NL100 or I quit poker

Hi Swish29
Welcome to blogging section!
Nice graph!
What a handicap!
entering a PKO late makes for a real tough game.

Maybe -- just maybe -- if enough people complain some politicians might relax that rule.

Best of luck :gl:,
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Maybe -- just maybe -- if enough people complain some politicians might relax that rule.

Well, they're politicians after all so I have little hope also, Zoom is too convenient, if I play MTTs I could downswing for a very long time because I would be playing mostly large fields etc., and playing after work is not ideal, so I can only play during the weekends and it's socially very difficult. Last Sunday I was out with friends in the afternoon, I played in the morning and evening, if I would be an MTT player I would have had to skip playing yesterday or cancel my activity, neither is ideal.

Looks like I will miss on Gold status this month, I guess I'll only get it in October :/ I think I will buy a course from another platform. According to https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=347065 I don't break any rules by saying which course, so can I disclose it or not really?

Hi Swish29,
You are correct, a simple mention of the course you're taking is OK.
What isn't OK is promoting the course, or providing links or recommendations.

BTW thanks for checking first!

Best Regards,
VS

I watched a video of confidant91 because I saw his name in another blog: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/43698/

I was not impressed. He says that SB should 3bet 1/3 of an opening range (UTG opens 15%, you 3bet 5%, BTN opens 45%, you open 15% etc.), no real reason behind it. It sounds nice and people have charts to follow but it seems arbitrary, I would like to do more than clicking buttons because a guy said that's what should be done. He says that we should have 1:1 ratio between bluffs and value for our 3bets and 4bets in other positions (SB is linear) but it's not clear to me what we should decide to 3bet (and why), I could still decide to 3bet 30% of the time, and split these with values and bluffs at 1:1. Then there was some "live" play at NL10 Zoom, he cbet 3.7/5.5bb with Kx on AQJ BT vs BB and in a 3bet pot IP was talking about cbetting AK 70% of the pot to get hands with 3 outs to fold

Hopefully I will be more amazed at w34z3l's videos or the other course I want to buy

Hi Swish29,
This might interest you.
I noticed a few days ago that w34z3l is taking applications for coaching again: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3168204#post3168204

Check it out...
VS

Thanks. I think it's an overkill to go for CFP for now, I should play by myself for as long as I beat the stakes, the more I wait for coaching the more I will profit from it - if I get coaching now I would probably be given information I would figure out by other means. If I get CFP when I am stuck and can't improve by myself, the information I will get will be a lot more valuable

Played my 2nd NL5 session today, it went well. Yesterday was intense, play 2 digits pots was not something I was ready for ♦ but today was better.

What an annoying session, lost 5BI and all the profits I had made at 5NL, I ran bad against terrible regs and started to tilt. I feel like quitting this shit game for another 5 years. It's incredible how I have no resilience ♦

It's ridiculous how pissed I am for something so insignificant, I've never played so late on a weekday since I started to play again, it will take me a while to cool down and be able to fall asleep etc., all because I lost 25$, how pathetic

Originally posted by Swish29
I watched a video of confidant91 because I saw his name in another blog: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/43698/

yes, that's outdated, to say the least.

i can personally say that w34z3l was one of the people who had the biggest impact on my game. even if you don't agree with his suggested lines, reasoning is usually given so that you can adjust accordingly.

Originally posted by Swish29
What an annoying session, lost 5BI and all the profits I had made at 5NL, I ran bad against terrible regs and started to tilt. I feel like quitting this shit game for another 5 years. It's incredible how I have no resilience ♦

It's ridiculous how pissed I am for something so insignificant, I've never played so late on a weekday since I started to play again, it will take me a while to cool down and be able to fall asleep etc., all because I lost 25$, how pathetic

I've been there (just on a lower limit). It is completely normal. Usually if I take a small break, I am able to reset my mental state.
See it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Getting through these situations is part of becoming a better player just as studying poker strategy.
Stay strong 💪🏻

Btw. +1 for w34z3l's 6max micro stakes video series.

Thanks for the support guys

Originally posted by Tomaloc

Originally posted by Swish29
I watched a video of confidant91 because I saw his name in another blog: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/43698/

yes, that's outdated, to say the least.

i can personally say that w34z3l was one of the people who had the biggest impact on my game. even if you don't agree with his suggested lines, reasoning is usually given so that you can adjust accordingly.

OK, he has 10 pages of videos though, what should I start with in your opinion?

Was thinking of this:

In the meantime I will use the preflop ranges from the "From the Ground Up" CG course of RIO.

I saw some youtube videos where coaches seem to be considering folding/3betting/4betting more than what I was used to see 2015, due to the rake. Does anyone know some content that is discussing this? Do you have tight cold call ranges IP because of that/what adjustments do you make? Seems that some guys advocate 3b/f instead of calling. I've seen pretty tight folds from the BB, also "because of the rake".

you're playing zoom with antes so, if anything, you should play looser than usual.
as far as i know, nobody actually made up a whole set of ranges for antes yet (also probably because the proportion of antes varies a bit with the stakes), but i'm playing 30 VPIP... maybe i'm just indulging myself.

I'm 29/22 and play without antes, playing 5NL at the moment.

I'm missing 204 SP for Gold Status, I'm getting 15 SP per day that I play, if I play the next 4 days it means I need to get 144SP from the tables, which is about 15k hands, but I have friends visiting so that's a bit inconvenient :/

Originally posted by Swish29
OK, he has 10 pages of videos though, what should I start with in your opinion?

You can find the videos of the micro stakes series here (filter for "walkthrough"): https://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/?query=walkthrough&content_type=0&game_type=0&table_size=0&language%5B%5D=en&submit=Search

And here is the thread: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=309916

Well poker is a game that evolves fast, watching 6 years old content can be very dangerous. In 2014 for instance, if you'd learn to play poker with 2008 video you would be destroyed. There are things that never change (like what is EV, the maths behind evaluating if a 3bet/steal/shove etc. is profitable, pot odds etc.), is it the case of these video series? (That it is a timeless truth)

Originally posted by Swish29
Well poker is a game that evolves fast, watching 6 years old content can be very dangerous. In 2014 for instance, if you'd learn to play poker with 2008 video you would be destroyed. There are things that never change (like what is EV, the maths behind evaluating if a 3bet/steal/shove etc. is profitable, pot odds etc.), is it the case of these video series? (That it is a timeless truth)

I do not disagree.
However, the content is really good. Most of it probably is still valid AFAIKT. And it is very often the principles and thought processes that matter.
Other details are less important, e.g. you might deviate from the suggested pre-flop ranges.

I also like the series because it covers so many aspects and spots, it is a very good whole basis. I do not like fragmented content, that is hard to fit into my overall concepts.

But please if you come across anything else you can recommend for starting out with NLH 6max micros, let me know! So far it is one of the best strategy content I could find.

i forgot that stars didn't add antes to microstakes pools in all their services.
so, on one hand you have higher rake in micros, on the other hand you have big exploits against the population in the end they somewhat balance out, but i prefer to call a little less preflop (in favor of 3bet or folding) since pots you win preflop aren't raked.

Done for the month, won 36BI in 30k hands but I'm not very happy:

The reason is because of the last 10k hands, the Zoom 5 shot, didn't go well:

I didn't play my best and ran not good. Obviously it's a small sample, my EV winrate is not horrible but I think I can do better than this.

September 2020 goals:

-Reach Gold status
-Play 30k hands again. Although I played 30k this month, in September it will be much more challenging because I will be away from my place 2 weekends
-Figure out what is happening with people 3betting over x4 IP: do they know something I don't know? Are they terrible? Same for the people that overbet 4bet IP
One example of this, but I have many more:

-Study the preflop power-up of w34z3l, it's a 1 year-old course, I have high hopes
(optional) -Finish the Lemon36 video on antes if things go really well and I expect to shot NL10 w/ antes
(optional) -If I'm not happy with the preflop power-up course for SB/BB defense, find something else and study that

So that's for the goals I can control, for the goals for which I have less/no control I would like to:
-Make more $ in September (made 77.53$ in August)
-Flop over 11.8% of sets (11.8% is how many times you get a set with a pocket pair on average)

I flopped 8.6% of sets at NL5 this month which is disgustingly low (31/360)

I guess I am not happy with these results because I feel entitled to win at these stakes which is not a good mindset. I should look at what I do wrong instead, I have a few ideas, I think I am doing too much for the following:
-Bluff in large pots, got some sick hero calls by some regs, maybe their call was bad vs population anyway but in this case I should adjust
-Bluffcatch vs "fish" in large pots
-Defend my BB (I fold 53% vs a BB steal)
-Cold call

I played 29.45/21.91 at NL5, and it's probably too loose because of the rake. Maybe I also have big leaks that regs are exploiting, and that's why it went better at the beginning?

Awesome!

Very nice looking graph!

I wouldn't let the downswing at the end bother you much -- you had a worse one mid-month and held on.

All the best,
VS