always nice to see you in here friend

i was just kidding earlier. your post was so insanely off topic from what I said that’s why

lol

oh I misread your post. i was just saying kids and I suppose marriage aren’t on my mind

complete autonomy isn’t a luxury I’ll always have, I’d imagine, and I want to leverage that good fortune optimally in this chapter of my life

sure those things may make me happier but I think trying to be happy rn is too shortsighted.

tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and progress is exponential

I can always think about that stuff in a decade. I’ll have way less potential regret that way too

Very true, even something as simple as getting a dog can limit your hours in a live session.

for sure

played a lot of 5/5 last week, looking forward to shifting my focus to putting in similar volume in the 5/10

I have no emotions attached to this result and am not happy but just wanted to share that I booked a $5400 win today!

Nice little boost for the confidence, a little disappointed I felt the need to lock up at peak playing my A+ game but it is my biggest win ever I believe.

Going to spend the rest of the day with pio

Anyone want to see some hands?

Solid win dude, NJ!

Ever going to post a graph or any real hands other than made up ones from 'memory' ?Still can't believe how many take this attention seeking clown seriously lol. 2+2..

Thanks man!

Nice win.

But how much did you make?

thanks

asking the important questions!

It’s a small percentage of the win

I’d say my hourly expectation is probably higher than it is one tabling a very good 5/10 live game when the biggest game (private) is as good as it was (like yesterday). But it can be a very stressful grind and I rarely feel comfortable like mostly would in a capped 5/10 game.

The overwhelming majority of my volume (if measured in hands played) is public

I do think the size and nature of the game negatively affects the winrate quite drastically but otoh the experience is invaluable.

For transparency sake, that’s just what I personally believe my expectation to be- I’ve gotten crushed repeatedly in some huge pots for a few months straight so that certainly affects the results (which I don’t feel comfortable sharing).

So depending on what’s real, I have it very good or not so much. As it’s certainly been a very stressful past few months, with a lot of growth involved and not so much $ won given the huge downers (which I’ve talked about).

I need to give quite a bit of action, and I can’t just leave per se (at least not regularly) if I get up a few thousand. it’s a big game and mostly all the players have lots of experience playing $10k+ effective in a live setting. I certainly have zero experience there and am certainly out of my element constantly.

Anyone who’s followed the thread knows this I suppose, but I’ve just had so so many nights where I’ve gotten crushed fighting hard to cap a session when up piles so from that standpoint a super healthy “win” is always a nice psychological relief.

But not going to move the needle on the time I’d like to put in this week (all of it ) or the amount I spend (none of it).

Very grateful to be mixing it up

Hope AL(?) is treating you well!

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words, sir

Great post!

I actually think chess is tougher mentally but there’s a lot of nuance there and I don’t feel strongly about it depending on what exactly that means to each individual person.

Poker is way tougher emotionally

Well said!

I measure things in terms of number of hands often too, but honestly I think hours is way better for my situation.

I think online experience is way more valuable than live experience in a vacuum but I do think up to a certain point accumulating live experience will still prove to be somewhat valuable as I refine my game and become super dialed into that environment

haha yeah got a ton of criticism early on in the thread. I think most people with my makeup (sensitive & lacking thick skin) would just stop posting.

Also, I think many of the people being toxic back then were oblivious(still are) to how many of the commenters I know personally when taking the stuff I said out of context or saying I lack authenticity etc.

It helps me just laugh a lot of it off.

Anyways, here we are!

I still think you played that A9o hand very early in the thread like a complete donk whale.

haha yeah looking back at those hands I was probably struggling to beat 1/3 live less than a year ago- I just didn’t realize it. That particular 1/3 hand was awful for sure

Your analysis was spot on. I was wrong

H1:
200/400/800nl
Main V is aware live reg with chip on their shoulder type. Views me as nitty, makes all kinds of crazy moves everywhere. Pretty good deep-stack.

$1350E

OTTH

Pre-flop: Straddle $8. Main V open $20 LP. Hero 3b $90 BB with J J. V calls.

Flop ($190): J 9 2. Hero bets $95. V calls.

Turn ($380): J 9 2 Q. Hero continues $285. V calls.

River ($950): J 9 2 Q 5. Hero jams $878. V tank calls.




H2:
200/400/800nl
Main V is a super splashy whale. Very unhealthy mix of spice when clicking the bet + raise buttons.

$1200E~

OTTH

Pre-flop: Straddle $8. Limp. Hero iso $50 CO w J 9. V calls $50 btn. Straddle calls. Limper calls.

Flop ($206): K 5 4. Checks to hero, who bets $103. Only Main V calls.

Turn ($412): K 5 4 6. Hero checks. V stabs $280 with regular timing. Hero clicks call.

River ($972): K 5 4 6 8. Hero checks. V jams $767.



Logic here ott was that this particular V is very likely to jam river club as a bluff with his turn stabs trying to get me to click fold with Kx region.

I’ve noticed this V putting too much weight into turn card that connects with lower cards being bad for PFR range 200BB+

I was also planning to x/c river Jx and 9x for that reason

Thoughts welcome!

Let’s take this next one street by street if anyone wants to participate!

Cold 4-bettor is tight-ish reg. Not afraid to 4b bluff though and blast off. Hard to say what % V cold 4b in this configuration given the dynamic with the stuck whale. Views me as nitty.

Main V is whale from previous hand. In for 5 figures at this point iirc. Not afraid to pile in 1000bb+ with air. Absolute nightmare to be OOP too despite V being a recreational player. Has put me in countless gut wrenching spots and prevailed often in our battles.

Views me as nitty, always 3b me when IP on me as he can peel range vs 4b given stack depth.

$1555E with BB

$4410E with whale

OTTH

Pre-flop: Hero opens MP $16 with K K. Main V 3b $64 next to act. BB cold 4b $275. Hero?

I’m dumber than a bag of ice. I have J J in H1

I’m pretty sure I butchered the KKs hand up above but I suppose we’ll find out together!

Regarding H2, I think turn x/c is a fairly decent mistake. We have J high and even vs this mammoth whale you are losing to all his bluffs. I can see why you checked given the turn card but given how wide the whale is coldcalling I'd much rather prefer just betting turn exploitatively than check calling. Check raising this combo also is not very appealing either.

Thanks for dropping in! I always find your thoughts on the hands insightful.

Makes sense. The description should have some more relevant, specific info I suppose.

Are you concerned about having little FE vs this player type ott?

I’m also a bit lost as to what we are doing vs jam if we bet large given that V is a huge spazz and I don’t have much clarity on V’s raising ranges in a spot like this. So estimating our equity is difficult.

Once we check, I was thinking the implieds are too good at this stack depth to click fold vs this sizing even oop- w J high as you said.

From our history together, If this V has 7 6 or 3 3 for example, he’s sticking it in on any club river that doesn’t improve him.

It’s definitely not a slam dunk spot as pretty much all options don’t “feel great”.

Check folding a decent chunk of equity vs whale feels dirty. Betting also doesn’t feel great as the turn probably favors the whale (even w a very wide CC range). I dislike check calling just from my experience playing/using solvers that calling OOP with hands that can’t win at showdown usually (but not always) want to play raise fold.

Betting on turn keeps the initiative with us, and I do think does have some FE although not a ton. Cons are that we don’t have a great bluffing candidate on river and occasionally will get bluffed/denied equity when whale raises… but to me it’s the option I believe makes the most money in this spot

Well now I just feel bad for the needle.

You’ve come a long way since then with your overall game and definitely mindset as well. It’s been fun to be along for the ride.

This is great, I’m with you. Thanks for your time~

If not obvious, this isn’t a line I’ll be taking often vs a reg in a 400/600nl pokerbros 6m game (or 100/200nl doesn’t matter really imo).

Deepstack vs a whale I have lots of history with though I think there’s tremendous room for creativity and lines that would make the average zoom grinder on here lose their ****

While I generally think online regs are significantly better at exploiting rec players than live regs, i mostly feel that way about 100bb. That’s because most people only seem to “study” 100bb.

This is partially why I stopped posting hands really from this game. Making tons and tons of mistakes everywhere but given all the meta, history, dynamics etc it’s hard to get quality insight on what those mistakes are without lots of discussion and backstory.

Nothing you don’t understand, but I don’t think this really gels with the average online grinder who likely has little experience in this sort of environment (totally fine).

Constructive feedback and thoughts are always appreciated- I’ll probably start posting hands again.

Here is a recent hand (for lols) from this V. V is in the straddle.

Backstory is whale is stuck some five figure amount and is continuing everything pre

$4560E

OTTH

Pre-flop: Straddle $8. CO opens $100. BTN calls. SB calls. Straddle calls.

Flop ($404): 7 5 4. Checks to PFR who bets $800. Folds to straddle, who jams $4460. PFR calls.

Runout ($9324): 7 5 4 J 2.

CO has 5 4. Straddle has A 2 and scoops.

Thanks! Feels really bad to not be up much after the rake (puke) in this game despite hundreds of hours logged and a ridiculous amount of stress.

This is despite battling my hardest most sessions and always being pumped to do so regardless of what happened the previous session.

Losing every 3k+ pot regardless of how much equity I get it in with for months can always be tough on the mind...

So hoping to build some momentum from Monday’s win!

pressure makes diamonds or something like that

something I was thinking about in my post-session journaling tonight was how much work there is to be done on my journey of believing the EV is what’s real…

I’ve always wondered how Tom or Garrett can make that dicey 150k bluff when on a seven figure downswing or up 400k on a session that’s about to end

one day at a time

one of my new objectives is to battle until the game breaks regardless of session swings

it doesn’t matter if I’m always covered

embracing the pain

Hero just calls after using a time bank. Mistake?

not sure what kind of tells that gives off. Logic here was if whale puts in a 5-bet and tight-Ish reg puts in the 6b jam for 400bb I can just click fold with K K.

I was also trying to figure out what I’d do with A A or A K etc as I think that’s fairly important. helps with range visualization postflop as well etc

Whale overcalls quickly. I don’t think this V is clicking fold often with anything that was 3b once I call.

Flop ($827): Q 9 3 *Reg checks. Hero?

have a player behind us who we’re fairly deep with but who is super wide here

*put in turn action otf

dm/text me if you’d like some friendly action on Carlsen-Nepo

(World Chess Championship)

I’ll take Nepo at whatever the line is

$100 min

Starts Friday