You're right, it's a very lazy way of posting hands, i'll make sure to do more than just fish for advice.

About the ATo hand, I bet flop because I had some minor blockers to Kx as well as the nut blocker with the intention of barreling a AQJ/Diamond, once I picked up a diamond/gutter I felt like a second barrel came naturally.

But I think youre right that i'm obviously never folding out Kx and his range is going to be strong pairs and draws, and the draw completed.

When I have the nfd and a gutter c/f feels wrong, but because it's the 3flush I guess i'll get a free card and realize my equity alot?

River I agree, I felt committed to barreling off there, but I can't make another bad bet to bail me out of making a previous one, think I thought he wouldn't have a set alot (even though he can probably slowplay 44/66 since the only draw is one fd, maybe 75s)

Been doing some work with flopzilla, taking hands that i've called down multiple streets and realized i'm calling far too many weak pairs when I think there are draws out there.

Betting is better than c/cing. It's not the worst thing in the world, it's good for most hands with this much equity, in most spots, but this specific board has far less hands that can fold due to the 4/6, if it was 6/8 it'd probably be fine to bet turn due to him having more hands in his turn range that can fold, like one pair 8x and stuff. Betting the AT there is pretty close, since some people will c/c hands like 77-TT there as well, which fold to the turn bet enough for it to be a bet. But in general the exact spot is very close and better served as a c/f.

The important point of my last post is that doing the research on your own, will help you more than just saying "dunno, this might be bad", or whatever. Saying "I think x happens, are my assumptions correct" is significantly better. Even just posting your thought process and asking if it's correct is better.

Thanks for the help, Mal

I see what you're saying about the lack of weaker pairs in his range (like 2nd pair 8x), I think I intuitively overestimate the amount of hands villian has/will fold, probably because im looking for a fold heh.

Not a lot of new hands, played a short session last night because I think it's important to at least play a little bit while im learning because i think it makes it easier to retain/apply what i've learned, and even out of a short session i'll usually get at least 1 spot I can sit down and try to break down.

Figure this one is pretty standard but I'll post what i'm thinking.

This is 3b sb vs btn 100% of the time for me, I think suited gappers are a pretty awesome hand to have in a 3b pot and are easy to play postflop.

Flop is a pretty good board for both of us, probably slightly better for me because I have AK, KK, JJ, AA while he may 4b at least some of those. Then we both have like 2p, 88 and a bunch of draws (fd's, offsuit gutters which there are a lot of)

Turn is a blank, I discount his sets heavily because he flats flop on a wet board. I'm not sure if he would raise his strong draws IP because some of them are combo draws and can probably call turn profitably. But I assume he raises some, so his range ott is probably Kx, maybe some Jx, and then whatever draws he has left.

I can't bet turn for a normal sizing because if he jams I think I have to fold, so I think my options are overbet or x/s (thought about x/c vs small sizing but im oop with a draw so meh, and he made it big enough to jam over imo anyways). I went for the x/shove because once he bet there's enough dead money in the pot to gii against Kx.

But I think he's kinda capped after flatting flop to 1p Kx and with my range advantage/ reasonable equity I think a 1.5psb could also be good, thoughts? It also prevents him from xb turn


PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 97 BB (VPIP: 31.20, PFR: 6.14, 3Bet Preflop: 5.60, Hands: 5,605)
UTG: 41.05 BB (VPIP: 21.13, PFR: 16.85, 3Bet Preflop: 5.05, Hands: 5,555)
MP: 153.4 BB (VPIP: 23.03, PFR: 16.62, 3Bet Preflop: 3.40, Hands: 4,758)
CO: 93.51 BB (VPIP: 25.18, PFR: 17.82, 3Bet Preflop: 4.86, Hands: 4,782)
BTN: 259.58 BB (VPIP: 29.92, PFR: 19.60, 3Bet Preflop: 5.78, Hands: 5,581)
Hero (SB): 127.6 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 6

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

Flop: (25 BB, 2 players) K J 8
Hero bets 12.5 BB, BTN calls 12.5 BB

Turn: (50 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, BTN bets 31 BB, Hero raises to 103.1 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 72.1 BB

River: (256.2 BB, 2 players) 5




As promised, the downswing-ening

You can do a lot of stuff with this hand, as played it's fine. The guy should have a lot of draws which are incentivised to bet turn when checked to, so you vs his range we're happy if he bet/folds 9T, and happy if he calls it as well. Considering, AQ, AT, QT, 9T are in his range, we're in a pretty decent spot. Even vs Kx we're only 5% or so off of enough equity for the turn jam to fine, and because he'll fold or call with worse some % of the time, it's good.

Check/Jam should be more profitable than open shove or overbet because his folding range is going to be the same to all those lines, yet he'll probably bet/f and bet/c the AQ/AT/QT/9T vs a c/s, which will be worth a considerable amount.

You should stop thinking about what your range looks like on Bovada. Think about what their range looks like, that's the only important thing on this site. Villains can't read hands, especially at your limits, so when you think "my range looks like x", and villain is thinking "I have 2 card, I play them and money happen, but sometimes money go away!", then it's quite obvious that you're thinking about the spot wrong. What is villains range, how much of it will fold/call/whatever, that's what's important. Your thought to discount sets in his range was good.

Mal thanks for the continued help,

I understand what you've been getting at about bovada being unique and think I know some good adjustments to make to benefit from it.

Been spending the day studying trying to get ready for a solid weekend grind.

Only interesting hand I have for today is a small one

I will be flatting a pretty wide range against 2.5x in the bb, i'd probably 3b 99+.
Flop he bets 1/2 pot, could be his standard but I think his strong Qx wants to get more value (60-70%) from my gutshots, weak pairs, fd's because they'll all still call anyways. But I obviously don't rule out TP/overpair all together, but it's something I considered.
I don't think my 7d matters as a blocker, but it does give me another way to win the pot. I ch/r and intend on barreling T/8/6/7/4, so I won't frequently barrel but if the turn comes the 3rd diamond, he could x some hands and I get a free draw to my set/4flush.

I think otf I think he's betting all Gutters, High single diamonds w/ blockers (Adjx, AxKd, AdKx ect..) flush draws, as well as all overpairs Qx sets ect maybe some pure air if i'm lucky.

Once he calls my c/r, I figure he's got some good diamond draws, Qx, KK-AA, JT. I guess I don't fold alot of this range ott with my bet, but i'm repping sets/2p/draws with my flop raise and 6 brought in all my 87 combos which are all interested in betting. tbh I have no idea what I was gonna do otr but it was probably jam, but if his range calling turn is mostly Qx and better it may not be a good idea to bluff river.

Turn sizing may need to be bigger but I don't mind if he calls with naked fd's so i gotta think about it

PokerStars - $1 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 100.85 BB (VPIP: 19.83, PFR: 16.81, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 232)
CO: 56.07 BB (VPIP: 24.69, PFR: 15.90, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 239)
BTN: 17.8 BB (VPIP: 30.83, PFR: 20.20, 3Bet Preflop: 5.18, Hands: 1,025)
SB: 115.89 BB (VPIP: 28.74, PFR: 13.03, 3Bet Preflop: 7.08, Hands: 1,044)
Hero (BB): 352.59 BB
UTG: 99.36 BB (VPIP: 20.52, PFR: 16.41, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1,048)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7 7

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 9 5 Q
Hero checks, UTG bets 2.75 BB, Hero raises to 7.87 BB, UTG calls 5.12 BB

Turn: (21.24 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 10.62 BB, fold

Hero wins 20.19 BB

I don't like that hand. Villains range once he calls you is JT, KJ, T8, T9, QT, QJ, QK, etc etc. So betting a T, and 8 is bad because it improves almost all of his range. You can bet a 6, 4, and a 7. So 10 outs, 22% of turns. But your hand is just trash. Villain probably calls flop with 9x+, and a lot of draws, it's really rare that villain bet/folds this flop, especially when you don't block any of the hands in his UTG range that could defend here.

So, maybe villain folds flop 20% of the time, the rest of the time you've got to navigate postflop in a large pot out of position. No es bueno. Hands you can raise on this board are JT, and diamond draws, sets. Raising KJ on this flop is a bit optimistic, even with 3 nut outs and overcards to his 9x, 1 over card to Qx. Just a spew play that worked out because you got one of the very few cards that you can barrel on effectively.

Ya, I mean when you put it that way ( weak pair, no blockers, on a board where the UTG Cbettor will be reasonably strong ) I guess I can see why it's not a particularly good idea ha.

Now i'm more concerned with playing solidly right now and not letting my imagination take over too much, because I just don't know enough about poker yet to be imaginative with it. But I wanted an opinion because I thought this may be one of those spots where I try too hard to win the pot so i'm glad I got an answer.

And looking at my range here in flopzilla its def confirmed I don't need to be defending 77, not that im worried about being exploited, but when there's so many better hands it doesnt make a lot of sense. I just need to accept that a lot of the time folding is the best play.

Ahhh, I'm putting in my weekend session but felt the need to post this hand.

I think i've been improving a good deal with my study and the help from these forums (yes i know its only been a few days) , especially with my stationing.

This hand tho, I felt I should have folded twice on both the turn+river. But I see these shortstacks do alot of pretty weird stuff.

UTG min opens 49bb deep effective

I flat 9q in BB

Flop 2tq

I c/c a 90% psb

I mean If I can't call tp otf then I should fold pre. I think he's betting all gutshots, oe, fd's ect..

Turn 2tq4

I c/c another 90% psb

This is when I had my first instinct to fold, it's not good blocking spades and he has 22/TT/QQ/QT/KQ/AQ/KK/AA for value, while he can have J9/KJ/98/AJ/AK as potential draws/bluffs. I still feel I need to call one more tho, my plan is to fold the majority of rivers.

River 2tq49

He jams for like ~65% pot or something,

I mean me improving to 2p doesnt really matter because I don't think he's value jamming AQ/KQ (but it suppose its possible) but now i beat AA/KK. However flushes and KJ got there

So I lose to 22/TT/QQ/QT/KJ/ whatever small/mid flushes he has (78/98 ect)
and beat KK/AA/Ako/AJo (ak/ajo maybe he bluffs only with S blocker)

I think river def needs to be a fold, posted it to shame my stationing.

On the upside tho I feel like I'm playing better, not trying too many funky lines and it's been rewarding me (sample too small to derive anything tho)and thus far i've been able to stay at 100nl following my new brm. I will post a proper graph at the end of the week when I have a bigger sample.

gl at the tables everyone

The turn depends on villain, river is a fold.

Hola,

Weekend went well, could have been much better though.

Volume was disappointing, but I played a bunch of mtt's and didn't feel comfortable with any more than 2 cash tables with the mtt's running because I kept missing small/medium spots to pick up the pot or make a good fold.

I can't open/download my HH for the majority of sessions, when I try to open the file in the client I see a flash of code and then nothing happens and once you download it doesn't give the option to try again. Might email them asking for the hh so i can post an updated graph.


3.2k hands. + ~500 (Trying to not look at balance before/after session unless I lose a few and think I may be getting near move-down mark)
Based on the pots I remember, and accounting for a slight bias, combined with what I know from my current graph i'm like 7xx.00 under EV in like 10k hands. It sucks but i'm still winning/sample is small and i've coolered people (flopping str8s vs sets ect..) so just need more volume/gonna stop looking at ev line except maybe couple times a month, doesn't do the mindset any good.


Definitely made a few more stations, but generally doing better, people don't bluff much and when they do it's something kinda random a lot of the time. Being able to check the day after makes it easier to do heh.

One interesting hand until I get my graph/full update.

3 handed .5/1 trying to start a table.

No reads so far, only a few hands in.

Btn opens
I 3b A9 in SB
BB folds

Flop 896

I bet/call a small raise.

I think I should check this at least some time, I don't want to get raised and he might 4b TT+ which are the only big hands I can begin to build pressure against with a bet. I called the raise because it was really small tbh...

I assume his range is 88/99/66/98 for value 87/76/JsTs/JdTd/Ts9s for bluffs.

Turn 8963

I c/c again. It's somewhat of a blank, some diamonds picked up a bdfd, but I assume he's continuing full range here because even his bluffs have a lot of equity so I called.

River 89636

I c/c his jam.


I mean, if I were playing better at that moment I think I fold flop. Even though i'm probably ahead a decent amount of the time, too many cards are really bad for me if he barrels off.

Once I decide to call flop, because I thought he would bet 100% of his raising range I call again with the intention of folding like all rivers.

River I do some mental gymnastics to rationalize a station.

I figure his jam is pretty polarized to boats or nothing. Don't think he jams 98 because he shouldn't expect me to call 9x (he doesn't know im a station yet)

So I called because-

I block 99, board blocks 66. So he only has 5 sets instead of 9
I don't block diamonds or spades

I think it's probably still bad because-

Blocking sets doesn't matter if his range is still 90+% sets regardless
My "read" that people don't fire rivers often had been treating me well thus far
I called a raise and 2 more barrels with TP -_____-

The question is if A9s is any different from AA. AA blocks less value hands and I don't expect him to have tt-kk very often if at all.

If you don't feel comfortable playing a pot with TPTK on a 9 high board, then don't 3bet A9s.

The last hand you posted is okay, kinda for the reasons you said. He doesn't have that many value combos, but he also doesn't have a strong incentive to bluff. Even if he isn't a great player he'll understand you can have every strong hand/nuts esp sh.

Yeah tbh I thought I was making a pretty good call in-game, but i've seen someone triple a bluff literally a handful of times in 15k hands now (i review any hand i get to flop with, and can see all hole cards obv). But since i think it's maybe okay in theory im not too torn up about it, esp given he was shortstacking.

No update because i've only played another 3k hands or so, everything has gone well so far, luckily not busto. I'm in a decent spot where my bills are paid for a few months/I have nothing else to do so i really want to give poker the best chance I can.

I got an rio elite membership, have been working with jandas book and have mop on delivery. It's going to be too much new information to absorb all at once, but i'm going to work through a chapter or two per day, while playing around 1k hands per day for now.

Hopefully in 3 months I can grind 200nl reg tables comfortably (remember all i need is better than wendys wage heh).

Will post weekly updates or so since my hands haven't been very interesting for people to read.

Gl to everyone at the tables

pug

I kinda abandoned the thread because I got lazy once I started playing everday. But just in case anyone was wondering, still playing, still at 100nl.

Sample size is still frustratingly small, i've been running around 5bb/100 but at 27k hands I could still be a small loser and everything inbetween.

Ive been working with mop/janda books, I think they are really interesting but just not applicable to my games, maybe moreso if i move up stakes later on. Sadly I just kinda feel like a nit now, hopefully my game opens up more as I learn and become more comfortable, but jesus nhle is like 80+% folding folding folding.

Nobody 3bets, maybe 10% of people will ever bluff outside of aggro whales, its just super boring. The table cap makes this x10000 times worse though, so if I can get my roll to 6k i may put 2k somewhere else so I can get 6-8 tables instead of 4.

Going to try to take a 5bi shot at 200nl before halloween.

Gl everybody.