Yea thats what I did. I thought it was Sunday, did it get changed?

Ugh. Sunday. Sorry for the confusion.

People who are much better than me at poker please opine.

I am guessing she has like QQ with the Q of spade.....

I thought sometimes she would 3bet QQ preflop, and if she flatted she would sometimes jam the flop. My guess was either some type of Qxss or a combo draw.

That makes sense too.

Either way. Very disciplined of you to fold. Please do not sit at mutable when I play this weekend.

Had a couple pretty meh sessions last two days. Both days I have been at great tables and haven't been able to get much going. Yesterday I lost a small pot early and had to top up. After that I flopped a set of 8's and got paid off against AA. From there not much happened until the end of my session where I lost a couple pots against this really bad oldish woman. She was short stacked and had previously stacked off on a 752 board with 79 and then later called an all-in with KJo of a 873 board. In my pot against her I had TT on a Q67 flop. She was short stacked and we got it in on the flop and I ran into her AQ, basically worst case scenario as she had a better pair and better flush draw. Still won a bit and feel like I played well.

Today I got stuck pretty big right away. Lost two pots where I made TPGK twice against this extremely bad semi-reg. He plays literally every pot and peels with any piece of the flop. He plays mostly loose-passive, but he does occasionally attempt big bluffs. On the first hand I rivered TP with KQ on a 9839Q board, he bet into me, I shoved and he called with J9. On the second hand I raised preflop with QJ, bet a J73 flop, getting two callers including this player and another equally bad/loose player. I shoved for about 1.4 times the pot on a T turn and he called with T7.

After those two hands I was in for the last buy-in of my stop loss for the first time in a while, and I pretty much hovered there for the rest of my session. Only made one good hand but I bet the flop and all 4 of my callers folded. Seemed like it was happening a lot. If I missed and tried to c-bet, even heads up, I'd get called. Then I flop a monster and its like my hand is face up. Oh well, just variance but sorta annoying.

Just finished catching up with this awesome thread.

I have been living vicariously through a lot of bloggers in lvl by now (mostly in lurking mode) and yours was a truly one of the most enjoyable reads - thanks for sharing, and please do not let any rundbads or downers influence the frequency of updates. I think your blog can really work as a cathartic outlet while giving readers (and aspiring vegas grinders) an impression of what it is like to go through both the ups and downs, plus you can use some of their feedback to regain confidence.

So please keep the updates coming! Will be checking back for sure a lot since I got to fill another 3 weeks here in Germany until I can hit the vegas felts again - always looking forward to that like a child before christmas.

Btw did you check out the 2/5 games that are running infrequently at pH or Mandalay Bay? Would be interesting to know if they are worth going for, but I guess its the same hassle as with the MGM game.

Gl with your grind!

Thanks man, glad you are enjoying it. I check bravo everyday for 2/5 games and I haven't seen one at PH for weeks and I didn't even know Mandalay Bay had anything. Definitely not letting runbad/losing stop me from updating (see below) so not to worry!

One of my worst sessions ever today. Not money wise, lost much more yesterday but just overall horrible. Only played about an hour. At the first table I was at I lost a big pot with AK on a KT4 board. Couldn't get away on a 5 turn and lost to my opponent's AA. More detail on hand below for those interested in giving comments, not sure if its runbad causing bad play or runbad causing me to doubt my play. After another orbit or so I realized my table was pretty tight, and 2 players and one guy standing behind a player were being really loud/obnoxious and I just didn't have the patience for it today so I got a table change. Within an orbit that table went from full to broke and so we all got moved to other tables. At my new table I played literally one hand and we went from 10 to 4 right away due to a couple people leaving and others deciding to take a break. I was already thoroughly frustrated so I just said **** it and went home. Not ideal as I shouldn't let myself get so agitated but when it does happen its just best to get out. Oh well, gonna watch some football and forget about it.

Unless BB is some 80 year old man im stacking off all day long. Don't forget about 10cXc combos too.

ya its a REALLY tough spot w/o reads or knowing the player. Imagine the BB squeezes (most likely to 75-100) you are NEVER folding. At this point he fires prolly 125 on the flop and you are fistpumping all the way with the hand. Soooooo I call it a cooler.

Real heavy duty run bad will cause you to seriously question a lot about yourself. I've got a pal who is a seriously sick high stakes player/bracelet winner. He told me a long time ago that he learns the most about himself/his game during periods of runbad.

Maintain focus, play your game, don't tilt and just do your best to learn - the runbad will end.

Hey all, went to the LVL meetup yestderday. It was pretty fun, got to meet some of the people behind the screennames on here which was interesting. After the buffet at Wicked Spoon we played a small tournament with the 6 of us at MGM Grand. I ended up bubbling. (this means I was the last person out that didn't get paid). With 3 left MSchu had Katana crushed with AK all in preflop against A6. The turn 6 kept Katana alive. Then I flopped a flush with J6 and got it in against MSchu's A7. The 8 on the turn crippled me and two hands later I was out. They ended up splitting it a bit later, with Katana getting a bigger chunk since he had the chip lead. All-in-all a fun first meetup, hopefully we can get something on a regular basis.

After the tourney I headed to the V for some 2/5. I got off to a good start when I got A5 all in on a A83 flop and hit the K on the turn to scoop a nice pot. After that though it seemed like it was back to what had been happening the last few days. I don't remember winning a pot after that because every pot I got called or raised on my cbet and just kept wiffing my big card hands and small pairs. Thanks to my flush hand from the beginning I only ended up losing a bit and played well.

Today was pretty up and down. I ended up playing against a dude from a small town about 150 miles from Vegas that I played with a few weeks ago. Really nice guy but way too lose pre-flop and with draws. He's pretty bluffy also but with made hands he knows where he's at. Right away I lost a pot to him when I bet folded my AQ on the turn on a AJ8J board, afterwards he shows me AK. After topping up I flopped a set of 9's on a AK9 board. I bet the flop and he called. The turn completed a flush, I bet again, he shoved and I called getting just over the right price to draw to my full house, but really I thought I was ahead most of the time anyway. Turns out he had a flush but I boated up on a river K and scooped a nice pot.

I would end up going down from there, mostly due to one hand that I 3 bet JJ preflop and cbet a K32 board and got shoved on. Won a big pot getting 77 all in against this Asian girl on a A73 board. It ran out 88 and I was good, didn't see her hand.

Near the end of the night I got into a pretty interesting hand. I completed KJ from the BB in a straddled pot, which went 4 ways to the flop. I bet 30 on a JT7 flop and the SB, the guy from the small town near here, called me. Then he lead out for 80 on the Q turn. I was thinking he might have picked up a flush draw with either a flopped pair or straight draw. He told me he'd show if I fold but then I said show me one now. He lets me pick one and its the 3. For some reason this kinda froze me. My logic was, he can't have me beat since if he had a Q with that 3 then he wouldn't have called the flop because he would have had Q high with no draw. So I must have a better made hand, but I figured I should just call and I'll win any non-spade river. So I called. The river came the A, giving me a straight but completing the spade draw. He comes out and bets 240 and I tank and fold and he flips his other card, the 8, giving him a flush. So he just had a bare gutshot on the flop and then picked up spades on the turn. In hindsight, I really should have raised the turn because I know he can't have a better made hand given the card he showed so why not get more money in against a guy who is going to call with his draws even with one card face up. After the hand he tells me I should have raised the turn but I saved money because he would have called. Given that he had a combo draw I think he's telling the truth just because he really didn't like to fold any draw. Definitely an interesting hand, and a situation that doesn't come up often. I guess because it was such a rare occurrence to see one card before making a decision, I didn't really think it through correctly, but thinking about it after the hand, raising the turn is a no-brainer.

Won a small pot after that hand and ended up booking a decent win. Been happy with my play the last couple days but I've still got room to improve, specifically involving 3 bet pots with TT-QQ and AK/AQ. I've had some situations with these hands where I've been kinda lost but I think I'm getting better at navigating these types of pots.

hey cushlash - the guy from the town 150 miles away, older dude from just outside of st george ut?

really really nice to meet you cush... I am sure we'll be seeing each other through out the weeks to come.

Nah, 40's ish guy from some small Nevada town just north of here.

Nice to meet you too, yea I'm sure I'll see you around, gl at the tables.

A6 off against AK in this spot is typically the nuts.

that was great... I had a great time.

haha true, I couldn't believe you guys were folding Ax hands 3 handed. In tourneys I don't even look at the other one, A=ship!

Was nice to meet you Cush.

I like how you called it "bubble"...made the "tournament" sound 100x more respectable than it really was!

More 2/5 the last couple days. I have now played more hours of 2/5nl since going back the second time around than I did when I played it for basically the month of July. By the end of my stint then I was getting really sick of holdem, which is what brought me back to PLO. This time around though I feel much more stimulated than before, and I think this is due to taking a mindset of learning rather than grinding it out. I realize I still have a lot more to learn, but that actually excites me because if I was autopiloting like before I would probably not think I had anything to learn.

Anyways on to the sessions. Yesterday started off pretty interesting. I was at a must move game that was short handed (fluctuated b/w 3 and 5) and had been caught making a couple small bluffs against one particular player. He told me after the second one "no more bluffing". Well a couple hands later I picked up 98 and called his preflop raise from the blinds along with one other player. The flop came T94 and I check called his cbet. The turn came another 9 and it went check check. I was thinking I would bet big on the river because he would read it as a bluff and call. Plan changed when I rivered quads. Now at this point I figured if had a T or an overpair he was calling any bet, and might even call a big bet with a smaller pair because he thinks I'm full of ****. So I shoved for about 3.5 times the pot and he called fairly quickly.

After I got moved to a main game I lost a bunch of it back, mostly on a couple coolers against short stacks. KK no good on 953 against 55 and AQ no good on A72 against 22. Also had to bet/fold KK on a T63 board when I got raised and 3-bet. The 3-bettor ended up having flopped bottom two with 63. I did win a few pots from there and booked a small win, pretty happy with my play.

Today was kinda similar, doubled up early and not much after. I ended up stacking an unknown with AA on a Q68 flop. After that hand I didn't get into any significant hands and bled down a fair bit of my profit. Most of it was standard but there were 4 or 5 small spots that I wasn't 100% sure about. They were all small pots and fell under the categories of whether or not to cbet or fire a second barrel on the turn. This is something I have really been working on lately but still get kinda lost. Even though they are smaller pots, its still important to be able to navigate them and I'm having a little bit of trouble. It seems like I get in trouble cbetting too much but then when I tone it down it feels like I'm playing super weak by just check/folding or checking back and folding the turn. Not sure what to think of this but I have some ideas I'm gonna experiment with.

Yea, I know what you mean about these spots. I think as long as you keep in this mindset of wanting to learn from each hand and avoid autopilot, then you will develop a feel for these spots over time. Keep it up man, GL hope to meet you out there.

Post those spots you are talking about Cush... normally, board texture really dictates whether or not to continue a specific line of bet reasoning when you miss post flop.

Too much for this thread, posted them in a new thread in llsnl:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...2-5nl-1255997/

I think skinny bunner gave some good general advice in that thread.

Hey all, got another couple small session updates. Yesterday and today played some more 2/5 at the V. Yesterday's session started out fairly slow. After a questionable stack off with Q8 on a 853 board against a shorty's 99 I had to top up my buy in and grinded for the next hour or so to get back to even. I then stacked another short stack with AQ on an A72 board to put me a bit into the black. Last major hand of the night I had JJ and raised a limper from late position. The button called and everyone else folded. Flop came 347 and I bet and was called. Turn was a 4 and I again bet and was called. The river was a wonderful J. I shoved for about 1.5x pot and was snap called by a slowplayed 56. After that pot nothing much happened and I ended the night with a nice win.

Today was not nearly as good to me. Couldn't really win any decent pot, but I was happy with pretty much all of my cbet decisions. Had a nice chat with Squid before the session which I think cleared some things up for me in regards to some of the cbetting stuff. I again had to top up my stack when I got back from dinner break as it had dwindled down too far. Got it back up to even fairly quickly but a few whiffed flops combined with unsuccessful cbets put me right back down. Then I made a huge bet sizing error on the flop in a 3-bet pot that ended up costing me the rest of my stack whereas if I hadn't made the error I would probably have been able to save about 40 BBs. I was sorta mad I made the error and left after the hand instead of rebuying. I still got about 5.5 hours in but was planning on playing a bit longer.

Semi-update on my exercise plan. Since starting back up again last month I have gotten into a nice routine, probably the best since I've gotten to Vegas. I have gotten in 3-4 workouts per week (this week was 5!), which I think is something I can stick to without burning out. I can already feel it helping with energy level and alertness at the table, which should help me put in longer hours at the table once I can build my stamina up. For those not all that familiar with live poker, it sounds crazy that you need stamina to sit and play cards for 8 hours, but if you are truly paying attention and trying to get reads, poker is exhausting.