6max may end up being the way to go. I only made the change as I couldn't find enough FR games running on FTP at the time and I didn't want to switch to Stars to play FR.

And now I find myself playing 6max games on Stars

Never played FR myself, but I think 6max is the way to go. Yes, FR is less variance and prob easier, but with the format slightly fading out (I read the FR bbv threads about zoom pools dying etc), I'd give 6max a shot.

No disconnection issues with Party here either, and as suggested you should get PartyCaption to make life easier. Not sure if you are familiar with StarsHelper, but PC is even better software with so much useful customization, it makes playing Party pretty great imo.

Hopefully we can get NL50 6max fastforward up and running, support said it's coming. I don't think Party allows screen name change anymore btw, plus HUDs are only working for ff games.

GL!

What about ipoker, microgaming etc?

Really want to get in to DFS too, no options in Ireland though.

Yeah I wouldnt hit $1200 for the 40% rb @ 50NL. I paid $3k in rake in January and $3k in Feb this year but I was playing mainly 100NL at that point. So I could maybe hit the weekly threshold playing 100NL but then there arent enough FR tables running and I defo wouldnt be up for playing 100NL @ 6m with me having no experience.

I think I need to iron out some leaks at 50NL right now anyway so I am not gonna get that 40% rb on Party.

I was just having a keyboard rant, when I said Nits and Belraus I was just implying that I dont want to be playing 30 hands at every table only to find out that everyone is a Reg with sensible vpip/pfr.

I dont even check where most people at the table are from unless it is somebody new and I am trying to get an idea of who they are.

Yeah I agree with you guys that 6max is the way forward and that format seems to have a lot more life about it than FR and will no doubt last longer. I checked out PartyCaption a few days ago when Husk mentioned it in here and I would defo get that if I switch to Party. I am very familiar with StarsHelper.

Maybe the disconnects were caused by me changing settings in the menu and clicking on save which I was doing a lot of to experiment.

IP and MG will not be offering rb deals like the one Party are promoting and prob have even less games running so its Stars or Party I think.

Didnt realise that you didnt have DFS in Ireland yet, it cant be too far off. Id say for me DFS has been good cos it has been something to be optimistic about which has been refreshing in amongst all the Stars negative updates. Then doing Poker and DFS at the same time has allowed me to handle downswings better because when I am running bad in one I can focus on my positive results in the other.

DFS was a bit more brutal cos I moved up stakes pretty quickly. So while I had some experience of handling losing from Poker downswings I had never lost $2k in a day before so I felt pretty bad first time that happened. But at the same time it made losing a few hundred bucks at Poker feel like nothing compared to that. They have slates on Draft Kings now for Italian, French and Spanish football and think German is coming next season so Soccer DFS will be on literally every day of the week which is good because you can learn faster and make a few $ every day.

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I was pretty certain I was gonna switch to Party today then I wasent sure what the optimal decision would be when I considered everything. I am not sure how playing my ranges from FR will do in 6m games. Then I am gonna have zero HUD stats on villains. I dont want it to feel like starting all over again and playing lower stakes @ 6max so I would rather not rock the boat if I dont have to.

I probably overthink things too much

Switching to Party is probably inevitable. I should prob stick to playing FR there first and then maybe mix in some 6max when I have played on the software for a bit and got my setup sorted.

Oh, a few years back there was big ipoker rb on offer. I've one at 50% and one at 60% and had heard of people getting 80%. Is this not done now?

Yeah it sucks, Ireland is normally pretty lax with gambling/betting regulations so idk. Obviously licenses are needed etc but still.

If you don't mind, do you have any suggestions re learning to DFS? When it comes here I'd also be mainly playing football.
Any searches I've done looking for info/training have been fruitless, I'm assuming football DFS isn't as big globally which would explain this.

In fact I know nothing about rakeback on ipoker or MG I just assumed they wouldnt be very good. I have never played there so dont know anything about the rewards system tbh.

Yeah football is one of the smallest sports for DFS despite having probably the biggest fanbase worldwide so there isnt much out there about it. Most people in the UK dont even know what DFS is, they think you are talking about a furniture store if you mention it. Over here UK punters have sports betting so it might not take off as much. A UK bookie, I think it was Betfair has recently purchased a DFS platform and will be offering it soon. Several smaller sites have went under like Mondogoal and I put money on a UK site and it took me 6 months of threatening them to make a withdrawal and get my winnings back. So if you do play I would stick to either Draft Kings or Fan Duel if they launch in Ireland, they have now merged company but as I understand they will keep both brands moving forward.

I knew absolutely nothing about DFS when I started. DFS has cash games and GPPs. The GPPs are the large field tournaments with the big cash prizes if you win or finish near the top. I have printed money in them since I started and a lot of my profits come from them. They are similar to Poker tournaments in that you wont win them very often but when you do you will get a big chunk of money for your BR. Most of the GPPs are cheap to enter from $0.25 to about $5 most of the time. So you dont need a huge BR to get in and get playing.

Cash Game DFS is alot harder. 50/50s, Double Ups, Triple Ups, Head-to-heads. In these games you are gonna be up against the top players in the world in every contest so you cant afford to make mistakes as most Pros are pretty sharp.

Like Poker a good way to learn is to just get in about it and learn by playing. Have a look at what the top players are doing and check their lineups each week. I have filled a full Pukka Pad notebook since I started playing. You will probably find that you learn something with each slate you play and then try not make the same mistake again.

RG DFS Soccer forum
https://rotogrinders.com/threads/category/soc

I think it is pretty dead though but you get occasional discussion.

Jonathan Bales has a ton of books on DFS if you give him a search on Amazon. Only problem is they are all Baseball themed or NFL. While you can still learn some things from it its a pretty dry read if you are not into them sports.

Podcasts
One of the main soccer Pros is: BlenderHD

He has a podcast called "the fantasy flush" where he talks about the soccer slates coming up and reviews the previous one. He puts a comedic spin on things and expect to hear the F word a lot http://fantasyflush.com/

There is also the rotowire Fantasy Soccer Podcast:
http://www.rotowire.com/soccer/artic...umn.htm?id=231

I subscribe to them on the iphone podcast app then listen to them on a Friday night while I am playing Poker so I can get some ideas about my lineup before the wk end EPL games.

DK Player Picks
Draft Kings has an article each week for most of the big slates where they cover player picks and fixtures to help new players and recreational's. Thats worth a read if its Europa League or something and Genk are playing Gent and you have no idea who the fcuk any of the players are. For EPL it just states the obvious picks a lot of the time.

2+2 Thread
Soccer (EPL/CL/MLS etc) DFS Thread
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/15...hread-1475350/

Twitter
There are a ton of touts on twitter who will try to get you to subscribe to their websites for like $20 a month. They offer player picks and advice via chat rooms etc but Im not sure their advice is worth paying for tbh but it might help to begin with. I dont subscribe to any of them.

Grind the micro stakes to start with and use what you have learned from Poker to understand the variance involved and you should do alright. I have been playing for a year now and I keep thinking my apprenticeship phase should be over. Then it gets to 3.05pm on a Sat afternoon and I realise I have made another mistake in my cash lineup.

gl

Wow, thanks! That was way above what I expected.

Sending poker rungood as repayment. You'll know when it gets to you.

Good news if it was betfair, they're owned by Paddypower now who of course are Irish. Can't see them not rolling out in their home country... 🤞

Emailed DK about a month ago and their reply didn't inspire confidence. This must be what it's like for Americans with no or limited access to online poker.

Time to start grinding out the podcasts. Who knows, by the time I get access I could be a DFS end boss 😉

Hopefully see you on the fantasy sports.. felt? soon.

Haha no worries. If anyone asks me about soccer DFS in future I can direct them to my article above

Yeah it was Betfair/Paddy Power:

Paddy Power Betfair puts up $19 million to buy U.S.-based DRAFT app
http://www.espn.co.uk/chalk/story/_/...tasy-market-us

Yeah I could do with that run good on my next visit to the 100NL tables. Yahoo DFS has launched in the UK too but not sure about Ireland, I've never played there yet. Yeah I will be playing every soccer slate on DK next season in the battle to become an endboss.

I am going to try and not loose $2k on the opening day of the season this year. I need to start scouting Bundesliga teams too I've never watched German football in my life. I lost, lost, lost and lost when I first started playing La Liga and Interleague (mix of Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga).

Got my pen and pad out and some spreadsheets and I am now up $5k in them games so I dont want to run that into the ground from not knowing the German teams. Right time for some Poker I think.

Caught some heat today mate, thanks for the rungood.



vs a couple dudes with Regish stats.




I think the small blind was itching to call on the Turn he tanked for ages before folding, annoying to not get it all but no complaints. Dunno why he flats AA vs the squeeze and allows me into the pot behind him.


I've not played enough hands to post a monthly giraffe as DFS had me gripped by the balls for most of the month. I'm at 4.12 EV over last 100k hands @ 50NL. I'd feel confident that over the next 100k hands I can get that above 5bb. Question is when do I play 100NL FR again?

Answer is: I dont know. Maybe play another month @ 50 and see how I feel.

Now to figure out how to send myself some rungood for when I start playing again 🤔

That is now twice within a couple of weeks I have finished a late night Poker session and went to bed and checked my phone and found out that the UK had been hit by terrorist attacks. I never found out about it until around 3am on Sat night Sun morning. Then I spent a couple hours reading about what happened on twitter etc so ended up not getting much sleep. I have friends who live in Manchester and London and they seem pretty concerned with things. Lets hope there is an end to these sickening attacks.

Thoughts are with Manchester and London.





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Played a few hands yesterday so time to go over some:

BB vs BTN steal, and villain is a Reg

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 3076335
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $96.30
BTN: $56.82
SB: $58.89
Hero (BB): $58.10
UTG: $96.26

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with 5 K
2 folds, BTN raises to $1.75, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.25

Flop: ($3.75) 3 J Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.95, Hero calls $1.95

Turn: ($7.65) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $4.72, Hero raises to $14.50, BTN calls $9.78

River: ($36.65) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $39.90 all in, BTN calls $38.62 all in



K5o so you will say fold pre, however my stats show that the smaller K offsuit hands are marginal in this spot and at this point I am slightly more profitable playing them than folding.

On the flop I have 3 to a straight, 3 to a flush and one overcard so I think there is some optimism for calling. When the turn brings the A the third to the flush I also have the nut flush blocker, so I am raising to rep that. If the river paired the board I would maybe re-consider my actions but after the turn raise I am pretty sure I am jamming the river.

After the hand I was thinking that If I had actually held the flush in that spot I would be thinking that there may be a half decent chance the villain pays me off in the spot due to the range of big 2 pairs, big sets and straights he may choose to look me up with. Plus people seem to be more skeptical about aggression in blind battles. So after the hand I was wondering if it may not have been the best spot for it, but perhaps that thought is overly results orientated given I lost the hand.


An hour later I play out this hand vs the same Reg.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 3076339
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $48.30
SB: $80.11
BB: $20.75
UTG: $112.19
UTG+1: $137.88
Hero (UTG+2): $51.14
MP1: $74.32
MP2: $53.86
CO: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG+2 with J T
UTG raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, 5 folds, BB calls $1

Flop: ($4.75) A 3 K (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $3.15, Hero calls $3.15, BB folds

Turn: ($11.05) 2 (2 players)
UTG bets $6.30, Hero raises to $18, UTG calls $11.70

River: ($47.05) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $28.49 all in, UTG folds



When he folds he must have tanked for his whole timebank. I guess on another day he might fold the first hand and look me up the second time around.



Bottom set, think the villains are lesser know Regs

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 3076340
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $50.00
UTG+1: $50.00
MP1: $65.18
MP2: $119.19
CO: $55.88
BTN: $41.96
SB: $19.50
BB: $62.13

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 4 4
Hero raises to $1.50, UTG+1 calls $1.50, MP1 calls $1.50, 3 folds, SB calls $1.25, BB calls $1

Flop: ($7.50) 5 8 4 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $2.42, UTG+1 calls $2.42, MP1 folds, SB calls $2.42, BB calls $2.42

Turn: ($17.18) Q (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $8.32, UTG+1 calls $8.32, SB calls $8.32, BB folds

River: ($42.14) T (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $13.25, UTG+1 raises to $37.76 all in, SB folds, Hero folds

Final Pot: $68.64
UTG+1 wins $66.64
(Rake: $2.00)


When Villain raises the river, the other Villain only has $7.26 left behind so he can look him up very cheaply so I highly doubt he is bluffing. But I am confused as to why he hasent raised on the Turn if he has a premium hand. If he has a set of 5s or 8s does it not worry him that someone might bink a flush on the river.

If he has 76 is he not concerned that somebody boats up on the river and wants to get the money in on the turn? Maybe he has 76 and wasent too concerned about the river. Pretty sure I am beat anyway.


It has been not stop raining the last few days so gonna try get some solid hours put in while the weather is crap then if the sun makes an appearance this summer I can feel better about taking time off to do other things then.

Congrats Doug Polk for this one:

Very occasionally I check out his blogs. Looking forward to his new one following his bink

What a noob, covering his branding with the bracelet

The K5, whilst perhaps a profitable peel vs weak regs is definitely losing you money. Consider rake as a factor and the fact he 3.5x. Also the flop peel is way too ambitious, we can't just check call, check raise ALL or Kx here otherwise we'll be massively overbluffing.

The JTss turn raise doesn't make a whole lost of sense either cus you literally have 0 bluffs here. The only feasible bluffing hand has to contain the AsX and you'd never take this line with it. Just call down

Wp with the 44, it's grim but very disciplined

Yeah I don't like those turn raises in H1+H2 repping/hitting flush, much prefer calling down. Being IP also helps a lot in JTs hand where we do have a flush, cus we'll obv get in another bet regardless otr if he decides to x his TP+.

Also think both hands should be folds pre, JTs w 6 ppl behind isn't the dream.

I usually just bang Doug or Joeys videos on in the background for something to listen to. Makes the grind go by quicker I feel.

lol

In BB vs BTN steal I had actually removed the lower Kx off hands from my range and had been folding them. However when I went back over my ranges it looked marginally better to play them. I am not overly optimistic about them in this spot but I figured I would continue to play them until my results show that over a decent sample that it is best to fold. Id rather do it now at 50NL where it is gonna be cheaper to make mistakes than at 100NL again.

I usually play pretty tight in this spot and dont hang around in pots if the flop is looking miserable for me. I will take your word for it that the flop peel is a mistake.

The JTss hand I just thought that given that I Turn raised and River jammed the same villain in the previous big pot we played and he saw the bluff, he might think that I am on some kinda rage tilt and trying to blow him off another pot. And with the A and K on board I couldnt see him folding AA, KK or AK. But I get your point about calling down.

Yeah gone are the days when I get attached to bottom set.

Fair enough.

You are probably right about both being folds. The JTs hand I actually do not usually cold call there, I have it down as a fold. It must have been a miss-click or I miss-read the action.

Btw I was reading your thread the other day and seen that guy tryna slate your progress. wp for keeping the thread going for 5 years and not listening to idiots like that. gl

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Grinded for like 10 hours earlier then remembered I had to enter a lineup into the monthly VIP contest on Draft Kings. I must be the WOAT at these VIP contests because it is always for Baseball or NBA which I know zilch about.

There is actually soccer DFS back on this wk end for world cup qualifying so think I will try to get a good few hours poker in before then and try to cut out the rookie mistakes from my play.

Re K5

I highly highly doubt that you have a sample big enough to guage whether defending it is profitable or not. And certainly Vs a 3.5x open it's losing. If this was like 200nl (rake factor) + Vs a bad reg with high bTN rfi who opened to say 2.5x, THEN I think you can make an argument for defending.

44 hand otr given your bet sizes throughout the hand, I think folding is a mistake.

JTs I think 3bet or fold is best (maybe leaning toward fold since it's fr), cold call least favourite option but by no means hate it.

Hey, how is it going.

First off, how big of a sample do we need? I dont know but it is a question I often wonder about. I think the sample size required depends on a few factors. Given that I believed the hand was marginal to play I would agree that I should be folding to a 3.5x open.

I look at the hands round about to get a better indication as I doubt there is much difference between K4o or K5o or K6o. We know that folding is -100 so that is what we are looking to beat.

BB vs BTN steal and winrates are for calling.

K3o 69 hands @ -85
K4o 60 hands @ -22
K5o 72 hands @ -145 (this obvs went down a lot from the bluff above)
K6o 79 hands @ +96

If I check that as a group in HEM right now for K3o to K6o it is -61.54 EV bb/100 over 280 hands. That is still better than folding. I agree that on paper and in theory they should probably be folded. But I dont know where the cutoff point is between calling and folding for Kx off.

So I decided fcuk it, I will call with these hands til I get more samples and a better idea where that cutoff point is. When the hand or group of hands is worse than -100 I can say goodbye. I dont know how else I find what is optimal and I dont want to be looking at this spot again when I am playing 100NL and thinking "hmmm K3o to K6o are looking better to flat than to fold so ill start calling to get more samples on this spot." Id rather do it now @ 50NL where it is gonna be cheaper to build that sample. Moving forward I did decide I would fold these smaller Kx off as it looks best to fold the smaller Ax off and Qx off hands. So I was probably just running hot in the sample for Kx off.

I would defo normally be folding the JTs in that spot. I noticed the odd time that if I pressed the keyboard a fraction too firmly it would send 2 keystrokes to multiple tables. I turned the keyboard repeat rate down in Windows so hopefully that ends them miss-clicks. I had the embarrassment of accidentally open-limping a couple times cos of that too.

Looking through my ranges for different spots in NLHE FR there are a ton of hands that are marginal that I am unsure about whether they are to be played or folded, mainly in the blinds. I have tried taking advice/hand charts from poker books or videos but Ive usually found them to be inaccurate and they have made my winrates worse in these spots.

Opening ranges are easier to construct because Unopened pots occur more frequently so you can open hands and get an idea of their winrates. When it comes down to constructing a Range for Big Blind vs 1 Raiser in MP and 1 Caller that situation is a lot less common so it takes longer to build a sample of hands and get an idea of what is good to play and what to fold.

My next problem is I get confused about what is more important between having a bigger sample of hands for a spot or using newer data. For example I can use my hands from 25NL to analyse a spot but I need to take into account that 25NL is weaker than 50 or 100NL and them hands are maybe 3 year old and I have likely improved as a player since then. So how reliable is that data for building hand charts for 50 or 100NL? I end up swaying back and forth between using the old 25NL data or not.

I have been looking over some ranges the last couple of days. I am thinking it makes sense to use only my 50 and 100NL hands for spots that I have a good sample of hands on e.g constructing opening ranges. Then for spots that come up less frequent I can include the 25NL hands to get a bigger sample to look at.

Hey mate, I'm good!

In terms of sample size, realistically I think we need more than ~100 hands for each of the small KXo to see whether they're profitable or not. Probably a few hundred? Because if we get one big pot, say >75bb, whether we win or lose than hand will have a huge impact on overall WRs.

Re your sample size issues, I'd ignore the 25NL stuff too. That might leave you with a small total number of hands but tbf I'd probably just hold off on doing any database analysis stuff until you've played a large enough sample with just the 50+100. There are plenty of other ways to study and improve without looking at your dB.

Just a suggestion, maybe with the small KXo hands, and you probably are / should already be doing this, but for those borderline hands, think more about the particular villain you're playing against - you can be very fluid with defence frequencies Vs different regs. Look at the stealer's positional RFI. Look at their postflop aggression, dbarrel, river agg, and wwsf stats. And then determine if the stealer is someone you want to defend K5o Vs or just let it go. As a general rule, maybe just fold all of these hands Vs the 20/16/6 player types and maybe defend Vs the 25/22/11 type guys, so long as they're bad enough post that you can make it profitable. Just a thought.

Gl bruv

Yeah around 100 hands for each small Kx off should to start to give us an idea but even that will take a long time to build that sample size.

Interestingly when I was looking at my opening ranges winrates they were actually worse at 25NL. Think I was weaker as player then and probably didnt have solid enough ranges for facing 3bets and 5bets.

Yeah I do definitely adjust at the tables. In fact that is probably the reason the small Kx off hands are better than -100 in my db. I will have flatted them against 2x opens, maybe 2.3x opens and probs when a whale opens the button. Then I will come back and do some db analysis a few months later and think "small Kx off winrates looking good in this spot I need to be flatting them closer to 100%"

But of course it will be -EV to play these hands a lot of times vs 3.5x opens etc. Just a case of learning ranges better I guess and then being able to put it together and adjust accordingly at the tables.

Was reading this article earlier by footballer Dani Alves. Brazil and Barcelona legend currently at Juventus. Good motivational piece and lesson about working hard to get what you want out of life. Here is a quick excerpt:

Here is the link if you want to read the full article:

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/da...us-the-secret/

That last paragraph about his Dad..

Yeah some people really get down and grind. Alves doing 12 miles to and from school everyday as well when he is 10 years old. That is the age Scottish kids are probably starting to smoke. Interesting though how something that seems like a disadvantage at the time (12 miles to school) later on in life turns into an advantage at football trials when your fitness is 10x what the other kids are.



Not checked any results for a while so had a look at how fiddy nl is going today:



To get that up nearer to 5bbs I am gonna have to improve my blinds game as per usual. I think I know my ranges decently well but what I need to improve on is adjusting those ranges to table dynamics. I used to do this a lot more often but I was concerned I was adjusting too much and end up playing too many hands and too loose because I end up thinking "this guy is weak, this guy is a fish, I will exploit them postflop and can win with my trashy hand"
Then when I would go back and review the borderline hands I was playing they were all -EV so I ended up folding them near 100%. If I can improve on when to adjust it should add to my winrate.


DFS soccer is back on right now for Confederations Cup so got that again 2m. This week I was also playing DFS Golf as I get a free ticket to play in the Platinum level VIP contest which was Golf this time. I know close to zero about golf. I looked at some numbers in a spreadsheet and put my lineup into the VIP contest and another Freeroll that was available to everyone.

Now on this golf slate there was also a $33 to enter contest with a 1st prize of $1million. I txt my wee bro about it and he was putting in a lineup just cos the 1st prize was so big. My plan was to check the lobby on the day the contest starts and see if there is overlay anywhere and enter the millionaire maker golf contest then. I then had to DFS Soccer lineups and then played poker til about 3am.

Next afternoon my wee bro txts me to ask what golf contests I entered. I think the golf slate must have closed in the morning so I forgot to enter the millionaire maker game and other real money contests, but not to worry cos I know nothing about golf anyway. Fast forward to the final day 4 of the Golf. I am sitting 10th out of 1800 entries in the Platinum VIP contest. My wee bro sent me a screenshot of the millionaire maker contest and my entry would have been sitting top 20 going into the final day with a chance of winning the $1mil - if I had entered it. Was making me feel a bit sick tbh.

I didnt do too well on the final day anyway but ended up finishing top 20 in the Platinum VIP freeroll for $600. I missed out on a few grand by not putting it into that $33 game. Actually pretty relieved it wasent the nut lineup cos dont know how I would be feeling if I missed out on $1mil from a mistake like that. Anyway I can put that $600 towards a golf DFS BR and enter early next time instead of the fcuking about.

Alright Dev .. how's it going mate ?

Its been a while ...

Seems like your doing just fine