an interesting question in this hand is firstly wtf is villian fucking repping? he had pretty standard stats so in that hand i was definitely giving him full credit for his 4bet into a multiway pot. 

some things to take away

1) i guess his min4bet sizing in retrospect might have been a bit odd

2) i feel that given the draws available on the turn (its a fucking wet turn... but u must consider that this is a 4bet pot and for a 4bet pot that is actually a fucking DRY turn save AKs AQs and AQs 4bet OOP multiway is seriously kinda pushing it fishstylez already) his check on the turn shows up with weakness most of the time so it might have been a bet for me

3) ya in retrospect i really think i could have valued at least 1 street... if not the turn then the river

4) i dont even know why this fucker is 4betting me like this... i guess it might be cos my 3bet stats this session were not very standard (about 8% for FR zoom) but even if he had a good read he's fucking crazy to 4bet me when OOP multiway. fucking fish.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1967283
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $23.70
SB: $26.06
BB: $8.43
UTG: $13.19
UTG+1: $12.41
UTG+2: $13.72
MP1: $68.07
MP2: $11.01
CO: $9.62

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with K K
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $0.10, UTG+2 raises to $0.40, 2 folds, CO calls $0.40, Hero raises to $1.80, 3 folds, UTG+2 raises to $3.20, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.40

Flop: ($7.05) 6 2 3 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($7.05) 2 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero checks

River: ($7.05) 8 (2 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $7.05
Hero shows K K (two pair, Kings and Deuces)
UTG+2 shows Q T (a pair of Deuces)
Hero wins $6.73
(Rake: $0.32)

quick update - NL10

This has been my biggest pot so far at NL10. quite a standard hand so there's not much to be said. all the action came on the river which is awesome cos there's no more cards to come and im basically beating everything except AJ AA. i guess im fucking paying AJ AA off lah, since 55, 77, and Ax are all paying me off. anyway, villain is an NL10 reg and im pretty sure he's gonna fucking wanna hunt me and stack me back after what i did to him here, lol.

perhaps an interesting question here is whether we could fold it from villain's perspective. i would argue that its gonna be a tough one and it'll take up like my entire time bank to think about this but it should logically be a fold cos everything that's reraise shoving that river beats A9. Might lean towards a call if he was holding AK i guess.

as you can see, NL10 rake in all-in pots is starting to get gay... sigh, rake.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1966924
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $10.54
SB: $7.53
Hero (BB): $15.68
UTG: $8.95
UTG+1: $27.20
UTG+2: $4.65
MP1: $10.18
MP2: $4.89
CO: $24.10

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with J J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.30, 3 folds, CO calls $0.30, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.95) A 5 A (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets $0.40, CO folds, Hero calls $0.40

Turn: ($1.75) J (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks

River: ($1.75) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.30, UTG+1 raises to $6, Hero raises to $14.98 all in, UTG+1 calls $8.98

Final Pot: $31.71
Hero shows J J (a full house, Jacks full of Aces)
UTG+1 mucks A 9
Hero wins $30.28
(Rake: $1.43)

life update + graph update

this is my updated graph.

i cant say that the tables have been too kind to me (breakeven for 10k hands between 28k to 38k where i must admit i got a bit tilted too), but i guess volume solves all variance issues and im finally confident enough to move up to NL10.

when i first moved up to NL5 i found that the field was significantly tighter than the standard NL2 games, you can observe this just from the stars lobby when you see fucking 20% VPIP at NL2 zoom and 16% VPIP at NL5 zoom. but i reckon the main difference still comes in the post flop play at NL5. NL2 players simply stack off so much more easily than NL5 players and are significantly less tricky. nevertheless, its fucking NL5 so its still not that big of a challenge la if you do your best to play optimally.

its been a pretty good month overall, transitioning from NL2 to NL5 and now to NL10 within a span of about 3 weeks. hoping to keep improving and im trying my best to keep up with my poker education through twoplustwo and general hand reviews + discussions with chang. i've started taking shots at NL10 which have gone reasonably well so far and once im confident enough i will make the full transition - hopefully within a week or so.

my goal at NL10 is to try and sustain a 5bb/100 winrate which translates to rougly 5usd per hour pre-rakeback. cos then ill finally be earning macdonalds salary playing online poker! lol. hoping for the opportunity to keep improving and possibly move up to NL25 with a 4bb/100 winrate cos that'll be like 10usd per hour which is quite swee!

so thats my life update... lets talk poker now.

here are some lessons that i've learnt from NL5:

1) figuring out when folding is the most optimal decision:


aces meeting a gay flop (pocket 10s, Js, Qs, and AK all owning me) with 1 bet and 1 shove is an easy fold decision imo, i have maximum 6 outs (2 aces and 4 kings) and basically these fuckers showing up with better than top pair pretty often. i only beat KK here so its a fold :(

doesnt matter that i woulda rivered a tyco FH and won. on the flop it was maximum 6 outs thus a clear fold.


2) extraction gets tougher
villians are generally tighter with their calling ranges so while this makes decision making easier (its easier to narrow their continuation ranges) on future streets it also makes extraction a bit harder. aiyah but i think its damn fun to play a bit more creatively and trickily and you always get this sense of overwhelming joy when some fucker goes "wtf??!!!" stacks off to your weird line when u got the nuts.

3) positional awareness becomes much more important
this one doesnt even need elaboraion. basically since the games get more aggro as you move up, then it gets harder to play OOP even with JJ AQ AK type when u dont connect (sometimes its difficult even when you do)

4) redline/ blueline tradeoffs
i used to try and play like isildur (Lol) at NL2 with an aggressive reraising and 3betting/4betting type of game until i realised earlier this month that while that gives you a nice decent redline (see any of my pre-october graphs) its just damn difficult to sustain a consistent winrate cos of the nature of microstakes (pple call too much) and the fact that im just not pro enough (you gotta have fucking supreme hand-reading and villian-reading skills to make good redline money)

in summary:
1. its just a tradeoff since good redline players tend to have shit bluelines and vice versa.
2. having a solid redline at microstakes is just fucking difficult when villians dont fold and lets face it since im playing microstakes im just not pro enough to play like a pro
3. playing for showdown value and going for showdown money is a much more consistent and low-variance style than some aggrospew style - so at least the money is consistent given enough time and volume


thats it.

hoping for some success at nl10!

transitioning to NL5

been playing lots of zoom recently and i've also transitioned to fullring (after a discussion with chang about the state of the microstakes games). i've come to the conclusion that as a beginner and a player who's not very good at postflop hand ranges and hand reading, fullring is much more profitable for me at the moment because:
1. you only pay 1.5 bb to see 9 hands (as opposed to 6)
2. by adjusting my opening range to some 13/9 style and my 3bet range to some 3%, im basically playing for pure value and it makes all my postflop decisions much easier

also, zoom fucking rocks because i get to play like 1000 hands per hour on 4 tables which is no where as stressful as like 12 tabling to achieve the same no. of hands per hour. i think i will continue grinding zoom and i hope to keep improving.

some things to note:
1. after reading extensively on twoplustwo i found that a WTSD% of below 30% seems to be the best long term profitable playstyle (im achieving that by folding more on the flop, when playing OOP, and by generally not "bluff catching" as much)
2. villian 3bet ranges and 4bet+ ranges seem to be fucking legit in zoom cos even fish are able to just fold everything until they get dealt something decent so i have to keep my 3 and 4bet ranges tight and value-ish
3. 5NL villians seem to be generally better at catching bluffs so if i do attempt them i'll need to adopt more legit lines (its all about strenghtening my perceived range)


anyway, this is just a quick update as i begin my transition into 5NL (im now more or less rolled for 5NL and i've recently been playing 2 tables of 2NL zoom and 2 tables of 5NL zoom already). i must say the first few dips of my feet into the water at 5NL have been pretty scary in that the players seem much less fishy. prolly wont be able to sustain a 20BB/100hands winrate at 5NL but fuck i gotta start somewhere la. at least my first 5000 hands at 5NL have been profitable and the villian tendencies still seem to be more or less the same... hoping for good luck at the tables!

ill just end off with a hand to show how fucked up 5NL is... i thought this hand was pretty damn tough. im not even sure if i made the correct decision but during the hand i just felt that his line was fucking weird since his SB calling range should be pretty tight even considering that i could potentially be trying to steal from the button. here's what my line of reasoning was:
1. his SB calling range should be quite tight
2. his checkraise on the flop was fucking smelly cos wtf is he checkraising with? (AA, KK, QQ, 44, 66, A6s are generally what beats me now and i dont really see how that would form a big part of his range given that he'll prolly 3bet AA, KK, QQ preflop. 44 and 66 i guess i'd just have to pay off on the flop first and re-evaluate on the turn la)
3. the turn bet was so small compared to his flop aggression its like he was pussying out after my flop call
4. river was an easy call cos im getting like 4:1
5. folding the flop here is just too fucking exploitable and weak. how the fuck can i fold an overpair (even if he had another overpair like 8s, 9s, 10s, i was likely to be holding the best logical overpair) to some guy who might have 44, 66 but also likely to be full of shit and show up with a load of air (overcard type hands) here

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 1940228
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $3.25
SB: $4.44
BB: $8.10
UTG: $5.72
UTG+1: $5.22
UTG+2: $6.38
MP1: $5.66
MP2: $5.25
CO: $7.85

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with J J
6 folds, Hero raises to $0.20, SB calls $0.18, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.45) 6 6 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.30, SB raises to $0.90, Hero calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.25) Q (2 players)
SB bets $1, Hero calls $1

River: ($4.25) 2 (2 players)
SB bets $2.34 all in, Hero calls $1.15 all in

Final Pot: $6.55
Hero shows J J (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
SB shows T K (a pair of Sixes)
Hero wins $6.28
(Rake: $0.27)

Swee lah this hand is so swee.

Yet another example of why you should say "fold" and act like a douche in the chat when you actually want your villian to call. 

in any case i think i would have shoved cos my stats on this fucker was that he's damn fishy so im definitely attributing a good amount of air in his range.

as played this hand was very villain specific cos against most standard villians ill prolly fold preflop or flop. against standard villians ill sometimes also reraise turn with my OESD to filter out possible J9 hands which would likely reraise or shove here (then i can fold easily with my non-nut OESD cos i only have max 17% equity against villian's turn 3bet range here). also might not shove river against standard villians... not quite sure but i reckon a shove for value might be too risky as J9 would fit villian's line (but then again im holding a 9 as a blocker so ill have to factor that in too)

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1918165
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $5.13
SB: $1.61
BB: $10.20
UTG: $5.18
MP: $6.84
Hero (CO): $3.82

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with 9 7
1 fold, MP raises to $0.14, Hero calls $0.14, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.35) 2 Q T (2 players)
MP bets $0.25, Hero calls $0.25

Turn: ($0.85) 8 (2 players)
Hero says "lets go", MP bets $0.60, Hero calls $0.60

River: ($2.05) 6 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero says "fold", Hero bets $2.83 all in, MP calls $2.83, Hero says "fold"

Final Pot: $7.71
MP mucks K T
Hero shows 9 7 (a straight, Six to Ten)
Hero wins $7.39
(Rake: $0.32)

Hand 1: late stages of a freeroll theres no meaning here just that i predicted the flop ahahaha

Poker Stars Freeroll No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t500/t1000 Blinds + t200 - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP1: t17580 M = 5.33
MP2: t13735 M = 4.16
Hero (CO): t23232 M = 7.04
BTN: t33645 M = 10.20
SB: t42942 M = 13.01
BB: t12592 M = 3.82
UTG: t7414 M = 2.25
UTG+1: t36674 M = 11.11
UTG+2: t56040 M = 16.98

Pre Flop: (t3300) Hero is CO with K J
4 folds, MP2 raises to t3000, Hero calls t3000, 2 folds, Hero says "i have 24 offsuit", 1 fold

Flop: (t9300) A 4 2 (2 players)
MP2 says ")))", MP2 checks, Hero says "hahaha", Hero says "hit my 24", Hero bets t2500, MP2 calls t2500

Turn: (t14300) K (2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets t8035

Final Pot: t14300
Hero mucks K J
Hero wins t14300

villian showed AQ before he mucked... lol at my preflop bullshit chat that somehow connected with the flop LOLOL!!!!!

Hand 2: Zoom hand I played during class

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

BTN: $2.21
Hero (SB): $3.34
BB: $2.07
UTG: $1.67
MP: $3.65
CO: $2.46

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with 8 8
2 folds, CO raises to $0.06, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.05, BB raises to $0.24, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.18

Flop: ($0.54) 5 9 T (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $0.32, Hero calls $0.32

Turn: ($1.18) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

River: ($1.18) J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.35, BB folds

Final Pot: $1.18
Hero mucks 8 8
Hero wins $1.14
(Rake: $0.04)