6max RELOADED- start: NL5 now:NL25 I can poker

Hello fellow pokerstrategisers

Today I played golf with a couple of friends (this is the beginning of golf speak. WARNING: for those with no interest in golf feel free to skip to the end of this).

(golf section over)

Since investing in HEM2 I've definitely come to appreciate the role of variance in poker to a far greater extent. Below are graphs from my last two significant sessions. The first was the session that I felt I played my best game in (perhaps even the elusive A game) however I only won around 1/2 a buy in; the second was I'd say my B(-) game but I won 1 and 1/2 buy ins. The graphs give me some idea of what the long run might look like and just comparing my "unlucky session" with my "lucky session" I am able to see that I am not the victim of the poker God's sick joke.

When I played well

When I played not so well

Finally, and on a jovial note, I saw some of the funniest table chat ever today. Normally I'm not a big fan of nationalism (my opinion on the subject is best expressed by Doug Stanhope who I highly recommend to you) but on the euro-player swamped poker stars one player from the UK came up with some very good currency based insults:

I may be the worst player here but your currency is the euro"
Your bonds are giving 8% YIELDS"
... and finally after getting into a dispute about the number of buy-ins he had on the table
Portuguese Player: "Buy in for 12.5"
UK Player "Not 12.5 euros thats worth nothing"

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.

Hopey

Originally posted by Hopey
A final question here; how much attention should be paid to All-in EV? is it a significant indicator of good or bad luck that should in the long run be nearly equal to your actual winnings? or does it hold less weight and is it therefore likely that you will continually find your actual winnings to be below or above the All-in EV line?

well, EV line doesn't account for setups (ie AA vs KK) and postflop suckouts (ie you are commited vs fish by the turn, then he spikes his nuts on the river and you shove) also there's a lot of stuff on the "wrongness" of the all-in ev line if you search around.
still, it often looks like kind of a magnet to the actual winnings line... which is kinda in line with the law of large numbers

Originally posted by Hopey
In terms of learning its obviously easier for the golfer who has never played before and the poker player who only knows the rules to better

yes... i think that applies to learning anything actually. and it's like learning goes on an exponential curve.
the more you know, the harder it is to learn extra... and the less perceptible difference it makes.

i mean, who, being a rookie in any field (let's stick to games for easier reference), can tell what actually makes a master better than an expert? maybe we can even give some generic answer, but if we had to play both of them, would we be able to tell the difference at all?

i'm a bit sleepy but i think i get my point across.

Hello fellow pokerstrategisers

This is update 3 and for me marks a week since I started playing again. So I think I will conduct a small positives v negatives of my game in the last week.
Positives:

I have not lost badly I started out very poorly; unable to make good decisions quick enough, timing out often; making very fishy calls against very fishy opponents and therefore sinking to -$39 after 6800 hands (something like a loss rate of -88bbs/100-----OUCH!). Then I took some a day to clear my head, write a not to myself that I stuck on my screen reminding me not to make "Fucking shit calls." Maybe it was variance or maybe it was the note but from that point ive put together some nice sessions and am now only -$2.53 after 13724 hands. If I hadn't lost 1 and 1/2 buy ins in an ill fated attempt at Zoom poker I'd be up.
Back to 6 tabling I feel this is the number of tables that I play my best game at. Any less and I sometimes find myself getting bored; meaning I'm browsing the web whilst playing or get a case of Fancy Play Syndrome. So I'm happy with the volume
Reading I've read and reread and then reread the sections I needed to work on in the Poker Blueprint, I've also posted some questions in this forum and read a ton of threads about 6max. I'm happy with myself Concentration I think it goes without saying that this is key if you want to be a winning poker player. It was extremely gratifying for me when I put together 4 consecutive winning sessions lasting between 2 and 5 hours. It would have been 5 consecutive but today, after being over 2 buy ins up, I lost badly in the last 150 hands and finished about 6bbs down

Negatives

Poor start If I hadn't lost so much in my first 6500 hands through what was mostly poor play I'd be in excellent shape right now. In addition I've found that often in the first 300 hands of a session I will make a bad play, trying to force myself start well but failing, and then spend a long time working to get back to break even for the session. I need to sort this out.
Zoom Poker It's not for me, neither was rush poker at full tilt. I need to avoid it.
Individual Battles I've noticed that when I perceive an individual player to be a fish I get worked up and end up playing a lit of pots really badly against them. They may be bad players but calling them down with the 3rd best pair is not going to win me much money, patience my dear boy.

Couple of hands that demonstrate stuff that I do

Example 1: The classic curiousity call

Example 2: Hitting my 1 outer for a savage cooler i.e."The Dream Hand"

Hopefully by next week I will be winning in my second attempt at poker

Thanks

Hopey

nice blog i will keep my eye on it. ♠_cool:

Hey man nice blog

I'm playing micro stakes too (NL10 atm) if you fancy having some sweat sessions/session reviews?

Ok, I had a disaster.

Not a poker ♠_confused: one.

AN ACTUAL FUCKING DISASTER ♠_o: .

See below:

(image may have been exaggerated for effect)

Therefore I haven't played much since Sunday, and I barely played on Saturday.

This weekend the team I play football for lost 5-1, a player in the football team I support broke his leg, I had to make a 4 hour journey to get back to university, I had to start my final essays of the year and my laptop charger basically blew up.

A bit of a life tilt.

Onwards and upwards though, I'm 2 and 1/2 buy ins up after 20000 hands and I received a $10 bonus from pokerstars which= another two buy ins =).

Holme boy what game do you play? I've only ever played 6max and have no idea how that transfers to full ring.

Time to shuffle up and deal!

Hopey

I am reading a book at the moment called "The Art of Fielding" by Chad Harbach. It isn't poker but it raises some salient points about dreams and the all consuming nature that sometimes comes with them. It's a question that many people, I believe, do not ask themselves enough; what if my best is not enough? I suppose you can practice, study, work, try again and that's what most people do, when they fail. But for many thats not enough to attain what they really desire and once you've missed out on that all you can do is reminisce about "what could have been;" perhaps the only state of mind that is worse than the deluded "I can make it" attitude that comes before that.

So what have I learnt: keep my achievements in perspective and forget what happened yesterday, I can only affect today and tomorow.

Amateur philosophy/psychology over.

I am now playing NL10. I have put NL5 behind me (hopefully for good). My reward for this has been a healthy dose of rungood. As I feared the change in betting amounts initially scared me, the idea that with 1 bad play or 1 piece of bad luck I could be set back 2 buy-ins in NL5 that I'd worked pretty hard to beat was pretty frustrating and therefore I played pretty weak-tight X(. Then after 1500 of the most irritating hands I have ever played a donkey spewed of a buy in to me with top pair no kicker and since then it has been smooth sailing. Bring on NL25 (or whatever comes next) hehe.

My lifetime total poker losses now stand at -$150ish. $50 of that is the poker strategy bonus, and it doesn't take into account a couple 1st deposit bonuses that I cleared. Taking that into accont I am almost break-even for my poker lifetime (in terms of money that I personally have lost because of poker). Rebirth =).

The post that this replaces was mental.

As in "insane" mental: not "wild party animal" mental.

So I removed it

Hello fellow poker strategisers

Since the last update that wasn't mental my poker results have dived a little. I failed to cash in about 5MTTs in a row and lost 2.5 buy-ins at NL10.

I think there are parts of my game that haven't been as strong in NL10 as in NL5, primarily my continuation betting. At NL10 I am conti-betting 8% less than at NL5, my conti-bet success rate is about the same so I'm not really sure why I haven't maintained the previous level (it's not like the players at NL10 are running my conti-bets over and forcing me to play tighter post flop). This drop in conti-bet% is making it harder for me to get value for my hands, which seems to be the aim of the game in the micro-stakes, and I think its making me a little predictable.

The remedy I have conceived for this is to play less tables and make sure that I'm aggressive on flops that look dangerous, particularly A high flops which seem to scare the shit out of the fish unless they have hit (in which case they generally call which lets me check/fold the turn without improvement or they raise and I can fold the hand on the flop).

I'm also giving up zoom poker for good, I think the speed of play and some of the randomness that goes on there irks me and pushes me towards tilting. Up until last night my poker revival had been fairly tilt free but after losing with KK to JT when the guy hit his gutshot on the turn I did tilt to the tune of minus 2 buy-ins. Also my game generally centres around isolating fish pre-flop and then extracting money post flop from them, when I have no idea who the fish is it's difficult to play this way- which further frustrates me.

Thanks

Hopey

Sooo..... I said that I wouldn't play zoom ever again and lasted about 15
minutes. During those 15 minutes I looked through the pokerstars options to see if I could block myself from it, I couldn't.

Somewhat responsibly I decided that if I was going to play the game that makes me tilt then I should drop a level and so played at NL5. Fortunately I can report that this seemed to relax me a little and I finished 3 buy-ins up after about 2500 hands which repairs some of the damage I inflicted upon myself yesterday.

I still struggled with continuation bets both from me and from my oponents and at times it felt like I was making a random choice between betting/checking or folding/calling/raising, so I know what I'm going to be reading tonight.

My mood was also massively improved by United's very good attempt at screwing up their season. Boring, uninspiring club full of boring, uninspiring players.

Bonsoir mes amis

Hopey

Tilt avoidance FTW.

played 193 hands today the 188th hands I held KK in position on a 554 flop. He bets into me, I raise him, he shoves, I call. QUADS- bye bye buy in.

190th hands I held 88 on the button in a 3way pot. Flop falls 68T. Some betting and raising insues. Two of us are all in TTT beats 888.

I think I will stop for today.

I hate people.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.05/$0.1 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

Known players:
[tg]SB$16.75:///////;BB$18.53:///////; (Hero)$10.87:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is with J:s, T:h.
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, BB calls $0.20.

Flop: ($0.65) T:s, K:d, 3:c (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($0.65) T:c (2 players)
BB bets $0.30, Hero raises to $0.91, BB raises to $1.52, Hero calls $0.61.

River: ($3.69) 3:s (2 players)
BB bets $16.71, Hero calls $9.05.

Final Pot: $29.45.
Results follow:

Hero shows a full-house, tens full of threes(J:s T:h).
BB shows a full-house, kings full of tens(K:c K:h).

BB wins with a full-house, kings full of tens(K:c K:h).

I have barely used this blog to talk about things outside of poker.
But today is different. Today is the day that Pep Guardiola resigned.

Some may say at this point that a blog post about Guardiola has no place in a poker forum but those who who have said/thought this are small minded. This is because success, brilliance and style are things that apply to everything that it worth excelling at.

Where Pep lead the way most beautiful and the most stylistic football another can lead the way in poker.

Pep at Barcelona was a man who could balance his long standing passion for the team with rational and reasonable thought process; but also allow his passion to assist in his goals. In this respect he is a man to follow in all walks of life.

In the same way if some of the poker players who bring thousands to the game were to retire we would all be less off; we are worse of in football because this genius has ceased to contribute.

Hopefully it is "for now" and he will come back somewhere else (and stronger) but if not then the memory will be fantastic. If I achieved half of what Pep achieved, in his pursuits in his field, then I would consider myself a success.

There is little I can say as a salute to a man who many regard as a master, except to say that those who do not regard him likewise have missed out.

I hope that you come back soon Pep. If you do not then the hours of entertainment you gave me cast your inferiors in a harsh light, you truly opened my eyes to another alternative and I think that it is something I will look for in all walks of life forever.

I feel like my generation has lost their mona lisa.

Thank you again

Pep Guardiola

Something I know: IPoker is the most irritating network in history!

Something I wish for: that pokerstars account was linked to pokerstrategy!

I decided that I was struggling a lot with NL10 and that I needed some help. The knowledge I had learnt from the bronze strategy articles was not quite enough for me to have a significant edge over some of my oponents. So I moved my whole roll to Poker770 and that's where I can be found today.

So far it has been a tale of two limits. I started NL10 and immediately started absolutely crushing, small sample size but I have never felt like I have more of an edge over oponents. I very rapidly moved up to NL20 and then the whole world came crashing down and I lose at an equally quick rate. So I drop to NL10 and start absolutely crushing, suddenly I have the 25 buy ins for NL20 then 500 hands later I'm back in NL10 territory after dropping 5 or 6 buy-ins SOOOOOOOOOOOO quickly.

Part of it I believe is some adaptations I have made to my game since moving to Poker770 and reading and watching silver stuff; this has made me far less passive and given me greater clarity of thought in marginal situations. The result of this is me playing many larger pots, and I suppose consequently winning or losing greater amounts on a hand-for-hand basis. The other part has to do with coolers, at NL10 I have barely been going 100 hands without turning over top set to someone's middle set; at NL20 I have barely been going 100 hands without turning over middle set to someone's top set. Que sera sera I suppose and in the long run I'm sure I'll catch a few hands at NL20 and be on my way (at least I hope so).

This happened whilst I was writing this. I don't really want to fold out AK, AQ, JJ, TT. So that's why I flat called pre-flop. I think this is a cooler right?

Thanks

Hopey

I decided to shell out some of my FPPs and enter the low buy in hold 'em SCOOP tournament tonight. I think this weekend will be the last time for a couple of weeks that I will be able to devote a night (or hopefully 2) to poker before my end of year exams so here's me wishing myself luck.

On 16k after 10 levels with the bb at 300.

Sometime later....

Currently on 160k, BB is 5k, If I busted now it would be for $80 which is 8 buy-ins should be aiming for more than that though

...a little bit later....

big hand!!! I have TT in the SB folds to me. I 2.5x and the BB ships it on me for 25bbs (roughly the size of both our stacks. I snap called he had J4 off suit.

Ofc the flop has a J, I'm like fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccckkkkkkkkkk this (weird how you have a different attitude when you are on the receiving ends of things like that).

Then the turn is beautiful, a T of hearts.

346k with the bb at 7k

....moving on....

hit a set of 4s guy shoved his KK on a dry board nom nom nom chips for me.

590k BB at 10k

One step closer to victory.

...later its now 4.04am...

I was up to 900k then, but now on 620k. I switched tables and made a really tight fold with TT OOP pre flop vs a 4bet (based on the fact that I hadn't seen much 4betting and I didn't want to play a big pot or push and maybe face a flip when I had a decent stack- maybe I'm wrong here?). The guy I folded to goes by the name: Shakentoucan.

As far as I can tell he is a pretty good poker player (checking around the internet) and over the next 20 hands played 47/47. Probably should have 5 bet but oh well. Still in good shape and playing pretty well.

Will edit this post with updates as things progress. ♠_grin:

So SCOOP event 2 is going fucking well for me at the moment.

1. I'm running like god.
2. I outplayed a player far better than me (shakentoucan) out of a large pot.
3. I have 1,856,000 chips, currently good for 27th place.
4. Even if I fuck up now I double my bankroll.
5. I didn't spend any money entering I used FPPs which means I'm living with the illusion that I have nothing to lose.
6. I am now no longer on the table with shakentoucan so he can't get his chips back.
7. shakentoucan said "lol run better" sarcasticly to me because he thought I'd hit my hand when really I just used position to my advantage and bluffed that I had, thus taking some of his chips.
8. For this brief period I get to feel like a baller! ♠_cool:

Great to hear this Wish you luck man!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 27 Tournament, 15000/30000 Blinds 3750 Ante (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1029913)
BB (t805070)
UTG (t567153)
Hero (UTG+1) (t1546021)
MP1 (t2484406)
MP2 (t1384365)
MP3 (t380002)
CO (t2881767)
Button (t624949)

Hero's M: 19.63

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A, A
1 fold, Hero bets t60000, 3 folds, CO raises to t150000, Button raises to t621199 (All-In), 2 folds, Hero raises to t1542271 (All-In), CO calls t1392271

Flop: (t3784491) 7, 4, 3 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t3784491) 5 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3784491) J (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t3784491

The other 2 players showed KK with a spade
and AQ with a spade

I swear I will never moan about bad luck again

GFG ROFLLL