I have a study session with a discord GTO+ study group this afternoon, then afterwards I'm going to start the second week of A game poker masterclass. I was super happy with the first week. After I do that I'll probably review my hands from yesterday and then play.

I started a BUvsBB 1755 flop DB in GTO+ last monday. So far 268 solved, running it 8-14 hours per day. Should finish it mid-late September, but hopefully by then it'll be cold enough at night that I can run it 24/7 and speed it up. Not sure what DB I want to solve next, maybe a 3bet pot spot or BVB or start working through CO-UTGvsBB.

Also thought I would share my results in the stars homegame from the free bar league I played in before COVID. I obviously have a massive edge in this field, and have done well. Unfortunately a while back they switched to 5 minute blinds for most tourneys, as they were going until 12-2am. I had a way bigger adv at 10 min levels as with 3-4 paid, the stacks were still 25-50bb on avg on the bubble as opposed to 10-25bb now, which adds more variance. I haven't played much recently due to the lower blind lengths but I might start playing more.

Although there is obviously some rungood, I haven't been without my share of suckouts and bubble busts in this pool. Having so many hands on these weaker players, I have good reads on their sizing tells and that makes playing postflop in deeper spots very straightforward.



All buyins either $5, $11 or $22.

Solid day yesterday (results wise, though important to not let this become the metric) on the tables. 2BIs won at 10z and $90 cash in the home game, finishing 2/14. Always like getting the scores there as they're mainly the reason my BR is what it is.

A couple interesting cash hands facing river bets:

The first hand is a weird river spot. Preflop I think is standard, though I hate going MW. In hindsight maybe I should iso raise to 5bb or 6bb. Flop I don't see much of a reason to bet, and I generally do a lot of checking multiway unless I have an incentivize to bet. Turn is an easy call with the FD I pickup. The 1bb sizing is suspect. River is super weird. No reads on V. After he minbets turn then ovebets into 4 people, I have to think it is a 6. Bluffing doesn't make sense here, so surely I have to fold this Tptk? Is anyone calling here?


PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 121.4 BB
SB: 100.9 BB
BB: 135.7 BB
UTG: 85.4 BB
MP: 144.8 BB
CO: 104.8 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has A T

UTG calls 1 BB, fold, CO calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 4 BB, fold, BB calls 3 BB, UTG calls 3 BB, CO calls 3 BB

Flop: (17.1 BB, 4 players) 6 6 8
BB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Hero checks

Turn: (17.1 BB, 4 players) 2
BB checks, UTG bets 1 BB, CO calls 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB, BB calls 1 BB

River: (21.1 BB, 4 players) T
BB checks, UTG bets 25 BB, fold, fold, fold

UTG wins 20.2 BB


The second villain here is 26/18 over 160 hands. Looks weakregish maybe? This is a tough spot. Hard to range SB calls, but I don't think he hits this board well save sets and some straight draws. Betting big here for protection from overs makes sense, and I'd think a solver prefers the large size here as range-betting seems counter intuitive. The turn here is super weird. I don't want to fold with an overpair on this board often. I guess he can have A4s, but other than that I don't see many 4x except quads. I suppose he has 99 that turned the set. River is really weird and was a tough decision. Ultimately, I just didn't buy his line and felt that his calling range did not hit that board well enough. Definitely think this may have been a questionable call.

PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 110.5 BB
SB: 113.9 BB
BB: 144.1 BB
UTG: 142.9 BB
Hero (MP): 100 BB
CO: 112.9 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has J J

fold, Hero raises to 2.8 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 2.3 BB, fold

Flop: (7.2 BB, 2 players) 4 3 9
SB checks, Hero bets 5.2 BB, SB calls 5.2 BB

Turn: (17.6 BB, 2 players) 4
SB checks, Hero bets 12.6 BB, SB raises to 25.2 BB, Hero calls 12.6 BB

River: (68 BB, 2 players) Q
SB bets 32.4 BB, Hero...?

Nice, looks great man

I've never seen a keyboard like that, how is it better for you than a normal one?

River is the easiest street of the hand! If he had a strong hand he'd jam for sure - and that's all there is to it. WP!

I can't really explain it, but the info on this page might provide better insight. I have DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis in my wrists which causes pain through the thumb side of the forearm.

https://kinesis-ergo.com/solutions/k...ain%20injuries.

Hey guys!

Haven't got much volume in the past couple days but getting back to it today.

Good news though, got the third monitor of the grindstation hooked up!

Frustrating couple days. Losing session yesterday and winning session today. Both days I felt like I was playing very poorly and a lot of poor decisions. Mainly poor play than variance.

Going to get back in the lab tomorrow! Lots of hands to review and areas to improve.

Why do you think you played poorly? Focus or just lots of spots you don't know what to do in?

I can't exactly pinpoint it, but I'd say getting stuck in thought processes when making decisions. Sometimes I'll get married to one idea (ex. Villain is an aggrofish and checked turn, so he must not have X or Y strong hand) and then not consider other factors and make poor decisions.

I'd being doing better at not doing that recently but the last two nights I've done it a ton.

I think now is a good time to post an updated graph of this stake on just take stock of things.

Evidently, from this graph, ignoring the downswing from ~21k hands to 31k hands, it is likely I am not beating this stake. Outside that period I've pretty much been at breakeven, so I can't say that it is just variance or one downswing.

For me it is important to be honest with myself and see things as they are.

I think I likely have a -2bb/100 to 3bb/100 winrate at this stake, and that range of winrate is subject to such a massive amount of variance.

However, I think when playing my best, my WR is between 5bb-10bb. The problem being that I think mistakes and errors in big pots often is costing me a lot.

In general, I feel my game is better than ever, and I'm working hard to improve it. There are still tons (the majority) of spots where I am not confident in what is theoretically right or my decisions, but I am working to patch them.

I have considered moving down stakes, but I don't think that makes sense right now for couple reasons. First, I still have 60BI for 10z (with most of that being winnings from my homegame). Second, and most importantly, I think this pool is likely tougher than 5z. The ante has brought a ton of fish and shortstackers into it. I think it is still very soft, and when I look at the amount of fish, I think I should be crushing it. Though it is likely I'm overestimating my edge/skill.

Thoughts or input are appreciated!

This is something that happens to me a lot still too. Like my brain will get stuck on one of the 5 relatively unimportant datapoints when the only actually important thing to be focussing on when bluff catching this spot is the fact that no one bluffs for this small sizing (or whatever the data point is).

I think just playing more volume leads to less of this happening because your brain subconsciously gets a better feel for what's relevant/important when grinding lots of spots.

How long have you been playing online poker for? What things have you done in the past to work on your game?

I'm glad to know that it isn't just me who has these weird brain farts. I've been thinking a lot lately about putting some time and focus into developing my thought processes used in game off the tables. Given that online poker decisions have to be made in 8 to 10 seconds, or 30 to 60 seconds with time bank, I think it's logical to reason out the best way to utilize this limited time with maximum efficiency. There are so many things to consider and I think it's really easy to overlook one or two or focused too much on one. I know one consideration I often overlook is effective stack sizes, which often results in me playing pots again shorthanded players where I don't realize their not fully stacked until the flop.

With regards my poker background, I started to take poker more seriously than just the occasional home game in November 2016 when a roommate played casually but somewhat seriously on poker stars. I played on and off since then, having put in some amount of volume in 30 months according to my poker tracker 4 database.

Until building my own computer in March, I was always playing on a small MacBook Air which kind of restricted the amount of poker software I was able to use. I studied and learned the game a bit on my own reading several books and having a brief subscription to run it once. However throughout this whole time, studying and learning the game off the table, felt like a chore I force myself to do and I always just wanted to play. I never felt like I was really understanding the game well, especially post-flop, and it was largely just clicking buttons.

Building my own computer and getting access to a solver has really allowed me to start to actually understand the game. But there is so much information to learn and understand it's hard to process it all and then effectively be able to implement it, especially when you only have 10 seconds to 60 seconds in game to actually make a logically sound decision, whether it's based on my best understanding of GTO theory in that spot, or my best attempt to exploit the pool or player in the spot.

I beat 2nlz for 11bb/100 over 25k hands in May 2019, though admittedly I ran above EV there, so likely my win rate is actually between 3-8bb/100 there. I have 73k hands at 5nlz between June 20 19th and November 2019, through most of which I was basically breakeven but that ultimately ended with a downswing and losing right when I stopped playing in November 2019. I stopped playing at that point, mainly because ergonomic issues were making computer use difficult, but also so to some extent the downswing played a point.

I don't know if this answers your question, but basically I've been starting from scratch and learning from poker since I build my own computer and got a solver this March, but I feel like I'm understanding it better than ever, especially pre-flop. I feel like with a solver and some courses I'm really starting to understand post-flop, but pre-flop I'm really starting to actually get a fundamentally sound understanding of the game and I actually feel confident in my pre-flop decisions and a lot of spots, except maybe multiway the spots are very tough.

A couple interesting hands from my last session.

H1:

This is an odd spot. I've done some thinking and reading about how to play against players who cold call in position the micro stakes. Obviously the vast majority of theory and solved ranges sages to play three bet or fold strategy due to rake. So I automatically think players playing this strategy strategy are probably weaker rags. Though obviously in some spots it's okay to start forming a small BU calling range so I should probably be careful in making this read.

Looking at the standard types of calling ranges people seem to have in position verse opens it seems to be a sort of merged range that excludes the true premiums that one of three bet for value but also tends to exclude the bottom chunk of ranges for most people, I think probably sixes and above for most solid reg's here. Something like (77-JJ@ unknown frequency, some collection of off student suited Broadways, and some collection of suited connectors)

This board seems to connect well with that range I think he can have a lot of Qx and Jx here as well as a bunch of straight draws a flush draws. In a lot of situations, such as BUvsBB SRP, this hand is a super easy call with a gutter and the backdoor flush draw, but given his size of 77% pot in my lack of position, I think I'm likely a spot here where I'm only drawing to four life outs and backdoor equity, so I think this is a fold. Against the sizing of half pot or less I think I start calling this at some frequency.

PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 296 BB
SB: 102.5 BB
BB: 111.4 BB
UTG: 112.1 BB
MP: 65.3 BB
Hero (CO): 105.2 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has 9 8

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.8 BB, BTN raises to 8.6 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 5.8 BB

Flop: (19.3 BB, 2 players) 2 Q J
Hero checks, BTN bets 15 BB, fold

BTN wins 18.4 BB

H2:

This is a really weird hand. I only have 10 hands on villain, but he is playing 44/0 over those 10 hands. I know it's obviously not enough of the sample size to draw any conclusion, but the fact that over 10 hands he hasn't PFR'ed once, leans me to believe he's probably not a super solid reg, or at the very least some degree or fish, which played into my decision to make what I think was an exploitative fold.

Looking at a database I'm currently solving BUvsBB, KJJr is largely a range bet with the smaller sizing ( I use 33%, 66% IPvsBB OTF). Although this hand is COvsBB and he is likely official is probably not playing of big blind range similar to the one I've solved for, the spot is likely pretty close to a small range bet for IP given the sheer advantage this flop would have for IP.

I think I exploitatively decided to size up against this player thinking I could get him to call a lot worse. Things get really weird when he check raises. Obviously, in theory, paired boards are high-frequency check raises. However, I'm not sure what frequency he should be check raising a board where he is at such a range and equity disadvantage given that both parts of the flop are high. Unfortunately my Sim doesn't apply here as the database is not entirely solved and if I node lock it, it might mess up the rest of it.


However, I simply can fold such a good hand here even though I think this, what appears to be a fish, is only doing this for value. If used during this with any straight draws I have to call.

On the turn I'm not sure exactly what a solver would say, but I'm inclined to think it would call at some frequency given that I'm both blocking his Jx combos and his straight combos and I also have an open-ended myself. However given that he goes for the jam, I think exploitatively choose at fold is probably the best decision here.

PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 411.7 BB
SB: 100.6 BB
BB: 101.2 BB
UTG: 99.2 BB
MP: 102.4 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has K Q

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.8 BB, fold, fold, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero calls 5.2 BB

Flop: (17.1 BB, 2 players) J J K
BB checks, Hero bets 10.8 BB, BB raises to 31 BB, Hero calls 20.2 BB

Turn: (79.1 BB, 2 players) T
BB bets 62.1 BB and is all-in, fold

BB wins 75.5 BB

H1 - Fold is fine, you've got 3 clean outs and will have to see a river to realise your bdfd equity of which might be a bit of a stretch to do.

H2 - I'm confused, BB's nut advantage may have been eroded somewhat with both having Jx, and equities running closer, surely BB still a slight equity advantage though?
Regardless, I think you have to look at it as to how you would play this in a vacuum. KQ is doubtful to get 3 streets of value, doesn't really need protection either, so I think checking back flop is best to protect that part of your range.
AP I would fold turn.

*Would love to know what smarter minds than me think on this however^!

H1 looks good, H2 should bet flop smaller, but as played it's fine

Hand 1 I think is a fold vs basically any size. Your gutter is not a clean out.

hand 2 We don't have 3 streets of value and don't need any protection, happy to check this one back. Don't think we can call flop raise blocking bluffs / don't play well across any turns

Subbed good luck dude!

I’m a big theory study guy too, hope to see and exchange some good stuff.

Thanks man. I'm happy to have you here in the thread.

Since I haven't really explained my study processes, I'll give a rough breakdown.

I'm in two different study groups in discord servers, one focuses generally on no limit hold 'em play, while the other is strictly solver/theory study in GTO plus. In addition to these I've been working through the Kanu7 course and I found that has really helped me start to actually understand the game on a theoretical level, although the course is so information dense I largely find what I am doing is understanding things and then through playing around in GTO I start to see when those concepts apply or don't apply.

I supplement this by doing hand reviews of marked hands from every session, usually between 10 and 20 hands per session. My sessions are usually 4 to 6 days a week and typically between 500-100 10z hands. I'd love to be putting in more volume and go back from two tables to three tables, but I just find that I really need to think in a lot of spots and I don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity.

In addition to this, I'm also working through a mental game course. I feel like the edges that can be found in having a mental edge in both poker and life are very underappreciated.

Obviously all of this combined takes up a lot of time, so I'm not getting through all this theory incredibly quickly. However that is okay with me, as I think it is important to make sure I'm actually understanding and implementing improperly as difficult as that is.

Another site someone had linked me that I think is really cool and so far the theory and guides posted seem to be aligning with what I've studied is insider poker. https://insiderpoker.com/

Here is another interesting spot out of position versus a cold caller. Depending on the ranges you use 65s can be everywhere from a single digit percentage open in cut off to a pure open. Personally I tend to mix based on the players behind and try to open smaller suited connectors in late position primarily when there is a weak player in the blinds. In this hand I believe I was targeting the small blind, but I got a call from button who is 23/14 over 75 hands, so likely a weaker reg or reg fish.

This is an interesting flop because it's obviously solid for my hand, but not amazing for my range, given that I don't open too many suited connectors in cut off generally. I think a weak reg has a bunch of off suit and suited Jx broadways as well as a mix of suited connectors that have some kind of straight draw or backdoor straight draw on this flop.

I like checking here because I would prefer to see the next card and try to realize equity for free, but I think check raising here is actually quite solid given my hand and the board. I'm honestly not entirely sure about my sizing that I picked for the check raise.

Turn I think makes a lot of sense to me to check, as I'm not likely check raising many Jx, but he is obviously calling the vast majority of his.

River, I think is relatively straightforward his sizing screams a ton of jacks. I think he can obviously have some busted straight draws and flush draws, but given that we're blocking a bunch of those combos, I think this hand isn't ideal to bluff catch.

PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 100 BB
SB: 136.2 BB
BB: 127.4 BB
UTG: 147.8 BB
MP: 130.9 BB
Hero (CO): 100 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has 6 5

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.8 BB, BTN calls 2.8 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.7 BB, 2 players) J 7 5
Hero checks, BTN bets 5 BB, Hero raises to 13.7 BB, BTN calls 8.7 BB

Turn: (35.1 BB, 2 players) J
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (35.1 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, BTN bets 22.4 BB, fold

BTN wins 33.5 BB

You are right about flop being pretty bad for your range and you should be checking a lot if not range checking.

That said a x/r makes sense with a lot of good hands like Jx/overpairs/sets. Obviously most of these mixed between raise and call.

It also makes sense to x/r this specific combo, even though it's probably mixed.

Sizing is pretty bad. I don't mind a smaller sizing but this is just too small. Should make it 3x atleast IMO. Don't think we raise for protection too often here so a bigger sizing makes a little more sense than if flop was T or 9 high.

Turn check is fine, can also bet some %. Villan has plenty of Jx and your overpairs want to check quite a bit taking this line. It also makes it less likely you have Jx now.

OTR you block nothing really. For the river x/r idea I don't even think blocking fullhouses is relevant here other than blocking 55. He will probably have a straight/Jx more often here than he has a boat. So maybe something like A8hh/A8ss is a better x/r OTR. I guess you unblock a lot of his draws so some % call OTR can't be bad?

Any chance of an invite to these discords?

Yeah, I would agree that this combo is definitely a mix and I'm not always check raising it.

Can you elaborate a bit more on why you think the sizing is bad? For me I think that he's not going to fold any Jx, so I don't think going much larger makes a significant difference to how his range is going to respond in theory.

I agree with you on the turn.

River I think this can be a call, but the frequency at which it is has to be pretty small. When I'm thinking about my range in this spot I don't really think I have many better bluff catchers, but only because a lot of the other hands I'm check raising on the flop are still hi card when this river comes.

I will PM it to you.

I had to clear it with the owner of the server but he says it is alright for me to share the invite link with more people who will join as long as they are dedicated and serious grinders.

If anyone else like it they can request via PM.

Just played a short session. I think it was probably the best session I've ever played in my poker career. It's amazing how easy the game can be when you think through every spot and every decision in your conscious competence. When I really thought out each decision and how each players ranges, the board, sizings and all the other factors interact, a lot of the spots became very clear. I think it was the first time I really felt such clarity and confidence in the vast majority of my decisions, even in spots where we reached showdown and I won or lost the hand, my analysis of his range and the combos he could be holding both that I was beating and losing to was generally on point.

There is one interesting hand where I got stacked, and as I continue to think about it, I really can't determine whether I think I actually made a good call on the river. I've pasted the hand history below.

Villain is playing 29/24 over a very small sample of 17 hands. Obviously no other stats, or even VPIP or PFR for that matter, have converged. But it is worth noting that this gives an indication that he's probably a solid reg.

I think pre-flop is pretty standard, I'm not sure my sizing here maybe I should go a little bigger?

Flop is weird, obviously I'm going to hold an overall range advantage but I think he can have every set depending on how wide he wants to flat his pocket pairs in position versus a small blind three bet. Depending on the reg and how strong they, I think he can have everything from 22+ to 88+ here. I also think he has a whole bunch of low straight draws that I won't have at the same frequency as him.

I decided to check because I'm only really worried about three aces. Obviously he is going to have some 99-QQ at some frequency that he does not four bet pre-flop, but I'm less worried about him two outing me. I potentially miss some value against his two broadways with the backdoor flush draw that want to call a small sizing. Nonetheless I think checking here is okay and the spot is probably a mix in theory.

Turn is interesting. I'm not so worried about the 8x in his range as it's only likely 87s,98s and A8s (at some low freq maybe?). I decide to go for a bet because I think it's necessary to start getting some value against hands likq 99-QQ, obviously the majority of his club flush draws want to call this turn. I'm not super confident in my sizing here and in hindsight here perhaps I should go bigger and polarize more, but a part of me does think that since the flop checked through a smaller more mergier size makes sense.

River sucks and now that I think about it I think this is a pretty crystal-clear fold. I'm not sure a micro reg is going to be jamming enough Ax as a bluff here for me to justify calling this. Which is the main reason I called here. I considered his flush draws before making the call, but I think I should have given the more weight in my consideration. I think it's pretty clear here that the one thing I obviously failed to consider, and I'm pretty sure I actually recall failing to think about this during the hand (which is frustrating, but it's only a mistake if I fail to learn from it) is the fact that I don't hold the Kc blocker. Obviously if I'm ever going to call this, and in hindsight I think it's a very low-frequency call against regulars at the stake, it should be with the Kc.

I also failed to consider how my river bet acts as a block bet, when I only intended it as thin value. Whoops.

The other thing I want to say about this hand and probably the reason I made a bad call, is because given that I've been thinking so deeply about each spot I've been running out my time back on a lot of hands in this session, and I very clearly recall my timing ticking down and seeing that I only had one second left in the time bank and just clicking call. It is what it is, but I don't think it's a big issue, because more off the table study and play will slowly move more of the factors that affect decisions like the suitedness of the combos we block from my conscious competence to my unconscious competence.



I suppose by dictating this out I've answered my own question about this river call, but I'd be glad to hear any feedback or criticism of my thought process in reviewing this hand.

PokerStars - $0.10 Ante $0.01 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 200.6 BB
Hero (SB): 125.1 BB
BB: 85 BB
UTG: 110 BB
MP: 58.5 BB
CO: 121.1 BB

6 players post ante of 0.1 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.1 BB) Hero has K K

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, fold, BTN calls 7 BB

Flop: (21.6 BB, 2 players) 8 5 4
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (21.6 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 13.6 BB, BTN calls 13.6 BB

River: (48.8 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 23.3 BB, BTN raises to 176.9 BB and is all-in,