ethorn's blog, Micro LHE GOGO

Heyo.

An update of my results the last few days:

Monday: +$74 on stars
Tuesday: +$32 on stars and +8e on MG
Today: BAM -$98 on stars, dang what a slap in the face!

Had a very very bad run today. I played really good but the cards just didn’t want to cooperate with me. But I guess these things happen? :)

Anyway, got some poker books yesterday and I have started reading ‘Weighing the odds in hold’em poker’ by King Yao. Seems like a good book and I think I will have learned a lot at the end of it.

As a reminder to myself:
Leaks to plug:
-Playing OOP heads up.
-call less vs passive players
-call more vs aggressive players
-playing vs aggressive players in general

I ran like a god for 3 hours today and collected +$142 on Stars 0,5/1. Then I went to play on Microgaming and it was the complete opposite, and after half an hour I was down 70e. However I managed to grind it back and ended on +3e on MG.

I know you shouldn’t be results oriented, but this is my biggest profit day so far.. and it feels real good :)

Today’s Results: +$2 at PS

I have been thinking about tilt lately, and I think one of the major things you need to learn when moving up to higher limits is tilt control.

It’s amazing how many hands that go like this:
Last hand the villain just 2-outed you on the river, and you are tilted. Now you play another hand with him and he raises you on the turn or river. You know you are beat, but you are tilted and you just gotta make sure. So you call down, and sure enough he shows you the winning hand, and now you are even more tilted than before because you called that stupid bet. It’s a never-ending loop.

I don’t know how it is for you, but that’s how my tilt is. I make stupid calls when I know I’m beat, and it’s costing me a ton.

Recently I’ve become pretty good to counter tilt and usually just knowing that ‘as long as I make the right play, I will come out as a winner’ is enough to not get me tilted.

However when it’s real bad I have started using this technique with good results:
-I take a 5 min break.
-Focus on something else those 5 minutes, maybe go take something to eat or w/e.
-Relax
-When I come back, I force myself to focus on the hands going on right now, not 5 minutes ago.

I think in the end, having emotional stability is what will improve your winrate the most.

Today’s session was really boring and slow, and my big hands got outdrawn a lot. But I guess that it will go better tomorrow :)

Results for today: -$22 at PS and +11e at MG.

Goals update:
1) 15k hands in February – Well It looks like I will double this amount, so far I have played 13,700 :)
2) Study poker 1-2 hours every day – Been studying an average of 2 hours a day, will probably become more when I get the books I ordered.
3) Make a video of me playing and post it on the forums – I think I will make the video this weekend or the next.
4) Move up to 0,5/1 – Moved up yesterday!

So far so good =)

Anyways, here is two good articles I found, worth a read:
http://www.deucescracked.com/articles/212-Shorthanded-Hold-em-2-Basic-Preflop-Steal-and-Defense
http://www.deucescracked.com/articles/365-A-quick-bit-on-preflop-play-why-not-

Ended my first day on 0,5/1 with +$55 on PokerStars, 2,8 BB/100.

This was my swongiest day ever. I started good with going up to +$40 really quick then had a bunch of bad beats and dove down to -$40, and feeling a little tilted I took a short break. When I got back to it I was playing good and solid and ended the session with a total of +$55 for the day.

There was a little difference in the aggression between 0,25/0,5 and 0,5/1. On 0,5/1 there is generally more cbets and people don’t give up on the pot as easily, and also more regulars. Maybe that was just the dynamics of the tables I played today and not the whole limit, but that was how it felt anyway :)

So what I felt that I gotta improve on:
-Playing better against players that actually bet or raise when they don’t have anything. I’m used to players that just give up on the pot or call down when they don’t have anything.
-Playing against aggressive regulars.
-Valueraising more. In 0,25/0,5 when I got raised on the turn or river my top pair was almost never good. When I played 0,5/1 today there was a bunch of times when they were raising worse hands and I could have easily got some more bets if I just raised instead of calling down their weak top pair or draw.

It was really fun to start playing 0,5/1 and I look forward to the next session tomorrow :)

Todays results: +$25 at PS and +14e at MG.

My BR on PokerStars has reached $303 and I’m going to move up to 0,5/1 tomorrow!

What have improved my game and allowed me to profit at 0,25/0,5:
-Playing SOLID abc poker without any flashy plays or bluffs.
-Knowing my pre-flop play. “The Price is Right” is awesome for this.
-Valuebetting relentlessly. “Passing the Torch” is good for learning how to vb properly.
-Playing after Pot odds. Again “Passing the Torch” is very good for learning pot odds.
-Knowing when to fold. Most of the time when you get raised on turn or river it’s not a bluff (at least not on these stakes), when players do this they almost always beat top pair.
-Tilt control. Recognize when you are on tilt and either stop playing, or reduce the amount of tables you play until you are in control again.
-Adapting to the game. It’s important to adjust to the table, for example if you always get called when you cbet with air, maybe you should start cbetting less. And when you do cbet you double barrel instead.

Hopefully someone will get something out of that little list =)

My graph on 0,25/0,5 on PS:

Put in a good session today and ended up +$39 at PS 0,25/0,5 and +20e at MG 0,25/05.

Started watching WiltOnTilt’s “The Haj School” which is pretty good :)

Hand of the day =D :

€0.25/€0.50 Limit Holdem
Prima
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/

Stacks:
CO Lonnie_D $15.20
BTN suemac $5.26
SB godbless99 $9.75
BB Hero $11.29

Pre-Flop: (1.5 SB, 4 players) Hero is BB 3s 6s
Lonnie_D raises, suemac calls, godbless99 calls, Hero calls

Flop: 4s 2s 3h (8.0 SB, 4 players)
godbless99 bets, Hero raises, Lonnie_D calls, 1 fold, godbless99 3-bets, Hero 4-bets, Lonnie_D calls, godbless99 calls

Turn: 9d (10.0 BB, 3 players)
godbless99 checks, Hero checks, Lonnie_D checks

River: 5s (10.0 BB, 3 players)
godbless99 checks, Hero bets, Lonnie_D raises, godbless99 folds, Hero 3-bets, Lonnie_D 4-bets, Hero calls

Final Pot: 18.0 BB
Hero shows
3s 6s
Lonnie_D shows
Qs As

Hero wins 17.1 BB (net +10.1 BB)

godbless99 lost 3.0 BB
Lonnie_D lost 7.0 BB
suemac lost 1.0 BB

First post! Yay!

So an introductory of me:

My name is Eric, 21 years old from Sweden. After being absent from poker for almost 2 years I started playing LHE on the 19th of January 2010(started tracking the 25th). My poker experience consists of grinding 25NL and 50NL for 6 months in 2007 and 2008. However I decided to quit poker and didn’t even think about it until about 3 weeks ago when I found out that a friend of mine was grinding LHE. So I decided that I’d start again but this time play LHE instead. So on the 19th of January I deposited $100 on PokerStars and $100 on MicroGaming.

Back in 2008 I was a member of Cardrunners, so I knew that there were coaching sites around. So on the 27th I signed up for the 7-day trial on DC, and after liking it so much I am now a payed member and I’m most like going to stay here for a long time :).

Currently I have watched ‘The Price is Right’ and ‘Passing The Torch’, both which was awesome and have helped me improve my game a lot, and except for one big minus day (tilt deluxe), it’s going pretty good. Next up I’m going to watch ‘The Haj School’ series and then ‘REAL LIFE: Microlimit grinder’ with Entity and PygmyHero.

Now let’s talk about my goals :):

Long term goals (1+ years):
1) Being a poker pro, earning at least $10,000 a month
2) Travel the world while earning money on poker
3) Start up an online business with the money from poker

So that’s my short list of long term goals, all of which in my opinion is very achievable, if I just work hard enough.

Goals for February:
1)Play at least 15k hands
2) Study poker 1-2 hours every day
3) Make a video of me playing and post it on the forums
4) Move up to 0,5/1

So far I have played 13,400 hands since 25th of Jan, and 7,400 hands in Feb. My current bankroll is on $250 on stars and 210e on Prima, and I will move up to 0,5/1 when I reach 300BB.

My results so far (missing the first week since I didn’t play with PT during that time):

PS = PokerStars
MG = MicroGaming

25/1 -$36 (PS)
26/1 +$26 (PS)
27/1 -$13 (PS)
28/1 +$7 (PS)
29/1 +$21 (PS)
30/1 +$64 (PS)
31/1 -$7(PS) and -8e(MG)
1/2 +$18(PS)and +30e(MG 0,5/1)
2/2 -104(MG 0,5/1) and +29 (MG 0,25/0,5) Playing 0,5/1 underrolled + running bad + tilt = bad
3/2 +$33(PS)and -8e(MG)
4/2 +$11(PS) and +37e(MG)
5/2 +$2(PS) and +42e(MG)
6/2 +$1(PS)

Total of: +$125 on PS, and +25e on MG

Funny hands from 6/2:
Largest pot I have played in 0,25/5, too bad they all had me beat on the flop :(

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold’em – 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is MP with J Q
UTG calls, Hero raises, CO calls, BTN calls, SB 3-bets, BB calls, UTG calls, Hero calls, CO calls, BTN calls

Flop: (18 SB) J Q 7 (6 players)
SB bets, BB calls, UTG calls, Hero raises, CO calls, BTN calls, SB 3-bets, BB calls, UTG calls, Hero caps!, CO folds, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls

Turn: (20 BB) 9 (5 players)
SB bets, BB folds, UTG calls, Hero raises, BTN calls, SB 3-bets, UTG calls, Hero caps!, BTN calls, SB calls all in, UTG calls

River: (35.2 BB) T (4 players – 1 is all in)
UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: 35.2 BB
Hero shows J Q (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
BTN shows 2 4 (a flush, Queen high)
SB mucks 3 J
UTG shows 7 9 (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
BTN wins 2.4 BB
BTN wins 32 BB
(Rake: $0.40)

YES I have ze nuts, ship me the money! Oh wait..

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is SB with 4 4
UTG calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, BB checks

Flop: (3 SB) 3 4 6 (3 players)
Hero bets, BB calls, UTG folds

Turn: (2.5 BB) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB caps!, Hero calls

River: (10.5 BB) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises all in, Hero calls

Final Pot: 13.9 BB
Hero shows 4 4 (four of a kind, Fours)
BB shows 2 5 (a straight flush, Deuce to Six)
BB wins 13.3 BB
(Rake: $0.30)

That’s all for today. I have been spending a lot of time at the tables the past week, so today I’m just going to take it easy and study a video or two, post some hands, and getting ready to hit the tables tomorrow.

PS. Is there a way to add colors to the text? Would be neat to add red and green to the results.