Regularblue

Henry Lister

Stars has a switch to BB function:

Flop: Your printing in most occasions if you bet 1/2 pot +, flop is pretty wet and hits OOP calling range relatively well, you want to be charging draws and gaining more value from weaker. I wouldn't be too concerned about check raises, i imagine villain has a clear incentive to XR here a bunch due to the ranges, therefore your going to get more value from a high frequency bluffing range if you bet bigger.

Turn: Check is fine given the diamond in your hand, i'm actually not too sure what the best play here is, but my guess is that mixing checks and some value bets is decent.

River: Good fold, interesting about the sim you ran on villain leading river Vs a turn check back, i think this makes a bunch of sense given villains range is super Ax dense, leading toward all AJ, AQ, AK combos getting to river in a scenario where you check or bet turn. I'd be interesting in seeing sims on differing villain bet sizes on the river, e.g how often your calling here vs 1/2 pot, etc.

Jae Kim Great content, i'm interested to get your opinion on how you would approach things playing part time. I'm working in a FT job, so only play weekends + same rare evenings.

The concept of bigger ROI's in larger field tournaments is clearly super important to increasing overall potential profits, however, given that more players/tables in a tournament generally equals greater short term variance, its difficult for low-mid volume player to realise there true ROI within a decent time frame (without sun running).

And on the other side of the coin, smaller field tournaments have a higher reg to recreational player ratio, so this also naturally impacts potential ROI, and since ROI is going to be lower, variance is going to increase although i'm unsure if it increases to the same level as seen with higher ROI's in larger field MTTs....?

I'm currently trying to build a healthy bankroll again to get out of low stakes whilst using this time to refresh + improve upon some lost skills since having an extended break from poker. Lack of pure skill + natural variance makes for some motivational swings.

If you were in my shoes, what field type would you veer toward and why?

Any discussion and or advice is super appreciated!

Hey,

I'd say for the most part BTN onward is not going to be calling you super wide regardless of the stakes, unless they are super loose or the original shove has a large bounty over their head, or your seen as a bit of a maniac for any past plays that went to showdown. Analysing this spot is going to be easier and pretty sufficient if we just give BTN onward standard over-calling ranges Vs your shove, which will be in the region of 5.5-6.5%, so around AQo+, 99+, and possibly making BB calling range a bit wider at 77 or 88+.

Assuming you are pushing with something similar to the below, maybe a bit tighter given that your cover by 2/3 people on your left

& Original jam from MP2/HJ is aroudn 24% so somethign like any suited Ax, A7o+. any pair, K8s+, T9s+, KTo, etc. For your rejam range to be profitibable, chip EV wise (not considering any ICM factors), should look something similar to the below, making AJo a snap rejam winning on average 1BB. There are some future game considerations, around how deep you are ITM or if this is on any form of bubble you would want to tighten up to avoid making ICM -$EV mistakes. However, in a standard scenario not considering any of that, not getting all your chips in the middle is losing you money in the long run.

Hopefully the above helps, but as always its going to be villain range dependant in terms of the original shove, and how wide the rest of the players on your left are going to overcall.

Post deleted some comments on the images :| - comments in order of image below:

1) CO villain push range at 2.1%, excluding KK/AA]

2) Hero ICM $EV calling range Vs 2.1% push range

3) If we up villain to a 2.6% push range, with a dash of AJ at 5-10%, add in 88 10%, KK and AA at approx 5-10% and AQ is jamming about 15% more than the previous run - We are still negative ICM $EV, with QQ just about being borderline

4)Villain needs to be shoving approx 12% in order to make JJ a bordeline profitable call

5) Hero call range ICM$EV+ Vs 12% villain push range]

+1 GeeTeeOh mentioning HRC & ICMIZER, the latter only gives 1 run a day for free atm i think. Either software is handsdown with investing in if your looking at long term development and success in MTT's. I prefer ICMIZER mainly because the UI is a bit cleaner and its generally quicker and crunching the calcs, however thats just one guys opinion so i'd advise you watch some review vids on YT, etc. I know Owen Shiels uses HRC on a fair few of his RIO vids.

I've tried to help out with an example below, albeit I dont have all the info needed, e.g what position was villian in (to build a semi accurate jamming range range), other stack sizes of 4-6th position, etc so I've just made some assumptions on stack sizes below. This should be close enough to give you a better understanding of the situation, however, its super dependant on villains pushing range, with 50BB you can pretty much assume they aren't straight shipping KK/AA. The below images depict the percentages i've used in terms of how often villain jams QQ (30% jam, the other 70% would be a 3bet not allin), and other parts of their range, obviously all guesstimates, but playing around with these fugues is what will enable you to understand when your should call or fold in these or similar scenarios Vs different range types.

Other factors to consider are, your assumed edge on the table, is it a turbo and how soon are your going to run down to 30bb or less if you blind away, etc. However 53bb stack on FT with a general stack distribution will generally lead to a call here being relatively negative $EV

If we start including AA & KK in villains jamming range (which isn't unreasonable at this buy in level) a call here would be pretty cataclysmically -$EV

Hi David,

Interesting! I'm in a pretty similar situation to you, I was a pro MTT player for a few years between 2012-2014ish and then switched to 6max cash before leaving the scene in around 2015 or so, after thinking about long term life scenarios,etc I decided to kick it in. I'm now working full time, but for the past month I've been back grinding MTTs on weekends, it feels fun again, which is something that I lost in the latter days of playing for a living. So that alone is a great feeling, especially in these super weird times! Plus the tournament scene is pretty week given the influx of rec players the current situation has brought about + it's SCOOP season 😁

Would definitely be up for syncing, drop me a DM if your interested to chat.

In terms of software it's a whole new world, I'm used to the days of sngwiz, pokerstove and equilabs. Since getting back to the game I've subbed to ICMIZER, which has proven to be super useful for all things preflop.

Glgl!

woops was a typo, but I was still referring to QJo, never being a fold pre here 

7-9 hours about 5-6 days a week. I play Ipoker speed games (zoom variant), so volume in hand terms is around 120-150K/month.

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1. Definitely do not force yourself to play when you don't feel like it. However, your low volume issue is clearly directly related to this. So firstly you need to work on your mental game. I advice you to read and or/listen to the work of Tommy Angelo and Jared Tendler, either the 'mental game of poker' or 'eight fold path to poker enlightenment' for starters. Try to implement at least some of the ideas they propose.

2. Create weekly goals along with a schedule/plan and try you best to stick to this when possible, I know it sounds a bit silly and slightly negates the freedom of being a professional poker player. Although it is certain that in our current 'poker climate' without setting plans and goals, you will be highly unlikely to reach the level you wish. In essence 'Treat your game like you would treat a business'.

3. *This one is very important*. Take regular short breaks; try getting off the grind chair and taking a quick walk and/or stretching, this will refresh you body and mind, and, in turn increase your ability to focus at the tables. Whilst also decreasing the chances of 'burn out'. 

I personally use this app Pomodairo it is free and works very well. It also allows you to track your productivity in terms of hours working along with accounting for interruptions. So you can then put this data into a spread sheet, so you can save you progress and see exactly how much you have missed your targets.

Hero is probably opening 50%+ on the Btn, and villain 3betting 11%. There is no way to you can fold QJs preflop, unless hero is opening very tight on the Btn.

Flop is obviously a call, not much else to say or do.

Turn, villain now continues to barrel any offsuit combo with Kh, oesd's and possibly any gutshot + heart combo. So again we cant fold here, especially given the fact that we have the Qh (however, this does reduce villains bluffing combos).

River is not good for your range, as you lighely fold 9T on the turn. KT wihtout a heart more than likely gets mucked on the flop or turn. Whereas villain still has all of these combos well in his range. Including more combos of JJ (i assume you 4bet gii more often than not), and obviously AA.

Coupled with the fact you mentioned you are a staion (no offence, but it likely means your WTSD% is high) so villain is less likely to fire all his highcard bluff combos on the river.

So i see river as a fold. 

You can get about 90%-100%+ rakeback playing on Ipoker and some ongame sites.

Go through DonkR

They are a really decent afilliate company with very good deals. 

Goodluck :) 

You are relatively deep, villain is capped, on a turn that hits your flop calling range pretty well, and overall the board favours your range over an MP open. 

I would over bet turn to like $16-$20, leaving you with a slight over bet or pot size bet on the river, jamming any board pair, any heart, 5, 2, 3 or 9.

Depends on villains WTSD tendencies, if he wont get away from over pairs then, I play the hand exactly the same as you on the Turn, but probably check back river Vs a non believer. betting $13 on the river, Vs villains turn check calling range won't achieve anything, he now probably calls with any 8x+ and the hands you are trying to get to fold river either don't cbet flop or c/f Turn already the vast majority of the time, and you are laying him way too good a price given the make up of his range at this point. So I would be inclined to just check back if I don't take the over bet line on the Turn.

You had decent fold equity on the Turn to make the bet +EV, especially considering your outs and potential implies. The river card decreases your fold equity, and I don't see it as that big of a deal to check back river in a station'y player pool. Your turn bet was +EV, and the times you nail river you get paid a decent %. I would just keep it simple for the most part Vs most villains. The over bet Turn line is just food for thought, and something I employ regularly in my game Vs the right opponent. 

Yes I agree, you are playing far too underolled for tournaments of that size. When I used to play tournaments: 100 buyin downswings in 180man turbos were pretty common, and for scheduled MTT's you will need 300+ buyins to withstand the variance.

'Slow your roll' and keep your focus on building your knowledge at this point in your career, rather than your bankroll. The money will come in due time as you increase your skill level.

Choose a format that you like the most, and feel you get the most enjoyment out of, then you will be more likely to put in the required work in order to beat the game. Stick to one game variant rather than doing little bits of tournamnets and cash. Focus all of your time and energy on the format you have chosen, this will lead to the best results.

I would suggest a minimum of 50 buyins for 6max cash, possibly less if you are playing very low stakes and have a significant edge, as the variance should impact you less.

Alternating sites will not change the variance of the game, if someone has suggested this, it is purely fallacy. Though I also recommend playing on a site with a decent rakeback deal in order to help with the very highly raked micro limit games. 

I think it is 'fine'.However, you said it yourself its just unnecessary, your oponents for the most part will be passive, thus they will bet once and check turn alot unless they have you beat, therefore you can just c/c and fold to turn barrels, as there will be a decent portion of the time that villain will let you realise your equity. 

You are also facing an inherently strong range given the PFR's posistion, and villains at these stakes dont like to fold much, even one pair hands with a good. Therefore your fold equity in the hand on turn and river will be rather drastically lower than what you may percieve, and may actually make this a -EV approach to the hand.

Keep things simple and take these guys to value town, you are up against a somewhat strong range and adding unneeded variance to your game.

Have you watched this video on value betting?? if not I would advise you do so.

Value betting; Felipe

This depends on firstly on how many 8x combos are in your CO opening range, and then how many of these combos you are cbetting the flop with Vs the BB.

But yeah turn c/r turn, barrel river in this spot at these stakes is more often than just going to have you beat. BB probably has way more 8x combos in his range, especially given the stack size read indicating a weaker player, i.e. he is likely to peel a bunch of off suit 8x combos pre, and of course all the suited 8x combos.

I think over folding in this situation, especially Vs this type of villain, is going to be the best option, and don't lose sleep over being exploited, it isnt happening.

For the most part this is not something that can be taught. Strong Emotions and increased adrenaline are a natural result, produced by the body and mind when involved in what is percieved to be a high pressure situation.

Personally what helped me, was to firstly realise that this is not the only time in my life I will make a final table, so even if this one doesnt work out, I still have plenty more opportunities in the future, life is not a race afterall.

Refraining from checking the lobby every few minutes to see how much money I though I was going to win. This was a pretty big deal, stopping myself from doing this enabled me to not let the money factor sink into my thoughts and fog my thiught process as much. Instead spen your time searching players on the table, via sharkscope, and closely watching the players tendancies. Focus all your energy on player analysis, rather than 'money jump analysis'.

Every professional goes through the mental issues you described, the main thing that cures this is simply experience. The more times you hit a final table or get close to the final table bubble, the less it will effect your mindset. This is just a natural process, that we all must go through.

yeah I also use the 'watch a video' technique, I actually tend to watch atleast a part of a video everyday whilst I have breakfast and some coffee. Like you said, it is kind of like my 'warm up'. 

Yeah i can see how this can be very true. I play in a fast fold game, Ipoker speed, and winrates are far lower than on regular tables, even with players names being present. This is largely because more regulars choose to play the games, simply because you get much more volume in and in such a short period of time.

So playing in a fast fold game in a completely anonymous pool will have the negatives of more regulars and the fact you cant make any truly exploitative plays.

Not being able to stack off light on the river and/or make a hugely +EV bluff vs a villain that overfolds to river bets. These are more factors that will decrease your winrate. Along with other factors such as not being able to effectively hyper exploit opponents that are over folding Their blinds, and/or folding to 3bets too much. All these factors will greatly decrease your overall winrate.

I would highly advise you take n board arizona's advice, and stick to regular tables for now, as this period of your career should be focused mainly on learning, and if you don't have enough time to make decisions on the tables you simply wont be able to effectively implement what you have learnt during your off the table study.

$$$$ will come in time, your hourly rate will be somewhat small at these stakes anyway. So for now keep your ratio of learning far higher than playing time, if i took this advice when i started out, I most certainly would of got further/where i wanted to be in a much shorter time. I k ow the urge to play and have fun can be a big thing at the start, but you will have far more fun when you are rapidly moving up stakes because you put in a tonne more effort off the tables than any of your competitors.

Pm'd

@arizona, get involved and share your files then, hopefully we can all help each other out and improve together :)

'Getting outplayed every hand' this can easily just be the result of your opponents hitting decent run outs for their hand. We all get this feeling from time to time, though you have to realise that this can just be another form of variance in the game.

I highly doubt 10NL players in an anonymous player pool are outplaying you in every single hand, just don't stress as much about this. 

Work on your own game off the table, watch all the videos on this site for NLHE, they all will have a positive impact on your game if you take the time to study the videos rather than just sitting watching the screen. Go through the low stake forums, you will find lots of hidden gems. Of course you also need to start posting hands yourself, at first the ones you felt the most uncomfortable/lost in game.

Goodluck!

Congrats,

Just make sure you are doing the CREV work properly and making as little errors as possible and it will certainly pay off.

I am currently doing the same work, maybe you would be interested in swapping files and going over each others work to check for errors, and give each other ideas for ranges etc?? 

ok yeah, well I don't play on stars, or 500zoom. 

though I would say that you shouldn't take out 100% of these combo's, any villain is capable of changing their strategy slightly dependant on how they are running/how they feel at the time. So if you feel you have a good grasp of the player pool/villains tendancies, maybe jsut add 20/30% of these combo's into his range, because we can really never be that precise with our reads. 

This is a good example of a hand where our absolute strength is considerably different from our relative hand strength, when considering villains 3 barrel range. 

Villain is unlikely to have a balanced river value/bluffing range, you can make an exploitative fold due to this factor. 

you will make considerably more $EV 4bet gii with QQ, same goes with AK. 

could villain not turn up with 12 combos of jj-QQ and possibly some combos of KK-AA (dependant on his pre flop tendencies) ................??

This is a song that I find helps put life in perspective both when variance in life or poker negatively effects my mind set. 

Link

No idea if it has the same effect for you or others, but I just felt like sharing my 'go to'. 

Keep up with thread, very wise words. I appreciate you putting the effort into expressing your thoughts, I feel that I can relate to practically everything you have said in this thread :D.

Let the run good commence........... 

Wow thanks everyone for all your links!

I will be sure to try out most of the, and hopefully I will find some perfect tracks.

Thanks again :)