Infinite micro stakes player

Back at the lowest stakes available. Before the summer vacation started I cashed out my bankroll on Full Tilt Poker. I'm glad I did it before all the Black Friday and the newly problems with Full Tilt. Hope it will get back up. Since I love the Full Tilt software, rakeback, the FTP store and their methods of keeping people playing.

So as I said, I've cashed out everything and I've spent in on a summer vacation with my friends. A vacation at Kos in Greece. Where I've already found some poker interested boys who are hosting a game for us. Hopefully, they're not nosebleed guys. Because I'm not planning to use more than $200 on poker at Kos. Since most of it is going on alcohol, happenings and food. And they also have air-conditioning and we don't. Since our vacation-manager decided to priority a swimming pool at our hotel instead of that. 

Back to the poker. I've deposited $50 to Pokerstars. The $50 is enough for 25 buy ins at 2NL. Where you can buy in from 40bb to 250bb, where I choose to buy in for 100bb. Since that's the number of bb's where I'm most experienced. Early on the player pool has been very soft and there are regularly numerous of fish on every one of my four tables. 

And my biggest losing hand of the day, was against a loose-passive villain. So I am to review that hand, and search for some reasons for my play to be bad. Let's go, first 2NL hand review this year. And I'm looking forward to keep doing this everyday. Since my weeks before Kos (2 weeks until departure.) I am working as a window cleaner at the university. Making $22/hour and I'm working 7,5 hours each day. That means $200 every single day for 15 days.

The hand history

Villain is playing 28/22 over 30 hands and got on average an aggression factor of 1. But this isn't that relevant since it such a small sample. 

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1361848
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $0.62
MP: $2.48
CO: $2.00
BTN: $2.32
Hero (SB): $2.57
BB: $0.82

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with Q A
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.06, Hero raises to $0.20, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.14

Flop: ($0.42) T 2 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.30, BTN calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.02) A (2 players)
Hero bets $0.70, BTN calls $0.70

River: ($2.42) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.37 all in, BTN calls $1.12 all in

He opened from button to $0.06. This is where his range is assumed widest, so I 3bet to $0.20 for value with AQ in SB. We are both 110bb deep. I 3bet for value since I expect him to call with worse hands like suited connectors, pocket pairs, two paint cards and some weaker A's.

 Flop comes T72 with no flushdraw. I expect my hand to be decent some of the time and I believe I'll take it down on the flop a lot with a continuation bet. So I fire 3/4 pot for $0.30 into the pot of $0.40. He calls. I expect him to have some Tx's, pocket pairs 88-JJ and maybe some floating hands like KQ.

Turn is an A. Which gives me top pair. This card should pretty much shut down the pot, since there isn't much of his calling range on the turn which would improve his hand now. Except for AK, AT, AJ, AQ and slowplayed sets. So since I'm happy with taking down the pot on the turn, I fired a bet of $0.70 into $1. And he calls. Now his range of hands are AK, AQ, AJ, AT and maybe JJ + a bad Tx that tries to bluffcatch. But on the river I only beat one single reasonable hand. AJ.

The river is probably the worst. This is where I'm behind AK, AT and all slowplayed sets. So I'm behind 5 combos of hands, and infront of one, AJ. So this is where my play should be to check/fold since I expect him never to bluff. And I shove and I hope he will call with worse. Which he didnt, he showed up with AT. He could maybe called me down with a pretty weak kicker, but then he would probably folded that on the flop. Since I don't expect him to float with one overcard. But two overcards like KQ, KJ.

What do you think of my play? Is it bad as I stated?

By the way, leave your blog and I'll RSS it. Since I'm a big fan of reading other micro-blogs! 

See you!

Oh my god! Got my driver license! See you later

So after playing for a year, I don't feel like I came anywhere. I'm not getting better, making solid plays, tilted by variance and bet/folding situations, or losing AA versus KK three times and lost to 4 quads in 2 days. It's though to handle, but it's okay. But I feel like I never get my self to make the reads needed or the adjustment required. So my problem is concentration and discipline, most probably.

I never really won at online poker in cash games, so my bankroll has been kept in order by rakeback and deposits. My main winnings are from live play where I won about $40 every night we played. Which is in a home game at my place.

Also I won some tournaments friends of mine have hosted. So I feel like I'm playing much better live than online. Since focusing on only "table" at the moment, gives me be better reads and better decisions. But due to the limited possibilities for cash games at my place there isn't higher stakes than $40. And in Norway there's no casino, and poker is illegal when the buy in over $100. But my friends are playing for fun, and I want to play with them for the most part. Therefore we aren't playing nosebleeds.

So since the summer is soon up, I'm thinking about stop playing cash games online. I will continue play MTTs in the weekends and cash games with my friends. Since I'm tired of losing and only be a winner due to rakeback. But being a winner with rakeback is pretty neat, but $40 in + at rakeback, sucks when I win $40 at my homegame in the weekends. 

This is for the most part a brainstormer post for my own. So I'll remember in the future if there something I want to read again.

Here's my graph for both cash games and MTTs. And since I don't have the time for playing cash games for $40 a month, I'll probably rather find a job where I'll earn $20/hour. (That's normal in Norway, but we have high taxes :()

So had a small win today. Finally reached the final table after playing a lot of MTTs this week. 

I did probably deserve it. But the money got in my mind, since $400 is my current bankroll. So when I got there, I stopped being aggressive. And they stole a lot of me. So I got down to 13bb picked up A6s and shipped it.

Hope you all had a happy easter, I did! 

Have been playing some micro MTTs. 

Made a cash of $35 yesterday in a $2.20. And made just a $79 at 15 place in $2.20 rebuy at Pokerstars. That made my roll from $20 to $107 at Stars. Is probably going to deposit some more money, so I can take some shots at $5 MTTs and try my luck. And will definitively watch some more MTTs videos. But I feel I need to be more aggressive in the later game, so will work on that.

Happy easter, I'm going to enjoy my vacation. And hope you'll run good.

Wednesday, yuck. The biggest runbad day, as always. Maybe I should stop playing on those days.

As usual I got it in good and got it out bad. But that's the way poker is played, in the long term. Right?

Played this hand a bit fancy against a pretty bad villain. Tried to induce some light shoves.

Full Tilt Poker $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1277672
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BB: $5.55
UTG: $9.70
MP: $7.00
Hero (CO): $11.98
BTN: $4.40
SB: $15.00

MP posts a big blind ($0.10)

Pre Flop: ($0.25) Hero is CO with Q T
1 fold, MP checks, Hero raises to $0.45, 3 folds, MP calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.05) J 6 3(2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $0.73, MP raises to $1.46, Hero calls $0.73

Turn: ($3.97) 6(2 players)
MP bets $0.10, Hero raises to $1.50, MP raises to $2.90, Hero raises to $4.30, MP raises to $5.09 all in, Hero calls $0.79

River: ($14.15) 6(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $14.15
MP shows 7 J (a full house, Sixes full of Jacks)
Hero shows Q T (a flush, Queen high)
MP wins $13.21
(Rake: $0.94)

The week is finished, the tables are closed and some money lost ...

A week like this is does really tear a micro-heart. The first part went as mentioned pretty well. 

Then the craziness began. I kept getting KK versus AA, QQ versus KK. The sets got no value, top pair got check/raised turn. Didn't hit any draw. 

And a easy way to put these last days in a nutshell, is to show you this hand. Before reading, my donkbet is to incline worse hands to raise. And then feel committed, it has worked 4-5 times and the times it failed, they were bluffing. So it's a method that works nicely versus regulars. This villain had a flop aggression of 1.2, but decided he could have slowplayed AK, maybe some KsQs or something stronge. Maybe even 66 or AsKs.

Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 1271711
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $10.00
BB: $10.15
UTG: $18.58
CO: $10.88
BTN: $10.34

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with 4 4
UTG raises to $0.30, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.30, Hero calls $0.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.00) 6 4 A(3 players)
Hero bets $0.30, UTG calls $0.30, BTN raises to $2.40, Hero raises to $4.50, UTG folds, BTN raises to $10.04, Hero calls $5.20 all in

Turn: ($20.70) 9(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($20.70) 2(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $20.70
Hero shows 4 4
BTN shows A A

Coolered as hell, probably ...

These seven days has been a rollercoaster. And I've run pretty badly in tournaments too. 

The last four tournaments I've played:

QQ vs 55, flop 442 he shoves I call. turn 5.

Live tournament $50, doubled up w ATs. 18bb, I shove over preflop bigstack raise, with AKs, BB wakes up with KK for the second time of the night and the hand after also gets AA and stacks one guy ...

Folded to me with AK on the CO, shoves all in and gets called by AA in BB.

Folded to me with AQ, shove all in and gets called by AA.

So this is like the biggest whining post ever, but wow can't wait to improve my game and run better! :)

How have your week been?

Week question, what range of hands are you calling with or what hands do you think he has?

Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players 

BB: $8.00 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 16
UTG: $12.81 - VPIP: 55, PFR: 29, 3B: 0, AF: 2.3, Hands: 65
Hero (MP): $13.19 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 17, 3B: 6, AF: 3.8, Hands: 140703
CO: $10.80 - VPIP: 26, PFR: 17, 3B: 7, AF: Infinity, Hands: 54
BTN: $11.23 - VPIP: 13, PFR: 13, 3B: 0, AF: Infinity, Hands: 16
SB: $10.98 - VPIP: 48, PFR: 6, 3B: 0, AF: 1.0, Hands: 635

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with X X
UTG calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.45, 3 folds, BB calls $0.35, UTG calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.40) 8 5 K(3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75, UTG calls $0.75

Turn: ($3.65) A(3 players)
BB bets $6.80, UTG folds, Hero calls $6.80

River: ($17.25) J(2 players)

The last week graph:

Wow, what a day. Called it off after 700 hands. Nothing were going my way!

Came home early from school 11 AM, and saw episode six of High Stakes Poker. 

Decided to take the daily two hour session at 2 PM. Fired up eight tables with, a lot of regulars and some fish. Mostly regulars.

And wow, I kept getting out flopped. I flopped one set and got no action. My cbets were called, raised and folded when I had nuts. 

Never made a draw and ran KK into AA. This is truly a day for realizing that it's possible to run bad and run good. 

So will take this day as a cooler, and hope to come back strong to make my 8K goal of hands.

The biggest pot I won was at 27bb, when I was valuebetting JT superthin versus a fish.  

V/P/R: 18/15/2.3

Hands: 722

Winnings: -$37.33

Rakeback: $1

W$SD: 36%

Comments: Try to get back to my normal more tight game, table select some better, play on different times, fold KK versus nits, and don't bluffs regfishulars. 

Wednesday, no breakeven, rather more 3 buy ins up almost.

Flopped some big hands, and people always will try to bluff at it. Funny when you once in a while meet up with one of those.

The last days had been good sessions, so I'm looking forward to complete this week of playing poker.Hope I'll get in my goal of number of hands! Then I can look forward and see how discipline and concentration pays off (hopes it does ...).

Session review: V/P/3B: 19/16/3.3 

Hands: 1044

Hours: 1.77

$ won: $26.66

Rakeb: $3 

These last three days so far:

V/P/3B: 18/15/3 

Hands: 3482

Hours: 5.33

$ won: $41.34

Rakeb: $10

bb/100: 11.87

Happy grinding micro friends!

By the way, are you folding this weirdly played hand on the river? Leave a comment!

Full Tilt Poker $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 3 players - View hand 1265552
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $10.04 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 17, 3B: 6, AF: 3.8, Hands: 138201
BTN: $8.23 - VPIP: 47, PFR: 12, 3B: 0, AF: 0.7, Hands: 59
SB: $10.00 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 13, 3B: 3, AF: 1.8, Hands: 691

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with 3 A
BTN calls $0.10, SB calls $0.05, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.30) 3 A A(3 players)
SB bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20, BTN folds

Turn: ($0.70) 7(2 players)
SB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50

River: ($1.70) J(2 players)
SB bets $1.40, Hero raises to $3.50, SB raises to $9.20, Hero ? (Leave a comment of how you would play this hand!)

Finally, the happy Tuesday arrived.

Played two sessions two day, one in the morning before driver lesson and one in the evening after practice.

The first session went well, and made a buy in. This was played while laying in my bed and getting stressed by the factor that I had to wake up soon.

The other session was at the evening, and wow I finally ran hot!

Got a lot of my sets in on the flop, overpair got in on the flop and was good. TT got all in versus a 23% 4bet over 9 samples, versus his 99.

The funny thing was when I was far behind, people played their hands so WEIRD. Look at this, he cbet flop I call, turn he check. I wanted him to hit his backdoor flushdraw one card diamond or straight or just a pair, so I checked. River Q, he bet I raise for value, and he called ... And guess what he had.

Session review:

VP: 14

PFR: 12 

3B: 2.2% 

$: $32.28

# hands: 1148

RB: $3

Wow, I played extremely tight this session. I tried to remove some marginal hands like A8o, T9o and hands that doesnt flop that well. I decided that my postflop play against this callingstations aren't good enough. So I'll try to loosen up again, since I usually play 22/18 ish. So got to add some hands in my range again. But wow, playing nitty also worked at this level.

Wednesday, will probably be a breakeven day :)

By the way, Full Tilt update their software. Now you can add your own custom bet sizing. 

Chose 50% pot, 70% and pot as postflop. And 3x, 4x and pot preflop.