Burnt out grinder with(out) teeth

To show you what my blog is often like, I post an example. I usually put a hand here, tell my thoughts about it and then evaluate whether I played well or not.

AK against a fishy player. The opponent never wanted to give up their made hand, even if there were overcards. He also has many busted FD's and GSSD's in his range, and he would have raised 2pairs or straight on flop. I could have bet that river, but then he would know he doesn't have fold equity so I gave him room to make a big mistake with Busted FD or weak PP, which he never folds but bluffs river often

iPoker - $0.20 NL - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

CO: $12.88
BTN: $17.17
SB: $7.56
BB: $6.00
Hero (UTG): $22.11

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.20

Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero has K:club: A:spade:

Hero raises to $0.60, CO calls $0.60, fold, fold, fold

Flop: ($1.50, 2 players) K:heart: 9:diamond: Q:heart:
Hero bets $0.96, CO calls $0.96

Turn: ($3.42, 2 players) 6:club:
Hero bets $2.20, CO calls $2.20

River: ($7.82, 2 players) 2:diamond:
Hero checks, CO bets $9.12, Hero calls $9.12

CO shows T:heart: T:spade: (One Pair, Tens) (Pre 57%, Flop 28%, Turn 14%)
Hero shows K:club: A:spade: (One Pair, Kings) (Pre 43%, Flop 72%, Turn 86%)
Hero wins $24.76

Got to brag and add my best fold here ♦ This was rigged..

But with those actions against 2 nits, what else can you expect? I can't put them on any other range than KK+, where I already have 2 blockers on kings, so most likely AA and AA/KK/(not AK?). WP, IMO ♦

iPoker - $0.05 NL - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

BB: $0.98
UTG: $0.00
MP: $5.67
CO: $1.77
Hero (BTN): $4.99
SB: $5.38

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero has K:heart: K:diamond:

UTG raises to $0.15, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.45, SB raises to $1.05, fold, UTG raises to $2.85, fold, SB raises to $5.38, UTG calls $2.17

Flop: ($10.54, 2 players) 4:spade: J:spade: 7:spade:

Turn: ($10.54, 2 players) J:club:

River: ($10.54, 2 players) 8:club:

UTG shows K:spade: K:club: (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks) (Pre 1%, Flop 7%, Turn 5%)
SB shows A:club: A:spade: (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks) (Pre 99%, Flop 93%, Turn 95%)
SB wins $10.02

This evening I have to finish my group work report on 1921 Finnish society and that time's history studies. Exciting as parrots on 1st Century, but man's got to do what man's got to do.

Welcome to the other side too

Thanks Kyyberi! I've been itching to join the darkside for a while and I finally did it yesterday ♦

Little update.. No games today, got a wild student evening yesterday and I'm still not recovered. I hate this feeling ♦

Tomorrow I'll try to find all the stuff I lost and play poker after dat!

The dark side is PLO. This is just the other side. See? 4K posts!

Oh yeah, so I have just joined the English side? But I guess I won't be joining Dark side (PLO) for a while, that game is rigged ♦

Today I started to play evening session, rest of the day I hunted for my stuff which I eventually found somewhere near Tampere.. Anyway, session started off horribly (maniac woke up wiht AA vs my TP, which is usually the case against maniacs). But then I battled and grinded with brutal Finnish aggression, and eventually hit a hand:

iPoker - $0.20 NL - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

UTG: $29.86
Hero (MP): $20.24
CO: $23.25
BTN: $20.81
SB: $27.65
BB: $20.00

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.20

Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero has J:heart: T:heart:

fold, Hero raises to $0.60, fold, fold, SB raises to $2.00, BB calls $1.80, Hero calls $1.40

Flop: ($6.00, 3 players) 9:heart: Q:diamond: K:heart:
SB bets $4.20, fold, Hero raises to $9.30, SB raises to $25.65, Hero calls $8.94

Turn: ($42.48, 2 players) 4:diamond:

River: ($42.48, 2 players) 8:club:

Hero shows J:heart: T:heart: (Straight, King High) (Pre 41%, Flop 97%, Turn 100%)
SB shows K:diamond: A:club: (One Pair, Kings) (Pre 59%, Flop 3%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins $40.36

Well.. What can you say? Loose opponent 3-bets and other loose/maniac/fishy player calls him off and I have position, so yeah, I call. And the flop is amazing. That minraise I made there had been bad move against a reg, who would have given up their TP there, but against maniac it just induced him to go All-in.. I though he'd have AA or set at least, but neeh, he had just trash. Love him <3

villain thought process: i have AK, i hit my pair, shipz it

seriously

Seems like ♦ It's 3-bet pot, so I must have something way worse, right?

Just a moment go I had this awkward moment of soberity (Not drunk today, kids) when I had an idea: start NL2 project on pokerstars, grind the zoom and become a king. I'd need to deposit 20d there and I would get a ticket to micro millions, too. Yaiks, it tempts me a lot but I think I'll wait for tomorrow, at least.

Why? Coz Jokerstars is rigged, I'm not sure whether to do this and it might decrease my winrate on NL20. I have to re-adjust to these games, play nitty and be ready to meet total stations (again). On the contrary, I could try to make it a project and generate some extra money for my noodles ♦

What do you guys think? To start a project or not?

Originally posted by CPallo
Just a moment go I had this awkward moment of soberity (Not drunk today, kids) when I had an idea: start NL2 project on pokerstars, grind the zoom and become a king. I'd need to deposit 20d there and I would get a ticket to micro millions, too. Yaiks, it tempts me a lot but I think I'll wait for tomorrow, at least.

Why? Coz Jokerstars is rigged, I'm not sure whether to do this and it might decrease my winrate on NL20. I have to re-adjust to these games, play nitty and be ready to meet total stations (again). On the contrary, I could try to make it a project and generate some extra money for my noodles ♦

What do you guys think? To start a project or not?

first of all i would consider how you are feeling at nl20 and your results/hourly.

i'm not really sure how many positives there are to stepping back down the ladder to nl2 when you could keep working hard to improve at nl20.

just my 2 cents though, good luck with whatever you choose!

+side: fun, experience

...and that's about it ♦

it can be good to have a side project to blow off steam for when you are running sick awful though

I thought this project to be a fun thing to spend time while playing NL20. I'm "stuck" in Titan poker with it, and I can rarely find more than 2-3 tables to play. So, when I'm lacking tables there, I could play NL2 zoom in the meanwhile. And grind there hard ♦ NL20 isn't a problem, as I keep making profit. Just wish to have more tables there..

After I clear that bonus on Titan poker I'll definitely change to some other poker site, like unibet

everyone has bad losing stretches every once in a while, unless your edge is like 10bb/100 or better

i know the feeling of thinking you are immune to losing when you realize you have quite an edge and a few months of running okay no one is

Well yeah, I'm not immune but right now winrate on NL20 is 15,xx. Not that bad IMO :)) And haven't run that good. But sure, I'll work on my game every day, I always do session reviews afterwards and think of practically every spot I had there.

NL2 would just be extra fun in addition. Could be a short project, could last forever. Dunno.

But I'm not immune (yet) ;D

yeah, don't know the sample, but unless it is super low that winrate most likely means that you are doing something right.
from all your general activity i'd say that you definitely are doing something right ♦

anyway, zoom is a fun(ny) game.
i like it, i'm addicted, but there's no doubt that normal tables are by far better for your winrate

still i'll most likely be playing teh speed pokers for a long while, until i manage to make it at nl100 or something

I think speed poker is rigged ♦ Once got nearly broke with it and then decided to move back to "real" poker.

Why? Because I love the psychological aspect of poker. The feeling when you can crawl under your opponent's skin and make them so unsure about their overpairs and good holdings.. To make them fold far better hand and to provoke them overplay their TP- type of hands.

My "latest" trick with good thinking opponents is min-raising. As on NL2-10 minraise=practically the nuts, so tags are quite often pressing fold-button way too fast. Of course I don't use minraise so often, but it's a good weapon to make them more unsure of themselves.

Today I'll try to play for few hours, hopefully I can do it and I'll even find some soft games!

So far a break-even day. Just had horrible run, hit nothing on the board and had the worst positions ever.. Stations and maniacs on your left and right. Well, it will be profitable, if you tighten up your range. But what if you don't hit a thing? Cbets were spewwy there, had to play rather straight forward to get all the money back I lost in the beginning of the session.

I'll probably play again later today, hopefully will hit a bit better!

P.s. My run? Yes, Non SD were 30bb+, non SD were quite a lot on minus but eventually get to -31bb. Rather break even, yes.

Had some sort of a "one and done" Image on this particular table, and opponent was floating a lot, so decided to make a 1/2 bet and then C/jam turn. I was surprised when I saw my opponents hand.. Coz he was a NIT!

iPoker - $0.20 NL - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

UTG: $20.60
MP: $53.77
CO: $20.00
BTN: $20.60
Hero (SB): $19.80
BB: $45.86

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.20

Pre Flop: ($0.30) Hero has A:club: K:heart:

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $0.60, Hero raises to $2.00, BB calls $1.80, BTN calls $1.40

Flop: ($6.00, 3 players) A:diamond: 5:spade: T:spade:
Hero bets $3.00, fold, BTN calls $3.00

Turn: ($12.00, 2 players) A:heart:
Hero checks, BTN bets $7.60, Hero raises to $14.80, BTN calls $7.20

River: ($41.60, 2 players) K:spade:

BTN shows Q:spade: 9:spade: (Flush, King High) (Pre 38%, Flop 38%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows A:club: K:heart: (Full House, Aces full of Kings) (Pre 62%, Flop 62%, Turn 84%)
Hero wins $39.52

All end well after all.. was close to lose this, though ♦

I guess that was for it for today's sessions. Don't have the "A-feeling" anymore, you know?

BB/100: 12.54
Won: +1bin