A Re-Analysis of My Game

Yesterday, for the first time in awhile... I made 2 plays which ended up costing me 1 2/3rds buy-ins. (~$16). And just this session, I spewed off about another 3. Still up decent in .02/.05. So i was at 62.50 with a $13 rake at one point, now i'm at $42.44 with a $13 rake. Losing money tilts me. I don't feel like losing more, so I'm just gonna cool down a little bit and put my thoughts on paper(internetz).

Occasionally, I'll have this problem. I'll play near-optimal, ABC poker and start winning and then I'll make a wrong play, which will lead to a chain of wrong plays. Then I'll be down 2-3 buy-ins. This ends up costing me quite a bit. I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "Time is money." It couldn't be more true for Poker. The object of Poker is to win your opponent's money by making less mistakes than them, and playing in such a way that you cause them to make more mistakes. The fewer mistakes you make, the more money you make, and the faster you can move up in the limits. The more mistakes you make... the inverse, I think you get the point. See, I'm still not completely tilt-free. I don't think I ever will be, nor will anyone. Anyway, I've gotta figure out a way to conquer my thoughts. Today I will be discussing Tilt, Thought Process, and my Goals-Revised. (Yes, this is going to be very long.)

1) What tilts me? How do I deal with it?
I believe I am better than most of the people who play .02/.05 No-Limit Cash. Not trying to brag, but if i wasn't, I wouldn't be winning, correct? Here's where tilt comes in. When I play for awhile, and starting winning a lot of money, I think I make some sub-optimal plays because I feel like I can outplay my opponents. I get a little cocky, and start raising with sub-par hands, and then try and push people off of their quality holdings. When I raise preflop, and then c-bet and take down a pot, I feel like I can win pretty much every pot off that opponent because most of the time he doesn't show up with anything. Yesterday, I tried to bluff a relative unknown off his flush. Why? Well, whenever I raised preflop, he would always call behind me. I think in a way, it upset me. "Why is this clown calling my raises EVERY hand!?" I am POSITIVE that I have a better hand than him. I'm going to win all his money then by making him call down with worse because he's such an idiot for calling." Boy was I wrong. I hold pocket tens in early. I make it four times the big blind. He calls, everybody else folds. Flop comes 79A, all of clubs. I'm out of position, so I check. He overbets the pot. ~75 in a 45 cent pot. Why would he do that? I had the ten of clubs in my hand.. so I was thinking.. hmm well he either hit it or missed it. I'm guessing maybe he has a weak ace. So I call. Turn comes a brick. Like.. a 3 of spades or some shit. I check again. I probably should have bet out here to see where I was at. He'll either bluff again here, or fire with something real. Checking here doesn't give me any information. So that was a stupid play from me. He fires again, about $1.50 into a ~$2 pot. This is where I really fuck up. For some retarded reason.. (spew monkey took over my brain imo), I put him on a complete bluff, and call. Why would he fire the turn with a large bet? He almost certainly has Ax here, if not a made flush. There's no way I'm beating him with a PAIR OF TENS. River comes another brick.. something else of spades. Now I decide to bet out.. for information... a kinda of small bet.. 1/3rd of the pot. He raises all-in.. and I call.. still putting him on a complete bluff. He flips over 68c, for a made flush on the flop. Nice hand, I'm an idiot.

Let's analyze what went wrong here. He called to much preflop, so I automatically gave him credit for being some kind of retard. The thing is.. almost always.. when people bet out, they have something. UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY, GIVE CREDIT FOR A HAND IN THE FACE OF AGGRESSION. THEY ARE NOT PLAYING BACK AT YOU. I need this motto tattooed to my face, obviously. I'm pretty sure I've stated something like this before. So how do I deal with my inner spew-monkey? Well, I've already exercised one method, go away for a little bit and come back when the monkey is tamed. That's the extreme way for a poker player, because they want to earn money and not have to quit playing. So I'm looking for a way to reduce my spew so I can play more or prevent it altogether.

2) Thought Process: What should I be thinking?
This is probably one of the most important concepts in poker. Taking notes about your play after a session and then reviewing them has been a key component in how I've become successful. What is costing me money, and what do I do to fix it? Take note of it, and remind yourself about it while you play a session. Also, thinking about the game OUTSIDE the game and asking myself questions about how I can prepare for certain situations I've encountered playing has helped a lot. Could I have played that last hand better? How could I have extracted value better, or how could I have saved money? People think poker is about playing cards. At microstakes this is true to a degree, but it always has been primarily a game about playing PEOPLE. What is my position at the table? Who is left to act? What are the stack sizes? Who do I want in the pot? Do you have any past history with the opponent? Has he taken any bad beats? Will I raise, fold, or call? Given this hand, what type of pot do I want to see with it, and what type of board texture am I hoping for? Based on the board texture, is it likely my opponent caught any piece of this board? Do I want my opponent in the hand? Which opponent am I facing? Is he a LAG(loose aggressive), TAG, LP(loose-passive), WT(weak-tight), AGGROFISH? Which type of action is likely to get the response that I want? How do I plan my bet sizing to get his whole stack? This is a lot of stuff to think at the table. There is so much going on, and you have to pay attention to EVERYTHING. I like to use the note-taking feature that the site provides to take notes on people as I play.

3) Goals Revised. These goals are set for the sessions I will be playing from hereon out.

A) Work on Range/Board Texture Evaluation
I've been doing pretty decent at board texture evaluation, but I feel I still need to work on putting people on a range. Although I must admit, this is getting easier and easier as I see a ton more tight-passive/weak-tight type players than crazy aggro-fish who you can never put on a range. Mainly, it's the loose-passives whom I have trouble with putting on a range. Ask questions like "Are they positionally aware?" "What is their calling range given their position?" "What is their raising range given their position?" "What is their cold-calling range?"

B) Evaluate 3-betting/4-betting situations
I'm not so sure this one needs much work yet, seeing as how most of my opponents are weak-tight/loose-passives with stats like 30/2, and 8/4, so if they're raising.. i'm pretty much not 3-betting/4-betting them except when I have Kings or Aces. But I may have to exercise this a bit more when I start facing solid regs, with 17/11 -ish stats.

C) Have a plan for the session, Have a plan for your hand.
This one has been semi-neglected. Every session, I should be asking myself, "Okay, what am I trying to accomplish here?" Then I respond, "I'm going to play solid poker. I will avoid marginal situations and know that my opponents are not playing back at me. I'm going to put everybody on a range of hands given the position they are in, the action they are facing, and what type of opponent they are." "Evaluate good positions to 3-bet. Only use light 3-betting on TAG-style regulars who try and steal the blinds with marginal holdings." That would be my session plan. Planning for the hand would be what I stated in the thought process section. "Do I want a small pot or big pot with this hand?" etc etc.

I could always go into more detail with all this stuff as this game is nigh-infinitely complex, but I think I've got the core of what I wanted to express down here. Well, I'm off to go meditate and read. Until next time... lates.

Stats update!

hmm... so from the rake taking 2/3rds of my winnings, to ~1/4th. I'd say that's a bit of an improvement. But this is a small sample size... so I could be on a
haha... sorry, I love that pic. Anyway, the first graph for the unattentive is my combined .01/02 + .02/.05 graph, the next one is just my .01/.02 (yea, i played a lot of that), and the next one is just my .02/.05. I'm already past of my winnings from .01/.02 in .02/.05. I feel .02/.05 is gonna be a smoother ride than .01/.02, as I've learned quite a bit. Hopefully soon I'll be at .10/.25 in the next 3 months! Wish me luck! (skill!)

The King of Suckouts!?

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 125369
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (MP1): $11.58
MP2: $9.95
CO: $5.28
BTN: $7.66
SB: $5.11
BB: $4.26
UTG: $10.23
UTG+1: $10.00
UTG+1 posts a big blind ($0.05)

Pre Flop: ($0.12) Hero is MP1 with A Q

1 fold, UTG+1 checks, Hero raises to $0.20, 1 fold, CO calls $0.20, 2 folds, BB calls $0.15, UTG+1 calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.82) Q J T (4 players)

BB bets $0.10, UTG+1 calls $0.10, Hero raises to $1, CO folds, BB calls $0.90, UTG+1 calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.82) 3 (3 players)

BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $10.38 all in, BB folds, UTG+1 calls $8.80 all in

River: ($21.42) K (2 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: $21.42

Hero shows A Q (a straight, Ten to Ace)

UTG+1 shows 8 9 (a straight, Nine to King)

Hero wins $20.37

(Rake: $1.05)

See what I did there? King came on the river... making me a higher straight. Although I played this horribly... man does it feel good to be on the lucky side for once. If i had bet around ~2-2.5.. i'd have around 7.80-8 dollars left by river in a $6-6.40 pot... so i'd probably check behind, or fold to a large bet... knowing i was beat by a made two-pair or better. I was kinda tilty making this play, as I was taking beats the whole week. One of the opponents was pretty fishy, so I was expecting him to call with a lower pair of some sort.. the other one was a tight passive. The opposite of what i wanted happened. The fish folded, and the tight passive decided to call my PFR and flop second-nuts. Luckily for me, Pokerstars was feeling generous and decided to rig the hand in my favor. I probably would have wanted to kill myself after losing this lol.

When Bad Plays Go Horribly.... RIGHT?!?

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 124581

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG+1: $0.50

UTG+2: $3.49

MP1: $1.94

MP2: $2.07

CO: $0.90

BTN: $1.49

SB: $1.58

Hero (BB): $5.15

UTG: $3.76



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BB with T 8

UTG calls $0.02, UTG+1 calls $0.02, UTG+2 calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.02, CO raises to $0.08, 2 folds, Hero raises to $5.15 all in, 2 folds, UTG+2 calls $3.47 all in, 2 folds



Flop: ($7.13) 8 4 6 (2 players - 2 are all in)



Turn: ($7.13) J (2 players - 2 are all in)



River: ($7.13) J (2 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: $7.13

UTG+2 mucks A 2

Hero shows T 8 (two pair, Jacks and Eights)

Hero wins $6.78

(Rake: $0.35)

Beats.. All. Day. Long.

1) vs a loose nub.. Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 124979


2) vs a short stacker.. Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 124981


3) vs another loose nub. Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 124985


4) Shoulda bet more on the flop.. and put him in on the turn... wouldn't change the result though. Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 124989


5) .... Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 124990


6) ... yep. Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 124994


7) Yea.. ok limp with AA so in the off-chance that someone in the button picks up KKs, you can reraise them... you fag. Well played, nice luck. Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 125005


8) WOW! 77 APPARENTLY IS THE NUTS VS KINGS. Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 125003




This has been a fun, rollercoaster ride of a week. Finally when I start showing a decent win rate shit like this comes along. It's really like a slap in the face when you're playing solid and these droolers go all-in with random shit and you're 99.9% sure that your hand is a favorite to win. NOT ON POKER STARS THOUGH! Remember that feeling you got when Mark Walhberg in Planet of the Apes kisses the ape and not Estella Warren? It's like that.

A Status Report!

As you can see, my win rate has improved over playing at .01/02. .. for now. The $8 rake is a tad high for my liking, but the rake will become less and less as I spew less. Yesterday, I played a bit of .01/02. and .02/05. Overall, I ended up leaving the session $2 behind as I had to go to work. In actuality, probably about $5 up in .02/05... negated by two huge beats I took yesterday to the tune of that $5. (One of them was in .01/02.) Not just that actually.. but I made 2 failed bluff attempts. One of them was really costly and stupid. However, I am improving by not going on tilt when I receive bad beats. This used to cost me a few buy-ins and I could not play for long periods of time.

Looking at my stats, one thing stands out to me that I'm not quite sure about. All the time that I've been playing this game, my W$SD% has been lower than most TAG-style players. Now this either means that I'm being TOO aggressive, by betting people off hands, or folding too much. Looking at my aggression stats in the picture, I'd like to think it was being too aggressive. Flop Agg 5.82, Turn Agg 9.36, River Agg 6.14. Hmmm... which is the bigger leak, folding too much, or being too aggressive? Without much postflop skill, I believe the answer would be "too much aggression"... however, I'm quite confident that my postflop play is beyond beginner level, as I'm seeing a somewhat decent winrate now. I do have a few things I need to work on. One I see happen to me is when I bet on a scarecard that happens hit the opponent. I do need to check a little bit more. And, against weak-tights at $.05NL, when my bluff attempts fail, I think I need to fold sooner. A call or a min-raise and I think I should be done with bluffing.

In conclusion, I just think I need to get a larger sample size. Things that I'l work on include:
1) Knowing when to bluff, and giving up sooner in the face of a re-raise. Even Less Spew.
2) Realizing when a board hit an opponent, and check on the appropriate scare-card.

That's it! Time to test.

lolz thx for ur moniez

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 120805

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG+2: $4.43

MP1: $8.62

MP2: $10.20

CO: $10.07

Hero (BTN): $10.89

SB: $4.50

BB: $1.48

UTG: $4.30

UTG+1: $5.00



Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with Q Q

3 folds, MP1 calls $0.05, 1 fold, CO raises to $0.25, Hero raises to $0.75, SB raises to $1.35, 1 fold, MP1 calls $1.30, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.60



Flop: ($4.35) 4 Q 8 (3 players)

SB bets $2.50, MP1 calls $2.50, Hero raises to $9.54 all in, SB calls $0.65 all in, MP1 calls $4.77 all in



Turn: ($22.04) T (3 players - 3 are all in)



River: ($22.04) 2 (3 players - 3 are all in)



Final Pot: $22.04

MP1 shows 8 J (a pair of Eights)

Hero shows Q Q (three of a kind, Queens)

SB mucks A A

Hero wins $7.84

Hero wins $13.15

(Rake: $1.05)

Improving my winrate

So far... so so. .02/.05 isn't going bad. Actually, if I stop spewing... I probably could become a bigger winner than in .01/.02. I almost came away with a better winrate yesterday. It's about the same though... winning twice the rake. 5 hands I could have played better, and 2 hands that I actually got sucked out on.

1) Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 118292
lol.. I have no good reason for this one.. I knew one of the players was pretty bad.. he still ended up showing up with a better hand than I did though. I should have sized that raise bigger... and realized that when the decent opponent smoothe called it.. that something was out of place. OF COURSE he had the set of 9s.

2) Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 118301
Holy shit, that was a bad reraise on my part. I should have at least made it ~$2-2.5. That flop is somewhat dry, considering I have one of the Qs. I doubt he had at T, as he was somewhat tight in his range calling range. Turn comes a K.. bad card to see as it's an over to my Q, and J9/AJ got there. He shoves and it's pretty obvious he made his draw with AJo. He kindly shows that I was right as I folded. Gotta love people who give free information, and solidify your reads! What a nice guy!

3) Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 118310
This is spew. I should have realized that I was against a bad player... so most likely he didn't have a set when he donk bet my preflop raise. Usually they'll let you know if you reraise by shoving or reraising you again with a pretty big amount. If he called, I should have fired a big bet on the turn. Problem is on the turn he picked up a open-ended straight draw with his pair. 8+2+3= 13 out draw. Let's see.. i raised him 60 from his 20... so it's 40cents to go in a $1 pot. So he's getting 2.5 to 1 on a 2.54 to 1 shot... sounds about right. I let him make a correct call, and boom, river hits completing his straight. At least I got to see showdown for cheap... =/

4) Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 118319
Repeat, PEOPLE ARE NOT PLAYING BACK AT YOU. UNLESS YOU HAVE READS, STOP MAKING RETARD BLUFFS. Spew, like duh, obviously.

And that's it for the spew for the most part. All these hands cost me around ~$9 total. +5= 14-2.. yea I could be earning so much more. So what are the leaks in my game?
1) Playing back at people who have something. In essence, fold more when strength is shown by competent opponents. Who am I in the pot with?
2) Be aware of overcalls! (they're going to be the nuts 99% of the time, from "decent" passive players)
3) Bet more for value! I am the favorite vs a majority of these opponents, therefore, more money should go into the pot. This is mostly on the flop, reraising on danger boards... as shown in hand 3, and value betting the turn and river more.

FML: Sick of .02NL, Moving on...

Yep... still playing 01/02.... yippeeeeeeee! I think I'm about to say fuck it and move up. I mean I am bankrolled to play 02/05... I might as well stop being a fuckin' nit pansy-boy and take a shot, right? Here's just a little sample of what I've been dealing with over the past 3 months.


Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 115308

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $2.33
BTN: $0.93
SB: $0.87
BB: $0.89
UTG: $1.73
UTG+1: $3.70
Hero (UTG+2): $5.21
MP1: $1.10
MP2: $1.66

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG+2 with A A

2 folds, Hero raises to $0.08, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.08, 2 folds, SB calls $0.07, 1 fold


Flop: ($0.26) K Q 2 (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $0.15, MP2 raises to $0.30, SB folds, Hero raises to $5, MP2 calls $1.28 all in
Turn: ($3.42) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($3.42) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)



Final Pot: $3.42
Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)
MP2 shows K 6 (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
MP2 wins $3.27

(Rake: $0.15)

Holy fuck my life?!? are you serious!? Well.. I guess he was, given that he was short stacked, called a preflop raise (PFR) with a K, hit top pair on the flop, and decided it was a hand he could ship it in with, despite my FIVE DOLLAR RERAISE, LOL. Sometimes I think this game is rigged. I saw so many retarded suckouts that day. Prior to that hand, I saw a fish call a large 20c raise from a nit with KJ, and flop AQTo, the nit of course had KK. And then that one time I got it all-in vs two fish, one with 55, and the other with AQ. Ok, so the 55 was a slight favorite over us, but I knew I had the AQ dominated... yet the flop comes something like.. J94, turn K, river T... sdlfkjasdfa

Good ole micro stakes. Analyzing my last session, after the two suckout hands, I tended to spew quite a bit. I've cooled down a bit now, but I think I should take a break and review my goals before I head off to gamble with twice the money I used to!

1) Take more notes. Reads are VITAL.
2) Table selection and seating position. Before, I wouldn't pay much attention to this, but I realized that this has a HUGE affect on your win rate. I'm paying more attention to this now.
3) Range+Pot control observation. This is just a combination of my previous two goals. In a previous blog post, I mentioned that my two goals were to develop reads/ranges better by asking questions and deducting what my opponent's likely holdings were. What type of opponent is my opponent? Loose-passive? (calling station) Tight-Passive? (weak-tight), Loose-Aggressive? (LAG, aggro-donk) Do I want to play a small or big pot with this hand? Given the board, my opponent's range, and reactions to my betting, what is his most likely holding? What are his tendencies? How does he play his draws? His top pair-type hands? His sets/made nut-type hands? What does my opponent think I have given my table image, and what will he think I have when I check, bet, or raise? What do I want him to think I have that he can beat?
4) Take a beat, take a breath. Man, as much as I hate to admit it, I spew pretty hard when someone calls with odds they shouldn't, or hits a 2-3 outer on me. Don't know quite how I'm gonna fix this. Maybe play more (after I cool down from the beats of course) or look into mediation or some shit. Yoga breathing exercises and the like! Don't laugh... I hear it's actually quite relaxing. ;) It's weird. I'm usually not the spewy-type. But I guess since this game involves real money, and I want to earn money in a quick fashion, that I make rushed, retarded decisions at times. This is definitely a last but not least.

Well, that's it for now! With these goals in mind, I'm off to 02/05 No limit! If I should for some reason go spewy, and lose some, I'll move back down to 01/02 at $175 left in my bankroll. Wish me luck!