Just clear your head bro. I played SnG on Bovada. Turbo tripple or nothing. Trust me u ain't seen variance till u played turbo SNG. Losing 10 straight times on the bubble will make u appreciate variance. But the statement is true, "u will run worse than u ever thought possible..and then u will run worse than that"

Take a break. Dont look at hands. Forget 2+2, Just do normal ****. Eventually you will get that itch to crush these clowns again.

Also I didn't add my SNG experience to brag or imply that ur over reacting. Just saying I been there n u will get thru it, Even tho it didn't seem possible.

I've been thinking I should tell you to stick with it, but considering your low hours and the effect running bad likely has on you, it might be best just to quit. Poker is profitable, but if it doesn't make you happy you might as well abandon it.

What he said. It's just not worth your peace of mind. Period. Nothing is.

Thanks for all the support, input, and advice. It's insane the amount of a support group 2p2 brings out and all he good guys that the site has, despite some bad ones that come along for the ride from time to time!

I enjoy playing on the site so I doubt that I'll quit. When I set out on this journey finding balance was the key priority and it'll remain that. I don't let poker ruin or effect my emotions outside the tables and I usually post directly after posting and I'll keep it this way.

I need to go to drawing board and I'll figure this out, I'll just need a few days. Hope everyones running as good as I am bad!!!

I'm back! Phew it's been a long week and a half and what a difference it makes! To start, I'll provide a few quick updates.

- I temp banned myself from Bovada for a week so that I wouldn't be tempted to play. During this time I spend it wisely, getting back into my fitness routine, getting life organized, and studying all SilentAssassin3's videos on CR (His style is perfect for my game, which is a TAG approach and I've seen them about 5x each, but always am reenforcing my game.

-I reread the Mental Game of Poker and am thoroughly working through the worksheets to fix root causes of tilt.

-I've got back into a fixed diet, which I generally had no issues with but slacked lately due to life balance being off.

- I sat down and re-evaluated my poker goals plans.

Poker
- I have $700 in my account and I've decided that I'm going to take a 2 buyin shot at 100nl and move to 50nl at $500. I'm doing this for a few main reasons...

1. I have a limited number of hours that I can play and Bovada only allows 4 tabling which means it'll take much longer to build up.
2. I've beaten 100nl solidly on Bovada as recently as this summer so I know I can beat the games up to 400nl.
3. After sitting down and assessing WHY I play poker, it's bc it's competitive, stimulates my mind, but also can be a means for a decent disposable cash generator.

- I have a solid job, a roommate that provides additional income rent on the house that I own, and can afford to redeposit if I'd move to 50nl and run bad.

- I have a week off work coming up and 3 weeks off (tons of vacation I had to use) and I'd like to be able to maximize this time off making the most money as possible. This aggro plan may backfire, but it's worth a shot!


Fitness
- I've remained working out and added more running to my routine. I've been lifting a lot during the triathlon offseason with the intent of leaning out. I have a half ironman in the summer so I started adding running back in and I'll start swimming soon. I'm adding in biking randomly at the moment but will pick that up as well once I officially start the half ironman plan around a month or so.

Finance/Books
Finance and business has always motivated me and I love cutting edge stuff. Tony Robbins released his new book today, Money : Master the Game , which is fascinating. In short, if you don't know Tony, I recommend Googling him. He's a huge figure and in this book he's gained insight from the top 50 billionaires and weather accumulators and got them to spill their secrets to to success. The book isn't all fluff and actually has some awesome insights into it. I'm making my way through it and taking tons of notes along the way.

2p2
I plan to do a better job of updating this thread and I'm going to make it a mandatory part of my post session warm down and also post my mental hand history in this thread for all to see and work through with me.

Thanks for all the ongoing support. You guys all rock.

Update

I've played a little over the past few days and the play has been quality, tilt free play. One change that I've made that seems to be working greatly thus far is having a stop loss as well as a time limit that I'll play for. For me, anything over 1 hour seems to get me in trouble as I get bored, lose focus, or start to tilt a little easier. Overall, I've set my stop loss at 1.5 BI and I go into the session knowing that at worst, I'm protecting myself. This is something that I've always realized and known but it hit home recently while reading this new Tony Robbins finance book as he describes the top financial experts all have on theme in common....they protect their downside.

I play to increase this stop loss as I go on and grow but for now, 1.5 seems to be my sweet spot. Overall, I'm up a little and at about $850 in the roll. I've been still running slightly bad and lost 2 AIs on flops to a 2 and 3 outter. I'm happy with the way I handled them and didn't them them ruin my session but instead, I injected logic.

One small issue I recently faced was playing on my Mac. Bovada has been known for horrible issues with the Mac client and with some new updates, you can't even login on a Mac now. I followed some advice in the 2p2 Bovada thread and installed a 2 week trial of Parrells and Windows to get by until they fix it. In turn, I've loved how stable it is now and I may upgrade/purchase both soon as the trial expires. One thing this has forced me to do is play without Holdem Indicator and I've been playing better without it, as it's less of a distraction and I'm focused on reads and vacuum based plays.

Life
Nothing major to report on this front , aside from I'm meeting with an academic counsler on Tuesday to discuss an MBA program that I may enroll in starting in January. I've always wanted to get my MBA but pushed it off until recently when I've become more and more frustrated in my current position and wouldn't mind having an MBA to open up more opportunities. I'd go part time and it'd take 2 years. While I'd only take 1 class every 8 weeks, it'd still be an adjustment to balancing everything else within my life, but I think I could handle the adjustments.

Fitness
I injured my foot which has caused me to be unable to run/cycle for a few days. I'm planning on letting it rest this weekend and then on Monday I'll be starting a great fitness program to add more strength before I start tons of Ironman cardio workouts. The program is from Muscle and Fitness and is a great program with awesome online tools to support the program. This is a 60 day program and should take me into Mid-Late January at which point most training will be Swim/Bike/Run variable with some strength days sprinkled in.

Program:
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/site...df-program.pdf

Online Tools:
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/work...out-plan?day=1


Books
I'm still making my way through this new Tony Robbins finance book which is excellent. Lots of great info in it and I'll be working on implementing some of the stuff as I continue to move through it. It's a large book, coming in just under 700 pages so it may take me another week or two.

Just finished a session. Started session at $960...told myself I'd play around an hour or quit if I dropped down to $800. I've been using the stop loss so that I can mentally prepare myself for worst case scenario and it's helped me a ton.

The session was pretty boring for the first 45 minutes, losing a lot of mid sized pots. I then had a fish who ran up a 20bb stack double up on me flatting AA in BB vs my TT button open and x/r a J97 flop and held. About 15 minutes later I opened K2dd on button and sb and bb both called. Flop was Jd8d2c. Small blind lead $3, BB called $3, I made it $15 and the SB folds and BB shvoed AI for $27 more with his QQ and held. It's a higher variance play but I think it frustrated me a little bit more due to the fact he's been slowplaying monsters vs me preflop.

Near the end of my session I was in the BB with AKhh and the button opened only to be 3b by the sb. I elected to 4b and the BB quickly jammed his JJ and flopped J94r ... gg me. Needless to say that was the end of my session both stop loss and time wise. I'm now sitting at $805.

Overall I'm playing a lot tighter and while I'm not running great, I'm limiting a lot of higher variance plays and just picking apart fish. I haven't gained traction like I'd like, but I know it only takes a good session to get some momentum going. I'll also have off a few days for the holiday and I plan to put in some volume during the weekend. My intention is to be at $1.3k by end of the weekend, playing good solid poker. Hope to update soon!

i doubt AK all in PF @ bovada 100nl is very profitable
probably 60x more profitable to flat it in most cases.

Hell last few years im down with ak all in pf at every stake bellow 200nl

Great thread, good luck aand hope you turn it up in the 100NL games.


You posted on Oct 27th $100 to the person that calls you out after posting you have played Zone poker again. Calling dibs on that hundo.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using 2+2 Forums

I think u are playing a way too.high variance game. A big Part of shoving draws and AK is FE, and u are shoving in spots where u have none

And don't make money goals of where you should be by end of week. U will chase it and it will be in back of your head during, especially in big pots. All u.l can control is your decisions and VOLUME. You don't know how the variance will swing though

Yeah def agree. Specifically on Bovada where 3/4bs aren't light at all. Looking back, I 4b in that spot because it was sb vs button and thought I'd look like I'm making a move. That's pointless on Bovada and he'd really have to spaz shove for me to be too far ahead if I'm ever really dominating anyone there. I've been flatting unless I'm the one 3 betting. Thanks for pointing this out though and it's a leak I'll be more conscious of.

I'd have to check without knowing off the top of my head. Although I was likely tilted out of my mind and played simply trying to beat the games since I hate losing! You're probably right tho and if that's the case, I'll honor my word and try to get in touch with you after the holiday.

I agree... I played high variance in that session and something I've been trying to cut back on, especially given that I'm not running the hottest and confidence is likely a little fragile. I'm not sure why I pushed the action unless I thought in the moment in was the right play, which means I need to pay more attention and run some more sims of ranges away from the tables.

I also agree about volume goals vs monetary goals. I always intend on aiming for a stretch goal, which would be $1300 but I also know that'll be "x" amount of hours. I'll grind over break a lot with the hopes of putting enough volume and hours in to reach that, however the immediate and more important goal is to focus on making the best play each hand and putting in volume.

Getting off the terrible CR videos would be a good idea too.

Watch mark lammers on RIO, you dont get a better style for a site like bodog.

Like taking showdown value on A52 with q7 for 3 street instead of cbetting into those monkeys with 0% fold to cbet

I played another hour session before I'm heading into the gym and it was meh at best. At one point I was down $130 and about to wrap up and then got a little momentum. I ended up finishing the session up about $15 or so and all the profits really came from bluff catching in a spot that I probably shouldn't have, but I went with my gut feel and past history. I'll post the hand once I get the HH.

I didnt run the greatest and got into an akward spot with JJ where I iso'd pre to $4, got 2 calls. Flop AJ4ss. I cbet $9 into $12 and only got a limper/caller that I iso'd to come along. turn brought 7s and I decided to check back as he had $40 left and pot was $30. River was 5c and he checked and I decided to bet/call a shove, even tho I'd hate it so I bet $20 and he x/shove with A4ss for the flush. Crappy spot. Thoughts on turn/river?

Supposed to get a lot of snow tonight/tomorrow and hoping that I'll get out of work early to kick off the Holiday a little early. My intention is to play a minimum of 10 hours this holiday, with a stretch goal of 15-20 range. These hours are all quality, solid hours of play and not just playing to play. If I don't feel 100%, I plan to call it quits early and come back when I'm focused.

BR- $815

I don't watch the CR videos only because their style isn't effective on Bovada. Only CR guy I watch is SilentAssassin3 and if you've ever watched his videos, he plays a very solid, ABC game and avoids trouble spots. His approach is tight and he doesn't cbet a ton, which I don't as well. I generally take my showdown value in most spots. I'll take a look at Mark Lammers videos as well though. Thanks for the suggestion.

I recall his videos frmo many many years ago but even the older soft games are very different from current soft games. The fish have learned a few things from televised poker

played with a russian rec with 98 vpip and .3 ag the other day HU, they still exist

I do think that while games gave certainly evolved, Bovada and the anon tables haven't evolve . I rarely see a player that I mark as solid. SA3 vids were good bc majority he focused on best play in a vacuum vs balancing and opponent specific which both are irrelevant on Bovada.

I put in a quick session (literally quick of like 20 minutes as I unexpectedly had to leave/quit). I managed to run well and won a 120bb pot with AI after I 3b AKhhvs 60bb bu open, flop 974shh and cbet flop and got cold called. I jammed Ts turn and got snapped by A8hh and river 7d so I managed to hold. Another hand I opened 44 and got 2 callers. Flop A45r, I cbet and button raises, I call. Turn 6 and I x/r AI and he has A4 for two pair and I hold as river paired the 5. Hopefully it's a quick momentum burst into the holiday weekend.

The major point of this update was to provide you guys with someone beneficial. As I've mentioned in the past , I stumbled across Elliiot Roe in the coaching forum and really looked into poker hypnosis. I was skeptical at first, but purchased his pre-game MP3 at which point he gave me the post session warm down MP3 free. These have helped my game tremendously and put me in a relaxed, focused, and motivated state and they really help with relaxing me and getting my mind off poker after a session. While I play so well after listening to the pre-game, I do need to continuously work on listening to it pre session.

The main point is that I saw Elliot is offer a new MP3 called "Tilt Buster" which is a quick 7 minute MP3 to help you get off tilt during a session. Anything Elliot offers for free, I recommend snatching it up quickly and also would recommend looking into his other works. I'll preface by saying I have no relation to Elliot nor have spoken with him outside his initial thanks for purchasing email and he chimed in this thread once. Moving forward, I'd love to work with Elliot for both poker and life hypnosis benefits once I can throw together more of a bankroll. In the meantime, I recommend giving poker hypnosis a shot as you literally have nothing to lose with this free MP3.

http://www.pokermindcoach.com/tilt-buster/

I'll give it a review once I test it out later this weekend.

Wow thanks for the mention, very kind of you!

Great to hear the MP3s have helped!

GL

Elliot

Def have helped and need to incorporate them more often. Thanks for helping out us poker players!

Wrapped up a solid 2.5 hour session. While on the session I didn't get much going and ended up down little over half a buyin or so, I still say it was solid due to my focus/level of play. I tried to take advantage of the holiday fish but didn't go my way. Nothing too eventful as I wasn't able to get paid too much with my big hands and lost a lot of mid-sized pots to coolers or bluff catching to have them catch a pair on river and check.

I've def tightened up my play since coming back and I see how more calm and in control that I'm able to play. I'm not running the greatest still, but I'm grinding out small profits. I'm not overly concerned as I know a good rush/run will come and this is a long giant session. My intention is to put in 8 more hours this weekend if possible.

Hope everyone is enjoying a great Thanksgiving with their families!

i had 11 month without a single good rush and i 12-16 table

could take a while with only 4

Played a few sessions the past couple days, topping my bankroll out at the $1,111 mark, which felt good to cross the $1k mark again and reach the break even point of my initial deposit. Unfortunately, my last session didn't go as planned and I dropped 2.25 BI. As you'll notice, my stop loss is typically my session length or 1.5 BI. I learned a crucial lesson here today in that when I'm creeping on my stop loss, I should probably just quit and come back fresh.

The session started off really weird, which I've been noticing a lot of on weekends where players limp and come over the top for 100bb and TONs of limping of QQ-AA, which I've been on the bad side of plenty of these coolers, including today. Needless to say, the session started off weird and I dropped a little off the bat and then had the hand below happen.

100bb effective, CO has seemed fishy.
CO opens to $3.5. I call AQo on button.
Flop AK2cc. CO pot leads for $8, I call.
Turn 2d...CO pot leads again and I elect to call and snap a river shove as board pairs and we're likely chopping as I don't give him credit for AK a ton here. I call.
River Jd. He shoves, I snap...he tables AJ. EWWW.

This hand was somewhat tilting as even tho we're chopping as of the turn, I see bad players mash pot a ton and I haven't been able to capitalize on it lately. I mix it up with 3 betting vs flatting there and decided as I had no reads on him, I'd start there calling preflop until I built up further reads.

Another hand on the same table I ISO'd JJ on button vs mp limp/caller with 40bb who called and xc a 626ss flop, and xc my turn shove on 8d with AA. Annoying spots and seem like I see those limps a ton on weekends. These two hands alone had me slightly tilted which I think I managed and managed to get through well. Then my last big hand of the session was the biggest error of the session...

Table was 5 fish, one aggro fish. I opened KK UTG and MP fish called. We were 125bb effective. I cbet 7 on a 528ss to 7 and the aggro fish makes it 14...I decided that the board is drawy and he could have a pair making a move as most fish do in this spot with the min raise so I bumped it to 42 to protect my hand. He flats rather quickly. The turn brought the 2c which I perceived as one of the safer cards as I know have a better 2 pair if he has a hand like 85. I have 85 left and the pot is 80 so I bet smaller to induce a shove and bet 35. He shoved and showed the AA.

I butchered this hand on many levels and I wasn't aware of the stack sizes to be honest as I was amazed when I looked back and saw he one a 250bb pot. I think I was still on tilt and categorizing all fish together vs treating each independently and it got the best of me and is something I'll be more aware of next time.

I dont think I'll play tomorrow as I'll be heading out of town. Starting next week I'll be hitting the fitness routine hard and going to try to hit the gym in the mornings so that I have more time in the evenings for life related stuff. I find at the moment it's difficult balancing a lot of stuff in the evenings when I need to play poker, do errands, hit the gym up, spend time with the gf etc.