Good read, what would you say has taught you most to beat MTTS? Volume, Books, videos, forums? Posted by ALTiltYou
thats a tough one, ive never watched that many vidoes so id rule that one out, My initial thought would be volume but even the volume is pointless if you are never learning and improving, The only book which has notably improved my game straight away was the mental game of poker books. Forums are a great way to stay focused, set goals and seek inspiration from others. The way I think ive improved most is from looking over my own hands and hands good mtt players have played against me and just looking for mistakes i have made or how i can learn to implement the things that other people are doing to me
Enjoyed reading your backstory mate, didn't know you had a diary. About posting hh's what you need to do is log in with the web client go to hand history find the hand, then just copy+paste it in here and should work. Nearly forgot congrats on your scores
I hope this has copied correctly?? i dunno if i was right to give up on the river, i was 99% sure i was being bluffed on the flop, but then when my raise got called on my hand i couldnt think of any hands that would now fold the river (obviously i was wrong about that) but for such a small amount should i be shoving any river when i have already invested so many chips?
I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of how to post hands on the forum? I’ve got a bit more spare time on my hands since lockdown so I’m going to try and update this diary and discuss a few tough spots I’ve been in lately. I have no real goals and zero levels of commitment for how long il be actively posting but it will likely be until there’s some proper sport on tv to get stuck into. Until then I’m trying to improve my MTT game which has gone a bit stale over the past 2 years due to a lack of volume.
I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of how to post hands on the forum? I’ve got a bit more spare time on my hands since lockdown so I’m going to try and update this diary and discuss a few tough spots I’ve been in lately. I have no real goals and zero levels of commitment for how long il be actively posting but it will likely be until there’s some proper sport on tv to get stuck into. Until then I’m trying to improve my MTT game which has gone a bit stale over the past 2 years due to a much decreased lack of volume.
i was very unsure what to do on the river here. i think preflop is standard, on the flop i will be flatting a majority of the time, with occasional 3bets chucked in, but given this was an opponent i was unaware of then check-calling seemed optimal, on the turn i was fairly sure i had to bet to fold out the air hands that would still be beating me, and also fold out a few lower pairs, once i get the call on the turn i can rule out most Qx hands as they will likely have bet the turn, if the opponent is quite loose then Aj/Ak are possible hands as well as a few 10x and small pairs (although i felt 10x and smaller pairs may have adopted a check/call strategy on the flop). the river changes nothing and even now im still not sure whether its a shove or not, i still fold out some smaller pairs and 10x hands, but given no obvious draws got there then many players will feel compelled to call even with as little as AK in this spot as apart from aq/q10 and sets there isn't many hands id be shoving for value.
I think once you bet turn you have to jam river. You have the worst hand you could possibly have. You don't block any of his better high card diamond calls on the turn. You don't block any of his AK, KJ, AJ which will likely fold v river jam. Seems like a perfect bluff candidate.
However, I'm not sure I'd have made it to this point. Going back to preflop, I'm not sure the flat is great off 24bb, I think you're a bit short to realise enough equity with low suited connector hands and not doing particularly well against UTG range. The only time I'm calling pre is if both blinds are terrible (which they aren't in this case).
Flop call is also close imo, you're basically drawing to 4 outs, and even then they're not exactly clean when UTG should have all KJs combos. Don't blame you for floating v a less than half pot sizing though.
Being nitpicky, I would bet a bit smaller on turn. There really aren't that many air hands that can fold, he's going to be continuing with a lot of broadways which beat your hand, and smaller pocket pairs are not going to be making up a significant portion of his range (especially given he opened UTG). I think it's cheaper and more efficient to bet like a quarter to a third and clear out the air, without investing too much money with a hand as bad as you have. With stronger made hands, and draws with more equity, I would choose a larger size.
Then on riv, as played seems fine. Sick call by villain.
Preflop: Would have seemed like a standard call a few years ago with a suited connector and our stack depth - at most stack depths - we are getting a fantastic price and only need to win the hand 25% of the time to make the call profitable.
I think the call fine is pre, but totally understand cabbaz viewpoint as well.
Flop: We are drawing to the dummy end of the straight, don't especially like calling here to unclean outs. Would like a fold>raise>call.
Turn as Cabbaz said can go smaller with bluff and like the river jam as played.
Cheers for the input, I agree the turn bet could have been smaller, my thinking at the time was that it was a draw heavy board so if I am repping top pair/higher then I would likely go slightly bigger than standard. But looking back 1/3 pot probably does the same job here 9 times out of 10
I’d much rather defend this hand pre flop against an early position raise than a late position raise. UTG is unlikely to have any dominating 7/8s where as a mid/late raiser would likely have lots, therefore the hand plays much better against a strong tight range and il likely be much more sure of where I am at, I also felt like the blinds would be less likely to squeeze light v a UTG raiser so I’d get more chance to flop some decent equity in a multi way pot.
I think this one was my worst played hand of last nights session.
looking back im ok calling pre, im ok with the flop call but i feel i really should have donked the turn, id expect Matt to check back nearly all hands bar ak, aq and any 8s, as its a terrible card for him to continue with air, but if i lead i can rep air, a draw, or an 8 so i think i lost a lot of value there.
then on the river im ok with the lead size but i just think i have to fold to the raise, at the time every fibre of my being was saying i was beat but i just couldnt help pressing call on the last second of the timebar, with a clear head there just isn't a single hand i can beat or a single bluff in his range. it was obviously very hard to put him on 1010 but he could have easily had the straight
away from hand discussion last night was the first night in about 2-3 years where i played 6 MTTs, when i played full time 6 used to be a standard night but these days ive been much more comfortable with 3-4 so it was good to be able to get away from my comfort zone even if it led to a few sub optimal calls at times.
Ive never been someone who overly enjoys playing poker but i have always enjoyed learning/competing/risk taking and poker ticks those boxes for me, so whilst under lockdown my targets are to up my volume to 4-5 nights a week rather than my current 1-2 and to play 6MTTs per evening rather than my normal 2-4, if i can manage to stay disciplined enough to keep that going for the next 4-8 weeks il be very happy.
Can’t see suits as I’m on my phone so ignore me if there is a 3 flush or something on the board but I’ll chip in my 2 cents....
Play pre and flop the same. Turn feels like a mandatory lead vs a reg who imo just isn’t going to barrel that wide. As you said he’s going to x/back a significant portion of his range on the turn. You can attack his 6 outer combos that are betting once, set up the double barrell vs his value with our 8x and protect our gutters/open enders that didn’t x/raise flop.
River I’m just bet/folding, some nits don’t bluff @MattBates I probably size up a little bit on the river with your hand as I would do with bluffs targeting Qx but am interested to hear your thoughts on it.
Can’t see suits as I’m on my phone so ignore me if there is a 3 flush or something on the board but I’ll chip in my 2 cents....
Play pre and flop the same. Turn feels like a mandatory lead vs a reg who imo just isn’t going to barrel that wide. As you said he’s going to x/back a significant portion of his range on the turn. You can attack his 6 outer combos that are betting once, set up the double barrell vs his value with our 8x and protect our gutters/open enders that didn’t x/raise flop.
River I’m just bet/folding, some nits don’t bluff @MattBates I probably size up a little bit on the river with your hand as I would do with bluffs targeting Qx but am interested to hear your thoughts on it.
yeah i certainly think there are merits to a bigger river bet, and if i had bet bigger it would have increased my chances of folding to the reraise. i don't think there was too much logic to my river sizing as i was still annoyed at myself for checking the turn
Saturday was a profitable night where i played poorly but ran really well, Sunday was a losing night where i played really well but ran very poorly, not sure which one of those is more annoying?
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
DAVEMCDAID
Small blind
150.00
150.00
8944.38
PRhack93
Big blind
300.00
450.00
17126.00
Your hole cards
A
A
K33TSYA1
Fold
jordz16
Raise
600.00
1050.00
35545.24
slyfly19
Fold
DAVEMCDAID
Fold
PRhack93
Call
300.00
1350.00
16826.00
Flop
Q
J
4
PRhack93
Check
jordz16
Bet
600.00
1950.00
34945.24
PRhack93
Raise
1800.00
3750.00
15026.00
jordz16
Call
1200.00
4950.00
33745.24
Turn
3
PRhack93
Bet
3712.50
8662.50
11313.50
jordz16
Call
3712.50
12375.00
30032.74
River
K
PRhack93
All-in
11313.50
23688.50
0.00
jordz16
Call
11313.50
35002.00
18719.24
PRhack93
Show
4
4
jordz16
Show
A
A
PRhack93
Win
Three 4s
35002.00
35002.00
this was a frustrating hand for me, the player in question had Check raised me on the flop an orbit before, they bet the turn and then checked the river with rags.. this was playing on my mind throughout this hand as i felt its very unlikely hes going to try and bluff me twice in the same way, yet i cannot fold aces on the flop to a check raise otherwise il be incredibly exploitable long term, once i called the flop i feel i have to call the turn given that all the draws have missed. when he bets the river i do feel like i am beat and at the time i felt i should have folded, but given the flush draw has missed, and that JQ may not shove in this spot and that JJ and QQ would likely have 3bet pre then 44 is one of the few hands im losing to, id be interested to hear how others would have proceeded in this spot?
Comments
I hope this has copied correctly?? i dunno if i was right to give up on the river, i was 99% sure i was being bluffed on the flop, but then when my raise got called on my hand i couldnt think of any hands that would now fold the river (obviously i was wrong about that) but for such a small amount should i be shoving any river when i have already invested so many chips?
You are a ledge @mumsie
Thank you.
i was very unsure what to do on the river here. i think preflop is standard, on the flop i will be flatting a majority of the time, with occasional 3bets chucked in, but given this was an opponent i was unaware of then check-calling seemed optimal, on the turn i was fairly sure i had to bet to fold out the air hands that would still be beating me, and also fold out a few lower pairs, once i get the call on the turn i can rule out most Qx hands as they will likely have bet the turn, if the opponent is quite loose then Aj/Ak are possible hands as well as a few 10x and small pairs (although i felt 10x and smaller pairs may have adopted a check/call strategy on the flop). the river changes nothing and even now im still not sure whether its a shove or not, i still fold out some smaller pairs and 10x hands, but given no obvious draws got there then many players will feel compelled to call even with as little as AK in this spot as apart from aq/q10 and sets there isn't many hands id be shoving for value.
However, I'm not sure I'd have made it to this point. Going back to preflop, I'm not sure the flat is great off 24bb, I think you're a bit short to realise enough equity with low suited connector hands and not doing particularly well against UTG range. The only time I'm calling pre is if both blinds are terrible (which they aren't in this case).
Flop call is also close imo, you're basically drawing to 4 outs, and even then they're not exactly clean when UTG should have all KJs combos. Don't blame you for floating v a less than half pot sizing though.
Being nitpicky, I would bet a bit smaller on turn. There really aren't that many air hands that can fold, he's going to be continuing with a lot of broadways which beat your hand, and smaller pocket pairs are not going to be making up a significant portion of his range (especially given he opened UTG). I think it's cheaper and more efficient to bet like a quarter to a third and clear out the air, without investing too much money with a hand as bad as you have. With stronger made hands, and draws with more equity, I would choose a larger size.
Then on riv, as played seems fine. Sick call by villain.
I think the call fine is pre, but totally understand cabbaz viewpoint as well.
Flop: We are drawing to the dummy end of the straight, don't especially like calling here to unclean outs. Would like a fold>raise>call.
Turn as Cabbaz said can go smaller with bluff and like the river jam as played.
I’d much rather defend this hand pre flop against an early position raise than a late position raise. UTG is unlikely to have any dominating 7/8s where as a mid/late raiser would likely have lots, therefore the hand plays much better against a strong tight range and il likely be much more sure of where I am at, I also felt like the blinds would be less likely to squeeze light v a UTG raiser so I’d get more chance to flop some decent equity in a multi way pot.
I think this one was my worst played hand of last nights session.
looking back im ok calling pre, im ok with the flop call but i feel i really should have donked the turn, id expect Matt to check back nearly all hands bar ak, aq and any 8s, as its a terrible card for him to continue with air, but if i lead i can rep air, a draw, or an 8 so i think i lost a lot of value there.
then on the river im ok with the lead size but i just think i have to fold to the raise, at the time every fibre of my being was saying i was beat but i just couldnt help pressing call on the last second of the timebar, with a clear head there just isn't a single hand i can beat or a single bluff in his range. it was obviously very hard to put him on 1010 but he could have easily had the straight
Ive never been someone who overly enjoys playing poker but i have always enjoyed learning/competing/risk taking and poker ticks those boxes for me, so whilst under lockdown my targets are to up my volume to 4-5 nights a week rather than my current 1-2 and to play 6MTTs per evening rather than my normal 2-4, if i can manage to stay disciplined enough to keep that going for the next 4-8 weeks il be very happy.
It’s always helpful to see how the best players think their way through hands
Good luck
Play pre and flop the same.
Turn feels like a mandatory lead vs a reg who imo just isn’t going to barrel that wide. As you said he’s going to x/back a significant portion of his range on the turn. You can attack his 6 outer combos that are betting once, set up the double barrell vs his value with our 8x and protect our gutters/open enders that didn’t x/raise flop.
River I’m just bet/folding, some nits don’t bluff @MattBates
I probably size up a little bit on the river with your hand as I would do with bluffs targeting Qx but am interested to hear your thoughts on it.
yeah i certainly think there are merits to a bigger river bet, and if i had bet bigger it would have increased my chances of folding to the reraise. i don't think there was too much logic to my river sizing as i was still annoyed at myself for checking the turn
this was a frustrating hand for me, the player in question had Check raised me on the flop an orbit before, they bet the turn and then checked the river with rags.. this was playing on my mind throughout this hand as i felt its very unlikely hes going to try and bluff me twice in the same way, yet i cannot fold aces on the flop to a check raise otherwise il be incredibly exploitable long term, once i called the flop i feel i have to call the turn given that all the draws have missed. when he bets the river i do feel like i am beat and at the time i felt i should have folded, but given the flush draw has missed, and that JQ may not shove in this spot and that JJ and QQ would likely have 3bet pre then 44 is one of the few hands im losing to, id be interested to hear how others would have proceeded in this spot?
It's annoying when the draws miss but your gut tells you not to call it off! Ace of clubs is a bad card for you to hold there though isn't it?
Blocking AT that might raise flop, so T9 or 44 most likely value?
Other than spanners I don't see many bluffs by the river (unlikely to turn KT into bluff?).
Having said that I can't spot many combos of bluff or value haha! Tough one for me for sure.