Zoom (Rush) Poker coming to Pokerstars

[Uibhist a tuath]

You are right Hullcity, these games are extremely nitty. However that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially with the number of hands you can get into a session.

My non showdown winnings are noticeably higher in Zoom due to the ease of stealing blinds and the number of players check folding to a Cbet on the flop.

The number of players running stats such as 6/4 etc is laughable

I started at 10NL with 20 buyins. Am now at 25NL. Will probably pad out the bankroll as I move up as 20 buyins isnt ideal. At the moment though, I think its fine for these levels.

[Hullcity]

my worst downswing whilst I turned 40$ into 200$ at 1c/2c was 7 buy ins...the thing is that 10 buy in downswings are common in cash games. I think 20 buy ins is to flimsy. Personally I play better when I am well rolled for a level.

seeing that the 6 max 50c/1$ zoom has 13% of players seeing the flop is a bit strange - sounds far to tight. I would expect it to be more like 18%.

Zoom poker sounds like fertile ground for the typical grinding mentality

"I often say my style in a short ring game is basically attack, attack, attack; I like forcing
the action, so that when no one has anything, I win, and when someone does, I lose small,Finally, when I have a big hand, I get action, thus completing the cycle. The “optimal cycle”is therefore: Winning small pots, losing medium sized pots, and finally winning big."

Thats a quote from an online poker coach/ebook author...I like the concept of the optimal cycle - it enables me to fold a lot of decent one pair hands when I am getting to much action. I try to stick to big pot - big hand mentality

[Hullcity]

had 250$ on my bankroll before a 6 hour grinding session...quickly went up to 285$ and then bang..hit a downswing and back to 250$ by the end..it feel embarrasing to be break even after playing so many hands for those 6 hours at 2c/5c (4 tables)

I didnt tilt or make any bad mistakes I dont think

Anyway my target is 400$ before I move up to 5c/10c blinds...got around 1800 points..going to save up for the 50$ bonus at 4500 points

[zebediah]

Forgot how horribly addictive this is, feeling v tired at work as you sit down around 9-10 for "an hour" then suddenly realise it is 2am.

Had quite a good run, pleasing as I've been felted 3 times to one outers in the last 2 nights
_________________
because you very very retardo i lose

[Hullcity]

I have grinded up to 310$ now - I thought I would post this shocking hand. On the turn I was a bit unhappy because I had held the nuts on the flop but I thought I was freerolling for the whole pot with the flush draw on what would probably be a split pot so it wasnt all bad news... I nearly fell off my chair when I saw what he had! I made a full 10 buy ins today thx to guys like this

Incidentally I limped behind with the A 10s following a bit of logical advice I saw, it makes sense to be in a limped pot with Ax suited to give the blinds a chance to flop a random flush, it wont happen often but when it does its a very +ev situation - most people havent got the dicipline to fold a low flopped flush. So I dont normally isolate raise with Ax suited if somebody limps...the more limpers the merrier! In this case I was very grateful that the blinds saw the flop

[Hullcity]

Grinded up to 400$ so time to move up to NL10

noticed they have added NL500 ($2.50-$5) there is 92 players in the full ring and only 19 in the 6 max..I thought 6 max would be more popular...why is full ring more popular?

In fact full ring is more popular at all the stakes...is it because people are trying to be multi tabling rakeback rocks? (hence the low vpips)

[Al Force]

[Uibhist a tuath]

[Hullcity]

I saw bit of advice from Sklansky regarding limping

"If you are a better player than those in the blinds, you may make more by allowing them to see the flop and make expensive post flop mistakes than by shutting them out immediately"

Its more the type of advice you would follow in a live cash game when you play much fewer hands so stealing the blinds is less of a consideration - the example hand here is an example of what he is talking about I think, had I raised he may have not seen the flop with his trash although it would be +ev to steal the blinds it was far more +ev for me to let him see the flop for free

If somebody has limped in I dont think limping behind with Ax suited is actually going to be - ev just it might be more +ev to raise, although taking into account that the person in front of you might be a limp raiser or the blinds are 3 bet happy a limp sounds fine from that point of view.

If people limp in and I am on the button I tend to limp behind with pocket pairs as well especially the medium ones like 77,88,99 if somebody has limped in intending to limp raise with a big pair than I waste my hand by raising, also allows me to get in a set of over set situation sometimes.

I never 3 bet with low/medium pocket pairs in position, its a tragic waste of a hand if somebody blows you out with a bigger pair which is what you would want them to have when you call and hit a set

If my thinking is wrong I am happy to be corrected

[Hullcity]

Do people agree with this river fold vs an unknown opponent?



This was another interesting hand vs an unknown opponent...for some reason I was super confident to get in on the turn even with the 4 card strt showing




I went with my gut here and folded - its an unknown opponent - my gut just told me he had my AA beat - that was a river value bet

[Hullcity]

I had an astonishing 25 buy in downswing went down from 400$ to 150$

however then I had an upswing - now my roll is 300$ so its only a 10 buy in downswing

The way I was playing to beat the 1c/2c and 2c/5c was not that effective at 5c/10c so I made some adjustments and then I had the upswing - not sure if its mainly the way the cards are running or what. I was beating 1c/2c for 10bb/100 over 70k hands and also 2c/5c must have been a similar winrate (my trial HEM2 has stopped importing the hands for some reason so I dont know for sure) - so I used an identical strategy at the 5c/10c and it was a total lead balloon

Basically I have tightened up my open raises in early position and also tightened up my 3 betting as there is lots of light 4 betting at this buy in. I am calling on the button more with suited connectors instead of 3 betting them which is what I was doing before, I am stealing post flop more with bluff raises on the flop and floats mixed in with slow plays

I have got a 10$ stellar bonus I havnt bothered to claim yet and got 4270 points so nearly enough for the 50$ bonus also 40% of the way to the next 10$ stellar bonus

[uh-hu]

[Hullcity]

Thx for looking at the hands, I should have commited myself for sure on the turn with a bigger bet I think like you said in hand 3

My roll dipped to about 170$ and then I decided that there must be something wrong with my strategy even though I seemed to be getting a lot of bad beats. So I had another look at Baluga whales ebook which I bought about 6 months ago and made some adjustments based on what I read in there but sticking to playing most of the hands in position

When I was playing 1c/2c and 2c/5c I was playing with a depolarized 3 bet range preflop i.e 3 betting AQ and then folding to a 4 bet. It worked pretty well because people kept calling with worse hands and 4 betting their premium hands which meant I played correctly against them. However at 5c/10c people are using leverage to 4 bet me light a lot ( I realized this when I was shoving over the top with AA/KK and they snap folded) and I was folding my JJ/AQ/KQ/1010 - I must have been getting bluffed a lot. So now I am playing with a polarized 3 bet range preflop i.e If I 3 bet I its either a hand I will be wiling to go all in with (AA/KK/QQ/AK) or weakish hand like Q8s. I am seeing flops with hands like AQ/AJ and stealing post flop instead now

I decided I was going to carry on at 5c/10c with the adjustments until I either busted my roll or I had an upswing, then I immediately lost 2 more buy ins and was at 150$ - I half expected to finish my whole roll off this evening - its a bit depressing watching your bankroll go up in smoke when its taken a few weeks to grind it

Then I just kept hitting flops and my opponents stopped outdrawing me or I had them dead on the flop when they rivered their 2 pair and went all in, my roll floated back up to 300$ thankfully and I have still got the bonuses in the bank to cash - I will be hitting gold status as well soon