Cool thanks, going to be playing live more soon so I must have another look at Crush Live Poker.

Mojitos come with a lime wedge usually, that counts as eating twice in a 12hr session right? :P

In for Whatsapp group.

Playing any of the 888 donkament series at aspers?

Yeah highly recommend them, they're great value if you play live poker.

Whatsapp'd! (if thats a thing)

Nope off tourneys for a while! Congrats on shipping the last one though, good start to your live poker adventure!

Got a free Seat to the opening event which I'm playing this Saturday.

One time one time one time...

Find your hands and insight really interesting, keep posting!

Looks like they've got a nice spread of cash games as well in case you get knocked out early!



#pokeraintdead

I'd like to post some hands but really I just haven't come across any interesting or close spots, but here's a few:

Hand #1

V1 is a hyper LAG who does lots of bonkers stuff. V2 is your average £2/£5 reg. An insane £2/£5 game that played more like a £5/£10 really. Folding really bad; the BB has 99 here soooo much, the SB is never going to check trips on the turn (if he even has it at all in his range), and when I flat I'm going to look so strong on this texture.

£2/£5, £800 effective. Hero opens to £25 in EP with KQ (standard raise), V1 calls SB, V2 calls BB.

Flop 744 Pot £75, SB donks £50, BB calls, I fold.

Hand #2

Against a really tight passive player on a really soft, passive table. I had seen him check extremely strong hands IP on the river.

£1/£2 £500 effective. Two limps, I raise OTB to £12 with Q3 V calls HU.

Flop AQT Pot £30, V donks £15, I raise to £40, V folds.

Yep not much to see here really...

Another dumb one - mainly posting for the lols/brags (my hands basically the same as any Tx or 9x). V is a fishcake who mainly plays £5/£10+.

4-handed £2/£5 with £10 Straddle. V limps SB, Reg completes BB, I check straddle with 82.

Flop JT9 Pot £30 checks, I bet £15, SB calls HI.
Turn 2 Pot £60 check check. Turn 4 V bets £45 I call, V annouces K high and mucks.

When you only 5x it with Aces, you deserve 6 callers.

^

Thought this would make some people lol (Not me but a friend of mine, unfortunately had work so couldnt go out for drinks...)



Is there anything more tacky???

You wrote turn twice!

Also lol at the pic, must do it once in a lifetime. Hahha

Did you create a WhatsApp group?

I would join. Online rec player here and sometimes playing on London casinos.

Subbed, GL.

What books have you read about poker? Which ones would you recommend?

Haha think it was just for the lols rather than actually paying with it, jokes though yeah. I've been out with a fair few pro live players and they love to bribe door staff and the like "Mate if you try and bribe me one more time I'm calling the police" lol.

Yeah shoot me a PM. Sorry to everyone else I've forgotten I'll add this evening (sorry grim)! Only criteria is:

1. You play live poker at least on a semi-regular basis.
2. You've opened an equity calculator once in your life.
3. You actually post hands/respond to hands.

Thanks! Basically the answer is: it depends...what variants are you interested in? MTT's, cash, SNG's? what is your level of experience?

Messaged you re: Whatsapp

Cash games mainly. Advanced i would guess, books about game theory would be ideal.

On a side note, what are those headphone like? Been looking to get some for a while but never know what to buy.

Sorry about the late reply, have had this sitting in my Evernote for a while and cba to finish it!

--------------

I'd say if you know how to play a relatively solid ABC/TAG strategy I'd check out the following texts in this order:

Ed Miller - How to read hands at NLH
Ed miller - playing the player
Doug Polk - Poker Plays You can Use
Ed miller - Pokers 1%
Matthew Janda - Applications of NLH.

All of them are very well-written, and have fundamentally changed my game in some form. None of them are overly mathy except for Janda's (although the content is broken down in a form such that it is very easy to work through).

I think people tend to give books a wide berth these days. Yes, the material can get somewhat dated (for example the harrington MTT books); however I think books have the advantage of forcing you to thoroughly understand the material, whereas with videos its very easy to get distracted. Paradoxically, I sometimes find videos can be really dry as well, whereas with books you can kind of superimpose your own voice if that makes sense.

And they're Bose QuietComfort 35s! The noise cancelling is sick yeah, im not a massive audiophile but the sound quality is decent I guess? I use them all the time on the train at work and would never go back to ear buds.

Whether or not they're good value for £350 depends on whether you want a good pair of headphones or not. In any case I use them all the time, so..buy them I guess?? : ) Apparently there's a Sennheiser pair out there that are better value, but I can't remember where sorry...

If you have any more questions about the books I recommended feel free to ask again!

tl;dr Post

Quick update for anyone with a passing interest...

• Haven't put a ton of live poker hours in recently. Mainly due to being busy at work, and probably...
• Not running particularly well, mainly through being card-dead and not coming across some nice spots to apply pressure.
• Games been rather meh recently; in general I've noticed some of the Mon-Thu games to be rather reggy.
• In the absence of live poker, I've been playing quite a bit of $11 HUSNG's and NL25 Zoom. I've really enjoyed these HUSNG's although the volume is rather limited on PartyPoker. I think having a bit of HU experience really benefits your live poker game in the following ways:
  
  1. Learning to eek out a bit of profit with marginal holdings in loose-passive games against similarly wide ranges.
  2. Forcing yourself to focus on your opponents tendencies to maximise your winnings. e.g. 3-betting/check-raising guys who open J2o OTB, or cbet any board will generate a profit with ATC.
  3. Practice hand-reading and bluff-catching
  
• I'm looking to sell about circa $1100 at market rate in GBP (preferably in person, from someone based in London who has more than 1 post...)
• The Hippo has a new £1/£3 "shock clock" game at the moment. Basically, its a 30-second maximum amount of time to make a decision. I guess time will tell whether or not it takes off, I don't have a strong opinion either way.
• In an effort to focus on my hourly, I'm going to start tracking my session results here including money spent on booze, food etc. I'm hoping this will result in a more focused and profit-driven grind (famouse last words!)
• The live group is coming, I've started off small with one/two people which has some good momentum going. To everyone who I haven't responded to yet apologies, I will get it going, just didn't want to initially flood the group!
• Off to comic-con so hopefully will post some jokes photos! (I'm taking my cousin and 2 of his mates as a pass-A-levels-thing).

Think thats it, gl! P.S. Must stop watching Live at The Bike, I mean just look at these LA 5/10 games lol.

Still not too sure how good the Shock Clock tables are going to be for the games. Guess the only way is to try 'em out and see who they attract.

Also, I really recommend The Grinder's Manual - Peter Clarke.

Which of those if any do you think the concepts could be applies to non-NLHE cash games too?

I do find sometimes that a well written piece of strategy translates very well across different games. For example, Ryan Fees 6max guide had a big effect on my PLO game.

Session Review

I'm going to roll with this template for now, and see how things go. Im posting pretty much every hand I VPIPed so dont expect any interesting hands, or it to be nicely formatted.

--------

Date: 25/10/16
Games £1/£2 amd £1/£3
In: £1000
Out: £955
Tips: £1.50
Straddle: 0
Food etc: £12 Cigarettes, £3 coffee on the way here,

V1 Exploits: VPIPs 80%, spun up large stack. Pushes random buttons with bottom pair, protects any piece. Telegraphs size of hand through bet sizing eg 44 on monotone board pairs turn.
V2: Makes silly raises pre to £7 over limpers. Bets showdown trenght hands eg 2x multiway. Raise frequently with any bd equity or maybe atc??
V3 similar to V1 but short

H1
Open KQo UTG no d, V1 calls, V3 calls. Flop T83ddh Pot £33 x V1 15, call, I fold

(I elect not to cbet oop vs 2 villains, but these guys can be so wide it cant be that bad. Argument to barrelling off gutshots etc although we block a few, in general though I dont like barrelling flushing boards oop vs call stations (who would have thought???)

H2
3 Limper, V2 raises 7 in CO I flat KJ OTB, everyone calls. Flop Q98r checks to me I check. Turn 3 bdfd BB leads 15 CO calls I call. River brick BB leads both fold

Argument for betting here but everyones range here is still intact i.e. The PFR is the CO.

H3
Open 76s UTG, everyone folds

Loose open, spud away from the table and I have a tight image though. Made it smaller too.

H4
V1 opens 10 UTG £450 eff, 4 callers I call J9o in BB. Flop J97r Pot £50 BTN bets £30 SB calls I raise to £80 everyone folds

Pre is close but V1 was so bad and susceptible to stacking off and given the pot odds think flatting is fine here. In hindsight I prefer leading although V1 frequently cbets for small with his whole range.

H5
V1 limps, rock checks, I check BB K6s. Flop T72r bdfd xx bet 5 i raise to 17 he folds

Vs a guy who tanked vs me with middle set

H6
Open KQo no s MP V1 calls SB BB calls. Flop 653sss Pot £30 I bet £20 SB calls Turn 4h Pot £70 xx
River Jh SB checks I bet £30 he minclicks I fold

Spew especially as i have some sdv, and I dont think he cares that I have played smugly/indifferent. Cbetting ATC is ok on the flop, although fish play a lot more offsuit hands ie with a spade that are never going to fold the flop.

£1/£3

H7
SB Limps I check 53o. Flop K76r SB leads I raise to £35 he calls. Turn 4 POt £75 he checks I bet £55 he folds.

Think this is pretty standard sutff really.

Table Selection: OK, my £1/£2 was pretty good throughout 8/10

Well-being: Generally ok, some minor titlt from standard card deadness resulting in some minor spew above e.g. Betting 3 flush on one liner. Being slightly tired didnt help. 5/10

Identifying Exploits: Not bad, kept my eye on V1 and V2 which is 90% of the work. Failed to raise V2 i.e. Act on these though so 6.5/10

Overall: A pretty meh session which resulted in some minor spew, compounded by a lack of willingness to abuse V2. 5.5/10 (and a generous one at that).

Next session goals:

1. identify further exploits by characterising the 3 loosest players at the table. Identify the appropriate counter strat e.g. 3! V2 IP frequently and raise OTF with air.
2. Remember my vape next time, as I ended up buying cigarettes : (
3. Stay more focused on the action (this is always a challenge given how slow 9max £1/£2 is.

I actually got around to playing it on Monday. The game was on the reggy side at first, but dwindled down to being an OK game. Its definitely a lot faster so like that aspect for sure. That being said, I havent been put in any tough spots yet!


Havent read it, but have heard it recommended by others too, probably a good one to start with as well!


Interesting qn, yeah I do think so. The obvious one is blockers with PLO to NLH, reading BDFs etc and using the cards in your hand to swya a decision toward a call or fold. I also think some SNG or MTT exp can help your live cahs game as well given that the stack is rarely 100BB deep (lots of people like buying in for a £100).

I don't play PLO so not sure about the either side of the coin! Come down lSQ after work grim been a while


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nice trip report mate, like the format!

Suppose those Shock Clock tables don't actually have to be any different to regular tables, so long as we're getting more hands per hour. Mind you, Hippo regs, eurgh.

Yeah will need to swing by soon. Been pounding the G LSQ 1/1 after Friday drinks recently, it's seriously just printing money.

Or for me...

Session Review

Date: 25/10/16
Games £1/£2 and £2/£5
In: £1000
Out: £690
Tips: £1.00
Straddle: 0
Food etc: £15

Session Goals:
[LIST][*]Raise more aggressively in position, both preflop and facing mergey flop bets.[*]Identify 3 weakest players at the table, an exploit and an appropriate counter strategy.

H1

£2/£5 £700 eff Rando azn open HJ, good reg flats BTN, I flat BB KQo 1c

Flop QcTc5s Pot £47 checks

Turn Ah Pot £47 I check, HJ bets £35, BTN folds I fold.

-Pre I think I slightly prefer a squeeze but not too big a deal with a playable hand facing an LP raise.

-Facing one or more favourable conditions ie SB flats, another cold caller etc I think its a mandatory squeeze at this stack size.

-A spot where I sort of knew what to do but kind of just pussed out. HJ is bet folding A9 type hands just so much here. KJ is 100% in my range on this specific turn and flop action, and expect a check-raise to have way enough FE against the general population

H2

£2/£5 £700 Effective. Open KJss CO to £15, presumed foreign guy raises to £50 OTB I call.

Flop 874hhd Pot £105. I check fold to a £50 bet.

-Not much to say here really, pretty close to the bottom of my defending range CO vs BTN OOP

H3

£1/£2 £130 effective. Few limpers on a short soft table, HJ makes it £5, I flat AQdd in the CO. 6 way to the flop.

Flop Q82r Pot £30 checks to HJ who makes it £30, I raise to £70, he jams I call.

Turn K3 he shows KTss #ohwell

H4

£1/£2 £150 effective. I raise AKo £10 UTG BTN LP calls BB calls.

Flop 654r Pot £31 BB leads £10, I flat BTN makes it £32 I fold. BB and BTN end up having 75 and 88 respectively.

-A spot where in line with my goals I should be raising more aggressively. My thoughts at the time were that when the BB leads hes going to have a ton of pair and draw type stuff or a small OP that will continue for at least 1/2 streets.

-I think on connected textures like these raising donk leads and giving up on turns and rivers generally a losing play. However barrelling T + R when the draws brick especially with a good/pro image potentially profitable?

There were a ton of other really dumb hands like these but I think I'll leave it at that!

Summary

Table Selection: Not bad, left the 2/5 when it wasnt great or even good so 8/10

Well-Being: Generaly decent, my 1/2 table pretty fun 8/10

Identifying Exploits: Not really identifying any particular exploits, I'll let this one slide as everyone on my table had a simolar stack and pretty bad 7/10

Overall: Not bad, another standard 1/2 bleeding off but not bad. Most disappointing hand not making a move with KQ for sure otherwise could be worse. 7/10

Hopefully I can string together a winning £1/£2 session next time!