Thanks, it's indeed a big deal for us!

I don't want to hijack my own thread and get too involved in the details of the move or anything, but since it is going to reshape some of my listed goals a bit for the year, and it is very much going to change our life balance goals, I figured it was the right time and place to mention it here. This is by no means a "zomg moving to Vegas to take a shot" situation, so for that I'm sure it won't be as fun to follow as some of those threads are, but there will indeed be some opportunities coming for me to make grinding live in Las Vegas more realistic and more possible.

Had an incredible weekend and found that the supply is much higher than the demand as far as renting/buying goes for our specific price/location criteria in Vegas. So pretty excited to see that.

We have a few months still in our current lease, so for now it's back to business in Scottsdale per usual. I have a lot to accomplish over the next 10+ days to close out January strong volume wise so time to get to it.

Played my first 2 hour session since the small break and I warmed up with some light meditation and felt good and focused going into the session.

I only had 1 small negative reaction the entire time, and it was just a flinch as we lost a full buy in with KK<AK aipf. I quickly recovered from it, and found myself amidst a good table overall, and worked on grinding it back immediately.

I also clicked call in a pretty big spot also pre flop with AK where we were the 3! squeeze aggressor vs a very agro OR and super passive flatter (who folded pre) and was very ok with the situation. Even when the OR turned up his AA for the cooler situation, it didn't even stir any reaction in me. I told myself when I clicked call of his overbet shove preflop that I knew he could show up with the top of his range here, and even with blockers, I wasn't going to be upset if he did show up at the very top. We only needed about 39% equity to make the call with the dead $ in the pot, and I knew based on even a slightly tight range for this type of player that TT+,AK we would have at least 41% equity against that. If I add in ANY bit of agro spew or other hands like AQs or some smaller pairs, then we are fist pumping here.

I was able to grind both buy ins almost all the way back in my session, so felt pretty solid overall, and give myself a pretty high grade for my mental game for my first session back today. (A).

Gl, im on Bovada too!

Played my second online session for the day, and the action was great. The runouts were not. We lost a full buy in set over set in a gross button vs sb spot to kick things off, and it just went downhill from there.

I lost several pots vs the 80/10s who were out in full force tonite, defending their T6o and flopping bottom pair and riding the wave home to the best hand, calling down multiple streets. We had an out loud reaction in a pot were we 3! AQs for value on the button to the MP opener running 48/40/10 in 78 hands. They came along for the ride, because that is what they do. AT6r flop and a X/call completed the flop action. Tx hit the turn and we decided to X behind for a couple of reasons. Given this players tendencies to play so many hands, and to play them aggressively, giving them a chance to bluff or value bet worse on this river seemed quite optimal. Also, since Tx did make up a portion of his range, it allows me to play some range/pot control as well. Sure enough when the 4x hit the river, the lead bet was put in, and we called after we went through our 4 step bluff catching questioneer.

When he tabled the Tx, I knew my mental game was going to slip into a place that was not going to be bringing my best focus, and we were right near our 2 hour mark anyway, so we clicked sit out BB and completed the session right then.

Still battling the online downswing month, days like to day are just like a needle in the side. We aren't getting the big cooler or value stack off to help offset all the nonsense we are running into. It is just a matter of time and it will turn around. Playing mentally sound poker until it does will remain a challenge, and it is one I welcome as I take on this years odyssey.

I was also able to get in some hours live today, and my winning streak there continues. Funny how a change of venue and atmosphere can uncloud the brain and keep our confidence levels up. I really do want to have a few days as I close out the month where we are able to 'power up' and play some really high number of hands online, but unless I know I am going to be playing in my A, or at least my B game for them, I am not going to push the volume just to hit certain volume goals. I feel that it is going to be as important as ever that I keep putting in solid off the table hand analysis every day, and if I need to mix in more live to help keep the confidence levels up, so be it. If I run out of hours in the day, and days in the month, at least I will know I gave it my best effort to play every hand as best as possible. No accumulated tilt. No entitlement pot poker. No quick fix fast played hands. Period.

With regards to your last paragraph, maybe it's a good time to take a page out of Dan's book and work on your C game. There are going to be a lot of times where you run poorly in poker and it's very important to not let it stop you from putting in reasonable volume (the reverse is also true of running well and falling into the trap of thinking it will last forever and not continuing to work hard/get in hours). It'd be nice to be able to play our A game all the time but it isn't realistic and getting in volume when not playing your best is still going to be beneficial as long as you aren't playing unprofitably.

Congrats on the move and gl turning around the downswing!

Thanks for sharing this, and helping to keep me a bit more grounded and realistic in my thinking.

Yes for sure I have heard and discussed with Dan the fact that we can actually make money by playing our C game since generically it is still better than many fish's A game. So that makes sense to continue to work on inch worming and lopping off the bad parts of our C game to make it better.

You have a very strong volume work ethic overall and I'm sure it is in part that you aren't afraid to play volume even when you recognize it may not all be A game volume. This is helpful to see and realize the importance of 'playing through' and keeping a 'game on' attitude at all times. Thanks for the input!

I thought I would share a few of my favorite videos with music that I use as part of my warm up routine. Enjoy:





It is part of my light meditation to just put everything into perspective before I start the poker grind. I enjoy music, and I really enjoy the outdoors. I haven't explored as much of our planet yet as I'd like to, but I've done my share of it and look forward to doing much more. The videos combine music and the outdoors and it always inspires and motivates me to stay focused on my poker and life goals to be able to achieve all that I want to achieve.

The last few days have gone well, and we actually posted back to back winning sessions in our online grind, for just the 2nd time all month luls. I am continuing to put in decent hours live this month as well, as the timing is really good for both me personally to put in more live volume before the big move, and also simply because the games are getting really good with all the local Scottsdale events I spoke of earlier in full swing. (No pun intended to the golf fans out there).

Played a really solid session this morning online and was running well early, getting some nice run outs and getting paid off by the fish. Picked off a few bluffs in the process, but I didn't have any big coolers or monster pots. Right before I was about to end my session, however, I fell victim to fast clicking on a turn that was generally going to be a bet/fold scenario that we kind of mentally told ourselves before we bet "there is no way I am folding to this monkey!"

This villain had played 2 orbits, we were on Bovada, and his VPIP/PFR was 100/60 in 11 hands. When this type of Bovada monkey joins one of my tables, I have a leak of just 100% never giving him ANY CREDIT AT ALL. While there is some merit to this thinking, and my general assumptions are going to be proven correct often, it is still feasible that hands will happen where he actually does make a hand, and when it looks like he is "Bovada Bombing" he is actually doing it for value.

In a spot where this player opens the button and then flats our 3!, then flats our flop Cbet with a continuing range we crush on a J34 board, we just couldn't put any sense into his turn shove once a 5 hit, and just clicked the call button and then he promptly showed us the 67 for the nuts.

It's funny how we just mentally block the fact that this player can very easily show up with sets and 2 pair+ hands here, because, hey, he's playing every hand...there is no way he has a value hand here, right?

Aside from that brief exit of strong mental prowess, my overall decision making went very well, and we finished the session in the green. I marked several hands this morning that some seemed a bit trivial at the time, but there were some spots in a few of the lines I took that I felt perhaps there was merit to deviating from the one I chose at the time that might in fact extract more value from a particular type of player, so I want to take a closer look at them later.

My warm up and cool down went well, and completing this post, and writing out my thoughts from the one big hand that did not go our way has helped me to be reminded that having assumptions on players are important in my decision making processes, but that by allowing those preconceived notions cloud our thinking "in the moment" we may find ourselves a victim in making a poor decision during a hand. Right when I enter a pot with said player would be the best time to inject logic before I make my next decision, and probably with each decision following as the hand plays out.

I certainly don't want to beat myself up mentally or otherwise over one hand, one perhaps small mistake, as in reality, the player could have shown up with a random "Bovada Bomber" type hand (1 pair, gut shot straight draw, etc) and we could have won the pot. All that would do is keep my head in the clouds by telling myself "Yepp, you were right, he's a bomber, easy fast click decision!" When the reality is, regardless of our opponent, keeping a clear head, and using a good thought process when clicking the call button in a large pot is going to ALWAYS be the most important part of the situation, not the result itself.

I have had a pretty productive last few days, with some great mental challenges and roller coaster emotions to share concerning some aspects of the cash game grind.

I'll start out with some online thoughts. As we are in the last week of the month, I am making sure to put in at least 1 session every day so we can get as close to our monthly target of 80 hours as possible. Looking at my schedule and what I have left to accomplish for the week, we most likely are not going to make it to the target hours, but that is ok. There are a few different reasons for us missing our goal, and quite honestly, they are pretty good reasons, vs just excuses. We have spent some time looking for a place to move to including taking a great trip out of town to see some properties in person. This accounted for a good 4 day break from the grind I hadn't really accounted for when my month started. Another reason is that we have been unbalanced in our live vs online grind, primarily for the games being pretty good and having a healthy bankroll to play and build up the experience level before I move and find myself in quite an optimal setting to be grinding more live. My live hours goal is going to be crushed, and when combined, my total hours for the month are going to far exceed what my goal of total hours is. It is just a little more flip flopped than anticipated. I will look closely at my numbers as the months continue, but I still will be keeping my 1000 hours for the year goal in place for online.

The mental challenge of firing up a session online and losing a buy in or 2 in negative variance scenarios has not let up. You would think that 27 days into a month, you would be able to mix in days where this isn't happening. It does mess with our minds sometimes when it doesn't. I had a conversation last week concerning this with one of my coaches, and he prepared me for the uptick exciting session or two where we would just bink off like a 4-5 buy in win, followed with another few nice wins in a row, based on what we had seen happening in many of my sessions. He also warned me that, those days, or sessions may not happen this month. They could be 2 months away. You just have to be mentally ready to face the facts that there is nothing controlling how long you have to deal with negative variance. The only thing you can control is yourself.

I have indeed made some technical mistakes here and there that have not helped the overall situation, (as already posted about, playing some "fast pots", and making some bad river hero calls, etc) but for the most part, I've been making optimal decisions. More importantly is how I am handling the mental aspect of it. Breaking up my sessions, adding in more live hours to offset the monotony of sitting behind a computer in a non-social setting, and keeping a strong life balance all are key for me to continue to stay mentally strong and face the challenges that downswings present.

I managed to fit in a nice long hike this week with a few 2-5 grinders I had the pleasure of meeting. Awesome to get to hang with the PG&C guys I have been following along with their stories for some time now; Pure_Agression from Vegas, and Illiterate from NorCal, along with Duke who is local here with me. Physical exercise is just as valuable to the mind as it is the body, so that was a great activity. Its been otherwise a pretty slow month for me in that department. I do ride my mountain bike 5-10 miles a day a few times a week, and was doing it much more regularly when I actually was riding back and forth to the casino for the live grind sessions. It is a bit inconvenient overall to have to bring a change of clothes and it adds about an hour and a half of set up time. The positives do outweigh the negatives tho, so even on days when I'm not biking to play live, I can still fit in a ride to help keep the blood flowing to the brain, and it is a great outlet as well. Duke and I have some more hikes planned over the next few months, so that will be awesome.

So now on to some interesting discussion of what I experienced over the weekend with some live grinding. After acknowledging the fact that the weekend games in particular should be getting so much better with more whales and fish in town to play some 3-5 and 5-10 poker, my backer and I felt that taking a shot in the 3-5 game would be optimal. Of course, using game selection will be very key, and I don't really want to shot take and lose more than 1.5-2 buy ins to that game or else I will be dropping back to 2-3 to grind it back. As with any time we move up in levels, even when just shot taking, there is a mental hurdle (or multiple hurdles) that need to be overcome.

For starters, if we are sitting in a game full of regs (can be regfish, or winning regs, doesn't matter), until proven otherwise, we are going to be the fish. I am an unknown, and especially if I only buy in for 100bbs when they are buying in the max of 200bbs, the target will be assumed to be me. So I went in to the game well aware of this. Perhaps, too aware. My 'paranoia' immediately set in, as in a 3 hour window, we opened exactly 9 pots, and 6 of those pots we were 3 bet. To put this in perspective, I can play all day long in a 2-3 game, and not see 1 3 bet. Of course sample size is really so small, but on principle alone, you can see where we could incorrectly start to assume we are just getting run over by light 3 bets. I was able to stay focused and not make any major mistakes (might have missed a turn barrel in a hand that I discussed with Duke, but it wasn't a major mistake), and we left the game down slightly once it dried up completely and there were better 2-3 games in the room. I think this is an interesting aspect of dealing with the mental challenge of moving up in stakes. It is always going to seem like this at first, and it will take a decent sample size of actual hands played to better handle the increased mental stress that will go along with the move up.

I dealt with this the first week I went from 50NL to 100NL on Bovada, and now when I look back, I realize, sure, there is a small nonzero percent of the time that there is more light 3 betting happening simply because the player pool will have slightly more competent players in it as the stakes go up. However, the overall player pool in that next level up is going to be very similar to the player pool in 50NL. I think the same analogy can be made when discussing live games like 2-3 to 3-5 here in Scottsdale, along with 1-2 or 1-3 to 2-5 in Vegas. Sure, there are going to be a few more good players that are going to utilize a more well rounded approach to targeting the fish and playing against them than you saw in the lower stakes, but the overall player pool in that level of 3-5 or 2-5 is going to be pretty fish and whale infested.

I will continue to take shots as long as the bankroll allows in the 3-5 game over the next month as we are still in prime time here, but game selection will overrule what stakes I'm playing. It was a Sunday night 2-3 game that I actually took down my biggest pot in years in live poker, and the game itself was playing huuuuuge, and much better than any 3-5 table in the room. I was fortunate to get the seat I did without having to table change into the game or anything right when I showed up. We were able to book our biggest win of the month in this game. This was important to help reinforce the importance of table and game selection, at a time when my live cash game career is really starting to shape into more than it has ever been.

Hey rockstar:
good luck with the move my man...hit me up when you roll into town and I'll help you out with the lay of the land.

Haha love the thread title! Crush em!

Thanks man! Much appreciated and will do

Thanks man! Been a great week...catch up to Ya on the other side

Oh hi!

Cool thread dudeman

Are you gone from the dark side for good? MTTs miss you...

Kudos on the seemingly quick transition *back* to cash games though. See ya in Vegas!

The pull is strong; the Dark Side will forever create internal struggle. Focusing on my mental game will only make it more possible to not give in to its power. See ya soon bud...

Time for a monthly recap for January. It is with mixed feelings that I post about my goal results for the month. Since my thread is very mental based, I find that both fitting and ironic.

Hours goals:

[ ] Combined hourly goal of live and online was 112, we achieved 163.

[ ] Online goal of 80 hours, we achieved only 60.

[ ] Live goal of 32 hours, we achieved 103.


Although my online goal was not met, increasing my live hours was extremely beneficial to me for my long term experience, especially with the move to Vegas in the near future. I was able to put myself in many situations against live opponents that challenged my thought process and helped me to work on many aspects of the live grind. I was off to a great start in some incredible games, but I fell victim to a 6 BI downswing in the last 4 sessions, that pretty much turned our month into a breakeven month.

My online results were slightly more disappointing, as I started out down in the first week, and the swing climbed to 10 BI's down, we leveled off and won here and there, but then ended on another 6 BI's down to add to that. Was very challenging every day to continue to play through the negative variance moments, and although we had so many targets trying their absolute best to give money away, we were unable to take advantage of them.

After such a great December, it was difficult and disappointing to have a follow up month like January, but it will only push me to work even harder on all aspects of the game. This leads me to my next goal result recap.

Mental game and work ethic goals:


[ ] Spend 2 sessions per month working with coaches and network of players in our stable on average.

I actually had 4 total coaching sessions for the month of January!


[ ] Spend 2 hours per week working individually on HH analysis of previous days/weeks sessions. (Also can include watching training vids or 1 on 1 coaching sessions).


On every day that I played last month, which was 25/31 days, I spent anywhere from 30 minutes - 2 hours going over HH analysis. Some days it was through texts and Skype chats with another player to discuss how I played a live hand, other days it was reviewing my HM2 database on my own or with a coach or stable mate. Needless to say we put in a solid 40 hours of self analysis of HH's.

I think this goal and achievement in itself is often overlooked by anyone on the outside who often wonders how you could even begin to treat playing poker like a job, or a business. But when you break down all the work you do away from actually playing, it becomes pretty evident pretty quickly. Much like a golfer spends a lot of time on the driving range perfecting his swing, poker players spend untold amounts of time improving the mind and readying for competition.


[ ] Stay current in reading all subb'd PG&C threads, along with staying current in keeping good weekly/monthly updates in this thread.


I actually added in a few more threads I am following, including the Las Vegas Lifestyle forum threads that I find to be the most useful to me as I prepare for the move. I have done exceptionally well in staying current here, along with following along in many other similar journeys to mine.

It is pretty awesome to see so many different stories out there doing similar things. Even though we all are very different as individuals, when it comes to the poker grind, and the work we put in to improve and become a better poker player and a better person all around, we all are very much the same. I am always encouraged and motivated every time I read along such inspiring stories.

I look forward to a great focused and productive February, and as always, appreciate the follows and the support from friends, poker dreamers, and achievers alike!

February starting off pretty strong. We are already at 17% of our hours goal for the month and have completed 2 coaching sessions already as well. Feels like it's going to be another strong work ethic month, let's just see if we can't get the results to start to line back up with the efforts again like how my 2014 ended!

Tonight's session left me with a little bit of entitlement tilt after we had 3 amazing tables running out of our 6 total and we were even getting hands to play against the targets but we just could not pull off many pot wins vs them. Had several 50-70 range VPIP guys that were just cold calling, stationing flops/turns and doing every possible thing in their power to play as suboptimal against me as they could, yet we could not find ourselves in any river situations where we could (thin or otherwise) value bet. I basically was bet/folding, check/folding so many spots due to multiway situations where we were just getting abysmal runouts while facing donk bets or check raises. We did attempt a few bluffs, but I almost feel like I was forcing the issue more so than taking optimal stabs/lines.

All in all I was able to stay very zeroed in on the task at hand, and was able to grind back a little of the 2 buy ins we were down early in the day. Ended the session down just over 1 buy in, but still leaving us on a nice 5+ buy in uptick to start the month as we work to erase January's disappointing results.

Few small up and downs last few sessions, and specifically my most recent session we ended on a bit of a downer. I managed to grind back being down a few buy ins on one site, after I felt like I was really getting worked over by one of the regs on there. I know part of it was in my head, but part of it also was that flat out it felt like he/she was making less mistakes then I was, so for that, I blame myself. I am going to work on looking over some HH played with this villain and work on figuring out what some of their leaks/mistakes might be, and then see if I can't tidy up my lines and ranges against them a bit and get out of the mind frame that I am getting outplayed.

On Bovada tonite, we had another fun filled merry go round of targets that kept us busy and focused during both sessions I played. I ended up fast playing a set on a bad turn card and losing a full buy in to a maniac type 60/40/20 player when we didn't improve to beat their turned straight, and I also got stuck in a really bad river spot against a 45/5 fish who was a mega station, and the board ran out 4 to a straight, but we were holding the highest straight possible, however a backdoor flush came in. We value bet the river after villain checked, and then shoved on us and we were getting about 4:1 on the call. It was really a gross spot and I think that against that villain type, he will show up with the 1 card straight often enough, as his show downs had some bit of questionableness in them. I do feel like calling if it is a chop would have been bad, even against a potential spazzer here, but certainly when I hold the higher straight, even on the flushing board, it's really hard to lay it down. I used a lot of my time bank, and prepared myself to see a flush when I clicked the call button a portion of the time. Sure enough, he did have the flush. I did really well to not have much of a negative reaction to it, and I think that was in part to the process I used when I thought through the situation and the particular villain, and had mentally prepared myself for both sides of the result possibilities.


Moving update; we just booked our final 'scouting' trip to Vegas and will be there for the final weekend of February to pick and put an offer in on a property for a 1 year lease. We have a decent number currently available in our search criteria still, and the supply seems to be high so we are pretty excited and hopeful that we will be very happy with our final pick. We are down to about 6 weeks before actually moving, so things will start to get a bit hectic as the month winds down, which is also why I have made an effort to get in my hours early and often so I can focus on getting things ready for the move without feeling pressured into needing volume late in the month.

Your thread is a good read. I had a tough January as well... worse month to date. Here's hoping for some good results in Feb and continued improvement overall!

its february stop check/folding and bet/folding, thats a january thing

Subbed. Good times meeting you last month. I can relate to the mental game struggles you've written about, and I'm impressed by your ability to frame them in an objective manner after the fact. I can definitely take a couple bits of wisdom from that.

Hoping you run good this year and play better!

Thanks for reading, glad you are enjoying.

Sometimes I just spew words in a post much like as if I had just finished spewing manie$ in a game, but sometimes I am putting words together from left to right to make complete sentences that actually contain some valuable thoughts. Appreciate the people that stick around through the former to get to the latter.

No doubt! I still wake up in cold sweats some nights, even tho we are already 9 days past that wretched month...

Awesome getting to meet and hang as well. For sure the struggles are real and alive on a daily basis. Putting them down in words is just one way to make sure to keep them real, and not sugar coat our emotions and give us an excuse to overlook the root cause of mistakes, rather than just trying to battle the symptoms of why we might be losing or making those mistakes.

I know we spent more time talking about random life stuff then poker itself, but hey...if we hadn't taken the time to take a break from all the work, we would have never met Birdie! Thanks for the follow man, and gl in the continued pursuit of excellence!

Reading through one of my coaches threads helped me stumble upon the "power of posture" and "fake it to become it" philosophies that are incredibly simplistic yet virtually impossible NOT to incorporate into anyone's life that is aspiring toward some level of success.

(I'm posting mobile currently so don't have links of the great presentation covering these topics but I did post the link in a Twitter post last night in case you happen to follow me there or would like to: @RockstarRossi13 )

/subtle Twitter plug?


The month of February is continuing to be a really good one results wise, and dare I say I have made about 70% of January's losses back so far through 11 days. We are also on pace for our February volume goal which is actually slightly higher than my standard monthly goal to make up for last month, so very pleased with that. I'm going to wait and post giraffes later this month, or end of month, since my January volume was lacking, and to show the full nature of the latest downswing and recovery.

I'm personally not attached to these results any more so than I need to be simply for the fact that it is my livelihood, but felt sharing them was appropriate as I work my way through this journey this year. I'm also well aware that negative variance can occur at any time, and it's quite possible I don't have the complete month of profit that I'm hoping to achieve this month for any number of reasons. The important part of how the month continues to go, and eventually concludes, is that I do my part to control all the variables that I can each and every hand, in each session every day.

Building a strong foundation of general positive thinking and overall mental approach to the game is very important to me in how I go about tackling the challenges of each day. Part of this process early on in this journey includes being able to stay unattached to the results, good or bad, and to not let my roller coaster highs be too high when things are going well, along with not allowing myself to get too low just because a session or sessions haven't gone so well.

That being said, I certainly have always been a fan of a good roller coaster, so bring it on February and beyond, I'm strapped in tight and ready to throw my hands in the air!

Played a very high volume of hands over the last few days and we are on pace to break 100 hours for the month in online volume. It has been a very focused 2+ weeks, and we have dug ourselves out of the 15 buy in hole we were in going back to end of December! (Giraffes coming soon) We are teetering back and forth between up a buy in and down a buy in, and it feels really good to have battled hard to recover from the downswing.

I know everyone has a few months scattered in here and there that are losing months, and having it happen to start off a new year, a BIG year, for me was slightly discouraging at first. Now that I have had time to reflect on the big picture of the year some more, and have seen my hard work paying off this month, it has completely wiped away that initial discouragement and turned it into fuel for the fire that is burning inside me.

Had a goals recap session with one of my coaches in the stable today, and reflected on some minor schedule processes and technical and mental game goals to keep working on as part of my continuos improvement campaign for the year. I have a very good vision of what I want to get out of the year, and it is very much due to the focus that I have put on goal setting along with frequent and honest evaluations of those goals.

In my most recent session, I actually lost my biggest pot online as far as I can remember so far to date, and even after factoring in that pot, we were able to grind out a breakeven session overall. Something incredibly encouraging about the loss was the fact that the table itself was a very good one, even though it was not going smoothly out of the gate. I had already lost big pots with KK and AA on this table, as well as attempted a big 4! bluff against a maniac that was an ill-timed decision i admitted immediately after the fact. It was this same villain who we had to bet fold AA to on a really terrible runout as well, so things were all leading up to this whopper of a spot:

UTG1 maniac opens 3x, CO flats, we flat 78dd on the button with a new player and a fish in the blinds. The BB comes along and we are 4 ways to the flop.

4x5x6d flop. Nom nom nom.

Maniac fires a near Pot sized bet. CO folds, and we call. BB folds. Turn is Qd. He fires another barrel, still near PSB. We started the hand 150+bbs effective. Ordinarily I would continue to let him bury himself here, but based on his sizing, and his inability to use the fold button (as I had noted in several show down pots along with his 5b jam of my 4b preflop a few minutes earlier) I decided to just raise here for value. I wasn't worried about losing him too much, expected he would continue a large % of the time based on dynamics and game flow and his tendencies. Also, because we started the hand so deep, I want to set it up to be sure to get stacks in without having an awkward River sizing spot.

We raise 2.5x. Villain snap jams. We call and see he has Ad3d! We block all his outs and have him crushed. We are an 8:1 favorite to win the 375ish BB pot.

9d River ends all that.

As I stated, we did not even flinch, and handled the loss with both grace and acceptance. I knew when he snap jammed there would be some times where we had the same hand, and other times I would need to fade a river when he shows up with his most likely 2pr/set holdings, so I had already prepared myself that he would have equity and that we would lose this pot a small amount of the time. Of course when I saw his actual hand, I almost prematurely celebrated but held it in to allow the hand to finish, and correctly so.

Being prepared to lose a small amount of the time before I clicked call definitely helped me to handle the big swing pot as well as I did. This was only about half way through my session, and I knew that being at so many good tables in my session in general, that I needed to stay focused and ready to take on the next challenge I would face in the next hand. I was able to recover the losses as I also mentioned, and I attribute my solid mental game play in the entire session to a very good warm up routine, as well as an overall even keeled emotional approach to every hand I played. Even though I ended the day break even, I feel like I won based on the negative variance I experienced along the way.

Really great effort this month Mike. You are working hard and doing the right things, and that is what inevitably gets the money in the long run.