Keeping Warm in Winter

[AAroddersAA]

I have so many posts I need to update on this forum at the moment. I was happy with how well I ran yesterday in both the cash games (the second session is a PLO session btw).

With this in mind I got up this morning quite happy with having the day free to watch the F1 and play some poker. I went for a walk to pick up some stuff from Greggs (Greggs > Subway) and from Tesco. Speaking on which I don"t get the price of Diet Coke. I today bought two two litre bottles from Tesco and it cost me £2 which was an offer, but the offer is always there. I then walked back to the Car Park and went past a Coke Machine. A much smaller 500ml bottle is £1.20. What"s up with that?

Anyway I played some more PLO to start with I was playing 6-max zoom, mainly because it gets me lots of FPP. I got lucky early on getting it in behind in a hand and sucking out in a standard spot.

I then played this hand against what seemed to to a weaker player.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/5308669

I make a light 3-bet here, which is not the best play I have ever made but it worked out OK, it would have been fine if I had 3-bet this from the button). On the flop I think I am ahead most of the time and the same on the turn.

My stats for the PLO session were as follows

Hands: 428
VP$IP: 24.77%
PFR: 20.36%
3-Bet: 3.11%
Fold 3Bet: 50%
Profit: $23.98

So my overall profit on PLO this month so far is $74.

I then went onto the Holdem table and reengaged god mode.

This was my biggest loss, not a hand I played that great

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/5308670

Here is my biggest win. It all started off as a plan to steal the blinds and then this happened.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/5308671

I also won a big pot with AA vs AQ when it flopped queen high and turned an ace on a firly dry board and in it went.

Think I played well overall played very agressive on a passive table where people were folding. The stats for the session were

Hands: 264
VP$IP: 37.12%
PFR: 34.47%
3Bet: 15.91%
Fold 3Bet: 73.33%
Attempt to Steal: 72%
Profit: $41.88

Overall profit for today so far: $65.86

Will be playing some 180"s at least later, maybe the Storm and Bigger $11.

[AAroddersAA]

Playing poker is hard work even when you are running as hot as I was over the weekend. I ended up playing a short 180 session - 4 games and no cashes and went to bed planning to watch the American Football (as everybody was on about it). I fell to sleep about 9pm and woke back up at 2am - turned TV and everything off and went back to sleep until 8am this morning. All I did on the weekend was play poker online but last night was much more tired than I am today having done a busy day in work. Why anybody would want to be a poker pro is beyond me, working is so much easier.

Or maybe I am just a wuss. Either way will be taking a break from the poker for a few days now, after I have finished my little 180 game today, will post more next weekend.

[AAroddersAA]

Small 180 Man Session today

Games: 12
Loss: $26.11

[AAroddersAA]

Longer time readers may remember this not long after we returned from Vegas 2011.

Played some hands quite well and made a few mistakes as well. I don"t think you are ever going to play it perfect of course. At the end of one session I did play for about half an hour too long which is pretty poor and probably lost about $10 that I should not have lost. I also lost a stack with the 2nd nut straight when he had the nut straight so not much I can do about that.

OK played enough poker for today so I am now going to go and have a beer and watch El Classico (I have £10 on the draw). Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Todays Loss = $20.34

Bluffs on the river seem to be much harder to get through playing FR than 6-Max.

IT COMING BACK ITS COMING BACK VEGAS" COMING BACK. We will be drinking free drinks everywhere, Pai Gowing with the pro"s, doing Downtown, crushing the Ventian, binking at Caesars and a few other things too. Stu said something about wanting to go to the zoo to see hippos and get some polos or something like that. Spending a week in Vegas with some of the best people in the world = EPIC WINNING.

Just reading through this blog, at the time of the last Vegas trip, did I really use to be this much of a nit? The answer to that is yes.

This brings me to an interesting point about poker. Back at the end of 2011 I was quite convinced that playing this kind of style was the only way to play especially at this level. If somebody said different I just basically assumed they were wrong because I was indoctrinated to believe "tight is right" and all those bad laggy players who would insist on calling with hands like 87s just because they happened to be on the button would learn this soon enough. I would never dream of calling in such a spot and three betting and playing in position was a concept that did not even exist in my mind. I also gave far too little credit to how other players play and the regs at the level. I basically played robotically and believed that there was one way of playing against everybody at micro stakes.

It took some doing but I was able to deconstruct and reinvent my game to a stage where it is much stronger now. The other thing I have learned is that it is worth listening to advice and taking it seriously no matter who is giving it. Some of the people from the APAT community who have helped me with this are Brendan, Noble and Stu to name but a few. I started to understand the importance of various concepts that I had never considered before. It was like I had only been seeing part of the game. I knew about board texture and cbetting for example and used them pretty well but I was not good enough at considering stack size, profiling players and making notes on what certain bet sizes meant. My HUD which I thought was excellent at the time missed a lot of important info like how often a player was trying to steal the blinds and how ften they folded to a 3-bet from a stealing position. So I missed a lot of profitable opportunities that could have changed small losing sessions into small winning sessions. At the time I was almost scared to change though, not sure why but I struggled to put the trigger. 

I am also now a lot less concerned with being able to play 10 tables at once and play a few thousand hands per day, don"t need to be able to do that. The idea of poker is to beat the game not play as many hands as possible. This year I have only played about 20K cash hands at holdem and about 5K PLO but am up on both. Last year I was down across both games (on Pokerstars, I was up overall just), although a lot of that did have to do the fact I was trying to change my game at the time. I was almost scared to change the game to start with but slowly started to work in extra stuff, just opening up my play from the button taught me a lot about how important it is to steal the blinds and play in position, which helped with playing post flop. I learned when to c-bet the turn after getting floated on the flop against certain player types and board textures. I learned to play back at people who are opening light with 3-bets rather than calls and ending up playing post flop out of position. This was just the start of it and it never stops evolving, you never stop learning in this game. You have to to stay ahead of it.

I can honestly say that I am not only now better at the game but the game is more fun to play. I may well have lot"s of fun with this when I actually get to Vegas as I expect to need to tighten up a bit again there, but having these extra plays in the locker should help ensure another profitable trip. Hopefully before the next Vegas trip I can evolve the game some more and make it more interesting.

[AAroddersAA]

Played some 180"s tonight

Games: 6
Profit: $69.74

Month to date on 180"s

Games: 58
Profit: $94.90

Came 2nd in one tonight, Lost a massive flip heads up with 99 vs AK which would have won it for me (nearly binked my way back into it but was not to be), had a great run of cards to get to second so can"t complain. Also had one other min cash. Playing these teach"s you plenty about swings don"t it

Put"s me about $315 up overall on Pokerstar"s at the moment, which can only be described as running like God, or as I like to put it, running like Rod. I did lose $45 (£28) on Sky due to trying to be clever during a Skype session when I was not even remotely concentrating on the game I was playing, put that one down to be a degenerate, it is gonna happen now and again, none of us is perfect.

Game is still in good shape which is good as we are on the road to Vegas.

[Charlie44]

Longer time readers may remember this not long after we returned from Vegas 2011.

Played some hands quite well and made a few mistakes as well. I don"t think you are ever going to play it perfect of course. At the end of one session I did play for about half an hour too long which is pretty poor and probably lost about $10 that I should not have lost. I also lost a stack with the 2nd nut straight when he had the nut straight so not much I can do about that.

OK played enough poker for today so I am now going to go and have a beer and watch El Classico (I have £10 on the draw). Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Todays Loss = $20.34

Bluffs on the river seem to be much harder to get through playing FR than 6-Max.

IT COMING BACK ITS COMING BACK VEGAS" COMING BACK. We will be drinking free drinks everywhere, Pai Gowing with the pro"s, doing Downtown, crushing the Ventian, binking at Caesars and a few other things too. Stu said something about wanting to go to the zoo to see hippos and get some polos or something like that. Spending a week in Vegas with some of the best people in the world = EPIC WINNING.

Just reading through this blog, at the time of the last Vegas trip, did I really use to be this much of a nit? The answer to that is yes.

This brings me to an interesting point about poker. Back at the end of 2011 I was quite convinced that playing this kind of style was the only way to play especially at this level. If somebody said different I just basically assumed they were wrong because I was indoctrinated to believe "tight is right" and all those bad laggy players who would insist on calling with hands like 87s just because they happened to be on the button would learn this soon enough. I would never dream of calling in such a spot and three betting and playing in position was a concept that did not even exist in my mind. I also gave far too little credit to how other players play and the regs at the level. I basically played robotically and believed that there was one way of playing against everybody at micro stakes.

It took some doing but I was able to deconstruct and reinvent my game to a stage where it is much stronger now. The other thing I have learned is that it is worth listening to advice and taking it seriously no matter who is giving it. Some of the people from the APAT community who have helped me with this are Brendan, Noble and Stu to name but a few. I started to understand the importance of various concepts that I had never considered before. It was like I had only been seeing part of the game. I knew about board texture and cbetting for example and used them pretty well but I was not good enough at considering stack size, profiling players and making notes on what certain bet sizes meant. My HUD which I thought was excellent at the time missed a lot of important info like how often a player was trying to steal the blinds and how ften they folded to a 3-bet from a stealing position. So I missed a lot of profitable opportunities that could have changed small losing sessions into small winning sessions. At the time I was almost scared to change though, not sure why but I struggled to put the trigger. 

I am also now a lot less concerned with being able to play 10 tables at once and play a few thousand hands per day, don"t need to be able to do that. The idea of poker is to beat the game not play as many hands as possible. This year I have only played about 20K cash hands at holdem and about 5K PLO but am up on both. Last year I was down across both games (on Pokerstars, I was up overall just), although a lot of that did have to do the fact I was trying to change my game at the time. I was almost scared to change the game to start with but slowly started to work in extra stuff, just opening up my play from the button taught me a lot about how important it is to steal the blinds and play in position, which helped with playing post flop. I learned when to c-bet the turn after getting floated on the flop against certain player types and board textures. I learned to play back at people who are opening light with 3-bets rather than calls and ending up playing post flop out of position. This was just the start of it and it never stops evolving, you never stop learning in this game. You have to to stay ahead of it.

I can honestly say that I am not only now better at the game but the game is more fun to play. I may well have lot"s of fun with this when I actually get to Vegas as I expect to need to tighten up a bit again there, but having these extra plays in the locker should help ensure another profitable trip. Hopefully before the next Vegas trip I can evolve the game some more and make it more interesting.

Interesting read Steve. Good luck at Vegas - wish I was going too ! We"ll have to organise that Team Viewer session at some point soon.

[AAroddersAA]

Longer time readers may remember this not long after we returned from Vegas 2011.

Played some hands quite well and made a few mistakes as well. I don"t think you are ever going to play it perfect of course. At the end of one session I did play for about half an hour too long which is pretty poor and probably lost about $10 that I should not have lost. I also lost a stack with the 2nd nut straight when he had the nut straight so not much I can do about that.

OK played enough poker for today so I am now going to go and have a beer and watch El Classico (I have £10 on the draw). Stats for today were:-

Hands = 2016
VP$IP = 11
PFR = 8
3-Bet = 3

Todays Loss = $20.34

Bluffs on the river seem to be much harder to get through playing FR than 6-Max.

IT COMING BACK ITS COMING BACK VEGAS" COMING BACK. We will be drinking free drinks everywhere, Pai Gowing with the pro"s, doing Downtown, crushing the Ventian, binking at Caesars and a few other things too. Stu said something about wanting to go to the zoo to see hippos and get some polos or something like that. Spending a week in Vegas with some of the best people in the world = EPIC WINNING.

Just reading through this blog, at the time of the last Vegas trip, did I really use to be this much of a nit? The answer to that is yes.

This brings me to an interesting point about poker. Back at the end of 2011 I was quite convinced that playing this kind of style was the only way to play especially at this level. If somebody said different I just basically assumed they were wrong because I was indoctrinated to believe "tight is right" and all those bad laggy players who would insist on calling with hands like 87s just because they happened to be on the button would learn this soon enough. I would never dream of calling in such a spot and three betting and playing in position was a concept that did not even exist in my mind. I also gave far too little credit to how other players play and the regs at the level. I basically played robotically and believed that there was one way of playing against everybody at micro stakes.

It took some doing but I was able to deconstruct and reinvent my game to a stage where it is much stronger now. The other thing I have learned is that it is worth listening to advice and taking it seriously no matter who is giving it. Some of the people from the APAT community who have helped me with this are Brendan, Noble and Stu to name but a few. I started to understand the importance of various concepts that I had never considered before. It was like I had only been seeing part of the game. I knew about board texture and cbetting for example and used them pretty well but I was not good enough at considering stack size, profiling players and making notes on what certain bet sizes meant. My HUD which I thought was excellent at the time missed a lot of important info like how often a player was trying to steal the blinds and how ften they folded to a 3-bet from a stealing position. So I missed a lot of profitable opportunities that could have changed small losing sessions into small winning sessions. At the time I was almost scared to change though, not sure why but I struggled to put the trigger. 

I am also now a lot less concerned with being able to play 10 tables at once and play a few thousand hands per day, don"t need to be able to do that. The idea of poker is to beat the game not play as many hands as possible. This year I have only played about 20K cash hands at holdem and about 5K PLO but am up on both. Last year I was down across both games (on Pokerstars, I was up overall just), although a lot of that did have to do the fact I was trying to change my game at the time. I was almost scared to change the game to start with but slowly started to work in extra stuff, just opening up my play from the button taught me a lot about how important it is to steal the blinds and play in position, which helped with playing post flop. I learned when to c-bet the turn after getting floated on the flop against certain player types and board textures. I learned to play back at people who are opening light with 3-bets rather than calls and ending up playing post flop out of position. This was just the start of it and it never stops evolving, you never stop learning in this game. You have to to stay ahead of it.

I can honestly say that I am not only now better at the game but the game is more fun to play. I may well have lot"s of fun with this when I actually get to Vegas as I expect to need to tighten up a bit again there, but having these extra plays in the locker should help ensure another profitable trip. Hopefully before the next Vegas trip I can evolve the game some more and make it more interesting.

Interesting read Steve. Good luck at Vegas - wish I was going too ! We"ll have to organise that Team Viewer session at some point soon.

Yeah for sure, if you like I can also record a session of me playing if you think it will be of any use. I would not really consider myself a great player but think if anybody who is currently playing tight wants to gain an understanding of how to open up their game a bit and become even more profitable then I might be able to help a little bit in some areas.

I would also strongly recommend asking Brendan"s opinions on it (I am always pleased to have his contributions on this thread and any Strategy threads I post) and very much Nobles when he is around (one of my favorite strategy posters on any forum make you really think about many concepts of the game). A lot of other good players around here of course as well. My advice fwiw is keep doing what you are doing at the moment and you can"t really fail to improve and win. You are also far more prepared to listen to advice than I was when I started playing these games so will be able to make the adjustments and improvements you decide are need much more quickly and effectively.

[Fatcatstu]

I would be very interested with doing sessions with anyone interested.

Omaha cash or 180 man tournies are my areas at the minute

[AAroddersAA]

Played a small cash session yesterday of only 432 hands before going to the football (what a great idea that was).

Tried the $10nl Full Ring table again as I wanted to try another 1K hands to see if I could maintain a good winning run. I had played some hands last Sunday and Tuesday and was $4.45 down over 439 hands so far.

I started the session yesterday quite quietly a few blind steals and c-bets kept the session about break even as I did not find any hands to play bigger pots with. I manage to pick up a few pots like the one below that nobody else wanted. Two checks from two tight players was enough of an incentive to try to steal as I don"t think they will call me with just ace high here.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from http://poker-tools.flopturnriver.com/Hand-Converter.php

Button ($15.69)
SB ($12.47)
BB ($17.02)
UTG ($5.23)
UTG+1 ($11.14)
Hero (MP1) ($14.24)
MP2 ($7.31)
MP3 ($10)
CO ($2.89)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 8, 9
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 4 folds, SB calls $0.25, BB raises to $1.20, Hero calls $0.90, SB calls $0.90

Flop: ($3.60) 6, 10, 6 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($3.60) 10 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $2, 2 folds

Total pot: $3.60 | Rake: $0.16

Results below: [spoiler]
Hero didn"t show 8, 9.[/spoiler]

This helps get into profit for the session. Nothing really happens for a while after this. I keep stealing blinds and picking up these kinds of pot I make a set of jacks in a 3-bet pot on an ace high board and c-bet but get no action.

I then lose this hand, I think this is standard but interestingly I think others may disagree.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.com/

Button ($4.72)
SB ($9.73)
BB ($6.87)
UTG ($9.47)
UTG+1 ($8.74)
MP1 ($11.71)
MP2 ($5.20)
MP3 ($11.21)
Hero (CO) ($14.39)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, K
2 folds, MP1 raises to $0.30, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.10, 2 folds, BB calls $1, MP1 raises to $3, Hero raises to $14.39 (All-In), BB calls $5.77 (All-In), MP1 calls $8.71 (All-In)

Flop: ($30.34) 8, 3, 8 (3 players, 3 all-in)

Turn: ($30.34) Q (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($30.34) J (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: $30.34 | Rake: $1.37

Results below: [spoiler]
BB had 10, K (flush, King high).
MP1 had A, A (two pair, Aces and eights).
Hero didn"t show A, K (one pair, eights).
Outcome: BB won $19.73, MP1 won $9.24[/spoiler]

So I was then about $5 down for the session. I get this back when I raise A9s in position and call a 3-bet (which is a bit of a questionable play looking back). I make a FH on the turn anyway and get back to about even with that pot.

I win a nice pot with a set of nines. I then win a big standard race with AK vs JJ all in pre flop. I finish off the thousand hands winning a few small pots to come up with the following stats for the 1000 hands:-

Hands: 1000
VP$IP: 23.3%
PFR: 20.8%
3-bet: 10.2%
Fold to 3-bet: 68.75%
Attempt to Steal: 81.48%
Profit: $10.23

I would be very interested with doing sessions with anyone interested.

Omaha cash or 180 man tournies are my areas at the minute

I would not mind watching you on 180s at some point and obviously happy to have you watch NLHE cash or PLO cash at anytime you want and happy to watch you on these if you like as well.

I could also do with your help with PLO tournaments to be honest, I really want to be good at them and it annoys me I am not.

[Charlie44]

I then lose this hand, I think this is standard but interestingly I think others may disagree.

PokerStars Zoom No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.com/

Button ($4.72)
SB ($9.73)
BB ($6.87)
UTG ($9.47)
UTG+1 ($8.74)
MP1 ($11.71)
MP2 ($5.20)
MP3 ($11.21)
Hero (CO) ($14.39)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, K
2 folds, MP1 raises to $0.30, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.10, 2 folds, BB calls $1, MP1 raises to $3, Hero raises to $14.39 (All-In), BB calls $5.77 (All-In), MP1 calls $8.71 (All-In)

Flop: ($30.34) 8, 3, 8 (3 players, 3 all-in)

Turn: ($30.34) Q (3 players, 3 all-in)

River: ($30.34) J (3 players, 3 all-in)

Total pot: $30.34 | Rake: $1.37

Results below: [spoiler]
BB had 10, K (flush, King high).
MP1 had A, A (two pair, Aces and eights).
Hero didn"t show A, K (one pair, eights).
Outcome: BB won $19.73, MP1 won $9.24[/spoiler]

As you say Steve getting it with AK seems standard. Might be worth doing some maths.

If everybody folds to your 3 bet you win $2.45.

Initially to make it easier lets assume to the non agressor will always fold. Consider agressor"s all-in calling range. Lets assume initially AA-99, AK.

The pot will be $(11.71 x 2)+1+.15 = $24.57, and you are putting extra 10.61 after initial raise.

According to Poker Stove our expectation to win is 41%. (taking into account split pots)

So our ev if we get called is (24.57*41%) - 10.61 = -$0.54.

So we need villain to be folding 0.54/(2.45+0.54) = 18% of time for this move to be +ev. Clearly his folding range is likely to be bigger that this.

Even if we reduce villains calling range to AA-QQ,AK we get ev for calling of (24.57*38%) - 10.61 = -$1.27. and we get required folding range of just 1.27/(2.45+1.27) of 34%.

Just calling the 3 bet seems hideous to me, and pushing is ev+. So all-in seems right to me.

[hi_am_chris]

I think the problem at these stakes is if he is 4 betting for value after you 3 bet is he doing that with anything that you are beating. Could be wrong but i think he probably peels with AQ and most pairs especially full ring zoom. Also comes down to how many times he"s going to raise fold (again speculating but not sure he will be 4 betting folding a lot at all).

[AAroddersAA]

I think the problem at these stakes is if he is 4 betting for value after you 3 bet is he doing that with anything that you are beating. Could be wrong but i think he probably peels with AQ and most pairs especially full ring zoom. Also comes down to how many times he"s going to raise fold (again speculating but not sure he will be 4 betting folding a lot at all).

Pretty sure he is almost never 4-bet folding really. OK it might happen maybe 5% of the time tops but it is not happening often enough to even take into consideration. His range is likely to be AK and JJ+. There will also be a small percentage of silly hands as well. The size of the raise does suggest AA or KK in this spot to be fair but unless I have a note on the player I usually don"t put too much faith in that read.

With the money already in the pot I think it is OK to get it in.

[Charlie44]

Pretty sure he is almost never 4-bet folding really. OK it might happen maybe 5% of the time tops but it is not happening often enough to even take into consideration. His range is likely to be AK and JJ+. There will also be a small percentage of silly hands as well. 

IMO if you preceive villains range to be that tight, ev if you are called is (24.57x 40%) - 10.61 = -$0.78.

So you would need villain to be folding "silly hands" 0.78/(2,45+.78) = 25% of the time for move to be +ev.

So IMO Steve if your assumptions are correct  when villain calls you will loose more money on average than compared to folding, and villain will not be folding often enough to cover this -ev.

So if you believe his range to be AK,JJ+ 95% of time then IMO it should be a fold.

[TheSnapper]

I think the problem at these stakes is if he is 4 betting for value after you 3 bet is he doing that with anything that you are beating. Could be wrong but i think he probably peels with AQ and most pairs especially full ring zoom. Also comes down to how many times he"s going to raise fold (again speculating but not sure he will be 4 betting folding a lot at all).

We need to take 3b / 4b as a game within a game, as a health check, it is very worthwhile to filter results for hands where we 3b or face a 3b, often ( if we are not faring too well ) it will be instantly profitable to revert to a tight pure value 3b range.

AK is the dilemma hand in 3b ranges and while likely marginally +EV in the long term, AK does add to our variance a lot. If however, this variance has a detrimental knock on effect to the rest of your game, you will definitely profit by not getting 100 bb"s in preflop with AK. From a quick look at a 60k 10nl database I suspect that most of my AK profit is derived when we do not see a showdown and adding the all-in preflop filter turns a 500bb"s/100 profit into a 1000+ loss but that"s not the whole picture, we get considerably more value with QQ+ because! AK and worse are in our 3b range.

All that said, we can only improve our 3b / 4b game by getting involved in these tough spots. I would think that we should take on this tough step when we are comfortable small winners and feel we have the capacity to step it up a notch.

[Charlie44]

we get considerably more value with QQ+ because! AK and worse are in our 3b range.

Its for these little gems that makes reading the forum so worthwhile and educational.