Imagining that you're in a real scenario. Assuming you're playing 1/2 nl live.
You raise with KK, let's say 10 and get one caller.
Pot is 20 and flop is A x x. Heads up, you should almost always cbet. In a multi way pot, you can check more often.
So, let's say we're heads up, cbet 15 and get called. Proceed with caution.
We get raised, in most cases it's an easy fold, unless we have a really good read on villain and believe he's doing this with a draw or is just some crazy person. The trick is to be able to cut our losses but not be afraid to invest 25, 30 bucks and fold.
Hope that makes sense.
Good luck to us all!

I would recommend reading the SSNL hand histories and analysis for free man if you're a 1/2 player. It's really helped me.

No doubt, and I hope my reply makes sense.

Right now I do read there a good bit, but am mostly focused on avoiding spots I thought were just the wrong side of variance and turns out they are losing spots. I see a lot of that in that forum where "fold pre" is often the right answer (but it's good to reinforce that).

I owe the thread a couple updates, not that I think too many (if any) are following along, but for my own good I'll still keep track here and hopefully look back as a better and/or winning player.

10/20
After many more videos and countless podcasts I go ahead to the poker room and make up my mind firmly to follow what I have been learning even if it goes against what I have thought all along (AKA, it's ok to be wrong). I'm not open limping any pots, I'm tightening up my preflop range (even though I thought I was a nit, turns out I was just a scared little spew monkey), not calling with opens if I can't raise them unless it's with a mid pair and the stack sizes justify it.

Session went as the nit in me feared, I didn't play a lot of hands and opened/3 bet AK 5 or maybe even 6 times only to whiff it every time. I did c-bet on a Q high board once and got folds, but otherwise I had to check/fold each time feeling like if I had just limped I would have saved a lot of money (I do know that to be wrong now).

I overplayed some hands in an effort to not be a nit, one hand sticks out to me was posted for critique here:https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...-sure-1726220/

I did learn some things form that thread, but the gist of it is I had AKhh on a flop of A Jh Th, bet out and got insta shoved on and felt like this was a fistpump call, maybe not so much when villain turns over KQ for the straight. Meh, not gonna lie, I probably call next time I'm in that spot as well.

I did have to fold at least (that I remember) 6 pocket pairs because the pot was opened before me and the stack sizes did not justify set mining. Not one time would I have flopped a set or overpair so that's around $100 I didn't spew off. I know that's at least a little results oriented, but isn't that OK when we make the right play? I dunno.

All in I think I played better but the result didn't change, although chasing sets with small pairs would have made the night worse so I guess I can say I lost less than I would normally have so the training site is working to that extent.

-$350 on the night.

10/21

Determined to play even better and not let the results of the night before change my new approach I hit the room again.

Things go much better today until I spewed a few chips making calls I just shouldn't make.

Again, I refuse to call an open preflop if I can't raise and don't play pairs without the stack size to justify. Opening AK and flopping and A and getting paid is apparently a thing, who knew?


I did plays 9's that I opened to $15 from mid position, got called by a spew monkey and then shoved on for a maniac's last $42. I called the $37 which maybe suspect. The empty side pot checked through on a K high board and I made 9's full on the river to win that pot.

I donked off some chips when it checked around and I had J9DD in the BB the flop was 578 all diamonds. Flop Checks, blank on the turn and OMC leads for $30 which should have been a super red flag and I make a horrible decision to call. He's literally not in this pot without the nut flush. River is a blank and he shoves his last $97 in the pot. Apparently oxygen deprived I snap call with zero hope of winning the pot. What can I beat here? He isn't doing this with 10h6h. Perhaps taking even two seconds to think this through would have been ideal. He flips up Ah6h which was the only real possible outcome.

I did play better, trying to assign ranges on boards, judging texture of the boards and actually getting some c-bets through which I never did in the past and genuinely felt like I was giving myself a chance to win which I didn't feel that way in the past.

AA held up against KK for a nice pot and other than the super spew above I don't think I made too many mistakes except maybe folding too much.

+225

imo coaching alone can make almost anybody a winner at live 1/3. Online is a different story where you also need to put in a heavy amount of volume.

It looks like you are on the right path to becoming a winning player. It isn't easy or everyone would do it! Wish you the best of luck man!

Pen, did you reach your goal, did you lose your roll and prove to us that you can't coach poker?
Well, congrats then! I'm not too proud to accept being wrong then.
Or, are you starting to crush it and are too embarrassed to admit defeat?