What
As the thread title indicates, my goal is to profit $10k or more and earn 3 or more $365 tournament entries into my home casino's May tournament series. From there the reach goal is to make $20k+ in scores by taking shots in the local tournaments and in Vegas during WSOP.

Actually, to meet these goals my profit between now and then will have to be about $12,000 as I started out this year by bricking 7 live tournaments (5 MTTS and 2 satellites) in a row. Over 4 cash sessions, I'm essentially even at +$35. Online, I'm down $10 on Ignition and up $10 on ACR. In total, I'm down $1,925.00 on the year. So to be precise, I need to net $11,925.00 to hit the cash profit goal.

How
Basically, I plan to play 2-3 live sessions--a mixture of cash and $150 tournaments-- and 1-2 online MTT sessions a week. I'll also study, review hand histories, make thread updates and forum updates, etc. at least 2 to 3 half days a week. Of course, I will adjust this volume based on life considerations and game conditions.

My local casino spreads a lot of $1/3 NLH that plays really deep. It's not uncommon for the majority of the players to have more than 200bb stacks with many having $1,000 to $2,500 or more on the table. Also the button straddles to $6 a lot. So the game really plays like a deep $2/5 game. That said sometimes the games play smaller with the average stack being about 100 bbs. I feel comfortable playing up to $1,300 or so behind. I've played deeper, and am competitive, but wouldn't like to lose that many big blinds in one hand. For that reason, and for purposes of the bankroll challenge, the plan is to buy in for 100 bigs, with 1 to 2 additional buy-ins in my pocket to be used as top off chips or re-buy if I get felted. Also, while in run-it-up mode I'll generally cash out anytime I'm up 2 buy ins or more. That said I'll make exceptions if the game is really good.

As far as the tournaments, the buy-ins are $100+$30. Juice grab I know. But most of the players go in on a $20 last longer bet, they give bonus chips if you played in the previous tournament and also for each hour up to 3 in live cash before entering, and a $365 tournament seat is added to the prize pool. The fields are pretty beatable. Over a sample of 6 tournaments, I've outright won it once, chopped for over second place money once, min-cashed once, and bricked 3 times. These run 3x per week, so I'll have about 60 chances to enter and win.

I'll only play the tournaments if I get bonus chips since they're basically turbos. So the plan is to play cash 3 hours before to maximize bonus chip opportunities. If I bust a tournament I'll generally look to stay at the casino and play cash.

Online, I plan to play $3 to $30 MTTS, working up to higher buy ins as my game gets sharper and winnings grow.

Why
Love of the game. Money. Competition. Winning is fun. Also I have a long term goal of making a 6 figure tournament score and this is part of that process.

Background
I consider myself a serious rec player. Overall I treat poker as a hobby that I try to make money at. And I really want to make a big tournament score. I started out playing limit hold em in college in 2004- 3/6, 4/8 and then 10/20. I went to Paris the summer of 2005 for summer school. While there I won a weekly re-buy limit hold'em event at the old Aviation Club, turning 30 euros into 2,000 or so. I've liked playing tournaments ever since. When I returned to the states almost all of the red chip limit games had been replaced by no limit. I wasn't very good and under-rolled for the games, and all my study was based on LHE. But I played $1/2 occasionally and was at least competitive. From 2007-2013, due to grad school and being broke, I didn't really play or study that much except for an occasional home game or drop in at a casino. From 2014-present I've studied and played in fits and starts. Some live cash (deep stacked $1/3 with regular straddles), but tournaments really do it for me.

Last year, I entered 18 live tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $130 to $2,700 (sattyed in), mostly playing $300-$400 events. I made 3 final tables, including back to back $400 buy-in final tables at Aria during the WSOP. For the events I bricked or min cashed I felt like I was doing well and giving myself a chance to make it happen. Counting 7 satellite entries, my live ROI last year was 26% and was ITM 21% of the time, with $3,400 in profit. (Small sample size I know.) As far as online, I played a ton of micro stakes before recently. I won 3 or 4 $2- $5 tournaments, and got 3rd in a $5 tournament for a $240 cash. In October I decided to get more aggressive with the online roll and won a $30 tournament for $966. (2016's online highlight was winning $3k in a $30 buy in tournament. ) Online ROI for 2017 is hard to know since PT4 doesn't track my cashes and Drive HUD misses some. But I won about 10BB/100 over the 40k sample.

I'll do my best to update after every live session and after many online sessions- results, key hands, and general thoughts about the session. LFG. Thanks for your feedback and support.

Hey man!

Subbed in here do u play 4 a living?

Best of luck with ur challenge! I ll be following closely!

Cheers!

PS: How did u like Paris?

Thanks. No, I'm self-employed. Have a flexible enough schedule most of the time. Just trying to have fun and make some side money.

Paris was cool There was a heat wave when I went but that wasn't too terrible. The cheap wine that would've been expensive in the states was nice to have.

Just lost my post giving a rundown of today's studying and light grinding session. So I'll do a quick recap.

Finished working early enough today so I decided to study and grind a little. Walked to my neighborhood coffee shop where I reviewed tagged 3bet hands for about an hour. Then I studied a Hunter Cichy article on preflop ranges. Really trying to sharpen my fundamentals. Yesterday I finished Assassinato's Master the Flop video pack. Really good anaylsis of flop textures and population tendencies. After grinding the content I know my 3bet game has improved, and my river value betting ranges have widened in a good way. I take notes most of the time when I'm studying to be incorporated into my poker outline at a later date. Part of the grind.

Anyway, I decided to fire Ignition's $33 $4k GTD. Had about 65bbs on the button right before late reg closed. Loose, 25%pfr opens from EP out of a 40ish big blind stack, and I 3bet Jc9c. I thought he'd flat OOP with T9s, 98s, 97s, and other non-nutted hands. I can comfortably fold to a 4bet. He'll miss the flop at lest 2/3 of the time, making my cbets really profitable with my perceived range advantage. Plus the times I do flop big my range is camoflagued. So the flop comes 10c8c2s. He's got about 1.3 pot behind. I bet pot to make sure I can realize my equity. He jams for a little more. He shows up with Ad10s, and my 18 out draw bricks the turn and river. Still had a competitive chip stack but went card dead. Finally got it all in with 15bb - 77 v. AJ and lost the flip. -$33. Actually, gave my friend a just for fun $3.33 sweat, so let's call it -$30.

Other than that I played 3 tournaments on ACR, two $11 and one $5.50 turbo. Bricked the $11 ones and min cashed the $5.50 turbo. Actually made the final table of the turbo, but it was only a 45 or so player field. Got it in in a set up spot, losing a flip. -$17.

-$47 on the day. -$47 on the challenge.

Probably grinding a little online tomorrow, and playing live cash and the tournament on Saturday.

ps I have a turn bet spot I want feedback on, but for some reason it's not showing up in my DriveHud database. Will make an effort to post proper hand histories in the future.

Subbed! GLGL my dude! Love tournies are where it is at i just wish they had smaller buy-ins with better structures. They are just as much a **** show structure as online tourneys. Online you can play a bunch at once though which makes up for it. Anyhow look forward to watching your progress i too hope to play in some WSOP tournies probably not this year but in the years to come!

subbed , gl

jeez that 100+30 thing is aweful

Yeah it sucks. That said, if 36 players enter, it's like getting a $10 rake discount since a $365 tournament seat is added and I'm playing the big tournament series regardless. So far there's been 41 entrants and 61 entrants in the ones I've played. Also I feel like there's value in getting out of the house and playing live. Networking/social benefits abound. Last year I got an almost free place to play in Vegas for 5 days through a grinder I met in the poker room. And I need to be playing some live tournaments in between the few larger regional tournament series I play a few times a year. Obviously, online and live tournaments have different dynamics. But, yeah, that rake is hard to stomach regardless.

Thoughts on this river spot? In game I missed the fact that I was chopping with all of the worse aces after the board paired. I wasn't that worried about the flush since the Ac was on the board, along with another broadway club, that drastically reduces the number of flush combos. I could check to try to induce a bluff, but there aren't that many bluffs in his range. I'm blocking QT for the bricked gutterballs, plus I was betting big enough on flop and turn and there was a front door f/d so a lot of gutters wouldn't see the river anyway. I guess I could bet tiny to get crying calls out of Kx hands. Still that could open the door to me getting bluff raised. Also, checking could induce him to turn his marginal made hands into big bluffs, though that seems unlikely.


Winning Poker Network (Yatahay) - 30/60 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (UTG): 82.33 BB
UTG+1: 83.33 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
MP: 88.5 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
MP+1: 245.63 BB (VPIP: 54.55, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
MP+2: 72.57 BB (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
CO: 83.33 BB (VPIP: 12.50, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 15.38, Hands: 24)
BTN: 26 BB (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
SB: 89 BB (VPIP: 21.92, PFR: 15.71, 3Bet Preflop: 16.00, Hands: 73)
BB: 25 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 35.71, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qs Ah
Hero raises to 3 BB, UTG+1 calls 3 BB, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold

Flop : (10.5 BB, 3 players) Kh 7c Ac
Hero bets 7.88 BB, UTG+1 calls 7.88 BB, fold

Turn : (26.27 BB, 2 players) Th
Hero bets 13.13 BB, UTG+1 calls 13.13 BB

River : (52.53 BB, 2 players) Tc
Hero bets 18.33 BB, UTG+1 calls 18.33 BB

Hero shows Qs Ah (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 69%, Flop 80%, Turn 86%)

UTG+1 shows Jd Ad (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 31%, Flop 20%, Turn 14%)

Hero wins 44.6 BB
UTG+1 wins 44.6 BB

Another low volume online night. Fired that Ignition $33 $4k gtd again and didn't get anything going. Tried one bluff early on that didn't work. Hand details below. I made a thin call on an Ad Kc 3s flop with QJss thinking I had sufficient implied odds if I hit my gutshot. Anyway the turn pairs the king. I check, he bets, I raise to rep trip kings and he calls. River is a brick. I check and he bets half pot. After I fold he flashes a Jack. The only thing that makes sense is KJ? Don't see how he can bet AJ on the river, and I block all of the already unlikely gutshot draws. What are y'all's thoughts on the turn raise and sizing? I'm thinking I could've gone a little smaller and still had a good amount of fold equity v. a dry Ace.

Also, I missed a 4bet jam spot a few levels later. I open TT to 2.5x out of my 25bb stack from UTG. An 18/14 with 5% 3bet over 50 hands min 3 bets me. I knew the default was to jam but I was getting a good price to peel, he had nitty stats, and it "felt" like he wanted me to jam. I tanked about the decision and ultimately just called. I ended up heroish-folding the river based on the betting sequence and 1 overcard being on the board. Looking back, I like a jam. He can have 99+, AQ+, and KQs sometimes. Per Flopzilla pocket tens are 44.8% against that range. With the dead money in the pot, it's a chip +ev play even if he never folds. Plus it's not like I'm jamming 100 big blinds in the pot and we're not close to the money. So the opportunity cost of potentially busting isn't really an issue. Finally I have fold equity because he'll fold KQs and AQ sometimes. This was an easy jam, and I missed the spot. Not to make excuses, but I'm still a little rusty as I barely played over the last 2.5 months due to a surgery and pain in the rear recovery. -$33 on that tournament.

Bricked a $5.50 turbo on ACR. Min cashed an $11 Ignition $5k gtd for $21.63. So, +$5.13 for those 2. - $27.87 for the night, and -$74.87 on the challenge.

I only played 3 tournaments tonight because I'm playing live cash and the 11am $150 tournament at the casino tomorrow morning. If I play cash for 3 hours before I get $1,500 bonus chips added to the $7K starting stack. So the plan is to get there at 7am at latest, and earlier if I can wake up, to earn the bonus chips and also play v the players who played all night Hopefully I'll have a positive entry after tomorrow's session. Fingers crossed for a good table draw and to win my 70/30s and 60/40s. If I run pure there's no reason I can't make a run at the first place prize of about $1,400.

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD & Database

NL Holdem $60(BB)
HJ ($4910)
CO ($3575)
BTN ($6185)
HERO ($6750)
BB ($4635)
UTG ($5200)
MP ($11259)
MP ($4245)

Dealt to Hero J Q

UTG Folds, MP Raises To $180 (Rem. Stack: 11079), MP Calls $180 (Rem. Stack: 4065), HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Folds, HERO Calls $150 (Rem. Stack: 6570), BB Folds

Flop ($600) 3 A K
HERO Checks, MP Bets $455 (Rem. Stack: 10624), MP Folds, HERO Calls $455 (Rem. Stack: 6115)

Turn ($1510) 3 A K K
HERO Checks, MP Bets $455 (Rem. Stack: 10169), HERO Raises To $1437 (Rem. Stack: 4678), MP Calls $982 (Rem. Stack: 9187)

River ($4384) 3 A K K 3
HERO Checks, MP Bets $2192 (Rem. Stack: 6995), HERO Folds

MP wins $6576

Booked a winner today. Woke up early this am to get to the casino in order to catch the overnight shift of players and earn bonus chips for the 11 am tourney. There were 2 games that went all night, there were a lot of chips on the table, and the players looked tired. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a seat and had to go to a new game. That $1/3 game was pretty tame. To take advantage, I raised limpers, then cbet took it down a few times. Made a 1 card straight once and got a little value. Also got some thin value on 2nd pair one hand. I attacked limpers in straddle pots a couple times with decent broadyway cards, then had to fold when I cbet and the villains raised. One hand I missed a turn call. $6 button straddle pot. like 3 limpers. I make it 30 to go w/ AQ. 2 of the limpers call and I get position. Flop comes:

Qd Js 2s. They check to me and I bet 50 old man calls. Pot is $190. Turn comes:

9d. So Qd Js 2s. Old man donk jams for pot. In game I couldn't think of any value hands I beat as I thought K Q was unlikely based on the player, his action, and my blocker. I saw him play a raised pot with suited K 10 before, so that was in his range. QJ is in there as well. And there's only one realistic set in his range, three deuces. Looking back I should've put Q10, J10, and maybe half of the available KQs in his range. He'd jam sometimes with a pair and a straight draw. Maybe a flush draw too. I didn't think of those hands, though, and folded. I knew my range looked really strong to villain, but he can still make the turn jam lightish I guess. People feel entitled with pair + draw hands. Right after that hand the floor announced that if you were in the seat for the first tournament hand dealt you got 500 bonus chips. So I left down $94, but optimistic about the tournament.

In 7 levels I made 2 value hands. One was a pair of aces with a 9 kicker and I got 3 streets of thin value out of second pair of kings by betting small. Another time I opened 99 to 3x and got to callers. Floop is 9 J A, and I bet 2/3 pot trying to build a pot and get value out of the aces. They both folded. Didn't win a pot for the next 3 levels, and busted. -$150. The good news is I got a lead on a free hotel room at an upcoming tournament series a few hours away from me. So there's that.

After that I wanted to play cash, but I was tired from waking up early so I went home and took a nap. Woke up and fired $44, $33, $11, and $5.50 MTTs on Ignition. Bricked everything but the $44 in which I had a nice run, finishing 5 out of about $250 players for a $429.52 cash. from 18 players down to 5 I always had less than 20 bigs. So I did a good job lattering. Busted with to red kings on my last hand...Also invested $25 in another player who won $545 in another tournament. He had a small piece of me too. In the final accounting he paid me $12. I'm counting that for the $10k challenge goal. Selling action, swapping pieces, etc. leads to longevity in this game. $135 in buy ins (counting the $25 piece I bought, a $23 piece I bought, and the $6 piece I sold) and $441.52 in cashes. +294.52

$50.52 profit on the day, and -$24.35 on the challenge.


***Promise I'll post some images later. Photbucket is giving me trouble tonight.***

@QJs hand, it could be kind of fine peel vs 30% cb since we're oop but that's about it. if u choose to x/r turn i dont see him folding any ace vs that sizing ott especially when flushdraw came, so u gotta bomb brick river here. he might have made some BD flushdraws or whatever. I dont think he ever has Kx when he cbets with that sizing.

Good point. In game I read him for strength - there are 3 combos of pocket aces, 6 combos of AK, and one combo of quads. Obviously, he's not folding those. He could also have 9 combos of AQ and 9 combos of AJ that might feel entitled to the pot on the turn because he has a pair and a gutshot. And sometimes he could show up with worse aces I guess. Not sure if he's folding those to a large river bet, though he could.

Booked another winning session tonight. I got to the casino at about 4:00pm, and played $1/3 NL for about 2 hours. No real significant pots came up. I saw a flop in an unraised pot 4 ways with 33. A low paired flop came, so I bet half pot for protection. They folded. I flopped 2 pair out of the big blind and got one street of value. One business man I was friendly with at the table seemed to have a solid image but one hand he raised limpers, got called, checked back a low board, then fired a K turn and won the 3 way pot. He flashed 5h4h which did not connect with that board. That lead me to 3bet his open later from the button with A 9. Ended the short session up $33.

Hopped in that rakefest of a tourney. The levels are only 20 minutes, many players unnecessarily tank, and many of the dealers -- used to dealing cash-- take a while with antes, dealing with all in pots etc. It's kind of frustrating that we get so few hands a level. Not going to go out of my way to play it too much anymore. Though I'll still hop in it sometimes.

I actually made the final table, finishing 5/55 for a $440 cash + $88 last longer chop, for a $518 gross and $368 net. I was pretty card dead for the first 6 levels, but did my best to maintain and survive. Got 15 bigs in v. 99 and actually won the flip. We got down to 2 tables and 10 places paid. I went all in with 99 and cracked aces. At the last table a few people were punting stacks/making big ICM mistakes. So I played conservatively for the most part. I turned down a chop for 3rd place money, $800 where we would play for the $365 tournament seat, thinking ICM mistakes would keep happening. Once the level went up and the remaining players seemed to be pretty competent I said I'd take the chop. But the current chipleader said he'd only do it if he got the tournament seat. No deal. At that point I didn't really care about laddering to 4th since it was less than a buy-in pay difference. So I got 10 bigs in w/ Q6ss b vb and ran into KQ. I flopped a 6 but he flopped a king.

+$401 on the day, and +$376.65 on the challenge

I'll probably grind online Thursday evening and most of the day Friday.

Finally figured out how to post images. Here are a few pics to make up for the text walls earlier.

First Online Score:


Vegas Cashes from last summer. I got to town with $1,200 and left with $8k+, making 2 200ish player final tables in the 4 days I played. Want to make a better score soon:


What would you do?




Just for fun. Back when I was a regular at a bar. Barely drink anymore. Too many downsides. But this was a nice perk:

Recent Sessions:
Since the last substantive post, I've played 37 MTTS spread out over a few sessions, and feel like I'm running meh. Usually I'll be card dead mostly but survive, run it up nicely, and then lose flips, loose in set up spots, or get coolered when we're approaching the bubble. That said I have cashed 4 times, and had 1 deepish run where I got it in good AK v. K7 which would have given me a chip leader sized stack. 7 on the turn. The dude had tight stats too. Superuser or just spew? That was in a $22 tournament where I felt I had a good edge on the field. Instead of having a shot at the $1K+ first prize I settled for $40.

Buy ins have ranged from $3.30 to $55. While overall I fell I'm playing well, I made a couple mistakes early in the sessions where I tried aggressive lines that didn't work out. Those sessions I didn't warm up or study pre-game, I just kind of hopped in the games. I know it is better to be properly prepared, and do have an effective pregame ritual. Sometimes, though, I'll get done working or whatever late-ish and really feel like playing. I don't have time to prep so I hop in rather than not play. That can lead to me playing my B- game, which usually looks like me playing good mostly but a random spew here and there at least until I get deepish. When we're approaching the bubble and later I can usually turn it on.

$153.83 in cashes, $588.30 in buy ins, meaning a net loss of $434.47 since the last post. This brings us to -$57.92 on the challenge.


Here are my other stats over the last 3k hands:


Haven't been getting my fair share of openers as deep stacked my opening range is 20ishpercent. 35 bigs and less my opening range is a little less than 15%, though I will widen sometimes based on stealing opportunities. Then my sub 14bb stack opening range is just based on the push/fold charts with some deviations based on game conditions. The 26.22 BB/100 and 25.19 ev bb/100 Drive Hud tracks seems hard to believe, though I guess its not impossible over such a short window. Feel like I'm playing well, then just loose to coolers and suckouts a lot. Need to get more volume in. Volume is the enemy of variance.


Gameplan going forward:
To protect my roll, on the days I didn't plan on playing but really want to I'll just buy in to the $15 and smaller tournaments. I'll save the $20+ tournaments for days where I am on top of my game. This was I still get to play, protect my downside, and while not playing optimally I know I'm playing profitably.

This week I should be able to get more studying and at least 2-3 solid sessions in. Work stuff is calming down some, and I'm transitioning from outpatient PT to in home excercises. The studying plan is to really study my database, review and analyze hands, and review some Assasinato training videos (Master the Flop, That's a Checkraise Fool, You Flat Too Much) and notes. All really good content that I can't recommend enough. I'm also thinking of making a separate study thread where I give highlights from 2+2 and other poker books I've read, along with highlights and takeawys from training videos and materials. We'll see.

Played a couple sessions of online MTTs and 2 live $1/3 sessions since the last post. I bricked the 8 or so MTTs I played. Never really got anything going.

Interesting spot came up in the first $1/3 session. I had built my original $300 buy in up to about $750. Made one straight in a $150 pot, got some thin value in other spots, and found some good bluff spots. Anyway, this hand comes up. Tightish old guy with $450 behind limps. I raise to $15 with $750 behind from the cutoff with red AJ. Button, big blind, and old dude call. Pot is $60.

Flop comes Js9s7c. Old dude donks for $20. I raise to $80 to get value out of worse jacks and value/protection out of the draws. Just the old dude calls. Pot is $220.

Turn is another jack. Old dude donks $100 again. In the moment I discounted nutted hands. Didn't think he'd fold a decent jack either. Plus I can get value out of draws and combo draws. Finally I didn't want the board to get nasty on river where I lose value out of worse jacks. So I jam. Villain tank calls. Thoughts on turn jam?

After that hand, I grinded pretty hard. Ended up cashing out -$19. Another hand came up where I had 33 and the board came 3TT in a 4 way limped pot. I was second to last to act and just checked it to the button who also checked. One of the pf limpers bet $10 into the brick turn and I raise to $30. Villain calls. River completes the flush and I bet $50 into the $70 pot and villain folds. Think I missed a shot at a bigger pot by not betting the flop. People play a lot of hands with tens in them: A10, K10, Q10, J10, 10 9, and 10 8. Going forward I'll bet these spots, especially when we're 100+bbs deep. In a low SPR environment like middle late stages of a tournament, a check has more merit because if they catch up to a second best hand it's easier to play for stacks. After I caught myself making this mistake on the flop I cashed out. I was tired.

Today I played again for about 3hours after work and won $81. I got a couple light 3bets in against players who were opening 25%+ of hands. I missed a couple 3bet spots with suited Ax on the button. People would limp, cutoff would open light, and I flatted twice thinking I want to give myself a chance to win a large pot with flush over flush. Looking back, the table was playing pretty passive so that would've been hard to do. Winning the dude's $20 open plus about $15 in limped money and blinds would mean winning 10+ big blinds in one hand. Going forward I'll look to make more 3bets in games like that.

In one straddled pot, there were about 4 people who called ($6 straddle). I raise $40 on the button with AK off. A player with $120ish behind jams after having limped. He was bluffy and I had a great price. Easy call. Flop came 55A. I made him show the river and he had KQ.

So, plus $60 the last two live sessions, and -$60.15 on the MTTs. -$58.07 on the challenge.

Lifestyle Update
I've found the pattern of my life for the next little while. Wake up, get workout/rehab work in, head to the office (walking distance to the casino!), work and/or study poker for a few hours, then go grind for a few hours. Same thing on weekends, but no office time. During the week its good for me to network with other entrepreneurs and professionals. That's why going to the office is good. Motivates me to do work too. Also, overall, live a healthy lifestlye. Did that this week and it just felt like a really good rhythm to be in. I don't have to play everyday but I'll play most days unless something time consuming is going on with work or I have a date or event to go to.

Today's session

Finally booked a solid winner in the $1/3 game, +$752. Pregame I got a workout and stretching in, and studied 3bet spots by reviewing my highlights in Jonathan Little's Bluffs book. That's a useful little book with good, succinct points. Also listened to part of a Matt Affleck webinar.

First table, where I played for about 5 hours started out with a few spots (mostly passive and one spewy player) at the table but some solid regulars also and a good aggressive, regular. Good thing I had position on the aggressive player. A decent amount of the time people would straddle to $6- on the button, cutoff, higjack, and sometimes UTG. The aggro player was loosing and I noticed he was opening and 3betting at a high frequency. Postflop he would fold almost anytime anyone played back. Must have been missing a lot. The first hand I played I was UTG with 55 and he had straddled on the button. I could've raised but didn't feel like I had much fold equity with a $20 raise in a game with a lot of call stations left to act. I decided to play the hand as a pure set mine. Limped $6. Remarkably, everyone folds to the aggro player. He makes it $18. It felt like he was making a play at me. I raise to $60. He folded rather quickly. Had to fold 10 10 to his 3bet in another straddled pot the next orbit. An ep player opened to 15, a couple players called, and aggro player squeezed big. Even though I had a strong hand I felt like it was behind the villains' ranges. So I folded.

Found some good preflop spots. Lojack or Hijack (aggro dude) straddles to $6, 1 player calls, and I make it $25 with any 2 broadways. Did that a few times and either won it right there or took it down with a cbet on the flop. I saw the aggro dude noticing my play and felt like he was going to play back at me.

Get QQ UTG in a straddle pot where aggro dude was the straddler. Most of the time a ton of people were limping and he'd raise big to take it down. I didn't want to open to $20 or $25, have a million people call me, and play a large pot oop where I'm an underdog to the field. So I limped with the intention of re-raising any raise. My pf play didn't work though as just 2 other players called and the aggro player decides to just check. Flop comes Qh5h2c. Pot is $24. I check with aggro player and another left to act. He bets $10, player to my right calls, and I call. Pot is $54.

Turn is the 8c. Player to my right checks. I decide to play out of flow as I had seen aggro player give up after encountering resistance. Yet I thought he was ready to play back at me too. Finally, there were 2 flush draws out there that could call, plus the lower sets. I bet $40 trying to look fishy. Aggro player makes it $115 quickly. I jam for about $250 more. He (pretend?) tanks then folds. Looked frustrated.

A few hands later I misplayed AdKd. I open in late position, and just an early position limper calls. Pot is $40. Flop comes Jc10d6s. Villain checks. It was close between betting and checking, but erred on the side of aggression, and bet $30. Villain raises to $65. He just had another $125 or so behind. In game, I underestiamted it and jammed. He flopped top 2 and held. My mistake was I didn't think through his range really. My thinking went: he could have a lot of draws so I could have the best hand; he could have a naked 10 in which case I have 10 outs; I want to realize my equity; thus I jammed. Looking back he wasn't the type of player to check raise one pair. If he was his kicker was likely block a lot of my outs as he can have A10,K10, and Q10. 10 9 is the only hand I actually have 10 outs against. He could have KQ but I block that. Also if he had a naked draw he would've sized bigger most likely. His hand held and I decided to take a dinner break to regroup.

On the walk to dinner, I reminded myself several times to range them every hand I play. Also I mulled over switching tables or staying there. I had about $500 in chips on the table and didn't want to lose it all in a set up spot or whatever. I'm comfortable playing deep but just didn't want to risk for my bankroll. I choose a middle ground and just slipped $100 in my pocket. A few hands in, a player 2 to my right straddles and I raise to $20 from the cutoff. The aggro player one to the right of the straddler makes it $50. It didn't scream strength as I had a read that he was sizing his pf value raises on the larger size. Plus I could tell he was getting frustrated with me. So I 4bet to $150 and he folds quickly.

I lost the next couple hands I played. Then that game got nitty so I table changed. First hand I played was the BB with K K UTG player raises to $25. 2 callers. I had pocketed some chips en route to that table so I just had a $315ish stack. Rather than raise to $100 or so and potentially have to play oop, I decided to jam. Jacks or Queens could call. I don't have to worry about an A flopping to either beat my hand or kill my action. I actually thought the jam looked weaker than a smaller 3bet too. The original raiser tank folds (later heard him say it was pocket tens) as do the other players.

Another key hand I had A A, raise and get 2 callers. Flop comes J high with thee s Villain 1 donks $60 into $75. I just flat and the other player folds. The turn brings the 4th and give me the nuts. He checks. I bet $60 to get value out of 2 pairs, sets, and inferior flushes. Surprisingly he jams. I was the effective stack and had started with $375ish. Nice double! I tipped the dealer too much, $5. I like him and he's a good dealer but that's too much to tip. I rarely do that.

Won a couple more pots, and cashed out when I got tired and wanted to lock up a solid winner.

Gameplan going forward.

Tomorrow I'm studying 3bet spots again - Jonathan Little's Bluffs book as well as Assasinato's You Flat too Much video pack. These are good materials. I know if I grind them my winrate will improve.

I'm either playing online MTTs tomorrow or playing live cash. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. If my Tinder match confirms for our date I'll likely just play cash.

+$693.93 on the challenge. Headed in the right direction.

Played 5 MTTs on Sunday and cashed in 3. Buy ins ranged from $3 to $11. Made the final table in a $3 tournament with +$200 up top. I was middle staked, there were a couple of very small stacks, and I expected spew. Plus pay jumps were worth several buy ins at this stage. So my plan was to chill out, take advantage of their ICM mistakes, and make some easy laddering money. Then I get dealt 2 black kings and the chipleader opens. I jam with 23 bb, he snaps with A 10 off, and you know the rest of the story. $21.69 cash, though.

Another one of the tournaments where we were approaching a 1.5 buy in pay jump at 18 players I 3bet jameed 20ish bigs with JJ and ran into kings. $13.22 cash.

Also ran deepish in an $11 dollar tournament. Got 12bbs in w/ AhQh v. two players who had like 7bbs each and lost. I know I'm an underdog to the field there if they're shoving broadways, pairs, all aces, and top sided suited connectors. Still my hand should be ahead of each of their ranges. I was getting a price, and wanted to give myself a chance to win some chips to have a chance at the tournament which had, I want to say, $1k+ up top. It was a large field event. They both had small pairs and I didn't improve. Busted the rest of my stack a few hands later in an unremarkable spot. +$28.69 cash, though.

Total MTT profit since last update, +$25.33. Felt like I was playing my best, and really only want a couple hands back to play over again. Would've been nice to make some good $$$. Had a blast playing, though.

+$719.26 on the challenge. With fewer than 13 full weeks left until May, I'll need to profit over $1k/week to have a shot at hitting my goals. Will study and do my best to put good volume in. I'll have to string together a few solid cash wins each week and put myself in really good spots to have a chance. Difficult, but doable.

Played in my $1/3 game for about 2.5 hours. Game was good but I was tired. Played anyway since I was just a few blocks away from the casino and I needed to validate my parking.

I made a set of eights against a guy who called me down with second pair in a 100 big blind pot. Was pretty tired and missed some value with AJ. I'm in big blind. 5 limpers. I check. Flop comes A22 with two diamonds. I lead out and just a pro player calls. I checked the 5h turn because I didn't think he'd pay me off for 3 streets with a worse ace. Still I should've realized he'd call again with flush draws and worse aces. Then I can check call the river when the f/d misses to get value out of bluffs. River pairs the ace giving me full house. I didn't bet. He checked and turned over pocket fours. Looking back, I should've bet the turn. I realized after that hand I was too tired to play good. So I left. Managing myself well will make me a lot of $$$ in the long run.

+119 for the session, +838.26 on the challenge.

Tomorrow I can get away with only working a couple hours. Then I'll study opening and 3bet ranges, likely from Hunter Cichy's Book Will workout in the am to get my mind right and be healthy. Should play live from 5pm to 10pm.