Thanks man!

TQ hand:

"maybe I can fold flop" - never folding flop. "when it goes check raise and call?" - why would it make you fold you have good bluff catching hand. ("My logic at the time was he can have draws and I can turn a Q/T/J/spade..." - exactly even if he is not bluffing with flush draw or JT, you can improve to the best hand till river, like 2 pair, backdoor flush.)

Not so concerned about UTG player. His sizing on flop is atrocious. I think this is autopilot cbet. If he had real hand he would probably met to 3/4 or something (since there is flush draw).

"Turn I think is standard?" - still a bluff catcher.

River is a snap fold. You beat like Jt and maybe like AJ it's unlikely he has a hand like some JTo (A his position B that he check-raise small with it vs UTG and 2 players) or worse trips (Q9). You are losing to all AQ, KQ, sets.
Just a disciplined fold.

In order to call that river bet you need to have some pretty good reads of villain postflop play.


KK hand:
Not much to say here. It's fine either to flat or 4-bet. Flatting would make more sense if he is bluffing postflop too much.
This doesn't automatically mean that if he is a bit more aggro pre-flop he is the same post-flop. And it seems you assumed exactly this.

I don't understand why ever you would have hard time calling river given how hand was played.


QQ
This is very good hand to go for check/call. We would bet all AA, AK, KQ, sometimes KJ. Also hands like AQ, AJ is good to bet. Check/call with QQ-88. Check/fold rest.

Fold.
It doesn't make any sense to think he is bluffing there. What would he be bluffing?! This looks like some random 77 or 66 which betted flop (because he thinks it's dry board and dont want give you your 6 outs or something) and then hit his set on turn or river. Or maybe some weird play with AK, KQ.

As for "I think I should b/f river and hope he calls with his pairs?" No, your hand is still only a bluff catcher. By betting you let him fold all his bluffs. And if he has TT,JJ he can value town himself. I think bet/folding is bad.

P.S. I like how you post hands and give your thoughts on matter. It's easier to get discussion going vs someone who just post a hand and ask "b/f river?"
Keep it up.

Good luck!

Hey man, thanks a lot for the analysis, really appreciate the effort and def found it helpful! I messed up quoting your post but I'll try and go over your points below haha.

Maybe I'm being results orientated when I considered folding flop on the QT hand. I do agree UTG should size a bit bigger on such a wet board and I was more concerned about the guy raising. I just feel like I'm at the very bottom of my range for calling the c/r so it doesn't feel like an amazing spot.

Agree that I just have a bluff catcher on the turn, by “standard” I just meant I feel like I can't fold when I improve and still beat draws (and now 95s if he defends that) but raising is only getting action from better so seems like an easy call.

River I totally agree is an easy fold and that's why I was annoyed when I talked myself into calling because I'm an idiot lol.

I thought he could have a bunch of missed hearts but if I'd thought about it more I don't think he defends all of them pre to an UTG raise and then I don't think he's check raising flop with like 46hh or something so like you mentioned it's basically combo draws and maybe Axhh that I beat while I lose to all the better Qx and full houses. My gut was to snap fold then talked myself into it but at least I'll know better next time!


Hand 2: KK -

That's a really good point you make about being aggro pre doesn't necessarily mean he over bluffs post flop. And yeah, I admit I hadn't even considered that... I just thought “oh he's playing 33/28/25 so I'll trap him and let him spaz” without even considering I had no idea of his postflop tendancies and he might not just barrell it off blindly.

Looking at it again, I think calling is ok but given how aggro he is pre, but I prefer 4 betting and hoping he just thinks I'm playing back at him and playing a bigger pot.

When I said "wasn't 100% sure what I was doing if he bet" I worded that poorly so my bad - I was snap calling any ½ pot or less size bet. I said bet originally when I meant shoved.

Realistically I'd probably still call it off if he did shove. I just meant I wouldn't be thrilled about playing a 240bb pot with one pair and hoping I hadn't just let him get there by not punishing him pre.


Hand 3 - QQ

Yeah I didn't really consider betting flop on this hand for the reasons I mentioned. Think checking is much better barring some read that he's a massive calling station (which I didn't have here).

When you said we'd bet AA here, it made me curious – When he just calls pre both times I'd say he close to never has AA or KK and QQ seems very unlikely.

Given that, isn't AA more or less the same as having QQ here? Maybe this is wrong but if not then why would you bet AA but not QQ here? Is it just because there's a (small) chance he can have QQ which will call and we heavily block him from having AK?

Yeah as I say I wasn't sure on the river. I thought TT/JJ might call a bet but not bet themselves if checked to. I couldn't really see how he gets here with any(?) bluffs though, especially when he checks back the turn when I showed weakness so folding is maybe best.


Anyway thanks for the help and the kind words man, glad you like the style and I agree it leads to better discussion if I give my thought process (even if it's no doubt wrong sometimes )

GL to you too!

Well, apologies in advance but this is not likely to be the most exciting update ever given I've only managed 514 hands (+$8.85) since Wednesday...

I've been enjoying playing even when I was running pretty badly and I've won more or less every session recently but I felt really tired and quite down at times during the past week. I just really wasn't in the mood to play much for a personal reason and since I'm not doing this for the money figured it'd be better to just take a few days off and play when I actually wanted to rather than force myself to grind when I was hating it. Feeling better now anyway

Away from poker, I went out for a nice lunch with my Mum on Friday, we don't see each other that often and have had a strained relationship at times in the past but we're getting on better these days and it was a good afternoon together.

I've spent some good time with the GF recently and last night had a couple of mates round and we played FIFA and had a few beers so nothing too crazy but been a good weekend. Off to see the Gran this afternoon and then hopefully manage to play some hands tonight.

Finally made it back to watch the team I coach play yesterday morning. That was the first game I'd made it to in a while since I kept being busy and having things on Saturday morning's. Was good to get back and definitely worth the early start cause one kid scored a hat-trick and we won 5-4. Came back from 2-0 down and then 4-2 down to win so that was really pleasing to see they never gave up and kept going right to the end.


2 Quick hands for you:

Barely played any hands as I said but this one was decent gift!




Always nice to have someone open jam 95bb's when you have AA ... Even if it was a bigger sweat than I'd have liked!



This was my biggest win - I actually misclicked when I min raised pre... Worked out well for me though! Should probably size a bit bigger post. Don't think his call is great but obv not complaining!






Anyway, not much else to report for now. I'll hopefully manage to play a lot more hands before the next update although I did mention previously that I'd try not to play if I wasn't feeling it so pleased I've stuck to that

I like your style of writing, enjoy reading it!
I will reply to #28 post when I get time to do that. Been busy myself grinding & studying etc etc

Do you study any poker book now?

Thanks man, glad you're enjoying it! Hopefully the grind and study is going well for you!

Nah I haven't really ever studied poker books. I've read a few but they were more just for entertainment than learning or strategy tbh. How about you? Any recommendations?

Not had any chance for big volume but back playing again, managed ~500 hands last night and about the same again since I got home from work today. I'm gonna keep playing once I do this post but after a good start I started playing really badly so taking a break just now!

I'll stick a graph up once I hit 10k+ hands which will probs/hopefully be tomorrow (Currently on 8853)

I'm not sure about you guys but I much prefer playing when on my own. I just find it much easier to concentrate and play well there's nobody else in the room and it feels really difficult to 4 table if someone else is there or talking to me lol.

I said in my very first post that I'd be honest and post when I screwed hands up so I'm going to "shame post" two hands from last night's session because I feel like an idiot. The reason I mentioned above that I much prefer to grind when I'm on my own is that my flatmate was talking to me and honestly did distract me for both of these (they were like 2 minutes apart) but that's no excuse and obviously I should still have been paying attention and noticed the rivers.


Hand 1



Hand 2:





Posting both of these hands to try and embarrass myself into paying better attention because I didn't even notice the board double pairing in the 89 hand (I saw it was 44Qxx but not QQ44x) and I didn't notice till I reviewed the AA hand that the river made any Q a straight... Obv if I'd been playing better I'd have checked both rivers.

Back to the grind for now!

OK not updated this much recently so gonna try and get things back up to date! Having barely played at all last week I've managed decent volume (by my standards) since Sunday and got ~3000 hands in with pretty good results. I'm also exclusively 4 tabling Zoom now and will probably never go back to playing less so feel really good in that respect!

Up to date Graph



Current Results:





My big winning hands haven't been super interesting tbh, mainly just having big pairs hold up all in pre and hitting sets against top pair/overpairs. This one wasn't even one of the biggest ones, still found it funny though, always nice to get a donation!





Biggest loss was this one...





Obviously it's a cooler and don't think there's any way I don't go broke given the run out anyway but anyone play it differently? Turn jam seems slightly on the big side but I thought AK was unlikely given he just called pre and clearly there's a lot of scary/awful rivers for us, both in terms of him getting there and action killers and figure this board smashed his range with pair and draws/combo draws that will call it off


Couple of other fun hands...


He snap shoved after I raised and I basically insta folded, think it's fine to raise for value then easy fold when he ships it right? Just felt a bit meh after since I thought I got there lol.




Here I click buttons on the river...




Really wasn't sure what was best on this river?

Tbh I was never planning to raise when I checked but he tanked for maybe 10 seconds or so before betting. It may have just been complete coincidence if he wasn't looking or whatever but it really just felt like he was trying to decide between checking back and going for thin value with a marginally better hand than mine so I just decided to go with my read and raise.

Might have been "bluffing" with the best hand though and kinda feel like I was maybe just clicking buttons here...

Goals:

Actually really pleased with my progress in regards to the goals I mentioned earlier in the thread.

I barely played last week when I wasn't in the mood and this week I've been playing well and enjoying it. Admittedly I've been running relatively well but still taken a few bad beats for stacks and I don't think I've tilted once.

My stats probably still suggest I'm playing a little loose but I've definitely tightened up recently, stopped playing so many weak hands OOP and calling 3bets weak and my red line is finally starting to go back up!

Like I mentioned in the first paragraph - I'm 4 tabling every session now and feeling good!

Goal for October is 20,000 hands - Aware this is nothing to a lot of you and I was reluctant to put a play X hands goal at the start but have a bit better idea of how many hands I'm playing after doing this for a couple of weeks

I figure while there will be days I don't play at all, if I can average ~5k hands a week and ~1k hands on days I can get sessions in then this shouldn't be tooo hard. Same rules as before apply that I'll only play if I'm feeling good but still hope to meet this without too much difficulty!

Hopefully people are still reading this! Long post I know but that's it for now!

Good start to October, managed 1400 hands so far today and +$82... have also been running pretty hot which is sweet!

I did lose a buy in with TT v A7hh all in on a 7 high flop after I 3bet pre, 7 on turn but meh these things happen, I've got lucky a couple of times recently so can't complain.

Only real misplay might've been this hand, he does have all the QQ+ which I don't. Maaaybe I can fold turn since there's no real draws or anything and he bets pretty big again but I think my hand is just too good? I tanked and slightly sigh went with it.





These all happened today...


Biggest win:

Intentionally sized the 5 bet bigger than normal to try and make it look a bit more like AK than AA, given his hand I suspect it wouldn't matter anyway but still think my raise was a bit big. Nice to be on the right end of a cooler though...and hold!





Didn't see his hand until showdown here so obviously didn't love it when the board paired at the end but always nice to have them drawing (all but) dead on the flop





So remember at the start when I said I was running good... Well before today I couldn't tell you the last time I had a straight flush... Just had the two today Only a small pot but still can't complain





And lastly for now... Honestly I have no idea why but 35 is my "favourite hand" (stupid I know but it's not like I'll play it in any situation lol) Suppose that's a not terrible flop for my hand!




He snap called every street so I thought I'd just go for it on the river rather than trying to bet 1/2 pot and hope for a crying call. I mean, I assumed he'd fold 99% of the time but so rare to be in this spot that I just thought "yolo, all in"

Will take tonight off, gonna go to the gym then hang out with the GF since she's working all weekend.

The GPS (Genting Poker Series) is in town this week too. I'm not playing the main because I'm lazy and left it too late to try and satellite in but I might play a couple of the side events this weekend so if I do I'll update them here as well and hopefully have a decent result to mention in my next update!

Hey I am on a similar road, I hope you succeed in every goal you have, wish you the best of luck and see you at the tables !

Hey man, thanks a lot I really appreciate the support and comment. I've just seen your thread too. GL at the tables and sure I'll see you on there sometime!

LOL this just happened...

I flop the nuts, improve to a flush and then... fold... brutal river but literally can't think of any hand we beat when he donk overjams pot (And yeah I realise pre might be a bit loose but figured we play a bigger pot in position and win most of the time)

Oh hi there... I believe only my 2nd ever royal flush! Right after I hit 2 straight flush's yesterday as well!

Guess I should have check raised turn or checked the river and hope he bluffed although suspect I was never winning more anyway given how hard it is for him to have a good hand on that board

Gl and subbed

subbed. gl man

Cheers buddy, same to you!

Thanks man, GL Gl!

Not had a chance to play much today but will try and get a decent sized update in tomorrow. Including a live tournament, red spade open and up to date graph!

OK not updated this much so far in October so I'll try and get things up to speed here!

Football:

Kids team won 16-1 on Saturday! Sadly I wasn't actually at our match cause they're in a new league now which plays home and away matches and it would have been an hours drive each way for a 50 minute game. Obviously a great result though so that was nice! Training yesterday was cancelled due to the (extremely wet) weather so sure I'll get all the details tomorrow night when I go back.

Hearts only managed a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock last weekend. Should have been 4-0 up by half time but we wasted our chances and then conceded a silly goal with 10 minutes to go which was really frustrating. Especially disappointing considering Kilmarnock are managed by the guy who got us relegated two years ago and their team has quite a few players that used to play for us but were let go basically for not being good enough so a poor result all things considered.


Poker:

Online:

GF was working all weekend and most of my friends had other plans for the Fri/Sat so actually played a fair bit of poker this month and especially at the weekend.

Managed nearly 6k hands already this month so not too bad volume wise



Obviously disappointed that after such a good start to the month where I was running nicely and felt like I was playing pretty well, then the last few sessions have been poor and I've honestly felt I played terribly.

In my defence, I've run pretty gross at times and flopped trips nut kicker against an overpair only for them to drill a set on the turn for stacks twice in the last couple of days lol.

Also having been on the right side of the cooler a couple of times last month I've run KK into AA 3 or 4 times recently. I don't mean to turn this into a BBV post though and that's certainly not the only reason for the last few disappointing sessions. I've definitely tilted a bit and played poorly too.

Having just mentioned KK v AA I actually think I maaaaybe could have got away from a couple of them.

This is one of them here. Not sure if I'm just being results orientated but when he 5 bets small and not all in can I actually get away from this here?

Obviously we have a huge hand but does he ever do this with anything but exactly AA? Pretty sure he jams AK (and we block it super hard) and probably just jams QQ as well?






Ashamed to say I haven't marked any hands and looked over anything this week at all but this is my biggest recent loser (actually from today) and I'm fully aware it's spew and I should probably fold pre... twice...

Like I said at the start I want to be honest and post hands that I butcher in order to try and stop me doing it again so here's a huge donation lol, hope the guy appreciated it :P





October Graph so Far:





Overall results:




Winning $131.50 after 16,482 hands so far for +7.98bb/100 so still relatively pleased but need to get my green line going back in the right direction!

Not sure how to rate my play so far this month... First 3 or 4 days I'd be tempted to say B+ but the last few sessions I'd say C/D at best and I was definitely starting to tilt a bit so I'll average it out at a C for now...

Played a couple of MTT's this weekend too! One live and one online so I'll update with those in a seperate post in a minute since this has been cash centered and is starting to get really long...

Stumbled across this and just noticed you were talking about the GPS on October 2nd, guess you're in Edinburgh then? I used to play quite a bit at Fountain Park and still know a lot of the cash regs who play there.

Gl with the zoomaments, your thought process seems solid so I'm sure you'll print $ at 10NL

MTT update!

I mentioned in a previous update that the Genting Poker Series (GPS) was in town last weekend and I was going to try and play a side event or two. Never made it to the Saturday game in the end but did play the Sunday £50 tourney.

Unfortunately the 5pm start time on the website was wrong and they actually decided to start it about 4.30 instead. I rocked up at half 5 planning to have just missed the first level but had actually missed the first 2.

There was apparently also no 150/300 level so I ended up joining at 200/400 with a 10k stack lol...




Tbh I probably shouldn't have even played it given the ****ty structure but I was there and thought yolo, I like hyper turbos online and a double up or two and there's some room to play so I'll try and spin up a stack.

I fold junk hands for an orbit or so but it doesn't take me long to get all in. After an open and shortstack calling all in I 3bet all in with AQ. Opener snap calls and I'm slightly concerned. He turns over KJ though and I have the best hand. Shortie has T8o and hits two pair but luckily board runs out blank so I ship him 2k but win the main pot against Khigh and chip up to 17k or so.



Good start... Unfortunately that's as good as it got...

I opened with TT and snap called a jam from a young guy. He had KQ and won the flip for a 20k pot with average at 15k

5 minutes later big stack UTG opens and I wake up with AA. I tank for maybe 6 or 7 seconds, (not even hollywooding but just deciding whether to call/raise or all in) and eventually decide he'll prob call an all in (he'd been loose and made a bad call which got lucky to get his huge stack) and jamming looks weaker so I ship while trying to look like I wasn't sure and had a KQ/88/AT type of hand. Apparently it works cause the same guy from the KQ flip rips it behind me. He has 77 but sadly a 7 on the flop sees me busto.

Kind of annoying but these things happen. I got it in good both times, once crushingly ahead and if my pairs can hold I have 4x average, even double average if just the AA held but what can you do. I managed to steal the blinds a few times and had a good table with people open limping with 10bbs etc but sadly couldn't run well when I needed to.

Red Spade Open

So I got home from the casino and nobody as home so I decided to fire up Stars lol. Decided to yolo a $18 6 max hyper with 2 seats to the Red Spade Open and managed to bink on my first attempt. Really didn't want an all night grind after the casino so nearly just took the tourney $ but decided to play the tourney 1 minute before it started.

Not much exciting to report but I picked up some big hands early and managed to get decent value so was able to chip up steadily winning lots of smallish pots. Went really card dead after that and think I had between 10-16 bb's for about 2 hours.

Eventually made the money and managed to ladder up for an extra hundred without doing anything then finally got my last 10 bb's all in with AJ in the cutoff, feeling pretty good. Unfortunately that lasted all of 5 seconds when the button woke up with AQ and I couldn't suck out. Cashed in 1502 (I think) for ~$221 so not a bad night's work since I satellited in first try.

Played a few Heads up hypers yesterday just for a change from zoom when I was bored and think I won 3 lost 4 for -7 plus rake lol.

Bankroll up to a $734 which is the highest it's been since starting this blog lol.

Away from poker, got an exciting weekend ahead: I'm best man at my friend's wedding on Saturday. Went for a pint with him and 2 of the 3 ushers last night just to finalise all the details and plans for the day and stuff. Really looking forward to it now although truly got the fear for giving a speech. It's more or less written but I've never done anything like this before and public speaking is pretty much my biggest fear so any tips appreciated!

Right gonna leave it there for now and maybe play a session this evening or tonight.

You're playing too many hands. VpIp/pfr looks bad and opening K9s from EP isn't good.

Yeah I'm in Edinburgh. I'd probably recognise a few of the cash regs just by face. I'm in every so often but I don't play there nearly as much as I'd like to. Partly it's just finding the time but also I'm honestly so lazy when it comes to live poker...

Definitely aim to play live more though, I've done well when I have played cash there (not that it's over any sort of meaningful sample but I felt more than comfortable and that I'd be a decent winner in 50/1 and 1/2 games I've played there) and one of my goals is to play more live MTT's and get some more scores on my Hendon Mob by the end of the year. You playing the UKIPT next month?

Thanks for the kind words Just seen you have a few of your own threads, sound interesting so def gonna check them out. GL to you!

Yeah I fully admit this. I play a lot tighter in MTT's but my natural style has always been pretty LAG and 3bet a lot in cash games. Agree the K9s is just plain bad and a fold in the first place and then again to the 3bet. I normally would fold it tbh so not sure what I was doing here, just clicking buttons I think

Ideally I'd like to get my VPIP below 30 again. My current EP range is probably something like any pair, any suited ace so 22+/A2s+/AJo+/KTs+/KQo and then suited connectors like maybe 67s+. I realise this is definitely on the looser and wider side though...

Should I maybe be just folding some of the small pairs/worse suited aces and suited connectors? Something like 77+/AJ+/KQ/and then like 9Tss or is this too nitty for 6max?

I don't want to drastically change my style and start nitting it up or anything cause I do feel like it works for me but certainly open to suggestions to improve the win rate! Cheers

Opening a wider range from UTG, or any position, isn't bad by design. But it means you'll have a more complicated game tree on future streets. More decisions to make = the need for more robust post flop ranges.

The game definitely becomes a lot simpler the less you vpip pre flop; mainly because you'll have the best hand on future streets a higher % of the time.

Opening 22+ A2s+ AJo+ K9s+ KQo QTs+ JTs 9Ts-67s is only VPIPing 16%~ of the time. So your overall number being as high as 31% is probably a function of your btn/blinds strategy. How wide are you raising unopened btns? Do you play 3b/fold from the SB, or have a calling range? How wide do you defend the BB?

Will try and expand on this later, just woke up and don't want to write an essay. But essentially, the better you play post flop, the wider you can afford to VPIP pre.

Yeah I'll be in Edinburgh for the UKIPT, 6 of us have rented a nice appt for it, so should be good fun. Although last time we rented a similarly nice place, and I ended up spending like 55 out of 72 hours in the casino between MTTs/cash. Going to try and have a better balance this time.

WRT the cash games at GFP, the .50/1 and 1/2 games are by and large some of the softest you'll find anywhere. The 1/3-2/5 games are pretty tough/reggy these days, but are super fun to play in as they are uncapped and run really deepstacked.

Subbed! Mon the 'Well