Summary of play from Monday to Friday.

Summary of play from Monday to Friday.

I've put in a ton of hands, but only about 2/3 of what I thought I could. A few things come to mind.

1. The variance in all forms of poker is wider than I recall, but if anything, a little less overtly flustering. It's good to know that while I was being a lazy bum about actually playing poker I possibly acquired some patience.
2. There are many ways for my game to go off-track or look that way. Three tough hands at a time is still a bit much for me and my autopilot brain takes over. He doesn't the best decisions all the time :).
3. When you multi-table X number of tables, it shouldn't be your goal to play X tables at a time. It should be to look for and get the X best seats available. There are regs even at these limits, and they play much better than the fish.
4. Autolabeling is a neat feature and it permits me to devote more energy to labeling as many of my opponents as I can. HEM's auto-label feature is pretty good for 25NL players. I've seen a few I disagree with but not many.
5. Two barreling and three streets for value go great together, but they also require enormous precision. When I start to get overwhelmed these things lose their value. I think I left 20 bucks on the table through a combo of missing some double barrels and making a few bad ones.
6. Almost no players bluff the turn or bluff commitment on the flop in these games.
7. Bet sizing tells are everywhere.
8. Exploiting your opponents poor hand reading skills and transparent tendencies is a hugely valuable here.

In tourney's I've run face first into variance as well. And according to info I now have, the downswings I have faced will occur at a frequency of less than a few hundred games. Time to step down.

Right now, I'm putting aside a little time to play some PLO8. This game seems really intriguing to me and I've always had a blast playing split-pot games.

Lessons learned this week

1. Variance is still around
2. Aggression is killer in NL25
3. Being able to get 3 streets of value from any type of opponent is really valuable. The more opponents you have cinched, the better.
4. Knowing who does what in response to which betting lines is something that would be impossible to record for all opponents, but with a little more practice I think I'll have it.
5. Playing loads of hands creates a huge opportunity to learn and think.
6. I need to maintain focus better towards the middle of my sessions.
7. I am a long way from my previous abilities and I'm ok with that.

Objectives for next week:

1. Try for another 8k hands of 25NL minimum.
2. Try to increase aggression even more.
3. Try to get my blind defense and cold-calling IP ranges a little more precise.
4. Look at double barreling hands and how it works.
5. Get a sweat session or two in.
6. Review some more hands to look at successful and less successful non standard lines.
7. Move down in MTTs and SNGs, get aquainted with the $4-6 crowd on stars. PLay at least 3 morning or afternoon sessions.
8. Watch some Tendler stuff on improving focus and "in-game mindsets"
9. Continue watching videos and learning.
10. See whatr PLO8 is like.

3k hands.

Today's No Limit Lessons:

1)I'm too showdown happy with weak made hands.

I made three mistakes that each cost me >50% of a buy-in with marginal made hands and drawing potential.

On the first, I had AcAx in a 4-way pot with one player behind me. The board was Jc9c9d. My hand is certainly vulnerable and may be good enough to play for showdown. It certainly would benefit from some protection. But instead of betting, to bet-fold or bet-call, I chose a loose-weak strategy and check called a half-pot bet.

Two things occur to me in retrospect. (1) The villain is surely drawing or betting a second best hand and virtually any line short of open-folding or check-folding would be better than a check call here. (2) This was an easy pot-sized bet to nearly commit to the bloated pot and encourage semi-bluffing hands to shove over. If one player shoved and another called, I can fold. I think a push/call push is a little thin at 25NL, but better than a fold facing one raise behind you. People are just very weak bettors at this limit without a strong made hand.

In the second, I made a slightly loose call preflop from the BB with Axs to defend a loose and aggro players HJ raise. I flatted, and check-called second pair on a dry board. The turn completed a straight draw and gave me a flush draw. I checked and the villain bet. I thought for a bit then check raised small. Villain thought for a sec shoved over me. I should have snap-folded, but I thought there was a slight chance he was playing a worse draw.

In retrospect, the implied odds in this hand are thin and I have little fold equity. OOP against a loose and sticky opponent, I'll run into some trouble. Folding pre- should be my standard except against steal position raisers. Secondly, if I had raised larger on the turn to straight up commit to the hand, villain might have thought of my hand as much stronger.

My third hand was one where I raised in the hijack with JJ and called a tight 3bettor to spike a set with JJ. The board was 234 rainbow and I checked. The villain bet. In this case, I do think that at least calling is prudent. It's too likely that the villain would cbet the A-broadway hands in his range.

But if I had raised and the villain shoved, I had an easy fold. I'm repping a set, a big pair or AK and the villain should be scared of these with any hand worse than mine. Whether or not that's the play, I just called.

The turn brought a 7, which with the possible exception of an 8 was the safest card in the deck for my hand vs. the villain's range. I checked and the villain made a committing bet. I thought for awhile and check-raised, because I knew a call would be terrible.

In retrospect, I don't think this villain is second barreling with 88-TT ever on this board and I think AK plays scared here as well. A fold would have been better.

2) It's really hard to identify the villains who will raise light, semibluff hard, or fire additional barrels with air at 25 NL. There's folks who will do all this stuff, but fewer than my strategy hopes for. So, I just need to back off in the following ways.

a) stop being a showdown wizard.
b) Tighten up my range in EP and facing EP raises OOP.
c) Recognize and exploit good IP floating opportunities, either for cheap bluffs or good spots to valuepwn someone.
4) Ramp up my aggression even further.

My AF is nearly a point higher than it has been in the past and I think I can take it up another point.