My shorthanded limit game has never been stronger, and my results are… Well, I’m crushing $1/$2. Admittedly, crushing $1/$2 isn’t a difficult feat, but still. I’m trying not to overthink things, given that my average opponents don’t really know why they’re doing anything.

My last NLHE session, however, did not go well. I ended it a little over six buy-ins shorter than I started it with, which is obviously a disaster. What sucks about that is that I didn’t get my money in while ahead in any of the seven occasions that my stack was on the line. The lesson I’m picking up from this is that I need to

1) Read hands better. I’m positive there were times in those seven hands that I could have found a fold and saved most of my stack.
2) Keep the pots smaller to make folds easier. It’s really hard to fold to a sizeable checkraise on a Q-Q-J-5 turn with KQ, and then an all-in push from the same guy when the river pairs the five.

Am I nuts for considering a fold with trips, second kicker? Maybe. But there aren’t that many hands that this player - who seemed decent - could have that I beat. He could have KQ for a split, sure, but QT isn’t a huge part of his range with the preflop action. And he might not be so happy about checkraising that on the turn and then pushing the river.

I dunno. Maybe I’m overthinking things. Maybe even good players would’ve lost a bunch of money if dealt my hands. What’s clear, though, is that NLHE is a game that I need to work more on. It’s a fun change of pace and clearly some of the players are phenomenally bad. I’ve no doubt that I can beat this game pretty easily in time. What I’ve noticed, also, is that now I get how people can play 12 tables of NL. I’ve played 9 tables of limit at one point, and it nearly made my eyes start to bleed and my brain collapse. So I’ve been in awe over how some people apparently handle that with some ease. But now I get it. There are as many hands per hour at a NL table as there are at a limit table, but the number of decisions at a limit table are many more. Measured in actions/hour, a limit table probably has a factor four or something like it compared to a a NL table. That’s not to say that there aren’t insane limit players who are actually fast enough to handle that many tables; it just means that perhaps I don’t have to feel stupid for not being able to while it seems like everyone and his aunt can play 10 tables of NLHE in parallel.

Anyway.

I’m still utilizing the notebook, and I’m still learning and - more importantly, at this time - confirming stuff I thought I knew. I’m becoming more and more confident in my ability and in my plays, and I’m learning to actually make the plays that I know how to make. I have a subtle form of tilt where I basically stop thinking and start playing on impulse. The impulse-Fredrik is slightly looser and slightly more passive than the smart Fredrik, but I’ve now said bye-bye to Mr. Impulse. I’ll share more of the stuff that I’m learning from my notebook in my next blog post.

/FP