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  1. #1
    rpm's Avatar
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    Default take it from the top

    so due to a severe lack of consistent playing or studying all this year my game has regressed to the point where i have practically 0 confidence in my decision-making abilities and so i begin to tilt/second guess myself every time i lose a pot whenever i decide to play. this obviously happens a lot in poker and so my efforts have been sporadic and mostly tilty since i stopped grinding 2+hours/day some time at the end of last year. so i've decided i'll make one last shot at grinding up from very bottom (again) and turning poker back into a reasonably profitable and enjoyable way to spend my time. i've withdrawn all but $40 and my plan is to attempt to grind through the stakes using the 20BI bankroll strategy i've always used. the focus however for the first while will be solely on developing skill, not money, and because the actual $ amounts are so low, i'll probably only bother looking at results once a month or something. in my study i plan to go back to basics and just start going over heaps of HH's and get my hand-reading and mental pot equity estimating skills up to scratch. i'll be playing 6max on FTP, and never more than 4 tables. and never for more than 1.5 hrs/day. i'll probably post any study i do in here because i can convert hands and add text to them which makes it far easier than using notepad as i have been doing.

    honestly i wouldn't be surprised if this thing falls in a heap pretty promptly as my poker aspirations are far lower than they were a year ago and i'm utterly terrible at committing to routines. but i like having a project to work on so i thought i might as well give "serious" (hahahaha) poker one last try before i decide to throw away a hobby that was/could maybe be once again highly enjoyable, stimulating, and profitable.

    now i'm going to play some poker.
  2. #2
    Good choice. Went through this trying to go from micro stakes to low stakes, so I dropped back to 10NL and made it up to midstakes with some shots at high stakes.

    Keep studying and THINKING. Don't play too many tables and think about why you and your opponents are doing certain things. And play in position!
    Last edited by CBAT; 11-12-2012 at 10:04 PM.
  3. #3
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    do it!
  4. #4
    +1 to cbat,
    Keep studying and THINKING. Don't play too many tables and think about why you and your opponents are doing certain things. And play in position
    keep away from results. GL sir, you got the skills, just gotta get that tilt monkey off your back.
  5. #5
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    Big fan arpem. Good luck muchly. Been considering doing same with the small roll I has on FTP. Inspire me sur!
  6. #6
    rpm's Avatar
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    i'm going to go over and post up some hands around the theme of value-betting. which is obviously the single most important skill in beating games in which almost everyone's playing style is to call too much, and bet too little (for value or as a bluff). the hands will seem trivial to anyone who has taught themselves to value bet before, but the process of just assigning ranges and estimating equity them and their different parts i've found to be highly beneficial in the past.
  7. #7
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    as i said, most of these hands are trivial. i don't play heaps of volume and i basically just marked any spot for review where i was value-betting. i'll leave results in because they're often humorous.

    villain here is 45/6/6 over 37ish hands. no notes because i'm not bothering to take notes except for really important stuff until i'm playing a bit higher.

    the CO is a fish

    Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

    MP ($4.55)
    CO ($2)
    Button ($2.10)
    SB ($2.03)
    Hero (BB) ($3.38)
    UTG ($2)

    Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, A
    1 fold, MP calls $0.02, CO calls $0.02, Button calls $0.02, 1 fold, Hero bets $0.18, 1 fold, CO calls $0.16, Button calls $0.16

    BU range:
    22-JJ,A2s+,A9o+,K2s+,KTo+,Q7s+,Q9o+,J7s+,J9o+,T6s+,T8 o+,96s+,97o+,85s+,86o+.75s+,76o,64s+,65o,53s+,54o, 43s,43o

    in reality he doesn't have a set range that he calls with here. he's a recreational fish and he'll do whatever he feels like doing with whatever cards he happens to get dealt in this given situation. the above is just an attempt to quantify "heaps of suited shit and connectable shit that he wants to see a flop with" into some kind of concrete range i can work with.

    i suspect the CO's range would be similar

    Flop: ($0.57) 3, 10, Q (3 players)
    STACKS (because this important info often slips under my radar in play)
    Hero: $3.2
    CO: $1.82 (SPR vs hero = slightly > 3)
    BU: $1.92 (SPR vs hero = slightly bigger than above)


    Hero bets $0.40, 1 fold, Button calls $0.40

    the SPR here is unfortunately >3 meaning i cant get it in over 2 streets without overbetting the pot, or having both villains call flop. my hand is easily strong enough to play for the rest of our effective stacks so i need to decide at this point in the hand the best way to do that. given he is a fish and knows nothing about commitment or betsizing i don't mind just betting ~3/4P on flop and turn even though that leaves tiny effective stacks going onto the river. because he probably wont change his calling frequencies and will never fold to 1/7P the times we get to the river. actually, given that his frequencies wont change vs sizing <P, and there are flush draws in his range, i probably should have just potted flop and turn to get the most of the FD's in his range before they brick the river and won't put any more $ in. anyway, ranges:

    continuing range:
    33-JJ,A2hh,A3s,A2dd,A4-9hh,A4-9dd,AT,AJhh,AJdd,AQ,AKhh,AKdd,K2hh,K2dd,K3s,K4-9hh,K4-9dd,KT,KJhh,KJdd,KQ,Q7-Q8s,Q9+,J7hh,J7dd,J8s,J9+,T6s-T7s,T8+,96-98hh,96-98dd,85-87hh,85-87dd,75dd+,75hh+,64dd+,64hh+,53s,54hh,54dd,43

    villain will probably minraise me with anything two pair+ here so i probably actually dominate his real calling range even more than the above range.


    honestly i cant be fucked counting the combinations in there because his range is so large and the benefit of counting it relatively small. basically, any pair, any 4+ out draw or backdoor flush draw i expect to continue. i also cant be fucked typing or clicking that all into stove, but given there are <20 combinations in there that are equity favourite vs me, and many which i crush, i'd expect to have at least 70% equity and so i am clearly rolling in value. might just look at my equity versus some different parts of his range (without weighting them) for a bit of perspective.

    - vs sets i have 3-4% equity
    - vs two pairs i have 16-31% equity depending how easily he gets counterfeited
    - vs flush draws i have 62-56%
    - vs worse top pairs i have 84-87% equity
    - vs pairs <top pair i have 80%
    - vs OESD's i have 66%
    - vs gutters i have 80%
    - vs BDFD's i have 91%

    the vast majority of the hand combinations in his range will fall below "two pairs" so i clearly have his range crushed


    Turn
    : ($1.37) 7 (2 players)
    SPR = 1.14

    so i cant get all the money in here without overbetting or getting raised, but i already knew that would be the case. i decide to just bet enough to make the river pretty trivial for both of us. i expect him to just stick the rest in a lot of the time with anything he wants to continue with that is already "made" (ie pairs). betting more would have been better again because of the presence of FD's.

    Hero bets $1.05, Button raises to $1.52 (All-In), Hero calls $0.47

    River: ($4.41) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

    Total pot: $4.41 | Rake: $0.29

    Results:
    Button had 5, Q (one pair, Queens).
    Hero had Q, A (one pair, Queens).
    Outcome: Hero won $4.12
    Last edited by rpm; 11-13-2012 at 09:40 PM.
  8. #8
    chatzilla's Avatar
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    looks good man, should be no problemo if u stick with it .

    Quote Originally Posted by rpm View Post
    i'll be playing 6max on FTP, and never more than 4 tables. and never for more than 1.5 hrs/day.
    not sure I understand the reason behind this stipulation. Maybe better off to make sure you have to keep a certain ratio for play to study time or something? capping 1.5 hours seems like a hindrance.

    GL sir
  9. #9
    rpm's Avatar
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    my aim for posting this one is to attempt to weigh up the value of check/shoving turn vs just firing three due to the presence of some high-card floats in villains flop range. ideally down the track i'd like to figure out some kind of EV equation i can use to guide me in reviewing these spots, which should be relatively easy to do for river spots and possible but more difficult on turns. anyway,

    (edit: CBF doing the above for now, my focus is simply to get my head around ranges, equities and fold equities. good plays should become more intuitive once i can gauge these things remotely competently again)

    villain here is 37/6/7 over 35. no reads because 4 tables is HEAPS by my standards these days and i only bother to note postflop tendencies which contradict what i'd expect from a player based on their VPIP/PFR/3b/ATS stats.

    on second thoughts the weather's too good to be near a computer. i'm off to the beach. i'll edit in my thoughts on this hand at some later date.

    Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

    MP ($2.51)
    CO ($2.69)
    Button ($1.83)
    SB ($2)
    Hero (BB) ($3.01)
    UTG ($2)

    Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A
    2 folds, CO bets $0.04, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.24, CO calls $0.20

    villain doesn't actually open very much and so i expect he will fold to my 3b close to 0% of the time. range would probably be something like 88+,AQs+,AK+,KQ and even that may be being generous.

    Flop: ($0.49) 2, 9, 2 (2 players)
    SPR = ~5
    Hero bets $0.25, CO calls $0.25

    SPR being what it is i cant get it in over 2 streets here but can easily get it in over 3. so i probably want to be betting slightly smaller on average, and the dry board + my NFD blocker make this even more true (i think). i think this street at least is standard, as i expect he will continue with 100% of his preflop range here. which is what i want.

    Turn: ($0.99) 5 (2 players)
    SPR = slightly >2
    Hero bets $0.70, 1 fold

    by this stage i don't think naked overcards are calling anymore so villain's calling range becomes 88+ and all that really matters (assuming i know betting is better than checking) is what he does with each hand in that range vs different sizings. honestly i don't think my sizing matters much given the SPR and villain's range/continuing range. however if villain starts folding hands like 88 or TT to a PSB when he would call them vs a 1/2PSB then obviously i should be doing the latter. i probably prefer like 0.6 or 0.55 here but i don't think i butchered it completely.

    checking seems to have little merit too because villain is passive and so won't be betting with a lot of hands he'll call with (88,TT,JJ). definitely glad i decided to keep vbetting instead of getting tricky
    Last edited by rpm; 11-14-2012 at 06:51 AM.
  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by chatzilla View Post
    looks good man, should be no problemo if u stick with it .
    thankyou sir. ps i'll probably be harassing you for free coaching sweat sessions in the near future.

    Quote Originally Posted by chatzilla View Post
    not sure I understand the reason behind this stipulation. Maybe better off to make sure you have to keep a certain ratio for play to study time or something? capping 1.5 hours seems like a hindrance.

    GL sir
    i was about to edit in that i must go over at least 1 hand in depth before any play on a given day. the 1.5hr play thing is because i lost a lot of money last year playing faaaaaaaar too long sessions under bad mental conditions. and poker tended to take over my life in certain times. i wasn't a problem gambler, but i wasn't using gambling in a very positive way in my life (ie i'd grind to kill boredom, grind because it was a more immediately enticing option than studying poker or doing school work, sometimes grind because i was tilted at everything else in life but had been running good at the tables etc etc). i don't want that to happen again.

    and besides, playing music >>>>> poker these days.
  11. #11
    I enjoy reading your blogs, especially the HH analysis. One thing I'll say though is that you seem to do loads of studying already so I wouldn't try to pack more in. Really focus on dealing with your tilt/confidence imo as that's whats holding you back.

    Don't know if you've read "elements" of poker" but that book is amazing for dealing with tilt. A solid mindset and you'll crush micro/lowstakes.

    gl with poker.
  12. #12
    rpm's Avatar
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    appreciate the kind words and glad you've got some enjoyment from reading these things.

    i've come to realise that i have far too many "leaks" in my non-poker-related habits and choices to commit myself to poker to the extent i'd like to at this point in my life. i'll be playing only recreationally, if at all, until (if ever again) i feel like i have a healthy enough mindset to get back into "serious" poker. adios for now

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