Hi everyone,

This thread will be my personal blog and accountability thread, and I'll be very happy to discuss specific hands, get feedback from the community and some advice as well.

For some background : i got into poker very recently (~6months) and started learning by watching Negreanu's master class. I have since read a couple of books about poker (Sklanksy), watched videos online, especially the French Winamax show "Dans la tête d'un pro" (inside the head of a pro), and been browsing this forum.
I have been playing live with a social circle about 4 hours per week, equivalent to NL60. Online, i have played a little bit on GGpoker and Winamax, both cash games and tournaments with better success in tournaments so far.

I love the math/stats aspect of poker, and recently decided to buy HeM to help me track my online play and try to analyze the numbers that come out. This has motivated me to try a more serious approach to cash games.

I am well bankrolled in life, and I'm not doing this for the money, more as a personal challenge. I don't mind spending on tools (like HeM) if they can help me, or make the experience more enjoyable.

Objectives : I will focus on NL10 cash games to begin with, and hope to show a profit after 20k hands or so.

How : I have decided to focus playing on Winamax, the fishes seem easier to spot and exploit, and HeM can auto import the hands unlike on GG. Downside is the cash rooms are either 5-handed or 9-handed which I like less than 6-handed. I have found i can play well up to 2-3 tables max, so i won't play more than 3 tables at a time.

Hopes : I am sincerely hoping to receive advice from this forum on various topics : how to look at your number/stats, how to study poker and do hand reviews, potentially spot some leaks, etc. I hope that all of this work and research will translate into progress, and that at the end of it all, i'll have become better at this particular skill.

I am working full time, and do not have that much time for online poker, so progress posting will be slow. That said, here is how it looks after about 2k hands :


Some stats per position (please let me know what other stats would be useful to look at):


That's about it to start. I'm only 2k hands in but can already see i have some work to do in the blinds.
I'll post some interesting hands once I learn how to do so.

I am looking forward to your advice and input !

Nemo.

hey, don't worry too much about your blinds winrate. as you lose 50bb/100 in sb and 100bb/100 in bb when you fold preflop. so naturally youll be in the negative there.

glgl

Reviewing some of the hands that I marked :

Hand 1
Winamax Poker - CashGame - HandId: #17819808-1034-1668245255 - Holdem no limit (0.05€/0.10€) - 2022/11/12 09:27:35 UTC
Table: 'Vienna 06' 5-max (real money) Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: JollyJumper9 (17.89€)
Seat 2: Blackxuan (10€)
Seat 3: Nemodus (13.90€)
Seat 4: Bear907 (10.62€)
Seat 5: BalleDeBreak (18.54€)
*** ANTE/BLINDS ***
Blackxuan posts small blind 0.05€
Nemodus posts big blind 0.10€
Dealt to Nemodus [Qc As]
*** PRE-FLOP ***
Bear907 folds
BalleDeBreak folds
JollyJumper9 raises 0.15€ to 0.25€
Blackxuan folds
Nemodus calls 0.15€
*** FLOP *** [8d Kc 5s]
Nemodus checks
JollyJumper9 bets 0.36€
Nemodus calls 0.36€
*** TURN *** [8d Kc 5s][Kh]
Nemodus checks
JollyJumper9 checks
*** RIVER *** [8d Kc 5s Kh][6s]
Nemodus bets 0.95€
JollyJumper9 calls 0.95€
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Nemodus shows [Qc As] (One pair : Kings)
JollyJumper9 shows [7s 4s] (Straight 8 high)
JollyJumper9 collected 2.99€ from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2.99€ | Rake 0.18€
Board: [8d Kc 5s Kh 6s]
Seat 1: JollyJumper9 (button) showed [7s 4s] and won 2.99€ with Straight 8 high
Seat 3: Nemodus (big blind) showed [Qc As] and lost with One pair : Kings

--> Pre, the button raised so his range could have anything. When it goes bet/call and check check on the turn, I assume he doesnt have a King, so I decided to bluff the river. Seems like a good spot to bluff to me, but wondering if i should have been more aggressive earlier.

Hand 2
Winamax Poker - CashGame - HandId: #17830988-55-1668510489 - Holdem no limit (0.05€/0.10€) - 2022/11/15 11:08:09 UTC
Table: 'Aachen 06' 5-max (real money) Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Giorgio38 (7.66€)
Seat 2: Tibur0n (10€)
Seat 3: LaTiquEtTe (19.02€)
Seat 4: kiyashly (10.05€)
Seat 5: Nemodus (22.69€)
*** ANTE/BLINDS ***
kiyashly posts small blind 0.05€
Nemodus posts big blind 0.10€
Dealt to Nemodus [Kh Th]
*** PRE-FLOP ***
Giorgio38 folds
Tibur0n raises 0.18€ to 0.28€
LaTiquEtTe folds
kiyashly folds
Nemodus calls 0.18€
*** FLOP *** [3c Kc 8s]
Nemodus checks
Tibur0n bets 0.47€
Nemodus calls 0.47€
*** TURN *** [3c Kc 8s][7c]
Nemodus checks
Tibur0n bets 1.32€
Nemodus folds
Tibur0n collected 2.78€ from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2.78€ | Rake 0.09€
Board: [3c Kc 8s 7c]
Seat 2: Tibur0n won 2.78€

--> This one is more interesting. I'm playing out of position and manage to hit top pair with a medium kicker. He bets expensive on both flop and turn, where the flush gets in. This make me think he either made his flush draw on the turn, has aces air. I decided to fold. At this stage this opponent was 15/15 through 29 hands, and didnt seem like the type to spew, so i decided to fold.
I'm wondering if i could have taken a less passive line to avoid calling a flop bet for nothing.

Edit : the HH doesnt look that good, is there a better way to copy the hand from HeM with the suits icons and so on ?

Hello, Nemodus!

2k hands is not a representative sample at all, but the target win rates for positions should be these:


When you have at least 20-30k hands, we will be able to analyze your statistics in more detail.

I advise you to place your hands for analysis in this section.
There are many experienced players who can help you.
But use a converter so your hands are readable. HM3 should have a built-in forum format converter.

I use Hand2Note and there your hands would look like this:





Agree that in this format other users will be more motivated to evaluate your hand

Good luck!

By the way about hands.

Hand#1

I would definitely 3bet AQ to the BB against the BU.
I think this range of protection BB vs BU will be ok on the micro:
(Green - call, red - 3bet)


As played postflop - I think it's okay, but you can check on the river.
We have showdown value with our Ace, and micro players won't bluff the river very often.

Hand#2

Preflop is okay against CO.

I think fold on the Turn is okay too. The villain makes two big bets and he probably won't stop on the river.
So if we don't plan to call on the river, it's better to fold on the turn.

Thx for the tip slyless !

Well, today was my worst session by far in terms of variance, which in turn affected my play and led to some perhaps dubious calls.

For some reason I ran into quite a few ALL-IN situations at short intervals, and proceeded to lose all of them.



I realise the sample of hands is ridiculously small, but losing 5 buy-ins in such a small amount of time is not something i'm used to, and can be quite tilting for a new player like myself.
I decided to cut short that session to avoid further mistakes, and I will work on managing this mental aspect of my game.

What's interesting is that this sort of mental pain really builds up. I was fine losing the first 2, 3rd was a mild annoyance, and from the 4th and onwards "bad beat" I started being quite pissed off.
The good thing is i realized it quickly and took a break !

Frustrating session today.


I was playing (running ?) pretty well, until I lost a couple of big pots on some mistakes on my part...

First hand :


My mistake is not realizing that in a 3-way pot, my set with weak kicker can easily be bit. When villain calls my x/r on the flop it should have been a red flag.
I am now watching more intently when i have a big hand but the villain responds to strength.

Second hand:


Once again i flop a strong hand in a multiway pot. Unfortunately for me the villain turns a set, and then I tunnel vision and call overbets without thinking i could be beat.

At the end of the session I lose the biggest pot of the day vs a maniac who was playing 90% of hands and could have had anything.
In this case i had AK and his 66 held.

Variance not on my side at the moment, but i am writing down my mistakes and hopefully learning from them.

Objectives for the next session :

• Play tighter and safer than usual, wait for the good spots.
• Don't bluff unnecessarily, especially with low equity
• Avoid playing big pots against villains i identify as regs

GL OP!

Can you actually speak french?

If so let me know, as I can so it would be nice get in touch.

Bonne chance dans ton challenge :-)

I haven't posted much lately, and also not played much due to the holiday, end of year business etc, but I do intend to keep this thread alive.
I did have time to study poker to some extent though, so hopefully this helps with the results in 2023.

A quick update in terms of results for 2022:

• I started tracking online cash game tables in July
• I have played about 6000 hands, all at NL10
• I have lost 20euros, i.e. 2 Buy ins

Objectives for 2023

• Increase the volume by a lot each month
• Show a profit in NL10 after a minimum of 25k hands, then re-assess targets
• Update this forum on results at the end of each months, and use the rest of the month to talk about hands, mindset or other aspects of my challenge
• Continue studying poker through various forms (mostly free youtube content and this forum for the moment)

@GreenSalad, i actually replied to you by PM. Yes i'm French but live abroad.

Nemo.

Today i had my longest session to date (700 hands), and I also feel like it was one of my best.

I was focused for the whole time, and managed to increase the number of table to 3 about mid session. I didn't feel like I was making rushed decision or missing information, as my focus was quite high the whole time.

I also made an effort to identify player profiles and play accordingly, I kept the aggression high but avoided spots where I wasn't sure where I stood.

Unfortunately I lost an all in KK vs A5, and towards the end of the session made a costly mistake with a check raise on the river when I thought I had the best hand.

This hand is a good example of a spot where I am not too sure of the villain's range, and thus where I stand :
Villains call my HJ raise from the CO. Solver pretty much never calls here, but the NL10 population I feel likes to call with pairs, and maybe strong draws like AXs, i could be wrong.
So when he calls flop and turn, I doubt he has any sort of pair, and I feel like a flush holding is more likely. The river is also not a good one as now the random QJs that he could have also beats me. Any thoughts ?

Hand 1 :


Then the big mistake hand below :
Pre : I don't mind calling 3-way with this hand as I have good implied odds.
Flop : Maybe my first mistake, I make a pair and BDFD, and when villain leads 3-way i assume he almost always has an ace. I decide to call once given the good odds i have, and plan to fold on any card that doesn't improve my equity.
Turn : The 10s gives me a flush draw, and when he bets half pot I believe my implied odds are good enough if I make the flush as this villain has been quite active.
River : I unexpectedly make trips here, and when villain bets close to pot I put him on AT, totally discarding the TT possibility for some reason. I don't see how i could be beat and decide to raise AI, hoping to represent a bluff.

Hand 2


In terms of results : I like the strong red line, and the fact that the results All-In adjusted look good. Next time I'll think long and hard before check raising river....


Thoughts are appreciated !

Hand 1

I think you play well.

Micro regs don't float enough on the river in position and we need missed board draws or flush blockers to check/call.

Hand 2

Just call OTR

Thanks for the feedback.

How do I read this screenshot / where is it coming from ? It looks a bit confusing.

The first hand i have to remember not to be results oriented and remember that losing a hand by choosing the best course of action is preferable to losing it and making bigger mistakes.

The 2nd hand i totally agree should be a call only, and I have to avoid these costly mistakes.

This is a screenshot from Range Research - Hand2Note software utility.
It allows us to study the general trends of a pool or narrower pools against specified criteria.
For example, you can separate regs from fish or aggressive regs from passive ones, etc.

The screenshot shows information about the regs pool's range when they play a line from your hand - Call Flop-Call Turn-Bet River as a preflop caller in position (Single Raise Pot).

When Villain bets 80% of the pot, our pot odds are about 31%.

The screenshot says that the regs pool range contains 61% nuts - red, 20% bluffs - green, and some medium-strength hand - yellow.
But these are general trends that take into account all textures and all flop, turn, and river sizing.

Our board contains a closed flush, so we can't count on all 12% Missed Draws from the bluff range.
In addition, we do not block possible flushes with our hand, which increases the percentage of the nuts.
Also, the Q on the river reduces the amount of medium-strength hand as his middle pairs have improved to the Trips.

As a result, we get not the best situation for the bluff catch.

gl subbed! I am in a similar situation as you regarding looking for advice of the forums and tools to improve, would like to get updates on this!!

Started the month of January well in terms of volume, and then got through a very difficult run of bad variance, both live and online. That caused me to basically stop playing, and my volume has not been at target at all.

I am convinced that not all of my losses were due to bad luck, and have put in some work to study more and improve before I go back to the game.

I hope Feb will be better and that I have more updates to provide you.

Wish you a successful February!