GL! Love the RIO videos

Subbed glgl

Long overdue update.

I hit a bit of a downswing, but the recovery has been nice and it's allowed me to improve, too. The favourable variance over the recent short-term has probably made me a little more confident about these adjustments than it should :P.

Here are some of the bigger hands from the last bit.

H1:








H2:








H3:

The most useful adjustment I made was coolering recs in big pots.







H4:

Double points if you get two recs in one hand.








I'll try to make more frequent and comprehensive updates in the future.

That TT!!!!!!

Glgl, we played quite a bit at 200 but don't think we've battled yet at 500. I'm sure we will in the future though.

lol I remember watching the TT hand. 99 is actually a reg

Yeah... lol.

Nice. Hopefully we will.

Thanks!


I had one of those -10 BI days where nothing goes right. They just had the nuts every time!


Wrecked by a rec








Got the bump, set..









My cards matched the flop cards so well, though! Villain is a rec.









The fish own my soul

whats your name on RIO?

Paul Atwal

Sometimes you think you have a fish on the line, but it turns out to be a whale.









HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!









I love blatantly sizing for my hand against recs and then being rewarded even more than I anticipated.








2pair + nut blocker is no good.

I was having a pretty good day at 200 and decided to jump in the 500 pool because it looked good. Oops.


A victory for the EV line








My RNG saved me pre









The session ender

Hey guys,

I just hit 300k hands on my current db (which extends back to around the beginning of this June) and this seems like a good time to post a graph update.



I chose to just put it in terms of big blinds because the mix of 100-500z makes the swings look arbitrarily big/small. I haven't played 100z since like June I think. The vast majority of this graph is at 200z with probably around 25k hands of 500z.

You'll notice a near 50BI downswing in there which was pretty sick. I had never been on such a large downswing, which in itself is quite lucky given that variance calculators indicate that this isn't that uncommon. I was talking to a player better than me during that downswing and he told me that he had actually been on three ~50BI downswings. It was just especially brutal because the first 20 or so BI of this downswing was at 500z.

It's crazy how as a poker player you think you have a strong understanding of variance, but even most of us likely don't fully grasp it as well as we should (me included). Riding the emotional swings, both up or down, is something I'm certainly guilty of. I haven't found a way to shut it down completely. One thing that I'm proud of though is that I can quite confidently say that losing a bunch doesn't affect my play (by no means do I mean to imply that I don't make mistakes). However, my mental game can still be improved.

The biggest reason that I get frustrated during losing stretches is ego. I've always been hyper-competitive in everything, and I think this has been, for the most part, advantageous with poker. It's easy to find motivation to study and get better. I'm excited whenever I find a spot that I realize I don't understand well. I've also enjoyed playing in the 500z pool with world-class players like OTB, MMA, and probably a few others that I'm forgetting. This also rings true for guys that may not play the highest stakes, but are undoubtedly crushing 500z. However, this same competitiveness and ego-driven motivation is a detriment when it subconsciously creates entitlement. It's easy to feel (whether consciously or subconsciously) as if you're "above" playing 200z. This is an absolutely futile thought and one that I'm embarrassed to admit that I've had plenty of times at some level. Nobody is above playing any stake, and nobody is too good to forego variance and play the stakes that they feel they should. I'm also in no position to evaluate my own game without incredible bias. While my winrate is good and I've had success at 200z, this doesn't mean I deserve to just move up. Even if we assume that I'm one of the top regs at 200z (which I'm sure some would contest), there are still a plethora of regs that are vastly stronger than me at 500z.

The other night I had a chat with another really strong player (different from the one mentioned before). He's probably the best player I know and the conversation was incredibly motivating. He's had a tough stretch recently, one that trumps mine by a long shot just given stakes, even though he is undoubtedly +EV in the games he plays. If someone that strong can have such a brutal swing and find the motivation to keep grinding and improving, then I've got nothing to feel entitled about.

I'm not worried the least bit by how many superior regs there are at 500z, I'm excited by the challenge. I'm confident in my game and the improvements I've made recently. I'm even more confident in my ability to work hard and improve. I can get so much better, and I will.

Superbly written post!

Boss graph and boss attitude. I have no doubt you'll be destroying 500 in no time. Glgl

Nice work dude! Definitely got some of my money on 200 today haha .

Keep it up

Vamossssss

solid post, always fun to battle with u, gl moving up

A+ post

This soooo much

Extremely solid post, graph and attitude overall. Best of luck sir.

Awesome post, GL with the grind

Much love from the baccarat stable keep killin em

shiftyyyyyy

gl

Thanks for the kind words and support everyone

I'll forever be a part of the Baccarat Stable despite having never played

Fourrrrrrrrrrrr!


I think I'm gonna stick to posting somewhat infrequently or sporadically while sparing you guys from the standard set-ups/coolers. I'll post them once in a while if it's a particularly fun hand or big pot. Otherwise I'm going to try to be selective with the hands I post. It's tough to strike a balance between not giving away strat without posting boring hands that play themselves.

I might also just post general thoughts on here more frequently, kind of like the last post, as opposed to focusing on HHs.

GL everyone!

What's the GTO OOP 3b size against a 26.5x open?









It's important to have bigger cards than the fish.









Sometimes fish bluff, and sometimes me not believing them works out.








The classic UTG limp 4b jam. UTG is a reg.









This was a fun one. Going for the complete disrespect against a rec.










These are all from the last week or so. Overall the grind has been quite good, although I think I'm stuck ~6 BI today. Good luck everyone.