Good analysis last couple. Really hope you are doing well (since we have no bloody clue) and that you continue to improve.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the support. Although I don't post specific results, I am doing ok. Not as good as hoped, but I'm staying afloat and I feel like I have gotten and am continuing to get better.

I started out with a 3k downswing at 1/2 live as a 21 year old when I had 5k to my name if it makes you feel any better. 60% of my net worth if my math is right.

Don't ever second guess yourself. The fact that you are humble and actually want to get better puts you ahead of like 95% of egomaniacal people in live poker.

Hello cushlash,

In reference to your previous post:
Did you advise your opponent that he/she was exposing his/her cards to you?

I really don't want this to turn into a derail discussion about this because its been beaten to death in these forums.

To answer your question though, this was the only time I saw his cards and it was just because the guy decided to flip one over for all to see and in doing so flashed the other one to me just before mucking it.

Weird day today. Went to the Venetian around 8 and there was only 1 2/5 game going. I know its Tuesday, but thats still really low. I ended up playing some 8/16 omaha hi/lo while I waited. Only pot I played in I ended up getting half with the nut low, making a small profit from a 3rd player's dead money.

I then got called for the 2/5 and man it was a horrible game. Really tight and mostly regs with no donators to speak of. I ended up playing for about an hour and a half until I had enough. I stole the blinds like 3 times and chopped twice in that short time, so I decided to take a break, eat something and go from there. After eating I came back and there was a full must move game but it didn't look great and to be honest I didn't really feel like sitting back down or checking out anywhere else. I decided I'd be better off going home and coming back rested and ready to grind some long hours over the weekend.

The last few days I have had some reason or another (and not usually a good one) to not make it to the casino until 8ish. I don't really like this because it results in me either playing a short day or staying out so late that the next day starts late, a sort of vicious circle.

I've also been neglecting my exercise for a while and the past week and a half I've eaten horribly. I'm starting to feel the effects because I'm getting tired more easily and have not been able to play as long. So today's decision to leave early was more of a way of resetting my schedule back to normal than anything else. I exercised today for the first time in over a month, and will be working it into my regular schedule again. I'm also gonna go back to eating healthy before I let the unhealthy casino choices become routine. After a great start to September as far as getting hours in, I'm sorta disappointed with the last few days being so short, but I think snapping back into a more healthy routine will help me to play some longer sessions to make up for it.

Thanks man. Its hard to go through that first downswing in a game or stake not knowing if its standard or if I'm doing something wrong. I went through it a bit at 1/2 as well, and hearing that other good, winning players have had similar bad runs would help to keep my mind right.

Learning not to second guess myself is something I still struggle with, so thanks for the confidence boost. Even though its not why I play, I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me feel good when players I respect say they think I play a good game.

I would never sit at a 2/5 if only 1 table is going. Sure you are prolly better than most of the players but its going to have to be nut over 2nd nut to get a huge one.

ya - v has been a little strange...games have been OUTSANDING during the day and then not awesome in the evenings. during the day i think there were 4 going and all of them were of high quality, and when i left at 7 they were down to 2.

I'm not there during the day a lot, but what I have noticed is the games are great when I get there but a few hours later it slows down. Might have to start going to a day schedule at least for the week-days.

More 2/5 the last couple days. I've been trying to get on an earlier schedule but whenever I try to get to bed earlier I end up not being able to fall asleep right away and then end up sleeping late anyway. Hopefully having to be up by 9am (I know, god forbid) on Saturday for the Badger game will allow me to fall asleep earlier and get on more of an afternoon playing schedule.

Yesterday got in an ok session, about 5.5 hours. I've been feeling so lethargic lately and have had a tough time getting in long sessions. I think I have a minor bug or something because I've had a minor sore throat for a few days that isn't getting better or worse. I've had bugs like this before and they pass eventually but its sort of annoying when they are here because its not enough to keep me home but it still affects me throughout the day. Anyways, on to the session.

Before dinner break nothing much happened that I can remember. The first hand I got back I was dealt TT. It limped to me on the BB and I made it 25, getting 2 callers. The flop came AQJ. With my flush draw and gutshot I led out for 50, getting one caller. The turn was the Q. I bet again, this time 85, and he called again. Not sure if this bet is correct, but I thought he would fold hands like KJ with the K or other junky pairs with a that might have peeled the flop. As it were the beautiful K would bail me out on the river. I shoved all-in and my opponent grudgingly called. "Royal" I announced. It was good.

After this hand I built my stack up a bit more before losing a couple hands. In the first I ran bottom two pair into top and bottom pair in a limped pot. I checked J2 from the BB. The flop was AJ2. I bet out and was raised. I think raising overreps my hand and I'm not getting called by worse, so I just called. The turn came the 9, which went check-check. The river was the 7. I bet out to get value from any one pair Ax hands he might have had. He called and showed A2.

In the second hand I limped 56 from the button after a few other limpers, and the BB made it 25. I called after one other caller and the flop came A94. The preflop raiser made it 15, the other guy looked disgusted and folded. Now this bet was less than 1/5 the pot size and there's no way I'm letting him get away with this. A lot of time this is going to be KK or QQ trying to get a cheap showdown. I make it 65 and he thinks for a while and calls. At this point I'm on a bit of alert because the only other explanation for his small be other than trying to get a cheap showdown is that he is slowplaying a monster. The turn came the 3, and he checks. Having picked up some equity with my open-ender, I bet again, trying to get him off if he decided to peel one with his underpair. He raised, and I thought for a while and folded. Here I made a mistake I think. To draw to an open ender I need to be getting about 4.75:1. The pot had 3.65 times the bet I needed to call in it, and he had 2.25 times the bet still in his stack. So getting 5.85:1 with implied odds, I should call. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the pot in the moment, and by my calculations it was almost exactly break-even even with implied odds and so I folded instead of making a high variance play without any edge. Implied odds are the odds we use to account for future betting. So even though the pot doesn't have enough to call for our draw, if we can count on future betting, it can still be profitable to draw even not getting the correct price directly from the pot.

Shortly after this I left with a decent chunk of profit. However, once I realized my mistake I was not very happy since that is a dumb mistake that I only made because I was tired and not playing my A game anymore, despite it not being that long of a session.

Played again today for about the same length. I didn't write any hands down because honestly nothing stuck out. I folded what seemed like more than average and won a bit mostly just from taking small pots down on the flop. Overall very satisfied with my play.

Planning to play tomorrow for as long as I feel alert and probably take the day off Saturday for football and also just because I need one right now.

why not just make it $25 yourself instead of limp calling from button

If there are several limpers I prefer to limp behind rather than play what will probably be a 4 way raised pot with a suited connector. Although this time someone did, people rarely raise from the blinds.

Gotta hit the gym dude.

Gives you more energy and helps with sleep schrdule

No doubt, started up again this week. I'm starting slow but I got 3 days in this week, pretty happy with that.

Today was interesting. On my way to Venetian I was not feeling great but I went anyways. Somewhere in my session though I made a complete 180 degree turn. I didn't need any of the cough drops I brought, as my sore throat was finally getting better. I also found some energy and played what I think was a solid session.

I was in a hand right away, having called a raise from the BB with 78 after it was called by 3 others. I normally don't like suited connectors from out of position, but closing the action in a multiway pot I made the call. The flop came J87 rainbow and I checked. The pre-flop raiser checked and an Asian guy bet out 2/3 pot and got 1 caller. I was planning on shoving when the SB made a re-raise of about 3 times the bet. I couldn't think of a single hand that he does this with that I beat, and so I folded my bottom two pair. The Asian guy shoved and the SB called, having flopped the straight with 9T and held up against the Asian guy's KJ.

I would tangle with the SB again after getting moved to the same main game. I 3 bet AA against his raise and he called. The flop was QJ3. I bet and he quickly called. The turn was the A and now he bet into me for nearly what I had left. I went all-in and he called. The river was the T and my set was good, he mucked and would later say he had JJ for a flopped set.

The hand of the night occurred coincidently against this same guy. I completed the sb with 33. The BB checked and we saw a flop of 346. I bet out and this guy raised. I re-reaised and he fairly quickly raised me again. We started the hand about 170 big blinds deep and after his raise he declared that he was calling if I shoved and he didn't care what I did. I called the floor to see if that was binding, and it was, so if I shoved he would have to call. However I wasn't too happy about my hand. This player was sort of splahsy pre-flop but he was definitely a thinking player and was playing a solid post-flop game. Having limped from late position he could easily have a straight or higher set and the only hand I'm ahead of that he could reasonably play like this is a big draw like 5X. I got the clocked called on me by another player and ended up folding, and he showed K5, which would have given me about 60% equity. In live cash games, all players in the game have the right to call the clock on any player they deem to be taking too long to make a decision. The floor is called and the player in question is given 1 minute to act on their hand or it is automatically folded. Some people get offended if you call the clock on them but I think its a good rule to keep the game moving, even though I rarely call it (I think I've called clock maybe twice in my life). In this situation I don't think the player who called it on me should have, as I hadn't taken that much time with it given how big of a decision it was. However I don't think it would have changed my decision.

I would lose a bit more after that hand, but still ended the day with a good sized profit due to my AA hand. Even though I again played for only about 5.5 hours, I was really happy with the session. I think I played well and during the session I felt much better than I have the last few days, both physically and mentally.

Plan is to watch some football tomorrow and probably still take the day off except for a short study session to review a few hands from the past week.

Hey all, I realize that recently I've been including a lot more strategy stuff with my hands, which wasn't really the plan with this thread.

I hope those reading from my family and non-poker playing friends have still been able to follow everything and not gotten bored with the jargon and stopped reading. Sometimes I get carried away when writing about a hand and forget to include explanations for everything. Not to mention some of the hands I include would need way too much red highlighting that I just skip it. I'll try to keep this to a minimum in the future, but since I'd still like to include these hands, I'm going to give more effort into explaining everything if I have a complicated hand. As always please feel free to ask for clarification if something doesn't make sense or if I forgot to explain something.

Glad you're feeling better.

What may be of more interest than detailed hand analysis is where you played, how long, size of win/loss, current bankroll vs. expenses, etc.

Best/worst rooms would be nice to know. Personal preference would have a lot of impact but your results also count. I hear a lot of people don't like Ballys but I have always had a winning session there and find the players loose, drunk and spewy.

I like the Venetian but have trouble winning there. Last trip got caught between a husband and wife team with 2nd nut flush vs. their boat and Ace high flush. Cost me a buy in but should have listened to my gut.

Will try the Aria next time but the Bellagio always has been good to me despite my not liking the room or it's management.

Been lurking this thread for a bit, since i've found it so interesting. I'll never play PLO or 8 or better, but I thank you for the hands and strat. you have included. I hope you crush it. Gl.

Glad to see you are doing better.

Please remember to sign up for the LVLer meetup!

Would love to have you there.

Cheers,

S

I try not to go to a certain place based on how I'm running at different casinos. That can be hard to do because its easy to get a bad taste in your mouth if you get crushed at a particular place over the short term.

Right now since I'm playing 2/5nl I like the Venetian.

Bellagio has the cap and like you said their staff is horrible. I played there for about a month back in July/August and even at the end they would still look down their nose at me whenever I asked for a comp and I would still get carded by some floorman who has seen me there all week. You also can't call in which is annoying.

The only other places that have regular 2/5 are Aria and Wynn. Aria seems to have lots of young regs to wade through, and although I haven't actually played at the Wynn, I'm not a big fan of the 1500 cap or games with button straddles.

I have played once at Planet Hollywood, MGM Grand, and Red Rock. PH doesn't get regular 2/5 so I don't go there often. MGM is hit or miss from what I've heard and since they aren't on Bravo its hard to know if 2/5 is going or not. Red Rock is more regular but its usually only 1 table and when there is going to be 3-5 at the V I'd rather go there because at least if a game is bad I can table change.

Never played at Bally's, they don't get 2/5 afaik.

Thanks, glad you are enjoying it.

Is anything happening? Last I checked that thread it had gotten severely derailed.

That's why you have to continually check-back!

First meet-up is Sunday Oct 7th. Please see thread for details.

Personally I love the explanations. You are clearly an above average player. As an average player who comes to LV only once a year this is a real opportunity for me to see the game in more depth.

That has been my experience at the Bellagio. I don't like to feel like I am begging when I request a comp.

The button has enough of an advantage anyway. If someone wants to play higher, just move to a bigger game.