zachvac
Legend
Silver Level
OK, well if you don't know my recent history with poker, I moved up to 25nl about a month ago. I started off on an extreme heater, winning $200 in the first weekend. I proceeded to win at about 1 BB/100 since then as my entire total was under 3 BB/100 as of the other day. Now it's far worse, I'm not going to even look now. I hit the worst cooler ever recently. I lost 100+ in each of the last 2 days. If I see another rivered 2 pair against my overpair or another set over set I think I'm about to kill someone. But after my failure of a session today I began to examine overall what I was doing wrong. Even without this heater, I was winning at way too small a rate. I must have been doing something wrong. And then it just came to me. I was playing a hand AA, got one caller HU and he folded to my cbet. And I cursed to myself "whenever they miss, they get out and when they hit they get my money. A few hands later and my 33 failed to set and the winner had 3rd pair. And I realized the problem.
My strategy beforehand had basically been play straight premiums, raise preflop and cbet postflop no matter what. After that, use my poker sense and try to figure out the best move. Now people at 25nl are calling me with all sorts of crap even on my cbets, and sometimes it seems as if they call when they have me beat but fold when I have a monster (but I know it isn't true, just ended where this guy paid me with 88 against my top set QQ, no idea why he called my river overbet, maybe he had me on a bluff. I was trying to extract value from the TPTK type hand I thought he had).
So the problem that I think I've found? I'm playing way too passive postflop. When I miss I'm letting my opponents see showdown way too cheap and when I hit I'm playing it completely differently, betting hard the whole way. Now there are some complete idiots at this level, which explains why I was still scraping out a tiny profit. When someone pays off my monsters with an underpair, that's a bonus. But I need to be able to win even without those types of plays, and that wasn't happening.
One big betting pattern I just started using tonight which I think will be key is the cbet, and if called check behind on turn and bet the river if they check to me. In the past I've just checked down if they call my cbet, and once in a while they'll call that river bet, just because they want to see a cheap showdown. But if they check the river after I checked behind on the turn, they do not want an extra bet going into the pot, and likely I'll get a fold. This happened a lot the other way, when I wanted a call.
The thing (among many things, but this is what I think was a big one) was that I forgot the aggressive part of tight aggressive. If my big hands are not getting paid off, that means if I played a crap hand the exact same way, I'd pick up that pot without showdown. So if none of my big hands are getting paid off, the key is to start playing more hands aggressively. This will make observant players more likely to pay off my monsters and the unobservant players will continue to fold just as they did refusing to pay off my monsters. I confused cbets with aggression. I also need to start playing back at cbets when my opponent raised preflop, especially when I have position and 2 overs as I usually do. This most likely either buys me the pot right then and there or gets me 2 free cards, because after that raise my opponent will likely check the turn, whether he is legitimately weak or is trying to slowplay a monster. After that the river bet or check will tell me the strength of his hand. He wouldn't dare check in front after I checked behind on the turn if he has a monster, and he's probably not bluffing at this pot after I raised his flop bet.
So although when I started this post I was extremely pissed, because even with some holes I was profitting before this weekend, but now I've calmed down and figure it's almost for the best. I didn't want to be hitting $1k and then convincing myself I was ready for 50nl and getting destroyed. I need to rethink my strategy and see if I can get back to winning. Logging about 1,000 hands per hour, each BB/100 is $5/hour, so if I can even win at 5 BB/100, that puts me at $25/hour and thus only 16 hours to make $400 (I'm at around $600). This puts things in perspective and lets me know that re-examining my game and learning how to win properly will get me to my goal in plenty of time while also serving me a lot better in the long run. I'm going to try to log at least 5 hours of play tomorrow, working specifically on aggression. I also need to work on not paying off hands with my overpairs even to ragged boards. I had been doing really well at this, but recently I've found myself more and more stacking with an overpair vs. ragged boards. I can get away from boards with straight and flush possibilities, but I need to learn that although some people will stack with TPTK, most players at 25nl will be scared of a ton of action with only top pair. If I raise their bet and they come over the top putting in a bet that pot commits me, this usually means they have a hand, and it's usually better than a single pair. Of course sometimes I still stack with these for example if I think they're also on an overpair and there's a really low board (I'm not expecting him to have connected if we 4-bet preflop and the board comes 357 and I will stack with AA there, that's not what I'm talking about).
My short session working on those things went well tonight, but I'll be going to sleep soon. I'm really going to work on that tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.
Also sorry maybe I should have just posted this in my blog, it's a bit more related to me personally, but since I do think there are several poker concepts that people can learn from here (and perhaps respond and help me out with a bit), I think this should be fine here. I may repost this to my blog though (I know, shameless advertising ).
My strategy beforehand had basically been play straight premiums, raise preflop and cbet postflop no matter what. After that, use my poker sense and try to figure out the best move. Now people at 25nl are calling me with all sorts of crap even on my cbets, and sometimes it seems as if they call when they have me beat but fold when I have a monster (but I know it isn't true, just ended where this guy paid me with 88 against my top set QQ, no idea why he called my river overbet, maybe he had me on a bluff. I was trying to extract value from the TPTK type hand I thought he had).
So the problem that I think I've found? I'm playing way too passive postflop. When I miss I'm letting my opponents see showdown way too cheap and when I hit I'm playing it completely differently, betting hard the whole way. Now there are some complete idiots at this level, which explains why I was still scraping out a tiny profit. When someone pays off my monsters with an underpair, that's a bonus. But I need to be able to win even without those types of plays, and that wasn't happening.
One big betting pattern I just started using tonight which I think will be key is the cbet, and if called check behind on turn and bet the river if they check to me. In the past I've just checked down if they call my cbet, and once in a while they'll call that river bet, just because they want to see a cheap showdown. But if they check the river after I checked behind on the turn, they do not want an extra bet going into the pot, and likely I'll get a fold. This happened a lot the other way, when I wanted a call.
The thing (among many things, but this is what I think was a big one) was that I forgot the aggressive part of tight aggressive. If my big hands are not getting paid off, that means if I played a crap hand the exact same way, I'd pick up that pot without showdown. So if none of my big hands are getting paid off, the key is to start playing more hands aggressively. This will make observant players more likely to pay off my monsters and the unobservant players will continue to fold just as they did refusing to pay off my monsters. I confused cbets with aggression. I also need to start playing back at cbets when my opponent raised preflop, especially when I have position and 2 overs as I usually do. This most likely either buys me the pot right then and there or gets me 2 free cards, because after that raise my opponent will likely check the turn, whether he is legitimately weak or is trying to slowplay a monster. After that the river bet or check will tell me the strength of his hand. He wouldn't dare check in front after I checked behind on the turn if he has a monster, and he's probably not bluffing at this pot after I raised his flop bet.
So although when I started this post I was extremely pissed, because even with some holes I was profitting before this weekend, but now I've calmed down and figure it's almost for the best. I didn't want to be hitting $1k and then convincing myself I was ready for 50nl and getting destroyed. I need to rethink my strategy and see if I can get back to winning. Logging about 1,000 hands per hour, each BB/100 is $5/hour, so if I can even win at 5 BB/100, that puts me at $25/hour and thus only 16 hours to make $400 (I'm at around $600). This puts things in perspective and lets me know that re-examining my game and learning how to win properly will get me to my goal in plenty of time while also serving me a lot better in the long run. I'm going to try to log at least 5 hours of play tomorrow, working specifically on aggression. I also need to work on not paying off hands with my overpairs even to ragged boards. I had been doing really well at this, but recently I've found myself more and more stacking with an overpair vs. ragged boards. I can get away from boards with straight and flush possibilities, but I need to learn that although some people will stack with TPTK, most players at 25nl will be scared of a ton of action with only top pair. If I raise their bet and they come over the top putting in a bet that pot commits me, this usually means they have a hand, and it's usually better than a single pair. Of course sometimes I still stack with these for example if I think they're also on an overpair and there's a really low board (I'm not expecting him to have connected if we 4-bet preflop and the board comes 357 and I will stack with AA there, that's not what I'm talking about).
My short session working on those things went well tonight, but I'll be going to sleep soon. I'm really going to work on that tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.
Also sorry maybe I should have just posted this in my blog, it's a bit more related to me personally, but since I do think there are several poker concepts that people can learn from here (and perhaps respond and help me out with a bit), I think this should be fine here. I may repost this to my blog though (I know, shameless advertising ).