Hello everyone,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Laurents and I am 28 years old. My screen-name is laurents20. I started with playing HU hyper in 2013. Before 2013 I mainly focused on becoming better at chess and managed to have good results at the last tournament I played. There I managed to have a 2300 score in the highest group which included a draw against a grandmaster and beating two 2200+ players. I hope I can use the experience in chess to become a better player in HU hyper.

This year I mainly played 3,5 D, 7 D and 15 D BI. I experienced the huge variance that is in this game and had an hard time coping with it. I can happily say that I made some progress when it comes to that. My results in 2013 are:

- 3,5 dollar HU hyper, 3599 games, W1917/L1682, WP 53.3%;
- 7 dollar, 3712 games HU hyper, W1917/L1795, WP 51.6%;
- 15 dollar, 1315 games HU hyper, W680/L635, WP 51.7%.

My goal is in 2014 to play 3,5 dollar games till the end of march and scoring close to 55% and becoming number one in Sharkscope with Heads up superturbo at end of March between 2 and 5 dollar. The reason for it that it gives a nice opportunity to build up a nice bankroll and it allows me to use the work I have done for studying the 3,5 dollar BI. After this is want to hit the 7 dollar BI, studying this BI very detailed and getting a score between 53% and 54%. After playing a good sample size, 5000 games, and hitting my target of 53%, I hope that by August I am playing the 15 dollar hyper where I will aim to get a score between 52.5 and 53%. Maybe some readers could tell me what the best regs will score on the 15 dollar level?

I would like to update my goals and post in this thread and hopefully some member are nice to make some comment about it.

Greetings,

Laurents

Playing 3.5s for 3 months is burning money if you plan to play somewhat decent volume, wouldn't set myself such targets, rather would aim to move up when having around 50 BIs for next level and beating previous one for like 2.5-3% EV roi. Not much difference between 3.5s and 7s anyway. About the roi that is achievable - at the 15s 6-7% EV roi is definitely sustainable with nothing but solid play. GL.

First off all, thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right in general. But I like to take a more sportsmen approach towards poker. At the moment I am working on a detailed analyse of the 3,5 dollar and it is interesting to see to which max I can exploit this BI. This work will work as a blueprint for later levels, where I can use this experience to adapt fast to new levels and go to new levels in a fast way. I have the feeling that the 3,5 dollar HU hyper could be maximally exploit to a winning percentage of 56.5%-57%. At the moment my EV at 3,5 dollar is 55,5% over 4000 games, so working for this extra one % is maybe not profitable but I hope it really helps my thinking about maximally exploitive strategy.

Update: played a bit this weekend, and had some good results. I was way above EV this weekend, so that is always nice (130 D). My net expected was between 30 and 35 dollar over 136 games, it is not that bad but I hope to score a bit higher. My play wasn't that great, I could not find the 100% concentrating and missed a few things. I am happy that I didn't play two tables that much. Also the hand distribution was also a bit annoying. 90% was really **** and 10% was really good.

Here is a hand I would hope you like to comment on it. The player is unknown and we just played a few hands, I did not really know anything about him. Besides that it was a game at 1,50 which I almost never play. I think the c-bet could be 60 here, to have a better understanding where I stand. He could have a street or almost a street or a flush-draw. I think he would re-raise for sure with a flush-draw because it will have over-cards or an extra pair or a gutshot straight-draw. Anyway, I did not feel to risk my stack for this flop because or he doesn't have anything and I can get some value from a bluff on the river or I lose my stack with my nice two-pair. The turn was an ace, he could have called with ace-high and low kicker, hard to say. I did not bet the turn, and I think it is a mistake. I checked and than another heart came and he leads out with a pot-sized bet. I am 90% sure now I am behind now, and just fold my two pair. Please let me know what you think!

bet bet bet

Time to bring some life in this thread. Hoping to post a bit more in the future. Think it is a good thing to write once in a while. In this post I will set up my plan for 2014.

At this moment I am leaving the 15's behind and starting to prepare for the 30's! I managed to have a good score over my last 750 games: 6.3% EvRoi, and 1500 games: 5.5%EvRoi. And I am very happy that my backers allowed me to move up. This staking deal is a very good thing for me because otherwise I would still be grinding the 7's trying to be the best at that level. And now I am paying them with profit I would otherwise never have, that must be the best deal ever .

Now it becomes time for me to really learn poker. This was the first year that I really started to study poker, which is a very limited time-frame. That you are able to already win money after putting so little effort into the game doesn't tell you a lot of the quality of your own game. With chess it took me 10 years to reach an rating over 2000+. The big difference between chess and poker is the playing field. With chess everybody, even 1600 players, study and work hard on their game. It is a very competitive atmosphere. To reach a certain level just takes a huge amount of work and dedication to the game.

This mentality is less visible in the poker community, which is a good thing for me. But with reaching the 30's level this thing starts to change. I am going to meet a lot of regulars who studied the game and know what they are doing. This certainly gives an extra challenge and I am very happy to take on this challenge. I am going to work my ass off to expand my strategies and to work on different leaks in my game. As your own level will rise it starts to be more and more difficult to improve. Which chess I know that it comes with phases. At a certain point you feel that you are stuck at a certain level, this happened with me when I had a 1700 rating and a 1900 level. It took a lot of time and energy to get pass this level. With poker it will not be different, at some point your limitations will be banging at your door. Only hard work and infinite confidence will help you to the right direction.

When it comes down to improving in poker I try to have a sportsman approach. I am trying not to be fixated on the money, and try to have the same approach as I had in chess. Where love for the game was my great motivator, I never studied chess to become rich, I studied chess because I loved the game and wanted to become one of the best. In poker I think I am sometimes to fixated on making money, which effect my game in a negative way. Off-course chess will always be my true love, I can not deny that. But heads up poker is starting to be my second love. I feel love for the game more and more. And as I am making progress I am also starting to become more focused on becoming one of the best HU player. I do not want to be stuck at the 30's knowing at some point that I can make a decent amount of money. This will not satisfies me and at some point I will get worse and worse until the moment I am totally worn out.

Time to write a bit about my goals in 2014. When it comes down to volume I always try to play around 1500 games in a month. I can play 3000 games, but this will not increase my quality and I do not believe that this will make me a better player. I rather spend more time on improving and reaching an higher quality in my game. To become the best and catch up on all the players above me I can not play 3000 games a month and still be able to work hard enough to belong at the best HU players at some point. Besides that I am going to try to establish myself at the 60's and hopefully the cartel gang will let me in at some point. This whole cartel thing seems a bit scary, but maybe it isn't that bad. I think I am just going to aim for some cartel members and build a decent strategy against them. Take them 5 at the time, and see if these members are willing to work just as hard as I will do. It is going to be a nice challenge, that is going to be sure.

Another goal is to be more focussed on studying the game in the right way and stop wasting time on other things. I tend to spend to much time on talking, see also this post (-:, while I can also use this time to study the game. I like to have a lot of social contacts in life. And with poker life can sometimes be lonely. It is important to find the right balance in it, because before you know it I spend more time talking than actually learning and playing the game.

Goals outside poker. I have still some points to do before I finish my University. I already finished my thesis a year ago and still not finished everything. I am a bit pissed about that. I had personal issues which took a big effect on my life, a friend died, and since then I am not quit myself yet. This is something that really made me emotional in-stable in the past year, which off-course also becomes very visible in poker. I hope to get my old confidence back and start to feel a bit more trust in life. All though my spark and life-energy did not completely disappear it is not at the same level as before. So we will see, it is nice to be honest about these things and not hide it.

Thank-you for listening, will be updating once in a while. Take care and I wish you all the best on the tables and outside the tables!

Laurents