Yeah, a K-high straight flush is good if you're into that sort of thing, but I had this happen last week:

Not half bad. But have you lost with quad kings to a royal? Didn't think so.

2 hands I wanted to analyse:




MP was 87/0 over 5 hands.

What a disgusting board
And how often do you have 5 players to the flop in 6max when you hit a set? *Sigh*
My biggest regret is not raising the flop.
I wanted to find out if my fold was +EV here (or just not as -EV if I called)
After all, what were the odds that the guy had a Queen if he was betting the flop?



These are the hands he'd be betting with, if I go with a 87% VPIP, which in all likelihood was over-estimated.

EV = (0.397 x $13.78) + (0.603 x -$4.10)
EV = +3
(To call, would be +3EV I mean.)

Well, poo...







Villain was 21/0 over 27 hands.


Hands he's raising me with on the river, I'm 75%, ok cool.

EV = (0.75 x $1.88) + (0.25 x -$0.57)
EV = + 1.27

WELL, POO!

Lessons learned:
I'm not always as behind as I think I am.
Going to chalk this one up to a small miscalculation, but now I know a bit more about my EV in these situations. As I read somewhere today; we learn more from our losses than our wins, and I'd have to agree!

Oh dear God, come now, let us remember our wins...

*Ahhh*, that's better.

Hand 1… obviously you know flop was bad. I know the prospect of calling and letting ten other players call behind is attractive but look at the texture, must be a raise. Also I think on the river it's a super easy fold. The fact that MP is 87/0 should tell you he can have literally sixteen thousand combos of Qx and also if he's the passive type, he's not gonna bluff river very often. Your flopzilla only has a few Qx combos.

H2… think the call is okay vs 5nl unk but I'm pretty indifferent on river.

I just hit Silver Star status on PS, first time ever! Woo!

Made up for a -5BI session earlier today (I have to stop playing first thing in the morning...) By getting a +8BI session done just now. Par for the course.

Highlight: Had KK cracked by AA and really didn't give a ****, kept playing solid.

How many tables of zoom are you playing ?

Grats m8

silverstar with 7-8 normal nl5 tables is easy... so with zoom it should be easier

I am playing 2 tables of 2c/5c 6max zoom.

Cheers!
Yeah compared to reg tables, zoom makes life easier in that regard.

Question; Is there a difference in "5NL" vs. "NL5" ? I mean is one 5 cents BB and the other is $5 BB? Or are they interchangeable?

Both the same.

OK so is there a way to tell when someone is talking about $2/$5 or 2c/5c?

2c/5c = 5NL
$2/$5 = 500NL

Omg really...
I always thought 500NL was $500 BB.... :\

Why is it called 500NL if the BB is $5? What is the relationship?

It's your buyin essentially. 2c/5c you buyin 100 deep for $5. $2/$5 you buyin for 500.

I was bored this afternoon and made something terrible.

wtf rofl

Some hands I wanted to look at:




Discussion:
I have this image in my head now, when dealing with looser players heads-up, and that is "2 unpaired over cards." I'm finding that at least 70% of the time, that's what they have in a blinds battle. I felt I was good here, and raising on the river after 2 checked streets is not something I normally do. I guess you could say I was hoping for a call, maybe I could've sized my raise better, but on the whole I'm happy with this hand.





Discussion:
Villain was 25/25 (20 3bet) over 5 hands. I am starting to play my pocket pairs more aggressively in blind battles. I remember someone telling me to do this last year on 2+2. Once again I was picturing 2 big overcards (KQ/AQ/KJ/AK) however the villain likes to raise just about anything, albeit 5 hand samples is not ideal. Turned out I was good.




Discussion:
This was a hand about commitment. Once I'd raised to $0.70 I was over 10% invested in the hand. I was happy getting it all in here. The AA was just unlucky being the top of his range. Villain was 30/9.

...And a bonus hand that I played very poorly with preflop and got very lucky with...
(This thread would never be complete without hands like these!)

A3 hand you can't get called by worse when you raise. QQ hand imo is very badly misplayed. Don't worry about commitment thresholds or anything like that. Fact is, a tight passive player has min raised you and then 5bet jammed on you pre. There's no shame in folding QQ here after 4 betting although higher up would be a crime. People at 5NL aren't stacking off light pre. You'll get some regs capable of going AI with ak and qq but most often you're going to see AA or KK. You didn't necessarily run into the top of his range here when you actually consider what his range is. Imo its exclusively AA and KK vs this particular player and I'd be snapfolding this at 5NL.

Good call, now that you explain it and I think about it!

I mean "good call" as in good advice.

In A3 you do understand that you are bluffing river aren't you?

Absolutely. My comment about "I was hoping for a call" was a mistake...Sometimes I just write my discussions on autopilot...

I am actually considering hiring a coach part time, does anyone have any personal recommendations? Mac?

And in other news I hit my first rewards tier! ($10 on stars)

Taking a couple days off poker to clear my head, plus my eyes were starting to bulge out of my head...

Woo!

I was actually in a studying mood so put in 30 mins of study, went over the advice in my thread, and decided to give a session a crack.

Up 5 buy ins over 2000 hands/3 hours.

Best news was since I returned to poker about a month ago, I've ground $8 up to $100 as of just now!

Will post some interesting hands, and a session analysis later on.

Session analysis:
So todays session was a result of some (constructive) criticism from my readers. I was not thinking enough about my hands, and made some very obvious blunders, on reflection.

Before I hit the tables today I came up with 4 problems, and their respective solutions for me to focus on, the 4 problems were:

1) Stacking off with AK/TT/JJ & QQ against nits, preflop.
Solution = Fold more to 4bets from nits, or call a 3bet from a nit in position

2) Calling with a marginal hand because a loose player opened.
Solution = Ask myself "am I in position? (btn)" If not, fold! If I have a strong hand relative to the opener, raise! Isolate!

3) Over-committing to AA/KK post flop against raises on wet boards.
Solution = Against a loose player? Get in there! Against a tight player? Might be best to fold!

4) Over-committing to Top pair on the flop against tight players.
Solution = Occasionally slow down with Top pair, especially against tight players who are sticking around.

With these 4 problems and solutions in front of me in my notepad, I hit the tables and would confidently say I played my A- game. As I followed my rules, I ticked them off, to reinforce that I was indeed following them. I layed down QQ and JJ in tight spots after thinking about hands villain would be raising me with (I was crushed), and made some solid calls; one with middle set on a 3-flush and open-ender on the board, won.

But here are the interesting ones... I want to actually explain my thought process, I feel this will help me develop better habits in the long run.

HAND 1:



HAND 2:

^lucky