Road back to HS PLO
ABOUT ME:
My screenname is portemilio. I've been playing Poker since I was 16. I started off playing poker on Runescape gambling sites where you'd buy coins ingame which had a $ value and deposit them on runescape poker sites. I found myself obsessed with the game since I was young. I specifically loved the HU format. At 16 i ran up 100$ to 20k when BTC was around 1.4k playing 6 max and 9max nlhe but ultimately got destroyed headsup because i lacked a lot of discipline and had major ego issues wanting to be the best. I always wanted to be the best and would get extremely angry when dealing with variance on top of the fact that I was an unstudied player. In college I transitioned to PLO. I got staked and coached but I wasn't winning no matter how hard I tried because of my serious BRM issues. I'd run up a couple of thousand dollars then instantly shot take 5/10 and lose it all and then go back to the lowest stakes to rebuild, rinse, and repeat. My senior year of college I decided I really wanted to give it my all. In class I'd bring my laptop and drill spots and this was the first form of studying I'd ever experienced (other than hundreds of hours of youtube videos and poker content that I consume). I significantly saw a change in my game. I've always been a highly intuitive player but with the baseline theory I developed I quickly skyrocketed though the ranks. I still had really poor mental game and not great BRM but I was able to run up my first 30k ish month in April of 2022. Unfortunately, I lost it all back shot taking 10/20 on ACR (very commend trend in my poker career). I had to take6 a fifth year of college because of a couple of other reasons but I always knew I was going to end up being a poker player. I dreaded school and felt it was the reason I wasn't succeeding because I still had to commit so many hours to school (studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Fluid Mechanics). I come from an Arab household and poker was not accepted at all but that didn't deter me. My fifth year I had the same routine where I'd study in class and play countless hours when I was back. I was also gaming a lot (League) so i decided to cut that out because I figured it was a waste of time if I really wanted to succeed. After I graduated (May 2022) I moved to Lebanon where my parents lived. I finally had no obligations, nothing holding me back and barely any expenses. I devoted all my time to poker (literally 15h days). After 6 months playing 1/2 - 10/20 on mainly bovada and BOL I made roughly 170k in profits. My mental health really suffered. I longed for social interaction; I had none of my friends in Lebanon and I started to not care about poker anymore. My health declined heavily and I felt despite the fact that I was winning that there was a constant judgement surrounding what I was doing. Once I showed my parents how much money I was making they couldn't complain about the journey I was decided to take ( as much anyways) but they were still greatly against it. My biggest mistake came when I decided to shot take 10/20 on Bovada. I was absolutely crushing Betonline and Bovada midstakes for atleast 8bb/100 over a sample of 400k+ hands, but when I played 10/20 nothing I did worked. I got absolutely crushed. My mental game was very strong at this point and I wasn't disheartened, I just figured it was variance. I ended up losing 45 ish buy ins (90k) running 70k below EV. This was almost 2/3 of my roll. I had heard rumors about collusion and cheating rings going on at 10/20 Bovada but I just figured that was bad regs crying about losing because the same was being said about every stake that I was consistently beating. I will never know if I actually got cheated as I have no definitive proof but I highly highly suspect that I did. At this point despite convincing myself that the loss of the money didn't affect me in reality my play began to change because nothing I did was working so I thought i had to deviate. I ended up going to EPT Barcelona in 2023 because I felt the need to prove to myself and everyone that what I was doing was a real job. I had around 50k to my name. I ended up losing 20k there playing 25/50 live (brm issues started coming back I really began to chase what I lost). Once I returned back to the US, started paying rent I prolonged into a 4 month period of break even/losing. I really thought at the time I was playing well I dont know maybe it was variance but looking back at it I had basically given up. I was playing 3h a day max and not putting in any volume at all (20k hands/month max). I'm using this 2+2 thread to hold myself accountable. I'm not going to give up on poker because I know I truly have a talent. I'm at a crossroads right now because im 24 and have little to no job experience so If I want to get a real 9-5 I'd really have to start looking now. I have a couple interviews with some investment banks just to appease my parents but it isn't something I'm taking seriously. On top of that it's really hard to explain to friends and family the journey I've been on because they don't understand variance at all. I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes I definetly did, but to lose that amount of money is definetly gut wrenching I finally made it and saw it gone at the blink of an eye. I have a lot of fuel in me now and I'm ready to play atleast 50k hands/month. I'm not going to let anyone pressure me or feel the need to prove to anyone (online or IRL) that what I'm doing is valid, I'm just going to do it. It may get lonely but this is truly what I love and I know i will get rewarded.
I'm going to attach this month's results. I had very little money to my name, I moved to my uncles house where I'm paying no rent and felt a lot less pressure on my bankroll. I started at .5/1 and 1/2 and slowly started to shot take 2/5 and very little 5/10 volume. I played almost 72k hands this month, which is the most volume I've ever put in in a month in my life. Attached is the graph. Eventually when I fix my old computer I'll export the DB to my new one and merge them. I will be posting interesting hands and lines I play here as well as weekly-monthly updates. I want to hold myself accountable no matter what and am interested to hear people's thoughts. I only have the last two months of my play tracked I'll post them shortly as I had to buy a new computer
GL ME!
Thats a really tough one. What do u think people usually have here?
I like a flopbet here sometimes this deep. You can bomb spade turns and apply more pressure to his range. This deep he will raise the flop quite strong and the hands that do generally have you crushed so you don't get denied that much eq.
totally fine to check, but i think it can be easy to play this spot too passive and bet too polarised and not utilise the situation to apply pressure enough
this deep getting folded off our equity would be pretty bad its a good check back and we want some good qx in our xb range . sure exploitatively its a fine bet too were not crying at get raised at makes the hand easier to play but also i like to just stick to the basics esp super deep
hu pot i 3b he calls. i xc the flop vs 1/2 and x jam turn (he folds). i have no idea if this is gto at all, it just felt like he was weak in game so i went with it and it couldnt be the worst combo to do it w . rlly not sure need an expert on this one!
edit: with that reason lowkey i should just call if i think hes bluffing and let him bluff on diamonds, cuz i might have the best hand? idk! hes polar as **** on turn
tf is this sim
this deep getting folded off our equity would be pretty bad its a good check back and we want some good qx in our xb range . sure exploitatively its a fine bet too were not crying at get raised at makes the hand easier to play but also i like to just stick to the basics esp super deep
I think even in gto this could mix on the flop or is very close. I understand what you say and I know it’s considered standard strategy by most but I think it’s somewhat short sighted.
CO v BTN 3b range is quite a strong range pre so I think you have to shift your thresholds as to what is equity you can bet/fold. If not wanting to bet/fold is your only leasing criteria you end up not betting much and not utilising your positional advantage enough.
While we may get pushed off our eq sometimes (this deep that will mostly be Qx+nfd or better, a hand we’re not doing that well against) we deny a ton of eq too: we get a bunch of KK to fold, some weaker fds. Some of those weaker draws can fold the flop but could push is off on the turn if we check back.
hu pot i 3b he calls. i xc the flop vs 1/2 and x jam turn (he folds). i have no idea if this is gto at all, it just felt like he was weak in game so i went with it and it couldnt be the worst combo to do it w . rlly not sure need an expert on this one!
edit: with that reason lowkey i should just call if i think hes bluffing and let him bluff on diamonds, cuz i might have the best hand? idk! hes polar as **** on turn
Yeah I was gonna say I actually like a cbet here better. Then after cbet on this turn which is atrocious for your range I would c/c the hand
What do you think is wrong with this sim? The way they configured the flop size or what?
Turn seems like a total game flow move where I doubt solver would make this play with this combo but I defer to your judgement. Your spidey senses seem super sharp at the moment.
5478ss hand I think you're priced in with raw equity + pot odds.
AQJ6ds, feel like the solver doesn't 3b this pre? Feel like I remember it not liking the 6 combo specifically but that may be for a different stack depth. I'm totally fine with 3b tho. Flop I could go either way. Crimson makes a lot of valid points. Turn... Simplifying and just ripping seems totally fine if villain has any semi bluffs in his range. He should have double fd c/r hands or wrap + fd hands. A754 comes to mind.
Super insane week. Over +70 buyins in a span of a week for 6max in the current games seems impossible. Really well done.
What do you think is wrong with this sim? The way they configured the flop size or what?
Turn seems like a total game flow move where I doubt solver would make this play with this combo but I defer to your judgement. Your spidey senses seem super sharp at the moment.
5478ss hand I think you're priced in with raw equity + pot odds.
AQJ6ds, feel like the solver doesn't 3b this pre? Feel like I remember it not liking the 6 combo specifically but that may be for a different stack depth. I'm totally fi
for the sim, it looks bugged both frequencies are at 100 %, not sure what happened there. think ur right ab the aqj6 i think it only 3b in late pos configurations.
and thanks appreciate that- dont get it twisted i am running super super well prob (32 total bis above ev for 2/5 and 5/10 for sample i showed). but the run good is actually still going. +85k. we bout to have a 6 fig month at this pace. ill post some hands tmr and graph if i hit the 100k mark. i also feel that 5/10 is just way softer than 2/5 on iggy
Those heaters always feel good. Don't forget to brace for impact
I've embraced enough impact let me run good for a little...
Side note- I started to play on bet online as well. my poker tracker wasn't working so wasn't catching a lot of the hands but the bet online card catcher was running, do you guys know if the hands were saved bc that would be super helpful since I have like 3k hands played and nothing to show for them, where would i be able to access them (theyre not in the ace pokersolution folder)
3b pot co vs btn 200bb deep ish
flop q73 2t, he x i x, turn 2, he x i bet 3/4 he tank pots i rejam. I think in theory this is what solver does ( i saw a similar spot to this but lower spr) because opponents are supposed to ahve bluffs here but when he tank jams turn its sos value heavy i shud just call . tough spot tbh dont lose to that much value esp w a queen. ill lyk what he had once i get some feedback 😃
What he had?
I was doing some review this morning and I found a funny one this guy 3 bet the small blind and flopped a royal flush and Potted the flop. Also, i folded a lot of marginal calling spots.. i was wrong on almost all of them these guys got game! god damn there finding crazy bluffs
I think what we can learn from this is that on double flush textures in 3b pots people don't like to bet wide enough because it puts them in all kinds of awkward spots on the river. I think simplifying and check/jamming a lot of made hands makes sense to them. Our exploit to this would be to polarise more and take more free equity with a hand like this.
dont mind the equities those arent true equities
220bb deep btn vs sb 3b pot, 742 2t, he x i b 1/2 he pot raises i call. turn he pots (all pretty snap decisions). is this just an easy fold? pretty tough spot. Was considering jamming flop but thought hed play straightforward on a bunch of runouts and would rather just play deep ip and my handsnot a fist bump get in regardless
Super clear fold on the turn.
Flop I like just calling as your hand can still fold on some really bad turns.
down 28k past 2 days. recovered back 9k today. 19k to go !
on the real though, i started running slightly bad and the winner's tilt got to me. i thought i was prepared but u dont really know how bad it is in the moment when youre losing every pot for 6h+ (which is not the most absurd thing). So i started playing a lot more lag and a lot morehands than usual which ultimately lost me a lot of money. gonna learn from this havent experienced this since iveen back on the grind online so its a good little lesson. side note - btc is going ham rn, ive been withdrawing from iggy to btc and just holding until i can withdrwa to my bank, holding has made me a good amt so theres that!
Yea.. that's what I was referencing.
if its any comfort
such non technical mistakes have happened to me dozens of times and it took many years before i became good with it even though it would be exstremely painful every time. Running bad and losing is one thing, but losing more because of your own additional screw up feels unforgiveable. Think thats true for most pro's.
mp vs btn. always checking this combo, i check he x. turn 7. unblocking all his st8r draws and just in general with nfd always want to xr here again. so i go for the plan. weird thing tho. he bets pot. not a normal size and didnt see him doing this ip he was more passive. i follow thru with the plan and xr and river prob splitting between small and big, and this hand fits in an easy small bet. i honestly wanted to check given his turn range is either miss straight draws or a boat . and i was pretty scared of 77. anyways i got jammed on. i def didnt get bluffed will check tomorrow . rlly weird spot with a lot of dynamics
no i was in check for most of the "smaller" downswings. but once i lost EVERY pot for like a day straight it hit. i needed to take a break. i also started to overthink EVERY SPOT. in spots where villain never has bluffs id tank tank tank and find a call thinking this blocker is good or that blocker is good. just overthinking. im back in my zone playing really well right now. actually still running super bad i think ive lost like the past 6 5k pots, but im super happy with my game play. ill post graph tmr still down 20k ish from my highest this month
dont mind the equities those arent true equities
220bb deep btn vs sb 3b pot, 742 2t, he x i b 1/2 he pot raises i call. turn he pots (all pretty snap decisions). is this just an easy fold? pretty tough spot. Was considering jamming flop but thought hed play straightforward on a bunch of runouts and would rather just play deep ip and my handsnot a fist bump get in regardless
one of the spots i overthought.. such an easy turn fold idk what i was thinking looking abck at it. i just leveled myself into making such dumb decisions ( i called). and i was using timing as my preface for my decisions instead of combo selection or wahtever actually so dumb. i looked up the hand the next day he had bottom wrap + middle pair, so like 4567 or something like that and just snap potted the 4 turn. so my new adjustment is now im playing almost instant- poker. im not letting myself think at all. im just trusting my intution to do its thing. its working and whenever i do this i play my best form of poker because i literally dont get side tracked by anything. i know i have traps in every spot, if villain wants to bluff me in a marginal spot he can have it, ill be protected in that spot the next time. thats basically the logic i use for some of the harder spots that they USUALLY have it in. and i think its fine
if its any comfort
such non technical mistakes have happened to me dozens of times and it took many years before i became good with it even though it would be exstremely painful every time. Running bad and losing is one thing, but losing more because of your own additional screw up feels unforgiveable. Think thats true for most pro's.
i always end up forgiving myself. but in the moment i hate myself i literally rage quit like 3 sessions the other day and broke a keyboard. again its not about losing - its about making technical errors that i know are caused by tilt/losing. those are the things that get under my skin, i get so mad at myself. i dont gaf if i run bad and lost 50 bis or when the whale levels u with his stupid size. like that **** kills me lol
ok we finally won one of them. almost 1k bb pot at 2/5 . utg opens utg + 1 3b i 4b from sb , utg cold calls (kek) and utg + 1 calls. i just pot flop 1.3-1.5 spr w/e not trapping here fk gto. even tho i prob shud. 3 way all in!
i always end up forgiving myself. but in the moment i hate myself i literally rage quit like 3 sessions the other day and broke a keyboard. again its not about losing - its about making technical errors that i know are caused by tilt/losing. those are the things that get under my skin, i get so mad at myself. i dont gaf if i run bad and lost 50 bis or when the whale levels u with his stupid size. like that **** kills me lol
woops just reread what u wrote. no literally exactly what u said. what do u do to combat it / get better at it? im usally not the type to let it affect me but when downswings go on for long it def gets the better of me sometimes
type of hand that really tilts me. sb vs bb 3b pot q92 2t board. i didnt lead which i shouldve so that already tilted me in hand, i checked too fast . and now bc i checked flop i fk up the turn too by not betting too so he goes ahead and bets 3/4 ip and i call. and river i xc pot. the way it played out def destroyed my mental esp that river is like the only one he makes money on (and a T). on turn i just felt like my hand was good based on game and that he was weak idk just a weird one
