Welcome

Hello all, welcome to my online poker blog.

I've been playing on and off for a decade after being introduced by a friend.

I played regularly for a few years during the poker boom and had a decent record at the micros, particularly Rush and Zoom No Limit Hold'em games (here's one of my graphs).

Around 2012 I began a new career which involved immersing myself completely in study in my spare time, so I had little to no time for poker. However recently this burden has eased and so I have been gradually dipping back in.

I'm an amateur player who still hopes to some day beat the rake.





Wednesday 6 April 2011

The Next Step 2

Last blog post I spoke about a video series over at Cardrunners that used to be up on Stox poker by a theorist called Matthew Janda. He has released several series now and in my humble opinion they are world class. Maths oriented maybe, but very important for understanding range based concepts. Anyway, the preflop material is no less awesome than the other videos I have watched in the last year. Get a subscription if you want to improve - I have no affiliation and gain nothing by this plug.

Some of the leaks that are now glaringly obvious in my game:
- I do not defend my opening ranges enough versus 3-bets (kind of knew this anyway but didn't realise quite how much I should have been playing back versus the aggro regs who have been exploiting me)
- Knowing how much an opener must defend his range and also that 99% of players at the micros do not defend enough means that I'm not 3-betting nearly enough from each and every position - 3-betting prints money!
- I'm playing way too nittily in the blinds versus loose CO and button opens
This is not all, but I think these three are the biggest. These things may not make much sense but it's all explained in the videos I plugged earlier if curiosity gets the better of you.

I don't think I'm going to play any hands until Sunday. I'm going to use the time I have between now and then to begin to reconstruct my preflop strategy using my new knowledge. I anticipate that these changes - much like a change in swing in golf or a bowling action in cricket - will take time to get used to. Given that post flop play is crucial I'm likely to suffer in win rate at first because I'll be playing more hands without the initiative. However, in the long run I think I'll have built a much stronger sturdier preflop strategy; one that should cope with the increased aggression that I'll surely face once I get to the higher limits. I'm really excited about poker again, for the first time in a few months. Like a kid with a new toy. GL!

No comments:

Post a Comment