quick 4 hour sesh today. up 195$. ran pretty good. no big pots but just chipped up slowly.

only one hand I played was questionable. It was late into the night. guy with cowboy hat transferred to my table with 1000$+. Never seen this guy in my life, we played a couple orbit and neither of us were getting out of line. He straddled. folds to me I picked up 89 I opened to 20$ MP. folds to BB who's aggro asian calls, and cowboy hat calls his straddle

Flop 60$: 853
checks to me and I cbet 30$. I felt like from how tight I was it's probably hard for them to put me on top pair here. and by blocking the 8 its hard for them to have top pair as well. I could bet bigger but I felt I didn't need to put more chips in since top pair here is 1 hand down from an overpair and I want worse to call. I could also be losing to 8 with better kicker. BB fold, cowboy hat calls

turn 120$: 2
cowboy hat instant leads out 60$. slightly confused about this bet. Thought he may likely be making a move with pair+straight draw. weird 2-x two pair. diamond draw also came but I decide to call the 60$ because I can evaulate river, also slight chance I am still good.

river 240$: 10
this time he thinks a bit and then counts out 75$

Pretty easy fold at this point, think all the draws got there plus super value-ish bet my hand can't be good. Was kinda hoping he checked the river, which is never a great plan. But still confused about the hand. What hand can I call here with. think 89 was easy fold but what if i had QQ or AA.

also what were my options on the turn. probably folding is the better choice but I'd like to have a reason to fold the turn, and not being result oriented. Thought my hand was good on the turn.



Expenses for today:
- Tim Hortons Food: $9.25
- Cowboy Casino Food: $15

Total $24.25

first losing session in a while. down 215$ or so. made 1 bad call early in the session, tilted from that a bit, shouldn't call light.

recovered my stack a bit and played pretty well, then flop bottom 2 pair 9Ts vs A9 on A9T board. i bet flop and got check raised all in on turn and i made the lay down.

then got it all in on flop vs 2 outter and lost that. was late decided to leave and play tomorrow. for a run bad night, being down 200$ is pretty good so i'll take it

Pretty tilted now. Wanted to play table games but i wont. Keep flopping two pair vs two pair and 2nd best hands. Made multiple correct folds and picked up KQs and flopped top pair and got check raised again on drawish board and i just said *** it and he had AA. Down 200$ but prob wouldnt play again in a tilted state

Dropped 600$ last night total. Tilt just hit out of nowhere. Pretty upset how i played. Combination of mistake tilt and injustice tilt

Gotta know when to rack up and go home. That being said, losing $600 happens.

ya it does. but was tilted after first 200$ loss, shoulda stopped there. actually need to step back and think about things.

played 330$ tournament today because of a good tournament series going on here in Calgary. Jason Somerville was here promoting the event saw him and took a selfie



Having said that got in a cooler hand and got knocked up. Went to play cash and got sucked out vs Straight draw. and then ran into some crappy spot and got it in on flush draw and lost, down 400$ in cash.

I just have hard time taking a loss sometimes, I've been setting goals on not playin table games and honestly I want to just give in and gamble but the good news is I am staying away from that. but the bad news is I still want to gamble it up so I went to play the 1-2-5 PLO game. bought in 300$ and got lucky and ran it up to 1300$. PLO isn't my game so i just hit and ran.

but I didn't feel good to win my money back this way. Can't always win my money back but I hate leaving down when it's still relatively early in the night. I could have bought back into 1-2 but I knew I wasn't gonna run it up there unless I ran super hot, much easier to run it up in PLO but that's a bad reason to be playing.

think gonna re-read mental game. my mental game has improved slightly from the past but it's still really bad, probably the biggest drawback of my game. Need to learn how to deal with losing.

Damn I want to move to Calgary for the grind

one of the best city to grind low stakes in Canada for sure

First full month since I started working + playing poker part time. Still trying to log in as much hours as I can, but here's my November 2016 Result:

$5400 is a really solid month. Im impressed you were able to put in 120 hrs while still working full time. Awesome job man

Ya thanks man. I was a bit surprised at the result. Didnt feel like i had that good of a month. Put in less hours and won more. But thinking back didnt really run bad overall in some big pots and that helps. Was able to also get in some good game selection as well.

Didnt get to catch you around but hope you had a great time in calgary!

subbed. GL

Thanks man. Good luck with ur challenge!

decided not to do daily updates. Still keeping track of my sessions and still grinding but will update either weekly or monthly. Just been super busy feels like not enough hours in a day. however if anything interesting happens will definitely post hands/ etc. so far December is looking pretty good. took a couple of days off and got a really well needed rest. feeling fresh to grind this week

also getting too lazy to keep track of my expenses. I am still spending way too much but it's hard to keep keeping track. need a better system to keep track. will figure that out.

Alright. spent my wednesday making this video. people have been asking about the Calgary poker scene so I decided to do a quick review on some of the casino in Calgary, Canada.

Going to start with the one I play at the most, Cpwboy Casino. Hope you guys enjoy the clip!

still dont take losses well. got it in with top 2 vs overpair and got runnered. then another hand crippled me. down 400$ in less than 2 hours. sometimes just need to learn to take a loss, was slightly tilted and decide to walk, which was a good idea once im driving home but hard to walk away. i could always play tmr

Nice November results, been enjoying keeping up with the vlog updates, Also nice idea w/ the casino reviews for anyone interested in maybe checking them out.
That's a good idea / good you were able to lose when you felt tilt settling in since it's easier to go home and chill out vs trying to play through tilt lol.


Cowboys is the only casino I am yet to play at still since I hate downtown driving and haven't felt like venturing out yet

Ya thanks. November turn out to be good for sure. Cowboy is alright, I've been going there because parking was indoor I really like that. surprisingly I have been getting into some pretty good games in Cowboy on weekdays but not really running well. Might change the scene this weekend and head to deerfoot or eagles

decided to do a quick update on early december

http://pokerdope.com/poker-variance-calculator/

http://www.mutantpoker.com/special/s...tribution.html

Take the train/metro it's super easy the stop is like a 2 minute walk to and from cowboys casino.

Deerfoot and grey eagle are the pain in the ass to get to.

It's mid-december now just wanna do a mid month summary


been a pretty rough month. been drained overall playing and the sessions I've played in december were all pretty brutal. couldn't get much going most nights despite being in really good tables but cards just not falling my way.

I didn't play for the last 4 days or so, just didn't feel like playing but that gave me a really good rest and I woke up yesterday and looked forward to playing. It always feels good when you want to play.

got to a really good table again, multiple people willing to put it in light. Keep raising with big hands and isolating and the flop just the most unfavorable flop. at times I still took it down with cbet but can't do it everytime. Didn't really hit any flop but somehow I was up, bluff catched a few times with medicore hands and was right.

eventually I floppd bottom set 33 on K43 board vs K4 and we got it in on the flop on 600$+ pot and the guy fills up on turn. I took the beat pretty well which was the only thing I was proud of this session. kinda expected the run bad. I decided to chip up and leave down 130$ for the night. Surprisingly this is one of my more ugly beat but I wasn't tilted by it. I realize I get tilted by mistake tilt than unlucky tilt. I was happy I put it in good, and don't get me wrong I would still get tilted by bad run but there are certain amount of tolerance I can take.

One thing in the past is I always take a beat pretty well on the spot, but if I take another bad beat the next day, I would think of the two bad beat combined and it would tilt me altogether. So I am quite aware of that and the next session I play I need to be on guard for taking another beat. Need to just forget this bad beat cause it's kinda still on the back of my mind. The hand woulda gave me a good 600$+ win session which I really need, but instead I was down 130$ but ya that's how poker goes sometimes.

for running not well I am pretty content how I played this month, could definitely still play better and gonna focus on that on 2nd half of decemember and see if the cards start falling on my side

usually when you run bad, it just keeps coming, so after taking the 4 outter bad beat last time, I came in today ready to take another bad beat if it comes.

up and down and for a few hours, and I was losing some medium pots and I could feel the tilt coming. Clearly way easier to tilt this session coming off a bad one, but keep on trying to remind myself to be patient.

picked up 55 MP and I limp for 2$. I have been decently active and my raises were getting called multiway, so dont see the point to raising it to 12$. Table is playing straight forward so if I hit I can just build the pot then. CO calls the 2$ and BB is an amatuer player who plays pretty straight forward, not getting out of line. he raises to 20$. he hasn't done this since he sat down so I am pretty sure he has a premium hand, decide to call the 20$ to try and hit set. I am ~300$ deep, CO call and he covers, BB has 135$ behind. Wasn't getting the right price to call especially since the CO hasn't called yet but I was slightly impatient and just decide to gamble. I actually had a bad feeling about this, everytime I call to set mine for the wrong price preflop I hit my set and then I get f-ed over.

anyways. flop comes Q53 BB original raiser cbets 35$. I call to not scare away the CO. he calls quickly.

turn 4 BB now jams for 100$. I have 175$ behind and now I have the option to either flat or re-jam. I actually put CO on flush draw and obviously not worried about the guy who's all in. Re-jaming here would be super strong and I dont think flush draw chases if i do that, and I want the flush draw to chase. It's so hard for to hit a set and the board is really good the right play I feel is to just flat call (in history when I am in similar situation I would flat call and always get rivered) but I don't want to be result oriented, re-jaming is just clearly bad. So I called and CO thinks and calls.

River 2 Worst F u cking card. I check and he jams into dry side pot I shake my head in disbelief and fold, he shows flush to beat the guy who's all in.

I was pretty upset at this point. I want to be glad about my turn call but as I said before I always get rivered when I let people draw, and thinking hindsight I wish I just be bad and just jam all in like any other player would do. Just feel like I get punished all the time for making +ev plays.

I stood up and steam off a bit, and I actually told myself to inject logic and calm down. This is the situation I expected and now it's here I need to strengthen up my mind and not let tilt take over. I did calm down a little and refocused. but overall if I want to rate 10 as successfully controlling the tilt and 1 being completely losing control. I probably controlled it 5/10. My mind was calm but I still became looser preflop and everypot I thought about if I could float and bluff when it should be easy ditch.

Then 1 guy came to our able who was super loose and fun. He calls anything preflop and calls 60$ bet if he connects in any way. a hand he call 100$ all in with AK high on flop just because he had AK. anyways He got lucky and built up stack to 700$. I had 140$ in my stack. I called 5$ straddle with 8Ts, limps around one guy made it 25$ I call (terrible I know with my stack ratio) this other short stack jam with 150$. I had history with this guy i knew he had AK super often he always does this move. and this is the pot where everyone just decide to call off, most people were around 150$ and comes back to me i snap call 5 way preflop all in. Long story short I hit top pair and it held vs AK, AQ, A2s, 6Js. obviously I got lucky in this spot, and it puts me off tilt instantly. THis isn't gonna happen most of the time and I don't expect to be this lucky next time. Still need to play better when I am going through downswings, but I will say during the stretch between my loss with the set until this I folded several hands that I could have easily tilted off, so I like to take some credit for holding long enough to get to that spot, even though it wasn't a great spot.

afterwards I started to run better and playing off tilt is so much easier, hands holding up and losing minumum when behind. I ran it up to 1100$ because of the loose cannon and made a good profit for the night.

Again really lucky today, I should have lost the flip and then be down 400$. In my mind when I got it in with T8s I was ready to lose and go home, and I thought I would be okay if i lose, but I knew if I did lose on the drive home I would be super tilted, and who knows maybe I wouldn't even go home I would pull out another 200$ to play and tilt that away. Regardless got away easy today but not in the proudest way

booked another solid win for 350$ just over 3 hours of play. got off work at midnight and pretty tired but still got my lazy ass out to play from 1AM to 4:15AM. ran good at the beginning got QQ vs AJ and the guy flopped Jack top pair got it in and held. towards the middle of the session had some sticky spots but I was really in the zone and just one of those days where I was playing my A game. making good reads, bets, and folds almost effortlessly.

However There's been this new spot that's getting under my skin a bit. (It's gonna be a quick rant/ story time). Basically it's me making really good reads and somehow the worst river comes and it's the only card that would make me lose money money in the pot. Allow me to give an example

this pot wasn't even a big pot, but it's a situation where I was so sure what my opponent has I decide to value bet turn the worst hand knowing I can just bet him off the river. Obviously these kinda spots doesn't happen too often. but the last 3 times these opportunity arises I've always lost and it's getting frustating lol.

so this hand the table is casual players who were calling a lot preflop and get attached to hands on the flop. I open my big hands and limp with medicore hands to see the flop. I got 68 SB and I complete blind and 4 ways to the flop.

flop ($8) 57Q
it's a really good flop if I hit I can stack someone hard if they have 2 pairs or something. I lead 5$ to build the pot and potentially take it down if everyone else just airs it. 1 casual player calls and everyone folds. and I was so in the zone I just Knew this guy has a flush draw.

turn ($18) K
and this is the spot where I could just check and I know he'll check to take his free card. But I knew he has the draw so I decide to "value" bet 15$ and if heart comes I can check fold and Lose NO MORE and ANY OTHER RIVER I can bet 20$ish on river to take it down. the odd case is if they hit a pair with their flush draw like King

so basically it's a situation where I know EXACTLY, not 50%, not 80%, like exactly where my opponent is at.

so the river comes 4
complete my straight but bringing the flush. In the moment I got taken aback because I am suppose to be happy I hit my straight? and this is when I toss out my read and just hoped he had the Queen all along (even tho I knew he can't) but I was oop and value bet 20$ and then got raised to 50$ and I got frustrated and fold thinking why did I bet 20$ when I was so sure he had the flush.

Obviously a lot of times people can pick up reads on the turn or river and THEN make a play. I pick up people are on flush all the time during the hand and bet when the flush miss, but there were always uncertainties, maybe they floated with middle pair or gut shot etc. It's not often I get so in the zone I instantly put a guy on a very narrow range super early on in the hand and I was 95%+ sure my read is correct. As soon as the guy call the 5$, the way he toss it in and the amount of time it took him to call I just knew he has the draw. The last 3 times this happen where I was SO sure of what's going on I also got F u cked by river and now it's just like a monkey on my back.

Just to go over what happen the last time this happen, this guy raised to 12$ preflop from the SB and because of the table dynamic and how he played I Instantly went god mod and put this guy on mother F u cKing AJ, this is like the most dead on read I've made. It's easier to put people on AK etc but I just knew he had AJ. and as the hand went along the flop/ turn, the more sure I was he had AJ. I also built the pot up and on the river he backdoors his 4 card straight and I could only check and lose at showdown.

It's just something I know not a lot of people would ever pick up these spots and the last 3 times I did this I got owned by the river. just something I wanted to rant about lol i know it's kinda irrelevant and I dont lose much from it anyways I guess it's just an ego thing.

Regardless, getting off track here. Still really happy I play my A+ game today. Not often I can say I play A+ game the whole session, pretty sure I didn't make a single mistake, I would say the only "mistake" was my 20$ value bet with the straight I wanna be super strict on myself but *** it I had a straight and I decide to value bet/ fold it. can't be too upset about that.

also finally got something going for december. it's good to book a win and this is 2 decent wins in a row now so hopefully i can ride the momentum and keep the win streak on the next session

another good session tonight and booked another win. Really wasn't feelling it to play after work because just a long time, but it's Saturday and I really need to try and put more volume in since I am falling way short this month. I decide if I am gonna take a day off it's not going to be on a Saturday, so gonna put in a quick session and going to take tomorrow off. If the game turns bad or I really don't feel it then I might call it a night early but at least get myself out to play first

Called at 12:30AM and there were 5 tables which is still okay, but once I got there at 1:15AM only 4 tables left and the action was pretty slow. Pretty upset about the Saturday night turn out. but I sat down on a table and quickly realize it wasn't a bad table at all. No one is spewing chips but everyone are fun players. I got put in two big hands, first one pretty standard not gonna talk through it. Second one was a 600$ pot. Weak player raises 7$ EP and station calls 7$. I pump to 35$ with AKo from SB, 1 fold and station calls

Flop comes KJ2
I decide to bet i have 250$ behind and although pot was 105$ I decide to bet 40$, because at this time 40$ was a big Cbet, it was just a relaxing table and people were doing like 15$ flop bet max. also this guy's range is really wide preflop and I want him to call with any gut shot or pocket pair, Could have definitely gone bigger but i think 40$ is pretty balanced and I don't even mind the wet flop board.

However he snap raises to 150$. This has been a tough spot for me in general. I have hard time folding AK Top pair or AA/KK overpair in 3bet pots with wet board. The last few times I made a similar call they always show a set or 2 pair, the thing is not as many people play draws as aggressively as you think, but even then somehow it's still hard for me to fold. Eventually I steam called because I talk myself into thinking he could have KQ (which he probably rarely does) and also J2 and K2 is hard to call preflop?? he ended up having a flush draw and I held. but it's still one of those spots I don't think it's a good call. especially betting 40$ I could easily fold to 210$ more, the station at this point hasn't made any bluffs yet and even against flush draws I have to dodge. Also if he does have a set, calling here and losing will probably put me on tilt.

So many reason to fold but I couldn't fold. The result shows different but I need to discuss and anylsis this hand/ spot with other people. There were also other small factors and read that I didn't mention, but those are just extra info for me to come to a final decision. I still think folding my TPTK would have been the more +EV play

regardless up 305$ today and game was dying I took home a free sandwich they gave out at 4am and left the game playing only 2 and half hour. but I wasn't in the mood to play and booking a win is always good.

if hero holds Ad then fold, else call