Hi all, I'm Coffeeyay from 2p2, PokerStars, and Merge. I also quickly moved from the 10s to the 30s superturbos at FullTilt under the name LittleDarling9 and was crushing up till BF. I love theory and I'm quite math capable.I'm going to be playing a ton of hyperturbos at PS as soon as my address change clears (just moved to Warsaw PL so I don't have to deal with US BS) and then I will be posting a lot of questions and hands. I'm looking forward to working with all of your, I'd love it if you posted hand comments in my thread, I love to get multiple perspectives. Till then I'm going to digesting all of the awesome information available here and maybe posting a theory thread. In particular I'm very interested in Mers' work on ROFL theory--when I was playing at FT I had come up with something very similar on my own and found it to be very profitable. I'm very interested from a theory side about expanding ROFL to 20-25bb, as well as from a more practical side questions about choosing an exploitive strategy depending on sample size--including some possibly more constrained strategies (like ROF, or OFL). In particular at FT I was using an OFL strategy with a polarized limping range at short stack sizes (7-10bb) against many villains and I think it was profitable. I am in the process of putting Windows on my Mac and as soon as I'm done with that I will import my data into HM and share my fairly small sample size of results regarding OFL.Again, I look forward to working with all of you. Now I'm back to reading the mass of archived posts. Hopefully in a couple days I'll be up to date, but until then I'll probably be bumping some of the old theory posts in here to get some more discussion going on.Cheers, Adam aka Coffeeyay
Cool, nice to have you in here, welcome :-)
problem solved :)
Welcome. Looking forward to working with you. GLGLGL
I still haven't gotten PStars approval so don't have any of my own hands to post yet, but soon there will be a ton :)Till then, I've been very interested in the discussion on donk betting. Gut shots and over cards have been mentioned as a good place to donk. What do you think about this hand:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/185/heads-up-sng/30-st-flopplay-w-over...The reads he gives are LP, though they're very vague so I don't really give them much credit... But i'm more interested in how this would apply to me, so lets say that I have better reads than that OP:Villain has floated a cbet once and flatted a bunch OOP, no 3bets, IP ~50% opener, who cbets ~50% of time, all over a small sample size of about 10 hands.In this case, c/r or donk, and why? I would lean towards donk because he hasn't been raising much nor has he been folding too much, so I'm thinking I'll be able to maximize fold equity by barreling turn and reevaluating river. That being said I'm not too certain about this and would appreciate input.Lastly, what about readless, or read minimal, like 5 or less hands vs villain and nothing has happened to suggest he's not playing according to population tendancies (let's say at 30 or 60 $ level if that matters). c/r or donk? Here I lean towards c/r because I figure we have quite a bit of fold equity against an unknown open/cbet range, and if our c/r is flatted we have a gut shot two overs and bd flush draw giving enough extra equity to be able to play turns and rivers against an unknown villain.I'd be interested in everyone's opinion, there has been so much discussion in HH threads about this that I'm interested in what everyone is taking out of the discussions so far :)
Greg, so I've been asking all math questions so far--but I have submitted my address change and I'm thinking that Monday I should be able to set up PStars, get money online, and actually start playing. I'll have to deal with the realities and practicalities and not as much abstract math. I haven't been grinding full time since April, I did play some on Merge since then--but I wasn't concentrating well and wasn't playing at higher stakes.What things should I take into account when I wake up Wednesday morning, everything set up, wife off at work (she starts work on Wednesday). How much should I aim to play hour wise? How long should I play at a time, and how long breaks should I take? I'm obviously planning on single tabling on Wednesday but when should I plan on working in multi tabling practice sessions in? Before BF I would do one or two one hour long sessions a day 2 or 3 tabling lower stakes, and I want to work on being able to multi table profitably. Also since it's been so long since I've played I'm sure I'll be excited and will have adrenaline--anything I can do to calm down, or should i just be happy that I'm excited and embrace it?One thing I know I will be doing is meditating. I don't know how much experience you have with it, but I've been working on incorporating Zen mediation into my lifestyle. I haven't been too successful doing it daily, but I do meditate every few days. On work days I plan to be meditating a lot--before starting a session, during the small breaks, and after sessions. As far as I can tell I think this will drastically increase my focus and my ability to recenter. I know that I have a tendency to let my game drift over the course of a day, regardless of breaks. I don't really tilt, but I think that this drift is much more insidious because it's not obvious to me that I'm playing worse until I have ended play for the day and look back and realize that my game deteriorated. One thing that I'm concerned about is that I haven't been able to do enough meditation without the stress of poker--how will I be able to do it with poker hanging over my head? My hope is that because I tend to do things out of necessity (I work according to due dates for instance, always finishing something the day before the due date) poker will give me enough motivation and reason to stick to my plan of meditation.I'd really like to work on making some sort of profitable schedule like the one you describe in your PoohBah post. I want to incorporate my wife's work schedule (once she has one), meditation, exercise,and other tools to help me be focused and successful during the day. Hopefully you'll be able to help me with the details. Once I get on Stars I'll start posting my daily routines and comments and concerns so that there's info we can both work off of. I'm really excited to start working, I hope that we can work together to make my time as productive as possible!Lastly, I have some questions with regard to professional bankroll management--specifically how other fulltime players are incorporating cash outs and holding money online (in light of BF and FullTilt) into a bankroll plan that involves moving up. Should I post this as a new thread, or ask in detail here?
I felt like this was a good explanation of my thought process when donkbetting, so cross-posting here for you (was in bacon's thread). Question from Bacon:Another thing i used to think about a lot was the the spot to donk readless, i asked about and i got nobody who could give me a concise description of their readless donking strategy, (other than your nugget of donking wet flops with gutshots, the only spot i think warrants it). but i think realised donking kinda shouldnt be done readless (in raised pots) but should likely be one of the first adjustments we make in face of a less than aggressive opponent, for example if i see someone check back any ace high flop or 2-3 dry flops thats me going donk crazy with a value and bluff range, kinda using my perception of spots which i consider mandatory cbets for say 80%+ of villains range to extrapolate that their will be a lot of checking back.Not just wet boards with gutshots. Think about how your hand plays if you c/c or c/r and then compare that to donkbetting. I think when you think about more situations this way it should be more clear.QT6hh flop we flatted K3hh oop. 24bb stacks. options: check/call - definitely +ev, we do get barreled off some though. when we hit a lot of villains will be shutting down their value range a ton due to scare card (also the K is a card most villains shut down on too), so it will be hard to get a lot of value. check/raise - marginally +ev to +ev, if villain is cbetting a really wide range this will be our best option since we get value from the fold equity we have with his wide cbetting range. most villains dont cbet this board that wide though, so i dont think this is the best option typically. we will have maybe 40-45% equity vs the typical stacking off range if our c/r get jammed on probably, so not that great.donkbet (and donk/3bet) - best option if villain isnt cbetting really wide. most villains respect a donkbet less than a c/r on a board like this, so the range that continues flatting or raising us we should be doing better against than vs a c/r. if our donkbet gets raised we can comfortably 3bet jam - no awkward turn stack size situations like when our c/r gets flatted. also we take initiative away from villain, his flatting range should be relatively weak on a wet board like this so we will still have some opportunities to barrel off as a bluff unimproved. some other hands that i would donkbet (again, if someone is cbetting really wide on all boards then i think donkbetting is far less relavent): also, depending on stack sizes these can bet donkbet/calls or donkbet/3bets - most of them will be donk/3bets since stacks are short in super turbo and ranges will be wider bc of that, deeper stack games you can bet call some of them more.T9 on 872 86 on 752QJ on 982JThh on 752h (overs+backdoor fd)87 on J94
QJdd hand from 2p2:Def a lead for me. I actually think it's a little too strong to turn into a c/r bluff, but not enough equity to c/r and stack off with vs the average players stacking range on this board (probably not doing that great and can find a better option). If villain is cbetting a bunch here like 80%+, I'm not going to have a donking range bc we lose to much value from the fold equity we have when c/r his cbet. I would cr with K9dd/J7/Q9/76 type stuff as a c/r bluff vs a wide cbettor. Vs the 50% cbettor in your example, his cbetting range is too narrow for c/r bluffs on this board, and like I said I just don't think QJdd plays optimally as a c/r anyways. So I definitely prefer a lead.Readless, I'm donking because I don't think the average player cbets all that wide. Maybe 55-60% or so is the pop tendancy for cbetting this board I'd guess. I'd rather take initiative and barrel off a lot. Bet/3betting when raised on flop - the range that gets it in vs bet/3bet is probably a decent bit wider than will stack off vs a c/r - mainly because donkbets are respected less and because we didn't let him dictate his cbet range either.Does that make sense? Feel like I'm rambling
how's your month going? what do you think of my posts on donkbetting? any more questions?
Months going well, I finally got back on PokerStars on Monday, so I have some sample of play now :) I'll be posting hands for review tomorrow, then going off for the weekend for a last vacation of the summer.I've been working hard on trying to set up a maintainable schedule for my days, and have been gradually succeeding at keeping it. I use small "sessions"--I meditate for at least 10 min (so far I have been using a 20 min meditation at the start of the day, and then I just use 10 min ones), then play for ~45 minutes setting a timer and using my willpower to quit the game after it goes off (historically a big leak of mine is not taking breaks, and not quitting when playing bad and tired, I've played some marathon sessions in my life). After playing I quickly glance at my EV results, make tea, do a few light chores like dishes for 5-10min, then back to meditation. I've been working on getting more and more "sessions" in during the day--I got 2 in Monday, 3 in tuesday (though I failed and played through my meditation and chore time between 2nd and 3rd session), and 4 in today (all sucessful in terms of time management, and despite some runbad I was up for the day).Tomorrow I want to review games using this method--meditate, then review for 45min, break, meditate, review, but then I'm going to Amsterdam for the weekend, then starting next week full force--continuing to work in more "sessions". I think once I'm able to get 6 "sessions" in a day I'll start making the actual play time longer to get more poker time into my schedule. I've found that I've been quite mentally fatigued these last days even after not that much poker (I used to play a ton of hours), but I think this is good because I've been working so hard to play mindfully and with full attention.While playing I've tried to be particularly mindful about on donk betting and on intelligent barreling (I've been following bacon thread). I think I've been a bit more successful at barreling, but I'll be posting a bunch of hands about both tomorrow. I still feel unsure about checking back flops--I have a natural habit of cbetting 100% and I have to really focus to pull it back and not do -EV cbets--I've managed to pull back my cbet frequency to ~90% (obv still too high), but I'm going to post some hands that I think are close btw chk back and cbet. I think I'm still spewing river spots a lot--I'm now sure historically that has been by far my biggest leak as a poker player, so I'll try to post some river questions too. So cliffs--leak work I need: donk betting, checking back flops, barreling, and river play (I definitely make terrible river calls, but also some very questionable bets).Finally I'll have some practical questions I hope :)Feel free to take your time answering any of tomorrow questions since I'll be away from my computer Friday-Monday. I'm going to try to have a ton of them ;)
Hand Reviews:
I have a problem with calling station syndrome, so I filtered for river calls. Along with this I'm posting reasoning for other streets. Take your time with these, I'll won't be able to read responses till Tuesday. Thanks in advance, and sorry about the bad formatting--I didn't have time to do anything pretty since vacation is last minute and I'm still packing and I have a train to catch in 2 hrs.
villain is unknown. he's been pretty tight oop, no 3b over 11 hands, but at higher effective stacks, so here as part of ROFLing I'm limping 97.
http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $30(BB) Replayer Game#67827076603
joan714 ($340)
coffeeyay ($660)
coffeeyay posts (SB) $15
joan714 posts (BB) $30
Dealt to coffeeyay 7s 9h
coffeeyay calls $15
joan714 checks
FLOP ($60) As Kd Td
joan714 checks
coffeeyay bets $40
joan714 calls $40
TURN ($140) As Kd Td 9d
joan714 checks
coffeeyay checks
RIVER ($140) As Kd Td 9d 7d
joan714 bets $70
coffeeyay calls $70
coffeeyay shows 7s 9h
(Pre 44%, Flop 5.6%, Turn 11.4%)
joan714 shows Ks 2c
(Pre 56%, Flop 94.4%, Turn 88.6%)
coffeeyay wins $280
I bet flop bigger because the flop is so wet and high carded, but upon review i think i could have just min bet and gotten the same FE. River I tanked and thought trough his hand and just didn't see too much that would bet that size, but I think this might just be my calling station gut calling the shots and it's a bit spewy?
villain is a TAGGY reg. He had been flatting ~50% OOP but at these effective stacks I'm a bit readless. He hadn't been playing back at my cbet, folding ~60% of the time, but his river aggression was high throughout play.
http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $40(BB) Replayer Game#67826257412
TagaBarra ($495)
coffeeyay ($505)
coffeeyay posts (SB) $20
TagaBarra posts (BB) $40
Dealt to coffeeyay Qc Jh
coffeeyay raises to $80
TagaBarra calls $40
FLOP ($160) 7c 2c Kd
TagaBarra checks
coffeeyay bets $70
TagaBarra calls $70
TURN ($300) 7c 2c Kd 2d
TagaBarra checks
coffeeyay checks
RIVER ($300) 7c 2c Kd 2d Ah
TagaBarra bets $40
coffeeyay calls $40
TagaBarra shows Kh 7h
(Pre 58%, Flop 92.7%, Turn 100.0%)
coffeeyay shows Qc Jh
(Pre 42%, Flop 7.3%, Turn 0.0%)
TagaBarra wins $380
b/c he hadn't been playing back at me I happily cbet the flop for FE, and check back the wet turn. River is where I hero call--I just thought of the missed draws, but I guess blocking bet is more likely. Can I possibly shove over his bet ther instead, just fold, or is my flat ok because of the small sizing?
villain is an unknown. he's been tight agg oop, calling 22% 3b 22% over a somewhat small sample size. He'd folded to all my previous cbets.
http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $30(BB) Replayer Game#67825521203
Kurakoff ($360)
coffeeyay ($640)
coffeeyay posts (SB) $15
Kurakoff posts (BB) $30
Dealt to coffeeyay 8s Jc
coffeeyay calls $15
Kurakoff checks
FLOP ($60) 2d 7s 4s
Kurakoff checks
coffeeyay bets $30
Kurakoff calls $30
TURN ($120) 2d 7s 4s 4d
Kurakoff checks
coffeeyay checks
RIVER ($120) 2d 7s 4s 4d 8d
Kurakoff bets $120
coffeeyay calls $120
coffeeyay shows 8s Jc
(Pre 54%, Flop 72.5%, Turn 65.9%)
Kurakoff shows 9d Td
(Pre 46%, Flop 27.5%, Turn 34.1%)
Kurakoff wins $360
I'm kinda lost throughout hand. I limped in order to stab at a small pot. Turn the board gets drawy and his mid pair improved, so I think the only thing he's folding to a barrel is a 2 which probably isn't really in his range so i chk back. I river top pair, but I feel like he's the kind of player that is potting for value, so should i be folding here?
Villain was nitty oop calling 30% and 3b 15%. He had been playing pretty straight forward oop post flop considering his strong calling range, calling cbets 24% and c/r 30% with fairly strong holdings, he once donk bet a weak pair.
http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $20(BB) Replayer Game#67788184370
doctor2308 ($490)
coffeeyay ($510)
coffeeyay posts (SB) $10
doctor2308 posts (BB) $20
Dealt to coffeeyay 6c 6d
coffeeyay raises to $40
doctor2308 calls $20
FLOP ($80) 4s Qd 8c
doctor2308 checks
coffeeyay bets $30
doctor2308 calls $30
TURN ($140) 4s Qd 8c 5s
doctor2308 checks
coffeeyay checks
RIVER ($140) 4s Qd 8c 5s 3c
doctor2308 bets $60
coffeeyay calls $60
doctor2308 shows Jd 8h
(Pre 47%, Flop 89.6%, Turn 86.4%)
coffeeyay shows 6c 6d
(Pre 53%, Flop 10.4%, Turn 13.6%)
doctor2308 wins $260
I cbet small because he had been folding and 3betting a lot so I figure I can take the pot down cheap and fold to c/r easily, and a smaller size might get a 4 to flat. I didn't barrel the turn, which I'm now unsure of--on one hand he's repping pretty strong range here since board was dry, on the other hand I pick up a gut shot and a barrel might get him off of an 8 and would get value off of a pair+str8 draw type hand. The river I'm a bit confused by his small bet, but now I understand that he's just value betting a calling station :) clear fold on river right, since I'm behind his range and he's never bluffing such a connected board?
same villain here.
http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $20(BB) Replayer Game#67788081083
doctor2308 ($580)
coffeeyay ($420)
coffeeyay posts (SB) $10
doctor2308 posts (BB) $20
Dealt to coffeeyay Qh 7h
coffeeyay raises to $40
doctor2308 calls $20
FLOP ($80) 5d Ks 7c
doctor2308 checks
coffeeyay bets $30
doctor2308 raises to $60
coffeeyay calls $30
TURN ($200) 5d Ks 7c 2c
doctor2308 bets $100
coffeeyay calls $100
RIVER ($400) 5d Ks 7c 2c 6s
doctor2308 bets $100
coffeeyay calls $100
coffeeyay shows Qh 7h
(Pre 38%, Flop 18.4%, Turn 11.4%)
doctor2308 shows Kh 9s
(Pre 62%, Flop 81.6%, Turn 88.6%)
doctor2308 wins $600 Same reasoning behind small cbet, but he suprises me with the minr. I'm not folding flop ever since I have a middling hand and position, but turn I should probably fold since he's unlikely to be bluffing there? turn call is a mistake, but river call is terribad?
So since i've gotten back on stars I've started putting in some good volume. I've put in over 300 games and have been planning well when I'm playing and how I'm playing. I've been mindful during games, been taking breaks when necessary, only single tabling, and have been very focused and playing something around A game 80% of the time and B game 20%. I've been shaking off the rust, every time I sit down I feel more confident and knowledgable about spots--every hour I play I feel like my game has been improving. I've been trying to work myself to the point of fatigue, but not push myself past that till the next day when I try to push myself a bit further. I've found my mental stamina has been getting much better pretty quickly. I've been meditating to help stay mindful and mentally rested. I haven't been table selecting, but this is the $30s so I haven't felt the need to avoid too many players, so I've just been open sitting and rematching a lot when I feel like I can hone in on some leaks and play an exploitative game. I've been away from PStars for a while so I don't recognize regs yet, but the couple I do recognize that are halfway decent I've avoided rematching. I've been recognizing villain tendancies well and have been adapting my game to take advantage--I've found a ton of nits with BB vpip <40% that I have been stealing with ATC, maniacs with 3b >30% that I have been trapping by polarizing my opening range by limping middling cards, I've been paying attention to opening frequencies and adjusting my 3b range using a lot of 3b/f bluffs against players with very high (>75%) opening ranges.Overall I've felt really good about my game and how I've been working.But I haven't seen results, and now I'm a bit frustrated. I've played less than 350 games and I'm down over 30BI and am ~21BI under EV. Running pretty bad :( I've been staying off tilt pretty well with the 20% B game being the worst of the lot, but I'm worried. I'm worried about my bankroll (which at this point is tied up with my life bankroll so it means a lot). I'm worried about leaks in my game. I'm worried that I won't be able to continue playing at this level either due to self sabotaging tilt, or due to bankroll concerns.This is one of the things I hate about poker--for me the negative variance has always hit at some of the worst times and it hurts so much worse at the wrong time. (Although to be fair, I've had pretty nice positive variance at some of the most meaningful times too, so it's something I love about poker too.) I know what it means to play hypers, and I was ready to go on a 30BI+ downswing--but not out of the gate. I was ready to be 20BI under EV but not during a ~330 game sample. I was ready to get coolered and set up for 20BI+ but not at the same time as running 20BI below EV. If I had gone on an upswing first I'd have more confidence and bankroll to be able to deal with this. But when it's right out of the gate I don't know what to do. I could move down, but I'm already playing at lower stakes than I'd like to since i moved down preemptively since I was rusty. I still have bankroll left so I don't *have* to move down, but it's getting close. And I really don't want to move down because I don't know if I can earn enough $/hr at the 15s to live off of, though it is probably possible with a ton of volume. I also wanted to move up to the $60s quickly, but with almost 1k less in my bankroll I can't afford to do that anytime soon either :(I'd appreciate some motivation to get me back on the horse, because I really do feel like I've been playing really well for the most part. In the mean time, I'm going to reduce my volume for today and post some more hands for review. I'm going to continue with river play because I still feel like I'm leaking the most there with river calls and river bets. I'll take the time to post the neatly this time too :)
I'm going to continue in the format of the previous hand histories--First list reads on villain, then give hand, then give my thoughts on every street. I appreciate comments everywhere in hand, not just river, and on my thinking process both in game and upon review. Thanks :)Hand 1:Villain was a fishy unknown. He had been playing a fairly standard game. OOP he had 58 VPIP and flatted 45%. He hadn't been c/r me too much, but had been floating, so I had been cbetting and 2 barreling a lot. $15/$30 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBjonybs$415.00 BTNHero$585.00 Effective Stacks: 14bb Pre-Flop ($45.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $60.00, jonybs calls $30.00 Flop ($120.00, 2 players) jonybs checks, Hero bets $50.00, jonybs calls $50.00 Turn ($220.00, 2 players) jonybs checks, Hero bets $120.00, jonybs calls $120.00 River ($460.00, 2 players) jonybs goes all-in $185.00, Hero calls $185.00 Final Pot: $830.00 jonybs shows Hero shows jonybs wins $830.00 ( won +$415.00 ) Hero lost -$415.00I cbet small because the flop was so dry and I didn't think I would be inducing b/c of his small c/r. I bet the turn bigger than half pot, though i think I could have upped the sizing even a bit more to maybe 140 or so. River I crying call because I just don't know what he could have, but upon review I just don't think he's bluffing since he's been pretty abc and he c/c 2 streets, and his value range is probably 2pair+ there so I should be folding, right?Hand 2:Same villain as first hand. $10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBjonybs$500.00 BTNHero$500.00 Effective Stacks: 25bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, jonybs calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) jonybs checks, Hero bets $40.00, jonybs calls $40.00 Turn ($160.00, 2 players) jonybs checks, Hero checks River ($160.00, 2 players) jonybs bets $64.00, Hero calls $64.00 Final Pot: $288.00 jonybs shows Hero shows Hero wins $288.00 ( won +$144.00 ) jonybs lost -$144.00Again I cbet the flop, this time a standard size since the board is connected and I hit a piece of it. When he flats I figure he has some st8 draws, but also pairs since he has been pretty passive with pairs OOP. The turn brings a flush draw but otherwise changed nothing. Did I miss a value bet opportunity by checking back here? Upon review I think I did because I beat a lot of his range, and a lot of his range (except random 2x) is continuing. It would also make the river an easier decision. As played, when the J pairs the board and he bets out a small strange amount I feel like I have to look him up since I'm really only behind Jx, since I think that Tx might c/c rather than bet because the draw missed. Is this another crying call though? I feel like unlike hand 1 there are draws that missed, random flop floats, and worse Tx that might bet out, and I only have to be right 22% of the time so I think here a call is justified.Hand 3:Villain is a complete unknown and I have a small sample of hands against him. So far though he seems pretty fishy and like he's been clicking buttons because his frequencies are pretty evenly spread out both IP and OOP. OOP I only opened 2 hand before this, and he had folded once and 3b the other one. $10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBcaparro800$520.00 BTNHero$480.00 Effective Stacks: 24bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, caparro800 calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) caparro800 bets $20.00, Hero calls $20.00 Turn ($120.00, 2 players) caparro800 checks, Hero checks River ($120.00, 2 players) caparro800 bets $40.00, Hero calls $40.00 Final Pot: $200.00 caparro800 shows Hero shows Hero wins $200.00 ( won +$100.00 ) caparro800 lost -$100.00 This was a pretty weird hand. On the flop I figure his range is wide, although I really don't have reads on his donking range. However, I assume that it's very likely I can get to showdown cheap if I flat here, so that becomes the plan--get to showdown cheap (or spike a 5 lol). He checks the turn which is great, I get to go along with my plan and check behind. When the 9 pairs the board and he bets out small I feel like I have to look him up here (i only need to be right 20%)--I feel like a lot of his flop min donk range is weak pairs and draws. All the draws missed, and the turn was a card under the 9 and he didn't bet out again so that makes 9x less likely in that range. The river changes nothing other than making 9x even less likely as a holding (especially considering the small sizing, as many fish tend to bet big there with a 9 since the missed value earlier in the hand). All that's left is some 2x and missed draws, as well as random crap that a fish can show up with (AA, Qx, 222, Q9). Overall since I only need 20% I figure a call here is pretty standard.Hand 4:I played a bit with villain--oop he was VPIP 52 with Call 26 and 3b 30. I had been polarizing my minr range by limping medium holding, but I had kept a lot of junk in my opening range to take advantage of his low VPIP. He had been pretty normal on the flop considering his strong range, he had c/c ~25%, c/r ~25%, and folded the rest to cbets. $10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBtropa100$490.00 BTNHero$510.00 Effective Stacks: 25bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, tropa100 calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) tropa100 checks, Hero bets $40.00, tropa100 calls $40.00 Turn ($160.00, 2 players) tropa100 checks, Hero checks River ($160.00, 2 players) tropa100 bets $120.00, Hero calls $120.00 Final Pot: $400.00 tropa100 shows Hero shows tropa100 wins $400.00 ( won +$200.00 ) Hero lost -$200.00 I minr pre with the intention of gii to any 3b. When he flats I figure there aren't many 9x or strong Kx in his range, although I can't be sure about strong kx because he hadn't shown down much in 3b pots (just A9, QQ, and 73o so he seems polar). I make a standard cbet on the flop, with the intent of barreling a lot of spots and knowing that I have a lot of value against his c/c range. On the turn I think that I would be barreling a lot of villains here to try to get them off of low pairs and weak draws, but here I feel like the turn card hits his range pretty hard because he has such a narrow preflop calling range and flop c/c range. So I elect to chk back. River is a K and it complete a bd flush draw, and he bets out pretty big. I need to be right 30% of the time, and so I think it's a pretty clear fold. In game though I leveled myself by saying that the river k discounts his kx range which was that value part of his flop float and it makes jx less likely to value bet (which is probably wrong thinking), and so I leveled myself into the call with A high. I'm definitely crushed by his value range since he's probably decent enough to vbet a J, but the river is a decent bluff card against my chk back turn range, but I still think that I should snap fold because I'm just crushed by his range here and he's not going to be exploiting me much--I had shut down turn, and I should follow up with an easy fold here.Hand 5:I only played 4 hands against villain but he played all of them with 100 total vpip, and oop he had called 100. $10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBpipoypunto$500.00 BTNHero$500.00 Effective Stacks: 25bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, pipoypunto calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) pipoypunto checks, Hero bets $50.00, pipoypunto calls $50.00 Turn ($180.00, 2 players) pipoypunto checks, Hero checks River ($180.00, 2 players) pipoypunto bets $160.00, Hero calls $160.00 Final Pot: $500.00 pipoypunto shows Hero shows Hero wins $500.00 ( won +$250.00 ) pipoypunto lost -$250.00 Here is a pretty interesting spot readless. Flop is a standard cbet, but I make it a bit bigger because of the fact that the board is super wet and I hit a decent part of it. When he flats I figure he has some pairs, some draws, etc. I definitely am not taking out draws from his range because we are readless and he seemed passive fishy so far. So the turn completes my draw, but also completes the flush. I elected to check behind because I don't think I'm getting value out of anything and am owning myself pretty hard against Qx and flushs, plus villain my c/jam with a diamond and a pair and I have to fold. So I figure I will check back to disguise my hand a bit and go for value on the river. The river changes nothing, but villain bets out for almost full pot. I don't think I can fold here because there are a lot of two pairs the might value bet, and villain has been fishy and we're readless so we don't know if he will take into account the super wet board in deciding to bluff. On the other hand, I'm thinking a bit about this spot and whether jamming could be good since I don't think a fish will fold out two pair. But I didn't do it in game, and upon review I still think it is a bit spewy to jam here because villain has all of his Qx and flushes in his range and they are likely to be betting big on the river and are never folding to a jam, right?Hand 6:Villain had been very loose aggro oop. He had a vpip of 78 (over 31 hands) of which he was flatting 67 and 3b 11. On the flop he was playing back a ton against my cbets, with c/c of 24 and c/r 48 and one lead. Against such a villian I expand my open fold range to have a stronger range to play with on the flop, 2 barrel bluff more since most of his strong value is going to be in his c/r range, and cbet/3b more on the flop because of his wide 3b range. I don't start limping until under 15 bb though because of his small 3b range. $10/$20 No Limit Holdem • 2 Players Hand converted by the official HUSNG.com hand converter BBRomeoBravo13$550.00 BTNHero$450.00 Effective Stacks: 23bb Pre-Flop ($30.00, 2 players) Hero is BTN Hero raises to $40.00, RomeoBravo13 calls $20.00 Flop ($80.00, 2 players) RomeoBravo13 checks, Hero bets $30.00, RomeoBravo13 calls $30.00 Turn ($140.00, 2 players) RomeoBravo13 checks, Hero checks River ($140.00, 2 players) RomeoBravo13 bets $40.00, Hero calls $40.00 Final Pot: $220.00 RomeoBravo13 shows Hero shows RomeoBravo13 wins $220.00 ( won +$110.00 ) Hero lost -$110.00 On the flop I make a small size cbet in order to induce him to c/r (since he c/r so much) so i can gii. when he flats I'm a bit confused and put him maybe on some low pairs (he doesn't 3b much), and str8 draws (both gutshot and oesd), and maybe some Ax (since again he doesn't 3b too much). The turn strengthens a lot of that range, leaving me ahead only of really random hands, so I elect to chk back since there is no need to turn my hand into a bluff here and I'm not getting value out of anything other than a weaker 9 that I should be able to get value off of on clean rivers. I'm pretty happy when the river blanks, and if villain didn't lead I'd likely b/f something small like 75 to try to get calls off of Ax and 9x. When villian leads out instead, I'm a bit confused. It looks like a blocking bet, but there is really nothing that would want to blocking bet except *maybe* in some strange villains mind a 9x and I guess a 3x. At the same time I'm getting a great price and only need to be right 18% of the time... but upon review, I really don't know what that 18% would be made up of. I guess there is air that floated to flop and is bluffing river, but a lot of that kind of air just c/r flop. There are possibly 3x and 9x there, but they might prefer to c/call or c/f. So I'm confused and worried that I got sucked in by the great price. Is this actually a fold?More hands coming tomorrow!
I was motivated by my HH work and had some confidence back so I played one more session today. Thanks to another session of run bad I'm now 36 BI down, and 26 BI down in EV over 380 games. FML :( I have to reload too which is always unpleasant.Oh well, at least my game continues getting drastically better :) I'm still optimistic. That being said if I drop another 36 BI it's pretty much gg poker, time to start teaching English or working in a restaurant and start putting together grad school apps :(
are you taking any days off? i think your daily schedule sounds great, but i'd definitely recommend a day off per week at minimum - and probably every few weeks taking 3 or 4 days off in a row. find what works for you, but i think for 99%+ of poker players, no days off is a bad idea.checking back flops: 100% cbetting is definitely -ev vs the average player, but i do think something around 85-90% (just an average, obv 100% on some boards and less on others) is best for maximally exploiting the average player. 85-90% cbet range with a wide preflop raising range is very exploitable, but very few of our opponents will know how to exploit these tendancies. if we wanted our cbet range to be unexploitable with a wide pfr it would be around 65%ish with a polarized-ish checkback range (this is how we would adjust to someone with a wide/solid c/r frequency against our 85-90% cbet range).
text hh's97 hand: given your reads, i don't think ROFL is maxEV yet. we don't have any reason to expect to be 3bet wide, so i hate limping and giving the 60%+ of hands that would fold a minraise or jam free equity. at 11bb stacks against a wide 3bettor, i would just be jamming nashable hands that can't minraise/call fwiw - unless we know that villain is super weak in limped pots and will check back a decent amount. so if villain is folding too much and not 3betting a lot so far, i def minraise/fold is your best option.postflop: ya agreed, stabbing flop t30 accomplishes the same as t40, so def go w smaller size. as played, i don't think the population tendancy is to turn showdown value into a bluff here - i expect most single pair/2 pair hands to just be checking the river and trying to get to a free showdown. so i expect the average players range to basically be diamonds/air most of the time. given how many QX/JX combos could be floating the flop, all having a decent incentive to bluff here - you only have to be right on your call 25% (70/28) so i definitely think their is more than 25% combos of missed Q/JX in average players range here.QJ: flop and turn look good to me. just to point out though - this would be a ROFL limp based on your thought process in the 97o hand, but i def would be minraising this as well based on your reads (low 3bet, calling lots).river is definitely a jam for me unless i think villain is super hero-ish. i mean at these eff stx the average player legit has 0 AX combos in range, and you rep AX ridiculously well (cbet/chk AX is very believable). i would be jamming here pretty much as my standard.J8: villain is playing so few hands oop (<50%) that you should be raising atc. so ya i'd just minraise/fold again - don't want to give all that free equity yo :). flop and turn are good again, but meh - i'm not folding river basically bc we don't have to be right that often, we are underrepped and villain does have air combos. i do expect to be beat ad ecent amount here htough. with better reads, this can be a very easy fold.66: minraise at 23ish+ stacks with 22-66 is >>> openjamming given the reads you have given imo. basically that he's folding a decent amount oop and isn't out of line postflop. i'd be openshoving readless though.postflop looks good to me and river is a fold. i perceive that river size as thin value basically, and we don't beat thin value so i'm folding. i'd much rather call a bigger bet here, as it's more polarized between big hands/air - and he has a lot more believable air combos than big hands (esp with his high c/r % including big hands).Q7: flop looks ok. i'd be jam/folding the turn though with only t220 behind to protect equity and bc i think most villains give up a lot of bluffs at this point. river size is very thin value-ish to me again. cool hands
you have a tremendously good approach to the game. you should have a ton of confidence bc of that. considering that the average 200-300 super turbo PROFESSIONAL hardly considers a lot of the mental aspects of the game you have worked on so hard, your future seems bright to me. i have worked with a lot of very talented poker players, but very few of them had much skill in their approach to session management, mental, etc. i've believed for a long time that the key ingredient for a successful poker career is consistency and a strong mental game. you are ahead of the curve in both it seems, improving your skill by expanding your understanding of strategy is the easy part imo.
Thanks for the words of confidence, I needed that :) I do take days off, I'm aiming for 2 days a week, one with my wife and one without (since she will be on a normal Saturday Sunday weekend, and I'd prefer to work Friday and Saturday) with sometimes an extended weekend to go travel (like last weekend). I do plan to do like and hour a day on days off though of either study or play, or 1 of each, to stay fresh--I feel like taking days off entirely is not a good idea--this comes from my background of playing cello and all the professional musicians would practice every day.It seems like I shouldn't worry too much about my cbet. I have been working on finding the right spots/villains to check back flops and have been mindful of not going on autopilot and trying to actually consider reasons not to, and I have found that it has been helping me.I'm going to try really hard to be mindful of my river play, already I feel like just looking through these hands together with you has helped. I'll be posting more hands this weekend, I have another batch of river play hands tomorrow, and since I can't play and generate more hands since I can't deposit (Bla) since banks closed, I'll move on to check back flops or maybe 2 and 3 barrel bluffs. Cool to hear I'm on the right track mentally. It's funny, this downswing I didn't really feel down during the day and it hasn't affected my outside poker life--one of the first times in my life this has been true. I'm thankful for that and I'm pretty sure it's my mental training and being reflective during previous downswings that made this true. The only thing left that I feel of these results is that little bit of sinking gross feeling in the pit of my stomach that stabs a bit at me when I'm reminded about it.I hope I can stay strong through this downswing and get back in the black soon :) One thing that's nice about superturbos is that it often feels like a week's worth of poker goes by in a day, so hopefully on Monday I'll be coming out of the hole and by the end of next week I'll be able to reconsider moving up to the 60s :)Thanks again for your kind words, I really hope to make poker something long term and positive in my life so I've been working really hard doing it right. I just have to keep being process oriented and I'm sure the results will start coming to me, already I see results in places other than my bottom line so that's pretty cool.
your comment about musicians never taking days off to stay sharp is interesting to me. maybe poker is different though? if a poker player burns out from never taking breaks, his performance is usually heavily impacted from it: lack of focus, tilts easier, less motivated. of course being a great musician is challenging (and obv far more difficult than being a pro poker player), but imo a poker player needs the healthier lifestyle and mental game. this is more of just a thought, than some authoratative statement though - i don't know shit about being a musician. what do you think?i am going to get to your unanswered questions after i get back from France, since you are read-only this month.fwiw, i can imagine that burnout/tilt type stuff would effect someone in just about any field, i just believe that a strong mental game and healthy lifestyle is FAR more important in a game where, when pushing ourselves to the max, we are basically 'mental athletes'.
Interesting stuff to think about with mental athleticsm--I think I'm going to rethink the play/study on days off. I think musicians do it more to keep the muscle memory strong, which is not a factor here. What I plan to do as a compromise to keep some of the same things activated I want to do a few long meditation sessions on days off to get my mind in the same state but then not push it with play. Right now I'm tentatively planning to do the following schedule, with each grind session being 50 min play and 10 min meditation.Monday--Study day. 2 or 3 single table grind sessions and 4+ hours of hand analysis and range work.Tuesday--Medium study. 3 or 4 single table grind session, 2 multitabling grind sessions and 2+ hours of hand analysis and range work.Wednesday--Heavy Work day. 4 single table grind sessions, 3 multitable sessions, 1 hour of going over study work from monday or tuesday.Thursday--Day Off. Will do 2 or 3 meditation sessions (30+ minutes each), and perhaps some low intensity poker work like printing things, chatting with poker buddies, reading 2p2, etc. otherwise relax and get some household chores done. I want to keep poker on my mind and my mind active, but want it to rest and absorb the things I learned the last 3 days and be ready for the next two days of hard work.Friday--Heavy work day. 7 to 9 (depending on mental fatigue) hours of single tabling.Satuday--Heavy work day. 7 to 9 hours of single tabling.Sunday--Full Day Off. No poker at all. Will try to do some light meditation.Rinse and repeat.what do you think about this? Is it reasonable to seperate my days off? I feel like I put in a lot of mental work mon-wed and then take a day off to let it sink in and get myself fresh, and then try to apply it as best as I can and put in a ton of sweat Friday and Saturday, and then finally take a day off of poker altogether, spend quality time with my wife, and avoid burn out. This is also something that I will be able to adapt for future months, once my play and skills have solidified, by lowering the amount of study time and increasing the amount of multitable time. Also I've been exercising most days, and plan to keep this up. I also do a lot of walking everyday since I don't own a car and I take the stairs (and I live on 12th floor) so I stay pretty active. I eat ridiculously health (plant based whole foods diet with no animal products and no added oils or processed foods). I'm thinking that altogether this a pretty reasonable and sustainable schedule that I hope to do a good job following :)I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Like this thread!Keep up the hard work Coffeeyay.