Likey 2.0

[Likey]

I decided to give cash games another go, have been playing again for about a month now.

Been reading and watching a few videos to help me get back into it, to start with I played $25NL 6max to get warmed up and then moved back up to $50NL 6max a few days later.

I've been sticking with 4 tables and playing roughly an hour at a time. So far I have been doing pretty good, redline is also strong which I'm happy with.

As for specific goals, I'm not sure yet so will see how I get on first.

Here's how it was looking up until a few days ago:




Looking at my stats, my 3bet% is pretty low for quite a few of the sessions. Running pretty good in my sessions I think but felt I've played well, am focused when playing 4 tables so it's a good start, can build up my tables once I've gotten back into the game and my skills improve further.

[Bradley_W]

What a great start Sangster

[Likey]

The last few sessions were me playing more tables which was obviously a bad idea. Played up to 7 tables and tiling across 2 screens is kinda difficult to play actually.

Felt I was tilting a bit but continued to play, for longer sessions too so definitely something to learn from this!

Nevermind, just need to keep playing my A-game whilst only keep 4 tables on-screen at any one time.

As always, you can click on the image to enlarge it (opens to another window)

Any comments on stats so far? (Very small sample I know)

[Reg]

Your W$SD% seems pretty low. I know its a small sample but even allowing for that, it seems low. Were you just running bad, or were you tilt calling it off a lot?

[Likey]

I always thought a low W$SD% such as around 40% would suggest a run bad set of sessions.

Just looking through my big pots that I lost in my few last sessions.

AKo v QQ standard flip
KQs v KK on Q7Jdd I barrelled all streets
AKo v AA blind on blind all in preflop
A few pots where an overcard come down and felt was a guessing game

AKo v AA I hit K on turn so stacked off on river 130bb effective stacks
ATs v 66 on A6A board, check flop, I bet nearly pot on turn and he jammed (probably could fold actually, loads of hands beating me).
T7s v AA on 987 board

AKs v AA
98s v 99 on 679

Looking at the hands above, some played themselves but I definitely was aggressive in the pots that I played in so stacked off because of what's in the middle.

[BlackShuck]

Yeah regarding W$SD you obviously ran great in the first stats you posted and are now running badly. Your 3-bet % is way too low so you should work on that, you want to get it to at least 7-8%.

Apart from that there's nothing much else to say, in the same way you shouldn't be that encouraged by your start you shouldn't be that discouraged by your latest results, just keep working at it.

[Likey]

A little update:

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to articulate my thoughts as well as someone like Reg but hopefully be able to make this thread interesting with my poker journey. It usually takes me ages to construct proper posts that have several paragraphs so if it's not a little one-liner post I do try to put effort in what I write. It also explains why I take ages writing blog entries.

To make my posts appear less tl;dr I'll break it down into sections:

Spewing

OK, so far it hasn't been going well for me despite having plenty of sweat sessions lately. I always end my (sweat) sessions by reviewing my hand histories to see if the play was good or spewy. For the big losing sessions, apart from the coolers there have been some horrible plays by me, ones where I look back and think "OMG why did I raise there?" or "WTF did I shove for?"

I was reading p3rc4's well on 2+2 earlier and he said this: "But I remind myself that if I don't spew a lot, I will never learn." So although I made some spewy plays, at least I can learn from it and work out when to be applying aggression and when not to, and against what type of players.

Multi-tabling:

Spewing tends to happen in sessions where I have between 5-8 tables up so clearly playing up to 4 is more optimal whilst I'm still learning. Something I've noticed is that I am playing too fast, I'm not taking time to make decisions on my hands when in reality I've got plenty of time to be thinking instead of just clicking buttons.

I think it's a good idea to cut down to 2 tables to work on my concentration skills, I have noticed that it's something I don't really do. I really must pay attention to what's going on at the tables because if I'm playing a session of 400-500 hands and still not really have a clue of my opponents apart from what the HUD says then clearly I am terrible!

Progress so far:

As for results, this month I think I am down about 12BI at 50NL which includes losing stacks at the Euro tables.

I've got just over $1000 on PokerStars as I've taken a load of it out, I am feeling a little down about it because I had just over $2000 not long ago. Lost some of it on tournaments and the rest in cash games so I think it's a good idea to drop down to 25NL and play a decent sample of hands to see if I can improve. I've never had a losing year before so it kinda sucks hard for me, I know I haven't really played much this year but still.

I don't have any graphs on me to post so can do it later tonight.

[solid fab]

Nice post.

I think the first few sweat sessions you were definitely being a bit over aggro in spots where it was time to give up, but the last few sessions I thought you played nice solid poker. Last night was just brutal so there wasn't a lot you could do there.

The hand review session were fantastic and I think everyone should be doing them as much as they can. Learnt so much from the good and bad plays you made including bet sizing and great one for me was bet/folding in spots where I would normally check/call. Incorporating that into my game has been extremely beneficial.

You definitely need to stop playing more than 4 tables and slow down a bit. You are so quick when in reality you've got so much time when just 4 tabling.

I think moving down is definitely the correct decision and I applaud you for having the guts to move down when you have to.

Anyway GL on the quest and may the boomswitch be turned on asap!

[iggy]

I'm not much of a hand reviewing guy but I'll do a normal sweat finally in januari

Anyway, just keep learning from your mistakes and I'm sure you'll win.

[Likey]

Originally Posted by solid fab

I think moving down is definitely the correct decision and I applaud you for having the guts to move down when you have to.

Anyway GL on the quest and may the boomswitch be turned on asap!

I don't think there's any shame in moving down, I'd move down to $10NL as well if I have to. It's important to be honest with yourself otherwise what's the point?

There are still plenty of gaps in my poker knowledge that still needs filling, even things like equity calculations are something I need to work on. I'm sure it's very simply, just need to spend some time off the tables. Once I've figured that out and able to do it quickly then it should benefit me in the long run. I might even do a few calculations on here and get some of you to comment, just to make sure I'm doing it correctly. Other interesting concepts like merging ranges is something to grasp too - all in good time as it certainly doesn't apply at the stakes I play at.

Looking back 18 months or so when I started, I think I should have played a decent sample of $25NL 6max to begin with, especially as I've made so little progress due to lack of effort. Good thing is, it's never too late hence this Likey 2.0 thread. If I have to make a Likey 3.0 thread for 2012 with no progress then perhaps I should just tattoo FAIL across my forehead.

As for the boomswitch, as nice as it would be to run good, I would just appreciate myself more if I could just work harder and earn the nice results.

For the next week or so, I'll be reading and watching more videos. If I come across any useful and interesting links then I'll post them here.

More sweat sessions are definitely welcome, have yet to do a sweat with you iggy so look forward to that.