Daily Update - Mon 7 Aug 2017

Hours Played: 4.3
Profit: -$785
Variance: 4

Notes: I just feel pretty disappointed overall with how I played this evening. It is a very different game compared to the Treasury and I probably didn't do very well adjusting. I made a pretty speculative flop float vs what turned out to be an overpair with Q high, turned a flush draw, and rivered this guy for some money... Then I got QQ in v JJ for an almost double up, but those are the only two hands I won.

Also something that's important to remember: ALWAYS TOP UP immediately after going under start stack. I usually am very very good with this but I missed it by a hand today, lose some money, fumble for chips to top-up, but already had a hand to play... I could have made an extra $45 if I'd topped up immediately after losing money the previous hand because the very next hand I stacked a guy pair over pair.

Also it is unimaginable how much quicker hand rate is at this homegame compared to the casino. I think it would be close to 2x the casino rate... The CO shuffles a deck while the dealer deals, so as soon as the hand is over, the dealer's already dealing the next one. It's super good.

Made a silly bluff today as well which cost me a lot of money. Super annoyed with myself rn tbh.

Hand 1

Limp, villain opens to $20, hero calls 88 in SB, limper calls. Hero and villain about 300 effective.

Flop $60: JJ6

Check, villain cbets $45, hero calls

Turn $150: JJ6 2

Hero checks, villain checks

River $150: JJ6 2 T

Hero's range is so much stronger than villains by this point in time. I can credibly rep all flushes and Jx and he basically looks like an overpair at best, probably has some airy cbets. I decide to turn my hand into a bluff - although I expect to have more than enough show down value with 88 here, by betting, we disallow him from bluffing us off the best hand on the river and we can also get him to fold some better hands like riverd Tx and maybe he even folds aces.

Hero bets $115, villain calls, MHIG :shoc ked:

Hand 2

We're about $600 effective, villain is only other aggressive player at the table and is only one capable of 3betting as a bluff which he has done before.

One limp UTG, hero isos to $18 w 68, it's borderline but I will take this pot down on this table fairly often - it's like 7-8 handed and I have position post flop, so it's fine to iso imo. Villain 3bets to $70 in SB, hero COULD just fold here and probably should tbh, but IK I'll have position against this guy post, he'll have a very decent chunk of bluffs too and maybe I can flop something good or outplay him!?!?!? Hero calls.

Flop $146: 994

Villain cbets $90 as he did previously in a 3b pot with a bluff. I obv can't call, but I figure I can get him to fold all his air like AK/AQ/etc - I think he's the type of player to waaaay over cbet here. We have more 9x than he does and can have some draws. I raise to $235 hoping he'll fold pretty frequently, he tanks for maybe 5 minutes - which is far longer than one would take if they had AA or any value hand for that matter, pretty confident he's going to fold or jam. Super tilting if he jams because it means he has to have a bluff but I can't call.

Anyway, he jams, I have to fold, and he shows 2. Actually after reviewing that last hand, which made me pretty depressed immediately after playing it, I don't think it's really all that bad. We have reasonable reasons for doing what we did on all streets and it just didn't work out.

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Anyway, I'm taking tomorrow off. Will be back at it Wed and Thur to finish the week strong with a couple long sessions. I just want to finish the week by playing the best poker I possibly can. Then next week, we'll look to get back into a proper routine - we'll start meditating again, gymming again, and will be getting in some looong sessions I hope.


Full Results: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AkK4doh8PHLEgk6pBpFJrgcokPKM

Hi Meale,

Some interesting HH. Definitely wouldn't have expected you to get called by worse EVER in H1. I think regardless of results I think it's fine as played....and please never bluff this villain ever again LOL

I don't love the ISO with 86dd. I also don't like the call once you've been 3bet, but I see your reasoning. The flop action reaffirms why we shouldn't be playing this hand in this type of game. There's just too much craziness going on and I think the correct adjustment in this type of game would be to tighten up.

Value bluffers gonna value bluff lol

Also kinda sick he shows a 2 and maybe is part of the reason why we should stay away from stuff like this as the guy above me said.

2.25 to 1 on turn - call $200 with a pot size of $450 = we need 30.8% equity assuming no future bets

My best advice for crushing at live poker is to play your hand for it's value 90-100% of the time, deviate 0-10% of the time. Full ring you can play like a nit and be unexploitable, and in a high rake environment, it's the correct adjustment. I hope you are thinking long and hard about hand ranges. The above poster is correct about calling 3bets with SC's, it's not profitable unless you have strong reads/they are predictable, or you are deep, or they made a mistake and sized it too small. It's almost always better to fold to a 3bet (because players are too tight and you don't have correct implied odds)or 4bet/fold(if they are out of line or always fold to your 4bets when you hold premiums). Consider moving to a better area for poker, lower cost of living, lower rake, higher access to games.

GL

Good luck op.
Post some of your bigger loosing hands.
Dont sell your car, park it in the casino.
Get one day/week pt job. This wont do much financially maybe but will make your life more balanced.
Play less hours but with less mistakes.
Dont bother tracking variance, just number of mistakes you make.

Hope you mean exploitable

I think what he means is you can play like a nit and most of the live small stakes population won't exploit you. In fact most of the live small stakes population won't know what "exploitable" means.

and if he doesn't mean that...sry for butting in.

Meale, those two hands...are we doing our mental game checking...those hands are not a symptom of getting impatient whilst card dry are they?

I used to read your Philosophy blog,your blog was the first thing that got me interested in philosophy,now I plan on start phil undergrad at some point in the future
I hope you continue to write more there,and I'm looking forward to see your poker progress! GL

Hi, as someone mentiones its worth it to get a part time jo, even if its just a couple of hours a week, it will help to have a life outside of poker and you may even like it.

Yeah, agreed 100%.

Possibly or maybe for the same reason it makes it good? I'm not sure but I don't think I'll be mucking around with this sort of stuff much anymore.

Yes, you're correct. I forgot to add the bet to the pot size... :\

Agree with everything. At the time I guess this must have felt like that 10%, but I see what you're saying, there are simply better spots and what you say about the rake making it the right adjustment is bang on.

Thanks mate. I'll post the bigger losing hands if there's anything non-standard about them for sure. Unfortunately I can't just park my car in the casino. Re the PT job, it's something I'll definitely look at if in a couple months things aren't looking much better results wise. I don't see the need to play less hours and obviously I want to reduce the no. mistakes I make - playing less I don't think is the solution. I think no. mistakes instead of variance might be a better metric as well, think I'll start doing that.

Which two? The 88 hand is standard imo but yeah the 68dd, just need to be more disciplined and get rid of it pre next time.

Yeah it's definitely something I want to do more of. Certainly will occupy more of my life after poker, whenever that is. If I can find the time/motivation, I'd like to throw up a few more articles shortly as well.

I don't really look at working a part time job as a manifestation of "having a life" but it's definitely an option for a little later down the track. Maybe some bar/security work or something that's walking distance 2-3 days a week to help pay the bills if it comes to it.

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Right now my single focus is to finish this week strong by playing a big session tonight and tomorrow to try and hit my volume for the week. Then next week will be about getting back into a routine and finishing the second half of the month strong. Penthouse game tonight in a few hours, gl to me.

you described it as a "silly bluff" in your op, which I think it is is.

If villain is a reg, you a river bluffing (oop) a massively capped range with good s/d. If villain is a fish, you're bluffing a fish.

Neither is std, imo.

But leaving that and moving on, great blog, some really good commentary on your thought processes, and lots of good, constructive dialogue from contributors.

Looking forward to the heater!!!!

I wasn't referring to that hand as the silly bluff, that was the 68dd. I'm very happy with how 88 was played.

But yes bring on the mf heater!!!

As always cheers for stopping by <3

Keep it up bro, its early days, swings going to swing. Keep smashing in the volume and continue to critically assess your hands as well as youve been doing so far. Gl!


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This is unlikely as tells of weakness are much harder to spot than tells of strength, but With the 88 hand, i think you should consider the possibility that your opponent had a physical read on you. If he's calling with presumably AK/AQ, in a spot where there's no real reason to, i think its definitely viable he sensed weakness and didnt expect you to be bluffing with a hand as good as 88
Its more likely the guy is just an idiot clicking buttons but its definitely something to think about imo.

Cheers bro, will have to post some **** in the group. GL with your forthcoming week!

Think it's 99% likely he's just clicking buttons. Even if he did all with ace high, he doesn't beat many of my bluffs at all and I really don't have many in this spot either. I turn 88 into a bluff because it's the bottom of my range lol.

Daily Update - Wed 9 Aug 2017

Hours Played: 5
Profit: $1,440
Variance: 6

Notes: Got myself into fortunate spots tonight, one big hand vs an absolute drooler. Was nice to get a free feed and a couple free coffees. Will definitely be playing Penthouse more, Friday for sure. The downside is that the game broke after about 5 hours. I went to the casino for a bit, waited on the list for 20 minutes, then he told me there was a seat on the 5/5 or I could stay on the 2/5 list but they'd be closing in an hour. Decided it wasn't worth sticking around for any longer if the max I can play for is 1 hour. Don't want to play 5/5 yet because it plays a little bigger.

Hand 1

Hero opens from HJ on a 6-7 handed table w K9 $20, two callers. Hero and villain ~600ish deep

Flop $67: K9A

Hero cbets $45, CO calls, fold. CO is a MAWW who is 80% blind and plays like it as well...

Turn $157: 4

Hero bets $110, villain calls.

River $377: 9

Hero bets $250, targeting Ax, villain jams for $361, hero calls and scoops vs A8 lmao?

Anyway, a couple things for me to work on from this session. One is limp calling less. On a 7 handed table, you look down at QJo from UTG, very very loose and aggressive and spazzy players, I think it's best just to fold. If I open, I'm getting 2-3 callers 100% of the time. Really want to curb my limping because I don't know how profitable it is.

Anyway, super annoying I could only get 5 hours in tonight when I'm trying to chase a target. I won't get it this week but will just make sure I get extra volume in next week. Tomorrow I'll look to get up earlyish, gym, eat, and get to the casino as early as possible so I can do my hours on the list and get in a game ASAP so I can potentially play a 12 hour session.


Full Results: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AkK4doh8PHLEgk6pBpFJrgcokPKM

Mele

Enjoying watching this far a far. You have handled a tough start very well, I'm impressed with your positive mindset during this downswing. Play your best as much as possible, rooting for some play well-run well

that's what I'm talking about

i think u can limp call hands like low pockets and low suited aces in ep and raise or fold everything else. obviously depends on table dynamic and stuff but that was a good baseline to go off for me

You should def be folding QJ UTG at almost any full table

Over-limp the 68, cuz.

Thank you very much!

My favourite hand of this thread so far. Not just some silly cooler, but a really excellent realisation of my edge over my opponent. It's very reassuring.

Yes! Low pocket pairs and Ax suited I think are the only justifiable hands for limp calling because they play excellently multiway and we want to encourage MW pots with these hands. Vs most iso sizes we have enough equity to limp call as well.

Yeah, I generally play 10 handed but last night was closer to 7 handed for most of it. I think it starts to get close to an open but still think folding these marginal hands here is going to be better more often. I already feel like I'm the tightest player in the city but think I'd benefit by folding a few extra of these marginals from EP.

Yeah I don't really support that notion. We don't really want to be multiway with such a hand IMO and it'll blow calling isos with this hand too. I think if I'm going to play it, isoing with it is prob better than folding > calling.

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Got an email from hotel management today saying they're going to start towing cars parked in visitor parking spots for more than 8 hours... mine's been there for like 4 days now lol. I'll move it to one of the casino car parks and probably just leave it there. Only thing is that if I need to use it, I'll need to play a session before hand to get the parking validated - and I'm not even sure it'll work - but if not I'll just hit the help button on the intercom and the boomgates and BS something about it not working.

We might be playing back at the Penthouse tonight, but I'm going to try and get a session in at the Treasury beforehand (Penthouse starts at 6). I've just finished gym, it's a half decent gym, bit expensive though. ATM I'm training fasted... waking up and going to the gym before eating post-workout. Think it's going to help me curb calories and maybe lose a bit of fat.

Going to try put in as long of a session as possible today because I'm at about 23 hours for the week and today's my last session of the week. So I'm hoping I can put that number closer to 30-35 to make it easier to recoup the lost time next week. One more good session today and we'll be able to book a nice winning week, which of course will be pleasant after week 1's disastrous start.

Mentally, I'm doing a lot better today after the big win last night than I was yesterday morning. I had people message me on here urging me to quit (after 1.5 weeks lolwhat) and try do something else in life. I'll admit, if I had another loss yesterday, I might have had some negative thoughts and anxieties about this whole endeavour. But I think I'm doing pretty well atm, meditating for 10 minutes in the mornings, although hard to see its benefit just yet, I feel will come to be something I value very much mental game wise.

So, gameplan for next couple days is to A) finish today strong by playing a good quality session - I'll achieve this by limping/limp calling less from EP, not getting involved in any silly bluffs vs players who you can destroy just by playing straight forward and making hands.

B) I want to play a big weekend schedule. Long hours Friday and Saturday and Sunday before taking Monday off. Next week we'll want to chase down close to 50 hours, so I'm going to have to be very disciplined and be better at getting up in the mornings/afternoons. ATM I'm snoozing for an extra 30-60 minutes and I need to cut that out.

Such a joke... I get to the casino at 2:30pm and I'm told there's not even a 2/5 running, just a 5/5. One table. 12 people on the list for 2/5 and 3 empty tables. Absolute joke this establishment. 6pm Penthouse should kick off sthough so hopefully I can get some reps in here before heading over there.

It's now 4:30pm and there's 25+ people on the list, still no table open... Actually as I'm writing this I just got my text. Two hours wait is still an absolute joke.

In other news, I've been poached from one home game to another tonight. Host is going to pay me $200 to attend her game lol, so that's a pretty sick freeroll I guess. That's at 630 so I'll play here for an hour and then get going to that game.