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

Ok so the last comment got me wondering how well I "knew" the preflop charts and the answer is I guess I dont.

GTOWizard has 6max GG R&C 3x opens (about the open I'm seeing online)

Looking at the RFI charts I tend to be opening tighter than suggested, for example in UTG it suggests opening 54s-87s in some frequency and I don't at all.. It also suggests KTo, K8s, K5s all suited aces and opening 33-66 with some frequency. All things I'm not doing. So we may be too tight in some places and too loose in others, for example facing a 3bet, we're way too loose. CO opens, SB 3bets, BB? turns out its JJ+, KJs+, AQs+, AKo, and A5s which I'm assuming is there to help prevent exploitability. I'm defintely not that tight facing 3bets, so I think thats a leak that needs to be plugged. For example I'd call with AJs or TT.

The other thing I'm seeing is the button can play loose, but its aggressive, the btn facing an open from HJ is 3betting 3:1 the amount its calling. Think I'm calling too much.

Attaching W/L by position

Looking at this W/L it seems I need to super focus up on HJ & BB play as those are where my biggest leaks are at the moment. So I'm going to I guess look at charts? Not sure what next steps are here, I've identified a problem, I've identified the information is available, I guess now I just memorize? Is that what's next?

Yes, you'll want to learn what hands to play, from what positions, to what sizes. What hands to 3b, from what positions, vs what positions, to what sizes. What to do with those hands postflop (cbet/double barrels, sizes, how to react with various parts of your range to aggression).

by codehdn k

Ok Next Steps!

I found this free course for 6max cash from RaiseYourEdge (

https://www.raiseyouredge.com/courses/cash-game-starter

Raise Your Edge!

Cash Game Starter - Raise Your Edge!

) and I'm going to run through it today. I expect alot of what has been echoed in this thread on issues I'm doing will be echoed through the course.

I also found that pokercoaching.com has a sale for a year subscription at like $650/yr, maybe getting a year of that could help me? I feel like some guided study would be best for me, being told, "theres infinite resources

Show More...

I don't think that a $650 course is going to be much help when you are losing 2bb every single hand you're dealt. Starting with the fundamentals will build you a knowledge base that will help you start winning money and will give you the tools to build from.

Loaded $50 up onto ClubWPTGold to try it out with the CLP early access for testing. Only had 1 table running that was .10/.20/.40 with .10c ante. Sat down with 200BB so $40 and didn't run great, really wasn't connecting to the flops at all but felt very comfortable. The play kinda reminded me of live play, alot less tight that GG seems to be. Played about 200ish hands and ended up to $98 on the table with $10 in the account. Ended up deciding the platforms not for me, can't seem to be in both a cash game and a tournament, can't check other tables while playing a table, can't have the website open in another tab. It needs work.

Cashing out $108 let's see if the cashout goes through, I'll probably throw this over to GG/N8 bankroll.

I've also started the RYE free cashcourse, about halfway through, it's mostly the same things that have been echoed in this thread as expected. Hoping to wrap this up tonight, off to a dinner thing.

Also just to comment on this, I've been told like 5 times this thread, "just focus on the fundamentals" thats not helpful to someone that doesn't know what the fundamentals are..

This is the equivalent of someone wanting to learn programming and me responding to them, "learn javascript" or some other language. Like... really? No!

This is an odd thing to say because in the post that you quoted, I wrote out what the fundamentals are that you should be prioritizing

Not much poker played today, did about $10 in various tournaments, got close to the bubble in one and couldn't win my all in.

Did some All in or Fold at the $2 level and ended up hitting a Royal Flush for a nice jackpot that is taking the bankroll up to $215ish

In other news I purchased Upswing Poker 1 year membership for $244 which for around $20 per month I'm pretty happy with. Been watching videos in there, enjoying the play and explains at the lower microstakes 10NL is the lowest I've found so far and Gary Blackwood does a good job talking through his mindset in the videos.

Live $100 Turbo Daily Tournament at TCH Las Colinas

So today was the day we went and played live tournament, holiday monday + my mom wanting to go the poker room, it worked out. So we regged the tournament about 40 minutes after it started and got a 20k starting stack. Played very tight, got it all in early with a flopped set of 4s that turned into a fullhouse. Got Aces back to back and made money the first time and just took down the blinds the second. Looking at my play I only had a few hands I looked and was unhappy with, I limped some dog **** twice that I just shouldn't be limping. I 3bet in the BB with A9s over the SB (going to check GTOW right now) which turns out is just a pure call to defend, not a 3bet, so I ended up losing an additional 8bb by 3betting and then whiffing huge and letting it get to the river and got bet off the pot. The SB was pretty tight when he raised so I was confident we were probably beat and didn't hero for the pot. So we learn, A9s not a 3bet vs SB at 50-60bb.

We peaked at around 129k chips and at late reg end had about 105k from blinds of 2k/4k/4k and by the time the tournament gets down to the last 2 tables and we get table swapped were down to around 94k. At the new tabled I'm about 2nd stack, 18 players remaining of 59. The plan was folding will make us money, lets only play premiums. About 6-7 hands in I get AKo and the action seems interesting. I'm in the CO with 93k with a 6k bb and the UTG opens to 12k, I 3bet to 36k, SB jams for 57k, UTG tank folds and I start considering my options, Looking now at GTOW it looks like AKo here is a fold but I called and he showed TT and it held. Down to 36k we get through the blinds net even as I jammed on my SB with QJo. About 3 hands later I'm in the HJ and the blinds go up to 4k/8k/8k in like 2 minutes so my 6bb will turn into 4.5bb and I look down at Q9s and only having 6bb I shove figuring this is gonna be my best chance. It folds to the big blind who tank calls with A4o and hits a 4 and holds.

All in all, I think it was an ok tournament, as expected my small stack play is ****. I've focused so much time and energy on 100bb and 200bb that it's just lacking. Couple obvious mistakes, some less obvious like folding the AKo. I just really enjoyed it. Ended up going out 12th of 59 and 7 make the money.

I do enjoy tournaments but I also find the inflexibility of them and working a full time job rough, probably will stick to cash, Mom busted out pretty quick and went to cash and played 1/2 buying in for $140 and ran it up to $460 so she was happy.

Live BR: $1399
Online BR: $219

Played a quick Rush & Cash 2NL session applying the things I've been learning from Upswing, biggest thing I need to study right now is Blinds vs table not sure when to be calling / raising from my blinds so need some study there.

Good session
- 1hr
- 927 hands (4x RnC windows)
- +$9.73
- Avg All in Equity of 89.2% (this is a huge improvement for me!)

There is still much to work on, 1 good session doesn't mean we figured it out. However between this session and the tournament today I think the studying I'm doing is paying off. Excited to continue working for it.

Session Graph:

Online BR: $229.37

Nice session,good luck!

Played a little All in or Fold to chase the dragon and 2x bounty MTT. I'm going to be honest Bounty MTT are a guilty pleasure, I'm probably too loose to try and get bounties but they're so fun.

Online BR: $224

Played about 10 tourneys today and the BR is up to $252

I know I need to focus on the 2NL cash and grind it out, I'm just having a ton of fun with tournaments

Alright, guess I should update.

I haven't played a lot of poker this week. I cancelled a sub to a coaching website I was paying monthly for and subscribed for a year to Upswing Poker. I've been watching a ton of content around those platforms. I've been playing just tournaments mainly which I really shouldn't be, I had some fun wins but it's just been way downhill, like torching money for the last 3 days. Outside of tournaments I've been playing just enough to do the GG Honeymoon challenges I've got 19 completed and missed 3 days so the best I can do is the 25 completed challenges prize. Assuming I can do the 6 more challenges I'll receive C$20, 1x The Weekender Tourney Ticket, T$50 & 1x Omaholic Bounty Million$ $5 ticket. I'm going to try and complete the challenges but if I can't or it seems like it will be pricey I'll stop.

Where is the Online BR: $272

You're probably thinking, wait a minute haven't you been torching in tournaments? Yes. I think the majority of the money keeping me semi even/up is from degen gambling, All in or Fold & Baccarat (found out GG has a live casino...) Clearly I've sorta stepped away from the intent of this gg account. I plan to reign back in this week and focus back in on cash, tournaments are fun, they're tense, they're adrenaline pumping but I think it also kinda scratches a gambling itch for me which isn't good. Where as with cash games, I don't see it as gambling, Over the long term if you follow the fundamentals and put the time in you will see a return. Cash is also just more time accessible for me with live, I work a 9-5 and most tournaments start in the middle of my work day. All this to say a refocus and shift back in priorities is going to be happening.

So what's the plan?

I want to beat 2NL for 20 buyins and then I'll move up to 5NL. The goal is to just show that we're getting it and able to win. I don't want to grind out 2NL for 50-100k hands, no reason. Lets move up to 5NL as soon as we can, besides we have the BR for it already. Alright so transparency time, 20 buyins was selected because that gets up back to even in 2NL and to do that means I will have quit punting enough that I'm accruing some amount of BB/100. I know, I know, sample size, but come on, we gonna waste months at 2NL hell no.

Current Graph for 2NL on GG

Current MTT graph on GG

Current Spin & Go graph on GG

So here are the graphs as they stand. Interestingly enough, I did have a nice SnG win but it seems I'm trending upwards even without that win. I enjoy the spin & gos as it seems my aggressive style seems to be working a good portion of the time. That being said I wouldn't say I know what I'm doing I just am playing lowest stakes so yeah.

Outside of playing goals I have studying goals. I want to spend about 3:1 time studying to playing. I have resources from Upswing, CrushLivePoker & RYE free resources that I can use, I also have a couple books I want to read, the Mindset book by Jared Tendler I think is high priority since I have been known to tilt. For charts and preflop study I'm going to use GTOWizard with the goal of nailing down all preflop situations I would run into in RnC. I think I have a plan and I've been thinking about it all and I do want this I just gotta sit and do the work for it.

Alright yesterday update:

I cancelled CLP subscription, really enjoy the podcasts so I went ahead and downloaded everything back to 2021 so I can listen to them. I didn't realized cancelling will get rid of my discord access which I guess makes sense, so this 2+2 blog is now my sole blog I'm maintaining, I was previously maintaining a blog in CLP discord for live poker play and from now on everything will be in here.

I did another honeymoon challenge for the $20 cash reward, needed to win in PLO with quads, it took about 20 minutes 6 tabling, I bought in for 20BB on each table, all in I made $.04 as I pretty much only played pocket pair hands and since I had to win at showdown I was checking down. I'm sure there was a more optimal way to do this but I was listening to a recording for my job while doing it so was just clicking buttons.

Since I spent most of yesterday downloading podcasts/videos to reference from clp I didn't get much poker playing in. Today I want to focus on the Upswing course, specifically the online cash section. While working today I'll have some play & explains up on the other monitor as background. Probably not going to play poker today either (except for the honeymoon challenge) want to do about 3 hours of focused learning.

Also need to find some kind of study material for preflop, was thinking flash cards and building something based on the GTOWiz ranges. Also just tempted to sub to GTOWiz and use there trainer tool to study.

Online BR: $293

GTOw is expensive but a good tool, for online 6max. Maybe overkill for 2NL. It is worthwhile looking at preflop charts for GTOW. based off your graphs, you should definitely have a more blue line approach. value bet rivers thinner, fold more on rivers vs bets etc.

If you are in Dallas area though, I would just focus on playing live cash. That has to be infinitely more profitable than online games.

Oh I agree completely, I don't own a car at the moment which was why I started playing some online poker in the first place, my interest is almost entirely in live poker. Online has been helpful in that I've put in some volume and seen stuff that I think has made my live play better. I'm purchasing a car this next month (trying to avoid debt and just pay cash) or two and will be playing almost exclusively live at that time. Luckily I'm surrounded by great rooms with 30 minutes and even decent casino rooms just an hour north. Based on the last couple of times I've played live and the couple times I've played live since starting online, Live 1/2 is easier than 2NL. Just gotta stay patient.

But ultimately the online stuffs not about profitable, I don't really need money, I'm doing it to learn the game and get better.

That makes sense.

Well, for 1, I would reccomend not playing Rush and Cash. Play just regular tables. Rush and cash doesnt allow you enough time to properly think in poker, and you won't develop that skill.

Next, filter your PT4 by biggest hands lost. Flag the ones that are not obvious coolers (ie KK vs AA all in preflop), and then post the HH here to look at and discuss. Focus by plugging your biggest leaks first, which is your bad blue line.

This is smart

Filter is setup as follows:
- NOT raised all in preflop or called all in preflop
- player lost hand
- player lost -25bb or more

The filter returned 62 hands (26 regular table & 36 RnC tables). Those 62 hands cost me $80.32 or in BB 4016bb for an average of 64.7bb/hand. Checking the hands there are exactly 3 hands with an All in equity greater than 50% so those will be ignored. There are 16 total hands where we got it all in. The Avg all in equity for this filtered set of hands was 10.67%

Some of the hands that came back are tagged already so odds are I have shared them in this thread but this post will aggregate hands together that meet this filter.

Hand 1:
We had a flush draw and because of preflop action I was placing him on Ax no higher than AQo, did not expect KTo, I actually don't normally open KTo UTG. So my biggest concern here felt like it would be ATs, or KQs. The plan with the x/jam was to push off any Tx which I think would have worked, I figured my flush comes in thats a plus, I'm also probably drawing to an Ace, Looking at this it says I only have 20% equity on the turn, but I think against his general range of hands that open and call a 3bet I'm doing slightly better. Could be wrong.

Hand 2:
This one I had nothing I'm technically uncapped in MP and get called by the btn, I cbet the flop because it feels like a good place to put pressure on hands that wanted to hit something and take the lead. The 5 felt like a nothing burger so I cbet again. When river was a spade I felt like with my cbetting to build a pot I could play that I've made my flush. I bet about 75% pot and the raise threw me off, I thought for a while but I feel like bluff raising rivers is super under done utilized, he also was calling me down the entire way, my gut is he was holding the Ace of spades and was putting me to the test. It's also possible he called the flop/turn because of the good price I was giving and when the draw got there he woke up to make money. I folded out. This idk, this is spewy, I don't even have a spade to block with but once I got raised on river I knew the story I was telling wasn't working and he probably had better.

Hand 3:
This hands tough, I have a really hard time putting people on pocket pairs, its just so disguised. the x/c from villain on the flop had me feeling pretty good, the raise from villain confused me on the turn because we're going from passive to trying to shut this hand down. I checked in flow on the river when I hit my flush to let him barrel (I though barrel) again on the river. I called with my flush expecting worse case a better flush but he just didn't play it like a flush. This was just confusing to me. The board pairing caused hesitation but I never put him on a fullhouse making the call I was honestly thinking, pocket jacks, he's made 2 pair and is feeling good. I was wrong.

Hand 4:
Ok this hand I'm not sure I made the right fold. I 3bet with KK and get a call from MP. I'm thinking Ax probably A5-ATs/AJo/AQo. Flop looks clean so I bet it, turn is scary but I'm uncapped, could have an Ace, I bet it again. River he donks into me for most of pot.. I pondered for a while, the odds of KTs are low, but a straight was certainly possible, I also figured we're losing to any Ax, losing to any QJ, I just couldn't find hands that I was beating so I laid it down.

Hand 5:
Ok this hands idk, irritating? This is just such a passively played Kx from SB. the 1/3 on flop felt like the typical continuation but the check on turn made me think he was just trying to take it down on the flop. I bet trying to push him out of the hand. Him calling turn should have had me slow down, but in the moment I remember thinking, the only way I'm taking this pot down is to make it look like I hit something. A5 gets there, 43s gets there, there are quite a few hands I can have from BB that get there. But he just calls down with his K9s. I guess the lesson is don't bluff or think in 2NL? I really don't know. He just went so passive with the best hand.

Hand 6:
Oh this felt like a cooler, it didn't get all in pre so its in the filter, My thinking was simple, he called my 3bet in RnC so he's rocking AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ/QJ, pretty limited range of hands, also possible he's rocking 66-TT but felt unlikely. Through the hand because so few combos were beating me, specically just QJ I felt I was in the lead. But he quick called flop so I slowed down for control on turn, river I also slowed down concerned about QJ and now AQ and when he bet small I leveled myself into a call thinking, "what are the odds this is QX, I block 2x Axs combos he would need to be on like AQd or AQc specifically and I just didn't think there were enough combos beating me so I made the call.

Hand 7:
Not sure much commentary is needed here, had a gutshot and backdoor potential. The big bet seemed like a draw trying to take the pot down. On the turn the draw comes in and it checks through, I figure someone being aggressive flop with a draw would want to bet there flush when it hits so on the river I take the betting lead pretending I hit the draw. Snap called with KJc. Idk I'm dumb I guess.

Hand 8:
This is one like where I will always think I'm good like, name hands that UTG is opening with 7x/4x/9x I can think of very few. The only card that had me a little scared was the Jack but my thinking was if I thought I was good on the turn the Jack shouldn't change much. Pocket pairs, I know not how to read thee.

Hand 9:
Oh hey another pocket pair hand, I really don't know how to read these hands

Hand 10:
Oh my god another one, look this might seem like cherry picking but I'm just going in order by date in reverse. I 100% thought I was winning this hand, I didn't think 88 for a second, sure as **** didn't think any pair because of the preflop limp out of SB.

Hand 11:
Ok I'm thinking I might not know how to recognize sets... This is the next hand. 3 handed to the flop and it lands in the BB neck of the woods which slows me down. BB still checking on turn so with TPTK I take lead. River confused me. Did he miss a draw like 67s maybe and just trying to take it down, the overbet and jam just seemed suspicious and I called to find out he hit a set on the flop.

Alright those are the hands that I've played between now and 1/20/25 that meet the filter criteria. The rest are older and some scattered through this thread.

Okay, alot of these have some big commonalities in them.

1. Don't float when you have bad/low equity.
2. Play more carefully out of position, especially on boards that are bad for the preflop raiser.
3. You need to fold more rivers when there are very few bluffs in range, especially at 2NL.

For the specific hands:
1. When you 3b out of the SB/BB, you should go bigger (in theory). So vs 2bb rfi, you should go to 10/11BB. K high boards are basically range bets here, usually like going 1/4 to 1/3. As played, if you check, you can just check fold here. Vs large turn bet, I would probably just x/call. I guess x/r isnt that bad to run your equity, but I doubt you have that much fold equity here, esp vs someone at 2NL that is double barreling in a 3b pot though. The bigger thing is just to fold flop as played though.

2. This is a very bad board for the PFR. 9 and under boards out of position, can usually just be range checks. If they bet, this board could probably just be a x/fold. Since even their hands they are semi bluffing with have really good equity against you.

3. Same thing, 9 and under boards, out of position are bad for PFR. You have a flush draw, but no even the nut flush draw, and its multiway. I would probably check/call flop. As played, I think fold to the turn raise. You are out of position with a non-nut draw, and its going to be hard to get value even if you hit the flush (you will have to donk bet, which even 2NL players will just fold to, given that you'll have no bluffs in the spot).

4. This is a fine fold. I don't like the turn bet though. You're hand isnt really strong enough to get value from worse. The x/c, x/c, donk for almost pot in a 3b pot on an A high board is insanely strong.

5. Just fold flop. You have one bad backdoor draw. They played the hand quite well in my opinion, with a weak Kx, and it shows how much extra value you can get from checking if people float too wide (bc if they bet turn, you fold).

6. You should bet turn, for like a 1/3 to a 1/2 pot sizing. As played, this is a hero fold on the river even for this sizing. They are not betting worse for value (AK). And its pretty hard to think of a bluff. They have to be turning something like AT/AJ into a bluff.

7. I don't think I would bluff ATcc on the river. If you bluff every missed gutshot or open ended draw (AJ/AT/JT), you will have too many combos on the river. So sticking to ones with a heart. Also the river size is too small to expect anything to fold on the river.

8. This is an example that people will basically very rarely triple barrel bluff. In my opinion, this is a x/call flop, x/call turn, sigh fold river spot. They have to be bluffing with KQ/KT/AT/AQ etc here, that are not intuitive triple barrels.

9. This one is fine. Opponent is a fish for set mining off of 26bb. They got lucky, you are just doubling them up here.

10. This is a bit of a cooler. On the turn though you should be betting pot or overpot (1.25x) with top two, the 40% size is bad. As played, the river is interesting. Maybe just calling the river is better than jamming, since I dont know if they do that with worse for value (K8s?). Also to note, some people play a 100% limp range out of the SB, in blind vs blind spots. At 2NL they are maybe just a fish, so idk. Also note how insanely strong turn x/r are.

11. This is just a fold on the flop. Btn bet very large multiway (which at low stakes, is just announcing how good there hand is), and BB called next to act. This flop smashes both of their ranges too. Against two ranges of good hands/pair+draws, AK has very poor equity and really bad reverse implied odds (ie if someone has A9/K9 and then turn is K or A).

TLDR: fold more, get the blue line up