Subbed and GL.

Thanks for sharing the insiderpoker link earlier. Some very insightful articles there, wish they had more though!

Hey guys! I thought I would do a quick update of how my January is going. It's going a lot better so far. I've been getting some help from some generous
2p2ers and I've already improved a lot despite only having focused on preflop stuff (3betting more, opening/defending more).

Here is my graph and stats so far this month:







Though the graph isn't technically winning yet, I think I am winning as I had some burnout issues last Thursday/Friday and had some "tilt" where I was just calling down way to light, cause I was kind of tired of grinding for the RB challenge. Those sessions brought me to BE from 6BI up, and then I've had a couple of variance filled sessions since they took the ante out. With those aside I think I would be up a few buyins.

I definitely feel that grinding so hard for the rakeback challenge did cause some burnout and has hurt my play. I finished it on Friday and am taking a few days off. I'm going to go down to 2 tables, miss it next month and see if they give me $100/$40 instead of $200/$80. I think 2 tabling will definitely help my quality of play.

There is definitely still a ton to work on, but I feel like I'm making strides and hopefully will finally turn my winrate around.

I've put my december stats below if anyone wants to compare.

Glad to hear Drawcess. Nice to see that 3bet rising.

I can't tell you how much better I feel downsizing at zoom. I'm sure the time will come to turn on the volume monster but I still really need all that RAM to think through (most?) postflop spots. And variance hurts way less when you're double confident it's variance.

I'm really enjoying watching Riske, Ginge and Jarretman play on youtube atm and seeing how thoroughly they go through every hand, and trying to replicate that process of allowing all this space for the best guesses to emerge. Jarretman in particular. if I could just pickle that man's zen-like approach to decision making I could take anything.

I have been thinking a lot recently about what has been the cause of my struggles and why I have been unable to beat 10 zoom yet. Since I built my desktop in March, I started working with a solver and I feel like working with a solver has really allowed me to begin to grasp and understand how poker theory works postflop. While I'm by no means a solver wizard or GTO expert, I find that having a better understanding of what is theoretically sound post flop, allows me to understand what isn't theoretically correct, and then be more effective at exploiting players. Obviously at 10 zoom, we don't want to be trying to play GTO in the vast majority of spots, as most people are very much exploitable [myself included].

Recently I put a lot of work into my mental game, and I feel a lot more stronger and confident in my ability not to tilt and be impacted by the variance of the game. I'm by no means perfect, and will not say I have "overcome" tilting, I feel like I've come a long way in preventing myself from really beating myself up over variance and suck outs, and am a lot better at identifying those (increasingly less common) days where I just can't stomach the beats mentally and I know that the best decision is to just stop playing.

It is frustrating however, that despite my deeper theoretical understanding and ability to exploit, and more effective mental game, I'm still not winning. I don't want to sound cocky or rude, as I definitely feel I know maybe 1% of what there is to understand about poker, but I feel like I'm one of the better theoretical and technical players in this pool, at least when it comes to understanding how to play flops and turns in most common spots.

Having reflected on this and discussed it with the generous 2p2ers who are informally coaching me, I feel like I have a bit of a grasp on what the issue is. I've talked a lot with them about these mental issues, and how I tend to have a fear of "monsters under the bed", and one of my bad mental habits is getting to the flop and the first thing I do on the flop is start roughly counting in my head what nutted combos it would make sense for villain to have in his range and start being fearful they will appear.

I think the other side of the mental game, one that is maybe overlooked in contemporary poker mental game literature is what is really holding me back. That would be, the human element and human subconscious biases that make humans innately imperfect. Obviously every player is going to be different and have different biases and strengths they struggle with, but I think mine are the biggest hindrance in my game.

For example, I think my biggest issue is I tend to play scared. My flight or flight response in tough spots is typically flight. I tend to have a fear of losing and in that regard I missing profitable bluffs and bluff catches, because I'm naturally a bit defensive and nitty of a poker player, and have that fear of "getting out of line/being aggro" even though a lot of spots where I wouldn't do so, a solver might do so at a high or pure frequency, thus I may be missing a lot of EV.

I've watched a couple of Doug Polk's post-session interviews the last few day and I think he's captured these human bias shortcomings that I and many other poker players will face well with a couple comments. Yesterday, he spoke about how some mentally weaker poker players might be unable to find that river bluff jam that is a pure theoretical jam in theory, when they are having a bad session and down five or six buyins. I think this is entirely something I would do, and I think this resultsoriented/playing scared mindset results only missing a lot of profitable spots, because the fight or flight human in me is saying flight.

He spoke again today, and he commented on how when Daniel is having big winning sessions (like did he today, up 8ish buyins) that Daniel will choose to end the session immediately after he (daniel) has been stacked. Doug commented on how he thinks this might be some weird mental thing where it's like, Daniel is just trying to book a win. This reverberated with me a lot and this is entirely directly and replicated in my game. I set timers and play 45 minutes at a time and then take a 5 to 10 minute break. When I see on my computer clock, timers almost coming to an end (especially more so if I'm finishing my last session for the day) I tend to play more passively and tighter in the last few hands as it winds down in the last 30 seconds (espeically if I'm up a couple BI), as I'm scared of getting stacked and not booking my win.

I think these biases are really the biggest hindrance of my game. I'm not sure really that there is an easy way to overcome these human fight or flight and other biases, but I think it's definitely something I need to work on and be more cognizant of in my game. I do have an RNG, which I feel like maybe relying more on could help me overcome fears, but I do try to very very limit my use of it currently, as I strongly feel that at the stake and in this pool, there's almost always information or HUD stats that makes it exploitatively better to make decision over another against each villain. Whether I choose to take this line can sometimes be limited by my human biases, however.

Many people on here might not know this about me, but I'm a massive golf fan, and I watch a ton of professional golf. I read this interesting article recently about Bryson DeChambeau, a young professional golfer who is pushing the sport forward with his rigorous scientific and data driven approach to the game.

This article talks about how Bryson uses neurological tracking to understand his brains activity levels and understand what causes stressful moments, and how to better manage them, and ultimately make better decisions in the course. I've quoted an excerpt from the article here:

https://www.pgatour.com/long-form/20...-training.html

Although I obviously don't have the money or resources to implement such a rigorous and detailed method to understand what triggers my flight or flight response and human cognitive biases on the tables. However, I think this approach shows that there is some way that people can work towards improving and understanding how our brain works and how we can control it. I think a more simplified approach of this that is popular in the poker world (including with myself) is meditation. However, while I believe meditation has helped me manage my response to variance, I still feel like I'm lacking in pushing past my human cognitive biases that push me towards suboptimal lines.

I'm not sure how I plan to tackle this going forward, and I don't think it is something that there is an easy solution to, but I think just being cognizant of it is a good start. If anyone has any thoughts or feedback on how they have been able to overcome this in the past, feel free to let me know.

I'd suggest trying to find those spots where your flight or fight response is being triggered, determine the reasons (events) that trigger it, and take note of these. Take notes about what you're feeling physically, what you're thinking etc. Build up a library of these situations, and then disect why they're happening, and what illogical though processes are leading to them. From there, you can work on correcting the thought processes in game by realising when they've been triggered, and adjusting your self talk to create new 'thought patterns' that arise in these spots.

The other thing, relax on the volume/RB challenges. If you have to switch sites to one with actual RB, do so. In general, RB grinding is going to lead to -EV strategy, and that's going to make the mental game worse. If you're trying to rush through hands to complete a RB challenge, it's going to be hard to take a breath and actually sort out your thought process in game. Just my 2 cents

Bloody hell. I want one.

I've definitely been through bad mental game phases, esp when it feels like I'm stuck, and I went down the Tendler/CBT/analysis route to start with. What I felt is that you can label everything tilt. Software tilt, anxiety tilt, phone tilt, friend tilt, cat tilt. So many ways to tilt. It became exhausting in and of itself to catalogue and monitor and I wondered if half the problem was focusing on it way too much, when what was really making me tilt was my uncertainty that I'd made a reasonable decision.

The strategy I've taken instead, and what I've found most effective, is to eliminate as much stress as possible from the experience of playing. Not dissimilar to this DeChambeau chap I suppose, although I still enjoy movies

I think you're on the right track. Try not to book 'wins'. Try to book 'stress free applications of everything I know about poker up to now'. It sounds really obvious, but forcing yourself to do this to the point of routine is the key.

Play a hand + don't know what to do? Mark it. Figure it out/solve after session. Offload, offload. Offload the stress. Screw up? Same deal. Mark as a bad hand and force yourself to replay at least 10 of these as warm-ups in future sessions. This way every mistake counts for something. I have to be able to point out my mistake at least three times before I take it off the naughty list, punishing myself without having to feel too bad about it in the moment it occurred.

I've found this + study + standard BR management has really helped drain the tension out of playing. There's nothing much on the line other than my ability on that day. And even if I screw up it's hard for me to waste mental energy on hand X when I know it's in the vault for analysis/replay later. No waste.

I don't use a hud. I don't think we need one and they're distracting. I play all sorts of music depending on my mood but the only thing that's ever going through my head is 'don't make a mistake, don't make a mistake'. And this means playing every spot as if I think it's going to be posted in 2+2 and torn apart. As soon as I lose that mantra I start playing more human/intuative and that's when I tilt.

I'm still a calling fish. 90% of the hands I mark are ridiculous. But I don't 'feel' quite so bad anymore. Coolers hardly register at all. It's all baked into the system to maximise learning and I can just surrender to the routine of it.

I think this makes a lot of sense, I'll start trying to monitor them. I hadn't though of them as detrimental mental processes, like Elliot Roe refers to in his course, but I think the way you look at it here makes sense.

Yes, I think the volume push hurt. I'm taking some advice and moving to 2 tables, which I think will help. I'm not doing the RB challenge this month, and I'm hoping they will give me a lower one next month. If not, I'll re-evaluate whether I want to grind for it. But definitely felt like doing it two months in a row at 10z caused some burnout.

Interesting thoughts and I appreciate them. I definitely need to try to move toward this approach a bit more. I need to get away from the booking wins mindset. Another big issue I have is (since I only check results weekly/monthly now) is keeping a rough tally in my head of where I am, results wise, during a session, which I think is such a horrible thing to be doing.

Hey guys,

January was a good month for me, this is my graph (all of which is at 10z, both before and after the ante was removed):



I definitely owe a lot of credit to the generous 2+2ers who offered to provide me some free coaching. Their advice and insight has helped a lot in just one month. The first half or so this month I was focused on going for the exclusive poker rake back challenge on stars, and I think during that time three tabling, I was definitely making a lot of mistakes going for volume.

I cut back to two tables around the 20th and really worked on changing my mentality, and how I was thinking through spots and approaching the game in general. I recognize a lot of spots that I was over folding, and wasn't recognizing the odds of the spot I was facing, realizing that I didn't have to be right every time. You can see this reflected in my graph right around 11,000 hands where my redline starts decreasing at a slower rate.

For February, my goal is to play around 17,000 hands, still two tabling, and making sure I am focused and thinking through every spot that I face. My past few sessions I feel like I've made a lot of progress and have been a lot more focused and happy with the decisions I've made. I never realized how much information I was missing when three tabling.

I'm confident that I am a winner at 10z, but I don't want to be overconfident in my abilities. I recognize I still have a lot to learn and I'm enjoying the process of studying and improving and deepening my theoretical understanding of the game.

My bankroll is now just over 80 10z buy-ins. I'm hoping to keep working on my game in February and March, and if everything goes as expected on the tables and off the tables, hopefully take my first 25z shot in April.

Good thread Trust, I like your honesty.

All you can do in poker is make the plays that are theoretically correct, or you think they are, and damn the outcome.
Its the fear of failing your goals, not the fear of losing money, that is the biggest stumbling block for most, its probably yours also.

If you say a 3bet is the correct play here, do it.

Thanks man! I'm just enjoying the process of improving at poker, and having to be self-critical enough to see where I may be wrong or have gaps in my knowledge.

Great work D; that rethinking and concentration clearly paying off. 🚀

Yes! That and cutting down to two tables.

Nice GL to you sir

Thanks man!

February has been okay so far. Tables have gone okay but haven't played as much as I like as I'm in this weird sleep funk where I sleep good one night and then not the next so resultingly have only been playing every other day.

Hoping to get this fixed and then get more study/volume in.

Hey guys,

I'm back to recap the month. Overall it was a solid month, but definitely was a tale of two halves.

Here is the graph:



Despite some challenges with poor sleep of the being of the month, I was able to hit my goal of 17,000 hands.

I started off really well, playing well, but also running really well. However you can see about 7k hands in, I started to hit a wall and began regressing with regards to my play. I kind of went back into old habits and was seeing a lot of sessions where I had a low three bet and tight stats, and an alarming number of sessions were my aggression factor was under 1.5.

This was obviously not good and it has somehow led to my redline declining, which I am a bit shocked about as I did feel like I was still bluffcatching a lot throughout the month. I think the last 7kish hands I hit a weird period where I was not making a lot of hands and was just kind of continuously losing small pots. Oddly, I didn't actually feel like I was really running bad, except for one or two sessions where there was actually coolers. Overall I think a lot of this section might have been more on my play than I think, though I think not making a ton of hands definitely didn't help.

However though I think I've improved a lot as a player and I think this month has been a good month to challenge my mental game and make me recognize I'm not some crusher at this stake.

Going forward though I think I really need to focus on pushing myself out of my comfort zone and getting over these weak tight mentalities I have.

For March, I'm going to take a different approach. Basically, I just want to try and play like a maniac for this month. I have a close friend who is also grinding 10z, who plays 27/25/18 3bet with 6AF and runs over the pool with aggression. He manages to have a flat redline and basically just abuses people given the tightness of this stake.

I'm going to try and replicate that style this month. However I recognize this is a totally different style and I cannot just suddenly perfectly understand where to bluff raise rivers to exploit the pool and when not to. But that isn't necessarily my goal, I'm not going to try and just flip my play and be super aggressive and expect to crush like my friend. Instead, my goal is simply to just push myself out of my comfort zone, and get myself to do things that are uncomfortable, run crazy bluffs and just generally try and get out of this weak tight mentality. I expect that I will likely have a losing month, and very possibly a significant losing month, but I think it's necessary for me to do this to just get out of this week tight mindset, and if I can push past than it will help me a lot going forward. Even if I go bet bet jam into the nuts 10 times this month, it will be worth it if I can get more comfortable playing aggressive and not be so scared of losing stacks.

I think I'm going to hang tight with moving up to 25z for another month or two, and see how things go for me and if I can get myself to be more aggressive.

I'm incredibly lucky that I have a good job and have managed to save a lot during COVID, so I'm not really worried about the money or devastating my bankroll. It might actually be good thing for me if I lose 40BI this month them and am forced to deposit, because I need to actually learn to spend some money on myself and not just be tight with spending so I can sock away more savings at the every of every month, which is a mindset I grew up with from my parents where everything is about saving and saving and saving money and never enjoying it.

My poker goal for the month are this:
-20k hands at 10z
-2.5 Aggression factor at the end (going to shoot for 3+, but 2.5 will be the floor)
- 8.5 3bet
- Minimum 23/20 vpip/pfr

Off the table, I don't really have a ton of goals right now and I'm quite happy with my life. I've been quite happy with my mental game this month. These less than ideal results have been a good test for my mental game, and I think I've handled it well. I'm hoping to get back to the gym more now that it has reopened, but I'm a bit uncomfortable going to the gym these days as my local health unit is consistently reporting a relatively high number of cases and people at the gym don't really wear masks. I'm just going to be smart about it and trying go when there's less people, but not push myself and be mad if I don't go. I want to avoid getting COVID (literally) like the plague.

Good luck with the more aggro approach in March! In the 100k hands I’ve played at 10z in Jan/Feb I’ve bounced between overfolding and almost never stabbing without any equity, and bluffing way too high of a frequency of rivers where I have no showdown value. Still trying to find the right balance. It’s tough

Hey guys,

Wanted to give a quick update on how things are going with being more aggressive. I usually don't check graphs until the end of the month but I figured I would for the first weekend and not for the rest of March.

Through the first 5K hands being aggro this month things are going great.



I've obviously ran good, but it's surprising how easily you can run people over with aggression. It's honestly pretty amazing how much people will fold and how you can attack weak lines and small sizings. I thought when I started to be more aggressive and get my red line up, that my blueline would not increase as fast due to getting call bluffing but honestly it doesn't feel like I'm getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar that often. While I am being quite aggro and trying to play more fearless and not be worried about losing stacks, picking your spots and playing smart against people who won't fold makes it quite easy to run people over at this stake.

I'm just going to keep working on developing an aggressive strategy so this becomes my natural game. Even now I have to just keep myself cognizant of finding smart aggro spots and not slipping back into passive habits, but I'm hoping at the end of the month this will feel more natural. I'm definitely being a bit overaggressive in some spots and made some punts, but I'm okay with that as I still need to develop my aggressiveness and and still getting past that neediness and fear of getting stacked.

I knew I should've called my A high

Very nice TtD. Looks like the experiment just got more funding...

Just have no fear and run everyone over.

You can't just play more aggressive though. You have to just forget the idea of results and be okay with getting stacked and having bluffs called. Attack checkbacks IP a ton and overbet lots.

Nice update, enjoying the thread so far!

Sounds like you're making big improvements if you're spotting lots of ways to steal the pots that no-one else wants. Don't expect this additional aggression to become natural too quickly, I find that auto-piloting is almost always correlated with becoming weak and passive for me. Also embrace the punts! It's much better to experiment now and find these more creative lines than wait until your playing 10x higher and have to lose BIs there instead.

GL

Thanks man, for sure! I'm also having a ton of fun! It's crazy how many pots you can steal with aggression and by attacking checks.

Here's a fun punt from today! This guy was a whale and I think this is awful, but a friend who is naturally more aggressive than me and has been helping me find aggression was sweating me and was convinced this guy would fold OTR to this line.

I think it's horrible but... wow...

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

BTN: 94.9 BB
Hero (SB): 131.5 BB
BB: 175.8 BB
UTG: 152.2 BB
MP: 113.5 BB
CO: 257.6 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 25 BB, BB calls 16 BB

Flop: (50 BB, 2 players) 7 6 4
Hero bets 12 BB, BB calls 12 BB

Turn: (74 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 21 BB, BB calls 21 BB

River: (116 BB, 2 players) T
Hero bets 73.5 BB and is all-in, BB calls 73.5 BB

^^ One of those value punts lol

I mean... It worked this time, but 9 out of 10 times when called you are beat
What exactly are you valuebetting this river and not taking in consideration that BB has very big range advantage on this runnout...?
Even if you have 99/ TT and you say BB is a whale then its obv you have to check a lot of value hands to let the whale turn his 1 pair hands/ overcards into bluff and protect your JJ-AA
Try to be aggresive in 4bet pots on runnouts where you actually have a range advantage, especially OOP
But then again its NL10 so not sure if anything above is related to NL10 logic...

Everything about this hand on this board postflop is bad. I was being sweat by some friends who are convinced this line works.

I just went with it, partly because I'm not playing scared and if I punt off a stack here with AK I'm fine with it.