Awful month 
10 buy-ins lost, or 17 if you start from the month’s high point. Where’s it all gone wrong?
My lifetime history at NL5 is still +ve, but checking the all-in performance was a bit of a shock;
So theoretically, without rakeback & bonuses I should be busto now. If this decline continues then I’ll probably lose interest in this game…
Haven’t played much this week which is a shame as I want to continue trying to pay more attention to opponents, take notes etc. Even if it means only opening a couple of tables, I figure that getting better at being observant will take a bit of practice, and should still have some effect when I re-add more tables later.
This morning I found it wasn’t so easy taking the notes – the players weren’t falling into easy stereotypes as before. I picked up one read on a limper though that may have helped. With a small made hand on the flop he’d bet out with a minbet. He didn’t seem to bluff particularly either. That note lead me to play the following hand like so;
Stacks:
UTG ($2.09)
UTG+1 ($1.34)
CO ($1.85)
BTN ($5.32)
SB ($2.17)
Hero ($5.07)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BB 9
9
UTG calls $0.05, UTG+1 calls $0.05, CO raises to $0.10, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.05, UTG calls $0.05, UTG+1 calls $0.05
Flop: 8
Q 3 ($0.42, 4 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 bets $0.05, CO calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.40, UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to $0.75, CO folds, Hero raises to $2.72, UTG+1 goes all-in $0.49
Turn: 6 ($4.43, 2 players, 1 all-in)
River: 6 ($4.43, 2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $4.43
Hero shows two pair, Nines and Sixes
9 9
UTG+1 shows two pair, Eights and Sixes
8 K
Hero wins $4.24 (net +$1.42)
CO lost $0.15
UTG lost $0.10
UTG+1 lost $1.34
So the read paid off – he did have 2nd pair, and did minbet it. He kind of went crazy against my raise though? A good read, or just lucky?
This hand however, I’m not sure what was going on here – I didn’t really have any reads on the guy, and looking back at it my play is just insane. I dunno what set me off, a combination of bored-tilt and his excessive donk bets;
Stacks:
UTG ($3.67)
UTG+1 ($5)
CO ($5.07)
Hero ($6.28)
SB ($5.34)
BB ($5)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BTN J 10
UTG calls $0.05, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.15
Flop: K 10 9 ($0.47, 2 players)
UTG bets $0.55, Hero calls $0.55
Turn: 3 ($1.57, 2 players)
UTG goes all-in $2.92, Hero calls $2.92
River: 2 ($7.41, 2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $7.41
UTG shows Ace King high
Q A
Hero shows a pair of Tens
J 10
Hero wins $6.92 (net +$3.25)
UTG lost $3.67
Recently had a sweat session with a guy called Johnathan on a microstakes chat group I frequent. I didn’t play live, but instead zipped through a previously played session using the PokerTracker replayer. I think this worked quite well – I wanted to do it for several reasons;
The final reason is only partly a good idea – obviously you miss what the other players have done at the table. Fortunately I hadn’t filtered the session on ‘put money in’ so we did at least see hands up to the point where I folded, and it was these hands that my sweat partner bought up a good point.
In several instances there had been a couple of limpers and I folded on the button (with complete trash like 83o etc). He pointed out that since I was on the button it was still worth raising while I was building up a picture of who my opponents were. Whether they fold or call (and then what they called with) was golden information when I had no other history on these players. He pointed out that I should be really taking notes on players and try to classify them (even at NL5). As the session went on, he made me classify various players at the table – then in later hands this information made it vastly more clear why certain players were doing what they were doing. So I was convinced.
This morning I opened up a couple of tables and tried to put it into action. The note taking facility on PokerTracker isn’t that great (or at least, I haven’t got the hang of it) so I just opened up notepad and figured that would do while I only had two tables open. The first difficulty was getting time to write the notes – it was like being a multitabler newbie all over again. I need to develop some acronyms and make the notes more concise.
It worked fairly well. Players rapidly showed whether they were calling stations or loose passive way before my HUD kicked in. I adapted to what I was seeing and ended up with a flawless session. It was perhaps an easy session though – everyone seemed to be huge stereotypes of what I was looking for, and even without the note taking I would have noticed how passive some of the guys to my left were. However as a first go I’m still a believer. Furthermore, it was actually fun – I had wondered if going back down to 2 tables would be dull, but to be honest it reawakened the player in me – I suspect that multitabling has really dulled my poker senses.
What I need to do now is stick to a low number of tables and improve my speed at getting those notes down. I guess I’ve got to nail down PokerTracker’s note facility, and come up with a clear and sensible notation.
Update: So what does this mean;
Meteoric’s Looseness vs. Win Rate
this one too;
Meteoric’s Aggression vs. Win Rate
All the ABC poker guides say tight play is better than loose (at NL5), and agression is better than passivity. If that’s true, why don’t those scatter plots slope down from left to right? A few outliers in the top chart slightly give that impression, but really taking the image as a whole it’s generally fairly symmetric.
It’s getting worse;
BR is now $170, a long long way from moving back up to NL10 now
Practically the very first hand went bad – I’ve AQs in the BB, folded to the SB who raises. I 3bet, he 4bets, I shove (bad?), he shows AA…
Other big losses;
Stacks:
UTG ($7.20)
UTG+1 ($5.86)
CO ($4.04)
BTN ($7.56)
SB ($4.71)
Hero ($5.25)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is BB K A
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.05, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, UTG+1 calls $0.15
Flop: Q K A ($0.42, 2 players)
Hero bets $0.30, UTG+1 raises to $1.25, Hero raises to $4.17, UTG+1 goes all-in $5.66, Hero goes all-in $0.88
Turn: J ($11.13, 2 players, 2 all-in)
River: 9 ($11.13, 2 players, 2 all-in)
Final Pot: $11.13
UTG+1 shows a straight, Ace high
10 J
Hero shows two pair, Aces and Kings
K A
UTG+1 wins $10.43 (net +$4.57)
Hero lost $5.25
Stacks:
UTG ($1.70)
CO ($11.68)
Hero ($6.91)
BB ($11.10)
Pre-Flop: ($0.05, 4 players) Hero is BTN J A
UTG calls $0.05, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.16, BB calls $0.11, UTG calls $0.11
Flop: 6 7 J ($0.48, 3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.34, BB folds, UTG calls $0.34
Turn: 10 ($1.16, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.72, UTG calls $0.72
River: 9 ($2.60, 2 players)
UTG goes all-in $0.48, Hero calls $0.48
Final Pot: $3.56
Hero shows
J A
UTG shows a straight, Jack high
8 6
UTG wins $3.33 (net +$1.63)
Hero lost $1.70
BB lost $0.16
Stacks:
UTG ($7.57)
UTG+1 ($6.27)
Hero ($5.50)
BTN ($3.75)
SB ($0.75)
BB ($5.58)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 6 players) Hero is CO 5 6
UTG raises to $0.20, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.20, 3 folds
Flop: 4 9 8 ($0.47, 2 players)
UTG bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30
Turn: Q ($1.07, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks
River: 6 ($1.07, 2 players)
UTG bets $0.60, Hero raises to $2.87, UTG goes all-in $7.07, Hero folds
Final Pot: $11.01
UTG wins $10.56 (net +$2.99)
Hero lost $3.37
While the few hands that went well;
Stacks:
UTG ($1.73)
Hero ($5.63)
BTN ($9.84)
SB ($3.90)
BB ($7.15)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 5 players) Hero is CO 10 10
UTG calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.20, BTN raises to $0.60, 2 folds, UTG folds, Hero calls $0.40
Flop: 3 10 6 ($1.32, 2 players)
Hero bets $0.92, BTN calls $0.92
Turn: 2 ($3.16, 2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.50, Hero raises to $3.10, BTN folds
Final Pot: $7.76
Hero wins $7.35 (net +$2.73)
UTG lost $0.05
BTN lost $3.02
Stacks:
UTG ($6.81)
UTG+1 ($7.31)
CO ($5.97)
Hero ($5)
BB ($6.43)
Pre-Flop: ($0.05, 5 players) Hero is BTN 2 2
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, BB calls $0.10
Flop: A K 9 ($0.30, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.22, BB calls $0.22
Turn: 2 ($0.74, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.70, BB calls $0.70
River: 4 ($2.14, 2 players)
BB bets $1, Hero calls $1
Final Pot: $4.14
BB shows
K 10
Hero shows three of a kind, Twos
2 2
Hero wins $3.87 (net +$1.80)
BB lost $2.07
So, I’ve no idea what I’m doing anymore. I always find it hard to believe it’s just variance – it must be me playing badly. Maybe still not weak-tight enough?
Crap session today – a full house beaten by quads, followed by everything going really swingy. So I decided to really try to be weak-tight and see how that would go. The swinginess stopped, but so did everything else – flatlined for the next 600 hands. I was just getting to 1k hands, and then had this hand;
Stacks:
UTG ($6.26)
UTG+1 ($1.24)
CO ($14.62)
Hero ($5)
BB ($7.25)
Pre-Flop: ($0.05, 5 players) Hero is BTN 6 6
UTG raises to $0.20, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.20, 1 fold
Flop: 6 5 A ($0.45, 2 players)
UTG bets $0.35, Hero calls $0.35
Turn: 7 ($1.15, 2 players)
UTG bets $0.85, Hero raises to $1.94, UTG raises to $3.85, Hero goes all-in $4.45, UTG calls $0.60
River: K ($10.05, 2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $10.05
Hero shows
6 6
UTG shows
Q A
UTG wins $9.38 (net +$4.38)
Hero lost $5
I then get an observer pipe up in the chatbox with ‘OWNED!’ – wtf, if that wasn’t a test of my zen control I don’t know what is. I was disappointed with the loss obviously, but I easily shrugged it off – I’m really pleased with my tilt control these days (I’m practically the most boring man on earth now!), but can’t be arsed with moron’s making comments like that. Oh well…
Poker Shortcuts let me me down here;
Stacks:
Hero (CO) ($5.01)
BTN ($10.29)
SB ($5.76)
BB ($8.18)
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 4 players) Hero is CO K K
Hero raises to $0.14, 2 folds, BB calls $0.09
Flop: Q 6 A ($0.30, 2 players)
BB bets $0.22, Hero calls $0.22
Turn: 8 ($0.74, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
River: Q ($0.74, 2 players)
BB bets $0.74, Hero raises to $2.96, BB goes all-in $7.82, Hero folds
Final Pot: $11.52
BB wins $11.08 ( won +$2.90 )
Hero lost -$3.32
It moves the mouse cursor over the fold button when the table comes into focus, and after BB shoved it moved the cursor over and I ended up clicking on fold instead of call.
Did it save me from a full house though? Probably not, but depressingly I’m going to cling on to that as the rest of the session has also been a disaster, which makes a week long losing streak.
Another low blog post week has gone by – I have been playing, but it’s been remarkably unexciting. The last three sessions have been particularly disappointing as I played well 99% of the time only to mess a couple of hands up in each making each come out -ve.
The last session’s big bad hand probably wasn’t played badly if you go by pot odds though;
Pre-Flop: ($0.07, 5 players) Hero is UTG 7 8
Hero raises to $0.14, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.14, SB calls $0.12, 1 fold
Flop: 10 J K ($0.47, 3 players)
SB goes all-in $2.05, Hero calls $2.05, BTN goes all-in $11.18, Hero goes all-in $7.27
Turn: 2 ($23.02, 3 players, 3 all-in)
River: 6 ($23.02, 3 players, 3 all-in)
Final Pot: $23.02
Hero shows
7 8
BTN shows
J K
SB shows
4 Q
BTN wins $21.61 ( won +$10.29 )
Hero lost -$9.46
SB lost -$2.19
However, it was a big pot to gambool on. All the worse since the gamble didn’t pay off. It was clear that I had to hit that flush to win, since it was unlikely both the other players were on a draw (and even if they were it’s really unlikely I’d have had the highest card!). Even hitting the flush was probably not a guaranteed win either (even though it turned out neither were on a flush draw). So, lost 2 buy-ins at a stroke there
There have been a couple of changes in my game lately, although more experimental than definite leak fixing. The first is donk betting. More often than not if in the situation where I could donk bet I do. Either I’ve missed the flop and the preflop raiser checked, in which case I bet as a bluff, or I’ve hit the flop and I bet for value. The betting as a bluff is working out I believe – at NL5 most checks from the villain is because they’ve missed the flop (I’m not expecting this to be the case >NL10 though – too many people understand the cbet). The donk betting for value though is starting to be uncertain – it seems common opinion is it’s better to check and wait for the turn, after all only better hands would call. On the other hand, a large percentage of players will call a flop bet (dismissing it as a cbet with air) and reevaluate on the turn. I’m still unsure what my line is with donk betting really – I wish it wasn’t called donk betting though, it seems overly disparaging for what could be a reasonable line (at what times though?).
Second change is more shoves with AK – if I open with AK and get 3bet I’ll shove, whereas before I’d call and wait to hit the flop before continuing. I checked PokerTracker and found that the fold equity in the shove outweighed the losses in the flip in coming up against a pair (ie let’s assume AK vs PP cancel out, leaving plenty of profit from AK vs AQ, AJ etc and 3betters who fold). However, last three sessions my flips have all gone the wrong way, so suffering a bit from variance there (btw, calling a shove with AK is a different kettle of fish, and generally I won’t unless I’ve 3bet leaving a small relative stack behind – too many shoves are KK+ and it doesn’t seem to be worth it).
So. Bankroll is at $220, with about $30 to come in rakeback. I’m annoyed that I haven’t got to $250 from the cards themselves, but $250 is $250, and I’ll be going to NL10 as soon as that rakeback arrives. Actually I’m also annoyed that $50 of that $220 was the Take 2 bonus, so it’s really not like I’ve played my way here although filtering on my NL5 results does show a $180 win so far, and it’s only the NL10 that’s destroyed my earnings so far. Mixed feelings, but certainly not feeling that I’m beating the nanostakes game really.
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| Re: StoxEV by Simon Debanks | 09:25, May 07 2010 |
| Re: StoxEV by Meteoric | 20:05, Apr 29 2010 |
| Re: StoxEV by yegor_kgb | 08:30, Apr 28 2010 |
| StoxEV by Simon Debanks | 21:53, Apr 27 2010 |
| How hard can it be! by Meteoric | 20:27, Mar 15 2010 |
| Re: Forum Upgrade by Meteoric | 14:26, Mar 11 2010 |
