Yes, def need to be balanced in this spot.

March 2016 Review - Satisfactory Results on MONSTER Volume




I played just a few hands of poker this month.

I generated just under $12,000 rake. Assuming 25% rb that's another $3,000. +Deposit bonus puts the month just under $14,000.

I'm very very happy with the volume I put in on the backdrop of missing two entire weekends due to social events. Part of the reason I was able to play so much was because the stock market was so quiet. I posted a small loss trading this month so that was an unfortunate drag on my overall income.

Speaking of drags. Here are my results filtered for just Pokerstars. Must be rigged.


Certainly something to be aware of. I think the reg/rec ratio on Stars NJ has been quite bad. It's no coincidence that my results are the worst on that site over a small but reasonable sample. I'm also quite disappointed with the changes being made ROW by Amaya. As such, going forward I'm not going to force the volume on Stars. I'll take the good games as they come.

Looking forward to April. On the poker front more of the same. Ideally, more volume at higher stakes, game permitting. Trading picks up the week of April 18th, so either poker volume is going to take a hit or my sleep accumulation will take a hit. Either way it will probably have a small negative effect on either volume or winrate. I also have a few grad school obligations in April which will keep me away.

Buying my plane ticket. This is better than poker scout!

Absolutely insane volume! Really nice results too. vwp

4.1 Uneventful


Few hands

Hand 1) Monster cooler for fun player HU at 400




Hand 2) Inducing vrs agro fish (also dangerous board vrs calling/raising ranges)



Hand 3) Tough river vrs rec
Jam mandatory



Hand 4) Interesting spot vrs weak reg
I could talk a lot about this hand. Reg opens mid-20%s in MP. Rec in the sb. My preflop range in theory can be really wide here. But in reality I'm pretty lazy and don't overcall as much I can.

Without getting into specifics I'm donking a variety of hands here, including sets sometimes, and draws sometimes.

This guy's raise with top pair here is quite bad in my opinion, but it worked out for him in the end. Interestingly, I berated in him in chat with something like "good to know you're bet/calling turn with 1 pair" and he responded "as if you're playing strong hands that way". I most certainly am playing set or 2pr like this some of the time. Especially, if I think his flop-raise is more bluff heavy.

I'm pretty sure after his comment, that if I had donk/3-bet the flop he was raise/folding top pair which is prettyyyyy bad. Also, if he's pot snap calling 1 pair, then in theory I should always just bet/call sets on the flop (like I did with this hand) and check/jam turns.

It just goes to show how far from "GTO" and "balanced" a lot of small stakes regulars play. This guy has definitely opened himself up to making some pretty big mistakes if I adjust accordingly. Hopefully, he doesn't read this thread .

Another absolutely boring session. I logged in and there were a few interesting 400 games running and a few good 200. Those all cleared up within 30m or so and I was left with a few mediocre 200 games and some 100 tables. Decided to just take the rest of the afternoon off. A few interesting hands vrs capable regulars below

4.2 Snoozefest


Hand 1) Vrs capable reg
Really hate to call 1 pair here, just think I don't block any of his bluffs and my hand is pretty strong. In hindsight think AJ with no diamonds is a sightly better bluff catcher here, but this is close.




Hand 2) Vrs capable reg (more on the stationy side than barrely)
Worst hand I'm going to c/c 3



Hand 3) Same villain is hand 1, have him opening slightly too often in sb
Post-flop is kinda gross. Turn with my hand can go either way. Given his uber wide sb open range decided semi-bluffing with 3rd pair was the way to go. Also, have tons of equity so building a pot for when I bink is definitely not bad. The c/r and follow through is gross but not folding 2prs.



Hand 4) Vrs capable regs
400 regs do this a lot. I does not like. Think river is an incredibly bad card for him to bluff as it's clear I have a lot of KQ in my range. Had I had KQ here think it's actually no where near a snap call for that reason (also this particular guy doesn't have a super high WWSF). One pair ez fold imo




Going out tonight so no grinding. Assuming a manageable hangover, going to play a Sunday guarantee or 2.

Despite a pretty nasty hangover, I posted my first good (results) day of April. In addition to cash, I late regged the Stars Sunday Guarantee. Ended up min-cashing. The field was quite soft and a spent a fair amount of the tournament to the right of a gentleman named Chris Moneymaker. I'm sure a few of you have heard of him.



4.3 Solid


Hand 1) Vrs reg



Hand 2) Outplayed by whale



Hand 3) Awful river vrs stationy/decent reg



Hand 4) Tilted fish tilting




Exhausted

Tonight's play ended a bit early. Something that doesn't often happen happened tonight. Mid-session I realized I didn't really want to play poker. Usually I'm pretty thrilled to fire up tables and grind until I can't keep my eyes open, but not tonight. Games were good and I went back and forth (in my head) about whether to continue or quit and felt superrrr guilty.

From experience, I know when I get in this mode it's time to pack it up no matter what. In this mode a small losing session can quickly get out of hand. I made a really disciplined quit after losing 1 incredibly annoying pot (will post below, last HH).

Also bricked two small MTTs tonight for ~190 loss.

4.4 Decent



Hand 1) Standard/sigh vrs fish
I kind of knew it when he 4b this size, but then he gives me such a nice price flop/turn. If he jams river think I find the fold tbh so props to him for getting the max



Hand 2) Don't bluff the station fish even on awesome runouts


Hand 3) Choosing an awesome line vrs agrofish
Think everyone value-bets river, think check is FAR superior when you think villain bets nearly 100% of his range. Think the only possible negative of a check is when he decides to chk back JX, but that mayyy not call a triple (but might).



Hand 4) Choosing awesome line vrs agro fish 2.0
Wish river didn't 4 flush of course. Think its important to showdown that you sometimes x/call turn with the nuts in these spots. Keep villain from bluffing turns and rivers with ease. Of course against the whales that probably doesn't matter much



Hand 5) Insanely nitty fold vrs good regular - still not sure about this one
So I time-banked all the way. The plan on the turn was to x/snapcall of course, and x/snapcall any river but a queen or perhaps to jam myself. Then the ten peels off and he jammed and something in my GUT told me to take a second and think it over. I almost never actually think during a session, but I time-banked this down and decided to fold. Felt really gross and getting 2:1 I'm really not sure. On the Tx, I beat nothing but bluffs which is pretty sick. This reg in particular usually takes SDV over bluffing but of course something like 99 or 88 is pretty worthless IP on the river. Those are his most likely bluffs, but he knows I'm checking QQ/AA here with some freq as well, so I think it's definitely tough to pull the trigger (and he can go smaller to fold out my KK). All in all super interesting, maybe I overthought the spot too much and should have just cawl cuz 2pr 4bet pot.

And lollll posting this hand is so bad for my image but was the most interesting one in a while




Hand 6) Vrs unknown fishy looking guy.
This hand ended my night

Missed posting about yesterday's play. I had some grad school obligations in the early evening and got home really late. Played a quick 2 hr session and then crashed.

Going to post results for the previous two days. Nothing really doing. I saw a great spot at 5/T this afternoon and took a shot, told myself I'd risk 2 buyins. The fun player only stuck around 100 hands or so while I was at the table. But I haven't felt that "nervous" playing poker in a while. Simultaneously, there were a few good spots at some 2/5 and 2/4 games, and I found myself 6 tabling pretty large stakes (for me). Unfortunately, those games all broke pretty quickly. Oh well

A break-even couple of days. Think I've been playing pretty well

4.5 and 4.6 Nothin' doin


Hand 1) Brutal cooler for bad reg as table breaks
He was pretty pissed I sat out next hand (can't entirely blame him). Sorry I'm not sorry!



Hand 2) Agro fish at NL1k decides to notttt pot it when I make the nuts


Hand 3) Brutal runout for baddish regular



Hand 4) Tough spot vrs agro fish



Hand 5) Trying to be a hero gone wrong (vrs agro fish)




Have a busy few days played from Thursday thru Sunday. Not sure how much poker I'll be playing the next 4 days or so. Optimistically, a couple of hours. At worst a four day vacation. I've definitely been feeling a little burn out after putting up 130k hands last month so a few days off to recharge might be a nice change of pace.

Just got caught up and the roller coaster is real. It sounds like your should remove Stars from the rotation, or is it just variance. What are your thoughts on Moneymakers play, and did you watch all of the stream? GL with the recharge after putting in that much volume.

I haven't cut my volume on Stars on purpose it's just sort of worked out that way. It took about 40k hands to get to know the player pool and now I see so few good spots. The line-ups are just really unappealing to me. Maybe if Stars ramps up advertising and draws a big player pool, they will get more of my business.

Moneymaker definitely did some questionable things. It's not like he's a "Pro" in the sense that he derives his income from his play, so it makes sense that he's not the strongest of players. That being said I watched a replay of his Twitch and I'm still a fan. He's been amazing for poker of course so you gotta appreciate the guy

thought you were a live reg with all the great discussion you start on the live forums . very nicee results though, good luck buddy!

What's up with the cbet sizing on the flop?! Are you really cbetting 1/3 PSB with your perceived overpairs on a FD/SD flop?

Any specific reason for 3betting KQos here?

How do you not continue betting turn? Are you scared/pot-controlling or trying to trap?

Sizing all hands the same.

KQo for blockers. Does okay when called

While I have the best hand almost always it's hard get called by worse. If I choose to bet it has to be a size a naked qx will call but there shouldn't be more than 3-5 qx combos in his range that aren't AQ. I could have bet like 1/6 pot here

In checking though I should almost always be willing to call bets since I can induce bluffs and usually have the best hand. My range to an excellent hand reader looks polar when I check (kk, aa, qq, kq, weak AX type stuff).

The TX struck me as a nasty card. His vbetting range otr b4 the T is qq, AQ which is like 6-9 combos. On the Tx he can jam TT and KJs 4 more combos which is quite a bit.

Anyways, from a game theory prospective if I'm choosing to induce with 2 pr I should be calling. I made an exploititive fold on a really bad river card against a guy I thought wouldn't be bluffing often here.

Turns out I was wrong, he was bluffing, and I got owned but that's poker. If river is say a total brick like a 3 I'm snap calling. Also were slightly deep so his river jam is pot. If his river jam were like $40-50 less id have most likely made the crying call.

Finally, if a club rolls off he's perceived to have more fds than me and I think I induce bluffs way more often

Hope that helps and makes sense. It's sort of nitty logic but it's served me well my poker career

But is he really calling on flop with non-club KJ combos?

How about making a 1/3 PSB blocking bet if you're really that concerned about KJ/TT?

Only with fd and bdfd probs. So that's 2 combos. Then assume he'd 3b kjss and a mixed frequency.

1/3 blocking bet is okay but kinda faceup as thin value. I think people tend not to bluff over something like that though. Yeah, would have been fine. However, what hands would you be targetting to call? Only thing in hindsight that makes sense to me is something like AJ with bdfd but that's literally 1 combo. Think kq and qjss will not find a call

subbed, gl coach

TY! Hope you're still doing well.



Had a great weekend meeting my classmates for the fall. Stayed out quite late and woke up quite late which made poker all the more challenging today.

Played a monster 6 hr cash session today along-side I really full tournament schedule. Think I bought into 5 tournaments for a total buy-in in the ~$1,200 range. Bricked everything and was reminded why I hate MTTs. It must be so nice to god-run one of these things and win a bunch of money but seems so difficult to me to run that pure.

Cash was pretty standard with nothing too interesting and I'm hungover so I'm not digging through the session.



Bust-out hand against Jen Shahade. Yes, got busted by a girl.

Was my second or third 3b. Think her jam isn't all that great. A lot of the time she's just going to fold out worse hands and maybe a few chops. 88 is probably close to the bottom of my 3b gii range. Think AJ does fine against my 3b range but not my gii range. Don't really know anything about tournaments and playing weird stack sizes so I could be wrong




Bust out hand in another sunday major
Guy is some kind of reg who plays MSNL, think he's a weaker one though. His cold call is definitely losing in MP and his call of my sqz is definitely a loser too. MTTs are dumb



Anyways, that's probably my last full-schedule tournament day for a while. Bust out hands are so tilting

So true.

Nice thread, I'm enjoying these hhs. Subbed and GL

Ty and welcome





Played a really long ~6hr session tonight with only a brief 15 minutes break in between to take an important phone call. Thought I was doing quite meh and was surprised to see it was a decent winner.

Felt like I smashed regs tonight but got smashed in a few spots by the fish. Of course lost on Pokerstars, once again. I'm choosing my spots really well and overall not playing too many of the games over there. Just cannot win... yet.

Since I've been so lazy about providing HH gonna post a bunch tonight.


4.11 Solid Monday



Hand 1) Reg is marked as weak/DO NOT BLUFF
So the corollary is - play your strong hands super face up.




Hand 2) Vrs whale that's been playing a ton lately
Feel like I'm 3bet x/f'ing to this guy so often. It's nice to add some good value hands to a flop x/c range. Jamming turn for value ofc. It's thin but meh




Hand 3) Jokerstars is rigged, vrs whale
Think my line is pretty excellent vrs fun player. When I'm playing my A++ game I find myself taking these lines as opposed to going for a standard bet/bet/shove




Hand 4) Jokerstars is rigged 2.0 vrs LAG
Standard, I guess




Hand 5) Reg thing doesn't wanna fold
Turn call fine-ish, PF and flop optimistic imo




Hand 6) Gifted by rec
I always get super mubsy when an UTG PFR checks AXX then calls a turn raise. But decided I had to try to stack CO

In hindsight, if I think CO has some AX combo, that really cuts down on UTGs potential slow plays.




Hand 7) Vrs agro fish
Think it's VERY important to balance a turn x/c range here. AX nfd is a great hand to sometimes x/c turn. Obviously somewhat a cooler for vil.




Hand 8) Jokerstars is rigged 3.0 Vrs rec




Hand 9) Getting stubborn vrs agro rec




Hand 10) Hero call fail vrs straight-forward reg
Thought he never checks set/straight on turn. Thought he's capable of turning a flop stab-give-up into a river bluff on a card that's so obviously bad for my range. Spoiler alert: NOPE just has it




Hand 11) Soul reading above reg
Could have gii pre wanted to keep the other guy in pot and potentially to keep sb range slightly wider. Was folding river to anything bigger than $60 to this guy tbh




Hand 12) Jokerstars hand vrs agro rec
"If he really raised my turn lead with a naked AX he can have my $44" cawl




Hand 13) River bluff vrs weak reg
Trying to fold out JJ+ and "set" (people don't fold sets)




I've played just under 30k hands this month. My social calendar looks to be pretty busy and with trading picking up next week it's going to be tough to match last month's volume. Oh well...


More poker tomorrow

Ill give my thoughts on the latest 12.

1. His hero is pretty bad here.
2. Given the board I dont think this is a hand you want to be x/c against unless he plays very straightforward against and barrels a ton of turns. Does this guy open 50% from every position?
3. Fine with it, but not the result.
4. See above.
5. nice to have one hold, but I think his play isnt great vs you.
6. prob just stick it in on turn with only 100 left and you are calling river jam anyhow.
7. really like the x/c on turn.
8. Fine. Try fading the river.
9. Good line, always makes me feel good when i take it and guys spazz.
10. Villain would take this line as a bluff since its terrible for hero's range and knows it looks bluffy, hence the pot. Not bad hero call actually, just didnt work out.
11. Villain forgot that hero flats big pairs here sometimes bc he was playing too many tables. Prob still ok with villains line, he is repping JJ/KQ/AQ and knows it tough for hero to pay off a big river bet given that he has QQ.
12. Exactly.
13. really like the sizing of the bluff here.

Can you explain?