blane, keep posting hands imo

just one thing, i noticed from the last couple i looked at, pf raises seem a bit small particularly with limpers. do you have a standard raise size, or do you vary it depending on circumstance?

I generally 4x by default with the usual +1BB for limper but will often miss this and only 4x when I should of 5x/6x. Luckily I think my larger than usual opening often makes up for this since I'm basically already factoring in a limper with my raise.

It's a leak and I've been trying to work on it (previously I would of only 4xed that QQ hand). I generally only focus hard on factoring limpers in when 3betting. As I move to 25nl I've been trying to instill the good habit of adding the extra blind though.

I will sometimes vary bet size based on hand strength/game flow. If I have a fish who's tilting I have no problem opening for 6x with AA when I opened 4x the previous couple hands. Usually I'm keeping my opens the same though.

Thanks for the support bumblebee. I realize some of the hands I've posted have seemed super standard/dull but I think these kind hands are the ones that often get overlooked and figure it can't hurt to go through the thought process just to be safe.

See if there is one I wouldn't insta fold .

i have experimented with raising pot, which i think is ok, but i'm currently back to 4x+1 per limper, and can;t really find much of a difference.

i have been watching a video though where they guy keeps banging on about pf sizes, mostly when opening, and to vary it depending on the villains stack sizes, whether you are just trying to steal, or trying to iso.

and i agree you can raise set amounts depending on strength or w/e until villains catch on!

i bought table ninja a while back and it's set so pf is always 4x+1 per limper unless i choose to override it, so you'll never it miss it!

Bolded is something I try and focus on... deeper stack, bigger raise. With shorties to my left and I'm trying to steal, I'll often drop my raises down to 3x... or less if the blinds are nitty.

Ha. As someone with the "fold first" mentality this is a large motivation for my posting such hands. Playing underrolled back in the day caused me to be playing with scared money which meant folding a lot. I don't play scared anymore but want to make sure my folds are good ones and not just being a nit or assuming the worst. There was a FoxwoodsFiend quote about how no one ever has anything and I loved the mindset behind it but struggle to overcome my pessimistic instinct of "Oh I'm so beat". It's definitely a slight mental leak in my game but one that has shrunk.

You'd think being such a Durrrr fanboy I'd hate folding...

BR-460

Played very little poker and have to sleep today/work tonight so very little will be played today as well. Its odd how my grind schedule has kinda flipped from weekday mornings/nights and never playing on weekends to almost all my serious play usually coming on Thurs-Mon now. Still haven't cleared my pesky stellar bonus (80%) and won't try and reach Goldstar this month since I think it'd be way too much of a grind. I've been taking controlled shots at 25nl, one tabling only fishy games. Have played pretty well and won a couple decent size pots which was actually most of my profit for the past two days.

I also put in a app for staking. I have no clue if I will be accepted but I think it'd be nice to be staked for 10nl/25nl and be able to build my PC now. Grind out on a stake and then hopefully by the end of it be nice and rolled for 25nl on my own if not higher. We'll see how it goes. Depending on what the agreement terms are I may even pass on it and just keep grinding on my own back.

A couple of NL10 hands I'm not sure of. Any comments/advice on how you'd play them welcome.

Villain 40/0/0 over 5 hands so pretty much unknown.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $14.45
SB: $11.35
Hero (BB): $10.00
UTG: $4.05
CO: $21.35

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with Q A
UTG calls $0.10, CO raises to $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, CO calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.15) 4 3 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.95, CO raises to $10, Hero calls $4.05 all in


Villain in this hand seems like a TAG reg. Over 101 hands he is 21/15/9.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $9.90
BB: $10.00
UTG: $11.70
Hero (MP): $16.50
CO: $6.60
BTN: $1.05

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with K A
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.40, 2 folds, SB calls $0.35, BB raises to $1.40, Hero raises to $5.60, 1 fold, BB raises to $10 all in, Hero calls $4.40

My view was that he was squeezing. Then I figured, why would he be squeezing me when my image was tight and with a fish still in the hand?

I'm really still not sure how to play AK at these stakes. Do I just take advantage of shortstackers and aggrodonks preflop with it and fold to any 3bet/4bet from anyone else?


Also how do I react to the ridiculous amount of minbets preflop and on the flop. Most times I've called and either hit a hand and they've c/fd or called, hit nothing and folded to a cbet or I've called them down with a TP type hand and they've had a better kicker.

I used to have the same mental leak. Read through Phil Galfond's well, he talks about how he is a passive person irl and how it was difficult to overcome that natural passivity.

Hand one: I'm calling off after cbetting that flop. I'd almost always bet flop as well. We have a ton of equity vs just about any hand he flats our 3bet with. Totally fine imo.

Hand two: You aren't going to be seeing a lot squeezing with air at 10nl. I probably elect to flat with position and see a flop. As played it's fairly standard to be getting it in. Not much you can do. AK depends on reads and position a TON for me at these stakes. People will 3bet lighter than 5nl but a lot of people STILL are only 3betting JJ+ a lot of the time so I find it easier and probably more profitable to take flops IP with AK.

Minbets I usually treat as a check and proceed with the hand like I normally would. People seem to like to do with with TPGK hands. Make a note of them and take advantage of this by playing hands that draw well and can pick up equity on turns since you'll be getting priced in for draws almost always.

W0lf: I keep meaning to tackle Jmans well. I've read parts and I think I remember reading the part you reference once before but I def will. There's so much goodness in that thread that it's hard to conquer tbh. I definitely have the same problem as far as being passive in nature.

Thanks for the advice BlaneH. Minbets I'm fine with, it's minraises I hate. Obviously if I'm getting good odds for the set with PP I'll call but what about hands like KJ, AT preflop or even flopping TPGK and then getting minraised on the flop when you cBet?

i'm just trying to think through every thing i do before i do it, taking in to account everything at the table. that's why i'm only 1/2 tabling atm but to be honest i'm loving it.

once i decided to get rid of most of my monthly goals, and certainly not bother with trying to play X hands per month, poker is suddenly fun and interesting again.

the only goals i have now is to not play when i'm not in the mood, and when i do play to make good decisions in all aspect of my game from table selection, seating selection, reads, making notes, bet sizes, etc.

i may not be racking up volume, but so far my win rate is good, and most importantly i think i have found my inner poker zen

Honestly it's something I've seen less of at 10nl than 5nl. Generally if I was willing to raise with the hand I'm going to go with it if I get min raised. If my cbet gets raised and I have air it's not the end of the world to let it go. Yes they most likely have nothing but with no read it's easy enough to let the hand go and move on. As with most poker things, it depends.

If I flopped TPGK and I've led flop and get min raised vs some opponents I'll 4bet shove and against others I'll flat and let them value own themselves. It's a very specific fishy bet line. The problem is minraises by one fish mean the nuts and by others mean nothing at all. If they like to do it, you should be able to find out relatively quickly what it means and adapt to it. In your TPGK example I am much more likely to lean towards aggression since it's so unlikely they are ahead of you based on their line. 4betting usually results in a fold from what I've seen. Your results may vary.

I actually enjoy playing against these guys when I have a read on it. If you can get them to do it on flop and river you are essentially getting two more streets of betting to get more value out of your hand/move them off theirs/build pot odds.

$10 bucks away from moving to 5nl!

moving down to 5NL to get my feeling back a bit.

BR: 205.

annoyed.

+1 mirrion

That's something raze stresses to me when I talk poker with him.... so it's something I've really focused on, and I can certainly tell that I'm starting to think about poker differently and am approaching it in a much better fashion for long term growth and success.

My update I guess.. since I did start the thread and all

For the most part, I've taken the last half of the month off so far... anytime I've really felt like playing, I load up a few sng's that I can mindlessly play while watching tv. I've read most of PNLHE so far, and think it's a great read. Next week I plan on getting through the rest of the dc vids I haven't watched yet.. then the first week of february I might also take off.. haven't decided yet... we'll see how life is going at that point.

For now, all my money is on stars so that I can get back to weekend sng grinding to raise money for my summer craziness. I'm putting some of the money that I took off in December back onto rpm to get their reload bonus, and I'm going to start off at 25nl and see how that goes.

Bankroll: 100 -> 138

I only had a few points left to get the first part of my bonus, so played some Rush Poker and broke pretty much even, but got my bonus of 20$. Also just finished a session where I won 18$, tho could have been so much more, I got it in with KK vs. AK, got it in with AK vs. A5 on A5x board. Anyway bankroll going in the right direction, all good for now.

I am in the same situation as you mostly playing late night/early hours of the morning in Oz and the games are definately tighter relatively speaking than they are during US evening time.

It is still very profitable to play during these hours for me though.

Not all going that good at all,ur on teh way to going broke.You shouldnt be playing rush poker,U have 130 dollars in ur account,rush poker is 10nl.I had one game the other day with a roll of 120 and quit quick enough.You should be still playing 5nl even 2nl.Keep that up and you will have nothing in ur account this time nex month.

QFT

I've played about 2000 hands of rush poker with my BR of $120 and it could definately be profitable if you're rolled for it but the swings are huge. Even though I played well and mostly got my money in as favourite the BR took a $30 hit so I'm back to 2NL and $90.

i would read some posts of his where he would say he hasn;t played in ages, and i would think wtf you must be able to rake it in so why not play. but i think i understand a bit now...

Success.

Level: 10NL

BR: 255-340

From what he tells me.... it seems like poker is part of his life, not his entire life. He was telling me he's never put in more than like 15k hands in during a month.. and usually it's around 10k. I think that's why he's able to crush so often, and not seem to let downswings get him down (no matter what happens during a session when I sweat him, he's always in a good mood)... that and he's worked really hard on his game... it's insane sweating him.. I can't hear his thoughts or anything.. but watching him, you can get a real sense of what is going through his head... often times in a hand, you'll see him click pot... let it sit there a bit... move the bet sizing up or down a bit.. let it sit a bit... then finally make a bet that just seems to be right... and the number/type of notes he has on people is really solid. I hate going on this ass-kissing type of rant, but just watching him a bit so far has really helped the way I approach poker, and I'm really lucky he's allowed me to pick his brain when he's not busy.

Update!

Br at stars: $31.19
Br at Full Tilt:$30->$69.30

Decided to try out Rush Poker, went pretty well:-)

Word. I wish there wasn't so much variance in SNGs then I could put in less volume