“You've got it backwards, kid. You play cards the way you should lead your life…and you lead your life the way you should play cards. Maybe everybody has a blind spot. Maybe everybody has to learn from their mistakes. I sure learned from mine.”


Two week ago received a stimulus check. Dropped $500 onto Bovada. Played $50nl Zone. Button clicked while quickly realizing my understanding of the game was lacking. Kept punting stacks and playing blackjack to recover losses. Ran it up to $2500 by Labor Day. Double downed on the Martingale strategy. Busto in a few clicks.

After a couple hours of angrily analyzing my lack of personal growth it became apparent that I’ve never taken the necessary steps to improve. Thinking and introspection are an internal process and when they’re not combined with external work then the same mistakes are bound to repeat. This is my blind spot. It’s been out in the open and I’ve never learned from it. Wise words L.C.

Naturally I redeposited $500 with the requisite anger to forge enough resolve to play tighter and punt less. The poker gods have rewarded me with coolers and enough reverse punts so field position has allowed me to overcome my lack of fundamentals.

What’s become more apparent is that other than playing tighter ranges I’m not sure where my edge would be vs competent opponents. That’s to say I don’t know how to construct proper ranges or what to do with them.

Simply put, I'm out of my depth in a game I’ve been playing for half my life.

Step 1 is to reach out and use this as a resource and personal motivation. I’m a fast learner and hopefully the community won’t mind investing some time to help the grind =)

First question: In an anonymous player pool with no HUD there’s an interesting dynamic where villain will 3b in position and call a 20bb 4b with hands like KJs.

My expectation used to be those hands were 3b/folded. My process for dealing with this new dynamic isn’t great. I’m 4b AK+ and some AQo AJs TT and JJ. Post flop I have a strong range but not much board coverage in 4bet pots and a not so strong usually capped range OOP. I can tell it’s not ideal. (My frequencies and hand selection are also based on intuition, which is also not ideal but all I got and I’m cognizant not to be too passive or overplay, yet it’s obvious I’m really only gaining vs the worst players)

My issue is that in an anonymous player pool there are definitely players 3b light and too frequently because they’re protected by anonymity. Should I fight that edge? Or is this something where I’m supposed to 4b tight and gain my edge there while giving up hands like AJs and 99?

Any insight into the solver approach or anything else is much appreciated. Thanks!

GL with all your goals man will be following. Not sure how to answer your question cab you elaborate more? Only answer i can give is no you shouldn't fold AJs or 99 to a 4b.

Thanks my friend. My question was broadly asking how to approach a 3b OOP. My 4bets are getting called by a wider range than im used to and not sure what adjustment i should be making.

For your reading pleasure in honor of NFL sunday
http://https://captaincomeback.blog/...part-viii-5-1/

Good luck.

Line check. 3 hands where I obviously have equity and would like to hear how others proceed.

Hand 1. Open QQ UTG 2bb. Button and SB call. Pot 6bb.

Flop: 732ss. Cbet 4bb. Button calls. Sb calls.

Turn: 732ss Ts. Check. Button bets 3/4. Sb folds. Hero folds.


Hand 2: 40bb stack CO opens 2bb. Hero BTN 3b KJs to 8bb. Flop K99r. Cbet 6bb into 17bb. CO x/r to 18bb. Hero folded.


Hand 3: Hero UTG open AoQd 2bb. CO 3b to 7bb. Flop JT9dd. CO cbet 2/3 pot. Hero folds.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are you are folding too much. All those hands are calls and not folds.

move down in stakes. if your roll is 500, w/ your skill level 10nl is probably appropiate (this is not in a demeaning way, just a better player needs less buy ins since they have a higher wr)

That’s understandable.

Hand 1 I might be misremembering the board since QQ is a turn continue, it’s possible the oesd and flush came in on the turn. I remember my thinking was I could value/protect. Once I checked that sizing into two players it’s either way ahead or way behind. The only bluffs are naked Ax or a hand like TT where they’re value owning themselves; and it’s only specific type of player who will use that sizing.


Hand 2 it seemed entirely player dependent. My thoughts were I would have enough combos of stronger hands to continue with and KJ was near the bottom of my value range. With the minraise/call check/raise line that’s aces more than it should be and is an odd board to bluff with that line.

Hand 3 I think is losing money on a call. I’m not getting odds to call for the turn and there’s not much implied odds + could be dead and massive reverse implied odds on an ace turn.

Of course this is all guessing based on pool tendencies which is why I’m in need of coaching or someone who wants to adopt an adult son and teach them solver strat

I can’t figure out how to post screen shots. Roll is above 2k. Been playing all week and guessed right in blackjack, which is exactly why I made this thread so I’d stop gambling and focus on grinding =)

Im asking basic questions because these hands illustrate the fringe areas of micros. Was hoping for some in depth responses.

They’re also all hands I would continue normally but am trying implement a method and stick to my thought process. When I deviate for a hand I tilt myself regardless of if I was correct or not. It’s a little bit of the confusion begets annoyance which leads to lost focus

Look at you. One 64 hour session an you need a nap.

I’ve done half of that in a week and am exhausted. Need to up the stamina.

Weekly total: +$887. 32hrs. $27/hr.

9/6 +$107 in 2.5hr
9/7 +$134 in 3hr
9/8 +$353 in 5hr
9/9 +$342 in 6hr
9/10 -$299 in 3hr
9/11 +$139 in 7hr
9/12 +$112 in 5 hr

Blackjack +$900 (no mas)

Not a bad recovery after blowing $2.5k

Biggest leaks by far is lack of stamina. Every session is ended on a loss that’s all pure decision making and very costly to the win rate. Second biggest leak is calling these random all-in, curiosity kills this cat.

Going to implement a 2-3 buy-in stop loss. Minimum 1 hour break per buy-in. Physical exercise in between.

If anyone has any recommendations on resources where I can learn how to learn solvers/game theory I’d be much appreciative.

I’ve played a million+ hands and have lots of experience, just lacking in how to tie it all together. Need some direction outside of playing a different style every session.

Good luck.

Winners Tilt

You know that feeling of wanting more? How easy it feels when everything is breaking right. Then a couple hours of nada and you start hoping the cards will come and forcing action.

My mental game is weak sauce.

After 6 hours I start looking at 4-5 buyins as not enough. Which I know is ridiculous but when I start thinking of the stakes I get annoyed at the time invested and the slow bleed.

I really need to figure out how to respect the game conditions and accept the long term.

It doesn’t help that I’m not entirely confident in what I’m doing currently, that’s compounding my in-game and mental leaks. Always fell short in that regard which is probably the most important aspect to volume grinding.

Clicking call and spew bluffing is a mental crutch; I’m inducing action that I know is bad as an excuse to not play correctly because I’m tilted.

Gotta keep working at it. On the flip side I’m averaging 5+ punts a day and still winning. So either I’m doing something right or these games are as soft as they’ve ever been =)

Before I forget to catalog.

1st week was a mess of button clicking. 2nd week was calming the emotional roller coaster and honing in some semblance of a game plan

Saturday: min raise, min cbet 90%+
Sunday: min raise, normal cbet strat
Monday: ???
Tuesday: 3x + targeted 4x-5x opens
Wednesday: higher 3bet strat, spammed btn
Today: Profit xD

Holy fing **** I am a mfer of a tilt box. That initial anger to buckle down and focus has worn thin and its been a steady progression downward in self control.

Absent the social aspect it’s just me clicking buttons. I’m being extremely self critical and not finding any fun in what I’m doing.

Things like making bad barrels, worst card in the deck syndrome and tracking my sessions are affecting me emotionally. All normal poker ****

+$200 in 4 OR 8 hours of two tabling 50nl is really good yet it’s the little things that are bothering me and I’m not focusing on the results.

The results so far it’s been one losing day in 3 weeks overall. My hourly has been $24-$30 the entire time and currently sits at $28 even. Since the reboot $500>>>$3.8k (thanks dealer).

Yet I know I’m running excellent because I have punted so many stacks in hands where I’m just tilted. That’s the most frustrating part. I feel like I should be winning more and that’s causing me to lose the max.

The pattern has been grinding it out is the only thing that assuages my annoyance and uncoincidentally that works until I inevitably start tilting again. Rinse and repeat.

I’m not following my quitting rules because it’s been ineffective; I come back trying harder not to **** up. On the positive side I’m aware while it’s happening, I’m just currently emotionally incapable of stopping it. This is probably residual effects from a poker lifetime of grinding for months only to blow the rolls in a few hours. I’ve developed a complex while not correcting the problem and it’s festered into everything.

Also life tilt affects poker tilt. Never liked talking like this but it’s apparent that substances were an emotional crutch. Interesting to look back on how that came to be, but at least ventanalizing puts it into perspective.

Me complaining is at least motivation to fix it. Good luck, run good

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0xDtK3g3Q&t=1674s


Been applying these principles to my thoughts and actions while I play and it’s been a big turnaround.

Ive basically been pressuring myself into playing up to a standard that I’m not yet at and that’s had a negative effect on my outlook.

Overhauling my game will be a process and it’s my responsibility to accept my flaws along the way.

There seems to be zero interest here so if anyone reading this knows of a study group that I can link up with Id be greatly appreciative. Hopefully I can contribute with experience.

I'm interested in your journey. If you decide to let blog die you can hmu on discord BobbyPeru#6308

Appreciate the support

Been working on separating my emotions from the game. I’ve definitely been a bit too rigid in my outlook and that’s been affecting my play.

BR is still on the uptick =)

Moved up to 100nl with 40+ buyins.

It’s regular 6max tables and not zone. The difference is pretty big. Still no hud but just being able to follow the action and game flow is so much easier than trying to guess what’s going on in zone.

It’s become even more apparent how emotionally I was playing trying to hedge my instincts vs being confident in my actions. My lack of theoretical knowledge really shows up the more hands there are, who knew!

So far redline seems okayish. There’s been some lazy betting/barreling happening, but overall I’m playing the rfi game well both IP and OOP. The biggest advantage so far is having a feel for the 3b game and I’m not punting/picking good spots vs these opponents. The only downer is my run good seems to have momentarily evaporated with the leveling up in stakes, but that’s poker.

The stations are obvious but I will work to remain vigilant on trying to pick off barrels. The pot button seems to be polarized in entirely the wrong way; like they’re using it to get folds with random hands vs being balanced. Also Jxx flops seem to get x/r way more frequently than any other boards, which makes sense but is also indicative that the pool is mostly making plays they’re confident in, vs trying to exploit on a per hand basis. I guess that’d make sense for the state of low stakes online.

Good luck, happy hunting to the weekend warriors.

It’s been a minute so updating.

Had a self destructive 20 minute blackjack blowup of -$4k+. Lost 11 $300 bets in a row. Oddly it was a self affirming experience in that I truly need to identify why I turn off and compound negative emotions with something worse. I don’t get a rush from winning, its entirely anger based self hating bs.

Poker wise I’m making a go of it. Got a new comp and set up. Sitting in a chair and desk is way more +EV than a couch and ipad. Having a keyboard and Jurojin for betsizing is also a requirement and saves tons of mental energy.

Results wise it’s been very rocky. 10k hands $50nl and negative $200. 10k hands $100nl went on a 15 buyin downer into the negative til a +7 buyin last 1k hands. Overall it appears I’m a breakevenish tilty bad reg.

The good news is there’s lots of room for improvement! Honestly though if this is my worst where I’m playing undisciplined tilted poker then there is room for growth. The important part is to identify the issues and make changes rather than just talking about it.

-I can’t play long sessions
-I can’t play and multitask by watching sports/poker content
-I can’t play through and grind out my tilt
-I can’t get outside myself and play hands because ‘f*ck you’
-I need physical stamina to improve my mental stamina

Been working with a guy who is kind enough to give me time. Read a couple books, got introduced to mass database analysis as well as some theory. Really struggled to integrate new information into my game; that made me take another step back and look at my process.

Watching someone else grind and breakdown hands it’s very apparent that he’s a couple levels ahead in knowledge and a world of difference in discipline. The way I am winging it is destined to fail. I’m not skilled or knowledgeable enough to overcome this emotional component of being unsure what to do or how to play.

I need to focus on preparing myself without expectation, while accepting that my poker growth will be slow and only grow at the rate that I put into it. Underneath it all I am a passionate player. Channeling that into positive productivity will be my path forward and the measure of how far I can go.

Can’t say I’ve turned the corner, but in looking at the road ahead I am optimistic. As for my process there is much room for improvement. To cope with the grind I’ve quickly gone from sober, to once a week to take the edge off, to a few nights for extra sleep to every night at the beginning of the session. Not a good place to be and it’s a clear downward pattern. Time to give up this crutch.

Along these lines I will also self ban from the casino. Gambling is literally the only path to risk of ruin.

I see now what self medicating is, and it will be replaced by professional help and if need be actual medication that will aid my concentration/focus. Hopefully this will also improve my study habits.

I am able to intake a lot of information, but have been struggling to build up habits and convert that information into action. I want to crush and so far have been far more passive than I expected; my lack of initiative is self tilting.

Despite my internal negative dialog it was a good week in poker. 25+ buyins in 10k hands. I’ve found some table discipline, am obviously running good and with these new goals I intend to continue incrementally improving my grind.