Been grinding like crazy this past week and its been a little rough, been on somewhat of a downswing. After 120 hours this month I have only posted a positive of 1500 which I am not to happy with.

I think I suffered from a case of winners tilt a little bit this month, I was playing so well majority of the month including in my losing sessions but there would always be 1-2 hands where I would spew off 100-150$ a session dbl barreling with ****ty equity or 3bet calling with marginal holdings (AQ, KJ)

During this downswing I have put a lot of work in studying my online game and just playing more volume online. A couple things that I have learned that I am taking to my live game that will only improve is that I am opening to loose from the Btn and CO when there are limpers especially in live. Online I am cbetting to much in 3bet pots and not checking enough overall. This also translates to my live game, I am cbetting to often in multi-way pots when I hold little equity or the board texture just smashes my opponents range.

The ambitious side of me was quite frustrated with this past week as I was off to such a promising month $ wise and it has come down to a crash. My goal of 5k this month which seemed so close and in reach just a week ago seems impossible with only one week left in the month.

Some positives that I want to take away while I am here. My B-D game has improved drastically this month. I am able to play overall more solid for a longer period of time. I have improved on finding some of my leaks in both my live and online play. This is just going to help me improve moving forward.

My live stake is about to be up and I am contemplating moving on to play on my own again, splitting the profit of such low months just seems so ugh considering the work I am putting in. On the flip side I will be further away from playing 2/5 which is a reason to not.

Taking the day off today, going to the movies to watch Deadpool and just relax, but back to the grind next week. going to have a goal of playing my A game each and everyday, not barreling pots with low equity and just all around avoiding any sort of spew.


Babs

Overall yesterday was a winning day, lost 5 BI's online at NL50 and then won 2 at Nl25. Went off to the casino and won 650$ playing 1/2 for a couple of hours.

I had just recently listened to a Bart Hansen podcast about concentration and he had proposed a challenge about concentrating full on for 5 straight hands, picking up little tendencies that opponents will do based on preflop, board texture and position. When he first proposed this in the podcast I thought that duh I do this all the time, but after yesterday I realize that I will look down at my phone when not in a hand and miss half the actions.

This added concentration on the table helped me to get more involved in the game, chatting up the regs creating action. Picking up reads etc. Going on forward I plan to really focus on all hands that are being played and leave my phone behind. Little things like someones calling tendencies on the river etc are things that I may have been missing in the past.

For some reason I cannot seem to crush both avenues in one day, if i crush online then i lose at live and vice versa. Hoping this is just a phase and its not true that I cannot adapt my game back and forth as I see fit.

I am quite happy with the results over the past week. I feel that I am often playing my A game now and it is resulting in wins where there used to be losses. I am currently on a 6 session livr winning streak. To top it off i am most certainly running below EV in all in situations.

Yesterday was a prime example of how playing solid when running bad needs to be so much more of my focus then when I am running good. There was an interesting hand that played different yesterday then normal but i couldnt find a fold

I straddle button and there are 6 callers, i was distracted speaking to the waitress and the dealer yells at me that it was my turn and i see all the limps and check blind. I thenook down at 88 which in normal situation would probably of been a raise to 30.

Flop comes 10 8 5 r
Checks to me and i bet 20 amd get 3 callers

Turn is an A which i think is a money card as it makes 2ps and fish who limp big A will of hit.

Bb leads out for 105 and fish calls all in then action on me bb has 280 behind and i cover. This particular villain i have played a fair amount with and she never bluffs in these spots and this is Always 2p+ my image to her tho is bluffy. I tank for about 10 seconds and shove. I think i like flatting better as a shove might only be called when crushed but idk. She calls

Turns out she had AA for a slowplay damn did that blind check cost me as she would have def limp raised if i raised my button in which i wouldfold cux ive seen her do thst with KK+ before.

After losing teo flop all ins as big favourite i still managed a +350 day thanks to a great game to put my month live winnings up to 3200

Taking today off and will play a last session tomorroe, hoping march will be better for my online play so i can finally have a 5k month as im falling behind on my 60k goalfor the year

Had a slow end to the month and didn't really play the last two days of the month.

end results were not were I wanted them to be, 3050$ made live and break even online.

The live results were fairly solid but only made about 19$/hr which is lower than I want and I know there were a day or two where I lost a few hundred that could have been avoided. As for online I really need to break through on this, this is going to be the difference in being able to make 5k a month and not.


Starting the month off with some online grinding and yesterday was a +330 day online playing a mix of NL50 and NL25. Back to fully playing NL50 and once I get my BR back over 1k will be playing NL100 again. Being able to establish myself at that stake will allow me to have bigger months

Not sure if running bad or running good


This has been a question that has been on my mind for a little bit when playing live lately. Yesterday was a prime example of it. Let me start by stating that I am definitely without a doubt playing some of the best poker of my life right now. I am no longer playing with my backers when it comes to live and it has been somewhat of a weight lifted off my shoulders. I am responsible for everything and need to be accountable to myself and myself only.

Currently on a big winning streak live and have won 8/9 sessions however most of the scores are in the 200-300 range some lower and some higher.

Yesterday morning I wake up early and decide its time to check out what the overnight games at the Villa are like. The BBJ there is closing in on 500,000$ so I plan to keep putting more hours in there as that jackpot is bringing people out of the woodwork to play. I get there and 2 tables going at 8am and I sit down at a table where the avg stack is about 500$, I buyin for max 300$ and the game is good right from the start very fishy. One fish is running like the sun and has an almost 3k stack and i've watched him add at least 500$ on when this hand happens.

MP raises to 10$ 2 callers and I'm on the cutoff with 99 and have a stack of about 330$ i choose to raise to 30$ to try and isolate this hand. Sure enough SB calls BB(FISH) calls two limps call. Did i mention this is a juicy game?

Flop comes 9d 10d Ax bingo for me, as this was pretty much one of few flops where I can continue. Checks to me IP and i bet 75$, Sb thinks for a little bit and shoves (160) and then bb calls. When action comes back to my a shove and its another 180~ for the bb to call and he snaps. turn x river 8d and bb shows 43dd for the flush and he scoops. Damn lost a close to a 1k pot coulda had a 1hr day!

game stays loose for a while and i manage to build stack up to 500$ a lot of the fish leave and the game gets kinda nittier. Then this hand happens. Limped pot i complete sb with 78cc

flop comes 8x 9c 10c fish #1 is thinking when fish#2 bets out of turn 10$, fish #1 chooses to check to allow the bet to stand, i'm next to act and just call. goes back to fish#1 and he shoves 55$ total fish #2 then shoves for 110$ total. I'm lol priced in and call. I Brick the runout and fish #1 tables K10o and fish #2 J10o missed another one.

Hand #3 happens a couple hands later, J10 fish limps i'm next to act and have KK and raise to 12 in EP. i get 4 callers and then J10 fish raises to 60$. She only has about 80$ left behind and our table two hands prior had just had KK > AA so it can't happen again right? i reraise her all in everyone folds and sure enough KK vs AA and i lose when she flops a set.

All of this is happening and I'm only down 300$ from my original buyin as overall i think I'm playing well.

More time goes by and after being caught bluffing the megafish on table with the bottom of my range when I knew he was weak (he called my with 3rd pair 4 kicker) this hand happens:

TAG raises to 10 MP and fish calls I call in the bb with 76ss my image at this time is hard LAG as whenever I don't raise the table comments wow no raise this time?.

Flop comes Q 9 6 r i check to TAG he bets 15 fish calls i call.

turn is 7 brining 2nd diamond i check tag bets 20 fish calls i raise to 55$ (i like to do this raise as most people fold or call anyway and i'm not 100% sure my hand is best right now. Tag folds and then fish tanks for about 45 seconds before calling. river is a 2x best card in the deck for me IMO and i bet almost all my stack 120$ leaving 35$ behind. Fish then shoves and i'm like wtf?? I have to call now i guess. Fish tables KQo and I win nice dbl up.


I get KK for the 3rd time today and raise it to 12$ KQo fish calls and were HU on the flop. Him and I have played quite a few big pots.

Flop comes K 3 2 r and i lead out for 15$ I have been cbetting close to 100% the past few hrs so I had to here. He calls

Turn is a 2x and i bet 55$ trying to use my image as well as knowing my opponent here to play for stacks. He thinks for a minute before min raising. Here i think I make one of my mistakes of the day he had about 140$ left and i thought to just call. I wanted to leave potential bluffs in and figured he would shove most rivers.

River was a 6x and i checked, he thinks 15 seconds and checks. I table and win. He claims he had a 2 and that he thought I had AK, which makes absolutely no sense at all so i'm not really sure.

Couple hands later a new fish to the table came with 1200 and has lost 500 so far, man there were a lot of fish yesterday. he raises 15$ UTG+1 and i'm next to act with QQ and make it 40$ this is the 2nd time i've done this to him and I think i did it the orbit before. Tight reg whos beside me flats and then fish calls 3 to the flop.

Qs 7s 4x flop boy have I been hitting sets. I cbet 50$ into the pot because if anyone has a piece its going to be good. Tight person calls fish folds.

Turn is a brick at this point villian only has about 160 left and the only hands I can really put him on are AA KK and Axss I don't really have a good bet size for the flushes so I decide to just Jam to try and protect my hand. He tanks for a long time and eventually calls. River bricks and then he flashes me AKss for missed flushdraw. Perfect even the tight players have major leaks!


So after 8 hours of playing and at opne point being stuck 500$ I ended the day +670. But it brings me back to the questions whether I'm running bad or Running normal. It feels as though a lot lately I will be losing a big pot as a decent favourite a lot more often then I should be. I think though with live it can be tough to see what your EV is like. Especially when your villain doesn't need to show their hand. I could be dodging flushdraws and winning races without knowing it sometimes.

I guess thats the beauty of poker and what keeps the fish coming back.

Until next time.... Babs

Played for 7 hours yesterday down at the Edgewater while my GF was doing a photoshoot. Overall I would say I played my B game, there were 1-2 hands where I got back into an old bad habit of being a little bit to loose given the situation here is one.

Two limps in EP both with about 100$ and both have been playing quite tight, I have J10o in the HJ and decide to raise to 15$. The BTN who has worked his stack from 100$ to over 900$ now and is calling a lot preflop when before he was relatively tight calls. and the two limps call.

Flop comes A 9 5 r checks to me and I cbet 25$. This is just burning money in this situation because the BTN is never folding any piece as he has floated me many times already with 2nd pair etc and the two limps have a lot of Ax in their range. sure enough the button calls and then one of the limps shoves in which case i have to fold. When I am playing my A game I am just folding this hand preflop as its offsuit and doesn't play to well in multi way pots vs Shortstacks. I should especially not be cbetting this board and just checking it down to fold to any bet.

I may have played 1 or 2 hands like this where I ended up costing myself 50 - 100 bucks where I can find much better value for my money.

Overall I still had a winning session of 185$, I lost 170$ playing PLO while waiting for my game when I got it in on the flop after raising preflop with As Js Qx 7x and the flop came Q J 5 hh and got it in vs two callers and the turn brought in the flush and I lost. I also had my AA < KK AIPF 300$ effective during my session at holdem. Given my EV was well above 500$ yesterday I am overall still very happy with how I have been playing on a whole. I have started 3betting a little more live given the right situations and it has been yielding good results. I have chosen to lower my 3bet sizing just so I can include more bluffs in there and play against people that are 100BB-150BB as the standard open is usually around 7bb's.

Overall this month has been off to a great start, but I do not want to get to far ahead of myself as last month started very similarly before I fell into some bad habits and didn't have a solid middle of the month at all. My goal at this point is to still make 5k this month and I am well on my way to doing that. I just need to maintain the level of play that I have been playing at and continue to improve day in and day out.


Babs

Friend from the coast was in town wanted to play some poker and we went out there chasing the BBJ at cascades as it is still closing in on 500k. I have been running quite poor in All ins lately but today was nothing like I had witnessed in a very long time. The cascades is crazy action with big pots as they play 1/3.

I built my stack up to about 500$ when I get it All-in my AA vs Q6 flushdraw on a 10 8 3 hh board. pot was 3bet to 50 pre and got 3 callers.. 600$ pot i lose.


After that was down to about 280 and built it back to 500$ then a fish on the table who was jamming pre calls a raise in MP then when i 3bet JJ shoves the rest in so the pot is about 500$ I lose when he has 89ss and makes a straight.


Then a hand where i 3bet KK pre to 60$ and get two callers one of them a cold caller from the CO flop comes 2 3 6 hh and I again get it in for a 600$ pot vs a8hh who was the cold caller, spikes a river flush.

Then..... limped pot I have 65 in the BB 7 8 9 flop. sb bets i call utg jams 90$ so i call ... he has 1010 and rivers J


This all happened in the first two hours at the table.... and believe it or not I was only down 50$ at this point.. but WAYYYYY under EV.




Overall grinding 12 hours yesterday and only made 35$. I had a total of 12 PP's that were 1010+ including QQ 4 times (3 of which had AK on the flop)
I believe I played quite well yesterday except for one hand where I paid off a set with just 1 pair against an unknown that I could have gotten away from. Otherwise I continue to be playing very solid poker but the run bad is quite real.


Babs

Yesterday was the first day my GF was gone to Mexico and I have really been slacking on the hours in the card room so far this month so my plan was to put in a lot of hours this week.

Hit the Villa at 5am as it was on the way home from the airport and the BBJ is still really really high. This month up until yesterday I have been playing my best poker but just running horrendous. That changed yesterday. No I didn't have a run good, for the first time in a while I stooped back to some of my poorer play. Cbetting OOP on bad boards, bluffing unknowns in poor spots and making bad river calls. I did this for about the first 3 hours of my session before I settled back into my A game, but by this time is was already to late, I had spewed closer to 400$ in bad calls, bad cbets and bad bluffs.

I think a little bit of the winning 10/11 past session got to my head in the form of winners tilt as well as the prolonged run bad I have been receiving. I have just reached the 20 hour point of not flopping a single set or making a single flush by the river in multiway pots.

To look on the bright side of the month I have made 1400 in live in a matter of 40 hours so I cannot really complain as I am winning at a steady clip. Going into my session today I am going back to my A game. Looking for my +EV spots and just playing solid preflop and postflop poker. If I lose or run bad so be it the most important part of today is to get back into my rhythem that I have been in for the steady part of 2 weeks + and keep on improving that way.

Online has been going relatively well for the month and getting real close to shot taking NL100 again. Will likely post all week on my progress. I want to really get in tune with my thoughts and find it better when i write these things down

Put in two sessions the past two days. The first one was just cold at the beginning.

After not flopping a set for nearly 22 hours (whos keeping track??) I finally flopped one when UTG raised 12$ and I call and BB calls

9 6 4 flop and I have 66. long story short UTG had 99 and I'm never gonna complain about not flopping a set again lol.

Not much to talk about the first session I was +400 after playing pretty solid for 8 hours and last night I played an overnighter 10pm-6am and +575 ran pretty good last night not in all-ins but just in general. Game was fishy and good. I was up at one point 1k but ran into 2 coolers 4 handed that set me back. Will keep playing a lot of live the rest of the week while the GF is gone.

Still trying to transition to NL100 playing some hands yesterday -2 BI's and 3 BI's below EV so I will likely drop down again just until I can get my confidence back. Running about 4-5 BI's below EV this month online will post a graph later this week on the month. Looking to travel to play down near Seattle Weds and chase some 500$ high hand promotions.

Babs

The past couple of days have been a little bit of a drag mentally, and the main thing is being motivation. I have been at the tables less than regularly and when I am there I am thinking about other things. One of my big worries that keeps coming into my head is whether this is something I really want to do or even something that I can maintain doing for a long period of time. These thoughts get escalated when I do not play very well and have a losing day. Yesterday was an example I played my C game at best and lost 500$ I got back into a couple of older habits of raising to loosely and it got me into some tricky spots. After my session I was really down and thought about looking for a job, I logged into ICBC and started cruising through their postings ( I feel insurance would be the easiest thing to get back into)

I am just struggling with the pressure to make money at a reasonable rate so I can make a living but also to balance my life like I had initially wanted and not have to play so much so that I would be able to do other things. Looking at results I know I am getting ahead of myself. I have made 2k this month so far and be it not the best results or the results I was hoping for when I started the year, it is still more money then I was making at my old job.

The weather here has been raining for the past week so maybe that has a little bit to do with how I have been feeling but thankfully the sun is out today and I think I am going to try and enjoy a little bit of it.

Babs

This is what you wanted this is what it takes

This month started off so promising making 1200 in the first two live session I played, and then the run bad started I was losing pot after pot as a huge favourite and it really started to get to me. I found myself dreading going to the casino. I began to think about not wanting to do this for my living anymore as much as I love the game I was really tested this month.

Over the past two weeks I have really had a lack of motivation to play live poker which is my main money maker. When I do manage to get to the room I play my B game at best with mixes of my C game so it has turned out to be not worth the time as I had some of my worst sessions in the past month.

I have been able to find some new love for online and have really been playing only that for the past couple of days been working on my game and have been crushing NL50. However my shots at NL100 have just not been good. I just can't seem to get over the hump but i know its only been 2k hands so I can't really base anything off of that.

I am worried that I may have jumped the gun a bit to early in beginning to look for work. After taking a somewhat distant approach to poker the past week I have really been drawn back into it. I have found a new motivation, I have felt a desire to put in work and improve. I know that I can do this I know that this is totally possible. I knew that when i signed up this is exactly what I was going for. If I were to get a job I would miss being able to sit in the sun on a monday afternoon, will miss being able to watch all the bluejays pre season games and season. Miss jumping on the comp to game with my friends at any hours of the day. Maybe just maybe I am giving up to early and with a little more work and desire I could have an amazing outcome.

This month is coming to an end and I have only reached about 100 hrs live and no where close to my goal. However I am going to take a new approach and stop looking at it month by month and instead set an hours goal and a goal to just play my best all the time and the results will follow.

Plan for rest of the month play 2 more live sessions with no expectations except to play A game. Play 10+ hrs online hopefully stick in NL100

Babs

I've been quiet on here for the past couple of weeks as I've been doing a lot of thinking and working on my game. I have taken some steps back from live and have been playing a little bit less as I know I have not been playing my A game when playing live. I have been getting to impatient and playing speculative hands in poor spots. Its 1/2 all I need to do is play ABC poker and $$$ profit! Today I am going to go in and play a decent sized session as long as I am playing well. So far this month I have put in 9 hours and I'm down about 100$ over two sessions. One I was up and the other down.

Online on the other hand has been pretty good to me, I continue to run below EV on a consistent basis but I know I have caught some breaks lately as well.


Been slacking on the updates so here is my graph from online last month.


Live I only made 1000$ and ran very very badly and below EV. The last couple sessions of the month I also played poorly.


April Goals

[ ] Gym twice a week
[ ] Move up to NL100 fully
[ ] Play A game live
[ ] Keep mental game strong overall on success

To start things off I have kind of been avoiding this thread the past two weeks. Not that it wasn't on my mind but I didn't really know what to talk about. I haven't really posted hands in the recent past because I was sharing them mostly within my poker circle and coach. We have had great discussions there and I feel like I have improved immensely these past few months.

Last month to sum up in one word was a Disaster. Although I came out ahead it sure did do a number on me. Running so far under EV for the first time both in my live play and online play really made me question things. Can this turn around? Do I need to give up the dream? How long can I try this.

It wasn't until I had a really nice talk with my G/F one night about doing what you need to that I was able to stop looking for reasons to fail. After all that was a big factor. "Oh I can make this B player play because if it doesn't work I can fall back on a job." "Oh let me just play a few more hours even though I haven't played well and its probably - EV". Along side this talk I also began reading a book titled "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Joseph Murphy. I had seen a recommendation to read it in a thread on this forum from a guy that seemed like had very similar ideals as me. So far it has been terrific in improving all aspects of my life including poker.

Now today I came back not really knowing what I was going to write but looks like I solved that problem rather quickly. I was interested when I saw my last post and it had my Goals for this month. I had completely forgot what they were and if someone had asked me to name them I would have no idea.


April Goals

[ ] Gym twice a week - Biggest fail so far have been 0 times this month
[X ] Move up to NL100 fully - Pretty much accomplished this still play nl50 if the games are better
[X ] Play A game live - Hell Yea
[ X] Keep mental game strong overall on success - Killing it



This month has been my best yet since deciding to try to play for a living. I am running good but I must say I am also playing some of the best poker of my life as well. Playing each and every hand to the best of my ability with the right reasoning etc. I think I will start to post hands online here again as a Place to track more of my thought process growth each and every session. Online I am +2k in 12,000 hands and live I am +3250 in 30 hours for a magnificent 100$/hr streak I know that this is when I should be putting in more hours, but I cant help but leave when I'm +600 in a session after 3-4 hours usually stacking lots of fish. I know the losing will come but also believe I am strong enough that it won't nearly be as bad.

Next step to get my fitness back on track and kill the rest of the month, Off to the gym I go.

Babs