Fuck micro stakes

So I havent had a roll on stars in awhile after moving to FTP for rakeback. My g/f has been steady grinding some cash she traded in from play money, and decided that I too would like to goof around stress free for little while with a challenge I made myself. Back when I used to withdraw money instead of depositing, I would always play with 1 buyin at a time. Meaning even though I had the bank account to roll myself for NL100 or so, I would instead just deposit $200 and play with that at an NL200 game. Something about the pressure of having it all on the table kept me in line. I figured it would be no different with $200 or $2, so I had my g/f ship me $2 for a new stars roll. Since I play LAG, I decided that I dont really need 100BB's to play effectively, even at NL2. In fact especially at NL2. You can get away with so much murder there as fish are typically folding or calling regardless of your bet size. I can literally bet .10 into a 90 cent pot and they will fold if they have nothing. So off I went, playing somewhere around 44/35/5 game, trying to stick and move, build my stack, wield it, then move up again.

Results thus far:



Haaaaaaaaaahhh!! Pretty fun actually. I love little challenges. Naturally playing this way I got gayed by some nit AKs vs his AQs, which is gonna happen on occasion. Regardless, I still have a few bucks left so on to round two!

0 votes

Comments (5)

If you go flying back through time and you see somebody else flying forward into the future, it's probably best to avoid eye contact--

And now on to some other deep thoughts,

So a week ago I decided that I would force myself to finally break through the penny stakes barrier by simply putting in a massive volume of hands, relying on +EV moves to make up for all the bad beats and let long term statistics prove me the victor. But gosh darnit I just kept getting so tilted at all the bullshit that I finally said fuck it, I refuse to play with people who do not care about money. I need my opponents to give a damn about losing 20 bucks, it's the only way I can play. So I decided on the lowest limit this would be found at, which I feel is NL25. Oh there are still people who flat out dont give a shit, but for the most part these guys dont consider a $25 stack to be play money. Or least the majority of the table doesnt, which means I'm not facing 5 morons who just go "lol awww in!" with random bluffs and shit b/c they enjoy the thrill.

So I continue to embark upon my one-table strategy of making intimate reads and very player dependent bets in every single round, even hands Im not in I continue to observe and think about what they have. One good thing about playing LAG at one-table is that the pace of my learning seems to be 10x greater than that of multi-tabling where I cant really focus and have to see the same thing happen 50x before it finally sticks in my head. Each day I continue to fine tune my game, and learn something new.

So far of all the major player archetypes, the only one left that is giving me real problems are the calling stations and maniac fish. I find there are 3 levels of fish out there.

1) Loose passive - this is the easiest type. Usually runs around 25/5 game. Limps mostly, occasionally calling preflop raises, but for whatever reason is very timid on the flop, possibly even when hitting pairs. Cbetting works fantastic against them.

2) Calling station - this fish is of medium difficulty. They call so many cbets and random flops its really hard to put them on a range. Sometimes it's with a random pair or PP and they just "dont believe you", and will shutdown on the turn. Sometimes it's a draw, sometimes it's pure float. I havent quite figured out yet if these players can be played that aggressively against or not. You can certainly do well against them playing tight, but I dont want to have to completely change my table play based upon one player.

3) Loose maniac - mind you, this is not the typical raising maniac who is on tilt or gambling. This is the guy who literally calls preflop raises of ANY size with ANY TWO CARDS no matter what. You would believe it is their first time playing and that they dont even understand hand ranking. They do not fold any pair, they often dont fold ace high, king high, even ten high. They are usually playing at least 80% vpip. Some of them mix up a lot of preflop minraising in their game giving them a maniacal looking 85/55 stat, but in reality the minraises dont suggest they are a true maniac who is going banana's with JTo etc. These guys are still minraising the same trash they call with preflop, T5o, 23o, anything. This has been my nemesis for the past few months. These are the guys I blog about when I try to raise hands that are higher on the ole starting hand chart, albeit not that much higher.

I have severe tilt issues that only recently I have finally began learning how to control, the biggest of which is adapting to table conditions. Since playing lag pretty much puts you at the top giving you the freedom to do what you want, taking it down a notch and tightening up has always been hard for me, especially when i know how someone else is playing. So for the first time lately, I finally chilled out, met the #3 fish, and did the only thing I havent done yet in my trials, and that is just play straight up tag. Fold fold fold everything, make standard value raises with my good hands, if AK misses then it misses, and pot 3 streets when I hit. While I do potentially miss out on opportunities, and someone else may stack him before me, i have found it to be the only thing possible to do against a 80vpip person. This is a breakthrough for me. No outplaying, no FPS, no iso-raising and 4betting, just play ABC. This is the only player I play ABC against, and it may be necessary to employ vs level 2 fish as well, we will have to see what I can get away with there.

Regardless, I have been violently swinging my NL25 bankroll up and down, but mostly just fine tuning imo. I feel very proud of my play, and my only losses this week have come purely from the level 3 fish. Now that I think I finally have some control of the situation, which means either leaving the table completely or adapting, I hope to see my swings level out, and hope to push it up to NL50 at some point in june. NL2? Done with it. NL5? Done with that too. NL10 you can actually make some pocket change with if you are content cashing out 50 bucks every few days. But I want more. I need to reach a point where I can cover my g/f's portion of the rent, protect myself from getting laid off from work, and reach the point where I can tell my faggot boss to fuck off and live off poker for good.

0 votes

Comments (1)

I have set for myself a new goal: To make $1000 per day.

However since I am currently incapable of this, I shall go for an alternative goal of 1000 hands per day. Poker, much like life, is better played with goals in mind. Goals have a particular ability to make people perform better. This is actually my first ever poker goal.

I have long grimaced at the act of playing micro stakes, as the variance and looseness of it all strays so far from classic poker. I have long since been unwilling to conform to their standards, holding strong to the belief that the best hand should always win, and if they're going to limp Q3o well then I'm going to raise A3o goddamnit. Whatever misgivings I have, there is one conclusion I am fast drawing upon, and that is micro stakes is all about volume of play. The game CAN be a bit variance heavy depending upon how you play, but either way what it really takes to drudge through it is sheer numbers in hands played.

If you play a super nit FR game, while you may hardly lose a hand, it will take thousands of hands to actually show a solid profit. And if you are daring enough to play a LAG game, the variance will kill you without again, tons of hands to survive through it. My entire poker career has spanned just barely over 100k hands. The last few months have consisted of maybe 2-4k hands each month. My goal is to play 1000 hands every single day for a month straight, to get 30k hands per month, a solid monthly sample which should show a gradual increase in bankroll. I am hoping to quickly move up to 2000 hands once my bankroll is large enough to allow for more tables at a time. I am simply going to count on the math of the game to say that playing in a +EV way WILL yield profit. Maybe not at the end of the day, maybe not the end of the week, but surely by the end of the month. Hopefully this becomes habit forming, but I feel being able to play as many hands in my entire poker lifetime in a matter of months should break me in to being able to be a full time poker player.

0 votes

Comments (10)

In the words of the great Borat, Wowwweee wowow!! So as I desperately try to self-analyze my HH's and sessions, my mood at the time (I tilt so easily), and what I remember from the CR videos I downloaded, after my 150k lifetime losing streak, there has been only 1 constant whenever I have done well. And that has been playing just ONE TABLE AT A TIME boys. Im not gonna lie, when the concept of multi-tabling was first revealed to me I simply assumed I could do it. Rather than starting off slow like everyone says, I just immediately loaded up about 18 tables. I didnt find it particularly hard to focus per se, I simply played a 10/7/3.5 game or so. I had a brief run of success at this but for whatever reason deemed it a waste of time and focused on a more LAG game and fewer tables. I have progressively continued to drop tables as I continue to get hammered, all the way down to 4, where I again just assumed this was plenty low enough to focus. But you know, I still find myself completely forgetting about 1-2 tables as I just auto-fold everything that isnt obviously raise worthy. Then I'll catch myself doing this, suddenly start trying to play looser at the table, but without any reads since I havent been paying attention I fail. I'll try to make some range estimation based on villain stats and go for a c/r allin or flop 3bet, and then get all pissed off when they call with some weird draw/PP and hit and feel like I got sucked out on, when I probably wouldnt have played the hand like that anyway if I had been focused.

So I took my shattered bankroll and decided to do the most boring thing on earth, grind 1 table of NL2. And for the last 3 days have actually been up. I've also played a silly 35/25/3 game, but my EV is in line and I have had the best hands. With one table running I find myself constantly analyzing every single action and trying to figure out what I can and cant get away with. I think I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how to read player stats, so I've been keeping them to a minimum to all but the most very telling ones. How often they limp or raise, do they ever 3bet, and how often they steal. This basically defines when they have a good hand vs when they have mediocre crap you can probably take away from them with on the flop.

You know my hero Daniel swears by one table poker. Whatever my fishy obsession with his style is (even though I dont think ive ever seen him win money), he too confesses that he just cant hack it at more than one table. So if I can run 30BB/100 playing 1 table, maybe I can offset the hourly earnings that some of you get when you mass-table at 6BB/100.

There is one last tidbit to consider regarding this "style". And that is enjoyment factor. I am ultra competitive, and I play to win, not for money. So even a game like NL2 can send me into a fury since I dont like losing, even though it's only $2 here or there. Whenver I multi-table I find myself tilting very easily. There is not 1 second of the game I even enjoy. I feel like it's some sort of damn chore that I'm being forced to do if I ever want to be able to make a living at this. But, whenever I one table, I thoroughly enjoy it the whole time, even when I lose. Usually I'm only losing when I'm trying some fancy, so when it doesnt work, I blame myself. When I mass-table I genuinely try to play straight forward, so when I lose, I feel I got cheated and get pissed.

I know everyone starts off at one table, so maybe Im just simply not ready for more yet. I might, MIGHT try loading up 2 tables just to see if I feel as involved or if I start staring at one table like a deer in headlights.

0 votes

Comments (2)

Threw some tokens at the FTP slot machine today. Man this game just puts my stomach in knots so bad. I literally get chills every time I go to sit down, even at NL2. It's not the money, it's just the shame of losing it. I'm an extremely competitive person. I dunno if these are coolers are what. I mean how can I put these donks at NL2 on the nuts every single time? Theres no way I cant expect these fish to have soooo much worse in every one of these scenario's. If this happened at NL200 or above, I'd be out a 24" flatscreen, a keyboard, and down at Lowe's buying some spackle for the new holes in the wall. I have issues.



Submitted by : NewbSaibot

Full Tilt Poker Game #12202954884: Table Access (6 max) - $0.02/$0.05 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:41:38 ET - 2009/05/13
Seat 1: Hero ($5)
Seat 2: eightnine89 ($5)
Seat 3: xmvc ($5.16)
Seat 4: Mukimaki ($7.50)
Seat 5: pytys ($0.25)
Seat 6: Mucka_Mucker ($6.89)
Mucka_Mucker posts the small blind of $0.02
Hero posts the big blind of $0.05
The button is in seat #5

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
eightnine89 raises to $0.15
xmvc folds
Mukimaki folds
pytys has been disconnected
pytys has reconnected
pytys has 15 seconds left to act
pytys calls $0.15
Mucka_Mucker calls $0.13
Hero calls $0.10

Flop (Pot : $0.60)

   
Mucka_Mucker checks
Hero checks
eightnine89 bets $0.45
pytys calls $0.10, and is all in
Mucka_Mucker folds
Hero calls $0.45

Turn (Pot : $1.60)

   
Hero checks
eightnine89 has 15 seconds left to act
eightnine89 checks

River (Pot : $1.60)

   
Hero bets $0.50
eightnine89 has 15 seconds left to act
eightnine89 raises to $1.65
Hero raises to $4.40, and is all in
eightnine89 has 15 seconds left to act
eightnine89 calls $2.75, and is all in

Showdown
Hero shows three of a kind, Fives
eightnine89 shows a flush, Jack high
eightnine89 wins the side pot ($8.87) with a flush, Jack high
pytys mucks
eightnine89 wins the main pot ($0.84) with a flush, Jack high
Hero is sitting out
pytys is sitting out

Summary
Total pot $10.40 Main pot $0.90. Side pot $9.50. | Rake $0.69
Board:
Seat 1: Hero (big blind) showed and lost with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 2: eightnine89 showed and won ($9.71) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 3: xmvc didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Mukimaki didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: pytys (button) mucked - Ace King high
Seat 6: Mucka_Mucker (small blind) folded on the Flop
Full Tilt Poker Game #12203197402: Table Requa (6 max, deep) - $0.01/$0.02 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:55:54 ET - 2009/05/13
Seat 1: Jazzride ($4.44)
Seat 2: Rhythms ($2), is sitting out
Seat 3: Hero ($2.06)
Seat 4: ReverseTwilight ($4.07)
Seat 5: CjEnKsFL0PaA ($2.01)
Seat 6: ACRVC ($7.83)
ACRVC posts the small blind of $0.01
Jazzride posts the big blind of $0.02
The button is in seat #5

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
Hero raises to $0.10
ReverseTwilight folds
CjEnKsFL0PaA folds
ACRVC raises to $0.32
Jazzride folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to $0.75
ACRVC has 15 seconds left to act
ACRVC raises to $7.83, and is all in
Hero calls $1.31, and is all in
ACRVC shows
Hero shows
Uncalled bet of $5.77 returned to ACRVC

Flop (Pot : $9.14)

   

Turn (Pot : $10.14)

   

River (Pot : $10.14)

   
ACRVC shows two pair, Aces and Sixes
Hero shows two pair, Jacks and Sixes
ACRVC wins the pot ($3.87) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Hero adds $2

Summary
Total pot $4.14 | Rake $0.27
Board:
Seat 1: Jazzride (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Rhythms is sitting out
Seat 3: Hero showed and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sixes
Seat 4: ReverseTwilight didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: CjEnKsFL0PaA (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: ACRVC (small blind) showed and won ($3.87) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Full Tilt Poker Game #12203196227: Table News (6 max) - $0.01/$0.02 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:55:49 ET - 2009/05/13
Seat 1: connmanJ ($2.11)
Seat 2: Hero ($2)
Seat 3: minirake ($2.04), is sitting out
Seat 4: go1975 ($3.82)
Seat 5: kefiros ($0.76)
Seat 6: ksantillie ($2.02)
connmanJ posts the small blind of $0.01
Hero posts the big blind of $0.02
The button is in seat #6

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
go1975 folds
kefiros folds
ksantillie calls $0.02
connmanJ folds
Hero checks

Flop (Pot : $9.19)

   
Hero checks
ksantillie bets $0.02
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to $0.11
ksantillie calls $0.09

Turn (Pot : $10.41)

   
minirake has returned
Hero bets $0.27
ksantillie calls $0.27

River (Pot : $10.95)

   
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets $1.60, and is all in
ksantillie calls $1.60

Showdown
Hero shows two pair, Aces and Fives
ksantillie shows a flush, Ace high
ksantillie wins the pot ($3.75) with a flush, Ace high
Hero adds $2

Summary
Total pot $4.01 | Rake $0.26
Board:
Seat 1: connmanJ (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Hero (big blind) showed and lost with two pair, Aces and Fives
Seat 3: minirake is sitting out
Seat 4: go1975 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: kefiros didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: ksantillie (button) showed and won ($3.75) with a flush, Ace high
Full Tilt Poker Game #12203140312: Table Epson (6 max) - $0.01/$0.02 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:52:22 ET - 2009/05/13
Seat 1: Erycka23 ($2.16)
Seat 2: Hero ($2.53)
Seat 3: Scabo ($0.80)
Seat 5: jphaynes4 ($2.30)
Seat 6: lilradar21 ($0.43)
Erycka23 posts the small blind of $0.01
Hero posts the big blind of $0.02
Scabo posts $0.02
The button is in seat #6

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
Scabo checks
jphaynes4 folds
lilradar21 calls $0.02
Haleb sits down
Haleb adds $0.80
Erycka23 has 15 seconds left to act
Erycka23 folds
Hero checks

Flop (Pot : $10.84)

   
Hero checks
Scabo checks
lilradar21 checks

Turn (Pot : $12.06)

   
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero bets $0.07
Scabo folds
lilradar21 calls $0.07

River (Pot : $12.74)

   
Hero bets $0.21
lilradar21 raises to $0.34, and is all in
Hero calls $0.13

Showdown
lilradar21 shows three of a kind, Sevens
Hero mucks
lilradar21 wins the pot ($0.84) with three of a kind, Sevens

Summary
Total pot $0.89 | Rake $0.05
Board:
Seat 1: Erycka23 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Hero (big blind) mucked - two pair, Eights and Sevens
Seat 3: Scabo folded on the Turn
Seat 5: jphaynes4 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: lilradar21 (button) showed and won ($0.84) with three of a kind, Sevens

0 votes

So before I tilted off the last of my roll furiously attacking micro stakes players with the false assumption that if my hand is 2% better than theirs then I stand a good chance of winning at showdown, I decided to do something even more stupid, play HU baby. Now HU has always fascinated me, even though I have like a total of 500 hands in my lifetime at it. What few adventures I have stepped in have left me feeling like this could be my bread and butter one day, mainly because I get so hyper involved in every hand (which is what tilts me) that a game like HU feeds off my desire to really probe each and every single hand played. I had been warned the game is a variance fest, and now I see why. I decided to take my 3 BI's to the NL50 HU tables, and I courageously grinded my way up to 1.2 BI's vs some guy, feeling like I was doing everything right. Unfortunately I got coolered to hell twice in a row and BAM, bye bye chiplead. Wow, all your opponent need do is double up once, and suddenly he is a tremendous threat to your stack. So I left with like 9 bucks to my name, however not depressed. Whenever I blow my roll like this I suddenly get this new found level of respect for the game, and a sudden desire to regrind from the bottom up.

So back I am at NL2. I'm only playing 4 tables sine well, thats all I can afford heh. I definitely looked over the responses to my last blog, looked at what I was doing, and literally just straight out reversed it. Everyone basically said "do the exact opposite of everything youre doing now". Interestingly I'm not finding myself getting bored, nor am I pissed when I see ATo was the best hand in a 4 way pot against a bunch of idiots who got it allin on a gutshot and bottom pair. I simply abide by the motto of JLIG, "just let it go". I've had 5 winning sessions since, most of which are less than 1 BI days, however this also does not bother me. I used to be obsessed with the idea that I needed to piledrive my way through the limits the way you 10k hand-a-day grinders do it. Now I am simply satisified if I had a winning session. I even quit after a few hundred hands only being up about 15-20BB's, and oddly I felt proud about this. My goal at this point is to simply have winning session's.

So I've doubled my mighty bankroll to $18, which I guess if you think about it is pretty oustanding, because it's DOUBLE my bankroll. And im not shortstacking or anything like that. If I could double my bankroll at NL200 in a week that would be pretty brag worthy, so why not at NL2? Oh well. With a certain rakeback affiliate I use they now autocash your RB to your account every week regardless of the amount. At NL2 this is a godsend as it really helps replenish those micro losses. I should probably keep this to myself, but I also intend to embark back on that Negreanu 5 BI strategy where I move up every 5-6 BI's at the low limits. This could result in another "humbling blog update" in a few weeks but heh, so be it. I think as long as I can keep chill, and realize better hands in better spots will come better days, I can stay afloat.

That, is all....

0 votes

Comments (1)

The following recent history of losses is a prime example of the legitimacy of moving up limits where players respect your raises. This is how I have lost most of my roll at NL2 recently. These are the hands that beat me.



This is why I cant beat NL2. Keep in mind I rarely limp, so these are all raised pots, meaning this is what is calling me preflop. Im sorry but this is just too damn loose. Who can compete against this? If this isnt a legitimate reason to move up limits where people respect your raises then I dont know what is. Cmon, not even Durrr shows up with this trash. #1 answer given when I ask someone about their hand "this is 1/2cent man". This isnt poker. I dunno what the hell you call this, but it sure as hell aint poker. Funny, I'm down like 2 grand in my lifetime playing NL2-NL50, and I'm up $1200 at NL200.

Oh, and LOL at newbs trying to slowplay AA/AK.

0 votes

Comments (12)

Ok so one of the most important aspects of poker is understanding where you are at in the hand. How players react to your bets is probably the #1 way of finding this out, when somebody isnt trying to be creative. I once stipulated that the only way to actually get any info out of a penny stakes villain is if you simply make the bets too big for him to call without having a legitimate hand, i.e. overbetting. Typical poker theory suggest betting the minimum possible to get this information, usually 75% of the pot for most people is enough to get them to give up if they dont really have good odds to hit anything. It also saves us money when we are wrong about our assessment of the situation. Betting less to get the same info is tactically smart. But I have long since believed this is simply not possible using normal poker theory at NL2. Villains calling cbet range is any PP, any pair, any draw, and AJ+. On the turn you can rule out AJ+ and thats it. This range is far too wide for us to ever be able to put villain on anything, since thats like half the deck (somebody do the math for me). This is why it's always said to be imperative that you have showdown value, because too often you cant really put villain on something without the insurance that your hand can win at the same time, in which case it doesnt really matter b/c youre already playing the best hand. As soon as villain calls your strong holding THEN you can start to put him on a range. I.E you have AA and he calls 2 streets on a King high board, villain almost always has the king.

So what kind of leverage must we use to curb villains into playing like you expect at higher limits? Well, if you play hard, and i mean HARD against them, it seems they WILL fold out all but top pair, and OESFD's, and the nuts. They also seem to interpret your strength as a hand you are willing to stack off with, so they frequently shove with TPNK and the nuts, giving you an easy fold, albeit you paid a lot to find out in the process. But so long as you stick to a relatively strong starting range of hands you arent going to be frequently behind on the flop spewing away with "information gathering bets". So now the question becomes how much money are we winning in the long run risking so much to achieve a certain result pending villain will fold. Is our FE through overbetting really worth not playing the top 5% starting hands. Can we ever play a LAG game at NL2 if we simply make it near to impossible for villains to play their rag hands? Well, I think the answer is yes.

I am going to attempt to really fight villains by hitting the POT button every single time I intend to bet. TPTK, OESD, FD, multi-way pots, IP/OOP, etc etc. In fact, I will probably only value bet less when I have the absolute nuts and I dont think villains will notice that my bet size has suddenly decreased (as I have been folding too many people on the turn/river when I hit and they donk out for .20 and I raise to $1.50)

I expect variance will be higher than normal, but nothing that I cant outlast with enough BR to cover the swings when someone is crazy and stacks off with bottom pair. It WILL happen, but not as much as I originally thought.

0 votes

Comments (3)

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU goddamnit I hate fucking minraises so goddamn fucking much. Someone please tell me I should just fold every single time. It's like I always have some massive overpair on a drawy board and some cocksucker check minraises me when the draw hits, or just minraises me flat out at some point in the hand. I CANNOT FOLD TO THIS. I am priced in to calling every single fucking time. But goddamnit all it does is price me into calling river shoves and shit b/c the pot is always structured in such a manner where I have to fucking call. But these fags ALWAYS FUCKING HAVE IT.

Right? Do I have to fold to minraises? Jesus christ wtf can I do to combat this, it's like the only fucking big bet fish know how to make. Just fuckin spaz out and throw their mouse to the corner of the table and hit RAISE. Dont even think about adjusting that slider or typing in a number, just hit RAISE. HOLY SHIT OMFG I HAVE SUCH A GOOD HAND I CANT EVEN BEGIN TO KNOW WHAT TO DO........CLICK RAISE, whatever it says CLICK RAISE!!!!!

0 votes

Comments (4)

So I decided to embark on a little experiment in curiosity, exploring villains' true range. I frequently get tilted at the situations I encounter, and feel I often have no idea wtf villain has. The only times I get to see are when we are stacking off or other typical showdown scenario's. But this has not been enough for me. I really really wanted to know what cards people are playing. So I gave myself a superuser account and simply elected to check/call all rivers if I had the nuts. If I was an obvious dog well then I folded when appropriate.

What I did was play a 0% AG postflop game. The idea here was using the best hand as insurance to see frequent showdowns. Forget about EV or making money, I need information. No this was not spewy tilt calls like "zomg you hit the flush, CALL". If I had quad aces I was checking flop/turn/river just so I could see what other people were limping, raising, minraising, and betting with.

Basically any hand I would normally bet, I checked. No matter what. Preflop was a different matter. Preflop I made my standard 5xBB open, because I still need to see what people are calling with preflop to better understand their postflop range. I cant learn anything by getting coolered from the blinds if I limp AA preflop.

Holy stromboli this game is weird, at least at MSNL. I would say there were 2 types of plays that I most frequently encountered

1) Massive slowplaying. I.E. players raising preflop and then checking back AA.
2) Massive bluffing. Players bluffing rivers with air was quite common.

I know most players at MSNL are limping damn near any two preflop, but it's how they play later streets that has me most concerned. It seems like everyone is always trying to do something fancy. I figured most players were always drawing out for a gutshot straight or calling off any pair. Maybe thats how it is perceived when you are the aggressor, otherwise what else can they be doing? But if you just check back every hand suddenly these guys have some sort of playbook.

Anyway, the only thing I really learned was that you absolutely positively must have showdown value at MSNL. While you might not be able to bluff fish out of pots, they sure as hell will try to bluff you.

0 votes

Comments (9)