[Poker Brothers] caltabiano's grinding + farming FTW!

I for my part really want to have children, so I need a woman who has a similar lifestyle in order to do that in a healthy manner.

next thing after farming, you might want to go to live in Africa ♦ and then again divorce it would be interesting to hear relationships phychologists opinion on that. How do they solve this.
Only way they can solve it - by making you think that you do not want to do other things , and you can be happy without doing other things.

Like my friends say - try to not play poker, try some other thing ♦ like doing much more sport, participate in competitions like table tennis. You did not try, you would be much more happier without poker or without computer gaming.

But I had breaks, even long ones. Was doing much more boring stuff, last break from poker - like going to bars, walking to some painting galleries, other events.

But how fun is to discuss with poker friend on skype 3 hours about poker and not get bored. And having to stop, because friend has to grind for living. Of course it would be even more fun if I find real guy which we fit each other and who I can meet and talk about poker and go to bar for a beer.

give my best to Daniel! and tell him to update once in a while too!

@speedfanatic: yeah yeah, discussing about poker is just really awesome. I just love how poker strategy is so closely related to life strategy, especially the mindset part. It's just awesome, I could go on for a long time discussing and relating it to other life aspects

@vonki: will do madam! How have you been btw? Crushing what limits? Congrats on becoming a coach btw, way to go!

UPDATE

What's up people. Here I am again for my sunday update

This week I took shots at NL25 and made some stacks! High five o/!
Bankroll now sits at $270. At $300 I start shooting NL50, hopefully my first session next week will be a winning one so that I can shoot NL50.

Here's graph for the week:

Pretty swingy. Little by little really feel I'm improving my game. I'm still making some mistakes obviously, but I think my mindset during gameplay is pretty good, and I'm managing to keep my A-game plus like 70 - 80% of the time. Still have to improve and make it to 95%!

Ok, so to the theme of the week: Playing BB v a steal.

Thinks I realised this week: I think that against most people nowadays we need to have a depolarized range when restealing, because people open super loose and call with marginal hands, so our fold equity when restealing is not that great, and thus we need to a wider "top range" instead of just buff 3betting.

In order to develop some dynamics with players I don't know, I usually start restealing early in the session, not really caring what my hand is, and then as session develops I adjust to a decent range.

Against minraises we should call a TON on the BB and c/r and float a lot OOP, because villains range is so weak. This is probably something I have to do more often when calling. When I say a lot, of course I don't mean every hand, but somewhat often. We can really pick up a lot of flops I think. I'll have to experience more with it.

TT-JJ and AQ are standard 3b/jam against most regulars, because people are 4betting quite a lot, especially once you start 3betting a little bit. They should not be standard 4b/cAI on the other hand, because it's a completely different situation. But I'm talking about playing from the BB, so we're on the 3b/jam side.

Ok, now lets see a few hands:

PokerStars - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 104.52 BB
SB: 152.32 BB
Hero (BB): 191.4 BB
CO: 118.16 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 9♣ 7♥

fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 2♠ 8♦ 6♦
SB checks, Hero bets 3.6 BB, SB calls 3.6 BB

Turn: (13.2 BB, 2 players) 6♥
SB checks, Hero bets 8 BB, SB calls 8 BB

River: (29.2 BB, 2 players) 5♦
SB checks, Hero bets 20 BB, SB calls 20 BB

Versus a small blind I'll really call a lot, because he has such a wide range and we have ultimate position, especially when they raise small. I really don't like to raise small on the small blind, I always raise to 3bb. When somebody raise 2bb I call any2.

Here I valuetown myself Still I think it's decent play and I actually think I should bet super big on the river like 28bb or so. When people c/c like that, I think it's often some sort of midpair, so he could have turned trips or have something like 77, or maybe a weak 8 and I believe he'll fold most small pairs, even if I bet something like 1/2, but won't really make a difference between a 20bb bet or a 28bb bet. So maybe I should either bet really small like 1/4 pot or really big like 9/10 pot.

And now a resteal situation with a depolarized 3betting range where I valuetown myself again

PokerStars - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 101.4 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 205.52 BB
CO: 106.76 BB
BTN: 252.4 BB
SB: 143.44 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J♠ A♣

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.48 BB, fold, Hero raises to 8.8 BB, BTN calls 6.32 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) A♠ 3♦ 9♦
Hero bets 8.8 BB, BTN calls 8.8 BB

Turn: (35.6 BB, 2 players) 9♥
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (35.6 BB, 2 players) 3♥
Hero bets 18.8 BB, BTN calls 18.8 BB

I even posted this hand on the hand evaluation forums to get some feedback, but then you guys can give me feedback here as well. I didn't really know much about this guy on this hand. After playing some hands with him, I definitely take this hand off my 3betting range, because I don't think there's value in 3betting it against him. But against most regs, I think there is.

But once I 3b, I think the play is fine, although there is something to be said about c/c river to maybe get a bluff form something like KdQd which decided to check back turn. An A probably bets regardless, so it's the same value by betting and calling (of course there'll be differences in bet sizes, but that's of little matter I think)
But then we don't get value from JJ and TT which will check back. That's another 12 combos and that's pretty significant. Floats will more often than not bet turn, so yeah, maybe betting is the right move.

Any thoughts?

For the goals I set for myself, I completed all of them this week Did the "Theme of the week" thing, post 5 hands in the hand evaluation forum and commented on another 5 hands. Played for some 6h-8h and made some money =D

Now goals for the upcoming week:

- Deposit another $400 to take advantage of the full $600 deposit bonus. I had deposited only $200. But that extra money is not really part of my bankroll, I will cash it out as soon as I release the bonus. So even though there'll be a total of $600 deposited in my account, only $50 were actually used for bankroll.

- Theme of the week: Bluff catchers - this goes for bluff catching AND also for realising when a good hand has turned into a bluff catcher and is not really worth anything anymore.

- Post 5 hand

- Comment in 5 hands

And I guess that's pretty much it.

Now I had set a farm goal, which was to organise the pictured I have of the farm in order to set up a virtual profile and I FAILED. I started doing it, but didn't finish it up. Will do it this week though.

Alright lads and lasses, I'll see you next weekend.

Happy christmas everyone!

how can you explain 97 hand barrel on turn? I remember many people saying to not barrel on paired turns, cause people will not fold. Actuall he could fold Ax, but not sure how many Ax are in his range on turn.

River - what range you think you are getting value from? I actually have no idea what is his range aftger he c/r twice.

AJ hand:

what hands you put him on range before you bet? Do you put him on many weak Ax? I am thinking - maybe its ok to c/c becuase in case he has many weak aces - he will not call 3 streets. If he has 2nd pair, also not call 3 streets. Draws will bet themselves. Also some air with backdoor ewquity will bet, which are folding to our bet. So maybe by betting we are isolating against strong range. ALso it would suck to be raised I guess.

But if we expect to get 3 streets from many weaker aces, then I like cbet more. Cause weak aces will check behind flop very often probably.

@SPEEDFANATIC: 97 hand - although the pairing turn is not such a great card to barrel, we do have an oesd, and becuase it's not such a good card to barrel, we should get more respect from our bet and we have pretty decent equity still. I'd make a 3rd barrel pretty often I guess, becasue there are many weakish hands that can still call a 2nd bet, but cannot withstand 3 barrels. So I probably barrel any J or higher river. On this river, when we hit the straight, we can still get value from weakish 8's, a 6, maybe 99 which decided to c/c (I know that won't happen often, but it might). I basically never expected him to have a flush, because I thought it would cb flop, and also very unlikely a fh because most hands that could hit a fh would also have bet flop. A 6 would sometimes bet or raise turn, but I think it could decide to c/c as well. So I think there's decent value to be had by betting. Maybe there's something to be said about betting really small to target weakish pairs (8 or less).

On the AJ hand, yeah, betting or checking the river will be opponent depending I guess. I have seen many regulars calling weak A's versus these resteals, which is pretty horrendous in my opinion. But like I said, after seeing this guy play some more hands, I'd have played it differently.

UPDATE

Alright, now for the update of the week.

This weak I failed in the goals of posting hands, because my pokertracker license expired and then I couldn't find them anymore, I guess I'll have to get used to using BOOM for a while, so I can post the hands.

But this week was pretty sick... I'm down something like 6 BI's, and had to move down to NL10 again. BR sits at $113, putting my in the negative since I started, because I deposited $50 and have already released $110 of bonus. So I'm down $47. I might be break even or up in bb, because it happened a lot of losing a lot when moving up stakes.

So this really got me thinking about that old: "Oh crap, is it just variance, am I playing bad, can I do this, am I gonna fail, bla bla bla..." But that's just bullshit thinking, you know why? Because regardless of whether I am playing bad or it's just sick variance, or whatever it is, there's only 1 thing to be done: keep on playing and keep on improving my game. So that's what I'm gonna do, and for sure things will get better. So no worries.

I think I'm playing reasonably well and variance is giving me a bit of a tough time. This week for example, I got fh busted by quads twice, then another fh busted by higher full house and set over set a couple of times. Now, I'm not saying I couldn't have let go of some of those hands, I probably could, but most of them were just sick coolers. There was one pretty interesting hand which I'll describe here because I don't have the hand histtory:

Hero is BB w/ JJ
All fold to the BTN (I don't remember if villain was BTN or SB, but I think it was BTN)
BTN raise 2bb
Hero re-raises 8bb
BTN calls

FLOP JTT (POT 17bb)

Hero bets 12bb , BTN calls

TURN T (POT 41bb)

Hero bets 23bb, BTN jams!!!

I thought for 3 seconds, and said "FML, this is sick" and called. He shows up the T

Now, that's one of the hands I think i could have found the fold button. The thing is, he had AA or Tx and nothing else in that spot. My range is JJ+, maybe AJ, so he knows I'm pretty strong and I can take bluffs out of his range, and his value range is AA or Tx, against which I'm probably beat, especially considering that he doesn't have all combos of AA, since he'll 4b them more often than not pre. So most likely it's Tx.

Now folding the second nuts might seem exploitable, and it is, but it's NL25 and I doubt people are pulling crazy bluffs like this one . So I actually think folding 2nd nuts might be the right move there. It sucks though, of course. Still we gotta learn how to play these spots properly. They only show up every now and then but I guess they can add an extra .5 or even 1bb/100 in our winrate.

And then there was another hand in which I hero called down for 200bb, due to a read. I'm still not sure about the hand, but I'm definitely happy I managed to do it and maintained my cool after losing those stacks. I never did something of the sort before, but it just pleased me to have the gut to go with my read.

I don't remember how the board developed exactly, but I 3b the SB form the BB w/ Q7o, he called, flop came 763 or 764 w/ fd possible, the guy c/r me and I called him down. I blocked 76 and 77, there were a couple of overcards on the turn and river I think, but every possible draw busted, and I thought he was spazzy. He showed down 76s in the end.

So you know, I guess it's not something we should be doing very often, especially since it's the micro-stakes, and it was probably spewy of my part, but well, shit happens, and sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes we make right moves but lose nonetheless, so there you go.

And I had a pretty cool realisation this week, about a leak in my mental game, which is this: it's a sort of pride in which I'm afraid to look like a donk, so sometimes I do not make certain play because: "oh, if I'm wrong I'd look like a donk" and sometimes I don't trust my decisions because of that. Sometimes I manage to build up the confidence to overcome this, but it's rare and then when I do make a decision which turns out the wrong way (even if it was the right decision), then my game gets completely crushed and I stop trusting my decisions again. So that's something I'm gonna try to work on.

Funny thing is that this even extends into some aspects of real life, although in other aspects it's completely the opposite. I wanna give more thought into that for the next few weeks.

So now my plan is this:

grind NL until BR is at $120 - $130. Then I'll redeem some stellar rebates (I've got $30 to redeem) so that I can jump back into NL25 and try to hit it from there again and hope to playgood/rungood. Always trying to improve my game.

I'm gonna set some goals for this year that comes, but that'll come out in my next post, because I have to think about it, but I'm already gonna give a little hint that in the short term there'll be buying PT4 license and being able to afford somebody to coach me, and long term upgrading my motorcycle to one I feel comfortable travelling on highways (mine is only 250cc, and I'd rather have at least 500cc for the highways)

So, thats it, I'm gonna report to the get rich or die trying challenge and call it or the week.

I wish everybody a happy new year and let's have plenty of fish for lunch and dinner on 2016

Cheers!

@SPEEDFANATIC: 97 hand - although the pairing turn is not such a great card to barrel, we do have an oesd, and becuase it's not such a good card to barrel, we should get more respect from our bet and we have pretty decent equity still.

I also think so. So maybe do so only with strong draw like OESD at least. Otherwise if we never bluff, then people will always fold when we have monster.
Is this your thinking or you learned from some coach?

On the AJ hand, yeah, betting or checking the river will be opponent depending I guess. I have seen many regulars calling weak A's versus these resteals, which is pretty horrendous in my opinion. But like I said, after seeing this guy play some more hands, I'd have played it differently.
I was talking not only about the river. But about flop bet also. But if you say they call weak aces, then I like flop bet more. But still - are we expecting to get 3 streets of value from an ace the question is. Hmm, unless they think that we are 3 barrel bluffing like hell.

@speedfanatic: 97 hand - yeah, thats pretty much my thinking. Uhm, I can't really tell if I learned from someone specific, I havent had coachings since 2010 =P I guess we build up our thinking process as a compilation of first-hand experiences + coachings + discussions + videos and strategy articles and all that. After a while, you don't really know where your thinking comes from hehe.

But Depending on villain and recent dynamics, it's perfectly alright to barrel even a gutshot or even just 2 overcards there, just because villain very often has a weakish hand when he takes that line, especially since it's SB v BB, but we must have in mind that it's gonna take definitely 3 barrels to get him off 77 or a weak 8. Lower pairs than that probably give up on turn, and stuff like Ax that felt it should be c/c.

On the AJ, yeah there could be reason in checking flop, it would be the very top of our checking range on the flop. But for the most part, I choose the value betting line in the micros, because people usually make the mistake of calling more than they should. And AQ will be 4betting pre some of the time too. So I think it ends up being more plus ev if we bet. Also if villain holds something like Ax, he might be suspicious of our check and will proceed catuiously. I mean, this is the perfect board to cbet, so we have to bet our value range too.

Alright, now for the update.

I'm gonna try to make this not such a long post. I want to put a decent amount of info here, but I'm gonna try to make it simple. It's the 1st post of the year and I want to estabilish some goals poker-wise for 2016.

Let me start by saying that this comeback in poker has been pretty damn tough for me. I've gone from $50 to $260 using agresive bankroll management and now I'm back at $60, and I got $175 of bonus + rewards. You do the math and you'll see that I'm on the red

AH! Also I fell off my motorcycle on the 1st day of the year, FTW! haha That wasn't variance though, just spew from my part Luckily nothing serious happened. Just hurt my knee a little bit, and the motorcyle is pretty damn tough, almost nothing happened to it.

So, I'm not even gonna consider if I'm down due to bad play or if its just variance, because like I have already mentioned before, either way, all that's left for me to do is keep on improving and keep on playing, so that's what I plan on doing, and I plan on making decent money off poker again, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it.

So, here's what's my year might look like poker wise:

>> 10h/week dedicated to poker, at least
*6-7h playing
*3-4h studying and blogging
I really need to be somewhat strict about not exceeding myself on the amount of time I spend with poker because I gotta take care of a lot of other things.

>> Money goal: I'd like to make $20k this year, rakeback included. Apart from the weekly hours I play, I might make some intensive grinding weeks, which I have promised since the re-beginning of this blog, but still haven't been able to pull off. But it will happen as soon as I managed to take some time off the farm and find someone to stay there during the week I'm out.

>>Poker-related goals (a.k.a. "how Im gonna use part of the money I make")
*Be able to afford to hire a coach for at least 2h - 3h/ month. I'd love to be able to do this by next month.
*Buy PT4
*change my roof to clay tiles, so I don't melt during the hot hours of the day
*go solar energy in the farm
*get internet for the farm, so I cant grind from there
*TURN THIS:

Hard work will certainly pay off Just gotta keep on going.

Before I buy poker tracker, I really have to get used to using BOOM replayer os I can post hands. Last couple of weeks I didn't post hands nor participated in hand evaluation.. shame on me =/ But I did watch tons of videos, so I did study quite a bit.

I remember before I quit poker I had a huge downswing, losing a bunch, running 50+BI under EV and when I got back I thought: "ha, it's gonna be easy, variance owes me a lot of money" well, guess that's not how it works right

Anyway, all our difficulties come for our own good, so I'll just take the opportunity to really focus on working on my game and on myself as a man, and good things should definitely come. The thing is I came back with the expectation of making a little bit of money on the short term, and that frustrated me a lot. So I'm gonna eliminate that expectation and just focus on mid/long - term. It'll be good for my game and my mind as well.

So, also I'm slightly short on money right now, although I can go for a few months without making money. The farm should really pay for itself and for the food I eat, but not necessarily for the petrol and other stuff I do, so I'm gonna need extra income in a few months. I'm gonna make a detailed financial plan for myself this year and post here, I think it'll be good for my own organisation, and also to show you guys how cheap country life can be in Brazil

Alright, I'd better be off now, best wishes for all in 2016. Much luv, and see you at the tables!

Cheers!

BTW, anybody interested in making a study NLHE study group? I'd love to do that

You can probably find a study group here, or make a new thread yourself!

https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/board.php?boardid=1629

I probably wouldn't recommend these huge grinding weeks though, it's really tough to put up your a-game for an extended period of time if you're used to playing like 10 hours a week. It's basically like trying to run a maraton without any training. I get that it might be more convenient for you, but I think you'll find yourself more successful if you can split the time better.

if you do find a partner, you can probably ask Stars to send all your played hands and have this kind person import them for you, so you can review it together.

Nice vonki, thanks for the tip

As to the intensive grinding week, I agree with what you say, but although it might not be ideal, it should still be worth $/time-wise. And I think it's probably a matter of balancing it with other activities while doing it. Also, for me it's like I'm spending a time off my day-to-day life at the farm, so I could almost look at it as vacation, haha =P

why do you want intensive grind weeks, and in other weeks only 10 hours for poker? why not make equal time for all weeks more or less? I think you get less tired from poker, less bored.

BTW, anybody interested in making a study NLHE study group? I'd love to do that

I would be interested, but I am now already in skype group and have little time to talk, but if its ok that I have little time, then I am happy to join

Originally posted by SPeedFANat1c
why do you want intensive grind weeks, and in other weeks only 10 hours for poker? why not make equal time for all weeks more or less? I think you get less tired from poker, less bored.

BTW, anybody interested in making a study NLHE study group? I'd love to do that

I would be interested, but I am now already in skype group and have little time to talk, but if its ok that I have little time, then I am happy to join

Because for the moment being I have to travel 50km to play poker, haha So I can't really play everyday, I gotta stay at the farm during the week and then play during weekends. But then if I manage to get a break from the farm for a few days, I could put in some intensive studying/grinding hours. I also think hat these intensive workouts can be a pretty cool and productive experience.

Cool, let me know your skype name, I'll try to get some people together then.

UPDATE

So, this week I managed to get some 4.5k hands, which is nice. My bankroll is still crushed, standing at some $32, haha.

Today, in the first 80 hands of the session, I ran fh v fh twice and also flush v fh. The flush v fh I kind of spewed I think. Here's how the hand developed:

I open 3bb Ah2h from CO, BTN and SB call.

FLOP 8h3h3d

I cb 2/3 pot, BTN folds SB calls

TURN 7s

SB checks, I decided to check back.

Here I'm not sure if I should be barreling the flush draw or not. I get folds from 44, 55 and 66. 98s, 87s, 99 obviously call, and 77 got there. Theres 2 combos of 87, 1 of 33, 2 of 88, 2 of 77, 6 of 99, 3 of 98s, totalling 16 combos, vs 18 of 44, 55 and 66. And maybe there are some floats from overcards + backdoors. So this was the first mistake of the hand, I think I should be barreling. Especially since I can barrel some overcards rivers to get folds from 8x and 99.

RIVER 4h

SB bets 3/4 pot, I raised

Now, here's the big mistake. No point in raising this. There are 9 combos of fh and 1 combo for quads, so 10 combos that will shove over our raise and that we do not beat. Now he could have the 65hh, the 76hh, the T9hh, the TJhh, the QJhh, the KThh, KJhh, QThh, KQhh and maybe a few other flushes. But he should be folding those to my raise, because obviously my value range for raising there crushes all of those. Now of course people are call happy with flushes, but we can see that even is he calls all of these flushes, we still have a break even or slightly -EV raise, meaning I should be just calling his river bet once I check back turn

This was a pretty interesting hand in my opinion, and it was really good for me to think about vaillains ranges and what should be my line with fd on a paired board.

What do you guys think, any comments?

So, not much else to say, I've been having constant losing sessions. There are many leaks in my game which I have to change, I still have to humble myself down a bit, because I think I still have a bit of a "arrogant mindset" when playing NL2 just because I used to be a winning player at NL100 back in the day. And that mindset really hurts my game. I mean, the games have changed quite a bit since I stopped playing and I really need to adjust. I think I'm a winning player up to NL25 for sure, although my winrate is probably still pretty small, meaning I'm gonna be experience variance like shit. I just have to keep on improving in order to raise that winrate more and more.

I wish I could hire a coach already, but I really don't have the money right now for that. So I'm really eager for those sweat sessions, as that will be pretty helpful already. Maybe next week we can already do a little session.

I'll let you know speedfanatic. Terrorblade already said he's up for it. I'll try to get a couple more heads.

Oh yeah, this week I played zoom tables for the first time. It's amazing how tight they are, haha. They just fold over and over. And it's pretty awesome how many hands/h we can get by 4 tabling. I guess I'm gonna have to keep on playing them, because I only have a 13'' notebook, so even 8 tables are kind of tough for me to play, and 4 zoom tables fit pretty well in the monitor, and I can get more hands/h than 8-tabling, so pretty cool =D

Next week I'm gonna try to put in at least 6k hands. and hopefully I'll manage to release another $35 rakeback, giving a boost to my roll, and if I have a winning sessions maybe I can jump back to NL5 - NL10.

Alright guys, peace!

@Speedfanatic: don't forget to leave your skype name here

hey

great to see some old faces here and there. Would recommend live poker for someone who hasn't played in ages (online poker evolved so much when you were away) but doesn't seem to be possible with the lifestyle you've chosen. Good luck!

Cool, let me know your skype name, I'll try to get some people together then.

I sent you friend request, if I remember right, they used to delete skype names, so I do not want to break the rules. Or you can guess my skype name ♦

Because for the moment being I have to travel 50km to play poker, haha

oh, so you do not have internet at farm. What about mobile internet? Connect phone to PC and use it as modem.

They just fold over and over.

Yea, now trying to steal over and over. Marking them as nits and steal a lot. At nl5 probably you can win huge by stealing. Vs BB who has 20 vipi or less from BTN and SB I am now trying to steal about 80 %

@mbml, thanks for dropping by sir! BTW, I have been watching your videos. I really appreciate that you've been releasing this content, and the cool thing is that since they're in youtube, I'm able to download them and watch them when I'm internetless on the farm. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna go for live poker some time soon, but it's not exactly legal here in Brazil, and the closest place I know of that has some live poker rooms is São Paulo, 1100km from here, so I need a bigger roll in order to justify going there for a few days to play some NLR$600 - NLR$1k (which would be something like NL$150 / NL$250)

But the games are still beatable right? I just have to adapt properly.

@Speedfanatic: ok I'll try to guess your skype name =P Yeah, no internet at the farm YET I'm trying to decide which internet to get. There's 3GB radio internet for R$90/month (~$22,50) or 4GB for R$110 (~$27,50) and then there are another $60 for the installation costs. I might get that one but I confess I'm not 100% confident of doing it yet because I can't really pay for it unless poker pays off. But I have taken the risk before (when my brother and I left home for playing full time w/ only enough money for living for 2 months), so I might as well take it again
Then there's mobile internet but mobile internet has data limit, and I have no idea how much data playing poker and watching videos consume, but it would suck to hire the service and then not being able to play/study as much. And it's not cheap enough to justify it I guess. Besides that, my mobile signal is not that great at the farm, so I would also have to get a direction antenna (I think this is the word for english). So, all in all, I think radio internet might be more worth it.

SSSSUP EVERYONE! opps, caps lock on =D So I have decided to change things up a little bit. I'm gonna make an update before my weekly session and then after I'm done for the week, I'm gonna post a small results update only. Reason for this is: I try to extend my grinding time as much as possible and then when I'm done, I'm really eager to get back to the farm and don't put enough thought into the blog post. So if I post before playing, I can put more thought into it. I want to update with non-poker related stuff as well. So I'll put all the poker-related stuff at first and then I'll throw in some non poker-related stuff in the end.

Bankroll: $35
Limit: NL2
Next shot at NL5: $40 (1 BI shot)

Last week I found mbml's videos on Youtube and found a way to download them, and that was pretty sweet, because that gives me a way for studying during the week while I'm internetless.

Also I re-read "Let There be Ranges", and now am looking for a couple more e-books to read. I guess something more up to date would be good. Do you guys have any suggestions of free e-books?

It was pretty good to read Let There be Ranges though, because I kind of started remembering my thought processes back in the day. This new beginning has been pretty tough for me, like I have already mentioned, because of that "pride" thing, thinking that I would quickly re-climb up the limits. And getting crushed like I have been was really a blow to my self-confidence.

And a few minutes agora I was strolling around some old threads and I got back that feeling from when I was playing full time, the confidence I had, the reassuring from coaching some other players, from having coaches with Mr TwiceT, and of knowing that I was playing good and playing proper and that I was improving a lot and that I did live off poker for over a year and even after I stopped playing, I still payed for my bills w/ poker money or another 2 - 3 years, hahahaha. Awesome.

So, after going through these old threads I just got that awesome feeling of getting back to the games and crushing them like I did before. But I really have to be careful not to have an exxagerated yearn to make money, but rather have just this agressive feeling of PLAYING GOOD. It's easy to get these feelings confused, playing good vs making money, because if we don't check our mind, it will think that playing good = making money, which is true in the long run, but the long run might take a while. So when we get that feeling of confidence, and of wanting to play and all that, we really have to make sure that we put all this surge up of energy into playing good and feeling good about our decisions and then things will work out by itself.

So, I am pleased and happy of being in NL2! I appreciate this opportunity of playing poker again and restarting from the beginning and I will do my best to learn the game again, and will do my best to take away all the pride from having been a NL100-200 reg, and accept the day of today as it is.

Now, how does that translate into practical things: mainly it means not levelling myself as much as I think I have been and just realising hte reality of NL2 players. And the reality of zoom tables, like I mentioned in the previous posts. So I think a decent gameplan for NL2 - NL5 is:

*Steal super loose from BU, loose from CO, and super loose from SB. I'm gonna go for 100% minopenraise fomr the BU.

*3b fairly wide IP. I'm gonna be flatting AQ/JJ-TT v MP and UTG, and 3betting some of the time vs CO. Even AK and QQ should often be a flat v UTG. Back in the day these hands were 3b/shipitiiin! even v UTG =P. Against apparently recreational players, I guess we can 3b wider for value.
And then we can add stuff like the ATo/AJo/KJo which might not be so good to call v early position raisers. So for example, if we're BU v MP, and we're 3betting for value QQ+/AK, or 2,56% of our range we could add enough random Ks and As to give us a 1:1 ratio of valeu:bluff. Since for a 4b bluff to be profitable villain needs something like 60% fold equity, he can't 4b bluff us. And apparently 4b bluffing has been going on really wild these days. Maybe it's also a good idea to start 3b/jam 22 against some players =D In zoom I think people are not4betting so much though, and maybe we can have a slightly higher bluff 3b, thinking that they won't be playing back so much, but I'm not sure, I only played 1 zoom session, but it really seemed like they folded a ton.

*3b wider for value when restealing. I think I standard range in BU v BB situation should be 99+, AJ+, KQ
When BB v CO, maybe TT+,AQ+, giving us a 7,5% and 4,7% value 3betting range. And then strongest suited connectors and 1 gappers that are not good enough to call, and maybe some As and Ks that are not good enough to call as well.

Or maybe we should go for a completely depolarised range and 3bet the top 10% of our range? I'm not too sure about the best approach here. What do you guys think? Completely depolarised in re-steal situations? I tend to think that if people are folding too much to 3b, we should be polarised and if people are calling too much, we should be depolarised, and therefore maybe be polarised IP and depolarised OOP. What do you guys think about this? How do you approach this? I'd be happy to hear some input on this topic.

For a quick update on farm life: I got back to do some wood working. It's something I really like to do, but have been away from it for a while. I make wooden mortars and pestles. I have always wanted to use that as a means of income, but haven't really gotten to sell too many... I made a couple of sales last year but that as all. But now I want to get back to it, and I'm even setting the goal of seeling some R$500 worth of these to be able to pay for a few months of internet on the farm, giving me a better situation for grinding.

This is the one I made for my father as a gift:

The wood had some minor imperfections, but I actually think it gave a bit more charm to the piece. There are these black spots which give a bit of a texture to the wood. The usability of it is perfect nonetheless.

I had a picutre of some bigger ones I made last year, but haven't really found it =/ There are some lost pictures from the farm that I need to find. I think it's in my father's computer, but the computer broke down...

On another note, rain has finally started for real and I've been doing a lot of work in the farm. My first cbatch of corn is already showing its hair, so soon there will be sweet corn on the table Squashes are flowering, and radishes are growing. Gotta love it I wish I could post some pictures, but last week I forgot my mobile charger here ate my mother's, so I was mobileless during the week, meaning no pictures =/ I promise to pst some next week though. In the mean time, here's an old cool picture I found:

She's a constant visitor around the house

Alright guys, this is already getting a bit too long. I gotta take a quick jump at a friend's market and then I'm back to do some grinding! =D Will make a short update tomorrow.

Cya, good luck at the tables!

Changed the name of the blog BTW, just to make it more meaningful, but kept the Poker Brothers pre-fix in honour of my brother, even though he's not participating.

BTW , found this cool post, from the very first page of the blog, haha

He, back to grinding some more NL20 Next time I'll only step up with $2k in my roll. 40BI BR FTW!!

I recently learned an exercise with my brother. When something bad happens, you try to think of 10 positive things about it. So I'll try to do that here:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
CallMeYourLu ($58.03)
NorrisChuckI ($47)
scooba97 ($47.13)
RiverHacker ($49.25)
VietnamNL ($22.68)

Dealt to Hero A 7

scooba97 calls $0.50, fold, VietnamNL calls $0.50, CallMeYourLuvah calls $0.25, check,

FLOP ($2) 7 6 7

CallMeYourLuvah bets $2, NorrisChuckII raises to $5.50, scooba97 raises to $9, VietnamNL folds, CallMeYourLuvah folds, NorrisChuckII raises to $31, scooba97 raises to $46.63, NorrisChuckII calls $15.50,

TURN ($97) 7 6 7 2

RIVER ($97) 7 6 7 2 Q

scooba97 shows Q Q
(Flop 12.2%, Turn 4.5%)

NorrisChuckII shows A 7
(Flop 87.8%, Turn 95.5%)

scooba97 wins $94

10 positive things about this suckout
It was a two outer and not 1 outer
My move was +EV
It happened in NL50 and not in NL1000
It probably made somebody really happy
It's fun showing this hand to other people
This type of hand allows me to train my self-control
These were not my last $47. I have more
These things show me the importance of BRM
This hand contributed to my stepping down to NL20 again. Now I'll have to be even more determined and work hard to keep myself up.
This hand has allowed me to do this exercise and find 10 positive things in something bad.

Wow, that was hard. I spent some 15mins figuring out all of the 10. =P

Anyway, I'm off to sleep now. Tomorrow I'll do some NL20 sick grinding and get myself back up for NL50, round 3! I'll knock him out next time!!

500 hands into the session and already got owned by FH v better fh and flush v higher flush.

Will keep calm though. Just gotta have peeeace of mind

(when my brother and I left home for playing full time w/ only enough money for living for 2 months)

sick and most of the time for people that happens that they go broke

Then there's mobile internet but mobile internet has data limit, and I have no idea how much data playing poker and watching videos consume

if you get 1-2 GBs per month, you could play a bit. Poker does not use much traffic, I have tried few days on mobile.
But videos of course take huge. So mobile would be just as backup plan for times when you do not have any internet.
How much does it cost?

In my country for example with prepaid card its like this:

1 GB 2,29 EUR
2 GB 3,99 EUR
4 GB 6,49 EUR

so as backup its not super expensive. If you can get like this , then it might be worth.

So, I am pleased and happy of being in NL2!

THat also happened for me. Had 1.5 year brake. THouht I will play few hands of NL5, remeber how to play, and quickly move back to NL25 ( which I had not beat, but tried).

But this is sick. I really thought also if you were crushing poker as high as NL100-200, you would easily beat NL25. But then I am wrong. But to get back still it should be much easier than to go from NL2 when you are complete newbie.

THen starded to see that I go down and down at NL5 and moved to NL2. But for more info, I guess its in my blog.

And then we can add stuff like the ATo/AJo/KJo which might not be so good to call v early position raisers.

I personally do not 3bet those early position raisers with those hands, but instead I use suited connectors. Because I saw that they call OOP from time to time, and I geuss suited connectors have better playability postflop as bluffs. WIth thos hands you mentioned - we get dominated when we hit often.

And apparently 4b bluffing has been going on really wild these days.

In zoom I think people are not4betting so much though, and maybe we can have a slightly higher bluff 3b, thinking that they won't be playing back so much, but I'm not sure, I only played 1 zoom session, but it really seemed like they folded a ton.

I mostly play NL5 zoom, and I do not see much 4bet bluffing at all. And even when they 3bet to 10 bb OOP, it feels like they have the hand often and call a 4bet or shove. Maybe I am 4beting too much vs unknowns. I use range - Ax, KJ+.

Or maybe we should go for a completely depolarised range and 3bet the top 10% of our range? I'm not too sure about the best approach here. What do you guys think? Completely depolarised in re-steal situations? I tend to think that if people are folding too much to 3b, we should be polarised and if people are calling too much, we should be depolarised, and therefore maybe be polarised IP and depolarised OOP. What do you guys think about this? How do you approach this? I'd be happy to hear some input on this topic.

I am 3beting as bluffs smth like this vs SB, BTN, CO:

when I am IP, some of them I call

I never have 3beted depolarized range as wide I as 10 %, I do vs fish, but I tighter. Smth like this: JJ+, AQ+
Maybe vs some agro openning fish I should expand the depolarized range.
If the fish minraises, then I include much more hands.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure it's not that cheap around here. I mean, I don't even think we can get more than 500mb prepaid cards. And if you hire the monthly service for 5gb + minutes to talk on the mobile, it will cost something like R$100 at least. But I'm gonna try to strike something with my mobile company, because they have some really crappy internet prices in comparison with the other companies, and I've been their client for almost 10 years, so maybe they can offer me some nice discount and maybe I could hire their internet to go along with my phone, since I need the phone anyway. \

@ the 3betting thing:

One thing I think it's interesting to think about is the blocker effect that we have when 3betting stuff like KQ/KJ/AJ. If we take AJ as an example, we block 4 combos of AK, 4 of AQ, 3 of AA. If we consider a UTG raiser who'll only 4b KK+ we reduce in 25% the chance of a 4b. And let's assume he calls the 3b w/ AQs, AK, JJ+, we block 8 combos of those, out of 26, meaning we reduce it in almost 30%.

Actually let's do these calculations thoroughly, cause I think this is a really good topic to discuss.

Let's assume UTG opens this:
*22+
*AJ+
*98s+
*JTs+,QTs+,KTs+,ATs+
*AJo+,KQo

That's a total of 186 hands.

Versus a 3b, let's say that he'll 4b for value QQ+,AK for 34 combos. And that he'll call AJs, AQ, 99-JJ for 38 combos.

If we 3b KQo, we block 3 combos of QQ, 3 of KK, 4 of AK, 4 of AQ. So now he's got 24 combos for 4betting and 34 for calling.

So we reduce his overall continuing range in 14/58, or 24%.
We reduce his value 4betting range in 29%
We reduce his calling range in 11%

When we do get called we have an equity of 36% (versus 31% w/ 65s; 32% w/A3s; 34% w/ J9s)

Since we have position we can reduce greatly the danger of reverse implied odds, by knowing where we stand playing properly.

So, using the range above, when we 3b KQo villain folds 128, out of 186 or 69%, while we need fold equity of 9/13.5 = 67%. I'm assuming 3bb open raise and 3x 3bet. If we were using a hand that didn't have the blockers like 86s, our fold equity is reduced to 61% and our equity when called will also be reduced.

So let's calculate the EV of the move, if we were to assume that we can perfectly realise our 36% equity when called and that no money is put in the pot after the flop.

EV= EVfold + EV4bet + EVcall
EV = 0.69*4.5 + (-9)*0.13 + .18*(.36*19.5 -9)
EV = 3,105 - 1,17 - 0,36
EV = 1,575

w/ 61% fe:

EV = .61*4.5 + (-9)*.18 +.21*(.32*19.5 - 9)
EV = 2.745 - 1.62 -0.58
EV = 0.545

You see the difference is pretty huge.

Of course these ranges were made up by me now, but I guess they aren't too far form reality. So you can see that the blockers effect make up for a decent difference.

I hope I haven't messed up the calculations though =P That would be pretty bad. Check it up to see if you find any mistakes.

And tell me if you think the ranges are reasonable, and if you want to suggest some changes in the ranges, we can try to calculate with different ranges.

We obviously would need to consider how often villain will 4b bluff and all that, but this was just to make it clear to us how much the blockers can impact on the EV of a move. And that goes not only for when we're bluffing but also for when we're bluff catching. And as the hand progresses through the streets and villains ranges get more and more narrow, each blocker we have ends up greatly reducing the chances of villain having the hands.