U$$30,00 - U$$ 10.000,00
Hi y'all!!
I was a regular poker player about 4 years ago.
At that time, I was playing for a poker team in Brazil, known as CARDROOM.
I didn't had what it takes to be a real professional player, got to 25NL ZOOM, made some shots at 50NL, but the routine was too much for me.
It isn't enough to know how to play the game and make some money, 5 - 7 hours daily routine studying and playing the game, it was not for me, I did that for 1,5 year, didn't like it.
I've had to work on my daily job to pay the bills AND play poker.
My routine was:
Go to work from 8AM to 4PM, sleep at 5PM, wake up at 00:30AM, I've had to change everything in my life, I wasn't seeing my wife anymore, it almost cost my marriage.
Enough said.. You don't want to know about my personal problems..
Pokerstars sent me an e-mail about 10 months ago saying that I've had +/- U$$29,00 on my account due to rakeback challenges that I've played years ago.
I didn't cared that much untill July, when I’ve decide to play a little to pass the time.
For my surprise.. The pool behaved exactly the same, of course there are some minor changes with most reg players, but one of the first things you learn playing for a team is that you're not supposed to be better than the other regs, you breakeven on then.
But still, they are pretty much the same. Some things that used to work on then aren't working with the same exactly frequency, so my winrate on certain spots are lower than I'm used to.
So today I've decided that I don't wanna be a professional poker player, all I want is U$$ 10.000,00, I'm brazillian, here, this is a lot of money, trying to compare with US people, It's almost U$$ 60.0000,00.
Our money worths ****.....
But here I’ll try to make something different that I see other players doing it, this is not a challenge, I’m not making move ups, maybe 10NL at tops, this will probably take years to make, but as I’ve said, I don’t wanna be a professional poker player, I wanna have fun!
I intend to update this topic every 10k hands, and as a bonus for you that are struggling at these limits, NL2, 5, 10 and 25, I’ll give some tips and advices that I’ve learned at the poker team, nothing too much GTO, small tips that I’ve learned along that time..
Things that I know no one talks about it.
For example:
What and how to study?
How to really use GTO tools to masterise any strategy?
Do I need GTO tools at NL2? (yes)
What they mean when they say “have a good strategy and you’re good to go”?
What is this mysterious strategy they all talk about it?
MDA? Never heard of it…
Now I’ve heard about MDA, I’ve learned that it would cost “U$$3.000” to make it, do I need it now? (no)
Things like that make you feel lost in the woods, and I will help you to understand everything, but no, I’ll not give you the information exactly, I’ll just talk about it and maybe you get some gold on that.
Nonetheless you’ll know why things are like the way it’s…
Wish y’all the best of luck, not when I’m at your table!
Remember, I’m not a professional, I know that. I’m in no position of coaching anyone. For you that are at 100NL+, you won’t find anything interesting here, but I do accept the help!
“Be welcome to the sea, there’s blood in the water, and you must be the shark!”
I’ve cringed on that phrase, almost died….
Well, here are my results after 4 months:
NL2
NL5
NL10 (Missclicked the limit LOL)
Overral Results:
This Month
NL5
Bankroll
2 Replies
Best of luck, will be following!
Downswings
Hi y’all!!
I’d like to talk about downswings..
I’ve choose this as a first topic because there are a lot of misconceptions about what is “normal” and what is not..
And the answer to that is: “It Depends”
It Depends of what, you may ask?
And I’ll answer: Your strategy.
There’s this crazy site that shows you what kind of variance you could expect in the long run, and I would say to you that you shouldn’t use it. Because what’s a real variance is your all-in adjusted.. Simple as that..
If you have a strategy that comes with big variance, you will face big variances, look at this, for example:
THIS is variance! My strategy puts me in all in situations VERY often Post Flop.
There are so many spots that use geometric sizes and it’s part of my strategy, so, I’ll give my opponents tough spots that they should shove it or call it on the Turn, a check-shove – line, for example.
”So, if my All in adjusted is higher than every line, I can assume that I’m doing the right decisions, right?”
No, not exactly, but mostly yes.
There are some problems with that too, because we have coin flip situations that at such a lower limit as NL2/5/10/25 you shouldn’t be that often, because of RAKE.
Let’s say that you have pocket jacks at the Small Blind, and you know (let’s assume that) that the villain always 4bets shove AQ, AK and TT+, you don’t need to be a genius to know it’s a coin flip situation.
Let’s put it some sizes here.
Your 3bet size is 10bbs
The villain always shoves only AQ, AK and TT+.
You have JJ, so, let’s say you always calls, you never win money, It’s a coin flip. Obvius, right? No, there’s Rake, so you actually lose around 10 Big blinds for the site, and if you go VERY precise with the numbers, You have actually 48,8% equity.
This means that if you call this spot, you’re actually losing money for the site, your opponent too.
Are you getting the idea? Hope so…
“Alright, now that I know that, what do I do?”
Simple, You check on your tracker.
You should filter all by “all in equity” and get the hands that played for 40%+ equity and you won and lost money.
Do a re-check on your opponent profile and see if you should be in that spot with that hand against that villain.
You’ll be surprised of what you’ll find.
“Alright your dumbass, but if I always fold on that spot, I’ll be exploited than.”
Is it, really?
You don’t always 3bets pocket Jacks just to be in that spot and for that reason, and your opponent won’t always shove his hands. This isn’t the idea here.
The idea here is that on particular occasions you shouldn’t pay or should pay the shove. You should shove it or shouldn’t shove it.
Don’t get the wrong idea that in some particular spot you’ll be 1000bb/100 negative, because it doesn’t work like that.
I’ll talk about spots that are negative because they are, and because you’re a bad player, and show it to you how to identify then.. I’m not talking about Blinds position.
You should consider be in a coin flip situation only if the rake and the money already invested puts you in a REAL coin flip situation. It’s complicated, I know that. But you shouldn’t be wasting your time during a downswing reviewing hands that doesn’t matter, like a Bluffcatcher in a river spot, because now that you know that it’s or it’s not variance, you already know where to start, or if you are just a bad player and should study more.
If you realise that you are a bad player, don’t worry, I’m too, otherwise I would be at 200NL+, but we can get better.
“Hey, what do you have to say about always finding the villain with a better hand? This isn’t variance too?!?”
Yes, it’s, but now we are talking about why your opponent has always the best hand.
Did you let him have it? Did you call it his bet river in a underbluffed line?
Wouldn’t he fold it if I raised the Flop? The Turn?
This is why you shouldn’t waste your time reviewing hands, this isn’t how you study and get better, reviewing hands is only for that, “variance”. You should use your time to learn how to play every spot, not solving a single hand to see if you played “GTO”. If you do this, stop it, go learn more about how a solver works.
See you guys again in 10k Hands!
