New job, more free time for poker

[Gambubble]

I got a good and a bad news.

Let me first introduce myself a bit.
After gathering some basic knowledge about poker all over the net for a year now, this is definitively the place I've chosen for my further instruction, cos I got a very good feeling about this site, its members and their potential.
I didn't post a lot, but I'm carefully reading all of you and constantly watching vids for 3 months now.
One of my goal is to become able in a near future to give back to this awesome community (through rakeback signup and posting, and sharing ideas).
For now, I'm a waiter in a famous restaurant, rushing all the day long, from 10 am to midnight with a 2 hours break at 3pm. Feel like a modern slave as this is the price I pay to live in an very expensive region (Geneva neighborhood), cos only tips allow me to pay my bills. In this context, I have a hard time to find enough time to play. So mainly I'm learning 80% and playing the other 20% of the 2 hours I dedicate to poker each and every day. I choose this ratio cos each time I play I can see how strong I feel lost in lot of spots at the table, thus I practice the 'learning out of the table' antidote.

So back to the news, I'm going to get an easier job: within a month I'll be a postman.

The good news is that I'll have lot more free time for poker.
The bad news is that I will feel a strong financial pressure, but no choice my health can no more support my present job...

As a lot of beginners, my confidence in my play goes with my luck at the tables. My goal is to make my new job a side job compared to my poker incomes, as quickly as possible.

Can you help me to figure out where I am at in my progress scale from those fact:

- I was a complete beginner a year ago, since then, have played around 10k hands full ring NL at PP and then started to play 6MAX regularly for 3 months now: 20k hands on FT and 6k on Redstar (where I'm tracked by Pokertrikz.com, but no HUD available there). As attachment, below should be my stats at FT for the last 10k. Click on it to expand.
- I'm learning at least 1 hour and an half a day, I will double this next month.
- will play 3 tables one hour a day at least.


The most striking stats to me is my very, very low win $ at showdown... I have to say that part of this is due to the fact that I'm calling to much river to satisfy my curiosity, but I think most of the problem comes from my poor hand reading skills and the resulting lack of confidence and poor postflop. I should improve w/ time.
I've also started to tighten up my blinds range but looks like I need to tighten even more from my positional stats.

From your own experience, do you think I'm on the good track? Any idea of how far am I from a slightly winning player?
Any comments/critics/encouragement are of course welcome...

[Colossos159]

Hi Gambubble,
as I am at work I have some time to respond to your post .
I cant say that my job is as demanding as yours but I do have a full time job (9am-6pm) and this cuts back in my poker time alot (mainly because I am too tired to play after work). I do not plan to make poker my full time job as it seems way too asocial but it would be nice if it became a decent second income.
I also started playing poker one year ago and I have build up a nice bankroll from almost nothing to about 1000$. I know this isnt alot of money but if you keep in mind that I didnt even know what a full house was when I started, you can imagine I got quite lucky in the beginning especially in some tournaments. But I did read alot of forums, articles, posted hands and videos. You dont have to pay for decent poker vids, there are tons of them free available. ( look at flopturnriver.com for spenda's microstakes videos - very valuable - sorry Trikkur but I really like the guy who made those and if it can help anyone, you cant be angry at me for pointing those vids out ).
I started playing at the 10NL level and stayed there for a VERY long time playing overrolled. I can see you are already talking about earning money with poker but your stats show you are losing at the 10NL level? (ps: dont play 10NL at Full Tilt). Especially you are losing alot with one pair hands! Dont be so curious of what other people have when you are fairly certain that you are beat: FOLD. My favourite notes on people at 10NL are: "calls 3 streets with top pair" or "stacks of with TPTK".
You have probalby seen Trikkur's video: playing TAG to beat the micro's. I can not stress the value of this video enough: Fold AJ UTG, dont call a raise with KQ preflop, NEVER bluf your opponent and so on.
Nowadays I still play at the 10NL level because I had a huge downswing this month at 25NL and 50NL. I am still rolled for 25NL but I want to build my confidence in the sense that I got an unlucky streak and it wasnt due to me playing bad.
I dont know what bank roll you have or how much money you are willing to lose playing poker but there are a ton of ways to build up a bankroll fairly easy: always play with rakeback + bonus. There are alot of sites which offer a bonus+rakeback, so dont play on a site just for the rakeback but switch sites regularly to get the free bonus money. There is also a site: Pokersource.com (google it) which offer an extra bonus if you sign up through them if there is a site which offers no rakeback. Just clear the bonus and move on.
Anyway, I wish you all the best with your new job and dont be in a hurry to move up in limits until you are very very certain that you beat the level and you didnt have a lucky streak because if you hit the other side of variance on a higher limit it will crush you.

[Gambubble]

Thanks for your reply Colossos,

I started out also without knowing what the hell a set could be and with a 200$ bankroll, and now have 320$ (+170$ on Redstar), thanks to rakeback and bonuses... I practice strict bankroll management and do not allowed me to refuel. Money is a real issue for me.

Yes, without rakeback and bonus I'm a looser at FT, I've just change for an Ipoker network room for their bonus/rakeback/fishes and holdemmanager compatibility. So I've just followed your good recommendation...
I first approach the game w/ a 25/22 style for my first 10k 6max hands, and quickly realize that I was far from good enough to do so. But this allowed me to better understand what is required to do so. So I tighten up my game pre and post, following trikkur's vids recommendations for micro, now playing around 22/20, 20/18. I'm also trying to avoid bluffing on turn or river, which I used to do a lot... lol.

Yes I have a hard time to handle pairs, tempted to overplay second pairs, TP and overpairs, I've started to fix it but I still need to improve on this. And yes I still surprise myself calling when I know I'm beat, I will try to put a definite end to that.

Thanks for the vids recommendations, I will watch them for sure. This kind of tips can value up the knowledge of the trikz'community, so trikkur should not be that angry against us as his child are getting better... as long as they do not forget to give back through rakeback signups and forum posting here.
Sure I'll play more on my redstar account which is trikz'traked as soon as I removed my biggest leaks...for now I play on a soft site w/ bonus and compatible w/ trackers to review my sessions.
I also find useful to re-watch regularly pokertrikz vids: each time I re-re-watch a vid I find new things to learn as I progress in my game, and I deeper my understanding of some points.

I'll move up from 10NL when I'll feel confident do to so (I guess when I will get a good idea of what they hold by the river, may take long...), w/ some shot as soon as my bankroll reach 400$ (2x10NL + 1 x25NL)

[zayphod]

Hi Gambubble,

A couple of things that stand out to me in your stats are (my opinion only mind you and someone can correct me if I am wrong)

1: vs 3bet call (39%) - to high I think. The gap principle should still be the biggest guide in calling 3-bets I think e.g. you need a big hand to call. When you are calling 4 out of every 10 3bets do you really have a monster?

2: your button steal is really high (with that said so is your success % from the button). If I was collecting stats as well on you (expect it, since you are collecting so are others) I would see this after a few thousand hands or so, or maybe less and I would start re-popping you quite a bit from the blinds. I would be hard pressed to believe that you have a hand every 2nd time you raise from the button. As it stands though it is successful for the moment so take this one with a grain of salt.

3: Your winrate with 1 pair hands is killing you and is also (I suspect) the reason your W$SD is around 41%. You appear to be overplaying 1 pair hands. I treat them for what they are e.g. generally a small hand (big pot=big hand, small pot=small hand). You have taken every single 1 pair hand to showdown if I read your stats correctly. Massive leak! This is where you need to start assigning hand ranges to opponents and deciding if 1 pair really is good enough to continue.

everything else seems to be OK I think. I would really consider reworking your approach with the 1 pair hands as I see this as your largest leak and the one that is costing you lots-o-cash (24 buyins so far). I should also say that I have been guilty of overplaying 1 pair hands, as we all have

Cheers
Zayphod

[chinz]

Your "fold vs. cbet" also seems to be too high. I don't have Holdem Manager accessible right now (spending holidays at my parents). In micro limits you should 90% fold to cbets without top pair or better. With top pair as a basic move I'd suggest raising and if you get 3bet, just let it go. When you get more experience and start winning more, you can start making moves.

But yes, your biggest leak is calling 3bets like said before. You really shouldn't do it that much, possibly sethunting (pocket pairs) in 3-way pots or DEEP stacked. For example if you both have 150bb stacks, you raise 4bb with 66 and get raised to 12bb, it costs you only 8bb to check and you can win 150bb, if you happen to hit. That gives you about 19:1 chances which is enough to make it profitable. With 100bb stacks however you should just fold.

For example when you raise AQo from UTG, get 3bet and call (I think you should fold here), then flop comes Q74 and your flop bet gets raised, you really HAVE to give it up without ___VERY GOOD__ reads. If someone raises UTG bet preflop, his range is heavily ranged towards QQ-AA, especially after raising on the flop.

When you are just beginning and want to get from slightly losing to slightly winning, you should play really nitty... Something like 13/10 style shown in Trik31 video.

EDIT: little leak-finding:
How do you play AJo, AJs, AQo when you get 3bet in position?
How do you play AJo, AJs, AQo when you get 3bet out of position?
What do you do with KJo, JQo/s or AJo when UTG?

[R8tme]

just small now, causa have to go.
form your stats as you see yourself you are felting too much with 1pair and it is your big looser. Second you defending your blinds too strong and pbeen outplayed oop.
Will give more later, may be even edit this if I find it different.

[ShadesAA]

Il just say one thing , dont be afraid to move up or start makin shots at 25nl , theres not much of a difference between the two limits and your bankroll will build much quicker at a higher limit , this month alone since moving to 6max and cake i started under rolled for 20nl with $320 , once i reached $800 i made the jump to 50nl since then ive been crusing along nicely and am now at $1200 , if i had $$ on 2 sites like you , id be adding both up and treating it as 1 bankroll in which case u are rolled for 25nl , hope it helps GL

[dansiek]

Im thinking gambubble does not use this site anymore =p

[ShadesAA]

Originally Posted by dansiek

Im thinking gambubble does not use this site anymore =p

Hehe, well spotted , thats twice today i was fooled by making a post in old treads

[Gambubble]

thanks for all ur replies....took longer than i thought to get this new job, this led me to take a brake in my entire life, including poker and girls, to have some physical recovery and some deeper introspection. Bad luck in life also doesn't exist at all, so had to check it up, and found some big hole in my behavior. Was quite hard to face alone, but I'm on my way.
Now I'm back, at least for poker, sorry girls u will have to wait a little, and I feel stronger than ever.
For now I have to re-watch/read all the basics, a 3,5 months break leaves some big holes in my beginner play style...
So I'll be around here for the next weeks, and then will try to be an active posting member.