Fuck micro stakes

Decided to take a minbuy shot of $100 at live 1/2 today after doing well playing shallow tables on FTP. I seem to play a lot better when im risking less and freerolling profits so I wanted to see how it would translate over to live. Played for 8 hours starting with $100 buyin, grinded it up to $400, catch an OESFD, board pairs and I miss, so I ship river on a bluff and get check/called by a boat lolz.

Drop to $200, get AA, ship a 4way flop on KJ4cc after 2 people donk into me, GET FOUR CALLERS LOL, thats right an $800 pot, and some guy scoops the whole thing with A2cc on the river. Dont even know what the other guys had. GG.

And wtf is this; Some nit makes an uncharacteristic $22 preflop raise UTG, everyone folds, and the SB ships $140 and flips up 88 after UTG folds, and says "i had to protect my hand". And UTG raiser like never raises. He looked pretty pissed that he folded but whatever, random.

I was very pleased with my live performance as usual, and hope to take more shots again soon. After reading some guys blog on 2p2 who played homegames and ran up a 30k roll and then moved to vegas and now plays 2/5 for a living I have some newfound motivation. For starters I will never again take my live earnings and donate them online. Once I have built a live roll I will probably try to play live exclusively. Besides I need to get in the habit of driving around and sitting in a chair for hours if this is what I intend to do. It's also a super sweet spot for me since I'm just outclasses at NL400+, but am right in my comfort zone at NL200 and it's live counterpart, which means I'm also comfortable with playing 2/5 live..... probably... maybe even 5/10, no idea what kind of people play that though.

Ultimately I dont feel buying in half stacked helped me any this time. Maybe online it does b/c I'm just so jaded playing micro stakes, but I dont see myself making any big screwups live where a deep stack is -EV for me. Anyway only note for tonight is to just bluff less lol. At least when it comes down to these monsterous allin bluffs. I dont mind raising some $15 donkbet to $50 or some shit, but it ends there.

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Comments (5)

Last time I did a session review I wrote off a lot of my losses to bad beats, and they sorta were, but at the same time I feel I may have been overplaying a lot of hands, namely the TPGK type stuff. I ingeniously sorted my HH's by those hands in which I won money, and those hands in which I lost money. My winners are sets and flushes. My losers are TP, or a quality PP like JJ or QQ that gets outdrawn.

I figured raising small PP's and SC's is really a deception tactic reserved for table precedence, after you have grinded it out with some regs for awhile you need to mix up your play. Since rush is like playing a bunch of new faces, theres no deception in raising a PP. The only hands calling a raise by an unknown are hands that are just folding on the flop unless they improve, or I'm gonna get 3bet by a better PP. Might as well just limp most of my playing hands and just raise AJs+ and JJ+. And when I flop TP I need to keep some pot control in mind, namely value betting 2 streets and checking river a lot.

These adjustments have resulted in the following playstyle. I played a slightly shorter session by instituting a stop loss and this is where I ended up.



We'll see if this is optimal or not. I've been doing some thought analysis on it and at least at these limits where theres very little 3 betting or iso-raising, it does indeed seem to make a lot of sense. And these results are in perfect tandem with my session review, all pots won from sets and flushes, and a few TPTK stuff mixed in but not for stacks.

Honestly, I feel this is how I should always run at this limit. 72 wintrate may seem unsustainable but every time I'm in a pot I assure you it's with the best hand.

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No, seriously, this cant be possible.



I have gotten my money in so far ahead on so many occasions it's beyond comprehension. 20 BI downswing? This is beatable? Everyone keeps ragging on me for moving up where they respect my raises, yet I consistently just run this bad for my entire poker career at micro stakes?

I stepped back for a moment earlier after losing the first 10 BI's and thought maybe, JUST MAYBE, it really was my fault. So I looked at like 2 hands but realized they were all suckouts, so I just decided to adjust my play to be a bit more exploitable but make my decisiions easier. Afterall it's rush and it's doubtful anyone is making many moves, at least at these stakes. I dropped my vpip from 24 to 18, and PFR from 18 to 10. Just a little more nitty passive is all.

I kinda like the new style, it's certainly easier, but I mean for gods sake what in the goddamn fuck? Personally I rather prefer winning 20-30BB pots over and over at NL200 than having idiots just spaz shove the turn and 3-6 outer me on the river with overcards. I mean, the numbers dont lie. Im puttin in some fuckin hands here and all I do is get sucked out on.

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Comments (11)

Havent put in this many hands in a single session in like 6 months to a year. Maybe never! I keep fighting the addiction, but I caved and dropped $50 to grind away at rush and just play ABC with a few moves mixed in to exploit the rush dynamic. Interestingly I had very little success with my resteals and bluff's. It seems like almost everyone is just nitting it up at rush and playing straight up. The only money is truly coming from the fish, and as you can see they were in full suckout mode.

I dont really consider this a downswing, as that is more reserved for coolers and misreads, plus the occasional missed draw. I havent hit a downswing yet, so coupled with the suckout fest 10 BI's may not survive. Probably need like 50 BI's to handle all the bad beats, but this is all I feel like allocating right now.

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Comments (14)

Got a little rakeback in the mail;

Submitted by : NewbSaibot

Full Tilt Poker Game #20892790933: Table Corkseed (6 max) - $0.01/$0.02 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:47:15 ET - 2010/05/16
Seat 1: Hero ($3.29)
Seat 2: Zicccc ($2.59)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade ($2.10)
Seat 4: poker_incognito ($2.59)
Seat 5: dedai ($0.88)
Seat 6: kolinary ($2)
Apitome_spade posts the small blind of $0.01
poker_incognito posts the big blind of $0.02
The button is in seat #2

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
dedai calls $0.02
kolinary folds
Hero raises to $0.10
Zicccc folds
Apitome_spade has 15 seconds left to act
Apitome_spade calls $0.09
poker_incognito folds
dedai folds

Flop (Pot : $0.24)

   
Apitome_spade checks
Hero bets $0.15
Apitome_spade calls $0.15

Turn (Pot : $0.54)

   
Apitome_spade checks
Hero checks

River (Pot : $0.54)

   
Apitome_spade checks
Hero bets $0.30
dedai: wooooooooooow
Apitome_spade has 15 seconds left to act
Apitome_spade folds
Uncalled bet of $0.30 returned to Hero
Hero mucks
Hero wins the pot ($0.51)

Summary
Total pot $0.54 | Rake $0.03
Board:
Seat 1: Hero collected ($0.51), mucked
Seat 2: Zicccc (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 4: poker_incognito (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: dedai folded before the Flop
Seat 6: kolinary didn't bet (folded)
Hero: lol
dedai: you just folded a royal flush
dedai: uah
Hero: its ok apitome, i had a royal flush
dedai: thats the only one you will have in your life
dedai: :-)
Seat 3: Apitome_spade ($1.85), is sitting out
dedai: my god
dedai: unbelievable
Hero: i thought about going allin, but figured .30 looked more believable
dedai: hahaha

0 votes

I'll keep this one short and sweet. So after making $800 profit in a single session of live NL200 last week, I took the plunge and bought in for a single table at NL400 online because fuck it, thats why. Ran it up to $1700 because I'm a good player. Next night all the NL400 tables are full with long waits and the only open table i could find was...... NL1k lol. But whatever, a buyin and a half has worked before right? Besides this could really jumpstart the ole bankroll.... for when I take my single buyin shot at 25/50. Unfortunately I ran into a 200k winning reg who must have been tilted or something b/c he put me allin with 99 preflop once, 3 barreled air and rivered bottom pair for the win, plus a couple of other spots I cant really remember and wiped me out. Pretty sick really, cant complain since he crushes the game across multiple sites but his play still seemed way out of line.

But I did accomplish my mission, that being playing NL400 and doing well lol. I played live last night and soul crushed everyone. I think they were even starting to get mad because I must've played something like 70/50 raising almost every hand I was dealt. 2 people even left to go to another table and 2 others switched seats at my table. And while I assume variance is a little softer at live stakes due to fewer hands dealt, I got it in preflop QQ vs KK, nut flush vs boat, and a couple of counterfeit hands where the board ran out a straight on me for a split vs some TPNK bullshit I had dominated. I even laid down top 2 vs a fish getting 3:1 on a 80BB pot when he donkbet a paired turn and then showed me nothing more than an OESD.

So now I cant decide what I want to play right now, live or online. My hourly is better online but of course it's a lot more mental work playing against people out of my league. Live is such a haul and backbreaking, but it's also relatively easy. If I want to play tonight ill come home smelling like cigarettes which I'm not really in to, so that has a certain factor too.

Finally I find out that some new poker legislation is going into effect in Florida allowing uncapped buyins which will ultimately turn it into the next gambling epicenter as far as I can tell. I'm within driving distance of all of these casinos if I wanted to make weekend trips out of it. But I fucking hate where I live right now and could see myself moving there! Especially since right around the time this happens the UIGEA will take on some new twists, and I'm deathly afraid of investing heavily into online play just to have the christians finally win and be banned for life. I could def see myself beating 5/10 live for a living once I built up a roll and got used to living in a casino. So many things to consider!

Oh, and sorry for not keeping this short and sweet.

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Comments (10)

So if theres one thing I'm a master at, it's playing with my whole roll on the table for the highest limit I can afford. It's how I started playing. Depositing $200 and sitting down at NL200 seemed like a good idea at the time afterall, I mean what else would I want to do with $200, play .5/10 cent? Laugh... Over the years I've managed to increase my BRM to the 5 BI or so mark, so at least now I'm playing with 5x the funds as I used to. And of course winning 3-4 BI's in a single session is like the greatest day ever and proves I play good making 400% ROI, so naturally I should cash out and save some again for later. I'm down something like -1.26/BB which clearly proves I'm a losing player so I quit poker until I paid off some debts and did some more soul searching.

But tonight I could not handle it any longer. My withdrawal symptoms became too great and all I could think about was the NL200 game downtown running in an hour, and how gawd awful these players were. Just last night I was watching my wife Holly grind NL2 online and just kept facepalming at all the hands people were calling her with. I just sat back for a few moments and said "wtf this is so easy, I know how to beat these fucks. Just, fuckin play solid. Dont even come with a gameplan, just play fuckin solid. Wtf does solid even mean? Fuck if I know, just fuckin do it".

So all I can do is sit there in my office today picturing the various joe blows at the live table and imagine that we are really playing online at an NL2 table. And then it was done. I sent a text asking if they had a seat available for me and that I would be there in about half an hour. The entire trip I just kept imagining the live table was the stars table. The felt in front of me would look just like the digital felt online. When I took a seat, I wouldnt be playing this like it was live, I would be imagining I was playing NL2 online, and each face across the table from me was nothing more than another retarded avatar of some guys baby/and or dog.

I bought in for $200, which was all I brought with me. You see I couldnt really afford to be playing right now. I had to win. I really needed this money, and considered playing tonight no different than putting in extra hours at the office for more pay. I needed the money. And from 7pm-10pm I proceeded to go from a $200 stack to a $980 stack. I warned everyone early that I was rusty and just gettin back in the game and would be leaving early tonight. If I bust i bust, and if I crush I crush. Luckily they all like me and dont mind a slight hit n run. Of course thats not to say the whole table groaned when I asked the host to rack em and cash me out. But there were like 20 people there tonight anyway so they probably all forgot within the next 5 minutes anyhow.

So I pocketed nearly $800 tonight one-tabling NL200 live. A heater or whatever, doesnt matter, goddamn I needed the money. So what am I gonna do with it? Well I'm debating putting $400 down for a single buyin of NL400 online. Or maybe play the NL500 live game this weekend. Maybe just 1 BI of NL200 online will be enough. Or maybe I'll just sink it all towards credit card debt/holly's birthday or something.

I dunno, but clearly I can buy in for 100BB's at any game and just pwn it up, so all I really need to make sure I have is $200 laying around in case I somehow bust what I earned. Me busting what I earned is totally irrelevant though, even if it exceeds the 1 BI rule. If I lose it all, I simply pull 200 more out of the bank and play. All previous withdrawals are erased, and each night is a clean slate. There shall be no auditing of my buyin history, each day is a new day. If you find all of this confusing, PM me and we'll discuss proper degen theory and I'll offer some live coaching on how to properly buy in at a table and run it up, and how to properly lose it all and have it mean absolutely nothing.

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Comments (20)

The "I FUCKING QUIT!" milestone. Everyone has one, I finally reached mine. Done with everything remotely poker related for a long time. Cyall round.

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Comments (4)

Ehhhhhrrrm.... Behold, my NL50 HU results thus far



Should I like, quit faster than anyone has ever quit anything before? I'm only down 5 BI's, but look a that EV my god.

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Comments (10)

Cashing out that is. Made my first 2 cashouts in a year this week, totaling $600, hyuk! I rolled myself 40 BI's for NL50 HU with the intention of getting coaching from f4zi. But we could never get a time scheduled for a lesson so I watched a few HU vids to acclimate myself with the game and just decided to take a shot on my own, I mean if I kill it, then who needs coaching? FTP only allows for $600 deposit at a time so even though I had allocated $2000 for it, thats all I ever had in my account. I grinded up to $1388 when I made the sequential cashouts, namely just because I wanted to see what I felt like to cashout for once again lol. Figured might as well make it $600 so I'm technically freerolling the rest, although I made sure never to actually look at it in that manner.

Of course it was only a matter of time before FTP showed their true colors. I was simply in run hot mode at the start because I hadnt deposited in awhile. After 4000 hands it was time for FTP's auto-balance system to spread the wealth to other fish, and I promptly lost the remaining money with nut flushes, flopped sets, 2 pairs, and several TP hands all to runner runner this and that. With $150 left I sat at a NL200 table to chase it back, sat around for about 40 hands when this happened:

Submitted by : NewbSaibot

Full Tilt Poker Game #20064116100: Table Mop (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:57:26 ET - 2010/04/14
Seat 1: Hero ($182.65)
Seat 2: ADCampbell ($218.90)
Seat 3: MidgetB ($200)
Seat 4: chocolateNuts ($200)
Seat 5: asdfx1 ($310.40)
Seat 6: ABear44 ($203)
asdfx1 posts the small blind of $1
ABear44 posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3

Holecards(Odds)
Dealt to Hero
Hero raises to $6
ADCampbell folds
MidgetB has 15 seconds left to act
MidgetB folds
asdfx1 folds
ABear44 raises to $20
Hero calls $14

Flop(Odds) (Pot : $41.00)

   
ABear44 checks
Hero bets $30
ABear44 calls $30

Turn(Odds) (Pot : $101.00)

   
ABear44 checks
Hero bets $70
ABear44 raises to $153, and is all in
Hero calls $62.65, and is all in
ABear44 shows
Hero shows
Uncalled bet of $20.35 returned to ABear44

River (Pot : $366.30)

   
ABear44 shows two pair, Jacks and Tens
Hero shows a pair of Aces
ABear44 wins the pot ($363.30) with two pair, Jacks and Tens
Hero is sitting out

Summary
Total pot $366.30 | Rake $3
Board:
Seat 1: Hero showed and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: ADCampbell didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: MidgetB (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: chocolateNuts is sitting out
Seat 5: asdfx1 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: ABear44 (big blind) showed and won ($363.30) with two pair, Jacks and Tens

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