Thx mate.

Don´t think that this is very likely in my case. Mainly beacuse it is not common practice in my industry.

Subbed!

I'm starting a similar journey of trying to grind up from NL50, and seeing your progress so far has been inspiring. The amount of study material and learning resources is overwhelming at times, but you seem to have a very determined and long-term focus which will almost guarantee success if you stick with it. Good luck at the tables!

Thanks vesperka! Yeah a lot of material out there. Hope you find the right one that fits your needs best. Wish u gl at your journey.

Which industry are you working in? Anyway, sick side income

I work in the oil & gas industry as an engineer.

Week 20 Update:

Have very mixed feelings about my play this week. Defo did not play my A game thru the week, especially the first few days. I am mostly very dissapointed with my mental game. Checked several times my results during the week which I try to avoid at any cost. My desire to check results is mainly there where I can´t win a hand for several k hands. I could win 100 BI´s within a session and would not have this desire, but when I feel that I am losing I will try to find any excuse to check my graph. I could never really explain this phenomenon to me. But not checking results has very high priority to me until I understand the root cause of the issue (tbh I am not sure if I will ever understand it without a mental coach or something like this).

Another very bad mental habit that I have is that I get tilted (way less than before) when I see that somebody (fish or reg does not really matter) wins a hand that is clearly misplayed. Vice-versa when I get outplayed it does not bother me. This is clearly a mistake since in the long term I will profit from the guys that are misplaying their hands and should try to learn from the guys that ouplay me. Howeever, in-game I often can not supress these feelings. I am still such a mental game fish .

The good thing is that I played 25k hands this month and if everything goes right I should be able to do 40k+ hands this month.

Outside of poker week was very productive. Went 4x running and started cooking. I was never really passionate about cooking and apart from some basic meals I could not prepare anything special. It required a pandemic to change this .


Weekly Graph



Hope everyone had a nice week!

We have the urge of checking thing in common. Can't explain it either. It gets really hard not to look after a bit of run-bad. During run-good no problem.

Good job on the volume mate. Keep it up :-)

Me and my girlfriend also finally started taking cooking more serious during this pandemic. Funny how it requires a global crisis. It is really valuable to me but also for the relationship! Also nice to eat something that looks and tastes good for once.

GL Kockar!

Thanks mate!

Yeah it is really weird that during a run-bad we feel the desire to check results. I got a lot better this year regarding this, but for me during a run-bad it can become sometimes almost a daily fight to not check results. The only thing which reduces this demand in my case is a healthy life style. But if I am 2-3 days at home and don´t do much else than grinding it becomes very difficult.

Watched a bit of your video yesterday. Pretty sure that you are more than ready for 50z. GL to you, too!

Nice volume man I'm constantly looking at my results though it doesn't really affect my play much either way. I just like to see where I'm at in the session I guess.

Keep up the great work man.

Thanks. That is great. I wish I could do the same. Sometimes not checking results feels like keeping a drug addict away from drugs.

ha, exactly the same, could care less about results if I know I am up a bit, as soon as I lose a small pot the urge then comes, it makes me feel so pathetic in the moment .

Pretty great results so far mate, especially along side full time work, very inspiring!

Ty

Week 21 Update:

Pretty frustrating week on the tables. Games were amazing, but my card distribution was awful. Standard stuff like not making any hands, getting worst river runouts and getting owned in some ridiculous spots by whales.

Mindset was a bit better than last week but still needs improvement. Had a few spots were I have run a sim and still need to check why the solver prefers a different strategy than I am currently using.

Weekly Graph


Some hands. Would appreciate any feedback regarding H2 and H3.

H1) vs nit reg

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 98.4 BB
SB: 82.49 BB
BB: 190.4 BB
Hero (UTG): 101.91 BB
MP: 123.66 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9 8

Hero raises to 2.3 BB, fold, CO raises to 7 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 4.7 BB

Flop: (15.5 BB, 2 players) 5 3 6
Hero checks, CO bets 7 BB, Hero raises to 21 BB, CO calls 14 BB

Turn: (57.5 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero bets 18 BB, CO calls 18 BB

River: (93.5 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 55.91 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 91 BB
Rake paid 2.5 BB

H2) vs 200z reg. OTT I mix block bets and checking. Decided this time to check. OTR we are in a an ugly spot. This line seems way underbluffed by population from my experience., but we still to call down some TP hands. However, I prefer having a spade kicker. Solver folds KThh and calls down KTcc and KTdd.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
Hero (SB): 100.5 BB
BB: 138.97 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 102.46 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 8 BB

Flop: (22 BB, 2 players) 3 Q 4
Hero bets 6.9 BB, BTN calls 6.9 BB

Turn: (35.8 BB, 2 players) K
Hero checks, BTN bets 17.01 BB, Hero calls 17.01 BB

River: (69.82 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, BTN bets 65.59 BB and is all-in, fold

BTN wins 67.32 BB
Rake paid 2.5 BB

H3) vs reg. Was debating in game to size up OTF. Solver is mixing OTF. OTT solver prefers almost exclusively block bets with range. This is something which I am currently not using as part of my strategy since on high equity cards like the Ac I use bigger bets or check. Anybody has a theoritical explanation for block betting here? Not sure if it related to positions and/or board texture. River is basically never a thing with our combo.

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 103.27 BB
Hero (SB): 101.5 BB
BB: 100.5 BB
UTG: 152.33 BB
MP: 72.77 BB
CO: 103.16 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

UTG raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 10.5 BB, fold, UTG calls 8.3 BB

Flop: (22 BB, 2 players) Q 8 4
Hero bets 6.9 BB, UTG calls 6.9 BB

Turn: (35.8 BB, 2 players) A
Hero bets 22.11 BB, UTG calls 22.11 BB

River: (80.02 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 61.99 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 61.99 BB

Hero shows T K (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 29%, Flop 8%, Turn 7%)
UTG shows A K (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 71%, Flop 92%, Turn 93%)
UTG wins 201.5 BB
Rake paid 2.5 BB

Lets hope I can catch some heat in the last week of may.

Run good all!

H2 makes a lot of sense to fold this IMO. My assumption would be that the solver also prefers calling AcQ/AdQ? Feels like villain can't value jam Kx here, which makes ranges naturally polarised and therefore blockers hyper-relevant. One of my own revelations recently was the (fairly obvious) point that bdfd blockers kind of suck for both players where flushes complete on the turn.
H3 I would assume this relates to the construction of our smaller flop bet range when we use a multisize strat. Presumably it's more Ax heavy than a larger more polarised size would be, given the reliance on greater equity for bluff choice on early streets in larger size strats. I'd be interested to know if the smaller turn bet holds still if we resim without permitting the larger flop bet.

Thanks for your response mate. Regarding the hands:

H2) As you said blockers become here very important. AcQ/AdQ are pure folds and AsQx pure calls in the solver. I think having a spade becomes very important and I would rather call down AsQx than my specific combo in the hand. However, I see that the solver calls down here also some TP hands without a spade blocker (KTcc, KTdd, Q9xx). vs 100z population this seems too loose imo. But then calling the turn to fold every time OTR with these combos seems a bit awkward.

H3) I did a sim with a only 33% PSB OTF and the solver still prefers the blockbet OTT and even with a higher frequency:




I did a sim on this specific board for different positions to see if/how position/ranges influence the usage of the blockbet OTT and this is the outcome:

Hero SB vs CO 3bet pot:


Hero BTN vs CO 3bet pot:


As you can see the block bet is still used with high freq. even hero beeing in position. Block betting OTT on high equity cards is something which I am currently not using as part of my strategy in 3b pots. But it makes sense since we can value bet thinner as long as we balance it with some nutted hands.

interesting, thanks

I clearly need to do some more work on this kind of spot

H2 - Nice fold. They underbluff heavily here. I might fold even on the turn.
H3 - Seems spewy af to me.

May 2020 Recap


Monthly Graph



In general, I am satisfied how I played for the most part. However I had some sessions in which I clearly made some significant mistakes which MS/HS players are clearly not doing. Most of the mistakes are related to a poor mindset when running bad. Losing the least and trying to focus to take the most +EV decision during run bads is something which I am struggling a lot. Pretty sure that it costs me a significant BB/100 amount in the long run. I got a lot better over the last few months with this issue, but still far from what it should be imo.

Another thing which bothers me a lot when it comes to poker is that I can´t avoid to check my results when I have the feeling that I am running bad. If it would not affect my play, I would not have an issue with this. At this point I have no clue what is the reason for this and how to solve it. I checked out Seta Beni´s RIO blog. Guy is not checking results for several months. Huge respect for this. I would already be happy if I I can not check results for 7 days.

Outside of poker life is going ok. I am getting a bit bored since a lot of social activities are still heavily affected due to corona. Hope that in the next few months the situation gets better and we at least to some degree come back to our normal lifes.

That´s it from my side. Hope everyone else had a nice month

Impressive month!

I was notorious results checker also. It helped me to make a sheet, where I mark the day when I did not check the results. When I had the first day, it felt weird to break the NOT CHECK pattern and continued for all month. I did several months without checking.

Including screen to have idea what helped me (it helped also with volume)

GL!

Vwp! Keep it up

Thanks a lot, vrbik! I might try this out. One reason why I actually started this blog was to be more accountable when it comes to notoriously checking my results. But it still can be a daily struggle for me at some times.

Ty

June 2020 Goals


Poker Goals:

[] Play 80h+ (this month setting a goal how many hours I have played rather than how many hands makes more sense due to below reasons).

[] Off-table work for 10h+. 50% of study time should be solver related.

[] Take shots at 200z if (and only if) BR allows this (7BI´s are missing so that I can take a 10 BI shot at 200z).

[] Pool select 200z. Don´t play -EV 200z pool. Play 100z or 200NL regular tables instead.

[] Check results/stats in PT4 just once a week (only exception for this is while shot takin 200z to make sure that I don´t lose more than the planned 10 BI´s).

[] Update blog once a week.


Life Goals:

[] Run at least 13 times.

[] Continue with cooking. Learn how to prepare new dishes and avoid eating outside.

[] Be more productive in free time by removing unnecessary activities (mainly being on the internet wo any real purpose) and instead of that use this time to do any meaningful stuff.


GL to everyone in June!

Why do you think the RIO content isn't great?
Is there any coach in particular or any videos in particular you would recommend for someone moving up micros?

Nice month and very nice volume given you are still working a job too.

Several reasons for this. But main one is that there is no variety in content. They have so many coaches and 90% of them produce live play videos. And even in the live plays they cherry pick the video pry. I haven't watched an interesting live play video quite in a while.

So many strategy concepts out there and nobody from them is willing to cover them. The old videos are way better but unfortunately outdated.

For the microstakes Peter Clarkes videos are probably best. He explains a lot the fundamentals and you need just an essential membership.

If you have an elite membership psek1 and saulocosta videos are very good.