Conehead - My Humble Poker Journey

Good Start to the blogging world sir! Get some pics/stories of cones in here!!!

Oh and get some threadsavers

Hah, I'll post stories if enough people ask, otherwise no point imo I'll be updating this daily. Making it a goal of mine.

♠_cool:

See you at NL200k

Cones FTW!

Y U no mention Romanian heritage?!

Originally posted by EmanuelC16
Cones FTW!

Y U no mention Romanian heritage?!

Because he's embarrassed?

hi mircea. this is mihai from fb. heplayer is my pokerstars username. ill be around here and maybe help u if i can. as i said cash games are not my thing but its still poker and i think i have a good perspective of it:)
so, have a nice ride to highstakes but get ready to adapt to a lot of changes:D

Because he's embarrassed?

Haha, nah, I just didn't feel it was very relevant.

So today's update. I'll start with some graphs and brief comments:

Today NL2 Zoom and Standard

Alright, so I mixed them up a bit today. I'll be sticking to standard cash tables for the time being, playing only one at once, then moving up to two at a time once I am confident I'm not making the same mistakes. The thing about this graph is that 80% of my Zoom play happened between 12 and 2am last night, and it wasn't exactly optimal But I needed to post it anyway to show where I'm starting from.

Today NL2 Cash Tables

At the standard tables I did much better. I switched to them after losing so much on Zoom, so I could take the time and think through each and every decision. It made for much better play Then at the end of the section I marked 'A', I made a rash mistake and it cost me more than a BI. I had AKo, raised the standard 6bb from UTG. The SB then raised me to 0.20, I raised him to 0.40, and he proceeded to shove. My logic was that I would have gotten it all in preflop anyway, so I called. He showed KK, and I didn't hit anything Link -> http://weaktight.com/5150572

After that I went on tilt, and started making the same mistakes I used to make. So my graph suffers pretty bad from that point onwards. An example of that tilt in action -> http://weaktight.com/5150577 I had stats on him and knew him to be loose, so I bet into him expecting him to fold (same old story). Guy had pocket Aces

Today NL2 Zoom

Zoom was a mistake. I played the majority of these hands last night, and didn't think any of them through. Well, I did, but I made the same mistakes I always do, and the graph illustrates that perfectly. I'm not touching zoom any more until I get my game under control.

Anyways. All is not lost ♦ Tomorrow will be much better, I can feel it. I am done with poker for the day, hence this post. I'll spend the rest of my time awake reading and watching videos, and playing with Equilab.

On the subject of reading, I read two articles on TAG fish that woke me up a bit last night before bed. These are http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/top-7-signs-youre-a-tag-fish and http://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/top-7-signs-youre-a-tag-fish . They are what inspired me to play standard tables and think through my actions, and I owe the positive chunk of my graph to them

I've been given homework by Emanuel to mark 50 hands this week and go through them on equilab and calculate what equity I would have vs opponents holding second pair w/ top kicker. So I'll do that and then report back here ♦

To finish off, here's a pretty interesting hand for your consideration (posted this in skype) that left me a bit in awe -> http://weaktight.com/5150267 I was 97% to win on the flop, and 86% on the turn.

Woo, first proper update! Making progress already

Thread saver - Interesting Pokerstars TV Commercial

Hi Mirceam94,

Good luck with your goals. Am subscribed and much like albionpro, I'm hoping for some good cone related pics/anecdotes!

I don't think at NL2, especially zoom that I'd want to go broke with AK for 100bb without a read that villain is going broke with worse. The 4bet shove there is very rarely going to be with worse than QQ.

I agree, though that it's a good idea to give the normal tables a go until you're more confident in your game. Tilt+Zoom =

As for the A♥K♥ flush hand, I personally would raise bigger on the flop (maybe to ~0.28), bet the turn, and as played angrily check/fold the river while shouting some obscenities at the poker gods.

Anyways, good luck at the tables and remember, cone pics ftw!

I'm hoping for some good cone related pics/anecdotes!

Do you know the story behind the references? It involves me with a traffic cone on my head while unconscious. I have fantastic friends. The other part of the story is that they almost left me with a hobo. Buttt, that's for another post

As for the A K flush hand

Yep, those were my thoughts afterwards. I wanted to be cool and slowplay, ended up letting them improve. Emanuel said the same thing.

So, update #2! It's been another long day Surpassed 2k hands today, 1,844 on standard tables and 270 dual tabling Zoom (I had too). Overall a bit swingy:

I went on tilt again where you see those first 3 big drops; made some bad calls + bluffed at NL2. Forgot you aren't supposed to bluff at NL2 Anyways. I stopped playing for a bit to get myself back to logic, then kept on playing. Hit a bit of a heater towards the end.

Something I forgot to mention in my last post is I've finally started using my HUD. I was playing with HEM2 before, and I've now switched to PT4 (I'll be buying it once my trial expires), and I've customized my HUD to display VI$IP, PFR, 3bet %, Fold to 3bet %, and Limp %. I actually use the stats Helps alot knowing who I can and can't cbet into, who I can steal blinds from, etc. Makes me feel way more informed than before. When the guy with 70/20 bets for 60% of the pot on something like 724 rainbow after calling my preflop raise, I know he's raising air

So that's been a huge help. Also, I didn't look at my graph at all today until about 3/4 of the way through playing. I was going to stop playing then, but I decided to aim for 2k hands and made it

During those last 300-400 hands when I was on my heater, I was quad tabling standard tables. Coincidence? Hopefully not ♦ I'm going to start tomorrow dual-tabling and then switch to 4 tables after warming up for a few minutes, to see if I get similar results. My thinking is that I play tighter since I see more hands anyway (after coming from 4 tabling zoom). It could be that, or I just subconsciously like having 4 tables open, ooorrr I was on a heater ♦ But it certainly was nice.

Now, some hands.

http://weaktight.com/5151846 -> This hand I got really, really lucky. Managed to hit a set on the river, beat his pocket Aces. My question for this is, should I have folded on the flop when he raised me?

http://weaktight.com/5151862 -> Again, got really lucky. AK, hit AA4 on the flop. Question is, is it okay to go all in preflop like that? I had stats on the guy, knew him to be quite loose/LAG-ey.

http://weaktight.com/5154810 -> Pocket AA again huh Just wanted to show this one off really. Although again, should I have folded on the flop after his raise? Not entirely sure how to play mid pocket pairs like this.

Thread saver

Commodore Vic-20. Sexy Sexy.

Hi there!

My 2 cents --->

I've customized my HUD to display...

I would also add:

• CBet Flop
• Fold to F CBet

By the way, seeing your blue line I'm wondering what is your WSD stat?

#1 hand:
First of all, preflop. Usually at micro-stakes people doesn't 3bet with poor hands. Did you have any reason to believe he was 3betting light?
If not he's probably 3betting with premium hands like: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs/o

So let's check in Equity Calculator (in PT4) your odds. Not good you have winning chance of 34%.

"My question for this is, should I have folded on the flop when he raised me?" --->
I have better question why did you donk bet there? Donk bets are not good strategy. Why?
Because if he has nothing he folds, if he has something he can slowplay or 3bet you in either case it's win-lose for him.

It's better to do check-raise if you want to 'build pot'.

#2 hand:
This is kinda light 3betting what you did there.
1) What was your reasoning of doing 3bet there?
2) Why did you call that all-in with good but not great hand like AJs? Did you really believe he has something worser? What?
Or did you think "f*** this I will call and see what he got"?

#3 hand:
It's duplicate of #1 hand.

Originally posted by gigenieks

#2 hand:
This is kinda light 3betting what you did there.
1) What was your reasoning of doing 3bet there?
2) Why did you call that all-in with good but not great hand like AJs? Did you really believe he has something worser? What?
Or did you think "f*** this I will call and see what he got"?

wasn't it AKs?

I would also add: CBet Flop Fold to F CBet

Literally was thinking of that this morning

By the way, seeing your blue line I'm wondering what is your WSD stat?

47.47 on Normal tables, and 75 on Zoom (both yesterday)

First of all, preflop. Usually at micro-stakes people doesn't 3bet with poor hands. Did you have any reason to believe he was 3betting light?

No, and good point. I definitely overplayed that hand. I should have check raised, and then folded to a 3bet from him.

It's better to do check-raise if you want to 'build pot'.

Did this a lot today, got pretty good results. Graph in a second ♦

Or did you think "f*** this I will call and see what he got"? #3 hand: It's duplicate of #1 hand.

I called with AKs... Top set top kicker. So yeah, wanted to see what he'd have Pretty sure he wouldn't have had better.

Sorry about the duplicate I tend to post the interesting hands in a poker group on skype while playing and keep the weaktight link, then find more when reviewing my session. Can't believe I didn't notice.

Anyways! Things appear to have changed a bit today:

Played 5-6 tables for about ~3 hours, then played 8 tables for another hour. (Approximate times) I check raised a lot more instead of just cbeting when I had something good, seems to have worked out, except my red line is devestating. Emanuel said it's because I was playing too many tables and I'm not ready yet, which makes sense. I'm going to play 4 tables for the next few hours, I'll post a secondary update later tonight, along with hands + articles Forgot to link to articles yesterday, I was reading while playing. I'll make up for it today.

WSD today is 62.75, VP$IP/PFR is 23.39/23.02

Thread saver time! I got complaints last time about the VIC-20 (Some people just don't get it..) so instead, here's Olivia Wilde. Quite the Olivia

Right, had a bit of a break in terms of blogging. Mostly because I was too embarrassed to show my graph

But! Things have improved even more. Mr. Mardy Bum and I had a sweat session, after which Manu offered one as well. They both showed me some solid new plays and gave really good advice, targeted my weaknesses and taught me how to get the most value out of my hands. So, I've improved significantly because of them both ♦

Evidence:

This isn't the whole thing, I ran really bad and resorted to my old style of play the day before this, but that part isn't too important. The first 1.5k~ hands were all me, made some bad calls where you see those major drops.

1.5k to about 2.4k~ish is Mardy watching me play and commenting. Then from 2.4k to around 2.8k I played by myself, then from 2.8k onwards to ~4k I had the sweat session with Manu. From that point onwards, smooth sailing ♦

I last played hands in this graph last night at around ~3am, and Mardy had the sweat session with me the previous day at midnight, Manu around 4am, so you can count just about the entire graph as being yesterdays' hands + 73 hands from this morning when I had a bit of a heater (up $3.75 in 73 hands ♦).

So I'm definitely beginning to put in some serious volume, ~5.8k hands in a single day. I'm quite comfortable playing 6 tables now, and I think I'll maintain that for the foreseeable future. If a freeroll is running I'll also have that open on my second monitor, although those tend to require minimal attention.

I don't have very many hands to post at this point, but I'll go through after my session today and grab some for my next update. I took some time this morning (couldn't fall asleep because of housemates, hence playing at 3am) to review my hands, and was baffled by the calls I had made in the past few days. Absolutely terrible calls ~60% of which were on tilt, but I didn't tilt at all after Mardy + Manu coached me, so things are looking good.

All in all I feel my game is as solid as ever. I actually know why I'm betting (value or fold equity!) and am raising much higher than before. I used to cbet 40%~ish, not it's 80-90% depending on what I flop. If I have the nuts and more than 30% of my stack is in the pot already, I'll shove the showdown now. Gotten a few calls, won 75% of the time ♦

Got it in 3-way this morning with AKo preflop, that was pretty sick. I'll post that Didn't get my entire stack in, but still, 0.75 a BI -> http://weaktight.com/5165026

I'm hoping for an all around positive update tonight, going to play some more right now and see if yesterday was only a fluke or not. Not taking into account the terrible start, I was up ~4.75BI

More Olivia Wild:

Someone's been pounding on the refresh button!

People must really like ONLY reading this blog.

Originally posted by Spungeh
People must really like ONLY reading this blog.

Or he is a Romanian computer programmer. ♦

I'm not sure I follow ♦

This ♠_cool:

can confirm they are all real visits.