I've been considering starting a journal in here for a while. I don't assume that anyone will follow it, and I don't really care if anyone does. Some may find it entertaining and/or enlightening and if so that's great. My plan is to use it to track my mental status as I climb (hopefully) and maybe gain some perspective that I can't get from my poker tracker stats.

A little about my situation:

I dabbled in poker for several years and didn't have any clue what i was doing. Despite this, I did pretty well. This was probably due to a lot o run good and possibly some innate sense of what probably works.

In 2005, my cousin gave me a poker book which I devoured. I don't remember what it was called, but it was the first time I'd ever seen the concepts of pot odds and equity. This just turned me from a LP fish to a donk.

In 2009 I started grad school and I met my buddy Sean. We discovered that we both liked poker. Sean had had quite a bit of success online during the glory years. I sweated him at 2NL Rush for an hour and a light bulb went off in my head. He also introduced me to 2+2. Since then, I've grown steadily.

Today, I grind 20NL with 50NL shot taking. About a year and a half ago I started playing regularly live. I turned a $1000 self stake into over $9000 in just over a year. Then because of school had to quit playing for three months and my entire roll went to pay living expenses.

I graduated about a month ago and have an awesome job making plenty of money now. I have staked myself with $760 with another $1000 coming in from a loan repayment to my BR in a couple of months to try to get back into live play. I should be able to play pretty regularly. This is terribly short rolled, but I am a proven winner and hopefully will run good.

So, you're all welcome to follow my journey from $0 to infinity. I'll log all my sessions here and post some comments. As far as goals, I'd like to be playing $2/5 in the not so distant future. I am not opposed to playing higher if opportunity and BR allow, but wouldn't be heart broken if I don't either. So here we go!

So, the first week, I actually played every day although not always for very long. I'll give a short blurb about each.

6-30 First time playing in 3 months. Knew that I would be rusty. I have returned to my regular game which historically is one of the craziest legit $1/2 games in the country. I am not exaggerating this statement. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the local maniac regs have cleared out since I took my hiatus. The room will still be profitable, but probably not as awesome as it was not long ago. Oh well. Times change. I know most of the people at the table and shouldn't have a hard time with this game. I got bluff shoved on with TPTK from a guy who I've never seen bluf before. I folded and he showed the bluff and celebrated. He considers me to be a pro which is ridiculous. He did something even bolder to another player a few minutes later. So, he was just in a mood today. Turns out he's been hemorrhaging money for weeks and is probably lie tilting. Noted. On the last hand of the night, I really butchered one and dropped $200 on that hand after being close to even for the night. I didn't have any good hands really and would have done well to break even. As is, it's a not so good loss on my short roll. -$274.
Roll: $486

7-2 Had a bad taste in my mouth from last night. Worked until midnight and hopped over for a short session. Made a table change early and it ended up being a lateral move. Not a lot of super easy money in the room tonight. Key hand of the night I raise AKhh to$16 UTG and get 3 callers (ugh). Flop of AQ5cc. I bet $35 (1/2 pot) get called by a weird donkish player with $120 left. Turn is a low club. I check he bets 1/4 pot. I shove and he calls with the nut flush A3cc. I'm not sure what I think of my shove. He's definitely capable of calling with worse. Still might not be a good play. Other than AK a couple of times, I didn't really get any hands. I ran some bluffs in good spots and was able to squeak out a profit.
+$72 for the night.
Roll: $558

7-3 Had to wait for a seat tonight which sucked. Confirmed flush guy from last night is really terrible. Also confirmed that my F key is not working very well. My best starting hand in tonight's short session was 77. Card dead sucks. Raised QJ a couple times. Made a couple of cbets and squeaked out another profit. It certainly wasn't by virtue of my cards. I had nothing to work with tonight. I was able to avoid doing anything large and stupid however. Still, a winning night is a happy night. One hand of interest is UTG makes it $4. He is a moron. I call on the button with JTo with 3 people in the pot. He cbets $15 into a T high flop. I call. Turn brings a T. He checks. I bet $30 into $58. He insta calls. River is a low heart bringing a flush. He bets 1/4 pot which I call and he shows the nut flush. THe only thing I think I could have done differently was bomb the turn, but that commits everything and I wasn't convinced that was a good idea at that point. +$89 Roll: $647

7-4 I played a longer session tonight, and this one was frustrating. I actually had a couple of good hands tonight finally, but ended up having to fold/lose with them. This is a good lesson for inexperienced players.
You have QQ in EP and make a solid raise. You get 2 calls. Flop is TT5r. LP old man donks into you for 1/3 pot. Calling is the logical step. The turn bricks and he checks to you. You bet he min raises and you can instantly fold. Don't stack off with vulnerable hands when somone with no balls suddenly starts agressing on such an obvious board. This happened to me a couple times and I feel I lost the min. Later in the night a couple of reg players from across town came in cuz their room was closed for a few days. One was decent. one was a massive fish. He was calling $100+ raises with 68o. Unfortunately, he was running stupid. Late in the night, I raised his $20 straddle from sb to $85 with $300 effective and he called. Flop was monotone low which I didn't have any of. We checked it down and he showed the second nuts with Q8ss. Mind boggling. There is one thing that tilts me and that is watching horrible players win repeatedly. This is something I definitely need to work on. That's what keeps them coming back over and over. Those few nights where they can't miss with their slop. The fact that I don't give them my entire stack in those spots is what makes me better. Disappointing loss tonight as I had a lot of good opportunities that just didn't pan out. I still haven't seen KK+ since coming back. -$272 Roll: $375

7-5 Tonight was a planned full length session. I showed up with my dwindling bank roll with the understanding that I might not be able to play for a while if I get unlucky. Luckily, there is a known whale at the table. Even luckier, the seat to his immediate left opens up one hand after I sit down and I immediately move which no one even notices. The table is surprisingly passive with very little raising and even less limp calling. Everyone is content to pay bingo it seems. Obviously, this will not do and or about 2 hours I raise ~35% of hands and win without even seeing a flop. I have passives all to my left so I have the button or half the orbits, and I can iso the whale whenever I want. This is a dream.

Eventually, the whale raises to $12 and I look down at AA. I 3 bet to $35, everyone folds and he says, "I'm getting sick of you raising me. I'm gonna get you one way or the other" as he calls. This makes me happy inside. The flop is T high and monotone clubs which I have the nut draw for. I cbet $50 which I know is enough to to get value and also induce spazz. He says somehting about getting it over with and shoves another ~$150. I instacall. We run it twice and I hold against QTdd.

Later I call his decent sized flop bet with a NFD and overcard hoping to get other callers too. Disappointed to be heads up, but not when the turn brings my flush. This time I check back the turn. river bricks. he checks, I shove, he calls and I have the nuts.

Finally, I raise A7ss in MP. Maybe not good, but the table was super passive so I think OK in this circumstance. Whale and other donk call. Flop is KsQs8x. I cbet both call. River is 9s. I fire again. Fish calls with the rest of his stack. Whale shoves another $150 in and I call with the nuts vs. his lower flush. He pouts and i rake. The rest of the night was a nice change of pace for me as i was able to run over the rest of the table. Had my first big winner since coming back. +$600. Roll: $975.

I have some big licensing exams coming up so I may not be able to play much this week, but that's ok as I could use a cool down period. This is a decent start though. Hopefully, things will keep trending up.

7-6

Had a wild and ultimately disappointing session. THe turning point was , which I won't give away just yet.

Otherwise, it was a lot o getting it in preflop 4 ways and not winning. Ended up down rather big for the session and most o my profits from the night beore flushed down the drain. Erg. Just treading water right now. So irritating. Exams on Thursday and fam in town next weekend so no poker or about a week. So long poker journal until then. -$524
Roll $451

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...rigue-1349886/

The hand referred to in the previous post. Currently, a good discussion going on in LLSNL forum. Not played optimally.

I have not played since Sunday. I will not have a chance to play until tomorrow night.

I've been playing online a lot. I've been running incredibly bad. I've also been tilting a lot. This is an unusual problem for me. So, I've put down the computer for a wile and gotten back to reading and posting.

I'm rereading PNLH and Your own Worst Poker Enemy. One is about fundamentals and the other is about psych and tilt control. My schooling is done and a large amount of stress has fallen away so hopefully that will help me to start playing better. We'll see tomorrow.

GL on your grind. I too am grinding my way up

Tonight I'm going to give a running commentary. About once an hour ill update. This will force me to stop every hour which will hopefully help me stay out of tilt mode and also force me to continually eval the table. I've only got 200+bb so the plan is to play solid and not do anything nuts. No room for meta game tonight.

First update- waiting for a seat. Game has got some big talkingfishes, a few lp's, a couple nits, and short Asian dude who yells "hamburger!" when he wins one ahead of me on the wait list. He's terrible and will hopefully provide me with some cash flow. I've never heard him say anything else in English that was intelligible.

While I wait I'm reading the Pg&C from DGiHarris. I reccomend it.

Update: opening a new 5 handed table with hamburger. $$$. Spin em!

Good luck spike.

After going home to get m wallet which I forgot I started out like fan busters. Got sucked out on twice executed a sickout if my own and overall playing aggressor at a passive fishy table. One nit to my left. Rest are marks. Up $90

Hand of interest:

2 hands in. $4 button straddle I call bb with 89dd. Go 4 ways. Flop Adtd6h. I lead out )10 into $16. Aggro sb raises to $35 with ~$90 back. I shove he folds.

Stacked four players in three hands. Running well. Huge Asian spew tiger just sat down. After two more fosters hell be excellent. He does not have the drinking gene for sure. Up ~$530

Phone dying slowly chipping up. +$570.

Less updates.

Treading water at +$600. Waiting for winners.

Finished the evening up +658. I definitely got lucky a couple of times. I'll try to recap a couple of interesting hands.

Hand #1
Hero is button. I've been pretty aggressive, opening a lot of hands in LP. CO has noticed this and commented on it mostly because I 3bet shoved on a super wet flop vs. him and he folded. I've also played one hand pretty marginally and got it in light but hit. I'm definitely affecting his play. He is pretty aggressive post flop himself.

2 limps to CO who limps. Hero raises AQs to $15. One call and CO jams for ~$100. I'm looking at $85 to win around $140. The more I think about it the more I like the spot. He's competent enough to not l/r QQ+ in the CO. He's also bad enough to do this with AQ+, and I think he's heavily weighted toward low to mid PP's that were trying to set mine cheaply and have now made a frustration shove over the pushy guy to the left. Since I need ~40% to call I think I'm flipping with him often enough to call. Luckily, my read was spot on and I went racing with 33. Ace hits the flop and I scoop a nice pot.

The morale of the hand is that when you encounter unsophisticated yet not terrible players you can usually follow their line as long as you don't attribute too much or too little poker IQ to their process. In this case, little pocket pairs were really the only things that made sense especially when I could see that he was frustrated and not worrying too much about going home early. Pay attention and these signs can help you.

Every other hand was mostly fat value and small bluffs. I misplayed one hand for about $100. It involved light raising of my button straddle. Cbetting into 4 players even though they were stations and one guy who check raises every time he has a hand. O course i got check raised by the nit and folded my garbage. Other than that it was smooth sailing. The play may be sporadic this week due to working nights and my regular room being shut down. But It's already been a nice week. +658.

Roll: $1109. The makings of a new mattress. Still pretty short, but definite breathing room. Not going broke in one night now.

All of tonight's success can be attributed to The Situation. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...hread-1305466/

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7/17

Tonight I worked until 12 then headed over to the room across town while my usual game was shut down for renovations. It's reputation is that it's a much tougher game. I encountered 1 or 2 good players at my table and the rest were similarly bad to the majority of players I'm used to. When I'm on my game, I can beat this room I've decided. I'll go there for breaks from the other place I think. It's not as profitable as my usual place so there's no real reason for me to cut into my profits. It's a nicer environment but I'm not about to lower my bottom line to play there.

As for the session, I don't think I played very well. I barrelled a couple of times in spots that had little hope of success and paid for it. I also played one hand particularly bad. It's an interesting one so I'll post it.

CO- Old dude, who plays relatively tight, but has opened a few hands. Covers me.
SB- Solid player with big stack. He knows what he's doing, but does seem to play a little too much from OOP. I think he's beginning to notice that I'm an aggro player.
BTN- That's me. I have $196.

Folds to CO who raises to $10. Hero 3 bets QQ to $35. SB 4 bets to $101. CO folds.

Now in my head, I somehow convinced myself that he'd do this with TT+. This is ridiculous. He's never going to 4 bet those vs. me AND CO. If it was HU, maybe I'd believe it. However, in my mind I decided he could be wider even though he has not 3 bet preflop once so far in ~1 hr. He's flatted AKo in SB vs a donkey. No reason to believe hes getting out of line. His raise leaves me with just $95 back. I know he won't call a shove with TT,JJ so I just call hoping for a low flop to get it in.

Flop AK7 ($214).
SB checks.

He's doing this with his entire range. I check back.

Turn AK78:spade ($214).
SB checks.

He's still probably doing this with his entire range, although I'm starting to feel better about things. TT+ is pretty much his only range now.

River AK782($214).
SB shoves.

Now it's combo counting time. I'm beat by 6 combos of AA/KK. I beat 12 combos of TT/JJ. Chop with 1 combo of QQ. And I'll throw in 3 combos of AK that played it weird.

I am ahead of 12/20 combos or 60% of his range so I call.


Obviously, my range was way off. His range was QQ+, and that's about it. IF he was capable of 4 betting me with TT+ then I think the hand was played great, but that was a grave error preflop. That should have been an insta fold.

I had something happen today that is kinda bothering me. I went and played cards anyway, and the key is that while I played, I never thought about it. If it had intruded into my thoughts, I would have had to get up and leave. That's the lesson here. IF you're upset about something AND it distracts you at the table, then you shouldn't play. This game is tough enough to play with 100% focus. Anything less is a losing proposition. For me, the game is a way to escape problems for a time and just concentrate on the competition. Not everyone can compartmentalize that way however. So, learn to say no to playing on a particular day.

I'll be playing again on Friday at the Casino. I've played there before. It's a much different game than the ones I'm used to. It's a chance to open up and aggres because the players are a different kind of bad: weak tight.

-$228.

Roll: $881. Can't seem to get over the hump right now. Misplaying hands for stacks may have something to do with it. I'll consider it shaking off rust from the lay off.

7-19

I went and played at the casino tonight. While I was there I met up with Pay4mySchool. He can be followed here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...eyond-1292414/

I was a little disappointed that he does not actually look like Chuck Norris.

He is a solid player who is beating $2/5 on a regular basis. It was good to hang with a fellow poster for a while and chat about whatever. Talking with him made me remember just how solid you have to be to be a winner. I've developed some holes in my game over the last couple months and those need to be plugged ASAP. THe good news is that I have a decent idea of what they are.

1. Calling in nonsensical places post flop. At $1/2 you can pretty much bet/call/raise when you have it and fold when you don't. I've been getting a little too creative lately. Creativity is great, but it can get you into trouble against unsophisticated opponents. I think I need to play a little more straight forwardly.
2. Playing without a purpose. There have been a couple of times lately where I've raised preflop without really knowing why. That's death to a stack. Hands that should be instamucks get raised and cbet because I just feel like playing the hand and assume I can turn it into a profit somehow. THat's bad folks.

Last night I played a hand or two badly, but played well in stretches. My cbet success rate was 0%. Think back to point #1 and that's not a good thing. I only connected on one or two flops. Luckily, one of them ended up being for stacks, and it was a marginal spot that may or may not have been good.

I was SB with AJo, generally this is a fold and I don't even think about it that hard. It should be a fold vs. limp. A weak player in MP raised to $8. He had followed me from a different table because the first table was probably the worst $1/2 table I've ever seen. This one was much more lively and fun. He had ~$200 in front of him. An OK player in LP called and I decided to 3 bet to $32. This is not my standard play. Here's why I did it. I knew that he had a bet sizing tell which meant he wasn't incredibly strong with the $8 open. I also knew that he was going to call a 3 bet with almost all of his opening range which meant I had an edge over his range with AJo. The other player would likely fold to my aggression. He'd been folding to my raises for a while.

Flop: 9TJr. ($75)
We have about $150 behind. This was a perfect TPTK SPR of 2 for me. His range was still really wide. There are a lot o hands that beat me on this flop, a lot that are drawing, and a few that are crushed. My read is that he will look to get it all in with all of them but 55-77. I'd say he has 55-QQ. 89o+. I'm pretty close to flipping against that range. If I'm off then it won't take much to get him off a junkier hand. If I'm right I can expect him to get all in right now. I cbet to $45 and he does the expected and shoves. I call, the board bricks out and I win.

This was a pretty thin spot, but one where i just trusted my reads and it worked out this time. These are the kinds of spots I should probably just start to avoid. AJo is generally a fold in the sb especially to a raise. At least I had a reason and a plan in that hand.

Later in the night, I snapped out of a daze and realized I hadn't been paying much attention to what was going on. I played one more hand and gave away about $35. I immediately got up and left. Once you see the signs that you're not playing well anymore, it's time to get up and go. This time it cost me $35. That's an expensive lesson.

Tonight, my normal room reopens and I suspect it's going to be a wild game. Let's hope Queen Variance favors me. My plan for the night is to play solid. No fancy tricks tonight. Just solid by the book play. I need to simplify for a while and get back to what wins consistently.

+$29

Roll: $910.

7-20

Regular room has reopened. It's looking very nice. After the last couple of sessions in other rooms, I'm reminded of just how much softer this game is than most others. The truth is that I should be beating it at a much higher rate. So, I've determined that I'd like to have a year end win rate of $25/hr at $1/2 with at least 500 hours. Right now I'm sitting on $23.87/hr at just 153 hrs. That means that I have some work to do as far as volume as well as play.

As for the session, I made a pretty bad shove early on against a decent player, got snapped off by a set and hit a 4 outer for stacks. The rest o the night I actually played very well. I only had a fwe value hands all night and never really ran into any marginal spots. I didn't really do anything stupid for no reason as I discussed yesterday.

I'll post one hand that was semi interesting tonight.

V1 (CO) I've never seen him in here before, but he's discussing home games with a couple of the other regs so he's known in the player pool. He seems pretty decent. Currently sitting on a pretty big stack. He will raise pre and post flop. He maybe calls a little too much without thinking about position. He'll call a flop bet often. He looks like Joseph Cheong minus giant chip spews (so far) and he's wearing shades. Stack ~$700

V2 (EP) He's pretty bad. He's tightened up somewhat in the past hour. He was up and gave it all away and has now rebought. Hasn't really been doing anything other than limp calling and folding the flop. He looks like the old black dude from the Comcast commercials ("I'm trying to tell ya.") Stack ~$200


Hero- Rocking a pro America t-shirt. Really looking sharp tonight. Been relatively aggressive. Joseph has seen me make my donkey suck out and play pretty aggressively, although I've toned it down lately due to card deadedness. He probably sees me as competent if a little light post flop. Stack $750.

Preflop. One limp to Hero in MP makes it $15 with AT. Joseph calls. Grandpa calls.

Flop KK9 ($48)
Grandpa checks. Hero bets $25. Joseph calls. Grandpa folds.

Joseph's preflop calling range is very wide. We're very deep and he's looking to stack me. I'm not about to let that happen. Luckily, I didn't hit anything that would make me want to get stacks in. Grandpa also has a wide range. Either could have a K, but they'll let me know right away because they won't want to see a heart drop. I expect Joseph to call with hearts (possibly raise them), 9x, and PP's. Grandpa will be fit/fold.

Turn:
KK98 ($98)
Hero bets $75. Joseph hems and haws, and grimaces which is a huge tell that he is weak and finally folds.

This is about as big of a brick as it gets. Now I believe that a double barrel will get him off of almost his entire range. If he unexpectedly called with a K on the flop, he'll certainly raise it now. I'm the only one of of us who can legitimately represent a monster unless he's got 99/88. So, I put out a healthy bet and he folds.

He later shoved over a limp raise from a fish for $250 with less than KK and was obviously no good. He then tilted off the rest o his money. So, note for next time. He can go on tilt. The guy I sucked out on also went on tilt afterward for several minutes until he put a bad beat on someone else. These are two decent players as far as I can tell, and they played poorly for long stretches due to tilt. This is something that I can avoid and have an edge. Despite a lot of boring stretches I held it together well tonight and had a solid night. Bankroll heading north.

+$493

Roll- $1403

The AJo hand is thin on that flop, you're right, but I agree a lot with the analysis... Time to grit teeth and go with it IMO.

Preflop is pretty good, I don't see why you are second guessing what you know is a pretty solid squeeze spot. I will 3bet this very often when I have a winning image and am playing well so I can profitably manuever postflop with a tricky hand.

Oh, and my dad looks exactly like Chuck Norris, not me

7-30

I haven't played in over a week due to some personal crisis. Don't ever play when you're in crisis. It's just bad news. Tonight, I decided to go play a short session to try to get my mind off of what has been bothering me. It worked for the most part. There really were no interesting spots. The table was completely loose passive and I just bulldozed the whole way. I picked up AA once. Other than that, I never had a real hand. I just won a ton of small pots. At the very end I got outflopped a couple times and lost about half my profits, but still managed to pull down a small win despite the passive post flop play and no good hands.

My real message here though is don't play when you're upset. It's the worst thing you can do. I'm honestly not enjoying poker right now, and am just using it to pass the time. So, hopefully, I can fight through it.

+81
Roll: $1484

I'm sorry to hear this - if you want to chat about it, gimme a call/text.

8/17/13
Played for the first time in over 2 weeks tonight. Didn't get a lot of hands to speak of. I was aggressive and for a time was up ~$200 then this hand happened.

V: often maniacal little Asian dude. He just got into a tussle with the floor which cost him some money so he's been in full on idiot mode for about 20 minutes. He'll do anything with ATC at this point. Stack ~$325

H: Aggressive. Known to be solid. Doesn't really matter to V at this point.

Pre: V raises to $12. This is an ATC move at this point. Hero sees AK raises to $42. Folds to V who calls.

I knew I could raise most any amount other than something ridiculous and he'd call with ATC. So I sized it bigger than normal for value.

Flop: T 8 3 ($87)
V checks. Hero checks. Yuck. That hits his ATC range a lot more than my AK and the chances of getting him to fold anything are slim to none. In his current state he could easily raise with nothing so I'll just control things.

Turn: T 8 3 7($87)
V bets $75. Hero calls.

I am not getting odds to draw to hearts. I am getting odds to draw to hearts, aces, and kings and the strong possibility that he's FOS totally.

River: T 8 3 7 6 ($237)
V shoves $200. Hero sigh folds as V reveals 92o for the rivered straight.

According to the FTOP I played it well, but it's tough to say vs. ATC. I need to do some stove work on this hand.

I've worked past my mental struggle with the game recently. Or at least I'm on the path to it. I have a plan for my BR that lies outside of poker itself. I am playing with a purpose. I have dedicated what I take from the game to resolving the reason I've been having such a hard time with it in the first place. This has helped me feel better about my motivation for playing. It's gone from a selfish one to a worthy one.

-$158
Roll: $1326

11/25

So bit of an update. I had to take a few months off, but am now back into the swing of things. I don't have the cash to play right now, but I secured a stake from a friend. He knows my game very well and details were quickly worked out. The good news is that in about 38 hours on the stake we're up $1400+. So, I'm still crushing the game. It just kind of sucks that my take home is ~half. SO, the goal is to get out from under the stake as soon as possible. If things continue to go well that shouldn't take too long.

Tonight was a good night. +$712. There were a couple of interesting hands that will be posted. The first one can be found http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...-head-1392615/

I played pretty badly for the first hour today. I opened a few pots lightly at a table that was getting multiple callers for +$20. In these situations you just have to tighten up and stick to value betting. I misplayed one hand for $200. Cold 4 betting JJ when it was obviously just a fold. After that I took a break, got my **** together and turned the night into a strong profit. Lesson for the kids: show up ready to play and you can avoid dropping two buy ins early and having to grind back to break even.

Side note: I had my Situation shirt on underneath a long sleeve tonight. Good kharma with this thing.

subbed, gl!
what's your awesome job if you don't mind?

I'm a pharmacist.