I'm just curious if anyone has specific growth moments or tools that helped them 'get to the next level'. Not necessarily up in stakes, but things that moved your win rate or created 'Aha' moments.

I'm getting a good amount of seat time but that obviously doesn't mean I'm getting better. Are there things you try and focus on each session? Or ideas/situations you try and put yourself in?

Reread all your old poker books?

Does anyone try different/obscure lines just to experiment? i.e. Have you ever played a session where you 3bet super wide from the CO/Button? Or Cbet 100% of flops or something like that?


Personally, learning to consistently 4bet AKo preflop was a huge moment for me and has definitely increased my win rate.

Marsh

One for me was learning to not consistently 4bet AKo preflop.

Come on man!

I guess stop trying to get real advice on the internet was a recent revelation.

Biggest aha was realizing I had a range of hands and that range of hands is what makes money. Google G-bucks.

Pretty big aha was realizing that position was even more important than I thought it was (and I thought it was pretty important)

Big aha was realizing how to beat someone in rock paper scissors when they throw paper 90% of the time.

Obviously play them $1 per r/p/s then after throwing rock 10 straight times up it to $100.

4betting AKo consistently is a quick way to dump a ton of buy ins in today's LLSNL climate where 3betting ranges are AK+ QQ+ for a VAST majority of villains. Maybe you'll find a guy who will get a little frisky with AQs and JJ but...

It's always possible you are both right depending on what game you are playing in. Obviously 4b or not 4b AK is villain dependant, so unless you both play in the same game it's possible that you are both right.

I wasn't trolling.

also, the F word, but that's more for 2/5+.

So I'm going to regret this question when you start your post about you trolling someone...

What is the f word? Float?

...about not trolling someone.

Fur E Kwhen Cs.

Wow I was thinking about my aha moment (hopefully the 1st of many) just yesterday. I was obsessed with finding out what the perfect opening ranges were. Posted on here. Scoured the internet. I just had to have the perfect opening range for all 9 positions. I read about people who had broken out the software and created these huge complex matrices. And I thought yea that's what I need to do. I thought of opening ranges as something in a vacuum.

During my after session review the other night, I noticed something. If you would have asked me what is your opening range, I would have said wait until it's my turn to act. Let me see who is in and who is left to act. What are the stack sizes involved and what stack sizes behind me are likely to come along. What is the SPR likely to be?

I didn't actually notice that I was thinking about these things until my review. Kinda like a delsyed "aha" moment.

When ur bluffing and then u pick up SDV but you’re NEVER good I used to try and take a cheap showdown like some kind of SHOWDOWN MONKEY now I am happy to bluff with a made hand ^_^

My biggest aha moment came when I played an entire session without once looking at my cards (I pretended to look, but never did). I won quite a bit that night, and realized how important trusting your reads was, and also that position is KING, baby!

This is a good idea for a thread.
I’m on board with Ava’s words about position being even more important than I originally thought. And I also agree with Amanaplan, I’ll flat a 3! with AKo more often than 4! it. But this is pretty game dependant as has been pointed out.
I think something that usually helps me is finding the appropriate balance between using my aggression as a strength, but also my patience. Sometimes I go too far to one side of the other, but when I’m towing the line of both perfectly, I think I’m usually very difficult to play against/range well.
Something I’ve been working on more lately is picking up dead limping money in late position, and sometimes with absolute trash hands. The key is picking the right opponents to do it against and completely shutting down after you have a cbet called on the flop and you have 7 high. When you pick the optimal spots you’re taking down $20-40 dead money 80+% of the time and sometimes you get a bonus fit/fold player call pre and then fold the flop cbet.
...plus the additional bonus of what this does for your perceived range/image in future hands when you actually pick up a premium.

16+ yrs ago I read Tommy Angelo's post about defending the small blind.

that $1 saved that you don't toss in just because your getting 11-1 etc.....
adds up to real profit

agree with the AK comments , real money saver

also agree with position comments

How deep (or what game conditions) do you need to be to quit 4b and start flatting AK?

I don’t think this question has the kind of answer you seem to be looking for.
There’s more to consider than stack depth and general game conditions.

I agree its probably more related to player tendencies and position to be honest, although I'd call that table dynamics. That being said at some point I'm probably more prone to flat a 3b, I just don't know what that point is.

If you really want to reach the point of enlightenment, start swallowing your pride and start folding AK to a 3 bet.

This is pure gold.

Learning to keep track of my stack and not stack off stupidly deep with over-pairs was a good lesson I learnt early....

But in all seriousness I found I play my best when I have people in the game/player pool that you know to talk about strategy with and how the perceive your play vs villains in question. It is fine posting on forums etc but people with extensive knowledge of villains and dynamics help with the little tweaks you cannot get just talking strategy on forums.

Winning crappy little 10 - 20BB pots when everyone shows clear disinterest. One player I know will [b] always[/] bet the turn if the flop checks around. I think that's too much but he takes it down really often. You eventually get a sense for when everyone has checked out of a hand and can steal with huge regularity.

Check raise bluffing ABC regs on dry flops. Or even better check call flop check raise turn. This is a set+ like 90% of the time at low stakes, most won't adjust to you.

Yeah I’ve got a few regs/player profiles that fit into this category. Took a HH review here to realize that was even an option.

I have always had a very strong mental game coming from a blackjack background where life is binary. So tilt (winners/losers/entitlement) was never really an issue. The percentage of players whose game would fall apart from tilt I found to be staggering. What I found to be even more amazing was their inability to self evaluate thus perpetuating the cycle - and obviously those people run worse than anyone in the history of gamboolin.

This stuff didnt "get me to the next level" but I believe it puts a very thick and low ceiling on many players win rates. Cuz tilt is very very expensive

I know GG gets a ton of heat in these forums. BUT. His w/r is prolly quite envied by many in this forum. He has a formula AND it is highly likely he never deviates from it - no tilt at all.

Thin value betting helped the hourly quite a bit.

If playing $1/$2 NL, try for 3 streets with Over pair/TPTK/TP2K hands if your opponent hasn't played back by the turn. Obviously, scary board textures can dictate slowing down.