Pretty pissed off just now. Just found out that by signing up here for Paddy power deal I don't get any of the new starter bonuses or anything. That is worth mentioning when someone is signing up at a new site. I appreciate the rakeback deal is good but again like Stan James the trick is in all the small print. I earnt nothing at Stan James as the 'deal' was just their normal VIP program. I found out later though that it is possible elsewhere to get an actual deal to have no minimum rake but hey.

Now I sign up at Paddy Power and have this. The whole process is a waste of my time and effort. I'm just going back to Stars in the new year when the VIP program resets so I can see what is actually going on and what I am getting. I am sure that the affiliate deal is a good one on Paddy but like a flight where they keep adding extras, all this extra garbage makes it not worthwhile for me.

Don't sign up for anything without shopping around and reading the small print very carefully. You may not be getting the deal you think you are.

Hey, the way they explained it to me was that when you signup for 50% rakeback, you don't get any bonuses, which seems ok to me.

Are there other deals out there where you get the big signup bonus and the big rakeback ? I doubt it but let me know.

Yeah I know I'm all chilled out again now. Yesterday was a bad day and this just annoyed me. Cheap flights analogy is the right one. Found $100 flight for $10 and rejoiced. After adding plane tax, seat tax, fuel tax, baggage charge, name beginning with P surcharge etc it ends up $60 and I feel robbed.

Still a good deal though in the cold light of day. I was just not told in advance so felt rough at the time.

Paddy power continues to stink for me.




As well as getting sucked out on a couple of times I got it in flush over flush in 3bet pot blind vs blind, set over set, KK vs AA, rivered trips over 2 pair and turned set vs flopped flush after I called with overpair. Top top stuff.

My WTSD was still about 24% like it always is but I won 30% over them and lost all the big ones. I'm also continuing to combine running bad with playing bad. I started being too aggressive at the end their and probably threw away about 60bb's in various silly barrels/river bluffs.

CBet success was 32% so none of my bluffs/semi bluffs worked and they were calling my value ones with better or hitting after floating. River Cbet success was 0%. I got 3bet 55 times out of 160 open raises and despite folding too much (at 90%) because I never had anything (my fold is still too high but normally comes out at about 75%ish) my strong cards got cracked as well when I didn't fold. Its not been a good day today.

I don't think I played that badly but I've lost about 20% of my BR. It appears that since joining Poker VIP my days of being a breakeven player are over just not in the way I would have liked! Still if I was on EV I would still be making money over Stan James and Paddy I think but only just.

BR is now down to $230 on Paddy, about $160 in Skrill and $35 each on FT and Stars so total is about $440 of my $500 still left. Still rolled for NL10 and as I've said before there will be no backing down from this one now. Redouble my control have some food and I'll go again later in the week. Wish me rungood please, just once no coolers (or at least give me some) and to run above EV. I need a confidence boost to help put this behind me.

Run good!

PS: I run like shit also at speed so far

Cheers Balonas!

Seems like a bad day at the tables Paul. Feel free to post your stats here or in the poker stat section and we can take a look at them. How did the holiday grind go? Get up to much or just hung out with family and friends?

Holiday grind went terrible obviously. Paddy Power is way too tough for me. I'm getting crushed on all tables constantly. I'm down 13BI for my time here over a small sample so losing at like 16bb/100. I'm 5 BI below EV again as well so over all sites since joining I'm now down 16BI EV.

Just getting killed over and over again. Its just making me laugh now. Just lost a stack to a 76/2 player who called Khigh flop with 94o, no pair no draw, turned a 4 and raised my Cbet which I called and rivered a 4 to stack me.

Then this:

iPoker - €0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: €12.40 (VPIP: 55.56, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
CO: €18.72 (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 24.44, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 93)
Hero (BTN): €16.05
SB: €6.73 (VPIP: 8.09, PFR: 7.35, 3Bet Preflop: 6.35, Hands: 138)
BB: €6.82 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 40.00, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 10)

SB posts SB €0.05, BB posts BB €0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: €0.15) Hero has 4d 4c
UTG calls €0.10, fold, Hero raises to €0.25, fold, BB calls €0.15, UTG calls €0.15

Flop : (€0.80, 3 players) 4s Th Ks
BB checks, UTG bets €0.10, Hero raises to €0.70, fold, UTG raises to €1.30, Hero calls €0.60

Turn : (€3.40, 2 players) Qh
UTG checks, Hero bets €1.60, UTG calls €1.60

River : (€6.60, 2 players) Kd
UTG bets €6.60, Hero raises to €12.90, UTG calls €2.65

UTG shows Td Kc (Full House, Kings full of Tens)
(Pre 49%, Flop 17%, Turn 9%)

Hero shows 4d 4c (Full House, Fours full of Kings)
(Pre 51%, Flop 83%, Turn 91%)

UTG wins €23.43
Hero wins €3.65

It just goes on and on. I won a few 60/40's today finaly which is nice so in real money I'm actually ahead for the day but EV is another crusher.

No idea what to do. Keep going I guess but feel like I'm not learning anything at the minute in the face of such a demolition. I'm going to try and tighten right up. Maybe only bet made hands and fold anything but the nuts to a raise. Just try and ride it out.

Statswise I'm pretty much my standard I think.

Wow actually when I look at my stats I'm doing some odd stuff. Small sample so may just be odd runouts but turn Cbet is too high given flop number and river is odd. I think this might be me betting every value hand I can on the turn as they always seem to hit if I check and give a free card and not betting the river with anything but the super nuts as they always have a better hand than me. If its a bluff they river a pair and crying call me or if its value they hit a better hand.

Interesting that, never seen that before. Normally its like 55%, 50% 45% over a decent sample. I know I fold too much to 3bets theoretically but I get crushed in them even with such a strong range. Its a leak sure but not as big a one as playing more 3bet pots would be for me just now. I need to figure out why I cannot even do the basics right first.

3bet wise its basically value heavy from CO/MP, bluff heavy from BTN and SB and a mix of the two in the BB as I know I'm closing the action and can call a bit more.

Any thoughts, or if Jon has done my video yet would be really appreciated as I'm losing a bit of enjoyment again. Its not the losing or the being below EV, that was the same at Stan James it the fact that my yellow line is so screwed. Set ups are getting me down a bit.

BR is down to $200 here, $160 Skrill and $70 on other sites. Still ok for NL10 but as I am not quitting I fear I will soon be underrolled!

I need to pull my socks up.

Unlike this threadsaver that has that bit down.

Actually on closer inspection (and not of the saver) it turns out I suck. That boat over boat hand I should have raised/GII on flop, bet bigger turn and then river wouldn't have been so bad.

Also I look at why I'm losing and its partially because I lose the big pots. All of them. I have only won one 1 of the 10 biggest pots I played and the one I did win was a bluff catch vs maniac. In most cases its me playing a big hand like overpairs (1), sets (6) or flushes (2) like its the nuts and getting outdrawn. I then can't believe it even though their line tells me they have it. I think I should have saved about 500bb's so far (or about 10bb/100 which would have have put me even in EV terms.

They rest of my kicking is EV related. That would have me even like normal.

The reason I can't win beyond that is that I fold too much to any sort of aggression except with the nuts. So I lose loads of medium pots. I'm used to that though I tend to win a lot of small pots with aggression, lose too many medium ones as I'm weak tight but win a lot of the big ones as when I call/raise I have it. It just so happens at the minute I'm losing all of those as well.

That is now making me mess up small pots as well as I'm too scared to bet anything and so now I'm losing all the medium pots, and the big pots and not winning any small pots either. Its a recipe for success.

I'm going to run now with pure ranges and try and not lose. I don't want to win anything I just want to stay level.

Ahh the stats didn't post earlier so I'll put them in now.

Not really wnough hands or the right stats here but I can see plenty of big leaks there mate! Your 3bet stats is SUPER low from the blinds it should be in the teens! In the BB you are folding WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much! You are only playing like 15% of hands?!?! it should be wayyyyy higher. Flop cbet is 10% too high same with turn and river is then too small. Fold to flop cbet is also 15% too high!

Add in these stats: Raise first preflop, call 2bet preflop, fold to SB open in BB, raise flop cbet and flip your stats the other way around so BTN is at the borom (SO much easier to read!)

My guess is that you are running pretty shit but I think that you have some major holes in your game that can be easily fixed which should help out a lot

The rake is amazing as well. Double what Stars is over my few 1000 hands. Like 10bb/100. Even with 50% RB deal its still a bad place to play as it only gets you to Stars rake before any promotions. Wow, looks like I'm definately back to Stars then and never leaving again. Unless the field is really soft, and I'm getting beaten worse than ever here, its time to leave.

It was 7.5bb/100 on Stan James but as the RB deal there was nonexistent (i.e. just high level VIP) that was worse as well. This is why I've gone from breakeven to losing.

Hello Paul!

The sample is pretty small but at a first look I think that your stats are decent. I yet don't know if it is ok to cbet more than 60% but maybe someone with more experience can tell us something about it. I notice that you cbet river way smaller than on other streets, maybe because you don't know how you stand after you got called on the flop and turn. It happens to me the same thing if that is the case at you. And you loose to much money in the blinds, but as I said, the sample is very small.

Good luck!

Our Stan James deal works out at 50% + races. Hit the chat with us box and we will get it sorted for you and signed up!

Played a bit more. Lost a bit more.

Crazy Cookie, here are the stats you wanted, except fold to SB open in BB which I can't find.

I can't understand how 3betting more from OOP will help me. My 3bet success so far is 42% and my flop cbet success in 3bet pots is 39% so I'm not getting enough folds pre or post to be able to play a bluff range effectively. Why are you suggesting 3betting more value or bluff? Likewise calling in the BB I'm not able to bluff anyone at any point so its basically just value betting and calling a weak capped range OOP I don't think will help me much at the moment. Might be just because I am getting ruined even using a strong value range so I can't see the wood for the trees with widening my range.

Fold to flop cbet is pretty high actually, I not spotted that. I usually run like 45% ish over a decent sample, I must just be missing flops a lot, especially as I'm calling a narrow range PF anyway.

Cbet yeah fully agree as I say usually run 50/45/40 all three streets so not sure whats going on there.

Jon I had a RB deal with PokerVip apparently. It had minimum rake requirements that I never hit. I signed up through this site after seeing your videos about SJ. This is what I mean about RB based things being annoying. Info on Poker VIP site says 30%, I actually got 10% via VIP when I signed up. I then got offered 30% with no restrictions from another affiliate by email but didn't take it and now its 50% you say.

Maybe they can work out but its not worked for me so far. I'te not got the time and effort in between getting crushed on the tables to work all this out.

You're looking at 3betting two simply. Take JTs for example in a BB v BTN example. We 3bet here because A) We get a decent amount of folds pre Because we hit a flops that we can bet and barrel on and C) Because when we call we end up x/f on so many flops we are just not making enough money. Same goes for suited aces, suited connectors, and PP. We are looking for hands that play in 3bp and they 1st big PP, 2nd big suited cards, 3rd smaller PP and 4th smaller suited connectors. Therefore we should be 3 betting all of these hands not for value or as a bluff but because the EV of 3betting them is so high. We don't need many folds when we have a FD in a 3bp for it to be a +EV play either. Say we have 2OC+FD OTF we probably need 10% of folds to be +EV and OTT again only like 30% which you are easily getting! The BB v SB stat is BB "Facing SB open & fold".

For the stats I got ya to add:
-Raise first looks good, you can go higher in the SB I have 55 as BB fold too much and then screw up post flop also
-Call 2bet needs some work. We are calling too much in MP and CO. My strategy is to have a 3bet or fold range here unless I have a read on villain often because they either a nit or spewy! My 3bet range here will tend to be something like TT+ ATs+ AJo+ KQ/KQs... good luck to villain playing back at that range OOP!
- Your raise flop cbet is a little low. 14 is a pretty good number here. It is important to look at board texture and not your hand when deciding to raise however! For example on a 78Q 2 tone board I'm going to be raising a lot of hands because calling with 8x is gonna kinda suck especially OOP by folding seems kinda dumb. We will ofc be fast playing our sets, combo draws here also and villain will often fold to aggression especially if it is BTN v BB where his range is going to be relatively weak.

Feel free to fire back questions, I'll try to answer them best I can!

Thanks a lot for the input. I'll have a proper read of it this evening and do some work off the tables and come back with some questions.