(Long)OK, is this awful variance or terrible play?

BelgoSuisse said:

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Didn't read all of them, especially once I realized some of these hands were duplicates.

Some variance involved, obviously. But you should also stop defending your blinds with hands that are easily dominated, stop calling 3bets with Ax and slow playing your sets on wet boards.

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thepokerkid123 said:

Fortunately for you, despite the horrible hour of the morning it's a choice between education and wasting time on CC so you have my undivided attention for a while.

Well I certainly appreciate it!

If you want the best possible advice, ask for analysis of a given session rather than a selection of hands. I guarantee you I'll complain about your ranges from various positions or your blind stealing/defending, it's little standard folds/calls/raises that you need to keep an eye out for and that's what the 2nd/3rd/27th pair of eyes going over your session will help you with.

Haven't thought of that, should try it soon!

96s: Easy check-fold. You're OOP, just give it up. Multi-way, mid pair, how are you getting to the river against various ranges? Give it up.

Yep. I was tilted from the bad beat I had with 55 from the same player just minutes earlier. Not an excuse, I know...

AK: These aren't the hands that are worth your time analysing. FWIW, I play it the same way though.

I put every hand that lost me alot here including obvious bad beats for me as well, to calm me down, and to figure out how much of my loss is from bad beats and how much from bad plays.

77: Don't open limp. Don't open limp UTG. Super standard raise, without some crazy table dynamics going on there's no way you can do anything else 5 handed.
Flop, don't check, go crazy and get your stacks in (I don't mean shove, just bet but with the intention of playing this super fast). Flop has a J and a 9 with a diamond draw, you're going to get action, a lot. Don't be affraid to stack here.

One of my recurring problems, being too tricky, am getting better at it though

JJ: Pre-flop should have been bet-shove, make sure you get your sizing right. Stacking 65bb with JJ is fine and folding it would be a huge leak.

Ok. Isn't there a danger some players would fold to a shove but not pot-size raise? I don't want him folding here

A9s: Bet-fold pre-flop unless he's an aggressive fish. Shove over his bet on the flop. Not shoving (just raising) is a leak, imo. Fold equity=good here. To be honest I shove even if it's purely for value anyway just because neither of us are ever going anywhere on the turn if he calls any raise on the flop.

Understood...and perhaps I would get more folds to a show than to a raise, even if it's a big raise.

KJo: Pre-flop is ugly, I would rather 3bet or fold but if he's stealing really wide and spewy post-flop then I don't mind the call. Provided of course that we don't need to be balancing our range against him (if we did, it'd be 3bet or fold).

The call was just me speed-playing I think.

I actually donk bet this flop. It's 3 handed so I can't count on a cbet, but I expect to get called by lots of draws and K's. I'm trying to shovel chips in as fast as possible, I notice now that you got beaten and I just want to be clear that this isn't why I advocate shovelling chips in, I'm doing it for value. I want to get called and I want stacks in on this hand.

I told it's a recurring problem for me thanks

77: Same as above, don't know how you can't make these reads. It's like I'm psychic or something.

I guess I just like people feel like they're in the Matrix....

AKo: Terrible. You're... um... lots of bb deep. My brain isn't working at the moment so I don't know how many bb's it is, but as a guesstimate seriously re-evaluate getting AK all in pre-flop >120bb, obviously hugely opponent dependent though.
Really don't shove into such a small pot, it's really, really bad.
Looking at the results, I'll choose to believe you're the psychic one on this hand and made an awesome play. Without a rock solid read though, just make a standard raise rather than a shove.

The guy was basically a maniac on tilt, so you can imagine...interesting stuff though, I should deffo pay more attention to stack sizes, I am not paying enough when they're on the large side

68s: Just a random note, are you aware of how many bad spots you're getting into from the BB? If you see a free flop, be really willing to give up if you don't hit hard.

I do but it seems to be woring, or that's how I'm reading poker tracker. will make a thread about that since many people criticized it

Possible lines I like in this hand: Raise to 80c pre-flop, cbet any flop. Check pre-flop, planning to check-fold almost all flops. This flop hits wonderfully though so either check-raise or check-call + donk the turn.

QQ: 3bet to $2.80-$3 pre-flop. Calling is really bad because it gives them too much equity for free. Yes they have paid some already, but your decision is either let them see a flop for no more cost or charge them, so charge them. Put it this way, you're OOP, don't do anything fancy OOP. Big hand=push chips in towards the middle as fast as they'll go in and still have some chance of getting action.
Flop, do not slow play. Your hand is under represented. You want chips going in the middle. Do not get creative here.

2 of my biggest problems you've spotted, I have a tendency to be afraid to bet monsters so they won't fold pre, but I do see your point.

JJ: Getting 50bb stacks in is never a mistake here, you played it well.

ATs: Your sizing seems a little random. Not necessarily a bad thing (although not really advisable either), just keep an eye on it if you don't have a really good reason for it.

I just don't want to have a pattern 100% of the time, but that's probably nothing to worry about @ micro stakes. Also I think maybe it would bring more money in the long run if I raise 5BB pre instead of the standard 3.5, since I'd get the same calls?

Check behind on the flop. If you think he'll call with A high and under pairs then you can value town this but it's a little thin. Check-call your way to the river, imo, value betting the river almost all of the time and sometimes the turn aswell.

I'm a bit confused here, I shouldn't cbet med pair / A kicker with possible straight/flush draws out there? Won't that give them a free card?

KK: Standard. well, I'd bet his full stack pre-flop just out of routine, but whatever, the effect is the same (just don't make a habbit of betting slightly less than full stack).

JJ: Standard up until the turn where I think you can make it $6. River... eh, I hate this spot, I think folding is the right play though.

Cool, was wondering about that

45s: Fold pre-flop.

I'm sorry but from what I know I have to disagree here, small suited connectors in a 5-way multiway unraised pot should offer great potential as far as I know...and I only had to pay half the blind

88: Pre-flop, great. Flop, don't mess around with your sizing like that, $2.50 would be better, imo. I think $3 makes your range way more defined as mid pocket pairs than $2.50 which keeps it really wide.
I'm value towning this post flop, $2.50 on the flop (given your bet sizing in previous hands) and 2/3 pot on the turn, bet half pot and call a shove on the river.

Never thought about bet sizing in that way, great stuff!

78s: Fold the turn, imo. You have no fold equity, shoving is giving away chips.

You probably misread the hand, I had nuts on the turn - nut straight.

T7s: Fold pre-flop. Seriously re-think your play from the blinds.

AA: Don't bet the turn and check the river. Check the turn to pot control, if you're not confident enough to bet the river after being called on the turn then checked to.
Bet-call the flop, check the turn, value bet the river... seems a bit weak but that's the line I like most here.

I'll try to remember that. I was confident on the turn, not after it got called though...

TT: I play it the same way.

KK: I think you're being too creative pre-flop and on the flop, build a pot, if you raise pre-flop then you achieve two things:
1: Build some credibility for some light 3bets.
2: Improve the SPR for getting stacks in post-flop.

Against that guy Igoturtell I was already 3-betting alot, and had him scared of me, he was only 4-betting with the very top otherwise folding. So I knew he would 95% fold to my 3-bet, that's why I did it.

I think it was right in this particular case, but I know what you're saying otherwise.

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