Why not. I used to have a poker blog on cardrunners in the pre black Friday era. I guess I don't pick the best times to start playing poker. I first start in early 2005, grinding 3/6 limit live and breaking even before I realized how bad the rake was, switching to .25/1 6-max limit on Party, working my way up to 2/4, switching to .10/.25NL, working up to .50/1, then getting knocked off Party by the UIGEA.

I kind of give up poker for the next 4 years or so. I play a few hours of live 1/2 every once in a while, but nothing serious. I run off, get married, have a kid, all that responsible stuff. Then around January 2011 I get the itch. I throw $100 on to full-tilt, fall in love with rush, and start back at 5NL. I work my way to about $700, taking some shots at 50NL, and bam, money frozen on April 15th.

I give up the game again, back to where I was a few months before. Another few years go by of me not playing. Finally I get my Full-Tilt money back. I talk my wife into letting me play a few sessions of 1/2 at the casino. A small heater later and she thinks I should start playing regularly again.

So far I've played a little over 100 hours (lol) of live $1/$2NL since March. Most of it is April/May/August. June/July I was working on the house a lot and had to travel for work, so not much volume.

Results as of 9/13/14:

Hours: 112.25
Winnings: $2,920
Winrate: $26.01/hr.

I'm pretty happy with that. My goal when I sat out was to win $20/hr. and I have been above that since session #1. This is about the lowest my winrate has dipped yet. I play mostly weeknights after work, and find the games to be usually pretty soft. I'm 30 (31 in a couple weeks) and am often the youngest at the table by 15 years. Most of these middle aged guys are awful. Some are just weak tight. I see no sign of me slowing down my time at the tables yet, and if anything I've accelerated it this September.

Tomorrow (I guess today now, as it's now Saturday the 13th) I am heading to play in a $65 super-satellite to try to win my way into an $1100 MSPT event. I don't really want to put up that much of my own money, but I figured one shot for $65 seems worth it. If I don't make it, I'll probably be waiting until it comes back around in May and maybe buy my way in. I have a few friends and family that know my success as a player and may back me, so I may still be in the October tournament if the satellite fails, but at this point I haven't really considered it. I haven't played a live tourney in like 8 years. I had some mild MTT success back on Party in 05/06, winning a $10 buyin 100 person tourney, and finishing 4th in a 600+ person $5. I hope it's like riding a bike, but honestly reading the posts in the small stakes MTT threads is like reading Greek to me. I guess I should stop posting here and start cramming on MTT strat before the tourney. Here goes nothing!

Best of luck, play well!

Thanks!

I feel like I did play pretty well in the tourney even though it didn't go as well as planned. Structure was OK. Starting chips 10000, blinds start at 100/100 and 20 minute levels. My strategy was to play ultra-conservative until I kind of got into the groove of the tourney.

First hand I played was in the 2nd level (100/200). I've got about 9400 and the kid on my right who had been playing kind of loose was around 14000. He limps UTG, and I limp UTG+1 with TT (ultra-conservative, like I said). 5 ways to a beautiful flop of JT2 He bets 800 and I pop to 2500. folds back and he flats. Turn is a very nasty 7 He checks and I check it back. River is a blank and I have to pay off his 1700 bet with Q9.

From there I get blinded down to about 2200. Blinds are 300/600 and we're 2 minutes until the end of the re-entry period. Kid from before open limps in the CO and I jam on the button with 44. Blinds fold and he calls with A4o and it holds up!

Third hand after break I pick up KK UTG and jam for about 4500ish. I get one caller with AK. Flop comes TJQ . A on the turn and we chop it up.

I get moved tables, and blinded down again to about 2000 chips. I about triple up with 88, pick up a few more steals, get a walk in the BB, and suddenly find myself at a slightly healthier 12000. Moved tables again, down to about 25ish out of 56 entries, with 11 seats paying out. Blinds are 800/1600 with a 200 ante and I display my tournament suckiness. I get KK UTG again. I decide to go 4500 because I want some action. I get two callers, one covers, and one all-in for 4200, so there's 600 on the side. Flop comes 9TJ with 2 clubs. My gut tells me I just got sucked out on, I check, and the other guy bets 8500, enough to put me all-in. I puke fold, and this d-bag rolls 44. All-in guy has A8, and a Q on the river which would have shipped me the pot at least keeps 44 doucher from winning. A few hands later I pick up Q9 OTB. Blinds 1000/2000 with 200 ante and I have 7500ish. Folds to me and I jam, get snapped off by the BB with A4o. Flop comes 345, and the 4 on the turn has me drawing dead. GG.

I head over to 1/2 and proceed to run like butt, dropping another $160. My wife is freaking out over my current $530 downswing over my last 4 sessions (10.5 hours) The nice thing about playing online is it kept her somewhat distant from the money situation of it. She never saw the downswings that were much larger relative to game size. She does not have the stomach for the swings of poker. I just keep showing her the grand total and telling her to trust me.

I guess since this is a goals and challenges thread I should outline some goals:

Hours: 8 per week
Winrate: $20/hr.

I also would like to, sometime in the next 6 months, learn PLO. There is a 1-2 5 PLO game that runs sometimes during the week when I play. Since 2/5 rarely runs during my grinding hours, I'll need to switch to PLO if I want to up the stakes. Hopefully I come out of this downswing soon, I could use a bit of run good.

Bam! Had a nice session last night! Put in a couple of hours at $1-$2 and worked my way back into the black for September with a win of $292. I'll have to do it one more time to dig my way completely out of the current hole, but getting halfway there in 2 hours isn't bad.

It was back to good old fundamental poker (for the most part). I first took down a $100 stack with a raise/bet/shove line on a low board and my JJ>99.

Next big pot was one where I got a little FPSy, but I think I like my line given the V. There was a bit of a history with this hand, based on a previous hand this Fishy V played. Hand went something like this: Fishy V limps, TAG raises, Fishy V calls. Flop KQ6. Fishy V checks, TAG bets, Fishy V calls. Turn 2, check check. River 9, Fishy V leads small, TAG makes a smallish raise. Fishy V tanks, comments on TAG having JT, and folds, claiming 2 pair. FWIW I don't believe he actually folded 2 pair here, I think he was just trying to make it seem like a tough fold. It was likely something more like QJ/QT, maybe K2. TAG claims he had AK, and fishy V seemed annoyed, and said the way it was played didn't make sense. I don't believe the TAG either though, 95% sure it was JT, maybe KK/QQ/99.

So fishy V is a little sensitive to strange lines at this point. He's down to about $130 when this hand comes up. I raise to $11 UTG with QQ. Fishy V calls OTB and the BB comes along. Flop is T42r. I bet $21, fishy V calls, BB folds. Turn is a 5s, putting two spades out there. I check, expecting fishy V to bet almost his entire range, setting up a nice shove from me. He takes the bait and bets $21, which is a little less than I hoped because now it makes my shove a relatively much larger bet, but I go with it. He tanks, and when he doesn't call within 10 seconds I know I'm good. He keeps tanking, and I'm never sure what I'm supposed to do here. I usually stick with my sit still and stare at the table move, but I've always wondered if there's any way to entice a call or a fold. He eventually levels himself into a call, and MHIG. Never did see what he had. Probably Tx or 88/99ish. I stacked him again with QQ to end his session when he ran his re-buy down to $40 and limp/shoved against my raise. Despite the worst runout for QQ at the time, my hand helped up against QJs.

It could have been an even better session, as I flopped 2 sets on the button with 22/33, and got essentially no action either time. I'm going to chalk this one up to variance, and not the fact that I just never slowplay anything. I do think I occasionally need to slowplay a bit more, as I've occasionally blown people out of hands where I could have stacked them if I had just been a bit more patient. I don't think either of my sets in this session count though, as they were both on low, coordinated boards with a flush draw.

At least I'm back to my previous winning ways. One more good session and I should be back above my high point for profit. I've got a busy week at work this week, and a busy weekend ahead, so it wouldn't surprise me if my next session isn't until Sunday night. Hopefully I can get in before that. I think at this point I would like to try and get 15 more hours in this month, and a good profit goal should be around $300, which would make for a nice September.

You're already ahead, God bless her! Play well.

Thanks! Fortunately she likes money so as long as I keep bringing home a little extra bread I can see this being a long term thing.

Well despite working back to back 12+ hour days, I felt well enough to take a shot at a short session last night. Decent table, I had good relative position against a couple loose passives and some ABC TAGs. Pretty much got no hands in 2 hours, although I did make a fold that I'm questioning a bit, as the "old me" probably would have called it down.

My biggest leak has always been making loose call downs, almost like a fish. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally I'll flop something like top pair and just call/call/call against a good runout. Sometimes I'm right, but if I had to add up all the times I did it I think I'm well in the negative. I think right now that unless I feel like I have experience in a certain spot and recognize it as a good call down, I'm going to try to default to folding. The hand:

I open JJ to $10 in the CO. Get called by an ABCish fish. I don't have a great read on him, but he seems to play too many hands, and usually just check/folds postflop. Flop comes 26Tr. He checks, I bet $13, he calls. Turn brings another T. He fires off $20. The old me would have called this and called a $20-$35 river bet. I think for about 5 seconds and just give it up. Sure, he could be spazzing with a lot of random hands, but since I'm not sure when and if he's capable of doing it, and lots of combos of Tx plus are in his range, I bail.

Dropped a whopping $21 in the 2 hour session where my stack never deviated +/- $25 the whole night. I'm unlikely to hit my hours goal this week unless I put in a good session this weekend, but I'll give this week a pass. The breakeven stretch continues.

I run like **** against maniacs. Every time I find myself at a table with multiple maniacs I am constantly getting sucked out on and out drawn. What's funny is I feel like when I'm at tougher tables I run better. I know it's just variance, but it's frustrating. Every time I flop the nuts it's against a bunch of loose passives that barely pay me off. When I'm up against guys that can't get their stack in soon enough, I get hosed. In my last 120 hours of tracked play I've probably spent 20 of them at "great" tables with multiple maniacs. I'm guessing I'm down about $800 in those sessions. All it's going to take is one night of run good at these tables to put me in the black. Some day.

One limp, I raise to $20 with AK. I've got $180 back and I'm covered by everyone in the hand. The blinds and limper call. $80 in the pot. Flop A23 SB donks out $75. BB calls. I close my eyes and shove. SB rejams with 33, gg. First time getting stacked in the last 120 hours of poker. I've debated posting that hand in LLSNL forums but I figured I'd get a bunch of "BBV is in that direction ---->" comments. But really, how much can we really like TPTK on that board when we've bloated the pot and get a massive bet right into us? Anyone reading this play it different? Whatever, I'd rather err on the side of aggression. If I end up in this spot multiple times and it's always a set I'll reconsider my position.

Back in the red for September. Thinking about taking this week off from poker and getting some stuff done around the house.

JJ is a bad fold from the amount of times the same situation has happened to me while playing live he has a pocket pair quite often here putting out a feeler bet to see were he is, you should be calling on turn pretty much always unless he is a super nit who always has it, and seeing what he does on river.

JJ hand - I'm calling $20 turn since many players still to try set price for GS or even probing w/99. I'd fold to a strong river bet.

AK hand - trying to remain objective despite seeing the results, think I'd find a fold. The donk bet is almost pot into 3 opponents including the PFR. You also have a caller, though it appears they were drawing or had a weak Ace. Readless, I'd range this play as strong - likely 54s, sets or Aces up. Even if ahead, your equity is marginal multi-way.

Stay the course and GL!

Wishing you luck hope all goes well

Thanks. I feel like i went against my instinct to fold otf. My gut told me pretty much what you said. I left out that the caller was a massive drooler and im ahead of him like 95% of the time, but otherwise i think the donk bettor usually has me crushed, and he did.

It was like i had the collective of 2+2 in my ear saying "theres $225 in the pot on the flop and you flopped tptk, shove is mandatory"

Another expensive mistake i guess. Im only down $200 this month in about 25 hours, so not awful. I hope to get back to the felt this weekend. My wife, who may lose $50 on slots in a bad night keeps getting coupons for a free nights stay at blue chip casino and we might hit that up saturday. Last time i was there the 1/3 action was pretty sweet. I just have to watch out for the $2 beers!

sub'd GL

<----fellow rec player here minus the wife

subbed. Ship eeeet

Welcome. The wife definitely makes it challenging to maintain a roll and volume. Going good so far though. Good luck on the recreational grinding!

I shipped a $13 win last night. Only played about an hour though, can't complain too much. Went to the casino with some family last night and snuck away to play a session. The streak of my sets getting drawn out on continues. But I won a couple mediumish pots to hang on for the small win. I feel like the high variance of these games comes from the fact that so much of the $$ at $1/$2NL comes from big pots when holding nuttish hands, and those just haven't been coming for me lately. It seemed like the first 20 sessions I played I would make a monster hand and get my stack in, and now it's down to about 1 in 4 sessions.

I'm hoping to get some good volume in this week (I say that every week, I know). I've got that "I haven't played much lately" itch. I realize that taking some time away from the felt helps refocus me and I come back stronger. I definitely felt on my A game last night. I'm not sure what it is, but some sessions I find myself just watching TV or BSing with people at the table instead of focusing on the villains. But last night I studied every pot and it's definitely a good feeling. Hopefully a good week!

I've played a few sessions since my last update, but barely anything worth discussing. I'm down a bit overall. The trend has been a general inability to get any sort of action with the few strong hands I've had, combined with a handful of missed draws. I think I've had one set in the last 3 sessions, and it was with KK on a K high flop, so not much action to be generated there.

I do feel like I started to play a bit worse after several learning sessions. I realized I was maybe limping a bit too much, and not doing enough raising. Last night I decided to say F that, and decided to get back to my more usual aggressive self. Raising big, even in limped pots, and c-betting the crap out of anything resembling a safe board. While I only got out of there up $14 after 2 hours, it felt like I was playing good poker again. Hopefully I can keep that up, find a few more profitable spots next time, and hopefully get a bit more rungood. Although I know I can't complain too much. This downswing is just shy of 300bb, which I'm pretty sure is laughably small to higher volume players, and is still pretty small compared to some of the ones I've had back in my online days. The nice thing about that is a 6bi downswing online might last 2 or 3 days. Live low volume I'm looking at about 4 weeks now. Hopefully the one big winning session that turns this around is just around the corner.

Played a couple more sessions. I'm definitely feeling better lately. I reflected on my play when I was winning and my play when I was losing, and I definitely feel like my breakeven/losing stretch has made me more passive. So my last 2 sessions I came out and basically said "I don't give a ****, I'm going to raise and barrel damn it." I always get afraid that I have too much of a FOS image when I'm the most aggressive player at the table. But I think now I'm starting to realize that my image is never that bad, and that I'm over reacting. I had some fun today. In about 2 hours I ran my buy-in from $200 to $300 without showing down a hand. OK, one hand where I c-bet AQ on a low flop heads up IP, and then checked down a low runout and won vs. AJs that flopped a FD. Other than that all my wins were from c-bets with air, or the more frustrating kind, 2 flopped sets and a flopped boat where I got 0 action. I probably should slow play a bit more, but I just don't. I just fire/fire/fire.

This table was weird today. A lot of limp/folding. It was tighter than average, but not exactly what I would call tight. The biggest pot of the day was one of my favorites. I open to $10 in MP with T9. TAG on btn calls. Flop comes J34. I fire $15, he calls. Turn is 5 giving me the flush draw. I fire $25, calls again. River A I fire $55, he folds. Woohoo, successful triple barrel.

My last hand of the night. They know it's my last hand, I'm UTG, got my jacket on, and look down at A9. 7 handed, so it's a thin open, but I make it $10. Only the SB calls, and he seems a tad on the loose side. Flop is a very sexy AK8. He checks and I make a $12 suck bet seeing if he sticks around. Turn is an interesting 9 He checks, I make it $25, he calls again. River is a 5 and he donks out $60. You did not just runner-runner did you mother****er? I've always posted in strat threads that c/c,c/c,donk lines are 2 pair+, and I don't think this is any exception. However I also have a very nice 2 pair here. I figure AA/KK are out, so 88/99 are his only real sets. 89/K8/K9/A5/A8/A9/AK all seem possible. All his spade draws would have to be Kxss. I figure he could also be making a desperation bluff with missed hearts. I call, and he rolls KT and wipes out my winning session in one swoop.

Pretty sure I played near close to perfect today, and even though I lost $8 in the end, it felt good. I think I have learned my lesson on passive play. Don't do it. I had too often been limping when I should have been raising, and checking when I should have been c-betting. My new poker goal is to bitch slap myself if I ever look back on a hand and realize I played it too passively.

Nice play with T9, I like limping or folding A9 better unless the table is passive AND fit/fold

Also don't beat yourself up too much when you get too aggro/spewy sometimes. I know I make more mistakes when I try to LAG it up but it's just part of the learning process.

Yeah, this is usually the top of my folding range 7 handed in EP. But this table was letting me run them over like none other. I'm not sure what kinds of hands people were folding but the one mistake I I made a couple times was raising too big preflop and blowing them all out. My normal 5X+1 was just too big for this table. $14-$16 raises were never getting called.

So an update on tonights session: Warning, bad beat stories below.

So my bankroll got raided for some home improvement money and I'm down to $193. I have a big check coming my way to replenish it, but I'd rather play with my last $193 then not at all. So I head out tonight.

First orbit I pick up KK UTG with a $6 button straddle. Button has $120. SB calls, I pop to $28, button tanks for a while, looks like he thinks about jamming, then flats.

Flop($60ish) 279r.

I bet $40, he pops to $80 with $12 behind. While he could have flopped a set here, I put him on 99+, with the possibility of slowplaying AA. I put him in for the rest of his $12, and he calls and announces trip 9's. He rivers quads, but the straight flush on the board means no high hand for him. I'm counting out my chips to ship his way and he pulls an "I want to see that hand." Douche.

Nothing for a while. Man this table is juicy. I think my check comes tomorrow, because I want to top off so bad. This is my first and only time playing short like this, only taking one buy-in.

I'm at $70 in the CO, and the btn straddles to $11. Please dear god give me a hand here. HJ+1 calls with his hands shaking. Not sure what that means, but he sucks so I'm not too worried. I look down at 99, not much of a decision, rip it in. Button says he's got one over, and calls with A5o. Ace on the board and I'm felted and done for the night.

My downswing is now $791 from my peak winnings. I hope it doesn't get too much worse than this. My actual bankroll is now down to about $1200 (once my check comes). I'm still up $2500 and at $19/hr.

In non poker news my wife talked me in to buying a dog. $1200 for a Havanese male puppy and we get the breeding rights too. Her sister owns a female so I'm told this puppy will be a good investment. While I've never been a fan of small dogs this breed is actually pretty cool, so I guess I'm down.

Got my bankroll back. I decided to experiment with buying in for the full $400 last night instead of just $200. I want to start slowly increasing my buy in size from $200 to $400 as my roll gets bigger, but figured I would kind of take a shot with a larger buy in last night.

I probably picked the wrong night to do it. I was at a relatively tough table with not a lot of soft spots, and some pretty deep stacks. All things considered I think I played pretty well. Dropped $100 pretty early only as I was getting hit by the deck preflop but whiffing flops like a boss. Got it back when I hit TPTK against a weaker player and got a couple streets of value. Finished the session down $28. I think I'll drop back down to a $200 buyin until I build this roll up some more. I definitely wasn't comfortable buying in for that much. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm psychology more comfortable playing $400 deep when I start with $200 and run it up then I do buying in for $400. I don't play more reckless with my winnings or anything, it just feels more comfortable for some reason.

Only one interesting hand I can think of.

V1 UTG (agro kid, possibly tilting from getting stacked a couple times, seems to overplay hands) raises to $10. ($250)

V2 UTG+1 (newer to the table, bought in full, seems to be playing a bit LAGy) flats. ($450ish)

Hero flats OTB with A5 ($420)

Flop ($30) J76

V1 checks, V2 bets $30 (all his bets so far have been pot sized, and he has won a couple pots with no showdown so far). I call. V1 folds.

Turn: ($90) J76J

V2 checks. I definitely wasn't expecting a check here. I thought my only hope was to hit a club on the flop and get some money on the turn, because I never thought this guy would let me see a cheap river. At this point V2 feels polarized. He's either got a full house+ right now, or is giving up on a bluff. I check back quickly.

River blanks out, he checks again. I think maybe my A high has enough showdown value and check it down. He shows a black QQ. Not sure if I could have gotten him off it, but he was obviously afraid of the two jacks on the board. Other than this hand, the run bad sort of continues. I only had one hand all session and couldn't really do much.

Hopefully I get a session in this weekend. The wife is going back to work sometime in the next couple months. So probably less time for me to play poker. But the good news, my bankroll is less likely to be raided as she's bringing in some extra money. We'll see how it works out.

I think you played it fine, he wasn't going to fold his hand to one bet either on the turn or river. Even if you barrel turn and river there is still a decent chance he calls. I like your reasons for checking

Yeah. Given his actual hand I think I played it ok. However i think his range is much wider there. Just not sure if I should bluff against it or take my A high showdown value.

Fun session last night that ended up $56 after 2.5 hours.

I started off in a $150 hole after a couple bluffs and draws didn't pay off. One hand that I probably screwed up at multiple spots:

A few limpers to me and I complete the SB with 55. Effective stacks $200. BB TAGish grinder makes it $15. One limper calls and I call (probably should fold pre here).

Flop($45) 642r.

I check, BB bets $30. My thoughts were I might have the best hand here and he may fire one barrel and give up. If I'm behind I probably have 6 good outs, but I didn't consider the action killingness of them properly. I planned on check/shoving a safe turn to bluff this guy off an overpair. In hindsight I might not be deep enough for that though.

Turn 642Jr. I check, he checks. Cool, my 55 may be best here.

River 642JKr. Dang. I check, he bets $45. He's probably value betting top pair here. Not many bluffs in his range at this point as most of his preflop raising range either beats me or has some showdown value. I may have hero called a different card, but not this one. I would look too FOS if I tried to bluff here, and this guy seems good enough to recognize it, I fold

Other than that I got in a few fun spots. A couple limps, CO makes it $15, Btn calls, I make it $50 with KK, one limper, CO, and BTN all call. $200 in the pot preflop and I've got $117 back and am first to act, ready to shove any non A flop. Flop comes K72r. Probably not shoving this flop either. I check, limper checks, CO jams ($140ish), Btn folds, I feel like a bit of a d-bag slow calling, but I don't want to snap call because the limper is still in the hand and I want him to call. He doesn't though, and I win a nice one vs. QQ.

A couple orbits later my AA gets cracked when a $110 stack flops a set against me. Very next hand after AA I'm in the SB, MP raises to $12, one call, I 3-bet to $45 with AKhh. He calls, and HU to the flop. Flop comes Q86 one heart. I bet $100 (He has like $115 back), he tanks for like 5 minutes and finally folds. Wheew.

Good session. Hopefully the downswing is behind me.

I think you played the 55 hand fine. There are many over card combos in his PF raising / flop cbetting range. Calling flop with outs, folding unimproved after that. Bad runout for your hand.

Thanks. I sometimes have trouble differentiating between spewy loose play and playing well against an opponents range. I think I generally get it right though.

So I just watched a hand where a guy had $60 left on the river, and had just called flop and turn on a K-high board. First guy announces "all-in" with about $300 back, even though effective stacks are only $60. Guy with $60 calls, and loses with KJ to KK. He then eagerly dives into his wallet and asks how much he needs to cover the all-in. While It's not entirely unheard of to find people who don't know how to handle all-in bets when they're covered, this was the first time I've actually seen someone try to pay it off. The guy kept asking "how much is it?" while digging through his wallet. I knew he was clueless but the dealer and players didn't get it, and the dealer just kept asking for the $60. Eventually he understood how "table stakes" worked. The guy was on my right, and I couldn't make a hand against him all night. I did win a small pot when I hero called him after realizing he was a bad player early, but had I realized how bad he was at the time I would have been value betting much more relentlessly.

Other than that the downswing continues. I have stepped up my aggression a notch, which I think is helping me stay even, but every time I make some sort of hand it tends to either get coolered, sucked out on, or get no action. I keep telling myself it's just variance. I'm sure I'll be able to believe it for a while longer. I'm pushing $1000 on this swing. I know it's not huge, but it's getting near some of the bigger online swings I've had. I'm starting to wonder if the swings will be a bit worse in terms of BB's at 1/2 just because of how bigger the pots are on average.

Favorite hand of last night:

Button straddles to $5, I open to $17 with QTo from the HJ, button calls.

Flop($30) 344

I elect to forgo the c-bet here as my image is kind of crappy and I expect to get called light. He checks back.

Turn($30)344K

I barrel $20. He calls sort of quickly, but his aura doesn't exactly seem confident.

River($70)344K5:spa de:

I barrel $50, he tanks, says "well I guess this is no good then" and chucks it (didn't show).

What's frustrating is I feel like my bluffing skills have improved immensely since I first started playing live regularly back in April, but I'm getting my ass kicked with top pair/overpairs. My hourly has tanked from $30 to $17. I know my volume is relatively small compared to you regulars, and this swing may not be that abnormal, but dang does it kind of sting given my volume. I'm going to try to post some more of my hands in LLSNL. I've neglected posting hands that I might have in the past because I felt like I already knew what the right play was, but maybe I'm getting overconfident.

This weekend is the MSPT tournament, and I was really hoping I would be rolled enough to either play more qualifiers and/or buy in outright, but that is definitely not the case now. I hope I will be ready when it comes back around in May.

The runbad against the drunk maniacs continues. Drunk guy on my right, only two hands I get against him all night are QQ where I 3-bet and flop Q33 and can't get him to put another dime in. Next time I pick up AKhh and completely whiff the flop in a 3-bet pot and he doesn't let me buy it. Only finished down $33 on the session though.

Hilarious antics from this guy. I personally thanked the floor manager for not kicking him out when he had $600 in front of him, instead he let him lose it all in about 30 minutes and he left on his own.

The guy got warned multiple times about string betting but I don't think he ever really understood it. The dealers just kept throwing back his additional bets (it helped that he was in the one seat). It kind of went downhill when on the flop he bets $45, gets one call, and then gets raised to $135. He started complaining about something about the raise that he didn't like. No one was really quite sure what he was upset with. He kept saying "Do you guys see that? That's not right. Look at that!" pointing at the raise. The only thing I can think of is that the raise was pushed out in 3 stacks, 2 of $15 and 1 of $105, and I think he took offense to the way it was stacked? Either way the inevitable comment came up:

"You ever play this game before?"

"You ever sucked some good dick before?"

Uh-oh. The dealers kept warning him. I don't think the floor heard that one or he's probably gone. Unfortunately he donked it all off shortly after, none of it to me of course.

I felt like I played good. The table seemed ripe to make a few plays, but one crashed and burned. $7 button straddle, the blinds and 2 others limp to me in the CO, and I make it $40 with 89o expecting to take it down. Nope. Button calls, SB calls, BB shoves $125. I didn't think about calling here, but maybe I should have re-shoved? $250 in the pot and $85 back to me, and a shove has a decent chance of getting heads up? Maybe. All fold, button laughs at me when I folded and says "you ****ed us." BB shows AQs.

I have had some good success raising out of the BB to steal limped pots. I think I want to try it more from the button. Maybe it was too obvious in this straddled pot, and the limpers were just a tad too strong.

Fun session overall. Made one good play I was proud of when I raised AQo pre and raised an OMC's small donk bet on a low flop and got him to bail. I've got to come out of this funk at some point, right?

I actually got to the room in time to try out the $40 Tuesday night tourney. I don't consider myself a great tourney player as I don't have all the "push math" worked out, but I figure I still have an edge. I really wanted to see if the weeknight tourney field is weak enough to make them more profitable than $1/$2. While the tables were soft, I think I'll stick to cash. I doubled up in the first few levels, and then went card dead as all hell for 45 minutes before finally getting my 2bb stack in with JTs and lost to AQo, finishing roughly 17th out of 42. I probably will not be playing in any more tourneys other than satellites when the MSPT comes around again.

Moved over to cash, and finally had a decent winning session, although in true Koss fashion, most of the profit came from a nice suckout.

Whale fish limping ~ 80% of hands limps, I raise in MP ($210) to $12 with AT. Fish behind me calls(covers me), limper calls, 3 ways to the flop.

Flop($33) 45T

Whale checks, I bet $30, fish calls, whale folds.

Turn ($91)45TQ

I bet $75, fish shoves. Yuck. I'm getting like 3.7:1 on a call here. If he has a set I'm not priced in. If he has a flush I'm not priced in. However if he has a combo draw or 45 I should call here. He could also have a combo draw and I have him in bad shape. I make the call (I think it's right) and hit the 9 on the river to beat his QTss.

Obviously I'm happy with the result, but in hindsight I think I should have bet the turn smaller to keep his weaker hands in, and folded if he jammed. He did snap jam, announcing "all-in" as soon as my chips hit the felt. Not sure if that read should affect my ranging on him at all? It felt like a combo draw to me.

I was already stuck $100 when that pot came up so thankfully it turned what would have been a $300 loss into a $100 win.