Today was quite a day. The variance was probably was much more cruel than yesterday. I've put in so much to try play well and although I did, the result part of the game just took a toll on me. It's hard to not be "result oriented" but I did my very best. I think there were more than a few spots where tilt got the best of me, I won't lie about them but I always managed to get myself back into the right direction which is really important for me.
Now onto the results.
Today's Result:
Overall despite going through my little tilt, I still played really well as supported by my chip graph. I am proud that I am picking spots much more better from a mathematically point of view because it is really starting to show in my results, which could be a big improvement from my exploitative style. However, in the result world, although I am up for the day, you could clearly see, I struggled to keep up with my EV. I really despised sucking out and I knew I had a problem when I entered a match where for this 1 match, I literally did not lose a single showdown hand and still tilted because I didn't want to see suckouts. It didn't matter how I got it in and I did got it in bad more than enough, I literally did not lose a single showdown hand. It was ridiculous, and being already tilted as I was I still resented it, I think I even wanted to give the guy back his buy-in but talked to myself out of it by telling myself I deserve to at least run like God once with how bad I've been running today. Overall, I still managed to keep it together.
For anybody who may wonder, when I tilt, I don't make much more calling mistakes, etc. I just don't have that "thinking" cap on fully where I am more automated towards my default strategy. So it's easy and hard for me to go through the motion without devastating my winrate & bankroll by far but I just prefer to have my thinking cap at all times so I don't overlook details I shouldn't.
Overall Results:
I'm starting to really love my chip graph. That red line probably has been more stable than it ever did and before it wasn't that bad either since it usually would decline at a really really slow pace. So just the fact that I am generating enough folds to be break-even I feel like I am doing something right and I look forward to seeing that I continue to do so. However, my results are still stuck around that 4% ROI and while it isn't bad, I really want to be able to increase it so I can feel much prepared for playing higher levels.
Today, I must admit, I learned a lot from my studies. This usually should be a good thing but I feel like it may be a bad thing this time, because I learn so much matter in fact that there might be too much adjusting to remember while I am on the table, which might lead to more hesitation plays and screw ups. With so much information I think I will need to take a day off in the upcoming future to go over a number of hands. I'll let you guys know when I do so, and it will be recorded, however that is alot of hands to post, I'll probably just stick with posting 3 hands that day out of the number of hands I look at.
Comment: This hand took me an extremely long time to analysis because I basically had started over like 3 times trying to figure out how to best play my range here. My biggest discovery was actually the continuation range on the whole which was way tighter than I previously assumed. My biggest headache with this was realizing that my initial plan doesn't allow for 8x & gutshots to continue. So I spent nearly an hour making decisions on which I am cutting out the loop. I even decided that maybe I should cut off my backdoor equity in my flop range and use gutshot for bluffing, but to me bluffing the flop with those club blockers are far more important than straight blockers. I end up changing my mind there and kept the backdoor draws in but still had my original problem. After a long mental debate I decided to go with gutshots over 8x because of 2 reasons: 1. I don't want to put myself in complete marginal spots and 2. If I improve with an 8x it still never the nuts vs the gutshots and the gutshots at times would have additional pairing outs combine with the fact that in the face of contiuation bets, it's easy to put these in raise or fold range over 8x which will go into a call or fold range majority of the time. The bigger issue though is that I must be aware of my continuation range, because I will lose alot of money if I incorrectly assume what is correct.
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Comment: Besides with the obvious mistake of not betting that river for value, I wanted to look at more dry texture boards to see how my range is shaped. One of the things I picked up that is starting to come more known easily is how my range changes on a 4, 3 or 2 card that is mix in with the flop. Usually these 3 cards will have less combos of pairs in my range so that mean my value range will lack in some combos, which could easily be made up by adding two pair, overcards, etc. This also means that my checking range will be weaker in general and I have to be aware of that.
Comment: This hand I found interesting because honestly looking at it and the stack sizes, etc. Everything felt more automatic with no thoughts rather than thinking about the proper strategy. However, even if I did thought about it, I still would probably make a mistake thinking I can shove alot more value hands than I think I can. I need to be a lot more careful in these spots and really understand how I am shaping my range.
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Conclusion: Alot of the information I learned was formed around range construction mistakes. It's much easier to construct a range off the table but putting into use on the tables is a whole different monster and I'm finding myself thinking in game that I am pretty close to what I should be doing and still far off. Not saying I don't believe I am getting better but I think I may have been a bit more delusional as to how far I have gotten with my unexploitative style and even my results are proving this. Therefore I will be looking into taking a day off sometime and really just review a ton of hands and try find some more patterns and add more memorization to my game to help me on the tables.
So today began with me trying to really put in some volume to make up for the lack of days not playing and the lack of volume overall. I prepared for a long session and while I did just that, it happen to be a very painful one in terms of variance. HUSNG are always very high variance so it shouldn't be no shock how bad things can really get but experiencing it as it happens, the pain never gets old. Anyway on to results.
Today's Result:
At first I was just getting pounded by variance. Second nuts vs nuts, best hand getting sucked out on and even hands I sucked out on was getting re-sucked out. The first half of the session I was literally half miserable and grumpy, and half psychotic Dr. Phil like just talking myself from not raging. I managed to pulled through. It was really one of those days where nothing was destined to go right for me. I hit a low of being down 10 Buy-ins. I know you cash game players probably wouldn't want to see that kind of variance in one day right? However, I prevailed the mental challenge of keeping it together and the other half started to reward me. Not entirely, but good enough that I could bare it. I manage to start climbing back up. I think despite the loss today it's really important to know that even if variance don't want to swing my way I can still fight the good fight. My chips would indicate though I had more wins than losses but of course, because of rake, I still showed a loss. Which is probably why I should really consider playing somewhere where I can get a better rakeback deal than 888poker (I'll save this rant for another day).
Overall Results:
Funny thing is I'm back at that 4% ROI and I remember yesterday making a joke about doing all this work just to probably improve a slight bit better than 4%. I think I need to watch what I say. Overall, I like the direction of my game so far, there are definitely spots I'm not accustom to yet, so I still have alot to learn. Hopefully we can keep improving and keep improving.
Just to put it out there, you can follow my results at Poker Pro Labs. You are allowed to make a free account with about 5 or 10 free searches daily.
So i've had a few days off to enjoy family time and enjoy holiday which was Yesterday.
Coming back there were a few things that I was thinking about that had me concerned when it came to my Poker goals:
1. I did a poor job taking into account of holidays and how many days off I will be taking, and all the future events I have planned.
2. My unpredictable work schedule &
3. The amount of time study in particular actually takes.
I have been doing a lot of practising of the new style, etc. that even though my goals are very doable they don't accommodate the real life situation too well. This my fault basically because I was wrap around the new style I was studying.
To revise my plans a bit, I decided I should be putting in volume when I can and still review like usual, but remove the cap on the # of hands I should study and have no maximum limit per month of the volume I put in. This is to prevent me using precious free time which I might or might not have alot of in the future just going to study and not playing. I do believe balance is important so I do not want to sacrifice those valuable hours with family and friends just to squeeze in that poker volume and study. By allowing myself to play volume, it can accommodate for days I cannot play.
Conclusion: I am short on words for this study session due to the fact that lately I have been doing a bunch of other stuff so my thoughts are not complete. However, this is a great opportunity to look at the hand without any of my comment making any hand bias.
So I almost forgot to post my session results tonight. I'm tired so I'll just keep it brief.
Today's Result:
Today was a good day. The first couple games in, I tilted like mad and it wasn't because of the poker itself but because of my connection. Had to take a break and come back to finish up my session which was definitely +EV.
Overall Results:
Climbing up as usual. We're finally back up to having a ROI of 10%. I just need to keep it up right? So far my studies been paying off. I could already see the difference in my game. Going to do some very very small tweaking in my strategy to fix up some spots where I keep noticing I'm just too weak in. Hopefully it pays off.
Comment: This hand I decided, to check out the river range here to see If checking back the river if he had check to me would be correct. As it turns out I would have been correct if he had check it to me. After seeing so far my marginal spots is where I'm finding alot of trouble, These type of spots weather I have that borderline bluff or value, I think I should at least be looking at these type of hands once a day until I develop that natural instinct to make better decisions with them.
Comments: In a cash game this would be an easy fold right? This hand tortured me during the time of play. What I was thinking is when I get here to the river like this, because I divided my range, I won't have any flush here often. However, it comes at the cost that a lot of times people who call too much would lose a lot of for chasing their flush and I decrease their odds by filling my betting range with blockers. But when I do have a hand like this and the flush do pops up like this, based on the mathematical unexploitatable percentage. I have to be willing to call here with Kx and better. Crazy huh? At the time, I was just lost and thought I'm suppose to be folding a lot more combos I give myself credit for. I was really confused about how I should be calling so I decided to play it like he had the nuts and just review the hand. Now that I did review it, lesson learnt. I guess we starting to see where an unexploitable game can have it flaws, I mean yes we make a lot of money from their calling/folding mistakes but when you start factoring in raises, it saves you a lot of money if you just had the information required to play exploitative against these. Until you do, close your eyes and cross your fingers because the math will require some major Hero calling here.
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Hand #3 - AJo - Defend (NOTE: My Hand is As Jh, The Ks error is on WeakTight Server)
(External link: AJo)
Comment: I had a real easy time reviewing this hand. Honestly, for you'll cash game players out there, enjoy your study session because compared to having wide ranges. Anyway, This hand was something I needed to check, I just didn't know how I should be shaping my bottom range and shaving off my bottom range to these kinds of play.
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Conclusion: I've been thinking about how I have been shaping my ranges so far, I may need to think about splitting it off a bit better than I have been but for now I want to learn what I have been practising first and then make those changes after. I'm thinking about cutting my raise percentage down from 30% to 20%, to leave a bit more stronger hands to raise with when calling down to the river. What you guys think?
