Hello, everybody!

I am a poker player and fan from Greece and I am 42 years old. I have (re-)joined this forum because I am looking to advance my online poker skills to intermediate/advanced level, particularly regarding online MTT tournaments, currently at Microstakes level. I currently live in Greece although I had been living in the UK for about 15 years and also lived in Luxembourg for 1 year. I actually started playing poker in the UK while I was a student there, and that was primarily online.

This thread is a personal study blog where I will be posting new strategy concepts I am learning. Feel free to add your comments, criticize, make relevant suggestions, or just learn from it in case you are at some similar situation as me.

Information about my experience and play

- My past study material: I have now been into poker for 15 years on and off. I possess about 349 poker books in digital form, which admittedly I have fully read few of, and about 10 in print, which I have read all of. However, regarding strategy, I have only found a dozen of all my books to be useful. I have also watched an innumerable amount of poker shows (WSOP, WPT, EPT, Poker after dark, High stakes poker and more), and the occasional strategy/coaching videos.

- My game and stakes: I have always played only No Limit HL, at the level of Microstakes and occasionally at Low stakes up to $11, almost exclusively online at Pokerstars. In the beginning I used to play $5 SnGs mostly where I was winning mostly, and the occasional tour. I had taken another gap for a few years and started playing poker about last year. And, for the last year I have been focusing on MTTs.

- My bankroll sofar: My bankroll to play poker has always been $50, which is probably too little to do much but I kept it so because I hardly ever thought seriously to move up in poker, or invest more in my play because I have had poker only as a fun hobby, and I was focusing on my work.

- My profitability sofar: I am overall a winning player. Until last year my net poker profit since the beginning was about $3,500, which I gained primarily by winning some $3 and $5 tours around 2012. Since the last year where I started playing poker frequently again I am up $400, which I gained mostly from winning a $1.10 Bounty builder tour a couple of months ago, and so, my ROI for this last year is about 230%.

- My strategy basis sofar: I mostly learnt how to play poker from 2-3 books. I developed my style primarily from Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Holdem" series, although David Sklansky's "Small stakes hold'em" and "The theory of poker" gave me an insight into odds and probabilities. By the way, I have all these books on print.

- My current style: I have been playing TAG primarily (or that's what I think it was, I usually find that on tours I play about 28% of hands early and during the minefield stage), and I was always only considering my hand and the opponent's hand ie never possible ranges.

I am sometimes intrigued by the idea that with a LAG style in tournaments I could gain a big chipstack early on and thus have a good chance of winning it, although I never actually did that, nor have I found any books on how to play LAG, nor have I seen any strategy videos of people doing that. So, regarding playing a LAG style, I am at "that would be nice to have if indeed it is worth it and I had some guides to it".

At the moment, I am not interested in learning GTO, because I find it too complex. Besides, I think it is suitable for me right now anyway. I would learn GTO only as a second style, after I would have developed my primary style. So, I basically to keep learning to play TAG and Exploitative styles.


My current learning goal
My current learning goal is to move from simply putting an opponent to a set of hands, as I have been doing, to putting him properly in a range of hands. From that begins a whole new area of strategy, which includes many more concepts and tactics I haven't used previously. I started learning about doing that by looking for theory and video material to study about putting opponents on ranges through Google. Luckily, I found a few articles on poker blogs, and a video from Johnathan Little.

That has come along with many new challenges, which sofar include the following:

1) New (for me) post-flop play: Obviously, what has changed for me since I started this quest of improving by learning to put opponents in ranges has been my post-flop play.

2) Pre-flop ranges reconsidered: I think I have a somewhat ok grasp of preflop play (however I have been playing Full Ring games almost exclusively), although after I tried learning how to put opponents on ranges I think that knowing the preflop ranges is much more crucial to have mastered. For this reason, that really challenged my existing preflop knowledge and got me back to rethinking about it too.

3) New concepts introduced to me: That is where my problems begun: that theory contains SO many new for me terms and concepts, and they look SO complicated to work out. I mean, it looks to me as complicated as rocket science, or nuclear physics. I am referring to the concepts of Range Advantage, Nut advantage, Equity denial, Value Range, Bluffing range, Overbetting range Polarized range, Polarizing overbet, Capped & uncapped ranges and some more. That is, not their definition, but how you actually calculate and use them.

4) Counting combos: Where I am getting particularly confused as to whether I need to learn even how to count combos too. That is so damn complex!

5) Putting the new concepts together: What confuses me is particularly the point where, on one I have to consider the opponent's range, on another I have to consider combos, on another the hand I made with the board to estimate bet size. I can't find when I have to think about each, and how all those things come together.

6) Non-compatibility with my current games: To give you an idea of what kind of players play in the MTT Microstakes tournamens I play at, in one of them I played in this week, some guy called my preflop 5xBB raise with Q2o from the big blind, and kept betting on a Q high flop, whereas another called my 20xBB preflop all-in with T7o, and while 3 more players were still to play. Everything else aside about their plays, I wouldn't even consider Q2o and T7o in their ranges. They are not even in a LAG's range.

I have been studying extensively within the last couple of days. I have quickly acquired possession of new knowledge which I am trying to put together.

One thing I figured out today is that what I am actually trying to learn now is something that expert poker players knew how to do since 12 years ago. In fact, I found a video about ranging and range manipulation from 2012 relevant to 0.50$/$1 cash games.

That doesn't get me down. I know I am on the right track learning how to improve my playing.

Probably not very relevant anymore

Thank you for reading my blog and the critique!

I would say, while it is old, I think it was innovative at its time, and top coaching advice. Either way, it is one of the few bits of information which I found which is straight on point relevant to my topic of playing range. I can't quite evaluate it right now, but I'll keep in mind that it could be irrelevant.

My head is about to explode. I have a massive headache.

For the last few hours, I read articles about playing range, as well as Poker Terminology, and Poker theorems. In there, I discovered some new for me relevant concepts, namely: Range manipulation, Range elasticity, Underbluffing and more. I kept notes and bookmarked anything relevant to my current study. I have also been watching a video of an analysis of the winner's hands in a $530 MTT

The surprising discovery I made is that playing range, and the relevant things to that which I am looking to learn, are a rather aged topic. I realized that because I found articles and videos about these things from 2012, which is 12+ years ago! However, I was even more surprised that I found 0 information about playing range in my digital poker ebook library of 340 poker ebooks and articles.

That could have happened only for 2 reasons:
1) None of the authors of my 340 books was that good of a player to have mastered range: which could never be true, as many of the authors of my books are highly profitable, world-class players.

That said, I have a lot of books dated before 2012, such as, for example, Doyle Brunson's "Super system", and Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold'em". And, by the way, these are probably 2 of the best strategy books of those I have which present a complete strategy for playing, even though they are about playing your hand and not your range.

2) This topic is some sort of "secret" for knowledegable players

But it just baffles me that, while a majority of the authors of the books in my digital poker ebook library of those from 2012 onwards are such achieved players, none of them touches that subject of playing range, and, instead, they are teaching different things all around how to play your hand, which yet they call "secrets" and "professional tips" about poker. That is absolutely deceitful!

After doing a lot of poker study today, I've now realized how much I would benefit from having Poker database software and a HUD, both functionalities which PokerTracker provides. I think I almost NEED them in order to improve!

I actually feel impressed that I have done so well in poker all these years while not using either, and disappointed at the thought of how much better I could have done if I have had them!

I have decided that, after my next tournament win, instead of cashing out as I used to do in the past, I will invest my winnings in improving my playing, and specifically to:
1) Buy PokerTracker (which includes a HUD), which costs $64.99-$99 (depending on the version you buy)
2) Possibly purchase some hand histories. I don't know the price for those
3) Keep an amount in my bankroll to allow me to move up in MTT stakes

Having PokerTracker will allow me to replay my hands after a tournament, so as to study them, and that way practice my hand reading. It will also allow me to work out my cashflows, and perform other kinds of hand analysis.
Moreover, having a HUD will allow me to be able to determine my opponents' preflop ranges, from which I can then do proper hand reading, and further use the stats to exploit them.

Tournament Poker Edge has a great library of poker podcasts discussing MTT poker strategy and doing tournament hand reviews with some top players. I am now a new fan of it! Check it out here: https://www.tournamentpokeredge.com/podcasts/

[Game results]

I ended my day yesterday with a couple of Microstakes tournaments. I got well in the zone, and managed to go deep in a $2.20 Bounty builder with almost 3,300 players! As I was approaching closer and closer to the final table, I was dreaming of how I would use the 1st place money (about $390), to do exactly all the things I need - buy PokerTracker, hand histories, and grow my bankroll to advance stakes a little. It all ended when I suddenly came across a very straightforward hand where I just donked all my chips in a spot where it was obvious that the opponent had me beat (KQs vs AKo all in on a K high flop). I feel a bit stupid that I just didn't fold and get myself a higher place.

I am still not using my new "playing range" thought process yet, but a few of the new concepts I was studying yesterday kept coming to my mind as I was playing, so that's something in terms of learning.

Overall, although I was really hoping for a 1st and better cash, this was my best cash sofar this month, and I am satisfied that I had a great run getting to the top 25, and busted about 15 players along the way. I am looking forward to more!

[Study update: My new guide on "playing range"]

I spent the last 2 days gathering study material. Since my 340-big library didn't provide any useful info, I have now started compiling my own guide about learning how to "play range", where I put in information from guides I find online, in articles, blog posts and videos. My new guide already has a few sections. At the moment, it includes a glossary, and sections about what ranges are, range forms, how to construct an opponent's preflop range, player profiling, categorizing a range by its contents, some info about how to assess the board, and some more stuff.

[Game results]

I just had a very deep run on the $3.30 Bounty builder, and busted another dozen players. This is now my best cash this month for over $62, and a fantastic result to be 16th out of 3,335 players. I am very pissed that I didn't make it to the final table. 1st place was paying around $610, which would have been amazing. But I got very unlucky on the last hand even though I put it in good - all-in as a huge favorite with AQo vs a random Q9o. I had a bad feeling about it, and, unfortunately, it came true.

Try Hand2Note instead of PokerTracker.
It is free in the basic subscription, but functionally it is not inferior to PokerTracker.

Thank you. I actually have it but I got a problem from it. 2 months ago I had to install Windows 11 from fresh over my Windows 10 installation. I had Hand2Note by then already. So, I backed up the program files folder to copy it back after I would reinstall Windows 1.. I did that and now it is showing my account TWICE.

Even worse is, for both accounts it is showing me as a losing player. One of its problems is that I don't think it counts tournament tickets as winnings. Specifically, I had won 2x$109 tickets to the Sunday million, and another $11 to the Sunday storm which I don't think it included in my profits (and that is the likely reason why it is showing me as a losing player).

Other than that I agree that it is a useful tool - starting with the fact that it is free.

I guess that, since I have nothing else atm, I could just delete me database and import only the new hand history.

Thanks for the tip!

So, I tried to fix Hand2Note's issue of showing 2 accounts with my nickname. I found the hand history folder's location, and deleted all the files. Then I re-imported my hand histories from Pokerstars. However, it is still showing 2 accounts with my nickname. This is very disturbing. It is the only free hand history software and it is annoying to be doing this. I need to work out a fix. I guess I could attempt to delete some past hand histories, although that will mean I will not have all my stats available. Crap, but, oh well, there is a way out.

[Ratings]

Wow! I just found out yesterday that Pokerprolabs.com gives me the higest ratings in Micro stakes MTT tournaments! I am a shark! Watch out, here I come!

[Game results]

Another great day on the tables today. A deep run on the $1.10, which I didn't expect. I don't normally play this game seriously because it has no bounties. I only play it as a warm up, not expecting anything, or when there are no Bounty builders on. Anyway, I managed to almost make it to the final table, coming 11th out of 799 players. That is my top finish for this month.

I made a stupid call on the river in the last hand, where I was holding 2 pair from the flop with A2o, but opponent hit 2 pair on turn, and put me all in on river. I could tell my opponent had hit something after the flop, and it was an easy fold. I don't know what happened to me.

[Game results]

Another good run on the $3.30 Bounty Builder. I busted a few players along the way and cashed $14.24. My bankroll now is $108! Also important is, I am starting to like the $3.30 very much. I have done well in $3.30s in the last few days. They aren't much harder than $1.10, just a little less random at the beginning. I will be playing more of those every day from now on!

mage...]

[Questions]

I am stuck at the following points regarding "playing range":

1) Whether to put opponents on a range preflop or no the flop: I know of a few methods to put an opponent on a range preflop (eg. use their VPIP/PFR stats if you have a HUD, although I don't have a HUD atm). But I am still unsure if it applies well, since the preflop range to for micro and low stakes MTTs, especially at early stages, can be extremely wide. I am wondering whether thinking of the opponent's range after the flop is more reliable method. Is that so?

2) "Betting your range": Many guides write about when you should bet/c-bet your range, but they don't specify what the alternative is. Are you meant to only bet your entire range, and, if you don't, does that mean you do not bet, or that you still bet but perhaps a different size and for different reasons?

Contact H2N support on the site or in the discord https://discord.gg/N8DTKNUC.

1. I would still stick with preflop thinking. If you think Villain can have a very wide preflop range, okay, let's keep it wide.
We must consistently draw ranges from preflop to the river.

2. Range betting usually means betting small ~100% of your range, but that doesn't mean we can't/shouldn't use other sizings.
In theory, there are no wrong sizings, the question is what ranges we put in these sizings.
Range bets are good because they are easier to implement in practice and you are less likely to make mistakes. This is a simplification for which we pay a small difference in EV.
But if you have reasons to check or otherwise sizing and you feel that the EV of this action will be higher, then choose this action.
Save this hand for analysis out of tables and find out later if you were right or not.

Thank you so much for linking me up! I joined the server and I am talking to support. I hope they find a way to resolve the issue.

[Updates: Choosing a poker tracking software ]

I am currently working out which tracking software to get. As I posted earlier, I need a piece of software at the moment to do 2 things: replay hands to study them, and display profit & loss stats. Also, I am interested in using a HUD live while playing online, so that counts as a 3rd one.

I am between these 4 choices:
1) Hand2Note: This was my primary choice, because it is free and yet well functional. However, I have ran into a bug where it displays my account name twice. I tried a few workarounds to it ie importing histories only from certain dates onwards, but that didn't work. Thanks to styles who linked me up with Hand2Note support on their discord server. I am waiting for their reply to see if they can resolve this.

A second issue I experienced with H2N is that I think it discounts the value of my winning tickets in the profit & loss calculations. Specifically, I had won 2 x $219 tickets, and an $11 ticket, but I didn't see it counting their value as profits. I will need to contact support for this too.

If I find fixes to H2N's issues, I may just keep this as my tracking software. Otherwise, I will have to look into my other options.

2) PokerTracker 4: This is a very popular choice by poker players. It has many features and a nice replayer interface. Yesterday I downloaded the 14-day trial of PT4 to try it out. I managed to work out how to do both the first 2 functions I wanted (replaying, and displaying profit & loss). I haven't yet tried the HUD, but I vaguely recall I have used it in the past so I should be ok with it.

The reason why I didn't choose it is because it costs $64.99 for the Low stakes version, a big amount for my budget, and I am not entirely sure whether I want to invest it there at the moment.

3) DriveHUD 2: I started a thread on this forum and somebody messaged me to check it out. It costs only $19.99 for low stakes, which is affordable for my budget. Yet, it includes all 3 functionalities I need. Yesterday I downloaded the trial version and I managed to find how they both work.
- Profit & loss charts: While it is situated right on the first screen, which allows for immediate access, it doesn't appear to be so detailed and I am not even sure what it is displaying. It is not displaying the right amounts of $ I expected to.
- Replayer: The interface isn't as clear as that from PT4 or Holdem Manager, but it is readable.
- HUD: It has some nice classifications of players, but I still haven't worked out what parameters it uses to make this classification. I haven't yet tried using it in a live online game.

4) Holdem Manager 3: I have used this software in the past. Somehow I didn't think of trying it in favor of PokerTracker. But it is only $60 for Small stakes, which is a bit les than PT, so I may give it another thought. I don't recall what the HUD is like.

[Play evaluation: It turns out that I am a LAG in MTTs]

I discovered more information about what my actual play is like. Until recently I considered myself a TAG, who occasionally makes some loose plays. I have not been using a HUD or a tracking software. The stats I used to confirm this was the "Stats" tab from the Pokerstars client window - specifically the "Saw Flop" percent. I would make sure that stays at around 25%, although I often found I went a little higher, particularly in later stages of tournaments, as high as 28%. So I was under the impression that my VPIP is 21-28%.

Yesterday I spent some time installing and using PokerTracker 4 and DriveHUD 2, and loaded up to them some hand histories from my plays over the last few months, and I worked out the reality. While exploring what the replayer functionality of DriveHUD2 is like, I replayed some hands from my tournaments in it. I noticed that DriveHUD 2 has tagged me as a "Bad LAG", with an icon of a dice next to my nickname!

(That said, the main window of DriveHUD2 is showing that it has only loaded 18 hands, which is strange - I think it may be referring to cash games though).

That discovery kind of shocked me at first, because I had forgotten about what the player profiles are like for TAG and LAG. Even my Pokerstars Stats indicated that I am indeed a LAG, but I hadn't realized it.

Even funnier is, not only did I believe that I am a TAG, but I was sometimes thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea one day to learn how to play LAG in tournaments, because I have read that, while more risky, with a LAG style one may have the opportunity to build a big chipstack early and hence have more chances of making it deeper or even winning the tournament. Moreover, I was actually annoyed that I couldn't find any guides on how to play LAG.

Long story short, I was already playing LAG, but perhaps I haven't fully worked well on that style. That's something to think about!

[Game results]

I just had another great run in the $3.30 Bounty builder today on Pokerstars! The $3.30 Bounty builder has now become my favorite game, because it pays alright, and there are some great bounties up for grabs in the later stages.

This time I unfortunately busted out early and had to rebuy once, which I did reluctantly. However, it turned out to be great. I finished 60th in a large field of 4,917 players, and received just over $10. I was obviously looking forward to the top prize, which was just over $410, but it didn't happen this time. It doesn't matter much though because I made it through a huge field, the biggest one I have faced in a $3.30, and also I have now had great success in all the $3.30 I played recently. I gotta keep going!

[Study update: A strategy crisis]

I am now going through a "strategy crisis". All my current strategy, with which I have been winning for a while, is now being challenged!

It seems that, in order to advance my playing, I must take many steps back. For example, to give up most of my exploitative moves, and start by developing purely my "Default strategy" based on a TAG style.

Doing that means I will be finding myself frequently lost on the tables, feeling likea complete beginner, without having any confidence in my plays, and constantly wondering whether I am making a right or wrong play.

There's got to be a way out of this situation. Perhaps I won't change my strategy in this way. I must work out how exactly I will do it though.

[Study update: Towards rebuilding my default strategy]

I can finally put in words what I am looking to learn with some more clarity. So, let's take it from the beginning again....

I recently decided to advance my poker skills, and, specifically learn how to play ranges, as opposed to just playing my hand and put my opponent on a set of hands, as I used to. I discovered that I am currently playing a LAG style.

Another more recent epiphany I had after discussing with Bob194 on this forum is that, at this stage of learning, I am looking for how to build my default strategy. That would be a strategy based on a TAG style, and TAG vs TAG dynamics.

Just to be clear, I am not learning GTO now. Also, that further means that, at this stage I am not looking to learn exploitative tactics, nor deception tactics. That is, I am not looking to find how to make adjustments to it so as to exploit opponents, nor purposive ways to disguise my play.

Also, while I do that, I will have to assume my opponents are not making adjustments against me either ie that they are also paying a default strategy.

Some of the main areas where I want to improve at are right now (which may or may not be part of the default strategy):
1) Range categorizing, of my own range, and of opponent's ranges
2) Hand reading of my opponent
3) Taking it a step further, Range weighing, for either of the above
These will form a basis about learning again how to play the board, flop, turn and river.

Let's see how that goes.