Well its finally cold enogh up here to play some good old pond hockey with the boys... sorta lol. Today I was playing witha bunch of my buddies and I fuckin fell right through the ice. I was panicing for like 5 seconds then I realized I could touch the bottom lol. My buddy pulled me out and it was all good. Except that I was freezing cold. Good thign my buddy lived just around the corner. Went and dried all my shit off and then got back to the pond and played a few dirty games. Cant wait to play a few more games before I Get back.
Notes of Fee's 6max Guideby Mariuslol, December 28
Preface
- Mix up ur starting range depending on the table, if a lot of loose/passive guys, make it tighter. If a lot of tight people, open up more hands.
- Bluffing less often (including semi bluffs), and value bet thinly with 1 pair hands, in loose games.
- In tighter games, exploit oponents tendency to fold more, semi bluff more as we find more fold quity.
* Loose players will search for an excuse to call, whereas a tight player will look for an excuse
to fold.
Table Selection
- Look for players that play to many hands, anything over 40% is great, 30% is fine too.
- Stacksizes: Full stacks to your right, short stacks and nits to your left.
- Losing/Break even Regulars: Feel free to join tables with them, develop strong reads. Don't play more than 4-5 tables. Avoid winning players.
- As a general guideline, better to play with a bunch of passive/weak/tight players than one super fish with 80% vip and 4 other regulars.
“Poker is simple, as your opponents make mistakes, you profit.”
- Against Loose/Bad players, generally you wnt to play straight forward solid poker
- Against Tight/Good players you want to mix up and play a more deceptive style. Do not make the mistake that every 20/17 multi tabling tag is tight AND good.
* Against these types of players you want to lean toward looser pre flop, and solid/tight postflop
* Let them make mistake, forcing them is not necessary.
Preflop
UtgUnder The gun (Utg)
- Your Utg range should be the tightest of the four non-blind positions.
- General starting range on a table of some fish and some regulars:
* 22+ (all pairs)
* ATs+ (meaning ATs, AJs, AQs, AKs) (s meaning suited)
* AJo+ (meaning AJo, AQo, AKo) (o meaning offsuit)
* 98s+ (meaning 98s, T9s, JTs, QJs, etc)
* KQo
* KQs
* KJs+ (KJs and Aqs [which was already covered]) (meaning suited 1 gappers)
- This will account for 13% of hands and is a conservative but very solid and profitable preflop
raising range.
Adjusting
Loose games
- Add hands like KJo or ATo, because you can make 1 pair type hands and extract value from
players calling with weaker top pair hands or second pair hands.
Tight games
- Include hands such as 65s+ or A5s. These hands widen your range against likely better players and make you a more difficult and tricky opponent.
Stack Sizes
- Against short stacks, avoid 22-55 89s type hands, replace with Kjo, Qjo, A9s etc. Because these players simply looking for top pair and pushing all in
Middle Position (MP)
- Very similar to UTG, but you can incorporate a few more hands
This accounts for about 15% of total hands. Just like UTG this range can be manipulated
based on the game quality.
Adjusting
Loose games:
- You generally want to avoid things like A9o, as its potential is very small. Just like UTG you
can still profitably raise 98s and T9s, just do it less frequently.
Tight Games:
- These games you can open up more from this position, include;
* 65s+
* A8s, A5s
* QTs
Isolating
- Have to be careful to isolate from this position. Even the fish are at their tighest range when limping utg
- Look at the table, if 2 aggro people behind you, err on the side of folding, to avoid marginal spot.
- If there are fishes in the blinds, and you don't get 3bet, played back at a lot behind you, go for it
3 betting:
- In general you should be 3betting far more in position that OOP.
- The only person you can 3bet in MP is UTG. You need to be very cautious when 3betting an
UTG opener, because this is where their raising range is likely the tightest.
The situational are very marginal, and player dependant, and you should be more inclined to do it in position.
Light 3 bets
* 56s-QJs
* Axs (x should = 5 most often, as you will be able to flop gutshot+FD+over type
hands,but 4-T are all fine as well)
* 22-77
* KQo
* Ajo
- It will generally be more profitable to call with small pocket pairs, but once in a while they make good light 3 bet candidates
- You generally want to 3bet an UTG opener with 56-T9s or Axs because with the SC's
you will generally avoid second best hands and have tremendous flop potential.
* The Axs
hands will block combinations of AA and AK (which will help avoid him 4betting you)
* Avoid all other hands as they will form second best hands
often and get you in marginal spots.
- We want to 3bet with a 80/20 ratio, 80% for value, and 20% for bluffs.
Stack Sizes
- Just like UTG adjust your raising ranges depending on stack sizes, avoid hands like 22-66 and 98s, and instead substitute in
hands like KJo, QJo, A9s, ATo
Felt like I was never gonna win one of these in past few days. This takes a massive weight of my shoulders and gives me a much needed boost of confidence. I said I did not want to be results orientated and I know downswings at these games can be long. But had to post first win of the week. It was a very long epic FT, and I really enjoyed it. My game shines when it reaches the money. Just have to survive all the suckouts prior to that.
Off to do shit round house, then grinding more this evening.
Okay time to introduce myself, I've been playing poker on and off since High School but started playing online back in October. The journey has been pretty much up and down so far, but I felt quite comfortable with 2nl so I decided to go to Atlantic City and try out my luck last Saturday. 1/2nl live was quite soft, made the easiest 100 bucks in my life time. After I got back to New York I went on a pretty hot streak and proceeded to overcome my 2nl hurdle and doubled my bankroll in 13 hour 24 tabling action. Now moving on to 5nl, excited!
Well then...I started with $100 a couple weeks back and turned it into $880, which I then tilted off at 10/20 and 15/30 FL. I can afford to do it since I have a good paying job..but I enjoy the satisfaction of kickin some ass. Anyway..i redeposited 600 on stars and now I'm up to 1076. My question is ..I've been a marginal winner at 50NL after only 6k hands and a loser at 25NL over 25k hands...with less than 25 bi for 50nl but close to it ..do I continue at 50nl or drop back to 25nl and work on my game? Thanks for input
Well, after being spanked around the first little bit I have rallied very substaintially the 2 weeks, its nice having lots of free time and no work/school for a month :D.
Sometimes you just have to put your head down and grind through the variance and what seems like an endless asskicking from the poker gods.
Anyways no need to make this too long, I will do a year end update in a couple of days.
Is learning NL the way to go?by PillPoppin, December 28
Hello lp, been lurking for a few months now, finally decided to make an account.
Anywho, Ive been doing pretty well at Limit Hold'em microstakes recently, been able to make a fairly consistent 5-10 big bets/hour on .25/.50 limit FR on stars per table (cant rly handle more than 4). But ive been feeling like branching out.
There seems to be this recurring idea of edges slowly going away in NLHE, and while I don't want to miss out on the most popular form of poker, I don't want to just be doomed to living off of rakeback or what have you.
The only other game ive had some decent success (at the lowest stakes mind you) is .05/.10 HORSE on full tilt.
My question is, would it be a better investment of my time to just stick to limit hold'em, to go ahead and learn how to play Omaha8, stud8, stud, and razz well (rather than just playing tight and capitalizing on ppl who are clueless about those games), or to give NL a try?
One factor I can think of is that there seems to be a lot better poker literature on limit games out there than there is about NL (seems like the vast majority of this forum disapproves of all NL books that are geared towards beginners).
Seriously, been playing it on repeat nonstop. Sick grind music.
Anyway, continuing the 180man sit and go grind today. Think im running sick bad at the moment. Getting my hands in good and getting suck out alot. Hilarious shit. You just wouldn't believe it. But fuck short term results. I think I am also not playing my best. Folding too much on turn after being called on flop. I need to improve.
Made a stupid shove in the daily 30k last night, shoving 55 with 19bbs over an UTG x 2.5 raiser who i had only 2 hands on, who had 3 times my stack. He called with 99. Results orientated. No? Bad time to make a shove like that on someone who I have no info on.
Anyway, Im grinding these 180man all week or untill i go bust.
After losing 6k today, I'm back to break-even for December.
Except I feel like shit.
Playing this game makes me unhappy, yet I continue to play.
Why? Money? Am I still under the illusion that I can get set for life by playing this game? Thanks to the growth of online poker and the rapidly spreading information available to almost anyone in the world, poker is slowly becoming a crapshoot. Everyone is quickly adjusting, evolving, and expending hours and hours just working on their game, thinking that this game is the answer for their financial problems, dreaming that one day they might make enough to support the rest of their lives. It might happen, but the chance of that happening is as slim as winning the lottery.
Poker has really changed over the last few years. Prior to the internet poker explosion, a major portion of the poker "community" were the rich, bored, thrillseekers with some gamble. A lot of people didn't actually play "winning poker," whether its because they lacked access to information, or that they were rich and didn't give a shit, or they didn't have the time or patience to learn, or just plain stupid. However now, thanks to the evolution of the internet and information explosion, people from all over suddenly come to poker not to play as a game, but as a job. They hear stories about great success and an easy life. "Sit there, click a few buttons, make money." What a dream job. Does it last though?
When there are this many players playing and competing, all with access to the same vast amounts of information, all with a fiery dedication and tons of time to kill, and most importantly all with the dream of winning it all, poker approaches its nash equilibrium where the game is practically solved and the only one who can actually profit is the casino itself. It has not reached this point yet, but seeing how the game has changed over time surely marks its destiny. It's quickly becoming less of an intuition and psychology game, and more of a mathematical battle. Eventually I see poker turning into the AKQ game, with a solution set for optimal play. A solution to poker? Yes, it's very obvious one exists. In fact, working poker bots to play every hand ideally may already exist. We'll never know if they do until the game is solved, because anyone smart enough to make one would also be smart enough to keep it a secret.
I can blame my luck on setups, tilt, bad play, bad luck, anything I want, but it doesn't change the fact that I feel terrible after losing. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping because I ran bad. I can't stop thinking about what could have been if chance was on my side. Obsessing about the past is entirely pointless, but being human, it's simply inevitable for me. Is the money really worth all this trouble? I'm wasting so much time sitting at the computer playing poker, and 2-3 days per week I get to feel like shit at night because I ran bad. Furthermore, poker thoughts constantly plague my mind to the point where I'm sick of constantly thinking about it. Is this all worth it just for money? I'm missing out on the rest of the world. I'm missing out on a real career, a real chance to work at something more meaningful than paper that society pretends has value.
So what will I do? I'm not sure. I'll probably continue to play HU for a while longer until I've either realized the money is or isn't worth all this struggle. Until then, I'll keep dealing with these depressing nights.
So, I guess I shouldn't have expected this year to end any differently after all this negative momentum I've had throughout December. I begrudgingly agreed to purchase a step 4 ticket to attempt to satellite into the PCA because one of my non poker friends begged me to try it. I took the 4th step by storm and moved on easily. I beat the 5th step even faster, completely dominating the table (obviously because I ran like the sun). I had 6k at one point while all remaining players had less than 1500. Then I went for step 6, prepared by getting a friend who has a very strong SNG game and actually grinded these steps last year to sweat and help me through it. It was a pretty tough line up and some big names were in it, but with just 10 of 18 remaining, I was actually in 1st place. That didn't last long though. I went card dead and was slowly grinded down (and everyone who seemed to be at risk when all in kept seeming to win at showdown. Anyways, 6th place paid 700, 1st and 2nd got the 15k trips, I ended up placing 7th. Kinda standard for me and donkaments. Oh well enough complaining.
2009
Things I did well:
--I finally swallowed a chunk of my pride.
Moved back in with my parents in Feb of 2009. Began grinding, starting all over again at the .05/.1 games (yes after playing the 3/6 and 5/10 games the previous year).
--I heavily increased my studying time and spent many hours with coaches.
I spent a little under 10k$ this year on coaching alone and I definitely think it helped me in a number of ways. (1) It gave me some semblance of a support group, and (2) it gave me access to the thoughts of players much better than me. I learned a lot and I'm glad I am happy with the investment.
--I cut out the majority of auto-piloting that had ruined me over the course of 2008.
It didn't hurt to run a little good in those first couple of months either.
--I put in heavy hours at the tables.
I booked 250 hours in each of the 1st three months I returned.
--Most importantly I think, I completely paid off all of my debts.
I had accrued about 50k worth of debt over the course of 2008, 5k worth of debt to poker players, 15k to credit cards and 30k to my parents. It sure is quite a relief to have completely paid all that back in less than a years time and to have plenty left over.
--I worked diligently at building a student base in order to secure additional means of variance free income. I now have a strong long term student base with solid referrals. The majority of my students are thriving, and those who aren't have some disgusting EV graphs. I also began making training videos for grinderschool.com, and while the compensation I receive is rather minimal, I am getting good experience and helping people along the way. Things in this department have gone so well for me that I've begun writing a book about optimal HUD use pertaining specifically to HEM. I expect to finish it sometime in February of 2010.
I also have plans to create a website in which a community can be formed between players and coaches. Coaches will be evaluated and will contribute content such as free training videos and responses to questions in forums to the site in return for free advertising for their services. Hopefully it will be a place where students can come together and form peer groups or poker circles to discuss theory and find support from others with similar goals.
--I played in some of the toughest games in the world this year (5/10 and 10/20 across FTP and PS) and fared well.
I set a goal 3 or 4 months ago claiming that I wanted to have built a big enough bankroll (about 50k) to have taken a shot at the 5/10 games by February of 2010. I accomplished that goal midway through November and felt as if I was +ev in many of the games in which I sat, even if it was all regulars. (There were clearly some games I sat in where this wasn't the case, but that's for the part where I talk about the things I did wrong).
I'm actually surprised I was able to come up with so many positives for the year. It makes it difficult to feel negatively about the situation I'm currently in, but for some reason I do. I guess it just shows how seriously I am affected by momentum. Regardless, I need to feel satisfied with my accomplishments in 2009, I left the situation I was in in 08 in the dust and definitely am stampeding in the right direction now.
2009
Things I did poorly:
--TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL TILT CONTROL.
My tilt control was horrid, it was atrocious, it was flat out embarrassing, insert any other synonym you can think of and that's what it was. My win rate when I play my A-game is somewhere around 4.5BB/100 at 400 and 600nl. When I'm playing my D or F game, it's got to be -15BB/100. My lack of tilt control is at the very core of all my poker related problems. I lost 1/3rd of my overall profit for the entire year in two separate sessions.
I even went so far as to make a blog post bragging about how "epic" it was that I was down 10k at 3/6 and CONTINUED TO PLAY, somehow luckily winning the money back. I was being ridiculous. It's happened in the past, and it will probably happen again, what can I say, I'm ego-driven by nature and it's something that will always be a part of me. I can do my best to push it down when I am aware of it, but when my self-awareness falls flat, I fall to the whim of my ego. I'll get back to what I'm planning on doing about this in my next blog post--Goals for 2010.
--Bankroll management.
I wouldn't say I managed my bankroll that poorly, however, in terms of my new form of BR management, it will be considered poor. I feel this one of the core principles that relates specifically to my lack of tilt control.
--Having a balanced life
The balance in my life was nothing short of a disaster. It also lies within the same core concepts that relate to my problem with tilt control. The bigger a part of my life and well-being that I make my poker graph, the more I remain at its mercy.
The more I think about it, the more it seems these three concepts seem to feed off each other. When I am playing on a short bankroll, I over-concern myself with my daily wins and losses because it has more of an effect on my daily mood. The more I allow poker to control my mood, the more often I tend to tilt and play too long and refuse taking breaks. The more I tilt and refuse to take breaks, the more I think I need to play in order to make up for the lost money from my tilt.
I’m glad I worked this all out on paper, I really feel like changing my bankroll management is going to have a huge effect on the rest of my life, that’s going to be my number one goal for 2010.
Going to be grinding out at least 2k hands/day from here on out, playing a good amount of tournaments, and getting a few lessons from Jamie in order to get ready for PCA. If anyone wants to exchange contact info and hang out/get food while down there send me a PM.
I have 50% of my action left for sell in the main event and will also be selling 50% of myself in the 1k 6max event. There will be no markup, 1:1. I feel like I'm a solid investment and have a decent amount of live experience from playing in Vegas last summer, last years PCA, and in Barcelona this year. So just send me a PM if you're interested in buying some
So I wanted to post all the graphs and stuff and brag about my wins, but when I told my GF she just flipped me off.
And she is right, I always talk about how much I have won today and about the Porshe I will get, and now I made her monthly part-time salary in 2 days, when I am in fact just a 1.5bb/100 long term winner because of my endless spews.
Her words of wisdom: Its just a game, don't think about your roll ('poker money' in her words) as real money, you can't even afford a proper TV and bitch about $100 jacket being too expensive. Stop thinking about the supercar you will maybe get in X years just focus on getting better. The money turns real only if you have it your bank account.
When I told her about my table selection where I play only on tables with 'free money' and the worst players I can find and I spend half of my time swapping/monitoring tables and changing seats she just ask: But how do you learn and improve?
I don't know where the hell she got all this from, I just want to say I love my GF
I can't take it, I've ran 19 BI's under EV last 10k hands. On top of that, ppl are running like fucking insane monsters on steroids in 3bet pots. I've just ran so insanely bad in every aspect of the game.
Even so, I should still be up a couple BI's if it wasn't for the fact that I've ran 19 BI's below
Maybe it's normal in plo? idk..
I tilted today for the first time in a very, very long time. spewed off one BI and then I quit. ugh, fuckin ugh is all i feel atm. It's just so insanely frustrating.
I guess it's back to nl, at least i've found some material and good videos to watch...
Priest win $100k from pokerstarsby Highcard, December 27
"COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina priest missed the $1 million top prize in a poker tournament to be televised this weekend but he won $100,000 for his church and he hopes his participation gives viewers a "fun twist" on their perceptions of the priesthood."
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