From a crap MTT player to a crap 6max cash player

Maybe I'm just running bad after all

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 107 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 6)
SB: 97.2 BB
BB: 72.84 BB (VPIP: 57.89, PFR: 31.58, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 20)
UTG: 154.76 BB (VPIP: 29.11, PFR: 18.99, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 81)
MP: 39.92 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 15)
Hero (CO): 185 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 7♣ 5♣

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (10.4 BB, 3 players) 8♦ 6♥ 4♦
UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 7 BB, fold, Hero raises to 18.96 BB, BTN raises to 47 BB, Hero raises to 150.92 BB, BTN calls 57 BB and is all-in

Turn: (218.4 BB, 2 players) 4♣

River: (218.4 BB, 2 players) 6♦

Hero shows 7♣ 5♣ (Straight, Eight High) (Pre 33%, Flop 48%, Turn 68%)
BTN shows 7♦ 9♦ (Flush, Nine High) (Pre 67%, Flop 52%, Turn 32%)
BTN wins 210.4 BB

Hmmmm I just spotted something.

The past few sessions I played I have lost heavily while four tabling Zoom.

In the winning sessions (the first few I played), I played two tables, then three.

Coincidence??????

Probably, but I'm gonna stick with three tables for a little while anyway.

Ak hand, unless he is a big fish just fold it. 10Q is a pretty big part of his range and they usually don't go crazy with anything worse than t2p. I know it sucks to fold hands like this but good folds really have a huge impact on your winrate.

Aq hand, I would just bet the turn with the second possible flushdraw coming up. Ak is such a small part of his range and if he raises you there you are probably beat and can just fold.

KK hand, nothing you can do about that, would have gone in anyway.

QQ hand, he seems really passive so turn might be a fold because only hand that you are ahead of that he might ship is Adkx.

Ak hand, I would definitely not go for a second barrel. The 7 can be considered a blank so just check and hope he checks back. Call or fold based on the size of his bet but most of the time a check/call.

QK hand, donk by a fish here is either 6x, flush, sometimes Ahx or a random straight so without reads fold is the better option because they just don't bluff often enough.

57, I would fold pre without any other callers.

Thanks for pitching in jorny, good advise on every hand!

I particularly like you line with AQ when K hits the turn.

You're right I have to be less stubborn after the flop.

And the bad run continues......

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 54.2 BB (VPIP: 15.79, PFR: 15.79, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
Hero (SB): 301.68 BB
BB: 95.8 BB (VPIP: 6.90, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 29)
UTG: 194.52 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
MP: 49.76 BB (VPIP: 57.14, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
CO: 147.56 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 40.00, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 5)

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K♣ K♥

fold, MP raises to 3.4 BB, CO raises to 8 BB, fold, Hero raises to 24 BB, fold, MP calls 20.6 BB, CO raises to 97 BB, Hero raises to 170 BB, MP calls 25.76 BB and is all-in, CO calls 50.56 BB and is all-in

Flop: (345.88 BB, 3 players) 5♥ J♣ K♠

Turn: (345.88 BB, 3 players) 6♠

River: (345.88 BB, 3 players) 6♣

Hero shows K♣ K♥ (Full House, Kings full of Sixes)
Main Pot [150.28 BB]: (Pre 65%, Flop 96%, Turn 98%)
Side Pot#1 [195.6 BB]: (Pre 80%, Flop 100%, Turn 98%)

The above was played during an ongoing Zoom session. It's been horrible lately, I can't win a penny in any cash game, live or online, over the past week. But I can crush local live MTTs, winning two (well chopping when heads up) in the past week.

During todays Zoom session I have:

Run my K high flush into the nut flush (twice I think).

Gotten all in (by five betting) on the flop with the nut straight, only to have a donkey make his flush on the river.

Flopped top set in a 3bet pot but beaten by a flopped nut flush (despite running it twice).

Ran KK into AA

Ran AA into KK (guess what happened)

Called an all in with QQ on the flop (overpair), only to have villain spike a set of Jacks on the turn.

And many, many more.

At one stage in the session I was running at -31bb over 2000 hands!!

It's not all bad though. At least Gamblor (God of gambling) lets me get back to even or maybe a little better before crushing my soul with more coolers and bad beats.

Rant over, back to Zoom

Zoom can be so brutal ♦ Take a hit and move on not much we can do. I had solid welcome at zoom tables -7bi in 10min

gl!

Thanks Magic.

Heres another strange spot on the river for QQ

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 359.76 BB (VPIP: 22.58, PFR: 16.13, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 31)
SB: 151.28 BB (VPIP: 26.32, PFR: 21.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 19)
BB: 111.16 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 13)
Hero (UTG): 90.96 BB
MP: 202.52 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
CO: 108.28 BB (VPIP: 21.54, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 68)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Q♦ Q♣

Hero raises to 2.8 BB, MP calls 2.8 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.8 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (9.8 BB, 3 players) Q♥ J♠ 4♠
Hero bets 7 BB, fold, BTN calls 7 BB

Turn: (23.8 BB, 2 players) 8♣
Hero bets 16.4 BB, BTN calls 16.4 BB

River: (56.6 BB, 2 players) K♦
Hero checks, BTN bets 333.56 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 64.76 BB and is all-in

BTN shows A♠ T♠ (Straight, Ace High) (Pre 33%, Flop 34%, Turn 30%)
Hero mucks Q♦ Q♣ (Three of a Kind, Queens) (Pre 67%, Flop 66%, Turn 70%)
BTN wins 178.12 BB

I'm checking the turn to induce a bet from weak made hands and bluffs from missed draws. T9 is my only real concern - I didn't even consider the AT. Horrible call or reasonable bluffcatcher?

I guess you are just unlucky there. 910 probably would have raised the turn. He could be shoving worse sets (which he often raises on flop or turn but not always) or missed FDs. If he is super passive you could consider a fold but with only 31 hands on him I'm never folding this.

Today I decided "Fuck Zoom" for a day, I wanna play some tourneys. I've been running so bad that I'm worried about perma-tilt, or at least I was becoming a little jaded, and very pessimistic. My play has definitely suffered (well, certainly has not improved).

I also decided not to post anymore bad beat hands unless I thought I made any glaring mistakes.

So after being promptly eliminated from a live tourney while holding AA (don't worry I'm not going into it), then being eliminated from four online tourneys, all with the best of it when the money went in, I finally played this hand....

PokerStars - $2+$0.20|100/200 Ante 25 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 47.93 BB (VPIP: 65.63, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 18.18, Hands: 32)
UTG+1: 57.82 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 32)
Hero (UTG+2): 53.87 BB
MP: 17.88 BB (VPIP: 40.63, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 32)
MP+1: 71.2 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
CO: 22.01 BB (VPIP: 34.38, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 32)
BTN: 43.93 BB (VPIP: 52.17, PFR: 26.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 23)
SB: 19.1 BB (VPIP: 40.63, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 32)
BB: 7.8 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 32)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 4♦ 4♠

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB, fold, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (14.63 BB, 4 players) 8♥ 4♣ 4♥
UTG checks, Hero checks, MP bets 14.63 BB, BTN raises to 29.25 BB, fold, Hero calls 29.25 BB, MP calls 0.13 BB and is all-in

Turn: (87.88 BB, 3 players) 5♦
Hero checks, BTN bets 11.55 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 11.55 BB

River: (110.98 BB, 3 players) 9♣

Hero shows 4♦ 4♠ (Four of a Kind, Fours)
Main Pot [58.88 BB]: (Pre 39%, Flop 100%, Turn 100%)
Side Pot#1 [52.1 BB]: (Pre 52%, Flop 100%, Turn 100%)

BTN shows 8♣ J♠ (Two Pair, Eights and Fours)
Main Pot [58.88 BB]: (Pre 37%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot#1 [52.1 BB]: (Pre 48%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)

MP shows 8♠ 6♠ (Two Pair, Eights and Fours)
Main Pot [58.88 BB]: (Pre 24%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)

Hero wins 110.98 BB

...in a two dollar tourney I have running behind the nightly $25K...

...where I am desperately shortstacked...

I've just been going over a hand I played in a live tourney last night, where I made a bluff that didn't work out. At first I was kicking myself for trying to bluff a donkey and was convinced my play was obvious or I'll conceived. Now I'm not so sure, and reckon I made a good play.

LIVE MTT. €100 BUY IN. 8 HANDED. 100/200 25

HERO is SB with KJs and roughly 50bb

UTG2 Limps 200
CO raises to 650
HERO raises to 2,000

Blinds fold, UTG2 folds. I am HU with 40bb

Now the limper is a loose passive reg I know well, and I know is never continuing.
The CO is a live MTT reg too, but is a pretty bad, straightforward player. He generally plays ABC, but is capable of mixing up his play preflop. His level of creativity extends to opening some speculative hands preflop, isolating a limper with good but not great hands, and occasionally stealing the blinds. A few orbits previously, he raised a couple of limpers in position and won a big pot when his 67s made trips.

I raised my KJ as I was garaunteed one fold, probably two. The CO does not understand the concept of three betting light, so is never 4betting without AA, KK, maybe QQ or AK.

The play has many merits.

My raise looks very strong, and I have blockers to good hands
He folds AJ or worse, and maybe AQ
He folds KQ, other KJ.
He folds pairs below 66
When he calls with AK, AQ, JJ and smaller pairs, I take the initiative, meaning my Cbet will work every time he fails to improve, at least 2/3 of the time.

The only cons I can find are when he has me dominated and we both hit the flop, which is unlikely.
And obviously he has a real hand sometimes, but good hands are hard to get. I Hollywood before folding if he moves in.
If he hits the flop I'll get away cheap most of the time.

FLOP A94

HERO bets 15bb (approx)
CO calls

TURN 4

Hero check folds.

This post probably seems elementary, but I have a suspicion that my game suffers from a flaw in basic logic, or that I'm consistently overlooking something important. Or I'm just paranoid.

But I really liked that A on the flop. While it hit some of his range, my CBet folds out a massive chunk of his range, every PP that missed, and a stubborn KQs. I think I would Cbet almost any board, but the A high board allows me bluff out more of his range, or at least a sizable portion of it. I like this move.

Been a few days I since I hit the cash tables.

Played a few MTTs Monday night for a change. Finished 2nd in a $5 (or $10?) rebuy and scored $700. More than made up for the losses I incurred trying to acclimatise to NL25.

I played 3,000 hands at Zoom25 today. Made several adjustments to my strategy. I would say the overarching strategy, or at least the cause for it, has been the zen like revelation (read; smoky and blood-shot eyed revelation) that I am not Pleno1, nor am I facing opponents of his caliber. Not that Plenos advice isn't good - it's great, but not all of his strategies are fitting for NL25 players. That, and I am certainly not using his advice properly because, well, I'm an NL25 player.

So I tightened up in general, but mostly in the blinds. I also played much more aggro from the blinds. Choosing to 3bet or squeeze with hands I wanted to play, and avoided flatting. I stopped open limping SB.

I cut back on bluffing both before the flop and on the river. I iso-raised, yeah, but I avoided light 3betting without a sample of 100 or more.

Postflop I just played real cautious. I slowed down with marginal hands on turn and river, or tried to play the hand in a way that my protection/defensive bets could be small.
I went to value town with my big hands.
I mostly folded trash, but sometimes bluffed.

In other words, I played just like the book says. And it went awesome!

Here's an example of a hand that went my way, and a thinly veiled brag;
(my preflop call is due to depth of stacks and noted fish in the blinds)

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 303.8 BB
SB: 122.72 BB (VPIP: 17.24, PFR: 13.79, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 31)
BB: 46.04 BB
UTG: 29.44 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
MP: 173.08 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 5)
CO: 140.32 BB (VPIP: 12.96, PFR: 12.96, 3Bet Preflop: 3.70, Hands: 56)

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T♦ J♣

fold, MP raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.4 BB, 2 players) 8♥ 9♥ 5♣
MP bets 5 BB, Hero calls 5 BB

Turn: (17.4 BB, 2 players) K♥
MP bets 10 BB, Hero calls 10 BB

River: (37.4 BB, 2 players) 9♦
MP bets 25 BB, Hero raises to 74.4 BB, fold

Hero wins 83.48 BB

On the other hand, a hand I think I played pretty badly, but worked out in the end;

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 108.48 BB (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 20)
SB: 146.72 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 18.62, PFR: 11.72, 3Bet Preflop: 5.17, Hands: 150)
UTG: 94.4 BB (VPIP: 38.46, PFR: 30.77, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
MP: 378.72 BB (VPIP: 31.82, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 23)
Hero (CO): 170.72 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A♠ A♦

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero raises to 8.8 BB, fold, fold, fold, UTG calls 5.8 BB

Flop: (19 BB, 2 players) 7♠ 2♥ J♣
UTG checks, Hero bets 11.6 BB, UTG calls 11.6 BB

Turn: (42.2 BB, 2 players) T♦
UTG checks, Hero bets 24.4 BB, UTG calls 24.4 BB

River: (91 BB, 2 players) J♦
UTG bets 49.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 49.6 BB

UTG shows 8♥ T♥ (Two Pair, Jacks and Tens) (Pre 22%, Flop 22%, Turn 20%)
Hero shows A♠ A♦ (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks) (Pre 78%, Flop 78%, Turn 80%)
Hero wins 182.2 BB

Still, I wasn't on the wrong end of any big pots today, and made few other significant mistakes in that session, which is sweet. Very happy with my play, and nice to boost my BR a little. Looking forward to playing tomorrow!

Meh, maybe I didn't play that AA too badly. I mean, how often will does a random villain shove a J there?

Also, I'll be switching sites soon. Thanks to a lot of help from Lazza, I'm gonna open an account on Betfair to clear a welcome bonus while I grind over the summer. I'll be putting in some overtime over the next two weeks at my real job while other guys are on holidays, so I'll wait until the bulk of that is over before I switch (only have 45 days to clear the bonus). So I'm shooting for around 30th June.

Why do you bluff vs someone you have no sample on that tripple barrels? I mean you don't really rep anything with this line + people don't fold enough on this limit if they tripple barrel.

jorny, good point.

This is not standard for me, but we were so deep, and villain was so face up, I thought a bluff had a good chance here.

I figured my line looked pretty strong here, like I was slowplaying a set or flush and making a "call me" bet on the river. I've found at nl25 that winning players and even slight losers are very cautious postflop. looking back over histories I've found that I'm too loose with big pairs, that other players often have them beat by the river.
Also, if this guy is in any way aware (read books, been to this site or others), this board must scare the crap out of him. I figured he was value betting TP+ until he got raised, and I can rep very strong hands here.

In other words, I think I played it the way a fish would have played a flopped set or straight, trips or flush.

I don't agree. Most people would raise a set on the flop and would not raise a flush otr when the board pairs. In addition to that, raising the turn there with a flush is probably better because you are deep and want to get the money in. It is just highly unlikely that someone does not raise the turn with a flush but does raise the river when the board pairs. The problem with your play is that if he is a good player, he would know you have very few value combo's and if he is a bad player he is just not folding after tripple barreling. And like you said, the board is scary which causes him to not valuebet top pair most of the time. For this reason I would either raise the bet on the turn or not bluff at all.

i think villain folded a bluff.
let's see: one pair hands can't really bet turn and river like that (overplaying), and better hands are pretty much only flushes and fullhouses, does he really fold that?

Originally posted by Tomaloc
i think villain folded a bluff.
let's see: one pair hands can't really bet turn and river like that (overplaying), and better hands are pretty much only flushes and fullhouses, does he really fold that?

I agree and that's why raising the river is bad. People simply don't barrel enough with bluffs (nor weak valuehands) to make this a good bluff without reads especially at this limit.

OK, you guys have won me over, it was a pretty poor bluff.

I think at the time i felt the villain was following the "bet tptk until they raise" philosophy, and a bluff folds out his big pairs and AK.

Raising the turn looks like a much better spot to bluff. Figured that one out playing tourneys last weekend.

Thanks for chiming in guys, really appreciate it.