I decided to post what is most of my 50nl "career" because I thought it might be useful for some players. First we begin with my first ~150k hands which can only be described as mediocre.
As you can see I was pretty much the typical "tagfish". I was tight preflop, vaguely aware of position, knew how to c-bet etc but still had some pretty big holes in my game.
So I signed up for cardrunners, spent alot of time reading posts across unl-HSNL, got some coaching and did some sweat sessions with friends.
The results are my last ~100k hands...
I think the things I learned in the second batch of hands are:
1. Turn aggression is important. Alot of players have gotten flop aggression down, ie c-betting, check raising flush draws etc, but alot of uNl players are not aggressive enough on the turn. Looking at the two stats samples you can see in the 2nd one my turn aggression is significantly higher and I think that has been one of my biggest improvements. Work on identifying profitable places to fire again on the turn (Scare cards against habitual floaters etc) and it will pay dividends.
2. Showdown Comparing the 2nd sample to the first you can see that i went to showdown less and won more often when I got there. Look to make river folds!! Too many times I used to make alot of very bad, "meh, whatever pot odds" calls on the river when it was obviously -EV. Working on stopping this has brought my showdown numbers into the range which I think is about right for a taggy style.
3- Table image Be aware of your image at the table! My default is to c-bet ~100% of the time and look to aggressively take down pots with or without a hand. If early in a session I showdown premium hands and establish a tight image then this becomes very successful as I can abuse this image to steal and rob lots of small-medium pots.
However, I never used to adjust my play if my image wasn't so great. If you have been caught stealing with trash/double-barrelling with air etc, then ADJUST!! Tighten up a bit from late position, c-bet less and wait for a good spot to use your bad image to get paid off. One good tip here is to include your net $won/lost in your HUD. I find it can be a decent indicator of how you are viewed by the table.
4- Variance In the brew etc people are always moaning about tiny swings over tiny samples. Man up and play the hands and don't talk about variance until you've played at least 50-100k hands, and even then probably don't talk about it. The one thing I will say
is it is quite obvious that the 2nd graph has far less variance than the first due to the significantly higher ptbb/100. Although even with a >6 winrate I still experienced a ~13 buy in downswing while playing my A game.
In conclusion, whilst I still have alot to learn I feel I've at least grasped the fundamentals of playing good ABC tag poker. Those of you struggling as breakeven/small winners like I was, take heart. You are on the right track and with some small adjustments you can join me in beating the uNL games at a good clip and getting ready to take shots at the higher games.
The Basics: session review & " Deconstruction" (matrix)
Poker - how do you play yours? are you a TAG a LAG a sLAG a nit ?
However you play and whoever you play against one often overlooked part of paying goot is reviewing the hands you play afterwards and looking to see what good decisions you made - what bad stuff you did and trying to not repeat the bad stuff again and versa vice.
Often times I find myself playing on autopilot - I get the poker fired up I open up 3279874574305790428590480 tables - I look through the players that are sitting choose what tables I want to play and off I go. An hour or two later I finish up happy that I ran goot or mad that I lost monies and I go do something else.
Sound like you?
A lot of mediocre players play like this - they know the basics they know what plays are goot and what are not - for the most part they make the right plays most of the time - hey nobodies perfect right. I think this is a one way ticket to breakevensville.
How do we make $ playing poker??
We make more with our good hands and lose less with our bad hands than the other players we play against. We make less FTOP "mistakes" than the rest of the opposition - thats it.
It's *very* hard to get out of the "woot I won x buyins today I rule" or the "Holy sheet I ran so bad I am down $x" mentality when you finish a session. All we ought to really care about is whether we made goot decisions or not and think after a sesh "woot I made some great +EV moves today ++ Sklansky bucks for me" or "man I really sucked calling there and sucking out for 300bb"
But if you play a bunch of tables you don't have nearly enough time to review how +/- your EV was for the big decisions you made that session. Here are some handy steps that help me after I play a session to get a handle on how well I am playing - and in what spots I really need to work on and improve.
i) Open up notepad or use pen/paper or something - open up the tracker s/w and filter it to show the big pots you just played.
ii) Open poker stove - replay the big hands you wanna look at in the replayer and pause the action when you had to make a decision. Punch the hand into the stove take your time and put the villain on a range and check your equity vs that range.
iii) MAKE A NOTE! - and move onto the next big hand.
This takes you 15-20 mins after you're done playing for a 90 min 4table session or thereabouts. If you got all-in pf AAvKK and stuff ignore those - just focus mostly on the hands where you had to think a little.
You should end up with a notepad file that looks like...
Session 5th Nov - Party $50NL
i) raised a 19/16 MP TAGs "CB" with air on rags flop - folded to shove - villain plays v tight from E/MP - but can't continue with whiffed OC's - OK play.
ii) called a b/3b all-in OOP vs TAG on flop w TPGK, V had naked fd. Good call - he is often semi-bluffing.
iii) ...
etc.
Save these then once a week look back through your cliffnotes and see if the same spots come up often - get into the habit of writing down why you did x in y situation and I find it helps me to think better at the table and overall make less FTOP "mistakes".
Which leads me onto "Deconstruction"
Basicaly taking other peoples games apart - and looking for ways to possibly exploit their weaknesses.
We all maintain large databases of opponents play - we ought to use these more.
Once a week I sit for an hour - pick out a villain I play against often that I have a LOT of hands on and I look at what moves they make - how they lost the big pots they played - how often they fold to a re-raise - what size of raise is need to get value - or to get a fold. I write up a huge pile of notes on this villain and either import them directly to the poker s/w or I notepad them and copy/paste them in later when I see them again.
Some villain giving you trouble at the table? - instead of keeping out of their way get under their skin, figure them out and be better armed next time you play them.