@ExpectedV Stephen here. I'll post at least one or two hands tomorrow at some point and I'd love some input. And right now not enough. The goal is to get in 100+live hours/month. I'll make sure to do monthly summaries of hours played and everything so you can keep up with us. It should also be noted that I'm trying to study for a minimum of 1-3hrs a day so that's another 30-90hrs a month. This may become less over time as I increase live play but I want to ensure that I'll be beating 2/5 when I get there and I know a major aspect of succeeding in poker and in life is to constantly improve so that's the plan for now.

Mike here with a quick hand from one of my $1-$3 sessions.

After no action from me for a while I get dealt 10 9 in the small blind.

3 limps before me, I raise to $15. Cut off calls, everyone else folds.

Cutoff currently sitting with roughly $400

Flop comes J 4 3

Hero checks, Villain Checks.

Turn comes 3

I bet $20, villain calls.

After seeing how villain plays, i've already decided that this board has not hit the Villain because he's bet the flop everytime he's caught a piece.

River comes J

I bet $40, knowing villain has nothing and hoping he makes an easy fold. Villain then tanks for 5 mins, then calls. Shows A 9

Don't know how I got called with an ace high, he must of have a read on me. My bluffs were being called down the whole session. I'm gonna have to adjust something, maybe my bet sizing or maybe how long it takes me to bet. If anyone has any advice let me know.

You are thinking about the wrong things i suggest you take some time to study the game.

Think about constructing your ranges properly and your own range in a spot as well as villain's tendencies w/his ranges OTT & OTR.

I guess you would play 99 and TT a similar way don't sweat it when you get hero called like that just make sure you're value betting thinly enough and actually playing your TT,99 hands like that. I probably would just cbet that flop with T9s and on turn I'd just give up.

Stephen here:

Hand from my most recent session:

Hero UTG $270 dealt K K
Villain SB: $230

* I had only been at the table for approximately 30mins and villain was a young guy seemed to generally be aggressive but I hadn't been at the table long enough to be sure.

Hero opens to $15 UTG. SB calls flop goes heads up.

Flop: J 8 5

Villain checks, Hero bets $20, Villain raises to $50, Hero Calls

Turn: 2

Villain bets $60, I tank for a minute and decide to push all in (Villain had $105 left behind)

Before I post the end result of this hand. Any comments either good or bad? I'll post the result sometime tomorrow.

Yeah I guess it's fine as long as you think vilain is capable of raising some bluffs at this stack depth...

@meale Stephen here: thanks for the reply. Yeah from the small sample I had seen from villain I felt as though he could be capable of pretty much anything. The range I had given him was all possible sets on the flop (although Jacks were slightly less likely since I'd seen him 3 bet multiple times since I had been at the table and feel that would be a hand he would for sure 3 bet), 9 T, J 8 +, and quite a few club flush draw hands. I figured I was ahead of 9 T (which I do believe from the small sample I saw he could play this way), all flush draw hands, and all Jack combinations that I gave him credit for except J 8. Only behind a set and J 8. Note this is the range I gave him after the turn lead. After the flop check raise I had a few other hands in his range including some mid pairs. I figure his mentality was I'd fold to a check raise with anything less than a jack. This is also why after he confidently lead turn it did concern me a bit but then again I think it's a spot where he almost feels he has to lead. Unless he had 9 T or a flush draw and checked hoping I'd be confused and check behind giving him a free card on the river to connect and then bet for value. Anyways these are just some of my thoughts feel free to comment on any of them I'm continually trying to improve.

** What I thought was most likely... Villain had some sort of flush draw hand with a jack (such as A J and I could get all the money in with a raise OTT ahead. Lets say for example Villain did have this hand I was ahead 69.32% to Villians 30.68%. And with the money in pot he had committed I know he'd be making the call with a hand like this while if he missed he would be folding the river most likely knowing I have him beat and would not be folding to a jam.

Result after I raised all in on the turn:

Villain tanked for a while, folded and showed J 9

Stephen here. I might be playing a 1/2 session either tonight or tomorrow during the day. I'll be sure to post my results both from the session and to date if I do along with one or two interesting hands with my thought process.

Just so everyone reading this thread knows we really appreciate all of the support and responses to the hands we've posted so far. We know we're not the best poker players at this moment in time and don't claim to be but we want to show what it's like to grind from the lowest live stakes up to some of the highest and we will be putting in the work to accomplish it. (at least I will be. Mike I'm not so sure haha)

All the best,

Stephen.

He bets $60 into a pot of around $130, yeah I like shoving. My first instinct with his raise size is that he wants you to call. Could be any set, top pair strong kicker, j8/ 2 pair, FDs, combo draws, QQ-AA. WP hand.

I appreciate the input. I'll keep posting hands as I play since I enjoy getting feedback like this. And if I ever screw up a spot or there's something I need to improve don't hold back. I'm fine with getting chirped if anything it'll be motivating.

- Stephen

Hey guys, I was just looking up some sites that offer coaching and came across crushlivepoker.com. I was wondering if anyone had used them or if you have heard some good things about them and if you have any other sites that you would recommend let me know.

- Mike

Sub to the CLP youtube channel and watch the vids. Very +EV

Run it once is good and prolly the best imo

Thanks just watched some of the vids. Just what i needed.

I like Woodbine in Toronto, with max rake of $5 for 2/5 and 1/2, but some players are paranoid about PokerTek electronic tables. I liked River Rock in Vancouver.

Will you two be playing mostly 1/2 or 2/5 in Montreal? At Playground Poker Club, the rake is $7 + $1 BBJ for 1/2, and $14 + $1 for 2/5.

Mike, you probably need to tone down your aggression some. Also, not a fan of raising with T9 sooted from OOP vs these loose passive types that can't fold hands. Don't expect simple value bet bluff lines to work in these games.

Mostly 1/2 and if we are running well I think we are going to do their 200K guaranteed tournament. With a buy-in of only $250 it's very tempting.

Yeah I learned my lesson after that hand, wish I knew that earlier! I've definitely dialed back my aggression since then and it's actually helped my game a bunch. People are respecting my bluffs more and I also don't get myself in those types of positions any more.

Stephen here... Mike and I have had a stretch of midterms so not much playing (and hence no recent updates) but we've both been putting in work off the tables and should be putting in at least one session this weekend. To be honest it was an absolutely pathetic October. No where near the volume we need to be playing in order to eventually get to 2/5 and 5/T. Although on a positive note I've been putting in ~20hrs/week studying the game. Anyways here are the October results:

Stephen:
10/1: + 346
10/3: -200
10/4: +350
10/7: +269
10/11: -355
10/12: -200
10/15: +165
10/18: -40
10/28: -7

Total Profit/Loss: +328

Updated BR: $4328

Mike:
10/4: +60
10/11: -200
10/12: -200
10/15: -450
10/18: +7

Total Profit/Loss: -783

Updated BR: $2217

Stephen here:

Just got back from a late night session results are as follows:

Stephen: +297

Mike: -200

Overall (speaking for myself) this was a pretty solid weekday session. I had a few tough spots and I'll probably be posting multiple hands tomorrow with my thought process in each and it'd be cool if anyone following this thread could give some feedback but for now I'm off to bed I have to be up in about 4 hours for class.

Stephen here:

Played a 4 hour live session today with a buddy of mine. He fired a few bullets and busted them both relatively early and we were driving together so I set a stop time of 1am or else I would have stayed considerably later. Anyways the session was swingy I was down ~$180 at one point (I obviously was continuously topping up to sit with or close to the max 100bb deep). I eventually started to get things going but ran into a pretty tilting hand (2 outer hit OTR we were all in OTT). But anyways I'm not trying to make this a bad beat thread at all we've all had those and looking back I'm not mad at all I got it in great vs a big fish and he hit and I congratulated him and went on with my business).

Anyways Results:

Stephen: +1 (for a whopping $0.25/hour)

No updates?

Busto?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mike here, Sorry for no updates, school has gotten the best of me for the past 3 months. Just came off some surgery on my broken tailbone. Played twice since 2017 started. Was at Talking Stick resort in Phoenix, probably one of my favourite buffets at a casino lol.

Now that my work at school is dying down, I'm ready to be fully committed to the live grind. Been doing a lot of studying, bought and have been studying one of Best Poker Coaching's cash game courses, and am ready to hit the tables. Expect consistent posts from here on out.

Here is my biggest hand from my second last session, was at Casino Rama(in Orillia, Ontario) in a 2/5 game. Went with a couple buddies, one was drinking playing some poker, the other was on tinder looking for any girls in the area and I was grinding trying to make some money.

This hand took place only 6 handed as game was coming to a close and players were leaving, biggest hand of the night for me, BTN was a super aggro player, kind of a douche who was getting in arguments with everyone at the table, his stats were probably something like 50/30/30, he got in a heated argument with MP earlier once the table started talking politics and trump, and after they were always trying to play pots vs each other. The following is a hand I could have played better on each street but none the less I made some money.

Preflop: ($7, 6 players) Hero is UTG with Q K
Hero raises to $11, MP calls $11, 1 fold, BTN calls $11, 1 fold, BB calls $6

Flop: 4 A 2 ($46, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $15, MP calls $15, BTN calls $15, BB calls $15

Turn: A ($106, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $55, BTN raises to $110, 1 fold, Hero calls $110, MP calls $55

River: K ($436, 3 players)
Hero checks, MP checks, BTN bets $210, Hero calls $210, 1 fold

Total Pot: $856
BTN shows 8 Q (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows Q K (two pair, Aces and Kings)

Nice to see you guys back at the tables.