Yes, I understand he will just check-call draws the majority of the time but what I am saying is that if he has a draw he is likely check-raising flop with it, not the turn. So the turn raise should really not have that many draws, two pairs, and especially one pair hands.

Yah agreed, so it basically comes down to how often he's nutted vs how often he's overplaying a pair that I beat...

Hey - finally caught up on this thread after neglecting 2p2 for ages. I've been following since the first post though (I think?). Glad to see you've had a bit of a heater lately after the tough start - had something very similar lately too. Feels super good to look back on a big trough in your graph from a new peak
As for that 3rd hand in your last session review - I try not to fold strong hands vs random fish very often because they turn up with nonsense so much more than you might think but this spot seems pretty close tbh.

I honestly think I might try to interrogate the guy or make a decision based on whether I feel I have a preference to take a lower-variance decision in this situation. Gut instinct is to fold though, given the sizing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting. If there is one thing missing from your thread it is the live in-game interaction (I've mentioned this before). Even though I rarely play live, this was my first thought - engage the dude somehow.

Yeah, it's frustrating we'll never know the guy's hand and I would have definitely engaged him in some banter, either to get some information before the decision, or just to get him to show after the fold (fish will very often show when asked after a big tank-fold).

Incidentally, I credit this thread for inspiring me to play better at live cash games and I feel I'm getting the hang of them by playing tighter than I used to. I booked a $2500 win last night playing 2/5 with $500 buy-in for around 10 hours versus some very juicy spots :-)

Daily Update - Sat 30/12

Hours Played: 7.2
Profit: $60
Game: 2/3

We did it! 11 Session win streak! This broke my previous record of 10 sessions straight so I'm pretty pleased with this entirely arbitrary record! That said, it by no means came easy tonight. I was quickly down, and a lot. I ended up buying in for $1,600 after getting pumped for a good 2/3rds of tonight's session. Then this hand happened...

BTN straddle, BB calls, Hero $30 AQo UTG, UTG+1 calls, SB calls.
Flop $95: AQ2r
x, hero $65, call, call
Turn $290: 3o
x, hero $200, UTG+1 shoves for ~$500ish, fold, hero calls and villain is drawing dead with ATo.

Again, the positives from this session were good patience overall. The negatives probably include cbetting w/ air slightly too wide overall in 3 handed pots. I.e. I iso with KQo, 2 callers, we're OOP, A23r flop, we simply don't need to be cbetting that often here. So something I want to focus more on in the future is cbetting less with small/zero equity hands vs 2+ opponents when oop.

That'll be my last session for 2017! Tomorrow/tonight will be a house party at this homegame for NYE, no poker - just drinks and good company. Plan on getting extremely drunk and just hanging out with the regs.

December Review

Hours Played: 136.38
Profit: $12,155

Best month yet results-wise. Had a really good October as well but this month blew that out the water by a fair bit. Volume obviously low because of end-of-year festivities and whatnot.

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

2017 in Review

It's without a doubt been the best year of my life. A lot has changed for me this year... I spent a large chunk of the year working full time in a dead end factory job, and I've never worked full time before so that was something new for me. Since then I've quit my job and been playing full time for the last 6 months or so. Absolutely without a doubt the best decision I've made - since playing poker full time I've been far happier than I was at work and I've earnt way more money.

I also began investing in crpyto this year. Think I'm up roughly 300-350% for the year crypto-wise so that's been really good as well. I never expected my net worth to be where it's at at this point in time. According to the current price of BTC, I've slightly more than doubled my net worth over these last 6 months which I'm obviously stoked with.

On the original post of this thread, I wrote this:

This morning I calculated my net worth to be closer to $43k, even with BTC taking a bashing lately. So we're well ahead of where we wanted to be at this point in time.

I wasn't planning on playing any MTTs this year but with results being quite good on the cash front, I went and played a few down in Sydney. Managed to brick 7 bullets and dump ~$7k on the trip - which is unfortunate yes, but that's poker at times. Was a good experience for sure.

Since playing full time I've played about 800 hours and made $28k. It's definitely a great start results-wise and I'm really starting to figure out the meta of the various games I'm playing at. My overall strategy and approach has developed a lot over the year and I'm extremely comfortable in all games I play in.

2018 Gameplan

[ ] - Move to Melbourne no later than Feb
[ ] - 2,000 hours volume
[ ] - Make 5/10 main game
[ ] - Six figure total income?
[ ] - Minimum $50/hr @ 5/10
[ ] - Add to crypto investment and diversify into stocks
[ ] - Make some friends in Melbourne

That's it really. I'm very much looking forward to a fruitful 2018 and I hope you guys enjoy sweating the action as I look to tackle the Aussie based 5/10 games!

Thanks again to everyone who's followed over these past 6 months. I appreciate each and every one of you for being on my team!

Yeah pretty much. I generally just try avoid ramming in so many bbs with a hand as weak as JJ.

Meh, when I first got into live poker I thought I could study the "live tellz" and be some sorta Dr Ekman/Lie To Me type guy and just have perfect soul reads on every spot. Truth is, it's pretty tough to actually get information out of people that alters your decision. Guy was sitting there pretty stoic w/ sun glasses on so I didn't even bother...

Good to hear you're doing well man. Glad the thread's inspired you! Very nice session as well, I've only had a couple like that!

Very well done sir ! very inspiring ! GL in 2018

Congrats on the successful year and smashing it out the park on your goals bro, all the best for 2018, I'm sure it'll be at least as good!

Same to you, man. I actually managed to do it again last night (another +$2500 and this time in under 2 hours). I got to Playground at 6pm thinking I'd play 2/5, but they offered me either that or an open seat at 5/5 ($1000 max buy-in).

After surveying the two tables I opted for the latter as there was one really good spot I recognized. I was first seated to the right of the whale, but the guy on the whale's direct left soon quit the game and I was in there like a rat up a drain-pipe (even though it cost me another $10 to re-post for the spot - money very well spent!).

The whale blew through his $5k cash envelope in under two hours and I think I probably got $2k of it. Not much strategy to discuss, but here were two fun hands:

Hand 1

Stacks: UTG ~$600, Button $900, I have them both covered.
Whale opens to $40 UTG, I raise to $160 with KK. Button calls, UTG calls.
($490) Flop KKQss (nice flop!), UTG leads for $225, I call, Button calls (I'm praying for one of them to have the SFD that hits for the $600k BBJ)
($1150) Turn 2o, UTG ships in his remaining ~$200, I call, Button calls (with around $300 behind)
($1750) River blank (bah, no BBJ!), I put Button all in and he calls his last $300, showing me AQ after I tabled my quads.

Hand 2

Whale straddles $10, I call TT, SB calls, BB calls, Whale now has his last $700 on the table and checks his option in the BB (I limp because I want to play as many pots in-position versus the whale as possible).
($40) Flop 245r, 2 checks, Whale bets $40, I call $40, 2 folds
($120) Turn T, BB bets $165, I put him all in, snap call
River 2 and I honestly feel sorry the guy when he shows me 63 for the flopped straight that got runner-runnered by my God Mode.

Solid goals for 2018, crush em!

solid year man, glad things took a turn for the better!

will be following in 2018, let's get it!

nice dude

i definitely recommend playing some decent tournaments when they're running. if u think the aussie live cash scene is soft u wont believe how soft the tournie players are. plus i found that playing in some tournies every so often was a good break from the cash grind

I think a lot of "live tells" are just down to understanding people's ranges and tendancies really well or knowing when something just doesn't make sense. I think players with less of a theory background intuitively pick up on weakness or strength and assume it was down to a read rather than experience in similar spots.

That said sometimes the cranky old nit is literally holding his cards near the line waiting to fold the river so it's possible these live kids are on to something.

Solid year meale, wp fella.

Cheers Mark, here's to crushing 2018!

Hahah, got em. WP sir, keep up the run good!

Ty mate < 3

Thanks man, good to have you on board!

Yeah will definitely look to play more MTTs when I have a slightly more comfy live/5/10 roll and have sussed out investments and whatnot. Ofc we have Aussie Millions coming up and even though I won't be playing a ton of MTTs, will definitely be looking forward to playing some more!

Hah yeah bang on man. Occasionally you'll pick up on a cool tell or something but to actually make money out of it is another feat in and of itself.

Thanks brother.

Happy new year get em! Maybe ill come visit whatever state youre in or youll come for perth poker champs

Live tells are a real thing. But they're usually tipping points and not end all be all. If something is 40/60, but the opponent is acting in a manner that suggests you're good more than 40% of the time, then trust it. But not a 10/90 type of scenario.

Good luck in the new year meale! Will definitely continue paying attention to this thread.

I was hesitant about live tells and quite honestly I play in a style that does not really involve them too much. Although, throughout doing so, I have definitely picked up on some things and I have been experimenting with it. So let's say I have decided I am going to call, I'll take a few seconds to do something that I think will induce a tell just to see if I was right about it. It does not actually affect my decision, but if these things hold true, they may eventually.

Nice way to end the year. Congrats and GL next year.

Daily Update - Mon 01/01

Hours Played: 6.5
Profit: $71

Played two smaller sessions today, 5.8 hours at 2/5 and 0.7 hours at 5/5. Won both bringing the win-streak up to 13 sessions! As much as I hate it, the incentive to leave 30 mins early just to keep the streak alive was too strong today. Next session I'm going to make sure I play a certain amount of time regardless of whether I'm winning or not. Like if I was up $300, I'd have stayed the extra half hour, same if I was down $300, but since I was only up $20 and my blinds were coming up, I'd be pretty mad if I lost a small pot and had to leave in 30 mins down like $10 or something. When in reality, a win streak is cool but really makes no difference to anything.

I did play fairly well overall today.

@2/5
Hero has literally been folding pre for an hour...
Hero opens QQ UTG $25, 3 callers... I love this. I'm easily the tightest player at the table and yet it really makes no difference. :')

Flop $100: J93hh
x, hero cbets $70, IP raises to $150 (500 effective), folds to hero ???

I snapfolded here pretty quickly. Our removal is pretty bad, not the worst though because we unblock all AJ combos - although I have no reason to suggest this player would raise AJ here with this SPR. If he is ever raising flop with AJ, folding becomes pretty terrible because we have 51% equity vs a range of {99,33,J9s,AJo} so obv calling becomes the best play. But if we remove AJ from that range, we suddenly only have 20% equity and getting it in is a disaster. I think KK is a better continue than AA because it doesn't block his top top combos.

Anyone ever calling/shoving here?

Next hand I want to look at was interesting because it made obvious an area of my game that I need to improve on.

Effective stacks $500, @2/5
Hero opens JJ UTG $25, MP calls HU to flop.
Flop $55: J67r
Hero cbets $25, MP calls.
Turn $110: 5ss
Hero cbets $65, MP calls.
River $240: Ao
Hero cbets $175, MP calls and MHIG vs AKss.

The problem here is that when I get to the turn, what's going through my head is, "it would be so ***** gross if I get shoved on/raised here at this stack depth". This then triggers me to think about sizing a bit on the turn - I end up going with a size that is kind of ambiguous - I know deep down that I'm not folding if I get jammed on on the turn, so I should simply be betting bigger to extract max value. Yeeeeah, a $65 bet probably puts us in a spot where if we get raised, we're happier about calling but realistically, we probably just have a phobia of villain turning the nuts far more often than he actually does here. We should have bet $85 on the turn imo which would mean we could bet $225 on the river - this small sizing mistake compounds and means we basically miss $70 of value.

If you look back at the first hand, we find ourselves in a very similar spot where, when we bet the flop and get raised, it's a pretty gross spot. Sizing-wise I have historically tended to go smaller here because it's like "I want to lose less when I get raised" but really I think betting bigger on these textures when we have it is just better, get more value basically.

===============================================

Also want to quickly set some goals up for this week. Previously I'd considered my "working week" Friday-Thursday but this year I've decided I'm going to change it so that it's Monday-Sunday. It just makes more sense this way.

So this week,

[ ] - 40+ hours volume
Mon (6.5), Tues (0), Wed (8), Thur (8+), Fri (8+), Sat (8+), Sun (8+)
[ ] - Get back in the gym and begin working off the slackness that was Xmas/NYE break. This means gym sessions every day Tues-Sun and will include a ~30 minute cardio component as well.
[ ] - Book flights for Melbourne

We need to start ramping up weekly volume targets now that we're getting into the second half of my work year if we're to make our goal of 2k hours/yr.

===============================================

2018 Goals & Objectives

I know I posted earlier my goals for 2018 but I feel like they were fairly rushed and could be a fair bit more specific. So I'm going to break my life down into various sections and look to smash our a few key points for each area...

Poker
[ ] - 2,000 hours volume
[ ] - 5/10 my main game, minimum 25 hours a week (65%) volume at this level once I move to Melbourne
[ ] - Minimum $50/hr @ 5/10
[ ] - $100,000 profit
[ ] - Get cash bankroll + liferoll healthy before spending money on MTT trips/investments, i.e. 40BIs for 5/10 ($40k) + $25k for life expenses saved and in the bank before we start mixing in MTTs/adding to other investments, so $65k
[ ] - Maintain daily PGC updates

Health & Fitness
[ ] - Continue gymming 5-6 days a week
[ ] - Reduce overall bodyfat percentage (~82-85kg)
[ ] - Continue intermittent fasting so as to consume less calories

Crypto
[ ] - Start with $10k crypto roll once moved to Melbourne
[ ] - Track transactions in Excel
[ ] - Once net worth is at $65k, all additional savings to go towards crypto/MTT roll at a 50/50 split.
[ ] - Diversify from blue chips and actively sweat/research alts
[ ] - 100% ROI??? Obviously this is a punt but we'll see what happens I guess. Half expect -100% ROI or 300%+ ROI and not much in between. :')

Other
[ ] - Make some friends in Melbourne
[ ] - Shave my head! Hair is thinning real bad ATM and I'm getting fairly self-conscious about it tbh. By getting rid of it altogether I think I'll be liberated in a way.
[ ] - $120k net worth - This should be achievable if crypto doesn't fk me over and I make my $100k profit and I don't ball out of control/keep expenses in check

So 2018 for me is very much going to be a very career-focused year. Very few 23 year olds have an opportunity to make $100k after tax doing what they love so I'm very excited to be bullish on everything this year and take some risks. I have no goals to write/blog as much anymore (harveymeale.com) and all that is thoroughly on the back-burner for the time being. It's time to get that paper. If it turns out I hate living by myself in Melbourne or the games suck or whatever, I can always move back to Brisbane or give Sydney a crack but I'm quietly confident that I'll crush 2018. GL me.

Cheers bruv. Not planning on coming Melb for Aussie Mills? I can't rly see myself going to Perth for any MTTs in 2018, would rather do something like Manilla even since it's prob closer. But if you find yourself @ Sydney champs or anything like that, give me a shout!

Yeah defo - I find it's kind of tough to really develop live tells too? Maybe I just need to pay more attention and when I start playing 5/10 full time I 100% will be switched on the entire session and watching every action of every hand so I'm hoping this area of my game improves.

Yeah defo, will see if I can become a live tell genius this year at 5/10. :P

Cheers bro <3

Congrats on the solid year. GL with this year's goals.

Cheers Jon < 3

Well done on results so far. Good luck for your goals this year, hopefully i see you round in melbourne