Why do you hate short stacks so much?

they are very -EV to have at the table compared to a deepstack of same player skill

Just saw this thread today (unfortunately) and I think I might have saw you yesterday...sending PM.
I'm subscribed and I look forward to reading more about your journey.

Just want to add that there is not a professional poker player out there that just LOVE poker. It is a hell of a grind, but we do it for the money. If you still love it, You will start hating it in a year.

I think I want to start taking prop bets at 1:3 odds against me that I will still enjoy poker + still be playing poker as my primary source of income in 1 year. Anyone down?

I would hate betting against you. Your thread has made ME like poker more. This is awesome man. Keep up the great work and def KEEP WRITING.

WOW DRIVING IN PITTSBURGH IS ASS. This road trip has been pretty educational to me in that I learned I never want to live in a city like this ever. I want to be able to average a minimum of 45 mph when I go from point A to point B, thanks.

OK uhhh Rivers Casino. They had nine 1/3 tables with zero people even on the waitlist for any other stake of NL. Lame. I'll try to start 5/10 when I go tomorrow but it probably won't run. Maybe if I donk off enough money at 1/3 people can try to bumhunt me at 5/10 or something.

At Rivers you apparently have to post the big blind when you first come in, like you do in online poker. Never seen this before and I thought maybe the dealer thought I was just returning to the seat, but I begrudgingly posted. Looked down and had QQ, made it $15, got 5 callers, bet flop and shoved turn on a drawy board (9628 or something), get called and MHIG. More than doubled up very first hand, cool.

Lost a bit when I ran an overpair into a set, I got away from it though. Thank god for loose-passives.

Got hurt on this weird hand:
Couple limps, old donk raises to $8 from HJ. This is at the very end of my session and I have the read that his $8 raise is a potbuilder, maybe with a low pocket pair. I make it $35 from CO with QT. Everyone folds to old guy who surprisingly calls, as my 3bet is the 2nd that's been done at the entire table for the past 2 hours- the first time some other guy had KK. We're ~110bb deep.

Flop AT6, pot $75
He checks, I bet $50, he min-checkraises to $100. My read has changed at this point to JJ-KK, AK and that I have 5 clean outs. I also think I'll often be able to take it away on any diamond turn, so I call.

Turn 4, pot $275
He checks, I bet $100 as planned, he min-checkraises all in for $100 more. Yes, I got checkraised twice in 1 hand by an old guy. I go to fold, but then I check my hand again and realize I have the Q so I call getting 6:1 and flip my hand over immediately.

River A
BINK! I announce Q high flush. He looks back and forth at my hand, the board, my hand, the board, for like 30 seconds then turns over KJ. fuuuu. I can't believe he called preflop with that. Ah well.

Pittsburgh total: -$128, 2 hours.

wowowow, that is awesome!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

2 hour session? is that even worth it?

I went with a friend.

i really hate the QT hand, someone's called a large preflop 3bet and then c min raised, think you've gotta just fold 2nd pair there even with backdoors, even if you get a good turn you're just gonna be in a ton of bad spots

Yea it was definitely iffy although I still don't hate it looking back. I wasn't really factoring in my hand at all, it was $50 into a $225 pot and I really thought he would c/f any diamond turn (but my hand also gave me 5 outs for 2pair/trips). I never expected him to show up with a draw himself here. I had an extremely tight/winning image at this point too.

Read was wrong, tried to play fancy against a fish, paid for it.

Thanks for the comments!

Someone once told me that if you never play QTo, you won't get into situations like these.

Aesah, do you ever put lots of your decision weight based on physical tells or reads and put the betting line on the back-burner?

I've played a few hands recently that got flamed in LLSNL, but I just knew it was right in-game. I feel sort of ******ed getting flamed after the hand is over.

Example, bet sizing/bet motion make you relatively sure someone is bluffing, even though the line could make sense for his perceived range. Do you float IP, bet turn or c/r turn if blank?

@Huaj: my last two big losses were both with QTo also my advice was for not playing that as a 25bb shortstack!

@tmckendry: Rarely but it definitely happens. Most obvious one I've ever had was this one guy who was hella drunk and would claim having the nuts every single hand, except when he actually had the nuts he had nothing. He tried to get me to fold by overbetting the river and I snapped him off with Q high. Another time I bet, he moaned about how he had nothing and he was so behind, then he raised all in. I folded bottom set on KQ9 and he shows JT (he had to show because some shortstack was all in).

Honestly I wouldn't put too much weight in LLSNL. I still read it because it's great for making you think and seeing how other people think, but even if 9/10 people don't agree with you, it's still up to you to make your own decisions IMO as long as you have the right reasoning. That's another reason I'm fond of reading about strategy in PG&C (I need to find more blogs... yours and quiet_assassin's are pretty much the only ones I'm still keeping up with)- because I know you guys are winners. Actually what I really need is more poker friends. Hi Greg/Ethan/Justin.

I can't answer the specific question, it's too variable.

Was on the 5/10 list for 6 hours at Rivers, no one else signed up =(

I think I'm going to start playing PLO. Played 3 hours of PLO today (a real session!) and was up $400. To be honest it's not nearly as different from hold'em as I previously thought, a lot of the stuff carries overs- equities, dry/wet flops, how to rep strength, scare cards, reads, etc. Maybe I'll start reading the PLO forums here, maybe I'll just play and learn on my own- there really were very few situations where I felt lost. Starting tomorrow I'll start keeping a tally for PLO because I plan on playing it a lot.

I made a bluff on the river repping trip queens on QT6TQr, call guys and MHIG because he misread his hand. I know the action was flop checked around, he led turn I called, and he checked river to me. Can't really remember what I had, Omaha is hard guys.

Also played 3 hours of 1/3 NL. Don't remember any hands except taking down two $60+ pots preflop by squeezing with 54o and K6o, but I was up $132. Also I got to play vs a massive fish HU for several hands when the table broke for Omaha, I think I took about $100 off him before some more people sat down. Wish that could happen more often.

Pittsburgh total: $4, 5 hours.

I love the thread man!! I quit my 75k a year job in 2010 to pursue the dream. Ran very, very well. Had some serious life stuff happen and a nasty down swing that forced be back to the work force for a bit. Having a back up plan is awesome! You are doing everything right it seems. All I can say is stay away from the degen life style that surrounds playing poker, keep it in perspective, and continue to LOVE the game. The people who say they hate it are either A.) Not any good to begin with B.) Went busto and are jealous or C.) Aren't living a balanced life and have no other options to make a living. I have tons of respect for you for doing this and have read the entire thread today. I'll be back on the live scene come October when I get off house arrest and we will def have to meet up and play! Win or lose, love what you do and know it all comes back around!! Keep grinding my friend!

tyty

despite tons of people saying it won't last, no one has offered to take my prop bet I'm willing to give better odds!

Played 1/3 NL today. Got sat at a brand new table, drew big blind. Very first hand, straddle, 3 calls, I sense a profitable spot and make it $40 with 95. Everyone folds. I show my hand which I think gets the old nit next to me stacked, because the same guy straddles next hand (some guy sits between us so he's UTG again), old guy makes it $40, straddler is like "hell nah you guys aren't taking my straddle twice in a row without a fight", flops a boat on 866 vs nit's KK. I laughed.

Played a hand where I'm curious what 2+2 thinks of my ethics in this spot and what would you guys do. Here's the action:

I open for $15 with KJ from MP. Loose fish (same guy who valiantly defended his straddle above) calls from HJ, another loose fish calls in the big blind.

Flop KQT, pot $45
Check, I bet $35, HJ makes a short speech about me having AJ and calls after some deliberation. Big blind quickly calls.

Turn 9, pot $150
Check, I'm seriously worried SpeechMan has AJ so I check, SpeechMan bets $45 with about $200 behind. Big blind calls with about $30 behind (lol). Now here's where it gets weird. While I'm tanking, SpeechMan subtlety raises his cards like he's telegraphing a fold and tilts them towards me so I can see he's holding the J- I don't think anyone else at the table realized this. I'm pretty sure he's trying to scare me, so I retract my AJ read and shove all in. He tanks for an extremely long time, trying to get me to talk while I stare at the board and eventually folds the chop. BB snapcalls with AT (lol) and doesn't hit one of the two J's left.

So yea in my opinion, BB is basically pot committed no matter what ($30 behind to win $300), so SpeechMan showing me the J really doesn't affect him. I didn't want to start a fuss over nothing really so I didn't say anything at all about SpeechMan showing me a card while another player was in the action. However, even if BB had like $300 behind I still think I wouldn't have said anything. What would you guys have done?

There was another hand where I opened to $16 from UTG with AK, fish with $60 total flats, and the fish that was in BB in above hand makes it $32 with about $150 behind. I think about calling or shoving, but ended up just folding here. Problem with calling is that shorty might shove, and 3bettor can reshove. Shorty folds too. The 3bettor claims he also had AKo and would have called a shove. /shrug

+$429 in 2 hours. Went with a friend again who railed me. Afterwards, she asked me who the second best player at the table was. I thought for awhile and picked the old nit on my right because his strategy of "only play QQ+ and stack off every time" loses less money than the strategy of "only play suited cards and check/call if you hit a pair or a backdoor flush draw", which everyone else was doing.

Pittsburgh total: $433, 7 hours.

I def shove when he shows you the jack (he may not have meant to, you'd be surprised how bad people are) The amount of times he has AJ there is far behind the amount of times you are chopping/winning the pot. Shoving forces him to make a tuff decision just to split the pot. I love the play. Were you at the rivers??? The action there is AMAZING

I don't think what you did was unethical; you were just fortunate to receive information from an apparently hyper-active maniac LOL. Your next move was against him really (the way I read it) and not the short stack.

I would get a lot more poker studying done while at work if not for reading your thread from beginning to the present in a matter of a few hours spead out over the last couple of days LOL

hey I consider reading this thread poker studying. most of the material is poker thanks for the comments.

Man I am unhappy to report I am down $2700 at 10/25 at Meadows. It was seriously the softest game ever, I would say my true winrate at that game is probably $700/hr. I first started playing as if it were a 5/10 game, then I was like wait a second, this isn't right, I need to treat it like a 1/2 game. Unfortunately I don't think I'll get a chance to play it again as the guys are all gonna be in Vegas next week. Really nice guys, learned all their names. Only 1 shark at the table. Was so sick.

Lost a $15k pot with bottom set vs AA vs Q9cc on 852cc, all in on the flop. Ouch. Grinded it back up a bit, but meh.

I could go on and on about this game, but just 1 example hand to indicate how soft it was:

4 handed after some people left, UTG folds, button bets $100, I make it $300 from SB with AA. BB says "I was going to fold for $100 but you pulled me in for $300", and he was completely serious. Button calls, I cbet flop, they both fold. Button has 92o.

Seriously that $15k pot hurts... sigh.

Pittsburgh total: -$2267, 10 hours.

sounds like a nice wet dream that turned into a nightmare!

Honestly it made me feel like I'm really wasting my time playing 1/3, or 5/10 vs a solid table. Don't know how rare these opportunities are though I guess.

I know you have a large roll, but going from 1-3/2-5 to 10-25 is a huge difference. What kind of BRM plan are you using. Not hating, just curious. If it's a one time shot or even once in a blue moon seems fine. If you're gonna make this work for the long haul you gotta work your way up.