Ramble's Ramblings

I agree with the optimism returning.

This round of poker optimism will be based on more realistic goals now you are more experienced and concentrating on poker and not monetary gain. This is how I'm feeling right now.
I recently gave myself the challenge of starting right at the bottom at NL2.

I basically said to myself. "If you really love the game then do it properly and serve your apprenticeship, prove you can beat the lowest stakes before you move up". This I am now doing and am enjoying poker more than ever. I make $6 after a 2 hour session and am buzzing because it is 20bb/100 and not $6.

Bring back the optimism and enjoy

Originally posted by Ramble
I think my take-away looking back on the past year (the 1st post was November 2, 2013), is that you have to be realistic with yourself. You have to balance your expectations with the commitment you are willing to make. That is a much harder thing for most of us, then we are willing to admit. If you feel entitled to anything in this game, you are setting yourself up for a much harder journey and the inevitable struggles along the way are just going to be that much harder for you to work through.

If you can be honest with yourself about what poker really is for you and the level of effort you are willing to put towards that - you will be in a much better frame of mind to succeed.

This is really valuable advice for people in the process of starting out.

Expectations lead to pressure.. which can be a lethal combination when mixed with a sense of entitlement to 'deserve' to play at a higher stake.

It seems that you've achieved happiness in moving the gratification you get away from results and towards progression. I know you were always more focused on progress and enjoyment of the game than the average player, but you seem to have shifted even further over the past 5-6 months which is great. I don't know how anyone can deal with poker with a mindset different to this tbh.

Since October has basically been a write-off poker wise due all my travel and currently working 2 jobs until a replacement for my old job is found - I've decided to spend the last few remaining days of the month working on my game offline.

I've got a couple of areas that I want to review:

1) Have a fresh look at some of my ranges - Opening, Stealing, Defending, 3-Bet (Fold and Call), etc... These are of course dynamic based on table/opponent dynamics

2) My ITM play - This is something I have been meaning to do for a while now. I did it in great detail for bubble play and learned a lot about the dynamics with different stack set-ups there. I plan on doing the same type of analysis for ITM play to try and convert more 1st place finishes.

Also, I am thinking of joining the "Get Rich or Die Trying Challenge" - there are no time constraints so you are really just competing against yourself to accomplish a financial goal. Achieving a certain bankroll isn't really a goal of mine, but completing the challenge would be a nice milestone along the journey!

I will be getting much more volume in during November - so look to see some things happen there!

I'm going to start it at the beginning of next month

Good luck

Poker Stars, $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $2.87 (143.5 bb)
BB: $1.27 (63.5 bb)
UTG: $2.85 (142.5 bb)
MP: $2.22 (111 bb)
Hero (CO): $3.01 (150.5 bb)
BTN: $3.19 (159.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J J
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.06, BTN raises to $0.18, SB folds, BB calls $0.16, Hero calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.55) 7 8 8 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.42, BB folds, Hero calls $0.42

Turn: ($1.39) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.07, Hero folds

Results:

What would you do in this situation? I know it's cash game, but still ♠_rolleyes: ♠_rolleyes:

Only 15 hands on opponent and considering this is zoom, I can't really draw any conclusions.

The turn is really tricky for me IMO. I decided to fold because if I called and miss my draw then I'm going to be faced with an all-in most likely.

at the time I thought it's either x/c and call river or x/f. I don't know if he'd do that with 99 or TT or a lone A

thoyughts?

@Maythany I thought my response might get long so I replied to your hand in your blog thread.

Glad to see you are back to blogging!
Look forward to the future updates, especially about working on the game and observations about improvement along the way.

Originally posted by maythany
Poker Stars, $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $2.87 (143.5 bb)
BB: $1.27 (63.5 bb)
UTG: $2.85 (142.5 bb)
MP: $2.22 (111 bb)
Hero (CO): $3.01 (150.5 bb)
BTN: $3.19 (159.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J J
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.06, BTN raises to $0.18, SB folds, BB calls $0.16, Hero calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.55) 7 8 8 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.42, BB folds, Hero calls $0.42

Turn: ($1.39) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.07, Hero folds

Results:

Spoiler

$1.39 pot ($0.05 rake)
Final Board: 7 8 8 5
Hero mucked J J and lost (-$0.60 net)
BTN mucked and won $1.34 ($0.74 net)

What would you do in this situation? I know it's cash game, but still ♠_rolleyes: ♠_rolleyes:

Only 15 hands on opponent and considering this is zoom, I can't really draw any conclusions.

The turn is really tricky for me IMO. I decided to fold because if I called and miss my draw then I'm going to be faced with an all-in most likely.

at the time I thought it's either x/c and call river or x/f. I don't know if he'd do that with 99 or TT or a lone A

thoyughts?

I'm a Sit and Go player - I'm always shoving pre-flop!!!

I think this is a really tough hand... my initial thought is that I'm playing it the same as you until the turn, then I'm leading out about $0.80 as a weak semi-bluff. I'm giving up after that so likely same outcome as you, just a bit smaller bankroll for my next match...

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Glad to see you are back to blogging!
Look forward to the future updates, especially about working on the game and observations about improvement along the way.

Thanks very much - appreciate that you checked out my blog.

So Amaya's ownership of Pokerstars has resulted in some pretty drastic changes in the first year. Most are certainly not positive - the rake increases and the end of the Battle of the Planets promotion for SnG's announced today is certainly concerning.

Looking at the games I play at ($7 Turbo KO's), I estimate that the rake increase is equivalent to removing more than 1.4% from my expected ROI. That's significant enough to give pause.

Everybody plays at Pokerstars because of 3 reasons:
1) Volume
2) Software & Reputation
3) Good VIP System

The recent changes are eroding their VIP system and their reputation - the question is will this be enough to drive some of that volume elsewhere?

I've always been told the other sites are much softer, maybe it is worth moving to a softer site even if initially there is less volume. I think if that starts to happen and other rooms start to get a bit more volume, that will persuade more players to move over and the avalanche could start.

IvicaIliev77 and his brother have some interesting thoughts on the rake increases (and Amaya's changes in general) that they have posted in his thread.

we are getting screwed by the exchange rate...

since we play in USD and withdraw in CAD, we have to pay a 2.5% fee!

It's funny because I was seeing how much I would get compared to the one without the fee and it turns out I am paying 2.8% rather than 2.5%!

I feel really bad for the SNG players. You guys got the hit the hardest.

I'm hoping things won't go crazy for awhile.

Come and play some proper poker

This is going to be a quick one for sure since October was a complete write-off poker-wise:

Games Played: 44
ROI: -25.16
ITM: 31.8% (47.7% corrected for bounties)

Trying to cover 2 jobs at work and traveling a couple of weeks basically killed my volume this month. Enough whining - it's all +EV in the long term. I did get some study in the last few days of the month and refreshed many of my ranges - not much change really - more just ensuring that I am familiar and confident with that part of my game. More detail to come in a future post.

I just realized that it's been just over a year since I started playing poker again. Thought I would do an annual report (much briefer and not as witty as Tim64's).

I started playing again October 4th, 2013, so this is actually a month overdue, but since I barely played this October, I've just lumped it in for simplicity.

Games Played: 3817
Average Buy-in: $3.30 (roughly... I think)
Overall ROI: 3.27% (not including any bonuses - FDB, BOP, Stellar Rewards, etc...)
Broken Down by Games:

(Note: the 28 miscellaneous games are free-rolls or some micro buy-in tourneys during something like Micro-millions event).

(Care to take a guess when I started my coaching? ♦ - Thanks Alex)

Nice graph man!

Trend is definitely going up.
How about moving to 7s and then 15s soon?
Next 10k games will show you where you are at - believe you will have much higher ROI then 3% (would say doubled pre RB).

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Nice graph man!

Trend is definitely going up.
How about moving to 7s and then 15s soon?
Next 10k games will show you where you are at - believe you will have much higher ROI then 3% (would say doubled pre RB).

Thanks man - trying to get another fish at your tables? LOL

I'm playing $7's exclusively right now, not rolled for stab at $15's yet. Still lots of work to do on my game before moving up. The past week I've been working on analyzing the play of the "good" regs at my level as a large group - players that routinely make BOP leaderboards.

Specifically how their ranges adjust based on number of players remaining, and also by their position. The ranges being examined include opening, 3-betting, stealing, defending, etc... As well as c-betting and various folding frequencies.

Often times I find areas that I need to improve on, or areas where opponents are weak and exploitable (it surprises me how many good regs don't steal or defend very well). I also find that it helps me think about game-flow considerations that I may have missed.

Also if I see a good reg do something that seems to fall well outside of these ranges, then i can mark it and review later to see if I can understand why he did it. Was it the opponents stats/playstyle or was it the stack set-ups, etc?

No way! From your words you are too far from fish my friend
In fact I feel you moving up will just make things even more difficult. One more reg at the tables, lesser ROI long term, more time needed to study and pick up on all tendencies.

Are you doing 6 max STTs then?

I have 6 guys in my group who grind them. From 6 of them 4 are putting solid volume with results over 5%. There is definitely tendency that it is getting more reg infested but compared to 15s it is still much easier and ROI of 7%+ is very much achievable.

Think about if you want to play less stress and variable game (7s with higher ROI) or more improvement as a player with higher variance (15s).
This is why I play 30s along with 15s. It makes me still work hard on my game and improve. Eventually when I reach steady mid/high stakes with positive ROI, there will be no more discussions on what is more +EV in terms of hourly.

Please keep updating the blog, I look forward to your results and observations on 7s

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
No way! From your words you are too far from fish my friend
In fact I feel you moving up will just make things even more difficult. One more reg at the tables, lesser ROI long term, more time needed to study and pick up on all tendencies.

Are you doing 6 max STTs then?

Thanks for kind words.

No 6-max yet, I'm playing just 9-max Turbo KO's for now. Down the road I think 6-max is a very real possibility since with my life-commitments it would be easier for me to get in shorter sessions more frequently.

Originally posted by Ramble

Thanks for kind words.

No 6-max yet, I'm playing just 9-max Turbo KO's for now. Down the road I think 6-max is a very real possibility since with my life-commitments it would be easier for me to get in shorter sessions more frequently.

You welcome man

Didn't they announce rake increase in KO's as well?
6 max is good for shorter grind that is for sure but be prepared after 30s to face huge traffic issues. Right now you can play 100+ a day 30s, even more if you don't table select (I sit with minimum 3-4 regs per game, some of them come from 100s and 60s, some moved from 15s , some are standard regs on 30s).

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Didn't they announce rake increase in KO's as well?

They sure did. The $7.00's are going from ($5.24+$1.31+$0.45) to ($5.16+$1.29+$0.55). So removing 10 cents from each player from the start + 2 cents lost per bounty collected. It adds up.

At first I was a bit frustrated with this whole thing and the way it was communicated. I think Amaya/Pokerstars really need to take a Change Management course so they can learn how to communicate with their customers better. After a bit of reflection though, I might just as well get mad at McDonald's for raising the price of a Big Mac - it is what it is.

My real frustration comes from the unknown - will PokerStars leave Canada as they did with the 30 other 'grey markets'? So many analysts think they have to, and so far AmayaStars reassurances about other changes haven't really meant too much.

I'm lucky in that I play because I enjoy it - not because I need to make money from it. As long as I have a place to play and continue to grow as a player - the rest of it is just background noise.