Hand 1 Check in the bb you dont want to be inflating pots oop with shitty kkxx hands. As played, flop is fine, Turn bet is fine, fold to the raise you are never getting bluffed or getting 2 pair fd combos etc to fold.. Villian also played this hand awful.

Hand 2, pre is fine, Bet the flop, as played fine.

Hand 4 3bet pre, flop is fine, jam turn.

Hand 12





Hand 13




Hand 14





Hand 15







Hand 16

Hand 12 fine

Hand 13 fine

Hand 14 fold pre, flop is ok but id probably go a smaller sizing, but its fine.

Hand 15 3bet pre, Rest is fine nh

Hand 16 pre is fine, 3 bet jam it on the flop, As played you kinda just have to call it off on the turn once you turn this much equity.

This is such a level up. One of the best things I’ve read on 2+2…. I wish everyone would read this when they started playing live …. Well done and GL

good point. i think i over estimate how playable these these hands are post flop. there's usually multiple limps by the time it gets to me in the BB, so sometimes i'll try and raise a little lighter to iso the fish. doesn't end up working well. isolating feels like something that doesn't really exist in PLO as much as it does in holdem.



damn i'm not usually 3bet jamming this light (2p on straight board with 1 bdfd) without some kind of read in SRP

thanks for the feedback, definitely made me rethink a few things!

Thank you for the kind words!

Even if I read that when I was younger, i.e. had a much worse mental game than i do now, i don't think i would have been ready to receive it

You pretty much have the nuts on this board.. Villian shouldn't have many of any 52 combos, We block AA and 44 and villian shouldnt have many 33 combos either.. The majority of the time we are going to get shown 567x with hearts or Kxxx flush draws. The problem with flatting is we hate most every turn in the deck, we are just check folding so many turns..

how do you approach building a raising range from the BB in limped pots? comes up a lot at 1/2, and i imagine live as well

Its pretty tight, im only raising the like 5% of the top of my range out of the blinds . Main reason being we are oop and just not getting enough folds from bad players that are open limping and over limping, so no need to inflate pots oop, in games like this we can just play passive oop and just nut peddle and print..

losing 7ish buyins in 2/3 of the most recent sessions rattled me a little bit. i was able to keep emotions in check despite not being happy about it. fortunately had irl stuff to keep me busy and flush my emotions out, so was able to play my next session fresh.

i've surpassed the 15hr volume of playing poker goal.

i've studied at least 10 hours through coaching and training videos. gonna try and hit the last 5 study hours before this weekend.

i'm going to try and put in a ton of volume on saturday, as am going on holiday next week and probably won't be playing any.


here's some of interesting hands from recent sessions:

Hand 17




Hand 18





hand 19





hand 20

Tilt no more forever: not today, not tomorrow.

I tilted earlier this week. It was the first time in recent memory where I just straight up tilted, as opposed to playing while frustrated or tired. I was probably tilted for 2/3 of the entire session. But it was significantly impacting (vs slightly impacting) my play for the last 20 or so minutes of the session. It definitely sucked. I lost money NOT due to variance or being outplayed, but because I made a few dumb decisions and let my emotions take over. I put my monkey brain in the driver seat, threw all logic and self control out the window, and lit a few buyins on fire. The only silver lining was that I quit immediately after a huge >100bb punt, so I can give myself props for that. And maybe props for being honest about what happened after the fact. But yea, I tilted and lost a buy-in or two.

What brought this on? Why did I tilt? First, I was playing late in the evening which usually means I was tired after working all day. I also got in a little fight with my gf earlier that night. Not good for the emotional balance. And my last few sessions had been kind of swingy one way or the other, so that was definitely on my mind as well.

Second, I’ve felt a lot of disappointment lately with my overall progress. I hate that I’m not moving through stakes faster, and that I’m down so many buyins. I worry I’m not getting as much as I could out of coaching. That said, I’m directly responsible for all of those things. While I’ve definitely made progress in lots of areas, I’m still not where I want to be. There’s maybe some motivation in there.

Third, I haven’t had optimal sleep these past couple of weeks. Lots of staying up late and waking up early, and a couple 4:30am wakeups. I am so extremely dependent on optimal sleep for overall health and wellness, but especially mental health. I’m infinitely more resilient to all the trials and tribulations of life and poker when well rested. When I’m not, I’m much more susceptible to all the bad things: Much more likely to fight with my gf, much more likely to tilt, much more likely to get angry, much more likely to eat unhealthy, much more likely to say **** it and let my monkey brain take over.

Everyone tilts differently, in different ways, and in response to different things. For as long as I can remember my flavor of tilt was one of absolute self destruction. Breaking things, smashing monitors, whatever inanimate could get my hands or feet on. I’ve also taken out my lack of emotional control on my bankroll a number of times. I’d like to say that those days are behind me, and that It’s mostly just bumps In the road from here on out, but I know that the rage is still there, lurking in my mind and gut, just waiting for me to lose control.

As humans we have the capacity for all of the amazing and beautiful things, but also for all the terrible and miserable things we will regret for the rest of our lives. In almost every moment we have a choice: amazing and beautiful or terrible and miserable. It’s easy to lose sight of our control over this power in the heat of the moment. The more we can stay mindful of and present with our emotions and what’s going on inside our body, the more likely we are to stay in control and make decisions that align with our hopes, dreams, and wishes.

This is obviously true, if not a requirement, for identifying and preventing tilt in poker. But it’s just as much true, if not more so, for time away from the table: putting hours in the lab studying and reviewing, and also taking care of our bodies through diet and exercise, and investing in our most important relationships. One central and related theme I keep coming back to is an introspective inventory approach of asking myself how does something serve me? How does this pint of ice cream serve me? How does spending 2 more hours smoking weed playing video games at 11pm on a weeknight serve me? How does avoiding going on a run, or avoiding going to the gym serve me? How does tilting serve me? I use this line of introspective questioning to keep me honest about how I spend my time. It keeps me mindful and aware of how I spend my time. And at the end of the day, what’s more valuable than how we spend our time?

Nice post man..

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And this is how learning to master poker leads to mastery of the Self!

Excelente post my man.

February results




February Goals Recap:
Goal: 15 Study Hours [X]

• Probably hit 15-20 hours of overall study time. The bulk of it was spent reviewing APLOM Turn section. This series is really amazing. But it’s one of those things that you can’t really just watch passively once or twice and get everything. You really have to put the hours in taking notes and reviewing.
• The rest of the time was spent reviewing sessions and hand histories. I’m going to start looking at spots where I bet flop and opponent called. Still feel kind of lost in turn spots, and that’s when the pot starts getting big, so will hopefully identify some leaks to make red line go up.
• I began patching a preflop leak, where I was treating squeezes like 3bets. This leak certainly contributed to poor red line performance.
• One of the hardest parts of studying poker, aside from digesting and making sense of it all, is putting it to use. Part of my Feb goal was to try and implement 1-2 things that I learned studying. I sort of did this with some turn double barrel spots, and with the aforementioned preflop spot.

Goal: 15 Grind hours [X]

• Hit 24 hours this month. Really surprised myself with how many hours I was able to put in, despite travel and irl commitments. Obviously didn’t win as much as I wanted, but that’s probably not even possible. That said, I wouldn't hate it if I won at 15bb/hr for the next 50k hands lol
• Variance wise compared to Jan where it felt like I was a winning player, Feb was really rough. Reminded me of pretty much all of 2021 where I was struggling to understand how anyone wins at PLO. This is not where I want to invest my mental juice, and I think I did a pretty good job not letting the results get to me, despite the one tilt session.

Mental game [x] (baby check)

• This wasn't a stated goal for Feb, but I want to start holding myself accountable in this area, so I'll spend some effort writing about it.
• Except for one session where I tilted, the tilt was a minimum, and presence and mindfulness were fairly constant. Definitely played a few sessions where I spent too much time (any is probably too much) during session looking at nonsense, e.g. twitter, smartphone garbage, reddit etc. This is a huuuuuge leak.
• I recently read some academic papers I want to share in a future post that absolutely confirm how detrimental these kinds of attention sucks impact a primary task.

March Goals:
Study: 20 hours of structured, rigorous study

• At least 10 hours studying the river and reviewing the turn.
• Spend at least 5 hours reviewing hands that went flop: bet/call, regardless of PFR
• Spend the rest of the time reviewing HH from sessions, and sharing them and my thoughts here.

Play 15 hours

• 100% of sessions with no distractions, completely focused on the tables I'm playing, i.e., no social media while playing
• If I feel like I need a break or pick me up, I’ll just quit playing for a few minutes. Will be annoying but I really need all the EV I can get, and can’t afford to give up much staring at mental junk food while playing.

ty all. really appreciate the kind words! Even though I'm getting slaughtered in terms of results, I hope this journey is making me into a better human!

Hand 21



hand22




hand23



hand 24



hand25

woke up today feeling great. didn't get a ton of sleep but felt very well rested. must have woke up after a REM cycle or something. did some morning stretches, breathing, and some focused thought work. it was also super rare day when GF had plans so i basically had the entire day to grind, AND i felt great

well poker gods had other plans for me.












hand 26



hand 27



hand 28



hand29



hand30



hand 31



hand 32




worst session in recent memory. oh well. surprisingly i feel ok right now. I definitely felt bouts of rage throughout the session, but after swearing, taking a few deep breaths, and getting some stretches in, i could feel myself calm down and get back to focusing. like water flowing through a river. after going through the big pots i'm relatively calm right now. mostly just hungry and a little bit sad.

this was also my longest cash session in a really long time. i felt pretty sharp and on top of my game. i think i played ok too for the most part.

lastly, A+ for me not breaking anything!z

-----------------------

if anyone's reading this, what are your thoughts on the hand history format of
- paste hand without results
- my thoughts in spoiler
- a nested spoiler with entire results?

is it annoying? exciting? provocative?

I think most those hands are pretty standard not much you can do when you run like that.. Hand 26 is close on the turn id probably fold we are only beating some KT combos. Hand 27 id probably just flat the 3bet but id say you have some history with villain? so probably fine.

I like the format, Definitely hide the results though imo.

Nice yea I don’t like posting results either unless it’s a big pot or interesting spot that warrants discussion. But i know some folks em

What are your thoughts on flatting vs ripping the flop in hand 26? I can go either way but if i had top set I’d like flatting a lot more.

Id probably flat as well, but as you said I think either way is fine.

Hand #26

After flatting pf, villain has a lot of T9, KT and other pair + open ender, and 2 pair + gutshot combos. A lot of hands to stack off with, only one of which has you in bad shape (QQ). Jamming gets full value from all these hands. You look like you have AA or KK a lot here, so villain most likely think they have more equity than they do. Unless you have a specific read or reason to flat, jamming should be far more profitable. This is HU, yes?

hand 1:KK67 is a spew, villain is either a massive donk or tilted, wants to bust you or has no respct for you at all, whatever it is , the turn min raise should make you pause..

hand2) hate the check on flop, you want to try and win that hand on the flop, otherwise standard.

hand 3)652A spew, seems like a drunk play

hand 4) standard, good you didnt find anything to rep there.

hand 5) terrible donk on flop unless villain is supertight with no c-bet in his range, turn is a shove but this is slightly advanced concept that i will give you a break for, it takes getting used to facing agression, but deff a shove..

KK66 hand - standard

hand 6) unless you had a read on opponent that he is wild/tilted i dont like the check on turn at all, unrealised turn equity very bad, and possible bad spot on river if he jams, basically the only reason to check there is if you are like 80% sure that villan will bluff/bet with worse...you seem to have a tendency of slowing down made hands on turns/rivers, trying to induce bluffs from villains, massive leak, this should be like 1/10 play.

hand7) what was result? like check on turn, hate bet on river and subsequest call even more...again i am talking about playing against normal players ,not tilted idiots where this bluff catch on river will not be good 95% of the time literally

hand8) dont like 4bet pre, not deep enough with that range, hate cbet/fold, must call as played..

hand9) jam turn as played on blank, he is bluffing you a lot there too, villain seems competent, i dont understand is why you are trying to outplay a better player then yourself, seems like he is soul reading you in every spot due to your passiveness after flop

10) terrible sizings...


Basically try not to play against better players, or not try to outplay them, you are not at that level and will be crushed, you are lost in way too many spots, you admit it yourself, i see massive leaks and not suprising al all that you are down 14k over that sample. You dont respect other players, you dont respect money , you lose it too easily....i could go on but its enough...i think you have some good creativity and fearlessness in you, but you have to work on other aspects more before you can feel comfortable about executing some complex plays, as someone said you are lacking foundation...take astep back you will just keep losing/punting, try to think about what you are doing and why, play smaller, develop your style , it takes time, i dont think coaching will work for you, nor dio i advocate coaching , its a waste of money for a lot of people, i think you are one of them, keep going but you nedd to take a very good luvk in the mirror and see where you really are, which is not very far, but if you can work on your mind mostly and on your game ofc by at least amalysing your plays there could be big improvment, maybe talk more to some friend who is long term winner at plo, i think you are mentally far behind, and this is more importent then how you play when it comes to profit and loss

yea it's HU. definitely agree with your analysis. that was a punt from me.

Love the hand format btw. Very easy to see and I can spoil if I want. I do like to see results because I am interested in what the population comes up with.



#27 - seems like the perfect hand to smooth call on the btn. It doesn't like a ton of flops, but when it does it loves them. Lowering the SPR reduces your ability to maximize on your position and utilize the QQ blockers. Also, you raise out most other hands with diamond draws. Being on the button with nut flush draws and trips and a high spr is fun. Matrix will level itself in your games.

#30 - whoever plays these hands perfectly, probably crushes. I dunno...

#31 - depending on the table, this may just be a fold pf, without a T in your hand. Against an utg or ep raiser, with players still behind you, you wind up dominated too much by hands you cannot get to fold such as AKJT or even QKJTds crush you. You are basically not pushing equity against anything, and are never going to be able to fold any flop you hit and will not be crushing ever. But once again, very image and table dependant. This hand plays a bit better as a raise from the blinds oop with a low SPR, imo. But you get in trouble with these hands when you raise an ep player from mp with them. At least I do, lol. Just a bit too gappy on the top and non nutted without the JT combo. Plays decent against bad AA, but so do most hands haha. I am just musing here..

#32 - r/c with that hand seems like the only thing to ever do. Matrix assumes other people play balanced, lol? Great hand for raising less than pot pf btw if you ever do that.


Keep posting food for thought!