H1 Fold turn. As played check back river. Theoretically I guess this would be a bluff but super splashy whale villains I don't expect to find a fold unless they have clubs. Unless you think he's just airballing flops and turns way too often then go ahead and bet river. Good chance he just rivered a king and is hovering his pointer over the call button.

H2 Tough spot but I think jamming is too thin. Only hand that can call you really are QcX because he blocks the backdoor trip queen flush draw. But then he could have a boat or backdoor ace or queen high flush himself. Raise/fold or just call depending on how many unsuited Qc you think he'd call with. Raise to $75 I guess?

H1 is a mandatory bluff once you get here like this. You don't block the fd and have no sd value.

Ty for the detailed feedback. I like that you are not afraid to be wrong sir.

Yeah for H1, it’s kind of a yolo bluff with less than 1/2 pot behind vs a whale- but I do think some bluffs are kind of forced, regardless of V.

Even vs the whales, we don’t really know what they’re going to do of course. We can just bluff less/far less in a spot like this (instead of not at all) imo.

Hmmm yeah, I guess we can click it back for H2?


Ty for the feedback.

Results:
H1: I stick it in there w the 9 high and V folds.
H2: I jam and V tank folds

Hey friends,

Hope everyone is doing well.

Thought I’d do a quick recap of February-March. I’ll just stick to poker.

February- March Goals:
[X] 50,000 hands
[X] 200-250 hours off the felt

Volume wise, I ended up playing 58,635 hands. It’s a little skewed, because I tripled my table count at some point. It wasn’t really too gradual of an adjustment.

I overthink a lot, so I thought I might as well start add on six extra tables first- and then figure it out later if it didn’t go smoothly. I’m weird.

Study wise/off the felt- I’ve talked about this a few times recently, so feel free to look back if you’re interested. I’ve mentioned what this consists of, what I count/don’t count , what my solver work consists of etc. It’s mostly all there.

See post #1120 etc.

I estimated at the end of each week hours wise.

April goal is to increase the hand # you see below by 35,000 across the above three accounts. Would also like to “study” 100+ hours and then spend additional productive time on the pokers on top of that. That could mean reading quality pgcs for example. I’ve gotten a lot of value from that.

See post #1118 etc.

Feel free to join the freeroll if you’d like by the end of this week.

See post #1141.

I’ll leave you with some “results.” Only a portion of my March results are pictured.

If you follow the thread closely, I’ll share how my sessions have been going.

Account #1


Account #2


Account #3


thanks for reading

no idea what #2 and #3 mean

I'm wrong all the time, I'm used to it.

quick on this. I play on several accounts because you can only play on four tables max per account.

so basically for account #1, I can see my 7 and 30 day results. Neither of them mean anything, of course. lol sample size ido

For accounts 2 and 3, I can not. For the purposes of this thread, it’s just to “verify” how many hands I’m playing month to month.

I would like the #s to go up 35K by 5/1. It’s currently at 162,535. I would like it to be 197,535 by 5/1.

Make sense?

Thankfully, my results have been incredibly solid overall recently. Really grateful for that, even though I’ve lost plenty of super sick deepstack pots I’d rather not bore anyone with here . It goes both ways.

I’ve had a lot of really swingy hours/sessions recently, even by online short handed deepstack standards. This is a good thing, as this is where the EV mainly comes from. I think I do well in this environment.

When you’re playing 300bb-600bb+ effective HU/short handed in addition to other tables etc. though- things can go really well, and also really poorly, fast. Especially $$ wise as you can feel that both ways (especially negatively).

So I just want to set some new guidelines for myself as I view this as a strength for me more than a weakness, but I can use all the extra EV here and have a lot to improve wrt this and everything. The goal isn’t necessarily even to follow any or all of these immediately; I just want to give myself something beneficial to work towards wrt this.
Might as well start implementing these asap.

1. No grinding unless I’ve completed my warmup routine. It’s around 30 minutes long, although it’s not strictly warmup. I’ll write another post on this. It changes, I’m experimenting.

I’ve been trying that meditation stuff. idk how I feel about it, but it werks. placebo ido

2. No grinding unless I’m sitting in a chair.

3. No grinding if I got less than 6 hours of sleep the night before. This one will be the tough as that’s pretty normal for me.

4. Phone should be put away/on dnd while grinding. I’m good with this for the most part, but then there are days where I’m so bad with this I’m leaking like a buyin in EV over the course of the session for sure just with this alone. This usually happens when I haven’t followed some/all of the other guidelines above either.
________________
Optional

5. No grinding unless I’ve exercised already. I haven’t really exercised regularly in over a year, so this one will also be pretty tough.

At the end of the month, I can share how well/poorly I did with this.

thanks for reading

placebos are legit, remember in college reading this study where this group studied whether or not acupuncture was legitimate

for a placebo, in lieu of having a non-acupuncture group, they instead opted for the control group to be given fake acupuncture treatment with needles that stuck upright to the skin instead of actually piercing the skin - they set it up in a way that everyone thought they were getting a legit acupuncture treatment

what they were surprised to find is that acupunture was indeed an effective treatment for whatever it was they were treating, but even more surprsisingly was that the control group had the same results as the genuine group, implying that it wasn't anything to do with the needles but just the mental placebo of getting treatment was all that was needed

also, need to be sitting in a chair - very curious how this became a rule and trying to imagine your setup

thanks, RTP, for the hundo! My hookersnblow fund was running low so always nice to replenish. I'll opt out of the next one so I don't sunrun too hard. I will, however, flick in mediocre HH advice from time to time. GL, and glad to see you're running well

Placebo effect is quite the thing - as is the nacebo effect - and if one can provoke it consciously, then all the better for them On the other hand, meditation is simply the shyt and the most powerful tool I have encountered in this bottom world. Even if one needs to go really f**king deep to fully experience the benefits of the practice, breathing exercises nonetheless remain quite +EV. Combined with the placebo effect that one gains from maintaining a +EV daily practice - be it by exercising, meditating, yoga or eating well, for example -, the continuity of the practice can only do a TON of good

the placebo stuff is very interesting, but I have nothing to add

the sitting in the chair rule sounds silly, but is actually pretty important to me.

Remember, I don’t play on a laptop. Not just that, but I have the ability to play on my phone whenever/wherever/for as much money as I’d like. I play on apps after all.

This is both a pro and a con. I’ve had relatively good self control I would say. Still grinding the same stakes when upswinging, even mixing in a good amount of .5/1 when good games pop up.

This one is tough, because I will most definitely be giving up lotttsss of EV as well in a worst case scenario. Reason being, I take away the opportunity to potentially play a whale, weaker player, or even just a worser reg than me (can’t say bad bc I’m v bad too xD) HU/short handed when I’m out walking, chilling, eating, whatever.

The majority of my action is in public games though so it’s not worth giving myself the option in the first place.

The real issue here tends to be that I’ll be done grinding for the day/turn my brain off mentally and then get tempted to whip put my phone in some more hands. This is not a good habit as it’s not easy to print money online anywhere given the rake/BBJ. I’m probably not beating that with my C game and just wasting valuable time.

In March, I did something like this week to week.

Grind several hours for 3 days
Study several hours for 3 days
Mix of both one day

Not necessarily three on, three off.

In comparison to being “balanced.” I highly prefer the above.



Half of this went over my head

I think I’m doing it wrong.

I just sit there and breathe for 10 minutes and then visualize a bit etc as well. lol

Happy to pick up good habits and fix these leaks early on though.

Playing the online pokers gives me so many opportunities to identify and improve all my leaks everywhere.

Yeah, showing up is half the battle I guess.

Enjoying your updates sir, I don’t have much to add however

———-
On another note, I was aimlessly checking waitlists yesterday for lolz and there were over ten 5/10 NL live games running out here yesterday afternoon across the casinos.... imagine Saturday night.

Also a couple 10/20 running iirc.

poKeR Is DEad

seems like I’m in the right place for whenever that (and higher stakes) becomes a reality. Improving way way way faster online than I would live and already playing for more monies than the 1k 5/10 buyin online.

run good all

H1

1/2 online. 6m

$185E. V is unknown. Likely a weaker player with the limp/call.

OTTH

Pre-flop: V limp CO. Hero iso BTN $9 with A A. Folds to V, who calls.

Flop ($21): K K 2.

V checks. Hero bets $6. V x/r $24. Hero calls.

Turn ($69): K K 2 3. V continues $46. Hero calls.

River ($161): K K 2 3 2. V jams $105. Hero calls.

Thoughts?

I’ll mostly xb flop here as our hand isn’t too vulnerable and getting x/r isn’t great.

I like betting sometimes, planning to go for three streets as most Vs over call on paired boards.

I have a hard time folding flop here, as I see all kinds of spazz vs flop downbets (which is a good thing for us overall). And then the runout is fairly clean.

Not sure.

H2

1/2 online. 6m.

$240E. Main V, LJ, is a whale. SB is unknown. Everyone else is a reg.

OTTH

Pre-flop: LJ limps $2. Hero iso BTN $10 with K K. SB calls. LJ l/rr $18. Hero calls. SB overcalls.

Flop ($56): K Q 10. V cb $28. Hero calls.

Turn ($112): K Q 10 A. V continues $56. Hero calls.

River ($224): K Q 10 A 7 V jams $140.

Hero?

I’m not really sure what’s happening in this hand.

I’ve been seeing all kinds of stuff vs the limp-re raise. Most of the time it’s not AA (as that’s just one hand) and just someone clicking buttons. So maybe I should be putting in a 4b. We’re kind of forced to stack off though if we get 5b, at which point AA becomes more likely.

I think some V’s will mostly have AA and then others rarely so. Which makes it difficult to play against, despite it being good for us.

Unsure about postflop all around.

Let me know what you think. There’s no right/wrong answers.

1. I'm going broke and fine with it.

2. I'm ok with flatting QQ pre but with KK we just have to go broke here. If he has AA so be it. AP I'm I'm folding river. Flop, it's easy to say you should've raised after that nut low turn card but I can see myself calling sometimes. Turn is fine.

+1

1 I'm probably checking back flop since Kx is massively in his range and we'd be punting massive stacks folding every overpair to a paired board so tough to find a fold here when it's heads up

2 absolutely have to 4! here preflop, unless you have a very specific situation where he's going to stack off with air if you just call but this isn't that spot and it's multiway as well - if you don't 4! KK then you're 4! range way too narrow

as played, without any real read you have to fold, i wouldn't even like the flop and on the turn you're basically praying for either him to check back river or for the board to pair, Jx a huge part of his range, he quit possibly even flopped the nuts with AJ

however, if he's a confirmed bad player then he could easily be blasting off with AQ here thinking it's basically the nuts cause two pair but you don't have that read

also, much of this has to do with what they think of you, i don't know if you want to keep that to yourself out of fear we start bumhunting you but there's a ton of value in making plays specifically to establish an image, (although you're not deep here, this is especially helpful when deep stacked)

i know you want to eventually play live, so you gotta start thinking about your image because that means a whole lot more in a live setting, let's say effective stacks are 200+ bbs, then moves like straddling, occasionally raising blind, getting caught bluffing at a small pot with total rags, etc etc, while individually are bad punts, they can all lead to very light calls for much bigger pots down the line when you actually have the goods

ty for the feedback sir

ty for the feedback sir.

Results:

H1- V scoops with kwads
H2- I fold, V shoes JJs

Ty for sharing your thoughts.

HU online, which I play a lot of, is a great battleground for all of this.

Cultivating a great image, and being hyper aware of everything (including how you are perceived hand to hand) etc. is a lotttt easier when you’re playing 35 hands an hour in comparison to 350

I’m not saying the transition will be seamless especially at the moment as I am very very very bad (by 2021 online pro standards). However, once I am a solid midstakes online pro in the current climate, virtually any public live game will be a pretty ez.

I’ve said this so many times I’ve lost count, however it is common knowledge that online pros do better vs the recreational players at the live tables than experienced live pros do.

I came to the conclusion that playing reasonable stakes online increases my live win rate more than playing live does (this is a fact) and I am very happy I did so quickly.

yeah i agree with these points

knowing nothing of your winrate nor the quality of play in these apps, simple fact you aren't busto yet tells me you can reliably best 5/10 no problem as a starting point

i did well in both formats and to be fair was not studying and just playing casually by time i switched to online play (was doing it during spare time for fun as working then) but comparing my live winrates compared to my online winrate at significantly lower stakes was an exercise in humility, i was just slightly profitable and constistently challenged at stakes online where the total buyin was smaller than a bigblind from my live days

5/T live is harder than you think.

rick, i've always been incredibly surprised by your struggles live and success online, legit think you've either been crushed by variance of a small live sample, getting bad table selection or aren't playing your a game when playing live - perhaps the amount on the felt was too much pressure?

remember when i first started playing high stakes how absolutely terrified i was, remember getting 3! when I had QQ and i totally panicked on the inside imagining "oh no I've been coolered" and played hand so passively only to see villain flip over a vanessa selbst hand an I win a small pot at showdown - the amount of money on the table represented way too much of my br/lr and I was terrified of having a bad session and it really messed with me

had to start smoking pot before sessions to get indifferent, when that wasn't available i'd take half a valium - wouldn't recommend it to others, especially the valium, but I knew i could beat the stakes if i wasn't as sharp but would never succeed if every time I got dealt QQ I was worried about a hyundai rather than thinking hell yeah I got QQ

I don't mean to project, perhaps I'm way off, perhaps you've also done very well live, I really don't know, but unless I'm mistaken , I remember you having a tough time playing live and really turning it around playing online and it just really surprised me because when i heard you were putting in more volume online instead i didn't think it would end well - this also isn't a dig, i'm genuinely happy for your recent success and enjoy your thread immensely

I was probably the first one to tell OP the best way to improve at poker was to play online. However, while that is probably the best way to gain experience and improve one's fundamental poker skills it does not automatically make one good at live.

In many ways the live game is a different game and requires different skillsets. It's less about having the knowledge to play well and more about just playing well. It's not easy to play well live. Getting like 30 hands/hr, very few do. Many online players failed to transition after black friday. Many online pros that successfully made the transition never moved passed 2/5.

I kind of assumed the 5/T in LA to be more like 2/5 in other locations but where I play it's not unusual for a 5/T table to have 6 or 7 pros, most of which have significant experience both online and in super deep stacked live games.

That's the other thing about live. Try to play every spot perfectly and you may get your teeth kicked in because it's likely you'll never reach the long run.

KKx flops are a range bet as the pfr I am pretty sure

Flatting KK is OK for balance but in general we want to be shovelling as much money in as we can with it

Thanks for the discussion friends. I find it great.

Let me re quote this part of my poast in case it was missed

Yeah, online poker is extremely difficult in 2021 however from a strictly game quality perspective I definitely have it easier in some ways as the apps aren’t the toughest place to play online by any stretch. Think that should be noted.

That being said online is online of course, and there are so many drawbacks
to playing on the apps (absolutely ridiculous rake, +jackpot fees, collusion, bots sold on wholesale, RTA, agent issues, unregulated, security, funds can disappear at any point, etc etc)it’s really not a great option. I’ve just gotten accustomed to it over time and my options were limited to begin with.

ty for the kind words.

Yeah, just to be perfectly clear (see above) I was just projecting as well. Nothing about my abilities now.

Rate of improvement is significantly faster online and I do believe I’m cut out for it so unlike live my skillset will change quite a bit month to month. At least for now.

Hey DC, nice to see you in here. Thanks for dropping in .

Wow, that was a while ago

(I am not talking to you really) but one misconception about online pokerz in 2021 though is that it’s just who can play the best theoretically in a lot of spots etc. This is true of course to a certain extent and is why going from live to online doesn’t really work if you want to play the same stakes, however you can and are working on anything and everything online.

Mental game, theory, deepstack play, big pots vs recreational players, meta game, HU, short handed, six max, full ring, battling countless tough pros.

Even just poker wise, you get soooo much practice in. 3bet pots, 4 bet pots, SRP on every board texture.

Tons of multi-way pots as well.

And while there are far less recreational players compared to regs, because you’re playing up to or more than ten times the amount of hands per hour. you still end up getting into more spots vs the recreational players online than you do live if you’re mass tabling regular tables.

Zoom/fast fold would be a different story all together otoh.

But yeah that all makes sense.

Just keep in mind, there’s nothing stopping you from buying in 200bb and eventually playing super deep online as well.

I’ve been playing tons of 500bb effective poker recently speaking of deepstack. Totally worth it albeit highly frustrating given I don’t usually have the luxury of only playing one table to manage the emotions perfectly.

Right, but just because someone can/is used to playing a lot of spots “perfectly” doesn’t mean they need to.

Remember, tons and tons of exploiting and playing vs all kinds recreational players at all stack depths online.

It’s just that you need to be able to do both online.

The thing I realized was that 90%+ of the best live high stakes pros came from an online background.

Also on the concept of mental game which is obviously super important, online poker has been such a gift. I have so much work to do, but I have been forced to fix a lot of my leaks by now just because of the speed of play and the competition.

Who knows how long that would have taken live.

ty for the feeeback.

Yeah, weird spot for H1. I don’t see any problems with it, but maybe checking back mostly and catching punts on turn and river could make sense.

Yeah for H2, it was less so balance and more so that the limp reraise is kind of polarized. AA/the rest of the deck. But should still be getting it in pre mostly I think.

H1

1/2 online. 6m

$240E. V is clearly recreational, but no specific info. Everyone else is a reg.

OTTH

Pre-flop: V RFI LJ $6. Hero 3b CO $20 with J 10. V 4b $60. Hero calls.

Flop ($123): J 8 6.

V bets $34. Hero calls.

Turn ($191): J 8 6 Q. V checks. Hero checks back.

River ($161): J 8 6 Q J. V continues $64.

What would you do here, as played?

This is a jam or call question.


H2

1/2 online. 9m

$270E. Both V’s are unknown.

OTTH

Pre-flop: LJ RFI $5. CO calls $5. Hero iso BTN $22 with A J. Both V’s call.

Flop ($69): A 8 3. Checks to me. Hero bets $22. V calls.

Turn ($113): A 8 3 6. V checks. Hero bets $72. V calls.

River ($257): A 8 3 6 8 V checks. Hero jams $155.

Thoughts?

Let me know what you think.

There’s no right/wrong answers.


Story

Had a funny hand tonight. I normally don’t post these bc I don’t see the point and they happen all the time, but maybe I should. So I’m usually playing regs, when I’m playing HU.

But earlier tonight, a whale sits me. I river him in a hand at some point in a very standard spot where I x/r flop w some back doors and then barreled off.

He then starts shoving every hand.

We’re $800 effective (so 400bb). I pick up KKs and call off the 400bb jam. He flips over A7o. We run it 3 times.... and lose all 3. He insta leaves after scooping the $1,600 pot.

I had 6 other tables to worry about at the time though so it was whatevs.


This Week

anyways, down a couple k this week pre rakeback if I had to guess.

Really looking forward to next week though, this week was a solid one EV wise I’m pretty sure.

Very happy with my approach this week. It was extremely professional, even though I had lots to complain about all week- if I wanted to. Solid ten hours a day on poker all 7 days. Also fit in some other stuff I’m happy about. Great results in March helped a little with that though .

thanks for reading