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If only the game could always be as easy as this....
This was a pretty kind table for NL20 standards though.
Shame I can't set up a new user name and make a quick crack at NL50 or higher without people having a headstart on my (many) weaknesses!
Probably spent as much time watching videos as I did playing poker... always fun to get a brief view of others playing at the Sky tables:
https://www.pokervip.com/en/coaching-videos/poker-coach-review-of-jef147--sky-poker-30nl
Punishing the limpers is as important to modern poker as raising unopened pots on the button.
The game is so much easier when you are stepped back and watching from afar, as opposed to being the maelstrom of emotions at the table and given just a few short seconds to instinctively grab for the correct decision.
Maelstrom is a bit OTT, but a great word not used frequently enough, so I thought it deserved an outing.
I also looked up lots of stuff on blind defence and playing for orphan pots (the durrrrr playbook) - not sure I've implemented it entirely successfully, as it just seemed to lead to way more people playing back at me, it felt like every bet I made was getting zero respect when I played yesterday lol...
Maybe these aren't NL20 / MC10 strategies and I need to hide back under my rock and nit back up.
Way more fun getting involved in fighting for more than your fair share of pots though!
a) probably shouldn't be calling 87o on the button, arguably better stance to 3b
b) feel I have to raise flop for value and protection, sizing is maybe a bit TOO large
c) got carried away on turn, just gone behind to 99/TT/JJ which could concievably be in MP range, as well as the possibility of the two A2s combos
I think I should be checking back the turn. Albeit in this case the bet worked as MP dwelled up and said in chat that he folded a flush draw, convinced that I'd just housed up
But yeah you're right that being able to approach situations in so many different ways is one of the great things about poker... there is very rarely a definitive way to playing any particular hand or opponent!
So nearly broke my DTD duck in the 'easier' DTD 3 (the one most people give up on if they've busted earlier in DTD1 / 2 or fail to enter it at all) but after feeling in a good spot HU I made a poor call to lose the chip lead and then couldn't bink a flush draw... still, it looks a bit better than other recent efforts
Nothing better than 60th in the 'harder' DTDs... I've really started to enjoy the banter in these though, so it's now a new aim to bink at least one tourni, if not gain an overall Monday night win... I may be waiting some time vs those fields though...
Had the bonus of picking up a BI at NL30 alongside the tourni games... videos around isolating put to good use vs some odd plays I'd more expect to see at NL4.
I think focus may still be a struggle looking forward... part want to focus enough on MTT to win DTDs/get a fancy sharkscope/have a decent tilt at some mains and minis - the other part wants to get enough confidence to take a shot up to nl100... imagining I am way off the talent to do both, even if I can manage just one!!
I've been running akin to Usain Bolt for the past week or so and have bashed past the £3k marker... true to my lack of self confidence though, where this would lead most players wanting to play 24/7 and believing they are going to smash every table, I remain a little fearful that the variance has to even things up eventually and the next session is always going to be the one where I crash and burn.
I'm a little hopeful it's not just positive variance... I have read/watched a lot on winning without showdown and I hope some of the wins have been as a benefit of that, rather than pure luck.
The idiocy of a bankroll nit with a gambling problem
The daftness of playing with 150 BI for NL20 (and still having NL10 tables in the mix as often as I do NL30) was further highlighted last week.
On the way back from a supplier party in London, the foolish decision to stop and play some bandits before the train home saw me over £400 quid down at one point, before a super-lucky run got me out of the hole (which I definitely didn't deserve).
It's ridonkulous really.
I have no cajones to sit down at NL100 of higher for fear of losing, a BI or two. Yet I still on occasion find myself putting a weeks' wages at risk in something I KNOW 100% is -EV.
I think I need a lobotomy or something.
Video time
I did get round to taking a 30-min screen of 4-tabling which is in a queue to get coaching advice put over the top of it. Will throw the link up when it goes live and any lurkers can be welcome to add their critique / learn how to exploit my weaknesses (at least until I take on board the comments and fix my game!!)
iPhone winningness.
Well played ElleJaySea in the freeroll at the weekend, quality to see a reg take down the top prize - and vul SirGary on coming out the wrong side of the HU game.
With the way of the footballing world, it felt like a good idea not to post so much. Can't wait to see us play Derby again shortly, it'll be... fun?
Given it was Christmas I was mostly too drunk to play poker at any time the games may have been any good. Barely scraped over 1,200pts for December which I think was my lowest since I started this thread.
I played a fair amount of fast-fold-type poker on some other sites during daytimes... which I think has probably regressed my ability at poker (which, let's be honest, wasn't that high to start with). Will need to put that to bed and concentrate on Sky again for now, take my money and run!
Somehow, mainly thanks to Sky freerolls, I ended up in the black from tournaments for every month I played in 2014 - albeit very minimal - so that sets me a benchmark for 2015.
Which for 2015 leaves me wanting to:
> Focus on improving my MTT play
/> Read through winning tournaments one hand a time, due in the post any day, and making notes that can be applicable to my game (rather than flicking through before I fall asleep each night and not actually taking much in)
/> Getting a winner result in any DTD during the year... even better if it can help to contribute to Outlaws getting a winning month along the way!
/> Sorting a volume-type target to start from 1st Feb, after I've done a bit of studying, hopefully leading to a profitable rest of the year...
Away from poker I also need to throw more money at my house. I'm now sick of not having a proper space to relax / play poker in or a usable garden to go and drink / relax in during the small window of sunny weather we get in this country.
I'm sure it can only help me play better if I'm not be sitting in the middle of a building site....
Anyway... if anyone ever stumbles across this thread and reads it... all and any hints or tips for how not to suck at tournaments would be gratefully received
Winning tournaments one hand at a time arrived in the post yesterday and will be my main source of reading for the next couple of weeks... If it seems to be sinking in / improving my play then I can get the follow up as well and see if I can get from 'utter garbage' to 'vaguely competitive' over the next couple of months
Biggest tilt last night was how much lag I was suffering with just 4 tables running. I lost count of how many times I timed out of hands as a result. Totally sick of Windows now.
I should have had a new macbook by now, but the lovely Halifax had temp stopped my card due to some tech glitch and I only found out at the front of a long queue in John Lewis, leaving me looking like some sort of skint waster that had to walk past said queue getting a number of looks of sadness/pity.
That's what I get for having accounts with such poor providers. Should stick to Nationwide for everything.
Still, hopefully will get time to go back and pick one up asap and get back to only having my own poor play to blame for lack of MTT results (although 'dodgy wifi connection' is always an excuse to have in reserve).
I'm never going to master this bluffing malarkey... this was my first hand at the table, didn't recognise the other person, DTD1 last night. I did change the bet size to all-in but just couldn't convince myself that I'd be getting 3b bluffed and didn't want to duck out in such a shameful way if oppo insta-called with a 6.
It's this sort of stack size where I think I make most of my mistakes. With 100bb at cash I can raise here and figure to be well ahead of a limpers range, knowing they'll likely call my raise, whereas in a tourni it feels like a waste of chips to bump it up pre and then be out of position with only 17-18 BB of wriggle room...
I just figured that in a limped pot, it would be unlikely oppo would have a 6 or a K whereas as BB this could be part of my range... that's what led me to nearly 4b shove the flop but I bottled it.
I'm not sure I want to be calling OOP as if they keep firing I could easily be behind / allow them to pick up a pair... I think I'd personally have preferred to lead on the flop now.
Either way, still played it poorly in the first place!
Having read through 20 or so hands of '1 hand at a time', I'm amazed by how much limping is being recommended / and no 3-betting marginally big hands (QQ-TT and AK-AJ).
Runs at odds with my expectations from cash games, but maybe something to try more in MTT to see how it works. Still feels a bit weak to be almost set-mining with QQ, say, but appreciate that the hidden nature of the hand makes an early double or treble up a lot more likely when you do flop a Q / less sigh when you get a random A-high flop.
I more question how close the ranges of oppos in a £2.30 BH compare to those of the $240 type BI event mind...
Craig pretty much summed it up above. If your going to continue c/c is the best option imo. With it being the first hand at the table and having no info about villains limping range folding is probably best.
Yeah I don't disagree that c/f is the sensible line most (if not all) the time.
My betting decision (whether that be leading or raising) is to prevent oppo from realising his equity.
If he has any two cards then he'll have what, 20-25% equity on the flop? Out-drawing me 1 in ever 4 times makes me feel like it's way too pricey to be just calling with A-high... especially when he's also going to have power to bluff (thanks to position) or could already have me drawing dead (if he really does have a 6).
Therefore I'm betting for protection in the same way I may do with (say) a mid pocket pair that doesn't want to let people have a free shot at hitting an overcard, or a low pocket pair that doesn't want to be forfeited / let them hit a overcard.
To that end, I think Larson's line makes sense as I can chuck out a lead of 800-900 and likely get to the same result as I've paid 1800 to do in this hand (ie he folds, happy days, he raises and I give credit for being crushed and fold)
With a cash perspective I read/watched lots of stuff on winning without showdown at the start of December. I have almost certainly now gotten too aggro in limped pots / orphaned pots, particularly with the lower limit player tendency to call too much (ie I'm now bluffing way too much for the levels I'm playing).
Think c/c is by far the best line vs a complete unknown player and range. I'd figure A high to be the best hand at present, but it's gonna be difficult to play OOP. Certainly call one and see what he does on the turn. May well c/c down on favourable run outs.
Even if I hit my ace I could just be calling to split, and oppo could easily hit a pair with his hole cards (if I'm not already crushed).
Were I a better player, or even if I knew the oppo, maybe it makes it easier to be calling down with A-high?
I was out for a family dinner last night, so my limited poker was seeing this clip on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9I7DJqRWc
I'm a fish, I get the logic why the guy with 10s shouldn't have raised, but I still think the only reason I wouldn't go bust here is because it's hand 1 of the WSOP ME and I'd bottle calling with the 5th nuts. If this was any tournament I could afford to buy in to today, I'm 100% going skint here as well.
I also believe a short coaching video of my play on Sky is now available on t'internet. So I have that to look forward to this evening. Probably watching with a lot of wincing on my face
Shame I'm still toilet at the game, but being a luckbox I binked another £48 freeroll and made a little bit from the cash tables.
I was also able to watch a short review of my play, which my windows lappy was incapable of playing fully... if you want to see just how bad I am, click below:
https://www.pokervip.com/en/coaching-videos/leak-finder-review-shakinaces--deepstack-10nl-to-30nl
I might record myself more often... even without the comments I can spot errors by watching it back. Was shouting at the screen to fold at one point... this was recorded a couple of months ago now and I'd like to think I no longer call 3bets oop with AQo when a tight/nitty player 3b from MP
Anyway, the new tech means one less excuse when I fail at DTDs now. So I really need to hurry up and luckbox a win...
DTD3 could have been a saver, but I sort of lost interest after the Outlaw table split and spent more time on a handful of cash tables where I was able to pick up a few buy ins...
On that note, great to see the site so busy... especially as there was some really poor play knocking around (no, not just from me)... I expected January to be a bit dull with an absence of recs until post-Christmas payday arrived, but the cash tables were great fun yesterday!
Ah well... maybe next week
WP Harry and Sam for the top 10 finishes yesterday
The small number of bits and pieces I tried to slip into my game last night, I think, can be considered failures... although will play a couple of deepstacks this week and give them another go.
It wasn't helped that it was my turn to be butchered by AT, rivering me (with AK and KK respectively) to effectively be KO'd in two MTT last night. Forget strategy, I just need to start playing AT like it's the nuts
With all this odd 'first photo' nonsense on social media, I scrolled back to my first post on facebook last night and it was worded something like.
"Just dished out the most brutal of double bad beats"
Nothing changes, I'm still a massive luckbox.
I feel like I must be in such a minority as well. Almost everyone on Sky, as well as online poker in general, runs so bad all the time. I must be blessed.
Which is good, or else I'd be down an absolute packet
I did plan to have a night of MTT practice last night, but the leg of a work trip to London that involved catching up with one of data suppliers managed to end in a meeting that massively overran... mainly due to beer becoming involved.
So when I finally got home in not much of a state for cards, I watched a bit of Sky nosebleeds cash instead.
Scary numbers. Not sure how true the talk on some of these vids is of a cash game reg dropping c.£20k on NYE but jeez. Their hangover must have been far worse than the booze-inflicted one that most of us woke up with at the start of 2015!
Interesting to see the top names in action though. Not sure how much of the play is transferable to micro cash but hey, something to aspire to!
https://www.pokervip.com/en/coaching-videos/blizzy-sky-high-stakes--400nl-to-1000nl
So many odd spots compared to cash, the stack size thing really plays on my mind and ends up with me playing spew.
This is one I butchered, I'd leaked a few chips raising pre and having to fold post with people getting it all in with one pair type hands and me being left with A/K-high.
Since I got short I'd shoved BvB a few times and with worse and was never getting a call, but thought I'd try and get clever the time I get a stronger hand. Bad idea when I'm a fish and don't have the skill for clever:
Given the action after my call, at cash, I'd be happy to fold here (figuring that most time at least one person will have AK/AA/KK in this spot and leave me flipping at best), then take notes and open my calling range as necessary as I play future hands with these guys.
Of course that's not an option here because the guy that snap called the all in is out and can't donate any more chips.
Where should my own all in range be in these spots? Is my nitty QQ really close to the borderline, or should I be calling down to what, 88+, AKo and AQs+? I'd call the 3b shove figuring it is what it was, a squeeze, but the UTG snap call left me confused.
Alas I don't have Duck Power and was drawing to a chop after a flopped straight lol
Based on my small sample so far, micro MTT players on Sky are way more gamble-y than their cash counterparts.
I blow at the discipline still, but if I work to improve my own game then at the moment it feels like there is way easier money to be made... even though the variance is likely to be horrific at times!