Beginner to Pro? Attempting a cautious comeback

The story of one hand :

One of my biggest leaks is overplaying top pairs, so lately I am extra careful in these situations. Seriously. But not always everything goes according to plan and this hand shows it very well:

Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer
BB ($45)
($10)
UTG ($47.63)
UTG+1 ($75.43)
UTG+2 ($157)
MP1 ($60.40)
MP2 ($42.96)
MP3 ($23.70)
Hero ($98.07)

BB posts (SB) $0.25

Dealt to Hero A♥ J♣

UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 calls $0.50, UTG+2 calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, fold, MP3 calls $0.50,

Lots of limpers... I have a decent hand and great position. OK, lets bet big and take the pot preflop. Smart move, right?

Hero raises to $4.25, fold, fold, UTG calls $3.75, UTG+1 calls $3.75, UTG+2 calls $3.75, fold, MP3 calls $3.75

Uh oh... weak fish calls, huge fish with triple stacks calls, weak TAG fish calls and and new shortie fish calls too... s***! that was unexpected!

FLOP ($22.50) 7♥ J♥ 3♠

UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, MP3 checks,

Damn... everyone checked... I do have top pair, right? So I should bet, right? I cant just sit there and wait for someone to suck out something!

Hero bets $11.25, UTG calls $11.25, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds, MP3 raises to $19.45 (AI),

Oh no... he goes AI... but wait! he is a fish and a shortie... and I think I should have odds, I cant just fold now, can I?

Hero calls $8.20, UTG calls $8.20

TURN ($80.85) 7♥ J♥ 3♠ 4♦

UTG bets $23.93 (AI),

Oh noes! ... this one shoves too... what is wrong with these people? There is more than 100 EUR in the pot... he is a fish, it could be desperation shove and I only need to call 24 EUR... I must have more than 20% equity in this spot! I do have TPTK after all, dont I? Oh well, just call then...

Hero calls $23.93

So, this is me being careful - in a 125 EUR multiway pot with only pair of Jacks, Ace kicker... talk about NOT overplaying top pair... :f_biggrin:

RIVER ($128) 7♥ J♥ 3♠ 4♦ 6♣

Hero shows A♥ J♣
(Pre 69%, Flop 83.6%, Turn 93.2%)

UTG shows J♠ K♠
(Pre 31%, Flop 16.4%, Turn 6.8%)

Hero wins $125

So... I won... but did I play it right?

if ur AJ has better than 20% equity vs his range then it's a call
it all depends in what u think hes range on river is, isn't it?

last few days

After winning 150 EUR my sensible part whispered to me: "be smart, go back to NL25 and play it safe", so I did. They didn't let me even play! ♠_evil: In about 10 minutes I was down 30 EUR and I haven't even started playing. I ended the day down 80 EUR.

After that I figured if I can lose this much in NL25 then I might as well go play NL50, because there I can win more. Unbeatable logic, right?

So I am back at NL50... probably until it will start to hurt again. Doing OK so far - down 80 first day after a monster 14 hour session, then 100 up, yesterday 40 up. Especcially proud of one hand yesterday, where I did not go AI pf with KK against a nit, who had obvious AA. Saved meself 50 EUR and that one hand made all the difference between breakeven and winning. :f_cool:

unhealthy thoughts on stydying

In last two days I have been chatting with 2 poker players. One of them is winning regular with one of the best winrates over there. He said that he has not picked up a poker book in a year. Another one is my poker buddy from Canada. He is totally self-taught. Has made one starting hands chart for himself years ago after reading one or two books and thats it. He has no clue about sweat sessions, hand forums, etc.

So I was thinking blasphemous thoughts... maybe I am studying too much? Maybe I should stick to basic ABC poker for these limits and leave loose 3betting stuff for later? Get my basics perfected?

HM2 is here!!!

I finally got my copy of Holdem Manager 2 Beta! After struggling for 2 days (got some probs with databases) its finally up and running! Finally there is a piece of tracking software that is useful AND looks good.

Ofc all the big hype is just that - hype. There is nothing revolutionary there. The same old things improved and in much prettier wrapping. Something they should have done ages ago. All in all - a definite improvement, but for those who think that HM1 is good (I was not one of them) there is really no need to rush and get HM2.

A little insight in just one lucky day in my poker carreer:

Incredibly lucky catching KK on the very first hand of the session

Luckily catching a straight on the river:

Luckily catching a flush on the river:

Luckily catching a top set on turn:

Luckily catching a TPTK after Cbetting with overcards:

End result - down 200 EUR for the day.

I start to think that maybe this game is not for me... I think I might be just too lucky for poker... ♠_evil:

your signature says it all.

Originally posted by dooleslovs
your signature says it all.

Well thank you very much for cheering me up. Really needed that... But iI can see your point... I guess I will have to admit that I am not good enough... I will give NL50 a last try today and then leave it for good until I will be sure I can beat NL25.

It seems that I have been on a lucky streak for a year before...

1st hand; c/c river if he is aggro and and turns his busted fd into a bluff, otherwise which worse hands could he possibly call there on river?? If he is passive b/f something small like less than 1/3, so you give him the chance to look u up w small pp.

2nd hand; Fold turn and never ever call again in your life spots like this. Are u going for str8 flush or what? U have to consider all your outs here tainted.

3rd hand; You lost a 60bb pot in a flip, that really that isn't so bad is it?

4th hand; If you play at least a regular amount of time you must know that ppl overbetting river oop on lowstakes usually have the nuts. From logical point of view, he is almost alway raising twopair and sets on flop and turn being drawy like that. You are calling AI on a board that needs to completes str8 w 5 or 9 and both of those cards are very in his calling range in various hands even if he is a solid player yet alone a cs fish.

5th hand; Bet bigger flop and turn. If he is passive b/f river, if he is aggro I am undecided, prolly can't go wrong with the same line.

Look at your session again, be real and harsh to yourself, cuz nobody is gonna do that instead of you. All of these hands have been missplayed to some extent. Yes even the 3rd one, cuz I if a lost 60bb flip bothered you so much that you had to post this hand in your blog, it definitely didn't leave you coldblooded while playing.

So don't tilt, analyse and play well. GL!

What Gregor said.

Tnx, Gregor, for taking your time to look at those hands... I know that they are flawed...

the thing is that when I play it seems that if I will give up on hands like these then I will have nothing to play with at all... my non- showdown winning line is going down steeply enough already... ofc, I know that going to showdowns with questionable hands is not the right way to improve non-showdown winnings, but still...

I guess I just dont have the right feel for the game... I bluff in wrong spots, I raise in wrong spots, I slowplay in wrong spots...

Also I obviously dont have the feel how often I should get paid for my good hands... I seems that those hands are so far apart that every time I get a good hand and someone is willing to put some money in the pot I get too exited and overplay it with horrible consequences...

Anyways, it looks like it's about time for me to realise that I am not going to make it and start looking for a real job...

Was a good dream while it lasted though... had something to look up to...

Man, it looks like you were tilting during those hands. I mean, calling all ins on a 4 to a straight board? Like the TT and 88 hands are pretty awful when so much beats you :x

Work a bit on your mindset, and keep grinding

It is very difficult for me to do this... As you can see, it took me a week to get myself to write this post and I am not even sure why am I doing this. I guess the main reason is to show that not all poker lives go by "from zero to hero" scenario...

October has been another very bad and dissapointing month for me...

I hit milestone 400 000 hands only to realise that my overall winrate has fallen down to less than 1 bb/100 hands and I am now effectively a breakeven player or to be more precise a slow loser.

I have cashed out from BossMedia and moved to 888poker. Moved down to NL20, but even with ultrasoft competition there, I keep losing...

To improve my mindset, I tried to play some smaller stakes on different sites just for fun - NL2 and NL4 on Cake, Titan, Poker770, Stars... losing everywhere...

I dont understand this... after 1,5 years of playing, watching videos, reading books, posting hands on forums and cant just turn into complete losing fish over a period of few months! Or can I? Or was I always a fish just had a year-long lucky streak?

I have forgot when was the last day when I won 1 BI or more. I dont even remember when I was up 1 BI during the session... maybe 3-4 weeks ago... Nowadays I am happy if I brake even or lose less than 1 BIs...

Only small comfort is that I am doing quite OK with playing tournaments on PokerStars. Won some 90-man and 18-man SnGs, cashed in some MTTs... but its only about 150 tourneys so far and I have read about variance there.

Game plan for November:

Stay sane and try not to lose whatever bankroll I have left...

i understand to, i have practicaly the same situation :/
waching vids/ doing sweat session etc etc, but the things is, the more i learn the more i loose, and i have the same sessions as u, down much when red, but if green then max i can get is maybe 1 BI, but even that doesn't happen often :/ already lost 1/3 roll in just 7days (25k hands) tho EV line is ok and im runnig like shit. so idk what should we do to make things even. maybe try diff learning style?
anyways, gl on getting back on track

Looks like I might be slowly coming back to poker after long absence... Few hands there and there nothing big, just NL2, NL4... climbing my way back out of downswing and depression...

Nice Blog

Originally posted by SherlockHolmes2ez
Nice Blog

Tnx mate I hope I will get back with a vengeance