Matt Grinding... NLSH Cash?; have a look at my stats

hey, nice blog

Have you been playing the turbos or the speeds on party poker? Also have you tried the 6s and 11s? Im currently playing those two, we could talk about them a bit on skype if u wanted

Originally posted by petersveter
hey, nice blog

Have you been playing the turbos or the speeds on party poker? Also have you tried the 6s and 11s? Im currently playing those two, we could talk about them a bit on skype if u wanted

yeah mate sure, i'll add you as a friend here so you can send me over your skype details.

i've played both turbos and speeds up to the $6 level on Party, stuck on the $1 level (Turbos is all there is) though atm, due to downswing + lack of funds to deposit. Planning on getting a hold of some juicy promotion to be able to build a bankroll and move it all (+ the party bankroll) to BetFair and start off on their $3 level.

Okay, long time no see!

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

It's only recently I was able to play some poker, as some major RL responsibilities were weighing on my shoulders (e.g. my Final Year Thesis)!

I'm not playing the super-turbos on Party anymore, it: a) would take ages for me to profit due to the variance b) I've grown tired of the ugly, rigid and laggy software, especially after I've played some on Stars. The buttons, the colours, the clarity *mouth waters*...

Speaking of which, I gave Pokerstars MTTs a shot, utlising my cash skills and my knowledge of ICM. I played shitloads of satellites and managed to get myself into some events (Sunday Storm, some $3 and $6 re-buys). It was great fun, even though I didn't cash. I think I played well, still in the process of analysing my hands. I love the thrills MTTs give you when you run deep and keep eyeing the payout structure!!

Played a few MTTs on Party, too, mincashed in the $250 Gtd freeroll and the Pokestrategy freeroll. Pretty horrid players! 50bb-3bet-shove-pre-with-69s-horrid!

MY PLANS

I plan to educate myself about the MTT format, got the basics - cash experience + ICM. At some point I will start to play MTTs regularly, probably on Stars (not tracked though booo), just thinking where to go - the 45s, the 90s, the 180s? Apart from those I'll also play major events whenever they pop up.

But that doesn't mean I'll give up my STTs! I still plan to go on BetFair and grind those up to whatever level I can manage to grind up to. Where do I get money for this, though? I plan to deposit my Party roll on William Hill in near future and grind out their 200% First Deposit Bonus. Will probably pick mass tabling micro cash for the purpose. Pa-pow!

Once I have the dollarage I'm moving it to BetFair and shall commence the SNG grindage. Once it starts growing I plan to transfer a portion to Stars where I will start playing MTTs.

So to sum up:
1) Move the Party roll to William Hill in near future
2) Grind out the FDB on William Hill
3) Move the cash to Betfair and start grinding their $3s
4) After a while take a chunk and use it to play MTTs on Stars

GL,
Matt

EDIT:

FAREWELL, PARTY

you've been good to me this year:

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thanks for teaching me many valuable lessons within the last 2 months:

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BUT seriously, the software's fucking atrocious.

Prepare yourself for more valuable lessons on Betfair, those swongs at party are mild in compare with Ongame horror.
Anyway very nice results and good luck (or should i say grind hard) with Thesis!

Originally posted by Gerovit
Prepare yourself for more valuable lessons on Betfair, those swongs at party are mild in compare with Ongame horror.
Anyway very nice results and good luck (or should i say grind hard) with Thesis!

thanks pal! I don't like what I'm hearing about the swings, but I'm ready! What's the blind levels on $3s? Do you know? How much volume (say, per week) have you put in at the smaller levels to counter the variance?

The thesis is already submitted! Will be doing a large-scale version of it with my supervisor after my exams in June, though! Thanks anyway!

Cheers, GL

I didn't play 3's but they are probably same 5,5's which i did and blind levels change every 3 minutes and they are steep, only favorable thing is that there are 100/200 with ante and without.
I played in cycles to get some nicer position on weekly LB which is real value of Betfair and it's hard to grind every wek like that, so i played one week 200 a day and than week after just maintaining number or playing at other sites.
You can also check Demonic's Dydukas's, Gavron's, now Kurrkie's blogs to see swongs etc.

hey nice graphs

I am just about to buy a new computer because of party poker software lagging and also other porgrams as you could see on teamview ♦, but I saw more people complaining about the lags on party. I have the problems f.e. when I 6 table and I have them tiled with each overlaying on the other with a bit, and when I want to quickly check the action on the other table, it always takes a bit longer to switch, maybe just half a second, but this really annoys me when I just want to quickly click there and back. I spoke to some people about this already, some said its fine, some said it lags.

What kind of lags do you have? I am asking this as I dont want to buy a new fast computer and than find out it is still laging, because of the software ♦.

Originally posted by petersveter

What kind of lags do you have? I am asking this as I dont want to buy a new fast computer and than find out it is still laging, because of the software ♦.

I'm afraid I don't know how much of the lags are my computer's fault and how much are up to Party's shittyness. I have 2gb of memory, Vista and a 3 yo Toshiba. I can play up to 8-9 tables with HManager on without any major lags (although i can see a small slow down from when im playing 3-4 tables).

UPDATE

Payed the monies onto WH and started the grindage! Played NL4 cash and their SNGs. Cash tables are easy and players in the tournaments are... bad. Let's leave it there. Haha. The software could be a bit more helpful, but what the fuck, they've given me the bonus so I'll suffer.

Just released first $5 instalment of the FDB. By a rough estimation it will take me about 35-40 days to release it all ($166)

Feels good to be winning again!

axax0xa0xa0xa0ax0ax0ax00ax0xa0ax0ax0ax0a now i understand your post in my downswing thread.Yeah all things are better when you run so much above ev.I hope you will start running way bellow ev to see the sweetness.We are all gods when we run above ev,but when we run bellow we are all ladies.You will see.Gl

Edit:Vista are very bad as a software because they use large part of memory.I suggest to install windows 7 which are way better and smoother.You will see no lags then.I had same problems

Nice blog man. I find the discourse on certain issue within the media is very interesting. I completed my first year thesis on the effect of religion in shaping the US media.

Currently I play NL10 SH on 888 but will be moving up to NL20 in a few weeks. At $1050 atm want to get to $1200.

Originally posted by BObamaJr
Nice blog man. I find the discourse on certain issue within the media is very interesting. I completed my first year thesis on the effect of religion in shaping the US media.

Currently I play NL10 SH on 888 but will be moving up to NL20 in a few weeks. At $1050 atm want to get to $1200.

Awesome mate. I have written my 3rd year thesis on Myths about Terrorism in British on-line news media. Very interested in how if some does something to us it's 'terrorism' but when Western States terrorise it's all about fight for freedom or fighting the evil forces. Will be writing a proper scientific paper on a similar subject now, have a shot of actually being published!

POKER

Bloody silver now! Had such a hectic end of the month that I didn't manage to work those points. Fell short by like 30-40. EDIT: turned out that I did make gold in the end!

Playing the micro cash limits on the side with my SNGs. Can with all certainty say I'm having fun. Working on my hand reading. In the SNGs I'm missing some profitable shoves due to the software playing up, but tryna minimise that.

This is the SNG graph so far:

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Not working on my SNG game too much but that's due to how busy I've been + the fact that WillHill SNGs are rather easy, blinds grow quickly so you've got straightforward decisions - push/fold. The opponents are not giving me a hard time, and by the time it's the bubble I usually have a big stack.

Best
Matt

Keep plugging away mate, it will all fall into place one day.

Had any good scores in any MTT's ?

Originally posted by kolonel71
Keep plugging away mate, it will all fall into place one day.

Had any good scores in any MTT's ?

Cheers pal!

Haven't played too many MTTs, since I've only got money on WillHill now! Played one $0.5 but busted out quickly - broke on the flop with an overpair (JJ) vs. a fishy opponent.

I'm kind of 50/50 between cash and SNGs in terms of my focus at the moment. Trying to work on my game planning and hand reading. The SNGs I need to work towards my first deposit bonus, and it would be nice to make a profit on top of that too so looking to make the best of my opponents in those.

How are you mate? Improving? Working on the game? Your blog's dead! How are your HU games going?

Best
Matt

UPDATE

Working on the FDB on Will Hill...

Playing cash & SNGs, spending more and more time on the former! Watched ge5sterne's series on gameplanning and Bogdan's database reviews (strongly recommend both!!) and discovered myself to be quite a spewy player. Instead of making money on fish I sometimes spew off buy-ins calling down with top pair when they're obviously strong. Working hard on that at the moment. My SNG game needs improvement as well, which was so far stalled by my somewhat arrogant, quantity>quality approach to it.

CASH
It seems through my SNG episode I have developed a worrying habit of making snap decisions even where it's not the optimal. This doesn't help in cash and I have to keep reminding myself to think about next streets, and to justify every move I'm making. Also I stopped relying on stats too much - I sometimes would draw quite big assumptions after I've seen 30 hands on the guy. I started 3betting Regs (real Regs, not "Played-40-hands-against-him-looks-TAG-he's-a-Reg") where it actually earns money = where they open plenty and fold a lot. Noticed a lot of Regs have a leak of opening 70-80% on the SB.

My new approach seems to be working, every session ends in me being more or less happy with the biggest pots won and lost. I'm hoping to accelerate my hand posting in the coming days.

SNGs
SNGs are meh, some of it I'd blame on variance, some on the software (I sometimes time out or misclick), and at least half of it on myself (e.g. needless playing of DoNs and then finding myself in a multitude of difficult spots to which I am not used to).

I noticed I have a quantity- as opposed to quality-orientated approach to them, which has resulted in me playing what I believe to be break-even poker. On top of that I seem to have a kind of arrogant confidence around my SNG game, which stops me from reviewing my hands. I shall soon start making reviews, and posting the results on here + hand eval forums.

GRAPHS
This is the total BB graph of my micro cash adventures so far (NL2&4 both $ and £ included, a tad of NL$10):

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This is this month (when I started improving):

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My SNGs so far (Super-Turbo + Turbo 10max DoNs, Turbo 10max SNGs):

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PEACE
Matt

Was this too thin?

Not much info on villain apart from his rather passive tendencies after 40 hands.
I intended to bet/fold on Riv.

I bet on Riv to get paid off by KT, JJ, KK, AT (with the T of spades) and all other one spade junk he called on the flop that spiked a pair on Riv. Is this an obvious check back? Or perhaps I should have bet/folded smaller?

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
SB ($7.24)
BB ($4)
UTG ($1.40)
UTG+1 ($6.02)
Hero ($4.06)
BTN ($4.53)

Dealt to Hero A♠ A♣

fold, UTG+1 calls $0.04, Hero raises to $0.20, fold, fold, BB calls $0.16, UTG+1 calls $0.16

FLOP ($0.62) 5♠ Q♠ Q♣

BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.41, BB calls $0.41, UTG+1 folds

TURN ($1.44) 5♠ Q♠ Q♣ 9♠

BB checks, Hero bets $0.89, BB calls $0.89

RIVER ($3.22) 5♠ Q♠ Q♣ 9♠ T♦

BB checks, Hero bets $1, BB calls $1

Calldown vs. TAG
The opponent is a definite TAG after 380 hands. A look at his aggression by street stats revealed he's capable of 2nd-barrelling (flop & turn aggression frequency 72% and 78% respectively). However according to the stats he often shuts down on River. He also opened 64% of his SBs so far.

Is this correct? I assumed he was 2nd-barreling all of his diamonds, most of which I beat. The check on the River I assumed to mean he doesn't have a value hand. I think if he bet again I'd fold.

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
SB ($5.61)
Hero ($4)
UTG ($4.45)
UTG+1 ($4.79)
CO ($4.04)
BTN ($5.77)

Dealt to Hero 8♠ T♠

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $0.12, Hero calls $0.08

FLOP ($0.24) 4♦ 8♦ A♦

SB bets $0.16, Hero calls $0.16

TURN ($0.56) 4♦ 8♦ A♦ 9♣

SB bets $0.37, Hero calls $0.37

RIVER ($1.30) 4♦ 8♦ A♦ 9♣ 7♥

SB checks, Hero checks

Getting value from a fish

The opponent's stats suggested he is most likely a fish after 20 hands. If we can draw any conclusions after hands, he seems to be on the aggressive side and has a big gap between VPIP and PFR.

What can we do on such flops with such holdings, facing such action from fishy opponents?

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
Hero ($4)
BB ($5.55)
CO ($3.61)
BTN ($5.56)

Dealt to Hero K♠ A♥

CO raises to $0.08, fold, Hero raises to $0.36, fold, CO calls $0.28

FLOP ($0.76) T♥ 8♥ T♠

Hero bets $0.49, CO raises to $3.25 (AI), Hero folds

CO wins $1.63

Cheers
Matt

EDIT:

UPDATE

Forgot to update you on my games! Funny thing is I play more cash now than SNGs, but I won't leave it like that for long, because they're priceless if it comes to working that FDB!

After a fish decided to donate some buy-ins to me a few days ago (that's the steep increase), that's what my graph looks like (currently on NL$4 & NL£2, occassional NL$5 but not much since it's Reg infested:

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Pretty happy with my game, even though variance is not going my way. I learned a bit more about exploiting Regs' tendencies (e.g. High flop cbet, Low turn cbet; or high SB/BTN/CO open + v. high fold to 3bet), I now valuebet very strongly against fish, got into a habit of hand reading at all times (well, most!) and I have my learning hat on every time I sit down at my grinding station, so marking hands, thinking them over, watching vids! Sweetness! I can tell I'm improving!

Need to work on my SNG game as well, even though I already feel a big change for the better after starting to play less tables!

UPDATE

Still working on my cash game poker as indicated in the multitude of threads I start in the hand evaluation forums. SNGs have been swept to the side for now, since I manage to work that FDB with the same or even quicker pace when playing NL£4.

After I've had a bad session a few days ago, which involved some needless spewage on NL10 (which caused me a great deal of frustration), I decided I'd - from now on - regularly come up with some poker goals to improve my game.

Five general points to be followed (for starters):

1. No looking at the cashier/graph during a session

2. No spews - good concentration at all times; Keep asking yourself: why do you bet/call/check/raise?
a) max 5 tables at once
b) don't bluff fish
c) no 3 barrel bluffs vs. Regs (given my aggro image at the tables)
d) Before you 3bet pre (or make a move in general) make sure you have an idea of the
opponents raise/calling range

3. Regular Reviews - at least one every three sessions

4. BR Management! (20 BI at the least)

5. After posting hands for review - look through the evaluations and try to learn something from them (make notes)

As a means of improving my game, from time to time I will come up with 5 areas that I think need work. This is what I have come up with so far, will add more after I've done a hand review:

1. 3bet pots

2. Cbets (eg. vs. limpers after I've iso'd them)

3. Gameplanning + active evaluation of all options at every street

4.

5.

On top of that, once a while I'll write down 5 general questions doubts I have in regards to the game (more will be added soon):

1. How much are we flatting in BB vs SB open? (answer to involve different opponent types obv)

2. Iso'ing stationy fish - how do we proceed unimproved?

3.

4.

5.

GRAPHS

BB graph of my June results so far (majority NL4 £+$, some NL$10):

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BB graph of my entire Will Hill Cash adventure so far (NL2-NL4 $+£, some NL$10):

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And a special mention to NL£4, which has been kicking my arse mercilessly:

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PEACE!
Matt

Good couple of sessions!

Made a play today that I'm very proud of. The opponent is a weak-tight, who I teased in the chat (naughty me) after he called me a bad player (he lost with a flopped set to my TP+FD). In this spot I knew he is most likely to either have an Ace or a King, so I bet 2x pot - he's calling anyway, given how angry he was + my perceived range (a crock of shit)!

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
SB ($9.10)
Hero ($9.64)
UTG ($4)
UTG+1 ($5)
CO ($4.86)
BTN ($5)

Dealt to Hero 2♦ 2♣

fold, fold, CO calls $0.04, fold, SB calls $0.02, Hero checks

FLOP ($0.12) K♦ 2♠ A♠

SB checks, Hero bets $0.10, CO calls $0.10, SB folds

TURN ($0.32) K♦ 2♠ A♠ 5♥

Hero bets $0.22, CO calls $0.22

RIVER ($0.76) K♦ 2♠ A♠ 5♥ K♥

Hero bets $1.40, CO calls $1.40

Hero shows 2♦ 2♣
(Pre 50%, Flop 96.5%, Turn 100.0%)

CO shows A♣ J♥
(Pre 50%, Flop 3.5%, Turn 0.0%)

Hero wins $3.33

Also realised that instead of occassional flatting (with weakish, speculative hands) vs. frequent stealers and planning on crazy floats or flop raises, I'm much better off 3betting them - they don't adjust. As obvious as it may be to some, to me it's an important breakthrough. Will stop leaking money in these spots.

The floats and raises I shall leave for value hands that miss.

Implemented my rules with some success ("some" success, because I looked at the graph once during today's session), and can already feel the difference in the mindset, concentration and confidence!

I'm really certain that with proper amount of work and analysis I will beat the micros and be at NL25, NL50 in no time.

Whether this is what I will do, though, is a different story... Might still go down the BetFair SNG pathway once the FDB completes. Who knows! Will go where there's more money!

Bye!
Matt

Have just reviewed a sizeable chunk of my losing hands when I face a single raise, because this situ has been losing me money at -15bb/100 (EV adjusted) over a 6k sample.

I thought I was going to find gross mistakes, but it really doesn't seem so bad! I ran terribly, that's for sure. Played quite a solid game overall. However there are some mistakes that I have noticed in my play, namely:

1) Making hasty assumptions

a) "this guy's LAG, because he's 30/25 after 40 hands"

b) "this Reg probably knows that I isolate fish wide"

2) Not planning ahead

a) -"Okay, I'll 3bet this guy since he'll call with a lot of worse"
-*Opponent shoves pre*
-"...Errm... he's a fish so AJs is ahead, call"

b) not paying attention to villain's stack - no planning of further bets

3) SPEWING!!

a) two angry & retarded 5bet bluff shoves vs. LAGs

b) two barely thought out 3-street bluffs

c) bluffing where no stronger are folding

d) one 2nd barrel where it didn't make sense

e) bluff 3betting vs. unknowns - that includes squeezes where one of the players is loose, but not keen on folding pre

more to come!
I'm determined to improve!

Off to watch footbal: My guess is 2:1 to France today!

So, another ~2.5k hands have been played!

I feel very confident that, with my A game, I can power through those micros.

Last few sessions I extracted tons of value from fish valuebetting 2nd pair on wet boards, betting big and overbetting at times with big hands, isolated plenty, picked only good spots for a bluff 3bet (I've got a hand that's playable postflop, the guy opens around 35% or more on BTN/CO, he folds a lot to 3bets, dynamics are favourable = I've got tight image), skipped some unnecessary C-bets, made a good calldown vs. aggro opponent, stayed solid on BB vs. SB's open, table selected well... did everything like it's supposed to be done!

A few mistakes have been made, they're easily identifiable though. Most of them happened after I've played for 1-1.5hrs non-stop. Turns out concentration is a biggie for me, my game drops a good few levels when I'm distracted (and I get distracted after I've played for a long time and I'm about to end the session - thinking about what book I'll read, what I will eat...etc). Need to counter this problem and have breaks every hour.

That's a hand I played towards the end of the session - my focus was bound to had gone down.

Going broke on flop isolates me against better hands, especially given the fact the guy's tight and not too aggro (22/20, AF=1.8) . A much better solution is calling and re-evaluating on turn. If he checks = bet for value vs. one spade AK, AQ, AJ, AT, 99, TT; if he bets again most likely fold - the only hands I beat are 99 and TT and some top pair + high spade combinations, and given the guy's not particularily aggro, he wouldn't bet one spade hands, but go ch/call. On the turn if he bets again he could have a flopped set. I wonder how my equity looks vs. sets on this turn?

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
SB ($2.87)
BB ($5.01)
UTG ($5.82)
CO ($4.16)
Hero ($4)

Dealt to Hero J♠ J♣

fold, CO raises to $0.12, Hero calls $0.12, fold, fold

FLOP ($0.30) 3♠ 8♠ 5♠

CO bets $0.22, Hero raises to $0.88, CO raises to $4.04 (AI), Hero calls $3 (AI)

TURN ($8.06) 3♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠

RIVER ($8.06) 3♠ 8♠ 5♠ 2♠ 5♥

CO shows K♠ K♥
(Pre 81%, Flop 93.2%, Turn 100.0%)

Hero shows J♠ J♣
(Pre 19%, Flop 6.8%, Turn 0.0%)

CO wins $7.53

Another hand misplayed due to distraction (tbh I also had timebank running out on the river). Easy c/f (to a shove; could possibly call a small bet?) on the last street. A bet/fold is pretty awful, especially given the fact that he could be saying "whatever" and clicking the button to bluff-raise his missed FDs (he's an unknown) facing what he's likely to interpret as a weak bet.

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
Hero ($6.77)
BB ($3.12)
UTG ($8.42)
UTG+1 ($5)
CO ($4.99)
BTN ($5)

Dealt to Hero A♠ A♣

fold, UTG+1 checks, fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.20, fold, UTG+1 calls $0.16

FLOP ($0.44) Q♥ 4♥ J♦

Hero bets $0.33, UTG+1 calls $0.33

TURN ($1.10) Q♥ 4♥ J♦ 9♣

Hero bets $0.73, UTG+1 calls $0.73

RIVER ($2.56) Q♥ 4♥ J♦ 9♣ 4♦

Hero bets $1.28, UTG+1 raises to $3.74 (AI), Hero folds

UTG+1 wins $4.78

Can I call this turn? The opponent is known to r/call junk pre (he's 32/23, fold to 3bet=1/5 over 129 hands), hence the 3bet (for value); he also gets pretty aggro on the turn when pre-flop aggressors check to him.

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.04(BB) Replayer
Hero ($4.12)
BB ($1.52)
UTG ($4)
UTG+1 ($6.94)
CO ($8.99)
BTN ($5.55)

Dealt to Hero 7♦ A♦

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to $0.08, Hero raises to $0.28, fold, BTN calls $0.20

FLOP ($0.60) J♦ 5♣ 8♦

Hero bets $0.41, BTN calls $0.41

TURN ($1.42) J♦ 5♣ 8♦ 3♠

Hero checks, BTN bets $0.72, Hero folds

BTN wins $1.33

Graph of the last 2500 hands:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I will do well but variance must stop breaking my balls! All hands for you:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Peace
Matt

Played another one last night, didn't get to play too much though, I spent half an hour waiting on tables and there weren't too many fish (and if there were, I ended up OOP to them).

Looked at my graph for the last few days and turns out there's been a strong drop in my non-SD winnings, which I managed to keep level most of the ~25k hands I played. I did start passing up some cbets lately, but didn't change my game drastically.

It's probably just a downswing (people happen to have more made hands and bet into me, causing me to fold my showdown value or bluffs), but I will review my hands just in case I'm making some mistakes.

There's the drop (last 1k hands):

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Peace,
Matt

PS. As part of my efforts towards improvement, I've also changed my HUD settings, so that I don't get mislead when having a quick glimpse at stats and seeing, e.g. 80/60 and thinking - ok, that's a whale, even though I've only seen like 4-5 hands on that given player.
Now VPIP and PFR only show after the player's played 10 hands and 3bet % shows after they've played 15 (i.e. after they've been faced with 15 raises). That should minimise the heuristic thinking.

PS2. Also I will soon implement my "break every hour" plan.

PS3. Following the advice from one of Twice T's vids, I recently started
raising my medium-strength hands (like QJs, K8s, A6s) to 3x-4xbb on Big Blind vs. Limpers. Gives me betting lead + we get more value with what is ahead of the limper's limp/calling range most of the time. Sometimes they will l/f, which is even better.