Operation: Ben learns poker and builds a roll

Ok, I'll give it a shot. I've played 8.5k hands on iPoker since the 3rd August. Heres the graph/stats for them.








Now if that worked, you'll see in the graph I drew in 5 lines. In my opinion:

A) Played well at this time, bunch of beats but felt good (can see this in the all-in EV line).

B) Played well and generally speaking cards were good.

C) This was the -$200 in one session. Pure spew, all my fault.

D) The -$80 session I mentioned. Largely spew.

E) Back to playing good but ran bad.


So all whinges about running bad/all-in equity aside, if I'd avoided the spew in C and D I'd be above even.

As for the other stats, the main thing that stands out is my vpip/pfr. They're really low for 6-max. Then again I seem to be getting paid, and a combination of running better and not spewing would see a good winrate going on, so its something I want to work on, but not too worried about yet. Main concern is that I really dont know why they're so low. It doesnt feel like I'm playing that tight.

With an Aggressive factor of 1.8 you should think about revamping that up, maybe by working on post-flop aggression and C-betting more often.

I'm happy with my c-betting. I find it interesting that most people who c-bet like monkeys have a -ve return on their non-showdown pots and I have a positive return when I put some thought into whether flops are good for c-betting or not.

I dont double barrel much and probably should. Maybe observer error but it seems like every time I double barrel they have the goods and every time I dont they have a weak draw. I'm still puzzling out how to get that one right. Generally though I'm adapting my play to my opps. If they're aggressive I'll let them v'town themselves and if they're calling stations I dont bet without TP or better. I'm only likely to fire multiple barrels v's calling stations when I have TPGK+ or weak tights who I think can actually fold (and theres not a lot of them at 50nl).

Good weekend. 6 sessions, all around 30 mins each and the worst losing one was less than $7 and included a $65 and $80 winning session on top of more moderate ones. $194 profit from the two days. Its not like I played perfect, but my mistakes were small and more a matter of misapplying reads than just throwing money away. Played some of my strong hands really well I thought, and the deck played nicely which was a nice change.

Moved all of my roll onto noIQ for now, makes it easier to track.

Will post some interesting hands that demonstrate some of the theory I've discussed or am applying atm.

BR - $1226.

God. KK < AKs and KK < AA both ai pre this morning and $100 of that nice weekend gone.

Feel like I should take a break for a while, but I'm placed like 77/80 in the rakerace and could really do with that $200. I'm playing fairly well i think, one mistake I'm making is back to slowplaying moderately strong hands (i.e., lost half a buyin this morning flatting 3-bet with QQ then flatting c-bet and letting AK catch up on the turn). Mostly though playing fine.

Havnt updated for about a week. Decided to just focus on playing poker.

Lets see, must have been around $1120 last update. Ran fairly good. Had one day with a -80 and a -50 session but other than that all sessions were positive or break even (and they were just variance, played well all week I think). Finished the month with $1500 in my poker accts and have around $110 in bonus loyalty to cash in (rakeback by another name). May have picked up another $200 in rakerace also, but wont find out for a while. So I'm at least equal to my highest roll ever and perhaps ahead. Only barely over a break even month pokerwise (+$110 I think) but within pouncing distance of my first $100nl shot. I think I've gotten a lot better with the mental side of things, but still have aways to go. I really need to make sure my thinking is more clear at the table. I think I'll take a leaf out of DaGoat and Halvsames book and start recording sessions and talking through my play to make it clear. I can also then review myself and spot the times I'm really not being clear. Will try to get into posting some hands or theory stuff, for now just trying to be profitable .

http://www.warlock.au.com/PkrAug.JPG

BR - $1610

Confirmed, ship $200 rakerace prize!

BR - $1684 (+$200 = $1884).

Says payment on or before 15th of the month, so could be a while till I see it. Gotta think about whether I consider it part of my roll or not. I think its ok to do so, but then if I choose not to it could be a nice bump when it comes.

It's bonus that you cleared. Consider it part of the roll. What are your BR guidelines though? Are you going with a 20BI rule or are you going to be more conservative? Either way, it doesn't matter. Your not moving up yet.

20BI for 100nl, after that I'll get more conservative.

Yeah, I'm not there yet, but I'm within sight . 3 more buyins at 50nl and if I include that $200 I'm at 2k. I'm an optimist when I'm running well and a pessimist when I'm not .

Only got 700 hands in last week. Combination of being busy as heck at the start, and being away for 4 days at the end. Not a bad time for a bit of a break though.

Break even for the month (880 hands lol) so far. One nice winning session and 4 slightly losing sessions. So much red isnt nice, but I just havnt been hitting hands and am probably happy to be saving some $s. Been playing a bit TOO passively lately, so trying to up the v'betting and aggression a bit.

Rakerace payment came through.

Going to have to try to get a heap of hands in for the rest of the month to keep my VIP status up and try to place in the Sept race. Probably 25% more than usual I guess. Playing 5-6 tables often at 50nl atm, but if I move up it'll be a balance between more rake/points and less tables, will see how it goes.

BR - $1807

I need to do some review, possibly post some more hands for comment. I seem to be running into the top of peoples ranges lately, but I should check that they really have a wider range or if I'm making bad decisions. Was running about even then ran AQ into KK on KJT flop and got all in and river paired the T, then fell for a call/raise from a donkey and got ai with JJ v AA for another stack leaving me down 2 buyins. Probably should have spotted that one and got away especially when my post session review showed he'd limp/raised AA previously but I'd missed it.

Not spewing, but letting one or two bad hands per session take away my profits. Not sure how much is just cold cards and how much is bad play. Will stick at it and try to get more review in.

Been fairly short on time (real busy with other stuff) so have tended to use my time more for playing than study/review. Not sure if I need to change that a bit maybe...

BR - $1700.

God, crappy session. Catching kminds disease and winning lots of small pots then losing big ones. Heres a few I'd be interested in comments on:

Hand 1

12/7 but 80% fold to 3-bet.

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

Stacks:
UTG yangna ($53.15)
UTG 1 PatBoone ($22.74)
CO horsdeprix2008 ($65.10)
BTN eSbadguy ($50.50)
SB WhatsUrsIsMine ($51.85)
BB Hero ($52.55)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BB
3 folds, eSbadguy raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $7, eSbadguy calls $5

Flop: ($14.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $14.25, eSbadguy calls $14.25

Turn: ($42.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, eSbadguy checks

River: ($42.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $31.30 ...


No real reason for betting so big on flop, but other than that thoughts?


Hand 2

80/0 small sample. Recent hand she completed sb with AQ and bluffed small on flop and turn then 1/2 psb on Q river

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

Stacks:
UTG Psychjoda ($72.40)
CO CITYBOYCJ ($68.75)
BTN Hero ($45.75)
SB 9May ($50.00)
BB horsdeprix2008 ($50.00)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, CITYBOYCJ calls $0.50, Hero raises to $2.25, 2 folds, CITYBOYCJ calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.25, 2 players)
CITYBOYCJ checks, Hero bets $4, CITYBOYCJ raises to $66.50, Hero calls $39.50

Turn: ($115.25, 2 players)

River: ($115.25, 2 players)



Hand 3

This one was pretty bad, I had villain pegged as a maniac, but in reality postflop he wasnt too wild.

80/40/2

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

Stacks:
UTG athos100 ($6.63)
CO Kollemorten76 ($36.30)
BTN SMOKEYTHE2ND ($52.02)
SB eSbadguy ($48.50)
BB Hero ($52.10)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BB
athos100 calls $0.50, Kollemorten76 raises to $2, SMOKEYTHE2ND calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, athos100 calls $1.50

Flop: ($8.25, 4 players)
Hero checks, athos100 checks, Kollemorten76 checks, SMOKEYTHE2ND bets $8.25, Hero calls $8.25, athos100 calls $4.63, Kollemorten76 folds

Turn: ($29.38, 3 players)
Hero checks, SMOKEYTHE2ND bets $14.69, Hero calls $14.69

River: ($58.76, 3 players)
Hero checks, SMOKEYTHE2ND bets $14.69, Hero calls $14.69

Final Pot: $88.14
athos100 shows:
SMOKEYTHE2ND shows:

SMOKEYTHE2ND wins $85.14 ( won $45.51 )
athos100 lost -$6.63
Kollemorten76 lost -$2.00
Hero lost -$39.63


Hand 4

I think this one I just need to let go on the flop sucky as it is...

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

Stacks:
UTG skullspliter ($66.40)
UTG 1 patman14101982 ($23.74)
CO Hero ($51.25)
BTN janeka ($49.72)
SB frjoderska ($28.02)
BB yangna ($72.13)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is CO
1 fold, patman14101982 raises to $1, Hero raises to $3.75, janeka calls $3.75, 2 folds, patman14101982 calls $2.75

Flop: ($12, 3 players)
patman14101982 checks, Hero checks, janeka bets $7, patman14101982 folds, Hero calls $7

Turn: ($26, 2 players)
Hero checks, janeka checks

River: ($26, 2 players)
Hero checks, janeka bets $13.50, Hero calls $13.50

Final Pot: $53
janeka shows:

janeka wins $50.35 ( won $26.10 )
patman14101982 lost -$3.75
Hero lost -$24.25


Poker not so fun now.

1. Potting the flop isn't so bad really. Your main goal here is to get him off of TT-QQ and bet flop shove turn might be the best way to go about it.

2. As much as it sucks, I think you have to fold to the all-in. You're getting 44% pot odds, you're only 47/53 vs. a bare ace which is the best-case scenario. There's plenty of stuff in his range that has you destroyed.

3. I'd probably just fold the flop unless I'd seen this player make pot sized bets with weak hands before, but I don't think this is quite as bad of a calldown as you're making it out to be.

4. Fold the flop for sure, of the hands he might cold-call a reraise with you basically don't beat any of them. This is a really bad calldown.

Hand 1: I like how you played this. I'm probably tempted to barrel turn again though but your line is good too

Hand 2: I think you gotta fold this. You're up against better draws a ton, and Axs with leaves you drawing to an insider or just Ax even which you're not amazing against. Combo draws look pretty.... until your flush outs are dead!

Hand 3: You really should c/f this turn. I dont mind flop but turn is a fold, especially since its a protected pot with the player all-in on flop.

Hand 4: I don't mind this sometimes, but in general I'd find a fold by river. Flop c/c depends how light he's calling 3-bets.

Main thing in hand 4 is I really didnt have a good read on either player which makes me think a fold is correct on the flop.

Good point on hand 2, I figured my odds would be close but if you factor in the chance of a better draw I'm really in trouble.

Hand 3, yeah its not terrible on the flop, in fact I dont mind it now, but turn is def a fold. Its not so much the way I played it that made me think it was terrible, but more the fact that I misapplied my read on him. With position on a guy like this I think I should have realised his postflop play was different than his preflop.

I may just suck at poker .

I seem to have a great ability to get ai with losing hands and then go over all passive with the best hands. Pretty much the opposite of what I should be doing. Not sure..some of it is results oriented I think, a whole bunch lately if villain can have 1 hand that beats me, thats what they turn up with. On the other hand maybe I'm just thinking too hard about spots and worrying too much about pot control. Make hands, get paid. Seems simple...

its all in your head dude.

also, slowplayin (eg passive) is for suckers [on tables where they pay you off anyway].


its all about environment (table) awareness.

Knowing my head isnt right doesnt always mean its easy to fix .

Interesting session this morning. Got involved on one table I really should have quit. Kept getting into awkward spots v's a very aggressive TAG who had position on me.

Hand 1

22/21 (until today he was 21/21 never called pre, but he limped T4s UTG and PSB flop missed A high flop earlier - I floated with K high FD figuring I'd get paid by his monster and it checked down )

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

Stacks:
UTG KrivonosovMV ($71.15)
UTG 1 Daimondhead ($38.20)
CO WayToUp ($97.08)
BTN FlopMasterJr ($51.70)
SB dondan89 ($49.50)
BB Hero ($51.60)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BB
KrivonosovMV raises to $2, 4 folds, Hero raises to $7, KrivonosovMV calls $5

Flop: ($14.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, KrivonosovMV checks

Turn: ($14.25, 2 players)
Hero bets $8, KrivonosovMV folds

Final Pot: $22.25

Hero wins $21.55 ( won $6.55 )
KrivonosovMV lost -$7.00


Hand 2


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

Stacks:
UTG FlopMasterJr ($51.70)
UTG 1 dondan89 ($50.00)
CO Hero ($57.90)
BTN KrivonosovMV ($59.40)
SB Daimondhead ($47.45)
BB WayToUp ($97.08)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is CO
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, KrivonosovMV raises to $5, 2 folds, Hero raises to $17, KrivonosovMV calls $12

Flop: ($34.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, KrivonosovMV bets $42.40, Hero folds

Final Pot: $77.15

KrivonosovMV wins $75.45 ( won $16.05 )
Hero lost -$17.00

I think maybe I should have shoved flop here. I didnt notice we were deeper than 100bbs preflop and sized my 4-bet to allow for it, but decided not to when I noticed stack sizes.


Hand 3

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

Stacks:
UTG dondan89 ($50.00)
CO Hero ($64.65)
BTN KrivonosovMV ($81.20)
SB Daimondhead ($39.40)
BB FlopMasterJr ($55.15)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is CO
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, KrivonosovMV raises to $5, 2 folds, Hero calls $3.25

Flop: ($10.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, KrivonosovMV bets $10.75, Hero calls $10.75

Turn: ($32.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, KrivonosovMV bets $32.25, Hero folds

Final Pot: $64.50

KrivonosovMV wins $62.90 ( won $14.90 )
Hero lost -$15.75


Nearly 4-bet again. This guy has about 18% 3-bet, but it seemed a bit borderline, especially being slightly deep. Should I c/r fold flop, float, or just play my jacks for set value and fold flop?


By this time I decided there were better tables to concentrate on. $10 winning session, but theres a good $20-$30 I'd have saved by using better table selection.

Figure I'll post a couple other interesting hands while I'm at it:

Hand 4

Somewhat loose and seems to have 100% 2 barrel range from what I've seen.

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

Stacks:
UTG Hanniba11 ($58.90)
UTG 1 surfsteve81 ($56.40)
CO thatsmyshoes ($116.05)
BTN Hero ($50.00)
SB P0k41r3 ($49.50)
BB brambroxxx ($90.55)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BTN
1 fold, surfsteve81 raises to $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, 2 folds

Flop: ($4.75, 2 players)
surfsteve81 bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($9.75, 2 players)
surfsteve81 bets $5, Hero calls $5

River: ($19.75, 2 players)
surfsteve81 bets $10.50, Hero calls $10.50

Final Pot: $40.75
surfsteve81 shows:

surfsteve81 wins $38.75 ( won $18.75 )
Hero lost -$20.00


I think this ones ok. Not only does he 2 barrel a lot, but I've folded to his barrels once or twice recently, so I think calling him down with TPTK is good enough. Sometimes guys like this will just have it.



Hand 5

This hand is in between hands 2 and 3 I think on the same table, guy seems like a solid enough TAG.


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

Stacks:
UTG WayToUp ($94.33)
UTG 1 FlopMasterJr ($55.15)
CO dondan89 ($46.50)
BTN Hero ($51.25)
SB KrivonosovMV ($81.45)
BB Daimondhead ($41.15)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BTN
2 folds, dondan89 raises to $1.75, Hero calls $1.75, 1 fold, Daimondhead calls $1.25

Flop: ($5.50, 3 players)
Daimondhead checks, dondan89 bets $3.50, Hero raises to $11, Daimondhead folds, dondan89 calls $7.50

Turn: ($27.50, 2 players)
dondan89 checks, Hero bets $22, dondan89 folds

Final Pot: $49.50

Hero wins $48.15 ( won $13.40 )
dondan89 lost -$12.75
Daimondhead lost -$1.75


Iffy about this one. I think he'll fold a fair bit, but the times he doesnt I'm at best drawing to 2 outs.

1. I wouldn't 3bet AsJs. Was this for value? It really depends on his 3bet calling range
2. Since he seems bad your preflop huge 4bet seems good but fold now
3. I see it's the same dude who 3bet you small earlier. I'd probably just repop again preflop and as played raise/call flop because he seems spewy/really bad
4. Fine. You can probably raise flop sometimes.
5. no need to comment as you know my answer. But looking deeper at the hand I am really really curious to as what can fold on that turn. I can't really see many hands he only flats a raise with on the flop and can't continue unless it's a like AdKd type hand. It's late, maybe I am missing something

Hope you pwned in these hands though my man

I put him on a drawing hand in hand 5, because I figure (and I've been wrong before) that anything else has to 3-bet such a wet board. Something like a KJ, two diamonds, something like that. Maybe even a JT.

Hand 1 the 3-bet was basically a bluff. One part of my "passive" game was I stopped 3-betting almost entirely. Thats one reason I took a passive line on the flop, I'm not playing my weak TPTK as a big hand.

I need to just leave tables with a light 3-bettor who has position on me, instead of trying to out play them.

Something occurred to me today. Quite aside from running good/running bad, playing my A game/playing my C game, getting coolered/playing bad...I think I havnt been playing seriously lately. I dunno, hard to explain. Much as I'm getting all emotional and affected by my results, I dont think I'm sitting at the tables determined to play well. I'm somewhat going through the motions, winning or losing. I think I really need to get into the moment, and really take it seriously when I'm playing.

Maybe a bit of a pre-game ritual or something might help. Stuff to think about anyway.

yeah I know what you mean, I do it also, you basically go on auto pilot. I think the main way to combat it is to have a little ritual as uve mentioned. Just taking a shower and shutting down any other web links/msn seems to help me alot. Though i admit I dont stick to that all the time, whats happeneing on FTR often becomes to enticing for me to resist . As long as your not a 12+ tabling bot, you can also do the simple yet effective thing of actually taking a few seconds to think through your decisions, no matter how basic, as its easy to just click buttons because thats the standard play in that spot etc, its something im definitely trying to integrate into my play. Anyways gl!

Did better for a while tonight. Really concentrated and things went well. Closed down tables if I felt my position was bad. Got up to about $75 up at one point. Ended up only winning $11 for the session though. Felt myself losing it towards the end but tried to stick it out just that little longer. Probably lost $40-50 of the $65 I dropped in the last 10 minutes. Just a wakeup to really needing to close things down when I'm not in the right mind any longer.

Been a while since I last updated. I've actually run fairly well recently, stringing a bunch of winning sessions together. Just played my first losing one in a while. Played pretty bad. Tired and got a head cold, but thought I could play anyway. Had some bad hands in there though.

First the good one. For some reason, I've pretty much never used the bet flop, c/r turn line. Dunno why, I guess I'm always either value betting or folding mostly in my game. Had a few hands where people have told me it would be good, so looking for spots.

Umm, this one I didnt actually c/r it turns out, but somewhat similar. Tried the underbet approach, another line someone mentioned to me in a different hand, but not sure if its best here or not.

Hand 1

pretty bad, something like 40/30 and just...bad.

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

Stacks:
UTG CTAPuKX0TTA6bl4 ($50.00)
CO Sheepsk1n ($56.90)
BTN juggel ($176.10)
SB Hero ($54.95)
BB equinox0815 ($48.50)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is SB
2 folds, juggel raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold, juggel calls $4.50

Flop: ($12.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $9, juggel calls $9

Turn: ($30.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $10, juggel raises to $28.50, Hero raises to $39.95, juggel calls $11.45

River: ($110.40, 2 players)

Final Pot: $110.40
juggel shows:

Hero wins $107.40 ( won $52.45 )
juggel lost -$54.95




That hand turned a bad session into a slightly losing one, so I chose to stop (Fnords win half of it back approach). Heres some of the losers:


Hand 2

DaleCooper theorem lets me down!

Something like a 50/10, should have postflop reads but dont.

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

Stacks:
UTG surfsteve81 ($44.70)
CO Dojot1 ($51.35)
BTN Hero ($50.00)
SB IMakeYouLoose ($130.10)
BB morog3 ($7.03)

Pre-flop: ($0.75, 5 players) Hero is BTN
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, IMakeYouLoose calls $1.25, morog3 calls $1

Flop: ($4.50, 3 players)
IMakeYouLoose checks, morog3 checks, Hero bets $3.50, IMakeYouLoose calls $3.50, morog3 folds

Turn: ($11.50, 2 players)
IMakeYouLoose bets $5.75, Hero calls $5.75

River: ($23, 2 players)
IMakeYouLoose bets $23, Hero calls $23

Final Pot: $69
IMakeYouLoose shows:

IMakeYouLoose wins $66 ( won $32.25 )
morog3 lost -$1.50
Hero lost -$33.75


I guess river is a fold, but damn it looked so bluffy from a bad player...


Hmm, other one is getting a "parse error" when I try to read it in HM, but basically a loose CS calls me pre with TT and I have J8, flop Q83 so I v'bet he calls, turn J so obv I v'bet my 2P, river 9 so I v'bet again and he raises ai for less than my bet so I call and see his backdoored straight. Ahh well.

Def didnt play well though. I really want to grind through some hands to get enough FPPs to maintain my VIP status, and it'll take a fair effort to do so by now, but playing under the weather doesnt seem like a great idea. Hopefully I'll wake up better tomorrow.

Still running good this week, back in the black (just) now for the month. Really happy with my game. Folding rocks, definately an underrated line to take. Basically I've been folding when I think I'm likely beat and betting really hard when I think I'm likely ahead and its been working a treat (funny that).

Dunno where this thread is going atm. Seems to be a lot of me just saying "running bad" "running good" and not much else. Want to keep it going longterm but guess I need to find some more interesting stuff to chat about. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

I love when people c/r their ok draws on the turn after they've lost most of their equity and have little if any FE.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Folding rocks, definately an underrated line to take.

Folding=aggression. Took me a while to figure that out too. nh.

Man I had a great post ready to go analysing that AK hand above from different perspectives, then got home and reread the hand and realized it was a 3-bet hand which makes it much more straightforward than just a normal raised pot.

Ahh well.

I really like ur line in that AK hand against this type of villain. He's gonna read it as u being weak almost always and it's likely gonna get him to overplay his weaker holdings (as evidenced). Bullies with big stacks just can't help themselves.

Just checked those last couple hands.

Hand 1- If he's that bad, just bet a reasonable turn bet 20ish instead of 10. He'll call it off anyhow.

Hand 2 - I probably peel turn as well, but river is a fold. Turn isn't a great card as two pairs and straights also got there.

I dunno, just felt like he might fold his crapper hands if I put in a normal bet, but a small bet might induce his stupid play complex. I guess the fact he actually called the push indicates I may have gotten him ai by more traditional means anyway. Obv I actually expected him to shove over not raise then call.

Hmm, I've noticed that over my last 3k hands I'm running about break even, but well ahead of EV which is a concern. I guess I've had a couple suckouts, but have also taken some beats. My "marginally ahead" hands are holding up more than expect. I've won 2 around 44% and then of the 5 between 50 and 75% I've won 4 of them. Largely it seems that while my "luck" is running about even (slightly good) for a change it seems I've had my suckouts in big pots and people have sucked out against me in small ones. For my total hands on noIQ I'm running only slightly above EV, so meh, maybe its not such an issue afterall.

I've had AA v's KK ai on JK9r flop hit runner runner straight, and QQ v's KK ai on 569r flop hit its 2 outer. I guess I wont get too concerned yet and just take some happy +ve variance, but maybe be a bit wary.

Possibly a bigger concern is my declining non-showdown wins. Until this month I've always maintained about neutral, slightly winning line for this, but I'm down close to $400 for the month so far. I'm sure this is from playing too many speculative hands. I'm getting position on fish, overlimping or calling with crap hands hoping to hit big v's them and not doing so. I dunno, gonna have to give this some thought. I want to play these guys who cant fold, but I think I need to be more picky about the hands I choose to do so. Rather than overlimp crap like 79o, fold that and raise stuff like Q9o. I need to look more into it I guess. I also think I'm playing the "lets call a flop and evaluate (i.e., fold) the turn" game WAY too much recently. Gotta pick my spots on that.

Don't take the eV to heart. It bases it off the last street of action, so if you make a big bet and get called by a shorty without much behind, who then hits the turn and sticks it in your equity looks bad, even though it wasn't.

Took my first shot at 100nl today. My copy of HEM is only the smallstakes versions, so no stats, so just 2 tabled. No HHs to convert but I think I did ok then had an interesting hand.

Only about 30 hands but villain has been playing about 50% and raising 40% and has already 3-bet people twice (both times people folded). He raises 2.5x BB in the CO (his raise sizes were inconsistant between minraise and 4x with no apparant pattern), called by the BB (but of a passive station) and I'm in the SB with JJ. Remembering Spendas comment about 3-betting JJ not being a squeeze but a value raise I raise it up to $12 and villain thinks about it a bit and then I think a minraise to around $21.50. I cant fold to a guy like this with a minraise in an obvious squeeze pot I dont think, but calling seems like a bad spot postflop. Maybe a call and shove any non A flop... Any other kind of raise may as well be a shove, but a shove seems likely to narrow his range a fair bit. In the end I figured f'k him, if he folds its still a good result, and if he calls with AK/AQ then I get a flip, and if he flips a better PP then gg me but it would be unlucky to run into the top of his range.

He calls the shove and flips AA.

Shit.

I river a J. Poker is easy .

I cashed in about $120 worth of noIQ bonus, and played a $95 session of 50nl today to pop me up above $2k, and this suckout pushed me through to about $2185, so I've achieved my most recent goal, time for another one .


----------------------

100nl was scary. I've never been concerned about a moveup before. SnGs even up to $33s I was calm about. Moving up through 10nl/25nl/50nl didnt concern me in the least, but 100nl scared me a bit. I guess I'm at a point where the money involved starts to mean something to me in real terms. That and I'm probably just a bit concerned about dropping back again. I definately didnt smash 50nl, more kinda limped my way through. Then again I'd say half my hands I was playing bad so I know my good game can beat it comfortably. Hopefully I'll adjust soon.


---------------------------

New goal. Time to boot it up, next goal, $5k! Thats the last step in my kind of 'preparatory goals. Hopefully I can get there in nice time. I'll do a new op sig soon in a bit .

Nice work man... feels good doesnt it
You BR management plan is definitely aggressive, hope it works out for u. If u have a -4 buyin swing at 100nl...could u handle it..mentally.? I couldnt.

I'm not moving upto 100nl permanently until i get to 4k. Nitty yeh...but lately ive had some sick 6 buyin swings. It hurts the mind.

Lol, I've had swings of at least 8 buyins each of the last 3 months.

I move up aggressively (only to 100nl, after this it becomes a lot more conservative) but I move down quickly too. A downswing now wouldnt be too bad, getting to 3k and dropping back 7-8 buyins might affect me though. We'll see how it goes I guess.

Congrats Ben.

NICE!

gl at 100nl!

SHIPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!! you da man

Thanks guys. I've played a bit of 100nl now. Getting used to it, numbers still feel kind of big. Heres a hand I butchered. I think this was late at night while waiting to see if Wally had settled. Table has only just broken up (main fish left). Villain has been somewhat loose and aggressive but not too out of line, and some of that may have been targetting the fish.

I'm pretty sure I messed up both preflop and flop, but I'm wondering about river. Is there value here?


$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
3 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
BTN verymediocre ($103.50)
SB manfreedo ($153.40)
BB Hero ($99.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 3 players) Hero is BB
verymediocre folds, manfreedo raises to $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6, 2 players)
manfreedo bets $4, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($14, 2 players)
manfreedo bets $10, Hero raises to $35, manfreedo calls $25

River: ($84, 2 players)
manfreedo checks, Hero bets $42 ...

Ok, my rolls at $2200, I'll make a movedown point of $1700. Basically set it to $500 below whatever my high point becomes until I get above $2500 (i.e., once my movedown point hits 2k I'll leave it there). Flexible.

Frustrated atm. I upgraded my HEM to the professional version (need to for 100nl) and it worked fine when I first entered the new code and played, but for some reason now it doesnt work. Tells me theres no valid license and I need to register, but using the code again fails. Hope the HEM guys can help me, first reply from them didnt have anything in there to fix things.

Guess since I'm basically 2-tabling that playing without a HUD shouldnt matter too much (have done 3 out of 4 sessions so far anyway while waiting to upgrade), but even things like not being able to review my hands through HEM and copy/paste out of it is frustrating.

Stick with the aggressive bankroll strategy. Don't sit in a game because you have 20 buy ins for it, sit in the game cause you have an edge. Don't sit at a lower game than your capable of unless you absolutely have to. You'll get used to the money value. Look at it in bb and buy ins and you'll be all good.

Originally Posted by meeloche

Stick with the aggressive bankroll strategy.

Don't sit in a game because you have 20 buy ins for it, sit in the game cause you have an edge.

These are very contradictory for someone moving up.

He doesn't KNOW he has an edge, but is sitting in the game because he has a BR to handle some swings. IF he's capable fine, if not he'll move down and try to determine what, if anything is going wrong.

How much swing you can tolerate varies from person to person.

I get what he means .

So far its been interesting. I still find the fish that I did at 50nl, probably the difference is theres often 1 or 2 people at the table trying to target ME. At least thats how it seems. I'm probably playing a bit nit-taggish, but on the other hand I still seem to make some hero calls. I'm actually finding people who will semi-bluff more now which has been interesting. I think as long as I dont get into bluff wars I'll run ok.

Grats on reaching your goal ben, guess you need to set a new one now and change your signature goal =)

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Ok, my rolls at $2200,

and you're playing 100nl! you made it man, nice work!!!!
I'm moving back to 100nl October 1st as well - with a slightly more conservative approach to brm...
kill it, enjoy the next 2k!

Lol yeah, I guess I'm over on the edge of aggressive BRM, but I feel its ok, especially for someone whos really only a casual player, as long as I do follow it strictly and make sure I move down when dictated by my BRM plan. Thanks .

Originally Posted by meeloche

Stick with the aggressive bankroll strategy. Don't sit in a game because you have 20 buy ins for it, sit in the game cause you have an edge. Don't sit at a lower game than your capable of unless you absolutely have to. You'll get used to the money value. Look at it in bb and buy ins and you'll be all good.

Lol, I took this literally today. There were about 2 100nl tables with > 30% vpip and they both had 6+ people on wait list, and all the rest around 20%, so obviously infested with taggy regs. On the other hand I took a peak at 200nl and a spot openned up on a 45% $30 avg pot table so I grabbed it and just single tabled that for a bit. Had perfect position on the main table fish. Went well, got up a bit, then isolated his limp with K7s and hit a KT3r flop, cbet and called, checked blank turn for pot control (probably a mistake but got worried about kicker) and then he donked out at me on a 4 river. Called because he's bad and he had 34s. $50 down. Still thats why I was there to play hands against a guy who limp/calls pf and calls cbets with bottom pair. Ended up winning a few more smaller pots and would guess I finished down about $30 on the table. Was fun though, felt good, getting over the $ thing already it seems.

100nl ran very good today. Dont have HEM working yet but its been a nice last day of the month so far. Three big hands:

Hand 1

3-bet btn raise with 56s and btn minraises so I call (this was a mistake due to flop SPR but ahh well), check K97r flop and btn checks behind. Turn is a 4 giving me OESD so I semibluff 2/3 psb and btn minraises (basically putting me ai). I figured my odds were close (they werent really, I was calling about 1:4 where I need almost 1:5) and spiked a 3 on the river so stuck my last $5 in and btn calls with AA.

Badly played hand PF and turn, but I got lucky and hopefully will learn. Talked it over with kmind a bit, he's been reading that in turn spots like that with some equity we're better off playing passively than aggressivly. My problem is that if btn bets turn we probably need to fold, so being OOP sucks here.


Hand 2

About 4 hrs later but same villain as hand 1. I raise JJ utg 4x and she 3x raises me OTB. I call and spike top set. She bets flop fairly big so I barely more than minraise (assuming she remembers my earlier suckout and is still steamed a bit), she CIBs me so I minraise the rest in and she calls with KK. I hold .


Hand 3

Literally about 8 hands later on same table, decent seeming TAG in CO 3.5x raises and I flat OTB w/ 33. Flop 3QT two tone, he c-bets big, I put in a 3x raise this time (dont want to take the same line as I did with JJ) he 3x's me back so I stick the last $20 or so in and he calls with AA. I hold again.

Poker is fun when you run good .

Sorry for no proper HHs, hopefully I'll get HEM working in the next few days. Getting my laptop reformatted and reinstalling everything from scratch tomorrow.

BR - $2366 giving me a +$500 month over around 11k hands, about $150 of that being bonus. I think I dropped around 8 buyins at one stage earlier in the month, so if I had a graph it would show a nice $900 upswing for the second half of the month.

Hope to get a bunch more hands in during October and work on my game some more. Feels like at least some of my good run atm is plain good luck rather than skill.

Away for the weekend. 100nl continues to go well. Rolls about $2460 atm. Nothing exciting, did a vid I sent to my group for feedback. Playing HUDless is going a treat (only 2 tabling which is part of my aggressive BRM plan when I play with between 20 and 30 buyins), really enjoying it to be honest. For one thing it forces me to pay much closer attention to players and to hands I'm not involved in, which should be good for my development. I feel like I'm getting good reads and exploiting them though.


Thoughts on moving up so far?

I really havnt changed my game or felt I've needed to. I think having a good (imo) understanding of the concepts of poker has helped with this, rather than just knowing how to play by numbers. Obviously from my results I havnt felt like I've had problems, but tbh I've run pretty hot. I probably notice occassionally I'll get one or two good regs who can give me trouble, especially if they have position on me, but some of thats paranoia, and if I think its too much of a hassle I just change tables (table selection works!!). I have some things I want to work on, but I dont want to make wholesale changes just because I've moved up. Stick to my winning game and gradually work on some of the things I think I need to work on. I may even consider some training soon, but atm I feel like I've got plenty of improvement within me without needing professional help yet.

New goal is $5k. Ok, kinda boring to just set a new $ goal a bit higher up, but this ones an important one for me. $5k is the baseline for my real longer term goals in poker. Once I reach that point I can start getting out of it what my initial intentions were when I started.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

100nl continues to go well. Rolls about $2460 atm. Nothing exciting, did a vid I sent to my group for feedback.

I'd be interested in seeing this, both to give feedback and to get a feel for someone else's (successful) style.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Playing HUDless is going a treat... forces me to pay much closer attention to players and to hands I'm not involved in, which should be good for my development.

I think it will especially help you to understand the types of lines that particular player types end up taking - doing the same thing with an HUD has benefits too, in terms of understanding more deeply what these numbers mean.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Thoughts on moving up so far?

I really havnt changed my game or felt I've needed to...

occassionally I'll get one or two good regs who can give me trouble, especially if they have position on me, but some of thats paranoia, and if I think its too much of a hassle I just change tables

If your game beats 50nl then you don't need to change your game. To me it often feels that 100nl plays a little easier than 50nl

Originally Posted by bjsaust

I may even consider some training soon, but atm I feel like I've got plenty of improvement within me without needing professional help yet.

agreed, maybe pay for coaching if you get stuck sometime, but it hasn't happened yet, and you already know how to learn and improve. Nice.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

New goal is $5k.

i like that your goals are nice round numbers, and that you achieve them. The first time you withdraw $5k in poker profits it feels SOOO GOOOD!!! Go to it, keep pwning those fools

Ship 1/144 in $2.20 rebuy on iPoker. Ok, only $247, but thats 2 1/2 buyins for my 100nl and its also my first ever MTT win.

Had to laugh, I was short stack the entire final table (heck I was almost shorstack after the addon). There was a maniac bluff monkey but people kept folding their medium hands v's him, then rebluffing their stacks off when he never folded and he just kept knocking them out. Eventually I get to final 3, pickup AQ v's other guys QJ and double up. Then I tarp the maniac by flatting his 3-bet with crap when I had KK and checking to him to do his 100% PSB c-bet and call flop (he had like 92o unimproved). That put me in the running. I ended up about 200k chips to 500k chips HU, lost a good chunk when I bluffed him on a 2 tone flop and he called and 3flush hit turn so I c/f'd.

Then I disconnected.

Came back a min or two later and iPoker musnt have disconnect timeouts on tourneys even HU because I had about 50k chips left, did a stop'n'go where I actually hit 2 pair on the flop and he called with K crap unimproved. Then he open shoved A3o and I called with A9 and held, shortly after I 3-bet with AQo and he 4-bet shoved w/ A4o (and bitched about being dominated again), and then shoved A7o and he called with A3 and gg all over. Serves him right for trying to steal first while I was disconnected.

Happy happy .

BR - $2714

congrats on the win!

slow down

lol. One of my tenents is you gotta ride the hot streaks when they hit.

I got my HEM setup on my laptop again last night (reformatted the whole thing) and it looks like I lost some of my HHs. I tried to backup the database and then save the HH files that werent in there, but I've only got about 400 hands of 100nl on there after restoring then importing those hands. Pity, I'd hoped to see more of how I'd played without a HUD. Guess I can going foward.

whoa wait you reformatted your computer? I need to get on AIM asap and talk to you.

Again slow down. Don't get ahead of my BR!

I need to reinstall aim still, its on my list . I'll get that done this morning and look for you.

Originally Posted by kmind

whoa wait you reformatted your computer? I need to get on AIM asap and talk to you.

Again slow down. Don't get ahead of my BR!

Aim all setup and installed, havnt seen you on.

Umm, hope you're winning, the old roll keeps going in the right direction atm.

BR - $2880

AH! And yeah my damn computer means no AIM for a little.

And I'm still beating you by a little! My DC subscription ran out I think though so if I decide to go after that again I'll be behind

Playing hardly any hands so far this month, contrary to my goals. 2 tabling affects that a lot. I think I played for an hour last night and only got about 130 hands in. I'm sure I'm missing some from HM though, theres some on my other PC from when I did my vid but I think I lost a few sessions as well. HM has me at about 1.5k hands and $150 profit for the month and I'm fairly sure I finished Sept at around $2350, so thats actually $500 profit so far this month.

Anyway, with almost 30 buyins and HM working again now I'll probably start 4-tabling again soon so hopefully I can up the amount of hands I get through.

As I've said I've been playing HUDless lately, and really enjoying it. One thing I've found is that I'm both getting decent reads earlier, but also more confident acting on them. Heres a couple examples:

Hand 1
This guy was doing this 3x steal every single time it folded to him. This is by no means a great play, but I decided to play back at him. Pegging him as a non-thinking tagfish I figure he c-bets flop 100% of the time, but a raise there looks bluffy to me, so I decide to see a turn and evaluate his action. That big bet looks like he wants me to fold not call, so I do the opposite. Not only do I base my play on the "big bet bluff" read, but again his actions look like he wants folds not calls. Fairly marginal, but I decided to take a read and go with it.

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG klim83 ($34.90)
UTG 1 stedubirl ($38.96)
CO riverjackpot ($142.95)
BTN RandomNerd ($100.00)
SB iut5cjyyktbk ($100.50)
BB Hero ($100.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is BB
4 folds, iut5cjyyktbk raises to $3, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6, 2 players)
iut5cjyyktbk bets $4, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($14, 2 players)
iut5cjyyktbk bets $12, Hero raises to $36, iut5cjyyktbk folds

Final Pot: $62

Hero wins $60.10 ( won $17.10 )
iut5cjyyktbk lost -$19.00



Hand 2

Only been at the table about 4 orbits, and havnt actually seen this guy showdown yet, but from actions on previous hands I'm fairly sure this guy bets big with bluffs and takes more passive lines with solid hands.


$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Bragz ($20.00)
UTG 1 macluckster ($92.74)
CO NotOneTime ($107.50)
BTN inotsleep247 ($98.00)
SB Hero ($100.00)
BB LesLaLec ($411.14)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is SB
1 fold, macluckster calls $1, 2 folds, Hero raises to $4, 1 fold, macluckster calls $3

Flop: ($9, 2 players)
Hero checks, macluckster bets $8, Hero calls $8

Turn: ($25, 2 players)
Hero checks, macluckster bets $24, Hero calls $24

River: ($73, 2 players)
Hero checks, macluckster bets $56.74, Hero calls $56.74

Final Pot: $186.48
macluckster shows:

Hero wins $183.48 ( won $90.74 )
macluckster lost -$92.74



He accused me of seeing his cards and said there was no way I could call his bets otherwise. I could have pointed out that his play was transparent to anyone paying attention, but instead I just told him I like to gambool and cant fold KK.

tell him you read his mind via digital lines

Played some more 200nl tonight (prefer playing 1 good 200nl table to 2 bad 100nl ones) and went well. Was a grindy session but won $100 on that table, unfortunately I spewed off $80 on a 100nl table (first time in a month or more I've called ai with a medium PP pf ). The fun news though is that the small profit I did make tipped me over 2.9k. Man, I'm within a buyin of $3k now, it feels crazy. I HOPED to hit $3k by the end of the month but wasnt confident.

Man, I hope I didnt just doomswitch myself.

Anyway, I think those few minutes at the 100nl table tonight was the first time in a long time I've lost concentration and played bad. Given it was almost midnight after a long day I guess its understandable, and a good sign that I've gone so long, I just have to make sure I dont do it again. Also good that I recovered from it and started playing better.

Not entirely sure playing some 200nl is a great thing for me, but if the table has at least 2 soft targets it must be +EV to sit, as long as I only do it when I feel I'm playing well.

Btw, I dont necessarily think those last two hands are good. The first one in particular I think I should just fold PF, and the second is kinda marginal. What they are though is examples of of times I've felt I've had good reads and have had extra confidence to follow through with them which I might not have with more tables and relying more on HUD stats.

What the heck, I'll post the interesting hands from 200nl tonight.

Hand 1

Nothing exciting here, except its the first hand at the table, and already I pick up a useful read!

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG tress2 ($214.80)
CO rruffuss ($200.00)
BTN Sandbanks ($391.90)
SB legioner07 ($253.00)
BB Hero ($200.00)
[rruffuss posted $3]

Pre-flop: ($6, 5 players) Hero is BB
1 fold, rruffuss checks, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($6, 2 players)
Hero checks, rruffuss checks

Turn: ($6, 2 players)
Hero bets $4, rruffuss calls $4

River: ($14, 2 players)
Hero checks, rruffuss checks

Final Pot: $14
rruffuss shows:

Hero wins $13.30 ( won $7.30 )
rruffuss lost -$7.00


Limps with crap, calls with any draw. Nice to know as we move onto hand 2:

Hand 2

I'd normally fold this, but table seems passive so less chance of being raised which leaves me pretty good odds with crap. TP so bet, and the guy who loves to chase draws calls on a somewhat drawy board. Off to value town we go with shitty TPNK!


$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG rruffuss ($193.00)
CO Sandbanks ($391.90)
BTN legioner07 ($252.00)
SB Hero ($207.30)
BB tress2 ($214.80)

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is SB
rruffuss calls $2, Sandbanks calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, tress2 checks

Flop: ($8, 4 players)
Hero bets $6, 1 fold, rruffuss calls $6, 1 fold

Turn: ($20, 2 players)
Hero bets $14, rruffuss calls $14

River: ($48, 2 players)
Hero checks, rruffuss checks

Final Pot: $48
rruffuss shows:

Hero wins $45.60 ( won $23.60 )
tress2 lost -$2.00
rruffuss lost -$22.00
Sandbanks lost -$2.00


Probably should have made turn a little bigger.

Hand 3

Another interesting reads based one. This guy had checked to river twice in a short period and bet river, which is enough to indicate a pattern to me!


$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Sandbanks ($386.90)
UTG 1 legioner07 ($326.00)
CO svpricci ($33.80)
BTN Hero ($226.90)
SB tress2 ($227.05)
BB rruffuss ($128.00)

Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is BTN
2 folds, svpricci calls $2, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, svpricci calls $6

Flop: ($19, 2 players)
svpricci checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($19, 2 players)
svpricci checks, Hero checks

River: ($19, 2 players)
svpricci bets $10, Hero calls $10

Final Pot: $39
svpricci shows:

Hero wins $37.05 ( won $19.05 )
svpricci lost -$18.00


K high goot!

Another couple hands after that where a short donk doubled up twice off me with shitty hands (TPNK v's OESD+FD and middle pair after calling off over 1/2 his stack PF) but I then got it all back + the rest with an overpair v's shitty TPNK he c/r'd me with (he also c/r'd the other TPNK earlier so no concern there).

Things went quiet for a fair while, only this somewhat interesting one:

Hand 4

Villain seemed like the kind of TAGfish to c-bet 100% of flops and mandatory double barrel since all I did was call.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG mirinda222 ($61.00)
UTG 1 sexylu ($47.00)
CO Sandbanks ($598.05)
BTN legioner07 ($384.30)
SB khcgrw ($188.00)
BB Hero ($243.23)

Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is BB
mirinda222 calls $2, 4 folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($5, 2 players)
Hero checks, mirinda222 bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($15, 2 players)
Hero checks, mirinda222 bets $12, Hero calls $12

River: ($39, 2 players)
Hero checks, mirinda222 checks

Final Pot: $39
mirinda222 shows:

Hero wins $37.05 ( won $18.05 )
mirinda222 lost -$19.00


Sitting around that $260 mark for ages looking to make a little more to pop over 2.9k, and these two hands were the 3rd last and last hands of the session:

Hand 5

Villain wasnt too terrible, but had just taken a bit of a beat and felt she'd be tilting so nothing fancy, just stick it in and let her frustration call me.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG mirinda222 ($146.50)
CO sexylu ($26.65)
BTN legioner07 ($348.30)
SB khcgrw ($232.00)
BB Hero ($254.28)

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is BB
1 fold, sexylu raises to $7, 2 folds, Hero raises to $28, sexylu calls $19.65

Flop: ($55.65, 2 players)

Turn: ($55.65, 2 players)

River: ($55.65, 2 players)

Final Pot: $55.65
sexylu shows:

Hero wins $52.95 ( won $24.95 )
sexylu lost -$26.65


That had me real close to where I wanted to be, then I got this one:

Hand 6

Villain was pretty bad, a real bet/bluff monkey. Hadnt been at table long. Torn on turn, I figured I had close to the nuts so would give villain a chance to bluff off on river since I figured they floated wide and would fold a lot on turn if I bet, but then the A hit and I wasnt happy because Ax is well in their float range, but remembering my read I decided to go with it anyway.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG legioner07 ($348.30)
CO khcgrw ($237.35)
BTN Hero ($278.23)
SB mirinda222 ($140.50)
BB CalmDownBiatch ($200.00)

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is BTN
2 folds, Hero raises to $6, mirinda222 calls $5, 1 fold

Flop: ($14, 2 players)
mirinda222 checks, Hero bets $8, mirinda222 calls $8

Turn: ($30, 2 players)
mirinda222 checks, Hero checks

River: ($30, 2 players)
mirinda222 bets $16, Hero calls $16

Final Pot: $62
mirinda222 shows:

Hero wins $59 ( won $29 )
mirinda222 lost -$30.00


I knew that was enough so quit right away .

Dude, that's a lot of hands to post at once.

#1, yay 2bb

#4, umm you didn't call, you checked. Assuming he's going to double barrel a limped pot seems like a stretch.

Donno, maybe this is a gameflow thing that's LOL easy at the time.

I meant I called flop, and after calling flop he double barrels a LOT. I missed that this was the limped hand when I posted it.

hmm I don't know.. some of these hands confuse me!

94o hand - gah.. just dump this in SB! its soooo bad lol

K6h's - the raise in BB is.. okk I suppose. If I'm going to raise here with this hand, its for the benefit of being able to rep an ace,so I'm betting this flop. I'm definitely betting this turn if he's checked twice. On river, I fold cause these ppl bet a lot of mid-pairish type hands in this spot.

TT - soo you raise K6s in BB but you DONT raise pocket T's? hmmm. As played, I honestly might even value bet lead the river, but c/c is ok too.

KJh's - umm.. bet turn? most of people's rangeon this kind of board is draws and they will call again. Checking is ok if you're worried about the 7x I suppose and don't wanna get raised off your draw. But that should be only reason for check really.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is SB
rruffuss calls $2, Sandbanks calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1

Oh jeez. This isn't standard for you is it?

No, definitely not standard. At the time I just wanted to play cheap hands v's a guy who wont fold postflop, but even at that price its no good.

TT hand, I assumed this guy would keep repping the J, or come to the same conclusion I did that the 2nd J on the board made it less likely I (in my case he) had it, so continue firing. I can see a lead though. As for not raising, theres a difference between isolating a bad shortstack with a wide range in position, and raising the first ever limp from an aggressive player OOP.

KJs from memory I gave him a much wider range than just draws, but cant really remember how good my read was to assume that.

Reviewing those hands in the light of day though, its pretty obvious I've been running well and not just (or even) playing that well.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Reviewing those hands in the light of day though, its pretty obvious I've been running well and not just (or even) playing that well.

Naah.. the hands in general were played well. There are just always small spots that can be changed. A bet here, a check there, they definitely add up!

The only hand that was no good was the 94o call really, all the rest are up for debate on optimal lines.

The K6s hand, sorry didn't notice that you were isolating in position, I thought you were raising from blinds! my bad. I think that flop should be a bet pretty often though. I'd much prefer to check back with Qx and 8x here and bet Ax/draws/and air.

Yeah, agree. Dont even have a good reason for checking there, cant get a better flop really.

Man, played a session a bit over an hr 4-tabling just now and my hot run ground to a halt. Lost every flip and continually ran into the top end of peoples ranges (flat a 40% stealer with AQ and on A high flop he has AK, stuff like that). Managed to get away only 1/2 buyin down after being down over 2 buyins though. Played a laggier game and it worked to pick me up more small - medium pots, and I got some big hands paid when I needed it.

Wow, played err, 3 or 4 more sessions today. I think it must be my swingiest day ever. Down 2 buyins early, back even, down 2 buyins, up 1.5 buyins, down 2 buyins and finished up 1.5 buyins to actually reach my peak BR so far I think. Crazy day. No real beats in there, a few coolers hands were I was well ahead on turn but river got me (but money wasnt all in). I played one hand terribly. God, probably my worst hand I can remember, and my biggest $ loss hand so far.

KK isolate a 40/10/1 (so pretty passive) and we're both 150bbs deep. I've seen this guy call with J high on a Q high board, but when he does bet its usually a raise or CR and its always using the pot button. Thing is he's never shown down one of those hands, because everyone knows he's usually passive. So flop is 783 two tone and he pot c/r's me. I know I should fold, but I level myself into thinking that since I havnt seen him show down, he could be doing this with TP instead of only 2P or better. Afterall, I've never seen him showdown a TP hand yet and been on the table for an hour. So I call and he shoves a J turn. Again I know I should fold, but somehow I press the call button, and of course he had 78o for 2P and I didnt improve on river. $150 on one hand down the drain when whilst I wouldnt call it the easiest fold ever, it was a pretty easy one. I guess the only upside is I'd spent an hour up until then winning $150 so it broke me even that session. Then again if I'd found a fold then, instead of being $2950 now I'd be $3100.

I finally ran a bit good, hitting some hands, running into the middle and lower portions of peoples ranges instead of only the top. Exploited the hell out of some TAGs, caught some bluffs. Ran a bit hot. Nice to finish up for the day after some bad play and bad luck earlier.

I really need to get back on top of my game though. I cant afford to lose big pots played badly. I need to get back to folding to 3-bets more. I'm working on my blind play v's steals and it seemed to work fairly well today. It helps when you know exactly how your opponent is playing (hint, TAGs steal a lot and c-bet too much).

Amusing note. I spent time time talking to Spenda and Kmind separately yesterday, and then sat down and worked out a set (pre adjustment) 3-bet range yesterday and sat down today prepared to start 3-bet bluffing a lot more. Over 1k hands I didnt once get presented with a spot to 3-bet bluff using the range I'd set. Weird. My stats today show me 3-bettting only about 1/4 to 1/3 the % of my range. Guess that proves the point about limited sample sizes being fairly meaningless for stats like this.

I probably have some interesting hands to post. In fact definately, however its late and I ground out longer than intended to reach a goal in FPPs so I'm going to sleep and will try to post some here or in the SHNL forum tomorrow.