As a side note, I’ve calculated my winrate for the first time tonight at work through 42K-ish hands so far and it’s still a bit over 4bb/100. So even though I’ve been down-swinging pretty good lately that helps a bit for maintaining perspective that building a bankroll isn’t a linear journey.

I think that I might put less of a focus on volume in December though, and play more reg tables. I’ve also been hooked up with a friends old version of HM2 that he isn’t using anymore after upgrading (thx bud) so 2021 should include some giraffes once I figure out wtf is going on in that world.

Here’s a question... when you can’t imagine two card poker going any worse is that when it’s time to learn two card + two card Devil poker? Asking for a friend.

Standard 4! November pot:

100 bb effective:

I open AK 2.3x from HJ, Russian reg 3!’s me to 8bb from CO, folds to me, I 4! to 22.5bb, V calls, I steel myself mentally for maximum pain.

Flop: A - 4 - 3 (45.5 bb)

Wtf...? This is actually a pretty good flop. I cbet 11 bb’s, V calls

Turn: 8 (66.5 bb’s)

Wtf...? This is actually a pretty great turn card. I bet 20% expecting a lot of folds from V. V jams his 50-ish bb’s on top?!? I happily call.

V has A4. River is a red Queen. I feel genuine surprise that V didn’t have AQ after seeing the river.

Overall, decent session. Only dropped 3 buyins in 625 hands and didn’t even tilt at all. Felt thoroughly detached from myself entirely so clearly this is progress.

There is no way to get around this hand. The HJ might flat some A5/A4 hands that he 3bets. With this SPR, you are happily GII and move on.

Recently I played some 100NL reg table and found it is like 10x softer..... it's not about the volume, it's about how fast you want to improve yourself. If you just want to make some side money and have fun, reg table is definitely better.

Ya, I know. I wasn’t suggesting that there’s a way I don’t GII here.
I’ve just been winning like 10-15% of 4 bet pots this month and it’s starting to get to me. Flop awful, or flop well and run into better is the theme.

It’s absurd that I feel like I need to just get to the end of this month to stop this ridiculous downswing. That’s fish thinking and I don’t understand the psychology of why it feels real. Anyone have any relevant thoughts on this? Also noticing lately how life tilt and poker tilt go hand in hand and trying to work on this.
Dropped another few buyins today. I actually felt like it was the best I’d played in a couple weeks for 90% of the session, but I also had a few spots where I just completely lost my mind and bluffed my stack off into top of range. And I think that’s been a real problem the last couple weeks. Tripling way too thin for value against strong ranges, and spewing off stacks with overly ambitious bluffs.
Basically playing really bad.
Setting a new rule for myself where I won’t play any 50z under 20 buyins, and am mostly planning on going back to what I have the most experience at (full-ring).
Going to post a few HH’s in a bit from my session earlier. Would love some feedback.

Alright, here they are. Help me get out of my own head plz.

All hands are 6-max zoom

HH1:

103 bb’s deep

I pick up KK and open LJ 2.2x, decent Dutch reg 3!’s to 8.5x, Swedish reg (who I see a lot but haven’t played significant hands against) 4!’s sb to 17x (sizing is weird?), I jam my stack...

This spot had me wondering if I should have a click back 5 bet range against this unusually small 4 bet? I dunno, usually it just makes the most sense to jam against 4!’s 100 bb’s deep, but this spot seemed potentially different.

HH2:

132 bb effective

Hero has 10 - 9

HJ opens (UK reg) 2.2x, I 3! 10 - 9 in CO to 7.5x, folds to V, he tank calls (?)

Flop: J - 4 - 6 (16.5 bb)

He checks, I bet 7.85 bb (this was an exploit size up, I think he is pretty inelastic with everything he wants to continue with here. I know small is standard in this spot), he calls.

Turn: 6 (32.25 bb)

He checks, I bet 9.75 bb, he tank calls.

(Now I go small on this street because I think his range is heavily Jx, and high single clubs)

River: Q (51 bb)

He checks, I bet 21.5 bb...

Calling if he jams was what I was wondering as he tanked...?
He’ll have JJ/44 sometimes? AQ/AJ/QJ a lot?

His two combos of QJ suited are probably sweet solver approved bluffs in his spot OTR i was also thinking.

HH3:

I have A - A in the big blind

Main V is an unknown 80 bb stack in the small blind.

UTG reg opens with a minraise, folds to small blind who calls, I 3! to 9.5 bb’s, UTG reg folds, short stack calls

Flop: 2 - 3 - 4 (21 bb)

V checks, I bet 6.5 bb, he calls

Turn: 9 (33.5 bb)

V checks, I bet 11.5 bb, V tank calls

River: 7 (56 bb)

V checks, I shove for V’s remaining 53 bb’s...

Going to start posting more HH’s again moving forward to help give myself some perspective on wtf I’m actually doing and why because that critical street to street thinking has been lacking the last couple weeks.

Oh, here was another one. I’m actually not sure if this is a massive mistake or not. Kind of have to get creative to find bluffs here and I thought this seemed like a good candidate.

100 bb effective

I open LJ with 7 - 7 to 2.2x, unknown HJ 3!’s me to 8.5 bb, folds to me, I call.

Flop: 6 - 8 - 2 (18.5 bb)

I check, V bets 13.5 bb, I call (this is probably the main **** up and probably a good example of my brain just not thinking critically 10% of the time lately)

Turn: K (55 bb)

Check, check

River: 5 (55 bb)

I overbet jam my 78 bb stack...

I’m not doing this because I think that my straight or flush blocker are that relevant here, but more because I want to be jamming all my sets on the river and need to find some bluffs for that reason. Realistically I shouldn’t even arrive at river with this combo though.

take a break for a few days.

exp: i've broken a lot of stuff

good luck

H1) I'd consider calling vs that betsize. You wouldn't ever be bluff-jamming here, so I suppose that would make a shove a bit exploitable. I guess if he's not a regular, jamming should be fine though. We're definitely not folding, that's for sure.

H2) I'm not a big fan of the preflop 3b given those stacksizes. It just has too much reverse implied odds and puts you in to few spots where you actually get V's entire stack. Anyway, flop is fine, turn size is not really a thing. You have significantly more nutty hands than he has (basically should only have a low % of A2-A5s and then AsJs, AsQs, KsQs) while you have full A2s-A5s and ATs+, KQs, KTs (+ T9s, 98s to some %). You have all the overpairs and a bit more top pairs than he has. You should bet around roughly 2/3s pot in my opinion. So yeah, bet larger.

I'd also argue that your assessment of him having Jx with high spade cards is a bit unreasonable. No decent reg is ever going to call KJo preflop and even AJo becomes a stretch. These hands just have poor playability OOP. River doesn't change much either, you still have all the advantages and should be betting a bit bigger. Don't think an average 50NL player is going to turn 2pair into a bluff since you seem a bit more polarised with a 2/3 PS bet.

H3) nh wp

H4) Flop is 100% call with 77, in fact we're calling most of our combos with and folding most of our non-. The worst one would be 77 but even that still calls around 20% of the time. Turn's a bit odd because he should be betting his entire range. Whenever people check this board, I'm inclined to think that they have some sort of showdownvalue that's weaker than the K that they don't wanna bet/fold. In any case, if he decides to check underpairs to the K, that might make the river a somewhat reasonable bluff. Sizing makes sense, you have more nutted hands after the check and want to polarize so I'd say nh. The only odd thing really is his check back on the turn.

Hope this helps and things turn around soon. Taking a break is always good and might help you distance yourself from recent results.

Pretty much agree with Wegg.

T9s in that spot maybe you can 3bet like one out of 8 times or something. Or just don't play it there at all.

I'm kind of iffy on the 77 river bluff. I do agree though the turn check is weird and weighted towards hands like 99-QQ. KQ is in there too a decent portion. Haven't played in awhile so don't know how frequently people are calling this spot with those hands, but I feel like it would be kind of often since there's no flop CR and FD bricked.

@supa / The goal is both, more or less. I would love the extra $ right now, but I have been trying to put the priority on improving more than $ this year. Being used to soft live 2/5 games makes me appreciate playing in harder games at lower stakes. I have a study plan in my mind for 2021 already. I think it will help me a ton.

@ Ra!zor / thx for dropping your opinion man. I agree that breaks can be really good for perspective and resetting your game.

@ Wegg and Spyu

All sounds like solid feedback guys. Used an RNG for the first time while 3 tabling the first half of my session, and I’m pretty sure the 10-9cc was a frequency choice. But if I remember correctly I think I was rolling basically a 50/50 decision on 3! or fold. Which seems too loose as you both point out. I always get turned on by 9-10 suited, and 10’s for some reason. lol

And I was meaning his turn range should be mainly Jx, OR high lone club hands Wegg, not both at the same time. But I agree bigger bet/check with range is better in that spot. I felt a little lost on the turn and river in that hand, and it’s probably because it’s just supposed to want to bet the turn bigger and evaluate how much the river card changes value OTR.

77 hand is pretty ambitious OTR, but I guess I thought the turn check was weird too and I wanted to put all his second pairs in a tough spot. It’ll be nice when I start having more value again in these spots because a ton of my bluffs have been snapped off this month.

Hopefully players start tagging me as a spewbot, because I have been.

Kay, it’s good to know that I was correct in that spot at least.
I figured most combos of 77 would want to continue, and black wouldn’t be so inclined. I also was thinking this is the best combo of 77 to have, even against the larger bet size.

The thing I second guess sometimes is how much I should tighten flop calling ranges OOP OTF against unknown players as an exploit. Especially against the larger bet sizing. But then there’s also a lot of players who just check back turn and river when their overcards whiff twice so it’s a weird guessing game with no HUD by river for me. Still trying to fix that.

I guess I really need to get HUD working ASAP if I want to make good explo decisions there.

Maybe that hand isn’t a train wreck a bit higher up, but in the nitty 50z pool I suspect it gets called too much.

Results of those hands are:

~ November recap ~

Hands played: 19,167

Bankroll: - 9 BI

Cliffs: really not good.

Maybe dropping 9 buyins in a month doesn’t seem so bad, but when you start the month off up 10 buyins fast and then the doomswitch comes on and you lose about 85% of sessions the rest of the month, it’s not that fun. I think at the lowest point I had dropped 22 buyins.

Plus side of things is that I’m feeling motivated and rejuvenated after not playing much this last week. Hopefully December leads to better games, better play, and less ridiculous coolers every session.

Here’s a few hands from a recent session, it felt like variance was starting to turn a bit in this one. I dropped a few buyins quick to really gross usual November spots for me, but then I got hot and ran up a small win on the session.

All hands are 100 bb effective except HH3 which was against a short stack.

HH1:

Peru reg opens OtB 2.25x, I 3! from big blind with AK to 9.5bb, V calls. HU.

Flop: 4 - 8 - 4 (19.5 bb)

I bet 5.85 bb, V calls

Turn: A (31 bb)

I check, V bets 7.3bb, I call

River: 5 (45.5 bb)

I check, V shoves 77.5 bb, I snap

HH2:

AJ OTB

210 bb effective with V who opens MP 3x, I 3! to 9bb, sb calls with a 51 bb stack to start the hand, deep stack V folds...

Flop: 7 - J - 6 (22 bb’s)

V checks, I overbet 30 bb’s, V shoves his 42.5 bb’s...

HH3: RNG shenanigans

I open AK in MP 2.2x, BtN 3!’s to 8 bb, I roll a small % call (I was rolling 4! 90%, call 10%)

Flop: 8 - K - K (17.25 bb)

X, 5.85 bb, I roll another low % call

Turn: 10 (27.5 bb)

X, V bets 17 bb, I xr to 47 leaving 38.5 in my stack (just shove? Or raise even smaller?)

Chose to raise turn pure 100% frequency... any just call frequency again OTT blocking no draws? Maybe given my funky low % line I should just continue the passive story OTT? Felt unsure what’s best on turn because it’s such a rare spot.

HH4: (...so so long since delivering this type of maximum pain)

J - 10 in the big blind

Reg HJ opens 2.5x, sb calls, I call

Flop: J - 3 - J (7.2 bb)

X, x, x

Turn: 2 (7.2 bb)

Sb leads half pot, I call, reg folds

River: 10 (14 bb)

Sb leads pot (14 bb), I shove 94 bb (lol), V snaps with 33.

~~~~~~~~~

Goals for December:

[ ] - prioritize playing in better games
[ ] - prioritize quality over quantity
[ ] - enjoy playing
[ ] - get used to implementing RNG
(Forego RNG and make decisions pure when positive they’re the highest EV decision)

Dropping my hand volume goal challenge, it has become counterproductive for now. New intention is to get bankroll to a place where I can play 100nl comfortably ASAP.

I just discovered this thread. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders. I'll keep checking in to see your progress.

Hey thanks Online Vet. Appreciate that and also you following along. The less like a blog/diary this becomes the happier I’ll be with it.

I assume you’ve played online for awhile based on assumptions from your SN, post count and twitch reference as location?

Your assumption is correct, my friend. I started playing online poker in the fall of 1998. The first site I played on was Planet Poker, and then the original Poker dot com. My favorite poker site of all time was True Poker, when they had the animated characters.

The first time I ever placed a bet online was at Intercasino, in September of 1996. Anyway, I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you. Keep up the good work!

You’d probably be surprised at how unlikely it is that your stories from those times would bore me, but I saw that you have a thread to check for such stories. Will read them as they pop up there.

!!! December 1st - 7th !!!

Dec. 2, Wed ~ + 3 BI

+ 1,201 hands

Dec. 3, Thurs ~ - 1.5 BI

+ 692 hands

Dec. 4, Fri ~ BE

+ 478 hands

Dec. 5, Sat ~ - .5 BI

+ 902 hands

Dec. 6, Sun ~ + 1.5 BI

+ 309 hands

Dec. 7, Mon ~ + 1.5 BI

+ 518 hands

Total: 4,100 hands

Not much volume this week, but I’m really busy these days. Playing 25% reg tables drops volume as well and I’m trying to do a better job of not playing when I’m really tired, which is often these days. Having a better time playing this last week at least, and think I’m also finally starting to play better.
Also, joined a study group and I’m really excited about the people I get to work with in it, so definitely looking forward to that moving ahead.

!!! December 8th - 15th !!!

Dec. 8, Tues ~ - 2 BI - 555 hands

Dec. 9, Wed ~ - .5 BI - 506 hands

Dec. 10, Thurs ~ BE - 703 hands

Dec. 11, Fri ~ + .5 BI - 150 hands

Dec. 12, Sat ~ + 1.5 BI - 371 hands

Dec. 13, Sun ~ - 1 BI - 372 hands

Dec. 14, Mon ~ + 2 BI - 282 hands

Dec. 15, Tues ~ +2.5 BI - 155 hands

Total hands: 3,094 hands played

Just posting this so I don’t lose the hand count. Nothing overly interesting to report. Won a small handful of buyins. Still ridiculously busy and not a lot of time for poker, but thinking about the game perhaps more than ever lately. Having fun when I play again lately which feels great, I guess it’s just hard to have a good time when you lose 79% of your sessions in a month (I checked out of curiosity) and downswing 20 BI’s in roughly 15-20K hands. A good wake up call I guess. I honestly thought it would be extremely unlikely for me to have that kind of stretch at 50z. Probably a combination of overestimating my ability vs. population and underestimating the nasty potential of variance. I still think I’m a solid winning player at these stakes. Don’t have time to post hands lately, but will try to find some fun ones before the year is out.
Going to re-evaluate my plan for this thread in the next few weeks. Not sure what I’ll do in the new year. Feeling very fortunate lately for all of the people I’ve met on 2+2 over the last year or two.

Well here is my very unofficial and anticlimactic 2020 wrap up. No graphs and I even stopped manually tracking hands this month as it was becoming a hassle because my chances to play are rare and short lived lately. Also been dealing with some Stars issues the last few weeks and it’s made putting in volume (especially focused volume) more of a challenge than it should be.

In 2020 I made somewhere between $4-5K playing online, which is quite a bit less than I’d usually make in a year playing live, but I think I improved more this year than I have in any single year. The results haven’t really been exciting lately. Not poor, not great. But I’m not worried about it. Feeling optimistic about 2021 and confident that I’ll stick in the 100-200nl stakes again fairly soon.

I also want to keep firing a fair number of MTT’s in 2021, because I had such a ridiculous number of top 20-30 finishes where I couldn’t win a huge money implication spot as a big favourite. It just feels like a matter of time and persistence before I get rewarded in MTT world, and I think I have a natural ability for large tourney formats.

Mostly my focus will be on grinding cash games though and I’m planning on buying HM3 or PT4 once I have some free time in a couple days.

Not totally sure if I’ll continue to update this thread, but if I do, it will include graphs. It helped my motivation for a bit, but I don’t think a blog is up my alley honestly. It will almost definitely be way more sporadic moving forward. This might be my last update, I don’t know.

Thanks to all who have helped me out so much this year. Starting this thread has led to me meeting some people who I’ve really enjoyed getting to know, and talk poker with. It’s also indirectly led to me getting into a really awesome study group, which has been very exciting to be a part of. I feel confident we’re all going to take big steps in the next year or two.

Special big thanks to Mr. S. I don’t know why you gave me so much of your valuable time, but I will always remember and appreciate that fact a ton. Hopefully some day I can buy you an evening of drinks, and the offer to back you at 20nl is always on the table.

Happy 2021 everyone. I hope things start looking better for us all. Best wishes!

THE PEOPLE DEMAND AN UPDATE

rumour is you're a high stakes crusher now

+1