Yeah the swings are pretty ridiculous but I'm learning to embrace them. I think my hands are pretty straightforward and the ones that aren't would really just be a litany of brag hero calls/folds. Genuinely interesting hands I lab immediately after and are interesting to me because I recognize I need to learn something more accurately but probably aren't interesting to the general populace. Also HU is so personal for reads that adjusts how you ought to play that it's tough for readers to see a single hand and appreciate why it's an interesting hand. I don't import hands from bovada to HEM2 anymore for efficiency since the EV is pretty small compared to increasing volume since I still do hand analysis so I'd have to post some kind of janky hand history text. Maybe next time I have a 1kbb hand I'll post it and things along those lines. Welcome to suggestions.


Tried some 200pl 6max. The spots are so different now that I've been focusing on HU instead of mixing them together. I feel like I have to relearn a lot of what I've recently learned for HU for the 6m lens. Like frequencies etc. Also damn I forgot how much I hated playing nits. Made two pretty fundamental errors to end the session for 175bb almost stone dead and a stacking off too wide for 150bb vs a fish that was face up.

-539 since my last update. Not feeling great. Not feeling too excited about more 100pl. I'm looking forward to 200pl. Maybe I just need a real break. Almost over this sickness. 95% there.

Had $1100 of swing since last post ending roughly even.

Thought about this for a while: I'm going to play 200pl friday & saturday night, and I'm going to try to get in a large amount of hours. Five each day sounds good. In my records I usually don't include lobbying time, just active play time, but I'll count time as lobbying+playing for five hours both these days. I'll do 3 tables instead of 4 so I can focus on decisions better.

GL me.

Here's a 200pl HH about 30 hands into a match vs a somewhat passive fairly ABC fish/reg. Butchered?




Played 2.5 hours tonight online and for about four live. in for 1k out for 1.58k @ 1/2 uncapped. Hoping to get in a lot of hours tomorrow but won't play anymore tonight.

J

Had a 1.2k stack and a 1.4k stack after battling with a decent reg. He donked a lot on good boards so I would have said his postflop was pretty good but he butchered a ton of spots in 3b pots so I 3bet like 34% or something. Only up $350 after the first session today despite the stacks. I basically won 7 bi back.

It appears the money is more in play at 200 as long as I dodge nits which is great news. Looking forward to this evening. I'm going to go have lunch /speedbag tho and do a short problem set that's due next Friday (yeah this guy, right?) before doing my next session.

Mysterious


Well Bovadas down before I can get a third session in. Did my work/upkeep for the day. My friend is taking the MCATs today and wants to hang out tonight so I'll go drinking with him, although it'll be the second time this week so I'll have to keep an eye on this not becoming a regular habit. I need another 3 1/4 hours today to hit my 10 hour goal. Should be totally doable assuming Bovada gets their **** together after I have dinner.

+$723 from my first two sessions. I'm really hoping I can keep playing these games from now on. Mental game is doing pretty well. Didn't let myself get affected when I was stuck 1500 during the trough of session 1 today.

Roll = ?? Will do a count sometime this weekend. Bovada roll is a tad over 4k so I'll do a withdrawal on Feb 1st assuming that's when the next free withdrawal is and that I don't downswing. Probably around mid 15k not including my living expenses.

840 days till graduation.

Regarding the hand I would lean towards check/calling turn again, with the intention of leading a big majority of rivers. Whats your reasoning for leading turn? Nice work this far, if you want to discuss hands, let me know.

Stuck 16 bi, inc downswing. Will reevaluate if I hit -20.

Cheers, thanks. I'll pm you when I've got a few.


I'm going to reevaluate the plan. After speaking at length with a guy I respect a lot, I've been convinced that long term 6max is the way to go. I'll still sit HU tables, but I think 6max is the style to specialize in. To get good HH review/play against solid players, I'm going to play on ACR. Maybe I'll add HU tables on Bovada in the near future or sit ACR's HU lobby (very low traffic). Not sure yet. But I'm going to take advantage of the number of games and non-anonymous software to work on my game before returning to slaughter Bovada 6max. Or maybe add that in parallel. Sucks that the roll took such a hit but that's an ever-present danger and I have to remind myself that it's just part of the process. I think it's around 11k excluding living expenses but will have to double check.

I'm thinking about playing a live $600 mtt and some 2/5 plo action after in two weeks. If I'm sub 8k by then I won't consider it, otherwise I'll probably do it.

Also now you guys will get some HHs in this thread :-) Here's one from a trial session today setting up hotkeys/layout for more than 4 tables.

BTN is 43/32/18.9 over 85 hands (probably more like 34/28/14) that I think thinks that I'm a fish. He's 3bet literally every open I've done at this table so far this session.
SB is a LAG running a 42/22/10.3 over 616 hands. Seems spewy pre so far and relatively straightforward postflop:


I don't think I'll give Net won or $EV adjusted results in posts but rather # of hands, keeping volume and growth rather than $ as the goal of this thread.
On that note: 1,122 hands of 50pl/100pl today.

I'm not giving up.

2179 hands since last update. Adjusting to the players, going to gradually loosen up. So many of these spots are foreign to me but I'm convinced the regs are misplaying lots of spots which is good. Playing good and running ok which is fine. Rakeback is so nice. I'm 9 tabling which seems to be a good middle ground. Not many more games run at peak for 50 & 100 AFAIK and there are always a few + HU tables so should be smooth sailing for volume.

Had another 4 table HU match with a 100pl reg. It went pretty well. He made a few fundamental errors. He was from Lithuania so playing him is against my general rule of thumb as I don't want to donate to EU sickos playing on this site to avoid stars but my HU game has improved loads so gave it a whirl.

I'll post a graph at 10k hands.

HH converter couldn't parse this hand for some reason.

I can't tell if this is really good or really bad.
Btn opens 2.4x, RFI btn of 50% over 282 hands
I 3! QT86sscc, 98bb effective, 4.3% 3b over my own sample so far; image is nit.
Btn flats, flop is Kh Qd 8c
I cb 12 into 17.4, Btn flats.
Turn is 9s check, check
I check 5c river, Btn 26.24 into 41.44
I jam for 53.54 more.

My image is super nitty, thought he had a lot of kings up. Thought 90%+ sets and straights bet turn. Thought he had no 67 and I had some. Thought jamming was > folding >> calling. Thought he perceived me as having no bluffs here besides AJJ*, ATT* type hands and he probably thinks I don't bluff with those on river often especially since the price i'm laying him otr. Yea I think this is one of the worst hands to x/jam here given showdown value/blocking his b/f range but I still thought it was more profitable than folding because he's mostly capped and has in my eyes a quite substantial b/f range.

837 days till graduation.

dont you expect a lot of his Kings up bet turn for protection/value?

id be pretty happily xc here, expect some 67 actually he has no reason to bet his 8x on turn really given your range. you do have some, but a good portion lead river as youre dont expect him to bet much. i really think this river goes xx so much, he doesnt have a need to bluff on rivers once he checks turn. Like he has to have q977 or q9tt or qt45 all of which you beat, imo.

ive been playing a bunch of HU on ACR so if i run into you, game on! do HU cash hands count for RB on acr? i cant figure

ACR 6max plo is a tough game with the same regs capable of beating 400pl sitting everything from 100 up. The difference between my HU graph and 6max graph is a joke. Makes me wonder if I even want to finish the 10k hands. I'll probably just stick to HU while bankroll building. Ugh.

Why are you convinced 6-max is the way to go? More action? But lower WR for sure.

yeah the lack of a large player pool necessitates that for those who can multitable effectively. Im not one of those (esp when playing HU, i can 2-3 table maybe).

but i feel the rake race pushes people even more to mass table. honestly, my game needs a ton of work, as ive been expose to live too much, but game selecting and playing 5/10, some 10/20 6m gives me a higher wr than playing the 1/2-2/4 6m.

Did the final session for the friend and was out for +2560 at a 1/2 game. 2/3 of the chips on the table or something. Sunran the table and got paid for 8 hours. Done freerolling other people my time for now as the $EV lost obv isn't made up for by life EV in less stress, helping a friend etc.

If you're playing 10/20 then I doubt we'll ever play. Respect dude. I don't like the rake race that much. I'd get max $100. Don't think I even cash this week, basically bubbled it.


Games run 24/7, they don't break, less hit n run, higher stakes on bovada, slightly less swing. Dunno I'll probably just stick with huplo tho I'm not that good at 6max. 35% ranges seem tight.


Played some pretty solid B game today for an hour. Meh.
Here's a LOL hand history for you guys. FWIW I think he x/jam turn with nfd and folds KK and worse otr, also I passed up repping this board in a 3bet pot twice already against him so figured I'd get a lot more credit even tho narrow value and wide bluff ranges:



I've got a lot of homework to do. Might fire a live 2/5 plo game on Saturday and will likely do a $600 mtt next Friday + live plo.

raise flop

Reasoning for raising flop??

board doesnt hit his range much at all so i think theres a bunch of FE (he prob just ships most fds so we can play hearts hard on turn). We dont have much playability on turns, only good card is a 3/6 which wont happen often, if he raises us, were not losing much equity by folding.

our hand just doesnt play well on turns

RE discussion: I encourage it in this thread.

I made a jack high straight flush and 2nd nut boat and got paid for stacks in the same hand today. Don't know what he had but in a 3b pot checked back flop, raised over his turn bet and bombed river on a 9c8c7c9xo runout with JcTc97.
At 8952 hands on ACR so far.

Graph should come next update. Spoiler:


I had a weird $6 charge from a nearby city on my debit card last night which is really odd. I for the life of me can't figure out what it was. I don't really want to talk to my bank because of my multiple 4 figure deposits/withdrawals from poker sites to sketchy names and this $6 charge has a reasonable description instead of lots of numbers and something in China lol. I'll see if any more happen.

Here's another HH:


Just got back from a 1/2 session. Up 540 including a AQ<23s for $400 pre from the 2nd best player at the table tilt shoving from the straddle over my open to 20 and 2 callers so that tells you how good the players were.

Dunno what my roll is at. Somewhere towards the higher end of 12-14k.

832 days till graduation.

Roll was actually at 15.2k. I just ****ing punted 4.5k. Really really really tilted right now.

Considering just doing forex this semester with occasional soft live games. HUPLO is a ****ing tough game re: mental game.

****.
Literally deposited 2.1k on bovada to play blackjack after losing 2.4k to a whale. Like how. What? Jesus christ. I'm "back" to where I was last time I punted 4k. Right around 11k. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I was supposed to do homework today but instead I did homework while open sitting the HU lobby. Gambling addict? Hmm. Maybe. Thus, maybe I should just study/practice forex this semester and have a chunk of change to live off of. I don't spend money tho. Maybe time away from tables? Dunno if I'll fire the $600/live plo on Friday now. Feel so far in the dumps it's not even funny even tho I've got 2x my starting roll in cash in my drawer right now. Is this what progress looks like? I don't think so. #tilt.
It doesn't help that I drink to numb myself. I should really cut that out but masturbation and alcohol are tools for distraction. Ugly side of poker much? Is this how people I stack feel after I beat them? This reminds me of when I asked a pro how she felt being a harbinger of emotional pain for a living. Some undiscovered self-awareness there maybe.

Like what even is my life right now? I'm going to hate **** a stripper tomorrow. I should be studying and making friends at school. It's not glamorous I can be sure of that much. It's a swingy unforgiving ****ing lifestyle that ****s with my emotions and makes me perform subpar in the rest of life. Playing poker is definitely a double-edged sword, for anyone out there wondering.

anyway i'm off to dinner and I'll try to get my homework done tonight so I can ****ing graduate. Maybe I'll have to get a real job anyway.
Big picture, I'm set back about two weeks (if you check the thread's progress I think I was at 10.5k two weeks ago.) Will I keep going? I don't know. I sure seemed like I wasn't giving up last time. I definitely have the hard skills to earn a decent hourly but whether I have the soft skills is a whole nother question.

Honesty is important. This is an honest journal. I took about half an hour typing this out slowly reflecting on today. I feel like i'm at a crossroads and I can choose a poker-less path or a poker-ful path. There seems to be no in between because my personality is so obsessive.

You could possibly benefit alot from reading/listening to stoicism. Tim Ferriss recently released some great audio book for it, perfect to listen to when you take a walk or have downtime. He talks about the books in this podcast and also gives a 15 minute sample. If you like it, you can find the book on Audible or Kindle. http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/01/...tao-of-seneca/

Also, let me know if you want to talk over skype about stoicism or poker.

Thanks I'll look into it. Sent you a pm.


I haven't played any poker since. I've been focusing on school and trading. I'm definitely feeling better. Did some shopping getting hand wraps and a ball pump for speedbagging. Also got a chromebook for note-taking in class and trading while out and about or at a poker table. I'll put linux on it so it can run my broker's linux platform. I'm out of communication because both my main phone and backup phone's batteries are stone dead which is a cosmically obtuse form of runbad.

The plan is to power through this week and get all my work done then take 3k of my 10.9kish to gambool it up live and worst case play 100 hu probably sitting both bovada and acr with with 8k and otherwise evaluate afterwards.

This is my graph pre-meltdown session @ 200 vs the super aggro whale (the dude was playing 88% vpip with 62% 3bet... He just ran so pure. Didn't miss or if he hit worse sucked out. Pretty brutal. Kept hit n running and I obv gave him action each time) It's of 25/50/100pl on ACR since last Fall:


I think it's cute to see how my style changed from last Fall till now -> much bigger swings in terms of BB because I'm red-lining now and vpipping anywhere from 92-100 depending on my opponent instead of before being a standard tag/abc.

The last 2.5k or 3k hands are new I think. The other 7k hands I played were breakeven EV with some run good @ 6max. Feeling good about ACR overall especially their rakeback. Will probably multi-site post Friday. I'm also considering sticking some bitcoin on swc/betcoin next time I cash out from ACR via bitcoin to play hu plo. I'll try to time it for a time when bitcoin is sub 300 or there is a substantial amount of indication that some foreign financial market is about to implode a la Greece in July.

I guess I should count my chickens that I'm up so much since I started and treat these two spew sessions as lessons and just soldier on. Perhaps a stoploss is in order :-P

Heads all over the place. Considering doing a mini challenge of +4k at 100nl zone as penance/rebuilding for my spew session. Would take about a month probably. Maybe I'd do 100pl hu on ACR on the side of 2 100nl zone tables on bovada as huplo action is slow on ACR. Looks like a good option tbh.

Mtt got canceled. Off to check out a local 2/5 plo game that I never knew about tonight. May play 2/5 plo @ casino tomorrow. Totally yolo-ing at these things but i'm at peace with it.

Contemplating how I want to spend my time. I went to a dinner tonight I was invited to for a quant trading firm where the entry level position they were recruiting for was paying 300k pre-bonus and a 2 week summer internship pays out 25k.
I'm touring an office later this month with a guy that wants me to intern this summer at a plant he's opening in Maine. One of my mentors is pushing hard to launch a startup and offered me, conditional on certain app-side progress, a tentative bus dev position this summer. I'm fortunate enough to have these opportunities. Why do I want to stack donks on bovada ? Although I discounted finance due to quality of life issues, there's a business side to most hedge funds that I can explore without making unacceptable sacrifices. If I keep playing poker, I'd really just be grinding up for another shot at 200s while I could spend that time putting more effort into forex, game theory (real game theory not poker's limited applications), more advanced econ, learning more programming.. real skills that'll help me in real jobs in the future. I'm conflicted. From where I stand now it seems like keeping poker to a strict two hours a day, almost like a regular gym trip or sax session is best for my future. It's just hard to tell whether the EV of playing at all is worth it relative to other avenues I have to spend my time on.