JeffreyLipsey.com

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So my third day in a row playing 50 NL Heads-Up concluded with me not wanting to play that game for quite a while. Coupled with Wednesday’s 1 buy in day, I had another 1 buy-in day yesterday through 4 hours and ended up losing 5 today in another 4 hours. For the most part it was my own fault why I lost but after the session is over I realized I hate my life.


OK, so that’s a little over-dramatic but I mean I was loving life November 30 and now 4 days later I’m not having fun? The only thing that changed was starting to play 50nl HU! Honestly, I’ve lost all my confidence playing HU Cash right now; I thought I had a ton of confidence playing this level but that is not the case. The lack of confidence is costing me my time, money and mental state that doesn’t make any sense for me to continue.


I’ve actually willed myself to put time in yesterday and today by putting in 2 separate 2 hour sessions and I feel like this has worked out well. If I can find this motivation for full ring then I should be OK and if I get bored I’ll look for ways to keep myself interested. Maybe I’ll add another table here or there or whatnot but right now me having no feeling about how I play (full ring) is better than being negatively effected (heads up). I’m not giving up HUSNGs but I don’t see myself grinding them for sometime anyway.


Luckily its the beginning of the month and I have time to turn around and avoid wasting anything as we go further. I’ll have to restudy some FR and hopefully by the end of a couple weeks I’ll be back in the groove of things.

So I’ve made a very modest short term goal of 60 hours this month of poker play, as counted by Hold’em Manager. This does not include any coaching and does not include any Grinderschoolwork.


I don’t plan on updating everyday but today I got in a measly 2.3 hours and I wanted to make myself accountable. I started at around 2:30 pm and was planning on going straight through 6:30. I was cruising through my first 2 hours but all of a sudden I lacked focus and care and shut my tables down. I managed to make 1 buy-in so my goal of 40 buy-in’s at 50nl before moving up this month is 1 buy in closer.


So: 2.3/60 hours; 1/40 Buy-Ins.

Well now that November is gone I guess I can update again. What was originally going to be a real busy month only ended slightly so; I had plans to go to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving which fell through (a blessing maybe?). Otherwise I had the chance to see my Mom again as she came out for a long visit for her work and I was able to introduce Marlyn to my Grandparents and other family out in Denver. I guess you can still consider that a crazy month!


Another big change that some of you may have realized is that I am taking over many of the adminstrative duties over at Grinderschool.com to give JGB and his wife a break from their tireless work over the past 2 years. This has added on about 2-3 hours extra work for me a day and so far I like it and combined with some extra coaching I’m enjoying my life right now.


On the poker front I didn’t get to play much this month. Whether it was Denver or my Mom or Grinderschool or just myself, I only managed to get in 30 hours not including any coaching sessions. I know some of you saw me playing some weird games over the month. While in Denver I played a $20 180-man SNG and took first in that for a cool $1,000 in winnings so that felt really nice. After that I played Multi-Table Tournaments for 1 day and remembered why I disliked them so much. I was talking with Reasons14 on Skype (one of the SNG Instructors on Grinderschool) and he was talking to me about guys that would crush the $10 180-man SNG Turbos for like $100 an hour and I couldn’t believe it! So I tried that for a day and after losing 25 straight tournaments in a row without cashing I decided that was a bust to; probably the only thing I did this month which I didn’t have any fun at.


I also started the month grinding out some 100nl Full Ring on Stars again; sometimes its hard to remember just how nitty that game is. My friend Kavin had a killer month there so congrats to him as he started to get back in the groove. He put in over 120 hours on the month and his results show it; if only I can get off my ass I can have a good month too.


And then at the end of the month I played my share of Ultra-Turbo HUSNGs on Absolute, anywhere from $20-$50 buy-in. Those things are so much fun; they have 2 minute levels and you start with 500 chips. If I feel like I’m getting outplayed I’ll just time bank down for 4 hands until the blinds go up then I’ll just play game-theory optimized at 10-bb or less. I can probably grind out a 5-10% ROI in those things before rakeback but I would need to risk like 2-3k/day in order to see any kind of decent profit. The tournaments last 7 minutes or less and I’m only 1 tabling so you can see that I’d have to play 8/hr for 8 hours a day to get that kind of exposure at the $50 level and its not worth it. That doesn’t mean I will stop playing these but I’ll keep working on my skill level and maybe I’ll take shots at the 100s and see how I do.


For those long time readers, the reason I got so few hours in this month is not another one of those ‘unmotivated’ months or anything; I just seriously don’t know where the time goes all day. I was talking with Adil that I’m done at about 11 am every day with Grinderschool stuff, take 30 minutes for lunch and start dinner around 6 pm. That’s a good 6-7 hours of my day that usually just goes away and since my GameFly cancellation I’m not playing any video games (unfortunately). I don’t even feel like I’m watching that much TV during the day right now; although if I do watch its usually PBS Cooking shows (Spain: On the Road Again) in the early morning.


So that’s where I am at right now. I need to make a greater effort to put in more hours in December and Adil wants me to go back playing HU Cash. In order to win you need to have confidence and in order to have confidence you need to win; right now I am confident in my $50nl HU game so that is where I’ll be I guess. I figure I’ll win 40 buy ins there before I take any more shots at the 100nl HU game again; I feel like I can still crush 100NL HU when I’m playing my best. Unfortunately it doesn’t take much for me to go from awesome to break-even playing Heads-Up and the last thing I want to do is break-even.


So until next time I am out. Funny thing is I complain about all those people with poker blogs who don’t have them updated when I go to do link exchanges. And then you come see mine and its like once a month lol.

Man I’ve heard so much talk about ‘quitting when you’re not playing your A game’ or ‘improving your c game’ and while I understand it as a concept I feel like its retarded to think of it as a literal reality to which we can actively control. But then I thought what if I could actually create my “A,” “B,” and “C” games so I know when I’m playing like that and can both 1) quit when I’m not playing at a certain level (short term) and 2) work on improving that level (long term).



So here goes my attempt at my own play to find out what stage of play I’m at. I’ll try and do + or - for each level too as well as possible hourly rates but we’ll see.



C Game or Worse



I am not putting opponents on ranges. I’m instead ‘playing my cards’ and hoping to hit something so I can when a big pot. I am:


1. Not making any adjustments. I win when the player type matches up well with the current style I am playing; I lose when the player doesn’t match up well.
2. Incorrectly determining the value of hands. I determine on the flop how many streets of value I plan to get and follow those guidelines through out the entire hand:

3. I take bad betting lines to achieve these value standards definied above. I pot control too much and allow opponents with either balanced betting ranges or purely value ranges to influence my own play. Generally, they call more than they bet so I should be the one betting especially out of position.
4. I miss value with my strong hands on the river when a scare card doesn’t hit and my opponent will only raise with the nuts.
5. I make bad bluffs against opponents with no reads and they’re usually expensive. I then continue bluffing instead of tightening up.
6. I always think opponents are bluffing me and then become a calling station with MP/BP on more than 1 street especially after a tendancy of already calling down once or twice.




B Game



I’m trying to put opponents on ranges but am not doing so successfully. I then:


1. Make bad adjustments while trying to see a showdown
2. Giving inaccurate labels to players over a small sample of hands and keeping me from entering the A game
3. I improve the value lines above to:

4. I value bet too thin on the river on scary boards. Usually this is with two pair on 4 straight boards
5. I don’t let my opponent bluff into me when he’s shown aggression and I have the nuts and its easy to get stacks in.
6. I take small stabs at pots but give up after my opponent calls after showing weakness. I continue to just take small stabs.



A Game



I am accurately putting my opponents on ranges to the river:


1. I’m making good folds on the Turn/River and only because I can put him on an accurate range
2. I’m making good call downs with weak hands such as 3rd pair/Ace high
3. I can value bet 3rd pair/Ace high on the turn after checking the flop and not value-town myself
4. I can value bet 3 streets with top pair hands
5. I take good bluff lines and if I get caught I stop, tighten up and get value



I’m putting the A Game last only because I feel it deserves the least amount of importance. If we know that we’ll always play when we’re at least playing at a “B” level where we are showing a high hourly then knowing the difference between an A+ and A- game seems negligible. Especially when we should be spending most of our time improving the C and B game that we play.



Conclusion



I feel like over an entire heads-up match I go through all of the various game types. I usually start in my C game looking at how my opponent is playing. I then go into my B game and start adjusting and I keep adjusting until I am able to get into my A game and eventually stack him.



On my ‘C’ days that I play I take too long to make any adjustments or notice the adjustments to make. The longer it takes to go from C game to A game the more money I lose making incorrect adjustments and getting to showdown. By the time I hit my A game and start to win money back I have to hope I’ve not lost enough that my opponent hits and runs when he will feel like he’s getting outplayed.

Now that Marlyn is going back to school, she’ll be sequestering her laptop back and I’ll be without one. I don’t need a big one just one to surf the net and maybe use as a poker base for when I’m traveling. I’m looking at 4 right now:


MSI - Wind Netbook
Gateway Netbook
Acer- Aspire One Netbook
Asus - Eee PC Netbook


I’m moving towards the Asus right now but they’re all pretty comparable in terms of specs and stuff. The biggest difference would be the extra hour of battery life they advertise–4.2 hours compared to 3.05 of the others. Reviews have the same pluses/minuses for each too so I don’t know if it matters much.

Ended the downswing about a week after it started and I’ve just been grinding like crazy the last 2 weeks to make a profit. In the end I’ve had a good month and I’m ready to start August. I’ll be going to Norfolk on Sunday for a few days with Marlyn so I don’t know the volume I can put in there while she’s in conferences but I do expect at least a couple hours of play in.


Notes for the past couple weeks:

07/21

Before bluffing donk bets first determine your opponent’s frequency and the board textures and range that he is likely to bet/fold with. If after 2-3 times of your opponent not bet/folding his donk bets it is clear he is doing it with pairs that he is not willing to fold.

————————————————————————

07/20

assuming deeper stacks, button limp/reraise large is stronger hand, limp/reraise weak is weaker hand

when your opponent pauses before betting a scare card on the turn, its more likely to be because he’s deciding whether to valuebet or not. Bluffs would probably be more quicker and not as hard of a decision.

————————————————————————

07/17

Players who have shown the tendancy to slowplay their big hands habitually tend to have a weak range when they fast play very dry and bluffable boards

Instant checks on any street seem to be very weak, especially in position

weak turn bet by donk followed by big river bet = nuts?

put players on tilt by calling with weak and marginal hands then hitting, draws too

guys who try to berate their opponent might be more susceptible to tilt

————————————————————————

07/16

players with wide ranges can also value bet thinner, this is why calling down more than 1 street with bottom pair or ace high vs opponents with such wide ranges generally isn’t a good idea.

With effective stacks 150 bb+ and against players who don’t fold to 3bets: make reraise sizes larger, from 3x to 4x etc.

Due to some server issues Grinderschool members are being redirected to this site for all of July’s released videos. I welcome you all here and hopefully you guys understand our situation. While you’re here don’t be afraid to check out the other content available to you including a dozen other videos not released on Grinderschool.

Hopefully you guys don’t have to be here for long but I am glad to have you for as long as necessary. Enjoy!

Now the the future other-side-of-the-family has left after a two week stay, it is time for me to get down to business. This week has been the most productive hours wise, but least productive dollars wise, this year. Prior to today, the past 3 sessions this week I averaged over 5 hours/day and -500/day which isn’t a good number to produce.


I ran real good for a couple months over a smaller sample so its possible its just correcting itself, although I’ve looked over some of my Hand histories and I’m not playing nearly optimal either. So until I’ve made back what I dropped as a downswing I wont be adding in any 200 NL and just stick to the 100 NL tables.


I’ve been taking some notes though as I play so maybe I’ll use this space for that. Here’s what I have so far with the dates:

07/17

Players who have shown the tendancy to slowplay their big hands

habitually tend to have a weak range when they fast play very dry and

bluffable boards

Instant checks on any street seem to be very weak, especially in position

weak turn bet by donk followed by big river bet = nuts?

put players on tilt by calling with weak and marginal hands then hitting,

draws too

guys who try to berate their opponent might be more susceptible to tilt

————————————————————————

07/16

players with wide ranges can also value bet thinner, this is why calling

down more than 1 street with bottom pair or ace high vs opponents with

such wide ranges generally isn’t a good idea.

With effective stacks 150 bb+ and against players who don’t fold to

3bets: make reraise sizes larger, from 3x to 4x etc.

————————————————————————

07/15

against players with tight BB calling ranges OOP, they are probably less

likely to fold to flop cbets due to their higher range

players who raise every button and cbet a high % have air a lot in their

range, these guys are good to check/raise draws

flop check then turn raise line usually air? depends on board texture i

think: flush comes in air

if someone (donkish) normally 3bets a std size then makes it

smaller/larger how does that effect the strength of his hand?

how to play against min4bet

Its not finished or anything mainly because I just copy/paste it from note pad and its nothing more than the thoughts going through my head while I’m playing.

For the first time in several days I’m starting this tournament not feeling bad so I take my seat. It wasn’t long before I realized I had a horrible table draw. The three guys to my left were all online regulars and the player to my right was a solid player from the day before. Out of a field of 600 I got stuck with probably the toughest table of the entire tournament.


There weren’t too many hands today, although I don’t think I won any that saw a flop. There was a player from New York to my left who knew his terminology and could accurately describe ranges, he just wasn’t that great and he liked to talk a lot. He lost 1/2 his stack when he 4bet/folded QQ vs the internet kid to his left. On a hierarchy of bad plays, 4bet/folding QQ is much, much worse than 3bet/folding and I don’t think there is a worse way to actually play the hand (open folding saves you 4000 chips lmao).


So the New Yorker was down to only 9000 chips and everyone else had 15,000 or so. UTG open raises and he’s an OK player, I have no idea what his UTG raising range is but when I see AK I don’t want to make the mistake of 3bet/folding AK. It’s a very standard situation for me to just call and keep all his dominated hands in his range as well as use some deception. So i call the t450 raise and the New Yorker to my left reraises 1/2 his stack up to 5000 even. UTG thinks and then folds and I said “I’ll gamble with you” and ship it in. Both of us flip over AKo and I managed to dodge a flush by him to chop the pot.


That hand sets me up for my next scenario. I get QQ and I face an MP raise; his range is somewhat wide but I don’t think his calling 3bet range is that wide and frankly we’re 100 bb deep. I decide to cold call his 5bb open raise (although sometimes I’ll reraise with a better read) and the New Yorker behind me rather quickly shoves in all his chips, approximately 7000 at blinds of 75/150. The original preflop raiser hemmed and heehawed enough for me to know that if he calls all in then I’ll be shipping afterwards because I have him crushed. He folded though (I later found out he had 99) and I again said “I’ll gamble with you” and flip over QQ. To my surprise the New Yorker actually had KK. The board ran out: A2345 and we chop the pot; I got lucky but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I was thinking later about how good players make their hands easy to play by not putting themselves in difficult situations. If I reraise the MP opener and the guy behind me open 4bets then I’m in a real shitty spot. By flatting the original raise my call is pretty standard there given the over shove behind me. Granted, I didn’t know that he had KK but it really didn’t matter either.


I got into the first break doing OK with 16,000 chips but we’ll know by the end of this next hour where I’ll stand for the rest of the tournament. I pretty much blind down 12,000 before the end of 200/400/25 when an EP raiser makes it a very small 875 and I’m in the big blind with T8s. I call here and plan to play it carefully:
EP Raises to 875, Hero in the BB calls.
Flop: Q87ss (Pot 2600)
Hero Checks, EP Checks
Turn: 9s (Pot 2600)
Hero Checks, EP Bets 1100, Hero Calls
River: 7x (Pot 4800)
Hero Checks, EP Bets 3500, Hero thinks, and calls.


Opponent had been fairly aggressive and from listening to him he plays mid-high shorthanded cash online at FTP, although the way he brags he also plays HU. He has no idea what level I’m on because I never say anything anyway but I assume he thinks I’m a tight reg. His big river bet in comparison to his small turn bet was a bit fishy, especially when the 7 paired. When he checks the flop he either has Qx with no kicker or 99-JJ or maybe a set or missed overs, although I’m thinking he would bet the Qx and the sets to protect against all the draws all out there so mainly 99-JJ or overs. His small turn bet could very easily be a value bet now with 99-JJ but also with any AT, KT and AsJx, AsKx so that’s why I called. The river seemed to help me more than him and his big river bet was not indicative of TT-JJ value-towning me so really his range is 99 (maybe 88) or a missed draw. Given that I was getting over 2-1 on a call he very rarely needs to be bluffing there (6 combos of value max he only need 6 combos for a bluff and either the missed FD or missed straight draw there will be enough to make the call). Unfortunately for me he did have 99 and turned his hand and I missed my redraw. Now I’m down to 7000 chips.


Blinds go up to 300/600/50 and a couple new players sit down, one has a ginormous stack but is also rather older. He’s either good and solid aggro, an old nit, or a donk combination of the two. I pick up QJs in the BB and he makes a standard open of 2.5 bb and I’m in a bit of a quandry. If I shove I’m practically giving him 2-1 on a call so I don’t expect him to fold (although he might if he’s bad). He made it 1600, my shove would be for 6600 and he would have to call 5000 to win 9000; since he has the monster stack I don’t expect him to fold so I had to let it go. If I had 2-3 bb more I could feel more confident with a reshove there and have fold equity but with no fold equity I just let it go.
I did make one shortstack shove on the button for 10 bb, I had Q4s and stuck it in and took it down. 6 hands later I would get 77 UTG+1 with 12 bb and make the standard shove; I run into KK and that's good game/summer. That makes it 2 weeks without even a day 2, let alone a cash. Better luck next year I guess, if I decide to come.