Microstakes Education

I had a fight with my girlfriend the other day and decided to play poker to take my mind off it. I tried reading a book and watching tv but couldnt stop thinking about the argument I had so decided to play poker. I was actively thinking how I am in no emotional state to play decent poker and knew it was a terrible idea. I even imagined tommy angelo telling me not to play poker right now. So it was like watching a car crash in slow motion as for some reason I fired up 4 tables at my usual stakes.

The session only lasted 30 minutes. Thankfully damage to my bankroll was limited, probably since I was aware that I would not be making good decisions. I quit the tables when I became angry at another player after losing a hand. It was quite a shock since I haven't tilted playing poker in years and emotional control is one of my strongest areas. Luckily the shock of being tilted meant I quit fairly early.

It really is amazing how the human brain works.

I have been playing at PKR this week. All its fancy graphics means that HEM Hud doesn't work there, so I have had to use the force instead :)

Several coaches here have recommended trying to play without a HUD and I agree.  Before I would categorize all 20/18 Tag's the same but now I treat each player differently. I now pay attention to villains postflop tendencies and how I should adjust to exploit. I also think I was using stats too much when sample size was low. 

Since I am not a Jedi I will return to using a HUD but when I do I won't let it blind me to other stuff going on at the table.

So I didn't get in many poker hands in during the holidays because of the PC game sensation Skyrim. Sure its amazing how open-ended and rich the world of skyrim is but it doesn't feel right when my account says I have played the game for 90 hours! The game works out as great value for money at 35p/hour, still I think I could have found a better use of the time. I estimate that I have spent 1500+ hours over my lifetime on video games. 

A friend messaged me this morning asking if I wanted to join him on some minecraft server, i replied "I don't want to get addicted to another video game, I'll try and do something useful with my time instead". 

I loaded up 4 tables of 6max :)

In general I find poker books more useful than poker training videos since they are more structured (obviously there a quite a few bad books and some training videos such as slideshow types that are very structured as well). Live play videos are more useful to me in putting all concepts and ideas togethor and understanding great players though processes. As you can imagine I very much enjoyed receiving my pre-order of baluga's easy game book yesterday. I have so far read the beginner section and am now moving onto the advanced concepts. I am especially pleased that balugas 3rd reason for betting that he gave in his coaching kristy series has been updated. I was never completely comfortable with - #3 to win dead money in the pot. The update to reasons for betting are similar to what I recently heard in blah's apex predator video where he said its to make opponent incorectly fold. To me this is more theoretically sound. I would update the ideas even a little further:

Why do we bet?

For one reason only. We expect our opponent to make a mistake. This can be further broken down into value:for our opponent to incorrectly call or bluff: for our opponent to incorrectly fold.

Now I got that sorted in my head I just need to put in some volume...

I was away from poker for a few months due to work and stuff but am now back. I have been watching the new vids coaching kristy 2 and finally candaian plus read a couple of books, owen gaines hole card confession and the poker blueprint - i have also preordered balugas new book. I think i learn better from reading books than watching videos, mostly due to the fact I am an academic and watching videos can be so slow sometimes. I feel like my thought processes I use when playing poker have significantly improved due to all the studying, I just now need to put in some volume to see how it goes!

Last weekend I was back at home for a wedding and so visited the cardroom where I used to deal/play most nights about 4 years ago. It is so interesting to see that the same recreational players are there and have not improved. Some probably dont have the correct mindset to ever get better but for others its probably because they never really play anyone significantly better than them. The usual limping pre flop late in tournament was going on and I was making raises to take the blinds quite frequently. A lady at the table then commented 'you do that quite a lot when several players call, im going to start doing it too' - however she didnt and just kept limp/folding trying to min cash.

Ive just recieved my beta for HM2 and am going to check it out to see if its any good

I have started taking many more notes on my opponents as that was my target from my last blog. I have found that note taking helps me concentrate on the game, stops me wandering to conversations on skype and makes me a little more aware of table dynamics. I now need to get in the habit of using notes to adjust the lines I take. Too often I read my notes on a player at the end of a hand and then beat myself up as I could have played it better given the extra information.

My target for next week is to really concentrate putting my opponents on an accurate range of hands.  I am currently watching Grindcore's thin red grind and am really impressed by his hand reading skills. He puts villains on a narrow range of hands and then playing against them is like being able to see their cards!

I didn’t get much volume in this week as I was on a  innovation and entrepreneurship course. It was refreshing to spend the week without internet and TV in a lodge in Windsor Park. I came away from the course with a real passion for social enterprise and hope to start a charity or company one day.  I was very impressed with the tech start-ups who came to speak at the event. The skills that made them successful are the same skills needed to beat poker. They are driven, creative, aware of their mistakes, adapt to change, deal with stress and study/work hard.

When I returned  Black Friday was in motion. As a European I don’t think it affects me in the short term too much. I have received reload bonus offers from all the poker sites, on Friday me and other DC members in UK were searching for overlay in the GTD tournaments on FT and stars but didn’t find any value. I dont think I will play as much at merge any more since I expect a influx of professional US players heading over there.

To improve my game I have reduced the number of tables I play, so no more than 4. It has had a additional benifit that I didn't expect, it's made playing online poker is more fun. I now spend more time on each decision and have more time to put opponents on a decent range but most of all I can really concentrate on how my opponents play and exploit them. I find this really fun, it's kind of like when I first played poker on my weekly sunday home game before i really knew how to play. What made those games fun was the competitivness me and my mates had each week trying to beat each other. Beating my friend was more important than winning money. Since i play on smaller euro sites the player pool is small and I really play against the same regulars over again and figuring out how to exploit them is really fun and profitable too ;)

Also this week I was thinking about something tommy angelo said in his eight fold path about rake being like drinking out of a bowl with a hole in it. I calculated rake per 100 hands to see how big an effect it is. (I used stats from fpp pro and my db)

Rake in bb/100

5NL - 20

10NL - 18

25NL – 9

50NL – 7.75

100NL – 6.5

200NL – 5

400NL – 3

1000NL – 1.5

so for micro stakes players rakeback is really important. A break even player can be a +3bb/100 winner at 25NL with rb!

I feel I have learnt alot since I last posted. I have seen from the ground up and the Real life NL micro grinder series and recently just finished the coaching kristy series for the second time. Its amazing how much more you pick up and have a deeper understanding the seond time you watch. 3betting/4betting ranges are no longer a trouble area in my game. Also i really think about the reasons why I am betting as opposed to saying a bet here is standard. When watching the series for a second time I followed the series as it moved up in stakes to 200NL. Although i wasnt strictly rolled for this level it was worth it to undersand how each level plays and I felt fairly comfortable in that level. Now when i go back to 50NL and 100NL it will seem much easier.

My current targets for improvement are to improve my note taking skills and hand reading. The two series I am watching a Hudless horsemen for notetaking and Thin Red Grind for general improvments to my game and hand reading. I have also started taking extensive notes this last month which means I get more out of the videos.

I am motivated to write this blog today as I just finished watching a WoT video about bankroll and using the tools at evplusplus.com saw how extreme variance can be. So i am now taking a more serious approach to bankroll. 25BI's for each level with the aim of reaching 200NL by the end of the year (I can take a 8BI shot at next level if i feel I am playing well). I will use this blog as accountability to help me stick to the plan and reach my goal of playing 200NL comfortably by the end of the year. Eventually I want to  start building up 50BI at 200NL so that I have the option of playing poker full time if I want when I finish my  physics PhD in two years time.

I have managed to play about 5k hands over the weekend and am down a few buy-ins.

I still have the occosional problem of calling bets on the river when beat, however usually now only when i get 2-1 odds or more. Still i should fold more. To help i now ask what is the opponents range? What is their range considering the action? How well do i do against this range? This has helped me stop throwing away some chips.

I also feel that i am getting 4bet a little too often in general, not by specific opponents. Also i feel my cbets are not taking down the pot enough. If this is true i need to stop 3betting light for value and tighten up a bit. I of course need to check this with poker tracker to make sure its not psycological.

I have been playing without a hud the last few days as my computer and poker tracker have broken, I look forward to when my new computer arrives and I can have my Hud back and analyse my play.

Hi

I have just started to take poker seriously. I have deposited $800 and am playing 25NL. I am using the strategy from the 'coaching Kirsty series' - I plan to value bet as much as i can and fold to any sign of aggression. I can comfortably play 6 tables like this.

I have had a habit of calling when played back at, but they always show a better hand, so i need to stop being a calling station and focus on value. I also had a problem with getting 3bet and 4bet and was stacking off too light. Baluga whale made a great point that helped me to fold me by saying how many different players happening to get good hands and 3bet,4bet is different from one player specifically being aggro towards you. I shouldnt view the player pool as one entity.