Thx Dan, next time I will post on the right forum and shot u a PM

Hand 1 I just folded, not really deep enough to set mine and still too early to shove and prey

Hand 2 I check back the flop for couple reasons, this flop hit my opponents defense range more than my raise range, plus I can see the turn card for free. I also check back my entire range that I think I will not get 3 street of value unless my opponent had me beat, hands like one pair, middle pair and under pair, I can also check back, I am in position, I am still in control of the hand. I end up calling the 50k, i check back twice my hand is very face up A high, think back it was bad call because I don't think he is capable try to bluff me off my A high with such big bet because he saw me call down with A high once so he must put that in to consideration. I called and lost to 44, full house

I ended up chop the tournament 3 way, it was good game


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Parx $1200

Bullet 1

Sold 50% for 2 bullets of this MTT then headed down yesterday to play. 50K SS and 45 minute day 1 levels offers a ton of play. I got there for the end of 150/300 and sat down at a somewhat aggressive table but not really the worst. I got up to 56K pretty early when we went 5 ways to the flop and my bet got through with AJhh on K82hh. I then got dealt AK 3 times in an orbit, did not connect with the flop any of those times, had to fold twice and showed down against 99 once to lose. So I was down to 39K when I got dealt AA on the button.

All in with AA

I open to 1300 at 250/500 and BB 3 bets to 2500. The 3b was so small I almost thought he accidentally threw out an extra orange chip while trying to call but he didn't react or anything so I guess it wasn't a mistake. In my experience rec players who 3b really really small often tend to have really strong hands, which would be a dream here with us having AA in a button vs bb confrontation. I 4b to 6800 and he doesn't take a whole lot of time to make it 17.5K. I take some time to think about whether I'd rip KK/QQ/JJ/TT here and just to make sure I'm balanced with how long I'd probably take to 6b all in with a non AA hand, but it ends up not mattering as he snaps with KK after I shove. Flop comes K high and I am off to the cage to re-enter.

Bullet 2, Talkative Table

I end up at a table for bullet 2 where several people are being very loud and having a great time. The interesting part about it was that all of them seemed very comfortable at the table. The one guy started messing with me calling me "college boy" (and this was before he saw my Ramapo College hoodie which was pretty funny), and I think he was probably a bit surprised when I started joking back with him since I imagine I give off the quiet no talking internet kid kinda vibe. He would continue talking to me when we played hands together and I think people subconsciously play slightly different against guys like that. Instead of taking the best lines they're now absorbed in conversation and want to sort of play in flow, check it down more often, etc. I was happy with how I played against him, 3 betting him a couple times despite his "oh boy here comes college kid numbers running through his brain figuring out how much he's going to reraise" sort of comments while I was indeed picking my 3b sizings lol. I think I was playing well, at one point peeling a 3b with T8ss and finding a bet on KT4Q9 after villain checked 3 streets. He snap folded and I most likely had the best hand but I think this villain would be capable of folding a queen or a 10 and he never had the goods after checking river. A few other pots I played had me close to 60K again when the first frustrating hand occurred.

Tough Hand #1, AQs

I open AQcc to 2K at 400/800, button flats, and SB squeezes to 6200. I saw a hand earlier where he had 5400 in front of him in the SB in a bvb hand against the really chatty guy and had to fold to what I imagine was a 5b? Maybe he limp/3b? It was 600bb and I should've been paying more attention but when he folded he accidentally exposed A3cc. I peel the 3b, button folds, and we go to the Q84hhh flop. Villain checks and I elect to check back. Turn (Q84hhh)Tx, villain bets 7K and I call. River (Q84hhhTx)2x villain bets 12K into 30K. Maybe I can find the cape and fold here. It's hard for him to be bluffing but it's also hard for me to have a better hand than this one. I call and get shown AhAd and am down to 30K.

Tough Hand #2, KTs

Very shortly afterwards I open UTG to 2K with KTcc and SB, the talkative guy calling me college kid, flats. He's made some comments about being down 200K in poker (who knows if that's true). He's also referenced playing a lot of cash as opposed to tournaments. He doesn't seem to be afraid to get his chips in there and is having a great time. Flop comes Q86ss and I decide to check back and just give up on this one. I think I'd normally just make this combo one of my give ups but when you add the fact in that I just lost a big pot and a villain like this might perceive me as "tilting" and decide to call down lighter, I just elect to give up. Turn comes (Q86ss)Ks and villain leads 7K into 5K. Wat. I'm pretty lost here. I just tried to give up the pot and then turned top pair which put 3 spades out there. It's sort of a weird spot and then this wildcard sort of player just launches 1.4x pot. I thought some sets and small flushes were possible, along with hands like As-x that are now just trying to win with some equity. Maybe he does this with a hand like JT as well? In the end I decided to fold since I expect a big barrel to come in on the river as well and I don't want to play for stacks in a hand where I tried to give up flop and then turned a very weak top pair. Villain goes to muck his hand and then someone eggs him on to show. He says 74 is his favorite hand and turns over 7h4d.

Dinner Break

I go to dinner with 22K coming back to 1200bb. Joe McKeehen was at my table and we go to Friday's and talk over some hands, and he seemed to think both hands above were fine, and maybe folding river with AQ was possible, but the KT fold seemed alright and it made me feel better. I started to get some thoughts in my head along the lines of "man, if AA holds vs KK I'd only be in for one bullet and wouldn't have ran into any of these silly spots," but I quickly get rid of those thoughts. I used to think like that and it doesn't help at all. Your job as a poker player is to make the best decisions with whatever situation you're put into. To be frustrated that you have to make decisions is unprofessional and bad for your mentality. I go back to from dinner with a stack of 20.2K ready to grind.

Lucky Double

First hand back I get KTss on the button and rip it in. SB isolates KQcc and I am on the ropes. I had a really calm feeling and didn't even so much shift in my chair as hands were exposed. Sure enough flop comes AT4 and I fade turn and river to get back over 40K. A woman named Kat is at my table, and she actually busted me from the Elevator tournament at Borgata a few weeks ago. I wrote the hand in this thread, where I triple barreled for all of it with 98 on a T72A9 runout and she found the call with 97. I can't believe she called turn in that hand but that's the sort of player she is. Really does not like folding.

Back Over Starting

Kat opens HJ to 3200 and I defend BB with A5o. Flop comes KQ9cc goes check check. Turn (KQ9cc)Ac and I c/c a pretty large bet of 4500. River (KQ9cccAc)9x goes check check and I show my hand and win. Which means Kat did not have an ace or a flush or a straight or a boat or a 9. She gave my hand a weird frustrated look so I suppose it's possible she had KQ but I imagine she's betting flop with that hand? Maybe not. In any case I'm back over starting stack!

Rematch with Kat

The last hand of 1200bb Kat opens to 3200 from UTG1 at an 8 handed table and I have JJ on the button. We both have 47K to start the hand and I elect to 3b to 8500. She's been opening a ton and I can certainly flat here, especially with the great structure of the tournament. But I think that's a copout for playing passively and the goal is to get all of the chips. I think her opening range is incredbily wide as she has been opening a lot from every position so I decide to 3b for value. It folds back to her and she takes some time before throwing 3 grays out, making her 4b 18,200 total.

This spot is pretty tough imo. On one hand, if I'm going to 3b JJ, I should probably just be going with it, especially against a player I've labeled as spewy, AND who has history with me bluffing off 40bbs with 98 on T72A9. It won't surprise me if she thinks my 3b is FOS. However, do non-boss-crushers with sick dynamis really EVER 4b light live, especially from these positions? AND, if she were going to be 4 betting a lot of her different value hands, wouldn't she just be all in? Hands like AK and TT that have decided they can't fold probably just rip it in here. So it might be the case that she either has me beat or is bluffing when she makes it this size. And a bluff with a weak hand just seems really unlikely. Picking a hand like AJo or A5s doesn't seem like a level she's going to be on, and even if she were on that level, it probably wouldn't be good given these stack sizes. She'd be making it 18.5K to fold to a 47K shove when she'd need 28.5K to call to win 65K, meaning she needs 30% equity, and as long as I don't have AA (which she blocks) she'll be getting close to the price she needs with those bluffs. So I don't even think we're deep enough for her to be bluffing here.

In the end I said if I'm going to 3b this it has to be to play for stacks. We each have 40bbs that will be 30bbs next hand when we go up to 800/1600. 40 might be a little too deep to get in and I'm sure there's an argument for adjusting the plan, folding to the 4b, and saving 40K and 25bbs for the next level. But I shoved and was shown KK and that was that.

After Parx

NJSCOOP Hyper Turbos

When I came home I realized there was 1 hour late reg on the 9:00 SCOOP hyper turbos so I hopped in. I ran amazingly in the $200 and had the chip lead with 40 left, but then didn't run great the rest of the way. We made the money and with 10 left I was down to 1bb and managed to spin it back up to 10, before losing a few small all ins and then getting A5 in vs QT for the last 4bbs. In these hypers 9bb pots are pretty big and then AK42J runout had me pretttttty frustrated. Finished 10th for $500 with $5K up top in this thing. Thought I might be getting rewarded for perseverance after a frustrating day live and instead just got a frustrating day online. I did end up making like $150 on the mini session and got the NJSCOOP team some points but a win would have gone a long way. Oh well.

Fun Night Planned

One of my friends I used to teach with and I have been trying to meet up recently but can never find a day that works for both of us. Tonight ended up working out and he invited me to, of all things, a poker game at his friend's house, so I'm going to head to that tonight. It looks like we might get dinner beforehand so it'll be nice to catch up. After the game ends I'll head to my college friend's place for her birthday party. Both of these things are in the relative area of where I grew up so I'm hanging out in Hamilton now.

Roommate Frustration

Tomorrow I'll hang out with the family for a little for Mother's Day before heading back to Fair Lawn for the Sunday session. No more live poker for me for a while and it'll be nice to try to get back into the online grind. Our house is absolutely disgusting right now and I guess I'm gonna have to have a serious talk with one of my roommates. He's been cooking a lot to be healthier which is great, but he doesn't clean any of the stuff he uses and everything is coated in old food and it makes me feel sick when I walk into the kitchen. Honestly I think a non-zero part of the reason I've been travelling around a bunch to play live recently is because I feel so frustrated when I'm home during the day by myself. I like to make myself food but literally all of the pots and pans I'd use to do so are dirty because my roommate isn't cleaning them, and when one gets dirty he'll just use a different one the next day until they're all dirty, and then washes one to use it when he needs it. We're gonna start getting bugs and mold, but I feel like me cleaning up after him sets a dangerous precedent of me being the maid during the days so I don't want to do that either. I was hoping maybe he'd have cleaned when I was away for so long but when I came back it was even worse than when I left it.

So anyway, if we get that sorted out I'll be happy being home again, but it's legitimately made me not like being there lately. It feels like disrespect to behave like that when you have roommates. If you live alone and don't care about your own hygiene and the appearance of your place it's one thing, but when you have roommates and do that it just feels like a big F You. I know he doesn't mean it like that but after a point actions speak louder than words! And the really hard part for me is that during the week our schedules do not sync up well for me to casually mention to him that this needs to change. He gets home from work, goes on a run, goes to the gym, and is settled down watching TV at like 9PM. That's way too late for me to be hanging out since I need to start my sessions before 8. Since I'll be home the next few weeks I guess I can find a day to take off to have a talk. It's awkward and frustrating that I have to have this sort of a talk with a 26 year old but it seems like the only option at this point since I've casually mentioned to him before that he needs to clean his stuff, he does it half-assed that same night and then doesn't do it again. And then on the weekends he's always desperate to get out of the house and into the city and I once again have no way of relaying the message. So yeah, chilling at home tonight and then back to Fair Lawn tomorrow. I really enjoy living in Fair Lawn and I really like our house and my roommates so it's time to get us all on the same page with basic cleanliness!

Hah I had a very similar situation with one of my prior roommates. He would make pasta or something, eat it from the pot, let the dog lick the pot, then leave the pot on the floor in the living room for a week. It's definitely uncomfortable to tell someone their being a slob and it's definitely ridic to have to even have that convo with another adult human. Gl with it, hopefully he doesn't just make excuses and get defensive.

In terms of the parx hands I don't think I find a fold with the k10 vs the villain as described. Just seems too likely to be spazzing there.

Yeah luckily my messy roommate is one of my best friends so I think if I make it clear that it's really bothering me he'll respond to it. Or not, we'll see. And the KT I still have no idea, guess I could call turn and fold on spade rivers and just close my eyes and call off when he bombs river. But when I get shown the goods there I feel like I just say "I shoulda known he's got value way more often than not" and feel sick about it. I think we might have literally found the only bluff in his range because it was his "favorite hand" and my fold might still be alright. Again, I'm completely unsure though.

Saturday

Took off from playing online to go visit my buddy who I taught with while I was student teaching high school for a semester. We got some dinner and then I somehow found myself at a poker game his friend was running lol. They had a "high" buy in $100 table and a low buy in $30 table. The only reason I was there was to visit with my friend though so I told the guys playing the $100 game that I'd play if they needed more people but otherwise I'd hang out with my buddy in the $30. They said they needed more and I gave them the full disclosure warning that I played professionally (wasn't trying to piss people off lol). They told me to go play the $30 game hahaha. After some discussion we decided to play a cash game and played 25c/50c since that was just the denomination of chips they decided to use. Naturally I lost $35 but I had a good time and it was good to catch up with my buddy.

I left around 12:00 and made my way to my friend's house for a party she was having for her birthday. Most people who went to my college are from north Jersey so finding people who lived around me was always a funny novelty when I was in school. Well I get to my friend's house, who I've been close with for several years now. I knew she went to Lawrence, a school only 1 mile away from my high school, but didn't know what road she lived on. I pull up to her house and realize I'd ran past it hundreds of times when I was running cross country in high school. The party was fun and I got up in the morning, got some Subway, and went home to visit my mom on Mother's Day.

Sunday

So after busting Parx the only reason I had to stay home Sunday was to visit the family, and specifically my mom, on Mother's Day. My brother came home and asked if I wanted to go on a run. He said it was his long day and I asked him how long that would be; he said 15 miles. No thanks. But his plan was to just run however long I wanted to with me and then head out on the rest. Since I wanted to put in a Sunday session I told him I'd probably go short, but maybe since I was with him it'd be easier to get through the run so I'd be down to go 5. I wanted to run through a park we both like that I knew was 2 miles from our house. The route I was thinking of was more than 5 so we decided I'd play it by ear and we'd just turn around if I didn't want to go that far.

We got about 3 miles into the run and I said screw it let's just do the entire route. It ended up being 7 miles long and we pretty consistently hit 7:00 each mile after our initial 7:25 first mile. I got back, showered, had dinner with the family (London Broil, it was delicious), and then laid around and watched some basketball with my dad. At this point I was feeling dead beat and didn't think I had it in me to drive 70 miles back to Fair Lawn so I decided to play my session in Hamilton. However, my parents both needed to use their main computer for schoolwork so I was stuck on my tablet. Not ideal.

Bad Start to Session

Already feeling tired and playing on a small screen, I only fired up SCOOP events, specifically the $150 and $20 PKOs, the $350 $65K, and the $50 $15K they had running. I got scummed pretty hard in the first 2 to bust both twice with no bounties, and then defended J4s in the $50, x/c'ed J54r vs a big bet from an aggressive opponent, and x/shoved the A turn, getting called by AK. River was a 5 and that was that. I decided at that point not to register anything else. I was tired and frustrated and the $350 $65K was a big enough tournament to put full focus on. I fired up season 2 of Master of None and watched it on my tablet, pausing it whenever I had non trivial decisions in the big tourney.

Stars Sunday Major

The $350 started off quite well. After slowly spinning up my 10K to 30K, including a spot where I x/called river with 99 on KJxTx and was good, I found a few fortunate spots that allowed me to move way up in chips. Dan Buzgon, who is RAVAGING the NJSCOOP contest, I mean to the point where if he defected from his team and was by himself there would only be one team ahead of him right now, opened UTG and button flatted. I peeled 55 in BB and got the 854cc flop. I checked, Dan c-bet, button flatted, and I shoved for a somewhat large sizing. I think if I shove my sets and some combos of my straights then I get to c/shove my club draws and am pretty balanced. Dan found the KK and we held to move up quite a bit.

I believe we were in the money when I picked up KK in EP facing an open from UTG. I can't remember exactly how deep I was but I covered all at the table but one player. That player was in the BB and he 3b squeezed pretty big. UTG folds and I back 4b. Again I forget how deep we were but I'd estimate we were playing 2K or 2500bb and I had 120K and he covered. He shoved and I called and held against QQ to shoot into the CL. I held the chip lead for quite some time and found myself either in the lead or right behind with 18 left and $16K up top.

While this was all going on I registered the 2 late night turbo SCOOPs they had and immediately proceeded to luckbox the **** out of the $300 version. We were near the bubble of that tournament when the big hand took place in the main with 14 left.

I open AJo and a guy named sri100k defends the bb. Sri is very unorthodox and takes some very strange lines, but he is NOT afraid to gamble. He is in the SCOOP contest and though I think he has a lot of work to do with his game, I was considering bidding pretty high on him due to the way he just never quits. He'll launch as many bullets into all of these Stars tourneys as it takes and just never gives up. He also has no fear of playing big pots and seems to sort of disregard ICM. This leads to him being a player who is going to win the tournament or fizzle out a ton of the time, which I think is great to have in a contest that really rewards high podium finishes.

Anyway he defends and we see the AJ8r flop. He x/c's a standard c-bet from me. Turn is a queen (AJ8Q, which completes T9 and the somewhat unlikely KT. He once again x/c's. Against Sri I think I have the best hand here almost always when he takes this line. I think he's just incredibly aggressive and realizes he can just get his nutted hands in now and I won't be folding hands like the one I have now. I also just will really often have very strong hands here, so I think he's just gonna get the KT and T9 in now and try to pot control with all his 2 pair and probably even some weak Ax that might need to be folding turn but won't be folded by this player. River is a brick and he checks again.

I thought about checking back but again, I really think it's unlikely he's going to have better here and we just get value from all the A8/J8/QJ/Q8. I could be value owning myself against AQ and the rare 88/KT/T9 but I just think we have to bet. I remember betting 79975 and Sri raising to 159950, the min. I've got 140K back and need 80K to call. We're playing 6Kbb so if I call and lose I'll have 10BBs. If I fold I'll have under 25bbs. I'm getting an absurd price. The issue I'm facing here is that the x/min doesn't ever seem like it can be a bluff, but I've also already decided that him having better is EXTREMELY unlikely once he checks 3 times. I call and am shown KT. I chip up a little to 90K then open JTdd, c-bet J52 one diamond, shove the 3d turn and am called by a slow played AA and brick the river to bust 12th for $1300.

Turbo 6 Max $300 $25K

I was pretty distraught about busting the main. I don't care specifically about the 5 figure score thing anymore, but I do care about winning $16K lol. I made sure to just keep repeating in my head how important it was to maintain focus in this turbo with $8K up top and 18 players left. I think we were on the stone bubble at this point and I just kept picking up hand after hand with an average stack. It was pretty scary to just keep opening knowing that I was going to be in a very strange spot if 3b by a big stack given we were on a $700 bubble, but folding the AJs and the AQo did not seem like an option. Luckily I wasn't taken advantage of at all and I chipped up nicely before the bubble burst.

It was smooth sailing to the final table of 6. With 7 left I had the other table up and my buddy Jerrad "bbissick" got AK in vs A8 for the chip lead. He covered his opponent by 3 chips, never seen an all in that close when they were each 170K deep lol. An 8 on the flop ended Jerrad's tourney in excruciating fashion. As his friend I felt sick but given he's a great player and he's on another team in the SCOOP contest it was actually really beneficial for me. Jerrad has a great thread in PG&C as well and if you haven't seen it yet you should go check it out!

In typical "new Dan" fashion I swung pretty hard at the final table. I got AQ in vs A6 for a shot at recording the first knockout of the FT and was swiftly met with a 6 on the turn to drop back into the middle of the back. I immediately got that first knockout the next hand with 55>AK of a 7bb shorty to move back up into 2nd with 5 left. Shortly after I tried to record a knockout with KQ vs A7 and was unsuccessful and we were now playing the ICM game. I think I did a really good job of staying patient with <10BBs and picking the right spots to get my stack in while simultaneously giving the other short stacks a chance to bust. I moved up to 3rd and was way behind and one of the first hands of 3 handed play, 2nd place called off a shove with A9o vs the big stack! Big stack was live with QTs! It was for sure a +chipEV call but it felt like an ICM punt to me, which is obviously excellent for me. Unfortunately the A9 held and I busted 3rd for $4500 and a needed 98 points for my team in the competition.

All the SCOOP final tables are replayed in the Stars NJ client so it was cool to rewatch it and think about if I'd have done anything differently. There was one hand where I c-bet ATdd into 2 players on something like Q82r with a diamond. The plan was to barrel off if we picked up a diamond, J, 9, maybe a king. I basically got minraised by the guy in position and I was pretty lost. I just don't think you should be raising any hands in that spot but when randoms do it I *think* they have it a lot so I folded. I went back and checked and was shown he had KQ. It was nice to confirm that my read was correct. I also took an aggressive spot when I was basically tied for 1st against the guy I was tied with. He opened UTG 5 handed (so the HJ) and I 3b QTs on the button. He'd been very active with the chip lead and I felt he might be opening too much and I had a hand that could flop well if he decided to peel. Instead he 4b shoved and I was forced to fold. Watching the replay, he had 88, which is one of the hands that 3b/folding against is pretty awful. I wonder if flatting would be better in that spot, or if it's just unlucky we ran into 88. I think it's probably one of the worst hands he should be 4b shoving given we were both ahead of the other 3 players and there were significant pay jumps. So if he's only shoving 77+ and whatever high cards he picks, then we're usually dominated when 4b shoved on which makes folding fine and maybe 3b/f is okay. But if he's never peeling my 3b and only shoving or folding, then maybe I should flat the QTs and 3b the QTo since postflop playability doesn't matter when he's never flatting and we block some strong value hands with the QT. Shrug.

All in all, tournament poker is pretty sick. I started the day busting a lot of stuff and ready to just be done with it. By the end of the day I'd made $4500 and was tilted that it wasn't a lot more. If you're not happy with a day like that then you're just gonna be upset all the time! But I think it's just the competitor in me and when I take a step back I realize it's all part of it.

Monday

Took the day off and went to sing Karaoke with my roommates and one of their GFs. I belted out Somebody Told Me by the Killers and I was fabulous. This bar is pretty much right next to the one we usually go to so having it walking distance from the house is pretty sweet. One of my teammates managed to take 3rd in the $300 4 max they had last night so that was sweet. I want to post the team scores in here but a lot of them are missing right now so the board is off. We're currently in 3rd with with 513 points; 1st has 1075 and last has 467, so we have some work to do, but again it's missing a ton of the scores, including my 12th in the main and 8th in the $200 win the button. It's also missing my teammates' 3rd in the 4 max, 1st in a 15K on Sunday, and a few other scores. But other teams are missing scores too, so who knows what's going on.

Gonna head out on a run now and then start my session pretty early. A $300 $30K and a $30 $10K start at 6PM, but some satties to the $1000 $85K start around 5:15 so I'm gonna get on then and try to get in there. I'll probably spend up to 1K trying to get into the 1K but will play it by ear. Hopefully I just bink the first one I play and don't have to worry about that. It's also nice this series is on Stars because, unlike the other scam sites, if you win 2 tickets they won't make you forfeit one or jump through hoops to get the T$ back! So I'll feel comfortable playing more than one satty at a time. Hopefully tonight goes well and my team gets back in the mix for this competition!

Last Thing...

Just realized that 3rd in the turbo was my 1000th NJ online cash!

Easy Come Easy Go

Tuesday

Brutal, brutal results-wise. Mental toughness was very good though and I think I played well. Busted the $300 $30K 1st bullet AA<KK for 30K pot with 10K starting stacks. Meanwhile played a bunch of satties to try to get into the $1000 6 max $85K guarantee. First satty awarded 2 seats and I got very fortunate to win a 4 way all in to bring us down to 6. I can't remember the exact hands but I think 2 players in front of me shoved and I had JJ in the SB and reshoved. BB woke up with AA and I spiked a jack for all the chips. When we got down to 4 players I had a small lead but with other players just passing the chips to each other we all ended up quite even. Everyone left was a solid reg in standard MTTs and seemed to understand that calling off was not ideal. Eventually I shove 8BB with 44 in the CO. I think at this point 2 other players had 8BBs and the last player had moved ahead to 14BBs or so. The button, one of the 8BB guys, calls and I assume I'm dead. Instead he has A5s and flops a pair to bust me. Atrocious call off but hey, I almost considered folding 44, so he is just so ridiculously far behind my range that I should be happy he's making insane mistakes like that in satties.

The 2nd satty we get down to 10 players with 6 paying and a reg drops to half a big blind and wishes the field good luck in the 1K. He then proceeds to double vs me 3 consecutive times and then knock me out in the 4th hand we get in against each other. A few minutes later I get 66 in on bullet 2 of the $300, am called by the SB, and the half-a-bb-reg iso's from the BB so I assume I am dead. SB calls and somehow they show up with AK and AQ and I have pretty sweet equity to have some chips in this. Flop comes A high and we're on to bullet 3.

Luckily I do manage to satty into the 1K eventually but I bust it quickly. I run a bluff with 87 on 963dd3xQd (something like that) where I defend BB, x/x flop, bet turn bet river. Aggressive reg raises small on the river and I elect to fold. It didn't feel like he repped much but on the flip side I have 8 high. He was streaming so I check out the hand to see he had JTo. Turn float was interesting and raising river repped very little. Maybe I need to take more time in those spots and consider 3b shoving when like the only hands I can think he reps there are 99/66/33. Later against the same reg I open KTo on the button, both blinds call, flop comes T55 and reg c/r's the BB. We get it in on a later street and I bust to AT.

I brick bullet 3 of the $300 and convince myself to fire a 4th despite getting 10K at 400/800. With the bankroll over $30K and the competition on the line I decided I'd try to show some heart and right the ship on the day. Sure enough I run good and spin it up to 30K at 700/1400 with 35 left and 21 paying. There's $8300 up top and I feel like I'm starting to finally realize that this fear I have of losing 4 figures in a day is so silly. I'm rolled to do it and when there's that sort of money up top, 4 figure losing days are pretty small in comparison. So anyway, half-a-bb-reg opens in EP and I rip 20BBs in the SB with QQ. He finds KK and I bust. Very frustrating day! I still have a lot of chips in the $100 low version of the 6 max but there is a massive 424 player field that I'll have to navigate through. I cash but bust when I defend A7 and c/c 3 streets on A2397 for stacks and get shown the A9.

My mindset was good throughout the session and I was proud of how I played. Nonetheless, we booked a $1700 loss on the day.

Wednesday

The SCOOP events yesterday were just $200 and $20 PKOs with $20K and $5K guarantees respectively. I got a knockout in the $200 early when SB found himself with 500 chips from 10K at 20/40 and somehow the table folded to him. He ripped SB and I'd be calling any two in the BB but was lucky enough to find TT and beat J2 for the KO. I then got 4K each in with AKs vs JJ but was unable to win, and grinded that 5K stack for an hour or two. Later a player opens EP, MP calls, I call QThh in the SB and flop comes AKJr. I elect to c/c the c-bet (I think c/r'ing would've been fine too) and the turn is the Jh, giving me a royal flush draw to boot. We get it in and I bust to KJ.

I re-enter the $200 and after getting my stack up to 30K I fizzle out and bust shy of the money. Meanwhile I was playing all 3 of the 10Ks and had potential in all 3. First up is the WSOP 10K, where after building a stack I am down to 30K at 1K/2K on the stone bubble, 21 left with 20 paying. HJ opens with a big stack, CO flats, I 3b shove JJ on the button and lose to HJ's AQo to stone bubble. We make the money of the Stars 10K with a short stack and I get my last 10BBs in with JJ. A shorter stack has 33 and the stack that covers us has AQ. Board runs xxxx3 and while I do win an 8BB side pot, the 18BB main pot goes to the 33 and I feel a bit tilted.

Over in the Party 10K I have a ton of chips with 18 left. I'm sitting on 90K at 600/1200 and with 12 paying it appears I'm going to be able to salvage the day with this tournament and at least still have some chance over on Stars. I get into a 100K pot with KK and am flopped dead by AK when it comes A8A, leaving me with a still workable 40K at 1200bb. With 14 left I am down to 32K at 1600bb and I open A8dd in the CO. With the SB at 16K I assume I was folding if he shoves but the BB at 11K meant I'd have to call off. It folds to the BB who defends.....Flop comes JJ3 and I elect to check back. Turn is a 6d, giving me the nut flush draw, and he leads for the minimum. I shove and he snaps with J5o and I brick river. Earlier in the $200 PKO I opened button and SB called for less so bounty is on the line, and BB defends J5o and gets the JJ5 flop. So the whole J5o defend thing was sorta kicking my ass last night.

I drop to 18K and now we are on the stone bubble with 13 left and 12 paying. There are 3 other stacks, 2 at the other table and 1 at mine, who each have almost exactly 18K as well. I get dealt 88 UTG and timebank down to make sure no one at the other table busts. When they don't, I shove and am called by the BB, who now has over 100K since he had the AK when I had KK. He has AJ and a jack in the window means I stone bubble my 2nd 10K of the night on a flip after having a ton more chips earlier in the MTT. At that point I started throwing **** lol.

It's been a long time since I've gotten mad enough to fling poker chips across the room! I'm not proud of myself when I do that, but I am human and I think I've decided that I'm not going to beat myself up over it. If it happens more frequently that once every couple of months, I'll reevaluate because that would be unacceptable. But after Tuesday's session and Wednesday's session and having 100K in the Party 10K and losing a ton of flips and the KK<AK for it all and staying positive through a tonnn of negative variance in the last 2 days, I think it was reasonable for me to freak out a little over stone bubbling 2 MTTs like that. Over on the Stars 10K a reg shoves 7BBs in MP, I call with 8BBs to start with A8o in the BB and lose to his K9s. Next hand I get 22 in vs his AK for my last 1.5bbs and it runs QJxxT. These last 2 days have not been my days!!

But outside of the chip throwing incident I am pretty happy with how I've been handling myself. It's frustrating to lose like that in consecutive days...I ended up losing $850 yesterday...but I mean c'mon, I took 3rd in a $300 turbo on Sunday for $4500. That's incredibly lucky. And even if I didn't have a profitable Sunday, I'm rolled for these games and there's nothing to stress about when I'm playing well and running bad. I'm finally starting to embrace the variance and completely not give a **** about it. Outside of the intensity of it all in the moment that is . When a bunch of **** goes wrong in a row I can have that little mental lapse for 5 minutes or less, which isn't good but it's better than tilting or being upset about it after the session. But yeah, down $2500 in the last 2 days bringing the roll from $32.5K to $30K.

Bankroll Goals

The goal right now is to get the roll to $30K in the same way it's been $25K all year. Any money that goes above $30K will be taken out, and when I'm below $30K I'll be in my own personal makeup. I was waiting until the end of the month to take money off, and I'll probably continue to do that. The unfortunate thing is that taxes are a thing in the States, and since I haven't withdrawn any money since the roll was $25K, I'll have to pay taxes on any money that I'm up over $25K. So $32.5K was perfect because I take 1/3 of my profit and put it into savings for taxes whenever I withdraw money. So I was up $7500, divided by 3, $2500, put it away and voila, $30K bankroll remaining. Now at $30K, I've got to spin it back up by the end of the month to get there.

Maybe subconsciously that's why I got so frustrated last night. But I'm not gonna let any of that affect me while I play the rest of the money. Whatever happens with the roll happens. I'll do my best to put in volume, focus on decisions, play my best, and the rest is not up to me. I'm going to make sure I stick to the 1% bankroll guidelines, outside of the NJSCOOP Main Event. It's a $500 buy in $200K guarantee 2 day tournament, and I'll be firing at least 2 bullets if need be. If I bust 2 I'm going to have to figure out what to do. But I am sure that I will decide how many I'm willing to fire BEFORE Sunday starts so that I'm not making that decision while playing and feeling remorse if I bust a 3rd or whatever. I'm excited to keep grinding and keep trying to spin this bankroll up.

Running

Been a while since a proper running update. I've ran 38 consecutive days now. Unlike the original streak, I haven't had much motivation to continue upping my miles on a consistent basis. When I'm tired, I just run 3 miles, which has happened a lot lately. For perspective on each streak, my first 5 weeks of total mileage in the first streak, by week, were 21--28--36--43--41. The first 5 weeks of this streak have been 27--33--23--23--29. In that 2nd week I was getting amped but then week 3 I went to AC and it was back to chilling at the minimum. I did the 7 with Jon on Sunday, then back to 3 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, and 4 yesterday. Yesterday it was a little over 80 degrees at 11AM which is hotter than I've experienced all year and I split the 1st mile at exactly 7:00. From there I decided I'd try to hit every mile at 7:00 since I've been running faster each mile pretty much every run. Mile 2 was 6:56, mile 3 was 6:57, mile 4 was 6:55. I was legitimately trying to slow myself down each of those miles but once I get going my body just does not want to stay at 7:00 pace. I got pretty close though and did not feel too tired after the run.

Today is going to be crazy though. I had a tough time sleeping last night and didn't nod off until around 4am, then inexplicably woke up at 1pm today! I checked my phone to look at the temperature outside, only to see it was 95 degrees!!! That's 35 celcius for my European buddies. It is going to be BRUTAL out there today. I mean yesterday was the first day I can remember it being over 80 degrees so far this year and now it's 95!!! I was planning on going 5 or 6 miles today since yesterday felt so good and I could practice splitting exactly 7:00 per mile, but that is definitely not happening with this weather. I'll do the 3 mile minimum and will run to a park that's less than a half mile from our house and just run laps around it. Just in case I start to feel sick or whatever from the heat, I'll still be close to home. Gonna go do that now, wish me luck!

Thursday

A few things I noticed by the end of my session tonight:

--I'm playing pretty fearlessly and for sure playing the best poker of my life.
--I'm taking the NJSCOOP competition too seriously and am getting way too upset about losing those tournaments specifically.
--I'm handling running bad worse than I thought I would be at this point. I think it's a reflection of how good I've been running that when a few sessions in a row lead to a few brutal beats per night in big spots, I'm losing my composure. Not towards the game, but just physically in real life with slamming my mouse or chips or whatever.
--Even when I'm running bad and losing huge chip lead pots with the best of it, I'm still able to win tournaments.

I busted the WSOP 10K early on today, KK<KJ for a relatively small pot. No real reaction from me.

I busted 3 bullets of the $100 SCOOP PLO, actually was ahead in 2 of those bust hands! No real reaction.

For the second night in a row I lost a 6 figure pot in the Party 10K. I was playing well, running well, and catching punts from some crazy spazzes in this thing and built up a huge chip lead. Here's a hand I played against a solid reg who I've talked about in an earlier post. I decided he wasn't repping enough, I blocked the nuts, and I feel like I've been getting exploited by this minraise sizing in the past. With all the chips and something telling me this would work, I went for it:

***** Hand History for Game 169209168 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $109 USD Buy-in Trny:106550780 Level:13 Blinds-Antes(500/1,000 -125) - Thursday, May 18, 22:25:29 EDT 2017
Table MAJOR. Daily $10K [Re-Entry] (106550780) Table #7 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 8/9
Seat 4: Colonel_Forbin ( 41,363 )
Seat 6: JohnnyDrama ( 56,457 )
Seat 1: RvrCrdBING ( 17,944 )
Seat 2: SLHalper13 ( 49,718 )
Seat 3: Selurznug ( 67,353 )
Seat 7: mj23style ( 97,938 )
Seat 8: pay4medsch00l ( 20,701 )
Seat 5: stopcallinme ( 14,135 )
Trny:106550780 Level:13
Blinds-Antes(500/1,000 -125)
RvrCrdBING posts ante [125]
SLHalper13 posts ante [125]
Selurznug posts ante [125]
Colonel_Forbin posts ante [125]
stopcallinme posts ante [125]
JohnnyDrama posts ante [125]
mj23style posts ante [125]
pay4medsch00l posts ante [125]
mj23style posts small blind [500].
pay4medsch00l posts big blind [1,000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mj23style [ Kd 7c ]
RvrCrdBING folds
SLHalper13 folds
Selurznug folds
Colonel_Forbin folds
stopcallinme folds
JohnnyDrama folds
mj23style calls [500]
pay4medsch00l checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, Qc, 4s ]
mj23style bets [1,200]
pay4medsch00l calls [1,200]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
mj23style bets [2,875]
pay4medsch00l raises [5,750]
Your time bank will be activated in 6 secs. If you do not want it to be used, please act now.
mj23style is all-In [92,738]
pay4medsch00l will be using their time bank for this hand.
pay4medsch00l folds
mj23style does not show cards.
mj23style wins 106,763 chips

After this hand, the 6 figure pot came when I got in AK vs QQ for 120K. Whoever won the pot would have the chip lead, and I was so far ahead of the field going into the hand that I'd still have 50K back if I lost. I did lose, but it was against a friend of mine so it was easier to not be too upset about it. I did go on to finish 14th with 12 paying after losing AQ to 22 for a 50K pot, leaving me with 30K at 2Kbb, then QJs<AJ for the rest. Still, not much of a reaction.

I was running very good in the Thursday Thrill and playing really really well. With 6 left and 5 paying I'd picked up about $200 worth of bounties ($250 buy in...$116.50+$116.50+$17) and was 3/6 on the bubble. I then played this hand, which coincidentally was once again against the same reg previously mentioned:

PokerStars Hand #170063725648: Tournament #1622555168, $116.50+$116.50+$17.00 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (1600/3200) - 2017/05/18 22:44:12 ET
Table '1622555168 2' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: monkeyman067 (149664 in chips, $305.81 bounty)
Seat 3: FizzEdJohn (92922 in chips, $233 bounty)
Seat 5: wizzid (80480 in chips, $174.75 bounty)
Seat 6: RahwayPoker0 (127210 in chips, $262.12 bounty)
Seat 8: MartinChatwn (240003 in chips, $320.37 bounty)
Seat 9: tpop86 (159721 in chips, $582.50 bounty)
monkeyman067: posts the ante 320
FizzEdJohn: posts the ante 320
wizzid: posts the ante 320
RahwayPoker0: posts the ante 320
MartinChatwn: posts the ante 320
tpop86: posts the ante 320
MartinChatwn: posts small blind 1600
tpop86: posts big blind 3200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to monkeyman067 [Td Tc]
monkeyman067: raises 3200 to 6400
FizzEdJohn: folds
wizzid: calls 6400
RahwayPoker0: folds
MartinChatwn: raises 12800 to 19200
tpop86: folds
monkeyman067: calls 12800
wizzid: folds
*** FLOP *** [3h 2h Qs]
MartinChatwn: bets 11200
monkeyman067: calls 11200
*** TURN *** [3h 2h Qs] [4c]
MartinChatwn: bets 27200
monkeyman067: calls 27200
*** RIVER *** [3h 2h Qs 4c] [8c]
MartinChatwn: bets 182083 and is all-in
monkeyman067: calls 91744 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (90339) returned to MartinChatwn
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MartinChatwn: shows [2d Ah] (a pair of Deuces)
monkeyman067: shows [Td Tc] (a pair of Tens)
monkeyman067 collected 310208 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 310208 | Rake 0
Board [3h 2h Qs 4c 8c]
Seat 2: monkeyman067 showed [Td Tc] and won (310208) with a pair of Tens
Seat 3: FizzEdJohn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: wizzid folded before Flop
Seat 6: RahwayPoker0 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: MartinChatwn (small blind) showed [2d Ah] and lost with a pair of Deuces
Seat 9: tpop86 (big blind) folded before Flop

I tanked river for a while, counted up the combos of hands I thought he had for value vs as a bluff, and decided there were way more bluffs, especially since we were on the stone bubble and he'd know I would want to call way tighter in this spot. He might even size his value hands differently on earlier streets so that we weren't playing for stacks. In any case, this vaulted me way into the chip lead and I won a flip to bust the same reg in 6th. I found a way to fall back into 3/3 but then the absolute whale at the table busted the other player and I was down 3:1 to start heads up, with a $500 difference between 1st and 2nd and about $1200 in bounties to play for. Luckily it was his 105BBs to my 35BBs with 15 minute levels so I'd have a lot of time to try to bring it back.

Meanwhile I still had the $100 SCOOP event running, where I found myself jamming 12BBs in the CO w A5o with 48 remaining and 39 paying. BB snaps with JJ and the board runs 23433. BAM, I smash the chips I've been shuffling on the desk in front of me. It's just a really immature thing to do. The combination of busting the Party 10K the same ridiculous way back to back days, with the frustration of not running over the Thrill FT after busting the only good reg left (I was heads up with a shot at this point so that's extra ridiculous), combined with not putting up the points I want to in the SCOOP contest, all let itself out with the desk slam. It's not good and that's back to back days of letting my anger manifest physically so I might need to go back to the drawing board and try meditating or reading or something again to help lessen the chances I continue acting like an idiot.

Anyway, back to HU in the Thrill, it was easy to tell my opponent played emotionally, sometimes walking me a few hands in a row and then 6x'ing a few hands in a row. I decided I'd try to take as low variance spots as possible and just wear him down. Eventually I open AA on the button and he just pots it in the BB. I 4b smallish but feel like it didn't matter what size I made it, he had a hand he would not be folding. He shoves and I see he's been super coolered with the AK. I'd already chipped away at him so I've now got him 700K to 150K.

He wins a few pots in a row and then limps the SB. I 3x the BB with QQ and continue on T97cc, he raises really fast, and I know he has a strong hand but QQ just has to go in. He can easily have a pair+draw or even just a 10, but unfortunately this time it's J8 and I'm back to having a small lead.

We continue to battle and I chip away a bit before finally opening Q8 30bbs deep and seeing a 873hh flop. I c-bet and he quickly c/r's quite big. Again, all the draws are there so I put it in and this time he snaps with T7. Guess he was just tired of folding pairs. Board bricks out and I win all the bounties and 1st in the Thrill for a combined $3259.06.

With that win I finish the day up $2447 which wins back all but $122 of the losses from the last two days. Despite it feeling like everything that could go wrong did these past 3 days, one tournament led to it being a break even stretch. While I'm not happy with how I let my anger get the best of me in brief moments of bad judgment, I never tilt and am constantly looking for the best lines and every small edge I can gain. I am always considering whether or not bet 2nd pair on the river for value, or whether or not turning 3rd pair on a scary board into a bluff is best. I try to never complacently make a crying call or a "standard" fold when it's possible that some deeper thought will lead to a more creative and profitable play.

In short, I'm thrilled with how I'm playing right now.

Please excuse my pun

What happen to Chris moneymaker, he is playing every low buy in tournament in AC, lol, from borgata to golden nugget to Bally, I play with him a lot nowadays, lol


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This is the hand I go against him, it's later stage of the tournament, he came to the table with a lot of chip, more than 200k with bb1.5/3k, I have 100k
Saw him making move and 3b light, he is come here to play. Mp limo he raise cutoff 6.5k, btn call sb fold, I had Q5s, easy call for me, mp call. Flop 953 rainbow, I check, mp check, he bet 10k, btn fold, I call, mp fold, turn 9 , I check, he bet 20k, I call, river Q, I check, he put me all in, I call


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did you win grinder? best story ITT IMO


ETA-I feel like the sarcasm might not come off like i meant it. This isn't the thread for that, grinder.

ETA #2-nice win the other day redsox. I don't post much but I'll read any update you give

ETA #3-**** the Red Sox

He had K3o for the bluff
We had history before we play at borgata the deep stack event, same situation he move to my table with a lot of chips, and has the look to battle, again saw him making move on very polarizing spot that he can't really rep much but still do it
This is the hand, he raise KO, btn call, I flat QdJd
Flop Ad7d8h
I check, he bet btn fold, I call, turn 9d
I check, he bet, I call
River 5s
I check he push I call, he show KdTd
This hand really isn't mean much but I will call him much lighter even I don't have the flush but only a good A, that being said, because his style that I observed on the table I will always call him down with reasonable showdown hand. He some time will show up good hand but mostly he doesn't, that lead to the call down for above hand


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Hey grinder, I asked you not to post hand histories in here once before. Please cut it out so I don't have to report any posts.

xnbomb, thanks for ETA #2, always nice to know when someone's following along. And as for ETA #3...how dare you sir! How dare you!

Sorry dan never again


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Enjoy the recaps of your sessions as well including the new running portions. Gl today!

Thanks! Will definitely keep including those. It'll be 6 full consecutive weeks after I run today and my longest streak from earlier this year was exactly 9 weeks, so hopefully I can make this one the longest yet!

Sunday

Today was a weird one. I made about $1300 when the dust cleared but had a bitter taste in my mouth by the end of it. I guess that's pretty much every day when it comes to tournament poker; if you don't win the MTT then your last hand was a losing one, and no one likes losing. I want to always stay positive and not focus on the losses, but just for the sake of getting my thoughts out, I'll write everything down here.

$200 NLHE/PLO SCOOP PKO Event

At 2:00 today the high and low versions of an NLHE/PLO hybrid began, and the tourneys were progressive knockouts to make it that much more interesting. I late regged almost as late as I could and got my day started a little before 5PM. I busted my first bullet with QQ vs AQ to a rivered queen but then began to sun run the 2nd bullet. I *think* I had the chip lead when the final table started; if not, it was close. I'm quite happy with how I played the NLHE portion of that FT. It will be on replay in the NJ client and I had a few hands I was very happy with. I got a 4b through where the 3 bettor showed me an ace while folding; I could not beat that card lol. I played a hand vs a reg who desperately tries to beat me in every pot we play where I called AJs in the SB vs an EP open, x/c'ed an all low card flop (think I had a bdfd), x/c'ed the Ax turn, and x/snapped off the Jx river to bust him in a huge pot for a big bounty. He had QTo and just decided to commit ICM suicide rather than ever give up on a pot against me

We were all pretty even in chips throughout 3 handed play. Progressive knockouts are awesome for the final table of tournaments for two reasons in my opinion. First, the value of the knockouts, even at the FT, is non-negligible, meaning that while the $460 payjump from 3rd to 2nd is important, so is winning the $1000 bounty on 2nd place's head! Our 3 handed bounties were me and another player each at $1100, and the 3rd player at $400. So I had much more incentive to try to eliminate the $1100 bounty guy. The second reason I love PKO FTs is that ICM becomes much less important since allll the money is up top. The top 3 payouts were $2400, $1800, $1400 for this tournament. But after 3rd place busted to the other player in the tourney, there was now $1100 on my head and almost $1000 on his head, meaning that not only were we playing for that $600 jump between 1st and 2nd, we were playing for the total of our 2 bounties, so an additional $2100! So now 2nd place is $1800 and 1st is $2400+$2100=$4500, making the heads up match worth $2700 in a tourney where I'd only locked that same amount up so far!!!

Which is what made the bad beat so much more brutal . Funny enough it came during the PLO stage. I opened the button with KKT3 at 8K/16K. I had 525K to start the hand and villain had 575K. Villain pots to 96K. Starting heads up I felt comfortable with my HU NLHE edge against this opponent so my plan was to try to make sure I didn't make any massive mistakes heads up. If that meant giving up some slight equity pre in order to ensure I didn't do anything awful post, so be it. So I potted it back to 288K. It might be really bad, it might be standard, I have no idea. But I figured this hand is good enough to go with heads up but does not flop well at all. If he has aces so be it, but otherwise I imagine I'm a favorite. He tanks for a bit then shoves, I call, and he has the AKQ6. Flop 876, turn 3, river Q, and just like that I get rivered for a $2700 PLO pot! Definitely did not think I'd ever be saying that!

NJSCOOP Main Events

In any case the $2700 score was a nice way to start the day. In fact, my day did start slightly earlier when I won not 1 but 2 tickets to the $500 NJSCOOP main. The first was essentially a giveaway, an all in shootout for those who had played enough SCOOP events or something, where the top 20 got a seat out of 300 or so entries, so that was very fortunate. The 2nd was a 5000 Stars Coin ($50) satty with 20 seats added, so that was a sick one to win too. I quickly spun the 15K starting stack up to 40K before losing KK to QQ for a big one to drop back down to starting. I busted, re-entered, and busted the first hand of bullet 2. I took a break and focused on other tourneys before late regging with a couple minutes to go one last time, this time for the actual $500. I managed to spin that up to 50K or so before going really card dead at a solid aggressive table. Eventually got my last 11BBs in with KJo against 77 and did not win. I busted 62nd with 53 paying a minimum of $1250 which was quite frustrating.

I managed to fire 7 bullets into the $50 $30 low version of the main lol. I did spin bullet 7 up from 15K to 150K before dropping to 100K and getting it in with AQ against JJ at 6Kbb. Again, no dice, and I busted 80th or so for about $150.

Rest of the Day

Managed to mincash the $75 hyper SCOOP tourney and was left with just the Borgata 10K left. For the 3rd time in a row playing that tourney I had heaps early and then lost a nasty pot to drop back to being short stacked near the money. This time it was at 1200bb again, with UTG shoving 18K. I had about 75K and flatted QQ in MP, only to be met with another shove from the button for 35K total. I called and lost to the button's KK. UTG had A7 and is one of the top regs in NJ. I love this state.

This time though, unlike the last 2, I managed to make the money and the FT. I ran good to make the top 5 and then lost with AA twice, getting it in behind postflop both times. I started each hand with <30bbs and I think folding in either spot would have been a mistake but they could have been close. Either way, pretty frustrating, and I busted 5th for $700ish.

Sunday Recap

I had a weird feeling throughout the day that I'd reverted back to my old nitty self. I started getting a similar feeling to the one I had in the last $2700 Borgata main. Like I wasn't taking spots because I was afraid to make a mistake in a structure that allows you to take forever to pick your spots. I'll have to go back and review and make sure that I really was just card dead. That's definitely how it felt, but it's possible it's just an excuse and I wasn't taking the close-ish spots that I needed to be. I am sure I wasn't dealt any premiums for my last 100 hands or so, but that doesn't mean there weren't spots to be found.

If I could make $1300 every day I'd be a lucky guy so I guess that's one way to look at things. Just gonna keep trying to improve and stay optimistic about it all. I managed to stay above the threshold needed for me to withdraw money for taxes and still stay above $30K, so that will be the new number I keep the bankroll, replacing $25K. I think I've been feeling more stressed out without the concrete number in my head. I didn't have a specific goal of what I wanted the roll to be at, so I'd just want it to be the max, so when I didn't win whatever tournament was playing I'd get overly frustrated. When the threshold was $25K and I had, say, $23.8K, I could sort of have that $1200 goal for the day as a benchmark, and if I made more than that, I'd feel a sense of satisfaction, and if I made less, I just had a new goal for the next day.

Without that number to shoot for, if I don't make the max for the day, I feel frustrated and don't get that satisfaction. It's a very strange mental trap for me but I think that realizing it exists is important in making sure I continue to feel good mentally going forward. In the future I might try to make it a monthly goal to up the bankroll by $5K, meaning I'd need to make $7500 in order to take $2500 off for taxes. So if I started with $30K next month, I'd look at $37.5K as that goal I'm aiming for. If I get there, great, if not, I'll just come back stronger the next day. This would all be dependent on having money in the bank of course; if I was short in that department then $30K could just stay the benchmark and any money made over that number would be withdrawn. In any case, it'll be fun to play around with ideas like that going forward and see what works best for me. I don't like the feeling of my life not progressing, and building the bankroll makes me feel like at some point down the road I'll be comfortable to just start ripping a majority of the live tournaments I play on my own dime. That might turn into a long term goal: attempting to up the BR by $5K each month, or get it to $100K by the end of 2018, or something along those lines. Eventually I'll have a concrete idea of what I want to do and when I do I'll write it down somewhere in this thread.

Friday/Saturday

Friday afternoon I took a train to the city and hung out with my buddy Greg at his place for a while. He's a really good guy and I think I've gotten a lot closer with him in the last year or two. We were always friendly in college and we roomed together our junior and senior year, but he was the only one of the four of us who lived together and didn't run cross country, so I naturally spent a lot more time with my other two roommates, Tee Dubs and Aaren (and I still do live with Tee Dubs today). The more I talk to Greg though the more I see we have in common so it's nice to hang out with him sometimes, especially since he, being a graduate student, has some similar off hours as I do when everyone else is at work. Anyway, Greg had some people over Friday night and we all went out in the city and had a good time. The next day he was having a big group go out to brunch but I wasn't able to make it since a childhood friend of mine was getting married, so I just made sure to at least show up on Friday.

We didn't end up getting to bed until 4AM and I had to make sure to get up at 9AM to catch a train to be in time for this 2PM wedding. I managed to get up at 9:20 which I was very proud of and was out the door by 9:30. Hailed a cab and got to Penn Station around 9:50, plenty of time for the 10:10 train which got me back to my place just before 11. I hopped in my car and drove to my home in Hamilton and managed to get there at 12:15. My dad, who is the godfather of the girl getting married since he's that close to her dad, seemed ready to leave as soon as I got home but after seeing the wedding was only 35 minutes away, I decided to get my run in then. I was really proud of myself for finding a way to run on a day where there just seemed there would be no time. Got my 3.1 miles in in 21:24, showered, got in my car and got to the wedding at 1:58. Never in doubt.

The wedding was nice and went until about 3:15 but then the reception wasn't until 5:00! I went to a diner with my parents and two of their friends and had a really great time. They were all hilarious and it was really fun to sit around and talk with them. Of course the question came up of what I do for a living and my parents' friends seemed really interested in it. One of the coolest things about the whole night for me was that my dad, in multiple conversations with multiple people, not only talked about me being a poker player, but excitedly explained how I "keep track of everything really well" and "have complex spreadsheets" and "never wager more than a certain percentage of his bankroll."

Not only does he really listen to all of the stuff I tell him about it, he just seems genuinely proud of what I'm doing. I'm almost getting choked up thinking about it; my mom was saying the same sort of things in other conversations too. They didn't like the idea of me doing this when I started it, they made a deal that if I got my degree that it would be up to me, and then they accepted me trying it after I held up my end of the agreement, even though I could tell they still weren't thrilled. But after I proved to them that I really do know what I'm doing, instead of being stubborn about their original beliefs about it all, they not only accept it but encourage me and even brag about it to other people. It's really touching to me.

The place they had the reception was really fancy, and after a pretty long time standing around with appetizers we went into the main room around 6:00. A bunch of typical wedding reception stuff happened and around 7:30 when the entree still hadn't come out and people were dancing I decided to bail. My stomach was bothering me the whole night and I was considering trying to go back to NYC to go out again with the group that hung around after the brunch. I also found myself feeling a little bit sad at the wedding. As much as I've been feeling better in these last few months about my breakup with Kelsey, I still think about a lot of the good times we had. I was really happy for my friend getting married but when the DJ had all the couples report to the dance floor and literally only my brother (who's girlfriend just wasn't at the wedding) and I remained at the table of 10, I decided I was about done with it.

I drove back to Fair Lawn and when I got there I decided I was just too tired to get back out to the city. A girl I've sorta kinda been talking to (nothing serious right now, if it goes anywhere I'll report back), who was at the bar with us for a little bit Friday night, was at the brunch and went out afterwards so I was frustrated that I wasn't feeling up to going, but I knew my ass would've been dragging and I just wouldn't have enjoyed myself had I gone. I'm definitely not trying to hop back into a relationship anytime soon but it's been over a year since Kelsey and I split up. I was a mess the first six months and it reflected in how poorly I did with poker. I rebounded nicely and had a big attitude adjustment at the start of 2017 and that also has reflected nicely with how well poker has gone. But through all of that time I have really not even tried the tiniest bit to start talking to girls again. I'm really enjoying the single life, the pursuit of success in poker, and hanging out with my friends, but after a year it probably is time I start picking back up with that part of my life as well. No rush though as I'm loving the freedom of being able to just go anywhere and do anything I want without having someone to worry about while I do it!

Hey Andrew I haven't checked in in awhile so It's great to see you're still grinding... I'm loving your hand analysis and descriptions; it's only been around five or six months since I was regularly reading your updates so to see the progress you've made in your game and writing is really impressive. I'm back grinding small stakes on ignition and working on my game so I'll probably be checking in a little more often. Gl gl!

Oh, and I'm not sure how comfortable your are disseminating strat outside of your hand analysis, but you seem very confident in your ICM game and I've noticed some different interpretations than my own, so was wondering if you have any suggestions for ICM study? Thanks

And finally (limit 3 edits per post)

A big ol' GZ on this

Hey who's Andrew! My name's Dan! lol but thanks for the nice comment.

As far as ICM goes do you have any specific examples of where our strategies have varied? I believe ICMizer is a great tool but I'm pretty dumb and have yet to really try to use it much. I'm a math nerd so I've actually done manual calculations before just to see what sort of hands make profit and which need to be folded in specific FT spots.

I remember once going through a couple spots with Jerrad ("bbissick, 2nd shoutout in a week to Jerrad, check out his PG&C thread!) of a hyper turbo I final tabled once. I shoved the button with AQ and 11bbs or something like that with 7 people left while I was in the middle of the pack, 4th place maybe. I think it was the SB who called me with A5o, had me covered, and got there to knock me out. Jerrad said something along the lines of "well that sucks but we want that call there all day," to which I responded "do we??" So we went through and manually mathematically tried to determine if we actually wanted that call lol.

The way you would do this manually (again, ICMizer might be the best way to go but I like to know HOW the number that gets spit out is determined, not just WHAT it is) would be to determine your equity in the hand (AQo vs A5o has 72% equity, but you could do this with your hand vs his range, or your range vs his hand, or range vs range, etc) and then determine what happens for each outcomes. So 72% of the time I would have x chips, and 28% of the time I would have 0 chips and finish in 7th place. You'd also determine what your stack would be had both blinds just folded. Now you would open an ICM calculator (I always just google it and the first result works well) and plug in what stacks would be after you won the all in, and then see what your stack would be worth. Then you'd plug in what stacks would be had both blinds folded, and see what your stack would be worth.

Once you have those numbers it's a pretty simple equity calculation. You know how much your stack would be worth had you won the pot preflop, and now you determine how much your stack is worth on average when SB calls with A5o. 72% of the time it is worth x dollars, and 28% of the time it is worth 7th place money. So .72x + .28(7th place money) = dollar equity when called. If that number is higher than your stack is worth when you get folds, you want a call, otherwise you want a fold. I think in our example it turned out that getting a call was worth an additional 10% of a buy in compared to getting folds, so it was really really close. But I felt I had an edge on the field, meaning my stack was worth more than the raw ICM numbers, so I think we ended up deciding that dollar-wise, we were pretty indifferent to him calling or folding, despite the fact that common sense says we want a call when we have AQ and he has A5!

Anyway, really long answer to a pretty simple question. The example I just gave was just something I did out of curiosity, but you could definitely use it for real calculations that will help you determine whether or not you should call off in a certain spot. If you did the math from the perspective of A5o he is losing a TON of money by calling there. So if I'm breaking even and he's losing money, where is that money going? To the rest of the players at the final table! This is why ICM calls for such a nitty approach; whenever other players at the table get the money in against each other, you really are making money and equity by just sitting out. So to sum it all up...

TL;DR: Check out ICMizer, and if you really like doing math out on your own, try to do some stuff manually.

Great post thanks

No problem!

On a side note, if anyone's ever interested in coaching feel free to reach out to me via PM, Twitter, PocketFives, wherever. I have a degree in math with a certification in teaching and have previously coached a player who has told me he's gotten a lot out of our sessions. I haven't really publicly advertised the whole coaching thing but that could definitely be on the horizon.

Mind. Blown.

Yesterday/Today's Current Session

Lost pretty much every hand of importance yesterday, including a flip for 10% of the chips in play with 25 left in the Stars 10K to end the session, to finish down about $800 on the day.

Played some satties to the $500s today, spent about $180 and did win a seat to the WSOP $500. Started up my session decently and elected to play the Party $535, and then was promptly told to go **** myself in the big buy in events.

Close Spot with A5s vs a Fish

Won a pot vs guy with half a starting stack with KK vs 54dd all in on T32dd which was pretty sweet. Zero things have gone right in this session since then. The end result of this close spot is we're all in on the turn with me having 12 outs and him having 2. The rest of the deck chops:

***** WSOP.com-NJ Hand History for Game 486947388 *****
$80/$160 Blinds No Limit Holdem - *** 23 05 2017 21:31:42
Tournament #1014855 $467 + $33 - Table #1 9 Max (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: Going2Ship ( $9,017 )
Seat 2: supremetny ( $13,993 )
Seat 3: centrfieldr ( $12,050 )
Seat 4: bigfatblunt ( $9,570 )
Seat 5: Gina0817 ( $4,281 )
Seat 6: redsoxnets5 ( $16,921 )
Seat 9: Hagzzz021 ( $26,108 )
Seat 10: VicSr311 ( $11,572 )
VicSr311 posts small blind [$80]
Going2Ship posts big blind [$160]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to redsoxnets5 [ 5c, Ac ]
supremetny raises [$360]
centrfieldr folds
bigfatblunt folds
Gina0817 calls [$360]
redsoxnets5 calls [$360]
Hagzzz021 folds
VicSr311 folds
Going2Ship folds
** Dealing flop ** [ Ah, 7c, Th ]
supremetny checks
Gina0817 bets [$800]
redsoxnets5 calls [$800]
supremetny folds
** Dealing turn ** [ Qc ]
Gina0817 bets [$3,121]
redsoxnets5 calls [$3,121]
** Dealing river ** [ 3d ]
** Summary **
Gina0817 shows [ As, 3h ]
redsoxnets5 shows [ 5c, Ac ]
Gina0817 collected [ $9,162 ]

J5o in the SB

Could fold pre, could lead flop, could x/r flop. Him having a 3 is pretty funny:

***** WSOP.com-NJ Hand History for Game 486948130 *****
$100/$200 Blinds No Limit Holdem - *** 23 05 2017 21:43:48
Tournament #1014855 $467 + $33 - Table #1 9 Max (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: Going2Ship ( $7,177 )
Seat 2: supremetny ( $17,119 )
Seat 3: centrfieldr ( $9,425 )
Seat 4: bigfatblunt ( $9,880 )
Seat 5: Gina0817 ( $10,117 )
Seat 6: redsoxnets5 ( $13,830 )
Seat 9: Hagzzz021 ( $25,022 )
Seat 10: VicSr311 ( $10,942 )
Going2Ship posts ante [$25]
Hagzzz021 posts ante [$25]
centrfieldr posts ante [$25]
VicSr311 posts ante [$25]
supremetny posts ante [$25]
redsoxnets5 posts ante [$25]
bigfatblunt posts ante [$25]
Gina0817 posts ante [$25]
redsoxnets5 posts small blind [$100]
Hagzzz021 posts big blind [$200]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to redsoxnets5 [ Jc, 5d ]
VicSr311 folds
Going2Ship folds
supremetny folds
centrfieldr folds
bigfatblunt folds
Gina0817 calls [$200]
redsoxnets5 calls [$100]
Hagzzz021 checks
** Dealing flop ** [ Jh, 2c, 5h ]
redsoxnets5 checks
Hagzzz021 bets [$415]
Gina0817 folds
redsoxnets5 calls [$415]
** Dealing turn ** [ 3h ]
redsoxnets5 checks
Hagzzz021 checks
** Dealing river ** [ 3s ]
redsoxnets5 bets [$875]
Hagzzz021 calls [$875]
** Summary **
redsoxnets5 shows [ Jc, 5d ]
Hagzzz021 shows [ 4s, 3c ]
Hagzzz021 collected [ $3,380 ]

Surprised I Don't Need a New Mouse

I busted the $250 Super Tuesday on Stars after 3b shoving AQhh for 25K at 2400bb vs a weak player. BB woke up with AKdd, bad player called off with 66 anyway, flop comes Qd8h3h and all of a sudden we're 81% to have 80K at 2400bb in a pretty sweet tourney. Turn 4d river 9d and I'm out. A couple minutes later this hand happens:

A few hands earlier villain limped 300 UTG, I went 975 from UTG2 with AKo, and he went all in for 16K effective. I folded since I assumed a hand like the one below would present itself.

***** Hand History for Game 169606323 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $535 USD Buy-in Trny:106550705 Level:9 Blinds-Antes(200/400 -50) - Tuesday, May 23, 22:14:06 EDT 2017
Table MAJOR. Mega Tuesday 500 - $15K Gtd [Re-Entry] (106550705) Table #4 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 9/9
Seat 3: Itsluigi ( 11,850 )
Seat 1: Jermz ( 10,490 )
Seat 7: KnightLife ( 13,311 )
Seat 8: La_Flama_Blan27 ( 43,425 )
Seat 2: allinorbust ( 30,414 )
Seat 9: chromeking ( 3,496 )
Seat 4: mj23style ( 15,645 )
Seat 5: pay4medsch00l ( 15,370 )
Seat 6: upayformypennys ( 13,990 )
Trny:106550705 Level:9
Blinds-Antes(200/400 -50)
Jermz posts ante [50]
allinorbust posts ante [50]
Itsluigi posts ante [50]
mj23style posts ante [50]
pay4medsch00l posts ante [50]
upayformypennys posts ante [50]
KnightLife posts ante [50]
La_Flama_Blan27 posts ante [50]
chromeking posts ante [50]
upayformypennys posts small blind [200].
KnightLife posts big blind [400].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mj23style [ Qh Qd ]
La_Flama_Blan27 folds
chromeking folds
Jermz folds
allinorbust calls [400]
Itsluigi raises [1,200]
mj23style raises [3,175]
pay4medsch00l folds
upayformypennys folds
KnightLife folds
allinorbust calls [2,775]
Itsluigi folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7h, 9h, 9c ]
allinorbust is all-In [27,189]
mj23style is all-In [12,420]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
allinorbust shows [ As, 7s ]a full house, Nines full of Aces.
mj23style shows [ Qh, Qd ]a full house, Nines full of Queens.
allinorbust wins 14,769 chips from the side pot 1 with a full house, Nines full of Aces.
allinorbust wins 33,440 chips from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of Aces.
Player mj23style finished in 26.

Lesson learned. Stray ever so slightly out of your bankroll guidelines and prepare to take it up the ass. Lost 66 to QQ for my last 12bbs in the WSOP $500 vs a guy who literally 3b me every hand I opened. The last couple days have been pretty unreal. My maturity and frustration levels have gotten higher than I'd have hoped for them to. Got below average in 2 $100 tourneys going now and that's all that's left, looking at a $1500 losing day if something doesn't happen in them. The frustration I'm feeling now is different than it was in the past, which is a good thing, but I'm still getting upset about losing.

I guess the above hands, in tournaments I usually do not play but decided to take a shot in tonight, being forced to stick 50bbs in vs someone completely clueless and getting 4 outted on the river for all the chips, and getting 2 outted on the river for a lot of chips in the other one, is a decent excuse for blowing up, but I was hopeful that nothing would make me spaz out anymore. Live and learn I guess, I imagine that level of frustration will never be completely gone. It's dumb that I withdrew money Monday morning and promptly had these 2 days as well but variance doesn't care when it's convenient for you to run good or bad. I've for sure ran quite well over the last few months and I'll have to make sure to remain calm when the super run bad hits like these past few days. TT<AQs for a big stack 10 from the money in the Party 10K vs another super fish (they are really out tonight) as we write this and now have 1 table left. **** tournament variance is a pain in the ass sometimes.

Curious on J5 hand: 1. Think its a fold pre 2. I think AP you should be c/ring flop and just bet/bet

Yeah you're probably right. The button was a super fish playing every hand so I wanted to play pots with him but probably still too tough to make something happen with J5o oop for 7:1 to be good enough to call.

On flop I considered leading but with the BB being an overly aggressive reg and button having just played that A3 hand like a maniac I decided to check, planning to x/r button but then BB led out. In game I remember thinking "let's x/r to make draws pay" but then decided against this specific villain he was just going to fire too often on turns, and I remember literally thinking "why are you afraid of a heart peeling off, there's only an 11/47 chance of that (<25%) and if he has hearts himself, 9/45 (20%)" and then just rolling my eyes on turn. Once he checked back though I felt confident he didn't have hearts so I thought I needed to get value from Jx/5x/66-TT that didn't raise pre/etc. I also thought that most turns would look bad for me as I'll often have 5x/2x/hh and he'll continue barreling turn, at which point I'd put the x/r in. Turn was bad and then river was a card I considered a brick which was just silly.

But yeah at the end of the day fold pre is probably best and just x/r'ing flop without getting all fancy is probably best as well.

Ya having him check back that specific turn is the worst. I also think c/ring the flop allows you to have more bluffs in your range whereas if you c/r turn, thats usually pretty nutted.

Take my advice with a grain of salt as I havent played online seriously in years and pretty much out of the poker game, but like keeping my mind sharp for when I play the Parx tournies 4x a year.