I am 22 years old and living in Melbourne, Australia. I have been playing poker for 1.5 years total, but only 1 year on PokerStars. In that time, I have gone from a complete fish that didn't understand the rules of poker, to a decent tight-aggressive player that regularly grinds 10NL 6-max zoom on PokerStars and $1/$3 live at the casino.

I am an ambitious guy who doesn't want to become complacent. I want to improve my poker game, move up in stakes and become the best player that I can possibly be. I have big plans for the future and my plans start with my 2016/2017 poker goals: to beat 100NL 6-max zoom on PokerStars and also to beat 1000NL at my casino - the highest game that runs 7 days per week (there is a 2000NL game too but that only runs a few times per week).

I see a lot of older players at my casino that have been grinding $1/$3 live for years, but I don't want to become like them. I want to be one of the young prodigies that moves up to the high stakes tables. Most of the old guys at my casino are arrogant and unwilling to ask questions or admit that they played a hand badly. They also tend to have massive tilt problems and hate online poker because it's "rigged". My strengths are that I am very good at handling tilt and I am also humble and willing to ask questions and listen to advice from other players. I feel that my attitude towards poker is the reason why I will move up in stakes and they won't. I love learning, improving and discussing strategies with other players, and I will never get mad if someone tells me that I played a hand poorly and offers me advice on how I can improve.

Currently, I have beaten 2NL 6-max zoom on Stars for a 7bb/100 win rate over 50k hands. I'm also breaking even at both 5NL and 10NL after playing a combined total of almost 100k hands (I am winning money if you include rakeback and bonuses though). I have an edge over most of the $1/$3 players at my casino and I feel that I have an edge over most of the $2/$4 players too, although I don't play $2/$4 often because of my small bankroll. By the end of next year, I want to have both the bankroll and the skill to beat $5/$5 live at my casino (played with a $1000 BI and often a $10 straddle), as well as 100NL 6-max zoom on PokerStars.

I am new to 2p2 forums, but I have been an active member of some other poker forums. I came here because I heard that there were more professional poker players on this site that could offer me better advice as I move up in stakes and start to ask more advanced questions. I hope to have some quality discussions about poker strategy and hand analysis on this site. I will keep this thread updated and let you all know how my poker journey is going.

Thank you for reading!

All the best. Them 1/3 games at crown are so juicy :')

Thank you, and I agree! They are really juicy games.

Here is the most recent hand I played at $1/$3 where I won a pot over $1100:

I'm dealt JTdd on BTN. Effective stack sizes are $560.

There are 3 limpers and I raise to $25.
UTG calls, MP calls, CO calls.

$100 in pot (4 players)
Flop shows 9d 6c 3c

It checks to me and I fire a Cbet of $60
MP calls $60, everyone else folds

$210 in pot (2 players)
Turn shows 4d
(so I've improved to a flush draw)

MP checks and I barrel for $150. MP calls $150.

$510 in pot (2 players)
River shows 7d (completing my backdoor flush)

MP checks and I shove for $310
MP calls and angrily mucks his hand once he sees my flush.

So I won an $1130 pot

I left shortly afterwards, thus making me more than $1500 up in just two days of playing $1/$3 at Crown.

Seems like a great cbet 4 ways.

Do i sense sarcasm here?

pow pow



yeah check that flop brother. gl with 10NL

isnt the rake insane at crown tho?

It is when you actually consider what range of hands they'll continue with... there aren't many 9x hands in their range that call $25 preflop and if they have a pair below 9 (like pocket 7's), they'll either fold on the flop or I will have a chance of outdrawing them with my 2 overcards. The important thing is that I fold out all hands that have my overcards dominated (QJ-AJ and QT-AT), so that I can be good when I hit my overcard (assuming they don't have a set). If they do have a set, then I'm just relying upon hitting a backdoor straight or backdoor flush.

At $1/$3 and $2/$5 it's not too bad: 10% rake capped at $15, with 100bb max buyins
It's much worse at $1/$2: 10% rake capped at $20, with 50bb max buyins

Here is a gross spot I got into playing at $1/$3 against a relatively unknown villain with $300 effective stack sizes, playing 7-handed.

Hero limps in for $3 UTG with TT
MP raises to $15
BB calls $15
Hero 3bets to $65
MP calls $50
BB folds

$130 in pot after rake (2 players):
Flop shows 942 rainbow

Hero checks (planning to check-shove for remaining $235 to give AK/AQ hands a chance to bluff)
Villain checks

Turn is 8

Hero bets $75
Villain insta-shoves for $235
Hero tank folds (I figured he either has a set or a higher overpair, since AK/AQ probably would've bet the flop)

What do you think about the way I played this hand?

I think from now on, I'm only going to limp-raise a tighter range like {QQ+, AK}, since I often get myself into trouble playing postflop with hands like 99-JJ.

It's terrible.

Care to justify your opinion? I've explained why I did what I did. Now explain to me what is wrong with my logic.

4 way, hits their ranges more than yours, very little equity, very little fold equity and did I mention it is 4 way?

You are actually crazy if you think it is a cbet let alone a good one.

Hey gl with your goals, I like the title of this thread as it was exactly my goal 2 years ago, good to mix live + online, you're lucky to have a br to play relatively high stakes live (1/3 is high compared to 10nl as open raise = buyin online).

As a tip, if you want to rise stakes most efficiently, I'd grind live for a week or so, then spent a big part of the profit on coaching. You don't need $1k/h coaching, 50/h is plenty and should be very beneficial for your general game.

oh also on the TT hand - limpraising makes your game unnecessarily difficult (think about the strength of your raising range when you limp TT/AK+, it will be very weak). You also want to have non-premium hands to limpraise bluff with, as if you always have a nutrange, people will always fold when you raise after limp. This is way too hard to balance and downright less profitable than just playing a standard raise/fold style, so there's some advice on that spot.

glgl

Bro, that cbet 4way with Jhigh is very weak. and if you said the villans are fishes is worst.
But very nice pot

GL

It's not a bad board tbh we can still have a lot of value 99-AA [#33], but i rlly don't expect these villain's to know that and it looks like we are going to fire 3 barrels here coz most villain's aren't over-folding TP OTT. I would need very good reads to fire 3 barrels here as well MW.

I would x here as well as some other draws... but any A-T we hit pretty hard if it gets checked to us again OTT so we can still win potentially.

Would consider betting HU obv not MW.

The cbet in hand 1 is borderline possibly but that TT hand is really butchered. Limp r/r is fairly bad with TT here in even the fishiest of lineups. Then you want to check a 9 high flop hoping MP without the preflop initiative will bet AK/AQ so you c/j. Yikes my eyes are bleeding at this point but it get's worse when we b/f a blankish 8 turn.

I don't know where to start....

Yeah you have a lot of work to do. Mzbourg is right and the second hand is pretty bad also.

Nope.

But GL anyway. All of us over rated ourselves when we hit our first heater.

And stop stereotyping villains; that'll come back and bite you on the arse too.

´gl

Why is bet/folding the turn a bad thing? Do you really think that there are any bluffs in the villain's range when he raises the turn? If he wanted to bluff with some AQ/AK/KQ type hand, he would've done so on the flop. I didn't want to give the villain a free river card, hence why I bet, but I also didn't want to stack off against a range that's basically all higher overpairs and sets.

Another example of a hand which I played in an unusual manner, but I think it was pretty clever:

So I'm in MP with $600 effective stacks.
UTG (Laggish reg) raises to $15
I flat $15 with QJdd
BB also flats $15

$40 in pot (3 players)
Flop is Qh 7h 6s

BB checks, UTG bets $25, hero calls $25, BB folds

$90 in pot (2 players)
Turn is Kc

UTG bets $60, I raise to $160 and UTG calls

$400 in pot (2 players)
River is Qc

Villain checks and hero checks

I want to explain the weird turn/river line I took: after villain barreled, he had to have either a draw, a set, 2 pairs or perhaps a Kx or Qx hand that is thin value betting. If he has a set or 2 pairs, I want to know about it immediately, so that I don't have to face a $150 river bet and not know whether to hero call or not. I also don't want the river to be a J or Q and then have me lose even more money to a set or higher 2 pairs, thinking I have the best hand. I figured by raising the turn, my hand looks very strong (set or 2 pair) and villain will almost never 3bet as a bluff or semi-bluff. If he has a draw, I can extract an extra $100 from him the times when he doesn't barrel the river. If he has a monster hand like a set, he'll play it one of two ways: he'll either slowplay it (flat the turn and check-raise the river), allowing me to check back the river and get to showdown cheaply, or he'll fast play it (3bet the turn), allowing me to fold immediately and get out as cheaply as possible. So this just seems to be so much more advantageous to flatting the turn.

As for the river check, I figured that after I've represented so much strength with my turn raise, I'm probably never getting called by worse if I make a large river bet, and I also run the risk of getting check-raised if the villain has AQ or a boat, so it's safer to just check behind, as was my plan.

Thoughts on this line I took?

Here was a hand which frustrated me. So there's a drunk spewy guy to my immediate right who has bought in several times and seems to have no respect for money. He has literally not folded a single hand preflop and he's been caught bluffing so many times postflop, as well as reaching showdown in big pots with hands like 92s and Q5o.

7 players on table:
Villain (UTG) has $220 stack
Hero (UTG+1) has $500 stack
Everyone else has between $300 and $1000 stacks

Hero is dealt AQdd
SB posts $1
BB posts $3
Drunk guy raises to $15
I 3bet to $45
5 players fold
Drunk guy calls $30 more

$85 in pot (2 players)
Flop is Jh 5d 3s

Villain spends 30 seconds tanking and fiddling with his chips
Villain eventually says "all-in" for $175 effectively
Hero tank folds

Should I have called this donk shove?

Just played an incredibly juicy home game. Blinds are 25c/50c and buyin is $100. I'm sitting on a $400 stack and a fish to my right just rebought for $100 and seems kind of drunk/tilted.

I'm dealt KQo in CO on a 7-player table
SB posts 25c
BB posts 50c
UTG calls 50c
UTG+1 calls 50c
Villain (MP) calls 50c
I raise to $12
Folds to villain who flats

Roughly $25 in the pot with 2 players
Flop shows Q55 rainbow

Villain donk shoves $88
I call $88

Villain shows AKo and my top pair holds for a $200 pot.

Gl man, I've recently got back into playing live after prodominately playing online. I play 1/3 at crown too, the games are incredibly good. Looking forward to the APPT season

I am taking a break from poker starting from today until mid-November. There are 2 reasons for this:
1) I need to focus on uni. I have exams starting next month, a heap of assignments due over the next 2 weeks and I am behind in all my classes. I have a lot of catching up to do.
2) I went on a downswing playing $1/$3 live and I also lent some money to a friend (over $1000) which he hasn't paid back, so I can't really afford to play anymore poker for now.

I plan to play a lot during the summer holidays (mid-November until late-February), so I'll see you all at the tables then!

Lol at OP mentioning that he doesn't want to be like the "old regs who doesn't admit there mistakes" then later spends four posts trying to argue that c betting in a4 way pot and hitting a backdoor flush.

Guess you are blinded by the mountain of chips to see how bad
that is...especially in live poker.