End March Report

54.98 hours played
$26.76/hr

+$150 PSO bonus
+$20 referal bonus
+$200 Fulltilt server discconection bonus
+$165 FT rakeback
+$200 Pokerroom bonus

Total = $2206.4

Had to post this end march update early so as to stop myself from playing more. I think its a decent month all together, putting in the hands as well as having a decent winrate at the limits.

I did play a bit of breakeven poker at ongame just to clear my bonus. Didn't really like the attitude and thought of wanting to long more hands just to clear the bonus, resulting in me not playing my standard "A" game. Nonetheless I'll take such winrates anytime for a good sample.

Next mth will be busy with school, so I guess it will be minimal poker and less updates.

Mid March Update

Merged my laptop handhistories into my desktop PT:




33.78 hours played
$34.31/hr

+$150 PSO bonus
+$20 referal bonus
+$200 Fulltilt server discconection bonus
+$130 FT rakeback

Total = $1655.75

Could have been better if not for the short downswing at 100nl. Just got creamed pretty bad playing a little too loosely, making 2nd best hands by the river that I could'nt get away with. Anyway thats it for the short update, I have another 200 Pokerroom bonus that I've cleared halfway. This is probably the most number of hands I've logged in the middle of the month compared to the previous few months.

Laptop stats march

Results were better than I expected, close to 10 buyins in about 1k hands. Running good on my laptop obviously.

Weekend Report - Taking a Break

Stats from desktop:




13.18 hrs played
$24.81/hr

+$150 PSO Bonus
+$37.02 Rakeback

Profit from desktop: $509.1

I think i logged another about 2k hands on my laptop with a profit of close to $500 plus rakeback, will give a concise update when I get back to hostel. Month has been great so far, and more so when I ran PokerEV. My resutls are -$200+ under expectation, so I'm playing well but still running bad in spots. Anyway hitting 1k profit mainly from grinding 50nl in the first week, in less than 10k hands is a great result for me.

I'm gonna take a good break from poker. I did think alot about poker for the past week or so, and this is one thought that came to me:

I believe everyone's has a fixed level of talent or ability. Some are just talented in poker while others are not. I don't think I'm that talented at all, just better in understanding and putting in alot of "thinking" hours into the game, working hard to learn. I can't control my level of skills (there may be a CAP of my talent scale), however what I can do is to control my other aspects of the game: tilt/bankroll management, table/seat selection, playing at donk hours, staying away from regulars (even if I do have an edge aganist them), maintaining my desire to play poker, feeling comfortable and wanting to play when I actually play etc etc. The mental aspect of poker is what my mind can control, and I believe striving to be good in these aspects will help to improve your winrate and your mental game.

Now I feel pretty tired and a little burnt out from playing, going to ease off the pedal, and then restart to clear another 200 bonus from FTP. Time to prioritize and put what matters more first.

Shania - Balancing and Range Merging

I've read a great post here about Shania. I believe the first person who have really thought deep into this is Aejones and he is the guru in terms of merging ranges.(http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=143451and the discussions that spurned from it.) Shania is probably the conceptualized idea of how game theory really works in poker. How Shania really works is that it makes your game less exploitable and more balanced as a whole.

This article will be my conceptualization of what Shania really is in Poker. It will be an attempt to put Shania in simple in an understandable lingo and the purpose is to show the importance of balancing/merging of ranges in Poker.

To quote the OP Bobbosfittos (who is an excellent coach in leggopoker):
"Shania in short is having a range of hands rather then a particular hand for an action, so that it's possible to get further paid off and not be read easily.". In simple terms, its about having a merged range of hands doing a particular action compared to having a polarised range of hands performing the same action.

Examples of Shania
Do note these examples are not exhaustive, they are just my interpretations of Shania.

Preflop : Raising junk hands preflop as a semi bluff is Shania. You do so to allow raising your big hands (AA, KK, AK etc) more profitably and getting paid off in the other streets. If you are only raising quality hands, then its not Shania. Your range is polarised, because observant players know that when you raise preflop, you hold mostly the nuts. The same idea goes with reraising preflop as semi bluffs, this is Shania as it allows you to profitably reraise hands like AA and KK and getting them paid off more.

Flop : Cbetting (when you are preflop raiser) with nothing is Shania. When you Cbet on A-high flop as a bluff because all books say you can represent AK in your range, it allows you to profitably bet with AK on A-high board. (and they become more profitable). Likewise for checkraising flops as bluff and for value(Shania). You checkraise with the goods as well as air so that you become less readable and straightforward, people will have a harder time understanding your ranges for checkraising.

Turn : Double-barrelling bluffs on suitable turn cards (broadways etc) is as well as double-barrelling for value is Shania. You are merging your ranges when you are betting (bluffs as well as value).

River : Same as above, when you are betting thinly for value and when you are bluffing.

The Gist of Shania
The main gist of Shania is to be aware of your own poker game, such that you play a balanced one, instead of a non-balanced one. Your range is highly polarised when you perform action X when you only have Y. This makes your game highly exploitable and probably less profitable.

Against a skillful and observant player who understands about range merging, when you balance your bluffs and value betting aganist such players, you will be playing in a less exploitative manner. (Assuming the skilled observant players knows how to exploit your tendecies) When the assumption is non valid, then you can play the same way as you do (balancing your ranges/merging) aganist them and still be less exploitable on the whole.

Aganist a weak, poor player who doesn't understand about range merging, usage of Shania allows you to profit more from them. Poor players tend to overgeneralize and have skewed perceptions of your ranges and tend to overcompensate by adjusting too much. For example, if you are betting the nuts on the river and get called down by a poor player, (and he knows and believe you are only betting the nuts on the river) you can profitably bet with bluffs on the river on future occasions because they tend to overcompensate by thinking you have the top end of their perceieved polarised range (the nuts). Likewise if you are caught in a bluff on the river, poor players will usually assume that your bluffing frequency is higher than normal, allowing you to value bet thinly and profit more on future occasions.

The actions of Shania are not limited to river bets only, try thinking of other streets (infact all actions taken by you is part of Shania). The above example reflects the idea of game theory optimization, and how you can make use of this optimization to increase your profitability in the poker games you play. We all know that poker is a game of bluffs as well as value betting. The whole idea of Shania is to have a balanced form of both in your approach to poker.

Reflections

Poker has been going really well for me for the past few weeks. For my past 15k hands in 50nl across all sites, my winrate has been incredulous. I guess it's coming all together after plenty of studying, coaching, reviewing and learning. It's pretty interesting that such results came when my desire to play poker was so great. Got to thank my busy sch schedule with its endless projects and assignments for it. It's a vicious cycle of wanting to play poker, having a good winrate and confidence, feeling happy and wanting to play more poker.

On a philosophical note, poker is very much an individual sport that rewards an individual capability in it. Personally, poker is a game that requires alot of effort on your part in order for you to become a solid winner. Simply playing alot doesn't cut it. I've known of many friends, whom only understanding of poker is to keep playing and logging hands without the desire to critically review and understand the "gist" of poker. My best advice to them is to study more, play less, and study more again.

To illustrate how complex poker really is, consider the complexity of just the flop on a headsup pot. "What is the likely range of hands my opponent is holding, that can hit/miss this flop"; "How far ahead is my range compared to his"; "What are my reads on his betting patterns, tendecies, how does he react to a cbet/raise/check/call"; "how do I extract maximum with my nuts, whats my betting size and plan, how can different bet sizes induce different actions given the situation and history b/w me and him"; "how do I balance my range when I bluff and hit the flop"; "what betting line should I take that makes it looks the strongest/weakest" etc etc and many more.

And for every street, they can be ripped apart and analysed as such in great detail. You will be amazed at the kind of things you learn when you try to think things through, and you will be amazed of your own results when you apply them to your games.

If you have been playing poker by matching your holecards to those on the board, then you have to realise there is still so much more in Poker than just the cards. Cards alone often play a factor, but Poker is a game of Situation and People. When you get to understand the game in terms of handranges (as compared to absolute hand values), you will start to understand "Situation" more. When you start to make good observations of opponents' playing style and develop good reads, you start to play the "People" more. All these may seem nitty gritty details, but rest assure they are key factors in your winrate and results.

Even in this article, there are many grey concepts that you won't fully comprehend or understand. Poker is similar as well. For every situation there is something new to seek out, learn, review, critique and assimilate. Having an active and open learning attitude will lead you to improve drastically. Many poker players in their online/live career have their "AHA" moments, moments that are ENLIGHTENING and significant, perhaps life/poker defining moments. To some, it may be an all-in calldown with A-high when you know you are well ahead of your opponents range, or an innocent poker player quote. To me, one AHA moment was when I was reading Jman's well post in 2+2. His "root-beer" hand taught me a great deal on alternative bet sizing and gave me a totally new insight to playing poker. Another AHA moment was pretty recent, in which I was experimenting with a looser-wild style with good table selection, and making use of my poor image to win bigger pots.

I end off with a question that promotes a deeper thinking of the game. "If you realise that your big pairs AA and KK are making very little money/or losing alot with them when they are cracked, what should you do to make your big pairs earn more and lose less instead?"

Variance - March Results

I run hot.

Feb summary

PT stats:
11084 hands
Won: $992.50
10.51 PTBB/100
22.12 hrs played
$44.88/hr

Rakeback: $140.93
Fulltilt bonus: $75

Total profit: $1208.43


Pleased with results but not so with the volume of play. Sch has been busy so much so that poker is minimal. I'm glad with both sch and poker anyway. March will be worst, so hopefully I can get some quality hands in.