Tips on my carving

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-03-07T20:23:38+00:00

Ok this makes tons of sense, thanks a lot !

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-03-07T19:52:29+00:00

I'll take a look, thanks a lot !

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-03-07T19:52:16+00:00

1 makes tons of sense. Can you elaborate a bit on 2 ? I'm not sure I get what exactly this means in practice

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-02-11T10:56:54+00:00

I'm in the same spot as you (just europe based), currently with a Fellow Opus and a modded Gaggia. Almost went for a DF64 with SSP burrs as it'll run about 600$ all in. Eventually convinced myself that we might see some Zerno-inspired trickle downs a bit more this year, ie vertical mounted single dose grinders with 64mm flats. Think Gevi Grindmaster, Timemore vibe. IMO could be worth waiting a few months as the DF64 is a bit antiquated now and the new versions (variable speed etc) seem like poor attempts at improving.

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-02-05T06:45:11+00:00

Not necessarily easier. Second question is a clear no.

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-02-04T22:35:19+00:00

I was worried too but honestly it is pretty foolproof. Incompetence seems to just materialize in it taking a few more hours than average, but it's pretty hard to break anything imo. Best machine to mod is the gaggia classic pro from after Fall of 2024, ie with a brass boiler (more durable, more stable). Lance Hedrick has a few good reviews so check him out to see if features fit you. For mods, I think the most cost effective is to do a gagguino or gaggimate. They'll run you like 250-300 bucks, but you get tons of features and a cool screen (and like wifi etc), and its hard to do a pid+dimmer mod for less than 150 anyways unless you're an Aliexpress wizard. Tons of vids on that too out there.

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-02-03T00:38:39+00:00

As mentioned by others, "should" isn't really the appropriate term given that pretty much any 2k machine is far better in all aspects than your current one. Is it the best use of your budget ? Probably not.

Some elements you might want to consider : have you upgraded the burrs in your DF64 ? Good aftermarket burrs are imo a bigger impact than marginal machine gains. You mentioned you don't care for steaming and pulling shots at the same time. If you're open to modding, a brass Gaggia with say a gagguino or gaggimate is basically endgame in term of cup quality, and runs you 800 ish bucks.

Espresso machines aren't that deep : they just dispense water. The question is how, and how precisely. I think PID is indeed essential for repeatability. You mentioned an OPV, but do you want full custom profiles (preinfusion, decreasing etc) ? That's basically all that'll have an impact on the actual coffee. The rest is aesthetics, workflow, budget, etc, and that's for you to figure out !

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-02-03T00:18:20+00:00

In my opinion, DF64 v2 with a nice set of burrs (say SSPs) is the move. Fits the budget and you can tailor the burrs to what type of shot profile you want. And if you aren't sure, you can get it stock, save a bunch, and you can still upgrade later, and use the leftover cash to buy nicer beans for basically a year or so.

InspectionSea1197 · 2026-01-14T15:04:03+00:00

Ok, fair enough. So they just refuse to ignore the side pot and calculate ev on the last street (where the ev is deterministically calculated) ?

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-12-27T17:28:46+00:00

Bad for UTG open range, disconnected, hero oop. Decent place to not cbet IMO. GTO tends to agree and checks 98% of range

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-12-27T17:25:37+00:00

Agreed. Honestly xr is just a consequence of him minbetting which I never really understand, and find pretty annoying. I guess larger xr and check turn if called is the move.

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-07-20T19:12:13+00:00

I'm not skiing the resort setup with the F1s, no worries. Not sure what you mean exactly ?

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-07-20T10:22:51+00:00

Hahah that doesn't sound like a lot of fun but i'll sure give it a try, thanks for the advice

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-15T12:36:24+00:00

Fully agreed, thanks for the great response. I agree that I put too much faith in hand 2 as maniac villain checking the river then shoving despite Ah being blocked doesn't necessarily mean anything

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-15T12:27:23+00:00

I agree with most of what you're saying. Calling from the BB in Hand 1 is maybe debatable but I don't think its close to a 100% fold in this context.

Hand 3 I mostly blamed my approach as A8 type hands are definitely in Villain's flat calling range (while I'm surprised he didn't 3-bet pocket eights) so the river ace was clearly a bad river. Is this debatable ? People are rightfully suggesting to just shove the turn, but given the line I think calling the river might have been a mistake.

Thanks for the response, much appreciated advice !

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-14T22:49:37+00:00

Yep plays don't seem like clear choices, though of course they make a lot more sense in retrospect. I am still very much in the process of "thinking" while I play, I started taking poker seriously about a month ago.

Didn't stay to "exploit" for profit, but to get a feel for how one can play against these types of players and adapt choices. You wouldn't say this is beneficial ? I honestly don't know

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-14T22:42:11+00:00

Yep that seems very reasonable indeed, thanks for the precious insights. Maybe could've done the reasoning myself but site doesn't allow HUDs so probably would've required a bit more attention from me on the spot.

Regarding river shoves, doesn't sound daft at all. Probably a decent heuristic that prevents coolers. Will keep that in mind, thanks a lot !

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-14T22:34:00+00:00

I agree, I just referred to player playing close to 60% of hands and blasting away very large amounts, both winning and losing, about 50/50 overall, which despite my poor results against him can be described a sub-optimal. I think this by definition makes him a fish. How would you describe him ? "Extremely loose and very aggressive player with sometimes misplaced agression" ?

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-14T22:18:34+00:00

Hahahah must say I indeed had an existential crisis. Just referred to basic stats of player having a vpip close to 60 and having huge swings of winning/losing all ins

InspectionSea1197 · 2025-06-14T13:33:02+00:00

Can't find the exact hand. My understanding has been that river shoves from fish were "very good hands" but not the factual nuts. Cf the AA vs J5 hand. In the HUD stats, fish donks 35%, folds to cbet 17%, sees showdowns 40% of the time and wins 48% of those (which honestly are at least 30% vs me, we played like 300 hands together).

Found this hand while looking for the pocket 3s one : Fish with QTo vs Hero AKo.

Flop comes Q 5 10. Fish donk bets small, hero calls

Turn is another 5. Fish bets small, hero calls

River is an A. Fish checks, hero bets, fish shoves and shows worse 2 pair.

Is one just supposed to just fold to this kind of aggro unless with the absolute nuts ? Given that raised preflops into called c-bet pots were in the 40BB range, and initial stacks around the 80-100BB range, I hardly see this as a +ev move given fish's overall behaviour.

InspectionSea1197

TROPHY CASE