"I don't try to put my opponent in spots where he can't make a right decision vs. my range. I try to get him to make the wrong decision for my hand." - Phil Galfond
I'm putting this as a blog post so i can think about it more later.
This week has been really busy for me with essays, college apps, etc, and thankfully Albert and I cancelled the prop bet for this month. It's a bit disappointing, but college apps are something I really can't fuck up, and having poker out of the way just for this month is a huge burden lifted off my shoulders.
Hopefully next month I'll be able to get back into the groove. I'm pretty excited to be moving up really soon and hopefully I'll run well so I won't need to move back down. I feel that my stay at 100NL has been long overdue, since I am very confident that I'm +EV in the games by quite a decent margin.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Can't stop, won't stop
Jesus, my killer sessions do not seem to end. I played just 1.6k hands today and was up over 5 BI's. I flopped so many sets it was getting ridiculous, I was even contemplating set mining OOP in a 3bet pot. That's when you know you're getting a little too results oriented. My session was so awesome in the sense that I had very few tough decisions. It felt like a nice little grind, stick in some thin value bets, and I found some good spots to delayed cbet as opposed to cbetting outright. The james theorem says that when an opponent checks to you twice OOP, they're check/folding the turn. The power of the delayed cbet is that you know you can barrel a very small bet (just shy of half pot) and it has an immense amount of fold equity. I think i'm 6 for 6 in delayed cbets.
Why delay a cbet and not just cbet the flop? Some boards are a little "close" as Albert and I would say, and if their fold to cbet isn't drastically high at 65%+ then I'll opt for a check back and try to peel the pot off of them on the turn. Not only do I get a better price on a bluff since I can bet less, but it works far more often. Many players will make very speculative peels and bet the river when you check the turn back, but when you bet the turn theres only one more card to come. If they have a weak draw it looks a lot less appealing to them and they'll just muck it. In addition, the delayed cbet is balanced since you're checking back medium strength hands.
Cbet sizing is also something that comes up very often in poker, but we kind of don't really think too much about it because the sizing is second nature. However when I cbet 2.5 into 4.25 on Q66 against a fish, I really was thinking to myself how bad it was. Against a fish we don't need to balance our ranges, so it's fine to tailor our bet sizing to our goal for the hand and board texture. When cbetting Q66 as a bluff, we should be betting 2.5 because it gives us a better price on our bluff and has similar fold equity to a pot sized bet. When cbetting Q66 for value, we should be betting 3-4. He's folding out his air anyways regardless of what we bet, so we might as well get maximum extraction from the range that is going to continue.
It sounds a little nit picky trying to fiddle with the sizing on the flop, but how much you bet on the flop dictates how big the pot is going to get by the river. The size of the pot and the size of future bets increases exponentially. We want stacks in by the river without having to overbet because that move significantly tightens his calling range and looks incredibly strong. In the hand below, I used my small "standard" flop sizing and the pot was only $23 by the river. Just by increasing our flop bet to a thicker size, we could've gotten a $32 pot and gotten all of it. Instead, he got away with top pair without losing his entire stack.
It sounds a little nit picky trying to fiddle with the sizing on the flop, but how much you bet on the flop dictates how big the pot is going to get by the river. The size of the pot and the size of future bets increases exponentially. We want stacks in by the river without having to overbet because that move significantly tightens his calling range and looks incredibly strong. In the hand below, I used my small "standard" flop sizing and the pot was only $23 by the river. Just by increasing our flop bet to a thicker size, we could've gotten a $32 pot and gotten all of it. Instead, he got away with top pair without losing his entire stack.
$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Holdem • 8 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | Bergson80 | $50.45 | |
| UTG+1 | NeedLamborghini | $50.70 | |
| MP1 | Happles | $50.75 | |
| MP2 | AFchung X | $94.45 | |
| CO | Im a Rainbow 2 | $50.50 | |
| BTN | n-i-s-w-e-s 23 | $55.20 | |
| SB | duff24 | $48.25 | |
| BB | sanjusto77 | $50 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.75, 8 players)Hero is MP2
3 folds, AFchung X raises to $1.75, 1 fold, n-i-s-w-e-s 23 calls $1.75, 2 folds
- Flop ($4.25, 2 players)
-
AFchung X bets $2.50, n-i-s-w-e-s 23 calls $2.50
- Turn ($9.25, 2 players)
AFchung X bets $7, n-i-s-w-e-s 23 calls $7
- River ($23.25, 2 players)
AFchung X bets $21, n-i-s-w-e-s 23 calls $21
- Final Pot: $65.25
- AFchung X shows two pair, Aces and Sixes
- n-i-s-w-e-s 23 shows
- AFchung X wins $62.25 (net +$30)
- n-i-s-w-e-s 23 lost $32.25
Friday, October 8, 2010
Good and bad variance
When I first started playing and I'd get it in good and lose or get owned by AA with KK, I'd throw a tantrum, cuss at the screen, and slam my mouse around. This negative behavior really messed with my poker sessions and my overall mood even outside from the virtual felt. I've gotten a lot better at not caring about the beats (by playing overrolled) but I've got a long long long way to go. Not to sound like a dwan fan boy, but when you watch the videos where dwan gets sucked out on he just gives a blank indifferent stare. I would love to have that discipline but I know in reality I'm quite far from it.
Lately I've been running so damn hot. My bluffs all seem to be working, my cbets generally work, and I've had a few coolers going my way. Add in some very thin value betting and tight (but correct) folds, you can see that I've had a killer October so far. I know my winrate is unsustainable over a larger sample, but hopefully this run-good can continue because if I want to jump into 100NL then I'm definitely going to need the confidence. As of right now I feel that I can beat 100NL pretty handily, I just need to make sure that the variance doesn't get to my head especially if I run bad for my first few sessions there. I'd love to be able to just sit comfortably at 100NL for just 2 months maybe even 3 months just making a ton of money. Albert has tried moving up to 1/2 but he's been getting crushed. The competitive part of me wants to take a shot so i can be a 200NL reg, but the realistic part of me wants to stay at 100NL, build a bankroll, then figure out my long term goals from there.
Anyways, I posted my October graph so far. 20 buyins in 8k+ hands is so sick. So so sick. I'm glad school is done for the week so hopefully tables will look good tomorrow so I can put in a ton of volume. Albert put in 2k+ hands today which I have trouble doing since my sessions are only 1-1.5k hands. If the tables stay soft I'll be able to play longer... And I'm definitely going to put in some serious lockdown sessions on Friday and Saturday night. Come to me fishies :)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Can't run good forever
Put in a huge session because I was tilted and seemed to get owned in every b/f spot. It's pretty frustrating but I'm reviewing the hands I play and posting on the forums so at least there's something to take away from it.
I guess this is the part where my winrate slowly starts to even out. It's nice to have a 15 ptbb heater for like 3k hands, but it's starting to slow down a little bit. At least I'm reviewing the hand histories and thinking about the lines I take. I think a problem I'm having is b/fing too small on the turn. The reason I bet smaller is because I'm scared to get pot committed, and these mother fuckers keep c/cing flop, c/cing turn, and donking for 2/3rds into me on the river. And all i have is top pair, so I can't really snap it off especially when the board runs out unfavorably. Fucking donkeys taking bullshit ass lines are tilting the shit out of me
But then again I can't really check the turn and give them a free card. So much value to be had....
Anyways, I'll try to put in a session but right now the tables are really bad. So many orange stickers :(
Sunday, October 3, 2010
In the middle of another killer session
Decided to log in another session Sunday night before bed, and once again I had a monsterrrrr session. I have no idea how much I'm up right now because I'm playing down on all my really good tables. I just flopped quads and someone bluffed a ton of money into me :) It's actually really tricky to play quads (I had TT on TT5) because no one can have jack shit. So essentially you need to check back/slowplay the flop and hope they catch a piece on the turn, because there's no way they can have anything there. However, whats interesting about that spot is you could possibly raise there which accomplishes two things. First it looks like you're full of shit (to some people) and also if they have 66-99 you can get a lot of money in on the flop instead of having a scare card hit the turn. Generally I would much rather just slowplay the flop and let them hit a piece, but if someone nittyish called out of the blinds, their hand is so faceup. You can probalby bet/raise the flop and inflate the pot.
Anyways, enough of the quad value extraction theory talk, I never flop quads anyways. I got bigger leaks to talk about and fix.
Something that albert has been doing that I've been thinking about is isoing players really light. It looks really stupid when you watch him do it, and I didn't think i was missing much value (if any at all) by just folding the raggy hands. Today during my session I tried isoing a lot lighter since I was running so good. After a few fails I was like wtf is going on, and I think I found several important factors when it comes to isoing that light. Just isoing + cbetting in general is borderline profitable even if you do it blindly, but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by finding the "right" spots. I thought about it a lot more, and I think the textbook "iso" spot contains most if not all of the following elements: a) 1-2 fish who limp and have a 60%+ fold to cbet b) straightforward regs, nits, or fish (who fit #a) in the blinds. Notice how I purposely did not include your hand, because your holdings are pretty negligible here. I think it's fine to do it with K6s, 45o, J8, etc etc, but I would definitely limp behind 22-77 if it was multiway and iso if it was one person. When we have air, we want a heads up pot so we have a higher cbet success rate. When we have 22-77, a hand that flops well multiway, we want lots of people in the hand to have a higher stack-a-donk rate. For lack of a better term.
I just finished the session and it looks like I'm up +$217 over 1k hands. Jesus I am running hotter than the sun 8-) I'm running like $30 above EV now which is a very nice change for once. That allin pre with KK vs JTs really had me sweating. Albert said he would sweat but he didn't get the chance to so that kind of sucks, but oh well. Crushing still feels good when I'm crushing alone hehe
Anyways, enough of the quad value extraction theory talk, I never flop quads anyways. I got bigger leaks to talk about and fix.
Something that albert has been doing that I've been thinking about is isoing players really light. It looks really stupid when you watch him do it, and I didn't think i was missing much value (if any at all) by just folding the raggy hands. Today during my session I tried isoing a lot lighter since I was running so good. After a few fails I was like wtf is going on, and I think I found several important factors when it comes to isoing that light. Just isoing + cbetting in general is borderline profitable even if you do it blindly, but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by finding the "right" spots. I thought about it a lot more, and I think the textbook "iso" spot contains most if not all of the following elements: a) 1-2 fish who limp and have a 60%+ fold to cbet b) straightforward regs, nits, or fish (who fit #a) in the blinds. Notice how I purposely did not include your hand, because your holdings are pretty negligible here. I think it's fine to do it with K6s, 45o, J8, etc etc, but I would definitely limp behind 22-77 if it was multiway and iso if it was one person. When we have air, we want a heads up pot so we have a higher cbet success rate. When we have 22-77, a hand that flops well multiway, we want lots of people in the hand to have a higher stack-a-donk rate. For lack of a better term.
I just finished the session and it looks like I'm up +$217 over 1k hands. Jesus I am running hotter than the sun 8-) I'm running like $30 above EV now which is a very nice change for once. That allin pre with KK vs JTs really had me sweating. Albert said he would sweat but he didn't get the chance to so that kind of sucks, but oh well. Crushing still feels good when I'm crushing alone hehe
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Huge starting session
Started my October with an amazing 50NL session. I played a little bit of rush and lost almost a buyin so I'm kind of giving up on rush for now. It's fun to put in hands through rush, but the game is completely different. It's not even about cards anymore, its about re-restealing and redline poker. I'd rather flop sets all day and get paid. More importantly, I like being able to play against players where I can identify their player type and make the best decision based off reads.
Anyways, my session was +300 which is 6 buyins. I played over a span of 3 hours and obviously ran really well. I lost a really big pot with KK vs AK, but I coolered someone with AA vs KK so that made up for it. My allin EV is looking good this month and it's nice and even where it should be. Hopefully I won't run like ass like back in September, but its only the start of the month and anything can happen.
Albert and I finalized our prop bets and its going as follows. 30k hands by 12 AM November 1st, his 240 to my 200. I'm getting 1.2:1 because he's more of a grinder than I am and its my second month back at poker. Next month we'll kick up the volume and put it at even odds. I wanted to do 35k hands because 30k sounds really do-able and I like having a challenge, but I guess 35k will have to wait til next month.
Albert and I did a hand history review and those are pretty fun, but I wish I could sweat him or vice versa. Those sweats are also really helpful in improving my game in the more standard spots. I had one really crazy hand where I folded a straight bvb. Villain is like 12/4 here and I don't think hes ever bluffing river. Albert and I both agreed it was a fold, but jesus... try folding a straight mid session especially blind vs blind. It's the right thing to do in this spot, but still it hurt me pressing that fold button.
Anyways, my session was +300 which is 6 buyins. I played over a span of 3 hours and obviously ran really well. I lost a really big pot with KK vs AK, but I coolered someone with AA vs KK so that made up for it. My allin EV is looking good this month and it's nice and even where it should be. Hopefully I won't run like ass like back in September, but its only the start of the month and anything can happen.
Albert and I finalized our prop bets and its going as follows. 30k hands by 12 AM November 1st, his 240 to my 200. I'm getting 1.2:1 because he's more of a grinder than I am and its my second month back at poker. Next month we'll kick up the volume and put it at even odds. I wanted to do 35k hands because 30k sounds really do-able and I like having a challenge, but I guess 35k will have to wait til next month.
Albert and I did a hand history review and those are pretty fun, but I wish I could sweat him or vice versa. Those sweats are also really helpful in improving my game in the more standard spots. I had one really crazy hand where I folded a straight bvb. Villain is like 12/4 here and I don't think hes ever bluffing river. Albert and I both agreed it was a fold, but jesus... try folding a straight mid session especially blind vs blind. It's the right thing to do in this spot, but still it hurt me pressing that fold button.
$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Holdem • 6 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | sojackso | $104.05 | |
| UTG+1 | mex_pauer | $17.50 | |
| CO | nicodelvalle | $50 | |
| BTN | TonyMontana766 | $74 | |
| SB | AFchung X | $50 | |
| BB | NITTYOLDMAN | $50.65 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.75, 6 players)Hero is SB
4 folds, AFchung X raises to $1.50, NITTYOLDMAN calls $1
- Flop ($3, 2 players)
-
AFchung X bets $2, NITTYOLDMAN calls $2
- Turn ($7, 2 players)
AFchung X bets $5, NITTYOLDMAN calls $5
- River ($17, 2 players)
AFchung X bets $12, NITTYOLDMAN goes all-in $42.15, AFchung X folds
- Final Pot: $71.15
- NITTYOLDMAN wins $69.10 (net +$18.45)
- AFchung X lost $20.50
Goodbye September
September is finally over, and it's been a very trying month. My return to poker hasn't been as great as I hoped and I feel like I ran very poorly. Usually when people say that it's because they remember the bad and completely forget about the good, but I've tried to remember the good spots I've been in as well, and they definitely don't outweigh the bad. My graph definitely shows this
I'm at 2.45 ptbb but it would be 4+ ptbb if you adjust allinev. I think that's a fair adjustment to make, so I feel that I'm ready for 50NL. The cbetting exercises I've done with Albert has helped me a lot too, so i'm cbetting a lot more confidently. I've subscribed to deuces cracked and I'm going to download all the full ring videos before my subscription ends. Hopefully they'll be some nice videos that can help me out with my game, but when i PTR a lot of the coaches they have like 1 ptbb win rates or they're even losing at the game. Where the fuck are they getting their coaches from? Lol
Goals from September:
[x] 18k hands
[x] Beat 25NL
[x] Move up to 50NL
Goals for october
[ ] 30k hands - Prop bet
[ ] 35k hands - Personal goal
[ ] Put in more volume than albert
[ ] Beat 50NL
[?] Move up to 100NL?
[ ] Watch a ton of DC videos
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
First place in 180 man!
Dear James Chung,
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 108.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
YEEEEE
Had a shitty September month because I ran sickly below EV, but this score does make up for it. I sucked out with TT vs QQ 5 handed. I binked a T on the river hehe. And also KJ vs AT bvb which was also really standard since the blinds get so high so fast in these turbos. Theyre almost a complete crapshoot but people still do stupid stuff like limp call a shove with KT.
I played some more MTTs the next day but it didn't go so well. I went really deep in the 4k guarantee but got it in with AA vs KQ and flop comes KKT. If i won that pot I would've been close to top 10 in chips out of like a 3k player field. Oh well, can't win them all
September isn't completely over yet so I don't want to post a big results blog post, but it's coming real soon. Just felt like showing off my sexy 1st place score :)
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 108.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
YEEEEE
Had a shitty September month because I ran sickly below EV, but this score does make up for it. I sucked out with TT vs QQ 5 handed. I binked a T on the river hehe. And also KJ vs AT bvb which was also really standard since the blinds get so high so fast in these turbos. Theyre almost a complete crapshoot but people still do stupid stuff like limp call a shove with KT.
I played some more MTTs the next day but it didn't go so well. I went really deep in the 4k guarantee but got it in with AA vs KQ and flop comes KKT. If i won that pot I would've been close to top 10 in chips out of like a 3k player field. Oh well, can't win them all
September isn't completely over yet so I don't want to post a big results blog post, but it's coming real soon. Just felt like showing off my sexy 1st place score :)
Monday, September 27, 2010
Almost done for the month
Only 3 days left in September and it looks like I'm pretty much finished with poker for the rest of the month. I might put in a few more small sessions to finish up my 18k hands, but after that I have to finish a lot of homework. I have essays/projects due for both my English classes and I need to really get started on them.
At the end of the month I'll post graphs, results, and goals for the next month. I'm pretty proud of how I've played so far especially after just coming back to the game. I'm still ironing out my full ring thought process and hopefully I can really sharpen my game next month. I've been thinking of subscribing to the PTR silver premium thingy so that I can look up more people and that it's only $12 a month. If i start playing HU i'll definitely need to get it, but I guess I can live without it if I stick with FR. Oh and next month I'm definitely going to subscribe to Deuces Cracked for their free trial and go on a download marathon :D
At the end of the month I'll post graphs, results, and goals for the next month. I'm pretty proud of how I've played so far especially after just coming back to the game. I'm still ironing out my full ring thought process and hopefully I can really sharpen my game next month. I've been thinking of subscribing to the PTR silver premium thingy so that I can look up more people and that it's only $12 a month. If i start playing HU i'll definitely need to get it, but I guess I can live without it if I stick with FR. Oh and next month I'm definitely going to subscribe to Deuces Cracked for their free trial and go on a download marathon :D
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Crappy session -$1.62 // 1098 hands
Had a losing session today. Things haven't been going well for the past few sessions, but I'm still up almost 4 ptbb at 25NL over 17k hands I've played this month. I only have 1k more to go to hit the volume prop bet which is a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. Albert has a ton of hands to go, so it might not even be a push, I might end up pocketing $100 of his money. Not really what I had in mind since I expected it to be a wash like 95% of the time, but we'll see hahah.
Looking at my red line, I can tell there's a huge downward trend. It feels like my continuation bets are not working that often at 25NL and I'm forced to adjust by either cbetting less or double barreling more. Obviously at 25NL double barreling as a bluff is hardly profitable because people don't like to fold pairs, but when a beautiful turn card presents itself I will definitely fire another round. I've found myself cbetting and having to check the turn and face a river bet so damn often that its gotten really annoying.
I had two interesting AK hands come up where I'm not sure if the play I made was right. At the time I felt that folding was the right play in both of these hands, but during my post-session review it felt as if the spots were a lot closer than I had expected.
Hand #1:
Villains are both loose passive fish, around the 40/5 mark. Flop feels like a very standard call and turn I think it is a mandatory bet when checked to. There are very obvious draws on the board we need to get value from, as well as a lot of weaker aces in both player's range. During the session, I felt as if he would barrel the turn himself if he had a very strong hand so I felt okay about betting here rather than pot controlling TPTK.
River is of course the interesting spot. I have absolutely no idea what fish do this with, but being lead into on the flop, c/c'd on the turn, and open shoved on the river does not feel like a bluffy line. Two pairs and sets can take this line from these bad players. In addition, in multiway pots the general trend is that people play a lot more straightforward/honest and because of this I felt as if his range was weighted a lot more towards a value range than a bluff/spew range. The only hand we beat in his value range is AJ-AQ and we're chopping with AK. The rest has us owned.
Can he bluff this river? He's a loose passive and two players have shown strength/interest in this pot. I don't think he's bluffing often here and I ended up folding. However, we were getting 3:1 on a call so I'm not sure if I made the right choice or not.
Hand #2:
Villain is 26/19 over a 50 hand sample. Flop and turn I believe are pretty standard, and river is where we get fucked with.
He fastplays this hand so hard that I have no idea what to think of it. Two pairs/sets are definitely there but he's representing such a narrow value range since he's raising us already on the flop. Turn brings in some draws and the river is probably the worst card we could ask for. If he was somehow full of shit on the flop and picked up a draw on the turn and decided to barrel, it just got there. Only getting 2:1 on this call, facing an extremely aggressive line, against a player I have no dynamic with, I opted for a crying fold. I don't think this hand is as close as the previous one since we are a little bit deeper and getting a bad price on a call.
Hand #3:
I ended the session with this hand. I was up about a buyin which was okay (better than losing) until this hand came up. Villain is 56/3.
Preflop is standard and I make a cbet on a wet board and he check-shoves on me. Now usually I'm very hesitant calling 100 bb's with one pair and I really went into the tank for this hand. I think this is a semi bluff a huge percentage of the time. He'll show up with straight draws and flush draws, which I have good equity against. He could have QQ+, TJ, or a set which I was worried about, but would he really check-jam such a strong hand and blow me off whatever I have? Had he made a normal size c/r I would just fold here without much thought, but a check-shove is really suspicious. I ended up calling with 3 seconds left on my time bank and he shows me KT for second pair good kicker.
Obviously he binks river. Now I'm stuck for the session. I'll post a september graph later and my allinEV line is absolutely horrid. Hopefully I can learn to emotionally control myself a little bit better and not have these beats/coolers get to me. They are definitely affecting my play and my ability to put in hands.
Looking at my red line, I can tell there's a huge downward trend. It feels like my continuation bets are not working that often at 25NL and I'm forced to adjust by either cbetting less or double barreling more. Obviously at 25NL double barreling as a bluff is hardly profitable because people don't like to fold pairs, but when a beautiful turn card presents itself I will definitely fire another round. I've found myself cbetting and having to check the turn and face a river bet so damn often that its gotten really annoying.
I had two interesting AK hands come up where I'm not sure if the play I made was right. At the time I felt that folding was the right play in both of these hands, but during my post-session review it felt as if the spots were a lot closer than I had expected.
Hand #1:
Villains are both loose passive fish, around the 40/5 mark. Flop feels like a very standard call and turn I think it is a mandatory bet when checked to. There are very obvious draws on the board we need to get value from, as well as a lot of weaker aces in both player's range. During the session, I felt as if he would barrel the turn himself if he had a very strong hand so I felt okay about betting here rather than pot controlling TPTK.
River is of course the interesting spot. I have absolutely no idea what fish do this with, but being lead into on the flop, c/c'd on the turn, and open shoved on the river does not feel like a bluffy line. Two pairs and sets can take this line from these bad players. In addition, in multiway pots the general trend is that people play a lot more straightforward/honest and because of this I felt as if his range was weighted a lot more towards a value range than a bluff/spew range. The only hand we beat in his value range is AJ-AQ and we're chopping with AK. The rest has us owned.
Can he bluff this river? He's a loose passive and two players have shown strength/interest in this pot. I don't think he's bluffing often here and I ended up folding. However, we were getting 3:1 on a call so I'm not sure if I made the right choice or not.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 7 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | unicornvl | $8.65 | |
| UTG+1 | maicons2maiara | $17.23 | |
| MP | shoeB1 | $25 | |
| CO | buzzed_light | $25.69 | |
| BTN | AFchung X | $30.94 | |
| SB | ms2223 | $23.89 | |
| BB | julian olivarez | $37.51 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 7 players)Hero is BTN
-
2 folds, shoeB1 calls $0.25, buzzed_light calls $0.25, AFchung X raises to $1.35, 2 folds, shoeB1 calls $1.10, buzzed_light calls $1.10
- Flop ($4.40, 3 players)
-
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light bets $2.50, AFchung X calls $2.50, shoeB1 calls $2.50
- Turn ($11.90, 3 players)
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light checks, AFchung X bets $6.50, shoeB1 calls $6.50, buzzed_light calls $6.50
- River ($31.40, 3 players)
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light goes all-in $15.34, AFchung X folds, shoeB1 folds
- Final Pot: $46.74
- buzzed_light wins $45.17 (net +$19.48)
- AFchung X lost $10.35
- shoeB1 lost $10.35
Hand #2:
Villain is 26/19 over a 50 hand sample. Flop and turn I believe are pretty standard, and river is where we get fucked with.
He fastplays this hand so hard that I have no idea what to think of it. Two pairs/sets are definitely there but he's representing such a narrow value range since he's raising us already on the flop. Turn brings in some draws and the river is probably the worst card we could ask for. If he was somehow full of shit on the flop and picked up a draw on the turn and decided to barrel, it just got there. Only getting 2:1 on this call, facing an extremely aggressive line, against a player I have no dynamic with, I opted for a crying fold. I don't think this hand is as close as the previous one since we are a little bit deeper and getting a bad price on a call.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 9 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | olotol | $29.51 | |
| UTG+1 | Andrew100 | $24.13 | |
| MP1 | smoggy1962 | $25 | |
| MP2 | idealcrap | $30.07 | |
| MP3 | 33gao | $55.85 | |
| CO | koprakahvi | $23.78 | |
| BTN | TroySchultz | $10.29 | |
| SB | Nemenum | $9 | |
| BB | AFchung X | $38.34 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 9 players)Hero is BB
olotol calls $0.25, 7 folds, AFchung X raises to $1.25, olotol calls $1
- Flop ($2.60, 2 players)
-
AFchung X bets $1.50, olotol raises to $3, AFchung X calls $1.50
- Turn ($8.60, 2 players)
AFchung X checks, olotol bets $5.75, AFchung X calls $5.75
- River ($20.10, 2 players)
AFchung X checks, olotol goes all-in $19.51, AFchung X folds
- Final Pot: $39.61
- olotol wins $38.61 (net +$9.10)
- AFchung X lost $10
Hand #3:
I ended the session with this hand. I was up about a buyin which was okay (better than losing) until this hand came up. Villain is 56/3.
Preflop is standard and I make a cbet on a wet board and he check-shoves on me. Now usually I'm very hesitant calling 100 bb's with one pair and I really went into the tank for this hand. I think this is a semi bluff a huge percentage of the time. He'll show up with straight draws and flush draws, which I have good equity against. He could have QQ+, TJ, or a set which I was worried about, but would he really check-jam such a strong hand and blow me off whatever I have? Had he made a normal size c/r I would just fold here without much thought, but a check-shove is really suspicious. I ended up calling with 3 seconds left on my time bank and he shows me KT for second pair good kicker.
Obviously he binks river. Now I'm stuck for the session. I'll post a september graph later and my allinEV line is absolutely horrid. Hopefully I can learn to emotionally control myself a little bit better and not have these beats/coolers get to me. They are definitely affecting my play and my ability to put in hands.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 7 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | sb138 | $24.63 | |
| UTG+1 | BiggieRobs187 | $23.23 | |
| MP | twintree8888 | $29.38 | |
| CO | AFchung X | $52.61 | |
| BTN | slawor | $60.10 | |
| SB | unstabletk | $22.60 | |
| BB | bogggdanel | $95.76 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 7 players)Hero is CO
-
1 fold, BiggieRobs187 calls $0.25, 1 fold, AFchung X raises to $1.10, 3 folds, BiggieRobs187 calls $0.85
- Flop ($2.55, 2 players)
-
BiggieRobs187 checks, AFchung X bets $2, BiggieRobs187 goes all-in $22.13, AFchung X calls $20.13
- Turn ($46.81, 2 players, 1 all-in)
- River ($46.81, 2 players, 1 all-in)
- Final Pot: $46.81
- BiggieRobs187 shows two pair, Kings and Tens
- AFchung X shows a pair of Jacks
- BiggieRobs187 wins $44.47 (net +$21.24)
- AFchung X lost $23.23
First Post
I'll be starting a blog to keep track of my poker "career" or whatever you want to call it. It's 4:40 AM right now and I've been up all night and my sleeping schedule is fucked up as usual. Sigh.
I've come a long way from when I first saw poker on TV at my aunt's house. It was during the WSOP and I watched the players and learned the game slowly. Eventually over time I began to think that I was capable of beating the game (lol srsly right?) and my interest in poker slowly began. I had no source of learning the game and I was just watching poker "instructional" videos off of youtube and playing full tilt play chip money. I would have my play chip bankroll and I grew it up so fast that my confidence grew as fast as my play chip BR did.
One fateful day, Pokerstars handed out all play money accounts $5 real money. I never even played a freeroll before so I had absolutely no experience whatsoever regarding any form of real money. Of course I was ecstatic to have something to start with. I remember posting on the beginner's circle of FTR (flopturnriver.com) about what I should do with my $5, and the unanimous decision was to play 2NL and hope for the best with only 2.5 buyins. Sure enough, I beat 2NL... Actually, I destroyed the limit and ran way above expectation. I didn't know it at the time but the poker gods were definitely on my side back when I started, because without my ridiculous run-good I probably would not be playing poker today. That was my start; and what a glorious start it was.
With my newly funded bankroll slowly increasing, I started upping my table count and reading TONS more about poker on flopturnriver. The regs there helped me immensely with my ABC game and as my bankroll kept moving up, I kept moving up. I went to 2NL, 5NL, 10NL, 25NL with not a single major downswing. Those were the golden days. Play tight, play solid, win money. It felt like I never had a losing session.
When I got to 50NL, thats when things got a bit more complicated. Of course the players were still not very good, but they were much more competent. My steals got 3bet a lot. There was a ton of restealing going on, and also a ton of CO/BTN warring going on. I definitely did not expect that level of difficulty and along with cards not going my way anymore, 50NL was a struggle. I could barely stay above even over a sample of 30k+ hands. I sort of hit a brick wall until one fateful day, some random person messaged me on 2+2. I post a lot of strategy threads on there and he read them and asked if I was interested in staking/coaching. I was a pokerstars player at the time but after snap-calling this staking deal, my new home was at Full Tilt. The tables were a bit softer, the software was nicer (imo), and the rakeback was awesome.
Jared was my coach and he crushed the SSNL stakes. He played 1/2 up to 5/10 and had 4+ ptbb spread across all those limits, so his advice was definitely working for him. He taught me to think deeper about the game, he taught me to widen up my game from 11/8 to 18/16, and thanks to him I absolutely destroyed 50NL and up to 100NL. I was so confident of my ability at the time and I was flying high again... but what goes up must come down. For whatever reason, I cut off the staking deal with him and lost contact with him. A few things came into play such as him IMing me a bit too much (kind of like a parent), his odd approach to the game (limp-calling AA utg), and his hatred of me being "robotic". He also played 1-2 tables at a time, which was definitely not my style. I'm from the young internet generation that wants to beat the game at 8-12 tables at a time, implement sophisticated HUD statistics into my game, and pick up a higher hourly earn. Jared was a live player. More importantly, Jared was a "feel" player. A "feel" that never made sense to me because it wasn't backed with numbers and defined ranges.
With all those internal issues, along with school and fraternity pledging, I stopped playing poker. I didn't stop immediately, I kept grinding here and there but my winrate was no where near as good as it was before since I had no coach with me. It eventually became less enjoyable and then it became a chore, and eventually I just couldn't do it anymore. I quit the game cold turkey for more than a year and enjoyed the college life.
Fast forward to the present, Albert Peng is responsible for my return to poker. When I quit playing the game, I was at his skill level and actually a bit better than him (imo) due to the coaching. But after my break from the game, Albert finally moved up to 100NL and absolutely crushed the games. He has a huge sample at the game and has one of the most impressive winrates of all the regulars I've ever seen. As of right now, I'm getting back to the grind. But I'm starting at the lower stakes with a humble beginning. I'm doing 25NL for one month to get into the groove before moving up back to 50NL and seeing how things go there. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to hop onto the 100NL tables and start 6bet shoving light against Albert. Albert and I will be doing volume prop bets each month to help me stay motivated. Hopefully these end up working out for me because I was able to log 6k hands in like two days which is unbelievable considering how terrible my work ethic is.
Well that's how my poker career got started. Hopefully this blog keeps me in check and keeps me motivated to continue playing the game.
I've come a long way from when I first saw poker on TV at my aunt's house. It was during the WSOP and I watched the players and learned the game slowly. Eventually over time I began to think that I was capable of beating the game (lol srsly right?) and my interest in poker slowly began. I had no source of learning the game and I was just watching poker "instructional" videos off of youtube and playing full tilt play chip money. I would have my play chip bankroll and I grew it up so fast that my confidence grew as fast as my play chip BR did.
One fateful day, Pokerstars handed out all play money accounts $5 real money. I never even played a freeroll before so I had absolutely no experience whatsoever regarding any form of real money. Of course I was ecstatic to have something to start with. I remember posting on the beginner's circle of FTR (flopturnriver.com) about what I should do with my $5, and the unanimous decision was to play 2NL and hope for the best with only 2.5 buyins. Sure enough, I beat 2NL... Actually, I destroyed the limit and ran way above expectation. I didn't know it at the time but the poker gods were definitely on my side back when I started, because without my ridiculous run-good I probably would not be playing poker today. That was my start; and what a glorious start it was.
With my newly funded bankroll slowly increasing, I started upping my table count and reading TONS more about poker on flopturnriver. The regs there helped me immensely with my ABC game and as my bankroll kept moving up, I kept moving up. I went to 2NL, 5NL, 10NL, 25NL with not a single major downswing. Those were the golden days. Play tight, play solid, win money. It felt like I never had a losing session.
When I got to 50NL, thats when things got a bit more complicated. Of course the players were still not very good, but they were much more competent. My steals got 3bet a lot. There was a ton of restealing going on, and also a ton of CO/BTN warring going on. I definitely did not expect that level of difficulty and along with cards not going my way anymore, 50NL was a struggle. I could barely stay above even over a sample of 30k+ hands. I sort of hit a brick wall until one fateful day, some random person messaged me on 2+2. I post a lot of strategy threads on there and he read them and asked if I was interested in staking/coaching. I was a pokerstars player at the time but after snap-calling this staking deal, my new home was at Full Tilt. The tables were a bit softer, the software was nicer (imo), and the rakeback was awesome.
Jared was my coach and he crushed the SSNL stakes. He played 1/2 up to 5/10 and had 4+ ptbb spread across all those limits, so his advice was definitely working for him. He taught me to think deeper about the game, he taught me to widen up my game from 11/8 to 18/16, and thanks to him I absolutely destroyed 50NL and up to 100NL. I was so confident of my ability at the time and I was flying high again... but what goes up must come down. For whatever reason, I cut off the staking deal with him and lost contact with him. A few things came into play such as him IMing me a bit too much (kind of like a parent), his odd approach to the game (limp-calling AA utg), and his hatred of me being "robotic". He also played 1-2 tables at a time, which was definitely not my style. I'm from the young internet generation that wants to beat the game at 8-12 tables at a time, implement sophisticated HUD statistics into my game, and pick up a higher hourly earn. Jared was a live player. More importantly, Jared was a "feel" player. A "feel" that never made sense to me because it wasn't backed with numbers and defined ranges.
With all those internal issues, along with school and fraternity pledging, I stopped playing poker. I didn't stop immediately, I kept grinding here and there but my winrate was no where near as good as it was before since I had no coach with me. It eventually became less enjoyable and then it became a chore, and eventually I just couldn't do it anymore. I quit the game cold turkey for more than a year and enjoyed the college life.
Fast forward to the present, Albert Peng is responsible for my return to poker. When I quit playing the game, I was at his skill level and actually a bit better than him (imo) due to the coaching. But after my break from the game, Albert finally moved up to 100NL and absolutely crushed the games. He has a huge sample at the game and has one of the most impressive winrates of all the regulars I've ever seen. As of right now, I'm getting back to the grind. But I'm starting at the lower stakes with a humble beginning. I'm doing 25NL for one month to get into the groove before moving up back to 50NL and seeing how things go there. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to hop onto the 100NL tables and start 6bet shoving light against Albert. Albert and I will be doing volume prop bets each month to help me stay motivated. Hopefully these end up working out for me because I was able to log 6k hands in like two days which is unbelievable considering how terrible my work ethic is.
Well that's how my poker career got started. Hopefully this blog keeps me in check and keeps me motivated to continue playing the game.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)