Hi there 2p2,

I have been playing poker for six months or so now, and have become very interested in cash games. I have been lurking the forums, gaining huge amounts of information, and really believe I have come to understand poker. I do regret waiting until now to make an account, because I think that participating would really help to understand the game better, so I finally decided to join and make this thread. I am currently playing 4nl on Merge. In the past, I have played ~30k hands, and have had huge swings, and am likely a small loser at the moment, but in the last few months, I have spent almost all of my time studying the game. Now I plan to give it another whirl.

Will be using a pretty cushioned BRM:
Begin shots @25BI
Move up on all tables @30BI
Drop if I fall below 20BI

I erased my HEM database, as most of the hands are useless to me now, considering my poor play and lack of knowledge of the game. I also didn't have many hands on certain players, since the ones to worry about generally move out of 4nl by now. :P

I will be posting trouble hands where I am unsure of what the correct play is, and also just to display my logic when playing hands. I will also post session graphs and overall graphs frequently.

Good luck at the tables, and enjoy the thread.

Skype: SpeculativePoker

Played a quick 200 hand session, -$7.49
Had one deep cooler (AA vs AA, he hits flush) for 150bb, and other than that and one or two ~30bb spew hands, I played alright. Not too much action considering most of the tables are all nits this time of day. Maybe I should start waiting for late night when the fish come out. :P

Not sure how I should have played this one...




FLOP: When he donks into me, I put him on FDs trying to see a cheap turn, sets trying to induce a raise, weak Jx and Qx hands, and 22-33, 55-TT. I decide to raise to charge his draws.

TURN: He checks to me as the flush hits, but I also pick up T2P, so I decide to half pot it. I think he continues with flushes, Adx, sets, weaker 2ps, Qx hands, and possibly some underpairs.

Should probably be folding OTT after he raises I'm assuming? These players usually tell you when they hit the flush, and with another street to go, I have only 4 cards for a full house that can come, and the rest will be a tough decision if he leads out.

Bankroll: $142.51

Having a strange first day with the challenge... Notice the redline. Am I playing too nitty of tables?
Also may have to do with the fact that every time I have been value betting TPTK+ hands today, no one seems to come along. It's fit/fold from them for the most part, and they just happened to hit hard when I have decent hands.

Day 1: Today's graph (Also, overall graph)


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Session # Hands: 881
Session Amount Won/Lost: +$1.41

Total # Hands: 1,080
Total Amount Won/Lost: -$6.08
Bankroll:$143.92

What I need to work on: After reviewing the sessions for today, I noticed that I lost a LOT of money calling after being 3b against tight players. In most of the hands, I should have recognized that my hand was easily dominated by their range, and even though for most I had position, the fact of the matter is that you shouldn't be calling a 3b with ATo from a nit with a 6% range.

Bro, I have no idea on your financial situation but I'd just deposit more and move up if you can afford to. At this stage of the game when we dont know what the future for online poker and the sites still available to us in the US, is it really worth it to put in all these hours for potential pennies?

I was doing a similar thing as you until I realized im wasteing my time and find myself making non optimal plays and the micros just because the amount of money is so insignifigant especially since I primarily grind 2/5 and 1/2 live. I said F it awhile ago and was going to just not play online because I didnt feel comfortable depositing 1K+ with merge potentially going down for us. Long story short I sat down and said I'm just gonna degen the couple hundo I deposited for the micros months back at ms plo purely for entertainment value. Iended up running hot and made 1K so I started playing 50NL and it's going well. I play my normal game when it's for dollars instead of cents. Lol I prob sound like a degen donk telling this story but I don't care, just thought I'd share.

Im not by any means advocateing a degen shot but just telling you to reevalute your situation as a US online player with the state of the game today. Is all that time and effort worth it grinding up from 4NL and is the insignifigant amount of money for those stakes causeing you to play a wider range than you should be/calling down lighter than you would if the chips meant something?

I like the way you played the above hand. I think the turn call is fine being you improved and your not drawing dead to anything but KK. I think you give villain to much credit in the range you assigned him on the turn. He would also be raising any pair here with nut or 2nd nut draw and even a random K as a semi bluff on the flush. Im never folding turn and always checking back that river.

It is unlikely that this villain is check-raise semibluffing with draws given his complete lack of aggression in the 20 hand sample.

OP...your thought process was right on the flop that he is inducing with a monster or trying to get cheap draw. Therefore, flop raise is good.

When draw connects on turn I would be tempted to check behind even tho you spike top two. You would have to call most river bets if another diamond doesn't peel but it might be the easier play given such a passive villain. Of course if he checks river back as well then you bet.

GL with your challenge and you should probably not take the degen advice above

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the insight and encouragement. I may play some later tonight, so ill post some more hands if I do. Probably won't play tomorrow though... Have a home tourney to go to.

Good luck at the tables.

This advice is so flawed.... VIL is 56/0/6 how can you possibly say that vil has a complete lack of aggression with an aggression factor of 6 lol, fyi this is not a pre flop stat. This 20 hand sample just tells us Vil is the kind of player to limp with a huge range preflop and has shown no PRE FLOP aggression.

must be different in HEM than PT3, cuz 6 Afq is low

Right, http://www.pokerspace.com/school/pok...on-percentage/

Yeah, he is a passive whale preflop, but is pretty aggressive postflop.

Was having a very good session until this happened...

Villain was hugeeeee whale spewing like crazy.

Alright, done with that session. My eyes are bleeding from the **** people call down with and hit on the river. I need a break. A few minutes after the above hand, had AA v AQo AIPF, and he hits runner Q's. 150bb deep, against a whale.

Session # Hands: 164
Session Amount Won/Lost: -$8.05

Total # Hands: 1,244
Total Amount Won/Lost: -$14.13
Bankroll:$135.87

Alright, just went back to playing 10 stacked tables like I used to do for a bit, and I've noticed it really helps getting through the variance. You don't get to see what happens (i.e. if you suffer a bad beat) since it's click and on to the next hand, so it prevents me from tilting, and I get nice volume in.

No real problem hands, had one sloppy hand (AQ vs a whale donking me on KxxQK board, should have known he had a stray K)

Session # Hands: 625
Session Amount Won/Lost: +10.76

Total # Hands: 1,869
Total Amount Won/Lost: -$3.37
Bankroll:$146.63

Had another solid session 10-tabling for a short time before bed. Seems to be helping me a lot to play more than 3-4 tables. Also noticed some of my numbers don't add up, but I don't feel like constantly checking it to make sure it's precise, so I'll just enter what HEM2 says...

Did I miss any value on this hand? Villain is 39/34/3.2AF and had 16% 3b from the sb over 233 hands. I flat the 3b since I have position, to keep his mid PPs / weaker aces (probably not many of those though) in. OTT I checked behind to try to keep weaker PPs / weaker aces in, and considering his aggression, thought I might induce a bet on the river. Should I maybe 1/3-1/2 pot the river to get a crying call, or is this guy likely to be raising huge and putting us in a tough spot? Should this be a fold pre?



Session # Hands: 235
Session Amount Won/Lost: +$9.81

Total # Hands: 2,104
Total Amount Won/Lost: +$6.55
Bankroll:$155.93

Gl with your challenge man!
On the last hand you have to valuebet, when he checks OTT and OTR you are ahead 99% of the time, so why not go for value?

Just played a short session, all was good except when I had AA and timed out due to a lag spike, and two deep fish got it in pf with kk and JT, would have had a nice pot from that. :/ Also, bankroll on the site says I've lost money after that session? :| Sorry for the weird numbers.


Session # Hands: 221
Session Amount Won/Lost: +$1.87

Total # Hands: 2,328
Total Amount Won/Lost: +$8.34
Bankroll:$155.80

Sorry I haven't been posting many hands. Just not very many tricky spots lately. :P Another winning session though. It's nice to put together a string of solid-playing sessions... Did have one questionable one this session though:

Villain is running 34/23/1.3AF/10.5% 3b
PREFLOP: I do my standard raise, and he 3-bets me. He has a pretty wide range here that includes weaker aces, and I have have position, so normally I would call, but I also want initiative in case I miss flop, so I 4-bet. I'm assuming by how he had been playing that he wasn't folding much to a 4-bet. (Seemed stationish)
FLOP: I flop a gut shot, as well as the BDNFD, so I c-bet. I think he is calling with his entire range here.
TURN: I hit an ace, but a lot of his worse aces hit 2p here, so I check behind. Should I be shoving here, considering the stack sizes and the flush draw on the board? Or does it not matter given his range. (i.e. he's not flush chasing, he has 1P/2P/set hands).
RIVER: After a second ace comes, I am still concerned about him boating up. When he donk shoves, I'm really unsure what he has here though. Is this a wreckless call, or correct given the odds.




Session # Hands: 341
Session Amount Won/Lost: +$5.99

Total # Hands: 2,669
Total Amount Won/Lost: +$14.43
Bankroll:$161.75

Not I do not have the experience that others have and they miss agree with me and give you a different idea. I personally would of done a feeler bet of like 1/4 half the pot on the turn for value and how I am ranked check. If called would do a 1/2 to 3/4 on the river. The reason for this to me is to extract maximum value out of the hand and to get away from it possibly with a shove. Anyone disagree with me?

AlSO: Very good work so far and I will be following your post.

Rough day. Played almost 500 hands and pretty sure I never had 2p+ once, and just made a lot of questionable calls. Going to stop now and try again later when I'm a little more clear-minded. The tables had very few stations and lots of 30/5 type players who are very nitty postflop, so it was just a bad time for me I guess.

Session # Hands: 482
Session Amount Won/Lost: -$7.61

Total # Hands: 3,151
Total Amount Won/Lost: +$6.72
Bankroll:$154.10