At some point I played poker somewhat well, presumably. I've studied thousands of hours with PIO and runitonce videos at this point. But, frankly, I've been playing like dog **** recently. I've been too concerned with winning pots as opposed to play good poker, which spirals into me playing worse and worse. My goal here is to turn that around.

I'm going back to the ground floor and playing micro stakes NL. I'm starting at 25NL. I'll move up and/or down if I feel like I'm winning or losing at the stake, without particularly much regard for BRM. I'm not busto, but I've been playing so bad I need to go back and force myself to work on my game.

I'll be building my roll the old fashion way (by working) and rebuilding my skills at the microstakes.

Started earlier this week. Here's the results so far over the tiny sample.

Nice results mate, what sites do you play on ?

Thanks bud. I'm playing on Ignition and ACR, since I'm in the US. Would love to play elsewhere, but this is all I've got for now. :/

Haven't been able to play many hands so far this week. Been working and had family visit yesterday (which was nice, got out to the beach which is rare for me).

Probably will put in some volume tomorrow, although some of that might be small stakes tourneys too. Haven't really decided if I want to include those or not in this challenge.

Here's a random, uninteresting hand.

Ignition- $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 88.52 BB
CO: 98.6 BB
BTN: 93.12 BB
SB: 188.04 BB
Hero (BB): 123.4 BB
UTG: 89 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has T A

fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, BTN calls 3 BB, SB calls 2.6 BB, Hero raises to 15 BB, CO calls 12 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (36 BB, 2 players) 3 J 5
Hero bets 11 BB, CO calls 11 BB

Turn: (58 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero bets 97.4 BB, fold

Hero mucks T A (High Card, Ace)

Hero wins 152.52 BB


-----

I gave him a range of something like this after peeling the squeeze:
AxQx-Ax9x,AxQy,KxQx-KxTx,QxJx,QxTx,JJ-66,JxTx,Tx9x,9x8x,8x7x,7x6x,6x5x

And I think a flop call range might be constructed something like this by default:
AxJx, KsQs,QxJx,JJ-66,JxTx,Ts9s,9s8s,8s7s,7x6x,6x5x

That gives him a call a little over 50% of the time, which means a small cbet is pretty much printing here.

On the turn, I think he's going to go with it with these hands for sure:
66,JJ,AxJx, JxTx, JxQx,7s8s,5x6x

And these hands maybe:
(AxJx, KsQs,QxJx,JJ-66,JxTx,Ts9s,9s8s,8s7s,7s6s,6x5x):ss,66,JJ,AxJx, JxTx, JxQx,7s8s,5x6x

If he's only calling with the first group, then it's winning to jam with anything. The second group actually pushes us negative to jam with any two. So he's pretty close to MDF by "default" here. That makes me like this jam size quite a lot as a default size on this board.

Additionally, AsTs has about 24% equity even against the tight range. Against the loose range it's 30%. So we capture a good amount of the pot even against a call. Note that we have about 30% against the flop call range as well, since so much our equity is just dependent on hitting the ace or flush. I definitely think betting is the better play than checking here too.

Something I'm working on: actually comparing lines to think about what is best.

I find myself commonly thinking something like "this is a 1/3 of the pot spot" or "overbet spot" and my default is to not give it any more thought and do it. I think that's probably still profitable because those spots are that way for a reason. However, I'm trying now to make myself have at least a second thought and consider the merits of other lines.

Best value bet of all time?

iPoker - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 80.08 BB
SB: 182.16 BB
Hero (BB): 300.84 BB
UTG: 134.36 BB
MP: 98.6 BB
CO: 100.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 6 T

fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 1 BB, fold, Hero checks

Flop: (2.4 BB, 2 players) J 3 4
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (2.4 BB, 2 players) Q
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (2.4 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 1.16 BB, BTN calls 1.16 BB

Hero shows 6 T (One Pair, Jacks)

Hero wins 4.52 BB

lol

Alright, I'm up to 5k hands after just about 1 week of playing this 25NL stake (my volume is never going to be particularly good as a non-pro).

I'm definitely feeling pretty good about my play so far. I'm finding lots of good spots to exploit the pool of players (mainly due to their passivity) and forcing myself to consider my decisions. This has been very helpful to me. I think a second thought in many standard spots is worth it (even if you often do go with the standard line).

I'll continue to work on avoiding too much "win this pot" mentality and tried to play a solid game based on what I see.

Here's the stats so far (I'm officially runnin' hot since I passed up my EV line):



No idea how many hands I'll play at 25NL. I didn't think that through particularly well...

I've noticed a couple of leaks (of mine) so far playing this low stakes game.

(1) I'm not floating the flop often enough. I think I occasionally default to an ABC type strategy which obviously folds way too often. Looking back I see spots where I definitely could have floated but didn't.

I need to be more conscious facing cbets in small pots.

(2) I'm playing a bit too timid with value bets on the river. I see plenty of spots I could have fired a third barrel but elected not to. I think this is just a mental game leak in a big pot. I need to consciously think about villains range and what his calling range looks rather than just defaulting to two streets being good.

(1) is kinda funny because leaktracker says fold to flop bet is a little low. Not sure I trust leaktracker's analysis there.

Here was a pretty interesting hand I played today.
Bovada/Ignition - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

SB: 100 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 86.36 BB
MP: 133.16 BB
CO: 99 BB
BTN: 99.44 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J A

UTG calls 1 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 5 BB, UTG calls 4 BB

Flop: (10.4 BB, 2 players) Q Q 5
Hero bets 2.92 BB, UTG calls 2.92 BB

Turn: (16.24 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: (16.24 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, UTG bets 9.12 BB, Hero ??

Thoughts?

Here's what I was thinking in while I played: I suspect most people will float this flop very wide and then have a very narrow value range once the turn goes xx. Most people are playing somewhat timid and just want to showdown things like 66-TT here. He has whatever 5x he limp called pre at basically full frequency. Then he has all of his random cards. I didn't actually do too much of an accurate count because who knows exactly what's in a limping range, but I really suspect this is going to be overbluffed.

Seems a bit weak from me. Wonder what others think.



I think I have the best hand really frequently after turn xx. He should have a lot of 66-99 and maybe some strong-ish Ax that decided it wanted to just take it's showdown value. Leading river seems pretty good to take advantage of those hands. I think most of his pure bluffs with no showdown value continue firing on the T (like any two medium cards will still fire). Additionally most of his hands that connect with the J will have continued firing, except maybe a hand like AJ.