Collusion

Not much in terms of action on this dreadful Wednesday ; 4 nitty players pushing a few $$$ around, 2 of them husband and wife, soft playing each other like on a honeymoon starlight evening (guy checked the nut flush to his wife HU to which she responded by checking back the nut pair with nut kicker ). Not that I cared that much, as they are a sweet couple from Germany, here for pure entertainment purposes (they just spent the past 3 weeks canoeing the Yukon River), but it did get me thinking about how lucky we are that no one soft plays each other in our tight community. On the contrary, couples are oftentimes bloating significantly the pot vs each other (not with someone else in the middle, mind you), making that subsequent ride home all that more interesting Nothing like the obvious collusion that I witnessed a thousand and 1 times in Vancouver, when friends soft play each other over a few beers, old timers apply the ole "check it down" that seems to be accepted by management for some reason... As far as I am concerned, I racked my chips and left. Not so much for the obvious soft playing, but for the lack of action... +500$ live in 4h, -1200$ online in 4h


Challenge : +14, 370.89$

Dem Friday's

After my dear old lady friend (who always sits to my left) racked up her chips early tonight and was replaced by one of dem "table is sooo serious" obnoxious ****head, it didn't take long before I too headed for the door, calling it an early night : +1000$ live in 12h (over the past couple of days).









Don't know how some of you live pros do it, but God is life forsaken when the table is charged with bad vibes and the only reason you are still nailed to your seat, is for the monies... Which makes me all that more thankful to have this exquisite community of regs... Unfortunately, this timeless circle of ours might come to an end if either of Whitehorse or Carcross (southern Yukon) gets a casino opened... Lets cross our fingers and hope for the best... Or perhaps just enjoy what the present has to offer...

Online has been a complete biitch lately, not only slapping me in the face with this constant run bad, but the games have been dry, thus forcing me to square off vs good regs (in the name of volume) who are quite frankly putting my game to shame lately


If live has been a constant A- game in a weak field accompanied by some Godlike run good, online has opened dark breaches into abysmal depths lately... On the + side though, am keeping the BIG picture in mind though, that not only am I on a good pace for this challenge, but September will see me release me 6k+ in RB : -1000$ in 4h online


Challenge : +14, 405.22$

Off the Grid

In between a local wedding and the girl's wrestling thingy :




Not the best of pics, but didn't bother staying too long...


roughly 30-40% of the local population navigated towards one of the 2 events today Leaving the poker table, vacant, desolated, only to be populated by mama-fracking shortstackers +500$ live in 4h, +100$ online in 1h




If you have spent enough time with a French Canadian, words like "Cris", "tabarnack", "calisse" and "ciboire" might have become familiar by now... And we are not speaking of France's mama-fracking cheesy swear words like "sacre bleu", "merde" ou "putain alors" here , but dem vulgar words pertaining to the church when in the 1960's - or known as "the Quiet Revolution" in Quebec -, we said "enough is enuff" or, in French, "on est ecoure, Christ de calisse de tabarnack" Words that, some 55 odd years later, come out of my mouth whenever a pure form of anger rolls up on my tongue

Challenge : +14, 758.14$

Week 10 in Review

Note to self : do not try to bluff out a station, even after you min probe bet flop (with bottom pair and backdoors), 6$ probe bet on turn (add an OE to the equation) and shove river with lone bottom pair for 3x effective +1200 in 5h live (not great action, but a sun run will do it), +100$ in 1h online

Live Pokerz : the absolute run good continued this week I managed to get all of my sick bluffs through (in pretty big pots) which, when running hot, is easier to do. A+ game and +3100$ in 31h

Online Pokerz : Unfortunately, da live pokerz has to compensate for my pure-utter-abysmall run bad online To the extent where I at times chose not to play, oftentimes holding the thought of grinding in disdain, much like I did at the beginning of 2016 when I had a puke-worthy 400k hands of run bad If things seem dimmed this upcoming week, I will take more time off from the virtual world and run some sims in CREV instead : -1700$ in 19h

Things that I would of never done a few years ago :

- Not only do I catch myself oftentimes thinking about what lies ahead of poker career-wise lately, but I gave away some equity at the tables out of pure compassion this week Like offering an ICM chop HU vs a bad player (who is also a dealer at the casino) so that she can fully savour the joy of the win

- Told another female player (she is a newbie in the cash games) to short buy-in for 50bbs when she was about to load up for 100bbs

Well, like last week, am off camping in a few hours just in time to catch the rising sun and fall asleep with the murmur of the river

Peace All


Challenge : +16, 077.93$

Caution

After the tremendous virtual run bad of the past few weeks, have been focusing more on my win rate than volume. I Also included a few more 50z (and no 200z) until I snap out of this downswing, have downloaded Pio and will start to run sims on a daily basis (1h/day), thus cutting out on significant volume until September : +700$ in 5h online








Challenge : +16, 789.92$

Week 11 in Review


Just didn't have the mind on the grind... or have a mind at all, really...








Which made me quit the games early all week long (online and live), regardless of their profitability...


Live Pokerz : Gotta say, even if my brain was clogged up, foggy and uninterested with the game yo (and also preoccupied by life stuff), I still managed to process the limited info I had gathered about new players, despite only half-ass paying attention to the action at hand : B+ game and +400$ in 24h (was bound to get some live run bad...).

Online Pokerz : Am pretty fed up with this never ending cold stretch, but the games are improving, I am putting more emphasis on table selection (thus less on volume), studying more and am setting myself up for a mighty good September : A- game and +300$ in 15h

Mental State : I can't really blame myself for fatigue nor how life events influence my mental game and did still manage to push on through, to nevertheless focus on the task at hand. What remains curious though, is my recent tendency to factor in compassion in my in-game decisions (like not wanting to play shorthanded vs this nice guy, despite him being a full ring nit...), which might be a sign of me slowly walking away from the game... Is it the beginning of the end, for me? Perhaps, or at least as far as playing for 100% of my income is concerned...


Challenge : +16, 716.91$

Subbed, nice reads so far

Macrocosm

The BIG PICTURE, yo, the big picture...





Something that I did not always have in mind a few years back when EV and short term profit trumped elements like PR or the general health of the ecosystem. Thankfully, the DGAF thread has opened up my eyes to other variables such as sacrificing short term EV to appeal to the longevity of the game. Like showing your cards more often. Straddling (or encouraging it). Or even losing (almost) purposely 100$ to one of the pit bosses off shift, and quitting the game when you have position on him and effective stacks are 400bbs+ Good to put that predatory behaviour momentarily on the side, you know




+700$ in 11h live (in 3 days) and +100$ in 9h online (tired of this run bad )


Challenge : +17, 456.62$

love the dgaf thread

When you coming to the Gulf Coast?

That Fracking Thing Called Gravity

My recent 2 month long virtual run bad that has created an interesting relationship with my computer, to say the least





with me dedicating more time to its needs and all





and showing more signs of affection





anyhow, on top of the stupid variance in the online pokerz, I just had my worst run bad this year in the omaha game, when I proceeded to steam for an hour (slightly opening up my range, but not significantly enough to affect too negatively my win rate...), calmed down, starting enjoying myself despite the results not improving : -1300$ live in 7h, +200$ online in 2h


Thx man Make sure to check out the 2 other Old Lady threads if you haven't yet done so

It seems like I won't just yet : the itinerary will be Vancouver (2 weeks)-Montreal (1 week)-Vietnam (6 months)-Myanmar (1 month) for the winter. New Orleans definitely on my bucket list though, so I am sure we will cross paths within the next 2 years bob

Yeah, the DGAF thread has instilled my live game with some added awareness. Speaking of interesting PG & C threads, stumbled upon this fun one the other day. One which brought back early 2000s memories of reg vs reg battles ; you know, those dick swinging-ego-contest that always ended up with one of the 2 opponents either broke or in severe pain Here is an excerpt of the said thread :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17..****ash-1617985/


"Anyways. This thread has been very negative lately and I expected that. It will take a while for the poker community to accept me as their new king. If you join and support me now. I will not pursue you. I will not hunt you down. Take your money. Eat your children. I will be a good king. Maybe not the king some of you want. But the king all of you need.

And to accept me as your king. Because that's who I am. You are my little peasant. You are a good peasant. Spewing off buyins at 500 and 200. Sowing the pool with new big blinds. Harvesting the crop and bringing me my demanded share.

That's your purpose in this world.".


TBH, the thread was fascinating and might humorous at first, but does become boring in the end, once the mentioned reg battles come to an end

Challenge : +16, 208.30$

The Jitters

You know the feeling... you have been there before! Friday night, 6h45 pm, 15 minutes before the casino doors open, 9 of us waiting in line, impatient as frack to see a flop, a turn and a few God damn rivers Perhaps it is the fact that we are nearing the end of the season... Perhaps it is that most of us have a decent bankroll, at this point in the year... Nevertheless, we want the world and we want it now Action Baby!!!








The thing about meditation and being a pro in this game, is that you observe, bare witness to the dynamics at hand, put yourself not necessary beyond the metagame, but at least on the outside looking in... Not this time folks I as well was screaming for action, squeezing in marginal spots, getting it in with the worst of it It doesn't help that not only I deliberately took on some negative EV, but I ran bad in the process, couldn't partake when the game was good and even had to witness the biggest pot seen this summer, a 1050bbs one, being pushed in the wrong direction -50$ in 7h live, +400$ in 1h online

A bit disheartening to acknowledge that I had 2 x 1h spurts of tilt/craving for action in the past couple of days, nonetheless kind of really encouraging that these are far and few in between


Challenge : +16, 515.29$

The Journey to HU

With this absolute ludicrous schedule of mine (bedtime at 8-9 am-wake up at 4 pm), I only manage to squeeze in 3h45 of sleep, wake up, meditate to try to shake off the fatigue, jump in the shower, sprint to the casino and register just in time for the 475$ Bounty tournament The pints of coffee are reluctant to show some affect, which makes me yet again indulge in some FPS plays in the first blind level, thus dropping 15% of my stack in the process No worries yo, I manage to get back a sense of normalcy in the next level, come back to my normal TAG range, make a few nice reads and get away with minor felony :

Unknown (gold minor cajun from Lousianna, I would soon find out ) villain who has been active and 4 other of us see a limp flop of

Q52 rainbow (I completed in the SB)

I lead out for 2.2bbs with Q6, villain raises to 5bbs, I make the call IP. Turn brings the A which makes our villain check and I elect to do so as well. I didn't think it warrant enough fold equity... River brings the K which makes villain knock the table, I bet 15bbs

At that point, I am back on track, confident with my game/reads. A few blind levels later, I wake up with AA after villain, a solid agro player, opens up to 2bbs OTB ; I elect to 3bet to 5bbs from the SB, villain makes the call.

K74 rainbow is our flop, which I decide to check-call villain's 6bbs bet. Turn is the 6, which is essentially a blank (67s not withstanding and sets, of course) that I elect to check again ; villain bets 12bbs, I shove for 48bbs, villain goes in the tank for 2 mintues

A few hours later and I find myself HU, but, much like last year and despite a few golden opportunities in the tune of 75 < 25, 60 < 40 and 40 < 60, I go down in a blast again, but after making a deal this time around : +1800$ live in 8h, +300$ online in 2h


Challenge : +18, 608.89$

Week 12 in Review

How many of you non-Canadians have heard about The Tragically Hip, Canada's rock icon band, WAY UP THERE in our rock n roll Hall of Fame with only the likes of Neil Young :

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tragic...ings-1.3730276

The singer, Gord Downie, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour a few months ago, making this his last concert ever. 11.7 million viewers tuned in to CBC to listen to the free streaming concert (only 37 million people living in Canada, yo ), so it will unmistakingly go down as a Canadian marquee event. It was also with great joy that the casino put on the live stream for us yesterday during the tournament.

I am now 5/5 in this bounty tournament folks (coming in 1-2-3-2-2 respectively), but have made a deal to avoid the HUMUNGOUS pay jump in between first and second (except 1 lone time), so with The Hip in the background and lots of pride on the line, was really happy/enjoying myself yesterday Good to see the game can be still be this fun


Live Pokerz : Bah, was hit with small doses of tilt and even fell victim to some FPS : B+ game and +1000$ in 38h (this momentarily lack of focus makes me realize how I usually maintain composure/mental balance in quite a resilient fashion).

Online Pokerz : Had a hard time to switch back from live to online at times, committing in too light of spots with an overpair, for instance, and am still hit with this continuous run bad, but still a solid showing : A- and +500$ in 17h

After having a wedding brunch today and taking it easy for the most part, will head out for some camping after a couple hours of online grind and then have dinner with some friends tomorrow, so am essentially taking 2 days off


Challenge : +18, 220.20$

Ahead by a Century, The Tragically Hip, Woodstock 1999 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtgmbRZ0ys

BBC article : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37147588

The Good ole Lol(limit) Days

Keep in mind folks that we are the most northern casino (by far) in this hemisphere (and probably in the world...), so recent modifications do take some time before reaching our felt... This said, the poker management has done an excellent job in implementing recent poker tendencies (NL, TDA tournament rules etc.) while reconciling with the habits of the old timers. Hence, to appease the demands of 2 poker players that have been playing since the dawn of times, Thursday is a lolimit night

OK folks, we all know that lolimit is boring as frack, that it lacks the fold equity inherent to NL, buy why oh why all poker gods in the macrocosm and beyond, does that player that says "if this was NL, I would of this, that, and conquered and reconquered the world 1000 eightfold times exponentially" have to be sitting beside me








For the remainder of the season, we will have Omaha 08 as our 10-20 lolimit game, so I will not give much thought as to how to gain that extra edge, but here are a few of tonight's notes though :

- Despite how it may appear to others, floating on the flop with low equity nutted backdoors, makes more sense (multiway) than hands that have more equity, but no chance at drawing to the nuts. Ex : I floated with J10 on 9xx with 2 overs, backdoors to the flush and nut str8. Even if we did eliminate the 5% for the backdoor flush (and our overs) and just focus on our nutted 3%, I still prefer this float to say calling with 67 on a 710Q flop (which has more direct equity to improve, albeit only to trips and 2 pairs on a very wet texture). Sounds obvious doesn't it, but I think most people in this game would prefer to call (if given the choice) with the bottom pair scenario...

- It's all about the flop play, yo Of course, in a game where the bet sizing doubles on the later streets, flop play is the time to either maximize EV (with your draws) by increasing the number of bets, getting a free card on the turn or to start repping a range :

After the CO and button limp, I complete in the SB with 103 ; BB checks his option.

Flop (40$)
245

I could go for the X/R here, but doing so kinda exposes my hand as a fd... I bet, BB calls, CO raises, I 3bet, BB folds, CO calls.

Turn (110$)
245 K

I bet turn, villain tank-folds

- It would be mighty interesting to look into HU limit and what ranges to X/R bluff with (overs with backdoors, most likely, as in NL...), barrel with and cap with, given that you lack the fold equity of NL and thus would have to be extremely GTO in your approach, me thinks... But as far as I am concerned, that's it folks, I will not dedicate to thinking of lolimit +1000$ in 10h live, -900$ in 12h online (really fed up with the online run bad )


Challenge : +18, 328.59$

Hummm, WTF

Friday night, a coffee in right hand, the monies in the right pocket, the mental state in a good disposition after booking a small online win, 1h of meditation and a brief jog outside... but then this happens once the doors open :





Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even fracking grass growing at a millennial-snail-sorta-pace And still, I manage to scoop 1k in profit, scratch my head in the process, as I didn't even though there was 1k on the table before it ended up in front of me And then you have 3 stoned-out-of-their-mind shortstackers that sit down 30m before closing time, buy in for 20bbs each, run that up to just about 150bbs and proceed to split the winnings in front of us after refusing to play the last 2 hands of the night I could not fracking believe it +1000$ in 6h live, +100$ in 1h online


Challenge : +19, 438.20$

6 Billion Ways to Live, Choose One

5 million hands of pain... Some that were butchered preflop, some smashed the flop, some got lost on the turn, some sunk deeply on the river... All of which have made me older, tired... And wealthier. But where lies the wealth when the health has been stirred with...








I got older this winter. Dem 4 months of 400k hands of run bad just chewed me open, dug inside my guts and tore me up from the inside out... I kid you not folks, I still love this game and all, but once you go into abominable abysmal depths, you never come out quite the same again... +500$ live in 7h, +400$ in 3h online


Challenge : +20, 339.54$

House of Pain

Negativity... As the ritual wants it, you walk past dem casino doors, go past the slot machines, the pit games, sit down at the poker table, buy in and proceed to inflict defeat upon your opponents only to see their faces sink, drown in negativity... We nevertheless look away. Much like we do when an opponent goes bust, stands up from the table (racking up no chips ) and wanders away on his walk of shame... It is human nature to simply omit all signs of negativity, look away, remain in happy denial in lala-optimistic-land

Perhaps it is for the same reason that when we get it in as a 80-20% favourite, say AA vs 22, that we feel entitled to scoop 100% of the pot... 0$ in 9h live, +700$ in 4h online


Challenge : +21, 015.02$

Crushing like no Tomorrow

Lets get things str8 folks : sure, I always keep in mind the big picture, think of the long term beneficial effects of the ecosystem and all that bla bla, but when I show up tonight only to see the same mamafracking-scummy-sleazy-stinky-douchebag-villain that jumped ahead of a few us in the waiting list to steal our seat a few weeks back, I proceed to crush him like no tomorrow, stack him off, even if it killed the game in the process.







+100$ live in 5 minutes , +700$ in 2h online


Darn, the games have really not been that great this year... Crazy that I have manage to maintain just over 25bbs/h (105bbs/100)


Challenge : +21, 925.70$

Fireworks Baby, Fireworks

One week left before the season's ending tournaments... 10 days to indulge in some action baby, splashing the live felt with chips like no tomorrow, trying your best to squeeze pre, fire flop, blast turn and absolutely pulverize the river Or, if you are in my shoes, to try some off-the-wall-over-the-roof-through-your-opponent-for-a-loop FPS play Not that it mattered much, as 10 seconds later, all belonged to the past and I was ready to rinse-repeat, conquer the world an X amount of times +2100$ live in 24h, -300$ online in 4h









Challenge : +23, 690.93$

Da Gangsta Hood

Just booked a 5k week, yo. Me, my homies and my biitches, you know All of us splashing nonchalantly the pots, dragging in a bit more than our share of da bread and butter, scooping in da monies just 4 da hells of it, cause we are mama fracking gangstas, yo













Dragging in pot after pot after pot after...


Or perhaps you guys prefer this sorta gangsta...



+1500$ in 10h live


Alright, because 100+ players are coming into town this weekend, lets get all the tilt-inducing comments that will be repeated like a lost echo until the end of times out of the way :

- "Whatever you do, never call an all-in with AK" I'll take your AK if you don't want it buddy

- "You can raise with a small pocket pair, but you cannot call an all-in with it" says the guy as he raise-folds to 3bbs his 9bbs stack

- All dem bad beat stories that - surprise, surprise -, the narrator omits that part about how standard a fracking preflop flip is

- How could almost anyone of these players could play for a living if they wanted to

- How online poker is rigged

I will stop there but phew, that felt good


Challenge : +25, 195.71$

Up 2k in the first day of the WhiteRam in 10h of cash ; there was a 1-2 and a 5-10 nl DC in the after hour home games, but didn't like the lineup of the latter and was too exhausted


Must... sleep... now...





Challenge : +27, 274.91$

White Ram, Day 2

Another day, another 12h grind I got to skip the lolimit tournament, sleep in till 4pm, booked a 1200$ win in the 10/20 O08 game, dropped 500$ in the after hour game in semi standard JJ < QQ and QQ < KK spots.





The "I am going to win this hand by ALL means" Hand of the Day

Like I oftentimes like to do, I elect to attack the straddler from the hijack with a slightly wider range of Q8 by raising to 20$ ; straddler defends.

Flop (43$)
K102

I cbet 20$, he calls.

Turn (83$)
K102 7

I bet 65$, he calls again

River (213$)
K102 7 A

Villains leads out for 55$ , which smells of a Kx blocking bet ; I snap-shove to 112$, because I am never, ever bluffing for 2x right

Challenge : +28, 074.91$

Sick crushing

Day 3

Couldn't be smooth sailing all weekend, right... In between 2h of sleep, tilt-induced-feverish-dreams, catching a cold, the shivers of a nasty fever knocking at the door, running into the top of villains' ranges, finding myself obliged to flip too early in the tournament, I packed my goodies, went back home, snoozed for 1-2h, answered the ringing phone (a friend phoning me for an open seat for the omaha nl game), got back to the casino, continued to look down at rags and constantly rattled by that darn fever, that I called a night, regardless of being short 10h in my grind goals : HELP, I NEED MY MOMMY, -800$ in 6h





Time to regroup, refocus and make the most of the 2 remaining series event days


Challenge +27, 288.91$