Why cant I be great? - A FR cash game blog.

9/15/2015 Goals:

1. 6+ hrs grinding
2. 2+ hrs studying
3. Gym trip
4. Mark 3+ hands while grinding
5. Minimize distractions while grinding
6. Thoroughly think through each choice, 0 autopilot
7. Have fun

Hi, SmokingDough,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com forums!
After almost 2 years it's about time!

Great title for the blog!
Asking that question is a great place to start finding the answer.

Have you been playing steadily all this time?
I see you're platinum -- what makes you think you're not already great?

All the best,
VS

Hello Vorpal!

Good question. I have been a long time grinder playing mostly 25fr on stars. I depended on my roll for a while as my main income to get me through school. At the time my main focus was playing as much as possible and grinding out volume rather than real quailty. Working on rising up through the limits wasnt happening with all the withdrawals I was making from my roll for school and whatever other habits I got up to in college. This stopped my growth as a player but I dont regret it, school was fun lol.

Anyways I graduated 2 years ago, Im 27 now and still take poker very seriously but I now work a full time job as well. I play 16-50nl FR cash games across a few sites. My main focus now that I am not dependent on my roll for $ is to start putting in the work off the table and make up for the lack of work I have put into my game over the years. I feel like my game has plateaued which brought me here to poker strategy and I plan on making the most of it.

Cheers!

Hey guys,

Pretty slow start to today. Alarm didnt go off so Im behind schedule a bit. Just reviewing the last two days so I decided to do a little write up and post a few hands that I misplayed. The last two days have been pretty frustrating. Ive been taking shots at 50nl this whole month and its going alright but not great by any standards. I havent been playing my A game nearly enough and the results show. I have however been doing a little bit of studying and reached my other goals for the day so thats a positive. Here are some hands that I dont like how I played and would like to hear peoples thoughts.

HAND 1:

Villain in this hand is a huge whale playing around 64/40/8.3 over a 1k hand sample in FR. I find lately that I am missing value bets on the river when its close. On this river I a bet/fold is best. I expect him to call any pair, even a better pair he might just call down but he will raise his 6x hands. I would probably bet around $4.10ish.

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $28.10 (112.4 bb)
BB: $13.36 (53.4 bb)
UTG+1: $25.35 (101.4 bb)
UTG+2: $25.62 (102.5 bb)
MP1: $26.05 (104.2 bb)
Hero (MP2): $26.26 (105 bb)
MP3: $29.64 (118.6 bb)
CO: $25.35 (101.4 bb)
BTN: $25 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 9 9
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, 4 folds, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.60) 6 3 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.95, BB calls $0.95

Turn: ($3.50) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.80, BB calls $1.80

River: ($7.10) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Results:

HAND 2:

Continuing the trend of missed river bets here's another hand thats pretty close. This one however is not vs a fish, it is vs a competent reg. I felt like I had a pretty good read on this guy yesterday and had really been exploiting a few of his stats like his ft3bet. Id 3 bet him a few times today and even 4 bet bluffed him once when he tried to take a stand. I had the feeling he was getting a bit frustrated at me. Hes on the LAG side for FR running 22/15/5.7. I was trying to figure out what hand he has that makes it to the river. I expect that the would 3 bet AQ+ 1010+ pre. We have an Ax blocker so its hard to see him having many Ax hands in his range that he would flat call pre other than maybe A10s. 78 completed the straight on the river which makes sense. The only other hands in his range are sets which I also think he may play like this because the board is just so dry and I am the one repping the Ax hand here. After writing that out I suppose the river check isnt that bad...

Poker Stars, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $50.25 (100.5 bb)
BB: $50 (100 bb)
UTG+2: $39 (78 bb)
MP1: $34.61 (69.2 bb)
MP2: $50 (100 bb)
Hero (MP3): $50 (100 bb)
CO: $50 (100 bb)
BTN: $54.75 (109.5 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A J
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, CO folds, BTN calls $1.25, 2 folds

Flop: ($3.25) 6 A 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.80, BTN calls $1.80

Turn: ($6.85) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.58, BTN calls $3.58

River: ($14.01) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Results:

HAND 3:

This is one that legit had me baffled. Villain is 16/12/5 TAG. The raise OTT is pretty strong espcially since we went 3 way to the flop, and I am UTG. Looks like 55 or A10s too me. Thoughts?

Pacific, $0.10/$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $31.13 (155.7 bb)
BB: $9.43 (47.2 bb)
Hero (UTG+1): $20 (100 bb)
UTG+2: $20 (100 bb)
MP1: $19.70 (98.5 bb)
MP2: $20.98 (104.9 bb)
MP3: $20.64 (103.2 bb)
CO: $20.20 (101 bb)
BTN: $9 (45 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K Q
Hero raises to $0.60, 2 folds, MP2 calls $0.60, MP3 folds, CO calls $0.60, BTN calls $0.60, 2 folds

Flop: ($2.70) K 5 Q (4 players)
Hero bets $1.54, MP2 calls $1.54, CO calls $1.54, BTN folds

Turn: ($7.32) J (3 players)
Hero bets $3.82, MP2 raises to $8.80, 2 folds

Results:

Theres 3 hands from yesterday that left me scratching my head. Anyways, going to post my daily goals today and then watch a training video. Was browsing them yesterday and it looks like theres some good content for FR. Excited to check it out. Thanks for the input guys, cya.

9/16/2015 GOALS

1. 6+ hours grinding
2. Watch a training video
3. Mark and review 3+ hands from sessions
4. Gym trip
6. More A game, less B and C game.
7. Have fun!
8. Read a chapter in Think and Grow rich! (just picked this book up and really want to start reading more books)

Hi, SmokingDough
Ah yes, the " I missed a river value bet leak"

First off, everyone has that leak when the showdown comes and their hand wins.
When villain has a crappy pocket pair and wins, the leak becomes the, "I could have taken that down by showing aggression leak".

Hand 1: What worse would call you? If there are sufficient hands in his range worse than yours, by all means bet. Not a lot in this hand.

Hand 2:
OOP, you have to check/call smallish bets. You have top pair, but a mediocre kicker.
Again, what worse would call? In this case, his hand would call. If KK is a likely fold OTT for most players -- no?

Hand 3:
Good fold, I think -- but watch this guy. There are people who print money overbetting rivers. Too many times, and he needs challenging! Maybe even with top two.

Peace,
VS

Alright a new week is here and its time to get to work! Last week was a huge pain in the ass tbh. Played pretty poorly and just couldnt get it together. I did quite a bit of work on my game so thats good, hopefully I can turn things around here and end the month strong

So here are my goals for today:

1. 6hrs grinding
2. 2x gym trips
3. Mark and review 3+ hands
4. 1 training video / article
5. Read a chapter of Think and grow rich
6. Pay the bills (ew)
7. Eliminate distractions while grinding
8. Have fun

LETS GO!

hand 3# check his turn agr stats like (raise turn bet) if you have lot of data of him. Anyway I think fold is good without more information.

9/212015 REVIEW

6/8 Goals reached.

Yesterday was another tough day at the tables but overall a pretty productive day. I played my B+ game for most of the day and got into good games but still couldnt book a win. Not going to cry about that anymore, just need to review and get better! I also just wanted to say thanks to Vorpal and Darhem for advice on the previous hands I posted. I Appreciate the input guys.

HAND 1:

This is an interesting spot pre in this hand and I like a squeeze here after looking at everyones stats. The reason the squeeze is appealing to me is because the SB is the whale who does not fold to 3 bets, and the other two that are already in the hand have a higher fold to 3 bet so by squeezing here we can get HU with the fish in position a lot of the time. As played though river feels like a sigh fold.

Poker Stars, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $9.79 (39.2 bb)
Hero (BB): $25 (100 bb)
UTG+2: $34.11 (136.4 bb)
MP1: $20.72 (82.9 bb)
MP2: $25 (100 bb)
MP3: $26.22 (104.9 bb)
CO: $7.71 (30.8 bb)
BTN: $26.90 (107.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J J
2 folds, MP2 raises to $0.60, MP3 calls $0.60, 2 folds, SB calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.35

Flop: ($2.40) J A 6 (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.75, MP2 calls $1.75, 2 folds

Turn: ($5.90) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $3.38, MP2 calls $3.38

River: ($12.66) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.90, MP2 raises to $14.60, Hero folds

Results:

HAND 2:

I played this hand sooooooooooooooooooooo bad. I was really pissed at myself after this one. I should just B/F the river here. BTN is the whale at the table. In this spot I think its best to bet a size that could get a call from worse diamonds but still be able to fold to a raise. As played river is just bad

Party, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 8 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $25.37 (50.7 bb)
BB: $15.98 (32 bb)
UTG+2: $135.91 (271.8 bb)
Hero (MP1): $51.54 (103.1 bb)
MP2: $8.78 (17.6 bb)
MP3: $69.72 (139.4 bb)
CO: $44.89 (89.8 bb)
BTN: $75.66 (151.3 bb)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with J K
UTG+2 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, 3 folds, BTN calls $1.50, SB calls $1.25, BB folds

Flop: ($5) T 6 A (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.83, BTN calls $2.83, SB folds

Turn: ($10.66) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.88, BTN calls $6.88

River: ($24.42) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $23.20, Hero calls $23.20

Results:

Oh well guys thats just the way she goes sometimes. Just have to keep going and working hard. The results will come soon! Im feeling really comfortable at 50nl right now so I am going to continue to have that in my rotation for now. Im excited to get today started so lets get some goals here.

9/22/2015 GOALS

Cant wait to hit the tables today. Games have been really good during the entire WCOOP so lets hope that trend continues ♦

1. 6+ hours grinding
2. 2 Gym trips
3. Mark and review 3 hands
4. Review pre flop ranges and find spots to open game
5. Eliminate distractions while grinding. Stay focused. 0 autopilot.
6. Have fun

Todays main focus while grinding: Steal more

LETS GO!

Originally posted by SmokingDough
HAND 1:
This is an interesting spot pre in this hand and I like a squeeze here after looking at everyones stats. The reason the squeeze is appealing to me is because the SB is the whale who does not fold to 3 bets, and the other two that are already in the hand have a higher fold to 3 bet so by squeezing here we can get HU with the fish in position a lot of the time. As played though river feels like a sigh fold.

Do you have the fold to 3 bet stat in your HUD? (I have it by position hehe)

HAND 2:
I played this hand sooooooooooooooooooooo bad. I was really pissed at myself after this one. I should just B/F the river here. BTN is the whale at the table. In this spot I think its best to bet a size that could get a call from worse diamonds but still be able to fold to a raise. As played river is just bad ...

You should actually be happy for that river, otherwise you'd have lost a lot of money vs the fish when you have 2nd nuts (I think we have different concepts of what a "whale" is, he played... normal fish, a whale for me would have raised/pushed the flop or even preflop hehe)

Oh well guys thats just the way she goes sometimes. Just have to keep going and working hard. The results will come soon! Im feeling really comfortable at 50nl right now so I am going to continue to have that in my rotation for now. Im excited to get today started so lets get some goals here.

9/22/2015 GOALS

Cant wait to hit the tables today. Games have been really good during the entire WCOOP so lets hope that trend continues ♦
...

Wow, I also thought I was in an upswing but yeah, tables might be softer because a lot of fish who play WCOOP multitable with 1 or 2 cash tables hehe...

I've seen you play FR on Stars, how do you find the level on NL25? (how many bb/100 do you win in the level?). I ask because I'm crushing NL5 and NL10 without problems, and have played a few hands on NL16 but was a bit surprised when a reg called my push preflop with 88 on a squeeze pot! (and he won the hand ) That is... well it actually makes the level a little harder in my opinion, squeezing is soo profitable down here in NL10...

Todays main focus while grinding: Steal more

LETS GO!

How much do you steal per position?

Hello Volrath thanks for reading I see that you have a thread too Ill check it out. So heres a few answers to your questions.

Do you have the fold to 3 bet stat in your HUD? (I have it by position hehe)

Yes I use FT3Bet by position in my hud. I do need to work on making better pop ups, but Im pretty noob at HEM2. My hud is getting too big, not enough room anymore lol.

You should actually be happy for that river, otherwise you'd have lost a lot of money vs the fish when you have 2nd nuts (I think we have different concepts of what a "whale" is, he played... normal fish, a whale for me would have raised/pushed the flop or even preflop hehe)

You are right that river did save me a bunch of money lol. However I still dont really like my river call, I just dont see this fish blasting pot on the river without the nuts. In my experience huge bets on rivers are nutted hands a lot of the time.

Wow, I also thought I was in an upswing but yeah, tables might be softer because a lot of fish who play WCOOP multitable with 1 or 2 cash tables hehe...

I've seen you play FR on Stars, how do you find the level on NL25? (how many bb/100 do you win in the level?). I ask because I'm crushing NL5 and NL10 without problems, and have played a few hands on NL16 but was a bit surprised when a reg called my push preflop with 88 on a squeeze pot! (and he won the hand ) That is... well it actually makes the level a little harder in my opinion, squeezing is soo profitable down here in NL10...

Ive played 25nl for probably 4 years now sadly. For the first 3 Id say I wasnt a big winner, I was a pretty bad player but I was at school this time and all I cared about was making enough money to pay for the few things that I had to and then use the rest partying lol. I was really good at puttig in volume so with a small winrate and some nice rakeback bonuses I was able to do this easily but it really stunted my growth as a player because I was never studying the game. I guess I was a rakeback semi-pro? lololol. I just played very ABC and it worked because games were very soft. Moving up stakes was not going to happen because I was making so many withdrawals. Now though I dont have to rely on my poker bankroll as my income so Ive cut down the amount of tables I play and I am just trying to move up and become a better player.

25nl+ has for sure gotten a lot tougher over the years but it is still VERY profitable it just takes a bit more work now. Here are my results for this year. Im not a crusher, but Ill take it.

If you are crushing 10nl over a decent sample you should move up to 16nl asap. There are probably qutie a few regs that you already play with playing 16nl. I also dont think theres a huge difference between 16nl and 25nl. So many regs play 16-50nl as their main games. I think that the skill discrepancy between the regs at these stakes isnt that big. 90% of moving up through these levels is mental. I would always sike myself out when taking 50nl shots thinking that the regs are a lot better than me and outplaying me. I would begin to over adjust and make stupid plays that were really uncharacteristic of me. Sure they are probably a bit more aggressive but I play with half of them already and do fine so what is the real problem? Its just a mental block.

9/24/2015 GOALS

Ok so today I want to get into the habit of treating poker more like a 9-5 job. Those are the hours Im going to begin to grind everyday. Before I start my grind at 9am, Ill go to the gym, study and review a bit and then boom, off to work we go until 5pm. Probably not the greatest hours to grind but whatever. So heres the goals for today:

1. Grind 9-5
2. Mark and review 3+ hands
3. 2 Gym trips (made bets with friends, have to go 20x this month and Im way behind so I have some ground to make up. Need 2adays to make it!)
4. 0 auto-pilot while grinding
5. Have fun

Todays focus while grinding: Steal more (again )

LETS GO!

Hi, SmokingDough,
Good goals!

Be sure to take breaks. 9-5 is a long time without them. Not just quick trips to the bathroom, either. Decent breaks.

On stealing: Wonderful idea if you have a nit or two to your left. Watch the two players on your left carefully. If you don't like 'em leave. Tough to play vs people who 3Bet a ton. The other alternative is to tighten up, then 4Bet bluff, but you can dig a pretty decent grave with that particular shovel.

Best of luck,
VS

Originally posted by SmokingDough
Yes I use FT3Bet by position in my hud. I do need to work on making better pop ups, but Im pretty noob at HEM2. My hud is getting too big, not enough room anymore lol.

Bigger than this?

If you are crushing 10nl over a decent sample you should move up to 16nl asap. There are probably qutie a few regs that you already play with playing 16nl. I also dont think theres a huge difference between 16nl and 25nl. So many regs play 16-50nl as their main games. I think that the skill discrepancy between the regs at these stakes isnt that big. 90% of moving up through these levels is mental. I would always sike myself out when taking 50nl shots thinking that the regs are a lot better than me and outplaying me. I would begin to over adjust and make stupid plays that were really uncharacteristic of me. Sure they are probably a bit more aggressive but I play with half of them already and do fine so what is the real problem? Its just a mental block.

10.43 bb/100 on NL10 after 30k hands (EV 9.99)
10.87 bb/100 on NL5 after 48k hands (EV 10.30)
1.5k hands on NL16 only (winrate says nothing yet)

It's funny how similar the winrates are, I feel I get away more often with my tricky plays on NL5

But yeah, I'll accumulate some more Bankroll this month, I think I'll cash out the FPPs with the old-school trick of the FPP tourneys and hopefully will have more than enough to play NL10-16-25 as my main games on October

You didn't say how much did you steal per position!

ALright guys lets get back at it!

Played a little bit the last few days so going to get back into grinding some big sessions for the rest of the week. I am also going to continue trying to grind 9-5. With that being said, Heres my goals for today:

1. Grind 9-5
2. Gym trip
3. Mark and Review 3 hands
4. 0 Autopilot
5. Set up a study plan for the rest of the week

LETS GO

Hi, SmokingDough
Update?

After you've reviewed your hands, consider posting them for others' comments, then compare their comments with your own.

It's quite helpful.

All the best,
VS

The long awaited update is here!

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to EPT Malta with him to grind cash and meet some of our other poker friends. I decided to do this but before heading to Malta I went to visit him for a week in Amsterdam, Holland. So I ended up spending week in Amsterdam, and then 10 days in Malta for the entire EPT. Here are some photos:

Amsterdam:

Amsterdam Central Station

Need a bike?

Downtown

Red light district

Amsterdam was awesome and quite eye opening for me actually. A LOT different than anything in Canada thats for sure. So after Amsterdam my friend and I went to Malta to meet up with a few other poker players. There was a group of about 9 of us from all over the place. It was really cool meeting everyone and I couldnt have asked for a better trip in Malta. The country is beautiful and I could actually see myself living there If I end up having some success in poker.

A typical day when I was in Malta would go like this:
- Wake up, get an english breakfast at the pub around the corner
- Walk around the island doing tourist things (mostly just taking pictures)
- Head to the casino and see how the games were. If the games looked good I would play until dinner time and then I would usually go out for dinner with guys if they werent playing.
- After dinner I would either go back to the casino and play until morning or if people wanted to go out for some drinks / to the club I would do that instead of playing.

Heres some photos from Malta:

Tourist things

Poker in Malta

Tournament room

Nice little cash session

Gambling it up playing a game called Run It Thrice

Feature table

One of the sickest things that happened in Malta was one of the guys in our little crew shipped the IPT High roller for 160k!

So thats all for photos. What a trip it was. Going to an EPT was kind of a bucket list thing of mine which is why I decided to go. Im glad I got to experience it. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

Now Im back in Canada and motivated more than ever to get on the grind and become a better poker player so expect regular updates and terribly played hands to be posted

Cheers guys!

Awesome pics, Amsterdam is a rly nice city

11/4/2015 GOALS

Alright finally back to the online grind. Oh how Ive missed you Here are my goals for today.

[ ] 3k Hands
[ ] Watch and take detailed notes on a RIO video
[ ] Mark and review minimum 3 hands from todays sessions
[ ] Gym
[ ] Read a chapter of Shantaram
[ ] 0 auto-pilot while playing

LETS GET AT IT!