I feel like I've had a major-ish mental epiphany today. I've been struggling getting any sort of narrative going of late. My tilt at the downswing seemingly clouding any narrative..... leaving me staring blankly at flops and turns and sometimes having zero semblance of what the goal of poker even is.
A conversation with my GF today, not to do with poker, got me on this thought train. Essentially, she was having extreme difficulty coming up with marketing ideas for her business because she had no tangible direction from which to start. So, she'd be trying to come up with an idea of something interesting to put on her business Facebook page, and despite having tons of natural creativity her mind would return a complete blank. Having talked with a marketing expert today, she realised that the reason for the blankness was the lack of having something concrete from which ideas then arise.
So once she came up with a few starting ideas for brand image, out of that solid base came all sorts of ideas.
I realised that a very similar thing happens to me when I'm slightly on tilt. When I'm not on tilt, and I'm extremely relaxed, then a strategy 'narrative' will present itself to me. By narrative, I mean the internal voice similar to that of a video producer that tells us what buttons to press.
So the problem when I'm slightly on tilt is that this voice more or less disappears. I flat JTs on the button VS EP, the flop comes AKTddd. I have no clue what to do. And no internal voice giving me any sort of idea.
In playing the last session, I'd just been watching a Gogol's nose vid, and his play in standard spots is extremely tangible and simple. He might say something along the lines of 'we're behind our opponent's range once he bets, and we don't have good bluffing possibilities, so this is a fold'.
So, straight way there, he's insta homed in on some very simple stuff.
What's our opponent's range once he bets?
How does our range fair VS that?
If we're ahead, does it play better as a call or a raise?
If we're behind, can we bluff?
If we can't, then fold.
This stuff is very easy to remember and thus cement in your mind. Rather like knowing your own name, it will be available even when we're on a bit of tilt. I've read about this concept tons of times in MGOP 1 and 2, but this is the first time that the power of it has really dawned on me.
Someone posted a hand the other day, facing a river raise on the river we had a very good hand, but we'd bet a large size in a spot where we're either outright bluffing or have close to the nuts. I suck at these spots usually........ but when in the zone feel very confident in picking off bluffs and the like. The trouble is, I don't know why I knew, and can't repeat it unless playing A* game.
Another poster in the skype group really simplified it, and said 'he's got no incentive to bluff, because you're betting a polarised range, so it's an easy fold'.
'Betting a polarised range, so no incentive to bluff raise'
Man, that sentence, or something similar, probably went through my mind whenever I was in the zone and playing well in those spots..... but afterwards it'd be gone forever, never to be utilised again. In being able to simply and tangibly explain what seemed like such a complex and intangible spot, we basically get to 'own' this spot from now on, no matter what level of tilt or tiredness might afflict us.
So in MGOP, Jared talks about reviewing hands played in the zone, to try to reverse engineer why we were able to play hands in such a terrific way. I never really understood why, or perhaps didn't believe in it, but the above example is exactly why. It's so we add it, lock stock and barrel, to our arsenal of poker skills learned to unconscious competence.
Today I've still been on a bit of tilt, but I've picked off a couple of river bluff raises here and here. The skill to do so came to me clear as day, it was tangible, it meant that I instantly knew the right question to ask when deciding whether to call. 'Are we betting a depolarised range, and thus does he have an incentive to bluff raise?' (Granted, the K7 was tougher, but the same concept applies given that trips is far from the nuts there.)
So, what I need to do now is to continue to build up a concrete store of knowledge, especially for common spots. As well as that, when I find myself playing well and make some sick read, I need to analyse why on earth my instinct lead me to that conclusion. Only then can I take that kick of inspiration, bottle it, and use it again and again for ever more.
So I'm quite excited right now. I have a list of topics to write about, and I just know that it's going to eliminate tilt problems whilst also making me much sicker in several technical departments.
I'll give one last example before I finish.
When in the zone, I often make decent and exploitative river folds that game theory would say never to make. When on tilt, I'm still sorta aware that my gut says to fold, but without something solid to go on I often click call. Witness this morning, making a very bad call..........
Now the call isn't bad from a GTO point of view. Indeed, we need to be calling close to 50% of our range on the river, and having KQo as the bottom of our range only gets us to 33%. If we fold here, he has a profitable bluff with 42o, no blocker.
So why is it so obviously still a fold? Well, it took some thought, but I really wanted to get to the bottom of it, and the answer I came up with is that it's because we can exploit a fundamental imbalance present in 99% of regs, and that imbalance is this:
'In spots where a decent % of our bluffcatchers are strong in absolute terms, regs will bet big with the nuts and smaller as a bluff.'
So say our bluffcatching range is obviously like 3rd pairs and stuff, then regs will bet small for value. But as soon as we play a hand like the one above, checking back a scary turn, leaving top pairs and trips and overpairs as our bluffcatchers, then there's no reason at all for someone to bluff big. If they have a rando JThh there, then 1/2 pot is all that's required 'cos we have a polarised range of air, or top pair plus to call. The big bet there is just always a very good hand because in a vacuum it thinks it wants to maximise VS a bluffcatching range that isn't folding to most sizes.
This spot is actually most common when we check back a weak ace IP, call turn, then face a river bomb. In the zone, fold but just go with feeling. Not in the zone- 'game theory says call, let's call'. Sorry bro, always 2pair+, ur bluffcatching range is top pair+.
Anyway, that's where I'm at atm. If you're reading this, maybe struggling a bit at poker, please take all on this board because it's important!
bye
Thursday 6 November 2014
Saturday 1 November 2014
Bloggety blog blog
Hello........
I've been somewhat resistant to writing a technical blog for a while now. I basically felt like doing so, and trying to 'force' myself into certain ways of thinking is bad for my overall concentration, and I was instead better off just getting into as relaxed as state as possible, and then seeing what happens.
Unfortunately, what is happening at the moment is that I'm making too many bad calls, too many rando bluffs, and not seeing things purely in terms of my range. So I just need a reminder of a few basic things.
1) Getting bluffed: lately I've been calling far wider than is GTO, mainly on the strength of extremely tenuous ideas and reads that evidently don't warrant the credit I'm giving them. The odd call like this is fine, but it has become a bad habit, and this is leading to mental problems whereby I cannot justify the call to myself in any sort of fashion......... also, if I'm slightly on tilt, it means I can find any old reason to make a call.
Whereas, if I'm just applying pure game theory then there is always solid reasoning behind it and I can at least be confident that the call is 'good' and makes money. So, this will be a key goal (though I hate calling it that, I'm just going to do it) in upcoming sessions. Plenty of close river decisions just have to get filed under 'getting bluffed sometimes, but not enough to call', instead of 'he has bluffs = must call'.
2) Our range, balance, defending enough, thinking ahead: There's not been enough of all this stuff, and it feels as though I've been playing way too vacuumy in general. Bluff spots, I've been going for 100% instead of only bottom of my range, again leading to tilt issues when they don't come off. By balance, I don't mean 'do the same thing all the time' or whatever, because virtually every situation is different from any other. That's why it's so important to be considering your balanced range in each and every hand, basically developing a strategy such that we can't be beaten. That's all that matters, not being beaten! Once you can't be beaten, winning takes care of itself. So, I need to stop 'trying' to win.
3) Getting 3bet: My 'raise, face 3bet and fold OOP' is now at 38%. I think this was fine for several months when my strategy wasn't so well known, but I feel at present a couple of things are happening. One is that I'm getting 3bet a whole lot more by players IP, which is a very standard adjustment to a player flatting 3bets a lot OOP. Secondly, I'm no longer getting the credit postflop that was once due to me, so people are barrelling lighter, bluffing more, and not folding to my bluff lines. As well they shouldn't, I usually don't have anything :-)
So a gear change is needed there. I'm going to shift to a very 4bet heavy strategy. At present, my 4bet success rate is certainly higher than optimal, but I've been loathe to exploit it with extra bluffs as I've been so balance obsessed pre. At this point a current trend makes its way into my thoughts, which is that more 4bets are getting flatted. People are just aware of the good odds they get and know they don't have to realise a ton of equity post-flop.
So I'm going to start 4betting a very depolarised range. Suited broadways, some pairs, AQ and the like. Some of these will have the benefit of being decent 6bet bluff jam candidates if we're a bit deeper, but I shouldn't be doing too much of that at present as my stats are just going to look like 'lol never 4bets' for a good while. It just means I'm going to print money in the short term VS all the folds I'll be getting, and when flatted I'm going to have decent playability.
4) Checking OOP. As I've said above, I don't like to overgeneralise, but I will be checking OOP as the PFR a lot more. Again, this is somewhat of a gear change, but also has benefits of making me extremely hard to 'beat' when we're OOP. The adjustment would basically be to check back a lot and realise more equity, as well as flat more VS me as they're going to see more turns. Both these adjustments are probably lost on most regs though, and it opens up many possibilities regarding delay bomb bomb lines, and flop and turn check raises.
So man, that's a lot of stuff, and this is usually where the problem comes in- remembering it all and being unable to apply everything. It's all fairly standard stuff though, and I'll play a couple of short sessions first to bed in the new approach.
Is all, say hello on skype if you haven't for a while. Byeeee
I've been somewhat resistant to writing a technical blog for a while now. I basically felt like doing so, and trying to 'force' myself into certain ways of thinking is bad for my overall concentration, and I was instead better off just getting into as relaxed as state as possible, and then seeing what happens.
Unfortunately, what is happening at the moment is that I'm making too many bad calls, too many rando bluffs, and not seeing things purely in terms of my range. So I just need a reminder of a few basic things.
1) Getting bluffed: lately I've been calling far wider than is GTO, mainly on the strength of extremely tenuous ideas and reads that evidently don't warrant the credit I'm giving them. The odd call like this is fine, but it has become a bad habit, and this is leading to mental problems whereby I cannot justify the call to myself in any sort of fashion......... also, if I'm slightly on tilt, it means I can find any old reason to make a call.
Whereas, if I'm just applying pure game theory then there is always solid reasoning behind it and I can at least be confident that the call is 'good' and makes money. So, this will be a key goal (though I hate calling it that, I'm just going to do it) in upcoming sessions. Plenty of close river decisions just have to get filed under 'getting bluffed sometimes, but not enough to call', instead of 'he has bluffs = must call'.
2) Our range, balance, defending enough, thinking ahead: There's not been enough of all this stuff, and it feels as though I've been playing way too vacuumy in general. Bluff spots, I've been going for 100% instead of only bottom of my range, again leading to tilt issues when they don't come off. By balance, I don't mean 'do the same thing all the time' or whatever, because virtually every situation is different from any other. That's why it's so important to be considering your balanced range in each and every hand, basically developing a strategy such that we can't be beaten. That's all that matters, not being beaten! Once you can't be beaten, winning takes care of itself. So, I need to stop 'trying' to win.
3) Getting 3bet: My 'raise, face 3bet and fold OOP' is now at 38%. I think this was fine for several months when my strategy wasn't so well known, but I feel at present a couple of things are happening. One is that I'm getting 3bet a whole lot more by players IP, which is a very standard adjustment to a player flatting 3bets a lot OOP. Secondly, I'm no longer getting the credit postflop that was once due to me, so people are barrelling lighter, bluffing more, and not folding to my bluff lines. As well they shouldn't, I usually don't have anything :-)
So a gear change is needed there. I'm going to shift to a very 4bet heavy strategy. At present, my 4bet success rate is certainly higher than optimal, but I've been loathe to exploit it with extra bluffs as I've been so balance obsessed pre. At this point a current trend makes its way into my thoughts, which is that more 4bets are getting flatted. People are just aware of the good odds they get and know they don't have to realise a ton of equity post-flop.
So I'm going to start 4betting a very depolarised range. Suited broadways, some pairs, AQ and the like. Some of these will have the benefit of being decent 6bet bluff jam candidates if we're a bit deeper, but I shouldn't be doing too much of that at present as my stats are just going to look like 'lol never 4bets' for a good while. It just means I'm going to print money in the short term VS all the folds I'll be getting, and when flatted I'm going to have decent playability.
4) Checking OOP. As I've said above, I don't like to overgeneralise, but I will be checking OOP as the PFR a lot more. Again, this is somewhat of a gear change, but also has benefits of making me extremely hard to 'beat' when we're OOP. The adjustment would basically be to check back a lot and realise more equity, as well as flat more VS me as they're going to see more turns. Both these adjustments are probably lost on most regs though, and it opens up many possibilities regarding delay bomb bomb lines, and flop and turn check raises.
So man, that's a lot of stuff, and this is usually where the problem comes in- remembering it all and being unable to apply everything. It's all fairly standard stuff though, and I'll play a couple of short sessions first to bed in the new approach.
Is all, say hello on skype if you haven't for a while. Byeeee
Monday 9 June 2014
Day cooldown
Happy with my play and mental game today. I've tracked all my thoughts again, and it's helping develop my awareness as I play. I'm able to shine light on lots of thoughts that would previously go unnoticed, except by my unconscious, which would take those thoughts; believe in them 100% and send me on megatilt.
Looking at them, there seems to be quite a few 'anxiety' based ones, like panicking about a big bluff. The logic that needs injecting in those spots is something like 'you've made the best decision possible, so be very happy whatever happens'.
A few cockiness ones too, I've rode a bit of a heater today and I've felt the odd pang of wanting to 5bet 75s really deep just for the hell of it, that kind of thing. Luckily I haven't acted on any of those though, as I've been aware enough to immediately inject the logic of 'money won or lost is an illusion, cockiness will soon send your play on nosedive'.
Technically, I'm having a lot of success with big OOP bluffs. I really feel 200nl is still really 'trend' based at the moment, and today I felt on top of a lot of the trends. I've also really been happy with my reverse equity play. This has come a whole lot easier when I look at each decision along the lines of 'how exactly is this going to play out on various turns and rivers', similar to a CREV sim actually. This also aids decision making on the next street, so for example if I'm calling 77 on 844dd OOP, I know that on cards 8 and down he's going to check down his bluffs, whereas cards 9 or higher I'm going to be faced with a decision, and that decision is likely to be fold. So when the cards come on the turn, I'm not ruing my earlier decision.
So yeah, more of the same tomorrow please!
Looking at them, there seems to be quite a few 'anxiety' based ones, like panicking about a big bluff. The logic that needs injecting in those spots is something like 'you've made the best decision possible, so be very happy whatever happens'.
A few cockiness ones too, I've rode a bit of a heater today and I've felt the odd pang of wanting to 5bet 75s really deep just for the hell of it, that kind of thing. Luckily I haven't acted on any of those though, as I've been aware enough to immediately inject the logic of 'money won or lost is an illusion, cockiness will soon send your play on nosedive'.
Technically, I'm having a lot of success with big OOP bluffs. I really feel 200nl is still really 'trend' based at the moment, and today I felt on top of a lot of the trends. I've also really been happy with my reverse equity play. This has come a whole lot easier when I look at each decision along the lines of 'how exactly is this going to play out on various turns and rivers', similar to a CREV sim actually. This also aids decision making on the next street, so for example if I'm calling 77 on 844dd OOP, I know that on cards 8 and down he's going to check down his bluffs, whereas cards 9 or higher I'm going to be faced with a decision, and that decision is likely to be fold. So when the cards come on the turn, I'm not ruing my earlier decision.
So yeah, more of the same tomorrow please!
Sunday 8 June 2014
Day Cooldown
I'd rate my efforts today probably 7/10, certainly 'satisfactory', but with lots of room for improvement. I was able to resist checking results for a long time, but having a low bankroll and losing a few pots meant the itch was too strong. This will undoubtedly go away once my bankroll increases slightly, but in the meantime I simply have to not energise the urge to check by actually doing so, rather I just notice the urge, face it, and let it go.
I kept a real time record of all my thoughts today which has trained my awareness decently. One thing I'm trying to improve on is noticing positive variance as well as negative, so I don't have such a naturally lopsided view of how poker 'treats' me.
I have though, really felt like I've made progress on turning around the mental oil tanker, and reconditioning it to be bothered about only the result of how we played rather than anything to do with money. Money won or lost is an illusion etc.
I've tried out a few more technical lines today too, specifically upping the aggression OOP after our opponent checks the flop and caps his range. I think most people are loathe to do a lot there facing a turn bomb and river overbet, that type of thing. Similarly 3bet pots, when we can overbet the turn when the PSR allows, etc.
I did make several mistakes today, but they're fine and part and parcel of a good winrate. Some I'm able to learn from, specifically raising strong draws in spots where 200nl regs are just going to jam for protection, whereas 500nl regs you can get away with it more. A better line is often to call the bet OOP, and then lead small if we miss.
Probably went against my instinct a few times today. Again, nothing major, but something to improve upon for tomorrow.
I kept a real time record of all my thoughts today which has trained my awareness decently. One thing I'm trying to improve on is noticing positive variance as well as negative, so I don't have such a naturally lopsided view of how poker 'treats' me.
I have though, really felt like I've made progress on turning around the mental oil tanker, and reconditioning it to be bothered about only the result of how we played rather than anything to do with money. Money won or lost is an illusion etc.
I've tried out a few more technical lines today too, specifically upping the aggression OOP after our opponent checks the flop and caps his range. I think most people are loathe to do a lot there facing a turn bomb and river overbet, that type of thing. Similarly 3bet pots, when we can overbet the turn when the PSR allows, etc.
I did make several mistakes today, but they're fine and part and parcel of a good winrate. Some I'm able to learn from, specifically raising strong draws in spots where 200nl regs are just going to jam for protection, whereas 500nl regs you can get away with it more. A better line is often to call the bet OOP, and then lead small if we miss.
Probably went against my instinct a few times today. Again, nothing major, but something to improve upon for tomorrow.
Thursday 5 June 2014
Conclusion
I came to the conclusion today that as of late I have not been a theoretical winning player in the Zoom 200nl games. Saying this does hurt me a little, but I have to face up to it. I'm not running bad, therefore, I am playing bad. I also don't currently feel my edge at all, and have been going through the motions trying to sorta improve and grind but ultimately spending days at a time swinging 10BIs one way and then the next.
I always have a ton of concepts floating around my mind. As long time readers of this blog will know, I tend to focus on a few at a time, get it 'sorted' and then move on. What tends to happen though, is that whatever leak I fix eventually creeps back in. For example, say I want to focus on 'being sharp on finding spots to attack weak ranges', then sure I'll do that for a few sessions and be like ok that's done. And then, something like 'started snap clicking buttons' creeps in, so I'll concentrate on that, and before long I'm back to playing passively again and no longer picking on and attacking weak ranges. So as I whack one leak, another resurfaces. (See diagram).
So basically, when I learn these new skills or modes or whatever, I'm not sufficiently learning them to UC or IC level.
I have a decent plan for getting better though. Diagram below.
Basically, this pyramid shows the effectiveness of each mode of learning. I don't know exactly where 'writing an essay on the subject' fits into the pyramid, but intuatively it's going to be somewhere between 'practice doing' and 'teach others'.
So I've made a new 'technical concepts' blog. Each post is just going to be a concept that I write about to death, with HH examples etc. My hope is that by writing this, and continually returning to it, I will start to really cement some of these concepts into my unconscious competence and my intangiable competence.
I've really lost track of who reads this blog, and I don't really know if anyone still does, so if anyone wants to read the new one please just get me on skype and I'll make it so.
List of concepts thus far is as so:
flopzilla flop
my range in their eyes
reverse equity/ how it will play out
quick barrels ip are weaker?
quick river timing oop value?
snap flop assumptions
handreading/ assumptions
timing
snapshot of the payer
our range
CRing and abrreling different turns
4betting ranges ip, diff
stabbing ip
cbetting ip vs oop
assumptions
planning a hand
And I have some prioritized........ first is going to be about reverse equity.
I always have a ton of concepts floating around my mind. As long time readers of this blog will know, I tend to focus on a few at a time, get it 'sorted' and then move on. What tends to happen though, is that whatever leak I fix eventually creeps back in. For example, say I want to focus on 'being sharp on finding spots to attack weak ranges', then sure I'll do that for a few sessions and be like ok that's done. And then, something like 'started snap clicking buttons' creeps in, so I'll concentrate on that, and before long I'm back to playing passively again and no longer picking on and attacking weak ranges. So as I whack one leak, another resurfaces. (See diagram).
So basically, when I learn these new skills or modes or whatever, I'm not sufficiently learning them to UC or IC level.
I have a decent plan for getting better though. Diagram below.
Basically, this pyramid shows the effectiveness of each mode of learning. I don't know exactly where 'writing an essay on the subject' fits into the pyramid, but intuatively it's going to be somewhere between 'practice doing' and 'teach others'.
So I've made a new 'technical concepts' blog. Each post is just going to be a concept that I write about to death, with HH examples etc. My hope is that by writing this, and continually returning to it, I will start to really cement some of these concepts into my unconscious competence and my intangiable competence.
I've really lost track of who reads this blog, and I don't really know if anyone still does, so if anyone wants to read the new one please just get me on skype and I'll make it so.
List of concepts thus far is as so:
flopzilla flop
my range in their eyes
reverse equity/ how it will play out
quick barrels ip are weaker?
quick river timing oop value?
snap flop assumptions
handreading/ assumptions
timing
snapshot of the payer
our range
CRing and abrreling different turns
4betting ranges ip, diff
stabbing ip
cbetting ip vs oop
assumptions
planning a hand
And I have some prioritized........ first is going to be about reverse equity.
Saturday 31 May 2014
Weird Experience
I prepared myself decently for the last session. Looked at hands, read forums, prepared a blog. Within 20 minutes though I was getting crushed and playing awfully, with no apparent clue.
So I stopped, thought about what the fuck was missing. I was really looking at the player, getting to 'feel' players, thinking about how cbet ranges affect other ranges, etc, and really trying to tune into my instinct. Trouble is, it just wasn't there.
It was then I realised that I just hadn't been putting anyone at all on a range. Not a preflop range, flop turn or river! Absolutely mental. I think I'm ok at poker, but even this most basic of skills is not yet learned to the level of unconscious competence.
So I'm starting to realise the importance of a Zone profile Jared talks about in MGOP2. I'm going to buy a physical pad and start all these journals he talks about, but a brief start here. When in the zone I:
So I stopped, thought about what the fuck was missing. I was really looking at the player, getting to 'feel' players, thinking about how cbet ranges affect other ranges, etc, and really trying to tune into my instinct. Trouble is, it just wasn't there.
It was then I realised that I just hadn't been putting anyone at all on a range. Not a preflop range, flop turn or river! Absolutely mental. I think I'm ok at poker, but even this most basic of skills is not yet learned to the level of unconscious competence.
So I'm starting to realise the importance of a Zone profile Jared talks about in MGOP2. I'm going to buy a physical pad and start all these journals he talks about, but a brief start here. When in the zone I:
- Assign ranges every step of the way. This means whittling down the preflop range with every piece of information I have.
- Automatically pay attention to each player, and take notes of their hands at showdown.
- Listen intently to my instinct.
- Fold rivers, lol.
Anyway I came back and crushed, albeit I inflicted some big coolers along the way.
Warm-Up/ Cooldown
I played a session earlier where I felt a little rushed. I was going to the cinema in due course, and that may have played a part, but 'rushing' doesn't even make any sense in this context. I snap decided a couple of big decisions, and felt generally flustered. Not doing an adequate warm-up will have been largely responsible, which is what this is.
So basically, I just want to ensure that I expect 'annoying' or tricky decisions to come up, and really mentally prepare for them and expect them, and zone in take time on them, tune into the frequency of 'the player' and really feel what my intangible knowledge is feeding me back about what decision to take. So, no snap decisions will be a goal of this session.
Other than that, I'm really happy with my thought process at the moment, and I'm staying fresh in between hands by considering the implications of other hands.
So basically, I just want to ensure that I expect 'annoying' or tricky decisions to come up, and really mentally prepare for them and expect them, and zone in take time on them, tune into the frequency of 'the player' and really feel what my intangible knowledge is feeding me back about what decision to take. So, no snap decisions will be a goal of this session.
Other than that, I'm really happy with my thought process at the moment, and I'm staying fresh in between hands by considering the implications of other hands.
Friday 30 May 2014
Session Cooldown
Just wanted to get some thoughts down:
My entire approch of late has been centered on the player I'm up against. I'm sorta ashamed to say it, but despite 10k hands with some players my reads on them are limited to their stats. What I've been doing instead is really paying attention to every showdown to get a handle on how they think about poker, and play their ranges.
One thing that's really followed from that is that I'm constantly thinking of how that information can be exploited. This goes way beyond 'he bluffed, so can bluff' but instead means inferring all sorts of information based on limited starting info.
So these are all fleeting thoughts, but if I don't get them down they'll clog up my mind and eventually be forgotten. My goal is for these adjustments to be learned to the level of UC, and eventually form part of my intangiable competence.
So for example, some guy 3bet sb-btn VS me today and check folded 773ss. Another guy check folded A74r. Firstly I could categories each as relatively 'meek' players, commonly found at 1-2. This is fairly useful in a lot of spots, but it gets more interesting when you consider how that affects their other ranges.
If they're check folding 'good' boards to cbet, then that means they're never cbetting without any equity. If they cbet with equity, we can infer that they're going to be barreling the turn a high degree of the time. This would make any marginal flop calls IP very unprofitable, and so we should then just fold on the flop.
It also means we're going to realise much more of our equity, so can defend wider to begin with.
Also just other stuff, like...... barreling weakish top pairs in spots, meaning people's checking ranges are far weaker etc. There's almost an infinite number of examples, but I'm just going to keep thinking about it ingame and hopefully it'll eventually feed it's way into some intangible competence and I'll be a better player for it.
My entire approch of late has been centered on the player I'm up against. I'm sorta ashamed to say it, but despite 10k hands with some players my reads on them are limited to their stats. What I've been doing instead is really paying attention to every showdown to get a handle on how they think about poker, and play their ranges.
One thing that's really followed from that is that I'm constantly thinking of how that information can be exploited. This goes way beyond 'he bluffed, so can bluff' but instead means inferring all sorts of information based on limited starting info.
So these are all fleeting thoughts, but if I don't get them down they'll clog up my mind and eventually be forgotten. My goal is for these adjustments to be learned to the level of UC, and eventually form part of my intangiable competence.
So for example, some guy 3bet sb-btn VS me today and check folded 773ss. Another guy check folded A74r. Firstly I could categories each as relatively 'meek' players, commonly found at 1-2. This is fairly useful in a lot of spots, but it gets more interesting when you consider how that affects their other ranges.
If they're check folding 'good' boards to cbet, then that means they're never cbetting without any equity. If they cbet with equity, we can infer that they're going to be barreling the turn a high degree of the time. This would make any marginal flop calls IP very unprofitable, and so we should then just fold on the flop.
It also means we're going to realise much more of our equity, so can defend wider to begin with.
Also just other stuff, like...... barreling weakish top pairs in spots, meaning people's checking ranges are far weaker etc. There's almost an infinite number of examples, but I'm just going to keep thinking about it ingame and hopefully it'll eventually feed it's way into some intangible competence and I'll be a better player for it.
Tuesday 27 May 2014
Blog for whoever
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel tooooooo.
I have nothing particular to write here. All I know though is that recently I've been reading MGOP 1 and 2, and it talks about the importance of a warmup and especially cool down to expel thoughts. Otherwise, thoughts swim around your mind as sorta like unconscious phantoms, shutting off your higher level brain functions as they go.
I seem to be trying to 'remember' a lot of stuff at the moment. I have various technical goals, pertaining to things like 'look at our range, look at it from their POV, trust our instinct', but it's highly inefficient to have all these floating around, unlearned to the level of unconscious competence. Instead, I should basically just be entering a state of relaxation and confidence, and they would flow naturally from deep recesses within my mind, or something.
I've really been neglecting mental stuff of late, and sorta dealing with it by getting better at quitting. I'm not THAT good at quitting either though! I've hard a bit of a mental epiphany today, as it relates to something I learned during my years of anxiety suffering.
Basically, anxiety happens because of a secret lack of self esteem. Until my counsellor person pointed it out, it had never actually crossed my mind that I lacked self esteem at all. Just knowing that went a large part of the way towards fixing it, but beyond that it became simply a job of telling myself the opposite of whatever my anxious thoughts were telling me.
So for example, in a certain situation like someone about to tell me a joke, I used to go into absolute meltdown, especially if they prefaced it with something like 'omg this is soooooooooooo funnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyy'. Thoughts would come in like 'fucking hell Dan ur in meltdown, ur not even gna listen to the joke, you're INCAPABLE of listening to jokes'.
Then the punchline would come and inevitably I hadn't listened to a single word of it, and a stupid fake laugh would come out. The experience reinforced the whole anxious experience.
All I actually had to do, was practice countering those (almost unconscious) thoughts when they came in, with positive ones. So, I would say 'no Dan, you CAN listen to jokes, you're a very capable person'. This worked in the short term, and slowly but surely over time the need to 'manually' tell myself those things dropped away.
So I feel like poker mental game is very similar. Without proper awareness, our mind tells us all kinds of things, such as 'you're not good enough for these stakes, you'll probably run bad, that last mistake shows you can't cut it'. Often these thoughts are so ingrained that it's hard to shake them, but literally (so goes my theory) all we actually have to do is counter those thoughts with overwhelmingly positive ones. 'I CAN cut it' 'that mistake doesn't mean I'm not capable, everyone including Sauce makes lots of mistakes' 'runbad is an illusion, money is an illusion', but most important are the ones pertaining to our self esteem while we play poker. 'You just made a mistake, but you're so sick good that this is just going to make us play even better', etc.
So yeah, that's all. Gonna work on this stuff.
I have nothing particular to write here. All I know though is that recently I've been reading MGOP 1 and 2, and it talks about the importance of a warmup and especially cool down to expel thoughts. Otherwise, thoughts swim around your mind as sorta like unconscious phantoms, shutting off your higher level brain functions as they go.
I seem to be trying to 'remember' a lot of stuff at the moment. I have various technical goals, pertaining to things like 'look at our range, look at it from their POV, trust our instinct', but it's highly inefficient to have all these floating around, unlearned to the level of unconscious competence. Instead, I should basically just be entering a state of relaxation and confidence, and they would flow naturally from deep recesses within my mind, or something.
I've really been neglecting mental stuff of late, and sorta dealing with it by getting better at quitting. I'm not THAT good at quitting either though! I've hard a bit of a mental epiphany today, as it relates to something I learned during my years of anxiety suffering.
Basically, anxiety happens because of a secret lack of self esteem. Until my counsellor person pointed it out, it had never actually crossed my mind that I lacked self esteem at all. Just knowing that went a large part of the way towards fixing it, but beyond that it became simply a job of telling myself the opposite of whatever my anxious thoughts were telling me.
So for example, in a certain situation like someone about to tell me a joke, I used to go into absolute meltdown, especially if they prefaced it with something like 'omg this is soooooooooooo funnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyy'. Thoughts would come in like 'fucking hell Dan ur in meltdown, ur not even gna listen to the joke, you're INCAPABLE of listening to jokes'.
Then the punchline would come and inevitably I hadn't listened to a single word of it, and a stupid fake laugh would come out. The experience reinforced the whole anxious experience.
All I actually had to do, was practice countering those (almost unconscious) thoughts when they came in, with positive ones. So, I would say 'no Dan, you CAN listen to jokes, you're a very capable person'. This worked in the short term, and slowly but surely over time the need to 'manually' tell myself those things dropped away.
So I feel like poker mental game is very similar. Without proper awareness, our mind tells us all kinds of things, such as 'you're not good enough for these stakes, you'll probably run bad, that last mistake shows you can't cut it'. Often these thoughts are so ingrained that it's hard to shake them, but literally (so goes my theory) all we actually have to do is counter those thoughts with overwhelmingly positive ones. 'I CAN cut it' 'that mistake doesn't mean I'm not capable, everyone including Sauce makes lots of mistakes' 'runbad is an illusion, money is an illusion', but most important are the ones pertaining to our self esteem while we play poker. 'You just made a mistake, but you're so sick good that this is just going to make us play even better', etc.
So yeah, that's all. Gonna work on this stuff.
Saturday 24 May 2014
Technical stuff I learned
Been watching a load of vids this week, and I feel I've improved my thinking tons. Phil Galfond philosophy vid was good, it went through a ton of complex calculations, but the gist was that having different betsizes (splitting your range) in a lot of spots makes it extremely hard for our opponent to adjust.
As an example, when someone tailors their CC turn range, they're basically doing so on the basis of facing a standard 2/3-3/4 bet. If we incorporate underbets, or overbets, then it means changing their entire decision to check in the first place, or even makes their decisions on earlier streets questionable. Different sizes was something I used to do all the time, and so I've mixed it back in during the times when the PSR is awkward (underbet) and also when stabbing the flop IP I'll go much smaller now. Dry boards too, only really 'needs' a 1/4 cbet and it totally fucks with people's gameplans and their ranges, and their handreading.
Another vid I watched was Gogol's nose. He explained all hands in a seemingly quite basic manner, but I felt like the real key to his success was considering his entire range when deciding on a bet, raise and specifically betsize. Way too often on the river we'll just be like, ok I want a call let's go small- but the proper process is to say, ok we have a bluff, so what would my size be for value? We may have gone $72 as a bluff, but $50 for value. That doesn't then mean we just say 'ok let's go $50 then', because we want to arrive on a size that's good for both bluff and value, and so at that point I'll take the midway point. The whole point of this exercise is to make the decision put to our opponent as difficult as possible.
I really want to keep up with that thought process, so I just need to keep up my vid watching, and possible start reading Matt Janda book.
As an example, when someone tailors their CC turn range, they're basically doing so on the basis of facing a standard 2/3-3/4 bet. If we incorporate underbets, or overbets, then it means changing their entire decision to check in the first place, or even makes their decisions on earlier streets questionable. Different sizes was something I used to do all the time, and so I've mixed it back in during the times when the PSR is awkward (underbet) and also when stabbing the flop IP I'll go much smaller now. Dry boards too, only really 'needs' a 1/4 cbet and it totally fucks with people's gameplans and their ranges, and their handreading.
Another vid I watched was Gogol's nose. He explained all hands in a seemingly quite basic manner, but I felt like the real key to his success was considering his entire range when deciding on a bet, raise and specifically betsize. Way too often on the river we'll just be like, ok I want a call let's go small- but the proper process is to say, ok we have a bluff, so what would my size be for value? We may have gone $72 as a bluff, but $50 for value. That doesn't then mean we just say 'ok let's go $50 then', because we want to arrive on a size that's good for both bluff and value, and so at that point I'll take the midway point. The whole point of this exercise is to make the decision put to our opponent as difficult as possible.
I really want to keep up with that thought process, so I just need to keep up my vid watching, and possible start reading Matt Janda book.
Friday 23 May 2014
Back into poker- update
I feel like I'm really making a lot of progress at the moment. I made an Ivey vid yesterday and had a great time doing the audio, all thoughts and analysis just seemed to flow into place. I'm posting a lot on RIO, in between like daytime chores and stuff, and just keeping my poker brain ticking over. I've watched 3 videos too, all part of just re-immersing myself in strategies and approaches etc.
One thing that's really improved is that in each flop and turn spot, I'm looking at what hands would go in cc, cr, bet fold, bet call, etc, and practicing doing this on each street really opens yours eyes to like, oh man this'd be a sick hand to CR bluff etc.
One thing I really want to focus on is to ZONE IN on postflop hands where I have a toughish decision. I'm autopiloting pf to an extent (though I am working on opening much tighter with 'red' (high 3bet) guys behind) but I then really need my narrative to kick in postflop before I just click a stupid button. So, that's what I'm working on during this next session.
One thing that's really improved is that in each flop and turn spot, I'm looking at what hands would go in cc, cr, bet fold, bet call, etc, and practicing doing this on each street really opens yours eyes to like, oh man this'd be a sick hand to CR bluff etc.
One thing I really want to focus on is to ZONE IN on postflop hands where I have a toughish decision. I'm autopiloting pf to an extent (though I am working on opening much tighter with 'red' (high 3bet) guys behind) but I then really need my narrative to kick in postflop before I just click a stupid button. So, that's what I'm working on during this next session.
Thursday 22 May 2014
Thoughts
I felt quite overwhelmed during the last session, basically felt as though my mental bandwidth was stretched to breaking point. I know enough from MGOP that the reason this happens is changing up too much all at once. I was being too 'intense' in each and every hand, rather than autopiloting plenty of hands until at least the flop.
Watching the 1-2 Sauce vid was good for me, although he undoubtedly played way more standard than he ordinarily would, what I loved is how much he just snap gave up no equity spots, or spots where his range was clearly inferior to his opponents', especially while the pot was tiny.
Mixing it with my own approach, it's clear that yes I want to be close to the most aggressive reg in the games, but simply pick the spots a whole lot better.
Watching the 1-2 Sauce vid was good for me, although he undoubtedly played way more standard than he ordinarily would, what I loved is how much he just snap gave up no equity spots, or spots where his range was clearly inferior to his opponents', especially while the pot was tiny.
Mixing it with my own approach, it's clear that yes I want to be close to the most aggressive reg in the games, but simply pick the spots a whole lot better.
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Session Review
Loved that session there, felt like 2009 again with me basically trying to think of creative ways to win every pot, and also actually thinking about my value hands beyond bet big or check raise or bet small in really obvious spots. What can initially seem obvious changes dramatically once you start to factor in timing tells, PSR, betsize in relation to the PSR, and most crucially what our opponent perceives.
http://weaktight.com/6729108 - cool hand VS a 6% UTG opener, leading into a reg with a fish behind is often decent, and allows us to rep a really wide range including depolarized protection/ value. He just has to give us credit for 6x and 4x.
http://weaktight.com/6728743 - river, if we just bet a normal amount we probably just get a fold or a rare call. VS better regs though, we really need to get in their head and rep the opposite of the actual strength of our hand. Even the river 3bet size took some thinking about, tempting to go min or bigger than 100, but he's only going to perceive a bluff if we go like exactly this size, too big squarely reps value (no-one has the heart) and too small we're desperate for a call.
http://weaktight.com/6729114 - think this is decent cool at 1-2 at the moment. Every man and his dog is cold 4betting, but no-one yet really doing the cold 5bet, or even jamming light in SB's shoes which he should do decently often with hands like JTs.
http://weaktight.com/6729120 - kinda cool 'cos with a bit of thinking you realise that his cc turn/ cf river range is completely non-existent. Similarly in his shoes, he should realise my bet turn range (with this size) check river range is similarly non-existent, and so probably fold QQ on the turn. River is not a shove I would make when not playing well, 'cos when you see poker too simplistically it just seems like a big pot and a not-great hand, but I really didn't think AQ AK would cbet this flop, and would also always carry on betting AT.
http://weaktight.com/6729108 - cool hand VS a 6% UTG opener, leading into a reg with a fish behind is often decent, and allows us to rep a really wide range including depolarized protection/ value. He just has to give us credit for 6x and 4x.
http://weaktight.com/6728743 - river, if we just bet a normal amount we probably just get a fold or a rare call. VS better regs though, we really need to get in their head and rep the opposite of the actual strength of our hand. Even the river 3bet size took some thinking about, tempting to go min or bigger than 100, but he's only going to perceive a bluff if we go like exactly this size, too big squarely reps value (no-one has the heart) and too small we're desperate for a call.
http://weaktight.com/6729114 - think this is decent cool at 1-2 at the moment. Every man and his dog is cold 4betting, but no-one yet really doing the cold 5bet, or even jamming light in SB's shoes which he should do decently often with hands like JTs.
http://weaktight.com/6729120 - kinda cool 'cos with a bit of thinking you realise that his cc turn/ cf river range is completely non-existent. Similarly in his shoes, he should realise my bet turn range (with this size) check river range is similarly non-existent, and so probably fold QQ on the turn. River is not a shove I would make when not playing well, 'cos when you see poker too simplistically it just seems like a big pot and a not-great hand, but I really didn't think AQ AK would cbet this flop, and would also always carry on betting AT.
Tuesday 20 May 2014
Strategyyyyyyyyyyy Blooooooooggggggggggggggg
I'm sorta lurching from bad to worse at the moment in cash. My focus on tournys of late has definitely meant I've been going through the cash game motions, and so I want to get back to the point of finding every spot really interesting. I also find myself unsure in a lot of spots, which when I'm playing well just doesn't really happen.
I feel as though 1-2 Zoom is definitely in a state of flux at the moment. Maybe there's some videos I haven't been watching, but it definitely feels as though there's a lot of spots where regs were previously incredibly predictable, and are now not so predictable. As this has happened, I feel as though I myself have recently gotten more predictable, with less original thought and less thinking around counter adjustments that I can make. So, I'm going to start writing again until I'm comfortably back into a rhythm of killing it again.
A few random thoughts from looking at my 1-2 results for the year....
4bet bluffing has been insanely profitable for me (actually in profit, not just less than losing 2.5bbs), but my 4bet stat being only 11% definitely explains why a decent amount. Regardless, I'm going to look to double that to like 20% which is going to take a while for people to cotton on to.
My cold call on CO and BTN is decently high, but because I 3bet so much my ranges are generally weak. Looking at floating as opposed to raising flops, then in my DB floating a high card hand slightly loses me money, while raising flops makes me a decent amount of money. Intuitively, I feel a strategy incorporating lots of flop raises is infinitely preferable to a more passive one, but to that end I need to be raising some top pair types of hands, as well as slowplay preflop more often.
This goes for being OOP as well. Check raising VS wide ranges is a quality strategy, but one I need to balance with top pairs, both when flatting from the blinds and check raising as the PFR. This doesn't mean auto go broke every time I CR a top pair, but it definitely gives us control of the hand and we can then look to soulread turns and rivers based on the PSR vs their betsize, etc.
I am INSANELY profitable flatting 3bets. I'm just like, $6k up on the year doing it. I must be running hot, but doubtless there's room to flat a few more 3bets than I'm already doing. Or maybe I shouldn't tinker? Raising flops in 3bet pots is even more profitable, and again something I need to be looking at.
Theme so far is, RAISING IS GOOD.
I feel as though 1-2 Zoom is definitely in a state of flux at the moment. Maybe there's some videos I haven't been watching, but it definitely feels as though there's a lot of spots where regs were previously incredibly predictable, and are now not so predictable. As this has happened, I feel as though I myself have recently gotten more predictable, with less original thought and less thinking around counter adjustments that I can make. So, I'm going to start writing again until I'm comfortably back into a rhythm of killing it again.
A few random thoughts from looking at my 1-2 results for the year....
4bet bluffing has been insanely profitable for me (actually in profit, not just less than losing 2.5bbs), but my 4bet stat being only 11% definitely explains why a decent amount. Regardless, I'm going to look to double that to like 20% which is going to take a while for people to cotton on to.
My cold call on CO and BTN is decently high, but because I 3bet so much my ranges are generally weak. Looking at floating as opposed to raising flops, then in my DB floating a high card hand slightly loses me money, while raising flops makes me a decent amount of money. Intuitively, I feel a strategy incorporating lots of flop raises is infinitely preferable to a more passive one, but to that end I need to be raising some top pair types of hands, as well as slowplay preflop more often.
This goes for being OOP as well. Check raising VS wide ranges is a quality strategy, but one I need to balance with top pairs, both when flatting from the blinds and check raising as the PFR. This doesn't mean auto go broke every time I CR a top pair, but it definitely gives us control of the hand and we can then look to soulread turns and rivers based on the PSR vs their betsize, etc.
I am INSANELY profitable flatting 3bets. I'm just like, $6k up on the year doing it. I must be running hot, but doubtless there's room to flat a few more 3bets than I'm already doing. Or maybe I shouldn't tinker? Raising flops in 3bet pots is even more profitable, and again something I need to be looking at.
Theme so far is, RAISING IS GOOD.
- Squeeze bluffing is good.
- Flatting 4bets is good.
- 3bet bluffing is very good.
Everything is good! But there's room for more. More raising flops, more flatting 3bets, and generally worry about ways of picking up as many pots as possible and leave the big value situations to themselves.
One last leak that's crept in of late has been a reluctance of mine to let small pots go in a spot where my range is infinitely inferior to my opponents' range. Yes, apply tons of pressure, even more so than I have been doing, but when it's time to fold when a pot has not yet gotten out of hand, then do so.
(On that note, I think I have yet to see a 3bet on the flop actually ever be a bluff, probably 0/50 times I've bluff floated them I lose, which is just more argument for plenty more raising.)
Session review and hands to follow.....
Thursday 24 April 2014
Strategy Re-Jig Thingy
Hmmmmmmm, I've been up 5 Bis today at 1-2, and then lost them again, all in the space of 1k hands or so. I made a conscious choice to ramp up my aggression again, but to be honest I've implemented that rather haphazardly, and my thought process doesn't seem to be super present much. When I'm playing my best I seem to own souls all session, whereas at the moment it all feels rather 'grindy'.
Anyway, updated year to date!
So getting somewhere with 1-2, but volume has been pathetic (which is hopefully now fixed) and although the 4bb winrate is *acceptable* I just feel like there's so much more to come from me.
So yeah, I really want a new technical plan to get my teeth into, and the aspect I want to focus on is the area of flop. Cbetting or not, stabbing or not, etc. I want to get my head again around why not cbetting is generally so much better than doing so. The answer, I suppose, in a nutshell is that you are generally in possession of more information and thus able to make better decisions.
I believe there's a mental weakness in 90% of regs, including me, that explains why cbetting, barreling, 3betting the flop, check raising the flop with value is so prevalent, in a lot of spots where it should not be. let me give an example of a hand I saw today.
Duckslayer2k: folds
Fiude: folds
lipreTTT: folds
C1awViper: raises $5 to $10
Red Nugget8: folds
viebu: raises $20 to $30
C1awViper: calls $20
*** FLOP *** [5h 2d Jc]
viebu: bets $47.76
C1awViper: raises $57.24 to $105
viebu: raises $65 to $170
C1awViper: raises $843.85 to $1013.85 and is all-in
viebu: calls $311.49 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($532.36) returned to C1awViper
*** FIRST TURN *** [5h 2d Jc] [9c]
*** FIRST RIVER *** [5h 2d Jc 9c] [8s]
*** SECOND TURN *** [5h 2d Jc] [Ah]
*** SECOND RIVER *** [5h 2d Jc Ah] [9h]
*** FIRST SHOW DOWN ***
viebu: shows [Qh Qs] (a pair of Queens)
C1awViper: shows [5s 2h] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
C1awViper collected $511.34 from pot
*** SECOND SHOW DOWN ***
viebu: shows [Qh Qs] (a pair of Queens)
C1awViper: shows [5s 2h] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
C1awViper collected $511.34 from pot
Now, ignore the (fucking mental) preflop call and focus instead on the flop raise. Whether he knows it or not, he's raising simply because he knows he has the best hand, wants to get value from Jx+, but more importantly because he doesn't want a jack or ace or whatever to turn and have him call turn or river bets behind. He wants the money in NOW because NOW he's ahead. If he got all in, and a jack turn, then he'd be all ohhh FML, but it'd be entirely his fault.
Why? Well, because he could just call the flop bet, get the same value from QQ+, but have the ability to fold turn or river if it came Jx or maybe K turn A river or whatever.
I'm probably not explaining this well, but the same urge that made Claw raise this flop is present in a ton of hands. We make some sort of top pair, see how the board might get messy, and bet to protect and get some money in NOW. Very often though our opponent is going to bet his OESDs and GSs and flushdraws himself anyway, plus some other bluffs, and not have the ability to raise value and value town us more, and also give us tons of information through the bet or raise size. Calls don't give us a ton of information..... sometimes they cap a range, but generally we bet, get called and are like uhhhh on the next street.
Instead we can go into check mode, read the flop & turn situation with all the millions of parameters now open to us. Did he bet the flop? What size? What's the PSR, and how do the two mesh? What about the turn? Again, what does his size say? All the while having our opponent play against a range he's not familiar with, that of a very strong checking range.
Assuming we stay alert and focussed, we can then set about winning all sorts of pots we'd usually have no way to win through simple bet bet. CC flop CR turn, flop check check 2x turn, CR flop smallish and pot the turn, etc.
I'll still bet with value where protection is a real consideration, but probably be quite imbalanced in this regard.
Preflop, I've been mental for probably 60k hands now and I'm getting less and less respect. Seems counter intuitive, but I'm going to start 3betting less value and instead have a stronger range for raising and check raising when we're the cold caller. Again, it's all good but a change-up keeps me refreshed and interested and should hopefully fuck people up too.
I'm going to 4bet bluff more too, as regs basically go off PF numbers on this and mine's been around 11% for a long while now. I'll just 4bet loads of bluffs and flat the rest probably lol.
So in a nutshell, less flop bets but more backdoor trickery. Flop raises as the cold caller. Turn ones too. Win money.
dan
Anyway, updated year to date!
So getting somewhere with 1-2, but volume has been pathetic (which is hopefully now fixed) and although the 4bb winrate is *acceptable* I just feel like there's so much more to come from me.
So yeah, I really want a new technical plan to get my teeth into, and the aspect I want to focus on is the area of flop. Cbetting or not, stabbing or not, etc. I want to get my head again around why not cbetting is generally so much better than doing so. The answer, I suppose, in a nutshell is that you are generally in possession of more information and thus able to make better decisions.
I believe there's a mental weakness in 90% of regs, including me, that explains why cbetting, barreling, 3betting the flop, check raising the flop with value is so prevalent, in a lot of spots where it should not be. let me give an example of a hand I saw today.
Duckslayer2k: folds
Fiude: folds
lipreTTT: folds
C1awViper: raises $5 to $10
Red Nugget8: folds
viebu: raises $20 to $30
C1awViper: calls $20
*** FLOP *** [5h 2d Jc]
viebu: bets $47.76
C1awViper: raises $57.24 to $105
viebu: raises $65 to $170
C1awViper: raises $843.85 to $1013.85 and is all-in
viebu: calls $311.49 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($532.36) returned to C1awViper
*** FIRST TURN *** [5h 2d Jc] [9c]
*** FIRST RIVER *** [5h 2d Jc 9c] [8s]
*** SECOND TURN *** [5h 2d Jc] [Ah]
*** SECOND RIVER *** [5h 2d Jc Ah] [9h]
*** FIRST SHOW DOWN ***
viebu: shows [Qh Qs] (a pair of Queens)
C1awViper: shows [5s 2h] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
C1awViper collected $511.34 from pot
*** SECOND SHOW DOWN ***
viebu: shows [Qh Qs] (a pair of Queens)
C1awViper: shows [5s 2h] (two pair, Fives and Deuces)
C1awViper collected $511.34 from pot
Now, ignore the (fucking mental) preflop call and focus instead on the flop raise. Whether he knows it or not, he's raising simply because he knows he has the best hand, wants to get value from Jx+, but more importantly because he doesn't want a jack or ace or whatever to turn and have him call turn or river bets behind. He wants the money in NOW because NOW he's ahead. If he got all in, and a jack turn, then he'd be all ohhh FML, but it'd be entirely his fault.
Why? Well, because he could just call the flop bet, get the same value from QQ+, but have the ability to fold turn or river if it came Jx or maybe K turn A river or whatever.
I'm probably not explaining this well, but the same urge that made Claw raise this flop is present in a ton of hands. We make some sort of top pair, see how the board might get messy, and bet to protect and get some money in NOW. Very often though our opponent is going to bet his OESDs and GSs and flushdraws himself anyway, plus some other bluffs, and not have the ability to raise value and value town us more, and also give us tons of information through the bet or raise size. Calls don't give us a ton of information..... sometimes they cap a range, but generally we bet, get called and are like uhhhh on the next street.
Instead we can go into check mode, read the flop & turn situation with all the millions of parameters now open to us. Did he bet the flop? What size? What's the PSR, and how do the two mesh? What about the turn? Again, what does his size say? All the while having our opponent play against a range he's not familiar with, that of a very strong checking range.
Assuming we stay alert and focussed, we can then set about winning all sorts of pots we'd usually have no way to win through simple bet bet. CC flop CR turn, flop check check 2x turn, CR flop smallish and pot the turn, etc.
I'll still bet with value where protection is a real consideration, but probably be quite imbalanced in this regard.
Preflop, I've been mental for probably 60k hands now and I'm getting less and less respect. Seems counter intuitive, but I'm going to start 3betting less value and instead have a stronger range for raising and check raising when we're the cold caller. Again, it's all good but a change-up keeps me refreshed and interested and should hopefully fuck people up too.
I'm going to 4bet bluff more too, as regs basically go off PF numbers on this and mine's been around 11% for a long while now. I'll just 4bet loads of bluffs and flat the rest probably lol.
So in a nutshell, less flop bets but more backdoor trickery. Flop raises as the cold caller. Turn ones too. Win money.
dan
Tuesday 1 April 2014
April Plan Of Attack
So.......... I won $3770 in March, plus bonuses, putting me at $4.3k for the year (though $3.5k below EV). Time to get this year properly started! I've not played nearly enough hands this year, 180k in total and that's pretty abysmal, though I've had a fair bit of life turmoil.
I had a realisation today that my laziness in part has been caused by how well Nic's business has been doing. I suppose I told myself that after years of supporting it I can afford to be lazy, but it's time to let go and actually have the business build up its profits rather than me constantly pilfering from it. I've made Nic swear not to send me another penny for anything 'life expensy', and that's made me super hyped to grind a million quality hands this month and really start building up some savings of my own.
Anyway, plan of attack for April is as follows:
I had a realisation today that my laziness in part has been caused by how well Nic's business has been doing. I suppose I told myself that after years of supporting it I can afford to be lazy, but it's time to let go and actually have the business build up its profits rather than me constantly pilfering from it. I've made Nic swear not to send me another penny for anything 'life expensy', and that's made me super hyped to grind a million quality hands this month and really start building up some savings of my own.
Anyway, plan of attack for April is as follows:
- Get up earlier, starting tomorrow, and instantly get in an extra 2k of hands every single day.
- Super strict on reverse equity, happy to cede small pots.
- Play fucking mental..... have people constantly second guessing, ceding small pots to me and then spewing in big ones.
- Really concentrate on my opponents. Observe their hands after I fold, really consider how else they might've played it, and what it means for their general approach and strategy.
- Trust instinct.
Aaaaand, that's about it. There's enough fish at 1-2 that it's really not important to crush every other reg out there, and you'd win at 2bb probably in doing just that. My plan though is to crush the regs, have a non-showdown mentality and see anything the fish offer me and coolers as bonus.
And that's it....... session reviews and updates obviously to follow......
Thursday 27 March 2014
Cascade of warm-ups and cool-downs
Man, I need to write blogs more. When I don't I just end up with so many ideas floating around my head. They collide and interact and contradict and lead to brain implosion, and so the only way to make any sense of them is to write regular strategy blogs and get my ideas all down on paper.
I'm having a mini crisis of 'where is my edge' at the moment. On the one hand, my edge is very clear at a very decent long term 200nl winrate, but that winrate is a mean average of probably winning at a theoretical 10bb when playing well and losing at 1bb when playing badly.
Playing very openly lead to a mad heater for much of this month, but I've possibly started to push it too far and become too obsessed with winning every single pot, especially once it reaches a certain size. One thing I can remember doing well earlier in the month was having complete tranquillity about letting small pots go, and this includes 3bet pots where no bets have yet gone in. This meant that if money started to go in, I had a very clear idea of how that pot was likely to end up in my stack, and if it didn't end up in my stack I'd at least go down fighting :-P.
This ties into reverse equity too..... when you have 77 on 942ss and someone cbets the flop decently big IP, it's just a CR or fold, and probably a fold. Running this situation through the previous paragraph, there's many more situations where I'm forced to fold or make bad calls, than there are situations where I get shipped the pot. In other words, a basic -EV cc, even though we're miles ahead of their range.
In terms of bluffs, this means for example that I don't just blindly auto stab a turn in a 3bet pot. Instead, really zone in on the hand, work out if I need to fire one or two, handread the opponent from the beginning of the hand, work out how our range looks in his eyes and derive from that his strategy if we were to apply maximum pressure.
So letting small pots go, avoiding reverse equity, and applying maximum pressure when needed. One other major sorta 'strategy approach' though is in the constant applying of pressure in small pots when our opponents' range is weak. I'm talking basic flopzilla stuff, the kind of bluffs that aren't really too common 'cos all the training sites preach balance and discipline and meekly check folding every 994r flop with QJ 'cos 'we can't rep anything'. Hardly anyone really fights back at 200nl, and if they do, and we are attentive, we can easily adjust to that (the kind of people with like 33% fold to cbet are typical candidates) by going more depolarised for value. Overbets are also our friend when it doesn't seem like we can win the pot too easily.
So complementing all the above is just a good mindset, excellent mental game, autopiloting to an extent but really zoning in when we get to a medium sized pot, remembering to handread on calls and generally looking to confuse and be creative wherever possible. That's my edge summed up in about as short a way as I can manage! Now to grind a million hands over the next 30 days and get myself back to 2-5 with a decent bankroll.
dan
I'm having a mini crisis of 'where is my edge' at the moment. On the one hand, my edge is very clear at a very decent long term 200nl winrate, but that winrate is a mean average of probably winning at a theoretical 10bb when playing well and losing at 1bb when playing badly.
Playing very openly lead to a mad heater for much of this month, but I've possibly started to push it too far and become too obsessed with winning every single pot, especially once it reaches a certain size. One thing I can remember doing well earlier in the month was having complete tranquillity about letting small pots go, and this includes 3bet pots where no bets have yet gone in. This meant that if money started to go in, I had a very clear idea of how that pot was likely to end up in my stack, and if it didn't end up in my stack I'd at least go down fighting :-P.
This ties into reverse equity too..... when you have 77 on 942ss and someone cbets the flop decently big IP, it's just a CR or fold, and probably a fold. Running this situation through the previous paragraph, there's many more situations where I'm forced to fold or make bad calls, than there are situations where I get shipped the pot. In other words, a basic -EV cc, even though we're miles ahead of their range.
In terms of bluffs, this means for example that I don't just blindly auto stab a turn in a 3bet pot. Instead, really zone in on the hand, work out if I need to fire one or two, handread the opponent from the beginning of the hand, work out how our range looks in his eyes and derive from that his strategy if we were to apply maximum pressure.
So letting small pots go, avoiding reverse equity, and applying maximum pressure when needed. One other major sorta 'strategy approach' though is in the constant applying of pressure in small pots when our opponents' range is weak. I'm talking basic flopzilla stuff, the kind of bluffs that aren't really too common 'cos all the training sites preach balance and discipline and meekly check folding every 994r flop with QJ 'cos 'we can't rep anything'. Hardly anyone really fights back at 200nl, and if they do, and we are attentive, we can easily adjust to that (the kind of people with like 33% fold to cbet are typical candidates) by going more depolarised for value. Overbets are also our friend when it doesn't seem like we can win the pot too easily.
So complementing all the above is just a good mindset, excellent mental game, autopiloting to an extent but really zoning in when we get to a medium sized pot, remembering to handread on calls and generally looking to confuse and be creative wherever possible. That's my edge summed up in about as short a way as I can manage! Now to grind a million hands over the next 30 days and get myself back to 2-5 with a decent bankroll.
dan
Friday 21 March 2014
Strategy Update
I played a 6.5 hour session last night, 11.30pm to 6am. My mind was in great condition and weirdly it all just seemed to fly by. I wasn't thinking about 'one hour, two hours etc' and instead just present in each moment. I think I made $80 or something.
I just played a session where I really felt in tune again, really had a good idea of what was going on in the big pots and was able to trust my instinct. Difficult to generalise obviously, but usually when I'm playing well I have plenty of correct soul reads in big pots..... I had 3 that session and was really happy a) that my instincts were correct and b) that I was able to implement it and not second guess.
http://weaktight.com/6576188 - this one's just basically about his in ability not to be able to resist raising the nuts on that wet of a flop (and also not capable of shoving Jx probably).
http://weaktight.com/6576192 - preflop and flop are standard, and on the turn his bluffs increase while his value range goes right down. JJ and TT no longer bet, and crucially he won't realise that he's flatting the vast majority of Qx preflop there (and also wouldn't go bet bet with QJo for example). So by the river, his range basically = his original 3betting range, but weakened, and so it's just about whether he'd try to blow me off my faceup hand. Him thinking he has Qx, but in fact doesn't, is important as I say.
http://weaktight.com/6576194 - not super happy preflop but felt I had to given the odds and the situation (very polarised), but flop is standard...... then on the river that turn check with a single PSR and super wet board and supposedly nutted hand (overpair+) just had me screaming wtffffffff and luckily I was able to click the correct button.
One current failing though is that my WWSF and red line have plummeted again. At first I couldn't understand why, I'm still being very aggro...... but then I looked up hands from the sessions where I won like 10BIs in non showdown and I realised that, actually, I was being a different level of aggro. Overbets are something I've seemingly forgotten about, and in 'pyscho mode' there just doesn't seem to be such a thing as a lost cause.
Example 1
Example 2
There's millions of examples like the above but I won't post them all, but basically the plan is to step up the aggression even more in future sessions.......
I just played a session where I really felt in tune again, really had a good idea of what was going on in the big pots and was able to trust my instinct. Difficult to generalise obviously, but usually when I'm playing well I have plenty of correct soul reads in big pots..... I had 3 that session and was really happy a) that my instincts were correct and b) that I was able to implement it and not second guess.
http://weaktight.com/6576188 - this one's just basically about his in ability not to be able to resist raising the nuts on that wet of a flop (and also not capable of shoving Jx probably).
http://weaktight.com/6576192 - preflop and flop are standard, and on the turn his bluffs increase while his value range goes right down. JJ and TT no longer bet, and crucially he won't realise that he's flatting the vast majority of Qx preflop there (and also wouldn't go bet bet with QJo for example). So by the river, his range basically = his original 3betting range, but weakened, and so it's just about whether he'd try to blow me off my faceup hand. Him thinking he has Qx, but in fact doesn't, is important as I say.
http://weaktight.com/6576194 - not super happy preflop but felt I had to given the odds and the situation (very polarised), but flop is standard...... then on the river that turn check with a single PSR and super wet board and supposedly nutted hand (overpair+) just had me screaming wtffffffff and luckily I was able to click the correct button.
One current failing though is that my WWSF and red line have plummeted again. At first I couldn't understand why, I'm still being very aggro...... but then I looked up hands from the sessions where I won like 10BIs in non showdown and I realised that, actually, I was being a different level of aggro. Overbets are something I've seemingly forgotten about, and in 'pyscho mode' there just doesn't seem to be such a thing as a lost cause.
Example 1
Example 2
There's millions of examples like the above but I won't post them all, but basically the plan is to step up the aggression even more in future sessions.......
Thursday 20 March 2014
200nl this month
I've been running hot and playing well at 200 this month, until a mini implosion the past few days where I dropped 10 BIs. Basically my mental game was pretty bad, I had bad life issues clouding my mind and distracting me, and the 10 BIs is therefore less a downswing and more of a 'deserved wake-up call'.
My style, sorta based on the realisation everyone now thinks I'm a nit, has been based on being super high intensity. Super loose preflop, loadsa 3bets/ 4bets/ 5bets, and then looking to really zone in when playing postflop and trust my instinct whilst avoiding reverse equity for the most part.
So this is just sorta a regroup blog. Until the past 2k hands I've had really good mental game..... an important aspect of playing loose and bluffing a lot is having real acceptance when things go wrong- they basically 'go wrong' all the time, but you have to learn to ignore the standard reflex to crawl back into a shell and/ or overadjust and decide the world just wants to call you now. Some people always call, some never call. Best to assume they never call (standard) and then colour them blue when they do.
So yeah, tis all!
Tuesday 11 March 2014
200nl Session Review #2
I was extremely gung-ho in the last session, probably too much so and with not enough thought. I was 3betting almost everything, but leaving my cold call ranges weak, and basically looking to go into full blooded war with whoever fought back. I think my image definitely needs to worsen somewhat, I've had more than a few comments calling me a nit and it almost certainly helps explain why I just haven't won my 'fair share' of big pots of late.
So I'm going to keep on with the same game-plan and attitude, that of constantly looking to attack weakness, but also slow down in some of my decision making and think through the spot a bit more.
So I'm going to keep on with the same game-plan and attitude, that of constantly looking to attack weakness, but also slow down in some of my decision making and think through the spot a bit more.
200nl Session Review
I just played a session of 200 where I really opened everything up, putting on as much pressure PF as possible then looking to go a bit mental postflop. If there's one way you'd characterise the average reg at 200 it would be 'incredibly risk averse' and it felt good to be taking control of every hand and making things happen rather than sit there and wait for fish to donate.
The key thing with playing this high intensity a style is keep it under control. It's a very fine line between playing totally on the edge, and being a spewing clown. Knowing when to quit is even more important, and remembering to handread and profile regs and their tendencies also.
I had 3 big non-showdown pots that session where I lost $100 in each, but my red line was still up half a buyin and this bodes well.
The key thing with playing this high intensity a style is keep it under control. It's a very fine line between playing totally on the edge, and being a spewing clown. Knowing when to quit is even more important, and remembering to handread and profile regs and their tendencies also.
I had 3 big non-showdown pots that session where I lost $100 in each, but my red line was still up half a buyin and this bodes well.
Stupid Game
Well, the 500 shot went wrong as you can see. A couple of thoughts about it:
- I think I ran pretty badly. Not just in terms of EV, but also situations. I've been making really decent folds, and not stacking light at all, but I've had cooler after cooler whilst not having my 'fair share' (lol) of situations going the other way. I've always prided myself on never mentioning running bad, but honestly I just think I've never run this bad before and maybe I was never properly tested.
- Having said that, there are doubtless things to improve. I should NOT be losing at non-showdown at 11.72bb, and I think even over a small sample this is symptomatic of some leaks. Probably not enough raw preflop aggression, not enough turning hands into bluffs, too much calling a street with a big betsize without a decent plan of winning the hand (call the bet on the next street which is 90% coming, or bluffing).
- Related to the above, is that I haven't been doing enough creative bluffing. My WWSF started to fall off a cliff after being initially over 50, and my reluctance to put in flop bets without following through probably means I missed decent spots to just apply pure pressure/ or having checked the flop I didn't follow through with my plan which is to float turns/ bluff rivers etc.
- My blind 3betting has been wayyyyyy too low it turns out, only 5% overall and only 6% VS late position steals. My SB fold to LP steal has gotten as high as 82%, with my BB at 62%. I need to double my 3bet numbers there and stop being so exploitable and burning money.
- Back to creative bluffing, I just had a re-read of my blog where I listed some potential creative stuff, and I haven't been implementing any of it at 500. I think a really cool way to manipulate ranges is with betsizing, and I've probably handicapped myself by being too wedded to not cbetting in certain spots. I should be 'not cbetting' in a spot where it's hard to see a way to win the pot when called or raised, but otherwise there's gonna be times where cbetting gets the range and turn PSR exactly where I want it. An example is 4bet pots where we bet small to then threaten the whole stack on the turn with a PSR leverage bet.
- Raise flop and XR flop were both way too low at 10%... this is maybe fine, but again just shows I had no creative weapons in my locker with which to properly attack 2-5. Seems to me like I was probably scared money, and I think I was aware of this at times in 3bet pots where I wanted to make some huge bluffs but excused myself with thoughts like 'nah, keep it simple'.
Other stuff: I have loads of poker energy right now so I'm going to put that to good use. More blogs, more analysis, more creative ways of doing things. I'll also make a video series on Ivey, I'm thinking something along the lines of videos where I, for example, cbet 0%, or 3bet 0% whilst talking about the importance of playing 'differently' from your opponent. If this seems like giving too much away, I needn't worry as no-one watches them anyway :-)
I also want to start watching more videos, just to feed into my instinct and have a better feel for how the poker population at large is thinking.
Friday 7 March 2014
Games are (not) dead
Since being back at 500 I've been absolutely astounded at some of the bad play from regs. It just makes me realise how much $ there is to be made without 'trying' too hard. Thought I'd make a blog showing some of the worst examples from the past few days.......
http://weaktight.com/6543155 - ranges, ranges! Man I was so sad to CR get this in on the flop, but felt it was the best of a bad bunch of options. When he shoved, puke, it's like AA or combo draws. Except, no! Having 3bet an early position tight open, get flatted OOP by someone who doesn't really flat a ton, cbet into a strong range and then get CR'd by someone who's check raising into an even stronger range, villain is just like fuck it I'll make the worst shove ever with JJ, a hand that when called has like 12% equity.
http://weaktight.com/6543159 - this one just for the sizing tell on the turn. Obviously reps a strong range preflop and on the flop, but on the turn with a PSR of 1.5 on a board so wet, there's just no way he doesn't bomb his value hands. Meanwhile, in a vacuum, his drawing hands don't want to bet call or bet fold so have to choose a smaller amount. I was sat there on the turn all like 'man, he CANT be so obvious to actually just have like QT/ clubs/ AQ here' but indeed, he just did.
http://weaktight.com/6543259 - same vein as hand 1, just puts in all the world's dead money.
http://weaktight.com/6543155 - ranges, ranges! Man I was so sad to CR get this in on the flop, but felt it was the best of a bad bunch of options. When he shoved, puke, it's like AA or combo draws. Except, no! Having 3bet an early position tight open, get flatted OOP by someone who doesn't really flat a ton, cbet into a strong range and then get CR'd by someone who's check raising into an even stronger range, villain is just like fuck it I'll make the worst shove ever with JJ, a hand that when called has like 12% equity.
http://weaktight.com/6543159 - this one just for the sizing tell on the turn. Obviously reps a strong range preflop and on the flop, but on the turn with a PSR of 1.5 on a board so wet, there's just no way he doesn't bomb his value hands. Meanwhile, in a vacuum, his drawing hands don't want to bet call or bet fold so have to choose a smaller amount. I was sat there on the turn all like 'man, he CANT be so obvious to actually just have like QT/ clubs/ AQ here' but indeed, he just did.
http://weaktight.com/6543259 - same vein as hand 1, just puts in all the world's dead money.
Thursday 6 March 2014
500nl Session Review
Decent return to 500 earlier, felt much more comfortable than before I left, and was able to trust my instinct in a few decent spots.
This hand http://weaktight.com/6540608 was a major mental battle. On the one hand my instinct was screaming at me to call, and on the other was something saying 'don't be stupid, keep it simple at 500, don't have to play infinite 200 to get back to this point'. In the end I was able to step back, ask myself what my instinct was saying about the hand, and in the end clicked the right button. Hopefully, I wouldn't be going mad at myself had I been wrong. In terms of why, he was insanely wide PF, the flop stab seemed like an auto one, we block QTs and then I didn't think he'd value shove any Ax in his range.
http://weaktight.com/6540614 - just an example of being slightly unorthodox and it leading to good things. Fwiw, I thought there was zero chance he had a bluff when he CR'd the turn underbet.
http://weaktight.com/6540619 - same dude as above, and so likely just the kind of dude you have to call top x% of range VS when he's capable of being so wide and unorthodox.
This hand http://weaktight.com/6540608 was a major mental battle. On the one hand my instinct was screaming at me to call, and on the other was something saying 'don't be stupid, keep it simple at 500, don't have to play infinite 200 to get back to this point'. In the end I was able to step back, ask myself what my instinct was saying about the hand, and in the end clicked the right button. Hopefully, I wouldn't be going mad at myself had I been wrong. In terms of why, he was insanely wide PF, the flop stab seemed like an auto one, we block QTs and then I didn't think he'd value shove any Ax in his range.
http://weaktight.com/6540614 - just an example of being slightly unorthodox and it leading to good things. Fwiw, I thought there was zero chance he had a bluff when he CR'd the turn underbet.
http://weaktight.com/6540619 - same dude as above, and so likely just the kind of dude you have to call top x% of range VS when he's capable of being so wide and unorthodox.
2-5 Again........
I've ran well enough at 1-2 that it's time for a 2-5 shot again. I feel like playing at 1-2 with less pressure has made my game come on a decent amount, and I feel in a decent technical and mental place to do well again.
I'm not really going to change anything at all really, ie I'm not going to be 'it's 2-5, gotta do xyz', just more of the same. Looking at their range, looking at our range in opponent's eyes, deriving their strategy from this....... and then being much more careful with dead money, checking more oop, and trying to basically be creative wherever possible.
HH review to follow........
I'm not really going to change anything at all really, ie I'm not going to be 'it's 2-5, gotta do xyz', just more of the same. Looking at their range, looking at our range in opponent's eyes, deriving their strategy from this....... and then being much more careful with dead money, checking more oop, and trying to basically be creative wherever possible.
HH review to follow........
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Strategy Update
Had a good couple of days results wise until today, but I think it's fairly clear from my plummeting red line, WWSF and general poor results today (where I won a lot more big pots than I lost, and yet lost money) that I've allowed the leak of 'bleeding money' to creep in.
What I mean by bleeding money is the habit of having bets go in, without a very decent plan of winning the hand. An example might be that we 3bet QJ, check AJ5r, have an opponent stab bet the 9 turn decently strong, we call turn and fold river. It takes a decent amount of concentration for me to make the biggish early folds, as they're so often very non-standard and exploitable. Nevertheless, I think those big early folds or non-bets are a huge part of my edge and when they go out the window I struggle to win at a good clip.
Another example today http://weaktight.com/6534512, not my hand but I think today I would've played it the same, whereas it's pretty clear to me now (knowing the nitty and bad nature of the player) that it's a slam dunk flop fold.
Also out the window needs to go random flop and turn stabs that I don't then follow through on very hard..... rare is the actual legitimate '+EV one and done here' where a better solution wouldn't be to wait for a street and get more info. Auto flop stabs have crept back in, and so I need to go back to delaying. Other than that, I've probably not been going through the process of 'their range, my range in their eyes, their strategy' that enables me to make a decent amount of creative bluffs.
So yeah 2-3 things to work on, and I'll be aware of those going into the next session. Other than that I have a renewed focus on mental game...... basically trying to get back into the habit of zoning in during important spots, and analysing losing hands through a mental prism.
Back to it.........
What I mean by bleeding money is the habit of having bets go in, without a very decent plan of winning the hand. An example might be that we 3bet QJ, check AJ5r, have an opponent stab bet the 9 turn decently strong, we call turn and fold river. It takes a decent amount of concentration for me to make the biggish early folds, as they're so often very non-standard and exploitable. Nevertheless, I think those big early folds or non-bets are a huge part of my edge and when they go out the window I struggle to win at a good clip.
Another example today http://weaktight.com/6534512, not my hand but I think today I would've played it the same, whereas it's pretty clear to me now (knowing the nitty and bad nature of the player) that it's a slam dunk flop fold.
Also out the window needs to go random flop and turn stabs that I don't then follow through on very hard..... rare is the actual legitimate '+EV one and done here' where a better solution wouldn't be to wait for a street and get more info. Auto flop stabs have crept back in, and so I need to go back to delaying. Other than that, I've probably not been going through the process of 'their range, my range in their eyes, their strategy' that enables me to make a decent amount of creative bluffs.
So yeah 2-3 things to work on, and I'll be aware of those going into the next session. Other than that I have a renewed focus on mental game...... basically trying to get back into the habit of zoning in during important spots, and analysing losing hands through a mental prism.
Back to it.........
Saturday 1 March 2014
Strategy Update
I feel much happier in my hand to hand mindset at the moment. Originally when I looked to be more creative this was putting a strain on my mental bandwidth as I was probably over considering everything starting from preflop when I'm deciding whether to cold call/ 3bet etc. Instead now I'm just sorta autopiloting that stage until I face a 3bet or am considering a 3bet. Similarly postflop, some late position turn spots are just auto stabs OOP and don't need a ton of creative thinking.
I'm barely cbetting at all OOP, but occasionally I see a wide enough range and a villain who won't fight back enough that I just cbet and look to barrel off. Cold call and fold to cbet stats are so important and compliment each other massively. Not cbetting OOP has been a massive help in killing off those hundreds of 'one and done' size pots that add up and bleed your winrate. Not only that, but we end up making more credible bluffs with a higher success rate than if simply barrelled off.
One adjustment I made last session is to cbet more IP though. I was checking back almost as a default, and I think that's OK still in a lot of spots, but some spots on a wet board where we have overs and a weakish reg we have to just start betting, and we can have complete faith in his 100% commitment to check raising anything strong and leaving his CC range pretty terrible by the turn and river.
Another thing I need to incorporate more is to raise in 3bet pots........ so often the vacuum play is to call, but doing that makes it difficult to (cheaply) win all those wide range/ boards that hit no-one type pots where our opponent has the initiative and an uncapped range. I have been raising much more in single raised pots for value/ protection and to cap ranges and I love the control over the hand it gives.
Mentally, I am completely hopeless between the hours of like 1pm and 7pm for some reason. My brain has this fog that just stops me from thinking........ rather than fight through it, the plan for this month is just to accept it and just not play during those hours. It's possibly due to lack of water, or lack of fitness since my ankles been sprained/ broke for almost 6 months now, but whatever it is I can't play when it's there so I just need to accept that.
I'm barely cbetting at all OOP, but occasionally I see a wide enough range and a villain who won't fight back enough that I just cbet and look to barrel off. Cold call and fold to cbet stats are so important and compliment each other massively. Not cbetting OOP has been a massive help in killing off those hundreds of 'one and done' size pots that add up and bleed your winrate. Not only that, but we end up making more credible bluffs with a higher success rate than if simply barrelled off.
One adjustment I made last session is to cbet more IP though. I was checking back almost as a default, and I think that's OK still in a lot of spots, but some spots on a wet board where we have overs and a weakish reg we have to just start betting, and we can have complete faith in his 100% commitment to check raising anything strong and leaving his CC range pretty terrible by the turn and river.
Another thing I need to incorporate more is to raise in 3bet pots........ so often the vacuum play is to call, but doing that makes it difficult to (cheaply) win all those wide range/ boards that hit no-one type pots where our opponent has the initiative and an uncapped range. I have been raising much more in single raised pots for value/ protection and to cap ranges and I love the control over the hand it gives.
Mentally, I am completely hopeless between the hours of like 1pm and 7pm for some reason. My brain has this fog that just stops me from thinking........ rather than fight through it, the plan for this month is just to accept it and just not play during those hours. It's possibly due to lack of water, or lack of fitness since my ankles been sprained/ broke for almost 6 months now, but whatever it is I can't play when it's there so I just need to accept that.
Friday 28 February 2014
Session #5 Review
Only real interesting losing hand was this:
http://weaktight.com/6523835 - guy had 90% btn range and high cbet and I'm basically just looking to exploit his likely lack of fightback-ability on the flop. He's slightlllllly on the play-happy side though and capable of floating, hence the turn cc. River, I just felt I looked exactly like Jx that wasn't folding, so even though I kinda hated folding to a 90% range, not all of which will value bet the river, his likely respect for my turn cc meant I chose a close fold.
And a winning one........
http://weaktight.com/6523846 - pretty interesting one this, and river is imo close between fold call and shove. Fold is of course completely standard, but he just doesn't really have any Kxs in his range other than KJss and KTss....... these were my thoughts in real time, but looking back at the hand now he has 22% open from that position and so in fact does have KsJx as well, so like 6 combos that can call the river. AxKs and QxKs, KsKx would all cc the turn, and it's probably this secret bit of info that he doesn't realise about his own range that enables me to make a credible shove. Call is attractive too, but felt like he might vbet random Jxs and also bet Ax rather than check and have me win the pot like 90% of the time. Flop is standard float, turn may seem light but he cbets way too much with too wide of a range, and this turn card just increased his bluffs at least as much as it improved him, and I still had the option to bluff certain rivers.
http://weaktight.com/6523835 - guy had 90% btn range and high cbet and I'm basically just looking to exploit his likely lack of fightback-ability on the flop. He's slightlllllly on the play-happy side though and capable of floating, hence the turn cc. River, I just felt I looked exactly like Jx that wasn't folding, so even though I kinda hated folding to a 90% range, not all of which will value bet the river, his likely respect for my turn cc meant I chose a close fold.
And a winning one........
http://weaktight.com/6523846 - pretty interesting one this, and river is imo close between fold call and shove. Fold is of course completely standard, but he just doesn't really have any Kxs in his range other than KJss and KTss....... these were my thoughts in real time, but looking back at the hand now he has 22% open from that position and so in fact does have KsJx as well, so like 6 combos that can call the river. AxKs and QxKs, KsKx would all cc the turn, and it's probably this secret bit of info that he doesn't realise about his own range that enables me to make a credible shove. Call is attractive too, but felt like he might vbet random Jxs and also bet Ax rather than check and have me win the pot like 90% of the time. Flop is standard float, turn may seem light but he cbets way too much with too wide of a range, and this turn card just increased his bluffs at least as much as it improved him, and I still had the option to bluff certain rivers.
Thursday 27 February 2014
Session #3 Review
Happy again with how it turned out, and I'm finding poker interesting again which always helps.
http://weaktight.com/6519801 - a non standard turn shove, but I think it's a million times better than cc for a few reasons. We're going broke to AT etc anyway on a blank, he isn't bluffing blanks (which might make river on a blank theory fold but still we're going to call expecting to see AQ sometimes) and cc just alows him to bink his draws, check back his weaker ace x that felt obliged to bet because of the need to be balanced or whatever.
http://weaktight.com/6519808 - again just remembering to handread here rather than be slave to a random 'rule'. Checked back flop as my default at the moment as I discussed in an earlier blog. Turn, not thrilled but he's not betting Tx and he picked up several draws. River is really close, as people don't *usually* bluff into a perceived range of top pairs and trips. Most just aren't capable- they want a really really high success % on their bluffs. This guy is capable though, and doesn't rep anything at all on the river because even though he might bluff he'd also just check Ax to my perceived Tx and bluffcatch it.
http://weaktight.com/6519822 - same villain, couldn't find a fold given the absolute strength of my hand relative to my range. Preflop, I'm currently flatting premiums when the first card is black, and 3betting the red ones. Might seem retarded to some but I'm happy with the randomisation it gives me.
http://weaktight.com/6519801 - a non standard turn shove, but I think it's a million times better than cc for a few reasons. We're going broke to AT etc anyway on a blank, he isn't bluffing blanks (which might make river on a blank theory fold but still we're going to call expecting to see AQ sometimes) and cc just alows him to bink his draws, check back his weaker ace x that felt obliged to bet because of the need to be balanced or whatever.
http://weaktight.com/6519808 - again just remembering to handread here rather than be slave to a random 'rule'. Checked back flop as my default at the moment as I discussed in an earlier blog. Turn, not thrilled but he's not betting Tx and he picked up several draws. River is really close, as people don't *usually* bluff into a perceived range of top pairs and trips. Most just aren't capable- they want a really really high success % on their bluffs. This guy is capable though, and doesn't rep anything at all on the river because even though he might bluff he'd also just check Ax to my perceived Tx and bluffcatch it.
http://weaktight.com/6519822 - same villain, couldn't find a fold given the absolute strength of my hand relative to my range. Preflop, I'm currently flatting premiums when the first card is black, and 3betting the red ones. Might seem retarded to some but I'm happy with the randomisation it gives me.
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Session #2 Review
I was playing well and enjoying that session, then a couple of tilting hands meant that I should probably take a break and come write this blog. Probably a decent habit to get into. I wish I'd kept my tables up though as I was deep on all and I can do so much more stuff.
http://weaktight.com/6518663 - first tilting hand, I think because my instinct was saying call the river but that just goes against all the evidence and everything I know about random fishes. If I had AKhh then it would've meant half the combos of A5s and so maybe I'd have called. Flop might seem like a 'wtf dude it's a fish just bet', but his range is wide and I feel I do better having him bluff or improve. Back in the day fish were different and it was like just go bet bet bet and they might cr bluff and spaz anyway, but yeh feel it's an ok played hand, with the caveat that if I were truly trusting my instinct I would've called river... but then it's probably a good fold anyway.
http://weaktight.com/6518673 - happy with this, if only because I didn't a) just autocbet the flop (dude it's standard wtf) and that I also didn't just rando jam or check the river, both of which allow him to play pretty well.
http://weaktight.com/6518679 - this was the 2nd tilting hand. Man it's probably just a fold but he was a total rando fish with wide stats. 43cc one time!
Not cbetting seems to be going well, just opens up so many more creative options for me. Back to it!
http://weaktight.com/6518663 - first tilting hand, I think because my instinct was saying call the river but that just goes against all the evidence and everything I know about random fishes. If I had AKhh then it would've meant half the combos of A5s and so maybe I'd have called. Flop might seem like a 'wtf dude it's a fish just bet', but his range is wide and I feel I do better having him bluff or improve. Back in the day fish were different and it was like just go bet bet bet and they might cr bluff and spaz anyway, but yeh feel it's an ok played hand, with the caveat that if I were truly trusting my instinct I would've called river... but then it's probably a good fold anyway.
http://weaktight.com/6518673 - happy with this, if only because I didn't a) just autocbet the flop (dude it's standard wtf) and that I also didn't just rando jam or check the river, both of which allow him to play pretty well.
http://weaktight.com/6518679 - this was the 2nd tilting hand. Man it's probably just a fold but he was a total rando fish with wide stats. 43cc one time!
Not cbetting seems to be going well, just opens up so many more creative options for me. Back to it!
Session #1 Review
Very pleased with that session, I felt like looking for creative options everywhere really opened my mind and got it out of 'grind mode'. I had a few decent coolers totalling 2 BIs, and didn't win a whole BI myself in any pot but still finished 0.5 a BI up.
http://weaktight.com/6517912- I probably would've folded this river this morning to be honest, because it went against some of my 'rules', basically the ones pointing me towards no needless spew. The thing about rules is that they can take you out of thinking, but here I was able to realise how wide his turn stabbing range is, how the 3flush river increases his bluffing frequency way more than it makes him a flush, and the in-congruency of his turn stab and his river overbet. Preflop is one of those things to change up my ranges a bit, and I'd probably have AK close to 100% here had I not decided to stop being so predictable.
http://weaktight.com/6517938- preflop I really like squeezing at the moment, PSR is often difficult for anyone to do anything about it, and picking the right spots can generate a much higher success % frequency. Flop and turn again were just about a little thinking rather than blanket 'zomg reverse equity', guy was a semi fish and had wideish stats in this spot, was 3betting a decent amount so didn't have AK, wouldn't play KJ like this, we block KQ, yada.
http://weaktight.com/6517944- couldn't quite get away from this. I know the guy from a skype group and I hated it when he shoved, but then it is quite an attractive spot to jam a flushdraw given guy in the middle stabbing a ton, I have QQ a lot, etc.
http://weaktight.com/6517950- proud of this one! Passive fish and the timing and sizing just had my instinct screaming AA. Probably can't describe just how certain I was, and resisted the urge to play on anyway and 'see'.
http://weaktight.com/6517958- unsure on this one. The guy is a decent 1-2 reg, and therefore the best bluffs VS such guys are those where the villain has an uncapped range and it's therefore perceived suicidal to be bluffing them. The ace river in his shoes I would've snapped off with Kx, simply because of what it does to my bluffing frequency (up) while keeping my value range steady. Again though, he's thinking that he has AK, 9x, therefore I can't be bluffing.
http://weaktight.com/6517971- creatively played hand where again on the river I get snapped off by Ad sometimes, but I have zero perceived bluffs in my range and it's a good spot. Flop is a raise, just because I think call loses money and it keeps my options open.
So yeah, decently happy with how it turned out. The hard part may be keeping this mindset up, but so long as I keep thinking and looking for creative options I should be able to get into good habits.
http://weaktight.com/6517912- I probably would've folded this river this morning to be honest, because it went against some of my 'rules', basically the ones pointing me towards no needless spew. The thing about rules is that they can take you out of thinking, but here I was able to realise how wide his turn stabbing range is, how the 3flush river increases his bluffing frequency way more than it makes him a flush, and the in-congruency of his turn stab and his river overbet. Preflop is one of those things to change up my ranges a bit, and I'd probably have AK close to 100% here had I not decided to stop being so predictable.
http://weaktight.com/6517938- preflop I really like squeezing at the moment, PSR is often difficult for anyone to do anything about it, and picking the right spots can generate a much higher success % frequency. Flop and turn again were just about a little thinking rather than blanket 'zomg reverse equity', guy was a semi fish and had wideish stats in this spot, was 3betting a decent amount so didn't have AK, wouldn't play KJ like this, we block KQ, yada.
http://weaktight.com/6517944- couldn't quite get away from this. I know the guy from a skype group and I hated it when he shoved, but then it is quite an attractive spot to jam a flushdraw given guy in the middle stabbing a ton, I have QQ a lot, etc.
http://weaktight.com/6517950- proud of this one! Passive fish and the timing and sizing just had my instinct screaming AA. Probably can't describe just how certain I was, and resisted the urge to play on anyway and 'see'.
http://weaktight.com/6517958- unsure on this one. The guy is a decent 1-2 reg, and therefore the best bluffs VS such guys are those where the villain has an uncapped range and it's therefore perceived suicidal to be bluffing them. The ace river in his shoes I would've snapped off with Kx, simply because of what it does to my bluffing frequency (up) while keeping my value range steady. Again though, he's thinking that he has AK, 9x, therefore I can't be bluffing.
http://weaktight.com/6517971- creatively played hand where again on the river I get snapped off by Ad sometimes, but I have zero perceived bluffs in my range and it's a good spot. Flop is a raise, just because I think call loses money and it keeps my options open.
So yeah, decently happy with how it turned out. The hard part may be keeping this mindset up, but so long as I keep thinking and looking for creative options I should be able to get into good habits.
I'm Back......
Haven't posted in this blog for a while. I made another new blog with no readers just so that I could write without writing 'to' an audience, but I've decided I need the increased accountability and also sometimes just want to feel like I'm not talking to myself the whole time.
After buying a house, getting a business on an even keel, vet bills, massive expenditure, downswing yada yada I'm at a place financially where I'm basically starting again. I still think I have decent skills, certainly enough to do ok at 2-5 (last 400k hands are at 2bb) but I'm going to play and play and play 1-2, stop spending money and hopefully rocket back up.
Down the years, excessive posting in this blog and others has been a tried and tested way of getting me focussed and playing well. I have so many strategic thoughts whizzing around my head all the time that I really need to get them all down and sorted, and I need to start having accountability for my sessions and HHs whereby I post the worst ones here and stop having terribly played hands as sort of 'guilty secret' that stops me achieving my goals. I also miss talking hands with people, so if anyone reading wants to add on skype and send hands then please do so, and/ or comment on the hands I post here.
I have some strategic things I'd like to write about..... I feel I'm playing a little too predictably in a lot of spots and there's some recent reg traits that have come in that I haven't adjusted to well enough.
Firstly, I'm not doing nearly enough checking as the PFR. I'm talking OOP more than IP, although when ranges are very tight IP then checking should be decent there as well. VS wide ranges, cbets often just minimise our EV by getting insta folds from air a lot. This might seem OK when we ourselves have air, but we rep a much wider and better range by checking and end up winning the pot just as often VS air, probably more often in fact, and also more money as we allow villain to stab his air/ fold river etc.
Closely linked to this is the fact that when regs check as the PFR oop at the moment, the number of insta folds we get from stabbing has gone wayyyy down. It used to just be basically printing money to go 1/2 pot, but at the moment we're faced with a CC a lot, or a CR. VS the CC I often have a wide flatting range and can't credibly barrel off or whatever, and the CR just fucks with my range even more. As a default, I'm going to start checking behind more and then looking to raise turns/ float turns/ ob river etc, all that creative stuff.
Playing in a 'standard' manner just doesn't cut it all any more. Anything approaching what 2p2 would call a well played hand is just gobbled up by any half competent reg. I knew this in the second half of last year and raped 2-5 quite hard........ and there's enough incredibly random regs at 2-5 so play seemingly 'bad' who are also raping. In a nutshell, I think the value in having a 'different' strategy is so massively high. This doesn't mean we just stop adjusting to our opponent etc, but having a default game in a lot of spots that is designed to confuse our opponent rather than play into their seasoned hands is something that gets me inspired and excited to start doing.
Throwing some random stuff out there, I'm talking about things like the following;
No 4betting preflop, flat everything and raise.
No 3betting preflop, flat everything and raise.
Very little cbetting oop, cc everything and look to cr turns/ bomb rivers, etc.
No stabbing IP, check back and play turns and rivers.
More 5bet jamming preflop..... get it in ranges at zoom are so incredibly tight and there's certainly going to be viable strategies that incorporate a lot of 3betting and also jamming pocket pairs a ton. We can usually manipulate the situation by stack depth/ recent history/ position/ our sizing to increase the likelihood of getting 4bet bluffed.
River overbets.
Turning stuff into a bluff A LOT.
Smaller bets and raises in certain spots to cap ranges, then barrel off, etc.
Just pure attacking of wide ranges, and challenge opponent to fight back. CR xx on 922r etc.
So yeah, above is just a flavour of the stuff I'm talking about and the reason I want to start posting again. By being more creative, poker will seem more fun. When it's more fun I'm more interested, when it's more interesting I'm more alert and pay more attention and this helps with my mental game.
I'll make references to mental game occasionally too, but this blog will be mostly about getting into a creative mindset again.
Going to have a shower, eat food, then play for an hour and review the hands here.
After buying a house, getting a business on an even keel, vet bills, massive expenditure, downswing yada yada I'm at a place financially where I'm basically starting again. I still think I have decent skills, certainly enough to do ok at 2-5 (last 400k hands are at 2bb) but I'm going to play and play and play 1-2, stop spending money and hopefully rocket back up.
Down the years, excessive posting in this blog and others has been a tried and tested way of getting me focussed and playing well. I have so many strategic thoughts whizzing around my head all the time that I really need to get them all down and sorted, and I need to start having accountability for my sessions and HHs whereby I post the worst ones here and stop having terribly played hands as sort of 'guilty secret' that stops me achieving my goals. I also miss talking hands with people, so if anyone reading wants to add on skype and send hands then please do so, and/ or comment on the hands I post here.
I have some strategic things I'd like to write about..... I feel I'm playing a little too predictably in a lot of spots and there's some recent reg traits that have come in that I haven't adjusted to well enough.
Firstly, I'm not doing nearly enough checking as the PFR. I'm talking OOP more than IP, although when ranges are very tight IP then checking should be decent there as well. VS wide ranges, cbets often just minimise our EV by getting insta folds from air a lot. This might seem OK when we ourselves have air, but we rep a much wider and better range by checking and end up winning the pot just as often VS air, probably more often in fact, and also more money as we allow villain to stab his air/ fold river etc.
Closely linked to this is the fact that when regs check as the PFR oop at the moment, the number of insta folds we get from stabbing has gone wayyyy down. It used to just be basically printing money to go 1/2 pot, but at the moment we're faced with a CC a lot, or a CR. VS the CC I often have a wide flatting range and can't credibly barrel off or whatever, and the CR just fucks with my range even more. As a default, I'm going to start checking behind more and then looking to raise turns/ float turns/ ob river etc, all that creative stuff.
Playing in a 'standard' manner just doesn't cut it all any more. Anything approaching what 2p2 would call a well played hand is just gobbled up by any half competent reg. I knew this in the second half of last year and raped 2-5 quite hard........ and there's enough incredibly random regs at 2-5 so play seemingly 'bad' who are also raping. In a nutshell, I think the value in having a 'different' strategy is so massively high. This doesn't mean we just stop adjusting to our opponent etc, but having a default game in a lot of spots that is designed to confuse our opponent rather than play into their seasoned hands is something that gets me inspired and excited to start doing.
Throwing some random stuff out there, I'm talking about things like the following;
No 4betting preflop, flat everything and raise.
No 3betting preflop, flat everything and raise.
Very little cbetting oop, cc everything and look to cr turns/ bomb rivers, etc.
No stabbing IP, check back and play turns and rivers.
More 5bet jamming preflop..... get it in ranges at zoom are so incredibly tight and there's certainly going to be viable strategies that incorporate a lot of 3betting and also jamming pocket pairs a ton. We can usually manipulate the situation by stack depth/ recent history/ position/ our sizing to increase the likelihood of getting 4bet bluffed.
River overbets.
Turning stuff into a bluff A LOT.
Smaller bets and raises in certain spots to cap ranges, then barrel off, etc.
Just pure attacking of wide ranges, and challenge opponent to fight back. CR xx on 922r etc.
So yeah, above is just a flavour of the stuff I'm talking about and the reason I want to start posting again. By being more creative, poker will seem more fun. When it's more fun I'm more interested, when it's more interesting I'm more alert and pay more attention and this helps with my mental game.
I'll make references to mental game occasionally too, but this blog will be mostly about getting into a creative mindset again.
Going to have a shower, eat food, then play for an hour and review the hands here.
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