The King of Micros: Lemon's 3 Week BR Challenge

OOps I pasted the wrong hand, I'll send the correct one later where I folded 2nd set on river

Basically snowie shows you which betsizing it'd choose for it's range as a whole
And then EV for larger sizings with your particular hand

Flop IP when you get called you can basically go with 50%+ PSB and check the hand
Or just cbet close to 100% of your range and bet much smaller like I did it's something Pio does and just is really hard to play against in your opponent's shoes

Playing with a madman
Poker Stars $0.08/$0.16 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

CO: $39.51
BTN: $8.94
SB: $16.00
BB: $19.09
Hero (UTG): $16.00
MP: $23.68

Pre Flop: ($0.24) Hero is UTG with J Q
Hero calls $0.16, MP raises to $0.96, 4 folds, Hero calls $0.80

Flop: ($2.16) 9 Q 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $1.44, Hero calls $1.44

Turn: ($5.04) T (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $3.68, Hero calls $3.68

River: ($12.40) J (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Final Pot: $12.40
Hero shows J Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
MP mucks A 2
Hero wins $11.84
(Rake: $0.56)

Okay here's the fold
Poker Stars $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players -

MP: $10.00 - VPIP: 15, PFR: 10, 3B: 3, AF: 8,0, Hands: 214
Hero (CO): $10.45

BTN: $10.00 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 16, 3B: 7, AF: 2,9, Hands: 464
SB: $8.05 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0,0, Hands: 5
BB: $11.58 - VPIP: 28, PFR: 22, 3B: 15, AF: 3,5, Hands: 64
UTG: $10.31 - VPIP: 33, PFR: 13, 3B: 0, AF: 3,0, Hands: 24

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with 8 8
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.39, BTN calls $0.39, SB calls $0.34, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.29

Flop: ($1.66) 6 4 A (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($1.66) 8 (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $1.40, BTN calls $1.40, SB folds, UTG folds

River: ($4.46) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.83, BTN raises to $6.50, Hero folds

Final Pot: $10.12
BTN wins $9.66
(Rake: $0.46)

Hello boys
I've managed to put in 6 hours in tuesday 8 hours in yesterday and 4 hours today.
BR is at $560 ish
I kinda predict I'll end my challenge at around 6bb/100...again just like my 40k hand challenge few months back ♦

I really just reinforced the belief that at NL16 and lower the mental game especially is the most important factor (along with maximising value vs fun players as I advised in Mozzek's coaching - if you play NL5 and lower that's what should be your primary focus). The biggest issue with regs is that they often just have complete outliers in their ranges that shouldn't be there because of getting bored, pissed at other players or because they are just curious. And I must admit because of the lower $ value and overconfidence I'm used to I kind of fell in the same trap often with a lot of loose calls... And bluffs that'd be correct and higher stakes and good in terms of optimal play...but preety bad in terms of playing vs the NL10 population. Along with getting tilted when these hands I'd never include in people's ranges actually beat me, and it can't be easy for you guys either as often it's just impossible to understand why a person plays a hand the way they do. In all honesty I was actually shouting at the screen today when I lost about 5 stacks in a row to hands people just shouldn't have.

Having said that I think it's really good for me as a coach to actually try the modern day to day grind at NL5 and NL10 both regular tables and zoom starting from BR people play with at those stakes, as when you tune in to my coaching I will really understand how it is to grind these stakes day to day, how both rewarding and frustrating it can be - as let's face it, these days I'd say around 50%+ people you play against at even NL4 will actually be somewhat TAGish, probably with a hud, so when you tune in to my sessions you will not get some detached high stakes crusher telling you how easy it is at these stakes, but a realistic view and tips that will directly help you against people that buy in at those tables today, and tomorrow.

/end slightly drunk rant after a college music festival with my amazng girlfriend who's chatting with my sis' while I write to you guys Even microstakes grinders need to have some fun

Hi Nice Post
In my opinion this makes you very credible , nothing beats practising what you preach. I remember some time back a particular coach (not on pokerstrategy.com) was going to show the world how to beat the microstakes ,after 2 or 3 days he jumped from NL2 to NL10 having supposedly miraculously won enough to meet the higher BR requirements, on one of those tournament s with a jackpot. Grinding the microstakes is often difficult hard work(often boring work) requiring lots of discipline and patience . Needless to say that(so-called coach) defeated the object of the exercise and I stopped watching any of his youtube offerings.
Tmannie

Grinding the microstakes is often difficult hard work

I believe grinding higher stakes is even more dificult

Hi Speedfinat1c
Perhaps you are right.
tmannie

It's all relative isn't it
Well the thing is, as you get better and move up your skill increases and so does your oppositions.
So you might be facing similar challenges and the difficulty remains the same in your eyes as you move up in stakes.

It just takes difficult skill-sets really, where at microstakes you focus on playing fun players, with weird lines and your own mental game, the focus shifts more towards working on your technical game and ranges against regulars as you move up. (As first there's less fun players, and second, to have the same winrate you have at a lower stake you can play vs better players relatively speaking, as the relative rake is lower)
But you know, poker is poker, you will probably have a great time and get to downswings at all stakes you'll be grinding

A nifty call
had a tiny sample on him
Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2968168
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $10.00
UTG: $8.78
MP: $10.00
CO: $8.92
Hero (BTN): $10.05
SB: $11.53

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with 5 A
UTG raises to $0.20, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.20, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.55) 5 2 9 (2 players)
UTG bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.55) 3 (2 players)
UTG bets $0.70, Hero calls $0.70

River: ($2.95) 2 (2 players)
UTG bets $2.80, Hero calls $2.80

Final Pot: $8.55
UTG shows K 4 (a pair of Deuces)
Hero shows 5 A (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
Hero wins $8.17
(Rake: $0.38)

A hand I've seen before:

Where I saw him bet 50% with nuts pretty much
Plus the A5hh is a preety good hand to calldown as I don't block any flush draws, but now he can have only 3xAA combinations instead of 6 (a hand fun guy might consider strong and pot) and 1 combination of 55 instead of 3.

So that combined with the read that basically is just a small indication of how he plays made it a call, even though I had barely 15 hands on him, where my standard I'd recommend to you guys is to fold at NL10

Good luck with the challenge. Btw: are u bow playing more zoom or reg tables ?

Okay guys
3weeks is almost over
Tomorrow 20:00 CEST is our final coaching
Here's the graphs/results:
Bankroll with puny rakeback and promos went from $400 to$681

A freaking prophet huh? I did expect around 6bb/100 and so it was.

Actually the beginning was rough for me - it took a while to actually start caring, and I haven't been grinding longer hours during the summer much - there was just so much going on! So to start grinding at NL5 for the coaching and having swings and even a lot of losing sessions caught me off guard.

As to your question: Zoom or Reg tables? Well, I'd say hour wise more reg tables, volume wise Zoom tables, look yourself

That NL10Zoom was a cockup where I was trying to grind a bonus at Stars past my ending time and managed to bomb out 5Buy Ins in 15 minutes otherwise I'd be at 6bb/100 as well - What's 15 minutes my feet half way out the door to gym gonna do. Screw with my prescious NL10 Winrate, that's what ♦

I think the weirdest thing was NL10 Regular tables
I just couldn't win there - I mean -10BI in 2k hands is quite a bit
But turned out to be right on my average WR in the end

Now just to the gym, and record a video for tomorrow's session in coaching. I think it'll be better if i can review my own game as I did with the 3 community members before and scrutinise myself in the same way (as nobody plays perfectly in the heat of the battle)

I think it was definitely helpful for me to play these stakes somewhat seriously after a while (last time I just did it on fun stream during a challenge, before then years ago) and when you'll tune into my future coachings for NL2-NL10 players, you will know what I'm talking about when I talk about the current lowest stakes.

See you tomorrow guys!

How was your 4bet bluffing ? Rarely ?

You're gonna have to join our chat at https://www.twitch.tv/pokerstrategydotcom in a couple minutes to find out!