Folding Overpairs at 50nl

Things have evened out for me over the past week, and I have started posting consistent results since an epic downswing mentioned from 10 days ago. As well as trying REALLY hard to put hand ranges to players (with the exception of the superdonks...... how do you put someone on J3s from early postion???) and adjust/refine those ranges throughout each hand, and then each session as showdowns increase, I have started to try and get feels for sets.

Probably my biggest leak in the past was never ever being able to fold AA/KK etc to raggedy flops, despite some nit check raising me on either the flop or the turn. I would try and convince myself a variety of reasons to felt the reply, and usually would end up going broke.

Folding big hands to what seems like a bluff raise leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, but one that has started to take the jags out of my graph.

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HAND 1
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$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
Poker Tools by Stoxpoker - Hand Details


MP2: $50 (100 bb)
MP3: $134.55 (269.1 bb)
Hero (CO): $94.75 (189.5 bb)
BTN: $100.70 (201.4 bb)
SB: $94.05 (188.1 bb)
BB: $34 (68 bb)
UTG+2: $54.85 (109.7 bb)
MP1: $50 (100 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is CO with K K
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($4.25) 7 4 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $3, BTN raises to $9, Hero raises to $15, BTN raises to $42, Hero folds

Results: $34.25 pot ($1.70 rake)
BTN mucked and won $32.55 ($15.80 net)

Just no idea here where i was in the hand. I 4bet him on flop to see where i was. Villain was a 13/10/2.5 over 1.5k hands. I couldn't figure out why he would raise with a set here, unless he was worried about akdd. Only other hand I could put him on would be AQdd where I would be marginal favourite, but then he would have felted the 5bet wouldn't he??

Anyway, I would have gone all in on this hand 10 times out of 10 in the past, and I am not sure I have made the right decision. However my results have improved dramatically over the past 10 days since adjusting this strategy

Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen

I started off playing sitngos online, and studied a lot, and even developed a basic formula which did fine for me. But I hated the frustration of having to get your money in usually on a coin flip, at least once in the game. Thats why I currently prefer cash games, where there is far more post flop action.

MTTs are glorified versions of the above, but chip accumulation is far more important than the TAG style I employed in the sitngos. A measured LAG style is what is going to get you deep as opposed to the Sklansky/Harrington style in my view. The blinds will simply destroy you, and you have to go into push fold mode like a sitngo, hoping that you will double up, and then go through it all again (push/fold) a few levels later.

Hansen’s book is a very interesting insight into a LAG style that eventually ends up winning the tournament described. All the commentary revolves around the cards dealt to the author, and the strategy employed therein. Although I do not particulary rate Gus Hansen as a great all round player, I don’t think that matters here. He avoids a load of boring lectures about how he plays no limit, and focuses entirely on the particular situation and opponent, which is why this book works so well. The most revealing parts are where he describes attacking the tight or timid players, and then dealing with the style oof the hyper aggressive and somewhat lucky chip leader on the final table.

Rating 7.5/10

Hand Ranges

Ok, so I have made back my losses from last week, and I REALLY REALLY am determined to practise and then implement hand ranges and player types. I think I am losing the most on turn and river play, by just thinking about the player type and my own cards, and I tend to forget about putting the opponent on a range. I think that is where the fine line rests between a 0.5ptbb/100 and a 4ptbb/100 win rate over 50k hands.

So that’s where my focus will be over the coming week

50nl Downswing

Haven’t posted in a week, mainly due to feeling sorry for myself due to two awful sessions where I lost a total of 8 buy-ins. The problem is, I couldn’t really see where I played that badly, and that scares me a bit. I promptly made 4 buy-ins back, and aim to make the next 4 over the next couple of days. Generally my session pattern is 1 out of 3 or 4 being losing, and the amounts are usually the same, 800-1000hands, 1-2 buy-ins either way. So the graph is up in a healthy direction, until this awful week.

I am not sure what to do about finding out how I cold lose $500 in 1 week. I don’t talk to anyone about poker and I don’t tend to post specific histories, as I play so many hands in a session it’s the stats that seem to be more relevant. But my stats don’t seem to change. Except I have come slightly tighter pre-flop as my confidence became knocked, and haven’t double barrelled. As such I am sure I have been giving up the better hand a couple more times.

My stats currently at 50nl are 17/10/2.6. The reason the PFR is down at 10 is because of my 3bet experiment, (see 3bet post)

Any advice welcome.

Meantime, I will overcome this blip (the first I have had at 50nl) I hope, making the 4 buy-ins, and then take a deep breath and look back then.

I have also signed up to the free poker training using fulltilt points, requiring 7000 this month, to get free access to Cardrunners and Stoxpoker. It’s a good deal and one that I will easily achieve, and since I have never watched any training videos before, I am sure it will do me good.

Finally, I cleared my fulltilt bonus, so now rakeback has accelerated. Just considering whether to bonus whore Ultimate Bet and its very good rakeback/bonus programme.

Fish at 50nl

I have read lots on the so-called glory days of online poker, I am guessing from 2004-2006, before I played online. I see the words like “crushing” and “donk-fest” used, as if all that is passed and now poker is filled full of good players.

The more I play 50nl the more I see this is nonsense. There seems to be, at Fulltilt any way, at least 3 players at each full ring table playing a 35/5 game. Many are above 50% seeing flop. They limp, you raise from button, they call. On and on they do it, still they lose, occasionally they suck-out (drive you mad when they hit 2 pair with their J2suited against your 3 streets of value betting with AJ), but all in all they seem to want to just give away their cash.

Today I was stacked as I had KK in the bb and my button stealing opponent 4bet me all in with AA. Next hand I had QQQ beaten by a fish who thought JJ was AA and ended up catching the straight by the river, us all in on the flop. So 200bbs down in 2 consecutive hands. Gritting my teeth, I grinded it all back within 2 hours and 800 hands, I had rubbish cards, never hit a set and I don’t feel I played that well. I was just handed the cash back by the aforementioned fish. So a break even session.

But I am cool with it. I just don’t get where they come from or what they must be thinking.

Live Poker v Online Poker

I played in my home game last night, where a group of us get together around someone’s house and play some pokaaaa. It’s a standard no limit texas hold’em, but with a healthy dose of cigars, chat and alcohol thrown in too.

Sometimes the pots get pretty big and some of the players are pretty good, but it differs from the online microstakes grind as follows:

Much more players seeing the flop
More open limping and / or calling raises
Less 3 betting
Smaller bets in relation to pot size as we get to the turn and the river.

Player types are the same as any game, a couple of TAGS, a maniac, and lots of loose passives.

So do I play this game for any competitive / learning point of view……? Well a bit. I certainly do not go for the expectation of winning loads of cash. I just want to catch up with my friends and get a bit pissed. However, live play in poker is important for all of us because it introduces the 3rd dimension to the poker table as follows:

Betting patterns and tells in relation to the physical presence of the player (highly overrated in my view)
Verbal clues (more relevant)
Table chat (getting used to it with friends is good for when you sit with a bunch of wankers you don’t know at some random casino MTT, don’t let them intimidate you)
Ability to deal with pot size and bets (in my view one of the most important aspects of live play. Its such a giveaway when you have a monster and you can't easily push that pot bet in without it looking like you have the nuts)

I could go on.

But why bother learn live poker, when its all online for you. Well if you like online poker, and you get good at it, you are going to slaughter the live cardrooms, I guarantee it. 25nl plays like 200nl live. 100nl plays like 500nl live. At least from my own limited experience.

Try it and see.

Bad Beats at 50nl

2 things I decided not to dwell on in this blog:

1. No big long hand history descriptions and how I played the hand. Maybe I will change this, but when I read someone's poker blog, I can never usually be bothered looking at the hand histories, regardless of how they are presented.
2. No bad beat stories, or coolers or whatever. It happens to us all, so who cares.

That said, I have had my first experience of running bad at 50nl, where I have been making around 1-2 buy-ins per session up to that point. Got it all in v deep stack opponents within about 5 minutes of each other on the flop, being 80% favourite in both cases to see runner runner and thank you very much….down 5 buy-ins.

The point of this post is to see whether it affects me and how long I take to bounce back. Bad beats at 10nl or even 25nl just don’t seem as hard, despite my having a healthy bankroll for 50nl. It’s the first real hammering I have had for a long time.

So we shall see.

Meantime I am testing out Hold'em Manager version 1.07 and will report back with that too.