Hi all!

I am a 27 year old with a background in mathematics that aims to improve his understanding of this beautiful game. I have played approximately 50k hands online over the last couple of years, so I'm definitely not new. However, I have only recently been trying to really learn and understand this game, instead of randomly clicking buttons

I will start my journey at 10NL with a BR of around €300, but I have a steady income so this is kind of an arbitrary number. My goal at the start is to play only 1 or 2 tables and really make every decision conciously. This might make my errors even more painful, but at least I'll learn something. The aim is not necessarily to move up stakes quickly, but to improve my fundamentals.

My aim for this blog is to regularly post hand histories where I would like to hear your opinion. I will make some notes on what I thought during the hand, so you can see where I (maybe) went wrong.

I will start this week by playing only 1 table and review all hands that went to the flop and where the pot exceeds 5BB afterwards. This will just be to check my fundamentals. Any interesting hands will be posted below.

Please join me on this exciting journey!

PS: Any practical advice on how to continue this blog is greatly appreciated!

Hand #1: Triple barrel bluff OOP in SRP

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 163.4 BB
SB: 100 BB
Hero (BB): 160 BB
UTG: 99 BB
MP: 85.9 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A T

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 5 Q 9
Hero checks, CO bets 2 BB, Hero raises to 6.7 BB, CO calls 4.7 BB

Turn: (18.9 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 22 BB, CO calls 22 BB

River: (62.9 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 128.8 BB and is all-in, CO calls 68.8 BB and is all-in


My own remarks:

• Preflop: standard, I mainly call.
• Flop: I try to exploitatively X/R versus population who rangebet boards that they shouldn't (their sizing seems to suggest a rangebet). However, this is better vs a BUT open. I just wasn't sure what to do with my exact hand. Folding seemed too a bit too passive, while calling also didn't seem great with this hand. But I would have loved a better hand or a hand with more draws on different turns. Very interested to hear your opinion, since it is a very standard spot.
• Turn: On this texture I think I only play 1 sizing with my value bets and bluffs which is an overbet. But maybe again this hand falls in the check/folding range? I just had the plan in mind to bluff shove rivers with the T blocker, hopefully folding out their top pairs by the river.
• River: Stuck to the plan

I think the ATs with spades isn't the best candidate for the x/r. The solver usually prefers to use BDFD with its x/r bluffs to give more playability on different run outs and also blocking villains' FDs and BDFDs, making them fold like 2% more often. The ATs with spades is fold/call, depending on villain's flop cbet% and CO rfi%. Turn is fine, but you might want to consider your bluff to value ratio with that flop strategy. Do it too much and some regs will notice it.

For continuing the thread, you should post weekly graph updates, or whenever you feel like it.

GL for the grind!

Hard to find a worse way to start a practical blog than with a butchered hand. You have old school pretty much zero equity 100bb punt.

All right guys: weekly update #1

BR: 300 --> 252 (-20 in EV)

All in all I'm not too dissapointed, had some unlucky setups and I am just getting in the groove.



Happy to at least keep my redline steady. I guess this graphs shows me I should just fold more versus aggression? I have been focussing on this the last 2k hands and it seems my blue line likes it. Feel free to share what you think.



Here are some of my stats. I guess the sample size is still very small, but let me know if you notice something off!

Hand #2: Overadjusting?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 98.5 BB
SB: 179.5 BB
BB: 188.4 BB
UTG: 101.6 BB
MP: 100 BB
Hero (CO): 138.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A T

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 7 4 T
BB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, BB calls 4 BB

Turn: (13.5 BB, 2 players) J
BB checks, Hero bets 8 BB, BB raises to 20 BB, fold

BB wins 28.2 BB

Just wanted to check if this is a well-played hand, since I am starting to fold a lot facing aggression to get to a winning blue line. My own thought below:

Preflop: Standard
Flop: I play a mixed strategy of B75 and X on this texture. This seems like a straightforward valuebet.
Turn: I used to play scared when the J comes and just check. However I think there is still a lot of value to be had and additionally our hand benefits from some protection. Facing the raise I think this is a fold at 10NL, not sure if pool finds enough bluffs?

I would still polarize our range as much as possible on the turn, especially after a big bet on the flop. Check on the Turn and Call or Bet on the River.

As played - it's a good fold. The micro pool has a value-oriented range on the Turn and River raises.