20k Checkup

[Eeegah]

My first 20k hands have been a roller coaster--or rather a boomerang. Since I have little interest in blowing the initial $50 I put into Stars, I grinded my way up through the nanolimits--first at .02/.04 until I felt like I'd absorbed enough of SSHE to know what I was doing, then again until I had a (still low) bankroll of $100 for .25/.50. I kicked .25/.50's butt for a couple weeks, until the first of this month when the bottom fell out on me. I had a high of about $80 made at .25/.50 before this; by the time I moved down that plus was down to under three dollars [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

My downswing has (hopefully) bottomed out at -200bb, a scary thing for a new player. Anyway, here's a snapshot of my first 20,000 hands; any advice at this point?

I know I should be doing more preflop raising and probably loosen up in general preflop; I take SSHE's tight guide as canon (Stars averages 3-4 to the flop at .25/.50, maybe 4-5 at .05/.10), but I can probably start looking at limping Kxs and raising a bit more on the button. If so, what else should I be looking at jamming with? The only thing I've added is raising ATo from UTG+1 on, and I'm not even certain that that's a good idea. Also, my turn AF is lower than the flop and river, mainly because I have a thing for betting/raising for free cards when I'm on a draw (another problem I was having as I'd tend to do it from any position, which doesn't make a lot of sense).




Let me know if I should be divulging anything else. Here's one thing that did interest me:

I understand that a lot of people lose money with one pair (though is this a sign that I'm seeing SD with them too often?), but more boats than flushes or straights? This has been the case pretty much my whole career; is this just an artifact of how often sets and trips improve or could I not be chasing gutshots and backdoors enough? Anyway, any comments on what I might want to look at would be appreciated.

PS: 72o is profitable for me. Go fig.

[zuluking]

Time to move to Party .50/1. I like your post-flop aggression. Pre-flop you could probably play some more hands with good positon, MP+3, CO and Button. Your PFR% is anemic and is costing you money in the longrun. Also, I think your folding a bit much on the river. Hope that helps. Good luck!

[aK13]

Not playing enough hands. Need to open raise more -- also need to STEAL more/value raise in LP. Need to defend your blinds more.

EDIT: Actually, I think that if you just decided to steal more and blind defend more (55% and 30%, respectively, are pretty good numbers I think), you could probably boost your winrate up at least 1 more BB/100.

[mmbt0ne]

Are you honestly saying he should have a steal stat of 50%? That's INSANE.

[Eeegah]

Pretty much what I expected then. I'll start going through my preflop chart and expanding what I raise and play, which should bring me from a TA to a TAG. Not sure what I can do about blind steals--I pretty much always raise if it's folded to me and I have something I'd play anyway (or even A9o-A7o or so), but at micro and nanos it's awfully rare that it gets that far without a raise. I was going to ask what I should be defending with in the blinds but Hilger's book gives some advice there so at least I have something to go on.

Coincidentally my $75 from instantbankroll came in, so I started out there (but I'm pretty nervous about having such a small bankroll there). I'm a little higher than break even after 300 or so hands; once the shock factor of winning/losing twice what it was wears off I'll start to pull out a bit (though I simply had a crappy run of cards the first hour). Thanks again for the advice!

[jrz1972]

He doesn't have the bankroll for .5/1 yet, but yeah his play is certainly good enough that he should get out Stars and find the land of milk and honey that is Party .5/1.

[jrz1972]

I don't see how you're getting your stats by following the SSHE "tight" chart. I always thought that generated something like 17/7 numbers, but you're significantly below both of those metrics. You definitely need to increase your VP at least a couple of points and raise your PFR by as much.

Open-raising ATo UTG is very debatable. Many people do this routinely, while many auto-muck ATo from that position. Suffice it to say that that isn't your problem. Something else weird is going on to produce your weak-tight preflop play.

Spend some time hanging out here in the forums and responding to threads. After a while you'll pick up on the PF limps and raises that you're currently missing out on.