[Poker Brothers] caltabiano's grinding + farming FTW!

10th of July - Caltabiano

What's up boys and girls? I admit I haven't been a very active poster in this blog.. shame on em But hey! Here's the thing. My girl's travelling today. She'll be gone for over 2 weeks. So what does that mean? Poker 24/7 of course!! I shall make a post in this blog EVERY SINGLE DAY for these two weeks. And in each post I shall analyse 1 interesting hand. I don't care if there are no interesting hnds to analyse, I'll find a way to make them interesting. So that's my commitment to this blog for these next days.

So, my adventure in ladbrokes has been neutral until now. I'm 3 stacks down or so... My EV line, however, doesn't think I should be...

I posted the graph in bb, since I'm mixing up US$ and Euro (don't know how to put the little sign). HEM is kinda messing things up because of that though, I believe. It says I'm $100 down, but I'm actually $150. So either that, or ladbrokes has been stealing from my account =P

I'll stop for now, BUT I'll be back tomorrow with a nice post in the end of the day. And I'm sure I'll coming baring great news, since tomorrow is fishy day

Here's the summary of ladbrokes till now:

Guess it'll be a little over 40k hands to release it. I'll try to make it by next sunday. Or rather, I WILL make it by next sunday

HEM takes Euro as $. So you actually lost 100E which should be close to 150$.

Never had such variance as on ladbrokes on any other site so far. Sessions go as far as +-10BI on NL25 cuz of insane fishes out there. Is NL50 the same ?

11th of July - caltabiano

Originally posted by BogdanDin7
HEM takes Euro as $. So you actually lost 100E which should be close to 150$.

Never had such variance as on ladbrokes on any other site so far. Sessions go as far as +-10BI on NL25 cuz of insane fishes out there. Is NL50 the same ?

Ohh, I get it. Well, makes sense I'll just keep checking my winrate in bb to see if I'm doing good.

Yeah, the traffic there is fishy as hell. The table averages are all around 30/10 and the like, lol. And somehow I'm managing to run pretty bad =/ I'm down 5BI over 14k hands. My EV owes me over 10BI though, lol. Lucky fish ♠_mad:

So today I played a crapload. 9,5h FTW =D I was 4 tabling, so that gave me 3k hands.

Graphic says I'm down $150 but it's actually $120 or so.
I'm not sure if it's possible to have a positive red line in ladbrokes, due to all the fish. I tried man, I really tried, only to see call downs that made no sense AT ALL. I'm now picking spots VERY VERY carefully to make moves.

As I promised, I said I'd analyse 1 hand every day for these two weeks, here's the first one:

This is pretty easy, we hit the flush, we have the nuts, everybody knows how to play the nuts. What if I hadn't hit the flush?

What if the river was the K instead? That'd be kind of tough, cause KT beats us here. I'd probably still call him, because I looke so much like we were chasing the flush and because I was really under the impression that he didn't give me ANY credit. So the pot would be pretty big for my little 2nd pair hand, but still it might be good, due to my history with this player. He had given up a bunch of hands, due to my being agressive. We must always be aware of our image at the table and notice how our opponents will react to that. We must always be one step ahead of our opponents and adapt to their adaptions. I'd have give my opponent more credit in this hand if I didn't believe that he didn't give me credit.

So that's it, I hope this has been of some use for somebody It was for me at least =D

And here's a funny misclick of mine:

I'll be back for more tomorrow with another 9.5h session =D Maybe the fish will start paying me back those 10BI they owe me ♠_cool:\

Cheers. Keep it real

nice

I just had to post this. Just started my session and this was my welcoming hand =D:

12th of July - caltabiano

:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

Oh boy, it feels good to run good again I feel like I DON'T KNOW! I FEEL GREAT! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ah. I'm in ecstasy.

Well, Variance was kind enough to give me back some 2 stacks or so. But She still owes me 10BI. I'll shall get that back this week
**EDIT: I had forgotten to mention: this is actually $500 up, because of the US$, Euro stuff.

I spent the weekend in my parents house. My day here was:
- Wake up
- Have breakfast
- Grind
- Work out
- Grind
- Have lunch
- Grind
- Clean the dogs' crap
- Grind
- Have dinner
- Grind

I played 9k hands this weekend and I have released 50% of my bonus so far. I'm pretty sure I'll have it all released by next sunday.

Enough nonsense, let's get to the chosen hand of the day:

Pretty standard hand until the turn. His raise kind of boggled me though. I cbet into 3opp. He's gotta give me a bunch of credit for that. I 2nd barrel and he raises me. I was like: "wtf... he's got 56". There are a bunch of combinations of 56 out there and only a few of 44 and 77.
6 combinations of sets and 16 combinations of straight. The numbers look pretty bad for us eh?
We had invested $14. So we'd have to invest another $36 and total pot would be something like $100.
Our equity versus his range is more than enough to call though. We have like 43% against a range of sets and straights. He can also have something like KcQc. So it's a pretty easy shove, unless we know he only raises a str8 here.

That's easy, but I'd like to focus on something else here. This is something I only realised after some time. I couldn't understand why the bollocks he folded after my raise.
I had shown a shitload of strength by cbetting into 3 opp and then 2nd barreling. But all of my 1 pair hands would probably fold to a raise. And this guy knows that. I mean, why the hell would he raise me there with a str8 or a set? He's got nothing to protect against. The only situation in protection makes some sense is when I have QQ and he has the str8. In this case, I've got 10 outs against him. But then again, my range is much wider than QQ.
If he had a monster here,he would never raise me. He'd let me kill myself. There's no point whatsoever in raising there. He'll just fold out a bunch of hands that he beats.
After thinking all this through, I realised that I shouldn't have shoved him. I should've called and checked to him on the river. All of his value raises will bet the river again and all of his bluff raises will ch behind, but would have folded to my shove. So there'd be no point in betting the river for value.

Comments are more than welcome always

Alright people, that'll be it for the day.

Tomorrow morning I'll change my schedule a bit. I usually make my study in the morning, but I gotta get rid of some old stuff tomorrow. Clothes, books, etc,. So afer breakfast I'll leave right away to do that. Then I'll come back to work out and start my poker time after lunch.

1 thing I realised today and I feel so much better after realising it: "DON'T GET OBSESSED WITH POKER." The fish will always be there for you. ALWAYS. For some time I wasn't living a healthy life due to being obsessed with grinding. But life comes before work.
Before realising this, I would've chosen not to work out tomorrow, in order to go and get rid of the clothes and books. But now that I realised it, I'm just gonna cut the time from my work time. What's the point of being your own boss if you can't allow yourself to work less when you need to anyway
I feel good about having realised this. It's gonna make my life alot healthier both phisically and mentaly. Especially mentaly.

Alright, cheers-o

cheers

Originally posted by caltabiano
After thinking all this through, I realised that I shouldn't have shoved him. I should've called and checked to him on the river. All of his value raises will bet the river again and all of his bluff raises will ch behind, but would have folded to my shove. So there'd be no point in betting the river for value.

Comments are more than welcome always

Here's my 2 cents:

I think shoving is the right move... u have to protect your hand from both 1 card straight and club flushs completing in the river.

Originally posted by VirtuaGod

Originally posted by caltabiano
After thinking all this through, I realised that I shouldn't have shoved him. I should've called and checked to him on the river. All of his value raises will bet the river again and all of his bluff raises will ch behind, but would have folded to my shove. So there'd be no point in betting the river for value.

Comments are more than welcome always

Here's my 2 cents:

I think shoving is the right move... u have to protect your hand from both 1 card straight and club flushs completing in the river.

That was my first thought as well. But here's the thing: What flush draw can he have? I have the Q :club:. The only reasonable picked up flush draws would be the ones with a TP on the flop. Stuff like QcJq, KcQc, QcTc... But I have them all blocked. So I think he next to never has a flush draw. As for 1 card straight draws, they're all gutshots, so they have very few outs against us. The only possible ones are 66 and 55. I think it's unlikely that he called my cbet with that. But he might have done it with the intention of bluffing me on the turn.

All in all, I think it's highly unlikely he holds either of these draws. The gutshot is more probable FWIW. But then it's just 4 outs against us

I don't know how ppl play at higher limits, but where i play A5 ( or even Q 5)whould be the cards i was afraid of, and in my micro micro limits that's pretty standart. The main thing is i would be afraid he held a 5 or the "Because it was suited" sh1t!! You're not being agressive enough throughout the hand to scare him. I guess he thought u were bluffing. Most people think that 1/2 pot means just standart CB with air.

Edit: Discussing strategy with a diamond... just LOL@me... well i join PS to learn:f_biggrin: and congrats on the shiny little thing

You're Diamond brother! High five!

And hey, stats for villain in QQ hand? You re-raise on turn should make him fold many hands that could pay you off shouldn't it? So I think ?I like the idea of calling him down to the river.

Originally posted by VirtuaGod
I don't know how ppl play at higher limits, but where i play A5 ( or even Q 5)whould be the cards i was afraid of, and in my micro micro limits that's pretty standart. The main thing is i would be afraid he held a 5 or the "Because it was suited" sh1t!! You're not being agressive enough throughout the hand to scare him. I guess he thought u were bluffing. Most people think that 1/2 pot means just standart CB with air.

Edit: Discussing strategy with a diamond... just LOL@me... well i join PS to learn:f_biggrin: and congrats on the shiny little thing

Thanks But hey,, this shiny littlething just means quantity, not quality =P I'm still a micro limits grinder, lol.

Villain is taggy 24/21/2.7. 31 WTS over 1.7k hands. He's not the kind of guy to CC Q5 or the like. A5 is possible, but he'd have folded on the flop. He'd also have folded 55 and 66 most probably.

His calling range here is mostly sets, 56, a Q or something like 99. Apparently it was something like 99 or a Q. He then realised he had 0 showdown value when I barreled turn again and tried to take the pot down. I'd have folded AQ, KQ and maybe even KK and AA in this spot.
It's a very strong play by him. When I cbet into 3opp, he must give me a ton of credit. By calling flop and raising turn, he can really make me fold a bunch of hands.
Of course now I know he's capable of doing that and I won't fold these 1 pair hands in the future He's noted down

Hey man congrats on diamond status. About the last hand I really like a calldown too. I really like your posts ; great analysis , keep it up.

shove is ok, hes not bluff shoving the river when u call him on the turn, if he has like backdoor fd+pair or something he cant fold, besides u dont want to give him the info that u call there with sets only an fold everything else ( cause thats what it looks like when u give him a free sd ), and the info that he was bluffing u have it now that he folds ( cause of the odds hes getting with pretty much anything).

Well what about posting in the Hand review foruns and see what the PS hand reviewers have to say? Healthy discussion so far nontheless

13th of July - caltabiano

Rough start, but happy ending

It's funny how our mind is completely crazy and we must learn to control it. I was feeling really bad in the beginning of the session becuase I was going negative, and I didn't feel like playing and I was like: "oh crap.. another flop that I didn't hit"
But then at one point I just thought to myself: "STFU!" I put myself in an upright posture, focused on the bloody tables and surprisingly enough that's when my session started going up.
These changes in mentality happen only by our own will and they happen in one click. You just have to realise it. There's no point in being grumpy, in complaining, in doing things in a bad mood. Just take it easy. Everything will unfold as it must unfold

I even got a straight flush today =D

And here's the hand that I chose for today's analysis.

In this spot we obviously only have two options:

- Believe him and fold
- 3b/c

Calling his raise OOP is unthinkable. Let me point out that his guy plays 16/12/5 (VPIP/PFA/Flop AF). His raise flop cbet is over 30%. This is great spot for him to bluff raise. I'm stealing from CO, so my range is likely pretty loose there. I'm pretty sure he'll throw in bluffs in this spot.

Let's get straight to the fun part of the hand: MATHEMATICS! =D

We 3b him. He's either gonna push or fold. He pushes his value raises and folds his bluffs.

#1. He pushes.
His probable range: 66, K♠T♠, QJ, T♠9♠, 7♠8♠, A♠Q, K♠Q.
I think that's a reasonable value range. I don't think he's cold calling suited connectors too often, but he is sometimes. So I didn't add all of them. JJ and QQ would've been a 3b preflop, so they're out.
We're 24% against this range. If it gets to a push, our EV will then be:
EV = 24%*96 - $45 = -$22
I discounted the money in the pot, as that will be pretty much the rake.

#2. He folds.
This is easy calculation
EV = $14

Now, how often does he have to fold to make this a +EV situation?
Let's say that x=% of his folds
y=% of his pushes

We have 2 equations:
#1 - x+y=1
#2 - x*14 - y*22=0

By manipulating them a bit, we can get so a final answer:
#1 - x=1-y, and thus:
#2 - (1-y)*14 - y*22 = 0
14 - 14y - 22y = 0
14 = 36y
y = 0.39 (or 39%)

Back to #1:
x = 1 - y
x = 1 - 0.39
x = 0.61 (or 61%)

So, we need him to fold 61% of his range in order to breakeven.

His shoving range consists of 4,37% of all the possible hands. So, supposing he's going to bluff me with all of his range, he needs to have cold called approximately 11% of all possible hands!! And that, my friends he most certainly didn't do.

So, terrible play by me Even if he's bluffing sometimes in this spot. He might even bluff me with all of his range. Even then, we don't have a profitable 3b.

$45 down the toilet That's 1 week's food for both my brother and me, lol. Oh well, I'll learn, I'll learn.

Alright I'd better be off to bed now peoples. See ya tomorrow.

Cheers

so do you recommend ladbrokes even though there is no rakeback?

Who says there's no rakeback?
There's 1k bonus + Player Club which can give you up to 30% rakeback. Besides, the average tables stats are 30/10 ♦ People are pretty fishy there.

So I definitely recommend it. By my calculations, it's gonna take me 35k - 40k hands to finish releasing the whole bonus. I'm gonna have paid something like $2k rake and I'll get $1.5k - $1.6k total bonus. So it's pretty much 80% rakeback =D

14th/July/09. Dandycal - SSS

Career development:

Achieved Step1: 100 BI for NL50 + confident SSS on NL50 = minimum level to get minimum necessary income.
Achieved Step2: 100 BI for NL100 + medium confidence on NL100 = comfortable level to get minimum necessary income.
Step3: 150 BI for NL100 + confident SSS on NL100 = feeling quite at ease regarding the necessary minimum income
Step4: Mid-stakes SSS = increase life-standards ♠_cool:
Step5: High Stakes SSS? Not sure yet.

HM went a little crazy yesterday and it's not recognising one of my sessions, it was my record winning session so far! +$139 in 550 hands I'll just post the graphic as it is and correct the numbers below.

I'll keep this as a quick update, as I'm starting a session now. Will be back with some more soon. See you guys, peace!

N1 guys!! Keep that grind! Nice to see that u are achiving you're goals!!