If you cannot stand criticism in a public poker thread than you do not have the mental constitution to play poker.
Poker is at least 50% a mental game - most people fail because of mental issues not missing poker knowledge.
Poker is not chess - you dont have to have an IQ of 160 in poker (in chess this probably helps). You are way overestimating the way your chessbackground helps you...

You’re right. Social interaction wears me out a lot and it makes it harder to focus. But there are things such as trust, people not having similar standards so I end up pulling their weight, trouble delegating, lack of organization etc. that are very frustrating when working with people. In comparison to around them.

Fair. I like the bolded as well.

You’re right, thanks for sharing

I would like to point out though that my belief in myself is less about chess=poker, or a high IQ, and more so about 10 years of consistent dedication towards my craft. Not many people who try to make it poker have gone through a similar grind previously with a different game. And succeeded.

That’s not even considering that any time I spent on chess was in addition to 40-50+ hours a week on school which has obviously always been a constant in my life. It won’t be for poker.

Also, I don’t think many people realize (maybe tiger can touch on this) that classical chess games take between 3-5 hours. Per game. So several years of going through 2 games a day of that should be beneficial towards the grind. In addition to a multitude of other things such as mental sharpness, analytical skills, patience, discipline, perseverance, etc. etc.

All that being said, I have a tremendous amount of weaknesses and things I need to improve on, especially socially, given how much of my life has been spent on school and chess.

And I do agree that I need to take criticism better and will work on that.

Live low limit poker is literally the most dismal enviroment that I can think of. It actually might be more fun to grind something like waiting on line at the DMV, or going to court to fight traffic tickets.

would recommend OP grinds a lot of study / zoom games to build a foundation, and sticks to online if theory is what drives him in the game.

Day 7-10
Hours Spent on Poker: 23

Summary: I’m dropping all the way down to 20NL, to reflect my skill level and to work on my fundamentals. I’ve always been disciplined and patient, but not necessarily in the context of grinding poker to date. I need to fold a lot more on every street and work on my ranges a lot.

It’s a big step down from my regular game to date (100NL), but the right decision I think wrt long term improvement.

I’m also looking to get better at tournaments and HU. wrt HU, I’m aware that it’s dying down on mainstream sites but getting action on the apps at any stake is pretty easy and I really enjoy the meta. I think it will help me become a better and more well rounded player as well.

A friend set me Doug Polk’s $1k course (shhhh) and I plan to watch that in its entirety.

For today’s HH’s I’m going to poast my journey in one of the tournament’s I played today. 100/500+ people cashed and I effectively bubbled. No worries.

Buyin: $25
Rebuy: Didn’t have to
Add on: $25
Registered 10 levels in

HH 1:
200/800/1,600
Hero (CO): 45,900
Goose (UTG): 49,388
Damn River (HJ): 88,755

Goose open limps. Fold to Damm river who overlimps. I 6,400 with AcKh. Folds to Goose who calls. Damn River than backraises all in. I call. Goose calls.

Runout: 9d-4c-4d-3c-3h



HH2:
1,500/5,000/10,000
Hero (MP): 253,850
Clarky168 (UTG+1): 369,529

Clarky168 opens 40,000. I shove 253,850. I’m thinking I’d shove AQs+, AKo+, JJs+ and fold everything else?



I’m going to include the other hands in a separate post rn, just so this one doesn’t become too long.

The very next orbit in the same configuration:
HH 3:
2,000/8,000/16,000
Hero (MP1): 295,850
Clarky168 (UTG +1): 132,258

Clarky168 open limps. I shove AhQc. I’m not sure what my range should look like here. Also, is an overlimping and/or r/f range an option here? Folds to Clarky168 who calls.

Runout: 9h-5d-4d-Kh-7c



Less than 50 away from the money.. barely cashing as of now.
HH4:
5,000/20,000/40,000
Hero (BB): 332,108
0407 (SB): 584,093

Folds to 0407 who makes it 140,000. Hmmm I’m an ICM newb. I fold? What are you GII with here?

Very next hand…
HH 5:
5,000/20,000/40,000
Hero (SB): 287,108
Stearnzee (MP2): 47,092
YoMamax3 (BB): 123,191

Folds to Stearnzee who open shoves. Folds to Hero who shoves as well with KsQh. My logic was that I’m in for 20,000, there’s a ton out there, and I cover BB who’s the only player left to act. BB GII as well.

Runout: As-4s-4d-6h-3s.



A little later..25ish people from the money and I’m one of the shortest stacks.
HH 6:
6,000/25,000/50,000
Hero (UTG+1): 101,917
Katalyst21 (BB): 450,356
6 GOD (UTG): 336,522

6 GOD open limps. I shove AKss next to act. Folds around to Katalyst21 who tank folds. 6 GOD calls.

Runout: 4s-2d-2h-7c-Qc



Not that long after and we’re not far from the bubble.. I’m barely cashing.
HH 7:
6,000/25,000/50,000
Hero (BB): 264,834 (+50,000)
HereKittyCat (MP): 1,211,147

HereKittyCat opens to 100,000. Folds to me. What are you doing with AcJh? I’m in for 50,000 and have 264,834 back.

It’s possible, but not guaranteed, that I can fold my way into the money if I fold here given that I won’t be in the blinds for another orbit. Although that isn’t really my goal per se. is this too good a spot to pass up GII- despite the ICM considerations?

Just as an aside, Doug was a long time poster on 2+2 and I would not be surprised if he has a search of his name set up to see when it pops up. Neither 2+2 nor he condones stealing intellectual property. You might consider writing him a note and returning the information.

Haha RTP, don't bongcloud your pg&c. Please keep it alive.

LOL dammit man, will try my best.

Sorry- thanks for pointing that out Venice. I actually didn’t ask for it and didn’t open it anyways. Was just told that’s what it was after expressing interest in getting better at HU.

Should have been more clear about that and shouldn’t have said I was going to watch that sheeyit.

Have deleted it. I’ve paid for all the training content I’ve used to date fwiw. Just ask Mr. Galfond

A common theme in your posts, barring much of this thread as I've only skimmed the past page, is interpersonal deficiencies like social dents (a superficial problem that greatly decreases value)

There's good news and bad news
Bad news is communications is very important, so if you can't learn it or if you are naturally phobic of people and situations then you have large and lasting problems in life

Good news is you can apply your already existing logical strength to learning abt interpersonal relations. There is a lot of research and info avail online. You could invest a fee to access academic psych search engines, or pay abt a dime for some quasi quack therapy. Psych is full of subjective word games, but if being a "people person" isn't natural for you then you can benefit from learning a bit of pseudo science if at least to get the pleb perspective

In your case there is profit to be made if you learn a bit abt randoms and apply it to your game. I'm brutal in math compared to the avg poker player, but my deficiency is so great that even a couple hours of study pays dividends.

This is actually the only thing I understood in your post. I am scared of this happening to me. Wouldn't say I'm phobic, but definitely find many normal social situations scary and draining. I hate myself for it but can't help it. Always had it but it's a bit better nowadays after changing some fundamental things I've done wrong in the past.

If you'd like to rephrase the last 2 paragraphs I'd be thankful.

Cheers.

What he means is that you can read up on social interaction norms and or get a counselor to guide you and then "fake it until you make it." It's quite possible to treat that stuff like a game and use your analysis skills to get good at it, even if it seems completely unnatural to you.

Social interaction is vastly overrated in live poker. As long as you're happy playing at a casino and accept you're not going to get invited to any home games you can sit there and mind your own business for 10 hours with little to no negative consequences (at least in my experience, YMMV). You do have to be prepared to stand your ground if someone tries to angle / cheat you and be able to verbalise actions but that's about it.

ITT we learn chessman is a despicable nit and posts horrible hh formats that make me go on monkey tilt reading them

he has 10bb, you're shoving all day here

I'm not interested in min cashing - especially in a rebuy, you need to get familiar with nash/equilibrium charts but basically you're jamming a massive range here correctly at <10bbs, based off memory i'm guessing Q8+ is automatic here but if he's been abusing people a lot I'm happy to jam any face card here and pay

you're overthinking this, you have 5bb left, this is a brainless shove, same for the rest of it - the fact you think the following 2bb hands are decision points is worrisome - just get it in and reg another if it doesn't work out

rebuy tournies you should only be thinking about final table or bust, you need to exploit that rebuy period to get as big a stack as you can get and then hevad khan bulldoze your way into a deep finish

IMO, unless you are basically autistic, social skills in live poker mainly centre around staying calm in the face of irritated people. You're going to have people blow up at you occasionally because they are basically adult children who can't handle the fact that gambling entails the risk of loss.

You can minimise how often you irritate people by not being a dickhead and not saying anything to the loser of a juicy pot. But you will have these issues and you will have random players occasionally being rude to you for no good reason.

You don't need to be a social wizard, you don't need to befriend the table and entertain everyone. How much you chat to people is pretty much up to you and your comfort zone. I wouldn't recommend bundling up in a hoodie and sunglasses and earphones but honestly if that helps you play your best game, do it. Just make sure you follow the action.

EDIT

This kind of feeds into the criticism thing. I'd suggest hardening up, because if you think a critical post online is unfairly demoralising, I can tell you that it's a lot less confronting than someone angrily criticising you to your face in real life.

EDIT2

Live poker is not wall-to-wall angry morons BTW, almost all the time it's pretty chill. Just that when money is involved, people will get upset sometimes.

Welcome Garick

Thanks Nutella, Denks, and WereBeer. I think it's worth investing time and money into becoming more sociable and less flawed- even if that just means therapy etc. Working with people, sustaining friendships, and being in relationships are a lot more difficult than just being around people at a poker table.

I just mind my own business and that's always worked for me.

meh rr

yeah you're right. I'm not trying to just min cash per se, but once in the money I think anything is possible and while a big stack is great as long as you have chips you can make things happen!

I got top 3 in a 900-1000~ person tournament not long ago and I was near the stone bottom when I cashed and basically at every point when I got it AI as well. Had to get lucky/hold quite a bit though.

I'm just figuring things out as I go anyways so the feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

Also, I had AQss H2, A5o H4. H7 I called and didn't get there vs AA.

I think these hands are all played well except maybe the last one. It really depends on the situation exactly how many spots from the money were you and how active HereKittyCat was. But I'd prefer to jam any two random cards vs a medium-short stack then jam with no fold equity with AJ vs a big stack there on the bubble. Folding is probably correct but I couldn't say for certain without more info.

People underestimate how important ICM is in tournaments. In an $80 tourney Lex is saying QQ is an open fold preflop with 14BBs facing no action. 12 people left and 11 get paid. He's 10/12 in chips. Table is 6handed. Think about that. Obviously you're trying to win the whole tournament but the pay jump between busting and min cashing is always significant enough in any tourney to strongly affect how hands are played.

https://youtu.be/xIjuQBQDo7Q?t=973

exact bubble point with 12 remaining =/= a few dozen spots before bubble with 100 cashing

i think people tend to dangerously apply these golden rules to mtts when they don't exist because very rarely is the situation relatable

I'm personally jamming QQ but can understand the fold - but those kinds of high level icm decisions shouldn't be so dominant decision factors when 100 cash and there about about 125 remaining and you have <10bb

Good point Rick. Hadn’t seen HereKittyCat open but pokerbros switches my tables often so rarely have reads. As an aside, If someone has insight on why they do that for MTTs I’d be interested to know.

Pretty crazy to open fold QQs. Is wasting a BB on a limp 6-handed not a better idea in 14BB spots? Not just there but in general? When does push/folding start becoming a thing? Yeah, I follow your thinking on the significance of min cashing when you’re close which I was why I was unsure about a lot of these spots.

Especially as rr brings up some good points as well.

Psychologically, doubling my buyin is good for my spirits and allows me to keep firing. It’s not really a bankroll thing, more so I have no clue how much of an edge I have, and want to play a ton regardless of my results.

Yeah which is why the first couple of hands are no brainer shoves. But the AJos hand depends on exactly how many people are left and what the stack sizes are as well as the tendency of the opener. Hard to say for certain but again generally I'd rather shove all-in in a different spot then call it off with a hand that's gonna be on average a 60/40 favorite.

i say this with love, unless you can learn to view min cashing as nothing more than a slightly more fortunate version of failure then you shouldn't be playing mtts other than for the lols

ballparking, you need to top 10% to min cash, if you crush and exceed expectations over the average player in the field by 4x (nobody is 4x more talented than the field - skill gaps like that don't exist in mtts) and cash in 40% of them as opposed to the expected 10% then you're still going busto if they were all min cashes

read a thousand shawn deebs, mtt poker is a variance nightmare and you absolutely need to think of nothing less than final table - there are times when nitfolding is the optimal path to that position - i'm not against being a nit, i'm just saying every decision point you make needs to be about getting to the final table and you really shouldn't even worry about the bubble other than to recognize how the field of min cash bros will adjust their play style as it gets closer

a thousand shaun deebs

Excellent article , thank you very much for sharing.

This is an excellent point. Standing your ground verbally if/when needed is critical. Whether it be insults, needles, angles or straight up theft you can't be b*tch slapped mentally by some random. Most people who aren't "convo starters" are just uninterested and/or bored with random pleb contact.

Some, however, lack social enthusiasm bc of anxiety and sometimes even fear.
Simply put there are those who don't talk lots bc they're just not interested (the person I'm responding to), but others experience basic stuff like sweaty palms to even anxiety and sometimes fear.

It is this group that can benefit from objectifying their awkward subjective experiences (learning abt something takes away its agency against you).

So basically there's nothing wrong with you if you don't like talking to people... unless there is

Someone who is uncomfortable with back-and-forth can mostly deal with insults and needles by ignoring them; take it to the floor if they get aggressive or sweary; change tables if they don't want to deal with it. I tend to fire back but sometimes it's better to let it slide, especially if they're throwing a little hissy fit because I just stacked them. If you're going to give me $500 by being a moron, you're allowed to cry about how badly I played.

Great attitude! They are your customers. Let em vent, tell them they are right.