I Press All the Wrong Buttons

Yeah thats very true. After some thought I would not be able to forgive myself if I folded there and he showed KT or something. Never the less that guy challenged me to HU and me being competative to a fault I accepted. I ended up taking him for a little under $100.

Today I played NL10 like I planned but as per usual it did not go good. Me and NL10 are just not compatable. I win at NL25 and NL50 when I actually try but NL10 is just a black hole of poker. So I dropped $30.

I decided I would sit down at some NL HU50 tables. I came up against a player who was playing 77/77/45 with an AF of inf over 65 hands. This was good as I can play trap and feint weakness and get paid. And thats what I did. I was up $80 after those 65 hands and then this hand came up....

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.25/$0.5 No-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Known players:

[tg]BB (Hero)$132.48:///////;SB$54.30:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2:d, 4:d.
Hero raises to $1.25, SB calls $0.75.

Flop: ($2.5) 8:d, Q:d, 5:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.50, SB raises to $4.75, Hero calls $3.25.

Turn: ($12) 3:d (2 players)
SB bets $7.75, Hero calls $7.75.

River: ($27.5) 7:c (2 players)
SB bets $19.75, Hero raises to $86.00, SB calls $20.80.

Final Pot: $154.05.

Results follow:

Hero shows a flush, queen high(2d 4d).

SB shows a flush, queen high(5d 6d).

Hero wins with a flush, queen high(2d 4d).

SB wins with a flush, queen high(5d 6d).

From the reads I had I still think I played this perfect. I just think it was unlucky. But my roll cant afford unlucky and I bailed with a ~$25 profit.

I then sat down at some HU FL .5/1 tables and proceeded to mind melt two villians. One was for $15 in 11 hands. The other was for $41 in 89 hands. This was probubly the most in control of my poker game I have ever felt. I was mixing up my play, taking different lines and using the same lines for bluffs and nutted hands to completely mess up my opponent. I remember one hand I checked back the flop with a pair of aces and then raised the turn, and bet the river to see the opponent show down second pair. A few hands later I did the same line as a bluff and he folded and showed one card, second pair. Its a wonderful feeling when you feel your completely on top of your game.

I also played 2 HU SnGs, one game I destroyed a guy, and the next game I destroyed myself. Overall break even.

This may or may not turn into a FLHU blog. I'm crushing these games ATM. Roll is up to $250 which is nothing to sneeze at since it's 250 big bets which is actually a reasonable roll.

The downside is the rake is huge and I'm sure there will be some regs I can't play profitably at this point. Goal is to spot this in under 50 hands. Other goals are to keep mixing up my ranges and to make sure I'm letting hands go before I put bad money in on the turn.

The upside to the rake is that if I can play properly I can probubly hit platinum star on stars but lets not get ahead of ourselfs.

Played about 1k hands of FLHU since my last post. I haven't been using a HUD since most of the play has been on the mobile app.

Some lessons. If you cannot hit cards in fl your in for a very rough time. If you can't hit cards anyone opponent can hit every hand, your in for a disastrous time. I dropped 30 big bets in about 30 minutes this morning just because I was hitting NOTHING. I'm usually pretty good with being honest with myself and it wasn't bad play.

But then I let it effect my play. I turned into a passive nit. I was getting run over and didn't feel like I could get any hands to fight back.

I took a break and reviewed. I needed to play more aggressive. And that's what I did. Not only did it work but it works so well I won all 50 big bets I lost back.

To end my session I was up against a very good player. It was basically a rake fest as the button was constantly being used as an auto 4 bet trigger. After a grueling match I had taken him for a full 8 big bets, yet he has actually lost 40. A solid 32 big bets to rake.

I also raked almost 250 vpps today. Pretty solid. On pace fr platinum star on stars but I doubt I'll keep this pace up.

But then I let it effect my play. I turned into a passive nit. I was getting run over and didn't feel like I could get any hands to fight back.

The only fixed limit game I play regularly atm is 5-Card Draw.

It is really important to do what you did: take a break and review.

When you do you realize that you have been card dead, just wait, they will come. When they do, though there will be a period during which every raise you make gets a chorus of folds. It might be necessary to show a few bluffs here.

Later when you get a flood of good hands, you need to rack up the chips, and like you say, being aggressive is the only way to do that.

Best of luck,
--VS

Been a while since I updated.

FLHU is going well. The game itself is very intense. It doesn't take long to lose a lot if you are not careful. Rake at the .5/1 level seems to be my only real opponent at the moment. All other players are between mediocre bad and unbelievably bad. Even the guy who took me for 30 big bets gave it all back to me when I sat him again. It reinforced that my thought about being card dead during our first match had a foundation behind it.

Since last update I'm up about 50 big bets in ~800 hands. I'm not sure exact amounts of hands due to the mobile app being a main part of my grinding. This in turn is helping me play at prime time as well as I can play on my breaks at work.

Until next time happy hunting.

Played 2 sessions today, and the second one was actually at home! This means I can post something interesting for once as I have hand histories.

Heres todays second session. The first session began with a 30 big bet loss followed by a 48 big bet win over about 100 hands to give me a +18 BB profit.
Add them together and that makes a nice tidy profit of 67 Big Bets in only 350 hands.

Now for some hands...

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3:d, 9:d.
Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6 SB) 9:h, K:c, J:c (2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4 BB) 3:h (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero caps, SB calls.

River: (12 BB) 7:c (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero caps, SB calls.

Final Pot: 20 BB.

SB had QJo. Who said .5/1 wasn't profitable because of rake?

Of course I did not make this play readless. It would be a TERRIBLE cap/cap on the turn and river if I had no reads. I had a pretty clear read that this guy just jams any pair in hopes that you will fold. Pretty decent read no? ♠_biggrin:

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T:d, Q:h.
Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6 SB) J:c, Q:s, 7:s (2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4 BB) 4:s (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

River: (8 BB) 6:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of queens(T:d Q:h).
SB shows two pairs, queens and jacks(J:d Q:d).

SB wins with two pairs, queens and jacks(J:d Q:d).

Another hand that would be considered incredibly poor played sans reads. But this guy was playing 3bet pre 27% of the time after about 100 hands. He would then bet or call down any pair. Just so happens he played this hand pretty decently. With that read I took him for 25 Big Bets though.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6:c, 5:d.
Hero raises, SB calls.

Flop: (4 SB) T:c, 5:h, 5:c (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero calls.

Turn: (4 BB) Q:s (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

River: (8 BB) J:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB.

Same guy which kind of explains my play in the last hand. He showed T3o on the river.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T:h, J:h.
Hero raises, SB calls.

Flop: (4 SB) 4:h, 8:d, 9:s (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Turn: (3 BB) 9:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

River: (5 BB) Q:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Final Pot: 7 BB.

And we'll finish it off with a funny hand. I bet you cannot guess what he had. Its a different villian than the last few hands so I wont tell you the reads I had.

Well I finally feel like I've made a good post on here. I know I know its about time! I'm playing the 30k gtd 1.10 rebuy atm on stars and I'm just going to relax for the rest of the night I think. Until next time take care.

Things got a bit interesting after the last post. Instead of relaxing I decided to grind hard. This may have not been the most EV choice. I went on a hard downswing when I couldn't hit cards against guys who never layed down hands.

I decided to move up to 1/2 and 2/4 and play some of the lobby holding regs. All signs would point at this being a bad move but in reality it made sense. My overall strategy is to beat players who actually have a clue. And that's what happened. 20 big bet profit at 2/4 and 17.5 BB profit at 1/2.

I'm also 1k vpps into the month so on pace for platinum still.

As for the next step. I'll keep playing the fish I have figured out at .5/1 but will probubly play a lot more 1/2 against regs.

Originally posted by Verre
will probubly play a lot more 1/2 against regs.

wut? r u serious?... hope you know what your doing! if it was me i'd avoid them and try to embrace the bad beats at .5/1.

at least consider that once you have played more hands with these regs they will start to get a better idea of your game and it will become much tougher for you.

Well I'm plus 220 today at 2/4. Doesn't seem like opponent talent scales with limits too well. In fact I find playing at the higher limits much easier. It seems the money means more to me. I also have taken some sweet lines that demand respect from thinking players that brainless monkeys cannot recognize.

yeah i can relate to that, sometimes its just sooooo frustrating at lower limits.

good luck, hopefully your upswing is long and fulfilling.

So I have been beating 2/4 FLHU pretty good but my bankroll is not even close to suited for it. This causes undue pressure and has lead to FAST burnout and an overall resistance to want to play at all.

The lack of goals/targets in my poker is a real burden on my long term feasibility. I've been thinking about how I can go about changing that. I've had a few ideas but a lot are limited with my small roll. There isn't much point making a challenge for myself and then start with 10 buy ins or 100 big bets. This is just setting myself up for destruction.

I have other ideas and I'm leaning towards one which I think could be very interesting for the community. I'll go about setting up myself and think about of I want to go through with it.

Verre's Pokerstrategy Starting Capital Challenge!

The challenge blog.