Reboot

First let me thank all of the FTR members for the hours and thought they put into this site. It truly is a very cool thing that you guys do for us microdonks.

I have finally admitted to myself I suck at poker. I thought I knew a lot about the game when I signed up on here only to find out I hadn't even scratched the surface. I have had HEM a little over 2 months and have just now hit 16,000 cash game hands and 9,000 tourn hands. I know this is a small sample but it has shown me quite a few leaks in almost every part of my game. I am so glad I got that program as I would not even grasp the scope of my problems without it.

My first operation was called 100-1k by the end of the year starting with 50 on Stars and 50 on Tilt (lofy aspirations for a beginner) I got that up to about 280 and started spewing money at 10NL. I managed to only lose 5 buyins but my play was enough for me to know I need to go back down and rebuild my game where it will be cheaper. If I did it once I should be able to do it again, right? So I waited until I got my sign on bonus from Stars (DoNs for the last 1/4) and withdrew everything except 50 on Starts and like 34 on Tilt.

Things I want to practice/learn at 2NL:
1. Preflop positional play
Pretty much build a basic starting hand strategy based on postion that I can profitably. Learn to open/tighten that range based off of table dynamic. I have a chart from Coderedz that I will be using as my building block. I also need to work on my VPIP/PFR (19/10) and my call 3bet (62%) is just insane.

2. Bet sizing:
My bet sizing needs major work. PFR sizing to start. I have now started using the 4x+1 strat recently. It seems to be working well I have also been lowering that to 3x when the table gets four or less players. I try to leave at that point a lot but sometimes I like to stick around and work on some SH play. I will also need tackle bet sizing postflop as well and not bloating the pot when my hand does not justify it.

3. Planning my hand
I need to have a plan for my hands and a purpose with every action I take. If I cannot not tell myself why I did something then WTF was I doing it for.

4. Hand Ranging
Someone posted "If you are not assigning you oop ranges and winning then you are just getting lucky" This really got me thinking. When I put someone on a hand I find myself looking at only a small part of someones range and that is not working so hot. My plan there is to just post ranges for every hand I post and the reasons for why I took my actions vs that range and hope that they get corrected. If I cannot provide this information then I really don't see any point in posting the hand.

On Tilt I plan to play SnG's. I do well in those and have a pretty good ROI (37%) but that is only over 100 tourns so big deal. Sharkscope has me at like 24% but that is only over 1000. Plus I have had two pretty good MTT FT cashes which I am sure have greatly affected my stats. I will be posting tourn also to get some advice from the regs.

I started this on Monday and have done ok so far:
Stars- 63
Tilt- 49

Later I will be posting some of my hands from 2NL so far and also my stats from HEM for the previous 16000 hands. Hopefully some other major leaks will be spotted there as well.

Again, thanks to all who visit and help and hopefully I will be getting advice (and someday giving) well into the nosebleed limits.

Good luck man, learn lots.

Good to see you've acknowledged your leaks and decided to work on them. I'm sure you'll be able to fix them real easily. If you'd like, xpaand, you, and myself can do another sweat session. Let me know!

Good luck!

Sounds like you had a rough start to $10NL. I'm not going to be moving up until I'm well over $300 I think.

We gotta get sweating again. I've been so busy the last couple of weeks, but starting this Sunday, I should be good again to play a lot. We got some catching up to do!

Micro- Thanks man. Hopefully some good discussion comes out of it as well.

Boo- Time to fix those leaks now. I am def up for many more sweats with you guys. Let's try this weekend. And nice fucking job on your OP.

Xpaand- As always thanks for the support. It was a bad start but it had more to do with my play than anything so we will see what happens next time I get there. Nice job to you too sir. Your play has already seemed to increase dramatically since you started here.

Here is my stats for my games so far. I see the biggest leak, IMO, is my call 3bet%. Next would be the fact I am only winning under half of my showdowns. My SB VPIP may be an issue but I think that has to do with how many limpers come in ahead of me in the micros. Still maybe a leak however. Also wondering if my steal% and 3bet% are too high/low. Def appreciate other peoples thoughts on these or if there are any stats I am missing that may be helpful as well.

Really just stopping by for an update. I have not been running into any hands at 2NL that have given me trouble or me questioning what I should have done. I guess that is a good thing though. I am sure the ?'s will start rolling in at 5NL however. Playing position at 2NL seems to be enough to keep me out of any tough spots so far and the players are so horribly bad. Had QQ basically b2b last night and both hands two other people stacked off PF, both hands ended up being 4bet shoves by me. I was a little worried on both when A/K's hit the borad (although I did end up hitting trips on the river on both) but when hands showed they had 66,77,99,JJ. Haven't been playing too many SnG's on tilt but will prob put some in this weekend. I also played in the FTR 300 freeroll on Stars and made it to 19th of like 680something for a whopping 1.50. Whoo hoo, I'm rich bitch.

Going to the roller derby tonight to watch my friends sister play. It is hot bitches vs big dykes (not the official title but mine as well be) so not sure how much play will happen tonight.

Also been having a trying time at work b/c my company may not even be around in the next couple of months since the housing market is in the toilet but I got offered a job with growth potential for a dollar/hour loss to my current pay and I would now be working 40 hours/5 days instead of my current 48 hours/6 days. Ends justify the means though.


PS- 74
FT- 49

Nothing really new.... just posting some interesting links for myself.


FT- 70
PS - 75

Been playing more SnGs latley.

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...he-t77410.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ht-t85877.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ne-t85821.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...et-t85863.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...rt-t85822.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...aq-t15929.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...00-t85674.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ay-t82122.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...nl-t85893.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ts-t85911.html

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...tc-t75711.html

Fuck , I got a lot of reading to do.

Ok already typed all this shit out but internet froze up so get to do it all again.......

Made it out of 2NL today and may I never have to go back. Took about 5400 hands to get there.

In order from 1st post:
1. My call 3bet% is still too high (47%) but a lot better than than the 62% it was. So improvement but need to work harder on this. Lol @ trying to lower my VPIP/PFR from 19/10 since it is now 19/9.7. I know it is small sample so far but I am 18/9 for FR and 20/11 for 6max. I think this may be partly b/c of all the limping from other people at 2NL and partly because 40% of my hands are 6max. I forgot to add streal% to my stats but it 's 25.9%.

2. Bet sizing-- Still an area I need to improve on but seem to be doing a bit better. I am also losing some value on the river on hands where I have a good (not great) chance of having the best hand. Too scared to open betting back up to be knocked off my hand or V-towning myself.

3. Doing a lot better planning my hand.. although I do have my moments of horible planning still. Realizing if I don't plan on calling a turn bet from an aggressive player there is no real reason to call the flop with marginal hands and things like that. Getting paid more on my sets. Need more work on betting flop/turn to commit people to river shove when my hand warrents it. And for god sakes when there is an easy str8 and flush on the board be carefull with QQ+.

4. ahhhhh my old friend ranging. I still find myself doing very basic hand ranging. i.e. TP, 2pr, FD, Str8 draw etc. I am not narrowing range down street by street and still finding myself calling down when I know I am most likley beat. Maybe drop down to 2 tables while I work on that at 5nl. But I am getting better at putting them on the exact hand they have me beat with as I make the hero call. He's got 2pr...fold...but maybe he doesn't...no he's got it....FUCK THAT I WILL NOT BE BLUFFED AND DON"T YOU OTHERS FORGET IT....damnit he had 2 pr.

Some things I did not have in my OP but found I improved:

Table selection and moving. I am donig a good job of moving tables when fish leave or i tightens up a lot. For the most part have been staying at tables with 35%+ VPIP. Also finding that it is much easier to get money out of fish if they have not seen you play a lot of hands yet.

Quitting when I am not playing well or not concentrating. I had a real problem chasing losses and found in this run at 2nl the most I lost in a session was 1.5 BI's where before there were many -4-6 BI sessions. It has def been a trying month since I gave my notice at my current job of 7 years and start another one on the 22nd and my current job is always a shitty day at work.


Almost done-I promise.

Also a big props to spoon for getting my ass in the IRC and helping me out with some books I had questions on.

As far as the SnG's on FT I have hit the most unbelievable run of jack and shit.
From 5/25-6/7 had 100% roi and 75% ITM (only 20 tourn)
From 6/7 to now -47% roi and 20% ITM (30 torun)
I know this is not many but FUCK.

The only positive is over the full 140 tourn played since March (I obv don't play too many any more) I have 30.7% roi and 47.1% ITM. Just gotta play thorugh and keep on keepin on. Playing in the 3a Gauntlent tomorrow so it will be interesting to play against actual good players. I tried to make a deposit strictly for all 10 tourneys in it but Stars is having retard problems so hopefully they get that fixed before those tournaments start taking a heavy toll on my BR as I am not sure how I will fare against the regs.

PS- 101
FT- 51

Think I will get in some SnG's tonight and start the 5NL tomorrow.

From Rakebackpros (which I totally forgot the I signed up with 3 months ago to try and get rakeback):

Hi Full Tilt Player,
You are now eligible to receive rakeback on all of your future play at Full Tilt Poker.


Well shit.... should I leave the fish at PS to get Rakeback on FT. Decisions, decisioins. I guess I don't play a whole lot of hands/week and at 5NL I don't know how much Rakeback really helps.... then again 27% of a little is more still more than nothing. Hmmmmm.....


Oh yeah.... +2.5 BI's in 800 hands from 5NL yesterday. (Gauntlet and PS freeroll took up a lot of time and nothing but points to show for it) Should have been more though. Played a low PP UTG+1 very badly with ~175bb EF. stack. Got leveled for open limping 55 there in the IRC. Bet sizing seemed good to get 100bbs vs MP min raiser but horrible for that extra bit. Need to work on that. Tried a little 2NL 6max vs Stax, Shifubowa, and Gala... (or rather crashed their party) and found out how fully glad I am that I do not have to deal with players such as these on a day to day basis. I have never been 3/4/5bet so much in my whole life. Bad table selection by me IMO. Stax on my right and the other two on my left.... destined for disaster.

Shit...they gave you Rakeback!?!?! I'm still waiting on mine! I would stay at Pokerstars though. Remember the rake is a lot lower there...especially at the nanostakes.

Congratulations on moving up to 5NL. I feel a sweat coming rather soon (perhaps this week). We'll get the ball rolling on that. Good job with the Reboot buddy!

WOW, I have not done anything since June 15th..WTF. MY new job has turned me into somewhat of a weekend warrior. I think this is a combination of a new job, I still go into my old job after work and make sure everything is running ok (I basically did everything there and it is a lot for the new girl to handle), and the fact that I am actually happy when I get off of work and don't look at poker as one of my only outs to get out of that old hellhole.

Ok, back to the poker:

I deposited some money in my account to play in the gauntlet. With my winnings there and my winnings from 5NL I have moved to 10NL. It is going much smoother this time. I think this is because I am now looking at the money as BBs instead of actual dollar amounts. As far as the tourn part on FT I have run into the biggest losing streak I have ever encountered. I went from 51 down to 28 over the past 3 weeks. After FT gave me rakeback I started playing 2NL on it and have got that back up to 51 again. I think I will continue with cash games until that is up around 100 or so and then try the SnGs again.

Over 8700 hands in this operation on PS I am running 17 BB/100. Hopefully this will continue this way. I am about to start my session for today so hopefully some post worthy hands will happen.