yah, i really have to stop playing this game. i'm basically a break even player over my last 25k hands, yet i still play this stupid game which i obv shouldn't, since i tilt so much. i feel like i have a decent understanding of the game, but i just get really impatient....... this, after losing 132 today, after having won like 100 in the past few days lol. omahaments. it's just sick to see myself lose a 55/45 for 200bb stacks against a fish who I saw go broke for 150bb with as little as top 2 pair on a straight, flush draw board. god.

so anyways, i vow to only play NLHE for 1 month starting now... hopefully i can stick to this, and finally have my first winning month in a few months lol.

also, just got a bowflex, and am enjoying it very much so far. i'm in pretty awful shape, and tired a ton every day, and def. need to exercise more + eat better, so hopefully this helps with that.

life is really busy, and it's tough trying to put in hands when i come home everyday from work extremely exhausted despite the fact that my work isn't hard.

anyways, I think the goal I'm going to set for myself is to get to 3/6 NL by next summer.... i dun really see how i can devote enough time to moving uip beyond that, but even getting there would be a great achievement for me with my time.

lol at me setting goals/promises i can't keep ever.

played again a few hours last night, lost 110ish......

Lost AA to QT all in on a Qxx flop.

Lost AQ to two bare flush draws all in on a Qxx flop.

Lost AA to 55 in a 3bet pot vs a 45/17/3.5 fish on a Q52 flop

Got rivered by a 40/1/1 passive fish who checked the river when he hit his flush with like 1/2 psb left, which made no sense to me, so i value shoved top 2 pair lol.

Oh well..... hopefully run better next time, and again, bluff less etc. I've screwed my winrate by trying to bluff bad TAGs too much.

So after my first 4143 hands of NLHE 25 at Full Tilt, I've won ~180ish at 8.7 ptbb/100 hands, playing 23/20/5.

I actually should be up smtg like 75-100 more if I didn't 3 barrel so much in horrible spots lol. I also misclicked for half my stack preflop with 99, and couldn't fold to KK obv.

Once I stop 3 barrel bluffing like crazy, I think my winrate will jump a lot. Pretty much, avoiding really marginal spots I should just check/fold in after getting called on the flop by people i just know WON"T fold to a 2nd or 3rd barrel with top pair. *sigh*

I feel 23/20ish is optimal for this level, and probably for NL50 too. There are sooo many TAGs playing 16/13 who really can't make as much as they could be.

Playing 23/20 also has its advantages because I'm raising and 3betting/4betting (in good spots obv) more than anyone else. Like today I had someone 4bet shove me with TT, and then another guy called my 5bet shove with 77. I had KK once and AA the other time. I would never get that kind of action preflop playing some TAG 16/13.

I'm definitely still learning tho, and just avoiding some marginal spots I really shouldn't be getting involved in will drastically increase my winrate.

I'm also practicing table selection using SpadeEye now, and pretty much only sit at tables with 1 or 2 fish playing 40/5/ or smtg. I have no problem playing the TAGs, it's just that you obv don't win money as fast.

Need to win 1200 more to begin my shot at NL50, which I think will go pretty well, as I don't expect there to be that much of a skill jump from NL25 to NL50. Hopefully I will be able to do this sometime late June or early July.

So I played 571 hands of NL25 6-max today, avged. 2-4 tables, as I decided to spend more time table-selecting than just playing anything.

Won about 70 dollars, and run at about 24ptbb/100hands. No real interesting spots, just playing lots of good of solid poker and attacking the fish.

Purchased SpadeEye yesterday, and am loving it. Datamining is sooo much easier, and finding fish is so fast.

Bankroll is at 912 right now, goal (which I plan to stick to!), is to get to 2500 and then move up to NL50, with the goal of moving up everytime I reach 50 buyins for the next level.

Man this game is sooo frustrating. What am I doing wrong?

I understand I lose a ton of money spazzing out in random places and tilting when I run bad..... but I feel like my edge really isn't that great in this game, because so much of my play relies on running decent. Conversely, I don't need to run that great to do decently in holdem, since people miss the flop a ton, and don't continue the way they do in omaha.

Since getting my new laptop, I've played ~21k hands of PLO25 and am essentially a break even player. This disgusts me a ton, because I feel like I am a decent player and know the correct play in most spots, but due to all the variance, I am constantly questioning my play and my style. It's just so sick.

Well, looks like I'm going to try holdem again lolool. I am going to focus on 4 to 6-tabling, because my goal is not to be a NL25 24-table grinder, but to improve and go to the highest stakes possible. The only way to do that is to think carefully about each situation, and you can't do that 24-tabling or w/e.

My foray into NL25 last month went really well, so hopefully going back there I can rebuild my roll.

I'm currently on a $1300 downswing, -$400 from NL100 HU, and -$900 from PLO25.... ridiculously sick.

I started playing NL 0.50/1.00 heads up last night....

After 488 hands, I'm down $400.00 on the dot. To be fair, I ran about $300 below expectation..... that's heads up variance for you.

To be honest, I played pretty horrible in a few all in pots (trying to bluff fish, etc.), which costed me most of my losses. But the players are seriously god damn awful, it tilts me so hard that I am life long loser at NL100 HU lol. I also lost prob 400-500 playing with my friend last year at NL100 HU, but that's when I sucked too.

It tilts me that players are calling my btn raises OOP with 56o and flopping straights, or turning straights with 89o when I have TPTK doksdpk.

Admittedly, I did not adjust quick enough. When I saw that my opponent was calling me with 56o OOP, I shoudl've tightened my opening range. Also, one of them started check/mini-raising me on the flop a bunch, and instead of reacting smartly (bluff 4-betting the flop more, or cking behind the flop more with medium strenght hands), I kept cbetting and folding lol what a moron I am .

But for sure, there are so many bad players at this level, but I am def. not rolled to play this. I'm not mad about losing 400 to be honest, I'm mad that I lost to fish.

Oh well, back to grinding the 6-max games =)

Oh yah, I played PLO25 yesterday and ran 100 below expectation. So I've lost 500 int he last 2 days, and ran 400 below expectation. greaaat.

big upswing soon plzpzlzpzlp

I haven't made a blog post in a while, but to be fair, I haven't played too much these past two weeks. I am working full time this summer for May-Sept, and because I take the bus home, I don't get back from work until 6-7pm usually. Also, when I get home I am very exhausted, and I play terrible when i'm exhausted.

I also purchased a new laptop since the screen of my old one got busted. So i had to resintall poker tracker and ace HUD, and have tried out spadeeye, and may purchase it in the future - seems like a solid table selection program.

I have been playing a ton of PLO 25 the past few days, and won about 4-5 buyins the last 2 days playing a solid 20/10 style. Today I tried a more aggressive 30/12 style with more betting post flop in good situations, and the slightly higher aggression has paid off well so far. I think I played pretty close to optimal for my ability today (minus 2 pots where I prob should've folded but convinced myself villains were shoving less than sets, and was wrong both times).

In total this evening I won about ~$106 over 1143 hands, running about 18.68 bb/100 hands. Here are the biggest hands, starting with the losers:

www.pokerhand.org/

www.pokerhand.org/

The above two hands were massive beats, and against the same fish. In Hand 2, I am a 80% fav on the flop and 92% fav on the turn. In hand 1, I am a 75% fav on the turn, and we tie about 7% of the time. Such sick sick hands. If I had won those, I'd be up 8 buyins instead of 4... oh well, c'est la vie.

www.pokerhand.org/

Yeah, this hand was pretty awful. I should've just b/f the turn smaller, but spazzed out a bit and convinced myself he picked up clubs on the turn or smtg lol. This was the only big pot I played awful tho.

And now some winners:

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain was a fish, so this is pretty standard. I think betting the flop is fine, but his call of the raise on the flop and the turn shove is pretty atrocius. I am pretty much never bluffing in this spot.

www.pokerhand.org/

The above hand is an example of the trouble you can find yourself in if you aren't drawing to the nuts... villain had fishy stats, but was also very passive. And I dind't believe a passive fish was leading out AKQx on the flop, so I shoved turn with 2nd nuts. His play on the flop is fine, but turn is pretty terrible.

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain's play makes absolutely no sense... but i'm glad he was at my table.

www.pokerhand.org/

A big mistake for beginning players is overvaluing middle or bottom sets in non 3-bet pots. This isn't like holdem where losing set over set is a cooler.... in omaha, losing set over set in a non 3-bet pot is a pretty big leak.

www.pokerhand.org/

In this hand, I finally win a pot against the fish who gave me these 2 horrendous beats mentioned earlier. Again, the 2nd nuts are still the 2nd nuts..... another mistake new players make a ton in omaha.

www.pokerhand.org/

Wow at going broke with a 6 high flush for 100bb....

Anyways, hope to continue playing well at PLO25...... prob not going to make my goal of moving up to PLO 50 due to my 40ish buyin downswing the past two months, but hopefully next month it'll happen.

I haven't watched some PLO videos in a while, think I might watch a brian t. one tonight.....

Anyways, GL at the tables everyone!

I played two more sessions of NL25 recently, one last night, and one this afternoon.... won about 2 buyins last night, and won just 3 dollars today lawl. Today's session I think I played well, and I ran poor in a few spots... Lost AA

On to some good hands:

www.pokerhand.org/

This wasn't a big hand, but is a good example of some of the key things I've learned from watching CTS and Taylor's videos. In this particular example, villain was a 14/10/2 nit over ~280 hands. When he flat/calls the raise from the BB, I really think his range is skewed towards small pocket pairs, like 66's or 77's. Flop comes AK3 with 2 hearts. I KNOW he doesn't have AA/KK/AK here because a nit would 3-bet me preflop, especially since I was playing very aggro preflop. When a nit donks into you on a board like this, very often he realizes I miss the flop a lot and will prob cbet, and he's just trying to see whether his pocket 7's are good. The important thing here is that because of preflop, his range CANNOT contain any monster except 33 and sometimes A3. However, AA/KK/AK can definitely be in my range, because all I did was raise preflop. Also, the fact that he leads the flop, makes me think he doesn't have 33. The fact that I hold K6 is kind of irrelevant..... if I had 56o, I would raise this flop, because I can represent a monster. In retrospect, having a K means I have showdown value and calling is okay too, but at the time, I felt he might have A2 suited or something and could bluff that out too.

Months ago, before I watched CTS/Taylor's videos, and if I held 56o in this spot, I would have always folded. Now, I'm thinking about my specific opponents, their hand ranges, what their actions mean, etc. I'm learning to value bet calling stations much lighter, know when to fold monsters, etc. I feel very happy with my progress, and am excited that in such a short period of time, CR has already helped improved my understanding of the game so much.

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain was a major calling statiion, so value bet the whole way, and well river card is just perfect.

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain was a hugeeee maniac.... tho his actual hand surprised me obv. I snapcalled the turn, but I was scared for a second that he hit 2 pair or smtg haha.

www.pokerhand.org/

This is another spot where I used to fold before joining CR.... I mean I only need to be good here 25% of the time on the river, and I didn't think a calling station was good enough to value bet Kx or Qx on this board.... and weak players tend to make weak bluffs.

Anyways, I played 22/19ish today, and was very happy with those numbers. Before I would fold a ton in the CO or btn because I was scared of getting called.. but honestly, the action goes, raise, call, villain c/f flop SO often, that it really doesn't matter what my cards are a lot of the time.

I was talking to my good friend last night, and I shared with him my realization of the 4 types of players at this level:

(1) Fish. And within this category, we have the passive calling station fish, and the crazy, maniac, bet every hand fish. They lose lots of money and can beat no one in the long run. Well the maniacs can crush some bad TAGs and nits in the short term, to be fair.

(2) Nits. These are the 12/10 guys whose preflop and post flop play is so predictable, the only peopel they can beat are the fishes. So they don't make money off of the TAGs.

(3) ABC TAGs. These guys have a decent understanding of solid poker. They can beat the fish, and steal blinds from the nits. The problem is that they can't beat each other.

(4) The good TAGs (and somewhat good LAG). These are the 25/20 guys who not only beat the fish and exploit the nits, but are also able to find weaknesses in the ABC TAGs.

Before CR, I was definitely an ABC TAG, and my winrate was prob something like 2bb/100 hands. Since joining CR (I know small sample size), I'm slowly turning into a Type 4 good TAG/LAG player.

I'm looking for leaks in not just the fish and nits, but the different TAGs. I've learned to be more fearless. If I think you are making an info bet with a mediocre hand, and my hand has no showdown value or I have a draw, I'm going to raise it up. I'm not scared to lose 5 dollars anymore in a bluff raise, because I am confident in my reads.

I see a 20/15 TAG raise in the CO. I look to my left and see two nits in the blinds. I look down at my hand and see 45s. I realize I haven't 3-bet this guy ever, or in a while. So I 3-bet.

I am running at 22/19. I raise my button for the 10th time in a row. a 20/17 TAG player in the SB who I feel is going to start playing back at me soon light 3-bets me. BB folds. I look down and see A4o. I 4-bet.

There are so many ABC TAGs whose winrates would be so much higher if they just learned they need to be exploiting everyone, and not just the fish. And I think this inability to attack every single opponent at the table is what prevents decent players from moving up the stakes.

There are so many NL25 tables going on, and table selection takes a long time to do, so I'm prob going to have to find a better way to look for tables....

GL at the tables!

Yup, title says it all.

I've been playing PLO25 primarily the past 3 months or so, and won at about ~2bb/100 hands which is umm yah not satisfactory =/ I think I lack some important skills necessary for PLO in particular (but I guess are important to any form of poker). I tilt too much, and when variance hits me hard, I start thinkign too highly of my game or questioning my game too much.

So I decided to give NL25 a shot, because the variance is much lower, and well, CR simply has much more content, so I would probably improve a lot faster. Also, it's a nice change of pace from PLO.

So anyways, after having gotten CR several days ago, I decide to watch a few holdem videos, including CTS's sick videos and some small stakes holdem ones. Wow, those videos were very eye-opening, and made me realize how exploitable my past play at NL25 was (i.e. ABC TAG autopiloting without considering all the other factors).

I started playing NL25 last night, and started to focus on each and every hand and think about it completely the way Taylor, CTS, etc. go through in their videos, and this is has done wonders for my game. I have been making way better reads than I was months ago, and I am already up almost 6 buyins in 1.2k hands..... obviously running good, but I feel much more comfortable with this game in the last 2 days than ever before.

The reason I switched to PLO was because i found holdem boring (not surprising I was a marginal winner previously), but now I realize how interesting it can be. =)

So I've set some goals for myself.... I'm going to watch some CR video stuff everyday (try to, some ppl think this is overkill on 2+2 but meh, I enjoy the videos for the most part!). I also have the goal of making 70ish buyins at NL25 by the end of the month (against, some ppl at 2+2 think this is overkill, and should move up way earlier if I can make that much, but I'm a bankroll nit, and want at LEAST 50 buyins before I move up to NL50).

Now some fun hands from my first 2 sessions back at NL25.

www.pokerhand.org/

It's great to get action 3 way when you have a set! =) Good thing no spade hit on the river...

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain was a fish who was betting everrrry street. I didn't want to commit too much chips on the flop as flip, but turn was gin, and I am WAY ahead of his range there.

www.pokerhand.org/

Villain here was a fish..... this is one of the differences with my play now (after watching some CR videos) and my play before. I just to play so scared, and convince myself villain has a Q bla bla. But now I realize, this guy is a fish for a reason... his range is so much wider than a Q here. So my only question should be - how do I get all the money in?

www.pokerhand.org/

Weeeee......

www.pokerhand.org/

Okay this was an interesting one..... villain had JUST sat down, so no stats/reads. But he limped in EP, suggesting he is not a good player. By the river, I mean sureee he could've been slowplaying a flopped set (which is now a full house). But my line looks SO weak, and if he was betting for value, I think he's more likely to bet much smaller.

Andddd a graph:

Last night, I was 7-tabling PLO25 around midnight. I think I was down 2 buyins after 2 hours, playing I thought, a solid 22/10 game. There was this guy absolutely destroying the tables, and was running at 40/10. He was limping a ton, seeing lots of flops in position etc.

Afte doing some thinking, I realized this was a much more profitable strategy than a TAG game because people are so much more loose at PLO25 than at mid to higher stakes. And they are also much worse post flop, which means playing more hands in position is more profitable.

So anyways, I 7-tabled this afternoon on Full Tilt, and played 1093 hands, running at 8.07 bb/100 hands and winning about $44.10. I was actually up $100 twice earlier in the session, but I got sick coolered on one hand, and got involved in a massive 3 way pot where I was neutral EV, and prob should not have played it. I also ran below expectation I believe, and lost like every damn flip and 60/40, but oh well.. Because the games at PLO25 are not as aggressive as mid to higher stakes, there is no need to push small edges like 60/40s - people let you crush them with 75-100% edges, that you should simply wait for those higher EV spots.

Anyways, some big hands from today: First, the losers:

www.pokerhand.org/

This was the sick cooler, where I flop the nut straight and a redraw to higher straights. He flops the nut straight with a back door flush draw, the draw he picks up on the turn. He played this hand so bad..... flop min raise makes no sense except to induce another raise, which he flat calls and doesn't shove the turn wen he hits his redraw..... I don't think I can fold on the river because his hand looks like a set so much to me, and sometimes flushes, but w/e debatable. Could be spew.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548960

This is prob marginal at best, and prob -ev in the long term, preflop that is. Postflop is standard, and WOW at the guy who won with no hand and no draw on the flop. Turns out he actually had decent equity... omaha is a sick game.

And now the winners:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548965

Standard.

www.pokerhand.org/

I think villain played this pretty poor. Either he is crushed by a higher set, or i have decent equity with a combo draw type hand. He has to be praying I am bad enough to go broke with J9 for just 2 pair here....

www.pokerhand.org/

Fish drawing to the non-nuts.... bad idea in omaha

www.pokerhand.org/

I guess he put me on top set? lolololol.

www.pokerhand.org/

Guess villain put me on a bare flush draw bluff...

Anyways, very happy with my play today. I think I only misplayed the 3-way hand. If I start running good, I think I will rake in some sick sick days.

GL at the tables ppl.