Since my last post about the profit (or loss as it is right now), I made a couple of fairly significant adjustments to my game and I feel like I am playing solidly right now. The results do not reflect that, but I think if I keep playing the way I am, they will turn around. 12 months back I was really struggling to play my cards against the opposition's possible range - and I was struggling to make decisions in time (both live and online). However now, I feel like I can do this with ease - and almost on autopilot. It feels like a big step forward.
Another thing that has helped improve my game is constantly reminding myself of the following:
In position - offensive play Out of position - defensive play
I realise that's very obvious, but it wasn't a strategy I was always adopting in "the heat of battle".
Here's a hand from one of the 7 at 7 BH's, as played, what do you do guys do on the flop and turn here? Had no significant reads.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
peter27
Small blind
300.00
300.00
4720.00
bedrock72
Big blind
600.00
900.00
36014.50
Your hole cards
10
9
jams29
Call
600.00
1500.00
6200.00
Waddio
Call
600.00
2100.00
21213.00
tigher
Fold
peter27
Call
300.00
2400.00
4420.00
bedrock72
Check
Flop
4
10
J
peter27
Check
bedrock72
Check
jams29
Check
Waddio
Check
Turn
5
peter27
Check
bedrock72
Check
jams29
Bet
1600.00
4000.00
4600.00
Waddio
Fold
peter27
All-in
4420.00
8420.00
0.00
bedrock72
Fold
jams29
Fold
peter27
Muck
peter27
Win
5600.00
5600.00
peter27
Return
2820.00
0.00
8420.00
Also, I have a hypothetical question. Middle stages of an MTT, everyone playing around 50 BB's and you have no reads. Blinds are 200/400 and MP raises to 1200. You're on the button with a pocket pair. What pocket pair do you have to be holding to change from "just" calling to raising?
In addition to the above status, I played some low-stakes cash poker (£2.32 profit) and 3 x £3.30 DYM's with a mate. I lost all three DYM's, so that went well.
At the moment, due to my other on-going project that I have previously mentioned, I am only playing the live 6-max every week.
Something dawned on me today while playing that live event. I'm starting a trend where the story of my tournament is the basically the same most times.
I start strongly, and I feel like I have improved considerably in this area as time goes on; loosening up my play at the lower blind levels helped a lot. I consistently have a big stack size heading into the middle stages, but that's where it starts to come undone for me.
Let's say the blinds at 5k/10k, and I am playing a 200k stack. If I raise pre-flop with suited connectors to 20k, and one opponent calls, that's 40k in the pot. Then with a c-bet and call that's already between 80k-100k in the pot. Losing a couple of hands like this seems common, and then I am suddenly short stacked. How do I avoid this scenario? Tightening my range and folding suited connectors pre (just an example) doesn't feel right. But equally, if I miss the flop, the pot gets big after my c-bet. I could start checking more flops but that doesn't really feel right either, I c-bet based on the flop texture. I'm a little bit stuck to be honest.
Quickest fix for you Peter is making sure you’re not playing weak suited connectors from early position while having 20bb, especially live where in general you’ve probably got less fold equity. You’ll find yourself out of position with weak holdings a lot less often
Quickest fix for you Peter is making sure you’re not playing weak suited connectors from early position while having 20bb, especially live where in general you’ve probably got less fold equity. You’ll find yourself out of position with weak holdings a lot less often
@madprof Still playing JTs but yeah the 54s-87s area don’t tend to be good opens when you’re quite short, especially at a 9 handed table. On sky it’s not as bad but still not playing these unless I’m in late position
As others have said you need to open a tighter range shallower. A lot of the value of suited connectors/ pp's are in hitting a big hand and being deep enough to get paid for it.
Your going to want to generally favour raising with big cards because they make top pairs more often which is what we want shallow. Also when we have big cards like KQ it makes it less likely someone has a hand like AK AQ, KK, QQ that is gonna move in on us. With small pp's you want to either jam or fold from a lot of positions shallow, they are not hands that benefit from seeing a flop. You want to use your fold equity and be flipping a lot when called. You need to learn how much you can profitably shove them for from what position's.
Also you can always consider cbetting smaller. Betting third pot leaves more play behind and keeps the pot smaller on the turn. Third pot is a fairly standard bet sizing choice by a lot of decent pro's.
Also you have played less than 50 tournaments collectively. This is a nothing sample. It's good to look for leaks and areas to improve, but you really can't tell anything from such a small sample. Be realistic about variance, don't attribute all your good results to amazing play and your bad results to bad play. Some would say you need to play 1-2 thousand tournaments to be able to start gaging where your at.
Thanks for the feedback guys, you all had a very similar message, and I have been taking that on board. @FeelGroggy Your post was particularly helpful, cheers.
Played the mini tonight and lost a decent amount of chips on this hand. Would you guys have played this differently?
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
WhattaMong
Small blind
200.00
200.00
11114.00
peter27
Big blind
400.00
600.00
22560.00
Your hole cards
J
10
Richrash93
Raise
800.00
1400.00
13500.00
kelsey01
Fold
FAS
Fold
beefmyster
Call
800.00
2200.00
13610.00
WhattaMong
Fold
peter27
Call
400.00
2600.00
22160.00
Flop
K
8
4
peter27
Check
Richrash93
Bet
1300.00
3900.00
12200.00
beefmyster
Fold
peter27
Call
1300.00
5200.00
20860.00
Turn
K
peter27
Check
Richrash93
Bet
2400.00
7600.00
9800.00
peter27
Call
2400.00
10000.00
18460.00
River
Q
peter27
Check
Richrash93
Check
peter27
Show
J
10
Richrash93
Show
8
5
Richrash93
Win
Two Pairs, Kings and 8s
10000.00
19800.00
I believe I was getting the right odds to call the flop bet, not so much on the turn - but the size of the pot and the amount I had already invested made it difficult to give up.
Your getting good odds to call Preflop, but your playing super passive throughout.
If you 3bet or shove preflop i think its better, even folding is better.
Having said that, im in need of coaching so probably should keep stum.
I didn't expect anyone to suggest that!
I agree I am playing passive, but I am out of position.
3-betting preflop with suited connectors against an UTG raise feels like it would be a very bold play. It'll be interesting to see if others agree with you.
Folding JT pre would seem too tight to me, but maybe that's an example of the previous conversation; maybe I shouldn't be playing suited connectors in this spot.
Do you give up after the flop? My logic was if the opposition hit the ace, would they really go full pot size on that flop? Put him on air, or the nine.
Jts is a mandatory defend. Closing the action here you should be defending much wider than JTs. You should be peeling as wide as 54s in terms of suited connectors. The hand itself you cant do an aggressive other than possibly bluffing river although the give up is fine. Turn no option is thrilling but hey that's poker.
Do you give up after the flop? My logic was if the opposition hit the ace, would they really go full pot size on that flop? Put him on air, or the nine.
Your thought process should have led you to play call rather than jam. If you decide not to believe this lead, call. 9x and bluffs have close to 0% equity vs you. There are no bad runouts really. By raising all you achieve is getting him to call better and fold bluffs. You also give 9x the opportunity to fold.
Comments
Short stack of 80k (2 BB's) shoves. Chip leader calls (2M), I have QQ and also call (1.5M) with QQ. Sadly the chip leader had AA and that was me out.
So its hard to help as no idea on number of players left or actual action
Two players left to act behind me. Both of whom quickly folded.
Tournaments: 24
Buy-Ins: £191.31
Cashes: £78.30
FT's: 2
Wins: 1
Live:
Tournaments: 4
Buy-Ins: £220.00
Cashes: £100.00
FT's: 0
Wins: 0
Since my last post about the profit (or loss as it is right now), I made a couple of fairly significant adjustments to my game and I feel like I am playing solidly right now. The results do not reflect that, but I think if I keep playing the way I am, they will turn around. 12 months back I was really struggling to play my cards against the opposition's possible range - and I was struggling to make decisions in time (both live and online). However now, I feel like I can do this with ease - and almost on autopilot. It feels like a big step forward.
Another thing that has helped improve my game is constantly reminding myself of the following:
In position - offensive play
Out of position - defensive play
I realise that's very obvious, but it wasn't a strategy I was always adopting in "the heat of battle".
Here's a hand from one of the 7 at 7 BH's, as played, what do you do guys do on the flop and turn here? Had no significant reads.
Tournaments: 36
Buy-Ins: £269.51
Cashes: £93.99
FT's: 2
Wins: 1
Live:
Tournaments: 5
Buy-Ins: £300.00
Cashes: £100.00
FT's: 0
Wins: 0
In addition to the above status, I played some low-stakes cash poker (£2.32 profit) and 3 x £3.30 DYM's with a mate. I lost all three DYM's, so that went well.
Tournaments: 42
Buy-Ins: £313.21
Cashes: £169.35
FT's: 2
Wins: 1
Live:
Tournaments: 7
Buy-Ins: £380.00
Cashes: £100.00
FT's: 0
Wins: 0
At the moment, due to my other on-going project that I have previously mentioned, I am only playing the live 6-max every week.
Something dawned on me today while playing that live event. I'm starting a trend where the story of my tournament is the basically the same most times.
I start strongly, and I feel like I have improved considerably in this area as time goes on; loosening up my play at the lower blind levels helped a lot. I consistently have a big stack size heading into the middle stages, but that's where it starts to come undone for me.
Let's say the blinds at 5k/10k, and I am playing a 200k stack. If I raise pre-flop with suited connectors to 20k, and one opponent calls, that's 40k in the pot. Then with a c-bet and call that's already between 80k-100k in the pot. Losing a couple of hands like this seems common, and then I am suddenly short stacked. How do I avoid this scenario? Tightening my range and folding suited connectors pre (just an example) doesn't feel right. But equally, if I miss the flop, the pot gets big after my c-bet. I could start checking more flops but that doesn't really feel right either, I c-bet based on the flop texture. I'm a little bit stuck to be honest.
Hmmm, needs some thought. Advice welcome.
As someone who likes to play suited connectors -they do look so pretty...- and c bet/check
What do you determine are ‘weak ‘ 45?, 78? 10J? Where do you draw the line..( btw pencil at the ready to amend my notes on you! 🤪👹💩)
Your going to want to generally favour raising with big cards because they make top pairs more often which is what we want shallow. Also when we have big cards like KQ it makes it less likely someone has a hand like AK AQ, KK, QQ that is gonna move in on us. With small pp's you want to either jam or fold from a lot of positions shallow, they are not hands that benefit from seeing a flop. You want to use your fold equity and be flipping a lot when called. You need to learn how much you can profitably shove them for from what position's.
Also you can always consider cbetting smaller. Betting third pot leaves more play behind and keeps the pot smaller on the turn. Third pot is a fairly standard bet sizing choice by a lot of decent pro's.
Also you have played less than 50 tournaments collectively. This is a nothing sample. It's good to look for leaks and areas to improve, but you really can't tell anything from such a small sample. Be realistic about variance, don't attribute all your good results to amazing play and your bad results to bad play. Some would say you need to play 1-2 thousand tournaments to be able to start gaging where your at.
Online:
Tournaments: 52
Buy-Ins: £369.31
Cashes: £218.52
FT's: 2
Wins: 1
Live:
Tournaments: 7
Buy-Ins: £380.00
Cashes: £100.00
FT's: 0
Wins: 0
Played the mini tonight and lost a decent amount of chips on this hand. Would you guys have played this differently?
If you 3bet or shove preflop i think its better, even folding is better.
Having said that, im in need of coaching so probably should keep stum.
I agree I am playing passive, but I am out of position.
3-betting preflop with suited connectors against an UTG raise feels like it would be a very bold play. It'll be interesting to see if others agree with you.
Folding JT pre would seem too tight to me, but maybe that's an example of the previous conversation; maybe I shouldn't be playing suited connectors in this spot.