From not being able to get two tables going this morning to a bunch of maniacs this afternoon. It's Funday of course.

Won a few bbs but managed to butcher a couple as well. Case in point, not been sat long but what a nice value bet on the flop, gg me. Think the turn bet might just be ok as it gives me a 'I can call the raise' option if I get the standard minraise turn from what turned out later to be a fish.



Any way, won't be long now before I have the roll to play nl10. Not sure how much I might need for nl20 on here, especially at anon, but I may get there in a couple of months - he said, optimistically - but not putting any pressure on this time as I don't need to withdraw to pay bills etc., for the first time ever in the history of evers!

Leak for this weak: still not cbetting with confidence. Tending to fit/fold a lot when I flop nothing except the 6 outs I hold. In my defence a lot of flops go multiway, but I should still be able to steal a few by now.

Cut the tables and fix that by the end of the week.

My bonus clearing is going really well, got 0% so far already! Bob hope of getting much of this one but whatever, bits and pieces and all that.

Aaaannd there's still another BV OPL to come for 27.50 + 2.50 that I'm already regged for, so I can always take that away to cheer myself up.

Enough drivel, back to the grind then Halo Reach for a chillout, but no beers until nl20.

While I was away I played around with some theory stuff, kinda hoping to get a kick start as it were for if/when I got back. It was touch and go for me having to give it up totally, but plodding on now.
Oh and what theory stuff was that Mal?
Oh, the usual preflop math, building ranges from scratch and all that fun stuff, nothing innovative. What I did gain from the exercise was an insight into the why, rather than just the what of it all.

An interesting situation occurs, that of raising the bottom of our range from utg, versus different table dynamics. Apparently, if we add up all the 3b% of players still to act and it works out >30%, then it becomes mathematically unprofitable to open the bottom of said range. And yes how wide our range is matters, I get that.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with though, given we may be able to outplay our opponents either by immediately bluffing (if indeed the villain is bluffable enough percentage of the time) preflop or outplay them on later streets. Maybe I'm just not understanding it properly but it's a nice base level to start me off at.
Feel free to comment.

So from there I moved to calling 3bets IP/OOP, then calling raises IP. My blinds I left til last and still haven't entirely got my BvB sorted out for 3bet folds, but I'm not even sure I should be 3bet folding much anyway yet.
Another thing I haven't really worked out is attacking limpers. Limp/F, Limp/c and fold to cbet are easy and nearly any two if the table is passive. It's the aggrotards and the 2.6 euro guys I still need to sort out. for now I'm picking out hands that I'm willing to go with and just getting on with it. It works to some extent of course but it's not very analytical.

Again, feel free to chime in.

So, my Opening Ranges go: 14/18/24/48/36; gets me to around the 21/16 mark which is not exactly maniacal but fine for anon tables for now, especially given their often multiway nature but at least at first glance it looks like I'm on the right track. I only play a maximum 4 tables at the moment until I internalize it all anyway.

I'm winning of course, but I haven't met many better regs yet, just one or two, so I think I'll be climbing the stakes this time round.

Come get some.

Me trying to iso the weak guys on tables just chocker full of tight/passive regs, just so many.

I don't think I'd be folding this particular holding on that board versus this player. Seems I'm getting back to iso/reiso-ing with all sorts IP again which is just fun, confidence is climbing and the weak regs are trying very hard to play call pre IP and chk/r flop as a trap. Na, got the tee-shirt for that one guys, do try to keep up there's good lads.

$0.05/$0.10 No Limit Holdem Prima
4 Players

Blinds 0.5BB/1BB4
CO Player 2 $151.9BB
D Player 4 $98.5BB
SBHero $108.6BB
BB Player 1 $203.3BB
[/divbox]

So the game has been fun and the dealer been good to me so far - so far - it's only a few K hands I know. Not playing huge volume or anything, just trying to get it right a bit at a time and it's all good so far.

Watched a guy called Trey Gowdy on YouTube, seems to be an bit of a folk hero in the U.S. of A. We could use someone like that over here instead of all these tree hugging wishy-washy types who wont say anything in case somebody gets 'offended'. Just awesome.



Run good.

So I kept being told to have a go at omaha, it'll be fun; lots of action blah blah blah blah.
Turns out I sat at up to 12 tables of plo6 6max picking up very little and hitting even less. I think I won 2 all ins in around 4 hours, that's a skill playing these nutters! Actually it was so bad I hardly hit a board all session, how sad am I.

Anyway, back int he groove tomorrow then OPL on Saturday. Must needs take that one down just so I can pump my gums - and get back the 10BI I lost today of course.

Tired now and my loyalty points not showing up and rake race not updated for three days, so no idea how the bonus clearing is going.

This must be my 'Welcome Back to the Grind' graph then eh? Symmetry, we like symmetry, symmetry is good!




Swongs R Us

My OPL GTFO hand. Always ahead and time to chip up ready to hit that FT.



My last OPL to. Hit dem showers sucka!

Having said that, you didn't see me overbet a river with nada and get a fold earlier, so maybe I can't complain. Love overbetting, it's me nooo check/fold!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Setmining versus a 76/3/0 whale, obv is obv he has aces.




Notice I'm back to nl4, that's because I suck at winning. Still be nl25 by the summer.

Hope the OPL and your other games went well and you have a good weekend whatever you're up to - well, legally of course!.


BR = 181.96

So I was watching @Jon-PokerVIP i.e., the Master, at work, playing lag style on TonyBet and just having a ball mostly, when I noticed something I didn't know much about - check/raising flops; hmmm ...

So I did some sums, not hard stuff in the end.

Example: Take the most common steal situation, Big Blind versus Button.

BU opens to 3x, SB folds and we flat; easy game. (Notice I haven't mentioned my holding yet).

How often does BU steal 1st in? I'll use my own RFI for the BU for demonstation purposes, 45%. Sometimes more, sometimes less, Blinds style dependent obviously.

Ok, so BU opens 45% and we flat and the flop is nice and dry, say something like T52 rainbow.

Pot is 3bb+3bb+0.5bb = 6.5bb

We check and BU CBets 4bb, pretty standard so far yes?

Pot = 10.5bb

Now if we check/raise to 11bb regardless of our holding, how often do we need BU to fold to break even?
This is straighforward enough,

We are risking 11bb to win 10.5bb+11bb ==21.5 so

11/21.5 = 0.51 = 51%

So we need BU to fold 51% of the time (51% Fold Equity of F.E.) to break even, if they fold anymore than that it's profit $$$$$$$!

Ok, so lets look at a possible BU's opening range then:




Now, it's very common to see regs CBetting 80/90/ even 100% of the time at micros as we know. Let's assume somewhere around the middle-ish and say BU CBets 70%

So, opens 45% and cbets 70% is all very well, but how do we work out how often he folds? Might be easier to start with how often they continue and go from there.

Guess what, it's back to our old friends, Combos, again!

I think BU continues most times very nittily and with JT+, AA-QQ, TT/55/22 but we haven't included T5/T2/52 being optimistic additions(unless he's Coach Jon of course!).

JT+ = TJ, TQ, TK, TA = 12 Combos of each = 48 combos

TT, 55, 22 = 3 combos of each = 9 combos

AA - QQ = AA, KK, QQ = 6 combos of each = 18 combos

That's 48 + 9 + 18 = 75 combos total, so,

1326 stating hands
BU opens 45%
BU CBets 70%

therefore we have BU is opening and cbetting 1326 * 0.45 * 0.70 = 417 combos

BUT, if we check/raise they will only continue with the 75 we calculated before, whcih is 75/417 = 0.179 = 17.9% or 18% near enough.

So we get BU to fold around 82% of the time by check/raising but we only need 52% to break even. Sounds like easy money to me and remember this is for 70% so if BU cbets more than this the profit goes up hugely.

Notice we still haven't mentioned our holding and yet we're making huge money. It's more a flop texture thing than what we hold in the big blind.
For example, nice dry boards like the one above seem perfect candidates and paired flops like 66T that sort of thing.

Also notice that if villain does continue on, don't be a prick and spew off more chips trying to get them to fold their 18% of the nuts range. Would you fold top set? Well, there ya go then init.

Blockers: again pretty irrelevant given villain is only continuing with the top of their range and hitting your Ace on the turn with your Ax small is just asking for trouble. just check it down like a good little student if you can and give it up. Don't fear showing down air either it's good for the nutcase image.
Doing this with no equity hands is the the same thing really, again just don't get tricky and spewy.

Remember to do the same thing with your nutted hands to, especially if villain has seen you go to showdown with 6 high doing it! (party), which of course means we need to watch our table image; easy for me I'm a nit anyway.

Lastly, I don;t know how often I should be doing this stuff but having tried it out on nl4 anon I can safely say it's a fucking nightmare trying to get folds! Which bring the final point, if villain does call on the flop and you get to see a river and they showdown some odd stuff like say 77 on the board above, make a note and barrel the monkey next time!


My next study will be floating, I'm still guessing when I do that. oh, that board looks safe I'll call and see what the turn gives me. Meh.


That's it, it's beer - o - clock. Out.

So just to finish off, this is all very opponent specific so don't bother with fishy types who are liable to get sticky with whatever, but regs with a high 3bet IP and high cbet when checked to are ideal candidates for a check/r.

Floating will be today's lunchtime snack, it's cheaper than chk/raising to!

Back later, breakfast time.

Floating, wasn't nearly as tricky as check raising that's for sure. I'll need to get into it deeper as I move up but for now it's just float the flop when they have a silly number for cbetting and bet 2/3 on the turn when they check. If they call and check again bet another 2/3 on the river, it's plenty, take a note. Easy game ...

Been doing something right today and still running miles below that ev bs ... and?

Shame I got stacked by a 13/0/0 at the end. Meh, whatever.




I still get sessions where I go into my shell a bit though, no idea why, so I've started sitting out again when I feel like that. Sat out two tabs after 10 hands so no problem doing it.

Run good, I'm running off to the fridge.

Dropped a couple BI iso-ing the pilchards this morning so taking the rest of the day off until later tonight. I'll be studying more on BU/SB/BB stuff since that's where most of my action comes from.

-2BI and no beers left, fml.

The really bad beat here is obviosuly being out of beer. Glglglgl for future sessions though!

@fergrberger wow, someone actually popped in to see me! Gl to you to sir, although looking at the way your challenge is going, I might suggest you need just a tad less of that than I do.

Stream tonight?

Nah no stream tonight, head is all little fried after a long day study so chilling out with wifey and a movie! Coaching a guy tomorrow also no stream then either, will be in bright and early Saturday morning though!

Well you just have a very nice calm evening then and I'll maybe catch up with you on Saturday if I can.

Gn.

^

About x/raising. Don't level yourself too much Just stick to a solid balanced x/r strategy and don't over-complicate problem. On 1052r - are you x/raising a set? There are no draws, villains cbet range is shit, so I guess not - you want him to pick up something on turn. Therefore you'll end up without a x/r range at all on this board while you'll have plenty of BD floats that you'll x/r turn with along with your sets. And now let's create a strategy! Let's say you end up x/raising all combos of 22, 55 and 1/3 1010 for value - that's 3+3+1=7 combos. 7 combos for value, so you need to pick out ~17 bluff combos. You see, here's a problem on 1052r 34s could be a candidate, but you're 3betting those pf (at least I am). So you'll end up picking out hands like QJs with bdfd, 89s w/bdfd, 67s w/bdfd and so on. And now to my point - when x/r - always think about your value x/raises and quide from there - it will determine how many bluff x/raises you should do while not becoming unbalanced.

When you're original raiser, it's a bit different story (yet similar), but that's for another time.

Hi @MilfGrinder and thanks for popping by!

I can agree about getting too involved in all this fancy stuff, but I did want to know the maths to get the theory understood before trying it out. I only try it versus specif opponent types (you probably already know which ones) so I don't go overboard with it but I do use it when I have a no real equity hand rather than bdfd/bdsd, which are of course fine candidates as well, but I haven't got to those yet.
Also, versus some opponents I can x/r there with a set and still get called. So yes, it's all very situational as usual.

I'm also not concerned too much about becoming unbalanced for now, I'm just looking to take advantage of people's leaks and weaknesses. It's fun experimenting but you are of course correct. I think my x/r bb v bu open is supposed to come out at around 10% but in reality, versus the stations I meet, it's more like 7%.

I like working on this theory stuff, it's fun to try it out - and where I play it's cheap to do so!

Run good sir.

So I had a dib at plo4 today again, nl was smashing me. Lost 3BI again which is frustrating when you look at the table stacks! Anyway, gotta play a bit tight in these games you wont be HU unless it's bvb stuf. Try hitting the fucking cards in the middle in this game, jeeze, talk about mission imbloodypossibru!

Anyway, forgot about that no-chance-of getting-it bonus and just chilling for a bit learning and taking pot shots at nl10. Was wondering about this ROR stuff to after watching the mighty @fergrberger shotting with like 1.37 of a Bi and crushing. It seems to me that your ROR is greatly influenced by your skill level, so a 15% ROR for me might only be, oh, at a guess, 5% for the fergmeister and 2% for coach Jon in beast mode; at least with what pros call 'aggressive bankroll management' i.e. running it up! Must be nice to be that confident of being able to crush 'em.

Off to feed the mrs, have a good one.

You need to consider the implications of exactly what ROR means as well. If you bust your roll, can you reload? Then you're ROR is 0%. This was why I was so (stupidly) aggressive with my BR at the start of my challenge, I didn't want to spend too long at the beginning stages since people like the idea of turning something small into something big quickly, so I'm happy to take risks because it doesn't equal my entire poker wealth. If you're not in a position to reload then you need to be a hell of a lot more conservative obviously.

Yes, two good points I'd forgotten about. My own br can't be replaced so yes I am more conservative at around 40BI for nl4 at the moment after being mashed at nl10. And people do like a runitup gamble for some reason, I don't understand the excitement of it because the excitement of losing it is not something I would enjoy ...

... but then I'm a nit.