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Overall though I feel the only thing worse than NL4 is single tabling it lol, at least with 2 the profit/hands per hour will increase a lot more, well double hopefully.
You can't ever fold there btw, and it'd be a bad fold if you did. I can have a straight, other house or any number of hands- I definitely don't have TT there all the time.
Dudeskin, I played a bit with you and watched how you play- you can easily multitable with a £40 roll. You absolutely shouldn't be sticking to 1 table for fear of bankroll- if nothing else, put £2 down on 2 tables. Volume is key at NL4, and bear in mind- 80% of the players you're against at least have less than £2 on the table at one time, most are around the £1 mark. You're not missing out on much by shortstacking, but being able to see twice as many hands will improve your return drastically. I personally think you should try 4 tabling (if you're comfortable) playing £2 per table- I think you'd see a solid increase.
You've got an extremely tight game, ideal for NL4- so increase your volume! You're not technically risking any more of your bankroll by multitabling than if you play single table, provided you can keep a good level of play. If anything, multitabling is good for your br management because you don't have to cope with boredom, and you see far more premium hands- which should keep your hand selection tight. I have no qualms folding suited cons, A8/A9, KJ type hands now because I get enough good hands to keep me focused.
Ending Bankroll- £115.25
MTT Profit- 0
Cash Profit- +6.66
Total MTT Profit- -14.08
Total Cash Profit- +29.33
Total Profit- +115.25
Session Hands Played- 273Total Hands Played- 6148
Pots of 20p or more- Won 17, lost 11
Pots of 40p or more- Won 7, lost 5
Pots of 80p or more- Won 4, lost 2
Pots of £2 or more- Won 2, lost 0
Pots entered- 41/273 (15%)
Played another short session yesterday before going out, and thankfully ended up quite nice! Keeping the hand selection discipline, which is good, tending to table 6 at a time now and fairly comfortable at it. Definitely finding a rhythm here, and hands are holding up well for me.
I only lost 2 big pots, but the first one is a matter of some pride for me- folding AA is something I despise doing at this level. Wasn't concerned on the flop, but when the club came down on the turn some alarm bells went off, turned out I wasn't behind to the flush but I was well behind both players. Was willing to call the small bet on river, since folding there is way too weak but when I started getting action from both players there was about a 0% chance, even at this level, of my AA being good here. Always remember, when the passive players start raising, you best have a massive hand.
The other hand... meh, I perhaps did myself no favours here. But I think A10 is good in this spot against their shoving range, which includes all kinds of cards including many Ax. Turns out I was just the wrong side of it, and maybe the call's a little spewy- I dunno. But I'm not too fussed, these shortstack players have such a wide shoving range usually that I dominate his hand a lot.
That's the beauty of having notes, I might play TT more conservatively to that shove preflop, but no way was I folding it there against their range.
Second hand was a bit of a nasty cooler, as soon as the reraise came in I put him straight on A10- too unlikely he had a king, preflop I felt he was probably on an ace. He could have had AJ/AQ too (much happier when I saw the A10) but whatever he had, I was pretty sure it was big. I could have raised more preflop, but I've been missing out on calls by overraising these preflop, so I've just lowered my 3betting down to a more normal value.
In honesty, this is never playing any differently postflop- just a cooler.
I'm not too sure about the £2 on various tables as I could see my game becoming a bit too gambly and also wouldn't like facing bigger stacks knowing I have no muscle behind plus the obvious nightmare of getting AA/KK and not getting max value.
Give it a go and see how you feel- shortstacking makes me feel a little dirty but at NL4 on a short roll it's really not such a bad idea. If you stick to your guns and premium hands, you'll be getting most of your action from the shortstacked donks anyway rather than deepstacked regs, and you're truly unlikely to stack a deepstack without a cooler.
Ending Bankroll- £85.92
MTT Profit- 0
Cash Profit- -29.33
Total MTT Profit- -14.08
Total Cash Profit- +0
Total Profit- -14.08
Session Hands Played- 1825Total Hands Played- 7973
Pots of 20p or more- Won 81, lost 108
Pots of 40p or more- Won 49, lost 54
Pots of 80p or more- Won 28, lost 28
Pots of £2 or more- Won 9, lost 10
Pots entered- 304/1825 (16.6%)
Urgh. I did NOT play well yesterday. Couple that with running into some pretty dirty hands, and you have a recipe for disaster. Pretty weird that I completely cancelled out all my cash profits, and am back to square one now.
I'm starting to figure out what I'm doing wrong, and what's limiting my cash growth. My main issue that I've noticed is it takes me a while to settle into the game, and while I'm settling I think I play too many hands without thinking, trying to find a rhythm. I need to stop myself doing that, and focus instead on playing super tight whilst I find my feet. Normally I end up down a buyin or two across however many tables I'm playing, which then can affect my game.
Whether you're up or down in the early stages of a session makes a big difference to your mentality- it probably shouldn't, but it does for me. If I'm down, I've constantly got that mindset of having to make back my money before I can start making a profit- and that's bad, because you start trying too hard. When you relax, let the hands come to you- the money does too.
I always try and take positives where I can out of the session. I was getting tired by the end (finished at 2am, not used to playing that late since I work and rarely ever play past midnight) but managed to get some serious volume in. I'm getting used to focusing on 8 tables now, I miss hands occasionally but on the whole I can keep up with the action, whilst still being aware of what the players on my table are doing. I maintained a relatively low level of hands entered, which is good, and although I tilted once or twice, I mostly maintained a reasonable level of play. Unfortunately, it doesn't take many bad hands to really ruin your game.
I ran AQ into AK 3 times, AJ with TPTK into QQ, QQ into KK twice, KK allin on flop into a backdoor straight, set of 10s into NF with 3 diamonds showing, 2 pair into set of kings- all horrible hands at this level. Most of which you can't really do much about, and I shouldn't concern myself too much.
The negatives- my fundamental play wasn't as strong as it needed to be. I was losing a lot of small pots, through struggling to hit flops, and that is one leak I don't want to develop. Hopefully it was just an aberration of this session.
I picked out some of the more standout hands, some I played fine, some not so fine.
First hand, had notes which is why I played the flop the way I did. Pretty special. The result isn't too much of an issue really, it was frustrating- but I played it correctly.
Second hands, notes again that my oppo is hyper aggressive and has showed down some pretty strange hands. I know he loves to bet crazily, we're both fairly deep and I have position, which was why I made the call- ordinarily I'm not too interested with suited cons. The thought of him having a set here did cross my mind on the turn, since he's not one to check many flops, but I think he may well play AK or KQ the same way. I don't think there's much getting away from this on the turn, but maybe I shouldn't have made the call pre, even with my reads.
Third hand really was a bit special. Again, played optimally- but another gutshot hit. Good to have some new notes made, though.
Next hand was a big one, and tough to get away from. Obviously I was really concerned about the flush, but I didn't know much about my opponent, and standard NL4 players make that raise with top pair. So I think I have to call. Think I should have bet the flop, have had so many people fold on me when I hit a set, especially top set that it was playing on my mind, and I wanted to get a signal of interest from him before opening the betting.
Another big hand- not sure I'm ever getting away from TPTK here at NL4.
Not long afterwards, against the two biggest aggromonkeys I was playing against- and the worst hand wins. I was beat anyway, but got to laugh- KK+QQ+A10 allin on flop, and A rivers.
The last hand was based on history, and I'm not particularly proud of it. It was a tilty play, totally unnecessary and resulted in my biggest loss of the night. My reason for it was he'd shown many big bets, called allins etc with no pair no draw- he was literally chucking money in with virtually anything, and it was starting to really rile me. Should have had more control, but with NFD+2 overs, coupled with the fact I could easily be ahead already, I went for the big one and lost. Very, very stupid, and I should have stopped my session there and then.
late night weekend poker is fun if you run good, nothing worse than stacking off to the table idiot who got incredibly lucky on you, then watch them spray it about the rest of the table
I'm not exactly defending the play because it was ridic and I should never have done it. I was tilted, no way round it.
Ending Bankroll- £71.01
MTT Profit- -5.28
Cash Profit- -9.63
Total MTT Profit- -19.36
Total Cash Profit- +0
Total Profit- -28.99
Session Hands Played- 453Total Hands Played- 8426
Pots of 20p or more- Won 22, lost 20
Pots of 40p or more- Won 12, lost 12
Pots of 80p or more- Won 6, lost 9
Pots of £2 or more- Won 0, lost 3
Pots entered- 65/453 (14%)
Now, the numbers here look really bad. But, I'm actually quite happy- not only did I play extremely well for the most part in this session, I also managed to stop myself from tilting at a stream of bad beats and coolers. I didn't fall into my normal trap of starting to look like A7s and K10s and playing them, I stuck to my hand selection mostly.
The tables were playing extremely differently to how I was used, just really tight and difficult to get paid. The point which I finally snapped was when I raised with 55, got to the flop 4 way on an A45 board, 2 clubs- bet out around 3/4 and saw 3 folds. This just isn't right at NL4. I also had a string of 3 hands earlier where I got something like A10, 2 callers, totally missed flop and had to fold, almost exactly the same then with KQs, followed by AA- where everyone folded pre. Sometimes you can win and be more tilted than when you lose, because my value hands stank.
Although I lost heavily, I got my money in good virtually every occasion, which makes me feel happy- but at the same time, like wtf- I should have killed this. One of the only times I didn't get my money in good was with KK on a 6 high board against a set of 3's. Are you really ever folding that here? Because of the magnitude of the raise I even considered it, because the tables were so passive, but he could have done that with weaker pps, and it was a bit of a sigh call.
Stats don't look so bad in terms of pots won and lost, if my big hands hold up things look incredibly different. Just got to shrug your shoulders and move on. Poker is an amazing game- very little compares to the feeling of winning a big session, or a big MTT, but the downer you feel from a losing session is equally as strong. At least this time I can take away from it that I played a decent game.
Oh, I also played 2 primo qualifiers and bust, since I remembered I wouldn't have time to try and sat in tomorrow. No big deal really. I may deposit £20 to make up for my MTT failures, to ensure it doesn't affect my cash BR too badly.
First two hands are reasonably standard fare, esp the AK vs QQ hand- no problem there. AQ vs QQ was sick. Third hand, great to flop a set and get action, probably the single worst card in the deck on turn though. When led into I did some very quick calculations, since I'm about 100% sure I'm against a straight, and figured I was around 20% to house up, and would be pretty certain to stack my opponent if I do hit, so had to make the call and pray to hit. The implied odds were definitely there, but didn't hit- had to sigh fold the river.
My opening raise on the KK hand was a little weaker than I normally do, but the table was playing too tight and I needed to get some action (I still scared off the original raiser even then). Really don't think I can get away from the flop as played, even though I really felt he had a set I just can't fold that at this limit.
Next one was a beauty. Hit my hand, got the money in, got rivered by a straight. Frustrating, but poker for you.
The last hand was the last one I played this session, almost identical to the 99 hand I played earlier in every way, only this time I paid him off on the river, KNOWING I shouldn't have. At this point I realised my game was on the slide and walked away before I did too much damage.
Standard fare really, flopped oesd, played it passively, hit, got paid off.
Second hand, speculated early, flopped the goods, got the money in. Managed to fade any outdraws, which was probably the only time all session I did.
Third hand, flopped top pair, turned top 2, got paid off reasonably well. I was playing so much more passively to try and get some interest from my opponents before putting in bets, because everyone had just been folding so much. This time I at least got some action.
Unfortunately, I tried too hard to make it happen and hurt myself in the process.
Ending Bankroll- £74.81
MTT Profit- -3.3
Cash Profit- +7.1
Total MTT Profit- -22.66
Total Cash Profit- -2.53
Total Profit- -25.19
Session Hands Played- 1128Total Hands Played- 9554
Pots of 20p or more- Won 58, lost 56
Pots of 40p or more- Won 33, lost 31
Pots of 80p or more- Won 22, lost 14
Pots of £2 or more- Won 5, lost 3
Pots entered- 184/1128 (16%)
I really am a stubborn person. I think perhaps that's a good trait in a poker player trying to grind, because downswings are part and parcel of the game, and having the ability to work through them is a must. Yesterday I ran like hell, and then at the beginning of this session, I ran even worse. It was one of those times where EVERY time you get your money in with QQ+ and see your opponent, you name the card that's gonna bust you (QQ vs JJ? Down comes the jack. KK vs A7? There's the ace. AK vs AQ? Oh look, he binked a queen). Then there's the times you get kings and they have aces, just to really run it in (obviously theirs hold up). It really was that bad- within an hour or so I was down 4 buyins, having only got my money in with jacks or better.
Eventually I got a hand to hold up, then a few more over the course of the session, and over a 3 1/2 hour session ground my way back until I turned a small profit. Small, but important- I really felt I held control of my tilt. Away from the game I was fuming, looking for things to hit, but in the game I never let it affect me- even when I got AK for the umpteenth time to see a queen high board, or AQ to see a K high board. Way too early to say if I've actually got my tilt under control, but I think I'm getting there. My hands played was around 16% again, so I'm keeping my hand selection fairly solid.
I think the hand histories take up too much space, so I'll try and keep them more at a minimum;
Losing Hands
#1- AKs vs JJ, aipf for 50bbs (each). Board comes 642QQ no flush.
#2- AK vs K2s, aipf for 40 bbs. Board comes 7532Q no flush.
#3- QQ vs A10- raised to 5bbs preflop, bet out on 2310 flop for 3/4 pot, bet on 5 turn for 3/4 pot, checked A river- 75bb pot
#4- AK vs K8- raised to 5bbs preflop, bet out on KJ4 board for pot, bet out on K turn for pot, allin on 8 river- 150bb pot (this one really, really came close to tilting me.)
The last losing hand actually needs the HH to show really, and I'm quite pleased at losing the min here.
Preflop I was part slowplaying, part being cagey to see what the flop brings- I've seen aces on board too often with kings lately, and thought I'd keep my options open for now. Unfortunately, it comes an ugly board and I went into pot control mode immediately. If he had AA (which was a fear) he's still ahead. If he had TT/JJ/QQ he just binked me. If he had AK he just made broadway. So, definitely happy to keep the pot small.
Turn bet was a little too small to fold too, especially when I have outs to the king, and if he doesn't already have a set, outs to the straight too (turns out of course the aces were no good). When he checks the river, I'm more than happy to see a cheap showdown- very passive pot with aces and kings! I'm happy with how it played out though.
Turning point for me came when I managed to get QJ on a QJ10 flop- and my opponent didn't have the straight, or river it. In fact, I rivered the house and although he folded, took down a sizeable pot. That felt extremely good for my confidence, since it's the spot I've been getting drawn out on lately, and certainly relieved me- during a downswing, logically you know it'll turn eventually but you have no idea when, it's not written down for you.
Although I had moments of run good, I don't think this was the reason I made a profit- it certainly wasn't a lucky session, all those hands that fell in my lap were more than balanced by outdraws earlier on. In general it was patience, picking my spots to be speculative and just generally playing solid poker that got me through it.
Ending Bankroll- £96.59
MTT Profit- -5.5
Cash Profit- +27.28
Total MTT Profit- -28.16
Total Cash Profit- +24.75
Total Profit- -3.41
Session Hands Played- 1111Total Hands Played- 10665
Pots of 20p or more- Won 56, lost 45
Pots of 40p or more- Won 36, lost 22
Pots of 80p or more- Won 26, lost 15
Pots of £2 or more- Won 11, lost 2
Pots entered- 162/1111 (14.5%)
I knew it'd turn eventually, but did it turn! Not much changed, I still got my money in good most times, but this time most of my hands held up, and draws I was involved with came good. Raises with AK/AQ were spiking top pair hands, and I made a fair share of sets. Just goes to show that whatever you do, however hard you work at it, poker is and always will be a game of luck- you just have to do your best to stack the odds in your favour. It's a long term game, and skill will win out eventually, but short term there's nothing you can do to stop yourself losing if the cards are against you, and it's pretty hard to stop yourself winning if the cards are with you.
I played a session before the mini primo which didn't go so well- I lost a large pot with a reg which I'm still frustrated about, and thought at the time I played really poorly- in retrospect, I think perhaps my only mistake was opening pre with KJs rather than just binning it. KJs is the bottom end of my opening range, but maybe it's a tad too speculative, I might stick to just opening it on the button, or perhaps calling with it on the button.
I played around 400 hands in my early session and 700 in the evening one- I lost around £5 in my early session, and won over £30 in the evening one- probably my best session to date. Just goes to show, downswings don't last forever, carry on playing as usual, get your money in good and it WILL pay off, if you have the roll to withstand it.
I'm also getting used to playing longer sessions with more tables- before I was managing around 500 hands a session playing 4-6 tables, now I'm well capable of playing 1k hands over 6-8. Volume is definitely a good thing to work on in these stakes.
My only major losing hand (other than the reg hand, which I may post in clinic later) was an AK vs 99 race- I could have folded it pre rather than risk what was likely to be a flip, but after weighing it up and taking my reads into account, I figured AK was in too good shape with the money involved- he could just as easily jam AQ/AJ etc, he's incredibly unlikely to have AA/KK and I'm in a race against any pair. Can't have everything go your way. Glad I did make the call, because this note on his shoving range helped me stack him later.
Here's my personal favourites though. The first one is a beast of a cooler, nice to be on the right side of it.
Second one, I was treating as a small pp, and my new rule is- if I hit top set, I check the flop. If my opponents have something worth going with (an overpair, for example) the money'll go in anyway. But if I bet top set, I get too many folds. As it is, a nice meaty raise on the turn got some money in, then it was easy street by the end- nice to turn your hand into quads just to remove any doubt.
The last hand is just greatness, and the beauty of NL4 when you run well. All in pre with aces against K10 and Q6- doesn't get better than that. Apart from when it holds up and you scoop the pot, of course.
And cheers slaver! If I see you at the tables it'll probably be me doing the donating the way I'm going ^^
Ending Bankroll- £83.83
MTT Profit- 0
Cash Profit- -12.76
Total MTT Profit- -28.16
Total Cash Profit- +11.99
Total Profit- -16.17
Session Hands Played- 499Total Hands Played- 11164
Pots of 20p or more- Won 16, lost 26
Pots of 40p or more- Won 11, lost 15
Pots of 80p or more- Won 5, lost 7
Pots of £2 or more- Won 3, lost 3
Pots entered- 70/499 (14%)
Weak session by me. Was playing a tad too fast and loose for my liking, was late at night and I wanted to squeeze some poker in to help hit my goal of 2k c4p this month, which will actually be a substantial aid to my bankroll, and a good indicator of what I may be able to achieve when I reach 20NL.
I also found myself in an interesting spot early on, and it's the only HH I'm posting this time. What would you do here? This was literally the first hand of my session, and I was essentially playing against the other deepstack only- I felt my jacks were probably good, but I was very likely to be racing against AK. In hindsight, I think it was too marginal to play and I should have folded- not least because of the mindset issue, going a buyin down on the first hand is a really, really bad result when you've only got a short amount of time to play, because I think it leads to leaks in your game if you haven't got the discipline, which clearly I haven't quite got yet.
I still kept good hand selection, and am generally pleased with how I played hands with one exception- in a virtually unbet pot, I rivered a flush on a paired board, bet out for pot (3bbs lol) and had someone shove for 80/90bbs. I tanked it but called, and it was a terrible call- I only had 34 of spades, and I really had no need to call there, it was ridic. The other major pot I lost was a raise pre with AK followed by a jam for 100bbs- again, not sure on these spots. It's almost certainly a race so do I need to take it, considering what's cut off in the rake, I'm not quite a favourite and the fact my edge over these players is high enough to not get in these marginal spots in the first place? I don't know how often players shove with AQ/AJ, but I do know they love to reship with 22-TT.
Anyway, all this is meant to be teaching me as well as building my roll, if I already had the discipline to grind my a game daily I wouldn't be at this level. Hopefully the more of these days I go through and analyse, the better I'll get at avoiding the spots that tilt me and tightening up my game.
For me right at the start of a session I would probably chicken out and try and save that pain of dropping 100 bb's so soon, QQ+ would be my limit this early might be wrong but that's my game.
Ending Bankroll- £89.97
MTT Profit- 0
STT Profit- +11.6
Cash Profit- -4.93
Total MTT Profit- -28.16
Total STT Profit- +11.6
Total Cash Profit- +7.06
Total Profit- -10.03
Session Hands Played- 1083Total Hands Played- 12247
Pots of 20p or more- Won 37, lost 39
Pots of 40p or more- Won 19, lost 16
Pots of 80p or more- Won 10, lost 8
Pots of £2 or more- Won 4, lost 4
Pots entered- 122/1083 (11%)
I think I'm with you now dudeskin, I'm going to try and avoid racing too early. My opinion was, it's only the deep stack I'm worried about- the rest I'm not fussed. Sure, he could have QQ-AA, but assuming he doesn't have those hands, it's a +EV spot. Not to mention, NL4 players love to raise with any pair, so my JJ could be miles in front. The other two players are essentially dead money, and in the unlikely circumstance they do have QQ-AA, it (hopefully) removes some of matey boy with the deep stacks outs, leaving me more likely to win the big pot.
I still think this early it's unnecessary, I don't get in a super great mindset by doubling through early, but I think dropping a buyin does negatively affect my mindset, because I hate finishing sessions down. I need to be more patient in sessions when I'm losing.
Anyway, I tried a slightly different approach today and played 10 dyms at the beginning of my session. Although they bored me rigid, they did work wonders for tightening my game up, and get me looking forward to cash- the main difference is you can speculate in cash, I hated having to constantly fold KQs and 22-99 in the early stages of dyms. Ended up cashing in 5/6 5.50s and 1/4 3.30s, so at least I got my run bad in the lower stakes. I busted out of my first 3 with, in order;
10's against 97 on 7 high board- 50/100
A7 against A6 preflop- 150/300
A9 against K10 preflop- 150/300
Nearly started tilting since there was a lot of pressure now on the rest, but managed to keep my head and carry on- although I got my money in good every time, you can't expect your hand to hold up every time. No big deal.
So with a fresh mindset, I moved on to cash- and undoubtedly, the dym changed my perspective on cash. My hand range was noticeably tighter, down to 11% of hands played compared to my previous low of 14%. However, still ended down- largely thanks to a horrible bad beat (KK vs AK in preflop for 200bbs), an equally bad cooler (set of 3's vs set of aces for 100bb pot) and set of aces beaten by rivered straight for another 200bb pot. Matey boy who called me on flop with zero draws to hit his backdoor straight was noted though, and ended up donking off a 500bb pot to me preflop with Q10 against my KK. Also donked off with A6 (no pair no draw) on K high flop, where I had KK again. Another 300bb pot.
I also played one or two hands poorly, committing myself to hands unnecessarily- one that sticks in mind was having AQ on all spade flop, with the A of spades. . Getting my c-bet % right is the next thing I'm going to try and work on. Mostly my stats were stacking up nicely- NL4 is a lot about seeing flops with good 'stacking' hands as often as you can- any chance I get to take pairs multiway is a godsend, as well as good top pair hands like AJ+ and KQ+. But you do find yourself having to fold a lot when you totally miss the flop.
I've been finding NL4 playing far tighter, I'm sure it's not my imagination. Unknowns are actually open folding regularly, rather than the usual limp/fold, limp/call, shove all in which are the standard options here. Not entirely sure what gives, it's led me to just alter my game slightly by increasing my c-bet range, which has seemed to work in general. Still trying to find the optimal level of c-betting, though.
Luckily though I've found if you play a good game you will eventually get your KK pre big raise bet bet bet postflop get it in, but that is all about patience and for me cbetting down here is a slight sign of tilt.
I have had to tag loads of players with "TAG ABC" this week. I can only assume Skys advertising is paying of - they are all over the place at the mo inc some magazines as well as sites. Im finding it hard to find tables some times with less than 3 TAG ABCers.
I would normally avoid you, dudeskin and Tintin as a matter of course. But today i had to sit with you and even had to shift seat position earlier on so Tintin and .....i think you dudeskin were on my left - I have never had to do that before, and even then there was another sat to my right!!! Loads of times Typhoon or Tintin or you have sat at my table too.....doesnt normally happen so much.....I am enjoying getting a few sneaky bluffs in though lol!
Still loads of ATMs though!!
gotta love when they open shove n your sitting with aces