Current Thoughts

So I'm just about getting used to the FT games. Overall vs UB, I'd say the following:

• The average regs are of roughly the same standard. Obviously they take some working out, but the exercise has been good for me in that I would never have spent this amount of time looking at UB regs.... with Dodgy's help I feel I have a good grip of most reg's games, especially the PF stuff which is of massive importance obv.
• There are plenty more fish on FTP. And I mean plenty more. And they buy in full! And they rebuy!
• The very good FTP regs are much better than the very good UB regs. As in, you get some really sick 5-10 types dropping down to 400nl on FT, whereas on UB there's nobody to really strike the fear of god into you. Having Oldjude, Moi, UMDTennis occassionally dropping down is not something you have to worry about on UB.

My game is definitely in a state of flux at the moment. While I said that the average regs are of roughly the same standard, they are definitely more aggressive on the whole. In some games, I've felt like that the plan should literally just be to sit back and wait for hands.

That last sentence poses a big problem for me though. The problem is that sitting back and waiting for hands does not come naturally to me. At the same time though, when it's literally impossible to flat anything in the CO or even the BTN because of the squeezing threat then by playing too loose and then folding you are truly burning money.

In the last 10k hands on FT, my red line has gone negative for the first time in months. This is, basically, function of getting owned PF. The more splashy regs will flat A2s OTB sure, but 'make up for it' by making spewy plays like flatting the squeeze and jamming flops. Because the aggressions level is lso much greater on FT, my tendency to flat tons of junk OTB is costing me a lot of money.

Postflop, the aggression level has forced me into a weak passive corner of 'waiting for hands'. I don't think that in of itself this is a winning form of poker, even in these games. Too often I've been giving up with the initiative, or rolling over to cbets and double barrels. The increased aggression means that I should be winning more and bigger non showdown pots, not less.

Intuitively having realised this, I think that the answer in general terms is to be much tighter PF...... and then much more aggressive and tricky postflop than I have been.

So I'm looking to be something like 19/16. I don't have exact ranges mapped out, but that's a task for tomorrow. In general though I'll flat much less, open EP much tighter, and always always have a plan to win postflop once I'm passed my commitment threshold for the hand.

Also in general terms, I've been getting crushed the times I'm flatting raises OOP. My general goal in postflop poker should be looking at ways to win the hand without showdown, avoid reverse equity spots through early folds, and be extremely cautious in spots without the initiative and without the nuts.

The spots of say, cbetting QJ on q64ss and getting raised happen often enough, and I should have a plan to deal with it that does not involve spaz clicking call..... folding to the raise, moving back a step to the cbet, or back a step further to preflop are all viable options, whereas allowing villain to control frequencies and force me into bigger and bigger mistakes an unknown % of the time is the definition of losing poker.

Grade subjects for next session.

• VPIP/PFR around 19/16
• Lets see examples of early flop folds
• Red line awareness, so increased aggression postflop
• Soulread based on betsizing

Review to follow based on the above......

dan