Croatian BlogBuster - Full-Time Teacher Playing Poker

Hey, guys!

Didn't post for a week, so it's time for a little update. Didn't play much since the last post, but am pretty satisfied with my play, and the results, this time. I feel that the switch from 3 tables to 2 tables has a significant impact to my playing style, table stats and consequently, my overall mood regarding poker (which, ofcourse, affects to my "real life" mood). This are the graphs from the last post:

Betfair:

NetBet:

Since I'm tracking my stats after switching to 2 tables and comparing them to the period of playing 3 tables, can say that the things are slowly going as my analyses had suggested. The sample is small, but for now seems that playing 2 tables is more profitable for me than playing 3 tables. I think I probably wasn't ready for 3 tables yet, which doesn't mean that I won't be in some time in future. For now, will stick to 2 tables, learn and enjoy playing. Here are some numbers, where I included both Betfair and NetBet hands:

So, seems that I'm playing more hands, which includes open raising, cold calling and 3betting. That's the reason that my rakeback in terms of bb/100 improved, but since I play less hands hourly, I earn less rakeback hourly. So, according to the calculations, my net wins has to be at least 1,99 bb/100 higher to make 2 tables more profitable overall than 3 tables, which is the case atm (3,88 bb/100 higher). Ofcourse, the numbers are not significant atm, since have just 9k hands playing 2 tables, but I believe that the difference in profitability will be even higher. The plan is to play NL10 untill the end of the year and probably take some more shots at NL20 in 2015.

Current BR: €975,42

I left you a message on community tool.

Also subbed, GL!

Originally posted by vonki
I left you a message on community tool.

Also subbed, GL!

I replied! Thank you!

nice to see you back at right track

Originally posted by rompas
nice to see you back at right track

Thank you!

Time for a little update.

So, from the last graph didn't have much success on the tables:

Betfair:

NetBet:

I feel like playing pretty solid, but probably it's just a feeling. I'm just kidding, ofcourse that I've played solid... Anyway, things didn't go my way - had some bad luck, made some stupid mistakes, you know how it goes.. Must say that had some really epic losses, like this two...

...and the biggest spew was this one:

Also tried some fancy stuff, which never ends well:

The guy was an unknown, but looked like a regular, so I was hoping to take him off QQ+. If I was him, would certainly fold, but if I was him, don't know who would be me then.

Those are also the biggest losses from the last post. The biggest win was this one:

The year will be end soon and I can't really be satisfied with my poker "career" in 2014. I will end it pretty much break even, with the slitghtly bigger bankroll than I had in the beginning of it. That's why I made my mind about something I think would be very important decision. I decided to go with a coach in 2015. I think that if I wish to accomplish some goals in poker, that's the best way and this is the right time to do it. I wont except anything less than be a regular at NL50 by the end of 2015, with the intention to go higher in 2016. I'm pretty sure it's reachable, even for the guy with full-time job like me. I will be 29 soon and have some plans about marriage, kids etc., so I think I came to the point where have to decide will I continue with poker just for fun, or will I actually start to make some side income with it. This is my time! So, let's do IT!

Current BR: €911,26

Today I rewatched the w34z3l's video about defending from the blinds (9th video of w34z3l's Walkthrough series). One of the biggest problems I have is playing from the blinds, where I loose big time. For example, my SB winrate is -29,79 bb/100 (around -15 would be decent) and BB winrate is -41,53 bb/100 (around -30 would be decent). So, could be that fixing the leaks I'm making on the blinds would give me a much higher profit overall. Basically, I'm too tight from the blinds, which means that I fold way too much to steals and should cold call and 3-bet way more frequently. I am always afraid that would loose more if I cold call than if I just fold, for example. That's why I decided to make a little research and came up with some tables which I'll just post here.

Firstly, these are my numbers when faced with 1 raser on the CO/BTN/SB and I am on the blinds:

As you can see, the biggest leaks are:

3-betting too tight BB vs CO
Cold Calling too tight BB vs BTN
3-betting too tight BB vs BTN
Cold Calling too tight BB vs SB
3-betting too tight SB vs CO
3-betting too tight SB vs BTN

The expected value when I do call/3-bet is pretty good, which means that I always loose less than 100 bb/100 on the BB and less than 50 bb/100 on the SB, which is the winrate in case of folding. So, I think my biggest problem is not a bad postflop play on the blinds, as I thought before, it's being too tight preflop. I went further with this and tried to see how much less would I loose if I assume that I stick to the recommended ranges for the blind defence, with the assumtion that my winrate would stay the same (it probably wouldn't be the case, but let's see). So, this is the table:

With the assumtions above, the benefits would be those:

The conclusion is that I would probably fix my winrate on the blinds with loosen up preflop and the current numbers in situations where I do defend my blinds suggest that there is enough space to do so. I should always have in mind that as long as I loose less than 100 bb/100 on the BB and less than 50 bb/100 on the SB with call or 3-bet, the call and 3-bet is profitable.

Another impression that I had is that I play too tight postfop when cold call preflop oop. I thought that I check/fold too much and thus bleed money, so I was rather avoiding to cold call preflop. But, this data surprised me alot:

I'm check/folding less than 30% of the time when cold call preflop, which is pretty good, I think, and when I'm not check/folding, I have a positive winrate, which means that I can even be a bit more aggressive when cold call the current percentage of the time.

Overall, there are two conclusions I came up with:

I have to loosen up preflop with blind defends because I'm not that bad postflop as I thought
I still have to work on my postflop play when cold call or 3-bet oop, but not that much as I thought.

Hi Alleen86! Very nice blog!

I really like your mathematical approach to poker. And I have similar poker goals for 2015.
If you are interested, we could discuss some theory on skype sometimes.

Good luck on the tables, man!

Originally posted by elpsycho
Hi Alleen86! Very nice blog!

I really like your mathematical approach to poker. And I have similar poker goals for 2015.
If you are interested, we could discuss some theory on skype sometimes.

Good luck on the tables, man!

Thank you very much!

Sure, I added you in the community tool to exchange details!

Didn't play much today, but I feel realy nice about it because my male colleagues from work and me were helping our female colleague, whose husband passed away few months ago. She had some wood to chop, which her husband prepared, but, unfortunatelly, didn't have a chance to finnish the job. So, we did it for her. The husband was a highschool informatics teacher, just like me. It's sad how quick the things in life can change.. Anyway, I guess that the thing that you can rely on someone's help when you need it, helps alot in those situations.

As poker is concerned, I started to implement some guidelines I came up with during yesterday research. Basically, I need to 3bet alot more on the BB/SB against the BTN/CO and flat alot more on the BB against the BTN/CO. When doing that, I need to work on my postflop play after flatting or get called. I also need to expand my BTN 3-betting range, which I didn't mention yesterday because it wasn't the topic of the particular datamining. The yesterday's session ended up with a little loss (-€1,68), but today's, even a small one, was so great that I have to post a graph.

Even a sample of hands is small, it's clear that my stats would be much looser in case of implementing the mentioned changes. Today I played 27,5/22,3 with the 3-bet of 9,68 and BB Cold Call of 30,8%, which are the stats way bigger than my standard stats are. So, I'm sure that these are the things I just have to do. Yesterday I contacted w34z3l and, besides the fact that my database will be a part of his new video series, we agreed to start with coaching sessions in the beginning of January, and he told that can help me out with reaching NL50 by the end of 2015. So, I'm very happy about it and feel that the next year will be my definitive confirmation as a part time poker player (+ the full time teacher).

Stay tuned!

Sretno

Wow, great work mate. I look forward to having a sufficient database to run similar diagnostics.
I just started with w34z3l's walkthrough and am getting a lot of value out of your excel spreadsheets, thanks a lot.

Subbed! and I'll find time to read back through your blog over the hols.

MD

Originally posted by niveaformen
Sretno

Hvala!

Originally posted by MasochisticDesire

Spoiler

Originally posted by Alleen86
Today I rewatched the w34z3l's video about defending from the blinds (9th video of w34z3l's Walkthrough series). One of the biggest problems I have is playing from the blinds, where I loose big time. For example, my SB winrate is -29,79 bb/100 (around -15 would be decent) and BB winrate is -41,53 bb/100 (around -30 would be decent). So, could be that fixing the leaks I'm making on the blinds would give me a much higher profit overall. Basically, I'm too tight from the blinds, which means that I fold way too much to steals and should cold call and 3-bet way more frequently. I am always afraid that would loose more if I cold call than if I just fold, for example. That's why I decided to make a little research and came up with some tables which I'll just post here.

Firstly, these are my numbers when faced with 1 raser on the CO/BTN/SB and I am on the blinds:

As you can see, the biggest leaks are:

3-betting too tight BB vs CO
Cold Calling too tight BB vs BTN
3-betting too tight BB vs BTN
Cold Calling too tight BB vs SB
3-betting too tight SB vs CO
3-betting too tight SB vs BTN

The expected value when I do call/3-bet is pretty good, which means that I always loose less than 100 bb/100 on the BB and less than 50 bb/100 on the SB, which is the winrate in case of folding. So, I think my biggest problem is not a bad postflop play on the blinds, as I thought before, it's being too tight preflop. I went further with this and tried to see how much less would I loose if I assume that I stick to the recommended ranges for the blind defence, with the assumtion that my winrate would stay the same (it probably wouldn't be the case, but let's see). So, this is the table:

With the assumtions above, the benefits would be those:

The conclusion is that I would probably fix my winrate on the blinds with loosen up preflop and the current numbers in situations where I do defend my blinds suggest that there is enough space to do so. I should always have in mind that as long as I loose less than 100 bb/100 on the BB and less than 50 bb/100 on the SB with call or 3-bet, the call and 3-bet is profitable.

Another impression that I had is that I play too tight postfop when cold call preflop oop. I thought that I check/fold too much and thus bleed money, so I was rather avoiding to cold call preflop. But, this data surprised me alot:

I'm check/folding less than 30% of the time when cold call preflop, which is pretty good, I think, and when I'm not check/folding, I have a positive winrate, which means that I can even be a bit more aggressive when cold call the current percentage of the time.

Overall, there are two conclusions I came up with:

I have to loosen up preflop with blind defends because I'm not that bad postflop as I thought
I still have to work on my postflop play when cold call or 3-bet oop, but not that much as I thought.

Wow, great work mate. I look forward to having a sufficient database to run similar diagnostics.
I just started with w34z3l's walkthrough and am getting a lot of value out of your excel spreadsheets, thanks a lot.

Subbed! and I'll find time to read back through your blog over the hols.

MD

Thank you!

Yeah, those Excel spreadsheets help me alot, too. I'm glad that they also help other people. I like to work with Excel, so didn't take me much time to make them. As the blog is concerned, it's just a bunch of crying about being the unluckiest person in the world, so not much to read.

Wow, had really nice session today. Just 193 hands, but those very productive.

After rewatching the 9th video of w34z3l's Walktrough series (Defending from the Blinds) a couple of times, making notes and a mind map, I started to play alot better from the blinds, I think. And being too tight on the blinds is my biggest leak, which costs me the most of the profit from the other positions. The instructions he gave in the video are just awesome, making almost the entire strategy of playing from the blinds. Most of those things I didn't do before, so I really hope that will boost my winrate in the future. I allready feel alot more comfortable when on the blinds, which makes my overall playing experience alot better and motivating.

As the above session is concerned, I had two really interesting hands:

#1 Preflop 4bet bluffing which turned into value betting on the turn and river
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $13.52 (135.2 bb)
BB: $11.02 (110.2 bb)
Hero (CO): $12.41 (124.1 bb)
BTN: $10.35 (103.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 5 A
Hero raises to $0.30, BTN raises to $0.90, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.10, BTN calls $1.20

Flop: ($4.35) 4 4 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($4.35) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.20, BTN calls $2.20

River: ($8.75) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.20, BTN calls $6.05

Results: $20.85 pot ($1.39 rake)
Final Board: 4 4 5 5 4
Hero mucked 5 A and won $19.46 ($9.11 net)
BTN showed A A and lost (-$10.35 net)

#2 Hitting a straight deep stacked with a fish/maniac
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $4.32 (43.2 bb)
BB: $18.41 (184.1 bb)
UTG: $10.62 (106.2 bb)
MP: $10 (100 bb)
Hero (CO): $21.93 (219.3 bb)
BTN: $20.52 (205.2 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, BTN calls $0.30, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.75) J 6 T (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, BTN calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.75) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.20, BTN raises to $3.10, Hero raises to $8.20, BTN calls $5.10

River: ($18.15) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $12.93 and is all-in, BTN calls $11.52 and is all-in

Results: $41.19 pot ($2 rake)
Final Board: J 6 T 9 8
Hero mucked K Q and won $39.19 ($18.67 net)
BTN showed J 9 and lost (-$20.52 net)

I also played a couple of hands at NL20 today, which ends with a little profit, so can be very satisfied with today's results, overall. Didn't play alot latelly because there are many things to do at work, since winter holydays starts at wednesday, but will have alot more time for poker the next 3 weeeks. I made a little upload to Skrill, of about €160 ($200), to be able to pay for coachings, because I use Neteller in € alot more, so didn't have much funds at Skrill. The 10-sessions packet will cost me about €350, so the plan is to start coaching at NL10 and I believe that soon after that will have 44 buy-ins for taking shots at NL20.

Current BR: €1.107,91

What's up, folks?

It's terrible how bad I'm running these days.. Had to take a break after just 250 hands today:

Didn't play much latelly, though, still working on my game on the blinds. Don't even know how many times i rewatch w34z3l's Walkthrough videos. I came up with a chart for playing in 3bet pots out of position from the blinds. Here it is:

You can also download it here in docx format, with my other stuff. Unfortunatelly, as my stats looks better and better, my results are going worse, so I lost two buy ins since the last post. But I would imagine it's just a variance in that small sample of hands. Today had 4 significant losses and will post some of those for hand evaluation. Here they are:

#1 I feel like made a mistake somewhere in the hand, but not sure where. Not sure if it's ok to 3bet preflop, bet/call the flop and call the turn.. On the flop it looks like a strong hand from villain, but I have TP and some nice backdoors. On the turn he has just 2/3 of pot.. Really not sure
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $15.08 (150.8 bb)
BB: $6.29 (62.9 bb)
UTG: $4.05 (40.5 bb)
MP: $5.40 (54 bb)
Hero (CO): $11.13 (111.3 bb)
BTN: $10 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q K
UTG raises to $0.20, MP folds, Hero raises to $0.60, 2 folds, BB calls $0.50, UTG calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.85) J K 5 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $1, BB raises to $2, UTG folds, Hero calls $1

Turn: ($5.85) 9 (2 players)
BB bets $3.69 and is all-in, Hero calls $3.69

River: ($13.23) 2 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

#2 Maybe I should raise/fold preflop, but the villain is an aggressive, so I called. Flop and turn are probably close. Was pissed off on the river when saw his hand.
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $11.04 (110.4 bb)
BB: $10.86 (108.6 bb)
UTG: $4 (40 bb)
Hero (MP): $10.42 (104.2 bb)
CO: $10.21 (102.1 bb)
BTN: $13.83 (138.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with A Q
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.30, CO raises to $1, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.70

Flop: ($2.15) 6 T Q (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1.29, Hero calls $1.29

Turn: ($4.73) J (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $2.90, Hero calls $2.90

River: ($10.53) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Results:

#3 Was very happy when saw that the other player has K in his hand. Not for long, though.
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (SB): $13.56 (135.6 bb)
BB: $10 (100 bb)
UTG: $9.33 (93.3 bb)
MP: $4.85 (48.5 bb)
CO: $1.37 (13.7 bb)
BTN: $10.15 (101.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A A
UTG folds, MP raises to $0.40, CO raises to $1.37 and is all-in, BTN folds, Hero calls $1.32, BB folds, MP raises to $4.50, Hero raises to $7.63, MP calls $0.35 and is all-in

Flop: ($11.17) 7 Q K (3 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: ($11.17) 3 (3 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($11.17) 2 (3 players, 2 are all-in)

Results:

#4 Decided to go broke with a pair and nut flushdraw against midstack fish.
IPoker, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (SB): $10.05 (100.5 bb)
BB: $4.51 (45.1 bb)
CO: $11.40 (114 bb)
BTN: $15.35 (153.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A 9
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.60) Q 9 J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.40, BB raises to $0.80, Hero raises to $9.20, BB calls $3.41 and is all-in

Turn: ($9.02) T (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: ($9.02) 3 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Ok, let's post some hands and play some more...

Hey Alleen,
Nice blog and thank you for sharing all this knowledge. I'll use some of the files uploaded by you.
Did you think about moving to P* to play zoom there. I palyed here and there and it's different.
Good luck and I hope you will crush these stakes soon

Originally posted by imfar
Hey Alleen,
Nice blog and thank you for sharing all this knowledge. I'll use some of the files uploaded by you.
Did you think about moving to P* to play zoom there. I palyed here and there and it's different.
Good luck and I hope you will crush these stakes soon

Thank you!

The plan is to move to Stars eventually. I have a great rb deal at iPoker. So despite of the lower rake at Stars, it's more profitable for me to play those small limits at iPoker. When ready for NL50, I think it will be close, but I'll be forced to move to Stars then because there is no traffic at NL50 iPoker. If somebody knows what are the differences between Stars and iPoker, player-wise, I would be glad to hear. Some says that the players are better at Stars, so harder to achieve profit there, but some others says that there is probably a good extent of bots at iPoker, which makes it harder to make a profit there (if you don't recognize them and don't know how to exploit them). How different is it for you?

Hard to say which is the better place for making money. Low rake, low Rb, high rake, high RB, so if you aren't clearing first deposit bonus at P* it may be similar - speaking in terms of rake and RB. But for me plaing at P* is simply more fun. I was bored plaing at iPoker. All the regs there look similar for me and I was meeting them all the time. P* different. The field is much bigger and you can meet all sort of strange players there. I have fun trying to adapt to their stats, use their aggresion against them, exploit their weakness. Of course there is a looooooooooooooooooot for me to learn and don't get me wrong, regs at P* NL10 zoom aren't afraid of me but is much better fun there. If you still have first depo there i think it's worth trying.

Originally posted by imfar
Hard to say which is the better place for making money. Low rake, low Rb, high rake, high RB, so if you aren't clearing first deposit bonus at P* it may be similar - speaking in terms of rake and RB. But for me plaing at P* is simply more fun. I was bored plaing at iPoker. All the regs there look similar for me and I was meeting them all the time. P* different. The field is much bigger and you can meet all sort of strange players there. I have fun trying to adapt to their stats, use their aggresion against them, exploit their weakness. Of course there is a looooooooooooooooooot for me to learn and don't get me wrong, regs at P* NL10 zoom aren't afraid of me but is much better fun there. If you still have first depo there i think it's worth trying.

Yeah, I've never played there for real money, so the first deposit bonus is still waitting. I calculated the rake and potential rakeback at both sites and the result is that at lower limits (and lower status at Stars) is more profitable for me to play at iPoker. Without the rakeback, would have no doubts, Stars would be alot more profitable. Anyway, what's probably more important, is to improve and learn, no matter what site you are playing at. I guess that the field is more or less the same. There are some rummers that Croatia will regulate poker in near future, so might be that the Stars would be the only choice (and probably domestic lottery house's site) for me. Will see... Thanks for dropping by!