Climbing up the ladders in NL world & life

Hello LuckmanfromLT,

Good luck on your NL25 challenge. And I look forward to reading future posts and successes.

Regards

Matt

Short update

I conducted my first lesson as a poker coach, I could say that the feeling is very good, me and the student got useful things out of it, it was mutual benefit . I really enjoy it and looking forward to improve my coaching area.

So that guy, who was taking my coaching, made great arguments and opened my mind about my future path in poker. After talking with him it was so clear that I was just trying to play reg tables instead of zoom, because the last 20k hands at zoom was pretty rough for me and I thought that I will be bigger winner in these games, so in other words I just tried to run away from zoom variance and this idea was in my subconscious. He helped me to pull it out. To be honest I love zoom format way more than reg tables.

So I'm changing my challenge and will be fighting in NL25z pool.

I will be playing the same 60k hands until December 18. Plan is to have +5evbb/100.

That I would be not results oriented I will be not looking at my results until the end of the challenge, so no graphs for one month.

Some hands from first session:

1) vs unknown, I assume he is a reg.

IMO this a good spot to x twice given the board runnout. OTT we are way ahead or have around 23% vs hands that beats us. OTR the things get interesting, in one way it's hard to find bluff combos in this spot with such sizings and does he has a hand which x back flop and it's worse hand than mine, which bets turn and river? ( Hard to find that) But of course he would probably never think that my range has AA when I took this line, that was the strongest argument, which leaded me to a call.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988264
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $51.48
SB: $48.35
Hero (BB): $45.38
UTG: $14.15
MP: $32.35
CO: $54.94

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with A A
1 fold, MP raises to $0.75, 3 folds, Hero raises to $2.50, MP calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.10) J 8 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: ($5.10) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $2.58, Hero calls $2.58

River: ($10.26) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $5.19, Hero calls $5.19

Final Pot: $20.64

2) BU 31/22, 3b:15(13) 34 hands. Nothing much to say.

Pre vs such sizing easy call. Flop call>raise>fold.
OTR I don't see many Ax in his range, his strongest hand is probably AJo ( if he 3bets in these positions), can't see low Axs, because he would bet Asxs and Acxc OTT IMO, maybe A3s is possible. I assume that AK/AQ bets OTT. I don't see Kx in his range as well. So given this I like to turn this hand into a bluff OTR, because 1) I prevent myself from getting bluffed 2) with 1/2 bet he should fold QQ (6 combos) and I think he doesn't have more than 12 combos of Ax OTR, so it's a profitable play.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988271
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $42.81
SB: $27.49
BB: $48.00
Hero (UTG): $27.49
MP: $26.20
CO: $35.69

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG with T J
Hero raises to $0.75, 2 folds, BTN raises to $1.75, 2 folds, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3.85) 3 8 J (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.87, Hero calls $1.87

Turn: ($7.59) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($7.59) A (2 players)
Hero ???

What do you think about the hands?

Originally posted by metalmonkey80
Hello LuckmanfromLT,

Good luck on your NL25 challenge. And I look forward to reading future posts and successes.

Regards

Matt

Thank you, Matt:f_thumbsup:

Have played around 4,6k hands, still making some clear mistakes in game.

Some hands:

1) Bluff catching vs reg

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988665
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $49.50
Hero (SB): $31.31
BB: $65.46
UTG: $41.54
MP: $28.51
CO: $25.00

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with Q T
2 folds, CO raises to $0.70, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.50, 1 fold, CO calls $1.80

Flop: ($5.25) 3 7 Q (2 players)
Hero bets $2.15, CO calls $2.15

Turn: ($9.55) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $4, Hero calls $4

River: ($17.55) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $7.80, Hero calls $7.80

Final Pot: $33.15

2) SB 26/15 34h

I really don't like that I block his his possible folding range OTR, but on the other hand this looks to me like a good bluff spot. I have $19 left OTR, so I like to make around 2/3 bet, IMO he will fold more than 40% of his range, up to 50%.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988666
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $34.57
SB: $36.94
Hero (BB): $26.92
UTG: $26.22
MP: $34.52
CO: $25.00

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with J T
4 folds, SB raises to $0.50, Hero raises to $1.75, SB calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.50) 9 3 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.80, SB calls $1.80

Turn: ($7.10) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $4.44, SB calls $4.44

River: ($15.98) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero ???

3) BU reg

IMO shoving is too optimistic, if he calls all combos of KQ then it's close to jam, but I don't think that we can make such assumptions vs unknown. X/c is tricky as well, because he has a lot of value KTs/QJs/K9s/T9s, TT might be in this range as well, so he has to bluff like 5 combos that we can make a call. So all in all I see this as a close x/c spot vs unknown.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988668
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $23.64
SB: $24.75
Hero (BB): $25.00
UTG: $62.18
MP: $36.46
CO: $21.69

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with K A
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.62, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.25, BTN calls $1.63

Flop: ($4.60) K 4 T (2 players)
Hero bets $2.25, BTN calls $2.25

Turn: ($9.10) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $5, BTN calls $5

River: ($19.10) 5 (2 players)
Hero ???

4) vs fish, went for thin value OTR.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2988743
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $25.36
SB: $46.76
BB: $25.35
UTG: $24.42
Hero (MP): $25.00
CO: $26.91

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP with K K
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.75, CO calls $0.75, 3 folds

Flop: ($1.85) 4 8 T (2 players)
Hero bets $1.29, CO calls $1.29

Turn: ($4.43) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.70, CO calls $2.70

River: ($9.83) A (2 players)
Hero bets $2.50, CO raises to $16.89, Hero folds

5) Hero fold vs 2 tabling guy. At best I have a breakeven call pre rake, so this is fold, I put him on J9s mostly, might be slowplaying one or two combos of 97s and have QTs.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2989210
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $30.33
SB: $20.73
BB: $29.48
UTG: $65.31
MP: $61.49
CO: $28.75

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with 7 5
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.50, SB calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.25) 4 8 T (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.70, SB calls $0.70

Turn: ($2.65) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.80, SB calls $1.80

River: ($6.25) Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.94, SB raises to $17.73 all in, Hero folds

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2989212
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $25.25
SB: $11.89
BB: $28.68
UTG: $26.67
MP: $25.00
CO: $43.62

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with K A
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.62, SB calls $0.52, BB raises to $2.90, Hero raises to $6.20, 1 fold, BB calls $3.30

Flop: ($13.02) 9 7 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $4.42, BB raises to $22.48 all in, Hero calls $14.63 all in

Final Pot: $51.12

7) vs unknown, probably reg. His turn pot is super strong, when I have KK+/AK in my range, but can I really fold here, because his sizing is probably never has bluffs? Still AK if he is bad is possible...

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2989214
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $25.10
SB: $26.33
BB: $44.60
UTG: $15.81
MP: $29.02
CO: $25.00

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BTN with A A
1 fold, MP raises to $0.62, CO calls $0.62, Hero raises to $2.60, 2 folds, MP calls $1.98, CO calls $1.98

Flop: ($8.15) K T 6 (3 players)
MP bets $3.89, CO folds, Hero calls $3.89

Turn: ($15.93) 7 (2 players)
MP bets $15.21, Hero raises to $18.61 all in, MP calls $3.40

River: ($53.15) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $53.15

Update

So far after 8k hands running bad at NL25z, might be that I will have to move down and stop 60k hands challenge for some time, we will see.

Poker goals for the week:

• Play 10k hands +
  Played around 11k (8k on zoom and 3k reg on tables)
• Review every session +
• Conduct a good poker lesson +
  It was very good experience
• Watch videos and apply their concepts/ideas to my game ( 3 hours of videos)+
• Play 5-6 tables
  I started playing zoom, so this goal doesn't matter
• Do not play when tired, can't concentrate, when my mind is on something else and etc. -
  There was a couple of days, when I broke this rule. If I want to play my A game it's really important to follow this one
• Write about mental performance after every session+
  Wrote all my thoughts after every session, found some patterns in regards to playing better and playing worse game

Other goals for the week:

• Do all university tasks +
• Follow sleeping schedule ---
  I was super bad at this one, getting to sleep at 3am and loosing productive morning hours.
• Read a book ( 30min per day) -
  Couldn't find time for this one, if I tried harder I would definitely found it

So overall I'm not happy with my performance previous week.

This week I will try to change those things

Poker goals for this week:

• Play 15k hands
• Review every session
• Watch videos and apply their concepts/ideas to my game ( 4,5 hours of videos)
• Play 2-3 tables
• Do not play when tired, can't concentrate, when my mind is on something else and etc.
• Write about mental performance after every session
• Find study group
• Play A game, think about every decision
• Post some hands on the forum

Non poker goals for this week:

• Have an agenda
• Follow sleeping schedule at most days - go to sleep at 11pm, wake up 7am
• Eat healthy, one cheat day
• Read book ( 3,5hours per week)
• Do university tasks

If someone are playing NL25-NL50z pm me, we could discuss some hands and strategies.

Gl with weekly goals!