SnS Stands Up (and calls) One More Time Than The Rest

Yeah right. I am a bit too tired or so... hmm yeah as I think more about it, that makes definitely sense to do so. He could have picked up some sort of twopair on the turn. I am just not sure why he should minraise with a draw. Would make sense with twopairs for free showdown/value, or 99. But does he call them on a 3bet? 99, yes. Twopairs? maybe, but not sure. Would he bet them on the river? probably not?

What do you think of bet/call the turn and donk the river sth like 1/3 ?

Hey Guys!

Today I was down around 9 Stacks. I was frustrated, angry on myself and felt really helpless. How could that happen? Of course it is not only variance that punched me in my face, but I also had to take responsibility for this. As great as words may sound, they are just words. I did not do what I wanted. I did not take immediate action to change my behavior.. well maybe I tried, but eventually failed because I wanted too much all of a sudden.

I am not the person (anymore) that starts to cry on those "spots", but I realized that my beliefs are not as solid as they should be. I had my coaching with SF today and we talked a lot about this issue. I always see the negative things that happened in the past. I only see where I have failed, but not where I have gained strength (passed the Uni exams, got more structure into my life, broke up with my GF to have more time, went out, had a lot of fun outside, started doing 100 pushups every single day, started this blog, ripped my ass off with homework, etc..). Fundamentally, it is the best to adapt a new mindset:

I CAN and WILL become the BEST Poker Player on my Limit

As it is with ordinary people, most of them work work work and eventually get paid pretty well compared to their fellow humans. But then they start to get satisfied with it, even though they could get much more out of their lives. I was quite satisfied with being on NL50 again, but I cannot let it happen that I get satisfied with staying there. I want to be up, reach the sky, and sleep on the clouds. I want to crush every regular who decides to face me. I want to finish my bucket list at one day, and this won't happen if I stay the same person forever. Something needs to be changed.

I created a mindmap about how to become a winning player, first of all. It starts with gaining a good Poker/Life Balance, continues with regular play times and breaks, qualitative/systematic work on my game + continuous reflection, and ends with making a cut between real life and poker.

From Today on I will focus more on becoming this kind of person that works for his money, does not take anything for granted and does not assume that things fall into anybody's laps.

The Evening

After the SF coaching I played another session of 45 min Zoom which went awesome. I also marked around 8 hands and went through them with my buddy. He helps me a lot right now and I am so grateful for his services.

I have also created a new account on iPoker and will ship my BR over as soon as my Neteller Acc is activated.

Have a Good night, boys and girls. See you tomorrow (with more content).

♠_thumbsup:

Originally posted by Schnitzelfisch
♠_thumbsup:

Winning by Folding

Today I played about 5 sessions of each 45-60 minutes. I also watched part 2 of how to play the nuts and recognized some important things. One of them is that my biggest weakness atm is that I hate to fold in big pots.

Let's look at following Hand:

SB: $22.94 (VPIP: 15.06, PFR: 7.55, 3Bet Preflop: 1.85, Hands: 395)
BB: $70.36 (VPIP: 26.75, PFR: 23.99, 3Bet Preflop: 10.83, Hands: 2,027)
UTG: $50.00 (VPIP: 21.12, PFR: 16.38, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 238)
Hero (MP): $68.90
CO: $51.65 (VPIP: 22.58, PFR: 18.06, 3Bet Preflop: 4.69, Hands: 158)
BTN: $33.19 (VPIP: 62.34, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 4.88, Hands: 78)

SB posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has Q♦ Q♠

fold, Hero raises to $1.50, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to $6.00, Hero calls $4.50

Flop: ($12.25, 2 players) 8♣ 2♠ 8♠ BB bets $6.00, Hero calls $6.00

Turn%s: ($24.25, 2 players) J♣ BB bets $13.00, Hero calls $13.00

River%s: ($50.25, 2 players) 7♥ BB bets $45.36 and is all-in, Hero calls $43.90 and is all-in

The opponent is a reg who likes to 3bet a bit wider, from the BB 11%, and in general 10% vs MP. Because we are also deep I prefer calling here. Flop and Turn is totally standard for me to call against some Jx, and draws, maybe some random AK. On the River, however, we are bombed to death against the nuts (JJ, A8s, 89s, 9Ts, KK+). He cannot give himself any FE and it is unlikely that he ever has a weaker hand than ours how he bombs into us.

At the turn I already knew that I have to fold the river (unless I hit a Q) to a shove. I didn't. Why? Because my ego likes to have validation for my play. It invented stories why I should call there and cut out all the rational information I had at this time. This guy is aggro preflop but he is not a huge maniac also.

It is about creating the art of folding from new on.

Improvements

I played, apart from the hand above, very solid today, there were only minor mistakes, but I could make a huge step towards a better poker player. I set times and only exceeded these in one session where I played 15 minutes longer as planned. I also took breaks and analyzed some hands with my bro.

In the end I lost two huge pots:

PokerStars - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: $53.76 (VPIP: 30.43, PFR: 28.26, 3Bet Preflop: 13.33, Hands: 48)
BTN: $53.57 (VPIP: 24.10, PFR: 19.71, 3Bet Preflop: 8.04, Hands: 2,455)
Hero (SB): $106.00
BB: $25.00 (VPIP: 19.23, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 78)
UTG: $47.73 (VPIP: 23.28, PFR: 9.02, 3Bet Preflop: 1.18, Hands: 632)
MP: $36.21 (VPIP: 40.63, PFR: 3.13, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 32)

Hero posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has T♥ T♣

fold, fold, CO raises to $1.25, fold, Hero raises to $4.00, fold, CO calls $2.75

Flop: ($8.50, 2 players) 6♠ T♠ 2♠ Hero bets $5.00, CO calls $5.00

Turn%s: ($18.50, 2 players) 5♦ Hero bets $12.00, CO calls $12.00

River%s: ($42.50, 2 players) 3♥ Hero bets $85.00 and is all-in, CO calls $32.76 and is all-in

Hero shows T♥ T♣ (Three of a Kind, Tens) (Pre 81%, Flop 72%, Turn 75%)
CO shows 4♣ 4♠ (Straight, Six High) (Pre 19%, Flop 28%, Turn 25%)
CO wins $105.52

PokerStars - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $49.95 (VPIP: 21.53, PFR: 16.93, 3Bet Preflop: 4.92, Hands: 1,310)
BB: $48.75 (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
UTG: $26.53 (VPIP: 19.23, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 78)
CO: $85.59 (VPIP: 44.07, PFR: 37.29, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 63)
Hero (BTN): $50.49

SB posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has Q♥ Q♣

fold, CO raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $4.00, fold, fold, CO raises to $12.00, Hero calls $8.00

Flop: ($24.75, 2 players) J♣ 4♣ T♣ CO checks, Hero bets $14.00, CO calls $14.00

Turn%s: ($52.75, 2 players) Q♠ CO checks, Hero bets $24.49 and is all-in, CO calls $24.49

River%s: ($101.73, 2 players) 6♣

CO shows A♣ A♠ (Flush, Ace High) (Pre 82%, Flop 91%, Turn 30%)
Hero shows Q♥ Q♣ (Flush, Queen High) (Pre 18%, Flop 9%, Turn 70%)
CO wins $99.23

The good thing is: I don't care, because I played these hands very well for my opinion. In the QQ hand I only called because I had been pretty aggro against this guy and he seemed like the one who likes to 4bet bluff a lot in those spots. Tomorrow I have to do the homeworks for part 2 of the nuts.

I hope variance loves me again tomorrow

Good Night!

Welcome To iPoker

Hi Guys!

Yesterday, as you may noticed, I did not do a blog entry. All I did was playing -> reviewing -> playing -> reviewing. I talked with my buddy about many hands and of course I also learned a lot. I could actually post... ok I am excusing. I was a lazy ass yesterday. But sometimes those days have to be. I am catching up again and FML these 60 days will be mine.

Because I got a nice RB Deal, I changed the software for now and play on Winner Poker (which is in the iPoker Network). In the past I used to grind myself up from NL4 to NL10 on Poker770. And suddenly as soon as I hit the tables the bad beats did not want to leave my ass. I got lowkicked in my face endlessly.

In the beginning (yesterday) I have to get used to the skin, the players, and stuff like that. Then I had written down the main things that hit my eyes, and also some adjustments. I applied them today. It is funny, because back on NL50 I used to play a rather aggressive style, putting a lot of pressure on my opponents, and put myself often into very marginal spots. I also did not focus well and probably did never play my A-Game. This time it is different because the regs on iPoker are even more aggressive than on stars and do a lot of random bullshit. The art for me now is to tighten up again, and play pure value poker, open tighter ranges from any position, cbet less etc.. So far this works really well. The only problem is that variance right now took its broomstick, pulled down my pants, and crammed it into my anus until... (don't wanna continue this, you can think it ♦ )

Well, I always complained about downswings, and I also never was openminded about it. What do I mean by that?

I always kept grinding and grinding in the "hope" that everything will be fine again. When this didn't happen I complained even more and more and implemented more worse plays than ever. THIS downswing, however, changes my dramatically in a fashion that I am seeing the positive sides on it: It is a chance for me to gain with it, to become prepared for it when this happens to me on NL100+, and it also teaches me to get dis-attached by the outcome and to get away from results-oriented thinking. It is just about playing A-Game, and not about earning $xx per hour. Therefore, today was a great day. I could play consistently good poker, and were at least in my B-Game ALL the time. Another mistake in the past was to not review or question my game. I am doing this now frequently and it helps me a lot doing better decisions in the future. The only thing I should do is to post more hands in the forums. But also talking with poker friends helps a lot.

So, to summarize, start to get used to downswings, they can ALWAYS happen, do not let bad results influence your optimal winning strategy. Grow with it.

Here are some funny hands (this site is crazy):

1)
iPoker - $0.20 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 115.8 BB (VPIP: 38.64, PFR: 36.36, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 46)
UTG: 182.2 BB (VPIP: 17.14, PFR: 11.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 36)
Hero (MP): 112.05 BB
CO: 22.9 BB (VPIP: 23.26, PFR: 20.93, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 45)
BTN: 105.6 BB (VPIP: 22.03, PFR: 16.95, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 61)
SB: 41 BB (VPIP: 17.57, PFR: 14.86, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 74)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q♠ Q♣

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to 10 BB, Hero calls 7 BB

Flop: (20.5 BB, 2 players) 5♣ 2♥ 6♠ BB bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

Turn%s: (44.5 BB, 2 players) 9♠ BB checks, Hero bets 23 BB, BB raises to 93.8 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 67.05 BB

River%s: (224.6 BB, 2 players) J♠

BB shows 4♥ A♠ (High Card, Ace) (Pre 30%, Flop 30%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows Q♠ Q♣ (One Pair, Queens) (Pre 70%, Flop 70%, Turn 84%)
BB wins 0 BB
Hero wins 213.4 BB

2)
iPoker - $0.20 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 99 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 8)
UTG: 424.8 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 23.44, 3Bet Preflop: 12.00, Hands: 64)
MP: 104.4 BB (VPIP: 23.62, PFR: 17.09, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 203)
Hero (CO): 213.4 BB
BTN: 99 BB (VPIP: 20.43, PFR: 13.98, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 96)
SB: 107.7 BB (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 15.69, 3Bet Preflop: 11.43, Hands: 102)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♣ K♠

fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero raises to 19 BB, BB calls 11 BB

Flop: (38.5 BB, 2 players) 5♦ 8♦ 5♠ BB bets 38.5 BB, Hero calls 38.5 BB

Turn%s: (115.5 BB, 2 players) Q♣ BB bets 40 BB, Hero raises to 80 BB, BB calls 1.5 BB

River%s: (198.5 BB, 2 players) 3♥

BB shows 7♦ 4♦ (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 20%, Flop 40%, Turn 25%)
Hero shows K♣ K♠ (Two Pair, Kings and Fives) (Pre 80%, Flop 60%, Turn 75%)
Hero wins 188.6 BB

And a good fold (?)

3)
iPoker - $0.20 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 19.64, 3Bet Preflop: 7.32, Hands: 114)
UTG: 54.6 BB (VPIP: 26.00, PFR: 18.37, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 50)
MP: 109.4 BB (VPIP: 27.42, PFR: 24.19, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 64)
CO: 152.45 BB (VPIP: 23.62, PFR: 17.09, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 203)
BTN: 49.05 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
Hero (SB): 110.2 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♥ J♠

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 10 BB, fold, CO calls 7.5 BB

Flop: (21 BB, 2 players) 4♠ Q♦ J♣ Hero checks, CO checks

Turn%s: (21 BB, 2 players) T♣ Hero checks, CO checks

River%s: (21 BB, 2 players) J♦ Hero bets 14 BB, CO raises to 55 BB, fold

CO wins 46.55 BB

-

Woke up early today. Lets get productive!!!

Good evening, boys and girls

From now on I will do a daily review with hands, mistakes, good plays, and things to improve. I also choose ONE thing I learned on each day that I definitely have to take into the next one. Like this it is easier to improve, track my progress, and eventually gain better results. From now on I will also stop telling any stupid stories about variance and bad beats. Let's go!

9.08.2013

What went good ?

- Played 5 Sessions for one hour each (incl. 1 u2u with mitzkracher
with a great postsession analysis)
- Analyzed every session and made up improvements for the next one
- Learned two new concepts and applied them successfully
- When I had a down and was very angry I made a short break and then
pushed myself through it.
- I did not care as much as elsewise about my bankroll
- made 60 pushups ♠_cool:

What went bad ?

- I encountered Entitlement Tilt again and started to yell when fish hit
and I made wrong decisions, even though I knew that I was beat.
- I could have posted more hands (did 4)
- I tried to bluff fish and fell back into old habits of being too aggressive and
trying to win every pot.

Biggest Mistakes at the tables
1)
preflop it is an easy 3bet, get coldcalled by a very loose dude behind me. Flop cbet is standard I think. On the turn he will prbly always cbh his Kx, and only bets AK, Sets, and the flush. Think its too thin to assume he also calls AT-AQ on that flop. Therefore we are beat, but here entitlement sets the trap.
http://weaktight.com/6013458

2)
I 3bet AJs preflop against a fish. He calls and then raises my cbet me holding toppair. I mean what can he actually have that we beat? nothing probably. I should have folded. He just calls any Ax apart from sth like AT and also every draw.
http://weaktight.com/6013461

3)
This hand was also against a fish from whome I got the read that he bets 1/3 of the pot two times with his toppair. When he checks back the turn he either has sth big or sth really weak. However, I decided to bet the river really big assuming Jx as a most likely hand would fold. Wrong approach I think. I was also frustrated because he called my cbets all the time (why the heck did I cbet all the time then? ♦ )
http://weaktight.com/6013462

4)
Think its fine to call the flop here for half pot. On the turn we don't have a valuebet so I checkback in hope not a high card to come. Then he bets pretty large on the river. He probably has QQ+ or some randomly weird played Jx, but that wouldnt make sense. We can also discount Ax from his range since he would check it on the river cause he has sd value. -> JUST FOLD MAN!
http://weaktight.com/6013468

Main Thing I learned today
(there are actually two)

First:
I suffer under entitlement tilt and have to get rid of this.
Do not assume to win every hand against weaker players because they can also hit hard. I must push against this resistance of not wanting to fold!

Second:
Do not post graphs, or look at my bankroll as long as I am doing it to push my ego with moniez.

Tonight!

.. I become TwiceT and dance like a monkey. Me and a friend are going to partyyy, yeah. I did not leave my small village for years or so ♦ So.. if you are also going out I wish you the best fun in the world and a lots of nice girls

Cheers!

Hey SNS thought I'd drop by.

I really think you're punishing yourself over hands that aren't really bad plays at all. I'll offer some comments, maybe you'll find them useful, I don't know.

Hand 1: you say he is super loose, so why don't you bet the turn here? He has KT+ in his range, surely? As well as 99-QQ which fish find so hard to fold. As played, it's not super bad, but depends what kind of fish he is. If he is loose/passive, then this play is worse since he doesn't bet worse and hardly has many bluffs.

Hand 2: Don't worry about it! If he is really fishy, then you're way ahead of his re-raising range on the flop. It's more a question of whether you get it in now, or later. If he's super bad, I'm just getting it in on the flop, and expect to see hands as bad as A4o call off stacks. If he's not terrible, calling and playing some turns is fine. Fish are TERRIBLE, and I think you're worrying too much about results here.

Hand 3: If he has a high WTSD I'm just giving this up after the flop 100%. It's hard to think what draws he might fold on the river, since most have some kind of pair now. You could try to fold out a 6 only, but fish isn't ever folding Jx here, even for $5. If you wanted to fold a 6, you can make it small, like $3 or something. But rather no bet here.

Hand 4: Why don't you think you have a value bet on the turn? He has ATs+/AQ+ as well as some 66-88. Was he super tight or something? I would bet here to protect my hand as well as get some value from non-believing AK/AQ. As played, I think your line is fine since sometimes he bluffs here and you need to call something you check on the turn, like TT/99. It's close but fine, IMO.

Anyway, hope things are going good and keep crushing.

Hey ains21 ! I will reply soon to your post Thanks for taking the time!

----------------

Yesterday night was crazy. I was out with a friend and also met my sister with two girls she had with her. One had a relationship the other one was single (what I didn't know in the beginning) for one week. However, before they came to the party we were busy talking to random girls sitting on the seats next to us. One teached me to speak swedish. Ofc I forgot everything lol, there was this Take5 thing where you had 5€ entry and got served with 5 drinks of your choice, also longdrinks. So we were pretty drunk after a while and were dancing like the motherf***n apes ♦ It was a looot of fun I really have missed sitting at home and being busy with poker all the time. Tonight something akin will happen I think.

Well, the one friend of my sister was kind of not used to me not giving her ANY attention. I actually gave a shit because she seemed pretty superficial and talked shit about the girls my bro and I were approaching. Ofc she saw that we were doing that and was, like that, even more attracted to me. Eventually she wanted to come home with me (what I could not deny lol she was very pretty though) after we almost did NOT talk at all with each other. I was really surprised because I always thought that you must DO something to get the hot girls. But the epiphany of this evening was then that it is just about talking to random girls and getting even more of them because you are preselected. ♦ So I drove the car of my friend home, being a bit drunk still and we both had a great night together
We also spend the half day until she left my place. Let's see what will happen next, I am very openminded but I am not expecting to get something deep right now since I am single and want to get most out of life (and partying like crazy).

Poker

I really have to shorten up in here because I still must shower and stuff like that. I played 2 sessions of each 45 minutes today. There were 1-2 hands I was a bit unsure with.

Hand 1:

This one got played in speed hold'em. My opponents stats showed that he was 3betting around 13 percent over 100 hands. I thought he would do it light in here and just shoved. Maybe its a bit overplayed to do it with TT in these positions in that players usually possess really tight ranges like JJ+,AQ(AJ)

Hand 2:
Think I missplayed this one. Villain has a really short stack and I could have just cbet against several broadways, Ax and could have easily called an AI.
Instead I do this tricky BS by checking, who KNOWS why, think I was still full of gin or sth.. on the river its an easy call.

Lesson of the day

Do NOT play alcoholized, even though it may seem that you are able to play, you are still full of shit.

And some german rap ♠_love:

You're doing it right.

@ains21

Hand 1: you say he is super loose, so why don't you bet the turn here? He has KT+ in his range, surely? As well as 99-QQ which fish find so hard to fold. As played, it's not super bad, but depends what kind of fish he is. If he is loose/passive, then this play is worse since he doesn't bet worse and hardly has many bluffs.

Yeah well, I did not expect him to bet worse than Kx there, and there are actually no Ax, apart from turned twopairs in his range that he calls on the flop (not that low foldtocbet value). That's why the ACTUAL plan was to check/fold the turn. Of course also could bet, but that he has such a wide Kx range is sth. I doubt.

Hand 2: Don't worry about it! If he is really fishy, then you're way ahead of his re-raising range on the flop. It's more a question of whether you get it in now, or later. If he's super bad, I'm just getting it in on the flop, and expect to see hands as bad as A4o call off stacks. If he's not terrible, calling and playing some turns is fine. Fish are TERRIBLE, and I think you're worrying too much about results here.

Yeah, but it always depends on what kind of fish we are playing against. He seemed rather passive (in the postsession analysis), what I did not focus on while playing. I just said to myself "yeah, fish, whatever -> AI" - ofc this reasoning sucks and is almost only ego- and entitlement-related. When I got the read that he is raising any toppair on the flop, yeah, then its an easy bet/br, but as a general assumption for fish, its too thin I think

Hand 3: If he has a high WTSD I'm just giving this up after the flop 100%. It's hard to think what draws he might fold on the river, since most have some kind of pair now. You could try to fold out a 6 only, but fish isn't ever folding Jx here, even for $5. If you wanted to fold a 6, you can make it small, like $3 or something. But rather no bet here.

Exactly! I could not fold out anything of his flopcallingrange here, apart from a 6 (maybe). Giving up on the flop could also be the better play.

Hand 4: Why don't you think you have a value bet on the turn? He has ATs+/AQ+ as well as some 66-88. Was he super tight or something? I would bet here to protect my hand as well as get some value from non-believing AK/AQ. As played, I think your line is fine since sometimes he bluffs here and you need to call something you check on the turn, like TT/99. It's close but fine, IMO.

It was a hard decision the river as played. As you say, we can valuebet the turn and checkback the river. It is probably the better play because then we don't have to level ourselves into a call/crying fold on the river.

Anyway, hope things are going good and keep crushing.

Thank you very much for your wishes and also for the post. I hope crushing NL50 soon. For you: Keep it up

11.08.2013

I am really proud on my progress right now. My priority is to rule out this massgrinding thing. The first step was to remove playing times later than midnight. I succeeded the 4th day in a row and I am very optimistic in keep on doing it.
Pokerwise I did play a bit less the last couples of days because I was going out for two days in a row. Yesterday was a quite exhausting night for me. Not only that I was still exhausted from the night before, but I also wasn't capable to approach any girls in the club. Don't know why. I felt tension in my body which did not allow me to do that + I must think at the girl I took home the night before. I got informed that she has a boyfriend for 6 months, even though she told me she broke up one week ago. However, we come out greatly with each other, and I plan to meet her for 2-3 times more before I leave Germany again.

Poker

The last 2 days, in sum, I played 3 1/2 sessions with a winrate of 18bb/100 on NL20 which is quite good I think.
I am making progress and feel more ready than before crushing these games.
Soon, I will get staked for NL50, so the pressure will be much higher on me and I will MUST play much more solid than ever to really get something out of this and not owe any money to my friend lol ♦

Hands
1)
Preflop this guy had a 3bet of 17%, 36% against the button, vs SB only 1/6 times. Though, I expect him to 3bet pretty wide to make the 4bet profitable to me. Maybe it was a bit overplayed preflop since people generally rather call in the BB than 3bet..

However, on the flop I decided to cbet because either he has some slowplayed QQ+ or just random trash he decides to flat out of whatever reasons.. We also have a gutter and a overcards so the cbet should be pretty awesome here Turn and River play themselves.. ofc he can have AK, but not too often I think.

2)
The initial squeezor did not 3bet before, but got just 20 hands of him. Preflop given odds and position I call. Postflop he can easily rep AK or KK+, but he can also have hands like AJ/AQ/AT so I call with the playn giving up any other street.
River is interesting because the only value hands for him to bet that actually make sense are slowplayed KK, AA, JJ, and KJ. Though I fold, because I also could easily hold KJs+ in this spot, and people generally don't bluff a 2nd overcard that is worse than toppair.

After having slept enough (I hope so ♦ ), I will be travelling down south to my friend hooni. In Wiesbaden we will make our own poker bootcamp for sure and we will push each other through ups and downs, analyze a ton of hands, and fucken bring our game to the highest. + we will go out and meet a ton of chicks, and dance like mofo Patrick Swayze ♦

But before I promise tooo much of that, I better go to sleep now Have a good night Ladies.

Edit:

Lesson of the Day

Don't get attached to any outcome. If you are TRYING things won't work. You have to believe in yourself doing exactly the right thing in that moment, and you have to do it for the own sake of doing it. After you did something you can reflect upon your actions. But never think about results in advance (as long as this blocks you in your behavioral freedom).

12.08.2013

Today I was travelling purely all day long by train to visit my bro Hooni to do a one week poker bootcamp together. Wiesbaden seems to be a really nice city. I just saw the main station and its surroundings so far, but I think we will explore the city pretty soon. I also can't wait to check out the girls and the parties in Frankfurt.

Check out the Korean food we had. I already feel like home.

We already played one hour of poker and gonna continue now. Tomorrow there will be more updates regarding content and the plans for the week.

cheers! ♠_cool:

13.08.2013

.. and simultaneously the second evening in Wiesbaden. Today we woke up at 10, had some great breakfast, and started to develop a plan on which we build up the next days. The Plan is very simple yet:

- we do u2u's every day and try to improve our game by figuring out
the most gravitating leaks for this moment. From that point on we are
looking for content.
- we do sports in between. Today we went jogging for almost an hour,
tomorrow we will hit the gym pretty hard, and gonna party in the night
in Frankfurt (also see it at sports)
- we grind a looot.

Hands

QJo / flopped straight
QTo on paired turn

It's a tough one on the turn. EmanuelC writes that JJ/99 are less likely to 3b/br the flop, and would rather call instead of KK which obv. owns our sets.
Also tough to say if he ever jams with Jx. I mean it would more sense than jamming a boat on the turn. That's why I called. It looked really bluffy to me. What do you think about the hand / would you ever fold the turn, since we are holding "only" astraight on a paired board.

98s oop vs TAG Limp/call

Villain's stats look very solid. I guess he just misclicked by limpcalling the BU. On the flop there are some draws possible.. QT/JT/flushdraws. I check the turn because there is not much value from worse than our hand. I actually was hoping he had a flushdraw and would just checkback to call another bet from us. Also JJ/TT would probably fold the turn.
On the river it makes absolutely no sense to raise sth worse than a K. Maybe it's better to fold because he can easily hold Kx here which tries to trap. Further, people are REALLY hones on the river at these stakes.. it's a mental flaw of mine.. I probably KNEW that he has us beat... but I did not want to get "bluffed" lol. It's another EGO thing... I did not really think about how OFTEN he has a hand here, and how often he does not.

KK 4bet Pot - River: A

Villain was a reg, not 3betting much in position (who knows why). I do not give him TT/JJ here. Rather QQ+,AK - QQ can never call a riverbet, AK has us beat now, AA had it before ofc. To the 4betsizing preflop (if he has it) he can also hold A2s-A5s which call 2 streets because they get the odds on the straight and the A. Maybe it would have been better to bet the flop and turn bigger here. On the River I jammed, which I think now, was a mistake.

K3o freeplay: Funny calldown

Mental Game

I had another coaching session with SF today. We talked about 1) Confidence, and 2) My mental game.

1) Confidence: SF gave me a video from Ramith Sethi in which he talks about this topic. I watched it once but forgot the half, so I will watch it a second or even third time tomorrow. Confidence is a real blocker in my success. It affects many areas in my life... Poker.. Social Life... Getting things done in general. So often things are overwhelming me because I see them as a barrier. I see duties for instance as something that HAS to be done, and not as something that gives me more structure, control, and satisfaction when finished. I need to change my view about pretty much everything, and stop seeing the negative side on everything I do. For example I was out on saturday after I took this very pretty girl home. But this time my confidence was suddenly gone: I wanted to talk to other girls in the club, but I started to freeze because I saw only the "negative" consequences (there are actually no negative consequences since every approach gives you experience and even rejections can be sooo fun). And in Poker I also freeze very often when it comes to getting things done I've planned. I wanted to do the 6max course homeworks until the end of August, but I was always afraid of not achieving this, saw things overwhelming me and eventually did not do anything. I cannot accept this BS any longer.

2) Mental Game: I suffer under Entitlement Tilt. Not only to fish, but to every player on my limit. You can somehow see it in the 98s hand I've posted above. I did not fold because I could not accept being probably beaten by a Reg that limp/calls. This reasoning is purely based on negative emotions, and protecting my ego. Also the QTo hand (for at least a part) - I say things to myself such as "Ahhhh c'mon he can never have a boat when he plays like that!" or "WTF? What worse can he play like that? can he? naaah, he is full of shit, I have to call here". It is about not wanting to lose, or give up a hand in which I've thrown already 40bb. I wrote a mental hand history (unfortunately in German, otherwise I would have posted it here) about this issue. But its only one part on this. I have to work on this every day, as the first thing when I wake up, for 2 hours. There is enough content out there that helps me, poker friends, my bro hooni, videos, etc..

Main Thing I learned Today

Mental Game is the main point to focus on. Forget all this strategy stuff because mental flaws cost me much more than strategic mistakes.

14.08.2013

It's fun! It is awesome! To hang out with another person who has EXACTLY the same goals and interests as you have. We understand each other perfectly and already started to be very productive when it comes to Poker.

After I wrote this wall of text yesterday, I started to work on my mental game today for about 90 minutes. I reviewed the mental hand history and also added something to it so that it fits a bit more to my current state of being. Further, I filled in the client questionnaire mentioned in Mental Game of Poker. It's also described as Tilt Profile. There are three steps, and in each one you have to deepen your responses by reviewing the questionnaire 2 more times. Today I finished the first step. It took quite some time and before we were brunching some nice Bratcurry in a Store which is specialized on German sausages, yes baby, Wiesbaden is what I'm talkin' 'bout ♦

When we came back I was working on my mental game and my buddy was also doing some theory. When finished we both played a session, I marked some hands and developed questions if I made the correct play to each one of them.

Interesting Hand

We are sitting in the BB with Q8o, I think its too weak to flatcall so I decided to 3bet preflop. Villain (TAG w/ 75% ft3bet) calls me. I have been some kind of aggro before. Hard to say what he really has on this flop. Giving the reraise-sizing preflop I would give him 99/33/JJ , and also some KJ/AJ/AQ - QQ+,AK I expect him to 4bet preflop. Maybe he holds also some random hands like SCs or 1-2 suited Ax.

I cbet vs all PPs lower than 99, AQ/KQ. But I thought too shortly. The Turn blanks, I check behind cause I don't expect anything to fold here. Now he bets bit more than 1/2 pot. Question is now: How often does he hold the flush, AND is he capable of folding a set here? We need 58% Foldequity on the river when shoving. Given that he does just fold 33% to cbets in 3bet pots, we can also include SOME (prob. only a few) floats in his range. Given that he folds AJ/KJ ALONE I guess we can easily shove the river representing the flush! What do you think?

Lesson of the Day

Never SNAPdo ANYthing in poker. ALWAYS think exactly about your opponent's range and split it into 3 parts: Bottomrange, Middlerange, and Toprange. Then see how hard each range has hit the board before you do ANY kind of action.

15.08.2013

.. and mid of the month.

Today was a great day. I am still in Wiesbaden and we had the 4th day of our bootcamp. This time we were grinding a LOT! In the morning I worked on my mental game and recognized another blocker of my success in poker: Desperation Tilt.

The last days were pretty annoying. Running under EV for days or even weeks makes you lose your confidence and motivation. This in turn distracts you while playing and not seeing the mistakes of others. You also tend to expect frequently occurring losing sessions in the future. These beliefs act as self-fulfilling prophecies and your game quality automatically drops WITHOUT noticing it. You do stupid calls, take obviously too marginal spots etc.

ALONE realizing this made me play much better today and do much better decisions. I am really happy that I made this step again to work on my mental game (which is probably the most influencing thing when it comes to my personal success in poker).

EV-Wise I am plus on iPoker again which is pretty cool. It can only go forward from now on. Blogging for 1 1/2 months now seemed like not giving me any sort of progress but as I write and write more about my issues it is a lot easier to eventually gain.

Funny Hand (against Reg)

Lesson of the Day

Desperation acts like a black hole you unintentionally get sucked into when not realizing its whole field of impacts. -> 2nd big issue besides entitlement tilt.

16.08.2013

Today I did the same as last days, working on my mental game in the noon and after it hooni and I went to the city buying some stuff and working out in the gym. Due to our late wake-up we did not have much time to grind and I ended up only grinding 50 Speed Poker hands.

However, we are going out tonight, yeeeyy... first we're invited to a house warming and if it's enough fun to stay there we gonna party there, if not we will go to Frankfurt and mix up the clubs there. ♦ Whatever will happen, I am excited and I am sure it will be an awesome night... it's time again to hit on the girls HEHEHEHEE

Have a Good Night guys and gl at the tables.

Lesson of the day

When I want to increase the quality of my relationships I have to work on myself first. Tamara Lackey has talked about this in her 2-days workshop about relationships. This also implies if I want to get better with women I have to start at my mental game in this area as well.

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LETS GET IT ON!!!!

--> me writing this blog entry lolz.. ♦

17.08.2013

Woooooow.. I did not expect to get so drunk last night. The house party we've been on last night was actually a bit lame (~20 Germans). Music was cool, but unfortunately nobody decided to dance. However, there were some nice girls I talked to. The hottest girl already had a boyfriend, so no chance. I talked to another one who recently quit her ten years (!) relationship, but she was lame and it ended up like an interview ♦

Another item on my bucket list:
- Gangbang with teams (Team blue vs Team red condom color)


My friend Hooni and I left the party at 3, and on the way home we were rapping to handy music so loud that probably anybody on our way at least woke up for a few seconds ♦

Then we went to sleep and I started playing at ten or so. Played some speed poker, which wasn't a THAT great idea, dropped a bit by heavy redline losses, but played later on another 2 sessions which actually went pretty awesome.

Also had another coaching with SF today. We continued talking about confidence, and he came up with a cool exercise in which I must describe him how to brush teeth, and also how to pickup girls. It was a bit weird in the beginning but as I explained him (as if he never did these things in his life) how to do them I gained more confidence in achieving things by myself. Plan is now to come up with a good, structured approach to finally crush NL20 (since I am BE for another 2 weeks now..).

I also made a testimonial for him. You may want to check out my story. Never recorded a video of mine before so don't mind when my speech isn't as fluent as SF's

Mental Game

I did not do anything for it today. Though I felt great playing, especially in the last 2 sessions where I focussed especially on how to exploit the regs. Gonna write a mental hand history tomorrow for desperation tilt and also gonna review my tilt profile.

Main Lesson of the Day

Whenever you are facing a challenge, it is best when you try to explain how to become XY to a person who has never heard of it in his life. From there on you can develop a good plan towards your goal.