Hi all,

I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and start a blog of my own in my quest to eventually try and turn poker into a side income.

Reasons for the blog; to keep me on the straight on the narrow predominantly. I've subbed to a few different blogs of similar nature and they seem useful.

Background; I work full time. I'm not a poker noob but have mainly played microstakes only in the past. (NL2-NL10. The occasional 0.5/1 live although nothing regular because I'm too poor and eat crayons).

Sub-goals; to post hands once a week. To post BR once a month. I'll post my starting stats/roll later.

I've made myself an excel sheet with some forecasts. Please have a look and tell me what you think. I've tried to be conservative but please feel to criticise (I would find that helpful).

PS; paistings..... you are free to try and gate crash my blog with your useless moaning (I've seen you do that with a few). I'll try not to remind yourself and others how I've had nearly 200 from you at NL2 and even made it to your blog. I'll try my best to keep that quiet.

Cheers!

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As of 01/01/2023

Pacific Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 73 BB
SB: 99 BB
BB: 40 BB
UTG: 21.5 BB
MP: 109.5 BB
Hero (CO): 105 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 6 5

fold, MP raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (12.5 BB, 4 players) Q 7 8
BB checks, MP bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB, BTN raises to 12 BB, fold, MP calls 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

Turn: (48.5 BB, 3 players) 2
MP bets 33.5 BB, Hero calls 33.5 BB, BTN calls 33.5 BB

River: (149 BB, 3 players) 8
MP bets 39 BB, fold, BTN calls 24.5 BB and is all-in

BTN shows 7 Q (Two Pair, Queens and Eights)
(Pre 30%, Flop 73%, Turn 86%)
MP shows A Q (Two Pair, Queens and Eights)
(Pre 70%, Flop 27%, Turn 14%)
MP wins 185.5 BB


Was the call on the turn bad here? MP was kind of a reg, BTN was a station (44/2/1). Figured if I called, BTN calls also and I win the pot as well as additional stacks if I hit.

Also had a bit of a shakey start. Hadn't played poker in maybe a year so was just getting back into it. Feel a bit better now!

I think it's better to fold preflop.

The EV in these calls is not high and we will often find ourselves in difficult MW situations postflop like this one.

We have a combo draw but if a straight hits he will often lose to a higher straight, if a flush hits he will often lose to a higher flush.

Good luck!

Hm yeah. To be honest, I would usually fold with MP being a reg. If MP was a fish, I'll call in these spots (pre-flop) hoping to hit and stack up. Well, depends who's left to act behind me. I think I was nearing the end of my session on this one and probably not playing my best. Do you avoid playing these small suited connectors all together? I am debating that.

Thanks.

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I would generally avoid calling other than the BB.
Just 3bet or fold vs Open Raise.

Hi all,

I've decided, I'm going to not post my bankroll graph once a month. I'm trying to get into the habit of not monitoring it, to prevent myself from becoming too results orientated. I'm all too familiar with the topic of variance. I'll maybe share it once I move up stakes, or every few months. I'm sure not many care about looking at NL2 graphs haha

Anyway... I'm interested in your inputs for this hand? A hand or two before, I'd lost a huge pot (deep stacked) with a boat over boat scenario. I can't quite figure out if I was tilting or not. I'm usually pretty good at keeping emotions in check but I remember feeling slightly passive aggressive. How would you play this hand? Villain was a 45/13/2 (84 hands). I'm not sure if my cbet on the flop was spewy, also the play on the river.

Pacific Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 105 BB
SB: 141.5 BB
BB: 261 BB
CO: 119.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

CO raises to 4 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, BB calls 11 BB, CO calls 8 BB

Flop: (36.5 BB, 3 players) 3 2 T
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets 21.5 BB, fold, CO calls 21.5 BB

Turn: (79.5 BB, 2 players) 8
CO checks, Hero checks

River: (79.5 BB, 2 players) A
CO bets 52 BB, Hero raises to 71.5 BB and is all-in, CO calls 19.5 BB

Hello!

For the AK hand, preflop immediately gets weird when the BB flats in. I'm also grinding micros so I'm not some expert or anything, but I feel like I tend towards caution in these multiway spots especially when I've whiffed. As played just blasting 2/3 multiway seems like a good way to bloat the pot up when you aren't necessarily excited about anyone calling you. It's a 3bet pot, and I feel like the CO and BB can both have a bunch of random pocket pairs that continue at least 1 street on this board. The BB particularly can end up flatting fishy with all sorts of QTss, JTss, AT, KTss, etc and you're not happy about any of that because you know it will never fold to your flop bet.

So I guess conceptually I just want to ask what your thought process is when you fire on the flop here. It doesn't seem you really planned to bluff a whiffed turn/river, and you're leaving yourself with only a pot-sized bet left while representing huge strength by blasting multiway when you could have checked. The expected follow-through would be a turn jam since that's what you've left yourself with, but you're checking instead which doesn't exude strength from villain's perspective.

On the river, you're jamming one pair against sudden OOP river aggression. Those are the bets villains make when they have a great hand and are scared you're going to check back lol. That's gotta be bad no matter the situation. They just aren't bluffing there very much. You have a great pair, I think your only consideration is call in that spot. It's just hard to make up worse hands that are here at the river with you and leading out like that; you're essentially praying that they are bluffing, and in that case a jam is entirely unnecessary.

IMO check back flop, re-evaluate on any ace / king / spade whether or not you want the smoke, make much cheaper river call if they are passive on the turn and you face that river bet. If they lead out on the turn, you have the world's easiest fold multiway. I think you should have lost 12-35ish bbs this hand instead of your entire stack.

glgl I hope you have some awesome sessions coming up. subbed

Thanks for your input, and nice to meet you. It's good to meet fellow micro grinders (it can drive you pretty insane putting in so much effort for very little financial reward ). But it's good to put the training wheels on and graft for something you enjoy. What sort of stakes you playing at too? and feel free to share your blog also (if you have one so I can sub).

For the flop cbet... the way you have described it and questioned it, it's made me realise that I don't think I did have a plan. Just a mindless blast at the pot hoping for folds and to take it down. I'm leaning more towards this was me just tilting. I'm happy to be able to recognise that. If this was HU, would you still opt for x back? What if the flop was Q (or J) x x (I'm just interested here). Under that scenario I think I'd x flop multiway but bet HU if it was checked to hero.

On the river, if they had better stats I think I would have just folded. It was just because of their fishy stats (and ironically, made me act like a fish in the process lol).

And thanks, you too.

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Nice to meet you too! I'm playing 5z on ignition at the moment. Just started my bankroll this month and I've had a pretty good 10k hands so far! I'm actually wanting to start a blog lol I just haven't figured out how I'd want to do it. I have to wait a day to download my hands to PT4, so it's actually kind of annoying to think of combing through for hands I've probably forgotten by the next day and then writing about them.

Heads up against CO I'm definitely betting ~1/3 on the flop. On the turn I'm guessing villain would still check because they seem trappy/passive, and I'd probably check back non-spades. I'd end up calling their river bet for sure. Also to note if a random spade comes on the turn I'm probably sizing up and double barreling with the ace of spades. J or Qxx flop isn't changing my base strategy too much, but it could change the way I react to river aggression because I can give more credit to 2 pair combos/sets that way. I'm not giving CO as much Tx in my head after I 3bet. In situations where they check river, I bet, and they jam, I'm probably angryfolding.

Funny spot. BTN is a 33/17/2 (VPIP, PFR, AF) with a 3bet value of 3% (all of which have been from the blinds. They have never 3bet from the BTN before). Sample size 352 hands.

Seems like it's either AK or KK, I don't think they are doing that with queens. AK seems pretty hard to have, but no harder than flopping a set (I don't think). Thinking about it now... I guess they would have 5bet shoved pre flop with kings, but you never know at NL2 aha.

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

Hero (SB): 100 BB
BB: 496 BB
UTG: 146 BB
CO: 109.5 BB
BTN: 100 BB

Hero 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, CO calls 3 BB, BTN raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 27 BB, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 18 BB

Flop: (61 BB, 2 players) 9 K 3
Hero checks, BTN bets 73 BB and is all-in, fold

Good afternoon all!

Well... It's approaching the end of the month and I'm around the 20k mark (hand sample size and not the bank roll unfortunately haha) so I thought I'd post an update.

BR is looking alright, around the $130 mark so I've started throwing some NL5 into the mix.

My thoughts on NL2 - Super soft. Full of complete drooler fish. Considering I've only played 20k hands and I've payed nearly $60 in rake, I can definitely see why players suggest getting out the micros ASAP lol. In all honesty though, I think it's a good place to learn. There's an abundance of fish and it's a good place to learn how to maximize extraction. I've tried experimenting with the over bet river shove with nutted hands, but haven't had much success. I would have gained far more by just betting 2/3 pot or something and not doing that crazy play. Maybe you will disagree.

My tips on NL2 (hopefully someone will find this helpful!) - Fold a lot when you don't have it. Bet a lot when you do. Keep your decisions and game plan really simple. Don't mess around with 1/3 pot bet sizing nonsense when you are going for value. Play with a range advantage pre flop. The player pool will overfold to flop Cbets, and they will over call with draws and middle strength hands. Use this to your advantage.

Moving forward My game plan will remain much the same for NL5. I'm expected to get floated a little more by some of the regs, and be 3betted more. I'll study some 3bet scenarios and maybe throw in some more light 3 bets. However, I'm still not going to get my pants in a twist battling regs. I'll still be focusing most of my time and energy getting involved with fish.

I've posted my HUD stats so far. Please have a look and share your thoughts. I feel my SB/BB game is pretty weak. I suspect my 3bet stats kind of suck too. My approach to 3betting at NL2 has just been to 3bet for value only, because the player pool will overcall to 3 bets. I'm definitely open to criticism though so feel free!

Thanks, and have a nice weekend.

Hi cremteck,

Subbed to your thread.
Congrats for moving to NL5.

I appreciate you writing about tips and overall thoughts about NL2.

How is it going so far with not checking the results at end of session?

Looking forward to seeing your updates regarding the poker journey.

Good luck

Cheers, Subbed to yours also.

Hm not so bad. I must admit, I am finding it difficult not to look. It's just such a habit of checking at the end of every session. I've got around a 10 buy in cushion (had a sick session last Saturday night and the BR went up a fair bit) so I don't really need to look at the moment, but still do aha. It's a work in progress!

Looking forward to hearing about your progress also

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Gl and subbed

Cheers!

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Good evening all.

Hope everyone is doing well! Is it the weekend yet? aha.

Couple of hands I'd like to share which I'm not sure about. All opinions appreciated. TIA

HUD stat layout; VPIP/PFR/3Bet pre/AF

Hand 1

SB was 63/6/0/2 (36 hands)
BB was 25/15/5/1 (54 hands)

Is this just a standard shove on the flop? I'm unsure with it being multiway. NL2, I'd probably just shove, knowing I'm going to face sets sometimes, but not enough to not shove. I was originally planning on seeing a turn (not expecting the SB to re-raise). Once SB does, I know the stacks are going in the middle.

Pacific Poker - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 100 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 100 BB
CO: 49.2 BB
Hero (BTN): 101 BB
SB: 90.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A 7

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, SB calls 2 BB, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (7.2 BB, 3 players) 7 A 5
SB bets 3 BB, BB raises to 7.4 BB, Hero calls 7.4 BB, SB raises to 20.8 BB, BB calls 13.4 BB, Hero raises to 98.6 BB and is all-in, SB calls 67.2 BB and is all-in, BB calls 76.8 BB and is all-in

Turn: (290.4 BB, 3 players) K

River: (290.4 BB, 3 players) T



Hand 2

Villain is 31/19/0/2 (83 hands).

Please enlighten me as to what on earth was going on in this hand lol He showed his cards, and I was a bit like... wut.

I don't think it's included in the code, but I'll share after. At this point, there's no dynamic built up between me and Villain.

Pacific Poker - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 144.6 BB
SB: 103 BB
Hero (BB): 122.8 BB
CO: 139.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J J

CO raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 12 BB, CO calls 9 BB

Flop: (24.4 BB, 2 players) 9 T 6
Hero bets 14.6 BB, CO calls 14.6 BB

Turn: (53.6 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, CO bets 112.8 BB and is all-in, fold



Cheers!

H1: I am not high-five to get it in but I don't see how it is bad to shove top 2


H2: We do hit flushes on the turn so I like the fold with this particular hand

Good luck

Thank you.

H2 - dude showed Kd2d lol I think that's why I questioned it.

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Line check.

Was this a spew?

I have Villain down as a TAG fish. VPIP/PFR/3bet/AF (hands); 21/15/7/1 (129).

Bare in mind, I'd been 3betting this guy a lot.

When he 4bets me pre, I'm mainly looking to hit a set and stack up. Stack sizes were deep.

Given his profile, his bet sizing on the flop just looks scared. JJ/QQ/KK. I wanted to apply the pressure on the turn and thought it might be a good spot to semi-bluff.

Pacific Poker - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 144.8 BB
Hero (BB): 228.4 BB
UTG: 144.4 BB
MP: 89.4 BB
CO: 159 BB
BTN: 145.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 3 3

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB raises to 25 BB, Hero calls 16 BB

Flop: (50 BB, 2 players) T 2 A
SB bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

Turn: (74 BB, 2 players) 5
SB bets 24.4 BB, Hero raises to 191.4 BB and is all-in, fold

This is so villain and read dependant, but since you had some history with him might be good to apply the pressure as you did.

I don't think that stack sizes are deep enough to justify the call for set mining only, but given the fact that you are playing back might be fine.
Regarding the sizing, I actually like what villain's sizings (I would go smaller on the turn to setup the river jam) and the read that he is weak could be wrong here on the long term.

Was it a spew? I give it a rating of 7/10 that it was.