Life is what happens in between

Originally posted by DemonRax
Well, he looked like a fish and min-3bet preflop from fish can be anything of course. He has those TT+, AT+ for sure, most of the range I think... plus weaker hands and crap too. That's why I assumed his range is shifted towards those hands. Another question is - is he ever bluffing in this spot? He's unknown and all we know - his preflop 3bet sizing basically.

Well, in my experience min raise can be the nuts, but also can be really wide. So I gave him a broadway heavy range on the river. I don't think he has bluffs (maybe 5% or sth), but as you can see if I didn't make a mistake in maths given that range we should call. And I believe fish bets close to always with a straight.

Now if you have specific reasons that he is tight, i.e. min 3bet at 5nl = the nuts most of the time or this bet sizing = the nuts most of the time then according to odds you should have a fold. But in vacuum i would call and take a note.

*And if I have so strong read that min raise = the nuts I start over betting flop and turn.

No, he was unknown. Thanks, mate!

Day 17 (2015.11.04)
Again this weird thing happened - doing fine, doing fine - and then boom, lost like 7 buy-ins in a row in 1k hands, basically doing nothing wrong. At the same time - played a little tighter, 22/18, WTSD 24%, W$SD 52%, River call eff is as high as 1.83 - I mean, numbers look good. But results not. I guess it called variance. Also can't really catch my game on Spin & Go's... didn't play many of them but lost every single one.

Hands: 2467 (total 5453) in 4 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Net: -12.90$ (total +1.63$) and -9.88$ by EV
Spin & Go's: 7 x0.5$ played with net -3.5$
Bankroll: 104.92$ (+25$ FFPs)

OK, time to see if it was me or the variance. Checked out biggest pots lost - more than 60bbs - and there were 6 of them. Preflop stack offs with AK vs AA, QQ vs KK, AK vs 88 and of course AA vs KK - lost almost 4 buy-ins with those. And other two hands are below - I'm kinda confused because on one hand I think they weren't played terrible but at the same time can't say if they were played perfectly. I could check/call at some point to keep some bluffs in their range but... anyways, here they are.

Hand #46 - 4bet pot vs fish

Sick fortunetelling skill he got by the way - calling 4bet with 44 preflop to hit 44 on the flop - magic! I guess next 100 times I meet him at the tables in these spots - I'm gonna win a ton...

Hand #47 - 3bet pot vs fish

And another magician with 44 - this time cold-calling 3bet 3-way and hitting it. Well, that makes sense - you call a 3-bet - you hit 3 of a kind... you call a 4-bet - you hit a 4 of a kind... I guess it only works with 44 though... gotta try next time...

But jokes aside - I think I played both hands at least not terribly wrong. What do you guys thing?

Sport
And played couple of hours basketball.
Weight: 90.3 kg
Push ups: 30
Towel raised jump squats: 30
Mountain climbers: 90
Burpees: 12
Breast stroke: 40
Knee to elbow plank: 36

Music
Played just a little, watched some. This Tango "El Choclo" by Angel Villoldo played by Roland Dyens is always one of my favorites.

Day 18 (2015.11.05)
Phew, just came back home! Didn't have time to write a report in the morning, went for a ride with the kid - and we just came back. Can't really do much analysis and hand reviews too - just gonna write down the numbers and will try to focus and play at least some hands today.

Ran extremely hot yesterday - 4bb/100 by EV and like 20bb/100 for real monies. As one of my opponents told me when we stacked off preflop AA vs KK and he ran me over with a King on the flop - "I deserve it!" Well, I guess not only he deserves a good luck sometimes, yesterday it was my turn. But having a 4bb/100 by EV is good enough, everything above that was just a bonus and I'm pretty sure it will go back someday. Well, WTSD 33% tells the whole story - I was just hitting everything and also hitting all the coins when I stacked off.

I also feel not too comfortable with Spin & Go's recently, dunno, maybe I'll take a break at least for a while.

Hands: 3559 (total 9012) in 5 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Net: +32.64$ (total +34.27$) and +7.26$ by EV
Bankroll: 136.43$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hand #48 - stupid call

Hand #49 - stupid bluff

Sport
Lost a lot of weight after basketball and gonna stick to the light-workout for a while
Weight: 89.4 kg
Push ups: 26
Towel raised jump squats: 30
Mountain climbers: 80
Burpees: 12
Breast stroke: 40
Knee to elbow plank: 36

Music
Played for like half an hour, feels pretty good.

Day 19 (2015.11.06)
Sat down and played 2 hours of solid poker. Ran hot again, and over EV too. But still - I think I played well.

Hands: 2288 (total 11300) in 2 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Net: +25.38$ (total +59.65$) and +13.07$ by EV
Bankroll: 160.56$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hand #50 - another bad bluff

Sport
Lost a lot of weight after basketball and gonna stick to the light-workout for a while
Weight: 89.8 kg
Push ups: 27
Towel raised jump squats: 30
Mountain climbers: 90
Burpees: 11
Breast stroke: 40
Knee to elbow plank: 44

Music
Just had absolutely no time. Gonna catch up on weekend.

Have a nice one everybody, see you next week!

Jay out.

My current poker patch begun in end of the June 2015. Before I started this thread and challenge. I've requested hands for whole that period from PokerStars and imported them into HM2. Apparently some hands were not imported because as you can see on the picture below that shows "before" and "after" results - there were around 17k hands missing and 190$ profits are now gone too.

I mean - the difference is HUGE over several months. I'd like to have up-to-date information on my results. Winrate of 5bb/100 or 3bb/100? That's HUGE. Profits of 257$ or 67$ - HUGE. So whose fault is that? PokerStars - because the client doesn't save HHs properly? HM2 - because they're not processing HHs properly? Or is it my fault - am I doing anything wrong and making those hands disappear?

I'm going to contact both PokerStars and HM2 support for advice. What do you guys think? Where might the problem be? What should I look into first?

Week 04
First week of November was one day short - just 4 days and those were decent days. Winrate is 3bb/100 by EV - that's the important part, plus I ran way above the EV - that's the pleasant part Playing solid 22/18, 3bet 7% and high WTSD 29% because of good variance did the trick.

Not too good with Spin & Go's though... didn't play much and been stuck 10 buy-ins. But I'm putting those bit on the background for now. Main focus being Zoom 5NL and non-poker goals. Speaking of which - did fine with both sport and music.

Here are results and stats, and bankroll challenge report is here.

Played at Zoom 5NL 6 max: 11692 hands
Net result: +55.88$ just +17.57$ by EV
Spin & Go's: 12/36 won/played, net: -5$
Current bankroll: 158.56$ (+25$ FPPs)

If you have quit your tables quickly after folding some hands (esp while tilted this might be the case) then HEM won't have time to import hands that are still "in play" while you quit I believe. Might be one reason, however 17k hands is quite a lot. No idea what else it could be tbh

Yeah, that's the best theory so far. Right after "HM2 sucks!" thesis So I'm gonna check it out and will let you know if it helps.

Originally posted by DemonRax
Yeah, that's the best theory so far. Right after "HM2 sucks!" thesis So I'm gonna check it out and will let you know if it helps.

Whenever I play zoom I leave the tables open for about a minute or so to let all hands play out and import... I also make sure to sit out before i get monkeytilted

Day 20 (2015.11.09)
Another 10 buy-ins swing. Start off pretty good with 3 buy-ins up, ended up with 7 buy-ins down. There must be something fundamentally wrong with my game because the results are so dependent on how lucky I run. But it should be steady based on my skills and with minor fluctuations due to the variance.

Played bit loose 23/19, 3bet 8% but I'm sure that's normal. WTSD 32% is horrendously high. But funny thing is - is was ~21-25% on those sessions I've lost and ~38% on winning ones. Still I have no clue how this poker thingy works I guess... As a result W$SD is just 38%.

Hands: 3909 (total 15601) in 6 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Net: -36.58$ (total +19.30$) but -26.82$ by EV
Bankroll: 121.98$ (+25$ FFPs)

Total 12 hands I've lost full stack or so. 3 times bumped into AA/KK with QQ/AK, 2 times lost coin flips, got ran over 2 times (QQ vs 66 and KK vs 33), made 3 bad call downs and 2 hands actually just misread the board, because felt dizzy at some point, even before tilt crawled in my head. Can't really pick a hand to post it here - all were pretty obvious, sometimes even BEFORE I called down. Going to relax a little, get focused and take another shot later today.

Sport
Weight: 90.2 kg
Push ups: 32
Towel raised jump squats: 35
Mountain climbers: 90
Burpees: 13
Breast stroke: 42
Knee to elbow plank: 42

Music
Played just a little bit, but spent couple of hours working with the sheet - going to learn new piece hopefully - pretty tough but very beautiful.

OK, so instead of going through hands I've been thinking all day - how do I fix it? I mean - I can't fix the variance obviously. But how can I fix things that I'm in control of? Came up with two answers: observation and publicity. Whenever I keep tracking of something and share it with everyone - I'm always aware of it and controlling it better. So here's what I've decided to do - I've created my Poker Log which is an Excel file with the grades and comments on several aspects of the game. After each session I'm going to note how many hands I've played, how focused I was, was I making unnecessary bluffs, spews and most importantly - river calls. On top of that I'll take notes on my overall mental state during the session and how good the result was - not always in terms of net won or EV, but in terms of how happy I was with quality of my game. Obviously most of the time it will be correlated with monetary results because if you play good - usually it shows up in the cashier but it might be different as well.

So... I hope this will help me to control myself and improve faster. Let me know guys if you have any comments or/and advice on the system. You can check out the spreadsheet at any time right here.

Day 21 (2015.11.10)
It was a tough day in general but poker-wise - rather good. I've started that performance log and that perhaps motivated me a little to pay attention to my emotions during the sessions. Played bit less hands than planned and probably that'll be the case for the whole week or more. But - I'll do my best to keep the volume up. Interestingly enough - I played somewhat looser than usual - 25/22, 3bet 9% - and didn't quite realize it until today when I opened HM2 for analysis. This might be because of higher awareness for BU steals - I'm not sure yet. At the same time WTSD is extremely low - 22%, and I'm really happy with that.

Hands: 2300 (total 17901) in 4 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Overall grade: 8/10
Net: +29.59$ (total +48.89$) but +16.98$ by EV
Bankroll: 151.58$ (+25$ FFPs)

No hands today as well unfortunately, just no time for that.

Sport
Came a long way since the first day exactly a month ago. Here are the yesterdays results with comparison of that first day. It looks and feels like improvement.
Weight: 89.6 kg (91.2 kg)
Push ups: 34 (25)
Towel raised jump squats: 38 (21)
Mountain climbers: 90 (70)
Burpees: 15 (9)
Breast stroke: 42 (20)
Knee to elbow plank: 45 (20)

Music
Finished with the sheet - time to learn it! Damn tough though...

Day 22 (2015.11.11)
Another busy day. Played just one session during afternoon and had to sit down and play another long one before bed. Both were decent in terms of performance but in the last one I was getting dealt so extremely hot - it messed up all my stats. Look at this - 27/22, 3bet 9%, WTSD 29% and W$SD 55% - I was running hot.

Hands: 1921 (total 19822) in 2 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Overall grade: 7.5/10
Net: +25.46$ (total +74.35$) but +15.10$ by EV
Bankroll: 177.03$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hands are back! Woke up earlier today - and going to try and put out some hands.

Hand #51 - terrible call vs agro maniac #1

Pure mental game mistake and overplay. The guy is marked as an agro fish and I've seen him calling 3bets from UTG with 54s and doing some other crazy stuff. At the same time his stats aren't that crazy - 21/15, cold call 12%, 3bet 9% (27% on the BU), 3bet vs Hero 15%, not too agro postflop - and 170 hands on him which is decent amount in Zoom. So I just stopped thinking and put him on air and called down in deep stacks. How do I stop doing that?

Hand #52 - terrible call vs agro maniac #2

Absolutely same spot basically vs another guy who is marked as an agro fish. This time he's more like it - 207 hands 27/25, 3bet 22% (26% from BU) and 40% vs me (5 in 20 spots). Again he almost pots it on the flop - here I decided to shove to protect vs his AQ/AK/flush draws etc - because it was obvious he's going full throttle. Not sure if I should've just fold it right there? Or maybe check/call-down till showdown? But I definitely don't like my check/shove.

Hand #53 - is there a getaway?

No stats on the guy this time. But that doesn't matter. His range on BB cold calling vs UTG open raise - is quite random, I've seen a lot of stuff. But as a standard it gotta be pocket pairs, strong broadway and some weaker combos. Recently I've checking back top pair on such a boards more, as AlphaVillain recommended, but here I was probably towards the end of the session and autopiloted a bit. I think checking back would make this hand way easier to play. But anyhow - when he calls on the flop and check/raises - I would assume he has some Ax hits and sets 44 and KK. The problem was - I overestimated the amount of Ax in his range. Now I play around with Equilab and I can see that he has to have like ALL suited Aces and AJo+ so I could call the river with breakeven EV. I need around 33% to call there. But even if he has A9s+ and AJo+ then I'm dead. Only assuming he has some bluffs in that line - it gets better but that's probably too optimistic. Quite easy fold on the river - and probably checking back and calling twice would be better in this spot.

Sport
Weight: 89.3 kg
Push ups: 35
Towel raised jump squats: 41
Mountain climbers: 90
Burpees: 13
Breast stroke: 40
Knee to elbow plank: 40

Music
No music! NO MUSIC! DAMMIT! It WAS a tough day though. Hopefully I will catch up later and on the weekend.

Day 23 (2015.11.12)
I guess that poker log helps - most of the time I was paying attention to all that stuff. And played good too. Again bit looser that usual, around 24/21, 3bet 8%, WTSD 25% and W$SD 53% - stats-wise it's one of the best results so far.

Hands: 3133 (total 22955) in 5 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Overall grade: 8/10
Net: +6.66$ (total +81.01$) but +8.96$ by EV
Bankroll: 183.69$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hand #54 - hand of the day that made my day

Nothing educational here for sure but this hand made my laugh out loud for real. Nothing makes sense here - not his EP open raise range, not his open raise size, not the ultra-rare board, not his unbelievable hit, not his ridiculous tank-check/calling 3 streets, not the fact that I had such a strong hand and had to value bet all the way. Nothing! Had to stop the session and talk a walk because couldn't play laughing.

Hand #55 - tilty call-down

This hand just annoyed me a little. I mean - he's calling a 4bet and Ace comes on the flop - that's always a bad sign for KK. And we go check-check. Maybe I should've cbet small and then just give up? I'm not sure. Anyway - Ace on the turn - that's what made me upset. Now I knew I can't really fold but usually I'm beat anyways against some stupidly played A9o or something. Plus I had a flush draw on the turn. So I called and then just "what-the-hell" tilt-called river as well.

Sport
Weight: 89.3 kg
Push ups: 32
Towel raised jump squats: 34
Mountain climbers: 85
Burpees: 13
Breast stroke: 45
Knee to elbow plank: 40

Music
Again - no time I really hope I'll get some on the weekend.

Day 24 (2015.11.13)
Didn't feel to well today but I'm happy with my focus and awareness at the tables. A little too much tilt and frustration though in some spots - but thanks to the almighty poker log - kept it under control most of the time.

Hands: 3367 (total 26322) in 5 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Overall grade: 8/10
Net: +8.72$ (total +89.73$) just -0.17$ by EV
Bankroll: 192.41$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hand #56 - terrible river call

End of the day, tired, bit dizzy - but still - there are no excuses for calls like this! It's been more than a month as I post hands like this over and over and over and over again. Good thing is - there were more of those back then, nowadays - not so much. Actually pretty proud of myself in terms of river calls and WTSD - doing way better lately.

Hand #57 - giveaway hand at last! 1.58$ can be yours!

There are several problems with this hand. First - pre-flop call of 3bet. The guy has 11% 3bet and it's 21% from SB, although not much of a sample. I think AJs is OK to flat here, at least more than 50% equity, plus position... and I have a 4bet range too. Now on the flop he checks - can I discount TP+ hands? I mean there's absolutely no point to check top of his range - how is he going to get value? And the board is kinda wet too... Anyways, I check back planning to just pot control and bluff catch. Here's the third spot - isn't it better to just bet flop and then maybe bet turn and check river, or the other way around? My hand is also medium strength and needs protection. And then since I checked back flop - I just call down turn and river, although he quite clearly represent AQ/KQ/QQ type of hand. Of course after a showdown I wrote down a note on him and now I know how he plays hands like this - it's a good note. But what do you think about those 4 questionable spots?

Sport
I've been trying to tweak my sleeping cycles a little - today got energized in the morning. Looks like another goal with sleeping regime is coming up next month ♠_ugly: Will think about it.

Weight: 89.2 kg
Push ups: 38
Towel raised jump squats: 40
Mountain climbers: 95
Burpees: 14
Breast stroke: 47
Knee to elbow plank: 40

Music
Played and studied half an hour.

Week 05
I'm getting better and more confident at NL5 and working on my mental game. I'm especially happy with the recovery after first day's 10 buy-ins downswing. The recently started poker log actually helps a lot, I can only recommend it to everyone. I've been also experimenting a little bit with my sleeping cycles, next week I'm moving to exactly 7.5 hour sleep and next month will consider switching to 6 hour night sleep plus naps during the day - we'll see. I've also stopped playing Spin & Go's completely which is a shame because of these promos out there, but hey! You gotta do what you gotta do! It was distracting me more than helping and I had to spend time on learning and playing it too. So - I'm going to put that aside despite it was on my monthly goal - but it's just not +EV.

Here are results and stats, and bankroll challenge report is here.

Played at Zoom 5NL 6 max: 14630 hands
Net result: +33.85$ just +14.05$ by EV
Current bankroll: 192.41$ (+25$ FPPs)

Weekend 05
Nothing special, family time, watched some NFL and of course F1 Brazilian Gran Prix. Played guitar a lot actually, learning this new piece and improving another piece which I composed myself (if "composing" verb can be applied to such a amateur as me xD). Overall - good relaxing weekend, with just a little bit of poker - finished one book, started another one. This week Dota 2 Major Frankfurt tournament is on - hopefully will sneak a peak during the week and watch it full on Saturday's final day.

Looking forward for the Week 06. Good luck everyone!

Day 25 (2015.11.16)
Shaky Monday... again... start off with bad variance - several bad beats and coolers. Recovered later on, got back into green by EV - but still down 3 buy-ins. Stats are 25/21, 3bet 8%, WTSD 26%, W$SD 46% - pretty decent, except River call eff 0.31! I've also played in couple of those promo tourneys and got a ticket for another one - but it's gonna be the last one today, I'd rather focus on Zoom.

Hands: 3523 (total 29845) in 4 sessions of 5NL Zoom SH
Overall grade: 7/10
Net: -15.55$ (total +74.18$) but +2.85$ by EV
Bankroll: 174.59$ (+25$ FFPs)

Hand #58 - hand that made my day