Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker Tracking Software

NL Holdem $1(BB)
BTN ($295.51) [VPIP: 27.8% | PFR: 25% | AGG: 51.2% | 3-Bet: 12.5% | Hands: 73]
SB ($129.53) [VPIP: 29% | PFR: 20.3% | AGG: 29.2% | 3-Bet: 14.3% | Hands: 69]
BB ($99) [VPIP: 27.5% | PFR: 18.8% | AGG: 18.2% | 3-Bet: 6.9% | Hands: 73]
HERO ($100) [VPIP: 27.4% | PFR: 21% | AGG: 36.6% | 3-Bet: 7.8% | Hands: 155259]
CO ($151.88) [VPIP: 61.1% | PFR: 5.6% | AGG: 21.7% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 19]

Dealt to Hero: 9 T

HERO Raises To $3, CO Folds, BTN Calls $3, SB Folds, BB Folds

Hero SPR on Flop: [12.93 effective]
Flop ($7.5): T 6 4
HERO Checks, BTN Checks

Turn ($7.5): T 6 4 8
HERO Bets $9 (Rem. Stack: 88), BTN Raises To $21 (Rem. Stack: 271.51), HERO Raises To $97 (allin), BTN Calls $76 (Rem. Stack: 195.51)

River ($201.5): T 6 4 8 9



I'm still processing this hand which is from the 5 BI, 1.25h losing session I played yesterday. Maybe just call turn, evaluate river?

One more from yesterday:

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD and Database Software

NL Holdem $1(BB)
HJ ($93.93) [VPIP: 23.8% | PFR: 14.3% | AGG: 30% | 3-Bet: 7.7% | Hands: 63]
HERO ($106.35) [VPIP: 27.4% | PFR: 21% | AGG: 36.6% | 3-Bet: 7.8% | Hands: 155259]
BTN ($158.67) [VPIP: 50.7% | PFR: 11.9% | AGG: 46.7% | 3-Bet: 7.4% | Hands: 68]
SB ($188.47) [VPIP: 50% | PFR: 2.9% | AGG: 46.3% | 3-Bet: 4% | Hands: 68]
BB ($201.21) [VPIP: 46.5% | PFR: 27.9% | AGG: 47.2% | 3-Bet: 0% | Hands: 43]
UTG ($101) [VPIP: 22.8% | PFR: 17.5% | AGG: 0% | 3-Bet: 9.1% | Hands: 57]

Dealt to Hero: K 6

UTG Folds, HJ Folds, HERO Raises To $3, BTN Folds, SB Folds, BB Calls $2

Hero SPR on Flop: [15.9 effective]
Flop ($6.5): 7 5 9
BB Checks, HERO Bets $3 (Rem. Stack: 100.35), BB Calls $3 (Rem. Stack: 195.21)

Turn ($12.5): 7 5 9 K
BB Checks, HERO Bets $6 (Rem. Stack: 94.35), BB Raises To $21 (Rem. Stack: 174.21), HERO Calls $15 (Rem. Stack: 79.35)

River ($54.5): 7 5 9 K J
BB Bets $35 (Rem. Stack: 139.21), HERO Calls $35 (Rem. Stack: 44.35)



Went over the entire 1.25h session from yesterday. Other than these two hands, everything appears fine--just ran poorly.

Call turn T9cc

Check back flop K6hh; if pool never bluffs in these spots (I don’t think they ever bluff here), can fold turn or river.

Yeah, after I gave it some more thought I don't think pool bluffs this way in the 2nd hand. Thanks Oladipo.

3500 2000

Ugh. On a 12BI downswing. Maybe up to about half of that can be attributed to big mistakes. It has been some run bad, but I have a lot to fix. Been studying a lot. I think I want to have play and study planned out better. It's all been bleeding into the rest of my life so that poker is on my mind 24/7. I've got to structure my time and achieve that balance of my thread title.

Also, I want to point out that since little league I've always loved to make big plays in sports. Like when there'd be a fly ball to catch I'd hold back a moment so that I had to run and dive for the catch instead of just catching it like normal. In pick-up basketball games I'd let it get close or tied and then hit a big shot. In the past week in poker I've seen myself run stupid bluffs that were failing and tonight I saw myself make a couple stupid big hero calls vs a somewhat nitty player. I wanted the excitement of that big shot or catch. But it's really stupid and immature. I'd actually rather be good at poker. Or at least better than I am now. If I'm going to keep playing poker I'm definitely going to correct these bad habits.

3940 1700

Drove to Milwaukee last night, got to playing around 8p and left at 9p. I was seated at 8-handed table w/ 5 regs who were trying to put in enough hours in January to win a 1700 ticket to play in the upcoming WSOP. Shane S, the self proclaimed leader in this competition to be in the top 25 in January hours and win said ticket (I think the phrase: "If you're not first you're last" is appropriate.) sat 3 seats to my left. Two seats to his left was another winning player. Shane S had about 1600 chips in front of himself and said he'd been there since 9a. He's there every day. I've seen him there before. I've seen him be chummy w/other winning players.

Anyway, I didn't like the table I was at. There was one fish two to my right who seemed to point out every unlikely straight that came in otr--who basically played in fear and if he's betting he's got the nuts--a guy you could bluff off hands and if he called or raised your probably beat. But w/the solid players in Shane and a name I didn't get, and the regs who have a ton of experience and are not totally clueless--I wanted to change tables and put in a request w/floor staff to do so. Switching tables, along w/switching seats are things I have never done in live play so it's been a goal of mine to experience doing these things. I put in the request and shortly after I overplayed AQ and went up against AK for my remaining 250. I immediately left. I forgot to mention that there was snow forecast also. So w/snow coming and feeling outmatched I just left. Had a great conversation w/a friend on the phone about poker and life on the drive home.

So I think I will put off live play until maybe March. It's likely I will have at least part of the weekend off starting in March. Sundays seem like a good day to play and I might get Sunday-Monday as my weekend. Otherwise it'll hopefully be Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday. This will also give me time to work on my game and build my BR through online play.

Btw, 2 online sessions in a row in which I was happy w/my play. I think it was mostly dusting off some rust from not having played much in a while. Some obsessive study, looking over hands and thinking about poker seems to have me back on track. I'm not going to let up though. I want to continue to improve. At the same time I am going to separate poker time from the rest of life. Thinking about poker ALL the time is not how I want to live. Just a lot of the time.

4130 1700

Played another 1.5h. Lotta run good, but good decisions as well.

3900 795

Went to Milwaukee last night, played from 1a-630a. It was the best live session I've put together. I drank green tea and some coffee. This helped a lot. Most of the poker playing I've done--both online and live--has been uncaffeinated. I consider poker itself to be a stimulant. But I went into last night's session w/some information collecting goals and planned on playing tight. Both the info collecting and playing tight were a success. But w/o the caffeine I think I would have been distracted by the attractive dealer, the basketball game--really I could drift off to a lot of stuff. I only won 95, but it was the most fun session I've had. It's the way I've been wanting to play. There's so many regs there. I collected a little more than a page of notes. It's a start.

I took breaks to get/brew green tea and brought food to eat. It was wonderful. Play 1h20min and then 10 min break to walk around, get a gt/coffee, and eat food. Such a humane way to do a session. Enjoyable and I think it's more +ev too.

Leading up to last night's session I've been struggling both online and live. I played like a 12h live session last week in which I lost 1K--the most I've ever lost live. I played poorly, but ran bad too. Had a megawhale to my immediate right and was card dead the entire time. But since then I've been very hungry to improve my game. I've been studying seemingly every spare moment. Been watching a lot of training vids and taking notes.

This sesh I probably paid attention to 70-80% of the hands played. I'm not too concerned about limped pots, but when there's a preflop raiser I want to be paying 100% attention to those hands. Basic stuff, but my live game hasn't been there up to this point. Collecting this information is new, awesome, and something I'll do more and more of in the future. There's just so many regs there. I want to know the innerworkings of their souls better than they know their own.

3900 195

Went to Milwaukee for a second consecutive night Thursday night and played from ~230a-630a. Lost 2BI's. Ran poorly. Game was so loose and wild. One of the last hands I 3bet to 60 in the BB w/QQ. Villains had already seen me raise to 60 pre w/QQ and AK. But they call anyway. Villain called w/Q2dd, board came KdTd2x. Hero x, Villain shoves. After a moment of questioning to elicit a tell, Hero calls. V hits flush ott. That's poker.

So down 5BI's at live at this point. I admit it did have me discouraged Friday morning as I headed home. But 5BI's really is not much. I think I'm playing in a break-even to slightly winning fashion. (Probably winning fashion, but I like to be hard on myself.) I'm learning some things specific to live at a rapid pace. On the other hand I either need to withdraw more from IG or give myself more poker money from my life roll. So I'm on the fence as to how to proceed here. I could stick to online for a few months to build more of a roll. That doesn't sound as fun as continuing to play live. Seems like it might disrupt my learning at live too some. Also, poker has been consuming my time outside of work and parenting more than usual. I've been questioning whether that's how I want to live. It's certainly been fun, awesome. I notice myself paying closer attention to other things in life as I go about work or grocery store after pushing so hard to pay attention to Villains at the live table. This is pretty awesome. But I could be working a lot more overtime. I could be exercising. I could be more involved in NA. Just some thoughts. Poker is after all less ev than working overtime. I've even considered driving Uber. I could maybe grind out 20/h live if I get my game down, but there's a ton of variance. The variance of my regular job and even Uber are a lot less. Plus I don't have to drive 1.25h to either job(reg job is ~15min). But live poker is FUN. I love how I'm still thinking about hands when I'm at work, etc.