weeeeee
4 points
just finished this video and it has been very practical in developing a good mindset. I will do the very thing you mentioned and starting a journal. It was informative.
Nov. 16, 2016 | 3:48 p.m.
i have struggled with the very same thing though I was in a much lower stake but the philosophy is the same. I even struggled thinking that I had a gambling problem, chasing losses, busting rolls, going on monkey tilt, etc. My last roll busted was so devastating that I quit poker for a year if that tells you anything. I felt like my avatar as displayed.
After a year, I looked back at my previous sessions and I came to conclusion. I felt I had an edge of my opponents overall but I noticed the trend of moving up and my chart was down. Losing 1 buyin as you raise up should be expected but when you are losing several buyins, that is problem.
So as I noticed, i came to a conclusion I not only am competing against people, I am also competing against the beast of variance. I was losing against variance, not people. Now, what i have done has put a stickie on my computer monitor I grind and I write out the words.
CRUSH VARIANCE
This has allowed me to focus my sessions on gaining a better insight and also minimize tilt. So now when losing a buyin on cash games or bubble a tournament, I now have a mindset of I may not have won the tourney or I was stacked off but I won against variance.
Visualize this scenario:
Let's look at say a 109 tourney. Effectively, bankroll for a 109 tourney, we will look at it not 100 buyins (as many suggest) but say 50 buyins that you have behind. Imagine you your Headsup with Variance and you have a virtual stack of 50K and you are heads up with Mr Variance. You lose the 109 as you were at the exact money bubble. You lost, you got 0 bucks for the game and you lost 109. You are upset and you are frankly pissed off because your QQ got sucked out by a freakin K9o for the guy flopped the K on the river. Sad huh? So then you get the dreaded Thank you for joining the tournament. You were in 95th place. ugh.
Now lets look at it. Over the 49 other games, you can effectively beat the Beast of Variance, Beast of Variance only stole the blind on your stack. You still are +EV over your future poker session. if you play the same tournament 49 times and continue improving on your game over the long term of 49 other games, you will effectively win in the long run.
You play against Players (with you improving and studying, you very well have an edge) but you need to consider the Beast of Variance you are headsup with as well. Beat the Beast if first Priority to then allow the edge beat the players at your game!
Nov. 16, 2016 | 2:55 p.m.
I am going to try an update this thread once every week or so. I am still grinding away in the cash grind but also weekly tourney on Saturdays. I am focusing on my Pre-Flop range and 3 bet additions. In cash, I find that I am still a little bit in the red. I am improving however i feel but it's a bummer that I am not in the black just yet.
I have been more of a tournament player which is why i may be a bit too aggressive in cash games. I am working on dialing down the 3-bet and the cold call to 3-bet. I have come to the conclusion on my hand histories that in cash, my opening range and 3 bet range are way out of wack. I hope to dial things down as I am re-working the range a bit to dial down the aggression.
The dial up aggression seems to work in the zone on tournaments however. I have made a few final tables this past week, one mainly the 2K ACR Saturday which i took 5th place and another, i bubbled final table on BOL 1K GTD game.
I am overall pleased that I am still in it it to win it. Satisfaction and study is priority as I look back and see where I need to dial it down. Its tough to get rid of the leaks in game but gotta do it.
Nov. 15, 2016 | 6 p.m.
Over 10K of hands, i am for the first time not in the red. Yay! I am about 2bb/100 hands but thats was a goal for the month. I have worked on the following things.
-study 1 hour 3 days a week. I admit, I didn't achieve the goal or can check it off. I at least decided to join RIO.
-play 10K hands in the month check
-connect with someone to discuss poker with. Check
-be in positive for bb/100 hands
So i hope that at the end of the month, i accomplish this task
10K hands for the month
study 1 hour 3 days a week (Determined to make this happen)
find 3 leaks in my game, write it down and discuss with my poker friend about the leak.
be in positive for 2bb/100 hands in 10nl ring games over 10K of hands.
Nov. 6, 2016 | 11:27 p.m.
what is this Grinders manual you are all speaking of?
Oct. 25, 2016 | 6:26 p.m.
I am weeeeee and i am a poker loser. I like to call myself the algae eater. The purpose of the algae eater is to sit at the edges of the tank and suck algae. This is me. I like to make the tank look pretty. I do just enough to make the tank look pretty and rocks shine at the bottom. I don't like to swim around the fish that are swimming and I could care less with the food that is dropped into a tank. Algae eaters don't die as quick as the other fish too. They don't have to fight for the food for they eat algae. There is plenty of algae.
I like to call myself the algae eater is because my fight was not there. I serve only myself and claim i am really good at poker but I am not. I just suck algae and also suck at poker. I have decided that I love this game so much that I don't want to just be a standard poker player. I also believe that most of the poplulation of poker players are in the same tank as me. They would claim they aren't fish but they really just suck algae.
I identify myself as follows.
Deposit as little amount of money as possible with hopes to run it up in the session.
i devote a few days to good sessions. If i win that session, i am a good poker, if i lose in the session, i am a loser of poker and I go on tilt
I tilt and then donk off the rest of the losing (in hopes to win back what I lost).
I claim i have a good bankroll management strategy. It's great management when I first deposit. It's wonderful if once i deposit, i have a winning session, it's great when I have a second day winning session but when I don't have a good day, i lose.
I win pots. I control pots on losses.
I hate it when I am coolered.
I hate it when I am bad beat. Everyone elses fault
Bad move with me since I was crushed.
I can ramble more but i have decided that I can make a decision to play better poker for a long term +EV approach. I want to make a run for it and learn, study and be real with myself to determine that I am going to get better. I hope to look back at this first post and say and lay claim that I let others clean my tank for me and also be able to teach other algae eaters to quit cleaning tanks and start getting better.
weeeeee
Oct. 25, 2016 | 6:02 p.m.
kind of like the sunday millions final table motif.
June 30, 2015 | 11:36 p.m.
It screams PokerStars Home game maybe? I'd love that. I would think we could just set it up and go for it. I would be happy to play with bounties of the pros and get a RIO shirt or something. I think we could do a leaderboard and accumilate points and winner gets elite. I can't afford elite but I would like to beat up on some poker to play to win elite.
June 30, 2015 | 12:43 p.m.
My favorite all time show. Now you got me wanting to bing The Wire yet again.
June 30, 2015 | 12:40 p.m.
i think that you played it ok. If you did xb turn, you would be positioned more favorably to a better decision.
June 30, 2015 | 12:35 p.m.
i am inclined to say to that A7s is a little too wide to play in 5nl. I used to think this route that I "play vs weak player" would be a profitable for me too. In 5nl, you want to really work on winrate on the long term, not the session.
In the long term, it's not worth it profitably to do that UTG in any game. It is a risk to your winrate and I personally wouldn't do it. It be far more profitable to fold that pre and play a bit more patient to play more profitable hands. You risk too many good hands that won't fold and A7 doesn't flop well imo and just hard to play OOP against the remainder of players with their range.
I would advise to not think in terms of the session you are in, but in the long term. It's ok for a fold.
June 30, 2015 | 12:27 p.m.
i would think that the range calling to a 3bet would not be A2s-A5s. I agree with the rest of the range though. I would also take out T8s/T9s out of the range.I would add 55+
On that board, I would C-bet>barrel the turn if heart or A peels. I don't like calling on this board on the turn. You have a good fold equity to complete the hand. You got alot of cards that will improve your hand.
June 30, 2015 | 12:18 p.m.
I have had a good experience with Bovada Card Catcher. I invested it for I only play at Bovada. The games are too soft to play anywhere else so it's great for the ring games and keep score of my sessions of my HUD. I live in Kentucky so i am very limited on where I can play online. I can only play on either ACR or Bovada and I am one to just play one place. I prefer Bovada.
June 27, 2015 | 2:38 p.m.
In MTT's, there are two types of patience to pursue, one is passive patience and the other one is steadfast patience. I have traditionally had issues with MTT's in bubble play and either bubble tourneys or min cash. It is due to patience and see that it is the first type of patience "passive patience".
When thinking of MTT's. Each chip has more value on the bubble and pay jumps. I don't want to go into explaining ICM to the crew but it plays into our minds when we fall in danger zones at bubble with a 5bb to 20bb stack in those spots. I believe the edge of solid MTT poker players is they have steadfast patience. It's what's needed to crush the entire tournament as a whole and all other tournaments combined. It's when you are in a tournament and you are correctly rolled for the tournament so that mentally you are better at the game. Also, being real with the volume of your tournament. Let me explain it this way...
If you are able to play 5 days a week and your schedule is a 1K DS, 5K rebuy, and 10K DS, and throw in 5 - 1K turbos in the mix. Depending on where you play, say you are putting in 75 to 100.00 in buyins a day and you have a 50 buyin Your bankroll is say 5000.00 in the poker roll. The high variance of MTT's 50 buyins is a little light in my opinion but for sake of discussion, lets say 50 is ok knowing that you are ok to re deposit or taking out moving down in stakes on tourneys for sake of a downswing.
Now, in a game where mincashing or bubble and not going too deep in the tourneys are a problem, it's possible that passive patience is taking over verses the steadfast patience. Steadfast patience knows about the 50 buyins and that you will take the profitable jam in spots that otherwise the passive patience would take the line of folding because you feel you are afraid of the bad beat and that you have "invested the time playing this tournament not to bubble).
There is value in ICM and also there is value of beating the variance of the entire game as well over the long term. You take a bad beat at the bubble or one in a mincash. The possibility of looking at that same hand 50 times over, variance will say that the same decision would be more profitable in the long run.
Now looking at your schedule... say you play this same schedule 5 days a week, you will see more scores than if you are doing this same schedule only two days a week. So less weekly volume in the MTT means you need a stronger steadfast patience than say when you play more volume.
Why do i write this to you all? Well this is me in a nutshell. i am a low volume player. So with this steadfast patience mentality, it means I need to work more on my steadfast patience and move away the passive patience which will result in a better yearly winrate.
I think for those that play live MTT's or on a MTT circuit for i am sure that the suffering can come from long days of play with slower game play. I honestly love the longer lower structures but I think there is value anyway in this. I think working on steadfast patience would be the route to take verses passive patience.
Last example of this is a hand in a WSOP Circuit i was in at Cincy. I had won a few pots early on in the second level so I was play pretty aggro simply because i had strong cards. The CO was a Circuit reg and this was a re - entry tournament. Multi way pot was brewing, a few limps, CO raises, I 3 bet out of the BB. a fold, a 4 bet hits and CO simply jams, i hold AA so what do i do, fold? NOPE i jam and all folds and CO calls. Lay the cards out on the table and he has QQ and I have AA. He rivers the A. devastating. It took me awhile to get over this but if you are are a circuit grinder and are properly rolled and you have a strong steadfast patience, then you will crush this game for you would just re enter and go at it again and pray that same scenario will hit you with the AA. Again, it was the only event i played. I took my walk of shame, went to play cash for the rest of the day.
June 26, 2015 | 12:22 p.m.
Pre flop
The UTG is a fish who calls 3 bets and never folds, that is a 3-bet all the time with the AJ hand esp with others to act. SO kudos on the 3-bet. He has a sick range to call your 3-bet OP and good read. If you had just called Pre, that would be awful and lose value against a fish if you didn't 3 bet and if any other competent players were in the
The turn that is interesting, your check is fine there. I think he would call the jam for I don't know if you would have gotten him off his made pair. So you continuing the hand to see the free card is fine. I am thinking your play is totally fine. Good hand.
June 25, 2015 | 1:02 p.m.
@felitwell since writing this... I had blown through Mental Game of poker 1 and 2. Variance is a part of poker. I am doing much much better with my tilt. I am back at it and really working on getting rid of that C game and D game.
Since this post, I have suffered some ring game allins that lost and when I look back at the hand, I would do it over and over again for it's profit. The biggest thing in all of mentality is making sure I am rolled right. Honestly, i had not. Now, being properly rolled, I am taking proper spots of allin situations and now see that it punishes others that are in the game improperly rolled and tilting.
I know see that even those this may come in as a oxymoron that "Good poker players will lose buyins as long as they win more buyins than they lose". You can't do that if you are underrolled initially in the game.
June 25, 2015 | 12:21 p.m.
I hate to put these types of hands but they often put me in a pickle a lot of the times. Here is the hand from a Bovada Zoom 5nl.
Bovada Zone .02/.05
UTG Hero = $8.03
UTG+1 $2.45
CO= $3.75
BTN= $3.99
SB= $2.13
BB= $2.05
Pre Flop
UTG Hero KdKh raises to 0.15
UTG+1 calls 0.15
CO folds
BTN folds
SB folds
BB calls 0.15
FLOP 9h Ac Kc
BB - checks
HERO - bets 0.23
UTG+1 - folds
BB - calls 0.23
Turn is 9h Ac Kc Ah
BB - checks
*HERO - 0.75
BB- calls
River is 9h Ac Kc Qc
BB checks with $1.52
Hero - ??
I don't have any reads for it's Bovada zone so I am playing straight forward. he seems to be playing very passive or trapping, one of the two. I have seen some really wacko plays on the site since I started this weekend playing here so it wouldn't surprise me some A rag that is being played here from the Villian.
The checks to my strong triple barrel seems pretty strong on his side. The question, should I have folded?
June 21, 2015 | 2:22 p.m.
I have taken a little break reading up some Jarod Tendler and catching some good vidz on RIO.i am feeling really good about a new attitude and ready to get back at it.
I am really seeing a mental leak in my mindset dealing with results. My results are way off that is setting me up literally for failure.
I am going to try and not have daily $$ results. This is huge problem for me. My daily results should be volume and get rid of my C and D game and think and play optimally.
I also am moving rooms. It will be bovada. I need volume and that is the only place I can go for 10nl zoom like tables. So I am moving rolls which I am going from Bitcoin to hard cash. Lol. Nice to see Bitcoin hit up so waiting for deposit in account to deposit.
June 17, 2015 | 4:24 a.m.
Samu. I am new to ring games (was a Mtt) and that is encouraging you say that. I have been re evaluating this week on adjusting a strong bit. My sample size actually is small. I am wanting to push volume more to really determine the win rate over a larger volume. The win rate is high only for a short volume of over 2k hands. It is heading to its normal losing session. #notaboss
I do think that volume and winrate do go hand in hand to # Buyins to determine raising stake.
June 17, 2015 | 4:08 a.m.
I am a MTT"r moving to ring as well. I understand being a bit too aggro at first. over 60 hands, seems not enough to figure out if the guy is a nit so i don't suggest folding pre.
I agree with Bod on this one which is to flat the 3bet. If he is a perceived nit in the game and he 3 bets, you need a tightened range held on your 4 bet range. I only see strength if he isn't in much of the pots over 60 hands and when he is in one, it's most likely he has a tight range to start and a very tight range for his 3 bet range. The TT isn't strong enough with Villians range to 4 bet him.
so the flat would be better in that spot.
June 14, 2015 | 9:05 p.m.
Lucky, i am good with buyins. I actually have the buyins for 25nl tbh but I prefer to go down and make sure I am beating the game before moving up. I have hung out with my kids this weekend. I have been really enjoying the time off. I have been hitting up some videos and the forums.
I believe this last session was one where I tend to be more results oriented for the day which I believe that in what I am now thinking is absolutely wrong. With the next session, i hope to not be so in the results oriented on a day but in the long term and take each hand and make good +EV decisions knowing that sometimes, I could make a +EV decision and lose.
June 14, 2015 | 8:41 p.m.
I have been contemplating playing Bovada. It be alright to keep the same BRM on zone tables?
June 13, 2015 | 6:55 p.m.
I see quite a bit of zoom tables on videos and have a general question about zoom in general. I am a US based player and play on the WPN network that doesn't have zoom type games. Is the strat on zoom games different than regular ring games?
June 13, 2015 | 2:16 p.m.
what about not moving up until you have a certain amount of hands in that particular stake and look at your bb/100 hands rate? What would be a good bb/100 to determine if you are a winning player at that particular stake? I hesitate "moving up" by just determining how many buyins you have in your BR?
I am wondering this. I think it's fine in 5nl to move up by buyins. I am in the 10nl and i have recently decided to hang in there until I have a 10bb/100 before moving up even though i have 50 buyins for that particular game in my bankroll??
June 13, 2015 | 2:13 p.m.
changed my term to "Flat". haha. thx
June 13, 2015 | 1:40 p.m.
I believe that for me, I'd fold personally after the 4 bet being an unknown. If villain was a spazz, that would have been a perfect spot but think since you didn't have a good read on him, then it's a fold and wait for a better spot.
Being unknown, i'd say his range is premiums and could have you crushed.I don't know if I'd go so far to say 5 bet jam pre with that hand though.
June 13, 2015 | 3:53 a.m.
I am new to ring games coming from playing SnG and MTT's for 4 years. I use bitcoin so it allows for me to deposit with a credit card and withdraw with bitcoin nightly and I am not sure if any of you all do this but I don't play with my entire roll on a poker room. I have a credit card simply that holds my roll and at the start of my play, I deposit 4 buyins $100 for 25nl. My stop loss is 4 buyins so basically if the roll is gone.
Last Wednesday where I hit my first stop loss. I looked at my bb / 100 hands and it went down. I have been accustomed to seeing the up mountain going up and up and now with 4 buyins, it went down and now feel pretty bad. I am seeing myself as a donk. Now i feel like i need to punish myself and not not play for a week. I have looked back at my hands and I literally see myself in auto pilot and I see my worst day for me. I wasn't feeling well, felt tired and was 6 tabling and wasn't making good decisions.
Here are my thoughts....
I know he doesn't ...oooh yeah he does, damn it!
I have him killed, no way he has it...
I am just going to jam him for he .... oooh he calls? with oooh yeah the nuts.
My 3 bet will get him off this, nope he jams? damn it I got this
and i felt like a donk. My second rebuy was this and my third buy, i got this thinking I got this, I will win something and it was just horrible.
Anyway, after a bad session, is it ok just take off a couple of days and then refresh your mind? What do you do during these sessions?
June 13, 2015 | 2:42 a.m.
I would say, good luck with that. The "bluff" would it get him off of AA? Is he solid reg that would fold Aces? I guess i need to work more on folding AA properly myself. I am getting better at it but man, I can't tell you how I should fold but for some freakin reason, I still think that AA is the nutz!!! I am a donkey i guess ha ha. One day, AA is only Ace High!
June 13, 2015 | 2:28 a.m.
definitely flat in that spot. With a spazz, you want to stack. I don't see the UTG to ever 4 bet so his call is proper. I would expect that with his holdings.
It seems the pot would grow with spazz in the hand so you want to let your position lead the FTR. Not knowing the flop, On pre, it would be A B C poker. Play your position. Hope that helps.
Is it ok to fold to the A5s facing the 3bet of OOP Pre? I am often faced with this in 5nl and though A5s is strong, is it bottom of the range of hands when SB is 3bet OOP? I am not sure but i would think the SB is pretty strong with JJ+, maybe AQs+, i am thinking KQs is a bit of a stretch for it being a 3bet range SB OOP to begin the flop on.
Nov. 16, 2016 | 4:05 p.m.