Final Installment of Long Post

Live Streamed Six Max Final Table

After about a half hour break we were situated on the stage to conclude the $1090 6 Max. The winner would get $72,000 and a Borgata trophy. I came into the FT with 1.3M of the 6M in play and was just a shade off the lead. Chip leader opens the button first hand and I find AKs and 3b the BB. He folds and I take the lead. I folded the 2nd hand and on the third hand the same guy, named George, opens the HJ. I find AA on the button and have a feeling he will not be folding to my 3b. I make it 155K over his 60K open (24Kbb) and after it folds back to him he instantly makes it 360K. I tank for a bit and decide that it just isn't that likely that this guy is 4 betting very wide and my best plan is to click it back. Against a good reg I'd probably just shove given we were only about 55BBs deep but I decided 710K might allow this player to level himself into thinking I could be light. I wish I had literally minned it and made it 565K in hindsight, but after watching the live stream back I don't think it would have made much difference against his J9o! He folded and I took a large lead.

The next big hand I played was frustrating in the sense that I might have played it differently had I known what a madman George was from the get go. I hadn't seen hands from the stream yet at this point and hadn't played at all with George on day 2 yet so I didn't know what to expect from him. He limps UTG for 30K, I make it 85K from MP with 99 and he flats. I could go bigger but I don't think it makes a huge difference. Flop comes JJ7r, he checks, I c-bet 90K, and almost before my bet is in the middle he says all in. WHAT! He has 900K back! What a ridiculous spot. If I call and lose I am down to 400K which is right around how much the other 2 short stacks have at this 7 handed table. It's a bit of an ICM disaster to call and be wrong. But on the other hand, wtf can he have here? He shouldn't ever have a jack or 77, and it's hard to see him ever having QQ+. I guess once in a while he has TT, but I also block his semi-bluffs such as J9 and T9. It's strange because it'd be easier to range him if there was a flush draw but with the rainbow board there really aren't any semi-bluffs. So am I just supposed to assume he's completely lost his mind and c/shoved air, committing complete ICM suicide? I decide that I'm 80% sure I'm good but the 20% of the time I'm not I put myself in a horrible position. I also feel confident I'll be able to find much better spots to get my stack in against this lineup with how deep I am, so I fold. Watching the live stream later revealed George had 98s for a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw. If I had only known how crazy George was back then I would have snapped it off.

After a shorty busted I called a 6BB shove from Jay Riv and my A5o held vs his T9s to get us down to 5 players. We jockeyed around for a little bit before I opened JJ, Nick Immekus shoved 25BBs with 66 and I held. We went on break after the hand and all of a sudden I had 1/3 of the chips in play with 4 left, $27K locked up, and a potential career starting $72K up top.

I can't really recall one thing that went right when we came back from break! The start of it came when Vinny opened the CO to 100K at 40Kbb, I 3b to 255K with AKo, he flatted, flop came QJ2cc. Vinny checked and I elected to c-bet 225K. I could certainly check back here but I think that makes my hand look a bit obvious. I guess I could be checking back Jx stuff here too but if my 3b range is value heavy and I check I think I very often have AK. I also have some good turns to bet, and betting now might prevent Vinny from betting a brick turn, allowing me to see the river for free. Vinny calls the 225K bet and we go check check on the 2x turn.

The river is a jack completing the QJ22J board and Vinny leads 453K. It'd have been interesting if this was a QJ2QJ board since now I'd beat his pocket pairs, but I felt it unlikely that Vinny was bluffing a missed draw here so I folded. The live stream revealed Vinny had AJ, and I lost 480K on the hand.

The next hand of importance came when I opened the button to 95K with A8hh...I went bigger than I normally do since it was George's BB. SB folds and George jams 480K. I call and lose to K2hh after the J64KJ runout and am all of a sudden down to 1.3M again. I further chip down when Vinny decides to limp his SB. He'd done this a few times and each time I'd raised the BB and gotten a fold, so I decided to just check my J4o. Flop comes Q93 and we go check check. Turn is a 4 and now Vinny bets 50K and I call. River is a T, check check, Vinny turns over 95o, which sort of seems like a bad complete to me, especially against someone who keeps raising your limps, but it worked out for him this time, and I was getting very close to being under 1M now.

A few orbits go by and I do indeed drop down to 850K as blinds go up to 25K/50K. It folds to my button and I shove after finding A9s. It's the first time I've even come close to being all in at this final table, and George snaps it off with JJ in the BB and I am eliminated in 4th place $27K.

All in all it was a great run. I had 20K at 2400bb so I clearly ran very good to finish 4th. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't heartbroken to not finish that thing off. I think I actually played very well and just did not have my hands hold once 4 handed play started. I probably could have been more aggressive with the chip lead but I felt comfortable I was just going to find good spots and I didn't need to get out of line; however after AK<AJ for a bunch and A8<K2 for some more I found myself needing to get lucky, and the first stand I took left me walking out the door. That tournament certainly gave me confidence going into the WPT Main though and I made a nice run in that before busting shortly before the money. I'll call the whole experience a big success.

Replay of the Live Stream for Those Interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uBmHCx72kw

Tee Dubs knows what's up

Very happy to see my post was the catalyst for a great conversation that helped you gain some insight into your game. When it comes to the emotions involved in winning and losing there are no short term solutions. But it is something you can work on incrementally and make drastic improvements.

I enjoyed your response post, and the concept of hard work when it comes to poker is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. I often catch myself saying, "it's 2pm on a Tuesday the games aren't going to be any good I'm not going to play." But I'm sure that's not the tact that otb_redbaron or other top players took when they were coming up. Game selection is important (i.e. The seventh bullet debate), but actually putting in the hrs and playing trumps everything. If I can't beat that Tuesday game then I need to study the game and figure out why... Maybe I top out somewhere along the way, but if I'm not putting in my eight hrs I'll never find my ceiling.

My current problem is studying the game... I know I'm just so bad at it. I mark my hands for review when I play and then I go back and look at them, and it's just like, oh yeah I shoulda folded or yeah missed some value there. It's something, but it's really pretty amateurish... That's why I've been digging deep in these forums lately; I know all the answers and resources are here. I mean Fedor Holz joined in a discussion I was sorta participating in the other day, and I was just like, damn. Once I get a solid system in place for improving and put in the hrs more consistently, I think I'm gonna be in good shape. That's why I enjoy your pgc so much op; you love the game as much as I do, and like me, you really want to get better.

Had some thoughts on this so thought I'd make another post while it was still fresh in my head. I didn't say that the best traders expected to win, I said the best traders were used to winning... And therefore tempered the emotions involved in winning and subsequently losing. And yeah, like you said, I think expectations are actually counterproductive to that whole process.

Something the old timers at the Board of Trade taught me very early on is that you can never really know what the market is going to do. The same is true in poker. I mean how many times have we all been one outed, and like you've mentioned op, how many bizarre forms of variance are involved in poker... I mean things you would hardly ever think of, and probably things we're not even capable of thinking of. Expecting to win is kind of like thinking you know which way the markets are going to go... It leads to emotions and emotions can be dangerous when managing risk. Expectations also involve results. Preparedness, confidence, foresight, those are good things, but they aren't inherently tied to results.

When I started trading there was this 26 yr old kid Anthony in my office who day traded S&P futures. In each of the three years prior to my arrival he had made around a million dollars trading and he continued to do the same each year I was there... You'd think this kid would come in bouncing off the walls giddy everyday to turn his monitors on and just start printing; I think I saw him smile in the office like three times. I don't think Anthony had expectations when he sat down... I think he precisely didn't have any expectations. He just kept a clear head and reacted to what he saw... Actually Anthony reminds me a little of a friend of yours, Joe McKeehen. I haven't seen that series in awhile but I remember being very impressed with his demeanor and the sense of calm he projected.

Tieing everything we've been talking about together, I think expecting to win is almost like getting excited about winning before you've even won! And it's actually pretty funny because it's something I do all the time and actually probably does nothing but heighten the emotions involved in playing. It's interesting really, I've never thought about the rather obvious parallels between expectations in the markets and poker... Might be on to something. I'll take a breath now lol

Thanks for all the insight Tommy! I have a few friends who are somewhat serious about the market and I've always thought I'd be decent with it. I've yet to try to apply myself to it though. Maybe one day! I like the distinction you made between expecting to win and being used to winning. When I was a kid I got used to winning because I was on a few very very good basketball teams. My 4th grade year we won the championship, 5th grade we got 2nd, 6th grade I was on two championship teams, one of them going undefeated. But in the middle of all of that I was on a baseball team that went something like 2-14. I cried when we lost and got mad when I didn't succeed and I was a TERRIBLE loser. I have a feeling that even as a 25 year old adult now I still have issues due to how often I won when I was younger. I got used to winning, but my 10 year old mind decided on it's own that I should EXPECT to win, and I think I saw it as a reflection on myself when we didn't. I'm obviously not crying when I lose poker tournaments, but that slight feeling of inadequacy when I lose still lingers, and I've been working for years to make it fade away. I'm getting very close now.

Updates Since Returning Home

I've been playing some cash! I've probably played about 2000 hands in the last week or so at 200NL and I'm down like $1300. Can't say I'm not trying though . I'm not gonna panic and say I'm terrible at it, because I think I do actually do some things quite well, but I definitely need to continue to practice and eventually start doing some real studying. It'd probably help if I played some of these sessions NOT during the day on weekdays, but maybe I'll get to that later. I think my tournament game is going to improve though, and I feel like I am playing differently now than I was before the Borgata Poker Open. Without going too much into it and keeping it extremely simple, I'm fighting for every pot. I'm constantly looking to chip up, and I think my biggest leak since NJ poker began, a leak I was basically unaware was even a leak for a while, was not taking every single spot presented to me. And I mean EVERY spot. Folding 75s in the CO is a leak. Not 3 betting QJo OTB vs an active HJ with a high fold to 3b is a leak. Not value betting 2nd pair on the river when you think you are ahead of 2/3 of his check/calling range is a leak. I think cash is going to help me to stay aggressive in every spot and it's going to do wonders for my tournament game.

As far as tournament results go, I lost $950 on Thursday, won $575 on Friday, took Saturday off, made $730 on Sunday, and made $325 last night. I had a funny conversation with my roommate Kyle on a break during the Sunday grind (Kyle and Tee Dubs are the 2 roommates I live with). I walk downstairs to get some water and a snack and Kyle asks how I'm doing. I explain to him that I'm in for about $2300 on the day, have cashed for $650 so far, and only have 2 tournaments running. I also tell him that I just snuck into the money of the WSOP major, so I've locked up a $450 cash there, so worst case scenario is I lose $1200 on the day. He says, "Oh so that's not that bad." I reply, "Yeah, it's always nice to know that the whole day isn't gonna be a complete brick." I tell him that I'm 25/27 in the WSOP major which has $13.5K up top and he basically tells me that I should just win that and be done with it.

As I was walking away I turned around and replayed the conversation we'd just had. "I just told you there's a good chance I lose $1200 today and we both agreed that that wasn't that bad. How sick is that!" Even just a year ago a $1200 losing day would have hurt me quite a bit, more mentally than financially but I wouldn't have been happy losing that money either. I also think if I told Kyle I'd lost $1200 in a day a year ago he would've almost been concerned that I was "losing control" or however you want to phrase it. But after just 9 months of living together and me growing as a player and person, we had a conversation about me losing 4 figures in a day that not only didn't concern either of us, we actually both felt pretty good about it. I thought that was really a big indicator of the progress I've made this year.

Anyway, I won a flip then found another double with AK>AQ in the WSOP major and was suddenly 7/25. At the same time I was 12/17 in a $109 6 max on Party where 6 paid with $1700 up top and I won a flip there as well. I kept the pressure on, made a bunch of hands, and ended up winning the 6 max. I continued trying to chip up in the WSOP major and lost an unfortunate hand to drop back down to 18bbs or so. We're playing 3250/6500 and I have 270K in the BB. Button opens to 14.5K and I peel JTo. Flop comes J52hh and I c/c his 18.4K c-bet (exactly half pot wp button masher). Turn is the 6c and I c/c 47K (about 2/3 pot now). River is the Th and he bets 74K into 167K, leaving himself 48K back. It's a really dumb spot. I lose to hearts now but beat QQ-AA. There aren't any draws that have been missed. Looking back at this hand it looks like a clear fold. If the river is a different low heart I probably fold and am fine with it, but ranging him now I can't really think of much I beat. The problem is there were so few hands I lose to; I guess he has enough combos of hearts that I can fold but I felt like he'd check a lot of heart draws back on the turn. So I only lose to sets? It was quite annoying. I called and he showed me probably the most annoying set, 66 for the turned set.

I hung in there best I could then lost AK<22 to drop to 30K at 10Kbb. I folded 2 hands then minned J8s UTG; the ol' "leave yourself a few antes back to make it look like a standard open" play worked and it got through which had me laughing pretty hard. I fold some more than win AQ>76 to get back to 90K. Hang in a little longer then find JJ in the SB; MP opens, I shove, BB iso's with KK and I am out in 13th. HATE JACKS. But the -$1200 day turned into a +$700 day so that was nice.

I've played $5500 in buy ins in my last 4 sessions so that's encouraging to see that I'm putting the volume in again. This new approach of just going after it is making me excited to play again so I'm gonna ride that wave as long as I can. My friend Max is coming from England next Wednesday so that should be a ton of fun too. Plan is to grind tonight, maybe bowling tomorrow, poker Thursday/Friday, hang out in Princeton Saturday, poker Sunday-Tuesday and then get max from the airport Wednesday. Should be a fun week!

I think we all get that feeling! I read an article (ill go look for it and send it along) that mentions winning always feels 'less good' than the first time you win. Conversely, losing stays the same or feels a little worse.

I dont know if i subscribe to this thinking. I guess im just a glutton for punishment .

Either way, keep up the good work. It is great reading about your experience and your passion to improve yourself.

Thanks!

Thanks a lot! The swings in poker are often tough to handle but the hope is that the more years I put into this the less it affects me.

This past Sunday I slammed my desk and kicked my fan and garbage can over en route to losing $2700. I was really heated during the tail end of the session after staying composed through some really insane hands. I think for the most part I kept my cool and didn't punt anywhere, but by the end I snapped and went on a 15 second crazy kicking stuff spree. When the last tourney was over I went downstairs and watched football with my roommates and the normal feeling of complete despair after a loss like that was not quite there; I still felt awful, I lost 10% of my bankroll, I've been stuck in neutral for essentially 4 months now, but part of me is starting to realize everything is just part of it all. I'm more and more confident that I will catch heat again soon and that, while I don't play perfectly by any means, a huge part of the big losing sessions Sunday was simply variance. When a guy cold calls a 3b with 97s in the later stages of a $200 MTT, c/c's the T65r flop, and you jam TT when the turn is an 8, you start to realize that sometimes there simply is nothing you can do but hope the turn isn't an 8 next time.

In any case, 1mtm91, aka Max, is coming here from England tomorrow!! He'll be here for several weeks and I'm going to take a nice mini-break from poker to just try to have an awesome time. I'm really excited about it and it should be a great time and a great way to refresh my state of mind.

keep on, keeping on -joe dirt

Wise words

Haven't played much poker in the last few days but am having a great time with Max. Went to NYC last night and got quite drunk with 4 of my best friends from college and Max; everyone got along very well and it was an overall great time. It's a ton of fun to talk poker with Max, whether just casually for fun or going in depth with stuff. It's also nice to have someone to hang out with during the day and actually get to take advantage of the fact that we don't have to work during the days. Eventually we'll go to NYC and see all the touristy stuff but yesterday was fun to just go out and get quite drunk in the city. We may eventually end up in Boston/Philly/Washington DC etc, and maybe farther out to Chicago and beyond later. Good times!

Nice article written about you in the Pokerstars blog

Keep it up!

https://www.pokerstars.com/en/blog/t...y-163634.shtml

Thanks! It's really funny he decided to write it like that (with all the allusions to English royalty) right now since I've been with my English friend the entire past month.

Very brief update, I've played just about zero poker in October due to hanging out with Max. I've been having a great time and will be going to Chicago tomorrow. Given my dad is from Chicago and has been a lifelong Cubs fan it'll be fun to root for them in the World Series while in the city itself. I'll be back around Saturday and hope to head to the PokerStars live series at Resorts around then. My plans have been a bit hazy throughout since Max has talked about potentially going to Iowa or Canada or coming back with me and doesn't seem to know exactly what's going on yet, but either way I will 100% be at Resorts on November 1 since I sattied into the event that starts that day. It's been a bit of a bummer to miss most of the two big series going on in NJ this month but we had planned this trip a few months ago so I don't regret it. I might try to put a session in today but will have to see what's going on around the house. Blog should be back up and running at the usual pace by November.

A well deserved break. I'm looking forward to the November run! Enjoy your Chicago trip.

The Trip with Max Concludes

So after about 3.5 weeks I brought Max back to the airport late on Halloween night. I had a really great time and we got to see a ton of attractions, including the top of the Empire State Building, Central Park, the 9/11 Memorial, the Liberty Bell, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution, top of the Sears (Willis) Tower, the Bulls home opener, and the Navy Pier. Just to name a few . I look forward to eventually getting over to London to spend some time in his neck of the woods.

While Max was here he also gave me a glimpse into the world of online poker outside of America. We watched a bit of poker and he began introducing me to spots I would never have dreamed of taking. I also realized that these are the spots that the top, maybe, 3-5 players in NJ have been taking that I have just been completely oblivious to.

Back to Business

So what I noticed from Max talking to me about hands is that I just don't play very well on later streets. I think I often play my hands way too face up and straight forward on turns and rivers. So when I arrived in AC for the PokerStars Main, I was ready to see if there was any of this I could apply. I walked into the poker room yesterday fresh and ready to go.

The PokerStars $1100 Main

The room they set up at Resorts looked very nice. I got to the tournament on time at 11:00 ready to play a good structured MTT. 25K SS, 60 minute levels, no levels skipped. We started at 50/100 and when I sat down in seat 6 I looked to my right to see Ari Engel in seat 5. The last live poker tournament I played I was eliminated on day 3 while sitting in seat 5, by Ari Engel sitting in seat 6. I ran pretty good to start, turning a set with JJ and getting a street of value on the turn before Ari hero folded river correctly to own me for the first time on the day. Fortunately for me he was chipped down to 8K before we got it in, his CO vs my button, for about 8K each at 100/200 with my KK holding vs his AT.

I was relieved that the best player at the table was eliminated and realized I didn't really recognize anyone else at my table. In a flurry that completely changed, with Kevin Martin of Twitch fame sitting 2 to my left, Mike Azzaro sitting 2 to his left, Nick Palma on my direct right, and Matt Wantman on his right. Kevin lost a big pot and after I opened CO to 1000 at 200/400 Kevin jammed button for 3K. Mikey isolated the big blind for his last 16K and ran into my AK, which held against his KJ and Kevin's KQ. On dinner I had chipped up to 82K and was contending for the chip lead.

Things began to slide a bit after dinner. I was making plays I often would not make but I can only think of one major mistake I made. The first hit to my stack came when I r/c'ed Q9dd against a small 3b. Flop came Ad9s5c and I decided to c/r his c-bet to a size that would allow me to shove some turns. This is really unorthodox but I don't think there are many hands at all that I'm beating here. I also did not want to just fold my equity since a reasonable amount of his range is TT-KK. I block QQ but the A on board reduces his combos of sets down to 3 (I don't think he was 3-betting 99). He tanks for quite a bit then calls. My plan is to shove any 9, Q, or diamond on the turn. The turn is a brick and I shut down. He checks back, I check brick river and snap fold to his bet. I would be pretty surprised if he had anything other than AA or AK but I've been wrong before!

The hand I misplayed came when I opened 77 from MP to 1800 at 400/800 and HJ shoved 16K exactly. It folded back to me and I thought it was pretty close. HJ was a young kid named Bradley who was a really cool guy and later told me he reads the blog, so whattup Bradley! After being prodded by Palma he told us that he'd recently won a $2750 MTT in Florida for $200K and it was his first ever live cash! I decided to weight QQ-AA a little less heavily since some people will just 3b those hands (although good players playing vs good players will probably include those to stay balanced so I probably shouldn't have discounted them as much as I did).

I actually plugged this spot in and it looks like it's not as much of a disaster as I felt at the time; it's still a losing call but it's quite close (which is how I felt at the time). I need 41.76% equity for this to be a winning call. If Bradley has a range of 55+,AJs+,AJo+ then I have 42.89% equity. Take 55 out of that and I drop to 40.52%; take 66 out and I'm all the way down to 37.80%. So I guess it all depends on how many pairs Bradley is actually shoving against me, since I assume he's taking AJ in this spot. If we add AT I'm up to 40.24%; add KQ (and remove the 1 combo of 77) and I'm 41.84%. So if Bradley's range here is 88+,ATs+,KQs,ATo+,KQo then I am EXACTLY breaking even if we round to the tenth of a percent. This all being said, I would probably pass on an exactly EV neutral spot in a tournament with a structure like this that I feel I'm profitable in. So it has to be a fold. I called and Brad's KK held.

I later played a hand where I defended K6ss, c/c'ed a 2 spade flop, check check on J turn, and the river was a board pairing spade. Old me would often auto bet here, but I decided to check. Villain bet 5K, I raised to 14.5K and got called. He somehow had a smaller flush so it's debatable as to whether this c/r even got max value or not but I think this type of player would have just flatted had I bet 8K or so on the river so the c/r that Max added to my arsenal had already shown me profit.

That is, until...

UTG opens to 3K at 600/1200, the last level of the day, button peels and I peel BB with T8o and 45K. Flop comes A98r (there may have been 2 of one suit and it is probably relevant but I genuinely cannot remember) and we all check. Turn is a T giving me 2 pair and I bet 6K into 11K, UTG calls. River is an ace and I check, most likely giving up and every once in a blue moon having the best hand. Villain bets 5K into 23K. Woah. This is screaming thin value and I can't beat thin value. I block full houses now with my T8 since AT A8 TT and 88 are all very unlikely. He checked the flop which I'd expect him to do with JJ-KK and it's certainly not unreasonable to peel turn with JJ, probably QQ, and maybe even KK since I can have some draws and one pairs that he beats. Those hands HAVE to fold to a c/shove. But I think he also shows up with some Ax. Since he checked the flop it would be a little curious to see a hand like AJ but it's not the craziest thing ever to control the size of the pot and let a safe card peel off on the turn before getting money in with that hand. I perceived villain to be a thinking player who is capable of folding an ace on this board, although it would be pretty sick for him to do so.

I added everything up, decided it is time for me to start taking my game to the next level and not justify playing tight just for the sake of finding better spots later, and put all my chips in the middle. Villain tanked for quite some time. I had him covered by 300 chips so he had to commit his last 30K in order to call. He started to mumble "I just don't think you'd check a hand that has me beat on the river." Oh no! Was he watching the hand I c/r'ed the flush? If he was, maybe he feels that spot was different than this one? Maybe he's not thinking about it at all? I'm not sure, but at the end of the day he called with AJ to effectively eliminate me from the tournament. We'd been talking a ton earlier and he was a really nice guy and was apologetic about tanking and all that...I let him know there was no reason to be sorry (without adding that I was hoping to fold out AJ so he REALLY didn't need to apologize for nitrolling as it was for sure not a nitroll spot).

So that was my tournament. From near chip lead at dinner to out in just over 3 levels. I think this needs to happen more often in the future. I have a bad tendency of gaining a lot of chips and justifying playing ABC in order to hold onto those chips. In some spots that's okay, but more often than not I need to be focusing more on chipping up than surviving. I think that's what I did yesterday. Aside from the 77 hand (which I actually just determined was bad but not horribad) I don't know if I'd even deem any of the plays I made mistakes. I took aggressive lines that I think may work more often than not but just did not happen to work out yesterday. I'm excited to get back on the grind online and start putting the work in again. All the talking Max and I did showed me just how far behind the curve I am from the rest of the world. That might frustrate or upset some people; it actually encourages and excites me. There's so much I can improve on and it's time to get to work on that.

But first, tonight is the Chad Brown Memorial charity tournament so I'm definitely gonna get in on that; should be a lot of fun for a great cause. I'm also gonna have to get in on that Stars Funzone pop-a-shot contest; I played last night for free and scored 115 points. Pay $10 and you're entered in the contest so I might go do that after I eat.

And one last thing, LET'S ****IN GO CUBBIEEEEEEEEEES!!! My dad has been a Cubs fan all of his life and after 58 years of livin they've got the title, what an ridiculous game last night. Fitting end to a ridiculously long dryspell.

Mate, it's been long time you haven't updated the blog, thought you were gone, grad you come back and updated it, me myself also taking long break from poker but focus on doing yoga, meditation, reading. I think before going to war again, I need to prepare fullness physically and mentally


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nah I'm not gone, just took a little vacay! I'm back and ready to go now

A Fun But Fruitless Series

I ended up not playing the Chad Brown Memorial Tournament and I regretted it only about a half hour after registration closed. One of the big reasons I skipped was because I found another tournament to play in that started about 3 hours before the charity tourney. While I was railing a friend in his HORSE tournament I looked over and saw about 6 people seated in the $560 "win the button" "tournament." I thought the format might be fun and when I saw Chris Moneymaker playing I figured it would be an enjoyable investment so I hopped in.

The floor basically asked me which seat I wanted (lol) and after I saw Bradley was back and playing and there was an open seat on his left I snagged it. After sitting down I looked up and Sonny (guy who outlasted me when I took 4th in the 6 max) was sitting there too! Sonny and Bradley are two of the nicest guys I've played with before in the way that they don't get mad when they lose or cocky when they win or anything like that, and Chris is obviously a lot of fun, so I was looking forward to playing this little sit n go. They gave us 15K to start and we elected to change from 30 minute levels to 20 minute levels. It ended up with a total of 8 players so 2nd would receive $1300 and 1st would get $2600. Really early on Bradley opens to 400 on the CO at 75/150, I 3b to 1100 OTB with TT, and Moneymaker shoves 5500 or so in the SB. It folds back to me and given the banter Bradley and I had been partaking in I assumed Chris would assume I'd be light here quite a bit, making my TT pretty nutted in this spot. I called and held vs his QTs to bump to over 20K.

It was pretty smooth sailing down to 3 handed. Naturally Sonny and Bradley ended up being my 2 opponents, and with 120K in play all of us had between 35K and 45K to start 3 handed at 300/600. The win the button dynamic with 3 left on a stone bubble was actually pretty fascinating. It seemed like every time one of us seemed to make a little push to open up a lead, we'd find a way to lose the next pot and even the stacks back out. Defending your BB vs button opens was mandatory since a fold meant you had to post your BB again. Bradley and I were both a bit excited about trying to figure out a new format and ended up talking waaaaaaaaay too much strategy at the table but it was fun so who cares . Bradley developed a limping strategy bvb and I decided to attack it by raising my total air and strong hands and checking the middle. This resulted in an interesting one where he limps, I raise 64o, flop comes 789, he c/c's a bet (I think I'm remembering action correctly), turn T and I check back since I should have a ton of give-ups, and Bradley leads pretty big on a brick river and I call to beat a bluff. So now Bradley knows 64o is in the raising range after he limps. We played 3 handed for over 2 hours (despite the 20 minute levels) so this dynamic continued to develop and was a lot of fun to think about throughout the match.

Sonny took a lead and I managed to hang on to my 40K so Bradley started to enter shove or fold territory. At one point at 1K/2K Sonny picks up AK, JJ, AK in 3 straight hands on the button, leading to me losing quite a few chips since he keeps the button and keeps me in the BB for 4 consecutive hands. Finally Sonny folds the button and Bradley shoves the SB. I look down at A6s and count my stack to see I have 29.7K for 15BBs. Chipwise this is a snap, but ICM-wise I'm really not sure. I thought for a while and then asked the dealer to count down Bradley's stack just so I knew how much Bradley would have left if he lost. To my surprise the answer to that question was 0, since Bradley had exactly 29.7K! I eventually decided on calling, Bradley showed KJo, and we were flipping for about $1950 in equity. Board ran 4Q4K5 and that was that.

The next day I sat down to play the $230 MTT with 4 flights they were running. I ran my 15K stack down to 1200 after defending 42s and getting it in on 742cc; villain had 77. At that point Bradley sat on my left and the trifecta was complete! 3 MTTs and 3 sessions with Bradley. Somehow I spun the 1200 back up to 30K before losing A2 to 87 when blinds were high and busting the last 3 bbs with 87s. Of the 36 entrants 7 would make day 2 and get paid; I think I busted around 12th or 13th.

Overall the series was enjoyable. There was no turnout though and that is a problem. For the most part I thought the floor did a good job, with the exception of that $230 MTT. They played it 8 handed (which is awesome) but when we got down to 19 people my table had been busting a lot of players (well, Bradley had been busting a lot of players to be more accurate). So we had 5 and the other 2 had 7. I called the floor over to balance and floor told me they would not balance until the difference was 3. Why. Why is balancing tables such an issue? He claimed it was in the rules and his hands were tied. This just seems so ludicrous to me; that taking a guy from the table right next to ours and putting him at ours is that big of an inconvenience or something. When you're playing 13BBs deep it's insane to be playing 5 handed while someone else is 13BBs deep playing 7 handed. So whatever the hell rule that is needs to be changed. Aside from that and the lack of turnout, the room was really nice, the tables were cool, they never played 10 handed, the dealers were all competent and friendly, the waitresses were very good, the chips were clean, the cards were good, the bloggers worked hard; there were a lot of good things about this that I look forward to them improving on in the future. Aside from effectively bubbling all 3 MTTs I played I had a really great time all week!

First Sunday in Forever!

So I'm not sure if I'm happy or really disappointed with today's results, but I'm definitely really encouraged by my mindset and with how I played today.

Session Stats:

12 MTTs, 7 re-entries, $2364 in buy ins, $2810.06 return, $446.06 profit

MTT Overview:

16:00--WSOP $50, 1 re-entry, 14th of 179 for $160.88
16:00--Stars $50, 1 re-entry, no cash
17:00--WSOP $200, 3 re-entries, no cash. Pretty brutal 4 bullets but positives were taken from it (will expand on this later)
17:00--Party $215, 1 re-entry, no cash
18:00--Stars $200, 12th of 248 for $800. AK<QQ for chip lead to bust with $10K+ up top
18:30--Stars $100 hyper satty to $500 MTT, no cash
19:00--Party $109, 4th of 130 for $1105. AQ<TT to bust while in 2nd with double 3rd place in a must 4b rip spot vs CL who was abusing ICM
20:30--WSOP $50, no cash
22:00--Stars $75 hyper, 7th of 98 for $293.63. Got AQ in vs A5 for a lot of chips in a spot he should not be calling off and we did not win
22:35--WSOP $100, 3rd of 21 for $300.

Mental Game

It was really really good today. The WSOP $200 that I re-entered 3 times just kept ending with pretty brutal knockouts but I didn't get down about it at all. The part that really encouraged me is that I just kept re-entering. This might sound degen-ish but I'm too much of a bankroll nit in spots where I SHOULD be re-entering tournaments. And I justify it with "maybe you're not playing well, maybe your mind isn't in the right spot" and that's bull****. That's just the fear of failure talking and today I had that completely wiped out of my head. If starting stack was over 25BBs I would just continue to re-enter the good tournaments. When I made a play that I thought was good but didn't work, I didn't hesitate to make it again the next time, when in the past I'd shy away from bluffing again after just getting caught. I think I played really well today and the mindset was a big part of it. I never got lazy or forgot to range opponents or consider my range and it led to me having a winning day when I lost some really huge equity flips when it mattered most.

Now that being said I didn't run bad all day. I got KK in vs AA and A4 for a massive pot in the Stars $200 and flopped quads. I had 20K at 2K/4K in the Party $109 with 10 left and had the chip lead when we combined to 9 with 275K, in part due to TT>AA/KK. But what I noticed made my mindset as good as it was today was the way that I completely ignored all of this focus I often have on variance. My intentions were always good; I'd focus on whether or not I was running good in order to sort of "prove" to myself if I was playing good or not. But that is so mentally draining. Just because you get the money in bad repeatedly doesn't necessarily mean you're playing bad, and I think I'd convince myself in the past that it DID mean that. So today, I would acknowledge the fact that I'd gotten unlucky and that that was why I was out of the tournament, and not because I'd played bad, but it would stop there. No focusing on how many chips I "would've" had. No dwelling on who runs better than whom. No what ifs and coulda beens. Just focusing 100% on what I can control and 0% on what I have no control over. And it really made me feel good about my game today.

For the first time in a long time I feel encouraged to play and I think I'm going to start seeing results again soon. I anticipate this state of mind is going to stick and I'm going to start treating this properly like a job again. Hope everyone's Sundays went well!

Frustrating Couple of Sessions

I say frustrating but in reality my mindset has held up quite well and I haven't actually gotten frustrated. I have, however, been pretty close to some nice results and not ran well when I needed to.

On Monday I played 7 tournaments with 6 re-entries. I guess I could just call this 13 tournaments since you should technically look at each re-entry as a new MTT but saying I final tabled 5 of the 7 tourneys I played sounds a lot cooler . I didn't close any of them though and finished 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th in those 5. The spot that tested my nerve the most was when I busted within 30 seconds from 2 different tournaments, both to the same kid who has slowrolled me in the past. I busted 6th in the Party 10K when I lost 88 to his TT in a pretty standard spot. I was 4/6 at the time though so that was pretty sucky with over $2K difference between 1st and 6th. And 30 seconds later I busted 6th in a tourney to the same kid, this time my 99 to his 77. Feels like it's only right to go 1 for 2 in that spot but math says no! 16% of the time you'll win both, and 16% of the time you'll lose both. Such is life. Monday ended with $839 in buy ins and $1491.48 in returns for about $650 in profit.

Yesterday did not go well at all. I played the $250 Stars NJ "Super Tuesday." Was down to 11K when I defended 94hh vs a min from the SB (I'm folding very very infrequently when SB is gonna just min and give me incredible odds in position). Flop comes J87hh and we get it in and he somehow has JhJx, and I somehow turn a J and fade his 40% redraw to double back to the 25K SS. Unfortunately I lost a flip to get cut down again, then lost another flip to bust, then re-entered and lost one last flip to brick twice in that tourney. I was left with 2 MTTs, the 10K 30r on WSOP and a small $20 MTT on Stars knowing I was in for $1200 on the day. With less than $500 up top in the $20 MTT I was going to need something to happen in the 30r. It looked like it might when I won KK>K6s of my buddy sb vs button, but then I lost JJ to 55 of the same kid a few hands later. Eventually got A7s in BB vs button and different guy's KK held to bust me 10 from the money. I hopped off the computer, went downstairs and played the rest of the last tourney on my phone. That will probably be the trend in the future; if I've bricked everything and feel like sitting on the computer is the last thing I want to do, I'll finish my last game or two while watching TV and relaxing. The final table of the $20 tourney was insane due to a guy who did not fold one hand and just seemed to get there every time. I was the main beneficiary, laddering all the way to 2nd when he called 2 shoves with 86s for like 40bbs or something and got there vs both better hands. I was down 1M to 100K to start heads up, quickly took a small lead despite the BB still only being like 6K, and then got AT in for like 70BBs cuz this guy was just getting everything in every hand pre. He had AQ and I didn't get there. So yesterday ended in $1189 in buy ins with that 2nd place finish being the only cash for $323.23, resulting in an $860 loss or so.

The Future of Daily Recaps in This Thread

I'm sort of torn as to whether or not I should continue to post hands I win and lose with. On one hand I think it makes the blog a little more interesting. On the other hand I genuinely do not want to focus on results and writing that I won or lost a flip in here makes me feel hypocritical. So I guess I'll keep an eye on it going forward and try to find a way to make daily recaps more interesting without posting BBV hands. Maybe I'll take a page from my buddy Jerrad's (bbissick) book and post hands I think were interesting from sessions and people can comment on them if they'd like. I started marking hands on Monday for review and it's sort of embarrassing that I wasn't doing that already, but it's clearly a great way to go back the next day and decide on whether or not you think you're making proper plays and understand the theory involved behind those plays.

In fact, let's do that in this post. I marked 7 hands on Monday, will post the ones I think are most interesting here, and then the last hand will be the only one I marked Tuesday (probably should have done a better job with that).

Marked Hands from Monday

Hand 1

Early-ish in the Party 10K. Villain is loose passive pre, and sometimes does funky stuff post. Regardless of result, I think this might be a fold on river. I did some work with it after and tried to figure out hands he can have as bluffs here and I just couldn't think of enough.

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Party)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, November 14, 08:22:13 ET 2016
Table MAJOR Daily 10K ReEntry (106347964) Table 4 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 6: Player6 ( 8468 ) - VPIP: 32, PFR: 13, 3B: 5, AF: 1.6, Hands: 555
Seat 8: Player8 ( 10775 ) - VPIP: 14, PFR: 8, 3B: 7, AF: 0.0, Hands: 36
Seat 7: Player7 ( 10827 ) - VPIP: 21, PFR: 15, 3B: 6, AF: 3.0, Hands: 2043
Seat 3: Player3 ( 9935 ) - VPIP: 15, PFR: 12, 3B: 6, AF: 3.1, Hands: 2544
Seat 5: Player5 ( 8897 ) - VPIP: 21, PFR: 13, 3B: 2, AF: 3.4, Hands: 159
Seat 9: Player9 ( 11335 ) - VPIP: 36, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 1.2, Hands: 1787
Seat 4: Player4 ( 6136 ) - VPIP: 11, PFR: 9, 3B: 4, AF: 2.5, Hands: 1083
Seat 2: Player2 ( 12994 ) - VPIP: 40, PFR: 6, 3B: 2, AF: 1.4, Hands: 495
Seat 1: Hero ( 9955 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 6, AF: 2.2, Hands: 88950
Player8 posts small blind [100].
Player9 posts big blind [200].
(25 chip ante, will remove "Player 1 posts ante of [25]" manually in each hand)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 7s 8s ]
Hero raises [500]
Player2 folds
Player3 folds
Player4 folds
Player5 folds
Player6 folds
Player7 folds
Player8 folds
Player9 calls [300]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, 7c, 7h ]
Player9 checks
Hero bets [480]
Player9 calls [480]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
Player9 bets [1200]
Hero calls [1200]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
Player9 bets [3123]
Hero calls [3123]



Hand 2

Final table of $50 6 max on Stars. Villain is pretty aggressive pre and takes some unorthodox aggro lines post at times.

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, November 14, 09:44:10 ET 2016
Table 995243636 6 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 2: Player2 ( 66871 ) - VPIP: 38, PFR: 23, 3B: 5, AF: 2.7, Hands: 753
Seat 3: Player3 ( 88746 ) - VPIP: 33, PFR: 20, 3B: 4, AF: 1.1, Hands: 283
Seat 4: Hero ( 73509 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 19, 3B: 9, AF: 2.1, Hands: 78312
Seat 5: Player5 ( 74182 ) - VPIP: 33, PFR: 18, 3B: 6, AF: 1.8, Hands: 348
Seat 6: Player6 ( 136692 ) - VPIP: 31, PFR: 14, 3B: 10, AF: 1.2, Hands: 567
200 chip ante
Player6 posts small blind [800].
Player2 posts big blind [1600].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 6d 5d ]
Player3 folds
Hero raises [3520]
Player5 calls [3520]
Player6 folds
Player2 calls [1920]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 7c, 7d ]
Player2 checks
Hero bets [4950]
Player5 folds
Player2 raises [12800]
Hero calls [7850]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
Player2 bets [12800]
Hero calls [12800]
** Dealing River ** [ Ks ]
Player2 checks
Hero checks



Hand 3

Middle stages of $100 "Second Chance" on Stars. Villain has reasonable stats pre and c-bets 60%. By turn I should have such a big range advantage that I decide I'll bet twice, and I overjam river with the intention of making better A highs, mid PPs, and even sometimes a queen fold since I should have a decent amount of strong value such as 55, 44, 76, and 8x, and I block straights.

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, November 14, 10:01:55 ET 2016
Table 995243644 3 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: Player1 ( 12500 ) - VPIP: 34, PFR: 16, 3B: 0, AF: 1.1, Hands: 64
Seat 2: Player2 ( 35623 ) - VPIP: 36, PFR: 18, 3B: 9, AF: 1.6, Hands: 215
Seat 3: Player3 ( 30454 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 7, AF: 2.1, Hands: 1616
Seat 4: Player4 ( 8180 ) - VPIP: 14, PFR: 13, 3B: 6, AF: 2.2, Hands: 2634
Seat 5: Player5 ( 34869 ) - VPIP: 32, PFR: 17, 3B: 6, AF: 2.5, Hands: 341
Seat 6: Player6 ( 30650 ) - VPIP: 20, PFR: 12, 3B: 3, AF: 3.0, Hands: 227
Seat 7: Player7 ( 24806 ) - VPIP: 16, PFR: 12, 3B: 8, AF: 2.7, Hands: 722
Seat 8: Hero ( 12860 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 19, 3B: 9, AF: 2.1, Hands: 78312
60 chip ante
Player7 posts small blind [250].
Hero posts big blind [500].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 6c Ad ]
Player1 folds
Player2 folds
Player3 raises [1095]
Player4 folds
Player5 folds
Player6 folds
Player7 folds
Hero calls [595]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, 8c, 5s ]
Hero checks
Player3 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
Hero bets [1650]
Player3 calls [1650]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
Hero bets [10055]




Hand 4

Final table of the second chance. 8 paid so we just hit the money. This one is a bit weird and could have been a huge mistake. Villain is pretty aggro both pre and post. I've been limping my whole range from SB. I expect him to check back most of his one pair hands on river. Most of his good 2 pair and set combos would raise pre imo. Some of his weak 2 pairs might check back here though they probably should bet; I also block 9x. KT and T8 are definitely both in his range. I think he also has some complete air that is trying to fold out hands like the one I have. So I called. Might be terrible not sure.

PokerStars Hand #160857132386: Tournament #995243644, $91.80+$8.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (800/1600) - 2016/11/14 23:15:16 ET
Table '995243644 2' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: boyequity (54624 in chips)
Seat 2: monkeyman067 (42624 in chips)
Seat 3: supremetny (106694 in chips)
Seat 4: Wol0fwallst (55363 in chips)
Seat 5: njwrangler (86533 in chips)
Seat 6: arizona4144 (37680 in chips)
Seat 8: Blakjaks183 (86730 in chips)
Seat 9: iFoldN0T (89752 in chips)
200 chip ante
monkeyman067: posts small blind 800
supremetny: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to monkeyman067 [9h 8s]
Wol0fwallst: folds
njwrangler: folds
arizona4144: folds
Blakjaks183: folds
iFoldN0T: folds
boyequity: folds
monkeyman067: calls 800
supremetny: checks
*** FLOP *** [7h 9d Jc]
monkeyman067: bets 1880
supremetny: calls 1880
*** TURN *** [7h 9d Jc] [Qc]
monkeyman067: checks
supremetny: bets 4280
monkeyman067: calls 4280
*** RIVER *** [7h 9d Jc Qc] [As]
monkeyman067: checks
supremetny: bets 12840
monkeyman067: calls 12840



Marked Hand from Tuesday

30r 10K on WSOP with about 45 left and 25 paying. Two decisions to be made in this one. First, is flatting pre bad? I like to vary whether I shove or flat in these spots, where I've got 17BBs vs an UTG open. A shove looks very very strong and flatting is very deceptive and potentially opens the door to a squeeze behind. Against a villain running 27/10 though, do we expect him to always be very strong opening UTG here so we should just rip it in? Or is it the opposite, that he'll fold too often to 3b's due to his more passive nature? He's folding to 3b only 42%, but also strangely opens EP 18% while opening button 19% over a 700 hand sample, meaning his range here is probably pretty similar to his button opening range. And decision 2, after we get the worst flop imaginable, do we give up or see a turn? I elected to fold and I imagine that's pretty standard but if you have different opinions let me know.

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Pacific)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, November 15, 10:30:11 ET 2016
Table 902140 table 6 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Player1 ( 27682 ) - VPIP: 34, PFR: 11, 3B: 5, AF: 0.9, Hands: 1084
Seat 2: Player2 ( 37076 ) - VPIP: 26, PFR: 19, 3B: 8, AF: 2.4, Hands: 2507
Seat 3: Player3 ( 39575 ) - VPIP: 20, PFR: 12, 3B: 5, AF: 3.5, Hands: 782
Seat 4: Player4 ( 26156 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 10, 3B: 5, AF: 3.4, Hands: 1534
Seat 5: Player5 ( 17475 ) - VPIP: 18, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 3.4, Hands: 1417
Seat 6: Hero ( 28720 ) - VPIP: 21, PFR: 16, 3B: 7, AF: 2.5, Hands: 210903
Seat 7: Player7 ( 16712 ) - VPIP: 16, PFR: 14, 3B: 5, AF: 2.8, Hands: 420
Seat 9: Player9 ( 57893 ) - VPIP: 13, PFR: 3, 3B: 2, AF: 0.0, Hands: 112
Seat 10: Player10 ( 46531 ) - VPIP: 34, PFR: 11, 3B: 5, AF: 0.9, Hands: 1084
200 chip ante
Player2 posts small blind [800].
Player3 posts big blind [1600].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ks Kh ]
Player4 raises [3200]
Player5 folds
Hero calls [3200]
Player7 folds
Player9 folds
Player10 folds
Player1 folds
Player2 folds
Player3 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, Ad, 4d ]
Player4 bets [5300]
Hero folds
Player4 wins 10600 from main pot
Player4 wins 5300



So that's all for today. I will post results of Monday's hands during my next update. Any feedback, both on whether or not to continue to include BBV in this thread, and on the hands of actual interest that I've listed, would be appreciated!

Dominating the WSOP 10K

So we bricked everything yesterday again aside from the WSOP 10K...I won't get into the specifics but I think I played pretty well and ran really really bad. By the time I was down to just the WSOP 10K I decided to move it over to my phone and play the rest while relaxing and watching some Shameless. I ran pretty good leading up to the final table, winning A9s>KK bvb for 17bbs each with 14 or 15 left. From there I chipped up until I entered the final table 1/9.

Unfortunately in poker, dominating a table doesn't necessarily mean you get the win. There were a few good players at this final table but with my chip lead it felt like they were letting me get away with a bit too much. I was opening a ton, 3 betting the stacks that were in 2nd or 3rd whenever I could to put max ICM pressure, and I managed to chip up to close to 1/3 of the chips in play with 7 left or so. I lost 2 or 3 flips in a row to try to knock out shorties, each of which would have gotten me to 700K of the 1.7M in play, but I maintained a small chip lead. Eventually it folded to my SB and I open limped AQo at 5K/10K with the big blind, a very good NJ reg, at 170K. I've developed a limping strategy where I've been pretty much limping my whole range bvb in most spots (unless I feel I can profitably exploit the BB some other way). I'd done this earlier and BB jammed on me and I folded quickly. I lucked out and he picked up QJs and jammed it in this spot and my AQ held, boosting me back to 550K or so and simultaneously knocking out my toughest competitor who was on my direct left. The next hand a shorty with 8BBs shoves, next guy calls, I have AA and reshove, caller folds, I hold vs KT and we're down to 5 and I have a ton of chips. It really felt like I was gonna win at that point.

When we got down to 4 left stacks had shifted so that I had a small lead on the guy on my direct left (600K-500K or something like that) and each of the other 2 stacks were floating around 250K at 7.5K/15K. I'd gotten 3b shoved on by the shorties quite a few times but I wasn't going to stop opening most hands; either the opens start getting through or (hopefully) I wake up with a hand when one of them shoves. Eventually the big pot plays out when I open 30K otb w ATo and 560K to start. SB 3b's to 111K with 500K to start the hand. My read on the player was that he was sick of my **** and made his sizing really big to dissuade me from playing back. Theoretically he should probably even be folding some big value hands to a shove given ICM implications ($700 for 4th, $900 for 3rd, $1600 for 2nd, $2800 for 1st...laddering to 2nd is massive on WSOP so calling off your chips in a spot like this is suicide if you're not really really strong). So I shove, he beats me into the pot with 66 and wins the flip. I actually fold through the blinds with my last 4bbs since I find 32 and 73 in the blinds and one of the other shorties gets in AK vs 88! He wins though and I eventually bust 4th.

So again, a really frustrating tournament from a results perspective, but really encouraging from the side that actually matters: how I played. I went 0 for 3 in flips at the final table (and then the shorty won one that would've found me a $200 ladder) and still had the chip for just about all of it. I properly pushed my edges and wasn't afraid of making mistakes. Holding with the AQ vs QJ was probably the only good thing that happened among the things that were not in my control.

I'm also really encouraged with the way I'm switching between playing GTO and exploitatively based on my opponent. There have been a few spots where I'll peel BB and c/r the QQ4 flop because I feel really confident villain is blindly c-betting his whole range and will not realize how little I rep when I c/r (exploitative). But I won't do something like this against a good thinking player, instead doing stuff like double barreling my whole range on 876xx runouts when I peel BB and he checks back flop. I'll often go big sizings with my entire range on these runouts since flops like this smash me so much harder than they hit the opener, and even when he has a hand like KQ and the board runs 876Q4, I can occassionally get folds since I'm making my sizings really big to apply max pressure (and get max value when I do have those 85/75/65/54 etc type hands.

I think the main thing I realized after talking to Max and taking the long break from poker was that I wasn't thinking about spots anymore! I was just blindly rolling through tournaments on auto-pilot and then complaining when things didn't go my way. I'd open a weak hand from the HJ and instead of thinking about ranges of the 4 players yet to act, I'd think "please fold please fold please fold" lol.

One of the other things Max said to me that has been helping a ton involved my mentality when it came to getting "owned" by other regs. I always felt like people were trying to steal from me and it led to me calling down too light and doing other things that didn't make sense. For example, I open CO with QJss, flop comes K52hh, I c-bet vs the BB defend and he c/r's. In the past I'd be so frustrated. "What can he be repping here?? He's just blowing me off a hand exploitatively and I hate it!" blah blah blah. What Max pointed out was that in these spots you just need to consider your whole range (again, just think about spots instead of focusing on the wrong things). Just realize that you're allowed to have like KK, 55, 22, K8-AK, you can float every pocket pair, you can float every heart combo, and if you feel confident he's bluffing then float some backdoor stuff too. QJss is one of the hands in the range that are fine to give up here. Thinking like that has led to me feeling completely fine with b/f'ing some hands, and even realizing that when I bet a hand with no equity, it's no big deal if I get blown off it. I just really feel like everything is sort of clicking when it comes to applying all of this poker knowledge that I've built up over the years but haven't been properly using.

Results of Yesterday's Hands

So I think in the future I'll post the results under the spoiler tag in the same post as I write the hands. Here are yesterday's results, using spoilers in case you're reading this before yesterday's and would like to go back and read hands first:

Hand 1



Hand 2



Hand 3



Hand 4





One Hand from Yesterday's Session

I only tagged one hand from yesterday since I got crushed and didn't get deep in much stuff, and the one tourney I did get deep in I played on my phone so the hands weren't recorded on HEM. Since there's only one I'm just going to post results with it.

I called off vs shove but really had no idea how to range people in a spot like this. If I had AJ+ in this spot I would almost certainly either call or raise smaller after SB randomly donks 20% pot and BB calls. I'd be going for value vs my 2 opponents who are rarely gonna be nutted on this board. However, I don't know how other players think, and I definitely don't have a shoving range on this board. It seems really unlikely he can find a bluff on AK6r, so maybe I need to be folding AT here despite the fact that it's one of the best hands I can possibly ever have here.

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Party)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, November 16, 09:25:07 ET 2016
Table MAJOR Daily 10K ReEntry (106347966) Table 5 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 7: Player7 ( 8100 ) - VPIP: 24, PFR: 14, 3B: 4, AF: 2.6, Hands: 1788
Seat 6: Player6 ( 34832 ) - VPIP: 63, PFR: 37, 3B: 38, AF: 2.5, Hands: 27
Seat 9: Player9 ( 14555 ) - VPIP: 23, PFR: 18, 3B: 8, AF: 2.4, Hands: 1447
Seat 1: Player1 ( 30909 ) - VPIP: 30, PFR: 14, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 37
Seat 2: Player2 ( 36350 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 16, 3B: 6, AF: 2.2, Hands: 381
Seat 5: Player5 ( 10850 ) - VPIP: 16, PFR: 11, 3B: 6, AF: 1.9, Hands: 4150
Seat 3: Hero ( 19920 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 6, AF: 2.2, Hands: 89176
Seat 4: Player4 ( 30138 ) - VPIP: 18, PFR: 15, 3B: 6, AF: 2.7, Hands: 1496
Player2 posts small blind [200].
Hero posts big blind [400].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ad Td ]
Player7 posts ante of [50].
Player6 posts ante of [50].
Player9 posts ante of [50].
Player1 posts ante of [50].
Player2 posts ante of [50].
Player5 posts ante of [50].
Hero posts ante of [50].
Player4 posts ante of [50].
Player4 folds
Player5 folds
Player6 folds
Player7 raises [800]
Player9 folds
Player1 folds
Player2 calls [600]
Hero calls [400]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, As, Kh ]
Player2 bets [575]
Hero calls [575]
Player7 raises [7250]
Player2 folds
Hero calls [6675]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
Hero shows [Ad, Td ]
Player7 shows [Qs, Ac ]
Player7 wins 17875 from main pot

calling that all in with ATo vs the PFR has to be lighting money on fire. especially on a rainbow board.

I exploitatively fold ATo here given the nitty stats. But I play cash so not sure how loose people generally are at these stakes. Generally people only bluff jam this sizing with combo draws which is a bit lacking on this texture.

I would comfortably fold the ATo. When the SB leads on that texture you can safely assume he's a poor player and I really doubt any thinking player would try to bluff off a fish and capable reg who's bottom of his range is Ax. I don't think he has any bluffs on this texture, think you may have leveled yourself mate! I like the marked hands idea though!

Assuming you guys are right about the AT hand (and I think you are, just gotta be a frustrating fold), shoving AQ in villain's shoes is just so atrocious. As far as my range goes, I think I have 66, A6, K6s, and AJ as better hands and that's it. The first 3 beat AQ and the AJ has to be discounted since I sometimes squeeze pre. I guess that's where I leveled myself; if I fold a hand so so high up in my range here then he can just shove any two and show massive profit. I also just thought it would be absurd to play a hand that was better than AT like this for value. But I suppose as bbissick (who I'm calling Jerrad for now on lol) said, he's probably not bluffing since SB lead is often indicative of a weaker player. Taking that a step further, shoving AQ could be an attempt to exploit the SB, who will often have weak Ax and stronger Kx here.


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Some BBV from tonight because I'm having a mini panic attack. Checked HEM and these are the 2 highest equity spots I got myself into tonight. Currently 33/49 in the WSOP 10K, below SS in the $50 turbo on Stars, and 6/20 in a $50 on WSOP (where to be fair I did go AQ>AA/TT for 10bbs each).

(In spoilers so the people with better temperaments than me can skip over this nonsense)



Whine over. Still playing well, just hoping the ass ****ing I've been taking this week lets up soon.

Made a comeback in the WSOP 10K, lost a flip for CL with 5 left, laddered with 2 others busting, then lost 66<A7 to all but lock up a top 2 finish. Just need to start winning flips at the final table and I'll be crushing but until then just gotta grind through the ridiculousness. $700 payjump between 2nd and 3rd and $1200 payjump between 1st and 2nd just makes it super painful when I'm really desperate to get my BR to a certain point but it's out of my control.