KoningAlbert NL2 / NL5 ZOOM and occasional MTTs

Today wasn't the best day.

I shouldn't have played. I was doing OK at first, but I quickly felt I was in a kinda gambly mood. I was not playing to win, I was playing to have some fun, and go with it. That's never a good thing.

I opened up a tournament on unibet and sat IP next to one of the worst players in MTT I've seen. However it was such a luckbox he knocked several players out of the tournament including me with the worst hand. EVERY SINGLE TIME. anyway, it was a rebuy so I was planning to win my chips back... which I did.

Anyway, throughout the tournament I was actually playing quite alright, but then I made a huge mistake against the bigstack. The idea of reraising him was justified, shoving was absolutely not, so I ran into his Kings with my A5os. Really stupid I sometimes can't control myself in these spots, cause I would have had enough chances to rebuild my stack vs. these players.
Something to keep an eye on in the future.

I also opened up some cashgames today. Wasn't playing all that bad actually, but several beats made my gambly mood pop up even more... anyway, long story short. Been lucky once, just lost a few dollars...

overall, looking at the circumstances I'm happy this is the way it ended ♦

BR: 80
BR: 80

I've been doing some analyses of my playing, especially cashgames.

There is one tendency that I really need to break immediately. For some reason I have the belief that I can and should win every pot that I'm in. I try to attack weaker players and exploit them.

One problem though is that there have been many occasions in which they actually play their hand badly (unless they are really on to me and make some hero calls) which made me lose some $$. Ofcourse there also have been many occasions in which I was completely out of line, and spewing away money because I was thinking I could outplay them every time...
Note to self (als explained in tons of articles), don't bluff too often at the micros, people stack off lightly.

If I look back on the plays I've made, it seems to come forth from a sort of urgency to see my BB increase during a cashgame. Every single victory makes me a bit happier, even just winning 2 cents. It's also a consequence from having little time to play. It feels like I have to make every moment count and it makes me impatient. It makes me want to play a lot of hands. Like I said before: the game isn't running away. So just like in tournaments, I have to wait for ideal spots, especially now, because blinds will never go up.

Don't get me wrong though. my preflop game is quite alright I play 21/19 with a 3bet of around 10, so it's not that I can't wait for reasonable hands to play. It's just that whenever I'm in a pot, I'm plotting out a plan to win the hand regardless of what I'm holding, and to put it bluntly that is just playing badly. So I need to let go of hands sooner, when I know I'm likely beat.

Overall, I usually am near break-even. Mostly winning a lot by playing small ball poker to lose all of my profit in one single stupid move. My own fault obviously. Definitely need to work on some discipline.

So far for my shots at NL5 I've played about 5000 hands and I'm break-even. This should easily change if I keep to my notes I've written in this post.

Maybe I'm going to put up some graphs on a regular basis, so I've to justify my red-line / blue line story... because it's not looking good right now, due to all of the above reasons.

A couple of thoughts...
 Bluffing too often -- the tighter you play in general, the better the chances are that your bluffs get through. The downside is that the tighter you play the less likely your value hands will get called. Somewhere there is a balance between bluffing too much and bluffing too little. That is the goal of solvers and so-called "Game Theory Optimal" play. That balance depends more on the other players at your table than it depends on you.
 Winning every pot -- Well I agree. You definitely should win every pot.  Discipline -- this is tough. It is far better to give up a little bit to a bluff, than to lose a lot trying to muscle a bluffer off the pot without sufficient equity. This brings up the problem of estimating equity post-flop. To do that you need to be able to accurately estimate players' ranges. I find that to be the most difficult skill to master -- and I most certainly haven't

Ok, so far I've tried to take my own advice at heart.
1st session I played I was up 1BI. I played solidly.
2nd session I played, I already had a tougher time sticking to my plan.... sometimes you got to play badly first before you start playing the way you should... anyway, I was about 1BI up in the end.

I'm going to post the worst hand I've played, to exactly show you what I'm talking about when I'm playing too aggressively or when I try to take every single pot down. I hope that this will eventually force me to play proper poker.

Good on you for reviewing your bad hands and being so open about them. That is how we learn and get better.

This hand is definitely a bit of a spew. The raise jam is bad as you are folding out all of his range that you beat and are only getting called by better hands. If you have reads that this guy is being over aggressive, this would have been a great board to bluff catch on as your showdown value is pretty high against aggressive players ( He's gonna be betting off all of his Broadway overcards that miss this board that your AK beats at showdown)

Ok time for an update.

1. I'm trying to cut back a little on how much time I spend on poker. Like I said in one of the previous posts, it is affecting my winrate when I play poker when I actually don't have time to do so. It makes me want to rush things, not good.

2. I only play a few tournaments a week. I played a 1$ tourney with massive overlay on unibet, but was out of the tournament after playing just one hand. AQ < AT(bigstack) < 99 (shorty).

3. I've been playing 2 tables at the same time (1x NL5z + 1xNL2z), but noticed that both fields play a little differently, so I'm going to try to play 2 NL5 tables at the same time (as long as my BR allows me to).

4. a few graphs to show you what's going on here.

all time graph

all time NL5 graph

NL5 graph keeping my own advice in mind (last 5 days)

BR unibet: 76€
BR stars: 89€

Hey Albert, great progress you are making!
What are the tendencies of players on NL2 and NL5?

In my opinion, I think your raises get a bit more respect at NL5. So that means you can actually play poker.
At NL2 I feel I always get called down, which in itself is nice ofcourse, but that means you can only continue playing your hand if you really have a strong made hand. I feel you have to hit well if you want to make some good profit.

At NL5 people think about their hand a bit more, and do not just call down. Which allows you to play poker a bit more. It's just more enjoyable to play at NL5 than it is at NL2. Just my thoughts ofcourse.

Yesterday and today, I've been able to play some hands.

MTT poker at Unibet wasn't my day. Couldn't build a stack, didn't get a lot of playable hands and when I did, I just ran into better hands.

BR unibet €70

At the zoomtables it went a lot better. I managed to be 3BI up. Mostly because I was hitting a lot of my hands, and that makes playing poker very easy ofcourse. Anyway, there were definitely 2 hands I'm forced to post because they were played terribly, and as I said before, I am mostly going to post my shitty hands from now on, to get myself in line again.

Here goes.
Don't ask me what I was thinking, because clearly I wasn't...

This one isn't the worst, but it was still a bad play. I entered the pot without a plan. So it means I'm just donating money

This player was quite tight, had a very low 3bet% so dunno why I felt I needed to call his 4bet...

BR stars: €105

Another hand that I came across and have been thinking about for a while.

I was thinking about 3barrelling the river. but decided not to.
When I review the hand, I still don't think it would have been a good idea to 3barrel.
I do think that if I would have had the Ace of diamonds I could consider 3 barrelling.... What are your thoughts?

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

UTG: $6.08 (122 bb)
MP: $2.37 (47 bb)
CO: $5.33 (107 bb)
BU: $4.71 (94 bb)
SB: $25.30 (506 bb)
BB (Hero): $7.35 (147 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with T♥ A♠
4 players fold, SB raises to $0.15, Hero 3-bets to $0.45, SB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.90) 3♥ 9♣ 4♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.45, SB calls $0.45

Turn: ($1.80) J♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1, SB calls $1

River: ($3.80) 3♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero ?

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
In my opinion, I think your raises get a bit more respect at NL5. So that means you can actually play poker.
At NL2 I feel I always get called down, which in itself is nice ofcourse, but that means you can only continue playing your hand if you really have a strong made hand. I feel you have to hit well if you want to make some good profit.

At NL5 people think about their hand a bit more, and do not just call down. Which allows you to play poker a bit more. It's just more enjoyable to play at NL5 than it is at NL2. Just my thoughts ofcourse.

I think that your raises get respect more only if the people at your table are paying attention.
If they see you showing down quality hands they'll respect your raises.
However if they never catch you bluffing, they'll respect your raises too much -- and you won't get paid off with your value hands as much.

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I think that your raises get respect more only if the people at your table are paying attention.
If they see you showing down quality hands they'll respect your raises.
However if they never catch you bluffing, they'll respect your raises too much -- and you won't get paid off with your value hands as much.

I haven't really made big differences in my play so far. They might have seen me bluffing from time to time, but since it is at zoom tables, the sample must be so small they can't really have a good idea of my playing style. So I don't think that is particularly true.

Another update:

I've been experimenting a bit with playstyle and betsizing. Mostly because I'm still learning when to do what in which situations.

I have been very aggressive in the past, raising a lot and trying to get people off their hands if I thought there was a possibility. This way I've picked up many pots, but as you can imagine, there have been tons of hands in which I was caught by better hands. So far this style has worked, hence te profit I've made, but I've been wondering if this is the most profitable way of playing.

To be honest, I have never read any books on cashgaming, which is a huge disadvantage. The knowledge I have is mostly based on my experience and my studying in MTTs 10 years ago. And I have to admit that these two types are completely different. This is why I've started reading an old book I still had lying around, from Harrington on Hold'em. It's a book from 2014 and might be considered outdated, but the basics and fundamentals haven't changed, so it can't hurt to read, can it?

I've run through the first 60 pages or so, which were mostly things I already knew, but getting your memory refreshed is definitely worth it. A few Key elements I've taken from the book so far and try to apply are the 2 following things:

• pot odds can be easily calculated.
  counting your outs * 4 (when both the turn and river cards still need to come)
  counting your outs * 2 (When only the rivercard still needs to come)
• small hands require you to keep the pot small, big hands require you to make the pot big.
  I know it is nothing new to most people, but it is a very good mantra to really consider your betsizes.
  This also means you shouldn't be playing for stacks when you don't have one of the best hands possible. (This doesn't necessarily mean you are playing nitty, it means you have to control the pot as much as possible)

Reading these first few pages have also made me realize I still need to think the hand through more, which I think I'm already capable of at these stakes, but which I failed to do consistently so far.

In practice this means I'm ready to play a lot more speculative hands (eventhough I already play around 22/19). It means I shouldn't always worry too much about losing a small pot sometimes, as long as I win most of the biggest pots, right?

One final reminder for myself. Don't call down big bets trying to bluff catch, because more often than not, they simply aren't bluffing.

BR pokerstars: €103 (I had dropped to 90 earlier but was able to get almost everything back)

As for MTTs, I'm also improving my game there, but I haven't been particularly lucky the last few days.
BR unibet: 65€

I haven't played poker for a week because my son was hospitalized. Luckily there is a silver lining now.

Anyway, I decided to take my mind of things a bit and played some poker. I probably shouldn't have played, because I was looking for some escapism rather than playing solid poker. I didn't have the mental strength to lay down hands that I definitely should have.
On a sidenote, I was running terribly. All my good hands didn't get any action, and whenever I tried a move I got beaten down. If you then get some bad beats too, your BR shrinks rapidly.

In my case, that means I've dropped 9 BI over 2 sessions. So I'm forced to start playing NL2 again.

to show you how bad my play was, I'll post some examples.
I already managed to lay down a few hands before, but at some point I snapped and thought, they can't have it ALL the time.... apparantly I was wrong.

I should have quit immediately, but like I said, I couldn't because I was looking for escaping my mind a bit.
Anyway, this final hand made me quit instantly... ♦

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
I haven't played poker for a week because my son was hospitalized. Luckily there is a silver lining now.

I wish your son a speedy recovery!

I hope your son recovers soon.
Maybe better to pause Poker in the time your son is in the hospital.

You are clearly a better player that has his mind somewhere else!

Hello everyone

I'm happy to say that my son is doing well now. He still needs some time to heal, but the worst has passed, so I'm feeling very relieved.

Like I mentioned before, I played some poker, but it wasn't the best idea. I donked away half of my pokerstars BR. You can clearly see where it all went wrong.

Yesterday I played again with a clear mind, and I'm happy to say I've got myself under control again. Still need a lot of improvements on my game though.

Because cashgaming was not the best for me at the time, I found some of my confidence back by playing small tournaments.
At pokerstars I registered for some 45 SnGMTTs, but didn't cash any of them, lost all of my pushes (most of them I was really unlucky).
On Unibet though, I managed to win another small tournament for about 55$.

BR stars: 50$ (autch)
BR unibet: 114$

Good to hear your son is doing better!! :f_grin::f_grin:

Think with your mindset you will grind yourself back up very quickly!

My son has been doing better every single day and that makes me a happy person again.
Pokerwise it means I can play poker in the right mindset again.

Aside from all that the European Championship is being played right now, and that is also something I like to follow, so I'm not playing that much poker at the moment.

Tonight it will be Belgium-Portugal, all root for Belgium! Go Red Devils!

Poker:
I don't know whether I have mentioned this before or not, but I've played some 45 MTTSNG's in which I didn't cash a thing because I was running terribly. This made me lose about 15$ on stars, so my BR had dropped to about 50$ (coming from 130$ or so) You can imagine that I was kinda bummed about this. Winning money takes a long time, losing happens in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, got back to playing NL2 to grind my intitial BR back and move up limits again.

I've changed my style of play a bit. I'm playing less aggressively and try not to outplay people.
Furthermore, I've been reading Dan Harrington on cashgames because his book on tournament play has taught me most things 10 years ago and he tries to outline the difference between tournament play and cashgame a bit in this book.

How silly it might seem, one of the key principles he's mentioned is not to go nuts on TPTK hands (like you would in MTT). Other people's advice on micros was to squeeze out as much money as possible with TPTK because they call you down anyway, but I found this is not true anymore, even at NL2.

So I'm off with a new start. Let's see how it goes. My graph since 10 days.

BR stars: 70$
BR unibet: 110$

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
My son has been doing better every single day and that makes me a happy person again.

Very good news! Let's all hope he continues to improve!

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
Poker:
I don't know whether I have mentioned this before or not, but I've played some 45 MTTSNG's in which I didn't cash a thing because I was running terribly. This made me lose about 15$ on stars, so my BR had dropped to about 50$ (coming from 130$ or so) You can imagine that I was kinda bummed about this. Winning money takes a long time, losing happens in the blink of an eye.

There is a saying, "You can't win if you fold" -- this is so true.
Also true, but less commonly said is: "You don't lose much if you fold"

Originally posted by KoningAlbert
I've changed my style of play a bit. I'm playing less aggressively and try not to outplay people.
Furthermore, I've been reading Dan Harrington on cashgames because his book on tournament play has taught me most things 10 years ago and he tries to outline the difference between tournament play and cashgame a bit in this book.

How silly it might seem, one of the key principles he's mentioned is not to go nuts on TPTK hands (like you would in MTT). Other people's advice on micros was to squeeze out as much money as possible with TPTK because they call you down anyway, but I found this is not true anymore, even at NL2.

So I'm off with a new start. Let's see how it goes. My graph since 10 days.

I liked Harrington's books. I don't have them any more unfortunately.
The saying that applies here is "Big hands for big pots"
You really want to see a showdown with your TPTK hands -- but not if you have to call a shove to see it.

Nice graph btw -- a couple of big pots in there sure helped...

Cheers,
VS