Well the flop was such that I knew that the only hands I could get big action from were draws or maybe 56, 55, and 66. So I wasn't really worried about missing value. Also vs V1 in the hand he tends to misinterpret large bets as being weak. Also he was calling off his stack on any FD he had anyways so I figured I'd go with the unorthodox play of super overbetting the pot.

This isn't my standard line, but if I see that a play like this likely won't matter then I will go for the weirdest line possible.

Ok thanks for the clarification, just such a weird line thought there was some history with overbets which it seems like there was.

Session 28

Date: Fri 5/18/2012
Venue: Hollywood Park
Hrs: 5.3 hrs 1:04 a.m..-6:20a.m.
Total Hrs: 108.3
Game: 5-10NL
Profit: -$4626
Running BR: $35802


The upswing is over!!! lmao. Wow what a crappy session. I hadn't planned on even playing as I was going to be busy moving on Friday. Me and a friend went to see the Avengers and I ended up sleeping through most of the movie. Afterwards I felt well rested enough to go play. So we hit up Hollywood Park.

When we got there, the 5-10 game was going and we were 7 handed when I sat down. I recognized one solid player and one very loose passive fish. The others were unknown to me. Everyone had stacks of about 1500-2k except for one Filipino guy who had about 3500-4k.

The game was quite good. There was a crazy Asian lady who called anything PF and stacked off very light post flop, but she would only buy in for 500 and even short bought for 200 a couple of times. There was the loose passive fish, 2 solid players(though one is overly tight and predictable), the Filipino guy turned out to be pretty tight and conservative as well, then one sort of bad LAG. He would open to or raise to 60 about 70% of hands. But he was pretty passive post flop. He checked most of his range on the flop. Especially the stronger part of his range. But he would bet the turn and river only when he had a hand. I never saw him fire two or more barrels with air.

So anyways as you can see from my stats it wasn't a very good session for me. So what the hell happened you say? Well I played one hand very SPYUtastically, then lost 1 coin flip(where I gambled pretty big PF), and then lost another decent sized pot when I got check shoved with a gut shot and the guy hits on the turn. Here they are in full detail.

Hand 1 "I hate money" Effective stacks $3k. This is pretty early in the session and so I didn't have any reads on Villain yet. Villain in this hand is the Filipino guy. This is stupid, but I thought Villain's stack was a lot smaller than it was. He had 3 $1k chips that I didn't see at all. So I thought he only had like $1500 or so when he actually had me covered. My stupid mistake as I should've asked. So the hand is a lot more spewy because of that.

Hero is dealt JT in CO.
PF: Hero raises to 40, Bad LAG calls in SB, Villain raises to 140, Hero calls, LAG calls.

Flop(420): K Q 8
Villain bets 250, Hero raises to 600, Lag folds, Villain goes all in, hero calls(As I said I thought it was like 650-700 more to call, not 2300. God I suck.
Villain is actually nervous and asks to run it a few times, but I never run it more than once.
Turn(6140): J Thought I had more outs at this point(I didn't)

River(6140): 7 Damn it!
Villain tables KK

So less than an hour into the session already stuck 3k. I reload for 5k.

I start battling back and get to the point where I'm only stuck like 500 for the session. Then these next two hands take place about 2 hrs later.

Hand 2:
Hero is dealt 97 on the button.
Effective stacks Villain 1 has about 2700, Villain 2 has about 1100, hero covers. Villain 1 is the Bad LAG, Villain 2 is a solid professional player. He's an older Asian guy named Joe who has played for a very long time. He's sort of a nit and plays pretty tight pre and post.

PF: Filipino guy raises to 40 UTG, Call, Hero Calls, Villain 2 Calls, Villain 1 makes it 300, fold, fold, Hero calls, Villain 1 calls?(This is pretty out of character for him). But I doubt he is giving the LAG much respect. But I actually give him credit for a big hand because he is 3 betting an UTG raiser pretty big from OOP.

Flop(980): 987
Bingo! V1 checks, V2 bets 300, Hero goes all in, V1 calls, V2 tanks for a long time and folds to my surprise.

Turn(2080): 3

River(2080): 8 F*&#*&#!
V1 flips up TT. Ok so lost a coinflip whatever.


Hand 3: Villain in this hand is loose passive fish.
Hero is dealt QQ in HJ.
Effective stacks $1k.

PF: Villain limps UTG, Limp, Hero makes it 75, Bad Lag calls on button, Limpers call.

Flop(315): 9 6 4
Villain checks, Crazy Asian lady goes all in for 135, Hero makes it 300, Bad Lag calls, Villain tanks for awhile and then just shoves for about 625 more, Hero calls, Bad Lag reluctantly calls.

Turn(2925): 7
Villain jumps up and says, "Yes!!!!! Yes!!!!!! There it is!!!!!" Ooook so you check shoved with something like J8 of spades?
Turn goes check check.

River(2925): 3
Check check. Villain tables 85. nh.

Anyways that's what losing a coin flip, getting unlucky, and playing stupidly will get you.

We got to our house yesterday and are all moved in now. Now we're just unpacking our boxes and organizing the house. I plan on playing my first session in Sacramento sometime later this week maybe Wed night. My first stop will be Capitol Casino which is the closest to my house. Gotta get my crap together and start playing well and running better.

Played my first session in Sac at the Capitol. Played the 5-10 for about 8hrs. Lost $8800. I'm pretty demoralized. I was playing pretty aggro high variance, but at the same time was running really bad add well. So that can get ugly pretty quick. I also made some bad calls and bad laydowns as well. I gotta regroup. I'm going to take the rest of this week offs and start fresh next week. Just gonna spend time with my family and get my mind off poker for a bit. Hopefully I can grind a small comeback before Vegas. I might just drop down to 2-5 for awhile until I get to Vegas. I'm posting from my phone so it's not as detailed. Internet gets hooked up tomorrow. I will detail some of my horribly played hands then.

Internet is finally hooked up woo hoo! Anyways like I said in my previous post Tue night was a pretty disastrous session. It was a mix of playing too aggressively(spyuing off my chips), bad beats, and playing waaaaay too loose(tilt).

Looking back, I found as the night went on I got more stuck I was tilting. It wasn't a steaming tilt, but a really subtle tilt that made play really loose. I was really off my game by the end of the night. This was an expensive lesson and wake up call. It just shows how hard I need to continually work at the mental/emotional control portion of the game. I can't let it slip for even a second when I'm at the tables. Because that money is too hard to get back. I figure the last session and the other downswing set me back about 4 months.

Like I said I'm not playing until next Tue. Gonna enjoy the weekend with my family. Bought a gym membership today at Anytime Fitness. I like the place because it is close to my house and it was really clean and not crowded at all. I'm going to stick to a playing schedule from now on rather than just go at random times like I've been doing. I'm going to play 5p.m.-1a.m. Tue - Fri. On the 1st and 15th of the month I will also play on Sat nights.

Got 3 wks til Vegas so hopefully I will be able to get some money back before I head out. Really looking forward to Vegas. Plan on grinding Cash mostly at Aria and the V. Might check out the Bellagio 5-10 as well since I've heard it's pretty good. I plan on staying there from 15 June until 10 July. Hopefully I run/play well early. If that happens I will play a couple of small tourneys. I will also play a super satellite to try and win a seat to the ME. I've always really wanted to play it as I feel I'd do very well. Historically I've done fairly well in deep stack long structure tourneys.


Session 29

Date: Tue 5/22/2012
Venue: Capitol
Hrs: 11 hrs 6:30 p.m.-5:30a.m.
Total Hrs: 119.3
Game: 5-10NL
Profit: -$8800
Running BR: $27002

Here are some hands for your amusement. You will be amazed at how I spyumonkeyed my money away. The upside is that all the players will be salivating the next time I show up at the tables and I will get all my hands paid off for a great while. It will probably take them awhile before they realize I've switched to nit mode. Also some of the players play very very strangely as you will see.

1. Hero is dealt 8 8 in BB. Effective stacks $1110.
PF: 3 limpers, Villain limps on button, SB calls, Hero checks.
Flop(60): 5 6 2
check, Hero bets 40, folds to villain who raises to 120, fold, Hero reraises to 300, Villain calls.

Turn(660): 6
Hero bets 800, Villain tanks for awhile and then calls.

River(2260): T
Villain shows QQ wut?! Obviously I spyu'd, but that was the last hand I expected to see.

2. Hero is dealt 57 on button. Effective stacks $1160
PF: Villain limps UTG, 3 limpers, Hero raises to 50, Villain makes it 160, folds to hero who calls.

Flop(365): A J 9
Villain bets 250, Hero calls.

Turn(865): 6
Villain checks, Hero bets 500, Villain goes all in, embarrassing fold.

3. Ok last hand I will post this is getting ugly.
This hand was my last hand of the session. We were playing 3 handed at this point.

Hero is dealt AT in the BB. Effective stacks 1275
PF: Villain raises on the button to 40, fold, Hero makes it 140, Villain calls.

Flop(285): A J 2
Hero bets 150, Villain calls.

Turn(585): 3
Hero checks, Villain bets 285, Hero calls.

River(1155): 4
Hero checks, Villain goes all in, Hero calls. Villain shows AK
nh.

Mix in some more bad play, Aces getting cracked and other standard beats, 2 coolers and you have my night.

Tue night I'm going to start anew and grind 8hrs of 2-5 and see where I'm at. Just gotta get back to the basics of good solid abc poker.

Spy,

Think we are allowed to play bad every now and then, but we're not allowed to go on tilt if we hope to remain profitable. Money earned at the poker tables is not easy to come by so don't ever let your tilt spill those hard earned profits.

I often take frequent walks, usually once an hour to clear my mind & my blood flow. I can't speak for the rest of the free world, but these small walks help me tremendously. Hope you run better soon.

Thanks for the input. Yeah that's certainly the truth. It's so easy to lose money, but 4 times harder to make it back. I worked out yesterday for the first time in a long time and am getting the rest of my routine together so I can prepare myself to hit the grind hard next week.

Def agree being also a 5/10 live full time reg i know how difficult it is out there just with variance mix in tilt then your shooting yourself in the foot and killing your hourly, by looking at your style of play and such i think maybe having a stop loss (2-3 max bi) is a good idea, generally speaking if you cant recover from 3 buys + chances slim to get even and very likely to go deeper...i feel as if your talented enough to make it but if you dont get your mental leaks fixed you wont make it to the next level, one thing that works well for me is i try not to lose more than what i know i can make the next day or 2

anyways op man wish you the best of luck

Thanks for the advice pomona. I think that is a good point. I will implement a 3 BI rule for myself. I have always believed that you should stay if the game is good no matter what, but I think somedays for whatever reason it's just not your day and it does affect you mentally and also people's perception of you hurts you.

Nice thread, suscribed

I'm only a 1/2 live player, but relistenning frequently to "The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment" help me a lot.

GL

Thanks Manzito. Yeah I always have to keep rereading and Tommy's stuff and I also like to read the Poker Mindset. I need it fresh in my mind. And it's always a constant work in progress.

I can just see how much it has helped though. If I was in this same situation I'm in 4 yrs ago. I would've already tilted off the rest of my roll playing tourneys or doing something stupid like playing 25-50 or something. I would've never even fathomed the idea of dropping down for awhile which is what I'm doing when I start grinding again next week.

I like the fact that I don't get wrapped around what stakes I play or others play anymore. I've been all up and down the ladder. People that play higher just have more money that they have or are willing to play with at that particular point in time.

Session 30

Date: Tue 5/29/2012
Venue: Capitol
Hrs: 3.5 hrs 6:45 p.m.-10:15 p.m.
Total Hrs: 122.8
Game: 5-10NL
Profit: -$1456
Running BR: $25546

Lost another 1.5 BI. Nothing really interesting. I shoved flop w/ 10 outs and got called by a weak top pair. Brick out. After that it was just standard stuff like raise AK get 4 callers nothing on a wet flop. Or Flop trips and run into flush.

After a full week off from last weeks debacle I felt good. I was playing much tighter and it just sucks that I was really card dead and the hands I did get, I totally missed the flop and I wasn't in a good spot to barrel or anything to take down pots. Plus half the table remembers me from last time so I was getting free cards like crazy on my draws, but I couldn't hit anything.

People were checking hands like top two pair to me on pretty draw heavy boards. If the cards had even run slightly well in my favor I would've made a lot of money, but no dice. Just decided to call it a night after 3 hrs because I hadn't won a pot the entire night so my image was bad and there wasn't much opportunity for me to turn it around by playing aggro and stealing.

Also the action was not really that good. There was a super action player when I first got there, but he was on a sick heater. He got Aces 3 times in a row. The first two times he took down a decent pot PF. The third time he stacks a guy who has Kings. This guy was straddling 30-50 everytime. And he was raising a lot of hands and hitting. Unfortunately didn't get any hands vs him. And he left and the game really died down.

I called Casino Royale to see if they had any games going. They only had 1 2-5 game. Pretty depressing. I guess I'm going to be resigned to only playing games on the weekends as there doesn't seem to be decent action during the week. After I come back from Vegas I'm going to have to find a new game plan.

I might have to just go to San Jose a few days at a time each week and play in spurts, rather than just try and play 5 days a week.

Anyways I'm probably not going to play until Saturday night. I'll call around and see where the action is at. Probably Thunder Valley.

God I miss LA.

Spy,

I know it is not something that we'd like to do, but since you're on such a pretty bad downswing right now, think you might want to consider just taking a break, an extended break, like maybe for a week or two!!!!

When you're on a downswing, it's tough to try to understand why "in the moment," but perhaps a break might give you some needed time away from the tables to re-coup your mind and body and to reflect on some things you're not doing right at the tables. I am a strong believer in having a good balance in our life to be successful in whatever venture we choose to partake.

Anyway, I hope you kill them next session!!!!

Thanks quiet. Yeah I'm not gonna play for the next couple of days. I did take a week off after last week's bad session. I think I'm going to play the $220 tourney at Casino Royale this Saturday and see how that goes. Yeah I'm gonna keep my sessions to minimum until I get to Vegas. I'm still gonna play on the weekends though.

If anyone reading this will be in Vegas 15 Jun onward and knows of a place or needs a roommate let me know! The guy I was gonna room with can't make it.

Session 31

Date: Thu 5/31/2012
Venue: Casino Royale
Hrs: 4.3 hrs 9:50 a.m.-2 p.m.
Total Hrs: 127.1
Game: 1-2NL
Profit: -$47
Running BR: $25499

Had some free time during the day today so decided to check out Casino Royale. It's a small room in a weird location(right next to residential neighborhood). The floor guy was really nice as were most of the dealers.
As far as the session goes, nothing much going on. I played like a maniac to blow off some steam, but I had a hard time losing because the players were so bad. Anyways I didn't come to really play a session anyways, but a guy on here offered to sell me a seat for Sunday's $220 tourney for $200. Twenty bucks I can't pass that up! haha.

It's a small room during the day time so I didn't expect much. There was a 4-8 O8 game and a 1-2NL game. The 1-2NL game is a little different because to call PF you must call $4 not $2 even though the BB posts $2. I wasn't aware of this for the first 3hrs of play lol. I just thought these guys were weird because they would all raise it to $4. So it's really like a $1/$4 game.

I liked the vibe of the room much better than Capitol. The players were much more recreational and much more gambloor types. Reminds me of the players at Hollywood Park. So compared to the Capitol which consists of mostly prop players, the owner, and some other nits, this place I imagine would be a lot more action.

Even though the game was $1/$2 a few of the players told me they play in the $2/5 game in the evening which they said plays pretty big and is pretty much like a $5/10. I look forward to checking it out as I probably won't be back at Capitol anytime soon. As I will probably play at Thunder Valley on weekend evenings and then go back to Royale during the week.

Anyways I just finalized my playing schedule for Vegas and I'm excited. I've decided I'm going to make a run for it and just go balls to the wall with my BR.

I arrive on the 12th and will be staying for about a month. Before my plan was to just grind cash and not play any tourneys. But I looked at all the tourneys going on between the V, Wynn, and WSOP and I can't resist. I'm going to be playing a bunch of events and grinding cash in between. The first few events I play will just be the 340s, 400s and 600s. Depending on how they go and the cash games go I will play in the bigger events. I really want to play in the ME for each the Wynn, V and WSOP. But we'll see what happens. I will come back very rich or broke. Should make for an exciting time more in the spirit of BBV. Wish me luck!