I played some more 2/5 today even though I planned on taking the day off. There were 5 tables of 1/3 going when I left my house - which is more than usual - along with 4 tables of 2/5 (2 deep stack, 2 $1000max). Sunday's are usually not this good but since there are no football games today, I guess people came out to gamble. Hopefully it stays like this after next Sunday.

I think I played well today. I was just happy to be back at Harrah's Chester where I'm way more comfortable than I am at Borgata. I ended up at a couple of loose/passive tables where there was almost no aggression and everyone was playing their cards extremely face up. It was free money.

But I still misplayed some hands; here they are:

Hand 1

Reads: Villain A is a very loose fish. He is limp/calling almost any two cards and playing very passively postflop. I have seen him raise a turn before, though, and then fold to a big river bet in a 3-bet pot. $300 effective.

Villain B is tight and unknown. $300 effective.

Preflop: KK in the CO. Villain A limps UTG. Hero raises to $25. Villain B calls from the BB. Villain A calls.

Flop: ($75) 982 Villain B leads $20. Villain A calls. Hero raises to $70. Villain B folds. Villain A calls.

Mistake #1. Villain B's range is going to be a ton of 9x hands. Villain A's range for calling his weak donk bet is also going to be some 9x hands but also a ton of draws. Since Villain A is never folding and Villain B is likely going to fold no matter how I size my raise (because of the fact that Villain A called his bet and now I raise - too much heat for him) I should solely focus on getting value from Villain A. I can probably make this $100 and still get called. This sets up a nice river jam of $170 into $300 - which will get called by all of Villain A's draws. Making it $70 leaves him a pot-sized-bet on the turn. If I jam a blank card, he's probably going to fold now.

Turn: ($215) 3 Villain A checks. Hero checks.

Missed a value bet here. While his flushes got there, he still has 9x, JT, and 87 in his range. I should bet/fold like $70 here.

River: ($215) 6 Villain A checks. Hero checks.

Main thing here is to realize that the board texture is one that I can get so much value out of. Villain A is such a huge station that he is almost never going to fold any kind of draw or pair + draw. He's going to play his cards face up on later street and the only thing I need to do is not pay him off when he hits. I was too worried about the donk-better and not wanting to blow him out of the pot. I should have known that once he got called and then raised in anyway he is clicking the "fold to any bet" button.

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Hand 2

Reads: Villain A is very loose/passive. He puts in money lightly preflop but plays very face up/fit-or-fold postflop. He likes to open-limp with a lot of his range. I have not seen him open-raise yet.

Villain B is also very loose preflop but has more aggression. He opens a lot and bets the flop a lot.

Preflop: TT OTB. Villain A raises to $25 UTG. Villain B calls from EP. Hero calls.

Flop: ($75) K62 Checks around.

When the PFR checks, he likely hates this flop. Maybe he has QQ-TT here. When the field caller checks, I think he tends to have nothing a lot of the time. I should protect my equity here by betting at this flop. I can even bluff QQ/JJ since Villain A can be pretty weak/tight at times. I could definitely see him folding QQ/JJ when the King hits on the flop. I decided not to because I had been pretty active the last few hands and had already c-bet Villain A off a few hands.

Turn: ($75) 7 Villain A bets $40. Villain B folds. Hero calls.

I'm not even sure if I should call this. I'm unsure if Villain A is even capable of bluffing with something like AQ. I think he has QQ/JJ a lot.

River: ($155) A Villain A bets $40. Hero folds.

Now I beat nothing because a lot his bluffs on the turn got there. I guess he had AQ or AJ and I was correct on my read that he might be bluffing the turn. I think KK would bet bigger on the river and QQ/JJ would not even bet this river. So what's left? Unless he checked AK on the flop?

Hand 3

Reads: Villain is extremely loose/passive. He shows no aggression almost ever. He tends to call a lot preflop and play pretty fit-or-fold passive postflop. I have raised his limps and c-bet him quite a few times now. He has folded to my c-bets every time.

Preflop: TT MP. Hero raises to $25. Villain calls OTB. BB calls.

Flop: ($75) 752 BB checks. Hero bets $45. Villain calls. BB folds.

Because I have c-bet him off a few hands now and shown a lot of aggression every time I'm in a pot with him, my flop sizing could even be $55-60. I went with $45 to ensure calls by 7x, 64s, 32s if he's playing that, and 88/99. He's not a super station postflop so I wasn't sure about making it huge - especially since a lot of turn cards will suck for both of our ranges. Since a lot of turn cards are going to suck for his calling range, should I size the flop bet smaller or bigger?

Turn: ($165) Q Hero bets $90. Villain calls.

I like my turn sizing more than my flop sizing. Since his range is a lot weak pairs, and this turn card sucks for his range, I should size my bet smaller. I felt $90 achieved max value because it was still over half the pot but still under the $100 threshold where fish see bets as being "big".

River: ($345) 6 Check/check.

Obviously missed a value bet here. I was somewhat afraid he made two pair here or he had me beat already with JJ. I couldn't really get any live reads on him at any point in the hand either. If he has JJ, 76, 43s, Q7, or Q5 to beat me and 88/99 and a lot of 7x to be worse but still call my river bet - can I profitably value bet? I wanted to bet like $95 but wasn't sure what I get called by besides 88/99 and even that I'm somewhat unsure about.

----------------------------

I finished the night +$354 so at least my Harrah's win streak is still in tact at 4!

I have jury duty tomorrow morning but will be back to the grind after that. Hopefully pretty soon after that because I wrote on the jury selection questionnaire, "I don't really trust cops. I think they lie a lot and they are unfair or overly harsh to teenagers and young people." So I should be a lock to get out of this.

Bankroll: $10,200

Some life updates since my last post:

- I moved out of my parents house and into South Philly on Tuesday. I did that with about an $8600 liquid liferoll and about $1860 in money owed to me I could expect by the end of February. This gives me about 3 months life expenses put away and a $6000+ liquid poker bankroll. Whenever the $1860 comes, that'll help me even more.

- My laptop stopped working so I haven't been able to update the thread. Looks like my updates from now on will be from my phone. I've been playing so much, though, this past week that I haven't even tried to turn my computer on. When I tried last night, it wouldn't boot up.

--------------

Since I moved out on Tuesday, I've played every day. I'm +$869 in 41.5 hours in the last 4 days including a monster 13.5 hour session last night where I was +$772. I grinded out a terrific game until 7 AM last night and felt I played some of the best poker I've ever played. I was dialed in all night and really only made a couple of bad mistakes.

Here are some hands from last night's session:

Hand 1

Reads: Villain is a huge whale. He has a wide opening range and calls 3bets very lightly. He overvalues hands and gets overly aggressive with weak hands. $320 effective. He is directly to Hero's right.

Preflop: KQ MP. 1 limp EP. Villain opens to $11. Hero 3-bets to $40. Villain calls.

Flop: ($81) K64 Villain leads $60. Hero raises to $125. Villain calls leaving $160 effective behind.

Turn: ($331) J Villain checks. Hero goes all-in for $160. Villain calls with 98 and bricks.

[u]Hand 2[u]

Reads: Villain is a huge whale. She overvalues hands in an insane way. She gets her stack in with top pair no kicker or middle pair. She calls way way too lightly preflop and post flop. She's stuck a lot right now and pretty much in "**** it" mode. $330 effective.

Preflop: TT MP. 1 limp. Hero opens to $20. Villain calls from BB. Limper calls.

Flop: ($60) 765 Villain leads $30. Limper folds. Hero raises to $85. Villain snap-calls.

Turn: ($230) J Villain checks. Hero tanks and gets the clock called on him (lol), eventually bets $110. Villain calls.

River: ($450) 4 Villain pushes her chips towards the line as if she's going to jam but stops short and says "check!" Hero checks back and wins vs 97

I wanted to shove her so badly but couldn't imagine a worse hand that would call. Even SHE would have to fold 7x here, right?

Hand 3

Reads: Same lady from Hand 2.

Preflop: 88 OTB. Villain limps. Loose fish raises to $15. I call. Villain calls.

Flop ($45) J63 Villain leads $25. Fish calls. Hero calls.

Turn: ($115) A Villain checks. Fish checks. Hero bets $80. Both fold.

its possible i was bluffing with the best hand here but I think they have Jx or a random heart some portion of the time that makes this a +EV bluff.

Finished off the week on a pretty strong note by going $+926 tonight playing 4 hours of 2/5... but I still walked out of the casino shaking my head.

Hand 1

Reads: Villain is Asian but completely unknown. At the time, I thought he had gotten felted by putting his whole stack in with JJ on a T-high board and losing to a flush draw. In retrospect, I'm not sure if that was him or the Asian guy next to him. $340 effective.

Preflop: AA UTG. Hero raises to $25. MP ($500) calls. Villain OTB calls.

Flop: ($75) QJ5 Hero checks. MP checks. Villain bets $145. Hero goes all-in. MP folds. Villain calls.

WTF? I'm not exactly sure how I managed to convince myself that I'm ever ahead, but somehow I did..

I'm still not convinced that checking the flop is bad. While there are a few hands I can get value from, I think there are many hands someone could raise with and blow me off of my equity - QJ, 55, JJ, QQ, and any flopped flush. I just felt that there weren't enough hands that call me here to risk getting raised. AQ, KQ are probably the only hands that 100% give me value. T9, QT, Q9, KcJx may give me value sometimes. I'm not really sure if my thought process here is right or wrong but thats roughly what I thought in game.

My plan was to either c/c or c/r based on my opponents sizing. I certainly wasn't expecting a 2x pot sized bet, though. Looking back, its such an easy fold since people do this so often with sets, top two, and small flushes to protect their hand.

----------------

Despite that hand, the session went very well and was definitely a success both in US Dollars and Galfond Bucks. I made a few very good plays in terms of taking non-standard that lines that got me maximum value. I also managed to lose the minimum the few times that i was beat.

I definitely think my game is improving every single night. I just need to cut out the few mistakes I make every session. I need to play with a lot more discipline and think things through more at the table.

---------------

Taking tomorrow off to go back home and chill with my brother and my friends. While I do like living on my own and living in the city, I did feel lonely at times this first week so it'll be great to get back home for a day.

When I come back, it'll be back to the grind. I'll look to play a lot more more 2/5 this week unless the 1/3 is especially good. I'm hoping to stick at this stake and never look back at 1/2 and 1/3. I think how I play and how I run this next week will have a lot to do with if I'm able to stick.

Bankroll: $11,600

LOL at thinking of folding that hand on that flop. You have outs no matter what he has. For 78 BBs, this is a LOL snap call, fist pump, happy to GII.

Oh come on you're trolling now

You basically give me no read on the opponent. You have an OP with the nut redraw.

What's his range? It CAN'T possibly including KcXx?

Never folding here.

Fold 88 on that flop...

Yea that's a standard fold in most spots but these two villains were fishy enough where I felt i had the best hand often enough.

I don't play live but saw the duke so had to peek. Following and GL.

Thanks for reading!

I need more fans than JoeyBlaze has so the more the better

Sent from my SCH-I545 using 2+2 Forums

first time checking in on your progress in a few months-looks like you are improving and the roll is growing

gl and keep at it

Wow biggest losing session for me ever

-$950 at 2/5, then went and sat at 1/3 and lost another $455... All in under 5 hours

I don't think I played bad until I got to 1/3 and even then, I was playing well for the most part. Just two hands that I got really spewy on at 1/3.

2/5 was mostly coasting but I just ran bad. I'll post some hands tomorrow when I review my session.

Damn rough sess, don't let it phase you. Everyday is a fresh start.

That's nothing man just 300bb's add the fact that live pre flop raises are larger and money goes quick. Sounds like you ran bad.

****kkkkk I'm the worst player on the planet

KK 4handed OTB. 1 limp. I raise to $20, tight/passive dude calls SB. Limper calls.

Flop ($60): J42r. I bet $30, SB c/c.

Turn ($120) 4. I bet $60, SB c/r $160 with $122 left behind. I call.

River 2. He shoves $122. I call.

He shows 54spade:

Why do I suck so much? I knew when he raised OTT that I was beat and I just couldn't fold POCKET KINGS.

-$385 just like that. Takes too much ****ing effort to make that money to just blow it in 5 minutes at 2/5.

No more 2/5 for a while. Just going to grind hard at the 1/3 until I get a more comfortable bankroll for 2/5.

Bankroll: $11,300

Ended up spewing a bit more

Feel like I play super solid for a while then just make a big error

Really only 2 mistakes today for a combined $300.

Getting back on my routine tomorrow and going to bounce back for sure.

Bankroll: $11,200

Going to wait until I reach $13,000 before I start shot-taking and table-selecting 2/5 again. Right now I need to "get my mind right" because its all ****ed up thanks to a lot of run bad and a few big mistakes.

Going to wake up early tomorrow, go for a run, watch some Alan Jackson videos, thoroughly update this thread with some hands, work out, and get back to the grind sometime in the afternoon.

Also going to get back into having a coach since my expenses are low enough where I can afford that.

I just read through 95% of your posts Duke...I am also a learner and it's interesting to follow along with your updates.

I don't have much time to play poker and there is no local casino where I live - but I'm starting out at micros online by abandoning the FPS that riddled my play

GL and I've sub'd

Variance. Don't beat yourself up too bad. Part of the game. See ya tonight.

If you're gonna spew, spew to me please.

Thanks for reading, man. Good luck with your own journey. Abandoning the FPS is definitely the right way to go. I use to have the worst of that disease but I have reigned it in tremendously. I think there are definitely times to get fancy and creative - and I've gotten a lot better and finding those times - but getting creative just to get creative or just because you want to win the pot is the reason a lot of people suffer from bad FPS.

Thanks, Kauch. See you there, I should be getting there at like 4:30-5 and playing 1/3 all night. Probably will stay away from your table lol.

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Okay, as promised, here is the hand history from Tuesday night's disastrous -$1405 session:

HAND 1

Reads: Villain is a recreational player. He has raised preflop a few times already and has been raising more than limping. He may be calling with too many hands preflop. $525 effective.

Preflop: T9 SB. Villain raises to $20 UTG. Hero calls.

Flop: ($40) K84 Hero checks. Villain quickly checks.

Turn: ($40) 7 Hero bets $30. Villain snap-calls.

River: ($100) Q Hero bets $75. Villain raises to $200. Hero folds. Villain shows QQ

My plan on the flop was to check/raise since I expected him to only shove over the top with KK. This is a good board for him to c-bet and I expected him to do that with a lot of his air.

On the turn, I pick up 6 more outs so I decide to bet as a bluff since he should never have Kx when he checks back the flop. When he snap-calls me, I put him on something like AQ or QJ. I could see a recreational player checking back those hands on the flop rather than c-betting.

On the river, I felt making a big bet could get him off of AQ/QJ sometimes and obviously get him off of AJ. I also thought I could bluff him off of JJ/TT. In reality, he is not a weak-tight recreational player. He is more of a gambler-type who is not going to fear big bets. Knowing that, I could have probably sized this bluff a little smaller since he probably won’t fold Qx.

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HAND 2

Reads: Villain is completely unknown.

Preflop: A4 BB. 4 limps. Hero checks.

Flop: ($25) AJJ Hero leads $15. Villain calls.

Turn: ($55) 7 Hero checks. Villain checks.

River: ($55) 4 Hero checks. Villain bets $30. Hero folds.

I really have no idea how to play these spots out of position. Should I continue to bet the turn? Should I lead the river or check/call?

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HAND 3

Reads: Villain is a competent/aggressive player. He plays pretty standard but is capable of bluffing. $560 effective.

Preflop: TT OTB. Villain raises to $25 from MP. Hero calls. SB calls. BB calls.

Flop: ($100) JT9 Villain bets $40. Hero raises to $110. SB and BB fold. Villain calls.

Turn: ($310) 9 Villain checks. Hero bets $150. Villain folds.

I was going to make a “same bet” but decided to go a bit bigger for value. However, I now feel that the “same bet” would have been better in this spot. When Villain leads only $40 into $100 as the PFR, he almost never has a huge hand. Weak c-bets are usually weak hands seeing where they’re at. This bet is indicative of something like KJ or a draw. When he flats my raise, I think he almost always has a draw. Because he is basically drawing dead at this point, there’s no reason for me to bomb the turn. I can safely bet smaller to get him to call. While I bet less than half the pot, villain at LLSNL think more in terms of absolute bet size than relative bet size. So $150 looks big because its $150… rather than looking small because its $150 into $320.

HAND 4

Reads: Villain A is a competent middle-aged Asian player. Villain B is a younger white guy who is unknown.

Preflop: AQ MP. Villain B limps UTG. Hero raises to $25. Villain A calls CO. Villain B calls.

Flop: ($75) 753 Villain B checks. Hero bets $40. Villain A raises to $110. Villain B calls. Hero folds.

This is a standard c-bet for me but lately I’ve been told that this is not the best board to c-bet 3-way when a player has limp/called.

HAND 5

Reads: Villains are calling preflop very lightly and a lot of flops are going 3 and 4-ways.

Preflop: KT CO. 1 limp. Hero raises to $25. BTN calls. SB calls. Limper calls.

Flop: ($100) A53 SB checks. Limper checks. Hero checks. BTN checks.

Turn: ($100) 8 SB leads $75. Folds around.

In a loose game, I think this is a mistake to isolate with KTo. This is a standard raise for me in a more ABC game, though. This is also a standard c-bet for me if the flop was 3-way. But 4-way is probably too thin.

HAND 6

Reads: Villain is a middle aged black guy. He is running like God and is in a really good mood because of it. He has a monster stack in front of him and really opening up his game due to the run-good. He is talking and singing and acting very cocky. He has a sizing tell with his preflop opens – speculative hands are $15 and big hands are $25. I’ve noticed this specifically from when he’s early position. $500 effective.

Preflop: AK SB. Villain raises to $20 UTG. 2 calls. Hero 3-bets to $105. Villain snap-calls. Folds around.

Flop: ($250) 643 Hero bets $125. Villain almost instantly goes all-in for $395 total. Hero calls.

Should I c-bet this? I had a very tight image and I thought if he had a hand like 99/TT, he would have to fold and respect the fact that I have AA/KK here a lot. If he had 77/88 I think he’d definitely have to fold. I can’t give him credit for JJ+ here ever because of the fact that his PFR was sized smaller than he usually does for his monsters and because he snap-called my 3-bet without thinking about 4-betting. So what can he have?

When he first jammed, I said to him, “I guess you have AA or KK…” just in an attempt to Hollywood and not look ******ed by snap-folding. He responds, “Nah… but your queens are no good.” That got me thinking of what he could even have that would make him say that. He would have limped preflop with 66, 44, or 33. He would have made it bigger with AA/KK. So how can QQ be no good? The more I tanked, the more he talked. Usually, when people talk, I give them credit for strength. But he was talking mostly unprovoked and rambling. He pushed his chips in and held his cards out in muck-position as if to say “I know you’re going to fold, just fold.” Everything he was doing/saying led me to believe he was weak. The fact that I couldn’t come up with a hand that he could have that was ahead of me, also led me to believe he was weak. I only need 28% equity here, so I decided to call.

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I ended up getting back out there on Wednesday night and bounced back with a solid +$140 session. I played pretty well but did run into some negative variance. Here are the relevant hand from Wednesday night:

HAND 7

Reads: Villain is a loose-ish, semi-weak young recreational player.

Preflop: AJ MP. Villain raises to $15. Hero calls.

[i]Decided to flat rather than 3-bet since the players behind me were telegraphing that they were ready to muck and Villain should have a pretty tight opening range and pretty tight calling range.

Flop: ($30) 755 Villain checks. Hero bets $20. Villain quickly calls.

Turn: ($70) 9 Villain checks. Hero bets $45. Villain folds.

Not sure if bluffing again is profitable here but I thought he almost never checks TT+ on the flop. I'm not sure what he c/c flop and c/f turn with but maybe its AK or 88. Either way, he was the type of player who I felt I could blow off a hand with aggression and pressure.

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HAND 8

Reads: Villain is a super fish. I've seen him open to $15 with 87o and open to $25+ with premium hands. He gets his money in bad postflop. He is capable of folding, though, when he's clearly beat. $500 effective.

Preflop: KJ OTB. 3 limps. Villain raises to $15 from HJ. CO calls. Hero 3-bets to $85. Villain calls.

Sizing is huge here because I knew Villain would call with almost all of his range - which I am ahead of.

Flop: ($190) T92 Villain donks $120. Hero folds.

I really wanted to jam here because I thought he never plays T9, 99, or 22 this way. I think he has Tx or something like QJ a lot. However, I decided to fold because I wasn't sure I could even get him off of top pair. The jam would only be for $180 more. Even if we were deeper, its probably still -EV since I'm behind all of his AX hands.

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HAND 9

Reads: Same whale from the previous hand.

Preflop: AT UTG. Hero limps. 2 limps. Villain raises to $35 from BB. Hero 3-bets to $110. Villain snap calls.

Flop: ($230) JT7 Villain checks. Hero bets $130. Villain snap-calls.

Turn: ($490) 7 Villain checks. Hero goes all-in for $320. Villain folds.

Nothing to say. Complete AIDS and spewtardic hand I played here.

--------------------------------

HAND 10

Reads: Villain A is an old man who is capable of being aggressive and bluffing. Villain B is the same whale from the previous two hands.

Preflop: QQ MP. 1 limp. Villain B raises to $15. 1 call. Hero 3-bets to $75. Villain A calls from SB. Villain B calls.

Flop: ($240) AA4 Villain A checks. Villain B checks. Hero checks.

I could go for value here but I think there aren't many hands I get value from. Villain A is not ******ed enough to put in too much money with TT/JJ after I 3-bet so big. Villain B should have a pretty weak range that whiffed this flop based on his small preflop raise sizing.

Turn: ($240) 9 Villain A bets $200. Villain B calls. Hero folds.

----------------------------------

HAND 10

Reads: Villain is a young-ish Asian guy. He is a recreational player who is playing quite snug. $375 effective

Preflop: 87 in the BB. 5 handed. Villain raises to $17 UTG. Hero calls.

Preflop is a mistake but kind of close. This should be a fold.

Flop: ($30) K42 Hero checks. Villain bets $15. Hero raises to $45. Villain quickly calls.

Turn: ($120) Q Hero bets $80. Villain folds.

This is a pretty good flop for him to c-bet. The fact that his flop bet size is smaller than his PFR size indicates he has a a weak hand. He should never have AA, AK, or even KQ here. KJ/KT, TT-QQ, AQish are his most likely hands. When he snap calls the turn, I'm even more convinced he doesn't have a big hand otherwise he would have thought about 3-betting. Maybe AK/KQ become more likely now but I think there is a chance he folds that anyway. The only hand he should be continuing with when I barrel the turn is KQ.

---------------------

HAND 11

Reads: Villain is a very, very loose player. He limp/calls a huge portion of hands and peels very lightly on the flop. On the turn and river he still continues too much but is a bit more reasonable in his calling range. He is capable of taking stabs at uncontested pots. He generally has a sizing tell in those spots where he bets big with his made hands/bluffs and bets small with his weaker hands that he's stabbing with.

Preflop: AQ CO. 1 limp. Villain limps. Hero raises to $20. BB calls. Limper calls. Villain calls.

Flop: ($80) 982 Checks around.

Turn: ($80) 4 BB checks. Limper checks. Villain bets $30. Hero calls. Folds around.

With this weak bet sizing, I think he is stabbing a lot with something like 8x, 9x, JT, or 53s.

River: ($140) Q Villain bets $120. Hero folds.

When he bets so big he usually has it here so I just fold. The sizing did look kind of bluffy but I don't think he bluffs two streets in a row and there aren't many draws that missed. JT got there so he could have that. Q9/Q8 or 44 are also possible. I don't think this is a profitable bluff-catch.

-----------------------------

That was it for Wednesday's session. Mostly standard stuff. I really don't think I made too many big mistakes that night but ran into some negative variance late in the session that brought me to only a $140 win in 7 hours. I haven't been experiencing any positive variance the past few days. I don't think I've flopped a set yet or stacked anyone. But I guess I can't complain too much since I had 3 separate sessions of $700+ wins last week.

Last night, (Thursday) was the worst session I've played in a while. I expressed my frustration in this thread with short updates while I was at the casino. I'm still frustrated by my play but eager to get back to the casino and bounce back tonight - win or lose. Here are a few hands from last night:

HAND 12

Reads: Villain is completley unknown. He is white, middle aged, and clearly a recreational player.

Preflop: AQ UTG. Hero raises to $15. Villain calls UTG+1. Loose fish OTB calls.

Flop: 922 Checks around.

I think I may have missed a c-bet here but I'm not beating myself up over it. I'm still out of position in a 3-way pot with a loose player on the button who will definitely call me with any piece because he knows a lot of my range will be air on this board.

Turn: ($45) Q Hero bets $30. Villain calls. BTN folds.

River: ($105) Q Hero bets $60. Villain raises all-in for $190. Hero calls.

Hated this spot. On the river, there could be an argument for c/c if he's not going to call with 9x, TT/JJ. But, since live players are super stations, I decided to just try to get value from that range. When he jammed, something didn't feel right to me. In a vacuum, I guess this is a fold against a typical LLSNL villain, but he seemed quite uncomfortable and fidgety. Also, the fact that he snap-called turn and snap-jammed river made me think he wasn't nutted in this spot. I called and we ended up chopping.

---------------------------

HAND 13

Reads: Villain is a super weak tight young recreational kid. He is here with his buddy and has ran up a $200 stack to $500.

Preflop: AQ UTG. Hero raises to $15. 2 calls. Villain calls SB.

Flop: ($60) A32 Villain leads $20. Hero raises to $40. Folds to Villain. Villain calls.

Turn: ($140) Villain checks and nervously stares at Hero. Hero bets $60. Villain folds.

I think I got too greedy with this bet size. I should have made it a bit bigger on the flop and then did a "same bet" on the turn to maximize value from AT/AJ.

HAND 14

Reads: Villain is a middle aged Asian guy. He is a recreational fish. He is opening a lot of hands to various sizing. $18-20 has been his standard. He made it $20 with AK before.

Preflop: T8 CO. 2 EP limps. Villain ($200) raises to $13. Hero 3-bets to $45. SB 4-bets to $80. Folds to Hero. Hero folds.

First thing is: 3-bet or flat? I think both options are +EV. Flatting almost guarantees a multiway pot because I expect 1 or 2 calls from the 3 players left to act and both of the limpers to call. However, the PFR is only $200 deep, I'm only about $300-350 deep, and if the BTN calls, I won't have absolute position.

3-betting allows me to take the initiative (lol, just another way to say my range is the most uncapped), isolate the PFR who is a fish, and potentially have him call with a lot of hands that can't continue past the flop. His opening range is weak based on his sizing - so I expect no big pairs, no big aces, and no big suited broadways. Maybe KJo and ATo type hands. If I get cold called, I'll end up in a big pot with absolute position (BTN is too tight to cold call a 3-bet), initiative, and with a hand that can flop a lot of equity.

Second thing: Can I flat this min-4bet? I'm getting 10:1 IOs, 5:1 direct odds, and the added benefit that his range is like 100% AA-QQ - which means I can stack him every time I flop big.

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Feels good to update this thread with a lot of hands. I haven't had internet at my place so I did this entire update at McDonalds. I hope you guys give me lots of comments on these hands. I know I wrote a novel here so just give me any advice on interesting spots you see or mistakes you think I made.

I won't bother to post the AIDS hands I played the last few days because I know the mistakes I made and will work on continuing to gain the discipline to correct those mistakes. A lot of it really isn't fundamental errors - its just mental game errors.

I need to get control of my tilt and mental game breakdowns right now at 1/3 before I move up to 2/5. So I decided I'm going to work hard on that and just grind 1/3 for the next couple of months while I'm still in Philly. Hopefully, by April, I can have a $20k+ bankroll and travel around grinding 1/2 to 2/5 around the country.

I have a tentative roadtrip to Colorado and Washington planned with a good friend from high school for 4/20. I'm hoping I'll have over $20K by then so that I can stop by places like New Orleans, Vegas, LA and grind the super soft 2/5 games.

Until then, its all 1/3 at Harrah's and working hard on my game.

I've invested in bi-weekly coaching sessions and also got the 7-day trial to Blue Fire Poker so I can watch Alan Jackson's Amateur to Pro series - among his other stuff. I'll be taking Monday off the grind and spending it at McDonald's putting in work away from the table.

Looking forward to a good sessions tonight, win or lose. I feel great about where my game is at and feel like if I play my best, there's no one at Harrah's that I'm -EV against.

GL to everyone reading this thread and thanks for reading!

Bankroll: $11,300

Jan/Feb Stats:

1/3: +$292, 52.13 hours (+$5.60/hr)
2/5: +$689, 14.79 hours (+$46.59/hr)

Total: +981, 66.92 hours ($14.66/hr, 3.51 BB/hr)

Hourly sucks, but meh, still more than I made at Pizza Hut and I do expect it to climb as I play better and run better.

Also, having some McDonald's Sweet Tea and can't figure out if its delicious or disgusting. Such a weird feeling.

Edit: hand 12 flop is 962hh

Sent from my SCH-I545 using 2+2 Forums

ICWUDT.

Also, McDonald's Sweet Tea is the nuts.

Played an 18.5 hour session Saturday night/Sunday morning and ended up making $438 to break my 3 out of 4 losing sessions run. My performance was pretty solid throughout the night but I made a few mistakes late in the session when I was getting exhausted. Luckily, they didn't cost me much.

I cannot stress how important feeling well is to playing your A-game. I make enough mistakes on a good night's sleep; playing on no sleep has to be horribly detrimental to my game. I talked to one grinder who said one of his leaks is sticking around in bad games when he's tired or off his game. Bart Hanson even mentioned a while ago that he always sees good players kill their win-rates by sitting in horrible games for far longer than they are able to play their A-game just because they are stuck that one night. Its important to remember that the result for one night doesn't matter. Its all one long session. I felt I made two good decisions the last two nights in determining whether to stay or leave.

On Friday night, I was stuck about $550 when the games pretty much dried up. Everyone was playing nitty and solid at 1/3 and I didn't really feel like playing 1/2 or 2/5. I wasn't feeling on top of my game so I left - even though I was stuck a lot for the session and stuck a lot for the week.

On Saturday night, I had grinded my way back from being -$400 to even. I could have easily left early and called it a win that I was even. But the 1/3 game was excellent and I was feeling on top of my game. So I stayed, got stuck $400 after losing with a set of aces only a couple hours into the game, and decided to still stick it out because 1) the game was great 2) who cares that I'm stuck close to $2000 this week? 3) I felt good about where my head was at 4) I felt my B or C-game was going to be enough to be profitable at this specific game

So despite some huge mental game lapses I had earlier this week where I punted off $500 total in different spots, I felt tonight and last night I made money and saved money where others wouldn't have.

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The downside to an 18.5 hour all-night session is that I got home around 3 PM and didn't fall asleep until 4 PM. I woke up at midnight with a headache right under my eye lids. I felt tired and achy but couldn't sleep. So I started my day around 6 AM and am now here at McDonald's typing this up. I'll probably take an advil and go grind later today for as long as I can stay on my A-game. I'm not expecting much out of the games tonight so it shouldn't be too late of a night.

For now, though, I'm going to spend a few hours working on my game away from the table. Here are my plans:

1. Coaching session - review my relevant hand histories from this weekend and the little downswing I had this week. Going to also work on finding the right spots to c-bet and finding the right spots to value bet thinly.

2. Watch Alan Jackson Amateur to Pro Series - this has been recommended to me by multiple people so I'm going to finally get around to watching it today. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to learn, but many others have told me it is extremely good material.

3. Catch up on Crush Live Poker content - I haven't had internet at my place so its been tough to keep up with the CLP material. After I watch Jackson's series, I'll watch some CLP videos and catch up on the podcasts on the bus ride to the casino. I'll probably listen to the Limon podcasts on the bus ride home after my session as a "cool-down" haha... whereas the Bart Hanson stuff is my warm-up.

4. Continue the "Beating Live Poker" series on DeucesCracked - I've watched a few episodes of this and its seemed ok so far. Most of it seems to be things I know but the series is authored by a guy who (I think) used to be an online pro. His fundamental game is probably a lot better than a lot of purely live pros so I'm hoping to get something in that regard out of that series.

5. Read "Reading Poker Tells" by Zach Ellwood - I've heard this referred to as the best book on tells for live play. It has a great review from Steve Limon and other live pros. I think tells are very underutilized in live poker. I use them a lot and want to make it an even bigger part of my game in the future. Since we don't have HUDs and often play against new faces every session, its very important to be able to read body language and understand things like timing tells at the poker table to help with decisions. I'll read some of the book before my session today and see if I can post any spots where I applied any information from the book.

6. Re-Read Easy Game by Andrew Seidman - This is referred to as the Bible of No Limit Hold Em by my coach. I've read the first section as it pertains to playing against the fish. I'll re-read that just to refresh my mind and then re-read the second part which is playing against good/solid aggressive players. I've run into these types more often lately (although in reality most are not really good-aggressive, they are just nitty ABC regs who have a clue) and want to learn how to best exploit them.

7. Continue Reading Mental Game of Poker by Jared Tendler - This book is kind of boring compared to Easy Game but I'll give it another chance since I had some mental game breakdowns this week.

That's the game plan for the next couple of days off the table.

In regards to ON the table, I put in 47 hours this past week but I had to cut quite a few sessions short because I was stuck so much and couldn't continue on my A-game. I actually had to end one session short because I was $185 away from being pocket-busto. This week, I want to play every day until the games dry up. No more cutting sessions short because I'm up huge or down huge. I have to maintain my mental stability and play through the ups, downs, bad beats, and headaches while remaining on my A-game.

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February Stats

1/2: 5.5 hours, -$7, (-$1.40/hr)
1/3: 72.63 hours, +$197, ($2.71/hr)
2/5: 14.79 hours, +$689, ($46.59/hr)

Total: 92.92 hours, +$879, +$9.46/hr, +2.15 BB/hr

Bankroll: $10,950

The hourly is so depressing but whatever, it'll pick up whenever my heater comes. I've already spent about $700 this month including rent + gym membership + poker coaching/training site expenses + everyday stuff

Going to have to try hard to keep that in the three figures but it looks unlikely at this point. I made a chart of what I can expect for next month:

Rent: $300
Poker Coaching/Training: $300
Phone: $100
Food: $90 (eating for free at the casino is an awesome perk)
Transportation: $91 (going to spend probably like $180 total this month but going to get the bus pass next month)
College Debt: $50
Gym: $30 (might just switch to Planet Fitness since I'm not even super hardcore into working out and LA Fitness doesn't get hot enough water in their showers)

Adds up to $961 + maybe like $100-200 in miscellaneous things... (like weed and alcohol) sounds pretty reasonable. If I ran run at expectation, play well, and put in the amount of hours that I want, I should be able to add about $4000 to my bankroll every month grinding 1/3.

This is a really bold and impressive agenda of goals. If you can achieve even 75% of the above agenda, you will definitely be well on your way to crushing a path up towards the mid-high stakes games quickly. Good luck on your ambitious goals!

So hard to keep motivated when I keep losing. I'm sure this little $2100 downswing would be standard for a lot of people, but this is my first experience trying to fight through something like this.

Playing well in a ton of spots and playing badly in a few spots. Also tilting at times but trying my best to keep control of that and stay level headed.

In reality, a 6 buy-in downswing seems kind of standard. I definitely expected to have one at some point. But I wish it didn't happen so quickly after I moved out on my own.

Couple hands from tonight:

A3 BB.

1 limp. Bad-aggro tilted maniac who opens a ton of his hands raises to $16. I call. Limper calls. $600 and change effective with the maniac.

Flop ($45) 664 maniac leads $60. I check/raise to $150. He jams $590 total. I have to call it off.

The raise on the flop was to bluff him off his wide cbetting range. He has bet/folded flop quite a few times lately. When he jams, I think he can have 6x, TT+, and worse flush draws. I have to call needing 35% equity.

He has a 6 and holds. It was especially annoying for me since I was up $400-450 and lost $600 in one hand.

I decided to stay and may have tilted off $90

AK

Unknown black guy with $115 stack raises to $6 from Mp. I 3-bet to $25. Solid player to my left calls. MP 4-bets to $65.

This is basically a shove. He is essentially betting $115 which means I'm calling $90 more to win $165. 1:83 to 1, I need 35% equity here. I jammed it in there but its probably slightly -EV. Guy to my left folded QQ.

-------------------

Like I said, feeling so demotivated. Sucks to work hard on your game every day and still get beat by complete donkeys. Oh well, tomorrows a new day and I'll be back on the grind.

Not sure how much studying I'll do tomorrow. I feel way more motivated to work away from the table when im winning.

At least my bankroll remains the same since I got $350 rakeback tonight for being top 20 in hours in my room.

Bankroll: $11,000

I'm going to hold off on the 2/5 shot taking for now and be a bit more conservative.

My goal is to have a $20K roll by the end of April and then look into taking some extended trips when I'm comfortably rolled for 2/5.

I want to move to a better poker locale this summer but would like $25-30K bankroll before I do that. I'd love to grind 2/5 at Maryland Live this summer and then go to Miami once the weather gets cold again.

I've always wanted to travel around and have adventures and I hope I can get good enough that poker will allow me to do that. I think I'm well on my way and excited about the progress I've made in my game. I'd just like to start winning again at some point.

Saying you have to call it off when you're getting less than 2 to 1 with the possibility of already drawing dead is really bad.