[Closed] Gavin's School of Fish

Man impressive non-sd.... teach me haha.

Just checked my graph... am down 1800$+ non-sd 33k hands on my limit

Originally posted by Dragar
Man impressive non-sd.... teach me haha.

Just checked my graph... am down 1800$+ non-sd 33k hands on my limit

Thanks, so far it's going well, but it's still early in my SH career.

Things that I think help my non showdown winnings improve:

Play tight, and don't fish, show that you can fold 'good' hands.
With a good image my second and third barrels work more often.
I didn't second and third barrel enough previously. It's amazing how many people will call your contibet and fold the turn (I think I was playing scared when I didn't) Now I use bet/fold more often in my lines.

Delay contibet for fish, or contibet smaller. They seem to respect smaller raises. I think because they are fish, they expect people are being tricky when they don't contibet or if they contibet big there is more $$ reason for them to fish.

Defend the blinds more, 3bet with a wider range to obvious steals. Squeeze with a wider range, but only with a good table image. Steal the blinds often and play in position with initiative as much as possible.

one more thing, taking down multiway pots when noone seems interested, and also c-betting more into 2 players, sometimes three if the flop is ok.

I'll post my stats so far if it helps. It's only NL10, so it might not apply - but I hear the play isn't that much better up until NL200.

I just noticed I made blog of the week last week.. how did I miss that?

Anyway, the miller/sklansky book is really good, lots of footnotes and is already helping.

I dipped my toe into the fish pool on stars for a quick session, and there were more fish and maniacs than I'd seen in a while (maybe due to fortunate table selection)

My HUD wasn't up, and it didn't come up until I had already won my 3 stacks (I figure finishing a session up 3 stacks is a good number?) and I was kind of lost playing four tables. After a huge hand I decided to take a break so I wouldn't go on tilt. Only 110 hands in half an hour. Winrate of 138ptBB/100 (and I even got stacked once with TPTK protecting from an imaginary flush draw against two pair.)

Small Stakes Holdem talks about the value of hands preflop in nice detail. I really liked the discussion of suitedness, and the preflop equity of hands depending on number of players. I also played around a bit with suited connectors in equilator on another thread.

So of course I get my SC on the button, the action on all four tables is furious (I have hands on all four) and there's some action before me.... but first, it's that time again: Time to

Play hand

$0.05/$0.1 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

(un)Known players:
[tg]SB$10.00:///////;BB$5.65:///////;MP2$11.20:///////;MP3$6.00:///////;CO$20.40:///////;BU(Hero)$23.55:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BU with 8:s, 7:s.
MP2 raises to $0.30, MP3 calls $0.30, CO calls $0.30, Hero calls $0.30, SB folds, BB calls $0.20.

Flop: ($1.55) 7:h, 7:d, 9:d (5 players)
BB checks, MP2 bets $0.50, MP3 folds, CO calls $0.50, Hero raises to $2.50, BB folds, MP2 folds, CO calls $2.00.

Turn: ($7.05) 2:h (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $5.50, CO raises to $17.60, Hero calls $12.10.

River: ($42.25) K:d (2 players)

Final Pot: $42.25.

Hero shows three of a kind, sevens(8s 7s).
CO shows two pairs, jacks and sevens(Jc Jd).

Hero wins with three of a kind, sevens(8s 7s).

I just got the deepstack a couple of hands earlier with this nice hand.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.05/$0.1 No-Limit Hold'em (5 handed)

Known players:
[tg]BU$10.00:///////;SB$11.80:///////;BB$21.65:///////;MP3$14.10:///////;CO(Hero)$12.20:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is CO with T:c, T:s.
MP3 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, 2 folds, BB calls $0.30.

Flop: ($0.85) 2:h, T:h, 6:s (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.60, BB raises to $1.40, Hero raises to $4.50, BB raises to $19.85, Hero calls $6.70.

Turn: ($33.9) 4:s (2 players)

River: ($33.9) Q:s (2 players)

Final Pot: $33.9.

Results follow:

BB shows two pairs, tens and sixs(6d Td).
Hero shows three of a kind, tens(Tc Ts).

I also hit a set of aces on another board, but only against a mid stack. Still, chips are chips.

Think I should go for another session! See you soon.

UPDATE: booked 5 stacks in total over 650 hands. all in all a good night.
UPDATE 2: ok, not sleeping so I played some more. not so many fish (stars is at 1/3 volume and dropping) Still there's some really poor play (a bit from me too) now up 6.25 stacks at 40ptBB/100 over 737 hands. If I wasn't such a calling station on the river it could be even better. Back to the books.

Having a better sunday than I did last week. I missed the 65k world record tourney but I'm ok with that.

The best thing for me about last week was my improvement with the red (non-showdown winnings) line. I think that value betting the river more has something to do with it, also taking down more multiway pots with strong hands. I'm making more effort to adjust to individual players styles and not afraid to 3bet or 4bet, or call their 3bet in a good situation. I lost a pot bluffing on the flop after my 3bet was called, I had AKo vs. KK out of position and the board was low cards.

Here's how I recently played KJs against a loose small raise from the blinds.

Known players:
[tg]MP3$10.05:///////;CO$8.00:///////;BU$12.10:///////;SB$3.55:///////;BB(Hero)$17.85:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K:d, J:d.
MP3 raises to $0.30, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.90, MP3 calls $0.70.

I didn't want to just call KJ, and I wasn't going to fold it. I would normally bet 1$-$1.20 out of position, but it was just us two and I figured it would be cheaper as he'd probably call anyway.

Flop: ($2.05) Q:d, 3:s, K:c (2 players)
Hero bets $1.60, MP3 calls $1.60.

I have to contibet, but at least I have top pair. I could be dominated, but I don't think so after he just calls.

Turn: ($5.25) 8:h (2 players)
Hero checks, MP3 bets $2.50, Hero raises to $15.25, MP3 calls $4.95.

Was planning to c/c turn and river, but he bets with the 8, I can hardly see how it helps his hand. If he had a hand like a set, AQ or KQ wouldn't he wait for me to bet on the river, maybe he's trying to buy the pot cheap?

River: ($27.95) 2:c (2 players)
Final Pot: $27.95.
Results follow:
Hero shows a pair of kings(Kd Jd).
MP3 shows a pair of queens(Jh Qc).
Hero wins with a pair of kings(Kd Jd).

The following hand was interesting for me. I just called preflop, thinking I'd get a lot of callers anyway.

Known players:
[tg]CO$10.00:///////;BU$11.50:///////;SB(Hero)$11.90:///////;BB$8.25:///////;MP2$18.05:///////;MP3$8.10:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7:h, A:h.
CO posts deadblind, MP2 calls $0.10, MP3 calls $0.10, CO checks, BU calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.05, BB checks.

Flop: ($0.6) 5:h, 2:s, 7:s (6 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $0.40, MP2 calls $0.40, MP3 folds, CO folds, BU folds, Hero calls $0.40.

Why not, I have top pair and the nut backdoor flush draw. There's also a flush draw showing, but I can't really protect with TPTK by raising can I?

Turn: ($1.8) A:c (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $0.50, MP2 folds, Hero raises to $2.70, BB calls $2.20.

Two pair, again happy to call down and see what happens on the river, but there's a small bet that just begs to be raised. He calls.

River: ($7.2) 9:d (2 players)
Hero bets $8.70(All-In), BB calls $5.05(All-In).

I think he's shown enough weakness and I have plenty of showdown value. If he was on a draw it's most likely busted, but I doubt he'll bet so I do. Bsides I didn't check raise the turn for nothing.

Final Pot: $20.95.
Results follow:
Hero shows two pairs, aces and sevens(7h Ah).
BB shows two pairs, sevens and fives(5s 7d).Surprised to get called by a worse hand .
Hero wins with two pairs, aces and sevens(7h Ah).

I'll try and work on some of the leaks I think I've found and post some more hands. Coaching with grummeler was ++EV today. I hope to see more BSS silver and bronze coachings and videos for SH play. Hope I don't see you on the tables. Good fortune.

Oh yeh here's the graph and some numbers for last week. In total only played 10 hours over six days!

19.2/15.3/2.40 VPIP/PFR/AF
30.9 WTSD 61.1% W$SD (I thought it was high too, but I'm winning them)

Oh well, I'm back to bronze on pokerstrategy. I cashed out of bwin also. This went well, no hassles and direct into my bank acct. They even sent me a 2$ tourney ticket hoping I'd come back. Maybe if I get a new computer that can handle their memory hogging app I might. It's a great site to make money at low limits, much easier imo than pokerstars.

I played too much possibly leading up to the end of july hoping to get silverstar status, and I did. I was breakeven even slightly down towards the end of the month, I think because I was too focused on volume and not enough on reads.

The month started out great, I think I loosened up too much towards the end, not picking spots as carefully. I also made some grand errors bluffing fish (again) or calling down the river too much thinking my second best hand was good.

I don't have the silver articles to read anymore (wish I would have dl'd pdf's) and I'm a ways from gold. I'm thinking of depositing on bet365 (i think it's called) to get the good strategy point deal, but I don't know.

I've been really busy lately getting a small business going. So far so good, but it's a constant challenge. At least with poker you can turn it on and off when you want. I haven't played the last few days.

I think my stats are ok, but I would love if someone would comment on them. I think my WTSD is too high, and have no idea about 3 and 4 betting. It's only a smallish sample but it hasn't changed much over the last few weeks. I'm hoping to move up to NL25 and want to plug my leaks before I get there.

I'm going to fire up some tables tonight, keep playing NL10SH - I made a few shots at NL25, but I'm not happy losing more than 3 stacks, so I'll wait until about 25BI before diving in. On the other hand, I could invest $300 into the reload bonus and get another $150 back with a healthy BR for NL25.

I should really think about that. Do I think that a $300 investment (plus the interest and transaction fee on the credit card I'd have to use) is wise? Can I play at least breakeven NL25 over 2 months enough to clear $150?

40000 hands of NL25 is ~10VPP/100H x 40000 = 4000VPP.
4000/25 >$150. The exchange rate is also very favourable now, that could add to the value of the investment. Before I do, I think I better take another look before I go for the swim.. at NL25 I would think there's a lot of bottom feeders.

Maybe it's time again to

Not much motivation to play poker lately. My business is taking a lot of my time and energy, and I lost motivation to get back silver and gold status - not being tracked atm.

I did play a NLSH session or two after my last post, only about 500hands for +1.4BI or so. I also played a couple of tourneys and went kinda deep, 97th out of 3500 most recently - lost it with A2 in the BB in a limped multiway pot against AQ (villain limped AQ utg.. ) The one before I tried a resteal with AT, run into AQ, and also tried to steal with AQ and got called by AA. That's tourneys for you.. 3 hours of hard work and patience for a cooler. No big deal.

I watched 'face the ace' on TV. The game show where you play HU against poker pros - 3 wins gets you 1 million.. It's kind of set up - you get to choose one of four doors to see who you play, but I'm sure there's only one pro and he just goes and stands behind the door that is picked (they give them enough time to get there)

The host of the show is some goon from the soprano's tv show, which is great for reinforcing underworld stereotypes of poker players. The lights look like millionaire, and there's sound effects and everything. At least there are quite a few hands played in each episode. It's not so bad if you watch it without commercials.

I tried to watch grummelers coaching on sunday just logging in, and trying to guess what hands he had. I did alright, and even guessed right when he was being slowplayed and got stacked against KK.

Here's hoping my motivation comes back soon.

Ok, that didn't take long.

I entered a 5$ tourney last night and came 3rd out of 340 players for $165.
It started out normal, up a bit, and then ran into flopped trips with TPTK and down to 660chips. I went all in with the blinds at 25/50 a few times, mostly squeezes over all the limpers, and someone said I was on tilt.

It must have looked like tilt, but I came back to 1500 chips quickly and then played a nice tight style, picking spots with 3bets or resteals - the occasional contibet and lots of blind stealing. I hardly ever had to showdown a hand. I managed to stay halfway up the field the whole way, and the final table came very quickly. Mostly I played around 15/12 with 2.4 AF.

It was my first final table in ages, i wasn't looking at prize money, only winning. The final table was actually fairly easy. There were two maniacs left with huge chip stacks knocking out the good players and shortstacks quickly. The 4th place player was one of the tourney board leaders on stars and played the FT very aggressively but got sucked out badly by the chipleader maniac who had position on him.

When it came down to the final 3, I was relatively short, even my QQ got called by the BB's J6o? who flopped two pair and stacked me How can he call J6o? ♠_evil: How could I not bet that flop - when he checkraised I figured he hit a J on the flop, maybe had a PP, making a move? ♠_o:

Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2000/t4000 Blinds + t400 - 3 players

BB: t217844 M = 30.26
Hero (BTN): t67312 M = 9.35
SB: t200844 M = 27.89

Pre Flop: (t7200) Hero is BTN with Q Q
Hero raises to t10000, 1 fold, BB calls t6000

Flop: (t23200) J 6 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t20000, BB raises to t196000, Hero calls t36912 all in

Turn: (t137024) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t137024) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t137024
BB shows J 6 (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
Hero shows Q Q (a pair of Queens)
BB wins t137024

Anyway I was really happy to get the 3rd place. That's 4/9 MTT cashes so far this month, a good start. I think having more experience in different types of NL games is really starting to pay off.

I think the cash game experience has helped a lot in the early blind levels.
SNG experience is helping me with push fold situations and playing with small or large stacks.
SH experience is helping me when tables get short and I can adjust quicker than my opponents.

I'm more motivated now to play tourneys, AND I'm rolled for NL25, which is huge for me. It might even make sense to invest $200 for a bit of a buffer and get $100 bonus from stars. I have a day or two to decide.

The mtt win was so encouraging I played a couple more, but lost in the usual ways. I realize that good players must usually lose by bad beats and coolers, since they are rarely outplayed. I don't care if my KK runs into AA, or my AA loses to a straight from A5o, in the long run, that's where I'm making money.

I decided to take advantage of the reload bonus on stars, it's pushed me into comfortable NL25 zone. I played a couple of sessions of NL25 SH, and only one table at first, then two. I was up about 1.5BI after only 130 hands, but then didn't notice a maniac had taken position on me on one table. Still, I only lost 1/3BI to him before I realized to gtf out of there. I've come to really enjoy playing maniacs, but only when I have some kind of position on them.

I'm on the SB with AQs, I raise he 3bets, I 4bet he 5bets all in, I fold. Maybe it wasn't the best way to play it. I 4bet because I was OOP, and didn't want to play OOP without initiative. What can I do here?

1) fold preflop.. not a chance first in w AQs
2) limp preflop = not a bad choice, but what to do when he raises - just call?
3) raise preflop/fold to 3bet. I don't like this
4) raise preflop/call 3bet. I'm OOP vs. a maniac
5) raise pf/4bet.. this is what I did.

6) raise pf/4bet/call all in. I was very tempted to call AI, but for 100BB, and I only need about 33% equity to call
7) raise pf/4bet/fold this is what I did.

Anyways, it was a good session, I don't think I played money scared, pretty much the same game as NL10SH. 140hands, and +1BI

I'll try again this weekend

wow this is such an interesting blog, keep it up.

Interesting weekend so far. On Thursday I made my first real sale for my new business. It's only about $200, but it means that my product is good and could sell well.

I had also applied for a job, and got a call back for an interview the next day (nice to know my resume is still relevant) I couldn't sleep that night and worried about a life commuting 3 hours a day so my talents could be used to make money for people I didn't even know or care about. I called the next day and canceled and apologized for wasting their time.

I figure 3 hour commute, 5 days a week = 15 hours of non productivity, and 15 hours less of my life every week to spend how I like. It also costs about $120/month for the bus/subway. There's also the thing about getting up at 6:30am - following someone else's rules for 8 hours - coming home at 6:30pm?? What kind of life is that? I see it like paying to be a slave.

Life with the job:

+ Earn 50-70k/year (30k to 45k after taxes!)
+ Have good credit, be sure of paying off bills
+ Some security and predictability to life
+ Oysters and sushi
+ travel and leisure for 2weeks+/year

- Wake up 6:30am
- Walk 5min - Bus 20min - Subway 10min - Subway 30min - Bus 20min - Walk 5 min
- Sit all day in a room full of stuff that can kill me
- Following rules, breaks, lunch, work hours, be social at work with people you mightn't like
- Come home 6:30pm
- Go to bed at 10:30pm... ok that's enough I am depressed writing this part.
- No time for my business, it becomes a hobby/side business again
- Little activity in life, probably start to get fat and unhealthy, start planning for my death.
- not much need or time for the game I love - poker.
- not much time for my GF, and I would be a more boring person, so maybe no GF?

Life with my own business + poker

- Earn ?? / year, possibly lose for 2 years
- Start maxing out credit, mortgage
- Uncertainty of pay and future
- No oysters?
- No predefined structure to follow, must make it up as I go along
- Taxes, regulations, reports, audits, and more taxes. Accounting and bookkeeping.
- Unforseen problems and roadblocks (like today)
- No vacations, always working.

+ Wake up when I wake up
+ Ride my bike to work 20mins, ride home 15mins (it's downhill) stay fit
+ Do a job I mostly love, with variety and at my own hours/schedule and motivation. Anywhere from 1hr to 8hr/day also weekends.
+ Time for poker, and more motivation to play well and improve
+ Make a name for myself in my business, have a brand and a reputation.
+ Time for GF (she helps out at work too) and other friends\
+ My sales/promo work ties in nicely with my recreational nightlife
+ There may be travel export opportunities in future (e.g. to Asia)
+ Social life with people I choose, more time for family and friends.
+ No taxes on poker winnings

This is the gamble of my life. I'm all in. The house the savings - everything. It's obvious to me from what I wrote above, the specter of a boring work life/retirement/death really doesn't fit for me. I once had an exciting job with lots of travel, it also had downsides.. I was alone a lot and tired from all the flying. Time passed very quickly. Still I guess I made the most of it.. I don't know.

My current goal for NL25 SH is to play 15 hours per week minimum.

I will try very hard not to bluff the fish and maniacs and not call when I'm obviously behind on the river - e.g. flush draw comes in, or A hi board me with KK.

I will review every session, and not just look at the nice graph.

Speaking of.. here's my first few hundred hands at NL25. I'm playing 19/14/2.6 my WTSD is 26% (down a bit from my usual 30) and W$SD is 58.5%, up from before.

Early times yet, but I'm encouraged, and not playing money scared. Tight for the first few rounds and use my image for advantage. I got dealt AA 3 times in the first 240 hands, but only action once. I've been stacked twice now, and it only hurt a little bit.

When I won a $50 pot it felt fantastic. When I had a $58 downswing I got angry, and came back a bit. Maybe I should play more angry/hungry more often.

Til next time, good fortune

Good luck at NL25 wish I get here soon

Thanks barbarino, er JOHNy, and kyle for the good words. I'm sure you'll be there soon enough John. I had some big help from the MTT cash and the bonus - I'd still be at NL10 for a couple more weeks probably.

Not being money scared makes all the difference, thanks BRM. I'm still a rookie and making some mistakes but not as many now. My intro to NL25 seems a bit sick, but I've been stacked a few times too so why not... I really hope I can keep this up. I have a strange feeling I might be a more profitable player against people who actually know a little how to play poker.. just a feeling. I'll find out in the next couple of weeks for sure.

Today's session was so funny, I was up 2 stacks after about 3 hands. As soon as I join, two maniacs threw their whole stacks at me preflop when I had AA and KK and they had almost nothing. Who goes all in for 1/2BI UTG with KTo?

Played only 219 hands and won 264 big blinds ♠_biggrin:

Progress so far, 3 days - 1 or 2 tabling:

Two hands, I'm not sure about but I think I played them well against unknowns:

[tg]BB(Hero)$25.00:///////;MP3$27.50:///////;CO$33.70:///////;BU$22.85:///////;SB$28.35:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K:h, K:c.
MP3 folds, CO raises to $0.75, BU calls $0.75, SB folds, Hero raises to $3.25, CO folds, BU calls $2.75.

Standard preflop - everyone is completely unknown to me.

Flop: ($7.85) Q:d, 6:h, 4:h (2 players)
Hero checks, BU checks.

I half expected everyone to fold preflop, but here I think I can check raise OOP, besides I expect he might simply fold if I bet.

Turn: ($7.85) 6:s (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, BU raises to $7.00, Hero calls $3.50.

He shows weakness, which means I could bluff with a draw or a hand that didn't hit like AK. I think he thinks I have AK, maybe even h. I have no idea what the minraise is, but it looks weak.

River: ($21.85) 7:s (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $10.00, Hero calls $10.00.

He's got the initiative from the turn so I think I just check call. He might think i missed my flush and value bet a weaker hand. I doubt he has 6's or 7's and take a chance. I just call because I don't think he'd call my raise with a weaker hand.

Final Pot: $41.85.

Results follow:

Hero shows two pairs, kings and sixs(Kh Kc).
BU shows two pairs, sixs and twos(2h 2s).

Hero wins with two pairs, kings and sixs(Kh Kc).

Known players:
[tg]BB(Hero)$37.60:///////;MP3$19.00:///////;CO$10.50:///////;BU$13.00:///////;SB$31.10:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q:d, Q:c.
3 folds, SB raises to $0.90, Hero raises to $2.75, SB calls $2.00.

Standard preflop.

Flop: ($6) J:c, 8:h, 6:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.50, SB calls $3.50.

Don't want to scare him off with a big bet, but I have to get value and some protection.

Turn: ($13) 5:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

Flush arrives and I'm way ahead or way behind. Pot control here. I figure I'm not going to bet him off an Ah or better hand if he has one anyway.

River: ($13) 8:s (2 players)
SB bets $8.00, Hero calls $8.00.

8/13 is slightly less than 2/3 the pot. I planned to call here to pretty much any reasonable bet and river card from the turn.

Final Pot: $29.

Results follow:

Hero shows two pairs, queens and eights(Qd Qc).
SB shows a pair of eights(Ac Th).

Hero wins with two pairs, queens and eights(Qd Qc).

Made 75$ today doing a survey panel - not so bad for 3hr including travel. Its super hot this week, and don't think I'll be able to do a lot of work til it cools down.

Also played a long session, about 3hr was up almost 2 stacks then lost 2/3 of that to finally come back to around the peak. still 30 big blinds/100 is nothing to sneeze at.

Better table selection, seat selection and use of reads kept me out of some trouble I think.. My W$SD is about 61% now and my red line has tanked. This is mainly due to the types of players I'm playing and the position I have on them. My stats are what they are. 21/15.5/2.12 kind of fishy tag with 29% wtsd, but I've been sitting next to fish and maniacs mostly if I can help it.

I had a good battle of blinds at one table. the player to my left was decent but didn't 3bet much. He flopped a straight and I rivered a lower straight. KJ beats AJ. almost 100 hands later I stack him with flopped trip 2's to his overpair KK. I stayed a couple more rounds to be fair and called it even.

I also had a royal flush hit on the turn, but missed the flop value bet, thinking the maniac would bet for sure. Unfortunately he hit top pair and tried to slowplay me. We showed down for only a few BB.

Trips were coming good, I hit several and some for stacks. Really nice first 4 days up 6 stacks total. Glad I left shortly after I stacked one last opp. I'm at 18.5ptBB/100 over 1.7k hands - not much sample size but a good start.

Wish me luck. Thanks again for reading

$0.1/$0.25 No-Limit Hold'em (5 handed)

Known players:
[tg]BB(Hero)$26.05:///////;MP3$44.00:///////;CO$25.60:///////;BU$27.35:///////;SB$48.35:///////;[/tg]
(SB multi tabling LAG/TAG/Fish?? winning a lot on all tables and playing loose and passive amongst the maniacs)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 4:h, 2:d.
3 folds, SB calls $0.15, Hero checks.

Flop: ($0.5) 5:h, 4:s, 4:d (2 players)
SB bets $0.75, Hero calls $0.75.

Turn: ($2) A:s (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.50, SB calls $1.50.

River: ($5) 4:c (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $4.50, SB calls $4.50.

Final Pot: $14.

Results follow:

Hero shows four of a kind, fours(4h 2d).
SB shows a full-house, fours full of sevens(7s 7d).

Hero wins with four of a kind, fours(4h 2d).

Tonight I was a bit hesitant to play being on a heater for a few days. Still it wasn't so bad - table selection worked out for me, and I could leave tables after a few hands if I was in a bad spot.

Results for my first 5 days playing are better than I expected, especially since I know I made mistakes and can improve much more.

Some nice hands this session, mainly donks chucking full stacks at me for no reason. Also had a hand all in pf with my AA over QQ held up. Still 100% for AA over 22k hands in my SH career..kind of insane.

I didn't think this next hand would be possible on NL25, but happy to see it the same:

Play hand

[tg]BU$25.00:///////;SB$25.10:///////;BB$24.20:///////;MP2$15.70:///////;MP3$37.40:///////;CO(Hero)$24.65:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9:d, 9:s.
MP2 folds, MP3 raises to $0.75, Hero calls $0.75, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.35) 9:c, 3:s, J:d (3 players)
BB checks, MP3 checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB calls $1.50, MP3 folds.

Turn: ($5.35) 6:h (2 players)
BB bets $21.95(All-In), Hero calls $21.95.

River: ($49.25) A:s (2 players)

Final Pot: $49.25.

Results follow:

Hero shows three of a kind, nines(9d 9s).
BB shows a pair of jacks(4c Jc).

Hero wins with three of a kind, nines(9d 9s).

Some fun with shortstacks on shorthanded tables:

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

[tg]SB(Hero)$24.75:///////;BB$8.60:///////;CO$27.70:///////;BU$24.80:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is SB with 2:h, 2:c.
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.65, BB calls $0.50.

Flop: ($1.5) 4:s, 4:h, 4:d (2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, BB calls $1.25.

Turn: ($4) 3:d (2 players)
Hero bets $7.75, BB calls $6.60(All-In).

River: ($18.35) J:d (2 players)

Final Pot: $18.35.

Results follow:

Hero shows a full-house, fours full of twos(2h 2c).
BB shows three of a kind, fours(Ah 2d).

Hero wins with a full-house, fours full of twos(2h 2c).

[tg]BU$9.80:///////;SB$6.55:///////;BB(Hero)$26.30:///////;MP3$3.15:///////;CO$8.85:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7:h, A:h.
MP3 calls $0.25, CO folds, BU calls $0.25, SB calls $0.15, Hero checks.

Flop: ($1) 4:d, 6:c, A:d (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP3 bets $1.00, BU calls $1.00, SB folds, Hero raises to $4.00, MP3 folds, BU calls $3.00.

Turn: ($10) Q:h (2 players)
Hero bets $6.50, BU calls $5.55.

River: ($22.05) 2:h (2 players)

Final Pot: $22.05.

Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of aces(7h Ah).
BU shows a pair of sixs(Kd 6d).

Hero wins with a pair of aces(7h Ah).

I won't forget the graph. This is for my first 2k hands at this limit.

About 260BB today.. only 300 hands and 2.2 hours, but I figured it was a good place to stop.

Good fortune on the tables.

OMG... so many bad players? where do u play?

cheers

hey gavinonymous,

great blog! I totally sympathise with the life choices you have made. You have to go for it - a life of regrets is no life whatsoever.

I'd really be up for some SH sweat sessions on teamviewer at some point.

I'm still SSS'ing for another ~3 weeks to clear BR boosting bonuses and then it's off to Stars or FT for NL10 SH and Sngs, I think.

Let me know and we can talk... (you can post on my blog, if interested)

GL,
Tim

Nice blog (not sng's anymore but still nice ♦). I like how you approach new limits by playing few tables and always making sure you're always making the correct play, this brings great results.

Good choice in real life btw. I know quite a few people who made your choice, some succeeded in their business, some didn't, but none of them regret at least having tried this path.

Thanks guys, I think I made the right choice also. I felt much better after committing (again) I do question my choices sometimes and I'm sure I will again.

@virtuagod I play at pokerstars - I know, I can't believe it either but maybe it's the strange hours I play (around midnight) and the insane table selection (sitting at 3 or 4 player tables) not waiting for the 'fishy' tables with the regs.

@LgWz - I'm starting to open up 3 tables now, but still prefer 2 ATM. I don't mind, the hourly is decent and like you said it's much better to make the correct play than focus on volume.

@Tim64, I'm up for sweat sessions, but I won't hope I'm still on NL25.. maybe NL50 if my luck continues the next few weeks. I also play late night mostly - I seem to be more focused then.

Spent some time studying Miller, Sklansky material and playing around with more loose style on some NL10 tables (it didn't help that I was getting the worst of the flips, playing such a high variance style is fun, but can be frustrating. I won much more in non showdown winnings than showdown winnings. My WTSD went down to <17, but I was playing up to 40/30, higher if less than 5 players. I got lots of postflop experience out of it, and felt like I could read better, even if my opponents could hardly fold (I don't blame them) I went back up to NL25 and continued to play fairly tight, but a little more confident.

Not bad, still going at 14.5ptBB/100 over 3700 hands. Had a -3BI swing but it was during a session which was +1BI overall. Up 2BI this weekend so far, but I've been working a lot more, not much time for anything else.

Table selection is key. You know you are doing something right when the regulars are lining up for the table you started heads up, or 3 handed.

Still, I ran into a couple of coolers (QQ into AA, or flopped trips and lost to a river boat who flopped 2 pair) also got rivered twice waiting for maniacs to bluff. It goes both ways, I caught the nut straight with A:sJ:c and stacked J:h9:h on a K:hQ:sT:s flop. I also hit a full house on the turn on a paired board 3bet pot. JJ>QQ for a stack. I'm getting more value lately and my red line is starting to climb again as I steal, float, second and third barrel and river bluff a bit more with some (but not over) confidence.

I also had a nice time with the shorties, who invariably show up at shorthanded tables, or to the left of your big stack. I've been doing really well against them lately, I don't mind a whole SH table full of them, the implied odds seem to be worth it. So many of them play all in with such garbage. I think this next hand would have been much tougher against full stacks.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

[tg]SB$50.45:///////;BB$13.95:///////;MP2$23.70:///////;MP3$11.50:///////;CO(Hero)$28.65:///////;BU$13.35:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is CO with J:d, J:h.
MP2 folds, MP3 raises to $1.00, Hero calls $1.00, BU calls $1.00, SB folds, BB raises to $13.70(All-In), MP3 calls $10.50(All-In), Hero calls $12.95, BU folds.

BB was a maniac and MP3 was a fish.

I was going to call the maniac's shove easily until MP3 calls, I actually thought about it for a while..but against short stacks I couldn't lose any more and I was getting >2:1 with what might still be the best hand. Would I call 2 full stacks all in pf with JJ? probably not - at least not without solid reads.

Flop: ($40.5) 4:d, Q:d, T:s (3 players)

Turn: ($40.5) K:h (3 players)

River: ($40.5) K:s (3 players)

Final Pot: $40.5.

Results follow:

Hero shows two pairs, kings and jacks(Jd Jh).
MP3 shows a pair of kings(Ah 8h).
BB shows two pairs, kings and sevens(7d 7h).

nice