Shoutout to the LEGEND. Your attitude and approach both sound great, man. I'm excited to read some hand histories and hear about your successes. It's easy to have a good mindset when you're winning. It's much tougher to do that when things aren't going well. You seem like you're prepped and know exactly what approach you need!! Remember this mindset when you go through little slumps because deep down you know you can handle all that sheeeeet dude!

Rick did you ever give your net +/- of sessions? Are you actually a winning player?

Results 1/11: -$125

First time I played this year and I think I did pretty well. I jumped into the 5/5 game last night and bought in for $500. Am I properly rolled for that game? Definitely not. But whatever, I'm a gambler at heart. I'm approaching the game with a different mindset this time around. I'm going to be making some more moves and trying to be more aggressive and not be such a damned nit going forward.

Woops!

Hero MP ($520) AJos
Villain 1 BTN (covers) KXss
Villain 2 UTG ($100) A7cc
Villain 3 BB ($200) ??

Villain 2 limps utg. He has been playing very loosey goosey and not very well. Definitely a fun player. Hero raises to $25. Villain 1 call on the button and the big blind and villain 2 also calls. 4 ways to the flop.

Flop ($100) KJ4css

Big blind checks and villain 2 jams all-in for $75. I feel like raising is better than calling in this situation. I'm not too worried about villain 2 having a king because he has been playing so poorly he could really show up with any hand here. Hero raises to $200. I feel like this raise is going to force the other two players to fold a lot of weaker kings that they may have called with and get much better results than just calling. Villain 3 folds out of turn and based on the way he does it it feels like he had a weak king that I was trying to get out of the hand. Villain 2 thinks for about a minute more and then goes all-in. Comes back to me and I fold my hand thinking that I must be up against a set or flopped two pair or something. Getting 3 to 1 I'm pretty sure this is a good fold. I was wrong about his range though as it should obviously include King flush draws and maybe he also jams some combo draws. Anyways I still like the way I played this hand. Turn is an Ace and the fun player scoops with his turned top pair. Had I called I obviously would have won. Oh well. Them's the breaks sometimes.

"He must've had aces"

Hero SB ($465) KQdd
Villain MP (covers) ?? - Villain 2 in the last hand

2 limps to hero and we raise to $25. Both limpers call. 3 ways to the flop.

Flop ($75) T62dxx

We bet out $35. Villain min clicks it to $70. Not gonna fold for that weak-ass ****. This is either a set or a weak top pair type hand that is trying to buy a cheap river. We've got double backdoor draws and 3 to a royal flush. Can't fold that! We call. Will reevaluate on the turn.

Turn ($215) Ah

We both check. Good news, he probably has a ten with a weak kicker.

River ($215) 5x

We think about it for 20-30secs and then jam all-in for ~$370. Villain thinks for a little bit before folding. Phew! He tells his neighbor "He must've had aces". Haha, no pair buddy! I ain't scurred! Felt good to get that bluff through.

So anyways I liked the way that I played yesterday. I had fun chatting with the other players at the table. Good experience overall. Would have been better if I won some money but at least I didn't lose too much. I'm going to be playing again today.

I think that all of those things are important. I don't think too much "work" needs to be put into solvers but rather trying to understand the process behind it. Trying to think GTO is a better approach than trying to memorize a bunch of preprogrammed responses to different situations. And then live settings have a lot more exploitative situations that need to be considered. Playing GTO is not optimal in live poker against most opponents. Against tough regs, yes you want to be playing GTO. But against most players you have to play the player and try to exploit their tendencies.

Poker is a game of people. That's the most important lesson that can be taught in poker.

Thanks. I'm definitely going to try to work on my game as much as possible. I always have since I started playing. I bought several books when I first started playing and they helped immensely. Super System and the Theory of Poker really helped me think about the game in different ways. And now watching different youtube video breakdowns are helping me on how to think GTO and approach the game in an even better way.

Burn!!!

Yeah life is a journey, life is an adventure. You have to stop and smell the roses along the way. Literally. If I see a rose bush I will generally stop and smell the flowers. Even if I feel like a fool when I do it.

With my van being in such a crappy condition I don't really want to drive all the way down to HG but maybe I'll make a trip out there some time. I was planning on trying to play the Neeme/Owens meetup game there this Friday but I lazed out instead.

Thanks buddy. Gonna keep slugging away and trying to improve in all aspects of life. "But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" - Rocky Balboa

I don't really care to look back at this point. But let's just assume that I was a loser over the past year. At the start of last year I had ~20k and the start of this year I had ~3k and that was from working. So yeah I probably had a losing year. Does that mean I'm not a winning player? It sure isn't good. But I can tell you for a fact that I have won more than I've lost playing poker since I first started playing in 2004. Whether that means I'm still a winning player in today's day and age is something that I will have to figure out. One thing that I can say in my defense moving forward is that I'm going to be playing 100% sober moving forward. I played the entirety of my poker career stoned out of my mind and I can for sure say that that led to mistakes. So this is my final hurrah. If I can't hack it stone sober than I will cut down on how much I play significantly. I would never quit playing poker permanently because I enjoy playing poker too much. And I'm going to keep a full time job no matter what happens so that I don't have to stress about making money from gambling.

Also, I will keep a better cumulative record of how much I win or lose for this year. And I will post a graph every now and again so you guys can see my cumulative results. Gonna take some shots at some tournies too because why not? MTTs are more fun than cash games and I think we're due to bink a big one! Lol obviously that's a flawed way of thinking. But yeah I'm gonna play a tourney or two for the LAPC.

Good on you for getting the job. You seem to have
Matured quite a lot just reading the posts from the beginning of your thread and reading your posts from the past several months, your attitude seems to be a lot more humble

Hand 1 - I probably play it the same way, but probably raise so big I'm either already all in or commited to any further action. But can't blame your fold.

Hand 2 - Well played. I bet the turn sometimes as well.

Congrats on your decision for sobriety. Tough to do I'm sure.

GL in your future sessions and any LAPC shots you take.

What time you heading to the Commerce? Would love to juice that game up for you like I did last time for you and Gary in the 5/10

The fact that you have a full time job now should help your winrate, you won't feel as much pressure to have to win every session.

Even longtime proven winning players can become losing players if they are playing stressed/underrolled/not in the right mindset

Congrats on the FTJ. It will without a doubt help your win rate. I have no doubt that a part time player who studies the game and takes it seriously will have a highly hourly than a full time player.

Possibly one of the most enjoyable games of poker I've ever played!

I’m ready to spew my balls off but no Rick to be found!

Results 1/12: +$935

I had a fun time at the tables tonight. Booked a decent win which means we're now up for the year. No looking back, it's all up from here!!

I was talking with an older gentleman about old Vegas among other things and he was telling me he was there for the opening of the Sands in '56. And how he told a floor man that he was broke and didn't have gas money to get home and the floor just walked over and grabbed two five dollar chips from a tray and just gave it to him. That wouldn't happen in today's day and age. It was a smaller more personal world back then.

Aggression Pays Off

Hero CO (covers) T9cc
Villain 1 UTG ($365) ??
Villain 2 MP (~$300) ??

Villain 1 opens utg to 15. Villain 2 calls. Both players have been playing fairly loosely so we decide to 3bet to 75. This is normally a hand I would have just folded last year and I'm not sure if it's a +EV raise in a vacuum but I'm trying to build up a loose aggro image at the start of today's session. Gamble gamble. Both villains call.

Flop ($230) QT4cxc

Pretty close to the nut flop for us. Pair and a flush draw. They both check to us and we bet 75. Felt right at the time. Villain 1 calls, villain 2 folds.

Turn ($380) 8x

So we turn a gutshot to go with out pair and straight draw. Villain 1 checks and we think for 20sec before announcing "all-in". Villain thinks about it and for a second I think that he's actually going to fold better which would be great. Nope, he calls and we're gonna need some help. I don't think we had too much fold equity here but I also don't think we should be giving up either. I like the jam.

River ($810) 8c

We river the flush! Turn our hand over and it's good. Yay!!!

Couple Hands Later

Hero UTG+1 (covers) Red Aces (my favorite hand)
Villain SB ($300) AKcc - same villain from the last hand

Utg limps and we raise to 25. Villain 3bets to 90 and we're jumping for joy inside our head. I think about flatting for about half a second and then decide it's better to just go all-in which is what we do. Get called by AK clubs and our hand is 100% by the turn. Feels good man.

I won a few more hands here and there but mostly just rocked up and played tight. Need to mentally psyche myself out some more into 3betting more and playing more aggressively.

Thanks. My emotions are more even after quitting weed. I'd be mellow when I was stoned and agitated when I was sober, which wasn't often. And I wasn't doing the right things to improve my life, just spinning my wheels which wasn't helpful.

Thanks buddy. I've taken some inspiration from your PGC to be more aggressive and get back to my roots. The last year I played so nitty it's embarrassing. Of course I'm playing full ring and youre playing 6max so I've gotta make sure not to take it too far.

Anyone who hasn't checked out Mr Spyutastics thread should do so. Very entertaining and he's been on a real heater lately. Winning the same MTT back to back nights(1st and 2nd), running up 10x stacks at 200zone and 500reg tables. Haters coming out of the woodwork. Unreal. Keep it up!

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...alaxy-1716874/

Maybe next time. I was only there a few hours from like 3-730.

Yeah that's what happened to me for sure. My brain turned to mush and I stopped thinking critically about my game. And the pressure of not having a stable source of income to support myself just meant I was always playing scared.

Thanks. For me that's definitely true.

Yeah it was a really fun game for sure. Come back to LA Gary! Cong misses you! We all do!

Damn! We must have just missed each other, I left at around 730 just after the football game ended. Two ships passing each other in the night. Good luck!

I gotta be at work at 7am so I gotta go to sleep soonish. Would have pushed it a bit if I knew you were going to be there though. But I was happy to leave early and lock up a win too.

It's all good my man, glad you got a win! I just put in a quick 2 hours and this is kind of spooky but I made literally the exact amount you did to the dollar!

I'll catch you next time. I usually play at HG but will maybe PM you to setup a time to try to get a good game going.

Nice. That's some quantum entanglement. Spooky action at a distance. I'll also try to give more of a heads up when I'm going to play and for how long. Might not be for a while because my grandma's gonna be out of town for a couple of weeks. But I also want to be there for the LAPC too. So, we'll see.

rick you gotta quit that job and play live mtts for the win bro. Get some dope, some bang ass girls with tatts and smoke dope with them in the van before the mtt. Then just bink it bro. Jump into a bigger mtt and just bink it for a cool million then you will have some high class dope **** man. 10 girls in the van smoking it. with the tatts.

username checks out

That's the ****ing plan man! Minus quitting the job. Not until after I bink!!! Win a 1k tourney, then win a 10k tourney, then win some high rollers, next thing you know I'm winning the one drop. Then we put it all on black!

I'm gonna play a couple of tourneys for the LAPC. The $570 and the $1100. Probably play Saturday, maybe Friday, maybe both if I'm really feeling degenerate. Also I plan on playing cash games on the weekends in the meantime. My plan right now is to hit up the casino this Friday to Sunday. Maybe even head there tomorrow after work. Will see if I'm still feeling up to it then. If not, I'm a lazy pussy.

https://www.commercecasino.com/app/u...LAPC-40.40.pdf

https://www.commercecasino.com/app/u...PC-MILLION.pdf

Rick, if I may : from what I noticed from your previous MTT HHs ITT, you seem to indulge in overbet shoves too much... I would suggest a more small ball approach (at least as far as sizing goes) and perhaps catching up on the latest tendencies with a few youtube videos beforehand... GL

Thanks. I've watched every single video from FindingEquilibrium's youtube channel already which has a fair bit of MTT analysis. I'm going to try to play my opponent's as best as I can and take whatever I can.

I feel like my MTT game is pretty solid and my shoves have always been correct. Or maybe you mean shoving and getting worse to fold instead of getting paid off by better? I think overall my shoves have pretty solid value and get called fairly often when I'm ahead. I will though be trying to take more of a small ball approach, but sometimes you just gotta let it rip. Like a fart!

I'm honestly racking my brain trying to think of a time in the past 3 years where I've shoved all-in in a live tourney and gotten called by better. And I think I get called by worse quite often when I do. If anyone can find a hand please show me, I'd appreciate it for sure. Maybe I should be shoving more? Taking more risks? Probably.

Anyways I'm mostly playing for the thrill of victory and the glory. MTTs are just fun. I think I have a higher hourly at cash games. But again maybe I'm just ******ed all around. That's probably the case.

bro you could have a new tatted up girl every night to smoke some dope in your van with. Don't upgrade your lifestyle to be staying in a hotel just sleep in the van and play high rollers. You gotta stay true to your roots.

I wish you a prosperous MTT year!

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Good luck Rick. MTTs are the best!

Hi-ho!!! Off to Commerce Casino I go! 5/5 cash games today/tonight and tomorrow assuming I don't lose too much. Hopefully will have some interesting hand histories or stories tomorrow morning.

Some music for the fans and op to get us all pumped!