It's more likely that I'll call a worse hand than that I fold a better one (66-TT/A5 are the only better hands I *might* consider folding) so it was probably a valuebet.

I'd say against my overall 3b pre / x flop / x/c turn it's probably a 'bad' valuebet (I'd fold too many worse hands and still have enough better hands in my range), but hey, he took my stack with it so wtf do I know

Haven’t updated this thread in a month but there really hasn’t been that much happening poker-wise after that 2nd place in the thrill at the end of last month.

I’ve been on a vacation to Turkey with my wife and son (who is almost 1.5yo now, time really flies!) which was absolutely fantastic; the boy really had the time of his life. We booked the trip very last minute, while I also vaguely considered taking a flight to vegas just to play wsop main (which would’ve been pretty degen but still +EV I think due to flights being fairly cheap), but really happy I took the family holiday in the end.

Came back Tuesday the 21st, which is a decent day online (Super Tuesday) so was reasonably pumped to immediately get on the grind again. Had a meh session but in the end I shipped a $33 turbo for ~3k and also won an estrellas barca seat.
Business school starts September 1st, which means the festival in Barcelona will probably be the last poker trip in a while. I’m definitely looking forward to it, although it won’t be a hardcore poker-trip: I’m going with the wife and son again, so it’s likely I’ll only play Estrellas/EPT main and just spend the rest of the time enjoying the beach and the city with them. Well, that, or just run deep in one of the mains and bink something huge

After that, not sure what will happen. Business school is gonna be ridiculously busy so not sure how much time there will be left for grinding, but I’ll for sure try to log some sessions anyway. And from now till barca I actually want to grind pretty hard as well, although it’s tough to find the time between barbecues, bachelor parties, and other fun Summer shenanigans. Tough life

Long time no update, although a lot of stuff has happened. Two main things were that I went to Barcelona for the EPT festival, which was great but not from a poker point of view, and that I started business school on September 1st. And in the meantime I won some money in online poker too

In Barcelona I played estrellas main, estrellas HR, EPT main, and a 1k hyper. Didn't cash in anything unfortunately.
Estrellas main started off well, doubling up to 60k from 25k starting after 66 > AK on K96 9.
After that the following hand happened: random UTG opens to 1.2k @3/600, UTG+1 flats, I 3bet AJo to 4.5k from UTG+2 - which I think is better than flatting to isolate myself in position vs weaker players and so to use AJo as the 'best' hand to put in my bluffing range in this spot (fold ATo, flat AQo+).
Folds to a russian (unknown) reg OTB who covers me and coldcalls, one of the blinds tankfolds, as do opener and flatter. Flop comes JTx rainbow, I x/c a 4.5k bet (into 14ish).
Turn is an offsuit 8, and now he bets 11.5k into 21. It's a spot where I expect him to check a decent amount of hands with SDV (QQ/KK, other loose pf peels that are now pair+draw and maybe even AA), he might fold some TT combos pre and I block JJ. Seems like such a weird spot to have many value combos, and in the end I decided to call.
River is an offsuit 9 (board now JTx 8 9), I check (briefly considered jamming myself, thoughts?) and he jams! So weird because the hands he was valuebetting turn with he often checks behind on this river, I think he checks either flop or turn with QQ sometimes and the same goes for AQ (he may even fold AQo pre). OTOH he doesn't have that many bluffing combos either apart from AK, and I do get to this spot with some Qx to 'protect' my range.
I tanked for a decent while before eventually folding, also thinking this field was too soft to make such a thin call, after which he showed Ac. If he was bluffing he probably shows the K as well, so it might've been a correct fold, but I'm still not sure.
After that I dwindled down a bit until I doubled up vs the same reg TT>QQ pfai. Then at the last level of the day (1/2k), I flat AQs to an 4.4k MP open, same russian reg squeezes from BB to 15k, opener folds, I jam 50k and lose vs AK. He was more peely than 3bet-happy but even if his range contains ~only value hands this is still a meh/ok spot (and obv good/great if he bluffs some) so no regrets really.

Estrellas HR was fairly soft but I lost AK<AA pfai for 30BB and then jammed the rest with KQ and lost vs A5s.

EPT main I played really well but didn't really get too many great spots and made day 2 with 20k (@4/800). Just like on day 1 I was seated with ike; I started off fairly active and playing well, until in this hand he showed up with KQss. I was thinking very clearly about making this call and don't really regret it, just unlucky that he showed up with one of his few value combos (I don't think he ever has AJ type hands).

Nothing interesting to report about the hyper, and apart from those tourneys I spent most of the time strolling through the city with my wife and son, relaxing at the beach and enjoying tapas and drinks. While I was playing tourneys, my wife had to spend a decent amount of the time on her own, taking care of our son, but she was just great and had a lot of fun too (shopping helps I guess ). All in all, despite the lack of succes on the poker front, we had a great trip to end the summer holiday.

Shortly after that, on September 1st, business school started so despite WCOOP starting soon poker has taken the backseat. Still managed to put in some sessions in the weekend or when I had the next day off:



So a semi-deep run in a WCOOP, then the next day I chopped the big $55 HU and 3 days later I took 3rd in the big $162 . Pretty decent

Most interesting hand was in the $162 when I was 6/6 at a tough FT and chipleader kkremate jammed 20BB from SB into my BB when I had A2dd. I wasn't that much behind the other stacks, he had been limping blind vs blind before (my stack was >20BB those times though), and he probably has 22-55 a decent amount of the time so I'm honestly not sure how good/bad calling off there is from an ICM perspective. I called and held vs JTdd and then just laddered to 3rd basically. After the hand he said 'nc' so that's probably an indication of how bad of a call it potentially is but I'm just not sharp enough on ICM anymore. Should make more FTs to practice I guess

I want to write a bunch about business school too and actually feel like blogging about that (maybe not here), but that might be for another time. In general though the start has been great and very interesting, and we have been talking surprisingly much about poker, even with the professors. Me likey