Paul's Micro Stakes Cash Adventure

Originally posted by sirilidion
nice colorful chart :). you do know that not everyone that has a VPIP of 20 % is paying the same range, right :)?

Yeah I know (In fact I've always been confused by books talking about ranges in such concrete terms because I don't expect the idiot playing 75% VPIP to have a clue what's good and what isn't. :P).

I use the chart as a guide more than anything else.

I'm playing regular speed SNGs too, turbos really don't suit me. I've added you on here.

Cool chart, I wish I thought of something similar.

Been a while since you posted ♦ Since then I've faffed around, played on betfair and moved up to the $3, switched to FT, dropped half my bank roll and gained it back again.

I've got plenty to talk about ♦. I'm currently in a skype group but the thing has slowly deteriorated because most of the people play different stuff and can only give vague assumptions as to what should have been done. What are you playing currently? I'm on the $2 9 man's (both reg and turbo) on FT. If all goes according to plan I will be exploiting noob-fish for at least 3 hours a day 4 days a week.

Good to hear from you,

G.

I'm still playing 1$ 10 man regulars on party but i'm about to move up to 3$s (or 2$s on another site)

sent you a message with my skype info!

Nice Blog

After losing 13BI in a row on christmas day, today was a bit better. Started to recover some money and made some tough decisions.

Party, $0.85 Buy-in (30/60 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

UTG+2: 1,600 (26.7 bb)
MP2: 2,470 (41.2 bb)
CO: 1,510 (25.2 bb)
MP1: 1,810 (30.2 bb)
SB: 3,130 (52.2 bb)
MP3: 1,870 (31.2 bb)
UTG+1: 1,920 (32 bb)
BB: 860 (14.3 bb)
Hero (BTN): 4,830 (80.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K Q
3 folds, MP2 calls 60, MP3 folds, CO calls 60, Hero calls 60, SB completes, BB checks

Flop: (300) K 5 6 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP2 checks, CO bets 60, Hero raises to 240, 3 folds, CO calls 180

Turn: (780) 9 (2 players)
CO bets 120, Hero calls 120

River: (1,020) 3 (2 players)
CO bets 1,090 and is all-in, Hero calls 1,090

Results:

Party, $0.85 Buy-in (30/60 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 10 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

UTG: 2,000 (33.3 bb)
UTG+2: 1,660 (27.7 bb)
SB: 1,870 (31.2 bb)
MP3: 1,900 (31.7 bb)
BTN: 4,050 (67.5 bb)
MP2: 1,940 (32.3 bb)
UTG+1: 1,960 (32.7 bb)
Hero (BB): 2,120 (35.3 bb)
CO: 640 (10.7 bb)
MP1: 1,860 (31 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4 T
3 folds, MP1 calls 60, MP2 folds, MP3 calls 60, 2 folds, SB completes, Hero checks

Flop: (240) 8 7 6 (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks, MP3 checks

Turn: (240) 5 (4 players)
SB bets 240, Hero folds, MP1 calls 240, MP3 folds

River: (720) 6 (2 players)
SB bets 720, MP1 folds

Results:

Party, $0.85 Buy-in (20/40 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 10 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BB: 2,000 (50 bb) [16/12/1.9]
UTG+2: 2,000 (50 bb) [37/11]
MP2: 2,000 (50 bb)
CO: 2,100 (52.5 bb) [37/7]
MP1: 1,960 (49 bb)
SB: 1,960 (49 bb)
MP3: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG+1: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG: 2,000 (50 bb) [maniac]
Hero (BTN): 1,980 (49.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with Q Q
UTG raises to 120, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls 120, 3 folds, CO calls 120, Hero calls 120, SB folds, BB calls 80

Flop: (620) 6 3 3 (5 players)
BB bets 620, UTG calls 620, 2 folds, Hero calls 620

Turn: (2,480) 6 (3 players)
BB bets 1,260 and is all-in, UTG folds, Hero calls 1,240 and is all-in

River: (4,960) A (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

Only calling with QQs was a bad decision I think. I didn't want to 3bet because I spent the whole of yesterday getting called down by AA and KK when with QQ in the early stages of games (irrational i know).

When the BB bets pot on that, i'm putting him on 99-JJ I don't think he's betting pot OOP with AK/AQ. I'm guessing either UTG overplayed AK/AQ or had an overpair but was spooked by the two pairs on the board (less sure on him).

Hand 1: I would just raise pre in general here pre try to take it down pre or with a c-bet. limping in offsuit broadway hands in multiway pot can get you in a lot of trouble. I don't know if you had some good reads on the CO, but if you didn't calling down with TPQK will loose you your stack most of the time as so many cardcombinations that players limp with beat your TP hand.

Hand 2: it seems likely that he has a straight higher then yours although having more information on villian in the form of stats and/or reads I could come to an other conclusion

Hand 3: you give the stats from everyone else, but not from what you discribe a 'maniac'. what stats did this maniac have? About the hand if UTG is really a maniac then his raising range is superwide here, the people calling behind him most likely aren't strong so I would make it 480 here and call if the maniac would shove

As a tip you be better off gives as much information you have about the opponents so people giving advise about the hands can give much for relevant advise to you :).

An update!

I've been clearing a bonus on full tilt, after some adjustments to my game (courtesy of Sirilidion and Jimanyjerk :P) I'm playing much better and feeling really good about playing poker (even when I have a losing/poor session).

Soon i'll be moving up a level, either to fulltilt $2.25 or pokerstars $1.50.

Speaking of which, I'm tempted to play the $1.50 knockouts on ps because the rake is less (10% for knockout v 14% regular) although with the knockouts less of that is in the main prize pool obviously.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this, there are a few things to consider:

- My game doesn't revolve around knocking other people out.
- "Even looser" shove/call ranges from fish should further increase the amount I get to the bubble (where I can exploit them)?
- I worked out that I knockout an average of 1.3 players per game (so far in non knockout games) so this should contribute to my winnings.

January Goals so far:

Keep plugging holes in my game. (going well) Spend some time each day before playing. (I now do regular hand review sessions via skype which are very useful and rather fun.)
Read some more moshman (in progress)
Improve my postflop game. Spend time reading on postflop and do some practice in ranging (I've worked quite hard improving my game postflop and the fog is starting to clear a little, I need to put more work into this however).
Play 150 games at least. (On target, at current rate I'll have played 180 by the end of the month)

Thanks for all the help, if anyone wants to add me on skype to chat/sweat/review, let me know and i'll pm you my skype details.

quick update: played the $27 6 max TCOOP event with my free ticket.. failed badly (one of those times you wish you could go back and redo it with a different mindset).

Anyway

I made a spreadsheet comparing SNG rake on various sites.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AivWe07U0E1UdDQtWVRvbmREYS1wYmV2QWlidVp3RWc

Hope it's helpful to other microstakes SNG'ers let me know if there are any other sites I should add (with cheap rake)

.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this, there are a few things to consider:

- My game doesn't revolve around knocking other people out.
- "Even looser" shove/call ranges from fish should further increase the amount I get to the bubble (where I can exploit them)?
- I worked out that I knockout an average of 1.3 players per game (so far in non knockout games) so this should contribute to my winnings..

1. That is true, the majority of the money is still at the top 3 payouts

2. It's hard to exploit fish when they have a 3:1 chip lead on you. I play KO games and a lot of fish limp even at the 100/200 and call extremely loose if you push.

The only time to exploit the fish I would say is at the 10/20, 15/30 and 25/50 because they over value top pair and will go broke with TPWK, gutter ball, or AK.

3. Don't know how you worked that out, but the majority of the money is still at the top 3. If you win the tournament, you get your opponents bounty + yours which is an extra $0.54 at the $1.50 level.

Nice blog BTW! come to stars so we can play against each other ♠_grin: ♠_grin:

Originally posted by maythany
Nice blog BTW! come to stars so we can play against each other ♠_grin: ♠_grin:

I've been rebuilding my bankroll from the cash out I made a few months ago.. I'm about $100 from being able to play the $3.50s on pokerstars which would be nicer than moving straight up to the $5 on full tilt.

Whenever I glance at the $1/$3.50s on pokerstars each table looks like it has at least 2 regs on them. Is this really the case or not so much (I know KOs are more fishy).
I love full tilt because there are very few regs.. usually 1 or 2 online at most and there are only a few regs around who are worthy of concern. The others are really nitty, playing more tables than they can really manage and very very easy to exploit.

Added Blog to follow your progress. Good luck at tables.

Originally posted by pauln

Originally posted by maythany
Nice blog BTW! come to stars so we can play against each other ♠_grin: ♠_grin:

I've been rebuilding my bankroll from the cash out I made a few months ago.. I'm about $100 from being able to play the $3.50s on pokerstars which would be nicer than moving straight up to the $5 on full tilt.

Whenever I glance at the $1/$3.50s on pokerstars each table looks like it has at least 2 regs on them. Is this really the case or not so much (I know KOs are more fishy).
I love full tilt because there are very few regs.. usually 1 or 2 online at most and there are only a few regs around who are worthy of concern. The others are really nitty, playing more tables than they can really manage and very very easy to exploit.

Honestly, I would choose the site you really want to play at because then you're more likely to play poker and be motivated towards your goals that you set out for yourself.

I wouldn't worry about the regs at the $1.50s because they are only winners at the KO games which are extremely fishy. If you look at some of their turbo STT games, they rarely have a large sample or none at all.

Take Hanstronaut for example, he's got $2,318 over 15972 KO games but
-$211 over 7000 games for Turbo STTs.

I hope that helped you a little bit.

Yeah I see a few 7/6 guys here and there at the tables.

About the palying more tables than they can really manager and easy to exploit part, that sounds like me lol! Well I don't know, you're going to have to ask Ramble on that one since he's 3 wins 1 lost against me ♠_o: ♠_mad:

Take Care,

Maythany

I'm pretty much equally happy at pokerstars or full tilt.. all I need in a poker room is reasonable rake, enough traffic to roll at least 4 tables at any part of the day and either the site to run smoothly or decent customer support.

Pokerstars and Full Tilt have both.

Partypoker have most of that although their support isn't great and their regular SNGs have a structure like everyone else's turbos.

But yeah I'll try out the $3.50s for a bit when my bankroll is high enough. I feel like I ought to be switching over to turbos at some point.. i just do so well with regular speed. Feels like there's a threshold somewhere between regular and turbo where recreational players are donking each other out fast enough for the blinds to not be an issue, resulting in minimal bubble.

Originally posted by maythany
About the palying more tables than they can really manager and easy to exploit part, that sounds like me lol! Well I don't know, you're going to have to ask Ramble on that one since he's 3 wins 1 lost against me ♠_o: ♠_mad:

The biggest thing about the regs I'm talking about is that they never re-steal (outside their normal 3 betting range) and they always fold the SB v BB unless it's an ICM shove around the bubble or short stacked.

Time for some new goals

New Short Term Poker Goals

Increase my bankroll to play $3.50 on stars. (I don't think it's sensible to give a time frame for results).

Play at least 50 games a week for the first two weeks of January

Keep working at my post flop game, spend 15 minutes every day doing equilab equity v range quizzes.

Spend time each week evaluating hands and helping my fellow study partners.

Long Term Poker Goals

Get to $7 SNGs in 6 months, I've calculated this is possible playing 60 games a week and mixing buy ins at various points at 10% ROI

Start grinding MTTs (I have a feeling this may change in the future)

Become a poker coach - I have been coaching a couple of friends who are starting out as poker players and I enjoy it even more than playing. I'd love to do SNG coaching when I have a substantial winning playing history.

Short Term Life Goals

Be more proactive developing the portfolio for the launch of my business.

Be more steady with my music production, get into the habit of completing a track a week.

Do more (some) exercise.

Here's an interesting hands I came across the other day.

Full Tilt, $2 Buy-in (60/120 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BB): 1,810 (15.1 bb)
CO: 3,415 (28.5 bb)
BTN: 4,865 (40.5 bb)
SB: 3,410 (28.4 bb) 26/20 Ag 56%

Preflop: Hero is BB with A A
2 folds, SB completes, Hero raises to 300, SB calls 180

Flop: (600) 6 6 8 (2 players)
SB bets 3,110 and is all-in, Hero calls 1,510 and is all-in

Turn: (3,620) 3 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (3,620) 2 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

Originally posted by maythany
About the palying more tables than they can really manager and easy to exploit part, that sounds like me lol! Well I don't know, you're going to have to ask Ramble on that one since he's 3 wins 1 lost against me ♠_o: ♠_mad:

Haha - I may be up on you results-wise, but it is definitely not me exploiting you... let's put it this way - when I table-select, you count as a strike.

I got back home today so no more playing with a laptop. I'm excited to start focusing on my goals starting tomorrow.

Today I did a super session of analysis with Ramble that ended up lasting over 4 hours! Didn't feel like 4 hours at all!

This hand came up and I thought I'd share it for your input.

Full Tilt, $2 Buy-in (100/200 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 3 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BTN): 2,490 (12.5 bb)
SB: 5,170 (25.9 bb)
BB: 5,840 (29.2 bb) 43/32 AF 6.0 (welcome to my world :P)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with 8 9
Hero raises to 500, SB folds, BB calls 300

Flop: (1,100) Q Q 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 550, BB raises to 5,340 and is all-in, Hero calls 1,440 and is all-in

Turn: (5,080) K (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (5,080) A (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

I'm having a decent start to the year so far, not amazing but not bad either.

I'm getting into a lot of spots (usually oop) with AK and AQ where i'm losing money. I'm able to fold AQ preflop oop against 3 bets from certain people but AK I find harder.

Does anyone have any general advice for this or is it a case of posting individual hands?

It's been an interesting start to the year.

I've been playing okay so far but am running about 20 BI under EV.. oh well

I've made the switch to turbos, originally I was just adding them to increase the speed I could get up to 9 tabling but I've decided to switch to them full time. They've helped me to get past the normal limit I have of playing one set of regular SNGs and simply not being able to do a second set.

My target was to play 50 games a week for the first 2 weeks in January, at my current rate I'll have played 330 on the 14th so this is very pleasing.

I've been working on my post flop game a lot and feel a bit more comfortable with it. I've also simplified some elements of my game, hopefully this will start to pay off soon. I'm becoming more comfortable with pivot points and starting to implement them.

All in all a good start to 2014. I'm slightly frustrated I'm still running very far under EV but the more volume I put in, the sooner I'm likely to break through it and move up the stakes.

I have no doubt you will see success and soon.

Thanks for the review session today and explaining the pivot points concept to me. Looking forward to another session in the near future.