Operation: Stop Going Busto / return 2 pokers (25NL)

Greetings,

I haven't posted here in a while, but I'm starting an operation thread anyway. I'll start posting elsewhere again too. Basically I have been playing poker for at least five years while doing everything wrong. I have meandered between complete failure and minute success. I have probably sat with my entire bankroll for as many hands as I have sat with good bankroll management.

I think it is finally time that I need to either take this shit seriously, or stop trying to play. I am 21 now so hopefully I am mature enough to practice self control, and not let the emotional side of poker cause me to make stupid decisions.

I will be starting with a roll of $625.00 for 25 NL and I will run 4 tables at a time, for now. If I fall below 500 I will drop to .5/.10 until I grind back to $625.00 to take another shot.

I will be using Holdem Manager to analyze my game. I have essentially never done extensive analysis of my own game or taken it all that seriously, which I suspect has led me to lose a lot of money.

My goals are simple:
1. Never violate BRM
2. Do not make decisions based on emotion
3. Analyze decision making
4. Play poker
5. Beat every stakes lvl i can

I guess I'll try and make this vaguely interesting for people to read if I can think of a way. But mostly I need to post this to hold myself acountable =).

Hooray discipline!!!

Good luck sir.

bout time someone comes in here and swears to adhere to BRMGT

gl

yay BRM! gl gl

Session 1: Queen's On the River

Well I decided to get started right away. I set up my program, and got ready to play.

Two things went slightly differently than planned. First of all, I wasn't sure if trying to deposit 650 would violate pokerstars deposit limits, so I decided to deposit 500 today and 150 tommorow instead.

I loaded up four 25 NL 6 max tables. Right away, I was lost. I've never played with a HUD before and appearently if you switch seats, all the stats are on the wrong seats. This took me a while to figure out. I speant my first 30 hands trying to figure out what all these pretty colors and numbers meant.

In the midst of this distraction, I get dealt QQ.
No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($21.65)
SB ($35.55)
BB ($9.70)
Hero (UTG) ($34.25)
MP ($25)
CO ($27.60)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, Q
Hero bets $0.75, 1 fold, CO raises $2.25, 3 folds, Hero raises $4.25, CO raises $7.75, Hero calls $5

Flop: ($20.35) 4, 5, 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $10, Hero raises $20, CO calls $7.60 (All-In)

Turn: ($55.55) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($55.55) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $55.55

Results:
Hero had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
CO had A, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $55.25


Oh boy did I misplay this hand. I was struggling to decipher the HUD, scared of aces, and scared of folding my first big hand of this operation, lol. Hopefully I don't make this mistake again.

Luckily the flop and turn roll off, and then I got a miracle Queen on the river. whew. What a way to start!

I decide I better drop down to two tables while I get familiar with the HUD displays. I grind it out and things are going well til I get queens again.

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($25)
CO ($11.80)
Button ($17.65)
Hero (SB) ($36.10)
BB ($29.50)
UTG ($27.90)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, Q
3 folds, Button bets $0.75, Hero raises $2.90, 1 fold, Button raises $16.90 (All-In), Hero calls $14.65

Flop: ($35.55) 9, A, 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($35.55) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($35.55) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $35.55

Results:
Button had J, A (one pair, Aces).
Hero had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won $33.80

This really made me feel awesome. Even though I got in way ahead preflop, I feel like every card has been against me before tonight and this makes me confident this operation will go well .

Anyway, I'm sure there are several more interesting hands in terms of gameplay, but these are the two that stood out for me.

On to the results!

I ran amazing. Everything worked. Every move I made paid off.

621 Hands Played
$135.75 Profit
$72.70 EV Adjusted
89.34 BB / 100

I've never really looked at my stats before, but here they are:
28% VPIP 22.1% PFR 8.7% 3Bet

I'm really excited now, hopefully this run keeps up!!!

Hey dude gl! Make sure you figure out your HUD before you sit back down again, as that can really screw you. It's fun to run good though, amirite? Keep following solid BRM and you'll be just fine.

GL dude! Always nice to get started off on the right foot.

Make sure to remember how good it feels now and recall that when variance rears it's fugly head. Helps get through those times. :P

Session 2: Crash and Burn

Well, that didn't last long.

As much as everything went right last night, everything went wrong this morning. 75% of it was me playing absolutely AWFUL. After yesterday I wanted to go on a huge run, and when my borderline hands were getting raised I didn't fold when I knew I should. Just played awful.

This was compounded by getting outdrawn holding a set and opponent called down and hit a flush, as well as losing QQ vs JJ preflop.

Here is the hand where I had a set:

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (4 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($25.15)
Hero (BB) ($23.70)
UTG ($27.20)
Button ($12.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2, 2
UTG bets $0.75, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.60) 2, 4, K (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: ($1.60) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $1, UTG raises $2.50, Hero raises $5.25, UTG calls $3.75

River: ($14.10) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $6.25, Hero calls $6.25

Total pot: $26.60

Results:
Hero had 2, 2 (three of a kind, twos).
UTG had A, K (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: UTG won $25.35

Here is a really bad played hand representitive of my play today:

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($26.40)
UTG ($55.80)
MP ($37.85)
Hero (CO) ($24.65)
Button ($47.20)
SB ($35.05)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, J
2 folds, Hero bets $0.75, 1 fold, SB calls $0.65, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.75) 2, 6, K (2 players)
SB bets $1, Hero raises $3, SB calls $2

Turn: ($7.75) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.75, SB raises $31.30 (All-In), Hero calls $18.15 (All-In)

River: ($49.55) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $49.55

Results:
SB had Q, K (one pair, Kings).
Hero had K, J (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $57.50

This hand, lol, this is represnetative of how I played all day. "BUT I HAZ SOUL READ111!!! CALLL!" This hand is wrong on so many levels. Obviously, at .25, a check raise after a check call represents huge strength. The fact that he over pushed gave me enough room to convince myself I can call here. Awful.

Leak #1: Convincing myself to call huge pots in awful situaitons for no reason other than I would feel sad to fold.

Let's get to the dreadful stats:

Hands: 611
Profit: -$127.10
EV Adjusted: -$99.27
BB/100: -83.21

I wish I could call this variance, but I just played awful. I need to slow down and make good decisions or this will continue to go downhill and fast. I got off to a good start last night and I have squandered it, so now I have to work even harder. Can't let bad play happen again.

Session 3: No Comment

Stats:
Hands: 572
Profit -$44.00
Adjusted -$12.04
BB/100: -30.82

Sigh....

Despair already.

Every decision I make ends up producing bad results. I dunno...

Edit: I played better in this third session than in my second session, but I ran kinda bad. Still, a lot of it is my fault. Almost every big pot I lost was because I tried to play a big hand sneaky and ended up getting stacked by an even bigger hand that hits the river.

I am playing back at raises too much, especially from out of position in the small blind and big blind.

I will try and fix these things for next session, but I am feeling very down. This swing from a 5 buy in surge to a 7 buy in massacre has rattled me a bit.

I played a large session and got killed again. Im losing more than 50 BB / 100 hands over a 2,500 hand period....

Would I even run that bad if I open shoved every hand?

I think I might stop playing now.

Edit: im not rly losing that much but im losing huge. i dunno what 2 do.

Move down to 10nl ffs.

Well yeah, now I -have- to move down. I am taking a few days off now... I have class anyway, but still.

I dunno what to think of this. I wish I had a long history of stats to fall back on, but I don't. I really have never felt like I play a losing strategy at all, but the evidence is starting to pile up...

Can someone who is actually good at Pokers look at my positional stats and tell me if there is a glaring reason ive dropped immense buy ins within 24 hours?

You're a little too loose it seems. Tighten up to 22/18ish and you should be alright. Tighten up in EP and maybe MP and you should be fine.

Your WTSD% seems high and ur W$SD% is meh. ITs a really small sample, but maybe ur taking too many weak hands to showdown?

I think, being as objective as I can, that it is a combination that I've played a handful of top pair / 2nd kicker hands wayyyyyyyyy way wayyyyyyyyy wayyyy too far into the pot given how tight everyone at these tables has been playing.

That has definitely been a part of it. As I said earlier in the thread, I felt like I was not folding enough, and if you think so too then that is probably the problem.

I also just think I've been coolered a shitload for so few hands. It seems like every time I pick up 99-JJ I'm folding after getting 3 bet and missing the flop.

I shoved over one player's 3 bet twice with QQ and both times he had KK and held.

I stacked off 33355 vs 55533 when maybe I could have just called, but I am always worried about losing value by fearing the cooler.... this, in particular, seems like a difficult aspect of poker for me to master.

These are the biggest pots ive lost:
QQ vs KK pre -$25
QQ vs KK pre -$25
KJ vs AA after the board came 7KK3A AI on river -25$
A7 vs 55 on a 5QAKA board SB vs BB -$25
KJ vs KQ on a King high board, opponent also had flush draw -$25
53 vs 55 on a 37K53 board -25$
A8 vs AQ on AQ8 flop -$25
AJs vs ?? on a TQxx board, 2 spades -$20 (folded river)
AA vs TT all in on xxT flop -$20
QQ vs JJ (suckout obv) all in pre-$20
AK vs 55 -$15 all in pre
AK vs 22 -$15 all in pre

Most the other hands I lost seemed to be kind of calling on a flop then folding the turn when i shoulda just folded flop, betting draws that dont come through, betting top pair and it gets killed by a higher card later...

Thanks for ur help Dranger!