Thanks! Not so sure about destroying, Im thinking its more about being in the good side of variance lately.
Most of my volume comes from zoom. Even though I feel like regular tables might be a bit better for me, even in terms of $/h. Should play more of normal tables, but zoom is just so easy!
I've thought about giving NL50 a shot, but I probably want to grind a bigger sample of 25 before I move up. I'm guessing the jump from NL25 to NL50 is somewhat significant at Stars these days.

I think normal tables are way better and softer, zoom is way to nitty for me. People always show up with sets and bigger pairs than you lol.

How many hands have you played on NL25 already?? I tried taking a shot at 50NL last week, went horrible but small samples tho. The jump is definitely there, people are more aggressive, but I think it just takes time to adjust and we will destroy it soon enough.

After starting this thread only something like 20k maybe. Played more NL10 it seems.
I definitely agree that 50NL is different by how much more aggressive the regs are.
I feel like NL25 zoom plays really weird and in general is probably one of the nittiest stakes in the internet. Not that it means that its hard to beat or anything.
Easy to make mistakes being too agressive or too passive. I think what ever type the regs are in micros, they mostly have clear leaks.

Played over 3k hand session with few small breaks. Didnt play too well and ran even worse.

Haaaands:













Didnt like my options on the river. Only few hands on opponent and thinking hes likely a fish.







This hand broke the session, tilted too much.







LOL betsize tells, ez game when you get there on the river though.







Too nitty of a turn check? So much gets there, so i dont know.







Regs play weird vs. basicly unknowns... River for him is kinda interesting, if hes not betting even this or the way more common AQ, he cant really bluff almost anything. I dont know if his check is bad though.
Just better river for me, my A4s and A5s improve to near nuts and nuts. I think I still end up calling some of my AJ type of hands to pure bluffcatch. But not if I have reads where opponent is tight and doesnt call flops much or is very unlikely to turn anything in to a bluff (although I guess this goes for majority of the field).
If I ever check call AQ on the turn, I'm probably never folding that. Its unlikely I would though.







Happy with this one.







Not surprising in this session.







Flop should be a fold probably, rest is standard I think.







26/20 over 250 hands. I have no idea what hes doing postflop in any hand.








Opponent was unknown at the time. Flop the read changes that I'm playing a fish. Not overly happy getting 3bet on the flop, but I think this is clearly the only line for me. Very happy to see JJ here.





















Unknown villain again.
I was going bet bet on blanks, but to a 7 I felt it was too thin with KQ. He made the river super easy for me with his betsize. Probably would have called anything pot and under though.
KQ is like the top of my range and I guess I have some combos that really want to bluff here, so maybe I should be betting it for that reason, unless I try to pull a more exploitative line. I dont know tbh, ranges should be real strong and narrow here even for 2 streets of value? Maybe I have some nuts that I was gonna CR flop with and likely didnt risk a 2nd CR, esp vs. unknown villain that can just go autocheck with all his draws. I'm so lost in my own ranges too. I might have the occasional AQ as well..

Hard game this poker!
The type of game I try to play doesnt really allow for playing tilted or not fully focused, I feel like.
Also my game might be all over the place. Sometimes it feels like I'm unstoppable for these limits and sometimes I feel like my whole game is a huge mess! Maybe I try to play way too complicated of a style with my focus on balance and some theory principles; many of those I might misapply way too much.

Tickle me? Stop touching me??

Long time since last post! I havent been playing much in almost a month now. For some stupid reason I decided to play NL100 zoom again last month and dropped 5-6 buyins there in one marathon session. I was most likely autopiloting -EV game most of the playtime. Sucks hard obviously and it took a lot of my motivation to play.
So last month I ended up about BE after losing all of my winnings at NL100, not a super big deal but still annoying. Totally my own fault though.

Last months graph:



This month I'm probably gonna have a really low volume. About 2000 hands so far! I'm gonna try to finish reading Jandas book. Finished Tendlers MGOP2 a few days ago. I much preferred the material on the end to start and I'm kinda dissapointed I didnt read the book sooner.

Only interesting hands I can can quickly come up with:




During the stars promotion, where you got 10x winnings vs. the stars pro.
SB = xflixx, BE vs. him before this.
I think I played the hand optimally (except preflop I think minraise makes a lot more sense) and got lucky!







Shortpro opener and unknown reg cold caller.
Wasnt sure after my flop play, if I should take this to showdown, or just jam for value. Dont really see how that ace would connect much with his hands, but it can connect with some of my bluffs I guess. Maybe Im just not getting called much from TT-QQ or whatever non bluffs he would play like this. Theres not much protection needed or fear of getting bluffed I think.

Only played like 5k hands this month. Trying to play 500vpp for every "mission" on stars (promotion this month). Since it offers enough extra value, where I think playing it makes sense.
I like the all-in shootout lottery as well, doesnt sting if you dont win anything, but its really cool if you bink above expectation.

Few interesting hands from todays short session:







Unknown fish, not slowplaying this!! Folding pre is probably an option.







Unknown villain. I think I though he was a reg at the time, or didnt pay enough attention or smth.
Going for CR on the flop and decided turn is a good spot to try to CR again. Even if he checks turn back, what kinda hands am I gonna miss 2 streets of value from? I dont think theres many.

I feel like I need some goals to perform better at the tables.
So I've decided that if I can play well for the rest of the month. Not tilt, not play any higher than NL25, then I can start taking a NL50 shot next month.
I probably want to start the shot at regular tables mostly, as I feel it should be easier. I want to table select very carefully at the start. Might even mix few networks, not sure yet.
My tiltcontrol has been poor lately, so I'm gonna take some days off. I want to make sure, that when I play, I play close to best of my ability. Results have been good, but I know its about running well mainly.

On a side note, I finally finished reading Jandas book. Felt like it was pretty good and helpful read, it got me thinking about new things. Even if you feel uncertain about some concepts or disagree, it should still be beneficial to your game in my opinion.

Couple of hands from latest sessions:







Bluffcall??













Fine bluff hand & spot vs. a reg I guess. Not sure if I like my betsizings though.

Started playing 50NL today.
Starting from normal tables as planned. Probably gonna play just Stars, like before.
I'm still gonna play really low volume for a while longer. Maybe its a nice thing, that allows very careful and good quality sessions, to get things going at a new tougher level.




I've been also working on my game a bit outside of the tables. Looking indepth to some preflop ranges and working on my knowledge about different situations.

Postflop is way harder, but I also try to "feel analyze" different 3bet pot boards and such, to come up with good gameplans I can use as a baseline to play solid.
Most of this I do ingame. Well theres sooo many different boards and constantly different variables affecting how two ranges interract on those boards, so its kinda mandatory. But I also try to go indepth to check some situations after session and see if my thinking was close to what I view as correct and if I missed some things etc. That should help and give me some more general viewpoints, on how I make my ranges on some flops that are similar to each other.

For example I 3b SB vs BTN and flop comes low dry 224r, T63r, 843r, all have some differences that are relevant. Anyway I have a base gameplan, where I atleast start by c-betting probably 100% as a default. As I've worked outside of tables to reach a conclusion, that it should make sense in these types of boards.
Maybe when its a more wet board like KT3s, KT3r, AJ6 or smth, more thought is required on the flop. As I need to breakdown more, how much medium strengt hands which I want to check call I have. Like most Tx, QQ, JJ, and some weaker Kx on the first two (KT3) and Jx, KK, QQ and some weaker Ax on the AJ3.
Then also come up with good air hands to check, that can be delay bluffed, hold their equity well and keep opponents dominated hands in if he decides to check back.
And how much air I have, that I'm just not able to c-bet profitably. Then things like weather I'm getting bet almost always from the opponent if he has air, does he even check his medium strenght? Probably my checking range wants to include AQ, atleast some of the time on KT3 as opponent is likely going to check Tx, JJ, 99, 88, 77. By barreling it doesnt play that well on Qx, not even super well on A (opponent turns bunch of 2pairs, has 16 combos of QJ? and so cant be value bet 3 streets..) and J is obviously gin. Same kind of argument for AJ. I really feel like those two hands play well with mixed strategy, sometimes bet sometimes checked, but then again I'm far from being some kind of theory expert.

Very complex spots, even only on the flop. Where you should already plan a lot of your play to common runouts. Three street value hands on many runouts for example. Obviously as the play continues to river often and its pretty irrelevant how a hand does on the flop vs. how it does on the river on many common runouts.
General thoughts where you remember what you've analyzed on that type of boards helps, but a lot of individual thought on your own range in a specific way is required and same goes for your opponents range.
For example say we c-bet KT3r SB v BTN and turn comes a 9, should be hugely important wheather we have QJo, QJs in our range or not and what about the opponent?
How many sets does to opponent have on a low dry board, does he slowplay them to river, did the turn and sometimes the river too bring an obvious additional 3 combos of sets?

Kinda messy thoughtprocess, but maybe it demonstrates what I'm talking about well.
I think these days more thought is going to my own ranges, than opponents. Its often very big guesswork, to think about opponets range. On the flipside I often know excactly what kind of hands I have. As I have a perfectly clear idea of my preflop default ranges. If I adjusted those, I had a clear vision just how much.

Biggest pots from the first quick NL50 session:







Vs. fish. Cant complain!







Vs. reg. I think shoving and calling are both good plays, sided on shoving here. Its mainly just protection vs. 2 overs, which doesnt seem super important.. Its just that I expect villain to be a lot on air, but not bluff river much at all. Very rarely when he bluffraised a diamond diamond hand, I do better by shoving than checking, by a bigish margin I think. Maybe the rest of my range (valuehands), want to call more, so that should be considered in favor of calling. Especially since my more vunerable hands like JJ, even QQ want to maybe end the hand on the flop by 3betting. Which is also nice, where I can make small 3bets with those and some bluffs vs. a line that is very often fos.

gl

Ty 00001!

Last month was weird.
If we ignore results, it was totally useless month. I didnt play all that well most of the time and tilted more than normal. Then also played extremely few hands!

Results were great, especially considering all that:



For this month my head already seems to be in a better place! All I want to do is play well and put up a decent volume. Incase I do run in to very rough variance in NL50, I need to be mentally strong enough to drop back down. I think the line is somewhere around -10bi or so. Big consideration is how tilted I would be in that situation, buyin amount being of lesser importance.

I havent played a single hand of NL50 this month, even though I was supposed to switch there! I guess I havent been "feeling it" just yet, lol.
Again very inactive as well, so havent posted much. Month is slightly losing after today.
Played a session on Ongame for a change today. Ran poor and was a little bit lost with the software, which resulted in few suboptimal plays.

Hands:







Vs. a regular. My range should have more flushes and Tx (I'm thinking flushes because of turn action mostly and Tx because of preflop). So I think the river shove can make a lot of sense with boardbeats and some amount of bluffs, not quite sure about the ratio.







Atleast this hand I got really lucky! BTN had JJ.







Meh! Reg, with somewhat agro history. I was fine calling vs. this particular player, but I dont know, got hands with better equity for sure. Looked a lot like some kind of Ahx hand that he decided to play like that.







Tight reg over small sample. Mmkay..







SB reg, BB fish. Maybe I should c-bet this? Not sure.

Continued battling those Ongame tables. Theres definitely some special regs in that player pool I must say..
Provides way more interesting hhs than usual, so heres some hands again:







Vs. a regular. Thats pretty light!







I would say QQ is a pure bluffcatcher on the flop, so I dont like his play at all.







Reg again. I think his play is probably fine.







Regular and he had KQo. Grossly misplayed on preflop and turn imo.







Simple hand, but I still dont know whats best on the river as a default. Maybe check call turn would be better. Always betting flop here with AQ, since CO was a passive fish.







Quads lol.















Both fishes.







Probably fold flop?







Hah.







Then one FTP hand, only big pot from short session. Opponent is a reg.

Only winning, not a single loss!

Yeah, that gave a bit distorted view about the session. I played like 1,5k hands and only won two buyins. Losers werent particulary interesting this time though. Plus its always more fun to post winning hands!

Month is pretty much break even at this point.

My lucky Ongame account! I think I've lost a few big pots there.
Today -4bi and -9bi EV. Played fine mostly and quit when I got too tilted. Had very soft tables the whole time too.

The reg pool is kinda small, so its kinda funny if they happen to PTR me.
Since I play significantly different from the typical reg anyway. They must think all the non usual lines are completely terrible.

Not much volume this month either.
Finished around 300vpp short of getting goldstar and 650vpp short of 50d stellar at Stars. Raking around 150d in a day was a bit too hard of a task, even though I was planning to play that today. I'm way too lazy!
Also I did play some NL50 this month, but not too much. Results were around BE there.

I've been thinking if I should go for 100k vpp supernova this year. Decided that I'm not even going to try that. I should play atleast NL100 and then it starts making sense for me.
I also hate the system where you are "forced" to play a certain amount. Because of that I might play more on Ongame, or maybe try some other networks too.

Months graph:



A little bit dissapointing month. Anyway cant complain too much with that volume!

Happy New Year all! Looking forward to making 2014 the most profitable poker year!

Decided to revive this thread!

Little bit about the last seven months of not updating. I basicly didnt grind any significant volume during this time, so I also didnt want to update.
Now I'm looking to get back to playing more again. Similar stakes and goals like I used to have, no need for new thread!

Currently I'm a little bit rusty, but also think my game has gone forward atleast in some areas.
Gonna be playing NL25 regular tables on Stars and take it from there.

Couple of hands from today:

Games have gone pretty well so far. I've also managed to put reasonable volume.

One thing that sucks, seems to be the state of the games. Yesterday I played almost 3k hands of NL25 regular tables and saw zero 100bb recs, even though I was switching tables a lot. Only couple of semifish regulars and few short stacked recs. I'm pretty sure theres almost no way I could have beat the games in that state (yes I'm an idiot for playing a lot of hands in games like these, esp when stuck).

I managed to get some "gifts" though, mostly from the really bad regs:







Then there was couple of hands that didnt work out at all and made me look silly or just really big mistakes:













I did not want to see QJo!!!! This hand is probably an enormous error vs. a range with 16 the nuts combos, especially when we are 4way to the flop!
I also think QJo is very close weather to open or not with 3x from the MP and basicly I only knew that opponent was reasonably playing reg, so I definitely hate this hand a lot.
I've made a couple of really silly and costly mistakes so far, this has to be one of the biggest.

Welcome back.

AK hand from first post where u triple on Q6257 is a pretty spewy spot and not the greatest board runout to bluff, I'd just x/f turn

A2 hand I just fold to flop raise, and by the river idk what ur supposed to beat vs a pot sized bet, this is burning $$.

Last hand w 76s folding pre and flatting flop seems like the best plays, we are kinda hoping that villain spazzes out w a set to make this raise/call jam a profitable one.

GL man, I'm still following!

Thanks, nice to see someone is following! Been checking your thread too from time to time.

AK hand I have such nice blockers to huge part of villains calling range AQ and KQ, that I think its a pretty good triple. I wont always just start barreling with AK there. As the flop is not a board I'll be c-betting with everything and AK is kinda middle strenghtish (many ways to play the hand).
Also the 6 and 2 are low enough, where its not a given villain defends those pps, especially the 22. If he does defend both and slowplays this type of dry board to the end then it obviously changes things quite a bit. Also its kinda nice to have a low enough turn where villain should fold the turned sets to flop bet, like here. Hmm, actually 65s gets there, so the turn could be better here!
A2 might be really bad indeed and mostly agree with 76s.

I was spewing harder yesterday, than probably all sessions combined before it!

Relatively tough times lately. Running somewhat badly and also making too many mistakes and just being lost in many hands.
Also when I bluffcatch it seems like I catch a bluff from regs, umm never??? It has been so ridiculous, that I'm making radical adjustments to my game. Latest sessions I've started doing some herofolds and feel pretty good about those.
Only thing saving me lately is running nicely over EV.

Its probably a good idea to post some hands again. Hands where I either think I made a mistake, or am just lost.







Unknown regular. Dont like this one, seems close, but especially when he makes it under shove I think I should call with QJ probably (even with Jh, probably not a huge deal here). I have some Tx and KJ seems like the hand which I might just triple for value or sometimes start check calling. Then 88, 99, A6s, 67s type of hands that I snapfold.







Mindlessly hitting 3/4 pot on the river. I wanna check-raise all in here..
Ofc theres bunch of hands, like weaker Ax, that would just check back and might call a bet. Got lucky this time!
Anyway I dont even have a diamond in my hand etc, so I'll get bets from bunch of missed diamonds etc and he can have many 2pair hands on this runout. Reads wheather he slowsplays nuts to the end in this type of situations would be nice too, but should be a standard c-r anyway I think. He should river JT and AJ at the very least. I think people tend to call atleast the offsuit ones pre, instead of 3b.

Good session yesterday. Lots of non standard spots too, so gonna make a typical HH post again.
I'll put end of the month graph on the next post.







Pretty sick to have to fold oestraight draw like this.
Ingame I was tanking and expecting this to be very close. Looked at the hand now and seems like its very close indeed. I mistakenly tought a nut fd type of hand might be even stronger here, than 78dd. Thats definitely not the case and those are clearer folds.







Still very unsure if I should 3b shove river or not. Would do that with occasional AA? and few potential flush hands that I can get to the river with atleast.
I really dont expect to be beat here almost ever. KQ seems extremely unlikely with this line and same goes for all flushes. Its very hard to get value from anything reasonable too though, especially when holding JJ.







Meh, not capable of folding. Looks a lot like KK or oddly played QJ though! Didnt think this guy would even open QJo from MP. Seems weird to wanna check QJ with bd fd (3/4ths of his QJ), or even without I guess on the flop.
Expected to see KK very often here.
I think folding to the river 3b is good here especially vs. certain players, but sooo hard to do.






Too light / bad turn barrel? Getting to the river though, I think I have a premium bluffing hand.







Highlight of the session!

Alright, so last month went very nicely in the end!
I was rusty, which was expected. I dont mind that at all.
I wouldnt say that I played well, more like ok overall. Basicly comes down to having full focus on the tables and seeing all the nuances of different hands, boardtextures, gameplans, opponent type etc. If I tilt too much for example, most of that goes out the window, but I wont really see the things that I'm missing, if that makes any sense. I wont just spew in a spot because I'm tilted, but maybe I missed a possible timing or sizing tell or didnt focus on villains range starting from preflop or something.
I also had couple of hands that are not very debatable and have to be very sizable mistakes, blunders is a good word, from pokersnowie! I hope to eliminate that type of hands atleast. Or not rush any decision, if I just happen to not get it right after proper thinking, its a lot better than just clicking buttons fast.

Goal for this month is to put up around 35-40k hands and play well!


May the EV run continue, lol!

Totally ridiculous session today. 337 hands and won 7 buyins. Considering the hand amount it has to be very extreme variance. Yesterday was rough and lost a bunch so it was very good time to sunrun people.
I just switched to Stars 7 beta, that must have brought the run good, I give it 10/10!

I'll post all big winners as theres not super many:







Both villains regs. I dont really see why call with AQ, when its hard for me to even have worse after calling turn. My range should be mostly mid pp's with a diamond. I guess he wanted to call, when I can only rep 55 for value, so 3 combos. Still dont like it, if I was somehow bluffing this spot, which I just cant see, then it could still be a better hand than AQ, that I do it with.







Fun runout, weaker reg. Maybe this hand and some others tilted him to absolute rage, which can be seen in later hand.







So heres the same guy later, he snapleft after the hand.
He felt kind tilty, snapcalled pre and raised fast with our dynamics, so I wouldnt really look to fold any overpairs. Probably continuing with a call with the better ones and shoving the weaker ones.
Has to be the biggest tiltspew, Ive seen from a regular looking guy in ages.







Rec villain. I was excited when I saw the A turn, not so much when he just check called. Still had the Ace and donked river, so I was assured max value. Had to wonder how this hand turned out so well too..







Bad idea to try and win flips vs. hero currently!













Thought river is thin. Vs. this villain not so thin after all?







Kinda funny to have FE, versus over 30bb 4bet. Most certainly a great outcome.