Enjoying your thread!
My first Vegas WSOP trip was this year. Planning on returning every year!
I played in one event and cash games.
I play in Md and WV most of the year, Deadwood SD in the summer, if we ever cross paths, maybe we could talk poker!
Thanks for sharing your poker journey on this forum.

Nothing wrong with that and I believe you're 100% correct on not having regrets in this regard.

I admire your discipline and great use of time to live your life to the fullest, its obviously paying off daily and I suspect it will have even greater benefits long term.

All the best & continued success!

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."- Eleanor Roosevelt

Bryce Canyon NP





Zion NP





The Melvins



I've stepped up my marathon training, got in a few longer runs. I am looking forward to building some endurance.

There are a couple shows I want to see next month. The Misfits with Danzig in Denver then Black Sabbath in San Bernardino. There are only a couple bands playing with the Misfits that I am aware of that I like, but the line up for Ozzfest looks totaling mind blowing and Sabbath is one of the bands I think I need to experience live once before the are gone forever.

I took a break from organizing volunteer meet ups in July but I am ready to get things rolling again with a new schedule and a little more promotion.

I feel like I have been making slow progress in a lot of areas but I know I can push myself harder and accomplish much more.

I want to make a commitment to myself regarding poker which I think can help me or anyone else as far as happiness and gratitude. I pledge to never complain about running bad or taking a bad beats. I won't pity myself or seek pity from others. I feel like anyone who gets into playing poker seriously should anticipate rough stretches, in fact we will be running below average about half of the time. So why stress over it? I accept it as an intrinsic part of poker.

Hand 22:

1/2 NL (9 handed)
V1 (900)- tag, a little stationy postflop, been getting rivered a lot so possibly tilting
V2 (280)- new to the table
Hero's Image (490)- tag, been seen stabbing with air a few times, 3b once with QQ

Preflop (3):
Hero is LP dealt AK
V1 raises to 12, V2 calls, Hero 3b to 60, V1-V2 call.

Flop (179):
A73
Checks to Hero who bets 60, V1 c/r to 200, V2 folds, Hero ships for 430 total, V1 calls.

Standard 3b for value preflop. When I get c/r I could be up against a set but V could easily play AJ+ this way. A little shortcut I use when deciding whether its ok to stack off postflop with an overpair or strong tp is: was last raise villain called preflop more than 1/10 the size of effective stacks? So in this case villain called 48 more and our effective stacks OTF are 430.

Hand 21 Results

Here is my latest vlog-



Here is an original called "Terminal Velocity"-



Here is one of my paintings-



Thank you very much! Glad to hear you had a positive WSOP, it really is amazing to walk through the Rio with poker players everywhere you look. The electricity of anticipation and aspiration is palpable.

I'd be more than happy to chat, might be in MD later this year planning a trip to Boston/NYC/DC.

Cheers!

Mini Challenge #21

[30.5] 50 hrs poker
[13] 10 hrs art
[7.5] 10 hrs dating and social life
[2.5] 5 hrs music
[0] 5 hrs volunteering/organizing
[1] 5 hrs reading
[5] 5 hrs to do list
[2] 10 meditation sessions
[7] 10 fitness sessions

2016 GOALS

[565.5] 1400 hrs poker
[229.5] 360 hrs art
[187] 360 hrs dating and social life
[132] 180 hrs music
[32.5] 180 hrs volunteering/organizing
[94.5] 180 hrs reading
[130.5] 180 hrs to do list
[82] 360 meditation sessions
[109] 360 fitness sessions
[1] Travel to 6 new places + Europe

Obv villain was a complete drooler lol
Sizings are bad pf...
Why shove flop? Why on earth would villain xr aj? Makes no sense....
Lol live pokerz

squeezing to 60 pre is fine, maybe it's a tad big but w/e. The challenge is that, against any remotely competent villain with no history, we're forcing him to play a pretty tight range pre.

With SPR this low, I prefer betting smaller on flop (40-50) for thin value from 99-QQ and to set a cheaper price with our bluff c-bets. On an Ahi, bone dry flop I wouldn't expect someone to spazz c/r to 200 with a bare ace. That said, betting smaller would increase that possibility.

I agree that shipping over the c/r doesn't make sense. If you think he's bluffing/spazzing with worse, then flat to keep in his air.

I've been using the same standardized 4x+1 per caller 3b sizing (for value and bluffs) ever since getting coached by Kydd. I realize this is bigger than most of the rest of the player pool. I think it works well because there are many opponents who call and play too fit or fold postflop as well as opponents who call and stack off way too wide postflop. The bigger sizing applifies these mistakes. I'm curious what sizing you would advocate and why?

I assume villain believes any Ax he called with preflop is best on this flop, maybe he puts me on JJ-KK.

It is worth mentioning I did tank for about a min or 2 before shoving. I think if he was bluffing he would realize there are close to zero hands I am calling OTF then folding OTT when he goes all in for 230 into 579.

There is a slight chance in his mind I am running a suicidal bluff with the reraise, as I have been caught bluffing a few times.

Finally if he is bluffing with some kind of 5 outer I might as well GII and deny him any more free cards.


I think I could bet slightly smaller OTF, 1/4 to 1/3 pot will keep all of his pairs in.

If there were a little more chips behind such that I could conceivably fold to a turn shove like 2/3 psb or bigger I could be on board with flatting the flop c/r.

Thank you both for the input, much appreciated!

In a vacuum there needs to be some meta game going on that isn't coming through from your post. For example I think most outsiders would assume that at a standard $1-2 table the large 3-bet sizing pre is folding out his entire Ax-Aq opening range and only keeping in AK.

But of course in game dynamics (that we aren't perceiving as outsiders but you were experiencing at the table) can change all of that and keep in a much larger portion of his range.

Personally I would think he very rarely gets to the flop with AJ/AQ and then very rarely plays them this way. But your image and his tilt factor are definitely influencing those frequencies higher.

When he chr to 230, call and gii ott. Keep his range wide.

+1

Maybe my description of V1 is a little bland, I categorized him as tag because he seemed to not be making any egregious errors and was folding a decent amount of hands preflop.

In my experience recreational players at 1/2, 1/3, 2/5 tend to skew to one extreme or the other: nits only continue vs 3b with KK+, stations or shall we call them "flopaholics" continue vs 3b with their entire opening range. Sure most winning players realize it is -EV to call 3b with easily dominated broadways. Losing players may not understand relative hand strength an therefore believe any broadways are still worth playing, this is what makes AK a bread and butter hand to 3b. If I don't see people calling 3b with weak hands that is a good barometer that the table may not be worth playing at.

Before working with Kydd my 3b sizing tended to be more like 3x or 2.5x. I first hypothesized that going 4x+ would get more folds, in practice this is not the case. Recreational players probably feel it would be a damn shame to raise and then forfeit a hand before even seeing a flop and that is the primary factor in their decision as opposed to the price.

Now I do agree it is less likely most players are willing to stick in 200bb on an A high flop with AJ or AQ but still within the realm of possibility. He might have c/r assuming his Ax was best and then felt stuck.

I understand this reasoning if there was a threatening bet left behind OTT where he could continue a bluff. But in this instance there is less than 1/2 psb left OTT it should be apparent than I am committing to the hand with a call OTF and a shove indicates about the same strength as a call. (It could be argued a shove looks weaker) Sure he can easily fold his complete air in the rare case that's what he had, but I would think he realizes the jig is up and would abandon his bluffs at this stage without improving... though I could be mistaken on this point. If we conclude we are ahead and villain does have 2 to 5 outs to improve we might as well charge him OTF.

Thanks for the thoughts all, taking them into consideration!

the thing is villain opened to 6x pf and we 3b to 30x,,,i would sq to around 45 max depends on how bad they are. sizings IP should be smaller. Your 3b sizings are too big and give a much worse price on bluffs. But, if population is call happy pf then will check fold many flops i guess its ok and your 3b range will be linear.

as played calling the raise is best then just call down and hope to be good.

flop is a clear call. i mean he had QT and punted his stack off to you for some reason but he has exactly the type of hand that 95/100 people are folding to your shove that you would prefer stay in the hand.

your paintings are sick btw...really cool stuff

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you."- Walt Whitman

Excalibur



NYNY



Venetian



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I've been in the groove with running, got in an 8 mile run along with some shorter runs. I want to make sure I gradually work my way up to a 20 mile training run before the LV Rock n Rock marathon in Nov.

Volume has been my biggest hurdle this year and I am very disappointed with myself because I know I can do better. It is tough to motivate myself to play as much as I know I need to. I just need to reach deep and find the will to keep at it. I've also been procrastinating on the LV poker room review videos. I need to stop being a perfectionist and just keep pumping them out because the only way to get better is to practice.

I want to make some more friends in the art and music worlds. I feel like I have made a decent amount of friends in the poker world but I need more diversity.

I'm planning a trip to Colorado at the beginning of next month. I want to stop by Arches NP in eastern Utah. I plan on playing a little poker in Black Hawk and Cripple Creek. I also want to get in some hiking and running. Then of course catch The Misfits with Danzig in Denver, I believe Hatebreed is also playing the festival that day too who I haven't seen before.

I'm already halfway through my next mini challenge and am being a lot more productive than this one, trying to keep the momentum going.

Hand 23:

1/3 NL (9 handed)
V1 (1100)- loose preflop with a lot of limps, aggressive postflop
Hero's Image (310)- tag, haven't been to SD yet, b/f a turn vs V1

Preflop (4):
Hero is UTG dealt JJ
Hero raises to 15, V1 calls, 2 other LP calls, bb calls.

Flop (72):
982
Checks to Hero who bets 50, V1 calls, the rest fold.

Turn (172):
2
Hero bets 75, V1 calls.

Flop (322):
8
Hero checks, V1 snap shoves, Hero calls.

When V1 calls flop I think he most likely has 9x or an OESD. Turn is a good card as 22 is less likely and if he had 98 I am ahead. 8 OTR is kind of an interesting card, 98 catches up but sets are very unlikely, I decide to check to induce incase he has a busted draw.

Hand 22 Results

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Here is a cover of "Nitro" by Offspring-



Here is one of my paintings-



Fair enough, appreciate the input. I would guess opening and 3bing bigger would be frequently exploited in tough online games, luckly typical llsnl opponents have super tight (or non-existant) 3b and 4b ranges.

Consensus is calling flop c/r is better. I guess I shouldn't assume villain understands the commitment threshold.

I get what you're saying. FWIW my first inclination was to flat OTF. Thanks for the input.

Thank you very much for the complement!

Mini Challenge #22

[17.5] 50 hrs poker
[19] 10 hrs art
[4] 10 hrs dating and social life
[7.5] 5 hrs music
[.5] 5 hrs volunteering/organizing
[3] 5 hrs reading
[8] 5 hrs to do list
[8] 10 meditation sessions
[7] 10 fitness sessions

2016 GOALS

[583] 1400 hrs poker
[248.5] 360 hrs art
[191] 360 hrs dating and social life
[139.5] 180 hrs music
[33] 180 hrs volunteering/organizing
[97.5] 180 hrs reading
[130.5] 180 hrs to do list
[90] 360 meditation sessions
[116] 360 fitness sessions
[1] Travel to 6 new places + Europe

I am fine checking this river to induce but ONLY against the post flop aggressive types, and those that you HAVE ALREADY SEEN SHOW DOWN INFO FROM that shows they can/will bluff in these spots with missed draws. You have him pegged as such, so I can go with the in game check, but also keep in mind in this exact hand we actually hold blockers to some of his combos of the busted draw.

I think in general, value betting/shoving the river makes the most sense. I would hate to see him check back 9x.

If you remove poker, here is a guy that does so many amazing things

-paints
-volunteers to help the homeless
-plays the electric guitar
-blogs all the time
-runs marathons!

all of these things are great and I am striving to balance my life like yours. I would like to say that one of the main things that hurts volume is not having a large roll and taking too many trips. Trips are very expensive and cost time as well as money. I recommend not doing anything expensive or outside of vegas until you save up a small bankroll-$5k at least. You have to look at it this way, how many trips and bad beats are you away from not being able to pay rent...and then what?


Love the paintings, but focus more on your bankroll than all the other stuff. You don't want to be treading water right??!

Trips don't have to be expensive at all, and carl doesn't strike me as the type of person who needs to stay at 5 stars and fly first class if he's going somewhere

And the great thing for poker players is that they can work while traveling

All speaking from personal experience

Can't believe Danzig and Misfits are playing together. Maybe those guys finally grew up. Please give a recap of how the concert goes, what they play etc.

Also I think your paintings are getting better, really like the last one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bankroll probably is well above 5k.
If the issue is motivation, how about playing something other than NLHE? Omaha? Stud? Others? It is good you are involved and enjoying several other things besides poker. My guess is, an only poker guy would eventually burnout...?

If you're playing 1/2 and 1/3 as you're sole source of income how large of a bankroll do you need to be able to spend $500 on a trip and then $500 on rent and bills??

tl;dr

how much are you up overall since you started?

Long time reader: great thread p_a! Love the Utah pics. Awesome that you're humble and focused more on living a cool life than the money side of poker. Happiness is everything.

"Focus is more valuable than even your intelligence."- Robin Sharma

Bellagio



Paris



Froggy



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I got in a 9 mi run, now shooting for a 10 mi run this week, training is on track.

Went on a date with a cute tinder chick, had a fun time.

I've organized 3 volunteer opportunities so far this month which is great, going to do 1 more this Wednesday.

Poker volume still in need of improvement. Have to hustle harder.

Got to grab a bite with and interview 2+2er wheydacheese who is a guy with a super sick thread in LVL low level debauchery vegas

Hand 24:

1/3 NL (9 handed)
V1 (250)- drunk loose, stuck 2 or 3 buyins, tilted
V2 (1000)- tight
Hero's Image (600)- tag

Preflop (4):
Hero is LP dealt AQ
V1 limps MP, V2 limps MP, Hero raises to 18, BB calls, V1 calls, V2 calls.

Flop (68):
T95
Checks through.

Turn (68):
Q
Checks to V1 who bets 60, V2 calls, Hero folds, BB folds.

Flop (188):
2
V1 shoves 170, V2 calls.

Easy iso from LP. Not going to cbet 4 way, doubt it's getting through so might as well draw for free. Turn we improve to tptk but there is a psb then a call, could be up against 2p or a straight, some draws present. I would probably call if V2 folds but I think he has a fairly tight calling range I believe and V1 will be shipping river most of the time. Calling turn is worth considering as we could have the best hand sometimes but if we are behind we are drawing slim or dead vs a str8 so I just let it go.

Hand 23 Results

Here is my latest vlog-



Here is an original called "Paradise Resolution"-



Here is one of my paintings-



True, I think my default would be to bet riv to get value from 9x but its kind of thin. Thanks for the input!

Thanks, I am trying to live a more well rounded life than at times when I was mostly absorbed in poker. Tony Robbins has an analogy where our lives are represented by a spoked wheel and each spoke represents a pillar of our life and that they all must be attended to or the wheel will not turn smoothly. Making progress in many areas feels great and gets you gradually to where you want to be.

You have valid points regarding traveling. I really haven't taken many trips this year compared to the previous 2 years. I do like adventuring and exploring, travel is fascinating. I do plan to sprinkle in some poker in Black Hawk, Cripple Creek and Albuquerque on my next trip. Not in danger of not making rent, appreciate the concern though.

You are right, I realize I've been super lazy this year with volume and it's pretty pathetic. If I work harder for the last 4 months of the year I will be in a much better spot. I know I have greater potential and if I work harder can transcend any plateau.

Exactly, all my trips are pokercations. Discovering new citys and getting more chips for my chip collection. I do have low standards regarding accomadations, usually just google motels upon arriving in a city and I haven't yet had a problem where I wasn't provided with a clean bed and warm shower. I guess after spending time in the military and in jail, I am fine with the bare necessities.

I am fairly surprised too, 30 years of rock n roll legal drama. I really dig the Walk Among Us and Earth AD albums and I bet they’ll play all the old ****, should be tight.

I appreciate the compliment!

Yeah I think it could be fun to focus on a new game or two. I discussed that in my interview with cuserounder. The more we are proficient in multiple variations the more tables there are to select from in any given casino. I think the game I would most like to improve in is PLO. I actually used to play omaha a lot with my friends at Curly's back in like 2010 but it was always HU or shorthanded. I have very little experience playing it lately or fullring. I've breifly considered learning LHE or 7STUD but I don't really like the betting structures, PLO betting structure is much more like NLHE my bread and butter.

I've thought about throwing 1k on WSOP.COM and messing around on there but I have doubts if my hourly would be anywhere close to exceeding my EV of grinding live.

I do struggle a lot with burnout, sometimes for short periods and sometimes for long periods where I have low desire to play or I find myself at the tables with my mind wandering because of not being fully into it.

Poker isn't my only source of income. Spending a few hundo on a trip isn't that big of a deal.

I've made a lot of friends, had a lot of cool experiences. I always post graphs around new years, up low 6 figs so nothing really impressive or remarkable.

Thanks man! Utah is super beautiful. I try to stay humble, being happy day to day is a blessing.

Mini Challenge #23

[25] 50 hrs poker
[16.5] 10 hrs art
[11] 10 hrs dating and social life
[6.5] 5 hrs music
[5.5] 5 hrs volunteering/organizing
[4.5] 5 hrs reading
[11] 5 hrs to do list
[9] 10 meditation sessions
[7] 10 fitness sessions

2016 GOALS

[608] 1400 hrs poker
[265] 360 hrs art
[202] 360 hrs dating and social life
[146] 180 hrs music
[38.5] 180 hrs volunteering/organizing
[102] 180 hrs reading
[141.5] 180 hrs to do list
[99] 360 meditation sessions
[123] 360 fitness sessions
[1] Travel to 6 new places + Europe

I apologize if u answered this already. What size betting do u use preflop in a 1-2 game if u are first to open.

EP 5xbb+1bb for every limper
MP 4x+1
LP 3x+1

Pretty good guidelines

Ty