[Closed] Piraya's blog

Good luck with the blog from a fellow SSS. Hope all goes well with your 7th attempt with your poker journey ♦

Just remember to stick strictly to the SHC, read and re-read all the available articles, watch any videos yoou find appropriate and attend IngolPoker's twice weekly coachings.

Above all, make sure you apply strict bankroll management and you'll progress in a safe and profitable manner.

Sunday

Good morning, good evening or good [your local time greeting phrase].
I play NL10 on Full Tilt and I think it is hard to find good tables. I am happy if I sit down at a table with 2 other short stacks, but usually it is 3 or more. It does not have to be bad though. Some of them are still very loose and calls pre-flop all-ins with the worst ten hands.

I have just finished my 4th session with the Short Stack Strategy. So far I have had four losing sessions in a row. I am not sure why, but I really hope I can blame it on bad luck. It may be too early to analyze my hand that I have collected with Elephant. I have only played just over 1000 hands but I will post some stats here anyway.

I have played 1241 hands. My VP$IP is 6.9% and Preflop raise is 6.4%. In those hands I have lost 161.5 Big Blinds which equals -13.01BB/100 hands.

I have noticed that I have a hard time to follow the simple rules of the SSS. Sometime I want to limp in with ATs from the button when there are 4-5 other limpers and I have raised AJ in mid-position although I know it’s wrong. All those hands have had good outcome so far so it is hard not to do

Good morning piraya,

Although it might be tempting to play cards that aren't on the SHC, i highly recommend that you stick to it religiously. Although you might have had a little success with them at the moment, in the long term plan it is definately -EV.

As for your losing sessions, it is very unfortunate but you must be aware that occassionally your premium hands will get beat by suckouts occassionally but you will win more times than you will lose with them. Don't try to let it affect your mental thinking and dont be tempted to play non-SHC hands.

You will soon start making a profit if you follow my advice in post #2. Also after every session review the hands that you won money with as well as the hands you lost money with and make sure that they was played correctly pre- and post-flop. If you are unsure about any hands then just post them on the forum and we will help you as much as we can.

Sorry for the long post but i hope you find it useful.

Thank you for the reply. I will start to go through my hands asap, the big wins and the big losses. My biggest loss so far is with AA but I am pretty sure that I played it correct. Here it is:

0,05/0,1 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.60 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is BU with A♣, A♥
UTG+2 calls $0,10, 4 folds, Hero raises to $0,50, 2 folds, UTG+2 calls $0,40.

Flop: ($1,15) A♦, Q♥, T♦ (2 players)
UTG+2 bets $0,40, Hero raises to $1,90 (All-In), UTG+2 calls $1,50.

Turn: ($4,95) 7♠
River: ($4,95) K♠

Final Pot: $4,95

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows three of a kind, aces (Ac Ah)
UTG+2 shows a straight, ace high (7d Jd)

UTG+2 wins with a straight, ace high (7d Jd)

Yes that was definately played correctly. Good hand. That was a case where i mentioned about your best hand being sucked out on. Just keep your head up and know that 7/8 times out of ten you will win with that hand.

You played that hand correctly, you were overwhelming favourite right till the end. If you played that over and over you would win the vast majority of the time so dont get too upset over the one time you get sucked out.

If your VP$IP is 6.9% and PFR 6.4% then you are not doing too much wrong preflop, playing SSS it should be around 7%. 1200 hands isnt much of a sample though

good luck, hang in there and like the Bulldog says, stick exactly to SHC and keep reading articles

Now I am up at 2338 hands with 6.7% WP$IP and 6.3% Preflop raise whichi is ok I guess although there is a small gap. I have 12BB/100 hands, a total of 28$ but I have collected 15$ bonus so far and my bankroll is now at 44$. I guess my new poker career starts with a big downswing, I hope I can handle it.

Next step for me is to take a little break from the tables and review my game. See if I do something wrong. Then I will read the articles about outs, odds etc. I knew how to calculate them already but I guess abit of repetition wont hurt. I have not yet implemented the concept of odds into my game, and I dont feel that I have had the need of it yet because most hands I play are done before the flop. I will also try to attend some more coaching session beacuse I think they can be very helpfull.

I don't want to apply as much advanced techniques too early because I want to see if the basics can get me to break even atleast. So far I'm not impressed but I know I have played way too few hands to make a statement.

Here is the chart of the day:

I have also posted some hands in the "Sample Hands Short Stack Strategy" forum.

Thanks for the comments guys and I hope you will keep reading and help me improve.

hi ya Piraya,

I had a $30 downswing at the start of my SSS on Stars and it got me down for a bit, but after some advice from others i checked all my hands where i lost the most money to find any leaks and found i hade made a few mistakes with post flop play but the most of the loss was down to bad beats.
Although it sounds harsh, i just learned the hard way to accept things when they didn't go right as long as i knew that i had played the hand correctly. I also worked hard at cutting out my leaks and improving my game.
I know try to balance my learning with playing so that i play about 2/3rds and learn 1/3rd off the time i have available. I read and re-read articles until i know the subject off by heart and then try implementing 1 new thing at a time till i know it completely rather than learning too much at once and not remembering anything.

"LEARNING ONE THING REALLY WELL ALWAYS BEATS LEARNING A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING".

I thought you might find this an interesting read Piraya. I know it helped me.

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/others/26/

Thanks for the tip about the article, it will be helpfull.

Today I had my first winning session. I did not play long, about 350 hands and made 3.3$ (~10BB/100 hands). After four days using SSS I am now more used to it and I think I stick more and more to the strategy the more I play. I only played 2 or 3 of my hands bad, that I am aware of, but I will dig deeper into my hand history later.

Here are two of my hands I have posted:
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=28561
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=28562

Congratulations on the start of an hopeful upswing. Just try to keep calm and play good, solid SSS.

Hello. A little update. I have found out that the short stack strategy was obvious not made for me So I have decided to give the big stack strategy a try. This required a bigger bankroll than the 50$ i got from PS when I signed up. I had a few bucks here and there on different sites and I found some more stashed under my pillow. That means I know have a bankroll to play comfortably at NL10 with the BSS.

The main reason for changing strategy is that the SSS got so boring because most hands were over before the flop. I need a little bit more of a challenge to enjoy playing.

I have browsed trough all of the Big Stack articles that are acces for bronze members. And I have just moved up to Silver so I have even more to read.

Hi ya Piraya,

I totally understand what you're saying about the SSS. It is very robotic sometimes with the constant clicking of fold or check/fold at times and it can also be very boring, even with 6 tables open.
My eventual goal is to earn an decent second income from Poker or even go full-time so i need to eventually be playing at the higher limits so im in the dilemma of staying with SSS for a while or just move to BSS now rather than later.

Good luck with your journey and may the good luck on the felt be yours my friend.

I have been playing with the BSS for a few days now. It has been alot more fun than SSS and this morning I had a great session. I made about $30 in 300 hands. It's nice to finally see green colored bankroll instead of red I have decided to stick at NL10 for a while now and hope I can beat that limit.

This morning i sat down at a table with a real maniac on. A few hands in he said in the chat: 'From now on I will raise everyhand'. And so he did. I played really tight and I saw the pots grow very big, every single hand. He was in every one of them. I knew I could either win alot or lose alot if I played a hand so I waited and waited for a good hand to come before I joined.

After a while I lost my patience and when I got AQ in early position I decided to raise. Here's how the hand played. (SB was a real maniac)

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;SB$19,95:38/54 /41 /1,0/50 /100 /-/25 ;BB$3,15:36/33 /3 /3,0/30 /0 /-/67 ;Hero$20,00:///////;MP1$14,90:11/55 /9 /2,3/33 /0 /-/0 ;[/tg]
0,05/0,1 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.60 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with A♦, Q♥
Hero raises to $0,40, MP1 raises to $0,70, 4 folds, SB calls $0,65, BB calls $0,60, Hero calls $0,30.

Flop: ($2,80) J♠, 9♦, Q♠ (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $1,00, MP1 raises to $2,00, SB raises to $3,00, BB folds, Hero calls $2,00, MP1 calls $1,00.

Turn: ($11,80) 5♦ (3 players)
SB bets $4,00, Hero calls $4,00, MP1 raises to $11,20 (All-In), SB calls $7,20, Hero folds.

River: ($38,20) 3♠

Final Pot: $38,20

Results follow:
SB shows a pair of jacks (Ks Jh)
MP1 shows a pair of nines (7d 9h)

SB wins with a pair of jacks (Ks Jh)

I got scared because all of the raising/reraising. I had a decent hand and maybe I should have called the $7.20 to win $38.20. I would have won the hand (I know I should not think like that). It made me abit angry but I tried to stay calm.

A few hands later I was in middle position with 44 and the maniac ahead of me had raised 1$. Huge raise i tought to myself but I looked down the SHC and saw "Call 20":

Known players:
[tg]Position_Stack:hands/vp$ip/RaisePreflop/AF/WTS/ORL/BBvsSteal/W$SD;MP1$39,25:38/54 /41 /1,0/50 /100 /-/25 ;Hero$21,85:///////;[/tg]
0,05/0,1 No-Limit Hold'em (7 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: PokerStrategy Elephant 0.60 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 4♥, 4♣
MP1 raises to $1,00, MP2 folds, Hero calls $1,00, 4 folds.

Flop: ($2,00) 4♠, Q♦, 9♣ (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $1,00, MP1 calls $1,00.

Turn: ($4,00) K♥ (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $4,00, MP1 calls $4,00.

River: ($12,00) K♠ (2 players)
MP1 bets $6,00, Hero raises to $15,85 (All-In), MP1 calls $9,85.

Final Pot: $43,70

Results follow:
Hero shows a full-house, fours full of kings (4h 4c)
MP1 shows three of a kind, kings (Kd Th)

Hero wins with a full-house, fours full of kings (4h 4c)

After that I decided to leave the table. I could not handle it any longer. The maniac told me I was stupid to leave when I doubled up. That's just retarded he said. I think I was on the table for 10 min but it was alot of fun. And I think you can win alot of money from people like him if you stay calm and play solid poker. It has come to my attention how important table selection and position is. My next step is therfore to read an article about, yes, Table Selection.

Good luck at the tables!
// Piraya

Congratulations on your first efforts on the BSS @NL10. Just remember to keep learning and watching those videos if you can, even more so with a new strategy.

I saw you were concidering switching to BSS. I defenently think you should give it a try. It's alot more fun.

I haven't played much more today but I recenly finished downloading all the BSS bronze videos. Going to see them when my girlfriend falls asleep

Originally posted by piraya
I recenly finished downloading all the BSS bronze videos. Going to see them when my girlfriend falls asleep

Hope you enjoy watching all the videos Piraya. I watched a couple of them myself earlier this afternoon.

I reading all the bronze strategy for BSS at the minute so i think im gonna make the swap as there's not enough thinking involved for me when im playing SSS, even with 9 tables on the go ♦

Sunday update

Havent played much today, only 89 hands. Had a nice profit on them though, won 196.5 big blinds. 220BB/100 hands, imagine if it was possible in the long run I have alot of fun playing now there are so many bad people out there and I think my poker has improved alot the last few days. If i compare myself now to myself a few months back I am a completly different player. I now have the ability to fold the weaker hand thus I can minimize my losses.

Here is on of my hands from this morning:
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=28960

And a chart (Guess where I started with BSS):

I do not expect it to keep going like this but I will stay at these levels till I have atleast 25000 hands so I can see where I am heading. Even if my bankroll would support higher levels it is way too soon to say that I can beat this level.

I have almost played 7000 hands now on Full Til NL10. So far I have a break even with a little loss with SSS and a little win with BSS. The bonus at FT is cleared and I find the site quite hard so I am considering to change for a while. Not sure where to go though. I have an account on legato where I have a bonus to clear so I will probably play there for a while.

As for my gaming it has been up and down. I have to get rid of my bad patience. I have played enough hands to see that when my patience fails and I start to play wrong hands I lose. I am good at sticking to the SHC with a few exceptions but sometimes I just like to call post-flop without the proper odds. That is one of my main issues that I will have to work on.

Another problem is that I'm not fullt stimulated by the poker so I do other stuff while playing. Watching Poker After Dark, browsing the forums and studying are some of the things I do while I'm playing on six tables.

Here is one hand from todays session:

Known players:

[tg]Hero$21,25:///////;UTG+2$17,15:///////;MP2$27,95:///////;[/tg]
0,05/0,10 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)
Hand recorder used for this poker hand: Texas Grabem 1.9 by www.pokerstrategy.com.

Preflop: Hero is SB with K♣, A♣
UTG+2 calls, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 2 folds, Hero raises, BB folds, UTG+2 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 folds.

Flop: (47,00 SB) 6♥, 2♣, 6♣ (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG+2 calls, MP2 calls.

Turn: (68,50 BB) T♣ (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG+2 raises, MP2 folds, Hero calls.

River: (218,00 BB) 9♠

Final Pot: 218,00 BB

Results follow (highlight to see):
Hero shows [ Kc, Ac ]
UTG+2 shows [ 9c, Jc ]
Hero wins the pot ($34.70) with a flush, Ace high.

I also hit a straight flush and two four of a kind on the flops today. All of them within an hour. It is hard to extract any money from those hands I think. I do not know how to play the nuts when I hit them on the flop and no one has raised pre-flop. I usually slowplay or min-bet but most people fold instantly.

So far I am up $28 today. Very good session!