Hello Everyone!

This is the reason for the name of the thread. Cliff notes, for those lazy amongst us:

Started with $200 BR
Slightly winning at 10nl, slightly losing at 25nl for about a year and a half
Decided to put some work in, realized my game sucked, starting crushing 25nl
Got a massive promotion at work after this
BE at 50nl for 5 months after this, getting complacent
Realized that my game still sucked, got to the grindstone and studied harder than I ever had
Crushed 50nl, went to 100nl and sunrunned after a failed first shot
Reached my goal and cashed out, leaving $1k in my Bovada BR

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Studying in this game is key. Studying in any aspect of life is key. I've been filling up a blank notebook since November from things such as 6max ranges, important highlights of books I read, videos that I watch. Writing your thoughts down....not typing, but physically writing....is a key aspect in retaining and learning information. I'm in the middle of a live poker series right now in fact so that I can completely transfer from the aggressive dick waving of 6max to the tamer waters of live 1/2.

So we reached our goal after almost 3 years. Now what? Well, initially I started all of this to help pay off student loans and quit my job while going back to school. Unfortunately I wanted to be a teacher in the state of Ohio. The climate of education is so terrible in this state right now that I would not advise anyone to take on this noble pursuit. Standardized test after standardized test. There is even a law in the works that will have a member of a school staff FIRED AND GIVEN A CRIMINAL RECORD for saying ANYTHING negative about all of these standardized tests. So here is the goal:

I want to be financially well off enough to go professional in live poker.

The 9-5 (my case, 8-4) rat race isn't fun. We only have this one life. Why do we want so desperately to become another unrecognizable cog in corporate America constantly under the pressure to appease CEOs and corporations worth billions of dollars, while we're given a finite worth on our non renewable time? People don't see it that way. A corporation says "Hey, your life is worth...ehhh...$22/hour to me. Take it or leave it, and then do everything I say."

So how will I do this?

-Studying
-Playing when I can but balancing the work, life, and poker aspect
-Having a $50,000 BR with at least a $15,000 life roll. Along with this, my student loans need to be completely paid off.
-I would also have to have an hourly WR far greater than what I currently make. Obviously my job (and I like my job, just not the general idea of spending life constantly taking orders and not being free) gives me some great benefits. If my WR is between $25-$30/hr, I would feel comfortable enough.

If I fail, I'll accept everything. But I'll be at peace knowing that I tried. My funds from my check became available today and I'm starting with a $4k BR. For those of you experienced in the live poker arena, please give me some advice on how to keep this BR. I don't like the idea of having $4k in cash laying around for 1/2, but I also don't want it to comingle with life roll.

Let's get it!

First, this is gonna be epic

Thanks, let's hope so!

First session down. Kind of a feeler session since it has been almost 3 years since I played live poker. The action was a lot faster than I remember it being. So I'm trying to keep tabs on raises and pot sizes and trying to gather reads from players before even looking at my cards. It went fast. But I have a feeling that once I play a few sessions I'll start actually noticing things instead of trying to notice things . It was a good first session.

I also could not have asked for a better seat. For the first 2 1/2 hours, I had direct position on a huge whale. Then for the last 1 1/2 hours, I also had good position on another big whale. A couple of interesting hands:

Very first hand of table, no reads, 6 handed. I open TT from UTG to $10, BB calls. Black, middle aged guy. Flop K94. He donk bets $15 into the pot. Online, this is weak when a fish does it, but he was unknown. So I call. Turn 8. He fires $40. Lots of diamond draws, but I remembered that fast plays are strong, so I folded. Played with him all 4 hours and I'm convinced he had me good.

Another hand, I pfr to $10 with JJ UTG. Older Indian player calls, he's loose/passive pre and cally post. CO 3bets to $35. He has $80 behind and this was the first 3bet. We had actually talked while waiting on our table, and I remembered that he said he played draws aggressively. I tank and nit fold. Good fold?

Last interesting hand, I raise KK to $12 in CO after huge whale limps in HJ. BTN calls, so far he seemed to be not horrible. Middle aged white guy. HJ whale calls as well. Flop T75 rainbow. HJ donks for $12. I raise to $50, BTN jams for $93 total. Then HJ whale rejams for $122 total.

At this point, my image was pretty aggressive. Those two had only seen me showdown AQo on a KJ5 (I called huge whale's flop jam when it was $30 for me to calll to win $100) flop (8 t T r). I had also won a big pot triple barreling JTs on AQ978 rainbow against huge whale (he showed 97o). I'm genuinely afraid I'm behind BTN's range. HJ...I'm pretty sure I'm ahead. We have to call $72 into the $280 pot. We would have a $29 side pot against HJ. Do we call or fold?



4 hours
+$187

gl!

Thanks!

Got in another 3.5 hour session today after work. These first few sessions are really just me testing the waters out. It really is a much different game live than it is online. But I felt a little more comfortable tonight.

That being said, I did lose $285 on the night. KK < AA AIPF from a middle aged white woman who had limp/raised and shown 33 an hour prior. Not getting away from it being 75bb deep.

I also ran what I thought at the time on the turn was a good bluff, but probably isn't.

One limp, MAWG who is all ESPN pokered out with the hat and sunglasses on (~$1k effective) makes it $12 OTB. SB, a tighter player flats and I have 87ss in BB. I have a $250 stack and decided to call.

Flop ($38) T75
Checks to BTN who makes it $35. SB folds. This is my mistake. I call, thinking that there are a lot of good turn cards. This player had been pretty active but I felt might have been more on the fishier side of LAG. I gave him a whiffed range, overpairs and Tx. But yes, this is where I need to exit the hand.

Turn ($108) 6
Great card for me. I check, BTN bets $75. I jam for $200 effective. I think the turn jam is fine. If he has Tx, he can fold. Maybe JJ as well. So many sets I can. He SNAP calls with AA. I just think I have enough fold equity and enough river equity to make that play +EV. Him snap calling with AA, especially since I've had a TAGgy image, is kind of baffling. But it really drives the difference between online and live.

Players won't fold big pairs. Bluffing isn't going to work against the typical live player. Unless the board is really scary.

So far, I think I can be a decent winner just by my few hours of play and observation. These players aren't good at all. I just can't get FPS-y. And the video series I'm watching on live play? 100% accurate so far. I'm also piecing together a playing schedule that should revolve around me playing the night before my first off day, my first off day, Saturday, and Sunday after work. Gives me plenty of time to put hands in and also enough rest. So as for now, I'm going to spend the next 3 days studying up on that video series.

You can def crush live. As you said you cant get "fps'y", and really no need to at the stakes youre currently at. The majority of your opponents will hang themselves so much. Yes occasionally you can and will run them over but you wont need to that much. Focus on being alot more patient, to your opponents and their tendencies when youre not in hands as well as opposed to looking at your phone/tablet, tv, cocktail waitresses, etc etc. Last but not least dont play anything other than the game YOU HAVE A EDGE at in the casino which is poker! Think youll do just fine, gl bro

Thank you very much for this! It's very much a patience game, especially when half an hour online equals 4 hours of live. But it's a fun experience and you can learn so many things by watching the pots, so I wouldn't call it boring. And thankfully, I never have nor never will have a desire to play the pit games. Not much of a gambler

I am proud of myself, only one real "FPSy" play I made today and in all honesty I don't think it was too bad. Double barreling a dry board against a loose player that I expect a lot of folds from. Meh, didn't work.

Big hand of the night though, and this one still has me scratching my head. I'm even going to post this in the forum. Feel free to chime in:

Hero ($200): UTG+2, mid-20s been playing at the table for about an hour. Very tight but have come in for a raise almost every hand. Me and main villain had history where I 3b squeezed his UTG+1 open with AKo. He looked at me, asked how much the bet was, and folded.

Villain (Covers): MP, looks about my age, mixed skin. He's been at the table for about half an hour, but so far has seemed to raise more than his fair share of hands preflop. Has cbet a couple of times and seemed at this point to be competent.

Hero raises to $10 w KK, 4 callers

Flop ($43): Q32

Checked to me, Hero bets $25, Villain raises to $65, folds to me who calls

Turn ($173): 7

Hero checks, Villain bets $85, Hero....($129 left)

This hand seems strange to me because it's such a dry board. I'm sure also villain is 3betting QQ and AA given my image. So what is he raising here? Why would he raise 22 or 33? But what other hands are there? The story didn't really make sense. I jammed, he kind of tanked a bit before calling. I showed my hand, he never showed his, and the river was a K. I guess we'll never know.

Table seemed pretty good for a Thursday night. Two not good players directly on my right, a huge gambol 100 VPIP fish, the typical loose/passive player. I just couldn't get many hands all night, especially in LP. Meh. 3.25 hours, +$195

Good luck man! I'll be playing my very first live session in about a week. Feel kinda nervous about the switch from online to live haha. I'm a winning player at NL2/NL5 and I'll probably doing plenty of studying before I get into my first session. Any advice for a new guy??

I'm a BR nit but I know I definitely could not play my A game @ 1/2 live with 20bi as entire bankroll without an easy way to replenish it. Seems like most reasonable risk/reward available to you for leveraging your bankroll so GL.

Edit: actually the main point I was focusing on was you having spent 3 years grinding it up from microstakes. How would you react to losing ~8 buyins from coolers and flips? That's effectively hundreds of hours of work online lost to donks. Dealing with that is tough.

Thanks, good luck to you as well! I'm still very new to the live scene, but from what I've seen the most important parts are to stay patient and keep track of the little things. Coming from online, there's always a pot size figure and it shows you how much a player raises and how much everyone's stack sizes are. There isn't that in live. You have to keep track of all of this stuff on your own, so paying attention seems to be key for me so far.

Thanks for checking the thread out! To your first part, I took a 24 BI shot at 100nl online on a site that isn't easy to get money onto. I also have a reserve $1k online that I can cash out and add to the BR if I need to, along with a decent paying job. I also only bring 2 bullets with me at a time. If I was quitting my job today to go pro, I agree and believe I would definitely need at least 40 BIs. I think 20 is just fine though.

As for the second part, that whole online grind can be broken up into 3 parts. The first 2 1/2 years, I really failed to try to get better. The play was so bad that I figured my style should easily win. I was really stuck between a $500 and $800 BR. The second ~year started off with me seeking out enough knowledge to obtain a true ABC game which was enough for me to crush 25nl. But I stopped seeking out more knowledge and I took about 2 months off to settle into my new job. The final ~4 months I studied everyday. New concepts, old concepts, books, mathematics, reads, board textures, 3betting, barrel cards, ranges, blind defense, even a bit of GTO. My results were better than ever during this period and my game has never been better. I even went on an 8 BI downswing that took more than 25% of my roll during this time. So mentally I am prepared.

Played another session this afternoon before the gf gets here. The table started VERY slow. Then it picked up quite dramatically. This hand happened:

Me (OTB, $175ish): Tight and solid, mid 20s mixed guy, having friendly banter at the table with what seems to be a couple of regs.

Villain (CO, Covers): MAWG. A little more aggro in LP, seems like he might be some sort of bad reg. A couple of drinks in as well.

One limp, CO raises to $10, I look at K9 and call OTB (could raise, but I'm not that comfortable yet. I had seen him earlier make this same play with J9o). Folds to limper who calls.

Flop ($47): J 9 5 rainbow
Checks, villain bets $15, I call, fold.

He can do this with some QT and there are quite a few turn and river cards that I can use my tight image to steal.

Turn ($77): 2 rainbow
Villain bets $30. Hero calls

At this point I might be able to get away, but I had also seen him check down a river that he should have bet.

River ($137): T
Villain bets $30. Seems like the weakest bet ever, so I jam to $115 total. I block some two pair, I block the nuts, it's very reasonable that I could have just hit two pair. Just seems like a great card for me to jam. He tanks and calls with AJo.

Buy in again and make two pretty intense river calls, one against a seeming OMC who donk bet AJdd after I raised QdQh OTB and triple barrel jammed TT9hxh6h3h (him betting the turn is kind of what threw me for a loop, since the typical OMC probably isn't betting a T there when the flush gets there).

Then a mixed guy, about my age, calls my BTN iso in BB, I have A8 and we x T84dxd. he xr As t, and ships on 3c river. I tank/call and he mucks.

And then a slew of smaller pots I win from good aggression. Think I played much better today and had a better overall feel of the game than I have the past few sessions. And then when I go to rack up and leave, I realize one of my reds was actually a green. Score! 4.5 hours, +$300

subbed, yesss, dat live poker grind

my 2cents, K9hh seems like ridic spew otr probably cry fold turn. I prefer 3b or fold pre too. I'd much rather flat stronger kings. Shouldn't there be $33 in pot on the flop btw for 3 calls *10 raise +$3 blinds?

Thanks! Good luck with your poker grind as well!

I totally agree with folding turn. From the limited amount of experience I have, it's pretty rare that players are double barreling with a draw or a hand weaker than TPTK - unless they are spew monkeys. This guy wasn't a spew monkey. So yeah I almost definitely should be folding turn.

So if that's my logic, that players aren't double barreling worse than TPTK, then river probably is a fold. If he has AJ (12 combos), KJ (9 combos), and QJ (12 combos), then there are just too many hands I'm trying to get a weaker player to fold. I can have JT, but that's pretty much it.

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

So a week into this whole live playing arena, and I can say that I feel as if I may be a winner here. I'm up two BIs, which is nothing, but I see bad play everywhere and I'm noticing that if you pick the right cards and instances to bluff, then they'll fold. I've also been getting a lot of T3 and 94 in LP, which is the big moneymaker positions. I don't believe my true hourly is $26/hr (yet, if I study and improve my game enough maybe it is) but I'm pretty confident.

Another session down in the books. Planned on a 6 hour session (you can't go from 4 4 4 4 straight to 8, gotta build the stamina up!), only stayed for 5 hours 15 minutes. The table was good when I got there, and towards the last hour it was the worst table I have ever sat at. Direct position on two shortstackers, OMC to my direct left (pleasant fellow), 2 meh players with meh stacks, and probably a bad reg who was ~200bb deep with me. You know the table is bad when the OMC complains about how bad it is.

So I doubled up my third hand of the session. MAWG who I had seen straddle previously, min raise, and get some action and showdown A8, pfr to $10. I have AQo OTB and 3b to $35. ($200 effective). He calls.

Flop ($75): AK8

He checks, I bet $45, he raises to $100.

Interesting. So he doesn't 4bet preflop (no AA/KK), I have the nut TP, and there are only 6 combos of AK and 6 of A8. Also 3 combos of 88. There are 24 total combos of A9-AJ. So i jam, he calls, turn and river brick and he shows AT.

Couple of other interesting pots. This one, we're 5 handed. BTN is a young white kid about my age playing with an Oglebay chip protector. We're both ~200bb deep. He seems to be pretty good, cbetting when he should, not really getting to showdown. He raises to $10 OTB, I look at AA and 3b to $35. Should I go bigger here? He thinks and calls.

Flop ($72): T62

I bet to $45, he calls.

Turn ($162): 9

This is where it gets interesting. I have the NFD and overpair. The only hands I feel that beat me right now are sets, KQss, QJss, KJss, and 87ss. And I think he might be folding the flop to my bet, as I'm sure he sees me as competent, tight, and aggressive when I am in a pot. But he has something. So I decide to.....

Check. Villain bets $110. Hero Shoves for ~$220, villain tanks and folds.

So the check was because I knew he would pounce on weakness. I've seen him do it before. And I know it's going to be difficult for him to fold JsJx or QsQx. But there's also a fair amount of turn cards that just kill any action. 7, 8, J, Q, K...I'm not particularly comfortable with any of those cards.

I also misplayed a hand. Limped Q9s in CO to two limpers (one playing very OMC, SS). F QT4. Checks, OMC bets $6 AFTER CHECKING HIS CARDS. I raise to $20 because I figure he's on a draw, he checked his cards out, and he'll call. He calls, turn is like 6. He checks, I put him all in and he calls with KK. The reason I pulled this move was because he checked his cards. So I don't think that is necessarily the mistake. The mistake is limping Q9s in CO. I need to raise it, then fold to the OMC limp/raise.

5 hours 15 minutes

+$195

Just finished my first full "week" out. I kind of like the playing Thursday-Sunday thing and then taking Monday-Wednesday as sort of rest days. Gives me a set, defined schedule.

Tonight was pretty much the same as every other night. Except with a twist. I arrive at my table and there are two players who I've played with before. One of them goes "Oh no, why couldn't you fill that seat with a bad player?". Well crap. Now I'm recognized by two seeming regulars as a good player. Was probably one of the better tables I've been at. One of the bigger hands I won was opening A9s UTG and just triple barreling A639J. Guy called down with KK.

There was one hand I misplayed pretty badly. One loose-passive limps, MABG decked out in Chicago Bulls gear raises to 7. One caller, to me in SB and see AK. I make it $30. LP calls. Here is where it gets interesting. MABG kind of looks like he wants to 4bet. Instead, he just calls. Other folds.

Flop ($99): 842

I bet $50. I shouldn't have done it. I should have listened to that tell that I saw from MABG and I guess just check. But....I do have BDFD and BDSD along with two overcards. LP folds and MABG jams for $81 or so more. I tank, I ask him if he has aces or kings. He shrugs. I feel like he is too comfortable and I fold. He showed JJ.

So if he has JJ, then he has QQ, KK, AA, and probably TT in his range as well. Without looking into Equilab, I'm 99% positive that, given that range, I need to call.

http://www.pokerstrategy.com
Board: 8s4d2h
Equity Win Tie
CO 74.87% 74.77% 0.09% { TT+ }
SB 25.13% 25.04% 0.09% { AsKs }

And I'm getting something like $270 to $81, or 3.5 to 1. I don't think the fold is terrible, since at the time I had a tight, solid, aggressive image so I didn't think TT and JJ would be in his range.


So after the first week, I think I'm fairly confident in saying I'm more than likely a winner at these games. Maybe I'm running hot, maybe I'm making great calls, etc. But I haven't really had many tough decisions. And that's good I think.

4.17 hours
+$238

February Totals (6 sessions)
24.67 hours
+$830

I am very much out of shape. Which is weird, because I've gone on an exercise bike at least 5 days a week for at least 20 minutes. Gotta get in shape for some basketball and actually score more this time around than last time!

So I'm going to jot down a few intriguing hands here. Criticism and help appreciated!

This hand was from Sunday. Table to my left was very loose/passive and cally pre and postflop. Table to my right was a couple of decent players and then a MAAG (asian) who kind of had the gambol vibe about him. When he raised, he was committed to betting flop, turn, and river most hands. He also once defended his BTN straddle against my BB pfr with T2o and showed.

At this point, I had a fairly solid image. Nobody to my right wanted to tango.

Folds to MAAG who raises to $12 in MP 7 handed (~$300 effective), I call in CO with KTo. All else fold.

Flop ($27): J94

Villain bets $15, Hero calls $15

Is that fine? I figure I block KJ/JT, not a lot of J9, and with position there are quite a few good turn cards where I can use my image to my advantage.

Turn ($57): 6

Villain checks. This is what I was anticipating. Not a great card, but I could easily value bet KJ/QJ/JT here against this villain. I could realistically have 44 and 99 here as well. So....

Hero bets $35, Villain calls $35

At this point, I'm putting him on a 9x, maybe some sort of draw combination. Don't think he calls with a pair worse than 9x.

River ($127): 7

Villain Checks, Hero....????



Another spot I had been in on Saturday night. After the AA hand I reported about earlier, I had gotten 86o and used my BTN position to push off the weak/tight table. Flop was 34dd7x. I bet, get one caller. Looks like 30ish black guy with a big old North Carolina jersey on. Seems like he may a regular, hadn't been impressed with his play. Turn is a good card for me, I don't remember. He checks, I take about 5 to 10 seconds to figure out the pot size and bet. Not unreasonable in my book. He says something like "I fold, man you be takin too long" like he owns the damned place. ****ing douchebag.

So what do you do in that instance when I clearly didn't take too long, I don't hollywood, and some tool calls you out like that? You can't wait 10 seconds for me to gather the bet? He seemed so tilted, two hands later he called my raise of his straddle with A4, calls a large bet on 974, and is rewarded with a 4 on the turn.

Another couple of hands I'm trying to figure out are the small pocket pairs in EP. Should we raise them? Should we open limp? I've tried both so far, but one leaves us with 3 or 4 callers in a $40 pot where we need a set or a very dry board. The other leaves us unbalanced. While we're not worried about balance in these games, we don't get that extra way to win and there have been....maybe 4 or 5 players I've played with who would notice something like that and know I have a weak range there.

And when do we get aggressive with bluffing type of hands? I think I misplayed this one. MA Egyptian Guy who I had bluffed OTR earlier (he doesn't know it) pfr to $10 against a limper in BTN. We're ~$230 effective. I call in SB with 87. Limper calls.

Flop ($32): 952

Check, Check, Villain bets $15, Hero calls, fold.

Is this a good spot for a check/raise? We have immediate nut outs along with BDFD.

Turn ($62): A

Hero Checks, Villain bets $20. Hero....??????

Would this be a good spot to check/raise? I pretty much only am check/raising here with A5/A9/55 (22 is weaker and I probably xr flop). We now have 12 outs and villain's bet size seems pretty weak. We'd be folding out overpairs and 5x and other high card hands that can double barrel. He had been closer to the bad/aggressive side, but his bets were just too small.



River ($102): K

Do we donk bet here? I think Ax may bet small, but a hand like Kx probably checks down. May call a small donk bet though. And if my turn analysis is right, he probably doesn't have an Ax and is closer to 9x, Kx, TT-QQ and could call a small bet.



I'm going to finish this deucescracked series. Have a good leap day y'all!

Finally got back to the grindstone this afternoon. Was going to play last night, but my friend asked right before I left "Do you want to go have dinner?" Which by dinner, she means bar. Didn't drink because I thought "yeah, we'll go, leave and then I'll be able to play some." Sike! It's all good though, I needed the time out.

Played 6 hours today, won $273. Very card dead session, three hands really were key. Flopped a set against a bad aggro. Then I raise/called QJ on a QT9 board against an even worse bad aggro. Hit the K OTR . I don't love calling his 3bet jam, but I'm getting $95 to $240, so I need ~28%, which is about 7 outs.

Then this hand. Folds to me in CO, I raise to $10 with 66. Bad, loose, and bad aggro (bad bet sizings) calls in blinds. He had donk bet 74o into the pfr on a A72 flop, called a raise, called a large bet on 3 turn, and donk bet 5 river. He had also donk bet previously against me using bad sizing with top two on T85.

Flop ($20): 853

Checks, I bet $15, he calls

Turn ($50): A

Checks, I bet $35, he calls

So why do I bet turn? Well, he has a history of donk betting with a pair. So when he doesn't, I don't think he has an A. I also don't think he has an 8. So, 5, 3, or some draw.

River ($120): 3

He donks out for $35. Well then. It's a pretty easy call online. I ask him if he rivered the 3. He says "you won't know", pauses, and then "unless you call". So I snap call after that. That first part seemed like it slipped up and he tried to rectify it. He shows 74o.

Always always always bring hand sanitizer with you to the casino. Always. I was very tired during my session yesterday, so I kept yawning and my hands were too close to my face and all of a sudden, while driving to my gf's last night, boom I felt it. More annoying than anything, but I think I just need ~a day to sit back and rest.

So I'm going to sit back, play some MTTs, watch season 4 of House of Cards (hell yes!). I gotta take down an MTT, it's one of my yearly goals! With that being said, here is my goals for March:

-Minimum 60 hours played (I don't think mentally I can handle 20 hours/week right now)
-Start on the next live poker series and try to fill up my notebook!
-Take one chip porn pic. I should have done this when I cashed out for $700, but I think I'll cash out for more at least once this month
-Be more aggressive. So most of the time, I am raising when I enter pots. But I'm not taking 100% advantage of my late position hands.

Regarding keeping bankroll separate but not necessarily in cash. Chips are good =). Personally, after awhile of having a cash bankroll, you get used to it, but you can always keep your BR in chips if you play at the same venue frequently.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to see if they allow us to take chips out of the casino. I know they are implanted with some sort of tracking technology, so that might be a no-go

I didn't go on some huge losing streak. That hand sanitizer I forgot to bring in turned into a week long thing. So I haven't played since Friday, and that's going to lower my goal amount of hours to play by a little bit. We'll see by how much.

Also have done almost no studying. It's been work, come home and sleep. So I think I'm adding to my goal to bring hand sanitizer with me to every session I play there. I don't want to get sick again from that damned place!

I thought only very large chips (1k or 5k+) have rfid chips. I sincerely doubt they're sticking RFID on $1 chips

Not the $1, but I think they start at the $25s. Seems kind of odd, but eh.

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

I promise I will start playing again tomorrow! This bug has just kicked me and dragged on, but I should be well enough to play tomorrow.

First session back and I have a good problem to face!

I pfr KK UTG, two players call. One is a young white guy, definitely very splashy and gambol. Other is unknown. Flop KTT. I check because who has any piece of the board. It checks around. Turn 5. I check again. Strategy wise I should bet here probably, but figured if someone had a T they would bet and interpret my checks as weakness. River K. I bet $15, guy calls. There is a high hand promotion and my hand just sneaks into the new hour, and I sweat out the full hour and win a nice $500 from it!

So where should I put it in? Obviously it's going into my BR, but should I add it with winnings? Do I hold it separately?

For the session as a whole, it was a slight roller coaster. Stack ran up over $800 at one point, cashed out for a bit over $600. No real tough spots. There was a hand where I misread the board. I had nut straight and thought there were 2 of each black on the board, but it was 3 of one and one of another. Not sure if my raise cost me or not, because I'm probably calling a river bet by him as well.

One interesting hand popped up. Effective stacks ~$300. Young white guy from above buys the BTN. I pfr 88 in HJ to $10. He 3bets me to $22 in the blinds. Pretty easy call. He had 3bet 3 or 4 times before, and each time showed a solid hand.

Flop ($44): 965 (rainbow)
Villain bets $27, Hero calls $27

I have a pair and gutshot. He could have an overpair or, more likely, AK/AQ/KQ/AJ.

Turn ($98): 8 (rainbow)
Villain bets $35. Hero ???????

So the board makes a 7 to a straight. I'm positive he doesn't have a 7. I'm pretty positive he does have at least a piece of the board. I think a raise might scare him. So I call, but I could definitely see a raise there

River ($168): 4
Villain bets $100. Hero ?????

I tanked for a little. There is one hand that beats me since I know he doesn't have a 7. Jamming might be meh here. He was about $100 behind.



5.5 hours
+$915 ($500 from promotion)