RoleTide

RunItTw1ce I used to take notes after every session when I started playing again two years ago. I would note things like my focus level, player reads, and hands/situations I was confused about. After year one, I cut it out because it was a little bit time consuming. In hindsight, that was probably a mistake on my end. I cut that completely out of my routine and didn't consider the impact it likely had. Now that you mentioned it, I am going to get back into that habit. Thanks!

@freenachos recent video inspired me to start studying like a boss. I spent some time looking through Holdem Manager for some leaks to determine a good area to focus on. While looking through my database, I realized that I don't spend a lot of time studying the game from the non-aggressive side of the table. The majority of my study goes into me being the aggressor and exploiting my opponent. When I first started playing poker almost 20 years ago, you could literally just print money by playing aggressively. However, in today's game where everyone is a little more balanced, I need to drastically improve how I approach the game as the non-aggressive preflop caller.

I chose to go with a spreadsheet instead of the flash cards like Nacho supported. I think it achieves the same goal but helps me stay a little more organized. I am just looking at BBvBN SRP situation where we check from the BB and see a bet.

After taking some quick notes on a situation, I will drill the flop spot 50 times and then drill the entire hand 50 times. Most of my blunders were sizing blunders during the full hand session.
50 hands just flop

50 hands to the river

I plan to do this daily for about an hour each day. @QingYang also has a great Live Seminar on BB defense that I am working through as well. Within a few weeks, I should be able to play the big blind like a boss!!

Here for the storytelling. Good luck!

Great first video and addition to the coaching staff!

Keep us updated and good luck!!!

FreeNachos Great intro video and I really look forward to your future videos. I am going to start implementing your note taking strategy tonight. Thanks!

Short stacked cash games are the worst!! Good luck in the tourneys!

I had a great trip with the family and I just started hitting the tables a little bit again this week. I didn’t play for 10 days which is the longest break I have taken in 2 years. However, I did play a lot of chess in my free time on the trip. I learned some things about my poker game from my time playing chess on this trip.

1.) I am getting old and this affects me more than I realized. I turn 40 next month and my focus/decision making drastically goes down when I am tired. At the end of a long day on vacation, I would play chess to wind down a little bit. I would make sooooooo many idiotic mistakes. This made me realize that playing poker at the end of a long day when the kids go to bed is probably a huge leak of mine.

2.) I am terrible at the 5 min. Chess games now. My brain is not as quick as it once was. I need a few extra seconds once we get past the openings. Similarly, this hurts me when playing multiple tables with a short time bank. I don’t have enough time to adjust my turn/river strategies when playing as many tables as I used to. I am going to sacrifice volume for better play.

3.) I autopilot a lot of decisions at the beginning of the chess match. I do this with poker for many of my pre-flop and flop decisions. Sometimes I arrive on a turn with little recall of how I got there.

Time to refocus and get some quality poker sessions in for the rest of the summer.

Ryan Henry thank you so much! I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I foresee a lean mean fighting machine. Good luck!

Play shorter sessions when trying to stretch yourself by adding tables or add in more breaks. The good thing about Zoom is that you can jump in and out of the pool with ease. Consider setting like a 30-minute timer or something. Good luck!

Great video! Initially, I couldn't believe that we should be donking range on certain turn textures in 4 bet pots. I clearly have some studying to do. Thanks for opening my eyes a little to a situation that I haven't studied much.

I appreciate you working us through your thought process. I like turning weak showdown hands into bluffs over calling when our villain takes such a weak line as we saw in the 77 hand. Turn checking ranges are really unprotected below 200nl.

Great video! Any chance you could make a video where you break down some of the different strategic approaches to the different tourney types? Just general approaches to deep stack, turbos, bounties, progressive bounties, etc…

Great intro video and I look forward to the next! I plan to stretch my psychological flexibility first thing in the morning.

I look forward to watching your future videos! I think a lot of essential viewers are part time players and could benefit from videos on balancing jobs, family, friends, poker, etc…

I wouldn’t worry much about capping my range at the micros and being exploited. There is still good value in checking strong hands on boards where the villain can’t have much due to card removal.

Headed to Texas in the morning for a week. We are going to spend some time with family out there and do some fun stuff with the kids in San Antonio. Unfortunately, it is going to be scorching hot at 108 degrees when we are at Sea World. Maybe I should fake a heat stroke to get some air conditioning time away from the kids. Regardless, no poker for me the next week, but I should be able to watch some poker videos here and there.

I like that general rule of thumb! Most of his range was 88-JJ so it was a pretty bad attempt on my part regardless of blockers.

Range check

Fold...I am assuming this is live and I don't expect many bluff raises with this line.

Shoving all flushes if villain won't ever fold str8. Just calling small flushes vs. a more competent player.

KJs: fully agree here, river its unfortunately a x/f. What was your
reasoning for shoving?

No good reason. At the time I was just short on time and stuck it in there because I had 2 pair and less than a pot size bet left. One of the struggles I have with Zone is the lack of time. I was trying to play 4-6 regular tables and 2 Zone tables, but this is just too much for me. This hand is one of the reasons that I decided to reduce down to 2 & 2.

10k Hand Update

I am starting to get a better feel for the pool. Here are some big hands I didn't play well and one of me getting owned.
Bad hand choice for this bluff. Spades don't barrel here due to us blocking floats.

Flop is never a check. We should be cbetting 100% of range. River jam is pretty bad.

I just get owned here.

Whats your goal?

Butcher1848 My overall goal is to be able to play in good games. I am a schoolteacher with a family of 4. My time is limited, and I only get in 12-15 hours a week during the school year. Therefore, my goal is to stay in the mid-stakes. I currently play 200/500nl on Global while dipping into the 1k when the game looks good. I would like to be able to do the same on Bovada, but I need to learn how to navigate an anonymous pool first. I should be comfortable with the dynamics of playing in an anonymous pool after 50k hands. Once I feel comfortable in this format, I will move up on Bovada and spread out my play.

How comfortable are you against this player? If I have a good read on them I would use a small 4 bet size to 650. If I’m not comfortable with my read then I’m just jamming.

Pre is fine this deep. Flop should be a check. You’re not betting an overpair or AQ in a 5 way pot here and you don’t have many bluffs either. Therefore you should be range checking flop.

As played the turn is a fold. Your hand looks super strong so I don’t see him jamming worse than a full house here.

First...that gets something right :)

I am giving away some free info, but I like contributing to the community. Not many players on Bovada visit this forum anyway. Hopefully others like yourself provide some feedback along the way. Ideally, I won't be in this pool very long.

Why not two fast fold tables on bovada and 2 regular tables on Bovada?

Mostly because the games on Global are just softer. I wanted to add Bovada for the challenge and to expand my options.

Max Lacerda Great video! I appreciate you working us through your thought process as you navigate each spot. In the video you mentioned that you do not think we should have a SB calling range. Are there exceptions to this rule like being deep stacked? Also, at what stakes should you start integrating calls into your SB range?