Hi, I'm Sang. I have been out of the U.S. for the past year and away from regular live poker playing for about 3 yrs. I'm back and ready to jump into the Live poker scene and grindtime my way to Bobby's room. I started this thread to track my progress and help work towards my goals. One of which is to double my BR in the coming year.

Brief overview of my experience: I started playing in 2005. Mostly live. Highest I've played is 40-80NL at the Commerce. Played full time in Vegas for 2 yrs. Took a long vacation from poker(though I've kept up with reading and studying). Now I'm back and feel I've grown leaps and bounds from where I was 3 yrs ago. Mostly in the tilt and discipline dept. Tommy Angelo's work has really helped me a lot.

Starting Numbers: BR: $10k(liquid)+$33k(mutual funds)=$43k total. This is my poker money and separate from my other life moneys and savings.

Plan: Play 2-5/3-5/5-5NL; 5-10NL games in California and Vegas. Mostly Thu-Sun 25-30hrs/week. I have a decent cushion to live off of so to start I will apply 100% of winnings to my BR.

Goals: 1. Grow my BR to $100k in 12 months. 2. Keep discipline(which encompasses all tilt issues).

I will use this thread to track my sessions and post hands. Welcome any advice and critiques to anyone who cares to read.

1st Session
Date: Mon 4/16/2012
Venue: Hollywood Park
Hrs: 5.5 (10:10a.m.-3:40p.m.)
Game: 5-5NL $300-$500
BI: $500
Cash Out: $2100
Profit: $1600
Running BR: $44,600

Notable Hands:
About an hour into the game. Haven't played any hands up until this point.
Villain is an older gentlemen mid fifties and haven't seen anything of note from him. Effective stacks ~500.
Hero UTG+1: A Q
PF: Fold, Hero raises to 20, folds to Button who calls, blinds fold.
Flop(50): 8 8 6
Hero bets 30, Villain calls
Turn(110): Q
Hero checks, Villain bets 105, hero calls
River(320): K
Hero checks, Villain pauses and bets 220, hero calls. Villain says, "Nice hand" and doesn't show.

This hand is about 30 min after the above. Villain in hand is a business man in his late thirties early forties waiting for a taxi to catch his flight. He says he is about to go to several different countries for business. He's constantly on his Blackberry and laptop and not paying attention to the game at all except to play his hands. He called $90 PF w/ K6o, plays almost every hand, and if he's first in he likes to make it 15 or 20 and never folds to a 3 bet unless it's really big like a 300 all in. He's already rebought once.
Effective stacks are 545.
Hero is in HJ with QQ
PF: EP limps, Villain in MP raises to 15, 1 call, Hero 3 bets to 50, folds to villain who calls, other caller folds.
Flop(145): 773
Villain checks, Hero bets 100, Villain calls
Turn(345): 7
Villain checks, Hero bets 150, Villain instantly and excitedly goes all in for 395. Hero takes about 30 seconds just because the line is so confusing, he definitely could have a 7, and his genuine excitement threw me off. But there was no way I was folding. Hero calls.
River(1135): T
Hero flips over QQ and villain says, "Oh yeah, that's good." Then packs up and leaves to catch his flight.

Last one of note.
This is vs a villain I played with at the Bicycle about 4 or 5 yrs ago. I remember him, but he definitely doesn't remember me. He's an older Asian about mid fifties, and plays for a living. He almost never gets it in bad, is pretty tight PF, but will call in position w/ a wide range for small PF raises especially when deep. Never really remember him making any big moves though. Not sure if he's capable. I already folded AKs to his PF 4 bet. I 3 bet a LP raiser from the SB to 75 w/ AKs and he(he limped in EP) reraised and made it 250. I mucked and he said he had AK. I def don't believe him. I don't think he ever does that with anything but AA.

Hero is BB: Q5
PF: Villain limps UTG, 2 others limp behind, SB checks, Hero checks
Flop(25): Q52
SB checks, Hero bets 20, Villain calls, fold, Button calls, SB folds
Turn(85): 4
Hero bets 50, Villain raises to 150, Button folds. I really thought about folding, but just didn't think he would limp 63 UTG. Thought maybe 22 or 55, but with his style of play thought he def would've raised me on the flop on that board with 4 others in the hand. So I was pretty confused. Hero calls.
River(385): Q
Hero bets 400, Villain tank folds. Says he had 63.

Overall a good session. I felt like I was on my A game. Never tilted or reverse tilted when I won or lost pots, took breaks to stretch and reset every 45 min. I feel like I will have a very good year if I can keep this mental state everytime.

A shot of my stack shortly prior to cashing out.

awesome thread...looks like you'll be making a good amount of money OP

Hey, thanks I appreciate that. I am going to Sacramento tomorrow to find a place to live so will not be playing until next week. But my next session will be at either the Bike or Hawaiian Gardens.

I really like your thread. Will be following closely. I've read many of your posts in the other forums and have always considered your posts to be very well constructed, with good reasoning. You also sound to be a sick, great player.

GL and will be following with great interest!

quiet assassin, thanks for the kind words. I'm very flattered. I'm surprised there is anyone out there that remembers anything I post. I will do my best to keep it updated as possible and hopefully interesting.

Session 2

Date: Mon 4/20/2012
Venue: Thunder Valley Casino
Hrs: 2 (5:50p.m.-7:50p.m.)
Game: 2-5NL $200-$500
BI: $500
Cash Out: $668
Profit: $168
Running BR: $44,768

Finished house hunting early and have a pretty good idea where I will move to. I have a couple more houses to look at tomorrow, but that's about it. So even though I hadn't planned on playing any poker while I was up here(Sacramento area) this weekend, I decided to stop by Thunder Valley to check it out.

I didn't really have any interesting hands or decisions, but will just list this one as it's the only real pot I won. After that I will just give my impressions of the poker room.

Game is 10 handed and just sat down and so no real reads. This is my second hand at the table.
Hero is in HJ and dealt: 88 effective stacks ~450
PF: 1 limper in EP, Villain young asian guy early to mid twenties makes it 20, I call, Button calls, original limper calls.

Flop(87): K22
Checked to Hero, Hero bets 50, folds to Villain who calls.

Turn(187): 4
Villain checks, Hero checks

River(187): 8
Villain checks, Hero bets 200, Villain pauses for about 2 seconds and says call. Hero flips over 88 and Villain rolls his eyes and shakes his head before he mucks. He didn't show, but I guess he must've had TT-QQ or an extremely passively played AK.

Anyways, not a very interesting hand, but the only one I was deeply involved in.

My impressions of the room and players.

The place is designed like your average Vegas casino. Multi-level parking structure with the elevator taking you down to the Casino.

Pros: The Poker Room is right outside of the elevators and the restrooms are right there as well. So very convenient location.

Cons: 1. It's 10 handed. I dislike 10 handed because it allows bad, tight nitty players to nit it up and not get punished as much. Also you have to play tighter and the action just seems a lot slower.

2. There's smoking throughout the casino. Even though it's not terrible, it still filters a little into the poker room because it's not completely separated. It's not that bad and I know it's standard for a casino, but I still hate it.

3. The cap on the 2-5 game is $500 max. I think it would better if it were $1k. Also when I asked the guy at the front desk he told me $1k was the max, but when I tried to buy in at the table I was told that it was $500 and that's what the placard said as well. So I guess another small con would be that the guy at the front desk doesn't know the details of the game. I think knowing what the correct max buy-in is should be a standard requirement to work at the front.

4. There isn't a separate cage where you cash out. You cash out at the same front desk where you sign up for the games. I've never seen that. I just thought it was kind of weird and awkward. Especially if you ever had to cash in/out a large amount. No privacy, everything is just out in the open.

5. Dealers were a little green. I was only there for 2 hrs and there were about 6 or 7 dealer errors. I think this is a little excessive and just really added to the slowness of the already slow game. Some were just when they would deal people in that had missed blinds or were sitting out which happened 3 times, but others were more time consuming.

Ex. I was in a hand with 1 other player. Flop went check, I bet, he called.
Turn before he did anything the dealer burns and puts out the river. So had to call the floor bring the card back, etc. Not a huge deal, but again just wastes time.

Another Ex. Player 1 has $100 in red chips and $6 in blue chips. Player does not say anything and pushes out $100. Player 2 calls. The turn goes check check(but the dealer is just dealing at this point because he thinks Player 1 is all-in he never bothered to check to see if he had any more chips behind and never asked the player if he was all in.) River comes and Player 1 wants to bet $5. Dealer doesn't let him and says, "Come on man this is the third time you've done that to me. You can't keep doing that." Player 1 says, "Doing what? I bet $100. I never said all in and this $5 plays." Finally he just said whatever and collected the pot. He obv had the nuts.

About the players: The game was noticeably tighter. I also noticed many did not buy in full. The new players that would sit down would only buy in $200. Also after about 5 min I could identify the "grinders" pretty quickly. There were more than usual at my table. But they weren't very good. They were just tight and I could tell they were trying to play for a living. I could tell by the way they looked, their table talk(when you hear words like "float", "triple barrel", and "range" it gives a little bit away)and the fact that they played very few hands.

I say they are not good not to feel superior or be insulting, but it's just that they are not good. They play ABC poker and probably make a profit in the game, but I don't mind them because they are not dangerous. They are not capable of making any complex moves or putting pressure on you.

They also make a lot of little basic mistakes. I saw alot of people limp hands like QJo in EP and call raises OOP just to check fold a bunch of flops. Alot of other limping too. Hands like AJ, ATs, AQ in LP people were just open limping. Also they miss a lot of value. I saw one guy check the nut straight in a HU pot on the river because there was a possible backdoor flush that had come in. Not to be tricky, but for pot control.

There was only 1 guy who I felt might be decent. He was a young Indian guy who I could tell was a reg there because he seemed to know a bunch of people and was on the interest list for 5-10. He's the only one who seemed like he could be a decent winner in the game.

So those were my first impressions. Again I know super small sample size. Next time I will be able to play later when the 5-10 gets going. As I was leaving it seemed like the action was starting to pick up.

Long post, for a short session, but I have nothing else to do right now. When I move up here I will definitely check out Capitol. I hear that's the place to play 5-10 up here so we will see how it is.

Next stop, The Bike on Tue.

cool bubblebee chips haha, gl man subbed

Session 3

Date: Mon 4/23/2012
Venue: The Bicycle Casino
Hrs: 3.7 (12:06p.m.-3:45p.m.)
Game: 2-5NL $200-$500
BI: $1000
Cash Out: $2156
Profit: $1156
Running BR: $45,924

Got back from Sacramento last night. Found a house in Natomas which will be my new place of residence in about 3 wks from now. Really happy that's over and done with. Now all I have to worry about is hiring movers.

Had my third session today at the Bike. It's funny, I hadn't planned on playing much during the weekdays and especially during the day, but so far it has worked out pretty well. I'm just trying to play when I feel good and get as much play in as possible while I have the luxury of staying in LA.

I showed up and the highest game going was the $5-$5 300-1000 buy in. I guess it was changed recently. It used to be 300-500. There was only 1 game going and luckily there was a seat open so I was able to start right away.
I bought in for the max and scanned the table. There was a mix of stacks ranging from $250 to one guy who had about $1500. I liked the session today because I had a lot more interesting spots than the other sessions. Here they are:

1. Very first hand at the table I post $5 in the CO.
Hero is dealt: T8
PF: 3 limpers, Hero checks, Button limps, Blinds check.
Flop(35): 9 JQ
Check, BB bets 25, folds to hero who raises to 75, folds to original bettor who flashes a Q and mucks.
Off to a decent start, I'll take it.

Sidestory
Guy in last hand who flashed me his Q was sitting in seat 9 and started arguing with the big stack at the table who was in seat 5 to my right. Here's what started it:

Hand is being played where Player A bets 25 on the flop. Big stack guy takes a $100 chip and throws it out without saying anything. When it gets back to Player A he says, "Next card, that's just a call." Big stack guy says, "No it's a raise. If I wanted to call I would've put out yellow chips. Come on it's common sense." He's obviously wrong, but insists on calling the floor. The floor concurs that it's just a call. Next street Player A checks and Big Stack goes All In out of frustration and takes down the pot.

After all of this guy in seat 9 starts getting on Big stack guy about how he is ridiculous and then goes into a whole, "Hey let's play 5-10 HU and get the game started." Big stack guy who is from what I can see a losing player even in the 5-5 game seems to have enough sense not to be goaded into playing 5-10.

Don't know what the point of that story is, but maybe it will come into play later. Actually probably not, but I like to ramble in these posts.


Anyways......
I don't really play any other hands for the next 30-40 min. An older Asian guy probably late 50s sits down in Seat 9 after that guy leaves to play 5-10 when some other players show up. I was going to play in that game, but knew that the table I was at was pretty good and didn't know any of the players in the 5-10 so decided to wait to see what developed.

Next two hands are against the old Asian guy.
2. So after my initial posting hand, I had been at the table for about 30 min and not really played many hands. I think I might've raised a couple of times w/ a hand like AJo in MP got 3 bet and folded.
We're both about $1k deep and I haven't seen much of anything since he just sat down a few hands ago.

Hero dealt: AA in MP.
PF: Folds to hero who raises to 20, CO, Villain on Button, and BB calls.

Flop(85): 6 5 3
Hero bets 55 only Villain calls.

Turn(195): 6
Hero bets 115, Villain calls.

River(425): 3
Didn't really like that card at all, but wasn't going to check. Hero bets 225. Villain takes about 30s and folds.

I feel like he was calling me down with something like 77-99.

3. This next hand is about 1 orbit later. Villain has 800 hero covers.
Hero dealt: K7 in HJ.
PF: Folds to hero who raises to 20, CO calls, Villain calls from SB.

Flop(65): 873
Villain checks, Hero bets 50, CO calls, Villain CRs to 150. Really thought about just raising again to try to get it in, but opted to just call. CO folds.

Turn(415): 6
Villain checks. After he checks now I put him on Ace high FD or something like 99 or TT. I really don't think he has a very strong hand. Hero bets 300, Villain calls fairly quickly.

River(1015): T
Villain checks. At this point I have him on pretty much the same range. I thought about going all in, but figured it was pointless because nothing he had was folding except his Ace highs. So hero checks behind. Villain says, "You got a pair?" At this point I know I've won the hand because he had Ace high hearts so flip my hand over. He flips over his AQ of hearts anyways. Good thing I'm running good!


4. Hero is dealt 67 on the button.
PF: 3 limpers, hero limps behind, blinds check.

Flop(30): 458
The table nit(Guy who looks like Dan Harrington) almost bets, but then checks. Checks to hero who bets 20, only Villain calls.

Turn(70): 3
Villain bets out 60. I think this is where I should have just folded. It's the table nit who almost bet his FD on the flop, but checks then bets out when the flush comes. Hero calls.

River(190): J

Villain checks. Now I know he has between a T high and K high flush. The question is does he fold. The way the hand played I don't think he will. Plus he only has about 200 behind so it'd be close. Also me having the 6 adds a little showdown value so I just check behind. He shows Q9 to take it down.

The old Asian Villain left a few hands later and was replaced by another old Asian. But I think this guy was Filipino whereas the last guy was Chinese.

5. Villain is the Filipino guy. I had just come back from a break and this guy had sat down while I was gone so no info on him. Effective stacks are ~700.
Hero dealt 99 in MP.
PF: 1 limper, Hero makes it 25, CO calls, Villain on button calls, original limper folds.

Flop(90): 724
Hero bets 50, CO calls, Villain raises to 150, Hero calls, CO folds.

Turn(390): 4
Hero checks, villain bets 200, hero folds.
I'm not sure if I should've folded the flop. But called because I felt he could be overplaying a hand like A7 or 88. It was a pretty dry flop so didn't see it likely for him to have a set. He could've also had TT-AA as well.


6. Hero is dealt 55 in HJ
Villain in hand is the big stack guy from earlier. His stack has gone down a little due to his loose play, but he still has about $1k and hero covers.

PF: 1 limper, Villain makes it 25, Hero calls, CO and button call, original limper calls.

Flop(125): 536
Checks to Villain who bets 65, Hero raises to 165, folds to Villain who calls.

Turn(455): 7
Villain checks, Hero bets 400. Villain tanks for awhile and says he has TT and folds.



Last hand I will post

7. Hero is dealt 66 in SB. Villain in hand is young looking white guy. He is probably late twenties or early thirties. I haven't really seen him get out of line or do anything crazy in the past 2 hrs. He had won a large pot not too long ago where a guy went on tilt and donated all his money to him.

Effective stacks are about 800.

PF: Folds to Villain on the button who makes it 25.
Hero calls, BB folds.

Flop(55): 653
Hero checks, Villain bets 25, Hero makes it 75 Villain surprisingly calls.

Turn(205): 9
Now that I know he has a hand I bet larger. Hero bets 200, Villain says, "Ooh kaay." and calls.

River(605): 9
Hero goes all in. Villain thinks for only about 30s and folds.


So a lot more action today. Obviously I'm running very good so I can't complain. I'm always mentally preparing myself for the inevitable variance that will come so I never let myself relax. It's funny because I used to play 24hr+ degen sessions like it was nothing. Now I feel like I want to leave after a couple of hours. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm putting in a lot more effort while I'm at the table. I'm constantly analyzing other players and self-evaluating myself to make sure I'm in a good state of mind.

I never got around to playing the 5-10 game. When it filled up I saw Bart Hansen and Limon sit down. But after about an hour Bart left and sat in our game for about 30 min while waiting for 40-80 limit. And another guy left and came to our table from that game. So my instinct was that game was awful.
I approached Limon and introduced myself and talked for a few minutes. I already knew from all his posts that he knows his stuff. But from talking to him you really get a sense that he's really been around awhile and knows the real deal on making it playing live. Really nice guy.

Anyways not sure if I'm going to play tomorrow. I think I'll make the drive out to Commerce next. If not maybe Hawaiian Gardens. Hopefully the run good continues.

Awesome thread, looking forward to following. Pics are a plus!

Session 4

Date: Tue 4/24/2012
Venue: Hawaiian Gardens Casino
Hrs: 3.5 (11:32a.m.-3:02p.m.)
Game: 5-10NL $500-$1000(1.6hrs) 3-5NL $300(1.9hrs)
BI: $1000; $300
Cash Out: $1774; $735
Profit: $1209
Running BR: $47,133

Checked out HG today. When I showed up there was 1 5-10 game going and decided to give it a shot. Everyone was sitting on around $1k. I think biggest stack was around $1300.

Table was full of action with a lot of 3 betting PF by one Asian(mid fifties) player. He was not very good. Most of the table seemed to be regs as people knew each other by first name. This session was short as usual, but interesting as I def made some mistakes. I must be getting old because I feel like I've had my fill of poker after two or three hours. Back a few years ago I felt like I could play forever. I would be the one falling asleep at the table in between hands at the tail end of a 40hr session. I didn't even feel like I had played unless it was a minimum of 8 hrs.

Anyways on to the hands:

1. My first hand is in the BB. Hero dealt 78
PF: EP limper, white guy(late thirties/early forties) makes it 25 in MP, Only other white guy(twenties) reminds me of Mark Hamill for some reason. I think it's the way he talks. Calls, 3 betting Asian calls, I call 15 more in the BB and EP calls.

Flop(130): TQ9
Checked around.

Turn(130): K
Checked around.

River(130): 4
Ok if no one wants it I guess I'll take it. Hero bets 55 and all fold.

2. This is a couple orbits later. ~$1k effective.
PF: 3 betting Asian limps in HJ. Hero limps on button w/ 57. Villain is Asian female(early forties) calls in SB, BB checks.
Haven't seen a whole lot except that she limps and calls a wide range PF from all positions. Saw her flash J8o which she limped in MP and called a raise to 35

Flop(40): K84
Checked to Hero who bets 30. Villain calls rest fold.
Turn(100): 6
Check, check
River(100): T
Villain checks, Hero bets 65, Villain asks how much and then makes it 165. Quite a strange and tricky line. Not sure what she had, but of course I fold.

3. I feel I def made a mistake in this hand. ~$1k effective Hero gets dealt
99 in SB.
PF: UTG limps, MP older white guy fish who's steaming and been raising every hand anyways makes it 35. He's a really bad LAG and has been bemoaning his "bad luck". He's already been picked off twice on really bad river bluffs. It's funny because he keeps saying, "Yeah call me I'm on the table fish." To anyone who calls his raises. He's being sarcastic thinking he's actually a very good player. It's ironic that he was the table fish.
Luke Skywalker, 3 betting Asian, and Solid young Asian to my right all call.
I probably should've 3 bet, but opted to set mine in a a big multiway pot. Hero just calls. Villain from last hand(female), makes it 160, all fold to 3 betting Asian who calls, back to Hero....who calls?! Yeah I def should just muck here. I don't have enoug info yet on Villain's 3 betting tendencies in spots like this.

Flop($595): KJ4
Hero checks, Villain bets $250, we all fold.
Now I look like a loose donkey.

4. Alright take some deep breaths and analyze what just happened. And reset myself. Hero is dealt K4 in CO. Villain is the female on the button. Effective stacks ~$850.
PF: EP limps, bad lag fish surprisingly limps, 3 betting asian limps, Hero limps, Villain limps, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop(70): K65
Checks to hero who bets 40, Villain says, "KQ good?" and calls, rest fold. I say KQ very good.

Turn(150): 3
Hero bets 100, Villain calls

River(350): A
I have a feeling I'm def behind and I actually really think she has KQ,KJ, KT type of hand. So I decide to turn my pair into a bluff.
Hero bets 250, Villain tank folds and flashes a K. I tell her I had AK. She says, "No you don't raise all those limpers?" I say, "AK so unlucky I always lose if I raise. I want to see a flop first so I don't lose money." haha.

There's a bunch more hands, but not worth writing about except this last one before I get up. They started a 5-5-10 PLO game and all the fish at the table were leaving and getting in line to play that game. I'd go over too, but that games too big for me right now. Maybe when I get to $100k. Anyways so I was getting ready to leave. I was UTG+1 and I was getting up after this hand.

5. Hero is dealt KK Effective stacks are ~$585. Villain is young Asian guy(Early twenties) who just sat down. This is his third hand at the table. So no other info.

PF: Hero raises to 40 from UTG+1, 1 caller, Villain makes it 140, Hero only has the initial caller to the left and we both have about $1100 behind. Hero makes it 440, other guy mucks, Villain says call and shoves all his chips in. The dealer deals the flop. I say, "What's going on? Did he go all in before the flop?" dealer says, "No he thought he you went all in and he was calling all in." I was thinking, "Why the hell did you deal the flop then?"

Flop(1225): A34
What a beautiful flop! Haha Anyways I ask how much more is it to me and it's 145. So I just say no problem, stick it in and run it.
Turn(1225): 5
River(1225): 5

I thought I heard Villain say, "Flush" so I ask him, "Do you have a flush?" He flips over two red Queens and I show my Kings. Oops sorry dude, didn't mean to slowroll or anything like that. So run good continues! I cash out and move to the 3-5 game.

This game wasn't that eventful. Only a couple hands which aren't even all that interesting. I don't think I will come here again because the drive is the furthest and the 3-5 game almost isn't worth playing. yeah the players are bad, but the buy-in is just too small and the rake too big.

1. Hero is dealt A9 $300 effective.
PF: UTG limps, Hero limps behind in MP, Button makes it 25, UTG calls, hero calls.

Flop(83): A97
UTG Checks, Hero bets 30, Villain min raises to 60, UTG folds, Hero calls.

Turn(203): K
Not a great card, but whatever. Villain only has like a PSB anyways. Hero checks, Villain checks.

River(203): A
Hero bets 200, Villain quickly calls. Guess he had AQ.


2. Now this hand I was beating myself up over a little even though if you see it in a vacuum it's a no brainer get it in go post it in BBV you donk type of hand.

Hero gets AA UTG+1. This is immediately after the hand above. Villain is a new player who table changed and just sat down this hand two seats to my left. He's a short Asian guy in late thirties/early forties. I wasn't paying close attention to him.

PF: Hero makes it 20, Villain calls.
Flop(48): 357
Hero bets 35, Villain instantly puts two $100 stacks out leaving $155 behind.
I look at how much he has left and just say, "Ok I'm all in let's go." He can't call fast enough and I know I'm not in good shape. Please running hearts! Turns out I'm not running that good.
Turn(758): 5
River(758): 2

I show my Aces and he flips up his set of 33. THEN I recognize this guy. When I used to frequent HG a few years back I remember him. He's a set mining nit who waits until he doubles up and then cashes out and changes tables. Holy crap why didn't I recognize him earlier. That would've been the easiest fold ever. Oh well live and learn. Be more observant at all times. To make myself feel better I say that it's not really that bad to get it in w/ 80bb there.

After just picking up a bunch of smaller pots I end my session up $435 at that game so I'm still pretty happy everything considered.

Dang I didn't think I'd get off to such a good start. I hope it continues forever. Averaging $1k a session, I'll take that all year long. I know it's not sustainable. Guess I gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

Next session, I think I'll pay the Commerce a visit. On the advice of Limon I'm going to check out the $400 5-10NL game. I'll probably go on Thu. Tomorrow I'm taking a day off.

Cool thread OP will be following

OP,

The K7hh hand is an amazing run good story hand. I can't believe Villain calls your $300 bet on the turn and checks the river. Do you think you can possibly make a call if he bets $400 or more on the river? Of course, you can raise the river, but I am interested to know if you could make a call for a $400 river bet?

Also like your LLSNL posts, shall be following. May see you at the bike this week

When you had A9 2 pair you checked the turn just because of the K? thats a very easy bet.

Yeah if he bets the river I don't think I can call because it just looks so much like he's making a blocking bet with like TT or something. I don't think my pair of 7 would ever be good there.

Thanks man. Yeah I think I'll probably go there on Sunday night or something. I don't know though. Today I think I'm going to check out the Commerce in the afternoon/evening.

ah, good luck!

No I didn't check the turn cause I was scared of the K or anything like that haha. That's why I just called his minraise. I look too strong if I raise back again. But just calling on the flop and checking the turn makes my hand look very weak. Like a weak ace. So he's likely to bet again with most of his range. My plan was to CR the turn and if that fell through just bet big on the river. I figured it was ok since he didn't have that much more behind.

Ty ty! Cits.

This is spyu. Had to make another account because the email I originally registered under is no longer active. On my phone right now so can't make a long post. Have had a bad downswing this past couple of Weeks. Variance has definitely caught up and then some. I will write all about it when I get home.

Hope you turn it around. Looking forward to hear updates.

Table games? I feel ya man

This!!

Ok back home now and settled in.

After Sessions 5-26

Date: Mon 5/14/2012
Venue: Hawaiian Gardens, Hollywood Park, Bicycle, Commerce
Hrs: Many
Game: 5-5NL, 5-10NL
Profit: -$4309
Running BR: $37824

So...... I'm on close to a $10k downswing from when we left off.
Ok so obviously I'm not going to detail all 21 sessions from the last two and a half weeks. But I've been running pretty bad. I know, I know. Everyone says this all the time. But I look at it objectively and I would say I've gotten fairly unlucky though I know there have been a lot worse and I'm nowhere near that. But it still stings. I will only detail a few hands from yesterday's session at the Commerce that pretty much encompasses how the rest of my sessions have been going.

Oh and no table games. I don't play those. I kicked that habit awhile ago. Though it used to be a big leak of mine.

Hand 1: This hand is just to illustrate how I was playing during this session. I had developed a very aggro image. I was overbetting a lot both PF and post.
This is the 5-10NL game at the Commerce. 500-1500 BI. I bought in full. This is a new game that had just started and this was actually the very first hand.
Effective stacks 500.
PF: Everyone folds to Villain on the button(who turns out is a huge fish though I didn't know it at the time). He limps the button. SB calls, Hero has AKo in the BB. Hero bets 500. Villain calls lol. SB folds.
F, T, R: 9QK K 6
Villain shows down JT

Hand 2: Villain in this hand has seen alot of my plays and I already stacked him when I 3 bet shoved on him post flop w/ 2nd pair where he called with his draw and missed. So he probably views me as a hyper Aggro monkey. So he's been raising me post flop pretty light and calling me down light.
Effective stacks 500
PF: Hero has 35 in HJ.
1 limper in EP, folds to Hero who raises to 50, Villain calls on button, rest fold.
Flop: J35
Hero bets 50, Villain raises to 150, Hero shoves, Villain tanks for about 2 min and then calls.
Turn: A
River: 9
Villain says, "I have 2 pair". I'm like "F***" He shows J9

Hand 3: This hand is vs the Fish Villain in hand 1.
Effective stacks 550.
PF: Hero is dealt QJ in the CO.
Folds to Hero who raises to 40, only Villain calls in BB.
Flop: Q9T
Villain shoves all in for 510, Hero calls.
Turn: 7
River: 2
Villain excitedly flips over 83
I'm fish food today it seems. It's not even close to over though.

Hand 4: I won a large pot not too long before this hand where it was 5 to the flop of Q 9 2 and I had 99
I was first to act and I checked, Guy bets 125, fold, Raise to 325, Call, back to me I ship for 1675, get called in 2 spots and fill up by the river and scoop the pot. The Villain in this hand is a pretty big fish who cold called the 325 and almost called my All In but opted to fold.
Effective stacks 2035
PF: 1 limper, Villain limps, Solid player raises to 55, Hero calls with QJon the button, blinds fold, rest call.
Flop(235): T98
Bingo! I'm in the perfect position, with the perfect image, vs the perfect villain. Perfect situation.
Check, Villain bets out 150, Original PF raiser just calls, Hero pauses and makes it 720, fold, Villain calls fairly quickly, OPFR folds.

Turn(1825): T
Not the best card, but I am 100% sure I still have way the best hand here. I think most of Villain's range is pretty much just combo FD's. As any 2 pair or sets he would've easily reshipped the flop vs me on a board like that. I got exactly what I wanted. Now I can shove easily and it will be hard for villain not to stack off. Villain checks, Hero goes all in. Villain goes into the tank for about 5 min. He almost folds a bunch of times, but then quietly and defeatedly says, "ok I call."

River(4345): T
My soul soul becomes crushed into a tiny diamond. I look a little sick and Villain proudly tables his hand J9 as he says, "Yeah I knew it! You were on a flush draw!" I would usually just nod my head and muck, but instead I couldn't resist the urge to show how wrong he was and I quietly table my hand that used to be the nuts on the flop that was just outdrawn by 2nd pair.

The rest of the table was pretty flabbergasted as well. Of course as it always happens the fish leaves two hands later. I guess the thing that kept me calm was that I was able to take advantage of that unlucky moment to exercise my option to not tilt at all. It's funny, 3 yrs ago, I would've been the guy you see either berating the dealer and getting so angry at the fish and going on nuclear monkey tilt spewing off the rest of my roll. But now I like to pride myself in being able to not let an event like that manifest itself negatively into my play.

Anyways that's a short snap shot of my last 2 weeks. Not very pretty. After the cash game session I decided to take a change of pace and play in the $550 tourney at the Commerce. I staked a friend of mine in it as well. Not very big, it only got 120 entrants. Of course my friend doesn't even make it to the first break. This is the first tournament I've played in a few years and I'm pretty card dead the entire time. I pretty much just stay afloat by shipping 20bb at opportune moments mement_mori style during the entire tourney. In 7 hrs of play I get dealt KK, AQo x2, AJs, ATs x2, AJo x2, KQs x2, KQo, TT, 99, 88, A8s x2, A4s, A3s. Those were my best hands. Of which I only got to play about 1/4 of those. The other hands I played were garbage hands I used to steal or resteal.

I end up getting knocked out 23 due to playing TT very poorly.

First I'd like to share a comical hand where I could've easily doubled maybe even tripled up, but I guess my radar wasn't on.

Level is 200-400 with 75 ante. Player A is a new player at the table that just sat down and this is literally his first hand at the table. Player B has been at the table awhile. We are down to about 36 players. Player A has 48k, Player B has about 22k. Hero has about 13k and is in the BB with A8

Folds to A who raises to 1200 in MP, B Goes all in folds to Hero who doesn't even think about calling, Villain tanks for about 30 seconds and then slams the rest of his chips in the middle.
B tables KJ, A shows 73 lol wut?
Of course King high good by the river.

And the hand I go out on. I play solid all tournament to just completely butcher this hand and get knocked out 11 before the money. If you get disgusted easily don't read on.

We are 8 handed. Hero is in SB w/ TT
Blinds are 400-800 with 100 ante. Hero has about 22k villain covers.
Villain is a young skinny asian guy with sunglasses. He hasn't played a hand since we redrew for tables at 27 players. I would say this is the first hand he's played in the past 40min or so.

PF: He opens UTG+1 to 2k, folds to Hero who calls?!(This part I would like to ask a tournament pro.) Do you ship here, 3 bet, or flat? I decided to flat. The guy's image is so tight and he's raising from EP I put him on a pretty tight range. I think 3 betting is pretty much out and so is folding. So that leaves us with flatting or shipping. I thought if I ship I only get AK to call when I'm ahead and everything else he calls me with is crushing me.

Flop: J97
Not a bad flop for my hand. I check, Villain bets 4500, hero calls. I think I should've just shipped it here.

Turn: 6
Hero checks, Villain bets 5500, Hero goes AI, Villain calls quickly with AJ. 1 out baby! Brick.

I can't believe he smashed the flop that hard with a hand like AJo. lol. Oh well.

Anyways hopefully I start to run a little better. I'd at least like to start winning my 90/10's when there's 1 card to come. Losing 3 of those in a week for big pots is starting to sting.

Well tomorrow I'll be at Hollywood Park. Hopefully I can stack a couple of the old retired guys that always play 5 to 6k deep. Wish me luck. Only got 1 month until my run in Vegas!

wow amazing thread spyu, subscribed and good luck!!!!

looking forward to your vegas TRs! run better pls