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Playing the half stack |
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NewbSaibot United States. Aug 28 2009 02:42. Posts 4948 | | |
EDIT: Keep in mind this blog is my online poker journal, a place to collect my thoughts. My wife says I sound like I'm offering coaching lessons. This is most certainly not the case. I simply speak in the vernacular because it's faster that way.
So I began playing some live NL200 lately. I'm way underrolled for this and have been debating on whether I should quit or not since I lack experience and am financially stressed at the moment.
I've toyed around with my own personal LAG strategy the last couple of months, derived upon nothing but my own assumptions on how people think and react to very specific conditions. Basically a poker playbook in my head for every single possible situation at the table. Due to my limited bankroll this has caused me to reconsider one particular poker philosophy, and that is your initial buyin amount. The idea is simple. What is the least amount I can risk to play a certain style, namely LAG. There are all sorts of variables to consider when you have money on the table, but I think the biggest one is what are the implied odds you are laying people with your stack. It does not take a genius for someone to have a marginal hand or draw, look at your remaining stack, and come to the "aw fuck it" decision. The question is where does this begin?
Shortstacking in an of itself is a rather complicated strategy, as is deep stacked play, at least if anybody else covers. A standard 100BB buyin gives you plenty of room to maneuver 3 streets of action without losing your shirt. But since 90% of poker is played preflop and on the flop, you can get away with plenty of standard poker moves without hitting the point of no return. This fits particularly well with a loose aggressive style as it is not your goal to be seeing too many rivers. With 50BB's you should still be able to make a preflop raise, iso-raise, or squeeze without putting people into awkward situations. You also still have room to bet, check-raise, or 3bet the flop, even in a raised pot, and maintain your FE and EQ in general. Depending upon how much preflop action there was the turn gets a bit complicated, but you shouldnt be in a ton of multiway 3bet or 4bet pots anyway so you wont find yourself here all that often. Most of your hands are going to be HU in single raised pots with enough ammo to fire 1 or 2 barrels and give up/stack off with the nuts. I think the worst situation you will find yourself in is making silly laydowns when you are getting 3:1 to call and people start scratching their heads wondering wtf you are doing. This could possibly result in a lot of unwanted action if you suddenly make yourself out to be bluffstar, but I digress.
The cool thing about buying in for half, is that you get double the buyins at your given limit (begin degen logic). That is my ultimate goal here. I want to play NL200 with 50BB's and still be able to play a solid game. If I could, I would certainly buy in full. It's always good to cover, it maximizes value, and unless you are a spewtard you arent in any particular danger of losing too much. I suppose playing halfstacked can also protect you from yourself, especially as a LAG player, letting you off cheaper when you make gross mistakes. But if a full buyin is +EV just to make sure you cover everyone at the table, well then all you need do is buyin for whatever everyone at the table has. I am going to assume that most live play involves less than 100BB stacks. I know where I do it does.
Anywho, we'll see how this goes. If I donk off half my paycheck this weekend, then I'm done. Shit, I'd rather just underoll myself for NL50 online than take hopeless shots at NL200 live.
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| bye now | Last edit: 28/08/2009 02:56 |
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player999 Brasil. Aug 28 2009 03:18. Posts 7978 | | |
->buy in for 50bb
-> pick up pots early
-> get to 100bb
-> ???
-> profit |
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| Browsing through your hand histories makes me wonder that you might not be aware these games are possibly play money. Have you ever tried to cash out? - Kapol | |
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LemOn[5thF] Czech Republic. Aug 28 2009 03:37. Posts 15163 | | |
I really wish you could one day get the balls to adjust to all opponents, own micros and move up when you are properly rolled and have the skills.
Oh well, I guess that born as a degen, die like a degen :o |
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SfydjkLm Belarus. Aug 28 2009 03:43. Posts 3810 | | |
i suggest doing ur research on 2+2, there is quiet an abundance of quiet interesting SS topics. In one of em it comprehensively lays out why it works to play as a 25 bb shortstack or buying in for full, and why it is abysmal to play with 50 bb. |
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man you really need to stop dicking around if you have a wife and real life responsibilities like that. If you want to be a poker player and can't afford to be a losing player (which you aren't rich enough to be able to afford) you need to sit down and use your fuckin head right. Talking about LAG and such how you do shows that you really don't know what's going on. You need to learn basic strategy and how to play a TAG style, as that is the basic form of winning poker upon which you will build.
You need to grind properly. I really don't understand why you keep doing this lol..
I am only trying to be straight with you because from the little you've said it doesn't sound a whole lot like you have a big savings and instead of saving money you're donking it off at the poker tables. I'm costing myself money by tell you this, for god's sake. Straighten up or stop until you have the proper financial situation to mess around making 'your own' style.
I have no idea if your wife reads these comments but I'm not trying to embarass you. And if you actually do have a big savings in case your lose your job, or something tragic happens, I guess my whole point is moot & so I will from now on resume only flaming you for saying retarded shit when it comes to poker. 
--Poker talk--
You're playing on such a short bankroll that variance is going to rape you no matter what after a couple of sessions IMO. Why not roll yourself for nl10 and play some basic poker instead of some silly 50bb shit?
Also live poker is almost always played with DEEPER average stacks than online play. Everyday I play live I end up 2-4buyins deep with atleast 2 other players. Just letting you know; it sounds like its different in your private game.
Have fun dude. |
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NewbSaibot United States. Aug 28 2009 23:34. Posts 4948 | | |
Fuck....my....life....
Well tonight sucked dick. I brought 2 buyins and lost it pretty quickly. I actually didnt end up doing the whole 50bb thing. I initially did, but then I got to see like a 6 hand showdown 3x in a row and therefore saw what utter garbage people were limp calling raises with, so I simply had to reload to full to take advantage of this. Got it allin with AsQd on an A8Jddd, guy who limp called my raise flopped the nuts with K9d. Then go it allin pre KK vs AA and couldnt suckout. Oh well, guess im done with live for awhile. Maybe I'll go like once a month or something, but thats it. I am very good at budgeting finances. Im not taking rent money here or anything. No I'm not a wealthy billionaire either. Just an average middle class apartment dwelling dude who lives with his girlfriend (we did papers so she could get on my company's insurance).
The whole micro stakes grind is just a sore spot for me. I still have a lot of discipline and emotional problems when it comes to losing at things. I used to play tennis and soccer, field hockey as a kid, video games in between, and now poker, and I've always been fairly decent at them. Enough to the point where anything I do which requires competition, I feel I should be on par with others if not better at. So I get mega tilted when I lose b/c I put the blame on others. Someone got a lucky shot, someone sucked out on me, etc etc. Personally I feel micro stakes is not real poker. It's just a test of prob and stat. You put in 300k hands and you should profit at the end if you only play the good ones. I have neither the time nor patience to smooth out the variance and show myself as a 3bb/100 winner. You can win at much higher rates at higher stakes where you know, "people respect your raises". I would rather play one-table and be a 15-25bb/100 winner at high stakes. I know most will probably LOL and say thats impossible, but it seems like thats about what I run whenever I play high stakes. If it werent for cashouts or me tilting my roll away when some maniac sits down and starts playing 85/15 getting the best of me, I might actually still be there. But alas, thats another life...
The only time I tried this was after grinding 20 tables of play money back in the day. I figured play money is unbeatable, everyone allin, every single hand. But if the math is true, then I should be able to beat it. Well I did beat it. So I moved on to NL2, which is 1 step above play money in terms of variance and idiocy. And I actually did alright. I grinded up to NL5 I think before I got tired and started taking 6max shots at NL25 and shit with whatever I had. I actually tried to grind play money again just to get back into the groove, and stars has now limited you to only 5 tables at a time. Well this is far too few to practice grinding so Im in a bit of a quandary at the moment. Couple that with the fact that there is some transient routing problem between my ISP and Pokerstars that I cant play there anymore, just too laggy, timing out every single hand, etc. I'd try it on full tilt but their goddamn fucking interface is so tilting. You dont know how many times I've found myself sitting out on like 3 tables b/c apparently pokerstars has the copyright on shifting table focus to the next hand in progress.
Oh well, thats it for now. Thx for reading. |
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| bye now | Last edit: 28/08/2009 23:55 |
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Well I hear you that it can be a struggle and sucks sometimes, but I think you have a pretty big misconception on what kind of winrate is possible at higherstakes games. There are always higher winrates at the lower stake you're at, because the competition is simply worse. You really can't play against a table of good players and expect to have a big edge.. You're just reaching way too far and refusing to understand how poker really works.
Also playing 4 tables or so allows you to look past beats and stuff a bit more easily, and not tilting over such things is simply something you have to have the discipline to learn.
Anyway gl, I'm glad you aren't busting your life roll doing this and keeping it in hobby-money territory. |
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