Starting As a Fish

Over the last few days I have been reading and studying. After rereading the first few chapters of the mental game of poker its come to my attention that I have been trying to improve the wrong thing in my poker game. in the book it states improve the back end of your game so your front end improves. well I thought that was the goals I have set out above, when in fact its actually my mental game, when I'm playing well, its safe to say I'm not that bad at all, but when I'm playing bad I'm absolutely terrible, and that terrible play is all down the my mental game so i need to set out some new goals and i have also changed the game back to what I like here are my new goals and games.

Goals

1. Take notes of anything that triggers emotion while playing or away from the table.
2. Get enough rest and try have 1 day off a week from the daily grind.
3. Keep reading The Mental Game Of Poker and working on my mental game.

I think this is enough to work on for now.

Games

6max Deep 250bb

In the first post you talking about MSS/SSS and in 2nd post about the 250 BB tables. That’s 2 total different cash game dynamics. I would only play on the 100BB tables as cash game noob. It’s difficult I think to deal with a 250BB+ stack if you’re only familiar with 100BB or even less.

Further I wish you all the best to reach you’re goals

Cheers,
SDK198

Hello SDK, thanks for the feedback, I understand what your saying but I'm not a complete noob at deep stack play lol, I feel that I am capable of beating them, the reason I have changed my goals is because, when i set up this blog i thought that what I wrote in the first post was the weakest part of my game. I realised that it wasn't and my mental game was by far worse so i changed my goals to train my mental game only until it really improves and its made quite a difference as you will see on the graphs I will post soon.

regards FrozenElf

Here is my overall graph I changed my game and learning goals to mental game at 10k hands

Im trying to improve my mental game and following the steps from the mental game of poker im wondering if im doing this correctly?

1 Describe the problem?
I feel nervous in 3 bet pots

2 Why does it make logical sense that I would react, think or feel that way?
because I could lose a big pot

3 Why is that logic flawed?
because I could lose a big pot in any type of pot

4 What is the correct way to handle the situation?
I cant control weather I win or lose I can only control I can only control how well I play

5 Why is the correction correct?
as long as I lose less then my opponents ill beat them

if I got this whole thing completely wrong feel free to correct me thanks

After working on my mental game I can see an improvement on my overall graph, after about 10k hands I started to work on my mental game, im still making some silly calls here and there but its hardly bothering me and im able to play for hours without feeling pissed off, I even laughed last night at losing two stacks 1 after the other. now I just need to focus on not making mistakes aswell as mental game and hopefully change this graph to a steady uprising,

Note: all the downward parts of the graph is from tilt there is none after 20k hands or so hopefully I can keep it that way

so the last week or so hasn't been the best poker experience, with suckout after suckout in 3b pots and some crazy runner runner gutshots :f_biggrin:, but overall im really happy with my mental game and my overall game ive improved so much im keeping records of my play (well trying to) my learning is more organised and anger frustration and other emotions don't get seen hardly ever and even when im playing on tilt im not that bad compaired to before, ive tilted twice in 2 weeks and lost about $7 witch is fantastic comparing that to 10 or so tiliting sessions and spewing my entire bankroll by now.

Bankroll $102.86 (with the help of clearing the deposit bonus)

ive also decided to take a step back and master the basics of preflop play, how to play after the flop as the aggressor and player type analysis and how to play vs them

my overall graph

Look at the state of this graph

When i first sit down to play i play great but after about 1 hour of play followed by a bit of bad luck my game completely falls apart i am going to add my thought process, strategic reminder to sticky notes and injecting logic statements to my background so i can see them while i play and see if this makes a difference ill post up another graph in 10k hands or so and see

BR $97.42

I keep making very stupid mistakes like calling/4betting min 3bets preflop by CS, calling reraises posflop in 3b pots aswell, and calling pot bets

So for now, my goal is simply not make any of these mistakes during a session

i just played a 4 hour session and having them sticky notes really seemed to help me stay focused i made like one of them mistakes i felt as though i had some bad luck but overall i played rather well here are some of my hands

i think this was a bad preflop call he was a tag/reg

Hero (BTN): $9.56
SB: $12.54
BB: $6.76
UTG: $18.38
MP: $12.92
CO: $12.50

Pre Flop: ($0.13) Hero is BTN with Q 9
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, SB raises to $0.54, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.39

Flop: ($1.19) 5 8 Q (2 players)
SB bets $0.76, Hero raises to $2.53, SB raises to $11.99 all in, Hero calls $6.48 all in

Turn: ($19.21) 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($19.21) 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $19.21
Hero shows Q 9 (a pair of Queens)
SB shows K K (a pair of Kings)
SB wins $18.41
(Rake: $0.80)

Here is the mistake that was trying not to make

Hero (SB): $6.10
BB: $5.09
UTG: $9.55
CO: $7.37
BTN: $12.28

Pre Flop: ($0.12) Hero is SB with K A
1 fold, CO raises to $0.15, BTN calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.60, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.45

Flop: ($1.45) 3 A T (2 players)
Hero bets $0.92, BTN raises to $11.67 all in, Hero calls $4.57 all in

Turn: ($12.43) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($12.43) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $12.43
Hero shows K A (two pair, Aces and Nines)
BTN shows T T (a full house, Tens full of Nines)
BTN wins $11.91
(Rake: $0.52)

got rivered by an agro

Hero (BTN): $14.43
SB: $27.11
BB: $14.88

Pre Flop: ($0.10) Hero is BTN with K 7
Hero raises to $0.10, SB calls $0.08, BB raises to $0.70, Hero calls $0.60, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.53) K 2 8 (2 players)
BB bets $0.90, Hero calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.33) T (2 players)
BB bets $1.90, Hero calls $1.90

River: ($7.13) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $7.13
Hero mucks K 7
BB shows Q A (a pair of Aces)
BB wins $6.83
(Rake: $0.30)

the player was a tag/reg he had to have 33

Hero (BTN): $8.12
SB: $19.27
BB: $9.34
UTG: $12.94
MP: $14.43
CO: $5.30

Pre Flop: ($0.13) Hero is BTN with 2 A
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, SB calls $0.13, BB calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.51) 2 3 2 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $0.36, SB calls $0.36, BB folds

Turn: ($1.23) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.88, SB raises to $2.84

Final Pot: $2.99
SB wins $2.87
(Rake: $0.12)

hey man good luck with your goals just some feedback

I think one of the reasons you might be nervous in 3bet pots is because you are calling with hands that are easily dominated in 3bet pots, if I was you I would stick to calling with strong hands.

Q9s I would fold in hand 1 to the 3bet
Hand 2 with AK, readless on villian I'd call it off too - they played their set very retarded.
Hand 3 I'd also fold to the 3bet.

Good luck! Will be watching your progress.

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou

Q9s I would fold in hand 1 to the 3bet

Good luck! Will be watching your progress.

Hello ISoOwnYou,

As a standard line I do fold this type of spot, ill put it down to slightly tilted, I have tried to avoid calling here with these suited connectors.

I just played a 3 hour session overall I think I played really well, I made one mistake at the end and decided to take a break for 20 mins, heres the hand.

I was playing for quite a while this guy was a reg I was only playing 2 tables and I felt as though he was slightly tilted, and decided to call on the BTN with A9s this isn't my standard line but I felt it was right.

BB: $6.08
UTG: $8.41
MP: $10.10
CO: $13.61
Hero (BTN): $16.02
SB: $14.43

Pre Flop: ($0.13) Hero is BTN with 8 A
2 folds, CO raises to $0.15, Hero calls $0.15, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.43) 8 Q 2 (2 players)
CO bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.03) 3 (2 players)
CO bets $0.74, Hero calls $0.74

River: ($2.51) J (2 players)
CO bets $1.80, Hero calls $1.80

Final Pot: $6.11
CO shows 2 Q (two pair, Queens and Deuces)
Hero mucks 8 A
CO wins $5.86
(Rake: $0.25)

BR $119.39

I felt the need to share this hand :profit::f_biggrin:

Hero (UTG): $7.52
MP: $8.23
CO: $14.11
BTN: $18.83
SB: $12.43
BB: $11.89

Pre Flop: ($0.13) Hero is UTG with 9 A
Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, CO calls $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.56) 8 6 J (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($0.56) 4 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($0.56) K (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets $0.55, SB folds, Hero raises to $7.36 all in, CO calls $6.81

Final Pot: $15.28
Hero shows 9 A (a flush, Ace high)
CO shows 2 K (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins $14.65
(Rake: $0.63)

Nice take down the last hand!

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
Nice take down the last hand!

Thanks! I was that guy about a week ago

I have had my 2 boys over for the night last night so was unable to play poker. ive had lots of fun with them today chasing them round playing tig and stuff :f_biggrin:, they have gone home now so I will play a few hour session gonna try and up my tables from 2-4 and see how it goes ill post graphs of my progress after this session since I put thoise sticky noted up on my screen.

Peace

Ok so I decided to give it neck im very slightly tilted making some weak cold calls and folding postflop nothing major, im also very tired the kids had me up all night and playing with them all day has exhausted me.

This last session has been really tough lots of weird spots im not used to vs regs, I spotted another huge leak in my game witch im happy about overall tho I think I played rather well and still made a of $7.50 despite getting suckout out and AK vs AA all in preflop.

Here is my overall graph and my graph since I put sticky notes on my screen

my graph after adding some sticky notes to my sight while playing

My over all graph

I felt as though this was +ev to check and go from there, im not going to go in to detail why

UTG: $8.76
MP: $12.60
CO: $3.53
BTN: $6.33
Hero (SB): $7.88
BB: $10.71

Pre Flop: ($0.13) Hero is SB with Q Q
1 fold, MP raises to $0.20, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.20, Hero raises to $0.80, BB calls $0.75, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.66) J 7 T (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets $1.85, Hero calls $1.85, BB calls $1.85

Turn: ($8.21) 7 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets $3.67 all in, Hero calls $3.67, BB calls $3.67

River: ($19.22) A (3 players - 1 is all in)
Hero checks, BB checks

Final Pot: $19.22
BTN shows J A (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Hero shows Q Q (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
BB mucks Q J
BTN wins $18.42
(Rake: $0.80)

BR $148.75

This hand illustrates how me being nervous in 3 bet pots really affected my play, i went from fearsome lag to calling station fish. This is how it happened.

i was playing here 3 way for a while, both players were tight aggressive, so i decided to to become loose aggressive, everything was going smoothly, because im getting used to playing 3bet pots now, but notice in this hand something slightly different happened. BB cold called my 3bet, the hand went unexpected and i wasn't prepared for that, and got nervous, because this type of situation is new to me and i didn't know how to react to cold call to my 3bet by a TAG.

his range is very strong here slightly looser 3 way but full ring he has a monster. check fold is the best option i would consider betting a K high flop

BB: $14.71
BTN: $10.68
Hero (SB): $5.38

Pre Flop: ($0.10) Hero is SB with 7 T
BTN raises to $0.15, Hero raises to $0.45, BB calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.08) 7 Q 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $0.74, Hero calls $0.74

Turn: ($2.56) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $1.65, Hero calls $1.65

River: ($5.86) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $2.30, Hero calls $2.30

Final Pot: $10.46
BB shows Q A (a pair of Queens)
Hero mucks 7 T
BB wins $10.03
(Rake: $0.43)