Moving up to NL$200 quite next week which is quite quick. I'm selling half my action in exchange for coaching.

Hopefully I can keep running hot.

gogogogogogogo

So yeah Roy is coaching me, had our first session today. I didn't so much learn anything new as he helped me refine my opening and 3-betting spots, as well as we talked a bit of theory and I realized I was misplaying AQ preflop. I'll be back at the NL$200 tables tomorrow and I'm sure I'll have some hands to post.

Alright so time for a big update.

So far this year is going very well. I feel I've learned a lot, made a good amount of money (nothing crazy but I don't need big bucks or anything at this point in my life), and have just recently started playing NL$200. I have, however, failed horribly at putting in the hours. So far this year I am averaging about an hour a day, which is unacceptable. I think this is mainly because I realize how big downswings can be and I'm somewhat of a pansy and don't want to pull a Shamdonk/Hard even though I know it's inevitable.

I'm doing well in school and not having to work that hard this quarter unlike I did in previous quarters. It's very possible my final year (I'm a junior now) will be the same way all the way through. I need to stop wasting such a large portion of the free time I have being smart allows you and start hustling a lot.

I actually don't think I'm that lazy, but I still need to step it up. So starting tomorrow I plan on averaging 3 hours a day, with exceptions for weeks when I go to my cousins house on weekends (note midterms and finals are not an excuse). My biggest problem is when I have a good day and start up 3-4 BI's, I quit earlier than I should. I don't think I've ever had a bigger than +6 BI day which is just ridiculous, whereas my -6 BI losing days occurred after me

So yeah, I'm gonna be 4x tabling NL$200 for the foreseeable future and hopefully I can get 1100-1200 hands in a day while learning a lot. I don't plan on updating this journal daily with what I win/lose as I don't see the point, I'll probably post it at the end of the 20k hands or if I get on a streak which will make for a funny graph, but I do plan on posting hands here and in the NL section.

I really want to start crushing nL$200 then take a few days to work out a ton of the math in poker then totally rework my game into a strong mathematical approach where I can be bluffing in literally any spot. I really want to be at NL$400 by the end of the year or NL$1000 if I can get myself to play like 8 hours/day during the summer.

gogogogogooggo me

Thanks DH, that is interesting. I must say your approach will probably lead you to become a very good player. Those are things most people don't do much thinking about (including me). However, I must say that I think you may overestimate the quality of your opposition at NL400.

I'm not saying what you are thinking about doesn't have merit. It just seems like you have too much respect for the higher limits and perhaps are too big of a BR nit (I don't know what your roll is at all but I would think you should be able to take NL200 shots without a backer). Since you are obviously willing to move down you shouldn't be afraid to try higher limits if you have say 25 buyins. Brian Townsend even advocates taking small shots with as low as 17 buyins (I think he says take a 3-4 buyin shot). Getting used to losing big pots, big bets and bigger swings is +EV even if you have to move back down to regroup a few times.

Granted I don't know if you need money out of your roll every month or whatever that may impact your ability to do the above. That's what has held me back from taking a serious 5/10 shot until just recently.

Posted a bunch of stuff in the NL section, this hand in particular (I posted it as a question regarding bluffing as this spot really intrigues me).

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (6 handed) Converter Tool from (Format: Bet The Pot)

SB ($545.25)
BB ($182)
UTG ($200)
Hero ($226)
CO ($73.70)
Button ($168.35)

Preflop: Hero is MP with , .
Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, Button calls $7, 2 folds.

Flop: ($17) , , (3 players)
Hero bets $14, Button calls $14.

Turn: ($45) (3 players)
Hero bets $36, Button calls $36.

River: ($117) (3 players)
Hero bets $169 (All-In), Button folds.

Final Pot: $117

It intrigues me for a couple of reasons and we can probably even talk some game theory.

#1) I think the river is an awesome spot to bluff. Flushes/straights/two pairs are almost always raising the turn (if the draws don't raise the flop), so it's very unlikely he has a Q beat once he calls the turn. The rivered K actually is very little from a total blank.

#2) That turn hits his flop calling range quite hard, giving him a bunch of two pairs and now pairs + straight draws if it doesn't flat out make his flush or straight.

So we've got two competing forces here. We know if we get called on the turn, we're going to be in a fantastic spot to bluff the river a very large % of the time. But we also know we're almost never getting folds on the turn, and raised a decent % of the time. So the turn card is saying "don't double barrel," but many river cards are going to be beautiful cards to triple barrel.

So we've got a couple options. We can widen are turn betting range so we have more hands to triple barrel the river with, and not just double barrel our draws (of which there are hardly any, just like JT and TT) and made hands. This will give us a bunch of crappy hands to bluff with so we can add a bluff component to all our made hands like AK or JJ or AT.

Or, we can take a bunch of our weak made hands like JT into a bluff to try to force him a off a queen, AJ, or a split.

Bottom line, if he takes the standard line on the turn and only calls with hands he'd be told to call with on 2+2 or BTP, he cannot call almost any of our river shoves. Yet if we take the standard line with all of our hands, we're not going to be left with almost any hands to turn into a bluff! We can't have the something like x because we raised in mp, so any time we have the it's already a made flush or straight. The worse it can ever be is AJ, which most people would not turn into a bluff on the river in a vacuum even if it's one of the few hands they can actually turn into a bluff since their range is saturated (is this a word you can use out of chem? oh well I'm a gangsta) with value hands. So yeah, the standard lines kind of suck here when you look at the hand as a whole and this is the kind of stuff I want to realize in game so I can ball it up at NL$1000 within a year or so.

Here's some examples. None of these are really too knew, as I knew how to 3-bet light 2 weeks ago Roy has just helped me refine it so I'm doing it in more spots and getting a really good success rate.

Note this one did not succeed pf, and villain is a donk while original raiser is a reg.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (6 handed) Converter Tool from (Format: Bet The Pot)

CO ($200)
Button ($261.65)
Hero ($200)
BB ($441.30)
UTG ($234.95)
MP ($100.05)

Preflop: Hero is SB with , .
1 fold, MP checks, CO raises to $9, Button calls $9, Hero raises to $42, 1 fold, MP folds, CO folds, Button calls $32.

Flop: ($96) , , (2 players)
Hero bets $60, Button calls $60.

Turn: ($216) (2 players)
Hero bets $99 (All-In), Button folds.

Final Pot: $216

This is me getting my 3-bet a limp raiser light cherry popped. I had been card dead and was like 13/9 at the table over 60 or so hands.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (6 handed) Converter Tool from (Format: Bet The Pot)

CO ($280)
Hero ($200)
SB ($91.05)
BB ($365)
UTG ($200)
MP ($190)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
UTG checks, 1 fold, CO raises to $9, Hero raises to $32, 2 folds, UTG folds, CO folds.

Final Pot: $23

Surprisingly the thing I am working on most now is my preflop game. I also just open a lot lighter on the button now, as can be seen.

Stuff like this is really +EV I think and just throws people way off.

Only got 2500 hands in so far, I'm obviously running hot but these stats look absolutely insane. I knew I was up a lot but I only recently decided to check to see what my stats looked like, and I was quite surprised by what I saw.



My game has gone through a lot of retooling in the last 10k hands and I'm really pleased with where I'm at.