I Will Be A Pro Someday!

I've watched couple of episodes of EPT super high roller and main event and I got super motivated! Would be pretty sweet to play some big live tournaments sometimes, not seriously but mainly for fun. My long term goal is to play some tournaments in Europe and travel a bit with the money I've made from poker, all this before I turn 21. Would be sweet.

Back to reality: Still playing NL20, breaking even this far, played 25k hands. Slight profit with rakeback but I'm not super excited. Gotta remember it's a small sample and when playing with many regulars variance is tougher than usually. I just have to get volume and play my best, nothing else to do. Self discipline is something I really have to work on since I'm pretty lazy what comes to things I don't feel like doing. A lot of things I should do and/or I've planned to do but instead I end up playing LoL or watching TV-series way too often. Self discipline is like a physical muscle: you gotta work out in order to get fit.

Session reviews and improving my game outside the tables is another thing I have to work on. I haven't really done this in a while and I really should start doing it. I guess I haven't studied that much because I feel like I'm allready good enough to beat NL20 and I should just play and move up as soon as possible but that's mostly bullshit. Yes, I might be good enough to beat NL20 allready but there's always something to improve.

Session review, I should do this more often!

I think that the best thing session review gives me is confidence. When I take a look at hands that I played and struggled, I either realize that I played the hand well or I learn what I should have done better. This is great!

Maybe you should try to do some video too. That is one way to learn the game when you try to explain different spots yourself.

Originally posted by NutzAreOk
Maybe you should try to do some video too. That is one way to learn the game when you try to explain different spots yourself.

Yeah, I can imagine. I have commentated my own game to myself in my head in the past and I've found that to be really useful.

While I was playing a session I decided to try 6 tabling instead of 4 tabling. It felt pretty good! From now on I will be playing 6 tables of NL20 speed. I will reduce the amount of tables back to 4 when I move up to NL50.

The last few days:

Picture might be a bit small but whatever. Last 8 days haven't been that great. I've just lost day after day and that does not feel good. I am loosing after 44k hands. I'm slightly winning with rb and I'm running approx. 8bin under ev but still I am disappointed. Games are quite tough on ipoker since there are so many regulars compared to fishes.

My confidence has gone down significantly and I'm not super motivated right now. I've always thought that I have the edge in these games and now when I'm losing and my confidence is going down it just feels bad. Results are bad, volume is bad, I'm really disappointed. I'm not where I thought I would be a year ago or so.

However I'm not giving up, that's not an option! I think I will not play today and tomorrow at all, I try to do something else. I'll be back on friday, gotta get my confidence back, study mental game and get volume. I also try to live somewhat healthy life (sleep/nutrition/hydration/exercise) in order to play my best and be mentally strong.

Kind of reliefing to see that I've actually ran pretty badly... ♦

Atleast I haven't necessarily lost because of bad plays.

Wtf is dat red line towards the end? ♦

Originally posted by mesisification
I think I will not play today and tomorrow at all, I try to do something else.

Screw this! I will play tomorrow! Gotta stay confident, improve all the time and get volume! ♦

Hello guys! Haven't updated for a while simply because I haven't felt like doing so. I will start to update this blog again but not very frequently, maybe like once in a week. I just don't see the point of posting 1-5k hand graphs because those don't really matter that much. Same with things like "I lost 4 flips today and I'm really sad", I just don't think that people want to read that kind of posts. ♦

(Semi)long story short: I played NL20 on ipoker last time I posted. I moved up to NL50 and ran pretty well over the small sample, won close to 1k. Now I'm playing NL50 on pokerstars. I decided to change site because pokerstars is just a lot better than any other site in my opinion. Software is really good and smooth, I'm able to use hotkeys when I'm playing, VIP system is really nice and games are running 24/7.

At the moment I'm really motivated to play simply because now I have pretty clear goals. I really didn't have good goals when I was playing on ipoker, just to make as much money as I can and move up as soon as possible. That is not enough for me, grinding got pretty boring. Now on pokerstars I have 2 main goals:

1. Play 100k hands as soon as possible and see what my winrate looks like.
2. Grind supernova this year (2-3 hours in a day on average rest of the year, not that hard).

I will post a graph once I hit 100k hands on NL50 zoom. Meanwhile I will post some hands and some random thoughts about poker-related things.

Take care!

My plan was to play 100k hands on NL50 zoom and see what my winrate looks like and if my winrate is 3-4bb/100 or more then I would take a shot at NL100. God I'm just terrible at keeping promises that I've made to myself but fuck it, I'm gonna take a shot at NL100 today most likely! ♦

My bankroll is around 2500 on pokerstars which means that I have 25 buyins to NL100. That's not a lot but I will drop down to NL50 if my bankroll goes below 2k so I think it's perfectly fine to try that out as long as I stick to my plan. I've never really had a problem with bankroll management so I am definitely able to go back to NL50 if it's necessary.

I'm not sure what my winrate looks like at NL50 over a big sample but I'm pretty confident that I'm a winning player there. My estimation would be somewhere around 3-4bb/100. Could be more, could be less, I'm not sure. But again I don't see any problem in taking shots with a good plan so I will go for it! Normally I play 4 zoom tables but I will play only 2 tables at first when I'm taking a shot.

If its possible for you to grind at night/early morning try to take your shot at 2-10 am Finnish time, as the games are much softer. Gl mate! You can do it!

Originally posted by Veini
If its possible for you to grind at night/early morning try to take your shot at 2-10 am Finnish time, as the games are much softer. Gl mate! You can do it!

Thanks mate! It would be possible if I start to wake up really early and grind from like 5am to 10am. I'm still in high school so I can't really grind after midnight. Thanks for the advice!

I just played one-hour session 2 tabling NL100 zoom, it was pretty exciting. Fish/reg ratio seems to be pretty much the same than at NL50, not sure how good those regulars are, can't say yet. I played some interesting hands, I'll post them later.

Couple of hands from todays NL100 zoom games:

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $551.35 (551.4 bb)
SB: $94.56 (94.6 bb)
Hero (BB): $104.84 (104.8 bb)
UTG: $135.20 (135.2 bb)
MP: $65.05 (65.1 bb)
CO: $69.38 (69.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6 K
3 folds, BTN raises to $2.50, SB folds, Hero raises to $8, BTN calls $5.50

Flop: ($16.50) J T A (2 players)
Hero bets $9, BTN calls $9

Turn: ($34.50) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $21.50, BTN calls $21.50

River: ($77.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $66.34 and is all-in, BTN folds

Seemed like a good spot to go for triple barrel because I block the nuts (KQ) and I do not block flushdraws. I can rep tons of valuehands while villain cannot have some of them. Villain definitely folds hands like 8c7c, 9c8c, 7c6c etc, QJ/KJ and weak Ax-hands atleast some of the time.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $277.51 (277.5 bb)
SB: $99 (99 bb)
Hero (BB): $135.54 (135.5 bb)
UTG: $207.47 (207.5 bb)
MP: $68.58 (68.6 bb)
CO: $38.42 (38.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q K
3 folds, BTN raises to $2, SB raises to $8, Hero raises to $18.50, BTN calls $16.50, SB folds

Flop: ($45) 7 6 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $21.49, Hero folds

I was pretty suprised to see BTN calling my 4bet. Not sure what he has, probably hands like AQ/TT/99 that he believes are not good enough to 5bet jam preflop. Pretty tough to make that kind of range to fold often enough so I just decided to check/fold on the flop even though I have 2 overcards vs. most overpairs in his range and I have a backdoor flushdraw. I don't know, I might have been a bit scared to do anything since I really wasn't sure what villains range would look like.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

BTN: $148.56 (148.6 bb)
SB: $100.50 (100.5 bb)
Hero (BB): $104.68 (104.7 bb)
UTG: $66.56 (66.6 bb)
MP: $109.03 (109 bb)
CO: $131.26 (131.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A Q
UTG folds, MP raises to $3, CO calls $3, BTN calls $3, SB calls $2.50, Hero calls $2

I'm not sure whether I should squeeze or just call. By squeezing I basically turn my hand into a bluff since it's pretty hard to get calls from a hand like AJ once I squeeze huge amount. I decided to call because I thought that I don't want to waste my good hand by squeezing and basically turning into a bluff but AQo plays pretty poorly postflop in this situation once I just call. I think I prefer squeezing after all.

Flop: ($15) 7 5 Q (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $11, 4 folds

Yep, call me a nit but it's just really hard to imagine villain betting so big (and he bet really fast) with many worse hands. He could have a flushdraw or split but I feel that big part of his range is QQ+ and sets. And if I call on the flop I have to fold almost everytime on the turn since my hand doesn't have that many outs to improve. This shows prefectly why AQ plays poorly 5way in a 2bet pot.

Feel free to comment if you feel like doing so. ♦

I will offer coaching from now on. Main topic being valueraising. I haven't decided my price yet but it has to be very high and you'll see the reason here:

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/8853575_2065CCC950

Anyone? ♦

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/8856768_2411CE3BB9

I decided to raise on the flop because villains sizing makes me believe that he is a recreational player and vs. him I would get value from worse Jx, worse pairs and flushdraws.

Bet on the turn for value.

On the river villain donkshoves pretty quickly. After thinking for a moment I decided to call because I think that it's pretty hard for villain to have 6x-hand after he donk/calls on the flop and calls bet on the turn. What 6x hands could he have? 66/76s perhaps but those hands would've folded on the flop or on the turn more often than not. Villain could bluffshove with a missed flushdraw or turn something weird into a bluff. However villains shove is an overbet and we block nutflushdraws which makes this spot pretty annoying in my opinion. And I'm not sure how often villains shows up with a set. His shove on the river was pretty quick which makes me to believe that he might not have a set all that often because villain would've most likely thought about it a bit longer.

Thoughts, anyone?

My NL100 failed unfortunately, I've played NL50 zoom for a while now. Games are going pretty well.

I think my main mistake at the moment is that I'm giving my opponents too much credit of being good. To be honest I don't think that many players are that good. There are many solid regulars but not really good ones.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/8992337_BF8A84528E

Guy snapcalls me and says "fish". And that guy is supernova elite and over 1milj VPPs lifetime.

I'm trying to play as solid as possible and I've noticed that I'm getting the best results by doing so.

I'm not trying to be rude or anything like that, my main point is that I think I'm overthinking many spots.

Be one step ahead of your competition, but no more than that.

Originally posted by mesisification

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/8992337_BF8A84528E

Guy snapcalls me and says "fish". And that guy is supernova elite and over 1milj VPPs lifetime.

Flop call is not the best IMO but the rest is just excellent. I wonder what was he expecting to see for you when he had only TP and weak kicker. Basically everything that you could be drawing to completed.

And for such a guy playing on this level actually he is the fish.

GL at the next NL100 shoot.

villain had the one card straight. flop spot is meh, might be a raise?

Originally posted by ilioas
Flop call is not the best IMO but the rest is just excellent. I wonder what was he expecting to see for you when he had only TP and weak kicker. Basically everything that you could be drawing to completed.

And for such a guy playing on this level actually he is the fish.

GL at the next NL100 shoot.

Yeah I know, flop call is questionable. I wouldn't have called without backdoor flushdraw. But yeah, still close.

Yes, I'm not even saying that villains call is bad necessarily, main point is that he just snapcalled and called me a fish afterwards. Shows that villains mindset is not very professional.

Thank you, next NL100 shot in the summer, hopefully.