Conclusion: 3 weeks of Poker

This post shall be a report of my results of grinding at 25NL for 3 weeks.

My goals at the beginning of November were:

1) To earn $100 at 25NL, or build my Pokerstars bankroll from $260 to $400.

I ran very good to start with, earned $110 in just 3 days into the challenge! So I could say that my goal was met right then and there. The PTR graph above missed out on a number of crucial hands, therefore not showing the profits i really made. Otherwise, the graph is pretty accurate. Was winning, then losing in the middle, and winning again. And boom, came two huge down days. I think i was down $50 and $60 in those two days. Although I wasn’t playing particularly bad as i recall.

I moved to Full Tilt the next day not because i was pissed off losing on Pokerstars (lol) but because Full Tilt was offering a free $100 bonus, all we have to do is earn like 2000 full tilt points in a month.

So my move to Full Tilt was pretty good to begin with. I had pretty consistent wins. And then one day, as you can read from a few posts before this one, I decided to play 40/30 LAG and I won like $60 in 200 hands. It was pretty sick. I didn’t realize I was running good that day, I thought it was because I was playing good as a LAG. Next day i played as a LAG again, and see what happens.. I dropped like $80 real quick. I was quite scared looking at how much money i lost, so i toned down my play a little bit, and playing like 25/20 instead. But otherwise, I was running slightly bad too. Next 7 days was the most solid stretch of winnings. I only made one loss day. Soon I was to hit another bad day, running -$50 under EV. I think this was the breaking point. I start to lose from that day onwards. I lost small amount like $6 and $7 then i lost $21. The next day broke even and won $2, then boom, like on stars, the worst day ever, -$108. I was only -$78 in EV, so i was obviously running bad. But the run bad wasn’t constricted to the All-Ins. It was a classic nothing went my way session. After 500 hands, my biggest win was only a pathetic $1.60 with AA! After 500 hands that was the biggest pot I won! It was ridiculous. The other time i got AA, i was stacked by 66 who hit a set. I lost 1 buyin there. The 11 times I was dealt AK and AQ, I never flopped a pair. It was unbelievable. But after 500 hands, it started to turn around. Thanks to W my friend who was donking around at my table and end up donating me $12 or so when i flop set Jacks against his Ace top pair ten kicker. My loses from $128 went down to $108, and you can’t believe how relieved I was to be losing $108 at that point lol. Next day I played again, and won like $14. Although i started the session losing as well.

I didn’t quit any of these accounts because of the big losses. In fact I can’t wait to play again to recoup these losses. I admit I made some bad decisions along with running bad. I don’t know which one was worse, of course I would rather hope is the running bad. But I clearly made some bad decisions, mostly because i didn’t give people credit when they raise and think they’re bluffing (refer to last blog post). But overall, I manage to gain that “play like you got nothing to lose” attitude in terms of poker. I was playing scared poker these 3 weeks, but by the end, I was just playing. I figure if I was going to be scared of losing money, I would never go far with volume because I would only care about the bottom line.

Result:

+$2 (Pokerstars)

-$31 (FullTilt)

Pretty bad. But to make a note, I did earn $100 on each site at one point! It was just that at the end of the month, I gave them all back due to bad runs. I’m sure I can recoup these losses in the coming month (if I were still to play routinely).

2) To play 500 – 10000 hands a day

This was the only goal that I achieved. Although i missed a few days of playing, I really played 400-500 hands everyday. 4-tabling for 1.5-2hours is perfect no. of table and perfect volume for me (before i get distracted and tired). In fact the biggest losing days was when i tried to 6 table! I just wasn’t paying attention to anything and clicking buttons like a robot = i hate that. I should stick to my comfort level = 4-tables. I ended up playing 15,000 hands at 25NL. Less than planned, but I thought its satisfactory considering this is only the 2nd time i ever “grinded” online.

3) To achieve a winrate of 3BB/100

Games	Hands	Net	BB/100	Rake	Rakeback	Last Played
$0.1/$0.25 NLH	7,046	$-31	-0.89	$113	$37	Nov 21st, 2009

$0.1/$0.25 NLH

7,853

$-32

-0.81

$145

$48

Dec 3rd, 2009

I really failed here and only achieved a win(or lose) rate of -0.9BB/100 at 25NL over 7k hands. Again this is not a reflection of my true winrate! I think I was more of a 2BB/100 player. I definitely think I was playing very well that week I never had a down day. I thought I was comfortably beating 25NL at that point. But the last week taught me otherwise. I really have a lot to learn, but I think I was also hit so bad that day!

Overall, I didn’t achieve the results I wanted to. But I did reach the results in a sense! Because I did earn $110 on Pokerstars at one point, and earned $100 on Full Tilt at one point too. But the bad days were really bad! If anything I learned about True Bankroll Requirements. I now know that 3-4 BI (Buy-In) downswings in a day is possible. That doesn’t even count a run of bad days, which could easily take out 10 BI in my opinion. So starting out with a BR of 10BI at 25NL wasn’t a good idea. Although I did build it up to 15BI, being down 4-5 BI in 1 or 2 days was really painful. I don’t know if I had $500 to start with, whether losing $100 would be pain. But I guess it still would! But maybe less. I definitely learned about the need for 20 or 30 BI at a level for psychological reasons.

What I Learned

So that is the conclusion of my 3 weeks trial of playing poker. I played very little for something I placed my first priority on these last 3 weeks. I learned a lot from the experience. On the table, I learned that I should play standard poker at 25NL and not try too hard bluffing or catching people bluffing. Mostly the latter, because i learned that 80% of the time they are not! Just play ABC poker and fold when you think you should fold. The latter is again the hardest thing to do, but I am getting better at it though still very bad. Outside the table, i learned that variance is really a b*tch lol that you can’t have only 10 BI, you should have 20BI at least. 30BI would be perfect, 40BI is not too crazy either. Outside poker, I learned that playing soccer or exercising helped my game. I don’t know how to say this except that the days after I played soccer seemed to be the days i won the most. And this wasn’t just coincidence because I was sleeping better, and I felt fit and fresh. However if you stop exercising, you won’t get that focus anymore. So exercise is crucial. In fact, I am of the opinion that exercise is of utmost importance. Fitness First! You might argue that eating well is first, but without fitness, you won’t even have the appetite to eat. So to me exercising is of number one priority.

Give People Credit at 25NL

Oh gosh! I am thinking way too much, and always thinking people are trying to bluff me out. If they bet, i call. If I bet they call, i think they’re full of it. This leads to further betting on turns, and getting shoved on. Started the night with an open ended  straight draw + nut flush draw. board was 4h 5x 6h. I have Ah 7h. Now.. here is where i try to be Nanonoko and bet bet bet. Also I size my bet big, almost the pot. So 2.80 pot I raise 2.25. One guy out of five calls. I have no reads on him except through seven hands he is playing 14/7, pretty tight. Turn come a not so good card, a 7. I have top pair top kicker now lol. I bet $6 into $7 pot. Hoping he fold whatever he call flop with, which i think would be 6 some of the time, but maybe not likely. Maybe some mid overpair. Actually thinking back, it was a stupid move, because anything that calls me on the flop, would have called me on the turn. A 3 would have made a straight. A 7 would still have top pair, and the board is an open ended straight board. Now he shoved $22 above my $6 raise. I think and request time. Then i got timed out and folded. It was close! I don’t know what he is shoving here. Obviously any 8, an 89, a 3. Basically made flushes will call me here. But the shove is wierd. He could’ve just called, and bet again on the river. But maybe he saw that my bet was big, and thought there was value in shoving right here, maybe i had two pair on the flop  for example. Anyway Pot was $7 + my $6 raise + his $22 all-in = $35. I had to call $16 to get $35. That is getting 2.2 to 1. Or I need to be good at least 31% of the time. Now if he has the straight, which i think he has, then i am really down to my flush outs. Which is 9 outs and 20% on the river not good enough. But I have a chance to breakeven if he has a 3 or an 8. If the board comes another 3 or and 8. So I actually have 7 outs to split the pot. 9 + 7 = 16. 16*2 = 32% I am getting the right odds here to call. But the 7 outs are good enough only to split the pot, I don’t actually win the pot, so i guess this alone makes it -EV.

372 Hands

-$17.14 (-$12.76 AIEV)

19/16

$333.31

See how I am playing more and more aggressive each session. I think losing is not due to raising to much, in fact i think raising is +EV esp against limping loose-passive fish. But the decisions, on when to bet, when not to. What your opponents’ range is, and what his range is given the action that has occurred. It is sometimes hard to think of these especially when you are in the heat of the action, and have that gut feeling to bet or to call. But we have to think it through more! Example, I raise a fish with KhQh from mp. He was ep limping and called my 4x or 5x raise. Now I am putting him on pocket pair. He was playing like 31/1/2AF (almost never raises). Flop comes ATx one heart. He checks, I bet. He calls. Somehow i put him on pocket pairs 22-99. I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense for 22-99 to call with 2 overcards on the table but he is loose so maybe he might call once. But seriously if I was thinking clearly, I would put him on an Ace suited. I know besides pockets pairs, these are the favorite hands people limp call with all the time. Also maybe he’s calling with some kind of Ten like KTs QTs JTs. But to think of it again, I have KQ, I would be unlikely he limped KTs or QTs. JTs is quite improbable. Now I’m still putting him on pocket pairs like 66 77 88 99 calling once to see if I have an Ace or not. Of course this doesn’t make sense again because I forgot that I raised preflop and my cbet on an ATx rainbow board would seem really strong, and he would not call me with anything less that an Ace. Actually he might have KQ KJ QJ here too, but again unlikely because i hold the KQ. Turn came Ah. He checks. Now, it seems very unlikely to me that he has an ace. I am more convinced now he has some small pocket pair (which doesn’t make sense). So I continue with my representing the Ace, and bet pot $7 to put him all in. He calls and shows A7s for the trips. I didn’t get a heart or J on the river, and lost the $20 pot. This is a good example of not giving people credit, and not thinking what he might have that he would limp call preflop and check call that flop. It is easy to say pocket pair, but really is he ever check/calling against a preflop raiser with 3rd pair and a hand that is hardly going to improve? So in actual fact, I wasn’t folding any pocket pair. If he calls there, almost all the time he has an Ace-weak kicker suited and afraid I have a bigger kicker.

In summary, I am not thinking well and playing rude/aggressive on the table. I don’t feel good playing this way, and it tends to get me tilted and bet draws so hard and try to bluff people out. Which both never works and i end up down $30 really quick. It’s painful to see that -$25.00 or $-30.00 loss for the session when i click my nick on the HUD. I have no problems with my preflop play. I am not isolating with junk. It’s just that i should know when to stop betting, and stop getting it in with flush or whatever on the turn. My turn play should be more checking if I really missed or I don’t think opponent is folding much. Overall a sad day, and i was wrong about me being happy about my 25NL game. I’m still clueless about loads of stuff, and thinking away from the game hasn’t been going well. I think better when I am in the game. But I am afraid to play, because I still feel like I got something to lose when i play. Which is the wrong attitude. That is how you feel when you don’t have a fool proof 20/30 buy-ins. To lose 1/2 buyins and go whatever, you really need 20buy-ins, or even more. Now I have like 14 Buy-ins or $350. When i play, I know it’s unlikely that I will go bust, but it still has an effect on me if I lose a buy-in. It feels like a lot still. On a bright note, I was looking at the top winner at 1/2 today, and saw that the best players there can earn up to $100k. That’s about the amount to buy a decent house and a car where I live. So it is a great motivation for sure! But you have to be the best at 1/2, 2/4, 3/6 to be making hundred thousands.

My goal of reaching $500 on Full Tilt, and my previous goal of reaching $400 on the Pokerstars by 4th Dec is pretty much dashed. I currently have $333.31 as opposed to the $500 goal for Full Tilt. With my remaining bonus of $50, I still only have $383.31, which leaves me -$120 short. And posting that amount of win in 4 days is unrealistic although not impossible. Even if I did it would be due to some good run, and not real consistent grinding. I have $262 on Pokerstars and am -$140 to $400. That again is another breakeven affair although I haven’t played it in a week. However, the ride I’ve been through these 3 weeks has been nothing short of phenomenal for me lol. For one thing, i didn’t expect variance to be so extreme, on both the upside and the downside. And i didn’t expect the distance between these swings to be so narrow. Meaning you can be up huge one day, and down huge the next, and then up huge the very next day. This was exactly what happened to my accounts these 3 weeks. Well, at least I have managed to prove to myself that I can reach profit of $200 a month playing 25NL. I am up $100 on stars at one point, and up $100 on full tilt just yesterday, today I’m still up $80 (I forgot). Since PTR says I’m only up $30 I tend to believe that, but HEM which actually doesn’t miss hands like PTR puts me at $80 profit, so I believe that. Something sick though is that my all-in EV is actually $223.29. So that means I am running -$140 under EV! Some bad beats here and there, but I am more upset about when I donk away my money bluffing without thinking. I feel like when i bet, it’s not based much on 2nd level thinking, but based on my first impression of what my opponent have. I tend to forget preflop action too, and what my action is perceived as by opponents. Loads to improve on.

Complain Post

508 hands

-$15.20 (All-In EV $37.29)

$358.70

15/11/2.5

Lost $15 and ran -$50 under EV. So if there is a variance day, I am right, it would come after 2 winning days. But luckily I only lost $15.20 tonight. I admit after the 5th outrageous bad beat, I start to get half-tilted and make some bad calls such as call 5bet shove with TT (because he was a shortstack, but still bad decision, he showed KK).

Here are the outrageous bad beats you can find in my 500 hands tonight:
All-in with QK on Q Q 9 board against 44. Turn 4.
All-in with A3 on Ax 3x Qs board against As9s. Turn spade. river spade.
All-in with QK on Qx Tc 3x board against QcJc. Again… turn club. river club.

Running 2 buy-ins under EV is no fun. I told myself to keep cool, keep making good decisions. But my mind can’t help but think about those bad beats and how ‘i have been wronged’. I didn’t go monkey tilt of course, I am generally tilt proof, but tonight saw me making more marginal calls after that just so i could win a pot and feel better. Of course it didn’t work. In the best circumstance, I shouldn’t be ranting at all about bad beats. Because if I could take them well, I wouldn’t have flaunted the bad beats here to justify my ego. But on a good note, tonight I finally feel like I am have an edge over the 25NL game for once. I feel like I am reading peoples’ hands well and maximizing my value bets. But mostly, I have been laying down my hands when I know I am beat. I feel good about my game, the results ain’t showing tonight, but I’m sure it will it this coming week.

Missed out on Value!

Today is a great session. I like my pace of playing, and feel good and comfortable playing. I guess I am at my best 4-tabling. I have enough time to follow the action on the tables, notice how certain players play certain hands. And i don’t feel overwhelmed by clicking all the time and not enough time thinking when i have to make decisions!

423 hands

16/13/2.5

+$44.87

$363.90

A good way to my goal of $500 by Dec 4th. I have $70 of bonus left to collect, so I have to earn another $66 to make my goal of $500 by Dec 4th. No offence to myself, but i have been back to running decent these two days, and I am afraid a variance day will be coming soon. But as long as I keep my play solid, I am confident I will minimize the losses on down days, and make it up on following up days.

The following hand is my hand of the day. Please take a look…

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $0.25 BB (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($20.95)
SB ($24.56)
Hero (BB) ($24.31)
UTG ($14.15)
UTG+1 ($73.22)
MP1 ($27.12)
MP2 ($17.49)
CO ($26.40)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, A
5 folds, Button calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.60) 9, 4, 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.25, Button calls $0.25

Button is very loose passive (no offence but most women play rather passive). Stats is 60/10. That is why she limped button. She probably missed this flop, a min bet should take this down on this relatively dry flop.

Turn: ($1.10) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $0.75, Button calls $0.75

I just picked up a flush draw aside from my bottom pair. I should bet this to take it down right here.

River: ($2.60) K (2 players)
Hero bets $1.25, Button raises to $3.75, Hero calls $2.50

I hit the flush, I should bet like 1/2 pot to get value from a pair. Oh no she re-raises, does she have a higher flush? or two pair KQo? I am not getting any value from re-raising, what if she has a higher flush. I just call.

WTF?!?!? I HAD THE NUTS!!

Total pot: $10.10 | Rake: $0.50

So I am rather furious that I didn’t notice I had the ace of spades. All along I though i had a weak flush. That is why that is why I only called. I could have stacked this person 99% of the time I can’t believe I didn’t re-raise for value here, next time I should take note of what I actually have, and stop looking at the board only. With this I missed on out winning another $15. What a mistake, hope no more of this in the future.

Zig Zag Poker

So far my graph has been a complete zigzag. Up down up, and today up huge :) Thanks for being dealt 8 Aces in 588 hands. Also 2 times i was AA vs KK. That again is uncommon for 600 hands i suppose. Although to make it fair i got stacked by Aces myself once when i had KK. I swear I almost layed it down. If I was going to lay down KK once, it would be this time. Villain seem reg-ish nit (I didn’t have HEM on today). Raise 0.85c ep, I 4bet from Btn to 3.25, he “snap” 5bet to 9.75 or so. This time i swear it is not AKs, QQ? no way. Also my image on the table is tight, so no way he’s making some sort of play. I flatted the 5bet hoping I would flop a King. Qxx board. Now that Q would help him if somehow he was spazzing with QQ. But again unlikely. He lead out the pot for $10, which is the rest of my stack. I called seriously hoping it’s AKs. He showed Aces. Oh well. I swear next time given the same circumstances, I would fold KK preflop against a solid 5bet from a nit.

Otherwise I’ve been doing pretty well in the department of ‘laydown’. I no longer call a bet with AKo on a say Jxx or Qxx board. I figured 6 outs is really not good enough. Furthermore, I realise that an Ace is probably not an out as villain most like has AJ AQ, making him/her a two pair. I did payoff a bit when i had straight and other guy had a flush. Been playing 16/14 poker today. Which is less spewy compared to 2 sessions ago’s 27/25. I just isolate limpers a bit from late , and only if i have a pretty decent holding like suited connectors or ace, or some face cards.

My motivation to play really has come from none other than Nanonoko. This guy 24-tables 6-max at 2/4, 3/6, 5/10 and manage to turn a 3-4bb/100 winrate at each stake! He’s played 2.2million hands this year, which is just sick work ethic. That is why I am more motivated to put in the volumes now. He 24 table 6max. And I 6-table 25NL lol.

Moved to FTP

Last 2 days has not been kind to me. I just felt a lot of angst inside after the  2 day losing streak, and felt like there was nothing i can do to improve the situation, thus felt like venting the frustration on someone like punching them in the face. LOL. Of course I wouldn’t but that’s how bad it feels like. It feels like I had to house these very negative emotions in me. And no matter how i tried to think of something else, it still lingers in my thoughts for the next few hours. I only know one way out, and that is to keep on playing and get yourself out of that rut! Some people would say that it’s better to leave the table when you’ve lost a lot, but I wasn’t tilted, I was just sad that I’m losing money. And leaving the table didn’t help. I keep on thinking about my loss and it still feels as bad if not worse. So the only way is to keep on playing or to sleep i think, so i won’t think about it anymore.

Anyway at night i finally manage to install the .NET FRAMEWORK that Holdem Manager requires for it’s installation. I manage to get a Windows XP SP3 update CD at Mangga Dua Mall. So finally I can be installing HEM on my desktop, and not have to play on my shitty 4yr Old Laptop which takes 1min to open an application and 10min to boot windows.

I logged on Full Tilt and played 25NL there. 4 tables. Full Tilt tables are definitely more colorful and interesting compared to Stars’. Also the cards and chips are dealt faster, which allows for more hands to be played. But the real reason why i am playing on Full Tilt is that they are giving me a $100 bonus which must be earned within a month. That’s great and exactly what I need now to increase my roll. My BR on Full Tilt is $200. So I just played and first minute in I had AA against QQ on a low board, and guy gives me his chips. Of course after a bad run I tend to run good. As you can see from the picture below, I was dealt 3 premiums out of 4 tables. But sadly didn’t get any action on either one of them.

This morning I decide not to be a 14/8 player anymore. And started playing a lot of pots with suited connectors and some junk. I was 3beting people in position with not much, squeezing and all sorts of stuff just to experiment and just for fun. I did this on two tables. And what can I say, they all fold to my cbets even though I am such a loose mofo lol. One thing I learn is that we should exploit peoples’ mistakes if we want to be successful on the tables, and one mistake people usually have on micro tables is that they give people too much credit when they bet big (1/2 or 3/4 of pot). Most of the times i didn’t have crap. I could just call his preflop raise with any two cards and convinced I can steal the pot 50% or more on the flop. I don’t realise this, but i think my postflop skill i pretty good. And i don’t donk off my money when i got played back at. I just fold. So it’s sort of a controlled aggression kind of thing. But most of all it is very exciting to play this LAG-GY because most of the time you are behind but waiting to bust someone with some kind of draw, or calling their flop cbets and waiting to see what they would do on the turn. Maybe I am born to play LAG.. But i don’t see how I can play this way on 4-tables, it takes too much attention and clicking. I was up $60 this session of just 100 hands playing something like 50/40 lol. I know aggression works, but I still don’t know why yet, so today I’m thinking more about people’s calling and folding range. And why do they call and fold to cbet so much.

Sunday Morning Another Down Day

Today, I plan to playing as many tables as possible since the weekends are full of fishes who will call you down with mid pair. I decide it will be higher EV if I would play 9 Tables and play TT+ AK. It turns out not to be the case. I got tested A LOT today. My KK will be called on a low flop, and turn will come an A. It went check/check. And River he bet 1/2 pot, and i called. He showed A9. I lost $12 here, 2nd biggest pot lost today. It went on and on I would flop top pair, and 2 loose players will float me, and turn will come a 3 card flush/3 card straight. Ridiculous pot of the day, I check raised a fish all-in with AA on a 3JT7 board. He called and showed T9 for the mid pair and gutshot. I had the worse feeling and river came an 8. Pot $33. So that was $14 gone there.

770 Hands

-$53.90

$263.30

I am running -$20 and -$23 for yesterday and today. That doesn’t include people outdrawing me on the turn and river before cards go to showdown. I definitely feel like I’m on a bad downswing again just like the last one. But this time, 2x worse! The last downswing was -$50. These two days I am already down $115 or 4-5 buy-ins. Bankroll wise, this is at a record low since i started grinding 2 weeks ago. I am now standing breakeven. I called friend W, he said just keep playing. I think so too. I feel like I am really powerless as to what happens everyday on the tables. Variance owns every player and there is no bargaining. There is also no guarantee as to what will come next. All we do is to keep on keeping on. Even if we don’t feel like it, we have a goal set. We shouldn’t give up.

Bad Day

So right after 2 huge sessions and being up $100, I am down a mighty $61.60 today.

742 hands

-$61.60

$318.30

Now I am $81.70 away from my goal for this month. It’s been a rollercoaster ride this poker thing. Maybe i don’t play enough hands to breakeven faster, but it seems like losing 1-2 buyins a day comes more often than i think it would. Sure i made bad calls when i had the 2nd best hand all day, but i feel like i am being outdrawn a lot today. AK vs AA on a K high board. JJ vs set of Tens on a 7T382 board. He call flop, raise 3x on turn. I really couldn’t beat anything by now except a flush draw semi bluff, which is unlikely since he’s a 12/0 player AF only 2. I called raise on turn. Check river, he bet $9 into $16 pot. I think for longest time, and actually think he might be bluffing with a busted draw, called and he obviously has TT for the set. I shouldn’t think so much when against tight players, they basically play really standard, i shoulda just fold turn.

I am increasing frustrated by putting people on a range, especially on a 4straight/4flush kinda board. It’s just so many cards they can call you down with, you have no idea what they actually have, and I don’t know when to stop barreling on such boards. I feel like my poker is plateauing at the moment, meaning I haven’t learned anything new this week. I can’t seem to be able to think about poker away from the game. I guess playing and losing helps in the motivation to study the game more.

Live Cash Game

Played a cash game yesterday. Basically plan to play exactly like i do online. Meaning bet premium hands for value. Since live is always loose and call-y. A very loose player limped and i raised like 8x with A9s, which is slightly on the bigger side of a raise but in this game, bound to get a caller still. One guy called. Loose player who limped announced he is all-in for 75x. I thought for a while, and since a limp shove range is at best a weak ace, KQ KJ and low pockets 22-88 type hands, i definitely thought i was ahead most of the time with A9s to call. That plus the fact this player has shown that he is capable of shoving preflop with almost atc – 56o etc. Well i didn’t factor in the fact that he thinks I am tight player, and yet willing to shove over my raise. That means he probably has a better hand this time. I called his shove for the first time in like many times, shockingly another guy called behind. We are all-in. Loose player shows AQo, I am very shocked to say the least, never expect him to limp such a strong hand. Guy behind showed A8o, which is so bad a call. I got A8o guy covered, but loose player got me covered. In my shock i forgot that I was dealer for that hand (I had position that is why i raised with A9s in the first place). I opened the 5 cards, and i got myself a diamond flush for the bad beat. I felt so bad to loose player coz it was obviously a wrong move on my part to call. But given a limp shove and super loose image, the decision to call was right. Loose player began to tilt after this bad beat and lost like another 3/4 buy-ins.

I didn’t enjoy myself though, i thought i wasn’t thinking like half way into the session. I didn’t get any reasonable holdings. In fact i only had 3/4 premiums all night. Nevermind, managed to steal some pots with huge cbets in position. Always a great strategy against loose limpers. I donked off some money trying to play position with A5o against a huge raise. Then donked off some more in i forgot what. But i was sitting with a nice 250-300BB stack after that 3-way suckout. I donked off like 50BB. And decided to play tight like online. Got a run of bad cards. I can’t believe it 38 4T Q2s keep getting dealt these type of shit cards. I prolly could be more “pro-active” like my friend W who was playing well and on a sick run. He was raising 56o and all sorts of junk from any position. I think his PFR is something like 40-50%. But whatever, his 3.5x raise always still gets 4-5 callers every round. But i really don’t think there is any fold equity against loose players, that is why i don’t try his strategy, but W begs to differ and maintains it is a very effective strategy coz he would get paid of when he actually has his premiums. I don’t know, i think these people just call with like 30% of theirs hand all the way up to a 25BB raise preflop. Which is kinda crazy but not uncommon in live cash games.

Also i would like to add that one thing about live cash games is that people smoke. And i have to breathe in the 2nd hand smoke, and my whole body smells of smoke too. I may be over blaming things for my bad sessions, but i think that inhaling smoke makes it harder for me to think. Whether this is true or not, i don’t like playing in a smoke filled area.

Oh ya so much for complaing I had no hands. The 2nd last hand of the night I was dealt red Queens. Shipped it and got called by KJs. Flop came Q, then board paired so I had the nuts. Happy. That is how patience pays. The last hand of the day, everyone posted 2.5bb ante. Pot was around 30BB to start. I looked down and found… red Queens again! wow.. what are the chances. I thought that my tightness was really getting rewarded finally right at the end of the session. People limped of course it was a friendly last round, everyone wants a piece of it. I had to spoil it by raising huge, 15BB. Super loose guy to my left shoves. I don’t really think about his range now, although he did showdown some crazy hands like K8s or something earlier. A girl who is a big winner in the 2 cash games we played so far shoved too. I call of course. Flop came KTxxK. Girl rejoiced and showed King six -.- Guy showed Q8. Awesome way to lose to a 3 outer. Wasn’t so affected, coz i was up 3 buyins by then, and i only lost a buy-in this pot.

Bluff against a Reg

Well, an attempted pf 3-bet steal gone wrong. Cbet went wrong too. But his turn check in position seems to me he was on some kind of draw, so i lead out a sort of value bet on the ace, hoping he would fold some lower pairs. He tanked for quite some time and folded. Seeing this now i put him on 77, or something like AhKh, AhQh, KhQh?

 

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold’em – 9 players – View hand 377416

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP1: $27.95

MP2: $25.35

CO: $25.15

BTN: $25.25

SB: $25.25

Hero (BB): $25.25

UTG: $22.20

UTG+1: $25.70

UTG+2: $25.25

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with K 8

6 folds, BTN raises to $0.85, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2, BTN calls $1.15

Flop: ($4.10) 6 J 5 (2 players)

Hero bets $2, BTN calls $2

Turn: ($8.10) 4 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($8.10) A (2 players)

Hero bets $4.75, BTN folds

Final Pot: $8.10

Hero mucks K 8

Hero wins $7.75

(Rake: $0.35)

 

On other news i still could not lay down set of 6s to a VERY OBVIOUS flush line. flop Jx 6h 2h. She bets, i check raise 3x. She calls. Turn came Xh. There was really nothing else to draw to other than the flush. She checks, i check behind hoping for the board to pair. River blank, she shoves remainder of $7 into the $11 pot. I tank, and i know that her line is FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH. But i was so hoping she had KJ QJ JT here. But seriously i learned that on big pots, people don’t call 3x raises out of position with a top pair low kicker, and lead out river as a bluff. It’s just rare. I can’t find the fold button (ever) called and she showed Kh Th. I must be able to fold in such obvious situations next time!

Quick Recovery

In the last 2 days, i lost $50 (or 2 buyins), and am down $80 since last week. My earnings dwindled to $12 (from $105 a week ago).

 

So it was pretty brutal to end up breakeven after 5k hands of playing everyday.

The hands i posted in the last 2 blogs are huge pots i lost. The first one i had set kings and guy turned the straight. 2nd hand, guy had higher QT suited for a higher flush. Yesterday i also lost with aces preflop all-in against KK and QQ. And worst hand had to win, flop came Q. Pot was $70! That was a cooler and nothing i could do, so i wasn’t sad about that.

My bankroll was at $277 yesterday. I started out with $260. So my profit is only $17, this includes like $5 i won from SNGs, so my profit at 25NL is really $12 after 5000 hands. That’s like 1bb/100.

But i know that i have running pretty bad. In fact, yesterday my All-in EV was a solid +$13.06 but i was -$24.65 in winnings. Same goes for the day before, EV -$7.87, winnings -$24.35.

But today is a great day. I ran well and almost never got outdrawn, except for once of twice, but nothing catastrophic. I feel like i am being rewarded for not getting too upset about the money lost in the last 2 days. And as you can see from the graph below i more than made up for the losses!

 

 

So i played 461 hands today. Up $76.55, ran +$20 above All-In EV, so that means i have been getting lucky. My bankroll stands at $353.90, just $50 shy of $400! Now i am finding this goal attainable.

Also, i want to mention that i was against a 70/6 LAG fish on one table. He was sitting with 400BB when i joined. One hand i flopped a full house with 22 on a QQ2 board. Flop went c/c. Turn came 4, he open shoved, i snap called, he showed 35 which was down right WTF. After that i returned the favor by check-shoving my stack on the river on a AKQxT board with a flush, hoping he would call with a Jack. He thought for very long and then folded. So this is a LAG-y fish which is actually capable of folding. Then i had AK on the button, fish limped utg, he really doesn’t care about position. I reraised to 5x. He called of course. Flop came 22x. He check, for the first time ever. He always minbets every flop and turn. I check behind. Turn is blank. River King. He leads out $5 into $3 pot. I had top pair top kicker now, and i think this is more than a value bet with a King, he had to have better. I called anyway. He showed trips deuce since the flop. He limped utg with 23suited and called 5x. check flop, which was really wierd because he never checks flop. But even fishes know how to check flop when they flop big.