Shuttle's blog

So I've been taking this study thing pretty seriously, unsurprisingly I've dropped back from the amount I was doing before, I'm probably studying 3 hours a day now average. The original inspiration has worn off and now it's just good old fashioned motivation driving me. One thing I'm noticing is that I'm doing a ton of hand writeups and I probably should spend some more time practicing my touch typing as I'm trying to switch my style over to something different and it's just really hard to do. I definitely think it's a good investment because I take a ton of notes and spend a bunch of time coding both of which greatly benefit from being able to type fast. Definitely seems to be much like the poker, putting in some painful grind time to get it right makes a huge difference. Delayed gratification seems in some way to be more important here than just about anything else I can think of lately.

Now that I'm feeling better about my online game I've been getting a bunch more volume online. I've played some 5/10nl live here which has been amazingly soft but the drive out there is a pain and the hourly isn't that much higher than playing zoom most likely. Most of my recent play online has been at zoom. I find zoom really interesting, it has a different feel and dynamic to it for sure compared with regular games and I like it. I really like the deepstack spots a lot. Perhaps it's just because I study it a lot and haven't put the work in like this with regular games, not sure. I'm feeling much better about my game but for a variety of reasons (including knowing about a few leaks I must fix) I'm taking it slowly before moving up.

So since I started this study regime on Feb 1st:

disclaimer this is HEM2 so this might not be accurate :P

Also made a Q high call today which was cool:

Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1773881
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $214.87
SB: $268.24
Hero (BB): $311.73
UTG: $724.37
MP: $386.98
CO: $156.51

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with Q 9
4 folds, SB raises to $6, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($12.00) K 6 K(2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($12.00) 7(2 players)
SB bets $7.00, Hero calls $7

River: ($26.00) 8(2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $26.00
SB shows 2 3
Hero shows Q 9
Hero wins $24.83
(Rake: $1.17)

Recently I've played lower a few times for the purpose of study and also for people to sweat me. There's a particular thing that I've been finding just sends me on extreme tilt and I'm not entirely sure of the reasons why so I'd like to try the advice in Tendler's book and see if writing about it helps.

So not aided by the fact that HEM2 is an excruciatingly buggy piece of software that really should still be in beta and not in release I'm starting off my session already a bit pre-tilted. This obviously doesn't help my overall mindset and is making it easier for me to get tilted by other stuff. So here's a perfect hand that would tilt me really hard:

Poker Stars $25.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1737028
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $15.00 - VPIP: 6, PFR: 6, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 17
SB: $13.11 - VPIP: 29, PFR: 29, 3B: 50, AF: 3.0, Hands: 7
Hero (BB): $52.07 - VPIP: 33, PFR: 27, 3B: 10, AF: 2.8
UTG: $13.37 - VPIP: 9, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 11
MP: $30.87 - VPIP: 14, PFR: 10, 3B: 0, AF: 2.5, Hands: 80
CO: $87.73 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 21, 3B: 5, AF: 2.0, Hands: 52

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is BB with 5 5
4 folds, SB raises to $0.50, Hero calls $0.25

Flop: ($1.00) 8 Q 6(2 players)
SB bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25

Turn: ($1.50) 5(2 players)
SB bets $2.00, Hero raises to $4.75, SB calls $2.75

River: ($11.00) A(2 players)
SB bets $7.61, Hero calls $7.61

Final Pot: $26.22
SB shows A A
Hero shows 5 5
SB wins $25.04
(Rake: $1.18)

So like say a hand like this happens and some other hand where my top set gets beaten by quads happen like in short succession. Now if I'm playing vs better opponents who take a decent line and I get coolered I'm like "ok cooler whatever" and I pretty much don't think twice about it. I just move on and whatever doesn't really bug me that much.

But something about when someone (especially a bad player) takes a particularly retarded value minimization line just really tilts me. I know logically that's it's good that they aren't winning more money off me because of how they play but at the same time I find myself tilted by this. Even when I'm not in the hand I find some of these value minimization lines tilting. Maybe a thought along the lines of  "If I was that guy I would have won ... more in that spot.".

This leads me onto the main crux of why I'm posting this, sometimes I find myself thinking along these lines "he has a bunch of air to get to this spot and this line is so amazingly horrifically bad for a value line that I'm going to look it up", usually I do this with like strongish hands but like I seem unable to fold the top of my range in these spots. Sure he can get there with a bunch of air but it doesn't matter if his river minbet donk/min3bet line is stupid I have to fold my bluff catcher. Especially when I'm tilting I just can't seem to get it through my head that some people really suck at poker and can take these bad lines for value with the immortal nuts and find myself paying it off too much (2nd nuts included), this then leads to other forms of tilt and well tilting isn't a good thing...

At some level I know that other people think about poker very differently to me as I'm good at adjusting and whatnot but I find it really really hard to adjust to the really bad reg-fish, it's not as though they are completely unthinking players but they think about the game badly and in such a way I just find I have no comprehension whatsoever of what they are doing. I can see from a theory point of view that I should probably be changing my lines up and I can do it when I'm not tilted by when I'm tilted all that starts to suffer really bad.

Anyway this whole thing bugs me a lot and I'd like to not get so tilted by it in the future, if anyone has any suggestions/advice here I'd love to hear it.

Looks like it's a good time to do that mental game coaching with Tendler!

It's been one month now since my last post and in the interim I think I've averaged maybe 4hours a day on poker study. So that's gone well. I've played a range of stakes with the intention of trying to learn different things at different stakes.

Actually spending the time working on the weaker areas of my game intently has been much better than I would have ever imagined. I'm really glad most people are too lazy to actually put in the study hours away from the table, as game would be so much tougher if they did.

The thing that's help the most has been doing very structured coaching sessions with some students. These were long sessions (3-10 hours) where we would analyze a spot very thoroughly and both me and the student would get a lot out of it. We would throw every available tool at the spot and use all the knowledge we had to try to get conclusive answers, and often we did. So for all the spots where I was regularly thinking "I don't know what to do here" I tended to make sure I studied away from the table. Doing this added a bunch of bb to my winrate. I'm happy to offer these coaching session to people at a very low cost relative to the time it takes and the quality of the information if it's a spot that I am interested in myself. I'm toying with the idea of doing some coaching with this format, I think it probably works best in a group setting but not entirely sure just as yet.

Here's some results since then:

Also a funny hand:

Poker Stars $200.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1727523
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $180.78
SB: $205.00
BB: $103.00
UTG: $201.00
MP: $92.42
Hero (CO): $200.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with 7 5
2 folds, Hero raises to $4, 1 fold, SB calls $3, 1 fold

Flop: ($10.00) K 9 9(2 players)
SB bets $6.00, Hero calls $6

Turn: ($22.00) K(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $8.00, SB calls $8

River: ($38.00) A(2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $28.00, SB calls $28

Final Pot: $94.00
SB shows 3 3
Hero shows 7 5
SB wins $45.60
Hero wins $45.60
(Rake: $2.80)

Lately I've decided that I want to play really high stakes again so I've been working on my game very hard. This has been broken up into 2 main categories, working on my technical game and working on my mental game. I've decided to not play higher than $200buyin games while I'm working on the mental game stuff as I need to fix issues there before I'm playing higher again.

So I played this hand:

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em $0.05 Ante - 6 players - View hand 1683927
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $69.63
BTN: $60.15
Hero (SB): $62.65
BB: $20.59
UTG: $67.67
MP: $64.41

Pre Flop: ($0.65) Hero is SB with T Q
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.80) 6 4 5(2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($1.80) 5(2 players)
Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75

River: ($3.30) A(2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $1, Hero calls $1

Final Pot: $5.30
Hero mucks T Q
BB shows K 8 (a pair of Fives)
BB wins $5.06
(Rake: $0.24)

I feel this hand marks a big advance in my game because it's the first incorrect Q high call I've made (I've made a few correct ones previously).

Anyway I'm pretty stoked to be making some progress again. Hopefully I can get back to playing higher online once more.

Had a great Aussie mIllions including a deep run in the main event. Since then poker has been mediocre to say the least and I've not put a ton of volume in. I think this picture best describes my poker since Aussie Millions ended:

The "what I really do" is uncannily accurate, I've often been playing this while playing boring live games lol. Also was interesting to actually play at the same table as Ivey, he certainly has a unique table presence.

I've been really struggling very hard to get volume in lately, I think I'm super burnt  out by January as I put more than 250 hours in that month across my live and online play with around 185 hours live. So I'm taking a break for a while and just going to relax and hopefully recover from the burnout

If you feel like a game, start a game with shuttle87, but you've been warned I always get the Z's and Q's :P

So I've played my first 25/50/100 plo game, took a 5k shot in a 25/50 game that was amazing then the stakes got upped some time after I sat. It's kinda neat having played in a legit huge game but I don't see myself doing this again in a hurry unless I run really hot for a bit first. Then again I might be tempted if a game this soft appears again but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a one off occurrence.

One thing that was particularly striking is that a lot of the regulars seemed to be completely terrible at preflop relative to the rest of their game. It was odd because some of these guys were really good postflop. It seems as though the HSPLO games seem to revolve around people making really spewy preflop plays and trying to leverage some sort of postflop edge to compensate. If I was to play these games on a regular basis I think I'd want to really get a solid grasp on what a preflop gto 3-4-5 bet game in plo looks like, I also think buying in shallow gives you a big edge vs some of these guys.

Reminds e of the whole street poker thing but unlike before I wasn't participating as I don't really see the point in soft games where there's higher ev lower variance edges to be had.

Ok so I'm now out of the 50k challenge. Was fun playing it and had a good time making the blog post updates. Was interesting to play some 25nl after a long absence from those stakes.

Final Graph

Thanks to everyone who read the blog posts :)

So first super charged raging life tilt of the 50k challenge this session. Played the hugest moron ever at 3/6 LHE and ran the worst I've ever run at a limit game I've ever run. It's up there with the worst I've ever run in my entire poker career too. Not going to do much of a recap as I'm far too tilted, sessions like this remind me of just how glad I am that I don't play this game for a living anymore. Had the perfect read on him as he literally only ever donked bottom, always check backed flop with top pair or better, only ever checkraised air or draws, never pairs, etc... He basically never bluffed outside of like the c/r and a continuation bet. Super easy to play against and yet I get smashed by a >120BB downer in 429hands

Just lots and lots of these sort of hands:

Poker Stars $3.00/$6 Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1516940
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.333 SB) Hero is BTN/SB with 8 8
Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls

Flop: (6 SB) 3 5 6(2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls

Turn: (6 BB) 8(2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls

River: (10 BB) 9(2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls

Final Pot: 16 BB
BB shows T K
Hero mucks 8 8
BB wins 15.917 BB
(Rake: $0.50)

Poker Stars $3.00/$6 Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1516941
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.333 SB) Hero is BTN/SB with J Q
Hero raises, BB calls

Flop: (4 SB) T 4 Q(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls

Turn: (4 BB) 9(2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls

River: (6 BB) 8(2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero caps!, BB calls

Final Pot: 14 BB
BB shows 7 J
Hero shows J Q
BB wins 6.958 BB
Hero wins 6.958 BB
(Rake: $0.50)

 Summary 6204/50000 hands played, profit -$169

played 1101 hands, played some 6max from 25nl to 100nl and a bit of 3/6 LHE.

Finished down like $37.8 . Most of this was courtesy of like losing to this guy HU who like ran pretty good. I definitely tilted when I got stacked by my overpair running into another monster in a 3bet and like I decided to quit. I get this weird like focus related issue with long HU matches where I can just like lose my focus and autopilot and play shitty, hoping to improve on that if possible.

Funny hand vs maniac with 30% 3bet:
Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1516862
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $80.95
Hero (UTG): $216.00
CO: $126.70
BTN: $62.65
SB: $170.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 5 5
Hero raises to $1.50, CO raises to $9, 3 folds, Hero calls $7.50

Flop: ($18.75) 3 4 3(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $10.00, Hero calls $10

Turn: ($38.75) 9(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $19.50, Hero calls $19.50

River: ($77.75) T(2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $41.50, Hero calls $41.50

Final Pot: $160.75
Hero shows 5 5
CO shows 7 K
Hero wins $159.25
(Rake: $1.50)

Basically no other interesting hand to post really. Oddly uninteresting session given the length, just a whole bunch of card-dead and standard spots mostly.

 Summary 5413/50000 hands played, profit +649.12

Long 3-4 tables session, played like 334 minutes according to HEM. Played mostly 25nl and 50nl deep 6max and 50nl HU. Also played a few hands of 5/10HULHE and .5/1 6max nl.

I played well for the most part. Towards the end I had one hand where I misread the board and basically lost like 50bb as a result. In times gone by I would have been tilted out of my mind and had to have quit right there but I managed to hold it together fairly well.

Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1516662
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $59.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $336.45

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BTN/SB with T 3
Hero raises to $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) 2 3 2(2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.50, BB raises to $4.40, Hero calls $2.90

Turn: ($11.80) 4(2 players)
BB bets $5.65, Hero calls $5.65

River: ($23.10) J(2 players)
BB bets $11.30, Hero raises to $49, BB calls $36.15 all in

Final Pot: $118.00
BB shows 3 3
Hero shows T 3
BB wins $117.50
(Rake: $0.50)

I was tired and thought I had a 2..... If I knew I had a 3 I definitely do not raise the river ever. About 30minutes later I made another shitty mistake and decided to pack in the session....

Anyway before I got destroyed by tiredness I had some interesting spots come up :)

Here's a spot from a deep table: Opponent is fairly unknown, running like 26/19 over 100 or so hands definitely positionally aware. Preflop I decide to 3bet as a bluff mostly but have equity when called as I expect to get called close to 100% here preflop but less often on the flop. So I flop fairly good here but I don't think I get any value by betting here as my perceived range is like really strong for cbetting here and my actual hand is like ahead but can't get value from easily.

Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1516683
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $125.00
UTG: $145.30
CO: $79.10
BTN: $82.20
Hero (SB): $258.70

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with Q K
UTG raises to $1.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, UTG calls $4

Flop: ($11.50) Q 6 A(2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn: ($11.50) Q(2 players)
Hero bets $7.00, UTG folds

Final Pot: $11.50
Hero wins $11.40
(Rake: $0.10)

Would love to know what people think about this hand!

Ok so I've spent like the last hour or so looking over this hand: The BB player is a total squeezetard with like a 20% squeeze, utg is a monster whale who is like limping 70% maybe and I have a super aggro image so like this is such an "amazing" squeeze spot in the mind of BB. It's actually hugely -EV for him to be squeezeing this wide as I'm going to own him so hard here deep in position if his range is that weak, but he clearly doesn't know that. So clearly folding pre is completely out of the question, was just trying to ascertain if 4betting is more +EV here than flatting. The best estimate I can get from cardrunners EV is that flatting is somewhere between 2 and 5 bb in EV  *if* I play post perfectly. Clearly I don't play postflop perfectly, this hand being a good example of that, as the flop really should be a bet here. From looking around more in cardrunnersEV it seems as though 4betting has a similar EV with this hand.

Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1516730
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $132.35
SB: $124.40
BB: $92.25
UTG: $31.45
MP: $86.20
Hero (CO): $286.60

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with J Q
UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2, 1 fold, SB calls $1.75, BB raises to $8.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $6.50, SB calls $6.50

Flop: ($26.00) 5 7 2(3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($26.00) 8(3 players)
SB bets $15.00, BB folds, Hero folds

Final Pot: $26.00
SB wins $25.30
(Rake: $0.70)

Here's a nice example of how street poker works: 27/21 reg has been abusing me in chat a bit because he thinks I'm terrible and like he's tilting hard, very hard.

Poker Stars $25.00 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players - View hand 1516770
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $23.86
BB: $50.62
Hero (CO): $137.73
BTN: $68.15

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is CO with Q J
Hero raises to $0.75, BTN raises to $2.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $6.50, BTN calls $4

Flop: ($13.35) 6 Q 4(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $8.00, Hero calls $8

Turn: ($29.35) T(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $18.00, Hero calls $18

River: ($65.35) 6(2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $35.60, Hero calls $35.60

Final Pot: $136.55
Hero shows Q J
BTN shows T 7
Hero wins $135.75
(Rake: $0.80)

Naturally after this hand he's even more tilted at me.

 Summary 4315/50000 hands played, profit +688.71