So it looks like my heater my have ended now, had one of those sessions where I seemed to be running into the top end of villains' ranges all of the time. Insane the number of times I was played back at post flop. To top it off I flopped the nut straight, managed to get the money in on the turn versus top two pair and lose to the four outer on the river. I then think I played around 1000 hands straight away without a break and was beginning to tilt; I made two or three particularly suspicious tilt-induced river calls which probably cost me the best part of a buy-in too. Disappointed I let it affect me in this way I'm usually pretty good but I was tired and so it was bound to be negative if things didn't go my way.
I have decided to do some more work on my game. I should easily get enough time to do this and still maintain the 10k hands per week. Specifically I'll be looking at improving my red line a little by 3-betting more often and also focussing on my blind play. I'm also going to be studying the recent Rush video content released on Cardrunners and Youtube (Citizenwind) closely. I feel that my post flop play (when I'm playing well) is pretty good. But I need to refine certain elements of my strategy. Just a few smallish leaks that should move my win rate up above 2 ptbb/100 for the first time.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
Update
Things going well, I'm currently enjoying a heater. The Rush games seem really terrific at the moment for some reason. There are times of the day when the regs seem to overcrowd the games but most of the time there's tons of weak players. There are also tons of bad regs who play a reasonable/semi-spewey preflop strategy and a very spewey post flop strategy. Winning money in these games is still entirely about getting value when you're good and folding when you sense you are beat. Value bet big and bluff small. I suspect the semi lags who are trying to win as many pots as possible are really losing a lot of money. If anyone watched my game strategy, they'd probably think I was the weakest most passive player ever. My strategy has so many holes it's ridiculous, but it seems to fit the current state of 25c Rush poker.
Here's an excellent article that you should read [thoughts on balance and rush], I think Citizenwind has a deep understanding of the game and thankfully is willing to share his knowledge. Tap this resource if you have any desire to get better.
Despite doing well currently I know that there are huge areas for improvement in my game and I will be tapping resources like the CW videos and cardrunners. I will never stop striving for improvement. GL
EDIT: One other thing I meant to say, my bankroll has improved such that I have enough to move up now using my criteria. However, I want more sturdy evidence that I'm beating this limit and 35k hands is not enough. So I'll probably be looking to go over to 0.25/0.50 sometime around April. Much looking forward to that, there's a general consensus that a winning strategy at 0.10/0.25 should work up there too.
Here's an excellent article that you should read [thoughts on balance and rush], I think Citizenwind has a deep understanding of the game and thankfully is willing to share his knowledge. Tap this resource if you have any desire to get better.
Despite doing well currently I know that there are huge areas for improvement in my game and I will be tapping resources like the CW videos and cardrunners. I will never stop striving for improvement. GL
EDIT: One other thing I meant to say, my bankroll has improved such that I have enough to move up now using my criteria. However, I want more sturdy evidence that I'm beating this limit and 35k hands is not enough. So I'll probably be looking to go over to 0.25/0.50 sometime around April. Much looking forward to that, there's a general consensus that a winning strategy at 0.10/0.25 should work up there too.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Winning Microstake's Poker (IMO)
1/ Play a superior strategy
This is much tougher than it used to be as the standard of play has improved. BUT there are still winning strategies out there, and many of the winners share these strategies on the forums. Read, learn and profit.
2/ Keep a cool head at all times
Each hand is merely a single result in a broad strategy. If someone lets these individual results affect their decision making, not only are they showing naivety about the mathematics but are turning what could be a good strategy into a mediocre or poor one. Who cares that your KK got sucked out on? As long as you play a superior overall strategy to most of your opponents you'll win. Forget the individual results and concentrate on the long term.
3/ Play within a good bankroll structure
I use a strategy of moving up at 50 buy-ins for the next limit and down at 90 buy-ins for the limit below. Simple, a little nitty for some people but it protects my investment and makes sure that I can concentrate on getting through volume.
4/ Play volume
This has been my biggest weakness in the past, but Rush poker has changed this forever. I can now play serious volume, up to around 50000 hands per month. That's a lot of poker. Volume is variance's enemy and nemesis; variance cannot beat volume, EVER. Play a winning strategy, keep cool, play volume and make money!
An element of strategy
The part of my strategy that has improved the most lately is my understanding of how conditions change during a hand. For example, you notice that a loose raiser from the button folds a lot to 3-bets and you decide to pull the trigger with Ac7c. We have already deduced that this play should make an immediate profit. However, our opponent actually calls. Now what? I used to just make an automatic c-bet and would often spew off half my stack or more running some bluff. But this is usually bad; against his continuing range the hand does pretty poorly, so it's best to continue when our equity improves on the flop e.g. flush draws, top pair etc. The fact we're check folding the flop most of the time does not make our first raise bad. Know when to give up on a bluff.
Way too early for me to be preaching strategy I know, sorry. GL
This is much tougher than it used to be as the standard of play has improved. BUT there are still winning strategies out there, and many of the winners share these strategies on the forums. Read, learn and profit.
2/ Keep a cool head at all times
Each hand is merely a single result in a broad strategy. If someone lets these individual results affect their decision making, not only are they showing naivety about the mathematics but are turning what could be a good strategy into a mediocre or poor one. Who cares that your KK got sucked out on? As long as you play a superior overall strategy to most of your opponents you'll win. Forget the individual results and concentrate on the long term.
3/ Play within a good bankroll structure
I use a strategy of moving up at 50 buy-ins for the next limit and down at 90 buy-ins for the limit below. Simple, a little nitty for some people but it protects my investment and makes sure that I can concentrate on getting through volume.
4/ Play volume
This has been my biggest weakness in the past, but Rush poker has changed this forever. I can now play serious volume, up to around 50000 hands per month. That's a lot of poker. Volume is variance's enemy and nemesis; variance cannot beat volume, EVER. Play a winning strategy, keep cool, play volume and make money!
An element of strategy
The part of my strategy that has improved the most lately is my understanding of how conditions change during a hand. For example, you notice that a loose raiser from the button folds a lot to 3-bets and you decide to pull the trigger with Ac7c. We have already deduced that this play should make an immediate profit. However, our opponent actually calls. Now what? I used to just make an automatic c-bet and would often spew off half my stack or more running some bluff. But this is usually bad; against his continuing range the hand does pretty poorly, so it's best to continue when our equity improves on the flop e.g. flush draws, top pair etc. The fact we're check folding the flop most of the time does not make our first raise bad. Know when to give up on a bluff.
Way too early for me to be preaching strategy I know, sorry. GL
Monday, 24 January 2011
Quick Link
In recent posts I have talked about Verneer's quest for $200 to $10000. He is currently experiencing a downswong and the recent posts are hilarious. Check the thread out and show your support, he's a big micro/small stakes winner who gives a lot of free advice and knowledge out. A good man who deserves to run good again!!
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Quick Note
Last post I spoke of some adjustments I was going to make, they boiled down to the following:
1/ Play more dynamic ranges from the CO through to Small Blind
When it folds to me in these positions I will now look at the HU display and decide whether I have enough fold equity to make the hand profitable. Previously I just had a fixed range which was playing into the hands of liberal 3-bettors.
2/ Look for more light stealing (3-bet and 4-bet) opportunities versus liberal late position raisers
If anyone is 3-betting you to death when you steal there are two adjustments you can make. The first is steal less often, the second to call or 4-bet more often. I have begun to do a little of both these things. Not enough to create a leak, but just enough to help.
What these changes have done is alter the slope of my red line by a fraction. As Sklansky (and Meteoric ;)) said poker is a battle for the blinds. Any time we can fight for and win a little more of the blind money it will make a difference to our win rate and that appears to be the case in my game. I think these adjustments will probably add around 1 ptbb/100 to my win rate which could make the difference between breaking even and making a tidy sum of money. My graph is beginning to look better, if you factor in the four buy-ins that I'm running beneath expectation then I should be very confident in my strategy and where it will take me over the next few weeks. As I said before, I have a long busy work week and I'll try and play as much as possible but I think it will only amount to 5k hands or something like that. GL
1/ Play more dynamic ranges from the CO through to Small Blind
When it folds to me in these positions I will now look at the HU display and decide whether I have enough fold equity to make the hand profitable. Previously I just had a fixed range which was playing into the hands of liberal 3-bettors.
2/ Look for more light stealing (3-bet and 4-bet) opportunities versus liberal late position raisers
If anyone is 3-betting you to death when you steal there are two adjustments you can make. The first is steal less often, the second to call or 4-bet more often. I have begun to do a little of both these things. Not enough to create a leak, but just enough to help.
What these changes have done is alter the slope of my red line by a fraction. As Sklansky (and Meteoric ;)) said poker is a battle for the blinds. Any time we can fight for and win a little more of the blind money it will make a difference to our win rate and that appears to be the case in my game. I think these adjustments will probably add around 1 ptbb/100 to my win rate which could make the difference between breaking even and making a tidy sum of money. My graph is beginning to look better, if you factor in the four buy-ins that I'm running beneath expectation then I should be very confident in my strategy and where it will take me over the next few weeks. As I said before, I have a long busy work week and I'll try and play as much as possible but I think it will only amount to 5k hands or something like that. GL
Thursday, 20 January 2011
10k hands for week done... More break-even-ness
Small win for the week but not good enough to be honest. It's good to get to my hand target as I know I won't likely get a chance to put in any volume on Saturday so I won't feel under pressure to get there tomorrow night. I can just play as many hands as I feel like - probably around 2k or something like that.
Leak Fixing
Now, I'm happy with much of my play but there is an area that I need to improve on and I think it will have a fairly large baring on my profitability. For the last 20k hands or so I've had a fixed preflop range from each position. I'm not sure why as I was much more dynamic at 10NL... I guess I just wanted to keep it simple while I was settling in. While I will likely not change much in the blinds or early positions I think that having too static a range in the CO and button is a mistake. I am raising trash from the cut off despite there being loose 3-bettors behind - which is costing me money. There is good evidence in my database that this is true as those two positions should be my biggest winners but are not. I will focus on this part of my play for the next few weeks, and I think that my winrate depends on me succeeding.
One of the top micro/small stakes Rush players citizenwind has just published a video series to youtube that looks good. I'll look to see what he is doing differently and adjust my game accordingly. GL all!
Leak Fixing
Now, I'm happy with much of my play but there is an area that I need to improve on and I think it will have a fairly large baring on my profitability. For the last 20k hands or so I've had a fixed preflop range from each position. I'm not sure why as I was much more dynamic at 10NL... I guess I just wanted to keep it simple while I was settling in. While I will likely not change much in the blinds or early positions I think that having too static a range in the CO and button is a mistake. I am raising trash from the cut off despite there being loose 3-bettors behind - which is costing me money. There is good evidence in my database that this is true as those two positions should be my biggest winners but are not. I will focus on this part of my play for the next few weeks, and I think that my winrate depends on me succeeding.
One of the top micro/small stakes Rush players citizenwind has just published a video series to youtube that looks good. I'll look to see what he is doing differently and adjust my game accordingly. GL all!
TAG vs LAG
TAG vs LAG
There is a lot of discussion in forums about loose players versus tight players. It is always the tight player who is mediocre; despite the fact they are winning for 4ptbb/100 they cannot be 'good' because they are tight. I have never worked out whether the people that write off the tags and nits are genuinely good loose players or just loose fish who think that they're good. I suspect it is the latter.
Consider a heads-up game without blinds. We have a loose aggressive player and a tight aggressive player who both play optimally both preflop and postflop. Who would win? I hope the answer is obvious... the tight player wins because his hand distribution has an equity advantage. In this example I think it would be foolish to call the tight player better (even though he wins in the long run) because both players are playing as well as they possibly can (optimally). [Note that if we had blinds this would complicate things because now we should assume that the looser player will win more of the blind money on average to compensate somewhat for the card disadvantage.]
My point is that being 'good' in this game does not have anything to do with being loose or tight. There are good tight players; there are good loose players. I'm convinced that the good tight players could play a profitable loose style and the loose players a profitable tight style if they chose to do so.
As far as this relates to my game - and the evidence suggests that I am just a break-even player at the games I'm playing in currently - I have seen strong evidence that a similar preflop strategy to my own can bring big returns in this game. This implies that I am doing some serious things wrong post flop. I certainly agree with this implication and I'm currently playing as much as I can in order to try and bring my game up to the next level.
There is a lot of discussion in forums about loose players versus tight players. It is always the tight player who is mediocre; despite the fact they are winning for 4ptbb/100 they cannot be 'good' because they are tight. I have never worked out whether the people that write off the tags and nits are genuinely good loose players or just loose fish who think that they're good. I suspect it is the latter.
Consider a heads-up game without blinds. We have a loose aggressive player and a tight aggressive player who both play optimally both preflop and postflop. Who would win? I hope the answer is obvious... the tight player wins because his hand distribution has an equity advantage. In this example I think it would be foolish to call the tight player better (even though he wins in the long run) because both players are playing as well as they possibly can (optimally). [Note that if we had blinds this would complicate things because now we should assume that the looser player will win more of the blind money on average to compensate somewhat for the card disadvantage.]
My point is that being 'good' in this game does not have anything to do with being loose or tight. There are good tight players; there are good loose players. I'm convinced that the good tight players could play a profitable loose style and the loose players a profitable tight style if they chose to do so.
As far as this relates to my game - and the evidence suggests that I am just a break-even player at the games I'm playing in currently - I have seen strong evidence that a similar preflop strategy to my own can bring big returns in this game. This implies that I am doing some serious things wrong post flop. I certainly agree with this implication and I'm currently playing as much as I can in order to try and bring my game up to the next level.
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