Played the Wednesday night home game again last night. Booked my first really big win there, and now I'm just slightly nervous I won't be invited back.

To set the scene, these guys have been playing together for years, and I was invited to the game because the organizer lives in my Grandma's community. He found out that I play poker for fun and extended the invite. I'm the youngest player in the game by 30 years. The game is professionally dealt, but only runs for 4 hours on average. This was my 4th time playing the game. Previous 3 times I was small winner, small loser, and "big" winner at +$250.

No one 3-bets with less than QQ. Half the players at the table won't even open raise AK because it's "just Ace high and never hits". The game is good.

I try to be as friendly as possible at this game. I don't wear headphones, offer to get people drinks when I get up, joke with them, etc. Last night I beat the game for +$700 in 4 hours. This earned me some pretty harsh glares, especially when I cashed out at the end of the night.

Any advice for how to stay on the good side of these generous old men?

Just posted my first graph to Winrates, Bankrolls and Finances. Man did it feel good.

Give action. Presumably you get invited back again, maybe show up with a special bottle or something nice you can share with everyone. Do a little more 'gambling'. Show people you can chase draws, call off with 1 pair hands when you know you arent good for small pots. These are small EV sacrifices that can keep you getting invited back when they see you make 'mistakes'.

Lose some back on purpose... Haha nah but just be humble, if people think you're winning because you're being a nit show most of your bluffs

Oh I'm easily the most aggressive player in the game. The anti-nit!

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Haha okay so other way around then show em when you got aces, I always tend to have the nit image at home games cause the players are super loose

April
34.75 hours at 1/2NL
+ $1514
$43.61/hr

About 10 hours less than the volume I'd like to be getting per month. Hourly rate was obviously great, highlighted by three 200bb+ winning sessions, and one 300bb loser.

Was proud that I didn't let the 300bb loss effect me negatively moving forward. It helped that I felt good about my play that session and just kind of ran into it.

April Lessons:

Check raises on any street at 1/2 are viewed as nutted hands. Abuse that perception more by x/r draws.

Goals for May:

Volume. If I can put in 40+ hours and maintain my winrate of over 10 bb/hr then I will be ready to take my first shot at 2/5nl in June. I'm on my way up!

How is May going so far?

One 7 hour session so far, +$370.

Was a fun one though, very up and down, ending on a scary high note.

2 limpers to me, I raise to $15 on the button with 99. Both blinds and both limpers call.

Flop is 8910. Everyone checks to me, I bet $45. 3 callers one of which is all in.

Turn is the 2. Everyone checks to me, I lead for $75, both active players call, one all in.

River is the K. Checks to me, I bet $110, he folds. My hand is good.

What is he calling with on the river?

Just got to the thread now, subbed! GL!

Played the old man home game again last night. The evening got off to a rocky start:

2 limpers to me, I raise to $15 with Q8 on the button. Everyone calls. 100bb effective.

Flop ($60): 457

BB leads out for $20. He's an active player, sometimes overvalues weak made hands including top pair. Have not seen him run a big bluff.

Folds to me, I decide to raise to $65. I think this folds out a lot of his top pair hands, and will buy me a free river against some of his stronger made hands. All that said, calling given the direct odds was probably the better play.

This goes out the window when Villain rips it in.

I hate calling it off in this spot, but I know based on previous experience with this Villain that he never has Nut Hearts here. It is 100% a made hand.

So there is now $310 in the pot and I have to call $100. I'm getting 3:1 on my money and therefore need 25% for this call to be correct. Let's range this Villain:

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

15,840 trials (Exhaustive)

board: 457

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
Qh8h	36.18%	5,569	324
44,55,77,6x8x,4x5x,5x7x	63.82%	9,947	324

As you can see, I gave the Villain all combos of sets, suited connectors, and one gappers that are made hands. Given this set of assumptions, it is a call with 36% equity.

Whew, mental exercise. Unfortunately we bricked out here. Re-buy please!

Eventually we got down to playing short handed and that was when I totally shined. I forgot how much fun it is to just put the screws to the table.

No one was playing back at me, and so I was raising like 60% of hands from the cutoff and button. Ended the night up a small $100 profit.

As an aside:

I've been trying really hard over the past two weeks to get myself in a healthy eating mode. It's a pretty big lifestyle change for me as I've been overweight for quite sometime.

While I've been able to remove any temptations to eat poorly from my house, being at a home game with people eating pizza, chinese food, and calzones was freaking torture. Willpower man, it's a *****.

I'll give sporadic updates on my weight loss in this thread as well. Hopefully writing about it will help keep me accountable to myself.

Until next time,

Awesome thread bro, I'm playing 1/2 also, at least til the end of may.check out my thread, I'm documenting a lot of it on snapchat. I'll subscribe to yours.

Subscribing. I'm currently on the same journey from 1/2 -> 2/5 so it will be nice to follow along.

Welcome to the thread guys!

Do you play online at all or just live?

Just live. I played a lot of 6max cash and small stakes mtt's on Pokerstars when I was in college to decent success.

After black Friday I stopped. I haven't checked out any of the semi-legal US sites operating now.

Nice. I don't have a ton of options for live besides a "home game" I play in once a week. Other than that I play on Ignition.

Ah. I'm in South Florida so I have a ton of great live casino options.

How deep are the 1/2 games?

Max buy-in is $300, most players buy in for 100-200. I'm always in for the full amount.

Hey GL with the healthy eating. My wife and I have been trying to change and develop better habits. I have played 0 sessions over the past month due to work and focusing on our new diet/exercise plan but hopefully get some more time for poker once it becomes more routine. We are in the middle of week 2 and I can say meal prep + microwavable tupperware makes it much easier. Also trying out some protein bar recipes we can call "dessert". It's crazy how much more energy you have after going a week without fast food.

As for the Q8 hand: You said "sometimes overvalues weak made hands including top pair. Have not seen him run a big bluff.
Folds to me, I decide to raise to $65. I think this folds out a lot of his top pair hands"

I think your thought that you will fold out a lot of his top pair hands contradicts your first sentence here, if he overvalues weak made hands wouldn't he normally call when he has top pair (if he's a fish he might view top pair as an all in hand on the flop)? I know too that he could be the type that likes weak hands but hates raises, if there was solid history that he folds to high pressure then I could see the play working but just from that description against a generic calling station we would fold out a tiny percentage. Would he fold for this amount with an OESD or flush draw? Just from your short description I see your raise working for value against weaker draws more than working to fold out made hands... Just my POV

Congrats on your success.

Just posted this HH in LLSNL, but I;ll cross post it here as well.

Sitting at a 1/2 NL in South Florida and I've played with the Villain in this hand several times before. My description of him is particularly relevant to the hand so I'll be detailed:

Villain is a YWG, with a very wide calling range preflop and is very aggressive post flop. Every time he checks a flop it is with the intention of check/folding. He will not check back middle pair ever. Regularly value owns himself with middle and even bottom pair. While he is willing to bet too wide, he doesn't call super wide post flop.

We've played several times with each other before, and I've beat him pretty bad. Have made some thin calls that were correct, and he has seen me flip over mostly winners.

OTTH:

2 limpers to me and I look down at AhJh, make it $15 to go. I'm called by the Villain on my direct left as well as the BB. Both limpers fold. Effective stacks are $300.

Flop ($49): 8h3h2s

BB checks to me and I lead for $30. Villain min-raises to $60, and BB folds. Action is back to me, and I decide to call getting direct odds.

I think that V range is a lot of 8's, overpairs like 99, TT, sets, and maybe even a few middling pairs like 55,66,77. I know that seems too wide, but given my history with him I think that's right.

Turn ($169): 8h3h2s2c

I check, planning on evaluating based on bet size. I expect Villain to never check back. He doesn't disappoint, and bets $75 leaving himself $150 behind.

Turn is obviously awful if Villain has a set, but I think that is only one part of his range. I still think all his 8's are still in his range, as well as 99 and TT.

So this is the question, do you call getting 3.25-1? Fold because we may be drawing dead? Jam and try to maximize fold equity against his pairs?

Looking for feedback on the hand as a whole and most specifically the turn.

I would just check flop to begin with and give up especially 3 ways. That flop is a lot better for their ranges especially the BB.

As played I would go ahead and fold to the min raise and definitely fold the turn.