Thank you! I had my suspicions since there are basically no games running. I am just playing for fun and fully anticipate not being able to pull any money off the site.

Day number 12 sober. Other than boredom, not drinking isn’t all that hard. Granted, I enjoy alcoholic beverages just as much as the most avid fan, about half of this thread has been devoted to it. However, I realized that I wanted to spend the remaining years of my 20’s more sober than intoxicated. When I look back at my 20’s to this point, things are pretty hazy on the memory front. I do not intend to completely curtail my drinking forever, but rather I am looking at this situation as a way of getting in control of my drinking rather than having my drinking habit control me.

Tournament hand that I mentioned in my previous post:
Final table, 6 handed, have some history in blind vs. blind w/ villain.
Villain has played pretty straightforward to this point in about 6 or 7 previous blind vs. blind spots, from what I can tell. The only exception is overplaying some hands preflop. For instance, a couple of times he open shoved ~20bb pf and showed hands like AT & A8. Villain has been chatting in the box w/ a few of the other players, and an indication that I got was that he was getting tired of the tight play.

Blinds: 2,500/12,5000/25,000
Villain (SB): 515,538
Hero (BB w/ J4): 581,332

Action folds to villain, he calls, I check.

Pot: 65,000
Flop: 7K4

Villain bets 25,000, hero call.

Pot: 115,000
Turn: 7

Villain bets 50,000, hero calls. I am thinking that I have some equity in this spot, albeit maybe not a great amount. I really felt like villain would not bet ott w/ a 7 in his hand. The overriding theme that was in my head, was that villain was going to fire the turn regardless of what came. So I was anticipating a bet. When the bet came out quickly, my suspicion was confirmed. I don’t really have any plays in mind other than I decided that I was going to call the turn, and see what he did otr. I don’t think that this villain is going to fire three streets with any medium strength hands.

Pot: 215,000
River: 4

Villain checks. Now, this seemed very peculiar to me, the spot more so than villains check. I am constantly looking in tourneys for spots where I can get thin value. This situation may not be indicative of thin value, but I am not tourney expert. In any case, I think that villain has several hands that I can get value from, so now I decide that I need to pick a good amount.
I bet 75,000, and villain instantly ships his remaining 413,038. I absolutely did not see this coming. I ran my timer all the way down and called. I believe that I am either way ahead (he is bluffing) or I am way behind (he has a 7). I go with my initial read that I don’t think villain would bet his 7 ott. Additionally, I don’t think that villain insta check, ships the river w/ a 7 in his hand.



I am currently looking for some tournament in my area to hit up. I am looking at the Choctaw Poker Series in Durant currently, and have considered going to the WSOPc in Council Bluffs.

Night view from hotel in Pensacola:


Day view from hotel in Pensacola:


Local IPA that I enjoyed my fair share of. This brew is a little darker you might notice than the tradtional IPA. I wish I could remember the name of it but In true drunk fashion, I cannot.



Also in true drunk fashion, the eatery in the picture above is where I ate at on three separate occasions. It was across the street from the hotel and was the great traveling distance that I could muster. I do remember the name was Red Fish Blue fish. The food was good. I got to enjoy oysters, shrimp and cajun po'boys, calamari, etc..

I am planning on getting back into the card room this evening, and perhaps tomorrow night as well.

Played 3 hours and 40 min., w/ a -$43 result last night. I would have played a loner session but I have had a heinous cough for the past week and a half. I am over the cough for the most part, but some of the residual cough was lingering at the table last night and I didn't want to subject the other players to that for an extended period of time.

I couldn't come up with many hands. There was a pretty poor player immediately to my left, but I couldn't make a hand against him. I shoved an opened straight draw otf against him and he called his last $60 with KQ high and held. If played again, I would have called otf rather than shoving because he is extremely loos/passive to the point of being a station. Lesson learned.

Out to play a round of golf this afternoon.



My buddy showed up last at the casino last night and I bought his Nike Victory Red blades off of him.



Will post results. Hopefully I don't embarrass myself. Golf game has been really rusty of late.

Totals:
Time Played: 89 hours 7 min.
Profits: +$148

First things first, I shot a 96 at the course on Friday. Before you laugh, This was only my third time playing this year and I feel good that I have shaved 16 strokes from that first outing. In any case, it felt much more refreshing to be on the course than in the office.





I am still sober, !

I witnessed a first for me last night. Three people showed up on the river with A2 in their and two pair. I had initially raised preflop with JJ and had villain lead out for $35 otf and two others called in front of me. The 2 came on the turn and all three players went wild. Action checked around otr. My picture is not the highest quality but I captured the board and two of the hands, kind of.




3rd hand of the night, I raised to $15 pf w/ AKss. I got four callers and the flop came QsJd6S. Villain leads into me for $35 and has about $65 back. I shove and lead bet villain calls. I brick out and he shows QTo. Villain was taking a stand because I won the second hand of the night with a pf raise and a cbet otf when it was obvious I had KQ high.

About 4 hands later I stack previous villain with AK on an A high flop where I cbet big, check turn and shoved river when he checked to me again. The pot was around $350 due to some other callers mixed in there.I am thinking what a great game I am in to be able to ship 100+bb pots with single paired A's that get to the river.

Played 4 hours, 22 min. +$466

I feel like I am make great personal strides in several areas of life. Even if poker is a bit of a slow go at the moment, I am unfettered. The other areas of life that I have been looking to improve post-work are coming along, and these areas far outweigh the arena of poker in life. Although, as a result of my relaxed attitude and improved outlook on life, I feel that my poker game has benefited tremendously.

Totals:
Time Played: 93 hours 29 min.
Profits: $614

You gonna be at Council Bluffs?

I had kicked that idea around, but I am going to play some of the Choctaw tournament events near the end of this week and next instead.

"The only outcome of value is that which is realized by utterly committing all of one's resources to the task at hand." ---Mark Twight

So I have been putting a great amount of thought into what I want my goals to be. I am trying to narrow the scope on what I want my goals to be for a few reason.
1. I will be able to narrow my focus.
2. I will be able to chart and track my progress.
3. I will be able to identify faulty practices.

There are probably others.

Goals:
1. Play a minimum 20 hours of poker each week.
2. Show a profit of $10k from Live NL Cash by the end of 2016.
3. Final table a live tournament that has a buy-in of min. $160.
4. Maintain sobriety until May 26th bet date.
5. *Less tangible* Obtain an income and mindset, that offers a lifestyle void of the need for 9-5 work.

So, these are some pretty modest goals. I am setting the bar pretty low, but even these newly proposed metrics will be difficult for me, I feel. I will post following each session, as well as, a weekly recap/update on Sunday evening. That is assuming anyone would like to follow along with this challenge. in addition will be my continued pursuance of personal growth.

*As it pertains to the quote above; I realize that I am not fully investing myself in poker with my new challenges. However, the approach that I take in every one of my personal/life endeavors is prodigious. One can rest assured that, even though my lack of poker may be evident at times, everything that I pursue, I pour myself into it. On the felt, in the garden, cooking dinner, learning the guitar, driving cross country, etc... So, that is to say that in my current state of affairs, 20 hours per week is the max that I can invest into poker.

My endeavors, I believe, will all coincide in finding what my full investment must be. Additionally, I think that each of my pursuits offers the opportunity to grow better in different ways.

Played 7 hours 11 min, +$255

I was able to put in a pretty good stretch last night. I rivered a straight flush on a guy that turned the nut flush on me for a for ~$300 pot. Then I lost w/ the flopped K high flush to the flopped A high flush for ~$300 pot.

I stole one pot where I thought two opponents were weak. This is probably spew in most scenarios and I got lucky in the spot this time.

I am sitting w/ $400+ and only the mp player has me covered. My image is a tight one. The K high flush hand mentioned above just occurred about 4-5 hands previously. Pfr in the hand is LAG (had been), and other villain sat down about 6-7 hands before.

I am utg+2 and open limp T9ss. MP raises to $11, player behind him calls, button calls, bb calls, I call.

Pot: $55
Flop: Q48

Action checks around.

Pot: $55
Turn: 6

BB checks, I check, MP bets $30, player behind calls, others fold, I call. I am playing on hitting my hand/taking the pot away. I believed that the pfr would have cbet the flop if he had a Q, and that the players behind him would have bet otf with a Q when the action checked to them. Once I think that there are no paired Q's out, if the river comes a safe card that doesn't hit my hand, I am planning on bluffing at the pt.

Pot: $145
River: 4

I lead out for $75. Pfr insta-folds, player behind him thinks for a minute and folds. Although my bet isn't huge in relation to the pot, I figure that it is enough to get the job done in this situation when there are no paired queens out. Also, I don't think the pfr has a 4 in his hand, and doubt that the player behind him continues w/ a 4.

Totals:
Time played: 100 hours 40 min.
Profits: $869

would need special dynamics to openlimp pre. as played, i like leading turn and following through on brick rivers/when you bink. your river donk looks bluffy, and i agree that you may have been lucky to get this one thru.

enjoying the thread, gl!

Hey, Bob! I am glad that there is a modicum of interest in the thread. You are absolutely right. None of the villains that I am playing against are putting my in many tough spots, so open raising hands like T9ss seem like a much better option.

Last night played 6 hours, 35 min. -$255

I played one hand pretty poorly that I was not very pleased with afterwards. Table has two newer players. My image is tight, if not very tight. I am utg+2 and have $350 in front of me and I cover all but one of the future villains.

One of the newer players that has been seated long open limps utg (w/ a stack size of $24). I raise to $10, two players behind me call, button calls, sb calls. Utg then shoves $22 when the action gets back to him. I call, all previous callers call, and sb then shoves his last $46. The action comes back to me and I call, as do the two players behind me. The button folds.

The reason I called the additional all-in raises; I knew that the shoves never have strong hands, and in fact, I felt like my KTss would play very well multi-way against them. In addition, I knew that the players behind me were just calling, always, and that there hands were going to be played very transparently post-flop. I estimated at least one caller behind, in addition to what was out there. Before any other callers, I am getting 2.5 to 1 pre-flop.

In any case, the board runs out extremely barren, the action gets checked down, and the sb shove wins the pot w/ ATo.

Aside from my playing the hand poorly, there was a funny note I thought. The utg shover after the hand mildly berated me for being a dumb internet player. I am not really sure what that meant, but sounded like something Phil Hellmuth might say and I thought it was pretty funny. The guys thumbs looked like big toes, and I thought the guy might have been a wrestler based on appearance. In any case, I didn't want to exacerbate things and catch a real life beatdown, so I just laughed internally and thought that I would passive aggressively post the story here on 2+2.

Totals:
Hours played: 107 hours, 15 min.
Profits: $614

Played 6 hours, 8 min last night for -$318.

Last night made me realize that I constantly need to keep my game under the microscope, and that I have some serious leaks that need to be plugged. First, I need to identify as many of my leaks as possible.

I lost two 100bb+ pots last night that pretty much sank my session. The first big pot that I lost was pretty bad on my part. The second hand was close, but I should have probably found the fold.

Hand 1:
I will just give a rough recounting of things as it was only about 10 hands into the session and I didn't notate it. There is a young, I thought loose player, utg (He was detailing the Troopers vlog to another player at the table and from his table talk, I thought that he would get wild).

My stack is $205 and villain covers me, $5 button straddle is on, 3 limpers in front of me, including the young guy utg, I raise to $15 w/ AJ, BB calls, villain calls, two other limpers call.

Pot: $75
Flop: A8x9

All check to me, I bet $45. Villain raises to ~$90 and I shove. Villain snap calls and has A8 and holds.

Hand 2:

I am in the CO w/ a $225 stack. $5 button straddle is on. Two ep limpers in front of me, I raise AK to $15, sb (villain and has me covered. ABC player) calls, and the two limpers call.

Pot: $60
Flop: 689x

All check to me, I bet $50, sb shoves and I call. I turn the Jc for the flush and the Jd hits the turn and gives villain the pot. I was getting the odds to call based on the range of hands that the villain has, at least I don't think that I am.

The rest of the session consisted of me not being able to make any hands to value bet for about the next 3.5 hours, so I just folded most hands the rest of the way.

I feel that this thread is going to transition into: Noob quit his job and working on becoming profitable at live 1/2NL. This is where the majority of the leak identification and plugging will come into play.

For the Week:
19 hours and 54 min. (I would have hit the 20 hours mark this week but the table broke when this guy lost his mind on another player. After busting the player, and leading up to it, he was basically spewing racist gibberish and threatening physical harm on people. I am not sure why the floor didn't kick him out, but they let it fly. It was pretty gratuitous. I didn't want to sit a new table just for 30 min or less with an hour drive ahead of me and it being almost 2 a.m.)
-$318
Still Sober. Will be three weeks Saturday.
No tournaments played.

Totals:
Time played: 113 hours, 26 min.
Profit: +$296

Good Luck man! I like reading your posts.

whats your bankroll at?

That's great to hear! Thanks for following along. I am trying very hard to continue my documentation of my continued growth.

Theoretically my bankroll is $10,296. I have continually kept my bankroll separate from the rest of my funds that I use for life's expenses. All of the money that I win/lose directly influences the $10,000 bankroll that I initially set aside. *I will need to deduct tournament entries from my bankroll to arrive at the precise amount. To date, I have only entered ~$500 worth of tournaments. My intention is to keep my cash game results that I report separate from all else to derive my hourly, but the tournament entries should come out of my bankroll.

Aside, I am meeting a friend to play a round of golf tomorrow afternoon and then will be hitting the cardroom for poker afterwards. I plan on getting in about 5 good hours tomorrow. Also, I plan on playing on playing in a tournament series at the Choctaw casino in Durant, OK. The event will I am going to fire at will be the $200k guarantee. I am probably going to be playing Sunday night to hit my 20 hour mark for this week.

Played 4 hours 12 min. last night for +$286.

I recently started to reread No Limit Holdem Theory and Practice. My intent is to uncover some of my leaks. Low and behold in the first few passages I identified one big leak of mine. "Big pots and big bets are for big hands". I think this advice is crucial for the the lowest live stakes of NLHE.

Some of the advice seems like it should be a no-brainier, but will slip my mind from time to time. In regard to building big pots with vulnerable hands, see my AJ hand where I get stacked above. I haven't completely unpacked that hand to see what could have been done differently, but I believe there is some instance of that involved.

Another key aspect of play to low live stakes no-limit, or any stakes of no-limit, is planning your hand. Knowing stack sizes, how you are going to control/get all of the money in is vitally important. Beginning to plan preflop cannot be discounted and has to begin here.

Totals:
Time Played: 117 hours 38 min.
Profits: +$582

T&P was a game-changer for me, that was like 6 yrs ago, I'd imagine some of the ideas are ldo now in some circles, and sometimes not as applicable against the dummies you find at the low stakes, but in terms of thinking about the game I love that book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Get the PokerJournal app, best $12.99 you'll ever spend.

I agree with you. Getting in the right frame of mind and thinking about different poker concepts really help me to identify where some of my leaks are. It also sheds light on previous leaks that I thought I had licked.

I figured up that I am -$300 in tournaments thus far. I have only fired twice at the one tournament series previously mentioned itt. I have been using the PokerIncome app, but I will look into PokerJournal at your recommendation.

Thanks!

Played 5 hours 41 min. last night, +$30.

At one point I was up $330, and then my table broke. After the table change, I got shut out in every pot that I played for the next 3+ hours. I pre-flop raised $12 and $15 into oblivion. It felt like torture to continually get dealt broadway cards and pocket pairs, raise, and be called in 5-6 spots. It wasn't the proposition of all the calls, it was just my inability to connect with any boards. In any case, I realized some some adjustments that need to be made, albeit a bit late in my session.

No tournament updates as I did not play as intended. This is totally my fault and due to poor planning. My drive to the tournament site is just over two hours, and the turn around for a day two would be very short with a Sunday restart time of 12 pm. I decided to forgo the tournament and look to make sure that hotel accommodations are booked in advance in the future.

Starting this upcoming week I am going to incorporate an additional day into the playing fold in order to reach the 20 hour per week mark.
Week Totals:
9 hours 53 min of 20 hours played
+$316
Sober for 32 days
No tournaments played

Challenge Totals:
Time Played: 123 hours 21 min.
Profits: +$612

Played 5 hours 10 min. last night, -$360.

I was looking to add a new night into the fold and accomplished that last night. The session started off pretty rocky. I had JJ on my 3rd hand, two limpers in front of me, I am MP and raise to $15, HJ & Button call, the two ep limpers call. Flop was Q68x. Action goes check check, I bet $30, HJ folds, Button calls, utg calls, utg+2 raises to $75. I fold, button folds, utg calls. Turn was 9x, utg checks, and flop raiser shoves and gets a fold.

Two hands later, I have AK w/ $155 in front of me for an effective stack. Utg limps, I raise to $15, mp player calls, button calls, bb calls, and utg calls. Flop is A48x. Checks to me, I bet $45 and button is the only caller. Turn is Kc. I think for a second and shove as I have less than a pot size bet left. My reasoning is; I feel like this player who calls me otf has a flush, but that I may have some tiny amount of fold equity against a very small flush and it is a catastrophe if he has two pair and shoves and I fold thinking that he has the flush, additionally I have 4 outs against a flush. Villain calls, has 75, river bricks and he ships the pot.

Nearing the end of the session, my image is TAG, I have $385 in my stack and cover all but one at the table. villain is sitting effective ~$91 otb. I am 2nd to act pf in a 5-handed game w/ QT. I raise to $10, villain calls otb, and sb calls. Flop is Tx4s3s. Sb checks, I bet $20, button calls, and sb folds. Turn is 8x. I check, villain goes AI for $61. I feel like villain would have shipped otf if he had a T. I look at villain and he doesn't look very comfortable. I call, tell him I have a T, he says okay. River is an A and he tables A4 and his hand is good.

Lost a pot at the table I got moved to about 20 min. before leaving for the evening. Long story short, I was getting 3.7 to 1 ott w/ the nut flush draw and bricked for a -$130 hand.

Not trying to turn this into a bad beat story, just providing some context for my loss. Also, looking for some analysis on possible spew. I think the AK hand may have been spew, but I did have some rationale that lead me to the decision that I made.

Hey great thread! I recently made a post about alcohol and poker and I was wondering did you drink when you played? If so, how has not drinking affected your game? GL with all your goals!

Thanks for the love!

Occasionally I will will/would drink while playing, but never really to excess. The exception being when I was in Vegas. I tended to get blotto near the end of my sessions while in Las Vegas. If one were inclined to be results oriented, my Vegas trip would suggest that I am a phenomenal player when drunk.

I think that if an individual has a solid grasp on poker fundamentals, drinks on a regular basis away from the table, and limits themselves to just a few drinks while playing, it would not be a huge detriment, but that's just my two cents. I have read a few studies that suggest that a beer or two can aid in cognitive function, but there is a steep drop off after just a couple of drinks.

In all honesty, I expected my thought process to be much clearer at the table and post session without the haze of alcohol permeating my play, but that hasn't really been the case. I think that I am utilizing so much willpower towards not drinking at the moment, that a good deal of my mental capacity is being occupied.

Thanks for the well wishes!

Just got a text saying that I shipped my no drinking bet. Although, I plan to continue to abstain from drinking through at least Sunday to make it through the 40 day threshold for my own personal growth. Lent about a month late. I may hold off drinking longer or pick it back up and see if I can stay in control of the habit, which I think would be a real sign of progress.

Nice. Ask for a double or nothing now.

Played 6 hours, 12 min. last night, +284

Pretty disappointed in my play from last night overall. I paid a couple of people off in spots where I shouldn't. I keep thinking that players are getting wise to my aggressive play and playing back at me, but for the most part villains just make hands and bet.