Yup, the win rates look pretty good. He definitely has some leaks in the BB though. Should fix that before moving up I think.

Thanks man, definitely tilting at the wrong times, but still need to fix some leaks from my technical game. Big leaks I think, but hopefully not difficult ones.

Btw, still following your thread, really nice to see you´re running well this year. Keep the momentum! vaaaaaaaaaamooooo

The losses from the blinds are bad

Part of the reason is the strategy I learned to beat 2nl, at a time when fish were really bad and a lot of people (including myself) could buy in 250 bbs deep. So, it wasn´t really necessary to worry about the blinds when I could make so much money by:

- Stacking preflop with aces vs kings and, lots of times, worse hands.
- Not stacking preflop with KK unless they are really bad fish/maniacs.
- Setmining.
- Opening an extremely exploitable amount of hands from the BTN (let´s say, close to 100% when RFI), since ppl underdefended so much back then.

I took this BB defense thing seriously this year, but still haven´t figured out entirely, as I´m losing a little more actually by having a defense range. Maybe I can still win at 10nl without solving this entirely, but 25nl won´t happen before it´s 100% fixed.

One very interesting thing happened to me today, after I found how I was losing more by having a defense range on the BB. Tilt, but not the play bad, rage or whatever tilt. Loss of confidence. See, lots of ppl, esp those playing microstakes, or vid makers etc seem to head us towards the need to defend more, not overfold too much, improving redlines etc, and I was thinking about that and still can´t find an answer: if ppl are nitty on avg, what is the point of defending vs their aggression (=strong ranges)? I don´t have an answer for this right now.

Biggest problem I see with poker content in general, books, forum, vid makers, even the ones focused on theory, is that I haven´t found one yet that teaches what patterns I´m looking for when I´m defending, when I´m betting, when I´m checking, check/raise, fold etc. Only specific hands or some sporadic content about specific spots, usually videos with PIO etc. And I´m not the person who learns by seeing tons and tons of different hands in a live play or even forum and storing them in my memory. I need to find the pattern, and be able to explain, in words, why I´m doing this or that.

I can´t do this right now, and I don´t think putting volume will help get thru this. I´ll try to find a way to find an answer for this, either by finding good content that teach exactly what I need, or by myself. Until I get to that point, volume will be decreased drastically.

And running bad today obv

Will update after I find all these answers. Cheers!

Tilt is gone Anyway, still not entirely confident in my current strategy, so will be increasing my study hours (and obv decreasing playing so the balance remains the same), until I can say with almost full certainty that I know what I´m doing and why I´m doing it.

Your bb winrate is fine, you play 9-max which adds way more pressure vs your big blind. Also rake is very high, just focus on defending more vs SB/BTN opens and don't defend much vs mp/utg ones.

Also prefer defending 43s/A5s/67s rather than J9s or KTo vs tight opens. Fold a lot vs 3x too(fold even ATo/KQo vs nits) and call a lot vs 2x

I think you nailed it. I´m defending too wide vs utg and mp, and also not paying the required attention to different opening sizes (ppl are using from min to 3.5 bbs here).

Yes, I was defending especially the J9s, T8s kind of stuff vs almost any player. Seems too loose I guess.

One spot that I need to pay attention also are the MW ones, when I´m on the bb.

Thanks for the tips Rapidesh123, really appreciated it.

2339 hands today, found the motivation to grind a good session after all the bitching out this morning. Anyway, after learning that I might be doing the bb defense the wrong way this year, will try to improve this part of my game.

So new goal, from tomorrow until getting the 100 bis is to be more careful with this part of my game, and see if I can get a lossrate better than my overall, from the bb but also from sb. I think I will need at least 30k hands running good (more if I run bad obv), thus the sample won´t be too small (hopefully). Anything better than -44.34 evbb/100 from the bb and -23 evbb/100 from the sb will be considered a success.

GL everyone!

One thing that important when it comes to defending is whether or not you think you have an edge versus the opener. If you know of a weakness in their game it makes defending way more profitable e.g if they play fit/fold post flop you can be super aggressive with big bets when they begin checking and then be more passive when they show aggression. This can oftentimes be the difference between a call/fold in the bb.

Definitely agree with what you´re saying. Vs weak players that is the way to go. Vs competent ones I can´t understand how we can lose less (than folding) by playing speculative hands oop with a v high spr.

I decided to do a different database exercise today and see how I was doing at 2nl FR, the time where I totally ignored this concept since I didn´t really need it.



So if I can at least bring my stats down to those blinds lossrates, it will be a challenging goal but still achievable imo.

^these win rates are really good.

The problem is that they will become worse once you move up.

-38bb/100 from BB by itself is good for FR, but when you move up to 10nl/25nl, the WRs will likely decrease quite a bit. You have to be ready for that.

As you can see, all of your win rates have already decreased a bit when you moved from 2nl to 5nl.

1767 hands played today. Nothing really special, still implementing (and trying) new things here and there. No clear mistakes, no tilt, no difficult spots, everything seemed just ok.



Regs are always improving a little bit when we move up, bad players leave the pool (or improve), so in the end the edges just get smaller and smaller. That is the reason imo, so it´s really important to try and fix any flaws in my game. My choice now is the blinds, but I´ll do an extensive database review before trying 10nl again.

Btw, ppl used to say 2nl and 5nl are (were) the same game, but it´s far from the truth. The # of bad players, and the things they do at 2nl, creates a very interesting dynamic that doesn´t exist at 5nl.



Cheers!

1426 hands played today. I´m so curious, coudn´t help but look at results. Nice to see I´m running good, well above aiev. I think I´m playing well, and these rungood/bad phases will always come and go, so better to just ignore it in the short term and focus on playing A-game as much as possible.

Since last graph:



5nl:



So, a little more than 18 buy-ins to go until I reach my goal of making 100 bis ($500).

GL everyone!

Lost a lot of pots today (no need to guess, all of them obv playing vs fish), then won a lot back and ended almost breakeven.



As you can see, I´m lacking discipline to follow my own guidelines. I´ll try one more time (the easy way) and if it doesn´t work, I´ll have to use freerolls instead.

Goals:

[ ] Not look at results until Apr, 30
[ ] Cover the tables after big decisions to not see (and be affected by) results
[ ] Watch at least one theory video per day
[ ] Watch at least one live play (or sess review video) per day, preferably before first session
[ ] Practice with snowie every day, at least 200 hands, trying to keep myself as much as possible at the extra-terrestrial level, preferably in the mornings before the session or before going to my office
[ ] 1500 hands minimum/day
[ ] Have fun

Cheers!

UPDATE

Let´s check our goals from yesterday:

[x] Not look at results until Apr, 30 Success. Didn´t look at graph or cashier.
[ ] Cover the tables after big decisions to not see (and be affected by) results Fail. While I believe I´m returning to my normal cold self, would prefer to keep my discipline, as it´s really important to me.
[x] Watch at least one theory video per day Success.
[x] Watch at least one live play (or sess review video) per day, preferably before first session Success.
[ ] Practice with snowie every day, at least 200 hands, trying to keep myself as much as possible at the extra-terrestrial level, preferably in the mornings before the session or before going to my office Played, but coudn´t get the best level. Fail!



[x] 1500 hands minimum/day Success. 1539 hands.
[x] Have fun Saturdays are fun, and not only because of poker. Big success.


Cheers!

You still hate the fish, eh?

UPDATE

[ ] Not look at results until Apr, 30 Big failure. Results from last 2 days then.



[ ] Cover the tables after big decisions to not see (and be affected by) results Big failure.
[x] Watch at least one theory video per day Success.
[x] Watch at least one live play (or sess review video) per day, preferably before first session Success.
[ ] Practice with snowie every day, at least 200 hands, trying to keep myself as much as possible at the extra-terrestrial level, preferably in the mornings before the session or before going to my office Big fail. Wasn´t playing good poker today. Snowie session was after first real session, so I wasn´t exactly in my best mood.



[x] 1500 hands minimum/day Success. 1895 hands.
[ ] Have fun Hating poker today lol.


Hate sundays more than the fish Seriously guys, I know sundays (and weekends, and most nights) are very profitable. I know it´s very fishy. But the issue is, if we are playing vs stations and maniacs who never fold, WE NEED TO MAKE HANDS VS THEM. We can´t win during these days and times where there is no fold equity unless we´re running at least okayish. If we can´t get to the river with the best hand vs stations, it´s impossible to get anything going.


A little

Cheers!

Just to show with images what I´m talking about:

Red and blue line profile during a normal week that I didn´t run atrociously bad:


And today (just like most of my sundays):

And sorry for all these losers speeches above, but it´s my thread and I had to blow off some steam before I´m able to move on. It helps a lot

Anyway, obv made some bad mistakes today, and I need to take the study and lab sessions more seriously. Probably gonna reduce the volume to be able to do it the right way, so 1000 hands/day from now on will be a big accomplishment. 1500/2000 only if I´m really motivated to put the volume, but won´t force anything, as it´s still just a side activity after all and I need to have fun.

Cheers!

So I´m ready to put a few more changes in my game. One thing that became clear in my mind is that people are defending more and more postflop. I see it in RIO vids, and I´m seeing it in real play at limits as low as 2nl and 5nl. So, many players are not folding their mid pps, middle pair or any hand that might have some moderate equity anymore, like they did in the old days.

Adjustment here will obv be to drop a lot of my cbet bluffs esp oop vs most but the biggest nits. And the few remaining ones will have tons of equity, like AKs on flops where I have the nfd, so lots of rooms to improve to the nuts and great blockers for villain´s draws. Still attacking nit-passive play when I´m ip obv, but even this one should be done with greater care.

I can totally get why having a value heavy postflop betting strategy may not be optimal at higher stakes, if we are talking about keeping villain´s incentives for defending with bigger part of his range. But at stakes where I don´t think ppl adjust or even pay so much attention, and where I really believe they are just imitating coaches, I think exploiting with a value heavy range-lower freq cbet strategy is better.

The hyper aggressive spewtard approach of guys like Charlie Carrel may work for him and for a few others, but I´m unable to do it profitably for myself or to understand it properly

lol poker is a sick game, unbelievable. Would like to play a proper session this morning, but had winner´s high/winner´s tilt and was feeling just invincible, so better to quit, cooldown, go to the office (mental state is great right now, so pretty sure i´m gonna have a great day there ), and play again later.

People are definitely stickier post flop these days. A lot of the time they seem to be making mistakes in what they are choosing to defend with and to be honest it just means they are getting to rivers with very marginal hands which can't stand much heat. This is where you can usually max out on fold equity. In cases where they start stationing these hands the best adjustment is just to value-bet thinner/bluff less. In general though this is probably why you see the big differences in showdown winnings/non-showdown winnings at micros in people's graphs...having a more value heavy postflop strategy is pretty solid. To be honest against some players you can literally just never bluff and only bet for value and it is the best approach. Sounds kind of insane but if someone never folds why bet with air....and there are many many players like this.

Bluffing really relies on figuring out what range your opponents have and then deciding what percentage of this range you think you can fold out and how much you need to bet...this can be why it is oftentimes easier to bluff turns/ rivers where villains range becomes more defined. So when bluffing it can be better to ramp up aggression on later streets, rather than cbetting and then giving up if that makes sense.

One thing that really affects a decision to be aggressive or not is position. When out of position it can be pretty helpful to adopt a more defensive approach and then be more aggressive in position where you can bluff more easily.

153bb/100....solid day , congrats on the wins, keep the graphs coming

Nice mini-heater haha. Last time I looked, I think the players are still under-defending on the flop. At least against larger sizings. And they also seem to be under-defending on dry flops. I didn't check OOP vs IP though. What size(s) are you cbetting?

Yeah, of course it is very board dependent...

People seem to fold more on monotone flops than a paired board for example. And yeah, definitely agree about larger sizings generating more fold equity.

Another thing I forget to mention is in multi-way pots my c-betting frequency drops a tonne and if I am bluffing it will usually be equity driven unless the players are super passive. It's quite defensive as an approach but can protect your equity, especially when deep.

Really depends. Vs fish, I usually play my hand very face up, 33%, 66%, pot or 133%. Since it´s close to impossible to put them on a range on the flop, I don´t even try.

Vs regs, 33% or 66%. Tried overbets with the extremes of my flop ranges but didn´t work well, so dropped.

Heater didn´t last long, lost a little over 3 buy-ins the last 1k hands.

@291: About ramping up aggression on later streets, this is something I´m trying, and I noticed I´m winning a lot more of the small pots (after they give up both flop and turn) by betting almost atc. Pretty interesting. Went from wwsf close to 40 to 45 on avg.

One thing I still have to figure out is my wtsd at 30. Even though I´m pretty tight (with the changes I made to snowie´s strategy, I stationed now at 14/12), it doesn´t feel right. And my af is not that low, close to 3 on avg right now.

Will do another db analysis to see if there is any big leak causing this, or is it just because I´m very tight.