I like Poker but man I suck... lets change that?

Ok so I'm primarily play 2NL FAST on GG. I figured the best way to start this thread off is to drop some hands in from the last couple days.

Hand 1:
Okay this hand was tough, this is my biggest loser yet. We get to flop pretty typical, I check for deception but also to give it back to the guy who showed initial aggression. He bet, I called. On the turn we make top two pair and I consider betting here but decide to check raise. Well I didn't get the chance the 1.5x pot had me spooked a tiny bit but I still thought I had the best hand. I called. Rivers a dud and he bets pot. I don't know what I was thinking at this point, but I recall right before I clicked back for everything saying in my head, "Lets hope he doesn't have QT" and the snap call broke my soul. I feel like subconciously I knew he had QT, he basically broadcast it to the ****ing world. This is one of the best examples of I'm beat but I really like my hand so I don't fold. Trust me there will be more.

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 447.5 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: 53 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
Hero (BB): 214.5 BB
UTG: 836 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
MP: 111.5 BB
CO: 118 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♥ J♥

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 3 BB, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) J♣ 8♠ 2♥
Hero checks, BTN bets 6.5 BB, Hero calls 6.5 BB

Turn: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 9♦
Hero checks, BTN bets 27 BB, Hero calls 27 BB

River: (73.5 BB, 2 players) 5♦
Hero checks, BTN bets 73.5 BB, Hero raises to 178 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 104.5 BB

Hero shows 9♥ J♥ (Two Pair, Jacks and Nines)
(Pre 38%, Flop 73%, Turn 9%)
BTN shows Q♣ T♣ (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 62%, Flop 27%, Turn 91%)
BTN wins 425 BB

Hand 2:
This is just a band hand, I even marked it in PT4 as such. I think I was trying to 4 table fast fold when this happened so I forgot preflop action. Lesson learned, limit is 2 tables. I open, he 3 bets, I call, middle pair, I'm interested to continue, but I shouldn't have bet first, I should always check back to the 3better here. We get in trouble and get raised, thinking I'm getting bluffed I counter raise, hey we're defintely not getting bluffed he counter raises all in, hey I'm ****ing stupid, I call with a ****ing pair of 9s. I'm so ****ing dumb, JUST FOLD YOU ****ING STUPID ****.

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 116.5 BB
Hero (SB): 205 BB
BB: 486 BB
UTG: 54 BB
MP: 102.5 BB
CO: 611 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♦ A♦

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 7 BB, fold, CO calls 4.5 BB

Flop: (15 BB, 2 players) 3♦ Q♦ 9♠
Hero bets 7.5 BB, CO raises to 22.5 BB, Hero raises to 60 BB, CO raises to 242.5 BB, Hero calls 138 BB and is all-in

Turn: (411 BB, 2 players) Q♣

River: (411 BB, 2 players) T♥

CO cashed out 287 BB for a fee of 0 BB

CO shows Q♥ Q♠ (Four of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 68%, Flop 71%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows 9♦ A♦ (Two Pair, Queens and Nines)
(Pre 32%, Flop 29%, Turn 0%)

Hand 3:
Okay, this is one of the only hands I have marked as a GoodHand in PT4, let me get your thoughts here. This hand something wasn't quite feeling right so we get started normal, I 3bet defend as BB. Bet the flop to try and get some value figuring with an A high board and a call to my 3bet he should have an A most of the time. Turn is another Ace I'm a fully function YACHT now can I take this guy to value town? I go about half pot and he's still interested. Well I know one thing, I probably have the essential nuts at this point because theres only 1 combo of AA, 2 combos of A9 and 6 combos of A3 but would A3o call a 3bet? I doubt it, so really only 1 combo of A3 could be here. At this moment in my mind, we only lose to 4 total combos of cards. I feel like I have the ****ing nuts right here. river is an A... ****. Villain checks I'm 100% sure if he bets I get taken all the way to value town, but I know he has an A so maybe fold. Maybe he know I know he has an Ace so he checks for BBJ? Shows up with AQ for quads. I lost with AAA99 that sucks, but I wait for the dancing Negreanu to get out of the way to be awarded with my BBJ... that never came, turns out BBJ is losing with AAATT+ fml. I kinda feel like I lost the minimum, but brother I might have called on the river, idk maybe I could have gotten away I legit put him on an Ax in my mind, I might get away.

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 352 BB
SB: 100 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 100 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)
MP: 89 BB
CO: 109.5 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♥ 9♣

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) A♦ 3♠ 9♠
SB checks, Hero bets 6 BB, SB calls 6 BB

Turn: (30 BB, 2 players) A♣
SB checks, Hero bets 14 BB, SB calls 14 BB

River: (58 BB, 2 players) A♥
SB checks, Hero checks

SB shows A♠ Q♣ (Four of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 45%, Flop 6%, Turn 16%)
Hero shows 9♥ 9♣ (Full House, Aces full of Nines)
(Pre 55%, Flop 94%, Turn 84%)
SB wins 54 BB

Hand 4:
Shall we look at a hand I won? I'm gonna be honest, yall cant see this but I've been looking for something I'm proud of for like 10 minutes... Look I cant find em, lets talk about this one, one thing I've noticed is this 2NL pool doesn't like to put money in if they don't have it. This one we bet, get raised and raise back on the flop. I'm pretty sure he has QT, QJ, KT, AT here, he's definitely on a gutter or open ended. I bet low enough he must of thought he could steal it. Raise him, he calls 10 to win 30, Bet large on the turn to try and push out anymore draws but keep in any two pairs. I probably needed to go smaller to keep a 9x around. I think the xr also probably had him scared, I feel like xr/br is super nutted could I have gotten value from something on river? maybe two pairs but otherwise probably not. Idk.

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 112 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
SB: 162 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
Hero (BB): 151 BB
UTG: 113.5 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 100.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
MP: 100 BB
CO: 27 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 30.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7♦ 7♣

UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (5.5 BB, 2 players) 9♦ 8♦ 7♥
Hero bets 2 BB, UTG raises to 7.5 BB, Hero raises to 18 BB, UTG calls 10.5 BB

Turn: (41.5 BB, 2 players) 3♥
Hero bets 31.5 BB, fold

Hero wins 38 BB

Hand 5:
Ok lets talk about this hand, I won this, but how do I get paid more? I call the flop bet, turn puts a 3rd spade out there, he slows down, I bet 1/3 and get a fold, this guy 3bet, he 100% has a Q or K and gave up the moment a flush was possible on the board. Am I dumb, should I be straight giving up on flush board? How do I keep this guy in, but not let the river be a free card, a 4th spade would probably have lost me this hand for sure.

GG Poker - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 145.5 BB
SB: 147.5 BB
BB: 229.5 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
UTG: 89 BB
MP: 92 BB
CO: 114 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♣ 9♦

fold, MP raises to 2 BB, CO raises to 9 BB, Hero calls 9 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop: (21.5 BB, 2 players) K♠ 5♥ 9♠
CO bets 7.5 BB, Hero calls 7.5 BB

Turn: (36.5 BB, 2 players) Q♠
CO checks, Hero bets 12 BB, fold

Hero wins 33.5 BB

I'll post some hands from tomorrows session when I'm done with it.

Hi GL with the thread your goals!

Hand 1: Raise turn or as played i should call river, never raise there. (only callt by better i guess)
Hand 2: 3bet pre is fine, you have nutflush draw on the flop , so i would c/r flop instead of betting myself. Outcome would be the same. cooler!
Hand 3: You played it right imo
Hand 4: Played it good, i also would bet big on turn.
Hand 5: I think 99 is most of the time a fold here, and if you play it, then only play it as a raise neven as a call imo.

Just one tip, forget about those fast tables or zoom tables.
Just play regular tables, you're winrate will be much higher!

Keep posting hands!

Hey thanks for the feedback @Repentless

Looking back, calling a 3bet with 99 just I don't think is ever going to be the right play, I think its 4bet or fold in this situation and I think its fold like the HEAVY majority of the time. Especially with 2 more to act after me. So agreed, the 99 shouldn't have just cold called the 3bet.

I can play regular tables today and try it out, I just really want win 2NL FAST. So maybe I try and win regular first for a decent period of hands and then go back? Idk.

Been playing since you were 7? You’re a natural man, you got this.

Hands 1 and 2, I'm folding pre at zoom, I'm only calling hand 1 like you did if I'm playing against an absolute maniac who will donate to me if I hit any whiff of anything. Hand 2, I'm only three betting light like that if villian has high FT3B and high fold flop and turn cbet stats, otherwise I'm likely going to be getting owned by a competant player, whilst out of position.

All the other hands, well played, gg.

> since you were 7?
No, 7-14 at family events where extended family was present. Then didn't start playing again until this past October at 27.

Responding to Zzoop:
Interesting so J9s and A9s we're not even ****ing with pre when playing Zoom tables.. So what should I be looking at for VPIP on Zoom tables? Mine is sitting at 22/16/7 maybe I'm a bit too loose for zooms? Yes for hand 2, my 3bet and bet sizing in general needs work, I only like today learned a typical 3bet sizing in 3x IP and 4x OOP for cash. I have no idea what to do for 4bets but I've been just doing a 3x or so from any position.

I honestly don't know what I'm doing. I just lose and lose and lose. I'm about to AoF this entire ****ing $93 that remains. Better odds betting on coin flips.

Apparently I'm getting it in bad, today I played ~700 hands and my Avg All in Equity was 44.87

I don't know what hands to share, I don't know how to tag the players I'm playing against, I don't know what I'm doing. ****

-$12.22 today mix of rush and cash & regular tables.

-121.47BB/100 so come sit to my left fellas, I'm giving it ****ing away.

Jan 10, 2025 2NL session hands. Mix of Fast/Reg tables (360 of each)

Hand 1:
I was tilted here, but come on man, AK show up for me

Hand 2:
This is the hand that got me tilted about 1 minute before Hand 1. Apparently I'm a dog the entire time, in my mind I had nut flush draw & gutshot so 9+4=13 outs, decided when he ripped for 75 (57.5 effective) that I had the odds to call or at the very least it was close. (Just checked a calculator, 26.8% pot odds given to me to call and checking an equity calculator program I had just under 32% equity vs his hand. I think this is just always a call and when I did the quick napkin match 13 outs, 1 card to come was 26% equity in my head about 25-30% pot odds. I made the call.

Hand 3:
Alright this hands about 30 minutes earlier than the other 2, this was right at the start of the session and kinda had me sour to the session but I was willing to try and grind it back, just a buyin. I'm realizing I ****ed up heavy here. I realized it in game which is why I wasn't too mad, obviously don't love punting money. I 3bet, he 4bets, can QQ continue to a 4bet or 5bet? Let me check GTOWiz... Ok GTOWiz says QQ should call 50% or All in 50% in no world should I bet light 5 betting. But I guess also in no world do I fold here with QQ. Unless I just decide that 4bets are like SUPER nutted? So far in 2NL the only 4bets I'm really seeing are AA, AK, KK so maybe I just respond to what I'm seeing?

Hand 4:
Ok this one's just tough, I just checked in GTOWiz to just see preflop... Looks like SB 3bets are NUTTED AF and while I can call JJ here about 22% of the time I should really be folding. I didn't know, we learning. Look I don't want to seem like I know everything, I ****ing dont. I'm really trying to learn here.

Hand 5:
Ok this hand is at a normal table, Idk I thought this would work, like how many of us are really connecting to this J and there's 2s on board.. I guess I was trying to fold people out and just spazzed

Hand 6:
Ok this hand hurts a little but I'm pretty sure folding here is the only call to make. The raise on the flop had me concerned but I'm now calling 22.5 to try and get 64 so like 1/4 odds needed? I don't I had that, I bet here to try and push out anyone marginally attached to the board. I should have folded out, the king coming 4*4=16% on the turn it's just a bad call.

Hand 7:
Ok this will be the last major loser of the day I show... This one I really don't know what to do.. QQ is so cool, but also wtf do you when flop is KJ9 with 2 callers to a 3bet? Someone cc AJs and the AK didn't 4 bet so mythinking... I don't even know, I'm really struggling to put people on a hand when the range to call could be any AJs+ AQo+ 77+ KQs+ it's just hard man. I'm bad.

Hand 8:
Only one winning hand to share today I did something I'm not sure I should have? I just called a 4bet with AA, looking at GTOWiz it looks like 25% call raise the rest. so I guess it's ok, but assuming nutted 3bets and an opponent leading on the flop thats Q high. Should I have let this go? Obviously it worked out but Its very possible this guy had QQ, AQs, KQs. Was the jam right? I only jammed because he had so little behind after his flop bet. I'll just say I think this guy was going to get it all in with me either way but curious on other ways to play this.

Thanks to those commenting and responding to hands I post. Like I said here, I do want to get better, I'm just having a really hard time with the virtual aspect of a screen name, I'm bad with names so it's very tough to recall something someone might or might not have done. I think I need to figure out color tagging but honestly I don't know a simple system for that, how do I tell a TAG, LAG, Fish from eachother, Idk. My poker knowledge is so low I think I need to invest in training services or something.

Also don't want to edit the other post too much

Reg Tables vs Zoom/Fast Tables

Bro I have ADHD, I get so bored sitting at 2 reg tables, what am I watching for? Occassionally I'll see someone 3bet lighter and mark that guy green for money but it's tough. When I play I normally do 2x Fast tables but maybe thats dumb to I'm just giving it away twice as fast? Curious what I should be doing. 2 reg tables seems to slow and such low volume and 2 fast tables I'm dumping my money.

Play 4 Regular tables (or 6) instead of 2 zoom.

HH1: Limp/raise is strong af, lucky that it was a flip (I would need a read that Limp/raised with smth like 99 or AQ to stack off here)

HH2: Fine, flop is where you could go either way XR/XC/bet small (Im not a fan of betting half pot)

HH3: I would just go all-in (at 2nl be carefull) ... 5B non all-in 100bb deep is just dumb imo

HH4: Fold vs massive cold 4B (unless you have a read that his a maniac whale)

HH5: unnecessary preflop, same post... you have a value hand and want to get called by worse (imagine opponent having 44 or ATs and get paid)

HH6: Too loose to raise pre, bad sizing, fold vs raise OTF.

HH7: Perfectly played

HH8: Might aswell go all-in preflop, otherwise perfectly played

Da**, waited for order at Mcdonalds for so long even managed to reply to all the hands

Gl in grind!

Why are you doing things like 10bb 3b over a CO 2x over an UTG limp, followed up by a 2x pot shove on the flop? On a micro table? Why not just play tight and print?

Fair question..and I don't have a satisfactory answer, I raised because it seemed like lots of potentially dead money limp, 2bb open, call so thats 5bb already, open to 10bb and knowing this pool from what I've seen shuts down quickly to 3b I thought I'd be ok. I didn't expect for it to go 4 ways to the flop. On the flop my thought was, how many of us have a J here, lets just clean this up and push people out. I've played 5k hands so far at 2NL and I've seen people give up at the lightest breeze of a bet so I figured, make em fully commit it to the pot or gtfo. Turns out they fully committed and I was dominated by CO.

I don't know, I guess I'm trying to win back what I've been losing? It feels so demotivating to only be winning these like 6-8bb pots and it gets raked to hell an no real profits are getting made. Think I'm trying to win big pots and that's whats killing me, Getting it all in so I can start that green line trending up again, but it's just not happening. I guess just super tight and super small pots going forward.

I'll try out 4 tables, I can always sit out if one table is needing more attention. Commitment: No Zoom tables for the next 5000 hands. I will play 5000 hands of Regular 2NL tables.

This is what I'm seeing, every time someone limp raises me so far its supper nutted. That being said I think with AK continuing is a must but getting All in pre, not needed.

Yeah, I'm not getting many reads on people, having a hard time remember screen names and past actions, its not like live where I see a person, person does this, this thing is now attached to said person.

I appreciate all the feedback, I'm going to make adjustments.

Today I'm not planning on playing online as I'm attending a birthday thing for someone and then headed to the casino with the group afterward. I will probably play live 1/2 so here's hoping I can just play tight. I think the mistake I'm making is I'm trying to play and do things that just don't make sense. I'm trying to do these giant bluffs or get it all in to try and help the bankroll but I'm just failing at it. Think I need to go back and just focus on ABC poker.

I understand you, because i went through the same stuff at micro stakes years ago.
But does it make sense to play high volume zoom without winning, try 6 regular tables, try to make good notes.
If you do that, you make easily 20bb/100 on 2NL.

Don't give up, study and play!

Rush vs Reg
Appreciate the thoughts. I agree, bb/100 > volume

I'll be playing my next 5000 hands of cash poker at 2NL regular tables. Going to 4 table for now and see where we are in a few days.

Online br: $104

Live 1/2 on 1/11/25
Went to Winstar to play a live session of 1/2, did some gambling and ended up sitting down at the table around 1:50am with a buyin of $200 (Winstar caps buyins at 100bb). Immediately the table has 2 guys around $600 in their stack, a couple shorties and some other 100bb stacks. I got into a hand on my first deal with J9s in the CO might have been too loose, was open ended on the flop and didn't get what I needed. Down to 175 off the first hand so we were in focus mode quick. Next interesting hand I made $27 profit with KTs in the BB board came out T884T, the guy didn't call my river value bet. Stack up to $187. I was occasionally straddling since the table was playing super loose and Winstar has btn straddle with final last action. Ended up getting AA on my straddle, 6 callers to the $4 straddle, I raised to $15 because I wanted people to call, I could have gone way higher if I wanted to get it down to just headsup, probably something like $35 would have gotten only 1 or 2 calls. I ended up with 4 calls at $15 for a pot of ~80 pre rake. cbet the flop and everyone folded, didn't write the flop down. Again got AA the very next hand opened to 8 over 1 limper in the CO and got 4 calls. cbet the flop for $15 and everyone folded, the flop was 874r. Stacks at 260ish here. lose a bit from small opens and folding to 3bets with hands that can't continue and then we get this next hand.

Limp pot I'm in the BB and 7 limpers for $2, I check my option because I have 95s and its a fold for me but why not see the free flop. Flop ended up being 995hh, I bet $10 and got 3 calls, pot now ~55ish (idk rakes like 6-7 so around this?). Turn is an Ah, I bet 20 get 2 folds and the btn jams for $175ish. My only concern is maybe an A9o hand or something, but realistically I put him on a flush so after like 10-15 seconds to make sure I called. He had 87hh for a flush and straight flush draw. River was a brick, 2 of whatever is what my notes say. Chip stack at $470 about 1 hour into the session. Guys notes in live play are hard, its way easier to pick up and remember tells seeing people do things and put face to an action. But getting hand histories recorded is tough, I think I'll need a notepad and pen to record hh of live, phone kinda sucks. Next bigish hand I had KTo in CO, a little loose but made an open call. Board ran out K9T66, ended up getting something here, chipstack to 550.

Next big hand I'm in the HJ with AKs villain is an ATC and was getting in with 3bets with 74o previously in the session. I open HJ to $8 over 1 limp, get 3! by CO (villain) for $24, 4! to $75 and get a call. Flop was 973r and at this moment I'm a little worried about 99 being possible so I decide to play cautiously and xc $25. Turn is an Ace I xc $25 river was a brick 2 and still being worried I'm getting taken to value town by 99 since he called the 4! but didn't want to jam I was again cautious and checked. He tanks for like 2 minutes thinking and checks it back. He has T7o for 3rd pair. I scoop pot and the stack peaks at $680

We start getting some premiums but can't continue on the flop/turn and end up burning a bit of the stack down to around 580. blinding and small opens get us down to $540. Then we get the FINAL HAND of the night. GUYS this is the hand I'm most proud of but I'm probably going to be told, "FOLD PRE" lol.

I'm in the HJ with Q8hh and open to $12 with a $4 straddle and get 3 callers, CO BTN BB. Flop comes QQ3dd, BB x, hero x, CO $28, BTN all in for $17, BB call $28, hero $100, CO fold, BB call $100 really quick. Turn is 7d, BB all in for $147, hero tanks for about 2 minutes knowing that BB has a flush but just mentally getting ready to fold trips and get away from this pot, hero folds Q up. BB immediately turns over AJdd and the BTN that is all in says, "**** if you folded trips I'm dead" river is a brick and the guy takes it down with A-high flush obviously.

Ok so last hand... Q8s? Loose? Yeah a little maybe but also we were 6 handed as it was 5:30am. I don't regret it, mentally the fold seemed hard as I had been over $500 for so long I was kinda looking forward to getting to use 2 racks to cashout. ended up cashing out for $462 for 3h36m of playtime for a $72/h 1/2 session.

Live br: $1511 (+262 from poker and +$113 from some bubble craps I played when I took a 5 minute break about 2.5 hours into the session)

Live vs Online thoughts. Live is super easy and my object permanence works. I am able to remember what someone has done previous in the session and recognize their actions to who they are. I feel like thats something I'm really struggling with online with just the screen names. Not sure how to improve this, I assume just better note taking and color tagging. Any tips here are GREATLY appreciated. I definitely prefer live even though I'm still a net loser in live. I will say I think even though I was burning buyins this week online putting 5k hands in and struggling to fold and constantly paying people off is the reason I was able to make this fold in the last hand I played. I didn't want to call and be right that he had a flush. I didn't need everyone to see, "how screwed I got with my trips" I just folded the Q face up and that was that. I needed this guy to know that I knew what he had and I was laying down a hand. Good for table image.

Didn't get to play online yesterday, I might tonight but I'm exhausted so dropping this update and catching some ZZZZ.

Thanks for all the feedback yall.

1/14/25 Online Session Update:

I played normal 2NL Holdem 4 tabling when the session started my balance was: $104.52 and at the end of the session my balance is: $99.56 for a -$4.96 session but I actually got a $1 bonus from a deposit bonus during that so really the session was -$5.96. I played for 2 hours and played 750 hands.

Session Chart

Hand 1:
The session was a struggle pretty quick losing a buyin in this following hand. Honestly, this one didn't bother me too much. I actually got it in really good here and he hit one of the 2 outs he had on the river. I declined the run it twice offer and declined to take my equity payout. I'm of the mindset that I'd rather just rip the bandaid off. Well this happens when you do that sometimes.

Hand 2:
We continue onward and try to recoup and we get into another all in situation about 15 minutes later. Again we decline to run it twice and decline to take the equity payout from GG.

Hand 3:
This hands just too loose, I open pretty loose due to the 4BB straddle in effect. I get raised by one of the short stacks that's been sending it with marginal hands and figured worst case we'd be 60/40. Turns out I was right 60/40 and neither of us hit the board and Ace high takes it. Not 100% sure how to adjust games to straddles yet but I do know I probably shouldn't be calling off 3bet jams (even if its only 22bb) with K8s.

Hand 4:
Ok this hand has something I need to work on it, we win this hand but I could use a quick point in the right direction on if this was ok or not. Aks vs unknown, I 3bet and get called. flop comes I bet villain raises and I call. Turn villain leads and I call. river villain checks and I jam and get a fold. I wanted a fold here and got it, just don't know if maybe I should have wanted a call here instead? How would you play this hand?

Hand 5:
Ok final hand to share for today, but this one has me questioning a couple things. One how do I read if someone is rocking a pocket pair? It's so tough to know and it occurred to me in this hand when the villain lead flop and turn that he might have hit a set of 5s or 22s and that I'm just letting myself get value owned. Ended up he didn't have one but what should I be looking for when it comes to reading pocket pairs?

Session Wrapup:

750/5000 hands played on 2NL reg tables.
-$5.96

All in all I felt like it was a good session, just being 4.5 buyins under EV kinda sucks. Should I be accepting run it twices and such? I normally just rip it once but it feels like the suckouts are immense online.

I might be done with this online poker ****. Played 130 hands today and was pretty close to losing my mind. I'm losing at the same rate on regular tables as I do Zoom but I pay more rake on regular tables.. What the ****.

h1:

h2:

h3:

h4 honestly shocked bro didnt have pocket Q or pocket K:

h5:

The amount of **** I'm seeing is crazy. This shits setup to just be a rake trap.

It's also always the same table that ****s my ass. win the 3 other tables I'm playing but get giga destroyed on 1 table for 2 buyins in 23 hands. Like set me up more.

There's a lot to learn in this game but trust me when I say when you learn better fundamentals most of these annoying spots will begin to disappear. Coolers can't be helped of course 😀

99 as an example, why are we not fast playing flop multiway facing a small bet and a call on a board where many draws will call?

KK why are we cbetting for 50% when we have terrible equity vs any Ace?

AK why are we not shoving preflop vs a 30bb stack? ( outcome of the hand is irrelevant )

TT when he calls our flop raise what worse hands are we now getting value from on the turn?

These are the questions you need to be constantly asking yourself over and over every-time you play, and eventually better decisions will become part of your subconscious play that you won't even need to think about them, they become automatic.

Don't give up, the best way to learn is by putting in volume and questioning everything.

Hey I appreciate the comment, I'm not going to give up, just gets frustrating as it seems in online it seems they just always have it, I never really feel confident in the strength of my hand. Honestly when you say, "better fundamentals" I'm not even sure where to start, clearly I need some sort of course or something to get me up to speed. That being said you've posed questions on the hands we played so lets go through them.

Good question, so 99 I sometimes 3bet with, others I flat call, because this was the UTG that started the preflop aggression and CO minclicked a flat felt like the best play to go set mining. On the flop when we hit the set my biggest concern is AKs, AQcc, clubs in general, however being so many of us going looking back, 87s could be here, When UTG opens for 2.5bb my thinking is, lets get as many callers as we can, another face card doesn't hurt us yet, but clubs we need to slow down on. On the turn I felt good about a raise as it seemed deceptive to do so on the 5, no way he thinks I'm 999 probably just K or chasing a flush. River I tried going small enough to get called by any king and just didn't get a call.

Being the preflop raiser this board felt like a decent spot to charge any flush draws, especially holding the Kd, while the boards connected I'm not at all worried about someone showing up with 52s here, normally I would cbet 1/3 but because we were multiway I wanted to try and clean up my equity and 1/2 felt better for that. I also holding the Kd felt I had equity vs Aces should another diamond land as we can then play our hand as a flush and leading out on the flop helps tell this story (feel like this would work live, maybe not online, no idea). Hand went how I was expecting a diamond on the turn I now charge other flushes and continue the story of having a bigger flush. The river being a K helps give me better showdown equity so that if somehow a nonbelieving player gets here I beat 2 pairs, I beat aces, I beat quite a bit, but I do lose to a flush. Idk I really feel like this was just not a good play out of my villain. But this is also why people say, "dont bluff in 2nl" sadly our trips here are just a bluff catcher. When he clicks back for an all in I was pretty sure I was dead but for 7bb had to know because if I wasn't potodds were immense.

Certainly can, sometimes I mix up AK normally it's a reraise preflop I didn't here as the minclick from my villain smelled like some **** JJ+ would pull to induce a 4bet. It was an in the moment, something doesn't feel quite right thing. Outcome here sucks obviously but yeah it was a gut thing. That being said when flop had a K and I'm holding a K I definitely wasn't expecting pocket KK, lot less combos of kings available so I figured we were probably good with the K, worst case was AA vs AK, probably was AK vs AK. The raise on the flop was meant to push QQ/JJ out of the conversation.

Yeah so he minclick 3bet (lot of that happened today) so we can eliminate alot from his range, he's probably 99+, KJ+, QJs, JTs, T9s, 98s -- he also raised from the button and was in pretty much every hand since he sat down at the table. I felt calling the TT made sense. Flop is a dream for TT, I check with intentions to xr when he calls the xr his range definitely gets tighter, 99+, 98s, T9s, JTs so were not beating much at this point of what would call the xr on the flop. Idk, this at the time felt like a cooler, looking back I think slowing down and checking turn when the xr gets called would have been better, I also know I bet the turn to try and protect my equity from a random facecard river ruining my hand.

I appreciate the comment, probably one of the best I've gotten. Feel like with online 2NL I'm fighting the players, my attention span and the program while in live I focus up and play for more than this online br. Idk it's just tough to get all these questions in, in the moment online.

I'm not really good at multi quoting so hopefully this is readable

Preflop we can squeeze or call mostly vs one player. on btn It's not really the issue with the hand, it's postflop. You shouldn't be concerned with AK or AQcc or speculate about an unlikely 78cc, it's the one combo that's doing fine against our hand and even then we're still a 60/40 favourite. AK is essentially dead and AQcc is just a flushdraw. In short, we want to drive the action. This is 2NL, when we have monster hands have to try to get as much money in quickly as possible because villains are overcalling draws and overvalueing top pairs.

We shouldn't think of it in a way of "if a club comes I can get away". It's not a tournament. We should think of it like "how much do I need to raise now so I can shove clean turns". I'd raise flop 20bb's and we'd have close to a pot sized bet to jam on turns. There's 5 players in the pot who can have all sort of top/two pairs, flushdraws, gutters, we don't want to let them realize their equity for cheap.

Having the Kd you're blocking them from having the nutflush draw, and vs this many players and especially at 2nl if anyone has an Ace they most likely won't be folding. There's four players to the flop, the chances someone has an Ace is quiet high.

I understand where you're coming from with the idea of using the Kd as a triple barrel if turn brings another diamond, but it's not we should approach the game at 2nl. Getting people to fold top pair isn't easy. If we check call flop and turn is another diamond maybe then we can start to think of turning our hand into a bluff. Betting blindly into the field and "hoping" turn is another diamond isn't a good fundamental approach because most of the time it won't be one, and even when it is a) Villian might not fold top pair regardless and b) We can get stacked by made flushes

Shoving here pre vs 30bb stack is totally unexploitable. Rarely they may have KK but vs that hand even then we still have 30% equity to win. If we just call most of the time we will miss flop and be faced with a cbet not knowing what to do, often folding the best hand or not getting to realize our equity on turns and rivers. AK is a nutted preflop holding, treat it as such especially vs fish playing shallow stacks. It can never be a mistake long term. "Raise on the flop was meant to push out QQ/JJ". But why do we want to push out those hands? They have two outs, we want hands we're crushing to continue in the pot to get the remaining chips on a future street.

This is totally fair and I missed this when looking at the hand initially, I didn't realize he minclicked preflop and wasn't playing a full stack either. What I wrote earlier applies to a normal 3bet and stack size so it should be some use for that scenario instead.

Carry on with the improvement, keep grinding things will start to click eventually if you put the volume and study in. Take your time each hand and ask yourself the question "why am I betting, what does it accomplish?" Every time you bet there should be some reasoning behind it. When you start thinking of the game in this way things will start to make much more sense. GL!

@nuxxx
dude, thank you for going into some detail here, my god this wonderful, ofcourse I don't want worse hands to fold, why would I want that... why am I trying to push out QQ/JJ in that one hand, I want their money! I'm going to look into some study material, I really think I could figure this game out, just need more fundamental understanding. Thanks for sorta walking me through these hands.

Played a little bit more last night and ended up binking a $1.25 tournament buyin for $11, chopped with the last guy as I had chip lead and wasn't confident in my headsup ability for the $3 difference. Nice little boost to the bankroll to get back the losses from the last couple of 2NL sessions. I also played some spin & gos and did ok, seem to win about 1/3 of the time, come 2nd about 1/3 of the time and last 1/3 of the time. Think I'm around breakeven on the .25c spin and gos. Going to be coming in fresh for todays session, the only thing that may put me off my game is I am sick which is never fun. The above actually got me to the next fish level for rake and I decided to switch to the Platinum 20% fish so that I have steady rakeback as generating the 6000 points I was going to need for 21% avg felt like a tall task at 2NL.

As for study resources I'm kinda struggling to find much updated for 2024/2025 that relates to improving in the microstakes. So as such I guess we just say **** the microstakes specificity and look for good fundamentals..

- Essential Poker Math by Alton Hardin (sitting on my desk)
- The Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler (also sitting on my desk)
- Modern Poker Theory by Michael Acevedo (also on my desk)

Should I be considering the GTOWizard subscription that lets me put my hands in to see blunders? Obviously getting to share big losses here is helpful for learning, but being able to look at and have a computer analyze 1000s of hands could help?

Has anyone used Upswing Poker? I tried it and found the content to be pretty slow and refunded, I do like the GazzyB youtube videos and know he makes content there. Should I resubscibe?

I'm currently a sub to CrushLivePoker and have barely touched it, initially my intention was to only play live and skip online so I subbed here but not sure, thoughts?

Just looking for next steps to dive deeper and get better. Volume helps I guess but without a good base how much is it helping?

Do you have a good base? Do you know what hands to open in every position and what sizing to use? What hands to 3b in every position/vs every position and to what sizing? How to react to 3b or 4b in and out of position with various parts of your opening range? What boards to cbet on with different parts of your range?

I know what to be opening for RFI, I play tighter than GTOWiz suggests as I find I get into trouble when not. I'm primarily opening the top 20% of hands, less for UTG and more on the BTN. SB I take a 3bet or fold strategy mostly, occasionally a call but not super often. BB I know can be played wider but since 3bb is the open I'm not loving getting in with a marginal hand so I play pretty tight here. Blind vs Blind I'm pretty aggressive and try taking things down preflop as BB with a 3bet (hand permitting).

Opening sizes I'm doing 3bb everywhere but the SB where I do 4bb. Looking at some higher level play it looks like some do a 2.3bb open UTG, 2.5bb HJ/CO, 3BB BTN/SB so probably some work here on opening sizes could be done.

When being 3bet I pretty quickly know if I should continue as the 4bet range is pretty tight, JJ+, AK -- Deciding to call depends on position, vs a SB 3bet I'll call a little wider because I have position however vs a BTN 3bet I'll tighten up a little bit, pretty much all offsuit hands get mucked, really only continuing with 99+, KJs+, ATs+. I won't say I "Know the charts" because I don't but I do have rough ideas from checking charts, but I haven't committed myself to memorize them, I just kinda picture them in my head when the decision isn't immediately obvious.

Cbetting is an interesting topic. When I first started this thread I cbet every board except middling connected board. This helps a ton with redline but seems to shut down alot of villains early and only get the preflop money. Due to the losses I've stopped cbetting as much as everyone here has been saying, "play abc poker, bet when you have it, fold to aggression" and thats what I've been trying to do so my cbetting is way down. That being said if I RFI'd and board is AJ7r, I'm continuing. Something like 874hh, I'd slow down and check unless I had hearts. I don't know exactly what to cbet just kinda go on gut. If the range of hands I could have would want to bet on a board I tend to cbet, if they would want to peel another card, I tend to check.