Hey there,

i've made one of these before and stopped posting due to being lazy/smaller player pools recognising me.

I thought it's time i started one of these again to help me keep motivated through these rough times and help me look back and see how much i've progressed.

Let's pick up from where i last made a thread:

2014: Was a rather lazy year for me; went to vegas and had a blast.
2015: Was still lazy, 4 months in i quit and started working at financial firm in London. 6 months later i quit the job (due to various reasons and no i didn't get fired), moved back to my home town and went pro again whilst i was looking for another job. Got accepted by two firms but ultimately turned them both down (for good money) and stuck to being pro again.

This brings us to 2016.
Well what a year it has been, it has really tested my mental game let's just say that. After working 6 months, my work ethic in poker has really changed and nowadays i put in a lot of volume. I aim to hit at least 140 hours a month and usually play 6 days a week.

Cliffs:
- Started the year with my biggest ever downswing, dropped about 3.5k to a whale
- Gf got a job in London and i decided i wanted to move out of Birmingham and come to London to join her, did that at the start of May.
- Moving down to London has allowed me to play a lot more of the higher stake games rather than sticking to 1/2 for the rest of my life in Bham.
- My main game is still 1/2 but i do play 2/5 whenever it runs, however in the last few weeks ive not played much of 2/5 due to getting SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and feeling really exhausted when i go to grind so i end up wanting to mindlessly grind the 1/2 games (lolautopilot)
- Took 2 shots at 5/T which went semi okish
- Went on another epic downswing in August
- Saw Justin Bieber in one of the cardrooms around London

Nov 2016:
Went on another downswing at the start of this month (rofl)
- dropped ~2.2k over 3 days (1.3k at 2/5, and 1k at 1/2)
I won't bore you the details with all the epic bad beats because i'm sure no one wants to hear that.

I mainly want to use this thread to talk about the hh's, reviewing my play and mental game each session. I've found this year it has slipped quite a bit, when tilted i usually play fairly fine or what i think is fine but i have noticed lately that resentment and injustice tilt harbours within me and i end up ranting about how unfair things are whilst certain lolregs are making chunks. I know everyone has an ego in poker but some of these things lolregs do will make you laugh and think how are they even winning. (whoops think the resentment tilt just surfaced again )

GOALS:
[ ] Make 2/5 my main game
[ ] Play 140 hours consistently every month
[ ] Return to the road of enlightenment and reach Zen Mode
[ ] Get fit? (lolol at this one happening, really want to try out bouldering if anyone wants to hmu)
[ ] Have the PGC epic heater
[ ] keep posting regularly




GL all!

Zz

in. glglgl m8

In! Sure I'll see you in the cardrooms at some point.

Good luck mate

Think thats a good target, but it goes without saying be careful not to burn yourself out. Without stating the obvious too much, live poker moves so slowly that theres next to 0 point grinding a bad day game.

GUILTY. I think we've all been there, bleeding away your initial £400 BI card-dead while some blessed gooner gets the lot.

gl OP, summers over now so hfully you get a nice heater on.

Also +1 to neglecting your own flesh and blood to play CS for 3 days.

GL bro!

Will be following, all the best !

Nice first post! Looking forward to following your journey!

gl buddy

GL, subbed! Are you Mt. Spewmore?

zzzzzz

thanks guys!

i think in the time ive actually been here, theres only ever been one day where i was like yep this is fully aids and went home early.
As they say one mans trash is another mans treasure!

Ha! don't worry there will be a lot more posts about hard truths
i think the worse one is when a nit who sucks at valuebetting, sits there with the nuts and gets a fun player pile the entire lot in to them. I'm sitting there thinking how is that even fair?!

cheers boys!

Nope but i do know who he is though.



Didn't play last night as i felt really ill (manflu is a thing) so ended up falling asleep really early, like around 7pm? and i've just woken. Contemplating if i should go in early and leave early or take the late shift.

Gl OP, have subbed.

Where do you play in London? Not really playing live much more but visit Aspers on occasion.

gl booooooooood

Gl!

fwiw 2/5 nlhe has been **** the times I've seen this year. I think it's best to jump around a lot.

I mainly play in LSQ but i prefer Hippo over Empire. I have this weird thing of liking to play Empire during the day time and Hippo at night time.

Ty booood

I still think it's good action, i have played an all reggy line up @ 2/5 but that's cause we were waiting for a star attraction to turn up



Just finished a 12 hour session and i'm completely exhausted, i've been up for like 28hours+

Session Review:
Wasn't playing so well at the start, was lacking concentration and getting a bit tilted. Quickly found myself down £200 some how, decided to regain composure and got out of the hole.

As for the 12 hour session, a fun Norwegian player spun up his £150 stack to £1k and dusted it all off, reloaded for £155 and ended up spinning back up to £700.
Usually when i'm doing a 12 hour session it's not a good sign as i'm most likely losing (should really learn to quit) however this time i told myself i should not walk away from this insane game (whilst winning) where it was me and practically 8 fun players all very deep.
Slowly each fun player was knocked out 1 by 1 or had spun up and had gone home with their winnings. It ended with me playing 3 handed with 2 other fun players for about an hour or so. Ended up quitting as i was completely exhausted and the tables had now merged as 1 and i really didn't fancy grinding out fullring.
Fairly proud of myself in not locking up so early despite recent downswings.

Mental game:
This wasn't too good. Found myself trying to antagonise a fun player at the start just because he sucked out on me in a hand which i shall post down below.
The main example is he bets river and i tank call with A9 on KQ98Q, he shows me an 8 and i sit there and wait for him to show both. He makes a comment about how if i wanted to play it like that, that he is coming for me.

In the process of Norwegian fun player spinning up i had this dry spell of cards however when he left the table i ended up picking up hands (this guy was 100% vpip) so i ended up ranting about that a lot. Felt like i was getting hacked
I didn't try to force anything though i.e. iso lighter or call wider to try and get him.
There were times where i actually folded AJo etc pre cause v v v v passive fish had opened.
So i guess the mental game wasn't too bad, maybe i'm being a little harsh on myself but did find myself complaining more than i would've liked.

HH:

Long time 2+2 lurker, finally registered just so I could sub. GL OP - I play at Hippo a few times a week, although mostly £1/2.

Hey I love your thread! I'm starting to play in London as well in LSQ, hopefully I meet you (not on my table though).

Just curious, how much are you making per hour at 1/2?

cheers ty! see you around hippo some time

thanks mate, I should be around tonight in the hippo if you want to say hi.

I don't really want to answer that question on here

Did not play sat and sun :/ well sat i spent the whole day gaming but sun i was meant to go in but ended up oversleeping and setting my alarm at the wrong time. Defo have to go in today (no naps for me either) and put in the hours, only done a dreadful 46hours this month

Session Review:

Played well today i thought, made some boss thin value bets and ran fairly decent i guess.

I think i need to invest in one of these light boxes to help with the SAD, somedays i sleep like 3 or 4 hours and other days i am sleeping ~16hours. This is not productive!!
One of the London regs does something interesting in that he takes naps throughout the day; he has 1 long one, 2 medium and couple of short ones. I'd like to do this but i suck at falling asleep (hate going to sleep but love sleeping) and i don't think this is good for anyone's game as your body is constantly craving sleep.

HH1:
Hero opens A9 in the CO to £8, BTN calls, SB calls, BB calls.
Flop: KA8
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks.
Turn: 5
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets £22, BTN folds, SB calls, BB folds
River: 3
SB checks, Hero Bets £100, SB calls all in.
Hero shows, SB shows JT and mucks

Yes that is J high, no typo.

HH2:
Hero Opens AK UTG to £8, UTG+1 calls, SB (fun player) squeezes to £24. SB is £500 deep, i just about cover and was planning to stack it off pre considering we have a very aggressive preflop dynamic with each other.
i 4b to £85, BTN folds, SB now goes in to the tank. Starts talking about how he thinks i'm really strong this time and asks if i would show if he folded, i ask him what he has and he tells me he has AK suited, i reply with "that's a good hand..." there's about a minute silence and he goes i'm going to fold and shows AK face up. I normally don't show but because he's a fun player i thought i should show him, he was a bit suprised that i would actually 4b AK pre so to conclude in hindsight me stacking off AK would be v v bad

HH3:
UTG limps, Hero iso's to £10 with AJ, CO (fishreg) calls, BTN (funplayer) calls and limper calls.
Flop: A A 9
Limper checks, Hero £25, CO calls, BTN calls, limper folds
Turn: 3
Hero £90, CO calls, BTN folds.
River: 8
Hero bets £125

i think in hindsight this was probs a bit too thin, i don't know actually. I had reasons for betting river but i probs should just xf river or bet a bit smaller. £125 seems a bit too big for what i was targetting. Anyways CO tank calls AJ.

wp see you about this week

Just wanted to wish you gl in your challenge, really have next to no clue about lolive so I'll refrain from talking about the hands.

The sleep part you bring up is pretty interesting.

Don't quote me on this but I think there's been a fair bit of study done on optimal sleep cycles and I think the one which is said to be best for our body is one in which we don't just have on sleep session and instead have 2 or 3. Only issue is in the majority of working patterns people have it's normally only viable to have the 11pm-7am (give or take a bit either way) sleep session.

I think what you're "meant" (<lol) to do is sleep around 3-4 hours, get up and do something for an hour or two and then go back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. Pretty interesting and I actually plan to do a fair bit of looking into it.

Issue is much like yourself I love sleeping , just not the act of going to sleep which makes me feel that having more sleeping sessions is probs not +ev for me.

GL with the grind.

Hopefully not in the toilets >.>

That's the crappy thing about live sometimes i guess, you can misinterpret the dynamics when it could all be literally variance i.e. some young kid 3betting you about a million times in a short space of time.
I would flat the AK to the squeeze but he made it fairly small and i just wanted to play a big pot


cheers! always welcome for your thoughts/criticisms, i'll try and input as many reads as i can in to my hh without giving away who is who.

ah that's interesting, i'm a psychology grad so i should probably go read up on this via the uni library/journals.
Think i will read more in to this and find the GTO sleeping strat.
I also have a slight reading addiction (or maybe smartphone and i'm just trying to make myself feel better) in whereby i have to read whatever is on the internet til i fall asleep but the days where i'm not tired at all makes this very hard. I have tried putting my phone on the other side of the room but all i can think about is not being able to read something interesting before falling asleep.

Any raging homosexuals about???

---

So last few days it seems like my pattern has shifted towards just a 4/5hour sleep and stay up for the rest of the day. Sort of coping ok with it, coffee doesn't really help tbh and i don't want to start drinking redbull and relying on it. I have this thing where i only drink redbull/alt energy drinks if i really have to during a session i.e. fun player has stacks in front of him and we are verging on a 12+hour session.

Started to play online yesterday and got help for it. Felt really good to have a session like this and to see what has changed over the last few years that i've been missing from online poker. I do try to follow what's trending in online poker and incorporate in live play but yesterday's session was a complete eye opener.

Think i'm going to make it a goal to keep playing online again, going to start at 50nl for a few days and get in to the flow of things then move to 100nl.

partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 85.02 BB (VPIP: 26.26, PFR: 20.20, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 103)
Hero (UTG): 329.04 BB
MP: 130.64 BB (VPIP: 21.67, PFR: 12.78, 3Bet Preflop: 3.90, Hands: 185)
CO: 114.06 BB (VPIP: 29.94, PFR: 17.37, 3Bet Preflop: 6.85, Hands: 170)
BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 25.88, PFR: 6.47, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 170)
SB: 99.62 BB (VPIP: 28.65, PFR: 17.19, 3Bet Preflop: 8.96, Hands: 195)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 8

Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, CO calls 3 BB, fold, SB calls 2.5 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (12 BB, 4 players) J T 7
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (12 BB, 4 players) 9
SB checks, BB bets 9 BB, Hero calls 9 BB, fold, fold

River: (30 BB, 2 players) 6
BB bets 15 BB, Hero raises to 312 BB, BB calls 58.02 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 8 8 (Straight, Jack High)
(Pre 54%, Flop 45%, Turn 0%)
BB shows K Q (Straight, King High)
(Pre 46%, Flop 55%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 238.98 BB
BB wins 170.04 BB



partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (UTG): 104.84 BB
MP: 110.94 BB (VPIP: 24.67, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 12.28, Hands: 153)
CO: 101 BB (VPIP: 26.47, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 3.96, Hands: 279)
BTN: 97.5 BB (VPIP: 28.02, PFR: 17.51, 3Bet Preflop: 9.26, Hands: 261)
SB: 76.08 BB (VPIP: 28.19, PFR: 10.04, 3Bet Preflop: 2.70, Hands: 263)
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 29.29, PFR: 16.07, 3Bet Preflop: 10.31, Hands: 285)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 9

Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 5 BB, BB calls 4 BB, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop: (15 BB, 3 players) 3 8 7
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (15 BB, 3 players) 9
SB checks, BB bets 5 BB, Hero raises to 18 BB, SB calls 18 BB, fold

River: (56 BB, 2 players) 4
SB checks, Hero bets 63.84 BB, SB calls 53.08 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 8 9 (Two Pair, Nines and Eights)
(Pre 39%, Flop 7%, Turn 5%)
SB shows 8 8 (Three of a Kind, Eights)
(Pre 61%, Flop 93%, Turn 95%)
Hero wins 10.76 BB
SB wins 156.16 BB

partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 38.4 BB (VPIP: 25.70, PFR: 17.04, 3Bet Preflop: 3.05, Hands: 364)
UTG: 183.26 BB (VPIP: 24.37, PFR: 15.97, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 486)
CO: 119.4 BB (VPIP: 25.17, PFR: 17.71, 3Bet Preflop: 6.16, Hands: 590)
BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 31.97, PFR: 17.78, 3Bet Preflop: 8.11, Hands: 624)
Hero (SB): 147.4 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T T

fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 9 BB, BB raises to 38 BB, fold, Hero raises to 116.5 BB, BB calls 0.4 BB and is all-in

Flop: (79.3 BB, 2 players) J 8 7

Turn: (79.3 BB, 2 players) 5

River: (79.3 BB, 2 players) 6

Hero shows T T (One Pair, Tens)
(Pre 72%, Flop 77%, Turn 80%)
BB shows 9 A (Straight, Nine High)
(Pre 28%, Flop 23%, Turn 20%)
Hero wins 78.1 BB
BB wins 75.34 BB


partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 98.02 BB (VPIP: 26.44, PFR: 20.69, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 90)
Hero (MP): 232.96 BB
CO: 104.5 BB (VPIP: 21.05, PFR: 13.16, 3Bet Preflop: 4.62, Hands: 157)
BTN: 94.98 BB (VPIP: 30.22, PFR: 17.99, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 142)
SB: 119.48 BB (VPIP: 25.18, PFR: 5.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 139)
BB: 118.2 BB (VPIP: 27.78, PFR: 16.05, 3Bet Preflop: 7.27, Hands: 164)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has T A

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) 2 T A
Hero bets 5.34 BB, BTN calls 5.34 BB

Turn: (18.18 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 22 BB, BTN calls 22 BB

River: (62.18 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, BTN bets 29.54 BB, Hero raises to 186.08 BB, BTN calls 35.1 BB and is all-in

Hero shows T A (Full House, Aces full of Tens)
(Pre 27%, Flop 81%, Turn 93%)
BTN mucks K A (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 73%, Flop 19%, Turn 7%)
Hero wins 121.44 BB
Hero wins 185.46 BB

partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 176.78 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 28.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
Hero (SB): 122.86 BB
BB: 139.58 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 13.89, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 38)
CO: 144.44 BB (VPIP: 31.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 35)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K K

fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 8.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 6.5 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) 8 J J
Hero bets 5 BB, BTN raises to 14 BB, Hero calls 9 BB

Turn: (46 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, BTN bets 34 BB, Hero calls 34 BB

River: (114 BB, 2 players) 2
Hero checks, BTN checks

Hero shows K K (Two Pair, Kings and Jacks)
(Pre 81%, Flop 96%, Turn 100%)
BTN mucks 6 T (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 19%, Flop 4%, Turn 0%)
Hero wins 110 BB

partypoker - $0.50 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 160.32 BB (VPIP: 29.82, PFR: 22.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 58)
Hero (SB): 187.72 BB
BB: 150.7 BB (VPIP: 20.41, PFR: 15.31, 3Bet Preflop: 4.65, Hands: 103)
UTG: 99 BB (VPIP: 32.47, PFR: 15.58, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 78)
MP: 102.64 BB (VPIP: 24.00, PFR: 5.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 75)
CO: 109.66 BB (VPIP: 28.00, PFR: 14.00, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 100)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has J 8

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 8.2 BB, fold, BTN calls 6.2 BB

Flop: (17.4 BB, 2 players) 8 2 Q
Hero bets 5 BB, BTN raises to 18.26 BB, Hero calls 13.26 BB

Turn: (53.92 BB, 2 players) T
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (53.92 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero checks, BTN checks

Hero shows J 8 (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 68%, Flop 47%, Turn 69%)
BTN mucks 9 8 (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 32%, Flop 53%, Turn 31%)
Hero wins 51.24 BB


Live session review:
Going in after that online session i felt fairly confident about everything. Session didn't go off to a great start, pretty much spent the whole night in the hole.
Did play 2/5, some fun player spun up to 1.3k+ and a 2/5 reg asked if we could change up the game, so we did. Problem with this is the majority of the time it causes a fun player to lock up and leave after 30mins. I'm sure it can feel fairly hostile if the reg you've been stacking suddenly wants to make the game bigger and combined with table peer pressure it's very hard to say no.
After fun player leaves i decide to jump off it seeing as action got a little bit stale, other fun but not as fun players decided to play tighter when we changed the game to 2/5 . Just as my luck would have it, as i come off it all the action starts kicking off and pots are flying back and forth!!

However did find myself in a dream 1/2 game, just me and 8 fishes.
Was about to leave at 6.30am (locking up the small loss) when i lost two fairly big pots in a row, mental game at this point started to go out the window.

Did so well up to this point, was debating if i should go home or carry on, next thing you know i'm pulling out more chips
Found the get out of it in one hand though (absolute golden child)

UTG limps, Funplayer (HJ-£650) raises to £12, Hero (BTN-£1.2k) 3bets to £35 with 86, UTG folds, funplayer calls.
Flop: 872
FP checks, Hero cbet £25, FP xc
Turn: 8
FP checks, Hero bets £75, FP xc
River: 6
FP checks, Hero jams £550, FP xc off.

Have a friend coming down to London from Bham to grind so that'll be nice seeing him again.

Need to cut out the CS:GO, i've hit 40 hours on it this month and i started a week ago.

Had a good session on friday night to then do it all off on saturday night.

Lost biggest pot ever at 1/2 zzzz ~1.9k

Two limps, i iso J7 to £12, get 3b by the guy on my direct left to £45, BB (whale) cold calls, two limpers fold and i call.

Flop: A43
BB checks, i check, dude cbets £65, BB folds, i check raise to £175, He makes it £465, i jambo and he snaps it off
Turn:3
River: 5

He has AA

Did take a dinner break straight after this hand and managed to reduce the hole but still didn't run too fantastic although i did have 1 hand where i if villain had called i woulda been only losing £300 but had he snap called i woulda had my biggest losing day

fun player 1 limps, fun player 2 limps, i make it £15 with KQ, BB calls, FP1 calls, FP2 calls.
Flop: 727
checks to me and i cbet £25, BB folds, FP1 check raises to £65, FP2 folds, i call.
Turn: Q
FP1 checks, i bet £85, FP1 calls.
River: 8
FP1 leads £175, I jam for £450 more, FP1 tank folds