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!