Share and Win an ICMizer 2.0 Trial!!!

I'll give the first example.

One of the things I struggled with was understanding what to do on the bubble of a full-ring single table tournament. To figure out the ICM dynamics better, I took the 24 possible combinations of stack sizes vs. position combinations and looked at the Nash Ranges for each.

For example, I assumed the CO was the big-stack and then ran scenarios where BU was 2nd stack, SB was third stack and BB was short-stack. Then I swapped SB and BB's stacks and re-ran the scenario, etc... (i.e. for all 6 combinations where CO was big-stack). I repeated this for the 6 combos where BU was big-stack, the 6 combos where SB was big-stack and the 6-combos where BB was big-stack.

When I looked at all the results (not the specific ranges but the relationship of the ranges relative to one another) some definite trends started showing on how to play different relative stack sizes from different positions. I finally understood why I could shove wide in certain spots and why I had to shove tighter in others. I learned why I had to call so tight in certain spots and why it made sense to call much wider in other spots.

It took a bit of time, but once I had this knowledge down, my bubble play improved significantly.

I think some people here are shy so I'll give the second example and maybe someone will join in later ♠_love:

So one area I can confidently saw I improved the most on is my tolerance to bad beats.

When I first started playing poker, I would lash out and go broke all the time because I could not control my emotions.

One bad beat, I'm like "okay", the second bad beat, my body temperature starts to increase, and after multiple beats, I start getting irritated, and I would play super loose and just spew off buy-ins on top of buy-ins.

So how did I learn to become more tolerant to bad beats?

I first read the poker mindset and that gave me a better understanding of poker. I learned to leave my ego at the door and not get into fancy play syndrome or get married to certain hands.

Now it takes a few bad beats to get my blood boiling. Even after that I am aware of it and I take a small break and reassure myself that it happens and I need to let it go (my losses). This self reassurance and the ability to be self-aware of my destructive tendency has allowed me stop it right in the beginning and not in the middle or somewhere when I've already spewed off a few buy-ins. This allows me to continuously play poker profitably (most of the time lol)♠_thumbsup:

Well that's one area I improved the most on. I hope someone will share their story soon:welcome

Thanks maythany. I think tilt, even if very mild, left unchecked has been the ruin of many aspiring poker players. I recently posted elsewhere that poker is a game of small percentages and if tilt causes you to play just 2-3% outside of your "normal" "good" play zone, I think it can have a significant impact on your results...

I read Jared Tendler's The Mental Game of Poker and found it really raised my awareness level of what my triggers were and why even the mildest tilt can cause havoc with good play and learning. After reading the book, I found I can identify when I am entering a possible tilt zone and can correct myself very quickly - before my game is affected.

Great post - thanks again!

Hey there, nice opportunity.

I want to share my improvement into putting opponents on ranges.

I struggled with post-flop play, since I could not identify any signs of improvement or not in the range of the hands my opponent could have on the flop and after the flop. Since I started putting my opponent on a range according to his position, stack size, previous reads and bet-sizing, I can be more certain about where my hand stands according to his range postflop.

For example: 9handed blinds 20/40 MP1(2000 in chips) CO(2000 in chips)
MP1 raises to 120, Hero has AQ's on the CO and calls, everyone else folds.
pot(300) Flop A82 rainbow, MP1 check's, Hero bets 170, MP1 raises to 360.

In this situation MP1 could have a range like 99+A8s+ATo+KTs+KQo+QJs+JTs
After the raise on the flop, I reduce the range of the opponent to something like AK, A8 and probably some AQ or AJ sometimes. So I have and easy decision to make after working with ranges

I hope I'm in the topic.

Great post stameninho!

Putting your opponent on a range is such an important skill to work on - thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.

A couple of thoughts I had while reading your example...

• Be sure that you are putting your opponent on a range BEFORE you see the flop. Sometimes it is easy to let the flop influence what you think his opening range was, but it shouldn't. I only say that because I think you are giving him a pretty decent opening range, but one that seems bounded by the 8 on the flop - it may be a coincidence. For instance if you think he is opening with KTs or QJs, I would think he is opening with a few more pairs and Ax hands as well maybe.
• When the flop comes and the original opener check-raises you, then you do just like you did, and reduce his original range to what would he do that with.

Thanks again stameninho.

You're welcome Ramble.

Without information about the opponent, I put him/her on a range I would play at the same situation. That is because I don't feel comfortable and loose control when I widen my range in result of widening the range of the opponent.

: )

Is this still on?

Yes. I was holding out until ICMizer 2.0 comes out, (was supposed to be December, then January, now ???)... Right now the key is stameninho's unless I get another response soon to compare it to. I will put a deadline of end of February on this...