1st step in making changes...thoughts and 4 hands.

Sorry if this post will sound a bit too bloggish, it will be tl;dr for most.

So I'm still in the midst of my biggest downswing ever (With yesterdays -14 BI session the tally is now well over -100 BIs). Anyway, while most of it are hands that play themselves, I'm pretty sure that I've identified a couple leaks that I can fix/work on. Today I played fewer tables, got back to using a HUD and tried to play better poker. One of my hopeful plugs is a more effective 4-bet strategy. I'm pretty sure I wasn't 4-bet/folding enough and calling too much with 88-JJ and making incorrect folds postflop. This was likely a symptom of running so bad in the flipping department that I was becoming a bit too flip-averse. I already play high variance but trying to lower the variance obviously isn't working so I'll just have to ride it out *sigh*. I think my biggest leak is bleeding money away with 1-pairish hands that I fold on later streets. My redline has always been consistently in the red (standard for me since I've always been a station and b/fold a lot) but I think it's been worse than usual during the downswing. Here are a few hands from today's session where I made a concerted effort to be less passive. I think I picked my spots well but input is always good. Note that these games are 5-max so a bit more aggro in general.

Hand 1 :
Villain is good and a 21/18/2.8AF. Generally he's the kind of player that gives me trouble barreling a lot and he knows i call light and v-bets thin vs me.

Boss Media (IPN) No-Limit Hold'em, €4.00 BB (5 handed) - BossMedia Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (€803.90)
UTG (€394)
MP (€422.73)
Hero (Button) (€400)
BB (€787)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8, 9
UTG bets €14, 1 fold, Hero calls €14, 2 folds

Flop: (€34) 2, 4, 9 (2 players)
UTG bets €25.50, Hero calls €25.50

Turn: (€85) 5 (2 players)
UTG bets €64, Hero raises to €170.50, UTG raises to €354.50 (All-In), Hero calls €354.50


Hand 2:
Villan is 24/18/2.5. He's sort of an old-school lag. Gets it in light PF, doesn't do much folding, plays draws super aggro. I had just won a couple medium sized pots from him so i shouldn't appear desperate to win a pot.

Boss Media (IPN) No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (2 handed) - BossMedia Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($954.72)
SB ($402.80)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, A
SB bets $12, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($24) 3, 7, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $18, Hero calls $18

Turn: ($60) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $40, Hero raises to $110, SB calls $110

River: ($280) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $280

Hand 3:
Villain is same as in hand 1. SB is a tight reg. This is pretty standard I think but just trying to come to a better understanding of good boards to turn 1pair hands into bluffs etc. Seems like he's only 3-bettting A10/910 and maybe sets here though I imagine he'll just call with most of them.

Boss Media (IPN) No-Limit Hold'em, €4.00 BB (5 handed) - BossMedia Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (€446.20)
Hero (Button) (€426)
BB (€463.05)
MP (€678.35)
UTG (€640.45)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, J
UTG bets €14, 1 fold, Hero calls €14, SB calls €14, 1 fold

Flop: (€46) K, Q, J (3 players)
SB checks, UTG bets €28, Hero raises to €72

Hand 4:
Villain usually plays higher so I expect he's decent. Only have 200 hands on him, but he's 23/16/25AF (he's been barreling tons) and he's already called a couple 3-bets. I probably shouldn't have 3-bet this hand for those reasons but this is how it went down. My plan was bet/call flop and c/call turn shove but his turn sizing froze me.

Boss Media (IPN) No-Limit Hold'em, €4.00 BB (3 handed) - BossMedia Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (€394)
Hero (SB) (€388)
BB (€717.15)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 2, A
Button bets €14, Hero raises to €46, 1 fold, Button calls €46

Flop: (€96) A, 4, J (2 players)
Hero bets €52, Button raises to €120, Hero calls €120

Turn: (€336) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets €168, [color=#666666][i]Hero is confused.

I mean... I don't get a lot of these hands really. It seems as though you get into spots with hands you're not confident in, or don't think are ahead so instead of folding them you're raising them and turning them into bluffs. I mean, that's definitely a good way to get the red line up but blue line down.

First hand makes no sense... just call down or fold?

Second hand, again you're repping like nothing nothing nothing here. If I wanted to re-take initiative in the hand, I'd just lead the turn since he probably doesn't have much often, and it makes more sense to play Qx like that.

Hand 3 - fold

Hand 4 - fold

I'd have to agree with Grif 100% here. None of these plays make any sense to me. This is the ultimate range merging

Maybe break down their ranges street by street? I think you hand read goot but don't get those plays though other than applying max pressure and hoping they fold wtv they have

I definitely fold in these spots a lot as well but wtv.

I'll go over a bit of my reasoning since apparently it makes no sense!

hand 1 : I think i'm folding out better quite a bit (the odd 10s/JJ) and i'm getting it in with better equity vs his FDs than I would by raising the flop and getting it in flipping. If I call turn i'm folding river lots which is so damn transparent when my hands looks exactly what it is. When I raise i'm priced in to call vs his range of FDs 88 and better + he can have air like 2% of the time since my line is weird.

hand 2 Since he barrels the turn a lot if I'm going to make a play here I'd rather get his turn bullet and I now have a double gutter. I guess calling turn and leading some rivers costs me less and accomplishes similar? At the time I liked turn c/raise because it lets me set up a good river shove on so many good rivers (like this one turned out to be). As far as repping something, it's HU so I can have a wide range pf, some of them hitting this board hard in which I would take similar lines. I feel like my flop calling/raising range in general is way too predictable and that has been hurting me a lot. In both these first two hands my turn lines make no sense given flop action but idk, since these are regs i thought that might fk with their heads lol.

Hand 3 : Isn't this a great spot to bluff? Seems like it's hard for him to find a hand to felt. I sort of don't like that SB is in the hand with me since I would flat the nuts here a lot to keep SB in with me, but then there's the counterpoint that my raise is stronger since it's 3-way.

Hand 4 : Wtf???? So what should we be continuing with here? Isn't his raising range weaker than his calling range?

Hand 1 - I mean.. I don't disagree that sometimes you're folding better and sometimes you get it in vs some draw. But you're also forcing yourself to play for stacks with a hand you'd like to just get to showdown with. I also don't agree that he'll fire the river that much as a bluff, since a lot of ppl will expect him to barrel AQ/AK type stuff on the turn, it might make him slow down.

Hand 2 - I just don't see what you're repping here on the turn... is my only problem with this hand. Would like it way more if it was on the diamond turn or something. Even a J or K turn would rep something clear to him. River bet I like once the diamond peels.

Hand 3 - I don't think this is a great spot to bluff. He's gonna stick it in with KKK,QQQ,JJJ for sure and probably even KQ. He's not betting into 3-way pot from UTG on this board light I don't think.

Hand 4 - I mean obviously having an ace here is strong, but I just don't think he thinks you're gonna fold here..?

All these hands seem very bad.

Hand 1: Call or fold
2: I'd c/r the flop. C/cing the flop seems bad on this board.
3: I'd just fold.
4: I think checking the flop is superior here. I'd call the raise and fold to a turn bet. Our flop flatting range has enough nut hands in it.

I also don't get any of these. In all of these hands you have medium strength hands compared to villain's range so you should be playing them passively if you're continuing at all. If I'm going to turn medium strength made hands into bluffs it's almost only on the river when I feel like villain's hand is well defined.

1. I would call or fold turn, probably fold given that you knows you can be stationy.
2. I would c/r the flop a lot. As played I would c/c turn.
3. I would flat the cbet ip.
4. I think this is a good spot to c/c flop. I c/f turn as played.

re: what you wrote about your 4-bet game... I actually think most aggro regs way overdo 4-bet/folding. A good reg doesn't have to 5-bet bluff much to take advantage. I've adjusted my game the other way... 4-betting less and folding some of those hands and flatting some ip. The key to all of this is knowing for sure that your opp is 3-betting wide. If you don't know that, or even have doubts, just fold.

thx for the replies. This confirms what I assumed (that these were bad and why I don't do this kind of stuff).

Zook I think the 4-bet stuff stems from a need for me to do something about losing so much to regs for such a long time. There's a solid group on the network i play at that have around ~10% 3-bet and a ton of it comes when they have position on me. Calling oop seems like such a losing prospect when you don't have a great feel for your game because it requires that intangible 'feel' for those tough marginal decisions. I've tried making my oop 3-bet calling range stronger (adding in some AA/KK/QQ) and 4-bet folding a bit more. I don't feel like ppl have started 5-bet bluffing me much, though I've found that they 5-bet shove stuff medium strength stuff like AQ/10s more so I just have to 4-bet call a bit wider.

I mean isn't this the only logical step when most of my losses are coming from losing preflop AIs? This seems so basic and results oriented but I'm not sure how else to analyze why I'm losing so much. I know I lose lots with 1-pair hands which I'm working on (with mixed results ) but everything else seems to just be AIPF variance but that can't be it because it's been going on for too long (2 months 100k hands) so I'm convinced I'm making some big mistakes. Sticking to basically getting it in with JJ+ (generalizing a bit here) save for blind wars just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Most of your losses are coming from losing preflop AIs? You're either stacking off way too light or running like dogshit. When I'm playing in games with some good aggro regs that 3bet 10% I a) tighten up pf when they're in a frequent 3bet position vs. me, b) play a polarized 4bet range slightly (just slightly) wider than normal, c) call a fair amount of 3bets ip, d) 4bet or fold oop (but still mostly fold).

Unless you're running horrifically sounds like you mainly need to tighten up your PF stackoff range.

This looks awful man. Considering you are on a downswing there's really no need for this kind of FPSy play.

Hand 1: FPS. Just flat turn or fold. It's cool when he shoves a draw, but the joke's on you too often here. It would be more cool if you would have him reverse dominated with A4, but even then it's obviously way too fancy.

Hand 2: This play would earn you immediate fishtagging. That might give you a serious edge vs me though.

Hand 3: Foldem.

Hand 4: Either b/f, c/f or c/c flop, depending on opponent. B/c is spew, so what if you are folding the best hand, get used to it, this isn't limit holdems.