RE: QJs hand

I used to be of the mind that after 1 limper I'm pretty much raising any hand I'm playing in LP. But since switching to my super nit method (where I'm not mostly sitting on a topped up stack of only 66bbs) I've kinda adjusted that thinking. Pot is straddled and limper only has $80, so we're playing just 16bbs deep here against him. We just shouldn't be building towards those very small stacks with fairly speculative Q high. And yeah we're deep with the Button... but he's in position, and playing deep in bloated pots is all about position. So I'd just overlimp this now to combat both of those things.

FWIW, my self of ~5 years ago likely wouldn't have agreed with that opinion. But it's where I'm at now.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Wow, it's been too long since my last post. I've been playing, but mostly some boring sessions. I did get to mix it up last week though. We went to a Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony show last week and had an excellent time, if you're a hip-hop fan, make it a point to see them. Although the opening act (Trick-Trick) stole the show. He had his weed man on stage rolling joints and passing them to the other MC's, and eventually the audience. It's the first concert I've been to where the weed smell was stronger from the groups on stage than from the crowd.

The good news was, it was at Motor City Casino. So it was off to the big city where I first started playing to get back in the action. I played a bit before the show at 1/2, and it was pretty lame. It was mostly nit short stackers. I bought in for $300 and the next biggest stack was $150. I won a few pots off the main fish there, but for the most part it was a short stacking nit fest. There was a pretty generous high hand promotion going on during that time, so maybe just some bonus chasers?

After the show when my wife went to bed I decided I would rather buy in at 2/5 for $300 than 1/2. Great decision. Much more fun and action at those tables. I punted off one buyin when against a $10 straddle tried steal the limps by raising to $45 with J9s in LP but got 3 calls. I got a 982 flop and just ripped it but ran head on into a set of 8's. I was drunk and high and knew I wouldn't be playing my best, I was just mostly there for the fun.

Played another session last night that I think set the record for smallest amount of money wagered in a session. I was card dead, and the times I did pick up good hands I never really got past the flop. The biggest pot I played all night was probably when I 3-bet QQ to $35 and took it down on the flop.

I've been in a breakeven holding pattern for the last couple months. That's only been about 45 hours of table time, so not a huge concern. My volume is a bit below target for a few reasons. First, the weather has kept me from making the drive a couple times, and likely will later this week too. Second, last week I nicked my thumb on a miter saw. All things considered it wasn't too bad, but 4 hours in the ER and 6 stitches later, I missed a night of playing. It's been over a week and still stings like a mofo. Luckily it's not my chip-holding hand. Be safe with saws kids!

Motor’s 1/2 is so brutal. Literally just a bunch of short stacking promo chasers. Only reason to go there imo is if it’s the only place with 2/5 running.


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Yeah it was awful. I don't think I've ever seen a table that bad in my hundreds of FireKeepers sessions. Even when bigger games get going, the 1/2 at FK stays pretty good. There was almost no preflop raising. Probably 4 chops in 45 minutes. I probably could beat the game for $5 to $10/hr. with low variance, but I'd rather have my fingernails ripped off. I will definitely never go there just for poker, that's for sure. I have never been to MGM, and I want to make it a point to get there at least once this year.

I put in a couple sessions this weekend. One on Friday, and another on Sunday.

Friday's session was brutal. I dropped over $400, mostly to one player. The guy was a complete maniac, opening about 50% of hands and betting 100% of flops he opened. Of course every time I had a hand good enough to hold on against him, he had it. I don't think there's much I could do there. I think I know how to play well against maniacs and their wide ranges. Too many times I see people just nutmine and fold otherwise. If the maniac is bad enough that can be profitable, but making hero calls is just printing money. Unless you run like I did, in which case you're hemorrhaging. I think I played him OK, just got unlucky.

Friday's was a bit better. I got stacked early in a tough spot. V in this hand is a middle aged woman, who I may have seen once before, but not sure. It's her 2nd hand, and she won her first hand by opening big and pushing everyone else out post flop.

I have $200 and she covers. I pick up AJ in the CO.

She limps in EP, I make it $12, BB calls and she calls.

Flop($32) J85

Checks to me I make it $20. BB folds, she pops to $50.

So am I playing this hand for stacks or not? She seems aggro, so 67/T9 seem like they are in play. I'm mostly worried about 88/55. I could plan on calling and never folding on most runouts. Or I can shove now to deny equity. Call was probably better. I shoved. She somehow had 85o and I'm stacked. Thankfully I managed to get back up after a 3-way all in where my AKo>AQo>JJ. I'm still treading water lately, hoping for another upswing soon.

Regarding AJs hand: if I'm not comfortable folding to a check/raise, then I'm checking back; otherwise I'm bet/folding as I don't feel committed having only gotten in 6% of my stack preflop. IMO.

Welcome to the breakeven holding pattern club! I'm ~breakeven (stuck 49bbs) over 78 hours of 2020. So first 1/7th of my playing year is a wash so far, sigh.

My guess is the biggest difference between winners and losers is that winners keep their heads about them during the vast amount of times they are simply treading water and waiting out the storm.

Gstandard,imoG

Ya its mainly just promo chasers at Motor. 2/5 isnt that bad, but honestly the other 2 rooms in detroit are better options imo.

Mehh spot, against typical 1/2 villians I'm probably just b/f on flop. You don't have any reads really and the population underbluffs.

It's been too long since my last update. I've been busy as usual, and actually playing a fair amount. I'm back out of the downswing after a few good sessions. One more session and I hit 100 in my current database (goes back to Feb of 2018). I'll post some stats on it after I get there. Although it may be a while, as I'm considering staying away from the poker room for a couple weeks while this virus is spreading.

As for last night's session, I hit a flurry of huge hands right at the end of the night. This one never should have happened (I don't think I'm in the wrong at all here, but you tell me).

Folds to me in the SB, and I look down at AJ BB has about $250 and I cover. Normally I'll offer a chop, but if my hand has bad beat/bonus potential, I'd rather at least see a flop and check it down. I tell the guy I want to see a flop, and throw out a $1. A royal flush in diamonds is currently good for $3600.

Flop ($4) JJ9

Despite flopping a monster, I'm willing to check this hand down. I check. He bets $16. Oh, it's like that huh? Ok. I call.

Turn($31) JJ9A

I'll give you one more chance. I check. He bets $15. I raise to $50. He thinks for a second and calls.

River ($129) JJ9A6 I bet $130. He jams for his remaining bit, and I snap it off. He had J5o.

I'm personally not a fan of high hands/bad beats, because I would just rather play poker and not have to get involved in these "flamingo" games trying to both play cards while also chasing and helping others chase these things. But I'll play along because the rec players want to. The Clubs royal is currently at $13,000, and if this guy had 4xed the pot and I had something like AK, I would've had to call, but I wouldn't be happy. Sorry this was a cooler dude, but I was willing to soft play from the blinds to bonus chase.

Yeah, I'm cancelling my weekly session tomorrow and just going to wait it out for a week or two, see what happens, and re-evaluate then. A little annoying since I'm currently stuck $1 (lol, for realz) for 2020 after 105.5 hours and I'm itching to get into the positives for the first time.

Most players in our room chop the blinds, but we also have a ~perpetually existing $500K BBJ. So everyone is very aware of what the SB question "would you like to see a flop?" means (i.e. "I have a BBJ hand, do you?") and checks it down appropriately if both agree to see the flop. Once he bets the flop I might make things more clear with a "oh, I thought we were just going to check it down?" and then if he disagrees I'd go for the jugular (I probably would have shoved the river myself as played).

GcluelessblindschoppingnoobG

Has it really been almost a year? For the last 10.5 months I haven't played a hand of poker. Despite a work trip that put me in Vegas for even more nights than usual back in November, I stayed true and didn't venture far outside my hotel (other than to get liquor).

My local room is still closed with no opening on the horizon, nor am I too inclined to put myself at much risk given that I am likely 2 months or so from getting vaccinated, being considered "essential manufacturing."

So what have I been doing this last year? Mostly video games and catching up on years of excellent TV shows that I missed. And work. I've actually been busy at work, but it's starting to slow down a bit now.

But Pokerstars Michigan has launched! Earlier this week I threw $10 in and hopped in for some $.01/$.02 on my phone. I've run it up to about $18 so far, single tabling on my phone. Now I'm at a bit of a crossroads. Back in 2011 I was grinding the Full Tilt zoom tables and working my way up the stakes, running $100 to nearly $1000 in 3 months before black Friday. I felt I was on the cusp of starting to play some bigger games like NL50 & 100 where the money would get interesting, right as it all came crashing down. Now that option is suddenly on the table again. I suddenly find myself with the time to grind a couple hours per day again.

I'm at a crossroads. Do I continue playing microstakes poker casually on my phone, single tabling during boring work meetings or when I find myself a free 15 minutes. Or do I put in a bigger deposit, shell out for pokertraker or hold'em manager (I wonder if my HEM license from 10 years ago is still good?) and get back to regularly grinding.

So far the games on this site are really soft. I'm seeing lots of open limping and calling raises/3-bets with trash aces like I used to back in 2005. Something is telling me I need to strike while the iron is hot. Currently the player pool is Michigan only. I'm hearing as many as 2500 players on at peak times, and the tourneys are starting to get some attention. I'm thinking about depositing up to $200, starting at $10NL and working up from there. Maybe even $25NL if the games are soft enough.

The last two times I was a serious online player (2006 and 2011) the damn US govt shut me down right as I was starting to get to the real money stakes. I've become a bit more sedentary these days. I'm thinking I need to just man up and start grinding again instead of just watching 3 hours of HBO Max every night after the kids are in bed. If I can get to the point where I'm making $10-$20K playing online poker, that can make a real impact on my life. That's always been my goal.

Well I did it. I deposited $200 on stars. My first order of business was to bet half of it across multiple super bowl bets, mostly ones that assumed the Chiefs would win, score lots of points, and gain lots of yards. So most of that's gone. I bet $10 on a promotional bet that paid out $10.10 if any points were scored, and another $5 on the coin toss being heads. The other 12 bets were losers.

Then on Monday I put in my first 4 tabling HUD session in nearly a decade. Back when I played on Full Tilt in 2011 I was playing rush, which I really enjoyed. I would 2-table it, allowing me to put in high volume and focus on the hands at play. With 4-tabling normal tables I find it's much more auto-piloting. I don't have time to focus on HUD stats of my opponents and calculate the best play. All I really did was glance at their PFR stats when deciding whether to 3-bet middle pairs or hands like AJ.

Although those rush games were tough. I had just dipped my toes into 50NL before black Friday. 90% of the player pool were at least TAGs. However on the stars 5NL games I played last night, The typical VPIP was around 45. There were some whales playing a 70VPIP with a 50PFR. These games are beatable. I ended the sessions down $1 after 500 hands, so about as breakeven as you can get.

From what I remember my BRM strategy was to move up when I hit 15 BI's for the next level, and drop back down if I hit a 5 BI downswing. My Stars "roll" right now is about $120. I figure I'll play 5NL for a little while until I shake the rust off and then jump up to $10. I could just deposit more and go straight to 10 or 25NL, and maybe financially that's the smarter move. But I've always sort of liked the idea of starting at the bottom and grinding it up, hopefully learning as I go.

I have noticed the microstakes strat forum here is a shell of its former self. Back in 2011 I learned mostly through that and through Card Runners. Where are the good strat sites now for experienced players looking to move up through micro to low stakes online? When playing for this little money I'm not considering paying much for any of the premium training sites (maybe if I start playing 100 to 200NL).

Back when I played rush I was working full time (and commuting) and going to grad school. Now my life is much more settled in. If all goes well this will be the first year of my poker career regularly grinding cash games.

As for goals for the year, I think this is where I'm at:
Volume: 200K Hands
Highest level achieved per BRM strategy: $200NL.
$ Earned: $8000.

Those are stretch goals.

GL, mang. I don't think I could jump right in to 4-tabling after all these years. Impressive.

Thanks! On one hand I've been playing poker in various forms for so long now that it's a bit like riding a bike. But it's such a different feeling from playing live low stakes where the whole time I am just formulating a plan on how I'm going to get each players money, and doing it in a couple orbits. So far my strategy has been to look at the table, see at least 3 VPIP's north of 35 and assume it's pretty soft and otherwise just autopiloting. There's probably lots of exploits I'm missing based on stuff people do that I don't see because I'm at another table. It does appear Poker Tracker is now doing some auto note taking of fishy plays, so that's a nice feature.

My rough plan is to probably 4 table $5 and $10NL, 3-table $25 & $50NL and then 2 or 1 table any bigger games. That's at least at the start. I know there's probably no way I could be profitable 4-tabling tougher games, but at least for now they are soft enough I don't really need to pay too much attention to my opposition.

Week 1 of being a microstakes grinder again is in the book. The results were not great, down a couple buyins ($10) at 5NL after about 3200 hands. Although I'm running a couple buyins below All-In EV so it could be worse.

I started off on a high note winning at a nice clip through about 1500 hands. Then hands 1800-2500 included an 8 BI downswing that was just a brutal selection of beats and coolers. I maybe could have salvaged that 8BI downswing to about 5 or 6 at best though. I had several sets drawn out on, whiffed on some big combo draws I played aggressively, and ran some big hands into maniacs. The spots I maybe could have saved some money were when my big pocket pairs got outdrawn on what were otherwise safe looking boards where someone hit a set or trips.

The good news is I think the games are beatable, and I have definitely learned some things dipping my toes back into the online game. There are a lot of VPIP's north of 40 and the average preflop raise % is less than 10. The games are not as TAG infested as the rush games I beat 10 years ago. It's probably halfway between what live 1/2 plays like and what tougher online games have been.

The main takeaways from 5NL on Pokerstars MI are:
-Small c-bets work really well. Guys just way over-fold to them.
-Baluga theorem largely still holds. Hero calling got me in a bit of trouble.
-I can't steal the blinds like I used to at rush with weak hands. Tight is still right.
-C-Bet the flop small when the board calls for it, but otherwise go for fat value with strong hands.
-Be careful when 3-betting guys with preflop raise % < 10.

Hopefully the next week goes a bit better results wise, but I'm enjoying it and I know I can be a winning player in these games.

Week 2 of grinding in the books. I"m about 7500 hands in. I played a few 10NL tables on some slow nights when it was hard to 4 table 5NL. I did pretty good there, and lately have been playing a mix of 5NL and 10NL in a weird BRM strategy. I'm a slight loser at 5NL but winning quite well at 10NL. Just luck mostly. I still haven't fully recovered from the nasty 5NL downswing where I got stacked like 6 times in short succession.

The main difference from the live games I'm used to is that even the bad players don't station off like they do live. Knowing when to push bluffs and when to give up is clearly more important. So many of my live bluffs are "this guy's weak I can attack" or spots where I know villains are capable of making beluga folds and their range is capped at 1 pair. I've definitely been trying to be more aggressive with hands that have equity or blockers to their value hands.

Overall results I'm pretty happy. Through about 7500 hands (approox. 6000 at 5NL and 1500 and 10NL) I'm up a whopping $15. Up $35 at 10NL and down $20 at 5NL. It definitely feels like I've been bit with the run bad. In this sample I've been overflushed, had several sets drawn out on, got stacked QQ vs. KT on a KKTQx board, among others. I'm sure this feeling is a mix of a few factors. 1. Guys aren't calling down as light so their hands naturally have more equity against me than in live games. 2. The increased pace of online games makes them seem more frequent. 3. There may actually be some real rundbad in there.

Hopefully it's more #3 than 1 & 2, but I will probably need to play more to know for sure. If I can have another profitable week I'll try to move to 10NL full time (there's about 4x the game selection than 5NL) and then hopefully start shot taking at 30NL soon.

We are now 3 weeks in. I have managed to both get back in the black at 5NL and move on from that level completely. My roll has hit $190 and I'll be moving to 10NL full time unless I hit a downswing and dip below $150, which is definitely possible as I've had a couple of 4+ BI downswings so far.

The games at 10NL are pretty soft, and I'm having no trouble 4-tabling. I'm not sure I'm going to ever add more. I think the way I'm going to do it is at 10 BI's for the next level, which is $300, I'll start adding 1-table of 30NL.

During boring work meetings I've played a few $1 spin-n-gos on my phone. These are fun. I don't have the push/fold charts memorized or anything, but against this competition, I don't think I need to. I've seen some pretty fishy play here.

I have done pretty much no studying whatsoever in these last 3 weeks. I have basically been coasting off my previous 16 years of poker knowledge in both live and online environments to crush the 50 VPIP fish that frequent this site. At some point though it's likely that will no longer be enough, and I will have to start adding to my poker skillset again to continue winning. Sadly the 2+2 forums no longer seem to be a great place for high level poker discussion they once were. While I will probably pop in on the microstakes forums, I doubt that will be my go-to for poker knowledge. So I'm looking for some other avenues.

- I used to have a CardRunners membership back in 2011 but I see that site has gone belly up, so that's not an option, but other similar sites might be worthwhile.
- I looked into Zenith Poker and it has some neat free material that I will probably check out.
- I know there are tons of videos all throughout youtube but I'm sure for every worthwhile video there's 10 garbage ones, and I'm not sure that's the best use of my time.
- Upswing poker has a postflop lab for $7. I like Polk's style even though I'm more interested in small stakes online stuff than playing GTO against top pros. For $7 I might as well, but other upswing content is much more expensive.
- Red Chip Poker has a course called Core that I might check out. Their site is $5/week which is a bit more than I'm willing to pay right now, but maybe if I hit 100 or 200NL later this year I might check it out. I used to listen to their podcasts when they were more strategy based (before they switched to just interviewing poker players about their personal lives which IDGAF about) and I really like their approach.

If there are other recommendations out there, I'm all ears.

I went on a pretty fantastic heater at 10NL last week, and when the roll hit $300 I opened up a $30 table. I ran hot there too and was pushing $400 before I finally dropped a couple BI's when some 4-bet pots went bad, running QQ into AA, TT into KK, and AK into a 89TJ 3 club board where I had no clubs and had to fold. Overall I'm still up at $30NL, the roll is over $330, so I'll be mixing some 10NL and 30NL for the time being. The $30 games are definitely a bit tougher but still a walk in the park relatively speaking. I still haven't done any real study, just autopiloting from my normal game.

I've made a few mistakes 4-tabling, but nothing that's cost me any significant money. There's been a few spots where I sort of transposed the cards from one table to the board from another and made the wrong play, and occasionally I've forgotten the previous street actions on other tables. I'm going to try and stick with it at least at these stakes. Once I get to a level where I'm not seeing any major (40+ VPIP and low aggression) fish at the table I may start going down to 3 or 2, but for now the money is still pretty easy without having to really worry about trying to push small edges against decent players.

So right now I'm +$200 with one month of grinding microstakes, mostly 5 and 10NL. I can't be too mad about that. I've played about 12K hands. One of these days I'll throw in my PT3 graph here, it's looking good so far. My plan is to just keep moving up through the stakes, taking some aggressive shots with the bankroll, and then I'll reevaluate my game when my winnings hit a wall.

You are killing it What's your name on Pokerstars MI? I'm that stupid fish that is paying everyone off Crzytimes11.

Yachem25. Looks like we have about 500 hands together at 5 & 10NL. My DB shows you as a winner who is running bad, -$30 actual, but +$15 AIEV adjusted, lol. Your stats are more solid than most at this stake.

Ah yes - I've got a couple notes on you. All good...I've gotten it in 2x with you

We got it in my AKs vs your JJ pre and then the hand below.

You had a monster draw when I opened UTG and got min-raised by the table fish.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD and Database Software

NL Holdem 0.10(BB)
CO (168.9) [VPIP: 22.4% | PFR: 15.8% | AGG: 26.9% | Hands: 463]
BTN (42.3) [VPIP: 63.6% | PFR: 9.1% | AGG: 40% | Hands: 11]
SB (125.2) [VPIP: 37.5% | PFR: 8.3% | AGG: 41.5% | Hands: 48]
BB (87.6) [VPIP: 40.7% | PFR: 5.7% | AGG: 21.3% | Hands: 250]
HERO (100) [VPIP: 17.7% | PFR: 12.6% | AGG: 23.4% | Hands: 29050]

Dealt to Hero: 4 4

HERO Raises To 3 BBs, CO Calls 3, BTN Folds, SB Raises To 5 BBs, BB Folds, HERO Calls 2, CO Calls 2

Hero SPR on Flop: [5.94 effective]
Flop (16): K 3 4
SB Checks, HERO Bets 15 (Rem. Stack: 80), CO Raises To 46 BBs (Rem. Stack: 117.9), SB Folds, HERO Raises To 95 BBs (allin), CO Calls 49 (Rem. Stack: 68.9)

Turn (206): K 3 4 A

River (206): K 3 4 A 7

lol did I win the JJ vs AKs hand too? I've been running like the sun at 10NL. My winnings are several buyins higher than my AIEV. Looks like you might be part of the reason why. I seem to have a knack of running combo draws into big hands and getting there. My graph is pretty much the hockey stick. It was mostly a flatline for about 7k hands and then has been a sharp line upwards since.

I wonder what the min 3-bettor had there.

I suspect we are pretty much just passing $$ back and forth between us for now while we try to take it off the fish, of which there are many. I have been playing most nights for a couple hours, usually sometime between 8 and 12. If you want a shot to get a couple buyins back from me, you know where to find me! Although on this site the real money is in just chasing the whales around.

Of course you won the JJ vs AK hand! You've had my number both times it seems. I've been running unbelievably horribly bad. I know this isn't the BBV forum and I know people don't really care about other peoples' bad beats...but...my Saturday night session.

KK vs AA and QQ vs KK preflop... then AK vs TT in a 3bet pot on a AT4r board... then finally set over set in a BB vs SB on a A86r board. All within 250 hands. I just logged back off.

It'll turn back around though. There are plenty of fish - I find that the "regs" tend to just cooler each other....of which I seem to be on the short end of frequently.

Good luck out there!

I've had one 8BI downswing so far, it was mostly just a bunch of coolers, that came and went so fast I barely even noticed it. These games are just so profitable that even the variance can't really slow me down much. I really hope the games can stay good for at least a few years. I'm not sure what the future of online poker for MI looks like, but I'm hoping it stays strong for a while.

Another good week. The bankroll is now pushing $500 and I will start shot taking some $50NL tables once I get there. I'm playing $30NL exclusively now, and am continuing to win.

I had my first losing session in a while last night (down a whopping $5) but had some wild hands in the process. I lost a a few big pots when I got overflushed, trips vs flush, and 4-bet AK like 3 times and lost each time. But then I had some big wins.

My favorite pot:

I raise KK in MP. Get called from the blinds. Flop comes KK4. The guy goes pot/pot/shove into me, and I call down laughing the whole way. He had QJ for a stone bluff.

And my second favorite:

I raise T8 from the CO, and get a call form the blinds.

Flop: 9JQ. He check/called 1/2 pot bets on the turn and river. I'm praying he has the A and another one comes. Turn bricked but the river paired the 9, so maybe he's got something worth stacking off with. He check/jams the river, and I snap him off and beat his A3.

Somehow I managed to flop the stone nuts twice in one night and get stacks in. Unfortunately I still ended up down. My confidence is pretty strong though. One of the 4 tables I had open was tougher than usual, with most players having reasonable VPIP's and PFR's. However I still felt like I had an edge on the table as they still make far too many mistakes, such as underbluffing, taking BS lines when they do bluff, and folding far too quickly to 1/4 pot bets. I haven't felt the need to go out and do any significant poker study yet to really beat up on this player pool. I'm not sure when that will happen, but for now I'm just going to keep riding the wave and winning money off the fish.

Graph time. The first 9K or so hands were pretty brutal. It was a mix of me getting my feet wet playing online again, running terrible, but also some questionable play on my part. Since then it's been mostly smooth sailing. It also helps that most of the breakeven was 5NL and the rungood mostly 10 and 30. I've started dipping my toes into 50NL now that my roll is near $700. I know this is a fairly small sample still, but I am on a good pace as far as my goals go. I'm at 17bb/100 which crushes any realistic winrate I thought was possible. I could just be running and get smacked back to reality at any minute. But I do remember beating the rush games on FTP back in 2011 for around 5 to 10 bb/100, and these games are significantly softer, so maybe this winrate is possible as long as the games don't dry up. Either way there's not much point in dwelling on it. I'll continue to focus on playing good poker and trying to make some extra scratch.

We've talked about doing a family trip to Disney World sometime in 2022. We did it back in 2016 and it was pretty fun, but that was with just the one kid. Next year the twins will be five and my oldest 10. I figure we could do a pretty baller trip for $10K. If I can manage to pay for that solely with poker winnings, I'd be pretty happy.