I use close to the upswing range from the first two or three positions. The range you are using is much too loose for my liking at most tables. I will open 66 occasionally or KQ or AJ accasionally. And sometimes any Axs. No one knows what you are folding. I would not worry about board coverage at these stakes.

Larry,

I do think my range is too wide especially against solid opponents. I do plan on tightening it up more. Thank you

Session 21. 3.5 Hours. Lost a buyin.

Lost a buyin today. Made a mistake today versus a young player. Need to play tight! After losing I felt better after seeing how wide his ranges were. Once he bled down to $82 he open shoved UTG with 76hh and won vs AKss. He did this a few more times before doubling up.

I feel like I haven’t made the time to properly study for a while. I haven’t properly constructed a early position open range for the tables I play despite making several notes and having readers critique my play from early position. It seems like I am losing money from early position especially with my decent starting hands - TT-QQ. Seems to be a mix of running bad and not playing optimally the last 21 sessions.

Onto some hands.

Hand 1: 1/3 NL $220 Effective Hero is effective stack.

Vil is a younger player - early 20s. I don’t think he is overly tight, haven’t played with him before.

Vil opens UTG $10. Hero next to act calls TT two people call in blinds.

Pot $40

Flop Q75

two checks. UTG bets $20. Hero calls? other two players fold. I expect him to C bet a fair amount of range here including some misses like AK, AJ, and pairs under Q as well as made hands like KQ, AQ, etc.

Pot $80

Turn: 6. complete rainbow. Vil bets $40. Hero goes all in. Vil snap calls with AA. I don’t hit my 2 outer on river.

Certainly seems spewy. What range is he opening UTG, leading into 4 players, and double barreling a safe turn card that I beat? AK seems unlikely along with other broadway cards. His range would have to be pretty wide for me to jam AI here. Misplay by me.

Later in the session had me doubting the logic above. He open shoved UTG with 76hh when he got down to $100. He did a few more shoves that were not shown before that hand.


Hand 2: $300 Eff 1/3 NL

Vil is a regular who plays higher. Older male with headphones. Seems to be tight player. Hero should have a tight image.


one limper. Hero MP AKo raise to $20. Loose lady behind me call. Vil on button raises to $80.
limper folds. Hero?

Only OOP tight

Hand 1 vs unknown young player…..3b to $27-$33. You optimally want to play all your hands heads up vs ranges worse than yours IP. He likely 4bs and you can fold comfortably for only $17 more loss. As played let the flop go 4 ways. No reason to stay involved in the hand. As played the rest of the hand is a total punt and looks like button clicking.

Hand 2. Vs a guy wearing headphones and playing OOP. I jam this hand. Can run into it some percentage of the time but this guy plays higher, his range is way looser than AA and KK and you block them. Get it in. He sees you as tight you might get him to fold which is best case. Vs a guy over 50 who is there playing to pass some time, ya go ahead and fold. But Im jamming there all day and feeling pretty good about it for 100bb vs a thinking villain playing down in stakes.

Constantly range your opponents in every hand you are involved or not involved in. Population reads are the nuts without evidence of what Vs are actually playing.

Agree with Larry on Hand 1. TT should 3bet against a loose player's open, even UTG vs UTG1. If he calls, you get to play a 3bet pot in position with a good hand, which is one of the most profitable spots in NLHE. If he folds, you win the pot and you can be sure that he folded a significant amount of equity (and that you folded out a ton of equity from the players behind you). If he 4bets, you know where you are at (unless he is a legit maniac) and you can get away cheap.

On the flop, you have a hand where if any one of the 3 other players has a Queen or better, you are essentially drawing dead. Even if Villain is bluffing here, he is going to have a good amount of equity against you (AJhh for example has about 28% equity against TT on Q75). When you are in a spot where you're drawing near dead if Villain is ahead (and Villain is often ahead), and where Villain will have a lot of equity the times he is behind, you should probably just fold. The fact that two other players are involved makes the spot even more precarious for TT. I think sometimes when we underrep our hand pre-flop, it can be hard to get away from postflop.

I would definitely recommend studying pre-flop a bit more and refreshing yourself on opening ranges and how to play against openings from various positions. In a lot of ways, pre-flop is the most important street in your games, especially when playing with a shorter stack. Your opponents are butchering pre-flop spots almost every hand, so if you are playing well, you will have a built-in edge over them. I myself also have a ways to go when it comes to mastering pre-flop. It still hurts me to fold hands like 22, 76s, and ATo in UTG. But every time I do it, I feel a mild sense of pride because I know that I have made a winning play.

I like flatting TT and think three betting would be a mistake. Why would we want to isolate ourselves against a tight ep opening range instead of calling and letting some donks into the pot with their ace rag or off suit connectors?

On the flop when he bets into 3 opponents it's a clear fold.



For AK i say 4 bet it.

You are exactly right. I knew i messed up both hands. Especially embarrassing to throw away a buy in with TT. I was not playing well and cut that session short.

Well said, thanks for the thoughts. Both hands were poorly played on my part.

Session 22 6.5 hours -899

Lost almost every pot I entered today. Stole a fair amount to win small pots but lost fair number of medium and large hands. Table was good. Fair amount of action. Loose regulars with wide ranges pre flop. I felt that I played fairly well, that my losses were due to variance. Thoughts?

Hand 1: 1/3 NL $300 8 handed.

Hero just sat down. See some friendly loose regulars.

UTG younger guy i don’t recognize bets $10.
Hero next to act 99 calls. loose button calls (calls close to 50% of hands). BB older male calls. Plan is to flop a set and get value or let this hand go on most boards.

Pot $61

Flop A 9 3

BB checks. UTG raiser leads $20. Hero raises to $75? Loose button calls. BB folds. UTG calls.

Pot: $231

Turn 5. Hero goes AI $215. Button tank calls.

Results:



Hand 2: 1/3 NL 5 handed (several walkers). $300 effective
SB is a loose older woman who plays 50% of hands doesn’t raise often. Calls a lot. Folds most hands on turn but floats flops 75% plus of time with overs, gut shots any draws etc.

UTG limps. Hero button A5 raise to $15. SB calls. BB calls. Limper calls.

Pot $60.

Flop 4 2 4. check check check Hero $30. SB calls. rest fold.

Pot $120

Turn: 5. lady checks. hero bets $75. Lady calls. Wonderful card for me. Get showdown equity. Take another stab here with some fold equity.

River 6. Lady checks. Hero checks?

Results:

Hand 3 1/3 NL $300 Effective.

Table is very loose pre. Lots of calling. tends to be ABC post.

6 handed.

4 limps. SB completes. Hero BB AhQd raise to $25. 4 calls. SB folds.

Pot $125

Flop Q88

Hero leads $25? Lady next to act calls (same vil as hand 2). rest fold.

Pot $175.

Turn: 4o. Hero leads $75. She folds. Hero wins.

Hand 1. Never raise flop. You have the 48th nuts. You probably cost 50-75bb with this play.

Hand 2. Check back the flop. You are four ways. Ya you have a nice looking hand, but its still ace high at the moment. Little chance everyone folds. Check turn after being called on flop. Obvious give up and take showdown at river. Costed 25bb

Hand 3. Check flop. Check turn. Bet river. This is a one street hand 5 ways. Q88 vs 5 players with AQ is also the 48th nuts. I think you are very fortunate not to have lost 50-75bb or your entire stack in this hand.

I play games aas good as you played action wise occsionally. If no one is folding to open raises in a session I do one of two things. Size up to like $30-$35 and tighten up, applying lots of pressure postflop heads upÂ….. Or i size down to around $12 or $15 and play like I should vs 6 callers. I want to be playing heads up pots with position and. Better range or in position with higher spr vs multiple players. Big thing I notice from this session is you are playing multiway in ways that is going to cost you heaps. You are going to have some wild swings vs bad players taking lines you are taking multiway.

Agree on both counts. Thanks for writing.

Hand 2: 1/3 NL 5 handed (several walkers). $300 effective
SB is a loose older woman who plays 50% of hands doesn’t raise often. Calls a lot. Folds most hands on turn but floats flops 75% plus of time with overs, gut shots any draws etc.

UTG limps. Hero button Ac5c raise to $15. SB calls. BB calls. Limper calls.

Pot $60.

Flop 4c 2c 4d. check check check Hero $30. SB calls. rest fold.

Pot $120

Turn: 5h. lady checks. hero bets $75. Lady calls. Wonderful card for me. Get showdown equity. Take another stab here with some fold equity.

River 6.d Lady checks. Hero checks?



Ive been thinking about this hand. I do think that betting the flop is a high EV play. I have a hand with a lot of equity in position. I gain by having others fold their equity on the flop. There are lots of unpaired cards that call a raise preflop and fold the flop such as KQ, QJ, KJ, JT, QT as well as other connecting hands like 78, 89. I expect pairs 55 and above to at least call one street. But with my equity and position I will be able to exert pressure on them for later streets. I expect flush draws to call the flop and turn also. Which gives me value if I do hit my flush. I do have a fairly sneaky value hand if I hit the turn or river.

Given the opponents are relatively ABC, I expect them to tell me when they have me beat by raising and check raising. This allows me to play my hand near perfectly in position. I understand why you would check behind flop and turn but I thought I had good fold equity here and would gain value by getting hand heads up on flop.

Reading your read on her again I think your way of playing the hand was fine. I think though whenever someone calls four ways its going to mostly be a condensed range compared to if it was heads up or three ways. But she sounds like a special player. Four ways and above though I worry much less bout fold equity and more about actual equity on all streetss

21.1 TT

I have zero issues just flatting next in to act to an UTG raise with TT (heck, I've been known to flat AA here too and hope for action behind). But yeah, gotta get away from this hand on the flop when he continues versus the world and turn definitely seems spewy.

21.2 AK

Pretty read dependent. The old part / facing a 3bet makes me want to fold pretty easily. The part of him being a reg who plays bigger makes we want to jam. Probably one of those you-had-to-be-there moments.

GcluelessNLnoobG

22

Everyone will have different styles and those different styles will lean to very different win/loss sizes in 1/3 NL (and they'll differ even more depending on how big versus small the particular 1/3 NL game plays as they don't all play the same). I recently booked a $697 loss; it was my 10th biggest losing session of all time at 1/3 NL (in 748 sessions). Yeah, I play a super nitty super low variance style in likely a somewhat smaller 1/3 NL game. But a $899 loss might be something to worry about (unless you have a solid winrate over a solid sample size to suggest it was just "one of those nights"). Anyhoo...

22.1 99

SPR is 5 and we have middle set on a A high board. Yeah, we're multiway and there is a possible flush. But I think overall you could argue we're committed at this stack size. So I don't hate raising the flop to commit on safe turns. At much higher SPRs I would just be calling/evaluating, but I think committing is defensible at this fairly small SPR, imo.

22.2 A5s

I'm ok raising the Button after a single limp *if* we think there is a good chance this will isolate (although I'm guessing this is a little unlucky to go so multiway). I'm fine with a small cbet here (I might go smaller) given our equity which will give us some turn options. I think I lean to checking back the turn; we have a showdownable hand at this point, fairly invulnerable (just random offsuit overcards), we'd hate to get check/raised and blown off our equity, is she really folding a small overpair, etc. Also taking my free showdown on the river.

22.3 AQo

I hate shorthanded tables so I personally would be hoping this is just a temporary situation. I'd probably be going more preflop in an attempt to have a better chance at isolating (or even taking down the limped dead money preflop OOP is a good result here). Although I'm again guessing the preflop result was pretty unexpected / unlucky (as I hate the result). I would probably check the flop. And as played I would probably check the turn, unless I feel I'm up against the ~worst player in the room (cuz otherwise it is highly unlikely someone with half a brain is going to be paying nitty me off with worse over 4 streets).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Thank you for clarifying. I am trying to find faults with my logic and thought process to improve at poker and seeing where I went wrong by your opinion.

I am over-rolled for my current game and thus am lucky to not worry about swings day to day. I tend to push edges and am not afraid to make moves I feel are higher expectation even if they cause more variance in my results. I do not enjoy losing money, but I am more interested in making the right decisions and printing those Skalansky Bucks! I have enough hours over a long sample size to feel confident I am a winning player.

That being said I know I have plenty of leaks and am always seeking improvements.

Session 23. 8.25 hours +171

Again started off down in the session and ended up positive. Glad I was able to stay and put in a decent session and keep my head about me despite the swings.

Had a middle aged male that didn’t play like the tradition MAWG. His aggression and play threw me off. He had image of a solid tag until you got to see some showdowns. Lots of bluffing when checked to, predictable lines. I won a fair amount of small pots vs him by check raising some top pair type hands where I would normally C bet and punish him for having air. Normally I’d play quite poorly vs someone with these player tendencies (folding to raises, giving up after getting called etc). But I replayed hands in my head and found some tendencies and was able to exploit them successfully. Onto some hands.



Hand 1: 5 handed 1/3 NL $550 effective.

Vil is a younger player with headphones in that seems to be grinding. Regular but I haven’t played with him. He can fold pre and post. Haven’t been in hands with him, hero should have a tight image.

Vil opens button $15. Hero calls SB KJ. - short handed I usually 3 bet this hand here vs a button open. No reason why I did not here.
BB folds.
Pot $33.

Flop Q 9 7
Hero checks. Vil bets $20. hero raises to $75. Vil tank calls. I'm turning my gutshot and overcard into a bluff here with a plan to follow through on turn. Scary board for him and he should have a wider range on button that would fold to a C raise after a standard C bet.

Pot $183

Turn: J.
Hero leads $125. Vil calls. - following through on plan despite having showdown value now.
pot $433


River A Hero? Hero has $335 behind.

Results:



Hand 2. $300 Effective. 1/3 NL

6 handed. Table has been loose pre flop. Vil is a older MAWG who is unpredictable. Both being tricky and trappy while seizing on weakness also with bets.

Weak tight $10 utg. tricky OG calls. loose button calls. Hero A K in BB tries to raise to $75 but fumbles chips and its ruled $35 bet. All players call.

Pot $140.

Flop 994.

Hero checks. UTG checks. tricky og bets $65. button folds.

Hero?

Hand 1. 3b like you said vs a decent player who will be wide on the button. Someone more competent than me needed for advice on the rest of it. I like the give up on the river.

Hand 2. Standard after the fumble.

23.1 KJs

I highly doubt calling with a non-premium to go HU OOP to likely the best player at the table in a raked game is profitable. My argument would be that in this spot it is only possible for one player (at most) to be profitable here long term (noting that it is actually possible for both to be unprofitable due to rake); so my money would always be on the solid player in position with initiative. Definitely a great argument for 3betting. But I honestly just avoid these spots, fold, and move on to the next hand; I know where my money comes from, and it ain't from this spot.

Rest of the hand seems spewy to me, but I'll admit this isn't really in my wheelhouse (i.e. HU OOP to a solid player with likely a wide range) so I dunno.


23.2 AKo

Lol at chip fumble.

Yeah, tricky guy could have anything. But we don't have to be the police in this multiway pot (which also makes it less likely he is making a move), plus things aren't going to get any easier on the vast majority of turns (where we'll still have Ace high OOP). I check/fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Yep honest with my mistakes too! Had to laugh at myself.

Thanks for feedback. I feel like I need to have some of these bluffs against good players but I am not sold that I need to do it to be a good winner at 1/3. Feels like alot of my bluffs for double and triple barrels are not making money / or I am picking poor spots to do it them / or running bad in those spots. Thus the need for feedback!

Session 24. 6 hours

Had a good run today. My second large winning sessions since starting this goal. Felt good to never have to rebuy in a session either, which has been a common occurrence. I ran well, winning a flip AIPF with my AKo vs QQ and again against a short stack my QQ held up against AKo aipf. Seemingly my small bluffs and steals got through also. I was feeling winners tilt and was worried about losing my chips so I called it a night a few hours early. Onto some hands.



Hand 1 1/3 NL $400 effective

Opponent is a younger loose player. Shown down lots of weak hands Ax not suited Kx etc.

Vil limps EP. Hero MP JJ $20. Only Vil calls.

Pot $44.

Flop J 9 6.

he checks. Hero bets $20. (can bet larger here, hoping for a raise?)

Pot $84.

Turn 2. He checks. Hero bets $40. He calls. Not a very good card for me. Still beating straight draws, Jx, random pairs. He’s bad enough where I think I have to bet here for value.

Pot $164.

River: 6. He checks. hero bets $120. Vil goes all in $320 Hero turbo calls.

Results:


Hand 2: 1/3 NL $300 effective

Vil is a young guy who loves to call, bet and bluff. He can be very aggressive and loose. He is tough to put on a hand sometimes because he doesn’t play by the book. Seen him call a 3 bet OOP with 24o and then bluff 3 streets. This isn’t his default but seen a few sessions ago.

Straddle is on $6. Vil is on button raises to $20. Sb folds.

Hero BB A Q raise to $80. only button calls.

Pot $166.

Flop: 9 8 6. Hero checks. Vil shoves AI $200. Hero?

Results

Hand 1. Check that turn unless you know villain is the type to peel a half pot bet on flop and turn with middle pair. Every draw but three combos of 78 came in.

Hand 2. Put his wild range in a solver. It might be close. But Id lean fold in game because tricky opponents like that like to mix up their value and bluffs. Rarely running another large bluff right after getting picked off.