Congrats on the recent success in the GG tourney!

I ain't no bounty expert, so will refrain from providing any input on the hand you just posted.
You'll need to adjust for ICM in this spot as well by the way, which makes it pretty damn complicated. Hope someone can help you out.

Looks like variance is swinging the good guys way for once. Time to sun run that br back up.

Fingers crossed!

It's like the first rays of sun poking through the dark clouds...

Love your honesty, keep us updated on your progress. I barely play poker any more, as getting crushed in the cash games again and again just isn't any fun. Having said that, I've gotten very good at playing the electric guitar recently. Even the guys in my band have noticed a huge difference. Sorry for the tangent, keep up the run good!

Thanks man, and good luck with the guitar! I unfortunately have zero musical talent whatsoever. Back in 7th grade I played the violin and do you know how bad I was? I was the only student in the class not invited to play in music night.

That's terrible! Shame on them for not inviting you. I like it when people are brutally honest about their results/journey. I do not have raw, natural talent at anything. If I want to get good at something, it requires a full time commitment, and serious dedication. Anyway, this thread is not about me, it's about YOU. Keep us updated on your journey.

Ugh, took a real step back this weekend. Had a couple of small cashes but overall it felt terrible. Bad beads, coolers, bad runouts when I had hands, and some terrible calls on my part. I haven't reviewed the HH's yet but I know I'm going to find some serious mistakes. It seemed like people were shoving into me on the river all weekend long, and I kept talking myself into calls. "They can't have it every time. I need to see it." And they almost always had it. I made some good calls too, but the difference was I made too many big calls in spots that just weren't obvious bluffing spots for my opponent. I lost sight of a valuable lesson I've learned before: in the micro stakes, folding to big river bets is going to be more +ev than calling them.

The other thing I have to check is whether I'm at fault for some of these coolers because of my hand selection. It's easy to brush something off as a cooler but if I was in there with a hand I shouldn't have been playing, that's just beginner poker.

Also, I'm planning to provide more structure to my session reviews and updates. I used to give myself a report card based on specific goals when I reviewed sessions and I'd like to get back to doing that.

Play live NLHE cash games.......one of lowest variance forms of poker. With a nice hourly as well as soft games.

I don't really have access to live cash games, other than crappy home games. Besides, as I mentioned before in the thread, I find cash really boring.

Don't worry, I've had this same issue this past weekend as well. Went down from $650 broll to $570. It happens.

You're 100% right that it's better EV to fold on the river than continuously calling it off. You have to pick your spots to call and learn how to concede the weaker hand, instead of talking yourself into calling. It becomes an action & outcome binary choice rather than evaluating your opponents full range of hands they could be representing. They don't always bluff you. Sometimes they truly do have the better hand and you increase your bb/100 in the long run by folding.

Fold your way into becoming a profitable Poker player.

I've noticed how my negative mindset from the bad run affects me in these spots. You'd think a losing streak would make me less inclined to call off but the opposite seems to happen. I get so annoyed at the losing that I can't stand letting go of a good hand when I have one and giving up a potentially big pot. I get so discouraged at the thought of having to work my way back from a damaged stack that I seem to throw in the towel. It's a way of absolving myself of the responsibility for making bad decisions if I fold the best hand too. I think, "Screw it, if he has a better hand then it's just another cooler. Not my fault."

Hmm, my son just came to mind as I was writing this. He plays elite baseball and his big weakness as a hitter was that he used to be very passive and would take way too many close calls with 2 strikes, resulting in too many strikeouts looking. It was totally a mindset thing for him too. He hated striking out swinging because that's his fault, but if he strikes out looking he can blame the umpires for a bad call. Not his fault. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I learned a great saying in acting school. When you become aware of a thing, it has less power over you.

The fact you're aware of it is just the beginning. I want to respectfully give you a challenge to keep you accountable for your growth. The next time you feel your mindset slipping from a bad beat or cold deck or a suck out, I just want you to simply observe the thoughts and how you feel like you would if you saw yourself as an passive observer.

Then moment you do that, on a consistent basis, is the moment you build up the muscle of tilt control. The moment you forget to do this, on a consistent basis, is when you let this continue to affect your sessions.

You're 100%. It does suck laying down pocket Queens on an 47JAK board. But when you're getting 3 bet on the turn and 2 bet on the river, you know you're beat. It's the ego talking. Wanting validation and wanting to avoid defeat. The irony is, you lose the battle but win the war by making sick hero folds. Why would you want to give away your hard earned money so easily? That's the better trick.

Eventually, the tables turn and they make mistakes like bluffing all in when you hold the nut flush or top set or full house.

You're a good man Darth. I really enjoy reading your journey as you're completely coachable and able to admit your shortcomings so you can grow into a better player. This is what I strive to be myself.


Funny thing about your son, the same logic I describe above applies. This is all tilt control and grappling with your thoughts. When the mind wanders, the emotions can get volatile and the body follows. Your relationship with your mind and emotions is one where you want to walk the dog, not let the dog walk you.

Onto the next one!

@RareBearMemeShaman Much appreciated. And you're right, I do need to get better at getting control over my mindset in the moment. It's hard to do when playing turbos online where everything moves so quickly. But I will work on it.

Got some preliminary results from my weekend session analysis. I went through and screened for all the major pots (40bb+) I was involved in that went to showdown, plus added all my smaller bustout hands. Ended up with a total of 42 hands. There are a bunch I have to study, but the numbers were interesting. For the purpose of my analysis, I define a bad beat as losing when I got my money in as a 65%+ fav. A cooler is when getting my money in is unavoidable and I just run into a better hand.

Of the 42 total hands, I lost 26 for a win% of only 38%:

• 7 were clear bad beats
• 4 were clear coolers
• 2 I was good or on the right side of a flip

Of 32 big pots:

• 9 of them were river decisions, of which I won only 4

I lost 16 of these big pots (50%). Of the 16 I lost:

• 5 were clear bad beats
• 2 were clear coolers

Of the 10 smaller bustout hands:

• 2 were clear bad beats
• 2 were clear coolers
• 2 I was good or on the right side of a flip

Of the 33 total hands where I got all in before the river, I got in good in 20 of them (61%). I won 10 of these hands (30% of total sample; 50% of the ones I got in good).

When I look at these numbers, two things stand out:

1) I'm clearly still on the wrong side of variance in a lot of key situations. Getting my money in good 61% of the time before the river but only winning 30% of those hands is pretty ridiculous. Of the 10 smaller bustout hands, I had my money in good in 4 of them.

2) I clearly made some mistakes in the big pots, which I already suspected. I won fewer than half of the hands that involved big river decisions. The next step will be to dig into these hands.

There's no way this is either good for your mental game or productive in any way. I know it's frustrating that you're running bad mate, but the fact that you've gone out of your way to keep track of the exact amount of bad beats/coolers/flips you lost in a long session is pretty telling of how big an issue this is. There's no way you're not effecting your potential to become a steady winner when you put this much emphasis on how well/bad you're running. The mental game of poker is arguably as important as knowing what you're doing with the cards you're dealt.

I'm reviewing the session to see what I can learn from it. I'm not focusing exclusively on the bad beats, but I am trying to get a sense of how many mistakes I'm making and whether my perception of what's happening during the session is accurate.

So here's an example of a pretty big mistake. This is from a $3.30 Zoom turbo on Stars.

PokerStars - 20/40 Ante 5 NL FAST - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 67.45 BB
SB: 76.25 BB
BB: 110.52 BB
Hero (UTG): 70.37 BB
UTG+1: 66.6 BB
MP: 120.6 BB
MP+1: 56.17 BB
MP+2: 106.05 BB
CO: 43.3 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has A Q

Hero raises to 3.1 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 2.6 BB, BB calls 2.1 BB

Flop: (10.42 BB, 3 players) 3 Q 9
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 5.72 BB, fold, BB calls 5.72 BB

Turn: (21.87 BB, 2 players) 6
BB checks, Hero bets 12.02 BB, BB raises to 28 BB, Hero calls 15.97 BB

River: (77.87 BB, 2 players) 8
BB bets 54.52 BB, Hero calls 33.42 BB and is all-in


I think preflop and flop are fine but things get iffy on the turn. Given how static the flop is, and that I'm 70bb effective with TPTK, I shouldn't be looking for 3 streets of value and the turn is a good place to put in a check. So I think that's mistake number 1. Then he puts in a small x/r, which should set off major alarm bells, but he is giving me a really good price to see the river, so I don't think the call is bad. If I fold AQ to a small x/r there, people can just run me over. But there is no way I should be calling that river. This line would be highly, highly unusual from a bluff, or any hand worse than mine for that matter. The line really screams set.

His actual hand turned out to be completely unexpected, which pissed me off even more. Turns out he had T7cc. So he x/c my >half pot CB with literally nothing, made a small turn x/r with a gutter, and then completed his gutter on the river. Making what I knew deep down was a bad call annoyed me enough, but to see him turn over that hand and realize I got rivered by a complete donkey really bothered me.

Here's another mistake from the session. I'm noticing a recurring theme as I'm reviewing these hands: getting married to pairs and not recognizing when my opponent's range has few/no bluffs.

This is from a 3-max Zoom PKO:

PokerStars - 200/400 Ante 50 NL FAST (3 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 60.69 BB
Hero (SB): 111.34 BB
BB: 69.69 BB

3 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.87 BB) Hero has 5 A

fold, Hero raises to 3.11 BB, BB calls 2.11 BB

Flop: (6.59 BB, 2 players) Q A Q
Hero checks, BB bets 3.3 BB, Hero calls 3.3 BB

Turn: (13.19 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, BB bets 13.19 BB, Hero calls 13.19 BB

River: (39.57 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BB bets 8 BB, Hero calls 8 BB

BB shows K Q (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 39%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)
Hero mucks 5 A (Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
(Pre 61%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
BB wins 55.57 BB

The turn is the key decision point. I like the x/c on the flop because I have the clear range advantage and I'm not going to get any value from worse hands other than some spade draws. But on the turn he fires a second bullet and pots it on a brick card. My mistake was going into auto-pilot x/c mode with TPWK and not thinking through the situation. First of all, villain can have a lot of better hands on this flop: better Ax and a slew of Qx hands. Second, given that the flop is good for my opening range, he's unlikely to be firing away with a weak hand or bluff here. Third, I have him well covered and this is a PKO, which means he should be doing less bluffing in a spot like this. Fourth, although Andrew Brokos likes to say we shouldn't fold to bets we haven't faced yet, this is a spot where he has shown enough strength to increase the likelihood that I'm going to face a third bullet on the river. And there's no way I can call a big river bet. As it played out he gave me a price on the river I couldn't resist, but I should have folded the turn.

How early or late in the game was this hand?

In an infinite timeline, these are your stats vs this card - http://www.cardfight.com/AQo_93o.html

You're winning 67.20% of the time which is great. Means you can pat yourself on the back that the opponent made a shitmove.

I do think you overplayed the re-raise here. It's a huge amount to be re-raising. A flat call or a re-raise to 6 maybe but definitely 8/12bb would've been much better here, as on the flop, he may be scared off by the fact he didn't hit.

All this is theoretical though, I wouldn't react so badly to a bad beat where the opponent misplayed his hand badly and got bailed out on the river.

Hi Darth,

Nice to see a long term 2+2er start a blog.

Playing Microstakes MTT can be really dreadfull. As a fellow recreational Mtt'er i understand your struggle when being on a long breakeven stretch or a downswing.
Iam playing about 7 years in the same games at stars and GGpoker.

What helped my game and mental state was lowering my expactations. When playing that big mine fields and low volume it can take a year for the next bink comes around.
I just try to play my sessions at the best, keep a solid BRM and only look montly at my bankroll progress.

Not keeping result orriënted expectations prevented me tilting and playing better. (and stopping calling of in zero bluff spots helped for sure, haha).

Just keep your chin up ad some smaller field mtt's and play your best and it will turn around for you.

Gl and i will see you at the tables at GG

Mikeajax15

Editing my post wont work

To answering your question about the sunday schedule.

I guess they remove de micro and low stakes mtt to boost the bigger events on the sunday.

Blinds were only 50/100 so still quite early.

He opened almost 4.5x so I can't 3b to 8. That's the problem here, even if I go to 12 that's 1/3 my stack. The raise size was really fishy and capped his range, so I went with an exploit and over-shoved. My read was bang-on but the poker gods chose to reward him anyway.

I suppose, it's just really annoying when a site makes it obvious that small stakes players aren't their priority and makes decisions that clearly cater to higher stakes clients. It isn't hard to throw in a couple of $2 or $5 tourneys for the rest of us.

Turbos and turbo PKOs are MTTS with some of the thinnest edges going. The main edge in small stakes turbos used to be that population overfolds pre when facing jams. What happens in turbo PKOs is pop doesn't overfold so much and it could be that the splashy play donks chasing bounties are playing closer to optimal in the early stages than regs who are concerned with their tourney life.

So if they are beatable for a worthwhile clip at 12% PS rake (not convinced) then you need volume to do so. Given your experience I believe you can 4-6 table at least if you remove the 4max and heads up. Push yourself.

And make sure you are taking your thin push/fold and rejam edges, it's what you signed up for.

Good to see you added some reg speeds. Swap out some of those turbos for some 30-50bb reg speed late reg imo. If you're concerned about playing too late then only reg them for 2 hours into your session and make the reg speeds the top of your buy in range so if you are still playing "too late" then the money is exciting.

Disagree with the advice to skip large fields. Edges and achievable roi significantly greater.

GL

Not on Stars anymore I reckon, after our government basically eliminated 90% of our playing options since the new law changes?

I'm sure this is part of it, but if you're completely honest with yourself, would you say my statement is false?

I think you're on the right track with folding in spots like the top pair/top kicker spot you posted. People generally don't bluff dry runouts like this enough at these stakes. Pretty insane bluff + runout this time.