Live ANALYSIS, How my brain works & finally: help this new Vegas grinder stay motivated!

I am starting this thread in order to further my poker abilities until I reach my peak. I know that I have a long way to go and while I have read a lot of 2+2 over the years, I have never posted until now. I want this thread to primarily be an in-depth analysis of hands that I play live and with your help I can figure out where I played well or made mistakes.

As you read this thread you will get to know me (personally and strategically) and hopefully at least be entertained by my sense of humor. I will try to post the summary of each session I play in and also replay at least one big hand from the night and ask what you would do, and then give results of what actually happened.

I want this thread to remain fun and by starting it I am committing myself to playing more and learning everything I can while I work hard to analyze and post everything pertinent I remember from my sessions. Here goes…

Good luck in your quest, but please infuse the thread with degenerata. That's a real crowd pleaser.

Poker History of me
I started playing poker in college (~2005) online and hardly played for more than a few hundred bucks. I would quite often deposit $50 and cash out $100 once I won then try to run up the rest, usually going broke within a week. I started playing a bit more seriously after I graduated in 2007 but never played more than a few hours a day. I grew up working on a farm and never had a ton of money, so winning a few hundred dollars a week playing a game online kept me happy and able to buy the small things I wanted. For around 3 years I debated going to various grad schools for various programs - first med school, then dental, then law... All the while I would grind an hour or two a day and make a few hundred bucks with poker and try to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
At some point in early 2011 I decided to move to Vegas and get a job while trying poker (both online and live) more seriously. After April, 2011 I played live sporatically but kept feeling like the poker games in Vegas were a joke - everyone limped or called $20 at the 1/2 games and it just seemed like lotto poker. I played at a few different casinos and had sporatic wins of $1k followed by two sessions where I would lose $400 and $500. I was playing primarily at Planet Hollywood at the end of the year and then in January I heard about Treasure Islands promotional comp deal and began playing there in Feb.
For the past few weeks I've been playing primarily at TI and have played/run well in the game. I like it as it plays somewhere between the normal $1/2 Vegas no-fold-em-hold-em and an online $1/2 game, meaning roughly half the people are somewhat competent and don't play every pot so you can put them on ranges, while the other half are there to have fun and don't play serious poker.
I want to evolve into a great player and move up from the $1/3 to the 2/5 then 5/10 and generate a real income that I would be proud of. My bankroll is healthy enough for $1/3 and I don't plan on spending any winnings on anything but bills until I can take shots at higher stakes without caring about losing a few buy ins.

I can already say that my biggest leak is being too tight
(I know my weakness and through bad beats and sometimes alcohol it goes away quickly!)

I've had $1k downswings already from roulette - I had a system dammit!
So I'm trying to dedicate myself to poker until I can earn enough to not care about having a degen moment here or there.

Quick summary of a couple hands from tonight to get the analysis started!

I get to the game this evening and buy in for $300 at the TI $1/3 table that is going. Right away I spot a Maniac/higher stakes player who is in seat 9 (he has a $600 stack and an $80 tower of $1 chips which I quickly figure out is from winning $4 at a time due to his raises), I get seated in seat 4 so I have three players on both sides between he and I. This guy is open raising and blind straddling for $50 and basically making the table play uber-tight, while sometimes he would limp and about 1 in 20 hands he would fold. Before I figured out exactly how CRAZY he was playing I pick up AA UTG+1 and raise 5x and get him and one other lady to call. Flop is Q hi and I c-bet for $25 into $45 and get two folds (this seemed normal at the time but would amaze me later once I found out how rarely this guy folds) anyway, I win a small pot.
I go card dead for a while and fold everything, pick up AQ twice and lose once when the maniac c-bets on a 863 board, and win another small bluffing at a J hi board. The game was SUPER juicy with this guy playing, he would show bluffs everytime he got no action, and a couple times he would call $100 RR pre and insta-fold on the flop when the raiser c-bet. Unfotunately it was very frustrating as I only picked up a couple small pots from him by RRing his $20 open to $100 w/ JJ - this is why I knew he wasn't a complete maniac b/c he seemed to pick up on myself and one other player being competent and folding garbage when he or I put out bets. The other guy got into two huge pots with him and quickly won about $600 betting big then going all in on the turn and having the Laggo degenerate guy fold. I couldn't get into a big pot with him and grind for a while until the following hand comes up:
I am in seat 3 in SB, 4 limpers and I look down at AKo and pop it for $25. Laggo folds (again kinda frustrating but w/e) seat 7 ("CBG" - Callbox guy) shoves for $70 total and seat 1 ("MAB" - Married Asian Broad) overshoves for $110. I still have about $350 at this poing and since they both limped - MAB limped on the BUTTON (we are 8 handed), So I call thinking I'm in pretty good shape, definetly dominating at least one of them. CBG had KJ, MAB had 55, flop is KJ8, 9, 4. So I pretty much break even winning the side pot.
Maniac is bitching about losing some of his degen sports betting action and keeps calling the lakers "a bunch of losing bums with a loser coach" and says KFC is calling him so he leaves. The table almost breaks since everyone knows he was the action. I gave a bit of a whine after my AK lost to KJ saying how they are allowed to raise instead of limp. Maniac leaves and two hands after my AK I pick up QQ on the button. Knowing it looks like I'm steaming I pop up the 4 limpers to $25 and get two callers - ("NFG" - New Fat Guy) and MAB again who rebought for $100 *sigh*. NFG looks like he is a poker reg since he is a fat white guy who bought in for $300 and immediately talked to the dealer like they were old friends then splashed around for his first few hands.
Flop comes 9h7h4c, checked to me and I c-bet for $35 with my two black queens. NFG raises me to $105 and MAB folds. This is the turning point in the hand obviously - how should I play it?

Can't read your (lack of) paragraphs, bro.

Shove your stack in middle prepare for combo draw beatdown?

Aren't there better forums for this?

On your way to those good comps I see!

dont play roulette
dont do this:

I gave a bit of a whine after my AK lost to KJ saying how they are allowed to raise instead of limp

bet more on the flop w the qq and shove when you get raised

also despite the the rakeback you should see how games play elsewhere
you might end up being able to make more in other places instead of being trapped in ****ty games in a small room
whats their rake structure out of curiosity?

I know not to tap the tank, I barely whined and said something like "you should raise with your good hands like KJ instead of limp, NH though." So it was out of frustration and we've all been there I'm sure.

I've been hitting enter for a new paragraph but it still ends up looking single space so now I'll double tap it.

BANG! I'm good at making paragraphs now
At TI the rake is $4 max and $2 for the jackpot/promo deal. At PH it was $5 max + $1 for the jackpots (progressive royals tho). I plan on trying other rooms once I build a bankroll, I've played in Aria and want to try the Venetian and Bellagio. I just think that getting to know how the regs play in one room plus the increased comp system will be the most +EV for me for a few months or weeks at least (until I get better!).

Maybe, but if/when I post pics and stories about nights out in Vegas I think this forum will be the best place. If a mod thinks differently I'm sure I'll hear about it.

Recap and Results of first big hand
Hero raises to $25 on button w QQ vs 3 limpers, gets two callers.
Board comes 974, check, check, I bet $35 and get CR to $105.

As it stood I thought it was fairly likely that a draw or combo was the kind of hand he had, and maybe some random 9 so I said "ALL U CAN EAT - GET SOME!" or at least thought about it as I shoved my stack. I had him covered as he only had about $150 behind. Turn is J, River is J, he flips over 44 for the boat

At the table I immediately think that I should have been able to get away from this hand, saying to myself, "It just seemed so obvious that this guy wouldn't reraise me with nothing, duh he had to have a set!"

Once I get home I realize that it was pretty much a cooler flop, but this is the main thing I want to overcome - second guessing and playing super awesome lay-down nit poker because of a bad beat or cooler. Any advice?

Also, instead of just posing the question of a better forum, maybe provide a suggestion or opinion as I am obviously new at this.

Here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...low-stakes-nl/

Designed to provide exactly the type of advice you're looking for. Come back here when you've got a decent Vegas story to tell.

Thanks, I plan on providing lots of stories and whatnot about my life in Vegas, but I also want to go over interesting hands from sessions and think that one thread could contain both these things, no?

All the posts so far are from one night of play and in between sessions I will post stories and info about my lifestyle. If I absolutely have to make two threads I will, but I think poker advice and Vegas lifestyle stories could be contained into one interesting thread.

Two things changed my life...hopefully it can change yours too.

We all know what we need to do to be successful, we just lack the discipline to do it.

The two things below gave me the discipline.


1) The Bridgewater Principles:
-By Ray Dalio, who has run the most successful HF of the last 20 years.... he runs it like a cult... it's all about GOAL SETTING AND DISCIPLINE TO STICK TO THE GOALS
http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileMa...Principles.pdf

2) Book on adult underachievement
http://www.amazon.com/Your-Own-Worst.../dp/0060393920

mgm aria bellagio and v all cap at 4 bucks
its been a while since i paid rake games but i remmeber they took the rake in 1 dollar incriments in a way that was really favorable towards the players, not sure how ti does it
cesars properties rake sucks

psycologically its probably nice to know each week youll have 300 bucks (or whatever amount) waiting for you, but you might be paying that much in extra rake each week by playing at ti (it also might be a great promotion, you would really have to crunch the numbers)
if the players generally suck there it probably makes sense to stay there, if youre often at bad tables then game selction at other casinos will be much better and much more important

he often has a combo draw, i wouldnt feel bad about getting 25 in pre and having someone flop a set for 1/10th of their stack
unless he is a HUGE nit folding is pretty bad

try to avoid the commenrary when you shove

That's not a cooler.

Tonight was a card dead night, the table was super juicy as every raise got three+ callers. I just ran badly or got no callers when I did finally hit (AQ loses to A8 who hit a straight on the river, TPTK with nut flush draw losing to gunshot straight hitting river, etc etc).

I think the reason I lost was because my mind was on something completely different, something that my subconscious must have been seriously frustrated with - the auto-flush toilet!

I had a gift certificate to Golden Steer steakhouse so I stopped in and had a bite with my girl (who is a stripper btw - but those stories will come soon enough!). This place always provides awesome steaks and has black tie service with that classic Vegas style theme going on. So after showing a dead cow how sharp my teeth are, once I get to the casino I have to drop the kids off at the pool after putting my name on the waitlist.
I go to the john and have to wipe down the overspray from some drunk and proceed to make my toilet paper seat cover two sheets at a time. This leads me to my first bathroom gripe - the pre-made seat covers that most bathrooms have these days.

Ever since I learned about germs from Sesame Street I figured out how to make a seat cover out of toilet paper so that my precious buttocks do not come in contact with any microscopic bacteria on the seat already. The process started out sloppy but by the age of 6 I had perfected using the perfect amount of TP sheets to cover the seat completely while not wasting an inch of Toilet Paper.

So a few years ago some guy decided that most people do my process to some extent and he invented the wax paper toilet seat cover thingy. This man should be beaten by dirty toilet seats in a garbage dump. In all my life I have never had one of these covers fit the seat it was designed to cover. No matter how carefully I try to position it, some portion of my tender hind parts comes into contact with the seat! How hard is it to make these things form fit over all of the seat? So the great idea ends up trying to give me an aneurysm since I still have to make my tedious tp seat cover even though right there is an invention meant to keep me from doing this = LIFE TILT.

My second gripe comes from the auto flush toilet. While this idea is great since it keeps any random douch from leaving his masterpiece of fecal art for others to admire floating in the toilet, on more than one occasion I have gotten a wet hiney or had the toilet flush my pre-made seat cover away since they have that flap that hangs in the water (another design flaw IMO). You see, I wipe like Eldiablo (an older 2+2 thread worth reading titled "how do blind people know when to stop wiping?"), I bend forward and reach behind with one hand holding a perfectly folded four sheet deep TP square. The problem is that sometimes my lean triggers the toilet sensor, mistakenly telling it I have gotten up and finished which splashes me with disgusting sewer water. This problem is a hazard of the Vegas lifestyle because during a lot of longer sessions you will inevitably have to go #2 and the bathroom could have one or both of these tilt inducing hazards!

Luckily the bathroom tonight had old school handle flusher so I kept some early tilt from hitting but I blame the pre-made seat cover on my losses tonight!

thread needs pics of gf

dont date strippers
**** strippers
dont date them

Pics will come, I want to tell at least a few stories to let the anticipation build of what she looks like before I just post pics of a random that you guys don't know anything about. Also, she isn't your normal stripper but it is an awesome story of how we met and started dating - but I don't have time to type all that right now.

I didn't actually say that when I shoved, I just stacked my chips and said all-in as I pushed them forward. I was trying to make a joke and be sarcastic but my sarcasm in that post doesn't come through that well in type