Somebody's idea of a cash thread : Preparation for 50NL

[DaReKa]

Hey my name's Frank, I started playing one year ago, and have recently put in a lot of volume and made an effort to become decent at poker. I'm making this thread to post hands and discuss various aspects of my game in hopes of attaining pro status. So this is my cash thread and my username means "someone" in Japanese, in case you didn't think my thread title was clever. It totally is

So I've grinded my roll from $200 to $950 since December and put in over 80k hands (more than doubled hands played during the rest of the time I've been playing poker). I hope to be taking shots at 50NL soon, and I want to be prepared to crush regs when I get there. I have a lot of leaks, in particular my blind play and playing without initiative are pretty bad and maybe OOP play in general. I only know how to play NLHE with 100bb stacks and shorter, with only a vague idea of how to adjust for deeper stacks, so that's another area I really need improvement in.

Blind play is the first area I want to discuss and hopefully fix. Over 25k hands at 25NL, I lost 30.2bb/100 and 30.5bb/100 from the SB and BB respectively (EV adjusted).
Basically I call pretty wide in the blinds vs wide ranges and then don't have a very good idea of how to proceed on the flop. I'm going to outline the lines I want to take with various hands so I won't feel so lost the next time I play, and I'll post whatever I come up with for review. What kind of hands do y'all have grouped together in each line (x/c, x/r , b/f, b/c, etc.) when you are in the blinds vs an IP raiser on the flop? I know this is kind of a huge question and depends on more factors than just your hand and position... but I'm just looking for general ideas and any input will probably be useful.

 

[DaReKa]

Okay, I've been thinking about Blind play for a few hours and reread the Polished Poker section on it, as well as the Balancing section where it gives equity against a 24~% open with various hands on various board textures. It looks like I'm going to have to put in a lot of work with an equity calculator to better understand my equity in each spot vs wider rangers and tighter ranges. The plan is to just mess around with that tomorrow and hopefully learn a bit. I have a basic idea of the adjustments I need to make already. I need to 3bet more preflop -I have to force myself to do this, because calling always seems like such a nice, low variance option to me- and I need to make a plan to get the most out of the equity of each hand; I fold way too much equity, because I don't have enough confidence in my what my opponent's equity is, so folding always seems like the safe route.

 

[pocketehs]

what are you f to btn opens and f to CO opens from both bb and sb?

i can pm you some of the math i did for these spots if you'd like?

 

[Eatscake]

Id like to have a look at that math if you wouldnt mind Pocket? Sounds interesting.

 

[DaReKa]

what are you f to btn opens and f to CO opens from both bb and sb?

BB fold to CO Steal:83.1
BB fold to BTN Steal:75.7
SB fold to Steal:81.2 (HEM2 didn't have separate stats for BTN and CO)

Is there a better way to find these stats than adding report statistics in the Position report?

i can pm you some of the math i did for these spots if you'd like?

Definitely

 

[DaReKa]

Well, trying to figure out my equity with each hand type against different ranges is incredibly tedious. I decided to just play a session with a few tables and focus on taking my time and thinking through my decisions in the blinds. That went ok, but I played horribly overall. I had a smaller full house twice, but each time it was an easy fold, that I decided not to make. I hit a set on a very wet board (KJTddd) vs AQ, after that I was pretty tilted I guess, and I tried to bluff an aggrotard who bet 3 streets off of what I thought was going to be TPTK and he snapped with a full house. **** today sucked ass. So much work undone so quickly, and so much of it could have been avoided. Damn. Feels bad. BR $870.. gonna try again later.

 

[pocketehs]

Id like to have a look at that math if you wouldnt mind Pocket? Sounds interesting.

BB fold to CO Steal:83.1
BB fold to BTN Steal:75.7
SB fold to Steal:81.2 (HEM2 didn't have separate stats for BTN and CO)

Is there a better way to find these stats than adding report statistics in the Position report?

Definitely

NP PM'ed.

 

[DaReKa]

So went under EV every day for a week straight, tilt cost me an extra 1-2 BIs (maybe more), but I got it together, refocused, and got back on track. I missed my 50k hands a month goal, because it was hard to put in volume when I could never win with 70%+ equity for a couple days. I feel like a better player than Jan. 1 though, so good month overall.

I likely can't put in as much volume in Febuary, so I'm planning on a study-centric month. I will be doing 4 hour sessions with 4 tables and a review of each session. I have some more ideas for off the table poker study, but nothing set in stone yet.

Two hands from today

Villain opens 11% UTG, and doesn't cbet. I put his range at 22+, A9s+, AJo+, KJs+, QJs+. So the not cbetting thing is weird since he can always rep a hand.
He is also fairly passive and rarely, if ever bluffs.

BB: $26.26 - VPIP: 25, PFR: 20, 3B: 9, AF: 1.5, Hands: 2428
UTG: $33.02 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 14, 3B: 5, AF: 2.1, Hands: 7000
Hero (MP): $86.21 - VPIP: 22, PFR: 17, 3B: 5, AF: 2.5, Hands: 116435
CO: $24.05 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 9, 3B: 2, AF: 1.7, Hands: 341
BTN: $8.55 - VPIP: 26, PFR: 2, 3B: 1, AF: 1.4, Hands: 196
SB: $17.65 - VPIP: 12, PFR: 7, 3B: 2, AF: 2.5, Hands: 1583

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is MP with 5 ♣ 5 ♠
UTG raises to $0.75, Hero calls $0.75, 4 folds

Flop: ($1.85) A ♦ Q ♥ 5 ♥ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $1.25, UTG calls $1.25

Turn: ($4.35) T ♣ (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2.25, UTG calls $2.25

River: ($8.85) T ♦ (2 players)
UTG bets $6.65, Hero...


Next hand is a gross spot, and probably belongs in the Hall of Shame for how I played it. Check/Fold, Check/Call, and shove all look terrible, but I would play AK the same way..


BTN: $57.01 - VPIP: 24, PFR: 18, 3B: 7, AF: 2.3, Hands: 1138
SB: $12.04 - VPIP: 49, PFR: 15, 3B: 4, AF: 1.2, Hands: 193
BB: $25.00 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 4, AF: 2.7, Hands: 3630
Hero (UTG): $30.25 - VPIP: 22, PFR: 17, 3B: 5, AF: 2.5, Hands: 116435
MP: $22.45 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 13, 3B: 2, AF: 2.1, Hands: 639
CO: $16.79 - VPIP: 69, PFR: 23, 3B: 14, AF: 2.4, Hands: 541

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is UTG with K ♥ K ♠
Hero raises to $0.75, 1 fold, CO raises to $1.25, 1 fold, SB calls $1.15, 1 fold, Hero raises to $4.50, CO calls $3.25, SB calls $3.25

Flop: ($13.75) A ♦ 9 ♠ 4 ♦ (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $13.75, CO calls $12.29 all in, SB folds

Turn: ($38.33) J ♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($38.33) 2 ♦ (2 players - 1 is all in)

Not sure why it doesn't get added by the converter, but villain has A8cc

 

[Jblocher1]

Hand 1: is probably a re pop, probably to about 20. I'm pretty sure in game I'm willing to GII with this boat if I need to. As played what hands does he actually have that are better than yours? If he flopped a bigger set you would have likely found out before the river via a check raise on turn if he wanted value. I could never ever find a fold, it's just whether or not you think you can re pop and get him to call with worse. If you think he will fold everything but bigger boats then flat, however seems like in game I would definitely be raising.

Hand two: by betting pot like that, you turn your KK into a bluff as the only hands that will call you are ones that beat you. I'm not a huge fan.... Your KK is basically valueless after the flop.... Probably just going to check fold a lot of time 3 handed given the pre flop action

Oh and almost forgot.... In

 

[Scrover]

Hmm, that last hand the way you played it was fine, until the flop. Getting two callers from that four bet especially because of how much it cost your opponents to call was meaning that usually at least of them will have a diamond draw or an ace. I would have checked and folded to a bet as you said. But good luck anyway for your cash game play.

 

[DaReKa]

Hand 1: is probably a re pop, probably to about 20. I'm pretty sure in game I'm willing to GII with this boat if I need to. As played what hands does he actually have that are better than yours? If he flopped a bigger set you would have likely found out before the river via a check raise on turn if he wanted value. I could never ever find a fold, it's just whether or not you think you can re pop and get him to call with worse. If you think he will fold everything but bigger boats then flat, however seems like in game I would definitely be raising.

I can't think of any hand that he should play this way, but I struggle to think of any that he would play this way that I beat. I should have noted that on the turn he gave a timing tell. He thought about what to do, then checked. As I said he's not much of a bluffer, so his river bet is for value. There are lots of hands that he might want to bet for value, but I believe he cbets all of his KJs, 2pair, combo draws, and air; he might slow play top set, but I'm beat there too. Anyway, I put him on AThh and folded. It kind of makes sense, because I don't have worse Aces in my range, and he's not scared of the flush draw. Definitely never raising the river though.

Hand two: by betting pot like that, you turn your KK into a bluff as the only hands that will call you are ones that beat you. I'm not a huge fan.... Your KK is basically valueless after the flop.... Probably just going to check fold a lot of time 3 handed given the pre flop action

Yeah, check/fold is best if I don't think they will bluff, and there's no reason to bet other for balance or something like that. I guess I could or should check back AK in this spot as well to balance, then I could get value from QQ-TT or random garbage that bluffs. I think I shouldn't be folding unless I'm exploiting the opponent though, which of course should be a no brainer vs. 25nl fish.

 

[Jblocher1]

I can't think of any hand that he should play this way, but I struggle to think of any that he would play this way that I beat. I should have noted that on the turn he gave a timing tell. He thought about what to do, then checked. As I said he's not much of a bluffer, so his river bet is for value. There are lots of hands that he might want to bet for value, but I believe he cbets all of his KJs, 2pair, combo draws, and air; he might slow play top set, but I'm beat there too. Anyway, I put him on AThh and folded. It kind of makes sense, because I don't have worse Aces in my range, and he's not scared of the flush draw. Definitely never raising the river though.

I really really don't think we can fold tbh... He has lots of worse hands in his range. Why would he x/c 2 pair on this turn? It makes no sense. A player who is capable of a play like that is also capable of x/c'ing 10 high on the flop and then turning and rivering trips. I am just never ever folding here. I think it's very -EV