Poker Analytics Blog

This will be the final post of the challenge.

I’ve made just a few sessions since the last post and I’ve ended the challenge on Saturday. I’ve decided to mix four tables of NL5 with 2 tables of NL10 to try to speed things a bit. Actually things went ok on the NL10 tables but not so good at NL5. I’ve lost a bit at the end of the day, so here is the final screenshot of my bankroll:

It feels ok to look at this number, but when you look at the stats, it gets really lousy:

Yes I’ve played a lot, but let’s not forget that we have a huge 6.5% rake here in France. I’ve actually raked more than 325€ during the challenge. If we do the math I’ve cashed approximately one twelfth of my total earnings…but hey it’s good to make people work at Winamax, and some other for the ARJEL, isn’t it? Actually can someone build some kind of decentralized poker platform without rake please?

The overall performance chart:

What can we see here? We can discern a nice roller-coaster pattern, which is the the standard pattern for a pro like myself, so that’s a good sign…and what is also a good sign is that I’ve just reached the top of the mountain – it was really exhausting – and now I can finally start the next descent…

So that’s it for now guys, thanks for reading the challenge. Next post will probably be more Poker Analytics centric, but if you have any kind of wish about the app, please tell us!

See you on tables!

 

 

Hey guys,

Sorry for not posting since a long time. I’ve been a week off, and I did play a bit, but the context wasn’t appropriate to write. So let’s summarize what happened. First of all, after the last post, things went south again badly. I don’t remember the key points of the losing streak, because I was probably playing awfully, and I didn’t write about it, but apparently I tried to, I just realized that I started a post named “Back into hell” with two sentences…

So it went bad, and then good again, and finally things are not very interesting because I am approximately at the same level as I was in my last post…

But it is important to notice that I went from +35 to -40, which is a great performance…And I think at that point when I hit the bottom, and that my back was against the wall, I finally realized I needed to adjust my game. I think that the main issue with my game was to try to win some pots at any costs, and when you fail again and again it doesn’t look good at all. Actually you can simply give up those spots without losing too much and wait for better ones.

I started my vacations approximately after hitting the low point of the chart. During that week I played on my laptop, so I played on 4 tables rather than my usual 6 because the screen is really small, and even 4 tables is not really comfortable…I decided to make a report on Poker Analytics to see what was the difference in terms of hour rates when playing a different number of tables. This is a feature I really love in the app, the ability to create reports using comparators. I just have to select the hour rate as a statistic I want to watch, the number of tables as a comparator, and here I have a report that I can analyze either in a table or in a chart:

So 4 tables looks much better, and 9 are not that good. But at that point I am not sure if the volume of play is enough to make it a real statement.

There another thing I tried to apply recently, to avoid being on tilt, is the famous Ivey’s rule: stop after losing two buy-ins. It’s pretty simple and efficient, but it’s important to stick to it. I never really applied it, and I should have, because when I start losing I lose bad as we can already see in my net result chart. I applied the rule twice since I started to get back on tracks, and it’s probably a good thing.

That’s it for now, the challenge finishes at the end of the week. I probably won’t reach NL10 at that point, but I can say now that finishing above zero would be good anyway.

The week end has been great! I had a really nice winning streak…until my short session of yesterday night when I was tired. But nonetheless I’ve won about 10 buy-ins since my last post. Playing with a good night sleep is really important for me, I think it explains my wins and losses since the beginning of the challenge. When I’m tired, I tend to make more preflop calls that put me in difficult spots where I take poor decisions because I am tired (i.e. I’m on tilt). Anyway it’s a good comeback and I’m now slightly above my starting point after 11 days of challenge…which is not so good. But hey, I’ve raked more than 145€ since the beginning, so I’m a big winner overall, am I ?

Here is the state of my bankroll:

And the last sessions:

I haven’t find great hands to discuss, but I liked this little trick:

Stacks:
UTG – UTG (€6,07)
CO – Hero (€6,01)
BTN – BTN (€5,32)
SB – SB (€6,12)
BB – BB (€4,23)

Preflop: (€0,07, 5 players) Hero is CO with 5♦5♣
1 fold, Hero raises to €0,15, BTN calls €0,15, SB calls €0,13, 1 fold

Flop: 5♠8♥2♣ (€0,50, 3 players – BTN: €5,17, SB: €5,97, Hero: €5,86)
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets €0,14, SB calls €0,14

On the flop I found a set on a rather dry board, and I decide to check to create some action with the two players. Hopefully the button decides to bet, but he does a really small bet. My plan here was to call a standard bet, but I figured that by raising in that strange pot and considering that he made a small sized bet, the button could easily imagine that I was bluffing. So here is the end of the hand:

, Hero raises to €0,50, BTN calls €0,36, 1 fold

Turn: 3♣ (€1,64, 2 players – BTN: €4,67, Hero: €5,36)
Hero bets €1,10, BTN calls €1,10

River: T♦ (€3,84, 2 players – BTN: €3,57, Hero: €4,26)
Hero bets €4,26 (all-in), BTN calls €3,57 (all-in), Uncalled bet of €0,69 returned to Hero

Total Pot: €10,98
BTN shows K♥5♥ (One pair : 5)
Hero shows 5♦5♣ (Trips of 5)

Hero wins €10,27

It went really well and I was so happy…so that will be all for now guys, see you!