Hi 2p2!

About me
I started playing poker online in the summer of 2008. First I played NL10 FR and – after losing my first $50 – I was quite successful. One year later I played NL30 and I had around $1.000 on my account but I wasn’t satisfied with the poker client so I switched to a new poker room. I also tried to play NL10 6max and I found it more interesting so now I’m a NL10 6max player. I used to play NL25 for some month but I was only a BE player.

I have a family with two children and I also have a good job so I’m just a recreational poker player. I normally sit at 3 tables parallel and play 300-500 hands a day. I’m not a grinder obviously…

Currently…
I moved to PokerStars in November 2010. This is my graph since then:



Having a win-rate of 7.5bb/100 and a current BR of about $1.400 I could easily switch to NL25. But I think I couldn’t really. Why?

The problem
Well, I’m weak-tight. Look at my graph again:



As you can see I have a tragic red line. Some of my stats indicate that I fold too much and I don’t bluff enough. Overall I’m not aggressive enough:



The challenge
Shortly: I want to really crush NL10 before I move up in stakes. Once a week I go out with my friends to a pub called Leffe: we drink some beer and we play online. We sit at one table and play a very laggy style. We are often successful and we have a positive red line. Unbelievable.

From now on I’ll try to incorporate this experience into my normal play: I’ll try to fight for more pots:

• to play a bit looser,
• to fold a bit less,
• to bluff a bit more…

My goal is to have a better win-rate and consequently a flatter red line. I’m giving myself $200 (20 BI) to play: if I lost this amount I’ll consider this challenge to have been failed and I’ll return to my normal play.

This thread
I’ll use this thread

• to keep track of my progress,
• to post interesting hands and
• to discuss relevant strategies.

I hope it’ll be interesting…

Good luck! If you haven't yet, I would really recommend reading the Concept of the Week on red line: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/78...t-ever-791734/

Thx for the input! I have read this one and some others found on this site. I think I will collect the best ones in a single post.

I have just finished my first session:



I lost one hand and split another one where I had 93% equity... but that's poker. I played 24/20/6.0 w/ a 38.5% postflop aggression. The W$WSF was only 38.3 though.

What about this hand? Do you barrel turn or call OTR? Villain was a (both PF and postflop) aggro LAG (over 58 hands only):

Depends on the villain but I probably call his river bet. If we double barrel he's never folding any PP, but he probably does fold AQ. We pretty much have to give up if he calls 2 barrels. By checking turn we keep the pot smaller, keep in AQ and allow him to bluff the river with worse.

Yes, I didn't want to double barrel as this wasn't a good turn card and I didn't want to triple barrel unimproved. I ended up folding but I think next time I should seriously consider calling.

Hmm. Depends on the player and probably need some stats in this situation on the villian.
But what I would say is that if you c bet the flop i would have probably bet the turn also. My reasoning is that its generally easier to play it this way because if he calls and does have a PP he most likely checks the river and you can go to showdown (although you probably lose). Also, you could think about betting any paint that lands on the river but the 9 is not a good card to fit your range. Checking the turn and putting him in control puts you in a tough spot and so betting the turn seems right if you bet the flop. So I would probably have folded the river more often than calling seeing as we pretty much gave up on the turn.

But in this situation I would have probably checked this particular flop more often than betting it anyway.

I could be talking complete BS but just my 2cents! :/

Last thing - regarding your redline. I would look at your cbet and your turn cbets being to high maybe? And looking at flop textures more regarding your cbets. But yeah - im not 2 sure about that. I manage to keep mine pretty flat for the most part.

Thx! He was 33/31 and had a very high postflop aggression (more then 50% OTF/OTT). I thought he could easily call another bet OTT that's why I didn't fire again.

You can find my c-bet stats in my original post. Flop c-bet is too low, turn c-bet is probably too high. I'll try to c-bet more OTF and perhaps more OTR. We'll see if it helps?!?

In my second session today I continued running bad and under EV. I played 21/18 but my W$WSF was only 31.7 which can be very well seen on my graph:



One interesting hand where villain was a 77/32 w/ a very high postflop aggression:



Altogether I have finished the day in the green but there's still a lot of room for improvement

Another s****y day:



There was a point when everybody seemed to play back at me. In the following hand villain was a huge fish (only over 4 hands). In these hands he limp/called 3 times and folded OTF. Are we snap shoving?

Strategy threads concerning red line improvements:

• *CotW: The Last Red Line Post Ever* by mpethybridge
• Improving your redline (Pooh-Baah) by imfromsweden

I'll extend this list w/ further threads which are highly related to my goal. Additional appropriate threads are obviously welcome!

Tighten up pre flop, open less suited connectors. play a tighter game and value bet, cbet strongly. Red line will soon look better.

I was 21/18. Do you think it's too loose? You can see on my graph that my red line got even worse somewhere around the 40.000th hand. That was actually the point when PS changed its buy-in structure and a lot of SS fish appeared and I had to play a tighter game. On the other hand you're certainly right saying I have to improve my postflop game so that I can win pots w/o going to SD as I obviously don't always have a good SD-able hand.

My flop c-bet is really a bit low and I think I should triple barrel more often too.

Thx for the advice!

My first session today was quite awful again:



Reason was I got tilted as a fish cracked my AA and QQ and because of this some hands later I managed to c-bet/call his shove on a 776 flop in a 3bet pot w/ AK. I normaly sit out immediately if I feel I've got tilted too much but today I wasn't able to do so.

What do you think about the following hand? Villain was practically unknown.

I only played a shorter session today. It started terribly again but at the end I managed to stack off a fish.



How do you play the next hand? Villain was a nitty TAG (18/14 over 103 hands) unaware of position but sufficiently aggro postflop.

Today I have played three shorter seesions. My red line keeps falling but today I don't mind it too much as fish payed off my AA three times.



There have been two hands I would like to hear your opinion about. In the first hand villain was a 64/23 (over 84 hands) but he wasn't crazy postflop. Do you call OTF?



In the second hand villain was a 32/5 (over 40 hands) fish w/ a normal postflop aggression. OTT I checked back for pot controll as he called my flop c-bet 4-way. Do you call OTR?



I'm going to do a detailed review of my play when I have had 10k hands since I started this challenge.

I have finally managed to run good:



In the next hand villain was a huge fish: 60/27 w/ a very high postflop aggression. He usally bet smallish on each street w/ ATC.

Yesterday must have been an exception as I have run two BI under EV today again.



There was a hand where I got very good odds for a river call. What do you think, call or fold?

hey just so that you know, having a negative redline is ok with your green line

I with I had such a straight graph, good luck with your challenge !

btw are you from Belgium ? Leffe is a kind of beer here

I don't think 21/18 is too loose at all. At the moment, I believe I'm running somehthing like 21 or 22/17 at 10nl. At 2nl I was playing something like 23/19. Just make sure that you're using pressure at the right times and pay attention to board texture and your position. And definitely take a lot of notes - this is something that I have to constantly remind myself to work on. Right now, I feel I'm playing too much of a breakeven game, so I'm going to reduce my tables down from 6 to 2 or 3 and concentrate on making as many notes as I can on the players and different lines to take to adjust. And of course, i'm getting back into utilizing my HUD during my play.

Subscribing and following, good luck furkae!

Yes, I know. My problem is that my red line is way too steep and I'm sure I loose money in spots I shouldn't.

Thanks!

I'm a Hungarian but I like Belgian beers a lot. This pub where I meet my friends has simply been named after your beers.

About taking notes: I do it regularly and I have a lot of notes on my opponents. The problem is they aren't really useful at this stake:

• The player pool is very big and you simply don't often meet your opponents again:
  • fish vanish and you never see them again and
  • regulars step up quickly and
  • a lot of new players change (improve?) their play quickly and a note taken today won't be reliable tomorrow.
• I table select very cautiously (often starting tables myself) and I try to avoid already marked (colour coded) solid players.
• I play relatively short sessions (max. an hour) and I don't sit w/ them for an enough long time.

So you may ask me why I bother to make notes at all? Well, I have three main reasons:

• I have to practice as at higher stakes my arguments above become more and more false and less watertight.
• I learn a lot about general player tendencies by doing so.
• It helps me to stay focused during the game.

Thx!

Terrible day again... This is my graph after one week since I started this challange:



My stats so far:

• #Hands: 3813 // That's fine given my possibilities.
• WR: +1.39 bb/100 // Obviously terrible although I have run 1.5 BI under EV.
• WR w/o SD: -14.41 bb/100

I would be happy to hear your opinion on the next hand. BB was a 38/5 (over 21 hands) fish w/ a very high postflop aggression. BTN was a 33/19 (over 130 hands) laggy fish. He was also aggro postflop but not crazy. I thought I was ahead OTF/OTR but I didn't want to raise into these two opponents. What do you think?

I don't think you have anything better than a bluff catcher on the river, and I doubt either one of these guys will be bluffing. You played the hand pretty well actually imo. On the river, A6, A7, and A8 now has two pair and a stubborn Ax got there as well, and there's a possible straight on the turn and either could be slowplaying sets or overpairs. Make a note how the hand was played by each player - you may not see them again but you will definitely see similiar play in smiliar spots. The only thing I could see doing differently would be leading the turn for like 2/3rds pot when you pick up the oesd - probably not the best play, but cheaper than a check/raise, it could get the hand to showdown and you might even lose one of the other players. But fold to raise, check/fold river. I think you played the hand fine though.

Thanks for your answer! Actually I was ahead OTF (which I was quite sure of) but I didn't want to blow the pot OOP against two fish w/ a weak made hand. OTT I thought the same and I picked up an OESD so I elected to call again. OTR I would have called the small bet made by the huge fish but the reraise of the BTN made me clear I was almost certainly beaten. Actually the BB had an A and the BTN made a straight OTT...

As usual being passive spared me the pain paying off the BTN as I don't think he would have folded to a c/r OTF. These passive lines result in less variance but they can be less profitable too esp. OOP. In other words I should be more aggro (spewy?) sometimes so that I can experience other lines which can be more profitable.