So I've made it back to the 20s at long last. I'd started well, and have been killing the regs, sadly I haven't been killing the players I'm supposed to be beating, but that should change I guess.
It's funny. I've ran into a ton of regs so far (perhaps game selecting and ending up against me, as a search for my username on sharkscope is not very flattering sadly). I can't figure out how else they are winning players without game selecting though. When I say reg, I am referring to all I've played that have 500 - 2000 games played with an ROI of at least 10%, some of them closer to 15%. They are constantly winning, but play the easiest games to beat as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe it's because of how much they play, and while each of them plays a bit different their biggest weakness is they have no balance. They always play a certain hand a certain way, even to the point where bet-sizing becomes a giant hole in their games. Against weak, non thinking players I guess this works?
I also find they adjust to pre-flop aggression very poorly. They all seem to react differently, but I haven't really run into someone who reacts correctly (which could be a number of ways, such as 4-betting lighter, or tightening up preflop). A lot of them fold the first few times, then suddenly assume you're just one of those maniacs and start calling with hands that they shouldn't be doing so with, and generally folding on the flop to a c-bet. I ran into one guy who according to his sharkscope stats was probably the best person I played. I 3-bet him a couple of times in a short span and he folded, and then the third time I 3-bet him he called. I was expecting him to start calling lighter, and was delighted to as I had AA. The flop came 248r and I c-bet a bit smaller than my standard (not that he knew what that was), putting in just over half-pot and he insta shoved. Keep in mind this was at the first blind level, and despite the 3-bet and c-bet, this was still a big overshove (I think my c-bet was for 200 into 360, and stack sizes were close to starting sizes). This is something a lot of shitty players do, overshoving with something like second pair. I thought about it for a second, but a reg isn't going to do this with a set or even two pair. If he had a big hand, and I don't think he thought I was very good. If he thought I was a crazy, he'd assume I was c-betting every flop, and if he had a hand he wanted to extract money with, I'd imagine a call, or at best maybe a min-bet*.
*(min-bets work well in his spot with a big hand against maniacs, because it lets them bluff off the rest of their chips. A lot of maniacs are more willing to put their chips in themselves than to call, from my experience. Not all, but most will stop once all the money is in, unless they have top pair or whatever).
Not really sure what he would have, but pretty sure I had him beat, I called. Turns out he made the same moves donks always make, but having made a bigger preflop stupidness than even a donk would make. He'd called me with 74o preflop, and was shoving, just like the donks, with second pair. Not that I'm complaining. I just wish I could win as constantly as this guy, and some of the other regs.
Another hand of interest came up against a donk I was playing. He'd been bluffing a lot (or at least I was pretty sure he had been), but I never had a hand. Getting a bit annoyed with his postflop aggression, on a flop of QQ9 he bet for pot as usual and I shoved over the top of him for a small overbet. He called (much to my dismay at first) until I realized he had T4o. I'm not sure if he was going for a runner, runner straight or what, but I was happy.
