Originally posted by fotakis
It is exactly 162 BI !!! i play my A-game for 00%-01% of my time, but the rest 99%-100% is terrible.
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Been following along, and i applaud your honesty fotakis... it is clear that you have a strong willingness to learn, and that is probably why verneer agreed to coach you.
Thats a hell of a deal, i would love to have a coach (especially for my mental game) and i hope youre taking full advantage of his help.
I wish you good skill
i have 2000 players like op f added on party poker. Just never thought id be reading their blog
Just stumbled upon your blog, and I'll be following with keen interest.
In January, I decided to go back to NL 2 and work my way up.
My bankroll is good enough for NL 50 -- but I'm not.
The idea is to ignore BRM and concentrate on poker skill only.
I will move up when I have 10000 hands with a positive average win rate.
It is March and I'm still on NL 2 but last 2000 hands have shown promise.
My problems were similar to yours. I thought that my winrate was poor because I was playing too passively, but I became far too aggressive.
Keep it up, listen to your coaches, and DO WHAT THEY TELL YOU TOO even you think that villain is bluffing.
You can only eliminate bad habits by replacing them with good ones.
Patience is key.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Just stumbled upon your blog, and I'll be following with keen interest.
In January, I decided to go back to NL 2 and work my way up.
My bankroll is good enough for NL 50 -- but I'm not.
The idea is to ignore BRM and concentrate on poker skill only.I will move up when I have 500000 hands with a positive average win rate.
It is March and I'm still on NL 2 but last 2000 hands have shown promise.
My problems were similar to yours. I thought that my winrate was poor because I was playing too passively, but I became far too aggressive.
Keep it up, listen to your coaches, and DO WHAT THEY TELL YOU TOO even you think that villain is bluffing.
You can only eliminate bad habits by replacing them with good ones.
Patience is key.
FYP. That's what the maths says if you want to be sure. Otherwise, you have to find another way of determining whether you're ready to move up.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
You can only eliminate bad habits by replacing them with good ones.
The problem for many players is that they don't know what are and aren't good habits.
Patience is key.
Indeed. One of the things we've done is added a few more tables because he would get bored only one-tabling and start loosening up both preflop and postflop.
Originally posted by DaPhunk
Update?
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Bad habits that YOU KNOW THAT they are bad:
MP2 is 33/10 with 11 (!!!) flop Af.
It's still very tough for me to fold pocket aces, although I know that I'm beaten.
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.10(BB) Replayer
SB ($4)
BB ($10)
UTG ($11.12)
Hero ($17.31)
UTG+2 ($3.40)
MP1 ($10.90)
MP2 ($10.04)
CO ($7.31)
BTN ($13.51)Dealt to Hero A♣ A♥
fold, Hero raises to $0.30, fold, fold, MP2 calls $0.30, fold, fold, fold, fold
FLOP ($0.75) T♣ 5♦ 9♥
Hero bets $0.50, MP2 raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1
TURN ($3.75) T♣ 5♦ 9♥ T♠
Hero checks, MP2 bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50
RIVER ($8.75) T♣ 5♦ 9♥ T♠ K♦
Hero checks, MP2 bets $5.74 (AI), Hero calls $5.74
MP2 shows 5♣ 5♥
(Pre 18%, Flop 90.8%, Turn 90.9%)Hero shows A♣ A♥
(Pre 82%, Flop 9.2%, Turn 9.1%)MP2 wins $19.32
These plays put me on VERY serious tilt. On the other hand I don't mind at all about plays like this:
Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.10(BB) Replayer
SB ($10.27)
BB ($33.18)
Hero ($10)
UTG+1 ($10.60)
UTG+2 ($10)
MP1 ($4.15)
CO ($10)
BTN ($4)Dealt to Hero 7♦ 7♠
Hero raises to $0.30, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls $0.20
FLOP ($0.65) 7♥ 6♠ 6♦
BB checks, Hero bets $0.31, BB calls $0.31
TURN ($1.27) 7♥ 6♠ 6♦ 9♦
BB checks, Hero bets $0.80, BB calls $0.80
RIVER ($2.87) 7♥ 6♠ 6♦ 9♦ A♦
BB checks, Hero bets $1.60, BB raises to $11.70, Hero calls $6.99 (AI)
BB shows 6♣ 6♥
(Pre 19%, Flop 95.6%, Turn 97.7%)Hero shows 7♦ 7♠
(Pre 81%, Flop 4.4%, Turn 2.3%)BB wins $19.15
Hello fotakis,
there is one thing I don´t understand about your whole story: Why do you still play poker?
I mean, you lose quite a bit of money at the game. I don`t know about your financial situation, but at some point earlier in the thread you mentioned something about being a "poor and bankrupted greek".
So I assume that the money you lose isn`t meaningless to you.
However, another point seems more important: the game gives you bad times!
It seems that you tilt and rant a large amount of the time and I simply can`t imagine this to be fun.
Have you seriously asked yourself what you do this for? I am just courious, because I don`t understand your motivation to play poker in general.
Do you hope to win substantial amounts of money someday?
Do you enjoy playing for the competition?
Is it maybe possible that you have some kind of addiction to gambling?
Im not asking to offend you in any way, it is just, that your "shoving with air on the river" seems to me like a recognizable sign of a typical gambling mentality/habit (like people who know that they are betting against the odds in a casino or at some type of gambling automat, but still can`t stop themselves from pulling the trigger over and over again.)
Or is it something totally different, which I have not taken in account, that motivates you to play?
Is there nothing else you could spent your free time on?
It is for sure nice to have a good coatch for free, but ultimately he can`t change you, he can only advice you to do the right things over and over again.
If you decide not to do them, there is no coach in the world that can help you.
I don`t want to give you any advice in regards to poker, as there are more competent people already at work, but I would recommend you to seriously think about your goals in general and why you play poker.
Because maybe in the end, especially if you should discover that you have some kind of gambling addiction, which does not allow you to overcome your "bad habits"/leaks permanently and play poker profitably, your coatch or anybody else will go his way and will no longer be bothered whether you have lost your last money at poker or what your whole life-situation is like.
I hope you will find a way to be happy and satisfied, with or without poker.
All the best!
G. R.
I have been looking at some of my bad leaks over the last few days too and yes folding AA when we instinctivly know we are beat can be tough!! Its even harder when hem shows them to be a fish or we have invested a good chunk of our stack!
Well done for spotting that its costing you money, I hope I can do the same in the future too 
Good luck
Roo
Originally posted by RoiCleOpaTraTanGenS
Hello fotakis,there is one thing I don´t understand about your whole story: Why do you still play poker?
I mean, you lose quite a bit of money at the game. I don`t know about your financial situation, but at some point earlier in the thread you mentioned something about being a "poor and bankrupted greek".
So I assume that the money you lose isn`t meaningless to you.However, another point seems more important: the game gives you bad times!
It seems that you tilt and rant a large amount of the time and I simply can`t imagine this to be fun.Have you seriously asked yourself what you do this for? I am just courious, because I don`t understand your motivation to play poker in general.
Do you hope to win substantial amounts of money someday?
Do you enjoy playing for the competition?
Is it maybe possible that you have some kind of addiction to gambling?Im not asking to offend you in any way, it is just, that your "shoving with air on the river" seems to me like a recognizable sign of a typical gambling mentality/habit (like people who know that they are betting against the odds in a casino or at some type of gambling automat, but still can`t stop themselves from pulling the trigger over and over again.)
Or is it something totally different, which I have not taken in account, that motivates you to play?
Is there nothing else you could spent your free time on?
It is for sure nice to have a good coatch for free, but ultimately he can`t change you, he can only advice you to do the right things over and over again.
If you decide not to do them, there is no coach in the world that can help you.I don`t want to give you any advice in regards to poker, as there are more competent people already at work, but I would recommend you to seriously think about your goals in general and why you play poker.
Because maybe in the end, especially if you should discover that you have some kind of gambling addiction, which does not allow you to play poker profitably, your coatch or anybody else will go his way and will no longer be bothered whether you have lost your last money at poker or what your whole life-situation is like.
I hope you will find a way to be happy and satisfied, with or without poker.
All the best!G. R.
Thank you for your very interesting post. It gives me the chance to explain why I play poker, although I steadily losing
At first, although the "poor and bankrupted greek" was a joke regarding the financial situation of Greeks, money are never meaningless. I chose to play at these micro limits because they don't hurt me so much. Of course on the long run the amounts become significant.
I don't have any gambling addiction. I never gamble at any game. I don't even bet on sports. I don't buy lottery etc. I don't care about anything similar which is out of my control.
I also, don't play poker for fun. I invest a lot of time and efford to the game. I am civil engineer and it is really hard to combine job with poker. I have reduced other parts of my personal life in order to be able to play.
I don't intend to win a lot of money from poker. I would like to, but I know that this is impossible for objective reasons (I wouldn't like to extend this issue here right now) as well as because of my personal priorities and capabilities.
So, why?? What motivates me???
I play poker for one reason only. Poker for me is an exercise of discipline and emotion control. In my life I have taken serious decisions according my emotions and not by logic. This created me some problems. Trying to control my emotions or what my gut says, I think that I will be able to reduce the influence of them also in my life.
Success in poker is a major priority. Through this I will be improved as a person.
My intelligence is above average. My IQ is about 120 (although I know that many people doubt about the MENSA tests accurancy). But my mental effects keep me back.
Could a coach help me? Verneer writes somewhere at his book that almost everybody knows what is right in a vacuum, but very few can apply their knowledge at the tables. In my opinion there aren't some magic secrets that a coach brings out to his students. In my case Verneer is mainly a supervisor of how I apply what I know and what he tells me. And this has significant results. I lose a lot less , I DON'T BLUFF ON THE RIVER WITH AIR ANYMORE and week by week I continuously improve my game.
What gives me happy in life is to have challenges and put goals and try to fulfill them.
Hello again,
I must admit I am kind of relieved to hear about your reasons.
Its a good thing my suspicions about a possible addiction weren`t right.
I agree: Poker is indeed a method to train disclipline and rational thinking.
Since you are improving your game, you seem to be on the right track.
I hope that you will further succeed at your task of becoming a "better person" through poker, which is, by the way, a really interesting goal to have when playing poker...
good luck!
G. R.
Originally posted by fotakis
My intelligence is above average. My IQ is about 120 (although I know that many people doubt about the MENSA tests accurancy). But my mental effects keep me back.
You did a proper test? (organised by a psychologist or proper official or something) I had to do one while at school and i got all sorts of different scores for different bits of the test. Was interesting but definitely something i could have practiced for and done better at with some preparation.
Nice work on the graph, looks like your line is almost flat now 