Btw, not moving up to 10NL again until I´m beating 5NL by at least 5 evbb/100 over a meaningful sample (50k hands+). My lol 1 evbb/100 over 250k hands sample winrate at this stake probably is the #1 reason for me not being able to beat 10NL.

Really dont know if you can beat games with that attitude. I believe being strong when losing is one of the best skills to have or learn. I see it as opportunity to show how good i am. I like it. Im down 10bi on any level i say to myself this is now opportunity to show if i got what it takes. Can i play good, can i make great decisions, if you cant, just stop rev session post hands on forum and come back later. But i think you need that strenght to be able to find success.

+1 with the decision of moving down. It’s better to play in a comfortable stake while you work on fixing leaks.

Regarding being 3 bet too often, I think you can just tighten up your open range so that you will naturally be able to defend more often, but don’t just defend more often with the same open range (which is probably too loose).

@Fifaenthusiast Hum, one of the greatest truths that I´m finding in poker is that running well makes us play well, stay in our A-game longer, etc. Running bad, either bc we´re on a downswing or bc we don´t beat a level or bc we beat but with a low winrate, makes us play bad and makes the downswing worse than it should be. By dropping down a level, work on my game from there, and avoid as much as possible seeing things that negatively affects my mindset, I think I can work the problem better.

@ybyangben Yes, I´m working with a tighter range, usually opening pot and 4bet jamming lighter, esp vs the light 3bettors. Doing that, I still have fe vs the bottom of their range and am not dead vs the top of their ranges. Won´t tell exactly what the range is bc I play with this exact sn on stars LOL, but unless my math is wrong, villains can´t adjust by 3betting tighter vs me. Kept a flatting range ip also with a good mix. Spent an entire night doing this but (on a very limited sample) it seems to work as planned. We´ll see the results in the end of this month.

Cheers!

1443 hands played this afternoon. (I also played 484 hands of 2nl this morning before setting my goal for this month at 5nl, just to laugh a little bit.).

Had some irl stuff to do today so volume is lacking. Tomorrow I think I´ll be able to play a normal session as planned.

5nl felt unbelievably soft today, probably bc game was passive 100% of the time. Easier to fill 6 tables with fish, which also helps a lot. It´s probably the exception ofc, as I remember a lot of days when the tables were as aggro as 10nl.

Btw, I saw a nit (10/8 type) limp/calling from utg today. I remember back in 2013 that the old Blackrain79 book recommended doing that with low pps to setmine. Ofc I never limp nor raise low pps from ep/mp as they are not +ev hands to play most of the time. What do you guys think his range was when he limp/called there? Do ppl still setmine oop today? Couldn´t see his hand as it didn´t get to showdown.

Goodluck everyone.

At 5NL there is a ton of setmining going on for sure. Whether it's +EV at those stakes, I don't know. But lots of players do it.

100% agree with moving down when you are not comfortable at 10NL. As has been said so many times, leave your ego at the door when playing poker. No shame in changing stakes to get better and win more in the long run. Staying in a game where you're losing just because you are too proud to move down would be quite stupid. So good decision.

In general it feels that you really should work on your mental game a lot. Maybe I'm reading it so (an do correct me if so), but it seems that bad luck and variance affect you more than it should. Rate yourself on the decisions you make. Not the results.

Anyway. Keep grinding!

Good to know, tyty.

100% correct, I´m so close to my threshold at all times, both the anger from losing and the drunk from winning, that I´m pretty sure I already know why my graph has so many steep up and downs lately.

I think I´m focusing too much in the money lately (subconsciously), and even if our long term goal is to win as much money as possible, focusing in the money is not the right approach. Working a lot on my game, I´m finally understanding that poker is a game, but it´s also an intellectual challenge (a very difficult one btw), with a lot of interesting spots where we can apply our intelligence to find the perfect solution. That´s how I´m thinking about the game right now, and I also think if I can manage to put that in my subconscious mind, I will finally revert to a more stable mindset.

Interestingly enough, playing poker with buddhist chanting in the background (and without seeing $ results) is keeping me way calmer than usual, and I feel I´m playing my A-game. Also feeling happier for no reason lol.

2314 hands played. Nice to be playing at a limit where ppl 3bets me oop with K4s.



This was my soundtrack today. Played very well while listening this.

Gl everyone!

Probably something like 88-JJ or AJ/AQ/AK/KQ

Interesting. Thank you PokerPlayingGable.

Ended up playing another session, games were too good to pass, tomorrow is a holiday here in my country so a lot of brazilian recs were playing. Also many recs from the rest of the world playing 40, 50 vpip or even higher, so got 6 +EV tables which is a rare ocurrence at this time.

So, quick update, 3371 hands played today.

I don't know if anyone else caught this, but doing this is horrible for many reasons unless they (or you?) are a shortie. Make your 4bets (with value and bluffs) generally between 18-25 bb's depending on their sizing and position. If you are sure they are 3bet bluffing mix in some normal sized 4bet bluffs. And remember standard cbet sizing in 4bet pots is about 1/3 pot w/ value and bluffs.

I realized that just in time and changed my preflop game one more time . Actually, what I´m doing most of the time now is 4betting using those sizings (usually the upper part) or flatting esp ip. Anyway, thank you @WorldzMine.


Hello 2p2, played 2101 hands today. Saw my results, but they are not so bad. Won about 6.5 buy-ins in those 3 days in EV, and 2.5 in real money. 7k hands approximately. Won´t post graphs until the end of the month but I'm happy in that front.

We usually read and hear a lot about board texture and how it helps ours or villain´s range, but what I´m working really hard now (finally as it seems very important) is in understanding the why involved in that. So, when we input a specific hand vs a range, equilab will give the preflop %age that we´ll win, but how exactly we realize that equity postflop is what matters. Knowing that, we know if this is a good flop or a bad flop to our hand, if it´s possible to win a lot or if we´ll always win small pots, etc. The same for villain´s range. With these variables, now we can formulate the best strategy and see when we should bet, when we are x/f, x/r etc. After all those years, I´m finally seeing what seems to be the truth here, and it´s really nice.

On the mental game front, as I said yesterday, I´m now playing while listening buddhist chanting. Not only that, I´m also chanting with them, and it keeps me in a trance-like state that, interestingly enough, makes me feel sharper (like 3X more than when playing with normal music or without any sounds). Didn´t tilt one single time, nor felt any anger, any exagerated happiness after winning etc. None, 0. And it´s great.

Another little trick that I´m using in my game is, when I find a spot where I realize the +ev thing to do is calling a big bet, or betting big otr, I put my hand on my screen covering most of the table above the calling/betting button to not see the outcome, and keep it there for 10 seconds. Doing this, when I finally look at the table, even knowing if I´m up or down, I don´t feel anything positive or negative. I was thinking about stacking the tables but playing with them tiled still seems like the +ev thing to do due to the ability to see the flow, so by doing this little hand trick I get the most of both worlds.

Cheers!

Really like your last tip on hiding the result after making a bet/raise decision. It definitely helps to avoid result oriented!

This is my graph since moving back to 5nl. Things are going ok but not great. 5 evbb/100 seems doable at my level of understanding of the game and without tilting, but beating 5nl fr consistently by more than that seems very hard.

On the positive side, I´m slowly getting rid of all accumulated tilt, and TMGoP and the tricks that I developed are to be blamed for that. Super happy with that.

Cheers!

1670 hands played today, had to cut my session short due to being so tired. Was just clicking buttons towards the end of the day.

Cheers!

2013 hands played today, A+ game 99% of the time, A- on the remainder, so really happy today. Not sure if I´ll be able to play a lot tomorrow and thursday, but I´ll try to play at least 1000 hands/day.

Good luck everyone!

Ended up playing more than planned, 2310 hands today. Mindset not so good on the first part of the session, whch led to playing bad and those swings. Then sorted out irl stuff that was f****** my mindset, game improved and... more swings lol.

Still happy with how my game understanding keeps improving after I finally decided to work harder. Pretty sure results will come. Also decided today to improve my exploitative abilities by "upgrading" my HUD. So, removed turn and river stats, which are by nature unreliable since I don´t have, and probably won´t ever have, enough hands on villains to get accurate numbers. Instead, I decided to put a few more flop stats. Will play turn and river using assumptions based mainly on player type, position and the few stats that I can actually trust.

Graph since I moved down to 5NL on oct 10.



Cheers!

Four years ago you posted this...

You have not got anywhere near your goals and you don't appear to have beaten anything other than 2nl FR.

And now you are 36.

Do yourself a favour...either quit poker or play it strictly as a hobby. Put your energy and industry into something more worthwhile and profitable...the world is your oyster.

Yeah, that plan from 4 years ago was a little bit too ambitious. I probably spent 20% of that time playing, and poker is obv not the place from where I make my income, so I think I´m a rec anyway and this is still a hobby. But I´m serious with my hobbies, so here we are lol.

Just like when I decided to pursue running, I knew that I would have to dedicate a lot of time for things like training, nutrition, tennis shoes, doctors etc, and I wouldn´t be winning competitions, but still if I had to choose between taking it easy or not even trying, I wouldn´t try. I like my somewhat obssessive nature and don´t want to change it, no matter what.

Thank you for your advice sir, really appreciated it.

1622 hands played today. Think I didn´t play my best game nor my worst, just ok. Made a few bad calls esp vs fish in the end of the session.

Cheers!

Fun hand, vs reg

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.02/$0.05 - 8 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $5.11 (102 bb)
UTG+1: $3.80 (76 bb)
MP: $3.44 (69 bb)
MP+1: $5.00 (100 bb)
CO: $5.43 (109 bb)
BU (Hero): $5.00 (100 bb)
SB: $5.83 (117 bb)
BB: $5.37 (107 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with K♣ K♠
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.05, 3 players fold, Hero raises to $0.22, 1 fold, BB calls $0.17, UTG+1 calls $0.17

Flop: ($0.68) Q♥ 8♥ K♥ (3 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $0.21, BB calls $0.21, UTG+1 folds

Turn: ($1.10) 8♦ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.65, BB raises to $1.70, Hero calls $1.05

River: ($4.50) T♥ (2 players)
BB bets $3.24 (all-in), Hero calls $2.87 (all-in)

Total pot: $10.24 (Rake: $0.42)

Showdown:
BB shows 8♣ 8♠ (four of a kind, Eights)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 7%, Turn: 98%, River: 100%)

BU (Hero) shows K♣ K♠ (a full house, Kings full of Eights)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 93%, Turn: 2%, River: 0%)

BB wins $9.82

Well, after reading a few threads that I like, I was thinking a lot about what is happening here at 2p2. There are a lot of good people, like the guy who explained to me via pm why KTs was a good 4bet candidate at 6-max. Also, 100% of people that posted here in my thread was respectful and offered useful info and advice. Still, it seems like the good people are far outnumbered by the bad ones, and as a consequence of this, the good ones seem to be leaving and quality is going downhill.

Due to all of this, and due to the fact that what I really want is something like a diary, I´m switching to a blog (portuguese only, sorry, but I will post images also, link on my profile for anyone interested) and will be voluntarily leaving 2p2 for good as a poster. Will still read the few people that post interesting stuff here.

So, that´s it. For the people that posted in this thread or on my old ones, thanks a lot and see you at the tables. Bye!