[Closed] Another family man attempting to grind

Originally posted by FSOPFounder
and this one....He has to have an overpair, right? I mean, there is no way that I am ahead.

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
fsopfounder (UTG) ($15.21)
UTG+1 ($9.88)
MP1 ($12.42)
MP2 ($10.66)
MP3 ($15.56)
CO ($9.57)
BTN ($11.91)
SB ($10)
BB ($10.48)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 9 players) fsopfounder is UTG 9♦ 9♥
fsopfounder raises to $0.20, 6 folds, SB raises to $0.65, 1 fold, fsopfounder calls $0.45

Flop: 3♠ 2♦ 7♥ ($1.40, 2 players)
MP2 says "nice rooster", SB bets $1.05, fsopfounder calls $1.05

Turn: 7♣ ($3.50, 2 players)
SB bets $1.30, fsopfounder folds

Final Pot: $4.80

SB wins $4.57 (net +$1.57)

fsopfounder lost $1.70

Why are you minraising UTG? Surely that's where you're playing your strongest range and you want to get some money in. What's your range for opening UTG?

jbpatzer wrote, "Why are you minraising UTG? Surely that's where you're playing your strongest range and you want to get some money in. What's your range for opening UTG?"

The table was extremely tight. I wanted at least one caller, so I minraised. Bad mistake. Once he raises, I should have folded and not set-mined. But, nope, I called to fold on the turn, I guess.

UTG range: set-mining, A10+ish...of course depending on the table texture.

Hand 1: good fold, you barely have any money invested and you're crushed against TT+ and flipping against two overcards, besides you have no idea what the guy behind you is doing.
Hand 2: don't like your min-raise as well, just open 4bb (and 3bb from CO and BU to make stealing cheaper). As played you're getting the right price to setmine but normally you shouldn't. If you call this flop you have to call the turn as well, the 7 didn't change the board at all, so if you're folding to a blank on the turn you might as well fold to the c-bet and save some money.

Also, make sure you're always sitting with a full stack (100bb) on the tables. Otherwise you're not really playing the BSS.

Nice blog by the way! I'm the oldest (19) of four boys, so it's pretty entertaining to read a fathers blog. You sound just as confident as my dad when you're talking about poker...try not to overestimate yourself too much, since you probably have a lot more leaks than you'd think. But you have a good attitude, so everything will be alright if you keep working on your game. I suggest you post lots and lots of hands in the handjudging forum, it'll help your game a great deal. I'm a handjudge for the Dutch community so I should know.

Keep up the good work!

Originally posted by FSOPFounder
jbpatzer wrote, "Why are you minraising UTG? Surely that's where you're playing your strongest range and you want to get some money in. What's your range for opening UTG?"

The table was extremely tight. I wanted at least one caller, so I minraised. Bad mistake. Once he raises, I should have folded and not set-mined. But, nope, I called to fold on the turn, I guess.

UTG range: set-mining, A10+ish...of course depending on the table texture.

I don't play full ring, but I fold ATo UTG at SH tables, so I think that's way too loose for FR. Maybe AKo and AQs+? Don't really know.

That range would be safer. Might have to tighten up a bit. During that session though, the flop was allergic to whatever I had in my hand. Meaning that if I held AK clubs, the flop would be 589 hearts and what not. That is why I stopped playing for a moment. Knew I wasn't playing very sharp and was starting to let things get to me, which usually isn't a problem.

Thanks for the advice...can never have to much of it.

Full-ring I suggest opening only 22+, AQo+ and AJs+ UTG, which is already on the looser side for "beginners". When people 3-bet your UTG openraise, only go broke with AA and KK unless you're playing against a very loose/maniacish/fishy opponent, then QQ and AK will often be good as well. People often do not 3-bet against UTG openraisers with weak holdings. Only setmine after a 3-bet when you have good odds (usually means you'll be sitting deeper), and always fold AJ/AQ after a 3-bet because you'll be dominated pretty much always. And except for setmining, never call a 3-bet out of position, since it's incredibly tough to play out of position without initiative. Rather 4-bet or fold if you don't want to go broke if someone shoves on your 4-bet.

Wryzeth,
Thanks for posting. I just learned the posting hands thing. I will definitely be posting some in the hand judging forum.

As for leak, I realize that I am just like a screendoor on a submarine. Which is why I started the blog and will be posting lots of hands. Then I will steadily see familiar names at the tables as they see how badly I play

I might come off as confident, but it is a veiled attempt to not show my "Holy F&@k, I have no idea what I'm doing" side

Again, thanks for the advice...

Another day done.

Sat at some very infested tables...Regs to the left of me, Regs to the right of me, Regs in front of me. At times, it seemed like I was at the start of a tournament table. Little action. Folds to smallish bets, unless you were crushed.

I forgot to check how many tables everyone was playing, especially before I was in a big pot with a 12-tabler. Very, very bad play on my part:

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($11.53)
fsopfounder (UTG+1) ($10.38)
MP1 ($6.60)
MP2 ($10)
MP3 ($15.43)
CO ($4.25)
BTN ($9.80)
SB ($10)
BB ($3.50)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 9 players) fsopfounder is UTG+1 A♠ K♠
1 fold, fsopfounder raises to $0.40, 1 fold, MP2 raises to $1.10, 5 folds, fsopfounder raises to $3, MP2 goes all-in $10, fsopfounder calls $7

Flop: Q♦ 2♦ 7♠ ($20.15, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: Q♥ ($20.15, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: J♠ ($20.15, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $20.15
fsopfounder shows a pair of Queens
A♠ K♠
MP2 shows two pair, Aces and Queens
A♦ A♥

MP2 wins $18.81 (net +$8.81)

fsopfounder lost $10

I almost didn't want to post this. I should have just transferred $10 into the guys account without playing the hand. Just dumb, dumb, dumb. There, that is out and over with.

Feel like I'm missing value post-flop. Need to look over some of my hands to see what I could have done differently. Posted a couple of hands in the evaluation forum, interested to see what comes of that.

Played 560 hands - profit -24.17

See ya at the tables!

I disagree it is hard to fold AKs to a 3bet without any stats. However you could have told that he was a reg by hte number of tables he was playing and you were in UTG+1 so shipping might be a bit overplaying your hand.

Interesting day at the tables. Had a pretty fun situation occur...

First Hand

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($2.94)
UTG+1 ($8.53)
fsopfounder (MP1) ($9.85)
MP2 ($7.54)
CO ($9.04)
BTN ($9.95)
SB ($10.33)
BB ($9.29)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 8 players) fsopfounder is MP1 7♣ 5♣
2 folds, fsopfounder raises to $0.30, 1 fold, CO raises to $0.90, 3 folds, fsopfounder calls $0.60

Flop: 7♦ 8♦ 3♠ ($1.95, 2 players)
fsopfounder checks, CO checks

Turn: 5♠ ($1.95, 2 players)
fsopfounder checks, CO checks

River: 8♥ ($1.95, 2 players)
fsopfounder bets $0.40, CO calls $0.40

Final Pot: $2.75
fsopfounder shows two pair, Eights and Sevens
7♣ 5♣
CO shows
K♥ A♣

fsopfounder wins $2.57 (net +$1.27)

CO lost $1.30

The "villian" decided to make some remarks about the hand in the cbox:
Villian: 75?
Villian: I confess I'm not a good enough poker player to put you on THAT hand...
Villian: Truly a master over there.

A few hands later and this occurred:

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($9.95)
UTG+1 ($11.43)
MP1 ($2.79)
MP2 ($3.35)
fsopfounder (CO) ($9.43)
BTN ($10)
SB ($5.69)
BB ($7.74)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 8 players) fsopfounder is CO K♣ K♠
4 folds, fsopfounder raises to $0.30, 2 folds, BB raises to $0.90, fsopfounder raises to $2, BB calls $1.10

Flop: 4♦ 2♥ J♥ ($4.05, 2 players)
BB checks, fsopfounder checks

Turn: 9♦ ($4.05, 2 players)
BB goes all-in $5.74, fsopfounder calls $5.74

River: 5♠ ($15.53, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $15.53
fsopfounder shows a pair of Kings
K♣ K♠
BB shows a pair of Queens
Q♥ Q♣

fsopfounder wins $14.50 (net +$6.76)

BB lost $7.74

Villian wasn't liking things very much, so he decided to leave the table. So I just pressed "ctrl+F." I figured someone of his mastery would certainly like to continue playing with me. So I sat down at 2 of his tables, one, immediately to his left, and the other 2 seats to his left. Could it really be this good?

Final hand worth noting:

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($10)
UTG+1 ($4)
MP1 ($9.39)
MP2 ($8.08)
MP3 ($12.96)
fsopfounder (CO) ($15.99)
BTN ($12.01)
SB ($4.53)
BB ($13.28)

Pre-Flop: ($0.15, 9 players) fsopfounder is CO Q♦ Q♠
3 folds, MP2 raises to $0.30, 1 fold, fsopfounder raises to $0.80, 3 folds, MP2 calls $0.50

Flop: Q♣ 8♣ A♠ ($1.75, 2 players)
MP2 checks, fsopfounder checks

Turn: 10:spade: ($1.75, 2 players)
MP2 bets $1.75, fsopfounder raises to $4, MP2 calls $2.25

River: 7♣ ($9.75, 2 players)
MP2 checks, fsopfounder checks

Final Pot: $9.75
MP2 shows
A♣ 5♠
fsopfounder shows three of a kind, Queens
Q♦ Q♠

fsopfounder wins $9.10 (net +$4.30)

MP2 lost $4.80

I was saddened to have to close the tables, but work called and it was time for me to call it a session anyway. Bit disappointed that I didn't shove that last hand, but I wanted him to pay me off and was afraid that he would have folded if I pushed or worse, had the flush.

Breakeven session, well, almost....down -$5.00. Finding it takes me a bit to "warm-up" at the tables before I am playing decently. Might need to watch a video or something before I start...2 more days for the Take2 promotion. Have to admit, that was a pretty gifty promo, hope they do it again.

Till next time, and may the cards rise to meet you.

Calling a 3bet OOP with 75s? Eeek!

Other two hands, I hope you were only slowplaying for the benefit of your friend. Just bet bet bet. KK>QQ is a cooler for him imo.

Yes, the 75s was a horrible call. As I mentioned earlier, it takes a little bit for me to get in the groove.

Good Monday everyone! Very interesting weekend in the Poker industry...Glad that I am living in Germany so that I am not "banned" from playing. Will be interesting what changes are made going forward to enable the Poker rooms the opportunity to sustain themselves back in the US market.

As for me...the Take2 promotion is over. Played 9 out of the 10 days and should be receiving the $25 into my account soon, I think.

I had never really played FR cash games before, mostly concentrated on the STT. But the Take2 promotion was too easy for me to pass up, so I decided to give it a go. Found out that I need more practice. After 3 initial days of running very good, the next 6 were not kind. I expected it, though, and the nice folks here on the forums warned me of it as well. For some reason, I would pull the Negreanu all the time.

"Well, if he has AA, I'm toast...I know he has AA....but if he doesn't, I double up...Call! Yep, you had AA."

Need to learn how when I put someone on a hand, to actually trust myself that they have said hand. I'm making good reads, I'm just not paying any attention to them.

I started around March 11 or so, can't remember, with the $50 starting capital...worked it up to $129 at one point (Couldn't crack $130 for some reason). Currently at $54...with $25 being added some time today, I think...So going forward, I have a BR of $79.

Now the decision will be what game to play. Do I follow sound BRM? Which is the safest and smartest way to go....or Do I keep playing above BRM and risk it. I am not aversed to losing all of the money and I am not against depositing. Actually I need to make a deposit so that I can actually earn the rakeback that I am missing out on, as well as the first deposit bonus that is just sitting there waiting for me.

One thing for sure...I will hesitant to visit the cash game tables again before I purchase HEM or get Elephant to work. I'm already at a disadvantage not being very good, but to not have the information that would be available to me puts me at a bigger disadvantage as soon as I sit down.

Well, I'm off to watch some videos and read an article or two...I'll update later on what direction I have decided to go in...

Take care, and may the cards rise to meet you.

Hi mate

the Take2 promotion is advertised as been paid on wednesday so you might have to wait a couple of days ;).

with $54 I would go back to NL2 and play with proper BRM leave yourself a minimum of 20BI at micro otherwise you will have to go down too often or risk losing it all.

GLATT

So with a crippled Bankroll and a decision to be made about where to go from here. I decided I needed to look closely at my game and find out what my next steps would be. One thing that I needed, or at least felt that I needed, was software to help me. I had attempted to install Elephant, but ran into the problems that everyone has had with running Vista. After carefully scouring the Elephant support blog, I found the answer. I needed to add the 127.0.0.1 address to the "hosts" file. VOILA!!!! Success, and now I have more information to look through to make informed decisions.

After looking over my hands and reading back through my blog at some of the replies that I have received. I have decided that I will play the .02/.05 Cash Games, with a full buy-in of $5. Yes, that is 10% of my Bankroll. No, that is not sound BRM. However, it is difficult for me to spend the hours playing poker and only netting modest profits. Granted, they are profits, but if I look at the rate/hour, I can't justify it. I can't spend 2 hours playing poker for a profit of $2. Granted, it is better than a loss, but still...

I have also decided to tighten my range a bit. I was playing very loose, as you can see from previous posts. Pretty much suited connectors and I'm seeing the flop. Needless to say, this is not a sound strategy. I have reinforced this truth by turning a $130 BR into a $50 BR.

The whole time I was losing, I kept thinking to myself..."How can I play well at the STT, but horribly at the FR Cash Games?" Yes, they are different, but I shouldn't be doing THIS bad at the Cash Games, if I have had success with the STT, albeit a small sample. It is because I was playing better hands at the STT. Wasn't seeing flops with garbage, or going broke on gut shot straight draws.

So, I have read some articles to refresh my mindset. Played just under 100 hands this morning and made 100 BB.

From here I will dedicate to the .02/0.05 tables until the roll is up to $200. I will attempt to play the PokerStrategy FreeRoll in the afternoon as well, if work allows. Might add 3 or 4 STT to the week as well, we will see.

Since I have the Elephant running, I am able to accurately display my progress, whether good or bad...

STT - mostly $5.5
57 tournies
ITM = 38.6%
ROI = 22.6%

FR NL Cash
.05/.10 - 1966 Hands
.02/.05 - 350 Hands

BB/100 Hands = -21.2

See ya at the tables!!!!!

Well, recieved my $25 from Full Tilt's Take2 promotion, yesterday. Didn't get a chance to sit at any tables yesterday. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

Decided that I would give SH Cash Game today. Sat at the NL5 for 422 hands, made profit of 28.2 BB. Not much, but at least it is positive. Experienced the variance that comes with SH, but there is more action, which I like. I looked at my stats and came to the conclusion that I play too loose for the FR tables. I probably play too loose for the SH tables as well, with a VPIP of 43.7% today. I'm at about 30% at the FR tables. Which is a loosing proposition when everyone else is only playing premiums.

Anyways, going to continue on the SH NL5 tables until I have 25 BI for NL10, that should take a while. Just trying to be realistic.

GLATT

Originally posted by FSOPFounder
Yes, that is 10% of my Bankroll. No, that is not sound BRM. However, it is difficult for me to spend the hours playing poker and only netting modest profits. Granted, they are profits, but if I look at the rate/hour, I can't justify it.

I used to think exactly the same way. Which is exactly how i managed to lose my no deposit from pokerstrategy in lightning speed and after that the no deposit from some other sites as well.

After a while I even quit poker because I figured that poker wasn't my game because I was just losing the money. And in the rare case I made some money, it did not even equal 1$ / hour.

A couple of weeks ago one of my mates asked me to play some (play money) poker with him which made me interested in poker again and I started to read the pokerstrategy forums. After reading a while I came across the following statement:

"When you are a beginner, you shouldn't play for the profit because it will be ridicilously low. You simply should play to improve your game and slowly move up limits to make a lot of money in the long run."

For me it was quite an eye opener and if I would have read this earlier, I would probably still be a pokerstrategist. Shame I will never be able to see those silver articles now :(.

Anyways, I don't know if it is applicable to you but I just wanted to share it just in case.

And good luck on your poker career

So, I'm currently playing at a NL5 SH table...2 players are VPIP of 70% over 100 hands...not kidding. And this is an example of one's play:

$0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG ($7.66)
UTG+1 ($6.50)
fsopfounder (CO) ($8.19)
BTN ($5)
SB ($4.95)
BB ($8.89)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) fsopfounder is CO 5♣ 3♦
UTG raises to $0.10, 1 fold, fsopfounder folds, 1 fold, SB raises to $0.30, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.20

Flop: 10:heart: 3♥ 9♠ ($0.65, 2 players)
SB bets $0.45, UTG raises to $0.90, SB calls $0.45

Turn: 3♠ ($2.45, 2 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $2.45, SB goes all-in $3.75, UTG calls $1.30

River: A♠ ($9.95, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $9.95
UTG shows a pair of Threes
J♥ 5♠
SB shows two pair, Queens and Threes
Q♣ Q♥

SB wins $9.29 (net +$4.34)

UTG lost $4.95

I hope they never get up from the table...

The same guy that went all-in with the J5o, attempting to represent a flush, started shoving pre-flop. I guess he thought he was playing a SnG...Luckily, I was on the receiving in of his last shove...

$0.02/$0.05 No Limit Holdem
FullTiltPoker
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
fsopfounder (UTG) ($8.64)
UTG+1 ($5)
CO ($9.15)
BTN ($9.33)
SB ($3.63)
BB ($8.57)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) fsopfounder is UTG 10:heart: A♥
fsopfounder raises to $0.10, 2 folds, BTN calls $0.10, SB raises to $1, 1 fold, fsopfounder goes all-in $8.64, BTN folds, SB goes all-in $2.63

Flop: A♠ 6♣ 4♣ ($12.42, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: 4♦ ($12.42, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: K♥ ($12.42, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $12.42
SB shows two pair, Kings and Fours
K♠ 7♦
fsopfounder shows two pair, Aces and Fours
10:heart: A♥

fsopfounder wins $11.93 (net +$3.29)

SB lost $3.63
BTN lost $0.10

For some reason, he left the table after this hand. I was disappointed to see him go. However, I wondered where he went...maybe another .02/.05 table where folks do not know how he plays. Well, he went to another table, but it was a .25/.50 table. Definitely have him marked for future sessions.

It has been a little bit since I last posted. Finding it very difficult to find the time to play at night, so I have been relegated to only at work as it allows, which hasn't been too much, which is good.

The kids are on Easter/Spring Break, so we have done a few day trips this week with them. Took them to Legoland, which was a lot of fun. My 10 year old daughter was very proud of herself as she "faced her fears" and rode all of the rollercoasters for the first time...and of course loved it. My 8 year old son rides everything, the boy simply has no fear, which is good and painful most of the time. My 3 year old son, is a carbon copy of the 8 year old. No fear...many trips to the emergency room thus far in his young life. The boy simply loves being a boy. The 1 1/2 year old was a trooper and rode the rides he could (not many) and enjoyed the various playgrounds they have there. All in all, a great trip.

Played my first session this morning of 4 tables @ NL2. I like the 4 tables. Keeps me going and not playing hands out of boredom. > 500 hands and slightly above BE...Standard play really...QQ was coolered by AA...straight defeated by a flush on the river (all-in on the turn). Feel very good about my play. Made some questionable plays, of course, chasing some hands thinking, "If I hit, he goes broke." Of course I hit about 3% of the time so it is time for me to learn that, that is not a profitable play

Hope things are going swimmingly for all of you...till next time.