Hey Guys-

I'm using this thread to track my progress moving up in stakes next year. My goal is to play 400 hours of live poker, primarily 5/10. If I make the trip to the casino and 5/10 isn't running or if I feel the game isn't good, I will still count my hours at 2/5 towards the goal.

I've enjoyed reading a lot of the threads in the forum over the years, specifically those of bip!, robfarha, aesah, snowball, pureaggression, benjaminbarker, and others.

Background- I currently work a full time job and have been playing 2/5 on the side since about late 2012. Before that I played husng on full tilt pre-bf.

Goals for this thread- I want to post thoughts on my sessions, mistakes, interesting hand histories and whatever else comes to mind. I'll use this as a tool to gain feedback and hold myself accountable.

You may be thinking my hours goal is low. Unfortunately I live >1.5 hours from the casino, so i'm not able to play as much as I would like. Typically I take a day trip on Saturday or Sunday and play a long session. Every month or so I'll take an overnight trip and play multiple sessions.

Thanks for reading

In b4 busto... GL ya fish

Gl and subbed

Lol this thread

Subbed!

STFU zoltan

GL GL GL..

Sent from my Mi 4i using 2+2 Forums

No u obv

Glgl. Why 400 hours?

Thanks

Last year the goal was 360 (30 hours/month) and I was able to get that by mid November. This year I'm gonna raise the bar a little bit but still keep it attainable. I still want to have some time to relax/do other things on the weekend.

Good luck on the 2016 volume challenge.

400 hours is about what I usually manage on average while still working (and living about the same distance from reasonable games). I am able to bump my hours up with a couple of weeks at WSOP and occasional trips to DC which let me spend the weekend at MDL.

Subbed and GL.

Thanks atsai

Thanks, I also plan on possibly making the trip to the wsop this year and shorter trips to different casinos on the east coast. I find playing becomes a chore when I'm there for more than a few days. It also feels depressing.

My motivation/excitement to play is really high when it's once a week, despite having that annoying commute.

Put in my first session yesterday and wasn't too happy with how I played. I felt like I tilted a little bit towards the end of the 8 hours. After a hand where I thought my play was questionable due to subtle tilt, I quit.

Moving up will definitely be an adjustment. 2/5 is my comfort zone and it's pretty stress free given the loose/passive nature of an avg game. I was a little rattled by the swings in this session which probably affected my ability to think clearly towards the end. I know with time I'll get used to it. There was a lot of pre flop 3 betting, hardly any limped pots, and straddles happening >50% of the time.

Here are some hands:

Hand 1- 5/10/20
Utg+1 (guy in his 30s I'm pretty readless) opens to 80, I call HJ w/ AQ
We're ~1,800 eff.

Flop $195- Q78, Utg+1 bets 120, I call.

Turn $435- J, Utg+1 bets 220, I call.

River $875- 8, Utg+1 bets 300.

I don't think the board runs out well for a typical Utg, cbet this flop range. I'm interpreting his sizing and quick betting on turn/river as thin value/block betting... something like AA,KK,AQ or maybe worse. I have more nut-ish hands like 8xcc,78s,9Ts in my range. I also block top full house. I decide to shove ~1,400.


Hand 2- 5/10/20
I open btn 50 w/ QJ
Straddle calls, ~2k effective. He is playing very loose pre and probably defending his straddle close to 100%. In another hand he called a HJ open OTB w/ 62o.

Flop $115- 862 check, I bet $75, he calls.

Turn $345- 9 check, I bet $180, he checks his cards and calls.

River $705- 4 check, I bet $525


Hand 3- 5/10
50 bb stack btn open limps, I complete sb w/ q8o, bb checks.

Flop $30- Q85 I bet 25, btn (middle aged white guy) calls.

Turn $80- K I bet 60, He raises to 150, I shove for his remaining 250.


Hand 4- 5/10/20
MP opens to 60 (Guy in his late 20's has been pretty active pre). I call OTB w/ AT. Some of the time I'd 3bet this hand, but we have the 100% vpip villain from hand 2 in the straddle so I flat. Straddle calls. ~3k effective w/both.

Flop $195- KK5 Check, MP bets 75, I call, straddle folds.

Turn $345- Q MP checks, I bet $280, MP calls.

River $905- Q MP tanks and leads $500. His line really confuses me. We fold...?

Hours: 7:45/400

for hand 4 what else could we do but fold? so rarely is he bluffing

Right. What crossed my mind was he was bluff catching on the turn w/ a mid pp and turning it into a bluff otr when he's counterfitted. What value hands does he have? Qx getting value from A high? Doubtful. I think most of the population is betting Kx ott. If he's good I'm sure he checks Kx some.

Thinking more about it I guess leading Kx otr may get max value from Qx floats. If we're checked to, value betting queens full doesn't make much sense. He can also have quads and I can't.

GL with your goals.

Hand 4 is interesting. Most players wont turn their counterfeited pairs into a bluff. Villain is really unlikely to ever vbet worse than Kx, as betting Qx to get a call from A high seems really thin and gives you the opportunity to bluff raise.

Really tough w/o reads. Gotta be down to if he's fairly agro postflop and live tells. Easy fold vs some nitty regs but against agro spewy players snap call.

Hand 1- River seems spewy. Probably call vs that sizing but not happy about it.

Hand 2- Think I'd just check back turn but don't hate a bet. Guess it depends how wide he's peeling cbets. I'd go a bit less on river like $400ish.

Hand 3- Looks good.

Hand 4- On the turn it kinda sucks to let JJ-66 get to showdown but think I check back because he'll have lots of Qx and sometimes weak Kx that aren't folding. River seems pretty close. Can see him having a range of something like KK, KTo, K9s-K6s, JJ-TT. Feel indifferent to calling and folding.

Gl with the goals and the move up in steaks.

You have a similar situation re distance from casino and hour goals to me. Subbed and hope to catch up in Vegas

I like the thought behind the river shove in hand 1 tho I'm not sure I'd do it readless. How was your image at the time?

What was the thinking behind your river sizing in the rivered flush hand?

Heh, funny, in hand 1 I read the HH but not what you did and I was like hmmm i prolly just stuff vs. that sizing but it's prolly not the greatest. . It's so hard not to just auto-stuff vs blocker bets.

GL with the thread and your journey.

Hand 1 - I'd 3bet pre - once you don't you don't rep much - it's not like he ever puts you on QQ JJ - maybe 8x - but you prolly shouldn't shove that. Your hand looks like 88 exactly - maybe J8 so you fold out his air and maybe weak queens and most of these hands will be raising the turn. You might actually get value from KQ with this line but only vs certain players. He probably snaps you off with KK or AA.

Hand 2

I'd bet an amount that can get called by worse. I think $525 is too high - and it looks like he doesn't have much.

Hand 3

Fold pre - as played looks fine

Hand 4

Probably checking behind turn - this is a multi way pot - heads up I probably lead turn. As played it's a fold. If you checked turn you could call river.

Thanks fw. Was thinking the same about hours when I saw your numbers in the wr thread. Hand1 happened early on in the session, probably about 30 minutes in. It was the first hand I vpipd.

My thinking in hand 2 otr was I wanted to punish his wide range of worse flushes the most with a bigger bet sizing. We know he is probably getting to the river with many pair+fd, especially given the hole card check/call ott. I'm not sure if it's the perfect sizing, but I think he's paying me off a lot with those combos.


Thanks. And yeah, it was my first instinct when he threw the chips out. I wanted to make sure I wasn't shying away from pulling the trigger in these type of spots because I'm feeling like scared money in a bigger game. If that's the case I shouldn't be playing in the first place. On the other hand I have to make sure I'm not over compensating and spewing for the hell of it.

Gl gl

Here are the results from last week's hands:

subbed gl!

Played a 9 hour session yesterday. Already knew this coming in, but my swings in terms of bbs are going to be much greater than they were at 2/5, obviously because of the deeper cap BI, but also the style of play/toughness of an avg. player.

I think I played ok yesterday. No problems with tilt, but there where some spots where I either didn't know what to do or didn't know how I should play my range. I think at these stakes balance is going to be a more important factor.

Here are some hands:

Hand 1- 5/10

HJ 40's, loose opener, kinda fishy, (~$2k) opens to 30, btn calls(~$1.5k), I 3bet 130 QT in the sb ($2k). Both call.

3 way
Flop($400): QTK

Me 225, HJ raises to 500, btn folds, I call.

Turn($1400): 7

I check, he shoves ~1300.

Hero...

Hand 2- 5/10

MP opens 40 (40's, Asian), I call HJ 89, Btn calls. ~2k stacks

3way
Flop($135): KJ3

Check, I bet 80, fold, fold. Not sure I like this bet, I'm thinking I should c/f or maybe c/r but not sure....Based on what I've seen from MP, I think he's playing his range very face up as the pfr i.e. betting any continuing hands and checking his give-ups.

Btn was good/tag from what I've seen which possibly makes the bet worse. On the other hand I feel like if I'm going to start a multi street bluff in this spot, 8 high with backdoors seems like a good candidate.

Hand 3- 5/10

MP (40's Asian guy from hand 2, he seat changed) opens to 35, HJ calls (30's Asian female, tagish), I call bb K9 We're all ~2k eff.

3 way
Flop($110) 553

Checks through

Turn($110) 5

I check, MP checks, HJ bets $60, I call, MP folds.

River($330) 7

Check,check.

Not sure about this one but this is my thinking is MP is telegraphing his range ( whiffs looking to c/f) and my read on HJ is she's betting mid pps otf, or if she's not betting them otf, her logic seems a little inconsistent if she bets them ott I guess, other than the fact my perceived range is capped. I think it makes sense she's really air heavy when she bets and I think that's true for a lot of the population. I could be wrong though so I'm interested in anyone's feedback.

Hand 4- 5/10

I open btn 25, bb calls (30's Asian playing reasonably competent/aggressive over a 6 hour sample but tough to make any conclusions)

HU
Flop($55): AT8

Check, I bet $25

Turn($105): 2o

Check, I bet $75, he raises to $225

Hmmm...looks like he's repping vale hands pretty narrow here and I'm not exactly sure what he's doing. No sets as they're all presumably 3 betting pre. Not sure how he's playing his Ax range pre. He probably has all A2 and some discounted slow played AT,A8,T8 possibly. We're deep though and I'm IP with a fd so I'm not folding.

River($655): A

He check/folds to $550

Hand 5- 5/10

UTG opens 35 (you guessed it, 40's Asian from hand 2 and 3), 2 calls, I call OTB w/ A7
I'm ~3k eff. w/ UTG

4 way
Flop($140): A94

3 checks, I bet 70, UTG calls, rest fold.

Turn($280): 8

Check, I bet 135, he tanks and raises to 335.

Keeping in mind what I talked about in hands 2&3, I think he's rarely ever protecting his range otf (checking anything better top pair or better). I could be wrong but this is my read. When he check/calls I'm guessing it's mostly TT-KK.

For the turn decision a previous hand is somewhat relevant....he MP limp/called my iso and c/r me hu on a Q63r, ck/ck 2o turn, c/f K river. I have to assume he had a bluff.

My lol live read was he could not have a monster slow play given how the wheels in his head seemed to be turning. He looked to be genuinely uncomfortable after my turn bet and I think he would probably have different body language with 99 or maybe A8s or 44 (hard to think of many value combos).

I call.

River($950): 3

He bets 515, I call.

.....any feedback is appreciated

Hours- 16:55/400