HI all I am a new to the site but have been hovering on here for a few months, I've been playing cash and tourneys almost daily for the past 9 months or so both live and online. The comps have varied from £35-£110 and i've have played a lot of 1-1/1-2 live cash games mainly sticking to 1-1 to avoid the regs. However my concepts of BM and risk assessment were basic, I took a month or so off after a string of big losses then stopped smoking,read and watched everything poker and came back fresh.

In the past couple of weeks iv started to play 1-1 cash again but this time completely altered my style and mentality and am on 5/5 for profitable sessions.And iv started this post so I can keep a journal of my games more than anything and hopefully get some advice and improve my game.


I have started with a £1k Bankroll and want to grind it up to £5k by late june and my buy-in structure is £60 -£60 - £100 which i have found makes a positive impact on how you can play the game rather than pulling up £100 -£100-£100 it reduces the size of the swings,less risk to BR, people think oh he's sat down with £60 he must be no good, and you can get a feel for the table w/o getting into any tricky spots with no reads or info and a big stack.

Another thing i think I have improved on is timing the trips to the casino and table selection, Previously I would go whenever I felt like playing now i've started only going to the casino on fridays and saturdays as there are so many drunk middle aged blokes who don't have the foggiest what's going on and mondays and wednesdays as they are the freeroll days so the cardrooms full of fish and the bigger players don't bother as there are no bigger games

This is how I have got on so far all on 1/1

Session 1 - in£220 out £265
Session 2 - in £220 out £310
Session 3 - No play already won £200 in the £15 afternoon comp
Session 4 -in £120 out £300
Session 5 in £120 out £340

+45,+90,+185,+180,+220 = +720

The biggest improvements I have recently made that i would reccommend no matter how simple some sound are

- Buy in smaller you may win less but the aim for me is to win £150-£200 everyday and ill happily get up and leave rather than getting £600 deep at 4am with the regs just come back another day with my £60 not that i dont think i could compete because i know i can they were the games i used to play but at 18 I cant be swinging £800 a day it takes to much of an emotional toll if anything

-Dont bother floating,bluffing,trapping the regs just leave them alone unless iv got a premium hand in a premium spot im looking to avoid them (by reg i dont just mean someone whos in the casino all the time but someone who understands the fundementals of poker and when you C.bet with AK on a Q high board will call you to pop the turn with 9 high. theres just no point you may aswell play with the guy who has no concept of pot odds and will call his last £40 into a pot of £18 with a gutshot or shove £55 with A5 to a re-raise

- dont tilt, Obviously tilting is a problem for everyone but I have tilted of ££££'s in the past but when buying in for 60-60-100 i'm not so fussed about losing £60 even if its a 2 outer on the river its sore but i'm not steaming inside at losing like £500

-stop smoking or buy an e cig, I never realised whilst smoking how much the constistant up and down of going for a *** takes you out of the zone and you miss out on valuable hands and you might not have seen seat 3's triple barrel bluff because you were outside,obviously you don't have to be glued to the chair, even with an e cig i go outside a couple of times to get 10 minutes away from the table but smoking is defo a negative for a poker player and if your waiting for that big hand and your agitated needing a smoke your JK looks like a monster

**top tip if someone sits down with a premium casino card in the grosvenors case a gold or black membership card then they've almost always come to donate to the table

anyway thats all i can be bothered for now am doing this mainly for my own reflection but hope at least someone takes something away from it and i know theres not any examples of hands or spots i've had but i'm going to post after every trip from here on out, Have fun

Good luck mate.

Great shout just going on Fridays/Saturdays, it really is a haven of drunken idiots who think they're gods at poker!

Good luck mate, looking forward to seeing some nice updates.

What G-Casino do you play at?

Naz.

Went to the G last night with the intention of just playing the £7.5k comp £55x2 and having a night off from the cash, however that was shortlived.

id'd built my 10k to around 16k by level 2, start of level 3 blinds are 100/200 i make it 900 with 77 4 callers flop comes 872 im first to act and bet 2.5k to rep a donk C bet with AK AQ etc. Guy to my left calls everyone else folds, turn comes 8 i insta check he insta shoves for 12K i insta call lol and he has 1010 river comes an 8 to counterfeit me and give him the bigger boat, disgusting really but thats poker. Went on to tilt of the next 10k in 3 hands pre flop on tilt had a chance to win 21K pre flop my 810 vs 44 but they held. i shouldn't have played the comp in the first place have been winning on cash but tournaments are just too much fun really

I almost went home there and then but had only been there 30 mins, still feeling the comp i went and played 50p a number on roulette which is my anti tilt strategy haha, get 20 mins away from the table and can just shrug that feeling of self pity of rather than spewing £100 on cash.

anyway after that got a nice seat on either the best or second best table out of the 4 and sat down in seat 2 with £60. tbale consists of 1.nit 3. gambler 4.old women 5.reg 6.reg 7.Deep Fish 8.short fish 9. pretty bad 'reg'

first hand is 99 i raise to £7 from the CO and a reg in BB with £400 stack calls flops comes J 3 2 he peers at my stack of £50 in a strange way then bets £25, just a read in the moment but i thought he was bullying into a pretty dry board £25 into a £17 pot i shove my £50 and he calls with JK and i miss, in hindsight i could have and should have got away from the flop but i'm ahead of any bluff or 45 A4 type hands and was just a bad read more than anything and the first hand.

Occasionally I change my Buyin Structure to £60-£100-£60 if the tables deep and I just can't put the players in any tough spots with £60 so i did and ground that up to £160 with my 2 most profitable moves,
1. if 4 people call a £2 staddle and you raise to £22 with any hand you take £8 down there and then %90 of the time, also if someone raises £7 and 2 call and re raise to £36 or £27 something big you can often win £20 there and then i really like this move but it can only be used in certain spots against certain people or it becomes unprofitable and you have to fold to shoves etc.and look weak and stupid not to mention losing £36, occasionally you will be called but in my experience thats usually AK AQ AJ looking to hit TP and you can easily rep JJ+ on a 8 high board but so much of this is dependant on the players involved.

2. calling a £7-12 raise to be heads up with a fish to outplay them post flop, if you put them on AK AQ and its A high then give up but if it comes 789 they're going to have difficulty calling your re raises especially when the 10 rolls of on the river but more often than not you can take these down on the flop as he gives up on his £7 and you can always flop huge with 69 or some nonsensical hand and stack the fool.

anyway been playing for an hour or so nothing notable at about £160 then i got J9 on the SB. MP has raised to £7 with one caller, i call and the gambler in BB with £120 stack makes it £36 the 2 other players fold. so heads up vs guy who although a gambler not a poker player he knew what he was doing to some extent but was just playing his cards, I put him on AK straight away or possibly 10,10+ and with £28 in the pot and £29 to call with huge implied odds from the gambler i called. flop comes 3810 putting him on AK i have 14 outs 8 to a straight and 6 to a pair as well as BD flush draw and a fair bit of fold equity although if hes got JJ+ i only have the 8outs and the BD flush but still around 40%, As soon as the flop is dealt i raise £100 an effective all in for him just looks better pushing one single stack forward lol, but it didn't matter he snap shoved i call and the turn comes the 7 then a 10 i had already declared a straight on the 7 so showed my J9 and he showed AA so was a real suckout from the start but that hand earned me alot of table respect not so much for the play cause i was lucky i admit but that i'll stick £150 in on a draw now ive got £280 people didnt want to get into massive pots against me.

anyway carried on playing for a while but now i'v got reads on everyone at the table i'm raising £9 minimum when i decide to get involved in a hand normally against big stack fish, the gambler or the old lady occasionally seat 9 just getting 3 handed to the flop or heads up and betting them of the flop or turn based on the body language. One of the regs has got up so theres one dead seat.

then i got JJ on the button the Big stack fish whos only got around £160 left of his big stack raises to £11 seat 9 and the nit both call. BSfish could easily have J10 QK JK the way the games being played so i raise to £55, thinking they've put £11 in with marginal hands i can't play JJ 4 handed and that i could take the £35 down there and then but no BSfish calls after a while and we see a flop of A37: now in my head the only hands he could have called that raise with are AK AQ AJ, i know BSfish would shove 10,10+ preflop. he checks and i just think he's got AK i check behind comes 8 he does a look of 'ermm meh why not' then goes all in for £100* i just thought i have to be behind to an A and folded my jacks losing £55 he tabled KQ so he bluffed me off it but i can't put someone on KQo calling a 5 bet with 2 people behind him just a donkey i had been playing v. aggressive but would i ever 5 bet into 3 people for a 1/3 of all there stacks with nothing. no

was down to around £220/40 after that hand had to buy a pack of cigs cause my e cig died lol first one in a week and then come back didnt see any cards(i never play agressive after losing a hand) until got QQ the gambler had raised to £8 BSfish had called I Raise to £28 both call which is what i wanted hoping for a low board maybe J high if im lucky, it comes 10810 both gambler and BSfish check I check behind, someone can easily had A,K,Q,J(10) here and for me to bet into a pot of £90 would need to be at least £30 and an A,Q,J(10) would just snap shove, turn comes 6 good card for me really they both check and i bet £21 so small that i can get away from a 10 and big enough that any A or K can't see a river for free, gambler calls BS fish folds river comes the perfect Q the gambler only had £55 behind and pushes it to the white line as he had done in a previous hand where i had check folded the river in hindsight i should've checked and given him the rope to hang himself but i bet £60 to put him ai he thinks, folds and shows me AK saying he thinks he's good i showed my QQ lol.

im up to around £310 and BSfish who's now only got around £160 bets £10 everyone folds round he's clearly strong but i called with 79 with my J9 fresh in my mind, BSfish is tilting by this point to having had £400 when I sat down that he had won not brung to the table, the flop comes 710A he checks i check behind i'm now almost certain he's got that ace very fishy thing to do, turn comes a 4 and he bets £15 i call knowing if i hit my 7 or 9 im going to get paid and was considering representing the heart flush but the river came a 7 i bet £60 as i knew he could not fold and he called with AK was a lucky river but implied odds are huge against him.

left shortly after that with £393, cashed £390 out and £20 from the £3 on roulette so £410 total from £265 including my tournament buy ins so +£145 on the trip was only there 8-12 so im happy with that and £1850 total which is far more than i expected a two weeks ago.

gone into a lot of detail more to justify what i have done to myself and try and explain it so people can understand whats behind my decisions but if your reading hope you enjoyed

Nice trip report mate, liking all the detail.

Thought I'd pitch in my 2 cents about one of the hands you spoke about.

I think you made a mistake calling the 3-bet pre-flop. I appreciate the points you made before about the implied odds of AK/AQ hands missing the flop or you hitting huge, but this player has put too much of his stack in pre-flop for us to realise this equity. You mention we now have huge implied odds, but we don't. The 3-bettor now has £84 behind with ~£90 pot (when you call), which is less than a pot sized bet. Even you're immediate odds aren't brilliant against a strong range (say top 10% of hands). A huge problem we have with the <1 stack to pot ratio is that against loose opponents we've now lost fold equity against AK/AQ hands because they're getting 2:1 odds on a call which they have against our range.

As played, jamming flop is fine.

Hope that helps and good luck on the next session

Yeah, was defo loose to call the 3-bet but the gambler seemed to fire a c bet onto any flop,over the long term though is not good play i admit only to be done when your winning and feeling confident with your play even then probably shouldnt lol.

Anyway went Genting yesterday, sat down with £100, and could not have found a better table anywhere everyone was re-re straddling to £8 in a 1-1 game and seat 1 and 2 were clearly entering pots together both jamming the turn forcing 3rd player to fold then one would muck, Genting is a poorly run casino so nobody really cares, i didn't either because i was just waiting for AK-77 to sting them, I was perfectly positioned in seat 4.

Anyway foolishly called £11 to Seat 1 raise with A10o seat 2 made it £55 i 3 people behind me so i had to fold, played for a while longer and pulled up another £20 to put me onto about £115
then i get 1010 UTG, There is a re re staddle of £8 so i bet £24 everyone behind me folds Seat 1 £150 calls so does the re re staddler in seat 2 (£350*). flop comes 23J, i am weary of the collusion and wild bets here and have been alot more cautious in putting any money in the pot until i'm sure i've got the nears nuts, they both check i check behind, mainly for pot control against these players, normal circumstances i would bet £32* and try take it away from anyone without a jack but the turn comes a Q no flush or straight draws just the 2 overs so they check i bet £31 on the turn they both fold, with seat 2 saying to seat one how did we both miss that.

I was up to about £180 now waiting for good hands and they always seemed to come on seat 2 re-re straddle i picked up 77 UTG and raise the £8 staddle to £36, reason for the large bet sizing was it was a very loose table A5 was a 3 betting hand and i only I want to be playing vs. seat 1+2 the other stacks behind me were only around £60 average. Anyway everyone folds seat 1 folds and seat 2 calls so the pot is now £80, flop comes down 895 he checks to me and i move all in for £131, im certain seat 2 doesn't have a pair, but apart from that he could have been playing anything from 56<KQ so i had no idea where i was really was pretty sure unless he had he A9,K9,78,10J he would lay it down,and my 77 don't really want to see a turn card and i dont want to give him any sort of odds to call for a draw,he talks for a few minutes about how it was going to hit and folds QJ.
Had decided by this point I wasn't playing poker vs Seat 1/2 I was just going to limp shove big hands to these wild bets and straddles anyway i get AK UTG+1 called the £8 straddle seat 9 called seat 1 called and seat 2 the straddler raised to £29, so £53 in pot, I shove £180* and everyone fold bar seat 2 who calls me after saying he does not believe me and always i'm going all in with stupid hands anyway runs out 48A82 and I take it down didn't see what he had called me with.

But i'm up to £400* by this point and seat 2 has gone to play blackjack with seat 1, i went outside to get a break from the table come back just seat 1 no seat 2 now, and seat 1 was the complete amatuer out of the pair seat 2 is a fairly good player but seat 1 was clueless, he raised £11 UTG i called from MP with J10 2 more callers behind me, flop comes 9QK, so pretty good for me, seat 1 bets £21 i think for a while and 'reluctantly' call, 2 behind me fold, turn comes 9 he checks I think about betting here but I don't want to scare him away, and pretty sure he'll fire the river so i check behind river comes the perfect 3 and i know he's not got K/Q9 because he would've been all in by now he bets £50 i shove and he calls the remaining £50 in his stack I show my straight and he mucks.

I was up to around £530 that was seat 1's last hand, should've got up there and then but the table was so soft people had been tilting off roulette, Made another £40* with 88 taking down pre flop and then 6 handed i raise £19 UTG with A10 in a £4 staddle everyone fold except the straddling roulette player who goes all in for around £60 i snapped him off had seen him playing hands like Q7 K9 etc. so was pretty sure i was ahead anyway it runs out 5QQ8J and he turns over A5, complete idiot but oh well was pretty annoyed but wasn't tilting or playing anything silly, down to around £475 then lost a couple of small £20 pots. again should've gone but the roulette player had pissed me off

my last hand for the night was 55 again UTG i raised the £4 straddle to £19, seat 7 shoves for £53 pretty easy call for me then roulette player to my right goes ai for £121 horrible spot to put myself in with the pocket5's, My only mistake of the night and a quite costly one was to call. because i was freerolling if i beat roulette guy and he's just shoved over the top with A5 and i think he was giving his friend in seat 7 some protection, so declared my last hand and called runs out K10J87 and roulette guy shows AK bad play on my part, always put myself in bad spots with 33<88. obviously this isn't the best play

anyway I left with £280 from my initial £100 but a lack of discipline and a suckout cost me like £300 oh well, still up £180 on the night though so not all doom and gloom. Should've ****ed off with £575 though but nothing can be done now so not dwindling upon it just not going to do it again, dont like setting myself targets when playing cash like when i'm at £250 or £300 because theres tables like last night that you won't see that good for another few weeks and if you are up to £300 your usually playing well with good reads on a good table, but at the same time got to know when to go.

+£180 on the night taking kitty to £2030 but already lost £33 in the comp so at a nice round £2000 now would've been easier to stick it black or red lol but cant complain in just over a week doubled up, be even more if I wasn't playing comps. Anyway if your reading hope you enjoyed

Yeah was defo bad to call the 3 bet in hindsight he's never doing that with >99 or AQs but i do like J9s to crack big hands bc you connect with such a wide range of boards, but i take the point about fold equity, if i miss check and he jams the flop i'm going to have to fold more often than i hit the flop if its was £24 or £22 then would be a much more attractive call, in hindsight £36 is too much but he did kind of show me his hand with that bet AA -10,10 or AK i just got lucky on this one but good points will take more notice of STP ratio, should work out there pot odds before placing every bet come to think of it lol