I've decided to start a pgc after reading these forums on and off about a year. I have also roughly played online poker for the same time, maybe a little bit longer.

I'm studying in University but at the moment we got a summer holiday so I'm working 8 hours a day excluding weekends. I also have a girlfriend and I have started working out again. Summer is obviously good time to hang out with friends so those will limit my poker time.

All my studying of poker has purely been reading these forums so I would like to take a step further. My work is not the most intense one so I have started reading The Mental Game of Poker at work while I got time. Anyone got any suggestions for how to help analyze my played hands or study otherwise? Not really sure where to start.

I will skip NL2 and start from NL5. I'm mainly going to play regular 6max cash tables but I dont want to limit myself so I might play some zoom from time to time. If I find time to play MTTs I might take an occasional shot at them.

For the start I'm setting myself a goal of 8000 hands/week in cash tables. Not setting any workout goals here but I'm trying to workout 5-6 times/week. I will also be posting some hands and graphs here every once in a while, might also post some of the same and/or extra hands in the Micro NL forum to get some feedback of my played hands.

GL to everyone in and out of the tables!

Well the first session didnt really go as I planned, down 3 BI


These three hands right after each other after around 1000 hands started to tilt me a bit


Just a bad luck



Villain was 25/20/16 in 120 hands, can I blame bad luck here or is there a way to find a fold here especially vs villain 3betting so much? He can have so many Ax hands



I wanted to keep Jx hands in the pot OTF with the sizing, its 3way so now when Im thinking I probably should just bet more OTF? Now when I'm thinking button probably wont raise many Jx hands otf since the board is so dry and so he is more likely to call so a raise here is often a set or overpair?



Then a hand I thought I would not post here as im embarassed about this one but I cant run away from my mistakes, I need to face them. Villain was real fish - 70 hands and he was running 70/10/5. Preflop I thought I wont go big as I had been really aggro towards him so I decided to look weak(fishy). OTF I was hoping for him to bet and decided to check, OTT decided to bet due to FD - obviously should had bet more here. Few hands before he called me otr with A high on a AQ64T rainbow board so I thought I should go for value again.



Also lost a AKs vs QQ preflop AI but those are close anyways.

Some conclusions from the first session:
- I lost to fishes by trying to play fancy, got to stop it and be aggro and value heavy vs them I suppose.
- On the other hand vs reg(ish) villains I think I did fine
- Cardmatch took quite long to complete, thinking of playing zoom first to complete it and then move to regular tables, cardmatch is free $ after all.

Now time to hit the gym!

Hands 1 and 2 seem fine.

Hand 3, I'd bet larger on the flop in a multi-way pot as you said. I think you have to get it in at 5NL, depends on the villain type but he can still have so many AJ/KJ/QJ combos as well as random 45s hands that spazz out. Obv he has sets there as well, but I think you're ahead of a lot more combos than you're behind against.

Hand 4, villains stats seem very loose/passive. I'd be 4betting larger pre, and I'd be betting big on the flop and turn, expecting him to come along with some Qx and possibly AJ/KJ/JTs combos, as well as the KT/AK hands. As played, I probably bet slightly smaller for thin value on the river. UL the boat got there and lol @ them flat calling the nuts.

I'm playing the micros as well, and have recently moved to zoom purely from a volume standpoint. I'm also struggling with study methods, feel free to PM me if you want to exchange Skype details and talk about the game together.

Sub'd. glglgl

Thanks! I will send you a PM soon!

Played a bit of zoom yesterday evening and tomorrow I had a long (at least for me) session in zoom tables. The start was plain horrible and made on tilt call FH over FH where I knew Im behind 100% of the time. After 250 to session I had to take a break and make a cup of coffee to clear my thoughts. After that I played pretty good I think, just couldnt get the EV line on the positive but I was still happy I was able to grind it despite it being down 4BIs in 250 hands lol


Some hands

h1

Villain totally unknown. Really think I just have to fold here? Villain has all AA, KK, QQ (which I block though) and AK hands in his range so Im behind most of the time here I suppose, wierd hand


h2

Again unknown villain, is the fold too tight? How about pre, should I just flat vs UTG? Villain has so many FD hands in his range as well as some made 2p and overpairs that beat me, big bet size looks like he is trying to get me off the hand with probably overpair or something?



h3

vs fish, nothing to say here apart that I didnt feel any tilt which is a great sign!



Im already at 6,2k hands so Im gonna crush the 8k hands. Didnt think I would play this much zoom so that has helped me as well as gf having different work shifts than me so I had time to play. Might even play a short session this evening.

Played ~1k hands and lost 1,5bi. Went a bit through my database and found an interesting thing

better stop playing aces

I couldnt get much volume during end of last week and weekend. Think I a lost a buy-in or two. BUT I made the most +EV decision so far by subscribing to RIO and bought the essential plan. I have watched few videos and it has really widened my approach of thinking while playing. I have been playing only zoom now and I decided to go from 4 tables to 3 tables, obviously less hands now but higher quality.

A funny hand along the way

Haven't updated this for a while because I simply havent had much time to play. I feel I have played quite good until the first bad beat/cooler of the session and after that I have turned really aggro and bluffy. I feel like I havent run really good here though..

Few gross hands:

1.


2.

Maybe a questionable preflop but villain was 42/17/11 and f3b 88% in 142 hands



H3.



H4.



I have been reading the mental game of poker and I feel like Im getting something out of it and Im not tilting that bad anymore and I can move on from bad beats / mistakes. Time to watch RIO vids, gl all!

Play 2NL, dont skip it, in poker try everything but the shortcut, use the opportunity to play that level and learn a lot, Im just about to turn 50nl and I was no shame to learn from the bottom.

GL

Thanks! I have actually been thinking of playing NL2 for a while to learn with a cheaper price.

Is anyone using starshelper to convert stacks to BBs? Sometimes I find myself thinking that its only a 5$ so whatever so thats a leak I must plug and thats what first popped up in google. Is there any free software to do so?

Also played two sessions today - was able to get more volume than in like last week, ended first session to a cooler which made me feel tilt is coming so decided to hit the gym. After gym played a new shorter session which I ended to a basic all-in preflop AKs v AA and decided to call it a day.

Day


Gonna post some hands here.

H1.
This one made me stop the first session.


H2.

Not sure if this is a spew or not but I remember reading its not if it works. BTN is a fish and SB is a reg who I expect to raise the fish quite often so I decide to flat pre. OTT I think he can bet all of his Kx and Qx as well as FDs. River is a brick so I decided to jam because I just had a feeling he isnt very strong here.



H3

Villain here was unknown. Thought about 4-betting pre and would have probably done so if it was vs BB. I think he is flatting lots of pocket pairs from sb so didnt think he has a set. Since he decided to bet quite big I decided to raise because I believe he is cbetting with every hand and he has many suited hands there and I got the nutFD so its gonna be a really tight one although he might block some aces there.

Played a session today and decided to quit it since I started to feel I cant concentrate 100% and felt I started to widen my ranges due to that. Anyways the session went good and I 4 tabled the session.



Some hands from the session, dont think there were any that fancy hands.

H1.



H2.



Now off to gym and hoping to get some study in at the evening.

Starshelper is a $35 one time fee and StarsCaption is $24 yearly. Definitely recommend using one of them, they have lots of useful features. I think both have free trials for a limited period.

GL, subbed!

Thanks! Didnt have time yet to try out either of those but I definately will! I have been busy irl so havent had time to play poker, have studied a bit though.

Just finished a session, I think my mental game is getting better and my thinking and putting people to ranges is also getting better. I feel I bluff too much, people calling 3 barrels with third pair is just sick lol


A question about EV, why is HEM2 saying this is -EV and in long run im losing money here, my brain doesnt get how EV is calculated here. This is quite std I suppose?





Might have time to play more today, at least going to study a bit!