This time ... it didn´t work out!

Note that for SB winnings in tracker
-50bb/100 =breakeven as they count the blind
You don't need to cold call in sb almost at all expect for pairs, middling hands like JTs when you have a weak fun guy in the big blind and you want him into the pot, just 3bet everything else

Good point with fish
Often when they are short you want to just pot flop shove turn on drawy boards etc.
I use windows calculator all the time heh and I know even 10/20 crushers that still do haha

You don't have to bother 4bet bluffing much really at micros, just do it e.g. with A2s-A5s in late positions and nothing else and you'll do just fine at micros

Thank you for the advice Lemon. I dug a little deeper in the SB position and it might not be that bad actually. At the first glance it looks really bad but as you said, most of the time it counts just the blind which I had to give up with a bad hand. And as ben pointed out the hand sample might not be large enough yet for proper position analysis.

@ben002: the calculation of pot size development on later streets is not an issue of math for me. Usually I just forget to think about it and I end up on river with bad potsize. You know it is really basic math like, when I bet X, he has to call X, so to the pot will be Y and he will have Z behind. So just always remember to think about it.

@LemOn36: good point with the 4bet bluffs. Sometimes I feel the need to kinda level myself with other regs. Most of the time I play simple ABC solid value poker against fish because I have them on every table and they play every hand. But when a rare opportunity occurs when I actually play against a reg, I want to try out some things which I dont use against fish. Like 4bet bluffs, multiple bluff barrels, check/raise as a bluff etc. I always try to find a good spot for it, I dont do it just because I feel like it. But I feeld the need to try it sometimes because 1) it might be good for higher limits in the future, 2) it creates tougher spots which I can then analyze, 3) it feels good, 4) it keeps the fun in the game.

Today I had probably the craziest session so far. During the first few hands I got like 4 times AA and I lost 2 stacks against trash. But then I got some more AA and won over 2 stacks back Could have been like 6 BIs up this session. I guess running over EV is only for the chosen ones like ben002 A lot of action is out there on NL2 Pokerstars. The fish are crazy.

I attended the Pokerstrategys got talent earlier tonight and found out that fellow Czech grinder mozzek plays on Tigergaming. Which made me thinking, maybe I could move my bankroll there. You know the table selection is crazy on PS, the field is tougher. But then I installed the client at 10 pm and saw that only 9 tables of NL2 both SH and FR are active together. That is just too few so I will stay on Pokerstars for now.

Hi Dandiiik,

PS 2NL is FULL of fish... just mark the regs and avoid tables with a lot of those (I mark regs with a high 3 bet stat different than regs with a low 3 bet, the low guys are easy playable).

Everybody with say 39/28/... or 40/3/.. 9/6/.. or what ever crazy stats you'll see there is easy opponent.. Also 22/18/2 is fish I think now.

Hey RubbyDubby, thanks, any advice is appreciated. I actually already have a system of marking players. I mark maniacs, passive fish, loose aggressive players, TAGs, nits, loose passive players and weak regs. It helps me with table selection just as you said.

Status update:
This week I have been quite inactive in poker. It bugs me but hey as I said at the beginning, I dont want to overdo it now, poker is supposed be my hobby. I do hobbies in my free time and there hasnt been much of that this week. I played monday/tuesday. Then I had to prepare for an important client meeting at work which took a lot of my energy which I was then missing in the evening. And yesterday I spent the whole day at a music festival.

Anyway I have been active in the hand evaluation forum at least and did some studying in general. I am looking forward to the next 2 weeks because there will be 2 prolonged 5-day weekends for me. I intend to dedicate as much time to grinding as possible.

Actually the week hasnt been as much pokerfree as I stated above. On thursday I attended a home game with my colleagues at work. It was fun man We played cash game, equivalente of NL5. Most of them had played poker a few times in their lives and one colleague hadnt played it ever before. What do you think happened

The colleague who had never played before flopped a straight flush with K♥:J♥:, when the flop came Q♥:T♥:9♥:. My other poor colleague had A♥:Q♦: so she took his whole stack even though it was a sure thing she had something super strong. I was in this spot with T♠:9♠: with 2 pair and had to fold it OTF. Something stank there when he bet and she insta-raised.

The same colleague who lost with A♥:Q♦: was with me in another spot where I flopped set with 7♥:7♦: on a K♠:Q♦:7♣: kinda board. So I went for max value, I dont remember the action precisely but I think I was IP and he donked and I raised, he flatted. The T came A♠: and we went AI. What do you think he had? And what do you think came OTR?

Weekly report:

It is gonna be short today. I am gonna stay for a little while on NL2 I guess (like a decade or two). Variance is finally to normal and the fish beat my ass again. Or who is the fish actually? My 3bb/100 winrate is stunning

Hey everybody. This is sort of a psychological entry. My last post here was one of those classic afterbadsessionontilt posts 4k hands ago my short heater ended and the variance showed me its dark side and ..... I found out that it actually tilts me. I believe I have spewed a few stack just because I was like - damn that fish has it again but whatever (shove), or I dont believe he has it (call) even though I knew I was beat. Also after a few KK to AA, QQ to 33, aces cracked and other classic badbeat stuff I start to play careless.

Recently I read a book called Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, one of the leading experts on behavioral economy and decision making. The main topic of the book is the neverending struggle between our emotional and rational ourselves. He calls it System 1 (emotions) and System 2 (rationality). Me being tilted by some random badbeats and suckouts is a perfect example of this struggle. On rational level, I know it is a +EV move, I know in the longterm its gonna be profitable, I know it is an inseparable part of poker and its actually what makes it profitable, I know its gonna happen and it has to happen. But this is the time when emotions take over and my System 2 is powerless

So besides getting better in the game I have to focus on this issue, instead of 4bet bluffing etc., because it totally kills my winrate. Yesterday I made a progress, I got a few of them again but just smiled and played further. But its gonna be a looong loooong struggle

Btw.: I am finally silver so I can go through the Weazels 6max walkthrough videoseries. That is gonna be my number one learning material for at least the next month.

So I saw the first video of the Weazels series. Its about the basics of preflop game. I tried to apply it behind the tables:

Hi Dandiiik,

I really feel you with your spew-play-psych-error. I feel that that's also my most costly leak at the moment. Somehow there are always at least one or two hands each session where I do very stupid stuff while I know how stupid it is. Look at this shit for example:

It's really nothing out of the ordinary for me to make such kind of plays, which somehow sucks but also feels like a goldmine in the sense that it actually shouldn't be too difficult to fix this problem, as it doesn't require a lot of complicated theoretical study and only some discipline for constantly reminding myself to "NOT do stupid stuff !!".
My heater days also have ended and I am just a little bit above break even for my first 3k hands of NL5, while still being well above my yellow-line. I somehow like it, as playing poker feels a bit more "real" and "honest" now.

You are not really planning to give up on poker if you should bust out of some bad variance and occasional tilt?

Hey,

Originally posted by ben002
You are not really planning to give up on poker if you should bust out of some bad variance and occasional tilt?

Well for that I would have to lose another like 35 BIs, which could be devastating. But that is not going to happen because I have already given it up

Reason being not tilt or badbeats but the time one needs to play online poker. It is a rare commodity which I simply dont have. I thought it was doable with full time work and family life, but it is not. Back in the day when I was a student, it was totally different. But nowadays I spend 10 hours at work every day in front of a computer and then I would have to spend another few hours in front of the second screen at home. Add some personal life to that and other activities and I would need 30 hours a day at least. Not to mention the energy you need to stay focused and how energetic do you think I am before midnight? Poker is a great game, great hobby but if you do it seriously it consumes huge amount of time and the outcome is uncertain.

So I withdrew 90% of my bankroll and left a few dollars on Pokerstars on fooling around with VPIP 100. But I dont want to cut poker off entirely but online poker is not the way. I would rather play live home cash games, or even some live tournaments. You know, just casually, for fun.

I have given it another shot and I missed again. So this time...it didnt work out

Wow,

seems as if you have set the right priorities for your life!
Probably unlike most of us...

Sounds cheesy, but I really think your wife should be proud of you.
Wish you all the the best for the future!

Thx for the wishes.

Originally posted by ben002
Sounds cheesy, but I really think your wife should be proud of you.

I should introduce you and you can tell her that

I have been thinking about sticking to online poker even though I have decided to end it. But cash game is not the answer because of the reasons I explained above. So I have tried a few MTTs and SNGs and I kinda liked it. So I will try to play these now with some basic strategy, with no plan or goal for the future. Simply when I have a free time I will play a few tournaments.

There are a few advantages for me in tournaments. The strategy is not that tough as it is in cash game. Its more about preflop game so I dont have to put countless hours of off table study to play solid, at least a little solid. If I play solid I might hit a jackpot one day, who knows. That just cant happen in cash game. I dont need to focus as much Also I dont need to have a bankroll on pokerstars, I can instantly send a few bucks if I need to buy in.

Of course the disadvantages are that a large MTT can go for several hours and its more about variance especially in the later phases.

Will see how it goes. I have even made to my first final table in a 0,5$ 90man. I ended 6th after a lost AK to 99 coinflip and wound up with astonishing 2$ But its more about the feeling after leaving 84 players behind.