Those guys are insanely smart. That is one intriguing read and a fantastic insight into the minds of the real top level thinkers in poker.

Scary!

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...s-etc-1270184/

Another interesting thread about GTO play. This thread is a year newer than the other I posted and durrrr is still convinced that GTO does not exist for NLHE.

99% sure I will be diving into MoP after reading this thread tho.

I wanted to keep playing, but the tables were dying and playing only 3 tables seemed a waste.

1. Session Review
- 22/16 reg opens from CO. I flat TT otb. Villain has over 70% f3b and we are a bit over 150bb deep so I didnt think 3betting this hand is good. Another reg flats from BB. K9T flop. CO cbets 1/2pot. I think villains range is probably pretty weak here. I don't think he is bluffing but I doubt he has very many 2pair, sets, or straights w this sizing. I think he is mostly betting hands like KJ/KQ and is a little scared by the texture and that its multiway and potentially could be 'setting his own price' with a flush draw. I elect to flat as I think raising makes villain fold too much of his range. (Which means I should definitely be raising my AJ or QT type hands here.) HU to 6 turn. Villain bets slightly more than 1/2pot again. I think his range is mostly the same and again I don't think raising is very good. I call again. Villain snap checks 3 river. I bet 50 into 80. I think my sizing is poor. I clearly have the best hand but villains sizings and snap river check make him obviously weak and probably scared. I should either bomb it to level villain into hero calling or make some extremely small bet that villain can't bear to fold to. Given the villain, making an extremely small bet is probably more +ev than the large sizing.
- Fishy player limps the BTN. I opt to check rather than raise with QTo bc villain is a little tricky trappy spazzy. KK9 flop. Villain bets. I have seen villain check strong hands on dry boards multiple times and am fairly certain that villain never has Kx here. I c/r to 3x, he snap calls. I think he can call with 9x, 66 type hands, JT type hands, and Ax type hands. Turn 3, i barrel and he snaps again. At this point I think he has 9x or a hand that turned a FD like A8 or JT. River is A and I barrel 2/3 pot. He snaps with TT. I think my overall read on the situation was mostly correct, I just overestimated his ability to fold 9x (i guess its possible that he plays 9x and TT diff tho). Worth noting that he checked back A8 on A8x and bet TT on KK9 meaning he bets the bottom and middle of his range but checks the top of his range.
- I open AQo utg, presumed fish flats from BB. 60/20 over 5 hands. I cbet 722, he c/r to 3x. I decide to call here and make some decisions. I'm making some pretty big assumptions, but IME fish would c/min here with 2x or 99 so when they c/r larger its generally FOS. Turn 6. he instantly barrels 2/3pot (he just clicked the 2/3p button judging from the sizing. This is the real decision point in the hand, if I call turn I must call river river bc fish wont give up once they barrel turn. I think that many fish bet smaller or even check with the middle and top of their range here. He also bets too quickly for him to have thought about anything. I call again. River 6 and he instantly barrels 2/3p again. I call. He shows A9o and we chop.
- I open KQ utg. Decent reg flats OTB, fishy reg flats from BB (23/14). AQ2 flop. Fishy reg checks. If I check, I lose bc reg OTB will just own the **** out of me IP. I decide to cbet with the intention of 3barreling. AA/QQ/AK 3b preflop nearly always. AQ may 3bet preflop sometimes. 22 is occasionally folded preflop (tho not often). I block AQ and QQ. So its very difficult for either villain to have a hand that can call 3 streets here. I cbet. BTN folds, BB calls. Turn 5. I barrel just a bit larger than 2/3p. Villain c/r 2.5x. I'm a bit perplexed. I think that hands like AQ/22 would probably raise flop and if they didn't are unlikely to choose to raise on this turn. A lot of flush draws were combo draws on the flop and would mostly likely have been raised (KJ, JT). But at the same time its also very unlikely that this type of villain is going to turn AJ or A9s into a bluff. I finally decided that he was the type that would occasionally play his big draws too passively otf and was also the type to overcall in the BB with a few too many SCs and one gappers, so flushes were more possible for him than more normal regs. This combined with his small sizing and the fact that he has very few hands that 'need' to turn into bluffs, I decided to fold.
- Got pretty spewy when I floated a flop cbet, turn middle pair and called 2 more streets vs a bad reg AJ on Q67J6. Pure spew on my part.
- I open AK utg and a looser/aggro reg 3bets from the BTN. He has 3b me on this table with these positions (UTG v BTN) an orbit or 2 earlier. I 4bet him then and he snap folded. I expect him on average to be a less bluff heavy and have a bit wider value range when he is doing it so recently after. I 4bet. He flats. I think he probably doesn't trap here very often (guessing) so QQ+/AK are pretty unlikely. I think he probably has hands like KQ/AQ/KJs/TT/JJ for the most part and sometimes just takes a complete flyer with a hand like A6s or 78s etc. Flop is A39. I cbet 1/3p which is my standard sizing vs regs in 4bet pots. He calls. I think he can call with any pair he might have (PPs or flopped pairs), I also think that he will SOMETIMES float with air. Turn J. I check. I think he will mostly be folding to my 2nd barrel when he has TT/9x/air and will occasinally hero fold his weak Ax. By checking I allow him to value town himself when he has Ax or bluff/protection/'dont know what else to do' jam his weaker hands. He jams (about 1psb) I call. He has AQ.
- I open KQ utg, 32/14 fish flats CO. HU to flop. Q95 I cbet a bit over 2/3, he calls. Turn 4. I barrel, he calls. River 9 . I think there's little to no value in betting here so i check. Villain SNAP bets 2/3p. My first instinct was to fold, but I took a look at my notes on villain and had a note that said he was unable to vbet AT on T2278 otr. With this note I decide to rethink it a bit. I think he is the ype who would probably raise his sets and 2pairs on the flop bc the board is scary. I think he might (but not always) raise his flushes on the turn. And I think that sometime he will not vbet hands like 9x or weaker flushes bc of my note. (9x lose to flushes so he is scared, flushes lose to boats so he is scared). I think he will still bet both of these hands at least 1/2 the time he has them tho, so I'm not ruling them out entirely. I think he has a lot of pure flop floats that turn a FD and JT type hands that will always bluff when checked to. I think he is a bit more weighted towards bluffs with his timing and my note. So I decided to bluff catch. He shows me KQ and I'm dumbfounded. LOL. I think, possibly, he was bluffing without really thinking about ranges. Live players do this a bunch. They just bet when you check bc they want you to fold, but they don't realize that they usually have the best hand when you fold.
- Tightish reg with high fold to 3b opens UTG. I flat IP with AK. 3 ways to flop. AJ5. Villain cbets a bit under 2/3. (rather than clicking 1/2p or 2/3p button). I think this weakens but depolarizes his range to some extent (basically I think he usually has a weak value hand). HU to 7. He barrels just over 1/2p (slightly smaller in ratio than his flop bet). Again I think this sizing further confirms my flop assessment. I flat again. River A. He uses the same sizing on river, just over 1/2p. The river completes the backdoor flush but its tough for him to have flushes given his flop betting range and his preflop range contains few flushes without the A or J in them when he opens utg. I think his most likely hand is a weak Ax or maaaybe a badly played KK/QQ. He would also likely have used a different sizing at SOME point with any hand that is now a boat. I think I basically have the nuts but raising looks very strong. I was a little torn here, but decided to make a small raise and let him crying call with his weaker Ax. He tanks for a few seconds and folds. I like my value raise here, even tho I expect to get called only rarely.
- Passive reg open CO. I flat 88 from BB. 933 flop. He checks back. Turn T I lead for value from weaker PP and Ax type hands, as well as hands that turned a draw. He calls, river 6, I check and he quickly bets. I call bc he is kind of passive in general and I think he doesn't always bet his weaker Tx. However, in game I called really quickly and failed to notice his sizing of 1/2p. I just don't think he is ever bluffing with this line and this sizing. Easy fold. Spewwy call on my part.

2. Evaluate your play (Mental and Technical)
Technical Game: Still improving my attention to sizing. Played fewer tables today and was able to put more thought into some preflop and postflop spots. Very happy with my play this session.
Mental Game: Short session where very little went wrong overall so my mental game didn't encounter much stress. I was happy with my level of focus overall tho.

3. Take note of anything you did particularly well
Seems like this question is the one I least like to answer. It tends to overlap with things I say in 1 or 2 and in I don't like patting myself on the back much. I will probably restructure the cooldown soon to remove this question and include something else in its place.


4. Take notes on how the regulars played
This one also is mostly just me taking notes of things that I reviewed in step 1, but I kind of like having the reminder just in case I forgot to put some of my conclusions in note form in PT after reviewing the hand in step 1.


24.5k/72k RP
36k/60k Hands

last AK hand is rly interesting i do agree with ur range assessment but I m not sure i m on board with the conclusion because a tightish opponents UTG opening range will probly be sth like AT+ 55+ KQ/KJs/ 9Ts+ and his river range all flushes that he could have, 55, JJ, (77) AJ and then AT AQ QQ KK that you beat (AK that u split). i think if anything u re bluffing out his flushes rather than getting called by his worse hands. also combocount wise if he folds a little part (i d assume tight regs to fold a big part) of the hands u want value from that even if he plays his better hands differently half the time u end up valuecutting yourself

I see what you are saying and i definitely considered that I was overepping my hand. But I was pretty confident in my sizing reads and my assessment of his preflop range. I think he plays better hands different nearly always. So combowise I am ahead a huge majority of the time and it only takes a few crying calls to make up for the extremely rare (in my estimation) chance he has a boat or flush.

He is never folding a flush to my sizing, if he somehow has one fwiw.

Tight preflop doesn't mean they can fold trips.

Been grinding to the Halo 3 soundtrack today. Here is one of the better songs.

Beast mode

Pretty uneventful session. Will review tomorrow.

1. Session Review
- Playing 3handed. Player who appears to be some type of aggro fish minraises the button. I flat 67 from the BB. A7T flop. Villain Cbets 2/3p and I c/r to 3x. he calls pretty quickly. Turn is A7T6 . I barrel a bit more than 2/3p, villain quickly minraises. I don't know much about villain yet, but I doubt he is ever bluffing and I doubt he ever plays any naked Ax this way. I think he would probably have 3bet the flop with any AT/A7/77 type hand so I think his most likely hands are A6 and 89, but I think A6 would call rather than raise pretty often. I think my flush and boat outs are nearly always good and I'm getting a good price so I call. River is A7T6A. I check and villain tanks for a long time and bets about 1/3p and I make an easy fold. Happy with my play here. I think its still a fold on any non club non boat rivers as well.
- BvB I flat KJ. J64 villain cbets. I end up tanking for a long time, but this is mostly because I was making decisions on other tables. After my overly long tank, I call. I could have raised here , but calling is fine as well. Turn is J642, villain checks. I bet 2/3p, he quickly raises to almost 4x. I think this is a very strange line to take with any hand. I think my long tank could possibly have induced him to c/r here and I think his sizing is pretty large. It does set him up for a nice 2/3p river shove tho. Not sure if that means his range is more or less bluff heavy, or if it even means anything at all. I decide that its unlikely he would take this line for value, it could be a variety of draws or some weird wacko air bluff so I call. River J642Q. Villain thinks for some time and then checks. This would be a very strange check from a hand like a flush, straight or set. I think when he checks this river, he is either just bailing out on a bluff or was value raising turn and doesn't think he can vbet river anymore. His turn thin value raises could be hands like AJ/KJ/QQ+. QQ is pretty unlikely to check. And his bluffs seem unlikely to give up on such a good river. So I think he has AJ/KK/AA very very often now. (Even tho I didn't think he would have those on the turn, once he checks THIS river I have to reevaluate his range.) I think this is a must shove spot with my entire range. I should be value shoving any 2pair+ and bluff shoving anything worse. Huge spew on my part to check back and take showdown.
- Loose aggro reg open BTN 3 handed. I 3bet AKo from SB. BB cold calls and we go 3 handed to T53r. I cbet. 3 handed to brick turn. I c/f. Pretty standard hand, but in game I somehow missed that the reg cold called my 3bet entirely. I thought it was Hu to the flop. I likely would have still cbet but misreading the situation is a pretty big mental lapse.
- Same loose aggro reg opens UTG, I 3b JJ from CO and the same reg cold calls from the SB again. I took a note in game to see how often he is doing this in my db. Turns out he cold calls 3bets pretty often out of the blinds. I have 2k hands on him and PT says he's cold called 3bets 18 times. Just for comparison I have over 40k hands on myself this moneth and I have only cold called 37 3bets. So he is clearly getting out of line here. But at the time of the hand I only have a suspicion. 3 ways to 243. I cbet 1/2p, he quickly c/r to 3x which is pretty huge for a 3way 3bet pot. I think this spot is pretty close. I wasn't sure what his cold calling range was, and even now I don't know. I have no fold equity on a jam when he uses this sizing so I am effectively calling a jam. I'm getting about 1.7to1. Vs a range of JJ+,AKo, and some good FDs I need about 2to1. I don't know that he would c/r AKo. He may cold 4b it or he mayc/c it otf. He might choose to lead his made hands rather than c/r them as well. So I think his c/r is probably weighted more towards strong draws. I regret folding this now, tho I do think my fold was only a small mistake.
- I open AKo from the CO. Looser, not so good reg flats otb. 632 flop. I cbet, he calls. Turn 6323. I barrel bc I think he floats this flop a decent amount with air, he calls quickly. River 63235, I check expecting him to check back and win with an 88 type hand. He very quickly fire 2/3p. I have played enough with this villain to know he is not capable of vbetting a hand like TT in this spot. This basically just leaves boats and a variety of busted draws. I call, he shows AQ. I definitely did not put pure double floats in his range. Good thing I didn't have AJ.

2. Evaluate your play (Mental and Technical)
Technical Game: Very happy with my sizing in most hands. Player well overall but made one major mistake in the KJ hand where I missed a river bluff.
Mental Game: I tried to 12 table for a bit when 400nl started dying. I added a bunch of 100nl tables. I only did this for a few minutes. It took away my ability to really think through spots thoroughly.

3. Take notes on how the regulars played

very much agree with ur assessment of the KJ hand. If he checks he pretty much has air (unlikely) or better thats folding to a jam almost always (much more likely) so deffo gotta bluff there.

like the bluffcatch with AK too but i m not precisely sure about the flop or turn barrels? as played i think u can call with anything that has SDV and tbh i hate villains play in all apects (plays, sizings, timings)

hmm this hand caught me a bit. i usually would check back river and think it is spew if you shove river, but when you said it's a must shove spot with your entire range and it's spew if you don't , i was confused. obviously im not thinking deep enough.

is it because when villan checks river, you're saying he only has a 1 pair type hand, and wants to get to show down? and he will be betting sets/2 pair+ hands on river? so shoving river when he checks gets folds from air(turn best hand into bluff, he folds anyways), and those 1 pair hands you mentioned? don't you rep thin? i guess QJ, and some combos of hearts.

villain never in his life has a flush there while we can. villain usually doesnt have a set there. villain definitely doesnt have QJ there. villain usually has AJ, KK, AA and is looking to checkdecide. while i m not exactly sure he ll fold them all the time i think a ship for sure is more profitable than a check especially considering that villain would almost certainly follow this precise river card up with the air bluffs he could have. he also seems likely to valuebet better than AA on this river given that we look a lot like the hand hero holds here looking to call (like hero said in the thought process) thus, when villain checks he basically announces he hates this river and knows this river smacks us in the face ie he s likely puking before we even bet and prays to all gods he knows that we dont bet

so are you agreeing with what i typed?

also why can't he have sets, he can easily check river as hearts fill up, no?

pretty much aggree just nice to actually articulate evrything, hope op dosnt mind the ramble. i think that villain would be more likely to jam sets given that we look a lot more like sdv especially considering the timing that we had when calling the flop bet

Basically, when he checks this river he has the middle of his range. His bluffs would bet and his really good hands would bet. But I lose to the 1 pair type hands he would check here. So by checking back I am just giving up on the pot, but like blakkman said if I jam he is hating life with those hands.

As far as repping thin, I can have a pretty good number of heart combos as well as sets. And for me to be bluffing I have to be turning Jx into a bluff, which I doubt he thinks I will (I didn't did I?).



He is competent enough to know that sets are still ahead of a large portion of my range and I may level myself into a call with Jx and certainly would call with QJ.

cool, so since he didn't bet, u can take out sets, and like you said his range is the middle part of his range.

Couldn't get my head in the game today. Huge volume fail on my part. Gonna reread some of the Mental Game for advice on volume motivation.

Better volume tonight. I felt very in control and focused.

Made an A high call in a sizable pot that I would definitely miss if I was off my A game.

This was my grind music. Got 3 of her albums and put them on repeat. Randomly stumbled on her on youtube. Can't figure out how she isn't super famous.

halofan too?

Just had an idea and wanted to write it down here before I go to sleep so i don't forget. I'm thinking of reviewing only my small and medium sized pots. Most pots vs regs aren't that large, and when they are I think I play them pretty well, but I am probably still making too many mistakes in the smaller pots.

I've made some health related goals recently. I was in good shape in high school and was able to maintain that for a few years before my laziness got the best of me. Since then I have gone through phases of being decently fit and very unfit.

I've been pleased with my mental game progress so far, and I think I owe that entirely to this thread keeping me motivated. So I'm going to start using this thread to track my physical goals as well.

About 8 days ago I started the Burpee Challenge. On day 1 you do 1 burpee. On day 2 you do 2 burpees. etc etc until day 100. It adds up to 5,050 burpees.

If you don't know what a burpee is, you can watch this attractive european chick demonstrate.



I also started running again tonight. I downloaded an app for my phone called C25k (Couch to 5k). I ran a 5k earlier this year and ran it multiple times in the gym, but I have barely run since and have put on almost 30 pounds. The app starts you off doing 60 second runs followed by 90 second walks and just chimes in over my music to say start walking or start running. As you progress each new run will have slightly more running and slightly less walking. If I stay on the apps schedule I will be running a 5k in 8 weeks (3 days a week). I will probably end up doing more than 3 days a week. (Thats the plan anyway).

I weigh 192lbs as of right now, which is the most I have weighed since I was 21 when I briefly peaked at 200. I have used the atkins diet to lose weight quickly multiple times, but this time I just want to gradually increase my level of physical activity rather than use a crash diet.

Goals
- Complete the burpee challenge without skipping any days
- Run a full 5k with my Dad while he is in town from Afghanistan (late December/early January)
- Weigh under 180 by New Years.

I will amend and/or expand this list as I start working on my goals.

Decent session. Lost a big pot at 400nl towards the middle that got me pretty angry for a minute or two. When I realized I was in the danger zone I closed my eyes and took several deep breathes and recited on of my lines for Injecting Logic.

"I can't control the cards. I can only control how I play.'

Such a simple, obvious little line but it definitely helped me recenter. I've also found that saying these in my head is significantly less effective than saying them out loud. I still sort of whisper to myself, bc saying them loudly kind of has the opposite effect that I want also.

Poker Goals
1) Learn to recognize the onset of tilt. Learn to control tilt.
-I'm still making progress on this. Very pleased with myself so far. I react (which is different than responding) less often. When my emotions flare up, they tend to be milder and I am usually successful at calming and recentering.

2) Show a profit at 400nl over a 100k hand sample
-400nl: 30k hands at 3bb/100
200nl: 17k hands at 6bb/100
100nl: 16k hands at 5.5bb/100

4) 200k RP by Dec 31
-This is going to be extremely tough. I forgot to take into account that my father comes home from Afghanistan on Dec 18 and I'm not going to miss spending time with him for the bonus. I currently have 157,500 RP. 29k of them were earned this month over 43k hands of 100nl-400nl. That works out to roughly 0.67RP/hand. So assuming I play the same ratio of limits, I need about 64k more hands. Doable, but gonna be a grind to get it done before the 18th while still maintaining +ev play.

5) 60k hands in Nov
-Currently at 43k hands. Looks like I am gonna finish just a bit over 50k hands for the month. 17k hands in 3 more nights is 'doable' but a bit too much for me to do it without either mass tabling at low ev or dropping in stakes.


Current Learning Focus
1) Act slowly and deliberately
-This goes hand in hand with Goal #1. I am definitely 'fast clicking' far less often than I was before.

2) Narrow villains range on every street
Works with CLF #1. Much better at this lately as well.

3) Use exploitative bet sizing vs weaker opponents
I'm happy with my improvement on this in the last week or so. I've stopped being lazy and clicking 2/3 every street.

4) Use balanced sizing vs stronger players
TBH, there are only a few players I feel like are observant enough for me to focus on balances against. But I do go out of my way to at least appear balanced vs them.


Physical Goals
1) Complete the burpee challenge without skipping any days
- Just finished day 9.

2) Run a minimum of 3 days a week (C25K)
- Completed Week 1 Day 1

3) Weigh under 180 by New Years.
- Will check weight 1 week, Dec 5th. Currently 192lbs (87kg)

Just finished w1d2 of C25K

My legs are really sore from yesterday's run and were definitely pissed off at me for running again today. Overall my running and walking was a little slower than yesterday but I made it thru. Going to take a day to rest and let my muscles recoup a bit.

I am definitely the most out of shape I have been in my life.