Hi all,
I have never had a blog and rarely post in forums so this is a first for me. My reason for posting here is that September was my first serious attempt at playing HUSNG since quitting poker for a while and I am not overly happy with the results. I don’t have any poker playing friends and feel I need to get involved in a group/community to develop and improve.
A brief history about me is that I started playing online in 2002 not really having a clue like most players then, I dabbled in all available games preferring the MTTs for a 'big score'. I satellited into the Party Poker Million Cruise in 2005 and met a lot of pro players at this who told me that 6 max limit cash was the easiest with the biggest fish, I was amazed at the sums these guys were winning at this format which I had never really tried so I got some study books and began specializing in short-handed limit cash and eventually moving to HU limit cash. I played full-time for 2 years and made much more than I could have made in a job so all was good for a while. I played a lot on Party which of course was decimated by the UIGEA and the limit cash games dried up/got tougher with mostly regs. I then had issues IRL that affected my game and I played too high and pretty much busted. I was playing 30/60 HU limit cash, was life-tilted and my BR management went out the window, I just wanted to play big. Luckily towards the end I withdrew enough to keep me going until I got a proper job (sigh).
I have dabbled a bit in poker since and had some minor successes in MTTs and SNGs (all ranges from HU to 180s) but never really worked hard on my game and only played on and off for a couple of weeks here and there.
Now my attention turns once again to poker and I intend to focus purely on HU Hypers. I played the $1.50s and $3.50s in August, and the $7s and $15s in Sep, studying Chadders pack and a ton of free resources along the way.
SEPTEMBERS RESULTS AND GOALS FOR THE REST OF 2014
I found it tough mentally last month with a 1000 game breakeven stretch at the beginning and a serious downswing in the middle for 2-3 days, 500 games where I literally could not win anything. At the lowest point I was running 70BI below EV and felt myself beginning to tilt a few times resulting in forced breaks and lost playing time.
My graph for the $15s is horrible, I tried to move up 3 times with 50 BI roll and got coolered a ton on top of running into some much better opponents than I found at the $7s. I guess I still have a lot of leaks to work on and will continue to study. I am pretty happy with my volume, over 3000 games which is not bad seeing as I work full-time. My goals for the rest of 2014 are:
- Use at least 10% of my poker time for study.
- Get videos/coaching, possibly as part of a staking deal, although I do not currently need a stake I think the social/community/study/coaching aspects of being staked are likely to be +EV in the long run.
- For October play more $15s than $7s
- Be at the $30s with a 2-3% ROI by end of year.
Sep overall:
$7s:
$15s
Don't know why I bother with this game at all. Played a dream opponent tonight, an absolute fish, calling shoves 12BB deep with 86o, calling shoves on flop with bot pair no draws on any texture flop, shoving flop with only a gutshot, just a gambling idiot, and he beat me in 10 games out of 11. I had to quit him as no matter what he did he won. Should I have kept playing him? Theory would say YES OF COURSE, SNAP REMATCH FOREVER, but I don't know, I was on the verge of tilting if he sucked out on me one more time.
It is extremely rare that I beat anyone in 10 games out of 11, but a fish crushes me like this at least once every few days.
I played for around 7 hours today, 123 games , mix of 7s and 15s for a total loss of $18. EV Adjusted showing a profit of $43 for the day.
Yet again I fail to beat fish, run under EV and show a loss for the day. What a waste of fucking time.
I imagine you had less than 10BB when he called an open shove with 86o.
I imagine you had less than 10BB when he called an open shove with 86o.
Nope, otherwise I would not have mentioned it. I took a note of this as he did it in one of our first games and I thought "hello, I am going to get paid from this guy".
I am no longer rolled for the 15s after another horror session today. Trying to post a graph but it is triggering a Spam Filter when I do and will not let me add a pic.
Struggling with the mental/frustration side of the game now.
So savage.... looks like the worst run ever
If you take the ev line off and add net adjusted does it look the same? Hang in there!
RK
I have read up a bit on the graphs and realize that the Net Adjusted line is more accurate than All In Equity when displaying Prizes so here it is.
I have added the showdown/non-showdown also. You can see that my showdown winnings have been steadily decreasing since the massive downer around game 4500. No doubt this is the main reason why I am losing so much. My own analysis of this is that my opponents have been particularly lucky over the last 1500 games, drawing out on me when I have hit the flop hard. I have reviewed a ton of hands and really don't see many spots where i could have been finding folds although it is something that I will continue to monitor closely.
I play a very aggressive style unless villain is hyper-agro and then I switch to trap mode. My style means I bluff a lot which I think is shown by the non-showdown line although I am certain I do not bluff too much. The showdown losses are from me calling/value betting with a hand that turns out to be 2nd best and also shoving with good equity/fold equity and getting called light, plus a huge amount of villain suckouts of course!
I am open to other possible interpretations.
Frustrated at my results, fed up with the game, annoyed that I couldn't beat recreationals etc etc etc. I took the following steps and I would definitely recommend them to you:
The answer to #4 should be because it is fun. When you begin to take the game seriously it becomes very easy to forget that; you become focused on results and the fun element dissipates very quickly. But people have an array of second incomes that make far less $$$ than poker can for many of us and that are far, far more boring. Poker is a fun game, remember that.
You are complaining about fish making stupid moves and, yes, you're right, they are. It's fantastic. Do you really want everyone to play correctly? How would you ever make money? Remind yourself before you start every grind that recreational players - players that play for pure enjoyment - are the key ingredient in this recipe - they are what makes poker profitable and we need them to survive in the game. If they flat call a 6-bet w/72o, that is their right - do not beat yourself up when you lose to opponents like this or when they play in a fashion you deem sub-optimal. The more you berate their play and question why they do this, the more disenchanted with the game you will become, and tilt will be inevitable. Every time your opponent makes a mistake, you profit. Celebrate this, do not curse it.
To wrap up the speech; you must remember that margins are super-thin in hypers. An excellent reg will have a 54% win-rate, a good reg will win 53% of their games. That means that long-term, some of the best players in the world will lose 47% of their games. Each individual game counts for little... Hypers are a marathon, NOT a sprint.
You may have a very solid approach to the strategic side of the game and understand some advanced concepts. What is clear however is that your mental approach is seriously flawed and needs a lot of work. You need to be honest with yourself and be willing to work on this, otherwise you will end up hating the game. Also, your goals are far too ambitious; you're putting too much pressure on yourself. It's good to be ambitious - 100% - but working full-time, grinding part-time and studying just a small amount will very unlikely see you reach the $30s by December, especially since you are currently at the $7s. Take some pressure off yourself by moving that goal back to February (at least) and you will undoubtedly feel less stressed about where you are in the game. Just as an FYI, it took me 5 months from starting the $15s to make the $30s and I moved back down for a further month following.
Take these steps:
If you need any further advice, feel free to PM me.
Scott.
Thanks for the responses guys, especially Scott's very detailed response. Yes I think Jared's book is a must for any serious HUSNG player, I sought it out during my 1000 game breakeven stretch at the beginning. The parts on entitlement tilt and 'life-time' tilt were interesting and relevant.
Looking at my post now about the 'fish' of course I know logically that such players make the game profitable, but it certainly doesn't feel like it when you lose to this type of play over a long stretch of game (not talking about just the 11 games I played that triggered the rant, I mean in general over the past month). I really just used the fish post to try and expunge some frustration.
That is key for me now, to ensure that I am not carrying around a weight of anger/frustration after each losing session.
Small win yesterday so feeling calm and ready today. I have already realized that I will not meet goal 3 and will not meet 4 (without a stake). Action seems to have dried a little with those spinny things being introduced recently but I think that recs will get bored of those, the 2x prize comes up so often that recs will eventually figure out that they have a better chance of beating a HU game for 2x then a 3-way game for 2x.
Quick update guys, I have dropped 35 buy-ins in the last 3 days over approximately 500 games. It has been horrific and extremely frustrating.
I only feel slightly better as I checked Skaiwalkurr's Sharkscope and seen an 80 buy-in downswing over 900 games earlier this year.
This is a very sick and brutal game.
After a pretty horrible month so far I finally get a bit of run goot only for the next session to lose every flip (not joking, I lost every one), run into top of ranges, rivered when way ahead, I even lose to quads 2 games in a row when I had top boat. Just unreal beats in every single game, half of the games against fish. Overall for the 2 sessions 10BI below EV and my EV sucks as you will see in the month-to-date graph.
My results so far for Oct look like those of a losing player. I posted on the PT4 forums about availability of Equity stats for each street as I need to know how often I am losing when ahead on each street. It certainly feels like way more than the odds would dictate. I also feel like I should not pay any attention to All-In Equity/Adjusted stats any longer, they simply do not take into account situations where your opponent makes horrible plays on each street and then spikes the river. In such cases your Net Adjusted will go south alongwith your actual results even though your play was actually +EV.
https://pt4.pokertracker.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=46322&start=30
I know that 16 days play is very much 'the short run' but it is a lot of grind and it is frustrating. Currently when I cannot take beats any longer I take a break for at least 10-15 minutes, if the beats continue I might take a break for an hour or two depending on my anger and frustration level. I do not really have a problem with tilt in terms of my play, I don't spaz-out and dump chips or make crazy plays without justification/reads, my problem is personal anger/frustration. I am prepared to deal with a certain level of frustration but in the long term I have to consider whether the results I achieve are worth it and at present they are not.
Each day I approach afresh and calm but after yesterdays horror session and generally a horrible month so far I feel like it will not take much for the anger/frustration to build back up again. Basically, I am not looking forward to playing today so may just take a break completely.