Hey guys!

To those reading this, we may have crossed paths at some point over the last few years! I had a couple PG&C goals I think in the 2013-2014 area. One with some success and one without.

I've spent the last couple years in the dark when it comes to the poker community, mostly focusing on studying and grinding my way up the poker ladder, but I returned in the past year to launch a coaching ad for micro to small stakes players here on 2plus2.

However I've decided to come out of hibernation and share my continued story of learning, grinding, and self-improvement.



My Past Couple Years in Poker:




My most recent 100k hands @ 5evBB Winrate


I currently put volume in on Stars, Bodog, and Party, and Ill be posting fun and interesting HHs from a mix of all 3. During this past spring/summer of 2017 I decided to get coaching from two solid winners at 500z+ (Ill keep them anon unless they state otherwise) as well as mental game coaching from Jared Tendler. Ill out him since I doubt there is a single person who doesn't love him! and for good reason too.



Mental Game Struggles:

I've always had troubles with confidence, motivation, and tilt issues. Due to a particularly rough stretch of variance in 2016, I decided to add Jared as one of my coaches for my 2017 turn around. It was, and still is worth every penny.

As you can see above, I had some decent results at 400nl/600nl and was safely rolled to play, but mentally I was not able to handle the strain long term and I made the conscious decision to move down to 200nl during my 2017 learning spree.

This thread is meant to serve as a reminder of accountability to be confident in myself and find the motivation to put in serious hours again! Take a look at my hand/hour totals for the past 3 months.


This pattern reflects a similar one in 2016, but this time somewhat due to the mass amount of coaching and studying I was doing. Tapping into my mental game like never before with Jared also kicked up dirt I had no idea was even there in my mind. This caused a motivational slow down which was somewhat expected. But as I make serious changes to my lifestyle and mindset over the past months, I have come to the conclusion that it's time to hold myself accountable and start really putting in the work I know I can do!



The Goals of this Thread:

80+ Hours Per Month
40k+ Hands Per Month



A Little More About Me:

I currently split my time between Canada and Brazil. I'm a 25 year old Canadian from Niagara Falls and I stay with my girlfriend in Salvador whenever I can. I'm a die hard Toronto Maple Leafs fans and when I'm not posting hands or graphs or pics of these two lovely countries, I'll be trying to start discussions about Matthews and the Leafs!


Thanks for reading guys and I'll be posting a follow up in a bit with a first session post and maybe some recent pics. If you show me some love and have a thread of your own here I will try my best to reciprocate!


Cheers,
Brad

First ^^^^^ glglglglgl!

GL man!!

Thanks guys!

First session of the thread:




I'm making this thread after a 4 day hiatus from poker while out of town. I haven't taken that much time away from poker in probably 4 years! This was my first session back and I felt pretty good.

I love playing the game when I really focus and think everything that goes into a hand. One of my biggest leaks has to be the fact that I don't use my timebank enough. So one thing im resolving to do and working on hard to change is slowing down my actions to give myself enough time to use every bit of thought processing power that I have available.




Vs an reg who caught me red handed




This one went through




vs a reg
Flop is debatable on this board, but with so many overcards in his flopping range I think protecting my x/c range with top set is alright, especially vs this sizing. More inclined to x/r a smaller cbet




Not sure why he didn't just shove. What an awkward spot haha, he tank called with massive pot odds yet probably still -ev

gl man

Subscribed. GLGL!

tyty!



Here's a couple photos I have saved on my phone to share. I have hundreds more neat photos of places saved on a hdd but can't access them at the moment.

Good luck.

glgl

in glgl

How are the games at bodog compared to party? I'm not allowed to play there but just curious because I keep seeing some very good winrates of bodog regs.

and Gl!

nice results. subbed.
how many tables are you playing at once?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

Games at bodog are extremely soft due to Bovada/Ignition's amazing American advertising team and rep as trusted sportsbook among the recreational masses.

Due to rake increase WRs mightve dropped but I think up to 7-8bb/100 is still def maintainable. Hard to say as I don't play as much on there as I used to but I think im like 9bb over my last 50k+ which is nice. Its the 300-350 hands per hour max (reg tables) and terrible software that will crush your spirits there unfortunately.

Also if you aren't pulling at least 4-5bb in your games Id say its probably not worth the slow volume and high variance of the player pool with 0 rb. Same goes for stars these days with so low rb. Hard to make a case there unless youre confident you pull 4bb+ in your games on ~5% rb.

I've just started putting volume in on Party and that's where most of my hands are going right now just to see if a 2-4bb winrate is attainable. The regs are much weaker than on stars but there are way more now and the reg to fish ratio is much worse than on stars now as well. + potential bots and all.

I'm playing 6 tables of party, or 4 of bodog, or 3 of zoom


Thanks Everybody!

GL man!

Yesterday wasn't so great for results



Just one of them days!





Not so sure about this hand overall but I think x/c is fine and on turn or river once. I dont love his hand selection to try and bluff me since I dont think we fold better or call worse but at least I know his cold 4 range is here is pretty wide so flatting pre was def right





But then I go and do the same haha although i think he has a lot of Tx and Jx and maybe some Qx that will have to fold here. I can x back some flushes and straights and sets that can vbet this size otr as well. Not sure if bet turn and shove riv is better or not though.

Today was much better!





I got a slice

This is the hand that caused all the EV commotion. I think both x/c and x/r turn are going to be fine but my thinking that led to x/r was that it was mw with a fish behind me therefore I can have all sets ott to x/r and I put him in a spot where he cant profitably call better FDs (maybe A4dd or Q9dd if he calls them pre). villain is a reg so he also prob doesnt have much or any AK so he is in a tough spot with all his Kx leaving only 3-9 combos of sets (88/99 can 3bet pre esp vs fish opener) for him to defend with. Seems my thinking was okay because he tank called with bottom set, the only gauranteed bet/call I thought he could have. I sucked out

EDIT: I just realized I made a bit of an EV mistake by shoving. It would probably be better to x/r to like 80-85 and then shove any river except a K for about 150 into 200.




This one is tricky otf. Its a good board for villain to x/r here so I consider 3betting flop to defend my hand but I think stacking off flop would be poor in an srp and I have good equity to call. Turn kinda sucks, not sure if I can call turn or not. im basically just hoping enough of his x/r bluffs missed and/or that he still fires some frequency of worse sets for protection, but his sizing is not appealing. Next to some straights its still near top of my range though and I likely have very good implied odds when I make a boat so w/e, cant be a horrible call. Riv is easy fold






I had a session today with Tendler and we spent it creating a document outlining the core issues of my mental game that we've dug up over the last 5 sessions, and then outlining them with the symptoms that occur due to them (tilt, loss of motivation etc.)

Here's a sneak peak at what it looks like:

Hey guys!

I just thought id post a bit more about me as a bit of an introduction.


Poker is my main passion and obsession but I have other hobbies and things going on in my life that might be worth sharing!


If you've read OP, you know I'm from Canada and I love hockey. I've been a die hard leafs fan from the day I was born, and except for a stint of a couple years in college I've followed every season pretty adamantly!


It'll always be the ACC. Not a fan of this "ScotiaBank Arena" rename



Ive also become a fan of soccer, my number one has become Esporte Clube da Bahia (Brazilian Series A)




I also play in a beer league myself. It's all for fun but it's also competitive and physical. It's no contact but the refs let it go most of the time. In Canada we call it "chippy". Nothing like getting a composite stick across your hands and then ran into the boards. I love the sport!

I'm rocking 93 here



In the past couple years I've started doing some travelling. It's something I never really got to do previously in life so they were all amazing experiences!


Scuba Diving off the east coast of Brazil


On the beaches of Cancun


The Port of Salvador, near where I stay for periods of time



and to cap off this short list, over the last year I've started a new hobby in Airsoft. Airsoft is basically the military simulation of paintball. It's a lot of fun and I've found good groups of guys, many of them CAF vets/reserves that get together on weekends and shoot at each other in the woods.

As an online poker player, airsoft is a perfectly balanced hobby. It gets you out of the house for at least a few hours, gets you a lot of physical activity in, allows you to enjoy the outdoors and the fresh air, and is an absolute blast. I've never had a bad time playing airsoft so far! For any poker players out there looking for a fun hobby I'd be more than happy to answer questions about the game.


I'm front-right here




Thanks for the read guys, session updates coming soon!

Good stuff man. Don't play holdem but I will follow along. Are there zoom type tables on Party? GL

could you expand a bit of the bolded? really interested in your thoughts on this as I'm having trouble thinking about it--is it because you want to price in his flushdraws which we would like for him to call on the turn and then fold to a river bet?

thank you,

love the thread and appreciate your thoughts.

Awesome start of the thread. Interesting hand histories.
If you dont mind, Ive got couple of questions for you poker and life wise.
1. How do you see yourself in 5 years, regarding poker? Take your age into account.
2. When did you meet your girlfriend and was what the first thing she said to you?
3. Is poker more about testosterone than grey matter?

Best of luck for you in days to come.

Thanks! no zoom for 200nl but there is at 100nl or lower I think.


Thanks for the love!

and it's not for that reason because, while we do make more when he calls and folds river with those types of hands, we also lose more when he calls and hits a better flush and compared to the times we shove and he has to fold those better naked fds (non Kx FDs) and we win the pot outright, Idon't think the EV will be all that different, but one line is much easier.

One reason Im thinking x/r might be better is for the reason you said but with different hands in his range. if he's calling off hands like AA,AK to our shove then a smaller x/r will be superior since our range looks a lot stronger with that size + shove otr and few riv cards improve those hands so he's not getting any better odds when having to put more in anyway. It also does the same against some hands that may decide to call turn to a smaller raise like QQ/JJ/JTs/T9s/87s type hands. Might be a good spot to pio since its not really clear which option is better (if either haha)



1. (don't say doing your wife, don't say doing your wife) "Doing your...son?"

2. Oi, probably. her english was not great back then haha

3. All I can think of is breaking bad. It's got lots of both

Session update!

The weekend wasn't great for me as soon below, but I bounced back today to have a pretty good day! I mixed a little 100nl to help reduce the variance as I'm on a 15bi downswing



Me on friday (start of this graph)



Let's see some hands



Interesting hand. I think calling flop is best in a srp, but turn I debated just calling and rethinking river vs shoving to protect my hand. 6 isn't the greatest shove card though because some combo draws get there and he has some better 9x. I think shoving on a non club J-A would be good but since we pick up some gutshot equity I dont think a 6 is too bad either. Just sucks that his x/r flop bluffs prob contain hands like T8cc and 58cc





when getting it in on this flop you usually don't expect to have ~80% equity vs any given hand in his range so this one was nice




This guy has shown every sign of being a reg from what I could tell until this hand. Still no idea what to classify him as but Ill take these all day!




I think he's trying to rep my hand haha. But I think my range is polarized enough to make bluffing here pretty redundant in practice. Also his sizing is a nice donation but makes no sense.

I am not sure if call call is more EV than shoving turn.

Some people shut down after being called on the turn, and others will continue to bluff their clubs (and air) on the river [which is way more +EV than shoving turn].


Thank you for sharing. This is pretty awesome for me and I like your thought process.

glad to have you posting! Im always interested in discussing hands.

and yea its tough without much info on villain but I think its a decent turn card for him to bluff and I can put a lot of his equity in a tough spot when he bets to this size and I shove. Had he gone smaller and kept me from being able to shove Id prob go with a call. I feel like call would be my standard play but yea, obv his value range is thin when I block 9 and I prob 3bet flop with a lot of better 9x so this is near top of my range that could raise here.

Again might pio this for another opinion but meh, ev is gonna be pretty close theoretically between shove and call imo and vs an unknown it prob doesnt matter much. for that reason maybe I just call to reduce variance but then I have to make another decision which can potentially make it less ev based on how I play it.

I think I def like shoving non club J-A as it blocks some of his better 9x and puts some top pairs into his continuing range hopefully. 8,6,5 are all the worst cards to come, a club lowers ev of course but makes it an easier decision (call). not sure what I do on 4,3,2 but allowing my opponent to continue bluffing or protecting my hands vs his equity both seem fine to me. Dont want to spend too much time splitting hairs on close ev spots though, gotta find the areas that cause bigger ev losses and correct those mistakes in my game!

very true.