I See Nit People

I get it. Not everyone is social. Neither am I, at least not all of the time. But I do know how to keep up a conversation if needed. At the poker table, I at least tend to talk a bit of general stuff with people around me, just to make the time pass quicker as poker forces one to fold quite a lot. But what do a lot of so-called "regs" or "pros" do?

Earphones in.
Movie/YT on.

And so on. Not only do they sit there as mute folding machines, they oftentimes delay the game as well (since they are too busy watching their ****ing movie to notice that it is their turn to fold), and often tank over trivial decisions. I mean, when you are playing a 100 EUR stack, after having called a preflop raise, why the **** do you need to tank for a minute before check-raising the bettors 8 EUR cbet to 22 EUR? And why, oh why, do you need to spend another four minutes contemplating after getting shoved on? I mean, you need to be borderline ******ed for needing that long to figure out whether to call or fold in a trivial cashgame spot like this.

(Now if a new player or a casual player or whatever needs the time, then fine, but if your nit ass is occupying a chair almost every ****ing weekend that I visit, why the **** do you need four ****ing minutes to call or fold?)

Last time I was playing NLT I was seriously contemplating my life choices with regards to poker. I am gambling on some of the new nights off that I have and while I don´t consider myself a total fish, I am far from a pro as well (although nit lineups suit my style well since the nits aren´t able to adjust), I am a ****ing rec player splashing my hard-earned money around.

And if the game is boring it makes me think, maybe I should just hit the pits instead? I mean, playing roulette is always fun. Noone at the roulette table is a mute with headphones. Right? And why bother at all? Maybe I should just find a new hobby? And get rid of the gambling bug forever? I mean, I was fine without poker for like 10 years, if the games are boring, why even bother?

There are aspects of poker that I find fun, but I have lately found myself being quite bored at the tables and the reason is not that I am burned out or something like that - I am bored out!

And poker for a rec player isn´t supposed to be boring. Not that the nits care.

Just so I have somewhere to keep these stats as well:
Sportsbetting 9 Feb: +20 EUR (23 bets placed, 13W / 10L)

Just For Some Accountability

So, after not playing poker for quite a while, I´m back in the rec splashing streets again. Basically it started on a work trip, when I asked some poker friends from back in the days if there was some nice place to play where I often travel for work and meeting childhood friends, so I got introduced to a nice poker club. The first trip I lost 500 EUR in two sessions, the second trip I went there on a Thursday evening and there was only one game running - 5/10 PLO with most hands being 5/10/20. I had 1000 EUR with me, which was the minimum buy-in, so I sat down. Doubled up quite soon, won a few pots and got massively lucky in PLO5 when I got it in with AKJTx on a QJT flop and made a full house on both boards against AKxxx with double backdoor flush draws. Was up something around 8000, quit when I was up 5000. My best session ever.

Back home I´ve started going to the local casino when family and work allows it, which has allowed me to squeeze in three or four sessions in the last five weeks. I think it´s four, but I´m not quite sure. Financially I´ve been doing great, being up a total of 1400 EUR in these sessions. The downside is that the local casino basically only spreads NLT, which isn´t my favourite game, but I think I´m starting to get the hang of it. At least to some extent.

Went there this evening for a short session (I´m living in our summer house, but I´m in town every Monday-Tuesday for work, so I usually play on Mondays, but today I had a chance to go there on a Sunday evening as well), had told myself I need to be home at 11 PM to get a good night´s sleep. Made it home at 11:30.

When I got there, the table had just agreed to play 2/4 instead of 1/3, something that I don´t mind at all. Bought in for 500.

No really interesting hands, but anyway, here are the big pots I played:
1) I raise QQ in MP to 20 after a limp, get re-raised by the limper (unknown whom I had seen limp basically every hand, sample size - a massive three or four hands) to 40. He has a tad under 300, I´m not folding queens, and I just decide to rip it in and get snap-called. Oh well, sucks to run in to a big pair that early in the session. The runout is 4-4-2-2-4, I table my queens and he shows AJo. Nice.

2) I am embarrased by this hand and it actually put me in a somewhat tilted mindset. I open 99 in LP to 20 after a limp or two, button (a tight player) makes it 80. I call. Flop is J74r. I check, he bets something like 50, I call. Turn is an eight, I check and he checks behind. River is a blank, a deuce if I recall correctly. I check, he bets 125, I consider turning my nines into a bluff and pushing (he has around 500 behind, I cover), then I consider mucking my hand, and then I opt for the nut worse option of calling and get shown QQ. He later said he´d have folded to a push, but who knows. Maybe he´d have hero-called me. What tilted me the most is that I am pretty sure this player doesn´t show up with AK or AQ here basically ever, which are the only hands I beat.

3) Against the Villain of Hand 1. Not sure about the sizings, but I raised with AQo in MP, flop was Qx5. Check-bet-call. Turn irrelevant, he checks, I put him all-in for his last 100 or so, he snaps me off, river is a five and I lose to K5. I smile and tap the table. After this hand I add on for 200 more, so in for 700 total

4) The straddle is on, I complete with 42o in the SB after a number of limpers, we go something like 6-handed to the flop. Flop is 844 with two spades, I bet 15, a player in LP raises to 40. I call. Turn is the deuce of diamonds, I check, he bets 80, I want him to think I am considering a call but all I am thinking about is Vegas and the ****ing Mirage, I check-raise all-in for his remaining 200-something and he tank-calls with 98o with one spade. Once in a blue moon he turns up with 88 here, but whatever, then the man deserves to get paid. I fade the two remaining eights and win a nice pot.

5) I am about to leave when I pick up KQs in the straddle. Someone opens, I three-bet to 80, get called by Villain of Hands 1 and 3, flop is a beautiful Kxx rainbow. I downbet to something like 50, he raises to 200 with 150 behind and I go all-in, he snap-calls with A9o (ie no pair, no draw) and I fade the three aces and runner-runner draws to drag a nice pot. Since I don´t really like leaving directly after stacking a player I stick around for another orbit before I cash out for 1070 total for a profit of 370.

All in all a nice and short session, however, I need to be fresh for work tomorrow and I´m planning on playing on Monday so I called it a quits early, although the game was decent enough to warrant staying. But I´m approaching 40 and after two nights of little sleep, my brain doesn´t really work that well - and I know I´ll probably be playing late on Monday, so going home early today was definately the right choice.

About Goals and Casino Games

Before I went to bed yesterday, I re-read this thread from start to finish. I have to say that I was surprised at how much degening I was up to on slots, casino games and sportsbetting. In my memory I threw down the occasional sportsbet or put twenty EUR in the slot machines to wind down, however, from reading the thread I understand that I was playing way bigger and way more than I recall.

Funny how the memory works. It´s a good reminder for me not to get carried away with the degening on the casino games - until now I´ve dropped maybe a 20 or a 50 on the roulette or the slots now and again, but I guess I should cut this down as well. When I re-read the thread I clearly remembered the times that I was tilted and kept playing, when 50 EUR became 500 EUR etc. It´s not worth it and if I can´t keep my casino gambling to something like 20 EUR/visit (which IMHO is OK for some wheel-spinning fun) I have to stop it altogether.

With regards to poker goals, I don´t think I really have any. Well, I do have one, and that is to not lose more than 5000 EUR this year, so I can show a solid profit. But hey, that shouldn´t happen, right? Oh, it totally can, I play a high-variance style, so dropping something like 1000-1500 if I have a bad session wouldn´t be anything extraordinary. When I play I want to have fun and somehow my idea of fun isn´t folding for a couple of hours. With that said, in my last sessions I´ve reduced my splashing around quite a bit and stopped playing trash from EP. I´ve also made a note of one or two regs who are willing to three-bet me lighter due to me opening a lot of pots, so I am more careful with raising marginal hands also in LP if I have one of these players still left to act.

I think I have also identified a couple of aspects where I need to improve my play, or at least be watchful of. The first one is calling on the river - I still have a tendency to hero call too often and check-raise bluff too seldom. I am quite sure that the better regs already have taken note that I have shown exactly one big check-raise bluff on the river (did not get through, punted straight into a set) and quite a few value hands. Against these players I need to start check-raise bluffing slightly more (for example, like in the spot in Hand 2 from yesterday). But if I don´t bluff, I need to fold more rivers. As I am writing these lines, I am telling myself, just do it! Fold more ****ing rivers tonight!

I think I also need to have slightly more bluffs on later streets - however, maybe it is not yet time for that. After my first spewy session (I hadn´t played for months, I hadn´t played more than a few hands of NLT for years, and I wanted to PLAY) I had trouble getting bluffs through, so basically I adjusted and greatly reduced by turn and river bluff frequencies. Which has turned out well, however, it has lead to me not bluffing enough. At least I think so. However, for now it doesn´t seem to be an issue (yet) since I get looked up quite light also by some of the better players, but I guess that will change over time, as lately I have almost exclusively shown down good value hands when betting big.

Probably I´m just overthinking it - I mean, if I get my turn check-raise called for nearly 100BB total on a 8442 board by 98o, why bother? Yeah, it wasn´t against one of the strongest players, but still - as long as they don´t stop calling my value hands with worse, there´s no need to set money on fire with worse in shady spots, right?

The First Loss at This Casino

Yesterday I booked my first loss at this casino. To be fair, the game wasn´t particularly good, and considering how I at times ran and played, I can be quite pleased that the total loss I cashed out for was only 500. At first things went quite well, I chipped up to around 8-900 (bought in for 500, most of the table was in for between 500 and 1000) without any noticeable pots. Then I got cold, couldn´t make a hand or get a c-bet through and dropped down quite a bit. Don´t remember any hands, none of them were really noteworthy. In my last post I wrote that I need to fold river more and mostly I did, however the two times I tried to hero-call I got shown a nutted hand - not huge pots, but still adds to the L. One was particularly tilting, since this player had bluffed double paired boards on the river before, but against me he held the full house. A few hands later he plays exactly the same and gets called down by the underfull on a double paired board with complete air...

At some point I reloaded to boost my stack, then I got coolered. I was in the SB and there was an EP raise to 7 and a call. I toss out calling chips with A8, but only then notice that the button was yet to fold. He puts out a three-bet to 25 and since my original 7 EUR call stands, I complete for 18 more. Probably a mistake, if I notice his three-bet I´m never calling here. Anyway, we are three players who go to a flop of AT8r, checks to the raiser and he bets 25 with 275 behind, I check-raise to 100 for value, he tank-jams and I snap him off. I expect him to show up with quite a bit of AK/AQ type of hands in this spot against me, however this time he had TT and I don´t suck out on any of the two runouts. On such a board playing 100BB deep I don´t see how I can fold two pair. Maybe this is a leak and maybe I should go for a passive route instead with top-and-bottom, but since he will have a lot of big aces in his range I feel that I am missing value in that case.

After this hand I am in for 1000 and down to 250, I fold for an orbit pondering if I should rebuy or go home. As I said, the game wasn´t particularly good (although there was some nice banter at the table, so it wasn´t exactly boring), but in the end I choose to stick around and add on for another 500 EUR instead. The only really noteworthy pot (where I actually think I played good for a change) was this one:

A solid TAG sitting on a 2k+ stack opens in MP and I three-bet to 35 with TT on the button. He makes it 100 to go, I am playing a stack slightly over 800 at this point, so I think a call is okay.

Flop comes out A84 with two spades, I hold none. He downbets to 60, I call. Turn is the jack of spades, leaving us with a board of AJ48 with three spades. He checks, I ponder my options and check it back. River is an offsuit brick. He checks and now I ponder my options again and choose to bet 165. I think that he will fold most non-aces, maaaybeee with the exception of AxKs - he surely is good enough to turn it into a bluff, but I am not sure if he thinks I am good enough to lay down a big hand to a massive river check-raise. He snap-folds. A few hands later we discuss this hand, turns out he had TT as well. He said he thought I had like jacks or something and asked me why I bet. I replied that it was a bluff to get him to fold hands like queens or kings, to which he seemed surprised and said, "oh, nice play". Looked genuinely surprised that I would pull something like that off.

After this hand I am up to around 1100, play for an hour or so more, but no noteworthy hands. I cash out for 1000 at 3 AM.

All in all I am of course unhappy that I booked a loss, but considering how the session went overall, it could have been much worse. I´m happy with myself that I didn´t allow myself to tilt and start doing stupid moves when I was down. Rationally analysing my play, I need to keep tightening up preflop - loose preflop play (and the following missed c-bets etc) probably cost me several hundred this session, but I do get bored easily and folding for hours on end is something I think I´ll never be able to do. I did tighten up in early position and early mid position compared to previous sessions though, which I guess is positive.

This was most likely my last session for a while, my vacation starts tomorrow and I´ll be living in our summer house, and in a week I go abroad with my family to Poland and Slovakia for some hiking and relaxation, so unless I somehow manage to ditch my family for a session next week, I´m out until August.

Sometimes it Just Sucks

Just came back from my worst session so far financially, although I think it was quite decent when it came to my play. Lost 1000 EUR, and that sucks.

Started nicely though, with a player opening UTG to 25, this player has a tendency to open marginal holdings in EP large, so I when I look down at QQ in the straddle I don’t really expect a call of my 125 3!, but he does call. Flop is T76 with two diamonds, I cbet 75, he tank-pushes for 250ish and I snap-call. I win both boards even though the first has an ace - not sure what he had, maybe something like 88/99/JJ?

Got paid on a flush with A6 of clubs in the straddle when I called an SB open, flop Kxx with two clubs. He bets, I call, turn is a club, he checks, I check behind. River is the ace of diamonds, he bets 60, I put him in for his last 120 or so, he calls and mucks. Later said he had AK.

Lost a bit just missing flops and not getting cbets through, and on one stupid hero call and one decent call (where he however had a better hand), then I lost a big one.

A tight player raises in MP to 18 on my straddle and gets 4 calls. I peel AQ and make it 125 to go - not a hand I want to play multi-way OOP. The original raiser goes all-in for 350 total, the shortstack on the BB calls for 100. I know that I am behind, but I think the pot odds justify a call given the BB is in there with 100. He wins both boards with unimproved AK and I am down to something like 250 after this hand so I add another 500. EDIT: just ran a quick sim and if I give the main villain a range of QQ+/AK it is a fold, although it is not a huge mistake EV wise (I have 23% HU vs main, around 20% for whole pot with a reasonable range for the other villain).

No big pots for an hour or two, but I am playing good and the game is now six handed, which I really like. So what better way to end it than to lose it all in three hands within a half hour?

First hand I have like 850 or so. I raise 99 to 20 (I guess the straddle was on or there were a few limpers), player on my left makes it 65 with 135 behind. I am on friendly terms with this player, he is losing tonight and I ask if he wants to gamble. He says “they always have aces when they say that”. I put him in, he tank-calls with AJo and flops an ace.

Next hand I raise JJ in EP, the tight player from the AK hand makes it 35 and gets two cold-calls. After a while I make it 140 to go. He folds, but one of the callers calls with 160 behind after his call. Flop comes KT6 with two hearts, he checks and I put him in. He instacalls with TT. Nice hand.

And then comes the dagger. The absolute worst feeling in poker, at least in my opinion, is when you expect to win big, but end up being totally crushed. And that is just what happened.

MP opens to 10, two callers, I call on the BB with 66. Flop comes a beautiful Q76 with two spades, I check and the initial raiser bets 15. Folds in to me and I check-raise to 65. He asks how much I’m playing, I have around 300 behind, he thinks for a while and then puts me all in. I snap him off, show my set and hope to hold against whatever holding he has… until he shows QQ.

I say nice hand and then bid farewell to all the players. Oh well, **** happens.

You are right the nits don't care about what you would prefer. Assuming you will go play in the pits instead the casino prefers you be bored. As luck would have it they care about what they prefer.

Thanks for the reply!

After starting to play again this summer, I have to say there are fewer mute nits that play than before, which is good. A chatty nit is at least more fun to sit with. Yesterday, however, there was a young guy who totally spoke around 15-20 words outside of raise/call during the seven hours I sat at the table. Most of the time just headphones in. Of course, that is the same guy that stacked me in my final hand, which hurt a bit extra - of course he is the one that will get on the right side of the massive cooler against me.

Have been more or less staying away from the pits as well. If I arrive at the casino before the game I'll put down 20-50 EUR on roulette or Black Jack to kill some time, but no real degening - and I intend to keep it that way.

My Biggest Win Ever (PLO) and Some Interrogation Troubles

Leaving this blog with a losing session as the last post before my vacation somehow doesn't feel right, so instead I'll do a short write-up of my biggest win ever. I was in Sweden to watch a football game and hang out with childhood friends, after having spent the day watching football and the evening hanging out with friends, I of course wanted to gamble before going to bed. It was a Thursday night, a public holiday in Sweden, so I kind of expected the poker club to be booming with action. Oh, how wrong I was.

As I enter, there is only a single table open. I ask them what they play, the answer is PLO&PLO5 with 50/100 SEK blinds (5/10 EUR). The minimum buy-in is 1000 EUR, which is exactly how much cash I have on me. Basically I am totally outmatched, I have a single bullet playing a high-variance game against presumably good players, and so I take the responsible route and... hell no, I came to the club to play, so of course I sit!

Of course, my 1000 EUR buy-in makes me the absolute shortstack at the table. Most stacks are around the 3-6000 range, with some being 10k+. Most, if not all, pots are straddled, so I am basically sitting in a 5-10-20 PLO game, in way over my head. But who am I to back down? After all, the worst thing that can happen is that I lose some money, right?

Another fun aspect is that one of the players sitting at the table recognises me from like 15 years ago, when I lived in Sweden and used to gamble (and drink) a lot. We chat a little about how our respective lives have gone and I am happy to find out that he is doing well for himself - I remember him as a smart and kind young man and now he seems to be the same, although slightly older.

I find an early double thanks to a lucky river, where I called for almost half of my stack on the turn - in hindsight, it was a bad call. I don't remember the details other than hitting an ace on the river to make the nut boat and double up, against his specific hand I was drawing very slim - I think I only had three or four outs if I recall correctly. But hey, without luck you're never leaving a poker table as a winner.

Having a little bit more money to play with boosts my confidence. The game is quite loose and aggressive, the players are nice and chatty, and overall I feel good playing. I even forget about the money at stake for a while, which definately helps my game. I chip up a little bit when the single largest pot of my life happens.

We are playing five-card PLO and I pick up a good one - AKJTx (don't recally the fifth card). In a three-bet pot, the flop comes down a lovely QJT rainbow. You can't really ask for a better flop, can you? An EP player pots it, I re-pot, he shoves and I call. We decide to run it twice. The first turn card is a jack, giving me a full house on the first board. The second board runs out with a blank turn, but the river is a ten, giving me another full house.

That I am in over my head probably showed in my conversation as I table my hand, saying "if you had top set on the flop, you win it all". My opponent gives me a weird look (and this is to be expected, since the only realistic hand with top set would be AKQQ, I doubt anyone at this table would put in 300BB+ on such a flop with a naked top set). He, of course, had the AK, with double backdoor flushdraws. What makes this pot even sicker is that one of the players claimed to have folded JT, which would make it a perfect one-outer on each board.

I count my chips - I am now one of the bigger stacks at the table with around 90 000 SEK, or 9000 EUR, in front of me. I am basically awestruck - that is huge money, I have never won so much in poker, let alone in one pot. And with this win comes the creeping knowledge that this money is very ****ing far from safe. All it takes is one pot to go awry and I am leaving with no money at all. One 60/40 or 40/60 situation with a set against a wrap going the wrong way and I am done. One cooler and I am leaving with a loss. One misplay and it is gone.

However, I have never been one to hit and run, so I decide to play on for a while, but tighten up significantly. Soon afterwards the player I stacked tells the table that he'll be leaving within half an hour due to work commitments the next day (it was like 1 AM) and I tell the table that I'll leave then as well. I do proceed to bleed off some money and lose a medium-sized pot, but in the end I cash out for 61 000 SEK, or a profit of 5100 EUR. My biggest win ever.

I return to the club the following day, a Friday night, and the place is busy with lots of cash tables running and a tournament with 50-something entrants. While waiting for a seat in the PLO game I donk of something like 500 EUR in a NLT game - tried to squeeze all-in preflop with nines and ran them into kings, and then I slowplayed aces preflop and didn't fold them when I got check-raised on a 9xx9 board on the turn, and shoved on when an eight on the river came. He, of course, had 98 for turned trips and a rivered full house. PLO wasn't much better - I ran a three-street bluff on a K33TJ board and after tanking for like five minutes, my opponent called with a J3. I think my bluff works if he doesn't river the boat, although I am repping thin - basically KK with a dash of K3/TT, but mostly KK or air. I was left shortstacked with like 100 EUR in my stack (we were playing 2/2 but most hands were straddled, so basically 2/2/4) and didn't feel like rebuying, so I just waited for the first chance to get it in preflop and gamble. That chance came after an orbit or so, of course my jam is called and although I outflop him with two pair, he rivers higher two pair to beat me.

I cash out, chat a bit with some old friends from my Sweden poker days, and with the guy that lost the big pot against me - he seemed a really cool and chill dude, and he actually left the game a quite big winner even though he lost that one against me. One of the guys I know from before wants to take me to another poker club nearby, I go for a walk with him and chat for a while, we show up there but all the games are full, so we chat some more before I leave for my hotel, a cool 4000 EUR up for the trip.

One thing I do regret is my decision to exchange part of the winnings at the airport. Saturday morning I was flying out to Prague to meet my wife, who was flying in from Riga, for a short and well-deserved mini-break without the kids. So, I thought that I'll change 10 000 SEK to Czech crowns to have some spending money in Prague, and 10 000 SEK to euros to have some spending money/bankroll money/whatever back home. Not really a big amount, but damn, the man in the exchange counter was acting like a ****ing police officer investigating a murder crime.

"Where did you get this money from?", he asks me.
"Uhm. It's my money. I have a business. I have money", I answer, somewhat annoyed. I've had little sleep the past two nights and I didn't have time for a morning coffee, since I slept until 10 minutes before my scheduled taxi would arrive.
"No, but what is this money? Where did you get that from?", he asks again, now he is also sounding a bit annoyed.
"Part I took out in the ATM, part I won in a poker game", I calmly reply.
"Do you have a receipt?", he proceeds to ask. In my head I am thinking, yeah, well, I didn't ****ing win it in a casino, and it's only like two thousand euros, so why the **** to you want me to show a receipt for? Of course, I realise that being aggressive towards staff who are (probably) just following instructions is pointless, even though he seems to think he is some ****ing FBI agent, so I politely tell him that it was a private game and I don't have any receipts, and that I don't have any ATM receipts either (are there actually people under 70 who take and keep receipts when withdrawing cash in the ATM?), but I can show him the cash withdrawal statement in my internet banking app.
"Please do", he says, "and I am sorry for this, but we need to do this for all our customers who do cash transactions".
Now, I know this is a blatant lie, since the last time I had visited Sweden I also changed money at the same place, and for a smaller amount (around 5-6000 SEK, ie 5-600 EUR) they didn't ask me any questions at all, but I just keep quiet and nod.

A few minutes later he comes out with the cash for me and I go searching for a place to have some breakfast, and make a mental note never to change cash in Sweden again. Back home I had no problems whatsoever going to my nearest exchange when I wanted to exchange the rest of the money, although I did it in two separate visits just to make sure I don't get questioned again...

P.S. If you do read this blog, please live a comment - always fun to know that at least someone goes through my long ramblings...

Yeah just started reading, enjoyed the Sweden story and good luck at the tables!

The Degen is Strong In This One

It was a Saturday evening, a few days after having returned from a wonderful vacation in Poland and Slovakia, which included a lot of adventure due to an involuntary digital detox (the first day I wanted to surprise my daughter by jumping in the pool and splashing water all over her, but I forgot that when I left the pool half an hour ago, I had browsed the internet on my phone and then put it in the pocket of my swimming short) such as waiting for a tow truck from Poland on a Sunday afternoon in a beautiful landscape 2,5 kilometres from the nearest village with no communications whatsoever (wife and kids took a train back to the hotel while I waited for the tow truck, was actually not that bad since I got to spend a couple of hours watching the beautiful nature, lost in my thoughts, although the drive back in the dark having to rely only on signs was a bit challenging, in the end I got back to our hotel after 1 AM, but getting a replacement car in Poland was the best option since I doubt we´d find a garage that would change the tire on a Sunday evening and we had to check out of the hotel at 11 AM the next day) and hiking up lovely Babia Gora (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babia_G%C3%B3ra) with my five-year old son (the girls turned back quite soon since they found the climb too steep, although it was really only the first part that was steep, something like 400 metres of altitude gain within less than two kilometres of distance) who turns out to be a real trooper after a year of football (soccer) practice - faster than me and not having to stop for a rest a single time, unlike his out-of-shape and still overweight father (although I´ve lost like 5-6 kg during the summer).

The first three days back home I spent alone with both kids in our summer house, since my wife had a work teambuilding trip on Thursday and Friday, so when we got back home on Saturday I felt I was totally in the right to go gamble the evening (and as it would turn out, almost the entire night) away and relax a little. On weekends, both casinos (owned by the same operator) open cash game tables, usually 2/4, but only one table in each due to the dealer shortage. I, of course, plan to register to play in the casino that is closest to my home, less than a five-minute walk away (and it´s bigger and nicer than the other one, where the cashgames are on weekdays). The waiting list opens at 6 PM. I am in the kitchen cooking dinner, and I refresh the list shortly before 6 PM, not open yet. Literally 30 second past six I refresh it again and the table is already full - I reg anyway and end up fourth on the waiting list and I am just so ****ing tilted by this, since this means that I won´t get a spot in the game before maybe 9-10 PM at best.

Some time after seven I head to the casino, I take a seat at a Black Jack table and I have literally the worst run I´ve ever had. I am playing two boxes, 10 EUR per hand, and I don´t win a single hand for the first 15 or so hands - a few pushes, but no wins. A telling hand was when I had 9 and 10 against the dealer´s 6 - I double on both and draw a five and a four, the dealer draws an eight... and then a ****ing seven. Are you kidding me? A reg that is talkative and a nice guy (and a much, much better poker player than I´ll ever be) shows up and sits down, we chat for a while and he tells me that you can actually pre-register in person at the casino - had I known that I´d have made the five-minute walk there in the afternoon when I went grocery shopping. Soon afterwards the game starts (turns out they play 2/5) and I play some more Black Jack and hit another bad run, before making some of it back. Another reg shows up, also on the waiting list, he tells me that there are three or four players in the other casino waiting for more players and that he plans to go there to play, so I join him and head over to the other casino. Since he´s here with his car we take the car instead of walk there (something like 10-15 minutes on foot). I got some of my Black Jack losses back and cash out something like 300 EUR down, which is a lot playing 10 EUR/hand for most of the time. But at the lowest point I was down almost 600...

The game starts... and most people buy in short for 200 in a 2/4 game. The game isn´t overly good, way too tight for my liking, but I stay anyway. A few more players join, but almost no big stacks and I hover between something like 400 and 800 for the most part of the game. Made some really good plays, but also some poor ones, the sickest hand of the night was this one:

I raise to 15 with AKo on the button. The first reg I mentioned (who told me about the pre-registering) had joined our game a while ago since he didn´t like the game at the first casino, we´re friendly and chatting and playing a few pots against eachother - he knows I´m loose pre and a rec so he doesn´t mind getting into pots against me, but for now I´m holding my own. We are both around 500 EUR deep and we go heads up to a flop of K63, with 63 being spades. He checks to me, I bet, he check-raises to 75 and I hate my life. I am actually close to folding here, I know he´s been waiting for a spot against me, but TPTK on this board is one of the best hands that I will have in this spot - the chance that he is raising a worse hand here is quite small though, his most likely holdings are a set or a draw, maybe something like K6 or K3 (he did defend his BB with Q9o against me a few orbits before, so suited Kx are definately in his range) but I block the king making it less likely that he has two pair.

I call, the turn is digusting. It is the king of spades, giving me top trips, but completing the flush. He doesn´t let up and bets 125. My instincts are screaming FOLD FOLD FOLD. My mind is telling me that I beat nothing, although I have trips. Maaaybeee KJo or something, but I´m not really sure he would check-raise KJo on the flop there. But what do I know? My inner degen says that I have the best possible trips and my inner fish says GOOD HAND BIG CARDS THREE OF A KIND, instead of being reasonable (and this is after basically going through all the combos he could have and finding maybe one or two combos that he in theory could have that I beat) I listen to my inner degen and fish and call. I am rewarded for this play by spiking a king on the river, he checks and this time I don´t think it through (I am in Degenfish Mode, so my minds goes GOOD HAND BIG CARDS QUADS NUTS) and just push all-in and he of course folds his 66 after tanking for a minute. He would have certainly called 100 or maybe 150, so I lost a lot of value here.

Play is quite eventful, but I run into a bad stretch of not getting any bluffs through and not getting value when I have it. The game is now five-handed, it is past two in the morning, and I go almost bust on a 3457 board holding K6 vs T6, with T6 hitting a flush on the river. I have like 80 EUR left after this hand (pot was something like 800 EUR), no use to rebuy in a game that might break at any time, so I cash out and walk home.

Oh, did I say home? No, I meant I walk in the direction of my home, but since the other casino is literally on the street I have to walk to get home - it´s not even a one-block detour, it´s just right ****ing there on my way home - I go there instead, get 700 EUR from the cashier and sit in what seems to be an awful game with at least five solid and good players. And what makes it even worse is that the only seat open has all these players lined up to my left.

I shouldn´t have sat, I shouldn´t have played, it was 3AM and sitting against good players with a relative short stack is kind of stupid, but hey, I´ve never been one to advocate good decision-making when it comes to gambling. What happens next is actually something I still am ashamed of, I played so extremely poorly that I just can´t find words to explain it. First two hands I play I lose - the second one I played way too passive as well (called two bets with a flush draw - I should have raised the flop or the turn in this spot, against this player and on this board), but what comes next is actually one of the worst hands of poker that I can recall having played in many years.

I open AJo to 15 and get called by a player in the blinds - a solid pro with a big stack. The flop comes AQx with two clubs, I have no clubs. He checks... and I ****ing check back?!? For deception!??? With one ****ing pair with a decent kicker on a wet board? How ******ed am I? The turn is another low club. He checks again... and now... I bet? OK. Fair enough, a bet here is fine I guess, but he check-raises to something like 75 or whatever. And I of course muck my... oh, no, I of course call, because I am a tilted and tired fish. I mean, this call is just so awful that I have no words for it, even though I´m no NLT expert or anything. The river is a blank, and now he bets big - 250. And for some ****ing reason I call? Because he is supposed to do this with air or a naked Kc type of hand? I´m not sure, as I said, this is one of the worst hands I have played in a very long while. Yeah, he had 64 of clubs for the flush. I´m left with something like 100, which I ship over a raise and a call with 86s, get called by both players, but the board looks like it has me drawing dead (QQx) and of course one of the other players has a queen, so I was really drawing dead on the flop.

I get another 300 from the cashier to blow off some steam and proceed to promptly lose 250 on roulette - the only table with available seats was with a 5 EUR minbet, so losing this money only took like four spins. On my way out I am dejected, so I put my last 50 in some random slot... and then my luck turns. I hit a bonus game, and then another one, and all of a sudden I have 500 EUR again. I go back to the roulette table and lose half of it, then put some money in some other slot. Not sure what I am supposed to do in this slot, so I just press play and see that I must have pressed Max Bet instead, for a total bet of 8,80 EUR. That tilts me a bit... until I hit a bonus game on the very first spin. Wow. I proceed to win 900 EUR on this bonus game, which I immediately cash out. Now I have more than half of my losses back, it is almost 5 AM so I do what any responsible degen would do and head back to the roulette table to bet on zero with neighbours for 100 a spin (basically meaning that I put 20 EUR on the zero and the two neighbouring numbers on each side of the wheel). I lose two or three spins, think about heading home, convince myself to do a few more and then hit. I leave the roulette table, now I am not that far from breaking even, so I decided that can risk another 200 on gambling and then head home - if I lose I have 1200 for a net loss of 800 EUR (basically what I bought in for at this casino on poker), if I win, well... I won´t win after running this hot, I am quite sure of that.

So, I feed the machine a hundred... and lose it a couple of minutes. Then I feed it another hundred... and... hit another bonus game. And this time it turns out really good - my bet was something like 2,50 EUR and I won something like 1200. I increase the bet to 5 EUR per spin because YOLO and set a stop loss at 1000 EUR, which I keep. At 5:45 in the morning I walk out of the casino with more money than I lost on poker, black jack and roulette before hitting my insane slot streak, so in the end my degenerate behaviour is rewarded with me walking home in the green. Bizarre, but I´ll take it. Oh, and this is one of the reasons why I prefer poker clubs (which there are none of in my country AFAIK) over casinos - if I´m feeling good, I´ll lose no more than maybe 20 or 50 EUR on the table games or slots if I want to relax, but if I´m tired and tilted, I have a tendency to bet larger if I don´t just go home, and most of the time that last 300 would have just been an increased L. This time it worked out though.

Oh, there is a bad beat I didn´t tell you about. For some reasons my player´s card doesn´t register in the slots, I get an error when I put it in, and since I almost never play slots for more then change (I´d estimate my total slot turnover from this year to be something like 50 EUR), I can´t be assed exchanging it. That kind of sucks, considering I had quite a large turnover in the slot machines yesterday. Turnover that will earn me no tier points or cashbacks.

Not sure when I´ll play poker the next time - today is my last day of vacation, and I have 250+ e-mails in my work inbox, so probably will have to spend this entire week hard at work, instead of splashing it up in the NLT streets of Latvia. Or maybe... yeah, we´ll see.

A Small Strat Issue

One thing that I'm trying to deal with is what to do with decent to good regs that tend to call me down quite light. What I have done is to reduce my c-betting frequency (no use if they won't fold, right?) and my general aggression in spots where I have air and no draws etc. I have also started to value bet thin in spots where I have earlier gotten picked off with bluffs (one player, for example, was quite surprised - board was something like K8372 or something, I had raised pre in LP with T8, flop went check-bet-call, turn check-check, river check, I pot it, he calls me with a three, later saying he didn't think I'd value bet lower pairs here).

Is my strategy basically to never cbet boards that I completely miss, or to do that very rarely, until the opponents adjust? Maybe. But what about boards where I have a piece of it, like a straight or flush draw? Betting it makes sense, but if called, do I check basically all turns that don´t improve me and give up on most rivers? For now I am thinking that this is probably the best option, since all a turn bet does is set me up for a big, polarised river bet - and I am not sure that it is worth it to continue the aggression over multiple streets if my fold equity is limited. On the other hand, if I bet two streets, there is a lot bigger chance of getting a fold on the turn from marginal hands. Haven´t figured this out yet - how much do I win by playing passively vs how much do I lose by not semi-bluffing the other players off of better hands on the turn + getting paid much less if my draw hits? Have some more work to do on my general strategy here, of course it depends on a lot of other factors as well, and of course I will not play every hand the same way and mix things up now and then, but I´d like to have a general plan ready for the next time I play. One thing is clear though, I need to thinly value bet more rivers, at least until the non-believers adjust.

Another thing is playing OOP. For example, if I raise pre with a suited ace and flop a flush draw, cbet it and get called. If the turn bricks and I check and the other player bets, do I fold, call or raise? I am thinking I should play more fit or fold here - either put in a check-raise or fold. Of course, this is player and stack dependant, but I think I have been calling too many draws in my past few sessions. However, the question of my fold equity remains. No way to find out other than to try it next time I guess.

Anyway, back to work now.

Enjoying the Summer, and Some Shorthanded Poker

It's Friday evening, I've just gotten home from work and am preparing to go on a bike ride to get some excercise in when my wife texts me the good news - both kids want to go to our summer house, where my wife's parents and her sister's kids are staying at the moment. We were a bit unsure, since our daughter was away on camp for a week, but she wants to go as well so my wife is heading out there to drop of our kids so we can enjoy some much welcome adult time.

With temperatures at around the 30C mark during the days here in the city, the streets heat up during the day and the heat becomes sticky - and there's no escaping it. While I still prefer hot weather over cold weather, if I have the choice, I'll rather venture out of town for the weekend, and my wife has the same idea - she asks me to find us a nice hotel to stay for one or two nights.

Well, we're not the only ones with this idea, since Booking.com shows up only something like 17 properties with vacancies in the entire ****ing country for two nights. And half of them are hotels in the capital. WTF? I've never seen anything like that. When looking at only Saturday, things are looking better, with around 50 properties having spare rooms. I consider the possibility for a city break in some other European city, but after checking the prices on last-minute flights, I drop this idea. While we could get to Milan for 40 EUR each, we have no way of getting back on Sunday, when my wife has a night shift, and all other destinations are something like 700 EUR+ for the two of us. Too steep.

Finally I find a beautiful property - a lovely mansion about an hour's drive from our home, five kilometres from the sea, with bikes available for all hotel guests for free. It's rated as five stars and not only on Booking, so it seems like a great option. The only caveat is that the one available room is a suite with an outdoor whirlpool on the terrace, which of course is nice, but paying almost 400 EUR for one night is pretty darn much. I do what I always do in these situations and check the hotel website - and what do you know, they have a standard double room available for 160 EUR. I instantly book it.

***

It's late on Sunday afternoon and I am laying in bed, relaxing, thinking about the wonderful mini-break at the mansion. It was really top notch, luxurious, in a beautiful location with a beautiful garden, outdoor pool and wonderful restaurant. We also biked around 20 km total - first to the sea, then to the nearest village, and then bcak to the hotel - and had a good and active mini-holiday. But now I´m back in town and my wife is getting ready for her nightshift. And am I supposed to sit all alone in my apartment, slowly watching the minutes ticking by until bedtime? Hell no! I check the waiting list and there are four players registered for the game starting at 7 PM, so I put my name up and head to the casino a few hours later.

As I arrive, there´s only one other player there. The same reg that I played the AK vs 66 hand where I rivered quads in post #111. As I have already written, I like the guy - he´s a good player, but he´s also intelligent and talkative. We sit around for a bit waiting for more players, talk about football, and finally a third player shows up and we start the game three-handed. We play 2/4, I buy in for 400, reg for more, third player for 200. I lose around 150 to the third guy in total over something like 40 minutes of play, mainly due to not hitting any flops and making a few second best hands in smallish pots. Then he leaves to head out drinking with friends. Meh.

I suggest that we continue playing heads-up and so we do. It was a quite interesting battle, with lots of marginal spots in smaller pots, but I do manage to cooler my opponent in the only big one. He opens to 10 or 12 (don´t remember) and I make it 35 with ATs from the BB. Flop is T92 rainbow. I continue with a bet of 25, he calls. Turn is another ten. This time I check it back to him, since I feel this is the line that will net me the most value in the long run due to dynamics/betting patterns (although part of time time I would keep the aggression up). He bets 60, I ponder check-raising, but in the end decide to just call. The river is a six, bringing in the straight draw, but all in all it´s a good card - I think that 87 would check back the turn a high percentage of the time. I check again, he bets 90 this time, I quickly ponder my options and in the end decide that I have to go for max value heads up, so I check-raise all-in for around 250 total which he calls. I win against trips with worse kicker.

I actually don´t think this is a snap all-in in this spot against this particular player, but there should be more combos that I beat that call my raise as it´s not that big, than there are combos that beat me. This time it worked out perfectly.

A third player (tight & nitty) shows up and buys in for 200, I don´t think that three-handed suits his playing style since he will fold too much and not value bet thinly enough, so I don´t mind. I only played one medium pot against him this session, he opened to 10, I called from the SB with 32s expecting it to go three-ways and it did. Flop came A95 with two spades, checks to him with 100-something behind, he bets like 15, so I re-raise to 100 and we get it in. Run it twice, I brick both boards and lose to A5. Standard spot IMHO.

A fourth player (drunk tourist) shows up, he´s a talkative guy so it livens the game up, but it´s getting late and I´m getting tired, and also running quite bad for the last couple of hours. I get into a pot against the reg I was battling HU previously, I open Q2 from the SB when it´s folded to me and he calls from the BB. Flop is QQJ with two hearts (I hold none). I cbet, he calls. Turn is an offsuit eight. I check, he checks behind. River is a low heart. I bet 25, he raises to 75. I am very, very close to folding, especially after I say "I have a queen. I don´t think you have a queen, so it´s either a flush or some sort of bluff with the ace of hearts." to which he replies "Well, I could be trapping with a queen!" I mean, considering the game dynamics and how little he has raised me on the river before, I am trying to convince myself to fold. To me this looks like pure value - most likely a flush, however, a boat is not out of the question either. I go through the hand again in my mind - with a queen or a turned straight I actually think he would bet the turn when checked to most of the time. Yeah, he´ll have a few bluffs here (something like AhT or whatever), but not enough to call. In the end, however, I can´t make myself trust my instincts and reads when I have trips in a four-handed game and the bet isn´t huge, so I call, saying I expect him to have a flush, and he of course turns over Ah5h for the win.

What is sick is that I had the best run of starting hands I´ve had in my life - during the six hours I played I had aces four times, kings twice, queens twice, jacks twice, tens three times and AK four times. If it was a standard full ring game against the non-believers who usually call me down light I would have made huge profit, now I rarely won (or lost) more than a small pot with my premiums, especially with the aces where I twice won the blinds, once got called pre and took it down with a cbet on the flop, and the last aces hand I was expecting to lose - I raised to 12, all three players called, flop was QT9 with two clubs. Checks to me, I bet 25, drunk player calls. Turn is an offsuit 8, he checks, I consider my options but in the end decide that I need to bet - he will probably call me with a queen, if he raises I can easily snap-fold and I don´t want him getting a free card if he is on a club draw or something (although I did block the nut draw with the Ac). I bet, hoping for a fold (yeah, I didn´t want a call either, since he could easily have some random two pair hands that he would never fold) and he does.

In the end, I cash out for 400, I was in for 600, so I picked up a small loss, despite playing one of the best sessions in a long while, with no huge and stupid river bluffs. Actually sick to book a loss despite winning a big cooler and getting such good starting hands, but play was mostly heads-up or three-handed, so during cold runs of not hitting anything and losing smallish pots with second best hands (like KT vs KJ on a K-high board) really adds up. Or HU, when I raise TT and the flop is J9x - i cbet, he calls. Turn 8, I fired again, he calls, river is a blank and I lose to JT. Not a big pot, but still a 50 EUR loss (but I feel that I do need to continue to bet on that turn card).

During a break in play I did bink a little on the roulette (150 profit) and while waiting for my taxi home, I put 50 EUR in a slot to kill time and binked some bonus game to cash out 150. So the night was a net positive thanks to good luck. The taxi had some issues and didn´t show up (was standing still for like four minutes so maybe the car broke down or something), so I cancelled the ride and walked home instead (I was tired and wanted to go to bed sooner, that´s why I wanted to take a cab in the first place) - a lovely walk in a hot summer night, and although that meant getting to bed half an hour later, I don´t really mind.

That´s it for now - we´ll see when the next opportunity to splash around will present itself!

Adjusting, Perhaps Overly So?

Went down to the casino last night to play some poker. My goal was to try to adjust to being called down lightly by taking more passive lines, in some cases it worked out, in others not so much. The end result wasn´t too bad, I left the casino down around 200 EUR, there were some hands I played good, others I played bad. Good thing is that my VPIP is going down session by session, I am folding more, especially in EP. Bad thing is that I overadjusted on my cbet ratio, leading me to lose some pots that I should have won, and in one instance totally value-owning myself with AQ on a QxxKx board. At the end I was getting tired (been getting a little too little sleep this week, and as it got late, I noticed that my play was starting to deteriorate), for example paying off three streets with Q9s on a Qx2xK board with two diamonds. I mean, the flop call IP is mandatory, the turn call is debateable but still OK, however, when he bets like 150 on the river, especially when the king hits... I somehow managed to convince myself that since the king is a good card for his range, he will bluff this spot with missed flushdraws often enough for a call to be OK, even though hands he was bluffing the turn with now could have me beat etc. He turned over 22 for a flopped set. I mean, with regards to hero calls, I did get it right more often than not and had a positive net result for the night, however this spot was just plain stupid, especially with that river card.

Early on I also had a hand in which I am not sure how big of a punt it is. LAG player in MP opens to 10, I three-bet KJo to 35 from the CO, clueless player in SB cold-calls and we go three-ways to a flop of KQT with two diamonds. I hold none. Check, I bet 50, clueless calls, LAG makes it 150. I had around 250 total when we went to the flop, clueless something like 150-200. In this spot I figured that I am likely to be behind, however I always have outs (although only for split vs AJ), and I might be ahead of certain semi-bluff, and the clueless player might call it of with any Kx/Qx/Tx type of hand, or worse (he recently called a big bet with A7o on the turn with no pair, no draw on a board where it was highly unlikely that the opponent was bluffing), so I rip it in. Clueless folds, we run it twice and I brick both boards against KQ.

A while later there is an EP open to 12 and I call with ATo in MP... or so I thought. I was in seat 1 and had missed that seat 9 had three-bet to 35, would have folded otherwise, but with 12 already invested I felt that I need to call the remaining 23 as well. SB cold-calls, original raiser calls as well, and we go to a nine-high flop with three hearts (I have the ace of hearts). SB checks, shortstack player jams for 100 into almost 150, original three-bettor folds and I am a bit torn between calling and raising. On one hand, I wouldn´t love my life if the SB would jam for like 400 total, but on the other hand I feel that jamming here allows the SB to fold everything but hands that crush me. Probably a moot point anyway, since he won´t jam with hands that I beat - but I think I still like a call better, in case he has some type of Kh-type of hand that will feel enticed to call a hundred with such good pot odds. Anyway, SB tank-folds, we runt it twice and I hit a heart on both boards to beat 98s that flopped top pair. A bit later I stacked this player again, when he opened to 10, I made it 35 from the button and he jammed for his last 100ish. Since I held aces, I snapped him off, and held on both boards.

At around 11 PM, after this streak of run-good and winning a few other pots, I hit my high point of 1300 in the stack. Then followed the stupid hero call against the set that I started the hand reviews with and then I just more or less slowly bled my stack down. Lost a few medium-sized pots, and somehow I all of a sudden found my self with a stack of 500 again. The last big hand I played was when I opened KK and got two callers, flop came AK8 with two clubs, I decided to check, button bet 15, i call. Turn is a low brick, I check again, button bets 55, I check-raise to 200, button tank-calls. River is a blank, I jam for 275 total and button folds. Last pot I played was telling of the medium-sized pots I lost, I open AQs and get three-bet by the button (same player as in the KK hand). Flop is Q8x with two hearts. I check, he checks behind. Turn is a black eight, I lead for 25, he makes it 75. Folding seems to weak with TPTK here as he could certainly have bluffs as well, I call, river is a low heart. I check, he checks behind and I lose to T8s. Maybe leading turn is an error here, however I don't see how I lose less if I just check-call since I don't think he would check behind with trips here if turn goes c/c.

I mean, all in all I feel that my game is progressing, and that I play better and better, however I am still quite a way from having a solid enough game to consistantly win (and not sure I'll ever have a game good enough) against these reg-filled lineups. Another thing to work on is either leave the table when getting tired (unless the game is really good with several spots to exploit), or, if I don´t leave, tighten up significantly in order to avoid marginal spots. I feel that I handle the marginal spots well when I am playing my A-game, but when I am tired not so much. Leaving is probably better, at least if in the green...

Not sure when I'll play next time again - weekend will be spent in the summerhouse and next week looks busy, so I will take a slight break from poker.

The Fallacy of the Fish on a Heater

One of poker´s main fallacies is that you actually can beat the games, and this fallacy is the most prominent when you run good. And it is even more pronounced when playing heads up. This is a fallacy I myself am prone to fall into, and so I did this weekend.

A couple of weeks ago, I deposited 100 USD on Stars. Since I am a total fish when it comes to online poker and get bored easily, I started playing the HU PLO Zoom tables on Stars. The first 100 I did decently enough with, but then I figured that I should take my 250 USD and play some 2,5/5 PLO. Managed to lose it in a couple of hands - first I doubled with a set, but then I got it in in a coinflip and lost. I mean, that´s just standard, and I play online when I am totally bored (in Autumn, when Football Manager 2023 comes out, boredom will not be an issue for at least 3-4 months), so I really don´t mind this. I decided to try to spin it up to Money That Matters To Me or lose it all and didn´t sunrun, so basically I fought the law and the law won. Standard.

Anyway, just for fun I decided to check my stats in Pokertracker PLO. I was a bit surprised to see that I not only was a winner on the HU tables (that I knew), but that I was basically running right around EV in all-ins. Spontaneously I thought that the win was due to lucking out in a few all-in pots, but turns out that it wasn´t that bad.

Fast forward to last week. I once again deposit 100 USD and play HU PLO. Once again I sunrun. And get the feeling that I am a good HU PLO player (well, if I play my A-game, I am pretty sure I am a good HU PLO player, the fallacy is deeply rooted in this one), since my 100 USD quickly turns to 450 over a few sessions. So, I decide to cash out 200 USD, purely for psychological reasons and to strengthen the belief in the fallacy of the fish on a heater - after all, now if I go bust I can still live in the illusion that I am good. Because I will be up money regardless of what happens.

For a while, nothing much happens. I lose a buy-in here, win one there. Lose a big pot here, win one there. But then, all of a sudden, reality strikes. My turn check-raise bluffs suddenly don´t get folds, since I bluff into the nuts. When I hero call, the opponent has it. When I go for thin value with a non-nutted hand, I value own myself against a slightly better hand. Tilting stuff, like losing with a nine-high flush to a ten-high. I mean, I don´t mind losing to a larger flush, and the bet probably is break-even at worst (can´t be assed to calculate precisely how many combos he´d call with that I beat vs that I lose to), but one above mine? That **** just tilts me, although it shouldn´t matter - after all, if he calls me with a Q-high flush, how is that better?

Of course, I proceed to lose it all and quit my online degening a winner (at least in HU PLO). It doesn´t feel that way, since even after my cashout I had over 250 USD at the high point and now I have zero, but I started with 100 and cashed out 200. So these two days of sporadic HU grind were profitable.

I am not sure if I´ll go on tossing a hundred in on Stars when I feel bored and want to scratch the poker itch - if I do, I probably should buy a Pokertracker licence so I can track my results. Judging by the player pool, I am pretty sure I should be able to beat the games - they weren´t really tough and many players had glaring leaks to exploit. Of course, I´ll never be an online grinder, since I have the chance to bet it all for Money That Matters To Me at any given time, and that is an option I am sure to use at random times, and if I play PLO500 with one buy-in, it is basically just a matter of time before I go broke - that´s pure maths. Or I would sunrun up to something like 2-3k and cash out most of the money and start over again.

But still - these recent couple of thousand hands have actually, for the first time in like 15 years, gotten me curious to whether I actually could beat the HU games over time. However, in order to find out, I have to buy a ****ing licence for a hundred bucks, so I am not really sure what to do.

Haven´t played any live poker since my last session, and I am not sure I will in the near future - with work, kids back to school and having some sort of sports practice almost every evening, the number of free evenings is very limited and those few I have I often will want to spend on things that aren´t sitting on my ass in a casino. Like today - a friend is celebrating his birthday, my wife will be at home, so in theory I could play poker instead. But why would I want that when I can hang out with a great group of people at the pub instead?

Not much to say really, I´ve been busy with work lately and family life is also busy again, with the kid´s different sports having started up again. And our son was moved to the next level in football practice, which is nice of course, but now his practice starts at 5PM instead of 6PM (and he has a third on on 9AM Saturday as well) and coupled with swimming this means that I have changed my daily routine so I wake up before 7AM instead of around 8AM. Makes me feel a bit zombie:ish during the first part of the day, and instead of drinking 0-1 cups of coffee each morning I am now up to something like 3-4. All of this means I have had no time to play live.

Online I don´t play a lot and I have a low deposit limit set (I think it´s 200 USD/week), and I usually cash out when I have doubled my deposit. I am otherwise prone to getting bored and playing whatever high stakes I can find, so basically I keep a max of 4-5 buy-ins in my cashier at all times, even when winning. Hasn´t been a problem the past week though, I´ve basically been all-in three times and lost them all. Standard PLO situations, I managed to get it in real good every time (95%, 80%, 70%) and lose them all - **** happens. But due to these losses my playing time has been very low, since I can´t just reload and play more.

First one was quite painful, I was 170 BB deep and opponent covered - I had three-bet 9754ds, flop came 654 with two diamonds (I hold none) and I checked, opponent bet half pot, I call. Turn is a five, I check, he bets large, I re-pot since I expect to be called by worse a lot of the time here when the board pairs (and I assume that my opponent will correctly include hands like AAxx with diamonds turned to a bluff in my range), he puts me in with JJ87 and of course spikes a J on the river.

I´ll be heading to Sweden during the weekend to meet old friends and go to a football game on Sunday, hopefully I will have the chance to play some live PLO on Saturday evening. Should be fun, some rungood would be nice, otherwise I hope I´ll be able to settle into my new life routine of getting up earlier soon enough and also find some time for live degening back home. Online HU PLO is fun enough for an hour or two now and then, but I´d much rather play live. Another positive aspect of the new routine and my soon-to-be-six-year-old starting swimming school is that as long as I am the one taking him there, I´ll have at least two days a week where I get some excercise while he´s busy with the trainer. Our daughter also goes there twice a week, and my plan is to also drag my ass to the pool on Thursdays, so I can manage three days of swimming each week. The next step is to also add 2-3 days of gym and then I´ll hopefully be in much better shape in half a year or so.

But yeah, this degen is currently almost not degening at all due to life. Oh, with regards to degening, there are some positive news - me and a friend binked the Swedish horse racing pick 7 for 6,5k EUR split 50/50 last Saturday. We play each time there is a jackpot (and sometimes when not as well although we have cut down on that a lot due to the value not being there) and currently we are running very good. Last year we binked 25k, so since we started doing this something like 2,5 years ago we are probably up around 20k in total. Not bad at all.

Some Shitty Play and Some Goodrun

So, landed in Sweden on Saturday evening and headed to the poker club. No cash games running when I arrived, only a 2500 SEK (250 EUR) PLO tournament with unlimited rebuys if stack is zero and no add-on. So I sat and promptly ****ed up - was so eager to play, so I basically took one of the worst hands ever (KKKT) and tried to squeeze preflop when I sensed weakness. Well, that weakness was AA, and also a third player got it in with a random hand and won. The second bullet I lost on a multi-street bluff (I had TT87 or something along those lines - don´t remember exactly, but the flop was J98 (EDIT: I did not have TT87, TT97 maybe) and I bet my blockers over three streets and got called down by 99 with no redraws). The next bullet I managed to nurse past the rebuy period, blinds were now 400/800 and I had slightly more than 20k (starting stack 30k, average at this point maybe 50-60k, not sure). Opened AQJ9ss, got a few callers. Flop was a beautiful T87 with two spades (I hold none), checks to be, I bet and get check-raised all-in. I am in great shape as my oponent has the 96 of spades with no other redraws, the turn is a blank, but the river is the five of spades giving him a straight flush. I head back to the hotel.

The next day I hung out with my childhood friends, went to the game, then we went to the pub. When we left the pub, one of my friends said "I don´t want to go home yet, let´s go drink one last beer somewhere else" and my other friend says "you can drink a last beer at the casino", so we take a cab and head to the casino. I start of hot on roulette, then I go cold, then we just chill and hang out for a bit, I sign up for some waiting lists at the poker room, then we play some more roulette and rungood is back, then one of my friends goes home, and we play some casino Hold´em or whatever that game is called, and I run awful until I get dealt pocket aces and win back most of my losses. At around midnight my second friend leaves and I take my money (around 4000, bought in for 5500) upstairs to the poker room.

The only free seats are in 10/10 Hold´em and 10/10 PLO, I of course sit at the PLO table and man, was the game soft. Turns out rake at the 10/10 tables is 10%/max 100, which seems awful, but game was good and I ran well for a change. No real memorable hands, I did manage to win JJ99ds preflop vs Aces and some random hand. After a while the brush wants to combine the two shorthanded PLO tables, so I change to the 25/25 NLT game (which is raked at 5%/max 100) which by now is shorthanded. I join in the straddle, defend with 73s, flop is K83r, I call a small bet, turn is a low club, I call a small bet and feel that my opponent is weak, river blanks out and he bets like 350 into 1500, so I say **** it and make it 2000 to go, but he pretty quickly calls me down with KTo. Oh, well... A few hands later we are down to four players, I defend KTo in the SB, flop is KTx, checks through, turn is a Q, checks through, river is a ten, I bet 500 (almost pot) and get two callers, my hand is of course good. After this hand we play three-handed and decide to keep the straddle on every hand, so 25/25/50, but no memorable hands, I did bluff-catch with K3s - flop checked through, turn was a K and now my opponent bet, and I also tank-called on a blank river. Was a close decision, but got it right this time. This table closed at around 1:30 AM, casino closes at 2AM, so I sat for some 10/10 PLO to round up the night and managed to win a bit more. Kind of bizarre, I was in a three-bet pot with something like QJ98, flop is Q74 or something, three-bettor pots for his remaining chips (400), I re-pot to isolate and the player behind calls off his final 1000 or so. Runout was low, so I expect to lose, but turns out that my queen is good both for the side pot and the main pot. They didn´t show, so I have no idea how in hell TP with a jack kicker can be good here against both players, but hey, I´ll take it.

In the end, I cash out 8300 SEK for a profit of 2800 SEK for the night and a poker profit of around 4500 SEK. Pretty nice. What is not nice is that I have returned home with a cold. Wife has been down with a cold since Friday, not sure if I´ve caught it from her or if I´ve caught a cold or Covid or whatever during my travels/football games/casino and pub visits etc, but have a lot of work to catch up with since I took the day off yesterday and it´s pretty far from optimal not feeling too good. But hey, whatever, if you get sick, you get sick, not much to do about it.

Nice night!

To be honest, I thought that the story will end in ruin, judging by the amount of beer drunk with friends

Get well and good luck!

Yeah, I mean, I quit drinking like six years ago and these days I drink alcohol maybe twice a year at most, like at a football derby with childhood friends. But the games were soft and I ran good, so it was hard to lose money. And thanks for the wishes - today I'm feeling better, should be on my feet again tomorrow.

Fish on a Heater Confirmed

So, today I had a really nice HU PLO session - won 350 USD. So I cashed out my buy-in + 100 USD and finally bought the full version if Pokertracker and it confirms what I suspected: I am a fish on a heater! Okay, the sample size is small (3,3k hands) and HU is extremely swingy by nature, but the results show me winning 296 USD, but with a C All-In Adjusted of -41 USD. I have never used tracking software before, but I assume this means that I have run significantly above EV and that my true results EV-wise are -41 USD. Correct?

Anyway, not that bad for a massive fish.

The money I won today was basically from one player. Two hands were quite standard, one hand was poor play by me (I guess). But he was quite tilted, talking in the chat how I should play Lotto and how he had marked me as a fish, so I did what I always do and cheekily taunted him, for example pointing out that in two of the hands he got it in drawing basically dead and that maybe he should buy a Lotto ticket instead to get out of his bad run. I think he was quite tilted, since one hand he actually called me down with second pair.

First Big Hand

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 155.92 BB
BB: 138.94 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7:spade: J:diamond: 6:spade: 7:club:

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 8 BB, Hero calls 5 BB

Flop: (16 BB, 2 players) Q:heart: 3:spade: 5:diamond:
BB bets 13 BB, Hero calls 13 BB

Here I was torn between calling or folding - his bet was big, so I was not really sure whether I should continue, and on this board I feel that I should be able to represent some hands on later streets if I miss (or just c/f, w/e).

Turn: (42 BB, 2 players) 4:club:
BB checks, Hero bets 20 BB, BB calls 20 BB

So I turn the nuts, the board is rainbow and in hindsight I feel I maybe should bet bigger, however it is a dry board and I am not sure if I would bluff bigger here.

River: (82 BB, 2 players) K:diamond:
BB bets 80.5 BB, Hero raises to 114.92 BB and is all-in, BB calls 17.44 BB and is all-in

And he pots into me on the river when I still have the nuts. Thank you! (He had QQ - sorry, just saw that the results did not get copied.)

The Misplayed One

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 362.44 BB
BB: 144.86 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K:heart: 7:club: 6:heart: K:club:

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 27 BB, BB raises to 81 BB, Hero calls 54 BB

I very rarely four-bet kings, but I feel that double-suited kings with both flushdraws connecting to the king and both sidecards being connected is one of the KK-hands I can four-bet. Not sure if it is a good play though. When he comes over the top... well, I have no real idea how he plays. I´ve seen quite a few five-bet all-ins with rundowns and AKQ/AQJ-type of hands HU. Don´t love having KK against a five-bet anyway, but hey, let´s gamble or something.

Flop: (162 BB, 2 players) Q:diamond: T:heart: 8:club:
BB bets 63.86 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 63.86 BB

Can´t fold on a board like this.

Turn: (289.72 BB, 2 players) 2:diamond:

River: (289.72 BB, 2 players) 9:diamond:

Bink! (He had AA).

One More That Tilted Him


PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 142.42 BB
Hero (BB): 355.68 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J:heart: K:diamond: 2:diamond: K:club:

SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) Q:diamond: 4:spade: 8:spade:
Hero checks, SB bets 17.1 BB, Hero calls 17.1 BB

Maybe this call is too loose not having a spade? I struggle in these spots where I have three-bet pre, and I have a quite big checking range when three-betting. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. An overpair with a couple of backdoor draws is strong enough to continue with though, at least if I have a wide checking range. Otherwise I feel I will get run over too much.

Turn: (52.2 BB, 2 players) K:heart:
Hero checks, SB bets 50.7 BB, Hero raises to 202.8 BB, SB calls 65.62 BB and is all-in

River: (284.84 BB, 2 players) 5:spade:

Hero shows J:heart: K:diamond: 2:diamond: K:club: (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 63%, Flop 33%, Turn 100%)
SB shows J:club: Q:spade: 8:club: 6:diamond: (Two Pair, Queens and Eights)
(Pre 37%, Flop 67%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 283.34 BB

And the Final Dagger

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 497.56 BB
BB: 239.1 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T:spade: 7:spade: 8:club: T:heart:

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 7 BB, Hero calls 4 BB

Flop: (14 BB, 2 players) 5:spade: 9:club: 6:heart:
BB bets 4.38 BB, Hero calls 4.38 BB

Turn: (22.76 BB, 2 players) 3:diamond:
BB bets 19 BB, Hero raises to 59 BB, BB calls 40 BB

River: (140.76 BB, 2 players) K:spade:
BB bets 122.54 BB, Hero raises to 245.08 BB, BB calls 46.18 BB and is all-in

Hero shows T:spade: 7:spade: 8:club: T:heart: (Straight, Nine High)
(Pre 40%, Flop 92%, Turn 100%)
BB shows K:diamond: 4:spade: K:club: 2:club: (Straight, Six High)
(Pre 60%, Flop 8%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 476.7 BB

This one played itself. At first I thought he got it in with just the set of kings OTR, but when I checked the HH I saw that he turned the low end of the straight.

EDIT: Not sure why the symbols for the suits don´t show?

I mean, I almost feel sorry for the guy - stacked him again, got it in good again.

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 135.58 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3 4 A A

SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 6 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) A K 9
Hero bets 17.1 BB, SB calls 17.1 BB

Wouldn´t say that this play is standard for me in this spot, but against this player I thought that I could get it in good by just bombing...

Turn: (52.2 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, SB bets 25 BB, Hero raises to 73.9 BB and is all-in, SB calls 48.9 BB

...and checking the turn. After I check, he obliges with a bet and in the money goes.

River: (200 BB, 2 players) 7

Hero shows 3 4 A A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 59%, Flop 65%, Turn 75%)
SB shows 8 Q 8 J (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 41%, Flop 35%, Turn 25%)
Hero wins 198.5 BB

Such rungood can´t last forever against one player I guess - a while later he got me with a two-outer. Was actually pretty close to folding the river, not many worse boats he can have and bluffing over my raise with such shallow stacks would be suicidal, however I couldn´t bring my self to fold. Wrote in the chat "Guess you rivered the king on me this time", but as it turns out, you can´t chat while someone is all-in so the message went unsent (no use sending it after I call).

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 231.58 BB
BB: 84.92 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9 7 6 9

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 9 6 8
BB checks, Hero bets 5.7 BB, BB raises to 11.4 BB, Hero calls 5.7 BB

Turn: (28.8 BB, 2 players) 8
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (28.8 BB, 2 players) K
BB checks, Hero bets 27.36 BB, BB raises to 70.52 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 43.16 BB

BB shows K K Q 2 (Full House, Kings full of Eights)
(Pre 60%, Flop 32%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows 9 7 6 9 (Full House, Nines full of Eights)
(Pre 40%, Flop 68%, Turn 95%)
BB wins 167.96 BB

Last post with hands, will stop spamming afterwards, but man, am I running good tonight or what?

So, I said that you can´t run good against a player forever... well, this hand points to the contrary. What I figured was a bluff raise on turn was actually for value, and then we both hit our straight on the river, but mine was better:

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 111.6 BB
BB: 228.7 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 7 3 T

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) J 5 4
BB bets 2.5 BB, Hero calls 2.5 BB

Turn: (11 BB, 2 players) 9
BB bets 6.9 BB, Hero raises to 18 BB, BB calls 11.1 BB

River: (47 BB, 2 players) 8
BB checks, Hero bets 45.5 BB, BB calls 45.5 BB

Hero shows 5 7 3 T (Straight, Jack High)
(Pre 45%, Flop 56%, Turn 80%)
BB mucks 7 A 6 4 (Straight, Nine High)
(Pre 55%, Flop 44%, Turn 20%)
Hero wins 136.5 BB

A bit later some random guy chose to donate close to 150BB:

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 290.98 BB
Hero (BB): 146.52 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A A 2

SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB raises to 27 BB, Hero raises to 81 BB, SB calls 54 BB

Flop: (162 BB, 2 players) 4 K 3
Hero bets 65.52 BB and is all-in, SB calls 65.52 BB

Turn: (293.04 BB, 2 players) 8

River: (293.04 BB, 2 players) T

Hero shows A A A 2 (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 56%, Flop 73%, Turn 85%)
SB shows 7 6 9 7 (One Pair, Sevens)
(Pre 44%, Flop 27%, Turn 15%)
Hero wins 291.54 BB

And then there was this hand, which is actually semi-interesting, but OTR I bet small since I thought this particular player might figure that for weakness and pull the trigger:

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 574.88 BB
Hero (BB): 350.62 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 3 6 7 2

SB raises to 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB raises to 27 BB, Hero calls 18 BB

Flop: (54 BB, 2 players) 3 2 Q
Hero checks, SB bets 17.32 BB, Hero calls 17.32 BB

Turn: (88.64 BB, 2 players) 8
Hero checks, SB checks

River: (88.64 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 22 BB, SB raises to 76.58 BB, Hero calls 54.58 BB

SB shows T 9 A 7 (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 70%, Flop 17%, Turn 10%)
Hero shows 3 6 7 2 (Full House, Threes full of Twos)
(Pre 30%, Flop 83%, Turn 90%)
Hero wins 240.3 BB

So, I checked my PT stats - not really sure to make of them, but right now I have won 469 USD in 3705 hands, with a C All-In Adjusted of +105 USD. So, do I understand this correctly - for the past 3.7k hands I have been running 7 buyins above EV? I´ll take it. Not sure how the stats work though, I see one sharp line in the graph where both my win and my all-in adjusted increases with +129 USD, does this mean that I won a huge pot when my opponent was drawing dead, ie I had 100% equity?

For the past 600 hands, I am up nine buy-ins. Sweet.

I have really no real idea what to make of the graph and what it means, will need to look into that. Not that interested in putting in a lot of hours studying theory, but would be nice to be able to understand what the data that the program outputs means and maybe draw some conclusions from it. Well, I am sure it shows that I am a big fish, but don´t need a computer to tell me that to know!

Anyway, here is my graph. And now that I posted my first ever Pokertracker graph on 2+2, am I allowed to call myself a poker pro?

Actually, This Pokertracker Thing is Fun

So, now that I finally splashed out my massive winnings on a registered copy of Pokertracker, I have been spending some time looking into the data and just browsing through hands and so on. Figured that now that I am a Certified Online Pro (tm) this is the least that I can do. Basically I have understood that in August, I was just a super-luckbox (+227 won, -230 EV adjusted), but then I didn´t have Pokertracker and wasn´t a pro. Now in September I have Pokertracker and am a pro, so now I am playing solid, winning poker, 218 USD won. Of course, since I turned pro I am also running bad, since my EV-Adjusted winnings should be +237 USD for September. Really hoping to turn this horrible cold streak around soon. In September I am making 21,83 USD/hour, less than I make running my day job, but still good enough to justify evenings of degening HU PLO. My true all-in adjusted win rate is however higher so I expected to make 23+ USD per hour soon. The sample size is for September is a massive 1550 hands, so yeah, I am pretty sure I am a certified pro crusher.

But on a more serious note, what makes HU PLO so hard to grasp for me is that it is hard to understand if a play was good, or if it just worked due to luck - the opponent just not having it in that particular hand. Also the dynamics are changing rapidly and I feel it is more important to try to figure out if a particular player is, for example, tilted and how that will affect his play. Will he get it in more lightly? Bluff more? Bluff less and tighten up?

Maybe I am just overthinking it, the players I play against play perfect GTO against me and I soon will start losing. Probably so. But for now I find the HU PLO streets interesting enough to keep me busy, and browsing through Pokertracker actually does make some things clearer to me. And it feels good that I am, at least for the month of September, playing winning poker (or just running good, whatever).

When it comes to live poker, September will be a dead month. Except for my splashing around in Sweden, I won't have time to play at least until the end of the month/start of October. This week wifey is away having fun in Budapest, so have to juggle my job and two kids and their extracurricular activities, on Friday I'll go out with a friend and next week I'll probably be bogged down at work. So not really sure when I'll have the chance to dazzle the casino with my new Certified Online Pro (tm) plays, but when I'll have that chance I'll make sure to write it up.

The sample is quite small, especially for PLO, especially for HU PLO.

But it's great that you are able to extract useful things from the Poker Tracker and become better