Operation: goodbye, micros!

Hi all,

I've been playing poker for more than one year as a recreational player. In the spare time during my PhD research I tried different games, such as freeroll tourneys, limit holdem, sit n gos and, during this last year, I'm playing mostly cash games (NL10).

I never deposited and I promised my wife I never would. I started playing with play money...made 1million bucks (never got the chance to sell it). I became a freeroll hunter later. Every week I played many freerolls and got 60 bucks out of it. I also hunted no deposit bonuses as it is a great way to test your BR management. I made two: cleared one. My total BR was around 250 dollars. I was finally rolled to play for euros (with rake back).

I started this operation unofficially a few months ago. It took some 4000 hands to get used to the field at NoIQ poker. They are more aggressive and reckless than the field of Absolute Poker (I used to play there). Now that I'm adjusted, I've made 150 euros in the last 5000K hands. My bank there is 323 euro and I still have 40 dollars at Ultimate Bet (I'll use this money to take shots at tourneys and improve my hand reading skills one tabling NL10).

I stopped playing for a while due to other activities but I decided to get back to the game and take it more serioulsy than ever. I'm still involved with my PhD research, so...I'll never have the time to grind hard. I left Brazil and I'm in the Netherlands for 1 year with my wife to develop part of my research. In my spare time, I'm trying to play around 200 hands per session 4-tabling.

My goal is to get 1000 euros (I'm playing in euros) so I can play NL50. When I get there, I intend to subscribe to a poker training site and invest a bit more to keep being a winning player.

I'll post here my progress, hands, graphs, training activities and interesting stories throughout this process. It might take a while playing around 10K hands a month.

So far, variance is smiling at me...

Good luck!

What's your PHD on?
If you don't mind switching sites, then once you get to 25NL you can start clearing bonuses much faster even 4 tabling (which is what I do) there's tonnes to choose from, and then you'll be at 1K in no time. Kickbacks are awesome too.

Good luck broseph.

Good luck sir!

Yes, do tell about your academic side.

Also, GLGLGL!!!

Thanks, guys.

My PhD is in Architecture and is intend to support design decisions related to thermal performance using simulation tools. In a sense, architectural design and poker are somewhat related because both decision making processes are based on incomplete information and use of precedent knowledge (in the case of poker, theoretical knowledge and a repertoire of previous plays and situations).

I'm going to talk a bit about my cash game history.

As I told previously, I tried some games before playing NL holdem. I started off already playing NL10 underrolled to clear my bonus at AbsolutePoker. Fortunately, I managed to be a winner so far. The good thing is that I'm relatively close to take my first shots at NL20 (NoIQ Poker). Hopefully, I'll manage to keep the same pace.

The graph below presents my brief experience at NL10. I Started at AP, moved to NoIQ. After a rollercoaster adaptation (between 6k and 11k hands), I decided to take 1/4 of my BR to UB. The experience was not great...I had a downswing and the most severe bad beat I ever took (98% favourite on the flop). Moved back to NoIQ and decided to play tighter from the blinds (less stealing) and even from the button as the blinds were calling me frequently and my c-bets were not working.

Its working so far. I've been managing to identify the general behaviour of each table and adjusting to the players. As I play only 4 tables, it is easier to play different styles if necessary.

I usually do not tilt and fortunately, I can notice when I'm playing spewy and I usually quit. Bad beats don't tilt me...I tilt more with stupid mistakes that I make. If I'm losing around 1 buy in a session, I tighten up and play for value. In this case, I found that unsuccessfull bluffs can trigger a tilting process, so I play mostly fit or fold (it depends on the opponent, obviously).

In my game, I'm trying to get better at hand reading. I usually do it in a very raw way, like...classifying PF cards as PPs, broadways, AK, big pairs. When I see a flop, I cannot (yet) figure out all combinations as I see here in the forum. I think more in terms of the hand strength of my opponent. If he calls my c-bet, for instance, I put him in single paired hands (over-top-mid), draws, etc.

I'm practising one tabling at UB to get better at this. I often get distracted and end up sometimes thinking about my own hand strenght instead of putting opponents in ranges. This would be a huge improvement in my game...

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2371/nl10pr.jpg

seem to be off to a solid start, although your EV line suggests that may be partly owed to a bout of rungood. good luck!

Thanks, man!

Had a terrible session today. I took some bad decisions, c-bet when I should not and made an awful call on the river knowing almost for sure what the guy had. The most stupid thing is that I bet small with the intention of folding to any raise as the board was scared and I had only AA.

My mind just blocked. I knew I was behind...but I called 5$ more.

Anyways, I'm 2 Buyins down. Need to be more focused on the next sessions.

I made a little survey about the field I'm used to play at NoIQ using HEM's poker vision. There is a fair amount of TAGs and nits there. For NL 10 I would not expect that.

Considering players with most than 50 hands, around 30% are TAGs and 10% are NITs, followed by 7% of loose passive. Interestingly, in average they are aware of position.

Fortunately, there is still lots of bad players in this sample (and out of it) and I think I can make a lot of money from them.

ROLLER COASTER ALL OVER AGAIN

I've experienced a short period of ups and downs recently. Well, it seems that it is somehow coming back. In these spots, we need to try to figure out what might be happening. I think, in my case, it might have something to do with the following aspects:

1) Playing when you're in the wrong mindset: this is terrible as you tend to put all your frustrations and bad feelings at the table. Besides, you might just be tired and lose focus in crucial hands. I need to practice more range readings. I did a terrible mistake here, making an thin value shove in the river when I shoud not. No worse would call me in that spot. Unfortunatley, in this hand I also missed a note highlighting that the guy had slowplayed before (checked behind a turn to get value on the river). If I had put him into a range, I would not lose that last bet...


2) Perhaps I should stop watching poker videos: I think people who make videos at NL 10 are indirectly making me to play more aggressive than I should. The funny thing is that...I know what works for me and it is ABC poker. Anyways, caugth myself doing something that I did not do in the past 2 months: shoving AK PF over a small 4-bet. The guy had QQ and he made quads. Anyways, this is not the point. The point is...if I had called his raise or his 4-bet, I would not lose my whole stack. Its fit or fold and I'll hit an A or K around 30% of the time.

3) Overmonitorizing your losses: if you're inhappy with your losses in a given session, just quit. It will affect the way you play (perhaps the thin value bet I made has something to do with it). You tend to try to get your money back and this is not how things work.

I'll make a break this weekend. Perhaps it would be nice to have some 1-table sessions to practice hand reading and be more patient about the game. No fancy plays and over-aggression. ABC would do just fine.

Good luck with you.Thank you for your supporting the message.

Hey Roani about the video thing you have a point. Alot of the guys making micro NLHE video's are playing higher stakes normally so they will tend to play fairly aggressively. So because of this, be careful when it comes to implementing something you see in a video into your own game. Alot of the moves you see in a video have to do with the video maker being a better hand reader than your average micro player, so when you try to make those aggressive moves yourself its hard to choose the right spots because you won't fully understand the logic behind said plays.

Tight solid ABC poker with little FPS is what beats micro nl. People are going to play too loose and spew to you so as long as you don't spew back you'll make money. And when someone is playing too passive then that's when you can up the aggression a bit, just do so with caution. GL.

+1 on all stated above. I am guilty of gettin FPS from watching some vids. They are good for you to watch but definately dont make any drastic change to your game or style trying to match somebody elses.

Don't immedately try to apply concepts and aggression you aren't comfortable with that you've seen in a video no. But, you can still watch the video and really try to understand why the instrcutor is doing what he's doing, this willmake you a better hand reader and help you get to a place more quickly where you're able to find more spots to be +EV outwith the boundaries of ABC TAG; just don't rush there and don't try anything you don't totally understand.

STILL FALLING

I'm not sure about the negative impact of videos on my game. Of course, there are many things that can be very profitable. In my case, I think I might be playing too spewy perhaps indirectly influenced by some of these videos. I see those guys pushing or calling pushes with TPTK against certain opponents in micro stakes...and I'm perhaps doing this in the wrong situations.

The fact is that...people adjust. Donkeys also adjust. After isolating a limper 3 or 4 times, you get called light by other people and/or limp-reraised (happened). Donks min bet flop hoping for a raise to come over the top with their sets (happened as well). Dont try to over steal from the SB because it is so obvious that it can become exploitable. Almost never bluff a donkey. These are some things I should remember...

I lost yesterday 1,5 buy in again. I'm around 2 buy ins up in the month (won 5, lost 3). The unfortunate thing is that I'm playing too spewy and this could be avoided if I had more hand reading skills. I can narrow a guys range out of the game (and sometimes in the game), but I should use these reads to avoid terrible calls. I'm playing too curious, almost if I needed to know that the guy's range is in fact the range I'm putting him on. For most of the time...it is (unfortunately, because I'm always beat).

I make these calls relying on the fact that I'm playing with donks, they do lots of bad spewy plays, they tilt, over bluff, etc

I think I'm playing like one of them.

GOD BLESS THE RAKEBACK

Well, the month of September was not so good after all. It started quite promising, but I got into a big losing streak. I was up in the end around 1 buy-in after 6K hands. Small sample, but I played more than I'm used to. In october I think I wont play as many hands because of other activities...

After a crappy month, the good news is getting rakeback. With rakeback I almost doubled my profit, so...in the end it was not that bad.

Playing a bit more hands is making me a better player. I think we need to make silly mistakes to learn and improve and when you play more you get more used to be in sick spots.

I'm using a some money I have on other sites to practice two opposite things:

1) Playing one-table to put people in more detailed ranges
2) Playing 7 tables full ring (NL2) to think faster (even though 7-tabling FR is pretty much equivalent to 4 6-max tables).

The first session of the month was pretty good. 60 BBs up so far. Hope to keep winning throughout the month because it would be nice to take my first shots at NL20 (I need around 400 euros to start...it should take a while).

STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN

Terrible session. Just because of 2 hands I lost 150BBs today. I hate when I get lots and lots of junk and all of a sudden...KK. I got KK in this session 3 times. 1 time they folded pre. The other two times, well...here is what happened.

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO ($12.10)
Button ($5.21)
SB ($10.76)
BB ($9.41)
Hero (UTG) ($10.08)
MP ($2.68)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with K:diamond:, K:heart:
Hero bets $0.30, 1 fold, CO calls $0.30, 3 folds
Flop: ($0.75) 3:club:, 6:diamond:, 6:heart: (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, CO calls $0.50
Turn: ($1.75) 2:spade: (2 players)
Hero bets $1.30, CO raises $3.47, Hero raises $7.98 (All-In), CO calls $5.81
River: ($20.31) A:heart: (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $20.31
Results:
Hero had K:diamond:, K:heart: (two pair, Kings and sixes).
CO had 6:spade:, 4:spade: (three of a kind, sixes).
Outcome: CO won $19.30


In retrospect, I should have called turn and re-evaluated river. The shove is terrible and I don't think I get called by worse. His raise in this board just represent what it is...He would not do it with over pairs...

The thing is that my tables were very aggressive and I did this stupid play.

However, having kings broken by 64s is just a terrible beat.

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($4.02)
Hero (CO) ($10)
Button ($22.13)
SB ($10)
BB ($4.97)
UTG ($28.43)
Preflop: Hero is CO with K:spade:, K:club:
1 fold, MP calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.50, 2 folds, BB calls $0.40, MP calls $0.40
Flop: ($1.55) 3:heart:, K:heart:, 9:heart: (3 players)
BB checks, MP checks, Hero bets $1.16, BB calls $1.16, 1 fold
Turn: ($3.87) 4:diamond: (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3.87, BB calls $3.31 (All-In)
River: ($10.49) 8:diamond: (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: $10.49
Results:
BB had A:heart:, 5:heart: (flush, Ace high).
Hero had K:spade:, K:club: (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: BB won $9.97

I flop a set in this terrible board. I think I have to push here because villain is more drawing than anything else (and I have 10 outs to beat a flush). Unfortunate.

BAD MONTH POKERWISE

I did not play much this month for a few reasons. Firstly, I was playing bad making terrible calls. I needed a break. Secondly, I was out for a week, went to Prague and Berlin for a week. Very nice places.

When I came back, I had a few negative sessions and I decide to stop for a week. In retrospect, I am aware that I needed more patience. It feels that when I'm getting bored I just play spewy and this kills my winrate. I wonder if I need to play more tables or just focus more.

On this session (which happened last monday) one play summarizes my lack of patience. Second hand in the table, I raise 88, got min reraised by the BB, I fold (he had around 60BBs). In the following hand, I raise 8Ao from the button. The same thing happened. His 3bets are small, but I folded. A third time, he limps UTG, guy in MP raises, I call with 77 (from the BB). He reraises, 2 folds. Limp reraise is always strong at these tables.

I started to get impatient, especially because the guy was on my immediate left. I stealed twice uncontested from the Button and SB with QQ and A6. One more orbit and I got 88 in the button. Raise 4x. He repops to 13x (now his raise is bigger). I decided to 4 bet light (I do this fairly wide against 3bet monkeys). He 5 bets and I push. Terrible push because if he has AK, AQ he is pushing himself.

Well, he had AA and made quads. I played bad and this affects me more than bad beats.

I stopped playing for a week because such mistakes should not happen. Got back to poker today and it was a positive session. I'm playing better than I was for sure.

Hope next month will be better.

CHANGING SITES

Its been a while since my last post. During this period, I really did not have the chance to put the volume of game I was intending to. I believe that in the following months, I should be able to play a lot.

In my last 10K hands I was breakeven at NoIQ poker. The site has so much rakeback affiliates that it seems that the ratio of fish/regs is pretty low. I know when I make terrible decisions (perhaps not much with regards to close decisions) and I probably lost a lot because of it. I should not play long sessions otherwise I can easily lose focus...this was one of my problems during the last 10K hands.

However, I was also felling that I was not getting value in my big hands. It is quite frustrating to realize after one hour of ABC poker that you're down much more than you expected (many small pots lost, no big pots won).

So, in order to play against more fishes, I moved all my bankroll to Full Tilt. The good thing is that I managed to get a rakeback deal on my existing account. Played my first session there today, won 110 BBs. The field is much softer, many limped pots and it is easier to extract value.

Naturally, my challenge now should be converted to US dollars as I don't want to be calculating how much money in euros I have.

Besides all that, I discovered that I might be playing some HU in the near future. I played very short sessions and it seems quite interesting (if you seat in the right table). I still do not have the mental control required to play HU for long sessions, but it is definitelly a way to improve my poker game.

Obviously, the rake in the limits I play is very high. However, this is not much of a problem if you can table select well (and if you have rakeback + bonuses).