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NewbSaibot United States. Sep 28 2009 15:36. Posts 4948 | | |
Lets see, where to begin.
Well it’s been awhile since I updated my blog. I like to keep it for real updates only, like when things change, such as in life, in poker, whatever. I also only like to post when I have results, such as a monthly summary of earnings, rather than posting wishful thinking, about how I hope I succeed.
So this month has been, interesting… Last month I remarked that I was on my last leg of poker, having gone around the world twice, coming to the realization I might not be cut out for this, which would really make me feel like a failure because I still don’t consider poker all *that* difficult, at least not at the early levels. Yet still I could not beat any level of poker, which I guess says something about myself. I told myself I had a couple of last ditch ideas on how I might win, and if those didn’t pan out I’d have to hang it up. One of those ideas was to hire a coach, briefly. Since I feel I understand the game, and I have seen a lot traversing the stakes, all I really needed was a little leakfinding assistance. Just things I haven’t seen recreated in poker videos, or read about in online articles. Very specific stuff that I know I do repeatedly. I needed someone there to backhand me and say “now why are you doing that? Have you considered the possibility of this instead?”
The resulting lessons really opened my eyes, and I discovered I had some very severe fundamental flaws about why I should do certain things and why others do them to me. One of the biggest things I discovered about myself was that I don’t ever try to put people on a range of hands, but rather put them on an intent. Instead of saying “well I think he could have this therefore he will call, or he will bet” I would say “well he called my bet, therefore his intent is to call or bet later” or “if he folds to this check raise he has nothing…if I raise his cbet then he was just cbetting”. I would judge a persons likely future actions based upon their reaction to my bet, therefore I would always use very peculiar bet sizing tailored around each opponent that I thought would elicit a certain reaction to let me know if I was ahead or not, or if I could steal the pot. This is fine and dandy and all, and probably useful as the last part of one’s meta game, but it simply must be prefaced with the act of putting someone on a range of hands and deciding how best to play vs that range, not just vs their intent. I finally started calling out ranges on the flop, like “well he could call with any SC, any two face cards, all PP’s” and then go through the natural process of ruling out certain combinations of hands based upon flop texture. This is how it’s supposed to be done, and shockingly I NEVER did this before.
So I picked a limit I felt like giving another try at. Since im not burdened by the paranoia of bankroll mgm’t, and can easily fund myself aggressively for NL25, I figured that would be a good start, and the payback is meaningful enough to be able to take the game seriously. Im not so spewy that I run the risk of losing 20 BI’s in a single day, and due to massive issues of tilt I have to quit at 2 BI’s anyway so a 13-15 BI rule should suffice for poker variance and to keep my confidence strong when I do lose some.
The following is my September graph; excluding the 1st day in which I played a session at NL100 with 1 buyin.
The word sloppy comes to mind. What’s both sad and cool about this is that this is probably the best I’ve ever done. I’ve made more money in a single month before, but only by doing stupid shit like sitting down one-table grinding NL400 for an hour each day. For starters, I just put in 10000 hands in a single month. That’s like some sort of landmark for me. The rest is a little more clearly defined in the following graphs.
NL25 – where I started:
So I had a bit of a streak here. Not much volume, but after doubling my starting bankroll I thought “well shit maybe I don’t need to start down here, let’s see where else I can go”. I figured 13 buyins at NL50 was adequate.
NL50 – finding out where I’m at:
So I bombed. You can see I really tried, both in volume and in comebacks. Not quite sure what to make of this graph honestly. I don’t understand why my redline is always so high. I guess it must mean I bluff a lot and the blue line reflectc where I get caught or something, because my showdown winnings suck. So basically I never showdown a good hand. Statwise I played almost identical to NL25, and maybe that’s the problem. NL50 definitely feels different. NL25 is just an overall very weak passive game. Hardly anybody raises, limpers are ridiculously easy to isolate, people fold to an uncanny amount of cbets, and overall nobody ever really resists you. When they do it’s with something horrible like a stubborn PP or TPNK. NL50 seems to be where all the card runner newbies are coming out. My iso’s get squeezed, my steals get 3bet, my cbets get check-raised, and when I finally have had enough and decide im going to showdown, I’m completely dominated. So my failure here I suppose is that I haven’t adapted. I keep playing the same way I have at NL25 and it just wont work. Or perhaps what I do at NL25 is just pure luc, who knows.
As a result of my inability to adjust to NL50, I am going to hang at NL25 longer. I think once I have about 18 BI’s ill take another shot. My failure at NL50 may just be one of confidence, taking all these shots with like 10 BI’s might be affecting my play more than I realize.
Finally, actual session results:
I must shake my head in shame at the NL200 hands. Needless to say tilt still gets the better of me, and after losing 5 BI’s in the blink of an eye at NL50 and then smashing a picture on my wall, I said “fuck it” and chased back my losses. But hey, it worked. If anybody wants lessons in how to properly chase losses, gimme a shout. I think I can coach loss-chasing all the way up to 5/10 at the moment. Also goes for anyone who wants to stick their entire bankroll for a single buyin at the highest limit possible.
I must say, in the end, it does feel good to do something consistently. Putting in hands, playing for a few hours, seeing results based upon consistent play, and so on. Doubling up at an NL400 table one day, then losing it at NL600, then tripling up at NL200, and bouncing back and forth all over the fucking place sure feels lame. Hopefully having dipped my toes in the water at higher limits will have some sort of positive outcome in the future. For one, the betsizing doesn’t scare me moving up, so I’ve got that out of my system. And since I have seen what it is like to be 3bet by a reg with 89s, it wont completely blow me away when it happens again, nor will I reject the possibility that someone could do this when I have KK and somehow we’re getting it allin on a 678 flop.
Till that day…..
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dahornnn United Kingdom. Sep 28 2009 17:07. Posts 693 | | |
Impose a limit on your account to your level or the one above so you dont do that, you can on stars atleast |
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whamm! Albania. Sep 28 2009 20:09. Posts 11625 | | |
resp game limit restriction tab bro.
50nl is very weak postflop to turn aggression mostly, much like FR |
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exalted United States. Sep 28 2009 20:44. Posts 2918 | | |
ugh who'd you get coaching from
should have gotten it from me |
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| exalted from teamliquid :o | |
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lol you got like 1/50th of the way to understanding poker and having any chance of being a longterm winner, atleast you're in the right direction  |
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