Beating 6max CG

You got me on the board. Heard that BSB is turning people into gold with his aggressive style of play. Look forward to your improvement man.

Quick 3 questions:
- How is traffic on Microgaming?
- What type of 6 max are you playing (regular or zoom)?
- Why not jump to Stars right away for traffic reasons, better regs and faster improvement overall?

All the best with your road in CG!

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
You got me on the board. Heard that BSB is turning people into gold with his aggressive style of play. Look forward to your improvement man.

Quick 3 questions:
- How is traffic on Microgaming?
- What type of 6 max are you playing (regular or zoom)?
- Why not jump to Stars right away for traffic reasons, better regs and faster improvement overall?

All the best with your road in CG!

Thanks a lot my friend, best of luck to you aswell.

- Traffic seems to be good on microgaming. I don´t play many tables at the moment anyway so I haven´t payed much attention to that yet. I know I can easily grind NL20, NL50 and probably NL100 aswell.
- Tried some zoom before coachings but only playing regular 6max now.
- That is true. I play on microgaming to begin with because I have better rakeback there which saves me a bit from my costly early mistakes.

Thanks for responding so fast my friend. Everything clear and makes 100% sense of course.

I would be curious to find out how many hands per hour do you get on MG , especially on regular tables. Are you planing to try ZOOM type of poker on MG?
BTW how did your ZOOM grind go? I find it much harder compared to reg speed tables but enjoy it a tons.

Look forward to all the updates!

I

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
I would be curious to find out how many hands per hour do you get on MG , especially on regular tables. Are you planing to try ZOOM type of poker on MG?
BTW how did your ZOOM grind go? I find it much harder compared to reg speed tables but enjoy it a tons.

I am not sure how accurate this is but it seems like I can get around 300 hands/h from playing 4 tables. Not planning to try zoom again until I have had some progress on the regular tables.
I had a nice upswing at start playing NL100 zoom. Then I started loosing almost all of it and I quit playing it as I ended up about breakeven after like 25k hands (0.31bb/100). Made som money playing NL50 though with a lucky 25.86bb/100 over just 7.5k hands.

Thanks for all the useful info my friend!
Really look forward to your updates here. Especially about your progress with improving and moving up.
Have you found a lot of regs on MG or situation is very different? What would you say is the main difference between them and Stars guys?

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Really look forward to your updates here. Especially about your progress with improving and moving up.

Appreciate it

Originally posted by IvicaIliev77
Have you found a lot of regs on MG or situation is very different? What would you say is the main difference between them and Stars guys?

I feel like there is a lot of regs on MG. But most of them are bad regs and I should be able to exploit them in atleast 1-2 ways. I would say that I have encountered like 3 "good" regs on MG. Also my perspective on what qualifies as a reg is not the best as I´m used to playing mtt´s which I would say contains a lot more fish overall.

I never played 6max regular tables on stars so I can´t tell really. I only played 6max zoom there and the way I played zoom was very agressive. People couldn´t adjust fast enough against me for obvious reasons. If I was to play like that on regular tables, people would adjust very quickly and I would probably get crushed.

Weekly update

Alright so things didn´t go as planned this week. Only played 10k hands or less, WEAK! The 2 major causes was distractions from real life events and worrying about potentially playing bad.

When I was up to about 900€ bankroll I decided to take a shot at NL50. I lost a little more than a buy in and continued to loose on NL20 afterwards. I recieved 40€ from micro gaming because I had played with one ore more players who were violating the terms and agreement. So despite loosing on NL50 and playing about breakeven on NL20 I still have about 850€ bankroll.

I have been doing other stuff like playing mtt´s etc aswell. From now on I will only focus on the 6max cg. It will be so much better long term. I will also only play NL20. If I have more than 1k€ roll at the end of the week I might consider taking a shot at NL50 again for next week. I am going for 20k hands this week aswell, which shouldn´t be a problem really if I´m focused.

Bad hand I played:

Stacks:
UTG Lanhelas ($25.82) 129bb
UTG+1 ssimona ($36.64) 183bb
CO DizzyFan ($42.70) 214bb
BTN Hero ($23.86) 119bb
SB heavenjoy ($20) 100bb
BB goldie1969 ($17.81) 89bb

Pre-Flop: (0.30, 6 players) Hero is BTN J♣ A♥
2 folds, DizzyFan raises to $0.60, Hero calls $0.60, 2 folds

Flop: A♠ 10:spade: 2♦ ($1.50, 2 players)

DizzyFan bets $1.40, Hero calls $1.40

Turn: 4♣ ($4.30, 2)
DizzyFan checks, Hero bets $2.10, DizzyFan raises to $6.90, Hero calls $4.80

River: 6♠ ($16, 2)

DizzyFan checks, Hero goes all-in $14.96, DizzyFan calls $14.96

Final Pot: $45.92
DizzyFan shows
10:heart: 10:club:
Hero shows
J♣ A♥

DizzyFan wins $45.62 (net +$21.76)

Hero lost $21.76

I played several hands poorly but I think this one is the worst of them all. I thought he should never check set or flush on river. By going all in I thought I could represent flush and make him fold AT, AK, AQ. Only guessing in this hand. Does he even C/R AK, AQ etc on turn? Also we have some showdown value so easy check on river.

Good hand I played:

Stacks:
UTG winorluus ($20.41) 102bb
UTG+1 Kisun ($10) 50bb
CO -blmt-BV- ($20.54) 103bb
BTN Hero ($39.75) 199bb
SB ssimona ($21.01) 105bb
BB financeme ($20) 100bb

Pre-Flop: (0.30, 6 players) Hero is BTN 8♣ 8♥
winorluus raises to $0.60, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.60, 1 fold, financeme calls $0.40

Flop: 5♠ 8♦ J♦ ($1.70, 3 players)

financeme checks, winorluus bets $1.90, Hero calls $1.90, financeme folds

Turn: 10:club: ($5.50, 2)
winorluus checks, Hero bets $2.80, winorluus calls $2.80

River: J♥ ($11.10, 2)

winorluus checks, Hero goes all-in $34.45, winorluus goes all-in $15.11

Final Pot: $41.32
Hero shows
8♣ 8♥
winorluus shows
A♦ A♣

Hero wins $58.79 (net +$19.04)

UTG open from somewhat tight player so good setmine. Easy slowplay on flop 3way. I could probably bet bigger on turn to set up stacks better for river. His most likely holding is an overpair I think, maybe AK also. I decided to overbet river all in as there are several missed draws I can represent.

Weekly update

Lost a lot this week. Because of this I didn´t play as many hands as I would have liked to, playing fewer tables and quiting just to think about hands etc. Here is the updated graph:

I think I have been playing much better lately compared to the beginning. This makes me believe that I was lucky at start and that the variance has now even out. I feel no need to play NL50 anymore, NL20 is more than good enough to practise at. Despite loosing a lot I still have about 670€ bankroll because of the rakeback etc. I feel like I am improving which is what is most important. Let´s focus more on learning and thinking this week instead of volume. Volume will come naturally when I can get into all the good habits

Ok so results have been terrible. In summary I have lost 32 buy ins at NL20 and I have lost 16 buy ins at NL10. I think it´s a lot tougher compared to what I originally thought it would be. The experience has been great though and it has certainly opened my eyes in order to realise a lot of things and to see future potential.

There is obviously a lot more thinking going on in cash games, which I´m not really used to coming from mtt´s. I wonder what a cash game grinder would think about the competetion if he was to start playing some mtt´s, say 11$ mtt and see all the crazy stuff the weaker players does in those.

Because of my old habits from grinding mtt´s it has sometimes been difficult to focus 100% on a table. I´m used to not focusing as much in the beginning of the mtt, only start thinking more and start paying more attention the deeper into the mtt we get. So I have to treat every cash game table as if it was a final table.

Despite starting out loosing a lot I still think I am somewhat happy with my progress, even though I think it has been quite slow. I am learning new things and I am obtaining more understanding so I can start seeing the bigger picture. So I am still very optimistic of course.

Goals for march:

* Move up to NL50
I played some NL50 when things were good. Then I realised that there are a lot of things I have to fix and that NL20 is more than good enough limit to play at. I feel no need to play NL50 anymore hehe.

* Keep learning and think more and more
Progress has been made but can get better.

* Get rid of bad habits (non thinking button clicking etc)
I have to keep getting better at this.

* Reduce random unjustified spews (mostly caused by non thinking)
I think a problem has been that I am assuming too many things and relying on a small sample of information. Thinking that he should be thinking "this" so he can´t do "that" so then this "creative" play should be good. But often he is not and is just trapping us. So this has to get fixed by paying more attention to the individual players, see what cards they show down etc, if they are capable of doing whatever and then make plans against them for potential future hands. Making short term plans in the moment based on what I think my opponents should be thinking has cost me a lot.

* Be happy and enjoy the journey
Of course it´s disappointing to start out loosing. For the most part not because of the money but because it hurts my ego a bit as I am trying something new. I am very happy in general though, life is great.

Goals for april:

* Play NL10 and rebuild the 16 buy ins loss a bit, then play NL20
* Keep learning and think more and more
* Get rid of bad habits (non thinking button clicking etc)
* Pay a lot more attention and make proper plans when playing.
* Be happy and enjoy the journey

Bankroll: 393€

Good luck with your goals in April

Cheers,
SDK1987

Originally posted by SDK1987
Good luck with your goals in April

Cheers,
SDK1987

Thank you, much appreciated!

YW. How its going this month so far?

Originally posted by SDK1987
YW. How its going this month so far?

Sorry about the late reply.

Results won´t seem to turn around yet. I am having big issues with my postflop play and I have a lot of things to work on. I am still optimistic about the future though

Hopefully my learning process will be something like this:

Loosing a lot --> breaking even --> winning --> crushing

--> -->

Hopefully things will start turning around this month!

I hope it to for you.
Good luck in May

Cheers,
SDK1987

Originally posted by SDK1987
I hope it to for you.
Good luck in May

Cheers,
SDK1987

Thanks my friend, good luck to you aswell

Originally posted by qwerto11

Originally posted by SDK1987
I hope it to for you.
Good luck in May

Cheers,
SDK1987

Thanks my friend, good luck to you aswell

TY:f_pleased:

Good things happened this month, finally started winning. I moved up to NL50 and I´m currently beating that. I play some NL100 also but struggling a bit there, about break even at NL100 for now.

Small celebration with lovely music:

A lot of things I feel like I need to work on still. Many spots where I could have cut losses I think. At NL100 I´m getting crushed at non showdown. Many things I have to fix with my postflop play.

Goals for June:
* Beat NL100
* Make atleast 2,5k€ (with RB included)
* Clear my 60 day bonus in only 30 days (for volume reasons)

Bankroll: 2,405€

Nice graph of May
Hopefully you update your blog a little bit more than once per month.
Good luck with your goals in June

Cheers,
SDK1987

For some reason I stopped posting here after things started working out. I mostly play 100nl now + I have been taking some shots at 200nl. Last two months were so great, making me think that everything is solved, nothing to worry about. However, this month has been terrible so far. Graph from microgaming:

I have realized that I play really, really bad at times. But at the same time I feel like I am moving forward. So it´s like the more I learn from experiences, the more I realize how much I don´t know. For example when playing against one of the strongest regs, and I get destroyed, then I might think "wow, that was beautifully done", whereas before I would have no clue about what is going on. Another big problem is my work ethic I think. I may have even have bankroll issues if loosing continues (having to drop stakes), because of frequent withdrawals during good times.

Always be a student and continue on the path. Practice for the sake of practicing alone. And relish the long stretches where no progress seems to be made.

Let´s wrap up this month the best way we can, and plan for November to be a fantastic month. Anyway, I feel like this month has been very valuable to me and my journey. I hope I will update this blog regularly in the future.