I’ve completed my first session last night. The first half was pretty tough, for an hour the guys played pretty nit, I was down a little, already asking myself how I was gonna beat the limit. I lost the biggest pot at that moment, with a hand I am not really proud of:
Stacks:
UTG – UTG (€2,00)
CO – CO (€6,10)
BTN – BTN (€6,61)
SB – SB (€5,00)
BB – Hero (€5,32)
Preflop: (€0,07, 5 players) Hero is BB with 5♠9♠
UTG calls €0,05, CO calls €0,05, BTN calls €0,05, SB calls €0,03, Hero checks
Flop: K♠5♥6♠ (€0,25, 5 players – BTN: €6,56, SB: €4,95, Hero: €5,27, UTG: €1,95, CO: €6,05)
SB checks, Hero bets €0,20, 1 fold, CO raises to €0,40, 2 folds, Hero raises to €1,20, CO calls €0,80
Turn: 8♥ (€2,65, 2 players – Hero: €4,07, CO: €4,85)
Hero bets €1,75, CO raises to €3,50, Hero raises to €4,07 (all-in), CO calls €0,57
River: A♦ (€10,79, 2 players, 1 all-in – Hero: €0,00, CO: €0,78)
Total Pot: €10,79
Hero shows 5♠9♠ (One pair : 5)
CO shows 6♦6♣ (Trips of 6)
CO wins €10,09
Here we can see that I am forced to play at the big blinds a suited 3-gapper, and I am offered a nice flop with a pair and a flush draw. I have really played the hand knowing that if the villain had just a pair, I could go allin on the flop with a coin flip, so I tried to make him fold with little success. Two factors showed that he was way ahead: he just limped preflop, and even if a lot of players are limping at these limits, people tend to do it with small pairs. Then on the flop he just min-raised, and that’s a good indicator that he had a monster. So considering that he had a huge hand, I should have just called his raise, and then check/fold on the turn if I had not hit the flush. A big mistake here because I didn’t really pay attention to some big tells.
But the second half of the session has been much better, being more often payed with my hands and also hitting well: I won 220BB in a 3-way 3-betted hand where I hit a set on flop. The session finally ended really well with a net result of +36.51€ which is really nice at those limits.
Overall my strategy is to play aggressively most of the time as the players aren’t really sticky and it is easy to win hands with one or two barrels. Players rarely 3-bet so I tend to fold when they do, and I’m going to call in the few spots that can be really profitable.
Back into Poker Analytics, in the Coaching section, I have decided to add some custom fields to track my shape and my appreciation of my game. I have 3 levels to indicate my shape: Top, OK and tired. I have 3 more for my game, simply A, B and C-game. That will help me play in the best conditions and try to stay focused during the games. I chose to rate this session with a B-game because I am not too fond of a few spots that I played.
You can click on the image to enlarge it.
Thanks for reading.