Don’t ask me why, but this song was stuck in my head this morning when I woke up. lol
So I got some comments back yesterday on a video I made a few days back. I knew that I am not great at HU by any stretch of the imagination. So I went in with thick skin as I knew I was going to be heavily criticized. Turns out I was right. I made a few adjustments to my game based on the comments and feel I have been playing considerably better now. So big thanks for the video review! I have a few hands I need to post up on some forums and see what people think about them.
Are a bit annoying. They all boo like crazy when Pedro hits Teixiera. Do you really think that Pedro wanted to load the bases with one out to face ARod?? Seriously?
I have been quite frustrated recently. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find people to work with about HU, because so few of the people I associate with play it regularly as their main game. The variance isn’t really what is bothering me to be honest. It is the recent struggles I have had overall. I feel like my edge should be monstrous over the players I play against, since I game select well. While I know some of the hands (like the ones mentioned in the last post) are variance, many more aren’t. I can’t help but feel like I have major issues with my game and given my level of opposition, that is a bit depressing. I am not degrading these players, but the reality is most of these players are recreational players that don’t study the game, so I should have an edge over them. It is not that they are inferior players, it is that I should be better because I work at it, plain and simple. So it is quite a bit dejecting when I feel like the problem is my game and by that I mean, major issues. I sent a video to a friend, so hopefully some major leaks can be ironed out when I get that back. I also PMed bosoxx34 about other coaches specifically for HU and made a post a (eek) 2+2 in the coaching forums. I still may hold off on the coaching for some time though, as I do think that my friend can help me considerably. That is enough emo btimm for now. I am going to go play a short session and really focus on mindful breathing, mindful sitting, and regain some lost confidence potentially via a session that is as well-played as I know how to play right now.
To feel slightly better instantly, I give you a monkey and a baby. Okay, they are both my son.
I know I said I would not drop to 50nl to regain confidence, but I am debating it strongly.
Venting time. Then it’s tiemto work on my mental game again, which is completely decimated.
Checking back the flop for wider value on the turn and river is a mistake. Not due to results, which is annoying, but just due to the board exture and calling ranges.
Wow. I never would have thought this would have happened during my playing career, but I just finished a month of playing exclusively heads up cash games. No 6max or full ring. No MTTs or SNGs, which I normally don’t do anyways. All heads up. It went well … and it went poorly. Some of my initial assumptions on my winrate came to a reality check, as I only had a winrate of 4.4 ptbb/100 over 27,668 hands. I thought I could get 7 ptbb or higher with heads up play. I think part of the second half of the month when I won at a lower clip was variance, but I also think a large part of it was me getting too cally and make some pretty atrocious plays. If I fix those, I think I win at something more like 6 or so, but still not in the 7-8 ptbb range. meh, it is too small of a sample size to really know obviously, but I think I can play better, which is the key. Another big mistake I made was predicting how much volume I could get in. I think I can get in more hands than I did this month during most months, but I thought 40-50k hands would be possible. Probably not, based on waiting time for games. I think I can get in 30-35k hands per month though.
I want to hire a coach at some point, but I think I have a friend who may review some videos for me, which should be pretty beneficial. I need to get my butt in gear and make a video though. Many of the videos on training sites aren’t really what I am looking for at the moment, so we’ll see what happens. I need to just always be thinking of how to improve and beat players in a more efficient and better manner and see what happens. To this day, my biggest weakness is maniacs. I need to find a way to beat them more efficiently than I currently do.
Hopefully November will be a better month where I feel like I learn and improve (and play) at a better clip than I did this past month. There also is a chance that I mix in some 6max from time to time just for a change of pace. HU will still stay my focal point and main game though, it just is so much more fun for me.
Okay, so this bet occured between my wife and me. Before we watched a movie tonight, I told her that I would wager whatever that there was some Red Vines on top of the fridge. She said fine and I went to the fridge and on top of the fridge was a box of Red Vines. Inside the opened box were 3 remaining pieces of the candy and I thought I won the bet. She said I did not win, because they were old and hard and not good anymore. I said that did not matter, and that since the Red Vines existed and were on top of the fridge, I won the bet. So … who won the bet?
Wow, so I noticed that my poker related posts seem to be getting further and further apart and most of my blogging pertains to my life or sports. This isn’t a bad thing, just different than what was before when I posted about poker all of the time essentially, with some life things mixed in. I think I may try to make a post each day with a couple of hands from the session that I either found to be quite interesting or that I thought were comical. Just to add to the poker content of the blog again.
I am enjoying heads up play for sure. I find it more interesting and enjoyable than 6max overall, though sometimes waiting for a game gets old. In the future, I may be mixing my time between 6max and heads up, but for now I won’t do that. By mixing I mean, playing a different form per session, not mixing the two together in the same session. Monday nights come to mind immediately – it seems no one is playing and everyone is watching MNF instead. This might be a better time to play 6max. I am not sure, I have time to think about it. For now though, my efforts need to be on improving my heads up game, so it won’t be soon, that is for sure.
I will give my usual monthly update in a few days, but the month overall has not been going as well as I had hoped. The good news is that it is still not bad and I am learning, but I was hoping for better results. Sample size is small too obviously. I dropped down to 50nl to regain confidence after a stretch where I just felt like I was getting beat up. Most of it was variance in the showdown pots, but I just felt like I sucked in general, which is silly. I cannot drop down like that again. If I did that everytime I had a abd stretch, I would always run/play poorly at higher limits and run/play well at lower limits, which will kill my winnings. In fact, I think I should table select well and add in some 200nl games sometimes. I have to do it already on FTP due to their idiotic rule about only starting 1 table per limit for heads up play. With good table selection (read: turning down matches versus obvious known regs) the game isn’t really different than 100nl and I am rolled well enough and play it well enough to mix it in sometimes.
I wish I could find some good videos on the training sites of heads up play versus recreational players. All I ever see is how to play versus regs. This is fine and obviously more difficult to do than to beat someone who is just playing for fun and has no clue what they are doing. While I can beat these players for a fairly solid clip, I do feel I am leaving money on the table still. That is why I think it would be a really good idea to see more videos like this. I want to see the spots where I need to improve my play and what they are doing differently than me and why. I also know I tend to struggle against maniacs and it can get frustrating if I get bled to death before I catch a hand, especially if they leave after making 1/4 BI or whatever. This is something I need to work on for sure.
Well, that is all for now. I might get some hands up tonight, we’ll see.
On FTP, you are only allowed to be sitting alone on one heads up table at a time I just learned. This is not the smartest idea FTP has ever had. The site is lterally driving me away from giving them money. I will wait forever if I need to sit at just one table per limit to ever get action. Congrats FTP, I open both clients up now and Stars gets most of my action. btw, if any of you know anyone who wants to trade me Stars for FTP, please let me know, I would like to get $3k over there, not neccesarily in one big chunk obviously.
