tfsantos reporting for duty

Originally posted by tfsantos
Hello everyone,

I’m Santos, I’m a 27 year old Portuguese guy and I want to crush 6max games.
I’ve started playing poker on 2010 when I got to know Pokerstrategy and I’ve been playing fulltime since March of 2012. Currently I’m playing NL100 and NL200 but my winrate is pretty shitty. I’m mostly living of rakeback and since I only play 50k/month, it’s not a baller life.

Goals and aspirations for poker?
I want to improve my game, to improve it a lot. I want to get to the NL1k online games and be a winning player. With that, I'll be able to have a good bankroll in order to try some serious live action (cash games and tournaments).

What do you sturggle with?
I have some problems playing against very aggressive regs. I end up calling their 3bets too much but without a good plan post-flop. Lately, I've been calling with weak holdings too often, also.

What do you want to get out of the bootcamp?
I want to fix some leaks with my game and learn some different and lucrative approaches to the game. In the last year I made huge improvements with my mindset and I believe that now, more than ever, I'm ready to take my game to the next level.

Hi ♦

IMO when defending lightly against 3bets you'll need to know when to turn weak hands into bluffs even on the flop, calling with them could cost a lot of money. I also have problems with this, sometimes it's hard to know how light villain will stack off and how often he's going to try to rebluff us.

Originally posted by LgWz

sometimes it's hard to know how light villain will stack off and how often he's going to try to rebluff us.

story of my life

sometimes it's hard to know how light villain will stack off and how often he's going to try to rebluff us.

In some sessions you catch so many pushes, that you start thinking, that all of them read your ranges, bluff and light push vs you EVERY F#$@ TIME

1.In the last year I made huge improvements with my mindset and I believe that now, more than ever, I'm ready to take my game to the next level.

Hey tfsantos!

My name is Erik and I will be part of the coaching staff focusing on Tilt, A-Game, Mindset, and Lifecoaching. So if you have any questions I will have a thread up soon where you can easily let me know if you updated your thread with anything I might be able to help out with. I'll be trolling around the forums but just so i don't miss anything.

1. If you don't mind me asking. What did you start to do differently that changed your mindset for the game? Was it change in how you approached the game? Did it also help you with issue s like tilt when playing too?

Gl!

Hi Erik,

Last year I read the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and that helped me changing some things.
I was prone to heavy angry tilt burts; if I was having a bad week/month, I would start my sessions already on the edge and a simple bad beat or cooler could send me on a spewing spiral of 3 or 4 stacks. After that I would close the tables and try not to think about poker for the rest of the day, which meant that I would play 20minutes of poker somedays. The next days, I would repeat the process, until I could book a win and hope I was out of the downswing. Injecting logic and breathing exercises during sessions helped me to solve this problem.
When I wasn't on angry tilt but also loosing, I would play for too much time trying to get even. Nowadays, my sessions are always shorter than 2 hours.

One mindset problem I retain is the obsession with short-term results. I can't play a session without looking at the HM graph constantly. I really believe the way the graph is going does not affect my game that much but I know this preoccupation isn't healthy. One month I tried to play without looking at the graph but it was worst, I would try to make the math mentally in order to get a sense at where I was.

Sorry for the long answer but I think that covers my known tilt issues.

See you

Originally posted by tfsantos
Hi Erik,

Last year I read the Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler and that helped me changing some things.
I was prone to heavy angry tilt burts; if I was having a bad week/month, I would start my sessions already on the edge and a simple bad beat or cooler could send me on a spewing spiral of 3 or 4 stacks. After that I would close the tables and try not to think about poker for the rest of the day, which meant that I would play 20minutes of poker somedays. The next days, I would repeat the process, until I could book a win and hope I was out of the downswing. Injecting logic and breathing exercises during sessions helped me to solve this problem.
When I wasn't on angry tilt but also loosing, I would play for too much time trying to get even. Nowadays, my sessions are always shorter than 2 hours.

One mindset problem I retain is the obsession with short-term results. I can't play a session without looking at the HM graph constantly. I really believe the way the graph is going does not affect my game that much but I know this preoccupation isn't healthy. One month I tried to play without looking at the graph but it was worst, I would try to make the math mentally in order to get a sense at where I was.

Sorry for the long answer but I think that covers my known tilt issues.

See you

Nice to hear that you were able to make such improvements on your own. From my experience that is a big sign that you will be able to root a lot more of your mindset issues. But it will only come through hard work.

Are you actively focusing on spots were you are trying to improve during the sessions? For example do you sit down with trying to focus on your 3bet calling game ip and looking for, anticipate and work on mindset issue? Making the session into a learning and improving on spots were you struggle takes focus away from the result orientation. We can just close out eyes and push RO away. We need to focus on something else. Make the session about you and your game if you can. It keep the game fun as well

Any thoughts on this?

Originally posted by ErikStenqvist

Are you actively focusing on spots were you are trying to improve during the sessions?

This happens very rarelly, maybe 5% of my sessions.
In order for this to happen, the planets have to be aligned, i.e., I have to be playing my A-game with the perfect mindset and I have to have seen a video with an improvement I might use on my game or I have just found a leak I need to plug. But even when this happens, I'm checking the HM graph constantly.

the planets have to be aligned

Ok, so let's align them!

Before you sit down and play a session. Take 5-10m minutes and decide wha you are actively working on for this session. #b defense vs aggror seems like the perfect thing strategy wise. You prepare for it, remind yourself of stats and ranges before the session. Mentally prepare yourself for how you want to react in those situation. How can i exploit them? Is it simply by folding? Vs what regs can i call and why? Where are they folding? Flop turn or river? If you can't see their leak then don't jump blindly in there with a strategy.

Why do you think it bothers you so much when regs attack you? And why do you think or feel like they are doing so? Do you take it personal?

If you combine this with 4-5 hours of off table studying focusing only on this strategy wise and start looking into the mental side of why you struggle with emotions you will start to improve.

These are some basic general advice.

Let me know how it goes...

Cheers!

Yesterday I played 2 sessions in which I prepared my "facing 3bet strategy" mentally as you sugested.
Despite the temptation to check my graph, I ignored it and only saw it at the end (with a nice suprise to be honest). Being focused on some strategy for the session helped me but do you do this every sessions? I mean, before every session you play, you have 10minutes focusing on a part of the strategy you want to use?

Why do you think it bothers you so much when regs attack you? And why do you think or feel like they are doing so? Do you take it personal?

There are a few regs that I feel that are attacking me too much. I just see it as part of their game. They are very aggressive and better players than me, so they try to take advantage of this by playing big pots against me. I don't take it personally but sometimes annoys me when I'm having a bad day. Not so much that they are winning from me, but that I haven't got the skill yet to counter their game.

I'm really appreciating your insights on these matters.

Thanks for the help, Erik.

Originally posted by tfsantos
1.I ignored it and only saw it at the end (with a nice suprise to be honest).

2.Being focused on some strategy for the session helped me but do you do this every sessions? I mean, before every session you play, you have 10minutes focusing on a part of the strategy you want to use?

3.They are very aggressive and better players than me, so they try to take advantage of this by playing big pots against me. but that I haven't got the skill yet to counter their game.

My pleasure to help!

1. And you had it in you all along! Keep working on this and it will improve even more.

2. yes do this before every session. It puts you in the right frame of mind, you sit down with a purpose, you improve tremendously as a player, and it keep the game fun in the long run! It's the nuts!

3. Copycat them! Take those regs and filter for how they 3 bet, what ranges they use, where they fold etc, how do they act vs 4bets etc etc. Put alot of effort into this and they won't realize you've adapted...

Hi Santos; how are you, well I hope?

I know time can be a problem for a lot of you guys, but keeping your thread current allows the opportunity for others to discuss things with you.

Perhaps post your progress so far on Erik's suggestions for discussion? Just an idea.

Have a great time with Bootcamp,

Mal.

Hi Mal, thanks for stopping by.

I'm following Erik's advice on pre-session work. So far it's working good but I'm having some problems with my computer this month and I'm not playing much. So, it's harder to check on my progress.

My constant graph checking frequency is being reduced, it's not zero yet, but I think it will get to that.

Originally posted by tfsantos
Hi Mal, thanks for stopping by.

I'm following Erik's advice on pre-session work. So far it's working good but I'm having some problems with my computer this month and I'm not playing much. So, it's harder to check on my progress.

My constant graph checking frequency is being reduced, it's not zero yet, but I think it will get to that.

Sorry to hear about the CPU. Keep me posted on how it goes

Hi Santos,

Just popped in to see if you had your pc problems sorted out, we would be very interested in your progress if so.

March on soldier!

So you have tilt issues? ♦

Abraço sacana

Hello guys,

It was a shitty month (both in volume and results), Now, I'm on vacation and just logged on for the bootcamp seminar. I'll atack my problems head-on on Aprill.

See u then,

@ rui; Yes, I definitely do

abraço