Meanwhile, I got AA in v KK and win 2/2. :')

I didn't get a chance to do a weekly update after last week since we left for Nashville bright and early Friday morning. Fun little trip. We also drove through a tornado warning on our way back, even a spotted funnel cloud!

#nerdmoment: I love weather. My girlfriend was driving during the time, and as I was looking at radar because we couldn't see 50 feet in front of us, I noticed a bow effect in the radar. I knew instantly that it meant there was some kind of rotation in the atmosphere, which means a strong correlation to potential tornadic activity. We were driving right through that bow effect. I wish I could be a meteorologist.

Back to poker. My mental game has been getting test the last few weeks. I didn't know necessarily at the time, but the last half of October I was breakeven. These first few days of November have been even more brutal. Some example hands:

4 limps, I raise 99 to $17 in SB, 3 calls. Flop is JT9xdd. I bet $50, a big VIP raises to $150. Folds to me, I sigh call. Turn is 4h. I check, he jams for $280, I fold. He shows 87o.

I raise 87o to $7 in CO. A very loose, kind of aggro player calls in SB and BB calls. Flop is 852dxd. SB donks for $14, fold, I raise to $45, he jams for $120, I call. Turn As River 6s. He flips over 86o

I raise KQJTcxxc to $8 at PLO. A bunch of calls, as per usual. A big VIP 3bets to $25 with a $100 stack. I re-pot to $145 and get 3!!!! calls. Flop is KQ3r. I jam, fold, another player flats. With AKK2 one suit.

The AA hand from last week, running it twice against KK and losing both.

Raising AKo to $20 after an SB limp to a BTN straddle, 2 calls. Flop is KJhh2x. Check I bet $40 fold a very loose 2/5 player who bluffs way too much calls in SB. Turn is Tx. Check I bet $110 he jams for $200 more I call him off and he shows KTo. (FWIW, that's the only hand he plays this way that I lose to. KQ, Qxhh, QJ, random bluffs, etc)

BTN straddling, I limp KKT9 in SB. A bunch of limpers, and a big VIP gambol raises to $15 in straddle. I repot to get him HU (ironically, I had just listened to a podcast where they dissected my PLO hand from last week, also KKT9, and they recommended in almost the same spot to raise and isolate against the weak player). He calls. I jam on a J32cxc flop. He calls with KQ33cxcx. How in the world does he have that hand on that flop against my exact hand?

So it's been a frustrating week. And every day I've felt like I'm about to break out of this BE stretch....boom a hand like the ones from above happens. Looking over the hands, maybe I don't get KKT9 in on a flop like that? Maybe I just flat the KQJT hand preflop, instead of trying to get HU against the fish? The good thing is that I'm realizing the stars are having to align for all of this action to happen. It's now just a case of mental game and continuing to go over hands, continuing to study, and eventually this will pass.

This will be the first week where I do not have a single winning session. Live, at least. I couldn't have had a worse week. After my long post this morning, I would play and lose another $1k. I played one of the best sessions I can think of. I just got ass raped by the river to the tune of $1,800.

The 1/2 table I was at was a good table, and I was crushing it there. Until I raise AKo from the BB, double barrel KT4hhx flop and Jx turn, only for Jh to appear on the river. He flips over not a flush, but AJo. In a $300 pot.

Then at 2/5, doing the same thing. Get it in for a small $200 pot with AJ on A86dxd. Against 99. Turn 8, river 9.

Then the hand that started the downfall. 6 handed, one limp, I raise KK to $20. Get 4 calls.

Flop ($100): T64r
A massive aggro fish bets $55. 1 fold, and I raise to $140. All fold to him who calls.

Turn ($380): 7r
He checks. I bet $175. I had about $465 to start the turn. Awkward SPR. He tanks. And tanks. Asks me how much I have behind and I oblige. Then he calls.

River ($730): 5
He tanks and tanks and jams.

Really?

The absolute only hand that makes any sense that I lose to taking this like is 87. The 5 is a scare card for sure. And I'm repping either an overpair or top set. It's going to be tough for me to call. What can he have?

Not a set. He's jamming turn for sure (as to which I'm probably folding). Not 75. Not 53. Not two pair. Worse Tx? Sure.

I sigh call with pot odds. He turns over 87o, the only hand I lose to that takes a line like this. Maybe it's a fold, but I fold this then I call absolutely nothing on the river and he can just bluff mindlessly.

Then an orbit later, against the same aggro fish, I'm in CO and get QQ all in preflop against him in BB. He has KK.

My mental game is really taking a beating right now. I'm a couple of longshot rivers away from being +$3k in the last week. Instead, I'm -$2.5k and looking at another 4 session losing streak. After the QQ hand, I just got up and left. I don't think I could have played my A or B game at that point. In fact, the last month of time I've had 6 winning sessions vs 11 losing sessions. 2 of those 6 wins totaled for +$14.

I'm not playing tomorrow either. Just ****ing pisses me off. I was completely crushing it today until the last hour and a half. It's like bad variance took a nap and then woke up. I'll probably just play some MTTs tomorrow for the practice or something like that.

Head up mate. These periods will happen many times over the course of your career so you may as well begin today dealing with it in the best possible way. Embrace the losing, become numb to it. And make sure you're always playing your best poker and one day, could be a day or a week or a month from now, you'll come out the other end a winner again.

Over any 1000 hour stretch, it's going to get nasty at least once. The winrate you end up with after that 1k hours will largely be a function of how you weathered that storm.

Now re the HH, I just wanted to mention that 99 in SB imo should be a complete and not an iso. OOP with very little fold equity should be sounding alarm bells. With a hand like this we do not want to put money into the pot OOP when most flops will be terrible for us. Complete, spank that set, get paid. IMO, ofc.

Head up bud and stick at it.

Thanks man! I know it'll even out in the end. Or maybe this is just evening out from the large September. The good thing is that I can point to a lot of bad runouts coming, and it's not big mistake after big mistake.

Re the 99 hand. You might be right. The table dynamics were of one I very rarely see. The table was a 12/10, which probably lends itself to limping the 99 in SB rather than raising. It'd be interesting to see how the hand would have played out if I limp rather than raise. Perhaps bet-raise-reraise-4bet-fold.

Am sticking to my plan laid out yesterday of staying in and practicing MTTs/online. Already made one small FT, but finished in 7th getting QQ all-in 3 ways against AJ and A6.

you're skipping playing 2/5 at the casino on a FRIDAY to stay home and play small mtt's online?

In two words, yes and no.

I'm skipping playing not to play MTTs. I'm skipping playing because my mental state has taken a massive beating over the last couple of weeks (especially this week) and I feel as if it would only take one or two standard beats for me to play a sub-optimal game.

But, while I'm skipping today, I might as well kill two birds with one stone and get some small stakes online poker in. I wanted to one day this month, so let's get it out of the way. And it's a different form of poker, which can help me mentally as well.

Trust me, I would MUCH rather be at the casino than playing $10 MTTs at home.

I can understand needing a mental holiday but thats what mondays and tuesdays are for lol. Passing on live cash on a friday-weekend to stay home and play micro mtt's online is a waste, you can play those any odd day. If youre gonna skip the best nights of the week to play you should atleast be doin it to get laid or goin out and havin some fun. Suck it up, take some deep breaths, take a lap around the casino, whatever it takes to regain your composure after a beat, GO THERE AND GRIND! Sometimes all it takes is 1 or 2 "friday night" type games to erase a bad 2 week-month stretch.


Id say sorry for comin down on you kinda hard but im not cuz you need somebody to apparently, youre doing this as your main source of income now! GL man

I'm bringing this quote in from one of my buddys' PG&C thread, in which I posted that healthcare/401(k)/IRAs really aren't that much.

I won't disagree, there is some stress involved. But that's why you have savings set aside and a solid bankroll so that you do have that cushion for the downswings. When I left my job, I calculated the cost of healthcare. I would have to make about an extra $1.50/hr to cover healthcare costs for myself. It would have been a huge mistake for me to leave my job and go pro, if I didn't think I could make at least 1.5x my work hourly at the tables, much less $1.50/hr.

A lot of recently gone pros won't have that discipline, through no fault of their own. A lot of them are 22/23 year olds who simply don't have that work experience. I'm lucky in that I came from human resources. I saw everyone's paychecks. I knew about all of the benefits. I saw people struggle on salaries that, frankly, they shouldn't be struggling with. That's my huge advantage. It's not stressful for me.

The stress comes at the tables. When you're running bad, you have to put out of your mind that the last X amount of pots over XXXbb, the river has completely trashed your hand. You keep playing and playing and it keeps occurring and eventually, you can't get it out of your mind. So it affects you at the tables, causing you to not bring your A game.

But that's no different than an actual job. I would go weeks without hiring anybody for entry level positions paying a pitiful, non-livable wage in an upscale neighborhood. That's also work stress. The big difference is, I still got paid. But if you have enough of a BR or savings saved up, you just dip into that to pay for everything. And when bad variance turns into good variance, just replenish it.





This is fine. Last week was an awful week. I probably should have played, but I didn't. I can't say if it was the right decision or wrong decision, I'll never know because I don't know how it would have turned out. But I can say I came back and I was mentally refreshed. I've again had a ton of awful rivers in large pots this week, but I've been able to combat them to the best of my abilities. But I agree, in general I need to plow through during the weekend and perhaps take one of the midweek days off if needed.

Hope it starts turnin around for ya this weekend, just keep makin the right plays and putting in the hours. Keep analyzing your game honestly and looking to improve whether youre crushing or going through a rough stretch, GL the rest of the year man!

Yeah tbh I don't think poker is even that stressful if you have a bankroll???

Thanks! I've been analyzing and I have kept the "play 100 hands with Snowie on every play day" goal, which has been pretty massive for me.

It really isn't. As long as you are properly rolled and have a back-up plan, emergency funds, etc then it's just like any other job. Well, aside from the guaranteed income.

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This past week was a roller coaster. Down-up-down-up-down. Yesterday, I also managed my 3rd 4-digit loss in a month. That's not a lot, but when you consider I missed an entire week and my play right now is split about 75% 1/2 (a deep 1/2 mind you) and 25% 2/5, it's a bit troubling.

After yesterday, I can only attribute it to just awful luck. I got stacked for a 3rd AND 4th time in 8 days by one of the biggest whales in the game. A few hands from yesterday:

A very good player opens OTB to $15. I see T9 in SB and raise to $55. BB, a tricky player but probably a small loser, calls and BTN folds.

Flop ($125): KQ6
I bet $70. The flat of the 3bet is usually a hand like AQ/88-JJ. He calls rather quickly.

Turn ($265): 5
Not the card I was looking for. But given the board texture and his quick flop call, I feel I have a huge advantage here and can set up a river jam. I have KK, QQ, AA, AK, KQ. He simply doesn't. I bet $150 and he calls again, rather quickly.

River ($565): 8
Where the hell was this card on the turn? A couple of things:

-His quick call is good for me. Quick calls, from the book I'm reading, are signs of weakness. If he had a strong hand, he'd have to think about it.
-I still have the range advantage
-This is literally the worst hand I have in my range that gets here

So I jam for $435. He goes into the tank for 2 minutes. And then he calls...with JJ????

Good for him I guess, but that's a really terrible call against me and against the population in general. I'm still betting QQ, KK, AA, AK, and KQ in this situation. Whatever. I reload.

Literally a couple of hands later, two players limp. The good player raises to $30. I see AA in HJ and 3bet to $85. I start with a $500 stack. Sizing could be larger, but we're fairly shallow to being with. To my surprise, the massive whale who limped in UTG+1 calls and the original raiser folds.

Flop ($205): JT9
Whale checks in the dark. Not the best board, but I know he likes to raise preflop so I doubt he hits this flop too hard. I bet $105. He calls rather quickly.

Turn ($415): T
UTG+1 checks. Pretty good card for me. I now beat J9, and none of the draws complete. I jam $300. He calls pretty quickly and flips over T7.

Really? #3 in 8 days.

I rebuy again. A funny thing happens, all of the solid players leave around the same time. All replaced by far weaker players. I'm now in a 9/10 game. And yet, I'm eeking close to the stop loss.

After a couple of hours, said whale from above limps in EP. Another player, seems very meh, raises to $15. A very loose player calls in SB. I have KQ and flat in BB to keep whale in the pot. Whale calls.

Flop ($60): KQ5
Checks to the original raiser who bets $30. SB folds. I flat. I could go either way with this one. Take the pot down now or keep the whale in. But I think it's more prudent, with such a strong hand, to keep him in the pot. He calls.

Turn ($150): J
Not an awful card. Checks to the preflop raiser who bets $60. I raise to $175. Whale hems and haws. This is what disappoints me. He tips the dealer and then goes all-in for $200 more. Original raiser folds.

I just read on this. I just read on this. I just read on this. A player who pre-tips the dealer before jamming just has it. No matter how unlikely it seems, he has it. But can I really fold, being so high in my range against a spew monster? He could have QJ or KJ or pair + combo draw....**** it, I call.

Spew monster shows ATo.

Just to show how good this table was, in a BTN straddled pot ($10), there were a few limps. Someone raised to $75 preflop AND FIVE PLAYERS CALLED. Flop is J32r. Spew monster shoves, someone calls, and BTN calls. BTN, for the side pot between them and spew monster, shows J5o on a Kx 7x runout and spew monster can't beat that for the side pot! A set of 3's won the main pot (very speculative call, they started with a $250 stack to start the hand).

And in my mind, I just wonder. How in the hell have I been stacked by this guy 4 times in 8 days? He was literally a poker charity patron to everyone else at the table. How is it possible that he just happens to have it every single time?

Regroup for the next two weeks. Not much play next week with Thanksgiving and the need to do a ton of Christmas shopping. The good thing is that I'm crushing the 1/2. Bad is that this month I've been brutalized at 2/5 and PLO. But again, a lot of it is coming from awful runouts these past two weeks. So I have to somehow keep my head high and keep on fighting.

Definitely didn't have to go broke with T9s. I xf flop fwiw

Small bet and give up if u think he flats some low pp.
X fold if his range is tight and narrow

Obviously disagree regarding poker being stressful, but a little advice on hands...

1. T9s hand. Yes his call is awful we can get that hand out of the way. I think you're applying range advantage a bit incorrectly here. Yes you have AA and KK and he doesn't. However, (conservative estimate) you're 3betting 12% of hands SB vs BU. I imagine BB is coldcalling 4-6% so in essence he has a ton of hands that are really strong on this board. KQ,AQ, maybe QQ, etc. so in reality he has higher EV on this board. Anyway, I'd cbet small as Broken suggested and then probs give up.


2.) 3bet bigger esp. if whales limp-calling 107ss. I don't like flop sizing, there's some merit to overbet jamming tbh as whale most likely not folding any piece of equity. Also 10x on the turn is not a good card for you, you have 0 10x and he can have a bunch, just a nitpick.

3.) UL, but def raise here, this whale wont fold any equity. he's probably not folding any Qx. or a gut shot, or SD ,etc.


Hope you get out of this mini downer

Just focus on EV, if you learn how EV functions that is the first step to understanding the bigger picture.

Also i disagree with bbissick about poker being stressful, it is stressful imo and prolly not for the avg person i can't say i've experienced a full-time 9-5 job working for a company etc. but it is def less tough mentally then poker.

T9s just x-fold the turn bad sizing OTF

AA you can go either way between betting or checking, depends on specific villain vs loose passive with low flop raise/will call a lot worse i think bet here is fine.

KQ raise flop, turn he has #32 combos of straights it might be close given you only have to call 200 more but it's a fold

Just want to clarify that I do think poker in general is stressful, saying that as two year online pro, and was disagreeing with OP

Thanks for all of the replies on some of the hand histories!

WRT hand 1, I agree with all of it. I think we can cbet smaller and just give up after that, unless we pick up additional equity (again, where was that 8h on the turn, not the river). I'm not entirely sure if this player is flatting KQ in the big blind, but if so then he has quite a bit of that compared to the rest of his range.

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I failed to mention this, but late last week my gf had a death in her family. Volume this week with funeral and stuff going to be cut way low unfortunately.

And in kind of a random, lighter note, we had Chinese this past weekend. My fortune cookie?

"Never Quit!"

Think I'm being told something after two awful weeks.....

And on stressful or not. Bad stretches are obviously stressful, but not moreso than bad stretches at work. The big difference, as I've said, is that you're paid no matter what at a 9-5.

But it depends on the type of 9-5 you have as well. When I had mine, it went from ok to terrible in a matter of months. I haven't reached that "matter of months" quite yet with poker, but I can say that every single day I'm anxious to play. When I come home, I want to fire up Ignition or crack open a book and study it. And this has been during upswings and downswings. When I'm not playing on Sundays (Sundays are truly awful around here for poker), I can't wait for the next day.

At my best at a 9-5, I'd stay over half an hour. I'd want to leave almost as soon as 5 hit (or 4 in my case). They would increase the work load and they would put pressure on you to accomplish almost the quite impossible.

I remember a time when, during a meeting, one of my coworkers slightly smiled after the boss said something slightly funny. In front of the entire room, the boss went off on him and threatened his job and his ability to provide for his family.

Why would I want to do something where a couple of millimeters can cause this bag of flesh and bones, like you and me, to threaten someone like that and humiliate them in front of everyone?

Corporate America culture is worse than poker. You just get better compensation for putting up with it.

Wow...

Live poker is similar a bit though you have to put up with drunk/loud/obnoxious people sometimes but what the **** that boss of yours?

Out of ego i wouldn't want to work for something like that but at the end of the day you don't have a choice.

A lot of bosses are like that. Of the ones I worked for while in HR, half of them acted this way. And their bosses weren't much better either. I do have a choice, and I chose not to work for them.

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I raise AK to $10 UTG. Two unknowns in the field calls and BB, an aggrotard, calls.

Flop ($40): AK3
BB checks. I bet $25. Folds to BB who calls.

Turn ($90): 3
BB checks. I bet $60. Aggrotard now raises to $160. Given the board and combinatorics:

-4 combos of A3, only one of those being suited
-1 combo of 33
-10 AdXd combos

Of which, some of each raise the flop. My plan, with about $200 behind, is to call turn and call jams on non diamond rivers. This guy definitely has bluffs and can apply pressure with every AdXd hand.

River ($410): 2
BB jams. I call. BB shows A3



A few days away from live poker will hopefully be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Hard to fold tbh, but equally hard to find bluffs. :/

I'm not necessarily sure how I can ever fold there against this villain. There aren't many bluffs, but there shouldn't be many value hands either. Which translates to him overplaying something or having exactly A3. And him having A3 is equally unlikely due to some percentage of the time him raising on the flop. Just a crappy hand during some crappy run bad.

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Took the last four days and decided to not look at hand histories. Not look at strategy tips. Not look at strategy videos. Not play a single hand of poker. But I can read about and think about miscellaneous poker topics like tells, mental game, etc. I liken it to a juice cleanse. Cutting out the meat, the good stuff, for a limited time period, but still nourishing yourself some way. After it, you're supposed to feel better.

I'm not big on posting about results on this. Since I was sick last (ending Oct. 29th), I'm -$4k at non-1/2 games through 33 hours. I'm -$342 at 1/2 during the same stretch. So it's felt like I haven't been able to beat any game. I think the mental break completely away from poker will serve me well. Definitely looking forward to playing some tournaments these next two weeks. As much as I loathe tournament poker, it's still where I started playing so it'll always have a lure for me.

Argghhhhhhh I punted!

I think that's a solid mentality for me to have. Small MTT, but I did get my first ever live cash last night. Should have been better than just a min-cash though, was close to if not CL with like 30 left. With 40 left I had like 10% of all the chips.

The punt? 2 away from money, blinds 3k/6k. Folds to SB who raises to 23k. I flat J8dd in BB. He has 150kish and I have him covered.

Flop (56k): QJTr
SB checks. I check back. This seems like a decent check back spot in a cash game. It doesn't seem to be in a tournament. This close to the bubble and as a bigger stack, I should bet and just take the pot down. Simple bet/fold.

Turn (56k): 3x
SB bets 25k. I flat

Turn (106k): 6x
SB now bets 55k. I call.

PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!! 2 away from the money with two shortstacks on the table. He has 0 bluffs. None. Think in a cash game, it's marginal EV at best but I'm probably not losing much either way. This situation, super super -EV and a mega punt.

Thankfully, I'm not a tournament pro

(I forgot to mention he had AK)

I thought when I bought my much newer car last year that it was supposed to be reliable?

I asked my girlfriend, since she is better with cars than I, about why my inside light was flickering. She said it was normal. This was about a month ago.

And now I sit with my electrical system going ;sjpoweneuqNEFPwjvpaejfvpNWPWNGOW[JRGWHG . Battery is shot, tons of battery acid leaked out. But it's raining and I have to wait a few hours before someone can come help. FML.

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Actually, this story is probably better. I didn't play yesterday due to an extreme lack of sleep (****ing dog, ****ing alarm clock). I'm expecting something from UPS. A massaging chair cushion thing, to be exact. I have a bad back and I figured this might be something that can relax the muscles.

So I see the UPS truck pull up, fully expecting this to be my package. Nah, drops something off at the neighbors across the street. Then something peculiar catches my eye not even 15 seconds later. A car I had never seen stops in front of their house (and mine). So I'm watching and the driver gets out, puts her hood up, grabs their package and runs back to the car.

It took me a few seconds before I realized what was going on. I race to the front door with my phone in hand. All I have time to do was take pictures of the car that did it. Needless to say, I forwarded all of it to the proper authorities. But last night, super panicked about my package getting stolen by the same bitches (yeah, two girls). Guess I don't have to worry about that anymore

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November tested me. There was not a single point during the month in which I was positive. And it all started with AA < KK on that innocuous 973dxd flop, losing both runouts. I ran like dog **** and I needed a couple of days for a mental break. I got stacked 4 times in 8 days by perhaps the 3rd fishiest player I played with all month.

It was brutal.

Because of that, I fell short of the volume goal. I only played 120 hours instead of 150.

My other two goals were both achieved. I finished reading the book sometime last week, and have started on my next poker book. This one will not be finished until perhaps February.

I did play Snowie every play day for a minimum of 100 hands. This has helped me a lot with my preflop game. That has, in turn, led to me having easier decisions to make post flop.

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In December, I want a minimum of a full month of play. It's going to be tricky with the holidays and with my GF's niece due this month, but she understands I've gotta put in a ton of volume.

I also want to continue the work with Snowie. And I want to watch a minimum of one video per week from a training website. I've been a bit laxed with this portion, and it makes me feel as if I'm wasting a membership.

Good luck in December!