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.





Sunday 24 July 2011

Stars results so far, signs of improvement


I must begin this post with a large disclaimer: I'm enjoying a heater and these results will be positively skewed. Never the less, I think I'm playing well and certainly profitably.

I've begun playing more loosely just recently in an effort to make a little more money from the raise/c-bet set up. It's only a small change but seems to have added to my win rate. I have also been trying to plan my hands better and I've an example coming later on. I think this is something that comes with practise; the more hands I put in the stronger I feel that I'm getting. By planning I mean that once I see a flop with my given hand I'll be deciding exactly how I'm going to continue based on what cards turn. As a simple example if I choose to check raise a hand on the flop, I will only do so if I can credibly barrel a ton of cards on the turn. I like to choose at least 20 cards usually unless my opponent folds to a lot of check raises.

Here is a hand I played recently:

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $0.25(BB) Replayer Game#64914430683

Gryko13 ($22.04)
HenriMorgan ($10)
PbI6AKPS ($9)
FELIPSON ($19.65)
Gselweckle ($46.39)
OSELDONKEY ($25)
hfly0313 ($14.71)
abrar08 ($25.65)
Hero ($28.40)

Gryko13 posts (SB) $0.10
HenriMorgan posts (BB) $0.25

Dealt to Hero 7d Ad
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold,
abrar08 raises to $0.75
Hero calls $0.75
fold, fold,

Well my opponent was a regular who played on the tighter more passive side. He was stealing a decent amount of the time from the cut off so calling with Ad7d was pretty clear in my opinion, we have tons of equity with our hand against his range. 3-betting and bagging the preflop equity would still have been profitable though.

FLOP ($1.85) 9s 5d Th

abrar08 bets $1.25
Hero calls $1.25

The flop misses us completely but I think that often we have enough equity to call a flop bet against a wide cut off range. There are also tons of scare cards on the turn that we can bluff with against a double barrel. I decided that facing that second bet I would raise a 6, 7, 8 or heart for 21/47 possible turns to bluff raise and I've also got three ace outs that will very often give me the best hand. I definitely think that I would be flatting a set on this flop to a c-bet against a cut off range so I can certainly credibly represent a set or straight if any of those cards come in. This is the planning that I was talking about earlier. I'll never run a bluff any more without using it unless villain has shown a clear tendency to fold facing aggression.

TURN ($4.35) 9s 5d Th 8s
abrar08 bets $2.25
Hero raises to $6.75
abrar08 calls $4.50

One of our planned bluff outs comes in so I pull the trigger. I expected a decent amount of folds but when he calls - as a tight passive type of opponent - I'd narrow him down to over-pairs or draws. I think on this draw heavy board his sets and straights would almost always instantly ship so I've managed to narrow his range quite a bit. A hand like JJ would make tons of sense in this spot, but I expect this player would call with QQ+ too.

RIVER ($17.85) 9s 5d Th 8s Kh
abrar08 checks

Now, whether we bet the river is a simple case of whether we can get enough combinations of hands to fold. If his calling range is just over-pairs - as we believe - this river is a good card to fire again on because as well as the fear of being up against a set or straight some of those hands now have to face an over card. I figured we could fold out JJ-QQ and he'd call with KK+. So we can make 12/21 hands fold, and if we bet $10-$11 then our bet has to work less than half of the time. Clearly a bet.

Hero bets $10.50
abrar08 folds
Hero shows 7d Ad (I didn't actually show, Hold 'em Manager bug?)

Hero wins $16.97

Everything works out as I planned. Sometimes we'll run into hands in that spot, but the fact that we constructed a logical plan that was backed up by expected value maths makes a huge difference. In the past I'd just play strong draws and pairs and fold everything else. Good players play hands like this, and while I'm not saying I'm a good player, I'm certainly becoming better. GL

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