I agree it does little for helping me in the bigger games (except that it forces me to pay attention.) I do want to clarify that I'm not an (usually) ass about it...
I do try to make the table fun but I don't patronize players.

Never really thought if it as angling, but maybe you have a point. (And this is one if the reasons I am being brutally honest ITT, I want my opponents who read this to adjust and make my life a but more difficult.) I admit I do get a bit of a woodie when someone sniffs through my bull**** and it's game on.

But I will make a conscious effort to tone it down a notch and try to rely more on fundamentals. My goal is to make it worth the trip to MDL (or B Harbor or wherever the big games move, if they move.)

I also know my strategy of giving weaker players proper odds to draw won't work at 10/25, where it is far more likely that I would be the fish on later streets. (Same with my small ball approach, as it is doubtful I would have the edge to profitably implement that strat... At least in the beginning.)

While I don't current play to fully maximize profits (I believe a little fun is important to have even it it affects the bottom line a bit... This game can be tedious, it is hard for me to justify an extra 3 hour commute just to gain maybe a $10-20/hr increase in expected earn. It's the struggle of balancing family obligations (and laziness) with using all the tools at my disposal to improve my game (such as travelling to MDL to play the "tougher" 5/10 game. The lure of cheap, free, easy money is a hard one to resist.

(And you and I both know I'm not really going to be doing much "learning" until in ready to sacrifice some buyins at 10/25...The 5/10 game is almost as exploitable as 2/5, if you opt to stay clear of the occasional land mine or two.)

Really wish some of you 'zillas (god I hope I'm using that word right!) would stop by your old stomping grounds every so often and teach me a cheap lesson in humility.

Also, from what I have heard and read about BadBanana's game, I think I have a bit of a poker man crush on him. So wish I sat with you guys more when Inhad the chance and the price of learning was cheaper.

As always, appreciate your (and all) comments and insite ITT. Please keep 'em coming.

Like this thread. Subbed.

So today I get numerous calls/texts about how amazing the 2/5 game is today and I need to get my ass there. Everyone is up ridic money and they are leaving and my god this game is good.

So I change plans and make time to go.

When I arrived the 2/5 game really was great. I'm third on the list so I play 1/2. I expect to have no chance to get a seat but hope for the best.

A few of the dealers even pull me aside and tell me how amazing the game is today.

Proceed to lose $200, most of it when my AA loses to a short stack set. No big.

I'm called for the game after maybe 45 minutes. People are busting out as fast as they can sit them. 2 recreational donks, not regs but people I know, have about $7k between them. Another reg fish has a 2k stack. Sweet!

And to top it all off, I get position on all 3, with the biggest donk on my immediate right.

After about 30 minutes, I'm up around 300 when I lose a $700 pot to one of said donks. (KK vs ?? On a J567 board I fold after a $700 pot bet on turn). Then lose a $400 pot to a short stack all in AK VS 55. (A5x board if anyone gives a crap)

No big deal. This game is great!!

So we get a decent pot developing with a semi reg vs the now $5k nice guy fish on my right. Fish winds up tank folding a king high board, the reg then SHOWS HIM A BLUFF.


Fish says "wow you completely ****ed with my mind there!"

He then says "Wow!" 2 more times. He then gets up and gets 4 racks and says "I no longer am in the right mindset...You guys have fun!"

We try to get him to stay but he says "after that last hand... Wow. I can see I'm not at the mental level I need to be. I know when to get up!"

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

So big stack fish number 2 then also decides to leave. $8k in fun, carefree money chased away because someone had to show these rec players who were there to have fun how awesome at the pokerz he is.

So pissed. I "jokingly" threatened to kick the living **** out of him.

After that, the game rocked up and I ended up -450 on a day I didn't even want or intend to play.

Then on my way home I get stuck behind some asshat doing 30 in a 55 and I never get an opportunity to pass him and I just pretty much hate the world right now.

Edit: Oh, and now I just finished off the last of the good bourbon. FML.

Got about 2 hours of sleep last night, but an album I've been anticipating for a long time dropped today, so I'm playing because I need an excuse to listen to it.

No way this can end badly.

good read, your a sick0

lol @ joking to kick the living **** out of someone.

What would you have done if he took you seriously?

Whelp, that went about as well as expected.

but the album was good though?

Yes, the album was good. But I don't know if I won a single pot while listening to it, and had 3 rather brutal beats (2 second nut hands and a AA V A2hh and he hits a str8 flush... Standard)

So it may not make it into the poker rotation. Will give it another chance tomorrow. But this is all advanced poker concepts I don't feel like getting into rigt now.

-$900 ish in day, but that was more a result of coolers/beats. (And climbed out of a $1.2k hole only to give it back on last 2 hands.)

Maybe my last hand I could have played better. (3b shoved all in with QTdd on KJTssd board against a somewhat spewy player who tends to overplay his hands (350 effective and with some dead money in the pot). He had KK. Oops.

Mother****ing ****bunny donkey****! Twice now I wrote up HUGE, LONG ass writeupa about the day I had today.

Quick summary: went from -300 to +2200 to -200 in 5 hours at one of the worst (read: best) tables I ever played at.

Lots of 3 outers, coolers and a true WTF??!?!? hand in between.

I can only assume that there was some sort of megaconvention for evil superdonk uberfish and my table was ground zero for the afterparty.

Worst part was having to leave the table due to a family committment with 6 or 7 truly awful, deep stacked players.

For now, I ain't writing this **** up again. Time to go drink.

April results. Didn't get that many hours in, so nothing significant. Also subtract about $1400 in tournament fees because I love that bubble.

Pretty sure the 2/2 wr is sustainable, but will know better once I accumulate a full 2 hours at the game.







Tomorrow I fill in for a friend in a home game tourney where the winner goes to the World Series ME, among monetary incentives. He's been playing all year to get ranked and qualified. So no pressure.

Your win rate at 2/5 is insane

I didn't even think it was possible to win $75/hour at 2/5

Interesting day today. Came "close" to BBJ twice (quads vs top set; and my Quad aces on an A A 8 Q T board (at least the possibility was out there...))

Several interesting hands overall, but for me the most interesting one was:

Background:
Villain is a 2/5-5/10 semi reg with an affinity for the pits. I am somewhat familiar with his game. At this point He had only shown premiums, but I was able to value town him a few hands earlier on a pair turned runner runner flush draw. He claims to have flopped a str8 with A2 (3 4 5 9 k board I bet raised LMP preflop 15, 35 flop, 70 turn and 150 river with Q 5)

---

UTG and UTG+1 flat I raise 25 with 78os. 5 callers, including CO, the villain described above.

Flop 7 9 2

Checked around.

Turn 4

Checked to me I bet 70. 2 folds CO raises 220 with just 180 behind.

I tank for a few minutes. Talk a bit. I sense weakness. I don't see a 9 value betting/protecting there from this player. Decide his range is basically monster, draws or air. Maybe a pair and draw.

I ask if he is restealing my steal, he smirks a bit. I take this as either I caught him or he has a near nut hand.

After a good 4-5 minutes working it out in my head, I opt to shove and hope my bluff catcher can catch a bluff. He calls. He has 56os.

River 5

I win.

More to the hand than I can really post here but it was one of those times where I really had a blast playing it. The results were just icing.

Had a +$1200 day today but really misplayed one hand that still irks me.

Let's try a Play a Hand With Me and see if that works.

2/5 max 500. Table is fairly deep, and some players have been there all night (it is now early afternoon) we have about $1200.

In BB with AQs. UTG straddles $15.

6 callers to the SB, who makes it $75 to go. He has done this type of raise a few times before during the day, but in general is not one to make this play with nothing.

Range here is Axs+, pairs >7, with most weight given to higher end of range, AT+ and bigger pairs.

A call may set off a waterfall. Will have to fold to any 4b pf.

Fold seems too nitty. A call could cause a waterfall effect, and I hate playing AQ OOP for big pots. A raise also seems like burning money, as I expect all worse hands to fold and all better hands to call or raise.

What's your play here?

It's pretty close between 4b or fold. Seems like a small raise considering all the dead money and he's OOP and I'd expect a larger sizing from the top end of his range. So if he's capable of raise/folding then I would just go ahead and 4bet. We might be able to fold out JJ or lower and if he does call we have a pretty good hand IP against that range.

BTW, sick results at 2/5, very impressive. Also like the wit in your posts. Good stuff all around.

At a casino without such a skewed player distribution, I doubt it is. (I still have my doubts about it's sustainability long-term here.)

Don't forget that for all intents and purposes, this is the "big" game. Ideally, a person would move up once they start consistently winning 8-10+bb/hr. There really isn't anyplace to move up unless I want to commit to a much longer commute.

I assume a good 5/10 reg would be able to crush at a similar rate, which is about where I assess my skill level. (Based on what I've seen and who I know in that player pool, I think I'd fall in the top 10-15% of earners, but I could be delusional and like most players, greatly overestimating my own skill.)

While I don't think I would be a favorite in a 10/25 game (and the nearby casino has one of the toughest in the country from what I hear), I don't think I'd be a fish, either. I'd probably be somewhere in the bottom 40-50% of regs at that level at this point in time. Likely not a winner (and if so, a marginal one) but don't think I'd be someone the game would be built around (could be wrong, of course.) My difficulty with the scenario above and other mistakes I make tells me that I'm not quite ready yet.

But by this time next year hope to be in the upper 50%, and playing it fairly consistently. Baby steps.

I would honestly be happier averaging 2bb at 10/25 then my current 2/5 WR.

Appreciate the participation and the compliments. Hopefully a few more voices will be heard and I'll post the follow-up.

Not gonna comment or critique on any approaches yet (and after the way I played it any "critique" by me would be LOL laughable).

Assuming you guys are 150+bb deep with most of the table I'm just calling. I don't mind seeing a multiway pot IP of the SB with AQs. I wouldn't want to 3bet and narrow their continuing range to hands that crush you.

If you're deeper than 200bb eff with SB you could click it back to $135 or w/e it would be to be headsup vs SB.

So it's a straddle and a single raise ja? Very player dependent but I would normally 3 bet liberally.

wow that would make it $50 per hour with swings mutliplied alot , I think you would be faaaar better off crushing 2/5 with 75$ per hour. But if you mean you would feel happier skill wise I see what you mean. But I just don't think it would be worth it mentally. +2bb per hour is probably way to modest, with hard work and dedication you could at least beat it for 5bb which then is worth it.

just my 2cents gl !

So raising seems to be the best play. So naturally, I call. 5 players see a flop of:

A K J (We have diamonds, of course)

SB checks. We...

Check

+1

Ok, check is pretty much the only option here I think, which I do.

Check to the hijack, who shoots a quizzical look at everyone checking.

So back to the hand, I see his quick quizzical look, which I read as strength, but I'm not going to put too much stock in it. He could genuinely be confused about how this board was checked to him. It was a very quick moment and if it wasn't intentional then the situation did indeed did take him by surprise. He hems and haws then bets 275. He has 650 behind and I cover.

My thought process: As 4th to enter, his range is much wider than mine. QT and KJ show up here often, and I can pretty much never have those hands. AJ is also an unlikely holding for me or SB. He is far more likely to have the nuts or 2 pair than we are. Conversely, he almost never has a set here. JT, JQ, KQ type hands make sense as well. As does air, because I have to fear his range more than he has to fear mine (faulty logic?).

The problem here is, I don't know if he is thinking like that. My guess is he isn't, and is playing his cards and situation. But I really don't know for sure.

CO folds and SB folds. I'm not concerned about the player between us, who has $300ish behind and looks ready to fold.

And now the decision is back on us, and this (I think) is where I screw the pooch royally.

Facing a $275 bet/$375 pot OOP and am behind AJ/AT/AK(tho I doubt AK shows up here often). Regardless of current situation I have at least 4 nut outs and perhaps as many as 9 (if I'm behind at all). This is my thought process as I make my decision...

Btw, if anyone sees gaping holes of logic in my thought process/approach, by all means speak up. Also if you take a different approach would love to hear it.

I think these are the types of situations that need to become more "standard" to me. Particularly if I hope to make it at mid stakes+.