Well imo, the first hand would take a bit longer to discuss. Im on a session right now so will just look at hand 2. First thing to note is that I am TAG/NIT, so my advice might not really be optimal for you as I see you more LAG. Not that saying that is bad or good, but purely as an observation and that must be kept in mind when reading my thoughts. Hand 2. imho. Raise pre fine obv. For me, I just fold the flop. Flop for Robbie. If you want to be getting involved when you totally miss I would say to raise the flop. You arent really going to get a good card on the turn to bluff at very often as there are no flush draws and only the ace as an over card. If they are donking with air or not much (reads?) you can get them to fold, if they dont you can give up on the turn most of the time. As played you just have to fold the turn, simple fact is they have something and we have nothing so we just let this one go. Villain made a decent check call on the river as they probably realise the card was a blank unless you had 78. But of course I am far from a cash expert. Posted by calcalfold
Ijust thought the flop was so dry and his limped/called so I don't think his hand is very strong. If you actually had a good hand why would you donk on this dry a board?
Yeah the river was good play, I did think maybe he will still c/c with a weak K but I don't think I give himenough credit for doing that on the river. I just didn't want to fold everytime someone donked out, otherwise it becomes very expoiltable, maybe I should pick my opponents better to do this on.....
Didn't no you was playing a session, thanks for the advice.
Hey Robbie, I've lost touch a bit with this thread but from the recent posts it sounds like things aint going too well. I used to have massive tilt problems and it really is a killer cos you can be a really good player when you're playing well but if you tilt badly/often it can just completely destroy any progress you make when playing well. I replied to your PM btw. Hand 1 - Sometimes I might just fold pre but I don't mind isolating them either, if so just stick to the 3x + 1 per limper so you should only make it 50p pre imo. Just fold the flop, obviously villian is passive because they've limp/called and now they wanna donkbet. It's unlikely you're gonna make this type of player fold now and if they even have K2 you're drawing to runner runner to win. Just let it go. Hand 2 - Good iso, but again I probably just fold the flop. Generally we iso people who are loose/passive so they limp loads, then decide to call a raise with junk 'cos they've already put some money in the pot', then just check/fold a stupidly high % of the time. When he decides to donkbet, again it's almost certain he has at least 1pr, we're unlikely to make him fold and can't just be calling to try to hit a bigger pair Posted by Lambert180
No my mental game has gone miles backwards I didn't play as much and when I come back my bad habbits returned with me. Yesterday I watched tv while I played and it seemed to help, but its not ideal I don't think, but I need something to keep me interested and not bored/un focused.
Yeah tbh Q10 is at the bottom of my isolation range, I think I isolate too wide but I like being the aggressor IP as I find it much easier and iv had success recently doing it. Yeah its more the fact his bet looks like a blocker and the fact he has limp/called pre gives away the strength of his hand I feel, so what can he call 3 streets with that he limp/called pre with? people will call 2 streets, but that final street means people feel they have to have a premium hand. That's why I decided to shove the river.....I do believe I have AK,KQ,KJ,AA, KK here a lot so I think his calls are -EV long run, maybe I needed to wait longer to make sure villain is capable of folding, maybe just shouldn't bluff but I don't want to just be easy and weak to play against.
Yeah I just didn't believe him due to the fact id been aggressive all game and I thought he was thinking "im fed up im just betting against u". Plus the fact the board is so dry aswell, means he could donk with PP, AIR, 78, 89, 34, 23, and he would continue with a lot of them hands on the turn.... then obv the fact iv floated because I think his weak means I have to bet the river, although I think he c/c with a big % of his range here.
Okay I think I replied but ill have a look later and check .
In Response to Re: ONE TIME!.....another diary. : Ijust thought the flop was so dry and his limped/called so I don't think his hand is very strong.If you actually had a good hand why would you donk on this dry a board? Yeah the river was good play, I did think maybe he will still c/c with a weak K but I don't think I give himenough credit for doing that on the river. I just didn't want to fold everytime someone donked out, otherwise it becomes very expoiltable, maybe I should pick my opponents better to do this on..... Didn't no you was playing a session, thanks for the advice. Posted by robbie1992
Couple of things to think about... 1) Doesn't really matter if his hand isn't strong, it will almost certainly be stronger than ours and these aren't the type of people that like to fold. 2) Cos that's the only way they know how to play, they're not thinking about what it looks like from your point of view they're just thinking 'if I have a good hand, I'll bet, if I don't, I wont' 3) These people won't know how to exploit you. Being exploitable only matters against players who know HOW to exploit what you're doing. I'd bet anything they're not gonna start seeing you fold to donk bets a lot and start donk betting with complete air. They're just gonna carry on their normal game, bet when they have a hand, don't when they dont
For the last point I made, it can be different against regs as you get to know the kind of hands they will donkbet with, but against yoru average random, donk betting means they have a hand of some sort so if you don't have a hand or some decent draw, just let it go.
Just read your reply to me in this thread. The problem is, MOST people aren't thinking abuot your range at all, they're looking at their cards and thinking 'do I have two pair, do I have top pair, great I'm calling'. They've called a raise on the flop and the turn, even if they have bottom pr they aint calling down with all that action to fold a river. Of course their call is -EV but they aint thinking about EV so they don't care or even know.
In Response to Re: ONE TIME!.....another diary. : Ijust thought the flop was so dry and his limped/called so I don't think his hand is very strong. If you actually had a good hand why would you donk on this dry a board? Yeah the river was good play, I did think maybe he will still c/c with a weak K but I don't think I give himenough credit for doing that on the river. I just didn't want to fold everytime someone donked out, otherwise it becomes very expoiltable, maybe I should pick my opponents better to do this on..... Didn't no you was playing a session, thanks for the advice. Posted by robbie1992
No worries Robbie,
Yeah, as Lambert said, these players often do not think how their play looks to you. Nor do they understand the principle of checking to the preflop aggressor. You can make some good notes on this player to take forward just based on this one hand.
Off out in a bit, will then try and get down some thoughts on hand 1.
Didn't play a huge amount today about 2 hours as football was on and I was working out in the morning. Ended up 3.1 buy ins down , was just under 5 down at one stage but got some back. Played decent I think, but still could be doing better on the hands that I lost with, the more aggression in my game is making me a better player and making decisions easier for me I think. Annoying I won a abit and was only 3.2 buy ins away from my first withdrawal and now im futher away that's what tilts me as I now feel I wasted my time, I only won 1 buy in on sky and 1 on 888 in the end over the weekend.
Got a free day tomorrow so going to try and have a big grind.
Awful day, football wasn't good and sold bale, pretty bad day all round.
Iv decided to quit poker, iv been thinking about it for a while and its nothing to do with the game being unfair or anything like that Iv just had enough of leanring/playing / talking about it etc . I don't think im progressing and I hate being rubbish at a game iv tried so hard in so I can either add more effort and time or quit, so I think ill quit. I wouldn't even no how to improve and my mental game is tough to control at times. Iv withdrawn all money from both account and come away with about a £100 I think which is pretty pathetic for the time I played on both, iv saved up £1300 from poker and hope to spend it on something helpful to me.
Thanks to anyone who had read my diary and to the lots of people who give me great advice I appreciate it. Also I got a lot of support on here when I was struggling with health problems and that was nice to read as its a poker forum not a life forum lol im feeling the healthiest iv been in about 2 years and im working out most days which keeps me happy so things are on the up.
GL to all those dedicated players that this forum has and I still might look at the diarys on here every now and then to see how people are getting on but I might just ask for my account to be deleted as I don't want to come back, especially now I said im quitting as the IDCU return I found very attention seeking and annoying as did a lot of people so I don't want to do that lol
Well obviously I don't know everything thats been going on in your life Robbie, but it does seem as if you've been playing poker for a while and not enjoying it.
A philosophy I try to live by is to try and enjoy what I do. If im unhappy, I look at why Im unhappy and try to change that aspect of my life. After all, why would you do something you don't enjoy in your spare time?
There are plenty of other things in life other than poker. Good luck in whatever you end up doing.
I'm guessing this isn't just a knee jerk reaction because you've had these doubts before.
If you decide to leave for good, then best of luck for the future. No1 wants to do the IDCU 'I'm leaving then come back next week' lol but don't let that put you off coming back if you really want to.
Robbie, why not just take an extended break? See how you feel in a few weeks or something. A break might do you a world of good, poker wise.
I don't know about others, but if I've had a bad day/night at the tables, I often say to myself that I won't play the next day. This rarely happens, as after 8 hours at work I'm always gagging to see 2 cards in front of me! But maybe just taking some time away from the tables will benefit you, and perhaps give you a new lease of determination should you return to poker in the future.
No I think stopping playing will be for the best, I havnt been enjoying poker lately and if I take an extended break the doubts of poker will still be there so it's not really a solution. There's money to be made in poker but I'm just not solid enough mentally or skill wise to make it consistently. Thanks anyway for the suggestions.
I played for the first time today for ages, I decided to play 20nl , make a decent profit and then withdraw and take the profit and save it. I used to do that and it was fairly effective, i know that i will need to make a few changes. What i thought is.
- I will only be playing when im not busy, which wont be a big amount a week....should stop me from playing to much and getting bored.
- The fact ill be getting money straight away after winning it might help with motiviation, and i wont be playing 10nl ill be playing 20nl so i should find it more exciting.
- The time i have free i will be using it to improve my mental game, i think mental side of poker is massive. I think if i improved that it would give me a good chance of doing well, because my actual game is enough to win at low end of cash i think. I wont be the best player, far from it, but i should come close to doing okay,
- I wont focus on the playing side as much as i felt too much pressure and i even confussed myself and found myself putting fancy plays in my game which i didn't fully understand when they should/shouldn't be used.
- I wont post as much on my diary , maybe once or twice a week. Its boring for the readers if i post too much and also it gives some room that poker wont be everything. I will be doing a lot of other things so hopefully it wont be driving me crazy.
- Try to find the time to play in the forum tourney things, on a Monday i think ? just for the fact that I can see its a community game and too find the fun in poker.
- I need to always remember its a game and theres always tomorrow !!!
The fact im playing at 20nl should make an interesting read as ill prob be a fish there, but at least it will be exciting lol
I played 2 hours today, a lot of names i recognise giving me advice playing so it was abit scary at first, but i played solid and didn't do anything fancy and ended up coming away 2 buy ins up
Its all gone wrong as I think a lot of you thought it would. I need to contact sky to close my account I cant not play on my own I keep coming back and this game makes me feel disgusting, I used to love it like so many people on here but now I think iv mentally ruined it.
I just cant stop tilting its so frustrating, I wished I could see my br if I don't tilt. Ended up losing £80 today which is a disgrace imo. I cant change my head im not a phycolgist so ill never win. Where did my love for poker go? did I just find out what sort of game is actually was when I believed it was more then just luck ?
Think I realised not a lot of people are actuallygood at it long term, and the fact people play for months and don't seems to make any money out of it. It just makes you hate the game.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
luckyjimbo
Small blind
£0.10
£0.10
£63.86
robbie1992
Big blind
£0.20
£0.30
£19.80
mrcocopopz
Ante
£0.10
£0.40
£6.97
Your hole cards
K
Q
whereami
Fold
mrcocopopz
Fold
three33320
Call
£0.20
£0.60
£33.05
luckyjimbo
Call
£0.10
£0.70
£63.76
robbie1992
Raise
£0.80
£1.50
£19.00
three33320
Call
£0.80
£2.30
£32.25
luckyjimbo
Call
£0.80
£3.10
£62.96
Flop
Q
2
K
luckyjimbo
Check
robbie1992
Bet
£2.00
£5.10
£17.00
three33320
Fold
luckyjimbo
Call
£2.00
£7.10
£60.96
Turn
5
luckyjimbo
Check
robbie1992
Bet
£4.80
£11.90
£12.20
luckyjimbo
Raise
£9.60
£21.50
£51.36
robbie1992
All-in
£12.20
£33.70
£0.00
luckyjimbo
Call
£7.40
£41.10
£43.96
luckyjimbo
Show
5
2
robbie1992
Show
K
Q
River
5
luckyjimbo
Win
Full House, 5s and 2s
£39.30
£83.26
This hand is poker imo, everything wrong, luck wins , players wins even though on every street he played It , how many "regs" on here would say, badly.
You lost 4 buyins, so not massive really Robby, if you have had a session where you have ran bad.
The hand above clearly just unlucky. If you can't take the bad beats, which are a big part of the game, then it's not the game for you. If you play outside your "bankroll" losing 4 buy ins, is going to hurt massively.
I think before you said you play to win, and to win alone. At poker it's not always going to go all our own way.
I play for fun, i love winning and if i lose well it happens. I just play low stakes games on here, cash, mtts, and hu games, a lot of people have said to me why don't you play higher levels, the reason mostly is cause then i would be only thinking about money as opposed to actually enjoying it. Despite only playing low stakes games, i have made a decent amount of money over the last 3 months.
What i am saying is if you do it because you enjoy the game, then you should be prepared to grind it out at 4nl and 10nl to build up enough to withstand losing 4 buy ins at 20nl.
Good luck anyway, hope it works out for you, whether it's playing poker or not.
rob have you thought about trying some different forms of the game, even at lower stakes?
maybe blow £20 on some cheap bounty hunters / husng's anything to get away from what must seem like a grind.
tis a boss game, we all love it deep down. just try and find that buzz again. hope you can step back from all the negativity and find your game again mate.
FWIW, you might think I'm a better player than you... well in the last week or two I've had multiple sessions where I've lost over £200 in a session, and I'm mostly only playing 20NL like you with a bit of 30NL. Granted it's not great, but it happens. Sorry I know this probably won't help cos I know what it feels like.
Pretty much 100% of session results are decided by 1-2 big hands. We're often not gonna be getting stacks in every 5 mins so the odd times we do is what can make or break a session (that's not to say small pots don't count). Chances are if you're playing pretty solid, when the big pots go your way, you have a winning session, when they don't, you dont.
All you have to do is look at that 1 HH you posted... you lost £80 today.... all you have to do is fade the river in that 1 hand which you will do a huge amount of the time and suddenly you've HALVED your losses from 1 'simple' hold.
"No my mental game has gone miles backwards I didn't play as much and when I come back my bad habbits returned with me. Yesterday I watched tv while I played and it seemed to help, but its not ideal I don't think, but I need something to keep me interested and not bored/un focused."
I can,t play more than 1 table with the telly on anymore so stick to my headphones and listen to music on youtube. Not sure if you,ve already tried this but it helped me
AM DISGUSTED IVE RECORED UP TO DATE 124 MATCHS NOW AND EVERY SINGLE ONE I HAVE LOST THE RIVER SKY PLEASE EXPLAIN CAUSE I HAVE HARD EVIDENCE NOW WHERE TO TAKE IT I DONT NO SORT YOUR REGAULOTRS OUT CAUSE IT ISNT RANDOM ON THE RIVER THATS FOR SURE LOST LOADS WANT TO THROW MY LAPTOP AT A WALL BUT I REMEMBER ITS SKY AND NOT MY OWN PERSONAL POSSESSIONS THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!!
AM DISGUSTED IVE RECORED UP TO DATE 124 MATCHS NOW AND EVERY SINGLE ONE I HAVE LOST THE RIVER SKY PLEASE EXPLAIN CAUSE I HAVE HARD EVIDENCE NOW WHERE TO TAKE IT I DONT NO SORT YOUR REGAULOTRS OUT CAUSE IT ISNT RANDOM ON THE RIVER THATS FOR SURE LOST LOADS WANT TO THROW MY LAPTOP AT A WALL BUT I REMEMBER ITS SKY AND NOT MY OWN PERSONAL POSSESSIONS THIS NEEDS TO STOP!!! Posted by infurno119
Comments
In Response to Re: ONE TIME!.....another diary.: Ijust thought the flop was so dry and his limped/called so I don't think his hand is very strong. If you actually had a good hand why would you donk on this dry a board?
Yeah the river was good play, I did think maybe he will still c/c with a weak K but I don't think I give himenough credit for doing that on the river. I just didn't want to fold everytime someone donked out, otherwise it becomes very expoiltable, maybe I should pick my opponents better to do this on.....
Didn't no you was playing a session, thanks for the advice.
Yeah tbh Q10 is at the bottom of my isolation range, I think I isolate too wide but I like being the aggressor IP as I find it much easier and iv had success recently doing it. Yeah its more the fact his bet looks like a blocker and the fact he has limp/called pre gives away the strength of his hand I feel, so what can he call 3 streets with that he limp/called pre with? people will call 2 streets, but that final street means people feel they have to have a premium hand. That's why I decided to shove the river.....I do believe I have AK,KQ,KJ,AA, KK here a lot so I think his calls are -EV long run, maybe I needed to wait longer to make sure villain is capable of folding, maybe just shouldn't bluff but I don't want to just be easy and weak to play against.
Yeah I just didn't believe him due to the fact id been aggressive all game and I thought he was thinking "im fed up im just betting against u". Plus the fact the board is so dry aswell, means he could donk with PP, AIR, 78, 89, 34, 23, and he would continue with a lot of them hands on the turn.... then obv the fact iv floated because I think his weak means I have to bet the river, although I think he c/c with a big % of his range here.
Okay I think I replied but ill have a look later and check .
1) Doesn't really matter if his hand isn't strong, it will almost certainly be stronger than ours and these aren't the type of people that like to fold.
2) Cos that's the only way they know how to play, they're not thinking about what it looks like from your point of view they're just thinking 'if I have a good hand, I'll bet, if I don't, I wont'
3) These people won't know how to exploit you. Being exploitable only matters against players who know HOW to exploit what you're doing. I'd bet anything they're not gonna start seeing you fold to donk bets a lot and start donk betting with complete air. They're just gonna carry on their normal game, bet when they have a hand, don't when they dont
For the last point I made, it can be different against regs as you get to know the kind of hands they will donkbet with, but against yoru average random, donk betting means they have a hand of some sort so if you don't have a hand or some decent draw, just let it go.
Learn which people are stations and then....
1) Don't bluff them
2) Value bet 3 streets with 2nd pr
Yeah, as Lambert said, these players often do not think how their play looks to you. Nor do they understand the principle of checking to the preflop aggressor. You can make some good notes on this player to take forward just based on this one hand.
Off out in a bit, will then try and get down some thoughts on hand 1.
update
Didn't play a huge amount today about 2 hours as football was on and I was working out in the morning. Ended up 3.1 buy ins down , was just under 5 down at one stage but got some back. Played decent I think, but still could be doing better on the hands that I lost with, the more aggression in my game is making me a better player and making decisions easier for me I think. Annoying I won a abit and was only 3.2 buy ins away from my first withdrawal and now im futher away that's what tilts me as I now feel I wasted my time, I only won 1 buy in on sky and 1 on 888 in the end over the weekend.
Got a free day tomorrow so going to try and have a big grind.
Awful day, football wasn't good and sold bale, pretty bad day all round.
sky: £321
888:$536.50
Iv decided to quit poker, iv been thinking about it for a while and its nothing to do with the game being unfair or anything like that Iv just had enough of leanring/playing / talking about it etc . I don't think im progressing and I hate being rubbish at a game iv tried so hard in so I can either add more effort and time or quit, so I think ill quit. I wouldn't even no how to improve and my mental game is tough to control at times. Iv withdrawn all money from both account and come away with about a £100 I think which is pretty pathetic for the time I played on both, iv saved up £1300 from poker and hope to spend it on something helpful to me.
Thanks to anyone who had read my diary and to the lots of people who give me great advice I appreciate it. Also I got a lot of support on here when I was struggling with health problems and that was nice to read as its a poker forum not a life forum lol im feeling the healthiest iv been in about 2 years and im working out most days which keeps me happy so things are on the up.
GL to all those dedicated players that this forum has and I still might look at the diarys on here every now and then to see how people are getting on but I might just ask for my account to be deleted as I don't want to come back, especially now I said im quitting as the IDCU return I found very attention seeking and annoying as did a lot of people so I don't want to do that lol
GL everyone and thanks again !!!!
A philosophy I try to live by is to try and enjoy what I do. If im unhappy, I look at why Im unhappy and try to change that aspect of my life. After all, why would you do something you don't enjoy in your spare time?
There are plenty of other things in life other than poker. Good luck in whatever you end up doing.
If you decide to leave for good, then best of luck for the future. No1 wants to do the IDCU 'I'm leaving then come back next week' lol but don't let that put you off coming back if you really want to.
c u soon
if you do comeback - don't bother posting - just putting too much presure on yourself - just enjoy playing
gl have fun
- I will only be playing when im not busy, which wont be a big amount a week....should stop me from playing to much and getting bored.
- The fact ill be getting money straight away after winning it might help with motiviation, and i wont be playing 10nl ill be playing 20nl so i should find it more exciting.
- The time i have free i will be using it to improve my mental game, i think mental side of poker is massive. I think if i improved that it would give me a good chance of doing well, because my actual game is enough to win at low end of cash i think. I wont be the best player, far from it, but i should come close to doing okay,
- I wont focus on the playing side as much as i felt too much pressure and i even confussed myself and found myself putting fancy plays in my game which i didn't fully understand when they should/shouldn't be used.
- I wont post as much on my diary , maybe once or twice a week. Its boring for the readers if i post too much and also it gives some room that poker wont be everything. I will be doing a lot of other things so hopefully it wont be driving me crazy.
- Try to find the time to play in the forum tourney things, on a Monday i think ? just for the fact that I can see its a community game and too find the fun in poker.
- I need to always remember its a game and theres always tomorrow !!!
The fact im playing at 20nl should make an interesting read as ill prob be a fish there, but at least it will be exciting lol
I played 2 hours today, a lot of names i recognise giving me advice playing so it was abit scary at first, but i played solid and didn't do anything fancy and ended up coming away 2 buy ins up
This Week: +1.9 (£39)
I just cant stop tilting its so frustrating, I wished I could see my br if I don't tilt. Ended up losing £80 today which is a disgrace imo. I cant change my head im not a phycolgist so ill never win. Where did my love for poker go? did I just find out what sort of game is actually was when I believed it was more then just luck ?
Think I realised not a lot of people are actuallygood at it long term, and the fact people play for months and don't seems to make any money out of it. It just makes you hate the game.
The hand above clearly just unlucky. If you can't take the bad beats, which are a big part of the game, then it's not the game for you. If you play outside your "bankroll" losing 4 buy ins, is going to hurt massively.
I think before you said you play to win, and to win alone. At poker it's not always going to go all our own way.
I play for fun, i love winning and if i lose well it happens. I just play low stakes games on here, cash, mtts, and hu games, a lot of people have said to me why don't you play higher levels, the reason mostly is cause then i would be only thinking about money as opposed to actually enjoying it. Despite only playing low stakes games, i have made a decent amount of money over the last 3 months.
What i am saying is if you do it because you enjoy the game, then you should be prepared to grind it out at 4nl and 10nl to build up enough to withstand losing 4 buy ins at 20nl.
Good luck anyway, hope it works out for you, whether it's playing poker or not.
Pretty much 100% of session results are decided by 1-2 big hands. We're often not gonna be getting stacks in every 5 mins so the odd times we do is what can make or break a session (that's not to say small pots don't count). Chances are if you're playing pretty solid, when the big pots go your way, you have a winning session, when they don't, you dont.
All you have to do is look at that 1 HH you posted... you lost £80 today.... all you have to do is fade the river in that 1 hand which you will do a huge amount of the time and suddenly you've HALVED your losses from 1 'simple' hold.
Get smashing sir.