Croatian BlogBuster - Full-Time Teacher Playing Poker

Originally posted by Wertoph
I read a couple of hands and stuff and I really have no intention of putting you, your decisions or your coach down, but it seems you are really loose on the trigger. U can easily get involved into an allin pot preflop, and overvalue QQ and stuff. Seems to me that on nl 5 or nl10 you don't need to be that loose since people play pretty straightforward, and you cant really bluff them. Ask yourself, if all these people would go broke with air or weak hands preflop and/or postflop, we all would be winning by a pretty big margin wouldn't we?

Actually, I'm not that loose, I have an opposite problem - being too tight. Those hands are just some examples where I tried to be a bit looser recently. As I said before, I'm aware that some of them were mistakes, which I wasn't fully aware of while playing them, but that's why I posted them here. I believe it's easier to become tighter when you are loose than become looser when you are tight, and that's the process I'm currently going through. There are some situations where we have to go broke with QQ, JJ or TT preflop. For example, SB vs BTN openning about 50%, a 3bet with JJ+ for value is standard. So, if I see a 26/22 guy with 50% BTN RFI and 56 Ft3B, I 3bet JJ-QQ with the intention of going all in if I face a 4bet, despite to the fact that I don't feel confortable. Before I would do that with just KK+. I'm sure that I'm not a maniac or something. ♦ (even if some of the hands maybe suggest so)

Thanks for dropping by!

Sooo, don't play much latelly because of going to the hospital every day and altering my colleague teacher who is on the trip this week. I'm still managing to play a bit every day. Today I almost cried like a baby, my AK beat KK! ♦ I was super excited because I think I didn't see myself beating a favoruable hand probably like two months! ♦

I was still emotional and all that... and then I got Aces! Not only that, the shorty BTN decided to shove to my 3bet!

Naaah, it's just a variance, I thought, let's play on!

So, I lost all my lucky dollars almost immediately... The pattern continues.
This month profit: -$139,63
EV: -$30,11

Ouch!! You must have bright future in front of You. Keep learning!
Per aspera ad astra!

Originally posted by KKNgroup
Ouch!! You must have bright future in front of You. Keep learning!
Per aspera ad astra!

Thanks! Currently I'm learning how to go through bad times in poker. I'm not sure that I'm good at it yet..

The poker is really incredible. Just 50 hands played today. What are the odds for this? ♦

Op, op, here's the other one! ♦

Dude, you're tilting so bad. You're spending so much time and effort learning strategy, theory, etc. How about you order 'The Mental Game of Poker' or 'Poker Mindset', took the week off from playing, calm your nerves, study the mental aspect of the game? I bet it'll turn to be good for you.

Originally posted by Alleen86
Op, op, here's the other one! ♦

Spoiler

IPoker, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $1.70 (34 bb)
BB: $8.04 (160.8 bb)
UTG: $2 (40 bb)
Hero (MP): $9.28 (185.6 bb)
CO: $9.72 (194.4 bb)
BTN: $1.54 (30.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K K
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.15, CO calls $0.15, 2 folds, BB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.40, CO folds, BB raises to $7.75, Hero raises to $9.28 and is all-in, BB calls $0.29 and is all-in

Flop: ($16.25) 7 4 8 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: ($16.25) Q (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($16.25) 5 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $16.25 pot ($1.00 rake)
Final Board: 7 4 8 Q 5
BB showed A A and won $15.25 ($7.21 net)
Hero mucked K K and lost (-$8.04 net)

People in general have a rather tight 3b range on NL5, even more so squeezing, especially vs UTG and MP. Not alot of them stack AK 160bb deep, ESPECIALLY when your 4b is rather on the big side. Did you consider that the gameplay changes when you play deep? Why not just sit out and stick to 100bb play?

Originally posted by vonki

Originally posted by Alleen86
Op, op, here's the other one! ♦

Spoiler

IPoker, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $1.70 (34 bb)
BB: $8.04 (160.8 bb)
UTG: $2 (40 bb)
Hero (MP): $9.28 (185.6 bb)
CO: $9.72 (194.4 bb)
BTN: $1.54 (30.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K K
UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.15, CO calls $0.15, 2 folds, BB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.40, CO folds, BB raises to $7.75, Hero raises to $9.28 and is all-in, BB calls $0.29 and is all-in

Flop: ($16.25) 7 4 8 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: ($16.25) Q (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($16.25) 5 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $16.25 pot ($1.00 rake)
Final Board: 7 4 8 Q 5
BB showed A A and won $15.25 ($7.21 net)
Hero mucked K K and lost (-$8.04 net)

People in general have a rather tight 3b range on NL5, even more so squeezing, especially vs UTG and MP. Not alot of them stack AK 160bb deep, ESPECIALLY when your 4b is rather on the big side. Did you consider that the gameplay changes when you play deep? Why not just sit out and stick to 100bb play?

I know that the gameplay changes deepstacked, ofcourse. But against this partucular guy I didn't want to do anything else then try to stack him off pre with the 2nd best hand. This time he had luck to show up with the best hand, but his range is certainly wider than aces. I'm not sure in the excact stats because am not at the computer atm, but I had a strong reason for this play. Basically, he looks like a maniac. Not sure what to do in general with this hand. I guess it's not a (big) mistake to play it this way. We are not 2x + deep after all, and there is some dead money to collect, too. Furthermore, I saw them doing that with some random hands. Really not sure..

KK hand is a cooler imo, unless he never squeezes/3bets light... His huge 5b wouldn't make me happy though

Here's something to cheer you up

Originally posted by Anomic
KK hand is a cooler imo, unless he never squeezes/3bets light... His huge 5b wouldn't make me happy though

Here's something to cheer you up

Spoiler

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.25/$0.5 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

Known players:
[tg]MP3$18.87:///////;CO (Hero)$117.49:///////;BU$74.40:///////;SB$172.46:///////;BB$51.83:///////;MP2$177.73:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is CO with A:s, A:c.
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, BU raises to $4.00, 2 folds, Hero raises to $11.00, BU calls $7.00.

Flop: ($22.75) 9:s, 3:h, 5:h (2 players)
Hero bets $10.81, BU calls $10.81.

Turn: ($44.37) T:c (2 players)
Hero checks, BU raises to $52.59(All-In), Hero calls $52.59.

River: ($149.55) 5:d (2 players)

Final Pot: $149.55.
Results follow:

Hero shows two pairs, aces and fives(A:s A:c).
BU shows a full-house, tens full of fives(T:d T:h).

BU wins with a full-house, tens full of fives(T:d T:h).

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.25/$0.5 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)

Known players:
[tg]SB$54.54:///////;BB$50.59:///////;MP2$50.75:///////;MP3$82.32:///////;CO (Hero)$97.04:///////;BU$50.00:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is CO with K:d, K:h.
2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, BU calls $1.25, SB raises to $5.75, BB folds, Hero raises to $14.00, BU folds, SB calls $8.25.

Flop: ($29.75) T:h, 6:h, 2:d (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12.00, SB calls $12.00.

Turn: ($53.75) 3:s (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $29.00, SB calls $28.54.

River: ($111.29) 9:d (2 players)

Final Pot: $111.29.
Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of kings(K:d K:h).
SB shows three of a kind, tens(T:s T:d).

Hero wins with a pair of kings(K:d K:h).
SB wins with three of a kind, tens(T:s T:d).

He plays 42/33, so that was the reason why I decided to go with the hand, although I wasn't happy at all to be in that spot. Probably it is a cooler. I remember the old article here which said that going all in preflop with KK+ is never a mistake. ♦ Regarding your hands, we can obviously conclude that you should give up the hand as soon as T hits the board. That should be your general approach!

Had some interesting hands today, so decided to post them to Hand discussions forum:
#1 QJo 3bet Bluff Preflop, Cbet Bluff Flop
#2 J Overpair Facing Large Donkbet
#3 K9s Donking Flop in MWP
#4 K2s 3barreling
#5 AJs

#6 QQ CO vs BTN

All in all, I'm very satisfied with how I've played, despite I've lost 2 buy-ins. I think all of the hands above were played fine, but were my biggest loses today.

I can't do anything else than try to play my best in the situation I'm in atm. I know that I'm good enough, despite of disastrous results latelly. Current plan is to stick to NL5 for now, with some sessions at NL10, even my bankroll is more than enough for NL10 and some players would play NL25 with it. Maybe I am tilting too much, but I believe that I deal better with tilt than 90% of other players. I do cry and brag, but I don't allow it to affect my play much and I can confirm that with the stats and the fact that I don't have much hands spewed. It affects to my play in the way that I avoid playing, so my volume suffers alot, but it's better not to play than spew. Most of the players would give up long time ago in my shoes, but I always remember the saying that I heard in one of the PS videos: "Champions stand up one more time than the others!". So, I always stand up, wipe off the dust and move on, and I will do that as long as I will have enough time and passion for poker and as long as I will consider poker as a potential source of income in the future.

Here is the report for Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge:

Starting bankroll: 1.061,04 USD
Targeting bankroll: 5.305,20 USD
Last week bankroll: 780,16 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Week 10
Hands (NL5/NL10): 3.019
Profit: -36,99 USD
Rakeback: 3,00 USD
Exchange rate difference: 0,03 USD
Week 10 profit: -33,96 USD
Current bankroll: 746,20 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Overall profit: -314,84 USD
Overall progress: -7,42%

Here is the report for Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge:

Starting bankroll: 1.061,04 USD
Targeting bankroll: 5.305,20 USD
Last week bankroll: 746,20 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Week 11
Hands (NL5): 4.678
Profit: -12,34 USD
Rakeback: 1,00 USD
Exchange rate difference: -2,46 USD
Week 11 profit: -13,80 USD
Current bankroll: 732,40 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Overall profit: -328,64 USD
Overall progress: -7,74%

Since the month is nearly over and I decided not to play before the April 1th, time to make a recap. I hit a downsing at the beginning of the last month and was hoping for the better one, but didn't happen, unfortunatelly. In fact, this one was even worse. It was probably the worst month poker-wise ever, if looking results. But, would like to focus on the game now and write about results in some later posts. These are the stats for March, together with the stats for 2015:

Overall, stats don't look that bad, at all, but there are some things to point out. First of all, I just can't improve defending against 3bets, even though it was discussed in the last coaching. I tried to expand my cold calling and 4betting ranges, but didn't manage to, yet. When I do defend, I still loose, which is ridiculous. Even with this tight 4bet range, I'm still losing when making a 4bet. I guess it's the matter of the variance, but it's certainly obstructing my effort to expand those ranges.

Further, I struggle with expanding cold calling ranges on the BB. I did expand it a bit, but then my March winrate on the BB become -91,75 bb/100, just like I was folding every single hand. I supose that's not related to this 1,5% wider cold calling range, but gives the picture that it is the case. The logical assumtion would be that my red line is suffering because I've expanded my cold calling range on the BB, so I'm probably folding too much postflop. But that's not the case. The BB graph where I've made a cold call looks like this:

According to the graph, the other logical assumtion is that I'm going to the showdowns too often, but the opposite is the case. My WTSD% when CC on the BB is 22,5. So, I guess it's also the matter of the variance.

The next big issue is that I'm not raising flop cbets as often as I should, especially on the blinds. This mistake probably costs me the most money and would improve my red line significally. Then, I'm folding too much to turn cbets and consequently, folding too less to river cbets. So, I should call and raise cbets a bit more on the turn, but then fold more on the river. The other stats are more or less ok.

So, the future goals (arranged by importance) are:
Raise Flop Cbets more
Cold Call on the BB more
Fold to 3bets less (Expand Cold Call and 4bet ranges)
Fold to Turn Cbets less

Since the results were poor, the volume suffered alot this month. I just wasn't in the mood for playing. That's very bad. I should find the way to avoid being affected by the results, but it's damn hard. Tomorrow will have the 5th session with w34z3l (out of 10) and will probably have more information about what went wrong this month. We will also talk about raising flop cbets. Will probably post my March statystics soon (you know, those graphs and numbers I always post). Stay tuned and remember: Champions stand up one more time than the others! ♠_thumbsup:

Overview of March 2015

As I said above, March was not particulary successfull results wise, but I've certainly made some improvements, game and mental, which should hopefully pay off in the future. I expanded the 3bet ranges from all positions and defending ranges on the BB, especially against BTN and SB. I decided to stick to NL5 untill I'll reach a bankroll of 850$. Then will move up to my standard stakes NL10/NL16.

Here are some graphs and stats for March 2015:

#1 Total net earnings (NL5, NL10, NL16): -172,44 USD

#2 Total earnings (including rakeback): -141,44 USD

#3 Average time spent on playing per day: 1h 14 min

#4 Average earnings per hour: -3,69 USD

Current BR: 732,40 USD

Today had another session with w34z3l and am very satisfied with how it went because get some encouragement for keeping up. Don't have the recording yet, but some of conclusions are following:
I have to defend more to 3bets. I have to expand both cold calling ranges and 4betting ranges.
I have to raise flop cbets more. I'm defending sufficient enough, but mostly passively. What I need to do is just add some hands to raising range, especially OOP.
I should cold call more on every position, especially BB. We discussed my constructed ranges on the BB and I will change them as soon I'll get the recording.
I should reduce the turn cbet percentage. Seems that I 2barrel too often.

Other stats are relatively ok. We didn't discuss it, but I think have one leak more:
I should fold to turn cbets less.
If I fix all those leaks, I'm pretty sure that will be ready for NL10/NL25. So, I decided to take a time to work on those. I have learning material and willingness to learn and I will do it! I probably am on dowsnwing, but there was a bunch of big hands where I made bad play. I had a terrible winrate on the BB, so here are some bad played hands while on the BB:

#1 I should call the raise on the turn

#2 I should check/call the flop. As played, I should fold to 3bet.

#3 I should 3bet for value, but fold to 4bet.

#4 I should fold to his turn 3bet

#5 Tricky hand. Maybe folding to 3bet or just calling would be better.

#6 Again, should 3bet for value, but fold to 4bet.

#7 Should fold the turn.

#8 I should check/raise flop as a semi-bluff.

There were also some stupid plays from other positions, which I marked yesterday:
#9 I should bet/fold the river.

#10 I think I shouldn't 4bet/call against 17/14 nit. It's probably a call.

The other big losing hands were mostly coolers. So, the variance is the part of the reason why I had such a bad results in March, but the part of it were some stupid moves I've made. The funny thing is that most of big losing hands were on the BB, so the BB winrate is terrible. Overall, I am on the right track with all the progress I've made since the first coaching session, but there are still some aspects of the game I should work on, including my mental game. I will take entire April to work on those leaks and have another coaching in May. I hope will finally manage to play 30k hands. So, today is day off, but starting to reach all those goals tomorrow! I know I can do it!

Here is the report for Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge:

Starting bankroll: 1.061,04 USD
Targeting bankroll: 5.305,20 USD
Last week bankroll: 732,40 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Week 12
Hands (NL5/NL10): 5.555
Profit: 68,86 USD
Rakeback: 10,00 USD
Exchange rate difference: -0,02 USD
Week 12 profit: 78,84 USD
Week 12 progress: +10,76%
Current bankroll: 811,24 USD
-------------------------------------------------------------
Overall profit: -249,80 USD
Overall progress: -5,89%

Finally a winning week. It looks like I managed to catch up things a little bit. After the session with w34z3l I started to concentrate like a predator in every single situation where I'm faced with the 3bet or where I call preflop and am faced with the cbet because those are my biggest problems atm. Aditionally, I think I never had more posts at hand evaluation forums than this week and it feels like it impacts to my play in a very positive way. I would continue with doing those things as much as time permits me. I also started to play NL10 a bit again, but mixing it with NL5 atm. I feel that am on the right track again.

Hey Alleen just saw your post from The Bankroll Challenge report thread and wanna say good luck and may the upswing last forever for you.

Originally posted by AgapieGheorghe
Hey Alleen just saw your post from The Bankroll Challenge report thread and wanna say good luck and may the upswing last forever for you.

Thanks! Good luck to you!

good to see things going well and you moving back up good luck