I played a 5 hour session on Sunday where I won $15 (lol) in two hours at $2/5 and $300 in three hours at $1/$2. I felt really bad afterwards because I made a big mistake in a 400bb pot at $1/$2 where I bet/called a fish's big turn raise with 1 pair in a SRP (AKo on AQ3Jdd). He ended up having a huge combo draw (T9dd) that missed on the river and I won a huge pot, but afterwards I realized that it was a spot where I would almost never expect a loose passive player to bluff. I thought this guy was capable of overplaying a worse top pair which is why I called, but I think in hindsight that not folding to the raise is a big losing play, even if Villain occasionally has a bluff.

Going to play again today. I definitely did not play anywhere close to my A game on Sunday, so I'm hoping that I can get there today.

2/28/24 @ Mohegan Sun: +$207

I don't feel like I played particularly well today and neither of the tables ($1/$2 for 2 hours; $2/$5 for 3 hours) were particularly good. I lost a lot of small pots, but I won two really big ones which allowed me to book a win. Here are the hand histories.

JJ

$1/$2. Loose Passive old guy opens $12 from EP. I had not seen this player open raise yet which was concerning to me. It's also a big size. I just call from CO. HU.

Flop: 9c7s3h (Pot: $24). He bets $18. I call.

Turn: 9c7s3h 4h (Pot: $60). He bets $35. I call.

River: 9c7s3h 4h Jh (Pot: $130). He bets $25. I raise to $125. He tank calls and I am good vs KK no heart.

I don't think I can do anything different on flop or turn, although I didn't feel like I was very likely to be ahead on the turn. My plan was to fold if Villain bet big on a blank river. On the Jh, once he bets $25 I think he never has a flush (and he never has a straight from pre-flop). I thought about raising small to $75 since I need him to call 1 pair. Then, I thought about the size of the pot relative to the size of the bet, which made me want to size up. I also don't think this is a spot I would ever want to bluff raise, because I think he always has a big overpair and fishy old guys hate folding overpairs. So if he's unlikely to fold, I figured I should size up. My image was also pretty bad a this point since I had been losing.

There is probably an argument to be made about 3bet/folding here pre-flop.

QcQh

I open UTG $20. BB (40s WG, one of the more action players at the table) calls and says "I'll give you some action"

Flop: Tc8c5h ($40). BB check. I $15. BB raise $40. I call.

Turn: Tc8c5h Qs ($120). BB $75. I raise $200. BB call.

River: Tc9c5h Qs Jc ($520). BB quickly donks $125 (I have about $250 left) and I call right away. He says "two pair" so I show and win. Guessing he had JT or T8.

I think I played this hand well. I did not consider folding to the small flop raise, especially with the backdoor draws. I think he can raise draws and worse value easily. I don't think 3betting makes sense. I'm happy I raised on turn since there are so many bad rivers. It sucks that I got the worst river card in the deck. I don't think I can jam river even though it's just a minraise. I also don't think folding is an option against this tiny sizing even though the board sucks for top set.

--

So yeah, it's nice to make top set on later streets! Would recommend. After my session, I also played some video poker to get a free beer at the sports book and I won $50! Should be playing again on Sunday so expect another update here soon.

3/3/24 @ Mohegan Sun: +$319

My upswing to start the year continues! I had a solid win at $2/$5 (see: hand history below) and a small loss at $1/$2. I ended up leaving a pretty good 2/5 table early which I didn't feel great about. I know that the feeling of winning a big pot and then slowly losing it back to become up-stuck can be tilting for me, so I just booked a win. At some point I am going to have to overcome these sorts of mental game leaks.

At my $2/$5 table, I saw two guys shovel over 200bb each into the pot with Q9o and QTs on Q545 in a three way 3bet pot. Q9o opened pre, QTs called BTN, SB (JJ) 3bets to $150, both guys call. On the flop, JJ bets $150 both guys call. On the turn, JJ checks Q9o bets $225, QTs jams $900, JJ tank folds, Q9o snap calls. After the hand, Q9o guy said "Yeah, I'm not folding for only $1000." Obviously this is the exact sort of player that I want to be playing against. It is a little intimidating though, because $1000 actually means quite a bit to me, as it's a pretty big chunk of my bankroll still.

I also had an exchange with my neighbor at the table that I found amusing. We were both graduates of UConn and were talking about the Men's Basketball team's dominant win earlier in the day. He asked me how many times both the Men's team and the Women's team had won the National Championship during the same year. I answered that it was twice, in 2004 and 2014. I'm something of a UConn super fan and I know all sorts of useless trivia. But he didn't believe me! He kept arguing, saying he knew it had happened 3 or 4 times. He also said he was pretty sure another team had accomplished this same feat, while I assured him that this was not the case. At some point I just gave up. Again, I think this is the exact sort of player I want to play against. This guy was so sure that he was right but had no interest in looking up the answer. He also could not recognize that he was talking to someone who is more or less an expert on the subject. I think there are some obvious parallels to being a fish at poker here.

Anyway here's three hand histories.

KQo

$1/$2. Whale limps EP. MP over limp. I raise KQo to $20 in SB. Only whale calls. $400 effective.

Flop: KdQh5d (Pot: $40). I lead $35. Whale calls.

Turn: KdQh5d 8s (Pot: $110). I $100. Whale folds.

I played several medium sized pots against this same player, including 3 with KQo. He was extremely loose and relatively sticky. After he folded turn in this hand, I questioned whether I had gone too big. I don't think I did though. I was trying to set up a reasonable sized river shove. While I do think it's possible this player might fold a weak King to this sizing, he has tons of hands that will continue (random two pair, combo draws, nut flush draw). I also don't know that this player type is so quick to fold a hand like KJo that he limp calls.

33

$1/$2. UTG limp. UTG1 (new player, younger guy) raises to $12. Three players call. I call in BB? UTG calls. Weird spot pre-flop but I think this is OK.

Flop: 7c4h3h ($60). Checks to PFR who bets $40. Folds to me. I raise to $120, leaving about $150 back for both myself and the PFR. Folds to PFR who tank folds.

I thought about leading flop here, but with so many players behind me I figured it was pretty likely that I would see a bet and/or some calls. I think the PFR may have folded an overpair though, which feels kind of bad. Maybe I can checkraise smaller given the SPR? Check/call is probably good too. I do think it is extremely easy for me to find bluffs here though. I have to remember to check-raise in this spot with draws in the future. It definitely looks strong.

AsAc

$2/$5. UTG limps. I ISO $25. CO calls $25. BTN calls $25. Limper calls $25. I have $450 and everyone covers.

Flop: KcQs7h ($100). Limper check. I check? CO checks. BTN bets $50. Limper calls $50. I raise $150. BTN thinks and asks to see my chips before folding. Limper calls $150.

Turn: KcQs7h Js ($450). Limper donk shoves for my remaining $275. I call right away. River is a 7. He hesitates so I show and he mucks.

I'm not sure about my play on the flop here. If UTG had not called, I would not have check-raised. Once he calls, I figure I can make things easy on myself and try to get the money in on the flop since I am never folding my hand at this SPR. The checkraise does look strong, but I assume fishy players will stack off here with worse (looking at the Q9o hand from earlier in this post for confirmation) for less than 100bb. If I get folds from JT, I'm not super worried about that. Even QJ has solid equity against my hand.

On the turn, I don't think there is any option, given I have an overpair and a gutshot and the bet is for halfpot. I have really good equity against a hand like QJ and Villain may play this way with a combo draw like K5ss or even just KTo that turns open-ended. Obviously the river was fantastic for my hand, but I'm not sure I needed it.

--

I don't think I'll be playing during the week this week, but I'm looking forward to returning to the casino over the weekend. I've also been enjoying playing 10NL on Global Poker recently, although I have only played about 1500 hands total on that site.

3/10/24 @ Mohegan Sun: +$265

Another win for me. Just feels so good to be winning this consistently. I know it is mostly positive variance, but it also feels like a lot of the work and time and thought I've put into poker is paying off. I feel locked in at the table and like I am playing my best. I feel super comfortable and confident (especially at $1/$2). And I'm having fun! Good combination.

When I got to the casino, there was one game of $2/$5 running short-handed. The game was 5-handed when I sat down and three of the five players were legitimately awful. I had planned on playing $1/$2 to start but of course I joined this table. I got off to a hot start but ended up losing a couple big pots. Then, the two biggest fish left at the same time and several mediocre-to-good regs replaced them. Eventually, I left 2/5 down $230. I think it was a good decision to leave. The table wasn't great, I was feeling a little tilted, and I saw a lot of good 1/2 tables scattered throughout the room.

I ended up getting seated at one of those good 1/2 tables. My first hand dealt at 1/2, I coolered a fish and was instantly unstuck for the session. From there, I ran like God for 2 more hours. Barely lost a single pot of consequence and ended up +$500 in 2.5 hours at 1/2. My seat was awesome. To my direct left was a young Asian LAG and to his left were two extremely loose passive VIP types. The LP VIPS were limping almost 100% of hands and the LAG kept ISOing to random small sizes ($6, $7, $10, $11, $12). It set me up for several nice squeezes, or just to play in position against a bunch of weak players.

Here are a few hand histories. Nothing particularly interesting. Last week I made a thread in the live strategy subforum about a hand that has been bothering me for a while. I got some good feedback I thought. I didn't post the hand previously because it was kind of embarrassing to me, but I saw some discourse on Twitter about how you can't get better at poker unless you are willing to share your punts, which makes sense to me.

--

AKo

$2/$5. I open to $20 UTG and get called in 5 spots (!!). It's a good game.

Flop: AdKh2c (Pot: $120). Flop checks around. I am trying to check 100% of hands OOP multiway but maybe I should be betting on this exact board? Still it's six ways!!

Turn: AdKh2c 5h ($120). SB (MAWG, big fish) leads out $50. Folds to me. I call. All others fold.

River: AdKh2c 5h 8h ($220). SB leads out $100. I snap. He has AThh for the nuts.

I would have raised any non-heart river. Maybe I should raise the turn? Maybe I should bet the flop? I did lose the stone minimum against this particular hand (which is a benefit of checking flop) but I don't actually know that I played this hand particularly well.

AcQc

$2/$5. Two fish limp. I raise to $30 in CO. Both call.

Flop: Js8c3s ($90). Both check. I $35. Fold. MAWG white woman calls. $500 eff.

Turn: Js8c3s 7c ($160). Check. I check? It's a weird spot because I've picked up the NFD but I really don't want to bet and get jammed on at this stack depth. Maybe I should be checking flop if I'm not going to barrel this turn? I think I have a little showdown value too. Checking back here has got to be a fine play. Betting might be better though.

River: Js8c3s 7s Th ($160). She snap leads $85. The snap lead on a card that dramatically changes the board texture is always super suspicious to me. I had seen this player do a lot of betting previously, including with hands that didn't make sense as a bluff or a value bet (like she was just betting to bet, not for any purpose). For this reason, I thought about jamming river. I ended up folding. I regret not finding a way to win this hand, but I think I played it OK.

33

$1/$2. UTG+1 (reg, had been with me at 2/5) opens $12. Three unknowns call. I call in BB. Think pre-flop is borderline against the big open, but I am getting decent odds. Also I didn't drive an hour to the casino to fold a pocket pair in the big blind!! lol

Flop: J63r (Pot: $60). I check. UTG1 checks. Unknown bets $25. Young Asian calls $25. Random folds. I call. UTG1 fold. Good spot to slowplay I think.

Turn: J63 9ss (Pot: $135). I check. Unknown bets $75 with $100 back. Young Asian tank folds. I jam. Unknown snap calls J9o and I hold.

Cooler for Villain, even though his play pre-flop and on the flop is obviously bad. I played this hand fine but this is a pretty hard one to screw up.

--

Had a couple small interesting spots I thought about sharing but typing up hand histories isn't super fun and this thread is pretty quiet anyway. I still like making these posts though and I do think I get something out of it.

3/13/24 @ Mohegan Sun: -$628

Disaster $1/$2 session to end my winning streak. I played really poorly today. I was actually up $400 after 1 hour of play thanks to running great at a good table. I could tell I wasn't playing my best though, and I actually misclicked in a spot where I had a set of Aces and my opponent had a set of Fours. It was a weird spot but my opponent ended up saving their last $75 because I tried to raise and accidentally just called.

After that, I ran Kings into Aces AIPF in an automatic spot. That triggered the doom switch and I proceeded to lose every big hand I played (TP vs boat, TP vs flush in 3BP, TPTK vs turned straight). At least one of those hands was a pretty egregious punt on my end.

I finished the night off with this one:

HJ limp. CO raise $12. BTN call $12. I 3bet BB $60 with AA. CO call. BTN call.

Flop: K93r ($180). I bet $60. CO jam $400. BTN fold. I call.

Turn 3 River K. I lose to AKo.

I think this is the biggest $1/$2 pot I've ever lost. It's also probably in the Top 10 biggest pots I've ever lost in terms of BB.

It's a really bad beat but the reality is I was not playing well prior to this hand. I did play for a little while after. I made a couple good plays (including 3bet/folding QQ against the KK of my opponent) but couldn't get anything going.

I'm glad I didn't play any $2/$5 on this day. I did not feel any temptation to chase my loses at the higher stake which is good. I will be playing again this weekend and hopefully I can turn things back around.

Haven't posted in a couple weeks but things have been going pretty well for me recently. I think the session covered in my last post (where I went from +$400 on the session to -$650 at 1/2) kind of soured me on poker for a while. I have still been playing, but was no longer feeling as enamored/obsessed with the game. I think this is pretty normal after a miserable session, and it makes me glad that I am not a professional player. Have to give credit to the people who are able to weather swings far more brutal than mine day after day while playing for their livelihood.

I have a relatively busy and fulfilling life outside of poker and a few of my other hobbies (playing rock music; playing/watching basketball [go Huskies!!]) have been picking up. So it was nice to shift my focus a bit.

On Saturday, I had a big winning session (+$570 at 1/2; +$230 at 2/5) and had a good time playing with my brother, who also booked a nice win. Unsurprisingly, the positive variance has me feeling recharged. Looking forward to playing again soon. In the meantime, I will try and get back to studying, posting hand histories ITT, and contributing to the live strategy subforum on a semi-regular basis.

I guess I am on an extended break from updating this thread. I've played 3 sessions since my last post and am roughly breakeven (1 moderate loss, two small wins). My volume has dropped significantly this month, mostly because I have been busy and because it's starting to warm up outside. But also because I had been feeling less interested in poker in general (see my last post).

I am starting to feel more motivated though, partly because I've been playing online again. I discovered a new site to play online poker on which is insanely soft. I started on the site with $25 of free play which I've since run up to over $500 without depositing a single dollar. I've been really aggressive with shot-taking higher stakes because of how good the games are. At some point I imagine they will get worse, but for now the 50NL games I've been playing in feel softer than 5NL on Bovada or 1/2 live. It's also possible that I am just running really hot with regards to which players I am sitting with, but I don't think that's the case.

I will be playing live again this weekend which I am really looking forward to. I have also been enamored with the idea of branching into other avenues of advantage play which has been really exciting to me. Part of the reason I ended up on this new online poker site is that I have been seeking out online casinos which offer exploitable deposit bonuses. I've done really well with this in the past and have had some good luck this year as well. I also made $5 advantage playing a slot machine at Mohegan Sun last weekend which was the most excited I've ever been about winning $5 lol.

I have been playing a lot more poker lately. I played live twice last week (+ $750 in 7 hours of 1/2 and 2.5 hours of 2/5) and have been playing a ton online. I think this is the most volume over the shortest amount of time that I've ever put in online. I don't know that it's possible for me to track my hands on this site but I've been playing for a couple hours every day basically. The games are seemingly always good and I've been feeling obligated to play at times I don't normally play online poker as a result.

For a while, I was doing incredibly well playing 50NL on this new site. I was up about $1200 before I hit a rough patch. I've since lost about 5 buy-ins, but it feels a lot worse than that because I feel like I've been playing really badly in a bunch of big spots. In addition to losing flips, it feels like I keep getting the money in bad. Part of my problem is I have seen so much insane **** on this site (just the other day a guy cold-called my 100bb 3bet jam with JTs) that I am no longer giving credit to anyone for actually having a good hand, even when passive players take incredibly strong lines against me. Need to re-set and figure out how to find the fold button again.

I also think that I need to stop myself from playing when I'm tilted. This has been an issue in the past that I've struggled with. I have been finding myself trying to fight through tilt because the games I'm playing in are incredibly good and, even though I have made some huge comebacks, the result is often that I just end up making poor decisions in really high variance spots.

I think I will try to study more this week and maybe get back to posting hand histories ITT and in the strategy subforum. The reality is I should probably cut down a bit on my online play and try to be more focused and intentional. I am playing live again on Thursday which I'm looking forward to.