My 13th Poker Strategy Blog! No really.... It is. (Currently Zooming through Zoom!)

Hey MrMardyBum,

Welcome to the blogging section (for the 13th time ♦)

Nice first post, also nice win rates.

Maybe Blog #13 will be Lucky 13

Will follow

Laz

Hi MrMardyBum, welcome back sir!

Glad to see you trying to put some structure together, it's not one of my strong points either.

I like the winnings as well, if you put a minus in front of them you very nearly get mine, seriously.

Have fun and hold it together for a while,

Mal.

Welcome back Danny!

Lucky number 13!

Hello Lazza61,

Thanks for reading and I hope 13th will be the lucky one too!

And Hi to Mal and Gary, nice to see some names I recognize! I've actually just finished reading the first page of your blog (Mal) and will read the rest later as I found it entertaining so far!

Thanks for the welcome back guys

I had a really good long session (for me) last night and all went really well with the only major loss coming from AA vs QQ All in pre flop and we ran it twice... He got a set both RUNS! BOTH RUNS! Luckily I only had 160bb on this table as if it happened on the other table I could of lost 4.5BI.

Anyway, I just thought that was funny and I'd mention it as I was posting to say hi to those who have commented

Oh yeah also, don't be too jealous when I tell you, but I also reached a new VIP level on Stars.... CHROME! Haha.

See ya all later

No worries, Danny. It looks like it will be a very interesting and entertaining blog.

Lol. That was 1 sick hand. Reminded me of this Robl v Antonius PLO vid.

Sick hand Lazza!

I have work in 4 hours... The thought of this makes me sad.

On the bright side, I just hit 5,000bb profit on my cash games after 12.5k hands and I am feeling rather good about myself!!

Also, I mentioned to Mal earlier in his blog that I don't play NL10, however this did get me thinking I hadn't tried the limit at Stars for a while soooo I loaded up 2 tables and what great timing it was...

Anyway only played a short session but up 3BI in less than 200 hands!

Running like God is so much fun!

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

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

Known players:
[tg]BU (Hero)$20.63:///////;SB$10.00:///////;BB$10.00:///////;MP2$6.11:///////;MP3$10.00:///////;CO$30.78:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BU with A:d, A:c.
2 folds, CO raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $1.05, 2 folds, CO calls $0.75.

Flop: ($2.25) 9:h, 8:c, A:s (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($2.25) 4:s (2 players)
CO bets $1.40, Hero calls $1.40.

River: ($5.05) 8:s (2 players)
CO bets $2.70, Hero raises to $12.90, CO calls $10.20.

Final Pot: $30.85.
Results follow:

Hero shows a full-house, aces full of eights(A:d A:c).
CO shows a flush, ace high(Q:s K:s).

Hero wins with a full-house, aces full of eights(A:d A:c).

I probably should of shoved the river rather than 5x his bet but was still a massive overbet that I wasn't expecting to get a call from. I just felt like pushing my luck!

Like or loath the check on the flop? Let me know!

The turn I had to find some restraint to keep myself from raising, and I'm glad I did because the dealer finished him off for me!

Oops, um...I mean space reserved. I obviously meant to do this.

Hey Danny,

I like the check behind on the flop for deception. The flop is not scary for you and by checking back, you start representing medium to high PPs that missed flop.

It is just one of those spots in holdem where you feel you've hit the flop so hard, you actually have to let (or hope) your opponent catches up a little or else you won't extract any value.

I probably would have raised turn, but that's mainly because I'm a 'nervous nelly' when draws start to threaten my bare set.

Keep running like God

Laz

looks ok. flop check is good for balance (lolz), but mostly you also cripple the board too hard with top set. middle set is def a bet.
raising turn would be mostly intending to cooler 99/88/44. his value (and semibluffs that actually hit) range is pretty narrow so i like call and raising rivers.

that said, stacks are deep and the only way to at least try to leverage stacks is to start betting. the deeper you are the more i prefer to bet with the nuts, he prob also will peel wider too.

Hi Lazza, Tomaloc,

Thanks for commenting on the hand, the reason I chose this hand is mainly that I am trying to be slightly less aggressive at the tables, and wasn't sure if my thought process was running the right course and I really don't want to over-compensate and start the whole "My redline is constantly going down" problem, been there don't want to return - EVER!

My reasoning for not raising the turn was that I felt he may of perceived my raise as me waiting until he got interested in the pot and then trying to extract more from him. I felt by calling it might imply that I hadn't hit my hand or I was unsure that he himself may hold the ace. I felt by calling that he may at the very least have another stab at the pot once the river came down, thereby making me more money than if I raised to 3x or 4x and he became scared and just decided his holding wasn't worth the effort.

Onto todays issues!

I had to tempt fate and state out loud I was running like god...

This obviously led me to the worst day so far, with my first back-to-back losing sessions as well! Nothing major only down -250bb and I just started pulling back from a low point of -500bb as I was ending the last session, but not only was I almost incapable of winning a SD, my usual standard of play just has not come to me today. I'm making moves and almost the instant I press the button I curse myself, because I KNOW that I've just made a mistake and lost money.

Not sure why I guess it's just an off day due to slight tiredness and having a bit of a head cold, so plan for rest of day is relax, watch a few videos (Now I made silver and I have better options), maybe play a bit of XBox before work and stay off the tables, hopefully returning tomorrow in a much clearer state of mind and not playing like a retard.

It was a good weekend for life and work, but Poker-wise unfortunately I didn't play as much volume as I should. I have however got a few hands in and made back my 250bb loss that I mentioned on the previous post largely helped by my last session where I single tabled NL5 for a while (Warm-up Session) and left 500bb better off, so all in all I'm quite good in life and feeling good at the tables.

I will start posting more hands a bit later on as I play more NL25 and the opponent action requires a bit more thought, but until then as a avid session reviewer other than a few Hero calls and random fails on my part with easy to note missteps - I don't see a lot worthy of note.

As not a lot happened here's a list of some small hardly worth mentioning achievements:

Achieved Silver on PS.com
Past 50% of the way to Silver on Stars
Unlocked a $10 Stellar Reward!
Achieved 10k hands at NL5 with positive winrate of 28.15bb/100

May as well chuck in a graph and some stats too...

Anyway, that's my mini-update

Originally posted by MrMardyBum

Random Tune I like.

Silver avater - check
Run like Usain - check
Music good - check

All present and correct, enjoy every minute of it sir! ♠_cool:

Hey Manu, thanks, I'll be doing a few sessions to that album and it's perfect length as my average sessions are 50 - 60 mins!

@ Mal, now I have your seal of approval I feel I'm officially a 'pro micro player' ♠_cool:

On a serious note - Thanks to all who take the time to read, comment and offer advice (especially given my rather inconsistent history), it's appreciated

A few things that I've been thinking about in my procrastination periods, mainly for my benefit, doubt it will be useful to many others.

Do I want to study this game?

To be honest I've done so much studying when I first found PS.com that when I try to read an article now after the first paragraph I start to become distracted. Plus, I read an awful lot of books (sometimes 4 a week, not poker related), and reading text from the PC monitor is far from ideal.

I do watch videos and READ the hand evaluation forums, plus a lot of blogs, even if I don't comment on all the ones that I read. On the negative side of watching videos, I also get distracted (by my phone or a book mainly), and sometimes just end up tidying up or something with the video pretty much playing to itself in the background. Plus, sometimes I feel the "coaches" in the videos apply WAY WAY WAY to much logic to micro's villains play and I feel myself sneering at the screen saying "Nope, you're wrong, he's just a moron trying to take on a better player". Most people at NL5 get shy about putting more money in the pot when the bets become $1+ unless they have premium holdings - I know this - I exploit this continually.

The old Don't bluff, Play tight, only continue if you feel you're ahead or have a re-draw days are over for me. It's boring uninspiring and limits my creative potential, yes, they are all okay ways of playing, but they are also easily steam rolled by a player like me. Play the player and use what you feel their perceived image of you is against them, exploit the weaknesses in their play, punish them! That's way the game is for me at the moment.

So do I want to study? No.
Should I? Yes.
Can I find the motivation to sit watching reading analyzing when I could just open tables? No.
Can I improve through playing alone? Yes.
Can I do this and still progress through the limits? Yes, but I feel reluctant. And I guess this is also the reason why I am past the standard 25BI for NL25 and still playing majority of my hands at NL5... That and the fact it's easy money and makes my graph look pretty.

What is my ultimate goal?

I genuinely don't really have one at the moment... I just want to play, don't get me wrong there are a few things I'd like to achieve but everything with Poker takes time and dedication, and I know from the previous weaknesses in my game that longevity is by far my weakest point as far as Poker goes. So planning seems irrelevant until I can guarantee that I can stick at just playing.

What improvements have I made since my last attempt?

There was a time my redline went down while the blue line went up... That now rarely happens in a session let alone over a period of 150k hands, both going up is the way I want it and it's the way it is.

Bankroll management has greatly improved obviously as I am playing rolled for 2 limits higher. I used to take shots early, move down late, and get to a frustrating point where I used to say "screw it" and I generally gave up after that.

Volume has become a side effect from playing rather than a reason to play. I used to try cramming in thousands of hands sat across 16 - 24 tables, now I quite happily sit at one or two, watching what's happening, and studying how people react.

Hand selection is more defined, and after a while becomes player/time dependent rather than a standard. When I say time as I am playing only Zoom the micro's table are a nit fest during the day (easy money when I open up) and late afternoon they start to loosen up and again it's easy money (I just tighten), I never noticed this kind of thing before, I had my ranges from each position and rarely sidestepped from it. Now I find myself 4-betting hands I wouldn't open with just a year ago. I've also started not taking Pokerstars VPIP into consideration and instead use HM2's table stats to give a quick overview of each new table and I don't treat the Zoom player pool as a whole, each new hand is a new table dynamic.

Mindset is by far my biggest improvement however like I mentioned previously somewhere mindset is easy when all the lines point skyward and all the numbers in your tracker are green! So I guess I'll need more time to reflect on this one.

Good job really look at the size of this damn post!

Hey, you know what they say: "13th time is the charm"

Just wanted to wish you good luck, and have a few questions:

1. How do you preview New Stars VPP on your position stats?

2. How do you keep your BB and SB in the green, that is just insane ♠_cool:

GL @ the tables

BTW thanks for skipping NL10, so I don't have to beware

Hey nmilan84,

1. It's real easy... On the top left of the screen underneath your tabs (Cash game graph, position etc.) click the little button that says stats. Type VPP into the search box that appears in the new window and then you can add it like any other stat on that list. Enjoy

2. I am super aggressive from blinds. I would say most of my 3-bets occur from SB or BB and at least 80% of my 4-bets are placed from those positions.

I also raise any two cards first in from BTN, and SB, and 3-bet most CO and BTN min raises and until I move to NL50 - unless I find people adapting - I have no plans to change this approach.
Plus, you have to remember that this is a very small hand sample and I'm sure those win rates from those positions will drop dramatically over the course of this blog. Also, you have to remember this is NL5, and I believe I have an edge over at least 90-95% of the people who play this limit.

Please don't take that as me being big-headed but I have beaten this limit consistently many times throughout my career (if you can call it that) so it's like playing a video game. There's that first play where every new challenge is approached with a sense of wonder and impending doom (or whatever the story line is) and first few times you fail or just get by with a struggle, then as you evolve you get better, knowing what to expect and how to react given the information from last time you played. It also helps I have a super strong bankroll and if I lose a stack I barely notice in my cashier, the bigger my cushion the harder I feel can test other players.

Thanks for reading - Hope that helps

Hmm, NL10 my last small session went pretty well.... Maybe I'll revisit...

Sat at my first session of NL25 for a while today, didn't get that many hands to get involved with but decided that I would try to add at least one session at the NL25 tables every day I'm playing well at lower limits. After the session I felt like I am still not playing with anywhere near the confidence I play at the lower micro's, but I was relatively happy and managed a good solid performance that ended slightly in the green by 35bb. I definitely feel I should of done better in certain spots where instead of playing instinctively I've stopped, and talked myself out of continuing or raising the river etc. But hopefully I'll get there and start playing the limit a bit more regularly.

As for NL5 I just love playing there, I seem to be doing everything right every time I feel I'm getting out of line in certain areas I'm managing to catch and tweak most of faults early with decent results, the player pool is large, consistent and weak. I've popped my head in at NL10 a few times also, just before I played NL25 to test myself I guess... Went well took another 200bb's back to the cashier with me.

The heater rolls on and so does my enthusiasm, nearly every session shows profit and I intend to sit and get as much of this action as I can while is hot and heavy.

Love this game.

3-Bet positional stats, mainly FAO NMILAN84

You are more aggro than me, but my blinds stats are way worse, cause I think my post flop game is pretty weak, and that's where I lose money and go into red...

Thanks for sharing stats ♠_biggrin: