microstakesmacrominds: outubro 2009

sábado, 31 de outubro de 2009

#5 hand analysis (22nd/23rd October)

http://weaktight.com/1646457

TT MP standard raise 2,5 blinds and surprise surprise the BB ( 41/20 complete chimpy ) calls , the flop presents little threat and he check raises me ( even tho weak ) , i mini 3 bet and he calls . He is quite aggressive but still calling a 3 bet on the flop i thought it was kinda weird , by now i m putting him either on an overpair / set / TPTK type hand and the turn is just awful ... Another 9 ... Great ... Most of the time i ll be ok with this 9 ( not with the flop action anyway but on a "normal" hand its actually a great card ). He checks and i check which in my opinion is my biggest mistake during the hand , the pot is now 24 and he has like 12 behind , if he shoves i would insta call so why do i even check in the first place with this turn that is suposed to help me ( now i have hands like 76 65 78 86 T6 T7 nullified and still the 10 outs redraw vs overpairs ). The last streets gives me a straight and he shoves ,, ofc i call and he shows A8.

http://weaktight.com/1647669

This hand is just a curiosity , is the exact same guy that 5 days before hited a 1 outer vs me for a hole stack ( 87 vs 77 flop 8 turn 7 ) , being that sick enough now he slowplays KK while i have KQ and in the flop comes the case K ( along with a Q ) ... Better lucky than good sometimes ... I know i wish i was lucky this month but hey ... Thats poker , variance is its middle name and we have to put with it ! Pick up the slack and grind some more !

http://weaktight.com/1648847

Now this is one of those hands that gets me really pissed off on losing it ... I just figured it out so well and i ended up on the minus side ! Well happens thats poker for u.
I m up against Smirnoff a pretty good regular in NL50 in Titan Room and one of the most aggressive ones. He is a 21/20/5.5 with 85% flop cbet and 17% 3bet. He raises on the CO but that actualy doesnt matter cause OTB is a shortstack ( Yeap one of those annoying little nabs that fold/shove hands jeez how i hate them ! ) and his range here is pretty much any thing from AA to 45s so given that to account i chose not to 3bet but just to call to induce 1/2 extra streets of value in case i hit. Flop comes T8Q ( 2 spades ) i check he bets roughly the pot size and i reraise him 2,5 times which he mini raises and now things get quite interesting. What could he be doing this with ? A set ? Unlikely. KK AA ? Unlikely. 2 pair ? Unlikely. And why did i thought that ? Well his range pretty much incorporates all this possibilities but a mini raise on such a big pot with so many action ? He wouldnt mini raise for value with a strong made hand for the fact that he would be giving odds to a monster draw, so aside that my read was actually he having that monster draw and trying to get me off cheaply by mini reraising for commitment in later streets and by doing so if he misses turn he probably gets a free card from my due to the display of aggression in the early street , so i m putting him on hands like AT/AJ/JT/J9/T9 of spades and against this range shoving over the top on the flop wouldnt be the best idea so instead i call and if a spade or completing draw card drops on the turn i ll fold.A 5 of clubs helps anyone on the turn , i check to see what he does and he suddenly shoves , well there goes my free card plan but still at this point a player THAT aggressive will turn his semi - bluff into a shove most of the time...I go to the tank and i decide to call... He has T7 of spades and rivers a 7 to take my full stack ... Well played by both that was a really enjoyable hand. Cant win them all !

Flop : Good ... Turn : Better ... River : Omg suckout 2 outer gz !
Good Call , bad income !

http://weaktight.com/1648111
http://weaktight.com/1648110

quarta-feira, 21 de outubro de 2009

NL50 balance first hands

terça-feira, 13 de outubro de 2009

#4th Hand analysis

A decade later here are some more hands to discuss.

http://weaktight.com/1583996

Pretty standard preflop everyone folds to me ( OTB ) except the CO donky 39/9/3.8 that limps , and i obviously raise 5 blinds. The flop presents me an Ace along with 2 7s , he checks i bet close to 1/2 the pot and for my surprise he mini raises , which is ok cause my hand can stand "some" heat... Still not a normal type play from my opponent ( 0% check raise and 93% fold to cbet ). A blank on the turn generates no action and the river shows a 6 of diamonds that completes a runner flush ( no way way he has that given the earlier streets action ) , he bets roughly 1/2 of the pot and i call , now lets see why i chose to check turn and call river. He is just being abused in this table folding every hand on the flop/turn or getting 3bet preflop plus he is loosing more than a buy in at the time, tilt is the L word ! On the flop i was putting him on a range from Ax ( AT , A9 , A2 , A3 , A4 , A5 most likely ) to a middle pair 6s 8s 9s even as high as Ts and he is just fed up of being steamrolled and tried to ( weakly ) steal the pot , if he has nothing on the turn and i bet after being check raised earlier he wont call on air cause is such a strong pattern but if i check i still have the opportunity of getting an extra bet ( even for mid range value like 88/99/AT ) on the river.

http://weaktight.com/1584102

In this hand i m up against a pretty good reg 16/16/11.0 ( Yes 11.0 AGG in a decent sample ) , i get 55 in the SB and everyone folds and i kinda limp with a funky plan , he has 100% Fcbet and 100% Tcbet so lets capitalize on that ( doing ze float oop ) , he also has 90% fold vs steal so if i raised i would have gotten 1 blind 9/10 times. Flop comes a bit heavy for my hand type (K34 2 spades) but still i check call him with the intent of steal it on a later street, he bets 3/4 of the pot and i insta call ( to induce strength ) , a 8 on the turn gives no one nothing the majority of the time and he bets once more after i checked to him ( more than 3/4s this time ) ok ok enough play , i miniraise him and yes it seems a bit donkish play but against a thinking player after insta calling preflop it implies a really strong hand ( a set / TPTK or something in that line ).

sexta-feira, 9 de outubro de 2009

Rest , Pause , Go

First of all i would like to thank Chumbita for joinning our ranks at "microstakesmacrominds" and i m sure he will give a positive contribution to our cause.

Its been 8 days since i ve written in the blog and thats cause i m not at home anyway. I ve taken a week off and i m staying at marios ( vulcanwolfs ) but i m coming back home tomorrow and i ll pick up the pace. Right now i ll just register my monthly goals.

#1 - Play 40ks + hands
#2 - Get at least 8bb/100
#3 - Reach 2.5ks bankroll
#4 - Increase my W$SD 3bet and decrease my AGF
#5 - Start the transition from NL.20 to NL.50

I ll also start a new weakly post with the purpose of analyzing the most ridonkculous plays i ve made during that same week and point out the "when" and "how" to avoid that kind of plays.

segunda-feira, 5 de outubro de 2009

Introduction

First I want to thank both users of this blog the invitation for participating in this project. Right now I don’t have much time to spend playing poker/reading about poker/writing, or any other poker wise stuff. I am taking a degree on Biochemistry, which is stealing a lot of my time ( mentira, aquilo é fácil -_- ). Nevertheless I play whenever I can and try to stay updated. I currently play at Absolute Poker, with a 30% rakeback deal. I play NL10-NL25, deep stack. The deep stack part is actually not an option. All tables at AP are deep. Of course, I can buy in for less, but I always want to buy in for the maximum amount as I find it is +EV playing with everyone covered, especially if I think I have edge over them. I have been out of the poker world for a few months, and came back about a month ago. And I have to say that, from what I observed, the games are getting tougher. Internet poker will always be Internet poker. There will always be a lot of donkfests going on, but I realize that as this world grows, more people is becoming to realize that if you think about this game for a little bit you may learn something, and as a bonus, win some money. The NL25 deep stack tables at AP can be real nitfests sometimes. Actually, that’s what they are the vast majority of the time. A lot of weak tight regs are stealing seats from bad players. Or even worse, bad players are becoming good players. Deep stack poker is very very different from the standart 100bbs poker, and I think I didn’t realize the big difference there is yet. The visible adjustments I have made so far comprehend playing more hands IP. Yet, raising more hands IP. Playing a kind of small ball poker, controlling pot size with my top pair type of hands. Playing more suited connectors IP which play very well against most of TAGs range. I would think there is some kind of adjustment to be made in relation to 3betting but I have kept this part quite intact, 3betting mostly for value and a few times as s bluff. But the fact that stacks permit a bigger maneuver must have some kind of influence in 3betting.
Another interesting aspect of these tables is the fact that most of the times I am the only one actually playing deep. So I guess most of the times I can play the regular type of poker against most opponents.When there is someone playing deep too, they may play the standart 100bbs type of poker without any adjustments which can be a very good point in my favor ( not right now, since I may be playing bad deep stack poker, but I will get there ).

These are the stats of the last days of August and all September. I am still trying to adjust to the deep stack type of Poker as I have already mentioned. I used to play a little bit looser at another site where I played the standart 100bbs poker. The deep stack poker should allow me to play more hands in position but I actually tightened up my game. It was not my plan, it’s just the way it went and I guess it payed off. I think I will have to decrease my AF a little bit as I may be losing a lot of money betting in bad spots ( I often forget people don’t fold at microstakes ). My WTSD value may be a little bit low which means I am only going to showdown with strong hands. Of course that’s not bad. But it may indicate that I am easily pushed off of hands where I am ahead. It is an indicator of weakness. Apart from that I think the other stats are not so bad, I will just try to consolidate my game and move up.

I have a lot of work to do this year so I will be playing very few hands. My goals for October are:
- Play 15k hands ( mostly 25NL )
- Winrate >= 6bb/100
- Take shots at 50NL if everything goes well

quinta-feira, 1 de outubro de 2009

#September balance

Well i started the blog on the 20th october and since that date i played as u can see around 17.000 hands and made 16 buy ins ( 9.59 bbs ) . Tho its a very small sample i m quite happy with the outcome. I only played 8/10 days i was suposed to due to physical exhaustion ( rugby + gym is a pain in the ass sometimes ) and Titan Poker was down for a whole day. Now lets discuss the stats , 95% of the educated poker people that see those stats will think " wow what a nooby nit " but in fact i m just adjusting my overaggressive gamestyle to the metagame i m inserted. To many shortstacks , to many 3 bets IP of LAGs ( and well lets be honest how many times vs a 3 bet are u likely to be head in a generic flop with anything from 22 to QJ ? ) , to many reshoves preflop , just a number of context plays where is far more profitable to limp call an isolation raise then a 3bet ( and once again people overplay some hands like mid/high pairs and high cards they might be good preflop but if u have an edge why risking playing coinflips ? ) i mean ... Most of my raising range loses some value in MWP so isnt preferable to wait for a better spot to ship it ? I ve been focusing more on getting extra value on decent/solid hands and losing less with medium strength hands or thin draws and i might say my post flop is very solid at the moment ( preflop i m kinda weakish to be honest ). I also decreased my Cbet/2barrel/3barrel and its proving to be a good idea so far. With anything else to say i hope for some question and i will gladly answer.