Took the day off this Friday. Just couldn't be bothered putting in another session and thought that a break would do me good. I don't schedule my breaks, I just take them when I need them. It's unfortunate that I wasn't in the mood for poker this Friday because Friday nights are the juiciest times to play. People just finish a hard week's work and want to relax and unwind with a bit of fun poker in the casino. Then you get the drunk-tards who just don't give a fvck, throwing their hard-earned cash away like it's nothing. But it's great for people like me! These people are half the reason why I've been able to grow my money.


this is what a quarter of my poker BR looks like in cash.
not quite as baller as Dan Bilzerian, but maybe someday when I become a high-roller I'll add some babes, boats and blinged-out glocks into the picture.

I plan on closing this BRC thread once I reach $80,000.

It's rather ambitious, but I actually have 4 phases in mind. Each phase will have its own BRC thread here on 2+2. So I plan to have a total of 4 different threads. Each phase will have 4 sub-stages. A total of 16 stages across all threads.

Phase 1
Stage 1: $10600.
Stage 2: $16000
Stage 3: $28000
Stage 4: $80000

Phase 2
Stage 1: $100,000
Stage 2: $150,000
Stage 3: $200,000
Stage 4: $250,000

Phase 3
Stage 1: $300,000
Stage 2: $350,000
Stage 3: $400,000
Stage 4: $500,000

Phase 4
Stage 1: $600,000
Stage 2: $750,000
Stage 3: $850,000
Stage 4: $1,000,000

With the exception of the first 4 stages, I actually have no idea what my method will be to complete the remaining stages. I'm guessing it'll be a combination of grinding High Stakes Cash games (this might require me to learn/study a new game like PLO/Fixed Limit Ohama), playing 10K events, investing in some low-risk shares, getting into the staking/backing scene and maybe hopefully having some successful horses, getting a property. Not entirely sure. The one thing I am sure of though, is that I'm not going to be working some bull$hit 9 to 5 job that I hate. I want to prove to my friends, family, the haters, the doubters, the world that it is possible to become a millionaire playing poker. Doing it responsibly applying solid BRM boundaries. This all might seem like a pipe-dream but fvck it! Poker for life!!!!

It's awesome his ambitious you are with your goal setting. Good luck on the grind!!

well ,,, to be honest. My goal of making 1m is very unreal. I kinda wrote up that last post because the idea of making a fortune from poker was getting me motivated. But in all seriousness. My real goal is reaching $80K. I think it's a very real goal to achieve. And not too ambitious? hopefully? I wouldn't want to aim for something completely out of this world. But yeah... my head MAY have been slightly up in the clouds when I wrote that last post xD I might have to rethink that one...

In any case. I have many things to update. I put in a morning session on Saturday. And I plan to put in a night session tonight. However, my friends and I have organised a little bike ride along the beach this afternoon, so updates might have to wait till tomorrow? Sit tight! This thread is going to receive its first milestone! Hint: I booked my first loss since starting this thread how much did I lose? Did I keep to my 5 rules? Maybe I lost $10 maybe I lost the full $10K.... who knows. Wait and see

Loving the ambition here! I'm the same way! No one around me believes poker can be a real job lol. I'm in l also in the process of building my live roll, to hopefully move to FL at the beginning of next year! I'll be keeping up with your thread! Good luck and don't lose that drive, we'll both get there!!!

Sent from my SM-G900V using 2+2 Forums

yeah, not many people understand just how lucrative poker can be as a profession. My sisters know that I play poker, but I think they're a little sceptical and think I'd be better off having a real job. I get the feeling that they think poker is in the same family as blackjack or roulette or other casino games. I've tried explaining how poker is different to these games but it's hard to convince someone who just thinks all forms of gambling is the same. I haven't done the math, but I think I make roughly $25 an hour playing poker. That's more than a lot of real jobs pay. But I'm sure that my family will start to understand just how profitable poker can be when I start needing wheelbarrows to haul my winnings home.

Thanks for the support though. It really helps. 2+2 is a great motivator. If you have any other words of encouragement, don't hesitate to post them.

alrighty... updates!

Played a session last Saturday. Dropped 2 Buy-Ins. Usually when I play a session and I get off to a poor start, I always top up to max. Whether I'm down $10 or down $50, I try to make sure I'm always at $200. Well, after my second top-up, I noticed that my pre-flop calling range was becoming waaay too wide. I was calling opens with hands like 62o, 53o, 64, etc just hoping to spike a miracle flop so that I could get it in. This is a HUGE leak, and should have taken it as a sign to either leave the table, or get my head together. I could have saved a bit of money if I just chose to rack up and cash out instead of continuing to play. In order to plug this leak I really need to do something when I catch myself playing this poorly PF. I've been thinking of implementing some kind of strike-system. Like... if I catch myself playing in a way that's indicative of fishiness or donkey-like behaviour then I give myself a mental strike. This could be anything. Calling raises out of position with junk, 3-betting wide out of frustration, calling bets without the correct odds, bluffing in the hopes that my opponent will fold TPTK, things of that nature. And if I do this at least 3 times then I should bail on the game regardless of how juicy it may be. I've said this before, but there's no point in staying in on a good game if you're playing worse than your opposition.

Before my second top-up, I played a hand with this guy who was a POW. I didn't know this at the time as I had never played with this guy before. But everyone on the table knew he was a calling-station. I got myself into a position where I had 7high by the river on a KT992 board, and decided to bomb it. I was pretty sure he had a King, but I interpreted his check on turn to be weak so thought that there was a high likelihood that he'd fold to my river bluff. Unfortunately, he called (being the pay-off-wizard that he is). But this scenario allowed me to learn a lesson. And the lesson is this:
Refrain from making ambitious plays against people I have no history/reads on.I can gain reads and information WAAY more cheaply by observing their tendencies when I'm NOT involved in the hand. Let other people make mistakes against them and take note of it. Don't be the guy making the mistake of being the one who "buys" the information. Let other people buy it for you.

On my second bullet I got involved in another hand which may be considered a "cooler". I had the bottom end of a straight and my opponent had the top end. It was a situation where my absolute hand strength was quite good, but my relative hand strength was quite poor. The fact that I had a straight didn't matter since my opponent was never betting the way he did as a bluff, nor is he doing it for value with a hand worse than mine. But because I was already stuck, and because I had a straight, I made the call anyway and lost. I took some detailed notes on this hand because there was a lot of levelling going on. But I don't need to share it here. The only thing that's relevant is that I need to be able to distinguish between relative and absolute handstrength and not just call big river bets "because I have a straight".

After that pot I was left with a few bucks left and made the decision to just take my chips to the cage, cash out, book the loss and leave. Played for a total of 90 minutes.

Brag: Despite bringing 4 Buy-Ins with me, I decided to end the session after losing only 2 buy-ins. I wasn't playing my A-game and potentially saved $400 in a spot where my opponents would probably let tilt get the better of them and lose the lot. And I think that's one of the key ingredients to being a professional poker player. Knowing when to make good quits and comparing this ability to your opponents.
There's a concept formulated by Tommy Angelo called 'Reciprocality'. Basically what this refers to is; if you were to trade places with your opponent and swap the situation, would they win more or lose less than you. Would they make different decisions if they were in the same situation as you. If your opponent would have lost more than you in that given situation, then you can give yourself a pat on the back and say, "alright, I would have done better than you in that theoretical situation". You theoretically obtain an edge over your opponent. Every time you make a better decision than your opponents (even when you’re deciding about something seemingly tangential like; what to eat or how much to sleep, making an early quit) you profit as surely as you do when you make a heroic call or an amazing fold. So by making an early quit and potentially saving $400 (assuming my opponents would continue to play on tilt if they were in my situation) I essentially give myself an edge and make a "theoretical profit" over my opponents. This idea of winning "reciprocal gold" might be a bit impractical (because I've "won" 2 theoretical Buy-Ins even though I've lost 2 real Buy-Ins), but I like to believe that it's another way to determine just how much of an edge you have over your opposition even if you can't prove it through actual dollars. I don't understand all the ins and outs of how reciprocality works in poker, but it's a really interesting concept. Google Tommy Angelo's article on it if you want to learn more about it.

Beat: despite winning $400 in reciprocal dollars, I lost $400 actual dollars (from playing badly)

Variance: my "graph" will inevitably experience valleys as well as peaks. But the idea is to minimise those valleys and maximise those peaks. Making good quits is key in controlling the variance.

Loss: $400
BR: $9600

After this losing session I decided to do something fun. I was kinda bummed about losing, but it was still early in the morning and I had no plans for the day. A few weeks ago I met a guy in the poker room of the casino who was kind enough to share some of his "merchandise" with me. Well... what better way to forget my losing session than to indulge in said merchandise. So I took it, drove home, and had quite an adventure. But perhaps this is a story better suited for a different thread. Is there a "recreational" thread of sorts somewhere on these forums? If there is, I'll share the story there. :P

I played another session the following.... Monday? Sunday? I kinda lost track of the days... In any case, I lost 1 buy-in and didn't take any notes on the session. I wish I did because I don't remember how I lost the buy-in. Moreover, I spent a bit of cash on some things this week; food, petrol, phone credit, smokes, going out with friends, hired a bike for a day, etc. Probably totalled about $200, but I didn't account for it. I'll have to be more diligent with this note-taking stuff.

Loss: $200
Weekly expenses: $200
BR: $9200

I played the Wednesday Wonder tournament tonight. I came 12th. I feel I played really well. Picked my spots carefully. Didn't get it in badly once. I got a bit short in the later stages and ended up pushing with Kc9c. Got called by QJo and the board ran out TT98K. Oh well. It's to be expected from tournament poker. Unfortunately only 6 places paid, so I bubbled. It was a $200 buy-in event. Since I only have a $9200 BR, spending this much on a tournament quite aggressive bankroll management, but the people who play these tournaments are sooooooo bad. Seriously, it's a huge marshmallow pit. The field is so soft. Very beatable. I've played it 3 times so far. These tournies usually get somewhere between 50 and 80 runners. The first time I played it, I came 19th (didn't cash). The second time I played it, I came 5th (won $950). And this time I came 12th (didn't cash). But I like my chances in this tournament. First places usually pays somewhere between 3K and 4.5K depending on how many runners, but I would definitely consider myself a favourite. Definitely worth the $200 investment.

Despite not cashing, I jumped on a $1/$3 table and made a profit of $200. So I broke even for the session.

Profit: B/E
Current BR: $9200

Thoughts: So I started this thread 2 weeks ago. How much do I have to show for it? Well, monetarily speaking my BR hasn't moved. It rose $800 and then dropped $800.
Motivationally speaking, it has really helped. At the beginning of the year I didn't really set any goals for myself, I just sort of......played. But since creating this thread I've developed goals, and been able to voice my thoughts on BRM/poker/mental game, become more accountable, become more motivated to improve as a player and plug leaks, etc. It's great! So yeah... despite not having more money now than what I had 2 weeks ago, I really believe keeping a PG&C thread will benefit me in the long run.

Last night I received a text from a friend inviting me to a home game. It'll be running this weekend. It's a $2/$3 game with a $300 max Buy-In. A little larger than what my BR can afford right now. But I have a history of crushing home games. So I think I can justify playing in a bigger game. I currently have... 46 Buy-Ins for my current level ($1/$3) and I'll have 30 Buy-Ins for this home game. I know that one of my rules that I've set is to not take a shot at a higher game unless I have a minimum of 35 Buy-Ins, but that rule was really only in regards to poker games IN the casino. Home games is a different story.

I think I'll play a Thursday night session, but not sure yet. Depends on how I feel. But I'll definitely take notes on how the Home Game goes this weekend. Hopefully some fun hands/stories will ensue...

okay, so it's been awhile since my last update. I'll have to work on correcting that. Afterall, the whole point of this thread was to help me stay on track. And the last couple of weeks have been a bit messy for me [in terms of both poker and outside of poker.]

I'll start with last Saturday night's home game. Unfortunately, I didn't have my notepad with me at the time so couldn't take down any HHs. So most of this stuff will just be from memory. In any case, before the game started, the host informed all the players of this list of rules they had written up that's unique to their game. After hearing these rules, I was slightly confused and ticked off because they made no sense and were really bad. I didn't say anything though because I was just eager to play and it looked like they put a lot of thought into these rules. But here are just a few of them;
1) If a player chooses to take a break from the game, they will still be dealt cards once the BB and SB gets to them. The dealer will then take the liberty of paying your BB and SB for you. [EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE NOT EVEN SITTING AT THE TABLE!?] What kind of a gay rule is that. You don't deal the SB/BB in if they're not at the table, this is a cash-game, not a tournament. The host tried to justify this rule saying that once you come back to the game you won't be forced to "pay your missed blinds". what a joke! and they justify charging rake by saying that it's not rake, but "voluntary donations". I'm pretty sure that taking chips from a person's stack when they're not seated at the table is called 'theft'.
2)If a player acts out of turn, they will be forced to check [regardless of the action.] This scenario actually came up. I was in a multi-way hand and I was first to act. I had absolutely nothing, but I was just thinking if there was a way I could plan the hand out to get HU and somehow win the pot. But before I acted, the guy to my left said "I'm ALL-IN!" lol, wtf...there was seriously no money in the pot, whatever. So the dealer then says to me that I have all my options to do whatever I like. So I checked. And then the action returns to the 'bet-out-of-turn' guy, and the dealer says to him, "you'll be forced to check, you have none of your options." So he checked and the hand continued on. In most casinos, if a player bets out of turn, their bet STANDS and they don't have the option to take it back unless the person before them makes a bet larger than theirs. The way this home game works though is so easily exploitable. Let's say hypothetically you're in a multi-way pot and you flopped an up-and-down straight draw and you want to draw for free. Assuming the player who's first to act is unlikely to call an ALL-IN bet, you can announce all in and represent a ton of strength. The person first to act will check, and you will now be forced to check. Well.... now anyone who has a hand like TPTK will be suspicious and check back hoping to just get to showdown. That's BS! That's not how poker is supposed to be played. The bet of a person who acts out of turn should stand. Not be taken back then forced to check, it just makes no sense.
3)Players are not allowed to run it more than once in an all-in pot. This rule really confuses me. This isn't a casino, the hosts of the game shouldn't be worried about getting in more hands per hour, it's a freakin' home game. I asked them about it after the game ended and they claimed that they wanted a game where players won't go broke. That's fine, but then why not allow your players to lower the variance by running it twice. Again, it makes no sense.
4) Players are limited to buying in for a maximum of $300. This rules isn't so bad, but it's a home-game. If someone wants to buy-in for $800, you should let them.

The penalty for breaking these rules is you're out of the game and won't be invited to the next one. What a horrible way to run your game. Threatening your friends if they break your stupid rules.... really nice atmosphere you're creating guys >__>

Apart from that the game is really good. There are only 2 people [max 3] who are actually solid/winning players. Everyone else are amateurs/easily exploitable. From the first half hour of the game I knew who I could bluff and who I couldn't. It was an easy game. Unfortunately, I got involved in some nightmare situations and couldn't take advantage of the weaker players.

The first hand I played I was involved in a 3-way pot that was raised pre-flop. I had 7s6s. And the flop came 665r. I checked to PFraiser who naturally fired out a c-bet, to which I called, then the MP guy [who I later found out was one of the worst players in the game] raised it. Well, it got folded to me, and I just thought my hand was too strong to fold especially since it was 3-way in a raised pot. I jammed. He snapped with K6o. I don't improve. Quick way to lose your first bullet.

I re-loaded and got into a situation where I had KK, and got it in pre against someone who woke up with AA. I'm not a stranger to this scenario. I sighed and re-loaded. why? The game is unbelievably good, and despite the fact that I'm losing, I honestly don't feel like I'm making mistakes, just getting "coolered".

I'm faced with another situation soon after. The BTN opens to $15, I'm in the SB with QQ. I re-raise to $30, and he 4-bets to $80. I made the call and the flop came 9 high. I checked. He went all in, I called. He shows AK. Well.... he made a flush against my pair and I lost. God.... I just can't seem to make anything work on this table. Meanwhile there are other players who are just cruising along getting it in super bad and spiking miracles on river and have a huge stack.... I'm curious to know if those same players would have lost less than me if they were in my seat getting dealt my cards. (reciprocality)

At this point in the game I'm in for $800. I keep grinding and the game is running pretty late. When the table got down to 5-handed, I started playing better. Much easier to play the old raise'n'take style of poker. And it worked out for me. Finished the night stuck $400.

I'll be playing again this weekend because some of the people at this game were super fishy. Doing things I almost never see. There was one guy, who was faced with a large bet on the turn. This guy had two overcards and an open ended straight draw. What he did was, he turned his cards over face up and then said 'call'. O___O wtf?! This is the type of player who isn't playing to win money, he's just here to have fun! perfect. But then the dealer [who hosts the game] claimed that it was a breach of etiquette, forced his "call" BACK, and gave him his options back. Well the guy ended up folding, and no river was shown. O___O wtf is happening on this poker game?! seriously... both the players and the hosts are amateur.

Despite this, they actually hold a pretty good game. It's in a safe neighbourhood, they provide free drinks, free food, a place for smokers, they have a big screen TV, they invited nice and friendly people to the game, it runs for like 11 hours... it's pretty good. So yeah, I'll be playing again this weekend, but I'm really hoping they reform some of these rules they have made.

Decided to take a break from casino poker for a few days.

Current BR: $8700

Played a short session at the crown today. After about 2 hours, I made a $100 profit. Despite being on the winning side of a cooler, I felt that I had played good poker for the most part, made good decisions, didn't get out of line too much, and just played patiently. My mistake was that I made a premature quit. But I'll post more of my thoughts on this another day.

My poker buddies have been doing really well lately too. Despite my own results, it always makes me happy when my friends are on an epic upswing. Quite often when I'm chilling in the smoking lounge, my friends will be telling me about some sick-beat or how they've lost confidence in the game.. It really bums me out. Not because they're complaining or anything like that. I'm always happy to hear my friends out and give them any advice I can. But I just want my friends to win! And it sucks when they're stuck. So yeah. Even though I'm currently trying to climb out of my own downswing, I'm in a good mood because my friends are doing really well.

Gonna take the day off tomorrow, got some errands to run. But I'll be ready for Saturday night's home game. Hoping to really avoid any marginal spots. With these types of players, I really don't need to do anything fancy. ABC should work. Just hoping I don't get smacked in the face with the cold-side of the deck this time. Last week's game was just horrendous. *sulk* not going to let it influence my decision making though. Since that $400 loss, I've made 90% of it back at the casino. Not that it really makes any difference.

Current BR: $8800

Good to know you're still at it, it seemed like you'd disappeared for the last couple of weeks. Didn't know you had a PGC though. I like how structured your approach to this is, although when it's your only source of income, this sort of discipline is essential.

When it comes to home-games with silly rules like that, to paraphrase limon

'Poker is their religion'.

In other words, to get them to play poker, they need to have their rituals in place, otherwise they don't satisfy their 'god'. If you want to make money off their (false) god, then you need to keep them believing in it, and observe all their rituals.

Hope your downswing ends soon, but if you get through it (which it sounds like you are), it will leave you a better player in the end.

Embrace the swings. (You probably know who I am from this line.)

haha, hey there corto Thanks for the feedback.
I wouldn't say I disappeared, but I have been coming to crown a little less frequently than usual over the past 2 weeks. Forever grinding nonetheless. Yeah... I'm thinking having a second income source will really benefit my poker game and allow me to not get too consumed by the game. And I guess it'd also relieve some pressure during those tough swings. Playing poker as your sole source of money can be rather taxing mentally. But if I did get a part time job then it'd probably hinder my ability to put in lots of volume on the tables. Then again, the only good time to play poker at crown is on weekend nights... So ..

I don't fully understand your poker-is-their-religion analogy. Maybe you can explain it to me better in person next time around. It sounds like an intriguing metaphor.

I'm hoping my downswing ends soon too. I'm no stranger to it though. I've had 10BI downswings before (more than once) and recovered. But you make a good point. I think players who have the capacity to overcome big downswings (mentally and financially) are the ones who have the edge over the rest of the field. Most recreational players just chalk their losses up to bad luck, but I don't really believe in that. Being humble enough to admit you're not Phil Ivey and that there are mistakes in your game that you can correct is a great quality to have. And being able to re-evaluate your strategy and not let your ego stop you from dropping down stakes if your BR can't support your current stake. So yeah. You're totally right. The best players are the ones who can get through their downswings and not let it affect them emotionally. I actually became friends with a few people I met at crown who approached their downswings the wrong way and ended up going broke. It all comes down to discipline I suppose.. Something I like to believe that I have. Even if I do on occasion make calls with gut-shot straight draws knowing my opponent has top pair and knowing that I'm getting a bad price to draw out against them :P heheh

But yeah. Thanks for the kind words. Feel free to post any of your thoughts on my HHs and such. That'd be awesome!

Updates!
so... I received a text yesterday informing me that the home-game on Saturday night had been cancelled. I asked the host why and he said that there just weren't enough runners. I'm really not surprised. And I wouldn't be surprised if it never ends up running again. They claimed that their game would be the best homegame in all of Melbourne, but I just don't think it's true. I'm much more looking forward to other home-games in the upcoming future, tbh.

So my plan was to not have a session at Crown and wait for the Saturday homegame, but since it got cancelled, I decided a Friday night sesh would be pretty cool. Gripsed calls it "free money friday" because most people who have a proper job have just finished their work-week and want to unwind with a bit of poker action and are willing to have some drinks and gamble it up on the tables. Plus, you get an added influx of donks who join the poker tables after losing hundreds of dollars playing Casino war and are tilted. Which is good for players like me. ^__^ That might sound kind of arrogant, but it's true! these are the easiest types of players to exploit. So Friday nights are almost always going to be juicy.

Unfortunately I had to pay for parking this time which is really annoying. Poker players get free parking but sometimes the machines that give you the parking privileges fvck up and doesn't end up working. Didn't work for me this time so I had to pay $18 to park my car. Bummer.... I was also feeling a bit hungry and didn't want to play on an empty stomach, but I didn't bring any proper food with me, so I bought a mixed-vegetables dish at the food court which set me back $11. Haven't even set foot in the poker room yet and I'm already stuck $29 FML >___>

Started session @ 8:20pm

Hand 1
Hero SB (JTo) Action limp-folds to hero who completes, BB checks and it's 4-way to the flop.
Flop: AJ8 (2 hearts) action checks all around
Turn: 3 (not a heart) Hero checks, Villain in MP leads $10, gets called in one spot, Hero calls too. 3-way to the River.
River: J (not a heart) Hero leads $27, Villain re-raises to $60, folds back to Hero, Hero tank calls.
Villain shows 33

okay so... I think my SB complete is fine. Raising it doesn't make much sense since I'm most likely going to be playing a multi-way pot out of position with Jack high. I think it's incorrect to fold since JT flops pretty well. It's the only starting hand in Hold'em that has 4 ways to make a straight, all of them being the nut-straight (I believe) so yeah...for that reason, this is one hand that I really like seeing flops with, especially in unopened pots. I like my check on flop. Even though I made it to pair status, I don't love the idea of leading only to get raised by another player. I'll take any chance to make it to 2-pair or trips if my opponents will let me. Could I argue leading here? mmm.... i don't know. I think leading here doesn't accomplish much. I'm getting worse hands to fold, and I'm giving better hands (who are in position) a chance to stick around and possibly raise me. Same story on the turn. I think leading just gets worse hands to fold and better hands to call. That being said, if there was no Ace on the board, I would have played it differently. The ace did worry me a little bit. $1/$3 players love limping Ax type hands preflop regardless of whether it's off-suit or raggy. They're also likely to check post-flop once making top-pair too. Not all players, but a lot of recreational players are pretty passive. They almost only call, and never bet themselves. When faced with a bet of $10, I'm not super confident I have the best hand. But it's just so..... cheap >_< and it checked all around so it's possible this villain was just putting out a feeler-bet? Or maybe he's just semi-bluffing with hearts? I'm not sure. But I don't think it's too much of a mistake to call $10 on this turn. Once the river comes a repeat Jack, I'm now confident I have the best hand. I don't want to check, only to have it check behind me. That would really suck. So many worse hands are calling, i.e. worse Jacks, Ax, a random 8 that thinks he's catching a bluff, etc. So I don't want to give all these combination of hands a chance to check back. But now that I'm faced with a raise, ..... i dunno. Can I find a fold here? I mean... the villain might just do this with a weaker Jack than me. Although it's kind of unlikely for him to also have a Jack. It's probably incorrect for me to call the raise. I don't really like check-calling, but I don't like bet-folding either. Is this just a cooler? Or could I have played the hand differently that doesn't result in me losing that $60 on river?

Hand 2 note: The poker tables at the Crown Casino have this unique wager called "flopchase". It's basically a bet where you place an amount from $1 to $10 on whether the flop will be all red or all black. It pays 7:1. You almost never see people playing this side-bet during weekdays. But this is an insta-tell on who at the table is a fish and who isn't. Generally speaking, people who play this wager are non-thinking players and don't really know what they're doing. They're more inclined to play loose and gambly and way more splashy than people who don't place bets on the flop-chase.
Hero CO (QQ) action limp-folds to hero who makes it $20. BTN (fishy player. He's been betting on flopchase every.....single......hand. And he's actually been having success with it. He made like $400 playing this flop-chase and hadn't won much from the actual poker game. I've never seen him before, so I assume he's a noob) Anyway, the BTN calls. Everyone else folds.
Flop: AcTcXh Hero checks, BTN checks
Turn: 3 (no club) Hero checks, BTN makes it $30k, Hero calls.
River: Kx (no club) Hero checks, BTN makes it $55, Hero tank calls.
Villain shows 33

ugh.... I'm sensing a theme tonight.... pocket 3s are my nightmare. I actually picked up pocket 3s like...5 times this session and didn't hit with any of them. Oh well. My reasoning for making it $20 pre is because there were a couple of people at my table that were calling pre-flop bets really lightly! And they weren't too concerned with how much it costs them to see a flop, so making it on the larger side is going to be way better, I think. The Ace scares me a lot. The BTN is likely to call any bet preflop with an Ax type hand. So I don't think c-betting accomplishes that much? I think if he had an Ace then he'd bet flop when checked to. So why would I need to bet flop to find out where I'm at? It seems like it's just burning money at that point. And if I DO c-bet, I don't really gain much information on his handstrength if he were to flat call me. He could do that with a club draw, or gut-shot draw, Ax, or Tx, just too many hands. So I think checking flop makes sense. Once the BTN checks back on flop, I like my hand a lot. There's no way he's checking back an Ace. Not THIS player. But again, I don't see any real reason to bet Turn, so checking makes sense to me. But now that I know that he doesn't have an Ace. I think it's a pretty easy call on turn. Given my read, I think folding is bad. The river really doesn't change anything. If he had a King, then why would he continue to bet when I called him on turn? wouldn't he just want to take his hand to showdown? the only King he could have that would bet river is KT and that's a pretty difficult hand to have. So the King doesn't really scare me. I decided to stick with my read, and make the call. There was an additional reason to why I called. Earlier on in the session I played a pot with this guy Heads up. The board came out KK996 and I had AT. He fired like $40ish on river and I reluctantly folded. He then showed 88. So I know this player is capable of bluffing. So I interpreted this $55 river bet as air/missed flush draw. Unfortunately I got the bad news after I called. But let's say hypothetically that the turn is a 2. If he's going to bet this turn, then my call is correct. But would he continue to fire on the K river with 33? hmmm... probably not. But maybe? It's tough. But I think it's incorrect to always assume that your opponent turned a set against you. If you play poker thinking this way every time you're in a Heads Up situation, you're just not going to be making money and you'll be easily exploitable imo.

Another thing is, I think when you have a hand like JJ, QQ, KK, and you're headup and there's an ace on the flop, I think it's a mistake to always assume that your opponent has the Ace. It's true that they will have hit top pair some percentage of the time. But Ace cards are often abused and people use them to bluff their opponents off of their hand. I often attack Ace high boards without an ace if I think my opponent isn't likely to have an ace. For that reason, I think it's a mistake to always checkfold these flops when you have a big pocket pair because your opponent is only going to have the Ace a small percentage of the time.

cont..

Hand 3
Hero UTG+2 (QTo) folds to Hero, Hero opens to $12, UTG+3 (flopchase guy) calls, UTG+4 calls. 3-way to flop.
Flop: A J 2 rainbow
Hero leads $15, UTG+3 raises to $40, UTG+4 folds, Hero picks up his cards ready to muck but then has a sudden change of heart and calls.
Turn: K
Hero bets $55, UTG+3 jams (he has the hero covered), Hero calls. UTG+3 says, "Ace King?"
River: J
Hero tables his cards, UTG+3 tables AK

QTo in early position... in most cases I throw this hand away straight in the muck without hesitation. I decided to open it this time for 2 reasons. The first reason comes from something I read online. I've mentioned it before. Tommy Angelo's article on Reciprocality. Here's a direct quote from the article;

The hold'em hand I think I've made the most reciprocal profit on over the years is queen-ten. That's the hand I think I have played most differently from my opponents most often. The reason this hand [and other hands like it] causes the most amount of reciprocal motion is because these hands bring out the most consequential difference in how a hand gets played, which is, before the flop.

I am going to list the ways that two players can start a hand, starting with the least consequential, and moving toward the differences that make the most difference. If, in a given preflop situation:
1) One player calls before the flop when the other would raise. Here we have reciprocal motion before the flop, with potential for more after the flop.
2) One player folds before the flop when the other would call.
3) One player folds when another would raise.

If it is true that maximum potential reciprocal motion occurs when one player sees the flop when another player wouldn't, then the most profitable hand is going to be the one that most often generates the play/don't-play difference, which, for me, by my estimation, is queen-ten.

If everyone in my situation is folding QT in my spot then there is no reciprocal motion. Once the decision to play or not to play occurs, this is when there is potential to score reciprocal gold. But disregarding all of this, I admit that it's still dangerous to play this hand in early position. It would make more sense if I was in the CO or on the BTN. Probably a bit too ambitious since I was UTG+2.

The second reason I decided to open this hand was because generally, I don't like limping. If I'm going to be playing the hand at all, then I'm going to be raising. Limping in is something that weak-passive players do, aggression is what pays the bills. So yeah, it's either an insta-fold, or a raise. Limping in is the worst option I think.

My reasoning for c-betting. Well, it's pretty obvious. C-betting doesn't have to work 100% of the time for you to show a long-term profit. As long as it works some percentage of the time, then you're going to be making money. Plus, I raised preflop from EP. If my opponents are putting me on a range of hands, I'm way more likely to connect with this flop than they are. Betting induces folds from pocket pairs and KQ type hand, and raggy aces will probably call, but I can't imagine they'd be loving this flop when the preflop raiser is attacking this flop without hesitation. Worse hands are definitely not calling, but even worse hands are live against me, so I'm happy for them to fold. Once the flopchase Villain raises, now it becomes a math based decision. Do I have strong enough equity to justify calling for the extra $25? To figure it out, first we need to know what we're up against. Since my opponent raised me on flop, I'm positive he has an Ace. I never put him on AK because I would have thought he would re-raise me pre with that hand. So it's most likely AQ or under. Meaning that I only have 4 outs since making a pair won't be enough to win at showdown, and I can only assume that all 4 of my outs are live. It just seemed too unlikely for him to have had AK since he didn't 3-bet me pre. So what's my equity against those types of hands. It turns out that I'm only a little over 14% to win. There's $95 in the middle, and I need to put out another $25 to see the next card. That's a little under 4:1 odds on a call. Which means I need a minimum of 21% equity to make money on a call. Well... I only have 14% which means mathematically I'm clearly making a losing call. However, if my opponent is never folding if I hit my out, then the equation changes. After calling the extra $25, I had $125 behind me. Assuming he's getting it in 100% of the time, then I'm risking an extra $25 to win the $95 that's in the middle PLUS the potential gain of $125 left of my stack. So that's $25 to win $220. Considering these implied odds, I'm getting like....a little over 9:1? which means I need a minimum of 10% equity to be making money on a call. Since I have 14%, that means I'm making an instant profit by calling. So it might SEEM a bit spewy/bad to call with a naked gut-shot knowing full well that I can't win if I make a pair, but with the implied odds I was getting, it's not a horrible call. Fortunately for me I got there and the rest of the hand played itself out. Some might call it luck, but I feel like my opponent made more errors in the hand than I did. His first mistake was flat-calling preflop. He has position on me, he should be isolating the field and playing me headsup post flop. Once he made TPTK he made a correct decision to raise my c-bet, but his sizing is fairly weak imo. He should be making it more expensive for me to see another card, thereby giving me an opportunity to make a costly mistake. He needs to be exploiting my stubbornness. But making it just $25 extra? It can't be too much of a mistake for his opponent to call this amount. Plus, he'll be getting action from AQ which is definitely in my range, so why make the raise so small? He didn't make any mistakes once the turn hit, though. He had top 2 pair and the money was always going in. But if I were in his spot with his cards, I'd 3-bet pre, and raise to $55+ on flop. But let's assume that the Turn was a brick. How would I have continued with the hand? Well... if I miss my draw and don't make a pair, then I'm simply check folding. What if the turn gave me a pair? Well, I put my opponent on an ace, so I'm still check-folding. You could look at this hand and say I got lucky to have hit a 3-outter, but I'm more than happy to fold on non-King turn cards. The price he was laying me was somewhat fair for me to draw to.

Hand 4
I'm actually going to create a new thread discussing this hand. I want people from 2+2 to give me their thoughts on this hand, and it's just too unlikely that I'll get feedback from it in this thread. But it's a great hand! Look out for my other thread, I'll post it when I get time.

Hand 5
The table is 6-handed at this point.
Hero BTN (6d3d) Action limp-folds to Hero, Hero limps in, blinds complete, 5-way to the flop.
Flop: 6 Q 3 (one heart)
action checks around to Hero, Hero bets $10, folds around to CO who calls.
Turn: 5h
CO checks, Hero bets $20, CO calls.
River: 8h
CO checks, Hero tanks for about 15 seconds.

I said earlier how I don't like limping because it's indicative of weak-passive players and this is a strategy that's going to show a loss in the long run. But when it comes to low suited-connecting cards, I generally like to see cheap flops with these types of hands, and would hate to raise it, only to get re-popped and not get a chance to see a flop. And if I were to raise this hand on the button and get called, well now I'm going to have to rely on c-betting with air since I'm more likely to whiff the flop than hit it, and it just seems like a much higher variance approach to the hand. My cards are suited, I have position, I think a limp here is fine. If I had a hand like KJ or AT on the other hand, then I'm not limping in. Low-suited connectors, on the other hand, are a unique breed of hole cards that have their own way of playing preflop, different from broadway type cards or pocket pairs.
My bet on flop is fine. There was $15 in the middle. I MAY have been able to get a call if I bet full pot, but I wanted to get called by hands OTHER than just a Queen. I thought I could get more hands to call if I made it $10.
After Turn, pot is now $35. I think $20 is totally fine. Any hand that's calling me on the flop isn't going to want to fold for $20. If I make it $30 or more, then the only hands that are calling are good queens and maybe a stubborn flush draw. But with $20, I feel that middling pocket pairs are going to want to stick around.
My check on river is the part that's most interesting. I was heavily considering putting out a bet for value, but I have actually been getting bluffed quite a lot this session. If I were to fire out a bet on river, it could get worse hands to call, but it could also inspire air to bluff me, and I really didn't want to have to be put to a decision and consider folding my hand, so I just opted to let the value go and take the low-variance approach and check-back.

After my opponent checked to me on river, I spent about 15 to 20 seconds contemplating a raise but then meekly tabled my cards to show 2-pair. My opponent then looked at my hand, looked at the flop, looked back at his cards, kinda shuffled them around a little bit, looked back at my cards, and was just waffling about. At this point I sighed and said "damn, I knew I should have bet river." At this point, my opponent rolled over Ah2h. O_____O Dealer announces ace-high flush and I'm shocked! I say outloud, "OMG, you slow-rolled me?!" Then I asked him, "why did you slowroll me?! You made me believe I had the best hand!" To which he responded, "I dunno... I checked because I wanted you to bet so that I could raise you." wtffff?!?! how is that justification for slowrolling me? While the dealer was sorting the pot and doing a stub-count, one of the other players looked at the slowroller, shook his head and said, "unacceptable." After the pot was awarded to him, he confessed, "yeah, that was bad etiquette." >____>
a**hole. He was just annoyed that his awesome plan to check-raise me on river didn't work.

But despite being slowrolled, I'm totally happy with the way the hand played out. The best thing you can do in poker is bet when you're ahead, and check when you're behind. I induced my opponent to float me on the flop with just a naked back-door draw. I'm curious to know how he would have reacted to a brick-river. A river that doesn't give him a pair or a flush. Do you think he would have bet? He probably would have, it seems like his intention for calling on flop was to steal on a later street, so once his flush misses, he'd be forced to bet, right? :P It would have been sweet to see him check-raise on a brick river with ace high.


At this point in my session, I'm actually IN for $400 and I only have like $100 and change in my stack. I continue grinding and pick up little pots here and there. We actually ended up playing 5-handed for a long period of time. And was able to capitalise off the nittiness of my opponents. Ran my stack up to $200 and got it in against the nittiest player on the table. He had ATcc, and I had AKo. Flop came A high, and we both got it in. Finished the session with a $431 stack.

End session: 4:20am
Holy sh*t! I played for 8 hours straight O___O and made $30! This was one of those journey-to-get-unstuck sessions. I hate these types of sessions, but I'm happy with the way I played. I don't think I made any colossal mistakes. But the hand that broke me was Hand #4. This was the reason why it took me so long to get back to even.

Profit: $30ish
Expenses: $30ish

The way I see it is, I got to play 8 hours of free poker, got a free dinner, and got some extra experience on the live tables. It'd be nice to book a monster win though >____> oh well.

Current BR: $8800

Hand 1:

Pre is marginal, not sure you were really deep enough to complete JTo there, since we're only really playing for 2P+, we're OOP and therefore it's hard to get paid, and we also run into some nasty RIO when we hit trips since our kicker isn't very good.

Fold turn, a lot of time when a rec. player checks behind this sort of flop then bets turn, they often have a weak Ax, or any Jx (including QJ, KJ). Obviously turned sets and 2P are also in his range here.

As played, fold river, the worst hand he's doing this with is KJ, and maybe not even that. Live-players, in general, don't bluff-raise the river.


Hand 2:

Pre is fine obviously.

I'm betting flop for value, that V was peeling flops with any pair and any draw, so we're easily ahead of his calling range with QQ here (especially if we don't have the Qc).

As played, fold turn. Live players will pretty much instantly put you on JJ-KK here, and as such a bet from them will mean they can beat KK. Often times this is a weak A which checked behind flop. Unless you've seen otherwise, live players don't make moves against the PFR on A-hi boards.

Fold river for same reason.


Hand 3:

I've already told you my thoughts on this hand, but I'll put them here for everyone else to see as well:

Pre, I believe you were UTG, not UTG2? Regardless, QTo is a muck EP. I'm pretty sure when Tommy Angelo played marginal hands like QTo he was in position. You also need to make your PFR sizes more consistent, otherwise you're opening yourself up to being exploited by a LAG OTB w/A7s.

Flop: CBet is OK, but when raised, this V is clearly never folding, so it's a matter of implied odds. The pot + his stack = $210, and we're calling $25, and getting about 8:1. In general, to chase a gutter over one street, we need about 10:1 assuming we always get paid and there are no redraws (I personally use 15:1 to account for this). In this spot, even though we're pretty much always getting paid, he can easily have a set, and therefore a decent redraw to beat us if we bink a K. I'm not calling the flop raise unless eff. stacks are about $200 deeper.

Turn: Fine.


Hand 4:

I hope it's the hand where you got shoved on when holding an overpair (it's a fold).


Hand 5:

Stack depth is very important here. Regardless, 63s does not play well in a multi-way pot. We only make two straights, only one of which is a nut straight; and our flush is very often dominated since all sorts of suited garbage is in live players' limping ranges. In a limped pot, 63s is a serious RIO hand. Fold pre.

On the flop I'm betting $15, the first bet in a limped pot should pretty much always be pot-sized, since it seems small to live players regardless, and has little effect upon their calling ranges.

Turn I'm betting pot again, which is about $30-35 in this case. Any hand he peeled flop with is pretty much always continuing on this turn, so we may as well extract max value. Any Qx is not folding given your description, and 45 made a pair, and any lower pair likely picked up a straight draw. Live players don't like to fold when they improve on the turn.

River:

Easy value-bet, unless V snap called turn, in which case you may consider checking behind. (It's a massively common tell, when someone snaps turn after taking longer OTF, they almost always picked up a draw.)


Other:

Keep a full stack at all times, I'd recommend keeping a bunch of red chips in your pocket to ensure you never dip below the max buy-in. You're leaving a bunch of value on the table otherwise. Also, 'journey to get unstuck' sessions are dangerous, just remember that there will still be players there tomorrow. You can call it quits, get a good night sleep, and play your A-game the next day; rather than playing semi-tilted (even if you think you were playing OK, it's still worse than your A-game) and trying to chase your losses.


Also, 3-bet the JJ pre, it's way ahead of my raising range, and is hell to play OOP most of the time.

Hand 1:
I'm curious about your thoughts on SB strategy. Tell me, in your opinion, is there ever a situation where you'd complete the SB with a hand that isn't AT+ or a pocket-pair? If so, why? If not, why not? Imo, limping the SB with any 2 broadway cards can't be too much of a mistake. And I don't necessarily think it's correct to only continue on flops where you make 2pair or better. A lot of players underestimate the strength of top pair. And JT flops somewhat well for making top pairs/straight draws, no? I do agree with you though, that it is way more difficult to get paid on a big hand when you're OOP, but in a situation where the whole table limps to you (assuming you're playing full ring) and it's only costing you $2 to call when there's about $15-$18 dead-money already in the middle. How bad could it be to call from the small-blind with marginal holdings? Obviously I'm not going to let the odds to call deter me from mucking junk like 92o/K2o etc (these range of holdings are insta-folds), but it just seems way too nitty to throw a hand like JT away in the SB when action gets limp-folded to you. Is it really THAT marginal? You say that it's the kind of hand that has bad reverse implied odds since any pair that we make is more than likely going to have us outkicked. But I'm no stranger to folding pairs on flop, if the post-flop action dictates that I'm behind. It might be a pretty trivial rule of thumb, but when I first started out in poker, I had this post-flop-model: Do not go broke with a pair. I think this rule is pretty sound for beginners (not so much for thinking-players), but even now, I adhere to this rule. (Not all the time, but most of the time, but it works out pretty well.) Plus, I feel that $1/$3 players are limping hands like J9, J8, T8, T7, often enough (regardless of their position or whether or not they're suited) that I can get value from these hands if I were to flop TP. With a 44 BI BR, calling the extra $2 can't possibly be showing too much of a loss in the long run, can it?

I agree with you though that I should be folding turn. Looking back at this hand, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to call here. It only makes sense if my opponent is bluffing which I don't think is a very likely scenario. Especially once the MP guy calls before me.

Again. You make a great point. $1/$3 players very rarely bluff-raise on river. I'm just too much of a fish to fold 3ofakind. >_< doh! But yeah. I agree, it's definitely a fold on river. Thanks for the input. I'll learn from this hand.

Hand 2
I think betting this flop for value is definitely the most viable option. I even said earlier that it's a mistake to always assume your opponent has an Ace when you've got big pockets. Plus he's the type of player to continue with weaker pairs/gut-shot draws. But what would be a good sizing? And am I bet-folding?

Hand 3
Yeah, I'm aware of the dangers of being in EP. I mentioned that in my analysis, and that the open would make more sense if I were in CO or BTN. As it was, I admit it's not a good decision to play the hand pre-flop, given the fact that I was to the left of the BTN.

Haha, it's funny how you say I should make my PFR sizings more consistent. I 100% agree with you. The reason why it makes me laugh is because during that session I had been opening like $20 with my premium hands knowing that I'm going to get called by worse. To consider opening with QTo to $20 from EP sounds insane!! haha, which makes me feel like that's proof enough that it should be a fold pre-flop. Because raising it that big in EP just seems like something a whale would do. So yeah. I'm with you. This should be an insta-fold. However, if I was on the BTN, I think it's a fine open. I'll make note of it for future spots.

Ahh yeah, I maybe got the math a little bit wrong there. I actually thought about whether my opponent could have flopped a set. But I just don't think he's flat-calling OTB pre-flop with AA or JJ. 22 MAYYBE. But that seems kinda unlikely. Definitely possible! But not very likely. However, if I thought my opponent WAS somewhat likely to have flopped a set, I'm not even considering calling to draw to my gut-shot. Because I wouldn't have nearly enough hand-equity against that specific hand to justify a call (for the reason you gave; he could easily fillup even if I were to turn the straight.) But yeah. He has a set on this flop like 2% of the time. (i just made that number up, but it's definitely a small percentage of the time)

Hand 4
I haven't posted this hand yet, but if you come across it in the LLSNL section, no spoilers please ^__^ I wanna hear what the other 2+2ers have to say about it.

Hand 5
Weird. I kind of think that 63suited plays better multi-way than it does HU. I'm obviously not continuing on flops that I miss. So does it really have high reverse implied odds? A hand I think that has high reverse implied odds is like.... A7o-. I'm not really planning on putting lots of money into the pot with 63 if I make top pair and am faced with heavy action. It seems like it only gets me into trouble if I flop a 7high straight and my opponent has EXACTLY 86. And since I have a 6 in my hand it decreases the likelihood of my opponent having 86 by like....50%? I do agree that I'm vulnerable to higher diamonds. But does that mean I should never play suited cards unless I'm at least Jhigh? Just seems kinda nitty to me. I mean, how often does a scenario play out where 2 people flop a flush? I know that for one person to flop a flush occurs a little under 1% of the time. So the chances that TWO people flop a flush is just so improbable. I'm pretty sure that if I were to flop a flush, I'm getting paid by soooo many weaker hands that the one time that I DO get coolered won't effect my bottom line in the long run all that significantly. I don't think. But the point you mentioned about stack-depth I definitely agree with. At the time I think I only had about $150. So yeah, I actually think it's a bit too loose. It'd make more sense if I was at least 100BB deep. I think at the time I just got caught by the suited-connector-OTB-bug. I have a tough time folding these hands in unopened pots when I'm on the BTN. But given my stack size, I'm leaning towards your advice. It should be a fold, for sure.

And yeah, he snap-called turn. I know that these snap-calls are indicative of draw-type hands which is why I tanked on river when checked to. Normally I would put out a bet for value but his snap-call on turn slowed me down. You weren't here for this hand to see it, but how gross is this guys slowroll?? Have you personally had many experiences being slowrolled?

other:
Yeah, I usually top-up when I drop below $150. Which is why I keep $50 notes in my backpack when I sit at a table. But this session it seemed like I dropped below $100 before I could get a chance to top-up. I like having a full-stack at all times, so I'm definitely going to keep extra redchips on me instead of re-buying with $50 notes. Thanks for the tip!

I was actually saying "journey to get unstuck" in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. I really wasn't focused on getting back to even. I only stayed because I felt I had an edge over the table because everyone else at the table seemed really tired and bored. I still felt pretty sharp though despite playing for over 6 hours and knew that I could exploit their fatigue. I was playing my B-game, but my opponents were definitely playing their C-minus game. Had you stayed for a couple of extra hours you'd have made lots of bank! I agree with you that chasing your losses is a bad mentality to have. But I wasn't really doing that. I DID however leave myself with only $400 in cash, so I couldn't top up once I dropped below $100. But I was confident that I could work my magic even with 34BB. That being said, given how short I got towards the tail-end of my session, it probably would have been a positive EV decision to just rack up my remaining chips, cash out and play again fresher for the next session. Luckily I was able to finish the session with a slight win despite getting short (not that that was really my goal) I ended up leaving because after I doubled up through the OMC, the game got to 4 handed, the other players were shallow so it wasn't really worth sticking around for.

As for the JJ hand against your AQ... mmmmm.... I have some thoughts on it. But I'm not going to share them with you If we discuss hands that we play together, then we'll never be able to play hands against each other in the future.... the levelling-wars would surpass the nth level!! haha

oh, and again. I really appreciate all your thoughts and replies. Discussing hands and stuff is really the best way for me to improve, So by all means, I want all the feedback you're willing to give.

I think it can be acceptable at 1/2 to complete the SB with marginal holdings, but at 1/3 it is definitely a leak if you're completing with junk like j9o. I personally fold Q8s, JTo, A9o, because i just don't want to get involved with such a marginal holdings that have such high RIO.

As you said with JTo, it is a RIO hand and although your hand MIGHT be good, it's going to cost you to find out, and being OOP, you're asking for trouble. With a hand like JTo, you're basically playing for a straight or 2p in a multi-way/family pot. And expect to be beat often at showdown by hands like Q10, JQ, JK.

I guess if you're on a very loose passive/fishy table. You can widen up you're SB range because you'll face less difficult post-flop decisions. Just remember to lay down TPNK. Don't let $2 end up costing you $40+ with a marginal holding.

All in all, completing too often with weak dominated hands and believing your pot odds outweigh your positional disadvantage is a BIG leak. And something you need to fix. Moral of the story, it's -EV.

This is very true, I'm starting to realise. In the past, I've generally been against the idea of folding my SB in unopened pots, but thinking back, I'm starting to notice that getting into spots from this position is having a huge negative impact on my red line. Since I rarely win pots without showdown from the SB, and most often put in money just to fold on later streets. I don't know for sure, but I think of all positions, I've lost the most money from playing the SB. This was a leak I didn't even know existed until now. But it makes sense. The positional disadvantage of completing from the SB sounds like it's costing me more money in the long run despite the seemingly inconsequential/cheap $2 investment. Thanks for the 2centsworth. It'll help me for sure.

I spent an interesting day at the casino. Made some new friends, chatted with some dealers, played some poker, and I also have a couple of amusing stories to tell. Plus, I have a confession to make by yours truly

I got to the Crown pretty early, around 6:30am. Why so early? well, I was hoping to find some people still playing there from Sunday night. Usually you get some people who play all through the night and into the next morning and they're tired as all hell, with a big stack in front of them. But for whatever reason, they choose not to leave the table. Unfortunately when I got there, there were only 3 active tables. One was a $2/$4 table that was playing 5 handed. Another was a $1/$3 table that was playing 3 handed, and the last was a $1/$2 table that was playing 3 handed O____O. Not a great spot.

So I decided to just go upstairs for a bit of a wander, maybe get some breakfast and kill time until players start filling the seats. I end up walking along the gaming floor and take a seat at a $15 BlackJack table. No intention of playing, just there to be a spectator. Upon sitting down, the 2 players at the table started on a huge heater, both winning hundreds of dollars when they were both down to like $50 each. One of the guys was so appreciative of the "good vibes" (as he saw it) that I was giving, that he shouted me a drink which I kindly accepted. There was a man standing behind us watching the action, and I asked him where he was from. He told me that he was Japanese. I know how to speak a bit, so I started making light conversation with him in Japanese, asking him his name and how long he's been in australia and small stuff like that. Anyway, after awhile I decide to re-visit the poker room to see what's up and not much has changed. Still just 1 table open and it's short-handed, but with different people. At least 2 solid regs who I know. But I look behind me, and the Japanese guy is there. o____O It seems that he followed me down there, I didn't even realise it. Throughout the day I would often see him wandering around me. But I didn't mind because he was pretty cool and he gave me a chance to practise my Japanese. His english was dreadful so he was probably relieved/intrigued to find a guy who knows a little bit of his language.

Story 1
I find myself railing this 1/3 game for a bit and the 2 regs at the table get HU in a hand together. It's a cooler. And the loser of the hand (a guy I chat with sometimes, let's call him M) offered me a smoke. So we went up to the smoker's lounge and talked a bit of poker. But then this really short middle-aged Vietnamese lady approached us and asked M for a smoke. I told her that he gave me his last one. So then she said to M, "well, can I have the last puff of yours?" M had pretty much finished his smoke by this time so he was like "whatever" and he gave the lady his almost-finished cigarette. But before she had a chance to take a puff he said to her, "I have AIDS though." o_O LOL I totally wasn't expecting him to say that, I just packed up laughing. She was like, "really?" and he was like, "yeah. As long as you don't have a cut in your mouth, you should be fine though." Without skipping a beat she butted the cigarette out. And I'm like, "nice bluff, M". LOL [jsyk, M doesn't have AIDS he was just being a troll] But then after M left, the lady asked if I had AIDS too. I told her that I did, and she believed me >_< hahaha

Started my session @ 9:30am

Hand 1
Hero BB (75o) Limped around, Hero checks. 5-way to the flop
Flop: 7 6 7
In my notes it says Hero bets $20, but I think I wrote it down wrong. I'm pretty sure I bet $10. Either way, Villain calls. HU to Turn.
Turn: 3
Hero bets $20, Villain quickly calls.
River: A
Hero checks, Villain quickly checks back. MHIG

I like leading this flop. Checking doesn't really accomplish that much. I don't feel like many people are going to attack this flop unimproved since it's a limped pot. So I may as well start building the pot. Once called, I don't see a reason to check turn because my opponent is going to check back the majority of the time. I like my sizing, but since my opponent called so quickly, maybe I could have just bombed it. The river is kind of sad. Quick calls are usually indicative of flush draws, and I may have even considered folding this river if my opponent attacked it hard enough. But his quick check-back is also sad. Did I lose value here?

Hand 2
Hero BB (T9o), UTG+1 opens to $12, 4 people call. I call.
Flop: 8 7 7
Action checks all around.
Turn: 9
Hero bets $20, preflop-raisor folds, 2 callers.
River: 8
Hero checks, MP bets $30, one folder, Hero calls.
Villain shows 8 5

I don't hate my call preflop, it might be a little loose? but $9 to win $63 seems like good odds for me, and T9 isn't a horrible hand, plus I'm closing the action and don't have to risk putting in the $12 only to get re-popped. I'd much rather be OTB, but I don't have much choice in that matter.

Once I flop the up-and-down draw I have some interest, but no point in firing. Once it checks all around I'm fairly confident no one has hit the flop. It's definitely possible someone hit the 7, but there was $72 in the middle. I don't think people are going to slowplay three of a kind especially since there are 2 hearts out there. For the same reason, I don't think anyone here has an overpair. So I'm confident that my hand will be good if I make it to pair status.

Once I hit top pair, I want to start putting money in the pot. If I get raised, I'm insta-folding. But since my opponents just called, the only hands that really have me beat here is a hand like A9/K9 and with my draw, I'm not in terrible shape against these hands. I'm not too worried about JT because I know I'm getting raised if one of my opponents has it.

The river seems scary, but I'm not too worried about it. For the same reason that I thought an overpair would bet this flop, I thought that an 8 would bet it too. I mean, if someone had an 8, it's unlikely that their pair will remain good on the turn. There are so many overcards that can come, they should be trying to protect their pair. But I decide to check this river because I want to induce bluffs from missed draws/air. I don't think it's a horrible river call given the price I was getting. Just kinda sucks that I misread my opponent for wanting to check an 8 on that flop >__>

Hand 3
Hero CO (wildcards) Action limp-folds to Hero who opens $11, gets 3 callers.
Flop: T97r
Checks to Hero who bets $17, gets 2 callers.
Turn: 5
Checks to Hero who bets $50. Folds around. MHIG

Not going to reveal my hand because my cards here don't really matter. I think this is a really good spot to double barrel regardless of my holdings. To a good player, it might seem like this is a bad board to c-bet because it appears rather straight-drawy. It's definitely possible that the first caller could have a hand like J8 or 86 [jsyk I didn't have either of these hands] but I don't think the second caller will flat with a flopped straight. He'd want to build the pot fast in order to get it all in on later streets. I also don't think that anyone who flopped a set/2pair is flat calling because there are so many bad turn cards for them, any 6, any 8, any J, any K. So they'd most likely raise my c-bet for protection/value. The turn is a total brick and couldn't possibly improve any of them. So in my eyes, it's an easy spot to just barrel again to take down the $70 pot.

Hand 4
Hero HJ (K Q). UTG+2 (stack of $60 and is just a weak player in general) opens to $15. Folds to hero who 3-bets to $30. Folds to Villain who flats. HU to flop.
Flop: Q X X
Villain checks, Hero bets $16, Villain shoves for $30, Hero calls.
Turn: Jx
River: Ax
Villain shows K T and says, "sorry man, I got lucky"

As soon as I saw my cards I knew I was ahead of this villain's opening range. I had seen him do some clowny things earlier in the session and I was really just looking to go HU with him and put him in on 100% of all flops. Not much analysis needed here, I don't think. It's just a hand of poker *shrugs*

Hand 5
2 people come back from a break and post their missed blinds out of position.
Hero MP (T5) action limps to Hero who raises it to $23. Folds to the BB (the same villain from Hand 4) who calls. HU to the flop.
Flop: T T A
Villain checks, Hero checks.
Turn: 3
Villain checks, Hero checks.
River: 3
Villain folds.

$18 dead money, and I have built up a suuuuuper nitty image so far from playing like 1 hand every 7 orbits. So it's time for me to abuse my image and just steal the blinds. Kind of unhappy that I got called, but it's the weakest player at the table who calls me, and I have position on him, so I'm not fussed. Luckily I flopped the goods and didn't have to get too creative. But I don't really see a way to get value from the hand unless I allow him to improve to some kind of pair. Just in case he didn't have an Ace, I was happy to give him a free card. I should probably be betting this Turn though. I just wanted to feign weakness and get my value in on river. Strangely enough, I didn't get that chance since my opponent mucked his hand before I even had a chance to act. A normal player would check this flop because a lot of the time it's a chopped pot, but this player just folded it O_O Weak player. Sucks that I had the joint. It would have been sweeter if I was playing the board, but oh well.

Hand 6
Hero CO (JTo) Action limps to the HJ (new player at the table who has no idea of my nitty table image) who opens to $6. Hero calls. BTN folds, 2 others call. 4-way to the flop.
Flop: JT2r action checks to HJ who c-bets to $20. Hero raises to $55. Folds around and HJ tank calls.
Turn: Q
Villain checks, Hero Jams $150, Villain tank folds.

Nothing much to say here other than I think I make more mistakes betting Turn rather than shipping it in. If I were to bet say.... $85 here, I leave myself with $65. Now what am I going to do if the River is a 2, 9, K, A and my opponent ships it in. Am I just going to call it off? yuck! I'd rather just get it in now when I'm confident I have the best hand.

Ended session @ 4:30pm
Loss: $20
Current BR: $8780

Thoughts:
okay. This session may have been the MOST card-dead I have ever been, ever. I had a super nitty table image, but that wasn't just an image. I was honestly getting dealt 92o, J4o, K6o, T3o, 52o.....just....garbage stuff. Apart from the above 6 hands, and 1 time I got QQ, (and a couple of times getting dealt a baby pair and calling a small open to set-mine and missing,) I folded EVERYTHING else. That's 7 hours of play and only playing 7 (maybe 8) hands in total. That's roughly one hand an hour O__O That's crazy. And it wasn't even me being a nit-bitch, I was just getting dealt junky nothing hands that I could do nothing with. Meanwhile I was seeing people stacking off with middle pair and getting caught by top pair, seeing hundreds of dollars flying from one end of the table to the other. And I just have to sit on the side-lines mucking my 72o PF. It honestly felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me. I've had dry spells before, but I've never been THIS card-dead in my life.

Brag: Despite being epicly card-dead I managed to not let it tilt me and avoid getting into a situation where I make a mistake and spew unnecessarily. I think this is a spot where a lot of my weaker opposition would have just let their frustration of getting junky-nothing hands get the better of them and then make an ill-timed bluff. In this sense, I saved $300 in a spot where some people may have tilted it all off.

Beat: Playing 1 hand an hour is a demoralising feeling...Gave me a super nitty image at the table which is something that I didn't want to have.

Variance: My last 3 or so sessions seem to have been break-even sessions. Not making money, but not losing money either. Not a fantastic result. But the way I see it, I'm turning my "potential-losing" sessions into Break-Even ones, which must be super beneficial for my bottom line.

Confession Time:
ughhh, I feel soo dirrrty. I did something very indicative of a degen. I don't consider myself a degen. But I felt VERY degen on my last visit to Crown. So in my previous post I mentioned that I rocked up at the casino at 6:30am and continued to stay there for a few hours after I finished my session at 4:30pm. By the time I decided I was going to go home, it was already like 7:30pm, and I felt wrecked. SOO tired. There was no way I could drive home feeling this exhausted, both physically and mentally. Not the best state of mind to have when getting behind the wheel of a car. So I was like "fvck it", went to my car, pulled the seat back, closed my eyes and went to sleep. I woke up at around 2:30am and needed to take a leak badly. So I walk back into the casino, use the rest rooms, then got something to eat at Maccas. After I finished eating I thought, "hmm... would this be a bad time to put in another session?" Well...the degen in me made the decision to head back to the poker room to start another session. I just played 7 hours straight the night before, slept in the Casino's car park, hadn't showered, hadn't brushed my teeth, wearing the exact same clothes and putting in another session of poker when I had just woken up 10 minutes prior. ugh! I'm the worst.

Started my session @ 2:40am

Hand 1
didn't take notes, fvck it.
I had ATo and called an open from the short stack. I flopped top 2 pair and donked into it. Everyone folded.

Hand 2
I had AKo in late position. UTG opened to $7 got like 4 callers, I shipped it in for about $200, everyone folded.

Ended session @ 2:55am

yeah... that's right. I played for 15 minutes. So what?! I made $30 Baller! $10 of which I had already spent on food so......

Current BR: $8800

Story 2
Was up in the smoker's lounge and started chatting with this one aboriginal dude. He seemed cool, but I could tell he was smashed. He was with this old white woman who I could tell was trying to find a nice way to ask me for money. But I kept telling her that I had gambled it all away. It was a lie, but I don't feel bad about lying to strangers who want me to give them money. Anyway, a couple of guys I know from the poker room (let's call them S and J) sat down next to us and we started chatting about FIFA and poker and other things. And then all of a sudden, while in the middle of conversation, S LEAPED OUT of his seat and ran to the door?! o__O wtf?! So I was like, "uhh...k, bye?" But then he came back and said sorry. I was like "wtf was that about?" Apparently he saw a roll of $50 notes just lying on the ground. There were 4 of them. Lucky prick! He tells his friend J about the $200 he found and J was like, "dude! buy me into the game!" So S gave J $50 to sit in on a $1/$2 table, and kept the rest for himself to buy into a $1/3 game. It only took them 10 minutes before BOTH of them went busto! So now the three of us are back in the smoker's lounge and they're telling me about these sick coolers and 1 outters and they were both mad as hell. ...and I'm sitting there thinking "dammit! I would have just pocketed the $200 and gone home with it." I guess I can find solace in the fact that I'm not alone in this degen community of ours. We're all a little bit degen...

Regarding the 75o hand, the quick turn call is not so much indicative of a flush draw, as it is of a hand whose equity/outs have improved on the turn. It just so happens that the most common example of this is a turned flush draw. In the case where the FD is already present on the flop, the quicker turn call suggests most likely a pair which picked up a straight draw; namely 46/56. 3Xhh is also possible for an FD which picked up a pair.

That said, the river is gross, but I'm still betting here and hoping he can level himself into a call with 6x, since the quick turn call is pretty much never 7x, and the only FDs he calls turn quickly with is 3xhh, 4xhh or 5xhh, all of which are heavily discounted due to the 6h, 7h and Ah being on the board.


T9o is a super-snap-fold OOP to a raise. Especially if stacks are at about $200, which I'm assuming they were.

I'm probably c/fing flop and river, but I like the turn bet since Tx, hh, and 8x are calling.


Hand 3 seems like spew, since far too many LLSNL Vs are simply incapable of folding a pair + OESD before the river, which is a massive portion of their range. Probably not folding TP either, and Tx is a huge portion of their l/c range. That said, if we had JTs+, I'm loving the line you took. Oh, and your raise pre is far too small, you should pretty much always be trying to get HU with your PFR sizing, unless you have a speculative hand (typically small pairs) which cannot profitably limp-call a standard raise behind you, and there has been a lot of raising behind you.

Hand 4 is WP, although if I'm going to nit-pick I'm probably 3-betting to $35 here, because I want to bet the maximum I can whilst allowing the short-stack to re-open the betting, and thereby re-shove to fold out any dead money left in the pot by potential cold-callers behind.

Hand 5: In general a nitty image will not get folds pre-flop at most LLSNL tables, ESPECIALLY if there have been any limps ahead of you. You can be super nitty, but you're still probably getting action with your value range of 88+, AQ+ from this position. The fact that you're in MP and not BU makes this play even more spewy. Bomb every street when you get this flop though, because this V won't call $23 pre with A7o only to fold TP, and there's pretty much no turn/river cards which can improve his hand to one which pays you off (although you're giving a tonne of free equity to his underpairs and gutter-balls, which we don't want).

ATo hand: Fold pre, ATo plays terribly in raised pots, unless the opener is a maniac in which case we're 3-betting, not calling. Flop lead is obv. good, since Ax is never folding.

AKo hand: Don't mind the spot, although another option is going $70-ish, and shoving any flop if called. This way AQ type hands will be more likely to stay in, although small-medium pairs are also more likely to stay in as well. Probably very close in terms of EV, since if our $200 shove gets called, we're very often flipping, and a decent amount of the time we're crushed by UTG (unless he has a sizing tell).