Got 2 sessions in this weekend. Was gift- wrapped about 300 dollars my first hand at 1.2 with 54 against 93 in a limped pot on a 2693 board. The rest of the day got absolutely clobbered. Dissapointing result to what started off as an amazing session. Was trying to stay positive with situation- misplayed one hand- but lot of second best spots and some draws got made against me..

Had a great day today (sunday) and got to catch up and play basketball with a lot of my hometown friends.... Was a little dejected about the prospect of playing 1.2 again today- I never like to play if I'm the mindset of chasing a loss. Did some meditation and had a good evening...Was pretty sure I wasn't going to be playing poker today..... And before I knew it I was buying in for 500 at 2.4 up in Hampton Falls.....

I felt as though I was not in the right mindset to enjoy playing 1.2 today. That 2.4 game plays pretty straightforward and I would label as loose/passive compared to most 2.5 games.

Once I weighed the fact I had been on a pretty big upswing at 1.2 of late- excluding yesterday- I decided it was the right timing to take a shot and kind of break the mold of the 1.2 grind from the day before.

Ended up being a good decision and racked up my chips after 2 hours for 709.

Just as importantly, it was a fun session and I am excited to get back to 1.2. Potentially session tmrw at Twin on way back to Cape before my work week gets going. 3 10 hour shifts this week at gym.

I need to recheck math but I believe ++1652 after 68 hours

After a -31 short session Monday at Twin River===

+1591 over 61 hours. Poker bankroll and life roll are a little merged right now, I have some car expenses that are causing that- as well as recent move and getting settled in.

Had this spot at Twin River 1.2-- during my 2 hour session Monday.

Hero (355) OTB- Sat down 30 mins before. Had seat change button. Won a decent pot without showing down.
V1 (185) MP- older guy, seemed super straighforward, on tighter side, rarely opened.
V2 (200) SB- late 20s, LAGGY, probably toughest player at the table to be in pots against, will put pressure when he senses weakness. Have played against before.

Hero limps K2 OTB. 7 limpers, probably 5-15-80 on this spot, Raise/Limp/Fold.

Blinds check.

Flop Q109

V1 leads out 10, after a few checks, hero flats, V2 flats.

Turn ($38) 6

V1 leads 15, Hero makes it 35, V2 makes it 65, V1 SHIPS.... Hero

Hero tank folds.

River comes 5

V1: hesitates before showing and V2 shows down J6 which scoops pot.

I think this fold was pretty standard in a limped pot. Given the board having such high 's, only so many strong flushes out there. Only flush that wasnt J that I thought I might be beating was 78 I WAS SHOCKED V1 didnt have Ax.

Disappointing result but thought that the fold was correct... I think better lines were available for the hand, which I am more interested in... Fold pre is one of them

+1441 over 65 hours = $22.16/hr

Had a crazy slow session this weekend at Twin River, went down 150 over 6 hours.

The biggest bet I made was 15 dollars, and the biggest bet I called was $21 dollars. Had to be the most card dead session in recent memory... I will take card dead over being second best happily.

Only interesting hand happened pretty early on.

Hero UTG+3: ($255) Hasnt played a real hand yet, has called maybe 2 preflop raises in a 45 minute period.
UTG+1: ($900) Pretty splashy guy, mid 50's, has been sticky and shown some aggression. Has been chatting it up with UTG+2.
UTG+2: ($1600) Pretty TAG. Said table had been really crazy before I got there. Doesnt seem to make plays that are out of line from the brief hands I have watched. Late 30s, seems very intelligent but doesnt seem like a reg.

UTG+1 opens to 7, UTG+2 makes it 21, Hero looks down at JJ.

Kind of a tricky spot here, I decided to flat and eval. UTG+1 calls.

We see flop 3 ways 10 2 7 ($65)

UTG+1 checks and UTG+2 pretty confidently and deliberately bets $35.

35 to me, if I call and UTG+1 folds, pot will be $135 and I will have $200 behind.

I thought for a little while and folded.

I dont think UTG+2 is 3-betting light here with a high enough frequency for me to continue with this hand. I think his range is 1010+ and AK. After the flop I am now losing to 1010, and I dont think he is firing AK into 2 players.

UTG+1 folds as well and UTG+2 told me 10 minutes later that he had AA with the A which made sense with his (slightly) small sizing on the flop.

So the result was dissapointing in this session, but I think it could have been worse.

I booked 3 days off from work later this month to spend at Foxwoods with a friend- Looking forward to that, and it also provides me with the ability to not "force" sessions when poker isnt the thing I want to do on a certain day/nights for this month. I will have those hours available to grind at end of month.

I am very pleased with how the first 65 hours have gone, I think I have done a good job of avoiding some marginal/high variance spots. I would like to value bet a little thinner, and increase my semi-bluff frequency a little. For the most part I have been happy with my preflop play, which is so important at 1.2. Reading board textures has always been my strength and I have been trying to pay attention to more hands I am not involved with to keep improving that strength.

This has been really fun so far and I am glad I made the thread- its fun to look back and read even what I have so far.

When are you going to foxwoods?

Planned short session at Twin River 2.5 last night. List of all hands-not too much of interest besides 1 hand.

(1.2 list was 56 deep so wasnt playing poker last night if I didnt play 2.5- wasnt the plan going in)

Hero: ($400)

108 in SB. Complete. Flop J82. Hero checks into BB and 2 other limpers. Button limper bets 20 and all fold.

55 UTG+2. Hero folds. Limping with some frequency here, I find every excuse to set mine, however table had been passive and didnt like the spot.

A2 in SB. Complete. Board runs out 83KK5. Hero chops a 4 way pot with button limped who had A4

J10 MP+3. Super tight older guy opens for 30 and gets 1 call, I fold.

AQ Hero ($385) CO. 2 limps to Hero, Hero raises to 30. Button calls. Other limpers fold.

Button: ($600) Late 20's guy. Won a decent sized pot with AA where he played them pretty transparently. Has been involved in a few pots, seems a little loose but havent seen him get out of line.

Flop ($75) Q34

Hero bets $45. Villain takes about 10 seconds and makes it $155.

($110 more to Hero and after calling would be left with $200 in a pot of $ 385)

Thought for awhile here. Super dry board. Decided that I wasnt going to fold AQ to this one act of aggression, but couldnt think of many value hands I was beating, KQ and ~ I guess QJ?

Hero flats: Turn 10

Hero thinks for about 15 seconds and checks. Villain looks at me a little nervously and checks..... Hero internally breathes a big sigh of relier

River ($385) 3

Hero bets $100, villain reluctantly calls. Hero flips hand and scoops a pretty big pot.

A10 MP+3, weakish player opens to 15, 2 calls in front of me, I think about 3 betting to 75ish to isolate, instead elect to call. We see a flop of 866. Original raiser leads $10 which gets 2 callers and I decide to fold and be done with it.

And that was pretty much it for my session as far as hands of any real decision making go.

Final result +231. +++1672 over 68 hours =24.58/ hr

August 23 and 24 as of now.

Maybe I can get some days off and play. You play 1/2 or 2/5?

Foxwoods has some of the worst poker players ever... In some ways, 2/5 is easier if you aren't scared money. 1/2 is hard because the stacks are usually less than 100BB which means you need to play tighter.

If a guy is sitting with 50$ at 1/2 and he limps in and you have 910s on the button, its almost not worth playing the hand. (If there are other limps with more money then maybe.) But you would essentially be risking a lot to win nothing.

The beauty of the lower limits (1/2 and 2/5) is that a lot of tables are limp crazy. You can see stacks of 700$-1000$ limp in with AKs as a normal game plan for them. Meanwhile, you have 56s or 67s in position and you happily see a free flop for 1BB to win 150BB when they get outdrawn and have no idea how to fold. (This is solely my opinion and based on foxwoods 1/2 and 2/5)

By the way, that AQ hand, in my opinion is an all-in or fold situation. And with that board, if your only playing 100BB stacks, and in your case you had less, you have to move all in. If you factor the amount of times he has 33, 44, AA, KK, or QQ vs the amount of times he has air, 56, kq, qj, A5s, A2s, 25, 1010, JJ, 99, 88, 77.....

And factor in what he thinks of you... (You thought of him, but what do you think he thinks of you?) If he thinks your a fish, he might have raised thinking you missed your AK.... There is a lot of plays like that at 1/2 and 2/5 where they raise you with air or some pocket pair below the high card.....

In fact, button cold calls 30$... You said he plays pretty standard... Well, that smells like a good hand but not good enough to 3-bet... Plus you made it 30$... 6x is less likely to be 3-bet by medium hands from my experience... I put him on 88-JJ and he raised on the flop to see if he was ahead. He would never flat call there with 88-JJ... Maybe he wanted to raise on the flop rather than 3-bet preflop depending on the texture, maybe thats the way he thinks. There is about 9000000000 maybes here...

If you deduct (Deductive reasoning) all the unlikely scenarios, you will find his range makes sense... Either a weaker Q or he tested the water with 88-JJ to see if you really had it. (Playing against standard players makes the game easier. Had this guy been a maniac, 25 and 56 or even A3s would have to be factored in.)


Now, after that huge wall of text. I will go back to the original "all-in or fold". You have less than 100BB starting the hand. You were invested 75$. You weren't commited yet, but after calling 155$ you were commited and shouldn't fold often when you are commited. The best move would be to go all-in. If he does have a lower Q or a draw, he is more likely to call on the flop with two cards to come. If he misses on the turn and you shove, he might fold, you lose equity.

Might want to hit a meeting.

When I am down in CT I really like playing 2.5 at Foxwoods and 1.2 at Mohegan. Ive found what you said to be true about Foxwoods in my experience and I think Mohegan 1.2 plays deeper.

Yeah let me know if you decide to go down!

And on the AQ hand I decided to call- thinking that I was most likely committed to the hand and a lot of the time he was seeing where he was at.

I thought raising the flop would blow him off too many hands, I didnt feel my hand was too susceptible to hands I had beat, so calling seemed to be the best to get him to continue with worse. I think your range of 88-JJ was where I put him after the way the hand played out.

I do attend meetings still.

Surprisingly when playing poker I feel less temptation than other scenarios that arise in my life.

I attribute that to my brain being so occupied and poker being something that is pretty important to me. It also came before drinking did in the timeline of my life.

Extremely grateful for my evolution as a person today- last year about this time my life was completely different. It was very good on paper, I had a pretty good job, college educated, in a relationship; basically doing what I was supposed to. My reality was much different. I was trapped in a life that I had pretty much grown to hate due to my need to put down ~25 nips every day. I was the epitome of a lost soul, and had trouble enjoying any aspect of life.

August/September of 2015 were the last time I would really find happiness in the year of 2015. My ex and I went on vacation to Maine, a weekend trip and Pats/Jax game. I had some good times watching the first half of the NFL season with my buddies. Flag football season was still in swing and I was the QB. The last of good times sprinkled into the daily sentence that was being a round the clock drinker. But the alcohol was starting to wear off on its ability to control my anxiety during the work week.

A year ago today I had no idea what I was about to go through in 8 weeks, the beginning of the end of the post graduation life I had created. Some of the most internally challenging moments I have had to this point in my life were a few short weeks away from keeping me up at nights and wondering what the F happened to me.

Some days I still cant believe my reality today- the lack of impending doom I feel every day. The fact I live on the Cape. Work a job that I really enjoy and get to talk with people all day about something that interests me. Gym motivation and work ethic towards life is back. The ability to enjoy the small things such as catching up with friends. Succeeding at poker, having fun with it and doing a somewhat okay job IMO writing about it-giving myself a little credit there.

Speaking of poker, lets get into that... Had a nice ALL-NIGHT session in a home game I frequent. +125 over 8 hours. ++1797 over 74 hours total. Will do a write up later of hands.

Hands of note in my all nighter session: bought in for 200 at 3:30 AM, had a very successful 2nd date that kept me in boston til pretty late, but kind of gave me the energy to think that pulling an all night session seemed better than driving back to Cape. Basically I was in a good mood and wanted to keep the awesome momentum going forward..

The game is 1.2, they use a puck, which is a free Mississippi straddle on the button when you have it. The game plays like 1.2.5-10 a lot of the time. Its a crazy game. I am friends with a lot of the players so there will be little-no player descriptions. I PLAY super tight- pick my spots- wait for only super +EV spots in this game. We run a lot of boards 1-3x too and make deals so that plays into my decision making. This next statement sort of contradicts me saying I wait for super +EV spots, but I end up making a LOT of hero calls, because they realize how tight I am, and if I dont make these calls I wouldnt be profitable in this game. The idea of the Baluga theorem is something I love, it goessss way out the window in this game, combo draws are played like the nuts by most of the table.

AK ($200) Everyone has me covered. There is a MISS straddle of 20. I flat the straddle. UTG+1. I dont love raising here because they all know my range is super TIGHT when I raise from here, AK is basically towards the bottom of my range 3!. If it gets 3! however (which is pretty standard, I am SHOVING easily, so my flat keeps that possibility open.

We end up seeing flop 3 ways. A::8 7:. I check, check, straddle bets 60, I shove. Fold from other V, and straddle calls. He flips over KJ. We run it 2x. First board 10 4. Second board J4. . Chop it up.

QJ ($300) SB. Limps to me I flat. We see flop 4 ways. J45. I bet $10. 1 caller. Turn ($28) is 7. I bet $15, call. River ($58) is 2. I bet $30, folds.

77($340). Call a raise of $10 in CO. Miss the board. Fold to aggression, it was 5 ways.

1010 ($325) Make it $25 over a $5 straddle in HJ. Get 2 callers. Flop 982. Good flop but I check back for pot control and to eval. My flop bet is getting RAI a lot of the time and I am at the bottom of my range. (Would bet this 99% of the time in different games). Even in this game of overplaying semi-bluffs and slowplaying to look like a semibluff, I still think this check was a mistake, cant justify it. Turn is 4 checks to me I bet $30. Get 1 caller. River is J. We check through and he wins with KQ.

1010. ($250) I open to $15 CO. Get 4 callers. Flop A66. Someone leads for $30 and I fold.

JJ. ($240) I make it $25 over a MISS straddle in the HJ. 3 callers. Flop A1010. Someone leads $55 and I fold.

1010. ($260) (EFF stacks $300. (added on a 100 at some point between and a little bled away- long night and missed a few smallish hands from memory). MISS Straddle, and UTG opens to 50. Super deep stack flats $50 MP. I tank a little and flat. I was close to a shove here, then close to a fold. I struggled with this hand because I felt like it was so bad calling. But if I shove I am at the bottom of my range. I almost folded even, but I decided that between set mining and having the best hand enough of a frequency on <10 high flops I could call profitably.

Q44. ($155) Open shove by original raisor for 155. Deep stack folds. I TANK, 77-JJ are in this players range. Never shoving here with KK or AA, I think he shoves any Q here too. I tank fold. And he flips over 99:. He knew when I tanked that he needed a fold.

AA ($165) BB. This time the MISS straddle is 25. I flat because the straddle is super deep and aggressive- very rarely were Miss straddles getting checked through. 2 more callers and the Straddle checks through LOL . Flop crushes me.($100) A83. I check again. We check through. Turn is 2. I check again (a pot with $100 in it will never be checked through 2x in this game, even when I have top set). $75 is fired out and I shove all-in and he folds. Kind of a funny hand, I couldnt believe we saw the flop. 90% of times straddles were getting raised, even with like ATC. A few guys were playing the 72 game too.

AQ ($300) MP. MISS straddle was $10 I made it $35 and got 3 callers. Flop ( Q 8 2) Check, I check, check, $45 bet, folds to me I shove. Get called for a little less after 30 seconds. We run it 3x, only one run out scares me with flush coming in and QJ getting there with J river. Other run outs were clean. I scoop all 3 run outs. Pretty sure he had a mid PP and put me on FD or he had worse Qx ( no kings, 9s or 10s hit turn/river on all 3 runouts. .

For the next few hours I couldnt get anything going and stayed around 500-600. Its also when the sun was coming out and we were all delusional. The game is crazy funny to be at. We joke that it should be its own reality show. Like so many characters.

I found the next spot to be super interesting. I made a fold that not many people would make.

AK ($500) (covered by 5/6 players, only player I cover gets money in a lot has ~275) On the button. Open to $10 from UTG, super deep aggressive makes its $50. Folds to me. I think about what my sizing should be on the re-raise. And then I realize that I have like 0 fold equity, so I am raising purely for value to build up a pot against a lot of players who are flatting/4! with pocket pairs. My hand kind of sucks for running the board out more than 1x since Im wasting outs and based on actions I think some of the Aces and Kings are dead. Theres a decent chance if I flat that there will be a 4!. So I end up folding. It was probably a decent +EV spot. But I couldnt find a situation unfolding that I "liked". I regretted after seeing a A46 flop that went 3 ways.. But thats being results oriented. If I could play the hand over I would fold again. There are so many good spots to get paid in this game that like the potential of a 3 way allin for $1500 with AK doesnt seem appealing. Also whiffing on a flop when I make it $150 kinda sucks too- puts me in a tricky spot with like 0 FE and last to act (someone might beat me into the pot with worse Aces. Might have trouble getting called by worse when I do hit the flop. Let the scorching of the 2+2 community on my NIT fold begin.

Last hand of note happened in PLO. We switched to PLO 1 round NL 1 round at about 10 AM. I had QQ84 in MP ($450) on a MISS straddle. I flat and we saw 5 way flop. ($50) 868. Check, check, I check super aggressive short stack bets $35, fold, fold, BB reraises to 115. And I fold. And short stacks folds too. I was so happy with my hand against short stack b/c I had redraw to Spades. My hand kind of sucks b/c its hard to boat, and when someone check raises this board I know its a pretty standard fold, not playing a 1k pot with a sucker hand like this. Would have gladly put short stack allin though!

Pretty happy with the night. There is such a dynamic to this game for me that I play really unusual/ trappy/passive lines.

Was sitting at work today and have the day off tmrw which is rare mid-week.

Thought poker tmrw would be fun.

5 minutes later and $112 later I am staying in New London CT for the next 2 nights....

Wish me luck.... that escalated quickly

Laying in bed in a cheap motel for the second night- the toilet keeps making this dripping noise. Just got here from Foxwoods. Have like half my life roll hidden in here. Straight up could not miss a hand tonight and cashed out from a 1.2 table for 1290.

I should be super excited but for some reason I wasn't- think I'm just ready to be back to my routine and over tired.

I just made a thousand dollars and forgot to buy a toothbrush on the way back here....

Not sure your living status or how far you are from foxwoods but if you play enough hours, they will comp you 2 free rooms Sunday-Thursday...

Another thing is the black card... If you play 500 hours over 6 months in a year, you get 4 points per hour... Thats 4$/hour by just playing...

What I'm saying is, Foxwoods has great benefits...

Yeah the past 2 years I got a lot of comps, but this was first time back to Foxwoods this year-- Twin River is a little easier for me to day trip to from Cape Cod.

I knew about the black card but didnt know that was a benefit of.. Thanks for info

Foxwoods last second trip was a pretty massive success. Have some HH's to post later. First night won +66 at 1/2 over 4 hours and yesterday as I said could not miss and +990 at 1/2 over 10 hours.

+++2853 over 88 hours. 32.42/hr.

Pumped

"Easy Does It."

Wanted to post some chip stack pictures from my 3 main spots. I really love my red and DO NOT LOVE CHIPPING UP



Foxwoods Casino 1.2







Hampton Falls Poker Room 1.2







Twin River Poker Room 1.2





Good time to make some new goals- my poker momentum and life momentum has hit a point where effort is being met with results. That is a very dangerous point because it breeds complacency when you forget why the results are coming-- hard work. Will update soon with new goals-- I am getting those ironed out before I post my Foxwoods crazy run good HH's-- b/c as awesome as they were-- this is a very important juncture of my journey to redouble my efforts towards keeping life progressing


Ending with a Joseph Campbell quote that I read today: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

Haha.

First things first.

Let Live.

Dont leave before the miracle.

Do the next right thing.

Nice thread.I live in Ky. but I have a friend that plays at Twin River some. Probably the same games that you do....he looks like the guy from the movie hangover with the beard...cant remember that guys name(in the movie)but my buddies name is Doug. Sorry lol. But good luck!!!!

The very fortunate run has continued. +426 last night at Twin River 1.2 over 6 hours. +++3279 over 94 hours.

Nice job and enjoying those chip porn pics LOL!

I personally like stacks of 20 because I am scared I would knock a stack of 40 down.