[Study blog] Towards a more advanced poker strategy

[Session review]

I joined Pokerstars with 21,035 players online. I played for 4h55, and had a net loss of $2.34.

I'm applying my 3-bet light strategy, and I have started to feel comfortable with it. Basically, I am 3-betting many hands of lower strength with 2x the raise bet.

I am unsure about my 3-bet calling range. I am frequently faced with 3bets and I don't know how tight I should be. I get very annoyed holding low and middle pairs and calling big 10xBBs only to set mine. What should I do? What is a good 3-bet calling range for Zoom NL10?

[Session review]

I begun my grinding session at 19:50 for 4 hours. I had a bit of tummy ache. I watched the First dates Greek show while I was playing.

I lost 2 big pots early, and I started feeling out of my waters! I need to find my good self to play tough!

My objectives, once again:
1. Pick up all the loose small pots
2. Win maximum on big hands
3. Lose minimum on bad hands

Unbelievably to me, I made a comeback and won a 289xBB pot with KK vs AK with flop set vs pair.

I ended my session down $10.29. Live to fight another day!

[Session review]

So, I started my session today at 20:11 with 2x tables of Zoom NL10. I am feeling so and so, mostly because of my previous loss. I am hoping this time to play great and come out profitable.

I'm praying to the poker Gods to give me good hands today.

It's a bumpy ride! I have ups and downs in my wins.

I noticed something strange: My VPIP is now 21%, when it used to be 16% until now. I don't know the reason as I don't think I have tried anything new.

In the end I had a big cooler when my ATs came up against a set of 3s that dropped me down for 1 buyin, so I am $8.39 down. I decided to cut my losses and end my session there.

[Session highlights: what a bad beat!]

Literally my 2nd hand after I started. That was the only hand I was afraid of. And he had it! Dead on the flop! WTF!!! Damn you, Pokerstars!!

[Hand review]

I just won a big hand with all in on flop. The poker Gods were on my side!

[Session review]

I started my grinding session today at 18:32 with 2 tables of Zoom NL10. Listening to BBC Radio 1 in the background. I am waiting to get "in the Zone", to play my best possible poker.

I go back to my mantra: Stay aggressive!

I finished my session at 22:26 up $4.49. All in all, an ok session.

[Session review]

I started a quick session for less than an hour, a I have an appointment to attend.

Man I hate those 12xBB 3-bets. They are so costly.

I ended up being down $8.58. I need more time to play, will continue later.

[Session review]

I am listening to BBC Radio 1 while sipping on Lemon Coke. I started my session at 18:13.

Man I am annoyed at those 12xBB OOP 3-bets!! They are too high!!
I am also annoyed at 3-betting to 12xBB when OOP with a big hand. It's not good when it doesn't hit on the flop, and I don't know what to do!
Equally, I noticed my customers fold way too often to big 3-bets, and for this I am applying my own 3-bet light and low tactic.

One of my worst moments: Betting TPTK vs someone who also has TP without knowing the kicker. It is like a ticking bomb where they may hit their kicker without being able to tell.

I am still to solve the mystery of my 18% VPIP in Zoom cash games. I want to have a 21-26% VPIP, as TAGs and sharks do. Right now I am a bit of a nit. I am suspecting the reason is: I RFI too few hands from CO and BTN, overfolding rag Aces, overfolding suited Kings and Queens from MP/LP, and overfolding on the blinds. I also overfold to 3-bets.

That annoying moment where you bet pre, flop and turn, and villain calls all 3 streets and bets you on the river!

I lost a huge hand with AQs vs JJ quad Js. I am down $31.66 That was enough for me to pack up and leave to do something else! I am so pissed off right now!

How is that hand a bad beat unless you were allin pre? (And even pre you werent a big favourite) You had the lower end of a straight, not the nuts. And were drawing dead from the flop

Hi SwedishNit! We went all-in on the flop where I had a straight and villain had a higher strait. I count that as a bad beat, or perhaps you can call it a cooler.

[Session review: Back to winning!]

I had a couple of days off poker to refresh. I started my session at 13:41 and ended at 19:58 for 6h16m with a net profit of $27.51. Pokerstars did a big update, downloading files though slowly. I turned on BBC Radio 1 to listen to music. My internet wasn't working well so I connected from my mobile and switched my music to Winamp playing Pop anthems. There were over 17,000 players online.

Ok, let's focus on the game: Stay aggressive!

This session I made a change to my strategy. I changed the size of my probe C-bet to 20% of pot. I use this bet to gain information about my opponent, and take down loose pots. I figured that many players may not see any difference between a 20% pot size bet a 30% pot size bet, so I get a chance to steal the pot easier. This way I risk less chips to probe, and I keep the pot smaller, but have the same effect of fighting for the pot. I will continue using this tactic and see how it goes.

[Session review: Another moderate loss]

I started my session at 18:18 with $81.97 in the bank. There were 20,000 players online at Pokestars and 154 players on the Zoom NL10 tables. I'm listening to BBC Radio 1 and drinking Coke and Hell. I am playing 2x Zoom NL10 tables at a time.

My internet connection is working well! It usually plays up and disables me from playing and I have to set up a manual network from my mobile to connect.

Unfortunately I started my session in the worst way possible. The poker Gods were not with me from the start. I started with a big loss. I lost 3 big pots right at the start, with the bigger one being a KK vs AA all in on a low flop. That puts me down 2 x buyins. I hate it!

I'm really losing my motivation to play. I am fed up of losing sessions, especially like this one where I get trashed right from the start, while i am still fresh. Clearly, my performance at the Zoom NL10 level is bad, but I don't wanna even bother with the lower levels.

I had a pork steak and potatoes while contemplating my strategy and how I can recover. I am waiting impatiently for my luck to change, and my downswing to end and, catch some big hands.

I won a cool pot with a set of 9s on the turn. That fixed my mood. I won another pot with QQ vs an unknown hand that folded on the turn. Suddenly, magic happened. The poker Gods decided to help me! I made a set on the flop against an AK that hit top pair and shoved.

Eventually, after a lot of ups and downs I was down to $49.86, for a net $32.11 loss.

I am pretty upset for another losing session! I don't know what to do, but I decided to call it a day.

[Session review: Big losses keep coming]

I started my session at 14:13 with $49.86 in the bank. There were 10,000 players online at Pokerstars and 121 players on the Zoom NL10 tables.

I am feeling pretty frustrated from my last session! I hate losing so much! Lately I had my worst performance of all time. I used to be a winning player playing Sitngos and MTTs, and I occasionally would win some tournaments. But while things were going well, I suddenly went on a downswing which lasted for months. I ended up losing the majority of my winnings in MTTs. And it was then when I decided to switch to playing cash games. In fact, in my first attempts at Zoom NL10 I was profitable. However, this suddenly stopped.

My dreams of becoming a pro earning $50/day are going in the bin. It seems the more I play, the bigger I lose. I don't know what to do!

I'm thinking of going back to study some poker by watching Video series, but I both hate it and also don't understand them well.

Either way, I am playing EXPLOITATIVE poker, NOT GTO! So I need to think of my strategy in that way. I am basically trying to make my opponents make mistakes by adjusting my play accordingly.

I have tried to find the big leaks in my game. Basically, I am playing good, dragging all the small pots and being aggressive there, but where I am losing is the big hands. I am playing on average 5-6 hours/session, and to earn $50 from that, that's $10/hour. That, on the Zoom NL10 is exactly one buyin. I need to win only 1 buyin per hour to reach my goal of $50 in 5-6 hours. However, this is not happening. Instead, I am losing 1xbuyin per hour! That is absolutely crap!

I finished my session at 16:39, which is 2h25m and had a net loss of 37.60.

I am going to rethink what is happening to find a way out of this nightmare!

Hey guys! Is anybody reading my blog? I would really love to hear from you, even just if you want to say hi! I could use some support and advice right now!

Gl in the grind!

A2s vs 67s is a cooler.

Yeah I read it. I get too tilty on cash, way too easy to reload. But interested in your transition.