Really need some session analysis and a second opinion

Hey dudes,

I have attached here a zipped folder containing 892 hands that i played tonight, 2x 1hr15min sessions, to my mind there is one spot that i spewed a single BI off to a passive station that clearly had me beat, i'll admit that, but somehow over the rest of the hands i ended up down 4BI's and having to rebuild and try again from £4nl, for the 2nd time at iPoker.

My confidence is basically shot to shit, i know that people take shots and have to move back down like billions of times before they get a decent foot in at the level above, but thats like 10-25 or 25-50, not bloody 4-10, everybody else crushes 10nl and i can't win a penny there. I need to know whether this is me playing badly or just good old variance kicking me in the teeth, i honestly don't know where to go from here atm and this was the first thing i thought of doing so i'm hoping to get some good advice and be able to move forward.

Including these hands i'm now down $80 over 6k hands at 10nl..... which obv sucks

EDIT: had to put them on megaupload as its a tiny bit too big to attach here, only 126kb or something though so dont worry about d/l time lol

My screen name for these is 'itstimmytime' btw, cheers for any help

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GP1AK7PE

No disrespect, but I will be very surprised if someone chooses to go through a near 1000 hand session and critique your play. I would recommend breaking out a few key hands and posting those for analysis. Good luck.

I only got through about a hundred hands (the two most recent sessions, and only part way through the 2nd one) and I'm a spewy fish so take all of this for whatever it's worth.

Main leaks:
You're too tight from the button. In particular, read up on blind stealing.
You're playing very tight-passive. Raise lighter from position. 3bet light a little, look for players with TAG stats and 3bet them light when IP, figure out what fold equity you need with whatever raise size you use and if you have that, raise (consider their raising range compared to their 3bet calling range and your image).
You seem uncomfortable playing against shortstacks (any time they have cards really), I think you need to figure out what sort of ranges you're happy to play for stacks with against SSers and how much fold equity you do or don't have against them. Playing timid when they're at the table kills your edge against all of the deepstacks.
Not playing enough hands against fish.


iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($16.73)
SB ($20.29)
BB ($0.87)
UTG ($10)
Hero (MP) ($10)
CO ($11.09)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q , K
3 folds, Button bets $0.30, 1 fold, BB calls $0.20

Way too tight, imo.


iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($25.15)
Button ($2.49)
SB ($10)
Hero (BB) ($10.66)
UTG ($13.87)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , 5
2 folds, Button bets $0.40, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.30

I 3bet/fold here. Probably fold because I'm not really happy playing for button's stack with A5 pre-flop and I can't see any good line post-flop after just calling.

Flop: ($0.85) 8 , 2 , 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $0.80, Hero raises to $3.25, Button calls $1.29 (All-In)

Easy shove. c/r has almost no fold equity. The main reason I mention this hand (other than the pre-flop call) is because most of your drawy hands so far have been played very passively and I'm guessing your flop check here was hoping to draw to your hand. You're right for not wanting to bluff a 41/5 fish, but with your equity here and stack sizes semi-bluff shoving is the best line.

You were unlucky to run into QQ, but to be honest I expect him to have a pair when he bets the pot and I think even 66 likely calls your c/r.



iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($15.97)
Button ($26.37)
SB ($3.48)
BB ($10.15)
Hero (UTG) ($10)
MP ($13.22)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A , 4
Hero bets $0.40, MP calls $0.40, CO calls $0.40, 3 folds

Not the best spot to be loosening up. You've played tight and there are some spots I think you can cash in on the credibility you've earned, a few hands ago you open folded 72s on the button which I'd much rather raise than A4s UTG, you've also folded your SB every time so far I think and BB is TAGy, another better spot to raise next time you see any two remotely playable looking cards (57o, K8s will do). The difference between this and raising A4s UTG is that in the situations I suggested you're either in position or out of position against one player, not out of position against an entire table (including one calling station).


iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($17.03)
BB ($26.95)
UTG ($3.47)
MP ($10.05)
Hero (Button) ($10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10 , K
UTG calls $0.10, 3 folds, BB checks

UTG is the table's resident fish running at 40/5 making this a standard iso raise or at least a call. I'm guessing you've been avoiding him because he is short stacked and because you can't bluff him often, but situations like this really are easy money. KT really dominates a 40% range and when you're playing a range like that, hands like KT a real nuisance to play against because all of your T's and K's are dominated as well as smaller pocket pairs or flopped middle pairs.
You're ahead of his range. You have position. He's a fish.

Next table, which is actually the previous table, but whatever, next table.

iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($14.23)
Button ($9.78)
SB ($10)
BB ($1.15)
Hero (UTG) ($10.85)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J , K
2 folds, Button bets $0.35, 1 fold, BB calls $0.25

5 handed, KJ is a raise from any position, imo.
I mention this because I'm making the assumption that you just didn't adjust for short handed play and if you don't normally adjust, it's something to keep an eye on.

iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($13.92)
BB ($9.72)
UTG ($1)
MP ($10)
CO ($1.67)
Hero (Button) ($10.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 2 , 6
3 folds, Hero bets $0.35, 1 fold, BB calls $0.25


Why are you raising here?
You've passed up a ton of hands that had some equity in this situation and raise 26o against a 20/3 (30 hands) and a 26/16 (19 hands). I agree with the raise, mostly because you're not stealing very wide and have a lot more credibility than you need for this, but why 26o and not something like Q8o? If you want to have as tight a stealing range as you have, fold the 26o and raise the next semi-playable hand you see when on the button (K3s will do).
The point is if you're going to play tight and cash in on your credibility from time to time, do it with the same frequency but with stronger hands rather than just when you feel like it.

iPoker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) - iPoker Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($16.63)
SB ($12.77)
BB ($10.26)
Hero (UTG) ($12.42)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 10 , K
2 folds, SB calls $0.05, BB checks

Ok in this hand BTN is 15/10, SB 50/0 and BB 35/20, all after 20 hands so sample size isn't much, but being 4 handed in the CO against a tight button with SB most probably a fish (he's called 10 out of 20 hands and never raised, even after only 20 hands it's pretty good hint) this is a really standard isolation raise.

sysvr's def got a point, and I think orange realizes how hard it is to do this - but sometimes you really need someone to do what pokerkid's done here, look at the entire session. We get hung up on the bigger pots and miss the spots where we could've gotten more value.

kudos kid!

fwiw, I pm'd comments to orange (that were not nearly as helpful as pokerkid's), but more eyes are prob helpful if anyone else can spare the time...

Sysvr4 said:

No disrespect, but I will be very surprised if someone chooses to go through a near 1000 hand session and critique your play. I would recommend breaking out a few key hands and posting those for analysis. Good luck.

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Actually, I will not manually read through them. There's a decent chance I'll analyze them against my 10nl DB, which may or may not be applicable to iPoker. Don't expect anything like...tomorrow, but I might do it.

Might be revealing, might not.

RF

Cheers for the advice there pokerkid, pretty solid and everything you say makes sense, apart from the A4s UTG, i open Axs everywhere and i honestly thought it was standard to do so, dunno if your issue with it is specifically being oop against the station, which does make sense and is a solid argument for not opening in that particular spot, but just checked my DB and i'm in profit with every Axs hand A2s-A9s and i've spoke with a few other people about Axs and opening everywhere with them seems standard to me.

Good point about not adjusting to short handed tables, this is def something that, now you bring it up, i realise i pay lip service to, and its a big thing so thanks for bringing that up.

In general you seem like you are looser than i am and more experienced, i like to have a really nitty EP/MP game, specially down at 5-10nl where the fish are mostly passive stations or spewy lags, i'm just not comfortable opening KJo/QJ etc anywhere and playing it oop against maybe 2 villains, i dont think my hand reading skills are quite up to it atm and i'd just be getting myself into some really shitty spots i feel, i'd rather keep them out of my game for the time being.

Thanks for taking the time to go through these for me, really appreciate the effort, def think i might have asked too much, but i was at a real low point and didnt know what to do, some good advice there, so much appreciated dude

Cheers for the advice there pokerkid, pretty solid and everything you say makes sense, apart from the A4s UTG, i open Axs everywhere and i honestly thought it was standard to do so, dunno if your issue with it is specifically being oop against the station, which does make sense and is a solid argument for not opening in that particular spot, but just checked my DB and i'm in profit with every Axs hand A2s-A9s and i've spoke with a few other people about Axs and opening everywhere with them seems standard to me.

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Here's the problem. If virtually any other ace calls you and an ace comes on the flop you're in big trouble. On the other hand, if he does not have an ace and an ace flops you'll often just take the pot right there and won't get a great pay off. It's not a situation you want to get raised in. If the flop comes A 8 2 and there's one caller, out of the BB and you c-bet with your ace, and he check-raises you're in a really tough spot. It's one of those hands where there's not much to gain but a lot to lose.

I would play A4 out of the button for a blind steal, maybe out of the CO.

Compare this to KQ, if you flop a king or a queen you're in great position with a great kicker. I don't see why you should favor A4 (you're really only looking for the ace on the flop) over KQ (which has 2 cards you can catch to make a great hand rather than a vulnerable A4 on an ace high flop.)

I agree with orange about opening Axs in all positions. Its not all about flopping an ace. As long as you can keep from stacking off with TPWK, its perfectly okay to play suited aces. Its about the advantage that you get from cbetting dry boards and a good chance that you can double/triple barrel opponents off hands/stacking a dominated draw when you flop a FD. It also helps keep your UTG range a little wider that just AJs-AKs.

I'll only fold suited aces if the table is extremely aggressive in which I'll narrow a lot of my range, not just my Axs hands.

I treat A2s-A5s the same as I do SCers and A6s-ATs as weak aces, simply because A2s-A5s have more flops that they will be able to barrel multiple streets on.

The small suited aces only want to hit a draw, there isn't a lot of value in hitting either pair. Hands that you're just playing so you can fire multiple barrels (and basically never fire multiple value bets) should almost always be reserved for LP, imo.
If we consider metagame then there are times when raising light from EP is good but I'd really only be doing that against regs who I've got a lot of history against.

orangepeeleo said:

i like to have a really nitty EP/MP game, specially down at 5-10nl where the fish are mostly passive stations or spewy lags

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Me too.
Do loose stuff IP and be a nit OOP.