Very good question!

Without belaboring the point, I'm going to say yes to both.

I'll sure as heck say it's been FUN!!!!!!! And I plan to keep it going!

bloggy-style post 08-27-2017

Had a 6-hour 4/8 session at Winstar, finally getting the chance to play on a Saturday night (at one point there were four full tables of 4/8 running with a waiting list!!!), which ended $33 down. For the most part I just couldn't make many hands. I'm second-guessing myself on a lot of hands where I flopped a big draw, bet the flop and turn on the come and either bet the river hoping the villain would fold a better missed draw or check/folded or check/showed down the bluff. I'm going to post several of those hands on the limit forum for discussion, but for the most part I think that if I did make any mistakes they were small mistakes at worst - when you just can't make hand there's not much you can do. I'm waiting for the first time I have the kind of night where ALL of my draws come in!

It was one of the friendliest, most fun tables I've ever played at, and I LOVE that, because when it all comes down to it, I play poker to have fun.

A couple particular hands I'll share:

The player to my immediate left was an unusually aggressive player for 4/8, raising 15 to 20 percent of his hands and checkraising flops and turns with top pair. He was also a super nice guy. Anyway, 4 limpers and I'm on the button with KK and I raise. The SB (him) said, "I was going to raise, but I guess I'll just call instead!". BB and all limpers call.

The flop came KT8tt. The SB got really big eyes, said, "Oh man, THAT is the flop I needed! I love that flop!" and bet. 2 callers. I said, "I love it more than you do!" and raised. He paused for a moment and said, "No, I really don't think you do!" and 3-bet. The callers folded. I capped it and he called.

The turn was a 7 that didn't complete the flush. He said, "I'm going to bet right out on this". Not afraid at all that he had a straight, I raised, he 3-bet, I capped and he called.

The river was a 10 and he said, "Oh man, that totally did it - I bet." I didn't know this, but at Winstar there is no cap when it's heads up on the river. I was prepared to go all in - if he had pocket 10s I was going to say I'm Vanessa Selbst and he's Gaelle Baumann, so be it. But he called my 4-bet and flipped over his pocket 8s. His reaction when he saw my kings was priceless! But he was a good sport, smiled and laughed about it even though he was clearly stung. Showed no ill will the rest of the night.

Earlier that night there was a fish at the table who was buying in for $40 over and over again and playing aggressively, almost maniacally. I had two red aces on the button. He raised, I 3-bet, he capped, and 2 other villains came along for the ride. The flop was 3 low cards with two hearts. He bet, 1 caller, I raised, coldcall, he 3-bet, coldcall, I capped, they all called.

The turn was a jack which put 3 hearts on the board. The fish said "YES! THAT'S the card I needed!" and bet. I raised. He looked disappointed and just called. Everybody saw the river. The river, sadly, was not a heart, and surprisingly checked around. The fish had turned a set of jacks and dragged a gigantic pot.

Personally speaking, I usually take a Colts card protector, but I had lost it, so I took my Card Player Cruises card protector. 3 different people had also been on one which sparked 2 of my favorite topics.

All in all, good time!

It's polite of your opponents to enthusiastically announce when they've hit a piece.

Wtf is with writing bloggy style post ? No it just a post you write blight style post is wierd.

bloggy-style post 09/21/2017

Broke my record for longest session I've ever played - 7 hours. Got myself a nice, fat, $8.80 food comp out of it too. Unfortunately it didn't end well results-wise - I lost my whole $200 buyin. I felt kicked in the stomach like the session not only drained 7 hours out of my life but $200 out of my wallet, and I was like, why did I go through all of that just to lose? That was my biggest disappointment was how I let myself get overconfident like I can't lose - I know better than that, I know that any time I sit down at the table there's a chance I could lose my whole buyin. It hadn't happened in a long time and I let myself believe it would never happen again. I don't mind learning but I get frustrated when I keep making the same mistakes over and over when I know better. I've since calmed down significantly, but still, I don't like feeling like that, poker is a game and a game is supposed to be fun.

Anyway, it's not like I lost every single hand I played. Here are a few that I won:
Got dealt AA twice, it held up both times, but the first time was during an Aces Cracked promotion window so I WANTED them to lose
Limped along with K3s after a few limpers and flopped quads. A villain called me all the way down with ATs.
completed in the SB with K9o, flopped KQT, turned a 9 and my two pair miraculously held up. Won a pretty big pot actually.
Flopped a set of 4s on a T74r board, turn and river were K, won a good pot off a villain who limped in with AKo and thought he made the nuts on the river
Had a couple big-blind specials where I made a straight after getting to see a free flop with trash like 25o

I'm sure there were a couple more hands I won, but those are the ones I remember.

Here are some notable hands that I lost:
Flopped a set of 9s on a QT9 board. A villain had flopped a straight and I didn't boat up.
Flopped a set of 6s on a 764 board. 3 villains all flopped straights and I didn't boat up.
limped along with K4s, flopped top pair, turned 2 pair, a villain had flopped a better 2 pair
limped along with KQs on the button, flopped top pair on a safe board, another villain had limped in with AQs.

Those are the only big hands I remember losing (I'm sure I lost others as well), but as always there were several where I raised a premium suited hand before the flop and flopped or turned a flush draw that didn't get there, limped along in late position with a suited ace or king (I often raise suited aces in late position to try to get to see a four-card flop but when I'm losing I get timid) and flopped or turned a draw that didn't get there, or actually flopped a pair only to see four clubs hit the board.

I actually don't remember getting dealt very many premium hands. I got aces twice, ATs, I think AKo once, and I really don't remember many others.

There was a guy who sat down after I'd been there for 6 hours and just started hitting two pair after two pair after two pair after two pair - dude just couldn't miss, and after an hour he had so many chips he had to ask for a colorup to color up $500 of his blue chips to red. Not going to lie - I was jealous. When's that going to happen for me???

The good news is I'm still winning at the PLO tables on Global Poker. I've even started learning a shortstack strategy that's profitable for PLO, so I'm still up for the year by several hundred dollars.

Feedback welcome as always,
DTXCF

Slightly off topic, I will be taking a business trip to Lima, Peru soon, possibly to be followed by additional trips. I just found out that there is a casino with a poker room a block and a half from the hotel I'll be staying at. Ironically it's called Atlantic City casino.

I've played poker in another country (to the extent that an American can really call Canada another country LOL), but I've never played in a country where the native language is not English (I do speak Spanish FWIW).

Anyone ever played in a casino in a country where your native language is not the destination country's native language?

FWIW from what I've heard the casino only has 2/5 NLHE, so if I do play there, I will probably only play their once just to be able to say I did it. I'm not rolled for 2/5NL and find live NL boring anyway.

^^^ wtf this bloke even going on about? Weird

Any one know what that bloke was on about?

bloggy-style post 12-6-2017

OK tell me this isn't variance at its finest:

I'm playing 2/4LHE at Harrah's Atlantic City. They're running a $200 high hand promotion every half hour. At 7:15pm I made quad 4s with a Q kicker. At 7:29pm someone else made quad 4s with a Q kicker.

Let me repeat that: SOMEONE ***ELSE*** MADE THE SAME *($@#(* HAND!!!!! at 7:29!!!!!!

So I only got half of the bonus .

My favorite hand of the night:

I raise Ace-King of clubs in the BB after 4 limpers and an SB complete. Everyone just calls.

Flop comes QT7r with one club. Check, I bet, 3 folds, 2 callers.
Turn puts another club on the board. Bet, one call all in, one call.
River misses all 18 of my outs. Without hestitating or changing expression I bet, the villain folds.

I don't normally show my bluffs because I don't want to make the villains feel dumb (I do frequently show very strong hands to make them feel good about folding), but in this case I had to because of the villain who was all in. The other villain went, "AAAAUUUGGGGGH come ooooooon, maaaaaannn!" after pausing to catch his breath he said, "I thought you had a better queen!" The all-in villain turned over a busted backdoor straight draw (!!!!) and I scooped the whole pot!

Overall I played well (though I did go on boredom tilt a few times but snapped myself out of it each time) and had a blast - Harrah's Atlantic City is a huge, BEAUTIFUL casino with what *I* thought was a well-run poker room. I visited the Borgata too, but (other than the centerfold-quality cocktail waitresses) didn't like it - it was decorated like an office building. The Golden Nugget was nice, beautifully decorated, especially with the Christmas decorations. Harrah's was where i ended up putting my card protector down.

I just broke my record for my largest single-session win at LHE: $400. I just couldn't miss - I was building big pots and I was winning them, all day.

I don't plan to return to the casino until 2018 and I don't plan to make any deposits on Global Poker, so i can safely say I netted a profit of $1000+ for the year, which more than doubles my previously most profitable year.

The "scary" thing is I still have clear, tangible, fixable leaks in my game. There's room for me to improve that much more next year.

Looking forward to it!

bloggy-style post 01-14-2018

I had my experience against a true maniac tonight. About 50-60% of the time the action got to him he would raise, re-raise or cap pre, and he was re-raising and capping postflop and showing down ace high. He ran his stack up to about $350 and then when people started adjusting to his play it dwindled down to about $80.

I got lucky against him a couple times, once when I was able to cap AQo 4 ways before the flop and river a straight, and once, when I was down to about $90 in my stack, I got aces preflop, and immediately thought to myself, all of my chips are going into the middle no matter what and if he sucks out on me, that's poker. I managed to cap it 4 ways, then on the turn it was just me and the maniac who went all in and I called him. When I flipped over my aces and he mucked I yelled "YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!" and started nearly hyperventilating. "Breathe dude, breathe!" the other players were telling me! A nice lady to my left said, "I can't believe aces actually WON!"

Unfortunately, he got lucky against me more than vice versa, so I only ended the night up about $20. Hey, at least I didn't have a losing session.

If I'm being honest, I didn't play well tonight. I was mentally exhausted after about 4 straight weeks of combined difficult weeks both at work and with the family and didn't come in with a plan. I just wanted to relax and go through the motions.

Some tangible mistakes I made were calling preflop with hands like 56s or A2s or 77 knowing there was a maniac behind me who was probably going to raise, cutting my implied odds in half. I was also 3-betting the maniac a little too light trying to isolate him I think, but I can't be sure because I haven't studied heads-up LHE in so long I wasn't ready for it. I'll have to review that.

But what it all comes down to is I play poker to have fun, and I had fun, so no complaints - I'll learn from my mistakes and move on!

DTXCF

bloggy-style post 01/15/2018

Had a session where nothing went right last night.

I posted on the SSHE forum that I had a mental block regarding 99 and TT and got a lot of good advice about how to get over it. Unfortunately the hands, even thought I believe I played them corrrectly, didn't turn out in my favor:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...0&postcount=23

Got dealt AK 3 times and AQ twice, raised them every time, and they whiffed all 5 cards every time.

Had several hands where I flopped and/or turned a monster draw in a multiway pot and bet and raised to push my pot equity edge, and only 1 or 2 of them came in.

Needless to say I lost my whole $200 buyin. But the good news is it didn't seem to affect me nearly as much as it did the last time. Last time I lost the whole $200 I felt crushed, kicked in the stomach, didn't even want to LOOK at another card for several days. Last night was more like, I lost, I'm disappointed, but I was happy with my play and got unlucky, whatever. Hell, I'll go back for a 3rd straight night tonight if I get the chance.

This is probably a year too late but HB nailed it: whatever you do, work it out in advance and keep your word on any agreement that you make.

People work out all sorts of agreements in marriage. Some couples have joint accounts, some have separate accounts, some have three bank accounts, one joint and one for each person's personal discretion. Any of the three options are fine if both people agree; any of the three options are terrible if there is disagreement or one person is sneaking around.

Being a net donator at poker is fine. Play the games that bring joy to your life and avoid the ones that bring misery. If losing money brings misery, avoid it because it brings misery, not because you're losing money. If poker becomes a drag, quit or quit for a while, and take a cruise to Alaska to see the aurora borealis instead of a poker cruise. It's awesome being a recreational player and having the freedom to just walk away.

Make sure your daughter is well taken care of. Your role as a father and as an advocate for her cannot be replaced by anyone else. My older son has some congenital special needs, my goal/hope is that he can look back and see that my poker habit made a positive impact on his life rather than a negative impact. I ended up playing tens of thousands of poker hands online one-handed with his tiny body cradled in one arm (he spent the first few weeks of his life in the NICU and had a tough time adjusting to sleeping on an unwarmed bed or feeding without a gavage), and my live poker bankroll ended up funding a 529 and a 530 in case he needed special education. He's doing well and hopefully he will thank poker for paying for his college or heart surgery and not curse poker because his dad missed important life events or his parents constantly fought about it.

Best wishes to you and your family.

did your wife finally accept your hobby?

Is there an option not to discuss results with her unless it's over/under a certain amount?

Always interesting to hear from another poker aficionado who also has a special needs child. I'm glad you were able to work poker into something positive.

Yes, she finally did accept my hobby. The agreement we settled on was that if I win $200 or more in an individual session I tell her that, and if I win $199 or less or lose money, I just tell her I had fun.

Last year I only had two sessions where I won $200 or more, but I had a bunch of sessions where I won between $50 and $100, so I when I told her my total for the year was over $1000 she got a little happier.

Word

Cash game is for skilled players. Play MTT's stay away from cash games.

bloggy-style post 01-21-2018

Hand of the night: 3 limpers and I limp along on the button with 77. SB completes BB checks.

Flop comes A77 with 2 spades. Checks around to me. No way on god's green earth am I checking quads with an ace, a flush draw, and 5 villains in the hand. I bet, blinds fold, limpers call.

Turn is the K of spades and I say a slient thank you to the poker gods. I say ANOTHER silent thank you when the first limper bets and the other two limpers call. Of course, I raise. I say a THIRD silent thank you to the poker gods when the first limper 3-bets me and the other 2 limpers fold. I cap, she calls.

At this casino, there is no cap if the round begins heads up, so I say a silent prayer to the poker gods that she thinks her hand is the nuts and goes all in.

River comes J of spades. She checks to me (DAMMIT!!!!), I bet and she just calls (DAMMIT!!!!).

Now here's the REAL punchline - she flips over the Q and 6 of spades! If it had been the Q and 10 of spades we would have hit the bad beat jackpot! We were ONE *(*$re^*$%^& CARD from hitting it!!!!!! The whole table was groaning! (Well, I did drag a huge pot so I was okay ).

So a summary of the whole session: I bought in for $200 like I always do and within half an hour I was down to $80. Not going to lie, I was stressing - in 5 years I have NEVER lost my whole buyin 2 sessions in a row, and with my limited bankroll and not-completely-poker-supporting wife it would be a major source of stress for it to happen. Anyway, soon thereafter I was lucky enough to pick up aces on the button, build a 5-way capped pot preflop and have them hold up, which just about put me right back where I started. A few hands later I tiltcalled 35s on the button after 5 limpers, flopped 246tt, built a big pot and the straight held up. That put me up by about 100. The rest of the night I just played my standard game and ended the night up 200.

So, I won back the 200 I lost last week, which is always nice.

I'm gonna rant at you a bit but I'm hoping it comes off as constructive criticism instead of mindless anger. Here goes:

You live in the past. You should live in the present.

----

You don't respond to other peoples threads. You should.

that's the crux of your problem imo.

I "know" you well enough to know that anything you tell me you mean as constructive criticism. You've been helping me for years and I appreciate it.

What do you mean?

For whatever it's worth, I do respond to threads in BQ quite a bit, but it's usually about the mental/psychological aspects of the game, especially for those newer posters who are clearly taking up poker because they think they'll get rich with it.

I'll try responding to other people's threads on the limit forums, but I really don't want to respond to a thread unless I truly feel like I have something to contribute to it. Otherwise it just creates clutter.

Hope that's what you were going for.

Seems to me that you spend so much time going over old hands that you don't have the time to effect a plan for the future. You got some really good advice in this thread and I hope it's been useful for you and your relationship in the sense of moving forward.

Do you think it has been useful?

If no, why not?

If yes, then what's next?

I thought I had answered all of these questions already. My wife will never completely accept my hobby but we've agreed that if I win $200 in a session I tell her and if I don't I don't. And I said she was happy that last year was a profitable year for me. Does that not answer the question?

And as far as a plan for the future, in the "Help me with a 99 TT mental block" thread I said that when I play, I try to concentrate on fixing one leak at a time. IMHO trying to fix everything at once causes paralysis by analysis. I post and analyze past hands for the express purpose of identifying leaks to plug in the future. Were you looking for more than that?

Yes I was looking for more, or maybe something different.

I think you're ready to go to the next level of strategy construction, but this fear is holding you back:

Let's take a game that you know absolutely nothing about, maybe 2-7 no limit single draw?:

you sit at a table to play, how do you construct your strategy from scratch?

Why should holdem be any different?

1. You're whipped by your wife for you to have to get her permission to indulge in an even potentially profitable hobby costing a mere 1k when you make 6 figures. You're the man, you're the leader, be responsible and disregard respectfully and lovingly to your wife's demands.

2. Poker is only an addiction if it begins to severely negatively effect your life, that said, tread carefully and try not to have dreams about being a professional, as most people do not make it longterm.

3. Keep poker as hobby unless you start clearing 5 figures a month minimum as hobby. Do not invest too much time in low stakes online grinding or live grinding and put more focus on improvement, if you ever want a future in poker.

It's been a week so I figured I'd check in. I'm honestly not doing this for the pleasure of giving you a hard time. I'm trying to help you become a card player instead of a holdem player. Here's the question I posed last week:

What's the first step? Hint: every poker book has guidelines for the first round of betting. So? The first step is clearly to identify these three hand groups:

a) strong pat hands
b) strong draws
c) weak draws with good blocker qualities
d) junk

Notice that this is true for most any game you can think of. It's the reason I posed the question. If you didn't have this answer almost instantly, you're not a good card player. Sorry if that's too blunt, but it's the truth.

Then the decision branch becomes very complicated very quickly after that, but we can simplify the game to make it easier for our minds to comprehend:

after the draw, your hand will qualify as one of these:

a) strong made hand
b) bluffcatcher
c) junk with good blockers
d) junk without blockers.

when we think of the game in these terms, we can actually get very close to understanding the ins and outs of almost any poker game.

So I'll pose a new question for you to answer:

You're at a party and someone says, "hey, Jane told me you're a card player. let's get a badugi game going for pennies." You agree, naturally. How do you construct your strategy?