I mean yeah you could "simplify range bet" 50%+ of boards as the pfr or 3bettor. Not my style. Imo most regs who do this are a combination of either dont know what boards are even good for them to bet high freq, avg/weakish regs, or dont even sim much if at all and just copied what they read online from some rando guy proclaiming gto or some random gto article and telling people to range cbet just for simplification. Well duh of course brainlessly betting every hand in your range is easy.

This is a highly exploitable strat as well vs good regs and they will rip this strat apart vs avg regs who dont rly know what theyre doing, esp facing say a raise. I mean you could say you could possibly defend and 3b flop optimally but if youre going to "simplify" flop bc you dont know what a solver would do, theres no way theyd know how to play the rest of their range accordingly vs aggression or future streets properly

Well yeah thats one reason why we cannot fold flop bc they range bet so they have a lot of weaker hands than pio does otf so our equity/EV skyrockets. Pio actually x 54s/65s/SCs/one gappers etc at medium or high freq otf but a lot of bad regs will just say "oh 3 broadways bet all my bluffzzzz". Turn they also x way too much or dont barrel aggressively enough in general and also bc their flop betting range is too wide.

But yes i agree pretty sure 77 no diamond is folding a good amt or mixing/indifferent towards 1/2+. Vs a 2/3 wouldnt mind pure folding 77 no diamond and would not be surprised to see pio say the same

Frankly a lot of times idc what pio says and play a highly exploitable strat but yeah theory wise and exploit wise folding 77 is just so lol vs 29% sizing otf. People say poker is dying but really it's not as long as you arent complacent and do some studying

Firstly, thank you so much to those of you that have encouraged me, said kind things, and been positive. I really appreciate it. It means a lot, especially when it comes from very respectable people like browni who is a former World Champion. Or Sqwid who is an Olympian, worked on Wall Street, and has always lived life on his own terms. Or feely, dmw, jrr, rr, Minatorr, slim, zollie, SimpleRick, Miami, Lurshy, Venice, 6bet etc. who are all really cool and I’ve known previously to this thread- who have encouraged me in here.

But there’s another side to this. I’m reporting any trolling/hateful/negative poasts as soon as I see them and thankfully they are getting deleted instantly (thanks Mods)... with the only problem being that even if nobody else has to see them, I do. Also, every three poasts telling me to go make piles of money with stability, upward mobility, benefits, etc, instead of grinding micros isn’t helping. At all. Especially since every 3-4/10 days will be losing or marginally winning ones, if not more depending on how much tournament/shot taking action is mixed in there.

I’m in this for the long haul as stated in the OP and was planning to be pretty transparent about my week to week or even potentially day to day in this thread, even including all the bad stuff & rough times. As the last two reports showed, despite losing “a lot” (depending on your perspective) and not playing well I still reported it and included numerous hand histories where I made several mistakes. I didn’t have to do that and I could have handpicked ones where I seemingly made good decisions throughout the hand. I don’t mind being vulnerable and getting crushed for poor play/decisions. I’m here to learn, get better, and through everyone’s help, some run good, and my own hard work.. put myself in position to become extremely good and maybe one of the best to ever play this game at some point the future.

That said, if this becomes a burden and causes constant self doubt (go work in finance, make near to over six figs and eventually significantly more than that, instead of grinding micros etc. on the daily) than I’ll likely stop updating this. I just don’t need that right now considering my decision has already been made as stated several times. I’m not sure what I can say to avoid this sentiment constantly. And I’m having a lot of trouble ignoring it.

Dealing with the judgement & criticisms of my friends and family etc. (that don’t play poker- 99% of them of course) is hard enough for an antisocial with fairly severe mental issues like me. I’ve found a way to be extremely high functioning throughout my life, and have never looked for empathy. That’s just not who I am, and I rarely ever make excuses. But there are some things that I can’t handle, considerably more so than most people. One of them is hate and another is negativity. There’s a difference between playing poker with a group of “degens” (this would include me) day in and out in an unwelcoming environment and being attacked and criticized unjustifiably on a personal level just so people who were in worse positions at the same age can feel better about themselves.

Constructive criticism and advice are always welcome but let’s keep this thread 100% positive and free of judgment. Please.

I think this is an unreasonable expectation, and it’s largely why I held off on this thread for so long.

For now, my plan is to stop reporting results of any kind (good or bad). Let’s see how that goes. The next step would be to omit results from HHs as well.

Thanks for understanding,
rtp

Good points. Especially on simplifications. Usually people simplify to range bets when the EV loss is minimal to none compared to a strategy with several sizings on a particular flop texture. But this naturally means you also have to know how to defend and barrel properly after the range bet.

Facing a tough pool: Do you think that the flop multiple bet-sizes + check game-tree is easier to play than the simplified game-tree of only one flop action of 1/3 bet-size? Let's say the solver EVs are the same.

I don't think it's a problem to simplify a solver strategy. Actually that's what we do every time we make a sim. No one runs solves with more than 5 bet sizes or whatever. Our main objective is to simplify as much as we can without losing too much EV. If we wanted to play the real solver strategy we would have more than ~3-5 sizings anyway.

+1 but with the potential caveat that some of these app games can play slightly more agro/spazzy than conventional poker sites. Overall my games have still generally been loose passive.

On ACR or something I couldn’t agree more.

You should avoid putting results in HH even in spoiler tags if you are looking for unbiased feedback.

You may even wait on critical decision points without indicating your action.

People want to be right and they sometimes want to troll you. They will whether purposefully or not, bias commentary based on results or your actions. Some may not even post if they agree with your line as they feel they arent adding anything.

Of course others may not want to put their nekid thoughts out their for all to see so all is a balance..

This is one of the reasons I urge you towards individual study plans whether books sims video or coaching. And not just trial and error and random internet feedback.

There are many resources out there.

Im sure you didnt happen on certain line defenses by chance at least not always.

+1, i personally try not to open the spoilers out of fear knowing the result will bias my interpretation of it

I’ll keep that in mind guys, thank you. I’m also going to stop including money won and lost from now on as well.

I’ve been getting PMs like this and for someone with the issues I have, it’s a little too much:

What issues do you have?

Thisisfine.gif

Let's see some PLO hands for the fans

I'm not sure a PG&C thread is for you if you can't take criticism. A lot of it is going to be personal and mean spirited especially based on how you came across in 6b's thread. You are also new to poker so it's quite easy to **** on your bad play particularly from "arm chair" poker players.

You do have to weigh up the value that this thread actually has to you and like most people quit poker most people quit PG&C. I recently made one and it's more to hold myself accountable to short term goals. When you post on a public forum anyone can join I'm not sure you keep the right to pick and choose who can and can't say what in it unless it's too the extreme.

Please identify and separate the trolls from the humans. For example, the guy who pm'd you is CLEARLY the last kind of person in the world you should pay attention to. Compliments, criticism, positivity, negativity - let it ALL go over your head and focus on YOUR goals

RTP,

As Garick said this kind of thread will automatically attract trolls and haters - just part of the deal.

IMO the only way to deal with them is report any real abusive posts but above don't engage with them. If ignored they typically lose interest.

Isn't it interesting what sub-forum you stumble across can have such big impacts on your poker "career". I obviously have a soft spot for BQ but most of the beneficial info came from elsewhere on the internet before that because by pure luck I was suggested a good one. Funnily enough I think I got a lot of great life advice from poker players around the time I was finishing uni that has stuck with me and has very little to do with actual poker and made me a better person which seems mad to suggest to most people.

Even finding 2+2 you get subjected to a lot of bullshit and in my head llsnl would be one of the worst (and I still think it is) but tbf from the tiny bit I read in there you were all supportive.

I find it really hard to deal with criticism too. I was going to try to offer advice but I realized I don't have any. If you ever figure it out help me out, lol.

I mean yeah there are some boards you can simplify to range bets where the EV loss is minimal, but from what I've seen on HH/other people and some even decent regs' videos/streams, they are range betting 1/3 on too many boards and on a lotta boards where you're not supposed to or it's lower EV than say having a bigger sizing (even if you choose one) or having 2 sizes.

E.G. a lot of regs will just auto 1/3 range any A high, any K high, any Q high, any "dry" board or any low board without taking into consideration positions/ranges/etc. It's really, really easy to exploit this for large amounts of EV vs avg/bad regs, i.e. bluff-raise more of your continuing range rather than flat. This isn't simplifying a solver strat. It's just listening to random nonsense gto that someone on the internet spouted out and mindlessly using it, or just doing what every other average/bad reg is doing and hopping on the bandwagon.

Facing a tough pool, well I'd imagine overall it's always going to be harder to have multiple flop sizes + checks otf since combinatorically you'll just have a gazillion more game trees you may or may not be comfortable with. Whereas if you just range bet you kind of force more "binary" situations.

Don't get me wrong, I am totally not against simplifying solver strategies. Not at all. I run my initial sims with 3 flop sizings (33,70,120) then look at the output to see which sizings it likes. And try to rationalize why it prefers certain sizings, and almost always there will be a good reason for doing so which makes sense theoretically and exploitatively. Usually pio highly prefers one sizing among the three so i rerun it with only that one flop sizing. There's just no way I'm going to remember 2-4 flop sizings on board textures lol since my memorization skills suck so there's just no way im doing that.

however sometimes I think it makes sense to have 2 sizings, and i like it, and pio likes it lol. e.g. JT4ss having an overbet and 1/3 range otf. I try not to mess with too many 2 sizings otf just because it's a hassle to remember but if I think population will play like garbo vs an overbet sizing otf and our range warrants one, i'll try to incorporate it.

Anyway that was quite a rant by me, that's why i dont like posting online as much anymore tbh because it bugs me to see this type of stuff lol. Only came back for certain pg&c's.

The thing with solvers or studying is that it helps put you on the right path and can fast track any players progress, but you still have to put the hands in and get better. I mostly play PLO on stars but have played some nl100 and 200z on stars this month. I cannot believe how soft it is. From reading this forum you'd think it was unbeatable.

Yep, very true. The best thing that I found for my game was to literally pull hands from my sessions that I was interested in or had trouble with, and sim them. IME it's so much easier to remember/internalize board textures that I was legit not sure on than randomly simming a bunch of hands/random board textures out of thin air. Also how you study, like for exams and such, makes a huge difference.

I honestly have zero clue why people incessantly talk about stars being tough or look down on other sites or regs that play on other sites. Stars is soft as **** lmao. It's actually hilarious; it's like a cult or something.

Just read this thread, really cool and insightful, especially since I'm starting to pick up chess!

When I was 23 I started my blog here and posted about considering playing full time. I got a bunch of posts/messages mostly saying it was a waste of time too and there was no future in the game.

I'm about to be 28 now and going into poker is probably one of the biggest net positives of my life. I know that's certainly not true for anyone, but you're young and clearly intelligent, so I always say go for it and pursue your passion.

GL the rest of the way, subbed

P.s if you wanna drop any chess knowledge I am all ears

I too am perplexed at how some people treat a message board as though it was a personal blog. But then again some want the entire internet to be a safe space.

Feelsbadman :/. people are overwhelmingly supportive, irl as well, but the criticism always seems to hit the hardest.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I’ll update soon.

This thread may get off to a slow start as this is a really busy time for me, but I’m looking forward to growing with all of you.

Let’s not add to the list of names people can call me

Now you've made me curious. Do you have diagnosed mental issues or something like that?

Multiple. I’m happy to engage with you since I think you mean well, but there are certain things that I don’t feel comfortable sharing itt or just in general.

Criticism is certainly fine (and appreciated), when constructive, but this thread isn’t going to last very long if there’s too much negativity/hate in here or over PMs.

That’s largely because this is going to be a long term process and it will be quite some time before I’m doing well enough to justify my decisions- with the criteria that a lot of people use. Money etc.

I’m not sure what the rush to make money is. If I’m going to chase a pipe dream the time is now. I’m effectively done with school and have no ties.

Not having to work with people is a huge win for me , for example, and that would likely be difficult to avoid at any big firm.

You're in for a treat playing live poker for a living if you don't want to work with people.

That's the internet, you're gonna get **** thrown at you when you express yourself, is part of the deal.

I would take it as a sort of training for mental toughness. As you said on 6b thread how much you respected his way of dealing with trolls and criticism, you can use the attacks thrown at you as a way to deal with **** in the future in a better way (and there's a lot of **** coming your way in all shapes and forms if you want to be a poker pro).