Cuteraven poker stuff

[CuteRaven]

9 hours ago, SkilfulPoker said:

Ha, don't visit Albania! I love the capital of the country, but omg the air quality. 

Tbh I don't think it matters if it's your sensitivity or really is that bad - the great thing is you went to live in the forest 😄 I love it!

Albania seems like a pretty cool country otherwise, maybe I just avoid Tirana if I go then or visit on a public holiday 😄

Having a lot of hiking experience helps with sleeping outdoors. I don't think I would have the skills/equipment/courage to do it otherwise :p. I actually returned from a nice weekend hike today. Lots of nice autumn landscape, lakes to dip in and mushrooms to eat. 😋

Weirdly I often sleep better outdoors than I do indoors nowadays.

 

[CuteRaven]

I've played a few short tournament sessions along with 25€ 5 man SNG (and some 25€ HU SNG too). So far I like the new tournament schedule from my limited experimentation. There's more 6 max and bounties and fast format stuff so more tournaments that I'm willing to play basically which is nice!

I've been losing some money at the tournaments (probably from bad play and over-adjusting to the bounties) and HU (mostly some run-bad I think), but that's been compensated by running really hot at the 5 man SNG, so my bankroll is now 1184.19€. 

I also punted some stacks at 4€ NL to complete the Halloween mission. Probably it wasn't smart or worth it monetarily but it's kind of fun playing when you don't care too much about the money and just overbet or 3-bet lots of hands. 😂

I had a good friend and old ex visiting. It's nice when the breakup is so long ago that it doesn't really bother either person anymore and you can just enjoy each others company.

 

 

[CuteRaven]

Managed to come 3rd for a few tickiyitzcszs in the Halloween mission tourney, so I guess it was worth it in the end 🤩.

I lost a few buy-ins from mostly 25€ 5 mans, the liquidity there was kind of disappointing, and I didn't cash in the community MTT promo freeroll in the end.

[CuteRaven]

Shouldn't take too long for me to bust in 12th place 😄

[CuteRaven]

Came 6th. I think I misplayed the last hand, going all in with a draw as the short stack in a bounty tournament when people call you quite light is maybe not a good idea 😄

Edited November 2, 2022 by CuteRaven

[CuteRaven]

I though I would share some hands from yesterday's tournament because they were kind of interesting spots. Both hands were on the final table, and I had a big bounty on my head.

In this first hand, EP bigstack minrairaises and CO calls and call in the BB with 56o (antes were worth 0.75 BB total). CO was very LAG and EP I didn't have many reads except that they liked to make loose value shoves preflop.

I ended up check shoving the flop, which I think is a pretty huge punt, when EP villain should be calling me really loose, when I have the biggest bounty and villain has a lot of stack to expend.

What should I do here? Maybe folding the flop is best even though it sucks. I shoved here and villain called with J8 offsuit, I bricked and busted.

Being a short stack in a bounty tourney really sucks, because of ICM pressure and the much lower amount of fold equity, you're incentivized to play quite tight. On the other hand you can't just blind out and you want to regain you bounty collecting ability, so you probably have to take many minus EV spots because of future game.

Maybe as the big blind short stack here, you should have a pretty narrow calling range preflop (and forego low card draw hands) and play more 3bet or fold with a broadway heavy range, because people will call you light and you can get it in pretty good? And maybe postflop as the short stack it might be optimal to hardly ever bluff, but valueshove lighter, because your opponents are getting the odds to call anyway?

77 hand: Same villain (this happened earlier), preflop went minraise call. Flop went check, bet half pot, raise tiny, call. What would you do against this turn bet? I folded, 53 gets there and I have terrible blockers too. I think it's either a very good fold or a terrible fold depending on villain, since players are almost never balanced here.

[CuteRaven]

I've been pretty busy recently and thinking about the future of my poker hobby. The main issue is that university often starts at 8, so I need to wake up for that between 7-7:30. On the other hand the games that I enjoy playing the most (25€ 5 man SNGs) run best from around 22 to midnight.

One partial solution might be to skip morning lectures and watch the recordings of them later, but some morning stuff is compulsory attendance. Also, I'm not disciplined enough to watch lots of lectures on my own, so in many ways it's better to just attend them live.

It's probably an unsolvable timetable situation, so I might have to try out other game types or sites with more volume. Tournaments are off the table for the same reason, which is a shame because now I actually like Unibets tournament offering unlike before.

This weekend I was visiting my parents (fathers day weekend) and some friends in another city. I needed to wait a few hours after I arrived for my friends to be available, so I made an impulsive decision to try live poker at the casino.

Live poker in Finland kind of sucks. It's controlled by the government monopoly Veikkaus, and since COVID there are only 2 (legal) places in the whole country where you can play (Casinos in Helsinki and Tampere). The minimum stakes nowadays are 2.5€/2.5€ blinds (high stakes for me). There used to be about 10 places in the country to play and 1€/1€ stakes existed in the past. In the city where I live there is no live poker. "Pilalla", as you would say in Finnish.

Anyway, I sat down on a NLHE table with 100€ (40 big blinds). I've only ever played live a few times and I needed to (re)learn some stuff, like how to fold properly (push the cards far enough so the dealer can reach them) and that throwing in one chip means call (and not raise) if the player doesn't say anything.

I did enjoy it. I spent most of my time not playing hands and observing the table (think I made some decent live reads), and listening to banter. Most of the players seemed to know each other and the dealers, which made for some fun conversation. It was probably a pretty reg heavy table. I played an hour or two and ended my reckless gamble with a profit of 116.5€.

The only remotely interesting (and " big") hand that I played was this (other profits were from players folding to my 3bets).

Game is full ring (rake 5%, 10€ cap) My stack was about 95€. I opened the button to 7.5€ with KsTs. SB (loose aggressive player, 3bets a lot pre) made it 25€. BB (loose passive) cold calls, and I call.

Flop is Kh Jh 8s. It's checked to me and I bet 20€ into a 75€ pot (keeping track of pot and stack sizes was a struggle XD). SB calls and BB folds.

Turn is Kh Jh 8s 8d. It goes check check.

River is some low blank. SB checks to me. Pot is 115€ and I have 50€ behind. I didn't expect a live LAG to ever trap with a better hand so I shove my remaining 50€, hoping for my thin value bet to get hero called by something. SB thinks for a bit and makes the call, and mucks after I show.

Meanwhile on Unibet, I played a few 25€ 5 man SNG sessions (on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). I still regularly make some silly punt plays that I regret later, so I'm never entirely happy with my play. Still managing to make some slow profit though. I got my roll to about 1352.77€ (for what, the 3rd time XD?) and decided to withdraw 600€ (I guess I'm some sort of semipro instead of recreational nowadays :p).

[CuteRaven]

My bankroll is 739.90€. I got my bankroll to about 1200€ and then withdrew 400€, so overall I've made some profit since the last update.

The of amount traffic in 25€ 5 player SNGs seems pretty random. There's maybe about 3 name-changing regs who play 5+ tables semi-regularly, so a lot of the traffic depends on them showing up (and there's there's a random assortment of other regs who play 2-4 tables, some of whom never change their names). I've been playing maybe 3-4 evenings a week on average, the rest of the time I've been too busy or too tired. Moving house and student parties don't really help with that 😂

The traffic recently seems to be getting better though. Maybe all the promos are attracting new players (I already managed to lose 100+ € in the Hexapro extreme 😄). Nice to see all the activity on the community too!

Here's an interesting hand, what would you do? This was early on in the session so not super strong reads yet. Villain was a multitabling reg and seemed to be playing quite well.

Villain opened CO for 2.5x, I called in the SB. Flop went check check.

Turn I bet half pot, pretty standard I think.

River is where things get interesting. I made my straight, and decided to bet on the smaller side. Villain shoves quite quickly (as I remember it).  This just looks like a flush doesn't it? I would expect most players to bet almost every 9x on the flop, with maybe the occasional slowplay of KK or 99. JT might do this, so maybe I'm chopping. But otherwise it's just a flush (which I don't block) or bluff or the occasional QQ or Q9.

So maybe villain is bluffing. But it's not super easy to find bluffs when every draw has a made hand by the river? But maybe villain was reading into my aggro tendencies and bet-sizing and decided to go for it? Maybe folding is just way too nitty?

What do you think, fold or call?

Spoiler

I ended up tanking for most of my timebank and then making the call, and was slightly surprised to win. It's a good reminder not to over-adjust too much I guess (at least against decent players). Really nice river bluff by villain (I'm guessing not GTO though), I think many players wouldn't find bluffs here. Against more ABC players this might even be a good hand to fold but I'm probably not good enough to do it 😂

 

 

[monkeyheaven]

On 11/29/2022 at 6:16 PM, CuteRaven said:

My bankroll is 739.90€. I got my bankroll to about 1200€ and then withdrew 400€, so overall I've made some profit since the last update.

The of amount traffic in 25€ 5 player SNGs seems pretty random. There's maybe about 3 name-changing regs who play 5+ tables semi-regularly, so a lot of the traffic depends on them showing up (and there's there's a random assortment of other regs who play 2-4 tables, some of whom never change their names). I've been playing maybe 3-4 evenings a week on average, the rest of the time I've been too busy or too tired. Moving house and student parties don't really help with that 😂

The traffic recently seems to be getting better though. Maybe all the promos are attracting new players (I already managed to lose 100+ € in the Hexapro extreme 😄). Nice to see all the activity on the community too!

Here's an interesting hand, what would you do? This was early on in the session so not super strong reads yet. Villain was a multitabling reg and seemed to be playing quite well.

Villain opened CO for 2.5x, I called in the SB. Flop went check check.

Turn I bet half pot, pretty standard I think.

River is where things get interesting. I made my straight, and decided to bet on the smaller side. Villain shoves quite quickly (as I remember it).  This just looks like a flush doesn't it? I would expect most players to bet almost every 9x on the flop, with maybe the occasional slowplay of KK or 99. JT might do this, so maybe I'm chopping. But otherwise it's just a flush (which I don't block) or bluff or the occasional QQ or Q9.

So maybe villain is bluffing. But it's not super easy to find bluffs when every draw has a made hand by the river? But maybe villain was reading into my aggro tendencies and bet-sizing and decided to go for it? Maybe folding is just way too nitty?

What do you think, fold or call?

  Reveal hidden contents

I ended up tanking for most of my timebank and then making the call, and was slightly surprised to win. It's a good reminder not to over-adjust too much I guess (at least against decent players). Really nice river bluff by villain (I'm guessing not GTO though), I think many players wouldn't find bluffs here. Against more ABC players this might even be a good hand to fold but I'm probably not good enough to do it 😂

 

 

Nice hand, would be interesting to see what the gto solution is, to at least act as some guide to the decision here.

I’d play pre, flop and turn the same.   Not sure about river sizing.  
Villain has big nut hand (strong flushes, boats) advantage, impossible to know how big but could be two or three times as many combos as you, and player pool tendencies are not to turn made hands into bluffs.  We have to have a folding range, I’m struggling to think of any bluffs in your betting range, and the weaker value hands (KQ, trips?) are much better bluff catchers ; JTs might be your worst hand to call with, I fold.

In villains spot i think best bluffs might be A3s, 77cx, TTcx, JJcx, AxTc, AxJc, AcQx, think I’d pull the trigger on a decent number of those.  His hand is very out of line, as you said prob an exploit based on your river sizing, and quite a good one, until you called 😀

Edited December 2, 2022 by monkeyheaven

[CuteRaven]

On 12/2/2022 at 12:32 PM, monkeyheaven said:

Nice hand, would be interesting to see what the gto solution is, to at least act as some guide to the decision here.

I’d play pre, flop and turn the same.   Not sure about river sizing.  
Villain has big nut hand (strong flushes, boats) advantage, impossible to know how big but could be two or three times as many combos as you, and player pool tendencies are not to turn made hands into bluffs.  We have to have a folding range, I’m struggling to think of any bluffs in your betting range, and the weaker value hands (KQ, trips?) are much better bluff catchers ; JTs might be your worst hand to call with, I fold.

In villains spot i think best bluffs might be A3s, 77cx, TTcx, JJcx, AxTc, AxJc, AcQx, think I’d pull the trigger on a decent number of those.  His hand is very out of line, as you said prob an exploit based on your river sizing, and quite a good one, until you called 😀

Thanks for the analysis! The GTO solution would be interesting to see indeed.

Villain indeed has a big nut advantage, but I don't think it's as severe as you think (villain has KK, QQ, 99 and AK of clubs if he checks flop with them, so 8 combos which I don't have, but I still have lots of flushes and K9s, Q9s and 33) . I would probably just call a lot of suited Ax preflop (it feels a bit akward to 3bet middling hands like that at this stack size, since villain can rejam quite wide).

Good point about the lack of bluffs. I think I would have T8s and J8s but not much else, maybe stuff like A4s and A5s if I was feeling sharp. But probably I'm still underbluffing.

I think you are right, the more I think about it. Probably it's one of the best hands to fold. I think one of the biggest question marks is, does villain valuebet worse (e.g A9, J9)? Probably not I guess.

[CuteRaven]

I haven't been playing much at all. I went on a 200€ downswing (just 8 buyins so it's really not too bad), then I needed some money suddenly so I had to empty my bankroll of about 550€ around the beginning of December, and soon after that I had some influenza type illness so I was out of it for about another 10 days.

Yesterday I bought some 25€ 5 man SNG tickets with 150€ worth of bonus points, and was able to turn that into 277€ in 5 games (I have one ticket left still). Running good when I need it 😄. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going and don't have to empty my bankroll again too soon (no promises 😂) or lose it in some downswing (also no promises on that).

[CuteRaven]

I managed to lose most of the 277€ that I had in the previous update (in 25€ 5 man SNGs). I was down to about 40€, and I decided to take a break to focus on school and other hobbies.

I started playing again about a week ago and my BR is now sitting at 91.18€. When I restarted after my break I was thinking about what I want to do next with poker. The problem with SNG is that the stakes have a low ceiling of 25€ so once you are a regular there then it doesn't really feel like you are challenging yourself that much or making much "progress" (not to mention low volume on many days). I still find SNG quite fun, but it would also be nice to play more of other formats every now and then.

I wanted to try a format where there is still a lot of room for intuition (and not so much room for solvers). I also prefer a format where the whole sessions' profits doesn't depend on big river decisions in just a few hands (so basically cash games...I think I'm not level headed enough for that 😄).

HU SNG and Hexapro are too easy to "solve" (and in Hexapro variance is really high, so it's not that nice for a low volume player). Tournaments are great except for the time commitment (so I'll play them once in a while...).

I figured that the least bad option is PLO, too bad it's only cash games but what can you do. I've been playing PL 4€ stakes and it's been a struggle. I have no idea what I'm doing and I only made about 20€ of profits in the span of maybe 4 sessions. Today I played the community league tournaments (busted both quickly) and some 4€ 5 man SNG and made more money than in my "PLO career" so far 😂.

Well, it's an interesting game strategically and Phil Galfond makes good videos. Let's see how long I have the patience for it 😛

 

[CuteRaven]

Well Grizzlers' post about the community dying inspired me to update again. 😂

I haven't played much more poker since the last post because I'm still busy with a lot of other stuff. I've been busy with moving (again) and related organizing of belongings (and trying to get rid of stuff I never use, which feels like a huge project), along with uni and other more social hobbies.

In the previous post I was discussing the idea of trying to learn Omaha. Since then I've mostly played SNGs. I'm finding SNGs a lot more fun, no surprise 😂. 

I learned Texas Hold'em mostly by watching Youtube poker videos and playing with friends and eventually online. There's really no need to buy any course or get any software to get good. The problem with Omaha is that there is not much content on it out there compared to Hold'em, so I'm struggling to find entertaining PLO content to learn from. That got me thinking, that maybe I should build up a roll with SNGs and eventually buy some PLO training tool for a month with that money and see how it goes. Or otherwise just scrap the project if it doesn't motivate me. But I don't want to give up just yet! I'll try to get some more 4 PL sessions in and watch some PLO content whenever I can find something interesting (the Galfond vs Jungleman stuff recently has been great at least!). It was never going to be easy.

The main reason why learning poker is so hard, is that the game doesn't give you honest feedback. You can lose a bunch of money, and it's not always obvious how it has happened. Maybe the rake has silently eaten away at your stack because you play way too loose preflop? Maybe you call flops too loose? Whatever it is, it's not always obvious, and you need "feedback" to be able to actually learn, or some good detective glasses.

Anyway, BR is 155.18€ after today's SNG session. Some very loose shot taking was involved, but I have no problem reloading if I go busto 😛

[CuteRaven]

I played a 5 player SNG session today and I ran pretty badly in all ins. I usually don't post bad beats, but I thought this sequence was funny enough to post about.

Here I'm a slight chipleader on the bubble, and I make a normal shove with A8o. To my surprise, both players call:

Well this isn't that bad, as long as I beat even one of these players, I'm in the money, which is a good result.

Spoiler

Pretty cool river 😂

So now things are really bad, I'm in the big blind on the next hand and I'm forced to go all in blind (if there was no ante I could still fold 😛 ). The button folds, which he should do with his whole range. The small blind (tank?) calls, and they can call with any 2. This hand basically plays itself, but at least I have a good hand preflop, maybe I can win?

Spoiler

Of course not 😄  These were the final 2 hands of the last 10€ SNG of the session. I thought it was a pretty fitting ending to the session.

 

[CuteRaven]

I played some 2.5€/2.5€ NLHE live poker yesterday, while on a trip to Helsinki (was there mostly to see family and friends). It was fun to play and I ran quite well, made 226€ in profit. I was trying to focus on live reads. I think I made some decent adjustments based on the “reads” (real or imagined) that I made.

 

Here’s tells that I think are generally true from playing so far. Which ones do you live pros think I got correct and which ones are wrong? I think I was also inadvertently guilty of giving off some of these tells 😂

 

-Betting quickly: weak

-Betting more slowly and choosing a precise bet size: strong

-Glancing at opponents stack subtly before betting: strong

-Making an obvious “glance” at someones stack as soon as their opponent does their action (usually followed by a bet or raise): weak

-Leaning forward with a straight back: weak

-Making certain facial expressions (“eyebrows raised”): weak

-Calling fast: weak

-Checking hole cards post flop: flush draw or strong hand

-Holding their cards when you’re betting: weak (about to fold)

-Looking genuinely relaxed and happy: strong (but the opposite is not always true in my limited experience because people like to fake nervousness, maybe there are good ways to see fake nervousness?)

-Sometimes I think I saw some real excitement in peoples faces when they were trying to keep a blank expression, maybe I imagined things 😅

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by CuteRaven

[CuteRaven]

I was playing 10€ 5 player SNG today against some genius hero callers. Here's one example. In this hand I limped preflop. Villain tank called the flop, usually he seemed to call faster when he had strong hands.

On the turn I went with my read and shoved. But even players with weak hands can make great calls sometimes, what is the worst hand you would call here as villain against an aggro donk like me?

Spoiler

I don't think even @Stubbe-Unibet could make this call

Ok here's another hand where interesting things happen. This is on the bubble. I make an "almost all in" raise, which is normal as the short stack, because if the other players both go all in I can still fold.

The player in the big blind calls and of course I go all in now.

What do you think BB will call with?

Spoiler

Not sure if preflop was misclick or not TBH 😂

Despite the tough competition owning me like this, managed to end the session with profit. Bankroll is 240.73€. Slow and swingy "progress" so far. Hopefully you are having a nice spring! I'm enjoying the combination of sun and snow in Finland at the moment 

 

[SShcherbyna]

1 hour ago, CuteRaven said:

I was playing 10€ 5 player SNG today

1 hour ago, CuteRaven said:

Bankroll is 240.73€

a little risky, no?

 

[CuteRaven]

1 hour ago, SShcherbyna said:

a little risky, no?

I was playing a few 25€ SNG also in earlier sessions, while my bankroll was between 100-200€. I recently decided that the resulting swings were a bit too annoying for my bankroll level, and I won't play the 25€ buy in until I get to around 400€. Playing with 15+ buyins of 10€ SNG feels remarkably safe in comparison :p

But generally I'm trying to play lower (than 25€) stakes for as short as possible.

[FreedoM]

 #AggroBRM+LowVolume

 #ImSoGood

 #GiveItSomeTime

 #Reality

 #NoBankroll

Edited March 30, 2023 by FreedoM
My Experience with AggroBRM so Far! ;)

[CuteRaven]

I feel like I should have a big update after such a long hiatus, but I don't. If I wait for something big to update about, I will probably never update :D. So I might as well do it now.

I haven't been that interested in poker recently TBH and have been occupied with other activities. I have been playing very little, and have been on kind of a breakeven stretch. My BR is at about 180€ (I withdrew 100€ earlier). I have been occasionally trying other formats but I never enjoy them as much as SNG, so I think there is no point moving away from that (so much for the Omaha challenge 😅). However, I have been splashing around in some HU SNG recently. I could see myself getting back to enjoying the rush of 3 tabling some good old HU 🔥

My life updates are probably more interesting (although probably still not very). I'm still enjoying my studies (biology related field). I've been traveling a lot around Finland (general regions of Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Kolari and surrounding nature). Also Lapland in Sweden, which is like Finland with better laws 😉 (if you know what I mean). I got a summer job as a chef (haven't been a chef before but worked in other roles in kitchens). Life is good, though chaotic as always (that will probably never truly change).

Edit: Looks like I overuse brackets (maybe I should change that (if anyone even cares (and who are these "anyone" that are reading (if it is you then how many thoughts do you think you can fit inside other thoughts (are thought even real or are they just the interactions of particles and electromagnetic forces governed by quantum physics or something else))))).

Edited June 21, 2023 by CuteRaven

[HardGain]

Nice to read youre doing fine! I'm also a little off with poker, but thats a ordinary thing when summer comes
Im also enjoying life-blog updates, so keep writing them 🙂 Enjoy!

[SShcherbyna]

16 hours ago, CuteRaven said:

I'm still enjoying my studies (biology related field)

I am a biologist myself, tell me more about your studies, your specialization, etc. Although I do not work by profession, biology is always in my heart 🌱🥰

[CuteRaven]

On 6/22/2023 at 5:22 PM, SShcherbyna said:

I am a biologist myself, tell me more about your studies, your specialization, etc. Although I do not work by profession, biology is always in my heart 🌱🥰

I wasn't sure how much I want to reveal since Finland is a small country,  but I decided it's fine (worst case scenario someone recognizes me and it probably doesn't really matter). I'm studying biology. I started relatively recently so no specialization yet, but I'm most interested in ecology (partially because working in nature would be awesome!) and genetics (it's just really interesting). Neuroscience also seems really cool but I haven't taken many courses on it yet. Biology is indeed awesome 🍀🍄

I recently restarted playing poker, but I've mostly been playing on other sites than Unibet. Unibet is still my favorite site overall but gotta try some other ones too :D. Mainly I have wanted to try game types that Unibet doesn't offer. I've been trying to learn PLO with PLO spin and go's. So far it's going pretty well and I've built a small bankroll there just one tabling on android for a month or so (from about 30$ to about 300$ so far). I think PLO is a lot of fun, and most of the opponents are easy to beat (most players play their range really face up and almost never slowplay, so certain kinds of bluffs just work almost always). I've been doing a lot of combinatorics calculations to try and learn the great game (e.g how often a random hand has a full house on a paired river, or how often you are dealt a double suited hand preflop etc.). Maybe I'll post some of the calculations here if people are interested!

I also figured one of the major reasons why I suck at NLHE cash games. Basically I'm way too loose on rivers (I value bet too thin, bluff too much and call down too much etc. all my thresholds are just too loose). So if I fix that, maybe I could get better at cash games, but right now I don't have much interest in doing that because I find other poker formats more fun :D. So if you are like me, and you are wondering why you are good at SNG and suck at cash games, that could be part of the reason.

Life is going well. I've finally been able to develop a regular workout routine, which I'm really happy about. The key to this was trying out barefoot shoes for running. Once your calf muscles get stronger, it feels much nicer and more effortless to run with them (but only on a soft surface like a dirt road, not on asphalt). I've been going running about 3-4 times a week now and doing some body-weight exersizes afterwards, and it feels like I've gotten fitter and my brain works a bit better now too (especially mental health) 😎

This week I don't have much time to play with lots of exams going on, and christmas time is pretty busy for me in general, but hopefully I'll have time for a few of the community tournaments (no promises, though).

Hopefully everyone is doing well ❤️

 

 

[GR1ZZL3R]

Good to hear from you again.