Congrats on the success! Nothing better than hitting new goals in poker.

Just one nitpick is I don't think I'd fold the Aces especially when you don't have a spade. You lose to 6 combos. and the woman who you described as weak passive is not folding Qx to your raise. There are way more combos of hands that you're ahead of than that are beating you and you're getting more than 2-1 on a call... Dislike the fold

Thanks for the reply!

I agree with you. Mathematically the fold is terrible. I knew at the table during the decision that I only needed to find three combos to be BE. This was a pure gut instinct fold. I'm basically saying by folding that she never has bluffs here or thin value bets. I guess A2ss, A5ss maybe. I'll definitely do some work on it when I'm not at work though.

I have not been slacking off on updating this thread; it's been an extremely busy week for me. Coupled in with a few sessions. We'll start with the mundane Thursday session.

Started at 1/2 for maybe an hour. Down ~$100. Got into some absolutely awkward spots and this loose/passive 100 VPIP guy just kept pounding me.

Then I played 2/5 for an hour. Up ~$400. Not many great spots except when I rivered a straight with T6s and got the money in on T8457.

And then they called the 2/2 PLO game. PLO is a fun game and the environment overall seems to be more jovial than the hold'em games. And still players don't know how to play PLO. Saw a guy GII with TP and BDSD against top two....and get there. It's fun and I'd love to play more PLO since it seems like that's where the next wave of the future is. Up ~$200 at that game.

So for 4 hours of play, I wound up winning $490.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday was by far the more interesting of the two sessions. I bought a tiny pocket notebook because I was curious how many hands I was actually playing. It's much easier with a notebook than a phone because I can just get the pen and write it rather than waiting for a keyboard, opening the app, yada yada yada. A couple of hands from here. First, an unknown player opens to $10 UTG+1. I'm in UTG+2 and see AT. I 3bet to $36. Folds to the BB. BB is an older lady who is fairly tight. She cold calls and pfr folds.

Flop ($83): J92
Checks, I bet $51, she calls.

Turn ($185): Q
She leads for $100. We're about $200 effective if I call. So she literally only ever has QQ+. Don't think she has JJ, she is tight enough where I could see her folding JJ. The cbet on the flop is to get AK to fold. It does fold. So I have 8 outs once (or 9 outs if she has KK). Flopzilla puts me roughly at 20%, so 4 to 1. I fold. I could argue expressed odds, but she can fold. Earlier in the session I saw her fold nut broadway straight on a 3 flush board with no heavy action.

Then, just for some run good. Lady from above limps UTG. I raise 97 to $10 in HJ. A tilting younger mixed guy flats along with UTG.

Flop ($33): K76
Check, I bet $20, CO calls, UTG folds.

I think this is a good spot to double barrel. Get him off of better 7's, 88-TT potentially. And my hand has some decent backdoor equity, with one card being just the absolute nuts....

Turn ($73): 8
And that's it. I bet $45, he calls.

So I have 9 flush outs, 2 trip outs, 6 straight outs, and maybe 1 two pair out. So, like 18 outs.

River ($163): 5
I bet $80, he tanks and calls and MHIG.

50 minutes at 1/2, +$150

Then I get called up to the 2/5 game. Table looks decent, I have a major action player to my immediate right and then a huge gambol player across from me. Which is where this first hand comes from. Straddle OTB, this guy raises to $30 in EP. MP flats. I see QQ in CO and 3bet to $130. He 4bets, I jam for $480 effective and he calls. He flips over KK and I'm just like wtf.

Flop: T9Q
Still uneasy, he has the K
Turn: K
Yup.

I wouldn't get into any other pots of note with this player. Why was I like wtf? He called jams of $600 preflop with T8o...twice. And another against 88, board runs out like 9QAJ2 and the 88 wins. I just ran into literally a hand he should have maybe 5% of the time when he GII preflop. So I rebuy another $400. A couple of hours later, I would GII with AQo against A9o against a guy who just rebought for $300 on his second BTN straddle (they did not move the BTN). We both flopped an A, he rivered a 9.

I go to lunch after that. My stack is about $250, I have $400 left in cash and am stuck about $650. But I'm playing well. I could just as easily be even and honestly should be up getting QQ in against gambol player. So I decide to put it all on the table.

I see AQ UTG and raise to $20. UTG+2 3bets to $45. It's a ridiculously small 3bet. I've played with him about 3 hours now. Didn't overly impress me, tried and failed with a couple of bluffs against me where his line just didn't make sense. We're ~$600 effective. I have two options.

A) 4bet to ~$110. Gives us a 1/2 psb flop, jam on turn.
B) Flat OOP and have a much more manageable SPR for my hand.

I went with the flat route. Honestly, I think 4betting is better. I have more AA/KK/QQ in my range than he does, and I have some good blockers. TT/JJ can fold, AK is put in a situation where they have no good plays, and AA/KK can easily just jam on me. Something to think about for next time.

Flop ($97): J43
Check, he bets $50. Kind of big. I raise to $125. He calls.

I'm not afraid of getting it in on this flop. AA/JJ have me to just FDs, but both of those are blocked. AK is in the lead, hence the xr to get it to fold. KK is a flip. Any underpairs can call the raise, but have trouble calling turn barrels.

Turn ($347): K
Or that card can come. I bet $175. He calls.

I'm completely lost when he calls. If he is doing it with AA, that seems to be the only hand.

River ($697): 2
I jam for ~$320, he tanks and folds.

FWIW, he told me after the session that he had TT. Which I guess makes sense.

Pots pushed to me, cards are dealt, an unknown guy with what seems like a fake tan and huge designer sunglasses opens to $15. Folds to me in the BB who just wants to stack his chips. I look at my cards, see two A's, put my cards down, double check that I saw two A's, and 3bet to $50. He 4bets to $150, I jam and he calls with his $300 stack. He shows KK, we run it twice (he wanted to, I obliged) and I win both pots.

And next for some missed value. I'm still kind of kicking myself with this hand for not betting the river. Whatever reason I didn't, I could still throw out like a $150 river bet and get paid by AK/KQ/KJ/etc. So...one unknown limps, I raise AQ to $25 in MP, BTN/BB/UTG all call.

BTN seems like a competent player. Probably one of the better winners in the game. BB is unknown.

Flop ($102): KJ7
Checks to me. I bet $65. Folds to UTG who calls.

Why do I cbet? I do have nut outs. I have a bdfd and an overcard. I can also take position from BTN. BTN is going to know that this flop hits my range a lot harder than his. I have the top two sets, TPTK, two pair whereas he's going to have a lot of missed PP's, weak gutshots, low pairs. I felt like if I got him out of the pot, I could outplay the other two.

Turn ($232): T
UTG checks, I bet $150, he calls.

When he calls, it's FDs/Kx/QT AND ALMOST NEVER SETS

River ($532): T
He checks, I check and immediately hate it. He never has sets. So why does this card change the board texture? It doesn't. I need to bet 100% of the time and I just hate that I didn't.

So after being stuck $650, I left with two racks and $1,955 for a $505 profit from that game and $655 overall for the day.

6 hours +$655

19 VPIP/13 PFR 3% 3bet. I don't think those stats are too terrible. Would like the 3bet % a little higher and the PFR a little closer to the VPIP. But again, sometime the best play is to just flat IP since you'll play better than most opponents. I'll definitely have to keep track of this again. Either way, it's nice having a +$2k week

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

I'm going to be extremely busy the next 4 or 5 days. Lots of work. And for our 1 year, me and my gf are going to the Real Madrid vs PSG exhibition game on Wednesday night and then a Coldplay concert on Thursday night. Very excited for the soccer game, it'll be weird seeing soccer in the Horseshoe. Then my brother is graduating from the police academy on Friday. Kind of worries me a little bit with all of these hooligans running around killing police officers.

Once August comes around, I am going to try and pump in volume. There is a promotion where you play X amount of hours Monday-Thursday and get whatever cash prize. Max I think is $500 for 40 hours in that stretch. That's like 50% rakeback. I can't do that, but you know the lower tiers are still ~25% rakeback. Fish on a heater

Also figured since I won't have much play upcoming, might as well post some stats and pictures since it's been ~3 months since the last grouping.

Subbed and having fun reading. Keep up the good work man!

Thanks! Hopefully I can keep this as entertaining as possible for you!

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

Very much a yuck session. Can't really complain, I was definitely due for a session like this. Overdue, perhaps. I kept running into the top of a maniac's range every hand I played against him. I couldn't run a successful bluff to save my life either, and that's all I could do considering I did not flop a pair or draw the entire session. I also felt not completely on top of my game today. Maybe a B-ish level, probably from the week away from poker. Lost 2 $500 buy-ins at the 2/5 game, I did bring 3 bullets but decided not to fire off that 3rd bullet and instead wrap up and leave early. Can't be that bad of an idea.

The one hand I do want to share, there is an UTG straddle. OMC limps, unknown limps, I raise JJ to $50, maniac to my left calls and OMC.

Flop ($177): 972
Check, I bet $90, maniac calls and OMC folds. He has ~$400 left

Turn ($357): 2
I bet $200. Looking back at it, I don't like the betsizing at all throughout this hand. Flop should be bigger, turn should be smaller or larger. If smaller, maybe $125. If larger, just jam. Now leaves very awkward river stack size when he calls if I ever have bluffs. He jams for $410. Really? Well I call. I've seen him pull this move off with air, one pair, draws, etc before. He flips over KT, and the river bricks.

Really, you let him flop the second nuts and give me a club to boot. Like I said, I was overdue for a bad session.

3.75 hours
-$1k

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

The reason why I only played the one session this week was because I literally had no time. It was either work or gf time. Not trying to be a pessimist, but now that she has moved much closer I know she's going to expect me to spend more time with her, and that's definitely -EV for poker.

Wednesday we went to the Real Madrid vs PSG exhibition game at Ohio Stadium. For those of you who don't know anything about sports, Ohio Stadium is where Ohio State plays football. Seats a little more than 100,000 fans inside of a horseshoe. We actually got ~85,000 people show up for the game. Definitely a good time, could have been so much better after 4 goals were scored in the first period but I can't complain.

Thursday night we went to see Coldplay in concert. I had heard from everyone that they always put on a great show. The energy was amazing and the show was pretty good. I personally preferred the singing of one of the opening acts (Alessia Cara) over Coldplay singing, but again the show they put on was incredible.

It was nice to go to some big events, but I'm ready to get back to the grindstone.

Twas a long 2 months of goals! Let's see...ummm....how I fared:

Not the best month and a half of goal hunting. Stuff just kept popping up. If I didn't have that dizzy spell, I meet the 100 hours. If I spent less time with my gf, I play more golf. If I have more time, I have more time to get a quick study in before a session, bringing my A and B game more. So it's all relative.

My stats for the two month span:

In June I played 37 hours with a net profit of $2,381.
July was 52 hours with a net profit of $2,999.

The app rounds hours up, hence why it adds to 89. I would break it down a bit more, but the app says I have to pay $5.99 for filters. Yeah, **** that. Of the 17 sessions I played, I won 13 and lost 4 with 3 $1k+ winning sessions and one $1k losing session.

August goals:
-60 hours.
-Watch at least 5 poker videos. I want to get a subscription to crushlivepoker. I love deucescracked but they don't have nearly enough live content.
-Play 2 rounds of golf

Good luck to everyone this month, unless you play with me, in which good luck against everyone else other than me

Pay the $5.99 if you plan on tracking past 2016

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

That won't be an issue. Just seems silly to pay $6 for filters that I could do on my own with pen and paper.

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

The session that could have been.

Got to the casino, told myself I'd play until 9-915pm. Play a bit of 1/2 for about half an hour, nothing interesting really happened, +$77.

Then I go to the 2/5 game. There are two going, and I'm placed on a must move game. Sadly, what are probably the two biggest winners in the game are both on my left. Aside from that, there are a bunch of unknowns to my right and I've got the 2/8 seat, which is my favorite. This hand I'm about to share....seems standard to me. The guy in SB had 3b me prior orbit, I flatted after BB cold called the 3bet with 86 (getting $150 to $45, mandatory call with relative position). Folds to me OTB, I raise AJ to $15, he 3bets to $50 in SB. We're ~$700 effective. He's probably somewhere between a TAG and LAG. I flat. I think AJo plays too good in position and don't think we can ever bluff him off of worse.

Flop ($105): T62
He cbets $70. Seems a little large for a board like this. I flat with BDFD and BDSD. Looking to make a move OTT on spades, K, Q, and obviously J or A can give me the best hand.

Turn ($245): A
He bets $155. I flat.

River ($555): 5
He checks. Not an overly great card to bet. Not sure what worse I can get called by if I bet, and I have about 3/4 of a PSB left. Seems like a perfectly fine check and showdown spot. I check, he shows down KQo and MHIG.

I'm learning to not show first if I'm not the last aggressor. I want to see everyone else's hands and use it as information.

Once the two on my right leave for the main game, the table becomes ALL UNKNOWNS. And it is seriously the softest 2/5 table I've been at in my limited experience. My stack builds up to about $1600. Then this hand happens. . I see AA UTG and raise to $20. CO and BTN call. BTN seems bad, CO very unknown. BB 3bets to $100. I'm salivating. BB is a very spew heavy terrible player. He has close to $500 effective. I decide to make a small 4bet, seeing his stack size. Think calling just invites me to see a multiway pot, but don't think spewy guy is going to fold. So I 4bet to $195. To my surprise, CO calls, BB jams, I jam, and CO calls. CO had like $525.

Board runs out T9535.

BB flips over 9 ****ing 9. I win a small condolence side pot with CO, but that $1500 pot very well could have been mine and would have pushed my stack to over $2,500.

However. I am very happy and proud of how I came back from it. Kept my composure and kept playing my game. A bit down the line, there are two limps, including 99 guy. I see KQ and raise to $25 in HJ. BTN and both limpers flat.

Flop ($107): 985
Checks to me. I bet $70. I'd bet this amount with AA/KK/QQ, so why not two overs, a flush draw, and BDSD? Folds to 99 guy who calls.

Turn ($247): 3
He checks. So he's either on a draw or has a mediocre one pair. This guy is terrible, but I think with the right pressure he can fold a hand like 87/97/77/etc to a triple. I bet $160 and he calls.

River ($567): J
He donks for $400. I have about $800 behind. If I made the flush, I would have rathered any other flush card other than the J. A is great, T is good, 7 is fine, 6 and lower is awesome. The J takes away a lot of flushes I would beat, like J-hi and even T7. Which puts me in a bit of a pickle. I don't think I can jam here. I'd be hoping to get called by...what exactly? 76ss, which may have raised somewhere? T6? I decide to just call. He flips over T3 and I rake in the $1,300 pot.

A little back and forth from that point, but I left right when I said I was in the beginning. Still rough to imagine what could have been if the AA holds. Even with losing that huge pot, I still eeked out the largest winning session I've had...by $3

2/5 3.33 +$1,256
Overall 3.85 hours +$1,333

Played two sessions since last time I updated. First one was on Wednesday. Started out at 1/2, and boy nothing was going right for me at all. Tight old nit lady kept raising and showing up with the best of hands. This one is also just gross. I raise AJ to $10 UTG. 4 callers.

Flop ($52): A74
I bet $35, folds to unknown omc looking player who calls.

Turn ($122): 3
I bet $70. OMC fumbles around with his chips, tries to raise to $100, gets told it has to be to a multiple, so then raises to $140. Kind of gross. Nice 65, I fold.

Wound up playing that 1/2 about 1 hour 40 minutes, down $280. These terrible players just kept kicking my ass.

Went to the 2/5. Here's a terrible play. We're like 7 handed and I raise 44 to $20 UTG+1. Dissheveled mawg calls OTB.

Flop ($47): AJ5
I bet $25, he calls.

Turn ($97): 3
I bet $60, he calls.

River ($217): 8
I bet $110. He calls and shows AQo no diamond.

So this was bad. For a multitude of reasons. First, I observed him play AK this passively prior. So I think he might just call down with any A. On the river, I should also be betting larger. This is a guy I should play very exploitatively against and a player I don't think I'll play with enough to make me need to try to balance bluff river bets with river value bets. So I should be making it like $160 or $170 to make him fold a lot of his weaker aces. What am I repping? I mean, not much. Do I think he thinks that way? No. So I don't care what I rep to him, other than scary flush card came. Overall: wrong opponent, wrong size.

I've been beating myself up, so let's not beat myself up with this one. This is just a lolololololol type of hand. I raise AA to $20 UTG. Two callers, including UTG+1. I recently beat him out of a decent sized pot after he didn't want to chop (if I'm in SB I'm always looking to chop OOP), I flopped 2nd NFD, turn the flush, and got good value OTR. BB tighter player 3bets to $120. My options:

1) 4-bet to about $250. Leaves about a PSB behind OTF. Problem when I do this is my hand is totally face up. This player is so tight, I've seen him make some very nitty folds and him show. But I get more money into the pot.

2) Flat. This could easily invite the other two players in and again create about a 1 PSB left OTF. But AA doesn't like multiway pots all that much.

I decide to flat. I want to be able to flat a couple of other hands here. This is a guy I should be playing exploitatively against. But again, I just don't think I can get it in now. UTG+1 calls, BTN folds.

Flop ($380): A82
BB bets $25. WTF?!?!?! I flat. UTG+1 is definitely more on the aggro side and tries to make moves, no matter how illconceived. Well, he jams for $305 more. BB tanks and tanks and folds. As soon as his cards go forward, I throw out the chip. MHIG. IDK what he has there. A high flush draw? But IIRC, the flush came in OTT or river. 88? AK? Meh.

I kind of got a little frustrated with myself towards the end of the session. I was planning on playing until ~7pm. Well, of course my gf texts me at like 630pm asking if I wanted to come over. Ok, just let me know when. Her house is much closer to the casino, so it makes absolutely no sense for me to go home first. Well, don't hear from her for over an hour and proceed to go from up $400 to down $120. If I could have left when I wanted to, it would have been a winning session after being stuck $600. Kind of irked me a bit. But then again, I was getting decent hands but flopping no equity whatsoever.

9.25 hours
-$120 (7.5 hours 2/5, +$160)

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

Last night was a preplanned 4 hour session. Get there at 5pm, leave at 9pm. Played like 20 minutes at the 1/2, down $21. Nothing major at all.

Then at the 2/5, I really had maybe 2 major hands. Other than that, a lot of good timed aggression, bluffing, and discipline. No real tough spots at all. But let's get to the 2 major hands.

First one, there is an UTG limper. I decide to change my strategy up this hand for whatever reason and limp 87 OTB. SB calls, BB makes it $20. UTG folds (???), me and SB call. BB looks like an OMC, but I've played with him before and he's kind of spewy and not good.

Flop ($65): T94
BB bets $30. I decide to raise to $100. This can't be a good board for his range and there are tons of runouts that can scare him. SB folds, BB calls.

Turn ($265): 6
That card can come as well. BB checks, I bet $180, BB raises to $420, I jam for $680 total and he calls. We run it once, the river is the K and MHIG.

Nice little double up there. A little bit of time goes by and this hand occurs. UTG+1 raises to $15. He isn't good at all. Spewy and all sorts of nonsense. No clue how he has his stack. 4 players call. I see 88 in BB and decide to flat. I thought about squeezing, but I think the implied odds are just too good 6 ways.

Flop ($90): K87
SB checks, I check, UTG+1 bets $35, two players call, SB (who has been down on his luck) raises to $120. I tank for about 15 seconds and raise to $305. I could just flat here, but I know SB has to have some sort of hand that he's looking to go with. The callers are relatively dangerous as well, because they'll be getting some great odds if I flat. Everyone folds to SB who jams for like $5xx total. I call, he shows K7 and mhig.



And that's my stack right after. Doesn't look as impressive looking from above. But the reds are stacks of $200 because I was running out of room for my normal $100 stacks. The green is a stack of $800. I have a few more reds off to the side.

Lost a little more from a bluff that, in all honestly should have worked (checked KQo 6-ways on a 234 flop, bet $40 into $60 on Jd T, $110 into $140 on Td turn just to get called by 77????????????), and then picked a bit more up. Also picked up my $50 in promotional dollars.

4 hours
+$1,780 ($50 from promotion, 3.67 hours 2/5, +$1,751)

Another two-part post! Didn't get a chance to post about my Friday session. It wasn't a memorable session at all. Was one hand I wanted to go over, and I think I'm going to save that particular hand for a separate post. Lost a little at 1/2, lost even less at 2/5 in 4 total hours.

4 hours, -$184
(1/2 1.67 hours -$178, 2/5 2.33 hours -$6)

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

Yesterday was the longer session. I got to the casino at about 2pm and was first on the 2/5 interest list! WTF, usually a game is already going at this time! So I take my seat at the 1/2 game. Nothing of note there, spent an hour 35 minutes there for +$140

Then I went to the 2/5 game. A bit more interesting than the 1/2 game. There's actually a second hand I'll want to post in here and break it down a bit. Anyways, let's just put it in perspective for this glorious hand. Two limps from EP. One is a bad aggressive maniac who has passived up a bit. Other is unknown probably OMC. I raise J7o to $25 OTB. It's very borderline and definitely probably the bottom of my range, but it's an OMC and a maniac who has curled up a bit more into a bad passive. Sadly, both blinds and limpers call.

Flop ($125): J97
K then. Checks to me. I bet $80. I could even go to $90 here. All but the maniac fold.

Turn ($305): 4
Such a sweet card. Maniac donks for $125. I jam for his $320 total, he calls. River is the Q and MHIG

What's even better about the hand is that I got to show J7o. I've played with a couple of the people at the table before and they are regs, so being able to show a hand like that is definitely valuable.

I also got to 4bet bluff with 55 200bb deep against a very meh player. Lost a decent sized pot though with QTs on 8JQQK when he had QK. Meh. Spent 2 hours 55 minutes there, +$395.

Then I went to the 2/2 PLO game for a couple of hours. A couple of big hands here. This first one, we're 7 handed and UTG straddles to $5. I raise QT97 to $10 UTG+1. 4 callers.

Flop ($50): 974
Checks to me, I bet $35. Unknown but gives a decent player vibe raises to $150. Folds to me. I decide to jam for $392. I might get 44 to fold, I block 99 and 77 so it can't be too awful. He probably has hands like 6789 or 68TJ. So I have a blocker to one of his straight outs too. He calls. We run it once, turn is a 3 and river is a 2. I show my hand and he mucks.

Split a RIT pot AAKKcxcx vs QQJJ AIOTT T3cc4h9h. Unlucky.

Next one, I raise T986 to $10 after two limpers in CO. 3 calls.

Flop ($44): KQJ
Checks to me. BTN checks out of turn. I decide to pot. BTN jams for ~$176. Scummy bitch. The guy had been complaining about his luck the whole time and never raised. I think for about 20 seconds before folding second nuts. He flips over ATxx and I feel like a genius.

Wound up playing just under 2 hours of 2/2 PLO, +$235

So for the entire session, 6.42 hours +$770

With the news that Bovada poker is moving to a new network, I also cashed out almost my entire roll minus like $50. I'll have to have a MTT grind session soon as well so as to not waste my points!

Here is the first hand I'm curious about. It's been a while since I've thoroughly broken down a hand, so bear with me. I think this is also where I maximize my limited study time.

An unknown player who I'm getting the sense is a bit of a maniac (guy who I doubled up through with J7o in prior post, but this hand was in the past) raises to $15 in MP. BTN flats the $15. BTN is a solid player, I think he is a pro and seems to always be there with a big stack. I see AK in SB and 3bet to $70. Me and maniac are about $500 effective; BTN covers.

So the normal 3bet is to about $65 (3x + caller + 1bb for OOP), so $70 isn't bad. Good hand to get value with. I don't expect BTN to call, I don't think he ever has a premium or upper 10% type of hand. So that's good. Build a slightly bigger pot with a top tier hand against a probably maniac. FWIW, I'm totally getting AKo in against him PF.

Maniac in MP calls, BTN folds.

So let's get MP's range here:
22-JJ (60)
ATo-AQo (27)
Axss (yes, I had a feeling he wasn't folding any suited A. Does not include AKs) (33)
K9s-KQs (12)
KTo-KQo (27)
87s-QJs (20)
QJo (12)
That is 191 combos of hands he's flatting. That is a HUGE range to work with. I might be a bit off and he 4bets some of the hands I'm putting in his flatting range (think JJ/TT/AQ/AJ), but it's close enough.

Flop ($160): J86

I cbet $80. He raises to $210. I tank-fold.


Why do I cbet this flop? What am I hoping to get to fold? What cards can I continue on? 22-55 (24) should be folding. That's good. Some Axss should be folding as well. Let's say the ones that don't make a pair or much equity for now. A2-A5s, A7s (15 combos). So we have 23% of his range that should just give up without a fight. Considering I need to win roughly 33% of the time when I make this bet, it's not terrible yet. Is there anything else that is folding without a fight? Let's say some of the KQ's. Half of them, so 6. Except the suited ones will call with all of them having BDFD. We're up to 45 combos.

If KQ is like that, surely AQ is close enough to it. So another 6 combos to go to 51. I think that might be all that just gives up without a fight. We're at 30.3% compared to the 33% needed for immediate BE.

What hands are just flatting? Let's start with obvious hands. All of the KJ's, QJ's, JTs's, A8s, 98s, 87s. We have 32 combos of hands just here of obvious calls. We're now up to 83 total combos of the 191. Let's get to some less obvious combos. I think JJ, 88, and 66 are calling. There was a prior hand where he was the preflop raiser, checked a KJT board, then raised a bet OTT and jammed the river. It was either an elaborate bluff or - well, AQ/Q9. So we have 9 combos. These are rock solid hands. They're never folding. So 98 of the combos are now accounted for. We still have 70. These following:

A9s-AJs, A6s
KTs, K9s
87s-T9s
KTo, ATo
AJo
77, 99, TT

If this is his raising range, it's entirely weak. I basically have a coinflip according to flopzilla. If this is his raising range. If he flats his pairs, my equity goes through the roof (pairs other than AJ). Even if we add the sets to his range, it's still pretty polarized to draws and nuts. Given that he is kind of unknown, I think folding is ok. It's probably not a safe assumption to assume an unknown is bluff raising in a 3bet pot in live poker. But when breaking down the range he just has so many meh hands that could fold to a shove - if he was a thinking player.

But this also means that his calling range is very middling. I don't have a BDFD, just a BDSD that I could barrel on. But how good is a T for me? Q? These cards just given him more equity and me less fold equity. How about 2-5? Well, if this guy can fold top pair and not be like "I put you on AK, I call", then sure it could be ok. Basically, unless I flop an A or K, the double barrel probably won't work. Does this mean the cbet shouldn't happen? Eh. I think most players are folding around the proper percentage. I also turn an A or K roughly 12% of the time. So the cbet should be slightly +EV....but I have better hands to do this with. 88+, AJ (not sure if I'm doing this with KJ)...I don't have to have a balanced cbetting range against a live unknown player. So, on this exact flop, I probably can xf.

Two sessions occurred during my short absence. Not much time to post about either one until today. Taking today off from playing because I'll be playing a lot tomorrow, Sunday night, Wednesday and Thursday. Played 1/2 for like 15 minutes before getting called up to the 2/5. Only two real interesting hands from the session. First one, I see KK in HJ and raise to $20. CO calls, he's kind of aggro. BTN calls, he's a bad player. BB also calls, also fairly aggro.

Flop ($82): J75
Check, I bet $60, CO and BB both call.

So lot's of flush draws, tons of straight draws, Jx. A decent range for me to be up against, but I also think there aren't terribly many turn and river runouts I'm in love with.

Turn ($262): 6
We are about $570 effective. BB checks, I bet $150. CO calls. BB raises to $400. To me now and I know that BB is very aggro. 77 doesn't make sense, 55 doesn't make much sense. A bluff against the both of us would be suicide. I know that he knows that I have a strong range here, and CO also has a strong range. So is it really 98? I go in the tank. I decide to fold. CO being in the hand complicates things a bit. I'd have to call off the rest of my stack as well (I'd be jamming actually), but if he's bluffing I'm just slightly ahead. If he's ahead, I'm dead. CO tanked for a bit and folded as well. CO says that he had a set, but I don't really believe that.

It was really a dry session. I wasn't getting too terribly much going my way. That'll happen sometimes. Towards my last orbit, this hand pops up. OMC limps in HJ. I raise A4 to $20, only he calls. This guy was the most annoying player ever. He took like 15 seconds on every simple decision. I had been raising him quite frequently when he limped in LP.

Flop ($47): J55
Checks, I bet $25, he check/raises to $60. I call. He can have some 5's, but he also may be tired of me always bet and raising him. There are also a ton of good turn and river cards for me.

Turn ($167): J
Not particularly one of them. He bets $30. Seems like an odd bet. He now almost never has a J. I've seen him 3bet jam AJo in LP before, and I believe he'd go as low as KJ/QJ that he'd raise preflop given no limps. So if he has a J, it's literally JT, maybe J9, or nothing. And I discount that because he's raising the flop and bet small on the turn. I would also play a J by just flatting the flop xr and flatting this small bet IP.

River ($227): 2
He bets $80, with about $250 behind. I, well, hollywood for a little bit before jamming. If he only has JT and J9 with much more 5's, he's folding. PP is folding. Nothing is calling but JT and J9. He insta calls and of course shows the JT.

I call it a day after I reach the BB.

4.94 hours
-$490

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

Last night I play a decent length session as well. I first have to comment on how absurd the room was last night. At one point, 12 or so people on a 2/5 waitlist and they wouldn't open another game. 12 people on a 5/5 PLO interest list and they wouldn't open another game. Even 7 on the 5/10 NLHE and 10 on the 5/10 PLO and they wouldn't open another game. I wonder if these games go more often, if there becomes a larger player pool that gravitates instead of every so often. There are TONNNNNNSSSSSS of 1/2 games everyday but usually just 1 (2 if lucky) 2/5 game going. Anyways, rant over.

I get to the casino and I'm like 7th on the 2/5 waitlist. I can get a 1/2 seat....or take the 2/2 PLO open seat. I decide for the 2/2. I'm still learning PLO, but I feel like a lot of players are learning it and are just bad at it. Just the one big hand. One limp, I limp T965, another limp, aggro player from the KK hand above makes it 16 and BTN/BB call along with myself.

Flop ($70): K79
Checks around. I have blockers to the JT straight draw and the set of 9's, along with a meh FD and gutshot. And a pair. Is this a bluffing hand? And just barrel off?

Turn ($70): 9
BB bets $40. This gives me a meh flush along with trips and a gutshot straight flush draw. So I decide to call. Can we raise this here? CO calls as well. Both players are unknown.

River ($190): T
Ok. BB checks. When BB checks, I know I have the best hand. KK is betting river or somewhere, there is just 1 combo of TT and I'm not sure a TTxx hand gets to the river (maybe like 9TTJ?). So I pretty much have the nuts. I pot it, CO calls, BB folds. I show my hand and he mucks.

I don't know too much about PLO, but I don't think raising turn is that good but this hand seemed very playable preflop.

I also hit a gutshot straight flush in a small pot. My name gets called for the 2/5 game after about an hour and a half. I decide to go there since I'm much better at that game. If I would have known the table lineup, I would have stayed at PLO.

1 hour 35 minutes
+$357

First hand at 2/5 and I lose about $200 double barreling AKs on a A25T board after a meh player flops a set of 5's. Then this hand happens about half an hour after. I raise AA to $20 UTG+1. I get 2 callers, including UTG+2. UTG+2 is almost certainly the worst player at the table. We're about $650 effective.

Flop ($67): 432
I bet $40, UTG+2 calls.

Turn ($147): Q
I bet $65. The smaller bet size I'm indifferent to. At the time I made it in order to keep him 55-JJ in with the overcard coming. It is a fairly dry board too. He raises to $200. Eh? AQ? A set? Does he have 65? Could he sense weakness with my bet sizing? I think for about 30 seconds before calling. My plan is to x/c most sizings on river A-5, and it's very plausible this could just be some bluff.

River ($547): 4
I check. He bets $225. So I'm getting much better than 3 to 1 on a call. I said I'd call on A-5 for most bet sizings, so I think for a little before calling. He flips over A5. I bring in the extra $100 from my pocket along with another $500.

This guy is a not good player. Last night and the other night I was there this week, he was just running so hot and I was amused by it. He leaves and is replaced by a solid player. The table lineup was probably the toughest I've ever seen the 2/5 game. I had played with all of them except seat 7. Seat 1 is probably a slight loser, seat 2 a small winner, and the rest were for sure moderate winners to crushers. I seriously thought about going to a 1/2 game because I don't think my hourly at that 2/5 table is higher than at a random 1/2 game.

But I loved sitting at the table. Seeing how these players, who have been playing the 2/5 game for FAR LONGER than I, play just lit a fire under me to get back to some hardcore studying and improve my game. One player bluffs a little too much, another 3bets a little too much, another opens slightly too wide, but not huge leaks at all. Probably the one table so far I've felt like I have to try to play as close to GTO as I know how to play (which isn't too much).

It helped that I was carddead. I would have 3bet and 4bet preflop and barreled so much more if I had any sort of better cards, but I didn't. So I sat back and observed. After about 3 1/2 hours, MP opens (the one I thought opened a little too much). HJ 3bets to $65 (the one I thought 3bet a little too much). I see AK in CO and 4bet to $135. Seems like a standard 4bet sizing. 4bb open to 13bb 3bet to 27bb 4bet. HJ asks how much I have behind. Whenever I'm asked, no matter what, I make an attempt to count. Helps to prevent any sort of tells. He flats. We're about $600 effective. Of note, HJ had been in a huge pot with MP about an hour ago where he tank-folded QQ on a 3x984K river without the Q, having about $300 behind in a >$1k pot and MP showed 76 after the fold.

Flop ($297): A25
He checks. I bet $125. If he calls, I have under a PSB left and can either small bet or jam turn. He jams. I call fairly quickly. I lose to one combo and don't think he's flatting 22/55/A5/A2 preflop (good to 5bet with those hands imo). We decide to run it twice. He flips over JT. So he needs just one diamond but never two. Both runouts brick out for him and I scoop the pot.

Nice bounceback pot after those two hands very early in the session. Later he said that he had thought I could have just been making a move after observing the dynamic between him and MP (which, again, if my cards were more suited to being able to 4bet bluff, I definitely would have because I was paying attention). Trading pots back and forth after those. I held my own alright I think, but it's hard to do much being card dead. Wound up leaving after 4 hours and 15 minutes, up $120 at 2/5.

5 hours 50 minutes
+$477

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

Next week I'll be trying to 20 hours between Monday morning and early Friday morning. If I do that, it's a $200 promotional win. I have to take Wednesday and Thursday off anyways, so why not. I also bought a subscription to crush live poker. Just from the one video I watched, it seems very educational so I look forward to delving a bit into that. Good luck at the tables everyone!

Played a very fun session today. Yesterday I re-calculated my BR and determined that I can buy in for 140bb ($700) into the 2/5 game rather than just $500. Allows me to play slightly more hands and covers some of the worst players, while also not making me feel shortstacked when I go under 100bb. Session started great. Then this hand occurred. I made 1 big mistake and 1 minor mistake. I'm not even sure how big the minor mistake is. BTN straddles, 5 limps to me in HJ who sees 99. I limp. This is a mistake. I think I should definitely be raising this IP against a bunch of limpers. $70 to $80 should do the trick. BTN checks.

Flop ($70): A98
Checks to unknown UTG who bets $40. Older white guy, never played with him before. Looks like he might have a bit of russian in him. Folds to me. I raise to $150. Folds to UTG who calls. He has about $450 left.

Turn ($370): 5
He checks. Not the greatest card, but I'm not sure he has too many flushes that get there. The A is out there and he just called a large raise. I bet $175. I think this should be $200, and if it is then I like my postflop line a little more. He insta-jams for the $450. I call. He shows T8, river is yet another heart and he gets the large pot.

-I did not put him on T8hh. JThh, sure. KQhh potentially. T8hh though has to be the absolute bottom of his UTG limping range on a BTN straddle.
-There aren't many flushes he can have. A hand like Ax8h could play this way, along with other two pairs. Maybe even 88. For every set or two pair, he has to have 3 or 4 flush hands.
-I calculated myself as getting roughly 3 to 1. It was slightly worse than that at 28% needed. Against a naked flush, I'm 23%. Against his hand, I'm 20%. If he has any worse hands, I think I am getting the proper odds.

Putting it into flopzilla, my hand has 58% against all two pair and sets and flushes T8 and better. If he literally has just one two pair (A9s, 1 combo), I have 28%. So meh.

I bring in another bit. Started to become quite the annoying session at this point. Turn kept bringing the flush or the worst cards in the deck. I kept my calm and composure. So I'm running bad, I'm not necessarily playing like dog crap. Like I open A9ss, get a few callers, flop comes AQ3, I cbet and some guy jams. Alright. Or I open Q8ss in MP, maniac calls, I cbet a Tx83 flop, he calls and then get a T turn. Stuff is really out of my control. Bring in another little bit. And then this hand occurs. I see QQ UTG and raise to $20. Solid player in MP 3bets to $65. We're ~$1k deep. I flat. Some history on this guy:

-He's probably a pro, but I haven't asked him
-He's for sure one of the top winners
-He plays probably a small deviation from a TAG game
-He remembered that I once iso-raised J7o from BTN and felted a player with my two pair against their draw
-He probably sees me as tight but can show up with the unexpected hand every now and again

Flop ($137): JT2
I check. Decent flop for me. I don't think he is 3betting TT or JJ given these positions against me. He bets $90. Seems like a chunky bet. I think he'd continue firing his entire range here because it's so top heavy. I flat.

Turn ($317): 2
Doesn't change much unless he is 3betting JTs (don't think so). I check. He bets $240. He can have the clubs. Think he can have some of the AK (with a club), AA/KK. What does it look like I have? Maybe a strong J. Tons of draws. Could also have JJ/TT. I don't think against him I'm raising the flop since there are so few cards I'm scared of. I call. Might be a bit loose.

River ($787): K
Other than a Q, if I could ask for a card it would be the K. I tank. I block AQ, KK now becomes slightly blocked. Not sure if he is betting AQo, so just 2 combos of AQs, 3 of KK. What does AK/AA do at this point against a jam? AK may fold. Unless i have KQ:club, which I'm not playing this way, his AK is either chopping or no good. Unless I'm bluffing, he is at best chopping, and he hasn't seen me bluff. AA surely is in a tough spot. 5 combos aren't folding, 12 can, 6 could. So I jam. I know my hand isn't good. I know I can't win at SD. I can honestly say this player may be the only player where I think I can profitably bluff jam here with this hand. He goes in the tank. Like a minute and a half tank. Take as much time as you need, I'm not a dick, I'll just sit here looking straight ahead and twirling my spare white chip.

On a non-poker related note, a funny story to tell. You pokemon go players will love this. Last night me and my gf go out to the park to play and get some pokestops. We get to one of the pokestops and she lets out a small scream. There is a Pikachu! I had never encountered a Pikachu (I'm lvl 15) but knew they were rare. One pops up on my screen too! Mine is lvl 34 and it's the hardest sucker to catch. Finally say screw it, use a great ball and catch it. Hers is a lvl 75, which makes no sense since she is like 6 levels lower than me. She asks me to catch it. I throw a razz berry, a few pokeballs....and her's runs away! The only pokemon she cares about, and I catch it for me but can't for her. Uh oh......

I've played two session since my last update. I didn't even want to post about the one on Sunday night because, well, there really was nothing to post about. Every hand I won was without showdown, and the one showdown pot I was in was a small pot where I had just enough SDV multiway to check it down.

4 hours
+$515

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

Then yesterday's session was insane. Sadly I can't play my 20 hours because right before I was going to get some in Tuesday night my gf wanted me to come over. And well I knew if I didn't come over in lieu of playing poker, like I had planned for a week, she'd get pissy and pouty.

So I played 11.25 hours yesterday. An insignificant amount of time at 1/2, so insignificant that I didn't even put it in my tracker. Instead, for the first time since I've been playing there a mixed game of OH got started! A round of 1/2 NLHE, a round of 2/2 PLO. Don't think I won a NLHE pot, with all of my winnings coming from the PLO side. Think my biggest hand came from turning 3rd set with gutshot royal flush draw on KJhh2x5x and I had AThh55. The game broke rather quickly after about 2 1/2 hours, up $438 ($19 from the 1/2 prior).

The 2/5 game then gets going. Was pretty slow trudging along, just a whole bunch of grind. Ran a big bluff against an ok player. Then ran aces into the absolute luckiest player in the room. This guy always has stacks and the only way he does is because every hand he plays, he hits gold. I see so many more boats and flopped flushes from him than anyone else and he never just goes away. This time he limps K8s UTG 9 handed, calls my UTG+1 larger than usual raise (because I know he is a calling station), and proceeds to flop K82. Only reason I don't fully pay him off is because the river comes the Kc which completes the flop flush and whatever KT/KJ he has...or K8 I guess.

That took nearly $500 from my stack. Failed 3bet, split a $1,900 pot with K7 against 97o on 972. We ran it twice and I won the first one. Unfortunately he won the second one. I thought I had about 45% equity, so even when he jams the $800 into the $200 pot I can't mathematically fold. Worst case, I have the 9 flush outs. Best case, he has some T8dd combo and he has to avoid diamonds, kings, and 7s. By the way, given a range of 97, 22, 86dd and T8dd, I'm 44.2%

I missed a couple of value bets on rivers. Potentially big value bets. Perhaps the largest one, we went from a 2/5 to a 2/5/10 mandatory UTG straddle. I had foreseen a couple of hours earlier that, with the table lineup at the must move game, the game would become pretty bad so I had put myself on a 2/2 PLO list. Anyways, we have like 2 rounds of chops and a player suggests the mandatory UTG straddle. I think if there is a straddle, it should always be UTG because the BTN straddle just kills the blinds and kills the game. So there are 4 limps to me UTG. I see AK and raise to $75. I get 3 callers (:O)

Flop ($310): AT2
Action to me, I bet $175. Chinese player who limped in UTG+2 calls. Everyone else folds. We're about $650 behind.

Turn ($660): A
This is where board reading becomes important, and I thought I was immune to these sort of mistakes. I had read the 2 as a . So to me the board was rainbow. I bet $225. I think this is a good sizing to get him committed on the river. He begrudingly calls.

River ($1110): 5
I look at the board. I do a double take of the board. All of a sudden I notice the flush completes. It panics me a little bit. Not that the flush completed necessarily, but that there was a flush draw potentially that I didn't notice. I panic and check. If I had noticed the 2 was a on the turn, I would have jammed the river. He isn't calling a large flop bet with QJ or KQ or KJ. Don't even think JT or T9. He checks back and flips over AQ.

I'm not really afraid of 22 or TT here. 22 is definitely raising the flop. TT not as sure, probably the turn. AT, having the nuts and me firing out big bets, might slowplay? But that's 3 combos compared to the 8 total combos of AQ and AJ. Remember: always read the board correctly. Cost me $400.

8.75 hours @ 2/5, +$1,162
11.25 hours +$1,500

I've played two sessions since my last update. Hopefully I'm also playing a session tonight as well.

First one, I went directly to the 2/5 game. Wasn't enthralled with the lineup. So I went to 2/2 PLO after my seat was called. Ran one big bluff where I x/pot raised a 356 flop against an EP raiser $800 deep with 2678. The one hand I want to share though was pretty awesome. One limp to me in EP who raises AKJ3 to $10. I get 5 callers.

Flop ($52): KJ5
Checks to me, I bet $35. SB pots it, I jam and he calls. We RIT.

Him: KJ5X rainbow

First one we chop with a K coming OTT.

Second one, the heart comes OTT, river doesn't pair and I take. My first time quartering a guy in live poker It took the floor nearly 3 minutes to figure out how to do it.

5.16 hours +$420 (-$90 2/5, +$510 2/2PLO)

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

Sunday night's session was alright. Played a bit of 1/2 while waiting, up $77. Go to the 2/5 and had a great session. FWIW, I was relatively card dead preflop, with my highest PP being TT and only getting AK twice (no AQ, 1 AJ). But I took down a few non-showdown pots and was able to run good in the hands I did play. Two hands I really want to note, both against the same villain. First one, we're 7 handed and I open 54 to $20 in UTG+1. Unknown calls. SB 3bets to $80. Me and SB are about $900 deep at this point. We have history. He is fairly aggro preflop and postflop. I make probably a small mistake here and flat the 3bet. I figure that we're deep enough, I have position (not concerned about BTN). I think it's better to 4bet bluff here. BTN calls.

Flop ($245): J95
SB leads for $190. I think a little bit. It wasn't between calling, folding, or raising, but rather what raise size. Min-raise leaves me with 1/2 psb left. So I decide to jam. Maximize whatever fold equity I may have, plus I'm never in awful shape. BTN folds, SB thinks for a little before calling. We agree to run it twice. He flips over AK

I did pokerstove analysis after the hand, and I'm a 51/49 favorite.

First runout, board runs 74
Second runs 76

And I scoop the huge pot. Definitely lucky to get both runouts. Helps that I have two clubs, another player says they folded two clubs, so if that's right he's drawing to 5 clubs and 6 A's or K's while avoiding a 5 or 4.

A few orbits later. He re-bought to $1k, we're either 6 or 7 handed. I raise A2 to $20 in UTG. Villain calls in CO along with BTN and SB.

Flop ($85): T83
SB checks. I bet $60. I'd make this bet with my overpairs that don't have a spade. It's also a board with a lot of double barrel opportunities. 2, 4, 5, A, K, 3 are great barrel cards to get them off of equity. Plus I have the NFD. Villain in CO calls.

Turn ($205): 9
Not the best spade....but I'll take it. I bet $130. He thinks for a little before raising to $280. We're $1k deep. I know he is aggressive. I decide to flat here.

-He isn't raising sets OTT; that'd be the flop
-He can definitely have some XsXx combos with some equity, to which I want to keep those in there
-He can also already have a flush, but might be good enough to make a tight laydown.

River ($765): 6
I check. He checks behind. He announces 6-hi flush and MHIG

I'm torn still between raising turn and just calling and checking river. I've played with this guy enough to know that he's probably barreling off rivers against most opponents. I don't know if he would do it against me. I also know he can make very good laydowns. He was the guy I x/pot raise bluffed at the beginning, and he claimed to have 3 pair. He also made a huge fold OTR where he had to have trips on a dry board. If he has a flush, will he call a turn jam? If he has some equitable hand that misses, will he jam rivers? I think that night, the answer might have been yes-yes, but a normal night could have easily been no-yes.

I also collected my $100 for playing hours the prior week, so I left with the largest profit in a single session.

6.08 hours
+$1,867 (+$100 promotion, +$77 1/2, +$1,690 2/5)

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

That session also put me in a situation I did not think I could be at in August of this year. $20k bankroll. What? I may just be running good. Maybe I am actually decent enough to beat the games here. Through a small 267 hr sample size, I've got a $27/hr WR at 1/2. I have an insane $75/hr WR at 2/5 through 100 hours. While those numbers - the WR at least - are certainly impressive, I have to realize that there is always room for getting better. I could always be sun running. I have to keep on improving and stay grounded. Good luck at the tables!

I'm sure you're running well, but it certainly all isn't luck. You've improved dramatically!

Well done buddy, what a sick accomplishment.

1.) Think 54s is fine when you're 200bigs deep and it's awesome when you get to showdown that you're going to defend wide. Nice scoop

2.) Dislike cbetting A2ss 4 ways on that board, think checking plays better and you have a very disguised flush when you do hit. As played, I think it was fine, not sure if that guy's a super nit but a good c/b by him considering your continuing range.


I'm not sure $75/hr is sustainable, but I would say you're definitely a winner and by all means probably one of the best regs in a normal 2/5 game, which is the equivalent of .10/.25 to .25/.50

If you were beating 100NL you probably have a better grasp of the game than 90% of 2/5 players.

Anyway, congrats on the success

Thanks! That's all we can keep doing is keep on improving.

I'm very iffy on the cbet with A2ss myself. I don't necessarily have to have bluffs in live poker or in multiway pots. Even if I do, I think KQ/QJ/AK/AQ/AJss just all play as better bluffs than the A2ss. I overestimated the amount of good barreling cards I think. Might even make the flush a bit more disguised if I hit. Thanks for the analysis though, definitely appreciate all feedback!

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

Played a short little session Tuesday night. -$91 at 1/2 over an hour 40 minutes, +$336 at 2/2 PLO. My choices were either stay in the really bad/nitty 1/2 game (which truthfully I could do well at) or go to the PLO game with 1 overly aggro, 1 meh, 1 huge fish, and 1 unknown. I think it's fine for me to learn to play the PLO in the instance that 2/5 is bad. Players still don't fully grasp PLO. Shoot, I don't even fully grasp it yet, but I probably do more than they do.

August goals:

August goals:
-60 hours. I played 73 hours for the month
-Watch at least 5 poker videos. I want to get a subscription to crushlivepoker. I love deucescracked but they don't have nearly enough live content. I'm calling it a success. I did subscribe to crushlivepoker like I wanted to. From the couple of videos I've seen on there and one or two podcasts, it seems like they've got some good content.
-Play 2 rounds of golf. Nope. Not even close. But to be fair, I kind of replaced this goal with "Go walking and play pokemon go as much as possible." That was a success, I went out 6 times in August, each hiking at least 2 miles playing the game. Good exercise imo.

In those 73 hours, I profited +$6,463 for an hourly of $88.94/hr.

What's in store for September? Well...I've got some bad news. Volume will be down. It's football season, and football season around here is nuts. Saturdays are my main day for huge grinds, but a lot of those will be spent watching the Buckeyes play some football. I'm not extremely worried if my volume lacks a little this month, because I have a week of vacation coming up in October where I can put in some serious hours. So.....

-40 hours (be aware, I should CRUSH this, but I don't think I can get 50)
-Watch 5 more videos
-Always look to play my A or B game


On a side note, it's really very sombering looking at the August stats. I profited $6,500. That's about the same amount I make in take home pay for 3 months of work. The last two months I've also made more than I would at a month of work. At some point it does get difficult to go to work. But it's, for now, a solid paycheck and the work is better than a lot of other careers I could find. I just gotta keep on keeping on.

Good luck at the tables in September everyone!

continuing is most certainly fine with a2ss, i would have definitely repopped him smallish as deep as you 2 were as there are alotta hands hes not letting go of on that turn including(might even induce a shove from him) the one he had especially given the recent history between you two. as played i woulda def led the river for around 350 ish. congrats on all the live success, from reading your previous thread had no doubt youd crush it!

It's definitely a tricky one, one I might actually post in forums since I'm getting a lot of different feedback. Kind of an interesting hand imo.

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

So I've been up for 20 hours. It's past 1am. And a lightbulb clicks. Poker is a situational game. How so? I'll show you.

Needless to say, I've been folding to quite a bit of 3bets. The players who happen to be 3betting me choose literally the best times for them. Often I'll have a hand, like a K9o in later position, that I can 4bet bluff or just comfortably let go. Hands with junk equity. Last night, I flatted AKo OTB against an UTG raise and two callers. Why? Well, most of the time (90% or so), I'm 3bet squeezing that with glee. This is a 10% time where all of the factors came into place:

-UTG was a solid, if not a bit tighter, player. His range is pretty far up there
-SB is a solid aggro player. He can 3bet squeeze here quite a lot, and I much rather like my chances against his range than an UTG range
-I still remember the part in Janda's applications book where he says 3betting AKo OTB in a 6-max game is only very slightly +EV, or it might even be -EV

In a completely different situation, I raise JJ to $20 UTG. I get 3 callers. The same UTG raiser from before, this time OTB, 3bets to $100. I 4bet to $240. Surely it's suicide, right? I don't think so. I think it's an easy squeeze spot. My range also is a bit wider imo and harder to play against since I'm not 100% 4betting AA there. Which theoretically makes my range wider, which can induce some things from a blocking hand like AK or TT and just confuse him.

Two totally different situations with the same players result in two totally different courses of action.

And again, I raise AThh UTG to $20 and get 3 calls. BB jams for like $140. 2 of the callers WILL FOLD. They have such a much weaker range when they flat that they're irrelevant. So I'm about ready to jam myself because I had seen this super aggro BB do this quite a few times, and I was certain even ATs for under 30bb was ahead of his range. So if it's just us 4, I jam, he flips over 88 and I wind up taking it down. But the presence of an unknown player stops me. I have no idea what his range is. So I make the tight fold. Unknown winds up calling with AKs and scoops the pot on a rivered broadway.

The presence of one different player, one abnormality, changes the entire course of a hand.

And playing with some of these solid players last night, I noticed that they all quite a few leaks. Tilting, gun shy, maybe some hand reading....it's more beatable than I think imo. And I know I've got leaks myself, but I'm working on my game in general to plug those. Anyways I played the latest session I've ever played until about 230am. Yay for Labor Day! -$95, all at 2/5, in 6 hours in a session where I don't think I could have won given the card distribution. Maybe if I don't call the additional $180 with KQo against the same BB jam, then I win (he had literally top top top top top of his range with AQ).

It's been a long time since I've gotten a chance to update. Since the last update, I've only been able to play one short 4 1/2 hour session. I lost $405. Didn't play particularly well for the session. At least I didn't feel like I played too well during the session.

Whatever the case may be, I have exciting life news taking place. I will finally be moving out of my mom's basement! With my girlfriend and her friend, a house relatively close to my house now. There are some huge pros to this with not that many cons. It'll be about $500-$600/month for rent/utilities/cable/internet. Compare that to me paying roughly $350/month for just the basement (with probably mold) and not the greatest living conditions and it's probably super +EV. So with this news,, I obviously won't be getting too much volume in this month.

As far as poker, I recently bought a PLO book that should be shipping soon. It's like a basic PLO book but it'll be good to pound in the fundamentals, something which I feel is harder to attain online. I think it'll be good to start reading up on how to play good PLO. The biggest game in the room whenever it runs is almost always the PLO game. So I want to be well versed in both games so that I can play the game where the money is at.

I was finally able to get some poker play in last night! Prepping for a move along with my work schedule just has not afforded me the time to find. I played 2/5 for 2.5 hours. The only interesting thing about it was I got 77 in against 22 in a ~$1400 pot on the flop of 76hh2x. We ran it twice. He turns a flush draw on the first board, but river blanks. Turn on the second board is the case 2. So I lose like $500 in equity there.

To anybody who says to not run it twice there, I always want to run it twice to reduce the variance. If I'm behind, of course I want to have a shot at splitting the pot. If I'm ahead, it acts as protection. Plus I think the rec players like it when you run it twice.

Anyways, 2.5 hours +$226.

My name gets called for a 5/5 PLO game. So I have two options. Play the 5/5, a stake level I've never played at, or stay at the 2/5. The 2/5 game looked horrendous. Of the 7 others at the table, 5 or 6 seemed or were pretty solid. I would probably rather play 1/2 than that 2/5 just because my hourly is probably much higher there than against that lineup. So I decide to partake in the 5/5. And I noticed that the game doesn't really play that much different from the 2/2. Tons of limping preflop, the normal aggressors are aggressive - to a fault - and the passives are passive unless they have AA or the nuts. Just one semi interesting hand during the time I played.

BTN straddles. BTN seems like an unpredictable player. Aggressive when weakness is shown but rarely gets to showdown. Both blinds limp to me. I see AA76 UTG and pot to $50. BTN and blinds all call.

Flop ($200): T98
So I flop the idiot end of the straight. Checks to me, I check. My hand is pretty much a bluff catcher and can't improve. BTN bets $150. Folds to me. He can have sets, pair + draws, straights, etc. I decide to call. I think I might actually fold if I don't have A

Turn ($500): 7
Just a brilliant card. It actually is. The flush gets there which is a reasonable holding of mine. I check, he checks behind. Odd.

River ($500): 2
Blank, essentially. I bet $250. I didn't realize the pot was $500 at the time, or else I might have gone a bit larger. He thinks for a tiny bit before folding.

Last night I thought the play was solid, but this morning I'm not so sure. Is JTXX, J9TX, J7XX folding to a 1/2 psb on the river? I don't think so. 76XX, 986X, T986, etc can though. The problem, obviously, is that there are much more J(T-7)XX than 6(7-T)XX that bet the flop and combinatorically. Maybe I'm wrong and he does fold some of his J-hi straights, but it seems doubtful. So definitely a questionable bet.

All in all, I profited from the 5/5 PLO session as well. +$294 in 2 hours. My best decision of the night though was racking up when I felt tired and knew I couldn't play my best or high quality game. Something to be said for that for sure. And while walking past the 2/5 game, it was an almost unbeatable lineup 5 or 6 handed full of solid players. Good decisions.

4.5 hours
+$520

I got to play a Friday night and I was super stoked and pumped up and.....drop a grand And ran just horribly as well. I was up against huge hands all night opening preflop or postflop and it just kept adding up. There was one massive mistake and then one that I'm undecided on. This first one, I am to the right of a massive whale. He is literally calling ATC. BTN straddles to my left. UTG limps, whale limps in HJ, I raise AK to $70. Normally, my raise size here would be ~$50, but I made the adjustment to a larger amount because I knew huge whale would call...well, ATC. As anticipated, he did.

Flop ($167) QT7
He donk bets $95. Huh?? We're ~$700 effective. This is where a small mistake compounds into a large one. I've been reading and doing some studying and it shows that donk bets on the flop are usually weak hands. With my specific hand, I probably have ~8 or 9 outs. So....a raise to ~$240, setting up a turn bluff jam, should be hugely profitable. I can have AA/KK/QQ/AQ/KQ, he really can only have..KQ? 77? TT? But those hands aren't weak enough to want to donk bet. I wouldn't be surprised to see a J9/KJ/Q5s/KT. I know he is a whale, but I know he has a fold button as well. I should know; I bluffed him once already.

Instead, I call. I don't think calling is awful, but it's probably not the most +EV line.

Turn ($357) 5
He bets $105. That's an even weaker bet. Shove. Shove or fold. But I calculated at the time that if I had ~8 outs that I was getting an ok price to call. So I call. ;osngo;wn;owgnwoia;rnw;oifj;asi;osnslvnpjrp;wijf

River ($567): T
He bets $110. WTF. Makes no sense. I think a Q is surely shutting down OTR by a guy like this. So I go in the tank. Tx gets better. 77. And then......KJ/J9 misses. He then literally has every combo of that. 28 combos. If he even takes this line 25% of the time, that's still 7 with me getting 6:1 on a call. So I leverage myself into a call, and sure enough he has ATo.

The other hand which might be marginal. I 3bet squeezed a reg player and an unknown with A2s. BTN called as well as the other two. Flop is AJ3sxs. X to me, I bet $200, folds to unknown who jams for $1100 and I fold. The bet is because I'm almost certain given my image (I'd played hours with the OR and BTN and they know I'm never cbetting this spot light) that I could get some odd better hands to fold. The unknown just had it.

I did notice a potential leak that seems to be the same amongst the 2/5 "solid" players. They call 3bets too much. Stacks are a bit deeper, yeah, but I still feel like it's gotta be a leak. So if players are calling 3bets too much even OOP, then I see two ways to attack that:

1. 3bet a depolarized range. Put hands such as TT and even 99 into the 3bet range since they'll call with their 33 or 76 or Q9.

or

2. 3bet a polarized range and literally cbet every single flop. If they're calling with a wide range, it's going to be rare that they actually flop something that they want to go with. With my bluffy hands, I'm just not going to put much money forward postflop other than the cbet (and maybe a turn barrel if I turn more equity). And my super value hands are obvious; just bet bet bet them.

If I'm correct on my theory, then 1 is theoretically better. The problem with one is that I trade more value for board coverage. They'll have a range advantage on low or medium flops. With 2, I can cover all boards but I'm going to have to rely a little more on people folding. The best way to tackle it would be to probably have a mix of the two strategies, depending on how the table is playing. It's definitely something I'm going to have to experiment with.

Go Bucks!

5.67 hours
-$942