Yohans whinery

Will follow Gl sir

First of all: Spaxxan - welcome to my whinery. Come here to whine/brag/swear, or even read, whenever you feel like it.

Regarding FL, I am back in the drivers seat!

This doesn't mean I drive very well. The important thing is that I know how to, in principle. I've had, of lately, extreme problems with FL. See e.g. this thread: How do you cope?. The conclusion was to play very very little, and don't let it go to my head when finding out that I lose to somebody repeatedly drawing to bottom pair with 23 offsuit all the way to the river.

Another, very important, thing I've picked up lately is the attitude towards LAG play at the micros. LAG is right, TAG is too nitty - if you can play postflop. I just played my first session for a while at (VPIP/PFR/3B/AF/SD) of (45/33/15/2.2/67). This is not where I'd like to land, it's too extreme, but it is in the right direction. Such goofy stats, e.g. SD=67 are, of course, due to a shortish session.

I had average luck, and played some hands awfully and was still ahead at the end of the session. My hand reading is better than ever. (Hey, I'm comparing just with myself. Besides, bragging is allowed in a whinery!)

But, being an idiot, I had to call down every hand to get confirmation on my reads. Look here at an awful play: (UTG = calling station, HJ = TAG 4-betting 100%.). When he lead out on the turn after being passive, I was 95% sure he had 88. The other 5% was 4.9% AA and 0.1% 55. Anything else, he would have played aggressively on the flop. Clear fold. Therefore I raised on the turn ♦. (The pre-flop 3-bet is part of my intended LAGgy style. Surely, I have decent equity versus his isolation range. If I don't ,I still like him to understand that he is not supposed to steal my isolation opportunities.

Will not do that when I begin chasing my bonus at FT.

A better hand: Same fish as in the previous hand. He will draw to his pair with any 2 until the river. Then he is 100% sure to bet the river if I check. Bet-folding the river is not an option, as he delays his value raises with top pair and weak kicker until the river. If he has a weaker pair, he will raise it when he hits it.

/Johan =

Clear whining spot. My opponents played 100% tricky and trappy. Successfully so.

This dude surely thought he tricked me to the moon. He didn't because I was willing to go all the way at any point there. The turn check was to induce a river bluff, or a thin value bet from him.

Next hand:
Time for revenge! My turn to be tricky and trappy. Well, it doesn't actually matter what I do, since the money is going in anyway. I just hope to piss him off a bit ♦.

So much for my brilliant plans.

To the real whining: Why do these fuckers always get dealt NUTS?

/Johan =

I come here and whine whenever I get unlucky (or mess up, in which case I pretend it's all bad luck).

John Juanda, however, he needs more than a whinery. He needs a psychiatrist.

No!

He needs a team of psychiatrists.

(Ten minutes long, go to the last hand.)

/Johan =

Hey, where is my pot?

So, I'm in the process of clearing my $300 bonus at Full Tilt. It looks like it will cost me $1200-$2000 to clear it all.

/Johan =

Doh!

Plus minus zero after 8000 hands of FL 6 max $0.5/$1.0 at Full Tilt. Iv'e had a bad run for AA that evened out after 50 of them. Now I sometimes even win with them. Not so with KK though. They seem to like to make top full house versus four of a kind. It happened four times today. I don't lose very much if an A flop when I hold KK, but I never stop raising when I have top full. Well,..., maybe the fourth bet on the river doesn't go in. Some people say I overplay my top fulls. Bull shit! This isn't deep stack Omaha. If I can successfully value bet king high on the river, I can jam with top full, it's as simple as that.

Whining aside, when on tilt, you can pull off some hilarious bluffs you wouldn't dare (be stupid enough) trying when sane :f_cool:.

Note that I bet/floated, bluff-raised and finally river bluffed with total air. They guy folding had robbed me two hands before it with four of a kind versus my top full ♦.

This also serves to show one reason for why I'm not a big winning player. When I lose a big one (as a favorite), I usually lose a few more in succession being, shall we say, overly creative. Strangely, this does not happen in No Limit.

With the mandatory whining out of the way: On the bright side, the hand reading has improved considerably, and the reads of the opponents, and the adjustments to those reads :). Several extra pots have gone my way, and fewer bets have been lost. En example: I have 22 in HJ and faced a raise from UTG. A nit will toss it, a LAG will raise it. I called cold! Reason? There was a guy behind me playing 100% on the button. (Not 95%, 100% calls, no raises. Postflop he played fit/fold with an occasional bluff.) I was thus practically guaranteed at least a 4-way pot, probably 5-way, and maybe 6-way. The small blind 3-bet, the rest of us called, now 5-ways. The flop (small cards) was checked around, and the turn card was a deuce. Now the fireworks begin :f_biggrin:.

/Johan =

I need to share this with you. It will make you feel better. This is what kind of nice guy I am. I care about you :)!

Edit: Just so that you believe me and feel really good, here is one more :).

I had position on this dudah all in all 800 hands. I was down 90 BB once (to this player only). Finally, (3h later) I got even.

/Johan =

hey,my friend,didnt hear from you a long time...didnt notice this until now i seen this tread of yours

i seen that you play FL holdem,is that all you play??i play SNG and sometimes some MTT for smaller buyins,just for fun and to see if i can make any score

i will keep eye on this,and prolly post some of my hands,even i dont know how to post one

for start,i had on bubble some loose italian donk,and we were almost even,and he shoved into me,while i had A4s,and as he does that often(now i will hear people say how i let him to take chips when ever he wants,so its prolly good shove??)i called vs his 25..flop run 4K8A3...

HATE WHEN DONKEYS GET LUCKY!!!no matter what anyone says,how i will win in long run,i want my money now...period...not him later laughing in my face

i missguide you with another yohan,sorry

Hello janushr!

I play just about every game, except perhaps Badugi. The Fixed Limit Forum is a nice place to post hands for evaluation. The judges are great, and they don't mind a good discussion (and, they'll win ♦) if you happen to have an opposing opinion.

It is kind of ironic that I have my best results in games I don't try very hard at. No Limit and Tournaments just aren't my ballparks. Yet, the little money I have actually won comes from these categories. In FL, I'm a marginal loser, and at the moment I'm having trouble to see the awards awaiting for sharpening my skills in this game much further. There seems to be a much higher "leverage" at NL. I routinely beat the micro NL game, but the corresponding FL game is much tougher for me.

/Johan =

i dont post too much,esspecially hands,and only way is to talk perhapse,this posting isnt for me...

as for FL and NL,its my assimption that your style isnt appropriate for FL,perhepse you bluff enough,what can pass at NL,cause not everybody is light calling some deep situations,wich in contrary people do often at FL,chasing to river and simmilar,so you cant win by making them fold,that means that you need different hand range in FL and NL

just my opinion...

Nice Blog ♠_cool: ♠_cool:

I'll have to for the tenth time or so go from $2 to something I can actually play (and enjoy playing) for.

Last time I played, about half a year ago, I played with a load of beer in my belly. Fun, but not smart. I made a Fixed Limit Isildur. This means start with $XXX (like $150, don't remember exactly), play well, get insanely lucky, and go up quickly in limits within hours.

That part of making an Isildur is pretty easy. Just get insanely lucky if the play doesn't work.

The hard part is to quit. I mean, if I am keeping my own at the $0.5-$1.0 tables, it doesn't necessarily mean I should play $10-$20 heads up with beer (and now whisky too) in my system. But that's what I did. The $2 is what remains.

Playing $0.02-$0.04 isn't all that exciting, but it's probably good for me because I play horribly at the moment. Rusty. Every second hand or so, I'm close to biting my leg off. Missed value bets, spew, overly tight folds, loose payoffs, you name it.

Add to that that I hit plenty of sets against maniac opponents, then often look at a board like 9♥T♥J Q♥3 when holding 9♦9♣. In this spot Murphy's law says that if I wisely fold my hand to the two maniacs, they will split the pot, each holding two pair, whereas if I wisely call because the maniacs are maniacs, they hold the nut flush and a straight flush respectively. [Hey, that was the whining part :]. What else is a whinery for?]

A day or so more of this, and then I'll probably reload. The $2 is $5, and I'm 10 FPP from a $10 VPIP reward. But perhaps I shouldn't reload after all. I'm still too rusty. Some practice at $0.05-$0.10 might do me good.

/Johan =

Sigh...

Royal Straiht flush: A♣, K♣, Q♣, J :club:, T♣. Had the J in the hole. Am I called? No

Then shortstack in BB tourney with 9♠ 7♠. The flop is 8♠6 4♥, the river comes 5♠
Well, I did triple up - to 8 BB.

Hip Hip Horray!

So much for two straight flushes within an hour or two ♠_biggrin:

/Johan = ♦

Then, on the other hand, ...

PokerStars - $0.05/$0.10 (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 22.9 BB
UTG: 1.6 BB
MP: 15.3 BB
CO: 27 BB
Hero (BTN): 12 BB
SB: 15.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.2 BB, BB posts BB 0.5 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 0.7 BB) Hero has T♠ A♥

fold, fold, CO calls 0.5 BB, Hero raises to 1 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 0.5 BB

Flop: (2.7 BB, 2 players) 7♥ 2♥ 6♣
CO checks, Hero bets 0.5 BB, CO calls 0.5 BB

Turn: (3.7 BB, 2 players) 8♥
CO bets 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB

River: (5.7 BB, 2 players) T♥
CO bets 1 BB, Hero raises to 2 BB, CO raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 4 BB, CO calls 1 BB

But, I'm not whining that much. My $2 is now a healthy $40 (including a $10 VPIP thingie), in spite of losing $6 in 10 minutes playing heads up at $0.05/$0.10. As a matter of fact, I'm proud of that loss. Must be some sort of a world record for limit play:D.

/Johan =

Todays brilliance at the tables:

PokerStars - $0.05/$0.10 (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 28.4 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 44)
Hero (SB): 13.1 BB
BB: 35.6 BB (VPIP: 31.82, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
CO: 44.7 BB (VPIP: 51.28, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 40)

Hero posts SB 0.2 BB, BB posts BB 0.5 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 0.7 BB) Hero has 6♦ 5♦

fold, BTN calls 0.5 BB, Hero calls 0.3 BB, BB checks

Flop: (1.5 BB, 3 players) 7♦ 6♣ 9♠
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 0.5 BB, Hero raises to 1 BB, fold, BTN calls 0.5 BB

Turn: (3.5 BB, 2 players) 8♦
Hero bets 1 BB, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero calls 1 BB

River: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 4♦
Hero checks, BTN bets 1 BB, ...

A couple of hands later:

PokerStars - $0.05/$0.10 (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 21.3 BB (VPIP: 34.92, PFR: 12.70, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 63)
Hero (BB): 22.8 BB
BTN: 17.3 BB (VPIP: 90.91, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)

SB posts SB 0.2 BB, Hero posts BB 0.5 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 0.7 BB) Hero has 4♠ 8♦

BTN calls 0.5 BB, fold, Hero checks

Flop: (1.2 BB, 2 players) T♦ A♠ A♣
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (1.2 BB, 2 players) 4♦
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (1.2 BB, 2 players) T♣
Hero bets 1 BB, BTN calls 1 BB

Yup, the guy vs whom I won with the straight flush against was wise enough to call me down with 9 high.

The moral sense is that you should not play more tables than you can handle. In my case, this means no tables at all.

/Johan =

I posted three times, deleted it and still didn't know what to say, so fk it. nh. ♠_love: ♠_love:

It is my sad duty to tell you that I have nothing to whine about - at all, except for real life stuff, which is nothing to whine about, but rather to do something about. The $2 I started my latest FL journey with (a couple of blogs up) is now $107. Well, that includes $10 in VIPIP awards, and $20 transferred to a friend, so the account reads $87.

I'm going to employ sounder BR management than ever before. I require 1000BB -> $13 to go before I can level up to taking shots at a whopping $0.10/$0.20 ♦

One benefit of playing lower for a long time, while still developing your game, is that you will crush the level. This, in turn, means that the "downswings" will be few and short. I can honestly say that I do crush my current level. (6.9BB/100 since december 1) Hopefully, I'll still thoroughly beat the next level once I get there, while perhaps not crush it. I'll stay there as long as it takes to really crush that level too - provided I don't become "overrolled", in which case I'll take higher shots.

I don't play poker to earn money, I do it because it is a stimulating game. How much money you have won tells how stimulated you have been. I'm bad at handling frustration at the table, and I hope that fewer random downswings (through having a greater edge as per above) will help me enjoy the game better, thus improving it faster.

Last session was sick. Three tables, together 200 hands -> $10 (even misclicks worked in my favor)

/Johan = ♠_biggrin:

A somewhat failed bluff. Bon apetit!

PokerStars - $0.05/$0.10 (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: 6.3 BB
BTN: 35.1 BB
SB: 14.1 BB
Hero (BB): 31.2 BB
UTG: 92.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.2 BB, Hero posts BB 0.5 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 0.7 BB) Hero has T♦ 6♦

fold, CO raises to 1 BB, fold, SB calls 0.8 BB, Hero calls 0.5 BB

Flop: (3 BB, 3 players) 3♦ 9♣ 2♦
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets 0.5 BB, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero calls 0.5 BB

Turn: (4.5 BB, 3 players) 9♠
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets 1 BB, SB calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 2 BB, ...

I rarely bluff two players, and rarely on the turn. But this time, I thought a check-raise must be just so extremely convincing:

Nutted

Hello, I'm Yohan. Today we are going to learn how to play versus recreational players. In part one, we are going to have a look at how to extract maximum value from our hands.

Lesson one
There are two types of recreational players in the first lesson. On our right, we have the tighter version of the recreational player, commonly called the fish :f_eek:. On our left, we have the looser version, the calling station. Let's go to the live action:

Note here how our hero takes full advantage (well, that's what he thinks anyway) of a marginal situation, making sure that every bet goes in. The fish didn't donk (let alone check-raise, in which case we should run screaming from the table) the flop and the stations range is the same 80% as before the flop. Our hero should be marginally ahead. In either case, the magical card should hit on the river one in 20 times, so we are well motivated to bet on the turn.

Lesson two
In our next lesson, we are going to learn discipline. The recreational players are the same as in the first lesson. Now our hero has another very strong hand to open. Note that one player is sitting out, so our hand is well worth playing.

Well, we should be ahead about half of the time on the turn. We should prefer betting, initiative is worth a lot. Checking will just make the next decision harder. Are we prepared to call two big bets more for showdown? No! Besides, this one does fold on occasion to a turn bet. Just put the money in even if it hurts from past experience with this station. You put the money into the middle, he takes it out of there.

As we know, the calling station is usually more timid than the fish. The fish will invariably bet when we check to him, but the calling station might check back (approximately 0.7% of the times for this station so far, but when we have called his river bet with our bluff catchers (19 times), he has turned over a solid pair). So we fold - again.

That was the whining part. (Multiply the above with 3000 hands with similar outcome). Hope it pleased you.

Now, what to do about it?

The real lesson:
Three things:

1. The range of a typical 35/1 fish is extremely A-heavy. Always keep that in mind. Moreover, they love to wait until turn or even the river to launch their ace-rag missile to devastate you.
2. Calling stations are passive. It might be better to fire the second c-bet less frequently because they frequently check behind giving us a free card. One incentive to do that is that a second c-bet relies heavily on folding equity. Now think, ..., folding equity versus a station?
3. The calling station may or may not bluff as anyone else. But, remember, when the cards are out, chances that he has hit somewhere along the line are pretty big. Just stick to sound bluff catching, and don't try to read a bluff into everything, even if they have run you over for an hour taking every single pot you have contested. Keep your eyes open when others play and try to see whether the fish bluff on the river.

Feels better now - even if I'm down 50BB the last 300 hands and 150BB today. Think I found the mistakes of the past few days:f_biggrin:

Ok, lets get the whining out of the way.

Fixed Limit Holde'm is (unlike NL) about winning pots. When it comes to winning pots there is little (but still something) you can do about it versus decent opponents. Versus loose players there is absolutely nothing you can do to affect the number of pots you win, except for becoming a calling station yourself, in which case you will hit a river rat or two.

The exact outcome, of course, depends on how you play your hands. Every 20 hands or so, you can make a good move, netting you a BB extra (except when you lose the hand, in which case it costs you a BB extra). Nonetheless, the things you can control has money-wise little effect in any one session.

Thus, the decisive factor for determining your winnings over a session, week, month, and even year, is not how good you are, but how lucky you have been. You have control over the decimal places. Lady Luck controls the five most significant digits.

/************/

I know, skill will prevail, given a lifetime of poker. But it's wrong to present FL Hold'em as a rose garden. If you expect 2BB/100 hands, well, don't rely on poker for an income. Do the math and think about it too. Suppose you misclick once and lose a 16BB pot. That translates to 8*100 hands = 8 table-hours. These are the margins you have to live with.

/*********/

I've had what I perceive as a downswing. This means (at the 5c/Tc stakes which I still haven't left) that I was break even for 6-7000 hands. Sounds like (is) bragging, but I do crush 5c/Tc, so that not winning over a few k hands is a downswing. Yesterday, it turned around, and I was lucky and won 200BB. Still $10 more to go before I move up to 10c/20c which will be a relief. Remember, I started with $2

Today begun with a nightmarish session, which I terminated quickly to go here and whine. It's free at least.

/*********/

I had something positive and interesting to write too. I just can't remember a t m what it was