Long time no update. Sorry in advance for the long post, lots for me to think about.
I pulled a Triptanes and dropped all my courses, so I'm not going to school right now. I will be managing a small business from now until September though, so at least I'll be doing something. I dunno why I dropped my classes ... I just can't stand school right now. I only need to take 8 courses to graduate, I'm like 90% done my degree. I hate school though. Wish I never went. So I'm on a break ...
I've only played a few thousand hands since last time I posted here, which is kinda disappointing. Granted I've had a lot of stuff going on and probably only a couple weeks to play those hands (despite not going to school), so maybe I should be glad I even got that much playing in. I think I played around 3k hands at 50NL and then I moved up to 100NL and I've played around 4k hands there.
Hmm so now I wanna consider why I moved up to 100NL. I moved up after only about 6.5k hands at 50NL, the only experience I have at 6 max since I moved to cash games. I wanted to give 100NL a shot for a few reasons. For one, I had made around 13 buyins by the time I'd played that many hands, and I figured that was a decent amount to justify dipping my feet at a higher stake. If I only had a $1k bankroll when I was playing 50NL, then I would have had to stay there until I'd gotten my roll up to at least $2k, but that's not the situation for me so I felt I didn't need to wait around any longer.
Hmm well the first point makes me sound like I'm impatient and not wanting to stay at 50NL just for the sake of not wanting to be there. I don't know if that's the case, I like to think it's not. While a point can be made that it's a good idea to play 30k hands at a certain level to "make sure" that you can beat the game and that it's not just good variance, I guess a big part of me thinks that if you can beat the game at a certain level, it's a waste of potential money to stay at lower stakes. Not to say that I thought I could beat 100NL, but what's the point in stayting at 50NL if you have the money to give the higher stakes a shot?
Well that leads into another reason why I moved up: I felt comfortable playing 6 max at that point and I felt comfortable at 50NL. I felt like I had a good understanding of what to do preflop (although now that I think about it, I still made some pretty loose/bad calls) and an okay idea of how to bet and read hands post flop. It was definitely a lot better than it had been when I first started playing 6 max in late November, and I felt I was comfortable enough with my game to give moving up a shot.
Anyway so like I said, I've played 4k hands at 100NL. It's been up and down ever since hand one, and right now I'm finding myself in the exact same spot, bankroll-wise, that I was before I started. In other words, I haven't made any money at all.
Hmm so what happened. When I first started playing 100NL, I didn't do very well at all. IMO, it's a lot harder than 50NL. At 50NL, people are a lot more predictable and won't really fight back unless they have something worth fighting with. Obviously there are exceptions and you'll find the occassional player who can play without cards, but those people are kinda rare at 50NL. At 100NL, I feel like a lot of people are a lot more aggressive and that they don't mind testing you. Also, there are actually "regulars" at 100NL. I saw a few of the same people at 50NL from time to time, but at 100NL, there are multiple people at multiple tables at any given time. It's annoying when you're trying to find a couple good tables to sit at and someone you know is a decent poster on FTR or 2p2 is sitting on like every table you bring up ...
After I'd played several hundred hands, I got a little more comfortable with the play and started to adapt a little better. One thing I had to adapt to was the fact that pots can get big really quickly. I didn't see that much reraising preflop at 50NL, but I see it a lot more at 100NL and it sure inflates the pots a lot PF. If someone squeezes PF and gets a call, the pot's already $40 before a continuation bet. If the reraiser decides to bet, now the pot's at least $70 ... I have a lot of trouble in spots like this. So much money has already gone into the pot, and I have trouble deciding when I can get away from a hand and when I can't once the pot gets really big.
After it went kinda badly at the start, I started making a bit of money. I haven't really gone through my money-making hands in any detail and maybe I should, but if I think about how I started making money at 100NL, it was probably more luck than anything. Not that I sucked out all the time (although I certainly remember doing so a couple times), but that I won a couple coin flips when the money went in on the flop, or I was lucky enough that an overly aggro player liked to push Q9s into say AKs or JJ preflop. If a few things had gone the other way, I'm sure I would have been up less or I would have been down even more at the start.
Anyway, things HAVE gone the other way since then, in a very bad way. I'm running pretty badly right now. I don't flop sets or when I do, they can't make money. I'm getting AA a lot, but it's somehow always folded around to me when I get it. My reraises with PPs are being called by 78s and losing to turned two pairs. My nut flushes are being one outered by straight flushes. The usual shit that everyone goes through.
BUT I'm not losing money just because I'm running badly. I know I'm certainly playing badly at the same time. I'm trying to figure out why and how though. I think that I'm playing differently than I did at 50NL and that I'm trying to over-compensate for the increased aggression at 100NL, if that makes any sense. I want to reraise people more, I want to make ill-advised squeezes, I want to raise people's continuation bets too often. I don't have experience with this and I'm trying to learn it all at the same time, and it's not a very good idea. Part of me thinks that I'm not going to make that much money playing the way I did at 50NL, and I think that this part of me is wrong. I don't really understand why I think that's the case and I should probably get rid of it.
I do think that some of the things I've been trying at 100NL have been good and are a good thing to add to my game. I like being more aggressive preflop and calling less so that I have a chance to control the pot size and the play post flop. I'd like to get my VPIP and PFR% stats a little more similar in number. A few nights ago Lukie ghosted me on a couple 100NL tables and he really encouraged me to stop calling and fold/raise more often. I do find that a lot more people at 100NL have stats that are closer to 25/20 rather than say 25/12, so it's something I'm working on.
I'm tempted to ramble on for longer, but I don't think I will. I'm just gonna end this by saying that I'm probably gonna drop back down to 50NL and work on some of the things I mentioned. It makes more sense to practice playing a certain way at a lower level, figure out what I'm doing, and then bring it back to 100NL. I dunno if this post even made sense, but thanks for reading.
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=429295#429295
I pulled a Triptanes and dropped all my courses, so I'm not going to school right now. I will be managing a small business from now until September though, so at least I'll be doing something. I dunno why I dropped my classes ... I just can't stand school right now. I only need to take 8 courses to graduate, I'm like 90% done my degree. I hate school though. Wish I never went. So I'm on a break ...
I've only played a few thousand hands since last time I posted here, which is kinda disappointing. Granted I've had a lot of stuff going on and probably only a couple weeks to play those hands (despite not going to school), so maybe I should be glad I even got that much playing in. I think I played around 3k hands at 50NL and then I moved up to 100NL and I've played around 4k hands there.
Hmm so now I wanna consider why I moved up to 100NL. I moved up after only about 6.5k hands at 50NL, the only experience I have at 6 max since I moved to cash games. I wanted to give 100NL a shot for a few reasons. For one, I had made around 13 buyins by the time I'd played that many hands, and I figured that was a decent amount to justify dipping my feet at a higher stake. If I only had a $1k bankroll when I was playing 50NL, then I would have had to stay there until I'd gotten my roll up to at least $2k, but that's not the situation for me so I felt I didn't need to wait around any longer.
Hmm well the first point makes me sound like I'm impatient and not wanting to stay at 50NL just for the sake of not wanting to be there. I don't know if that's the case, I like to think it's not. While a point can be made that it's a good idea to play 30k hands at a certain level to "make sure" that you can beat the game and that it's not just good variance, I guess a big part of me thinks that if you can beat the game at a certain level, it's a waste of potential money to stay at lower stakes. Not to say that I thought I could beat 100NL, but what's the point in stayting at 50NL if you have the money to give the higher stakes a shot?
Well that leads into another reason why I moved up: I felt comfortable playing 6 max at that point and I felt comfortable at 50NL. I felt like I had a good understanding of what to do preflop (although now that I think about it, I still made some pretty loose/bad calls) and an okay idea of how to bet and read hands post flop. It was definitely a lot better than it had been when I first started playing 6 max in late November, and I felt I was comfortable enough with my game to give moving up a shot.
Anyway so like I said, I've played 4k hands at 100NL. It's been up and down ever since hand one, and right now I'm finding myself in the exact same spot, bankroll-wise, that I was before I started. In other words, I haven't made any money at all.
Hmm so what happened. When I first started playing 100NL, I didn't do very well at all. IMO, it's a lot harder than 50NL. At 50NL, people are a lot more predictable and won't really fight back unless they have something worth fighting with. Obviously there are exceptions and you'll find the occassional player who can play without cards, but those people are kinda rare at 50NL. At 100NL, I feel like a lot of people are a lot more aggressive and that they don't mind testing you. Also, there are actually "regulars" at 100NL. I saw a few of the same people at 50NL from time to time, but at 100NL, there are multiple people at multiple tables at any given time. It's annoying when you're trying to find a couple good tables to sit at and someone you know is a decent poster on FTR or 2p2 is sitting on like every table you bring up ...
After I'd played several hundred hands, I got a little more comfortable with the play and started to adapt a little better. One thing I had to adapt to was the fact that pots can get big really quickly. I didn't see that much reraising preflop at 50NL, but I see it a lot more at 100NL and it sure inflates the pots a lot PF. If someone squeezes PF and gets a call, the pot's already $40 before a continuation bet. If the reraiser decides to bet, now the pot's at least $70 ... I have a lot of trouble in spots like this. So much money has already gone into the pot, and I have trouble deciding when I can get away from a hand and when I can't once the pot gets really big.
After it went kinda badly at the start, I started making a bit of money. I haven't really gone through my money-making hands in any detail and maybe I should, but if I think about how I started making money at 100NL, it was probably more luck than anything. Not that I sucked out all the time (although I certainly remember doing so a couple times), but that I won a couple coin flips when the money went in on the flop, or I was lucky enough that an overly aggro player liked to push Q9s into say AKs or JJ preflop. If a few things had gone the other way, I'm sure I would have been up less or I would have been down even more at the start.
Anyway, things HAVE gone the other way since then, in a very bad way. I'm running pretty badly right now. I don't flop sets or when I do, they can't make money. I'm getting AA a lot, but it's somehow always folded around to me when I get it. My reraises with PPs are being called by 78s and losing to turned two pairs. My nut flushes are being one outered by straight flushes. The usual shit that everyone goes through.
BUT I'm not losing money just because I'm running badly. I know I'm certainly playing badly at the same time. I'm trying to figure out why and how though. I think that I'm playing differently than I did at 50NL and that I'm trying to over-compensate for the increased aggression at 100NL, if that makes any sense. I want to reraise people more, I want to make ill-advised squeezes, I want to raise people's continuation bets too often. I don't have experience with this and I'm trying to learn it all at the same time, and it's not a very good idea. Part of me thinks that I'm not going to make that much money playing the way I did at 50NL, and I think that this part of me is wrong. I don't really understand why I think that's the case and I should probably get rid of it.
I do think that some of the things I've been trying at 100NL have been good and are a good thing to add to my game. I like being more aggressive preflop and calling less so that I have a chance to control the pot size and the play post flop. I'd like to get my VPIP and PFR% stats a little more similar in number. A few nights ago Lukie ghosted me on a couple 100NL tables and he really encouraged me to stop calling and fold/raise more often. I do find that a lot more people at 100NL have stats that are closer to 25/20 rather than say 25/12, so it's something I'm working on.
I'm tempted to ramble on for longer, but I don't think I will. I'm just gonna end this by saying that I'm probably gonna drop back down to 50NL and work on some of the things I mentioned. It makes more sense to practice playing a certain way at a lower level, figure out what I'm doing, and then bring it back to 100NL. I dunno if this post even made sense, but thanks for reading.
http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=429295#429295
on January 25, 2007, 10:24 pm
P.S. I included my e-mail for a reason... ; )
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