taavi1337 - noob learning FL

I'm also discovering some nice moves in FLHE. Against a big fish:

Cassava Poker $10/$20 Limit Hold'em - 6 players -

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is BTN with A 6
UTG calls, 2 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, UTG calls

Flop: (5.5 SB) K J 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls

Turn: (3.75 BB) 8 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls

River: (5.75 BB) 7 (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG folds

He has a pair there quite often

...or a standard hand from yesterday's table:

Cassava Poker $10/$20 Limit Hold'em - 5 players -

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is CO with K 2
UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, 3 folds, UTG calls

Flop: (7.5 SB) Q 4 4 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG folds

So awesome to see you cleaning up! Just out of interest, how much time are you spending working on your game and what are you doing to improve? Has it changed much over the course of the year?

I mostly review my hands instantly after playing them, and usually I see what I did wrong/right or then think about the hand and for few minutes if I'm unsure.

This method has some ups and downs, downsides would be that you might get stuck in a misplayed hand and feel bad about it. Also you can't do the instareview while multitabling hard, and you can't go too deep in the analysis - a la what would I do on a different river vs some other guy.

Upsides are that you can instantly make changes in your game - you'll know what to do in similar spots vs the same guy the next time. Also you don't have to spend many hours reviewing your own play afterwards. When I open HEM and review some hands from a session, I almost always already know the "right answer" to every hand because I've already thought about it after playing it.

And I watch FL videos to get new ideas. Sometimes we do sweat sessions with datsmahname, this is really helpful! We should schedule a next one, dude.

But the biggest thing this year has been mindfulness practice, improving my awareness. Inspired by Tommy Angelo, I took up meditation in February, now I'm doing yoga. I have realised how important healthy lifestyle really is.

It's still quite hard to keep a solid routine though... How the F can you wake up early EVERY day?? This is the hardest one for me. I'll ask Schnitzelfisch.

Overall I'm not playing much and I'm unsure what my goals are. I'm definitely not gonna be a hardcore poker player - I mean grinding 4 hours in a day is already too much for me. I think my ideal would be to play 0-2 hours a day and focus on other things in life. Well, that's what I'm doing! But I need to get to higher stakes so that I can play less and earn more.

Added you as friend if you fancy catching up on skype, had a look at a few Super Turbo hands between us that would be fun to discuss.

Cheers

A sweat would be cool, although time zones kinda suck - I usually see you when I've just finished playing after midnight, or when I've just gotten up at 6am. If we're both on and available though I'd be dead keen, 'cause I obviously don't play enough air (judging from your posted hands!).

I was really asking the question to get an idea of whether you were hella studying and heading for Yoghidom (tm) or getting away with accumulated knowledge/insta hand review. Hope your plan of play higher>play less>???>profit! works out - you become a hero of the people when it does!

It's been good fun following your progress - I reckon a half year to date progress report next month would be jolly interesting. ♠_thumbsup:

I found this hand while doing a session review. BB is a maniac and CO is a solid regular. Haha, it must hurt him a bit

Cassava Poker $5/$10 Limit Hold'em - 5 players -

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is UTG with A 9
Hero raises, CO calls, 1 fold, SB 3-bets, BB calls, Hero calls, CO calls

Flop: (12 SB) 2 8 4 (4 players)
SB bets, BB raises, Hero folds, CO calls, SB 3-bets, BB caps!, CO calls, SB calls

Turn: (12 BB) 9 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets, CO raises, SB calls, BB 3-bets, CO caps!, SB calls, BB calls

River: (24 BB) 7 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets, CO calls, SB folds

Final Pot: 26 BB
BB shows 7 2
CO mucks T 9
BB wins 25.8 BB
(Rake: $2.00)

Why did you folded? Was is because of the CO? because it was 4 handed? Would you play differently if you were only against one? Would you fold against the TAG but call the Maniac? Sorry about all the questions but i found the hand really interesting because you folded overcards. I don't know what the odds were but it seems that you had enough equity, specially against a Maniac (good implied odds)!!

I would really like to hear you're thought process...

My position sucks as I will get sandwiched quite often between SB and maniac rasing wars with my marginal holding. SB is a lagfish as well, but in this 3way situation I think he's not 3betting any two pre, so if he happens to have AT+, 88+ then I'm obv quite dead. If SB would be a normal tight guy it would be an easy fold because of his range.

Alternatively I could 3bet to try to push SB and CO off from overcards, and I actually prefer it to a coldcall. But - then we have to assume that nobody has a pair. Remember, even the maniac sometimes has something!

Yeah, being with marginal hands in a raising war is probably not the best place to be! Thx

The game seems to get easier and easier

Cassava Poker $5/$10 Limit Hold'em - 2 players -

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is BTN/SB with 8 7
Hero raises, BB calls

Flop: (4 SB) 3 A 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls

Turn: (4 BB) J (2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB folds

Cassava Poker $3/$6 Limit Hold'em - 2 players -

Pre Flop: (1.333 SB) Hero is BB with T T
BTN/SB calls, Hero raises, BTN/SB 3-bets, Hero caps!, BTN/SB calls

Flop: (8 SB) T 3 3 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

Turn: (8 BB) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

River: (16 BB) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

Final Pot: 24 BB
BTN/SB shows Q A
Hero shows T T
Hero wins 23.833 BB
(Rake: $1.00)

Originally posted by taavi1337
The game seems to get easier and easier
Cassava Poker $3/$6 Limit Hold'em - 2 players -

Pre Flop: (1.333 SB) Hero is BB with T T
BTN/SB calls, Hero raises, BTN/SB 3-bets, Hero caps!, BTN/SB calls

Flop: (8 SB) T 3 3 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

Turn: (8 BB) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

River: (16 BB) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero 3-bets, BTN/SB caps!, Hero calls

Final Pot: 24 BB
BTN/SB shows Q A
Hero shows T T
Hero wins 23.833 BB
(Rake: $1.00)

Originally posted by Waiboy

We also had some history:

Cassava Poker $3/$6 Limit Hold'em - 2 players -

Pre Flop: (1.333 SB) Hero is BB with A 6
BTN/SB calls, Hero raises, BTN/SB calls

Flop: (4 SB) 5 5 6 (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB calls

Turn: (3 BB) A (2 players)
Hero bets, BTN/SB raises, Hero calls

River: (7 BB) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets, Hero raises, BTN/SB calls

Final Pot: 11 BB
BTN/SB mucks 7 Q
Hero shows A 6
Hero wins 10.833 BB
(Rake: $1.00)

My results have been great this month. I lost $1k last month and another $1k in the beginning of May, but now hit a heater and won like what? almost $4k in a row

Year report

A year ago I finished the 8-month army service and made a fresh start with poker. So this is also a year-report milestone post. Also it's a good time for doing this as I'm on a heater and can show you how good I am.

I remember that at the beginning of June 2011 I transferred basically all of my roll to Full Tilt (~$1800). Solid decision. In July I found that the only money I had was $400 on 888. But I was full of motivation and confidence, so with the help of variance I started crushing $0.5/$1 for almost 3.5 BB/100. I moved up quite quickly and already played 1/2 in August, 2/4 in September, 3/6 in October and 5/10 in November. I'm still playing 2/4 to 5/10 atm.

I feel that I have improved my game a lot during the year. I have learned the importance of table selection and playing less tables. I have improved my ability to focus and stay calm. Also my ego should be (hopefully) smaller now. I started to learn FLHU and I'm getting great results.

Here's my graph, starting from June 2011:

Always come out of the downswing with elegance!

Some mindset lessons I've learned:

- grinding is overrated, better play less and be happier
- there's no point in worrying, it won't make anything better
- I won't get a job soon.

sending out my love to you:

:f_love: :f_love:

Gratz!
Awesome comeback and attitude after the loss of your major part of the bankroll! And thanks for the advice about lesser tables, more careful selection and being happier. Am thinking so too, but relapse to grinding several tables sometimes and don't learn anything. Good to be reminded again! How did you go about learning HU? There won't be many hands by starting tables?!

That progress in limits is incredible! What brm did you use on the limits?

Nice year for you taavi, and you deserve every bit of it! GL henceforth!

Cheers

Edit: and ofc to you too!

tavvi could you post that graph in BB too? Would really appreciate.

I also think that people focus too much in grinding and not enough in learning and having fun!!

Nice too see you gave a beating to that downswing

Originally posted by ZeroDegrees
How did you go about learning HU? There won't be many hands by starting tables?!

Yes, I'm only playing HU when tablestarting 6max, but the traffic is low so often I can play heads-up for quite a long time until someone joins, also sometimes villains quit me or go busto.

That progress in limits is incredible! What brm did you use on the limits?

That was quite of an heater, but you have to keep in mind that:

- I was tableselecting very very hard
- I was also playing HU where it's possible to get much higher winrate than in SH
- I already had ~2 years of experience in FL and knew pretty well what I was doing

I used and I'm still using ~500BB brm.

Edit: and ofc to you too!

Originally posted by Virtuagod
tavvi could you post that graph in BB too? Would really appreciate.

I filtered this one to limit as I have been sometimes spewing in NL2 and higher

Originally posted by taavi1337
the traffic is low so often I can play heads-up for quite a long time until someone joins, sometimes villains [...] go busto.

:f_biggrin: :f_biggrin: :f_biggrin: ♠_o:

ROFL

Hey Taavi, time for another review imo.

Solid $/hour this month

looks good!