feel free to, I dunno, tell the story?

Lol,Gotta keep the readers interested! Earn that 5 star rating!

Revising my rating to 1 star pending storytime.

tell story please and post dem hands

Maybe I'll post it when I'm home and have computer access

It has to do with a former friend of mine =/

Just got a fortune cookie that said:

"Your lost possession will he found within the month"

The hooker ain't giving back that money bruh.

Its about the run good not the money

These aren't terribly useful sample sizes. There's not much to be gleaned other than you ran above expectation at 2/5, and below at 1/2/, 1/3.

Both are within one standard deviation of expected WR - I suppose a case could be made that you're running slightly better at 2/5 than you are worse at 1/2, 1/3 - less comforting, IMO, but remember -

WR is a longterm phenomenon. Put in hours. Make manies. GL

fyp

Yea I agree, I guess I just over-analyze things and worry too much

I'm on my way home now

Had a great time with P4MS and HerefortheBBJ in Las Vegas.

Met up with Bobbo from OOT/Student Life 2p2 forums today and we had a good time wandering around the strip.

I also donked off $210 when I decided to be the whale in an Excalibur 1/2 game so that was fun. Besides for sports, I usually don't do any -EV gambling. Today, I just felt like gambooliing it up in -ev spots.

Some hands from the session:

3 limps to me, I raise to Q6o from the btn to $100. SB tank folds JJ

A9dd SB. Roommate opens to $8, btn 3b to $28, I 4bet to $71, btn calls. Flop 76d3r I ship $80, he calls with KQ and I hold

32o BB. P4MS opens to $8. 1 call. I 3bet to $36, p4ms folds and I take it down

32ss co. Roommate posts from mp. 1 limp, he checks, 1 limp, I raise to $15 because I have to attack his post. BB ships $28, folds to me. I call and lose to 99.

Q2o btn. 5 limp. I raise to $25. BB tank calls. Utg calls. Flop ATx I bet $50, BB calls. Turn brick I ship $200, he calls with AK and I'm drawing dead

T8dd I ship $70 over some limps, get called by A5cc and lose

Haha.

Can't wait to get back to Parx to grind out some 1/2 and hopefully get off on the right foot over there. I'll be paying extra attention to the actions of all villains to help increase my edge along with doing even more studying than I already do.

Still will be living with my parents for the next 6-8 weeks provided they don't make me want to kill myself.

I'll post more Vegas stories later

I'll also be focusing hard on nutrition and weight lifting. I'm hoping to put on a lot of weight so I can look better and feel better. More to come on that, also pictures from the trip to come as well!

You already left man? Got a new phone so throw me your number again when you get a chance.

Yea bro, too bad we never got to smoke and chill but definitely next time. It was great to meet you, keep crushing and keep the good BR management up, don't be like duke

I don't get it. Do you like money? This shows a complete lack of discipline. Are you trying to make it as a full time pro or have fun being the whale in the game? Why would you reinforce spew and bad habits when you're trying to create good ones?

You put your hours in to earn ev. By doing what you did, you just erase the good hours you put in and make yourself more prone to spew in the future.

Treat every session at the poker table like you're at work, because you are. You don't have the time or bankroll to be donking around like a fish for ****s and giggles

Subscribed and ^ this

Duke I hope you still know how to deliver pizza's because the way you have been acting that is the direction it looks like your heading. I hope I'm wrong and you get your act together before it is to late. I really wish you the best and I'm rooting for you. Good Luck!

Playing a bit of devil's advocate, I say its fine. Go ahead, sow your oats, strut your stuff, and release some pressure. Definitely think its fine to donk around a little bit as long as you don't overdo it, in fact, it can even be serendipitously helpful, instead of grinding out a wage doing the same thing over and over.

you never sat at an NL10 table on full tilt and told yourself you're pfr'ing 100% of the time and triple barreling low-pair no-kicker until you lose the $10 just to feel better about running bad and to let off steam?

granted, doing that while playing the same stakes that you always do probably isn't the same thing, and it doesn't seem like he was doing it to re-focus, and...

nevermind, duke don't do that. lol

Duke,

Do yourself a favor and make a promise to yourself that you won't bet sports for the remainder of the year. You aren't claiming to be a pro sports bettor, which means that the average sports bet you make is almost certainly -EV.

As far as the table errors, obviously you aren't purposely donking off stacks on purpose like everybody else is making it sound. I'm sure it's just tilt. Tilt is simply the result of an amygdala hijack that temporarily shuts off higher level brain functioning, right? The operative word is "temporarily." Make another vow to yourself to take a minimum of 30 seconds before making any decision for a significant amount of chips (any amount that commits you). We have all donked off countless stacks in the spur of the moment but the solution to that is simply to take the amount of time necessary to let your higher brain functions kick back into gear. That 30+ seconds is many many times the difference between snap shoving TP(Jack)K on the turn - and folding on that turn to a pot size bet from a villain who ch/r the flop.

Lastly, come to LA and grind NLHE 2/3, $300 buy-in, @ The Bike with me

Posting to subscribe. Good to meet you in Vegas. Couldn't read through all the pages but I'll offer whatever advice I can from here on out.

LoL, yeah definitely not the same thing. If he was a 5/10 reg and decided to donk some chips off at 1/2 I'd think it was a bit immature but not a big deal. However, he's struggling to get wins and decides to do it at the same level he is playing now. I understand that he was playing with friends but that might have been a good opportunity to try to play well against good players.

Duke played that session like the money at 1/2 is a joke and doesn't mean much. I hope that playing higher hasn't hurt his ability to play 1/2. Fortunately, too my knowledge Duke hasn't really played above 2/5 (at least any substantial amount) which is good because I've known kids that have gone on a heater and beaten 5/10 and 10/20 for months and then when they finally figured out they were at best break even players at 5/10 they quit poker altogether because they lacked the discipline or commitment to play 2/5 or lower (because the game is too small).

FWIW, I hate this play even if you are just messing around...even at play money stakes...I mean wtf is this about and how is this fun in any way?!?

For certain he needs to pick a home base and stick with it for a period of time until he starts making some money again. Since he can live for free with his parents that's really where he should setup shop unless that household dynamic somehow has a serious effect on his mental game.

1/2 and 1/3 type games are beatable everywhere. They may be tougher in some places than others but they are all beatable and being able to live rent free is a huge deal in this business.

I was just trying to let some steam out. I was really frustrated with the "one-step forward, two-steps back" pattern that has been developing lately. Half-way through the Vegas trip, I ended up just treating the whole thing like a vacation moreso than a business trip.

Well, in the 1/2 Excalibur game, I was purposely just whaling it up for fun.

I'm back to playing seriously and hopefully tilt free now that I'm home.

Is that game even beatable, though?

Nice to meet you, too!

Well, I did play a lot of 2/5 and shipped some enormous winning sessions in LA and Phoenix. That has definitely hurt me at 1/2 because I find myself making bad plays because the absolute value of the money feels like it is very little.

As for the Q6o play, its fun for me. If its not fun for you, that's fine, but you really can't say "X is not fun for me so it can't be fun for anyone else."

I think golf is not fun and other people love it. But its not like I'm confused and my mind is blown, "WTF HOW CAN THEY LIKE GOLF?!"

........ lol this again....

Played 1/2 at Parx tonight and finished +$233 in 2:12.

I felt pretty far off my game so I decided to rack up and go home to study. I felt that was a much better use of my time than playing my B-game or C-game. Also, most of the fish had busted and I was going to have to find a new table while waiting for my table to fill up so I could move.

A hand I can be proud of that I actually played well...

Hand 1

Reads: MP ($250) is a late 40s wanna-be TAG. He seems to know that he should be open-raising rather than open-limping. He has been opening what seems like a reasonable range based on his PFR% - he has yet to show down a hand.

SB ($200) is a huge spot. He has gotten all his money in with just top pair/middle kicker before. He is playing any two cards pre-flop and continuing post-flop with any piece of the board.

Preflop: QJ BTN. MP raises to $12. Hero calls. SB calls.

This is usually a 3-bet or fold for me. This player has 4-bet me once already and is opening what seems like a reasonable range. I generally don't want to 3-bet him if he is opening from MP. Folding is best most of the time. However, the SB is 100 big blinds deep, playing any two cards, and stacking off with top pair. I also have the BTN, feel like I'm a better post-flop player than MP, and can make up for the times MP has a huge card advantage on me by taking SB to value-town when I hit a hand.

Flop: ($34) J44 SB checks. MP bets $25. Hero calls. SB calls.

I suspect MP knows that this is a good flop to throw out one of those, uh, what are they called? Those things that I see all the young guns doing nowadays... Oh, yeah... a CONTINUATION BET! Seems like a pretty clear call in position to see what he does OTT. If he bets big again, I will be folding and giving him credit for AJ, KJ, QQ+. However, I think he can have TT, AK, AQ, JTs, KQ... maybe even 99 or J9s often enough to make this a profitable call - especially when I expect SB to come along with stuff like J5o and all pocket pairs.

Turn: ($107) 7 SB bets $50. MP folds. Hero calls.

The turn half-pot donk-bet from a fish is usually pretty weak. They are just trying to see "where they're at". He could have something like Jx with a flush draw or a weak Jx that doesn't want to face a big bet. I doubt I ever see 4x or 77 here. Raising is a possibility since he only has roughly $110 behind, but I'd rather not blow him off of a weak hand when the river will be such a comfortable shove if he checks to me or makes a "same bet".

River: ($207) 2 SB checks. Hero bets $113 all-in. SB calls.

Easy ship. I told this hand to someone and he said, "nice thin value OTR". I guess I am such a spewtard that I didn't even consider this to be thin value at all LOL.

Villain shows J and mucks.

The goal for this week is 60 hours of A-game poker... in order to do that I am really going to have to get back on my game. If I am feeling on my C-game at any time, I'll get up, especially if I'm already ahead for the night. Whether I get 60+ hours or not isn't super important to me; it is important that I get myself back into a rhythm and play my A-game in good games for as many hours as I can.

Thanks for the support guys, I know I've been acting crazy lately, but this is the week that the train is getting back onto the tracks.

A few other hands real quick from tonight's session...

Hand 2) AT SB. 4 limps. BTN raises to $7. Hero raises to $23. EP limper calls. BTN calls.

2nd hand at the table. Calling BTN's raise is ok, but I feel like I'll be mostly looking to hit 2-pair or better. BTN opened the last hand so I suspect he is opening more than a nitty range of hands. His $7 over 4 limpers also implies weakness. I think by 3-betting, I take down the 9 big blinds that are in the pot right now the vast majority of the time or get called by BTN's weak range and profit with my skill edge and card edge.

Flop ($71) 743 Hero checks. EP bets $25. BTN folds. Hero raises to $70?

Walked into the casino and told myself "straight value tonight..." but couldn't help myself in this spot. FWIW, I do think EP can have a set here and be making this small bet just to try to get some action on a dry board. However, I am the PFR and did just check to him so he can definitely be stabbing with things like 88-TT, 87s, 55, 66... maybe A4s or A3s. Also, the fact that he made it so small allows me to get a great price on my bluff (I only need it to work 42% of the time to break-even. I really don't know what his range for limping in EP and then calling a raise + a 3-bet is... but the fact that he's doing it at all makes me think he's super fishy and can have a wide range here. Like, I've seen people play AK/AQ this way... so I thought I could just re-steal his steal attempt here.

Hand 3) JJ SB. CO ($400-450 effective) limps. I raise to $13. BB a huge fish ($60) calls.

CO seems like an ok player. He has been playing somewhat tight and hasn't been donking money off post-flop.

Flop ($35) T72r. I bet $20, BB folds , CO raises to $60 so quickly. It almost felt like he had raising chips ready. I call.

Turn ($153) 6 I check. He very quickly bets $75...

Tough spot, I think. The sizing is small relative to the pot but a lot of these live players are fish when it comes to bet-sizing. It is kind of big in terms of absolute $ so I can't read much into that. I read more into the fact that his actions were so fast OTF and OTT... its like he had nothing to think about and that his moves were pretty clear. He could easily have 77, 22, T7s, 98... but OTF wouldn't he slow-play those hands? OTF I felt there was enough 98, AT, KT, QT, JT, T9 in his range for me to call, check to him, and see what he does.

Hand 4) JJ SB. 2 loose/passive straightforward fish limp. EP/MP raises to $11. The PFR is a wanna-be TAG older guy who seems to raise a reasonable range. He's probably going to be tighter from EP but his sizing is pretty small... every raise is getting multiple callers so wouldn't he make it bigger if he had a monster? Then again, these guys are so bad when it comes to bet-sizing...

Flatting had merit in that we get to try to flop a set against his monsters (he'll probably stack off) and get to keep all the fish in the hand.

3-betting has merit in that we're OOP and probably would prefer to play OOP with a smaller SPR. We make a lot of money by 3-betting and getting Villain to fold AK, AQ, KQ-type hands, especially since I think he's limping 99 and worse. Only TT is a hand we dominate and can get it all in with postflop as a huge favorite.

IDK

3-bet or flat?