So instead of whining about variance in the start of april, I rather talk about some other stuff relating to poker.

I think theres not much I can control in poker. Variance has such a huge impact that I will probably not ever get a grip around it, nor will I try. I rather focus on what I CAN control. Theres where the mental game of poker is so important. Its the only control you got in this crazy game, especially PLO. How you percieve events, what your thoughts are is most often reflecting the results you been getting. What drives someone to excel in poker is probably the most important area you need to resolve before you can get anywhere. If you got the right reasons and you put down the work, theres basically no limit for what you can achive imo. So thats why Ive been working alot on my mental game last few months and it has really done wonders for my poker game in general.

Theres also alot of stuff surronding the playing part itself that is thought as "less fun" but its pretty important for any poker player imo. Like warmup, cooldown, reviewing session, discussing hands, theory etcetc. Ive been working with my latest "Session Management" creation for a week now


I really think any serious poker player should keep something like this going for themselves. Its often hard to know which areas you need to improve and theres only so much info you can keep in your head. So keeping track of sessions by doing these raports was a huge improvement for my game when I started doing it in january.

Some might start out being excited and do it eagerly, but after a week they get tired of it and just play instead of doing all those important things. Thats because you dont have strong enough reasons. Anything you do starts with a thought, so theres where you need to do the groundwork. Make sure your brain is always locked in on what to focus on, whats important to you. Maybe you play poker because its fun, but I think if you hang around at forums like these and you play alot, you probably want more out of the time you put in. I damn know for sure I want to.

The "session management" you're doing there is definitely a great thing to do. I do something similar just that i write it down physically before and after sessions.
Interesting to see how much stuff you can find out about your own game when your reflecting on your mental mind set

Yea the mental part of poker is pretty deep.

Been playing alot today and still feels like Im in a downswing. Happy with keeping focus even when running bad. The only thing that suffer is my volume, since I play less when losing. Hopefully my bad run will turn around soon and I can catch up on volume when running better. Posting a graph once I hit 10k hands.

Wish you the best of luck!

Thank you .

Had a sweat/meeting with my staker last night and it was very valueable to me. Sometimes it helps having someone reinforcing your game and maybe adjust you just a little bit to give you a good direction of where you are heading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH89Eka_MCM

Great video!

"The successful people do what the failures won't" is gold

Pretty much made money just watching that vid

Thanks for sharing

Indeed, I really like all the material he produces. No problems

April has has continued where mars left off.



Im running pretty icy at the moment but Im keeping a good spirit and focusing on just bringing my best to the tables. I might tilted/spew 1-3 hands in total over this sample and I think its completely natural and Im suprisingly happy with how Im tackling this downswing mentally. The value is great and its just a matter of variance, so even if I feel gutted sometimes, its about just keep moving on and take it as an experience.

Theres a small chance I might switch/mix in different site just for the maybe needed change of envoriement and some other benefits. It depends on what my staker thinks about it since Im ultimately his employe.

My frustration went out on cod instead.

RIP cod

you bastard

Haha didnt manage to break it by hands so got a scissor for it. Pretty good feeling destroying it actually, takes up more then then it should have been.

New week and got monday dedicated for poker only basicallly, so Im looking to push some volume and hopefully start turn around the results. Wish me luck!

Took today off from playing and toyed around with camtasia and some other poker related stuff. Getting more and more motivated to grind my way out of this downswing and tomorrow I will make it happen.

Last few days have Ive been playing alot and today I actually booked a profit for a change . Played pretty well and still ran bad, but managed to hold up in some spots. Had a period of 10 minutes where I lost 4 100bb+ stacks being 65+% favorite in all of them, and it made me a bit upset. However I recognized it doesnt do me any good to cry about it so I kept grinding and turned it around after a while.

Also recorded my first test video, which kinda sucked imo. Have a cold so I cant talk properly and I made some questionable plays also. Im lucky having my staker and friend looking over it and giving me feedback, which is very valueable. I will post videos on my youtube account in the future but I believe theres a long way to go until Im there.

As I mentioned, Im sick and cant do much else then playing poker so thats what I will do for the next few days. Try to push alot of volume and keep trying my best. I will do daily graphs for next couple days and with some hands in there aswell.

Didnt get to play at all yesterday. Im feeling very sick and wouldnt play my best so decided to just let it be. I instead got some comments from a friend and my staker/coach on a few hands on my last recording so I guess I can post them here.















I misplayed this big time looking back at it. We should be raising for value on the flop, and kinda big around 82-96 to get value from tons of draws and protect my hand vs villains donkfoldrange at the same we feel pretty good vs villains get it in range when we block alot of straight outs vs wraps/pair+oe.
In short, our hand feels pretty good at the flop vs villains whole range but will face big trouble on turn/river vs 2/3 barrels.

River is pretty close to herocall, since I dont expect villain to fire JJ+ here and he probably want to build on his flop donk.







We prefer c/c instead because I think our hand is too good to bet/fold but too weak to bet/call. We can also do a delayed cbet on almost every turn card except 5. We rather bet/fold hands like AKJ5, AKJT or random overpairs wo doesnt have many nut outs while we will pick up outs/nuts on any A-9.

As played, my sizeing on turn is too small and should be ~220 as we will never have a bet/fold range at this point, and its stupid to give them the odds to call with low flushdraws/gutshots, pair+gutshot.

Was considering c/c river but I think jamming is good for balance. Villain bluff frequency is way much lower then ours, and we could get some herocalls sometimes.









My raise on turn is icecold. My thinking at the time is that he would continue with some 7x and/or flushdraws and thought Im more likely to get value from those hand on the turn then river. I think were better off just calling turn and get value from his bluffs/missed flushdraws which bets turn with equity and tries to rep boat on river.









I was torn at the time wether I would flat or fold preflop. Calling is by far the most standard play. My flop bet isnt very good either since theres nothing to get value from, and we rather try catch off a bluff on later streets or hope someone tursn a fullhouse.








I think the call is fine with the SPR we have and position, although they block us with their ranges. We should definately bet turn for value against hands like QJxx/fds/sets which might call 2 streets. As played, river is a snapcall.

Kinda had a sort of restart today in terms of applying new routines and trying to push alot of volume. This means I will use this thread more as a journal where I will post more hands and graphs on a daily basis. I think its a nice way to keep track of my progress and at the same time being able to ventilate my thoughts.

Graph for the day


Still running kinda bad but thats how it goes, cant do anything about it and I wont moan too much either.

After getting my recording reviewed and commented, I felt alot more confident in alot of spots and I think thats showing within my redline. As I want to develop my aggressivity alot in order to crush, I should really sought in the advices Im given by my friends and staker.

This hand is the biggest losing one for today and was played vs a 82/50/10.5% 3bet. Aggro/spewy fish which is great value. He however has won couple of big pots recently vs me so he had some momentum.








Im not sure if theres another way to play this hand. Please comment if you got some input.

A couple of ugly hands from the session:

First session of the day done and it went pretty well. Heres some interesting hands:

Hand 1

Villain is a decent, thinking reg. Playing 49/32/18.7% 3bet.





I thought about herocalling river. There arent too many boat combos here in his range but theres alot of small flushes/pair+inside wrap he c/c turn with. Not sure he turns those hands into bluff often enough to make a call with TP ok. Im having a hard time seeing something c/c turn that I beat on this river, so it might be a bad idea to herocall. But if we have something like Q high flush, which we credibly represent here, theres probably more argument for making a call.

Hand 2


Villain is playing 27/19/5.9% 3bet. TAG´ish reg who might be a bit weak/tight.





Im not sure of what to make of his call flop raise/donk turn line. I think our hand is prefectly fine to bluffraise flop with, and our sizing lets us shove turn. If he has Qxxx that call flop raise and then c/c turn, I like his line but when he donks, Im not entirely sure hes balanced in this spot and if its profitable vs me.

First session of the day done and it went pretty well. Heres some interesting hands:

Hand 1

Villain is a decent, thinking reg. Playing 49/32/18.7% 3bet.













I thought about herocalling river. There arent too many boat combos here in his range but theres alot of small flushes/pair+inside wrap he c/c turn with. Not sure he turns those hands into bluff often enough to make a call with TP ok. Im having a hard time seeing something c/c turn that I beat on this river, so it might be a bad idea to herocall. But if we have something like Q high flush, which we credibly represent here, theres probably more argument for making a call.

Hand 2


Villain is playing 27/19/5.9% 3bet. TAG´ish reg who might be a bit weak/tight.





Im not sure of what to make of his call flop raise/donk turn line. I think our hand is prefectly fine to bluffraise flop with, and our sizing lets us shove turn. If he has Qxxx that call flop raise and then c/c turn, I like his line but when he donks, Im not entirely sure hes balanced in this spot and if its profitable vs me.

Graph for today:



Ran super bad today, ~20 bi below ev. Maybe its around 15 since its not showing opponents hand when you win but it was a rare occasion today anyway. Kinda happy with my game last two days and Im looking forward to be running somewhat decent and start getting those $ back. The regs playing is super good value and I guess I just need to keep my focus and play my A-game and its a matter of time.

Ill post some hands for entertainment.


First hand is standard vs this guy. Barrells alot and plays 80/50/14%3bet.

Finally some momentum, graph for today



Three sessions where the first two wasnt my best. Made some questionable plays which I dont like afterwards. Last session was kinda nice, running decent and hitting alot of hands. Think I ended up ~25bi today, which is a welcome change after running terrible for 6 weeks aprox. So nearest future will be to keep having these newly established routines and make sure I dont slack off on anything that puts me on this good mindset.

Interesting hand here.

BU is playing 81/50/13.1%3bet. Huge fish overall. BB is 27/22/11.6%3bet, TAG reg who leans towards the weak/tight side.

Maybe I missed something. You are playing PLO500$, having a 25 bi day but the graph "only" shows 1.7k$ +. Can you put this together for me?

Im playing on a swedish site with different currency, so thats why the numbers are big. Its equal to PLO75/60 whereabouts I think.

About to fire up the first session of the day, lets do this!

Graph for today:



Didnt get to play too much due to other commitments. Didnt feel focused either and was tired so decided to cut the day early, since I wont be able to do my best and think trough things. Tomorrow might be a low volume day aswell because I have to spend at least half the day traveling and will be tired when I get home, but will give it an effort to get some hours done when back home.

Graph for saturday grind:



Obviously ran terrible despite the great value. Happy with how I played though troughout the day and tomorrow I will review the two sessions and post some hands here.

Graph for the week coming up tomorrow.

Above graph is in wrong currency, it landed around -500$ for the day.

So here are some hands from yesterday

Hand 1

SB is playing 72/29/14.3%3bet. Loose fish who spews alot both pre/postflop.
MP is also a fish.





I think we can both flat and 4bet preflop. I think I prefer 4betting with as strong hand as I have here, as I dont really mind building the pot in position early as possible. As for the flop, I dont see many other options then calling. Turn however Im not sure of what to do. I can see arguments for both calling and folding.

Hand 2

Against same villain as previous hand.




I think our hand is too strong to bet/fold and too weak to bet/call, so I like check/calling flop with the intention of donking alot of turns. However I dont know why I bailed out on that plan, as J is a decent card for me and really should make me follow up.

Hand 3

Villain is playing 45/27, loose reg with some fishy tendencies. Seems to be lacking some fundamentals in hand selection.





I think calling turn is fine, as he probably will stab here with a wide range after me checking twice. I would probably fold alot of river vs another bet but when he bets so big on the turn, and the nuts on the turn is out there, it made me believe he wasnt valuebetting second or third nut flushes on the turn. Might be too thin thinking like that and making the call on the river.

Graph for sunday:



Graph for week 16:



Cut the ev line in half and you get a image of where it should be. Had a day where I won ~25 bi but before/after that I just kept losing. Variance can be a bitch sometimes. I just need to keep doing my best at things I do have control over. Putting in volume, studying my game and continuesly progress and applying myself to the game.

Something I will take with me from this week is my new focus on what I should be doing. Got some help from my coach and also been reading a book written by Napoleon Hill which is really helping me. My button play has improved a ton and Im constantly thinking how I can improve. Future is looking bright.

So in order to make sure I progress the direction I want to, I will make weekly goals again, starting next week (17)

Week 7 Goals

• Play 15.000 hands
• Follow the routines Ive set up
• Record two session, one with swedish commentary and second with english
• Get a coaching meeting and sweat done
• Work my mindset/mental game daily

Im convinced the results will soon start reflecting all the work I put in and you guys will see some positive graphs instead. Thanks for support and thanks for reading. Tomorrow is a new day and new week, new possibilities!