Swimming Upstream: My Quest to Beat the Rake and the Regs
Intro
I was playing poker a little bit as a hobby, in the beginning of the 2000s. I was able to make about 5k in maybe 2 years. I had poker tracker back then and if I recall correctly, my average win rate was less than 10$ USD per hour, which isn't that bad. I remember playing in the 1/2$ and 2/4$, with what was a non existant bankroll. I remember being in some huge pots in the 2/4$, that just didn't make sense.
Then I stopped. You know, life and all. I regret not continuing playing more during these days as they were really easier than now. I feel like the 1/2$ that I plyaed back then are now the 2/5cents. Finished are the days when you could just wait for a good hand, bet it and easily stack your opponent. There are still weird plays sometimes, people going all in with ATs etc. But way less than before.
Anyway, I'm back playing poker online since February.
What I play Now and Progress
I'm currently playing cash games, mostly 9 players, at the micro stakes (1/2 cents, 2/5 cents and 5/10 cents - sometimes). I was playing 1-2 tables, I'm now at 3-4 tables at a time. Not too difficult for now.
Since March, I played 6k hands. Before you tell me, I know, it's not enough to get an idea on how I'm doing. But I want to track the progress anyway.
Here's my progress so far:
In March, I was mostly finding smaller fish than me to try to stack and it was successful some times. When only 'regs' were on tables, I wouldn't play.
In April, I thought... Well, if I can't beat the regs at these micro stakes, what's the point? If they're still at the 1/2cents and 2/5cents, they're probably not good, otherwise they would move to another limit, right? Also, a lot just limp all the time, or have PFR of 3%, etc. I guess some might be bots, or just people in poorer countries happy to make less than 1$ per hour, or who knows. Anyway, I thought I'll stop trying to just find super fish and play on whatever tables are available. I think the main reason I'm down in April was because of 2 specific hands where I got a bad beat, pre flop, with 2 different fish... It happens! you can see with the All-in Adj column!
Now in May I'm up, which is good. I made most of my profit out of a LAG that I stacked twice in a 2/5cents session.
I'm still not sure if I can be profitable just against the regs at these micro stakes. Some say the rake is too big also, so we'll see. So far, I paid 23$ of rake for my 31$ of winning.
Here's my graph (not too great):
The red line is bad, but you can see it seems better now. I've been working on it. I think it has to do with my pre-flop strategies getting better/ more aligned to GTO and the fact that I'm more aggressive, 3 betting more. I'm also more aggressive post flop in general. Another different is that I'm using a 2.5x raise instead of 3, maybe that has something to do with it.
I'm also not playing a lot, I spend more time studying with GTO Wizard, content, etc.
Most of my time is trying to learn the pre-flop strategies at the moment. I know most of the 'hard limit' of the different positions. What I mean is knowing that CO, at 100bb deep, 2.5x bet, the limits are Offsuit Ts and Suited 8s. Then you have to remember what's going outside the box like pairs, suited connectors, suited Aces, etc.
So I practice with GTO Wizard's drill tool. I set 4 tables, a limit amount of time and 200 hands. Usually I'm just at 2-3 errors. Obviously, this doesn't take into account the % of some of the hand that sometimes fold and sometimes don't.
For that, I made implementable pre-flop charts based on GTO Wizard. I was trying to get the same 'fold/bet' percentages and some amount of bluffs in there too. Instead of having to remember bet A5s 75% of the time and A4s 25% of the time, then I put all of the % in A5s. Anyway, I think it's alright for now, I have my charts for 100bb deep pre-flop RFI and 3bet ranges. I realized that at these stakes, even the 3 bets doesn't happen often, most people limp, so I didn't work on a 4bet/limp chart yet.
So, May and June will probably be mostly pre-flop learning and trying to remember my implementable charts. Still, I always look at post flop content and review some hands against GTO Wizard.
What's still a challenge:
- When post-flop, my brain is like 'Huuuuuu... bet!!?' Trying to remember strategies like nut advantage, range advantage, what kind of flop is it, what do I want my opponent to fold, blockers, bluffs, etc. It's really hard at the moment. I'll need to study more hands post flop and use GTO wizard with specific flops.
- I think I'm still a bit weak. People re-raising a bet post-flop or betting even if I have 'something' make me fold too often... Although I think people under-bluff at these stakes.
- On the river, I don't 'bluff catch' much.
- Using my HUD - I need to study a bit more what I can do with it, what stats to display and what to use in which situations.
Here are my leaks:
The CBet flop could be low because of multi-way pots I suppose. But, when heads up, I think I'm a bit more aggressive than I was before.
I'm also using my HUD. If the opponent has 0 at 'folded to Cet', then I won't try to bluff them.
What I'm focusing on:
Preflop charts. Until I know them by heart, at least for the 100bb up to a 4 bet/call range, I won't dive into post flop too much.
Some Goals
Long term, I'd like to be able to play poker as a hobby and make some side money, like I don't know, 500$ per month, would be great.
But, my first milestone will be to pay for my GTO wizard subscription, which is 40 USD per month at the moment. The next milestone would be to pay for the pro version (if necessary). So that's already 100 USD per month.
At my current rate of 50 cents per hour, well, I would have to play 100 hours per month, or 25 hours per week, which is not feasible for me. I'll need to go up stakes at some point to be able to achieve this.
I also want to increase the amount of hours played. I did 20 hours in April, which is 5 hours per week. I want to increase it to 10 hours per week in June, we'll see!
Edit
I forgot to say, I started tracking my hands after I started and lost some of them. I didn't have to add more money in my account, I started with 25 USD and I'm at 50 USD (this includes a bonus).
11 Replies
@norwich
Thanks! Good to know!
I played a 3 hours session today.
I played ~500 hands at 5$ NL and 200 at 2$ NL.
At 2 NL I'm at minus 40 BB / 100 hands and at 5$ I'm at +27 BB / 100 hands. This is a gain of ~6 USD
My biggest gain today was from a really bad play on my part:
- I have KQo on the CO. RFI to 2.5 bb.
- Villain on BB raises to 8 big blinds, I call
- Flop comes, A77 rainbow
- BB bet half pot (about 10 BB)
- I raise to 25 BB (on my hud he seemed like a nit VP13/PFR3 - just ~100 hands), so I thought I could make him fold I suppose - yeah, not great)
- BB calls
- Turn comes T of heart (same as the As)
- BB checks
- Well, only way I can win is to make him fold, so I bet the pot... I'm stuck in my bluff I suppose, let's dig my grave deeper.
- And villain calls - gulp!
- The poker gods take pity on my fishiness and give me one of my 4 outs left, the J of diamond for the nut straight. Oh my god, thank you poker god, I'll stop being an idiot!
- I bet what's left, about 12 BB and villain calls
He had AK obviously. And no, I'm not letting you know where I play!
When it started to go a bit bad at the 1/2 cents, I lowered the amount of tables at 2 and went up to the .5/.10. I feel like I have more time to think at 2 tables, look at the hud, think about the RFI charts and what not.
At 4 tables, sometimes, everything happens at the same time. I don't know how people can play at 5-10 tables. Just figuring out my position and the opponent's position takes me 5 seconds. No time to think about anything else in that situation. I guess it's practice. For now I think I'll concentrate to learn my PF charts and try to think about ranges when the flop arrives.
On another note, my red line that started to get a bit straighter is continuing in that trend.
All in all, I'm happy about that session, since I didn't make a lot of money just from obvious fish. I'm still far from comfortable on the flop and the 3 bet charts and BB defend charts still need more practice. The RFI chart is all memorized and I don't think I made many mistakes.
Next: Continue to memorize the BB defends chart and 3 bet chart. Also, continue to review hands with GTO wizard to get in the habit of thinking in ranges.
I played a 3 hours session today. I played ~500 hands at 5$ NL and 200 at 2$ NL. At 2 NL I'm at minus 40 BB / 100 hands and at 5$ I'm at +27 BB / 100 hands. This is a gain of ~6 USDMy biggest gain today was from a really bad play on my part:He had AK obviously. And no, I'm not letting you know where I play!When it started to go a bit bad at the 1/2 cents, I lowered the amount o
Raising in position with KQ here is a fundamental leak. You don't want to raise any hands IP. Try think about it this way, if you had a hand like AJ what would raising achieve? You isolate yourself against his AA/AK/AQ and lose value from all his potential bluffs. If you had a hand like A7/77 again what does raising achieve? You potentially lose value from hands like AK/AQ which you can get on future streets and get immediate folds from his under pairs and bluffs. The TLDR is this board heavily favours the 3better since our AA should always 4bet preflop and AK is mostly 4betting also. (Raising flop with AK makes no sense for the reasons above).
Floating flop with a call and bluffing turn wouldn't be the worst play from a logical sense since you block the best Ax combo's with your KQ (AK/AQ) and people generally don't float these boards even in position. Always try to think about why you're raising and what does it achieve - this is the key to improving hand by hand. GL with the grind!
Raising in position with KQ here is a fundamental leak. You don't want to raise any hands IP. Try think about it this way, if you had a hand like AJ what would raising achieve? You isolate yourself against his AA/AK/AQ and lose value from all his potential bluffs. If you had a hand like A7/77 again what does raising achieve? You potentially lose value from hands like AK/AQ whic
Thanks for the explanation, it makes a lot of sense!
Not the best session today, but not the worst!
I played 2 tables at 5$ NL, 372 hands, 2h40 minutes.
I finished at -7 BB / 100 hands (-1.31$).
I lost about 7 BB because of a misclick.
And about 25 BB with the blunder of the day:
- I'm UTG+1 at a full table, I get A9 of heart.
- There's already a big blind after me because someone just joined, so I raise to the pot (4.5 bb)
- The person that just arrived folds.
- The button calls. He's a LAG. VP 38, PR 33, 3B 10, CB 100, FCB 0, RFI 56. This is on just 22 hands, but he plays almost all the hands etc.
- The flop comes 6c 3c 4s
- I bet 4 bb and he calls - Not a great flop for a pre flop raiser, I know. No range advantage. And I just bet with nothing into a LAG that doesn't fold. Maybe I thought ace high was good most of the time.
- Turn comes Qs
- I bet 5 bb
- He raises to 20 bb
- I call - second mistake I suppose!
- River comes 8c
- I check, they check. They have QTo
Otherwise, I feel like there were way more limpers than usual.
Sometimes I raised at 2.5 bb and there were 2-3 limpers after me.
Sometimes I raised to try to make some of the limpers before me fold, but they all call. I use the '3 times the last limp + what's in the pot'. It didn't work at all today. I tried to increase my raise amount and either I got shoved on (twice) or there was nothing on the flop to help.
Some examples:
- I'm on the SB with KJs. One limper UTG. BTN calls. I raise to 6 bb. BB goes all in.
- I'm on the LJ with 66. I raise to 2.5 bb. BTN and BB calls. Flop comes Q72 rainbow. Everybody checks. Turn comes 5c. BB checks, I bet 3 bb, BTN calls, BB folds. Flop is 7c. I check, BB bets pot. I fold. - I was apparently too loose on this one, on LJ 66 shouldn't open. First mistake.
- I'm on the LJ with QT of clubs. I raise to 2.5 bb. BB calls (he's the LAG of the story earlier). Flop comes 7J2 rainbow. check check. Turn is 7s. LAG bets 2.5 bb. I call. Flop is 9s. LAG bets over pot. I fold.
- I'm on the SB with ATd. UTG+1 limps, other fold to me. I raise to 2.5 bb. I don't know the limper, first hand with him. BB and limper UTG call. Flop comes 7sKs6c. Everybody check. Turn comes 2s. Everybody check. River comes 9h. I check, BB overbet the pot. Everybody folds.
- I have TT on the BB. CO limps, BB raises to 3bb. I call and limper calls. Flop comes 76J of clubs. I check, limper check, BTN bets half pot. Everybody folds
And a couple more like this. I don't if I could've played some of them better or differently, but it was like that most of the night. I felt like never hitting anything, and multi-way it's hard to bluff...
For the RFI and BB defense charts, I'm really good on GTO wizard, but in a 'real' game, I'm way less precise. On GTO wizard, you can check what are the boundaries, then you 'play' hands super fast. Wow, I played 100 hands and I didn't do any mistakes. Yeah, because it's fast and you have all the limits in mind. When playing in a real game, there is the flop, the position aren't written, sometimes people are sitting out, so you have to check. Then the more 'fuzzy' places like.. was the K4s the end of the range for the LJ, or maybe K5...
In summary, I need to practice a bit more my pre flop charts and find a way to learn the 'fuzzy' part (offsuit aces, Ks, Qs, etc).
I didn't play that much since the last post, I mostly studied pre-flop stuff.
This session I concentrated on just one table at 2/5 cents and tried to 'exploit' the players and their different behaviours (again mostly pre-flop)
I just played 100 hands, and I get to showdown with just 1 hand that I won (4 BB), but still won 20 BB / 100 total, which I think is good. You can see my graph for the session:
The drop we can see was this hand:
$0.05 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hero (UTG): 120 BB
UTG+1: 165.2 BB (VPIP: 26.79, PFR: 15.48, 3Bet Preflop: 7.81, 4Bet PF: 0, Fold to 3Bet: 67% (4/6) Hands: 170)
SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has Ah Jh
Hero raises to 2.4 BB, UTG+1 raises to 8.6 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 6.2 BB
Flop : (18.6 BB, 2 players) 2c Qd Js
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets 5.8 BB, Hero calls 5.8 BB
Turn : (30.2 BB, 2 players) 3c
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets 19.2 BB, fold
UTG+1 wins 28.2 BB
I'm not sure if I played that hand well. I think the call pre-flop was probably OK. GTO Wizard seems to mix between call and raise 50/50 here. We're in small stakes, so in general I suppose the re-raising range will be a bit tighter for UTG+1.
Then GTO wizard has check / call for all the bets my opponent did on the flop and turn, so maybe my fold wasn't good on the turn, but I was putting him on AA, KK, AK, AQ, QQ, KQ, JJ.
I suppose I put my opponents on these hands because that's mostly what ppl do at these stakes when re-raising. I guess the fold was a beat weak, anyway!
Other than that, I was able to raise the blinds a little bit wider, the 'fold to steal' stats in my hud for the 3 ppl after me were 33, 100, 64.
I also was able to 4 bet with a bluff and win the pot right there.
Finally, there was a player limping all the time and on the flop, he was pretty straightforward. He would fold if he had nothing or bet if he did, so playing against that player was pretty easy. When I open raised and he called, I just CB 100% when it was just him in the pot and he folded every time.
On my HUD, I tested some of PF stats that I added along with the classics (VP, PFR, etc):
- Pre flop limp
- Pre flop limp call <- This one is not what I thought it was, I'll need to check the definition in poker tracker
- Call PF 2 bet
- 3Bet
- 4Bet
- Fold to pre flop 3 Bet
- Fold to steal
- Att. to steal
Here's today's game, it was interesting!
I lost 2 all-ins where I was way ahead - KK vs AK and an all-in on the flop, Pair of Aces VS Pair of Kings, they got a king on the river.
I'm happy about today's session because I played well. My plays were +EV for sure.
Current amount won: 18.97
BB/100: 5.47
All-in adj BB/100: 10.25
My 'luck curve' is really trending towards the 'really unlucky' - it'll get better with more volume!
Another session where the poker gods didn't like me:
One KK VS AA pre flop
One all in AK VS AQ on the flop with an Ace, villain gets a Q on the river
One all in on a flop with 99 on 9c7sAs, villain has QK of spades, obviously gets a spade
And I should've made a bit more money with some of my hands, I was too passive.
Current amount won: 15.30
All-in Adj: 28.94
BB/100: 3.36
All-in Adj BB/100: 10
So... variance...
The poker gods listened to my prayers I suppose, this is the other, completely crazy, side of the variance.
Not much to say other than I was hitting all my hands, no strategy needed. We like it when it happens. Also got AA VS 2 other hands pre-flop and won. I won a QQ VS AA... (they had 25 BB)
The worst hand I think was when I hit my flush on the river and went all in, there was a pair on the board (that I didn't see) and the other player had a full house. I thought I had the nuts. Rookie mistake...
I feel like it was just the right balance of loose and weak and super tight players at the tables I played at.
My session: 173 BB/100
All in adj: 131 BB/100
Overall: 8.83 BB/100
Won: $25.69
I forgot to add my overall graph:
Nice to see it at an all time high (or close anyway, if we look at the BB won line)
And near the 10k mark!
