Those kids aren’t paying taxes. I’d bet a lot on that. Again, lots of gossip at the tables. Eventually you know everyone’s business just like in a normal workplace. I remember the sick degen stories on the tables, back in 05-09. May rhino never die. Ya know, back when pros actually were making 70-110 an hour and playing 15-20 hours a week. In 2020 it’s almost the exact opposite. Pure nit stories and nittery at the tables. I’d bet a lot the reason a fair have 6 figs to gamble with is due to not paying Sammy and neglecting their personal lives.

Yeah I've always wondered why if these big hourlies are possible, why in reality does it appear that no one is actually achieving it? The common answer is "anyone who can do it has already moved up" but high stakes games are dying, so they must have moved up to nothing? Never made any sense to me and I can only assume that people exaggerate hourlies massively based on tiny samples of running hot or how the games were 10-15 years ago.

You make more money paying your taxes and investing in the long run vs paying no taxes and stashing cash under your mattress.

Linear vs. exponential growth.

Days 25-34
Hours Spent on Poker (look at OP for criteria): 52. I’ll be combining hours played with everything else for now.

Summary: I’ll be posting strictly HU hands today but that won't always be the case. PokerBros also added SNG’s last week so I’ve been grinding those in addition to everything else. The rake is absurd though.

I’ll mix in a “big pot” or cooler every once in a while, but I’m intentionally trying to avoid those. They’re not interesting of course. Neither are some of these other hands but at least a little less standard-ish.

Don’t remember dynamic/meta for all of these hands. I have notes on everyone I play, but I can’t see them away from the table. Sorry.

HH 1: Read-Based Adjustment Paying Off

100NL HU. $123 effective. Anon Table
Hero (BB)
V (BTN)

V $2. I call with 5c5s.

Flop ($4.00): 7d-5d-2h. I check. BTN $4. I call. This is a deviation based on reads I had.

Turn ($12): 7d-5d-2h-7c. Check/Check.

River ($12): 7d-5d-2h-7c-Qs. I check. V $15. I x/r $60.

I’m typically leading hands that aren’t strong enough to x/r on this texture and x/r most of my strongest hands. I’m about 2/1 value combos here with the 4x x/r.



HH2: This seems to happen a lot in HU

100NL HU. $80 effective.
Hero (BTN)
1daba8 (BB)

I raise to $2.50 with AsKd. V $8. I roll a call this time. High freq 4-bet here for me.

Flop ($16.00): Kh-7h-6d. 1daba8 $8. I call.

Turn ($32.00): Kh-7h-6d-5s. 1daba8 checks. I $22. 1daba8 CRAI $42.20 more. i call.



HH3: When your opponent has their designated 5-bet bluff hand at a good time

100NL HU. Anon Table. $96.50 eff.
Hero (BTN)
V (BB)

I raise to $2.50 with KhKd. V $10. I $22.50. V piles. I snap. He declines RIT.

Runout ($193): 4c-7c-Jc-4d-4h



HH4: Interesting Flop spot

100NL HU
Hero (BB): $100.
nonickname9 (BTN): $297. I remember this guy being crazy but also a good player. Interesting dynamic.

V $2.50. I call 53dd.

Flop ($5): Qs-4d-2h. I check. V $2.50. I x/r $9.00. V clicks it back to $24.50. Hero?

HH5: Decision for stacks on the very first hand of the “match”

100NL HU. $100 eff.
Hero (BTN)
OMG_ZORRO (BB)

I $2.50 with 2s2c. V $10. I call.

Flop ($20): 9s-9h-5d. V $7. I call.

Turn ($34): 9s-9h-5d-4c. V continues $18.50. I call, already planning to call most rivers. This hand is unlikely to improve so the way I’ve constructed my ranges if I’m folding a blank river, I’m folding here.

River ($71): 5d-9h-9s-4c-10d. V shoves $64.50. I call.

Thoughts? I found this spot interesting given that it was the very first hand of the match. Most pears under the 9 have the same value here given that removal is more or less irrelevant here. It’s more so about the frequency. But- given that it’s H1 I just feel like that weighs him towards being FOS more so than default play.

I’ll be updating more often now that I’ve graduated and am officially doing this full time. I would like to keep balance in my life (see OP) as well.

Thanks for reading!

H1:

pure XR otf, your read needs to be quite specific (e.g. very high barrel freq ott, which he didn't even do) or your missing out value at this depth so I still prefer XR

H2:

pure > high freq here

H4:

call

H5:

u dont have to forcibly structure your defend ott with improvement hands + river calls on this texture, because you have alot of pure BC that would have to defend linearly or mix fold otr when trying to reach mdf, i know with slightly different turn and river sizings this hand ends up as a mix call/fold that is mainly folding, and we are calling more of those A/K high hands otr. It just depends if you want to structure your river calls around a certain linear strength thresholds as the cut off point or just have alot of mixing with your BCs

Thanks man! I appreciate the analysis.

Best ways I can use GTO+ (and CREV) to help me improve?

Also, in the market for a desktop. Laptop stopped working a few months ago. Got an IPad for pokerbros, misc which has served me well, and been using my old laptop as well but OK time to stop being cheap. Thinking about buying a 21.5 inch Apple iMac.

$1200~ after tax not including apple care, accessories, etc. (not sure if I would be getting any of that)

ETA: Don't think I'm willing to go higher than $1500 but usually opt for quality so spending up to that is fine. Cost per use analysis ido.

Uses: Nothing hardcore. Email, Teaching and playing chess, surfing the web, watching vids, etc.

https://www.apple.com/us-hed/shop/bu...-3.6ghz-256gb#

Make sure you use correct settings in the advanced tree builder.

Don't try to memorize solver output. Look for questions to ask to arrive close to the solution in various spots.

Look for sizing and frequency simplifications that lose insignificant EV vs the equilibrium strategy. Use flop subsets in database mode and edit tree function to do this faster.

Look at the turn/river reports and how different cards affect equity/EV and your sizings and frequencies. One of the best functions in GTO+.

If you have performance issues you can download some presolved databases on ZenithPoker. Some of these have a ton of sizings and performance issue is still an issue when solving later streets after the flop.

I often export tables from GTO+ to excel to play around with the data.

GL!

yes and he says ‘ pear ‘ , bringing back fond memories of GG.

a PGC thread, barely a month old, with 13 pages

Cheers

Don't use a mac for poker imo, heard of many people that complain about how is a pita for poker stuff to run smoothly on it.

Great! I’ll keep all of this in mind. Thanks as always.

Curious as to how you or anyone else got better at making your time with solvers more effective. Trial and error? Any other resources that could help?

I’ve been leaning on my friends and other tools to hear how solvers approach a plethora of spots- and while that’s been great I’m excited to spend some time using it myself.
Welcome! GG is the best

Side note since you mentioned that- Making this thread made me nervous because I expected to get flamed for choosing poker despite being pretty bad at it. But overwhelmingly people have been supportive and encouraging which has been great.

As expected, I feel as if I’m improving a lot week to week and that, that will continue to be the case as long as I dedicate myself the way I have been.

Thanks for the input. I don’t plan to use it for poker- everything else. Have a cheap windows that also meets the requirements for solvers etc.

Ever since I’ve had the opportunity to spoil myself with Apple stuff I’ve taken it. Almost always worth it

RTP, are you playing Bros on your windows machine?

I was running Bros via Blue Stacks emulator on my Mac when one day a couple of weeks ago (July 30) Bros would not open after what they said was a "mandatory" upgrade. I contacted Bros and the response was "we do not support emulators". Another nail in the Bros coffin for me since I don't have a Windows machine anymore. But probably saved me money the way I was running.

Subbed

p.s. lovin the story, your attitude and the nuggets of wisdom itt

Cheers

That sucks man.

I use an IPad for Bros. It’s the nuts- I like the touchscreen and the screen size is large enough.

Occasionally use my phone as well when walking around etc.

Can understand the frustration many have. The rake is high and the games have definitely gotten progressively harder overtime.

I figure you were mostly playing 200nl, 400nl?

Thanks Chawee.

I’m really fortunate to be in a position (mostly through my own efforts- but definitely in large part to my parents being awesome etc, as well) to not really have to worry about money. I can just do what I want with my life, hopefully forever. Pretty cool given my age.

Not much to be negative about, despite life being hard at times of course.

Because people want to believe. Regs and pros can sort of justify playing and swinging thousands of dollars if their hourly was $100. But if the hourly is only 12bb/100 $40 playing 5/10 (as olidapo said ) then it’s not worth the time and stress. If it’s $40 for 5/10 then what is an accurate hourly for 2/5? Or short stack 2/5/10? Training sites and coaches would take a hit too.

People say this, and it might be true, but you need to earn a lot of $$ to do it. Assuming 2000 hours at $50/hr, our poker hero makes $100k. Federal tax bracket 24% (after deductions we will say 18% will be taken), 15.3% self employment taxes (this is the killer most that don’t go to a regular job don’t account for. You now have to fund both sides of social security), now add on 6.7% for state income taxes (6.7% is low. I picked it to come to 40% total) and your $100k is now $60K. That is now $60k/yr before $1 is spent on living expenses.
If you understand tax laws or spend $$ to have an accountant you can lessen the tax burden by investing into your retirement (but this money is now not accessible as a liquid bankroll), making it a LOT less likely that a poker player will do it. Most younger poker pros are off the grid and not paying the taxes they should. Taxes are crippling!

Random 6-max hands from yesterday

Feel free to share your thoughts.

HH 1: KQdd vs UTG PFR

Main Villain has VPIP<20. No additional reads, that I have access to now.

60NL 5-handed
Dyords (SB): $50
Lizzie12 (BB): $58
Nik1216 (UTG): $119
Spoonzisk (CO): $127
Hero (BTN): $60

UTG opens $2.10. I cold call BTN with KQdd. BB calls.

Flop ($6.60): Qh-7h-6c. BB checks. UTG bets $5.10. I call. BB folds.

Turn ($16.80): Qh-7h-6c-5s. UTG continues $11.10. I call.

River ($39): Qh-7h-6c-5s-Qs. UTG checks. Sizing?

HH2: QQs facing cold 4-bet

BTN has a VPIP<20. I have him tagged as a reg with a “capable of thin value bets note”. No other info.

MP has a VPIP 20-32 and a PFR 15-32. No other info.

100NL 6-max
ApolloCree (SB): $200
Knockbud (BB): $100
Hero (UTG): $110
Chino*** (MP): $200
Skulkill (CO): $230
Pavito (BTN): $170

Hero opens $3. MP calls. BTN raises to $13. SB cold 4-bets to $38. I fold?

Curious as to what everyone's 5-bet shoving range is here and if you're folding here at some frequency as well?

I leaned fold given that I opened UTG.

HH 3: Everybody likes a Hero!


Main Villain has a VPIP > 50. No other info.

100NL 5-handed
Hero (SB): $100
Chino*** (BB): $200
Skulkill (UTG): $240
Superbran (CO): $204
ApolloCree (BTN): $206

Folds to Hero. Hero opens $3 with 9d9h. BB calls.

Flop ($6): 7c-5d-6s. Hero bets $4. BB calls.

Turn ($14): 7c-6s-5d-Ad. Hero checks. BB bets $7. I call (?).

River ($28): 7c-5d-6s-Ad-Kh. Hero checks. BB bets $14. I call (?)

My reasons for calling turn & river were that V has a VPIP > 50 (likely a weaker player), and V shouldn't have many flop floats vs a two that connect with this runout. It seems unlikely that V flopped 2p+ given that this player type likely raises that. T

Thoughts? What are you guys doing with 99s-QQs, weaker aces ott and otr?

H1: 100% 3bet for me but flatting is fine. We're not getting value from many hands on the river so I'd go smaller.

H2: I fold too. Shoving KK+ and AK.

H3: I'd range check the flop. Turn call seems fine with the gutshot. River is mehh. I'd prolly just call with weak Ax without reads.

Standard disclaimer I have not played poker for serious money in about a decade and the meta may have shifted dramatically while this dinosaur is mentally stuck in tar.

Hand 1:
I really think you are playing hands for the sake of playing hands. Calling an UTG raise with KQ without any read other than he's probably tight is a disaster in the making in the long run. It's not taking the stand, it's taking a stand with a hand that is very specifically dominated by hisutg range. I'm much happier with 76 than KQ in spots like this.

Better question is, what do you do if any other card than the Q pops on the river? What percentage of the time do you think you have the best hand on the flop? What if it's an ace or a heart? What do you do in any of those spots if he jams or checks? Maybe I have filted vision here, but I'm seeing a pattern where the hands you share are getting into awkward spots and then the jesus card comes at the river to bail you out.

Flatting a large UTG raise with a dominated hand is a great move against a recreational player. By the looks of it you have at least 2 of them at the table so I'd gladly just fold here and try to get in a hand with one of them. There's no reason to play this hand without a read and the scant information you do have suggests he's both nitty and capable.

My winrate increased dramatically when I stopped playing to beat my opponent but rather choosing to enter a pot because it was a favorable situation due to either the villain being grossly incompetent or I had a range/positional advantage. Here you have a range advantage but are playing a likely competent player with holdings easily dominated by his own. I would not at all be surprised if you jammed here and he flips over AQ.

If I did choose to play this hand against this specific villain, which I'm not, but let's say my fold button was broken, I'm 3betting pre instead of flatting because it better defines his range while also disguising my own.

Hand 2:
Good job getting suited queens, that's harder than flopping quads!

Never calling here for an SPR <1. Although it reeks of a squeeze play, you gotta give credit for some kind of hand given the sheer volume of people in the pot. It's really about the variance you're willing to go with. You 100% will get called here by at least 1 dude and assuming a semibluff (or more likely not understanding relative hand value) you're looking at about 60-70% equity.

If villain is isolated to just pure AK/AA/KK then you still have 40% equity. Obviously not ideal considering you're only in for 3bb but that's pretty good equity for a doomsday outcome. You can't put people on a range of AA, that's only going to force you to overfold and make bad decisions, but you can certaintly narrow it to that holy trinity with regularity.

Given a look around the table at the large stacks and single hand, it's a valid theory this is a very splashy table so I'm personally putting my stack in and hoping for the best. Having said that, a fold is probably the "pro" move here and just pay those 3bb to get some good information on the sidelines of just what these guys are capable with. And besides, you know if he calls and flips over A7o he's going to get there anyway

Hand 3:
This is a pretty awkward spot. Really curious what a solver would say here.

As played, I don't see how you can tell him "I don't have the ace" by checking there when you know that means he's going to rep the ace whether or not he has it. I'm more concerned about the king than the ace where he's accidentally bluffing with the best hand as I agree he's likely to raise you pre with any A in BvB.

With 99-QQ I would continue to bet turn with smallish sizing (5-6.5) and fold to a large raise. Then I'd check any non 8 river and turn my hand into a bluff catcher but really just hoping for a cheap showdown.

With A,x I'm actually playing how you played it, inviting him to bet it. You're never getting a better ace from this sort of player to fold here so you may as well widen his range to include non aces as bluffs. That's a fist bump call with A,x. I think a lot of the time he flips over something like T7/K8/J5 etc.

Is the VPIP guy aggro pre or does he limp a lot? If he is aggro i'm just completing pre, hoping he bumps it and then raising it. Playing OOP with this sort of player and holdings like 99 I either want a very small pot or a large one. As played, I'd also check/raise that flop a bit instead of raising because there's a whole bunch of turn cards that can scare you off since his range is super wide and he'll be difficult to hand read as a result.

I like a turn bet in Hand 3 , just a card which will favour us a decent amount and we gain a lot of information continuing to bet it whilst applying pressure.

Other than that all seems good to me, KQ would bet pretty polar sizing on river as our range should mainly be Qx and missed flush draw so roughly pot is good, probably all in with the SPR that's left

more on the 99 preferring polarized pot sizings vs maniac OOP

As played, it's going to be a fairly large pot by the time the river comes out but the majority of the money is going to enter the pot on turn/river

with this specific runout, 99 has 65% equity vs ATC, given that he has position and controls action when the large amounts are put in, i actually don't like those odds one bit

preflop you beat ATC 80%+, on the flop you're 70%+

the more cards you put down on the table the less likely 99 holds up vs a range of anything

now let's take his vpip 50, assume it's accurate and arbitrarily say he'll call a bet from sb on bb with top 75% of hands

now that we've removed things like 82o etc your equity is pretty damn close to a coin flip on that board, you have 69% pre, 72% flop, 65% turn, 55% river

this is why i'd rather play a meaninglessly small pot with 99 OOP vs a maniac here or one where we commit a large enough pre to be able to force the action while we are ahead rather than gradually build a pot and be put in a coin flip of "does his range of everything include an ace or a king here?"

if you are going to play for stacks with 99 oop vs a maniac, do it before he has the luxury of seeing 5 community cards - this is why unless I'm confident he's going to 3! my sb raise, I'm limping here happy to play for a small pot with plans to 3! large enough to play for stacks on the flop in the event he raises

disclaimer, this is assuming he's capable of flatting a premium hand, if we remove things like TT+/AJs+ then your hand holds up a bit better 65/35 vs 55/45 but given it's BvB i don't think we can safely rule out that kind of trapping play regardless of him being a spewy rec or not

mixing 3b/calling KQ pre is std as std as it comes.

I said KQ would be polar bet size on river Rickroll, as our bet range is Qx and missed draws, maybe actually read and reread before your paragraphs of extremely poor strategy

Hand 1: I agree with rickroll about folding KQ pre-flop (Rickidarity). It's a definite fold if it's KQos. Suited isn't too bad to call preflop. 3betting preflop however against a tight player opening 3.5x UTG is just lighting money on fire. As played bet small on river. I like same bet as on turn $11.10.

If river wasn't a queen and villain bets again you have to fold. Good reason to just fold preflop. Tight/nitty players don't have many triple barrel bluffs and definitely not value betting worse than KQos.

Hand 2: I also fold QQ preflop. Only jamming KK,AA. I'm folding AK. Unless I have some read that villain has a cold 4bet range OOP that isn't premium.

Hand 3: I'd bet pot on flop instead of 2/3. As played check call turn fine I guess, but sigh-fold river. High vpip doesn't necessarily mean a lot of bluffs. And theoretically the ace on the turn should help your range more than his and you'll have plenty of strong aces to be able to call down with.

i actually agree with your sizing and have no idea why you would think i was either responding to you or disagreed with it as I didn't respond to you nor even mention river sizing

it's funny though I can guarantee you're a micro player because of the way you dismiss and insult anything posted that is outside your own specific thought process/established norms

good players are open to looking at things in a new light even when they disagree with it... or at least in this specific case with my badreg spew, are smart enough to stfu and let the donkeys like me keep handing out awful advice