2plus2 community - nasty?

I read quite an unusual strategy in the 2plus2 forum for playing a tight passive game at the micros, 50nl and below. What interested me was not the post itself, although there were some honest and somewhat original ideas, but the sheer nastiness of some of the replies to the poster, who, to his credit, continually stuck to his guns to defend the strategy.

As a winning player (so far anyway), I couldn’t see anything so bad about some of the concepts, and I was interested in another point of view. There was a hint it could be a joke, but I am not so sure, as the poster keeps coming back for more.

There’s an unpleasant arrogance to some in the poker community, especially regs who post a lot and think their super ace TAG strategy that they have read in all the books and videos (so it must be right) is the nuts. Most of them are break-even rakeback superstars I will wager. Not sure I belong there.

You can read the post and thread here.

Thinking about Moving Up

My 3bet experiment over (see this post), and I am calling their 3bets like a maniac. Actually I am calling certain players like a maniac, regs and the odd donkey. Regs who I have a history with, I will call light with speculative holdings like JTs as well as monsters. So far its been profitable, with the exception of calling one fish’s 3bet instead of 4betting him with my KK. He flops the nut flush and ends up busting me with us playing deep. Annoying thing is he proceeds to donk the whole $260 to the rest of the table over the next 100 or so hands.

I have also been experimenting with my own 3betting, as I want to take a shot at 100nl this month, now that my bankroll is more than adequate for it. Without being comfortable or having some kind of 3betting approach to the game, I do not think it’s sensible to move up, as the aggression surely increases up the levels. That said I did my first quick session at 100nl this morning with 4 tables. I couldn’t really see a huge difference with 50nl, as the usual 50/6/2, 45/29/8 and 16/1/0.5’s were scattered around each table. I also was surprised to see how many notes I had on lots of players, most of which, over my database sample were losing players. Seems I have been slow to move up??

I am running at 4ptbb/100 this month for 50nl, and that is including an awful series of coolers at the start of the month, so i am happy with my play. Last month was 2ptbb/100. I really would like to do the whole month at 50nl to achieve this win rate for the whole month, but this is probably a pride thing on my part. Better to move up sooner, if there isn’t much difference and I am comfortable and rolled.

February 2009 Review

Well after a terrible run of 10 buy-ins down, as a result of part horrible bad luck and part bad play, I examined the bad play part mid way through the month and came to the conclusion I was making way too many river crying calls. I was also overplaying my overpairs. Finally I was not 3 betting.

The latter part of the month saw me recouping all the losses, and ending the month scraping by on just below 2ptbb/100 over 30k hands. Not great considering how big a heater I started off the month with.

My lessons for the month, all of which an ongoing learning process continues of course:

Learning to smell sets from nits (don’t know how I am going to do it with the calling stations and fish however)
Learning to let river bets by opponents have the benefit of the doubt if I have a weak holding
Learning to 3bet profitably as a bluff (as opposed to value)
Learning to value bet on river correctly
Learning to let TPTK and overpairs go when my instinct tells me I am beat
Raise more often, call less.

For March I hope to make 3ptbb/100 at 50nl and have at least a shot at 100nl. At the end of March I hope to have at least investigated moving to Pokerstars or UB and substituting rakeback for FPPs. Although rakeback at fulltilt seems good, maybe I should stay there, I made $250 in rakeback this month before any winnings are accounted for.

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.