扑克之道 (The Dao of Poker)

Well, I’ve been running pretty bad at 100nl and am considering moving back down to 50nl for a while to build my roll back up to where losing a stack doesn’t bother my psychology at all. I realized afterward that taking a shot at HUNL was a really dumb thing to do while also taking a shot at 100nl, mostly because my BR isn’t fat enough to withstand harsh variance / downswings. Once I start playing 100nl again, I’ll wait until I’m winning solidly over a good amount of hands before getting into heads up seriously.

Anyway, it kind of blows to have to eat a slice of humble pie and move back down to 50nl for the 2nd time, especially since a large amount of the damage to my roll has been from bad beats. I’m curious to hear from others who have mad the move from 50nl to 100nl recently. Was it easy for you to adjust? How many buyins did you start with? Do you have any advice for making the transition?

Well, I just took a shot at heads up and it went miserably. I got my stack in good three times (around 70% or more equity each time) and got sucked out on thrice. Then he hit a disguised double gutter against my TPGK in a 3bet pot and I stacked off again. Completely gross.

I really enjoy the “mano-a-mano” aspect of heads up and how psychological it can get, but in addition to suffering several gross coolers in a row, I also felt unsure about how to adjust to the opp. and how to handle some different spots. I think I need some more education before I give HUNL another try. After all, it sucks handing over a chunk of your hard earned bankroll to some random jabroni.

So I’ve been sitting at this table for a while with just the hugest fish ever. It’s good to know they’re still around at 100nl. I’m to the guy’s right, but I have his game pretty figured out, and so I think it’s still hugely +EV to play with him, even OOP.

Anyway, the following, sick, sick hand proceeds to go down. The fish is calling preflop raises of almost any size 90% of the time and hasn’t picked up on the fact that people are opening huge with their premiums. This is why I open so big, in case you’re wondering (I know, it’s exploitable, because my range is so well defined, but most others at the table have been pretty much staying out of the way in these situations)

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $186.50
Hero (UTG): $180.70
CO: $91.60
BTN: $100.00
SB: $279.60

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with A A
Hero raises to $8, 3 folds, BB calls $7

Flop: ($16.50) 2 6 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($16.50) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $12, BB calls $12

River: ($40.50) J (2 players)
BB bets $166.50 all in, Hero calls $160.70 all in

Final Pot: $361.90
BB shows 2 2 (four of a kind, Deuces)
Hero shows A A (a full house, Aces full of Deuces)
BB wins $359.90
(Rake: $2.00)

Gross thing to happen when I’m just getting started at 100nl. I think my flop checkback may have been fairly bad, but here’s my reasoning: 1.) Since I’m pretty sure BB realizes my hand is so well defined, I want to give him a chance to bet the turn, and also think his 99+ may be good (I think pp’s are a huge part of his range for flatting here, along with AJs+, AQ+, maybe KQs. What else?) 2.) I have the Ac, so Ax club hands aren’t in his range. 3.) I’m unaccustomed to playing deep and not really sure how to handle different situations. I feel fine playing deep vs. fish, but not vs. players who seem to be a little more aware. Anyway, this was sick… enough said.

Luckily, rather nice hand vs. the fish followed:

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold’em – 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $419.70
Hero (CO): $114.85
BTN: $75.40
SB: $105.05
BB: $380.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A 4
1 fold, Hero raises to $3, BTN calls $3, 2 folds

Flop: ($7.50) A A Q (2 players)
Hero bets $5, BTN calls $5

Turn: ($17.50) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $15, BTN calls $15

River: ($47.50) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $53, BTN calls $52.40 all in

Final Pot: $152.30
Hero shows A 4 (a full house, Aces full of Queens)
BTN shows Q 5 (a full house, Queens full of Aces)
Hero wins $150.30
(Rake: $2.00)

It seems that lengthy and in-depth analysis of both my poker game and my self-discipline/tilt issues has paid off. By playing my A game more and with the help of a pretty kind deck, I’ve managed to build my roll back up to be able to take a shot at 100nl. My original goal was to be playing 100nl again by the end of March, so I’m pretty happy. Maybe giving myself two months to move beyond 50nl was too pessimistic, but I figure it’s good to set slightly more forgiving goals and be pleased when you are able to achieve them ahead of schedule than to do the opposite and set goals which are too optimistic and often lead to disappointment.

Anyway, I’ve been playing 100nl a bit and find it to be fairly different than 50nl, but maybe it’s just that my own psychology hasn’t yet adapted to the larger stack sizes. I’m going to start by playing only 2-3 tables for at least a few days until I get acclimated. I think being able to really focus on table dynamics and have longer to make important decisions will help my confidence at the tables.

When I get passionate about learning something, my ipod is my best friend ever. When I was really putting in the hours to learn Mandarin Chinese, I would fill my ipod with ChinesePod episodes and other Chinese language stuff and be listening to them constantly.

Now that I’m really serious about this poker thing, I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have a podcast to soak up while I’m away from the tables. I started listening to the show from Episode One, and other than listening to the most recent show with Viffer, I’ve been going through the episodes sequentially and I just finished listening to the second show with Baluga Whale. Great stuff!

Well, I started to have another good session yesterday, but then for some reason I slid into playing my B, and at certain point, C game. I had played for too long without taking a break and was losing focus, getting fuzzy in my thinking. I ended up down only about 15bb for the session, which isn’t too bad, I suppose, but I was up almost 2 buyins midway through the session and the loses were due almost entirely to a couple of hasty and spewy decisions. I definitely think I could have held on to those winnings by exercising self-discipline and stepping away from the tables the moment I felt I wasn’t playing my best poker.

This is always a challenge for me, especially when I’m at a great table. Even if I’m starting to get tired or lose my focus, if I’m deepstacked with a fish, it’s really hard for me to leave. But there is no denying that, even with fish in the game, playing C game poker is -EV. In the future, I will follow my instincts when they are telling me to take a break / quit a session. I’m also going to make sure to at least take a short break every 45 minutes, even if it just means sitting out from the table for a couple of orbits to stretch, have a snack, and give my mind a short rest. The tables aren’t going anywhere, after all.

Well, I didn’t exercise self-discipline like I had planned. Instead of playing short sessions and then reviewing hands afterwards, I played a solid 4 hour 45 minute session with only a couple of short breaks to use the bathroom and eat a quick meal. The games were just too damn good today. I love that, being in Asia, I can play during the day here and it’s night in the US. I don’t have to use my Friday / Saturday night playing to get on the tables with a bunch of drunk fish; and a lot of drunk fish were splashing around today / Fri. night in the US. I also feel like I’ve cut down dramatically on my own spewiness.

These factors, combined with the fact that I was running into great cards, led to me having a nice session, winning almost 9 buy ins. I also cleared a $50 VIP Stellar reward. So, a few more winning sessions and I should be rolled to take another shot at 100nl. Pretty exciting.

In any case, I now have a lot of recent hands to review. I spent a couple of hours yesterday reviewing hands and checking out equities vs. different ranges in various spots in Pokerstove, and then also doing some EV calcs. I feel like this is tremendously valuable, and I plan on putting a lot more time in doing this kind of study.

I also want to start incorporating the concept of gbucks into my study. I have read Phil Galfond’s article on gbucks and watched WiltOnTilt’s math series where he talks about the concept, but how to apply the concept at the tables is still a bit murky for me. I think that getting into the nitty gritty and doing post-session review where I calculate gbucks for different spots will help clarify things greatly.

I’ve realized there are a couple more goals that I really want to be working towards:

• Become a winner at HUNL, starting at 50nl

• Get very comfortable playing in 3bet pots, both in position and out of position

I’ve gotten pounded so far when I’ve taken shots at heads up, so I think I’ll wait until I’m over-rolled to try it again. In the meantime, I will watch some heads up video series’ and finish reading Colin Moshman’s book on HUNL so that I have a solid base of knowledge when I start giving it a real go

As far as playing better in 3bet pots goes; Within the next few days, I will play some sessions at a lower limit, maybe 5nl or 10nl, where I don’t mind so much if I lose a few buy ins. I will experiment with 3betting like a maniac and getting myself into all sorts of spots with bloated 3bet pots. I think I’ll also watch Unconventional Wisdom Ep. 1 again, even though I watched it fairly recently. Does anyone have any recommendations for other good videos (or forum threads, etc.) that deal with 3bet pots?

Time to outline my poker-related goals.

• Eventually be able to hold my own in mid-stakes games up to $25/$50 (and beyond?) This is a long term goal, so I don’t expect to be there any time soon, but this is the direction I want to move in

• Be beating 50nl with a decent win-rate again by the end of April

• Build my roll up to be playing 100nl again by the end of March (hopefully sooner!)

• Be able to do rough equity calculation vs. ranges in my head and be able to calculate approximate EV for specific actions

• Be constantly improving my hand reading abilities to be able to accurately put my opponents on ranges

• Improve my ability to put opponents in difficult spots while making my own decisions as easy as possible

• Increase my memory and level of perception for developing accurate reads. This also includes being able to properly interpret the significance of certain events

• Improve my ability to capitalize on the reads I make and exploit my opponents’ tendencies

• Increase my level of focus and discipline both in regards to how I play my sessions as well as how I approach poker study

• Be on a good routine. Exercise, eat well, and meditate 2x a day so that I am always rested and alert when I hit the tables

• Play a lot of hands (3-4 sessions / day)

• Limit my session length to 45 minutes so that I can maintain focus and all hands are fresh in my memory when I review them

• Review all big hands and tricky spots after each session, posting hands I’m unsure about in the forums or here on my blog

• Use Pokerstove when I’m reviewing sessions

• Practice estimating equity vs. ranges in different situations

• Practice doing EV calculations

• Watch between one and two video series’ per week, taking detailed notes and interacting with coaches in the video threads

• Find a study group / study partners to go over hh’s and do sweat sessions with (if anyone reading this is interested, shoot me a PM)

• Maintain a positive, results-independent attitude at all times

• Run good!

I’ve been exposed to poker since I was a kid. My Dad’s a poker player, my eighty-eight year old grandma hosts a weekly mixed game, even my great grandfather was a poker player and a pit boss in Las Vegas. So, I’ve always thought that poker was pretty cool and alluring, and I’ve always admired the people who were able to consistently walk away from a poker table holding more cash than they sat down with. However, I only just got into NLHE myself last summer. After busting my first $25 roll at 2nl on Stars and redepositing, I managed to climb through the micros and took my first shot at 100nl last month. I had been killing 50nl through a combo of playing my A game and running like Jeebus. And at first, I felt really comfortable at 100nl and was doing pretty good, up several buyins.

And then I got complacent (Ah, complacency, the shadowy killer of so many great aspirations!) A few spewy sessions lead to a tilted mindset. “Down six buyins at 100nl, damn, guess I have to move back down to 50nl. Wait, why the hell am I losing down here? I was chopping it up here a few weeks ago!”

This recent tiltspewfest has forced me to re-examine the way in which I’ve been approaching poker. Since I started playing NLHE, I’ve always been quite passionate about the game. I’ve read books, perused forums, played lots, and watched a decent amount of videos. However, I haven’t exercised the discipline to improve at the rate I desire, to reach my full potential, which I believe to be great.

And so a couple of days ago, I signed up for a full membership here at DC. Videos have been a large part of my learning process. However, simply watching videos is too damn passive. Sure, I can take notes and that’s great. But I believe that having the interactivity of being able to ask questions and receive feedback is a cornerstone of the learning process. I also believe that having the support of a community of like-minds will help to keep me inspired towards achieving poker success.

I’ve also decided to start this blog. And while I welcome any interested readers and any feedback, input, or advice they may have, this blog is mostly for me. It is a place for me to set forth a framework for my own poker study, a place for me to set forth my goals and track my progress towards their achievement. In this way, I will be accountable for taking the required actions to realize my goals and for maintaining the discipline required to be successful. I’ve got my goals brewing in my mind and will post them a little later today, but I’m really itching to play a session, so that’s it for now!