I think I've covered this a bit but basically the regs at 5/10 are just infinitely better from what I can tell. With very few exceptions, even the good 2/5 regs are pretty ABC and really don't play back or make my life difficult in any way. At 5/10 the regs play back much more and regularly put me in spots that I never have to worry about at 2/5. It just makes the game harder because people are doing things that make certain bets less profitable and you have to choose between not making those bets and giving up ev or still making them and then dealing with the possibility that you're getting played back at.

This is just my feeling now, but after playing so much 2/5 I've realized that so many of the guys I thought were great are actually reg-fish and it just took some experience to figure that out. Its possible I may find a similar pattern at 5/10 once my game develops more but I don't have enough experience in the game to have it all hashed out yet. I have found some evidence of it, as I've run into players I was intimidated by at first but then realized they weren't very good, but my feeling is that the extent to which this will happen will be less than it was at 2/5.

Even fish at 5/10 can be scary. You never see overbet bluffs, bluffraises in 3bet pots, following through will bluffs all in at 2/5.

If I see someone bluff raise the river at 2/5 I move tables. There are just too many easier games than having to deal with that.

yesterday at the V versus an OLD grumpy reg...

SB/Schu: AJ
MP/Grumpy Reg
LP/Folder

action goes limp around to SB, I raise to 20 and get MP and LP to call...
Flop comes 8, 5, 5
I lead out for 45, MP insta raises to 145, LP folds, I re-raise to just under $300... MP tanks then folds face up A 6

Bluffing with the best hand FTW

You obviously got to the old man.

Did you get the "You Internet kids" speech.

Thanks for the info Cush. Coming to vegas in sept.

Prob play bit of 2/5 at the V and Aria and some 5/10 at bellagio on the weekends

Well WSOP is in full swing. Ridiculous numbers of 2/5 games everywhere and last couple days there have been about 15-20 5/10's between the V, B, Aria, Wynn, and Rio.

Unfortunately I'm starting back right where I left off before vacation. Nothings working, running into it, having to bet fold a disproportionate number of my value hands, etc. Its making me start to doubt myself and I start thinking I'm doing something wrong. I've discussed a few hands with Rob and another V reg where I second guess a good decision because I'm running bad. Its nice to be able to talk about these types of hands with them because even though they aren't all that interesting it helps kick me back to reality.

Honestly results haven't been too bad, my sessions have just been really grindy. Thursday I played at Bellagio and was pretty happy with the session despite having to make some gross folds, resulting in a small loss. Talking through one such hand with Rob and another guy inspired what has been called "Taylor Theorem", which states that "if its close, Taylor Theorem dictates its a fold". Its funny, I'm definitely pretty far on the aggressive end of the spectrum, but I'm the nit of our circle. I used to take offense to that title because the word "nit" is somewhat derogatory in the poker world, but now I just embrace it and wear that nit badge with pride.

Anyways last two days have been spent at the V, which is so much nicer than playing at Bellagio. Yesterday I played in a great game that unfortunately broke sooner than I would have liked. I made one clear mistake where I made a much too thin value bet on the river. When I was making the bet I knew it was too thin but for whatever reason did it anyway. This pattern has manifested multiple times at 5/10. I end up doing something opposite of what my brain tells me to do and then sit there like "why the hell did I just do that?". This is likely another byproduct of running bad where I'm not trusting my instincts. I suppose its better to recognize it rather than thinking my instincts are wrong. Now I just need to work on listening to them. Despite that, I think it was one of my best sessions because I identified a few other spots that were interesting and think I learned a lot. Most were in very small pots but stuff like that is really important, especially as you move up in stakes.

Today was another session at the V and I don't feel nearly as good about it as yesterday's. For one thing the games weren't as good. Not bad, but nothing to get too excited about. I couldn't really focus and was really fidgety the whole session. Couldn't seem to get comfortable in my chair. Sounds weird but when I have to adjust how I'm sitting every 5 minutes its hard to focus. So I was really distracted and not doing a good job of paying attention. I was pretty card dead and hovered within $200 of even for over 4 hours when this hand came up.

2k effective stacks, I raise 66 utg to 40, get 3 calls behind. Flop 986. I lead for 150, fold, Asian chick makes it 480. Folds to me and I ship for about 1500 more. She snaps and I'm pretty sure I ran into set over set or best case scenario I'm against a straight. Board runs out 7A and I lose to 45.

I had been debating leaving the game to play 2/5 for a bit since it wasn't great but after that hand I ended up just taking off. I was thrilled to get 2k in as a 2:1 favorite but with how distracted I was the whole session and then losing a 4k pot I figured it was best to leave.

I really think I'm turning a corner here as I'm starting to recognize some things at 5/10 that I wasn't before. Recognizing and executing are not the same thing but I feel like I'm working my way there.

Obviously this isn't the best time to run bad but the main thing is I need to get hours in, which I haven't done a great job of in the 3 days I've been back. I'm always a little slow after coming back from an extended break and the WSOP is a marathon in which the gun just went off, so I'm not worried about getting my desired time in.

There's no reason to be hateful. Rob was only kidding about making your life as volatile and unstable as possible...no reason to be a hater.

From what I can tell, you emphasize your "run bad" too much. Just keep in mind that your next session is in no way connected to your last. Neither is the next hand connected to your last hand --> If you have your bad luck in mind at all times, you avoid some slight +EV spots, you may also pass on great squeeze spots, floats what so ever, cause "nevermind, it won't work at the moment".

But guess what? It will work, if you are confident in yourself and remember what you are capable of doing at the tables. So please do me, and yourself a favor: Head towards your next session and don't think about your set vs combo draw setup or any other run bad that occured lately. Just think about the concepts and skills you are able to trigger.

Good luck

This post is 100% spot on. There is something to be said for a losing image affecting how people play against you, which therefore should affect how you play them. However I have been way over-adjusting in this regard and getting really gun-shy. I need to just play poker and not worry about what happened in the past (unless of course the past included a read I can use on this hand). Thanks for posting.

Damnit i really thought we were friends - now you call me out

Aw c'mon squid it's written right on your V card.

Hey guys, been hanging out at 2/5 the last couple days and I gotta say its been much more enjoyable. Theres no headache like at 5/10 so its not nearly as fatiguing. I've put in back-to-back 8 hour days and I feel fantastic. I was planning on taking tomorrow off but don't really feel like I need a day off right now. That being said I think I'm gonna stick with the plan and take off as to keep the rest of my WSOP schedule in line cause if I don't take off tomorrow I'll probably need an off day around the weekend which I don't want. Right now I'm planning for 300 hrs over the course of the series with 1 off day per week. That means on days I play I need to average 7.5 hours. I'm a little behind schedule so from now on I need to average ~7.6. I'm just gonna shoot for 8 every day and if I can keep up a good sleep/gym/poker/relax schedule like I have had so far I'm sure I'll get the 300.

I played 2/5 Sunday since there was only one 5/10 when I got to the V and it wasn't any good at the time. I ended up booking a small loser in pretty uneventful fashion.

Today there were fireworks right of the bat as my 2nd hand had me all in pre with AA against what I was told was AK. A few hands later in a blind v blind situation I ran QQ into KK and spiked a Q for another 100bb was quickly up a dime. I dwindled some from there, making some big, but correct folds and near the end boated a guy's slow played straight and booked a healthy win. I ran good for sure, but also played lights out imo.

The 2/5 games are pretty crazy, with deep stacks and fairly frequent straddling some games are playing just as big as 5/10. To me this is the best of both worlds because the games play big but the lineups are way softer. For that reason I may find myself playing more 2/5 during the series than I originally expected. Still gonna look out for good 5/10 lineups but being able to find deep, ramped up 2/5 games is a great option to have.

Your game selection skills are very good.

Hey T... I almost jumped into the 5/10 game at the V the other day, every time I am there and the 5/10 game is running... who is that guy that looks a little like Eli Elezra(yes I know it's not him)?

he always seems to be in that game and I don't see him in the 2/5 game ever...

I'm not sure I know who you're taking about. I did play with Carlos Mortenson the other day, maybe thats who you're thinking of?

I know who mschu is talkin about. The guy does look alot like Eli and he's always in the 5/10nl game. He has slicked back hair and always sits in the 8 seat iirc. I have never seen him in any 2/5nl game either.

Are you talking about tony?

I think you are talking about the right guy... I am just wondering what the story is there.

Why did you ninja edit your Tldr response? I agreed with everything you had written. Re-post it imo

lol didn't think anyone would have read it that quick. I think it was a good post but for certain reasons think its better not to be on a public forum. Can explain irl if you want.

True dat

venetian tony he will play 2/5 while waiting for 5/10 to get fired up

I think cushlash must be on a terrific heater. Playing almost non-stop, and not finding time to best. Good for him !!

This is partly true. I have been playing more and probably won't be updating more than once or twice a week regardless of results unless something particularly interesting comes up.

That being said I have been on a fairly big heater lately at 2/5. The games have just been ridiculous and they are making it hard to leave with less than you came with. The other day I lost a $1700 pot in my first orbit against a massive whale (A6 all in on an A86 flop against AJ. Ran out TT) and was still able to book a solid winning session. Obviously I'm also running pretty well overall but the games are incredible.

This week I won 5/6 sessions, booking some nice wins in the process. I'm sort of at a loss trying to remember anything of note from the winners but all my sessions are kind of melting together. Most of my wins have just come from playing solid and getting value from WSOP visitors who just can't fold, so theres not really anything interesting there.

I did play my first session at the Wynn the other day. I noticed 3 5/10s were going and went to check it out. None looked great so I played 2/5 for a couple hours before breaking for dinner and then heading to the V for a session. The room is nice but I still prefer the V. There aren't as many games at the Wynn and even though it was only 1 day I didn't think the games were as good as V.

The only losing session of the week was yesterday and it just so happens to be my biggest 2/5 loss over my sample of just over 1,000 hours. I ran terribly, getting 2 bad rivers and one bad turn in the 3 big pots I played. However, I compounded the problem by making bad calls in 2 of the 3 hands. The first one was marginally bad but the second one was awful. Those calls accounted for about 60% of my loss yesterday. The way the cards fell I couldn't win those hands, but I could have saved a lot and money saved is money won.

After the second one, which was the smaller of the 2 but a far worse mistake, I pretty much insta-quit my session. I was pretty agitated and my mindset was so messed up that I knew I wasn't going to be able to play well so the best thing to do was get up. There were some positive takeaways though, the first being that I had the discipline to leave when I wasn't playing well anymore even though it meant booking a big loser. Secondly, the hand of those 3 that I did fold came in between the other two and I was able to correctly find the fold button in a spot where a majority of people would just tilt call and lament their bad luck.

All in all it was still a very good week both in terms of results and quality of play. I got 43 hours in this week, which isn't much compared to what some other V grinders are doing but for me its a lot. I've been happy with how well I've been holding up at the tail end of longer sessions. Also right on schedule with my 300 hour goal. Not a bad start to the series but still got a lot of work to do. Takin off today, will be back at the tables Wednesday.

I just had this feeling that you were pretty busy.

May all of your straights be flushes.