Interesting spot. I don't fault you for the call preflop after limping 66. If you flop a set how much money do you think you can get out of the opponent and what was the best path to get there? If opponent is a winning player like you say, then there is a good chance he can shut it down and limit how much money you can make with a set.

When you miss the flop I think folding to a bet is better than check / calling. Despite having a pair and a low flush draw you will have a tough time realizing your equity being out of position vs a good winning player. Additionally, even when your opponent misses, there is a fair chance they hold a higher club draw than you do.

I understand the fancy play syndrome, I tend to be affected by it to with weird bet sizings. But the bigger standard bets will pay off in the long run for more value.

Yeah I agree that this player will not auto-stack off against me when I flop a set, which makes calling pre-flop a bit worse. I do expect 66 to be the best hand pre-flop a lot, but it's not necessarily going to be easy to showdown.

Case in point, on this flop I think I should have enough equity to continue as I think this guy is c-betting here with air a good amount but it's really not a fun spot on any turn card other than than the 6d basically. Folding flop might be better.

The more I look at this spot, the more I like folding pre-flop.

9/26/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$331 in 3.5 hours

Very smooth and easy session today. My table was extremely passive and soft. I won a big pot early on, and was ahead the whole time which made for a pleasant experience. I'm better at being patient when I'm up, though I probably could have gotten away with playing looser and more aggressive at this table. Still, I was by far the most aggressive player at the table.

I think one thing that I need to work on is checking more value hands OOP in multi-way spots. I feel like every time I checked multi-way this session, I folded. There were a couple opponents who had position on me who seemed like they were betting a lot when checked to (although maybe they just had it everytime, hard to know). I don't want to be predictable, and I also want to be able to check-raise more.

89hh

EP MAWG limps. I ISO BTN to $10. SB cold call. Limper call. $200 effective.

Flop: AcAsJh (pot: $30). Two checks. I cbet $10. Fold. Call. I don't really know if this is a spot to start a bluff multiway, with two pretty weak backdoors. Even though this is a good board for me, there is a lot of Ax in my opponent's ranges. Even AK is possible for my opponents in these weekday afternoon games.

Turn: AcAsJh 7h ($50). Check. I bet $30. Fold. Best possible turncard for me to continue to barrel on. My plan was to shut it down on the river, since I feel like a limpcaller is usually folding a Jack or worse by this point. Even if he calls turn with Jx, he is probably the sort of player who isn't folding it on the river. Sizing up even more might make sense here if I'm planning on giving up river.

33

Many limps to me in CO. I overlimp. 6 ways.

Flop: 723r ($12). Checks to me. I bet $5. Five players call. I like betting $5 in these spots on dry boards, because I feel like my opponents call obscenely wide. I think I get floated by KJo in this spot that is drawing completely dead. Can occasionally induce a player to raise a hand like A7 too.

Turn: 723 8hh ($37). Checks to me. I bet $25. One player calls (same MAWG as above, $200 effective). I like my sizing here, but could potentially go to $30 or $35.

River: 723 8hh 5 ($87). Check. I bet $60. He calls quickly and I win. I wish I had bet larger here, closer to pot. I think V is folding a lot here but if he has 78 or possibly 22, he isn't folding for any size. So I should just target those hands and try to win the max. Villain confirmed he had 78 at a later point in the session, so I left some money on the table.

97ss

Folds to me on the BTN. I raise to $7, which is my standard opening at a passive/nitty table. SB cold calls. Old white guy who is pretty active and more aggressive than most. Kind of seems like he has it out for me already. I think we've played together before but not in a while. $150 effective.

Flop: AdTd6s ($14). Check. I bet $10. V snap calls. I think I'm basically done with it once I get snap-called here. I'm not good at showing down 9-high but sometimes it's necessary.

Turn: AdTd6s Ac ($34). Check check. Easy give-up on this card.

River: AdTd6s Ac 8c ($34). He bets $20. I raise to $65. He snap calls with A9o. For the same reason I was going to give up (that this guy isn't folding top pair and especially not trips to me) I think I needed to go massive here. I got a little gun-shy because the board was paired, but A8 is the only full house that makes sense. I think this guy would call the river with AJ+ even if I jammed. Not sure if he calls A9 but maybe. Happy to get value, but again I think I left some money on the table here.

Q9o

Folds to me on BTN. I raise to $7. Same villain as above calls. This is the bottom of my RFI range with a sticky guy in the blinds. $150 effective. After the 97ss hand and before this hand, Villain got stacked when he ISO-raised A3s from the BB over several limps. He was short stacked and jammed a Queen high flop with no pair and no draw and got called by 88. He might be a little tilted now after re-buying but he has won a couple pots since.

Flop: Q23dd ($14). Check. I bet $7. Call. I thought about checking back a weak Q here for deception and pot control, but I definitely have a dynamic with this player at this point. He is defending a wide range and I don't think he is folding anything to me.

Turn: Q23dd 8h ($28). Check. I bet $15. Villain check-raises to $40. I fold. I know it is painfully standard to fold top pair no kicker to an old guy's turn checkraise at $1/$2 but it felt really weak to me in game. I do think this guy is capable of bluffing with diamonds in this spot given our dynamic. I also think it's possible he has a hand like QJ that is just trying to take it down now against someone he views as bluffy. But I also have plenty of stronger hands to continue with. This is basically the worst hand that I'm value-betting for two streets. I also think this would be a good spot to check turn and bluff catch river. I kind of wish that is what I would have done.

Nice write up, good to see you on the right side of variance.

WRT to the 97ss hand, you can size down the flop here and then just jam river. Fish don't fold high absolute value hands here.

With the Q9o hand, you don't need to X back ever like in theory because no one is good enough to exploit you.

Good fold OTT, I'm not sure how different online fish are to live fish but the turn XR is extremely nutted in my samples online. Especially the turn min XR.

Continuing to have success at 25NL - I've won my first seven sessions in a row for a total of +6 buy-ins or so. Using GTO Wizard has been fun and helpful. It gives me some confidence playing which is nice and it's nice to have a study tool which is giving definitive feedback on my play. I think it prevents me from punting a bit as well, which I am prone to do.

Here is an example of a hand I looked up immediately after playing.

25NL

BTN opens $.63
Hero 3bets SB $2.50 with 9h9d
BTN 4bets to $5.50
Hero Calls

Flop: 4d Jc 2s

Hero check
BTN $2.67
Hero call

Turn: 4dJc2s 2h

Hero check
BTN $3.94
Hero call

River: 4dJc2s 2h 6d

Hero check
BTN All-in in for $12.64 effective

Hero tank calls and beats KdQc

Had a couple thoughts on this one. First off, I knew I would likely be calling down on the flop so I felt a strong urge to check-raise to deny equity and make life easy. GTO Wizard does raise at some small frequency, but mostly calls. Second, does villain have enough bluffs on the river? It's very easy to have value here. I expect competent players to take this line with AK, but I would also expect that hand to check back river a lot since it has showdown value. So I need Villain to have some 4bet bluffs. I feel like I see a decent amount of 4bet bluffing in these positions. I think people find A5s as a 4bet bluff here and that hand makes a lot of sense to triple off with the busted gutshot. ATo and KQo I thought about in game as well. I also see a decent amount of spazz at this stake and I hadn't ruled out this player as capable of spazz yet. I also thought a bit about the other hands in my range. What am I calling twice and then folding on this river? AQ? 77 and 88? I don't have a ton of better hands than 99, since I 5bet jam TT and JJ frequently. I definitely have a solid amount of Jx though.

I ended up calling and was pretty happy to win. I am something of a calling station in reality, so I figured I should look the spot up since it felt close. On the river, GTO Wizard is basically 50/50 on calling and folding with 99. While that was somewhat reassuring to me, I think it means I should probably mostly fold in game, since I think my opponents are not bluffing here as much as the solver would. Respect to this Villain for going for it though.

In a live game, I think I would fold to the pre-flop 4bet from most villains.

10/1/23 @ Mohegan Sun: -$226 in 3.5 hours

Short on sleep and energy for this session. My indie rock band played a big show last night which went really well, so I was feeling some fulfillment despite being exhausted from being up way later than normal. Knew this would be a quick session due to some other commitments as well. My table was really good, though some of the worst players left as the afternoon went on. Still, over half of the table was straddling regularly and there was a lot of action.

I actually straddled four or five times myself. I have mixed feelings on straddling. I know it's -EV, but in games where fishy action players are straddling regularly, I want to give action and get involved in more pots with the gamblers. I don't think it was a mistake to straddle today.

I know I punted a couple times this session. Instead of posting those hands that I know I botched, I'm just going to focus on one big hand.

AcJs

V in this hand is a college senior at UConn (my alma mater). He is talking strat at the table and seems to have a handle on some basic poker concepts. He also mentioned he plays online, for whatever that's worth. I don't necessarily know that he is a winning player though. He is also straddling most opportunities and is encouraging others to straddle. Here is a wild hand history I observed:

EP limp, Solid younger guy opens to $10, V defends BB, EP folds. Flop 854dd. V Check. Solid younger guy bets $10. V check-raise to $30. SYG call. Turn 5c. V bets $50. SYG call. River Qs. V overbet jams for $200. SYG tank folds and shows an 8. V turns over As6d. So he called a 5x ISO with A6o, check-raised a gutshot with a bad backdoor flush draw, and continued on a bad runout. He also overbet jammed river as a bluff, which is not something you see very often in a daytime 1/2 game at Mohegan Sun.

--

Hero straddles to $4. UTG limps $4 off $75. V raises EP to $15. Hero calls straddle with AcJs. Limper calls. Pre-flop seems borderline here. 3betting and folding may both be better than calling. I think this guy is pretty loose though and his sizing is relatively small. $300 effective.

Flop: As Tc 6h (Pot: $45). Check. Check. V bets $15. I call. Limper folds. Think this is totally standard.

Turn: AsTc6h 7c (Pot: 75). I check. V bets $25. I call. This is also standard. I am noting that V has taken a small sizing twice in a row, despite multiple straight draws and now a backdoor flush draw. I would expect for him to size up on this turn a lot.

River: AsTc6h 7c 2c ($125). I check. V bets $100. Backdoor flush completes and V bets much bigger, 80% pot instead of 33% pot. I have the Ac here which I think is pretty good, because this line of small bet small bet big bet kind of looks like AXcc which V can't have. I know this guy will bluff Rivers for big sizes. I think he has hands like KQo here, and might even be wide enough to have KJo and QJo pre-flop. I don't know that this V is going for thin value with AK for this sizing.

So I have a good bluff catcher against a guy who I expect to have bluffs here. There have been a number of bluffs shown in this game, and people are having fun with it. At the same time, I think the general heuristic about 1/2 live players is that they aren't bluffing the river as often as they should be. So maybe it's best to just fold here with a bluffcatcher. Certainly I have flushes and two pair hands that can defend against this line, although I suppose I would raise this small turn bet a lot with my two pair hands.

I call and V shows TT. Honestly kind of surprised he did not size up on turn with this hand in order to go for a jam on the river. I guess he was trying to get paid though, and he did a good job of it.

I wish I had thought about this one a bit more in game. I had already kind of decided I was going to call down here on the turn. This V was engaging in table talk so I could have asked him some questions to try and get more of a read. I don't take advantage of this stuff enough, and I don't take enough time to think in big spots as much as I should.

10/3/23 @ Mohegan Sun: -$183
10/6/23 @ Texas Card House Dallas: +$190
10/7/23 @ Texas Card House Dallas: +$510

Have played 3 sessions since my last post, with pretty good results overall. Currently on a family vacation to Dallas, TX. This was my first time ever playing in Texas and it has lived up to expectations so far. Based on conversations with dealers, the tables I played at were average or slightly below, but both featured players straddling to $10 (in $1/$2) and several guys trying to play 100% of hands. Also played double board hold 'em bomb pots every dealer change, which is a weird format that I've never even really thought about playing before. Very deep stacks in the game as well, which I'm not always super comfortable with. TCH is a nice room with an enjoyable vibe and very helpful staff. Pretty busy both times but not a long wait for a $1/$2 table. I put myself on the list for the significantly bigger $1/$3 game but declined when I got called since my table was very good.

Both sessions were short because I have family obligations on this trip. I think I will share some hand histories when I get back but, needless to say, I am running hot down here. There is a chance I will play a few more hours before I go home but if I don't, I will be extremely happy to leave TX up $700.

Nice read and analysis.

Playing myself live as well, though it’s a very rare hobby nowdays. In Europe though.

Will follow, like the situational analysis you put in here.

GL!

Thanks Grizzly Fish, appreciate the kind words!

Here are a couple Texas hand histories. Nothing too remarkable - like I said before, I just ran hot in some good spots.

QsQh

I raise to $10 UTG. 3 calls, including V on the BTN. V is a whale - old guy playing well over 50% of hands who is loose, sticky, and mostly passive. Some argument for raising larger pre-flop in this game. I had been thinking about the viability of limp re-raising as well and this would have been a good spot for it. $200 effective.

Flop: QcJs5s (pot: $43). I bet $15. One EP call before V raises to $45. I call and EP calls. Could definitely 3bet flop here because I think V has something good. But I have top set and a flush blocker so if ever there is a time to trap, it's gotta be here right? I don't mind EP (who is also a weaker player) hanging around for another street too much.

Turn: QcJs5s 5h (pot: $178). I check and EP checks. V bets $35. I call and EP folds. Kind of an interesting spot. I have $145 back here so well under pot. V makes a tiny bet on a great card for me. I still think he can be strong here, but he also might have a mega draw. Do I check jam and make him call off AKss? I decide to call and try to keep EP in with his flush draws or Jx hands that are drawing dead but he folds.

River: QcJs5s 5h 2h (pot: $248). I just lead jam here for $110. V tanks for a bit and calls and obviously I'm good. I had already decided on the turn that I was probably going to donk most rivers. Really don't want to let a passive player check back with KQ or something. A sticky whale can easily put me on busted spades here. I don't really love taking this line but I think it's effective in a spot like this. Don't think this guy would bluff jam a missed draw either which is key. V says "I had two pair and couldn't get away." At first I thought he had QJ but I think maybe that calls river quicker and obviously I double block that hand. It doesn't really matter, the way this guy was playing he might have even rivered two pair with A2ss and called it off.

KK

Don't like how I played this one. For context though, this was a crazy loose table and a different session from the above HH. In this game, players were showing down hands like 73o and 64o in raised pots. V in this hand is another whale - a sad sack middle aged gambler type. He is straddling to $10 UTG every time and hates folding post-flop. He has been loudly complaining about how bad he is running and he has rebought a couple times.

I open to $15 UTG. I had already decided I would be sizing up my opens in this game. I get four calls including V in UTG+2. $275 effective.

Flop: 552r (Pot: $75). BB check. I check. V bets huge for $50. There is 1 cold call from a shorter stack player who is more solid. Folds to me and I just jam for about $260. Both guys fold.

Couple thoughts here. First, in this game I have decided I like the idea of checking 100% of my hands when multi-way and out of position. The two biggest fish in the game are on my left and both of them are very aggressive post-flop. They bet big even with marginal hands and at least one of them likes to bluff a lot. Other players are sticky and like to call, so when I check I will get the opportunity to check-raise squeeze frequently.

In this spot, I know I am always stacking off with my hand. Either guy can have a 5 here, but in this game I'm never folding. I think maybe my line is just too strong though. I'm never bluffing here, there are no draws, and very few action-killing turn cards. In game, I figured one guy would have an overpair (hands as strong as JJ are possible from V) and that neither of them would fold, especially not V who is calling everything. I think maybe I can just continue to trap here though, or possibly even min check raise to massage the pot a bit. Calling runs the risk of an A coming, or another card that will cause one of the players to fold 88 or 77 or whatever, but I think the positives of calling outweigh the negatives. Might be results oriented on my part though.

In the midst of a downswing at 25NL right now. For the last few sessions, I keep losing flips and running into fish at the top of their ranges. I'm actually pretty disappointed in how I've been handling it. I've been doing all the sorts of things that have hurt my winrate in the past: playing longer and less focused sessions full of spewy bluffs and desperate hero calls. Tilt, in a word.

I've been sunrunning for the last 20k hands or so on Ignition and now coming back to reality has been a bit ugly. Typing this out to keep myself accountable. I'm going to take a couple days off from online poker (will be playing live tomorrow) and then will try to come back at it fresh and with a good mindset. Will seek out some mental game resources and do some studying as well.

10/14/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$25 in 5 hours

Essentially a breakeven session today, but it felt like a nice win since I was down over $300 early thanks mostly to getting coolered with AJs vs AA on an AJx flop. Solid table with a rotating cast of weaker loose passive players, but it certainly didn't compare to the tables I played at in Dallas. I was playing again with my brother, which is nice because we were able to compare player reads and discuss basically every hand we played on the drive home. These sorts of discussions are very helpful I think. At one point, before my brother got more into playing, I didn't really have anyone IRL that I could discuss poker strategy with. Unfortunately he got crushed this session including losing a crazy hand with the bottom end of a straight flush against the top end. It was a four liner though, so no bad beat jackpot unfortunately.

AcTs

I open LJ to $10. Folds to BB tight old Asian man who calls off a $100 stack.

Flop: KsJs5s (Pot: $20). BB check. I bet $5. BB call

Turn: KsJs5s 4c (Pot: $30). BB check. I bet $20. BB call.

River: KsJs5s 4c 4h (pot: $70). BB check. I jam for $75. BB tanks and looks frustrated but ultimately calls with KTcc.

This was the first hand I played after getting stacked AJ vs AA so my image was not great to run a bluff. Losing these two hands frustrated me initially, but the more I think about this bluff, the more I think it is a fine play. I have played with his player before and I think he is very tight. I'm pretty surprised he called KT honestly. I talked to my brother about this hand and he indicated that he read me as bluffing in this hand because of how I checked my hand for a spade after the flop was dealt, which makes some sense. He also mentioned that the $5 flop bet probably does not look very strong to the average player, which I think is fair, though I would play all of my strong hands the same way.

The reality is I have tons of strong hands in this spot (AA, KK, JJ, 55, all combos of AK, all combos of KJ, a ton of flush combos) and not a ton of logical bluffs outside of ATo and AQo with a spade. I think V can end up at the river with a good amount of hands worse than KT which will fold as well (such as AsQx, AsJx, medium pocket pairs with a spade) and I don't think he has many strong hands when he doesn't raise flop or turn so he is pretty capped.

55

My brother opens $10 from HJ , I flat CO, BTN V calls (middle aged white guy, having fun and joking at the table but seems pretty solid. Definitely on the looser side), BB calls.

Flop: 6s5s3h ($40). BB check HJ check. I bet $15. BTN calls. Others fold. $400 effective.

Turn: 6s5s3h Kd ($70). I check. BTN bets $25. I raise to $80. BTN calls.

River: 6s5s3h Kd 3c ($230). I bet $150 and BTN snap folds saying "you dodged a lot of bullets there"

I like how I played this hand. I had noticed this player was betting a lot when checked to, including with draws, so I figured I would be able to get in a turn checkraise pretty often. I wish I would have raised the turn bigger, but I didn't want to lose Villain. We are pretty deep though, and there are a lot of combo draws that Villain can call in position for basically any size. There aren't a ton of hands that can call off on the river, but I don't like checking river because I don't think this guy is going to bluff missed spades very often and he is definitely not going to value bet Kx of spades.

I like reading these field reports as it is interesting to see your thought process.

WRT to the 55 hand I would just jam turn there, there's so many bad rivers for you and people can't fold combo draws. But as played the river is a mandatory check to pick off all bluffs, Your opponent called the flop bet so Kx isn't really in their range, once they call your turn XR it's very likely he is on a draw so check/call on that river will be the highest EV line by a lot.

What did the AJs vs AA HH look like preflop?

GcluelesscoolernoobG

Also not really a fan of turning our showdownable hand (we beat almost all busted draws) into a bluff in the AT hand, nor attempting to get a relatively short stack to fold TP (I'll admit I don't play 1/2 and so I'm not exactly sure how easily/difficult a $100 stack goes in, but in 1/3 NL I would never attempt to bluff off TP for so little $ other than maybe telling a real credible story when a real scary card comes).

Bit too much FPS for my liking in the 55 hand, I would have just bet largish on the turn (and actually re-evaluated if raised this deep). A disaster if it checks behind, plus I think a check/raise this deep with middle set on this board might actually be overplaying.

GcluelessbluffingnoobG

lol I actually didn't post that hand history because I didn't like how I played pre-flop and wanted to avoid the shame of typing out what seemed to me to be an obvious mistake. I guess maybe you were able to sense that a mistake was made just by my brief summary though.

MP opens to $10. I flat CO. Sb (MAWG, unknown) squeezes to $30. MP flat. I flat. I think SB has $150 or so.

Flop: AJ5r (Pot: $90). SB leads $40 MP folds. I jam for $120 total and he snaps. I don't have the suits but I believe the board was rainbow and I know I had a BDFD.

Calling this a cooler may be a stretch, since there are two ways to avoid seeing this flop: 1) 3bet the initial raise pre-flop and fold to the inevitable cold 4bet, or 2) call the initial raise pre-flop and fold to the tiny 3bet despite being in position and getting great odds. I think option 1 is my preferred way of playing, but option 2 is better than what I did. Flop I think should also be a call, but jamming can't be too bad since SB seems committed and probably doesn't have many bluffs.

I'm fairly certain that one of the things that keeps me from being a big winner at the games that I play is that I play too loose and passive on basically all streets including pre-flop. Believe it or not, this is something that I have improved on, but it's also something I have to continue to work on.

Your commentary on hand 1 makes sense to me. I can check back flop and try to showdown, or I can bet flop small and try to showdown from there. May have been the better way to play here, especially given the gameflow.

RE: 55, I am often guilty of FPS and you may be right that my line here is an example of that. I was thinking about that hand afterwards and realized that I can bet full pot (or even overbet) on turn and get the same amount of money in as making a small checkraise against a small turn bet. Doing this means that I don't have to risk the turn checking through (though I will re-iterate that I thought there was a very strong chance BTN would bet turn in this hand).

If I checkraise, I think I have to go way bigger (though jamming as DooDooPoker suggested seems extreme to me, but I've been thinking about it). I'm not sure about this being an overplay though. I lose to 74s and 66, but V has to be extremely loose to have 74s and I think 66 raises flop a lot. If V does have 74s, then that probably means he has hands like 63s and K6s that he will not be able to get away from.

Thanks. I certainly do spend a lot of time trying to articulate my thought process in this thread, for better or worse.

Been thinking about your suggestions on the 55 hand. Check-jamming turn seems wild to me, having trouble wrapping my head around making a jam that big. I do think my raise should be a lot bigger in retrospect though.

And I am coming around to the fact that checking river may be best. I had seen this opponent check back with a missed draw before, so I was worried that would happen again, but obviously he isn't calling with a missed draw anyway. I do think hands like KQss and KJss are out there, but those hands may well fold river to a big bet after I've taken such a strong line. 3x is maybe possible too, but I would expect any random 3x combos to bet river when I check for sure.

I hesitate a bit to offer my 2 cents because I only play 1/3 NL, which I'm assuming plays very similar to 1/2 NL, but I'll admit I don't have any real handle with raise sizes / $ thresholds / intangibles / etc. at this steak, but anyhoo...

If I'm facing a largish raise size from non-LP from a more-or-less ABC guy, I would lean to dumping AJs as the first caller. But I'm a huge nit. If it is a relatively small raise size and/or from a looser opener then I can't hate too much on a flat in position (I think I'd rather 3bet AJo where I'm cooler with ending the hand preflop / not wanting multiway action, but with AJs I'm a little cooler with not ending the hand preflop / ok with going multiway). But I am nitty/passive like that.

Ha, it is all in the terminology: did we face a 3bet or a squeeze? In my mind, someone just 3bet preflop from the blinds with a relatively small stack (although, again, I'll admit I don't have a handle on this $ amount for 1/2 NL). Against a lot of players, we're in terrible shape against that range, unless he's been "squeezing" a lot and more likely to be wide. So in spite of ok immediate odds, I'd make a nit fold here (as RIO are a thing and our IO aren't really very good).

Postflop plays itself in this lol SPR 1.5 pot. Maybe calling to keep in bluffs / prevent hero folds on this drawless board is better, but whatever, stacks are going in trivially by the river (if not the turn).

So, yeah, debatable whether this actually was a cooler, as a lot of coolers can simply be avoided preflop.

FWIW, and I'm likely in the minority on this, I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about being too passive. There are times where passive lines are perfectly reasonable, imo. Heck, I haven't raised a single hand in the LJ- in my 10-handed game in 6 years. And I can probably count on one hand the number of times per year I raise a hand in the HJ. For realz. And I do ~ok. There's more than one way to skin a cat. It is likely more important to address whether you think you are being too loose (and thus playing a little too similar to your opponents on many streets).

Ggoodluck!G

Again, I'll admit I don't have a handle on $ / etc. at 1/2 NL, but...

Being the first caller setmining with a small pair is a little meh. I almost always fold small pairs as the first caller. But again, I'm a huge nit.

Based on your response, I can only assume $400 is a pretty decent sized stack in your 1/2 NL game. So I'm kinda with you regarding jamming the turn for this amount likely being an overplay (I actually think the check/raise might be an overplay). I obviously have an extremely nitty image, but if I end up getting a large 200bbs with middle set on this straighty board, I mostly lose versus all but the most droolerish. SPR is 10, we're multiway, and we have nowhere near the nuts; I play an appropriate sized pot, and for me with my image that would rarely be for 200bb stacks against most opponents.

ETA: River is interesting. I think if we've ever seen him bluff busted draws that checking would be fine. But if he rarely bluffs, then I think I'd lean to a very small amount and just hope to get paid off, maybe even like 1/4 PSB.

Gbut,I'mahugenit,sothere'sthatG

10/17/23 @ Mohegan Sun: -$185 in 4 hours

Losing session, but I feel pretty good about how I played. I was able to exercise discipline in some precarious spots and just generally felt locked in. My table was extremely good at the start of the day and got progressively worse. Despite that, I would have liked to play for a longer amount of time today. But, unfortunately, real life beckons.

I played a lot of somewhat interesting hands today and was in a lot of other marginal spots, to the point where I had a difficult time figuring out which hands I wanted to post.

KsTc

This was my first hand today. I had already observed that several of the players at the table were playing extremely loose. EP is a big fish and seems borderline maniacal to me already (see: next hand history) and UTG-S is an unknown, but he is a younger player and has chosen to straddle.

UTG straddle $4. EP limp. I ISO BTN to $20. Straddle call. EP call. Think this is borderline pre-flop, but I was really looking to get heads up with EP. I've seen EP raise with garbage like 95s already, so when he limps, I think he has a really bad hand.

Flop: Kh6c2c (pot: $60). Checks to me. I bet $20. UTG-S jams for $100 total. EP folds. No real decision at 1.5 SPR so I call. Turn Jc river 4h. I lose to 97cc.

This hand isn't particularly interesting I guess, but I think it was basically the biggest pot I played all day and I lost as a 70% favorite, so not a great start.

Jc9c

This hand is against EP maniac from the above hand. The overlimper is a woman who is well known to me. She is loose but will fold to aggression pre-flop. She makes huge raises when she has a real hand.

Maniac limps from EP. Woman overlimps. I raise to $15 from CO. Folds to Maniac who calls. Woman folds. HU against maniac which is a great result. Think J9s is a fine ISO here, but, again, I am going out of my way to play against this EP limper HU in position. $300 effective.

Flop: JhTd7d ($30). Maniac check. I check. I like checking here against this guy. My hand isn't great but it's also not a hand I want to fold against this opponent, so trapping/pot controlling makes sense.

Turn: JhTd7d 2d ($30). Maniac bets $32. I call. Don't think I can fold here after checking back flop but I'm not in love with this turn and the huge bet.

River: JhTd7d 2d Ks ($94). Maniac snap bets out for $65. Weird spot now. Don't really want to read too much into the snap decision, but I would think the overcard river might slow him down since I have tons of AK AQ KQ here. Because I have all of those hands (as well as occasional flushes) I am no longer very high in my range. Probably could just fold here and I would against almost anyone else, but I decided to call. Good decision because maniac has 3d4c for the missed 3 high flush draw.

JTss

I open to $10 in HJ. V calls CO. V is an older guy. I know him to be a very tight and passive player, but it is also clear to me that he is more of a solid/thinking player than most of the older nitregs at this casino. $300 effective. When he calls my raise, I think he always has a very good hand.

Flop: Td8d8h ($20). I check. V checks. I could bet small but I like checking here. Once V checks back, I feel good about my hand.

Turn: Td8d8h Jh ($20). I overbet $25. V calls. I like betting big here. Lots of stuff can call, and I don't think V is ahead here very often when he doesn't 3bet pre and checks back flop. Maybe could even go bigger.

River: Td8d8h Jh Ac ($65). I check. Horrible river. I struggle to think of a worse hand that will call and I don't even know what V could bluff here so my plan is check-fold (although check-jam briefly crosses my mind). Instead, V checks back and shows AJdd which was funny to me. Nice to lose the minimum every once in a while.

KcKd

V in this hand is relatively new to the table. He is a big fish. He is doing things like raising several limps to $5 on the BTN with A5o. He raises to varying sizes ($4 - $10) and the sizes seem to correspond with the strength of his hand.

I open from EP to $10. BTN calls. V calls BB.

Flop: JT3r ($30). V check. I bet $15. BTN fold. V call. Would normally bet $10 here but decided to size up a little because V will call with any piece.

Turn: JT3r 9dd ($60). Turn brings BDFD (didn't write down suits - my bad). V now donks for $30. He has about $100 behind. I call. I actually think I should just jam here though? So many pair + draw hands that will call off. This card is pretty connected and I could easily be beaten here, but I'm not folding to this opponent on any reasonable river and there are a lot of bad cards which can kill the action. Plus I double block the nuts and have a gutshot myself. Not jamming here might be a pretty big mistake.

River: JT3 9d 6c ($120). V starts counting out chips. First, he cuts out $45. Then, he counts the $50 or so that's left. Then, he bets $25. I don't see how I'm not good here so I jam. He tanks for a while and folds. Not really sure what he had - I would like to think he would call off with KJ or QJ (if he doesn't, my jam is probably too thin?) so maybe just a QT or 98 type hand.

--

Besides these, I did a lot of check-folding in pots that I missed and had to fold to several pre-flop re-raises (including being 4bet the only two times I was able to 3bet). I also made one 2-street bluff with a gutshot that was probably too loose, and ran KTs into a limp-caller's KJs on KJxxT in a medium-sized pot. Would be nice to win, but on days where I feel like I played relatively well, I don't mind losing too much.

1st hand too loose. Fold or open to smaller number like 12 where you can maneuver

2nd hand played great

3rd hand seems good.

4th hand raise is too big targeting top pair. Go to $50 or $60

Online results update:

I've reached 5k hands at 25NL since deciding to take a shot at moving up. As you can see from my graph, it's gone super well. The challenge of playing better players (there are still a lot of awful players too, don't worry) for more money has gotten me really excited about playing online for the first time in a while, which has resulted in more time studying and more volume. I'm still punting too much, but I do feel like I belong at this stake. Obviously it's very possible that I lose back 7 buy-ins (or more) over the next 5k hands but I do think I will continue to try and play 25NL either way until I can put together a more definitive hand sample.



In total, I've played 22k hands on Ignition since starting this thread. About 10k hands at 5NL (which is a stake I already feel that I've proven I'm a winner at), 7k hands at 10NL (which is a stake I had previously struggled to beat consistently), and now 5k at 25NL. I think this is the best stretch I've ever had online in terms of just consistently playing well, running hot, and winning. The sunrun isn't going to last forever, but super happy where I'm at right now. Looking forward to continuing to grind and get better.



My plan for the future is to continue to play 25NL (a few hundred hands per day) and to continue to review my hands on PT4, with some occasional GTOWizard review. I've been trying to 4 table a little bit lately, and I feel comfortable with it, so I'd like to continue to do that in order to increase volume. Playing more tables makes it harder for me to focus, but it's also nice because there is a greater chance of finding an exceptionally good table, and also there is less temptation to play too loose/impatient which has been an issue of mine in the past. If I continue to win at 25NL, I may consider taking a shot at 50NL, but I don't think I'll do that for a while.

10/20/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$280 in 3.5 hours

Nice winning session today. I did absolutely nothing remarkable - just stayed disciplined and got good cards. I got a full double-up AIPF with AA against KK and flush-over-flushed a short stack. I made top pair as the PFR a couple times in a few bloated multi-way pots. My table was relatively bad for a $1/$2 game with a couple solid middle aged guys and then 3 or 4 younger players, some of whom were better than others but all of whom were to my direct left. I thought about table changing but I was running hot and had to leave soon enough anyway.

Only going to post one HH. I think I made a pretty significant mistake on the river here, so I'll say this was easily my worst played hand of the day.

KQhh

I open MP to $10. Older white guy calls BB. He is a solid player who plays here often. He plays reasonably pre-flop (probably on the looser side for an older regular) and seems competent post-flop. $300 effective.

Flop: J72ccc (pot: $18). He checks. I check.

Turn: J72ccc Qd ($18). He bets $15. I call. Think this is completely standard.

River: J72ccc Qd 5h ($46). He bets $45. I tank call. He has T9cc for the flopped flush. I don't like this river call. On the turn, I can beat some value/protection bets, and I would expect most V's to have some semi-bluffs with the Kc and Ac. On the river, I just don't know that many (if any) of these older daytime $1/$2 players are capable of blasting for full pot with anything that I beat. Sometimes maybe they will bluff here for $25 to try to get me to fold 66 with a club, but I think my hand looks like exactly what it is, and I don't think this player type is ever trying to get someone to fold TPGK on the river. Even if occasionally there is a bluff mixed in for this size, there are so many combos of flushes and sets and maybe even QJ that I lose to.

In game as I was tanking, I knew this was a fold and couldn't bring myself to do it. I got caught up in the fact that I don't have a ton of better hands in this spot after I check back flop. I don't think this line of thinking really applies to this setting though since my opponents are not capable of exploiting this sort of fold (plus, I still have better hands to call down with than KQhh anyway). Was frustrated with myself after. I pay off way too many big river bets.

Think you self analyzed a big leak pretty well

Thanks Larry. I have known that calling too many rivers is a big leak of mine for a while, and yet I still seem to make at least one river calling mistake per session. Failure of execution on my end. I think part of it is due to having a weak mental game: correctly hero calling river feels really good, whereas incorrectly folding the best hand on the river feels really bad. The problem is incorrectly paying off a nit on the river also feels really bad lol. I think it's easier for me to justify a bad call to myself too ("Yeah, he had the nuts this time, but he has bluffs too, and my call doesn't have to be correct every time to be profitable"). I need to hammer in to myself that it's a profitable play to fold the best hand sometimes in spots where Villains are drastically underbluffing.

This past session, I actually made a second bad hero call on the river. I think this second one was more reasonable though, and the result was amusing and informative, so it wasn't as bad. Small pot too.

Folds to Hero, who opens BTN to $7 AKhh. BB call. Flop Q52dd check check. Turn 5x he 12 I call. River 4x he 15 I call he has QQ.

Villain was an unknown young guy who was relatively new to the table. Hadn't got a feel for his playstyle yet, though I had seen him open limping previously and he wasn't playing super loose. Bizarre showdown here. It felt like I lost the minimum (because of V's pre-flop blunder), and yet, somehow, I could have lost even less by folding turn or river.