Hey guys,

I'm currently getting back into poker. I've played off and on for my entire life(21 years) and I love it, and I also really want to get good at it. I have never been a consistent winning player so it will be fun just journaling down my journey the very beginning of my poker career basically. Anyway, I hope that this post is a good read for you all and hopefully somehow I can help others learn more about the game somehow. Anyway, my goal is to write in here at the end of every day, and post some difficult hands that I experienced. Also, I mainly play on BetOnline and Global Poker. Unfortunately I won't be putting in a ton of hours because I have a job and I'm a full time student, but my goal is to play poker as much as I can and use this thread to journal my progress and talk about difficult hands.

Let's get to it! I invested $300 in Betonline, and another $400 in Global poker within the past week. At the beginning of today I started with $377.53 total between the two accounts and ended with $452.63(Currently down $247.37). I played 8 hours on 10 Tables today. Overall this week has basically just been getting back into the swing of poker. And getting back into the groove of being disciplined enough to fold overpairs when people raise flop and shove turn, or just overbet random good hands on the river that somehow got there.

Overall, I'm playing really poor without showdown. I'm mostly going to use Betonlne statistics because I don't have a HUD or any statistics for Global poker. In the 8502 hands I played this week on BetOnline I lost $198 without showdown and won $94 when going to showdown.

One hand, I played in UTG+1 limped, CO limped, and I raised SB with 9dTd. Flop came 2d6d4d, both players check. I C-Bet for $.73, UTG+1 calls. Turn is a 5, I bet $1.7 and UTG+1 calls. The river comes a Q of hearts and UTG+1 shoves for an additional 7.5. I call and he shows Ad5d. What do you guys think? Should I be able to get away from this? Should my bet sizing be different? Should I just check the river?

Anyway, I'll pop back in here tomorrow. Good night!

I had a great day today! Financially no, but I definitely learned a lot. I spent 6 hours playing .05/.1. In the first two hours, I was 10 tabling on Global and Betonline and managed to lose just over ten buyins. I've been thinking about bringing my tables down since that's what Doug Polk says to do in the lab but after that first two hours I finally decided to swallow my pride and go down to just four tables.

After looking at my stats and noticing the extremely large amount of money lost without showdown, I decided that I need to be more aggressive on the flop and postflop and definitely work in more bluffs. In these next four hours I made about $21. I finished the next four hours about $4.5 up in nonshowdown pots. So hopefully I can continue to stay above even in these and milk the fish on the showdown pots.

I RFI SB .4 with AsQh, BB 3Bet to .6, I 4Bet to 1.0, BB 5Bet to 1.4, I call.
Flop: Ad2c10h, I check, BB bets 1.35 into 2.85 pot, I call.
Turn: 3h I check, BB bets 2.25 into 5.55 pot, I call.
River: 5c I check, BB shoves for a remaining 5.7 into 10.05, I call.
BB shows 44.

Should I check-raise the flop or turn? Should I somehow make a fold on the river?

Well guys it was a tough day. I played 8 hours four tabling and 4 hours 6 tabling. In the first 8 hours I was up $33 and in the last 4 hours I'm down $34 so I end the day down $1. No super challenging hands, I mostly lost by overcalling with overpairs, and trying to bluff into the nuts. Unfortunately it doesn't work that great. Anyway it was a lot of fun and I definitely learned a lot. I've also been going through Upswing poker's module on blockers. That was cool.

you should move this here: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...mp-challenges/

When I started on cash, I started 9 tabling because I played SNGs and Mtts for 2 years before with like 10/12 tables. I felt capable. And I think I was realy able to learn and understand stuff when someone told me to just play 4 tables.

Well today was another rough day. I played for 6.5 hours and lost $57. I 6 tabled the entire day and mixed my strategy from being a straight nit to being hyper-aggressive. I think I'm on to something. Been getting better at reading opportunities to bluff and not getting attached to the big hands. Hopefully I don't break the roll before I figure it out but if so I'll just put more money in. No hands that stuck out as super challenging, mostly I just called down way too much and got tilted. Time to work on that!

Today was good, am continuing to get better. I played 8.5 hours today and lost $100 on Betonline and won $30 on Global poker. I've been going through upswing poker content as well. Anyway, I think I'm about to turn this bankroll decline down before it busts. See you on the tables

You should move this to PGC like YouBetICall said. And it's not a good idea to play that many tables until you're sure that you're a winner. Start at one or two. You'll learn better that way.

Today was another loser. I played for a total of twelve hours and lost $25. I believe I ran quite below EV but but most of it was on Global poker so I am not sure. Anyway. I am going to be moving back down in tables because I feel like I'm really not learning anything just trying to play as many tables as I can. Also I just found out how to move the forum. Doing it now!

Actually I don't know how to move this to another category

Good luck my man,

It sounds like you are doing a little bit of losing to start out, which is fine, you know, that happens to us all, but it has to be corrected. Whenever I go on a downswing I tighten up, get back to basics and focus.

1) TIGHTEN UP. If you are losing, the easiest way to fix leaks and identify leaks is to play fewer hands. Whenever I'm on a downswing and I can't figure out why, I screw it down and start playing big pairs, middle pairs and top pair hands like AJ+ and KQ, almost exclusively until I start hitting some flops and things start feeling a lot better.

2) BACK TO BASICS. Whenever I am on a downswing I start regressing to basic poker strategy, which for me means solid, tight-aggressive and position oriented play. Position, position, position and bring it in for a raise. Don't open-limp, don't cold-call. If you can't bring it in for a raise, don't play it. And I mean a value raise not a bluff raise. Stop bluffing so much. If you have a card advantage over your opponent's range, then raise, if you don't, then fold. Stop playing from the blinds until you have fixed other leaks. You can focus on blind defense later. It is too difficult to play oop.

3) FOCUS. Do you want to win or not? If you want to win, but you are not winning, then let's get serious and focus and try hard to play winning poker.
Part of focusing would be playing less tables. 8,500 hands in a week is a lot, for me anyway. That's 1,200 hands a day. 10 tables at a time is too much, for me anyway, hell 6 tables at a time is too much for me. I like to keep it at 4 or fewer and frequently I am only playing 2-3 tables. Like you, I am not a pro, I have a job and a family and other responsibilities and I can't just grind grind grind. But I do take pride in the fact that I am a winning player. Also, poker is a thinking game. I like thinking about the game conditions and the opponents and the action. I just can't do that when 10 tabling. It makes poker so much more robotic for me. I am trying to learn and improve and this involves thinking and analyzing, which for me I can't do with too many tables going all at once.

That is my advice for handling temporary downswings. Good luck brother. See you at the tables.
Magnum

Magnum,
Thanks for the advice brother! Yeah I've been noticing how robotic multi*tabling so many tables is becoming. I Played the entire day on 4 tables today and definitely played a lot better. As for playing loose, I've actually spent my entire life playing tight whether it was online or live and I figure that I might as well figure it out now rather than later. I really do want to be an unpredictable player that can choose the right bluffs. Overall I am choosing some of them, I'm also getting stacked on some of them but it's definitely getting better everyday.

Well another day in the books guys. Today was pretty fun. I finished Upswing Poker's Big blind module. I will say, I am really enjoying Upswing. I never really knew poker could be so mathematically explained. It's been really fun learning about how ranges stack up against each other. After finishing that I built preflop charts for every situation preflop(Thanks to upswing for providing them). So now if I'm facing a raise from any position, I have multiple charts from equilab that I'm looking at. It's definitely helped a ton. Also, yesterday I updated my HUD to look at stats more focused on flop, turn, and river bets, C-BET percentage, double and triple barrel percentage, and fold to raise percentage on all streets. I've actually been choosing pretty good bluffing spots versus players.

Also another big thing I've been learning is about choosing value hands, bluff hands, calling hands and folding hands on different hands, and keeping it pretty evenly distributed to stay unpredictable. I'm sure it's not really that important in the stakes I'm playing, but it has helped me think more analytically in a hand rather than just making decisions based on feeling.


As far as the poker goes, I played 6.5 hours and lost $58 on Betonline today. Definitely need to stop calling them overbets!

Hey guys, today was good. I only did poker for five hours today. I spent 4 hours playing and an hour going through part of the upswing multiway pot module. Today I ended up $21 in four hours. It was the first time I've had a day where both my nonshowdown and showdown profit is positive. I'm definitely getting better at choosing bluffs and folding when I have a decently strong hand that is likely beat. Although I can certainly do a lot better. Anyway, we'll see you all tomorrow!

Bodhaine, you are getting murdered out there. I want you to know, that I am rooting for you. This is what your stats are so far.

+$75
Lost 10 buy ins !!!!! (Is that $100?)
-$1
-$57
-$70
-$25
-$58
And you had started this thread down -$247 from your original $700 deposits.

You should never lose 10 buy ins in 2 hours, I don't care how many tables you are playing. (I would suggest setting a "stop-loss" amount so this never happens again. For example if you ever lose 3 buy ins in a session - which should be a rare occurrence - then you are done for the day).

You said at one point, "Hopefully I don't break the roll before I figure it out but if so I'll just put more money in." I want you to know that it is totally possible to make one deposit to BetOnline and never make another deposit, just withdrawals. That is what I have done. You should not lose your entire bankroll. You had $700 to play 10NL. That is way more than enough money to withstand normal variance.

I have a couple of suggestions for you. 1) I think it is obvious that you need to play much more conservatively then you are currently playing. You should not be getting your whole stack in so often and/or losing when you do. I suggest reading up on SPR's.
2) You talk about the value of having a wide range so that you can be an "unpredictable player." Don't worry about this too much at 10NL. ABC poker is a winning style at online 10NL. There are so many oblivious players. When you begin to move up you can start worrying more about that. I also don't know how you are implementing this but if you are cold calling raises with suited connectors for instance, don't do this, it is not +EV in the long run imo, it is a leak. Doyle and Negraneau can do it, you and I cannot.
3) You talk a lot about bluffing. Don't bluff so much. Bluffing calling-stations doesn't work. Just try to wait for situations where you believe you have the best hand. And don't worry about getting bluffed. If someone bluffs and you fold the better hand, so be it. It is better than getting stacked. This is why playing OOP sucks.
4) Don't worry so much about your "non-showdown stats". That stat is going to take into account your folds and your fold may be 100% correct. Who cares? If you fold to a check raise 5 times in a row and then win your opponent's entire stack on the 6th hand, are you ok with that?

Those are some of my suggestions. 10NL is a beatable game. You can turn this downswing around and beat this game. I wish you good luck and sharper learning curve than I had. Peace, man.

Magnum

you must be new

Well you may have a point Ionutd. I have no doubt that you are an excellent player. I also fully understand that I am not one of the best players in the world. I am however a winning player and I do take pride in that. I have been playing poker for a long time. I am more conservative than many players. I can't stomach losing 10 buy ins. I would be seriously worried that something is very wrong with my game if I lost that much. I am not new. I am also not a pro grinder. I am a daily recreational player. Bodaine is new. I think he said he is 21yo and has never been a winning player and just deposited $700 bucks 2 weeks ago and has almost blown through it all 10-tabling. I'm just trying to offer some constructive advice on how to slow down.

All respect, Magnum

vArIaNcE

Lol @3 BIs downswing a rare occurrence.
I've literally lost them in the span of ~10/15 hands multiple times.

Ok well you guys have a higher tolerance for variance than I do. Standard Deviation can vary between winning players. Some players may have a similar win rate but a much different standard deviation. I only play 3-400 hands a day. Like I said, I'm not a pro grinder, but I have been playing poker for a very long time and I have played a lot of live poker. I would be really very bummed if I lost several buy ins in 1 session and I would also be pretty bummed if I had losing sessions several days in a row. It would cause me to re-examine my game. I'm not a LAG player, I'm a TAG player, solid. It is possible to lose a couple of buy ins or several buy ins due to just pure bad luck. If that's what is going on then so be it, that's just poker. If it happened to me I would turn my computer off, shut my laptop and I'd be done for the day. This young guy who started this thread is 21 years old and says he has never been a winning player. I don't think he losing stacks due to pure bad luck. I think it would benefit him to tighten up. That's my advice.

he is correct..i started 3 times with 10 BI or less on different sites and i never deposited again..if your skill is much better than the pool youre playing you cant lose 99%

Hey guys, I really appreciate the advice! It's awesome to hear from you. I will add I want to maximize my ability and I think if I choose not to look for bluffing opportunities, then I'm missing out on a part of my game that I need to develop. I too have always played very conservatively and I don't believe I can maximize my winning rate and be competitive against some of the tougher players if I don't work on it. Today was a good day. I played 5 hours and never played more than four tables at a time. I was actually up $61 today! After two hours I was up over $65 and I started hitting a downswing. Within the next hour it seemed like every time I was bluffing, I was bluffing into the nuts, and every time I got two pair, somebody had a set. Feeling pretty pissed off and about to be tilted, I got off the computer and did pullups and pushups for 10 minutes and got back to it. After another couple hours I made almost all of my losses back. After looking at the hands, I didn't really make many plays I wouldn't make again. Sometimes your flush and gutshot reshove bluff runs into a boat.

Magnum, I appreciate your advice on having a stop loss but I also want to be a player who is not as mentally effected by variance. But yes, tilt has definitely been a huge factor in losing so much in the past couple weeks. Hopefully I can continue to find ways to clear my head when I do get tilted, doing pushups and pullups really helped today.

Recently I run KK into AA 4 times in one session. I also run 20 BI bellow EV for 100k hands. Variance is a ***** hope you don't learn it the hard way...

Bodhaine, I'd like to recommend 2 excellent books that I read this year. I bought them both on Kindle and liked them so much that I ordered the actual hardcopy.

1) Advance Concepts in NLHE by Hunter Cichy
2) Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo

Good luck on your journey.

Magnum

One simple thing I’ve learned from playing at micros (5 and 10NL) is that a large bet on the turn or river very rarely is a bluff. If your opponent is aggressive past the flop you probably need a very strong hand to continue. Don’t even try to make sense of opponents’ lines in these cases. Just an example hand: I have AA on button. CO opens to 3BB, I 3 bet to 10BB, everyone else folds. 3 7 Jr flop. I cbet 10BB v calls. A on turn no flush draw. I bet 20BB he calls. 5 on river, he bets out 60bb all in. I tried to rationalize it — there’s no way he could possibly have made the straight. He had to call a 3! PF plus two bets with just a gut shot. Of course I called and he showed 46.

PS I’m sure I could have played it better, but that’s not the point. This particular case might even have been a correct call, but the point is to expect monsters when v’s are aggressive on late streets.