Cash is QUEEN! Prim´s little CG corner (and BR-challenge)

Not always daily quads and full houses ....

variance brings you either sweets or turns your session sour. Well, my today´s session could be described as pretty sour, when just looking at the cards. But it wasn´t really! Yes, I was 2 hours pretty much card-dead, missed most of the boards completely, but I enjoyed it anyway. I know you can´t always hit every flop and cannot always get AA, KK or AAKKds The most important thing was to keep patient, not to make bad calls, not to play hands just because of the urge to "play at least something".

So, I was mostly folding or missing the flop completely. CG at those limits (NL2, PLO2) is all about waiting for the right moment to strike: either to win a stack with a big hand by value betting or by bluffing (sometimes). And sometimes, while fun-players call your value bets, they may hit their miracle card. That happened today while a fun-player called me down while I held TPTK and eventually hit their 2-outer on the river.

In PLO I just somehow "survived" by getting some small pots, no big hand - at least not for me. Today, I won only ONE single big pot in Holdem with aces up, that was it. Most of the time I was folding patiently!

Eventually, after two hours, I was one stack down: -1,85 €, which is a good result under those circumstances.

More luck next time?

Trying a little longer session ...

..because I had time. Today´s session on Partypoker lasted 3 hours instead of my usual 1,5 - 2 hours. I started and finished work early today and I have nowhere to go, so I tried a 3 hour CG-session on Party. The first 2 hours I couldn´t get to a PLO table, I played 4 tables NL2. Many fun-players seem to be on vacation, the tables were full of aggro-fun-players!! Fold equity was zero zero and I had to adjust. So, very simple poker this time, no big bluffs, no tricky moves, just waiting patiently for a solid hand and bet for value.

While I had a really lucky hour in Holdem, my session turned quickly sour into a "run-bad" for the last one and half hours. Gladly, I got to a PLO table (finally!) and could play at least one hour PLO2! And I think PLO2 was indeed the session saver!!

No big pot, but cool!

Acies get "da pot"

I could focus on PLO while playing through the "sour phase" of Holdem ...or rather: Fold em! While I was folding tons of junk in NL2, I could have at least some PLO-fun! Was a great distraction from all the junk and all those totally missed flops. No chance to bluff today! The tables were full of fun-players who hate to fold. So I had to fold, when completely missed the flop, not only because those players hated to fold but almost every pot was multiway with at least 3 Villains, calling my raise.

Fun hand

Even though there were some "goodies" in NL2, they were not enough for a winning session, considering all the missed flops and some lucky rivers for Villains. As mentioned, PLO was the "session saver" today, but eventually, the "run bad"-phase was just too dominant.

We ended up break-even, almost exactly, like -0,34 ct or so.

From sour to .....

Okay, let´s get this straight away: My today´s session started sour and put my mental game to the test! Tons and tons and tons of junk hands, completely missed flops, draws didn´t get there and I even had to fold a set! I bluffed half of my stack away against fellow-reg and was already prepared to accept another loosing session, while I was repeating my mantra over and over again: "All you have to do is wait patiently for a solid hand!" - which by the way didn´t come for a long time! I knew, now I either pull myself together or I end this session immediately!

The first thing I did, was closing that Holdem table with the reg and could - gladly open another PLO-table instead, so that I played two PLO tables today! That was the first silver lining! I decided to focus my energy on PLO and enjoy it (which I really do!), while folding all that junk at the Holdem tables. And what should I say? PLO - again! - saved my bum bum!

Let´s stack off with ssAcies first!

And then: Let´s get things straight!

Sorry, I don´t wanna share!

We got it in on flop (of course), while I had additionally the 2nd nut flush draw (which obviously got there).

So, altogether, PLO was again the "session saver" and after all the "bitterness" in Holdem, we eventually finsihed with one stack up!

This week, we´re break even (+54 ct.) in CG, but MTT-weekend is coming up! As you guys know, I use to play MTTs and freerolls at the weekends. Will we stay break-even this week or could there be some MTT-winnings?

We will find out ........ here.

When card-dead, you can simply pull up more tables, on more sites if necessary, and also table-start. That solves the "too low hands per hour" problem. I especially love table-starting on 6-max, as bad players prefer playing 6-max for some reason. Then I still get them HU.

Originally posted by taavi1337
When card-dead, you can simply pull up more tables, on more sites if necessary, and also table-start. That solves the "too low hands per hour" problem. I especially love table-starting on 6-max, as bad players prefer playing 6-max for some reason. Then I still get them HU.

Cool idea! We in Germany are only allowed to play 4-tables at a time, but 4-tabling already helps. Furthermore, I´m looking for some interesting podcasts or even audiobooks to listen to while waiting and folding.

Originally posted by Primrose6789
I´m looking for some interesting podcasts or even audiobooks to listen to while waiting and folding.
I can't play poker without one of those - I always need some podcast, stream or some kind of long video to run in the background. Sometimes this can lead to some of those "there's just nothing good on right now!" situations that you may remember from back when watching TV was a thing.

Twitch streamers often seem to be slightly offended when they learn that I have their stream on as "background noise", though they really shouldn't be - as I pointed out, these things can be in high demand for me. My own planned stream is still in the works, and if it ever goes live, I would be honored to be someone else's background noise.

F*ing up for free

Even though it´s not CG-related, I write this here, because it´s about the mental game. After my CG-session, I decided to play some freerolls and to be honest: That was pretty much my worst poker! Yes, I f*ed up, costs me nothing but teaches me an important lesson: I shouldn´t play when mentally not "in shape". As my Holdem CG session went poorly I was pretty much kind of "fed up", I didn´t have the patience to wait for solid hands, I didn´t have the patience for all the fun-players, hitting their random hands. Why shouldn´t they? Everybody can hit their random nuts from time to time, the chance is not zero!

I shouldn´t play when I´m not fully focussed on equity! The focus must be on equity on the long run instead of some fun-player who sucks out on me with 88 < KK, right? 80 % of the time I will win with KK vs 88. And even when I get zillions of junk hands and miss zillions of flops, that is no reason not to focus on the statistics! So, that´s a very important lesson I have learnt. It´s better NOT to play than to play badly. Okay, this time it was for free, so no money lost, but I won´t be playing freerolls forever. I will move up. Well, i intend to move up.

But this is exactly why I play freerolls, why I build my BR from scratch - to get used to variance. Step by step.

Another take home message for me is that I shouldn´t play too much at once! I intend to play more, but it´s like in sports: You cannot run 10 kilometers without training for it. You cannot play long poker sessions and keep up your focus and mental game, without training (well, at least I cannot!). Better play "smaller" portions at a time and slowly increasing the length of the sessions.

But the most important thing is that I did not f* up in CG like that! :f_biggrin::f_ugly:

BR challenge report

Week 3
BR last week: 114,75 €
CG Hands: 400
Freerolls: 12
MTTs: 0
BR now: 116,28 €
Profit: +1,53 €

When memories hit you out of the blue.....

they can be very helpful! While I was playing my lunch-break session, memories hit me like a lightning! Memories of GTO! ♠_o: For those who are quite new to this blog: I used to be a quite successful SnG- and MTT player years ago, and it was then when I took coaching and learnt a bit of GTO. And while I was playing today, my "old" lines came to my mind out of the blue! Yesterday I was studying and reading a book, but that was not about balanced play. In limits like NL2, NL5 and maybe NL10, you don´t have to be a GTO-nerd yet. The stategy is more expoitative. And while I applied what I had learnt yesterday, I also remembered my "good old" GTO-lines.

And let´s be honest: Today, I was also lucky! But I had the feeling my little GTO-knowledge helped me, extracting more value!

We got again our daily quads today

Fun players can pay

I´m always happy when a fun-player fully pays

Harrier was railing today and while I served him a total "word salad" (because some memories came back), I could take around 6 stacks. Yes, we´re 6 stacks up today! + 11 €

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Harrier was railing today and while I served him a total "word salad" (because some memories came back), I could take around 6 stacks.]

Don't worry about it, I was busy preparing lunch while I railed you anyway. And like I said, it's completely fair to voice your thoughts if it helps with your play or your reasoning. It's just a private Discord call, you don't need to do professional commentary.

Amazing results today, though!

And now: I´m curious!

GTO: Hey, sounds very interesting and exciting! Just got Barrys and Daras books "GTO simplified" and "Beyond GTO"! Because: Why not?! But will not read them now! They will be read as soon as I got my beginners books really fully understood - forward and backward! :f_wink::f_biggrin: The GTO-books are a motivation to get through the beginners books properly and learn everything properly! I have time for that as long as I grind NL2 and later NL5. On NL2 and PLO2 I still can make mistakes, I still can be a bit confused as long as I make less mistakes than Villains at the tables (which is not difficult).

So, I got two lovely books to look forward to .... :f_love::f_love:

When the cash goes out of the window .........

Well, it does! Even without any big hands .... just hitting ............ nothing! Getting .......... nothing! And folding on turns and rivers which are super bad for my range and great for fun-players range. Or fun-players hitting they gut-shots.

And that was my todays session described in a nutshell .......

AK, AQ, AJ didn´t hit anything, pairs didn´t make sets and one fun-player getting somehow their random runner-runner-fush, two fun players getting there with their gutshot. Hurray for second-best hands! The rest was folding ........

So, roughly 2 stacks down (but we won 6 stacks yesterday, so no big deal).

The cool down? :f_o::wtf:

Well, looks like we´re not hitting anything anymore, getting tons of junks and especially second best hands, turn and/or river seems to destroy our (former) nuts. We usually find a tight fold in most spots, but some are a bit crazy coolers. Lost with the (former) "nut-str8", lost with a flopped nut-flush (the river!!!), lost with pretty much everything, mostly cheap, though!

Hand of the day

Isn´t it lovely when the player behind you wakes up with AA while you hold KK? And even more lovely is, when 77 hits their 7 and sucks out on us. Even though we lost a stack, that was a funny hand.

Anyway, as we had a great session on Tuesday, we still got "buffer" for this week. We´re down again, but as I won´t play tomorrow (time for friends and social life!) I can say, that we´re still on the winning side this week, but well, our big winning turned into a small winning.

And as this is an absolutely honest CG-blog - let´s show, where we really f*ed up! Big time!

Violence is not the answer!

Why going berserk on the flop? Violence is not (always) a solution (same in tennis by the way)!

PartyPoker-BR went from 102 Euro to something like 112 Euro, then down to 106 Euro. Yep! Let´s get used to variance! I wanted this, so I have to deal with this! :f_biggrin::f_wink:

Let´s see, what the upcoming MTT-weekend on 888 brings .....

Originally posted by Primrose6789
Like our hand of the day

Isn´t it lovely when the player behind you wakes up with AA while you hold KK? And even more lovely is, when 77 hits their 7 and sucks out on us. Even though we lost a stack, that was a funny hand.
I saw that one live... First, I was excited that Prim managed to go all-in vs two players with her KK. Then the hands got revealed, and... "oh crap". The table stayed like that for a few seconds, while players were given the option to cash out their equity or something. All that time, I thought "okay, maybe we'll just hit a K... this one time! It will all be good".

...and then the flop got revealed, and I immediately had to burst out laughing.

Yes, the best one can do in such a situation is having a good laugh.
And the next upswing is around the corner... we just have to wait a bit.

"PartyPoker-BR went from 102 Euro to something like 112 Euro, then down to 106 Euro. Yep! Let´s get used to variance! I wanted this, so I have to deal with this!

Yes it's best to keep monthly and yearly progress, then you actually see how you are doing Just had the same as you on KKpoker with free TaF $75; up to 79, then down to 70, then up to 84. Short-term it is quite impossible to estimate the results accurately, even if you win like +50BB/100 in FLHU tablestarting at casino-friendly 888, you still need to play a week to get an idea, as the players can vary, and can hit sometimes their draws or set-ups can happen, flush vs flush etc. And what to say vs a pool where some people beat you!

Originally posted by taavi1337
"PartyPoker-BR went from 102 Euro to something like 112 Euro, then down to 106 Euro. Yep! Let´s get used to variance! I wanted this, so I have to deal with this!

Yes it's best to keep monthly and yearly progress, then you actually see how you are doing Just had the same as you on KKpoker with free TaF $75; up to 79, then down to 70, then up to 84. Short-term it is quite impossible to estimate the results accurately, even if you win like +50BB/100 in FLHU tablestarting at casino-friendly 888, you still need to play a week to get an idea, as the players can vary, and can hit sometimes their draws or set-ups can happen, flush vs flush etc. And what to say vs a pool where some people beat you!

Yes, that makes more sense due to the natural swings caused by variance. For the BR-challenge I have to report weekly, but it indeed makes more sense that I look at monthy or yearly progresses. The focus is anyway on getting things right, instead of the BR. Too bad, PartyPoker doesn´t allow trackers, so I can´t even show a long-term graph or something, I have to write it down. Maybe I should make a graph myself in Excel or so ....and then show that one monthly or every 3 months.... ?

yes, this year I have been using tracking the balance monthly in Excel for non-tracker poker sites, this has worked wonders!

...

Originally posted by Untiltable
Agreed, short term variance is just a distraction that takes your focus away from what actually matters and makes you win in the first place.

At least on GGPoker it's possible to hide your balance. I typically don't know whether I'm up or down for the day or week - unless it's clear without even checking.

You can do that on PartyPoker too. You can hide your balance. As I have to report weekly for the challenge, I somehow have to keep track even on the short term results, even though they are strongly influenced by short-term variance. But the really important thing is indeed, how I do over a long period of time, like 3 months, 6 months or a year. Even more important is to get it right! Because that´s where the good results on the long run come from!

I have discovered that PartyPoker allows now to export hands!!! So, instead of results, now I can finally show hands, not only the screenshots but hand histories! Which is great!

So, from now on we can really focus on hands, not just short term results, which makes this blog way more interesting!!!