CARDRUNNERS

Good Job me!  I've just totally toasted my laptop!  Great...  With my great skillz I managed to drop a full glass of water on the keyboard!  I then turned off the laptop, flipped it over to let it dry but it still won't start.  I'm guessing either the mother board or power supply is toasted.  The hard drive, memory, processor and some other component where untouched by the liquid hazard.  I don't think I'll try and fix it as it's more then 2 yrs old.  So...  I'm currently running on my other laptop lol!  The only thing that sux I had too recreate a new database, redld Holdem Manager, and other poker application.  I have to say poker stars support is pretty awsome...  I sent them an email and requested my Hand Histories, they set up what I think is an FTP page so I could dld the file.  That's now being twice I reinstall Holdem Manager and always tend to tweak my Hud in a new way.  I think I like my current setup.

On another note I'm rebuilding my BR for 200nl.  After making payment for coaching + 200nl downswing, I don't really feel comfortable to play that limit with my BR so I dropped to 100nl.  Anyhow, I started to 9 table and really feel I have a nice edge when I play the game.  I nit it up pretty well lol!  I've ran okayish today, nothing awful but nothing special now up almost 6 BIs after 4.5k hands.  I'll plan on playing 4k hands daily until I move up again too 200nl.  Also I've made a video for my coach, myself playing 200nl but for some reason when it was uploaded it went all funny!  Weird!  I guess I'll need to make a 2nd one, kindda unfortunate since I thought it was an OK one.

As for my month objective, well I haven't given up but it seems pretty unlikely that I'll be able to reach 50 BIs.  The 60k hands on the other hand will definitely acheivable.  I've now played over 33k hands but haven't been too active in the past 3-4 days compared to the upcoming weeks.  I'll hopefully have played around 70k hands at the end of the month.  On a final note, I'll reach Supernova probably in 1 or 2 days needing around 1.8k vpps!

I've been reflecting a bit on my game, some of the questions I have and the answers I'd like to get.  I am keen on having a very sound theoretical approach to this game and this of course makes for lots of questioning.  If you read the forum, I guess you probably heard me saying well if I'm to play "x" hand, I'll need to do "y" post-flop in order to make this play profitable.  You probably heard me say that you're preflop decisions are influenced by you're ability to play post-flop, by you're ability to play you're hand vs a certain villain.  Now what I'd really like to do is layout certain hand types and link them to how they should or need to be played post-flop in order to make it profitable, what sort of requirements do you need to play them profitably.  (see example later on)

I haven't started doing any of this work and sadly where my game is @ right now, I don't think I can have answers to all the questions that may come up.  I might have an idea or an opinion yet it's usually far from explainable since there are some many variables to account for in general situations.  Generally speaking I think I have a decent idea of how hands need to be played or more precisely how if you play them a certain way it will not be profitable.  It always seem but be much easier to prove that a certain play is none profitable as opposed to demonstrating that you're approach is.  Anyhow, there are two reasons I'm doing this right now, the first is this will probably greatly improve my game to a certain extent.  The second is if ever, (and probably in the somewhat near future), i'd like to start coaching, this could be a great starting point to develop correct thinking for a struggling player.

Often I think this sort of information is definitely not novel, actually far from it, to any experienced player but they are the fundamentals.  Rembering them is always something good imo.  Questions such as why am I'm making money?  Where does my edge come from...  well of course it comes from many many aspect of a players game but in the end it's because me make less mistakes then our opponent and of course we play our hands differently then the opposition.  I think too many small stakes players tend to think that there winrate is influenced by them not folding AA when villain shoves the turn with his turned 2 pair etc...  In reality, I think how you played that hand probably has as much influence as when you called JTs to a CO open in the bb.  The reality of it all when players have big hands, they usually play themselves.  This has been said time and time again but the hard part in poker is how you play the small hands.

What I feel lately reading the micros stakes forum is that most players are randomly pushing buttons.  I'm sorry if this comes as an insult to many of you but on a more humble note, I'm definitely one that still does it.  When I'm talking about randomly pushing buttons I mean not knowing how the hand we have right now if going to pull profit vs villain. 

For example, we are ahead of villain's range great...  Does that in itself bring profit?  To some extent yes as it would be a mistake to fold it but...  If villain rarely makes a big mistake but plays is hand in a way that might often induce a large mistake from our part then probably folding it preflop is fine if not better.  It's often very easy to think "well this player is bad, I'm better then him so I'll outplay him post-flop."  Merely saying this is not an argument for making dubious calls preflop imo.  I think it's very important to know why you are calling preflop...  where will villain make a mistake, and how (which lines) will you need to take in order to turn you're hand into profit. 

A clearer example, a good aggressive player is to you're right OTB, you're in the BB and hold QJs, he raises and what do you do?  first question is folding/calling or 3 betting best?  We are ahead of his range... so I guess folding is not best.  Now the second question is which is most profitable?  calling or 3 betting...  this is fairly villain dependent and we'll assume he adjust his 3 bet calling range very well and also play very well post-flop so we see 3 betting to being marginal to about 0EV.  Now we expect calling to be +EV but what do we need to do in order to turn it into profit?  I think alot of micro stakes player might do any of these 3 options but have not reflected on the outcome of each.  If we do decide to call, we should not be randomly saying yeah, where ahead of his range, it's a +EV call.  What are we going to do on each board?  on the turn?  can we induce a mistake from him?  can we make a big mistake ourselves?  It's really important to establish where the money is going to come from.  ***warning personal thought***  I think calling in the hopes of making one pair or check/calling a draw is not going to be profitable.

There are definitely certain hands that can profitably played in about any situation...  Or certain villain where playing nearly any two cards is going to be profitable but...  Generally speaking these are the situations I'm not worried about, they play themselves.  The more interesting hands are the more marginal hands vs players you do have a read on...  I think it's very good to know which are these hands and also simply have a general idea on how they need to be played in order to profit from them.  Questions such as when is playing SC OOP profitable?  How do we need to play small/medium PP profitably in and out of position.  How can we play them in 3 bet pot profitably?  There are just so many and having a general idea is super beneficial to our game.

Basically all this is saying is do you really know how to turn you're hand into profit post-flop?  Are you able to recognize that this situation may be a very marginal call/raise etc...  On a end note, not knowing all this information does not make you a bad nor a unwinning player.  For the longest of time, and still right now I often have no idea what I'm doing or even why I'm doing it.  I'll have a general idea and hope it's true yet I think if you're able to establish most of you're plans preflop before having seen the board will make you a much better player.

It's been a pretty awsome month pokerwise. I've ran great overall, learned a bunch and reflecting only last month, I think I've improved quite a bit. I guess it's still to early to tell but hopefully I'll be a decent winner @ 200nl. I feel I had one of these lightbulb moments just recently but I really have trouble pinpointing what sort of adjustment I've made to my game, maybe just running hot helps!

Here's a graph!

I've made roughly 41 BIs @ 100nl and about 7 @ 200nl.

I have a very ambitious month of August and I'm thrilled @ been able to start off playing 200nl. My first goal should be very simple, I want to achieve Supernova, I'll need about 17-18k vpp.

The two other goals will be propbet related but consequences have not being layed out. I'm thinking something along the line, spend 1 or 2 BIs for alcool in a bar... Something stupid like that basically.

Anyhow, the first will be to play 60k hands, I'm fairly confident about this one since I've done it before and it's not too much of a workload. The second will be to make 45 BIs during the month. This is something I do think I'll be able to acheive yet I usually try not to set myself result oriented objective. Anyhow, I think I need to run around 3.5ptbb to make it and I can always play a bit more hands, the only downside is I have limited experience @ my limit.

Coaching

Humm if anyone is interested I'd be ready to do a video review for free!  60 mins/2-4 tables, 25nl or 50nl.  pm me if interested.  While I'm on the topic of coaching...  I was thinking of signing up for micro-stakes coaching for CR but I don't think I'm quite ready for that.  I think my game is decent but my understanding of many concept isin't.  I'm not saying I spastically push random buttons but I do find it troublesome to explain simple concepts.  I find that my explications are often unclear or inefficient even to myself.  I also often have selfdoubt about what is the true optimal play in many situations, definitely not the way to go if you want to teach something.  Basically, I've had mixed results with people I try and help out, I'm maybe not quite dedicated enough and may have a hard time cattering to micro-stakes grinder.  On the otherside of the spectrum, I'm really considering getting coaching just before/while I'll be moving up too 400nl.  That's still a long way to go however!

Well I've just tacked my first session @ 200nl but was interrupted by one of my friend bustling in! Anyhow, up 1.5BI in less then 300hands HAHA! I don't really intend on discussing 200nl just yet, I have 0 experience, I just want to recap my progression.

Prelude

My poker story starts off with an interest in tournaments. Back about 2 years ago, at the begginning of the poker boom in my area, I would attend near weekly live home games. This then lead me to play some online poker. I had no idea what the hell I was doing at the time but randomly push buttons. Concept such as BR management and variance were not part of my vocabulary! During that time, I turned $400 into 2k back to near 0$ playing almost all 200nl... Things got busy in life and I stopped playing cards until December/January 2008

25nl

I joined CR in october while I started playing some live cash games down in the states about 1 hour from home. I didn't take poker that seriously until January 2008, I had about a 400$ BR and was playing 25nl online. Concepts such as c-bet, 3bet, floats where all new too me and I was still far from a solid winner. I ran really hot for that first part of the month and went up too 1k pretty quickly. I thought I was an amazing player and all that until I lost all my profits once again. This made me realize that I might of been lucky! I was convienced I could beat this game and worked very hard on my game. I remember reading that you should have a VPIP of 20 but I was just unable to win with such stats. By the end of January I realised I could be more profitable playing 18/15 then anything above.

February was probably the first month that I had confidence in being a profitable poker player. @ that point I was beating 25nl and was still working on very basic concepts. In march I decided to kick off this blong and wrote some of the goals I wanted to acheive. I also reworked cbetting, I went from 81 to 65%... I think this really helped my game and I was then a 10ptbb winner @ 25nl.

Hands played: around 60k Buy-ins won: around 70 Time: around 3 months

50nl

I moved too 50nl mid march with 20-25 BIs... This was probably the most difficult move up for some odd reason. I went from a 10ptbb winner too a 3-4ptbb winner. Lifetime as I'm writing this, I think I'm about a 3.5ptbb winner @ 50nl. The biggest mistake I think I made during my run there was to play too many tables (9+). For maybe 80k hands I think my game stalled to a halt and that really affected my developement as a player. For that reason, I think that's why it took me so long to move up too 100nl. Funny enough, I've probably played the most hands lifetime @ this limit yet I have very little to say about my learning experience poker theory wise. The only skilled I think I've gained during that time was a better feel for variance + the ability to multitask better.

Hands played: around 150k Buy-ins won: around 85 Time: around 4 months

100nl

The move too 100nl was probably one of my best. I cut down on the number of tables I played and for the first time realized all that I missed while playing 9+ tables. For the first 2 weeks @ this limit I felt I learned just soo much it was incredible. I think the two most important aspect that I learn was adapting to 3 bet frequencies and exploiting regulars post-flop.  I found that 3/4 betting was somewhat more relevant to game flow then hand ranges vs regular of course.  I also discovered new lines to exploit some of the regulars tendencies while improving my play vs fish.  definitely the quickest lvl up.

Hands played: around 60k Buy-ins won: around 50 Time: around 2 months

200nl

A new story is about to start! But I feel this will probably be the smoothest of lvl ups while probably being a fairly long one.  For one part I think the move up too 400nl will be a tough one and I want to be properly rolled before attempting anything stoopid!