Weakness and… weakness

Since my first coaching session I played 6,486 hands. Not too much. You can say that it’s just short term. Yes, it really is. But I show you what my problem is.

My stats are relatively better then were before we talked with Steve



One of my exercises was: open up a little bit more from late positions and I did it. And the main challenge was: be aggressive, not passive, cbets much-much more. I try to do that.

- VPIP/PFR is 20.94/16.88 now and was 17.59/13.86 before. The gap between VPIP and PFR is still huge I know.

- cBetF is 67.01 (was 49.65 before) cBetT is 55.29 (42.40 before) - big changes I think

- Att to steal is 35.99 (was 29.66)

- AF is 4.35 (2.90), AFq is 46.66 (41.10), 3Bet is 4.63 (4.52)

I know these are not the optimal numbers but I’m still working on them.

Actually there are numbers which didn’t change and that makes me sad. Especially my WSF which is almost the same then was before. I thought that if my aggression is rising then my WSF should do the same thing but it doesn’t.

- WSF is 37.49 (36.93 before), wtsd is 18.08 (22.47 before), W$SD is 53.16 (58.53 before)


Other changes are in my position play – good and bad too



My range is wider from any position (actually utg, mp and bb are too wide maybe, co and btn can be wider) but the result changed to worse - except from SB


My wosd play is horrible




In the first half of these hands, I didn’t have any problem with it but after that… I don’t know what happened. Looks like I’m weaker then ever before.

And I still have problems with over pairs and TPTK hands. So my (miss)understanding is the same I think.


Now I need to talk about these with Steve then maybe we’ll do another coaching session where I’ll play and he can catch my (new and old) leaks. Anyway he is the coach so he’ll choose what to do and I’ll try to do that.

Emptiness

I have a streak but not a good one. Today I lost again, another -2 bi day. I’m not angry. What I’m feeling right now is a huge emptiness. Looks like I’m playing my worst poker ever. When I’m cbeting the opponent calling or raising almost every time, so my aggro style doesn’t works yet.

By the way my stats are not that bad but the result is horrible.

Today's stats



Positions



Graph



Anyway we are visiting my wife’s relatives at the weekend so I’ll be back at Sunday night. Then I’ll try to talk with my coach about another session. Maybe he can find my brand new leaks

Another 'perfect' session…

I don’t get it. I’ve tried my best. The fist part of the session I've played against tight, nit guys, where I’ve tried to be aggressive. That’s not worked for me. Then I changed and started to play vs fishes. I'm still loosing. Lay down when I’m ahead, call or raise when I’m not.

I think I’m missing something. Or I’m just not enough for this whole game.

Very sad feeling…

Stats and graph



Today's last hand - just like my whole day

Very bad call on the river... especially after that raise on the turn :-(

Without the 2nd 7 on the river the call can be reasonable I think. But now I only beat K3, K5, K6, middle pairs or dead flush draws. So this one is a horrible call...

Same mistakes...

I really want to kick my ass before Steve does it. I'm making the same mistakes over and over again.

I think I can play the way what I need vs nits, cr types and passive fishes, but I always try to play against aggro maniacs... I can't handle them, I'm just not ready to play against this type of guys. When I have AK, AQ or middle pair type of hands I put a lot of money in the pot then play like a calling station and fold on the river when this 92/19 guys goes all in. So my typical passive line. But you know it seems to be so easy money... then I lose my profit again and again.

I'm very angry with myself because of this. Steve has no chance to teach me if I'm an idiot.

My first aim is to learn the TAG style. I think I need to choose table where are no aggressive players just nits and passive tours. I can exercise the agro positions plays and cbets there.

Maybe I need a DONTPLAYvsAGGROGSTREAKOMETER

Here are my 'post coaching sessions' stats and graph



I'll show you a lot of loosing hands later

Since the coaching session

Finally I’m here!

I played some sessions since my last (stats) update but I don’t want to talk about my pre Steve hands. Forget those times! Today I’ll give you some details about the eye opener coaching session and my play since then.

First of all Steve found my biggest leak: the aggression - which I didn’t have. My pre flop play was OK, but after that? Oh God, hard to talk about it… If I had nothing, I ch/folded, I played so passively post flop - you’ll see my AFq and the other stats immediately. And when I had something I bet and the opponents folded, except when they had me, in those cases I loose my whole stack.

And that was the reason of my frustration. With my 17-18% VPIP I’ve played good hands (usually better then my opponents) and wanted to win as expected, which is great but I couldn’t fold them when it was reasonably. Then I felt myself really unlucky and start to hunt the enemies which means I made more and more mistakes.

So I need to go back to the basics, learn the TAG style, especially with the “AG” part of it. But I need to take the control on it and not going to be an aggro monkey. Anyway, “an aggressive fault is always better then the passive one!”

Let’s see the old stats!



(Interesting - there are some differences between the PT3’s and the HEM’s stats… and I don’t know why)

As you can see, these are not the optimal stats, especially the steal, af, wsf and cbets. All of them are too low. The AFq is interesting, that was less then 30% in HEM if I remember correctly.

My old graphs



This is a typical break even player’s graph. I hate it…

And my old positions play



I played too tight from late positions and so bad from the blinds.

That's enough. I don’t want to see them anymore! The stats already told you everything.


The old rotyi has gone. Welcome the new one!

Stats



Actually I had only one and half sessions since then, so it’s a very small sample size. That means exactly 999 hands. But you can see some changes. I still have many-many faults of course, but I’m trying to focus on Steve’s advices. Just step by step.

Positions



1st: cbets every flop from positions!

2nd: steal the blinds more often!

3rd: don’t make fancy plays!

I think if I’m using my table and seat selection method which is not that bad and working on these 3 points I’ll be the guy who nobody likes at the table on this level.

Graphs



By the way I had only one huge SD loss ($27.12 = 108.48BB) with KK from the BB vs AA (BTN) and A2o (SB) pre flop ai…


New sessions, observations and hands will come later today or tomorrow – I hope so! :-)

Cheers guys

The weather made my day…

Sorry guys, I know I said that update is coming today but I worked all day long and this idiot weather messed up everything. I had a lot to do, so didn’t have enough time to blogging.

By the way I’ve played a satellite for the 80K GTD MTT on Full Tilt, but wasn’t so lucky. I had only 17 opponents, first 2 got an entry, and I finished on the 3rd place, Actually I won $34 with that (that means $19 profit).

Last hand was 77, my M was somewhere about 6 or so, I went all in from the BTN, BB called with KK, flop comes 7xK… C'est la vie

After the coaching intro session

Just a few thoughts ‘cause I’m working!

You know my English is very bad so I’m not sure to find the correct word, but that was f*n good! I mean that 2,5 hours inspired me and opened my eyes very well. Steve’s explanation was so clear. He is a good teacher, a perfect educator. I think he knows what the student needs.

I’ve got what I looked for, so I’m very happy.

Oh and my first short session just after our talk went really well. And I’m not talking about results, I’m talking about style, stats, details – especially my post flop aggression. There were guys who left two of my tables because of me, and that’s the feeling what everybody needs I think, the positive feedback. I know that 350 hands is nothing of course, but you can got the feeling in that anyway…

I’ll post details about my last few sessions, especially about this one and the coaching intro later today or tomorrow.

Be aggro but not a monkey! Aggressive fault is so much better then the passive one, so cbets every flop in position and regulars will hate you, others will pay you (off) :-) And that’s good..

Cheers guys!

Here I am!

Wow, the pokertableratings is tracking low limits too! They found me at this April, so they don’t have my whole DB but they’ve got the essence of my play.

Let me introduce Mr Rollercoaster!



And an interesting report card!

Thanks for pocketfish007 who found me on this!

Eh, where are my cBets?

My last session was quiet. There were no big pots or all in moves. But I had some interesting hands and I think I made some bad plays.

My stats are here

.AF and 3bets are not that bad
.WSF is too low
.cBets are terrible

Horrible lines



What do you think about these hands?



After 10 hands he was 90/10/2.0. Actually this one was my biggest loss yesterday.


99 vs AJs



I called his 3bet pre flop because we were both deep, I was in position and I had setvalue too. I missed the double barrel maybe, but I think he couldn’t fold his hand if I bet that turn.


Anyway, I lost too many middle pots (between 1 and 4 dollars), so my post flop play was terrible.

Two days off and an acceptable comeback

We had two days off and we travelled a lot with my wife. That was a great time - have fun and 'notthinkingaboutpoker' or everything else. I think that was necessary for me after the last few sessions when I messed up everything.

Anyway, I came back with fresh mind and I feel that I’m re-energized.

I played last night again and after several 23/19 type of sessions (with a lot of random aggressions which I couldn’t handle) finally I played tighter and calmer again. I tried to focus on myself and find my game again. Something maybe happened on our weekend ‘cause I was well relaxed and satisfied – thanks for the beautiful places and for my lovely wife. No, she is not behind my back… :-)


Here are my general stats from this session.

I’m not happy with all of them and I know this is not the way how I need to play in the future if I’d like to make my dreams, but I need the coach to build my game up. I’ll write a mail to him tonight, right after this post.

Actually my vpip and pfr are too low, just as my steal attempts (this one was 40+ in the last 2 or 3 weeks) – but I can say that: this is just short term :-P

I think the aggression and the 3bet were both enough.


And here are the graphs


Honestly I don’t like them too much. There is no consistency, it’s just another rollercoaster, but I didn’t lose at the end. There were losses and wins where my move were correct and others where weren’t. I’ll show them immediately.


AJs vs ATo



Bad move pre flop – he bets from MP not from UTG. I was too passive on that street. This is a ‘must to raise’ hand. On the flop, when he called my raise I realized that he has some kind of hand, actually I put him on AT+ or TT+ and 88 (remember, I didn’t 3bet pre flop). On that turn I didn’t want to let this hand go, that’s why I’ve bet again. Maybe the 2/3 pot was too much. I don’t know. I’m not so proud of this hand.


AKo vs AA



I think I didn’t have too much choice here. He was 60/20 (okay, I had only 10 hands from him at this point). After his light 4bet (not an all in) with that stack I was sure that he has JJ+, AQs+ or AK. And I think that after I already invested $3.25 in this hand this call was mandatory.


My lucky one - AKo vs QQ



PokerStove says everything: he was the favorite 69-31… By the way I’ve made some notes about that pre flop call with QQ from SB…


And I’d like to introduce yesterday’s weirdest board



He was a 93/21 drunker and I was just 4/4 (because of him on my left) at this table.


One more thing!

I stole a couple of ‘meters’ from pocketfish007 and Mr Fickle… So my 4TABLESMAXOMETER is 1 just as my NOLOOKSTREAKOMETER. I’m very happy with these results right now.

Two pairs vs...

Last time I folded now I was curious

Let’s talk about weaknesses!

I’ve got a lot, so maybe this blog is not enough for all of them. I try to gather some of them in a group.

1. Tilt control - I think this is my biggest problem, because I don’t have it. When I’m loosing two huge pots in a row - maybe a 2 or 3 outer beats me once - I’m going to be cynic, arrogant and just couldn’t handle the whole situation. It seems to me I’m starting to hunt a pot where I can loose more and I can say it: “he has 2 outs, I’m sure one of them is coming!” And it works! Voala, one of those cards hits at the river. So I’m stupid. I know I need to quit, but sometimes I’ve got a feeling that I can handle this, because I’m playing good at the time. But usually it doesn’t works for me and I’m loosing more and more and more. Actually I just disable the player chat, because I couldn’t shut up when things goes wrong. Yes, yes, I am an emotionally overheated person, I know. And it doesn’t make my life easier. By the way it can be awesome when it comes out in positive ways…

2. This is a newfound thing: I couldn’t build in my game what I’m learning from videos or articles. I don’t know why but I’m messing my whole style up.

3. I need to stop looking my stats when I’m playing - it frustrates me.

4. I’m loosing a lot with my overpairs (QQ+ usually) and TPTK hands when I didn’t believe in my feelings or the stats. I must to learn that: “one pair can be folded”!

5. I can't win enough with my monsters when I’m the favorite.

etc.

Strengths: after the 2nd weakness it is very hard to find something. If somebody guides me, maybe I’ll find these qualities too. I’m motivated, I can work like a dog, so this is not a problem.

Hard to fold KK

I think my bet on the turn was too much. I need to learn how to save my money and loosing less.



Don’t worry I’m not going to post all of my hands here!

I’m just wasting my time and my money!

I’m totally embarrassed because of my play. I don’t have any more time and money to waste. I need to write to the coach immediately.

I feel sad. I’m absolutely confused. I think there were too many different type of advice and help which I get in the last few weeks or months. I’m sure they were good, but I messed up everything and couldn’t find myself in this chaos. I was a ‘very easy to play against’ type of rock, but now? Now I’m a monkey. I’m aggressive but I don’t know what to do with it and loosing so much. I know it’s not about luck, it’s about me and my wrong play.

So this is it. I need help as soon as it possible. This is an emergency call, not a test! S.O.S I’m sinking…

Trying to paste the replayer into my blog

Just TEST - a funny hand from SB…

My (short) Story

Hi everyone! First of all, I’m totally new in this blog thing, so have no idea how it works. But I’m working on it and sooner or later this one will be very useful for me – and hopefully for you too.

I know my English is horrible, sorry for that. I never learn it before actually - I mean in school. I’ve traveled a lot (all around in the States) and I watch a ton of ice hockey games (nhl of course) and poker shows (HSP for example), so this is where my bad little English comes from. Just a week ago I found a language school which seems to be very flexible for me. I’m working in three different shift (first week: from 6:30am to 2:30pm, then 8:30-4:30, and the third one is 11-7) and one weekend monthly. Trust me, not an easy thing to find a language course or anything else... By the way I’m a journalist right now, but I was a computer programmer a (long) long time ago, then I’ve worked as an accountant. I’m a 32 years old married man and living in Hungary.

I think that’s enough about my personal life for today.

Let’s talk about poker!

I’ve started to play poker about 3 years ago. In the first year we played just for fun with friends and freerolls online. Then I read some articles about bankroll management and cash games and that was the first turning point in my “poker life”. Actually I never made any deposit to any of my poker accounts - we have an agreement about this with my wife. So the first few months were very hard, making some money with freerolls is not an easy mission.

When I had 50 dollars, I started to play CG NL10 FR (that was the smallest stakes on those days) at SportingBet - part of the Boss Media group. I build up to $150 then I lost almost everything. I didn’t like that site at all and there were just a few tables and not so many players, so when I build up to 50 again, I transferred all of it to the Full Tilt.

Anyway I take this whole poker thing seriously from this spring – that was the second turning point. We talked a lot about a “full time” poker life with my friend who plays on Full Tilt too. Living here in Hungary it’s pretty hard nowadays, so we need to find something where we can make more money. You know the average payment here is somewhere between 400-800 dollars (after taxes) monthly. You don’t need play high limit poker to make this money.

And we arrived for my future plan finally. I’d like to be a winning player, first of all at this limit, then up to NL100, then… we’ll see! You can call it a dream of course. Especially ‘cause (after 75k hands) I’m a break even player at NL25 SH right now. I build up a 1K$ bankroll - thanks to bonuses and rake back -, but couldn’t beat this limit. And this is the point where I decided to hire a coach. I watched a lot of coaching videos, read articles etc, but I’m not enough to find my leaks and improve my games all alone. I’m working on my play harder then ever before: I’m playing much more (about 18k hands a month – I know it’s not too much), reviewing the previous session, trying to find mistakes and learning from them etc.

Honestly, sometimes I think that I don’t have my own style. I mean my play is very mixed. If somebody tell me that “you need to open up your range from the late positions”, in the very next session I’m playing like an aggro monkey. There is no transition from my rock style to a new one. And this makes even harder to find my leaks.

Anyway, if you’re asking me about my biggest weaknesses, then I can explain some. This is so much easier then finding some strengths. I’ll talk about this as soon as it possible, but this post is too long and (maybe) boring now!

Oh, before I forget it dear reader: please don’t hesitate if you’d like to tell me something! Any comments or questions are welcome!

See ya next time!