KoningAlbert NL2 / NL5 ZOOM and occasional MTTs

Ok, I have added both stats.

I also have the fold to 3Betl, but it seems like this stat is not working for some reason. Which is quite annoying, since this is a quite important stat.

I have also difficulties in finding the fold to flop cbet, turn cbet and river cbet... If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't been able to play a lot of hands the past few days. I've played about 1700 hands, but It seems like I am playing with a bit more confidence again. The 'bad' run has passed, and the balance is tipping to my side a bit more again.

As a result I'm back at my highest point. I hope I can power through till I hit the 100$, so I can take some shots at the NL5 tables.
BR: 85$

I've just played a tournament I came across on Unibet, which is called the €150 multiverse (buy in €2.2).
I decided to take a shot with my BR of €7 and played the tournament. Only when I had entered the tournament I realised it was a rebuy/add on tournament, autch... Since I was already playing and the field seemed soft, I immediately rebought for a double stack and also opted for the addon...

When you get the right cards at the right time, are able to build a stack... In the end it really felt like I was beating them around.
I won the tournament for about €60.

Talking about luck and zero bankroll management, I couldn't be more pleased.

BR pokerstars: $85
BR unibet: €60

I might play some tournaments once in a while, as long as they don't take too long. I believe this one lasted less than 2 hours. Ideal!

When I get something new to play, I usually get addicted quite quickly, until it loses my interest and I catch on with something new to get lost in.

As a consequence it somehow overtakes my life. It controls the way I’m thinking or what I am thinking about immensely… and it is very exhausting. To such an extent that even when I’m very tired, I can’t get asleep because my mind can’t be switched off.

It doesn’t mean I’m addicted in a sense that I neglect all my other chores, don’t do my work, or stop doing social activities. It just means that every single bit of spare time I have, even the tiniest time frame, is filled up with my ‘addiction’.

Things I get lost in include: playing the guitar, magicianship, playing videogames and now poker. Now for the first few hobbies, they have little impact on my mental state, but for the latter, poker, it’s a whole different story. It consumes me.

The addiction for me, lies in the fact that the little free space/time I have, is now filled with thinking about poker, playing poker, all sorts of things related to poker. This is actually not healthy. I have to learn not to go full throttle. Playing poker now and again is fine. But it shouldn’t be played if you have 15 minutes or 30 minutes to fill.

Why?
- It is unsatisfying.
- You don’t give your brain a moment of peace.
- You feel like you’ve become a slave to the game.
- Oh, and: You definitely don’t play you’re A-game  = burning money

I just wanted to post all of this, because it works therapeutically for me. It also makes me realize, that I’ve never had and never will have the ambition to become the next poker phenomenon. I’m just looking for a hobby that I can become good at, and as an extra, earn some money with. It shouldn’t be what it is right now.

Because of the little time I have I had switched to playing cashgames. However, I do enjoy these games, my heart has always been at MTT, which I recently played again.

In conclusion I just want the game to be fun. So I’m going to try to limit my playing to certain times/days during a week, without expecting to play every single day/every single moment. It’s simply impossible. I want my brain to be at peace again.

BR pokerstars: $65
BR unibet: $62

My all-time graph...

You can see a steady grow in the beginning, but for the last 8K hands it's been going up and down. You can clearly see the times I was playing focused and controlled. I'm not saying that I would have closed each session with profit if I hadn't been all over the place, but I can surely say it has influenced my winnings a lot.

Second, my WTSD% is too high at this point (31%). Most of my losses come from not believing the opponent and calling down with good hands when I know I'm most likely (sometimes even very clearly) beat. This is also clearly visible in my red/blue line. A lot of the losses I take are added to the blue line, whilst I should have folded earlier (redline).

example of a hand, that I should have easily folded

Anyway, after my previous post, I feel like it has changed my behaviour a bit, hopefully I can keep it that way.
I'd like to balance my poker playing with playing the guitar and playing APEX, just to take my mind of from time to time. It really helps.

Calling when you know you beat is tilt. Don't play if it ever feels like you must play. Remember this is a game and you are supposed to be having fun, if you not having fun then don't play. If you can't find time to play MTT then why not play some SNG? Maybe you will have more fun playing SNG.

I know, and that's what I realised the other weekend. I wasn't having fun when I had the feeling I had to play. I also realised (how silly it might seem) that these games aren't running away. They'll always be there, it's not like people are expecting me there or anything... and for some unknown reason that felt like a relief.

I know, SNGs are a possibility, but I like it more when the field is bigger... Now I realised I can sometimes play some tournaments on unibet, since they don't last very long. It's not for the biggest prize money, but 50$ up tops would be adding 1/3 of my total bankroll, that's not too shabby. I also like the fact that they have a time indication for how long the tournament lasts on average.

The other day I wanted to play a 3.3$ zoom tournament, but the first hand I wanted to raise I misclicked and was all in A7 vs AK on preflop with blinds of 30/60.

That's a painfull mistake, but nice win in the Unibet tournament.

As some people might have noticed on the hand discussion forum, I have already taken some shots at NL5.
At this point I'm usually playing 1 table NL2 zoom and the other NL5 zoom. I just wanted to have an idea on how people play at these stakes. Is there a big difference?

So far, I have the feeling that I should be able to beat these stakes. I also think that I like playing these stakes more than NL2. But ofcourse this opinion is only based on a mere 3000 hands. This will probably evolve in the next few weeks.

Aside from that I have also mentioned that I am going to try and mix in some small MTTs since I like playing them.
So far I have played around 10 MTTs, I've won 1, ended 1 in 5th and one in 10th position. I really think the field of the MTT I'm playing is really soft. So I hope to get some more wins here in the future. If I can play 2 MTT a week, that would be a lot already, so we'll see how that will turn out.

BR stars: € 98
BR unibet: € 54

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
As some people might have noticed on the hand discussion forum, I have already taken some shots at NL5.
At this point I'm usually playing 1 table NL2 zoom and the other NL5 zoom. I just wanted to have an idea on how people play at these stakes. Is there a big difference?

So far, I have the feeling that I should be able to beat these stakes. I also think that I like playing these stakes more than NL2. But ofcourse this opinion is only based on a mere 3000 hands. This will probably evolve in the next few weeks.

Aside from that I have also mentioned that I am going to try and mix in some small MTTs since I like playing them.
So far I have played around 10 MTTs, I've won 1, ended 1 in 5th and one in 10th position. I really think the field of the MTT I'm playing is really soft. So I hope to get some more wins here in the future. If I can play 2 MTT a week, that would be a lot already, so we'll see how that will turn out.

BR stars: € 98
BR unibet: € 54

Do you track your bankroll separately? For example, If you have 150 on Unibet and 60 on Stars, you play NL5 on Unibet and NL2 on Stars? Or if your bankroll is enough for NL5 together, you play NL5 in every room?

I don't know about Zoom, as it was still new the last time I played it and I didn't like it. But there is no difference from 2nl > 10nl. The only thing you will notice is how much it stings every time you loose a big hand playing under rolled. Dude trust me, don't play under rolled even if you feel you can beat the level. TRUST ME. Today was shit and now its okay, never mind that, DON'T DO WHAT I JUST DID OR DO SOMETIMES. Taking shots higher up is okay, but even then you want at least 35 buy ins in case something goes wrong, and its poker so things can and will go wrong...

Originally posted by LahtiPelican
Do you track your bankroll separately? For example, If you have 150 on Unibet and 60 on Stars, you play NL5 on Unibet and NL2 on Stars? Or if your bankroll is enough for NL5 together, you play NL5 in every room?

I look at them seperately, but then again, at the back of your mind you always know there is still some money on an other account.

My approach is more like this:
Pokerstars I tend to play cashgames on, mostly because they have zoom, and recently I started to use the hand2note hud on it. I have about 25BI for NL5 there, so if I'm not afraid of downmoving when things are going the wrong way, I don't see any problem. At the moment I'm also just playing 1 table of NL5 at the time.

At unibet I mostly try to play MTTs. I know I haven't really got a roll for it, since variance can really get nasty, but I'm mostly playing these because I like playing them. I do hope to cash a tournament in the near future because they seem to be quite soft. If things go the wrong way, I might try and play some cashgames there once in a while as well. so I don't get broke here and even if it does, to be honest, I wouldn't really mind. I'm not expecting it though ;-)

Originally posted by jiffybag
I don't know about Zoom, as it was still new the last time I played it and I didn't like it. But there is no difference from 2nl > 10nl. The only thing you will notice is how much it stings every time you loose a big hand playing under rolled. Dude trust me, don't play under rolled even if you feel you can beat the level. TRUST ME. Today was shit and now its okay, never mind that, DON'T DO WHAT I JUST DID OR DO SOMETIMES. Taking shots higher up is okay, but even then you want at least 35 buy ins in case something goes wrong, and its poker so things can and will go wrong...

When I say, taking a shot. I mean I'm experimenting and playing the field for a few buy-ins. If I lose them, I just stick to NL2 zoom for a while longer. I don't see a reason to postpone a transition any longer, because I do feel I'm playing quite alright at these stakes. If I manage to keep afloat at NL5, it would be logic to continue playing there.

Aside from that, I only like to play the game when I'm winning, so I quit the game quite easily when I'm frustrated. This is particularly true when it's about a very long downswing. If that happens I can't guarantee I'll still be around. It is perfectly possible that I consider poker as a waste of time then and move on to another form of entertainment. I'd probably be on a break for a few months, before I even consider coming back.

But for now I'm not aspiring to quit the game. I really want to make it work until I can play NL25 confidently. We'll see how that will work out.

I've just played a short session. What a wonderful few hands I've played. All the things that happened were quite standard. A part from taking a wrong spot to bluff, I did quite alright. Anyway in the end I was break-even or even a few cents below.

NL2

NL5

nasty hand

another one

Jihaaa, just won a small tournament on Unibet. I had a few lucky hands to stay in the game, but once I got a stack, I was able to push them around a bit. Had some bad luck at some point so my stack was decimated. Luckily all my better hands held up against calls, until we were 3way.

At that point I felt I could push them around, and HU I really crushed the opponent. After he had already doubled up with some luck, I could finally take him down with AT vs. 44

BR pokerstars: €98
BR unibet: €70

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Jihaaa, just won a small tournament on Unibet. I had a few lucky hands to stay in the game, but once I got a stack, I was able to push them around a bit. Had some bad luck at some point so my stack was decimated. Luckily all my better hands held up against calls, until we were 3way.

At that point I felt I could push them around, and HU I really crushed the opponent. After he had already doubled up with some luck, I could finally take him down with AT vs. 44

BR pokerstars: €98
BR unibet: €70

Yo man, making great progress!
and Congrats with the tournament!

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Jihaaa, just won a small tournament on Unibet. I had a few lucky hands to stay in the game, but once I got a stack, I was able to push them around a bit. Had some bad luck at some point so my stack was decimated. Luckily all my better hands held up against calls, until we were 3way.

At that point I felt I could push them around, and HU I really crushed the opponent. After he had already doubled up with some luck, I could finally take him down with AT vs. 44

BR pokerstars: €98
BR unibet: €70

Nice win bro!

Yesterday I ended 4th in a tournament for another 20$. If it hadn't been for the bad beat I had gotten, I might have even won more.

Since I have experienced the joy of playing tournaments a bit more, I'm really inclined to focus on MTT more now. However, due to the limited time I have, I'll still sometimes try to get better at cashgames. Just because I feel it helps me in tournaments a lot too.

Anyway, that also means that I'm also going to open up some MTT tables on pokerstars, and because of that my BR will be affected by this for my cashgames as well...

BR: unibet €85
BR pokerstars: €80

at pokerstars, I got deep in a 1$ rebuy zoom. but lost my KK vs AK , and found myself busted later in the game with a questionable move. A part from that, I didn't win any money in a few other MTTs.

For my cashgames, I'm not running too well at this point. Had to endure some bad beats, which made my BR drop about 10€ instead of winning another 10€.

I can't complain though. I'm feeling quite confident. Still making progress in my reasoning at the tables, so hopefully it will show in some profits later. There are probably a few hands I completely misplayed, so need to do some hand reviewing soon.

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 6 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $6.45 (129 bb)
MP (hero): $6.59 (132 bb)
CO: $5.00 (100 bb)
BU: $4.86 (97 bb)
SB: $7.54 (151 bb)
BB: $3.15 (63 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with K♣ K♠
1 fold,Hero raises to $0.15, 2 players fold, SB 3-bets to $0.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.05) 9♥ 9♠ 8♣ (2 players)
SB bets $0.52, Hero calls $0.52

Turn: ($2.09) 7♠ (2 players)
SB bets $1.10, Hero calls $1.10

River: ($4.29) 4♠ (2 players)
SB bets $2.50, Hero ?

I'm 4Betting the KK vs SB always.
As played raising the flop unless SB is known to be super passive.