As I sit here listening to some Zeppelin and drinking my morning cup of coffee, I'm reminded of my days back home. I don't listen to much rock music, however, my good friends back home turned me on to the classic artists like Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. They would get a little tired of my constant love for and playing of hip hop. Shout out to you dorks as I know you are probably checking in at least casually. "Letting the Led out" is what we would call our infrequent mornings waking up and jamming out to some Zeppelin when everyone was feeling good despite being a bit hungover from the night prior. These were infrequent simply due to it being rare that we were all feeling both good and hungover at the same time. Good times then and still good times now.

Well, I didn't wake up hungover this morning but instead in a real state of zen from my weekend. Over the last two days I just felt really comfortable at all times while playing and the bigger pots seemed to be handled with relative ease. Very Zen as I said which is crucial for my development. I did get a bit uncomfortable when I had about 850 on the table and was sandwiched in between to pretty good players that each had 600 so I decided to pick up at the point. This is just something I will eventually get over as my development continues. My play was pretty consistent over the 16 or so hours between Friday/Saturday and my patience when card dead was on point. This is very important in 1/2. It's very easy to just start playing speculative hands when you have been folding for 3 hours straight. A nice table change can be all you need to get out of your funk and is usually the right move when you haven't played a hand in forever and your image sucks. I did just this on Friday and my two big hands came later in the evening at the best table in the room.

Hand 1:

UTG straddle for $5

Hero is MP1 and there are two Asian guys that have been battling every hand. I sat down not too long ago and have probably seen 20-25 hands but have not been involved yet. There are some other big stacks at the table. Villain 1 is in MP3 and has been playing about every hand whether raising or calling off with garbage. I've already seen him dump like 600 and keep reloading.

$300 effective

Hero is dealt KK

Hero: Raises to 25
V1: reraises to 75

folds around

Excellent for me as I decide to 4 bet. I ended up 4 betting to 150 and he called which left him with about ~150 going into the flop. In retrospect I wish I would have went to around 175 so he would have less chips left and probably stack off more on the flop.

Flop: (295)

AT5

I wait for about 15 seconds and shove and he folds. After the hand I felt like this was a mistake, but I'm not really sure. The guy could have like any 2 it seemed like which most likely means I want to get it in here. I don't know though because afterwards I kept feeling like i just spazzed and was mad there was A out there on my first 4 bet since getting out here. However, if I indeed want to get it in here would check calling a shove be best? What then if he doesn't shove. He was playing loose but could think I have AA with that check or something. I'm giving him a free card on somewhat drawy board. IDK...this hand made my head spin for the rest of the night when I got home. Thoughts?

Hand 2:

This was just a simple three streets of value which worked perfectly. The hand played itself. It also why it is important to obviously play at looser tables because people never give you respect at these types of 1/2 tables. Even if you are running at like 10/8.

Hero is in MP with KK
Villain 1 has been pretty active since sitting down but seems like a decent player.

~450 effective

Limps to hero who raises to 15. V1 calls in the CO and it folds around.

Flop (30)

TT5

I bet 22 and he calls.

Turn (72)

T

I wait for about 15 seconds. Bet 45 and he calls.

River (162)

2

Great board runout for me.

I wait for another 15 seconds and bet 100 and he calls quickly and flips over 66 and I scoop the pot. I was putting him on a hand like 55-99 so I don't know how much more I could have got out of him. Given that he called rather quickly I probably could have got 20 more or so out of him but I don't really consider this as a mistake.

Some Chip Pron for you mafuggas. In for 400.




These updates take me forever for some reason haha. These hands were from my Friday session. I'm gonna try and post some more hands later from last night.

Thanks for reading.

Glad to have you in here. Thanks for reading!

Got my steak that I did tonight already posted:

One of my best yet.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...ostcount=16972

I took today off to chill and watch the Pacers game. WE GOT THIS ****! EZ game....Hibbert is back to himself and we had a sick balance tonight with our scoring...legggggoooo!

I'm also taking tomorrow off as I usually do with Mondays to take care of some administrative stuff. Laundryg Groceries, and finances will all be tackled hopefully. I'm stockin up on everything while the heat is bearable because I don't want to be going out two much when it is hotter than ****. Then I plan to be back on it Tuesday. Great finish to my best week poker-wise since arriving in Vegas. Crossing my fingers for another positive week!

Interesting thread, I'm from Cincinnati which is right down the road, have played at Indiana live a couple times, goodluck

Hey congrats on the solid week. I am fine with the shove in H1, he might look you up with TT-QQ. H2 sizing looks good probably got max value there.

I lost a fairly big hand last week due to terribad spew, and haven't played since. I spent the latter half of last week plugging some life leaks and have been mentally preparing myself for the series.

The plan as of right now is to begin hittin the tables hard tomorrow evening. I'm trying to change my sleep schedule up a bit so I can focus primarily on playing a 6pm-4am schedule for the duration of the series. My first 68ish hours will be at Planet Hollywood and need to be completed by June 5th so I can grab their promo. From June 5th-July 14th I am setting my goal at 300 hours and will be playing all over town. This is gonna be tough for me to accomplish especially since my volume up to this point has been low, but I truthfully need the challenge. I'm happy with my progress up to this point and am excited for tomorrow when the Series officially kicks off with the employee event. Here's to the beginning of what will be a great summer! Leggggooooo!!

Keep updating even if things start going poorly, gotta keep that confidence

2.75/300


First session in the books...did well but was losing my focus a bit towards the 3 hour mark so I came home to eat and prepare some food for tomorrow. Since it was the first the first day of the WSOP I decided to head over there and check out the pavilion. Pretty sweet setup and it's really cool to see all those tables in the massive room all for poker...and that was just one of 1/3 rooms. I was thinking about heading over to PH to play but have decided back to the RIO it is. So hard to pass up when it's less than a minute to drive there.

Ay yo Jock! I'm calling you out! First one to complete our PH promotion. I have 47.8 hours out of 100. I need extra motivation to grind it out. Hows your progress so far and would you be interested in a prop bet?

4.75/300

Not as much grinding as I would have liked in my session last night, however, I was able to meet Anlivedonkey, Kentucky, and another one of their buddies and chill with them for a bit which was cool. It's nice to have some other country dudes out here attackin the West Coast with me. Felt just like home lol.

Last night I was seated at 1/2 in the Pavillion and Bryan Micon decided to sit down. I know this guy is viewed as a bit of prick but he was hilarious with his table talk. He was playing rather loose and up until this hand the only play I had made on him was 3 betting his $6 open to 30 and cbetting a king high flop to which he folded.

V1: Micon. Obvioulsy below his normal stakes and he is just playing for fun, however, I know he still has a deep understanding of the game. Had been raising a lot.

2: This guy had been sitting next to me earlier and was there to play Event 4 later in the week. Once he found out who Micon was he kept whispering to the guy next to me that all those chips in front of Bryan were going to be his by the end of the night. He was playing a lot of pots in position and seemed to know what he was doing.

Hero: TAG, haven't played too many pots since Micon sat down. A couple raises in position to take pots down preflop and the aforementioned KJs hand where I 3 bet him.

~300 Effective.

Hero is in SB with AQ
V1 is in CO
V2 is on Button.

Button Straddle to 6.

Preflop (10)

Hero: raises to 30
V1: 3 bets to 70
V2: cold calls 70

I think for a bit and try to find the best play here. Calling is pretty weak as I'm oop with a not so great hand against 2 opponents. Folding also seems week but in hindsight is probably what I should have done here since I hadn't seen Micon 3 bet like this yet. Either way I am only crushed by AA, KK, QQ, and AK. There is 150 in the pot already and I definitely don't put Villain 2 on any combination of the above 4 hands outside AK which I believe he will fold if I 4-bet. I decided after about 40 seconds to ship over the top and get snap called by Micon and the other guy throws in a call as well.

Micon flips Aces and dodges the board runout and scoops.

As I said I think my proper play is to just fold pre after I get 3 bet. I'm having a lot of trouble finding the fold against looser players the last couple weeks and this is costing me money. However, I am still not sure my shove was completely wrong given the amount of money in the pot and the fact that these guys are atypical 1/2 players and don't always have AA/KK in this situation like most players would. I really have no idea though so I am posting it to get thoughts. It should also be noted that I am having a bit of trouble playing with button straddles as I've never had to do that before. Should I just be playing this AQs out of the SB the same way I would as if I was UTG? (since I am acting first preflop in this instance due to the button straddle) I would definitely raise this to 30 if I was UTG+1 against and UTG straddle so I figured this situation was pretty similar.

I'll be back on the felt tonight trying to get in some hours. Hopefully I can turn it around.

I think something that will help with playing in straddled pots is too understand what the straddle is. It is a blind bet, kind of like the small and big blind. So essentially the eff stack is cut in half (or more if its a ridiculous straddle like PH's $50 straddle). With the $300 stack and a $6 straddle (big big blind), you have approximately 50bb's. Now you just have to make an adjustment on how to play that 50bb's most optimally vs the V's ranges (people adjust weirdly in straddled pots, some looser, some tighter so it is hard to know). And yeah, I guess the SB being the new UTG is a good way to look at it, not sure on the actual answer to that.

*usually nits don't straddle and people who straddle are "action guys" so I tend to give more value to medium PP's and good broadways*

Your raise to $30, I don't really like unless V is a drooler that is calling anything and you are just super punishing for value but I think a $20-$24 raise is much better just because how it sets up stacks/leveraging. I'm leaning toward $20. $30 leaves too much dead money out to dry on your part.

But overall, I say this is like a borderline cooler that V woke with AA here, esp with the crazy cold calling $70.

8.75/300

Went to war last night. I had been rather talkative at the table chattin up tourists my last couple sessions and it was causing my focus to dwindle. I'm gonna leave the becoming a social butterfly at the tables until I am not making any mistakes and confident in my ability to crush the games. So I threw the headphones in...doubled up and then played good, solid, patient poker through about 3 hours of being card dead ended up a 1.5 buyin winner. The Pacers stayed alive also. Overall great day.

15.25/300

Got in some good hours yesterday and played really well. I still seem to be a little card dead preflop. However, I have flopped sets twice the last couple days in pots that I raised in LP and have been paid off in both. This makes it rather hard to complain. Also got to hang with Anlivedonkey and Kentucky again and watch some bball and just chill. It was good to relax for a bit and talk a little poker strat in between my sessions. I ended up playing 3 smaller ones in the afternoon/evening/graveyard (RIO, PH, RIO) and won a bit in all 3. My net overall was a little more than a buy-in for the day and more importantly my play was patient yet aggressive in the right spots. Everything was pretty much standard though so there aren't really any hands to share.

One thing to definitely note were the antics of one particular gentleman. Planet Hollywood brings out some awesome characters late night. He had a Minnesota Wild Jersey draped over his lanky frame and would stand up and yell the names of hockey players when he won all-ins. It was truly spectacular. "Gretzky" he screamed at the top of lungs as he stood up, walked to the side of the table, and did what I can only characterize as a mixture between these two vids.






It was somewhere in between and had the bowling-like swipe of Terio while extending towards the heavens like TWoods. It was incredible. This would later be followed by a "Crosby" which he promptly yelled again following doubling up his second buy-in. Raising every pot and playing it to the max would quickly catch up with though. It was sad to see him go.


In other news, the Pacers try to extend the series again tonight so I will definitely be watching that. I was channeling my inner Lance Stephenson and talking some **** last night to donkey and kentucky (Heat fans) so hopefully they don't let me down. Then, it's out to play poker. Where? I have no clue, but it is so awesome to just go over to the RIO because it is so close and there are so many tables. This is nullified by the fact that the games don't seem to be as good. Small sample though. Decisions, Decisions...

Thanks for reading.

Pacers lost.... Ha ha ... Ha

22.25/300


Nothing feels better than finishing a session in the green after dropping a bunch in the first hour due to solid play. I opened KK in lp and ran into a flopped 2 pair right when I sat down last night. This sucked, however, I was amazed at the level of zen I have developed. Just 2 weeks ago this would have ended my night and I would have returned home. This is some major bitch mentality and I am ashamed of it but it is indeed the truth. Last night though, I feel like a great leap was made. I didn't even bat any eye. Once, I went over the hand in my head and realized there was nothing I could do about it the move was made to top up and get back to work! I did just that and dug from a 300 hole to a half buy-in winner. Following this, I returned home to eat dinner and chill for a bit. I kinda was being lazy but pushed myself back out to PH and played a short little graveyard session with Kentucky and Varx. It wasn't too profitable but resulted in a small win which I'm definitely happy about.

In other news the Pacers got smashed (suck one Donkey lmao), but it is a bit of a relief as I can now finally focus all my energy on poker. Let's be real, they were gonna get obliterated by the Spurs if they made it anyways.

Also, my sleep schedule if finally fixed. I had a little laugh with Duke this morning via text about my sleep schedule being "fixed" now that I'm finally waking up at 4 PM. Right now, my morning cup of coffee is in my hand accompanying me during my typical 2 hour web browsing that has become somewhat of a staple in my routine. I will then make a nice 6 PM "breakfast" and can't wait to hit the tables. Saturdays are always awesome. Hopefully, I'll see some of you out tonight as the World Series is now in full swing. PM me your numbers bros and as always...

Thanks for reading.

28/300

Got in two short sessions yesterday that were separated by dinner. I was sad to cut the first session short as the deck was smacking me. The reason that leaving seemed appropriate was due to the fact that my focus was dwindling simply because of how much I was winning. I got involved in like 3 big spots in a matter of 30 minutes and was replaying the hands in my head wondering if I got max value. This led to me losing my focus on the game. It's still early in my poker career so it's not bad to get overly excited and replay these big hands that were won in my head, however, I hope and anticipate to get better at remaining level and even keel. This has been happening naturally with each session, but there is obviously still work to do in this department

So far I have ~66.5/100 hours completed at PH for the tournament promotion. Varx has been there loggin late night hours and pushing me to complete it which is nice to have. He's a fun dude to be around with a great passion for the game and is a hard ass worker. I'm anticipating us moving up through the ranks together. Can't believe I have any thing good to say about that punk after he done called me out!!! LOL

Time to eat breakfast and grind these promo hours. Leggggoooo!

32/300

Master of the short sessions. Back at the crib eating and chilling for a couple hours before I make my return to the tables. In these 4 hours of play I made......$13. 0 interesting spots, but I was really happy with my patience as I had been cardracking the last couple days and was wondering how I was gonna handle coming back down to earth preflop. I did well but must continue....

37.75/300

I was able to get a nice session in during the graveyard hours at PH. I ended up leaving at around 5:45 AM once my table got really reggy. I didn't feel as sharp as I needed to be to make what were definitely gonna be some tough post flop decisions at the table so I picked up. The session consisted of only a couple minor mistakes which is relieving yet proves there is still a lot of work to be put in at getting better. It was a really fun night overall as I was joined by Donkey, Kentucky, and Varx. We were all in there late night putting in some hours. They all sat 2/5 and I kept eyeing that table and can't wait to make the leap. There is still no way that I would feel comfortable playing in that game and especially with 3 people who I know for sure are good. Somehow the PH promotion is really in reach now. I'm at ~80/100 hours after last night and am really happy with my work ethic over the past week. There was a point last week where I was trying to convince myself that I didn't really care about the promotion but given my roll it is just so stupid to pass up on free tournament buyins...one of the tournaments could literally seriously jumpstart my poker career if I was to go to deep so ya....like I said...stupid. I'll be back at PH in a few hours for more grinding!

41.5/300

Got in another short session at PH. Ended up about half a buy-in and played really well. I don't really recall any glaring mistakes that I made which is nice, however, there was a stressful spot that developed (well at least stressful for me considering these kind of things don't happen against me much).

V1: Mid 20's guy who sat down about 20 hands ago. He has already made a couple raises and has moved seats to get more on the left of the most active player at the table. I peg him as a far above average opponent for these stakes. I try to not sit with people who will exploit me too much but sometimes there are a couple on every table (I've noticed even more of this since it's WSOP time) on every table and there is nothing you can do.

Hero: I've raised a couple times and taken both pots down which he has seen. I raise bigger preflop than most players and this creates an interesting dynamic when there are a couple limpers because the better players, even the not so good ones for that matter, at the table believe I am trying to steal often...or at least it seems they do.

V1 is in the SB and Hero is in the HJ. 9 handed

340 effective.

Preflop (3): Hero is dealt QQ

UTG calls
UTG+1 calls
Hero raises to 19
SB calls
UTG folds
UTG+1 folds

Flop (40): J96

Hero bets 24
V1 raises to 80

Hero tanks and thinks for a bit. I definitely think I have this particular player beat here. It seems his range is capped at AJ, but he could also easily be doing this with a flush draw or even air as it is a dangerous flop for me. I take a look at his stack and try to figure what I want to reraise to and finally decide on 180. This leaves me 120 behind to shove any non dangerous turn which isn't a ton and this is where I need help. These spots are kind of awkward for me so what's the opinion on my reraise sizing? He tanked for like a 1.5 minutes and folded asking me if I had a set of 99s.

Thoughts?

This happened towards the end of my session and overall I was happy with how I played the hand. I am getting better with each and every hour at feeling out the game flow and how certain types of players react to my play. It seems a lot of the young guns love to try and exploit me at any given opportunity, but they do this to everyone else also so that is fine. It has been a real relief to have left my ego at the door when I walk in to play cards. I don't think of the people I play with as fish really but instead try and respect the fact that each player at the table can outplay me in any given hand. Yes...even at 1/2. I mean sure if someone is calling every raise and bet then I will label them as a station in my head but even these guys can own me in pots. I have yet to sit down and think: "I'm the best player at this table..." Some would say this is bad but I believe it is realistic. I can promise you that I am an insanely competitive person when it comes to any sport or game. What I do know is that this "leaving my ego at the door" keeps me on my toes and has helped me pay attention. Even such, my focus usually seems to run out around the 3.5-5 hr mark and I am hoping that this increases as I get better and better. Taking more breaks while playing will help also.

Anyways, now I have to put the above into action again. Whenever I seem to verbalize or write that I am doing good at something to a friend or on the boards there is always a reminder waiting right around the corner to smack me in the face and show me that I indeed was not as good as I thought at said subject. The result is usually me failing at it the very next session. So now I have a part of my game to really try and continue to develop tonight when I get back in the card room.

Well that enough ranting. Right now, I'm about to listen to some music, eat dinner, and chill for a bit before I hit the tables again. For the PH promo I'm at ~83.75/100 hours and I can taste it. Just have to make sure that I focus and don't play bad while trying to achieve the goal.

Also, I know there aren't a ton of subscribers...but stop by and say hey if you read the thread and will be at PH tonight. All the 2p2ers I've met out here so far have been really nice guys so I'm looking forward to meeting more. I'll be in a white T-Shirt and a blue North Carolina hat. Gl to all those grinding in the Mecca tonight. Let's get it!

48/300

Well the first week of the WSOP is in the books and I am very happy with both my play and volume up to this point. I now have 95/100 PH Promo hours finished so I just need 5 more hours by Thursday at midnight which will be easy. I wasn't too keen about finishing this promo when I was around 40ish hours because I've never really played a live tourney and don't know if I have what it takes to remained focused and zoned in for 10 hours straight over a couple days span. However, I decided that since I have been slacking with volume that I needed motivation and chasing the promo really helped push me. This coupled with the fact that I had pretty solid success in MTTs/SNGs back in my online days made it a no brainer.

This was my biggest week of volume ever which is great. I spewed a little bit in last nights session, but we were shorthanded for a lot of it and this is not my strong suit. I got out of my comfort zone a bit which was good but ended up spewing in some bad spots. I still have trouble towing the line between playing a lot of hands yet not spewing in these said hands. This manifests into me continuing bluffs even when bad cards hit turn and river because I inherently don't bluff a lot at 1/2. So when a bluff is being run...I feel like I have to see it through to the end. This will probably get better with time. At least hopefully. Last night also busted up my 11 session win streak. 11 straight winning sessions tied my longest streak since arriving in Vegas and now it's time to start a new one and reach 12.

I just woke up and am getting going and am not really sure if I'll be playing today or not. I kind of want a break but really have been enjoying playing each and every night and getting in a nice routine so I may be out and about here in a couple hours. It's great to be on track with my goal after 1 week, but I can't take this for granted. Just because I worked hard and ran well 1 week does not mean this will continue forever. It's all on me to keep working hard and I'm ready for the challenge. We'll see what happens....

GL to all those out there grinding tournaments and cash today in the beautiful Las Vegas. Maybe I'll see some of you out and about tonight.

48/300

Didn't end up playing today. It was a good time to take a break as I had spewed in my last session and haven't played as many hours as I did in the last week ever. I felt completely drained and ran some errands, did some laundry, and watched some Netflix. It was a good day of rest and it has me ready to get back on there and print that paper. I'll be back at PH sometime today to finish my hours for their promo and hopefully will start the week off right with some solid play.

52/300

PH PROMO FINISHED. So I received 1160 in tourney buy-ins for this including a an entry into the $560 main event. Perhaps a nice deep run and roll boost? Only played 4 hours yesterday but am going to get back at it tonight. Chilled with Donkey a bit last night and talked about a lot of poker related content which was cool. Always nice to pick the brain of those that have been "bout this life" for a while.

I'll be back at it today, but I'm really having trouble deciding where to play now that the PH hours are finished. Their games are usually pretty good, but I kind of want to explore around and play different rooms. Currently I'm sitting here in limbo and can't decide haha. One thing is for certain....I need to crush volume these next 3 days.

Feeling solid after nap and a shower. Heading to Rio to grind graveyard!

NJ knocking out that PH promo!

So basically if you call the $80, the pot is $160+$40 = $200 and the effective stacks are $220. You could actually just shove there on the flop and you may even get called more often than going to $180, because it adds flush draws to your range.

However, I think I'd flat the $80 and plan to shove over his turn bet on any non-spade and non-A/K for sure. I'd probably shove over the K but not the A if he fires on both. If we flat, the turn is an A/K and he slows down, that's a tough spot and we probably have to shove on it. If the turn is a spade, we may be inclined to draw to the Q high flush, but have to evaluate whether he'd do this with a smaller flush draw or always has the A high or K high.

Just wanted to give you some thoughts on that since you asked... Keep up the good work man!