damnnnn spent all morning reading this...A+ read good stuff!!!!

Yeah Ice, I feel what you're saying. I think people really tend to reach a certain level, wayyyyy short of their potential, and they become comfortable and afraid to leave that comfort zone. I believe in never becoming comfortable, and always pushing to the next level, or into new endeavours. My closest, most successful poker friend was already beating SSNL by the time I got into NLHE, but even he has levelled off to some degree. His biggest weakness is discipline, though, certainly not a lack of skill or focus.

I would even go as far as to say... people have a hard time being very successful IN GENERAL. Very rarely will you see someone take the time to raise their skills to anywhere NEAR their potential. I see it everywhere, and I used to be that way, too. I didn't focus in high school, and so I got average grades, even though I knew I had potential to do really well. It wasn't until I got out of school and started working labour with my dad, that I saw the importance of hard work. I saw how hard he worked every day, and then I realized he'd been doing this for all of my 18 years growing up. There was no way I could let him outwork me, so I pushed myself. When I got into nano-stakes poker, and I realized that my profits would be exactly proportional to my efforts, then there was no stopping me, especially since I knew what the highest-stakes guys were capable of earning. I saw the enormous $$$ potential of online poker, and I'm still taking my game up gradually, one notch at a time.

Hi Raze,

What is your method of study?
Do you sit down at your computer and go over your HEM database and look at your hands by biggest losses, and look for mistakes? (or what do you find most effective?)
At what point do you find training videos less usefull?
What is your opinion of coaching for a player looking to make the jump from micro to small stakes? Or do you think similar results can be achieved by study, and that coaching is kind of the 'easy way out'?

Thanks for your time A+ thread

$3/$6 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
Hero (UTG) ($594.00)
UTG+1 ($1881.05)
CO ($1551.98)
BTN ($600.00)
SB ($1381.80)
BB ($543.80)

Pre-flop: ($9, 6 players) Hero is UTG 8 8
Hero raises to $21, 2 folds, BTN calls $21, 2 folds

Flop: 7 6 9 ($51, 2 players)
Hero bets $36, BTN raises to $98

As noted, his stats indicate he's pretty loose-aggressive, which tells me he will be more willing to bluff or semi-bluff than most players.

The flop texture should be very scary to me. Being UTG, my opening range is less weighted towards s/c's, and more towards big cards and big pairs. Due to hand combinations, I will be far more likely to be unpaired than paired here, and Villain knows this. He knows I'll have to fold almost any combo of broadway cards to his flop raise (unless I flopped a flush draw with my overs), which constitutes a large part of my range. He also may think he can push me off an overpair with a follow-up turn bet. Villain might also be semi-bluffing with a hand that has decent equity against my hand, such as flush draws, combo draws, etc.

I think Villain's range is wide enough, and thus weak enough, that he'll fold a big portion of it to a flop 3bet, allowing me to take down a good sized pot, even against hands that have solid equity. Also note that if Villain happened to flop huge with a set (a very very tiny portion of his range), we still have 10 outs against 77/66, and 8 outs against 99. If Villain happened to slowplay an overpair, again, we still have 10 outs from the flop for close to 40% equity. Against Villain's wide flop range, we can't go wrong playing aggressively.

Hero raises to $266, BTN folds

Final Pot: $415

Hero wins $411 ( won +$124 )
BTN lost -$119


Also note that my flop 3bet is sized for maximum fold equity. If we make it smaller, Villain may be able to profitably call a primary draw. If we make it too much bigger, it APPEARS to be a draw on our part, and Villain will call profitably with more made hands. With my sizing, we are A) showing our commitment to this pot, and B) daring Villain to shove over top. I believe this combination of signals maximizes our fold equity, and when Villain folds his range on this flop, I believe we earn the maximum profit for this situation.

My primary reason for mixing limits was because I couldn't find enough good tables at limit A, so I would add tables at limit B in order to keep a good number of tables going.

I have definitely been advised to play a couple tables of your old level+ a couple tables of your target level in order to ease the transition. I've tried this, and I suppose it would work to some degree, but moving up limits includes leaving your old limit behind. You'll never adjust to your new game if you keep retreating to the old comfort zone.

squerty12, I would definitely recommend playing only 50's from this point on. You are rolled for them, you are playing very well in them, and you have become cocky at your old limit. Great! That means you're up to the challenge. Since you're rolled, you have the conservative base covered. If your roll takes too big a hit, drop back to the 20's. Otherwise, move up, maybe drop your table count and up your focus, but stay up there, barring any bankroll disasters.

Please explain these abbreviations, i understand PT is pokertracker, but unsure about the others

PS FANTASTIC POSTS

thanks!

PAHUD - Poker Ace Heads Up Display (used this in the past for pacific before HEM was available)

FPHG - Free Party Hand Grabber (I think)

yep yep yep

PAHUD was the display counterpart to PT2. FPHG is software necessary to datamine the Party Poker tables.

Raze, in past post you have given examples of villans stat ie(78/96/29) what do those stand for and what do you look for when you select a table?

Any plans for HSNL Raze? Or PLO?

The only problem is you sort of have to play ~3 tables if HU is the only game you know how to play. Theres so much waiting and hit and running that one tabling you'd probally play a full 20 minutes/hour especially if you only play on one site.

Hmmm... should I share too? Well, I guess my story's not exactly inspirational but:

It was around 2001 when I was in a library in Denver Colorado, researching something else, and I stumbled upon Poker for Dummies, lying open on a table where some other reader left it. I browsed through it, and remembered how I used to like playing poker as a kid. (I loved Dr. Pepper when I was like 11 years old, but got serious and played the grown up games of 5-card draw and 5-card stud when I was 14. My biggest win was about six or seven bucks.) I always thought there was some skill in the game, and that I could probably play pretty well, but had an aversion to gambling. Then I changed my mind and figured I'd play and try to win a few bucks.

I played Yahoo Poker for a few days to get a handle on the mechanics of how the game is played. Then one night I took a drive up to Blackhawk, and played in my first game of Hold'em, at Bullwhacker's Casino. It was a $2-$5 spread limit game with a single $2 blind. I bought in for the incredible sum of $100, played at the one game that had any players that night, and after a few hours I was up $45 and it was closing time (yeah, you heard that right, closing time!)

Went occasionally, won a few bucks, lost a few bucks, averaged up a little but didn't make anything significant. Also deposited $50 on Paradise Poker. I played $0.50/$1 limit hold'em, very conservatively, swung up and down but wound up with a couple of hundred bucks. Moved up stakes rapidly whenever I had made any gains in my bankroll. After a month and a half I had $1600 and was playing $15/$30 limit! hehe. Lost half my roll in one day, moved down to $5/$10, got beat for a few days, moved down to $3/$6, struggled to hang on, but after a few weeks of slowly declining funds (funny actually that it was so slow!) I went broke.

A few months later, I deposited another $50, went through a similar process, but never rose higher than $3/$6. A few months later I put $200 online... well, I actually cashed out a couple of hundred bucks once, but probably lost about a thousand bucks in a year. Of course this was a hobby while working full time, trying to write a book, and living in a very, and I mean VERY turbulent relationship with my girlfriend at the time.

Fast forward a bit, I played more seriously in coming years, but still infrequently. I moved to Raleigh, NC, played against some locals in home games, and took occassional trips to Atlantic City, one to Tunica Mississippi. Was marginally profitable, but couldn't make real significant money, always playing low stakes on a very tight bankroll of at most a couple thousand bucks. (But I liked the Pink Chip game at Tropicana, $7.50/$15 limit!)

A company I worked for in Cary went Busto and I was out the door. I wound up moving to Korea to teach English, which is something I had thought of doing for a while. While there I played nickel and dime poker for fun with coworkers, while trying to get some money on Party Poker. Managed to win a few thousand bucks online that year, plus save some of my income, to build a roll. Met a young lady (who has since become my wife), but I had my eyes on playing poker seriously. I returned to the U.S. with $11,000 bucks in my pocket, and lived on the road playing poker for about a year and a half, mainly in Tunica (where I probably should have stayed!), with a couple of trips for a few months to Vegas.

I pretty much started on a downslide right away, but managed to fight back and win a few thousand bucks every few weeks/months, only to get on bad runs and bleed money for a while, or just break even while trying to cover hotel bills, a few airline flights, food, and all other expenses. But I actually liked my life, for the most part, despite some frustration... except for one problem. I had chronic gall bladder stone attacks, which occassionally kicked the hell out of me. I didn't actually know what they were, because I had no medical insurance, didn't spend time with friends or family, and didn't want to spend money on doctors. I often thought of going to the emergency room at 3:00 AM, but toughed it out 'til daybreak, then slept through the day. Anyhoo...

After a year and a half with about $900 left, knowing I couldn't play at anywhere close to decent stakes anymore, I decided it was time to go back to working for a living. It was annoying to know that I had made a fair amount of money throughout my time playing, and learned a lot, and toughened up, but it wasn't enough to rise up or decently the expenses of living. I went to Korea, where I now reside. I was reunited with Eunmi, and we married after a year.

I managed to make a few thousand bucks at poker online that year, and a little bit in poker and blackjack at Walker Hill Casino. Everything went to expenses. I bought in for $2500 into the APPT Seoul, managed to make final table and take 9th place (KK cracked all-in against QQ, first hand of final table), for $9000. That went to a housing deposit, and ultimately some of the cost of buying an apartment in Busan.

I then experienced the most brutal 11 month case of going bad I've ever imagined possible... but fortunately it was all low stakes, so I lost more time than money, though the money was a few thousand bucks.

Went well, made it up to $6500 online again, cashed out $4200 and "expensed" that away too. Then went bad despite a few $1000-$2000 tourney wins, got wrecked in $30/$60 HiLo Stud...

90 days ago, I was down to $22. I rebuilt that to $2800. Experimented with pure maniac NL Cash games at $200 buy-in, lost $800.

Still struggling. Lifetime I'm up for cash games, up for sit'n'goes, up for live tournaments, roughly break even for online tournaments (down on Stars, up on Party until they stopped taking Korean players). And yet all my money is either spent, in a DongYang Corporate Bond that matures in a few months, or in the cost of my home. I'm still a working stiff, and I still love poker. And that's the story of my (poker) life.

true degen

What! You have us from the beginner's forums, but you don't post anymore, that's all T_T

Great posts btw, but this is stating the obvious.

lol I thought I was crazy when I wanted to shove that flop and everyone thought otherwise.

Interesting story, I sure hope you got that gall bladder stone issue taken care of before it got too bad. I couldn't imagine having to endure that for too long.

btw, the gambling towns in CO finally got the limits raised to $100 max bet, added craps and roulette, and zomg!! 24 hour operations. No more rolling up the sidewalks at 2 a.m... lol

Hey Ice, I think the whole birds of a feather thing applies a lot to life and some will go further than others in specific areas, depending on their motivation and passion. Personally, I think it's healthy to have friends above and below my own level, and not just in the realm of poker. The ones above me are sometimes more like mentors or people to draw from, and the ones below me are also good because they challenge me to be able to give them input. Keeps me on my toes. For the most part we help each other, because we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and it's also important to be honest with yourself and be humble.

Also RoSeeker, it's good to see you sticking around. I read somewhere (in LC I think) that you were considering leaving. I meant to post something but didn't get around to it. I'm kind of a part-timer around here. Anyways, i like your posts, so it's good to see that you're staying.

When I started settling into the NL600 level, I felt like my learning process needed to change in order for me to keep growing as a player. Prior to that, I had read basically every word written on 2+2, and I had bought and read about 3 dozen poker books, most of them several times from cover to cover. Then, I moved on to Cardrunners vids. I watched every HU NLHE, vid at a time when there was maybe 80 of them available, and all of CTS, Green Plastic, and sbrugby's vids. I still watch these training videos, and I think in general, they are the best investment available for your game. I don't think, at any point, that training videos will not be worth their weight. I recommend everyone to get a membership at one of the sites, and to study very closely. However, in the past year and a half, basically all of my study has been to give my opponents my full focus at the table, to get inside their heads as much as possible, and to always be mindful of ways to take exploitation to new levels, through creativity and experimental lines. In other words, I'm too lazy to review my sessions anymore :P

To tell the truth, I think going over your sessions is very, very important for less experienced players. I don't feel the need to do so regularly, because I am at a level where I am extremely confident in my play, and I have built my focus level to the point where I feel I don't often make considerable errors. Part confidence, part arrogance. And I'm not saying I'm at a point where I can't get better - I'm always watching trends in my opponent's lines and looking to exploit them in different ways. I used to always go over my biggest pots lost, but now I can easily separate the bad beats from the bad play. When I lose a big pot due to bad play, I will often go over it in the replayer, but if it was clearly a beat and I played it reasonably well, I won't sweat it.

I'm not sure what to tell you about coaching. I've never been coached, and I've never done paid coaching. I don't see how it can be bad, and it will probably pay for itself in the long run, and save you a lot of frustration. I have absorbed so much material from better players over the years, that you could say I've been coached, impersonally, all this time. I wouldn't call it a shortcut - I say it would probably improve your chances of reaching your goals, whatever they may be.


"His stats come up as 26/21/2.6. "

26% VP$IP (percent of hands he plays, pre-flop)
21% PFR (percent of hands he raises, of all hands dealt, pre-flop)
2.6 aggression factor (for every 1 time he clicks 'Call' post-flop, he bets, raises, and folds 2.6 times)


On my current site, there's rarely more than one 10/20nl game running, if at all. To step up, I would have to move to a bigger site, that has much tougher competition, and I'd probably have to take a step back to 3/6nl or even 2/4nl, adapt, accept a much lower winrate, and then press back up to 5/10nl and above. Right now, with other things going on in my life, this would take more time and trouble than I'd like to commit, so I have no immediate plans for big moves, other than to play more TAGs at 5/10nl HU, and to stab at good 10/20nl games more often.

I used to be interested in PLO a couple years ago, but then I became massively inspired to crush NLHE and get up the ladder, so PLO kind of faded out for me. I definitely won't rule out another shot at it down the line, but with NLHE going so well, I would be sacrificing a lot of money by taking playing time away from NLHE to learn PLO. Maybe after I drink all summer and neglect my poker game, I'll need a fresh kick in the ass to get going again, and I'll give PLO another shot.

raze-

First of all, excellent thread. I've enjoyed reading every post and will most likely re-read many times in the future, there's a lot of good thoughts/strategy insights here.

Couple questions...

-when you had moved out and went on your first downswing, how did you not let the negativity/anxiety prevent you from playing your best game? Were there ever moments you were playing with scared money and you had to shake off those emotions?

-pretty noob question here but I am wondering what exactly rakeback is, and how it works.

-another noob what does datamining refer to?

-lastly, how many hours do you say you put in a week while you were on your way up the ladder? Not just playing but studying/reading etc. What would you recommend for someone like me who wants to do the same but has an adjacent career that takes up a lot of their time?

Thank you in advance

should be renamed the raze well thread imo

Hey Raze,
Since this is a kind of a well... what are your fave drinks?

Awesome thread raze. Thanks for hooking me up to it brother!

Haven't read through it all yet, but what I have so far is great stuff. Will be back for more!

Ah, yeah, thanks for the concern. I forgot to mention that in my first year back to Korea I finally got a good diagnosis (after several months of a misdiagnosed "stomach problem"), and had my gall bladder removed. Now all is well. Pain free life is good life.

Now I almost want to visit again some day!

Corona and Sol, shots of Jager and tequila How about you?

"His stats come up as 26/21/2.6. "

Raze, is that a player you look for when you are selecting a table? If not what would an easy players stats look like?

All of the above... lol... Normally I prefer dark beers, but I do like Sol too, especially with lime. Had some Milagro tequila at a friends house last week, and it's not bad for $20 a bottle. I also like a dirty gin martini or a smooth scotch as well. Hell, there's not much I don't like, as long as it's not harsh or leaves a bad aftertaste.

Summer 2005:

My gf and I went to visit her cousin, she was going out with a nice guy that happened to play poker. I had played the game a few times but never took it seriously, walked to see what the dude was doing and he had 3 tables opened at Stars and 1 more at another site.

He mentioned having qualified to the "Party Poker Million Cruise" 2 years in arow with pride on his voice... I couldn't care less.
Sat around watching him maniacally press buttons while trying to multitable on 2 different sites.....I wasn't impressed.
Saw him win $120 in less than 20 minutes on Stars.....
Asked him what 1rst price for that cruise thingy was: 1 mirrion dollars

I was hooked

2006-mid 2008:

Fack you World of Warcraft

2008-2009:

I have been taking the game seriously for the past 6 months. I did study the game for 3-4 months before making my first deposit in 2005 and never really lost my starting bankroll so I moved through the 5NL - 10NL pretty fast in FTP and RiverStars. After taking a few shots too high too fast lost enough to be even. Withdrew all my $$ from both sites and bought a new sofa ( the gurlfriend was happy and my live results have always been good at $1-$2NL / $2-$5NL so I get to play w/o much complaining).

Deposited a few hundos at a super soft Euro site (PKR) and almost tripled it by now by mostly playing DoublesorNothings.

thank you BRM.

My gf still doesn't understand how I can sit at a live table with $500 and no fear but am scared $$ at $100NL online........ she might never understand.