 3 and 5!

This gets my vote.

And the hand reading winners are....

Kmind and Roid!

Hand 1 - I shoved he had AThh

Hand 2 - I shoved he had KK

Hand 3 - He called AK

Hand 4 - He had QQ (whattt? - deep stacks I guess, so flatted pre)

Hand 5 - He tank called and had AJ

JL - yah 4bet is fine/standard. Sometimes vs ppl I perceive are pretty polarized I flat a bit more and force them into playing postflop. It's a pretty easy life as a 3bettor if you figure you'll never see a flop and only have to deal with someone's 4betting frequencies. You can 3bet any two.

Boom.

Ez game. You should stake me or something. WAIT.

moar games!

Yes, more hands!

haha Ok I'll get to more hands sooon... the major obstacle right now for me is: MY JOB.

SIGH. Been staying late at work (till after 10pm) every night for the last week to two weeks and worked this past sunday as well. So that sucks pretty hard!

The good news is that this saturday is UFC! So should be pretty sweet. Going to the fight with Alex and Ravageur and my other buddy from T.O as well.

My big problem with my job right now is that I'm being way overworked and way-underpaid. To make matters worse is that being overworked is compoundingly bad, since I can't grind and make money from the poker. (though I've been downswinging lately, so maybe its actually compoundingly good!)

I'm looking for other jobs now. If anyone has any job search advice, I'd love to hear it!

Stay tuned for more hand reading games after my next session!

Before looking for other jobs, since that can take a while, and given the fact you've been putting a ton of hours at the office, ASK FOR A GODDAMN RAISE ASAP!

yeah wtf, you have a pretty sick education you have to gtfo out of that job and upgrade. Shouldn't there should be some way better options out there, especially in Toronto. Had a pretty great meal tonight in TO, but more excited about tmr night's epicness. See you there.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

yeah wtf, you have a pretty sick education you have to gtfo out of that job and upgrade. Shouldn't there should be some way better options out there, especially in Toronto. Had a pretty great meal tonight in TO, but more excited about tmr night's epicness. See you there.

Yah should be good! where did you eat last night?

Originally Posted by Alexos

ASK FOR A GODDAMN RAISE ASAP!

good idea, do this

If they don't give you look for another one and when you found one, THEN you can negotiate with your current employer. You would be amazed of the number of people that got raises (and sometimes big ones) this way
GL!

So I haven't updated any new hands... as originally planned. The main reason for that.. is that my last post on April 4th was the last time I played a hand of poker!

This has been the longest stretch in my poker career that I have no played at all while still being in town. I have taken 10-14 days breaks before, but those have all been while traveling.

This hiatus has been 90% product of my damn job and mega crazy hours. My mom is also visiting from Colorado which is contributing to less play, and applying to jobs further contributing.

I'm also leaving for Europe next wednesday which is exciting! (but that means another 10 days of no play!). My gf and I are going to London (for one day), Paris, Marseille and Barcelona. Should be pretty sweet!

If anyone has some specific suggestions on food etc for any locations, let me know!

You should spend most of your restaurant money in Paris, as they truly have the best quality food. Then focus on seafood in Marseille/Barcelona. As for London, just keep it cheap as it all taste the same. Actually they do have some good indian food there so maybe try that out.

Paris and Barca are just packed with places to visit, the ones in Paris are pretty obvious, but for Barca I liked : park guell, sagrada familia, olympic port for the beach and just walking around, and la rambla for touristy stuff.

Marseille there's not much to do besides checking out a few small museums, but just walking around and eating good seafood should be fun enough.

Kinda jealous, sounds like fun and it brings back good memories! Enjoy.

don t forget to ask for some "chinese tea" in london after 3 am

Game selection vs Volume

Today was my first set of sessions in a couple weeks. I tried to focus on game selection more than my usual focus of volume. Usually I fire up the first 8 tables I can. My game selection involves closing tables if I'm getting 3bet a lot etc, and just firing up another table that is available.

Today I actively played on good tables. If that meant 4 tabling for the first 30mins instead of 8 tabling, then so-beit.

I will actively try to keep this up from now on. I don't have any large scale volume goals, other than one RB goal that I probably won't achieve anyhow, so this is probably best.

Might not play again before my trip on wednesday, we'll see! So this will serve as a reminder when I get back!

So I'm heading to Europe tonight, should be a sweet trip. So will be a couple week break from poker.

I played a bit last night. Some 2/4 - 5/10. Was playing pretty well I thought, but stacked off TT<AA and A9 vs 33 on 394A board amongst a couple others. The one hand where I 'stacked' someone, my AAA vs his 888 was RIGHT after I had lost a big pot and my stack went down to 30bbs (and betfair doesn't have autotop up - so I only stacked 30bbs -which was tilting).

I hadn't played 5/10 in a long while, and it was fine. Was most playing 4-6 tabling and trying hard to focus on table selection. I've been doing a much better job at this, though not paying off lately.

I literally can't remember the last time I had a winning session. Like.. actually literally. The combination of practically not playing in the last two weeks, and being on a downswing the last month and a half.. I'm not even sure!

I'm hoping I come back from this trip, and that my desire to play is rejuvenated. Decided I will also invest about $1k or so into coaching when I get back to work on my game a bit.

Catch you guys in a few weeks!

well I'm finally back from my trip!

Over the last couple weeks went to London briefly, then Paris, Marseille and off to Spain and went to Barcelona.

Haven't quite decided what my favorite part was yet. Right now its definitely leaning towards Marseille and Barcelona. They both had awesome beaches, and really good food and scenery. It's hard to compare the two though. Marseille was pretty relaxed and chill, whereas barcelona was more upbeat/lively and also had more tourists.

The food in both locations was pretty good, and primarily seafood. Or at least, I focused on seafood given the locations.

Just got back today, and did the betfair update. Couldn't get my HUD working for my first session. Was down about $1.5k, welcome back! Pretty standard session for me, played well overall and lost all my money for the most part in two hands.

Also, I usually scroll my bet sizing with my mouse scroller, but that doesn't seem to work now either. I got the right HH folder in HEM, but how do I get this betsizing working with my mouse again?

Here were my two big hands.

hand 1:
-villain is S Janoskl i that means anything to anyone. My sizing was getting messed in this session cause of the lack of scrolling ability. Preflop is way too small.

$3/$6 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
CO ($606)
BTN ($953.80)
griffey24 (SB) ($997.80)
BB ($724)

Pre-Flop: ($9, 4 players) griffey24 is SB
1 fold, BTN raises to $24, griffey24 raises to $66, 1 fold, BTN calls $42

Flop: ($138, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $70, BTN calls $70

Turn: ($278, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $138, BTN raises to $300, griffey24 ??


Hand 2
-this one is mostly standard, the flop overcall is S Janoskl again

$3/$6 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($1,401.15)
griffey24 (CO) ($671.85)
BTN ($762.30)
SB ($235.35)
BB ($269.05)

Pre-Flop: ($9, 5 players) griffey24 is CO
UTG raises to $18, griffey24 raises to $60, BTN calls $60, 2 folds, UTG calls $42

Flop: ($189, 3 players)
UTG checks, griffey24 bets $140, BTN calls $140, UTG calls $140

Turn: ($609, 3 players)
UTG checks, griffey24 bets $471.85, BTN goes all-in $562.30, UTG folds

River: ($1,643.15, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1,643.15
griffey24 shows

BTN shows


BTN wins $1,640.15 (net +$877.85)

UTG lost $200
griffey24 lost $671.85


I'm now down a solid $24k in the last three months. Not sure I've won a session in the last month or so. Its kind of a bizarre feeling... but even more bizarre is not really caring too much. I suppose thats good.. as long as I feel it will turn around.

Here are my results by position over this time. Feel free to post any comments, anything to break out of this rut! Clearly the blinds are killing me reallll bad.

Welcome back!

Betfair moved the HH folder to C:\Users\(your user name)\P5JavaClientSettings if you are using Windows 7....
And using the mouse scroll for bet sizing does still work but your mouse has to be hovering over the betting area if that makes sense. It's annoying but you adjust to it quickly.

puke

Originally Posted by Ravageur

puke

+1

Originally Posted by JL

Welcome back!

Betfair moved the HH folder to C:\Users\(your user name)\P5JavaClientSettings if you are using Windows 7....
And using the mouse scroll for bet sizing does still work but your mouse has to be hovering over the betting area if that makes sense. It's annoying but you adjust to it quickly.

Thanks man, yah I noticed this bet sizing thing after my session, that it only works over the betting area. That's kind of lame, but I guess I'll get used to it pretty quick!

and yah +2 to puke haha

but whats the leakkk? my blinds winrate is waaay too low.. but not sure if this is mega runbad or what.

In other news, the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler finally arrived. Well it arrived a bit late, but I was also away for two weeks.

I started it very briefly last night and will try to read more tonight. It seems good so far in the bit I've read.

The Inchworm

So far I'm reading a section called the 'inchworm'. It essentially talks about how incremental progress can be viewed similar to how an inchworm walks. It has a curved body where the back of its body is on the ground (is your C game), the curved part in the middle is your 'B' game and the front part of its body on the ground is your A game.


C __||__ A

When it walks, it lifts up and stretches the front part of its body forward. Then the back part of its body lifts up and follows behind compressing the curved part of the body. (no idea if this is possible to visualize).


When you improve your A game, you're taking a step forward, but your C game stays in the same spot. If you keep working on your A game, but not your C game, then the only thing you are doing is widening the gap between your C game and A game (ie: the width of your B game, or amount of time you play your B game), but you're not actually progressing anywhere. The only way to progress forward is to alternate working on your A game, and then your C game. Your overall game will keep progressing forward that way.

I 25% feel like that explanation made no sense to the majority of ppl.

How do you work on your C game? Have a few beers before you start reviewing your hands?

I honestly have no idea what he means by working on your C game.

Working on tilt, working on the emotional or mental side of the game, working on common mistakes you make often (calling 3bets OOP, floating etc).. any small mistake you make when you're NOT in your A game is probably part of your C game.

Travel

I've been traveling a lot the last several weeks. On top of my Europe trip, went to montreal for a bachelor party for a weekend and just came back from a 4 day trip to Washington. Went for a conference with work.

Washington was a lot nicer than I would have thought from a big city, would definitely recommend it.

Poker

Now that I'm back its time to really focus on the grind and try to get hands in. I'm still reading mental game of poker, and I'm not quite done yet.

I thought I might have started a win streak, winning $300 and then $500 in back to back sesions, but lost $2k my last 2/4 session. Following my br management rule (if I lose 4 buyins I'll drop down, win 10 I'll move up).

So now I'm gonna play 200nl until BRM dictates I move up. Once I win $2k I'll move back up to 2/4 again.

I need to get this downswing under control. Its one of my worst in my poker career, both from a size of downswing (not quite the worst), and duration of downswing (definitely the worst - mostly due to low volume).

Right now I'm gonna make a list of things that indicate my tilt or symptoms of of B game or C game, and try to keep track of these.

General Life

I'm contemplating going to teachers college. Anyone a teacher out there?

I've always liked teaching people (ever since highschool), and I really like coaching as well. Teaching also has several months off a year which would be perfect for mixing in some grinding. It's something I'm thinking about, but because I missed the deadline, I wouldn't be able to go until Sept 2012.

TILT

So as I've said I've been reading over the mental game of poker. Part of the book, or rather a lot of the book, suggests things you should work on about your game. One of them is writing out the signs or symptoms of your tilt, what you think causes them and why this might be flawed logic.

This is my list. Feel free to add in what you feel your symptoms are, what causes them and why you think its based on flawed logic. I'm sure a lot of these apply to a lot of people.

Let me know what you think!

This seems good, but I hope you did this during work-time. Thinly veiled brag : mastery of excel.

Noooo...did it when I got home sadly!

Reviewing this list is supposed to be part of my pre-session preparation. I'm gonna need to allocate like 20mins soon. (searching players in my HEM for their notes - does anyone know any easier way to do this than searching them one by one?), and then reviewing this list.

tl;dr

haha j/k very nice post.
Most of what you wrote applies to me, especially the part about your mind feeling numb when you are tilting. That is exactly how I feel when I play a long losing session. The one part that doesn't apply to me is the part about barreling/bluffing too much because I am a nit. Instead, I fold too much because "they always seem to have it this session".

great post, i'm going to print it and study it myself, i think Nos. 1, 2 and 4 apply to my game a lot.

As per 4, yeah, it is obviously better to 3-bet a wider value range vs. people who call OOP too much.

awesome post. and awesome post idea. A++. i think 1,4 and 6 are the most harmful factors in my game (though the introduction of 6 is something i've only actually noticed recently thanks to a heater). although i've been guilty of all of them to different degrees in the past.

thanks.

Nice work griffey. This table smells exactly like big package of fresh money

- I kinda disagree w/ 1st point - in situation you described, it seems like a good adjustment to call w/ these hands. Is there any chance, that you are calling and:
- have no idea about his postflop tendencies
- you are a lot OOP
- or just want to punish him postflop and spewing little bit sometimes??

Mr.Diamond -

Ofcourse if someone is 3betting wide, those are the spots that are better to call wider.

BUT - yes its mostly that I don't have a good read on their tendencies and ranges, or at least not good enough to play well postflop. Also, a lot of the hands I'm calling are gonna brick 75% of the time, but then I feel tempted to float AJ/AQ stuff vs these guys cause I perceive them as wide.

Nonetheless - the point I was making is that, even though in theory it could be ok to play these hands vs these ppl, I'm not playing them well enough and end up losing much more than if I just folded them all in the first place.

For ppl that play very well in 3bet pots without initiative, #1 might not apply.

It's rarely OOP, but yah I also try to force the issue quite a bit, raising their flop cbets with air often and other such nonsense.

yeah I think postflop plan is absolutely necessary before calling w/ these hands

GL in crushing

if you wanna make any big changes in ur game, its gotta start by changing that avatar too

Originally Posted by Alexos

if you wanna make any big changes in ur game, its gotta start by changing that avatar too

confirmed.

I'm now starting to understand how downswings for low volume players get extra frustrating.

My downswing has been going on for about 3-4 months now. But I just checked my HEM yesterday, and over the last two months I have about 13k hands in! This is ridiculously low volume, considering the months prior to that I was probably averaging about 35-40k hands per month.

This week is destined to be a massively hell week at work for me, but hopefully this weekend and onwards I'll start re-grinding again.

I'm pretty happy with my play overall, aside from my usual 1-2 bad total bluffs per session. Sometimes I wish there was some program that could just compute numerically how bad you're really running (in terms of variance, EV, hitting bad boards, ppl hitting sets - everything). It would be comforting if that existed at least!

I'm pretty committed to turning this around though. Read most of the mental game (still a bit left), and am taking notes and implementing the recommendations for the most part.

Also decided to get some coaching off 2p2 for the first time in my life. Had my first session yesterday, which was good. Brought some concepts to the table, but should probably also record a session. I guess I gotta download some version of camtasia!

Downswing is currently at about 4 months real time, and $30k. Let's turn this puppy around!

LESS WHINING MOAR SOUL OWNING IMO!

Originally Posted by bikes

LESS WHINING MOAR SOUL OWNING IMO!

haha agreed, will try to do this

griffffff you can do this man. We all know it and you should too. Who's the new coach?

Thanks kmizzle!

coaching is darkconcept on 2p2. He's giving me a better perspective on gametheory, and just general thought process which is good.

My last two sessions I've played have been the best/longest in a long time. Sadly I was down 1.1k last session, but up $700 this session. Booked it after I ran a $400 bluff.

Taking some time before each session to sit out on each table and read notes on the players I've marked as weaker, so that's helping me plan before each session.

Haha he used to coach me too. He's a really good guy. Just too advanced for the levels I was at (though his live sweats netted me WAY more money than usual).

That's awesome how prepared you are in general with sitting down before each session but also making those spreadsheets. Do you still update your spreadsheet from when you first started?

Sorry for the derailing.

Didn't listen to my coaching advice, tsk tsk

Haha there's always room for more coaching afterwards

I haven't posted in a while. I have been grinding more recently and am pretty happy with how I've been playing.

The coaching is definitely giving me a few different thoughts and perspectives. I think to get the most out of the coaching though, I really need to plan before each session, and come up with some concrete topics to discuss.

As of now, its mostly been topic discussions and going over some hand histories. I could also look into recording a session with camtasia, though my trial expired and it also froze my games pretty hard the one time I tried!

Poker is pretty stalled for me lately! Feel pretty happy with how I've been playing, and was having my first winning month in ages this month until I got poker doomed last night.

MY POKER MEMORY SUCKS

I think one thing significantly inhibiting my game right now is my memory. My memory is awful! Or if not my memory, my ability to associate, or lack of trying to associate a player with a particular name. I'll play a big hand, and remember every detail about the hand several hours later, but will not be able to tell you who it was with (if its not with someone I play a TON against).

This isn't just at the poker table. If I read a book, I won't be able to tell you the names of any characters, and similarly if I watch a movie. I suppose I just don't hold any importance to people's names in these situations, since the name itself doesn't influence anything.

However, in poker, I think its important to remember ppl's names. If you can't remember who you played the hand against, you certainly can't remmeber a series of hands with them, or trends in the hands you've played. As a result, I'm forced to re-read my notes on ppl every session. Similarly, I'm probably not exploiting particular players tendencies, and am essentially just treating all the fish the same way, and all the regs the same way.

Any tips on improving memory? Or improving memory in the poker world? remembering poker aliases better etc?

I think reviewing notes before a session, taking them after a big hand [and paying attention to the name] and then reviewing them when you finish would get you on the right path. Basically just create a routine that forces you to think about their name and what happened, because you need to do something that forces yourself to break the trend of glossing over that detail. I know you said you now have a pre-game and post-game routine, so just incorporate this into that, it shouldnt add too much time and hopefully will help

Yah I wonder if I should just do something pretty ridiculous, but actually write out the name before each note:

SpewyFish - 3bets polarized in the blinds to my EP raise
SpewyFish - double barrels FD, but shuts down brick river
SpewyFish - cold 4bets and folds to jam

or something liek that. Would definitely force me to associate the name with what they do, and also the repeatedly writing the name will help hmmm

make note using poker site software?

Originally Posted by griffey24

Yah I wonder if I should just do something pretty ridiculous, but actually write out the name before each note:

SpewyFish - 3bets polarized in the blinds to my EP raise
SpewyFish - double barrels FD, but shuts down brick river
SpewyFish - cold 4bets and folds to jam

or something liek that. Would definitely force me to associate the name with what they do, and also the repeatedly writing the name will help hmmm

You need to play even less tables then and constantly check player notes to remind yourself who you're playing against, and also get better at note taking since it's gonna be way more important for you.

I'm pretty sure that memory can be improved, assuming you cut down on the weed.

in all seriousness, there are probably mnemonic tricks to help you practice and "learn" how to remember.

I think my memory of hands (especially live) is one of my biggest strengths.

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

make note using poker site software?

Yah Im' actually usin the notes in HEM and on the poker site!

baudib - I have been reading about memory and associations and stuff. I think those things help more for lists, and memorizing numbers. It might be tougher to use those to associate a players alias with hands or playing style/tendencies, but I'll think of ways.

Alex - I'm not sure playing less tables would help. I think I just need to ACTIVELY think about the player names AND associate them with their style and/or hands that have occured.

[QUOTE=griffey24;2047358
Alex - I'm not sure playing less tables would help. I think I just need to ACTIVELY think about the player names AND associate them with their style and/or hands that have occured.[/QUOTE]

well yeah, less tables means more time just re-reading notes and recognizing players and paying attention to previous hands.

bump

bahah nice bump, it's been a while!

Alex and I just got back from the Dominican which was good. We played in the GSOP event down there. I was playing pretty well until I stacked off for 110bbs in what was potentially a questionable spot (JTo on TT7cc Qx 3c board).

Despite that, I think it got me interested in trying out some more MTT's, so we'll see how that goes.

Playing and MTT will also force me to grind cash sessions for longer, so win win I suppose!

BOOM GOGOGOGO

Any one up for some Poker this weekend?

GTO, bluffing with blockers and b/c ranges:

I've been thinking about blockers and their impact on GTO lately. Specifically it's impact on our b/c ranges to shoves in certain spots.

Suppose we had a spot (100bbs) - where we raised pre from SB to 3bbs and BB called.
Flop (6bb) -
Hero bets 4bb, Btn calls
Turn (14bb) -
Hero bets 10bb, Btn calls
River (34bb) -
Hero bets 23bb, Btn goes all-in for 83, Hero to call 60

Villain risks 83 for 56, needs to work 59%, so Hero to call 41% of betting range.

Scenario 1 - No blockers assumed.

Hero's betting range:

Air:
AK (not incl spades) (15)
AsTx (3)
As9x (3)
9T d,c,h (3)

TP+:
KQ (12)
AQ (12)
KK (6)
AA (6)
QJ (9)
33 (3)
77 (3)
QQ (3)
JJ (3)
57s (1)
46s,68s,69s,9Ts spades (4)
K4s, K6s, K8s, K9s, KTs (5)
A2,A3,A4,A6,A8,A9,AT,AK spades (8)

Total betting range:
Air (24)
TP+ (non flush) (58)
Flush (17)
Total: 99
Need to bet/call 41% on river, so need to b/c 40-41 combos.

So hero needs to call All flushes (17), all sets (12) for 29 combos. Also call top two (QJ) for 38 combos total. Slightly under calling.

Scenario 2 - What happens if villain only shoves here with the As? Either as a bluff or with the nut flush.

Hero's betting range becomes:

Air:
AK (not incl spades) (12)
9T d,c,h (3)

TP+:
KQ (12)
AQ (9)
KK (6)
AA (3)
QJ (9)
33 (3)
77 (3)
QQ (3)
JJ (3)
57s (1)
46s,68s,69s,9Ts spades (4)
K4s, K6s, K8s, K9s, KTs (5)

Total betting range:
Air (15)
TP+ (non flush) (52)
Flush (9)
Total: 76
Need to bet/call 41% on river, so need to b/c 30-31 combos.

So hero needs to call All flushes (9), all sets (12) for 21 combos. Also call with top two (9) for 30 combos.

This actually surprised me somewhat. I would have expected our calling range in Scenario 2, to have to be much wider to account for the fact that we are betting without the nut flush. As it turns out, the fact that we're bluffing much less without the As brings our b/c combos down as well.

I'd have to look at some other mock scenarios and betting ranges in other spots where villain might bluff with a nut blocker to see if the calling ranges workout the same.

Married, baby, end thread.

RIP

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

Married, baby, end thread.

RIP

Bahaha pretty much right?

hoping once the baby gets a bit bigger I'll head to the casino once a month, so we'll see if that's a pipe dream or not.

How's it going?

I'm same as mate. Baby 10 months today, 7 months corrected since he was 3 months early.

friend of mine told me today, if sleep is ok now it'll get worse. Haha to the pipe dreams. I've not played in years but work gym into lunch time. Making more use of my time where I can. Online poker I'd say is real tough to get 2-3 straight in.

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

I'm same as mate. Baby 10 months today, 7 months corrected since he was 3 months early.

friend of mine told me today, if sleep is ok now it'll get worse. Haha to the pipe dreams. I've not played in years but work gym into lunch time. Making more use of my time where I can. Online poker I'd say is real tough to get 2-3 straight in.

Nice congrats on the 10 months Sleep has been getting worse, hopefully not a trend.

Gonna hit the casino on the 21st, so hopefully have some hands in my other blog post then!