Poker Goals & ChallengesPost your threads logging your travels up the poker ladder as you achieve your poker goals and dreams. "Challenges" does NOT mean prop bets, wagers, etc.
Villain is regular and raises to 3BB preflop from late position.
Hero is BB and call with 66.
Flop: 2s 7h Qc
Hero check
Villain cbet 60% of the pot.
Hero?
So, I believe we are ahead on the Flop most of the time. Should we flat call? Should we raise? Should we lead? Not sure how to adress this situation. Clearly I don't want to give more free cards for the Villain with so fragile hand.
Check-call. Villain won't be barreling much on such a dry board, so you'll sometimes get to showdown cheaply (or bink a 2-outer if you're really lucky). If you want to x-raise any made hands, you're better off choosing hands that have 5 outs vs top pair. i.e. A2s, 76s etc, particularly if they have a BDFD.
That's how intense my weekend was: From Friday to Sunday playing poker and watching Walking Dead.
I started watching Walking Dead when it began many years ago, but 2nd season was so slow that having to wait 1 week for each of the boring episodes made me quit before season finale. A couple of months ago I decided to try it again, and, although I still think season 2 was really slow, it was a lot more entertaining to watch it on one go instead of having to wait for one episode per week. That’s the good thing when you are not up to date on any TV series.
My laptop screen was divided by 2: left side for poker tables, right side for Walking Dead. That’s how things happened:
FRIDAY:
I told you my target for the month was 10k hands on 10NL, but until Friday I had only played 2.3k and I said to myself I would have get to 5k over the weekend. And that’s when it all started to go wrong. I opened 6 tables, something I’ve never done before, and lost 4 buy-ins on the first 800 hands. I wasn’t watching the series yet, only playing and checking girls on whatsapp a few times.
I was really lost. Looked like every decision I had to make was a difficult one. Worse than that, looked like all my decision were always wrong. When I don’t bet on flop and turn, the villain made his hand by the river. When I do bet strong 2 barrels, the fish villain still pays it for a gut-shot straight draw and again, made it on the river. OMG! I started lost on my actions and finished tilted.
When Friday night ended, I was seriously thinking about moving back to 4NL.
I tanked on the Turn: he could have a 3 (but probably not), a pocket pair, AK, AXs or bluffing.
But would he bet so big with a hand so strong like 3 or pocket pair and scare everybody? And why did he check twice if his hand was so strong? On the other hand, a flush draw would maybe bet the flop.
Not sure his actions make sense.
This night I had a dream: Zombies playing poker - Part 2/2
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
The NIT strategy
Friday was my worst session ever. 6 tables, 800 hands, -4 buyins.
So I changed my game, playing very nitty postflop. No more hero calls. I would protect my chips! "The best offense is a good defence" - fold, fold, fold.
Only 2 tables, and finally back to watch Walking Dead so I didn’t get bored with only 2 tables.
But I didn't go anywhere. I played 700 hands like that and didn't lose, but also didn't make a penny. Just waste of time.
The Aggressive 3Bet strategy
I changed my game again. Something was not right. And the fun started here.
The zombies on the screen of my laptop were getting their skulls crushed by Rick and his crew while I tightened my starting hands but played with strength. I was giving the cards now. I took ownership of the hands I was playing. I was the aggressor most of the time but knowing when to fold. Decision weren’t so difficult anymore. I got excited, for each Zombie bleeding out in front of me I had a 3Bet, for each Zombie trying to bite me, I had a fold. No more calls.. no more “I pay to see what bite this Zombie has”. Either I kill him, or run from him! No girls on Tinder or WhatsApp this time. Only me, poker, Zombies and a bit of luck.
That’s how I recovered all losses from the bloody Friday: from -$40 to +$5
Left side = Nightmare (Friday)
Between red lines = NIT Strategy (Saturday)
Right side = The Aggressive 3Bet strategy (Saturday and Sunday)
I’m sure PartyPoker administrators are not stupid and they know what they are doing. In fact I only saw improvements on the past few years and I have to congratulate them. Only time will tell us if they are making a good decision here. Like in poker, business decisions are always a bet.
My thoughts about their decision below are more for the poker community, as I am sure PP thought about all that and even more.
1- Inconsistency: Only regular cash games, not FF or Tournaments. That's a very inconsistent policy across the platform, either you “technically” allow HUDs or you don’t. I don’t believe the reason is more predatory behaviour on cash games. What I believe is that this might be a test before rolling out to all games.
2- Security: We will no longer be able to identify “suspicious behaviour”, “bots”, “collusion” and “super users” without HH. It happened many times before, and it was the poker community that was able to identify these players based on HH.
3- Field difficult: Game will become softer.
4- Profitability for Regs: Only time will tell if softer games will compensate not using HUDs. It will be harder to multitable, but games will be easier.
5- Profitability for Recreative players: also unknown. Many recreative players also use HUDs, and they will struggle. For the ones that don’t, game can be more profitable (or lower losses) but if Regs play less tables they will crush Recs anyway.
6- Business decision: I agree that any business should try to maximize profits. And sometimes, maximize profits means reduce margins to increase number of clients. Without HUDs, Regs will probably have to play less table reducing the rake paid, and some will just move to another website. PartyPoker is hoping that making the game softer they will attract more Rec players to compensate it. Again, that’s unknown. If they manage to increase the number of Recs, they might attract Regs as well. If they don’t, the field will decrease and more people will leave the site. Let’s see what time will bring for us.
7- Poker Economy: That’s basic macro economy class: You want to boost economy, you reduce tax. You want to redistribute wealth: you tax profits instead of consumption. Same for poker, they could reduce rake and/or they could charge it on the top of your monthly profits instead of charging you everytime you play. But again, that would reduce their margin hoping to increase number of players to compensate it.
8- Arbitrage: Another lesson of economy: supply and demand will balance profitability across all websites. Profitable games will attract players >> Games will become tougher >> Profitability will be reduced.
9- Success only comes after hard work: Regs will always crush Recs.
I tanked on the Turn: he could have a 3 (but probably not), a pocket pair, AK, AXs or bluffing.
But would he bet so big with a hand so strong like 3 or pocket pair and scare everybody? And why did he check twice if his hand was so strong? On the other hand, a flush draw would maybe bet the flop.
Not sure his actions make sense.
I tanked on the Turn: he could have a 3 (but probably not), a pocket pair, AK, AXs or bluffing.
But would he bet so big with a hand so strong like 3 or pocket pair and scare everybody? And why did he check twice if his hand was so strong? On the other hand, a flush draw would maybe bet the flop.
Not sure his actions make sense.
Overview:
I moved to 10NL on the beginning of September and found very difficult to keep my game profitable like on 4NL. Until 19/Sept I was breakeven.
I had a target for the month to play 10k hands and stay positive.
September Results
I played very intense on the last 10 days of the month to get to 10k, but my game was really poor. I am really struggling on this level. I will post the chart when I have time.
Preflop: Hero is UTG with 9 9
Hero raises to $0.30, UTG+1 folds, MP1 raises to $1.14 and is all-in, 4 folds, BB calls $1.04, Hero raises to $10 and is all-in, BB calls $6.62 and is all-in
Flop: ($16.71) 3 Q 7 (3 players, 3 are all-in) Turn: ($16.71) Q (3 players, 3 are all-in) River: ($16.71) 3 (3 players, 3 are all-in)
Spoiler:
Results: $16.71 pot ($0.83 rake)
Final Board: 3 Q 7 Q 3
Hero showed 9 9 and won $12.58 ($4.82 net)
MP1 showed Q K and won $3.30 ($2.16 net)
BB showed 8 T and lost (-$7.76 net)