Welcome

Hello all, welcome to my online poker blog.

I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.

I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).

Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.

I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.





Saturday, 4 June 2011

New Database

Just created my new database. I feel rough today (self inflicted) so I'll begin to play tomorrow. I have no plans so I will probably put in a few hours.
Getting Better
-At least until I begin to build up statistics on people again I intend to play two tables at a time with a focus on colour coding and taking notes on people. I should still get through 600 or so hands per hour which is plenty for now.
-I'm really going to start thinking about value again, and will begin to call less often on every street (barring preflop where I'm a nit anyway). For example on dry flops I've been prone to float with the very best of my unpaired hands - e.g. AKo when someone c-bets on a Q72r. But I'm going to start playing this sort of hand a little more aggressively I think; there's no harm in having a bluff heavy flop raising range since most players c-bet too often. Plus this is just the sort of hand we should be bluffing with for balance (generally hands with between 4 and 8 outs are good candidates for bluffs). I'll become especially careful when I bluff catch on the river. I definitely think that this has become a significant leak.
-Playing the big blind has been a problem for me, although I have run horribly there for probably 200k hands. Playing such a tight range in largely 3-bet pots should be getting me tons of money at showdown but I've only been winning 47% of the time. This has been the biggest cause of my break even (or slightly losing) stretch of hands. Of course I probably have not played particularly well in some spots and this is something that I will try and address. I will begin to 3-bet larger versus players who like to play implied odds (preflop calling stations in other words) and really crucify loose small blind raisers. I'll also really focus on never 'flicking it in' with marginal hands. Really, the amount of times you flop a strong hand or draw is minuscule and absolutely not worth the extra investment. It's fine to flat a loose button opener with good suited broadways and play a heads-up pot. But when an early position player opens and gets two callers, even getting great odds as you are I just don't believe that it is possible to win enough back on average to make calling here worthwhile unless you have mid pocket pairs. These are the only hands I will speculate with - probably 77-QQ.

I found a thread on 2+2 which has somehow disappeared in the last two hours - I expect the mods moved it - about someone running below EV. There were some interesting responses and graphs posted. This has made me feel much better about my bad run - these are good players who have been through much tougher swings and come back. But there was also some good advice there, recommending that you forget about all-in EV and just focus on getting better. This will be my philosophy from now on : Just play within my bankroll and try to improve. GL all

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