beating micro stakes pt3

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mnj United States. Dec 10 2010 07:56. Posts 3848

part 3: a few final words

vacuum ev =/= real or true ev

opening Q5o against weak blinds although in a vacuum may be +ev may or may not be truly ev. there are a lot of intangible concepts here and therefore this entire section may somewhat be neglected, but i'll try to explain. if you are playing over 6+ tables and open a wide range that consists for example Q5o it may be +ev to just fold it and pay more attention to more quality hands or hands currently being played. you may have a hard time keeping up with an aggressive dynamic where the blinds have finally caught on and may be willing to 3 bet light. when playing mass tables there is always a risk of paranoia when you get 3 bet across tables and this may induce retardedness 1 every few thousand hands that will stagnate your winrate. also there is some argument that if you are easily tiltable and have a hard time resisting double barreling you should prob cut back on wide ranges.

hand reading
- accurate hand reading helps you bluff when your behind but more importantly helps you make razor thin vbets. piecing hand ranges together through information from pf, flop and turn is quite hard to do and will take alot of practice. i suggest playing 4 tables max and practice hand reading in uninvolved hands as well.

shot taking
-do it often. do it aggressively. shot taking (for me at leasT) makes you a little bit more desensitized to money (which i think is somewhat neccessary). it helps you play your best game with no consequence for money when you move back down to your own limits. because it's like playing for chump change. it sorta removes a sense of fear and intimidation. also taking shots may help you realize that you aren't so bad after all. that the skill difference is marginal. playing for higher money may also motivate you to reach that limit in the future. when i reached 1/2 i was amazed that stealing the blinds yielded 3 whole dollars. 3 mcdoubles. real substantial monies vs nl25 where you win .35.

horizontal vs vertical learning
-lately i feel that my fundamentals have expanded. like you learn about hand strength. and then position. and then blind play. and then 3 betting from the blinds. and then calling 3 bets in position. and then 3 betting in position. and then how imba and unexploitable position can be. this is what i consider horizontal learning where you are learning somewhat newer information and newer skills. personally, i feel as though there is not that much more for me to learn horizontally. however vertically alot of my skills are laughable, shabby, and exploitable. vbetting includes much more than getting value over 3 streets for instance. i vary my bet sizes so infrequently, i reuse the standard lines i've developed and run them into the ground. i suppose you can consider it "creativity" but what it really comes down to is developing your current skills vertically so you are much better and adept at vbetting, 3 betting, etc. i can tell you for a fact that it still blows my mind how i don't vbet larger. although preflop/cbet sizes should be somewhat standardized there is still so much room to increase winrate through a little bit of thinking about the simplest thing, bet sizing.

although it may be somewhat relaxing to mindlessly grind away over 10 tables and solidify good strong lines and simple ranges, it behooves you to try your utmost hardest to think deeply about the game whenever possible and to try to max out all your current skills while still learning new ones.

lastly, the part no one wants to hear
-there is nothing wrong with playing poker as a hobby. furhtermore there is nothing wrong with being a losing poker player. there is something wrong though if the money matters. if money spent on poker should be spent elsewhere like family, bills and savings. i hope you are either smart enough to know when to quit, or have friends around you who love you enough to put themselves in hard and awkward spot to make it known to you of a potential problem. this is prob a somewhat delicate subject and this is all i have to say about that.

in conclusion, i hope this guide is helpful and having received lots of generous help and tips myself this is my way of paying it forward.

0 votes

r0mx0 Slovakia. Dec 10 2010 13:16. Posts 1581

thnx sir for that ... id like to ask 1 question , i have a big problem w my cbets for example i have TT guy limps i isolate i am ip or oop flop comes J 3 7 rbw he checks i bet right ? and get called ... the same w QQ i 3b K 9 5 rbw they checkcall .... are all these hand X X and X fold on the turn and river pls ???

You gotta plow through that shit !

Last edit: 10/12/2010 13:53