2015: The grind, the study & the profit: 6-max tankrolling Bwin ☑NL50 ☑ NL100 ☐ NL200

week graph NL10
Hands played: around 10k
profit: +$43.06 = 4.37bb/100 (AIEV $36.63)

NL25 shots total

played 1.5k hands
profit: -$180

I'm not giving up yet. The last shot went horrible but again I started the session BTN vs blind AKs vs KK fml ..
lost a set vs a flush etc .. and everytime I got 3bet I had the bottom of my range, most of my 4bet bluffs were overshoved and all my value 3b and 4bets got fold.

So I'll still shot untill I'm back at $750. Atm my BR = $790 so I'll shot one more session. Still confident tbh .. They are way more aggro but I know how to handle that

I think you should post your stat so we can take a look at it and see what's going on, including nl10

Equity training
50 hands
Average difference : 5%

Hand analysis

Hand 1:

Hand 2:

Other hands:

I ffounds I made a lot of way too loose calls on the turn where I overestimate my equity.

Gonna do a small session now ! Wish me luck with my shot on 25NL !!

Originally posted by Samtheo7
I think you should post your stat so we can take a look at it and see what's going on, including nl10

My stats on NL10 look decent tbh, on 25NL I didn't look, don't have the slightest sample so ... first session was a time ago so I guess maybe I was losing then ?
Also what I discovered as you can see in my previous post is a huge leak in turn calls Obv it's also bad luck I just seemed to encounter all of them yesterday .. but in a way it's good it happened.

Going to take my shot now and keep in min with what I learned ! Wish me luck !!

EDIT: BE over 1k hands 2/3 NL10 1/3 NL25 (both BE btw) .. so the downswing seems to have stopped. Still ran bad though. Also made some mistakes, may have won a hamburger or 2 if I played a bit better

Even if you win at nl10, your stats can be really revelant about what kind of mistake you do. You should also pot a graph with showdown/non-showdown lines.

Just trying to help, your problem if you don't care

Originally posted by Samtheo7
Even if you win at nl10, your stats can be really revelant about what kind of mistake you do. You should also pot a graph with showdown/non-showdown lines.

Just trying to help, your problem if you don't care

roflol
just ignore it, wolfske

edit: added to favourites because of the hands analysis

Mental game leaks

I decided to focus today on some mental game leaks. Not because I have serious tilt issues but because I have too much motivation. Yesterday I was away from 6h45 till 19h30 due to a work trip. I was really pissed of because of the fact that yesterday, today and tomorrow I won't have time to do a lot for poker. Suddenly I realised I actually had a problem. I was pretty angry and I started this blog because poker was something I enjoyed and benefit my life. But yesterday I was already counting winrates on different stakes and using calculators for rakeback to see how much money I would make .. this is not a good sign.

Especially combined with the fact that I previously already had some sort of burn-out syndrom in poker I guess I should really read some parts in the mental game of poker. I will focus on motivation, goalsetting and learning. Atm I will ignore the other chapters (about tilt, fear, variance etc .. those will come after I completed the book of Juanda and pbb also at least 1 book of tipton).

Motivation

Burnout: People with this 'syndrom' often think they are lazy and should do more. They do so much poker related stuff that once they are fatigued they blame themselves for not wanting to play/study more.

What needs to be done:

- Take at least 1 full day off once a week
- Have another hobby than poker that you don't take to seriously
- Evaluate your game after each day that you play do you can ease down your mind

Personal experience:
This is so me. I really want to do so much, even want to work less or do poker in my work breaks, do poker on the train, do poker whenever I wait, take a vacation to do more poker and I actually once stopped going to the gym because of poker. I'm not addicted or something. I have no problems because of poker and when I don't want to play (wich happens) I just don't play. The thing is I really want to play/study most of my time and I can do it non-stop for days.

The thought of having time and not doing something for poker feels really strange. I'm not sure what the feeling is actually.. it feels like i really should play and not follow this rule .. wich is not a good sign at all. I'm happy I'm going back to the gym though, allthough I changed my 6x a week training for a 5x a week training (I will not go lower now).

After a poker session I also can't stop thinking. It's actually hard to stop playing when I'm in a session. When I eventually stop I just keep thinking about the session and the things I should have done and all the work I still have to do and if there isn't a way to move up quicker or to do more volume or to take a coach and study more ... IRL I'm a real perfectionist wich is a big benefit in my job and my dedication towards everything I do and want to do. If I want it, I'll go and get it.

goals
Overall I have a poor goal setting strategy. Atm my actual goal is (if I'm really honest) to beat midstakes (NL100-NL200) and earn a second income next to my work. This is a pretty huge goal and it's also a goal that should be far away in th future.

So basically I have:
- Result-oriented goals
- Very high expectation (once I'd beat NL100-200 I'll probably think about beating NL1k or something)
- Far-away goals that demotivate to play lower stakes (due to my persistence I keep playing them though)

So next to these goals I need other goals:
- Make less mistakes
- Learning the game
- Work with small steps: get to a level of play that beats NL25 (before april); beat NL50 against the end of the year, next year: get to SN (and NL100)

For more details I should actually buy the mental game of poker 2, wich I will do

Very recogniseable. Might buy the mental game of poker 2 as wel, think it's quite expensive though (almost bought the kindle version for 'only' €11,- :f_biggrin:). Let us know how you like the book!

Originally posted by Icecreamboy
Very recogniseable. Might buy the mental game of poker 2 as wel, think it's quite expensive though (almost bought the kindle version for 'only' €11,- :f_biggrin:). Let us know how you like the book!

i bought The kindle version for 7 euro or something ... Ill let you guys know !

Originally posted by patszerdonk

Originally posted by Samtheo7
Even if you win at nl10, your stats can be really revelant about what kind of mistake you do. You should also pot a graph with showdown/non-showdown lines.

Just trying to help, your problem if you don't care

roflol
just ignore it, wolfske

edit: added to favourites because of the hands analysis

Thanks,

I won't ignore him as I respect everybody's opinion.

At the other side I won't show my stats as it's just not relevant. My game still changes everytime. My first 5k hands I 3bet around 3-4%, now it's around 8% .. so my stats would show 5-6% .. wich is not relevant for my game today.

Especially on NL25 I got 4bet everytime when I got the air and I got folds with the nuts .. I don't have sample yet, stats are really useless atm. Stats also don't say wich spot you're doing wrong, they only say something about some general tendencies, but my sample isn't big enough and my game changes to much to use a big generalisation as stats.

At the end of the month I may post stats for the last weeks though as those might say something.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 170.4 BB
SB: 268.5 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 30.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
BB: 164.3 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
UTG: 111.7 BB (VPIP: 28.85, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 52)
MP: 207.9 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 100.00, Hands: 3)
CO: 206.8 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♠ 5♠

Note: Rather call than Iso because of implied odds + weaker players in the pot. This hand plays pretty good multiway

UTG raises to 3.5 BB, MP calls 3.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 3.5 BB, fold, BB raises to 6 BB, UTG calls 2.5 BB, MP calls 2.5 BB, Hero calls 2.5 BB

Flop: (24.5 BB, 4 players) 7♠ Q♠ A♣

Note: Great flop, against nuthands like AA QQ I still have 25% equity, against 2pairs I have over 30% equity, easy call + nice pot

BB bets 23 BB, UTG calls 23 BB, fold, Hero calls 23 BB

Turn: (93.5 BB, 3 players) 5♣

Note: Tricky card, villain barrels. He can have 2 pair and sets and maybe the occassional AK. This range makes it still easy to call

BB bets 45 BB, fold, Hero calls 45 BB

River: (183.5 BB, 2 players) J♦

Note: This card is basically a blank. I don't think he will ever show up w/ KT or AJ or QJ or JJ or whatever J. He bets, question here is what kind of player he is ? In my stats I only had 3 hands on him so no sample. Chances of him having a lot of bluffs here are small since I block FD bluffs and since it started as a multiway pot. If he ever has AK here it's a marginal call, otherwise it's a fold... So i should have folded but the mistake is not as big as I feared initially ..

BB bets 90.3 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 90.3 BB

Edit: considering his excellent sizing I think it's a pretty clear fold

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 20.69, PFR: 20.69, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 30)
SB: 101.5 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
Hero (BB): 102.6 BB
UTG: 214.2 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
MP: 117.8 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 235.8 BB (VPIP: 30.30, PFR: 24.24, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 34)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

Note: std

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, SB calls 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, CO calls 7.5 BB, fold

Flop: (24 BB, 2 players) Q♠ 6♦ J♣

Note: Pretty scary board since there are definetly 2 pairs in his range + draws. I think a bigger bet is fine here for protection and value fromd QT AQ KQ and some AJ. KT. His range before the bet looks like QQ-66,AJs+,KQs,QJs,JTs,T9s,AQo+ (67% combo's, 28% equity), after the bet it looks like QdQh,QdQc,QhQc,JdJh,JdJs,JhJs,6h6s,6h6c,6s6c,T9s,AdQd,AhQh,AcQc,KhQh,KcQc,AdJd,AhJh,AsJs,QdJd,QhJh,JdTd,JhTh,JsTs,AdQh,AdQc,AhQd,AhQc,AsQd,AsQh,AsQc,AcQd,AcQh (35 combo's, 41% equity)

Hero bets 13 BB, CO calls 13 BB

Turn: (50 BB, 2 players) 7♣

Note: not a horrible card but some of his beaten hands get FD's now like AQs. I bet because I'm scared but that's not really the rational thing to do. So if I bet I get value from AQ KQ .. I protect vs KT AQs. Other stuff in his range are 2 pair and sets. His floprange has 38% now. He folds Jx and OESD wo/ FD --> still 52% equity wich makes it a pretty marginal valuebet but it also protects so I don't hate is.

Hero bets 24.3 BB, CO calls 24.3 BB

River: (98.6 BB, 2 players) 9♠

Note: 9s doesn't change much. I have 57% equity vs his range. He will only vbet his 2pair+ and maybe bluff his missed FD. This range has 91% equity. So a X/F is pbb best here . Most of the time I'm expecting an X behind w/ AQ or KQ wich is the biggest part of his range .. So I think I played the hand pretty fine

Hero checks, CO bets 20 BB, fold,

Will need to start studying harder I guess .. it's not really going well. Horrible week. Still make some really fishy mistakes. And also .. I'm not running particulary well:

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 111.1 BB (VPIP: 29.52, PFR: 22.86, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 218)
SB: 102 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 17.65, Hands: 44)
Hero (BB): 106.6 BB
UTG: 101.2 BB (VPIP: 20.93, PFR: 17.44, 3Bet Preflop: 12.12, Hands: 90)
MP: 107.1 BB (VPIP: 28.13, PFR: 18.75, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 35)
CO: 100 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 10)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♥ A♦

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

Flop: (20.5 BB, 2 players) 4♣ 2♣ K♠
Hero bets 11 BB, MP calls 11 BB

Turn: (42.5 BB, 2 players) A♠
Hero bets 22 BB, MP calls 22 BB

River: (86.5 BB, 2 players) K♥
Hero bets 63.6 BB and is all-in, MP calls 63.6 BB

He obv had KK ♦ so sick ♦

I'm not blaming everything on running bad tho' .. so study it issss

The biggest leak discovered

Yesterday I had a dissapointing session. My EV went up nicely and suddenly it dropped like a m-da-fukka. I made so large mistakes and didn't stop in time. I did 2 more sessions and after +3,5k hands I called it a day. My mind kept racing though and I started reading in 'the mental game of poker 2' to relax.

What I read were huge revelations. Suddenly I saw huge leaks in my mental game while I thought my mental game was pretty solid. Some examples of big leaks:

• Last weeks I started my session thinking about moving up= future thinking and not being focussed on the game
• I didn't know what to learn
• I was convinced that I should beat NL25 easily
• I thought more about playing more volume and upping tables instead of quality
• I felt angry when things weren't going my way while I said I didn't have tilt problem
• I thought I had a solid base while I still have a lot of situations where I don't know wheter I should cbet, 3bet, open, coldcall, ... like basic stuff
• I kept learning new concepts without mastering other ones
• I thought I new some concepts but I couldn't explain them
• A very big gap between my a-game and c-game
  ...

There are way more things like this. First I had nothing to learn and now suddenly I see all kinds of things I can learn. It's really weird but also fun.

What's next ?

Well I'm not sure yet and that's fine ! What I will do is change my study plan once again. It will contain deliberate practice as I was already doing but I will also start doing some stuff to learn more about myself. I will use my free week (don't have to work this week) to read The mental game of poker 1 and 2 and start implenting the most important things.

Some things I will surely do:

• Read about getting into the zone again
• Make a A-game, B-game and C-game profile
• Make a warm-up routine and especially a cool-down routine (to help my racing mind)
• Read about goalsetting + set some new goals (less results-oriented) + list everything but don't do everything at once
• Read about tilt + see wich ones sound familiar and not excluding things to fast
• Read about studying + apply it
• Mark hands in different categories: tilt, doing something good but not knowing why, thinking really hard about a hand and not being sure, mark the bad hands where I think I made a mistake

So basically I will create a poker-profile about myself wich contains mental data as well as aspect about my technical game. It feels really good to have an idea of what is wrong and how I can change it.

Let's do this !

Btw here is my sad NL10-NL25 graph of last week

Warm-up and Cool-down

So applying something out of TMGP 2 is warming-up and cooling down. I will use this blog as a journal for this stuff. At this moment I just followed the book for my routines.

Warm-up

• Remove and minimize potential distractions
• Review long-term and short-term goals : tactical, mental or other
• Review strategic notes that may help to correct your tactical and mental game weakness
  --> start w/ c-game and look at a-game
• Do some deep breathing/visualisation
  --> situation where you make mistakes
• Prepare to mark hands

Cool down

• revisit goals set in the warm-up
• take notes about a/b/c-game + the zone
• review hands that you marked
• how was your mental state during the game
• how big of an impact did variance have
• how difficult was the session ?
• Write in blog

Day 1, Session 1

WU

• Focus on cbet, 3bet, valuebet, ccall and ISO wider
  --> so basically be aware and mark hands when in doubt
• Focus on thought process and logical decisions (I have a list wich I follow)

CD

I was focussed but I had troubles w/ the rythm of only 3 tables. I felt my head was bloated when switching to 3 tables at some moments (= B-game)
I took some notes and I'm happy with them. It was hard to write them while plaaying (= b-game)
I was rational the whole way through. Didn't make mistakes that made me angry --> this is a feeling I had. I still have to review my hand to confirm this.

I marked 28 hands:
- 5 wich confused me
- 7 wich I thought I didn't make the optimal play (1 with a tilt symbol wich means I blame myself for making the play)
- 4 good hands
- 11 review hands
- 1 tilt hand

Hand 1: marked as good hand

Hand 2: Bad + tilt = blame myself hand

Hand 3: Tilt hand = angry

Edit: this took pretty long. I'm thinking about making Vlogs about this
Edit 2:

It will be shorter in the future

Day 2 Session 1

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 131.7 BB (VPIP: 19.59, PFR: 17.17, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 555)
SB: 233.9 BB (VPIP: 29.41, PFR: 26.47, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 34)
Hero (BB): 413.2 BB
UTG: 129.1 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
MP: 394.4 BB (VPIP: 25.13, PFR: 18.97, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 200)
CO: 111.9 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♥ T♥

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.2 BB, SB raises to 7.6 BB, Hero calls 6.6 BB, fold

Flop: (17.4 BB, 2 players) 4♦ 8♠ 2♦
SB bets 9.5 BB, fold,

I find these kind of hands really confusing. So I'm in position I have a hand that plays well postflop and maybe we'll play 3way wich is not a problem for this particular hand. On the other hand SB's range is pbb suited heavy. And they dominate my suited combo I guess ... so pbb not the best call here.

But the real question is:
- What should my range be for flatting ?
- What is my postflop plan ? -> I guess hitting and hoping to dominate hand and get implieds when we hit ?

Any thoughts guys ?

Last session of the day completed. Not making videos anymore I think I'd rather read and I guess you guys do to.

The session went pretty bad I guess .. lost $23.7. I didn't feel like I was hitting and I was running bad overal I think ..
Sometimes I wonder how much a really good player would have won/lost in those sessions tho.

Ok some key hands:

Hand 1: don't think I can fold .. I'm not sure. I think he may have sets that jam because they are scared, strong 2 pairs and also flushes obviously. On the other side a lot of his flushes are blocked by the board and the fact that it's a 3bet pot .. so I guess a call is just really fine here

Hand 2:
A 4bet pot. I should really study those I guess because hand 3 is also a 4bet pot. They make me really really unsure. I think a fold OTT is fine .. I think I can be proud and would've lost more in the past .. so std I guess ?

Hand 3:
Well BTN was a tightish player .. Normally I don't flat against BTN, but against tight players I sometimes do and I think this would be a good hand to do it with. I called the 4bet since I sometimes flop pretty good (sets or overpair) and I don't think he'll barrel me of with the AK or Ax bluff

He looks really strong so a fold OTT

Hand 4:
Well .. he's just screaming QQ+ here. First he bets in a 3way pot .. but when he snapjams the turn for almost pot I think I have to fold. W/ reads it could've been a call. But as a std I think it's fine ??

This hand made me tilt though so after this I quit (hand 3 and 4 were within 2 minutes)

Final results of the day:
Hands 3280
C won: $21
AIEV: $28,5
Really really swingy day.. peeked at $60 dropped till $12 then a small peek to $35 thanks to a spewtard and then hand 3 and 4

I'm working on value betting vs weaker players

Some hands:

Hand 1: Did I overplay my aces against the fish ? The board is ugly but it's also low .. I don't see him fold anything above 88 tbh

Hand 2:

Pre is std wanted to stack off .. the flop is gross obv .. not sure. I think he wil play AQ AK like this, also every flush and set and maybe even some flushdraws like KsQx or something. On the other hand it's pbb a fold and I don't want to admit it yet

Hand 3:
Turn fine or should I check behind and fold river ?

Hand 4:
Do I have to fold turn ? In game I wasn't sure. I thought he may still have som eFD's. Against a good player I think this is a fine play. But on NL10 I'm not sure