I agree with jlost

Its really a Work-In-Progress. I do however, see tremendous potential in the style.

http://img168.imageshack.us/i/anothercrapsession.png/

I make some mistakes in spots that cost me alot of money. Most of my losses are from stuff that I feel like if I work hard I can get away from my mistakes. The style really gets you in a bunch of close spots, and to be able to play it I have to hand-read effectively enough to get away from them. Its a really fun way to play I think and I hope to be able to use it profitably [Against the right opponents]. Of course, I would also need to have TAG in my skill-sets as well and just use whatever works at the time.

Anyway...Here are some hands I wanted some help with. If you were at the table, what kinda insight would the mentioned hands give you about how the player plays? How would you adjust? (Theres Some Information Regarding Each Hand way at the Bottom. Its not much but Its probably better to read it before or while lookinga t the hands).

A side Question I have was When you are Thinking about Preflop Ranges, How do you group the Broadways so its organized? Like when people Say JT+ or KJ+ I confuse myself into thinking it goes up by Jacks, Tens, or Connectors Ex Goes up by JT,JQ vs JT,QT,KT, vs JT,QJ,KQ. What do you guys use to organize this?

Hand 1 Submitted by : hiems

PokerStars Game #44208369176: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10 USD) - 2010/05/17 1:44:54 ET
Table Messina 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: magsasebo ($9.10 in chips)
Seat 2: NesterR ($9.45 in chips)
Seat 3: O0ORO0O ($10 in chips)
Seat 4: Kafuncho ($18.35 in chips)
Seat 5: Hero ($10.05 in chips)
Seat 6: lazyfishps ($11.30 in chips)
O0ORO0O: posts small blind $0.05
Kafuncho: posts big blind $0.10

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
Hero: raises $0.30 to $0.40
lazyfishps: folds
magsasebo: folds
NesterR: folds
O0ORO0O: calls $0.35
Kafuncho: folds

Flop (Pot : $0.90)

   
O0ORO0O: bets $0.60
Hero: raises $1.30 to $1.90
O0ORO0O: raises $7.70 to $9.60 and is all-in
Hero: folds
Uncalled bet ($7.70) returned to O0ORO0O
O0ORO0O collected $4.50 from pot
O0ORO0O: doesnt show hand

Summary
Total pot $4.70 | Rake $0.20
Board  
Seat 1: magsasebo folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 2: NesterR (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 3: O0ORO0O (small blind) collected ($4.50)
Seat 4: Kafuncho (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Hero folded on the Flop
Seat 6: lazyfishps folded before Flop (didnt bet)

PokerStars Game #44208667573: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10 USD) - 2010/05/17 2:03:11 ET
Table Messina 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: magsasebo ($11.65 in chips)
Seat 2: NesterR ($8.70 in chips)
Seat 3: O0ORO0O ($10.55 in chips)
Seat 5: Hero ($14.15 in chips)
Seat 6: lazyfishps ($10.85 in chips)
magsasebo: posts small blind $0.05
NesterR: posts big blind $0.10

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
O0ORO0O: folds
Hero: raises $0.20 to $0.30
lazyfishps: folds
magsasebo: calls $0.25
NesterR: folds

Flop (Pot : $0.70)

   
magsasebo: bets $0.40
Hero: calls $0.40

Turn (Pot : $1.50)

   
magsasebo: checks
Hero: bets $1.10
magsasebo: calls $1.10

River (Pot : $3.70)

   
magsasebo: checks
O0ORO0O leaves the table
Hero: bets $2.60
magsasebo: folds
Uncalled bet ($2.60) returned to Hero
Hero collected $3.55 from pot
Hero: doesnt show hand

Summary
Total pot $3.70 | Rake $0.15
Board  
Seat 1: magsasebo (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: NesterR (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: O0ORO0O folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 5: Hero collected ($3.55)
Seat 6: lazyfishps (button) folded before Flop (didnt bet)

0 votes

Spot Tight-Aggressive players when you are playing Hud-less? And figure out the idiosyncrasies to their game? Emphasis on playing hudless.

It seems that players that are fishy, laggy, and nitty are easy to spot, since their qualities are at extremities. But

I have trouble spotting "tight-aggressive" type players.

What kind of things do you look for? Which of those is the most important?

How soon do you reach conclusions? Do you ever make certain plays to "Test" how they will react to get a read? (Ex flatting a river bet to see how they play, or 3-betting them IP).

0 votes

Comments (16)

http://img132.imageshack.us/i/toolaggy.png/

Submitted by : hiems

***** Hand History for Game 44054983831 ***** Poker Stars
$10.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, May 13, 08:50:19 ET 2010
Table Chantal IV Real Money
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Babs0101 $16.20 USD
Seat 2: s7385s $11.10 USD
Seat 3: QHealthy $10.00 USD
Seat 4: Hero $10.00 USD
Seat 5: Gdan4ik777 $10.00 USD
Seat 6: kriver11 $8.60 USD
s7385s posts small blind [$0.05 USD].
QHealthy posts big blind [$0.10 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Hero raises [$0.30 USD]
Gdan4ik777 folds
kriver11 folds
Babs0101 calls [$0.30 USD]
s7385s calls [$0.25 USD]
QHealthy folds

Flop (Pot : $1.00)

   
s7385s checks
Hero bets [$0.70 USD]
Babs0101 calls [$0.70 USD]
s7385s folds

Turn (Pot : $2.40)

   
Hero bets [$2.10 USD]
Babs0101 calls [$2.10 USD]

River (Pot : $6.60)

   
Hero bets [$6.90 USD]

***** Hand History for Game 44053582161 ***** Poker Stars
$10.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, May 13, 08:11:52 ET 2010
Table Chantal IV Real Money
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: EyecedTea $14.10 USD
Seat 2: s7385s $12.30 USD
Seat 3: Branech $10.00 USD
Seat 4: Hero $10.80 USD
Seat 5: JURIKA $5.05 USD
Seat 6: Gdan4ik777 $10.00 USD
Hero posts small blind [$0.05 USD].
JURIKA posts big blind [$0.10 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
Gdan4ik777 folds
EyecedTea folds
s7385s folds
Branech raises [$0.30 USD]
Hero raises [$0.95 USD]
JURIKA folds
Branech calls [$0.70 USD]

Flop (Pot : $2.05)

   
Hero bets [$1.00 USD]
Branech calls [$1.00 USD]

Turn (Pot : $4.05)

   
Hero bets [$2.00 USD]
Branech calls [$2.00 USD]

River (Pot : $8.05)

   
Hero bets [$6.80 USD]
Branech calls [$6.00 USD]
Hero wins $0.80 USD
Hero shows

***** Hand History for Game 44054912642 ***** Poker Stars
$10.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, May 13, 08:48:16 ET 2010
Table Chantal IV Real Money
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: Babs0101 $8.40 USD
Seat 2: s7385s $10.90 USD
Seat 3: QHealthy $10.00 USD
Seat 4: Hero $12.60 USD
Seat 5: Gdan4ik777 $10.00 USD
Seat 6: kriver11 $9.00 USD
kriver11 posts small blind [$0.05 USD].
Babs0101 posts big blind [$0.10 USD].

Holecards
Dealt to Hero [ ]
s7385s folds
QHealthy folds
Hero raises [$0.30 USD]
Gdan4ik777 folds
kriver11 calls [$0.25 USD]
Babs0101 calls [$0.20 USD]

Flop (Pot : $0.90)

   
kriver11 checks
Babs0101 bets [$0.30 USD]
Hero raises [$1.40 USD]
kriver11 folds
Babs0101 calls [$1.10 USD]

Turn (Pot : $3.70)

   
Babs0101 checks
Hero bets [$1.90 USD]
Babs0101 calls [$1.90 USD]

River (Pot : $7.50)

   
Babs0101 checks
Hero bets [$9.00 USD]

0 votes

I wanted to mix up more live play, as I feel you can learn some different skill sets from playing live...So I drove myself down to Atlantic City to play $1-2. Anyway long story short...the game was really easy, and I won some money, which was nice. One of the guys at the table was being really loud and constantly talking... and looked, sounded, and acted exactly like Mike Matusow. I said that hes just like Mike Matusow. Turns out hes actually his cousin. What a sick read!

Anyway...My question is regarding conversation at the table.

When people started conversations with me earlier in the session I just ignored them for the most part as I wanted to just focus on everything that was happening and try to process information.

But I dont know what it is, whether its "because its interesting to talk to people" type or thing or "Its really seems akward as hell and a dick move to just keep ignoring people at the table" type of thing...later in the session I started to talk to some of the players. The problem is that its really hard to pay attention to hands that are going on while doing this, and its definitely +EV, especially in the learning department, not to talk to people at the table.

So I guess my question for people with some live experience is how do you balance your focus and the social aspect of being at a poker table? (Ex. I would assume an ipod would help).

0 votes

Comments (8)

Its been 1 month without poker. Its sucked pretty hardcore. But I still gotta keep up the school grind so I'll remain poker free for the next month or so. I havn't played any poker in the past month and I have also avoided picking up any new books. Hasn't been easy! But I'm hanging in there.

Anyway I figured since my pokerstars ban just expired I might as well blog about an update of the past month.


Been thinking about various "Soft Skills" regarding poker that I want to implement.
I have been thinking about the game daily. And I have watched a couple of the HSP episodes and I randomly caught some poker on TV.

Anyway.

I wanted to write a bit about what I felt was the coolest discovery I had during this time.

Something that always stuck with me was the fact that Good players seem to have excellent memory when it comes to poker hands. That they can describe hands they played years ago in really vivid detail. The way they seem to describe their hands is usually much more detailed than that of a bad player"

I think I read it some time ago in Super System, or maybe just general poker articles. It seems just common knowledge that this is the case. Anyway I was reminded of this fact when I caught a video of BoostedJ describing to an interviewer about a wacky hand involving a misclick. The hand isnt quite important. But the detail in which he was able describe the hand was impressive to me.

So I began to think about this. "How is he able to so vividly recall his hand?"

Then I tried to recall the last hands I played. And if I could replay even one hand as vividly as Justin Smith had. And I realized that the only hand I could do this with was a hand where I had JJ on the button. I opened for 3x. The SB and BB called. The villain in question was the SB. Effective stacks were about 250 Big Blinds.
I had seen him flat his QQ preflop and take a check-call Check-fold line on an ace high flop earlier in the session. Anyway flop came QdJd8c. Blinds checked to me. I cbet about 3/4 of the pot. He insta shoved his 250 bb stack over.

Anyway the hand is super easy to remember. But I remembered it in decent detail. No other poker hand, could I just recollect from my memory as well as this one.

I then asked myself why this was the case...No one is going to figure this out but this hand is actually from one of my earlier blog posts. Its from a LIVE session I played with a couple of friends of mine.

I realized that the reason I could recollect this hand was because after the session I blogged about this particular hand and had to describe every detail about this hand by writing about it. And that was the reason why I was able to remember it so vividly.
If this is the case, then this miraculous "ability to remember" better than other people is not simply the function of god given talent. Rather, it might just be that "Naturals" just have a natural tendency to have certain natural behaviors that allow them to better remember than others. Maybe they discuss hands constantly with friends and tell them how the hand played out. Maybe some other factor. etc...

But the points to take are 1) Your ability to remember and describe hands better can be improved 2) Just posting hand histories don't do your review sessions justice. As the hand converter and hand history take away the learning you get by simply describing your own hand.

So If this is the case, than through work, you can improve your poker memory and the information you get by seeing poker hands play out in action.

Yeah so after that moment, I tried to apply the philosophy. I had two opportunities in the past month (like I said I havn't been playing poker).

The first was when the 25k Highrollers event at the Venetian randomly crawled up on ESPN2. Sweet! Poker. I had been so deprived...Anyway I decided to implement my discovery in action.

Whenever I used to watch poker on TV, I would just see the hand. And Id kinda be like "Okay that happened." And It just wouldnt be stimulating. Or maybe to better put it, the information of the events that transpired just didnt have a "First person feel" to it as it is relevant to me.

Anyway after each hand that was played I tried to mimic what I did on the JJ hand. I retold the story. Trying to capture details as vividly as possible. And really, I feel likes its a great exercise and habit to develop. For example there was a hand that daniel negreanu led out in a multiway pot with 56dd on a diamond board (Don't want to retell the hand)...But before I retold myself the hand I was like "Oh that just happened." But after I retold the hand to myself I was like "Oh wow. Daniel will lead out a pretty wide range on that board into four players." I mean...its not the most profound of discoveries. But its a great babystep in my development I felt.


SO...Yesterday night randomly my friends text me and we play a really small buy in sit and go tourney! Sweet! first time playing poker in a month!

BLAH. Anyway I was going to describe some of the realizations I had in this session//ask some questions. But THIS BLOG IS TOO LONG!! And will be DR almost certainly if I don't stop soon.

Anyway yeah. Posting a nice little update. Can't wait to be back at the tables.

-Also, requesting another 2 week ban from LP.

0 votes

Comments (7)

Okay so the week and a half or so have been crazy poker wise. I feel like I think about the game alot differently. And its an awesome feeling.

I have one real life friend that plays poker. He only plays heads up sit and gos. I think he is a really strong player. Value bets extremely well, thinks in terms of ranges, adjusts super quickly. He went on a run-bad while moving up the 22s so he got really pissed and quit poker, but I am trying to get him back in the game for various reasons.

Anyway I played him heads up at a $2 sit and go with 5-6 rematches just to play for fun, and WOW heads up really really teaches you alot. And its SUPER fun. You dont have to wait a million years for an intersting spot. Esp against an aggressive player. My initiative of playing "Hudless" will now just be playing my friend heads up hudless very often.

But the downside of the past couple of weeks is that I am now obsessed with poker. Its all I can really think about. I try to get caught up with work but I can't stop thinking poker. And its my last semester of college and I have to graduate.

So I'm officially going to request a ban from LiquidPoker.net until April 14th. Arbitray date I just picked out. Im gonna just grind out ALOT of studying so I can get caught up in my classes.

0 votes

Comments (20)

Im going to save the graphs for whenever they actually become meaningful.

But yeah I had a good session. The past couple of weeks have been somewhat frustrating. My original plan was just to regrind about the 5 buyins I needed to play NL 25 again...But I got my hands on a book so Ive been devoting 80% or so of my poker time to studying.

Applying the concepts were somewhat frustrating, and I experienced a patch of some swingy sessions. Ive learned that its better to be a learner than a winner. But nobody likes to lose of course.

Anyway this morning I decided to spend most of my day playing. I ran well at NL 10. I played pretty well also I think, and I applied alot of the concepts. So once I hit a ~700 I played a bit of NL 25 as I felt my game was really sharp at the time, and I ended up winning a bit there, which was nice.

Im posting updates cause awhile ago I used the search function to look at my old threads to see what my thought processes were back then. And I can see that alot of the people on LP have been really awesome in trying to help me learn how to play. But I saw that often Ive made alot of the same mistakes in poker. I may not even have remembered certain players have tried to help me in the past and stuff. I imagine coming from the perspective of a mentor, a bad student is probably a frustrating thing...especially since I have been playing micros for awhile. But I feel I have treated poker very unprofessionally in the past, and for sporadic commitments...And I feel like I am alot more serious this time.

Anyway yeah. Thx in general.

0 votes

Comments (2)

I played on my friend's computer without a HUD last night...I liked it actually.

So Im thinking about playing without the HUD a couple of times a week to develop hand reading and increase my concentration at the table. I'd still be importing my hands for review, and put log at least 50% hours with a hud so I could 4-table and gtfo of micros already.

Have any of you tried this routine in the past? If so, how were the results?

Edit : Kinda odd to put in this particular blog post. But if anyone knows how to write stats on HEM and wouldnt mind helping out with a stat I want to experiment with send me a PM

0 votes

Comments (4)

Id generally consider myself on the unorganized side. I noticed I am really inefficient at getting myself to review my own hands and my database in general.

What do you guys do to analyze your hands and improve outside of the game?

Also, does anyone has an excel template for EV calculations with some advanced ones that I might not be familiar with they wouldn't mind sharing??

0 votes

Comments (7)

Whats a good way to keep my lower body strong without going to gym and having equipment? I generally do squats/deadlifts...but its a pretty big time commitment to do this regularly in the next couple of years.

I wouldn't mind going for sprints or something like that around where I live for this. Also a consideration would be to keep my knees healthy in the long term. I want strong legs basically...Id probably mix in a couple trips to the gym during the month, but for those stretches where I dont go Its kinda important to have an alternative.

And what do you think is a good home workout for my upper body given that I only have a bench press and dumbbells. Im thinking about buying a pull-up bar, and something for my forearms. Don't have the money to shell out on a squat rack and kinda hesitant about shelling out money for an olympic bar and plates.

0 votes

Comments (17)