10k hands at .5/1... somebody hug me [lol stats lol whine lol]

[Kumubou]

I know these stats posts are lame; but whatever. 10,000 hands of breakeven poker blows ass -- especially when you really do not enjoy the game. Besides, my game is so bad there is probably some massive problems in my game, to the point where they stick out even among the small sample size.


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First off, the stats:










(Complete hand stats, linked because it is huge and mega-useless)

Here's my analysis:

-Too tight on the blinds. Not really an issue now, but will be much more important at higher limits, when blind stealing becomes much more important.

-Too passive (and shitty) post-flop. I can feel this, as I tend to slow waaaaaaaay the hell down when some random donk (your typical 40/4/.4 PP player) raises out of anywhere, at which point I decide if the hand is going to showdown or not -- fold if it is not (unless I improve), call down if I am.

Also, there may be too much flop peeling going on, especially in late position. I always say "implied odds!". and I usually sound like a damn clown.

-I fold too many winners. Or not; you would think with a W$WSF that low the W$aSD would be higher -- but it really is not.

-I limp-reraised AA once. :| (but there was a maniac to my immediate right in the BB; 75% chance that it would get raised out of there.)

-As seen above with the 'folding too many winners' statement, I'm probably folding too many hands at the river for a bet (but the sample size really is not big enough to make that judgement).

-Most importantly: I don't run g00t.

Final grade: go back in the kiddie pool, you weak-tight nit.


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I have a bigger problem than that, though: I do not enjoy playing poker. At .5/1, anyway. Playing in the 2+2 games is interesting as an intellectual exercise but playing in games that are at best neutral EV and are at worse massively -EV is stupid -- but at least they are challenging and compelling (assuming everyone is not capping with the nut low). Playing against your typical .5/1 PP player feels like straight-up gambling with no real skill involved. Bet/call bet/call bet/call and see if they sucked out on your or not (or slowplayed the nuts). Booooooooring.

I always knew that trying to learn how to play poker would be hard (as would any other activity worth doing). It is not how I expeted it, though -- I was expecting both online and B&M cardrooms to be full of players skilled, waiting for some idiot hotshot or tourist to sit down and gamboool it up and lose their shirt. Not at all -- people online are abysmally bad (including myself), and the B&M players are worse! (That was the biggest surprise of anything). That is not what kills you, though. It is the variance. The biggest challenge here is not the other players; it is against myself. Trying to keep the confidence that I have the ability to outplay even these clowns and bots post-flop (lol), especially when I have no emperical evidence to point at to tell myself "I can pwn these fools" (even though 50,000 hands would be just as worthless). It is a problem I always had (re: lack of confidence), but showing that in a poker game is just a free ticket to pwntown.

It really is a psychological battle, against your opponents but more importantly (especially at this n00bular stage) against yourself. These are some of the things I need to constantly tell myself, some truths to be held as self-evident, even when I know I do not fully believe them:

-The games will always be there. (Even among the constant Zoo noise of "ZOMG BOTS ZOMG GRINDERS ZOMG BOTS ZOMG GRINDERS ZOMG POKER SITES HATE WINNING PLAYERS").

-Even though I may not be the greatest poker player evar, yes I am still better than the fools who call any two and then call down with the nut low. And it matters.

-You are not entitled to win anything (unless you have the best hand). Pocket aces are not the equiliviant of a blank check. These people are not here to give you money.

-Every hand is important -- play it as such.

-Variance is a bitch, but it cuts both ways. He may have sucked out because you failed to protect the pot, or you have made the world's worst cold-call and hit the miracle flop, or you sat next to the guy who randomly decided to bluff cap against your made flush. Stuff happens.

-The long run is longer than anyone can ever fathom. 10,000 hands is short, 100,000 hands is short, 1,000,000 hands is short.

I really do not know why I play. It is not for the money; I understand that it would take years of effort before I got good enough to get high enough to make an income that one could do much of anything with. Until then, it is either perpetutally building building your bankroll is going bust. It is not for the enjoyment of it either, I find both online play and live play boring (live play even moreso -- the snail's pace, the constant fumbling of the dealers, the fucking people you need to deal with -- ugh.) Or is that the sign of a bigger personal problem? [That at times I just feel dead to the world -- but that is way beyond the scope of this post.]

If you read all of that... either thanks for bothering with yet another whiny post (even though they do have some value to the community.. or I would like to think so, anyway), or you are lying to make me feel better (stop that).

-K

[irishpint]

can we get a summary of what you said? was there anything important in there (i didnt read it, hard to when playing 4 tables). lets gets some cliff notes

[grjr]

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can we get a summary of what you said? was there anything important in there (i didnt read it, hard to when playing 4 tables). lets gets some cliff notes

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"I should find another hobby."

[irishpint]

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can we get a summary of what you said? was there anything important in there (i didnt read it, hard to when playing 4 tables). lets gets some cliff notes

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"I should find another hobby."

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ive been losing so fcking much these past few days (well, like $120, between .50/1 and 1/2, but im used to winning, so this is a shock) and i STILL enjoy playing. this is funny though, today i had AA and it timed me out ([censored], i know) but then the flop came K high and turned a second K, so I would have lost money anyway! muhahahahaha! so maybe not playing good hands would save me money. and maybe quitting poker would save me TIME and MONEY. but what would I do with those, it's summer?

[dozer]

whats with your button raise?? should be the highest not the 3rd lowest. I think you should be raising a lot more on the button. Like around 13-14%

[Dave G.]

If you dislike poker as much as you say you do, then find something else to do with your time. I think that to be really good at anything in life, you really have to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, you won't be any good at it. If you go into every game thinking you have this massive battle with yourself to ovrcome, then you're approaching it from the wrong perspective.

You can always try NL or SnGs - variance isn't so bad there, but you have to be able to shove all your chips into the middle when the time is right.

[irishpint]

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whats with your button raise?? should be the highest not the 3rd lowest. I think you should be raising a lot more on the button. Like around 13-14%

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good point. you should be raising much more from the button than you are, even from CO for potential blind steals, building a pot with s00ted connects, etc. are you stealing blinds? folding to blind steals? when those areas of my game were pointed out it improved my BB/100 by about .5 total. also...your vpip is low. i think playing more hands (GOOD HANDS!!) should increase your winning %, make you less of a fit or folder, etc. mix them up a bit, you know?

[shadow29]

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somebody hug me

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[bottomset]

why on earth are you only raising 7.8% of the time OTB??

repeat this till your ears bleed

POSITION IS FUNDAMENTAL

serious besides your cards(and villians) its the most important aspect of HE

steal more
blind d needs work too, but could be a raw sample

[Kumubou]

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why on earth are you only raising 7.8% of the time OTB??

repeat this till your ears bleed

POSITION IS FUNDAMENTAL

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Figures I forget to point out the biggest oddity. :\

I think there are two reasons why that happens:

-There is no positional advantage to be gained from raising on the button -- you already have it!

-I am not comfortable jamming into a pot with weaker broadways (suited or not) stuff like ATs, AT, KJs, KTs, QJs and some other random hands (99, 88, A9s, A8s, whatnot). Hands that would probably get you killed raising first in but are OK to go after 5-7 players have shown no strength.

I guess I need to get over worries re: blind stealing too... even though it is not really a blind steal, since raising in the cutoff first in does little to deter a four-way pot (and when the hell is it folded to you at .5/1?), and you will almost never steal the blinds (part of this is if I am at a table where this works, I get up and go elsewhere). But it isn't just about that -- it's about going HU against a random hand which you should have an advantage against. That would imply having solid post-flop play, which is a bit much to ask for right now.

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Heh. I disagree, this thread would be more useless with pictures.

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If you dislike poker as much as you say you do, then find something else to do with your time. I think that to be really good at anything in life, you really have to enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, you won't be any good at it. If you go into every game thinking you have this massive battle with yourself to ovrcome, then you're approaching it from the wrong perspective.

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That's a fundamental problem with myself here -- I do not really enjoy much of anything in life. :\ (And natch, I have not been good at much either, heh.) There has to be something to poker, or I would have stopped playing long ago. I am just concerned that my obsessive-compulsive personality is taking over here.

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You can always try NL or SnGs - variance isn't so bad there, but you have to be able to shove all your chips into the middle when the time is right.

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If I am truly running from variance, I need to find something else to do.

-K