Coaching

To all you FR micro grinders who still struggling with the game and are thinking about some coaching.

After having a coach myself during the summer who gave me a bunch good advices, with his help I have taken my game to a higher level. At the moment I am taking classes from another NL200/NL400 FR player who is helping me with selective aggression and exploiting the opponents weaknesses.


I am now heading for the NL50 and with +200K hands at the Full Ring tables on NL10 & NL25 I finally feel that I have something to offer you guys who play FR at NL25 and below.


Over the last 75K hands 12-tabeling FR25 I have made +10bb/100.

Prices:
$25 / 90 min session for NL5 & NL10
$35 / 90 min session for NL25


Send me an e-mail and your skype account and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

lillarya@yahoo.se

Cheers!

The Button is the KING!

Yesterday I was browsing a couple of poker forums and something stroke me. Many of the NL$10 and NL$25 players don't make much more $$ from the button than they do from middle position and cut-off!

I don't have any general explanation because every player has his/her own style. If you are having more or less the same win rate from earlier positions as for the late ones, I'd say that you are playing a lottery game and hope your cards are better than your opponents once you get to show down.

There should be a correlation between position and win-rate, the later your position the higher your win-rate should be. These are my hands this month playing NL25 Full Ring














PLAY WELL AND UTILIZE YOUR POSITIONAL ADVANTAGE!

From $500 to $5.000 grinding the NL25

I have neglected this Blog for a long time now. No special reason more than it’s been more important to grind out some money as I’m unemployed at the moment and the few bucks I can make from playing poker is more than welcome as they at least pay the rent. When I started in April I had set a plan for a training and development project over 100,000 hands and divide them into blocks of 5,000 hands. During each block I was focusing on one special thing e.g. C-Betting, Blind Stealing etc. In June I hired a coach and with his input and help I more or less put the project aside and started to focus on the advices he gave me. That worked out pretty well on for a few situations like defending my blinds, increasing the check-raising percentage and finding good 3-betting situations. Now when October is over I have grinded out over 170.000 hands on the NL25 full Ring tables and 80.000 before that!! Is this a World Record? Probably not with all damned short stackers. What have I learned and what have I changed since April? Before April I was playing VPIP 13.0% PFR 7.7% AF 1.7 bb/100 +4.11 After April I have played VPIP 13.6% PFR 9.5% AF 2.1 bb/100 +7.47 The last 50.000 hands VPIP 13.5% PFR 9.7% AF 2.4 bb/100 +9.28 As you can se I haven’t changed my VPIP at all and only increased my PFR with 2%. But I have more than doubled my bb/100. How come? I have developed my post flop game and I am much more aware of the value position gives me. And here are a few more things that have given me higher bb/100. I complete less from the Blinds I don’t let the SB limp in regardless of my cards I play fewer hands from the early positions and more from later positions I 3-bet a little bit more with hands from the button like 99-TT when facing a suspicious steal from the cut-off. I don't call 3-bets Out of position I call less river bets against tight players I induce river bluffs against aggressive players I don't take marginal hands beyond the flop in muliway post Results after 173,000 hands. Winnings: $3.223 Win Rate: +7.5bb/100 Bonus & Rake Back: $1.360 Bank Roll $5.083 (started with $500)

I am so comfortable playing NL25 so I ask my self…

When the hell will I have the balls to face the NL50?? Soon baby soon….

+10/bb Over 20.000 Hands

Summer time hasn't been poker time for me, but I have managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions with a pretty decent results. Over the last 20K hands I made more than 10bb/100 which was my goal for the entire project so I'm very happy with it! So what has changed? I have step by step changed my game from a "Weak-Tight" style to something that could be called TAG. First 20K hands: VPIP:12 / PFR:8 / AF:1,86 Last 20K hands: VPIP:15 / PFR:11 / AF:2,24 But the most significant change is the ability to use my possition. I have gone from +12bb/100 from the button to a very high +39bb/100 and 27,5bb/100 from the cut off. I make half my winnings from the button although it's only 11% of the hands. I play over 30% of my hands from the button. Once you get a feel for the game there are so many orphan pots that nobody wants to fight over and on NL25 you hardly ever get check raised on the turn and if you do you can just fold and are hardly ever bluffed unless you are facing a mainiac on drugs. I have also started to cold call pretty often with very marginal hands against players that C-Bet 100% on the flop and then give up on the Turn if they don't hit anything with their AK/AQ hands. This type of player is very easy to float, call the Flop and bet the Turn if they check. Tomorrow I'll have the last session with my coach and we'll be doing some leak plugging, my plan is to find as many leaks as posible and fix them during the rest of these 100K hands and then I'll be prepared for the NL50. Results after 58,350 hands: Winnings: $962 Win rate: +6,60 bb/100 Bonus: $280 Bank Roll $1,742 ($500) The Graph after 58,350 hands

Take Care and Play Well!

Half Way and Tripple Bank Roll

Long time no blogging. But I think I have very good excuses for not spending much time in front of the PC. It's summer, and rather be out in the sun having playing golf or having a cold beer on my girlfriends terrace! So what about poker? When I started this 100.000 hands project I was hoping to finish it before the end of June. But a couple of family things and a 3 weeks heat way made me decide to take a few weeks brake from poker. The first of June I started a training program with my coach and have been working mostly on plugging pre-flop leaks and slowly widen my hand range. It has worked out pretty well but there are still a bunch of leaks to plug. So what have I improved so far? I play more hands and play them more aggressively. The first 10K hands I was playing I played a 12/8/1,70 game with and + 5,1bb/100. The last 10K hands I’ve played a 15/11/2,5 game with +11bb/100. Is a wider hand range and a more aggressive play the only reason I have more than doubled my win rate? I don’t think so, but it has absolutely improved my win rate! What else has improved during these 50K hands?

1. Folding a marginal hand.
2. Inducing bluffs.
3. Floating aggressive players who C-bet almost 100%.
4. Increasing the River betting frequency.
5. My feel for the game

Today it rains and I’m back at the tables and played for a couple of hours and made almost 3 buy-ins and according to the weather forecast there will be a lot of poker this week. My bank roll needs a rain dancer! Results after 49,400 hands

Winnings: $792

Win rate: +6,41bb/100

Bonus: $280

Bank Roll $1,572 ($500) The Graph after 50K hands

Double bank roll!!!

When I started this blog I made a $500 deposit which is now above the $1,000 mark. Since the last coaching session I’ve played some 6K hands with a pretty decent outcome. I made 9,5 big blinds/100 or roughly 5,5 buy-ins. Here are the most important issues I’ve been working on this week. 1. Playing top-pair hands vs. a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all down all three streets. There are a few other ways to handle this: You can fold on the flop, raise in position and probably get afree card on the Turn or check-raise the SOB and let him make a hard decision. I have been pretty successful when it comes to lay down my TT-QQ type of hands when someone shows a very strong line on a uncoordinated board. I even laid down my Aces against a loosing Nit who loves to play small pocket pairs and always bets All-In with the Nuts. I raised Pre Flop with AA UTG and he called from late position the flop came 5-7-9 with 2 clubs, I had the Ace of clubs so he didn’t make the Nut flush. I C-Bet ½ pot and he raises me I just call for a re-evaluation on next street. The Turn was a brick off suit 3 I checked to him and he made a 5/4 pot bet and I tanked for a while before mucking my one pair hand. I have had an Over pair on the flop 37 times and won 30 of these hands, and made a nice 300 big blinds profit. I had Top Pair Top Kicker 27 times and won 20 with a 173 big blinds profit. That’s almost 5 Buy-Ins with a one pair hand folks! Have I laid down a winning 1pair hand? Yes I have but all-in-all I think I’ve been able to smell the danger to a much larger degree than before. The only hand I screw up was against a very aggressive 40/9/4 player with a who C-Bets 80% on the Flop and 100% on the Turn. I had JJ on the button and cold-called his raise from the HJ. The board was 8 high after all streets and all draws missed so I called him down and lost to 23 big blinds vs. his KK. 2. My 3-bet percentage is still too low! My coach gave me a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands, but over such a small sample as 7K hands I haven’t been involved in too many of these situations yet. I only 3-bet 31 times but took down 23 of these hands pre flop or with a flop bet. I got 4-bet four times: - Called a short stack with QQ and ran into KK - Folded AK against a tight player who raised UTG and put in a huge 4-bet. - Folded AJ to a shove. - I had Aces one and shoved hoping he had KK/QQ/AK but he folded When looking at these stats I only got 4-bet 3/31 times, hmmmm… 3. My River play is far too passive! Over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet? I’m still loosing a lot of value by not betting the River. Don’t be AFRAID of the River!!! Results after 32,600 hands. Winnings: $452 Win rate: +5,54bb/100 Bonus: $120 Bank Roll $1,072 ($500) Do you remeber the cold winters?? Get that lazy fat ass moving and enjoy the summer!!!!!!

Hey Hey Hey I finally made $10K!!!!

I finally reached a milestone profit. It has taken me about three years to grind $10,000. The first two years most of my winnings came from bonuses and rake backs and a smaller part from actually playing better than my opponents, well not playing quite as bad might be a more appropriate way to put it. For the last 6-8 months my play has gradually developed and I’ve been able to beat the SSNL (Small Stakes No Limit) for about 4-6 bb/100.

During the first 5 months of 2009 only 25% of my total winnings has come from bonus and rake backs. With the above in mind you might think that I’m a nitty coward who doesn’t have the balls to play at higher limits. While blushing a little I do agree with you tough big balls guys. But I have a few small words of defense:

- I don't have a bank roll for the higher stakes yet as most of the money won has been spent on Holidays, expensive car repairs and some other daily expenses. Not to much on booze and babes though my days will come!

- Yes, you are right if you think I’m probably “loosing” money by not playing a higher stake. I just feel that I have so many “beginners leaks” to be plugged before facing a little bit harder competition for twice the amount of $ I’m used to at NL25. That’s why I have hired a coach and found my self a poker buddy. Believe me when I say that I’ll be grinding the NL50 in September.

- If there is anyone out there who recently stepped up from NL$25 Full Ring to NL$50? I’d highly appreciate any tiny piece of advice!!

Last but not least...

Don’t neglect your prayers to the Poker Gods!