Operation: Ben learns poker and builds a roll

Lol, didnt work this out until I talked to Da Goat last night.

I played 3 sessions for 86 total hands yesterday. Approx 50/20/15 hands per session. Second two were during the middle of the day when I really shouldnt have been playing, and not many tables running. I'd find the fish, stack him then leave and get back to work.

I made 2 buyins in those 85 hands.

That puts me above $3k.

Poker is good atm

Heh, 32 hands: +$72.

I really shouldnt be playing at all, way too busy atm with work, but decided to just have a quick peak and see if there was a good table. Only 1 and it had 3 on the waitlist so I almost closed down, but just out of interest I thought I'd watch and see who the action was. First hand watching and I saw a guy cold 4-bet/call a shove for a full stack v's 2 others with ATo. Obviously it was him. Right after that hand 2 players left!!?? I insta-clicked join waitlist and about 2 hands later the guy on the fish's immediate left quit. Yup, I got perfect position on him. In the next 20 hands or so he stacked off 3 more times. Once was callinga 3bet with 75o and getting all in on Q72r flop (other guy had TT which also got me excited). My best dealt hand in that time? 8Ts. I think I saw a couple cheap flops in position with like offsuit gappers or something but nothing good.

In the meantime however I joined another semi-decent looking table, ended up with position on a bet-monkey and made about $80 off him in 10 hands mostly from bluff catching. Around that time both he and the original fish I wanted quit so I did too.


Not going to be playing much at all over the next week or two unfortunately. I probably wont even reach my VIP tier reqs again, when if I'd played a normal amount of hands I'd have moved up a tier I think. Kinda sucks. Gotta focus on the work though . Still, I'm up 7 buyins over less than 1600 hands so far this month, so if I can run like this in the few hands I do play, the bonuses dont mean as much.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

That puts me above $3k.

Gotta luv it! By the way, your banner seems to be broken.

I'm bad at updating it. I dont have sigs displayed since they're often borderline NSFW so I never see mine to remind myself.

Thanks . For those that didnt read the whole Op I got above $3k once before but withdrew $1k then proceeded to lose about $800, so its nice to get back.

Lost 3.5 buyins playing last night when I really shouldnt have (my state of mind, quality of my play, and game quality). I got down a buyin and stubbornly stayed in trying to get it back. Some spew, some tilt, some beats.

Made back 1 this morning.

Hmm, something in the maths doesnt add up. Ooh, just checked my transaction history and got a $100 payment from my rakeback provider (for last month I assume), thats cool. Puts me back over $3k again.

I've done well playing only when I'm right and good games, so why do I play for ages in bad games when I'm not right and lose a bunch? Dumb.

rewatch Jmans 20k 6m vid. discusses playing well down buyins

Good idea, thanks.

Much happier with myself now. Played another session tonight, but this time I felt good, and managed to stick to tables that had at least 1 target on each. No super duper tables, but good enough. Played for an hour before I started to get tired, and once I did, I quit.

Oh, I made almost 3 buyins in that hour.

And made $36 in 2 hands earlier, I honestly cant remember when I played them, must have just started then had to quit for some reason.

So total arounf $440 profit today after losing $360 last night. I'd hoped to make it back over the weekend, but didnt really think it likely, especially as I had a lot of work to do (did about 5 hrs today and this last session was while a big deploy was running). [edit] Just checked these were my biggest losing and biggest winning sessions ever.

Been a while since I posted a hand, I think this one is semi-interesting:

Villain is 29/0 over only 20 odd hands, folded to 1/2 cbets, no reads (ATO from UTG isnt normally in my range, but BB was a 54/0 fish who didnt like to fold postflop so hoped to get called only by him).

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($311.55)
SB ($258.95)
BB ($300)
Hero (UTG) ($129.20)
MP ($121.75)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, 10
Hero bets $3.50, MP calls $3.50, 3 folds

Flop: ($8.50) 9, 8, K (2 players)
Hero bets $6, MP calls $6

Turn: ($20.50) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $20.50, Hero folds

Total pot: $20.50


Normally picking up a draw is a good reason to 2nd barrel, but I couldnt see him folding much that he called flop with. If he'd bet a little smaller I might have c/c'd but obviously dont have odds. I may have some implied odds, but I could also have reverse implied odds. I dunno, seems like a weird line for him to take if he wants value.

Up $875 in poker over about 2k hands.

Plus $45 in converted VIP points.

Plus $100 rackback.

Hey look I've made over $1k so far and only played 2k hands!! Ok, the bonus payments pretty much relate to last months hands, but its still pretty cool given I've hardly played this month .

It's nice to see results like that, but I've found that when I'm playing my best I tend to slack off and not play as much. I'm working on getting my discipline on...

Is that $100 in rb just from those 2k hands?

Definately havent been playing much (not at all last couple days). I do wonder at times if its related to running well, but I do have a LOT of work to do atm, real crunch time atm.

Lol no, that $100 is from last months 15k hands. Everest has its own loyalty points program, I probably cashed in about $150-200 last month, with the $45 above being some of last month of some of this month. RTR give a little bit on top. I think it only works out around 25% or something at my VIP level.

Played my first real bad session for a while. Think it was bad and not just results anyway. Got down almost 2 buyins on relatively good tables. Dropped over a buyin at one stage to a 100% vpip/ 100% donkbet guy over a period. Some was ok, some werent. I dunno, just seemed like I was giving money away for a while. Fairly tired, not concentrating well. Havnt done a proper review because my head really isnt right just now.

Hit some hands (maybe played better) and got back to positive then lost half a buyin on the last hand (will post at end).

Not happy with the fact I played on when playing bad, even if I did win back over 1.5 buyins. Still, wont get too down on myself, cant always be right. Had a good short session earlier, up almost $1k in just poker this month now. This is the hand that dropped me back below:

Villain is 37/8, 50% fold to cbet, 50% river aggression:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($56.95)
MP ($211.70)
Hero (CO) ($194.81)
Button ($119.10)
SB ($19.55)
BB ($104.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, A
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, Hero bets $4, Button calls $4, 2 folds, UTG calls $3

Flop: ($13.50) 7, 2, 6 (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($13.50) A (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $8, Button calls $8, 1 fold

River: ($29.50) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $29.50, Hero calls $29.50

Total pot: $88.50

Results:
Button had 6, 6 (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero didn't show Q, A (nothing).
Outcome: Button won $85.50

Now I look back on it I dont mind it so much. At the time I thought maybe I should have known he was a set hunter, but 37% vpip means he has a wide range, he doesnt like to fold, and with 50% river aggression combined with not liking to fold, he must bluff his missed draws and stuff enough times that this isnt so bad.

His range could be wide and stuff, but unless I have a better read on their sizing I take these exact pot sized bet for "OMGIGOTTAMKEUPVALUEBETPOTLOOKSBLUFFY". The line villian took usually makes me wanna punch something.

On Everest I think a lot of players have hacked the client so that the 'bet pot' button reads 'bluff!'. I've found it profitable to assume potsized river bet means bluff until shown otherwise. What I dont like about the above is that the most likely OESD did get there, so it reduces the amount of busted draws in his range. Tbh I expect to see 89 more than a set there.

Do you play on stars? Pot sized bets mean a lot more there than on FT or Everest or other sites with a bet pot button.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Fairly tired, not concentrating well

which means? watch a vid or something.................


re the hand - i don't mind your line at all, bet fold river also ok

Congrats on your success Benjamin!

As for your last hand, what are you putting him on? Imo, he is never value betting with worse and will only show up with whiffed FD's that we beat but a majority of his range is Ax(two pair hands)/98/rarely sets but possible/rare FDs

Thats pretty much my point daven, I'm disappointed with myself for playing the session at all when my head wasnt in a good place. Probably should have avoided poker altogether and just watched some TV or something.

Thanks kmind. Tbh it was one of those spots I didnt think much at all. I decided to c/c because of the number of draws I thought he could have. Didnt like the psb, but like I say some people just mash that button and he could even have a worse ace doing it. Not my best hand, but in my defence it was my last hand as I was closing down sessions because I knew I wasnt playing great.

Very nice little sick session Ben . . keep pawning

Lol, was just about to post. Skeeno railed me for a short session on Everest (we need to get him setup to sweat). Other than AA<Q8 for half a stack ai pf I ran good. Very good. Think there were some good value spots and good folds in there too though. Almost 2.5 buyins in 150 hands is running kinda hot though . Might post a few spots:


Hand 1

Pretty sure this hand plays itself:

SB and BB are fish. MP seemed like a TAG.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($151.55)
Hero (Button) ($126.75)
SB ($101.15)
BB ($177.65)
UTG ($98.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 10
1 fold, MP calls $1, Hero calls $1, SB calls $0.50, BB checks

Flop: ($4) 7, 8, 9 (4 players)
SB bets $4, BB raises $8, MP calls $8, Hero raises $35, 1 fold, BB calls $27, MP raises $140, Hero calls $90.75 (All-In), 1 fold



Hand 2

I think this ones pretty close. Bad taggish player:


No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($86.35)
SB ($33.40)
BB ($39)
UTG ($275.20)
Hero (MP) ($99.50)
CO ($196)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, 10
1 fold, Hero bets $3.50, 3 folds, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($7.50) 6, 10, 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $5, BB raises $12.50, Hero calls $7.50

Turn: ($32.50) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $23 (All-In), Hero calls $23

Hmm, actually the 5 makes things better not worse I think. 89 was already there, so 45 improved to pair+draw which he'd definately bet turn again with. Likewise any kind of FD/Combo draw with a 5 in it. At the time I was worried about 2P, but he doesnt raise flop with 56 even if he is bad (which...well he was).

Hand 3

This guy was 60/20 type and obviously bad, but I didnt really have a read on how bad. 100% steal limped pot, so I thought I'd call with only a gutter, could represent flush/scare cards and also just take it away if he showed weakness on turn.


No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($100.65)
CO ($103)
Hero (Button) ($100.40)
SB ($82.65)
BB ($110.20)
UTG ($260.55)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 9
UTG calls $1, 2 folds, Hero calls $1, SB calls $0.50, BB checks

Flop: ($4) 6, 8, Q (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $4, Hero calls $4, 2 folds

Turn: ($12) K (2 players)
UTG bets $1, Hero raises $8, UTG calls $7

River: ($28) 4 (2 players)
UTG bets $1, Hero ???

Ok, lets just say after this hand I had a better read on how to play him.


Hand 4

First bvb hand v's same guy, Taggy reggy looking guy with around 30% ATS:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($86.35)
Button ($52.55)
SB ($274.20)
Hero (BB) ($135.50)
UTG ($176)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, 6
3 folds, SB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6) 3, 9, 4 (2 players)
SB bets $4, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($14) 3 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $9, SB calls $9

River: ($32) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $25


Hand 5

Same guy about 2 rounds later:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (4 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($52.05)
SB ($348.05)
Hero (BB) ($146.40)
UTG ($174.50)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, J
2 folds, SB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($6) 9, 2, J (2 players)
SB bets $6, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($18) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $12, Hero calls $12

River: ($42) K (2 players)
SB bets $28, Hero folds


Hand 6

One more. Villain here is borderline LAG reg, very wide steal and 67% fold to 3bet.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($98.50)
Button ($43.90)
Hero (SB) ($154.50)
BB ($101)
UTG ($100.90)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6, A
1 fold, MP bets $3.50, 1 fold, Hero raises $11, 1 fold, MP calls $8

Flop: ($24) 7, 3, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $14, MP calls $14

Turn: ($52) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

River: ($52) A (2 players)
Hero bets $25, 1 fold

Total pot: $52

I dont think he ever has an A on river, so looks like a good b/f spot to get value from 99+ type hands.


Do people prefer to see results or not in hands posted in the Op rather than in a strat forum?


Both those turn bluffs look a bit small to me?

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Do people prefer to see results or not in hands posted in the Op rather than in a strat forum?

i don't mind either way. If you want huge hand analysis etc, then maybe it's better not to include results, if you're not so worried about that and you're telling a story about a session then include them. Maybe best is to include results hidden?

hands are interesting

hand 1 - nh, wonder at mp's range? AJs types of hands? if he's TAG he shouldn't have a set or straight here with the monster drawy board.

hand 2 - QTs seems pretty loose from ep pre-flop, but i'm a FR nit flop is where the important decision is. Like you, I c-bet here all day, but that may be a leak? vs the check-raise it's hard without a read on how he may play draws or perceive you. CR flop, lead turn is a strong line.

hand 3 - i like to raise the flop with the double-gutter. As played i call the river min-bet and take a note. Good for your image too...

hand 4 - I like. Pre-flop K6s is ok to call with, simply for high card value + suited goodness

hand 5 - I don't like calling two streets post-flop here. I also wonder about pre-flop. blind vs blind you obviously raise any limp, but vs a steal there has to be some 3-betting and some folding going on. J8o is too weak to call. Fold is standard on the king river as played.

hand 6 - nice to see a wide 3-bet range based on reads. His range for calling I has to be ? difficult to estimate without some stats. c-bet is standard, turn is a good barrel card unless you think his range is AQ+/TT+. River check-call or bet-fold are both fine, LAG villains struggle to check two streets behind which is why I like check-call here sometimes.

I'll stick results here, so if you want to comment on hands and havnt, do that before reading below:



Hand 1: MP has JTo for flopped straight, BB folded showing 87s (surprised, I thought he'd call with that, maybe he was better than he seemed). I hit my spade to take down 300bb pot. Interestingly I ran it through pokerstove and I'm 40% even against the flopped straight, but I think that includes 2 J's to split.

Hand 2: Kinda loose for sure, in fact probably a fold but not terrible. I think calling is fine, theres so many draws. Turns out he had 88, weird.

Hand 3: I called the min-bet to see what he had, forget what his kicker was but it was bad, he had a 6, no draw. Obviously after this he goes into the pure value bet category.

Hand 4: He folded.

Hand 5: Could def 3-bet pre, thought I could play postflop well though. I disagree though, I think its worth two calls, I see TAGs fire twice here enough. Close though.

When he calls the flop cbet I put his range at pretty much 88-JJ kind of thing. Maybe QQ+ sometimes as a slowplay I guess. Maybe some AJ+ stuff preflop but not postflop. Could possibly have some SCs I guess.

Played a short session last night. Got up $60, then got all in as 80% favorite to win a 200bb pot ($80 of it mine) and lost. Dropped me back to right on $3700 and if I'd won would have put me close to $3900. Then again I'm running above EV for the month, so thats an evener I guess. I was pretty tired and a bit emotional so just finished shutting things down (was in the process). I should focus less on the money also.

That said I just played a short mediocre session now (too many regs to be good) but got paid again, so the rolls above $3800. If theres one weakness the regs seem to have, they're way too eager to stack off with TP/Overpair/2P type hands on drawy boards. I think theres an attitude of "he's probably semi-bluffing so I'll make him pay and get my money in good", when really they face 1 of 2 things, they're flipping or they're crushed. Its one line Samoleus repeats a few times in his vids I really like. There are times when people get in either flipping or crushed, when he'd much prefer to be the one flipping or crushing. If nothing else, I'd much prefer to see a turn and get in on a blank one, than get in on the flop with a TP type hand. Anyway, as long as I'm flopping sets and the regs pay me off I'm happy and can try to learn from their mistakes .

BR > $4000

I have to admit, I was bad. I started watching my HEM and acct balance about half an hour into the session as I got close. In fact, if I'd counted on cashing in some points I had earlier I'd have finished even further up earlier but tried to win the $'s from playing. I know this is really bad, but meh, I dont usually anymore so I dont mind too much doing it once. Frustrating though, as soon as I started watching my aiEV took a dive, with an 80% ai on turn going down, an AA<99 pf and a few others, but I was cleaning up in non-showdown pots winning a lot of medium ones, so kept in there. Checked my points and I had enough to convert to $50 so needed to finish session 1/2 buyin up. I did .

Not complaining about EV mind you, I'm running fairly good there. Its starting to come back a bit now, but I'm still ahead. Tbh I wish we could remove the stat from HEM. I hate it but cant stop checking it out.

Anyway, kind of blows me away the streak I'm on. Think some bad play is starting to sneak back in though, getting a bit complacent. I had to repeat 'fold more' as a mantra to myself for a lot of this session to keep on track, started finding the call button a little too much for a while there. Its easy to relax when the cards are doing most of the work for you. Few concepts I want to blog about that I think are helping me, but for now I'm going to have a break and just feel good for a while .

reallly really good work man. Keep it up. U had a roll of 1500 like a month ago and were grindin 50nl, now look at u. niceee.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

BR > $4000

feel good yo~

good work man

Thanks guys . Not even a real milestone in my plans as such, but damn it feels good.

Of course I found the downside to that this morning. Now I dont want to drop below it again! Got down a bit over a buyin and kept playing mainly just to get back. Finally did so it worked out, but my decision to play on wasnt based on how good the tables were, or how I was playing, purely to break even (neither were too bad, but not great either). Still finding my call button a bit too much.

we have the same BR, but wtf I'm playing 50NL?

hmmm

Nice work though homey, keep it growing!

GET AWAY FROM MY BR!

But seriously Ben, I haven't been able to talk to you much lately but cannot tell you enough how proud I am of you. You deserve all of this! God you used to be a donk asking for help from me (kidding about donk)...how'd we switch roles?

Lol.

Ahh, I'm a little dissappointed in myself recently. Last day or so my games been kinda poor I think. I'm not sure if I've just been complacent, or a bit tired or exactly what, but my game hasnt been on. I'm still up over that period, but it feels more like its due to some lucky hands than particularly good play. At the end of the day, it largely comes down to my call button v's my fold button. Only a couple days ago I was commenting in Jyms thread about how much of my good run lately is due to folding, and now I find myself calling at times I know I should fold.

I'm not sure whats the right thing to do there. Just try to work through it, take a break until I feel better, spend time time reviewing my bad hands, or exactly what?

Dont get me wrong, awesome month so far, but I dont want to ruin it by playing poorly towards the end.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

BR > $4000

Ha! You´re rocking! Too bad Im like always asleep when ur online and vice versa^^

Am I just being results oriented if I like this hand?


Laggy mc'Lagtard

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

Stacks:
Hero (UTG) ($128.20)
UTG 1 ($290.35)
CO ($197.35)
BTN ($130.10)
SB ($128.60)
BB ($100.00)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 6 players) Hero is UTG
Hero raises to $3.50, 1 fold, CO raises to $12, 3 folds, Hero calls $8.50

Flop: ($25.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($25.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $14, CO raises to $28, Hero calls $14

River: ($81.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $81.50, Hero calls $81.50

Final Pot: $244.50
Hero shows:
CO shows:

Hero wins $241.50 ( won $120 )
CO lost -$121.50


I'd probably been at the table for 30-40 mins trying to get a good hand v's him and another guy who had left by now. Main relevant read is that I've never seem him slowplay. Every time he's had TPWK or better he's pot/pot/pot three streets.

soulreads ftw. You've been reading IOPQ's posts, haven't you?

I do this kind of thing a bit. Its high variance so maybe I shouldnt, but I just believe that against these spewy lagtards you cant afford to wait for the nuts. I had a read, put it into play and won. It wasnt a great read. For instance maybe he doesnt slowplay TP/2P type hands, but perhaps he does the stone cold nuts or sets?

I'm fine with how I played it postflop, but on review I really dont like PF. Calling a 3bet with a hand like 99 OOP against an aggressive opponent is asking for trouble postflop. Problem is I think I do really well against his 3-bet range, but I'm not sure if I hold up so well against he stackoff range? I dont want to fold, but I dont want to 4-bet, yet I think calling is probably the worst of all options. Shitty spot, maybe I'll post just the PF in the SH forum and ask for opinions. I think perhaps 99 is just in the stackoff range against a guy like this, but not sure.

Playing better I think, but letting some other things let me down. I'm remaining on tag-filled tables too often, playing when the games arent good/etc. My graph is looking strange last 1k hands or so. Slopes down then big spike up, slopes down then big spike up, etc. Tends to suggest I'm starting to lose a lot of small/med pots. Some of this is the fact I'm calling and then folding later too much. I've also just had spots where I've either had to b/f or c-bet then give up, etc.

I'm lacking a bit in my study. I've been watching vids and taking stuff in, but have stopped taking notes/etc. Also not a lot of review of my own game. Gotta step that back up.

One last note is that I'm starting to focus on the money a bit too much again. Been such a good month that I want to finish well and knock over a few milestones, but my streak really began when I decided to ignore the monetary goals and just focus on playing good poker and worry about the money later. Tough as I get towards the end of the month and within distance of some pretty cool monetary milestones, but have to try to ignore it. Starting to watch my sessions results too much mid-session though. Letting even small amounts get to me. Like if I start the session $20-$30 down I'm annoyed, even though that's in reality only a couple of raise PF, cbet, giveup type hands. I'm comfortable playing with the money, but havnt really adjusted to the amounts in a results manner yet (if that makes sense).

I do have some poker theory stuff I want to discuss, but in the office today so really should knock some work out. Maybe tonight or tomorrow.

Preflop is mega spew I'd imagine. His range for 3betting your UTG open is too strong to be calling this hand OOP for sure. Maaaybe call CO vs Btn but UTG vs CO meh....

yes you're being results oriented

Nah, he had like 20% 3-bet and didnt seem to have any concept of position. He'd definately 3-bet other peoples UTG raises a number of times before now. So his range isnt as strong as most peoples, but again I'm not sure what his stackoff range is like.

You know, its not exactly standard, but with the reads and the table dynamic, I think limp/call might be the best approach preflop here.

Got some spare time at work, so thought I'd discuss some poker stuff.

Consciously not judging stuff

By this I mean reviewing a situation, and deliberately deciding not to make a decision as to whether its bad or good. This is something I've been doing more and more lately. Often my decision not to make a judgement is due to a conclusion that I cant make a judgement without being results oriented. Its largely an attempt NOT to be results oriented.

For instance earlier this month I played a session on bad tables where I wasnt in the right head-space and lost almost 4 buyins. A couple times recently I've gotten down more than 1 buyin on bad tables and felt I wasnt playing well, but tried to regroup and ended up making small profits. Were the situations different? Was it the right decision to play on and make that money back, or was it a bad decision where I just got lucky? On review I decide not to make a judgement as to whether it was right or wrong on THAT occassion, but try to commit in the future to being sure I'm really able to play better if I continue, otherwise to quit.

Another example might be making a hero call. Its very easy when you make a correct one to decide 'good read', and when you make a bad one to decide 'not a good enough read'. It can be hard after you know the results to really make that justification. If anything, the results affect your opinion of the read. Sometimes its obvious afterwards that even if I got it right, a fold was really the best play. Other times even when I get it wrong I decide that I had good reasons to make it. A number of times though, I just cant decide. Did I really have a good read, or was it wishful thinking? Again, rather than decide whether those exact hands were bad or good, I decide not to judge them, but remind myself that I really do need justification for making hero calls, not just wishful thinking, and commit to taking time to think before hitting the call button.


I'm not sure if this has much relevance to anyone else, or if its at all useful, its just something I've become aware of in myself. Last couple of pages you can find a few examples where I discuss something, and seem fairly vague on my feelings about it. That usually means I've made this call not to make a decision on it. I do think most poker players have this desire for everything to be black and white, right and wrong. Sometimes its more subjective than that.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Villain is 37/8, 50% fold to cbet, 50% river aggression:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($56.95)
MP ($211.70)
Hero (CO) ($194.81)
Button ($119.10)
SB ($19.55)
BB ($104.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, A
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, Hero bets $4, Button calls $4, 2 folds, UTG calls $3

Flop: ($13.50) 7, 2, 6 (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($13.50) A (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $8, Button calls $8, 1 fold

River: ($29.50) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $29.50, Hero calls $29.50

Total pot: $88.50

Results:
Button had 6, 6 (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero didn't show Q, A (nothing).
Outcome: Button won $85.50

Now I look back on it I dont mind it so much. At the time I thought maybe I should have known he was a set hunter, but 37% vpip means he has a wide range, he doesnt like to fold, and with 50% river aggression combined with not liking to fold, he must bluff his missed draws and stuff enough times that this isnt so bad.

Most of his draws bet the flop with position and the pre-flop raiser appearing to just give up on a terrible board for your range, hence I like a river bet here.

Hmm, yeah thats true. Thanks Fnord.

About the 99 hand, V is a laggtard and you're getting ok odds to set-hunt. Preflop is g00t.

Yeah, being a bit deeper helps I guess.

So last night I recorded myself playing. Thought it would help my focus. I spewed off about $70-80 in the first 10 minutes, plan fail. Pulled it back to be up $140 or so after 45 mins so decided to finish it, and playing out my blinds lost $40 including this hand: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...98cab5606e2e93

Ahh well, such is poker. I know I said I need to focus less on money, but that put me right on a big mark. Then this morning I started a session and 2nd hand lost a stack with QQ<KK bvb and shortly after I lost with QQ to TT on QJ2tt flop in a 4-way 3bet pot. Fortunately the TT guy was short so I didnt lose a heap myself but it was a decent pot if I'd won. Pulled it back and finished only $10 down. Lets hope the next day or so I can keep it together.

Heres a weird hand. This guy is 20/15 with 5% squeeze, seems like a decent reg maybe one of the better ones. I dont call preflop just for set value, I plan to be happy to continue on any flop without an A or K but then this:

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

Stacks:
CO ($102.50)
BTN ($157.80)
Hero (SB) ($179.60)
BB ($106.50)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 4 players) Hero is SB
CO raises to $3.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $3, BB raises to $14, CO folds, Hero calls $10.50

Flop: ($31.50, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $92.50, Hero folds ...


I mean, wtf is he doing that with? I have 2.2k hands on him. Went through all the ones greater than 20bbs after this and I couldnt see him doing this ever before.

:Ac: certainly fits, moreso online. In a live game I see Queens or Kings here a lot making a big over-bet to minimize their chance at losing a big pot at the expense of overall value. However online is more about lots of hands for smaller amounts of money, plus the overbet guys just get raped online so meh.

It's just a hand, I'd let it go.

Yeah, I was happy enough to let it go, just sat there for 20 seconds thinking "WTF?" first.

(9:20:10 AM) bjsaust: not totally into this session, but really want to win another buyin before eom, decisions decisions

(9:48:36 AM) bjsaust: ok, no more poker until tomorrow because I'm being results oriented and just passed $2k profit for the month playing!

HEM shows profit $2014 for the month.

BR = $4620

Includes umm, around $240 of bonus. The mark I was talking about a few days ago was reaching $2k profit including the bonus, so its been a good few days. I'll post graph/etc later.

Fun month .

grats, I'm also over 2K this month!

Ok, months graph:



Fairly smooth sailing other than the 3 buyins around 2k hands. Interesting how it felt like breakeven poker from about 5k to 7k but in reality that was more like a normal winrate compared to my heater rate. Variance? I ran 7 buyins above EV which obviously helps a lot. A sobering little consideration is that if I had run below EV as much as I ran above EV then I'd have finished the month up only a bit over $600.

If anything I lost more 'big favorite' hands than I won 'big dog' hands (which I'd hope to be the case since I should be getting in as a big favorite more than a big dog), I did however win way more than my share of 40-49% hands which I think is where all the EV comes from. These were generally flips PF and big combo draws on the flop, so cant say I played them bad, just ran good at them. One reason I dont like the aiEV stat, but its there and I have trouble ignoring it.

As for the rest of my results, well I seemed to both hit the nuts a lot, and get paid with them more than usual. Felt like a few times I had people improve to the best hand on the turn but I'd take a free card and improve back past them on the river. That or I'd improve to the nut flush and they'd have the 2nd nut flush or similar situations. I think I played them fine, but the big hands pretty much play themselves.

I do think I did a good job of getting value with my weaker hands though. I seem to be much better at reading ranges, at getting at least one extra street of value from where I used to. Its been amazing how many pots I used to win 10-15bbs on I'm now winning more like 25-40bbs. Doesnt take a genius to work out how quickly that adds up.

Overall I think I did a much better job folding, and that definately plays into my win rate. Bet/Fold is like the best move in poker and yet everyone seems to struggle with the second part. Once you get it down, it just seems like free money. I see people talking about how they never find people who call them down light. Well maybe I'm just on the one site on the internet with people who do, or they're a) not table selecting well enough, or b) not giving these people chances to call down light. I've numerous times got 3 streets of value out of 2nd pair or worse. A lot of it, is learning not to be afraid of what we see as scare cards for us. I plan to do a thread in the BC about that, but thats the real magic of bet/fold and range reading.


Robb asked in the May Graphs thread when I plan to move up. Roll is around $4.6k atm. I plan to move up at $6k. After the last month and a half that doesnt seem far off, but lets face it, its still 14 buyins and I wont run like god forever. I'll get there when I get there. A little nervous about it. I look at the winning 200nl players I know, and they're SO much better than I am. Some of the stuff I want to be good at, I just dont know where to start. I might think about some coaching, but I might also just start by trying to plug into my network of 'better poker playing friends' and see where I can go. I feel like at some stage I need to move past 'value betting fish' as almost my only source of profits.

Very nice graph!

Looks like you learned alot this month too, good luck in the next.

Thanks .

Really, I think I mainly just kept doing the things I learnt last month, and they kept working. Very little change to my game from how I played the second half of last month.

A couple worthwhile points for up and comers to take away though (beyond how much the cards can help). Probably most important is the effect of a lack of spew. I had one -3 buyin session that should have been -1 buyin, and other than that fairly happy with just a couple mediocre sessions that I didnt let get out of control, and there were a few times I just closed down tables very early in a session because I knew my head wasnt right. Imagine adding in a couple 3-4 buyin losing sessions during the month and work out how the graph would look? The other one is just that I really didnt do anything fancy there. Probably the only thing 'non-standard' is that I've redefined my version of 'thin value' against weak players. What a lot of guys, especially microstakes players would consider thin I now consider an easy value bet.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Probably most important is the effect of a lack of spew. I had one -3 buyin session that should have been -1 buyin, and other than that fairly happy with just a couple mediocre sessions that I didnt let get out of control, and there were a few times I just closed down tables very early in a session because I knew my head wasnt right.

I started doing this alot more near the end of the month (ending sessions early due to not being in the game) and focusing on being more disciplined in handling bad sessions. Results are already looking better after becoming more strict with how I handle managing my sessions, so this is clearly some very important advice.

Your point is definately threadworthy (with some examples or something for demonstration of how not losing money equates to winning money) for the BC imo as I think this is something alot of us microgrinders tend to struggle with for awhile because of our eagerness to keep on playing etc.

One thing I did was edit my graph one month and remove the spew and see how it looked afterwards. Not all losing sessions, but just the sections I put down to spew/tilt. Not sure if I saved the before/after of it, maybe I'll find one in the BC graph thread and cooperate with that person to do the same.

I've had this post of Fnord's up for a few days now. At first I kinda didnt get it, then I realised I think I do most of what he's talking about, I just dont think of it in the same terms:

Originally Posted by Fnord

Leaning on weak players, reading hands and playing hands against poor players is.

I crush weak players by getting them to take 2-3 way flops against me with weak hands and/or poor position. Then I apply pressure to hit a flop. If I think they're peeling light, I confront them with a second barrel for an uncomfortable sum of money. If I think they're trapping or give too much action I shut it down and get a lot of free cards. If they play back at me, I'll ship it in with any good piece of equity.

Against stronger players, reading hands, body language, stuckiness, winning the fight to isolate the fish, etc. is more important. If you can figure out what they have sometimes, you will probably have an edge or at least be a little less worse off.

I dont really get how we get them to take 2-3 way flops against us. Not sure if he means overlimping, or raising when we expect more than 1 fish to call? Overall though, he's talking about is exploiting specific fish tendencies. Most regs in my experience suck at exploiting fish. They think they're good at it, but they're not. They make isolation raises with a wide range PF and then cbet 100% then shut down and pat themselves on the back about how awesomely they exploited the fish. Theres so much more to it though.

Specifically, you should be exploiting the specific fish in question. What are their leaks?!! For instance I've seen a number of players that limp PF and fold to raises, but cant fold any piece of the board postflop. Reggy Mc'NonThinker raises preflop and congratulates himself on making an extra BB. I overlimp with two high cards and when I hit TP I take them to value town and win 30BBs.

Heres a specific example. I hope he doesnt mind me talking about it here. I reviewed dev's video. He starts out with position on a fish who does these dumb little donk minbets/small bets on postflop streets. Shortly in we see a showdown and he'd called TT preflop then donked small on 3 streets on a JJ567 board. So we now know he's doing those small bets when he has something but is weak. Great info. The next question is, does he fold those weak hands to raises, or does he call with them anyway? How we adjust is totally different. If he folds then we call down and maybe raise river when we have decent hands and raise with our air/weak hands, if he calls then we raise our decent hands and just fold when we miss. Dev hits two pair on turn against him a little later and raises and the guy folds, so it looks like he folds his weak hands. Our plan now should be to isolate a lot PF and raise him off his weak donk bets with our air a lot. Instead dev continued overlimping and trying to hit hands. He was correctly identifying and trying to play hands against the fish, but he wasnt adjusting how to exploit the fish based on the info we got.

Anyway, that kind of thing I think I'm pretty good at. Heres a quote from Marshall in that thread from Fnord though:

Originally Posted by Marshall28

I think I make money when I manipulate my perceived range to cause opponents to either undervalue or overvalue the particular part of their range they are holding to suit my needs.

I have to admit I really dont get what he's saying here, or how to implement what he means. Anyone got some ideas on that?

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Specifically, you should be exploiting the specific fish in question. What are their leaks?!! For instance I've seen a number of players that limp PF and fold to raises, but cant fold any piece of the board postflop. Reggy Mc'NonThinker raises preflop and congratulates himself on making an extra BB. I overlimp with two high cards and when I hit TP I take them to value town and win 30BBs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7M7d8u40I4

Perhaps this has merit in full ring, but in a 6max situation it certainly doesn't.

To win your 30bbs a few things need to happen:
1) You need to hit
2) He needs to hit weaker
3) You need to hold
4) Neither of the blinds decide to shit on your party

By raising to 5bbs you will win the dead money quite often (which is worth more than any hand other than QQ+ maybe JJ/AK) and force the blinds to play a big pot out of position or re-raise out of position. However if you keep up the pressure you eventually will earn enough mistrust to get action. Then you're playing for medium pots and stacks!


If the TAgg-bots won't shit all over you, a min-raise or 3x raise will at least get a pot going if you don't want to apply quite so much pre-flop pressure.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Anyway, that kind of thing I think I'm pretty good at. Heres a quote from Marshall in that thread from Fnord though:

Originally Posted by Marshall28

I think I make money when I manipulate my perceived range to cause opponents to either undervalue or overvalue the particular part of their range they are holding to suit my needs.

I have to admit I really dont get what he's saying here, or how to implement what he means. Anyone got some ideas on that?

Basically, most NLHE hands don't reach showdown. So it's a hand reading contest. When your opponents misread your range, they will make mistakes and you will profit. However, really weak players aren't thinking quite so deep about our range (unless we've built a wild image) so this matters less than just shitting all over the hand they're representing.

Yeah, obviously this assumes the blinds dont ruin things for me, but its surprising how often they let me do this. Obviously if they're feeling their oats I'll just raise and isolate instead. Thanks for thoughts though, always keen to improve this part of my game. The smaller raises are a nice touch. The 'keeping up the pressure' thing is a real weak part of my game. Its just not something I do very often. Definitely something I need to work on.

I guess in the hand reading contest thing, I do this when I weight my range towards strong made hands in spots where opponents put me on draws, but beyond that I dont do a whole lot. Seems like any time I try to get into a range reading/levelling contest even with decent seeming regs/tags they're just playing their cards. I dunno, maybe I'm lucky to play a lot of weak players where I dont need to go too deep, but again it feels like an area of my game I'm weak in.

Draws vs made hand is more a function of board texture.

Balance comes from frequencies with strong hands, weak hands and bruffs.

Yeah, see I get that in theory, I just have trouble implementing it. I tend just to play hands on their own to a degree. Not just play their value, but my decision to say bluff is "do I think now is a good time to bluff?" rather than any kind of balanced frequency.

Balancing strong/weak hands I do fairly well, other than probably checking air as PFR I rarely balance with anything else.

Are you checking top pair behind sometimes?

Sometimes, but not a lot. I've discovered just how much people like to call. I'll check back things like QQ on a K high flop a bit though. It often depends on whether I have a read that they like to bet if the PFR checks.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Specifically, you should be exploiting the specific fish in question. What are their leaks?!!

There's this TAGG-reg wannabe that plays 14/10 over 2.5k hands. She absolutely refuses to cbet any flop she misses. I flat from CO/BTN, it folds around and I bet any flop she doesn't, folding to a cbet. Since her cbet% is < 40%, I pick up the pot 1.5x for every time I get involved.

And, to back up Ben's point, the other regs just "stay out of the way," giving tons of respect to her despite what is quite honestly the biggest consistent leak I've found in a player at 50nl recently. I mean, I should be getting squeezed like all heck when I flat behind her, but virtually no one does - just the usual suspects in the usual spots.

I need to get better at exploiting horrible players, though, so I'm learning from the discussion here.

Pretty dissappointed in myself, played a long tilty session last night when I was tired after b'ball. This is a serious leak in my game I keep running into. Playing just to get hands in because I can, not because its +EV to do so. Biggest losing session ever even though it included my biggest winning pot ever. Losing every single all in prior to river didnt help (4 > 50% 5 < 50%) but I just plain played poorly and tilty. I was only 1 buyin down after my big pot win but decided to play on when I knew I shouldnt. Stupid Ben!

I've also been trying to play bad tables and use aggression and range reading v's other regs. Mixed results, really not sure its worth it. For now I think I'll go back to strict table selection. Only down 1.5 buyins for the month, so just gotta get back on track. Not sure, might break for a day or two though.

Originally Posted by Robb

[I need to get better at exploiting horrible players, though, so I'm learning from the discussion here.

Heres the thing, passive players can be exploited cheaply with low variance. Exploiting aggressive players is expensive and high variance. Most people wait for the nuts v's the aggressive players but it just takes too long, might not happen, or when you finally hit the nuts they might not pay off. Part of the problem is being prepared to take the risk v's them. I'm not entirely sure thats a bad thing, its not a terrible idea just to avoid them if you're not prepared for it. For instance in last nights tilty session I pulled the trigger twice on a 65/40 with 35% 3-bettor; he had AA and AK both times. Obviously sucks and unlucky, but I had a choice to stay on the table giving position to this guy, or just leave and find easier money.

My four worst losers:

Hand 1

Taggy reg:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($96.96)
Button ($93.50)
SB ($128.80)
Hero (BB) ($102.97)
UTG ($69.42)
MP ($101)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, A
1 fold, MP bets $3.50, 3 folds, Hero calls $2.50

Flop: ($7.50) K, 7, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($17.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $12, Hero raises $36, MP calls $24

River: ($89.50) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $58.47 (All-In), MP calls $56.50 (All-In)

Total pot: $202.50

Results:
Hero had Q, A (one pair, sevens).
MP had 5, 7 (full house, sevens over fives).
Outcome: MP won $199.50


Hand 2

Maniac with around 35% 3-bet and squeezes a lot:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($42.20)
CO ($124.60)
Button ($135.30)
Hero (SB) ($99.45)
BB ($151.25)
UTG ($98.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 4, 4
1 fold, MP calls $1, 1 fold, Button bets $4.50, Hero calls $4, BB raises $18, 2 folds, Hero raises $94.95 (All-In), BB calls $80.45

Flop: ($204.40) 3, K, Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($204.40) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($204.40) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $204.40

Results:
Hero had 4, 4 (two pair, fives and fours).
BB had A, A (two pair, Aces and fives).
Outcome: BB won $201.40


Hand 3

60/5 fish with around 65% donk bet:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($104.40)
MP ($25.50)
CO ($138.20)
Hero (Button) ($129)
SB ($90.45)
BB ($168.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, A
2 folds, CO calls $1, Hero bets $4, SB calls $3.50, 1 fold, CO calls $3

Flop: ($13) K, A, 9 (3 players)
SB bets $13, 1 fold, Hero calls $13

Turn: ($39) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $39, Hero calls $39

River: ($117) 4 (2 players)
SB bets $34.45 (All-In), Hero calls $34.45

Total pot: $185.90

Results:
Hero had 9, A (two pair, Aces and nines).
SB had A, K (two pair, Aces and Kings).
Outcome: SB won $182.90


Hand 4

Same maniac as hand 2

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($20)
BB ($114.10)
UTG ($118.35)
Hero (MP) ($112.10)
CO ($310)
Button ($89)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, J
1 fold, Hero bets $3.50, CO raises $12, 3 folds, Hero calls $8.50

Flop: ($25.50) K, 10, Q (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($25.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($55.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $25, Hero calls $25

Total pot: $105.50

Results:
Hero didn't show K, J (nothing).
CO had A, K (two pair, Kings and fours).
Outcome: CO won $102.50

I'm a little torn on that session. I definately tilted, but not sure badly I played. Like, none of those hands are what you'd call good, but they're not terrible either. As I said to Griffey while discussing: "Been trying to pull the trigger a bit more rather than worry about variance so much, but it kinda bit me in the ass so wasnt sure how much was tilt and how much just bad timing". I think I learnt a lesson and I'll go back to bumhunting more, but I think I learnt some interesting things and I have been able to use my aggression a bit more.

In NutsInHo's competition Renton wrote about how we should be bluffing enough that it becomes profitable to get all in with TPTK on the flop. I couldnt fathom how you could build such and image that decent TAGs would stack off lighter than that:

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (3 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($26)
Hero (BB) ($102)
Button ($85)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 9
Hero bets $3, Button calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($7) Q, 6, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $5, Button raises $22, Hero raises $94 (All-In), Button calls $60 (All-In)

Turn: ($171) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($171) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $171

Results:
Button had Q, J (two pair, Queens and eights).
Hero had J, 9 (flush, Queen high).
Outcome: Hero won $187


So in this case he was actually a very slight favorite, but interesting that my play before now convinced him this was a good place to stack off.

[edit]Somehow I got my results messed up the other day. I was actually down almost 3 buyins for the month, but I won 2 buyins this morning to be down just over a buyin.

Made a recording today. Posted it in the BC for them to watch, but if you have any comments/criticism feel free to post it here.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SO8IIBK5

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Made a recording today. Posted it in the BC for them to watch, but if you have any comments/criticism feel free to post it here.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SO8IIBK5

Damn - I have my folks coming into town - it'll be late Sunday before I have a chance to even think about watching this. But I plan to.

Some I'm not fond of. Good job on bumpin the bankroll

11:43 66 I like it as played. If we bet fold flop, I think we're forfieting too much equity to a range that consists of a lot of draws.

15:30 A5o 4-bet/fold I think if we're 4betting (even as a bluff) we should go higher than 2x his 3bet. Even going to 35 looks less bluffy than 27. If there's any history here at all he should be 5bet bluffing pretty light, and with as much fold equity as we're giving him I'd expect him to do it with almost his entire squeezing range. Raising a little higher gives us more credibility.

21:06 QTo I like this one straight through. Maybe a note on amayal that he tries to bluff minimum on the river when it's likely we missed a draw. That way when he bets the river bigger I think we can assume he's got value. A lot of players who do that are limit players.

29:30 I think the minbet in this case is a blocking bet or if he's really bad, some players will bet to 'protect' a big hand that way. It's an interesting spot, because we want to raise to charge draws, but we risk getting more money in from behind. I think it's so thin that I just flat call. I don't expect him to be bluffing big on the river, so hit or miss I think we'll get the most out of the hand that way.

It would have been nice to see it play out. While I think it's good to make videos and be forced to explain your actions, sometimes it's tough to explain and play at the same time. It wont stop me from making more vids since it will certainly make me a better player.

41:00 74o I usually min raise every button HU against regs. Since this guy is limping his button into you so much it should be worth at least a call.


At one point early in the video you openned A9s from the CO, which of course is standard. When you did it I think you said that you open any suited ace from any position. Are you really openning A6s from UTG?

Also, you close down tables without playing down to the blinds. I tend to go for every scrap of value and I think even a fairly bad table will still be at least slightly profitable to play thru the end of the round. It's sort of like the reason we don't post in the CO. We lose just a slight bit of value, but over the course of a month, a year, a career, it adds up to something significant.

Yes, I open all suited aces from all positions. I've found playing suited aces OOP easier than suited connectors when I'm trying to flesh out my opening ranges.

I'll usually play out the blinds, just figured I'd move things along on the vid.


If I do another one, I think I'll just record me playing without audio, then dub audio over afterwards. I can then pause action if I need to go deeper also.

[edit]Agree with the 4bet bluff size. His larger than usual 3bet size due to the fact that my raise was bigger due to isolation threw me off. Once I start getting up above 30 I start giving myself odds to call though, which could make an argument not to 4-bet in the first place.

Just read this article from Marshall: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ts-t85911.html

Agree completely, and I definately try to plan this stuff out. I rarely fall into the kinds of traps he's discussing in his examples. I do have a problem in 3-bet pots I dont think I've discussed either here or on msn with folks. When someone is opening wide and the button and calling almost all 3-bets. I just get lost about how to react. Since they have such a wide range it should be really exploitable, but I cant seem to figure it out. If I 3-bet a lot to take advantage of their wide range, I end up OOP with a wide range myself. If I 3-bet less then I start playing very straight-foward against them and dont really seem to be exploiting them at all.

I think I probably need more information, namely how they play postflop. The problem is, getting that information requires playing a bunch of medium-big hands OOP against them which I dont really want to do. I really cant see much of a way foward other than to wait until I have a heap of hands on them, and see how they play postflop based on hands played against other players, but that means waiting a long time and only works out if they're a regular opponent, and if they're a regular opponent I want to exploit them sooner rather than later .

I dunno, if anyone has some general advice in this spot, let me know

800 hands, -ve 5 buyins. Pretty pissed at myself.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

800 hands, -ve 5 buyins. Pretty pissed at myself.

Why? Did you play bad or just run bad?

I took some running bad and threw some playing bad on top. Made some mistakes and then compounded them. Totally lost my fold button for the last half hour and lost another 2 buyins in medium pots. I actually only lost two pots over 75BBs, I just kept spewing away in medium pots. I really only count 2 big mistakes and 3 or 4 other obvious mistakes. Probably mainly upset that I didnt quit when tables started turning bad. I think around 200 hands in I was up slightly and around 400 I was down a buyin or two and noticed most of the players were leaving but stuck around on the few poor tables left for another hour just because I wanted to play.

Pulled back 2.5 after watching a movie tonight, 125 hands. Ran hot, hit a lot of hands.

Hmm, was going well this morning but finished down a buyin. Felt I played fine, but on review all my biggest losers were fairly iffy. Most were based on reads/patterns and included hero calls and bluffs/semibluffs.

Hand 1

Villain has never folded to me postflop and when he minraised flop before it was with a non-nut flush draw. Normally I'd take my good odds, but felt I could get him to fold and then once that didnt work figured I was close to priced in. Probably slightly tilty since I've given up or lost every hand to him so far (accross different tables)

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($88.50)
SB ($159.75)
BB ($97.50)
UTG ($116.90)
MP ($103.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 7
2 folds, Hero bets $3, SB calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($7) 8, 5, 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $4, SB raises $8, Hero raises $16, SB raises $27.50, Hero raises $65.50 (All-In), SB calls $50

Turn: ($178) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($178) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $178

Results:
Hero had 10, 7 (high card, King).
SB had J, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: SB won $176



Hand 2

This was just bad I think, river is clear b/f, just thought there might be some chance he was bluffing.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($99)
BB ($100.90)
UTG ($97.50)
MP ($49.30)
CO ($29.10)
Button ($97.40)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, K
4 folds, Hero bets $2.50, BB calls $2

Flop: ($6) 3, 7, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $4, BB raises $8, Hero calls $4

Turn: ($22) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

River: ($22) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $10, BB raises $27.50, Hero calls $17.50

Total pot: $77

Results:
Hero didn't show 10, K (nothing).
BB had K, 7 (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: BB won $74


Hand 3

Villain is fishy but no real reads on whether he steals v's weakness so I think turn is fine but river is a fold.


No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($101.92)
Hero (CO) ($103.80)
Button ($48.58)
SB ($19)
BB ($193.80)
UTG ($46.35)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, Q
2 folds, Hero bets $3.50, Button calls $3.50, 1 fold, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($11) A, 5, 9 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, Button checks

Turn: ($11) K (3 players)
BB bets $7, Hero calls $7, 1 fold

River: ($25) 10 (2 players)
BB bets $19, Hero calls $19

Total pot: $63

Results:
BB had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Hero didn't show K, Q (nothing).
Outcome: BB won $60


Hand 4

I think this one was just bad timing. He's got 100% donk bet over a fair sample, noones raised him yet. Not sure about turn, just felt he wouldnt fold anything so I'd take the free card.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($121.25)
SB ($240.85)
BB ($138.45)
Hero (UTG) ($108.70)
MP ($97.84)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 10, K
Hero bets $3.50, 3 folds, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($7.50) 3, 5, Q (2 players)
BB bets $7.50, Hero raises $25, BB calls $17.50

Turn: ($57.50) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($57.50) Q (2 players)
BB bets $57.50, Hero folds

Total pot: $57.50

Results:
BB didn't show
Outcome: BB won $113


Hand 5

Another guy with high donk bet, around 70% I think, bad short stack basically have seen him just pure bluff in bad spots. Cant fold my gutshot + 2 overs I dont think.

No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($110.30)
SB ($235.19)
BB ($96)
UTG ($27.80)
MP ($110.90)
CO ($102.46)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, J
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, CO calls $1, Hero bets $5.50, 2 folds, UTG calls $4.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($13.50) 7, 10, 8 (2 players)
UTG bets $13.50, Hero raises $27, UTG calls $8.80 (All-In)

Turn: ($58.10) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($58.10) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $58.10

Results:
Hero had A, J (high card, Ace).
UTG had 5, 6 (straight, eight high).
Outcome: UTG won $55.20

Hand 1) I think i c/c the flop and re-eval turn. We're not thinking of FE vs. a station, so why 3b the flop?

Hand 2) good analysis, you're way better at finding b/f situations on the river than I am.

Hand 4) If we look at this hand in terms of the range you want to be raising him with, I don't think KsTs is in the range we want to raise him with. How many hands do we have with him donking?

Hand 5) This really looks like you didn't know what his stack size was. His donk bet was 70% of what sample size?