I'm a Pooh-bah? (LC / long)

[jskills]

In following with the loose tradition for becoming a Pooh-bah, I decided to put a little more into this post than "check raise the flop" or "fold preflop", etc.

Where to begin? I started playing online exactly a year ago with the encouragement of a good friend of mine who was into playing Hold Em. Sure I had seen the WPT and even won a couple of small NL tournament / home games, but I really knew very little until I read TOP and SSHE and started playing limit HE very seriously. The funny thing is, that at first, our rationale behind playing limit was to "get better discipline" for playing NL, since we played in a NL cash game once every couple of weeks. At this point, I'd never even consider playing NL cash - I love playing LHE and have very little interest in playing NL (aside from the occasional tourney).

It's been quite a journey up the limit ladder (as well as the earnings). Being risk averse, I started with a $200 deposit in Party and played .50/1. I've steadily ground my way up through 1/2 and 2/4 and am currently trying to crack 3/6. I'm still building my BR from that original deposit, which is good for a risk averse person like me. Here are my stats for my first year .

About Me
I come from a blue collar background. Money was always a little tight, but nothing to complain about. My mentality has always been pretty grounded when it comes to matters of money. So it has admittedly taken me a while to be able to comfortably deal with (1) the swings / variance associated with poker and (2) the mental disassociation from money required to effectively make use of your chips at the table. Plus throw in that I am in my upper 30's, have a very serious day job, run a side business, am married with two little kids, have a mortgage, bills, and all life's other responsibilities - making the time to play poker is a real balancing act for me.

I once was a pretty serious chess player (captain of the chess team in high school at one point - how embarrassing). Chess is a game where you have exactly 50% control over the outcome of the game and your opponent has the other half. Your intellects are working in direct proportion to the outcome. It's a game of control and win or lose, you can always attribute it to something either you or your opponent did to effect the outcome. Poker on the other hand needs to be viewed in the proper perspective. You and your opponent(s) are using your experience / intellects to effect the outcome of the hand, but there is a distinct lack of control as to which cards will randomly fall. This distinction is an important one to be aware of, particularly for competitive people who can easily be affected when they play perfectly, make all the right decisions, and end of on the losing end due to some extremely improbable events. People can tell you this and you can read it in books, but for me it took a while to really sink in and to be truly comfortable with the notion that making the correct decisions is all you can do and the outcome is beyond your control. I have certainly gotten better, but I still find myself thinking way too much about results.

Moving Up
After reading TOP and SSHE (twice) and playing a decent amount of .50/1, I began making posts in the Micro-Limit forum. I cannot say enough about the value of posting hands and the incredibly astute feedback I've gotten from so many knowledgeable people. People like davelin , Rob, and Brad were extremely patient and informative in the early going for me. As I moved past 1/2 and into 2/4 (Small Stakes), a whole new level of learning ensued. What I found value in was not just posting my own hands, but commenting on hands of others and actually having my replies commented on. How many times I've had my eyes opened on a concept I thought I had down, but really didn't. Thanks to posts / replies from QTip, Jason , Private Joker , sfer , and Brett as well as many others who I am surely forgetting, my game has really gone to a whole new level. Seriously, thanks.


The Present
So I've really started seriously trying to play 3/6. I took some cracks at it a few months ago, using my 2/4 standards for opening hands and you can imagine the results. After talking with some people here and doing some research, it seems that many people think that the 2/4 to 3/6 transition is not to be taken lightly. I was even thinking a small FAQ could be put together regarding this move up in limits, although I could be making too much out of it. Table selection is so much more important. Preflop aggression is key and you'll be hard pressed to find a place where it is correct to open limp or cold-call. In fact, in doing some analysis in Pokertracker, I produced a couple of interesting (if not obvious to some) graphs.

Here is the graph of hands vs BB/100 when I have open raised PF :1st in with a raise

Here is the graph of where I cold called PF: cold called preflop

Small sample size of course, but interesting nonetheless?

I have read pretty much every 2+2 book and they have been immensely helpful. However, one of the recent changes in my game is certainly due to reading King Yao's book. Obviously every table is a different situation, but the guide for starting hands in various situations in this book have proved very helpful, particularly for moving up to 3/6. We've taken the liberty of translating the book's recommendations into a starting hand chart if anyone is interested. Also, here are my 3/6 stats so far in case you'd like to point anything out. It is an extremely small sample size, so probably isn't even worth commenting on (and yes, I've been running pretty well so far).

Post Play Analysis
One of the things that has been instrumental in my progression has been post play analysis of hands. This may sound a bit anal, but for the past few months after each session I've been replaying any hand where more than 2 BB were won or lost. I've been categorizing all of the losses into a spreadsheet and assigning amounts accordingly (e.g. did I make a mistake on a given street, was it a suckout, or was is just correct play on everyone's part). This is certainly not an exact science. There have been many times where I could not tell where or if I made the mistake and had to get a concensus from the forums. One thing I have to say is that it's been very helpful to see the % losses that have resulted from suckouts. For me, it's been like 21% each month. It is just something that grounds you a bit when you're in a downswing and you naturally you start to question your play.



When you find yourself in a downswing in a given session (or month), it's helpful if you can identify why. I am working with someone to hopefully automate this post play analysis. The software is going to be a bit crazy to write, but doing this manually after each session is a pain in the ass [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

Miscellaneous
One last thing I wanted to mention. It was really great meeting Ed Miller at his bachelor party a few weeks ago. Ed was a really nice and informative guy to talk to and Luv2DriveTT organized a very enjoyable evening. It was great meeting people from these forums in person and hearing their stories was most interesting / beneficial. I got the distinct feeling that moving up in limits just takes the BR and the guts, as the game itself does not get all that different once you progress past a certain point. I am certainly not discounting there is a lot more to learn of course. My only regret is not formally introducing myself to Jason and Evan.

Final Thoughts
I may be a Master of the Obvious here, but I really believe that one important factor to success at the poker tables is a strong state of well being in your life away from poker. Be good to your family, your friends, to strangers, and yourself. Try to eat healthy and for God's sake, get out of your underwear, away from the computer and excercise [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] It's amazing the amount of stress you can rid yourself of by going to the gym a few times a week. Be thankful for what you've got in life - it could always be worse. For me, being able to keep things in perspective has carried me a long way. If you've got your life in order, poker can be some sweet icing on the cake.

So thanks again to all of you. Feel free to comment / flame / ignore or whatever.

[Mister Z]

Congrats on your 1st year of play! I'm coming up on my 1st anniversary of poker playing as well and it looks like we've got a pretty similar poker-playing record. Sounds like you have a really great outlook on life and poker.

Do you only play 3/6 now or do you mix it up? How many tables do you play? The reason I ask is because I usually have trouble finding more than 2-3 good 3/6 tables at party at a time.

[MainEvent]

My post count is very low, but I have been reading here regularly for years. I always make a point of reading your posts thanks to the quality of the content.

Congratulations on your first year. Nice post, great attitude. Hope you keep it up.

[jskills]

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My post count is very low, but I have been reading here regularly for years. I always make a point of reading your posts thanks to the quality of the content.

Congratulations on your first year. Nice post, great attitude. Hope you keep it up.

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Thanks man - that means a lot.

[jskills]

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Congrats on your 1st year of play! I'm coming up on my 1st anniversary of poker playing as well and it looks like we've got a pretty similar poker-playing record. Sounds like you have a really great outlook on life and poker.

Do you only play 3/6 now or do you mix it up? How many tables do you play? The reason I ask is because I usually have trouble finding more than 2-3 good 3/6 tables at party at a time.

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I am most comfortable 3 tabling. I can do 4 when clearing bonuses, but I really need a bigger monitor for that I think. 3 seems like the sweet spot.

I have trouble finding many good 3/6 tables too. I have currently been mixing it up with 2/4. 2 tabling 3/6 and throwing in a 2/4 seems to be the best thing for me if I can swing it. For table selection, I try to use a combination of the buddy list and average pot size.

[RatFink]

Congrats on the Pooh-bah status. Your post-play analysis is extremely anal but amazing (having had the opportunity to look at your month-by-month details) and something those folks struggling with their games or caught in a downswing would find quite therapeutic and helpful.

[JinX11]

It's nice to see someone else out there with a higher turn aggression than flop aggression. I thought I was the only one. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Congrats on your first year...nice post.

Hi Jskills-

It always amazes me when I read a well-written post in a forum that's supposed to be about poker, not literary entertainment. You're no private_joker but it's nice to read about other's stories. It helps us keep perspective on the game and why we play it, I think.

I really like your idea of analyzing hands where more than 2BB is won or lost. I've only analyzed hands when I ran really poorly but your suggestion seems like a good plan and something I will probably implement. Good luck at the tables.

[jskills]

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Hi Jskills-

It always amazes me when I read a well-written post in a forum that's supposed to be about poker, not literary entertainment. You're no private_joker but it's nice to read about other's stories. It helps us keep perspective on the game and why we play it, I think.


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I hear that. Joker's B&M stories rule.

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I really like your idea of analyzing hands where more than 2BB is won or lost. I've only analyzed hands when I ran really poorly but your suggestion seems like a good plan and something I will probably implement. Good luck at the tables.

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Yeah the analyzing hands thing just helped keep my sanity through the inevitable downswings. It also shows me that I'm running way to well at times too. Keeps things in perspective ... [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[jskills]

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It's nice to see someone else out there with a higher turn aggression than flop aggression.

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Isn't that the way it should be? The turn is the place I make a lot of laydowns, otherwise I'm usually trying to lead.