Hey guys! I am a looong time lurker of these forums. I've recently turned 21 and decided that now was a better time than ever to create a PG&C thread to help motivate me to play my best and also continue learning more about the game.

I am a college student at UMD currently on summer break. My parents moved to Pittsburgh this summer and I decided to stay here in Maryland at my friend's house and am covering all my expenses as a server at a restaurant. Heh, maybe if I run well enough in poker I'll quit one day.

Ideally, I would like to one day make enough money to cover all my student debt but also continue to enjoy playing poker throughout the course of this blog.

For now my goals are pretty simple:
1) achieve a positive hourly rate
2) build a solid bankroll for 1/2 and move up to 2/5 eventually

My source of income is coming for my restaurant job. I currently have $2K set aside for my poker BR and I will be playing at Maryland Live Casino. I know there are many 2+2ers who play at MDL so hopefully I get to meet up with you all one day!

Day 1: +205

Played for 2 hours and played a pretty tight game, never getting out of line with any hands.

Hand 1(Effective stacks $100):
2 limpers, I raise to 12 with AJs on the button, big blind calls, first limper folds and second calls.
Flop($39): QT4 rainbow
Checks around
Turn($39): K completes rainbow
Checks to me, I bet 25, one caller
River($89): Blank
He checks, I'm all in for my remaining ~50, and he folds

Hand 2(Effective stacks $150):
Raise KQo UTG+2 to 12, UTG+3 and SB call
Flop($38): T74
SB checks, I bet 20, UTG+3 calls, and SB pops it to 60 and me and UTG+3 fold. SB shows pocket 4s, NH

Hand 3(Effective stacks $140):
I feel like i butchered this hand by playing too passively but got awarded anyways.

UTG raises to 5, 3 callers, and I call with AJs on the CO, button and BB call.
Flop($30): J52 rainbow.
UTG bets 20, everyone folds, and I call.
Turn($70): 7, 2 clubs
UTG bets 40 and I call.
River($150): A
UTG puts me all in and I snap call and he showed QJ, MHIG

First time ever playing 1/2 and it was definitely adrenaline pumping. This is just the beginning and I have a long way to go!

Day 1: +254 in 3 hrs

Hand 1(Effective stacks $110):
I raise AJ UTG to 10, aggrospew fish next to me minraises to 20, rest folds and I call.
Flop($28): 633
Villian shoves his stack($90). I've seen his do this a couple times already with complete air or trash and decide to call, believing that my range is relative strong versus him.
Turn: 2
River: Blank
I instantly show my nutflush and villain proudly tables AQo until the dealer tells him the bad news lol.

Hand 2(Effective stacks $230):
UTG limps, I raise to 11 with TT, 4 callers.
Flop($55): KT4 rainbow
I bet $40 trying to build a pot and everyone folds

Hand 3(Effective stacks $400):
Hand occurred right after my flopped set

I'm UTG and raise to 12 with black KK, 2 callers, and shortstack repops it to 27. Folds back to me and I raise to 80 putting the shortstack all in.

Board runs out T high and shortstack tables AA, NH

Overall played a B-ish game and just happy to book another win

Hi Monkey. All the best on your quest. Will be following. UMD is at College Park, isn't it? Been there some 20 years ago. Seemed like a good place to live and study.

Do you plan to take a shot in a tourney every now and then? Or sticking to cash?

Yep! I live about an hour away from MDL so it still feels like quite a hike driving there... But hopefully with enough volume and results I'll start to not mind it as much.

For now I have no plans of playing tournaments. I want to really focus on honing my cash game skills first before playing tournies. I'm still new to the casino scene but I'm definitely excited to put in tons of volume this summer.

lol was driving to mdl today, prepared to play a long session. 10 minutes away, my flex pipe decides to pop out of my car and now have to dish out atleast a 100 to get it repaired... won't be playing till late tomorrow or wednesday.

Definitely want to 3-bet pre. We are ahead of opener's range, there is a lot of dead money out there, and 3-betting will give us the aggression advantage and will likely force the button to fold giving us the positional advantage as well. That being said I don't think calling is a major leak. AJ sooted can play decent multiway and you played it the way 95% of the player pool would likely play it.

The rest of the hand was played fine.

Thanks for the good points. Will definitely work on being more aggressive IP with these type of hands rather than letting it go multiway. I notice so many players at 1/2 will put in so much money with trash hands that its better them pay to see a flop.

Haven't played in a while because my car broke down and was too busy getting that fixed plus worked a lot of shifts the past week.

July 2
1/2
Results: +$200 in 3 hours

Game was pretty much a dream while I was there. Seems like there's a lot of chip dumpers at 1/2 even on a Wednesday night here at MDL, as if they're all allergic to money or something.

There was one short stacking mega fish who did a lot of questionable moves like limp-shove with total air pre. Saw him overcall a shove on a Q32ss board with A4cc.

Hand 1:
-------------------------------
Effective stacks: $50

Preflop:
Villian limps UTG, 3 limpers ahead, hero pops it up to $15 with KQ. Villain insta shoves for $35 on top and folds back to me. Based on past reads I just did not put villain on a strong hand. 35 to win
100, thought I definitely had equity against his range. I call.

Board:
367J8



Hand 2:
-------------------------------
Effective stacks: $100

Preflop:
Villain makes it $10 UTG, folds to me who 3! to $30 with AK. Only villain calls.

Flop($62):
T98

Villain shoves $60 and I just fold. Seemed like the obvious choice and would've been -EV to call with naked A-high and one backdoor draw.





Hand 3:
-------------------------------
I hate when my spew plays work because it'll encourage me to just do it more which is probably unprofitable at 1/2 just because you'll get paid off with your value hands so much anyways.

Effective stacks: $230
Preflop:
Tagfish pops it to $10 UTG. 3 callers including me in the CO with 55, BB calls.

Flop($50):
TT9

Tagfish bets $30 and folds around to me. I decided to make a move based on his tight game, almost to the point where he looked MUBsy.

The only history we had was when I check-raised him on a 8TTA board and he tanked for some time before folding.

I reraise to $85, planning on folding to a shove and shoving any scare card if he just flats. He doesn't take too long before flatting

Turn($220):
K

I shove for $140 and villain tank-folds after showing a 9.





Hand 4:
-------------------------------
Effective stacks: $100

Villain in hand: Spazzy aggro. Sat down a couple orbits ago and has been show downing absolute trash like 27o and K4o type of hands if he hit a pair. Wearing a hoodie that's like 5 sizes too big for him.

Preflop:
Hero makes it 12 UTG with AJ, cutoff, Villain(SB), and BB calls.

Flop($50):
JT9

Hero bets $35 and villain calls.

Turn($120):
T

Villain snap shoves $50 and I call.

July 3
1/2
Results: +$77 in 6 hours

Sat at a really juicy game in the beginning but played a pretty break-even game for the most part.

Here's one interesting hand of the session:

Hand 1:
Effective stacks: $200

Villain: fish who pushes buttons and generally loose passive. Seems to attack players when sensing weakness

Preflop:
Hero opens MP with A6 to 10, villain calls OTB.

Flop($23):
A22

Pretty dry board, I elect to check, intending to check call. Villain bets 15, I call.

Turn($53):
A

Hero checks, villain bets $35, hero calls.

River($120):
2

Hero checks, villain bets $45. I decided that shoving would most likely leave to a chopped pot so I elect to just call.

Subbed.

Ugly spot. No way to avoid losing money here, I guess.

Wow I can't believe it's been more than a whole year since I last posted on this thread. To summarize the past year, I basically ran pretty terribly and blew through a good chunk of my bankroll/life roll. A lost a few too many in all-in situations where I was a massive favorite(AJ<AT AIOTT on a AA24T board, etc) which definitely hurt my mental game alot. I never got to build a solid bankroll for 1/2 which I truly, really wanted.

With only a server job and still a student, I decided to take a break and focus on other things in life. I struggled a lot with depression, unsure of my future and the pressures of graduating school and getting ajob always seemed to creep around like a leech. My serving job is minimal at best, enough to pay for my own rent and food but not much else.

Fast forward a year later, my roommate's drive for poker came back and I decided to give Maryland Live another shot with a few hundred bucks. I bought in for the minimum $100 initially and ran on a heater for 5 sessions straight. Hello positive variance for the first time! A major lesson that I utilized in my game was simply patience. Playing a solid and patient game while minimizing bad spewy plays (especially at 1/2 nlhe) pays dividends, seriously.

With winter break soon coming up, I want to put in as much volume as possible and keep improving my game. I started tracking my progress because I want to take this seriously again. With a workable bankroll, my confidence in the game is back at it and hope I can put in as many hours as possible this upcoming year.

Here are my results so far(super small sample size, but a confidence booster for sure):


I understand my winrate is super high right now but not sustainable once I put more hours in. I'm also going to set a stop loss at 500 ($300 starting buy in with $200 to top off at 300 at all times).

I'm also making it a priority to write down atleast 3-5 HHs per session to evaluate my game and post a couple to 2+2 if possible.

One interesting hand I played 2 nights ago:
Prehand Descriptions
Villain 1: TAG nitty player, playing pretty straight forward poker. Raises preflop with pretty strong holdings and cbets almost 100% of flops. Seem him 3bet a couple times and take it down without much showdown. Have seen him overvalue overpairs and top pair hands a couple times. Also looks like Tom Brady lol.
Villain 2: Old latino male playing a very weak tight game. Limp folded almost every hand and has almost never shown much aggression.
Hero: Hero's probably has a winning image from running hot early in the session. Took down a huge 3-way all in pot with 55 on a 925dd board vs an overpair and pair+NFD and boated up on the river. Seen 3betting a good amount of times but thats mainly because hero has the goods.

$1/2 NL (9 handed)
UTG ($950): Hero
CO($600): Villain1
BB($90): Villain2

Hero is dealt 22 UTG

Hero limps, 3 limps in front, V2 raises to $15, V2 calls, Hero calls.

With stacks this deep, I think a flat is okay. A little worried about V2 but I think I can get away pretty easily with deuces if theres any action.

Flop ($52) 892
V2 checks, hero checks, v1 bets $35, v2 goes all in, hero calls, v1 thinks for a second and calls.

At this point, I believe that V1 has an overpair and may be putting me on a draw or something like 2 pair. I played this a little deceptively because I've been raising with the goods a lot this session and didn't want to blow him off his hand.

Turn ($277) T

Hero leads out $150, v1 doesn't take too long and calls

At this point I'm fairly confident he doesn't have me beat. He would have raised me on the flop with stacks this deep and a potential straight draw.

River ($577): 6c
Hero shoves and villain snap calls.

Interesting river card, but I can't be worried about a runner runner flush too much at this point and I don't see any 7x hands calling, given the action on the flop and turn.

I announced a set and v2 said he had a straight. My heart sank a little, losing such a big pot. Until he flipped over his hand......JTdd. Guess he was tired. Ship it.

Thoughts on every street?

12/18/15
On a $880 downswing after my crazy heater run. Having a hard time adjusting to the crazy limpfests at Maryland live. I try not to get involved in pots by trying to outplay the fish with any fancy play but I seem to be bleeding chips this way. These past two sessions I've won under 10 hands in 10 hours and it seems to affect my playstyle a lot when I'm stuck. I've underestimated my tilt control recently and it seems to get to me emotionally quite significantly.
Anyways tomorrow is the start of winter break and I'm going to a 2 day festival with my friends followed by a 5 day break with my family. I'll be back at the grind with a fresh mind and fresh start.

UPDATE 12/29/15
Visited my parents up in Pittsburgh the past week for the holidays. First session back at 1/2 NLHE and I'm immediately out of my downswing after 3 hours! Up +960.

Some hands:
Had a pot where three other people put in 48 preflop after a shorty shoved and I had pocket queens (couldn't raise on top of his shove). Took it down on a 9 high flop after a bet and the shorty said he had nothing. Couple hands later I stack a fish with 99>K6o on a 96632 board for another 300 profit. Then the hand right after I'm AIPF with AA vs KK for another 350 or so profit.
I've been blessed with 3 1k+ profit nights in the past 8 sessions and hope the good luck continues!

UPDATE 12/29/2015
-$490

Bankroll: $2,887
Started with about 200 and change in my pocket November 11th and am quite pleased with my results thus far. But I know this is just the start and I still have a lot to learn and improve on. I've gotten a lot better at just avoiding marginal -ev spots overall and just focus on just getting fat value from the fish with a lot of patience.


I don't know how true it is but the swings have been heavy on both sides because I buy in for the maximum $300 instead of 200.
Lost a semi decent pot with A5 vs 33 on a 234cc board multiway. I checked to the PFR who has been pretty active recently, shortie goes all in for 115, I shove the rest of my chips in and she binks the last 3 in the deck. Oh well

The other significant hand I lost I felt like I butchered it hard.
NLHE 1/2

Effective stacks: $350
MP raises to 12, 3 callers, button folds, I flat with A9

Probably a better spot to 3bet rather than call? But with 4 other people in the pot, thought it was a good opportunity to just take the suited ace multiway.

Flop (62): T74
I check, PFR bets 20, loose aggressive whale calls, I raise to 60, both call

I had a brain fart and didn't notice that the whale called so my raise size was a lot smaller than I would've liked. Would have probably made it 80-90ish in retrospect for more FE

Turn (240): A
I bet 120, PFR folds, whale ships for about 150 more, I call.



Planning on putting in many hours for January. Maryland Live has been showing up with a lot of action recently during the holiday season so I have no excuse not to. Cheers!

UPDATE 12/30/15
+676
BR is now sitting at $3,563 after 90 hours, averaging $39/hr. Woo heater!

Wow everything seems so easy when all your Kings hit sets! I had KK>AK when AK shoved over my bet on a K93cc board. Had another fun pot where I flopped quad kings in a 3 way pot. Flop is KKQdd, it is checked to me and I check behind. Turn is J, First person bets 30(into a 50 dollar pot), second person folds. This person was a mega fish with a 450 dollar stack. I honestly didn't know what to do with quads so I just went with the mentality that if he has a hand, the money's going in one way or another, so I raised to 120. He snap shoved and I called. Villain showed pocket jacks. No jack on the river for the mega bad beat

Some hands:
Hand 1:
Hero raises to 15 after 2 limpers with AKhh, first limper folds, second limper calls.
Flop($35) is K68r, hero bets 20, villain raises to 45, hero calls.
Turn($125) Qd, villain bets 50, hero calls.
River($225) Qs, villain bets 50, hero calls.


Hand 2:
5 limpers, hero raises to 17 with QQ in the BB, active aggressive player UTG calls, and CO calls.
Flop($57) is A24hhh, hero checks, UTG bets 35, CO folds, hero calls
Turn($127) Kx, hero checks, UTG bets 75, hero folds

Villain is capable of betting any middle pair with hearts or naked hearts here a lot so I think peeling the flop once is okay

Hand 3:
UTG limps, Hero raises to 15 with JJ, UTG+2 calls, rest fold
Flop($35) 345r, hero bets 20, villain calls
Turn($75) 3h(2 hearts), hero bets 50, villain shoves for 126 total, hero calls.


Think villain has enough draws and shoves with worse pairs here for this call be to +EV

UPDATE 12/31/15
Finished the year on a positive note hooray!

Here is a recap of my sessions since my I came back from my year-long hiatus:
Profit: +$3,951
Start: 11/11/15 - 12/31/15
Hours played: 99
BB/hour: 20.02
Sessions won: 10
Sessions lost: 5
Biggest upswing: +2793
Biggest downswing: -880

Feels good to finally have enough for a standard 1/2 bankroll. I know this is a super short and small sample size, but these results have given me a big boost of confidence for the new year. I don't want to set any monetary goals but I would like to build a bankroll for 2/5 early in the year, the games seem super soft imo. Hope everyone has a happy new years!

Here are some hands I played last night, comments and advice appreciated.

Hand 1 (butchered hand/spew of the night!):
1/2 NLHE 8 Handed
Effective stacks 300

Villain: old white guy who seems have to have a fairly competent game at 1/2. Seem him mix his plays around with limps/raises and noticed that his betsizing is better than 99% of the live players I have seen thus far. I have only seen him win every pot in which he was the PFR. Sitting at around ~$1100

Preflop:
Straddle pot, 2 limps, I overlimp with A9, 2 more limpers, villain in the smallblind makes it 25, folds to me and I flat, the 2 limpers after me also call.
Got such a good price for the money but in retrospect I'm probably dominated here a lot and should probably fold to this type of villain.
Flop($117): AT8
Villain bets $100, hero calls, rest fold.
Again, with TPWK this is definitely a fold. This kind of smacks his sb raise range a whole lot and have put myself in a negative RIO spot
Turn(317): 4
Villain asks how much hero has and then announces I'm all in. Hero folds. Villain shows the A

Hand 2:
1/2 NLHE 9 handed
Effective stacks ~300
Straddled pot, 2 limps in front, hero over limps with 56 in the HJ, maniac aggressive player to my left raises to $30, SB calls, bb folds, one of the limpers calls, hero flats.

Flop($120): 873
SB leads out for $50, EP limper folds, hero flats, PFR folds.

Turn($220): 4
Bingo. SB bets $50, hero flats again.

River($320): T
SB bets $75(lol), hero shoves for his remaining 100 on top and he says something like "well you might have the two pairs or straight but imma call and find out".
Villain shows 99 and hero scoops

Hand 3:
1/2 NLHE 6 handed
Villain: same villain from hand 1

Effective stacks: 600
Preflop:
Hero is in the straddle with AA
Folds around to button who limps, villain in the SB completes, hero makes it $25, both call.
Flop($75): Q35
Checks to hero who bets $55, button folds, villain calls
Turn($185): T
Hero bets $120, villain folds

Posting to sub. GL in 2016

UPDATE 1/3/2016
Got really sick the past 2 days so I couldn't play which really bummed me out. BUT...Given the crazy amount of action at my casino following the new year I decided to take a shot at 2/5. And I start 2016 with a positive bang!
Profit: +$882
Hours played: 7
Stacked someone with Q9 vs J8o on a 8T3J6 board and won a coinflip with AQ vs TT against a shortstack.

UPDATE
1/5/16
NLHE 1/2
Played a short 3 hour session before my friend wanted to leave.He has the car. He has the power. Up +25

1/6/16
NLHE 1/2
Profit: +$727
Hours played: 9 hours 30 minutes
Total profits: $5,585

Started off strong, winning 300 in 20 minutes when I bluff catch with QJ on a AJTccA3 board vs a shortstack who had 78cc and another where I check/snapcall vs an aggressive and tilted player with AQ on a KQ8Q board. I also made a hero call with AA vs a drunk maniac on a 38T97 board when I underrepped my hand multiway IP and was good. His betsizing and demeanor looked very different than when he's strong(usually talkative and upbeat, but he was dead silent and looking very nervous. He was also stuck about 1300 prior to this hand) and I decided to call his river bet.

UPDATE 1/11/2016
1/7/16: -$64 after 10 hours at the Horseshoe Casino (1/3). Very fishy and much looser action than MD Live in my opinion. Will definitely play here more in the future
1/8/16: -$600. Took a shot at 2/5 on a friday night and lost with a busted nut flush draw vs set. Went to play 1/2 right after and was up +$223 after 7 hours.
1/10/16: +$347 at 1/2. Played 8 hours 45 minutes.

Just focusing on putting as many hours in as possible. I find that I play my best A-game within 6 hours and anything after than I start to get really mentally tired and go auto-pilot mode. In both my last 1/2 sessions I was up $600+ profit at one point or another but started bleeding chips like crazy towards the end.

UPDATE:
Hey guys, been quite some time since my last update. Tried to take shots at 2/5 and ended up not being so good. Bad practice of bankroll management .
MD Live $2/$5 1/14/16: -$180/7hrs
Nothing too notable this session, went card dead for 7 hours and never managed to hit any of my hands.

MD Live $2/$5 1/16/16: -$1196/9hrs
Ran into some spots vs short stacks within the first 15 minutes of my hand. I 3!/got it in vs a $300 short stack with QQ vs KK and then the hand right after got it in on the river with KJ vs JT on a JJ73T board for another ~650$ dollar pot. I went card dead for the next 8ish hours.

Horseshoe Casino $1/$3 1/18/16: -$8/8hrs
Stacked a $200 short stack within my first orbit as the BB(limped pot) with J3o vs Kx on a KJ357 board. Table is super loose and fishy, as it is expected at the horseshoe(compared to maryland live).

Failed bluff of the night:
Effective stacks $420
2 limpers, I overlimp with 66, solid TAG raises to $17 OTB, rest fold, I call.
FLOP: 545
I check, TAG bets 20, I call.
Turn: 8
I check, Tag bets 40, I raise to $125, he tank calls.
River 2
I shove for my remaining 260, he snaps with 44
Against most of villains range, I thought this would be a tough spot for him to call. I've been playing relatively tight most of the night. River bluff might've been really ambitious but I thought if he had an overpair he would be able to give me credit here a lot. Thoughts and advice?

MD Live $1/$2 1/21/16: +$1250/11.5hrs
Been playing for roughly 10 hours at this point and managed to build my stack up to $850(in for 500). The table had been super juicy all day and night, with upwards of $4k between all the players. Several fish had been going on mega heaters hitting hands so the atmosphere at the table had been great
H1:
Effective stacks: 270
5 limpers, I raise to $20 with AK, shortie in the small blind goes all in for 70, first limper(MAWG playing bingo poker) flats, hero shoves for his remaining 200, villain folds. Hero wins vs KK on a A3774 board.

H2:
Effective stacks: 275
Same villain from UTG raises to 10, 3 callers, hero in the SB raises to 55 with QQ, UTG calls, button calls.
Flop: 835 rainbow
I bet 120, UTG calls, button folds
Turn: 9
Hero shoves villain in for his remaining 100 and he snap calls with 24o, hero holds.

H3:
Effective stacks: $400
Villain is a middle aged indian guy who has been smashing flops but have also seen him severely overvalue top pair type hands. I've seen him call large river bets with just top pair on wet boards. Since then, his chip stack went down from 1400 to 400 in about 2 hours. Seems to play ATC preflop as long as he has a paint card to go with it. Seems very frustrated at this point after losing several large pots in a row

Hero raises to 12 UTG with KK, villain calls from the BB
Flop: QT3
Hero bets 15, villain flats
Turn: T
Hero bets 35, villain raises to 100, hero flats.
River: 6
Villain checks, Hero bets $120(should've gone larger here maybe?), villain snaps with Q8o and MHIG

H4:
Played my biggest pot yet.
Effective stacks: $850
3 limps, I limp in the HJ with T8, CO raises to 8, 4 callers, hero calls.
Flop: 679
Short stack moves all in for 59, hero flats, button flats.
Turn: K
I bet 120, button snap calls(huge warning bells go off in my head because he has been playing super snug post flop, and I had a really big hunch villain has a big big hand).
River: 3
I overbet shove for about $650, making my hand look as bluffy as possible and try to get max value from villain. Villain tanks for 2 minutes and says something like "I don't know how i can possibly fold this hand" and calls with pocket 7s.

Been running insanely hot at 1/2 thus far: up $5,559 after 161 hours for a total of 20.43bb/hr. Need to remind myself to not take shots at 2/5 just yet, regardless of how juicy or soft the games are because my br is just not ready for that yet ! I'm super satisfied I was able to nearly climb out of my hole after losing roughly 1.4k at 2/5.