Adam's Poker Adventure

Originally posted by adamrothwell
I don't think i would not use nash, when your stacks the right size it's best to but obviously you can deviate if you have reads on them and know they are gonna call super wide /super tight etc.

3betting pre is pretty good to isolate fish and then be aggressive postflop and they are folding a lot in these games.

Yep and keep punishing them on the turn if you think they are chasing draws. They'll always call down regardless of pot odds.

cheers, how can i tell when they are chasing draws, weak betting - just calling, checking down etc?

Tonight has been a lot better than last night felt i was a bit more focused and played better and also ran a bit better. Won a $1.50 turbo for $19 and a 0.50 turbo for $6.30. The 0.50 final table was fun, against the last 4 i was dominating them until they pretty much gave me their chips, haven't done that in a while.

+$18.55 pretty happy with that

Originally posted by adamrothwell
cheers, how can i tell when they are chasing draws, weak betting - just calling, checking down etc?

Tonight has been a lot better than last night felt i was a bit more focused and played better and also ran a bit better. Won a $1.50 turbo for $19 and a 0.50 turbo for $6.30. The 0.50 final table was fun, against the last 4 i was dominating them until they pretty much gave me their chips, haven't done that in a while.

+$18.55 pretty happy with that

Can be difficult. If they don't drop their hand to a flop cbet, then they could be drawing or they could have hit a pair on the flop. Doesn't matter how weak the pair is, they'll call down hoping to hit turn or river.

Weak/Passive fish will check/call until the draw completes. They will rarely bluff at a completed draw, so if they bet or raise they generally have the goods.

Gambling fish will often shove their draws post flop to a cbet. They are a little harder to read because they will also limp PPs and shove post flop if they hit their set.

The one thing these two types of players have in common is that they have limited post flop skills.

Don't you just love it when they just hand their chips over. When they do it to me I feel like some sort of a poker god and they feel like their cards are sitting face up for me to see. ♠_grin:

Happy to see that virtually every time you have a bad day, you kick straight back in the next session, wipe out your losses and end up in profit.

Keep up the good work. You have become a feared opponent. Well I'm scared of you lol

Cheers Laz, yeh it does feel like being a poker god haha

You'll never guess what... tonight i am back down losing like mad. anything i push gets bad beat or they have the nuts everytime i push. I'm getting absolutely trashed. I think i'm going to have to go back to the normal speed tables because these games feel insane when they go against you.

I think i need to study like mad because i must have some big leaks somewhere

This hand sums up my night

[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $0.45 Buy-in (100/200 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

MP2: 1,755 (8.8 bb)
MP3: 2,440 (12.2 bb)
CO: 2,175 (10.9 bb)
Hero (BTN): 1,415 (7.1 bb)
SB: 1,786 (8.9 bb)
BB: 1,810 (9.1 bb)
UTG+1: 1,675 (8.4 bb)
UTG+2: 2,667 (13.3 bb)
MP1: 339 (1.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K♦ A♣
UTG+1 raises to 400, 5 folds, Hero raises to 1,415 and is all-in, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls 1,015

Flop: (3,130) Q♦ 3♥ 4♦ (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: (3,130) 4♣ (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (3,130) 6♣ (2 players, 1 is all-in)

[/hand_history][/converted_hand]

3.50$ 45 man sngs on PS

"I have played 650 games and right now im on 90BI downswing over my last 200 games and i just dont know what to do anymore"......

..."Youre not alone buddy
On the same 3.50 45 man i am on a downswing of 60 buyins"....

..." I dropped down to 1,50$ and still kept going down. At the end i finished with 120 or 130BI downswing and i decided to take a break"...

..."Hey Hub, I grind the 45's too I have had a $1k downswing in the past just playing the 3.50's and 7's."...

Originally posted by arthurbentley
3.50$ 45 man sngs on PS

"I have played 650 games and right now im on 90BI downswing over my last 200 games and i just dont know what to do anymore"......

..."Youre not alone buddy
On the same 3.50 45 man i am on a downswing of 60 buyins"....

..." I dropped down to 1,50$ and still kept going down. At the end i finished with 120 or 130BI downswing and i decided to take a break"...

..."Hey Hub, I grind the 45's too I have had a $1k downswing in the past just playing the 3.50's and 7's."...

Turbos can be brutal, Adam. Brutal!

Yeh they are haha. I think though that if the downswing gets too insane I probably have some bad leaks aswell and i'm making mistakes. I need to study a lot more and try and grind a good run

Ok i take back my complaining. It was going awful tonight bust out of 16 games without reaching a final table and on my last game i managed to bad beat someone to hang on in around the bubble, got some chips and started to play my game building them up nicely and with a bit of luck headsup managed to win for $19, so it worked out pretty profitable! pretty insane ♦

Originally posted by adamrothwell
Ok i take back my complaining. It was going awful tonight bust out of 16 games without reaching a final table and on my last game i managed to bad beat someone to hang on in around the bubble, got some chips and started to play my game building them up nicely and with a bit of luck headsup managed to win for $19, so it worked out pretty profitable! pretty insane ♦

Complain about the turbos all you like because I hate them. They are far too swingy.

I'll stick to the normal $1 because they are easily readable. Plus people won't fold to a raise in the turbos. They shove over the top with trash and draw. Very disconcerting.

Wish I had your mental toughness. I would have been a basket case well before that last game.

I played 2 normal speed $1 games tonight and didn't quite get an itm. got a few small itm's with the turbos and again with the last game of the night managed to win $19. BR now $210. saw the milestone hands at cash tables aswell and had a go at the lowest 0.01 0.02 games and got a small profit there,no milestone though! ha.
hopefully play some of your home games tommorow Laz.

I'm not sure i have mental toughness i get pretty upset / frustrated when it's going really badly.

Originally posted by adamrothwell
I played 2 normal speed $1 games tonight and didn't quite get an itm. got a few small itm's with the turbos and again with the last game of the night managed to win $19. BR now $210. saw the milestone hands at cash tables aswell and had a go at the lowest 0.01 0.02 games and got a small profit there,no milestone though! ha.
hopefully play some of your home games tommorow Laz.

I'm not sure i have mental toughness i get pretty upset / frustrated when it's going really badly.

Yeh the money they are giving away for milestones hands is sick. Well worth having a CG or 2 going.

Look forward to seeing you at the HG. Expecting our first FR game this weekend. ♦

Maybe resilient is a better word. You bounce back quickly.

Yeh i've played a little bit of cash over the past few days and i think i'm a dollar or 2 profitable overall even though i don't really know what i'm doing at all.

I've been to the beach today which was great i'm sunburnt though! ha.

On saturday I was up to my highest point of $214 but ended the day on around $194. I played one session tonight, got no luck getting bad beat a lot and on my last game i was 3/4 and the big stackgot lucky and knocked out the other two plauyers in one hand giving me a few$ profit. I felt i played ok tonight just nothing really held up when it needed to, mostly when i was ahead, or I got bad beat. currently BR is $197. Need to find some consistency, i've stopped playing the $0.50 turbos now because i've looked on my hem 2 and they are slightly unprofitable for me. I'm not sure how profitable the $1.50 turbos are but i'm pretty sure they are pretty profitable because i've won 2 or 3 and got a few 2nd places and i haven't played all that many yet. I can't get HEM to show me how profitable they are as it doesn't seem to get everything correct.

Here are some rough stats of mine ( hopefully correct)

**This month 70 games $1.50 turbo 45 man 17.1 ITM and 21.3 ROI, $22.37 profit.

Since starting in February

$0.25 45 man games - 786 games, 25.1 itm, 57.9% ROI + $113.84

$1 45 man - 283 games - 23.0 itm, 21.3 roi + $60.35

$4.50 180 man - 2 games, 100% itm, 192 roi. + $17.93 lol

My Roi on the $1 doesn't really seem that great. I'm not sure what I should really be aiming for. I feel a bit dissapointed at the moment. I can't seem to play the slow $1 games very well now i've started playing turbos. It's really strange. Perhaps it's just because i've played so few that I haven't given it chance to even out.

Maybe this week I will just play half $1.50 turbo 45 man and half $1 45man

If you were aiming to be a semi pro or pro grinder, any game/structure that returns 20+% ROI should be retained as part of your repertoire. As you are constantly improving your game, those figures should slowly rise even further making those games even more profitable.

Another thing to take into consideration is hourly rate. Turbos will be more lucrative than non-turbos for the simple reason that you can either play twice as many in the same time, or the same amount in half the time.

Are there beaches in Manchester? Does the sun actually come out? lol ♦

Hey Adam. found your blog (obv) I think your results on the 1$'s are enviable. Considering most players lose money, and few are more profitable (they will move up stakes) that you'd be one of the top players at that limit IMO.

With $300 bankroll, I wouldn't mind taking a shot at the $3.50's, maybe a 20 buyin shot would be enough to see how you might do.

I think if you can do this well at $1 you can easily profit at the $3.50s IMO the only difference is that there are less really crazy bad players and more mediocre players. Also the regs seem to be overplaying it, shoving way too lose on BU for example, or making obvious steals that are easy to counter with a 3bet or reshove.

I think any good regs at 45's $3.50 are moving up to $7 and higher, also I've been told that they are playing 180's, which I've recently started doing again. There you can achieve an even higher ROI - as you've seen in 2 games.

So, why not get into the $3.50's.. of course you'll find me there, but I'm harmless.. really

I played some cash last few days, but I got reminded of why I prefer tourneys. I like a format where everyone has equal access to chips, and there is a winner overall. Cash seems like an endless monotony to me sometimes.

Good luck, and hope to see you on the $3.50's soon.

My Roi on the $1 doesn't really seem that great. I'm not sure what I should really be aiming for. I feel a bit dissapointed at the moment. I can't seem to play the slow $1 games very well now i've started playing turbos. It's really strange. Perhaps it's just because i've played so few that I haven't given it chance to even out.

You have been blending your stakes which is the correct strategy when bankroll building, but please remember that these turbo games come with a lot of variance, and your present bankroll is not enough to play the $1.50 turbos only. Keep to the same winning strategy of blending your stakes, until you have at least $300 before contemplating playing only the $1.50 games.

Are there beaches in Manchester? Does the sun actually come out? lol grin

Haha we have had some decent weather for the last week or two amazingly! by decent i mean around 18-22 degrees. Hot enough to burn me anyway we went to Blackpool beach it's about an hour away on the train. Not my favourite beach! but the other train was cancelled so we ended up there.

Hey Gav cheers for visiting my blog I think once i get up to $300ish i'll consider taking a shot at a few of the $3.50's. Do you mean by obvious steals that they are minraising as a steal when they should be shoving or raising slightly bigger?. Hopefully I will be joining you on the $3.50's in the nearish future but for now i need to keep grinding the $1 and see if i can keep a consistent 20% roi or higher for this month. I still want to play the $1.50 turbos but i'm not sure how to best mix them because sometimes you need enough volume at a limit to get into it and get a run going.

I might load up 9 regular $1 45 man and then add up to 6 $1.50 turbos when i drop out of the $1 games. I'll try mixing them both all this week and see if i can keep them both profitable.

Tonight i played 17 games +$3.12 9.24 roi, 17.9 itm.

*** 10 x $1 games 2nd and 4th for $3.91 profit 39.1% roi.

**6 x $1.50 turbos and one $1.50 90 man (hem2 groups these together) -$0.67 -6.38% roi

Not a very good session but it was nice to see a profit in the $1 games again. I got chips in some nice spots but they had slightly better a few times e.g aj vs aq, a5s vs a8o. I got some bad beats too. My stacks got pretty short in the $1 games at times, I just need to find the balance between agression and playing tight so that i'm not getting involved in too many marginal spots early in the slower games when they might be good spots in the turbos.

Cheers Arthur. Any idea how best I could blend the games? Or is it best to just judge it by how they are going each session

Cheers Arthur. Any idea how best I could blend the games? Or is it best to just judge it by how they are going each session

I honestly don't know what the correct staking method is. But if I was playing the $1.50 and 0.50 turbos, I would blend a ratio of 3:1. Both add up to $1.50 each. So that makes sense to my mind. I'd also just play either turbos, or normal speed, and not mix them up in the same sitting.

That makes sense to me I played quite a few 0.50's last week though and realised i was making a slight loss so i've cut them out for the moment. I loaded 9 $1 45 reg speed and when i went out of 2 i loaded two $1.50 turbos. Worked out alright although i'm not enjoying the $1 games much at all. I can't get my play quite right in the early and mid stages but once i get a reasonably decent stack size on the final table i feel like i can go far. I should have won a $1 tonight with everything having held up nicely and after having made some nice calls and pushed, thanks to colin moshmans coachings sessions. I met a decent play in the last 3 who was agressive against me and i didnt get chance to figure him out. I'll look back over that 3 handed and see my mistakes.

9 $1 45 man - -$0.82
2 $1.50 turbo 45 man +$16.00 533.3 roi

total +$15.18

I'd like to load some more but i miht study a bit and rest

Any idea how best I could blend the games? Or is it best to just judge it by how they are going each session

I would go with an average buy in system to keep good track of this. So if you have $200, you could play 3 $0.50 games and 1 $1.50 game (like arthur suggested) for an ABI of $0.75, which means you are effectively working with a little more than 250 BI.

Something like that. Keeping track of your average BI will make sure you don't overdo it on the higher BI tournaments.

Still making a profit I see. Definitely keep that up!

Hey Adam,

Here's some advice I'd give myself if I was able to when I started playing SNGMTTs

Playing loose early can make the rest of the tourney so much easier to play if you have good postfop skill. I like to get involved more in the pots with the bad players, but try really hard not to overplay strong of hands like AKo. It's ok to fold and only lose a small pot early. Play value, be aggressive, and fold when you get played back at. If a player keeps playing back at you, adjust to them.

Getting down to under 1000 chips isn't so bad. You'll just need one more double up than before. I've come back from small stacks, it's also good practice while you're at lower limits.

According to the coaches here, there's not really any strategy difference depending on the blind timing. The only difference is you'll have to be aware that the blinds rise fast, but they rise fast for everyone. Timing the blind level change so you end up on BU when it happens is a good way to use your time bank.

Don't steal too much even if card dead. You want to choose spots that are +EV according to ICM, or take necessary -EV spots occasionally. One of my favorite things to do is punish stealers and limpers esp. from the SB in BB.

Don't see cheap flops with random crap, but choose hands that play well postflop, like suited connectors you can call for multiway pots. you want to hit two pair or better. sometimes you can call light with a deceptive or strong draw, but you don't want to waste chips.

You'll get chances to push and call even if your cards are mediocre, everyone gets desperate when the blinds go up and start stealing much too wide from BU and SB for example.

A main consideration as the game gets later is relative chipstacks, and effective chipstacks of opponents. Watch out for smallstacks that are going to bust before you (e.g. tighten up) but don't be afraid to go for it on the final table. I'm shoving according to Nash and min-raise folding when I have a good stack.

I don't defend too loose if my stack is big, and rather wait for better spots. People don't really use ICM on these limits and call much too tight, and don't play back at your minraises enough, or if they do, they have a very strong hand.

Late game, I basically play ICM, but I also resteal from shorter stacks. You can apply a lot of pressure as you've hopefully built up your stack during the tourney. If not, you can still get away with FE for shoving 2-3BB at 500/1000 level.

The dynamics you get different chipstacks that you run into determine your ranges according to Nash equilibrium. of course you will adjust the Nash range depending on your opponents range. I highly recommend using an ICM calculator (get the holdem resources trial for example) to figure out what your ranges should be. I have been working on getting very familiar with them, and if you can apply and adjust them properly, you will prosper.

I've been following the blog of Target Me (Movin.Target) for a few years if you need some motivation, I would check out his results. He now plays 180man $8 and $3.50 rebuys and crushes it.

You have a good BR for $1.50, I think you should be easily profitable in them if you follow pokerstrategy coaches and articles. Most of all an ICM calcuator will be essential if you don't already use one. If you want to sweat a session let me know.