Here's my story:

Picked up playing poker about 2 years ago when I was 16 years old. Played alot of poker when I was in college for about 1,5 years. In those years I had alot of free time (school is EZ) and I played around 250k cash hands. To be honest, I wasn't the best player around and played sort of break-even. Most of my profits came from rakeback and bonusses. I made around 300$ in profit, 1,2k$ in rakeback and bonusses and 2k$ in a nice donkament score. After I had a big downswing I cashed out all my poker moneys.

Now, 2 years later and 18 years old, I spent all of my profits on booze, partying and travelling and I want to pick up poker again. I am almost done with my first year at uni and got alot of spare time the coming three months.

So two days ago I made a small deposit at pokerstars, watched some pokervids (verneers micro stakes vids), read some articles and hit up the 0.02/0.05 cash tables. And well, the result wasn't great and I realised I really need to work on my game.

My goal with this thread is to become a winning player in two months and get a solid winrate of 3-5 bb/100 and want to achieve this by playing alot (ldo), reading alot of articles (tips?) and vids. I want to play minimum of 10k hands a month (june could be less because of the last round of exams).

In this thread I will post results, stats and some hands and I hope to get some feedback and tips from you guys.

some stats+graphs of the last two days:

villain is a quite tricky and agressive player and plays 25/16/5.0 over 62 hands and has a 50% fold to 3-bet.

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $9.69
BTN: $5.83
Hero (SB): $6.25
BB: $7.68
UTG: $7.27

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with Q A
UTG calls $0.05, CO raises to $0.20, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.70, 2 folds, CO calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) 6 3 A (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $1.00

how do we continue?

Pretty much committed here. Why'd you check the flop?
Prob try to get it in at some point, and I think C/R here is best.
Raise to $3 anyone? Or call and shove turn?

Played two sessions today. Was playing better and less spewy then yesterday. Also ran a bit hotter.



Will posts some hands tomorrow

So your line would be b/r flop? If you shove, aren't you only being called by sets, AK, and two pair type hands?

why not just c-bet

Just barrel off 3 streets. He rarely has AK here right (he would 4-bet?) so just value town him all the way, seeing as you've flopped the nuts (almost). Checking this flop for pot control just seems weak. As played however, I like just calling his bet, and if he makes a big turn bet, then I'm shoving it in (assuming it's not a really scary card that completes alot of straights or smth). Basically checking this flop is really weird and random, and only reason I can think of for doing it, is if you have a particular read that he will take a load of stabs at 3-bet pots if you check to him, in which case it would be okay to c/c down. But really just bet/bet/bet imo. I mean you would bet all your bluffs at this point on this flop right? You have to have some balance to your range.

Good luck with this. What uni you at?

edit: if we bet, and get raised otf, I'm definitely just flatting then deciding on later streets

Thanks. Currently I am at the University of Amsterdam, probably moving to Utrecht next year.

played these hands like a donkey, so need a line check;


Villain is a 47/19 fish

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $10.55
BB: $14.29
UTG: $10.68
Hero (MP): $5.07
CO: $5.66
BTN: $11.78

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with Q Q
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.20, 3 folds, BB calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.42) 6 2 T (2 players)
BB bets $0.40, Hero raises to $1.10, BB calls $0.70

Turn: ($2.62) T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($2.62) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $1.05, Hero calls $1.05


villain seem like a reg, but a bit passive and plays 25/15

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $7.73
BTN: $5.89
SB: $5.54
BB: $6.97
UTG: $5.31

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with T A
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.20, 1 fold, SB calls $0.18, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.45) 9 5 J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.28, SB calls $0.28

Turn: ($1.01) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.65, SB calls $0.65

River: ($2.31) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.00, SB raises to $4.41, Hero folds



villain is 11/8 aggro nit.

Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $5.14
BB: $2.00
UTG: $12.50
MP: $10.49
CO: $4.21
BTN: $14.33

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with 8 8
UTG raises to $0.25, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.23, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.55) 5 6 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40

Turn: ($1.35) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: ($1.35) A (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.90, Hero calls $0.90

Played pretty solid today, but I still think there are a ****load of leaks in my game. Problem is I just can't find these leaks. Really need help on that.

Played absolutely horrible today. Had the feeling I couldn't win a hand. All of my c-bets got snapped of when i didn't hit, was constantly getting raised by the most passive players, all of my thin valuebets got raised, etc.

here's my graph:



things i've worked on the couple of days:

* less auto-c-betting; I was a complete c-bet monkey, now looking more at the board texture and player type.

*Not bluffing fish; was doing this way to much.

*floating std. reg players.

What has helped me at the micro stakes recently is playing really tight preflop. I used to be 17/15 but the last couple of days I have gone down to about 13/11. My c-bets have become much more successfull and I spew a lot less with marginal hands which has saved me a lot of money. Fish are fish for a reason and they play the same against me just as they did when I was 17/15. Maybe something to consider. gl hf

Thanks for the feedback. Problem is i'm just not a big fan of playing tight 'because it's the micro's'. I personally believe your preflop range should depend on the table dynamics and the players at your table. Obv, when you got a very fishy table playing 13/11 may be the most profitable option. But I think if you always play 13/11 you miss alot of value in late position by not raising enough buttons and cutoffs.

any other views on this?

Yeah, I do miss a lot of value and I should be raising more. But at the moment I'm not a good enough player postflop. As I become better I will open up my game more, at least that's the plan. I'm not trying to say 13/11 is the correct way to play, far from it. But as you are "reinventing" yourself as a poker player, I thought it could be a good idea to tighten up pre, work from there and loosen up as you gain confidence n moneys! But obviously if you already have the confidence and hitting nice results then keep it up!

I think you played this hand fine up until the river, where you should fold. He is a nit who is opening UTG so his range has a lot of AK/AQ and pairs in it. His turn check indicates he holds a hand that either has some showdown value or is completely giving up with air (unlikely given his preflop range, but could be KQ, QJs type hands) - so he probably holds a low pair or big ace. On the river, if he has a low pair he is likely to check it behind on the river so it seems quite probable he is value betting an ace. The sizing suggests this to me also.

3bet AQ oop vs player you dont know much about is turning ur hand into a bluff in this situasion. What is UTG stats? How played i think u need too bet on flopp. Consider betting turn if calld. I think op calling range here are quite tight.

OP, check out the micro study group thread, i replied to you there.

I know. Already added you @ msn.

Completely disagree with that. I think AQ is an easy value raise as people will call with worse. If we get 4 bet then it is a lay down with no reads.

Didn't see anything, whats yours?

The more i think about this spot the more i see we got a lot value here. We take initative in the pot oop. Which is good. But lets say utg limp wide rande. Dont you think its more value in calling the raise and letting utg into a hand?

If we know UTG is a really bad player then it would be very tempted to call, I agree.

dont 3bet pre without any history. we end up in gay spots and have to fold to 4bet. flat and re -ev

FOLD OTF TO THIS GUY. HOW THAT ISNT OBV I DONT KNOW LOL 11/8!? CALL PRE TO SET MINE AND C/F 100% UI.

Sent you a e-mail

Hey fellow Dutchie, what do you study? I'm also at the UvA (History). Add me on skype (dont use msn) at 'xxhayzeexx'. Im quite in the same boat as you.

Hey. Currently studying econometrics, but probably gonna quit.

Sorry don't have skype, any other ways to contact you?

Small update:

Played pretty decent yesterday, and played quite good today. Tried to 'flatten' my red line, and it worked out quite well (thanks to this thread). Still made some mistakes, but i'm heading in the right direction.

Yesterday:



Today: