EV Adjustments

Above is s snapshot of my stats for all of May and June to date.

The interesting thing with these stats is that if you look carefully it shows that I was running hot in May and the doomswitch has returned for June.

Now this is all just variance that I have experienced many times throughout my poker 'career' but normally around this time my confidence would be crushed and I would be thinking about rebuilding my game once again.

This time, however, I have concrete evidence that I am running badly and therefore have no reason to panic. As long as I am getting my money in good more often than not then I am happy to leave the rest in the hands of the poker gods :)

OMG HM FTW!!

HOLDEM MANGER RULES - THIS IS THE REPLAYER

Seiroulsy buy it and I promise you will not be disappointed. Have been using for one day and the features are just so unbelievable good compared to anything I have used before. Things I can now do include:

Hover over stats to get even more comprehesive stats. This gives nice uncluttered screen.
Click on HUD stats to see every stat you can imagine about that player.
Double click to switch to stats for that session only.
Flag hands just played for review after the session.
Make notes in HUD.
See EV stats for each hand/session

In addition to that the replayer is just superb. It overlays the HUD on the replayer exactly as if you were playing in real time and you can make notes etc in replayer for future HUD reference.

I'm sure I have only scratched the surface but I have been in a great mood today despite my crappy run at the tables continuing.

PT3 can keep my money. I will win it back from all those loyalists on the forums insiting PT3 is great. I'm off to look up their squeeze play percentages.

Poker Tracker - It's all over!

My relationship with Poker Tracker is coming to a close.

I have been constantly changing my mind on the whole PT3 vs HM issue and have stayed loyal to Poker Tracker predominately for the following reasons:

1. PT2 was a great product.
2. PT2 support was fantastic.
3. PT3 beta was buggy, but this is expected of any beta and the commercial release promised to have everything I was looking for
4. PT3 had a ‘secret’ feature to be unveiled with the commercial release that would blow away all competition
5. HM looked good but had a limited trial of 2,500 hands
6. HM would take more getting used to (in other words PT is the easy option)
7. HM support was a little lacking

In view of the above I pre-ordered the PT3 commercial release. Unfortunately this has proven to be a mistake and I have just read on the forums that they have decided not to give any more refunds.

It has come to light since I pre-ordered that:

1. PT3 has been released far too soon.
2. The commercial release is less stable than the unstable beta.
3. People responsible for PT3 are not the same guys as PT2. I think pat sold out.
4. The new people are offhand and unprofessional (some are borderline rude) on the forums when customers dare to complain about the lack of functionality.
5. They have a support ticket system which is overloaded and they have decided best policy is to ignore all tickets. Their attitude now is along the lines of ‘you people should realise we have more important things to do than reply to the support tickets.’
6.The PT3 ‘secret’ feature happens to be a fish finder/tables selection tool that will require a monthly subscription and is actually an add on from a ‘business partner’. There are other similar products available for a one off payment.

It is acknowledged by the new PT3 people that HM is a currently a far superior product.

PT3 are relying on the loyalty and patience of their existing customers whilst they catch up, and are supremely confident (some would say arrogant) that PT3 will blow away the competition when it is fully functional.

This is all well and good if PT3 was close to being fully functional but it isn’t. Another thing they haven’t grasped is that HM is also adding new features and not standing still waiting for PT3 to catch up. I am starting to doubt it ever will.

So today I have taken the plunge and paid for HM. Am currently waiting for my validation code and looking forward to getting all my hands imported. I’m sure there will be some teething problems but I’m ready to take them on. (Note to my IT Consultant aka Aaron – you are on call this weekend!)I have effectively written off the amount I paid for PT3 (did I mention they won’t give any more refunds because too many people want one?) but maybe one day I will be enticed back by the fully functional version.

It will probably be PT4 by then though and I will be expected to pay again!

Brutal Session

This is split into 2 short sharp sessions.

I cut the first session short when I ran a bluff into quad 5's and my AA into KK at the same time (the K hit).

I took a break and came back determined to put the 1st session behind but soon found myself being owned by 60/15/3 types with half buy in stacks.

I have been back through the hands and I can honestly say I have played OK.

The challenge now is to bounce back tomorrow and I am going to record the next session for my coach to review.

June Targets

Premier League

1. Review every hand of each session played where I VPIP and see flop.
(NB. On hold pending new PT3 replayer. I need opponents stats overlayed on replayer in order to review the hands objectively.)
2. No looking at stats during session. This is a tilt indicator and must stop session immediately
3. Give study full 100% concentration. It is not an inconvenience!
4. Maintain Session Checklist

Championship

1. More work on understanding of Leverage.
2. Develop monthly review filters/reports for PT3
3. Think about my coaching requirements (ie how to get most from being coached)
4. Develop workflows for balanced strategy in 3 bet pots
5. Use button more
6. Adjust opening hands more depending on opponents still to act.
7. Check Raise sometimes!

Lower League

1. Revise FLAG starting hands
2. Website
3. Learn Omaha
4. Learn Full Ring
5. Learn HU

May Results

Overall May turned out to be a pretty decent month and I now class myself as a full time 200NL player.

This is the review of my May targets with comments in blue:

Premier League

1. Review every hand of each session played where I VPIP and see flop.(Thanks to PT3 for making this possible)

Started well with this but fallen away a bit lately. Need to do betterbut PT3 does tilt me sometimes. Hopefully the new build will arrive soon and hopefully replayer will be better and more reliable. Seeing the opponents stats when reviewing a hand would be awesome.

2. No looking at stats during session. This is a tilt indicator and must stop session immediately.

This is very hard for me and I would guess I acheive it no more than 30% of the time. I am working on a session review spreadsheet which will give me very accurate stats to guage this in future.

3. Give study full 100% concentration. It is not an inconvenience!

Dueces Cracked videos are great and I pause and take notes as necessary. Keep up the good work!

Championship

1. Work on understanding of Leverage.

This has helped me in MTT's but cost me in cash games. More work needed.

2. Cascade tables during session if more than 2 tables.

Disaster and binned after 4 days. You can guess where on graph above!

3. Develop session checklist.

Sorted and will start using tomorrow. Promoted to Premier League.

4. Improve session review spreadsheet.

No Progress.

5. Follow Monthly Play/Study Cycle as follows:

1 Hour Study 6 Max

4 x 1 Hour Sessions

1 Hour Study MTT1 x MTT Session

Didn't really stick to this. Is fine to do as I please as long as I continue to study.

Lower League

1. Find 200NL coach - Done

2. Monthly PT review filters - Promoted to Championship

3. Study Pocket Pairs stats by position

4. Study 3bet Pot Stats

5. Website

6. Learn Omaha

7. Learn Full Ring

8. Learn HU

Sundays are pretty cool too ;-)