The Well: cts
 

I thought yvesaint and EMC's threads were really interesting and it was cool to learn more about some other poker players. In yvesaint's thread I mentioned I'd be up for a thread like that to talk about moving up the limits/etc and there were some positive responses, so here it is! Fire away, if there's not much interest no big deal and mods can feel free to lock the thread or something.

[ QUOTE ]
A stranger is being shown around a village that he has just become part of. He is shown a well and his guide says "On any day except Monday, you can shout any question down that well and you'll be told the answer" .

The man seems pretty impressed, and so he shouts down: Why not on Monday? and the voice from in the well shouts back: Because on Monday, it’s your day in the well .

Well this is my “Sunday” in The Well which will consist of Sunday and Monday of this week.

You may ask me any question about whatever you like. Whether it is about Life/SSNL/Poker/Sport or any other subject, I will answer to the best of my abilities.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: The Well: cts
 

how old are you?

when did you start playing?

are you in college?

what's your poker history (stakes, number of hands at each level, win rates, etc.)?

Re: The Well: cts
 

What was the toughest transition for you and why? 25NL->50NL, 50NL->100NL, 100NL->200NL etc.

Whats your biggest winning day?

Whats your biggest losing day?

Would you ever consider poker as a fulltime career?

Re: The Well: cts
 

I've seen a lot of guys go through real long breakeven/down stretches at all limits, you even have a huge one posted on your page from at one point in June or July. Is it common though to be expecting stretches like this even at SSNL? Should the shittiness of the players at these stakes make a long breakeven or down stretch (20k+ hands) something to worry about?

How many tables do you play at a time?

Re: The Well: cts
 

How often do you get coolered?

What adjustments, if any, do you make on your CB's mid game?

Do you think that the idea that you should CB almost any HU pot you raised PF is a good idea?

Re: The Well: cts
 

At what limit do you feel that straightforwardish ABC tight aggressive poker isn't enough to beat the game?

What was your win rates as you moved through limits?

Re: The Well: cts
 

what are your preflop stats?

what do you think is the hardest thing to master in poker?

what do you think is the most important advice forjust starting out?

what is the most important advice for some1 moving from SSNL to MSNL?

who's the toughest player you've played against?

Re: The Well: cts
 

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how old are you?

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19

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are you in college?


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Yes, I'm a rising junior at the College of William and Mary.

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when did you start playing?
what's your poker history (stakes, number of hands at each level, win rates, etc.)?

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I deposited $50 twice last fall and would play $1/$2 LHE, run it up to $800 or so, then lose it all at $30/$60 or so. Sweet bankroll management, I know. I didn't know wtf I was doing at this point.

Then I found 2+2, read some of their books, and made a New Year's resolution to make my last deposit, follow good bankroll management, play well, and if I lost it that was it. So I deposited $200 on Jan. 1 and played .50/$1 full-ring LHE with 200BBs. I moved up every time I got 300BBs for the next limit and made it to $1/$2 pretty quickly. Then when my bankroll was at like $1100 I decided to enter a Party $40k guaranteed tournament for $22. I luckboxed my way into 3rd place for $3,750 or so and this was huge. I immediately skipped 2/4 and 3/6 LHE and jumped into the 5/10 game since I was rolled for it. The games were soft and I kept moving up until I got to 30/60 or so with a $25k roll.

Then I decided poker was so easy that I'd hop into a bunch of no-limit games and fired up eight tables of 2/4NL. Needless to say, this did not go well and I dropped like $4,500 in two hours (yikes! ran bad in addition to not knowing what the hell I was doing). The players seemed bad and I was pissed at myself for losing a good portion of my roll, so in mid-April I set aside $6k to learn NL with.

I started at 1/2NL with these 30 buy-ins and moved up to the next limit every time I got 30 buy-ins for it. My first week or two at 1/2NL I made quite a few mistakes and would lose a buy-in or two each session due to just idiot stuff (i.e. in LHE TT+/AK is the nuts preflop, not quite so in NL). I didn't read any books or anything, just learned through experience, but read a lot of 2+2 threads and tried to post a fair amount. The biggest thing that helped my play as I was learning was going into PokerTracker's Game Notes tab, hitting "Get All", and sorting by Net. I'd then review all the hands where I won or lost a lot of money to make sure I wouldn't make the same mistakes again. I played a lot of hands and moved up pretty quickly, I remember moving up to 5/10NL right at the end of May.

Now I focus heavily on game selection and play anything from 3/6-25/50NL, but mostly I play 10/20NL. I start each session by looking through the 10/20 tables, sitting in the good ones, then the 5/10 tables, etc until I find enough tables to keep me busy.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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What was the toughest transition for you and why? 25NL->50NL, 50NL->100NL, 100NL->200NL etc

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Well, I started at 1/2NL so the differences in the limits were pretty apparent. Going from 3/6NL to 5/10NL was probably the toughest, especially due to the poor game selection at 5/10NL.

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Whats your biggest winning day?

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Not quite sure, around +$30k.

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Whats your biggest losing day?

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Not quite sure, around -$30k.

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Would you ever consider poker as a fulltime career?

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Not quite sure [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img], I've still got two more years to go in college so we'll see what the poker scene is like when I graduate. I'm studying mathematics/economics and have good grades so I could probably get a decent job coming out of college, but nothing that would compare financially to playing poker full-time.

Re: The Well: cts
 

[ QUOTE ]
I've seen a lot of guys go through real long breakeven/down stretches at all limits, you even have a huge one posted on your page from at one point in June or July. Is it common though to be expecting stretches like this even at SSNL? Should the shittiness of the players at these stakes make a long breakeven or down stretch (20k+ hands) something to worry about?

[/ QUOTE ]
Hm I'm really not sure how different the games are at SSNL, but I would imagine 20k hand breakeven stretches are possible. The key to avoiding variance/breakeven stretches/etc is TABLE SELECTION! Can't stress this any more, the most important part to moving up is table selecting well. If you are sitting at tables with regulars where you have a small edge, say 2PTBB/100, you are going to experience sick variance. If you sit at a table with fish, where your winrate may be 15PTBB/100, the chances of going through 20k hands breakeven is FAR less.

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How many tables do you play at a time?

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I try to keep up 8-12, but if I'm talking on AIM/etc, sometimes I play less.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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How often do you get coolered?


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Eh, just make sure you have the goods in the real big pots. I don't mind getting coolered with the second nuts for 100BBs or something.

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What adjustments, if any, do you make on your CB's mid game?


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Not really sure what you mean here. In a heads up pot, I always bet the pot minus 1 or 2 BBs, depending on the board texture. If the pot is reraised/multiway/vs a guy who never folds on the flop/vs a shortstack/etc I may adjust by CB a bit.

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Do you think that the idea that you should CB almost any HU pot you raised PF is a good idea?

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Basically, note the scenarios I listed above though.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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At what limit do you feel that straightforwardish ABC tight aggressive poker isn't enough to beat the game?

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Hm, 25/50 maybe? I dunno I've never played higher than that.

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What was your win rates as you moved through limits?

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I had solid winrates at all of the limits. 3/6NL was probably my most profitable limit, those games are very juicy. Anything around 5PTBB/100 is good for MSNL stakes.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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what are your preflop stats?


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I've played lots of different styles, from 20/18 to 35/25. I usually play right around 25/20, but sometimes go into a LAG mode if I feel like the tables are being to tight and I want to get some action going on.

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what do you think is the hardest thing to master in poker?


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Hmmm. Not tilting is important, this can be tough for some people. Hand reading I guess in NLHE since it is so opponent dependent yet so important?

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what do you think is the most important advice forjust starting out?


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Practice good bankroll management. Review the hands in which you won or lost a lot of money and analyze if you played it well. If you're not sure, post it on the forums.

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what is the most important advice for some1 moving from SSNL to MSNL?

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Not even close. Table select well.

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who's the toughest player you've played against?

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BLdSWtTRs probably. It's weird, his stats aren't that loose or anything, but I swear every time I open he reraises me and then tries to get me to play a gigantic pot. He's tough.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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What was your win rates as you moved through limits?

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Not sure if you missed this or if it's off limits. Last time I'll bring it up.

Re: The Well: cts
 

Sorry, beat me to it, I was in the process of fixing that.

Re: The Well: cts
 

how long did you spend at each limit? did you run hot, and if so, do you think running hot was a big factor in reaching higher limits?

i know you play 5/10 - 25/50 right now, but do you think in the future you will ever play higher, like the 50/100 game on UB or on Full Tilt, and do you ever plan on playing the big live tournament circuits? like WPT, WSOP, etc. etc.

are you going to wpt niagra?

Re: The Well: cts
 

What do you do, if anything to prepare for a session? Any advice for staying focused during a session?

Re: The Well: cts
 

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how long did you spend at each limit? did you run hot, and if so, do you think running hot was a big factor in reaching higher limits?

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I spent a week or two at 1/2NL since I was just learning NL and didn't really know what I was doing. I moved through 2/4 really quickly since I only had to make 15 buyins ($12k roll -> $18k roll) to move up to 3/6. I played a lot of 3/6 since the games were so good, and did not run well when I first started at 5/10. I don't think I ran particularly hot as I moved up, my winrates aren't insane or anything. I guess it was important that I never immediately hit a 10 buy-in downswing right as I moved up.

[ QUOTE ]
i know you play 5/10 - 25/50 right now, but do you think in the future you will ever play higher, like the 50/100 game on UB or on Full Tilt, and do you ever plan on playing the big live tournament circuits? like WPT, WSOP, etc. etc.


[/ QUOTE ]
I'd definitely play the 50/100 games if they look good, but I don't think I'm rolled financially/mentally for that quite yet. Live tournaments would be a lot of fun, but I turned 19 in June so it'll be a little while before I can do WSOP or anything.

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are you going to wpt niagra?

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Yea I'd definitely like to, getting some live donkament practice would be cool, and moreso it'd just be cool to meet some 2+2ers and party/play live cash/win the 5k tourney. Also I guess I'd need some cash for the trip and I think it'd be cool to go the bank and ask for ten grand in hundreds [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: The Well: cts
 

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What do you do, if anything to prepare for a session?

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Usually I check 2+2 for any interesting threads to start getting in the right poker mindset, then restart my computer and fire up all my poker software and look for good tables.

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Any advice for staying focused during a session?

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Play more tables? lol. Um I guess listen to music and focus on the action in hands you aren't involved in to get a feel for how the tables is flowing. For example, it's important to know if someone is on tilt and open-pushing every hand, but sometimes when I'm playing a lot of tables I'll miss this and then they'll open push and I'll have to fold TT to their Q2o because I wasn't paying attention.

Re: The Well: cts
 

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[ QUOTE ]
At what limit do you feel that straightforwardish ABC tight aggressive poker isn't enough to beat the game?

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Hm, 25/50 maybe? I dunno I've never played higher than that.

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Could you expound on this a little? Playing basic ABC TAG poker isn't that difficult, and I really doubt that the major factor keeping current SSNL grinders from beating 5/10 is the lack of a bankroll. From the hands I see played at MSNL limits, it seems like the games are much more aggressive and players with any kind of weak-tight tendencies (i.e. not contesting others' preflop raises enough, or not defending their own preflop raises with worse than top pair+ or a good draw, not being able to put your stack in with a draw or with air when you sense another player's weakness) will get run over; these aren't skills that people typically develop at lower limits.

How important do you think some of the more 'aggressive' plays are at a limit like $1/$2? For example, double-barrelling frequently, raising a wide range in CO/Button, semi-bluffing draws, bluff-raising c-bets (or bluff-3-betting a suspected bluff-raise), floating, 3-betting preflop in position with a wider range, etc.

Thanks for making this thread btw. I appreciate (and I'm sure all of the forum does too) that you've been posting in SSNL a bit recently. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: The Well: cts
 

If you play ABC TAG poker against 70/30/2s, you will win money. There are several winning regulars at say 3/6NL who play a 17/12 ABC game. They take money off of the fish, but are fairly exploitable by the more experienced/aggressive regulars. Bluff-raising, floating, etc are usually plays you would usually make against regulars, but plays like these certainly don't separate the winners from the losers. If a TAG player opens from the SB and you call with 76s in the BB with some sort of knowledge of his hand range/CB frequency/3bet bluff frequency/your image, a bluff raise will be profitable on many flops. Against some 70/30 calling station though, a play like this is obviously pointless. By table selecting well hopefully you'll be playing lots of pots with fish and not so many with TAGs. Hands against fish are usually pretty easy, the ones against tough players are more difficult and that's why you see them in the forums.

Re: The Well: cts
 

How do you determine that a particular Villain is ripe for floating (assume that because you're multitabling, it's hard to pay close attention to their c-bets)? Are there particular PT stats that help you make such an assessment?

Re: The Well: cts
 

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How do you determine that a particular Villain is ripe for floating (assume that because you're multitabling, it's hard to pay close attention to their c-bets)? Are there particular PT stats that help you make such an assessment?

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I think the whole floating concept is overrated and has gotten out of control with 2+2ers. It's fine to do occasionally but there are some guys who just float every single flop and this is largely exploitable.

Good candidates for floating
*CB a lot
*don't bet the turn a lot
*are straightforward
*are not A-high to the felt calling stations

Also, the floater candidate may be more likely to semibluff or call your turn bet on a drawy board, whereas he may be less inclined to fire a second barrel once you call him on an A72r board, so board texture is important too.

PokerAce has the statistics "CB", "CB Turn", "Checkraise Turn", and "Fold to Turn Bet" so I use these stats.

Re: The Well: cts
 

cts, whats your opinion/experience on 6max vs fullring at MSNL/HSNL? What I mean is have you played any fullring? How is the games, are there any fish at all or do they go straight to 6max?

Is there a reason to play fullring and not 6max in your opinion?

Re: The Well: cts
 

[ QUOTE ]
cts, whats your opinion/experience on 6max vs fullring at MSNL/HSNL? What I mean is have you played any fullring? How is the games, are there any fish at all or do they go straight to 6max?

Is there a reason to play fullring and not 6max in your opinion?

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I started out playing 6-max NL and I've been playing it ever since so I don't know how profitable the full ring games are. The only full ring experience I have is with the 25/50 on Party since they don't offer it at 6-max yet, but I find full ring to be kind of boring. It seems much less profitable because it's very hard to isolate the fish. Also, seat selection is more important in full ring for this reason.

Re: The Well: cts
 

What kind of things do you do for game selection? I've been working harder on that, and its improved my winrates. But, any of your tricks for finding good tables, or players would be greatly appreciated. I'm playing mostly 1-2$ No limit right now, and dabble in some PLO.

Re: The Well: cts
 

at a typical 6max table, whats ure typical UTG opening range? I know this is quite a vague question, but maybe you can say the tpes of hands you open and how often. E.G. do you always open all suited aces? What broadways? etc.

Do you ever open limp? If so, when? (6max)

Some non-poker questions:

What 2p2ers have you met?

What sports do you play/watch?

Favourite country/movie/food/music?

live man or dead woman?

Re: The Well: cts
 

How many hours a week do you play?

Re: The Well: cts
 

1) When you were younger, did you participate in clubs/hobbies/activities that may have steered your mind towards an eventual inclination towards poker? (I'm thinking like math competitions, playing magic cards, that kind of thing. Basically, being a nerd.)


2) Do you think that anyone can become a great player (in this context, beat HSNL games consistently), or does it take a certain amount of natural attentuation?


3) What percentage of your close friends play poker at home and at school?



(Also, I'd be glad to jump in this well for a day or two if yall want me to)

Re: The Well: cts
 

full ring is good to learn on, becuase it teaches a new player that tightness and patient gets the money. It will force you to play a good TAG strategy to win. After you can beat FR, when you go to 6 max you have a good understanding of what hands are most likely to be dominated and so forth. While less profitable, it gives a solid foundation in any new poker players development.

Re: The Well: cts
 

How do you develop solid reads playing 8+ tables? Do you rely heavily on HUD or are you rainman? I like to play 9-10 tables but find my reads get significantly worse with each table I add.

Re: The Well: cts
 

You dont, but at higher stakes we see the same guys at like 5-6 tables too so you get a line on their play. At smaller stakes this is harder, but you can get an idea of what a typical player with the same stats does. Also take notes when you see a player do something not normal, like 4 bet or cr allin with.

Re: The Well: cts
 

1. If you're willing to do so, discuss your preflop re-raising range with 100BBs compared to 200BBs or more.

2. As you move up, you'll see fewer total donks and you'll have to beat the average guy more often. From your perspective, what are some of the common and exploitable mistakes made by the "average" 2/4 or 3/6 player, and by that I mean non-donk, non-maniac?

3. How often do you withdraw and how are you investing / diversifying your profits?

4. How long is your average session, and how many hands per month?

5. What are the last three songs you've listened to?

6. What is the best comedy (movie? you've ever seen?

7. Best drama?

8. Mickelson or Woods?

Re: The Well: cts
 

At what point can a $1/2 NL veteran take a shot at $2/4? With what kind of a roll? At what point should you drop back down?

Re: The Well: cts
 

2. They cbet alot and never fire second barrels. Float those guys alot.

Re: The Well: cts
 

cts,
Do you use a HUD? If not, how did you learn to attain reads so well? Just by pure observation?

Re: The Well: cts
 

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At what point can a $1/2 NL veteran take a shot at $2/4? With what kind of a roll? At what point should you drop back down?

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do it whenever you feel like you are ready to beat the game and have at least 20 buyins for 400nl. Dont drop down until you feel outmatched or lose 7 buyins. Just make sure when you take a shot that you recognise tilt early and get up right away, and come back tomorrow instead.

Re: The Well: cts
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
At what point can a $1/2 NL veteran take a shot at $2/4? With what kind of a roll? At what point should you drop back down?

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do it whenever you feel like you are ready to beat the game and have at least 20 buyins for 400nl. Dont drop down until you feel outmatched or lose 7 buyins. Just make sure when you take a shot that you recognise tilt early and get up right away, and come back tomorrow instead.

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I don't want to say never but I never tilt. That leads into a problem for me though because the money means a lot to me.

I've got around a $7700-$7800 bankroll so if I lose like 7 buyins it would hurt me a little psychologically.

I've studied the $2/4 NL game lately and it looks soft. I'm sure one of the concepts cts mentions in this thread (table selection) is key.

Re: The Well: cts
 

nah, table selection helps, but some nitty games cna be profitable too. The lags increase variance so be careful if you are startung out.

Re: The Well: cts
 

Is the much-maligned mini-raise part of your postflop arsenal? If so, when do you use it and why?

What's your general read when a Villain does it to you on the flop/on the turn? If it depends, what variables do you consider?