New Start - Moving up the levels

So yesterday started off terribly, dropping 4 buyins over like 800 hands mainly due to bad play on my part. I decided to go for a cigarette and get it together.

I finished up 5 buyins over 5200 hands, so happy with that

Today will be alot more of the same, but as I said in my original post I come from an mtt background, so will be adding in some mtts from time to time.

tonight we are playing tcoop 30 & 31. Let's try to flip well

Hey PAYMYLOANS!

Good to see you blogging here! Any friend of Plenos is always welcome! Good luck at 20NL speed and in the TCOOPs tonight!

Will be following

Thanks for the welcome HollyMichelle

Below is a hand or 'spot' that i would like some opinions on; both villains are pretty argo regs by the looks of it. Is just flatting here leaking money long term? should be really be 4b/ calling or folding, or is flatting here ok?

IPoker, $0.10/$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BB): $20.10 (100.5 bb)
UTG: $21.97 (109.9 bb)
MP: $19.90 (99.5 bb)
CO: $31.10 (155.5 bb)
BTN: $13.48 (67.4 bb)
SB: $23.60 (118 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J J
UTG raises to $0.70, MP raises to $2, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.80, UTG folds

Flop: ($4.80) Q T 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: ($4.80) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $2.40, Hero calls $2.40

River: ($9.60) K (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $4.40, Hero folds

Results:

I'd love to offer my 2 cents here but I only play NL5 SH and I only started playing SH in the last few weeks

Hopefully some more qualified players can come share their opinion!

Originally posted by PAYMYLOANS
Thanks for the welcome HollyMichelle

Below is a hand or 'spot' that i would like some opinions on; both villains are pretty argo regs by the looks of it. Is just flatting here leaking money long term? should be really be 4b/ calling or folding, or is flatting here ok?

IPoker, $0.10/$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BB): $20.10 (100.5 bb)
UTG: $21.97 (109.9 bb)
MP: $19.90 (99.5 bb)
CO: $31.10 (155.5 bb)
BTN: $13.48 (67.4 bb)
SB: $23.60 (118 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J J
UTG raises to $0.70, MP raises to $2, 3 folds, Hero calls $1.80, UTG folds

Flop: ($4.80) Q T 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: ($4.80) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $2.40, Hero calls $2.40

River: ($9.60) K (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $4.40, Hero folds

Results:

Spoiler

$9.60 pot ($0.48 rake)
Final Board: Q T 8 7 K
Hero mucked J J and lost (-$4.40 net)
MP mucked and won $9.12 ($4.72 net)

id just fold this pre, if they are very aggro, 4b is pretty much a bluff, especially vs utg raise and mp 3b... and the problem is, u cant really decide an optimal play vs 5bet

as played i'd lead turn for protection/some value vs Tx if he is very aggro 3bettor and has it in his MP 3b range, and c/f r.

as played river is def a fold, i cant imagine a hand worse then yours that takes this line + he doesnt have any bluffs imo...

some stats could help

Originally posted by PAYMYLOANS
Thanks for the welcome HollyMichelle

Below is a hand or 'spot' that i would like some opinions on; both villains are pretty argo regs by the looks of it. Is just flatting here leaking money long term? should be really be 4b/ calling or folding, or is flatting here ok?

I think it depends entirely on UTG/MP. What is UTG OR% in this spot? If he's tight and MP is reg then MP's range is a lot stronger here. Does this MP even 3-bet vs. UTG (some players never do except with QQ+/AK)?

Personally, I fold unless UTG is opening a little wider than usual and/or MP is a bit crazy with his 3-bets. I don't want to flat and have UTG come over the top, and playing OOP vs. MP's stronger range is going to be really tough when UTG does fold.

Also, our hand is pretty much face up as 99-QQ since we clearly aren't strong enough to 4-bet/call but don't want to fold, so MP (if he is bluffing) can get us off our hand quite easily on any Ax/Kx flop -- and he will do frequently. Doubt we'd slow-play AA this way since UTG would get great odds to call with all pocket pairs, not to mention MP looks super strong and hence more likely to stack off pre.

fold pre fo sho.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I changed my style a bit today opening more and playing better through the streets, and had good results from it. Usually i play a 15/13 style (lol nit), but I was playing a 20/17 style today.

I only played 2k hands and finnished up 5 buyins, but most importaintly my non showdown line was basically break even, which i was happy with.

I'm conscious of the fact that i'll need to be a bit trickier to play against when I move up to 50nl , so I have been doing a lot of studying/ watching videos, with the main focus being 3b pots.

here is my graph so far. I am pleased with the results, but i really need to be putting in a lot more volume;

I am now away to a Norwegian class, to try to get to grips with this language!

So the new 20/17 style seems to be working really well! Albeit with a bit of rungood too ♦

Me and pleno have agreed to start 50nl on Monday, so it should be really interesting to see how I fare in those games.

Below are the graphs pre and post loosening up my game over the last week, and you can see the difference in non showdown winnings.

15/13 style

20/17 style

I am away to the airport now to pick up my dad and step mum, who have made the trip over to Norway for the weekend, so that will be nice

Have a great weekend all!

Our shot at 50nl didn't go well. we lost 8 buyins, but ran 4.5 buyins under ev, so that was not ideal.

I am under no illusions that this was just bad luck though. I feel I over adjusted to the aggressiveness of the games and got stacked in a few bad spots.

So we are back at 20nl for the time being. My goal is to get to 50nl and stay there during february, so alot of studying and grinding is needed.

I was watching plenos coaching last night, and he will be starting a bootcamp on here in March for 50nl+ players, so this has made me really determined to ensure i am comfortably playing these levels by then, and maybe with a lot of hard work we may even be able to push on to 100nl by April.

Hope everyone has a good February, lets gogogogo.

I wish you good luck in your progress. I watched pleno too but i have to say his thinking is just to advanced for me atm and it just confused me a bit. So i will stick to step by step strategy, working a lot on NL25 - NL50 HE forum.

He made some overbets on flop and so on and just because he understand ranges and boards so good. If we try to do this i think we will just did a lot of mistakes since it is not a big difference in acting a little +EV and a lot -EV.

Also i think players like him do think about all the hands in a manner we cannot do yet.

For me it is something like you play soccer and try moves of Ronaldo at the beggining. Of course you will fail...well if you train hard you won't be ever probably as good as him but you can still be good enaugh to make great living. I dont know if this is good comparison but i hope you feel what i want to say

Good luck again

Originally posted by Alan883
I wish you good luck in your progress. I watched pleno too but i have to say his thinking is just to advanced for me atm and it just confused me a bit. So i will stick to step by step strategy, working a lot on NL25 - NL50 HE forum.

He made some overbets on flop and so on and just because he understand ranges and boards so good. If we try to do this i think we will just did a lot of mistakes since it is not a big difference in acting a little +EV and a lot -EV.

Also i think players like him do think about all the hands in a manner we cannot do yet.

For me it is something like you play soccer and try moves of Ronaldo at the beggining. Of course you will fail...well if you train hard you won't be ever probably as good as him but you can still be good enaugh to make great living. I dont know if this is good comparison but i hope you feel what i want to say

Good luck again

Thanks dude!

I know where you are coming from, but there is a great amount of value to be taken from the trainig imo. For me yesterday i got the most out of the bet-sizing he uses, and when to induce bluffs etc.

Great day today!

We had to clear 300 ps points to get the treble gemstones, and we managed this with a 6500 hand session. I hit a personal mileshone today and finally hit a +10 buyin day ♦

I was stuck like $70 after 2k hands, so a lovely 13.5 buyin swing in 4k hands

Tomorrow i will be having another shot at 50nl. Me and pleno have agreed at a 2 buyin stop loss this time after dropping 6 on Monday, but it is a Friday evening, so hopefully the games will be soft and this will be fine.

Below is my hand of the day ♦ Enjoy.

IPoker, $0.10/$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: $20 (100 bb)
UTG: $8.10 (40.5 bb)
MP: $31.52 (157.6 bb)
Hero (CO): $20.58 (102.9 bb)
BTN: $17.29 (86.4 bb)
SB: $8 (40 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 3 3
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.60, BTN folds, SB calls $0.50, BB calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.80) K 6 A (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.80) 3 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $1.35, Hero calls $1.35, SB folds

River: ($4.50) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $3.37, Hero raises to $18.63 and is all-in, BB calls $14.68 and is all-in

Results: