Wtf how/why do you actually track this ****. You realise you'll never get a meaningful sample? Or at least not for a very long time?

Its really not hard at all. I mean we are folding 75% of every hand right? Im not trying to get an exact win rate or anything like that. I just wanted to see how often Im being called when Im raising with less than premiums and if Im actually making money raising some of these hands like QT / 56s / A4s / K9s. Of course I didnt break it down by hand or anything so obviously I will never be able to build a Pokertracker type database. Thats way too much work and it truly would take 5 lifetimes to get a significant sample for each hand.

The more often I can raise and steal blinds and limps, the more hands I should be raising. I mean if nobody ever called, I would raise every single hand. That's an obvious exaggeration, but the question is where is a good tipping point where Im raising too many hands and starting to not be able to play them profitably because Im either raising too many OOP or Im facing too big of a range disadvantage? So far Id say I found a sweet spot, but I think I can raise more hands during the day time when the tables are tighter.

Clearly he attended the DGIHarris University of Overcomplicating Live Poker. He is doing an outstanding job of carrying on dgi's legacy. Moving down to 1/2 was a key step. Now, if he takes weekend shots at 10/25 the circle will be complete.

The lack of anything even resembling a meaningful sample size is going to cause you to make some poor adjustments imo. Just get flopzilla and save yourself from this nonsense.

Id be shocked and might fall out of my chair of anyone liked anything I did. I'm now at $37/hr after 600 hours of 1/2. Im at $46/hr during peak hours. Im confidant I know what I'm doing. If nobody wants to learn anything from me, that's their prerogative.

LOL @ Dream Crusher talking smack when he plays at Winstar which is the softest 2/5 game in the country. I dont know what your win rate is but if its not over $50/hr in that game Id shut up.

I think you're putting in a better effort than 90% of pro's, but using a weak sample size could lead to wrong adjustments to your game.

I think tracking these hands W/R is extremely neglible as far as +/-.

I've played the same amount of Winstar 2/5 this month as I've played Bellagio T/20/40 NL and Choctaw 5/T/20 PLO. This thread isn't about me though. It's about you and your glorious 1/2 winrate. Please carry on.

as long as he just does it for fun and doesn't make adjustement based on those stats it's whatever, could just play some mobile game to kill time too though

Thread always delivers

I also play poker live and I also track certain information at the table and find that it helps me. I have been doing this for about 3 years.

I started doing it because I thought that I was running bad, and wanted confirmation that I was actually running bad and not that I was running normal and playing bad. The information confirmed that I was running bad. So the result calmed me down and I kept playing my normal game, and decided that I didn't need to make any major adjustments to my game.

So you are not alone in tracking certain information in a live game. In my opinion, if you think that it helps you, keep doing it. Just be careful how you use the information.

Yeah, regarding tracking information, whatever floats your boat, imo.

But in the end due to lol 1 single lifetime sample size, I think all the information we manage to track will be pretty useless. I've convinced myself that I can't draw any conclusions from empirical evidence and everything has to be approached from some hazy theoretical viewpoint, which of course is frustrating because you often feel you're just guesstimating at best.

At the finish line, my guess is I'll end up positive and yet even then I'm not even totally sure I can say "well, at least I played better than my opponents" because it's possible I just ran better than them.

Gtryingmybest,succeeding,Ithink?G

I’ve been following your thread since you started. The title infers that you are interested in showing how “unorthodox lines” work to beat llsnl and that your intent is to share that information. Until now, I figured my assumption was wrong. It’s good to know that is your actual intent after all.

The problem is, Mike, you might be a good llsnl player, but you are a horrific blogger. Maybe it’s my reading comprehension, but I don’t get how you think you are educating. Forget about your 2/5 game. I think we can all agree it’s as much a unicorn as GG’s 1/3 game is. Basically, not worth talking about, because none of us play in such games. But your 1/2NL game must be close to the norm. (Although, I’m not positive about this.)

Talking about win rates, showing some hands, +/-EV calcs is interesting, but not edifying. An example of what I am getting at is you say you are LAG. This thread fails to show that. I read that you are aggro pre and more passive/cautious post. Which is fine. You seem to play agrro pre and go for low variance post flop. Again, that’s fine. But, certainly, stealing dead money and blinds pre, doesn't get you to $37/hr. My point is, I think you are failing to illustrate what it is in your play that is leading to such success.

Maybe others can chime in, if I’m correct, to help you help us. Perhaps, this will stimulate discussion rather than argument. I’ll start with this question. What is your vpip/pfr %? We’ve no idea and that’s fundamental.

Just because a game sucks is unprofitable to play in doesn't mean it's "tough". I don't think myself or anyone I know can beat a certain Florida city's major poker room (not in Miami) 2/5 1k max for >$35/hr...maybe even >$30. I think I could/did beat the same poker room's 1/2 NL for ~$35/hr though.

In 2017 I was winning a little over $70/hr playing live 2/5 NL at local casino till I switched back to playing online...this casino had better regs/more pros but also more splashy players than I encountered at said 2/5 FL room...if the pots are a few BB and the blinds are constantly being chopped it doesn't matter if you are as good as Phil Ivey you're not gonna make much money.

That being said, I think every hand I've read from OP over the last few pages has been horribly misplayed lol and I agree with what most of the other people have posted.

Every hand Ive posted in the last few pages has been horribly misplayed? LOL Why dont you enlighten us on how some of them shouldve been played. This is the same **** Ive been hearing for over 2 years and over 3000 hours of poker now. How I misplay everything But yet somehow I continually find a way to win and win at a pretty big clip. Its quite comical actually.

It depends on the game and the time of day. In the daytime 1/2 game I would say Im probably about 30/20ish. In the evening Im probably closer to 20/15.

I would say my success is mostly due to paying very close attention to what everyone is doing and taking advantage of them. Picking up bet sizing tells is one of my biggest weapons. I try to exploit people as much as possible. Everyone says you dont need balance playing low stakes. Of course you dont need balance to beat low stakes. But if you want to crush it you do. You can play on your phone and wait for a big hand and raise, or you can watch everyone and see who calls too much and who folds too much and play accordingly.

You're right though. Im a terrible blogger. I wont deny that.

I don't feel like repeating verbatim what everyone else in the thread is saying about your hands, but basically I agree with them.

The fact you are/were a winner in these games means nothing to me you could've just ran well. I mean I don't think you play well or have even read an Ed Miller book going off some of the hands you've posted. I won a bunch while on vacation earlier this month at the casino I said had horrible 2/5 cause I won a large flip with AK aipf and I had an insane bluff get through. I also got smacked with the deck really hard at foxwoods this month as well I wouldn't say I played well or anything but I didn't play poorly...

Here was a really big one where you express some massive mental game leaks, postflop leaks, and poor hand reading (this is literal level one poker):

Starts out well. What are you putting the button on here? What about the BB?

You just give one of the two villains in the hand that you have equity against and decide to call. Your equity calculation is also off cause there's a side pot.

There are 28 combos of straights and 27 of two pair...there's also sets that have you toast...28>27 so it's more likely that someone has a straight than two pair and you're pretty boned here.

I, for one, think most of the hands in this thread are played fine. There is more than 1 way to win at this game. For example, one old man in my room never raises preflop. He just calls when he wants to enter a pot. However, post flop, he plays fine, and thus I suspect is able to win.

That being said, Mike, I think you come off as very defensive, and thus will attract some negativity. In the end though, I appreciate the work you put into continuing this thread as it gives me a fresh perspective on how to play some hands.

Congrats djz, you picked the hand that I already said I posted purposely because I screwed it up.

Nice post that encapsulates a lot of what I'm thinking as well.

Ggoodlucktoeveryone,imoG

Someone can literally know nothing about poker and sit around with a tablet waiting to flop a set or to get AIPF with KK++ and probably win ~$13/hr at 99% of 1/2 poker rooms in the country. Just because that is winning doesn't mean that person is playing particular well or can't increase their winrate.

OK I just picked that one because I thought it was the most interesting/had the most clear errors. Here's one where the errors are less obvious and you're proud of yourself for winning the hand:

The idea that you're in a "war" is pretty silly maybe you guys both had good hands preflop so far. How many, if any of these hands have gone to showdown? Also the need to be "even" with another player is a big mental leak that you only see at 1/2..."Money has no owners only spenders"

The idea that chips belong to you will lead to spew/needless aggression.
Enemy wtf. Uh I make it $20 pre here cause of the limper and we don't want to be OOP vs the aggro guy.

Also opening KTo from (I assume) EP or MP is pretty loose when there's a super aggro dude on your left but it doesn't matter much.
Should lean towards cbetting this texture there are so many awkward turns, you have no backdoor equity, and you will get called by tons of worse hands. It also sets up a jam on the river vs the aggro dude.

Checking has its merits though and obviously calling.
You ran into bottom of his range and held wp.


You didn't post the stack sizes but now that I know them, it does change my analysis of the hand quite a bit. You had ~150 to start hand which makes KTo even less of an open/iso. Considering how short you guys are (<100bb eff), the flop is a really clear cbet so you can jam the turn. Also if you guys have been "going at it" he may call you down pretty light putting you on some kind of draw. Like if he has 8s or something he will stop bluffing with them on the turn but may feel obliged to call a shove.

You must be new here.

Curious where you'd rank someone winning at 6.5 bbs/hr (i.e. $13/hr at 1/2 NL) percentage wise in the 1/2 NL poker population?

Guessing fairly low since he's "not playing particularly well" / could do so "literally knowing nothing about poker"?

FWIW, I would *snap* accept 6.5 bbs/hr in my room now (even though I've won at a 7 bb/hr clip over ~3700 hours to date).

The standards set by some are kinda lol. So just to be clear, if anyone is winning but like less than < 5bbs/hr, they are pretty much **** players who should probably give up on poker cuz they suck donkey balls?

Gtoughstandards,imoG