Quote Originally Posted by zook
I've dropped about $10k from my peak bankroll about two months ago. I've always been a little bit skeptical of the people who talk about 20 buyin downswings like they're just part of poker, but I ain't no more. Some thoughts I have and lessons I've learned...

Damn, sorry to hear that. My BR just took a big hit too, but I kinda expected it at some point playing over my roll at 2/4 with only like 14 buyins. Back to 1/2 which is still fun but I reaaaallly want to move back up.

1) 2/4 and 3/6 6max at FT are tough games. El dee oh, but worth reiterating. There are very few big fish in the game right now. To make money you need to play disciplined poker, get good reads and be able to exploit them. My edge (and yes, I believe I still have one) comes in small and medium pots. It's VERY hard to win stacks right now unless you cooler someone or it's a 60/40ish situation.
Hmm. At Pokerstars I think there are a bunch of really good regs but I also noticed quite a few donators and really I feel that people are aggressively parting with stacks...I actually had someone call a river bet for half a stack on 3/6 with Sounds the opposite of FT to me.


2) The biggest leak in the midstakes player pool is loose calls. Again this is obvious (and probably true in most games), but worth mentioning because everyone thinks they need to start bluffing like crazy when they move up past 1/2. Bluffing is important against tight regulars who haven't seen you do anything spewy, but without a read or a good image, value betting is >>>.
I totally agree. The difference in my winning play vs. losing play is avoiding loose calls PF, not cbetting/bluffing too much (being a bit more conservative), and deciding to give up on hands before turn $$ goes in, which saves a looooot of money.



3) Light 3betting may be overrated. I'll get some shit for this one, but I'm honestly starting to believe it. And it's for one of the same reasons sauce gives FOR 3betting in his post-uigea strategy post: there's no 3betting hud stat yet. Since there's no hud stat, and 3betting is so common at these stakes, everyone assumes that every other regular is a light 3bettor (even ones with "tight" 18/16 stats).
I totally agree with you. If I'm newish to a table (less than 10 minutes) and someone pops a couple 3bets, I usually assume they are a loose 3better.

I think light 3 betters can do fantastic but it takes exceptional hand reading and experience, I'm just not as good as someone like sauce at playing these marginal situations.

I play very generic TAG with occasional tricky plays thrown in, and it seem that the real key for me is *playing disciplined poker*. More important than working on my 3betting range, bluffs, or whatever is playing consistent, disciplined poker making decisions properly in the situations I've been in hundreds of times. When I play disciplined, my profits just slowly climb. All it takes to get off track is one night tilting after some variance to throw my play off for a couple days or weeks. It just seems like there are a lot of good players now that know what to do in most situations and its coming down often to who can just be disciplined and avoid mistakes like loose calls...