Is 8k hands a large enough sample? Trying to figure out why I keep losing. I feel like I'm playing solid enough. Generally speaking these stats tend to fall in line with winning players dont they? Just seems like if I'm not getting slowplayed, I'm value betting the worst hand vs droolers in spots where I simply have to bet.
Hi guys, this is my first blog entry (2nd actually but 1st was about $ transfer) and i wanted to share my pkr experience with you guys :D.
I´ve been playing poker for more than a year now, gone up from nl5 to nl 25 and nl50 where i stand now, this month is going great so far apart from the recent downswing where i lost 5 Bis .
I usually play 18 tables stacked, this doesn´t give me much time (or none) to think about my hands while playing them, after my the sessions i usually review my missplays and see that im playing really bad in some spots i didnt even imagined, in spots where the stacks are going in i think i play most of them good after reviewing but the small pots which are pretty important i play pretty F***in bad lol and its not enough to review them, i need to learn what to do and how to react accordingly.
As of right now im playing poker just for fun, i don´t really need the money because my fathers pay me my college and give me $ monthly, i spend poker money on things for myself like car-audio SC2 partys etc.. things i can live without (or not ), and my plan now is to buy a 24" monitor so i can reduce my tables to 12 playing tile or maybe less and start learning more from the game with less focus on the $.
My goal in poker is to move up until i think i can live only playin it, i mean... the average wage in my country is 550$ and the unnemployment is 11% and moving up so i dont think i can really just get a job and live from that that easily... (don´t get me wrong i want to finish my degree 4sure)
Maybe i will buy some CRunners/Dcracked membership dunno which one is better.
I would appreciate if u leaved some ideas thoughts about how to learn faster and really if its a good idea, i think this is a problem of many regs not only mine :S.
I would like to sell 75% of my action for the 6-max FTOPS event and the FTOPS main event. I need to sell exactly 75% and will not play if I do not sell it. My OPR has been posted many times in this blog. My account is TheRelapse @ FTP. No mark-up since these are substantially higher than my ABI, but the amount of fish in them will make me +EV. I have a deep run in the 750k (22nd) and the double deuce (12th), so I can get through some pretty big fields. My biggest win is the 50/50 for 11k.
Total buy in = $896 = $900 (I'm rounding it to $900 so i guess there is like .4% mark-up)
1% = $9
5% = $45
25% = $225
Must sell 75% or all funds will be returned and I will not play. Send Money to TheRelapse on Full Tilt Poker. Once funds are received I will confirm in this post. Thanks.
So I tried moving up to nl 10 and actually ran really hot, which was lovely and also boosted me significantly into nl 10 territory. However something went horribly wrong as I proceeded to lose 6BI pretty quick and then break even after that. Small sample, but 6BI down is pretty bad, I'm sure I can improve what I'm doing 10000x to minimise these losses. Still it could be worse.
It seems a little strange to me, there seem to be waaaay more aggressive fish at nl 10. I've been trying to tailor my play to the individual players and am also trying to practice and improve my valuebetting, however sometimes I think that I'm overthinking things and making it harder for myself.
I know that I'm terrible at dealing with 60/40 type aggronuts who 3bet about 20% preflop and raise a plenty postflop, but only if they are the ones betting. It feels like if I just try to wait for a good hand against them I end up spewing mountains of chips folding and when I do get a good hand, they shut down because I cbet or bet the turn and not them. Not sure what to do generally here.
Also I'm not sure how to deal with 10-15% 3bets from some guy in the small blind when I open otb and I'm more likely to just leave the table than to do anything about it in the game itself.
Lastly, I feel really uncomfortable 3betting for value with any of the unpaired hands. Even if I know they will call with worse preflop, if I miss the flop I have no idea whether I am ahead or not and don't really want to cbet bluff into a 3bet pot with A high knowing that they will call with all sorts of random pairs, but don't like the idea of check folding every time I miss either. You just don't hit top (or middle depending on villain) pair that often to make nice value money it seems.
My most hated thing of all is when I raise to isolate a limper preflop, get a call, limper checks so I cbet the flop and get called. We both check the turn and then he bets ~3/4 pot otr. I feel totally helpless to this and it happens a lot.
I think I need to sort out my thought process tbh, trying to remove these kinds of inconsistencies atm. I feel as if it should be simple to see what to do against each villain of a certain type in the micros but I feel confused instead unable to come to the right idea on how to play against them.
Right now I'm playing a mixture of 5nl and 10nl, but hope to feel 100% confident to move to playing 10nl all of the time soon!
Hello LP, I made a second account as I want to remain anonymous on this, but I frequent LP a decent amount.
I'm a fairly nerdy guy, and I don't have many friends, but the ones I do I spend a good portion of time with. Over the years, many of them have moved away to various colleges
My friend, after getting in a bad car accident over the weekend, died today of his injuries. I have been doing my best since the crash to tell myself he is going to be good as new, but now I have literally become emotionally frozen. I have no idea what to do...
I am extremely depressed atm. He was the guy I have been hanging out with, drinking with, playing poker with, etc for about the past year, and I don't really have any other friends left. I'm thinking about going to see a therapist or someone to talk to about it, but I don't think my health insurance will cover it and I don't have much money at the moment.
It is making me angry as I write to be even talking about this, because why should I be worried about how I feel right now? My friend is dead, and his parents are feeling likely just unspeakable pain. This makes me feel even worse, and very selfish. It is making me analyze everything that is negative about myself, and I feel more depressed than I have ever felt in my life.
Anyone have any advice on what I should do? Would really appreciate it right now. Thanks
I've been a long time lurker and just started posting here recently. I figured I should introduce myself a bit. I've been playing poker (both online and offline) for a while; I played SNGs during the glory days of PartyPoker (where minraising every hand was a viable strategy at the low limits) and got into cash for a bit last summer -- worked my way up to beating NL 5 before I quit to finish school.
Anyhow, I am now an itinerant graduate student, so I decided to get more serious about poker. I'm currently trying to move up from NL 10 (which will hopefully happen soon if the current +15 BI, 6k hand upswing I'm on is not just a heater). Hope to talk some poker with you guys and get to know some of you better!
PS: What sort of bankroll / comfort level would you guys suggest moving up to NL 25 with? I feel pretty confident playing against almost all opponents at NL 10 right now; would taking shots at NL 25 w/ 20 BI be reasonable?
Money & the Perception of Being Happy: Part 1by DarkDevildog, November 18
Ok well this blog is mostly for me as it is a way to convert my thoughts into something readable and later hopefully into actions. Honestly TLDR but worth it in my opinion.
I have soo many points to make in this blog and sort of don't know where to start so i'm just going to start typing and let it flow from there.
A friend and I started talking and somewhere in our conversation I stated that i don't like our government. At all. I mean a government is important if certain countries literally invade our country, or if a individual decides to go on a killing spree but a governments job, in my opinion, is to maintain order and peace in a designated area(in your border). This might come as a somewhat shock to some of you seeing as I am currently active duty in the Marine Corps(the most testosterone driven group of animals in the world) but really what is a government's job. In my opinion a government should not limit a person on what he or she should do unless it involves destruction or harm to another person. But this isn't really the point of this blog. The reason I'm writing this blog is because i think there is something really wrong with this nation we live in. The United States. I can't say anything else about any other country because I've only visited other countries for brief periods of time and don't really have a huge sample size to base any thoughts off of. This country is based purely on propaganda and what companies want to tell you. The companies like to convince and sell sheep (people - but I'll call them sheep in this blog) products that we've fallen into a sort of enslavement for. This country's foundation for being happy is money, material goods, and "freedom". What is freedom. There are multiple types of freedom in my opinion. There is freedom to do what you want (which is what this country is "built" around) and there is freedom from everything else. This country is lacking REAL freedom. The freedom to not be tied to the T.V. every single night or the freedom to not get the new iPhone 4.0 when it comes out or watching a new episode of a T.V. show. Our country is built around soo much technology and stupid idea's that we have literally become a slave to the working environment just to satisfy a small % of that need. This country is built around happiness? Most people have to work 8-10 hours a day at some shitty job just to buy a decent house, some essential things(food and other things). My friend, Izack, told me this and i think it makes a lot of sense, "we only know ourselves, to the point of which society has molded us, to believe that we are this way. money hungry, materialistic, class oriented, constantly worrying about physical appearance and all types of other pointless shit that we've been socialized to believe in the 'normal' way to think. it has a lot to do with us just following our parents". I think is is extremely true.
There is a lot more that could go into this blog but i think right now this is a good foundation for futures thoughts. And this is only a Part 1. I could care less if you agree or disagree with this as these are my thoughts.
I finally found something usefull:
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I have had the same problem many times. I was able to remove the virus but repairing the damage, e.g., IE or Firefox will not open. I tried a host of things, namely, resetting IE but what I found today was that I went to the Crogram FilesInternet ExplorerConnection WizardRun inetwiz.exeselect Connect Using LAN if you are on a Local Area Network, Check Auto Discovery of proxy server, uncheck manual proxy server if checked. Skip setting of email (optional). Hope this helps although you have connectivity, I had none.
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That seemed to work out for explorer but Firefox still not working. hmm
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Firefox now working, thanks norway
I am wondering if anyone knows of some good computer forums to submit computer errors and get quality free help. My friend somehow had malwarebytes mess up her comp and know she can't get online with firefox/explorer.
Firefox says "The proxy server is refusing connections" - firefox is configued to use a proxy server that is refusing connections.
She was never on any proxy servers or set that stuff up. So i have no idea what the deal is, if she got infected by a bot network and now her comp deleted the pathway but also messed up the explorer part too, idk.
What I do know is she can still connect online and can connect to windows live messenger and send messages. Basically her internet is fine just can't use Firefox or Explorer. It is weird.
Ok I concur. I am definitely not at my previous levels of skill yet..
Every single time ever I have been 4 tabling before the break no matter at what limit I was a 3-5BB/100 winner, and my only issue was that I return to multi-tabling and dump stacks when I burnout (Read my old blogs with 'Tutbotilt' in them).
Well, now thats really gone and whats more I can't even 6 table breakeven NL50.
My focus has been on advanced topics after my break, but I think in all that excitement I forgot to refresh the absolute basics.
The concepts below are basics that I need to refresh, at the end are important points. I will write this in several blog posts as I go through the basic concepts.
[ BLUE] - Flaws in my current game/logic
[ Green] -My comments
Index
-I will post various basic topics as I see fit/when I have time and energy and in the end combine everything into one blog post with index etc.
Let me know if there are any specific topics that you have trouble with (As I am likely to have trouble too) and I will try to research them/summarise and post them with my comments.
1) What is NL Hold'Em and how do you make money? + Show Spoiler +
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain
-David Sklansky
Long-term success in poker doesn’t primarily depend on your cards or your opponents. Nor does it depend on whether you‘re playing low or high limits, or even the final table of the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas. Regardless of stakes, cards, or opponents the key to success is always the same: making as few mistakes as possible and making as much money from your opponents‘ mistakes as possible.
Typical mistakes of SSNL Players are:
-They play too many hands and, as a result, many hands that are too weak.
-They play too passively.
-They have difficulty folding, and end up paying too much for speculative hands, for instance.
-They bluff too much and at the wrong times. Often they unnecessarily inflate pots with pure bluffs.
-They don't factor in their position at the table.
-They don't practise good bankroll management and anxiety about their money dictates how they play.
How to exploit the mistakes:
-You only select hands that are worth playing.
-You play aggressively.
-You don't have a problem with folding, if the situation becomes unprofitable. You don't get “attached” to your cards.
-You don‘t bluff much but when you do, you do it at the right time. You don't bluff when you're playing for a big pot.
-You adapt your game according to your position at the table.
-You manage your poker bankroll well and can make moves because you know they are profitable, without worrying about the fact that you might sometimes also lose the hand.
The Aggressive Player
You have already learned that your profit is a result of your opponents' mistakes. And when do people make mistakes? When they have to make an important decision under pressure.
You will earn considerably more money with Texas Hold’em when you constantly force your opponents to make decisions, put them under pressure, and so force them to make mistakes. You can achieve this by playing aggressive poker.
At the same time you will save a lot of money if you avoid situations in which someone forces you to make a decision. If someone pushes you into a defensive position, you ought to feel very uncomfortable.
I didn't realise this as a factor, I always push small edges and play one street whenever its +EV. However the thinking of Giggy and Galfond, the two sickos from which you'd expect to seek tough spots seems to be the opposite.
Things like 3betting Q9o in HU deep against aggressive villain will put you under a lot of pressure in many hands and you will make mistakes=> you will lose money based on Sklansky's definition.
I need to not only think about profitability of one street, but also consider the likelihood of forcing myself into a spot where I am very likely to make a mistake/lose money and consider that when calculating EV for my action on one street. This goes especially into PF raising hands or bluffing without 6+ clean outs.
Cold-calling, which means going along with an opponent‘s raise pre-flop, is practically a deadly sin. With very few exceptions, it will lead you into situations, which are hard to control. For most cases you are limited to hoping to hit a strong hand, which doesn’t actually happen as often as some people think.
- I need to have a plan when calling PF, especially OOP. I call against unknowns just with the plan of C/F when I miss, which is OK with pocket pairs but sucks with everything else
Purpose of a continuation bet is:
-You want to force everyone to fold and win the pot directly.
-You want to protect a made hand against draws and make the next community card too expensive for opponents on a draw to see.
-You have a made hand and want to get money out of weaker hands. You maximize the value of your hand.
When to make a cbet:
1) You have TP+. why: protect your hand and get money into the pot.
2) You have strong draw HU. Why: Semi-bluff with outs - cbet has to work much smaller %. Remember, a semi-bluff is ultimately just a bluff and is only profitable as a tool when you can get players to fold. A draw alone isn't enough to justify a bet/bluff. Unless you have a true monster draw, your chances of winning just aren't high enough.
3) You have air/weak draw/weak made hand.
Your continuation bet is a bluff if you have a weak draw, a weak made hand, or nothing at all. Bluffing against several opponents and bluffing against opponents who won't fold is a waste of money. Never bluff against more than two opponents with a weak hand.
You will encounter the next situation quite often: You raised before the flop, one or two opponents called, and you didn't really hit anything big. Should you make a bluff contibet? The answer depends on the community cards and your opponents' actions.
When you look at the board, ask yourself two questions: Can you represent a hand? Could your opponents have hit the board?
If you answer the first question with a yes and the second with a no, you're looking at a suitable flop for a bluff continuation bet. Flops with high cards, are good for contibets, too. You can represent a high pair with your bet.
Types of players to consider when cbetting:
Loose-passive
It's hard for a loose player to lay down his hand, which means you can't bluff against them effectively. A loose-passive player will rarely show aggression, but will call a lot of bets. Your strategy against him does not revolve around forcing him out of pots, but rather patiently waiting for a good hand and then putting your money in. You know he will call with a wide range of hands.
LAG
A loose-aggressive player has trouble laying his hand down, too, but he also plays aggressively. This type of opponent is also more likely to bluff. They see a paired board as an invitation to attack the pot. You should refrain from bluffing this type of opponent. Your strategy is to let him pay you off when you have a strong hand. Give him the small pots when you don't have a hand, and take down the big ones when you do.
Tight-Passive
You want to make your bluff contibets against tight-passive players. They are quick to fold and only show aggression when they have a strong hand. You will often make continuation bets against them. If it doesn't work, you'll know you're beat.
I KEEP CONTINUING BLUFFING/PAYING OFF WAY TOO MUCH AGAINST PEOPLE THAT ARE INCAPABLE OF BLUFFING/VBETTING THIN ON TURN AND RIVER
TAG
You are a tight-aggressive player. You play strong hands and avoid marginal situations. This is why you can bluff against tight-aggressive players. This also means players can bluff against you. This isn't a disadvantage - good players have to be bluff able.Fuck, sometimes I think I am not a good player :/
You can attack a lot of pots when facing so-called TAGs, but not as many as against tight-passive players. If he is multitabling, you can make regular contibets against him. He is probably playing his standard game and folding every time he misses the flop.
Points to think about
Pay attention to how your opponent plays before and after the flop. Some players patiently wait for a good starting hand, but turn loose as soon as they've seen the flop - a good sign that he won't fold to a contibet. There are also lots of players who like to see the flop with any two cards, but immediately get out of the way when they don't hit. You should like this type of opponent, since he plays often and rarely has anything after the flop.
Good players tend to make contibets between 65-75% of the time, and more often in than out of positionI have just realised a weird trend in my game where I always cbet OOP but check down IP a lot People fold more OOP so it should be the opposite . On average, however, a good player won't make a contibet with 25-35% of the hands he raises with. The 65-75% of the time he does it's either a bluff or a playable hand.
You should almost always bet against a single opponent, unless he is loose and won't fold on the flop. You need a good flop before you can make a contibet against two opponents, and then only if you know they can fold.
How to react to a raise
You will obviously have to fold any weak or worthless hand, such as a small or middle pair, or a weak draw. You can continue to play a strong combodraw, such as a nut flush draw + OESD, or nut flush/straight + a pair, aggressively. With more than 12 clean outs you can even go all-in.
You can call with just a flush/OESD/double gutshot draw if you're getting the right (implied) pot odds.
If you complete your draw, you can expect to win another 1/2 of the pot size on the turn by the showdown. As a general rule: you can call as long as you don't have to pay more than 3/4 of the pot size (including actions before you).
You can expect to win even more from passive opponents, whose raise indicates a strong hand. Any poor players still in the hand are also likely to pay you off. In such a situation you could pay as much as the full pot size (including actions before you).
If a made hand, top pair or better, the cards in the flop should be of particular interest. Raise and protect your hand on a draw heavy board. You could just call on a drawless board to keep your opponent in the hand if you think it's likely that he has a weak hand or is bluffing.
You can usually fold weak hands like top pair with a low kicker to a raise. You should only consider staying in the hand if you know your opponent is very aggressive.
As poker is a game of incomplete information, you have to literally suck up every available bit of information like a sponge. With every piece of information you gain, your advantage over your opponents increases, and that is reflected in a higher profit at the end of the day.
It is important that you don't depend too much on HEM stats, because they only give you the average values of the hands played. This means that two players could have pre-flop values of 30 VPIP and 24 PFR, but still play in completely different ways: one of them could be a very good loose-aggressive player who pays attention to position, while the other one is simply a fish and raises hands whenever he feels like it, without giving it much thought.
Yup, I pay too much attention to small samples as TT pointed out -.-
Don't make the mistake of determining the post-flop competence of a player based on a good or bad pre-flop game, because many players might have a solid pre-flop strategy, but make many devastating mistakes post-flop.
6 folds, CO raises 4BB, Hero raises 12BB, 2 folds, CO is All-In.
What a great spot. You hold aces and have the opportunity to go all-in before the flop. It's a straightforward call. It should be obvious that you will make a profit (the EV is greater than 0).
What if we want to know the exact EV? First we need to determine the possible outcomes. You could win everything that lies in the pot, 100BB from your opponent, 12BB that you have already invested and 1.5BB from the blinds (a total of 113.5BB).
We will call this result x1 = 113.5 BB.
The other possibility, it the loss of 88BB, that you're yet to call, hence x2 = −88BB
Now we need to determine the probability of both outcomes. If you assume your opponent holds QQ, KK, AA or AKs your share of the pot is 80.4% which leaves your opponent with 19.5%.
Hence your EV is:
- EV is amount that you win*chance to win - amount that you lose*chance to lose.
This shit is too Brain Intensive lol. I will expand this section with the basic calcs/equations after I watch WoT's series and read all math articles on pokerstartegy
Remember/cliffs:
-DO NOT BLUFF IN BIG POTS
-ONLY RAISE HANDS WORTH RAISING.
-CONSIDER LIKELIHOOD OF MAKING A MISTAKE(=LOSING MONEY)IN FOLLOWING ACTIONS WHEN YOU ACT ON ONE STREET.
-HAVE A CLEAR PLAN WHEN PLAYING MARGINAL HANDS/WEAK DRAWS
-Consider how profitably cany you play a hand based on position, villains AND your current state of mind. If you are tilted and are likely to make mistakes tighten up! Also, always be able to clearly say what is your plan on the next street (including when raising PF!)
-DRAW ALONE DOESN'T JUSTIFY BETTING
-GOOD PLAYERS HAVE TO BE BLUFFABLE
-CBET MORE IP THAN OOP, CONSIDER VILLAIN AND BOARD, DO NOT CBET DRAWY BOARDS
-DO NOT PAY PEOPLE THAT ARE INCAPABLE OF BLUFFING OR VBETTING LIGHT
-DO NO CALL RAISES WITH WEAK HANDS
-DO NOT OVERESTIMATE PF STATS POSTFLOP AND SMALL SAMPLE SIZES
End note
I have applied these things and my red line instantly flatted out instead of going down and money won went just right up.
This thinking used to be the foundation of my game and is all coming back. I have even started talking out loud and explaining what exactly am I going to do on the next street before seeing it, just as I was doing automatically before but have forgotten since. I also suddenly remembered how I used to fight for the small pots and bluff like a madman and appear aggro, but when the big pots came I had the better hand most of the time.
All the study time and hand analysing is for nothing when you don't have the basics down and apply them in everyday grind.
I've recently come to a cross-road in my life where I feel like my education teaches me very little about what I would like to do in the future. I am doing semi-well in school, I have a part-time job and still try to find time for my hobby which is Poker.
I've been playing leisurely for quite a time now, home games, $1 stakes online but now I feel like it's time to step up and become serious and I started on my way by making a $300 deposit on Full Tilt about a month ago. I've grinded a lot to bring it up to around $538 but I feel like it's taking way too much time and that excluding the bonuses I receive, I'm only making like $5/hr.
I consider myself a decent poker player and I feel I am one of the three best players at all the tables on the $6 and $11 stakes. Maybe I need an ego-check, maybe I need to read some more but just wondering, is this how you all started out? Did it ever feel... Pointless?
Don't get me wrong, I love the game, I love playing it, and if I'm anything, I am competitive and I have the drive to get better at things I enjoy doing. Poker is one of these things and I believe I have the potential to become a winning player.
I'm not planning on dropping out of school I'm just wondering what little advice you have on starting players like me =) and hopefully I can make money to pay for school and etc. Hopefully we can become friends too in the long-run =)
just played a mega MEGA fish for 1.5 hrs and he ended up totally destroying me in the last hand(lost the biggest pot of my life right there) he hit every runner runner flush possible i ran the exact opposite my sets were good 0/2 times . http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3765/omfgwtf.jpg
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), and my plan now is to buy a 24" monitor so i can reduce my tables to 12 playing tile or maybe less and start learning more from the game with less focus on the $.
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