[Closed] sm112 - still shortstacking NL100

My motto, something I hope keeps me motivated on this swingy path - Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts!

This is not normal, lost again 5 buy-ins. For example, QQ lost to TT and K8, third time faced AA. All my aces and kings only collected blinds. Lost most of the coinflips (my pocket pairs lost to AK and my AK to pp-s). I try to maintain my focus, but this shit is frustrating and most important - it eats my BR. It can't last forever.. or what?

Hi there

You play with Statistics I assume right? How do you table select on Stars?

- Gerv

Hi Gerv,
I put myself into waiting list of all the tables with Plrs/flop > 25 (or 20, if no other shortstacks and big average pot) and waitinglist < 3 players. I leave the table when Plrs/flop falls below 16-18 and/or too many shortstack sit down. I constantly rotate between table.

Yes, I play with statistics, but mostly look only VPIP, PFR and ATS+fold BB to steal.

Ok, I played only 8 tables at once, carefully table-selected and played solid SSS. I didn't get much good cards, my queens collided kings, straight lost to flush, but I was still break-even. Then this happens:

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

$0.5/$1 No-Limit Hold'em (9 handed)

Known players:
[tg]CO$20.55:///////;BU(Hero)$20.00:///////;SB$58.00:///////;BB$110.90:///////;UTG1$121.75:///////;UTG2$253.55:///////;MP1$146.40:///////;MP2$18.50:///////;MP3$57.45:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is BU with 2:c, 2:d.
4 folds, MP3 raises to $2, CO folds, Hero calls $2.00, SB calls $1.50, BB calls $1.00.

Flop: ($8.00) 2:h, 3:s, 5:h (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP3 checks, Hero bets $5.00, SB folds, BB calls $5.00, MP3 folds.

Turn: ($18.00) A:c (2 players)
BB bets $7.00, Hero raises to $13(All-In), BB calls $6.00.

River: ($44.00) 4:c (2 players)

Final Pot: $44.00.

Results follow:

Hero shows a straight, five high (2:c 2:d)
BB shows a straight, six high (K:c 6:c)
BB wins with a straight, six high (K:c 6:c).

Instatilt. I started to close tables, but managed to tilt away one buy-in before all the tables were closed. Oh, and I didn't get single AA or KK during this session of 800 hands. QQ and JJ once.

Another day of doom with SSS. Lost 6,5 stacks. I don't know any more, is it a massive downer or my play has changes so much that I have started to bleed chips.
Time for changes and decided to try HU. It is not a new thing to me, as I have previously played couple of hundred HU SnG-s from 2 to 10$ (profitably). Too bad my roll is so small, it's kind of risky to play in NL50. Nevertheless I won 400bb-s with 1000 hands, despite i lost whole stack going preflop all-in with TT like durrrr against Hellmuth, only I didn't suck out :(. Gonna read and watch all the material about HU I can find in this site and try out, was it just a pure luck or I have what it takes to become a winning HU player. Just have to avoid regulars and play against donks.

One interesting hand I folded, because of the small roll and scared money.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

$0.25/$0.5 No-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Known players:
[tg]BB$53.00:///////;SB(Hero)$76.25:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is SB with 2:h, 2:c.
Hero raises to $1.5, BB calls $1.00.

Flop: ($3.00) 2:s, 5:s, 6:d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB raises to $4.5, Hero raises to $15, BB calls $10.50.

Turn: ($33.00) 4:s (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($33.00) 3:d (2 players)
BB bets $36.50(All-In), Hero folds, BB gets uncalled bet back.

Final Pot: $33.00.

Bad play, I know. Should have bet the turn. But this was the worst turn card possible.

You cannot call a minraise mp3 on BTN with 22 to speculate for hitting a Set as a SS, you can never éver!

Furthermore the HU thing, you have to bet Turn for Protection, if you check behind you don't represent a flush nor straight imo.

So as I see a leak at the SS hand, work on your game and then the BBs will come!

Tilted away my roll and now broke!

NOT.

But failed at HU, lost some stacks in a row and realized, it's not yet the way to make money. Have played good SSS and slightly climbing out of the hole. I'm starting to think, that it wasn't just a downswing that hit me, it was a really bad play

Recorded a 8,5 buy-in victory today over 800 hands (despite losing 2 times to a lower pair preflop all-in) and will play another session midnight. Won also a ticket to 1M turbo takedown, played 99 FPP rebuy satellite, didn't rebuy once, didn't add-on either. Cashed 225$ last time, that gave me the initial bankroll at the beginning of April. FTW this time, I need that Porsche ♦

Also bought 650$ bonus and need some more VPP-s to clear it. Should be done by Monday. Bankroll stands at 866$. I'm feeling again, that I can beat NL100 with decent winrate (3bb/100 will satisfy me, and last 10k hands after this "downsing" I'm running at 5,2bb/100).

So, no more bullshiting with HU, no more tilting sessions with 10+ buy-ins lost. Made a poster: DO NOT PLAY ON TILT, FOLLOW THE STRATEGY! So far it has helped..

Oh, I've become DIAMOND

Well done on Diamond. Join the club!

Sounds like you have similar Luck Problems to me I'm $1200 or so below All-In ev since November. My Advice;

I advise you to not start NL200 until your roll is nice and Large. I had a shot at $1800 and then I played more when i hit $2200. (Unfortunately my initial attempt to make it my home limit flopped as I didn't table select properly and played way too many tables at any one time for a new limit I was unused to)

Variance and christmas.

I started my day with coolers mixed to tilt and lost several stacks. I still can't fully control my mindset, but I'm working on it.

And in the evening - it was like christmas. I have never seen so loose tables before. I should play all the friday and saturday nights in the future, because tables are full of donators.

Today's graph:

I have managed to allmost recover from the "downswing" that made me start this blog. Future looks bright again. I'm break-even this month overall, but several hundreds up at NL100. I won't try NL200 in near future and I won't play HU any more.

My lifetime graph in NL100 (started playing 1. april)

Today I won my biggest pot so far:

$0.5/$1 No-Limit Hold'em (9 handed)

Known players:
[tg]BU$18.00:///////;SB$111.90:///////;BB$70.00:///////;UTG1(Hero)$33.50:///////;UTG2$100.00:///////;MP1$59.00:///////;MP2$100.00:///////;MP3$232.05:///////;CO$48.60:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is UTG1 with K:c, K:h.
Hero raises to $4, 4 folds, CO calls $4.00, BU folds, SB calls $3.50, BB calls $3.00.

Flop: ($16.00) 4:c, 8:d, 9:d (4 players)
, SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $9.00, CO folds, SB raises to $107.9(All-In), BB calls $66.00(All-In), Hero calls $20.50(All-In).

Turn: ($219.40) 6:d (3 players)
.

River: ($219.40) 3:s (3 players)
.

Final Pot: $219.40.

Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of kings (K:c K:h)
BB shows a pair of sixs (6:c 5:s)
SB shows a pair of twos (2:s 2:c)
Hero wins with a pair of kings (K:c K:h).

My share from the pot - $101.50 Talk about donators..

Won also two 60$ pots.

Also received my 650$ bonus and bought 160$+16$+8$ instant cash bonuses.

Bankroll stands at 1880$ but I will cash out the bonuses, so BR remains around 1050$

It's 4.12 AM so off to sleep.

Playing at night is the nuts! I am thinking of rescheduling my day so I will sleep some hours after work and play poker around 11 PM to 3 AM. Won 6 stacks today with only 750 hands, despite losing 5 stack in process due to bad luck - Aces to fives, kings to AQo and 99 to 75s, then flopped set to runner-runner flush and Aqs to J9s in blind battle.
Day and night are simply two different worlds in Pokerstars - when normal people here in Estonia go to sleep, fish wake up in some other part of the world and start calling down with any two cards.

BR at 1245$

That's the Americahs

Hi man,

Thanks for your offer of help with my game, but I think it's time for me to put the SSS behind me. It just doesn't suit me, the awful swingy-ness of the strategy is just not something that does now or I think ever will appeal to me again.

I'm taking what's left of my BR and playing the BSS at a lowly NL5. It's a much longer road to the higher limits, but also a more stable one.

Oh yeah, and the software I use for my sweat sessions, for video I use Mikogo, and I then just use Skype for the audio. It works quite well.

Well done with your progress, sure you'll be killing NL200 real soon.

Good luck at the tables,

Danny

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

$0.5/$1 No-Limit Hold'em (9 handed)

Known players:
[tg]UTG2$56.00:///////;MP1$33.00:///////;MP2$27.35:///////;MP3$33.50:///////;CO$56.55:///////;BU$100.00:///////;SB$74.20:///////;BB$40.00:///////;UTG1(Hero)$27.00:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is UTG1 with K:s, A:s.
Hero raises to $4, 2 folds, MP2 calls $4.00, MP3 raises to $33.5(All-In), CO folds, BU raises to $63, 2 folds, Hero calls $23.00(All-In), MP2 folds.

Flop: ($129.00) 6:c, 9:d, 6:h (3 players)

Turn: ($129.00) 4:s (3 players)

River: ($129.00) 8:s (3 players)

Final Pot: $129.00.

Results follow:

BU shows a pair of sixs (A:h Q:h)
Hero shows a pair of sixs (K:s A:s)
MP3 shows a pair of sixs (A:d T:d)
Hero wins with a pair of sixs (K:s A:s).

God bless americans!

PS. My call was based on the stats and reads, so don't give me the lecture about basic SSS

Last 20k hands have been running exactly 5bb/100

Gerv, what was your winrate at NL100? Really want to beat it

BR: $1425

I don't care about winrates as long as I am playing okay and fine but afaik you already beat mine ^^

Cheers

Took a break yesterday (my second day without poker this month, first one was 3 days ago) and played a short session this morning, until americans went to bed. Only 500 hands, but another 7,5 stacks up. This is a bit scary to be honest, cause at first I thought that my game has improved, but now it seems that I'm on a huge upswing. My winrate during the last 5k hands is around 20bb/100, if not considering one lost session few days ago due to major tilt. But I wont make that mistake again, that I will prepare for a downswing, I will just keep playing my game and try to play as much when the americans are online as possible. It can't be just luck that some nice guy calls down with atc or someone thinks, it's profitable to bluff against shortstack.

Looked through the last session - lost 5 all-ins and made a mistake in 3 of them. Unfortunately constant winnings make me loosen up too much. It is so hard to just stick to your a-game whatever the outcome is. One thing I should work on.

BR: 1575$

Hi sm112,

Nice reading your blog. I'm starting SSS now again at NL50 on mansion (after grinding $50 to $300 on stars this month) and can identify with you. It is really important to play against bad players and not to tilt. I'm still learning on how to tame the tilt monster. Even small subtle mistakes can completely destroy any winnings.

It always follows like this: a few bad beats .... slight tilt (shoving AQ preflopa agaisnt retard after re-raise)...increased volume...more bad luck...the cat gets kicked...etc

Very important to set a stop loss! After 3 buy-ins I stop and review. Then might continue depending on my play and mood.

GL!
Termi8r

P.S. the bit about the cat is made up

sh*t... Diamond from NL100 SSS?? How many hands do you play a month?
I'm at NL100 SSS too but I'm just barely making it to gold status

Thanks for the support

50k hands so far this month, will try to play another 5k this weekend. 500 hands/hour, so about 100 hours.