Hello 2+2 community. I decided to start a thread to help keep me on track; to me more involved in the 2+2 community; to hopefully learn a bit more about poker; and ofc to have fun. I started grinding cash 25NL on Ignition around 11-1-17. These are my results below. I'm happy w/my game thus far this time around(played on and off over the last 4-5 years on Ignition), but I know I can do better.

Right now I'm on a 7 BI downswing at 50NL. 2.5 of those BI's I ran AK into AA, AA, and KK(short stack) pre. Some other run bad in there too, but I think I can attribute prob 3-4 BI's to playing like a fool. The past few days I've played too much. I stayed up late where the games can sometimes be very splashy and profitable, but past 1am I start to get tired and lose my patience and focus. Poker is enjoyable for me when I'm awake and on top of my game.

I plan on playing about 1.5K hands per week. I know it's a snail's pace, but it's what has been working for me over the past few months. Usually when I play more than that my game deteriorates and I neglect other important things in my life. My hope is to have a bankroll to play live somewhere in the second half of 2019. I intend to have fun along the way and improve. I've been looking over hands a lot more this time around and that's been enjoyable and helped my game.

I plan on providing updates IRT hands played, and money won/lost each Monday. For now my weeks will run Monday thru Sunday.

BR: 1440

I forgot to mention starting BR 1440.

Hey Ed, Kudos on starting a thread. I will be checking out your updates, as I am curious about the play on Ignition. I have been playing on ACR for about the past year myself. Best of luck to you!

Thanks! It's fairly soft, but different since it's anonymous.

Subbed, recently signed up for ignition have been grinding 25NLz, will probably be taking shots at 50NLz on weekends when there is more traffic.

Can I ask how are you tracking your hands? I have hm2 but havent found how I can export to track my results!

Good luck and post some HHs along the way.

Thanks! Will post HHs. You need Ignition hand converter to load them in to HM2. I've just been using DriveHUD tho the past few months, which as some of the same functions as HM2. I will prob start moving hands into HM2 tho, bc there's some things I'm not aware DriveHUD can do.

BR:1337 [B]Hands Played:[B]1500

Just noticed I played 1500 hands exactly since yesterday. I've pretty much been grinding w/every bit of free time. Pretty sick of playing for the time being. Seems like every time I get AA everyone folds pre. Then some spew monkey shows up w/the nuts when I have the second nuts or close to it. Well, this is just poker. There's all sorts of variance and stretches of run bad. I think I'm playing pretty ok. I strive to make mental and/or paper notes of mistakes.

Probably done for the week. Didn't anticipate hitting 1500 so soon. We'll see.

gl

^Thanks!

Played for about an hour. My game needs help. I made some big mistakes. Here's an example hand:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
HJ ($50.69)
CO ($31.75)
BTN ($73.03)
SB ($13.71)
HERO ($59.19)

Dealt to Hero 5 7

HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Raises To $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 71.53), SB Folds, HERO Calls $1 (Rem. Stack: 57.69)

Flop ($3.25) 7 A 3
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $1.62 (Rem. Stack: 69.91), HERO Calls $1.62 (Rem. Stack: 56.07)

Turn ($6.49) 7 A 3 T
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $3.24 (Rem. Stack: 66.67), HERO Calls $3.24 (Rem. Stack: 52.83)

River ($12.97) 7 A 3 T 5
HERO Bets $6.48 (Rem. Stack: 46.35), BTN Raises To $25 (Rem. Stack: 41.67), HERO Calls $18.52 (Rem. Stack: 27.83)

BTN shows 3 3

BTN wins $59.97

Villain's stats were 22/11/0 w/35% AGG% over 55 hands. I think that's why I called in the first place as I usually would just fold a small suited gapper from the blinds vs BTN open. But against a Villain who appears to mostly play fit-or-fold I prob thought I could outplay them post-flop, despite being oop. I think the flop call is ok w/middle pair. Unimproved ott tho I gotta just fold to a Villain who appears to not have much of a bluff range. They are not bluffing 2 sts; they have at least an A here I think.

The second big mistake (or third if calling pre in the first place is a mistake) is that I called the raise otr. A tight, pretty straight forward Villain is not bluffing here. Also, they are not raising worse. This is better 2 pair at minimum.

I've had the bad habit over the years of calling big raises otr in spots like this. In recent months I'd say I've improved in this area by at least 50%--that is folding in spots like this and then looking up the hand 24h later to see that I was beat.

What I need to do is develop the habit of folding here. If I make sure to look up ALL the hands I jot down (I take notes while playing) then I think I will be able to make these folds consistently.

Also, I plan on importing ALL hands into HM2 as that will help my game as well.

The downswing continued to the point that I was down 11 BI's when I started my sesh on Thursday. Played some 9-handed 50NL to mix it up. I hardly play 9-handed, but in my limited experience it's pretty soft. Very slow tho. Anyway, I was up ~2.5 BI's when this frustrating and (I think) interesting hand came up.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
CO ($121.34)
BTN ($9.75)
SB ($49.5)
HERO ($175.51)
UTG ($15.25)
MP ($96.13)
HJ ($14.5)

Dealt to Hero 5 4

UTG Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 14.75), MP Folds, HJ Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 14.0), CO Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 120.84), BTN Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 9.25), SB Calls $0.25 (Rem. Stack: 49.00), HERO Checks

Flop ($3.00) A K 9
SB Bets $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 47.50), HERO Calls $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 173.51), UTG Folds, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Raises To $9.25 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), SB Calls $7.75 (Rem. Stack: 39.75), HERO Folds

Turn ($23.00) A K 9 7

River ($23.00) A K 9 7 J

BTN shows K 9

SB shows 9 A

SB wins $21.85

I was poised to ship it, had my bet-amount slider to the max. I thought I had hit time bank. But no, timed out. I was both frustrated and relieved. I was up 2.5 BI's at that point and wanted to protect the win. I know that's terrible thinking IRT to being good at poker. But we have about 0% equity vs higher flushes. SB was 19/5/0 w/agg% 9 over 22 hands. In the end I think SB has about 9-12 combos of better flushes here. 18 combos of 2 pair. 3 combos of 99. They are prob raising AA and KK pre w/all the limpers. W/only 22 hands and that the player pool seems so fishy in general they are prob showing up w/AA and KK a small percentage of the time tho. Maybe some AQ w/Q.

Hero has the SS's range beat here. Only 4 hands on SS, but going by how SS play in general. Given how fishy the play seems at 9-handed (and 6-handed) in my bit of experience I think we can just gii here. Between the money in the pot already (and being confident we beat SS's range) and SB prob calling often enough w/2 pair, sets, and even hands w/Q I think it's +ev to just gii. I don't like calling bc I want to protect our equity in the hand. Min raise? Rather just gii to protect our equity and I think SB's calling range is pretty inelastic when it comes to calling a shove vs calling a min raise.

Another mistake hand:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
BTN ($50.84)
SB ($31.91)
BB ($50)
UTG ($103.08)
HJ ($31.67)
HERO ($50.75)

Dealt to Hero J J

UTG Raises To $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 101.58), HJ Folds, HERO Raises To $4.5 (Rem. Stack: 46.25), BTN Folds, SB Folds, BB Folds, UTG Calls $3 (Rem. Stack: 98.58)

Flop ($9.75) 8 2 7
UTG Checks, HERO Bets $5.33 (Rem. Stack: 40.92), UTG Raises To $15.16 (Rem. Stack: 83.42), HERO Raises To $40.92 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), UTG Calls $31.09 (Rem. Stack: 52.33)

Turn ($102.25) 8 2 7 T

River ($102.25) 8 2 7 T A

UTG shows K Q

UTG wins $98.25

Villain was 41/36/43/33agg% over 23 hands. So not a lot of hands on Villain, but look's like a solid player to me. In general it seems there's a lot of TAG type players. What I mean to say is that I sort of see 3 player types: 1) fish(thing about fish is that you still need to observe their patterns and determine where the holes in their game are); 2) TAGs; 3)Players who bet w/closer to correct frequencies. Anyway, back to the hand. I think this Villain has a tight range UTG. Prob: 22+, AK-ATo, AK-A2s, KQ-KJs, KQo, QJ-QTs, JTs. That even might be a little loose depending on V, but I think that's about right. Then when the flop raise comes in what's Villain's range? I don't think Villain has any pure bluffs here. So made flushes; sets; overpairs; and overcards w/A. Sets: 9 combos. Overpairs: 18 combos of QQ+, but Villain didn't 4B so let's say 6 combos. 12 combos of TT and 99, but I don't think Villain is always raising those as they are not that strong here. Made flushes: AKhh-A3hh 9 combos, KQhh-KThh 3 combos, QJhh-QThh 2 combos, JThh 1 combo. Naked Ace: AK-ATo 16 combos. Tho I actually don't think this V raises the naked ace here. Maybe AK and AQ w/A some of the time. W/o even stoving it it's a fold. This is mostly sets and made flushes vs this V.

BR: 1687

Hands Played: 3,326

+247

Played twice as many hands as I anticipated. I had actually mostly been 3 tabling 6-max, but the past few days I've felt pretty comfortable 4 tabling. I want to continue to jot down hands to look at in depth. The three I've posted so far--this is helping my game. Ran a lot better the second half of the week. The JJ hand is a big mistake. So are the other two. Other mistakes I made this week that I didn't post involve making a weird big bluff ott and river when my story and range don't add up. My range needs to make sense to thinking Villains. I know I am more likely to bluff catch when the betting line doesn't seem to add up.

Otherwise, I want to slow down when facing big bets in big pots. Use the time bank and carefully think about Villain's range.

I have 3 mistake hands that I will probably post tomorrow. Today I folded in a spot similar to the JJ hand. It was different tho bc board was 2-tone. But I raised flop inpos and V 3!. Hero folded. Will look up and analyze prior I think.

Here's sort of a interesting hand. It doesn't appear to be in my DriveHUD database so I have to do it manually:

Villain: 12 hands: 33/8/0. Started out as SS w/29.50. Doubled up a few hands prior w/set over set. Currently has 75 and we cover.

Villain limps UTG, Hero raises to 3.00 OTB.

Flop(6.42): KJT

Villain x, Hero bets 4.00, Villain takes 15 sec and raises to 12.00. Now Hero is thinking about how best to gii. Was about to raise to 25.00 and gii on most turns. Then I LOST MY CONNECTION!!

Variance takes many forms I guess. I gotta say I took it in stride pretty well. I had to jump back into every table. DriveHUD had locked up on a couple tables anyway. (Pretty annoying when this happens because it's easy to miss and therefore misread Villain's stats.) Finished my sesh up a BI.

^Forgot to say I had AQ

Mistake Hand 4:

Villain was 19/19/14/22

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
HJ ($61.7)
HERO ($54.49)
SB ($9.4)
BB ($48.75)
BB ($15)

Dealt to Hero 6 6

HJ Folds, HERO Raises To $2 (Rem. Stack: 52.49), SB Folds, BB Raises To $6.25 (Rem. Stack: 42.00), BB Checks, HERO Calls $4.75 (Rem. Stack: 47.74), BB Folds

Flop ($14.25) 9 6 J
BB Bets $12 (Rem. Stack: 30.00), HERO Calls $12 (Rem. Stack: 35.74)

Turn ($38.25) 9 6 J 9
BB Checks, HERO Bets $18.61 (Rem. Stack: 17.13), BB Folds

HERO wins $54.95

I question the call pre, but it seems like a call OTB vs a blind 3!. The mistake I want to point out is the turn bet. I think Villain C-Bets AK-AQ, maybe some AT in their range. Suited aces. KQ. I think QQ+ bet the turn. If an A, K, or Q come otr I think we could get more money in the pot otr if Villain hits. Villains seem to overcall when they hit otr. If a T comes KQ will make a straight. TT would make a FH that beats us, but it is clear that Villain would overwhelmingly improve to a hand that would be willing to get more money in the pot, but that loses to our FH. Also, I think Villain will hero call some given the line we take.

MH 5:

Villain was 10/10/0/0 over 21 hands.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
BTN ($65.2)
SB ($48.27)
HERO ($54.1)
CO ($73.66)

Dealt to Hero 9 J

CO Folds, BTN Raises To $1 (Rem. Stack: 64.2), SB Folds, HERO Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 53.1)

Flop ($2.25) Q 9 J
HERO Bets $2 (Rem. Stack: 51.1), BTN Calls $2 (Rem. Stack: 62.2)

Turn ($6.25) Q 9 J 4
HERO Bets $5.53 (Rem. Stack: 45.57), BTN Raises To $11.06 (Rem. Stack: 51.14), HERO Calls $5.53 (Rem. Stack: 40.04)

River ($28.37) Q 9 J 4 6
HERO Bets $3 (Rem. Stack: 37.04), BTN Raises To $18.68 (Rem. Stack: 32.46), HERO Calls $15.68 (Rem. Stack: 21.36)

BTN shows K T

BTN wins $62.73

Not many hands on Villain, still I think from this tight, seemingly non-aggressive Villain Hero can safely fold to the turn raise. If not that, definitely the river raise. Hero beats 12 combos total of AA and KK. Villain beats Hero with 16 combos of KT; 6 combos of QJ; 3 combos of QQ; 1 combo of JJ; 3 combos of 99; sometimes 4 combos of T8s; sometimes 3 combos of 44 (tho I think this Villain type often folds otf here). From this Villain type I don't even think they are raising AA and KK ott much as there's a lot of hands to worry about. Oh yeah, we tie with 4 combos of J9, but once again this Villain type I doubt is taking this line w/J9. It's going to be KT often. When it's not that it's still going to be something that beats Hero by far often enough to just fold prob ott. It goes back to the Villain type. Against a more aggressive Villain things would be different.

I just started playing 50NL on Ignition myself. Will be following with interest. GL

Thanks! GL to you!

Just did a short sesh. Wrote down some rules and guidelines beforehand on my note sheet. Made one really stupid mistake for prob 30bb. Had a set, the draw came in otr and I called. Villain had the flush. I made a similar mistake I think yesterday. I will prob post the hands. It's embarrassing, but the more I look at these hands the more they will be burned into my brain and the less often I will make this stupid mistake. I think in both cases raises to protect my equity are prob correct.

Otherwise the guidelines helped some. I mostly followed them. One of them was "Treat Villains' bets as value bets until I have info to suggest they have bluffs in their range."

Anyway, finished the sesh above 1800, which is where my BR was before the 11 BI downswing so that feels good.

MH6:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.25(BB)
BTN ($23.07)
SB ($27.83)
HERO ($25.02)
CO ($34.41)

Dealt to Hero A K

CO Calls $0.25 (Rem. Stack: 34.16), BTN Calls $0.25 (Rem. Stack: 22.82), SB Folds, HERO Raises To $1.00 (Rem. Stack: 23.77), CO Calls $1 (Rem. Stack: 33.16), BTN Calls $1 (Rem. Stack: 21.82)

Flop ($3.85) K 2 8
HERO Checks, CO Checks, BTN Bets $2.84 (Rem. Stack: 18.98), HERO Calls $2.84 (Rem. Stack: 20.93), CO Folds

Turn ($9.53) K 2 8 9
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $6.59 (Rem. Stack: 12.39), HERO Calls $6.59 (Rem. Stack: 14.34)

River ($22.71) K 2 8 9 8
HERO Checks, BTN Bets $12.39 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), HERO Calls $12.39 (Rem. Stack: 1.95)

BTN shows 9 T

BTN wins $46.49

MH7:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
BB ($108.83)
UTG ($71)
HJ ($80.6)
CO ($50.75)
BTN ($63.16)
HERO ($51.75)

Dealt to Hero 2 2

UTG Folds, HJ Raises To $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 79.1), CO Folds, BTN Folds, HERO Calls $1.25 (Rem. Stack: 50.25), BB Calls $1 (Rem. Stack: 107.33)

Flop ($4.50) K A 2
HERO Checks, BB Bets $2.25 (Rem. Stack: 105.08), HJ Folds, HERO Calls $2.25 (Rem. Stack: 48.00)

Turn ($9.00) K A 2 5
HERO Checks, BB Bets $4.5 (Rem. Stack: 100.58), HERO Calls $4.5 (Rem. Stack: 43.50)

River ($18.00) K A 2 5 3
HERO Checks, BB Bets $13 (Rem. Stack: 87.58), HERO Calls $13 (Rem. Stack: 30.50)

BB shows 7 J

BB wins $41.8

I don't know Villains' stats, but I do remember having a read on both Villains that they would play draws this way. I think both hands gotta raise flop to protect our equity and there's so much that would still call. Gotta get $ in while we are ahead. I think the river call in MH6 is a big mistake as played. I think the turn call is ok in MH7 given we prob have ~10 outs or about 3.4:1 and are getting 3:1. The river call in hand 2 is lighting money on fire.

MH8:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
BTN ($47.19)
SB ($16.65)
BB ($13.52)
HJ ($57.49)
HERO ($58.92)

Dealt to Hero T T

HJ Folds, HERO Raises To $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 57.42), BTN Folds, SB Calls $1.25 (Rem. Stack: 15.15), BB Calls $1 (Rem. Stack: 12.02)

Flop ($4.50) 2 8 6
SB Bets $1 (Rem. Stack: 14.15), BB Folds, HERO Raises To $2 (Rem. Stack: 55.42), SB Raises To $14.15 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), HERO Folds

SB wins $21.23



Villain's line seemed weird w/the 1.00 bet otf and then the shove. If Villain had x-shoved over Hero's bet I would have insta-called. So the weird line tripped me up and I started worrying about hands that have TT crushed. Then I gave Villain a range in Flopzilla and there's just so many draw combos among even A8o here that it was about 50:50 with the range I gave Villain. I didn't even put K8s in Villain's range then. So w/the dead money it was a call at 50/50 and then with an even wider range we're slightly ahead and it's a call.

Its a snap call and its not even close. GL with your goals Ed

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
BTN ($49.78)
SB ($49.5)
BB ($114.07)
HERO ($50)
HJ ($20.53)
CO ($49.25)

Dealt to Hero J J

HERO Raises To $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 48.5), HJ Folds, CO Raises To $4.5 (Rem. Stack: 44.75), BTN Folds, SB Folds, BB Folds, HERO Calls $3 (Rem. Stack: 45.5)

Flop ($9.75) 2 6 8
HERO Checks, CO Bets $4.87 (Rem. Stack: 39.88), HERO Calls $4.87 (Rem. Stack: 40.63)

Turn ($19.49) 2 6 8 6
HERO Checks, CO Bets $9.74 (Rem. Stack: 30.14), HERO Raises To $40.63 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), CO Calls $30.14 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00)

River ($100.00) 2 6 8 6 3

CO shows K K

HERO wins $0.75
CO wins $95.25

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $0.50(BB)
HERO ($50)
SB ($59.86)
BB ($49.5)
HJ ($34.5)
CO ($55.33)

Dealt to Hero T T

HJ Folds, CO Calls $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 54.83), HERO Raises To $2 (Rem. Stack: 48), SB Folds, BB Folds, CO Calls $1.5 (Rem. Stack: 53.33)

Flop ($4.75) 6 4 8
CO Checks, HERO Bets $2 (Rem. Stack: 46), CO Raises To $10.75 (Rem. Stack: 42.58), HERO Calls $8.75 (Rem. Stack: 37.25)

Turn ($26.25) 6 4 8 3
CO Bets $16.75 (Rem. Stack: 25.83), HERO Raises To $37.25 (allin) (Rem. Stack: 0.00), CO Calls $20.5 (Rem. Stack: 5.33)

River ($100.75) 6 4 8 3 4

CO shows 8 5

HERO wins $97.75

Two hands, similar but different. Villains unknowns in both hands. I see some reasons to fold ott in the 1st hand. The TT hand happened shortly after the JJ hand. I used my time bank and thought about it. Hand 1: the combination of the 3! pre, and the sizing otf and ott I think make it a fold. My argument to call was that Villains are more bluffy at 12am than 10am. Hand 2 reasons to gii: limper, sizing.

Played just under 10k hands in February, mostly 50NL. Won 6BI at 50NL, lost 1BI at 25NL. I've been playing more hands per wk than I anticipated tho I have been using some vacation days recently. No real goals for March. Just want to maintain the track I've been on. I think I'm improving little by little.