100nl 6m: Finally some run good!

I've been running really substandard in my 100nl 6max shots so far, plus I think I've been a little spewy in the 3bet/4bet/5bet wars and I'm trying to cut that out and it seemed to help a lot today lol. Not so surprisingly a little patience goes a long way against people that don't like to fold much and like to play back a little more.

I mean, "they're not playing back at you" yeah. But in terms of what they are willing to play back at you with becomes wider since they game is probably 3x more aggressive than 50nl 6max imo. It's not really playing back at you when they have a draw and choose to semi-bluff rather than c/c. That's just standard better play.

Some highlights from today:

Terrible looking "shortstack" table I know, but these aren't shortstacks, they're just 40/10's that ran out of money. My auto-post blind is turned off. Setmine FTW.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 333978
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $20.50
SB: $171.40
BB: $153.65
Hero (UTG): $101.60
MP: $22.75
CO: $20.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with 6 6
Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, CO calls $3, BTN raises to $8.50, SB calls $8, 1 fold, Hero calls $5.50, CO raises to $20 all in, BTN raises to $20.50 all in, SB calls $12, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($82.50) 5 6 3 (4 players - 2 are all in)
SB bets $8, Hero raises to $81.10 all in, SB calls $73.10

Turn: ($244.70) 3 (4 players - 3 are all in)

River: ($244.70) 7 (4 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: $244.70
BTN shows K A (a pair of Threes)
SB shows 8 8 (two pair, Eights and Threes)
Hero shows 6 6 (a full house, Sixes full of Threes)
CO shows J T (a pair of Threes)
Hero wins $162.20
Hero wins $1.50
Hero wins $78.00
(Rake: $3.00)

This hand was pretty standard but gives you and idea of "not playing back" hand ranges that I tend to see a lot with a slightly higher than average 3bet/4bet %. He's playing completely correctly in stacking off according to my range imo lol except it should be pre.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 333982
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $242.50
BB: $104.00
UTG: $98.50
MP: $26.95
Hero (CO): $117.35
BTN: $104.85

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with Q Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $3, 1 fold, SB raises to $10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $30, SB calls $20

Flop: ($61.00) 6 7 Q (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $35.50, SB calls $35.50

Turn: ($132.00) 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $51.85 all in, SB calls $51.85

River: ($235.70) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $235.70
SB shows J J (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
Hero shows Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Sevens)
Hero wins $232.70
(Rake: $3.00)

25nl Full Ring Video Series Ideas

I'm going to be doing a 25nl Full Ring series on Best Free Poker Coaching over the next few weeks and need some ideas. If there's anything you'd like to see, leave a comment and I'll try to incorporate it into one of the videos. I'll be starting off with some pretty basic stuff and hopefully move into slightly more advanced topics towards the end.

Some concepts I'm thinking about covering:

The 3 Advantages
Player Tendencies and Hand Selection
Isolation, Cbetting and Texture
Bet Sizing
Basic hand reading
Equity and Aggression

Each subsequent video will build on the concepts of the last and my goal is to provide an overall framework for how to turn the 25nl Full Ring game into your personal ATM =)

I'll keep this post updated as I think of more topics I want to cover.

New Full Ring Coaching Site

There seems to be a lot of demand and short supply of Full Ring NLHE video content and Best Free Poker Coaching is going to be a great resource for this. I joined the other 7 coaches there and we will be making full ring videos and offering coaching. These guys are just amazing and I've learned a ton from them so make sure you check it out. There's some great deals too like gift cards and licenses to Poker Tracker 3 or Holdem Manager with the purchase of package deals.

I've been looking to get into coaching for a while now and this is the perfect opportunity for me and I think making videos will be a lot of fun and help me improve my own game as well.

Other than that I've been playing a good mix of full ring, 6max as well as getting into some PLO 6max which I find extremely fun to play and so much more complex in a lot of ways. It's nice to keep things fresh with a number of different games that I can beat and I'm starting to see equity and play making spots in some games that are more common in others.

Put in a nice 6 tabling session of PLO25 today and ran pretty well: +7 buyins over 700 hands. I decided to purchase the HEM Omaha addon yesterday and I'm using my NLHE HUD but I'm not really sure that it's all that useful beyond identifying fish via VPIP as per usual. Air is so minimal from 99% of the players that I've encountered so far and I guess that's expected in a game that's about making the nuts with a redraw to the nuts.

I started off with some really fishy stats of 38/17 and was cold calling 33% - I don't know for sure if this is fishy or not and have no idea what "standard" is. But I'm starting to notice a lot more good spots to isolate and I'm starting to understand the preflop equity a bit more so those numbers are slowly merging - I'm now running 35/23 but still have no idea if this is proper strat or not. I'm going to see how much of this game I can figure out on my own, it's a good complicated math problem.

The rest of the month has been a bit of a roller coaster... er... make that 2 way escalator, of winning money at my regular game, taking shots, running sub-standard during shots, repeat - but I'm still happy with the results as I'm learning quite a bit during my shot taking sessions.

So yeah, make sure you check out Best Free Poker Coaching and all the coaches there!

Tired... but I just have to post this hand

Trapaments gone wrong.

I'm super tired right now, it's 3:30am here but I feel the need to brag a little after I loled really hard on the turn and into the next orbit. 50nl 6max deep effective stacks. This guy is running 58/40 with 15% 3bet and I've just been waiting to pounce (again). I'm obviously going for a flop c/r with the intention of getting it in on the flop. He decides to get trappy instead.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 317903
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $62.75
BTN: $74.95
Hero (SB): $85.75
BB: $98.85
UTG: $51.90

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with T K
3 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, BB raises to $3.50, Hero calls $2

Flop: ($7.00) J 2 Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($7.00) A (2 players)
Hero bets $6, BB raises to $95.35 all in, Hero lols $76.25 all in

River: ($171.50) K (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $171.50
Hero shows T K (a straight, Ten to Ace)
BB shows J J (three of a kind, Jacks)
Hero wins $169.50
(Rake: $2.00)

October so far

My far better than average beginning of the month shows no signs of slowing down for NLHE FR. I'm back playing a ton of FR and making the move up to 100 a lot more often and an insanely high winrate at 50nl to help supplement me.

I've noticed a lot of new regs at 50nl and it's fun getting reads on new people and having to take extra notice at their lines and ranges. It's kind of funny that I've been playing looser at FR than I was at 6max. I'm not sure what the reason behind that is but I imagine that I am seeing a lot more opportunities to value bet and take pots away from people postflop and therefore I'm playing more and more hands in position. Having a lot of fun too that way - making myself play as close to optimal as possible and finding the most +EV lines based on numerous variables.

I have been throwing in some Omaha off and on trying to learn that game and I think I've got the basic strat pretty much nailed down. Running amazingly terrible there right now though:

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 316532
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $27.70
UTG: $38.60
MP: $103.60
CO: $11.90
BTN: $52.45
Hero (SB): $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with 7 A 6 A 67% Equity
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, BTN raises to $2.25, Hero raises to $7.75, 2 folds, BTN calls $5.50

Flop: ($16.50) 5 8 6 (2 players) 69% Equity

Hero bets $15.70, BTN calls $15.70

Turn: ($47.90) J (2 players) 82% Equity

Hero bets $26.55 all in, BTN calls $26.55

River: ($101.00) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $101.00
BTN shows 8 K K 9 (a straight, Five to Nine)
Hero shows 7 A 6 A (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
BTN wins $98.00
(Rake: $3.00)

villain says, "had to try"

People are amazingly bad at this game and I think it's going to be super profitable. Unfortunately I'm down 6 buyins total due to running into these kinds of beats over and over - longterm this is going to be a huge money maker.

September

September turned out to be my best month ever after bonuses. I'm starting to consistently put together some big sessions day after which is nice compared to putting in only a couple of nice heaters a month. Getting more and more of a handle on my preflop and postflop game and working hard on merging them into a cohesive overall strategy.

I'm looking to start beating 100nl+ 6max in October. I've had an incredibly rough time there so far both running way below expectation and getting outplayed badly by a lot of people. I'm thinking that's going to change shortly and my work should start paying off. Hopefully after this month I won't be looking back.

I'm up to 80k hands of 6max so far and still loving it. I'm mixing in some FR here and there but I'm using those sessions more as experimental sessions to try out some lines since I can sit around and wait for hands and pick my spots more judiciously without having to worry about spending much on blinds.

So yeah, learning lots of new stuff like always. Feels like trying to get over that hill of skill and understanding table dynamic for small stakes right now - a lot like how it took me a lot of shots to beat 50nl last year. I don't think it'll take me nearly as long to figure it out this time, skill sets tend to grow at an exponential rate ime.


Favorite hand of the day: I'm trying out some SLOB (steal limps out of the blinds). Hand has almost no postflop value most of the time OOP but I can win weak limps and can take down pots with cbets if I steal. Flop looks about as good as it gets for me with small top pair and back door flush draw so I cbet enough intending to call the shortstack if he shoves (he has $12 left) and not wanting to freeze up the betting if he does. The turn onwards was supposed to be a give-up but then I said, "Well, I do have some showdown value and 'lol-pot-odds' on a wet board..."

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 308544
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $50.00
UTG: $15.75
MP: $16.15
CO: $87.95
BTN: $48.50
SB: $50.00

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with K 6
UTG calls $0.50, 3 folds, SB calls $0.25, Hero raises to $3, UTG calls $2.50, SB calls $2.50

Flop: ($9.00) 3 4 6 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $6, UTG calls $6, SB calls $6

Turn: ($27.00) 9 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets $2.50, SB calls $2.50, Hero calls $2.50

River: ($34.50) 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets $4.25 all in, SB calls $4.25, Hero calls $4.25

Final Pot: $47.25
Hero shows K 6 (two pair, Sixes and Threes)
UTG shows 7 J (a pair of Threes)
SB shows 5 5 (two pair, Fives and Threes)
Hero wins $45.00
(Rake: $2.25)

And October's off to a decent start (understatement):