Thursday +$108 and 3-bet Leak (5.20.2010)
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 12:20AM Well I decided not to go out tonight. Yes something is obviously wrong with me. I put in a session. I played again, even after I totally flipped my shit last night (as some of you may have read the post), even after I swore off poker until the weekend. I was supposed to hit the bottle tonight to forget about my troubles, put on some charm, pick up a few phone numbers from girls who are attractive (but generally awful human beings), and of course NEVER CALL THEM. Or pathetically fall into the mistake of calling one and wasting MASSIVE AMOUNTS of time (It happens to the best of us). Well the swearing off poker idea didn't last very long. The main friend who was pushing me to go out bailed last minute, so without the social pressure to get train-wrecked I decided to just stay in. Sure I could have gone out, there is always someone going out. After I woke up from a nap around 8:30 I felt confident and in the mood to play so I just put in a session.
Quick Summary:
Hours: 3
Tables: 12
Hands Played: 1,610
Profit: +$108
HEM picked up an EV of +$46, so I didn't run horrendously, but it could have been better. There were a few suck-outs, but there pretty much is always going to be when you play 12 tables at once. It could always be better I suppose. But beating the EV is always a good sign. I pulled off one pretty big bum-hunt for an $80 pot which was amazing. The person I was hunting wriggled off the hook, but I ended up bashing a regular instead for an $80 pot. Of course he bitched something along the lines of "this site is such fucking bs". Yeah you only make like over 70k a year playing POKER for a living on the site you are cursing, but keep bitching more you pathetic clown. He was going after the same person probably, he happened to flop top two pair, while I flopped a set. Obviously he's going to have trouble getting away from that, which he understandably did not. The guy is a huge prick, so I would rather double up on him than the money spewing mega-donk 3 seats to my left who safely wriggled off the hook.
Anyways, One of the biggest adjustments I made was a constant focus on picking spots to 3-bet shove and be more aggressive. My 3bet was 4.8% for the session. Comparably, my 3-bet % for my last 10 sessions combined was a pathetic 3.2%. This is a leak I will continue to focus on plugging up. Even tonight I picked a few profitable spots and ran two push-able hands into AA, but that's just unlucky. I have to keep the aggression up based on my reads and opponent ranges.
Several weeks ago I took a break during a weekend and put in some really solid analysis, EVEN 3-BET PERCENTAGES (HOW USEFUL!!!). I happened to collect the 3-bet percentage of 5 of the best short-stackers on my stakes combined in case I needed it for future reference. The sample size was over 20k hands that I had collected while playing tables with them. Their average 3-bet was 5.16%. Throwing out the two outliers the average was 5%. Therefore, anything deviating far below the 5% is going to generally indicate a leak that needs to be plugged. Sometimes it should be higher than 5% and sometimes lower. Sometimes you will just happen to be in more 3-bet situations, and vice-versa.
Tonight I felt like my 3-bet % was around normal. There were two or three border-line spots where I could have shoved, but my instincts told me to hold off on pulling the trigger based on the situations. Or I was maybe just being a coward, which can happen when you run 4 grand under EV in two months. Losing streaks tend to make you want to be tighter, which is a trend you have to make sure you don't permanently fall into.
The 3-bet % is a stat I'm going to be looking at after every session going forward. I have always had a tendency to be too tight, and want to wait for a higher EV situation. My intentions are good, but usually a leak. The online games today are just far to tough to sit around and wait for the very best hands, even on full ring games. That shit may have flew just fine a year ago, but not today. Generally the more 3-bet situations you can pick out, the better.
Anyways I was extremely relieved that I ended tonight with a very solid session. I was happy with my play and profit never hurts. This should give me confidence going into the weekend. It was a lot better than getting wasted and screwing up my schedule for two days. Tomorrow night I will probably not play and get in some needed tennis in or other form of physical activity. However, I want to keep posting during this upcoming weekend. I need to answer to someone, I need to keep thinking A LOT, and constantly analyzing. I won't be a stranger when it comes to posting here. I'm not doing so bad. 3 out of the last 4 sessions I have profited, so my job is to do all in my power to keep up that trend to the best of my ability. It will be great going to sleep not pissed off.
Hope anyone who stumbled here has a great night!
Cheers,
-bag
Reader Comments (2)
Impressive stats. I played about 6 hours the other day and ended up with around $50 profit. By the way, I always swear to take a few days off... and then find myself playing less than 12 hours later!!
Yeah I'd jump off a building for the promise of finishing a session $50 profit right now lols. Variance is destroying my soul!