why kyyberi is a great coach - my luckbox plays
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One of those sessions, where poker is far from fun.
Tables were full of VERY call happy players, and couple aggros. Story was quite the same, call happy people called, and got happy. Making runner runners or dodging million outs. Aggros did what they do, being aggro and barreling with weak hands. Plan was to raise semibluffs and call down with strong hands. Good plan which worked perfectly, except rivers. Got money in soooooo many times, just to see them spiking those few outers. And call downs were met with runner runners quite many times.
Session started a bit badly too, got stacks in 4 times in 4way allins. I had the best equity in each of those, but got 0 chips back.
All of those are part of variance that no one can dodge. Just have to live with it. But the part that makes me uncomfortable is when call happy players suddenly get really aggressive on rivers. Initial reads are that they don't usually bluff rivers, but then you see some players just potting river every time you check it to them. And every time you bluff catch, they have runner runner thing. Then you count 1+1 and think that they just can't hit runner runners all the time, right? But they just keep potting those rivers. Then when you have the nuts and you check, they check back a hand that seems to be great for bluffing.
It makes you question your reads and gameplan. And still, the most logical answer is that they just have a day when they hit backdoors. As they are really call happy, they are drawing for those backdoors in almost every hand. So stick to the plan and reads, until you actually see them making a bluff on the river. My session river call efficiency is probably horrible, as I lost a LOT of money for those river calls. Sometimes I had 2nd or 3rd nuts, and opponent reps only backdoor nuts and all the draws from the flop misses. Sometimes opp line didn't make any sense, unless he was calling the flop really weak hand+backdoor. And they just had it all the time.
After a rainy day comes the shining. Few buyins up in short session, got lucky and got unlucky. But this time those chasers and shovers didn't hit everything.
Except here, a bit rough.
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There was an open, opp 3bet KK32, I 4bet, opener calls and KK calls. I bet flop and he check-raises turn. 80/20 for 420bb pot, and he won both runs. 
One of those days. Again. Not fun anymore.
Played one hour, lost 10 buyins, EV was about +10 buyins. Insane session, got money in constantly with nuts or +65% equity. But just couldn't really win pots. And here's the cherry on the top:
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That one time when you get set vs set 300bb deep, and opponent overplays bottom set in single raised pot HORRIBLY. Money went in on the flop.
Some interesting hands, and even some strategy content.
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Another beat, you don't get these AA vs KK vs KK situations that often. Perfect for AAAx, money went in preflop and I had 60% equity. Flop looked nice, I had 51% still on the flop. 72% on the turn, zero on the river.
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This was a bit surprising. Opponent decided to 3bet that crap, which was weird from him. Probably brainfart/tilt of some kind. He bet small on the flop, I raised and money went in. I was a bit surprised how light he shoved, naked weak top pair. The reason I posted the hand is my equity. I don't get into spots often where I estimate my equity quite off, but here I did. I thought that I can't be in really bad shape, probably even close to flipping. Checked it, I had 65% on the flop. Hmph.
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Here's something low stakes regs do all the time. They check-call big bet the flop with naked oesd on flush draw board. This same concept applies to naked flush draws, especially lower ones.
The thing is, that call is impossible to make profitable in the long run without turning it into a bluff. To call with a draw that has no required equity (needs 30% vs 3/4 bet) opponent needs implied odds. And you can't check your overall equity, as that is showdown equity. But in reality you have to play turn to get to the river. So we do one street at a time. If I don't have fd, and all of opponents 8 outs are alive, he will hit them 18% of times, which is about 1 out of 5,5 times. Lets say the pot is 8 and I bet 6, he would need to win total pot of (6 * 5,5) 33. After his call the pot would be 20. So he needs 13 more in value, to make the flop call break even.
If he hits his straight on the turn, he often checks. I check back, so we go to river. If river non-blank, he could valuebet. Sometimes he gets value, sometimes he doesn't. The thing is that turn or river flushes or pairs the board at least 2/3 times if not more (as he has no blockers). So 2/3 times he can't valuebet, even if he hits his outs. 1/3 times he could, but if I pay him off half of the time and he bets 3/4, his overall value is 7,5. Far from 13 that is needed to be even break even.
In this hand board has fd, so he has only 6 clean outs. Those come only less than 1/7 of times, which makes the needed extra value go up to 22, as much as is in the pot. So if he makes the nuts on the turn and pots, if I call with 0% equity it's breakeven. In reality when I call I have most likely a big draw of at least 30% equity. That means that if he bets 20, his value is only 14. If I fold my draw on the river, he didn't get enough value to justify the call on the flop.
For some, this is no-brainer. But I see regs calling oop flop cbets with any draw, starting from even gutshots, and then not turning them into a bluff. And that way they are slowly losing EV over and over again, without even realizing it. As a rule of thumb I would say that you can't call oop with naked fd or oesd, if opponent bets big. You need something more. That could be lots of backdoors and/or plan to turn the hand into a bluff on certain runouts etc. But the strength of a naked draw is not enough.
Well that last hand should be easy fold pre already. But yeah flop call is bad. If he had K♦: or Q♦: to make bluff better on flush completing runouts it might be reasonable.
That first hand is real monster bad beat. Seems like awesome customer though overplaying dry bottom set like that. Probably villain shouldn't raise anything really on flop. I suppose he could raise some AAxx or some wrap with bd fd. But not very tempting spot to raise versus EP range.
Well, if you look at the hands I have lately posted it's quite clear that solid strategy and most opponents don't belong together. 
Player in the first hand is someone I have never seen before. Might be a holdem player or very new to PLO.
I also had another new nickname on the tables, who called my turn pot on flushing board with naked Ace of that suit, and didn't turn it into a bluff. Good old bluff call! (most likely he didn't understand PLO rules, where you need to use 2 holecards and therefore can't make flush with just one card in the hand)
New day, a little better story. But still a beat story.
Played one hour, won $5 but EV was once again quite high. Got stacks in with better hand over and over again, but just couldn't hold. Although past shouldn't affect the future, but still it's quite human to think what happens in the future, as now I have been hitting my hands with insane rate for past two days. Probably hottest run in terms of hitting my hands I have ever had for 2 day period, but results are horrible. This year is 18 buyins under EV, so maybe it starts to turn at some point.
Sick hand from today:
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Opponent is known aggro, who can make triple barrels with air, no blockers. Feels like a player that just decides on the flop that he wants to win the hand.
I cbet flop and he makes a small raise. I call. Turn he bets big, I call. River he shoves big, I call.
Not the greatest runout, but after his small raise on the flop I decided to call him down. And that line with that kind of a hand is something he had done in the session earlier too, and in previous sessions. Triple barrels vs very strong range without any blockers.
How not to play PLO, part infinite:
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I open, BTN 3bets, BB cold calls, I 4bet, BTN 5bets and money goes in 3way. I was sure BTN has AAxx and BB has a rundown. Instead BTN had mediocre Kings that he decided to overplay and BB was just chasing without any care for probabilities.
These kind of players make PLO profitable, but they also make it really tough mentally sometimes.
I think those double pair hands are theory wise viable holding to use as bluff on some paired boards. Probably more in case like 8899 on 772 etc. so that outs are to nut boat and potentially have also some bd sd potential.
Had similar hand to that last one yesterday on plo50. One guy just decides to 3bet-5bet with some KK85r and other one is passively calling JTT5ss. Was one of those "ok... That is one way" feelings 
Will it never end? Another session, and was down shitloads at one point. Session started with 2 players, who wanted to get it in with literally any 4 cards. And I got AAxx, AKKx, AQQds hands a lot, got the money in with better hands, but thoise J992, 8883 type of hands just kept crushing me. And the usual "let's flop nuts on 3bet pots and get it in vs 15-35% equity, and lose every time" kept going, although when I had a huge draw opponent held with crappy made hand.
But as I was starting to close down my session, tide turned and I won few pots. And even my all-in hands started to hold a little. In the end -4 buyins, which is decent. Once again EV was insanely profitable, results not that much.
Got some big pots today. I am not sure what Party's policy is towards resetting stacks to 100bb, does anyone know? I haven't done it, as I recall someone got banned for few days due to resetting stacks back to 100bb.
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This is one of the players who wanted to get it in preflop with anything. Despite winning this one, I ended up few buyins down on him. Money went in preflop, and had insane ability to connect with the flop no matter what he had. Here I got drama all the way up to river, and after the river came I wasn't even sure if I had won the hand. I really hated to get it in over 400bb deep as that guy had run so hot. But the EV here is insanely high, and if I am not going to get it in I shouldn't play with deep stacks with that guy in the pool.
Couple of WTF? hands from the day:
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This one was weird. I open, he 3bets and was playing like a drunk. Really weird and illogical lines. Called pre, flop he bets half a pot and checks turn. So far he had barreled very heavily, if he had any equity. I would assume hand like overpair+fd would be, any 3 pairs would bet. So I used my blocker and hand value to pot, and he instantly shoves. I had no option but to call as I had so little behind. And he turns naked QQ. I had 65% equity there.
At this point of the session I hadn't seen these kinds of brainfarts from him, just overplaying weak hands. But as I saw what he did here, I started to trap him a little and calling down more lightly and he was one of the main reasons I got myself up from the losses.
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We are little over 200bb deep, I open from CO, BTN calls (first mistake) and BB 3bets. I 4bet, BTN cold calls (second mistake), BB calls.
On the flop I pot, BTN thinks few seconds and shoves, BB folds. With the run I have had for this week, this was another spot where I was very sure I couldn't win. But then he turns naked J9, stacking off with 4 outs. And by miracle, didn't hit one of them!
Kids at home, don't cold call 4bets deep with J966.
I feel like a hamster on a wheel. Running and running, but not getting anywhere.
Once again a session where I get money in with nuts vs flush draw all the time, and can't dodge that flush. Literally over 20 times in today's session. Then on the other hand when I get money in with made hand+fd versus slightly better made hand (50/50), just can't hit the flush. And then my Aces got cracked over and over again with gutshots and backdoors, as money went in on the flop.
Running shitloads under EV, and this just keeps repeating itself. +EV session, but ends up in losses. And it's painful to see opponents making mistakes over and over again. I know it should turn at some point, and at least rakeback keeps me break even. Could be worse.
Some hands from the session, and not all are bad beats. 
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Nothing that interesting at first glance, but let me explain. I open from BTN, SB calls (lol). I bet flop, SB calls (lol). Turn completes 42, but as I pick up the flush draw I decided to bet, as in his range he has a lot more than 42. He raises, money goes in and I was quite sure he had 42, which should have been a bit rare as I block 432. But he turned out AA, and I was like how can you play it wrong in all three streets so far and get rewarded? Lol.
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One example what I am facing over and over again. I open, opponent 3bets and I 4bet. On the flop I pot and opponent raises. He had 5 outs, 81/19 to my favor. It's not bad to lose these 1/5 like it's supposed to go in the long run, but when you lose 20/25 it starts to annoy. And 150bb deep of course.
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For this month, I can't remember when I had a setup to my favor last time, that I had won. I have had those set vs set but they have ended in my loss pretty much always. Here I get one. Although opponent 3betting and then calling my 4bet is not that great, but average opponent never folds to 4bet. I bet small on flop, turn goes checked and money goes in on the river.
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Daily set vs set and rivered quads. Single raised pot, money goes in on the flop.
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If opponent has equity, he quite often wins.
BTN opens, and I call with quite speculative hand. But BTN is VERY good customer, and plays really transparent postflop. But BB wakes up with 3bet, BTN calls and of course I call. Then on the flop BB decides to bet big, BTN folds and I raise. He snap shoves. Not sure how good that line is without flush draw, but 4 outs is enough. 82/18 to my favor.
I would imagine site support would answer for reset to 100bb question? Feels weird to me if that is not allowed. Can understand if reset to less than 100bb is not allowed.
There's quite often a bug where auto reload doesn't work, and the solution is to close table and reopen it.
So sick. Played 20 minutes to get the next rakeback level. Lost fucking 10 buyins just like that in 20 minutes, and once again EV was profitable. Just can't hold in all-ins with better hands, and can't hit when having a draw. So for at least two weeks I have just lost and lost and lost, while games have been really good. Running around almost 30 buyins under EV for this month.
And I don't really get it. I can remember a lot of times when I have run dozens of buyins under EV. I run even 60 buyins under EV for 2 week period once. I can remember at least three times when I run 40 buyins under EV in a single day. At least 10+ times when I have run 30+ buyins under EV in short period of times.
But I can remember one time, when I run over 20 buyins over EV in my life.
As far as I know, in theory those runs should be even in the long run.
uff, remember similar runbad from my early pokerdays about 15-20 years ago - for me that was specifcally on stars - after playing quite huge amounts on low stakes sngs, cashing out every month to pay the bills, sometimes little above ev, sometimes little below but kinda always balancing out, suddenly every sng i run under ev(and not just a little bit), over hundreds of them - honest to god, i still feel like after coming back playing some mtts there like 1-2 years ago, that my account is cursed there (yes this most likely was just the huge variance) and i will not return again ♦
i know how silly even that train of thought is, but still can't shake it off.... luckily today my distance to seeing poker as a profession and just approaching it as a hobby allows me to be this kind of silly, back then it felt really tough.
bottomline what you point out at the end is just the truth of poker and it will balance at some point.
I see your hands and handdiscussions, you know what you are doing!
Obviously i don't have good advice here, the only thing that crosses my mind is, try and keep the fun of poker alive, play against some fishes on low stakes for the luls - do something in poker where the result just doesnt matter and have fun with it.
obviously don't mean to play like you are at a slotmachine, just keep playing your game but with the goal of fun over money, like in a close spot go with your gut over knowledge or such, try an approach that somehow feels interesting just for the sake of it.
basically go to a place where you can yolo a bit without risking anything important.
Could be you think thats stupid which for sure is understandable, then maybe take a similar approach somewhere else and not at the tables.
I know we bumped into each other in some not ideal way a bit, but if you like here is another option - i invite you to come to bosnia&hercegovina, mostar/split/sarajevo - airports i am happy to pick you up from - i can for sure take some time to show you this beautiful country or point towards interesting locations and help with picking a hotel etc depending on what you'd be interested in (now that spring is here want to make some trips with my drone anyway) - advertising and showing how beutiful this country is, is something i really enjoy. not sure if life allows something like this for you, but the offer stands ♦
Monitors and Computers i have plenty and i can easily borrow in case you still need to get to the tables - internet here is stable enough ^^
---- work in progress but feel free to take a look at my hood
Anyhow i am drifting off too far here maybe ^^ - hope the rungood comes back soon!
Didn't turn, couple short sessions and day ended -5buyins. The storyline is simple: in single raised pots I have no problems. But almost all of my losses comes from 3bet and 4bet pots. And I know I am not spewing in them, just running horribly. Once again, got SPR < 1 with AA multiple times, but opponents kept hitting the flops. And then this happened quite often: I open, random opponent 3bets, I call and flop the nuts. Money goes in and opponent has total junk, like dry overpair, gutshot or just a backdoor. You know the results.
I have very mixed feelings. Games are good, I spot big mistakes constantly from opponents. EV is going sky high, but results are dropping day after day. I wish I could be just happy, but I am not.
Today there was one well known maniac on the tables, who 3bets around 30% of hands. I got to 4bet him about 10 times, and he kept hitting the nuts, and quite often I even had better than average hit. I won once, he won the rest. You know, 3betting and calling 4bets with A552 type of player.
I had a lot of interesting spots (not bad beats, but interesting hands) but my screen capture software decided to have a bad day too, got it to work at the end of the session. Only one hand today.
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I was very surprised to see his hand. He opens pre, I 3bet. Opponent is known to call very light. I bet small on the flop, he snap calls. Turn is a bit tricky, but versus this player I bet small again. I am quite sure that if he raises it's always a boat. He snap calls. On the river we have similar spot as on the turn, so I bet really small, 1/4 of a pot and he snap calls. He wasn't a believer, pot was 180bb in the end.
@naDanje, I am almost coming to your country, we have a vacation at Hungary at July. Unless world situation changes. That would be bad run, as we had booked 2 weeks at Miami Beach just before covid came. Flights, apartment and everything was set. Got money back (was surprised for that!), but the timing was insane. Literally the day after we bought flights, covid came and closed the world. Now, literally the day after we got the trip to Hungary, Russia started it's things and Hungary started to support it.
oh man, covid really fucked up soo much. came back january first 2020 from a vacation in china - a little later and could've become quite complicated.
Overall crazy thing is, here in herzegovina we don't have any covid-restrictions since ~1 1/2 years o_O like it just didn't happen here in the way it did in the rest of the world (with a few temporary exceptions i think in sarajevo, the only metro city here) - people going to packed bars, kiss left / kiss right - no masks required in supermarket or so. streets full and pretty much business as usual. made me wonder how big the relation between stress and the risks of covid is - life in general on balkans i'd say is a bit more relaxed compared to western europe and without restrictions the hospitals still didnt come to a crash - and capacities in total ofc are not as big as lets say in germany... anyhow thats a diffrent story and lots of other factors come into play aswell i guess (weather / distance between bigger cities / goverment just not having the money to lockdown stuff...)
fingers crossed that you can enjoy your trip to the balkans in july!
Thought about not even posting bad beat stories, but I guess this is self therapy at the same time.
Played 15mins, really short session before a scheduled meeting. But managed to lost 4 buyins.
1st buyin: Got AA, opponent 3bets, I 4bet and flop is 235ss. I have AA4x and SPR 1. Opponent had J644ss. Really?
2nd buyin: this was 2 step loss, 50bb maniac short wanted to get the money in. I had KKds and AQQ, both times he had AAxx. 3bet% normally for him is around 50%, loves to gamble preflop.
3rd buyin: Opp 3bets, I 4bet with AAss, flop K44ss. Money goes in, opponent had K542. Really?
4th buyin: Maniac 3bets, I call and flop is 239ss. I have A456ss, money goes in. Opponent has AKQJr. Stacks off with A high on SPR 3,5. Turn J, river 9. Really?
These are the hardest ones to swallow, in three of those opponents make insanely bad decisions. And gets rewarded. The last one is the weirdest, opponent bets half a pot on the flop and I raise pot. And just casually shoves with A high. I truly understand those people who start to question whether the games are rigged or not.
Actually continued session a little, and it did turn around. Started to hit, hold and even bluffs worked with high frequency.
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Starting with a bad beat. Just a common example how people play at smaller stakes. 150bb deep, opp 3bets and I 4bet, and he donks pot on the flop. Not sure about that flop donk, he has about 40% versus AAxx. Pretty much what is needed, so stacking off is breakeven. The big mistake he did was 3betting that junk. But this is what my life is with AA, getting these almost 60/40 flips constantly. EV is good, variance is high.
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This hand was in the beginning of the session, where my mood was not the greatest. Nothing special in the hand, open is very loose, and I don't like it. It's BTN open, and wanted to knock at least CO out as rest of opponents were good customers. SB 3bets, and have to call IP. On the flop he bets, on the turn I raise and money goes in. The reason I marked the hand was that when river came I was like "fuck me, of course he wins split." And I literally thought on the flop that an Ace on the turn would probably be awesome.
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SICK hold. Single raised pot, opener from MP is a player that I want to play IP a lot of hands with. On the flop they check, and I bet with nuts. BB goes for check-raise and MP cold calls. Here my mental game was not good, as I pounded between call and raise and decided "fuck this, lets go!". Right play would definitely be a call, and stacking off on safe turn. If heart comes, I am dead. If board pairs and MP checks, I could turn the hand into a bluff vs BB assumed straight.
In poker, sometimes making a mistake doesn't affect the outcome. Here, if I had called the flop raise, money would have went in on the turn anyway.
I had 31%, BB had 42%.
Originally posted by Kyyberi
Thought about not even posting bad beat stories, but I guess this is self therapy at the same time.
"A Sorrow Shared is a Sorrow Halved" so yeah, don't worry about it! thats why we are here