Rake-free poker madness!
06-25-2017
, 11:06 AM
Didn't play PLO today, even though the slight temptation was there. Very happy with the way I played too. Really thinking through spots well and making well thought out decisions.
Have not managed to break through towards the 2.5k profit mark for the past few days, but I am confident that towards the end of the month I should be able to get close. Pretty much breakeven for today, and here's an interesting hand that I played which I would like to hear your guys' opinions on.
We are in the small blind w/ QQ, folds to button who limps, I bet 4bb. Big blind folds, button calls.
Flop Q 4 3 rainbow (pot 9bb)
I check, villain bets 4bb, I call.
Turn comes 10 (pot 17bb). I check again, villain checks.
I am not quite sure about my turn play here, what do you guys think? I feel like most of his flop bets would be middling pairs which probably fold if we bet turn here.
River comes A, I decide to bet 10bb for value and villain reraises to 30bb.
What would you guys do here? Villain has about 50bb behind.
Have not managed to break through towards the 2.5k profit mark for the past few days, but I am confident that towards the end of the month I should be able to get close. Pretty much breakeven for today, and here's an interesting hand that I played which I would like to hear your guys' opinions on.
We are in the small blind w/ QQ, folds to button who limps, I bet 4bb. Big blind folds, button calls.
Flop Q 4 3 rainbow (pot 9bb)
I check, villain bets 4bb, I call.
Turn comes 10 (pot 17bb). I check again, villain checks.
I am not quite sure about my turn play here, what do you guys think? I feel like most of his flop bets would be middling pairs which probably fold if we bet turn here.
River comes A, I decide to bet 10bb for value and villain reraises to 30bb.
What would you guys do here? Villain has about 50bb behind.
06-25-2017
, 01:16 PM
It has only been a couple of hours later since the previous post, and I was doubting wether or not to post it but here we go anyway.
Within about 300 hands I have lost $350 whilst 3-tabling two 40NL tables and a 60NL table.
The last time I was losing decent amounts has been due to me playing 100NL and losing a couple of stacks there due to bad play, or simply punting in PLO.
This time it has been due to some insane coolers which affected me mentally. Over the course of these 300 hands I have lost AA to KK, KK to QQ, and full house vs full house. Many of these situations occured with fairly deep stacks. I would be lying if I said that these situations haven't changed my play, and I have made mistakes that I otherwise wouldn't because I let it get to me, which ended up costing me even more.
Anyhow, here is my updated graph:
After a while I was afraid to get it in without having the nuts, which is of course an indication of tilt. I am glad I managed to recognize it and left the tables.
Anyhow, wanted to share with you guys that the last couple of thousands of hands have been pretty rough. Instead of acting like a bad poker player and ranting about how unlucky I am I have to realize it is part of the game and I have to keep going. On to the next update!
Within about 300 hands I have lost $350 whilst 3-tabling two 40NL tables and a 60NL table.
The last time I was losing decent amounts has been due to me playing 100NL and losing a couple of stacks there due to bad play, or simply punting in PLO.
This time it has been due to some insane coolers which affected me mentally. Over the course of these 300 hands I have lost AA to KK, KK to QQ, and full house vs full house. Many of these situations occured with fairly deep stacks. I would be lying if I said that these situations haven't changed my play, and I have made mistakes that I otherwise wouldn't because I let it get to me, which ended up costing me even more.
Anyhow, here is my updated graph:
After a while I was afraid to get it in without having the nuts, which is of course an indication of tilt. I am glad I managed to recognize it and left the tables.
Anyhow, wanted to share with you guys that the last couple of thousands of hands have been pretty rough. Instead of acting like a bad poker player and ranting about how unlucky I am I have to realize it is part of the game and I have to keep going. On to the next update!
06-27-2017
, 04:51 PM
Time for another update. I managed to recover a bit after the post I made two days ago, and managed to get back to the 2K profit mark.
Unfortunately the last two days haven't been going too well, and I just can't seem to get any momentum going so far. I have been putting in decent volume and managed to reach the 16K hand mark, but I think it is safe to say that I have been getting hit by some variance.
I am glad that most of it is just preflop all in coolers. I have gotten it in with AA and KK four times today and somehow managed to lose all four of them.
In the past I would be very tilted by this, but in some way I am glad that if it weren't for these losses I would be making a solid profit every day, and at the end of the day there is nothing I can do about these losses.
Because I am not able to keep track of my hands in some kind of database I do feel like it is more difficult to plug leaks. If these coolers werent happening I would be making profit, but there are of course still some big leaks in my game.
Perhaps you guys have any tips for me as to how I could try to identify these leaks without the aid of some kind of hand tracking software.
As we reach the end of the first month I am starting to develop a sense of pride over myself. I have never managed to consistently put in hours into poker the way I have this month, and it seems that my goal of 2K a month is very achievable for the first month.
Unfortunately the last two days haven't been going too well, and I just can't seem to get any momentum going so far. I have been putting in decent volume and managed to reach the 16K hand mark, but I think it is safe to say that I have been getting hit by some variance.
I am glad that most of it is just preflop all in coolers. I have gotten it in with AA and KK four times today and somehow managed to lose all four of them.
In the past I would be very tilted by this, but in some way I am glad that if it weren't for these losses I would be making a solid profit every day, and at the end of the day there is nothing I can do about these losses.
Because I am not able to keep track of my hands in some kind of database I do feel like it is more difficult to plug leaks. If these coolers werent happening I would be making profit, but there are of course still some big leaks in my game.
Perhaps you guys have any tips for me as to how I could try to identify these leaks without the aid of some kind of hand tracking software.
As we reach the end of the first month I am starting to develop a sense of pride over myself. I have never managed to consistently put in hours into poker the way I have this month, and it seems that my goal of 2K a month is very achievable for the first month.
06-27-2017
, 05:31 PM
06-30-2017
, 07:33 AM
The month has come to an end, and unfortunately I haven't managed to make $2K in the first month of playing, and I have ended with a profit of $1600.
I have mixed feelings overall. I am currently in university and so $1600 is a decent amount of money for me. Having made this from scratch by playing consistently is of course an achievement. On the other side I had a goal in mind of $2000, and I didn't manage to reach that.
I have however learned alot from this month that I can take with me in the next month.
- I have punted about $400 at PLO this month because of boredom. Definitely should not do this.
- Managed to improve my mental game significantly. Losing pre-flop all ins with AA is something which used to feel terrible, now it's just a mild inconvenience.
- I should not bluff unknown/recreational players. Whenever I would reflect on the day, most of the times my biggest losing pots were triple barrels not working. Even though I do not have the data to back it up, I would lose much more with these bluffs than what I would gain. I should definitely opt for the more passive lines against these recreational players and try to get fat value when my draws get there.
Here is the graph for the month:
It is bothering me that I do not have a database of hands played, and as such I feel like it is harder to improve as a player. Because of this, I am going to do something slightly different for the next month.
Because volume during the morning/afternoon on the site is very low and most of the players are regs, playing during these periods is a waste of time. Instead, I will play 10NL during these periods on betonline where I can actually use HEM2 as a means of improvement. The money at 10NL does not mean much, and so I will use this purely as an improvement tool.
During weekends/evenings I can focus on reaching my $2K goal, and otherwise I will just try to put in as much volume as I can on the regular 10NL betonline tables. My goal is ~350 hands per day on the money making site, and ~700 hands per day on Betonline.
Let's see how it goes, grind on!
I have mixed feelings overall. I am currently in university and so $1600 is a decent amount of money for me. Having made this from scratch by playing consistently is of course an achievement. On the other side I had a goal in mind of $2000, and I didn't manage to reach that.
I have however learned alot from this month that I can take with me in the next month.
- I have punted about $400 at PLO this month because of boredom. Definitely should not do this.
- Managed to improve my mental game significantly. Losing pre-flop all ins with AA is something which used to feel terrible, now it's just a mild inconvenience.
- I should not bluff unknown/recreational players. Whenever I would reflect on the day, most of the times my biggest losing pots were triple barrels not working. Even though I do not have the data to back it up, I would lose much more with these bluffs than what I would gain. I should definitely opt for the more passive lines against these recreational players and try to get fat value when my draws get there.
Here is the graph for the month:
It is bothering me that I do not have a database of hands played, and as such I feel like it is harder to improve as a player. Because of this, I am going to do something slightly different for the next month.
Because volume during the morning/afternoon on the site is very low and most of the players are regs, playing during these periods is a waste of time. Instead, I will play 10NL during these periods on betonline where I can actually use HEM2 as a means of improvement. The money at 10NL does not mean much, and so I will use this purely as an improvement tool.
During weekends/evenings I can focus on reaching my $2K goal, and otherwise I will just try to put in as much volume as I can on the regular 10NL betonline tables. My goal is ~350 hands per day on the money making site, and ~700 hands per day on Betonline.
Let's see how it goes, grind on!
07-09-2017
, 05:03 PM
I have not updated this thread in a long time because for the last week I was basically dealing with some stuff in life and a lack of motivation in general. I tried playing on probably about 8 different sites, trying to find good games, withdrawing my money because I did not like the software/rakeback/whatever, redepositing on another site etc..
All of this ended up with me wasting a lot of time and not making any progress.
I have come to the conclusion that I will again focus on my main site to make as much money as possible. I am also playing $50NL Snap tables on 888 when I can not play my main site during the day. Hopefully this will be a nice addition to the bankroll at the end of the month.
Today I managed to do well and made about $250 so far. My total profit is back to $2000. Hopefully I can continue this trend going forward in July.
All of this ended up with me wasting a lot of time and not making any progress.
I have come to the conclusion that I will again focus on my main site to make as much money as possible. I am also playing $50NL Snap tables on 888 when I can not play my main site during the day. Hopefully this will be a nice addition to the bankroll at the end of the month.
Today I managed to do well and made about $250 so far. My total profit is back to $2000. Hopefully I can continue this trend going forward in July.
07-10-2017
, 05:08 PM
Another solid day. It seems that the runbad has finally turned around a bit, as I manage to have another good day in terms of profit and reach a bankroll peak.
Made another $250. I feel like my game was really solid today. As I said in an earlier post I wanted to focus on not bluffing against stations, and not paying recreational players off with mediocre holdings when they show agression.
I feel like I made some laydowns I would not have last month, and they ended up saving me a bunch of money.
2.5K profit here I come!
Made another $250. I feel like my game was really solid today. As I said in an earlier post I wanted to focus on not bluffing against stations, and not paying recreational players off with mediocre holdings when they show agression.
I feel like I made some laydowns I would not have last month, and they ended up saving me a bunch of money.
2.5K profit here I come!
07-13-2017
, 06:37 AM
I am starting to get a bit frustrated. It seems that I just can not break through the 2K profit mark and it's starting to get to me a little bit. It took me 12K hands to reach 2K USD profit. and now I've been hovering around that point for another 10K hands.
I know that it is a small break even stretch in the grand scheme of things, but because the daily volume I play (at best ~500 hands per day) it is very frustrating to basically be stuck for the last 2.5 weeks at the same point.
It's a combination of bad play and bad luck. I'm down $270 today and I would guess that about half of that is bad luck in HUSNG's (losing KK vs K3 and QQ vs JJ for large-ish pots) and part of that is just simply playing bad.
Also, the guy who I lost a decent amount to in these SNG's got it in bad most of the times and sucked out on me. Whatever, that's poker, but afterwards he started berating me in chat to troll me and it got to me. I know that I shouldn't focus on these things, and that as long as my plays are +EV in the long run I will beat these guys, but it really requires strong mentality which I still have to develop.
I guess this is what defines a good poker player. It's easy to feel good and play well when you are running hot like I did for the first 12K hands. Pushing through these breakeven stretches is what makes the difference.
I also found myself very frustrated after this session. I was basically in a bad mood and frustrated against my parents for no reason. One of the hardest parts for me about poker is to leave the results as they are and not carry them over into the rest of my day. So far however it seems that my mood is for a big part determined by how my poker sessions went.
How do you guys deal with this? This is a of course a bad mentality to have.
Gotta keep grinding!
I know that it is a small break even stretch in the grand scheme of things, but because the daily volume I play (at best ~500 hands per day) it is very frustrating to basically be stuck for the last 2.5 weeks at the same point.
It's a combination of bad play and bad luck. I'm down $270 today and I would guess that about half of that is bad luck in HUSNG's (losing KK vs K3 and QQ vs JJ for large-ish pots) and part of that is just simply playing bad.
Also, the guy who I lost a decent amount to in these SNG's got it in bad most of the times and sucked out on me. Whatever, that's poker, but afterwards he started berating me in chat to troll me and it got to me. I know that I shouldn't focus on these things, and that as long as my plays are +EV in the long run I will beat these guys, but it really requires strong mentality which I still have to develop.
I guess this is what defines a good poker player. It's easy to feel good and play well when you are running hot like I did for the first 12K hands. Pushing through these breakeven stretches is what makes the difference.
I also found myself very frustrated after this session. I was basically in a bad mood and frustrated against my parents for no reason. One of the hardest parts for me about poker is to leave the results as they are and not carry them over into the rest of my day. So far however it seems that my mood is for a big part determined by how my poker sessions went.
How do you guys deal with this? This is a of course a bad mentality to have.
Gotta keep grinding!
Last edited by Barking_Cat; 07-13-2017 at 06:44 AM.
07-29-2017
, 05:05 PM
The last time I edited this thread was about 16 days ago. I fell into a bit of a mental valley in terms of motivation for the game. I was getting super frustrated over my results and being breakeven for such a long time that I did not feel like playing anymore. A pretty brutal downswing made things even worse and I didn't play for a couple of days to get over it.
During those days off I enjoyed watching the PLO bankroll challenge by Jnandez and it got me more interested in PLO. Before this I considered myself strictly a NL player, and because I was terrible at PLO I would just end up punting all my profits there. I decided to spend more time in studying the game in more detail and I decided to start grinding again.
This time, I actually played both PLO and NL tables and the results have been awesome (running good I guess). The players at PLO are actually much worse than at NL on this particular site, and I have been missing out on such a goldmine.
Because I now can play whatever is running on the site (PLO or NL) I feel like I am also able to get more volume in which makes me less bored and more focused.
Anyhow, here are the current results. After the brutal dip at 24K hands the last week has been smooth sailing. I am playing a mixture of 40-60NL and 20-60PLO. Because of the time off I took I wont be able to reach my $2K goal for this month ($3600 profit). I will just have to see how far I can get. At least I have found back my enjoyment for the game thanks to the great game of PLO.
During those days off I enjoyed watching the PLO bankroll challenge by Jnandez and it got me more interested in PLO. Before this I considered myself strictly a NL player, and because I was terrible at PLO I would just end up punting all my profits there. I decided to spend more time in studying the game in more detail and I decided to start grinding again.
This time, I actually played both PLO and NL tables and the results have been awesome (running good I guess). The players at PLO are actually much worse than at NL on this particular site, and I have been missing out on such a goldmine.
Because I now can play whatever is running on the site (PLO or NL) I feel like I am also able to get more volume in which makes me less bored and more focused.
Anyhow, here are the current results. After the brutal dip at 24K hands the last week has been smooth sailing. I am playing a mixture of 40-60NL and 20-60PLO. Because of the time off I took I wont be able to reach my $2K goal for this month ($3600 profit). I will just have to see how far I can get. At least I have found back my enjoyment for the game thanks to the great game of PLO.