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Starting up again and HUSNGs

hapahauli, May 13 2012

Graduated college a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I'd start up poker again in the summer before I start law school. I was a breakeven microstakes cash player before building up a small roll on Full Tilt (Really really hoping THIS is true).

Anywho, I deposited $50 on Lock Poker a month ago and built it up to a thousand playing HUSNGs, then tilted half of it off, then built it back up again. Absolutely love the gametype and have been making a killing at the $20-30 reg/turbo speed games. I'm just too damn impatient in 6-max and full-ring games - being able to open 80-90% of my hands is much friendlier for my attention span.

For someone who has always struggled at low-stakes cash games, I'm surprised at how bad some of the midstakes HUSNG regs are. These guys are so predictable and get killed by aggressive postflop play. Against some regs, I'm opening all my hands from the button and cbetting every flop, and they'll never fight back enough.

One particular reg (name-redacted), after I valuebetted trips on the river:
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I still don't have an HUD or pokertracking software, so it was kinda funny to see the numbers. (btw, what do y'all recommend for software? Seems like Hold'em Manager and Poker Tracker are the big two).

I'm definitely not normally doing the above against your average player, but the guy folds probably ~80-90% of hands to double barrels and c-bets 90% --> checks --> folds to river bet if he doesn't have atleast 2nd pair.

This same reg check/raises a polarized range (very weighted towards air) and runs up some random crazy bluffs.

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I get good odds to call the check raise on the flop, and call the huge turn bet since he would never pot the turn with top pair with two tens on the board. I snap called the pot sized river bet to some funny results:

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If you managed to get to here, thanks for reading, and I'll be posting more in the coming months.

~Hapa

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Comments (3)

50$ Stars -> FTP?

hapahauli, Jan 29 2011

Heyo,

I'm looking to play a bit on Full Tilt Poker just to get a hang of the games and I'd rather not spend days waiting for my Stars account to cash out. Would anyone be interested in a trade for my $50 Stars for your $50 FTP? Given my post count and non-existant reputation, I will be sending first if you are somewhat reputable.

Many thanks!

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Comments (1)

Micro Stakes: Take 2

hapahauli, Dec 24 2010

I made an account here a while ago when I first learned how to play Texas Hold'em. Fresh off a nice live-table win with a group of friends, I thought crushing micro-stakes would be a mere speed-bump in my road to poker stardom.

One lost $20 poker-stars deposit later, I ragequit online poker and swore to never play again. Well, that didn't last too long, and I put another $20 onto pokerstars to see what I could do.

Less talk more pictures - to the chart!

...and watch that blue bar drop in the beginning!

Until two days ago, I was the classic fish - I thought everyone else at the table was a fish and never had good hands. Combine that with one horrid downturn of luck around hand #5000 and you have a pretty bad poker player.

Over the last few days, I've been on a tear, more than doubling my bankroll and playing nice tight poker. And for all the articles I've read online about becoming a better player, I never got better until I became a lot more disciplined. Although, these tips have helped me out enormously:

1) Choose Fishy Tables: I've been paying extra care to choosing better tables and switching out of slower ones. It has helped my winnings so much thus far.

2) Don't overplay marginal crap: One of my biggest leaks (and a reason for the downswing in showdown winnings) has been to overplay my hands if I felt my opponent was bluffing (sometimes yes, usually no.) I would take the A7s I raised on on the button and play, and when the flop hit K76 rainbow, I would be calling down bets, re-raising, and doing some crazy insane shit. Thankfully, I've now found the fold button.

3) Don't do insane things with top-pair: This has been another one of my major leaks. I would be shoving all-in with top-pair weak kicker and be losing a lot of money to bigger hands, which brings me to my next point...

4) If the re-raise you post-flop, be very afraid: 10,000 hands too late, I'm finally noticing some betting patterns. Players are often very willing to call and re-raise pre-flop with just about any decent hand, but post-flop is a different story. I've lost so much money on high pairs by betting on the flop, getting called, betting on the turn, getting min re-raised on the turn, calling their re-raise, and getting stacked by a two-pair, straight, or higher kicker.

5) C-bet wisely: I think only today, I've learned how to cbet wisely. I used to cbet on just about any flop and get called on any sort of draw another player would have. If they hit that draw, I lost a lot of money. I'm still learning to cbet dry flops while staying away from the drawy ones.

Atleast I'm plugging up some of the bigger leaks, but there is plenty of work to be done. At this rate, maybe I'll be moving up stakes in a week or two!

I'm always looking for advice/help/pity, or anything that will help yet another poker newbie.

And to wrap things up, a collection of schadenfreude over the last few days. May you laugh at my misfortune! (The first one is rather cute.)

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Hapahauli

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Comments (7)