Im From Holland!

Hey YabYayo,

Very intriging first post. You should really make a blog and document your poker journey and every once in a while tell us some stories from your sick gaming past.

4000 hands isn't realy alot, so you can definitely just be running bad, this obvioously means that it is imperative that you use good BRM (bankroll management) so that when variance evens out you will be a winner.

You mentioned HEM (holdem manager) it is very important you get used to this and understand what does what, what is useful for you and what is not usefuul for you. It can totally transform your game, not in the sense that it tells you to do X or Y but it tells you where you are making money and where you are losing money. Once you know where you are going wrong we can point you to the right strategy content and give you advice on here about improving. Ofc having a popular blog will often get "regs" to post and help you out.

My LOVE is unprecedented (NOW: limited free coaching) you can see here that TLN one of our older and more experienced members is offering FREE coaching which is worth literally thousands, we have a really close community here and everybody is trying to help eachother out whether it be strategy advice, mental advice (ASK ME! Heads Up Questions) or talking about their actual experience.

Although learning and interacting is very important, it is also very important that you PLAY. You obviously have lots of experience in game theory, so you will soon work things out about poker, if you do something and think what iffffffffffffffffff, then why not post your theory on the forum and we can try to find flaws or approve it.

Really hope you become a fully fledged member of the forum, don't be scared to get stuck in and most importantly go crush it!

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

Good idea ! I'll start a blog, posting pre and post session with results and conclusions.

I'm getting used to using HEM, sofar it's told me that rasing 3-6 BB's on my AA/KK is getting me no more than folds which is interesting at the least..

I am using the BRM concept, allthough there isnt much to manage as im down to mentioned 30$.

Regarding the coaching, ive heard of this but what exactly is it? I'm imagining its a Teamviewer/skype session?

From today on i am playing a maximum of 2 sessions (2 hours/session).
Im hoping this will charge my attention as ive noticed i lose it after 2 hours of play.. Also playing 2 different times of the day keeps me sharp, i noticed there are alot more fish online at night, and the tables are loaded with supernova's during the afternoon.

Also on a side note, i like gambling (responsibly) when im so to say wasted ;(. I dont touch the cashgames tables at these moment but tend to play 0,10-1.50 MTT/SNG. Do you think this is affecting my cashgame play/mindset?

So you raise to 3-6bbs when you have a good hand and 2bb when you have a bad hand, seems a pretty easily exploitable strategy.

We call it being "balanced" when our bet sizes are the same pre flop, this way our strategy is balanced and we do the same sizings with good & bad holdings. I think its very important you understand this quickly, my friend told me yesterday that in over 50,000 hands half of his winnings came from KK/AA, if you are only winning the blinds when you make gigantic raises then not only are you not minimizing your losses (other leaks) but you're not maximising your profits too, which is very important. We can give you an article on "extracting value" if you like.

Coaching can be done in lots of ways. Here is a list of the mian ways,

1) Private coaching, you pay somebody $x and he watched you play and gives feedback. As well as watching you play he can look at your database (HEM) or alternatively talk about a theory that you are interested in but unsure about

2) Live coachings - Can be found on PokerStrategy.com, coach plays live and you tune in and interact with him via a live chat box and he explains his thought processes

3) Coach makes a video and merges it with a pwoerpoint presentatiuon and gives you a lesson.

It's abit like university where you have lectures and seminars.

The "playing tournaments when i'm tired/tilted" debate has been there for a while. If you are really just doing it for fun then I think its fine, however I would do a sesion warm up next time you play cash games. So for example, 10 minutes before you start remind yourself of thbe basic principles and the reason why you are sitting down and how your strastegy will develop, this will stop you clicking buttons and getting into "pilot" mode.

Im supprised to see how fast and serious responses i get here, thanks!

So the '3-6bb' was interpitated wrong, what i meant is i raise accordingly to what i learned in the Basic stratigy articlle. Raising 4BB + 1BB/limp. I made it 3BB + 1BB/limp, raising to 3BB seems to have the folding effects as 4BB would.
I lowerd it to 3bb based on the theory; if i raise with TT'-JJ-QQ? and someone reraises me All-in forcing me to fold, longterm this will save me allot of 1xBB. ( EDIT ; I found something here that backs me up;

)
If this is wrong in your opinion i'd like to hear so and why?

So based on what your friend said about the KK/AA..
Conclusion; -Always slowplay them? (Calling BB/Raise on blinds?)
-Only raise limped tables? (Calling open table, Raising with limps infront?)

Can anyone comment on this?^

Regarding Coaching; i think i'll research the hell out of this game before i start paying actual money to learn. I havent yet made a single dollar profit so it seems a bit over my head to allready be paying for coaching sessions.

What did you mean by; We can give you an article on "extracting value" if you like. ? Because it sounds like a good read.

I've also noticed that im being called down and beaten on the river by a straight or flush. Im aware of PotDefence so my conclusion on this is simply;
Bad players will call anything, hoping to hit their straight or flush?
In cases of defence im always betting anywhere from 75%pot to 120% pot.

At the small stakes players don't like to fold, they like to call they like to see flops, they like to see turns and they like to see rivers.

The other tendancy with beginners is that they are too passive, they check too much instead of betting and they call too much instead of raising.

Therefore with the two above information we can conclude that bet, bet BETTING is the best way to go about it. We don't however want them to get a reason to fold, so as long as we dont go out the norm it should be ok.

For example if we normally bet 50% when we are bluffing and 100% when we have a big hand they may see this, so instead if we change our sizings so that we are bluffing 60% and value betting 85% it is less noticable, but because we want to maximise our winnings we need to get as many bets CALLED and get the bets maximised.

Slowplaying with AA/KK is a huge fundamental error t micro/small stakes.

"What did you mean by; We can give you an article on "extracting value" if you like. ? Because it sounds like a good read."

We have articles/videos on all basic poker principles so if there is ever something you're unsure about and you don't understand the way I am explaining it, one of our coaches who gets paid to write articles/produce videos, will be able to make it crystal clear for you.

So its basicly bad luck if they call me down with bad cards? Longterm i should keep doing what i do?

What would you say is an effective bluff/value %? As i said im betting something arround 75% if i want hem to call, and 120% if i want them to fold.

AA/KK slowplay isnt a good idea? Right, kicked that out of my mind.

Allright, so basicly if i ever run into something that hasent yet been covered, i can request for a professional to make an article on it? Thats great!

Ive also made a blog, where i'll be updating after/before each session.

Thanks for the support so far!

just for if you missed it;
there is also a dutch forum;
https://www.pokerstrategy.com/nl/forum/

Ive seen the dutch forum and i might eventualy start looking arround there but for now i'll stick to the english section, its better for my grammar too

Sa basicly i just attempted a session, but after loosing almost 5$ in 200 hands i cut it off, i dont want to loose anymore..
<
All the losses this session were to slowplayed overpairs and set's.
** Ive learned here ; Only bet post-flop when you have the toppair. ( I was occasionaly raising midpairs on limped pots)
Getting reraised = overpair or set. According to apponents stats ( handrange ) i'll fold or call.

I have to say im getting highly annoyed but the high ammounts of 12-10 players at the tables.. Anything i raise they fold, anything i steal they reraise/call. Cbet fails every single time as they seem to always hold top pair?

What do you guys think of this and how is it to be beaten? i steal rather often but this doesnt hold up against the occasional loss.
Ive been noticing this in every single session and its whats beating me.

So if anyone wants to comment that would me much appreciated.

For now im going to give a tourn a shot, after that im off to bed.

So i just lost the 1.50$ 90player Knockout.. on the bubble i called a shove with QQ. Apponent shows KK and even hits a set on the river. Bad luck? or am i never to call a allin raise with lower than AA//KK? As it might indicate they allready have the AA/KK?

lots of great responses here from the awesome pleno thanks sir.

we actually have hand evaluation forums where hand judges can look at your hands. it is quite difficult to decide whether a hand is played properly without asking a lot about the situation. the minimum coaches usually want to know for example is what limits/buy-in, what's your stacksize, what's the opponent's stacksize, what's your/his image, what's the blinds/antes...

tournament play is quite different from cash game play.
you will need to learn ICM and practice it. in tournaments, your big blinds matter a bit, as well as your goals (for example, do you want to just get in the money vs do you want to win big) which will affect how you play.

to get started, you can read plenty of articles here in our strategy sectionas well as watch a lot of videos
we have free live coaching as well, you can drop by one session and see if you like it. here's the schedule.

dont want to overwhelm you too much but for some reason, i think you are quite capable of handling it. you're making such great progress in learning, i feel you will do very well if you stick with it.

smiles,
wendy

Cheers for your response!

I´ll be posting hand evaluations as i run into a hand that i really need help on. So far i find its easy enough to google for the particular hand and i´ll get plenty of hits.

I think i can say i have the tournaments down in my head, based on me winning about half the sng´s i entered at PP. Though players there are horrible at the 1$ SNG´s.

Ive been on this site more than i have been logged on to Pokerstars the last few days. Mostly learning but also waiting for the good tables to pop. It seems anytime i log in and check the FR2NL. avg vpip is under 20. Im losing more blinds than i can steal!

Ohyes im trying hard, i applied for a free ´love´ coaching too so i wonder how this will help my game. Whats exactly can i expect from a coaching? I have skype and Teamvieuwer, is there anything else i need to prepare for a coaching?

that's pretty much what you need. tln likes to use teamviewer5 though (if i remember correctly from personal experience). he is really an awesome member, we really love him around here

even if you don't manage to get a coaching from him, you can use the same tools to have "sweats" with other members of the community. you will meet lots of like-minded players here and you will be able to work on your games together the blog section is a good place to start meeting people

best of luck at the tables and welcome