KoningAlbert NL2 / NL5 ZOOM and occasional MTTs

I still struggle with when I should call turn/river bets and when I shouldn't...
What should I do, or should I have done earlier in the hand?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 9 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

mathplayer (UTG): $2.14 (107 bb)
HellNative (UTG+1): $3.94 (197 bb)
stalen zenuw (MP): $1.45 (73 bb)
ilovesomuchh (MP+1): $2.07 (104 bb)
foxxx1980 (LP): $3.59 (180 bb)
Brainsen007 (CO): $2.35 (118 bb)
Loeffl.Ace (BU): $1.84 (92 bb)
HERO(SB): $3.53 (177 bb)
suspectgenes (BB): $2.41 (121 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with A♦ K♦
5 players fold, Brainsen007 (CO) raises to $0.06, 1 fold, HERO (SB) 3-bets to $0.22, 1 fold, Brainsen007 (CO) calls $0.16

Flop: ($0.46) 9♥ Q♥ A♠ (2 players)
HERO (SB) bets $0.31, Brainsen007 (CO) calls $0.31

Turn: ($1.08) T♣ (2 players)
HERO (SB) checks, Brainsen007 (CO) bets $1, HERO (SB) folds

Total pot: $1.08 (Rake: $0.04)
Brainsen007 (CO) wins $1.04

Since I don't have any HUD, I have absolutely no idea what this player is like.
In retrospect I think I should have bet the turn myself.

I'm assuming that he has AQ / AK maybe 99's, he might have a AJs for flushdraw...
Do you think his range is wider than that?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 9 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $2.16 (108 bb)
UTG+1: $1.45 (73 bb)
MP: $2.30 (115 bb)
MP+1 (Hero): $2.15 (108 bb)
LP: $2.10 (105 bb)
CO: $5.62 (281 bb)
BU: $2.06 (103 bb)
SB: $1.00 (50 bb)
BB: $1.35 (68 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP+1 with K♠ J♦
3 players fold, Hero raises to $0.06, 2 players fold, BTN calls $0.06, 1 fold, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.19) K♦ J♠ 4♦ (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.18, BTN calls $0.18, BB folds

Turn: ($0.55) T♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.44, BTN calls $0.44

River: ($1.43) 9♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.38 (all-in), MP+1 (Hero) folds

No idea how villain plays, but I have put him on something like KQ following his line?

Hi KoningAlbert,
Welcome to the PokerStrategy.com blogging section

Those are certainly tough hands to play with or without a HUD.
In the first one, I think that you're right -- it might have been better to bet the turn yourself.

The second one, though I'm pretty sure that the fold is fine.

All the best,
VS

Thanks for the advice!

So far so good. I've been running quite well, which means I have increased my BR with 10BI.

Because I had some time today I fired up a few tournaments with 1$ buy-ins. I was quickly out of each one of them, partly because of bad luck, but definitely also because I don't have the patience anymore to play these games. It frightens me a bit now that I would be stuck behind my computer for several hours straight.

Playing MTT SNGs has crossed my mind as well, but then again winning one of these tournaments also takes about 2h, which is actually a lot. So I don't think I'm gonna go there.

On a sidenote, my wife is not too happy about me playing poker, because it really sucks me up. I think about poker on a regular basis throughout the day, mostly to try and improve myself. However she only sees this as a very addictive game (which it abviously also is) and doens't really understand why it's addictive to me.

I want to become better and improve, I want to see progress not in terms of money perse (which of course is a consequence of becoming better), but more like feeling more comfortable with playing hands, knowing what to do in which situations...

Anyway, I really enjoy the fact that up to this point, I am improving. I still have to take my position at the table into account more, because I do think I'm bleeding money with calling preflop a bit too often.

As told before my long term goal is to play NL25 steadily.
short term goal 1: get a BR of 100$
short term goal 2: when I hit 100$ I want to try the short handed version of the NL2 ZOOM, and see how that turns out...

BR: 50$

One of the hands I posted did not get any feedback yet, so feel free to have a go and help me out. All feedback is welcome!
pokerhand

I have been reading a lot of interesting stuff on BlackRain79's website. It really made me aware of a few things I didn't do and should be profitable in the long run.

Besides that, I've also noticed that my biggest wins are in EP en MP rather than on the CO and BU which is a bit strange.
When I looked into it, I've had a bit of bad luck and I've also misplayed a few hands costing me some full stacks. I'll have to keep an eye on this one and maybe adjust my play a bit.

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Besides that, I've also noticed that my biggest wins are in EP en MP rather than on the CO and BU which is a bit strange.

sample ?

About 13000 hands

to get a precise positional WR you would need 50k hands / position. so no need to worry.

Ok, good to know!

Since I read a bit about playing SH, I was curious to try that out as well. So I didn't really stick to my original short term goal.

After about 1000 hands or so, I'm break-even. Most of my winnings come from 3 barrelling, with not much in hand. Most of my losses come from running into the nuts... It seems like I'm all over the place and I have completely forgotten on how to play poker. So much (even after a 1000 hands) I'm completely doubting about the strategy I'm using.

I've noticed that playing in position matters even more, and me personally I'm struggling a lot with the hands OOP.

A part from all that, for some reason I'm under the imression I should not be just calling raises, but 3-bet, which makes a lot of pots quite big from the start. That makes me play with scared money when I don't really hit, which is definitely bad.

It really feels like a completely different game than the full ring games, and more often than not, I feel like I'm completely lost. I really need to work on the game. I'll post some hands later.

Hallo mede-Nederlander

gonna follow your blog, also added you as a friend :):f_thumbsup:

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
After about 1000 hands or so, I'm break-even. Most of my winnings come from 3 barrelling, with not much in hand. Most of my losses come from running into the nuts... It seems like I'm all over the place and I have completely forgotten on how to play poker. So much (even after a 1000 hands) I'm completely doubting about the strategy I'm using.

I've noticed that playing in position matters even more, and me personally I'm struggling a lot with the hands OOP.

A part from all that, for some reason I'm under the imression I should not be just calling raises, but 3-bet, which makes a lot of pots quite big from the start. That makes me play with scared money when I don't really hit, which is definitely bad.

It really feels like a completely different game than the full ring games, and more often than not, I feel like I'm completely lost. I really need to work on the game. I'll post some hands later.

Yup I have a similar experience. People with fold to aggression a lot but when they call you down, and raise the river, you know you're doomed. Tough way to make a living. I spend all day yesterday playing NL2 concentrating on showdown. As a result, I folded a bit too much and played a bit too passively in spots (check out some of the hands I posted for review). But I did win at showdown a fair amount.
Somehow I (and you as well it seems) need to strike a balance.

I am beginning to lean this way as well
I've been folding things like AJo vs a raise and a call from early position. I used to call, but ended up folding so often on the flop vs big bets from the EP and MP players. My next test session I'll put this idea into practice.

Switching from full-ring to 6-max
I found this helpful https://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/bss/short-handed-theory/ There are a few more articles as well that might help...

Originally posted by Zaratras
Hallo mede-Nederlander

gonna follow your blog, also added you as a friend :):f_thumbsup:

Ik ben Belg, maar taalgenoten, is minstens even plezant

I've accepted your friends request.

@ Vorpal: I'm happy to see that people struggle with the same things, just so it shows that it's not just me and that having doubts is perfectly fine. Thanks for the link and kind words by the way!

This afternoon I've reflected on the way I played the game yesterday, and I really did some terrible plays. I was out of line several times, trying to bluff myself out of pots, playing way too aggressively which simply trying to win every hand. It is definitely not the way to go on these stakes.

After that I reread some articles on the Blackrain79 website and I came across a lovely and simple idea.
Simply look at 6 handed tables as full ring tables missing out on the first 3 EPs.
Keeping that in mind, just play similar to what you would play full ring starting from 4th position. Simple but effective. It really made me think more logically again.

With this fresh idea in my mind, i opened up 2 zoom tables again and won about 5 buy-ins, and was even running -EV.
This made me realise 2 things:
1) I didn't hit the board very often in my session yesterday, which should have led to some sort of damage control. More like a mental game, and accept that sometimes you simply don't hit. That shouldn't be a reason to start playing differently, because in the long run it will make me lose money.

2) When I do hit the board, I'm actually playing quite solidly, and I have been keeping my eyes open to exploit villains when they show weakness. (On a sidenote though, I do have to mention that I did not really ran into too many difficult spots today).

anyway, I'm going to post some hands.

BR: 61$

Last weekend I haven't played much. After losing a few buy-ins, I won them back again for a total of 1000 hands or so, so my BR is still the same.

I noticed 2 things though:
Losing session: I was playing because I felt forced to play. I was playing, because I felt like, whenever I play, I win money, so I have to play whenever I can. This mindset is completely wrong. Because of that I was looking for mediocre hands and convinved myself into playing them. Playing more hands will result in more profit. You could not be more wrong. I was just randomly clicking buttons without thinking, I was over aggressive in very bad spots ... On top of that I wasn't running very well either.
==> My mind was focused on winning and not on how to play the hand correctly. This was mostly due to the fact that I was extremely tired. When you are tired, you don't have (or at least I don't have) the discipline to keep yourself in line. RESULT = LOSING

Winning session: If I focus, I win. Or at least, I know that in the long run I will win.

conclusion: If you don't feel like playing, just don't.

On a sidenote, I had some problems with my laptop. So I haven't got my holdem manager up and running now, so I can't post any hands for a few days. Unless I start learning to work with hand2note. We'll see how that will turn out. When I reach 20k hands, I'll post a graph.

Well done with winning $10 extra today: https://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/pokerstrategy/-Who-s-going-to-win-$300-on-Steam-this-week-_117658/

Jeeej, thanks for notifying me! I see that those $10 have been credited to the Tell-your-friend account. So I actually need another $40 to be able to withdraw it. Ah well, winning is winning, so JEEEEEJ :f_biggrin::f_thumbsup:

If just played a session of about 600hands. When people donate money and you run like a god... 5BI up.

BR: 71$

I've played another session and I'm once again a few buy-ins up.

Now I've checked my graph and have realised two things.
1) I'm on a massive heater. It feels like I'm winning every possible draw, and it clearly shows. I'm about 30$ +EV which is 15BI, and that is enormous in my opinion. So to be honest I'm very scared of the variance catching up on me soon. I hope I will be mentally ready for that and I hope I haven't jinxed it by writing it down

2) My red line is quite steady, and I believe that this isn't what it should be like at these stakes. I'm guessing that I am not getting enough value from my strong hands and make people fold too often. So I hope I can look at this into detail a bit more, when my holdem manager is fixed.

so far I've played about 16k hands, whenever I reach 20k hands or when my BR hits 100$, I will post some graphs and stats.

BR: 78$

I recently read a post in which someone had made an excel sheet to calculate how many hands you needed to play to get to a certain profit.

To me personally I don't want to get fixated on how much I want for profit, because then I would feel pressure to grind too many hands. This is something that is definitely not possible in the situation I'm in. As a proud father of 3 children, you simply can't put in a lot of hours, so I only want to play whenever I feel I have time.

For the above reason I adapted the excel sheet a little bit and created a table based on stakes, hands per hour (depending on how many tables you've opened), profit/hour. So that way I could see how much I can possible earn in a month.