Some people find it easy to write a blog when they’re losing as it allows them to vent their frustration in a way that doesn’t involve felines being despatched from windows. I’m the opposite, I hate writing when I’m losing because it reaffirms in my mind that I am indeed losing and makes me feel even more depressed than I previously was. This may be because I have taught myself to internalise my anger, and sedate it, as I’ve always found that to be a more affective process than aggressively tampering with my mouse, so just tapping away now at my laptop is a genuinely torturous experience as it merely reminds me of what I’d rather forget.
Nevertheless, there is a silver lining to my black cloud, but first the bad news: I lost $291.70 playing stakes three steps down from my usual level. Yes, in the space of a fortnight, and after seven years in the game, I have proven that I am unable to beat what the Two Plus Two forums categorise as ‘micro stakes’. I recall from the last Grading in the summer that many of the big names – many who you’d incorrectly assume would be big winners at any level – were simply unable to adjust to the change in stakes. Most importantly, their egos and stubbornness stopped them from realising that it was more than just variance until it was too late. There was a real disrespect shown to a level deemed a walkover, and I was desperate not to fall into the same boat.
Having said that, I must confess that I still underestimated how different $0.25/0.50 is to $1/2. Firstly, there seems to be less preflop psychology with fewer players three-betting light. I have yet to see someone four-bet bluff. Similarly, there is way more limping, and isolation becomes a vital skill to beating the game. Add to that the way people play draws, miss values bets, and so on and there’s more than enough to consider before ambushing the tables. My mistake, like Grader’s past: I failed to “consider” and just jumped straight in with my rod fully erect expecting to catch some retarded fish.
After just a couple of days I was 10 buy-ins, and it was obvious – especially having seen the Graders struggle early doors last time – that I had to step out of the piranha tank before it was too late. I knew something had to be done, even if variance was the predominant factor, although I’d always sensed that it wasn’t. My first decision was to simply be vocal at the workshop, probe Keir Fitzgibbon (who’s a highly clever chap) with questions, as well as discuss a couple of potential leaks with Nik.
When I got home I did two crucial things:
(1) I took Keir’s advice and added winrate to my HUD. In doing so, I also decided to check the forums to see what stats other players were displaying, and ultimately ended up modifying my own so it included stats that I hadn’t previously used, but were crucial to many of my decisions, such as: check-raise %, fold to cb %, and att to steal %. For ages I’d feared overcomplicating my HUD, which is reasonable to an extent, but these stats weren’t complications, they were necessities, and I just had to get used to the new set-up or continue playing with one hand tied behind my back.
(2) On the recommendation of Spencer Lawrence, I decided to purchase a month at LeggoPoker. I trawled through all the 50NL vids, and although there was an infuriating lack of HUD usage by players who had clearly dropped down to play an unfamiliar game, I did manage to unearth a very useful video by Robert ‘Pantonius2000’ Woodcock. Now, I’d never heard of this guy before, and have no knowledge of his level of success, but regardless, he adopted an approach that made me realise a few things. Along with his video, and a few from Trevor ‘thac’ Hackworth and Daniell ‘cntgetmedown’ Ozobia, I was able to make the following changes:
(a) I’d been playing too tight. My stats were around 16/14, when really they should be higher. Multi-tabling can often mask this, and although it feels like you have a wide preflop range, you don’t. It was clear that if I believed myself to have an edge post-flop, then I needed to be opening more pots and, if not picking up the blinds, out-playing people on the flop. I thought opening wide preflop was a leak for me, when actually it was more likely my post-flop play after opening wide that was the leak.
(b) Call less post-flop. For some reason I’d developed a habit of calling bets post-flop with air and being reluctant to give up my hand when I missed the board. Now, I wasn’t going crazy, but raising A-9, then calling half-pot bets on the blank flops without any kind of plan was really leaking chips. I decided I had to be more cutthroat and fold/raise call more.
(c) Use the cb stats more. I’m not sure when or why I stopped using these stats, but I did. You can become lazy when multi-tabling when it comes to stats, but these are two of the most important, especially if you’re taking an aggressive line preflop.
(d) Stop inflating the pot from the blinds. I believe I was three-betting from the blinds too lightly and without thought to my opponent’s stats. I also think there are times when a call isn’t terrible, yet I was very much in fold or three-bet mode, which often led to me inflating the pot with 5-5, K-Js, etc versus the wrong player and finding myself in tricky, expensive positions post-flop.
(e) Play fewer tables. When times are bad, and you’re modifying/experimenting with you game, this can only be a plus. I also wanted to get out of a robot mode that was costing me dearly and leading to me being exploited way too much. There’s a simple, but essential article on this topic from Nik Persaud called ‘Creative Thiking’. I’d stopped thinking period, never mind creatively. Instead of playing 8-10 tables, I was now playing 5-6.
As a result of my modifications, as well as a general approach to study the game and analyse stats more prudently, I found my game improving ten-fold. I was even able to ‘Stop the Rot’ that I alluded to in my previous blog and went from being unable to win, to enjoying four or five winning sessions on the trot. I was close to even again, but at the very end, I suffered some bad beats and lost a few buy-ins. Nevertheless, the important thing is that I started winning and playing well again.
It was also good to feel that there was light at the end of the tunnel and that if I kept working at my game, I could make minor changes that would have major effects on my PNL. I might not be eligible for an Irish Open seat, but hopefully the money that I’ll save in the long run as a result of this experience and the encouragement it’s given me in one, investigating, and two, improving, my game, will be worth multiple seats. At the very least, I hope I’ll enjoy writing my blog in two weeks time.
Results after Week One & Two:
Hours: 135.68
Hands: 12.089
Profit: -$291.70 (-2.41 bb/100), (-2.15 bb/hour)
Rake: $325.46
MGR: 434.52
Biggest Pot Won: $128.89 (Ac-Ah v Qd-Qs v Jc-9c all in on Tc-3h-8c)
Biggest Pot Lost: $140.61 (Qs-Ts v 6h-6d all in on Qc-6s-4s)
