Waffelhaendler

Hello Henry,

thanks for your Videos. U talk about a rakeback challenge in the beginning. Is that still possible to do? If yes how can I sign up?

Best Regards

Hey Onkleb,

First of all thank you for sharing your results here, it is great to see what WR is possible.

A few posts ago you mentioned you committed fully to the poker detox approach. I have absorbed the vids on the youtube channel and found them to be very helpful/inspiering. My question is how did you commit to the methodology? Did u buy some of the products or join a cfp? Feels impossible to lern this MDA approach trial and erroring my way through.

Best Regards

Alright quick update:
I looked at the 1k biggest hands of my sample and basically the leaks I already mentioned confirmed to be the biggest ones also the order in which I put them is from most severe to least severe.
The first leak (calling too much in big river spots) was relatively easy to confirm, as the ratio of won pots to lost pots after bluffchatching in those spots was way out of line (obv considering that I dont have to win often in most spots) so I am definitely losing the most there.
The next leak took a little bit of extra work because I could not tell just from the start, if I am confirmation biased when I look at a few bluffs that went wrong to assume I am bluffing too much. So I filtered for all the bet bet bet spots and then only looked at bluffs I took this line with and then also discounted bluffs I was very certain of them being good ones. So I was left with the bluffs where I have a decent degree of uncertainty. I just added all the river bets I spewed away vs all the pots I won with the line and came to a ratio of 3:1 which in turn was confirmation for me that this is also a big leak.
Now one might say these bluffs will also generate some EV in the value lines I take, because people will call me down more, and while I think might be true to an extent, I dont think it will make up for a ratio that bad. If I can get theres numbers to a ratio of 2:1 or even close to 1:1 I will still be reasonably aggressive and probably yield an overall higher winrate.

I am also aware of the degree of subjectivity which is imbedded into this post, but for now thats all I got for now in terms of empirical data so I will just go with it and see if I have to adjust along the way.

I was able to wake up at 6 am everyday and took an icebath the last 3 days. This morning I felt a bit sick so I decided not to go in the morning. Since I am already feeling better I might go later that day. Just forgot to mention once I feel sick I obv wont go into the river until I am healthy again.

Regards

Waffel

Alright I think its time to formulate some goals, as I took an icebath this morning in the river next to my house I was thinking, this might me a very nice catalyst to install self dicipline into my life. Also it just makes me sharp and resilient looking at the health side of things. So I decided I am going to take an icebath 30 days in a row and I will report at least weekly how that goes.

As far as poker goes, my plan is to maily focus on studying as I have almost completely neglected it grinding through the limits.
Basically I will just plow through the 3k biggest pots of my 120k hand sample and see which leaks I can spot. Then I will write them out here, priorotize and then study each of them individually.

I will just formulate those as I go and then add to it if I spot more leaks. Probably most of them will be repetitive and as I am writing this I already could spot a view leaks which most likely will be to most prodominant ones. So if I recognize after 1k hands or so that I dont come across new leaks I will just stop and head over the prioritization and prefention side.

Leaklist:

• calling with bluffcatchers spots that dont get bluffed enough to justify my call
• trying to bully people off strong holdings
• calling 3 and 4bets too wide
• 3betting too wide

Alright thats it for now

Here are the goals for this week:

• getting up at 6am and taking an icebath everyday
• analyzing 200 hands everyday
• posting my findings and results here

Best regards

Waffel

After reading over a view different inspiering blogs here and also studying for days I decided its time to step up my game and go all in. This means I am going to use this platform to document and share more of my progression as a player.

It seems to me that this might be a time in my life where if I make the right decisions I can be able to obtain a huge paradigm shift in my life.
When I say that I dont just mean in terms of finance but mostly in the way I go about things, the diligence, humility and dedication with which I approach things and the positive consequences this behavious should result in.
Thats why I am sitting here writing this first blogpost which is me opening up a little bit.

My progression so far is that I managed to establish myself at 200z on stars. The first 100k hands I was not even profitable and as it looks for now I am not even sure whether I am on a big heater or not.
I must say the first 90k hands or so were mostly played 3 or 4 tabeling which I had to learn time and again I am just not made for. It amazes me everytime how I'm just not able to see how bad I play once I go into this button clicking mode.
Another big leak in my game still is the weird maybe theoretically justifiable but in reality almost never profitable call on the river vs overbet x/r or raise. Its just ridiculous the amout of cash I was able to spew away in that manner, or in other words how high my winrate could be if that would not happen.
As for now I am trying to get to the bottom of why I am acting or self sabotaging in that way because I definitly was able to observe myself saying to myself "this is a fold" whilst clicking the call button. Also I tend to not think about things and just act within secounds when this happens.
So I guess I am trying to sythesize a strategy which makes me able to deal with the problem in an applicable way. Watching the poker detox videos on youtube helped a ton.
Im almost convinced that this is connected to some sort of selfsabotage issue.

For the next 2 weeks or so I will deicate myself just to the detection of leaks and to strategy development to fix those leaks.
In my opinion a clear detection is the key because I used to just look at the top layer of the problem which in that case would be "calling to marginal in big riverspots facing massive aggression" without realizing that this probably is in a lot of ways revealing heaps of information about my compulsive personality or trust issues and so on.

Having found that methodology it turely a blessing for me and although for now I am still surrounded by loads of unknown terretory, just knowing which terretory to study and take a look gives me some sort of joyful attitute.

So I guess I ll end this post with a statement of gratefullness for the chance this game gives me to be confronted in a deep introspecitve manner constantly and to offer the possibility to learn and grow from this.

Results 200z so far

I want to explore more of these Mental game leaks which transition into actual tecnical leaks and I will document my progression here.
I wont be able to play for the next 2 weeks or so, so Im just going to dedicate a lot of time and energy into studying.

For the next post I will outline a clearer goal structure for the following months.

Best regards

Waffel

Wow I just stumbled upon that blog it is really inspering to see your progression.

It amazes me to see hard work and diligence pay off.

Congratz buddy

Hey Guys
I dont know if it is the right place here to ask but I would like to study and exchange a little bit about the game. My current stake is 200nl and I am beating it for ~ 3.3bb/100.
If you are roughly in the same ballpark and would like to study together or exchange feel free to PM me. I will obv then share all my stats on HEM etc.

Regards Waffel

Graph

Sorry, seems like im unable to upload the pic directly with good quality.

Well I guess i changed my approach in 3 and 4b pots a bit as to leaving early or following through more on my bluffs... this is a huge overgeneralization btw but if I had to point out a specific tendency that would be it.

I cashed out 5k now and im trying to move up to 200nl asap

Regards

Waffel

Just for completion

Loved your analysis. This is clearly the kind of videos I d like to see more of.
Really looking forward to more of the 6max hands.
As far as implementing strategies like overbetting overpairs oop on the flop (which we saw in the last two examples) I d be curious to see how a narrow range like that would navigate on turns which are particularly scary for oop.
I d much appreciate you elaborating on these parts of the game tree as well.
Thanks a lot for the great work u put out!

Love the depth and explanation of your thought process
Thanks a lot!!

Update:
Graph
First big upswing then big downswing, not really happy with my game also a little concerned about my redline, all in all still acceptable.
@ Gohan14: the 2,5k was ment to be at 50z, at 100z it would be 5k... still some way to go

Regards

Waffel

Graph

Everything is going fine so fary although I am still playing far from optimal...
Not really sure what else to say, finally im rolled for the limit thats a good thing I suppose.

If there is interest in further hand discussion I am happy to post those.

Best regards

Waffel

Hand 1:

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.50/$1.00 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/32cfzyS/r

UTG: $223.69 (224 bb)
MP: $100.50 (101 bb)
CO: $155.41 (155 bb)
BU: $306.26 (306 bb)
SB: $100.50 (101 bb)
BB (Hero): $135.78 (136 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with 3♦ A♦
1 fold, MP raises to $2.51, CO calls $2.51, BTN calls $2.51, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to $15, MP 4-bets to $27.49, 2 players fold, Hero calls $12.49

Flop: ($60.50) 5♠ 4♣ 2♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $73.01 (all-in), Hero calls $73.01

Turn: ($206.52) 3♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($206.52) 7♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $206.52 (Rake: $2.50)

Showdown:
MP mucks
BB (Hero) mucks 3♦ A♦ (a straight, Ace to Five)
MP wins $102
BB (Hero) wins $102.02

Hand 2:
PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.50/$1.00 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/124Aqehmm/r

UTG: $101.39 (101 bb)
MP: $103.44 (103 bb)
CO: $119.63 (120 bb)
BU (Hero): $121.83 (122 bb)
SB: $129.62 (130 bb)
BB: $102.98 (103 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with Q♠ Q♥
3 players fold, Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, BB 3-bets to $12, Hero calls $9

Flop: ($24.50) 9♦ 5♥ 9♥ (2 players)
BB bets $7.92, Hero raises to $20.83, BB calls $12.91

Turn: ($66.16) 7♥ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($66.16) 8♠ (2 players)
BB bets $22.50, Hero calls $22.50

Total pot: $111.16 (Rake: $2.50)

Showdown:
BB shows K♠ 9♣ (three of a kind, Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 29%, Flop: 88%, Turn: 77%, River: 100%)

BU (Hero) mucks Q♠ Q♥ (two pair, Queens and Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 71%, Flop: 12%, Turn: 23%, River: 0%)

BB wins $108.66

Just a bit of wining today :)

I swiched to 100z and stopped 4tabeling. I feel like playing only 2 tables with more focus at 100nl is overall the better choice. As for now I am not exactly rolled for this limit but we ll see how it goes.
Maybe this blog is coming to an abrupt end because of that decision.

Hand 1:
PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.50/$1.00 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/52cfwe5/r

UTG: $161.01 (161 bb)
MP (Hero): $668.09 (668 bb)
CO: $122.57 (123 bb)
BU: $35.83 (36 bb)
SB: $111.69 (112 bb)
BB: $244.46 (244 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP with 7♥ 6♥
1 fold, Hero raises to $2.50, 3 players fold, BB 3-bets to $9.78, Hero calls $7.28

Flop: ($20.06) J♣ 5♠ 4♣ (2 players)
BB bets $9.53, Hero calls $9.53

Turn: ($39.12) T♦ (2 players)
BB bets $25.29, Hero raises to $60.50, BB folds

Not exactly sure if this combo is too loose as a raise but i suposse it should be fine. In retrospect I d like to have picked a slightly bigger sizing.

Hand 2:
PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.50/$1.00 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/12cfwf7/r

UTG: $116.20 (116 bb)
MP: $80.16 (80 bb)
CO: $86.59 (87 bb)
BU (Hero): $220.03 (220 bb)
SB: $257.34 (257 bb)
BB: $121.56 (122 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with K♦ Q♠
3 players fold, Hero raises to $3, SB 3-bets to $12, 1 fold, Hero calls $9

Flop: ($25) 2♠ 7♦ 6♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7.84, SB calls $7.84

Turn: ($40.68) J♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $28.99, SB calls $28.99

River: ($98.66) T♦ (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $72.12, SB folds

This Hand just seems too agressive especially on the turn I suppose...

Gonna change the title now ;)

Fair point thist might really be one of the few boards I d like to go for a bigger sizing in MWPs.

Ok first hand I was really unsure on the river here whether i am good 25% of the time here dont really know. I think in retrospective should have played a mixed strategy on this board instead of blindly rangebetting it. This combo then would be close between betting and checking but I suppose I d still go for bet mostly... Could be convinced otherwise though

PokerStars Zoom, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/224AeJ2q5/r

UTG: $50.74 (101 bb)
MP: $51.11 (102 bb)
CO: $60.16 (120 bb)
BU: $47.64 (95 bb)
SB (Hero): $52.77 (106 bb)
BB: $61.20 (122 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with A♠ K♦
UTG raises to $1.75, 3 players fold, Hero 3-bets to $6.75, 1 fold, UTG calls $5

Flop: ($14) 5♥ 9♠ Q♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $4.39, UTG calls $4.39

Turn: ($22.78) K♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $12.98, UTG calls $12.98

River: ($48.74) T♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $26.62 (all-in), Hero calls $26.62

Second hand I opend wider because lots of funplayer on this specific table

PokerStars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.25/$0.50 - 6 players
Replay this hand on Pokeit - https://pokeit.co/public/42cftbD/r

UTG (Hero): $91.71 (183 bb)
MP: $50.00 (100 bb)
CO: $44.81 (90 bb)
BU: $51.49 (103 bb)
SB: $97.73 (195 bb)
BB: $127.72 (255 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG with 9♦ Q♦
Hero raises to $1.12, 1 fold, CO calls $1.12, 2 players fold, BB calls $0.62

Flop: ($3.61) 2♥ Q♠ 9♠ (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.13, CO calls $1.13, BB raises to $4.47, Hero calls $3.34, CO calls $3.34

Turn: ($17.02) 9♥ (3 players)
BB bets $8.25, Hero calls $8.25, CO calls $8.25

River: ($41.77) 5♠ (3 players)
BB bets $21, Hero raises to $77.87 (all-in), CO calls $30.97 (all-in), BB folds

Reviewing my hands I notice loads of leaks in my game. Still due to the relatively soft pool it seems to be beatable.

Thanks a lot for that inspiration!
I was wondering wether you have run a similar sim in SRP and also wether the EV loss with the simplified strategy is significantly lower in those spots?
I would assume the EV difference in 3BPs is so insignificant mostly because the SPR is so low compared to SRPs. So in 3BPs differences in betsizing dont impact later streets as much in terms of being able to get all the money in if required.
I d be very happy to be wrong though.