Update and current thoughts..........

Hello ! I haven't blogged in a while, 'cos obviously I only blog when I'm losing and losing heavily, and of late things have been fine.

I managed to sneak into 5 figures for Feb with a late semi heater. I call it a semi heater because I changed a ton of stuff at the start of the upswing and I just overall felt much happier in how I was playing. I'll just outline some of the small and some of the drastic changes in overall gameplan I made........

4betting: I've scrapped the idea of not EVER doing it. Sorry Struiks for not getting back to you on your questions but I was basically undecided myself after a bit of gametime. The reason I'm 4betting again is that I've realised that there are a decent number of factors that go into having a high success % in doing it........

So, when I'd decided that it was basically a zero sum game, I was wrong. In basically all spots where we face a 3bet we can draw on timing, stacksize, position, inferred reads (polarised 3betting range etc), gameflow, stats (deliberately last) to accurately gauge whether villain will fold to a 4bet bluff or not. I left out of that list the level of the player, how they perceive you as a player, and what kind of player they are (without delving into animal types again, I'll list some: '12 tabling stats robot', 'alpha male whale', 'insecure monkey see monkey do' etc).

PF Looseness: Probably the biggest change in of itself. This next sentence is important. Poker, first and foremost, is about stealing the blinds! I started by looking at HEM, 'did raise' by position. Then I filtered for junk. I've always done well open raising from all positions, including highly speculative hands..............

So by virtue of the average 200nl Stars reg's inability to adjust, I'm back playing 29/27. Playing 12 tables, I'm almost on autopilot until the turn actually. My rinse/repeat is basically: raise PF, cbet flop, soul read turn and river. The soul reading comes back to what I've been saying about playing by instinct, which is still as important as ever IMO.

Don't Call: A simplistic way to look at it, but my HEM lifetime bb/100 for 3betting stuff, including junk, from all positions is exceedingly high. For flatting stuff, it is extremely meh. Unless OTB and definitely no light squeezers behind, I've just been 3betting or folding VS open raises. This means that if gameflow/ stacks/ player doesn't allow a 3bet with KQo in the CO, and I'm facing an UTG+1 raise, then I have to fold it. The same applies in the blinds.

I was up $3k this month at 200nl, but complacency had to set in eventually and I've been booted back down to $1.4k. I need a shot in the arm, and so I've decided to just move to 400nl. Initially less tables, but double the stakes will get me properly focussed again........

Is all!

dan