Swimming with the fishes - LahtiPelican's SH journey

OK confirmed
My bonus had dropped to $3.00, and today I won a $1.00 Blast for 3x -- and my bonus is back to exactly 5, but no cash

I am only played regular tables instead of mixing them with fastworward. I watched Lemon36's video on how to play without a HUD, where he said I should tighten up my preflop ranges, if I don't have reads on my opponents. I did that change, too.

I realized that my Cbet F stat is only around 53 which is quite low IMO. Watched a video on cbeting on the flop. It suggests to bet 1/3on dry boards with my entire range in positions. Normally I cbet 1/2 on dry board, so changed that, too (works pretty well so far).

I don't check my BR while I play. Durng my entire session I play with from 120 to 250bb on all 6 of my tables, but after I check my BR in the end, I lost 1-2BIs. Who understand?

Running bad in Spins as well, I am down 39BIs since my last post.

But to say something positive, too: I had quads 6 times yesterday! (5 in spins and 1 in cashgame)

1. PokerStars - 20/40 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): 16.5 BB
BTN: 13.25 BB
SB: 7.75 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♠ K♣

fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 16.5 BB and is all-in, SB calls 4.75 BB and is all-in

Flop: (15.5 BB, 2 players) K♥ 7♠ 5♦

Turn: (15.5 BB, 2 players) K♦

2. PokerStars - 10/20 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 44 BB
Hero (BB): 31 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3♥ 3♦

SB raises to 2 BB, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop: (4 BB, 2 players) 3♠ 7♣ 9♣
Hero checks, SB bets 3 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, SB raises to 42 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 21 BB and is all-in

Turn: (62 BB, 2 players) K♠

River: (62 BB, 2 players) 3♣

3. PokerStars - 20/40 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 9.5 BB
BB: 28 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T♥ T♣

Hero raises to 9.5 BB and is all-in, BB calls 8.5 BB

Flop: (19 BB, 2 players) A♥ T♠ 4♥

Turn: (19 BB, 2 players) T♦

4. PokerStars - 10/20 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 27 BB
Hero (BTN): 23 BB
SB: 25 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4♠ 4♥

Hero raises to 2 BB, SB calls 1.5 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 3 players) 4♣ 8♠ 4♦
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

5. PokerStars - 20/40 NL (3 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 25.75 BB
Hero (SB): 11.75 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J♥ J♦

Hero calls 0.5 BB, BB checks

Flop: (2 BB, 2 players) T♣ J♣ J♠
BB bets 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB

6. PartyGaming - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 69.8 BB
Hero (SB): 133.2 BB
BB: 104.8 BB
UTG: 191.8 BB
MP: 133.4 BB
CO: 122.4 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, MP raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, MP raises to 28 BB, Hero raises to 133.2 BB, MP calls 105.2 BB

Flop: (267.4 BB, 2 players) A♥ T♠ 2♦

Turn: (267.4 BB, 2 players) A♣

River: (267.4 BB, 2 players) 5♣
Players agreed to run it twice.

Flop #2: (267.4 BB, 2 players) Q♦ 3♦ 5♥

Turn #2: (267.4 BB, 2 players) 4♦

River #2: (267.4 BB, 2 players) 6♥

Hero shows A♠ A♦ (Four of a Kind, Aces)
Board #1 (Pre 81%, Flop 98%, Turn 100%)
(One Pair, Aces)
Board #2 (Pre 76%, Flop 91%, Turn 97%)

MP shows K♣ K♥ (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
Board #1 (Pre 19%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)
(One Pair, Kings)
Board #2 (Pre 24%, Flop 9%, Turn 3%)

Hero wins 254.2 BB

Last week of my challenge and my last week on PartyPoker also, after that I think I won't play for a week at least.

My confession

It's hard but I have to confess.... After I reached -50BIs in September, and only for a moment I thought that PP is rigged, because I am losing since I moved my BR here... It is my first time (and last) I thought this. (Shame on me )

After this mental breakdown, I thought why don't I focus on things I can influence instead of making excuses? The chance of a 30BI downswing is very low, as I calculated before, so I decided to review my game for leaks intead.

I filtered for pots where I lost at least 40 big blinds, and reviewed all of them from September. Yes, I reviewed 172 hands yesterday. The sad trouth I found out:
Between September 1 and 6 I lost $63,25, of which my fault was $67,5
Between September 7 and 13 I lost $29,49, of which my fault was $54
Between September 14 and 20 I lost $28,84, of which my fault was $28,48
Between September 21 and 23 I lost $51,52, of which my fault was $34,46

If you do the math, out of my $173,1 loss, I burned (at least) $184,4

(how can I insert GIFs here???)

I read a post from Kyyberi in another thread:

Originally posted by Kyyberi
For mental game, I teach 99% rule.

It's not enough to play 99% of times your best game, if that 1% kills your profits.

I played more than 60k hand this mont, and these 172 hand totally killed my result (of course I made mistakes in other hand, too.), so I can not agree more.

I seriously have to work on my postflop game, instead of adjusting 1-2 percents on my EP open range and otger stuff.

Furthermore there will be a new section of my blog, called Time to confess, where I will post all of my sessions result and the money I lost while I played like a donk. For example, if I lose $20 in a session and I made mistakes wort $2, I ran bad. However if I won $5, but burned $15, I have to work a lot harder on my game.

Its Time to confess!

• Session 1
  528 hands
  Net won: -$21,73
  My fault: $3,58 (16,47%)
• Session 2
  1.199 hands
  Net won: -$7,31
  My fault: $2,56 (35,02%)
• Session 3
  1.034 hands
  Net won: -$7,58
  My fault: $5,46 (72,03%)
• Together:
  2.761 hands
  Net won: -$36,62
  My fault: $11,06 (31,67%)

31,67% is not too good, but better than I had in September. Good point to start!

Last session was horrible. It's hard to stay calm, when they had your AA cracked twice (luckily for only half-half stack), KK cracked twice and QQ cracked once after went all-in preflop. However I proud of myself, casuse I kept calm and not tilted. (Cause I knew, if I start to make silly moves, I have to confess it in my blog after )

This one was very painful, though. I am sure, I would have to smoke a cigarette after, if I would smoke cigarettes at all

PartyGaming - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 137 BB
SB: 204.2 BB
Hero (BB): 112 BB
UTG: 101.4 BB
CO: 75.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K♦ K♣

fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.4 BB, fold, Hero raises to 8.6 BB, BTN raises to 24 BB, Hero raises to 112 BB, BTN calls 88 BB

Flop: (224.4 BB, 2 players) A♥ 3♣ 3♠

Turn: (224.4 BB, 2 players) J♠

River: (224.4 BB, 2 players) 8♠
Players agreed to run it twice.

Flop #2: (224.4 BB, 2 players) A♦ 5♠ T♥

Turn #2: (224.4 BB, 2 players) 9♠

River #2: (224.4 BB, 2 players) 5♦

BTN shows A♠ K♥ (Two Pair, Aces and Threes)
Board #1 (Pre 30%, Flop 96%, Turn 98%)
(Two Pair, Aces and Fives)
Board #2 (Pre 24%, Flop 94%, Turn 97%)

Hero shows K♦ K♣ (Two Pair, Kings and Threes)
Board #1 (Pre 70%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)
(Two Pair, Kings and Fives)
Board #2 (Pre 76%, Flop 6%, Turn 3%)

BTN wins 213.2 BB

Its Time to confess!

Friday:

Felt good to have a winning day after a long time

On Saturday may notebook charger has broken, so I couldn't play. On the weekend I couldn't buy a new one, but I had to play in order to clear my goals for the week, so I borrowed one from my friend. He wouldn't read this, but I have to say thank you!

On sunday I played 6 sessions ( 5.767 hands) to complete the week.

In session 1-4 and 6 I played 4 FastForward tables and in sesion 5 I played 6 regular tables. I wanted to compare how much rake I can pay in an hour on regular tables vs on FF tables.

Honestly I can not be satisfied with the overall result, however I am more and more focused at the tables, I make better decisions and less mistakes. I am sure it will be pay off in the future.

One more funny thing: I found out there are daily cashgame leaderboards at PartyPoker. I checked the earlier result from September and I found out I cashed 11 times for $44!! I noticed that there is a small difference between my actual bankroll and PT4 results, but I thought that there is a mistake in handhistory like on 888 Poker.

This leaderboard thing gave me a new goal: pick one day for an epic grind and catch a place on the podium. (That's why I compared the 2 version rake/hour difference) On NL5 the 1st place worth $75, 2nd is $50 and 3rd is $40. Maybe it will happen this week.

September week 4 update:

Graph:

Stats:

Yeah, results are terrible, out of the -$83,95, my fault worth $60,88, which is 72,52%. I am still far from winning, however the 72,52% is better than the 106,53% before this week.

Let's see how the stats changed:
I made silly river calls a lot, that's what cost me the most in the past. As you know from my post earlier, I tried to change my game and mindset since on Thursday, so the changes aren't visible on the weekly stats. Comparing last weeks stats to "since Thursday" stats:
WTSD% changed from 30,08 to 26,89
WSD was 57,99, now 57,01 (Is that supposed to change? I am not sure)
Call R efficiency changed from 1,05 to 1,82

Other changes:
cbet Flop changed from 52,82 to 57,23. My goal is to be between 60 and 65.
3bet pre was 4,76, now 5,30. Still a bit nitty IMO.

September goals:
$50/50 bonus cleared
$40/40 rakeback cleared
$200/214,97 raked in rake chase
w34z3l's course: 10/7 completed
10/3 hand posted in hand discusision

Long time no post...

September summary:
$50/50 bonus cleared
$40/40 rakeback cleared
$200/265 raked in rake chase
w34z3l's course: 10/9 completed I missed the episode about HUD stats, because ATM I play without a HUD
10/3 hand posted in hand discusision

I played 87.575 hands on NL5, the net won (lost) doesn't worth to mention. My winrate was -5,71, if you want, you can calculate...

Originally posted by LahtiPelican

This leaderboard thing gave me a new goal: pick one day for an epic grind and catch a place on the podium. (That's why I compared the 2 version rake/hour difference) On NL5 the 1st place worth $75, 2nd is $50 and 3rd is $40. Maybe it will happen this week.

I did it, after playing 17k hand in a day, I ended up on 3rd place for $40. The only problem is I lost $52 while I played....

My biggest achivment in September was my rakeback. I got $50 from reload bonus, $50 rakeback, $30 from cash chase and $84 from leaderboards. Altogether $214 back from my $265 rake, which is around 80%.

About October
Its a shame, but I moved back to NL2. Since I forgot how does it feel to win, I decided to play in a bigger player pool, full of fishes till I got my confidence back.

First 45k hand went well, I made 20BI, than I lost 15 of them in one day.

This is my bankroll, since I started to play again: (there are no data about my first month, where I started to play with $50, down to $20 and back)

If Vorpal's graph is a giraffe, mine is a mountain or something like that.

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
September summary:
$50/50 bonus cleared
$40/40 rakeback cleared
$200/265 raked in rake chase
w34z3l's course: 10/9 completed I missed the episode about HUD stats, because ATM I play without a HUD
10/3 hand posted in hand discusision

I played 87.575 hands on NL5, the net won (lost) doesn't worth to mention. My winrate was -5,71, if you want, you can calculate...

I did it, after playing 17k hand in a day, I ended up on 3rd place for $40. The only problem is I lost $52 while I played....

My biggest achivment in September was my rakeback. I got $50 from reload bonus, $50 rakeback, $30 from cash chase and $84 from leaderboards. Altogether $214 back from my $265 rake, which is around 80%.

About October
Its a shame, but I moved back to NL2. Since I forgot how does it feel to win, I decided to play in a bigger player pool, full of fishes till I got my confidence back.

First 45k hand went well, I made 20BI, than I lost 15 of them in one day.

Although you lost $52 to gain $40, your cashback numbers add up to a substantial win overall.
Nicely done!
I presume that this was on GGPoker?

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
If Vorpal's graph is a giraffe, mine is a mountain or something like that.

If my graph actually looked like a giraffe, that would be wonderful...
Oh wait, it does look like a giraffe...

I have never seen a giraffe like this, nut you are right

I moved back my biggest part of my roll to PokerStars, where I will play NL5. Theres $20 left on PartyPoker where I will play for leaderboard places on NL2 once or twice a week. As I calculated, leaderboard laces can add 2 or 3 bb/100 to my results (before rakeback, so it's +EV to play for them.

I have a few rules for my NL5 "shot":
Only regular tables
Only 4 tables (it will be an easy one, ty Stars!)
Sessions can't be longer than 90 minutes (I noticed that after a +2-3BI won in an hour or 90 minutes, I ofen drop back down to 0 or below. I think I can't pay full attention in longer sessions)
3 BI stop loss limit (I worked a lot not to check my BR during sessions, so it will be a strange one. Any ideas?)

After a few sessions, I am up 2BIs, we will see.

Yesterday I had a retty honest fish on my right. He played 60/6/3 (OMG, I can't tell you, how much I missed my HUD). He limped and called a lot preflop. OTF if he hit top pair or better donked pot 3 times. If he decided to check, he folded 9 out of 10 times. The tenth hand, where he ch/called, he had a draw. I waited, and waited for an oppurtunity to stack him, but I was card dead on that table in the entire session and won only smaller pots against him.

I played a 2nd session later, where I realized that my new friend is on my right again! So the hunt began

After a while:
PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 220.6 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
CO: 118.6 BB
BTN: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K♦ A♦

CO raises to 3 BB, fold, SB calls 2.6 BB, Hero raises to 13 BB, CO calls 10 BB, SB calls 10 BB

Flop: (39 BB, 3 players) 8♦ 7♥ K♣
SB bets 18.8 BB, Hero raises to 56.4 BB, fold, SB calls 37.6 BB

Turn: (151.8 BB, 2 players) 5♦
SB bets 151.2 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 30.6 BB and is all-in

River: (213 BB, 2 players) 2♦

SB shows K♠ T♦ (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 25%, Flop 16%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows K♦ A♦ (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 75%, Flop 84%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins 204.2 BB

Other intersting hands I played:

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 131.6 BB
CO: 135.4 BB
BTN: 88.2 BB
Hero (SB): 124 BB
BB: 142.8 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, Hero raises to 14 BB, fold, fold, BTN raises to 40 BB, Hero raises to 124 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 48.2 BB and is all-in

Flop: (180.4 BB, 2 players) J♣ 7♥ 8♣

Turn: (180.4 BB, 2 players) T♠

River: (180.4 BB, 2 players) T♣

Hero shows A♠ A♣ (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 84%, Flop 94%, Turn 95%)
BTN shows 3♥ K♥ (One Pair, Tens)
(Pre 16%, Flop 6%, Turn 5%)
Hero wins 173 BB

P.S.: I played 60 hand on this table, and this was the 7th time I 3beted him. Maybe he wanted to teach me a lesson with his 4B

Last hand: missed opurtunity for a triple up

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 113 BB
SB: 100 BB
BB: 81.8 BB
UTG: 244 BB
MP: 100.6 BB
CO: 87.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J♠ 7♠

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, SB raises to 9 BB, BB calls 8 BB, fold

Flop: (20.4 BB, 2 players) 8♠ T♠ 9♠
SB bets 9.8 BB, BB calls 9.8 BB

Turn: (40 BB, 2 players) 6♥
SB bets 81.2 BB and is all-in, BB calls 63 BB and is all-in

River: (166 BB, 2 players) 2♦

SB shows A♠ A♥ (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 93%, Flop 79%, Turn 19%)
BB shows A♣ 7♦ (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 7%, Flop 21%, Turn 81%)
BB wins 159.2 BB

SB restealed a lot, so I thought of calling a bit lighter (as standard I would call here with JTs and J9s. After BB's call, I had pretty nice odds too, however I decided to fold for some reasons. Maybe I did not want to gamble, while I shot a limit.

What would you do in this hand?

If you are from Hungary, why do you have a Finnish name?

Good question! I was into sport betting in high school (12 years ago), especially into hockey. (KHL, SHL, EBEL and Liiga) and Lahti Pelicans was my favorite team. Believe it or not, nobody asked me this before.

So out of all the possibilities, you picked Lahti Pelicans. I can't find a suitable smiley to this one.

I made a lot of mistakes before, but never made one like this

Have you ever opened tables with wrong limits? I just did.

When I start to play, I open two FastForward tables from PartyPoker client. After a few minutes, I open two more. There is a button on every single table, where I can add more tables, I just have to choose how many tables I want, and on whick limit.

It looks like this:

You are right, that's where I made my mistake: I opened two NL5 tables next to the two NL2. Since I have my stack sizes displyed in big blinds, I did not noticed it. Only played 10 minutes like this and I only realized my mistakey, because I stacked of twice. Yeah, I had dealt KK vs AA and AKs vs AA in 105 hands...

Anyway it was a nice training for my mind to let the past go and focuson my game after this accident. It was not easy, but I started a new sesson in my had, and made a few bucks after. Leaderbord saved my day, and instead of -1BI, I ended up winning two today.

You can guess where the accident happened

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
Have you ever opened tables with wrong limits? I just did.

Somewhere in my blog there is the tale of the time I opened the wrong tournament -- but cashed it.

I am officially a losing player on NL2 too. 10BIs above EV and still losing... Where to step back now? Play money?

Step back to study mode. Get that red line up a little, and green/orange goes up a little too. EZ game.

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
I am officially a losing player on NL2 too. 10BIs above EV and still losing... Where to step back now? Play money?

Hi, if you want, you can record yourself playing your normal session and we go over it this weekend (or another weekend). I believe I could be useful because I am playing just 2 stakes above, here are my results, you can see more about me on my blog if you feel like.

Per position:

I have never used a solver, (so I won't be able to provide you with perfect answers), but I played 29/22 on this sample so we have different playing styles, and I suspect that you lose a ton of money because you're too tight, so despite being full of leaks myself, it may be useful for you to see another approach.

Originally posted by Kyyberi
Step back to study mode. Get that red line up a little, and green/orange goes up a little too. EZ game.

Good advice, I will do this. Since I beated NL2 few months ago, I though my knowledge will be enough.

Originally posted by Swish29

I have never used a solver, (so I won't be able to provide you with perfect answers), but I played 29/22 on this sample so we have different playing styles, and I suspect that you lose a ton of money because you're too tight, so despite being full of leaks myself, it may be useful for you to see another approach.

I followed your blog from the start. You play poker with a very different approach (I am a nit in your terms ). It would be interesting to hear your thoughts from a differenc perspective.

I recorded a session today, but it's lost. It was my first try with this software. Second try was better. I played on 2 NL2 FastForward tables. In the 2 sessions, I won 6BIs. Maybe my biggest leak is playing on too many tables?

Hope YouTube will process my video and it will be better quality. Here is the handhistory of my session.

On the weekend I will do the same on an NL5 session on 4 regular tables and with HUD.

Just played my biggest pot ever (in term of big blinds), but I am glad that it wasn't bigger.

PartyGaming - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 109.5 BB
SB: 101.5 BB
Hero (BB): 791 BB
UTG: 210.5 BB
CO: 423.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J♣ 9♣

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

Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) K♠ Q♥ T♣
Hero checks, CO bets 5 BB, Hero raises to 15 BB, CO raises to 45.5 BB, Hero calls 30.5 BB

Turn: (97.5 BB, 2 players) 8♠
Hero checks, CO bets 75 BB, Hero calls 75 BB

River: (247.5 BB, 2 players) 5♦
Hero checks, CO bets 142.5 BB, Hero calls 142.5 BB

Hero mucks J♣ 9♣ (Straight, King High)
(Pre 30%, Flop 11%, Turn 3%)
CO shows A♥ J♥ (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 70%, Flop 89%, Turn 97%)
CO wins 506 BB

you have to be careful with J9, T9 and other "9" hands, there are pretty heavy reversed implied odds on these broadway flops.

Originally posted by Tomaloc
you have to be careful with J9, T9 and other "9" hands, there are pretty heavy reversed implied odds on these broadway flops.

After his raise OTF, my goal was to keep the pot as small as possible. I tagged him as a weaker player, so there are two pairs and sets in his range I think. I am not sure, if he calls or raise OTF with pair plus open enders (for example K♥:J♥: ).

If I don't put these kind of hand into his range:

Board: Q♥K♠T♣
       Equity     Win     Tie
CO     36.36%  33.92%   2.44% { QQ+, TT, AKs, AJs, KQs, KTs, QTs+, AKo, AJo, KQo }
BB     63.64%  61.20%   2.44% { Jc9c }

Turn doesn't change too much, I think there aren't many backdoor spade draws in his range, maybe only Q♠:T♠:.

COrrect me, if I am wrong somewhere