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Originally posted by EmanuelC16
Are you talking about that old laptop that didn't last one minute without the power cord?Ahhh don't remind me of the good old days
I don't know what I'd do if i lost it. I love it, I really do, but sometimes it's so annoying I could just shake it until it stops moving. Does that make me a bad person?Anyway, time to give it another whirl... Fingers crossed.
Hi all, still don't have a laptop. On a computer in the library and just using my blog as a place to remember something. Not played poker in a long time now.
If an opponent raises preflop and i call with a pocket pair i will hit a set 11.76% of the time. If he is a TAG who doesn't bluff turn, i will reraise his flop bet every time i hit my set. I'll raise pot which gives him 2-1 odds on his call. It's therefore correct for him to call if he has me beat 33.3% of the time. Assuming he actually never has me beat if i do have my set, I can bluff raise the flop just 5.88% of the time before it's right for him to call my reraise (which I want him to do). My reraise flop cbet stat should therefore be more than 17.64%.
With a reraise flop cbet stat of 22% it's correct for my opponent to call my reraise with top pair. But 50% of the time i have a set and he pays me off, 50% of the time I have nothing and check/fold turn and river. Presuming money goes in on later streets some (most?) of the time, it's a winning play for me. I think. Need to work out the maths a bit better though. I'll save that for another time.
Peace. x
I've found a way to open Titan Poker on the school computers!!! Won't be able to play with a HUD, but at least I can get back to the grind at long last! Will post when my first session in over a month is finished.
So, ended the session up about 2 buy ins but it's interesting to see what's fallen apart in my game in just one month. 4bet into a squeeze with 99 because he'd 3bet bluffed and squeezed a few times before, but without a HUD this definately wasn't the correct way to play. I also tried to slowplay a flopped two pair in a multiway pot which I'm sure you'll all know is a bad idea because draws and top pairs often won't bet into lots of people but will call if you raise. Was supposed to play a nice tight game to make up for lack of HUD but instead was tempted into playing my usual LAG game.
In short, self discipline was lacking.
I was only put in a few tough spots I think but it's hard to review without HEM (if someone has advice for how to do this i would be grateful). It's comforting to note that you can make a profit on NL4 on Titan even if you make mistakes every time something difficult happens 
Will play some more tomorrow and hopefully until at least the 17th, when i'm going back home.
I'm going to employ some aggressive BRM to try and climb the limits; does anyone have advice on how risky i can go? I know it's a personal thing but what's worked for my readers might work for me.
If you want to use more aggressive BRM the key thing is to move down if first shot at higher limit doesn't work as planned. For example $150 shooting for NL10. You lose 2-3 BIs. End NL10 session, take a break, grind it back at NL5. At least that's my advice. I took NL25 shot with 20BI and after losing 2BI just went back to NL10. There's no point in crippling your BR!
Originally posted by EmanuelC16
If you want to use more aggressive BRM the key thing is to move down if first shot at higher limit doesn't work as planned. For example $150 shooting for NL10. You lose 2-3 BIs. End NL10 session, take a break, grind it back at NL5. At least that's my advice. I took NL25 shot with 20BI and after losing 2BI just went back to NL10. There's no point in crippling your BR!
Sounds like a plan. I've got around 16 buy ins for NL10 at the moment, will drop back to NL5 when i lose 2 buy ins. Wish me luck! 
I now have around 18 buy ins
NL10 is exactly the same as NL4 in my opinon. I didn't 3bet quite as much because I wanted to keep variance down (yes I realise any true poker player reading this is probably disgusted, but until I have a decent roll I don't want to splash around too much.) Didn't go all vs a full stack once, but this wasn't me folding too much, it's just that there are alot more shortstackers at these levels and I never got into a spot against another full stack.
In other news, last night I joined the KCL student occupation which was quite good fun. We all got drunk and tried our hands at kareoke. Sleeping on the lecture seats was quite difficult though so I went home at 11am and slept in bed til 5pm. 
So yesterday I played for like three or four hours and dropped $13. Then I had to cash out £20 to eat with, so my bankroll is only big enough on titan for NL2. So that's what I've been playing. 9 tabled for the last few hours and I'm up a staggering £3.
Will probably have to cash out all of my roll before long to get myself home for christmas. Will reload in January of course, maybe at a new room to chase a bonus again
Edit: Just looked up my results for the last few days on poker table ratings and I feel for the sake of honesty and for your amusement that I should post them here. As you can see, I overexaggerate my wins and underexaggerate my losses in my head. Probably not a good attribute in a poker player.
Dec 5th:
Hands - 492
Stake - NL4
Profit - $5.42
Dec 6th:
Hands - 446
Stake - NL10
Profit - $6.90
Dec 7th:
Hands - 921
Stake - NL10
Profit - -$15.91
Dec 8th:
Hands - 254
Stake - NL2
Profit - $4.26
Hm, the other day i donked £20 away in a rebuy tournament. Was rather unwise I think, especially considering I have next to no money at the moment. I'm going to cash out my full tilt money for christmas and get back to the grind in the new year. Currently have £2 on my titan account which was all that survived the spew so maybe i'll try and grind that back up to a respectable amount but seems unlikely.
I've started working my way through the silver BSS articles again which is good I think and i'm reading a book that should help reduce tilt, which is also good. Doesn't really make sense for me to be playing poker for any amount of money when i'm so skint IRL, really. 
I know, I know. I can hear the crowd calling.
"fryandspicy, I miss your blog. It completes me"
You're not the first person to tell me that. You're the second. After my mum. Luckily for you, last night I texted myself a load of stuff to put on my blog. Lets see how much room it fills.
First, a joke:
An American businessman is travelling through Dubai. Presumeably on business. On his journey in a taxi he says, with much amusement, "you Indian fellas say the dates backwards. Today's not 12/16/2010, it's 16/12/2010. What's with that?"
"Just convention" the cab driver replies, or something along those lines.
"What do you call 4/20?"
"Oh" The cab driver chuckles to himself "That's still called 4/20"
"And what about 9/11?"
"We call that a bloody good start"
Now for pointing out the obvious:
Preflop: Hero is BU with 2 
, 3 
CO bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40, 2 folds
Flop: ($0.90) K :club:, 9 :spade:, 4 (2 players)
CO bets $0.55, Hero calls $0.55
Turn: ($2.00) 8 (2 players)
Co bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50
River: ($5.00) A 
(2 players)
Co checks, Hero bets $5.00
My observation is this: when bluffing the river you are betting your fold equity. Put your opponent on a range, estimate what percentage of that range he will fold to a bluff, and make you bet to pot ratio the same size as his fold ratio.
Plans for 2011:
In 2011 I will get given some student loan from the government, and also get £1000 added to my overdraft. I'm going to invest £350 in poker, and start playing NL25. To prepare myself I am going to read all the silver articles, watch lots of silver videos, and do some econometric analysis of the average opponent at NL25. This is obviously a big risk and a pretty stupid thing to do, but I want to have a go at it anyway.
Now to revision for my last test of term tomorrow.
Hi all. I am typing to you from a comfy seat in the sitting room (appropriate place to sit, I know) on my shiny new repaired old laptop! To be honest it came back with some new problems, like the inability to direct sound through headphones, and lots of the old problems still there, like the querky habit of switching off almost immediately if you unplug it. But still, it turn on and connects to the internet and is just about fast enough to run HEM and the Full Tilt software at the same time, so I'm very happy with it.
So, I got back to the tables and found that I'd arrived at the best time of the year to grind the microstakes; during the Christmas holidays. Advice for everyone: If you fancy taking a shot at a limit that keeps beating you, wait for the winter holidays and then give it a go. I've done nothing more spectucular than nit up since my former poker playing days and I'm making profit at a very healthy rate, thank you very much, increased by a Full Tilt $100 bonus that i'm clearing. I've been reading the silver articles whilst I still can, and analysing my own play a bit. It's still definately not perfect and I occasionally have issues slowing down and thinking spots through, sometimes just checking or calling where it'd be better to take a more aggressive line. I also probably rely too much on my HUD reads and overcompensate massively for them. A problem I imagine alot of us have.
Outside of poker, not much is going on. I'm completely skint, and therefore was stuck in Cambridge for New Year's Eve with only ten or so friends to cheer the year in with. Was still pretty good fun though.
Oh, also I can't cash out my Full Tilt money because I now have a new debit card. I'll have to make a deposit using my new card first. Also, need to apply for a passport pronto before anyone decides to ID check me.
New Year's Resolution: Thou Shalt Always Kill
Edit: Also made Thread of the Week 
Hey guys. A few days ago I was crushing NL10 and as such was going to sell myself as some sort of microstakes guru and offer priceless advice on how to outwit your opponents. Unfortunately, since then I've been calling down too loosely and playing too tricky vs the fish. I think impatience to hit a hand is the main issue. Plus I've been running a few buy ins below ev. I've still got a pretty good winrate but hopefully I can get back to the glory days in my session later today. Here's the graph:
which still looks quite healthy.
Now for some advice that you probably shouldn't follow because I'm alot fishier than I thought. If an unknown reg 3bets you out of the blinds, strongly consider a 4bet! Usually the regs at NL10 will only 3bet bluff out of the blinds, and they have little idea how to deal with a light 4bet. The beauty is they know they shouldn't just call, but don't want to jam with anything less than AA and KK. In the end they convince themselves that you're running hot and find a fold with even strong hands. If they do end up calling, something like this usually happens:
Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:
$0.05/$0.1 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)
Known players:
[tg]MP1$3.40:///////;MP2$18.70:///////;MP3$10.00:///////;CO$3.50:///////;BU (Hero)$15.03:///////;SB$19.63:///////;BB$9.60:///////;UTG2$10.00:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is BU with 6:c, 7:c.
5 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, SB raises to $1.00, BB folds, Hero raises to $2.50, SB calls $1.50.
Flop: ($5.1) 8:d, T:c, K:c (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.20, SB calls $3.20.
Turn: ($11.5) 9:c (2 players)
SB bets $11.50, Hero calls $9.33.
River: ($32.33) 5:c (2 players)
Final Pot: $32.33.
Results follow:
SB shows a straight, king high(Q:d J:d).
Hero shows a flush, king high(6:c 7:c).
Hero wins with a flush, king high(6:c 7:c).
My other tip is to don't bother with cbets versus maniacs. Lots of fishes at these limits refuse to fold to a cbet. If you're in position, check behind medium made hands like top or middle pair and you can call their bluff bets on turn and river. Obviously you need to know that they bet often for this to work. If you're out of position it's usually worth betting anyway because you can't call three barrels with just middle pair or something, but when you're in position it's well worth considering keeping the pot small. It's sick when you have to lay down top pair top kicker to a maniac who check call check jams but if you check behind on the flop you can justify most calls. If you miss it's often worth considering just check folding. It'll feel annoying, but you'll get enough value the 30% of the time you make a decent hand to compensate for this. Just stay patient. Also, when isolating fish, do so with broadways and suited K9, Q9 and J9 as opposed to suited connectors. This is because you can get value from hands like top pair top kicker but you won't have the fold equity with hands like 67s to make it worth it.
My final advice is, grind listening to vaguely sexual music or plodding eastern European beats. (Or no music at all if you actually want to do well)
Examples:
I think there's a lot to be won in blinds battles on micros because they either resteal too much or don't steal enough. Not to mention calling and insta-folding to cbets very often. 
Originally posted by EmanuelC16
I think there's a lot to be won in blinds battles on micros because they either resteal too much or don't steal enough. Not to mention calling and insta-folding to cbets very often.+1
Regulars at micros sometimes against other regs leveling (aiurea) when not needed! Micros= vbet vbet and so on and adjust on that few regulars . Theyre bad enough to make your life easier and go up! Gl
Took my first stab at NL25 today which lasted precisely 47 hands. Had 15 BI and was going to move down after losing 1 BI, which i promptly did with an incredibly loose calldown against an unknown. Think I need to iron moves like that out of my game sharpish, but at least something like this will help drum it into my head. Got most of the money back on NL10 anyway, but will continue to grind NL10 for the whole of tomorrow and only give NL25 a shot the day after that if I don't make any loose calldowns. MUST FOCUS ON FOLDING TOO MUCH RATHER THAN TOO LITTLE!!
One of the most healthy things about poker is how it improves your self control, I think. Tomorrow I'm going to play two tables and write down my thoughts of every hand that's not an autofold. We'll see how it works out.
My Cheat Sheet:
- What is my opponent's range?
- What is the strength of my hand?
- How many streets worth of value does my hand want?
- Will worse hands call (or raise)?
- Will better hands fold?
Any suggestions for additions? Obv can't be too long because i actually need to get through the questions before timing out. And i don't think i should have 'what does my opponent think i have?' on the micros. Maybe i should though. I dunno.
Good cheat sheet ♦ And good luck with NL25, i'm sure you'll do well ♠_cool: When you get stats on the regs remember to exploit them. Light 3betting and 4betting is especially useful against them ♦
How much does my opponent like his hand?
That would get you a bunch of extra value. For example, if TPTK is in his range and you have that crush but you think he likes it very much you can get close to pot or even overbet for max value on a safe board.