Whats up 2+2! I have been lurking and posting here for the past couple of months and now it is my turn to take a journey into the world of live poker.

I am not a complete noob to live, I turned a $30 min buy in into a little under $2000 last summer playing 2/4 limit before I knew really anything about poker (and how much I was getting killed by the rake)! I ran hot, played the most basic form of NIT ABC poker and it worked! As I move into 1/2 NL I really don't want to change too much. I have taken the school year to really study the game (books, videos, 2+2, online play, etc), but what I've learned most from 2+2 is position, value betting, and +EV decisions. I do not want to fall victim to FPS, play as scared money, and just generally avoid putting myself in bad positions. That is the reason I am posting this, if I have to explain my stupid mistakes to 2+2 I will be less likely to actually make them.

My starting bankroll is 10 buy-ins, I understand this is low, but I will not be grinding everyday and to be honest if I am not beating 1/2 live after 10 buy ins I should not be playing.

Tonight it begins. I have been looking forward to taking this shot, posting this thread, and playing some live poker all year. This is my shot.



My kind of thread saver

where will you be playing (tampa/st pete?)

good luck

btw I dont think 10 bis are a lot, even for 1/2 live

Hard rock most of the time !

I know :/

I don't think it's a lot, but it's all I got !

Home much earlier than I wanted to be . Only got to play 2 hours...

Heres the only 3 hands that basically compromised my night.

**************
Hand 1 "Careful"

Hero (50BBs) dealt Ks10s in the BB
Villian (25BBs) raises to 5
couple limps fold
BB calls

Flop comes: 7cQsJs

Hero leads for 10 with the royal flush draw
Villian calls

Turn comes a 2h
Hero leads again for 20
Villian calls

River comes a 10h
Hero puts villian all in (15)
villian folds pocket 8s face up


I was definitely thinking about the $500 dollar royal flush jp during this hand and it ended up distracting me on the next one :/
***************************
Hand 2 "Take your damn time"

Hero(75BBs) dealt AsKs on the button and raises to 14
3 limpers fold, but the small blind calls (30bbs).

Flop: Kc 7s 3s
SB checks. Hero bets 20. SB raises all in. I just got check raised by a fish

My biggest mistake of the night was calling this hand. I didnt take my time like I should of and realize his overbet was an obvious set of 3s. I couldnt get away from tptk + fd, need to work on that. Dont recall turn or river, but his set held
*************
Hand 3: "Ouch"
Hero dealt AcAs (30BBs) in CO. UTG raises to 15, 2 calls before me when I raise to 50. UTG is all in for 10 more.

Board Qd 9d 3h 7h 2c

Villian excitedly flips over his Q9 as i throw my AA face up and leave with a 5 dolla chip. He took that 15% chance and ran with it LOL live pokerz.

************************************************** ************
Not too upset about tonight. Losing the AA hurts when you don't have the biggest bankroll, but it really just confirms how fishy live poker is and that if I stay disciplined I have a real chance to crush this game. Still looking forward to the rest of summer!

SUMMER TOTAL: -$95

Why is no one supportive of poker after a losing session

A baseball player who goes 3 for 10 in an all-star
If I go 6 for 10 I am a winner. Just because I struck out my first at bat doesn't mean I am a loser, and just because I am still planning on going back doesn't make me a degenerate. I don't even bring 2 full BI's to the casino.

no way you're folding top pair + fd

Assuming you do know he has a flush, you're still 30% and say that villain still did that with 2 pair, you're favourite.

Yes I agree, but the way he snap shoved should of been an obvious live tell. Something I will hopefully develop with experience!

Yeah folding AKss on K73ss board is ridiculous, worst case you still have 30%+ and often times you'll have him crushed.

Anyway, gl OP!

Oh btw 10 BI might be a bit too risky, but hope things go well for you

Glgl will be following your progress and im.not folding the AKss hand either

KT hand, why not c/r flop? Get it in with great equity vs his whole range.

Hand two no way you can ever fold there when his range has a lot of FD's & worse Kx. Nh!


GL OP, i hope you succeed

When you say you are starting with 10 buy ins, do you mean you are buying in for $100 at a time? Normally the max buy in on a 1/2nl is 200 or 300. You should certainly be buy in full or you won't be able to play you hands correctly w/o being forced to get it all in nearly everytime you hit a flop with a 30-50bb stack.

On another note, you are being results oriented about your AKss vs set hand. Yes, the check-raise does indicate some type of strength, BUT, like the other posters have said, you are way ahead a good portion of the time being that it seems like the game your sitting is full of short stacks who tend to get it in w/ almost any top pair or flushdraw type hands. You're not folding here ever my friend.

Next time you go play, if i were you, i would most certainly take a walk around the room and try to find a table with an average stack size of 100-200bb. You should also buy in full and top up if u fall below 125-150bb imo. You dont want to pick up AA w/ 60bb because:

A) You wont be able to play you hand effectively. Its basically shove and pray.
B) You lose serious value when you aren't sitting with a full stack and pick up a monster!

Just my 2cents. GL op!

This ^^^

Thanks for the advice..

Unfortunately, the poker room I play it has 1/2 max buy in of 50BBs...
It is just not in my bankroll to play 1/3 where it moves up to 100BBs, I probably should have topped up when I went down to 30BBs but I was being too results oriented and tilting a little bit.. Didn't want to throw away any BBs. Basically my strategy is to play very tight early on because if you win one hand early it becomes easier to dominate the table with a 100BB stack.

I dont think you have the right mind frame for what you are trying to do. Super tight isnt always right, you need to make plays that pay you in the long run not in any one session. If you run into tough variance thats what happens, its poker but that's why you need a proper bankroll. You realistically have 5 buy ins at a 1/2? That's tough or nearly impossible. I dont know one person who wouldnt snap off tptk and the nut fd anyday of the week. Hell, Id snap it off for 100bbs or less even if he showed me his damn cards. Anyway good luck. Just remember poker is about the plays that get you the pot in the long run. So try to think about that while you are playing.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using 2+2 Forums

OP said his strategy is to play super tight early on, so that he can establish a winning image and then have a higher success rate at making moves later on in the session, which any Bart Hanson listener will instantly recognize as a great strategy

1/2 live with 10 BI's for a winning player is most likely fine...but if this is your first foray into NLHE it might be a recipe for disaster...

Have you considered throwing ~$50 on like Merge or WPN and playing 4nl or something just to get the hang of NLHE without as much money on the line?

maybe ill play with ya sometime, i live in tampa and i go to the hardrock from time to time, lemme know if ur ever up there

ok if this is the case, buy in for $100 but go to the cage before hand and buy another 100 in chips, keep them in you pocket so every time you lose $20 or so, just top up.

GL

Here for session number 2. Got my max buy in, along with some extras in my pocket to top up of necessary. No reason to be nervous, swimming in a fish tank. Just got to wait for my spot and kill it

GL man! crush

Session 2 went more as planned. Was completely card dead for the first 2 hours. lost around 20 BBs but had some chips in my pocket to top up ! thanks poker joe . I stayed patience, a little nitty and ended up a $142 winner in that ~4 hour session. Could of been a lot more, but I made a couple mistakes along with getting set over set at the end of my session. Will write up some hands I thought I played well, and where I made mistakes in the morning, pretty tired now.

Session 2: +142
SUMMER TOTAL: +47

Good job dude. No problem, glad to help. Since you are playing in such a short structured game, the plan should always be to play rather nitty. Very hard to mix it up and play anything other than ABC poker with such small stacks.

Don't be so hard on yourself when you get coolered man. No one gets away from a set in such a short game! Chalk that one up to variance. Keep up the good work, stay disciplined.

The night started off slow and I was extremely card dead. Played around 2 or 3 hands my first hour then this comes along....

Hero dealt 22 in MP. I limp in for 2, Button raises to 8, but unfortunately the SB with about 18 more or so goes All-in. This guy hadn't played a hand the whole hour I was there and had bought in for the minimum so I knew to GTFO of that hand. It was the right move, I am 100% sure about that. I am trying very hard not to be results oriented at all, but when the flop comes 2 4 2 it is natural to think about what it could of been. The CO ended up having pocket 10s vs SB's pocket Kings, so my read was correct!

Next hour I ended up folding any marginal hands OOP a little tilted from that hand, but mostly just me being card dead. Got 2 streets of value from top pair/FD QK on a 2Q8 board. Extremely fishy guy called when my flush hit on the turn then when I put out a big bet on the river he then decided I had a flush and folded...He had a pair of 8s ?????

3 bet JJ from the CO to 20. Flop came A610 . Raised the SB's donk bet of 10 to 30. He called, checked the turn A where I fired another 40 and he tanked then folded pocket 9s face up. I was trying to push him off some low aces using my tight image, not sure if I played this correctly.

My stack is at about $150-$160 at this point. When I finally caught the good side of some variance

I am UTG+1 and have opened my range a little bit, raising my KQo to 10 after an UTG limp. BB and UTG call. and the flop comes 8 JK

This flop has me a little scared of the BB with as he leads for 15, thinking maybe AA or AK, but I elect to call and re-evaluate on the turn. UTG calls as well, but he had been extremely overbetting pre flop with any kind of "pretty hand" it was funny. He thought KQs was the nuts pf LOL.

Turn comes the 10 putting a backdoor flush draw on the board, not for me of course. checks to me and I bet 20 (small I know, but I was trying to keep the super fish UTG in the hand). Both call.

River is the beautiful A giving me the nuts with the Hollywood straight. Worst case scenario I am chopping. BB bets 20, UTG folds his pair of jacks (lol) and I pop it to 60. I only had about 20 or 30 left behind this, but with my experience live, going all in really scares away opponents. BB tanks and tanks and I am wondering where I should be looking hahahaha. I decide to stare at the community cards and glance up at him a couple of times. Thankfully, that ace gave him 2 pair (A10) and he thought that was good enough. He called and I scooped up a big pot!

I have a really questionable hand I need to get some feedback on that I will write up in LLSNL later today or tomorrow. Off to hit some golf balls now and I am going to a wedding tonight. I love summer!

Had a quicky session of 2/4 because I had to kill an hour before I met up with some friends at a bar. It's funny because I was just reading how unbeatable 2/4 is on this website, which I completely agree, in the long run. I bought in for 40 which is plenty at these kind of tables, reg old guys who limp every hand besides AA and check down everything else. I stole a couple limps and won one big hand with a flush in less than an hour, probably closer to 30 minutes. I felt really bad because it looked like a hit and run but I tried to explain to all the old guys and one really odd looking women that I was planning to meet my friends. Now they probably hate me . Anyway 40 dollar profit in 40 minutes. Wouldn't of really cared if I lost it, but it's always nice to add a couple of dollars to the bankroll, even if it's just 40 bucks!

Summer Total: +87