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.