I've got to agree about the weak passive games being significantly easier to beat on autopilot. I wish I had more bankroll flexibility to withstand some of the crazy swings in the juicier games. Unfortunately a deer on M14 turned a slightly losing night Friday into a life beat and a poker-less weekend

"Your worst poker enemy" is on my list of books to buy.
Tendler's "Mental Game of Poker" is great and is my go-to soft skills book. "The Poker Mindset" by Hilger was also pretty good. Sometimes I find it easier to read a new book, even if it has a lot of overlap, than it is to re-read something I've already gone through. The change in presentation helps re-enforce the key points.



My first thought on the hand is that it's spewy.
How tight is his opening range? I like the 3-bet pre, since it has a good bit of immediate FE, and plays reasonably well post flop. We've also got the initiative and can rep a hand if needed.

Once he calls preflop it's pretty clear we're behind. I think your range is probably pretty close, +- AQ/AJ and maybe 88. Really doubt he shows up with much worse unless he's tilted from the last hand.

I'm kind of split on the flop c-bet. On one hand I expect a lot of the QQ-TT hands that called preflop will call without any over cards. But on the other most V's at this level will give us credit for a big made hand after we barrel and we might get them off the hand. Maybe spewy, meh. Can't really check this (I'd consider it with a set, but probably wouldn't.)

The turn bet is what I feel is spew. We've picked up potential outs with the FD, as well as maybe the K's and Q's. Best case 15 outs, worst case drawing dead against 99. After the check/call on the flop, I really doubt V is folding on such a dry turn. Yea, it's a big bet in absolute terms, and close to pot sized ... but he's already called two significant bets. So we're shoveling our money in behind.

If we check behind on the turn a river lead might be interesting. We really can't call unless we improve. If he checks the river we could consider bluffing him. I hate giving up after firing on the flop, but this is a weird spot. Worth some more thought.

On paper I think it works out OK.

9's - 3 Combos
T's - 6 Combos
J's - 6 Combos
Q's - 3 Combos
Total 18 Combos
His Range = 74.2% equity
Our Hand = 25.7% equity

Fold Equity Calculation vs. 74.2%
($301 we win if he folds)
($542 we win 25.7% of the time when he calls)
($241 we lose 74.2% of the time when he calls)
301x+(1-x)(542*.257 - 241*.742)=0
Step 1 Step 2

x = 11.6% meaning we only need folds 11.6% of the time.

So we need him to fold 2.08 of those 18 combos. I think we can achieve that provided our image isn't at all "bluffy" or "run the table over". These guys will show Pocket T's and then say "These are no good, huh?" and muck em.

Today I read/watched a COTW which I've seen before, but it's a very good one and I needed to rewatch it. It reminded me of how much off felt work I haven't been doing. I guess the fact that I read it is a good sign that I'm getting back into it.

I think my theme lately can be boiled down to "stop giving money away." When I'm running well, I don'tnotice how much I throw away just on stupidity. When I'm breaking even like I am right now, it's a lot more evident. At least I'm not down swinging anymore.

My long Tuesday session was mostly disappointing. My first stop was a charity room which, the night before had been absolutely nuts. Crazy crazy action which I only was able to get into toward the end of my night. On this night, it was dead, and the game barely got going. It only went for two hours and I found myself 3 handed with two people who were limping KK and never betting them. It was awful. I stayed because I thought more and more gambly V's were on their way,, but it just didn't happen. So, I took a smallish loss and went to another room. THat game was much better. I was only able to make a little there however. I only had a couple of good value hands. I made the most of them, but it still was a little slow as far as opportunities go. I'd say over the course of the night, I gave away about $100. This sounds awful, but it's actually improvement. When I'm playing well, I don't give much of anything away, and that's my ultimate goal. I want to be able to look back and say that I didn't give any money away for no reason at all. This goes back to the list of leaks I posted a while back. Still working on these.

Hand:

The more I've thought about it, the more I like the 3 bet pre. K and Q blockers. AA 4 bets and we can fold. The rest likely call and our equity is about 40%. Advantages post flop are initiative, position, and a V who will play very straightforwardly.

Flop: At first glace, it seems like nota great flop, but if you think about it in terms of multistreets it's not bad at all.

1. Back door diamonds.
2. Cbet folds out AK, which frees all of my overcard outs for turn and river.
3. Still gets called by overpairs, but since he's perceived as tight with a fold button, will very often net not only the current pot, but a flop call when the board runs out well.

Turn: IF you 3bet pre and bet flop, you pretty much HAVE to shove turn otherwise the rest turns into spew. You can't do one and not the other. As All IN has so kindly demonstrated, we only need him to fold a tiny percentage and that is easily reailzed with the shove. If however, we read that he NEVER folds overpairs (TT,JJ) then it's much much closer.


This isn't an all the time play,, but I think it's safely +EV. It's not a play that a straightforward player will think to do. It also has the benefit of getting a lot of WTF looks if it goes to showdown.


The government has decided to try to get $2500 from me because I reported my 2012 poker income. A whopping $7000 out of $9000 earned for the year. Straight up thievery. Ridiculous. I will fight this to the last.


Not sure if I'll play this weekend or not. I'm feeling good. Breaking even, but I am sewing up a lot of leaks that have crept in. I look forward to the next run good. It's going to be epic.

True. The math for the turn bet worked out better than I'd initially thought it might, we should be able to get 15% folds, maybe a little more depending on how he perceives us. The additional equity of the FD doesn't hurt either.

That's why I'm split on reporting poker income. While technically tax fraud, depending on the rest of your financials and how you handle the cash it could be completely un-traceable. $9k might be a little glaring, but $3k in a year could easily vanish into the noise.

This weekend was all about the next 2/5 shot. I am happy to report that after two nights of 2/5 grinding I added 2 buy ins (2/5) to the roll and feel vastly more confident about where I stand in that player pool. Last night in particular was a whale festival and I had a great seat against them. Ex. I raised to $35 from SB and got called by T2o and A2o. Of course the flop came 552 and I got donked into and called, but you get the point.

My general opinion of 2/5 so far:

The nits are nittier. I can steal more from them and be even more sure of my folds when they put money in the pot. Set mining will show lavish profits.

The weak passives are even more weak and passive. I can raise preflop/cbet mercilessly against them and show a solid profit.

The fish are about the same except they have more money. This was good to see as I wondered if there weren't as many around. There probably are fewer, but they're more profitable from a $/hr standpoint. There are just as many short stackers as at $1/2, but they're short stacking for $2-300 with still about the same level of badness. So overall, I think I'm going to be very profitable in these games as long as I play at good times and continue to plug leaks.

Fun hand of the weekend:

Table wa a perfect set up. 4 to my left were nit/weak passive. 2 to my right were fish.
V (Btn) is an older guy who is feeling good about himself. Over the last 45 minutes hes been very aggro in places that seem pretty obvious FOS to me. He makes sure everyone around him knows why he just did whatever he did and why it worked. He has about $600

Hero (MP) probably viewed as tight and aggro. V probably doesn't have anything too specific on me. I've cbet most of my hands.

Preflop: FOlds to hero. Raises K7 to $25. Folds to V on button who calls. Heads up.

Flop: K34 ($57)
Hero checks. V checks.

Turn: K34J ($57)
Hero bets $25. V raises to $50. Hero calls.

River: K34JT
Hero checks. V bets $100. Hero calls. V shows AJo.



His check on the flop eliminated all Kx, sets, and FD's as his previous play made it clear he'd bet all of those. All I was really afraid of on the river as JT and JJ. All in all a pretty easy play. Fun!

Subbed. Love the K7ss hand... Great call down

Good luck at 2/5!

With work coming up on Monday, I stuck closer to home yesterday and played in my normal $1/2 game. It was one of the best games I've ever seen. That's saying a lot. I've been playing $1/2 for 3 years in a cesspool of poker degeneracy. This game was right up there with the all time greats. I even had a great seat. And for 4 hours I got literally nothing to play. I 3 bet a megadonk with KJss and ended up chopping a K77Ax board with K9ss. Sigh. I raised Ato in MP, got called 4 ways, cbet KKT board and was immediately shoved on. V showed KJ. I set mined 77 for $15 and missed. That was the entire session.

When it was over i stopped by a house game for an hour just to show my face since it really pays to network in the poker community. It was the most ghetto environment I'd ever been in to play a game and I was already annoyed from my last session. Many of the same players were present. I had one semi interesting hand where a 2+2 reg raised preflop with one donk call likely behind. I called with AQo in the SB. I thought it was probably a mistake even then, but I think I was affected by my previous card deadedness. The flop was J high and monotone giving me the NFD. I checked and the donk shoved 3xpot and 2+2er called. I pretty much knew exactly where I was in the hand and wanted to shove very badly , but knew there was a good chance the O.R. would call and my A outs might not be any good. So I did the responsible thing and folded. Turns out the hearts came in and I would have been flipping with the raiser for the side pot and drawing for hearts in the main. Oh well. At least I know I likely made the right play. That's how the nigh was. I've been hammering myself on responsible play for weeks now and last night was a huge test. I passed with the exception of the last hand of my night.

I raised $20 UTG with AJss and got caled in 6 places. That's right. Flop was A89cc I checked with a plan of check calling one reasonable bet and folding to more action then that. MP shoved for $111 into $140. Another MP called and it was back to me. I knew I was ahead of the caller, but the bettor was not crazy. I knew he had to have something. I also knew that someone was likely drawing and that if I was ahead it wasn't by much. If I had stuck to my original plan I would have just folded. It should have been an easy one, but for whatever reason I talked myself into the 3:1 odds and called. Of course i was up against AK and nothing came in. It was a disappointing end to a well played yet losing evening.

Tonight was a different story. I went to a different house game after work and after one hour found myself up >$850. I then got a text for a minor family issue and had to leave. I did not want to leave that game, but family first. It was a good test of priorities. If you can't immediately leave a game for something in real life then you need to take a break until your life is straightened out. Tonight, it wasn't an issue and that's a good feeling. I do still wonder how I would have finished had I played for another 2-3 hours however.

Fun hand of the night:

All players at the table with the exception of one OMC are loose donkish and just bad.

Btn straddles $5. Hero (covers) raises AA to $30. BB ($220) calls. MP shoves for $110. MP2 calls for less. Hero calls. BB calls. Flop Q97r. hero goes all in. BB calls $110.

BB shows 89ss. MP shows AKo. MP2 mucks when board bricks out and AA miraculously felts half the table.

Roll is strong and on the cusp of my long time goal of a $10K roll for $2/5.

I can really tell when at the table that I've been putting in more work off the table. I'm consciously performing in game what I'm intentionally studying off of it. That's how you get better. Right now it's a lot of discipline stuff. Not even theory or strategy. Just plain old mental and emotional toughness. It's underrated and the thing that holds almost all players back. I have a natural disposition that minimizes this, but that's not enough. Hopefully, I'm on my way to being a player who never gives away anything easily. Onward and upward.

If you think that house game was ghetto when you got there, you should have seen the fiasco about ordering food. I can't for the life of me understand why you'd eat sauce covered chicken wings at a poker game. Finger food is bad enough when you have to touch the dirty chips and cards, but greasy saucy food too? *sigh* At least the game was good.

Mega-donk 2 to my left was sitting on $1k at one point, and spewed it all off in epic fashion, betting blind from across the room while BSing with people, shipping light, calling with trash, etc.

Donkette on your left put in $175 preflop calling a 3 or 4 bet (missed the exact action texting ) with 99 against decent player 2 to your right when he had AA. Flop K9x and they got the rest of almost $300 each in for the cooler.


For the hand, I'm probably raising about 99+, AJs+, AQo+ there, stuff like KQs only part of the time. Table was calling pretty light and a bit sticky. Not a lot of FE to justify raising with speculative suited/connecting type hands when they'd still stack off in a limped pot pretty often. HU I'm calling the donk with TP or better. With a good player capable of making a move I'm probably going to flat my entire range there. If you've got a small set or overpair you're not folding if I shove, but any draw/overcards are hitting the muck pretty fast. A flat at least leaves the possibility of a shove or a call from a worse hand. Which I'm calling there.

I don't see you flatting that flop OOP pretty much ever. And even though it might be interesting in that spot, the SPR on the turn is so low that I doubt either of us gets away.


I checked out the new room at the Legion last night. Second time there. Really nice set up with the poker tables out of the way, lots of TV's, attentive bartenders, no food in house but you can order take out. Not a lot of traffic yet, but a few new faces to go with some of the regulars. It'll be interesting to see how much it picks up as the word spreads and if it pulls players from the home games.

subbing. Hand histories and rando thoughts are cool, but I especially like the leak descriptions.

Greetings to the 4 of you once again.

Life has been kind of all over the place lately in every way so my posting has fallen off a bit. I have been playing some although not as much. I tend to do both in waves so there's little doubt I'll be back on here in force again soon.

As for my $0 to infinity goal, it's been really up and down. I reached an all time bank roll high after a big night and then immediately lost/gave away double that over the course of 3 sessions. I took a short break for life reasons as well as to hit the reset button and have come back with 5 straight winning sessions along with last night's big 5 BI winner.

The bank roll is still very healthy and creeping up at pretty close to my career average despite the recent two month break even stretch. I remain overrolled for $1/2, and slightly underrolled for $2/5 which puts me in weekend shot taking territory where I've had mixed results. I attribute the yoyo swings at 2/5 to a new player pool, some bad luck in a couple of big pots, and just some pretty terrible play by me.

My strength is definitely value extraction. When I hit a couple hands I can expect to be up several buy ins on the night as I seem to be able to really narrow down ranges and take lines/bet sizes that get close to max.

My weakness continues to be loss minimization. I still tend to call bets with little chance of winning. I really need to work on it. As I've thought on it, it's a combination of a few things.

1. I only have to be good x% of the time. A pot sized bet only has to be won 33% of the time to break even right? The problem is that river ranges are often so polarized that you're not getting anything even close to that.

2. There's no way he can have what he's representing. I'm constantly amazed by how some hands get to showdown. Players sometimes inadvertantly level me into paying them off by playing a big hand so badly that I remove it from their range. They also do this with bad hands. Ironically, the same trait that helps me get extra bets in where others miss (they will call with some crazy stuff) is what costs me money sometimes when I'm calling them because they play so backwards.

3. I'll look really cool if I'm right. Almost everyone here has an ego problem in poker. We think we're better than we are. It's even worse when other players affirm us. I sometimes ind myself trying to be smart. I don't brag verbally very often, but sometimes I fall into the trap of trying to make a hero call just to show off how good I am at reading people. Of course, it doesn't pay for itself as most of the time I muck and say something like, "Outkicked."

Cliffs:

1. Don't let the math fool you.
2. Don't let bizarre lines fool you.
3. Don't let yourself fool you.


As for my old weaknesses...

1. Taking breaks- Getting better but still need to do more. Last night I only got up twice for very short walks around the room.
2. Playing too loose after a while- Much improved. I think I'm down to 1-2 frivolous preflop raise/calls a night.
3. Calling off with overpairs- Hasn't really come up in a while. So, we'll see.
4. Calling river bets- #1 leak. Still needs work.
5. autopilot- mostly happens when I'm tired and/or not taking breaks. I can become a MUCH better player and this is the key. I know I can crush 2/5 simply because I know how far away from my ceiling I am.

Plan going forward, will have to pick and choose sessions for a bit. Life is a little hectic. Really pleased with my last few sessions. I'd like to keep that rolling. If history is an indicator, I'm due for a big jump in the BR. I tend to go big heater, small/moderate slump, break even, repeat.

Greetings
Stop calling, it's not that cool. More importantly, what you said. It doesn't pay you off much.
Thought I'd just comment on how your 5 leaks impact me, or not.
1. Taking breaks- I don't think this matters for me. I take a break about once every two hours.
2. Playing too loose after a while - I probably do this. Need to watch it. Actually, I kinda have the opposite sometimes. I may start out too loose, want to build that monster stack fast. I need to remind myself to play tight the first 2-3 orbits.
3. Calling off with overpairs - I think I have this one under control. The bet fold montra has been drilled into me. I like bet/fold. It actually makes poker easy, against fish and other passives. Just bet/fold with any TP to bottom two. Of course, you have to adjust against someone capable of floating and raising you with worse.
4. Calling river bets- #1 leak. - Not sure about this. I think I may fold to too many river bets. Not sure.
5. autopilot- Definitely happens to me. I guess my comment about breaks above could be wrong - I need breaks or I wouldn't be autopiloting. OK, you convinced me. More breaks to avoid autopilot.

Let's try something.

If you're reading this, post your top 5 biggest leaks and a concrete way you are going to combat them.


Tonight, I got in a few hours on the felt and played very well for the majority of the evening. I had one hand that I should not have been in that I played marginally post flop. I didn't lose my shirt, but I did end up having to make a decision that I should not have had to make. At that point, I realized I was getting tired. Over the next few minutes, I started going downhill fast and got up shortly after. After walking around for a few minutes I decided that my best course of action would be to just pick up and leave. I probably should have realized it a little sooner, but it was still a step in the right direction as far as game analysis on the fly goes.

Fun hand of the night:

Preflop:
Maniac straddles $15. MP is a normally tightish player but lately has just been all over the place. Tonight, he's the biggest mark at the table. He cannot fold anything. I'm not sure what's going on in his life, but he's donating stacks every time he sits down right now. He calls. I look down at QT in MP+1. I look left and see that everyone up to the button has already picked up their cards to fold. I call knowing that most of the time I'm going to be 3-4 ways with spewy to manaical players IP with a hand that can make a huge winner. I'm about $400 deep. Nittish reg calls in SB. Maniac checks.

Flop: T94 ($63)
Check. Check. Check. Hero checks.

I'm not wild about this flop although I often have the best hand. With these players, I'm not really excited to call a big raise so I'll keep it manageable and also conceal my holding a little. None of them will put me on a T after the check.

Turn: T938 ($63)
SB bets $20. UTG calls. MP calls. I raise to $80. SB folds. UTG folds. MP calls.

The SB bet was really weak and knowing this player it was either a blocking bet with a draw or a weak pair. The two calls were both super weak as well and I was pretty sure I had the best hand at this point with the benefit of getting called by loads of worse hands from UTG and MP. On top of that I had some nice equity with the TP+ gutshot combo. The result was very good as MP in his current state is going to call me with worse quite often. I had already decided to bet brick rivers.

River: T9383 ($263)
MP checks. Hero bets $100. MP thinks and calls.

The river was about as good a card as I get hope for. Not only was it a brick for draws, but it counterfeited any 2P he likely has. Since for whatever reason he thinks everyone is bluffing him right now, I can represent a busted draw. Even without this card I'm bet/folding the river quite often.

MP angrily mucks his cards and says he had JT. He seemed to be genuine when telling me. I figure if he was lying he'd say he got unlucky with 2p that was counterfeited. So, I'll take his word for it.

I later felted him in a spot where I made a value bet that looked like a stab at the pot on the turn, then check raised his river bet because I knew he could never fold for what he left back when betting. Understanding where a player's mental state is at any given time can make you tons if you pay attention. Tonight, it payed off.

Tonight I had AAx2 and KK and lost with all three. 2/3 I folded on flop to big raises. I was pretty proud of myself since that's one of my 5 leaks. I was proven correct both times. The third I played really well and lost the minimum. So, big improvement on that one tonight.

Love these thin value spots. Nice hand.

Sucks about AA/KK hands... Good job being disciplined. Had a similar story last night with QQ. Had it 4x. Three times ran into overcards, I checked, and they had it every time. And one time stacked off for 60bb vs a calling station who called 3bet with JTo and flopped trip Tens

--

Top 5 Leaks:

Rushing decisions: Oftentimes when I have a strong hand and start facing action, I turn into a spew monkey rather than slowing down and ranging. I end up losing flush over flush, set over set, or top pair vs straight when it could potentially be avoided. In the heat of the moment it is tough, but I need to take a breath and think it through. Solution: Slow down -- Stop and REM.

Hero Calling: God it's so much fun. Lately my hand reading skills have improved and I've made some sick call downs with bottom pair or A-high. I'll admit, I kind of get off on the fact that it impresses people at the table, and the credit I get as a result. I find my frequency of Hero calling going up, and the percentage of success going down. Solution: Put your ego aside. Hero call a LOT less. Let it go unless you have a rock solid read that V is bluffing with a high frequency.

Bluffing a Calling Station: Again, as my hand reading skills improve, there are situations where I know my opponent is weak and that I can easily represent top pair or better by firing out, especially with some piece of equity. Problem is, at LLSNL there are tons of players against whom we have ZERO fold equity. Solution: Don't even think about making a move on a calling station. When readless, let it go until you have a better view on opponent's tendencies

Playing Loose: When I'm bored, card dead, feeling overconfident, or feeling tilted, I loosen up a lot. The worst is at nitty tables. I end up thinking I can run over the table and open very very wide... trying to "build an image" so that I get paid off later. Really I just end up check/folding a lot post-flop and run breakeven at best. At more aggro tables, I end up limp/calling a ton trying to spike 2 pair or better and get it in. You all know how that works out. Solution: This is a mental game problem. Need to inject logic and realize that I'm playing my C game by loosening up like this. Poker is a game of patience.

Betting Too Small: I often size my valuebets small because I'm worried about pushing someone off the hand. It often puts me in terrible spots such as multiway in a huge pot with a vulnerable hand, or giving too good of odds to draw and seeing a flush card hit the river. Solution: Actually I'm not sure. I wish I could say "bet bigger" but if I truly did bomb every big hand, I would push people away. Will have to play around with this one and keep thinking about it. In the meantime, I am just bombing the flop/turn when there are draws out there.

Rushing: This will improve with time. The more you learn to think about, the more you'll take the time to think about it. The more you tell yourself to slow down ahead of time, the more often you'll remember to do it in the moment.

Hero Calling You and me both bro. I think this can be combated in the same way as rushing. Just learn to stop and check yourself in the moment.

Bluffing stations Experience again will be your friend. Not only will you do it less, but you'll learn which spots can work and how to pull it off. I bluff stations, but I like to think my method has improved with time.

Playing loose This can be improved by taking breaks which will help you realize what is happening more quickly. The quicker you recognize this form of tilt the quicker you can stop doing it or quit the game.

Betting too small There is a famous example at 2+2 where a poster started a thread asking people what an opponents calling range was after making a bet. A couple of weeks later he posted the exact same hand from the perspective of the villain and asked the same question. Everyone said that his range was narrow when they were betting and then gave far wider ranges for what they'd call when facing that bet. It's a mental thing. Just learn to eliminate it. The best thing you can do is learn to analyze calling ranges. Target the range that you want to call. Sometimes, that calls for a smaller bet. Often, it calls for a larger one, but learning not to bias your analysis will help a lot.

With my BR at an all time high and a free Friday night, I've travelled downtown to poach some whales at the Friday night $2/5 tables. Here's to playing well and blowing by the BR goal tonight!

The 2/5 shot ended in a lost buy in. I played very well with the exception if two spots where I was overly aggressive and misread my opponents. That'll happen when you don't know them very well. Ill fix that. It's. a totally different game down there.

Luckily, I made it all back and more at 1/2 the next couple days so the BR is still at an all time high.

I was involved in a round of Omaha the other night. I was berated for getting all in pre with AhAdKs3h. Vs. AdJh8h4c.
That's 2:1. It doesn't get any better than that in Omaha. He told me Omaha isn't a preflop game and this isn't Holdem. Preflop doesn't matter. Well it kinda does. Of course he went runner runner straight after an ace high flop but that's beside the point.


Last night was a really interesting night. I realized my old game is not what it used to be when someone at the table mentioned 2+2 and half the table responded that they at least knew the site and most sounded like they at least read there. Sigh. I flopped set of aces twice in my first hour and got stacks in both times vs. dead hands. The was pretty cool.

Later I got all in for 200BB with an overpair vs. a solid but spew prone TAG. He was so mad that I overplayed my overpair when facing his aggression. It was 50% prior history, 30% bet sizing probs, and 20% physical tells. All he remembers is that I got QQ all in for a lot of money after he went all aggro on me. It'll be fun to stay a step ahead of that guy as hell be thinking about that one for a loooong time.

Well, these are somewhat coupled right? You extract the most value by building big pots and win, but when you're wrong you lose big too.

Your points about calling are spot on. The first two highlight how our approaches to the game seem to differ a lot. I default to giving villains a bit too much credit on turns and rivers, including really screwy hands that should never get there. You seem to give them less credit because the lines that get them there make such little sense. That's probably a difference in background. I've basically only played live (****ed around online but never really cared to grind for pennies when there's a casino full of fish nearby) so that kind of showdown is somewhat engrained in my mental ranging. I don't immediately think "only need 33% here" I think "that ****er isn't betting pot without hitting a gutshot here". It's also somewhat leaky thinking, but in the opposite direction.

I've never found breaks to be a problem. If I'm tired I'm tired and walking around isn't going to help that, leaving entirely would be a better idea. Autopilot is definitely dangerous when tired though.


I haven't been putting too much thought into this lately due to work kicking my ass.

1) Not spending enough time studying away from the table. This is rolled into how busy I've been recently, but I've noticed it. I used to read a new poker book pretty much continuously, and I'd do some hand analysis after sessions. When I was playing more often at the downtown casinos I'd have a 45 min drive back to re-hash my session. Now with local games 5 mins from home I don't do that. I think I'll order a few books off my list and take them with me on Christmas vacation to get back into the habit.

2) Poor session selection. This is also a life-busyness problem. I used to play downtown at the casino where I could put in a nice 6+ hour session on Friday night, and 8+ hours on Sunday. The longer sessions gave me more time to get reads on players, find spots to exploit (either with cards or just opportunity), and play deeper after chipping up. Recently I've been playing shorter sessions on weeknights, from 10 or 11 to close at 1:45am. It's not that I *feel rushed*, but it seems like I run out of time. The best fix for this is probably to just *skip* playing on days when I get out of work late and go read instead.

3) Missing value / failing to charge draws enough when I know I should be way good. There are hands where I flat call bets instead of raising, I think with the sub-concious "what worse hands can call a raise? None" thinking that Gambit always used to spout on Frank's podcasts. But in most spots that's totally wrong. Lots of idiotic hands will call. I need to do a better job of listening to that voice in the back of my head that says "raise".

4) Playing too tight when raising (similar to the previous). It seems like when I raise prelop I get a LOT more folds than other players in my local game do. I didn't notice this as much playing at other "random" locations where I have less history with Villains. Although sometimes I'll make it $12-17 depending on position and limpers and still get 4-5 callers. Feels like I should start popping it in LP with a wider range of speculative hands to take down the limps and get myself more action with bigger hands.

5) Limp/folding speculative hands in middle-late position. Too often I'll toss in $2 in the HJ/CO with T8s or something similar looking to see a cheap flop, only to have the SB pop it to $12 and get 3 callers around to me. I'm pretty good about folding these spots rather than play a bloated pot with a marginal hand ... but I should likely be rolling this leak into 4 and either raising or folding initially instead.



That was a bad table last night. The two guys on my left between us when I sat down knew what they were doing (not the replacement with the dreads of course), and seat 9 knew what he was doing. So that's 5 competent players at a single table. I've noticed a similar shift with the other room closing, many of the semi-competent or just plain nitty players have started moving over. Not only are they less action, but I feel like their presence has slowed down the rest of the otherwise spewy players a bit.


I'm a *little* surprised that seat 9 gifted you that $300. I suppose it makes sense for him to try to bet you off the hand with the draw he said he had, and once you ship he's getting what 6 or 7:1 so he's got to call. But the bet and the sizing was just so spewy. (I wish I had a better view of him without the dealer in the way.) He has a tendency to do that when he thinks his hand is ahead of the narrow range he assigns (saw something like $350 go into the pot the other day with TPnk against a FD).

My last session was filled with run bad. I just could not get anything going. I did set up a very irritating player for a big bluff catch which succeeded, but that only slowed the flow of cash out of my pocket for the night. I quit early as my image and mindset were trashed by the time I got up.

I got sucked out a couple times. On consecutive hands I got all in with AKo and AKs and missed both in exceptional spots. I made 3 river calls, violating one of my 5 leaks. One was the aforementioned bluff catch which was actually somewhat simple given the situation. That player bitched at me all night about how he had played it perfect and I should have folded. He didn't seem to notice that I called before he had even lined all of his chips up. The second was a light call vs. a really really bad bluffy player who generally just spews chips like Vesuvius. He had gone runner runner trips on me on a two tone multistraight board that bricked out on the river. I'm actually OK with that one too. The thrid was only for a very small amount but I hsould never have made that call at all. That was the only one where I really felt like I sucked it up. Otherwise, I made one bad flop raise which got shoved on so easy fold.

The two hands that I hated the most were due to bad preflop decisions. I should not have been in those hands to begin with.

All of my big losses lately have been mostly due to bluffing. Big multistreet bluffs. That is stupid. Especially against known fish/unknowns. I just need to cut that out. It's unnecessary and just doesn't have the framework behind it to be justified.


Tonight, I'm going to go play in a small quick moving tourney just for fun. I haven't played one in years. If I bust quick, I can just go back to cash. My plan is not to chop no matter what because I really just want to play it out vs. players who have no idea what they're doing. It's worked out really well for me in the past and hopefully it will tonight as well.

BR is still fine. A tick below last week after the bad session. Just kind of letting that take care of itself. Gonna try to gather a HH or two tonight for analysis. Will post.

This is a milestone post. Before I get to the milestone, I'll recap the last week.

I played decently with the exception of a couple of hands.

Hand #1- I bet a flush draw on a paired flop for two streets and hitthe river. I then got check raised by a somewhat tricky player. All told it was about 200BB deep to start. I convinced myself that between raising worse flushes and spewing to "get" me due to history, I could call. He had flopped a boat of course so that took turned a winning night into a loser. I felted a big fish 4-5 times that night and then just handed it to the other player. Frustrating as I know I should be able to work that river spot out and fold.

A few nights later I fould myself up a couple hundred bucks and decided to raise K5ss in CO vs. a semi dead table. I got two calls from weak players, and flopped FD and 2nd pair. The turn and river bricked and I bet hard the whole way. The V in the hand has a history of calling down only to fold to solid river bets. He inexplicably called the river with A5. His reasoning for the call was kind of comical, but he got it right so hats off to him. It wasn't a terrible play, but it was unnecessary. One thing it did tell me was that I can value bet the crap out of that V for a while. So, it had been a frustrating week or so with me spewing off my wins. And then tonight. Milestone night.

I went to the casino to play 2/5. I had my biggest pot won ever. I had my biggest session win ever. And I went the longest I've ever gone without a pocket pair (~4.5 hrs). Most importantly I finally cracked $10,000 on my bankroll which means that in a little over a year, I went from $0 and playing under a stake to $10,000. That's not infinity but it's a good start. On to my monster pot!


UTG- LP ~$400
UTG+1- Hero been pretty quiet since sitting at this table. Started with ~$950.
Btn- Weird guy, but not sure how he's playing. Haven't seen his cards yet. Semi active. ~$900.
BB- Shorty fish. $350

Preflop: UTG limps. Hero bets $30 with KQ. Btn calls. BB calls. UTG calls.

Flop: 9TJ ($122)
BB donks $75. UTG folds. Hero calls. Btn deliberates and raises to $275. UTG calls. Hero checks his underwear and goes all in. Btn instacalls. BB calls.

Turn: x
River: K

BB tables JTo. Btn mucks.



Btn had 78 at best. Possibly worse. I'll take it.

And now for my $10K party.





As far as the things that I've been working on go, I did really well tonight. At one point I folded about 50 hands in a row and it was always the right decision. I didn't do anything just stupid. Progress. It felt good to play solidly at 2/5.

Awesome! Congrats on the $10k milestone. The KQ hand is pretty sweet... Nice to have fish that overvalue top two pair deepstacked. I think the BTN raise is fine but calling your shove is a tremendous mistake.

I can relate to a lot of this post. First of all i had my worst session of all time last night at 2/5 (-2000). Then today I had my best session of all time at 1/2 (+1200). Also had a huge pot with a fish who overvalued top pair and stacked off for nearly 300bb vs my set. Lots of thoughts on table selection and table image related to both sessions, but will save it for another time.

Do you think you assigned V too wide a range in Hand 1? Wasn't one of our leaks to call less on the river, or is your read particularly strong on this V?

Hand 2 wasnt one of our leaks to bluff less vs stations? Or is he not a station?

Just wondering if you agree these are leaks to work on, or if you still think it was the right play.

How much did you tip on your KQ hand btw? I tipped "two redbirds" on my 600bb pot and felt later that it may have been too much lol.

Cool thread! Just read from start to finish when I really should've been sleeping. Subbed and best of luck for the 2/5 and beyond!

Hand #1 It was just a horrible call. Yes, it is one of my leaks and it was on display in that hand. It wasn't even about assigning too wide a range. I assigned a decent one, then talked myself into calling anyway. There's no excuse. It was a pretty obvious fold and I just didn't execute.

Hand #2 That V just doesn't get to showdown very often with less than a good hand. I was shocked that he called the river bet. Once I got to the river, I'm pretty OK with that bet. I probably could have avoided that spot altogether though. The table wasn't playing that tough and I just felt like getting involved.

On the big winner, I tipped $5. Some people think that's crazy, but if you're thinking in terms of one long session, the big winners are just part of your hourly which is directly related to how much you tip. I'll take care of the dealers, but I'm not delusional about my ability to overcome rake and extravagant tipping.

That flush hand was tough. He's such a spaz and willing to make a bet out of spite with a worse hand. He's just a little too mubsy to make one that big in that spot without a near lock.

I remember a J55 flop, but not the other ranks ... was there a Q or T out there for another semi-reasonable PP boat?

J558Q

JJ 88 only reasonable boats. Part of why I called. Really only beaten by those two hands. But you're right, he's just not going to put that much money in with anything else. Stupid call.

Oh. I've seen him flat as high as KK preflop to be tricky, but I doubt that KK or QQ check/flats both flop and turn for fear of an A.

I'm surprised that I see him sitting on 400bb+ stacks as often as I do. He's so awful. I guess his annoying routine with the talking and walking around the room and sleeping at the table induces enough action from worse hands/players.