"Knish, how are you?" "The same." This is the exact phrase I just used when a coworker asked how I was doing. It made me realize just how much I loath working for someone else and how much I would rather be grinding on the virtual felt for 2-5 hours a day. Despite how difficult, brutal and tilting NLHE can be sometimes, I can't help but sit here at my job perusing the forum or thinking about hands I played over the weekend when I should be working. I see AK or AA somewhere at work or on a license plate and my mind wanders to the days I used to take road trips to the Taj and grind 1/2. I think about hands like when I flopped 4 Qs vs a kids AA full; wish that last A had fallen otr for the BBJ. Or the only time I went to Vegas and experience my first "bad beat" when this loose spazz on tilt ships his stack into my 9's full with a GSSFD and spiked his 1 outer ott. Ah those were fun times.
I feel like those hands were another lifetime ago, but they are not what this thread is about. In July 2016 when a friend texted me about ACR, I decided to return from my poker hiatus in Ali-like fashion. My lifestyle and schedule at the moment won't allow trips to casinos as I don't have a bankroll for live poker...yet. So, I decided to give online a shot again. I'd been playing for free on PokerStars over the last few years just for fun, but had not been dealt a real hand of poker for quite some time. I decided to deposit on ACR and get after it. I didn't waste anytime nearly going broke from my initial $25 deposit. I was playing nearly 50% of hands assuming I was just going to run the tables over. I remember telling myself "you're better than this."
I had only $1.67 left and decided to one table it at the 50BB tables and play super conservative, tourney-like shove/fold type poker until I reached the $30 mark. Mission accomplished. From there I ran my initial deposit up to over 80 BI's at 2NL in a little less than 2 months after buying PT4 and learning how to use it. I was studying not only my own game, but videos online trying to plug leaks and be the best poker player I can be. I basically re-learned everything I thought I knew about the game. It was quite humbling coming to the realization that hey, you're not as good as you think you are. Once that happened, the changes to my game were remarkable and the results showed in my winrate.
My plan for end of 2016 and Jan 2017 was to move up to 5NL at $200 when the inevitable variance hit me like a truck. In 9 days back in late September I believe, I went on a 30 BI downswing where hand after hand where i would be at least an 80% favorite going to the river and lose. The mental struggle of staying positive when you know you keep getting it in good, and losing, is very real. With that downswing ensued an unimaginable tilt spew where eventually I was playing 15 tables and was losing so badly, my auto rebuy to a full stack was no longer an option. I couldn't stop it, I was basically giving money away. I ended up turning off my HUD, and pretty much had fun with my last few buy ins.
At the time I was reading another thread where the player, I don't recall his name now, but he talked about how much freedom there is when you go busto. Oddly enough, I understood what he was talking about. I had run $1.67 into over $165 and lost it all. I could just quit the game and focus my attention on real life.
If I did that though, I wouldn't still be here writing this thread 2 months later, well on my way to grinding it all back and beyond. I took a about two weeks off waiting for Bitcoin to load(took 10 days to completely download, thankfully). I set up some goals for 2017 for BRM and volume during that two weeks. My tilt finally subsided and I redeposited, fresh and ready to get after it again.
Hands, graphs, thoughts and maybe some more stories to follow.
For a little while longer and thanks! I know most people think spending time at 2NL is a waste of time, but I want to make sure the variance and tilt were just that and not me just being bad at the game. I figure if I can't even beat 2NL for a decent stretch, like 300k hands, then what's the point?
And yeah, coming off tilt from an 80 buy in losing stretch was actually extremely enlightening. You always learn more about yourself when you lose than when you win.
This is my 2017 graph so far and my goal is to put in 30-50k hands per month. It's nothing to write home about and I am working on getting better every day and looking for ways to improve. One thing that came apparent last night in my 1k hand session was that I lost a lot of my aggression I had in 2016. I think it was virtually cut in half hence the massive red line dip.
Turn:(103.5 BB, 2 players) Q MP checks, Hero bets 105.5 BB and is all-in, MP calls 73 BB and is all-in
River:(249.5 BB, 2 players) A
Spoiler:
MP shows J T (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 21%, Flop 34%, Turn 100%) Hero shows A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 79%, Flop 66%, Turn 0%) MP wins 237.5 BB
4 BB was deducted from the pot for the jackpot.
Basically 3-5 BI's is my stop loss depending on how happy I am with my decision making. I'd keep playing today but have to go to work. Back to the grind tomorrow.
Turn:(103.5 BB, 2 players) Q MP checks, Hero bets 105.5 BB and is all-in, MP calls 73 BB and is all-in
River:(249.5 BB, 2 players) A
Spoiler:
MP shows J T (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 21%, Flop 34%, Turn 100%) Hero shows A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 79%, Flop 66%, Turn 0%) MP wins 237.5 BB
4 BB was deducted from the pot for the jackpot.
Basically 3-5 BI's is my stop loss depending on how happy I am with my decision making. I'd keep playing today but have to go to work. Back to the grind tomorrow.
That's gross. I was wondering why you left.
I was hoping we'd get to battle but no interesting spots came up.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised he would raise the flop with his hand when he had the odds to just call even oop. I'm probably not putting anymore $ in the pot when the Q falls though unless he plays the hand exactly the way he played it. If he bets ott AP, I just fold. I put him in when he xs because I don't block any FDs and there's no reason for 99/77 to stop once those hands xr flop. Don't think he's raising with KQ here either so he either has JTs or a FD which I'm okay with how I played it charging him for the times he's xr with some kind of fd. This time unfortunately I put it in drawing dead lol. 4 combos of JTs that may play this way vs however many FD combos he has in this spot, I'm perfectly fine with how I played the hand.
I'm sure I'll see you at the tables. If we tangle, we tangle. If not, happy grinding those 100k hands! Here's to running like Jesus in March!!
For a little while longer and thanks! I know most people think spending time at 2NL is a waste of time, but I want to make sure the variance and tilt were just that and not me just being bad at the game. I figure if I can't even beat 2NL for a decent stretch, like 300k hands, then what's the point?
Absolutely it does! NLHE is the most difficult game to master imho so taking the time at the lowest level to be the best I can be is going to pay dividends.
SOoo after only playing a short session yesterday and studying my stats from the latter half of 2016 and the first half of 2016, I got real excited, and here's why. I am very happy with the trend in my graph for SD winnings over 78k hands. My redline, however, took a complete dive and I discovered why Monday night and yesterday morning. I completely took my focus off aggression and I started worrying about "what hands have me beat in their range" and I was checking a few more hands I normally would have value bet otf and ott, (10% and 5%, respectively). A lot of that had to do with me over-adjusting to the tables I play at, but, I think the next 50k hands are going to be fun.
I plan on putting in a short session this morning and a decent amount of volume tonight. Real excited about the future of my game.
Last edited by Flpmethntsdlr; 03-01-2017 at 08:22 AM.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised he would raise the flop with his hand when he had the odds to just call even oop. I'm probably not putting anymore $ in the pot when the Q falls though unless he plays the hand exactly the way he played it. If he bets ott AP, I just fold. I put him in when he xs because I don't block any FDs and there's no reason for 99/77 to stop once those hands xr flop. Don't think he's raising with KQ here either so he either has JTs or a FD which I'm okay with how I played it charging him for the times he's xr with some kind of fd. This time unfortunately I put it in drawing dead lol. 4 combos of JTs that may play this way vs however many FD combos he has in this spot, I'm perfectly fine with how I played the hand.
I'm sure I'll see you at the tables. If we tangle, we tangle. If not, happy grinding those 100k hands! Here's to running like Jesus in March!!
Walking on water b******!
And I'm completely with you guys. I want to have a decent sized sample at each stake to make sure I'm beating the game first before moving up. I want to build a strong foundation. I'm less worried about moving up quickly now.
And I'm completely with you guys. I want to have a decent sized sample at each stake to make sure I'm beating the game first before moving up. I want to build a strong foundation. I'm less worried about moving up quickly now.
Your 10k hand graph is really good. Keep it rolling man!!
Almost done with work and looking forward to putting in some quality volume tonight for 1.5 to 2 hours.
River:(111 BB, 2 players) 6 Hero bets 99.5 BB and is all-in, MP calls 99.5 BB
Spoiler:
MP shows 7 7 (Full House, Sevens full of Sixes)
(Pre 20%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%) Hero shows K K (Two Pair, Kings and Sixes)
(Pre 80%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%) MP wins 294.5 BB
5 BB was deducted from the pot for the jackpot.
The way you played it is good. You were just destined to go broke here. I like x'ing the turn though...not with the intention of folding but for getting more value from weaker hands in villains range. Either by them bluffing turns and/or rivers or by calling rivers after it checks through.
For a while I was checking most of my range in 3bp even on dry boards like that because I feel like V's are so set mine heavy. It's exploitative, but at the same time, I felt like I was missing a ton of value so I switched it up this time.
1500 hands yesterday. -$5.56. I wasn't too thrilled with the spots I was picking for some of my bluffs as you can see from the hands above, but I did a 180 with my AFq from the first 2 months of 2017. I also missed a few value bets otr, oop when it's likely V's are just going to x their sdv.
So discovering leaks is a positive. Fixing them only to create other leaks is another issue all together. Let the adventures continue. Feel free to tear apart any hand history itt.
fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, SB calls 2.5 BB, BB raises to 11 BB, Hero raises to 50 BB, fold, BB raises to 100 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 50 BB
Flop:(203 BB, 2 players) T 3 3
Turn:(203 BB, 2 players) K
River:(203 BB, 2 players) K
Spoiler:
Hero shows A A (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 93%, Flop 98%, Turn 95%) BB shows A K (Full House, Kings full of Threes)
(Pre 7%, Flop 2%, Turn 5%) BB wins 193 BB