Thanks for reading along and welcome to the sub!

I was actually playing 10NL Blitz for a short time, and really didn't feel comfortable playing, and was also doing it for other reasons than to win money. So I've moved back to regular tables where I have found comfort 6 tabling 2NL and using hotkeys. I like your idea of getting a routine down, however, I am not quite sure where to start putting together a routine. I've enjoyed sitting at 6 tables, getting in the zone, and playing for hours. I feel like once I've been playing for 2+ hours or so, I get lost as to where my bankroll is at, which is a good thing for me. I do feel refreshed after taking a 5-10 minute break, and will likely do so when I feel burnt out, otherwise, if I am just annoyed at bad beats, etc. I want to push through that asap (within two hands) and keep playing my A game. I feel like this sounds counter-intuitive, but I think it is also a way for me to practice getting over bad beats and refocus my energy on the next hand.

Here's the link to the first video of the series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8oOblsFFVM

I would like to ideally play 10NL, as that's at least playing for a little bit of money, so hopefully it won't be long before I am at your stake. Did you start at 10NL or move your way up to it?

Thanks! And it feels weird seeing that considering I was fairly active on this forum 15ish years ago back in the glory days. But here I am again.

Anyways, I decided to give poker another run to try to make a little money on the side. Traditionally, I like MTTs but having a wife and full time job rules that out. So I thought I would give 6 max cash a long hard look. I started at 10NL because like you said, you can make a little bit of money there and I thought I couldn’t actually handle playing lower. More or less I’m going to either make it at 10NL and move up or find a different hobby to make money on the side.

Weazel is a full time professional poker player, who actually just cashed an event for over half a million $. The way they play etc isn't applicable to 2NL. The stuff he talks about and his thought process will likely just cause you to make mistakes. Have to work up to that sort of level, we all do.

My patience is continuing to be tested. Decided to hop on for a little bit again tonight, and hit my stop loss after 161 hands. I'm now at +$17.67 since May 1, with an AI EV of $42.06. It was one of those days where you get it in pre with AA, KK, middle set on the flop, OESD + FD on the flop, and are just waiting for the river card to fuc k you in the dick. Better days ahead.

Here are some fun ones.

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (UTG): 80 BB
CO: 91.5 BB
BTN: 81.5 BB
SB: 39 BB
BB: 77 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J J

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 2 BB, fold

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 7 5 T
SB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, SB calls 4 BB

Turn: (14 BB, 2 players) 9
SB checks, Hero bets 7 BB, SB raises to 14 BB, Hero raises to 73.5 BB and is all-in, SB calls 18.5 BB and is all-in

River: (79 BB, 2 players) 3

Hero shows J J (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 80%, Flop 80%, Turn 89%)
SB shows 5 3 (Two Pair, Fives and Threes)
(Pre 20%, Flop 20%, Turn 11%)
SB wins 75.5 BB

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 125.5 BB
UTG: 80 BB
MP: 90 BB
Hero (CO): 145 BB
BTN: 164 BB
SB: 158.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 12 BB, Hero raises to 23 BB, BB calls 11 BB

Flop: (46.5 BB, 2 players) 8 7 A
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (46.5 BB, 2 players) T
BB bets 14 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

River: (74.5 BB, 2 players) J
BB bets 88.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 88.5 BB

BB shows K Q (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 16%, Flop 4%, Turn 9%)
Hero shows A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 84%, Flop 96%, Turn 91%)
BB wins 239 BB

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 143.5 BB
Hero (SB): 134.5 BB
BB: 135 BB
UTG: 118 BB
MP: 101.5 BB
CO: 410.5 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, BTN calls 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, fold, BTN calls 9.5 BB

Flop: (27.5 BB, 2 players) Q 3 9
Hero bets 9 BB, BTN calls 9 BB

Turn: (45.5 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 30.5 BB, BTN calls 30.5 BB

River: (106.5 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 21.5 BB, BTN raises to 62 BB, Hero calls 40.5 BB

BTN shows T A (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 47%, Flop 6%, Turn 18%)
Hero shows 9 9 (Three of a Kind, Nines)
(Pre 53%, Flop 94%, Turn 82%)
BTN wins 219 BB

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 80 BB
CO: 47.5 BB
Hero (BTN): 222 BB
SB: 104.5 BB
BB: 110 BB
UTG: 91 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB raises to 104.5 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, Hero calls 95.5 BB

Flop: (213 BB, 2 players) 8 T 9

Turn: (213 BB, 2 players) J

River: (213 BB, 2 players) Q

Hero shows A A (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 93%, Flop 92%, Turn 86%)
SB shows A K (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 7%, Flop 8%, Turn 14%)
SB wins 202.5 BB

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 100.5 BB
BB: 153 BB
UTG: 72.5 BB
MP: 148.5 BB
Hero (CO): 149 BB
BTN: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 7.5 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 23 BB, BTN calls 15.5 BB

Flop: (47.5 BB, 2 players) A 5 4
Hero bets 15.5 BB, BTN calls 15.5 BB

Turn: (78.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 110.5 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 61.5 BB and is all-in

River: (201.5 BB, 2 players) J

Hero shows A Q (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 61%, Flop 78%, Turn 3%)
BTN shows K 2 (Straight, Five High)
(Pre 39%, Flop 22%, Turn 97%)
BTN wins 191.5 BB

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 121 BB
BB: 95 BB
Hero (UTG): 80 BB
MP: 97.5 BB
CO: 80 BB

BB posts BB 1 BB, CO posts penalty blind 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2 BB) Hero has J J

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, CO calls 1.5 BB, BTN raises to 11 BB, BB calls 10 BB, Hero calls 8.5 BB, fold

Flop: (35.5 BB, 3 players) 7 5 5
BB checks, Hero bets 11.5 BB, BTN calls 11.5 BB, BB calls 11.5 BB

Turn: (70 BB, 3 players) 9
BB checks, Hero bets 57.5 BB and is all-in, fold, BB calls 57.5 BB

River: (185 BB, 2 players) 7

BB shows 8 6 (Straight, Nine High)
(Pre 17%, Flop 30%, Turn 91%)
Hero shows J J (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 83%, Flop 70%, Turn 9%)
BB wins 176 BB

I think you're confusing running -EV with poor plays. Just because you have AA pre, doesn't mean it's the best hand on any following street if you're not actually all in preflop... You're consistently posting hands where you've made overplays. You're massively oversimplifying running badly.

For example, the AA hand all in pre where he sucks out for a straight, ok that's shitty variance. But some of the other hands you've played poorly post flop.

Its looking clear that overplaying an overpair with a connected board seems to be a big leak here. According to my coach in these situations we need to check back, look to play a medium sized pot, and to fold to aggression most frequently here while on a small frequency betting smaller on the turn if it connects the board around 75% pot with a plan to fold against more resistance. It feels terrible but its really important to fix. I think starting to play hands like JJ more like 99 could help too.

I'm not intending to say I'm getting screwed over in these hands. I posted these because they were large hands, where I held a massive lead at some point in the hand, and ended up losing. Sure some of them were bad plays. But what it sounds to me like you are saying, is that the majority of the hands that I post, I played improperly, and I disagree. I think I've played poorly in 25% of hands I post, and 75% are due to bad variance. I'm open to being wrong, but I'm not going to easily accept that the majority of my plays were bad, just because I lost the hand.

Can you point out 2-3 hands that you think I played poorly, just so we can have a conversation about them.

Will you point out 2-3 hands you thin are being overplayed with an overpair? I'd like to discuss those more in depth to possibly identify any leaks.

Loaded up 6 tables tonight, and on the literal second hand, lost AA vs. 1010 AI on the turn on a 7 4 2 10 (3) heartboard. I had the A of heart as well, and ofc no heart on the river. Lost all mental focus to play and was immediately tilted. Going to take a break until I feel ready to comeback with a better mindset. The run bad has to stop at some point. I get it some of it is bad play, but I'm pretty confident 75%+ is just run bad. Happy to discuss any hands people think I played bad on. I think a conversation would enlighten me to bad plays, and enlighten other people that there is merit to me running badly.

Here's the second hand from tonight. I'm also open to discussing this. I think I played it fine. I'm not dead set on the fact that I think I played it fine, and if you think I played it wrong, I'm open to discussing it, but only if you are open to being wrong about your opinion as well.
Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 121.5 BB
Hero (SB): 100 BB
BB: 124.5 BB
UTG: 102.5 BB
MP: 191 BB
CO: 104 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, BTN calls 9.5 BB

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) 7 2 6
Hero bets 11 BB, BTN raises to 22 BB, Hero calls 11 BB

Turn: (69 BB, 2 players) T
Hero checks, BTN bets 87.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 66 BB and is all-in

River: (201 BB, 2 players) 5

BTN shows T T (Three of a Kind, Tens)
(Pre 20%, Flop 9%, Turn 77%)
Hero shows A A (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 80%, Flop 91%, Turn 23%)
BTN wins 191 BB

I agree with the other two posters that you seem to be over playing your over pairs (I had the same problem).

The first JJ, the opponent has 68, two pair, a set, or J8 (you block) often once the check raise happens. He calls your cbet on the flop, which means he either has a piece, draw, or is floating two overs (which is unlikely because you block his Jx over combos and anything better, he's probably 3betting). The turn smashes his range. I understand it's 2NL and you might have a read on the player, but overall you have to slow down here. It's almost always a set here or at the very best case scenario for you is he's making a play with 89.

Same story on your last JJ hand. The BB calling the button's 3bet screams pocket pair or mid connectors. Both of them calling your bet on the flop should be an indicator to slow down. Likely one has a draw. Button could have A5s in his 3bet range pre. BB would be my biggest worry at this point. You jam turn and I would expect you to be called by 77/99/86/A5. What are you getting called by that you beat? 66 and 88? I think that's unlikely. Maybe one hit a backdoor flushdraw but you're not getting called much here by hands you beat and getting stacked often.

**** me I spent twenty minutes on a post and it didnt post, holy **** that is annoying. I know your budget is tight right now as I was going to suggest getting GTO+ or a month of standard GTOwiz, or like a single coaching session to specifically look at range advantage + nut advantage, value threshholds and how they change on the flop and turn, and a big focus on pure check / give up regions while looking at sims. This is currently what I am working on as I have a similar issue with overaggression. In its stead here are some articles. The Upswing one says the same thing my coach does. While the GTOWiz one is more broad. When I first read this article a month ago I did not understand it. But now it totally makes sense and I definitely ran into a majority of these same issues and am working on them.

Articles:
https://upswingpoker.com/when-to-check-overpairs/
https://blog.gtowizard.com/the-10-mo...poker-players/ <- #2, #5, #6 and #8.

I had a similar issue with you where I was extremely overplaying overpairs, along with getting stacked by showing up at showdown with marginal holdings. My perception of what was a premium
was/is skewed and I have had to actively work at changing it and have been with my coach going over boards and transitioning to looking over different boards myself. I was losing over 30k hands and busted my last deposit and once I fixed this I have recovered all of it in 6k hands (thanks dunc). For example, your AQo hand you 4 bet AQo when at least according to the paid upswing ranges you'd just flat and shouldn't really be in your 4 bet range esp at 2 NL. Your flop bet is fine but you should never shove on the turn here. Even if the board didn't connect your opponent often has you beat with AK at the minimum in a 4 bet pot. When you shove on the turn are you ever getting called by worse hands? Would you personally call as the opponent if you had AJ? Would you even call a 4 bet with AJo or worse preflop? Probably not I am hoping unless your opponents are extremely splashy. Your opponent could have 4bet any low AXs that connect with 2 pair or even a straight here. Small pocket pairs getting frisky in late position hit all over this board as well... small suited connectors hitting 2 pair with a loose opponent.


A bit of a rushed response due to first msg being deleted.

I hate this hand so much. Villain shoving 88bb into a possible AKh/AQh/etc. He also needs to slow down. From your perspective, the 10 of hearts is a horrible card. Hit's his range of 1010, suited connectors, and completes the flush draw. Without doing the math, you're almost always looking for a heart on the river if you call.

Lol I understand the frustration of typing a post out. I feel like 2+2 give people the boot if they aren't active for like 5 minutes.

I understand I do likely have issues with over-aggression. But honestly I'm going to have a hard time believe it until specific situations are pointed out that are examples of over-aggression. In the spirit of figuring out where the over-aggression is at, I'll dive into the specific AQ hand.

Villain is 37/31, with a 4 Aggression Factor (which is high), and a 28% 3bet over 120 hands. IMO AQo is a pure 4bet in this scenario, for obvious reasons.

Furthermore, I have anyone over 30% VPIP after 100 hands tagged as a fish, and decided to tag him as a whale based on his 28% 3bet, 100% Cbet (11/11 ops), and 0% fold to Cbet (0/5). In my opinion, this is exactly the type of player who will stack off with a lesser ace. Given all of this, I have a hard time seeing how my play could be considered over-aggressive.

Thanks for linking a few articles. I will check them out as I am not going to be playing cards tonight.

I just don't see a lot of players calling a 12x 3b with 89. Also, I don't see him having a lot of flushes considering I have the A of hearts and the 10 of hearts came on the turn. He could have KQh and KJh, and I guess the off chance he has 89h and 56h? I feel like the latter two are so infrequent that it's not really reasonable to consider them as part of Villains range. I've seen multiple people flat call a 3bet with QQ/KK at 2NL, wouldn't be surprised to see A10, although I block that and therefore not reasonable to consider. Idk, I feel like realistically Villain has KQh, KJh, 1010, 77, JJh, QQh, KKh, and 89h.

AhAs has a 81% equity against villains range of KhQh, KhJh, KhK*, QhQ*, JhJ*, 8h9h, 89s. I'm calling $1.32 to win $4.02 which means I need 33% equity to make it a profitable call.

Do you think any of my variables are incorrect?

This is a good example of how while you have better range advantage here with having more overpairs, and better ace high type hands as the preflop aggressor in late position, you rarely connect with the board here. However, villain on the BTN has the nut advantage over you on the flop. They have sets in their range that flat your 3 bet along with suited connectors that hit this flop harder than you do (which was a total blank)

While you have strong hands here your opponent has more hands that are trips or better. While pocket aces are great they are still just one pair and often only have 2 outs to improve (ofc depending on board) and suffer from having bad reverse implied odds ( article: https://upswingpoker.com/reverse-implied-odds/ ). Essentially you want to either play big or fold here on the flop. Need to be careful playing on lower boards against players in late position.

GTO+ likes to check back on the flop 50% of the time and bet 75% of the pot on the flop the other 50% but after nodelocking for how the hand actually played out it prefers to reraise them all in on the flop when you get 3bet on your bet of 11 bb OR fold here rather than calling. Calling is bad here as you just let them draw at a great price. You want to kill the hand here and not let them draw. 48.1% of the time shoving and 38.9% folding

Your point of being careful in this spot is well taken, thanks for passing along advice you have learned. I agree I need to tone down the aggression in general. With that said, are you folding 100% of the time to the turn bet to a player that you have no reads on (i.e. literally the first hand i've had against/on him).

Yeah that would definitely add to my consideration for folding for sure. I also agree with others that all in EV is misleading and doesn't necessarily mean one got it in good a lot of the time. I ran like 10+ BI under EV the majority of the time before coaching and when we actually started looking over those hands I learned how poorly I misplayed them despite all in EV stating I shoulda won 250 bb or w/e. Ofc with some just you got unlucky that time moments.

Another article worth reading: https://upswingpoker.com/nut-range-p...nal-advantage/

Video example for if you are more of a visual/audio learner:

Range advantage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0jy6yML308

Mechanics of cbet sizing video that also covers the basics of of nut advantage and range advantage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVZ1CdESSTw&t=1049s

good luck at the tables!

I appreciate you helping a brother out. GL to you as well!

On a side note, I grew up with a guy, played basketball with him, played quite a bit of poker with him in HS and College, and he is currently in 60ish place in the Main Event, and apparently getting moved to the featured table on PokerGo. If you are watching the stream, his name is Nick Michael. I haven't seen him on the stream yet, so not sure when he's getting moved there.

Good luck to him! I'll keep note of him when I tune in.

120 hands is still nothing in the grand scheme of things. Enough to start to get a sense of somebody but definitely not engraved in stone and can lead to your heuristics lying to you. For example, regularly have a tables I have had 100+ hands played on where my stats are 11/8 or 38/28 but in reality my overall stats are 21/17. Or my three bet is at 20%+ at that table but in reality its 8-9%. Three bet stats are also super skewed in the short run. Granted in your example seems legitimate. I've had people look fishy at 100 hands but by the time i got 1000+ hands on them they had just standard reg stats.

While its dangerous to put too much weight into data you have on a villain until you gather a larger sample size, this is definitely an example I think you marked correctly. But just cuz a villain is a maniac full of **** doesn't mean he can't spike the flop anyways. If anything it makes it so these lower flops hit his wide range even harder. My adjustment would be to be more aggressive on top heavy boards rather than these lower boards. There you can extract your value from his marginal holdings that he won't fold with. While you don't bother playing into what he wants which is to stack you with obscure holdings (if giving villain credit at his best but per norm just an ape). Hes going to feed you his whole stack later if you wait.

I covered it in my other post but the over aggression was more linked to the board state vs typical BTN 3bet calling range in the AQo example.

Played 4 tables for a little while tonight. Felt pretty good overall. I like how much more time I have to think about hands, vs. 6 tabling, and think my winrate would certainly help if I explicitly played 4 tables. Can be quite a bit more boring, but a high winrate is the ultimate goal. Also, I was focusing on being less aggressive, and checking back overpairs on 974 flops (for example). Ironically, the first hand I checked back an overpair, villain checked back 33, only for villian to hit a set on the turn. But, I did like playing less aggressive, it felt like I was in more control of pots.

Idk if the game of poker is as weird as it seems, but had a really odd day today. I was doing my best to play less aggressive with overpairs, and folded this hand..

Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 95 BB
UTG: 101 BB
Hero (MP): 102 BB
CO: 145.5 BB
BTN: 147 BB
SB: 141.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 2 BB, fold

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 8 T 6
SB bets 6 BB, fold

SB wins 6 BB

Then, this hand happened. Maybe over-played it. Idk, looking back on it I think it seems fine. I think villain can have K10+, all sets but KK. I go back and forth on it though, as I don't see a ton of continues that aren't flushes.
Yatahay Network - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 111.5 BB
SB: 100.5 BB
Hero (BB): 112.5 BB
CO: 370 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) 2 J K
SB checks, Hero bets 8.5 BB, SB calls 8.5 BB

Turn: (35 BB, 2 players) 5
SB checks, Hero bets 17.5 BB, SB calls 17.5 BB

River: (70 BB, 2 players) Q
SB checks, Hero bets 52.5 BB, SB raises to 65.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 13 BB

SB shows 6 A (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 31%, Flop 50%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows A T (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 69%, Flop 50%, Turn 0%)
SB wins 191 BB

Then..... I ran into a player who started to shove literally every hand for about an hour. Literally 72o, 94o, 104, J3, etc. etc. Of course I ended up losing 5.5 BI's to the guy after I lost an 800 BB pot with KQ and he ofc shows up with AQ, which was literally the best hand he got AI with for the whole hour. Could I have waited for a better hand to get it in with? Sure. Was that hand ever going to come? Idk and I didn't really want to find out. I took a large gamble and missed. Hopefully the next one doesn't.

It's stuff like this that makes poker feel impossible. I know it's not impossible. I just want to get to a point where I am confident enough in my game to beat a stake, and continue to improve from there. I hate being stuck at the bottom.

I certainly don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me, after all, I am hardly losing any money playing at 2NL (and up overall), but it feels good to write my thoughts down.

Overall, I genuinely believe this will turn around, and I'm going to be hammering out opening ranges and playing less aggressive with overpairs, which should both be huge helps to my winrate.