KoningAlbert NL2 / NL5 ZOOM and occasional MTTs

I dropped 11, I repeat... 11 BI on 2NL. And I feel a bit ashamed again that I don't do better.

Try and think of it this way, being down more than me this month is a win. Yes you are loosing at poker, but you are winning at life

Don't take what I say to serious, we all in this together (all in, lol). I'm on a break atm, tilt has got me by the ballz. Trying to figure out somethings, the only poker I will play is freerollz and points tournaments until I am sure my issues are addressed or I'm at least on the right path to fixing them.

Why not take some time off and do something else to get your mind off poker.

I hope, that whenever I do hit some flops and some draws in the future, that the pokergods will be distributing all the money to me.

This will happen

Thanks Jiffy! It really helps when someone makes such comments. It helps to put things into perspective.
Sometimes I'm wondering whether I should continue playing. But then again, I really enjoy playing the game (for now)

Since I'm a father of 3, I always have to make choices on how to spend my time. If I want to play poker (and want to become better at it) you have to put in some time to analyse, read, ... the problem is that it will take time away from playing.
So my playing-reviewing ratio is pretty bad.

My goal is to eventually play NL25 comfortably, but I started about 2,5 months ago and I'm still stuck at NL2. I can see that I can win at NL2, but for some reason I start screwing things up when I've had a few nice winning sessions. It seems like I'm getting a bit cocky, thinking I can outplay every opponent every single hand; with obvious consequences.

Anyway I've taken a look at my stats. Can people help me out with what should be different, or what other stats I should be checking out?

My3bet call percentage is way too high... that I know, but everything else seems fine?

AFAICT your stats are solid. "Vs 3Bet Call" of 44% is a little high maybe, but not too far off. But I'm curious what the experts say about this.

If I want to play poker (and want to become better at it) you have to put in some time to analyse, read, ... the problem is that it will take time away from playing.
So my playing-reviewing ratio is pretty bad.

I'm in the same boat, I don't work on my game away from the table enough. And when I do put in some time to study, the results do show, I find it to be the most grindy part of poker.

Yup
Study is the hardest part of improving.

You never find the time, so all you can do is either take the time or make the time
By that I mean that you are taking time from some other +EV activity like playing, or making time available by shortening your normal downtime. Cutting down sleep is not recommended.

How to study?
I can read fast, and I'm easily distracted, so I prefer reading to watching videos.
When I watch a video, I'll get distracted and suddenly 5 minutes in I can't remember what has happened so far.
So I prefer reading.

Either method works, but to really make it stick, you have to do something with your new knowledge.
So a short study session, followed by a short playing session where you concentrate on what you just learned.

Oh -- and reading and replying to hand discussions is an excellent way to build skill...

Cheers,
VS

Pretty much every stat looks good!

Just need to up those river bets! 27% is pretty low. Easiest way to fix that is to start turning your absolute bottom of range non showdown hands into bluffs. People fold too much

Thanks for the replies!
@SiKWiThit, I will try to keep it in mind to take a stab at the pot on the river more often. What would be a good percentage?

Recently I have played some longer sessions. I've been trying out a different strategy.
Picking out better spots and being far more aggressive in them. This also means I've been changing my betsizes a lot, trying to get the money in when I think I've got the better hand, trying to play for full stacks.

The graph below shows the result, when I'm playing focussed and controlled. I've been running quite a bit above EV, but even then I would have made about 10BI. So it's mostly because I was playing quite well.

I do have to nuance this graph though, because I only started playing my A-game after I had played in a gambly mood. So in the end I have only made a profit of about 4BI. The reason why I'm posting the graph this way is because I've reviewed my playstyle before this phase and after, and they were totally different. It's more a reminder to myself of what I'm capable of when I do play the way I'm supposed to play. It should also teach me, I'm not supposed to play when I'm not in the right state of mind.

to show the difference in the way I've played, I'll post some example hands.

Example hands BAD session

Hand 1:

Hand 2

Hand 3:

Hand 4:

Hand 5:

I could show tons of more hands like these, in which I gambled or simply played badly. To sum up, I won few big pots, I lost al lot of stacks and smaller pots. leaving me with a loss of 10 to 11 BI.
I'm not proud of the way I was playing, on the contrary I'm showing this to be honest to myself.

Some of my A-game hands.
Most of these hands were played because I was playing against some sort of calling station. The hands in itself might not be the most optimal play in most cases, but I adjusted my play to player styles.

Hand 1

Hand 2:

Hand 3:

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Recently I have played some longer sessions. I've been trying out a different strategy.
Picking out better spots and being far more aggressive in them. This also means I've been changing my betsizes a lot, trying to get the money in when I think I've got the better hand, trying to play for full stacks.

The graph below shows the result, when I'm playing focussed and controlled. I've been running quite a bit above EV, but even then I would have made about 10BI. So it's mostly because I was playing quite well.

It looks like it's paying off.
I looked at some of the "bad" hands, and apart from being a touch too aggro, they're not all that bad.
Would you have considered them "bad" if you had won?

All the best,
VS

The first 3 hands are definitely played badly. At these stakes, this shouldn't happen. They will have nutsy hands 95% of the time. You should also avoid clashing with good regs if it were one, because it's usually not worth it.

For hands 4 and 5, you could say they aren't played too badly, but it's high variance and there are better spots to go for it.

The mistake in hand 4 lies in the preflop call, imo.

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
The mistake in hand 4 lies in the preflop call, imo.

Yeah that is an easy fold preflop vs a 3bet and for hand 5 you just can't risk an entire bi with 99 all in preflop, and if you pay atention you see his Squeeze is huge.
GL with the grind !

Some of the hands in the "bad session" arent so bad, i like a few of the plays and would be good with villain information. I mean the first hand with @kk happens , just unlucky villain could have FD or a OESD and just gambling as well.

As for the second grouping, I like with the @ak and @98 no slow playing, at these limits you need to play your strong hands fast..
How many hands of NL2 do you have played this year? and how are results?

keep grinding

Originally posted by mkBISCUIT
Some of the hands in the "bad session" arent so bad, i like a few of the plays and would be good with villain information. I mean the first hand with @kk happens , just unlucky villain could have FD or a OESD and just gambling as well.

I do think this is a reasonable play, but at these stakes they usually do not play their draws this aggressively, therefore I think that at NL2 this is a losing play in the long run.

As for the second grouping, I like with the @ak and @98 no slow playing, at these limits you need to play your strong hands fast..

I've come to notice that betting smaller on turn and river, usually doesn't pay off as much. When a person triple barrels, they do think their hand through a bit more, making them fold from time to time.

How many hands of NL2 do you have played this year? and how are results?

I've played about 50.000 at 4.8bb/100 at NL2
I'm sure I'm capable of doing a lot better, but I've been very inconsistent in my playing... a few bad days of "tilt" (losing 10-15BI for each of those days) have really affected my winrate. You can't really call it tilt though, because my bad play wasn't triggered by running badly perse.... It's just playing as a recreational player because you need to get your mind off things. So you could say I was just clicking buttons without really thinking things through.

anyway, I need to get some time and consistency in, I hope I will be able to move up to NL5 again soon.

I suggest coming up with a stop loss BI for the day, I think it will help with big losing days. Losing 2-3 not to bad losing 10-14 BI can be a months profit at any stake….

GL. 👍👍

As I mentioned earlier in my blog, I'm usually quite capable of stopping when things go bad... But that usually happens when I'm playing well and lose because of bad luck.

In these cases I shouldn't be playing in the first place, simply because my intention of playing is more to relax and gamble, rather than playing my best game...

Nonetheless, I need to work on it.

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've updated this blog, because there is nothing noteworthy to say.

BR-wise I'm not making any progress whatsoever. I haven't played any MTT's anymore, and for cashgame.... It seems like I'm struggling more than ever.

A while ago I dropped back playing NL2 and it didn't change anything, I couldn't win consistently, leaving me for a long stretch of being break-even. It felt like I've been clicking buttons, winning some, losing some, not making progress.... wondering where the problem lies (without putting time in to really find the reasons)... Anyway, I felt like I was a bit slave to the game.

Anyway, a few days ago, I had a terrible session on NL2 again. Every preflop raise got 3bet. when I started 4betting a bit more, I ran into even more problems... to me it also seemed like they hit everything and I didn't hit shit. I've noticed that at that point I'm not capable of playing smart, and I simply stop believing people really have a hand.

On NL2 zoom it's ridiculous to believe that they are all trying to outplay me, because it's always different people in different positions at the table. So it can't be some sort of conspiracy (which at some points I would be capable of believing). I don't know whether my text is making sense, but it's mentally very difficult to keep folding all the time...
The hardest part actually is, when you do hit a hand and even then you get raised... you know that all the signs are there that you are beat, but you call anyway, simply because you can't believe they are hitting their hands ALL the time.

OK, now that that is out, what happened after.

I decided to play back at NL5 (with a low bankroll). I know that this might be the worst idea ever. I know that all books and simple common sense says that you shouldn't be doing this. but let me explain and, to some extent defend, myself.
When playing NL2 I simply don't care enough about losing 2$. So moving to NL5 made me think through the hands twice, reconsidering, and making a logic decision. It's not that I'm playing with scared money (that wouldn't be good either), but knowing that I could easily bust my bankroll is a good motivator to play well.

result:
It's too early to say a lot about this, but a few notes:
- I've regained my pleasure in playing the game
- I ran 10BI under EV, and I didn't tilt.
- I got back some confidence.
- I like playing NL5 a lot more than playing NL2. I can't pinpoint it yet, but to me, the dynamics are completely different!

If I find some time later, I might post some interesting hands or a graph.

This was a tough hand to me.
Mostly I would call this sort of hand and run in a better pair. (This is where I think I lose a lot of money)
I still think it's painful and wonder whether it's the right choice.

Villain is unknown.

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $4.86 (97 bb)
MP: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO: $6.31 (126 bb)
BU (Hero): $27.03 (541 bb)
SB: $5.18 (104 bb)
BB: $11.52 (230 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with T♥ T♦
2 players fold, CO raises to $0.15, Hero 3-bets to $0.45, 1 fold, BB calls $0.40, CO calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.37) 7♣ 4♥ 3♦ (3 players)
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75, CO folds

Turn: ($2.87) 4♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1

River: ($4.87) 2♦ (2 players)
BB bets $3.83, BU (Hero) folds

villain is unknown. What do you think of this play?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $5.17 (103 bb)
MP: $5.08 (102 bb)
CO (Hero): $8.47 (169 bb)
BU: $5.45 (109 bb)
SB: $5.83 (117 bb)
BB: $3.93 (79 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with J♦ Q♣
2 players fold, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.35) 6♥ 2♣ 9♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.35) T♠ (2 players)
SB bets $0.23, Hero raises to $1, SB calls $0.77

River: ($2.35) 2♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks