KoningAlbert NL2 / NL5 ZOOM and occasional MTTs

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
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.

Looking at the stack sizes, vs an unknown opponent, I think this is the best route.
Zoom makes it hard to take notes.

But a nearly 3/4 pot river bet can't be taken lightly, and overpairs are a big concern for sure, as are trips, sets and in this case straights (however unlikely)
So well played I think

Edit: I just noticed you posted this in the discussion forum. I'll watch there to see what the experts think

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
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

- what do you rep?
- what does villain rep (and you wanna make fold?)

i'd probably be calling down quite light as villain, but it's an interesting spot in his shoes

I would say good fold. Unless you have reads that he is a big recreational, I would also fold.
Multiway hands you should always play much tighter.

If its any consolation. As an experiment, I have recently started playing a single table of Pokerstars NL5 zoom alongside my regular NL100 tables (other softer sites) and the level of difficulty I am encountering so far at NL5 zoom is really similar to NL100 6-max reg games I am playing. It just goes to show how important game selection is in poker. I hope hearing this can help you micro stake guys keep hope and realise that poker really isn't that hard and the gap between micros and low/mid stakes is not as big as it seems, especially more so if you focus on finding soft games

I agree about NL 5 zoom. I notice that players are not necessarily tighter overall, but certainly much more selective with what hands they continue with post flop, and when they do continue, they are very aggro about it.

I would say that they rarely bluff, but I think that reflects that I fold a lot unless I have a pretty decent hand to call with -- and catch them bluffing.

The other side to that coin is that it seems that bluffing post-flop is profitable, since most players believe you have it.

Or is this wishful thinking?
I'm trying to get back into NLHE cash, and finding it tough...

Hey Vorpal,

You may be happy to hear that on my NL5 zoom experiment I am currently bluffing a lot and bluffcatching a lot. So when I update my blog (cobwebs) with the small sample I am growing, we might be able to see if it is as effective in the micros as it is in the higher games.

A common thought process I see in micros is play tight and look to bet big with value and rarely bluff, fish don't fold, Regs hardly bluff etc. I think this is sound advice and is one way of beating the games. But I also strongly believe there are multiple ways to beat the micros.

Hello

at the moment i play only SNAP/ZOOM so .......i will love to see your progress too.

:f_drink::f_drink::f_drink:

Originally posted by SiKWiThIt
Hey Vorpal,

You may be happy to hear that on my NL5 zoom experiment I am currently bluffing a lot and bluffcatching a lot. So when I update my blog (cobwebs) with the small sample I am growing, we might be able to see if it is as effective in the micros as it is in the higher games.

A common thought process I see in micros is play tight and look to bet big with value and rarely bluff, fish don't fold, Regs hardly bluff etc. I think this is sound advice and is one way of beating the games. But I also strongly believe there are multiple ways to beat the micros.

I feel that sometimes it's harder to play NL2 zoom, since it's harder to put them on hands. They 3bet far more often than they do on NL5. They keep calling with the silliest hands. So that makes it annoying to play draws or other speculative hands.

On NL5 I feel they play more straight forward. As Vorpal said, they seem to bluff far less often. That's also the reason I enjoy playing NL5 more than NL2. You can really think the hand through a bit more logically.

Anyway, How is it going so far?

I've not posted a lot lately because of several reasons:
1) It's been very busy around the house and didn't have a lot of time to play.
The time I did have, I filled it up with playing a bit of poker (usually on my phone) and as mentioned earlier in my blog I don't
play well. When I only play for 5 minutes, trying to win as much as possible, things go bad very quickly, and that is what
happened to me. For the first time in my 'career' I went broke on stars (my roll elsewhere is still up).

2) As mentioned earlier in this blog, my interest in things shift every 3 or 4 months, and it seems I've come to hit that point. I'm
also trying to learn how to play the guitar and I want to focus more on these things.

This doens't mean I won't play anymore, I'm just playing far less often. I also don't want to play long hours.

So, as for now, Reloaded for 10€ and since then I've doubled to about 22€

So let's see how things turn out in the future!

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
So, as for now, Reloaded for 10€ and since then I've doubled to about 22€

So let's see how things turn out in the future!

Are you in the https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=523971

It might be a way to get back into it.
btw, I find playing on mobile devices the hardest of all -- especially if trying to play more than one table.

not sure if you are going to continue with the blog or even with poker, just wanted to share that it was super cool reading this through.
It was super relatable and fully transparent not wanting to share only the positives. Thank you for the openness and taking the time.

Enjoy everything you are doing

Hi guys

It seems like I have regained my interest in playing poker a bit again. I don't want to say that I'm going to take things seriously, simply because I don't really have time to put in a lot of practice. However, this does not mean that I'm not here to win at the tables.

I've slowly built to a BR of 50$ again, starting from the 22$ that were left on my account. And even though I felt like I was running badly, statistics say I was running far above EV. Luckboxing keeps the fish in, right?

I'm not setting any goals, because then I will feel forced to play and that's the last thing I want. I will try to post on the forum from time to time, just to make sure I'm still playing the way I should, so that you can tell me I'm doing things in the wrong way, or I'm just steaming or whatever...

Anyway it surely feels rusty to play again. Wish me luck!

Okay, I've been playing a few 1000 hands again now, the way I used to play NL2 in the past. a few notable thoughts already:

1) I'm playing the same way I did in the past, having the same kind of up and downs, leaving me mostly Break Even.
2) I'm running far above EV at showdowns, but I feel like I'm running shit throughout the game. Not good mentally.
3) I've to learn to play tighter and aim for value without overthinking hands too much.
It has taken me 10 years to only realize now that I really have to adapt my gameplay to NL2. I'm not saying that I'm beating higher stakes, because I simply haven't played them enough, but I can say that people's logic at the NL2 tables really is weird from time to time, leaving little to no room for plays (which is what I actually enjoy about the game.)

anyway, I'm going to try to change my opening and calling range preflop a bit and see what happens.
I might post some hands later. Cheers!

Hi!
I am currently exiting NL2, so I completely understand your last point.

If you allow me some advices, they'd be:
1- Volume. Considering you have the fundamentals, volume will do the trick to beat NL2
2. Forget moves, "play the cards". They will pay you almost all the times, and that's the beauty of NL2...This means they will also pay you when you want them to fold
3. If you have the chance to select tables, keep the loose on your right. It is often dimished because one thinks "Ok, I am better than them, I don't need to play IP". Let me tell you, a normal session, I grind about 20/100. The day I was lucky to sit perfectly on a couple of tables, I skyrocketed that session to 125+bb/100
4- Learn to live with the bad beats. That money is a loan, it will return to you.

GL at the tables.

Thanks Yangmartins for taking the time for your nice reply. It feels like those elements are exactly the things I need to focus on.

I will gladly show a hand that summarizes why I am just a break-even player at this point. Once I learn not to get overly excited about marginal hands I hope to become a winning player.

As for now, I've posted many hands in the hand discussion forum, so please feel free to comment. Alse a very big thank you to all of those who have taken time to really give valuable and constructive feedback there. It has really helped!

I wasn't doing really well lately, with having a lot of ups and downs and not seeing any progression in my BR. This is frustrating and sometimes makes you doubt about your gameplay. Even though I will have played considerable hands, I also had the feeling all my good hands weren't paid off and all my marginal hands faced a lot of aggression. Luckily for me that has changed a bit now, leaving me with some profit.

BR: $59

Even though I will have played considerable hands, I also had the feeling all my good hands weren't paid off and all my marginal hands faced a lot of aggression.

Welcome back to poker, as you can see, nothing has changed

What a crazy session I just had.
A lot of hands where high pocket pairs clashed... Some ugly spots I really got screwed, but some others I was on the lucky side of things. In the end it was a 0.20$ profit after 1 hour of play. Underneath some example hands. Maybe I could have played some hands differently I don't know... anyway I was lucky a few times.

Today I had an amazing session. It's the first time in my poker'career' that everything seemed to turn out in my favour. Whenever I hit the nuts someone had something close to the nuts. On top of things all of my 80/20 hands remained standing....

I know I might have jinxed it by being so euphoric about this session, but who cares: if I'm whining about the lows, I should definitely go crazy about the highs.

Even though it's still just NL2, I managed to win 10BI over 2 hours.

BR: $72 (I had dropped slightly in the past few days :f_rolleyes:)

On a sidenote: I also played in a $5 tournament on unibet and was practically card dead throughout the entire game. I accidently rebought, and kept on being card dead. Eventually I pushed with J8s on the button and was snapped by aces in the BB. The flop immediately turned over 2 aces making him quads.

So essentially, I didn't really make any profit today.

BR MTT: $140

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Today I had an amazing session. It's the first time in my poker'career' that everything seemed to turn out in my favour. Whenever I hit the nuts someone had something close to the nuts. On top of things all of my 80/20 hands remained standing....

I know I might have jinxed it by being so euphoric about this session, but who cares: if I'm whining about the lows, I should definitely go crazy about the highs.

Enjoy it while it lasts!

It's been a while since I've last posted something.

- I've made a few changes to my playing:

• I have changed my preflop range and became much tighter
• I have tried to avoid tricky spots
• I have been trying to be more positionally aware.

Things I failed at (sometimes)
[*] trying to outplay players and bluffing without thinking
[*] paying too much on the river, and sometimes on earlier straights when I actually knew I was beat.
[*] I sometimes play 4 Zoom tables at the same time, which is fine at times, but I sometimes miss clear betting/folding spots, so definitely need to keep an eye on this in the future.

BR: $80

My graph shows a few things.
- I'm running far above EV. (I'm trying not to take this too seriously because I'm scared of what might come then)
- You can clearly see where I have started to change my strategy.
- overall I'm pleased, but I expect to win more, if I can keep my mental game under control.

[*] trying to outplay players and bluffing without thinking
[*] paying too much on the river, and sometimes on earlier straights when I actually knew I was beat.
[*] I sometimes play 4 Zoom tables at the same time, which is fine at times, but I sometimes miss clear betting/folding spots, so definitely need to keep an eye on this in the future.

I was telling myself yesterday that players aren't bluffing me as much as I am thinking. When regs bet, they normally have something.
I also told myself to stop calling the river with 1 pair type hands when it is clear that I am beat, if I look at it from a "what would I bet here" there are no bluffs.
I've been 3 and 4 tabling, it can be a bit boring sometimes, but it keeps me from going into auto pilot where I am not thinking at all.