Graphical Post

I like graphs and I think most people like, so here it is a graph filtered with following conditions: it's after 17th of August and it's regarding 45-person sits. The last session was yesterday with my first games at the $1,50 buy-in.

August Update

August it's done, was a great month to me in terms of improving as a player. In terms of volume was good at sits but not so good at cash games. In fact, I was thinking if I should post anything about cash games, I only played about 6k hands at NL2 and lost 4 buy-ins, so nothing important in terms of volume and winnings at cash games.

Like I write before I do like cash games very much, I like to play with 100 big blinds and play my full ring game strategy, but I also like to play tournaments. This leads to an uncomfortable dilemma: where should I focus more? I kind solved some part of that question. First it is very important to focus on one thing first so you can be a better player at that type of game and also to build a large sample so you can figure out if you are a winning player.

During the cash games grind I discovered some leaks, you can argue if playing at microstakes (NL2 and NL5) cash games will be the most effective to fix leaks, but you have to start somewhere according to your bankroll and skill. This was exactly what I did since November 2011, grind and grind at cash games. 

A losing month like April made me take a break so I played less hands, during May and June. On July I played almost 30K hands and I ended up winning with a 7.24 bb/100 win rate.

I admit that the initial cash games downswing motivated me to play many kind of sits until 19th of August.

I played 711 sits in August of many types, the top 3 types of sits that I played more was: 264 games of Fifty50 sits, 263 games of 45-Person sits and 72 games of 18-person sits. I ended up losing about $20 in all sits for the all month of the 711 sits played but I found what I should play. So I made an inflexion point on my grind on 19th of August.

Sits played until 19th of August:

Sits played after 19th of August (I only played 45-person sits after 19th august):


On 19th of August I decided to grind the 45-person sits only and starting at lowest possible buy-ins to have a feel for the game. I withdraw almost my entire bankroll and restarted with only $100. After that I have played only 45-player sits and never look back, I am not saying that the 45-player will be exclusive but they are a good starting point to play multitable tournaments and build a bankroll with a winning strategy.

I haven't left cash games, I will play more cash games in the future, because I believe that to be a complete poker player it's fundamental to master preflop and postflop game. I just think that right now I am more inclined to take this 45-person sit experience a try.

So good luck and skill at the tables!

Heads Up Hand

This is a hand from a final table at 45 man sit, to decided the 1st place.
We both have the same stack size, about 11 big blinds.

Last hands I was shoving wide on the button and villain was folding much of his hands. When I was out of position, villain min raises but often villain folds when I reraised his minraises.

However, on this hand villain did not min raised his button, he limps and I check. On the flop I have a gutshot to make the straight. Any ace and any six will make my straight, so I have 8 outs on the flop.

According to the 2/4 rule, I have 16% to hit my straight on the next two streets (turn and river). According to pokerstove my equity against a random hand on the flop is 48%. My equity against a big pair like Kings is 33%, against his hand is 41,8%.

You can argue if I should shove this flop but I decided to give him initiative so I check. He bets one big blind of t3000, half pot size and I call.

The turn brings me the nuts, I hit the straight and instead of shoving (I thought that he could fold), I decided to offer him again the initiative and he bets only one big blind again, 1/4 of the pot.
With the nuts (I have the best hand unless he has 63 to a better straight), with t12300 on the pot (almost half of my stack) I shoved here, he calls.

Another reason to shove is that if he was on a flush draw, he probably would call my shove on the turn. Here is the hand: