The great persuadeo has asked for the Winter Soldier to come out of hibernation for far too long. I have finally returned to the online felt. Despite all the noise and controversy surrounding the company, I have decided to once again give Amaya Incorporated some of my business.
Even though I was playing the 25 NL 6-max ring games when I left last summer, every single time I return to the online felt, I redeposit a small amount and start grinding 10 NL all over again. With everyone and their mom, their grandma, and their grandma’s grandma being scared of poker bots floating around, it’s important for me to not just jump right back where I left off. Maybe things have changed, but maybe people are just exaggerating.
Fast forward from the the beginning of March to present day, I must say that rebuilding at 10 NL has gone way better than I expected. After over 30k hands, this is my 10 NL graph in for the current month:
Why am I so ecstatic about my results? Well, this is my current lifetime graph at 10 NL:
Before the latest ascent, I was a winning player but by the slimmest of margins. If I’m being honest with myself, I was probably being too much of a typical TAG player that made money by playing just a bit tighter than his opponents. I was essentially just trading money back and forth, but gaining a microscopic amount of profit with every trade.
I would like to think that I have learned something before my return to the tables to explain this rise. I hope it is not just variance. Part of my apparent improvement I owe to PokerSnowie though I believe people might be misusing it. It’s not useful to take its advice on particular streets because its recommendations are based on its personal range on any given board.
If you wish to apply GTO, you have to have a grasp of how your entire range is going respond to a particular board state. If your range is on a certain river situation is not the same as Snowie’s, then how can you take its advice? It’s not the same thing if you don’t share the same number of hand combinations.
What I have learned with Snowie is to use it to give me an idea of what GTO play may look like. Ed Miller and James Sweeney have talked about this being useful. I will write my next post on my findings but at 10 NL for example, Snowie allowed me to recognize that many people are still c-betting way too often when they are out of position leading me to float more than I ever have in my career and it’s been working!
That’s all I got for now to keep this first update short and sweet. See you all in the forums!
Mr. Winter Soldier,
Glad to see you are doing well in the online poker world. Also very happy to see you get back into the blog. I wonder if you could comment on how your recent online success might be translating to your live game? I am also considering getting back to the online game but more of a way to help my live game progress and stay sharp. Keep crushing my friend. Hope to talk soon.
Steve C, (ChipXtractor)
p.s. Hopefully I will see you in Vegas during the series for all of the RCP events??
I’m hoping to be in Vegas in either June or July for roughly 2 weeks. There’s many things that are pulling at me. There’s the Colossus event and of course, there’s the UFC week of events you’ve brought up on Twitter. There’s also EVO, the biggest fighting game convention in the world happening the weekend after. Because I also have a regular job, I’m not going to be able to just pick & choose.
As for my poker game, my recent online success has gotten me to stay home more than usual. The main change is confidence. There’s no question in my mind that 10 NL online is tougher than 200 NL live. One of the key differences in my play is that I have become more comfortable peeling one card whereas in the past, I was definitely over-folding certain spots.
Nice work. I hope you continue to tell us more about what you’ve learned as a strategist and the always elusive effort to employ game theory and the apps like Snowie.