I am 30 and playing real money online poker for the first time ever. I used my tax return to deposit $150 on Bovada, buy PT4, and Bovada Hand Converter.

I have played play money for years, and am embarrassed to say I have play a LOT of hands. More than you can imagine and probably more play money than anyone else on this site.

I have also played live with friends and family and have watched countless hours of poker coaching vids online. I just never had to balls or desire to play for money until now. I also love lurking and reading poker strat here as well as other places online.

I am 3500 hands in (2 tables of $5 NL Zone poker at a time, over the course of 2 days) and ran like absolute God.

This thread is mainly to introduce myself, brag about my run good, and find out what my stats should look like. Also, what stats should I be interested in at this time?

Here are a couple graphs/stats I got from PT4






Please share your thoughts (besides the fact that I was running hotter than the sun).

And please let me know what other stats of mine I should post.

Lastly, I believe I am having a problem extracting value when I flop monsters, like nut flush, nut straight, top set, etc. I'll post hand later for some feedback.

There were also several other hands, especially opening hands that I have questions about. Like what to do with ATs UTG or KJo UTG+1 if UTG folds. There were so many other spots I had questions about too, but I'll save this stuff for a later time.

Go here buddy http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...ls-challenges/

3bet %, Foldto3bet%, attempt to steal, Fold to steal.

Confirmed sun-running btw. You're getting it in bad and sucking out also.

Gap between your vpip and pfr is way too large and typical of a fish. You're calling too speculatively OOP and hitting dream flops and binking turns I'd guess. Which isn't sustainable over a meaningful sample.

You're playing 21/16 from CO which is too tight... You are wider from BTN but still not wide enough. You should be abusing the BTN, opening wide from CO, then tightening up a lot from MP and UTG. Your stats don't really look like you're positionally aware.

Keep playing and studying and whatever you do don't move up to 10nl anytime soon.

Welcome. It looks like you might be limping some hands. Stop doing that. Either include those hands in your opening range or fold. Also post your 3bet/fto3bet stats. It looks like you might not be 3betting enough to me. Post flop it looks like you're playing aggressively. Keep that up. as for extracting value when you flop the nuts, it easy, just bet as preflop raiser and c/r as preflop caller.

First off you are playing at a site with a very soft field, so keep that in mind. Yes, limping is generally bad but in games full of fish it might actually be profitable in some spots. Second, keep doing what is working for you until you see it is not working. 3500 is not a meaningful sample at all but you are probably doing something right, and whatever you may be doing wrong you will learn a lot by allowing yourself to make mistakes and being forced to adjust. It is great that you watch coaching videos, and work on your game, keep doing that and keep playing your best, that is all you really have to do!

Also I'm going to vehemently disagree with the guy who said whatever you do don't move up to 10NL. That is terrible advice, it's not like you are gambling with your life savings, and your leaks may become more apparent to you against tougher competition. Shot taking and failure is a very important part of the learning process in this game and I think it is beneficial to do it and test your boundaries rather than to not.


edit: about flopping the nuts, naturally you will get less action when you flop a monster, because it is much more likely your opponents have missed (i.e. you flop a set of aces, this is great but you're going to often get no action and that is ok)

Why?

simply not true


sample size sucks though

Thanks for the advice. I've only play 3500 hands, so am well aware that I need to improve, which is why I am aware. There have been a few hands where I got it in bad, like QQ vs KK aipf and I spiked a Queen, but I am also running hot as **** in the 70/30's and 60/40's, where I get it in ahead, which is nice. I've only been outdrawn a couple times that I remember.

Should I post some hands where I got it in bad and then won, for advice on the hands?

Here are the stats you wanted:



I am guessing these percentages need to go way UP: 3 Bet, Attempt to steal

and these need to go way DOWN: fold to pf 3 bet, fold to 3 bet, fold to steal


Your assessment about dream flops is correct. I've flopped nut straights, nut flushes, and sets way more than my fair share.

I've also had more BB walks with AK+ and JJ+ than I suspected I would have. The same thing with those same exact hands UTG where I raise 3x and everyone folds.

This sub-forum is for discussion on individual hands. PG&C is where people post blog type threads w/ regular updates.

GL at the tables.

Ok, a lot of limps were suited aces, like A9 or A10, stuff like that. Others were marginal hands like 78s in LP with an earlier limper or two. I'll work on opening ranges and being more aggressive PF for my next session.

For extracting value, I have been doing just that, which is bet if I raise PF and c/r if I called PF.

I just need to get over the idea that if I flop the nut straight, then I have to stack my opponent lol.

Thanks for the response! I'll try some different strategies to see what fits my game the best

How is the bolded not true?

Because stats that a fish may have that make him a fish a reg may have for the reasons (totally different one than the fish) that make his playing style winning. Obv if someone plays 80/5 the chances of him being a reg are much lower than for someone who plays 34/26 or 22/18. So for someone having 27/17 like op the odds for him being a fish instead of a reg are probably just about 60/40...

My feeling ist that on this forum a lot of people have the idea that there is exactly one way to play winning poker which has to show exactly XX kind of stats (e.g. VPIP, PFR and VPIP/PFR). This is utter nonsense imo. It may be a standard way to ABC-poker that usually shows some profit but it is by no means the holy grail of poker wisdom. On the other hand: If you go to a forum and ask for advice this advice is going to be ABC-Poker.

btw. I liked many other points of advice in your original post...

Thus, the term "fish reg" comes in.

can you elaborate?

All people at micros i`ve seen who have such gap are bad, and they don`t have a strategy.

Maybe on stakes higher, where you play, things are different, and people have strategies with such preflop, but its a uNL thread

I always assumed this is what people call a weak reg

LOL - yeah the high stakes I play -> mostly 10nl

Here is a thought:
Someone who wants to win more pots preflop and if going postflop wants to play most spots with the lead will have a small VPIP-PFR gap - someone who wants to play more pots postflop and does not need to have the lead that often will have a wider VPIP-PFR gap. It is (almost) that simple. Just identify where your edge is the biggest.

So back to the example:
if someone has 28/17 preflop and x/c x/c postflop -> probably a fish
if someone has 28/17 preflop and just crushes postflop -> probably not a fish

Its easier to play pre than post. People who 'crush' post will have their preflop game mastered before hand and for that to be possible their vpip and pfr won't be as wide as 28/17

well then obv the edges to be had are greater postflop, isn't that the logical consequence?

this is not backed up by any argument or proof - and sorry for saying so: it's totally ignoring what I wrote in my post

Obviously that's true what you just said, but this is going around in circles.

I'm just saying if two players crush post and one runs 22/19 and the other runs 28/17, I'd back the former to show more profit over a large sample.

Fwiw if I see 28/17 at my tables he's still not getting a 'reg' tag no matter how well he plays post.

There is no way I could prove this wrong. But maybe this example is good to prove my point (of view):

Reg A plays 22/18 - Reg B plays 28/18 and for sakes of simplicity both raise and 3bet etc. with the same hands preflop only Reg B flats an additional 6% of hands to play postflop. Now if B wins more than he loses with the additional 6% of hands then his winrate is going to be bigger than As. On the contrary if B loses more in the 6% of hands than he wins he should be playing like A.