Skyneti

- What do you sturggle with?
1.I play after 8h work, so if I have a bad day, I can loose bigger ammounts, which can steal most of my profit.

Hey Skyneti !

My name is Erik and I will be part of the coaching staff focusing on Tilt, A-Game, Mindset, and Lifecoaching. So if you have any questions I will have a thread up soon where you can easily let me know if you updated your thread with anything I might be able to help out with. I'll be trolling around the forums but just so i don't miss anything.

1. Playing after a long days work can be difficult to overcome. When you come home after work are you usually tired? Do you come home and just sit down and play? Do you have a warm-up routine before playing etc to make sure you are ready to play?

Good luck!

I don't have a warm-up routine, but generally I don't start to play, when I arrive home. It takes about 1.5-2 hours until I can start to play.

I also noticed, when I paly longer sessions than 2 hours, generally it doesn't really profitable at the end. (I am also playing chess in national first class team tournament, where I have to concentrate 4-5h for a game.) The fact, that the first 2h was profitable or not, doesn't really matter.

There is another issue here, which I have problem, which I also mentioned upper (when my opponent can fold?). But this came from self-confidence, which can prevent me to bloff or make a hero call. In this way my non-sdw can became to big. I realized, that in this way my play is not profitable. I well know this issue, so I already decided to use ensurance (give some bb for insurace company for self-confidence). Note that my EV was 4-5BI upper my normal winning in the last 5 month, so it also seemes a good investment.

Hey there Skyneti,

I used to be a programmer myself, so I can relate to you on those 8h work days ♦.

I want to help you solve this exact problem - improve the quality of your game.

Do you play only when you are fully energized/concentrated, or do you also play when you're tired? If you play tired/after a bad day to begin with, I can imagine that that doesn't affect your game very well.

If you want to play poker after the day job, I would recommend you to really find some good ways of recovery for yourself, as well as ways of building your energy.

The energy levels will depend a lot on your nutrition, hydration and amounts of exercise. The healthier you eat, the more hydrated you stay and the more you exercise (within reasonable limits), the more energy you should have ;).

You can try having a short (20-minute) power nap once you come home from work to recharge your batteries and prepare yourself for your poker session. You can also try taking a shower or going for a walk/jog (or doing some pushups) before it, as that will also enable you to improve your concentration during the session. I would really recommend you to get out of the house and away from the screens a little bit though, as your energy levels can be pretty low after 8-hours of time in front of a computer screen.

I do understand that you have long chess sessions, but during those you don't really have an opportunity to take a break, do you? Well, with poker it's different and I think that you should use that opportunity :). Do you take breaks during your poker sessions and during your work? If yes, how often do you take them, how long are they and what do you do during them?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon,

-Primož

I play almost every day (50-60K hand/month). I don't really have a strategy, that when I shouldn't play. The only thing that I did in the past, that if I felt myself tired, I watched rather some coaching videos and played less. But you have a point here, maybe I should skip some days, and don't play.

After I finish my work, it takes about 30-40 minutes to go home (10-15 min utes walk included). When I arrive home, I spend 1.5-2 hours with different issues. Maybe I have to find a good routine here to maximize my energy. Note that I never drink coffe or energy drinks (and I also don't plan it).

Taking break is a serious issue. Also during work I can't really know how should I do it, but this is another issue. In poker I mentioned, that I realized, thatI noticed, that I can't really make good profit after 2 hours. So In this month I decided to stop sessions after 2-2.5 hours. I also told this to some of my friends to really confirm this decision. I did it for half month, and then ... This month I have to try this break taking tactic again. I heard from lot of coatch, that when you fill, you can't play your game A, stop play, but when I fill this, that is already too late...

Hey again,

yep, taking a day off every 7-10 days might not be a bad idea at all ;). Especially when you're feeling burned out it's good to take some time off, socialize, relax, be away from computer screens, etc. - if you wan't to be fully energized, don't watch TV the whole day or play video games on a day off, because this won't help you a whole lot with your recovery. Try to be away from the screens as much as possible.

What are the "different issues" that you usually spend the 1.5-2h on after you come home :)? A power nap would do you very well during this time! (and it's really awesome that you never drink coffee/energy drinks ♠_thumbsup: ).

During the work, I recommend you to take a 15-minute break every 90-120 minutes. During these breaks, it's essential that you get away from the screens. You can call a friend, go for a short walk, walk around the office, go to the toilet, find some fresh air, talk to some co-workers about non-work stuff, etc.

How come that you only did the session breaks for half a month? What went wrong?

-Primož

When I arrive home, generally I have a rest, socialize, have a dinner. During winter session generally I spend this time at home. In summer I like to go to run or swim.

I checked the sessions length in last moth.
7. 4h session EV = -94$ (at 2h EV = 84$)
9. 8h long weekend session EV = 35$ (at 2h EV = -220$)
11. 4.5h session EV = -263$ (at 2h EV = -64$)
12. 4.5h session EV = -102$ (at 2h EV = -160$)
13. 5h session EV = -367$ (at 2h EV = -300$)
26. 5h (worst) session EV = -794$ (at 2h EV = -181$)
27. 5h session EV = -228$ (at 2h EV = -125$)

I think this clearly shows, that if I cut my sessions at 2h, I would be much profitable. Last month there were two issues, which made it hard to finish a session: 2nd week, I realized, that I can't play two full session, if I take a break, but after that week, I managed to solve this. And yes the brutal end of the month (you can also see this in my graph), that was beacuse of stupid stars milestone hunting ... (but I am not lucky enough to hit one).

Hey again,

from your conclusions it seems reasonable to try and cut the sessions at 2h then :). Let me know how it goes and if you should run into any problems!

-Primož

I will summerize my result in the end of the week, to see how it's going.

Now I would like to ask for help in another issue: Learning techniques and study problems

Before I go into details, I would like you tell a story from my life. I mentioned in my previous post, that I also play chess. I learned to play chess, when I was 5 years old. My parents brought me to a quiete good coach, and I became one of the best player in my age, when I became 9-10 yeras old. But 6-7 years later, I was almost nowhere. This doesn't mean I forgot to play chess or I didn't became better, but my age mates improved much faster. When I became more close to my coach level, I was improved very slow. After I became better than my coach, I had to learn alone, and ...

So I know my learning technique is not so good. I know that, and that's why I have a coatch in poker, too, who helep me really lot to go from NL10 to NL100. Hi is still much better player than I (he plays on NL200 with really good win rate), but I start to feel the same what happened on my chess carrier.

So it would be good to improve my learning technique (or maybe find another coatch). I used to watch PS videos, and try to get idea how to play, but often happens, that I try a new move, and it doesn't succeessed, and then I put it to back shelf, and don't use it. But most of the time I learn new, when I saw from another player and I try to use similar.

Can you give me tips, how can I improve my learning?

Hey,

hiring a new coach when you feel like you're on the level of your current one seems like a good idea :).

Well, if you try something out and it doesn't work once, it doesn't mean that it will never work. It's really to determine with a low sample size if something works or not. However, if you do find out that you are consistently losing money by doing something, or that you should be earning more in that spot, it might make sense to change something :).

To get some basic info on learning in poker, you can take a look at my Learning to learn video series, and we can move on from there :).

-Primož

Can I see some positional stats?

Position stats for all of my NL100 hands:

Last 20K:

Wow ep is super loose!

Did you see this weeks seminar? You're playing almost 50% more hands than I suggested.

You still are playing profitably, maybe go into some of the borderline
Hands and check in hen
If you are making money with them?

You're losing too much from the bb. Did you see the btn v bb discussion on the training materials board?

In my limit I can play on only those tables, where there are at least one fish on the table. So previously I played with all pp and all Axs (plus the range that you suggested), because those are profitable against a fish (even OOP). I know this is an exploitable range against regulars, but I let them exploit me, and get back more money from fishes. To give less space for exploition, nowdays I removed A6s-A9s from my range (you can see last 20K is tighter).
What do you think about this tactic?

I liked your idea, that you would have only 4-bet/fold range and no 4-bet/call range and call with all playable card, because I better like postflop play.

Yeah, I would definitely remove A6-A9 and even the A2-A5 I just think we have a very hard time to play these hands as they will be calling with strong range such as pairs, and broadways and often even if they miss they may have bdfd and 2 overcards and call and we start barreling, usually, with no equity.

Thanks for the explanation!

Originally posted by Skyneti
1.I don't have a warm-up routine.

2. I also noticed, when I paly longer sessions than 2 hours, generally it doesn't really profitable at the end.

3.But this came from self-confidence, which can prevent me to bloff or make a hero call. so I already decided to use ensurance

1. I highly recommend you to star using one. What you can do is to sit down with a session goal for every session. For example 3b defense and really focus on those spots away from the tables with studying it. And mark hands from the session and the review them later. This will have the benefit of yuo mentally preparing for the session, as well as keeping your focus away from results etc.

2. Try setting alarms that go off every 45-60m and try to take regular 3 minute breaks. Or more often if you play Zoom or speed poker. just to give your brain a rest and drink glass of water etc. If you do this you will notice that you can play longer than if you don't. Because you remove a lot of the accumulated emotion and information. Resetting you brain so to speak. Doing some push-ups mindfully, 3-5sec down inhale 3-5sec up exhale works well.

3. Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Be a bit more detailed and specific?

Cheers!

Some statistic, that I promised for this week:
date session length EV
02 79 +1
03 131 +224
04 143 +10
05 133 +140
06 97 +584
07 75 +198

Position stats (EP) for my NL100 carrier:
A2s-A5s: 223 hand EV=142$
A6s-A9s: 192 hand EV=-116$ (todo: remove from range)
22,33,44,55: 319 hand EV=183$
87s and smaller suited (gap) connectors: 522 hand EV=-481$ (huge leak: remove)
98s: 65 hand EV=280$
T9s, JTs, QTs, QJs: 181 hand EV=-389$ (you also suggested to play with these hand, but it seems these are not so profitable for me; do you think, that I should change the way as I play these hands, or remove from range?)
T9o, JTo, QTo, QJo: 618 hand EV=+84$ (really strange, that offsuit version profitable ... of cource against huge fishes)

3. Can you elaborate a bit more on this? Be a bit more detailed and specific?

In long sessions most probably it will happen, that I make a wrong hero call and my bloff is cought. And after some of these events I start to loose my self-confidence and in critical cases I will chosoe the safer (less money involved) solution, which kills my play. There two examles, the end of the hands are not important now:

1. Call or not call the river overbet? My opponent is a reg, with 31% c/r on flop and 54% WWSF and easily bloffs for stack. On flop the plan was 3 calls whatever happens. At river the case became complicated for my plan.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
SB: $100 (100 bb)
BB: $142.60 (142.6 bb)
UTG: $101 (101 bb)
MP: $232.47 (232.5 bb)
CO: $118.79 (118.8 bb)
Hero (BTN): $141.12 (141.1 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K♦ K♥
3 folds, Hero raises to $2, SB calls $1.50, BB folds

Flop: ($5) 4♥ 8♦ J♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3, SB raises to $10, Hero calls $7

Turn: ($25) 5♣ (2 players)
SB bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($55) 6♦ (2 players)
SB bets $73 and is all-in, Hero ?

2. Will my opponent fold? I block the nuts, and my opponent is a kind of nit player, so most probably have a set, 2 pairs or low flush (wouldn't call on flop and turn with draw or 1 pair).

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
MP: $119.54 (119.5 bb)
CO: $120.41 (120.4 bb)
BTN: $124.92 (124.9 bb)
SB: $90.44 (90.4 bb)
Hero (BB): $117.38 (117.4 bb)
UTG: $114.81 (114.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T♠ A♦
UTG folds, MP raises to $2, CO calls $2, BTN calls $2, SB calls $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($10) J♦ 7♦ 6♦ (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets $6, 2 folds, Hero raises to $18, MP folds, CO calls $12

Turn: ($46) K♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $30, CO calls $30

River: ($106) 2♠ (2 players)
Hero ?

I usually call the KK because seems like he wouldn't jam sets with this SPR and would maybe not even jam straights like this either.

Take a note.

AT, squeeze? Min raise potentially weak then lots of dead money behind.

I'd just give up on the river, could easily have a small flush or sets that are not folding, maybe KJdx. Don't think it gets through tbh.

Maybe is also not clear for you, what I mean on insurance. So now come the advertisement...

You could find it strange, that I wrote EV in all of my previous post for all statistics. This is because I will get exactly that amount using my insurence. Check my position statistics and see the difference between my EV and Net Won. That still doesn't contain this week, when I was again 5BI under EV. So for a small fee I got exacly the EV, which in my case is not small difference.

This is that I use:
InsuredPlay