Operation: 'A' game

Pretty cool post!

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

11,176 games 0.002 secs 5,588,000 games/sec

Board: Kd 4c 8c 2s
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 20.830% 20.83% 00.00% 2328 0.00 { AcTc, Ac9c, QcJc, QcTc, JcTc, Tc9c }
Hand 1: 79.170% 79.17% 00.00% 8848 0.00 { KK+, AKs, AcQc, AcJc, KJs+, 9c7c, AKo, KJo+ }


---

Thanks Kmind, do you mind checking what percentage of a total range this range makes up:

AK, KQ, KJ, AA, KK, AcQc, AcJc, 7c9c

ie: if this is like 4% of all hands, or what?

No problem. It's 4.8% of hands.

Originally Posted by kmind

No problem. It's 4.8% of hands.

Sweet thanks! Ok so we can conclude that if a player is 3betting us about 12%, and double barelling 80% of his range on that board, then that is the breakeven point for making that shove.

(12% range, 80% double barrel = 9.6% of his range is doubling. If he's bet/calling with 4.8% of this range, 4.8/9.6 = 50% call and fold %)

If he is 3betting more and doubling the same, or 3betting the same but doubling more, it will be a profitable shove.

That's a pretty sick post, griff. I'm itching to do some more calcs. myself. Appreciate it!

good post...50 does seem a bit high, but this is also a spot where metagame is definitely in play and i think some regs are definitely going to be double barreling K high boards a super high % in rr pots so it is still optimal to float flop/shove turn instead of raise/calling flop

I think it's much better when flop is like Txx or lower, since there's a better chance of a higher card on turn which makes his dbl barrel % closer to 100.

Which is I guess is a double edged sword since that higher card will also improve his equity, but I don't think people dbl barrel bluff Kxx on a deuce turn very often, do they?

Originally Posted by Alexos

I think it's much better when flop is like Txx or lower, since there's a better chance of a higher card on turn which makes his dbl barrel % closer to 100.

Which is I guess is a double edged sword since that higher card will also improve his equity, but I don't think people dbl barrel bluff Kxx on a deuce turn very often, do they?

Ok sure, but on a Txx two tone board. I'd imagine we're all much happier just raise-getting it in with like QJ+FD or something like that?

I don't mind the idea of calling Txx and shoving Q or K turns, but I think his b/c range on an A turn is probably pretty wide.

Thanks for the eye write up griff. It's something I've also been looking into for the past couple years. I'm at like 20/130 in one eye and 20/150 in the other now, contacts and glasses all day, errday. Sounds like an awesome choice for a sports freak like me.

Originally Posted by Donachello

Thanks for the eye write up griff. It's something I've also been looking into for the past couple years. I'm at like 20/130 in one eye and 20/150 in the other now, contacts and glasses all day, errday. Sounds like an awesome choice for a sports freak like me.

No problem. Man thinking of 20/130 sounds crazy, but I guess I'm not really sure what I was when I had glasses. Does 20/130 = -130 when they give you prescription?

If you have the cash for it you should definitely do it. My line of thinking was more like, if I know I'm gonna do it at some point, I might as well do it now and not wait!

Originally Posted by griffey24

No problem. Man thinking of 20/130 sounds crazy, but I guess I'm not really sure what I was when I had glasses. Does 20/130 = -130 when they give you prescription?

If you have the cash for it you should definitely do it. My line of thinking was more like, if I know I'm gonna do it at some point, I might as well do it now and not wait!

I'm not totally sure. I think that it means at 20 feet I can see as clearly as people can see at 130 feet with 20/20. Not totally sure though. All I know is I am pretty lolblind without glasses or contacts outside of a like 3 foot radius.

Guannars Glasses

This is just a prelmin evaluation. They just arrived in the mail last night, and I haven't played a session yet, which really will be the big test.

First impression, is hard to say. I installed that software wingster recommended, so I wonder if I'm already started at a more comfortable state than I would have been a week ago.

Makes everything a yellow tint, which I'm sure also makes it a little easier on the eyes. There's some magnification of the screen, and it also seems to improve resolution.

Will grind this weekend!

Yeah the Tx boards i'm just raise getting it in happily...griffey's theorum thing was for flops where we'd be getting it in with like 20-35% equity.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

Yeah the Tx boards i'm just raise getting it in happily...griffey's theorum thing was for flops where we'd be getting it in with like 20-35% equity.

But I'm saying why do u need to get it in on flop on Txx boards if they have a high barrel and wide 3b range? It's the same concept and we'd be getting a lot of folds on turns. The only times we lose is vs his overcard hands that actually hit, and those have only 4 outs! Plus if it comes a club overcard we actually we to stack him often.

I think I prefer doing this on low boards than Kxx boards and it's not close actually.

I'm not sure on the correlation, but ever since I got those glasses I've been playing very well!

I've certainly been focusing more, which is hard to tell if its due to the glasses or simply due to me trying to focus. Either way, its going decently so far. Running in EV death, but that's alright.

My red line is back to its usual mega upswing ways this month. I'm starting to think that its VERY correlated with my blind stealing, but I'll keep an eye on it to see if that's actually the case.

Up around $3.8k for the month, EV at around $7.8k but I was due. Also starting to mix in more 3/6 games, so I should be experiencing a bit more variance coming up!

First pretty tilting session of the month. I've been running under EV all month, but this one was solid down 4.7k and EV at down 3k.

Most of the hands I don't mind, but a couple were weird. I value towned myself in a few spots.

1) Hands vs same villain.

This was the first hand vs this villain, and after I had already c/r a flop vs him. Felt like he would peel me light here.

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($916.70)
CO ($390)
BTN ($457.80)
SB ($442.70)
griffey24 (BB) ($401)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 5 players) griffey24 is BB
2 folds, BTN raises to $8, 1 fold, griffey24 calls $4

Flop: ($18, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $14, griffey24 raises to $35, BTN calls $21

Turn: ($88, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $66, griffey24 calls $66

River: ($220, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $348.80, griffey24 calls $292

Final Pot: $860.80
BTN shows


BTN wins $857.80 (net +$400.00)

griffey24 lost $401


Second hand vs same villain a little later.

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($433.10)
CO ($302)
BTN ($638.40)
SB ($165.30)
griffey24 (BB) ($388)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 5 players) griffey24 is BB
2 folds, BTN raises to $8, 1 fold, griffey24 calls $4

Flop: ($18, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $14, griffey24 raises to $40, BTN raises to $114, griffey24 goes all-in $380, BTN calls $266

Turn: ($778, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($778, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $778
griffey24 shows

BTN shows


BTN wins $775 (net +$387)

griffey24 lost $388

TILTED.

back to back days tilting. Need to get it under wraps, its getting expensive. Getting called a ton lately in bizarre spots with such light hands... without any dynamic. (edit: this sounds good.. but not good when not hitting anything and bluffing too much :P)

I really hate that when I'm winning I play SOOO much significantly better than when I'm losing. When I'm losing, I station SOOO many more hands.. and I press the issue trying to win too many pots (ie: bluffing too much). Its actually ridiculous.

Pissed at myself and the idiocy of the last two days. Down $8k since yesterday.

At least $2.5k of stupidity, and the rest mostly unavoidable.

Need to figure out a way to make the same folds that I'd make while winning, also while losing. If anyone has thoughts, let me know.

/annoying rant

Gross, and yeah I feel you here. I don't think there's any one answer to this problem either than make sure you keep your breathing calm and consistent and take an extra couple seconds for every decision (hard on ongame when software is so damn fast). For me at least, I just need to get rid of that feeling of 'impatience' to win and let the good spots come to me and that lets me get away from the bad spots. So many times when I'm winning I'll have no trouble folding big hands when a bad river hits but when I'm losing I'm so anxious to 'make something happen' that I think if I fold this hand I won't get another chance to get unstuck for a while so I have to go with it.

I hope it turns around for you, even though for my own interests a downswing could mean I finally get my chance at griffback since I'm stuck in the 1/2 games for the foreseeable future :P . Come on down, I have a seat waiting for you!!!

Keep your head up and try not to let it phase you as much as possible.

I'm still a microbonk, but one thing I always do is have a glass of ice water or a bottle of water next to me and whenever I start feeling even a little frustrated I take a swig, take a deep breath, and then change whatever song is currently playing in the background.

Usually that small pause takes my mind off whatever it was that just happened and I can resume focusing and hopefully playing smarter.

Thanks for the thoughts/advice guys!

I think the biggest problem with the last few sessions is every huge hand losing at showdown. Like.. literally every hand and every showdown.. regardless if it was all-in, or I played a big hand more passively due to 'monsters in the closet'

Was playing some hands really stupid even, like raising pre and c/c down AA on 578ss Qx board, and betting AJcc on 48KccQQc board and c/c river and c/c in lots of spots I would always b/f, and still losing haha.

The problem with losing every hand at showdown, is that you feel you need to start winning hands at non-showdown if you wanna win anything. Which obviously leads to more bluffing, cause you wanna win some big hands at some point.

Need the patience to ride out an 5-10k hand stretch where you're getting effed at every point, every showdown, but not get impatient and try to combat that with winning all these pots at non-showdown.

Need to play under the assumption that these 5-10 downswing streaks WILL/MUST happen in poker, and just tell yourself that this is your token 5-10 buying downswing... just wait it out and not turn it into a 15-20 buyin downswing which I did.

It's like winter really. We know winter is going to come, and it has to come really. Sometimes its worse or better than others, but its always there. It's not like we fight it by breaking out the blow torches to melt the snow. It's not like we go into denial about it by wearing summer clothes anyway. We just ride it out and hope its short and painfree. Summer WILL come too, they are both inevitable. Just gotta make the most of the summer!

dumb analogy? maybe haha

Analogy fits

I don't get this "Run bad at showdown thing so must win non-showdown pots"? I don't even understand how you guys come up with these things lol. Just play solid every hand, and quit when you don't? Play less during downswings, play more during upswings. Less in winter more in summer.

If you do that downswings will affect you less since you play less, and they can prob always be proven by just looking at EV and feeling good for having a reason for your runbad. In the end, it's always about getting better at quitting, if we can save ourselves from losing those couple extra buyins from tilt/spew at the end of sessions, our downswings would be so much shorter.

Originally Posted by Alexos

I don't get this "Run bad at showdown thing so must win non-showdown pots"? I don't even understand how you guys come up with these things lol. Just play solid every hand, and quit when you don't? Play less during downswings, play more during upswings. Less in winter more in summer.

I just mean you haev those sessions where ever hand you barrel and get called down, they barrel you call down... they shove you call... no matter what happens, you get to showdown and lose. none of your hands are ever good during these streaks.

You start realizing that you can't win with legit hands, so you feel like you need to start making plays to win hands without showdown, just to win hands. So you start bluffing more to take down pots. makes sense no?

Originally Posted by griffey24

I just mean you haev those sessions where ever hand you barrel and get called down, they barrel you call down... they shove you call... no matter what happens, you get to showdown and lose. none of your hands are ever good during these streaks.

You start realizing that you can't win with legit hands, so you feel like you need to start making plays to win hands without showdown, just to win hands. So you start bluffing more to take down pots. makes sense no?

No.

You're clearly spewing, it's very rare that I barrel and my hands are just never good because I try to tighten up when I'm running bad, and because I just don't barrel air all the time in the first place!

Had a crazy grind today. Played about 5k hands today, and was mostly up and down but good to get in a good grind. Ended up about $1k on the day with the last 900 or so hands having a lot of fish playing.

Was up about $1k a couple days before that too, so a slow grind back from my -$8k downswing. Hopefully make another solid recovery tomorrow.

Today was pretty lame. Down like $2.6k with EV death, which runs the month to about $7k under EV.

Last couple a days I resorted back to some old trends. Namely, 3betting a more balanced range (which is bad for me), since I get tempted into 5bet jamming light a lot more. I need to go back to 3bet/4betting more polarized ranges so i'm less tempted to jam/peel/call light etc.

The A7 is fine...ppl will show up with random stuff enough that with odds it's a call. KJ is close...really not sure what's best. J10 is just gross, I think your shove is fine since so much missed. I'd obviously fold 99 on flop there if i'm going to flat the 4-bet oop, but i'd almost always just shove here until we're more than 150BB deep.

99 hand - I'd have to run the math. I'm 'pretty sure we need him to be 4bet bluffing a TON to be jamming approaching 150bbs deep, with this particular hand. I'd have to check though.

On the flop, he's betting his entire air range no? (ie: hands like he showed up with)

Yah I agree with A7... spaz fish will shove there repping.

thanks for the thoughts!

Been doing the math for the last 99 hand example. I think this is a reasonable short cut to figuring out how often we need a fold.

If I assume that 99 will have around 33% vs his calling range to a shove, then he has on avg 67%.

The difference between our equity is 34%.

Percentage we need a fold =

[(difference between our equity)*(effective stacks)- (amount lost if we fold)] / [(difference between our equity)*(effective stacks) + (amount of his 4bet)]

In this case:

=[(.34)*($572)-($32)]/[(.34)*($572) + ($80)]
=59.1%

We need him to 4bet fold 59.1% in the above example to shove 99. That seems pretty high to me, though I suppose its possible.

not sure if that short cut to an equation is helpful. Seems easier to me than writing it all out. In that equation, 'amount lost if we fold', includes the amount we 3betted and will be folding as well as any dead money. So in this example I should probably also add the $4 blinds (so $36 instead of $32 for accuracy)

Well I've seen quite many things in my poker days. I've had horrible EV run bads that I never thought would end. But I can honestly say that I've never experienced what I"ve experienced today and yesterday. I've never seen such a series of horrible card run-outs after horrible card run-outs. Kind of speechless.

These first three hands were all against the same villain on diff tables in a matter of like 150 seconds.

Hand 1
$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($386)
CO ($502.50)
BTN ($961.80)
SB ($396)
griffey24 (BB) ($412)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 5 players) griffey24 is BB
2 folds, BTN raises to $8, SB raises to $32, griffey24 raises to $80, BTN goes all-in $961.80, SB folds, griffey24 calls $332

Flop: ($1,405.80, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($1,405.80, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1,405.80, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1,405.80
griffey24 shows

BTN shows


griffey24 wins $853 (net +$441)

BTN collects $549.80 (net -$412)
SB lost $32


Hand 2
$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
CO ($496.50)
BTN ($549.80)
SB ($396)
griffey24 (BB) ($863)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 4 players) griffey24 is BB
1 fold, BTN raises to $8, 1 fold, griffey24 raises to $35, BTN calls $27

Flop: ($72, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $60, BTN calls $60

Turn: ($192, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $140, BTN calls $140

River: ($472, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $628, BTN calls $314.80

Final Pot: $1,414.80
griffey24 shows

BTN shows


BTN wins $1,099.60 (net +$549.80)

griffey24 collects $313.20 (net -$549.80)


Hand 3
-immediately after these other two, he probably thinks I'm steaming after the AQ<A7 and its gin with aces mad overbet time.. oh wait

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
griffey24 (CO) ($495.50)
BTN ($1,160.95)
SB ($720.80)
BB ($138.30)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 4 players) griffey24 is CO
griffey24 raises to $12, BTN calls $12, 2 folds

Flop: ($30, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $40, BTN calls $40

Turn: ($110, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $175, BTN calls $175

River: ($460, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $268.50, BTN calls $268.50

Final Pot: $997
griffey24 shows

BTN shows


BTN wins $995 (net +$499.50)

griffey24 lost $495.50


Yada yada yada.. down like $4.2k today.. can't win this month at all, that's for sure.

I actively went into yesterdays session with the mindset of: at every decision ask yourself "what would a nit do?".

Somehow that went out the window in pretty much the first hand.

So that's the goal for the session later today. What would a nit do?

FOLD.

That's what. Then he'd fold again. Fold. Fold. Fold. Fold.

People who don't fold tell themselves that they are allowing themselves to be exploited. At least thats what I tell myself. Though, I'm pretty sure when I don't fold and repeatedly stack off I'm being exploited way worse by paying off, than I would have by just folding.

Especially when I'm in this mega run bad, and every hand is hitting, thats even more reason to fold. I should just assume their hand hit and fold. Not assume their hand hit, and call just to verify.

FOLD.

Wish there was a way to enforce this. I swear I should just pay someone $25 to sweat every session I play and just watch for straight forward folds and just tell me to fold.

Maybe I might actually implement this. Any takers? (For real - I might try this at least once). I don't think its as easy as it sounds. Watching 8 tables at once is tough, especially if you aren't playing in them .

Don't use P4's hehe. I would do it, but I have a "thing" tonight. FWIW, you do believe in the nit mindset it's just your curiosity that your fighting. You got on me tons about it and it's working well. I have my WTSD% down to 26% and I am winning most nights again.

Thanks Jyms! Glad to hear you're on the up and up.

Yah I'm better at telling ppl to fold more, than enforcing it myself.

Maybe that's why my coaching skills > poker skills lately haha.

Yah I need to get my wtsd way lower. The key to folding is also viewing your hand now (on the flop) and comparing it to your equity vs their RANGE. Way too often I get in the mindset of thinking "well my hand must be good now, so I'll call"... but I really need to get in the habit of folding if my hand sucks vs their range.

Pretty nasty downswing, keep booking those wins at 1/2-2/4 and you'll have it all back before you know it!

Thanks Roid!

Played a bit more 1/2 and 2/4 today, and it went pretty well. Still had quite a few spots where I raised or 3bet flop and got flatted, and sucked out on turns with only one pot size left.. but ran better today at least.

Up around $3.7k on day, so good quasi recovery started so far.

I'm jumping on Hoopy and Rav's bandwagon of not checking results.

I tested it out preliminarily today, by using only the "overall" tab in the 'reports' section, and turning off winnings. At least that way I can check/review my hands but not see my winnings/losses.

The only obstacle is that I keep pretty diligent track of my end of day balance every day I grind. Been doing this since I started playing. Trying to think I can still keep track of this without really focusing on how much I'm up/down.

I might try blacking out my spreadsheet cells so I can input the number but can't see it the following days. My memory is bad enough that I'll lose track so I might try that.

Operation: no looking at the 'sessions' tab until next Wednesday April 6th.

So i thought my downswing might have been over after that little upburst of $3.7k, but the last couple sessions have been a fun return to EV and variance death.

Results Oriented - The operation of not looking at my results till wed was a mega fail, but where I am succeeding is still not looking at my results DURING a session (something which I was compulsively doing before hand).

My initial worry of not looking at results was being worried about the inability to really have an accurate stop loss and potentially losing too much. I've been surprised (small sample) that after not looking, I'm actually over-estimating how bad things are going and actually stopping SOONER than I would have, rather than later. Though its not ideal for volume, its good for quitting when not playing solid or when things are going bad. I think this is because when you lose two quick buyins, and you don't know if you were already down 2-3 buyins that you just hit the eject button and quit.

Gunnars - My eyes definitely don't feel as strained anymore. It's hard to tell what specific variable caused this, since I also implemented that software program that wingster had suggested. Either way, the combination of the two things has been helping.

Calling 3bets - I rarely call them, yet when I do, I always lose/stack off. Not sure how this is possible when I conceivably have such a strong range? All I can think of is that alarms go off to people when I call a 3bet, so I'm only ever getting barreled with legit hands?

The month - Down a solid $13.7k on the month right now. I'd be hapy if I could escape the month down $10k and EV at about down $1k. That would be a solid win for me now, so we'll see.

good to see you like the gunnars man. I can't even play without mine now!

hopefully results turn around next month, gl.

Well the month is now over! It couldn't have come any sooner, though I suppose I should wait and see how April carries out before making statements like that!

The month: Ended up down $13.7k. bonuses and RB around $1.5k, so net down $12.2k for the worst month in a while.

Lessons learned:

'A game' while losing: I already knew this, but I need to focus on my game while I'm losing. It's easy for me to play my A game while winning, but very rarely can I stick to this while losing.

Quitting early: I have been quitting sooner in bad sessions while not looking at my results. I wouldn't have figured this to be the case, but I'm glad it is.

Sports:

Baseball:I'm going to the blue jays home opener today, so that's pretty sweet!

Cricket:I'm sure very few people care about this, but it's the World Cup of Cricket going on right now, and Sri Lanka is in the finals which I'm pretty happy about. It's Sri Lanka vs India tomorrow morning at 5am, so I'll be waking up for that.

Ultimate Frisbee: My ultimate team won its semi finals game last night, so we're going to the finals next week! This is the first 'first place' team I've been on in agessss. It feels kinda nice making it far in the playoffs. we'll see what happens.

Up next: 'A game' in April. Regardless of winning or losing.

Nice on the ultimate frisbee ownage. I'm thinking of signing up for a team this summer. Also, legit brag going to the Jays home opener, I'm pretty excited to see how the team pans out this year.

Glglglgl in April

Originally Posted by Ravageur

Nice on the ultimate frisbee ownage. I'm thinking of signing up for a team this summer. Also, legit brag going to the Jays home opener, I'm pretty excited to see how the team pans out this year.

Glglglgl in April

Sweet, you should definitely sign up. Its way better cardio than my dodgeball league thats for sure.

I'll probably play in two leagues this summer. A rec team (my dodgeball team transferring into an ultimate team - we'll suck) and an intermediate team probably.

griffffffffffff you were settling down your red line and winning more!

You may want to look into this program Nov 2009 - Tilt Demon - Stop Loss Tilt Prevention, How much WOULD you have saved! - Commercial Software -- Two Plus Two Poker Forums

seems similar to what you've figured out recently.

P.S. man I need to try out ultimate frisbee...I played like in middle school years ago but never really gave it a fair shot. Seems like a lot of fun.

guys stop buying all these software, gunner glasses and what not.

all you need to play poker is a computer. Save your money for a quality luckbox instead.

Originally Posted by Alexos

guys stop buying all these software, gunner glasses and what not.

all you need to play poker is a computer. Save your money for a quality luckbox instead.

I'm such a sucker for "cool" software

gunnar glasses were best investment i've made in years. Embody chair...not so much. Did you see that they just came out with a better chair for 1/4 the price I paid for mine? FML

Originally Posted by Ravageur

gunnar glasses were best investment i've made in years. Embody chair...not so much. Did you see that they just came out with a better chair for 1/4 the price I paid for mine? FML

yea was mostly kidding as im sure some software is super usefull..

but this thread is like an affiliate marketing site.. Griffey you should have referrals with those links u put up and get commission on every click

So jealous you're at the game right now. I'm such an over-reactor. Just put some cash on Jays to win the AL and the World Series lol.

I love it! I also love about baseball that there's a game almost every day, gives me something to look forward to after grinding.

Originally Posted by Ravageur

So jealous you're at the game right now. I'm such an over-reactor. Just put some cash on Jays to win the AL and the World Series lol.

I love it! I also love about baseball that there's a game almost every day, gives me something to look forward to after grinding.

Oh man what a game!

Jays demolished the twins. I was in the 500 level. It was sold out for sure, prob like 50k ppl. There were about 4 fights that broke out in the stands. They gave out rally towels to the crowd which was a dumb idea. Every homerun ppl throwing their towels out onto the field. As people got more drunk people were even toss full/open cans of coke from the 500 level down towards the field. We couldn't see where they were landing cause of the overhang but thats definitely not cool.

Overall it was an awesome game. Good to see Bautista carry on where he left off, and Arencibia own them!

and I like my embody, whenever i sit in another chair im like wtf is this crap

Well.. good news.. April has continued right where March left off with some ridic EV and variance death. Let's hope it doesn't continue the entire month this time though!

might post some hands in a bit, but not feeling it right now.

Doing a good job playing pretty solid though. Made a few bad bluffs at 3/6, but other than that I'm happy with my play.

hey griffey,
did you ever thought about mental coach (someone like Tommy Angelo)?? Because you sometimes sounds like pretty huge tilter

Originally Posted by Mr. Diamond

hey griffey,
did you ever thought about mental coach (someone like Tommy Angelo)?? Because you sometimes sounds like pretty huge tilter

haha yaah I was on a waiting list a year and a half or two years ago for jered tendler coaching. It was something ridiculous like $1k per session, whcih at the time I was willing to spend no (cause I was playing $5/10) but wouldn't spend that much now!

but yes, in general I do think it would be something beneficial. Would probably only ever consider it if I went back to playing full time.

ok sounds good

- btw I never heard about Jared Tendler before, but his web is awesome. Lot of very interesting stuff

Cruise control

That's the mode I've been in lately. Just playing my game, and doing the same ol' same ol'. Playing A-B game, winning or losing depending how variance wants to treat me. Analyzing some hands after, analyzing some opponents for a bit. Nothing too ground breaking. Enough to keep winning at the stakes I'm playing at. Enough to stay afloat. A lot of that I blame on this full time job, and not viewing poker in general the same way I used to. It's a side income now, and that's how I've been viewing it and treating it accordingly.

Though I've recently felt a renewed sense of wanting to get better. Be better. (recently = the lat 3 hours). There's no real reason why I can't improve somewhat, and play higher up even in my spare time. I know I'm capable of it, so its just a matter of putting in the time/effort in the appropriate ways.

I may be getting involved in some group coaching with Alexos, so this should rejuvenate my desire to improve. I've thought about coaching a lot over the years, but never actually taken the plunge.

So here we go. Operation 'A' Game AND GET BETTER!

A real job DOES get in the way of pokerz. Good luck transitioning.

Was messing around with a few things in my last session.

Tried betting and raising bigger in some spots, as I usually raise pretty small. Started this out while thinking that I should implement aspects of other people's games that annoy me.

Also tried figuring out a game plan vs a good reg who calls a TON in the blinds (seemingly vs anyone's open) and c/r a TON of flops. Pretty sure he raises a huge portion of his range instead of c/c, and he probably feels he needs to given howmany hands he's playing out of the blinds.

I'm not sure what my best plan is vs him. I think I'm getting hit hard by variance because I've started calling his flop raises with strong hands, but he keeps out-drawing me. It's happened the last 3 or 4 times now, though I have to stick with it because I really think thats best given his range.

Here are a couple hands vs him.

1) really?.. regs defending A6o vs utg opens need to be punished.

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
griffey24 (CO) ($844.10)
BTN ($602.10)
SB ($501)
BB ($544.90)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 4 players) griffey24 is CO
griffey24 raises to $12, 2 folds, BB calls $8

Flop: ($26, 2 players)
BB checks, griffey24 bets $16, BB raises to $39, griffey24 calls $23

Turn: ($104, 2 players)
BB bets $44, griffey24 calls $44

River: ($192, 2 players)
BB bets $64, griffey24 calls $64

Final Pot: $320
BB shows


BB wins $318 (net +$159)

griffey24 lost $159


Hand 2)
-if this raising range is so wide, then I think raising these particular turns becomes more profitable

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
3 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
griffey24 (BTN) ($566.75)
SB ($767.50)
BB ($487.90)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 3 players) griffey24 is BTN
griffey24 raises to $8, SB folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($18, 2 players)
BB checks, griffey24 bets $12, BB raises to $36, griffey24 calls $24

Turn: ($90, 2 players)
BB bets $65, griffey24 raises to $150, BB folds

Final Pot: $305

griffey24 wins $303 (net +$109)

BB lost $109

Yesterday was a pretty damn tilting poker day!

Played a couple cash sessions and was getting just EV rocked and variance in general was mocking me. Ended up down about $3.8k, and this downswing just doesn't want to end. Was about $2.3k under EV as well, which doesn't help.

Then I grinded a betfair freeroll. About 200 entrants and only top two places pay out, $5.7k each. I pretty much never play tourneys. Alex and I both had chip leads starting with about 20 or so people left and rode it out to top three. I had the third place person all-in on 3 different occasions with the best hand, and he spiked each time. I'd eventually go out to Alex's QJs vs my 77, to a fitting J river. Donkaments are tiltinggggg.. especially bubbling them.

Every session I play I'm very happy with 97% of my play, but not happy with about 2-3 hands. Sadly, those 2-3 hands are generally avoidable stackoffs which end up making a big difference. One was a very questionable call of a 4bet (after 3betting a guy a ton, and him finally 4betting when stacks were somewhat deepish - with KJs - and stacking post). The other was 5bet shoving 99 vs Alex after he iso'd a limper to 4x on the button. I'm sure I had one more hand too, which adds up to about $1k-$1200 of my $3.7k in losses. Not insignificant, and is a consistent theme that needs to be fixed!

In the red for the second month in a row now. Hoping this run bad ends soon. When I was running hot I was "feeling bad" about it. Remind me not to do that anymore!

Things are lookin' up!

Sounds like me, alex and ravageur all won betfair suite seats to UFC in Toronto!

another thing you can be grateful for: transferring most of your roll off of stars before 15/4

that freeroll story was epic; i assume you and alexos run the streets of MSNL on betfair?

Originally Posted by Vi-Zer0Skill

another thing you can be grateful for: transferring most of your roll off of stars before 15/4

that freeroll story was epic; i assume you and alexos run the streets of MSNL on betfair?

Yaah I actually still had about 20k on stars, so trying to get that out still.

haha I wish I ran the streets there. Things were rolling pretty well up until the doom of march/april came and huge run bad. so hopefully once variance subsides I can get back to that!

Alex is just a huge luckbox who runs the streets everywhere!

Not too much to report, other than the continuation of this never ending downswing.

I'm waiting on the 'mental game' Jered Tendler book which will hopefully help some aspects of my game. It should arrive in a week or so.

Other than that, need to start running better in general. Some of the favorites yesterday were running QQ on a 555Q board into 75 from the button, and running AQss into 9Tss on a 67ss2c 8s board. Though showing hands to alex makes me feel like I value town a lot in spots I think are pretty standard.

Lets Play A Game:

So here are some potential value town spots. Let me know which are value towning and which are legitimate! I won two out of the five at showdown, which two did I win?

Hand 1)
$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($412)
CO ($435)
BTN ($390)
SB ($533.90)
griffey24 (BB) ($400)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 5 players) griffey24 is BB
3 folds, SB raises to $12, griffey24 raises to $36, SB calls $24

Flop: ($72, 2 players)
SB checks, griffey24 checks

Turn: ($72, 2 players)
SB bets $54, griffey24 calls $54

River: ($180, 2 players)
SB bets $168, griffey24 goes all-in $310 since villain has $140 left?


Hand 2
-villain is big laggish fish, def a fish though

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($206)
CO ($289.80)
BTN ($204.10)
SB ($279.65)
griffey24 (BB) ($238.75)

Pre-Flop: ($3, 5 players) griffey24 is BB
2 folds, BTN raises to $6, 1 fold, griffey24 calls $4

Flop: ($13, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $13, griffey24 raises to $35, BTN calls $22

Turn: ($83, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BTN bets $42, griffey24 goes all-in $197.75


Hand 3
-villain was 3betting me a ton

$3/$6 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($612)
CO ($591)
BTN ($1,623.05)
griffey24 (SB) ($591)
BB ($616)

Pre-Flop: ($9, 5 players) griffey24 is SB
3 folds, griffey24 raises to $18, BB raises to $54, griffey24 calls $36

Flop: ($108, 2 players)
griffey24 checks, BB checks

Turn: ($108, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $81, BB calls $81

River: ($270, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $175


Hand 4
-Villain had seemed pretty aggro barelling so far, and was pretty loose but not sure on his calling tendencies

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($425.10)
griffey24 (CO) ($820)
BTN ($512.80)
SB ($929.50)
BB ($419.30)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 5 players) griffey24 is CO
1 fold, griffey24 raises to $12, 1 fold, SB calls $10, 1 fold

Flop: ($28, 2 players)
SB checks, griffey24 bets $22, SB calls $22

Turn: ($72, 2 players)
SB checks, griffey24 bets $60, SB calls $60

River: ($192, 2 players)
SB checks, griffey24 bets $175


Hand 5
-villain is cancersvulst or whatever, for whatever that means to ongame ppl. Means he never folds to 3bets or 4bets and is pretty dumb

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
CO ($440.20)
BTN ($594.10)
SB ($501.60)
griffey24 (BB) ($537.60)

Pre-Flop: ($6, 4 players) griffey24 is BB
CO raises to $12, 2 folds, griffey24 raises to $45, CO calls $33

Flop: ($92, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $60, CO calls $60

Turn: ($212, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $60, CO calls $60

River: ($332, 2 players)
griffey24 bets $280.60


So let's play a game. I ended up winning 2 out of the 5 at showdown, which 2 did I win!?

Hands 3 and 5!

Originally Posted by kmind

Hands 3 and 5!

This gets my vote.

And the hand reading winners are....

Kmind and Roid!

Hand 1 - I shoved he had AThh

Hand 2 - I shoved he had KK

Hand 3 - He called AK

Hand 4 - He had QQ (whattt? - deep stacks I guess, so flatted pre)

Hand 5 - He tank called and had AJ

JL - yah 4bet is fine/standard. Sometimes vs ppl I perceive are pretty polarized I flat a bit more and force them into playing postflop. It's a pretty easy life as a 3bettor if you figure you'll never see a flop and only have to deal with someone's 4betting frequencies. You can 3bet any two.

I'll go with 3 and 4

Originally Posted by Ravageur

I'll go with 3 and 4

This

and in hand 3, 4bet pre is super standard, no?

hands 2 & 4

Boom.

Ez game. You should stake me or something. WAIT.

moar games!

Yes, more hands!

haha Ok I'll get to more hands sooon... the major obstacle right now for me is: MY JOB.

SIGH. Been staying late at work (till after 10pm) every night for the last week to two weeks and worked this past sunday as well. So that sucks pretty hard!

The good news is that this saturday is UFC! So should be pretty sweet. Going to the fight with Alex and Ravageur and my other buddy from T.O as well.

My big problem with my job right now is that I'm being way overworked and way-underpaid. To make matters worse is that being overworked is compoundingly bad, since I can't grind and make money from the poker. (though I've been downswinging lately, so maybe its actually compoundingly good!)

I'm looking for other jobs now. If anyone has any job search advice, I'd love to hear it!

Stay tuned for more hand reading games after my next session!

Before looking for other jobs, since that can take a while, and given the fact you've been putting a ton of hours at the office, ASK FOR A GODDAMN RAISE ASAP!

Originally Posted by Alexos

ASK FOR A GODDAMN RAISE ASAP!

good idea, do this

yeah wtf, you have a pretty sick education you have to gtfo out of that job and upgrade. Shouldn't there should be some way better options out there, especially in Toronto. Had a pretty great meal tonight in TO, but more excited about tmr night's epicness. See you there.