I Seriously Need Your Help...

[x2ski]

I really feel like a wuss sayying this, but I'm gonna put it out there anyway:

There is something wrong with my poker game. Some of you may have read that my stint at $3/$6 began with a 250BB or so downswing over the course of about 3 weeks.

After that, I had a decent rush of cards (which seemed like a normal distribution IMHO [until now]) for about 4 weeks, followed by a 130BB downswing which I've been stuck at the bottom of during the past 2 weeks.

Over the last 67,673 hands at $3/$6, I am earning exactly 1BB/100... the highest I ever hit was 1.61BB/100.

I don't feel like I'm playing poorly, but obviously something is wrong, for I don't think I should have such frequent downswings that are of such long duration. What really sucks is that I think the tables at $3/$6 have been fantastic lately, but I'm going nowhere. Given how soft the tables have been, I feel like I couldn't beat $.05/$.10 on Stars lol.

An extremely brief background... I am in my first year of self-employment as a strictly commission-based real estate agent. Since it's been slow starting off in this business, I am pretty much relying on poker income for the time being.

My bankroll is waaaay more than enough for $3/$6, but since I am very risk-averse, I was waiting to hit 2.5BB/100 before moving to $5/$10. That is just not happening lol.

Therefore, I would greatly appreciate it if some of you would be willing to help me out. Analyze my game, review hand histories, etc.

I might even be willing to barter (since Christmas, I have more socks and underwear than I know what to do with /images/graemlins/smile.gif)

Thank you very much for your help.

[x2ski]

n/m

[Vaftrudner]

Try to post the pt-numbers here then someone might give you a hint or two. /v

[Grease]

I'd post hands before posting PT numbers. Your VPIP should be under 20, your PFR over 7, and your agg. factor (minus PF) should be over 2. Every thing else is situational (actual hands). (These numbers are really rough, and not meant to be exact)

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd post hands before posting PT numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree. You should be playing TA-A by the BisonBison rating, but there are tons of bad players who are still ranked with that little money-bag icon. /images/graemlins/smile.gif Post some hands and we'll discuss actual strategy, not just statistics.

I'm not quite sure of the point of your post here, x2ski. Are you just looking for a tutor, or sympathy, or what? If you're looking for strategy discussions, this is the right place. Otherwise...
-Sam

[smoore]

Off the cuff suggestions:

Game selection, game selection, game selection. Lots of fish on at 6-10pm eastern but the freakin' whales come out after that and some stay up until 4-6am eastern. Use something like PlayerView and run from anything close to a fair fight. I leave a table that's <28% avg VP$IP unless there's at least two very big donators there. I try to find tables that are ~40% VP$IP with three 50%+ VP$IP players. A month ago I didn't realize these kind of situations existed. There will usually be another 2+2 type at that table. Figure out who it is and try to stay out of the way (he will too). Three sharks is one too many so find another table soon if there are two others with you. The buddy list is your friend, put the whales on it.

You're going to need to give this forum some hands to analyze. Do not be a "pokertracker TAG", let the play drive the stats, do not let the stats drive the play.

There is a lot of variance at party 3/6 over my 15k hands (I started 4 tabling 2/4 now that I can handle the multitasking). I've learned to combat it some by leaving the call button alone as much as possible. The buttons on either side of it work much better for me.

Turn off chat. Forget it exists. I'm a much happier person now that I've done that.

GL man.

[x2ski]

I'm beginning to post more hands...

As far as PT is concerned, your suggestions are a bit general as you said, but my stats fall within all of your ranges.

Thanks for the reply.

[IndieMatty]

[ QUOTE ]
Turn off chat. Forget it exists. I'm a much happier person now that I've done that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would you ever do something like this? I can't think of one good reason to turn it off completely.




Even if it's 2% more information, it's still valuable. Suppose you miss the frequent occurrence of 2 table nits arguing over a hand and them playing back at each other, you could exploit that.


(Good advice on the other stuff)

[MyssGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
Game selection, game selection, game selection. Lots of fish on at 6-10pm eastern but the freakin' whales come out after that and some stay up until 4-6am eastern. Use something like PlayerView and run from anything close to a fair fight. I leave a table that's <28% avg VP$IP unless there's at least two very big donators there. I try to find tables that are ~40% VP$IP with three 50%+ VP$IP players. A month ago I didn't realize these kind of situations existed. There will usually be another 2+2 type at that table. Figure out who it is and try to stay out of the way (he will too). Three sharks is one too many so find another table soon if there are two others with you. The buddy list is your friend, put the whales on it.


[/ QUOTE ]

Until I starting reading the SSH forum, I really blew off table selection. Since then, I've learned this is HUGE! Avoid the tables where no one's putting money in. I too multi table and have been constantly changing tables to keep tables that are at least 30% VP$IP and thats still low according to many here. Before I looked at this number, I would find a table and stick with it. Looking back, these tables dropped to as low as 13% VP%IP. Where's the money in that?

[smoore]

[ QUOTE ]
Why would you ever do something like this? I can't think of one good reason to turn it off completely.



[/ QUOTE ]

It makes me tilt. I hate them and only want thier money, not thier comments /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[x2ski]

I do in fact practice table selection... As stated in my original post, the tables have been great lately!

Very rarely at 40+ VPIP though. More often between 20-30. Is there more to finding these great tables?

[x2ski]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you just looking for a tutor, or sympathy, or what?

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess some sort of tutor if you would like to call it that. But I also don't want to waste a lot of their valuable time.

[smoore]

Re: finding 40%+ VP$IP

I datamine three party skins when I'm not playing. I have a LOT of info on quite a few players. I don't bother to get in the big waiting list games, I just sit at "first available with 9 players"... post my blinds and watch. Is that normally tight player drunk tonight? Is that loose player actually being played by a TAG friend? Oooh! A new guy on this table! etc etc. It only takes two or three orbits to sanity check the numbers with the reality of what's happening now.

[bunky9590]

i'll look at them after New years.

[Nutz&Boltz]

Has your current losing streak made you passive? Are you less likely to semi-bluff or bet when a scare card hits? If so, this could be the problem.

[IndieMatty]

Bah..come on. Actually last night, some ass started talking to me about "going back to 5-10" (where I played for like 2 weeks).I have no idea who they were..but they were a generally dislikeable character calling a guy who filled up on the river (set of Aces) to beat her nut flush a fish, "I will break you dik hed".. It made me make a move on her and she called my river bet.

But it wasn't tilt...it was "gamesmanship" /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[IndieMatty]

Bunk,

do you play the 8-16 at Paradise, was that you last night? I left because of the name. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[x2ski]

I don't think so... but I have been trying to save bets by thinking more. I have posted a couple hands where the consensus was that I was spewing chips.

I'm not betting out the flop with my AKo that I raised UTG if I missed and am facing a large field with nothing but an overcard draw (talk about a run-on sentence). I will against a limited field though, and of course this is all situation-specific.

Other than that, I hammer the pot when I hit and others' play doesn't tell me to slow down.

[Festus22]

I'll be happy to look over a hundred HH's or two (if you think that'll help /images/graemlins/tongue.gif).

If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you my email address.

[MicroBob]

It's also possible that you're playing reasonably decently.

1BB/100 isn't exactly fantastic...but it sure isn't terrible. And after 67k hands it is possible that you just had a couple of crappier down-swings in there and few too many times getting runner-runnered by weird hands.


Post hands and try to gradually improve your game (as you should always be doing anyway).
At 1BB/100 I think you should be comfortable that you are probably on the right track.

Certainly not worth panicking over.
Just keep working on your game.

[bunky9590]

[ QUOTE ]
Bunk,

do you play the 8-16 at Paradise, was that you last night? I left because of the name.

[/ QUOTE ]

Rest easy my friend, it wasn't me.

Why do a lot of people get nervous when i'm on the table anyway? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[bobdibble]

[ QUOTE ]

I hate them and only want thier money, not thier comments

[/ QUOTE ]

wow.. that is so sweet. I think that is going to be my new response to whiners... "I only want your money, not your comments."