Hand analysis of the first week
Pocket Queen : two different scenarios
Background hand 1
I only have 22 hands again vilain but he looks pretty tight. He calls from the cut off.
Preflop - Standard raise.
Flop - In my opinion, I c-bet for value with strong pocket pairs and overpairs, and had decent fold equity.
Turn - Light c-bet, maybe a mistake. Then the villain raises and I fold. Looking at his estimated range and the fact that he's showing aggression on the turn, I believe he likely has trips, so I fold.
Tableau : 8:heart:2:heart:7:club: 8:club:
Equity Victoire Égalité
MP2 86.41% 86.41% 0.00% { QdQh }
CO 13.59% 13.59% 0.00% { JJ-77, ATs+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, AJo+, KJo+ }
GG Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
SB: 202.5 BB (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 22)
BB: 110.5 BB (VPIP: 22.73, PFR: 22.73, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 22)
Hero (UTG): 113 BB
MP: 130.5 BB (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 22.73, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 22)
CO: 120 BB (VPIP: 9.09, PFR: 4.55, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
BTN: 24 BB (VPIP: 45.00, PFR: 30.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 20)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q:diamond: Q:heart:
Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, CO calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold, fold
Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 7:club: 8:heart: 2:heart:
Hero bets 5.5 BB, CO calls 5.5 BB
Turn: (17.5 BB, 2 players) 8:club:
Hero bets 6 BB, CO raises to 21 BB, fold
CO wins 28 BB
Background hand 2
I have about 30 hands at the table on Vilain. He is on the BB and has a wide range :
4Bet+ range {77} (1)
Called 2Bet from blinds range {A9o,T9o,42o} (3)
Preflop - Since he can 3-bet and 4-bet with pocket pairs, I would assume he would not hesitate to do it preflop, so I'm removing pocket pairs starting from 77+ from his possible calling range.
Flop - He raises my c-bet. I call because he could raise with Ax; he could have the King, but I'm not so concerned about pocket pairs, which he would have raised preflop.
Turn - I check in order not to make the pot bigger, since he could raise my bet. Maybe a mistake—I should have continued betting.
River - The Queen gives me trips. I bet and he shoves all-in. I took some time to reflect, but I don't see him holding the nuts with AJ or J9 because of his flop raise. So either he has Kx where I was beaten from the flop, but then he would have c-bet on the turn. So I call.
Equity Victoire Égalité
SB 76.70% 76.48% 0.22% { QhQc }
BB 23.30% 23.08% 0.22% { 66-22, A9s-A2s, K9s-K4s, Q9s-Q6s, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, 87s, 76s, 65s, 52s+, 42s+, 32s, ATo-A5o, KTo-K6o, Q9o, J9o+, T8o+, 98o, 65o, 54o, 43o }
GG Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
CO: 161 BB (VPIP: 29.63, PFR: 29.63, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 29)
BTN: 102.5 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
Hero (SB): 111.5 BB
BB: 111 BB (VPIP: 37.04, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 29)
Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q:club: Q:heart:
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, BB calls 1.5 BB
Flop: (5 BB, 2 players) 3:diamond: K:diamond: 7:heart:
Hero bets 2.5 BB, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero calls 5.5 BB
Turn: (21 BB, 2 players) T:club:
Hero checks, BB checks
River: (21 BB, 2 players) Q:spade:
Hero bets 16 BB, BB raises to 100.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 84.5 BB
Spoiler
BB shows 9:heart: A:club: (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 28%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)
Hero shows Q:club: Q:heart: (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 72%, Flop 87%, Turn 93%)
Hero wins 213.5 BB
Mistakes
Background hand 3
Preflop - I called the raise due to BTN's wide preflop range.
Equity Victoire Égalité
CO 46.08% 45.63% 0.45% { 7h7s }
BU 53.92% 53.47% 0.45% { 77+, A9s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, ATo+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo }
Flop - I have 6 outs (2 sevens and 4 eights) so about 24% equity. This should have been a fold
Your pot odds: 12 / 41.5 = 29% to break even
Turn - Vilain jam and I fold
GG Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
UTG: 180.5 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
MP: 108 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
Hero (CO): 100 BB
BTN: 119.5 BB (VPIP: 44.44, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 9)
SB: 123.5 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
BB: 28.5 BB (VPIP: 55.56, PFR: 44.44, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 9)
SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7:heart: 7:spade:
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 8 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 5.5 BB
Flop: (17.5 BB, 2 players) 6:heart: 5:spade: 9:club:
Hero checks, BTN bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB
Turn: (41.5 BB, 2 players) 9:diamond:
Hero checks, BTN bets 83 BB, fold
BTN wins 38.5 BB
What do you think about these these hands?
Let me know if there's is anything I can improve in the presentation 🤔
Week 1 Result - (I will only post money result once a week to avoid focusing on this)
Starting Bankroll - 100$
Weekly result - 2.41$
Actual Bankroll - 102.41$
It’s great to read such an honest introduction. I'll share my two cents on a few of these hands, even though I'm just a humble NL10 player myself.
First hand with QQ:
I like the flop sizing as an exploit if villain seems very tight (and perhaps passive). On the turn, I really don't like your small bet—there are two flush draws out there, and your plan here should be to polarize. I would bet at least 75% pot with the intention of folding to a raise. The issue with betting small is that it puts you in a very awkward spot. If you bet small because you were scared of an 8, keep in mind that even over a small sample, villain looks quite tight—how many 8s can he realistically have? Maybe 88, but with two 8s on the board, there is only one combo left. That said, as played, I call his raise. Since you bet small, he could easily be overplaying 99–JJ.
Second hand with QQ:
You should open 3x from the SB. Remember that you are OOP and don't want to give great odds to BB. On the flop, I’m not entirely sold on your sizing because it feels like a weird middle ground. In my opinion, you either go with b33 (1/3 pot) or b75 (3/4 pot). With a b33 sizing, I'd bet QQ as well; with b75, you can easily put it into a check/call range. With your size when villain raises, calling makes sense, but keep in mind that this is often a call to fold turn unless you have specific history. River is well played.
The hand with 77:
You can go either way here (fold or call), depending on villain. However, there’s a slight flaw in your reasoning: you mentioned calling because villain's range is wide. Usually, a hand like 77—especially at the microstakes—is called to set-mine against a tight range. In position (IP), calling is totally fine: these players often play fairly face-up, allowing you to take pots away, deny equity, and even over-realize equity by getting them to fold two overcards to your pair before the river when they whiff. Out of position (OOP), though, I really don't like it. Against wide ranges, when you actually hit your set, you won't get paid off often enough to make up for the roughly 7 times you missed and folded before the river without realizing your equity.
Overall, great choice reading The Grinder's Manual by Peter Clarke. I read it in the past as well, and it's an excellent book for mastering the fundamentals. Best of luck at the tables, and props for being so open about your experience! :f_drink: