Well since my last blog a bit has happened (whole half day it was). I watched Zaitsev's 2nd video and most of VitalMyth's first. I won't bore too much with the details, but Zaitsev's was very good, and something I definitely want to watch again and try to understand more about, but VitalMyths was like watching pure poker genius. You can't just go from where I am to where VitalMyth is, it isn't always possible. I think this video pretty clearly outlines the differences between a player like that and a player like me, and the gap is enormous. Assuming it is even possible for me, well that's pretty much my aim now, to be like VitalMyth. Both videos talked a lot more about finding spots to +ev bluff at rather than just playing solid ABC, and both showed a lot of success at it.
So of course I went into last nights play looking for more spots. I definitely bet in places where they weren't great spots, and found a few "good spots" that ended up turning sour, but overall the intent was there, and I was using my reads, so I'm pretty happy with my efforts. I just need to hone in my skills for finding the right spots, which will involve more thinking at the table, which can only be a good thing. I'm playing 2 tables right now, and feel like I can improve my thought process a lot while doing that. I won't move up to more tables until I feel like that thought process is becoming 2nd nature. I also improved my HUD a lot, and have stats on there that make sense now. Overall last night I finished up 0.5 BI's, more by luck and a hero call (3rd pair where his line just made no sense at all by the river) than actual skill, and I spewed off in a few too many pots for NL25 players who just aren't ever folding top pair no kicker (nor should I hope they ever do of course).
One other thing I thought about while watching the videos and thinking about my leaks is that betting is much different to calling. These guys bet in spots that makes baby Jesus cry, but are massively nitty when it comes to calls. It's almost the case that if you don't have a big draw, or a hand that beats his range a lot, then there is no reason to call a turn, only to hope you are above the bottom of his betting range or a bluff that he won't continue on the river. In this case, playing a similar nitty style that I've been playing, and adding some more bluffs can't be a bad start. So very soon, maybe in a couple of weeks, I'll hope to have compiled a list of decent opportunities and start working it into my main technique.
At the moment I'll keep working at my reads and go from there. Seeing the gap between myself and VitalMyth for ingame thoughts really opened my eyes, that I just need to work at it. After time that will become 2nd nature, and I'll wonder why I even thought it was an issue, but for now, forcing myself to think things through is the best I can do. I plan to start small, which is:
* Put a player on a hand range
* Assess the factors
* Imagine how he'd react to a bet/raise/call/check with different hands in his range
Point 2 about assessing the factors is really what is different between a Zaitsev and VitalMyth IMO. For me that will be things like his range preflop, my range given his thoughts (which may well be none), how the board hits his range, what his history/stats are in regards to folding to flop bets, what my current image is. There are stacks more, but that is easily a handful right now for me.
I might play a little tonight and do that, but I'd expect little poker to be played this weekend due to my new self control stance to do with drinking.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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