I miss the old times when 10 BI days on sundays were the norm. Now I´m pretty happy when I can end one sunday in the black zone. And I´m talking about 2nl lol.

Anyway, enough complaining, you guys know I´m never 100% serious (not even 10%) when I complain about runbad and fish right? The only part I´m serious is that I always screw up when playing vs fish

Pretty swingy day, and the interesting part is the source. Sick redline swings today.



I´ll be back to 5nl this week until saturday, then 2nl or day off next sunday. Will try again, for the 12345th time, to not look at results until may, 15.

Cheers!

Btw, first 1k hands are 6-max, remaining ones fullring.

So, I’m a little frustrated with this game right now. Won’t post results but I checked my 5nl graph and found, sadly, that even without the 30 bi ds of last year, my wr doesn’t reach even 4 evbb/100, which explains my problems with 10nl. Worst, it seems even 2nl is not beatable anymore.

I’m a little bit lost here. Before quitting this game for good, I really would like to know if any of you have any suggestion (besides free and paid content, snowie and other similar stuff, which I’ve already tried/am trying)? Sometimes I think that guy (tastyyy I guess?) is right and it’s just impossible to win at these low stakes with a reasonable wr when we add the rake and all the nits.

Impossible is probably the wrong word, and it's a statement that will always attract a lot of attention from wannabees and endbosses alike, but yeah, its not a million miles from the truth.

Just my personal opinion but to win online in 2019 (cash, at any stakes) you need...

Stamina, mental discipline and focus to play long and hard sessions with big volume.

An advanced and evolved technical game.

A professional, committed attitude towards study and analysis.

The user and software skills to adapt all the tools out there to your needs.

I have very little of the above, which is why I'll never be more than a b/e rec.

And frankly, I think anybody that has those sorts of skillsets, can usually put them to far better use, than grinding poker on their Jack Jones, hour after hour.

Just my ten penneth.

tl/dr

ABC poker and a dodgy mental game will win jack online even at 5nl these days. (PS not saying that is you, you understand, but it is me, sort of )

All the nits? Aren't you the one complaining about all the fish doing crazy stuff all the time?

But in all seriousness, I have a few suggestions:

1) Postflop, bet fairly small all three streets (but bigger on the turn and river with the nuts to get stacks all-in). Fold to any and all raises without the absolute nuts. You have 2nd nut flush? Fold to the raise. Have top set on a board where a straight is possible? Fold to the raise.

I haven't actually tried this myself, but it's something I was contemplating doing, as I also haven't had much luck with nl10 (and even nl5) lately. Not necessarily as a permanent solution, but to see if the winrate increases when we stop calling so much. Because if they (in general) are nitty, we probably shouldn't be too interested in stacking off without the nuts. Even if they have semi-bluffs, their range as a whole is really strong.

If you find yourself calling off a lot with great (but not nut) hands and finding they often have better, maybe try this out. Sure, it's a very nitty idea and will require discipline on your part. But, if you're out of ideas, you have nothing to lose by trying this out for awhile and seeing how it goes.

EDIT: I should mention this is for regs/nits/tighter players. Against the bigger fish, not so much. Just depends how passive they are I suppose lol.

2) Tighten your ranges preflop. Go through your database and search for when you RFI (for example -- you can do the same for other things like 3betting, calling RFI, etc.). Then look at how individual hands (or subgroups of hands) do. If you're opening UTG with mid suited aces, for example, and you find that you're losing money with them, cut them out. Just open with your profitable hands for awhile and see how it goes.

Again, might not be a long-term solution, but might help you get back on track to winning more. Maybe if people see you start playing nittier, they might adjust. But maybe not. And if they do, they might not adjust properly. Just another thing to try out.

3) Switch to zoom 6-max full-time for now. Ok, so I don't know if this will actually help. But I do know it's possible to at least beat nl2z 6max for a nice winrate. I can't really speak for nl5z/10z, except to say I've at least been beating nl10z over a close to 100k hand sample. So if I can do it... hahaha. NL5z on the other hand, it seems I've been struggling a lot more with. Maybe 5z is a lot nittier.

4) Check your database again for how often you're defending against each position's RFI. And I mean how frequently you're defending from all positions combined.

So for example, versus a 3bb UTG open-raise, maybe you defend 10% from each position, from MP to BB (just an example to make it simple). That means you're folding from all positions 59% (90% x 90% x 90% x 90% x 90%). So you're defending 41%. MDF against a 3bb size would be about 33%. So we are defending enough.

If you work this out, and you find you're not defending enough, then maybe to look to call/3bet more from some/all positions.

5) 3bet more, with a more merged range. 3bet with high/mid pocket pairs, higher suited/unsuited aces, higher suited broadways, etc. 3bet less with low/mid suited connectors and small suited aces. Something I also started experimenting with was 3betting 4x with premium pairs and AKs/AKo/AQs (exact hands vary according to positions), and then 3x with the lower end of the spectrum.

Those are just some ideas you can try, or not try. Just thought I'd throw them out there; I don't know if you'll find any of that helpful. I hope you don't give up though, and keep going at it. Just look at how long I've been at the micros lol.

Indeed, if you follow some of the winning endbosses on here (I've followed quite a few over the years) you will find that exactly none of them spent more that a few months at the micros.

That should you tell something (and frankly, its pretty damn clear).

C'mon OMD, I'm just trying to help him out and you feel the need to insult me?

Have you considered getting some coaching? Seems like it could be good to get someone to find your leaks and give you stuff to go away and work on and then once you start comfortably beating limits you can choose to get more if you want. Seems like a decent investment as guessing poker isn't your main source of income yet you obviously want to improve.

If you feel like your stagnating yet don't want to quit this would probably help a lot. Even 2 hours could make a big difference.

Maybe even post some more hands on here and see what feedback you get, even if you disagree with some points it can always be useful to see how other people think about spots and can change your own thinking.

@OldManDecaf, @PokerPhilosopher, @291, Thank you very much guys, really appreciated.

About coaching, yes, it´s on the top of my list. It seems I´m unable to solve most of my leaks by myself. I´ll probably look for one at the end of this month, if not earlier depending on results.





So, decided to do a different work on my db. I usually check my own, but I think I should leverage on my huge database and look for the big winners and do some sort of reverse engineering on them, especially how they deal with the dreadful fish

Happy to look at some hands where you think you may be struggling with fish in 6max. If you go through your DB and find the spots where you think you may be making some mistakes versus them and then upload them here I am sure we could come up with some solutions.

Good idea, good luck

Thank you, I´ll definitely post HHs here tonight. I went back to FR, hopefully fish will be more or less the same

One problem I´m facing a lot is being called preflop by fish when holding overpairs QQ+ then facing aggression (usually donkbet and all the way to the river). It always seemed too nitty to fold one on flop or turn vs fish, esp on low/mid paired boards like 9963 or 227T, yet I´m always beat and in hindsight should have folded even flop (always trips or sets/boats++ when donked into).

My WTSD seems too high at 30% on avg, even though I play 13/11/4 at FR which is tight, so I´m definitely calling or being called too much, and the problem hand seems to be the medium strength ones, tptk or QQ+ unimproved.

2 hands vs same fish.

1st. Only thing I know is he(she) is a fish, no relevant stats. His line doesn´t make any sense, but seems strong, 2p+. What do you guys think?

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

UTG: $5.25 (105 bb)
MP: $5.52 (110 bb)
MP+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO (Hero): $5.27 (105 bb)
BU: $5.05 (101 bb)
SB: $5.02 (100 bb)
BB: $7.43 (149 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with A♥ Q♠
2 players fold, MP+1 calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.22, 3 players fold, MP+1 calls $0.17

Flop: ($0.51) Q♥ 2♠ 3♥ (2 players)
MP+1 checks, Hero bets $0.25, MP+1 calls $0.25

Turn: ($1.01) 8♣ (2 players)
MP+1 bets $0.97, CO (Hero) folds

Total pot: $1.01 (Rake: $0.04)
MP+1 wins $0.97





Then this happened the next hand. I can´t give him/her credit twice right?

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

UTG: $5.50 (110 bb)
MP (Hero): $5.00 (100 bb)
MP+1: $5.05 (101 bb)
CO: $5.00 (100 bb)
BU: $7.36 (147 bb)
SB: $5.27 (105 bb)
BB: $4.00 (80 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with K♣ K♠
UTG raises to $0.15, Hero 3-bets to $0.52, 5 players fold, UTG calls $0.37

Flop: ($1.11) Q♥ 3♣ 6♠ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.55, UTG calls $0.55

Turn: ($2.21) 8♣ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.20, UTG raises to $4.43 (all-in), Hero calls $2.73 (all-in)

First River: ($10.07) Q♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Second River: ($10.07) 4♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $10.07 (Rake: $0.42)

First Showdown: Board: Q♥ 3♣ 6♠ 8♣ Q♣

UTG shows A♣ J♥ (a pair of Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 28%, Flop: 14%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

MP (Hero) shows K♣ K♠ (two pair, Kings and Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 72%, Flop: 86%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

MP (Hero) wins $4.83

Second Showdown: Board: Q♥ 3♣ 6♠ 8♣ 4♣

UTG shows A♣ J♥ (high card, Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 28%, Flop: 14%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

MP (Hero) shows K♣ K♠ (a pair of Kings)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 72%, Flop: 86%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

MP (Hero) wins $4.82

Fish with aggro tendencies. Donk bet flop 43% in 7 opportunities. I´m tracking river agg% nowadays, his stat showed 50% river afq in 6 opportunities. Pretty sure if I call either flop or turn, he will barrel all the way with Ax or any fd and probably put me allin, so I´m either raising or folding (flop or turn). Wouldn´t be able to play any other way, but still felt like spew due esp to being deep. What would you do, and why?

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

UTG: $12.59 (252 bb)
UTG+1: $4.43 (89 bb)
MP: $5.60 (112 bb)
MP+1: $5.65 (113 bb)
CO: $5.00 (100 bb)
BU (Hero): $9.99 (200 bb)
SB: $6.00 (120 bb)
BB: $9.43 (189 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with Q♦ A♠
5 players fold, Hero raises to $0.12, SB calls $0.10, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.29) K♣ 2♦ A♣ (2 players)
SB bets $0.20, Hero raises to $0.60, SB calls $0.40

Turn: ($1.49) 7♦ (2 players)
SB bets $0.72, Hero raises to $7.10, SB folds

Total pot: $2.93 (Rake: $0.12)
BU (Hero) wins $2.81

31/0 player, af 0.3. Min raise is usually the nuts right? Should have folded this one, never 3bet. Oh well!

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

UTG: $6.15 (123 bb)
UTG+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
MP: $5.18 (104 bb)
MP+1 (Hero): $5.30 (106 bb)
CO: $4.67 (93 bb)
BU: $5.00 (100 bb)
SB: $2.82 (56 bb)
BB: $5.00 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP+1 with K♠ A♦
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.15, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $0.45, CO calls $0.45, 3 players fold, UTG+1 calls $0.30

Flop: ($1.42) Q♠ 4♦ K♦ (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.70, CO raises to $1.40, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $4.85 (all-in), CO calls $2.82 (all-in)

Turn: ($9.86) 6♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($9.86) 6♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $9.86 (Rake: $0.41)

Showdown:
MP+1 (Hero) shows K♠ A♦ (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 70%, Flop: 18%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

CO shows K♣ Q♣ (two pair, Kings and Queens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 30%, Flop: 82%, Turn: 93%, River: 100%)

CO wins $9.45

Sorry for making so many posts for HHs, was doing it in real time. These are the last ones, as I´m pretty tired of all this bs. Ending the session and the day now!

This is one of the HHs that confuses me the most. Borderline maniac 36/18 with AF 14.0. I know he´s betting his made hands and semi bluffs very aggressively. Calling him down, even after a flush comes on the river, is standard or too optimistic? Need to know how to play vs these aggro villains as things gets pretty wild from NL10 and up.

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

UTG: $5.07 (101 bb)
UTG+1 (Hero): $5.00 (100 bb)
MP: $5.83 (117 bb)
MP+1: $3.10 (62 bb)
LP: $3.26 (65 bb)
CO: $8.88 (178 bb)
BU: $5.46 (109 bb)
SB: $6.80 (136 bb)
BB: $7.03 (141 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG+1 with K♦ A♦
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.12, 6 players fold, BB calls $0.07

Flop: ($0.26) 8♠ A♠ 5♦ (2 players)
BB bets $0.15, Hero calls $0.15

Turn: ($0.56) 6♣ (2 players)
BB bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25

River: ($1.06) T♠ (2 players)
BB bets $0.65, Hero calls $0.65

Total pot: $2.36 (Rake: $0.10)

Showdown:
BB shows Q♠ K♠ (a flush, Ace high)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 29%, Flop: 37%, Turn: 20%, River: 100%)

UTG+1 (Hero) mucks K♦ A♦ (a pair of Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 71%, Flop: 63%, Turn: 80%, River: 0%)

BB wins $2.26


Fish, 68/7 AF 4.0. Still not sure if any hand that I beat would overbet this river. Not betting flop was a mistake btw, even though I based this on the fact he never folded to any cbet before. Think I still should bet there and hope for the best.

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

UTG: $6.88 (138 bb)
UTG+1: $4.95 (99 bb)
MP: $4.18 (84 bb)
MP+1: $4.93 (99 bb)
LP: $5.11 (102 bb)
CO (Hero): $10.52 (210 bb)
BU: $5.69 (114 bb)
SB: $5.72 (114 bb)
BB: $5.59 (112 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with 8♦ 8♥
2 players fold, MP calls $0.05, 1 fold, LP calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.27, 4 players fold, LP calls $0.22

Flop: ($0.66) 9♣ 6♦ 6♣ (2 players)
LP checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.66) A♣ (2 players)
LP checks, Hero checks

River: ($0.66) A♦ (2 players)
LP bets $1, CO (Hero) folds

Total pot: $0.66 (Rake: $0.03)
LP wins $0.63



Yesterday + today:



Cheers!

For the last two hands:

-AK hand, I'd fold the river. Big(gish) river bets seem to be value most of the time. Especially when draws get there.

-88 hand, I'd bet 1/3 pot on the flop. Get a little value from smaller pairs/A-high/whatever else they want to call with. On that turn, I'd just give up.

For the second last post:

-Minraises can be strong hands, but can also not be lol. I would just call the raise, because you still have good backdoor equity. The turn doesn't improve that equity, so I'd probably give up there facing a decent bet.

For the third last post:

- I think you're way overplaying your hand. Just call the flop, especially since he bets large. I'd probably call a turn bet, and then evaluate the river, depending on if draws complete.


For the first post (sorry for going in reverse order hahaha):

-First hand, I'd probably fold to the pot-sized turn bet also. If I were to guess, I'd say he hit his set of 8s.

-KK hand, I've been using a smaller bet sizing lately, so I'd probably bet smaller. But as played, I'm probably calling off there too.

Hand 1 - Have to call turn, maybe fold rivers but will want to call down versus a fish that can have Qx. It's hard to be beat here, maybe with Ah we can sometimes fold but fish could just be spazzing out randomly with a very weak limp call range.

Hand 2 - All fine. Want to stack Qx.

Hand 3 - Just call unless you think he is stacking off with weaker Ax, we want him to continue bluffing and don't want to only allow him to call with hands we are losing to. When you jam he probably won't call with worse unless he is a huge whale. Probably get more value out of Ax if you flat and then also get more value from bluffs. If you flat and he checks river you can just bomb it and he will put you on missed draws a lot and call down with Ax, even an overbet is good.

Hand 4 - Just flat and decide on turn with AK. Block a lot of his value hands so hard to fold but generally people tend to jam their draws in this spot rather than minraise so probably a good spot to fold turns.

Hand 5 - Probably going to raise flop and take initiative (if he 3 bets flop you can explo fold.) Probably fold river as played as quite hard to be good on this runout. Against a player leading with draws you want to be doing more raising to get value.

Hand 6 - Mandatory cbet with 88 on this flop against a limp call range. Probably size up as Ace high and worse pocket pairs will usually call one.

Thank you guys @PokerPhilosopher @291

So yesterday just before bed learned that a cousin of mine passed (heart attack). He was 32yo, so even though he had a very stressful and somewhat dangerous career (federal police officer), still was a big surprise for everyone. We lived very far away (he lived/worked in the amazon jungle, I live in southeastern Brazil), so coudn´t keep in touch other than a few and far between events, but still he will be missed, was a great guy.

Maybe I´ll be doing a small session tonight after coming back home, but probably will just skip poker and resume the normal day tomorrow. Will see what´s best.

GL everyone!

Sorry to hear about your loss Fazendeiro.

All the best with this thread. Will be following.

Thanks @ShellysAshes!

I´ll be doing a normal session right now, trying to put 1k hands. Let´s see if I can make some $$$ today vs the evening fun players.

Cheers

Sorry for your loss as well. Shaping up to be a good day right now I think; lots of fishy play going on at the moment it seems lol

Thanks @PokerPhilosopher!

Yes, games were fishy. Decided to play a few more simultaneous tables than I usually do - 12 instead of 6 (I was used to play even more than that in my 2nl glorious days , but still think doubling the table count without an adjustment period is a very dumb idea, won´t do this ever again). Anyway, good results.

Today:


Month so far:


5nl:


My 100 bi challenge is still going very slow. Still don´t have any reason to doubt I will get there if given a reasonable sample (if my true wr is really 4bb/100 right now, and I hope it is, it won´t take that long), but this be stretch is damaging my motivation a little bit and even leading me to question things, like that post I made a few days ago.

So, with this recovery, and hoping to catch the momentum, I´ll take another 10nl shot tomorrow. The plan is: 2 tables of 10nl and 4 of 5nl, during low variance times only. The sizings I´ve put on stars software for preflop/postflop are the same, and my eye-brain system is already well versed on the different pot sizes, and most important, I did this mixing before and it actually helped. Why, some might ask? Because it keeps me from fps and making big adjustments, and in my experience making big adjustments right after a shot is a mistake.

So, that is the plan. Let´s hope I can do it tilt-free, and let´s hope I get a nice heater. Fingers crossed lol

Cheers

Sorry for your loss man, all the best.

Yeah if you start catching up with your EV maybe 100BI's will come more quickly, hopefully

Thanks @291.

With the way I´m running right now, pretty sure the orange line will get there first. But as I said a few weeks ago, the aiev line, over large samples ofc, 100k+ hands, is the best indicator for performance evaluation. Obv aiev can´t be converted to real money, no one wants to buy it unfortunately (I will google this just to be 100% sure ), but having a good BRM, I´m most interested in improving, not in the money.

This is the result of today´s session:



Won´t post graphs until 5nl challenge is completed. Not too many difficult spots today, fish or reg. Played 10nl in the early morning, so reg infested ofc (and low variance). Will probably do the same tomorrow.

Cheers

In what world is this an insult.

You've been playing micro cash for 8 or 9 years, unless you are lying in your own profile.

You can go and follow any number of winning medium/highstakes endbosses on here and you will see everyone of them shot through the micros in a few months.

These things are facts fella, and I'm just trying to help you out.

If the truth to you is an insult you have more problems that just poker.

Peace

@ Op

Sorry for the derail...you look pretty clued up op...so here is a conundrum for you...

On stars

I can crush 9 man $3 KO STTSNG (turbos) all day long at a very decent clip.

I get the **** crushed out of me playing 5nlz

My cash game is probably a little better than my tourney game

What's going on???

Simple really. NLHE is a game of tiny edges and against nit regs your edges are truly microscopic. Add in the zoom factor (maybe you don' t play zoom, but I'm sure reg speed is nit fest too, plus all that table management crap) where post flop ranges are soooo strong. Add in the huge rake & near zero rakeback and you got yourself a close to unbeatable scenario.

On the other hand micro STTSNG is raging fishfest with all dem fishes spazzing any two until they get themselves eliminated. You can literally (and I frequently do) fold into the money.

Moral of the story, if you cannot find a decent fish to reg ratio, you cannot win.

To that end (and I've done this to) save your money and one table 50 nlz or 100 nlz during peak fish hours, over fold like a maniac versus regs, but get in as many pots as you can with fish (they are simple to spot, once you have learned all the clues). Postflop, nut peddle for value.

Doing that I can breakeven at 50 nlz over a decent sample. But I can't beat 5nlz for the life of me, playing a a proper game.

I gave that up and stayed with STTSNG where I can win without effort, because the idea of studying PIO solver for hours on end, to improve my game, horrifies me.

I'd rather go fishing

There you are mate, the last 3 years of my experience on Stars for free...I'm done here (and I don't just mean ITM). Good luck

PS

@ PP

Give it up man, it's not for you. But GL anyway