11/9 @ Mohegan Sun: +$1015* in 4 hours

*Caveat that this includes a High Hand promo I hit

Decided to go up to Mohegan Sun to check out a special mystery prize High Hand promo they were running. I actually hit an 8-high straight flush in a crazy spot and binked a $1k high hand promo ($40 of which I tipped the dealer - which I think is reasonable??). I made a thread about that hand in the live strategy subforum which includes more details about the promo. Action at Mohegan Sun was pretty crazy though, and somehow three different people at my table won a high hand promo in the four hours I was there which made for a fun session. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1.../#post58332137

Besides the straight flush hand, I had an interesting session. I lost a bunch of small to medium pots but won 1 giant pot to make up for all of the others. Here are a couple hand histories per usual.

7d7c

Brand new player sits down. 40ish white guy who I believe he is a $2/$5 reg but we've never played together. He puts out $2 thinking it's his big blind before realizing he is UTG. He checks his cards and then leaves the $2 out there. It folds to me in CO and I raise to $10. Folds to V who calls. We are playing $375 effective which is deep for me.

Flop: 235dd (Pot: $20). V check. I bet $10. V check raises to $35 quickly. I decided to call. I don't know for sure, but I expect this villain to have some bluffs here, and I'm not going to rule out a hand like 66. If I didn't have the 7d, I think I would fold here, but it's nice to have the weak BDFD and also to ensure that both of my set outs are clean.

Turn: 235dd 7h ($90). V bets $60. I call. Could definitely raise here, and there are some bad rivers but I like giving this guy a chance to blast. My hand is really strong now and with the 7d I feel comfortable calling down on most rivers although a 4 would be particularly grim.

River: 235dd 7h 9h ($210). V overbet jams for $270. I snap call and he says "you're good." I don't play against very many people who will overbet jam river for 135bb as a bluff. Nice to run hot against one who will though.

KcKd

Villain in this hand is a reg at 2/5 and 5/T. He is a young white guy and at one point I thought he might be a 2p2 poster. I see him in the room all the time. I've played with him at 1/2 a few times and I thought he seemed very good. $400 effective.

I open to $10 in EP. V calls BTN. SB and BB (both very loose fish) call.

Flop: Ts 6h 3h ($40). Checks to me. I check. Villain bets $25 quickly. Both blinds fold. I call. I think this is a good way to play an overpair when I'm deep and out of position multiway against a capable player.

Turn: Ts6h3h 4h ($90). I check. V bets $60. I call. Really bad turn but I don't think I can fold. My hand is under-repped and Villain can easily be betting worse here I would think.

River: Ts6h3h 4h 5h ($210). I check. V checks back. I show. He shows 9h7d for the rivered flush. Pretty unexpected. Probably time to update my opinion of this guy's play style.

Here's another hand history from yesterday. I think I know what my mistake was here, but I feel like typing it out may help me remember how to avoid this spot in the future.

TT

Very early in this session. Hero opens UTG to $10 off $200. V1 (known fish, was the shortstack in the KJss hand history from last MS session) flats CO off $80. V2 3bets SB to $40. This player is an unknown young white guy. He showed down a hand where he 3bet IP with AKo earlier. Folds to me. I call. CO now back-jams for his $80. SB rejams for $200 effective. I sigh fold.

CO has A9s. SB has KK. CO wins on QTxQA board, where obviously I would have flopped the best hand.

In game, I thought this was a close spot pre-flop. I think my hand is a little too weak to 4bet jam considering I opened UTG and live players don't 3bet enough. I chose to flat because I assumed the CO would call behind me, which gives me decent odds. The SPR will be very low but if I flop a set I should win a big pot, and I am comfortable stacking off on a low board.

For some reason, I did not think about the fact that CO would back-jam here. This is stupid though. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have seen this guy limp-jam Q9s for $75 previously. Not accounting for the fact that shortstacks will punt in their stacks here with marginal hands like 88 or AJo is a pretty big mistake.

I think folding TT to a 3bet in a live 1/2 game from UTG 100bb deep is a reasonable play. I think with the CO behind me, it's probably mandatory.

Ya id fold pre, you wil not have position if other villain calls

11/18/23 @ Mohegan Sun: +$280 in 2.5 hours

Longer than normal gap in sessions on account of me starting a new job. This job will cut into my poker time a bit, but it's definitely a net positive for me overall. Now that I'm making some more money (as well as playing/running well of late), I'm considering taking a shot at $2/$5 at some point in the near future. We'll see.

This was a short session because Mohegan Sun was hosting a college basketball tournament (my favorite sport) and comped me tickets. My table was awesome though. There were two really bad players who sat in the same seat one after another and I ran hot against both (see: below hand histories). No particularly difficult spots or great plays from me, but I do think I made a significant and illustrative mistake in this second hand.

QQ

This is my second hand played. V is an action player who is straddling whenever he can. He's in a lot of pots and other players at the table have alluded to him bluffing a lot.

V Straddles UTG. I open EP to $15. SB calls. V calls from Straddle. $200 effective.

Flop: Q44r (Pot: $45). Checks to me. I check back. I think this is a pretty standard slow play spot. If either opponent has a 4, I can stack them later. Otherwise, I'll let them catch up or give V some rope to bluff.

Turn: Q44 9ss (Pot: $45). SB check. V bets $25. I call. Sb fold. Think this is standard. If this Villain has a flush or straight draw that he's turned, I expect he will fire when he misses and I can still get big value from a 4 even on a bad river like an 8s.

River: Q44 9 5d (Pot: $95). V bets $60. I jam for $160 total. He thinks for a while and calls, saying "nice hand" as he does. Obviously I show and win. Based on his tank, I don't think he had a 4, so I'm guessing he had the case Q? Pretty lucky spot for me either way.

AsAd

V from before has busted and left the table. In his place is an older Asian guy in a mask who I think is something of a whale. He is playing almost every hand as a limp and calling most raises. He is extremely sticky and seemingly will bluff and stab a lot, though he isn't a maniac. The first hand I observed from him, he limp called with J5o OOP. He donked out four ways on JT7cc, called a small raise, and ended up stacking TT on a JT7J5 runout (lol). He started out by buying in for the max, $400, and now he has the biggest stack at the table. This hand is $375 effective which is pretty deep by my standards.

V open limps CO. BTN overlimps. I raise SB to $16. Only V calls.

Flop: Tc 6s 5s (Pot: $32). I check. V bets $25. I call.

Turn: Tc 6s 5s 3d (Pot: $80). I check. V bets $45. I call.

River: Tc 6s 5s 3d Qc (Pot: $170). I check. V bets $50. I snap call. I show right away and he shows K4ss for the bricked combo draw.

In game, my thought process here was that I would play in kind of a protective way OOP. By checking, I would give V rope to bluff. I'm deep and out of position, so I figured I would check and call down on any runout (I have the As of course). This guy will bet his draws and he will bet his marginal made hands, and he may even bet with zero equity. I was thinking that if I bet out myself, V can potentially put me in some tough spots across certain run outs.

I actually think this is a pretty big mistake though. This guy is not folding a hand like KT on this board. He's never folding Tx of spades. He's never folding a straight flush draw. Seeing the actual showdown, I was immediately pretty regretful of my play. I think I could have easily stacked K4ss on this board by checking raising flop and blasting turn. Is getting almost 200bb in with one pair on T653ss an overplay against some people? Yeah. But against this guy? I don't think it is.

I think my play here isn't horrible, and I won a nice pot. I also would have lost the minimum if Villain did turn up with a hand like T6s or 74s. But I think this was a pretty big missed opportunity to get max value in a great spot. This is an example of me being a bit of a nit and playing scared. I was already up money and was on some level probably trying to lock up my win. I don't think I can just afford to sit and wait to make the nuts against a player like this before I try to play for stacks.

You played it fine. He had one of only a couple combos that would continue vs the line you wanted to take for stacks. Most important thing with players like that is you need to get in there and be willing to stack off lighter and like you did give them lots of ropes.

Thanks Larry. It is probably just results oriented thinking on my end, seeing that he did happen to have a combo that I could have won a huge pot against. If he ended up having a set or something (or a total airball against which I won the maximum), I can't imagine I would have been critical about my play in the hand.

Continuing to sunrun at microstakes on Bovada. Just hit 15k hands at 25NL and things just continue to go incredibly smoothly. I did encounter a short losing spell to kick off this last batch of 5k hands, but then I proceeded to run far above All-in EV to make it all back and more. Beyond running well in All-ins (winning a flip or two, holding KK vs AK AIPF twice, etc) I also just keep finding myself in great spots. At the end of a breakeven session the other day, I decided to play for an extra 15 minutes at one of the four tables that I was playing at the time because two of the players were incredibly bad. I proceeded to bust both of the particularly bad players in almost back to back hands - one where I got AA in on the turn against QTs on KxxT, and one where I had KK and stacked 99 on QJxxx. Just incredibly fortunate to not only pick up hands against both of these guys before they inevitably lost their buy-ins, but to have both players have just enough of a piece of the board to go broke.

I also continue to be impressed by how bad some of the players at this stake are. To be fair, I'm sure my opponents have seen some of my plays and thought the same thing about me, but I am seeing huge punts every time I play. It can be difficult to play against sometimes, to be sure. There have been a number of hands where I've reviewed afterwards and seen my opponent's holecards, and I still can't tell if my opponent was bluffing or valuebetting.

My redline continues to be losing. When I look back at the hands I've played, I feel like I am seeing myself folding the best hand a lot in really marginal spots. I also see myself not fighting as hard for small pots as I probably should. I think playing too loose and too passive in a lot of spots continue to be my biggest leaks though.

Played my first hands of 50NL this morning. Just did an extremely short session of 2 tables, but I did book a small win on both. Going to keep taking brief shots as long as I don't get crushed. Once I've had some time to observe and get a feel for the games, I will start trying to play longer sessions and more tables. Being able to see all of my opponent's hole cards after the fact should be helpful as well in terms of getting me up to speed with how 50NL plays relatively quickly.

The biggest pot I won was when a shortstack player limp-called 22 and then called down for his 30bb stack on QTxTx (I had KK). Another shortstack had cold-called an ISO from the SB in that hand as well. Think I should be alright in this pool.

11/26/23 @ Mohegan Sun $2/$5: +$391 in 2 hours

11/26/23 @ Mohegan Sun $1/$2: + $89 in 2 hours

A somewhat momentous session today, as it was my first time playing $2/$5 at Mohegan Sun (only my second time overall, and the first time in over a year). I decided to take a shot because my confidence playing is at an all time high, and I have some extra disposable income due to a new job and binking the $1000 high hand promo earlier this month. I was also somewhat inspired by a recent Bart Hanson podcast about why winning players should be racing to get up to the $5 blind level. So my plan is to start slow: I will be buying in on the shorter side, only playing when the game is good, and playing $1/$2 whenever I'm not feeling totally comfortable. If I lose $1000 at $2/$5, I'll move back down to $1/$2 until I can get it back.

Today, I put myself on the list for both games and got called instantly for a new table of 2/5. The table was really good. There were two players I knew to be good regs, but there were several awful players. I was the shortest stack on the table (huge change from 1/2) after buying in for $500. The game was a lot more aggressive than the 1/2 games I typically play, but I'm used to facing aggression from playing online.

I lost a bunch of medium sized pots and ended up short stacked at one point (see: 77 hand history). I decided since I am only going to be taking a 2 buy-in shot, that I would not add on to allow myself to play for as long as possible before busting and moving back down. Is playing a 30bb stack at $2/$5 the best and most +EV way for me to be spending my limited time at the casino? No, it's not. But there is some comfort in playing short - I am still able to get a feel for how 2/5 plays, while risking a minimal amount of money. I think I have a pretty good idea of how to play short too, and it can be an advantage in a game with a lot of loose and aggressive players like this one.

Overall, I don't think I played particularly well at 2/5. But I did run super hot in two big spots. I ultimately left after getting called up to what seemed to be a tougher main game from the must move. I'm happy to have booked a nice win, and am looking forward to playing again soon.

AQo

UTG1 (tighter older guy, making some fishy plays) limps. UTG2 (younger Indian guy, huge fish with a very wide range) overlimps. I raise to $30 from CO. Both limpers call. $500 effective.

Flop: J56r (Pot: $90). Checks to me. I cbet for $30. UTG1 folds. UTG2 calls. This is sort of what I expected to happen. I think UTG2 floats extremely wide here with a variety of straight draws, one pair hands, and some naked overcards even. He has been raising pre-flop a bunch and doing some check-raising with big hands, so I think he is somewhat capped when he limp-calls and just calls this small bet on the flop.

Turn: J56 5 ($150). Check check. Checking seems best here.

River: J56 5 2 ($150). UTG2 snap bets $50. I call. He has 69o and wins.

I think this is an OK bluff catch. I think this guy has a lot of air in his range (even though 34, 23 and 24 improve) and this small sizing doesn't exactly scream strength. Seeing Villain's hand seemingly confirms this. He probably has all combos of 78o, 89o, 79o, 74s, and even more random garbage in his range on the river. I'm actually somewhat surprised Villain bet a 6 here, but good for him.

7s7h

Tight player limps EP. I raise to $25. V (solid seeming middle aged Eastern European guy) calls CO. Rest fold. $400 effective.

Flop: Q93sss ($55). I check. V checks his hand and bets $40. I call. I think maybe I should just be folding to this large sizing.

Turn: Q93sss 4c ($135). Check check. I don't think V has a flush now.

River: Q93sss 4c Ts ($135). I check. V bets $65. Kind of a weird spot now. How much offsuit stuff is in Villain's range? Does he bet the As for this sizing? Does he check the turn with it? Is he value betting a hand like JsTx? He probably should, but I think a lot of players check back with a hand like that here.

I ended up calling and V had KsTx which makes sense, even though it's pretty loose pre-flop. This hand might be a total punt on my end. Was frustrated with myself afterwards.

77

I am UTG with $150. At this point the game is a lot of action. I think limp-jamming is a really viable option off this stack size and with a hand like this. So I limp. V1 in UTG1 (extremely loose and fishy MAWG) over-limps. V2 in LJ (5/T reg who I've played with before) raises to $30. BTN calls $30.

I jam for $150. V1 tanks and then calls $150. V2 then 4bets to $450. Folds to V1 who tanks again and then calls. As the chips are collected he mumbles aloud "whose pair is bigger"

Flop: 732r ($480 main pot). V1 checks. V2 jams for $550. V1 tanks again and then calls. I am loving life.

I table my hand right away. The runout is very clean. V2 tables 55. V1 slams the table in disgust and flips up 44 lol. For the rest of his short session he is as visibly tilted as I've ever seen someone at the poker table.

A3dd

V (new player, seems like a decent reg) opens to $15. I call from HJ off $425. The rest of the table folds. I think all options are on the table with my hand. I don't really like 3bet though because I want to invite the fish behind me into the pot, and my hand plays well multiway. I would probably fold here to a bigger open size and if there were tougher players behind me.

Flop: 5s7d6d (Pot: $30). V checks. I bet $25. V calls. Great flop for my hand and range. This bet might be kind of big.

Turn: 5s7d6d 4d (Pot: $80). V checks. I bet $75. V thinks and calls. Again, this bet might be too big.

River: 5s7d6d 4d 6h ($230). V checks. I jam for ~$310. He tanks for a while and calls and obviously I win. Didn't love the river at first, but I don't know how many boats V has here. I thought about betting smaller, but I'm glad I decided to jam after getting called.

--

After I finished at 2/5, I went to play 1/2 for a couple hours. My session there was extremely smooth. My table was good and I played pretty tight but had enough good hands for a solid profit. I did miss out on some value playing passively in a river spot which was annoying, but I don't think the hand history is worth posting here.

I think this is a very good strategy for when moving up in steaks. You can always change that strategy in the future after you get your feet wet / things go well / you gain more confidence at the new steaks / you begin to feel you have more of advantage deep than you do short.

Gniceplan,imo,gogogo!G

Quick update to this thread.

At Live Poker, my $2/$5 shot continues to go pretty well. I've now played 3 short sessions and have won all 3. I'm definitely running pretty well, but I've also felt like I had a solid edge at each of the tables I've played at. I still don't feel totally comfortable playing for this much money though, given my relatively limited bankroll. I played yesterday and doubled up my first hand, rivering quads with KK in a 3bet pot against the nut flush of A3dd on Kd8d5s6dKc. Afterwards, I felt like the fact that I was playing 200bb deep in a bigger game was really affecting my decision making.

I made a thread in the strategy subforum about a big pot I played last week that I continue to think about. I won't spoil the hand, but the result was completely baffling. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...t-pot-1829476/

As far as Online Poker goes, I'm up small at 50NL after about 4k hands. For the last few days though I feel that I've been playing awful - some of the worst poker I've played in months. Just feel like I'm totally out of control and I've lost a couple full buy-ins in spots where I was clearly tilting. Probably due to take a break from playing online, and I might even move back down to 25NL until I feel like I'm playing better.

Overall, I'm happy to be winning. I'm glad I'm keeping a level head about stuff and continuing to be pretty conservative. I do think I need to get back into a better studying routine though, as I think I've lost my way a bit with that.

Lol, I hear this! I think this is one of the biggest disadvantages of shortstacking in that it makes us even more unfamiliar / uncomfortable when/if we eventually become deepstack. I can easily sit on my topped up BI of 66bbs for hours on end, and when that double up eventually comes it will often be near my go home time, so no worries. But I'm actually legit almost disappointed if I double up in my first orbit because now I know the rest of the day isn't going to be nearly as easy for me, lol.

GcluelessdeepstackednoobG

This is a really inspiring graph. Nicely done!

Thanks! I am pretty clearly sunrunning over this sample, but it's definitely a nice reminder that if you play reasonably well in a soft player pool you will inevitably have some extended stretches where you are really successful. Hoping I can keep it up!

My first 5k hands at 50NL. As I mentioned above, I had a pretty rough stretch recently where I played awful and tilted off several buy-ins. Pretty frustrating, but I think I've bounced back and I'm happy with how I've played the last few days. My last session ended on a pretty big cooler (set under set 150bb deep) but still happy to be up 2 buy-ins over this first sample.

I hope that I am able to continue at 50NL, but if I have a few more losing sessions I will likely move down. This may be overly optimistic but I do think there are enough bad players at this stake for me to win overall. But on the whole, the players are clearly better than at 25NL.

^ snap won 4 buy-ins at 50NL tonight for my biggest winning online session ever. Long session against some very bad players. I should play on Friday nights more often!

Interesting thread and glad you have climbed out of the hole, at least a bit.

Just wanted to let you know that I do one free coaching session. I am a live low stakes pro based in London, so if you are interested have a look at this short video and get in touch.

Either way, all the best and good luck at the tables!

https://youtu.be/wTP2YwmG6kE

Nothing like posting on 2+2 for profit

Won another 2.5 buy-ins tonight. Couple really nice sessions in a row for me.

I played 4 hours of $2/$5 (-$285) on Sunday and 1 hour of $1/$2 (+$65). I left what was a really good 1/2 table to go to a very reggy 2/5 table which is not a mistake I want to make very often in the future. I played a couple big pots at 2/5 that I was going to type up hand histories for, but I decided against it at the last minute for various reasons. I lost my biggest pot ever though, where I cold 4bet AA and ran into QQ on Q45Kx but I managed to avoid getting stacked which I think is a win.

Hoping to play a few more sessions before the end of the year but I am gonna be busy so we'll see. I'm really looking forward to typing up a year-end re-cap of my gambling journey in 2023 and maybe setting some goals for 2024.

Also want to note that I am not really looking to hire a coach at this point. Artigian is not the first person to reach out to me based on this thread. I know I need to improve, but I'm enjoying figuring it out myself for now and I don't have a ton of money to spend anyway.

Unless you're planning on becoming a professional player / booking professional type hours, then spending money on hiring a coach is very meh, imo. Most slightly losing / breakevenish players can move towards ~ok winning players on their own, imo.

Ggoodluck!G

Maybe for live players.

But for online players this isn't true. Unless you are very strong technically, the amount of material you need to understand/have access too to beat reasonable stakes online is usually too much for one person to acquire by themselves.

Both your and GG's takes make sense to me. I will say that I don't think I have any ambitions to play higher than 50NL for now, for a variety of reasons. If I continue to win at 50NL, I may even withdraw some money from Bovada to bolster my live bankroll. I don't know if this is unreasonable on my end, but I don't really feel super comfortable having a large amount of money (low four figures right now) stored on an offshore online poker site. I know that plenty of people do it though, so maybe it's nothing to worry about.

The only way that I see myself trying to play higher stakes online is if legalized online poker sites begin servicing CT. For those that don't know, online poker is technically legal here but the state is so small and the redtape with MS/FW is so thick that my understanding is that it isn't currently worth it for any sites to set up shop here. If/when that does happen though, I will probably look to get some coaching and maybe even a staking deal, as I would imagine the games will be incredibly good for a while.

Ignition - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: $72.49
CO: $47.14
BTN: $61.14
SB: $56.21
Hero (BB): $49.25

SB posts SB $0.25, Hero posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) CO has A 4

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.75) Hero has J K

fold, CO raises to $1.25, fold, fold, Hero calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.75, 2 players) K 9 9
Hero checks, CO bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.75, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, CO bets $8.00, Hero calls $8.00

River: ($21.75, 2 players) T
Hero checks, CO bets $14.00, fold,

Frustrating hand history that I'm glad I looked up in GTO Wizard. At this point in the session, I was already aware that V in this hand was pretty out of line and aggressive. GTO Wizard mostly folds turn to an overbet with the Js and then basically always calls river facing a pot-sized bet if it makes it to the river with KxJs. That means by folding here to a size smaller than pot, I am over-folding in a spot where my opponent is clearly over-bluffing. This guy kind of owned me in a couple other spots too. I try not to let gameflow rivalry type dynamics affect my play but they definitely do.

I guess I will credit my opponent here for finding a bluff on a river where it is pretty hard for the average opponent to have many natural bluffs. Calling turn here when I block a lot of Villain's semi-bluffs and then failing to hero call river is pretty emblematic of the loose/passive tendencies that I am trying to drill out of my game.

12/19/23 @ MGM Springfield: +$58 in 5 hours ($1/$2)

Got a rare weeknight session in at my second most frequented room. I think I need to be putting more hours in at this game. The action is better than at Mohegan Sun and this game acts as kind of a midway pointed between MS 1/2 and MS 2/5, because the game is $500 max and straddling is possible from all positions. So the game plays a lot bigger than the MS 1/2 games but not quite as big as MS 2/5 (and often with significantly worse players).

My table was very good. There were a few nitty older guys and at least 1 good young reg, but there were also several players who were super loose action. Almost every hand was straddled, and I joined in a couple times (especially when the guy to my right, who was awful, was complaining about a lull in the action).

Unfortunately I couldn't find very many spots to get involved. I had some premium hands, but not against the right players, so I didn't get a ton of action. I made 1 pretty foolish hero call against one of the action players as well which set me back a bit. I did manage to book a win thanks to two absolute gift hands, detailed below.

AQo

BTN (fish) straddles to $5. I am in SB. Kind of on the fence about whether to limp raise or open here. I raise to $20 and it folds to a late 30's white guy who jams for about $80. Folds back to me and obviously I call. Villain says "I need to go home anyway." The board runs out 62246. I show and say "Ace high." Villain looks at his cards, thinks for a bit, and says "Ace Queen? Nice hand, I almost made a straight" and mucks. Before he mucks someone says "chop?" but Villain doesn't react.

After his cards are in the muck, another player at the table says that if Villain had an Ace, it should have been a chopped pot. Villain says he did he have an Ace (A5, I guess) and then looks to me. I just keep stacking chips and he leaves. If he had shown his hand before mucking, I would have given him his money back, but I don't think there is anything I can do given the fact that his hand is not retrievable and no one saw it. He didn't protest anyway, and genuinely seemed like he had to leave.

A3o

A little while later a new player sits at our table. He is a 20 something Spanish guy who looks like he is going to go to a club afterwards and he has a girl with him. He buys in for $100. The first hand dealt, he opens T4o to $10. He is called in one spot and checks down, with the opponent winning with K high. I feel like I know what this guy is up to already (playing poker like it's a table game or Bingo or whatever), so I make a mental note that I will gamble with this guy at the earliest opportunity.

Literally the next hand (Villain's second hand dealt), I pick up A3o on the BTN. UTG limps. Villain raises to $15. It folds to me and I 3bet to $50. Folds back to V who calls, leaving himself $35 behind. The flop is AK2r. He checks. I bet $25. He calls. Turn Tss. He checks. I put him all in for $15. He snap calls and turns over Q8o. The river is a brick and I win. He leaves the table and exits the poker room after two hands.

This is a goofy hand but I actually felt really good about it. I'm glad I was able to recognize this player type. I'm glad I was paying attention to his first showdown. And I'm glad I had the conviction to act on my read right away, given there is no guarantee I would get a second chance against this guy. I also think I played this correctly - it's tempting to just call pre-flop to reduce variance, but I like raising to isolate even though I am committed on every flop. I also like 3betting to this smaller size pre-flop (rather than going to $90 or jamming myself), given I am not closing the action and there are several deeper stacks behind me.

--

Weird session, but I'm happy with the win. I played from 5:30pm to 10:30pm which is the latest I've played live poker in a while. Would like to play some late night sessions soon, but it's hard since I have a toddler at home. I actually felt very tired at the end of this session, which is really unfortunate and makes me feel super old.

KITN to anyone who questions "chop?" before hands have been tabled/mucked yet, as it clearly violates OPTAH. If you're gonna reap the benefits of not showing your hand then you have to suffer the consequences too, especially if you've mucked to not be able to be retrieved. So I have zero issues with taking all the chips.

And good job on realizing when you're up against a special player and acting accordingly. Last session out a guy that was playing poorly but semi-sanely for a couple of hours then went into full blown tilt mode and was attempting to dust off chips as fast as possible, but I didn't recognize it until a hand too late (I overlimp ATo, he raises to $25 out to the blinds with just $100 or so, I make a nitty fold assuming I'm dominated, only to eventually see him show down T9o, so obviously I switched gears at that point but boo on me).

GcluelesspayingattentionnoobG