November: A lot of coaching and fewer hours at the tables.
I have had a very busy poker month with most of the time dedicated to coaching my new students. When I first decided to take up coaching I could never have imagined there would be so many micro stakes players contacting me and asking for help and advice. Many thanks to all of you!
I had to set a limit for the number of students I can take on. And there are only two more slots available before Christmas.
It have been a very inspiring month. I have had the opportunity to get in touch with so many friendly and interesting people from all over the world. Some guys are in there early 20’s and some guys are even older than I am (47). Some live next to the gorgeous Australian beaches some live in the beautiful Rocky Mountains some live in the biggest cities in the US and some live in small European villages. Some are married and have kids and grandchildren some still live with their parents, some like sports others prefer classic music, one guy even plays a lot of golf.
I am so happy I got to know you guys and I promise I will do everything I can to help you out with your game!
As my students play 6-max as well as FR on both NL10 and NL25 I have played a few sessions on all these tables to get a feel for them. I must say that I usually had a rough time for the first 10 orbits at all the tables I normally don’t play, running into quads twice when flopping a boat doesn’t make things easier, that’s exactly what happened to me the very first session. But once you get used to what is going on there are bunch of mistakes to take advantage on.
Here is a graph over my NL10 and NL25 hands. It was a pretty rocky road, 18 Buy In’s over 15,700 hands is still a decent result and proves that playing a decent ABC poker where you play in position at least 75% of the hands, value bet the calling station and don’t give the NIT action will help you build up your Bank Roll pretty fast even at these limits.
Make sure you keep your patience because you will run into so many “stupid calls” from your opponents that you may lose the trust and confidence in the winning ABC Poker. If you check with Poker Stove you will find out that when the villains 22 is a slim favorite over your AK and his 98 of diamonds has 23% chance to crack your black Aces. When they get it All-In pre flop they don’t realize that these are moves which have value in the later stages of a tournament when someone is sitting there with less than 10-15bb, but not in a 100bb cash game. But if they saw it on TV it must be a good play never mind the circumstances.
Just look at my graph below with the two big valleys I had to climb after slipping down vs. a bunch of these moves, but luck doesn’t last forever.
Play well, keep the patience and don’t forget your prayers to the poker Gods before talking to the Sandman!
Coaching NL25 and below
To all you micro players who are still struggling with the game and are thinking about some coaching.
With +500K hands at the NL25 & NL50 (~200K 6-Max/300K FR) I finally feel that I have something to offer you guys who play at NL25 and below.
During the summer I signed up for a coaching package with one of the Stox Poker Coaches. He helped me very much, and with his help I have taken my game to a higher level, I’ve nearly doubled my win-rate.
With all the basic concepts in place I figured out I had climb to take my poker to the next level. At the moment I am taking classes from another successful NL200/NL400 player who is helping me with the more advanced stuff while I am trying to crush the NL50.
Over the last 75K hands I have made 10bb/100 12-tabeling NL25. I am convinced you can do the same!
Check out this post on Stox Poker or my post here from April
(Under November as I changed Blog Site)
http://www.stoxpoker.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23161
Drop me an e-mail on lillarya@yahoo.se or a comment here on the Blog and we’ll work something out over Skype & Teamviewer/Mikogo.
You are very welcome to record the sessions as long as you let me know before.
Prices
Single 90min session:
NL5/NL10:$30 NL25:$40
3*90min package:
NL5 /NL10:$70 NL25:$100
5*90 min package:
NL5 /NL10:$100 NL25: $130
Cheers!
Lilla Rya
Next Level New Coach!
November 4, 2009
In June and July I was working with one of the more famous coaches on Stox Poker and picked up a bunch of stuff that has taken my basic game to a solid steady win-rate above 10bb/100 over almost 100,000 hands.
Now it’s time to take the game to the next level so yesterday contacted Jeremy who has done a handful very good videos on Stox Poker.
We had a 30 minutes chat about a future coaching plan for me. I have such a large number of hands under my belt and I am steady winner but I feel that there are things that I haven’t discovered yet. Such as:
- Exploiting different playing styles (I am not talking about donks and fish but other decent regular players like the 18/16 and 12/12 kind)
- Putting my opponents in awkward situations and avoiding being put there myself.
First session on Friday!
I have a student!
November 3, 2009
The other day I saw a post by guy who was playing NL10 and NL25. He asked if someone who could help him a little with his game.
We had a pretty long and good session, starting with a 4 table sweat session over Skype while I was giving my thoughts and comments. Afterwards we went through PT looking at hands he had played and different stats and how they affect the game.
I very soon found out that this guy is very gifted and eager to succeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if he is crushing the game before the year is over. Keep Up the Good Work G!!
We started with basic concepts like hand ranges, c-bets, steals and 3-bets, as well as more advanced concepts as hand reading and floating. Keep in mind that depending on the opponents stats it can be very profitable to float in position but vs. other villains it’s not and you better fold if you missed the flop, so you may just muck your hand pre flop or 3-Bet.
I knew I would like to help people out with their game. When I applied for the University I wanted to be a History and Geography Teacher, but my grades wasn’t good enough so I was forced to choose a nother line. I ended up study business and economics and finally got my MBA which is OK.
With that in mind I have decided to help a few students. I sent a PM to Nick “Stoxtrader” Grudzien asking if I was allowed to post my offer on Stox Poker and the fast answer was positive.
Thanks Nick!
75,000 Hands above +10bb/100
November 1, 2009
I had this thought about beeing able to beat the game for 10bb/100 over 100,000 hands to prove that you are a steady and solid winner on the limit you play. And I’m almost there now. I have grinded out 75,000 hands with a win-rate slightly above the 10bb mark while 9-12 tabeling. If I were only playing 4-6 tables I’m convinced I’d squeeze out a few more bb/100 but the $/h would probably be less.
In the long run it would be a better financial investment to play fewer tables and be a better player. Anyhow here is a picture of my stats that I feel pretty pleased with.
Button is the KING!
October 14, 2009
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.
Check out the button bb/100
Soon baby soon….
October 12, 2009
I am so comfortable playing NL25 so I ask my self…
When the hell will I have the balls to face the NL50?? I played a session of NL50 last night and I wasn’t that impressed by the competition. The only difference was that there were fewer muliway pots and only 2 short stackers at table. On NL25 you can many times face as many as 5 or 6!!!
When will I be playing NL50 and don’t look back at NL25??
Soon baby soon….
From $500 to $5.000
Oct 10, 2009
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 around.
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 from the button 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)
+10/bb Over 20.000 Hands
August 14, 2009.
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!
What has changed? I have step by step changed my game from a “Weak-Tight” style to something that could be called a Nitty 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. Look how steap the graph became once I started to play a better game
Half Way, Tripple Bank Roll
Long time no blogging. 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 wave 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 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?
- Folding a marginal hand
- Inducing bluffs
- Floating aggressive players who C-bet almost 100%
- Increasing the River betting frequency
- 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
-
Recent Comments
lillarya on November: A lot of coaching an… James on November: A lot of coaching an…
