HH review

Whilst I was on the train back from Derby, with a pasting hangover I wrote this, so please allow for any grammar/spelling errors. TY.

Hand history review QQ utg open, as an overpair OTR.

Effective stacks 92 BBs

Open UTG with QQ to 3x, flated by the BTN, Flop is 8c7c4d

Fairly standard Cbet, his PF flatting range otb contains a lot of

air, with Flush and str8 draws as well as some combo draws.

I elect to bed 2/3 pot here if there was no FD i would be betting

close to full pot here, but given there is a FD vs a fairly tagy btn

i want to dry and extract multiple streets from any hand that has SDV.

By barreling smaller I can get more value from his small overpairs 99-JJ

as well as getting some value from his combo draws 67/68/58/57/ etc

By keeping my bet sizing small here I am setting up multiple streets of value..

Also he has a low flop fold to C-bet which i think is quite important here. Whilst he

folds to cbets only 36% he raises them 14% which means that 50% of his flop range is calling IP

this is great for us as aforementioned it keeps his range uberwide.

The turn is 2d 

This brings a backdoor FD and thats about it, i am not too worried about a gutter

improving to a dbl gutter, with a 15% pre flop range i dont think he ever has 5X in his

range so. Therefore the only hand that can bluff raise the turn would be top or middle pair with a FD.

Because this is such a small part of his range i think a turn barrell is profitable here. Again I want to 

keep it small and elect for 3/5 psb. $2.50 into $4.35. I only have 2 hand where he has faced a dbl barrell and 

as such can't make too many assumptions on his turn play however he is a 29/55 WTSD/W%SD and therefore I can

assume that his turn raises are going to be fairly strong.

He flats the turn, at this point his range is fairly well defined. I would most of the time put him on either

TPTK or an overpair, as vs a dbl barrel vs a UTG open villain is too nitty to be 

flatting with air and so we can safely put him on the middle of his range.

The river is 10s, 

Now I am never worried about a straight draw having got there, as I strongly believe that

96 is never in his btn calling range, it is possible that he has 9T or JT and picked up diamonds on the turn

and has now binked a pair, however I still think my read is right with him having a small overpair. 

Therefore there are 6 combos of 99 and JJ and 3 combos of TT.

99 is most likely going to be taking SD and just check back if I check or fold to a bet on the river 

TT is obv going to bet when checked to or raise when bet into. and JJ i would expect him to either call a bet or 

bet when checked to. Therefore I elect to check, this is fairly weak and may well be a spot for thin value b/f

The main problem is that if I triple barrell here, this is a spot where I would be jamming the river as the villain.

This because even with an overpair, the UTG opener only has a bluff catcher, and the stack sizes are such that it would be a 

[[pot sized shove OTR.

I think my river play here comes down to a lot of the time what level I believe my opponent thinks on.

If he has competent hand reading and believes that I am capable of folding to a shove, therefore making him more

likely to bluff the river then a check is fine. However if he is likely to check behind/flat then a bet is obv the most

optimal play.

Based on this and his fairly passive PF tendancies I think that a 1/3 -- 1/2 value bet OTR was the correct play.

No Internets = No Poker

Warning: My hangover is bad, my spelling and grammar will suck.

As of last week my internet got turned off at home. This is due to the landlord going bankrupt and the house
going into recievereship. This really sucks as it means I have been given notice to leave and in that time
I can't get any interim internets as all the contracts are 12 months. Seeing as I am only there for 3 weeks
it's kind of pointless.

Went for some viewings this morning and the 2 places I looked at were very reasonable at £375 pcm, this is a
fair amount less than I am currently paying, however the problem I am having is that I recently applied for a
promotion that would require me to move to Derby, and until I hear back regarding interviews etc, I am reluctant to
enter into a 6month contract that is going to cost me £150 to apply for £375 deposit and £375 pcm for 6 months. It will
cost in total £2775. This is kind of a lot when I may be moving back to Derby in 4 weeks. As soon as I hear back regarding
my application for promotion then resolving the situation becomes a lot easier. Either way, one of the proposed places is
very reasonable with a fantastic kitchen/lounge. The bedroom is well sized and as such I would be happy to move to there,
especially given the reduced rent will give me more disposable income, which lets be honest, is always nice. I just need to
find out what on earth is going on.

So onto poker, a pretty shitty bank holiday tbh. The downswing continues, the number of times I have ran AK+/QQ+ into AA btn vs blind
is driving me insane. Then I had a similar spot in a 4 way pot whereby I flopped top set with JJ on J 5 2 got it in vs AA and ofc
turn was an A, still at least I am earning G-Bucks. So after losing 6 stacks I managed to pull 3 back and claim a 1 BI rakeback
reward from Stars VIP program.

My first deposit bonus runs out in 4 days, and last month I managed to get Gold star, however with the lack of internet meaining I can't
play atm, it is becoming impossible for me to maintain my VIP level, as well as losing at least $40 of clearable bonus in this week
alone. This is obviously becoming increasingly irritating, as the longer into the month I get without internet the harder it becomes
to maintain my VIP. I am playing some days in Costa Coffee, after work however my standard line is Gym, MMA, Ju Jitsu or Muay Thai
after work and by the time I finish training there is no coffee shop open. So I am only playing 1/2 sessions of 1-1.5k hands per week.
This is a far cry from the 15-20k I was playing per week last month.

I am using this opportunity to study however, having watched all the moving on up and escaping micromania series from Deuces Cracked
and I have a few more series still to watch. However Zoom poker experiences a very different game dynamic and so it will be interesting
to see how applicable this study is. On the flip side, if I were to move to Sun Poker or another Ipoker skin for bonus purposes it may
prove to be worthwhile. The games and VIP rewards are awesome on Pokerstars, but only if you are Supernova + and I am a long way from attaining
that level. Especially when I am working 48 hours a week.

So the conundrums I am left with after I find out my promotion are:-
1) Continue to play on Pokerstars or move to an Ipoker skin for First dep bonus + cashpoint promotion
2) Move up to 50NL permanantly, thus making Gold re-attainable this month and Plat the month after, or continue 25NL with a sustained WR.

Not sure what the answers are ATM, but there is certainly a lot of thinking for me to do.

Heres hoping I am less lost in life by the time I return.

Kyle

Summer cruising.

Ok so it's like summer in the UK and life is good. Went for a run today after playing some Diablo and doing some weights and came back with a clear head so sat down to play some pokers. Well 50NL zoom is so short of players. <300 all the time and most of them are regs. Don't really want to be playing in those reg infested games especially on stars. I am arrogant in life.....ish. But not so arrogant to think that I can crush 50NL on stars for a higher $/ph than 25NL.

At the moment my winrate at 25nl zoom is awesome. 9.36 bb/100 over 25k hands. This is obv a massive heater, and is somewhat skewed by my last 2k hands where I was crushing for 60bb/100.

9bb /100 when I can comfortably play 1.2k hands per hour is $27p/h that is a pretty sick hourly rate for 25NL and a damn sight more than I earn at my day job.

So this is my 25NL graph at present.

For the first time in the last 12 months I am running above EV at a stake. This makes me so happy. Those of you that have been following me for a while will know that on Titan I was getting whacked all over the place. This is a nice change for me. If I combine this graph with my 5NL/10NL/50NL/100NL shots/grinds then I get an overall graph for Pokerstars that looks something like this.

As you can see I spent about 42k hands down at 5 and 10 NL just getting used to the software building up a database and generally getting a feel for the stars games. In this time I manged to clear about $50 of my First Deposit bonus and also get $20 of Stellar rewards. 

At present I am sat on the fence between 25/50NL. My roll is sat at $1.75k which is nice considering I deposited $600 in April. Won a few stacks playing on P* mobile on my phone so my graph isn't perfectly aligned and I got a $50 rakeback with my VPP's.

So that's the story on *'s so far. 

Shot taking at 50NL

So, I am now taking shots at 50NL playing 2 tables of Zoom, with the intention of moving back down if I lose 2 stacks. The reason I am taking these shots is 1) My Showdown winnings are finally recovering so I am in a good frame of mind rather than making myself think they always have the nuts. 2) I have been watching a few good training videos from DC that have been focusing on 100NL on Stars and I think a lot of what is discussed in these videos is applicable to 50NL.

So whats the plan of attack. Atm through 20k hands at 25NL I am playing 13/11/2.5 (Which is super nitty) However I believe this is the best approach to Zoomatron. My only worry is my 3b is too low however I think this is because my 3b range is skewed towards nuts. Which lets be honest is fine at 25NL as there are plenty of fish and not so much need to balance. At 50NL however I will undoubtedly have to increase my 3b freq.

Anyway so a quick graphski of my 50NL exploits

As you can see it was only 1k hands, it was only 1 session and when it's later at night and I have been at work all day I try and stick to 1k hands at a time. Was really nice to scoop a big pot 2 hands after I was to slow to click "sit out next BB"

I noticed almost straight away that there is way more post flow shenanigans and a lot more floating IP compared to 25NL. Although this is a small sample I am fairly confident in this read.

So what am I gonna have to do in order to put a beat on 50NL.

• Study more.....a lot more.
• Balance my EP opens
• 3b a wider range from HJ or later
• Stop opening small PP's especially vs good regs
• Study some more
• Do more hand/session reviews
• Video some sessions and do some video reviews
• Look into coaching

(Some crazy video error occured, gonna fix it and reupload tomorrow)

Ok so with that in mind lets review a hand from my shot that whilst I think my reasoning was sound, my sizing was not so good on the flop. Turn and River were fairly standard imo.

That's all I have time for as it is 11:15pm and I have to watch Game Of Thrones before I can go to bed.

So good luck at the tables, until next time.

Kyle

25 ===> 50NL its a long road

Hi all, so I have been on a bit of a downswing of late, struggling to break out of 25NL. My shots have all been great when I play 50NL racked up 3 stacks from the 2k hands I played there. Problem is at 25NL I am currently running $300 below EV over the last 10k hands. Which kinda hurts. So I am sat here with the same $$ in my roll as I had 2 weeks ago. Which is really shit.

As you can see, my red line is sick. This isn't due to me getting to many folds with my value hands though. I strongly believe that fast fold poker is super exploitable vs the blinds. I have identified many regs who often 3b from the blinds only to c/f the flop and even when they continue they give up so easily and they never adjust. So I am getting so much F.E against these guys that my red line looks baller.

However as you can no doubt see my S.D winnings have taken an absolute hammering of late. This is not good......at all. The amount of times in the last 5 sessions I have got it in OTF vs a lag with KK+ on 446 225 358 and board like this in a 3b pot only for them to check raise the flop with a mid PP and then set up OTT. It is actually driving me mad. Anyway, now that rant is off my chest.

The good news is


DIABLO 3


So yea Diablo is awesome, playing lots and lots and lots of that. Finally went to see Avengers, that was awesome. Auto in the top 10 maybe top 5 films I have ever seen.

Pokerwise, not too much happening of late as most of you know there is a lot of state wide legislation being passed atm to allow online poker back into the US. With Illinois being the latest state to try and get it through. This is great as some really influencial senators are from Illinois, Mark Kirk and Richard Durbin. Durbin has been opposed online poker, and has often been siding with the scumbags trying to strip us of the juicy American player pool. However if Illinois is passing these bills to push online poker back into the US then somehow (who cares why) he is on our side now. This is good news for online poker as with the decline in traffic over the last 3 months we need something in order to keep the games going.

Anyways, its 1am and I have work in the morning, so until next time.

Kyle

Back from LEJOG and on the grind

Since my charity bike ride which I returned from last week I haven't played very much. Mainly watching videos preparing my for 50NL which is a notoriously difficult jump on Pokerstars. I have almost 50 BI for 25NL so I am fast approaching 50NL shot taking territory. Had a pretty sick heater whilst in Scotland and then a 7 BI downswing upon my return. However nothing to serious.I am hoping to post some HH's soon (as i keep saying) however I am really struggling to spare the time to do a detailed analysis of hands based on the fact I have to put nearly 2 stone (28lbs) of weight back on. So I am spending more time training than usual. Now that my knee has returned to being fully functional I will be getting back to Ju Jitsu tomorrow night whoop. To try and enable me to play enough hands I am trying to get to the gym in the morning. However getting up at 6am is......difficult to say the least.

I have found 1line to be super profitable of late vs the regs on stars. Mainly vs the Gold star+ regs. On A x x / K x x boards with a FD checking back the turn IP with top pair and then potting/overbetting the river seems to be getting paid of a lot atm. This is super interesting as it can be hard to get 2 streets of value from TT-KK when we value bet the turn on say Ah 9s 5s 8d and if we do they have to be such small bets that it is proving more profitable for me to over bet the river and rep a busted FD. Maybe it's just invisi-luck/variance but I am finding that it is getting paid off a lot by the TAGs with a 25-40% GTSD. Which is obv uber good.

That's all for now I guess.

Kyle

No news for a while.....sorry about that

As some of you may know, I have been off doing Land's End to John O'Groats a nice little......no that's a lie. It's been pretty tough and I have been struggling on a few days. It can be mentally exhausting, but I have been doing well. I have also been playing on wifi's occasionally, and got my roll upto almost $1k after starting a month ago on $600. Not been doing not so much playing and training. I have been doing all this cycling and not a lot else. No time for training and no time to review hands and such, I did some session reviews and spotted a few leaks such as mid PP's and that was really good. I am hoping to have plugged these leaks but when I get back to Northampton I will find out when I this gets put to the test.

If you want to find more about my charity bike ride which is coming to an end tomorrow there is details on my other blog.

http://k3ym4k3r1989.blogspot.co.uk/

and donations can be made at

www.justgiving.com/kyle-foulds


many thanks

kyle