Mastering Dueling - A History of Future Pwnage

Note to Self:

Never pick your wife as the accountability partner, when she's the only reason that could make you not work.

Originally posted by AtrociousNightmare
Note to Self:

Never pick your wife as the accountability partner, when she's the only reason that could make you not work.

Don't blame me for your unwillingness to leave my side.

Originally posted by Aratal

Originally posted by AtrociousNightmare
Note to Self:

Never pick your wife as the accountability partner, when she's the only reason that could make you not work.

Don't blame me for your unwillingness to leave my side.
♠_love::heart:

Alright I'm back!
I'll have 2 posts since yesterday I skipped my theory session (that I will recover in 2 days).

This is from the 26/10/2013 session:

Besides rake killing me, I played mostly against one person which was a reg (a fishy reg).
The reason why I kept playing was that in a few showdown hands I figured out xyr play and tried to exploit it, all thx to the recent lessons I studied.

It felt amazing and I've never been so much in control before, in fact with the tight play I used to play on 6max I was always the victim of this.

Sadly I didn't see the hands I needed to empty xem and when xe started understanding that xe wasn't winning a single thing besides smaller coolers, xe just left.

Hands:
Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $58.31 (233.2 bb)
Hero (BB): $43.02 (172.1 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J K
SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.75, SB calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.50) 3 7 K (2 players)
Hero bets $2.25, SB calls $2.25

Turn: ($8) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $6, SB raises to $15.75, Hero folds

Results:

The big read was that xe was always donking Top Pair. If xe didn't donk, xe had something else.
Xe had 26% Check/Raise on Flop, which is big, but on the turn only 11(basically 2P+) and no info on 3b pots (except xe was raising my bet 14% on Flop).
If xe wanted to bluff xe usually would start on flop.
Due to these reasons, plus the fact that xe was playing FD passively, and a flush, a straight (yes I believe 54 was in xyr raise/call range PF, since I saw xem with T2o), two pairs and sets were all possible, I just folded.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $53.05 (212.2 bb)
Hero (BB): $40.07 (160.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K T
SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.75, SB calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.50) K 3 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, SB calls $2

Turn: ($7.50) A (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $3.50, Hero calls $3.50

River: ($14.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $13.75, Hero folds

Results:

Xe LOVED betting IP against my missed and I knew I didn't have 3 streets of value vs xyr range with the A there, so I decided for once to play a bit more tricky and turn my hand into a bluff catcher and re-evaluate on river.
Another read I had is that xyr bet sizes were basically all reads and xe bet close to pot only with big hands.
Given the A and flush all there, I just gave up.

I'll be posting about yesterday now.
Read thee anon!

27/10/2013:

Well, couldn't play too much due to RL emergency but I managed to pull off a couple of hours and found some funny sunday players.

Not much to say really.
The red line is huge because there was this one person calling a LOT on flop and turn but folding the river most of the time.
A bit annoying for when I had my hands (and I had some that day <3) but I can't really complain

Time to study now!
Read thee anon, Mortals!

Just finished Champions Part 5!

Learning new and effective things every day just rocks. Really. It feels good.
The student had some questions about paired boards, donk bets and 3 barrel spots that I have trouble with too sometimes, and it was great to see some review about it.

Btw a bit out of context, I want to add just even for the records some cool things I managed to add to my game in these days:

• Fixed Sizing problem vs Rake [my sizes were smaller than they should have been]
• Implemented dynamic sizing PF vs short stacks or heavy 3betters
• Implemented the 3 steps CBet thinking process from Rasko and is already second nature for me!

I did much more but for now these come to mind as very practical things to do on the tables.

Things I want to do:

• Be more strict on the fish restriction you put on yourself temporarily due to BR rebuilding
• Mark more hands, even small ones, during sessions, so that you can hand evaluate more effectively

That's all for today, folks!
Wish me luck for today's session and...

Read thee anon, Mortals!

YUCK.
I don't even want to go in depth with yesterday.

Summary: got fish for a while, they exploded me [pure EV % explosions] plus some lucky river where I was committed. Managed anyway to go back up.

Then this player comes.
Basically a non-aggressive-calling-station-maniac who also folded 0% to 3b and 4b, and 3b me almost 50% of the time.
I adapted quickly and pwned xem, except, every time xe would have died, xe won the 22% or whatever and got xyr stacks back like that.
My only fault was to play such a variance heavy guy, but yesterday was just simply ridicolous.
For 4 times I'd have killed it if it wasn't for explosions.
Xe was paying gutshots on turns for as much as 150bb, just saying.

And at the end xe got a streak of fullhouses against my straights or flushes and BOOM.

Fuck. Bad. Luck.

But don't worry you all, that EV line will have to reach me back. [and maybe it will do it when I'm on NL50]
MWUWHUWHUAHAUAHAHAHAHAH *evil laugh*

Now I go check my couple hand evaluations I posted and then I study.

Read thee anon, Mortals!

My ISP shut down internet for 2-3 days due to technical issues, right after I posted my blog post last time (indeed I couldn't finish studying my theory).

Well, I guess it's not all negative 'cos in this way I avoided any accidental tilt due to the terribad last session I had!

So wish me luck at the tables!
Gotta do some bureaucracy this morning, yuck.

Read thee Anon, Mortals!

31/10/2013:

Yey, I guess.
Not too happy about my game yesterday despite being up (and also exploding someone at coolers, recovering my multiple-stacks-below-EV status).
I'm not sure why, I was just out of it or at least not concentrated 100%.
Tried to pause, breath and stuff but nothing worked.

This morning you find me here very late 'cos yesterday was my favorite holiday! Halloweeeen Yey! And we went to a Black Sabbath tribute band concert to have some fun!

Hands:
Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $25.82 (103.3 bb)
Hero (SB): $25.48 (101.9 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q K
Hero raises to $0.75, BB raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) Q K A (2 players)
BB bets $2.50, Hero raises to $7.59, BB calls $5.09

Turn: ($19.68) J (2 players)
BB bets $8.50, Hero folds

Results:

Hands: 37
Style: Fish [with limps too]
3B: 16.7(18) [but with this included, it was tighter when I saw it]
BB 3B pot CB: 100(3)

I'd have gone broke on flop, but after the play xe pulled out I just didn't see how I could be ahead. AT+ beats me and I don't think xe 3b lower aces, nor that xe would play them like that postflop. As well as KJ or QJ. Xyr play felt like a FD or a T of some kind, they all beat me.
I took advantage of the donk and folded right away.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $42.97 (171.9 bb)
Hero (SB): $38.57 (154.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A 5
Hero raises to $0.75, BB raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.50) A 4 K (2 players)
BB bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

Turn: ($9.50) A (2 players)
BB bets $4.50, Hero calls $4.50

River: ($18.50) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $15.97, BB calls $15.97

Results:

Hands: 144
Profile: careful solid player
3B: 14.3
AF: 2.1
WTSD: 24
CBets F/T/R: 56/67/50 [more on 3b pots]

I'm still wondering if I have a turn raise for value here.
Due to not really drawy board and stack sizes I didn't want to isolate myself against better aces/KK and I didn't feel like a K would have called me, or at least not 2 streets.
I don't know...

Read thee anon, Mortals!

Due to my lazy ass, and this time it's all my fault, I woke up way too late and screwed up, now I can't study.

Failures: 1
Number of Acceptable Failures: 0

MEGA FAIL

Will not happen again.

Boooya!

I'm back.
Excuse me for the delay but I got more important things to do in these days.

First of all I wasn't slacking off.
Only 1 day went off due to my favorite once-a-year event which was also the first time I got to participate with my wife!

Second, I didn't really have time to write on blog because I was working and studying too much, which sounds silly but hey it's true.

I JUST finished all the Champions Stand Up One More Time Than The Rest series.

I also had 2 more terribad days on the tables which I suffered a bit emotionally but not too much. Now I'm rested from it.

Also, I looked at overall results and figured out, happily 'cos I was losing confidence, that most of my losses come from pure EV bad luck and absurd rake on NL25.
Now I'm not saying I was playing awesomely, 'cos obviously I don't know enough and I still make mistakes, but at least I know I'm not playing terribly enough to lose on the long run vs these fish.
I couldn't find any specific big leak that is plaguing me, and I think the reason why I'm losing this much other than those 2 reasons, is that I don't exploit enough.
I have to stop thinking that I absolutely can't bluff fish out of hands, because in some spots, you can.

I was even oversimplifying Gordon's simple approach

I changed my schedule from being strictly 3 hours study in the morning and 5 hours practice during afternoon into a more balanced one, weighing instead more on the theoretical part, because I need to realize that despite needing money more than anything right now, I still am a beginner in HU and without having the possibility to play a limit smaller than 25, I NEED to be more prepared whenever I play.

I'm still practicing at the very least 2 hours a day tho, even for rank reasons. [rakeback is very important with how much I lose with rake]

I added 2 players to analyze and I'll do it tomorrow 'cos I gotta practice now.
Wish me Luck!

Read thee anon, Mortals!

04/11/2013:

Mistake of the day: remaining vs a reg because the very 1st hand xe got some blinds in a bad way, and felt like recovering them and then go away.

A LEAK TO FIX

It's not the first time it happens and I've got to STOP.
Especially with my current BR.

Apart from that, at the end I won xem but rake brought me down in any case.

Other than that, I'm starting to see improvements for one of the 2 things I wanted to implement, which is marking more hands during play.
Also, I think I played very well yesterday.

Hands:
Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $38.92 (155.7 bb)
Hero (SB): $35.17 (140.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J K
Hero raises to $0.50, BB raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.75

Flop: ($4.50) J K T (2 players)
BB bets $3, Hero calls $3

Turn: ($10.50) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($10.50) 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB calls $6

Results:

Xe's the reg I played yesterday.
Steal: 97
3B: 23(98)
Generally, postflop xe didn't like to fold. But I didn't see a single showdown for 3B pots.
Following info is only for 3B Pots.
Flop CBet 100(9) , Turn only 20(5), where xe X/F X/C and X/R once each for (3) total hands.

I'm fairly sure my flop call is fine because any raise would put me through hell if villain 3bets [forcing my fold with a better hand often enough] or even if xe just calls because I have no idea what that means and any action on turn would commit me.

What about Turn and River?
I checked Turn to induce bluff [xe loves to bet vs missed aggression] and keep the pot low.

Since on R xe didn't show any strength I decided to make xem pay with AK/AJ/QQ [or even AT who knows] by vbetting low.

If I bet Turn xe might be folding what xe calls once on R as xe might expect a bet on R as well. Even psychologically speaking I think there's more of a chance xe thinks I might be bluffing more after checking behind Turn than otherwise.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $40.34 (161.4 bb)
Hero (BB): $37.77 (151.1 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K K
SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $2, SB calls $1.50

Flop: ($4) 8 3 T (2 players)
Hero bets $3, SB calls $3

Turn: ($10) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $7.50, SB calls $7.50

River: ($25) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

Results:

Same person.
ST: 97
Ft3B: 41(17)
On SR pots xe folds ~30% to CBet so yeah xe doesn't like to fold.
On 3B pots tho it grows to 50%(8), so I'd say xe's more careful with more money in. Xe also raises only 13%(8) on them so I expect xem to raise twopairs+ and be passive with the rest.

Knowing this, I usually would safely barrel 3 times (going towards a 60% bet/fold on river) yet on that R everything closed except FD, which will never call me, but there's a chance of it bluffing .
I'm not even sure an AT calls me there.
That's why I just checked(/call, depending on size tho).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $24.99 (100 bb)
Hero (BB): $33.50 (134 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T J
SB raises to $0.50, Hero calls $0.25

Flop: ($1) 4 Q T (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $0.75, Hero calls $0.75

Turn: ($2.50) J (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $1.75, Hero raises to $6, SB calls $4.25

River: ($14.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $9, SB calls $9

Results:

Same person.
I didn't know much about xem tho yet, it's an early hand.
If I knew xe opened 97% and folded ~40% to 3B, I'd have 3B JT preflop.
I think all I knew at the time is that xe likes to call and xe barrels a lot.

IMO standard call on Flop.
Raise for value and protection on Turn. Should I call if xe 3B(shove)? Given my Th I'd be more oriented for yes but generally I'd fold there, I don't see too many crazy shoves on such a turn, maybe KQ, but I was hoping to get called by that (and AQ).

On the Blank River I continue extracting value, but I should have bet smaller imo (/fold)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Continues on next post...

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $16.99 (68 bb)
Hero (BB): $59.12 (236.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q J
SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.50, SB calls $1.00

Flop: ($3) 2 9 J (2 players)
Hero bets $2, SB calls $2

Turn: ($7) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $4.25, SB calls $4.25

River: ($15.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $9.24, SB calls $9.24

Results:

Same person.
This is standard play for me.
Am I doing something wrong?
Sizes?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 2 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $49 (196 bb)
Hero (SB): $29 (116 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9 K
Hero raises to $0.50, BB raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.75

Flop: ($4.50) 8 6 7 (2 players)
BB bets $2.75, Hero calls $2.75

Turn: ($10) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $7, BB raises to $38, Hero calls $17 and is all-in

River: ($58) 5 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Same person.
Thought for a while about raising F here since xe liked CBetting 3B pots so much, but at the same time I had a good draw with overcards and I didn't want to waste it on the flop. On such a board I'm not ever expecting to be ahead if xe goes broke, and my draw is not THAT good (1 card OESD with a FD there and "low" overcards).

So I call, get my straight and expect to split vs xyr shove but surprise! Xe had shit.

Now I'll study some other Gordon's material and then I analyze an opponent. Then practice time!

Read thee anon, Mortals!

05/11/2013:

Well, and with this one I temporarily stop my HU career.
My bankroll went too much down and I don't feel safe anymore to play my best game.

I also got discouraged a bit from this seemingly unending downswing, and started screwing up a bit with my work ethic/schedule.
I'm almost 10 stacks under EV and I'd love to see some luck back while I switch to NL10 6max to easily build back some bankroll.

It will probably take some time and I will continue studying for HU meanwhile, so here I will probably post my progress with schedules, habits and theory in general but don't expect hands or anything like that.

On the bright side, at least my real life is rocking and I'm enjoying every day.
Did I mention my wife is awesome?

Read thee anon, Mortals.
Hopefully with better news.

Hey to you all my fellow mortals!
Just so you know, I'm not dead nor slacking off.

I'm crushing 6max NL10 with my new heads-up and general knowledge!
I'm not updating blog so much because it's outside of the HU subject and it's also pretty boring, not really a challenge at all.

Well, at least I'm building my BR back up faster than expected!
My winrate, despite still having a small sample for now, is almost 4 times better than the one I had when I was climbing up the limits ♦

Meanwhile I finished all Rasko's videos on ps.com and now studying all the new lessons from here and various small guides always from Rasko, but from his website.

I'm also planning to study 4 particular opponents I met on HU weeks ago.

See you all again when my BR is up for HU again!
Read thee anon, Mortals!

Just a post to show I'm not dead ♦

Studying a lot and basically finished (missing 1 that I'm gonna do right now) all the new batch of lessons from PS.com that I LOVED!

It didn't add too much to what I knew but I had an occasion to review some older yet important concepts and I still learnt new things especially on showdown notes and also more basic stuff that I was starting to drift away from.

In these days I'm finding a bit hard to wake up in time in the morning but everything else is fine and I'm working on it.

So, good progress so far!
On the tables, I'm moving my way back up and in 5 stacks I'll switch back to NL25! yey!

Read thee anon, Mortals!

Well, time to start posting again!
I found myself a bit too lazy in this grind-your-bankroll-back-up period and I've only been strict with practice time, not theory (not news huh).
Mainly 'cos I'm starting to just hate 6max.
HU is just so much more fun and so much faster to work on your game.

So even though I started this blog exclusively for HU, I guess there's no use in waiting for my bankroll to be that high again if I don't first start earning significant amounts in 6max.

And since I've been having some tough period on the tables (still earning but at a very slow pace), it's time to revolutionize!

Meanwhile, I finished studying every NL article on the website finally, and began this morning with the psychology ones.
I read in the past (now almost years ago) most of the early ones but I don't mind going through them again, in fact, I should.

After these ones, I'll finally be done with written articles and I can watch videos, coaching, and post more hands.
I CAN'T WAIT.

As for practical progress, I've been a winning player on NL25, not as much as I was hoping for tho, (around 3bb/100).
No doubts I had some pretty bad luck, and a sample of 50k hands is really not much, but I MUST have some leak that I can't see.

Possible doubts:
I get bluffed too much.
I'm too loose preflop vs fish and too tight post (I never pull off fancy bluffs vs them, and fold to most aggression).

Anyway, had a shot on NL50 in the last 3 days (bankroll is almost there) just on good tables (at least a fish on the immediate right, and nitty regs on left) whenever possible and I'm pretty happy.
I have a feeling I earn more there than on NL25 due to more possible leaks to be exploited by my bluffs instead of just waiting for good hands vs fish (only a feeling for now 'cos the sample is 3k hands, very small).
Problem is in the last 2 days I lost about 5 stacks (total) purely to EV suckouts and now I have to get my ass back over to NL25 and grind once again. (or start using the over 400 euros of rakeback I have hmm...)

So far since 2014 started, I earned less than half than I should have, according to EV. Ugh.

Summary and Conclusion (or TL;DR!):

• I will start posting again, even if not HU
• I will study psychology articles
• I will post hands on the forums
• I will NOT post graphs and results, as these short term things are starting to affect me too much and they are not important game-wise
• I'll try NL50 again as soon as I get the bankroll for it
• The EV god hates me, or is trying to tell me to work harder so that I won't bust on NL1000 HU in the future
  (I'll go with the latter)

Read thee anon, Mortals!

Went pretty well in these couple of days, and finally exploded someone, getting some EV back ♠_biggrin:

Had the occasion to take another shot at NL50 yesterday thx to very good tables and again I was pretty happy with how it played out.

Finished an article on psychology dealing with stop loss limits, and I was already using a 5 BI one, yet the article talks about table specific stop loss limit which I never implemented, and it's actually a good idea.

So,
new thing to implement in my game:
3 stacks stop-loss limit, table specific.

One thing I sucked at this morning was not waking up in time, so I did little for theory.

Read thee anon, Mortals!

Personal notes to improve from the 10 hands reviewed today:
Pay more attention even if they are very short and fish.
Plus you can fold even for small amounts if it's clear you are beat.
Get much tighter than you are used to on a limit like NL10 Zoom after their raises (if unknown).

Meanwhile if anyone is reading this:
I've had the worst downswing of my career so far and I'm back on NL10.
Analyzing every day to see if it really was downswing and so far, preeetty much.
I'm in great mood however (now, but I had to take some days off to cool down and be safe), and getting better and better with new implementations IRL too like exercising everyday, training brain, diminishing gaming, more time with wife... just great!
Those psychology articles rock btw.

Read thee anon, Mortals!