hands-to-words-blog

[hands-to-words-blog]

Trusting the Process

We’re on to fourth coaching yesterday - we advanced from pre-flop to post-flop now. After the coaching I reviewed all my notes from the terminology up to the present - just to refresh the definition of each term. I rewatched the videos as well, helped me in refreshing what I learned so far. After a day of studying and all - I decided to play.

I’m -277 today, kinda upsetting how I only get very few strong hands yet I manage to lose them in river or turn. But they said to trust the process so... Post flop is kinda not that complicated compared to pre flop. Or maybe I just got used to following the rules and the starting hand chart with pre flop. I was already familiar with the kinds of pair so I just have to get used to the conditions.

I played a tournament as well today, didn’t last long though, I played tight, there aren’t just much playable hands. All I did was fold til my stack was almost half and went all in with JQs.

Kinda want to play without SSS today after losing my strong hands but!!! Yup, I didn’t lol I missed playing without having to look at my notes, just carefree.

[hands-to-words-blog]

SPOTTING THE FISH

I've been consistent on following every rules in SSS. I've been enjoying paying attention to the table as well, I'm getting used in tagging the players and their tendencies. I'm actually amazed on the amount of players who call big bets even when they have weak or not playable hands at all - just for the sake of seeing the flop.

I've started tagging the players according to how they play; those who play strong hands, and those who play weak hands, there are also those players who soft play and finally - those who call (which I will never get why) without even considering what kind of hands they're against with. I've sat down to tables with such players who are surprisingly winning. I’m actually down for two days now and I’m usually losing against the fish lol it’s annoying, yup. Butttt Monies then explained that it's a good thing to give back to fish players in winning - if they're gonna lose all the time, they're gonna stop playing and we're just gonna be up against regular players or the grinders. Makes sense.

PS: Makes me giddy when I choose a table and most of the players are already tagged with colors lol

[hands-to-words-blog]

Paying Attention - taking notes

I started coaching last 04-09-2020, just after my birthday. I started studying the basic - from the terminology, to position, playability and the Short Stack Strategy - the first strategy I practiced and played with in the cash games. It’s basically folding 90% of the game.

I decided to write this entry after my 4th session today in coaching just to remember how I started to appreciate paying attention. I was asked by my coach to describe how I play before and after learning the SSS - I couldn’t pin point the differences when in fact there were many. I also recognized them - wellllll no, it was more on watching what’s going on on the table and forget them after the game, I don’t pay deeper attention - I didn’t take note because I was distracted, I was half-assing my game with my divided attention - multi-tasking is one of the few reasons why I can’t A-Game.

So I ended my day today by streaming my first live cash game. The sole purpose of me going live is to record my progress. I tried paying attention to the table while going live and it felt like piles of action going all at once, I can barely keep up to take note lol. I need more time to tag and study the player - good thing about going live, I can re-watch and study the video.

[hands-to-words-blog]

Folding Aces

I have this tendency calling a BB (if I have a somehow playable cards) just to see the flop lol and ending up folding on the turn. I’m up 3.79M today in 500k blinds yay! I somehow learned to ignore the tendency to call cards with Aces on them. I have this favorite line from the movie ‘Rounders’ - “play the player, not the cards”. Loved that movie! Will watch it again when I’m already few months in playing cash games.

The last card I played was a pair of Aces and in a BB position.  A player raised x4, I re-raised less than 1/2 the pot and another player went all in. We all ended up going all in. The other two had JJ and 33. Flop gave J and 3 lol was hoping for an Ace but lost it. Should’ve went all in when JJ raised x4 hehe

[hands-to-words-blog]

Pair of Kings

I'm down -2M today playing my PPPoker play monies in 500k. I was in BB position raising a KK for x2 - not suited in pre flop. Two of them called. The flop turned giving 5 clubs, 4 heart, and Q clubs. Idk what's the proper term but I raised in post flop 100% equaling to the pot amounting to 150k. Another player raised to 540k so I went all in. Lol. Turn gave 5 heart and 6 spade in river. And in that moment I kinda knew I screwed up. One of the callers have 56 which gave him a full house. My KK shied away and mumbled his bye bye. But for the record - I was supposed to go ALL-IN pre flop but misclicked raising it x2 instead. LOL IDK if that could've made any changes.

I had 3 other hands (77, AQ not suited, and 66) that I went ALL IN in pre flop and lost it to more dominant hands before ending the session.

This is my first entry and I'm not familiar to the proper terms yet. Gonna start coaching after my birthday. Will continue to write few entries before coaching and compare it to the entries I'm gonna write after coaching. Ciao!