I'm playing good poker (I guess). But results are not coming. Losing more money than winning.

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I'm playing good poker (I guess). But results are not coming. Losing more money than winning.

I feel like when I lose, I lose more money than I win when I win. I'm playing 5nl (pokerstars and bovada) and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong anymore. I study 4hr daily and also play for 4hr or so daily.

For example: I just played a 1hr session (around 650 hands) that I really believe I played good poker, but I ended w/ -12.88bb/100. I understand the concept of variance and how this is really short term, but this is a common theme, so I though about posting this here to hear any insights.

Perhaps I'm not extracting as much value from my winning hands as possible?! Perhaps it's the rake?!

Thank you

EDIT:

I just recorded a 38' session on bovada. I had like 50 bucks there so I decided to play two 25nl tables only for the sake of recording for this video.

Now, I know that probably no one is going to watch this video from an unknown internet person. Seriously! I mean, poker is my main choice in life at the moment.

Unfortunately I don't have too much money to pay for this review, but if you or anyone else could take a look I will be FOREVER grateful. I don't have much money, especially since I'm from Brazil and our currency is seriously undervalued. But I'm willing to pay something as a sign of gratitude.

I believe this session can give an idea of how I play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlyPozweago

28 Comments

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kalciis 6 years, 5 months ago

Put more work on how to adjust ur strat when villain deviates from optimal play in one or another way. How ure studying btw?

James Hudson 6 years, 5 months ago

Hey, posting some of your stats from your database will help others give you feedback on your play.

I will say though, you're only going to realize when you're playing below your current best level of poker. It's possible that your best isn't very good yet though and that you've got a lot more learning left to do before you can play really good poker.

Poker's a funny game due to the luck element. If you were playing chess and just losing every game you wouldn't think that you were playing good chess right? Same with tennis or most any other 1 on 1 game/sport. Even if you ARE playing well and just happen to be running badly, I think that it's important to have the attitude that you need to keep improving at things so that you keep developing and pushing yourself. Also, the higher your true winrate, the less variance will really affect your ability to win.

fellipedepaula 6 years, 5 months ago

Thanks James!
I don't discard that I'm not playing that good yet. Even though my post sounds like I'm whining, I'm def going to keep studying and playing

fellipedepaula 6 years, 5 months ago

Hi Kalciis, thanks for your reply!

I believe everybody deviates from optimal play for some extent. People on smaller stakes under defend and under bluff. So, when I'm studying with a solver I definitely lock villain's strategy to account for that.

I watch videos here on RIO, both live play and theory. Work with gtoplus. Also have a subscription to power equilab (don't think I'll be renewing after purchasing a solver) and pokersnowie.

When I watch a coach playing, I think I absorb plenty of content and most of the spots don't seems too different from what I'd do.

But when it comes down to play, I notice that I'm a losing player :(

James Hudson 6 years, 5 months ago

When I watch a coach playing, I think I absorb plenty of content and most of the spots don't seems too different from what I'd do. But when it comes down to play, I notice that I'm a losing player :(

How many tables are you playing? If it's more than 4, you might find that you don't know the stuff that you know at a deep enough level yet to be playing at a really high speed. Everyone's brain breaks down at a certain point when it comes to the action being too fast to properly digest but that point is at different places for people depending on their level of poker knowledge amongst other things.

fellipedepaula 6 years, 5 months ago

Hey James Hudson ,
I play 2 zoom tables. I tried playing 4 tables before but I noticed exactly what you said about my brain not keeping up with it.

I just recorded a 38' session on bovada. I had like 50 bucks there so I decided to play two 25nl tables only for the sake of recording for this video.

Now, I know that probably no one is going to watch this video from an unknown internet person. Seriously! I mean, poker is my main choice in life at the moment.

Unfortunately I don't have too much money to pay for this review, but if you or anyone else could take a look I will be FOREVER grateful. I don't have much money, especially since I'm from Brazil and our currency is seriously undervalued. But I'm willing to pay something as a sign of gratitude.

I believe this session can give an idea of how I play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlyPozweago

kalciis 6 years, 5 months ago

4:30 u have to value/protection bet 99's, if that's a 1,2dollar bet into 4dollar pot onturn I would raise. hmm, you can fold bb even if nobody opens yet? if yes, where the money goes when everyone folds?xd

kalciis 6 years, 5 months ago

I would open near 100percent range in sb then w 2x, people overfolding alot in those positions in low limits plus it creates more fold equity when people can fold anytime, I wouldnt instantly fold 56o in bb btw

elbabbelino 6 years, 5 months ago

Reconsider your strategy for the SB and BB, you're surely missing out on (heaps) of profitable spots there to either defend (BB) or open (SB).
You are playing too passive (from what I've seen in the 10 minutes of footage I watched), for sure with value and/or protection, but also sometimes cbet bluffing spots.
From what I've seen you like to XC rather than valuebet or bluf, whereas on these stakes people often bluf too little and valuebet too narrow against you. I would suggest you to do it exactly the other way around, look more for thin valuebet and bluf spots and IF you check, be ready to check/fold more often.

Neichos 6 years, 5 months ago

yes, defnitly agree. At this stakes the people find calls you never expect to see, so it´s better to bet to thin instead of missing value bets.

ChaoRen123 6 years, 5 months ago

True that, first things I noticed were some autofolds on the big blind with hands such as J5s which would be autodefend even versus a 3.5x open. Keep in mind that the big blind, overall, will be the position you will play the most on the long run. Work on that :)

Neichos 6 years, 5 months ago

Hey, i guess it´s also very important to hear your thought process during the hands to help you the best way possible. So maybe make a new Video while telling us your ideas and your strategy?
Hope you crushing it soon

RoyOne 6 years, 5 months ago

You fold like a ton of EQ as I watched QJ etc. Not protecting your overpairs on wet boards when in position is also a leek. Not playing enough from late positions is also sth. that I noticed and not defending enough/opening from SB/BB. And why do you open KJo to 50 and than QJs to 75 in same position ? And missing set mining opportunity's with your 88. Honestly I think you need more work and improvement.

Tyler Forrester 6 years, 5 months ago

This is an interesting spot for me as a responder. Generally, when I read posts like, "I'm playing good poker but still losing". I expect the post is going for sympathy. Please sympathize with my bad luck. The poker gods are capricious and vicious.

However, you've post a video and I'm guessing that you genuinely want a critical critique. So here is what I saw in my limited sample:

It doesn't seem like much, but in the two minutes I watched, I think you lost about .3bbs by autofolding strong hands like J5s and 87o in the big blind. If I have extend this an hour, you're losing between 6bbs and 15bbs in bad big blind folds. I'm a great postflop player and I can't overcome that sort of mistake.

1)Never auto-fold your big blind. Every hand is worth some money, even 72o, because sometimes you have a limper rather than a raiser.

Additionally, you fold 88 to a min 3-bet co vs button. This is guaranteed to be an expensive mistake, somewhere on the order of 2 to 2.5 bbs.

I'm sure there are more of these types of mistakes. From my perspective, there are at least two better levels of play than your current game, so I would be careful falling into the rut of complacency that you are playing well, but running bad. Playing poorly and running bad are often both related factors in losing. It's better to focus on the playing poorly (fixable) than the running bad (unfixable).

fellipedepaula 6 years, 5 months ago

Hi Tyler Forrester ,
Thanks for noticing how open I am to critique. Perhaps I'm wrong when I assumed I'm already playing good poker. I didn't want to sound arrogant. I'm willing to give everything to learn this game. The feedback I'm getting from my post is really opening my eyes.

I'm definitely going to watch some preflops and then blinds videos. Seems like this the the biggest leak I need to focus at this moment.

thanks

Jeff_ 6 years, 5 months ago

I watched few minutes too closer to end. For me seems like you play too fast, that's not ideal as long as your game aren't on good level. Don't know about rake, but as Tyler Forrester said I suggest to work on preflop. Saw some folds T9o SBvsBB, autofold K3s from BB, and folding KQo from button (when maybe sometimes we can squeeze)

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