i think that youre just sitting when traffic is at its peak. like at 5pm eastern time today, traffic was disgusting at 88-220s but other times, there may literally be no reg lines and fish sit very quickly. i definitely think that its profitable to move up to 88s and 110s because there are definitely enough fish. the level at the 110s is higher than 55s imo but its not too different. 220s are a completely different story though

I think you may still have a tilt problem just judging by how annoyed you get after a loss. The best advice I can give is to exclude yourself from all poker sites for 3 months minimum and dedicate the time you'd spend playing poker to time spent learning about poker. Learning to manage your tilt and so on. If you don't take the time to learn the game and how variance works in poker then you'll fall victim to tilt and possibly lose your entire roll. I was once like you but once I understood the game a bit better by watching videos and looking at my friends results you'll realize that you will always have bad runs. You'll accept these bad beats and downswings and think nothing of them. In the long term if you're a decent player you'll profit.


Also playing bad and tilting/losing 10 games in HUSGN's is like wasting 100 games (many hours of game play) just to break even or lose. Control tilt = maximize your profits

Thanks, jack, think you're probably right--unfortunately, nothing I can do to change that, since those hours are the only free weekday hours I have.

ivan, tilt has been a problem--I kind of suspect you haven't read the whole thread, though!

Had a pretty good night and won ~$200, BR at $5.85kish
Also, purchased a 3 month premium hu sng subscription--hopefully it's worth it, suspect that it will be

thanks, Happyz--have "skimmed" three videos of three different pros and so far it seems like mers is a particularly good fit for me, haven't watched skates yet

Brag: every solid 110s reg has decided to open their own lobby rather than play me
Beat: I've been waiting 15 min. for a game and the reg line is 7 deep--I've been at the top spot the entire time
Variance: lost my first 110 tonight thanks to two coolers: J9spades on J975 two spade board (guy has nuts and I don't hit after shoving turn ofc), AK on K55 board against pocket 5s

Needed to vent about terrible luck--get it in against top 110s reg with KK and bigger stack against bare oesd, str8 comes on river; shove over 3bet with even stacks with JJ, get called by AJ, ace flops; next game proceed to miss both of my 30%ers

I just seem to run so badly any time I try to make a 110s run--bah

Ran absolutely terribly in allins at the beginning of the night, got coolered about 6 times when I usually get coolered once/evening, went on crazy monkey tilt, but somehow it all worked out OK starting with winning a $88 shootout, BR got as low as $5.1kish before rebounding back to a PROFIT for the evening



Don't want to have many more of these nights

WOW, what a crazy night, couldn't help but continue to play and I ended up winning three $55s before deciding to call it a night

the result? a new BR threshold: $6k+! feels great to bounce back and finish up in a $850ish swing

stats looking really good for the last 200 games (and I actually think sharkscope missed a couple of wins in this span, too):

Ran pretty badly tonight and last night (especially at the 110s, where I just can't seem to win a 72-28), but still up a little bit over that span, happy to report I went 1-0 against Cog Dissonance :-)

rarely post hands, so here are a couple of interesting spots where I successfully rebluffed:

Full Tilt Poker $110 + $5 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 1236965
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): t1595 53.17 BBs
BTN/SB: t1405 46.83 BBs

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BB with T 2
BTN/SB calls t15, Hero checks

Flop: (t60) 8 J 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: (t60) A (2 players)
Hero bets t30, BTN/SB calls t30

River: (t120) K (2 players)
Hero bets t60, BTN/SB raises to t180, Hero raises to t450, BTN/SB folds

Final Pot: t480
Hero wins t480



Full Tilt Poker $88 + $4 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 1236963
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): t2130 71 BBs
BB: t870 29 BBs

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BTN/SB with 7 T
Hero raises to t60, BB calls t30

Flop: (t120) Q 3 2 (2 players)
BB bets t30, Hero raises to t150, BB calls t120

Turn: (t420) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t420) J (2 players)
BB bets t240, Hero raises to t1920 all in, BB folds

Final Pot: t900
Hero wins t900


and sometimes you have to take a weird line to get max value:

Full Tilt Poker $55 + $2.50 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 1236960
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: t800 16 BBs
Hero (BB): t2200 44 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BB with A 2
BTN/SB raises to t100, Hero calls t50

Flop: (t200) 3 T 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: (t200) A (2 players)
Hero bets t100, BTN/SB calls t100

River: (t400) A (2 players)
Hero bets t50, BTN/SB raises to t350, Hero raises to t1450, BTN/SB folds

Final Pot: t1100
Hero wins t1100


or to win a regwar kind of hand where both players are pretty sure the other has nothing


Full Tilt Poker $55 + $2.50 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 2 players - View hand 1236962
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: t1170 23.40 BBs
Hero (BTN/SB): t1830 36.60 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BTN/SB with Q J
Hero raises to t100, BB calls t50

Flop: (t200) 3 3 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t50, BB raises to t100, Hero raises to t150, BB calls t50

Turn: (t500) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t200, BB folds

Final Pot: t500
Hero wins t500


BR $6.2k, Black Card average 486

having a good day so far, up 6-1 I think, BR at $6.5k

getting bored while waiting for a game, so I wanted to see my graph from the time I started to get serious about building my bankroll up onwards, #s are looking really good:

Ive been following this thread for a while and I'm very impressed with your progress. Do you play the Turbo's or Reg speeds primarily?

Good luck in the future

Great to see things going well for ya, kara! Definitely hope to be up there with you soon! Keep up the good work...also, cog sat4lyfe?

Keep grind on the mind.

thanks very much, Antonio--I play exclusively turbos with some superturbos mixed in, haven't played any reg speeds for 1.5 years; since I'm dealing with a lot of time constraints (and don't have a ton of patience), turbos are a much better fit for me

thank you, sir, got not sat4lyfe just yet--gl with your challenge, glad things are off to a good start

Quick MTT update: While I definitely classify myself as primarily a husng player, I also really enjoy and think I'm pretty good at online MTTs. I've started a habit of using my FTPs to buy into as many MiniFTOPS events as I have time to play. This series, unfortunately, I didn't have time to play more than a handful. Thankfully, though, the results were really good. After finishing just outside the bubble in the 6 max PLO event and then busting pretty early on in an $11 rebuy, I went super deep in a $20ish MiniFTOPS rush tourney and ended up finishing in the 160s out of 9k+ players (score wasn't great, something like $150). It was a lot of fun and I felt like I played my A+ game--for whatever reason I think I have a bigger edge at rush tourneys than I do traditional tourneys.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I was really happy to have a free afternoon and evening to devote to the MiniFTOPS ME, which developed a monster prizepool(45k players, first three prizes were something like $450k/$290k/$200k--pretty good for a $70 investment). I used my FTPS to buy three bullets. Though I busted two of my entries before the money (one in the middle, one pretty close to the bubble), I ended up running like god when it mattered in one of my entries and, when the bubble burst, I had a decently above average stack. As the bubble approached, I started sharkscoping my opponents with threatening stacks, and it was incredible how good every other play I scoped was--literally every other player had the shark icon next to their name--I guess that's just the downside of playing multi-entry tourneys that give really good players as many as six bullets. Extremely tough field, probably the toughest I've played in. Anyways, 3,690 cashed, and, with 1,500 left, I was delighted to have a stack of 1.5x the average stack. Unfortunately, though, my ride to glory was derailed when I lost 1/3 of my chips with tptk to a weirdly played nut flush (I could have lost a lot more tbh--the guy checked top pair and nut flush draw on the flop, then just called when I bet turn after he hit his flush, then bet too small when I checked on the river), then got it in with 23 bbs against a 3b with 44, called by AK, and lost to a (ofc) rivered king. Finished in the 1100s to make $310ish. Very proud of the finish given the gigantic and really tough field, but pretty disappointing to make it so far only to come up short. Nice to freeroll my way into ~$450 over the two MiniFTOPS cashes tho. Anyways, the experience in both tourneys I went deep in was so exhilarating I'll probably look to play more big MTTs and may move some of my BR back to Stars to play in the upcoming SCOOP.

Didn't play a whole lot of husngs this weekend, mostly b/c I had to work a lot and because I didn't want to be distracted during the ME, still made ~$300 in the small amount I did play tho.

BR $6.85kish

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. If you don't mind i would like to ask a few more quick questions as i'm in a similar position to the one you were in at the start of the thread. Feel free to ignore the particularly ******ed one's.

-What BRM do you use for the turbo's?
-As a rough estimate what would you say is the Reg to Fish ratio at the midstakes ~$50ish games, obviously hypothetical as reg's tend to avoid each other but pretending that it was like lower stakes and game-selecting is not really an option.
-Do you use a HUD? I know the norm in HUSNG's is not to bother but I use one and think it can actually be very useful.
-Do you have any tips for learning preflop <25 bb strategy. I mean 3/4bet jamming rather than nash. I have been playing low stakes in an attempt to get a 'feel' for this but am still struggling when playing someone half competent as I really have no experience with short stack play.

Thankyou.

Past a certain minimum amount of bi's, I think this is extremely player-dependent. The consensus on this forum seems to be that ~40-50 bi's for turbos is appropriate, with this # becoming larger with every increase in stake (underlying assumption being that your edge over the field will decrease with every jump in stakes, thus increasing the throes of variance). That being said, there is a place for aggressive BRM (25-30 bi's) if you're comfortable accepting a greater risk of ruin and are not fazed by the possibility of losing a decent portion of your role in a session. It actually took me a really long time to not get fazed by losing multiple $55 bi's in a session, even with 70+ bi's in my roll. Now, however, I have enough confidence in my game and such a huge amount of bi's at my most common stake ($55s) that losing a large amount of buyins in a session doesn't faze me at all. I think I'm probably less comfortable than most people would be in this regard, however, due to my greater-than-average proclivity to tilt. At the $110s, with 60 bi's right now, losing a buyin stings more than I think it should or would for most people. I feel like once I get more $110s volume under my belt I'll be much more comfortable.

If I had to recommend a # of bi's for turbos, I'd say 55. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but there's a formula called the Kelly formula that I'm sure would be easy to find in a search where the variables are your comfort level (1-4), standard deviation, and ROI, that tells you what your ideal BR is. I'd recommend using that as a starting point and then using experience to make adjustments (which would probably entail modifying your comfort level).

Regs at the $55s and $110s seem really unwilling to sit other regs, so odds are you'll be facing a lot more fish/recreational husng players than regs/good players. My impression is that there's an abundance of fish at $55s (particularly over the weekend) but way too little fish to accomodate $110s regs. My average wait time for a $55 game varies a lot depending on the day/time of day but is probably ~two minutes, whereas my wait time for a $110 is ten minutes+. Fish rarely ever sit lobbies so you have to wait for them to come to you. If I had to guess the ratio for $55s I would say 3 fish for every reg/good player. One mistake I think people make, by the way, is focusing too much energy on figuring out how to beat good players--your biggest edge comes from dominating fish and I think that's what any good husng reg needs to have the best handle on. There are many, many varieties of fish (thankfully, fish tend to reveal which variety of fish they are pretty quickly) and you need to have a strategy ready to exploit any type.

Nope, and I think that you're right that most regs don't. Personally, I find the HUD distracting and find that it obstructs my instinctual sixth sense that I feel is the real touchstone of my game. That being said, however, there is definitely a place for a HUD since you'll probably find yourself playing dozens of games against the same opponents. There are lots of opponents I've played over 50 games against--HUD information can probably give you much better opportunity to make optimal adjustments over a big sample size. I have a pretty good memory, so I mostly rely on that, in conjunction with notes, which I take a fair amount of (most important: 3b frequencies, any weird/unusual lines - which give me insight into player type, calling/shoving/3b ranges).

The best teacher for this zone of bbs is lots and lots of experience which will cement in your brain what the average player at the stake's range is. I have a unique approach to being short-stacked that I'd rather not write about on here b/c I think it's a big part of why I have an edge at my current stakes. I will say, though that onne common mistake people make is 4bet jamming weak aces too deep, or, alternatively, calling jams with weak aces too deep. At the $22s, I remember people overvalued raggy aces so much I'd usually just jam any AJ+ over a raise, even the first or second level, expecting to get called by any ace--definitely a profitable move at those stakes. Also, against fish even if you're 100% certain you will be flipping and pot odds are correct, my preference is to just wait for a better spot (it's usually pretty easy to set up a 68+% spot against a fish, plus you get more opportunity to outplay them postflop)

Hope these answers help, best of luck and feel free to keep asking questions

Thank you very much for your answers.

Regarding brm I have used Kelly's critereon in the past but for HU cash. I just don't have the info to apply it to HUSNG's yet, which is why im fine to use the 50bi ish brm that you recommned.

Im very happy to find that games actually run in HUSNG's at higher stakes, this has reassured me greatly. Even at relatively low stakes HU cash like 50 nl(probably equivalent to $20 turbo HUsng's + what ) it can take forever to find a game.

I used to be a lot like you regarding getting a tracker as I thought it was massively uncool and killing poker etc,etc. However now that I have one, I have to say it's useful although I agree with it messing with your spidey senses.

Regarding shallow stack strategy I agree with everything you say and it is very nice to find someone else who has a passionate hatred for the weak ace, it is strange though how I will 3 bet jam a,3 off when shallow np at all but rarely if ever would 3 bet jam J.10s, despite the fact that J.10 may play marginally better tagainst a calling range that A rag.

Anyway enough about me time to stop derailing . Good luck in the future man. I'm subscribed!

Made ~$500 tonight, including a win over mersenneary in a $88 shootout where I overcame getting 3 outered when I had him on the ropes allin early on--just one game and doesn't mean much obv, but felt great given I really respect his game and he's probably the #1 villain I've ever faced

BR $7.3k+

after about 20 games playing bad/running bad during an ill-fated poker vacation to a nearby casino, I decided to go on one of my sickest heaters yet and ran $6600ish up to $7850ish in a blink of an eye (ok, over three days, but still pretty crazy), admittedly running like god right now:

BR up to $7.9kish, on a super heater right now, playing well and godmoding, I know it won't last forever but damn am I enjoying it while I have it!

Played mostly at the $110s tonight and experimented some with multi-tabling, made close to $500 despite running decently under ev (for some reason sharkscope only has me up less than a buyin for the day--I guess that's not a terrible thing, but I'm kind of relying on it for tracking my progress); continue to be very happy with how I'm playing, $10k seems pretty close :-) also, happy I handled tilt well today despite running pretty bad

BR $8.3kish

Things continuing to go well, BR up to $8.6kish (note to self: sharkscope is missing ~$700 in profit)

glgl keep crushing, heaters are always fun

Inspiring thread man. Im from the tampa area too, best of luck