Little bit later than normal this update because I did have a day off and few drinks on Sunday night.
I managed to get out of my commitment for the week so I could play more poker. In my haste to get playing Monday morning turned into a bit of disaster, I got titled playing NL5 Zoom and then jumped up stakes to NL20 Zoom and you can guess what happened next, I just lost even more money. Thankfully I managed to stop myself before too much damage was done, still a losing sessions to the tune of £38 (that was 16.5% of my start bankroll this week!) isn’t the ideal way to start the week. Playing as I was trying to chase back money I’d lost is not the way to approach the game at all, I guess all of us involved in poker are competitive and don’t like losing. But due to variance and sometimes your own bad play you can have losing sessions, the former you can’t control and the latter you can improve on by studying. The answer is not to jump up in stakes and try to win back “what you’ve lost”. I’m sure such delusions have been the ruin of many poker player and gambler, I know if I keep doing this in the long-run I’m set up for a failure. Doesn’t matter whether my bankroll is £230 or £23,000 the same rules still apply. Stick within your staking plan and never jump up in stakes during a losing session, it is a recipe for disaster! I really need to screaming this from the hilltops. Without a disciplined approach I will get no where. I do manage to get more or less even after playing a few higher stakes than I should have SnGs but again the results to this was relevant, I shouldn’t have been doing it. I actually withdrew £200 from my account to focus myself and went back to NL2 cash games for the rest of the week.
I’m glad with how much I somehow managed to pull back this week after a dreadful start. I took it upon myself to specifically study material for microstakes and it obviously paid dividends as my performance improved immediately once I started implementing the strategies suggested. Important thing to remember is I think you still have to eventually develop a strategy that works for you. At the lower stakes playing a kind of generic tight game and being aggressive in the right spots seems to work well. I started using the HUD this week as well, something which I haven’t really delved into before, I was just using pokertracker for results but through learning I begin to realise the important of understanding what type of opponent you are up against. Hands play completely different up against a different kind of opponent.
I had set a lower target for poker hours because I hought I wouldn’t be able to play as much. Managed to get in 39 hours, 37 minutes of play, which is a decent amount again considering I took Sunday off and also put in plenty of hours studying and improving my game.
Plan for this week is mostly just to grind at NL2, doing four tables at a time and feel like my game is strong at that at the moment. Was up at 27/100BB this week, which is a very nice win-rate.
NL2 graph for this week
Week 3 Summary
Bankroll at start of week: £230.26
Weekly Profit:
+£27.08
Current Bankroll: £257.34
Week 4 goals- Play 50 hours of poker total this week
- Keep working towards completing 50k hands at NL2 (currently 23,124)
- Keep studying the game (minimum of three hours)
- Play in a couple of MTTs to mix it up a little
And here are some hands I played this week, opinions on my lines in these hands would be great.
Hand#1
iPoker - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
Hero (UTG): 97 BB
MP: 30 BB (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
CO: 166 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
BTN: 101.5 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
SB: 107.5 BB (VPIP: 28.62, PFR: 24.14, 3Bet Preflop: 7.06, Hands: 302)
BB: 119 BB (VPIP: 26.88, PFR: 19.35, 3Bet Preflop: 16.22, Hands: 96)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A
K
Hero raises to 3 BB, MP calls 3 BB,
CO calls 3 BB,
fold,
fold, BB calls 2 BB
Flop: (12.5 BB, 4 players) 7
K
J
BB checks,
Hero bets 7.5 BB,
fold,
CO calls 7.5 BB,
fold
Turn: (27.5 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 16.5 BB,
CO raises to 155.5 BB,
Hero calls 70 BB
River: (200.5 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero mucks A
K
(Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 48%, Flop 4%, Turn 16%)
CO shows 7
7
(Full House, Sevens full of Kings)
(Pre 53%, Flop 96%, Turn 84%)
CO wins 256.5 BB
Hand#2
iPoker - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
CO: 38 BB (VPIP: 20.36, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 398)
Hero (BTN): 107.5 BB
SB: 153 BB (VPIP: 24.55, PFR: 17.43, 3Bet Preflop: 6.94, Hands: 222)
BB: 63 BB (VPIP: 66.09, PFR: 28.33, 3Bet Preflop: 4.05, Hands: 240)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J
T
fold,
Hero raises to 3 BB,
SB raises to 9 BB,
fold,
Hero calls 6 BB
Flop: (19 BB, 2 players) T
J
2
SB bets 11 BB,
Hero calls 11 BB
Turn: (41 BB, 2 players) 2
SB bets 28.5 BB,
Hero raises to 63 BB,
SB raises to 133 BB,
Hero calls 24.5 BB
River: (216 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero mucks J
T
(Two Pair, Jacks and Tens)
(Pre 13%, Flop 0.1%, Turn 0%)
SB shows J
J
(Full House, Jacks full of Twos)
(Pre 87%, Flop 99.9%, Turn 100%)
SB wins 247.5 BB
Hand#3
iPoker - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
CO: 56 BB (VPIP: 57.31, PFR: 4.62, 3Bet Preflop: 3.39, Hands: 263)
Hero (BTN): 130 BB
SB: 116.5 BB (VPIP: 23.26, PFR: 23.26, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 44)
BB: 60.5 BB (VPIP: 65.35, PFR: 6.15, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 463)
UTG: 233 BB (VPIP: 25.54, PFR: 22.17, 3Bet Preflop: 5.06, Hands: 473)
MP: 190.5 BB (VPIP: 76.47, PFR: 35.29, 3Bet Preflop: 22.22, Hands: 18)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3
3
fold,
fold,
CO calls 1 BB,
Hero calls 1 BB,
fold, BB checks
Flop: (3.5 BB, 3 players) 7
3
8
BB checks,
CO bets 2 BB,
Hero raises to 9 BB,
fold,
CO calls 7 BB
Turn: (21.5 BB, 2 players) 9
CO checks,
Hero bets 14 BB,
CO calls 14 BB
River: (49.5 BB, 2 players) T
CO checks,
Hero checks
CO shows J
K
(Straight, Jack High)
(Pre 48%, Flop 2%, Turn 9%)
Hero mucks 3
3
(Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 52%, Flop 98%, Turn 91%)
CO wins 46.5 BB
Hand#4
iPoker - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
Hero (BB): 102.5 BB
UTG: 87.5 BB (VPIP: 60.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 98 BB (VPIP: 32.57, PFR: 2.29, 3Bet Preflop: 3.51, Hands: 177)
BTN: 124.5 BB (VPIP: 21.74, PFR: 21.74, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 24)
SB: 23.5 BB (VPIP: 29.82, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 59)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB,
Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K
T
UTG calls 1 BB,
fold,
fold,
fold,
Hero checks
Flop: (2.5 BB, 2 players) T
2
4
Hero bets 2 BB, UTG calls 2 BB
Turn: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero bets 3 BB, UTG calls 3 BB
River: (12.5 BB, 2 players) K
Hero bets 10 BB,
UTG raises to 81.5 BB,
fold
UTG wins 102 BB
Hand#1 - Possibly should have folded here after the jam on the turn?
Hand#2 - Perhaps a little unlucky to run my two pair into a set here, thoughts on the raise of the turn? could have AA, KK. QQ, AJ a lot of the time here and would get called.
Hand#3 - Just showing off how important it is to check behind sometimes here, penny saved is as good as a penny earnt, etc.
Hand#4 - Looks like a dreaful fold from me here. Not sure what he's representing here, as a lower two pair or complete air a lot more often than a set in my opinion.