from Micros to Midstakes with Mathhnes

N0pr3s3n7

Joined: 14.05.2009

Posts: 417

16.04.2011, 23:45 0

So after being almost 2 years a member of pokerstrategy.com I finally decided to run on my own a blog.

Introduction of me: :heart:

My name is Andrey,I am 20 years old (born on 31 December though <3) and I am from Bulgaria.I've been playing poker for an year and half.First like a lot pokerstrategist successfully blew my starting bankroll on pokerstars.After this i stopped playing for while but then when I got into university one of my friends remember me the idea of poker when he actually stopped coming to university so he can play.I quickly started searching for some free money (because I couldn't deposit any on my own) and boom I found some microgaming site giving 10$ free on sign up.At this time it was SUPER small network with very few players mostly REALLY bad ones.I was playing 2-3 tables at a time and quickly grew up my bankroll winning from few promotions and also rolling down the tables a bit.After that I moved on boss media and first I wasn't sure what to play FR/SH or whatever so I was mixing.Lost a bit and then found my game: NL Holdem SHORTHANDED.Since then i've been playing only this and only had some blink of wisdom to try HU PLO on stars and lose half of my bankroll which almost led me to put my remaining 500 euros on some new slot game at boss media :f_cool: After 30 minutes of thinking I understood what i was going to do so i quited for few days untill i calm down.After than my main game was only NLH Shorthanded and after a year of grinding NL10 and crushing it I'm currently playing NL25 (on boss media) and NL20-40 (on microgaming).All the time i've been over rolled for the limit i move on but I don't use any bankroll management except the nitiest one: Move up when I feel i can beat and crush the limit !.It's really conservative but this is because of my nature and i like dominating and exploiting people.I don't like being the one of these who are playing like bots and don't realize what is happening around them.After i had some terribly downswing on boss media(running under 30 stacks in EV in 30 k hands) I lost my confedence into my play and seriously started to doubt whether i was just pure luckboxing around or was really beating the game.So here comes Mathhnes.I get in touch with him after this downswing and when I reconsidered what do I want to achieve playing poker.So i set my goals: Start playing midstakes within 1 year from first month of coaching.
So far I'm really glad i took this approach and already started to learning really a lot of improving a lot.Being one of the lazy poker players I was probably like a lot others(no offense at anyone) who like playing poker,enjoy it,think a lot about it,beat people,but don't have the motivation to either put a lot of volume,improve a lot with game analyze or stuff like this.I was always watching movies and getting tired at the 10th minute or reading a book and getting the same feeling after 1st page.And Today just BOOOM ! I watched the HOLE video of MBML: how to do game analyze and this changed all I think.First now i got the motivation to blog i didn't have and second I will use this blog to post hands and make FULL ANALYZE from now one.

Special thanks to mbml and also to Mathhnes for helping me A LOT(coaching me :P).

qwewqe :f_biggrin:

2 replies

N0pr3s3n7

Joined: 14.05.2009

Posts: 417

17.04.2011, 00:31 0

First hand I got struggle from today after being capable to lose 4 stacks on my first NL 40 longer shot(only nl 40 tables).I felt i was playing SUPER good after 2 hours of coaching with Mathhnes but after all what can you do when it comes to set over set,coolers and running under EV ? Just continue to play GOOD !

This hand was played on [A] Prima tables so no stats

No-Limit Hold'em, $0.40 BB (5 handed) - Poker Hand Converter from PokerConverter.com

saw flop

UTG ($42.05)
MP ($46.33)
Hero (Button) ($65.67)
SB ($40.20)
BB ($86.10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K♥, K♦
1 fold, MP calls $0.40, Hero bets $2, 1 fold, BB calls $1.60, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.60) 8♦, 4♥, 6♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $3, BB calls $3

Turn: ($10.60) A♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $6, BB calls $6

River: ($22.60) 10:heart: (2 players)
BB bets $11.30, Hero folds

Total pot: $22.60

The thing i remember for him was that he was pretty loose (50vpip ~) and also quite passive with high showdown.

PREFLOP
I expect him to call super wide range of 22-QQ(3bet KK or AA),A2s+,AT+,56s+,57s+,JTs/o+.

FLOP
After he check/call flop:
A8s,A6s,A7s,A5s,46s,86s,75s,T9s,T8s,89s,67s,45s,55,77,44,66,88,99,TT,JJ,QQ
Against this range we are way too ahead so Cbetting big is fine because he isn't folding all this and we are increasing our value taken from his weaker hands/draws.

I think we can argue a lot here about his flop calling range because he should be raising all the sets and maybe 75/86 since we are deep but he is way too passive and I think he might not do so.

If he happen to check/raise:
86s,46s,88,66,44,75s and give him like 87s,67s,45s for semibluffs
Against this range we are 70%/30%.
So if he raises 3x us: we will need 26.5 % eq. This will be super close so I prefer folding to reduce mistakes on further streets as I think that check/raising rainbow flop like this from a passive player is almost always 2pair+ against which we have 12 % equity.
If he raises 2.5x us: we will need 23% equity.I think here we might call and reevulate further streets because it's a bit more likely he is going to check/small raise us with more semibluffs against which we have good equity.
TURN:

We still remain quite favourite against his range so cbetting is the only option and i think he is pretty much check/calling the same range again.
If he happen to check/raise(any amount) the turn I should be folding always as he is 99.99% never bluffing there.

RIVER:

Now it gets really tricky.He donk into us and we need 25% equity to make the call breakeven.
So lets consider his range:

Hands that beat us:
88,44,66,TT,A8s,A6s,A4s,A7s,A5s,T8s,79s
combos: 30
Hands we beat:
(pretty hard to define these since I think we are beat close to almost always when he donk 1/2 on the river as I don't see him ever bluffing there,but let give him some hands he missed with and doesn't have much showdown value)
Optimistic:
55,45s,67s
combos: 12
So according to range calculations we are getting 12/(12+30) = 28 %
Realistic(from my point of view based on his image from previous hands and also the fact he is passive)
55
combos: 6
we get: 6/(6+30): 16% equity.So it is -EV call.

Now let's see with what hand can we call him:
we hold: A9,AJ+ (bottom of our range which is better than KK)
Hands that beat us:
88,44,66,TT,A8s,A6s,A4s,T8s,79s
combos: 24
Hands we beat:
Optimistic:
55,45s,67s,A5s,A7s
combos: 16
equity we got: 41% and we need 25% to call.So it gets + ev to call here.
Realistic:
A5s,A7s,A9s(not sure even if A9s might be in his range for floating for example but i add it here and make the calculations)
combos: 6
equity we got: 20% and we need 25% to call.So it gets - ev to call here.

A bit more calculations i made show us that we are getting profitable call in realistic assumptions that we can call A4 or better.

qwewqe :f_biggrin:

_Anonymous_

18.05.2011, 16:59 0

Nice hand analysis

I like how you show both sides of the coin. E.g. what if he has a big bluffing range and what if this guy has a small bluffing range on the river (6 combos) which indeed is very realistic as a general assumption. I liked how you made the calculation that shows what kind of hand we need to call the river and indeed, his range should be quite strong here, due to his c/c on F + T (unusual float with nothing but OESD or better) and his river lead. Interesting that we have to fold anything that is worse than A4, nice one

One thing you may add is with which range we can profitably value raise the river. Also if it is possible to bluff raise.

[Closed] from Micros to Midstakes with Mathhnes