Gringo goes HU

Hey cristianrjx! Nice blog title! Welcome to our forum! I hope, at least, that we can help to improve your portuguese skills!

So, why did you go Brazil in the first place? At the moment, are you only playing HU or do you still play 6-max?

Looking forward for some more posts! Cheers!

PS: Good to know that we have a Hold'em Manager freelancer around!

Welcome, if you want to play HU in micro limits I highly recommend HU SNG, just because of the rake as you metioned. Play regular Speed!

Good luck!

Nice. I'm in from the start of an epic blog.

Good luck on the tables!

Original de mooNkr
Welcome, if you want to play HU in micro limits I highly recommend HU SNG, just because of the rake as you metioned. Play regular Speed!

Good luck!

Like I said before, I don't like POF. and I've never liked SnG. I played the 18 person at stars for a while, played DON, etc. and I never liked it.

Original de luizsilveira
Nice. I'm in from the start of an epic blog.

LOL

I hope it will be epic one day. at the moment I'd be happy to post some positive results in the near future.

Original de the13thing
Good luck on the tables!

THX

let's continue, like I said before, I restarted a few weeks ago paying NL SH.
I cashed in 100$ and started playing NL10. I knew this was kind of risky and it's not the recommended BRM, but I would have deposited again when losing too much.
I started playing Strobe, Ongame's 5handed fast poker, but HM HUD wasn't working, the PT4 HUD was only working for one table and the Ongame HHs were incomplete. The traffic wasn't so good either, so I decided to play normal tables.
I was running good, playing poker was fun, I spent also a lot of time watching theorie vids. When I say watching a video, I don't mean watching like you watch a movie. I tried to understand what the coach wanted to explain. Often I watched a video a couple of times.

AIt didn't take long, I took some shots at NL20 (with 20 stack BRM), with 25 stacks I played only when NL10 at night when there wasn't enough traffic. I really crushed, my winrate was really good at both limits and I started to take shots at NL30.
All this time I always spend some time with theorie, not only pokerstrategy content, I watched DC, yourdoom, daily variance videos, I "played" with the Equilab and discusssed some hands/lines with my Co-moderator who plays up to NL400 and also is BM.

sounds good so far. but then I started losing. At first I was running under EV. I had losing before, no big thing, but I started losing almost every session.
At the moment I don't feel good at the 6max tables. tomorrow I'll return, here in the blog with my (sad) analysis and in the afternoon at the Ongame tables.

today I won't play, it's already after midnight, I was fishing with my son, had some kids in the house in the afternoon, I will go bed now. tomorrow my boy will stay at his mom's house and I'll be in a good shape to return to the tables.

hey, Christian! gl at the tables

I'll try to come by as often as possible!

Welcome.

I think saw you once on this video:

http://pt.pokerstrategy.com/video/24515/

Today I'm without internet, thank you Oi.
After a few losing sessions my game changed. I made mikstakes, caused my a weak mindset.
Example: I'm in BB with QQ. TAG steals, I 3bet, nothing special. He min4bets, I insta push. Against a lot of players this is standard play with QQ.
But let's have a closer look at this opponent:
4bet range 1%
notes:
push AK vs 3bet
min4bet AA

now the push with QQ is bad play and of course I lost my complete stack vs AA.
Another situation for bad play:
I have a flush, the board pairs river, I make a bet and get raised by a passive fish. I insta call and he shows me FH.
there were lots of situation like this and it costed me a lot of money. This is my personal tilt. Chasing losses and making stupid plays/calls.
I don't start spewing arround with crap hands or bluffing like hell. It's hard to explain, I act too fast and don't want to believe that I'm beat.
In the first example I pushed without using stats and notes, in the 2nd I call a raise from a passive calling station who almost never raises. There were more situations like this.
I have to work hard on my mindset to avoid situations like this. It shouldn't be a problem to have one or more losing sessions. But obviously it is. The more I lose, the worse I play.
I have to think about ALL my decisions, using the information I have in HUD/notes.
I must not react insta without thinking.

Next day without internet, the problem should be resolved normally, but now Oi says tomorrow. go to hell.
Lifestyle:
I should not only work on my mindset problem, there are other things in my life that must be changed.
- Cigarettes
I smoke, I have to quit. I don't smoke because of the taste, because it's cool or whatever. I just do it and can't stop. Most of the time I even don't realize that I'm smoking, I don't think "o.k. lets smoke a cigarette".
I must stop this bad habit.
- Coffee:
I drink too much Coffee. It's not so bad as smoking, but always when drink coffe, I smoke a lot. The problem with quitting coffee is that I really love coffee. But I know when I continue to drink so much of it, I will never get rid of the cigarettes.
Food:
I eat when I'm hungry, I have to organize this a little bit.
In the morning I only drink coffee and smoke which isn't the best way to start a day. (in Germany we call this Hooker's breakfast :-) ) I normally prepare breakfast for my son, it shouldn't be a big problem to sit down with him and have a normal breakfast too.
Lunch/Dinner is fine, I'm a good cook and I can prepare almost everything. I only should organize this a little more and eat not only when I'm hungry, I should set times for dinner and lunch.
I also should eat more fruits.
I almost never drink alcohol, at least one bad habit I don't have. I don't drink because I don't like it, but normally my son stays with me over the weekend and there are always better and funnier things to do with a 5year old boy than drinking.

Poker:
Of course I didn't play a single hand because I don't have a working connection.
I made 2 video sessions and watched some basic vids about c-betting, 3bet pots, preflopranges and coldcalling.
I thought about participating in the video challenge in the German comunity, I would have had the time, but HM doesn't work without internet so I couldn't filter for the hands I'd like to show in the vid.

internet returned today, 4 days without phone and internet, no work, no poker. this sucks. I don't know what happened, normally they resolve problems fast here. But to think positive: my ex couldn't call to get on my nerves
so there is nothing more to report, except I had breakfast today and started to live a litlle more healthy, so I bought a lot of fruits.

Original de Tudazul
Welcome.

I think saw you once on this video:

http://pt.pokerstrategy.com/video/24515/

yes, you found me, nice detectiveskills

Why did you move to Brazil? Do you have a "living of poker" lifetsyle (schedule related etc)? What exactly does a freelancer of HM does?

Original de kyaia
Why did you move to Brazil? Do you have a "living of poker" lifetsyle (schedule related etc)? What exactly does a freelancer of HM does?

I was in Brazil for the 1st time when I was 21. I always watched reports in TV about different countries, Brazil was fascinating and it was my dream to visit your beautifulk country one day.
I had a really bad time, my parents died, I had a lot of things to take care off, then my girlfriend left me, and it was time for a break. So I took the next flight to rio and stayed there for a couple of weeks. I really liked this holidays, they gave me strength to handle the problems I had to face back in Germany. And I had a new dream: I wanted ti lo live in Brazil one day.
The rest is the typical gringo story: I came back in 2003 with some friends, met my exwife, spent 6 month here, she spent 6 month in Germany, marriage, then I moved to Brazil, our son was born and finally she left me and tries to make my life as complicated as possible.
But I'm still here taking care of my son and trying to make the best out of it.

next question: as A HM freelancer I test new versions, answer mails, write bug reports etc.
for example: there is a stars update and HUD doesn't work anymore. The developers work on it, give out an internal version and I test if HUD works again, let the developers know what tables it works and which not (for example PLO HUD still broken but NL o.k.)
or you play SnG and HM shows wrong winnings, you send us a mail, I test this, write a bug report and a developer can fix this.
other guys have problems with the filters and I tell him what filters he has to use for the situation he wants to filter etc.

today I finally played a small session 6 max at Ongame, only a few hands, I played 4 tables (I never play more than 6), but now traffic is gone and after updating here I go to bed.

this hand is really crazy:

On Game, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (MP): $12.94 (129.4 bb)
CO: $10.37 (103.7 bb)
BTN: $16.84 (168.4 bb)
SB: $12.33 (123.3 bb)
BB: $15.13 (151.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K A
Hero raises to $0.30, CO folds, BTN calls $0.30, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.75) J 8 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, BTN raises to $2.25, Hero calls $1.65

Turn: ($5.25) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($5.25) A (2 players)
Hero bets $3.50, BTN raises to $14.29 and is all-in, Hero calls $6.89 and is all-in

Results:

This guy was very aggressive and often raised Cbets. That's why I didn't want to give my up hand on the flop.
hitting the A on the river after he checks turn behind I was 100% sure he was bluffing, I fold to a riverraise here almost always, but in this case I think my call is o.k. he can't have a straight or a set, I also don't think he flopped a 2pair. all this hands he would bet again turn.
A8, A6, or AJ can have me beat, but I beat his draws (o.k. there are not so many flushdraws) but hands like T9 or 79 and all his random bluffs. without history I wouldn't have called.

one more for fun:

On Game, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $18.69 (186.9 bb)
SB: $14.50 (145 bb)
Hero (BB): $9.95 (99.5 bb)
MP: $7.75 (77.5 bb)
CO: $9.74 (97.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9 5
MP folds, CO calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero checks

Fish: hehe, I limp my kings and then I kick his ass postflop

Flop: ($0.25) 9 3 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.25, CO calls $0.25

Hero: nice flop, I bet and take the pot down
Fish: hehe paired board, you can't bluff me out

Turn: ($0.75) 3 (2 players)

Hero: the nuts, I'm sure he folds now but I have to bet

Hero bets $0.75,

Fish: Got ya, fkn reg, U don't bluff me. Take this

CO raises to $1.50,

Hero: :challenge o.k. looks like split pot. but I get it in, maybe this donk raises a 3.

Hero raises to $9.60 and is all-in,

Fish: LOL u bluffdonk, as if I would fold the nuts

CO calls $7.89 and is all-in

River: ($19.53) T (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

Hero: :nh

Fish:

I made some theorie too, I checked my video DB for more HU vids, but most of the stuff I have is SnG.
So I watched Simple HU poker here at pokerstrategy.

In the next days I will play some more sessions, mostly 6 max at ongame, and will continue with HU theorie, but I also want to review some 6 max vids.

and I hope I will have the time to produce the video for the competition.

AK hand till river is fine

but your bet is awfull if you take in account what you said

"100% sure villain is bluffig" then why bet? river is a check with that read he´s not calling with air

plus he will vbet if he did hit the A and you can c/r

I think he still is on tilt right now.

since I started this blog I'm running better again. I didn't play a lot of hands, but I'm more confident again. It helped a lot writing down the mindsetproblems and now focussing on playing solid again.

like I said, I didn't play much. My son was with me until today, he has no school so I had to keep him busy.
I played a small session today, results are below in the spoiler.

I would have played more, but there were only a few tables open and most of them very tight. It doesn't make much sense to play against 5 19/13 nits so I decided to quit.

there were no really interesting hands, maybe this one:

On Game, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BTN): $19.72 (197.2 bb)
SB: $18.04 (180.4 bb)
BB: $5.01 (50.1 bb)
MP: $5.84 (58.4 bb)
CO: $13.57 (135.7 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with K K
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, SB folds, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.65) 4 2 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.60, BB calls $0.60

Turn: ($1.85) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB raises to $4.11, Hero calls $2.61

River: ($10.07) 6 (2 players)

Results:

villain played 70/29, fold BB to steal 20%. I normally open 2,5bb from BTN, because of him I made it 3bb. I could have made it maybe 4, but I think it doesn't really matter because he has no full stack.
I bet the flop almost pot, villain's fold to Cbet Flop was 36%.
Turn I bet again big, when he shoves I think it's an easy call. he was kind of spewy and didn't like to fold when he had some money in the pot. he played CR all in turn 3 times before as PFR and he had not even pair or a good draw.
pot odds are good and there are still a lot of hands I have beat, all his draws or 9x hands. if he has 2pair or straight then :nh

nothing happened, I couldn't play. Internet comes and goes, it's impossible to play some hands. I think there is a bigger problem caused by the horrible weather. I called OI and they said they will resolve this until end of month.
I tried to download 5 5MB file yesterday fo work and it was impossible.

most of the time I spend with cleaning etc. cut the tree in front of the house, etc. I'm really pissed, I start a blog and then there is nothing to report because I can't connect. right now the connection is stable, but my son will stay with me until tuesday, maybe I can play some sessions when he's sleeping.

a few things I changed already, I drink less coffee and eat lots of fruits. but I'm still smoking. I reduced it, but this is not the goal.

theorie: I started to read the poker workbook "exploiting regulars"

Hey cristianrjx. No worries. We will still be here in the end of the month!

Meanwhile, enjoy your study and your kid!