When to tilt?

I'm serious, when is it acceptable to tilt?

You are allowed to tilt ONLY when you have become busto.


It's kind of a stupid statement but hey, we all know tilting is bad for your money. So seriously, don't tilt until after you've become busto. But you know, a lot of players struggle with tilt a lot. I've had one infamous tilt in my career and my own definition of tilt has become basically someone elses' definition of an itch. I just don't tilt in the conventional sense and I've been constantly trying to work out that "itch".

Maybe it's because I've worked with Jimmy over the summer and just repeated over and over at what I believe in. I actually absorbed it way more than he did. This sums up to how I think now:

"My bankroll is there and healthy, as long as it don't go to zero, I can still play. I just want to play and make good decisions on the table. I want to improve and my goal is to become a better player. Everything else is just artificial."

I'll also add this but I don't think about it. It'll surely help to remind others:

"I cannot control the results once my decision has been made. Good beats, bad beats, they are irrelevant and is not in my hands. Therefore I should not beat myself over it. Play for a long run, always make +ev decisions."

So who cares if I just go on 20, 30 BI downswing? I don't think about it, but I ask myself: have I been playing optimally? have I been making good decisions? If these satisfies my criteria, I'm all set. My emotions are not attached because again, I know my BR is healthy and will protect me. Hopefully in a long run more money will roll in, but I can't have any expectations other than the expectation of having the opportunity to play. And also, it's very refreshing and relieving when you are playing to improve, not for the money. I believe everyone should do that, because losing money due to bad beats or whatever you want to call it no longer bothers me. I look back at the hands, and say "hey I made the right decision!".

I still make mistakes in my sessions but it's becoming apparent that I have lots of room to improve. That's a good realization, and even if you are the best player in the world, there are still lots of room to improve. It's actually quite depressing when someone has reached the top and no one to look up to. Eventually one day, someone will just overtake your spot if you keep standing still. So play to play, don't play for the money or you'll crash and burn.

Been a while..

It's been a while I wrote a blog entry. I guess I'll leave this thought behind...

This is what almost all poker players go through at one point or another. I believe this is inevitable because one is trying to become better and do not want to end up being a dog to another player.

What I'm talking about is the notion of worrying of becoming too exploitable and having too many exploitable tendencies. You hear it all the time, "I have to 3bet this to protect my weaker/stronger holdings" or "I'll be too exploitable if I don't do X". I can guarantee that this is almost NEVER the case even against really good players who notices your tendencies. Yes, you should be somewhat mindful of the actions you take, but generally these types of thinking are not necessary to be successful.

There is an intricate balance here. If you can play in an EXTREMELY exploitable fashion yet you aren't exploited, you make the MOST amount of money. If you play in a completely unbeatable or balanced fashion, you make very little money even against terrible players. Being exploitable = more profit, balance = less profit, please don't forget that.

Part of being successful at the game is being able to adapt. As CTS has put it, you want to be one step ahead of your opponent. If your opponents think you never bluff, you need to bluff all the time. If your opponents think you are always bluffing, you need to NEVER bluff. These are both very exploitable tendencies, but you can understand why they can be extremely profitable. Table dynamics is key to the mid stakes tables. Sometimes I always 3bet/4bet bluff and never 3bet/4bet my big hands, instead always slowplay them. The reverse can easily happen also. Nobody but you knows your strategy, and as long as you know what you are doing, and that you understand your own tendencies, there is nothing to be exploited. Simply put, the game is a lot less complicated than some people make it out to be.

Coaching

I've started coaching one individual. And yes, it's for money. I definitely have a lot to offer to this student, and he has a lot to learn. Though we only started for a couple days, I already enjoy his willingness to learn. He's already a pretty solidly sound player, but he has hit a tough wall in his road. I believe a lot of poker players hit walls during their career, but the question is whether they are willing to look for a solution.

There are many reasons why I decided to take a lower stake player. I feel it's much harder to teach someone who has had bad habits already. I'm looking to teach him how to solidly think about the game and how to win against the toughest of opponents. It's going to be a challenge, because it forces me to think about what I had learned and organize it well enough to explain it to someone else.

Another reason for teaching is that it does help me in my own game. I can think even deeper past those fundamentals that I had already mastered and discover more aspects I had overlooked. As a teacher, I have pressure to make sure my student learns from me. Obviously I don't have to care since learning is his own responsibility. But I'm a perfectionist by nature and I cannot see myself half ass something that I started. Also, it really helps to have a student that is open minded and is willing to try a lot of things. He has a lot of potential and I hope to see to it that he will succeed(at least for poker).

And no, I'm not taking any more students until further notice.

Love this Post

"Here's your problem. You don't have the fortitude, nor bankroll, nor temperment, to be a casino. A casino is a big ol' building, where people's dreams might possibly come true. Especially if you own the building.

Casinos get rich, expand a whole city, and get richer, by offering bets where the casino has a two or three percent advantage. But the bets have to be offered, have to be wagered, a million times. Roulette, for instance: red or black, odd or even, high or low, the house has a 5.25% advantage on all but one bet on the layout.

Will the customer occasionally have a streak? Of course. A full third of the customers that evening will actually have a winning night. The casino doesn't care. You, of course, would be willing to walk in front of a truck. Will one drunken guy actually make several thousand dollars, having started with twenty bucks? Of course. The casino doesn't care. You, by the way, will not even walk out looking for the truck, you will put a bullet in your brain, right there at the table. The casino is right, and you are not right. "correct mathmatically" might be a better term than "right".

You think, apparently, that when you have a winning hand, and the 'customer' is drawing to a flush on the river, You've Got Him Nailed. You don't. You have only created a situation where you have four times the advantage that a casino has. You have a situation where it's 80-20 that you're going to win.

Now I want you to work really, really hard on this, because you haven't yet. If it's 80-20 for you, how many times out of a hundred can we predict that the 'customer' will hit his flush? The answer is twenty times out of a hundred. ('Grab that man. Don't let him dash toward the highway'.)

Can the 'customer' have a streak of winners? You bet he can. ('Grab that revolver'). He might hit several in a row.

Why do you care? (Because you're an idiot). No, it's because you haven't given it the appropriate amount of thought, and because you're not bankrolled well, and because you care about the outcome, and you should not care.

You should have enough in your bankroll that you can offer the 'customer' his flush draw about a hundred times a day. You want him (assuming he's dumb enough: but you're right, there are millions of 'em) to call your bet, and shoot for his flush draw. 80-20 in your favor, if he's betting on the river, 60-40 in your favor if he's betting on the turn (and, you get to charge him MORE for the river, if he's not all in).

If he wins his bet, and you're smart enough to be a casino, you should comp him: buy him a few drinks, compliment that ugly date he brought with him, buy him dinner if you have to, but keep him right there, making his bet over, and over, again.

But not you: you are involved. You are worried. You are so upset that he won one, or ten, of those bets. But the fact is, if that happens a thousand times (that bet where you are 80-20), you will be a rich man. You should be grateful, when you have put the 'customer' in a postion where you offer an 80-20 proposition, and he takes you up on it.

Here's what you should do: change your attitude. Play standard poker. Lose your emotion. You don't care about this bet, or the next one. You just want the guy to keep playing, if he's going to keep playing at the odds you're offering. Charge him for his longshot bet. He'll pay? He'll go for it? OUTSTANDING.......

Grind it out. (They call it that, for a reason). Lose your personal involvement with one hand, or one session. If you're playing right, the money, in smaller amounts, will roll in. (Not in larger amounts: you're not entitled to larger amounts. When your opponent bets his flush draw and loses, you didn't win the whole amount. You won the whole amount LESS the fact that one out of five times you're going to lose, and thus give some back. But believe me, there will be plenty left over.)

Quit caring about your results. Play standard poker. If you're doing it right, the money will roll in.

Play standard poker. If you're doing it right, you're offering the customer bets where your advantage is four times that which built Las Vegas. Do it all day long. All week long. All year long. Grind it out."

-2+2 abominable(I hope I give proper credit)

Preflop Game

These days, I've been concentrating on my preflop game. That's probably the most exploitable part of my game. Actually that's not quite correct, I just feel that other better players are much better preflop players than me, that's basically a huge edge over me in a long run. I needed to improve on that.

I guess the thing with preflop is that it's generally pretty high variance, you'll be bouncing up and down many buyins and it's very easy to think over a small sample that you are being a spewtard. The best way to remedy that is to really focus on the math and see your expectations on your plays. Even if the preflop plays are generally 0ev or small -ev, the aggressive image you put out there will make all your big hands greatly +ev.

I feel generally it's very easy to see a solid regular stick it in with like 77 preflop and think how big of a donk he is. But as long as he understands preflop well, sometimes it's correct to get it in that light. It's somewhat hard to see that distinction and preflop definitely has a lot of money to be made.

First Donkament Final Table!

While all the poker big names were duking it up at FTP HU tourney, I was...



Props to Brendan for railing me, makes me realize how much how little I know about donkaments. Ya, don't ask me for donkament advice.

Your Winning Edge/Player Types

It's another shitty Monday, the day when all the regulars are playing and not a fish in sight. You probably prefer to do something else than poker, but the girlfriend is out of town, you are bored as fuck. You go on your favorite site, load up your handy dandy HUD software and open some 2/4 tables. The hell? Everyone is playing those 18/16, 19/17, 21/19 stats! Those stats are indicative of what winning TAGs are, your edge is seemingly limited.


The truth of the matter is.. yes, your edge might not be as big against these TAG stats guys as opposed to like 30/5/inf maniacs, but it's still there if you are indeed better! A question that I always ask myself is this: what is my edge? why am I winning(or losing)? what makes me different than everyone else who watches some CR videos or read some poker books?

Online poker is seemingly "readless". Everyone is classified with a name and (with most site) an avatar. But the truth of the matter is, anyone can follow a hand chart and play like a pro preflop. The most standard HUD stats are VPIP and PFR, we can easily cookie cut people with similar stats in the same basket and think they all play the same. This is FAR from the truth. I can teach anyone to play my exact stats, will he play similarly as me? Of course not. But it's easy to fool someone in thinking he plays a similar style.

Player types is completely underestimated. In the past, I admit that most of my decisions are made completely by classifying someone(TAG, LAG, weak tight, maniac). This is a fundamental mistake as you play stronger and stronger players, they will not be making this mistake. I, SirNeb, plays my nuts hand like X and no one else plays exactly X with the same hands. Of course X might not be the most optimal play but it is still unique to me. Each player has his own unique style and what he is capable of. But you can generally put that player in a certain "player type". Someone who is playing scared money is not going to splash around with air very much, so it would be completely against his player type to bluff randomly. But someone who is willing to 4bet shove light preflop is probably not going to be afraid to make a pot sized river bluff. The theory behind player types is based on how they think about the game. If he plays a really strong hand weakly, that means he's generally either slowplaying too much or he's afraid that he got outdrawn and will lose his stack. I can generally say something accurate about a player just from 1 significant hand history. So just imagine if you play with certain regulars for thousands of hands, you can really get a strong read on someone.

That said, it's obvious our biggest edge is against a donator. But the reality is that even those "TAG"s or "solid players" make fundamental mistakes ALL THE TIME. I can spot them easily because I've made those same mistakes in the past and learned from them. They are not obvious, but it's extremely exploitable and profitable. In a long run, those little edges really add a ton to your winrate. Even winning players make lots of mistakes, as long as you keep exploiting them(make less mistakes yourself!) and the money will continue to flow your direction. Keep in mind that the first step is to identify what the mistakes are, this could be difficult and usually you might have to pay for such information. What I mean is not buy some database from your local poker black market(whatever they are..), what I do mean is you might have to make a light call down and lose some dough. The short term -ev will be overcome as long as you use that information in the future.

Losing Perspective

I'm going to keep this post short. But it's very easy to lose perspective in life. Sometimes you see what you want or you know what you should do but you get distracted by something that is irrelevant. An example is what I always try to preach: Focus on the decisions, results will follow. It's clear that my results have been poor in the past month or two, but it only gets worse as you keep focusing on the results which in the end affects your decisions. Honestly if you want to be blunt, results are completely irrelevant. Should it matter if you are up or down a session if you've been playing +ev plays throughout? It is stupid to even worry about it as long as you make good profitable decision.

This brings up another point that I find interesting, again, keeping the post as short as possible. Some people(including myself) might not realize when people refer to "decisions", it means much wider than the decisions in the big pots or tough spots. As little as choosing what table to play, what hands to open pf, or whether or not to call a minbet, they are all EXTREMELY important decisions you should be making. Every 3.5-4bb you raise preflop, it should be +ev with good sound reasonings. I don't remember how many times I lose focus and just play mechanical, this is completely exploitable and UNPROFITABLE. Every cent you put in the pot should have a positive expectation. Don't call a bet because folding would be "weak", call because you have a positive expectation.

Also the biggest danger in losing perspective is not just the results. You tend to start to build up certain emotions that are even more irrelevant. If you think you will get sucked out or lose every time you play, that "fear" you built up is completely idiotic and useless. If you think about it, someone who can truly focus on the decisions completely and none other, how can you tilt such a person? Results? what results? Does it actually matter?

PIF Application

The blog has been somewhat dry, so I figure this is about time to have a bit of flashback. As you may or may not know, I was chosen in the Pay It Forward program. Some people have asked me in the past what I wrote in the application to "won" me the spot. Reading this again and thinking back really open my eyes. Obviously everything said here is 100% true, some more personal than others but I don't really mind showing it after almost a year have gone by. I'm pretty sure only a handful of people have read this since I wrote it. So here goes:

Hi,

First, I just want to say how fortunate CR has a member like you who is willing to give back what was first given to you. These opportunities that you are offering is rare and of course a starting player like myself would jump to the opportunity at first glance. I'm sure many many MANY others will also. It's going to be extremely difficult to stand out from the thousands of other members from CRs. All I can do is offer the facts and let you be the judge.

I have been keeping track of your 101k challenge for quite some time now. It's amazing how well you were doing since the beginning. And no doubt in my mind that you'll succeed in the rest of your challenge. Whether or not you choose me, I just want to say good luck for your challenge.

About myself, I don't know how much of my life story you might be interested with. I guess I'll give some general relevant information. I current reside in the Boston, MA area. I am 24 years old working on my BS in Computer Science. Prior to studying for this major, I was studying in a school for Computer Animation(3D type production: games; movies like Cars, Nemo, etc..). It was a great experience. I am Chinese, born in Hong Kong and moved to the US since I was age of 10. I feel I'm pretty knowledgeable about computer things, I was pretty into computer gaming for many many years. I competed with many of the best players on the games I played. I am very similar to all the LiquidPoker guys where they switched from gaming to poker. These days, I don't play any games at all and just focus into poker.

About my poker experience, I consider myself a baby. Though I did come a long way, it seems every time I learn something new, there are always something more fascinating about this game. Sometimes I feel like I know all the "in"s and "out"s but in reality, there are much to learn.

I started playing seriously only for a little over 6 months. I started as a total beginner jumping into Pokerstars and trying to dominate the 25nl using very poor BR management. My original goal with poker was to make it big. In some ways, I admit I was looking for an "easy" route(trust me, I think poker is far from "easy" now) to make some side money. I thought that since I am a pretty smart guy, I could make some easy money playing the game. Little did I know that it is much tougher than I ever imagined.

I first deposited a small amount of ~200 to try to work off the PS bonus. I did pretty poorly, I was still learning a lot of basics of the game so I naturally made a lot of mistakes. I had huge swings and I was definitely losing then. But somehow I survived for a while until I "tilted" BAD for the first time(and hopefully for the last time). I felt at the time that this game is unbeatable and this is a waste of time. So I dumped the last of my roll(~80) on the first hand on a high limit game. Of course I went busto. I probably stepped away from the game for a couple days. Then I realize that I actually already learned so much from the game since from the beginning, and I thought I could beat it. I needed patience and some endurance.

So I deposited another ~350 and never looked back. I had many swings since that deposit where I actually went down to less than 100 and rebuild from 10nl up. But I think it was necessary to learn the game. I started going to 2+2 and met some players grinding like I was. Those things helped my game a lot and at the time I read almost every poker book I could savage. From the beginning to even now, I eat and drink poker. I am always looking for new ideas and something to help my game. This is a gradual process, years down the line I'll look back and the player that I am now will be so inferior than the player I will become. So again, this opportunity you are offering, I will learn a lot.

My strongest point imo is always trying to improve and always open to new ideas. I am a very logical player. If math will help me with my game, I study math. If psychology will help me, I study psychology. Also, even though I made one huge tilt in my poker career(though the amount is little), I feel I am a really good at tilt management. My personality is very timid and humble, I don't get angry at all. I make logical decisions and try not to let emotions get in the way. I will always remember that time I tilted my whole roll, and it's still in my PT stats. It reminds me who I was, and the danger of tilt, it keeps me strong.

Currently, I am still grinding away at 50nl. I took a stab recently(a week ago) in 100nl where I really couldn't find my spot there. I did well at the beginning, consistently winning but then I just dropped. I probably made about 8BIs before I dropped 13 in a week. This is not due to tilt, I honestly don't know exactly what it was yet. I think I was playing in a style that was too exploitable, and I had some bad timing, cards, or whatever. So like I said, I'm grinding 50nl. 50nl is pretty easy for me, I practice good table selection, I pick my spots and fish. Variance is very limited. I am trying to achieve 40BIs in 100nl before taking a stab into it.

As far as my regular game stats. I can play really nit TAG to super LAG. It depends on the game environment and what they allow me to do. I would have to admit playing 25/22 ish stats is harder than playing just ABC TAG. I only play that loose when the table is extremely tight(I probably change tables anyways), and they let me get away with it. For my TAG game, I probably could play down to 10/10 if the table so loose and even on the button I will get 2 callers every time. My usual avg is ~19/17/3, that's what it is in PT. But I adjust to the tables.

As far as CR, I learned a lot from there. I joined it while I was grinding out 25nl. I try my best to post my ideas and what would be best in the low limits forum. I know I am not perfect, but a lot of the players are definitely still learning the fundamentals of the game. I try to help as much as I do. Honestly, it helps me think about those situations and it helps my own game by replying. I might not always be right, actually I'm wrong a lot but I feel some players can learn a lot from my experience. I love the CR community, it's so much more constructively than 2+2(90% trash replies). I am really looking forward to help the CR community as I become a much stronger player.

Anyways, I think I talked maybe a little too much. I could probably go on another 10 pages. I'm sure you have many many other applications to read. This amount is definitely a good snippet of myself. I don't know how much attention I will get, and I do wish I would be chosen. But I'm a pretty realistic person, as much as I think I am a good candidate, I am in reality just another apple in the barrel. If you need any further information or details, please feel free to ask/reply to this email address. I hope you will find the best candidate. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it. If you want to look at my past(or current) poker progress, check out my blog (pretty private, I say anything in my mind there) at " http://sirnebsblog.blogspot.com/".

Frankie("SirNeb" in CR)

It's not over yet. At the time, I really really wanted the spot. I'm not afraid to admit certain strategies I used to get to my goal. No, I didn't lie about any of the contents. But I spend a considerable amounts of time trying to figure out if there is anything I could do to help my chances. I read Brian's blog, I watched his CR video many times. It's almost like having a crush on someone.. :) It's pretty embarrassing actually. But maybe 2 weeks after I submitted the above, I decided to write him another email. The timing of it was kind of planned. I knew that the submission process probably will slow down in the middle of the month. And my desire for the spot did not die down. For Taylor's protege program, Brian actually exercised a similar strategy according to his blog. He did not like what he first sent to Taylor so he wrote another one. So I thought Brian would think it's acceptable for someone to send in 2 submissions! I thought that maybe I could show how passionate I was and perhaps it will help my chances. Here's the second email:

I know I already wrote a lot in the last email but I really want to add something that you might possibly be looking for in your student. Also, it's mostly to satisfy myself so I don't regret that I gave my best effort on something that I value and perhaps a once in a lifetime type of opportunity.

I mainly want to add the goals in the game and what I like to get from this opportunity. I mentioned my goal was to make some side money and I believe I said "to make it big". This is true and I really want to expand on that because I feel it's important to this application.

My expectations starting from the beginning is very different than how I see things now. In the past, my arrogant self thought poker would be easy and I can outsmart everyone. It's naive and the path is difficult. Other than mastering the game, you have to master yourself. I learned so much about this game, such as the value in making the best decision ALWAYS. In a game of poker, you make one or two mistakes, you might possibly be down that session. In life, it's similar, you miss out in opportunity, you regret your decision. Poker in some ways is life and it has taught me a lot about life.

I am a pretty competitive person at heart. Ya, poker is good for the money but I have no doubt I'll make it to decent money with the game. But even if I do very good money, I am not going to be just satisfied with just the money, I want to be the best(or at least one of the best). I want to play the highest stake possible. might sound arrogant, but that's the goal. I know I am far from that, perhaps one day some people might think I am the best player ever, I know I probably will never consider myself being the best. This "long term" goal of mine will probably never be achieved, but makeItit pushes me to always look for new edges and improve my game in any way possible. I don't want to be a lazy player.

On the other hand, I want to be clear that I have very little passion for poker to become my long term profession. Due to reasons such as my culture, religion, ethics, or perhaps just my own selfishness, I want more in life. Achieving goals in poker is just part of the journey. I think it's similar to how Taylor thinks about the game, I don't want to "put all my eggs in one basket". I want poker to help me get to where I eventually want to be and I want to do the best that I can with anything that I try in. I don't want to depend on one thing if it doesn't work out, but I really want to do well in this "investment". Yes, I only invested seriously for a little more than 6 months, but I don't want my initial investment to be wasted. And realistically at my current stage, my goal is to eventually rid a lot of financial problems in the future. Maybe this is a lot to grasp and understand, but that's how I feel deep down.

Honestly, I really want to challenge myself to succeed in something I deeply put my mind into. I want to cease any opportunity given at any given time. This is why I joined CR, this is why I am applying for this. I want to prove to myself that I can do "it", whatever "it" may be. I can achieve anything I put my mind into and that I won't fail.

I possibly sound a little over serious there. But that's just how I feel about things that I care about. I put my heart and soul into things I want. I might not get what I want all the time, but I will damn well try my best to get it. I just want to show how committed I am to this, and how much I want this opportunity. I feel a little embarrassed saying all the things I did either in this email or the last one, because I really needed to swallow my pride and practically "beg" for this opportunity. But as I said, I'm not going to let this pass by without a fight.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read this. Whether I am chosen or not, I know I made my best effort to show you the person that I am. Maybe you are not looking for my type, that is fine. I learned not to be result oriented from this game. I will continue this road and cease other opportunities. Again, thanks for everything. I sincerely, truly hope you will find the best two candidates.

Frankie ("SirNeb")

I feel a little dirty but definitely wasn't "cheating" by any means. And every word said is how I felt at the time. One thing I hate is lying, that is something I won't do to get to my goal. I mean you still have to play by the rules of the game. Anyways, I thought maybe someone would find this blog post interesting/informative and maybe find out a little bit about me(some stuff is pretty personal but nothing too private).

New Mentality

For some reason, I have trouble with a certain thought process. Playing this game of 100bb+ BIs, we tend to keep thinking about winning the big stash opponents are currently holding. We want his stack! That's what poker is all about right? But truthfully, sustaining a long term winrate is so far from winning those big stacks. This is because 1.) big hands don't come that often. 2.) cooler hands don't count in a long run.

What is the goal of this game? To win money, of course. Does it matter if it's 1bb or half a bb or 100bb? I mean winning that extra 1bb now nets you 1bb more than you had a second ago. Ya, it would be nice to get that huge stack villain is holding but can anyone really guarantee you will take it? What if you run really really bad and villain just happens to cooler you for every single pot, even though apparently he's the worst player that walks the face of the earth. There is no guarantee, remember that. But that's not my point.

I find myself struggling to be satisfied with the very small pots, even in huge quantities. There are many weak tight players out there that will play fit or fold unfailingly. You will rarely find them get their money in with the worse of it. What can you do against those players? You just need to grind him down, micro pot after micro pot. You are hugely profitable against him, but you will not get his stack anytime soon. But I can guarantee that table will be very "profitable" and I'll sustain a very high winrate. It's almost like someone shipping you 4bb like every 20 hands or so. I wish money would come in that easily, and the problem is that it really does come that easily sometimes but I have trouble mentally following through these types of grinds. As sick as I would hate to admit, I prefer winning stacks and then losing stacks to total net me +4bb than to win 4bb constantly. I guess it's more "exciting" and I'm more used to that type of poker.

But, it's not the best type of poker. As you keep moving up, stack vs stack happens basically more in a cooler basis. Your edge becomes smaller and smaller. If someone was to throw you 1bb every so often, you need to take it and be happy. This is the mentality I need to succeed.

The mentality to see profitability and cease it.

Fun Value Bet

This is a fun value bet that I made against a huge fish. He's been killing everyone, there were seriously 4 other regulars on the table including me trying to catch him. Of course I got the best position so I can't realistically leave this table. It was pretty frustrating that the cards wouldn't allow me to stack him. He was so bad that if I flop TP, I'm value betting 3 streets. I think the dynamics is kind of interesting and my thought process here.

I'm playing my regular game, I was running probably a little loose on this table like 27/23ish stats. My history with villain is a long one but he's been getting the best of me in many many small pots. I was trying too hard to isolate him and outplay him postflop but it did not work very well due the following tendencies:

-limps a lot, stats of 60/17 or something
-will rarely ever fold to a cbet
-will rarely ever fold with really bad hands to double barrels.
-complete calling station(isn't it obvious?)
-minraises with huge hands and TP
-limp min3bet/3bet with 99+ against my isolation
-willing to make huge bluffs if he doesn't believe you
-he will value bet his good hands on one street but will check the next(but still won't be folding very much).

So basically, for hours, I was getting no hands I could value bet him to death. It was quite frustrating because if you hit, it's like printing money. Anyways, this hand came up with hours of reads on him.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

MP ($2280.55)
Hero ($400)
SB ($394)
BB ($505.10)
UTG ($1292.15)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7d, 9d.
1 fold, MP calls $4, Hero raises to $20, 2 folds, MP calls $16.

Villian limps a lot, this is a decent hand to isolate him in position. Of course I've been doing this for hours and if I hit middle pair I would value bet him to death. He's that much of a calling station but he's been running really hot. Against guys like him, you actually want to be isolating him with big cards more than these SC type hands.

Flop: ($46) As, 5h, 3s (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $36, MP calls $36.

I knew that my cbet was going to get called a lot but when I made the cbet I knew I was getting called by K high, any gutshot, any pair, almost anything even hands like QT.

Turn: ($118) Ah (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $88, MP calls $88.

This is typically not the best card to double barrel, because it's not believable. But I figure if I fire here, I'll fold out a lot of complete trash. Yet of course he calls, not a surprise. Thinking back on it, I probably should give up and wait for another chance.

River: ($294) 7s (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $256 (All-In), MP calls $256.

The 7 hits which gives me the highest non-trips pair on the board. Now I'm thinking what hands does he hold? I decided that he wouldn't have a hand like Ax because he would surely minraise or do something weird somewhere. And sure, he could have a hand like 88 but I've seen him limp/3bet pf with 99+ so it's unlike he has at least 99+. This is because I've been isolating him and he almost always does those weird lines with mid to big PPs. I decided that he might look me up really really light because he would never think I'm value betting a 7 here. I expect to get called by 5x, 3x, Kx, 66, 44, 22, 67, 75 very often. Occasionally he'll show me 88+ or some slowplayed Ax. I think shoving is going to be profitable good amounts of the time.

Final Pot: $806

Results below:
MP mucked [5d 4d].
Hero has 7d 9d (two pair, aces and sevens).
Outcome: Hero wins $806.


Snap called. Ship it! >:) I was exhausted after stacking him, if I still had it in me, I would stay and try to stack him for a 200bb stack. I know I'm going to regret it after I feel more energized later.

Hand Ranges

I'm just going to take this hand and tried to explain some theories behind hand ranges and possible optimal plays. Also, I want to explain how to make good profitable decisions based on hand ranges. Understanding the Bayes' theorem of probability is pretty important to make good profitable decisions.

This hand history is borrowed from a buddy of mine. I actually don't know the details of the hand, so I'll make some assumptions and I'll try to branch off thoughts as it comes up. We'll see how this goes.


************


I'm going to split this hand into 2 scenarios: A and B

Scenario A:
Hero and Villain are completely unknown to each other. No history, no table dynamics, no read.

Scenario B:
Hero is very loose on the table, he's been caught a couple bluffs and playing very aggressive. Villain is similar to Scenario B. Villain might be tilted or fed up with Hero.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (6 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.comFlopTurnRiver.com (Format: Plain Text)

SB ($87.60)
BB ($355.80)
UTG ($54.40)
MP ($414.25)
Hero ($369.40)
Button ($232.30)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 3s, As.
UTG calls $2, MP calls $2, Hero raises to $11, Button raises to $20, 2 folds, UTG folds, MP folds, Hero calls $9.

A:
Since there are a lot of unknowns, we need to work around them and make some assumptions. Hero does not know villain so he has to respect Button's min3bet but it's unlikely hero will fold to a min3bet. As hero, you have respect villain's range as probably AK, QQ+. This range can be tighter or looser, but I'm just making a pretty "safe" estimate.


Hands Breakdowns:
AK - 12 possible combinations of hands(AcKc, AcKh, AcKs, AcKd, AhKc, AhKs, AhKd, AhKh, AdKc, AdKh, AdKs, AdKd[there are no AsKx because you hold As])
QQ - 6 hands
KK - 6 hands
AA - 3 hands(again you hold one ace)

So far, Hero is basically ~30% equity against 24 hands and ~15% equity against 3 hands. We can safely assume without doing any further calculations that we are most likely a little less than 30% equity. The probability that you run into AA is much lower than you run into those other hands.


B:
Hero's image is terrible. Villain's minraise could mean a huge range. Let's try to break it down a little. Villain's min3bet range is close to the following: AJs+, AQo+, TT+, KQs. I believe this is pretty fair, it could definitely be even looser than this but let's work with this estimation for now.


Hands Breakdown:
AJs - 3 hands(only 4 suited AJ in the deck, you hold one ace)
AQ - 12 hands
AK - 12 hands
KQs - 4 hands
TT to KK - 24 hands
AA - 3 hands

Again, not much change in equity pf as compared to scenario A. Almost all hands have similar equity against Hero's hand with exception to AA. We have 30% chance of holding the best hand at showdown against that range of hands.

Flop: ($47) 4s, 9d, Ah (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $32, Hero calls $32.

A:
The flop is seemingly good for Hero. We don't know anything about villain, villain could do one of two things: 1.) selectively check behind or bet based on his individual holdings. 2.) cbet with his whole range.

Since we don't know villain at all, we can just c/f against his range or c/c once and play poker. Let's look at the decision based on the pf ranges:

Hands that we are way behind(~15% equity):
AK - 8 hands(since the flop has an ace, we take away some combos of hands)
AA - 1 hands
total: 9 hands

Hands that we are way ahead(~90% equity):
QQ - 6 hands
KK - 6 hands
total: 12 hands

So if we have information to believe that villain will cbet his whole range. We are looking at a little over 50% of villain's range that we are ahead and a little under ~50% we are behind to. Since both equities are pretty much equal(9:1 vs 1.5:8.5), we can expect that we have roughly 50% pot equity. Again, this is with the assumption that villain cbets with his ENTIRE range. It would pretty much be correct to at least give the flop a call.

If villain only cbets with hands that beats us(occasionally he'll slow play his strongest), without doing more calculations, we can assume that calling the flop would be a big mistake. But keep in mind that it is very possible that villain will check behind all his "hit" hands and cbet all the vulnerable hands. In that case, it would be again a huge mistake to just fold the flop. So Hero's line is indecisive due to his lack of information. Notice how our decision changes based on information we know about villain.


B:
Since hero is such a loose player, and villain is probably fed up with hero, villain is probably going to cbet almost his whole range. Villain can definitely decide to slow play his strongest hands but let's not factor that in for simplicity sake.


Hands that we are behind:
AJs - 2 hands
AQ - 8 hands
AK - 8 hands
AA - 1 hands
total: 19 hands

Hands that we are ahead:
KQs - 4 hands
TT to KK - 24 hands
total: 28 hands

We can see that Hero beats more hands than lose to if villain cbets his whole range. If our past assumption is correct, then at least calling would be pretty favorable. Raising is a possibility but villain might possibly fold the hands we are ahead of. It might not be a bad play based on our image, but the board is probably too dry to represent any type of draw to get called by worse.

Turn: ($111) 9h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $90, Hero raises to $317.4, Button calls $90.30 (All-In).

A:
Turn gets interesting. The assumption is that villain probably stop bluffing his QQ-KK hands because they have showdown value. So the assumption here is that villain's betting range is almost always a complete bluff or a hand that beats hero.

We don't believe that villain would turn his QQ-KK into complete bluffs, so hero's pot equity is very close to drawing dead. The best choice is to just fold. Also, we do not know what villain's bluffing frequency is. Villain could be bluffing here all the time or none of the time. But logically the best choice is to fold here based on the lack of reads. Keep in mind that villain's range had changed once he made a further action on the turn. This resulted in allowing hero to make a better decision.

B:
For this scenario, this actually gets a little tricky. Villain could be tilted based on hero's past crazy plays. Villain could easily be not looking to fold any of his middle pairs, therefore he wants to keep betting. Villain only had 90 behind after betting 90. If villain is still betting with that same range on the turn as with the flop. It is correct to get the rest of the money in because hero has over 50% pot equity. The optimal decision for hero is based on villain's turn bet range. If villain's range consists of more hands that dominates hero, then hero's play should be to fold. Let's evaluate this thought with actual hand ranges.

Let's assume that villain's betting range on the turn only consists of QQ+, AJs, AQ+. Villain decided that he didn't like TT-JJ that much, and only get his money in with a tighter range.

Hands that hero is ahead:
QQ - 6 hands
KK - 6 hands
total: 12 hands

Hands that hero is behind:
AJs - 2 hands
AQ - 8 hands
AK - 8 hands
AA - 1 hand
total: 19 hands

Our equity are very similar when hero is ahead and villain is ahead, and there are more hands that beat hero's holding. It is actually a close decision to put $180 to win a pot of 291. Basically we can assess that villain leaving 90 behind after betting 90 is essentially an overshove of 180 into a pot of 111. Hero would need to be correct ~40% of the time, which is very close to his equity on the pot against that range. So getting this hand in on the turn is very close to neutral ev.

If we change the range back to the original range. Villain is terrible and tilted. He decided that he's not folding ANY of his hands to hero(same range as pf).

Hands that hero is behind:
AJs - 2 hands
AQ - 8 hands
AK - 8 hands
AA - 1 hands
total: 19 hands

Hands that hero is ahead:
KQs - 4 hands
TT to KK - 24 hands
total: 28 hands

Now it is obvious in this case that we will be correct over 50% of the time, if we have an infinite stack size, we should stick it in as long as villain is willing to call it off.

River: ($471.60) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $471.60

Results below:
Hero has 3s As (two pair, aces and nines).
Button has Kd Ks (two pair, kings and nines).
Outcome: Hero wins $608.70.

I don't know if Hero played this hand correctly or not due to lack of information given. I hope I tried to explain that hand ranges can drastically change what would be the optimal line. Brian Townsend had explain once in his article. While facing a PSB on a particular street, if your equity is 33%-49%, you should be calling. If your equity is >50%, you should be raising. And if <33%, you should be folding.

If people like these, I might do another one with bluffing frequencies and with a villain with a much wider range. I hope this was informative.

I'm a big Wussie!

As a poker player, it is imperative that you make your decisions based on "logic" and not by "feel". Some people will say that their "gut" feeling always serves them well, what am I talking about? Well, surely, feelings are created to protect you. It's built from your past events and are re-enforced as there are more samples of favorable results.

Actually there is a famous 2+2 post written about development as a poker player. (I'll post it if someone can find it.) Basically it's about the development of a successful poker player. He talked about players being more of a "feel" player or a "logical" player. I personally think someone would have to be extremely lucky to build the perfect "feel" and still be correct in most spots. Most winning players are definitely logical players like myself. But by nature, I'm a very emotional person. I rely on feelings more than a lot of other guys. Actually in the past, someone who I respected greatly told me that I should become an artist because that would maximize the type of person that I am. Well that point is unimportant, but I'm naturally a very passive and non-confrontational person. Jman described in his well post about his personality and it is very similar to myself. The reason I rarely tilt is probably because I usually don't let little things bother me, and I tend to see the brighter side of things. So it's ironic that I am required to be aggressive to be successful in the game.

Constantly during a session, my feelings definitely kick in. For most part, I'm not as conscious about it as much as I would like to be. Maybe I got 3bet from an overaggressive player and I "feel" that he could have a better hand that time. So I prefer to let go of my decent hand and wait for another spot. In the state of the 2/4 games and with the good aggro regulars, you almost cannot completely just avoid them. You are giving them way too much long term edge. I find myself needing to go against my feelings very often. Sure, logic can be wrong and feelings can be right. But if I can logically understand why I'm doing this and it has good sound reasonings behind it, I need to go against those feelings. They can definitely become a distraction.

Frequently, it is way too easy to see a profitable spot and go "oh he might have a huge hand here this time, maybe next time.." or "oh I can't fire a barrel here, he might just call me down with ace high". In those scenarios, I should really assess like the following: "CO opener is a LAG and button's 3bet by an aggro TAG. If I 4bet here, I should get a lot of respect and I think both players cannot think I'm bluffing here very often" or in the second scenario, "I haven't been out of line against this villain. He's kind of tight. I've been giving up a lot of turns and he should respect my barrel on this scare card, his range is also not going to hit this very often". In the end, this is just all about getting away from standard ABC and think about each situation as a unique sample. It is important to fight certain feelings and make the most profitable plays.