Also agree. And yes, I´m very conservative in multi-way pots .

I should also note I'm talking about 6max.. I keep forgetting you're playing FR. Not sure if the population there plays any differently than 6max lol

One thing about fish..they are better at folding rivers than flops/turns (with your value hands you can actually bet really big flop/turn because they chase weak draws and call down weak top pairs regardless of sizing.) This also has hidden value of making the pot bigger than it might normally be and then not only have you got more value but they can feel priced in to call rivers when they may not have if the SPR was different.

Yeah, when you can have all the nutted hands people don't really like calling turns/rivers with weak top pairs etc. Another thing to note if if someone hasn't raised the turn on draw heavy boards and even dry boards it is a lot less likely they are nutted and against this range you can bluff more frequently.

Faze I notice you are very statistical in your approach which is cool and will no doubt give you a technical edge but sometimes you can simplify things by more just thinking of ranges. If you think about what combos you want to use to bluff and what combos you want to give up with this will probably end up giving you the statistics you feel are good.

Oh and when checked to twice just bet 100% of your range ip, it's unbelievably successful, check your db and you will see.

You´re right about the trust I put in a lot of statistics, but I´m actually thinking about simplifying quite a bit of them, dropping turn, river, flop raise, fold to raise otf, donk etc, as they are quite unreliable. I might do a population study with them, but vs single players, even regs, I´ll never get a sample size good enough to trust, and I´m making bad decisions from time to time because of these stats.

Even preflop stuff can be dangerous to put too much trust unless sample size is big enough (over 100 is the bare miminum for vpip/pfr I´d say). For example, someone who shows vpip of 8 and pfr of 5, over 50 hands, I can be quite sure he´s not a whale or a loose aggressive, but I can´t say he´s a nit, as it´s pretty common, from my own experience, to get even 100 hand stretches where I´m not dealt anything remotely playable. Same for someone who shows 40/30 over, let´s say, 50 hands. Not that common, but happens with me when I get a lot of playable hands in a row.

Problem I still have with ranges is that they don´t play like I expect. Like they keep flatting my utg raises with 22 from the btn when snowie says it should be obv folded j/k obv but it´s a fact that ranges at the micros esp pf are quite weird, which leads to some difficuties postflop.

Cheers!

Still running meh I guess.



So, was saving the HHs for my next 10nl shot but whatever, let´s do it now. From now on, I´ll be checking my blunders with snowie, then posting here looking for solid advice. Btw, feel free to be very honest and even blunt. As long as you´re genuinely trying to help and you´re explain your reasoning in full detail, I don´t care

Btw, this is a screen from my last session that I exported to snowie. Really proud of getting this with real life HHs



And the blunder was this one:

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 7 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $4.17 (83 bb)
MP: $5.28 (106 bb)
MP+1: $6.86 (137 bb)
CO (Hero): $5.32 (106 bb)
BU: $4.78 (96 bb)
SB: $5.79 (116 bb)
BB: $5.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with J♠ J♦
UTG raises to $0.10, MP calls $0.10, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, 2 players fold, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($0.42) 7♠ T♦ 3♥ (4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $0.25, MP calls $0.25, Hero calls $0.25, BB folds

Turn: ($1.17) 4♦ (3 players)
UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets $0.37, UTG calls $0.37, MP folds

River: ($1.91) 7♥ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Total pot: $1.91 (Rake: $0.08)

Showdown:
CO (Hero) shows J♠ J♦ (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 92%, Turn: 68%, River: 100%)

UTG shows 2♦ 5♦ (a pair of Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 8%, Turn: 32%, River: 0%)

CO (Hero) wins $1.83

So, according to snowie I should have folded flop. Even though we were discussing multi-way pots earlier, and the need to play tighter, I don´t agree with his assessment, even in tougher games than 5nl.

Now, the reasoning. UTG I have no reads, the other guy is really bad. Think JJ is a flat ip, better than a 3b and then having to fold vs a 4b or basically setmining/hoping for lower board vs UTG possibly tight range.

Flop call imo seems very standard. Never raising, never folding no matter what snowie says lol.

Turn easy bet after they check, mostly to deny equity vs any draw, and get value vs ATs, KTs, QTs and JTs.

River I was in doubt if I should block bet again or if checking is fine. Snowie plays 97% check and 3% 1/4 pot. Getting value from the same turn hands might be fine obv, so I´m not sure if checking is really best (while playing I thought it was obv). If I face a raise here than obv folding. I think my reasoning was probably snowie´s one that by betting flop villain´s range might be way stronger than it really was in real play.

Btw, tagged him as weaker player after this hand.


Another one, not tagged as a blunder, but still got me in a very bad/weird spot postflop. Should have jammed pre instead of this smaller 5bet, was expecting a jam by him obv so I would get good odds to call, and expecting a very small fold equity since he´s more or less a reg. As played pre, postflop was really weird. Let´s say he jams. We call due to the odds? We fold after investing so much money pre? Shoving pre would make everything easier right?

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 9 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $10.69 (214 bb)
UTG+1: $5.22 (104 bb)
MP: $5.00 (100 bb)
MP+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
LP: $5.24 (105 bb)
CO: $6.94 (139 bb)
BU: $4.30 (86 bb)
SB (Hero): $5.44 (109 bb)
BB: $5.32 (106 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with K♠ K♣
5 players fold, CO raises to $0.12, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.45, 1 fold, CO 4-bets to $1.30, Hero 5-bets to $3.10, CO calls $1.80

Flop: ($6.25) T♦ 6♥ A♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($6.25) Q♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: ($6.25) 3♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Total pot: $6.25 (Rake: $0.26)

Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows K♠ K♣ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 50%, Flop: 50%, Turn: 50%, River: 50%)

CO shows K♦ K♥ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 50%, Flop: 50%, Turn: 50%, River: 50%)

SB (Hero) wins $3
CO wins $2.99




Cheers!

Will be watching one last video from RIO, remember someone recommending Cameron Couch (ishter) old live play ones, and yes, they are really good. Thank you for pointing me to them.

Against someone opening 52s you really want to be 3 betting JJ pre and getting in as much money as possible. And yeah you really want to bet that river, maybe even betting small to induce a bluff and get some calls from his super pocket pairs/A highs. Don't worry too much about Snowie in these spots, I am sure it is a useful guide but it won't account for the weak ranges people have. You really just need to ask yourself are there hands I can get value from here? Just as a trial I really recommend just asking yourself this question on every river, smaller bets are very good in these spots.

KK hand... don't want to use such a small 5 bet size versus a reg, either just flat the 4 bet or jam. Post flop is fine, maybe call some jams depending on action.

291: Thanks for the advice. About KK, next time I´m in this SB vs CO battles vs this player type, I´m just moving all in pre.

JJ hand: You said you have no reads on UTG, but he only has 83bb. You can just assume he's a weak player/fish/rec player. As such, I would 3bet preflop, and try to get more value from him. As played, I think raise-folding the flop might be a good option. UTG donks, which to me seems more like he hit a T, or has a smaller pair. And he will call a raise. Of course, you have to be aware that maybe someone hit a set with so many players in the hand. But if you raise and one of the other players calls (not the fish), then you just shut down. But try to get as much money from the fish as you can on the early streets. As played, I'm leaning more towards checking the turn and betting safe-looking rivers.

KK hand: Meh, you could 5bet jam, or you could use your sizing. Doesn't really matter a whole lot. If you use your sizing though, you can't fold postflop. Even if the dreaded ace comes, you can't fold if he bets/shoves.


There was one hand I played where I misclicked and min 5-bet, and the guy folded. Got me thinking that maybe the min 5bet is perceived as AA only (KK+) by a lot of players. Maybe might be worth trying a couple times as a bluff lol. Or maybe not...

EDIT: Sorry, misread the JJ hand. He raised preflop, so not a donk bet lol. Raising is not quite so good then, but maybe still an option since he's most likely a fish.

About the JJ hand, yeah. I was too focused in playing as if villain was a competent player (as I do with any unknown) that I didn´t took much attention to his stack size.

KK, next time I´m sb vs lp with anyone but a nit, I´m shoving preflop

APRIL FINAL UPDATE

This month was, let´s say, interesting. Failed 10nl shot (again), 5nl ok but not great, tried 6-max and zoom again, didn´t like the format. Tilted plo10 session after the 10nl shot just to increase the size of the hole I went into. Graphs:

Full month:


10nl:


5nl:


Remaining games (plo10*, zoom, 6-max...):


*PLO10z was the sharp drop at the beginning of the graph. Played a few 5 card limit draw games, but hem2 doesn´t track the hands. Didn´t lose there at least, but didn´t make even 1 dollar, so be.

And today, just for the record:



I´m gonna try to set up a more structured approach for the game in may. First, what I expect to achieve this month:

1) Increase my understanding of the game, becoming way more stronger in the theorectical and practical stuff that we all need to be successful in any stake nowadays.
2) Be more disciplined, especially with my own goals, but also on the volume side of the game. Not that I played too little, actually I played more than I expected, but with too much variability in my daily hours/hands.
3) Move up and become a reg at the 10nl fr tables before May, 31.
4) No PLO, no any other poker variant unless I´m leaving NL for good.

I think I´m stronger now than at the beginning of april, so to achieve 1) I will be taking the same approach I took this month.
2) is tougher as you can see my failures in the discipline part of the game this month, but I can´t give up on what is probably the 1st or 2nd most important part of becoming successful in this game.
3) depends 75% on myself, technically and mentally, 25% on rungood obv.

To achieve all these goals, I´ll divide this month in 10 day parts (the final one will be 11 btw). So, from tomorrow until May, 10th, I want to:

- Play at least 20k hands. 2000/day is not that hard, less than 4 hours if continuous, 5 if doing my approach of many small sessions in the early morning and late afternoon/evening.
- At least one theory video and one session with snowie to keep developing an optimal default strategy every day.
- Again, not look at results ($, EV$, graph and cashier). This is the toughest one.
- Keep myself at 5nl FR tables only. Hopefully I´ll be able to get some rungood and win the last remaining buy-ins for my 500d goal. Playing multiple games while learning doesn´t work well for a learning struggling player like myself, so focus!!!!! Only 5nl 9-max.

I´ll keep browsing this thread and 2p2, answering all posters, but won´t do an update until the deadline that I set above.

So that´s it. GL everyone!

Good luck with your goals this month! Is looking at theory videos and working with snowie the best way to study at this point in your journey? You seem to have a ton of hands.. Wouldn't just doing extensive database analysis and trying to plug leaks that way be a better/smarter use of your time to improve your winrate at nl5? Which would in turn lead to a higher chance of success for your nl10 shots... At any rate, hopefully you'll hit the goal of becoming a nl10 reg by the end of the month. And don't be afraid to keep trying 6max; it really is more fun!

Thank you! Yeah, definitely not quitting the db analysis, but I believe reinforcing the concepts as much as possible helps a lot. But db and plugging leaks are essential parts, 100% agree. For example, just found today that I´m still bad at the blinds, even after my late adjustments. Hopefully it´s just an anomaly due to still low sample size, but I have to be very careful with this and keep plugging all leaks I can find.

Btw, one interesting thing that I found about my 10nl graph after all the failed shots: it´s a redline going down as usual and a close to be, slightly positive blue line. Just as my usual downswings at 5nl, including the big one in the middle of the graph, but the 10nl one is for close to 100k hands. Will obv have to work on this as I don´t think it´s just variance.

Cheers!

To show why I hate fish. Vpip 28, pfr 4, agg % on river is 71% in 7 hands, overall W$WSD 33%. Obv though he would turn any worse Jx into a bluff on the flop, and play that aggressively with lots of weak hands. Saw no point in keeping the aggression as it would only put me in more difficult spots later. Better to let him hang himself. What do you guys think? Again, he´s an aggro fish, so I can´t narrow his range only to strong hands postflop, can I? Was expecting lots of KJ, Q9 etc. Again, I hate fish! lol

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 8 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG (Hero): $5.02 (100 bb)
UTG+1: $5.76 (115 bb)
MP: $5.00 (100 bb)
MP+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO: $5.00 (100 bb)
BU: $10.35 (207 bb)
SB: $8.67 (173 bb)
BB: $5.07 (101 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG with K♦ A♣
Hero raises to $0.12, 4 players fold, BTN calls $0.12, 2 players fold

Flop: ($0.31) 7♠ K♣ T♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.10, BTN raises to $0.35, Hero calls $0.25

Turn: ($1.01) Q♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.49, Hero calls $0.49

River: ($1.99) 3♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $0.96, Hero calls $0.96

Total pot: $3.91 (Rake: $0.16)

Showdown:
BU shows J♣ A♥ (a straight, Ten to Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 25%, Flop: 18%, Turn: 97%, River: 100%)

UTG (Hero) mucks K♦ A♣ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 75%, Flop: 82%, Turn: 3%, River: 0%)

BU wins $3.75

It seems I can´t search players anymore. Anyone noticed this? Not that I´m using it lately, as I´d rather play in a table full of regs passing money around and losing to rake. Btw, j/k. Or maybe not.

Solid session today, 2382 hands. Discipline went great. And if anyone is concerned with the search player function on stars, it was removed but you can do the same thing with ctrl+f then just copy/paste the player sn. Take a few more seconds, more annoyance, but other than that, no big problem.

Cheers!

So, learned through another thread this was possible. No more tilted chatting by Faz, now let´s focus on what is really important: winning

2105 hands played today.

Hand of the day (vs fish):


PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 9 players
Replay this hand on Upswing Poker

UTG: $5.07 (101 bb)
UTG+1: $5.66 (113 bb)
MP: $10.46 (209 bb)
MP+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
LP: $6.21 (124 bb)
CO: $3.42 (68 bb)
BU: $9.93 (199 bb)
SB (Hero): $5.54 (111 bb)
BB: $4.98 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with A♠ 9♠
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.15, 5 players fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.55, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.40

Flop: ($1.15) 9♣ A♦ 5♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.36, UTG+1 raises to $0.72, Hero raises to $2.70, UTG+1 raises to $5.11 (all-in), Hero calls $2.29 (all-in)

Turn: ($11.13) Q♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($11.13) K♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $11.13 (Rake: $0.46)

Showdown:
UTG+1 shows A♥ K♣ (two pair, Aces and Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 69%, Flop: 14%, Turn: 14%, River: 100%)

SB (Hero) shows A♠ 9♠ (two pair, Aces and Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 31%, Flop: 86%, Turn: 86%, River: 0%)

UTG+1 wins $10.67



Also finding that I was scammed by stars on the chest thing didn´t help so much. Was showing 9/10 for the 3rd level, 5600 points yesterday and 5950 required, deadline May, 14th. Today I woke up with the same amount of points, requirement and deadline, but was back at 8/10. After grinding til the 5950 points and opening the chest, found that I´m still at the 8th level. WTF?????????????

Anyway, besides complaining to stars support, I´m proud of myself for being able to handle this. So many beats from all levels, but didn´t tilt, didn´t think bad things about the fish from the hand above, didn´t lose my discipline regarding not looking at results etc. I think I´m getting better on handle these issues. Nice!!!!!!!!

Instead of watching RIO videos, decided to see this one. Not a fan of Nick Howard due to the way he speaks/chooses words (he seems smart, yet can´t communicate in a simpler and effective way). Still, a lot of the stuff he talks about is obv true and very good. This is the video:

Forcing Aggression (Full Stream) Oct. 25th, 2016

Very good suggestion made by 291 in ShellysAshes thread, well done dude.

Tomorrow I´ll try to put a bigger session, somewhere between 2500 and 3000 hands, as saturday will be cleaning day and I don´t like to stay inside my apartment.

GL everyone!

Cheers dude, think it's a good video for those who may tilt more from making mistakes/unnecessary plays than bad beats. Also think it's good for micros where value based strategies should decrease a lot of variance.

I recommend the zoom pool at the moment by the way, people are seriously donating, very strange but can't complain. Lots of overbetjams 100bb on flop with air, lots of random 3 bet all ins pre with AJo/KQo. Could be good for building the roll up.

I think I´ll definitely try again zoom in the next weeks, but this time I´m gonna start my trial with 6-max normal. After I´m fine with the ranges, the aggression and the speed, I will move to zoom definitely.

Gonna do a small session right now before leaving home to test the waters and start tagging people. Let´s go!!!!!!!!

Switching to 6max may help you with fish, it's easier to isolate them and you end up in pots with them more frequently and get to exploit their mistakes more often. Just a thought...

Good luck, hope it's a smooth transition!

Yeah, I'll second the fish donating in 6max zoom. About to post another donation hand in my thread in a few minutes lol. As for your hands, gotta take the bad with the good.

For the chat, can't you just turn it off in the client? Or was the issue that you might feel like turning it back on in-game?

Not sure what happened with the chests.. Did you ever get a response? I'm curious if I should be watching that. To be honest, kind of disheartened when I saw the points required to unlock the chests jump from around 500 to around 6000.

@291: Might be just variance, but found 5nl 6-max tables incredibly soft today. Got even one total maniac shoving atc, thought was the guy losing -170bb/100 from the other thread.

Yes, less ppl is always better, and when we are on their immediate left, it´s close to printing at 6-max. Only thing I don´t really enjoy (only a problem at regular tables ofc) is the rate at which tables just break. Maybe FR disincentivizes ppl from jumping around, due to having less tables.

Thank you very much, so far I´m enjoying the overall experience

@PokerPhilosopher: I´m ashamed of posting hands where I suck out on other players, so let´s keep only the bad beat

About the chat, I keep it turned off, but temptation is too high to turn it on and berate other people these days, so better for everyone. Also, since I know I can´t even do that anymore without contacting support and waiting, I don´t waste mental energy with this futile thing and instead keep my focus to the game.

No response, still waiting. Scam, like I said above, might be too harsh, and I was a little bit tilted. I think they screwed up with the last update, so plain incompetence might be a better phrasing for what happened. Yeah, was 5950 to get the next upgrade. Took 14 days playing 5nl. As soon as they get in touch, I´ll post their answer here.

Now, let´s play a final session

Cheers!

Well, ended up looking at my results. Also, didn´t play as much as I´d like. Actually, didn´t get even 1500 hands today lol. Discipline reaching new lows. But there is a good reason for this: extremely good news irl, so coudn´t concentrate. It´s a big transaction I´m trying to close since 2017, and I might succeed this month. Probability of closing this is 70-75% I would guesstimate. If I´m successful, I might give more details itt, but I´m happy af atm with the developments.

Anyway, here are the results. LOL



From the bottom until the end is 6-max. 6-max normal is really nice, despite tables breaking every time being so annoying. Games were reaaaaaaaaaaaally nitty, unbelievable. I played this before, and I can say 5nl is full of nits, but not like today. Not even close. Definitely variance, but still, surprising

Plan is to try and grind as most as I can, keep playing 6-max, and try to stay away from results until May, 15. If I´m really successful in the irl stuff, I might have to stay away from the serious grind longer. I won´t quit, but volume will suffer for a few weeks/months.

Cheers!

To sum up this saturday: not running well on the tables, not running well on the discipline side, as you can see from the graph below: looked at my results again.



All 5nl. 1/3 6-max normal, 1/3 zoom and 1/3 9-max.

For tomorrow I´m gonna set two options, both good enough imo:

A) Not playing anything
B) Playing 2nl

So, I can play poker if I really want, but nothing higher than 2nl.

Cheers!