Summer of Success - Breaking through Mental Barriers

RFI – Strategy
My RFI strategy is based of paid ranges from weasel, so I won’t post the ranges that I use, but I will post the types of hands I play, and then the adjustments I make for isolation raises.
Notes

RFI Plan UTG: 13.9% MP: 18.60% CO: 26.70% BU: 47.5% SB 36.85%
The ranges are relatively standard a good mix of playability and equity. I will utilize an exploitative limping strategy in the sb against passive players.

Exploitative adjustments: We want to exploitatively widen against certain player types in the blinds. Weighted more towards equity against fun players, and then more speculative against players that are too tight. The Button makes a big difference as well since he or she can 3bet us a lot with position.

In general, we adjust less the earlier we are in position against players in the blinds. We want to look at BB. BU, SB in that order and then come up with a gameplan. I have highlighted an outline below.
Tighter: We open wide with more speculative hands when all three of them are tight. Our intention is to steal the blinds. We do this from at late as CO. We open speculative hands to avoid being dominated against their tight range, and with a smaller SPR we want to favor playability. These players will fold lots so we can use our playable hands in position to generate some folds, and occasionally win a big pot with out straights and flushes.

Weak/Passive/Fish: Against these player types we want to raise wider as well. I want to favor more high equity hands that we will make a lot off of them by their post flop mistakes from them calling to much and being more passive. Aggression makes it easy to fold.

Aggressive 3 bettors: To adjust to an aggressive 3bettor on the button/blinds we can open less, or even open smaller hands that can win a big pot smaller, so we can call more hands. On the other side of the coin we can bet bigger when we want to get three-bet to make the pot bigger. (AA in CO vs Aggressive line up). I suspect it might be a good idea to call, if we have multiple aggressors with the intention of getting squeezed, but that would have to have some aggressive people behind us.
I have spent a while going through my RFI ranges and adding what I think would be good for fish in the blinds and nits in the blinds. I need to put in more work off the table to work on this.

Isolation plan raise 4bb + 1 for each extra IP, 5BB + 1 for each extra OOP
Mp - 18.5%, CO - 24%, BU -39%, SB Raise - 11.76% SB - limp behind 58% BB (UTG - BU) 11.76% BB (sb) 47%

In general, since most people open limping are fish, I tend to use more equity based hands rather than playability weighted hands. We need a hand that can win at showdown against fish, and the SPR will be bigger in the pot, but I think the SPR is still big overall, so it’s not like we are going to be playing like we are in a 4bet pot, but a MW pot with some limpers can get big.

Hand Review
Hand 1
After reviewing my hands for today I found one that was horribly misplayed. I this hand was in my first session, where I felt a little overwhelmed and not very relaxed, so I think this was a big contributor to what happened.
Hand can be viewed here:
https://www.weaktight.com/h/5adfe742d390439b3a8b46c2
I think there could be an argument for checking the turn, since I think 98s, 87s are common to call IP on, but I also think he has TT and JJ, x9s here a lot of the time. Villain was relatively unknown at the time. Honestly at NL5 I have been seeing people call with worse.
The big mistake here was under betting the river imo. The board is low enough that I think I am ahead of a decent amount of hands here where I feel like a 2/3 bet sizing is warranted. Enough draws bricked where this weakness could be easily capitalized on. I think villain could easily be over repping a 9 for a worse over pair like TT or JJ, maybe QQ since I was from EP (probably still would have 3bet me.)
Board: 9d8c2d8s5c
Range 1: JJ-88,A9s,T9s,98s,87s,[45]QQ[/45]
Range 2: AcAh
Equity 1: 27.237% Win 1: 27.237% Tie 1: 0.000%
Equity 2: 72.763% Win 2: 72.763% Tie 2: 0.000%

Putting a range with no flush draws and I am still beating 73% of the calling range. If he has the nuts he is still raising the river and we fold, so maybe I did save money in this particular hand, but I think under betting here is a big mistake in the long run.

Hand 2
This hand really confused me and maybe I should chalk it up to just that.
https://www.weaktight.com/h/5adfe852d39043c9378b46c1
When he checks the flop I am really only worried about like QJs, or something, then when he bets turn small I think it’s less likely he has a Q to be honest. With a small river bet I am pretty sure it’s not a Q here at all, so I think it is an easy call with JJ. Missed a lot of value with AA, maybe he was going for a c/r? idk.

Session Reflections
My first session was rough. I felt little overwhelmed and I started to panic a little bit. It took the first 1k hands to relax a little bit. My second and third session were a lot better. I was much more relaxed and I didn’t feel as panicked. I turned the game sounds off. That alarm style beeping that stars has was probably not helping my mindset.

Still have a lot of the similar mindset issues that I had before. Wanting to quit after winning a lot etc. Getting anxiety about having a bad session, but after the first 1k hands I felt a lot better to be honest. I will get use to the fact it is one big session and it will all go away I think. I still lose confidence when I am not running well. I think it showed a lot in the first 1k hands I played today.

I did some quick combo counting on certain boards last night, and I was happy to see a 15% gap in my C betting IP and C betting OOP today. I had this issue a lot in November. That wasn’t too tough to fix after spending 45 minutes last night running some boards. They both needed to be about 5% higher, but that I don’t think that is a huge issue. I will worry about that when I get to c-betting.

I was doing a much better job of looking at the blinds for exploitative open raising. The next two days are all going to be spent on 3betting ranges. Polarized and depolarized. I have spent a decent amount of time with them already, and I am a little more ahead than my notes that I am posting right now, but I am missing a lot of de-polar spots, so I don’t want to move ahead until I am more comfortable with them.

That is about it for today ended the up a BI which is nothing to complain about since I think I wasn't playing so well.

Talk to you tommorow. If you read the whole wall of text you deserve a medal.

Today wasn’t the most productive. I didn’t get to play very many hands. There were plumbers fixing pipes in my place all day and so it was kind of loud and wasn’t into playing. I am going out with my girlfriend tonight, so today was a write off for playing.
I did study quite a bit. I looked through some of my hands and found some spots I need to improve on. One of which is auto-profit spots. They are well known but I noticed I am missing some of the important ones. I think this was a big contributor to my slip after my failed NL10 shot. I played one tabling after the plumber left and it really felt like I had to train my brain a little bit. Since these lines are so profitable at these limits and I really think that I get these down asap before moving on. My WWSF is on the low side of 46% and so I think this will help get it back up.
I know what to do, but I need to stay on it at the tables when I am playing to not miss some of these really profitable spots.
Another leak is my fold to cbet IP and fold to cbet OOP are about the same, which isn’t the greatest, but it’s not a huge deal for now. I think getting depolarized three betting down after this will be more profitable than calling a few more percent IP than OOP.

I haven’t been grinding as much as I should have. I have found a leak in some parts of my game that I can easily plug with auto profit lines. Doing this make me have to change my mindset of how I am playing at the tables. I have been writing a lot of notes and studying ranges in flopzilla. I really like how much I am learning here, but the mindset behind playing has changed a lot, so I should be grinding a lot again starting tomorrow. I have been doing a lot of one tabling to make sure I have this down, but I worked out that if I have the line for my game plan on the flop then I won’t miss a lot of these spots. It’s a small change but should make me much more efficient.
The mindset here is so important and I am excited to keep moving forward. I need to get my depolarized ranges down still so I have been spending a lot of time in flopzilla.
I have to start grinding more, regardless. If I don’t apply what I am learning it won’t stick.

Hi Chowchow12,

nice blog you've got here. Seems as if you are really on top with your studying. To be honest, if the biggest mistakes you make are those like in the AA hand you posted above, you are already way ahead of me and probably a lot of other NL5 players.
One thing in your introduction reminded me a lot of a pattern I've got to observe about myself. In my life I seem to oscillate between phases where I am very ambitious about a lot of things and get very much done in only short amounts of time and phases in which I let completely go of myself and hardly do anything meaningful at all. I think I keep dropping back into these downers, because in my times of ambition I tend to be overambitious and start exhausting myself, which then demands for (sometimes unhealthy) ways of stress-releave, kicking me back into a state of selfneglection. My goal at the moment is to stop the waveform and get some balance in my life, which implies to not demand too much from myself and giving myself breaks during the productive phases.
I of course don't know anything about you or your situation. But as you seem to be somebody who is quite ambitous and who sometimes struggles to live up to the high standards he sets for himself, I just want to drop the reminder that it can really pay off to deal with one's perceived insufficiencies in a kind and forgiving way. Maybe you don't need this reminder at all :f_pleased:.

What I wanted to ask you about poker: In which way are you studying ranges with Flopzilla? Are you just checking how they connect with different flops or is there something more to it? Would also be nice to know a bit more about the way you study poker in general if you mind sharing. I guess I could learn a thing or two from somebody as thought-out as you seem.

All the best!
:f_thumbsup::f_drink::f_thumbsup:

Originally posted by ben002
Hi Chowchow12,

nice blog you've got here. Seems as if you are really on top with your studying. To be honest, if the biggest mistakes you make are those like in the AA hand you posted above, you are already way ahead of me and probably a lot of other NL5 players.
One thing in your introduction reminded me a lot of a pattern I've got to observe about myself. In my life I seem to oscillate between phases where I am very ambitious about a lot of things and get very much done in only short amounts of time and phases in which I let completely go of myself and hardly do anything meaningful at all. I think I keep dropping back into these downers, because in my times of ambition I tend to be overambitious and start exhausting myself, which then demands for (sometimes unhealthy) ways of stress-releave, kicking me back into a state of selfneglection. My goal at the moment is to stop the waveform and get some balance in my life, which implies to not demand too much from myself and giving myself breaks during the productive phases.
I of course don't know anything about you or your situation. But as you seem to be somebody who is quite ambitous and who sometimes struggles to live up to the high standards he sets for himself, I just want to drop the reminder that it can really pay off to deal with one's perceived insufficiencies in a kind and forgiving way. Maybe you don't need this reminder at all :f_pleased:.

What I wanted to ask you about poker: In which way are you studying ranges with Flopzilla? Are you just checking how they connect with different flops or is there something more to it? Would also be nice to know a bit more about the way you study poker in general if you mind sharing. I guess I could learn a thing or two from somebody as thought-out as you seem.

All the best!
:f_thumbsup::f_drink::f_thumbsup:

You bet. Come back tomorrow and I will post my 3 betting range study.

Hey everyone. The past few days have been a little crazy. My girlfriend is moving to Toronto, and we are broken up from the distance. So I was busy spending the last time I had with her. I played a lot the last two days and there appears to be a big issue with my redline.

I have been digging a lot and the big losses appear to be in the BB, so I am not sure if I am not defending by calling on the bb enough, or what is going on.

I am not folding enough to cbets, which is an odd first for me, but I think I just added in way to many hands.

The redline looks so sad.

I am going to move over to depolarized 3betting as a default, so I am going to spend most of today studying those ranges.

Here are my depolarized 3betting notes:

I used these boards to study different textures.

We will look at our 3betting ranges for IP and OOP polarized and depolarized on certain board types.
Depolarized BB vs BU against villain who folds 45% of the time.
A72r – We crush them 67% equity. They have some nutted combos but it drops off fast. With all the Aces in out range we get a lot done. We have 55% with polarized.
Ah9h2d – Same story, we are so far ahead here. We have about 10% more equity with the depolarized range vs polarized.
AhTd9h – Same.
QsTs7d – Equitys drop to 60-40 villian still is behind out entire equity distribution.
Tc7c4h – This is where the equities run closer to even. We just don’t connect well. Mid ranged boards help villain the most.
833r – We get out equity back here.
Lower and higher boards are better for us. We dominate so much of their calling range.

Polarized BB vs BU against villain who folds 60% of the time.
A72r – We are doing well because we have lots of 7s in our polarized range. ~52%
Ah9h2d – 45% against this range.
We do better once the ranges get lower.
As expected our equity distribution is more polarized. We have the nuts but we also have a lot of nothing. Lower boards like 833 are the exception. Villain has a condensed range that misses these these boards and we have nutted over pairs.
Depolarized BU vs CO vs 45% folding.
On A72r – Polar vs depolar 55% Polar and 75% depolar. Smashing on This board.
On AhJd9h – Lots of broadways in villians range, equity drops to 65%
KK2r we have less kings in our range so we are still ahead, but 61%
Q82r – same difference
QT7 – we got to 55% but we retain equity much more.
J26-We now have 58% equity but equity distrubutions are a lot closer. We have way more nutted combos.
T86m – Villian is very polarized here and is ahead in nut combos.
883 – 65% equity – well ahead on this board.
6s3s2h – Way ahead on this board. We don’t have pocket 66 but our overpairs put us way ahead.

Lots of work ahead of me. This redline problem is bothering me.

Basically the simplest way of putting it is to 3-bet a polarized range against opponents who don't call 3-bets often (i.e. they either fold or 4-bet). 3-bet with a depolarized range against opponents who call a lot of 3-bets. The reason you've heard advice telling you to polarize in position and depolarize out of position is because people tend to call 3-bets more in position than out of position. Of course, this only applies if your opponent is positionally aware

Since one of the biggest leaks of the typical micro player (especially at 2nl or 5nl) is calling too often and playing too many hands preflop, it's best to 3-bet with a depolarized range by default against unknowns. Even some otherwise solid regs have a habit of calling 3-bets far too often even OOP.

I am not folding enough to cbets, which is an odd first for me, but I think I just added in way to many hands.

What is your Fold to cbet ? What is your WWSF ? For what i know the fastest way to improve your red line is to increase your WWSF.

And you are using Weazel ranges so i guess if you have problem with the red line it is because of the postflop play you make.

I didn´t posted on your blogs before, but just let you know i always read your ¨wall of text¨ .

Good luck with your study !

Originally posted by AgapieGheorghe

Basically the simplest way of putting it is to 3-bet a polarized range against opponents who don't call 3-bets often (i.e. they either fold or 4-bet). 3-bet with a depolarized range against opponents who call a lot of 3-bets. The reason you've heard advice telling you to polarize in position and depolarize out of position is because people tend to call 3-bets more in position than out of position. Of course, this only applies if your opponent is positionally aware

Since one of the biggest leaks of the typical micro player (especially at 2nl or 5nl) is calling too often and playing too many hands preflop, it's best to 3-bet with a depolarized range by default against unknowns. Even some otherwise solid regs have a habit of calling 3-bets far too often even OOP.

I am not folding enough to cbets, which is an odd first for me, but I think I just added in way to many hands.

What is your Fold to cbet ? What is your WWSF ? For what i know the fastest way to improve your red line is to increase your WWSF.

And you are using Weazel ranges so i guess if you have problem with the red line it is because of the postflop play you make.

I didn´t posted on your blogs before, but just let you know i always read your ¨wall of text¨ .

Good luck with your study !

Haha my Fold to cbet in SRPs was 30%. Way to low. My WWSF was 46% which is also too low, but I was missing auto profit spots, so I think this will go up. I need a bigger sample after making changes to do anymore diagnosis. I want about 50% WWSF. I did a bunch of work yesterday and today on different boards to figure out hands to call for about 45% Fold to cbet in single raised heads up pots. This can be lower IP, but I am just trying to get this fixed until I get to defending flops IP for study. I am still working on pre-flop.

When I post my study notes tonight I will talk more about it.

I spent most of yesterday running those boards to figure out what types of hands I should be calling with to average a fold to cbet of 45%. In position I can call a little more, but for not I think it is better error on the side of being too tight rather than being too loose. I think 45% is fine for now.

I am getting a lot practice in getting the depolarized ranges down and that is working out nicely. A big thing in poker is not being scared to get your hands dirty. Trying to break open and really try and figure things out will really make a big difference. I am sure there will be a lot more ups and downs, but the lesson I am learning in poker is that you will only get better by helping yourself. Being lazy about learning and trying to tighten things up is not how to get better in poker. I fell into that trap in November when I just wanted to watch videos and learn new tricks to try and get better, but I wasn’t really refining my understanding.
I haven’t even broken the skin of defending cbets, but I think I really made some decent fixes.

A lot of off table study again today, so tomorrow will be a lot more playing. I will start cold calling tomorrow.

Below are my study notes to keep me accountable.

QJ4r – 219 combos fold 45% so we defend 121 combos

Check/Raise ~ 22 combos 10.5 value, 14.5 bluff (25)
QJo, KTo, 44

Check/Call ~ 99 Combos (100)
Top pair – 15
Middle pair – 27
Weak Pair: 54s, 99 – 9
OESD: T9 – 4
Gutshot – 24
Nut FD - 12
BDFD+OESD – 9

JcTc2d – 212 combos – Defend 117 combos
Check/Raise – 21 combos
Value - 7: 22, JT (12)
Bluff – 14 Combos: K9cc, Q9cc, 98cc, 97cc, 87cc, Axcc, (9)

Check/Call – 96 (100)
Top pair – (27)
Middle Pair – (39)
Weak Pair – 99 (6)
FD – 12 (excluding nut and combo draws)
OESD – 6
1 Card Nut Bd FD – 6
2 card nut BD FD - 4

AhJc5h – 215 Combos defend 119 combos
Check/Raise – 22, FD + GS, KJhh, Nut FD (12)
Check/call - 107 combos (124)
TP – 39
Middle Pair – 38
FD – 14
GS - 33

Notes – With two high cards we have a lot of Middle and Top pairs, so we don’t need to call with as many back doors. We have lots of FD and middle pairs to call with. We don’t need many PPs to call. Calling way to many BDFDs generally. We don’t have to call as much.

1 High Card, 2 Middle Connected
K79r – 210 combos defend - 116
Check raise (21)
Value - 99, 77 (6)
Bluff – JT (16)
Check/ Call (94) (98)
Two pair – K9 (6)
Top pair – 30
Middle Pair – (24)
Weak pair - 18
OESD – 8
Gutshot – 36
Nut BDFD - 6

A98ss – 209 combos Defend 115
Check/raise (21)
Value – 88,99 , A9 (15)
Bluff – OESD +FD (2) FD + GD(4) +FD + TP (2) (8)
Check/Call (92) (112)
2P - 9
TP – 13
Middle pair – 15
Weak Pair – 12
OESD – 18
FD - 5
Gutshot - 36
Nut BDFD - 4
We don’t need to worry about pure backdoors here, we have so many gut shots and pairs. There are a lot more we can add nut backdoors but we have so many OESDs and flush draws.
1 High, 2 Low Connected (Two Tone, Rainbow)
K23 Two tone (226 combos)
C/R – (22) (16)
Value: 33, 22, KJdd (7)
Bluff: FD + GS, FD + OESD N.FD, OESD (9)
C/C – (109) (110)
TP – 35
Mid pair – 18
FD – 22
GS – 4
Nut BDFD – 13
BDFD+BDST – QJhh, QThh, Q9hh, JThh, J9hh, T9hh (6)
BDSD QJ/QT w/diamond – 12
Q45 rainbow (225 combos)
C/C (124 combos) (125)
Set: 6
2pair: 2
TP: 27
Middle/Weak pair : 6
PP below TP: 24
OESD: 4
GS: 8
Nut BDFD: 12
BDFD + BDSD: 21
BDSD: KJo: 12

2 Mid, 1 Low (Two Tone, Rainbow)
T92 – Rainbow ( 211 combos defend 116 ) (145)
Check / Raise (18)
Set: 6
OESD: 12

Check/Call (98) (127):
2pair:2
TP: 48
Middle Pair : 27
OESD: 8
Gutshot + overs : 16
Gutshot : 8
Nut BD FD: 18

983 – Double Suited – 217 combos defend 120 (145)
Check/Raise (30):
Sets: 9
FD+OESD/GS : 9
JTo: 12

Check/call (115):
2 pair: 3
Top pair: 27
Mp: 24
OESD: 6
FD: 8
Gutshot: 34
Nut BDFD: 13

We really don’t have to be reaching for BDFDs on the connected two tone boards. We can fold quite a lot.

A73r 219 combos

Check/call (120) (122)
Set 6
2pair 2
Top pair 36
Middle pairs – 27
Small pp – 66 3
OESD – 4
GS - 4
BDFD + BDSTR - 36
Nut BDFD Kh9h-Kh6h - 4

Have to dig a lot more with BDFDs here to call. Even so we still want some backdoor straight potential, or at least some back door flush potential. Most of the boards with backdoors have some kind of combination of both.

K55r – 216 (122) - 124
Check/call
Quads – 1
3 of a kind – 6
Top pair – 36
Pp below TP – 24
Nut BDFD – 12
BDFD+BDSD = 33
BDSD = ATo

Even on this super dry board we are taking backdoors with some straight potential.

As a general note to myself I am calling to many backdoor hands. I can calm down and fold more here.
The more top, middle pairs, OESDs and FDs I have really determine how much I need to dig for backdoor potential.

This is a lot more dynamic than I originally thought. I think I was misreading the HM2 stats, but Weasel’s Death Star Stats package really helped me here.

I can come back deeper into this later, but I really needed to get a better defined principle for these these stats, and I think this should really help my struggling red line.

Been studying a lot. Getting a better handle on the cold calling ranges, and things are going well. Not a whole lot to really be typing notes wise. Just adjusting my cold calling ranges. Running well, and my redline seems to be a lot less sad.
I am two BIs away from being able to shoot NL10. If I don’t hit any rough patches I should be able to shoot it this week.
I don’t really have any expectations for it to go through, even if it doesn’t I think it is just good to keep attacking it. We will see downswings happen.
Not much more to blog about today other than I am feeling pretty confident.

I forgot that I didn't post my cold calling notes.

here is my blog entry

Reflections
Bankroll is now at $251 and it is time to take a shot at NL10. This will be my third time shooting NL10. The last time I shot it was in November. It really affected my mindset. There is a lot of nerves here about playing NL10 again. I have been running super well the past few k hands. Since I started folding more to cbets I have noticed a difference in my redline, but I want to wait and see until I start running bad.
There is really no reason not to shoot. The rake is lower at NL10 and there is no point at wasting my time at NL5. We want to build that bankroll. Even if my true win rate at NL10 is half of what it is at NL5 (which I doubt at these limits.) it’s still worth it. This summer is about overcoming mindset issues, so it’s time to do just that.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

Here is my study notes.

Cold Calling Notes
Rough Cold calling frequencies: MP: 6%, CO: 8%, BTN: 10-12%, SB: 6-7%, BB: 26%
Our defending range really is variable on bet size. The later in the position we are the more our range is sensitive to bet sizing.
We want to cold call to dominate our villians range, and/or play hands that do well in high SPRs. Obviously there are hands that play well in both.
Explotative Cold calling
We want to defend wider if villain makes mistakes. We don’t really care which mistakes. They can happen both pre- and post. We really just need to be aware of how to exploit their mistakes.
For example, if villain is super tight we can exploit their narrow range, and use playable hands to steal pots, and exploit that way.
This will become a much bigger deal when we have more stats on players and can exploit them that way.