Need Help Moving Beyond Breakeven at Microstakes Cash

Hey.

i am looking to get some advice on how i can break out of this rut of being a break even player. ive really changed up my style of play and am alot more aggressive now, but not only that i am trying to place ppl on hands and use my tracking software to. But i cant seem to get a head. its still much better then i was b4 tho, i used to have to reload my account pretty often but now i havent in a couple months. But i am getting so frustrated with all the hours that i am putting in practicing, reading/watching different tips. I just dont know what it is that i need to do to get past this Step to even make a lilbit of an improvement. Have ne of you had similar troubles throughout your Poker Careers??? Can some experienced Microstakes player pls Help. I am a very determined player and can easily learn if someone could help me out a little.

I know that there are alot of little mistakes that are made but what i cant figureout is how to eliminate them b4 they happen. i can see as to y i woulda had bad judgment of play on the hands after there played but i need to be able to stop b4 i am into deep and causing me to loose what i have worked hard to get. i know that theres not going to be just some easy answer and fix for this problem but theres gotta be something i can do to help me pass this leek in my game. oh and if theres something that you might do when u are havung problems that are needing to be fixed pls feel free to let me know. i have a tracking software program and can also have that to help assist in my game so if theres anything you do with your software to help make your game better i would love to hear the advice so i can really get my game to an optimal state. Thank you for all the Help

I know how you feel, just keep playing poker and putting in the hours, practice makes perfect, the main flaw I am having at the moment is paying fish off when I know I should fold and it's costing me huge 100bb's at a time which is putting me back. E.g. getting all in post-flop on turn with A/A against a min-raise on a dry board by a passive player. Also try to never bluff.
Also try and think before you press the click button. E.g. what is his range of hands that probably has here? Am I getting good enough pot odds to call? Is this +ev in the long run?. I need to start having this thought process before I call off my stack with one pair. Easy to click the call button out of curiosity but if u can think about the situation first and then fold good hands even if your sometimes wrong, it's still good practice.

Going from losing to breakeven is already good and you've only been breakeven for a couple of months. You just need to keep at it, reading and playing, adapting your game and fixing leaks, adn eventually you will become a winning player. You could post your stats by position here for us to look at and see if there is anything obvious awry.

You asked if there is anything we do with our tracking software to help our game...the answer is yes of course but it would take too long to write everything...maybe you tell us how you use yours, like what stats are on your HUD and how you use them to identify and play against different player types.

Yep post some stats and some hands in the hand analysis part of the forum.

What leaks did you identify and address in order to go from losing to BE? In terms of improving your game and results, try to identify and focus on the significant leaks that are still in your game. Fix or at least patch what's important first.

You said you have tracking software, so I assume you're talking about PokerTraker or Holdem Manager. If so, could you post some screen shots of some of your stats.

The biggest help right away would be a Positional Breakdown. VPIP/PFR/Steal/3-bet stats by position.

Hey Thanks Alot. heres a Pic of my positional stats.
i really apreciate this. i wasnt sure whatelce i could do to get help because i dont know ne one who plays poker so i figured id ask around here because theres always a great bunch of avid players wanting to help. thank u.

i hope that i posted the proper pic. im still fairly new with my software because for the first couple monthes i didnt know how to really use it so it was just baiscally gathering data. but i am getting better at it and really loving it. so the stats the i am using atm are:

# of hands/ Aggression Factor total
Vpip/PFR
Fcbet flop / Cbet
F small blind S / F big blind S

post a screen shot of VPIP, 3-Bet by position. Those are probably the most important because it shows your opening hand ranges as well as your awareness to position.

For your HUD, it also might be advantageous to include 3-bet% and Fto3bet%. I also use TC-bet and Fold to Turn c-bet.

i am using that just different name but i stopped using the turn%s because i need such a large history of hands played by others to really take that into account. mind you i do agree there are someplayers that i see regularly that is would be very usefull for showing howmuch they will try to hold out when drawing or if their more cautios and will fold earlier. i am working on trying t figure out how to just post those specific positional stats right now.

oops sry man i just noticed u said 3 bet and not c bet. how would it make a difference??? how can i use that to help me??? is it similar to c bet???

The first thing that jumps out is your lack of positional awareness. You need to do some hard studying on the value of position and how to use position to your advantage. Once you start stealing more and playing a more positional game, you're going to see some immediate improvements in your results.

Just for a quick reference at what I'm talking about, my Early Position PFR is 9% and my Button PFR is 36%. For you there's almost no difference between your UTG PFR% and Button PFR%

can someone help how can i make my pics bigger and clearer i just googled how to do it quik cus i never done this b4 but i want yous to be able to c it easily if someone can just PM me on how to do that so it doesnt fill this thread. Thanks

VPIP/ PFR stats of how i am playing since ive started to become a break even player. so i used the last month.

dsvw56 said:

The first thing that jumps out is your lack of positional awareness. You need to do some hard studying on the value of position and how to use position to your advantage. Once you start stealing more and playing a more positional game, you're going to see some immediate improvements in your results.

Just for a quick reference at what I'm talking about, my Early Position PFR is 9% and my Button PFR is 36%. For you there's almost no difference between your UTG PFR% and Button PFR%

Click to expand...

how would i get my PFR% up by betting higher amounts, or just raising more often in later positions trying to steel the blinds.

I can't read those screen shots. Can you try saving them as jpg rather than png before attaching?

Also, I renamed the thread to hopefully draw some more attention to your specific need.

Hanagis said:

how would i get my PFR% up by betting higher amounts, or just raising more often in later positions trying to steel the blinds.

Click to expand...

depends who you are trying to steal from....if you are in the SB and the BB is an aggrodonk/loose passive (station) theres not much point in stealing his blind coz he will just fire a 3bet or will call......if for example you had a tight passive/agressive villian on the bb then you could go for steals....the same applys on the CO and BTN.....

to get a bigger picture, open your window lol or adust your page zoom

Since you came here asking for help, I'm going to be brutally honest. Right now, you're essentially a fish. You call too much, you don't raise enough, and you have no positional awareness.

The large gap between your VPIP and PFR tells me 2 things. First, you're most likely limping a lot. That's the first thing that needs to change. Secondly you're calling raises too much. As a very general rule of thumb you should be Folding more than you Raise and Raising more than you Call. I'm going to use an exerpt from Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em here :

When you really get down to it, there are only two ways of making money in no-limit hold’em. They are:
1. Make the best hand.
2. Steal the pot.

Click to expand...

You can't steal the pot unless you are the aggressor. And this is how you're going to become a winning player. You can't rely on making the best hand all the time if you want to make money. You need to be in there fighting for the blinds. This is probably the fundamental difference between marginal losers/breakeven players and winning players.

As a starting point, find and study as much information as you can on :

A) The value of position and how to use it to your advantage.
B) Preflop stealing
C) The value of aggression.

As a reference point, my overall VPIP/PFR is 23/20. My early position is 9/9 and my button is 41/36.

Raise more pre-flop, especially in late position.

You may also consider more full ring IF you are uncomfortable playing aggressively enough to win 6max.

Hanagis said:

how would i get my PFR% up by betting higher amounts, or just raising more often in later positions trying to steel the blinds.

Click to expand...

PFR% is how often you raise pre-, not how much. As a relative beginner, the main way to raise this stat is to open-raise more hands when it's folded to you in late position. This isn't just about stealing. As a simplification, let's say stealing is when you open-raise with a hand that you don't expect to be better than what the players still to act have. As noted, you can and should steal more often from players who fold a lot. In part, this means how often you should try to steal should vary depending on the styles of the players to you left.

The more part is about open-raising for value instead of folding or limping. For example, Ax first to act is an easy fold. But on the button, it's an easy raise. When the rest of the table is still to act, it's almost certain someone has a better hand than your Ax, and except for the blinds, all of them also have position on you. But when you have the button, there's a fairly good chance Ax is better than the blinds' hands, plus you have position. So the same cards have better value because you're on the button. And it's kind of a sliding scale for the seats in between.

A good rule of thumb for beginners is never to limp when you're first to put money in the pot. Either raise or fold until you improve enough to recognize when a situation is a decent exception.

Do you have a defined range of hands you open with from each position? If not it's probably a good exercise to come up with one.

What do you do in order to study poker, have you read any modern books on the game?

As mentioned above, there are some rather basic things you ought to look into, and these are addressed in all decent modern books.

dsvw56 mentions SSNLHE, a book I've read at least 3 times, but maybe you could try Crushing the Microstakes by BlackRain79 to begin with, it's meant to be a good primer.

I dont knnow how to expand the photos... i just go to the print screen paste it in paint then crop what u need to see. is there a way i can exppand the photo b4 i save it and uploador if u have a better process of doing it pls let me know so i can make this easier for u to see, Thanks.

AlfieAA said:

depends who you are trying to steal from....if you are in the SB and the BB is an aggrodonk/loose passive (station) theres not much point in stealing his blind coz he will just fire a 3bet or will call......if for example you had a tight passive/agressive villian on the bb then you could go for steals....the same applys on the CO and BTN.....

to get a bigger picture, open your window lol or adust your page zoom

Click to expand...

This really gives me a clearer perspective so i know how i can start to utilize this skill. ive been having alot of trouble as ive been pointed out, im getting alot of really helpfull tips from everyone.Thanks this is really usefull information. Im hoping i can mold a better player outamyself over the next little while with all the help from everyone and some determination. hopefully i can.

jw/ how did u come to learn how that stat was properly used and or if it can have a role in other plays in the game???