But having 150+ bb doesn't affect how the game should be played?
What I should do instead, quit the table and return with a regular buy in? I could lose a seat on good table by doing that.


13/10

Today I was running pretty well until my mouse stopped functioning randomly, I was on a table where 3 of the guys had stats like 70/60 and they were calling big bets having any little pair or draws so I noticed that and started overbeting and going all in on turn against them, which was pretty profitable and made have 500bb on the table quickly.

On the other 3 tables things were similar to that, the only difference is that they were calling less overbets or all ins, but all at all everything was going ok today.

Tomorrow I will be on 24 hours duty so I will not be able to play so I will focus on practice some preflop ranges on the poker trainer app.

Mirin your dedication, man! Especially with these circumstances that you have. Subbed.

Hey man, I totally get where you are coming from.
My situation isn't better.
I have similar goals like you. (I am playing NL5 for now)

I hope you quit the army asap. Will be following your progress.

J7s why are you betting flop? What are you trying to accomplish?

AA seems fine, you could also bet small on river and fold to a raise. Turn might also be a good spot to overbet as you have said people call a lot.

Thanks bro! let's keep going brother, we will get there eventually sooner or later About the J7s, I was trying to make them fold believing that I had an Ace, since I had a second pair and was in position against the original raiser I thought I was good to semi-bluff.

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14/10

I didn't had much free time today since I am on 24hrs service. Just found 1 free hour today to study about small blind game. I've noticed that my SB vs BB 3BET game really sucked. I was basically folding a lot of hands, just calling with top 10% of hands and nothing more.

I will focus solely on preflop game this month, specially 3bet ranges.

I think now I'm dealing better with all that loneliness and sadness, as long as I keep my mind busy studying and playing then I don't feel so bad anymore. Things will get better.

You have said multiple times how nl2 players like to call down bad hands, bluffing with J7s is really bad. Just try to show it down.
Bluffing with something like T8s would be much better because
1 - you can't win with T high unimproved 3way
2 - you have nutted outs
3 - easier for them to fold better hands, for example they can just fold something like K8o or 22 on the flop which would be great for us.

Starting to bluff with J7s has none of these benefits. You can already have the best hand against two fishes, you can easily try to show it down, maybe valuebet river if it goes check all the way. Button limpcalling preflop can probably have every Ax in his range, SB too might not cbet all of those.

Stop spewing and bluffing with flopped 2nd pairs.

Repping Aces is a powerful play, in my opinion.

the difference between what I've done and what other nl2 players are doing is that they usually CALL with midpair or low pair OOP, while I just semi-bluff sometimes when IP.

I was basically just doing what I learned in "crushing the microstakes", semi bluffing whenever I am IP, the board is dry and there's an Ace or King on the board.

Because people fold more easily against this hands, and when they call you know with some certainty that they are stronger than you, not to mention that you can see an additional card for free if they check.

I agree with you about the J7s being weak for this situation, a suited or gapped connector would be better. I'm just starting to learn about hands flexibility and stoping seeing hands just as strong or weak, It's something new to me.

I think I should also reflect more about what happened preflop before taking my postflop decisions.

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17/10

this last days I runned pretty well on my sessions, I've gone from $75 bankroll to $108.

I think I'm becoming better at noticing when villain have something strong and making him put all money on the pot when I have the nuts.
Learning to overbet or go all in on the right times (not too early or too late) according to villain style of play.


I also noticed that it is quite profitable to be deep stacked on a table where there is one or two whales who are also deep stacked. Because the most of ALL IN vs ALL IN situations against this guy's you are going to win, but instead of win 1 buy-in you will win 3 or more.

Yesterday I took a shot on NL5 since I've recognized a known whale playing on one of the tables. Just played 2 tables for 1 hour and lost 1 buy-in going ALL IN preflop with KK against A7o (ouch).

How are things going?

For all his arrogance/bumhunting/patronizing of fish, he's obviously going absolutely nowhere lol

How are things going?

10/11

Sorry for the lack of updates guys, there's a lot of things happening on my batallion currently that made me pretty busy.
However I'm still studying and playing a bit, but a little less than before to be honest.

Today I'm at home so I decided to wake up 5 AM, make some coffee, buy some bread and have a nice breakfast before start grinding.
I started playing 2 tables on zoom (I'm currently playing more zoom tables than regular ones), playing a solid tight aggressive game, folding good hands on complicated situations, being aggreesive when strong, going all in when I know the other guy have something strong that is weaker than my hand, things like that. bread and butter,

I'm being more aware of my mind state when playing now, basically forcing myself to be on control on what is happening, aware of what happened preflop on each table even when there's 3 or more complex situations happening at the same time, something that I wasn't doing before..

when I notice that I start to feel lost or overwhelmed(or tilted) I instantly sit out 2 tables (I'm usually playing 4 tables) for some minutes so I can recover my mindset properly, so when I feel that I have a good level of awareness of what is happening I add 2 more tables again. I think it's a smart adjustment.





I liked this morning session, I think it's the first time that I played more than 1k hands in one session without feeling overwhelmed of information. I would rate my game as a B+.



I also reached the 2º chest of rakeback on pokerstars that just made me $1 usd, at least is better than a freeroll ticket that I would certainly let expire since I hate to play freerolls

...

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

DunderAna (UTG): $2.00 (100 bb)
theicebergslim (MP): $3.59 (180 bb)
KonopDima (CO): $2.29 (115 bb)
RAMARAIDER (BU): $1.99 (100 bb)
BT_Boroda4 (SB): $2.48 (124 bb)
Pixel Light (BB): $2.65 (133 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero (theicebergslim) is MP with A♦ K♣
1 fold, theicebergslim (MP) raises to $0.06, 3 players fold, Pixel Light (BB) calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.13) 5♣ K♠ 8♥ (2 players)
Pixel Light (BB) checks, theicebergslim (MP) bets $0.09, Pixel Light (BB) calls $0.09

Turn: ($0.31) Q♠ (2 players)
Pixel Light (BB) checks, theicebergslim (MP) bets $0.21, Pixel Light (BB) raises to $0.56, theicebergslim (MP) calls $0.35

River: ($1.43) 6♥ (2 players)
Pixel Light (BB) bets $0.88, theicebergslim (MP) calls $0.88

Total pot: $3.19 (Rake: $0.14)

Showdown:
Pixel Light (BB) shows K♦ Q♣ (two pair, Kings and Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 24%, Flop: 13%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

theicebergslim (MP) mucks A♦ K♣ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 76%, Flop: 87%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

Pixel Light (BB) wins $3.05

H1: on the river I had a strong feeling that he had KQ because he raised me on the turn, was going all in on the river and his stats were (10/7). but since I had a TPTK, villain sample was just 20 hands and the price to call was not that high I thought it was worth it to call. anyone would do it differently?

session 2: I started playing with a good amount of focus at the beginning, well aware of what was happening on the 4 tables, but after 1 hour playing and some bad beats my focus started to decrease a bit and I made some mistakes like calling all ins not having the nuts in complicated river spots, folding playable hands because of distraction, misclicking, etc. My mourning session was definetely better than this one, my mind was thinking faster and I was commiting less errors.

You can ignore the graph pretty much.

What is important is understanding hand strengths .

Either you have to catch bluffs or you are having value.

having bluffs by yourself is at the early point of poker not mostly necessary the later the streets in game are going.

^^ I will be making material about this , not for free though , for micro players .

Always folding to turn and riverraises without 2pair+ at the micros is +++EV

I understand, I think i'll start studying more my own hand history also

I think it depends, I see a lot of players doing it having TPGK or even worse. anyway is a good advice to avoid get into complicated situations

22/12

Today I woke up, did some exercise, eat my breakfast and started training some preflop spots at my poker trainer app, I'm currently focusing on 3bet defense which is a big leak area that I have while trying to find some profitable spots to exploit other players, since at NL2 you are not dealing with lots of money so you can try/test new things that deviate a bit from your game without much concern

After that I played 4 zoom tables at pokerstars, I was experimenting some exploits that I thought and made sense for me and seeing what was working and what was not





What I think it's working:

1. going ALL IN with QQ, JJ, TT, AKs when someone 3bet. most of the time they fold and sometimes call with something with 30% equity or less

1. 3beting light against open raise OOP. Ex: 3bet with KJo from BTN against HJ open-raise, or 3bet with 55 from CO against UTG open raise. they are folding the most of the time or playing passively post flop when calling.

1. overbetting 20% of pot on the river when having TPTK or better. there's some spots when I have a strong hand that can only lose for a set or better however I can feel that the villain probably have something strong enough to make him call a PSB but not enough to call an all in (top pair mid kicker or worse), since there's a big chance of winning at showdown this is a spot to extract some extra money from him overbetting 20% or even 50% more than the pot (specially if pot is not so big compared to your stack)

session 2:



session 3:



Day Overall:



Today was good, I am noticing some plays that I do that always make me lose money and I keep doing anyway because someone said it's the right thing do it on that situation, avoiding to play hands that put me in situations post flop that I don't have experience or knowledge.
3bet pots where I'm OOP for ex, I need to improve on that area.

I'm also experimenting new ways to exploit other players, seeing what works and what doesn't work

Nice blog. Experimenting is good. Just don't get carried away with it. I certainly have at times... I think you play fine. I wouldn't beat myself up for losing with AA and J high flush. It is the ugly variance of poker.

23/12

session 1:



took a lot of bad beats today, specially against guys that call with flush draw or gutshot draw all streets until river.

Spots that I believe I'm losing money

I think I should stop being so aggressive when I hit the flush and I don't have the highest card, just check-calling it's okay.
I believe I'm losing some money with my suited connectors, I rarely connect with something and when I hit my straight the other guy sometimes have a better straight than mine and I lose my whole stack.

what worked today:

3beting with AQ, KQ, AJ against open raise from villain OOP, specially when I'm on BTN or CO. I steal the pot right away or a will play IP with a hand that can give me TPGK most of the time or a straight sometimes.

3beting with pocket pairs is also working well, when you hit your set there's more chance that the other player will have something strong enough to go ALL IN against you because since he called your 3bet he might have something potentially strong.
At least there's more chance to get the whole stack on the table than when I just set mine since the most of the time when I set mine villain was only trying to steal the pot with a weak hand preflop, however when he call a 3bet he probably have something strong enough to potentially hit a top pair with a good kicker, overpair or better.

stealing the pot with crap hands against tight players. If the guy folds too much to steal, to 3bet or to continuation bet, I'll bet or raise against him with any two cards, even 72o. it works everytime I try it. If he doesn't fold to steal or 3bet he will fold to c-bet eventually, and if he doens't you can be certain that the is strong and you should just check-fold.
but since this happens quite rarely compared to the times that you'll steal the pot with no problems I think it's profitable to do it.

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What would you guys do in that situation? Call anyway?

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 6 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

p�rick (UTG): $0.97 (49 bb)
valdas132 (MP): $2.68 (134 bb)
milhouse999 (CO): $1.27 (64 bb)
miozlafar (BU): $4.12 (206 bb)
GIORDANO_L92 (SB): $1.86 (93 bb)
theicebergslim (BB): $2.16 (108 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero (theicebergslim) is BB with A♣ A♦
1 fold, valdas132 (MP) raises to $0.06, 3 players fold, theicebergslim (BB) 3-bets to $0.19, valdas132 (MP) calls $0.13

Flop: ($0.39) K♣ Q♦ 6♦ (2 players)
theicebergslim (BB) bets $0.32, valdas132 (MP) raises to $0.76, theicebergslim (BB) calls $0.44

Turn: ($1.91) 8♣ (2 players)
theicebergslim (BB) checks, valdas132 (MP) bets $1.73 (all-in), theicebergslim (BB) folds

Total pot: $1.91 (Rake: $0.07)
valdas132 (MP) wins $1.84

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Thanks bro, I'm 100% okay about losing on those spots, my own mistakes and errors are what tilts me the most

today I was planning to play 1-2 more sessions but instead of I decided to just study hand reading. I downloaded an android emulator called "Nox" so I can use my favourite poker trainer app on pc, which I prefer to study than on my smartphone. they have a hand reading trainer which I never had a clue about how it works until today, they have a manual explaning the point of the exercise and how it works so I took a read on.

Besides the benefit of becoming better at hand reading this trainer is also been great to understand how much equity I have in complicated spots and to memorize some preflop ranges.



I think becoming good at this exercise is more worth it than simply studying a hand or two after your session, at least for the player who is a beginner like me and doesn't have solid fundamentals yet. I'll start using this trainer as a warm up also, I think training for 30 min before start my sessions will be definetely +EV.

24/12

I started the day doing some hand reading exercises for 1 hour before start my session. It was interesting to see how weak some hands are in 3bet pots, lots of insights. it is cool to see how strong your TPGK is on a SRP compared to a 3bet pot, I'm doing some bluffs in 3bet pots that I definetely shouldn't.

session1:



I was playing quite ok in this session, being more careful in 3bet pots, bluffing a little less than before. What made me lose money today was my ALL INs with good hands but in questionable situations. For example, I had JJ in BB and gone ALL IN after BTN called CO 3bet, however both players had less than 5% 3bet stats so I will hardly have a lot of equity against one of these guys when I'm ahead, and when they hit QQ+ I will have just 20% equity. I also gone all in with AKo in BB against a 3bet from other tight player, he had KK , in other spot I gone all in with TT from the blinds in a similar situation against a guy that I didn't knew nothing about it.

I'll study a little more and play another session later since today is christmas and there's a lot of people at home looking to play some poker so we will had lots of fishes playing around

29/12

These last days I was studying some spots post flop and taking notes to review them later, I will share wtih you guys some of my notes so maybe it can be helpful for someone, however remember that I'm not a pro and I might be wrong. any insight or criticism is welcome.


* be careful with 3bet pots where villain 3betted from blinds. DONT BLUFF.

if there is any J, Q, K or A on flop you are probably with 40% equity against him or worse, even if you have a strong draw or midpair.


* be careful with SRP where OR was on EP and you on BTN.

if any J, Q, K or A show up on flop you probably will have 40% or less equity.

* in a SRP where OR was on LP.
if you hit low pair, midpair bad kicker, flush draw or better and there's no A on flop, you're probably ahead of him.
with something like 60% equity or more.

since his range is weak(25% / 35%), the chances of his range connect with something strong are few, so if you hit any pair on flop and there's no Ace, you are probably ahead.

however if an Ace show up on later streets that will complicate things because he have almost all Aces combinations in his range, so your equity will probably fall from 60% to 40% or even worse

Pretty amazing you can remember all this stuff in real time while you are in a hand. I don't think I could remember all these rules.

30/12

I'm practcing a lot on the poker trainer app, just preflop ranges. my goal is to have an upgrade on my preflop game, have a good understanding about the most of the situations. I think I need to improve my 3bet defense game and blind defense, so I will focus on that for a while.

today I just focused on SB game, specially when facing 3bet. After I trained a bit on the app I gone to the tables and played a session with the focus of put in practice what I trained before. I did this twice today and I'll take a last study/play session at night.

My training will be basically divided between hand reading practice, preflop ranges and equity estimation post flop.
I think these are the core aspects of poker that I beginner should focus when studying, just fundamentals.

I think my understanding of the game is improving a bit everyday, I'll keep my pace of studying and improving my game everyday even if it's just 1%.
I really want to do this for a living and I'll keep insisting until I eventually hit on something.

I like to stop my sessions to take notes of things that I notice that can be profitable somehow, since I'm playing zoom I can stop and return to table with no worries