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.
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