Hey all,
Decided to finally make a PG&C to try to force some volume. I hope to update this every couple days depending on how much I'm playing and how much time school is taking.

Quick background, been playing for about 5 years fairly seriously, I had worked for a large defense aerospace company for 4 years and just left to go back to school full time for a PhD in materials science and hope to supplement my stipend with poker money (mostly online, some live). The lab I have been invited to is doing some pretty amazing work with piezo sensors that have capabilities to detect biomaterials (proteins, DNA, genes, antigens) at a much smaller threshold then other technologies, so it has big upside as far as success and certainly is a really amazing help to humanity. This is something that I feel is missing from a lot of poker players (plenty do amazing charity and philanthropy) but the actual act of playing cards, winning money from other people isn't very fulfilling for me. It's something that was missing from my previous job that often didn't allow for creativity to really try to improve something... anyway to the poker!

I am in the US, specifically Pennsylvania, so options are somewhat limited, but I am only a quick drive to NJ so can play those games sometimes.

Back before black Friday I mostly played mostly mtts and sngs from 9m up to 180m, backed by a pretty great coach (shout out to reasons14) that really sped up my learning of the game.

I have been mostly focusing on 6m holdem, but regularly game select PLO and some full ring (when all other options are pretty dry). So far this year have had pretty good success, biggest problem is just getting volume in and making time for poker with other things going on. A few goals for the remainder of May listed below. Not anything that can be quantified, but I also want to make sure that with a lot of time being spent on poker and school, that I still reserve time to hang out with family and friends (most of all the gf and her awesome puppy).

[ ] 5k hands
[ ] 5 reviews (around 1 review / 1k hands)
[ ] play sunday MTTs only if time/mood warrants (this is kinda tough)

[ ] read 5 journal articles related to my field (as rec. by advisor)

[ ] Work out at least 4 times per week
[ ] meditate daily
[ ] drink / smoke <2x weekly

I also have been doing some low variance sports bets to clear the bitcoin bonus (cant believe bovada did that bonus, I ended up snagging 1200$ in bonus from it!) Takes alot to clear, so if I am break even on a few thousand of sports bets, I'd be thrilled... currently running pretty good, not at all a pro at that, just looking to get money involved so that it unlocks withdraws. Been solid with player props mostly, some of those odds make no sense to me... for anyone following the NBA playoffs, Love has been listed at -225 pretty much every game for a double double... not comfortable betting a bunch on it, but am I missing something here??? Believe he's 8/9 now.

Will probably post some hands as well that are interesting, I think more of the posted hands will be PLO, as at 100 and 200NL, dont run into an overwhelming number of interesting hands. The play at PLO seems alot worse, but since I dont know if quite as well and its so much more complicated, I think alot more discussion in that game can lead to more value. If anyone would like to discuss hands or general play more, shoot me a PM.

Good luck to everyone playing (except if your at my table ) and thanks for stopping by.

-Ben

Graph for the month to this point since I know 2p2 loves giraffes... Working on getting the embed to work, tried it once and failed so will come back to it.

https://gyazo.com/06624896f841abcf628380e1ef2e911c

Also for any dog lovers out there, heres my girl Khaleesi

https://gyazo.com/59825b1651a889e8ad328db52948b57f

Subbed and GL with your goals !!

Thank you sir, your name seems very familiar, you are also thatbadboy on pstars correct? Remember playing sngs with you, hows it been going? I'd imagine not quite as easy with all of us american fish out of the waters

Best of luck to you as well.

Correct buddy and good to see you are doing fine.
Will hit you up on skype and all the best privately as well as on the felt

I thought Philadelphia had casinos?

Sorry I meant more the US remark in that ROW sites weren't included, so can go to NJ to play like some of the bigger tournaments on there regulated sites.

We do have quite a few casinos now right in the area, they're really great games too, I'd say better than Atlantic city in the non peak seasons, pretty comparable during the summer.

Well, the volume goal is going well. Found some pretty amazing tables last night so decided to keep playing until either table got bad or I started playing poorly.

The day started off pretty terrible, getting second nuts in vs. pretty bad players...

Sidenote - Sometimes I don't even bother looking at the EV line, its really to me just an extension of the $ made. In an infinite number of hands the EV and $ will converge, just like in a 2k sample, I could have made a few different decisions that grossly swing AIEV. For example, if we have a combo draw in PLO but know that we have 0 fold equity but will get paid when we hit half of our draws, I'll play pretty weak and just call turn and fold rivers we miss (makes sense right?). But in this case, we add an extra step of variance because if we just get it in before the river, we are playing (imo) a bit suboptimal, but our shiny graph will reflect that in that hand we won 40%*pot or whatever it would be exactly. Especially in cases when 90% of a stack goes in pre but due to it being pot limit, the whole thing doesn't, then on the flop equities have changed a bunch. Again, not a big deal, but just my own little issue with AIEV, for the record I'm just about even now for the month AIEV vs. actual so no hard feelings from someone running like crap or god.

Before a graph of yesterday (~2k hands!!! big volume for me), I wanted to share a habit I have started to do that has really improved my play.

I typically set an alarm on my phone/computer for every 30 minutes, when it goes off I pull myself away from the tables for 30-40 seconds to make sure I am still present and making good decisions. It's insane to me how much this has improved me, and a bit scary to know how easily we can be playing 4 tables and have no clue that we are making suboptimal decisions.
There have been many times now that I will sit out on all tables even if they are good, and take a little break to do something else and maybe that has stopped some big down swings.

I'd recommend anyone give this a try if they consistently put in reasonably long sessions. I used to review and on some hands I would just wonder, wtf was I doing/thinking... not necessarily the play was horrible, or good, just honestly could not put myself back in the thought process to know why I was doing what I was doing. With these micro breaks, I seem to be able to recall the motivation of different bets and plays much better, which has been helpful for discussion to plug leaks or to maximize value.

I think this graph should post correctly, will be reviewing hands tonight and probably try to post a few sometime tomorrow or the following day, I remember one for sure where a complete PLO whale pots when the nuts changed, I had the previous nuts (top set) and 0 relevant blockers so I tank folded and he instantly showed the non sense bluff (also without the most relevant blockers). Was a pretty funny hand, but one of the downsides to the volume I put in on bovada... can't remember who that guy is for next time. But well played anonymous plr 4




Bout to go for a run, a quick medi session and then see how the games look.

good luck all (we need cavs w/ a teased line tonight to potential finish clearing my bonus!)

Hey guys,
Been a couple days since last update, my brother was in town for my nephews birthday so kept playing to a minimum. I do have to get a new graph in here, seems like I was handed the doomswitch as I ran ~2k under EV on Friday at mostly 200plo (not too crazy, but was over a 140 hand sample, hurt a bit).

Since I currently am not working in my lab, poker is my only income so I will be leaving 200NL and PLO out for a bit and play just 100NL to be extra safe, expecting to add 200NL back in shortly and probably 100PLO at the same time.
According to my database, 200NL and 100PLO are very similar in terms of true variance (my winrate is a decent bit higher at PLO, but the standard deviation is about 1.7* holdem in my play style)... so although it kills me to remove all PLO, trying to be responsible

I will however still fire the 55$ NLO8 sunday and 33$ PLO8 nightly whenever schedule permits... I am without a doubt running way over EV, but after around 400 birds my ROI looks more like a ponzi scheme then an investment, however, again, I have run very good in them.

So on to this week.
I have a really open schedule and want to get some volume in so below is an updated weekly goal list (that conveniently will take care of most of the May goals)

[ ] 10k hands (Already in the process)
[ ] 10 reviews (1 down)
[ ] Donate 20% of this week to charity (15/5 split... suzan g. Komen , no kill animal shelter)
[ ] Watch 2 instructional videos (I think specifically about 3b oop spots)

The 10k hands probably seems pretty minimal to any ROW or ACR grinders, but for bovada where I am getting around 230-240 hands per hour (this could be up to like 300 at times, but I average 3.5 tables up at any time... if somehow I am at a table with decent regs and no fish, I sit out bb and find another game... rake is pretty high still at 100NL to sustain reg only games). So with that being said, this is in the order of 40-45 hours of actual playing! not counting review (about an hour a piece) and any other learning.

I'm really looking forward to this especially with the charity clause. My gf got involved with organizing a few events for suzie g. komen and its a pretty impressive charity. Such a huge % of the donation goes to the cause and the money that doesn't is typically used to promote additional events (not into some 'non-profit' CEOs pocket).

The other 5% of donations will go to the no kill shelter that we got the pup from...5% more often than not will be a pretty small amount (on the order of ~50$... but obviously could be 0!!), but every bit counts!

So here's to a strong finish in May!

And here is an updated month graph

Was sitting 300+bbs effective with a few pretty bad players in 200PLO, and one point I was all in on 2 different tables both with ~65% equity and just bricked both. But got it in really good so can't complain too much, keeps me humble.

Pretty much instantly hopped off after those 2 because even though I seemed pretty ok with how everything played out, dropped 1100$ in 10 hands isn't something I am very accustomed to so wanted to take a quick step away from the computer to make sure I wasn't going to start going nuts.

When I played again later that afternoon, I was certainly opening up my range a bit which told me it was time to take the rest of the day off. Will try to dig up a few of the hands involved in this massacre as well as a few hands that I'm not 100% sure on, probably post those in between a break today.

Started off the day with a few coolers to be -4BI but building back... need some run good to get the week started off right!

-Ben

Hey Ben,

Nice work with your education! That's a very rough graph. Hopefully, my follow brings you lots of run good!

Thanks bud, yeah that probably has been my worst run over that kind of hand sample (like most of it in ~100 hands), but since alot of my sessions are usually shorter I don't really play that much 300bb poker, so that helps my typical variance. I bet a lot of long time plo players would look at that and easily pull out instances that look like that in many spots of their graphs.

Were pretty standard hands, the biggest was flopped the nut straight on 9JQcc, no club blockers, guy had nut flush draw + nut gut shot + pair, so even against the nuts (which I had) he still had just over 40% so can't blame him. I do the same with lesser draws that he has crushed.

Your follow run good works quick!!! Just flopped quads in a 3b pot

Surprised you're getting 230-240 hands an hour, must start your own tables a decent amount. My HM is saying i get 200 an hour. 300 bb poker is uncommon on bovada but watching some stars zoom reg videos they seem to play quite a bit of it. I would think they would want to play much more nutted hands against other 300bb stacks. But It doesn't seem true they 3bet wider.

Yeah, when I get deeper on bovada I am more just playing nutted hands. The players aren't very good, so although we can outplay people more the deeper stacks are, if some sportsbet fish just came in here to make up for his 1k loss, he's not folding if he has any piece

Continuing to run fairly poorly, in today's review I did notice that I was taking some more spewy lines against fishy players, so while I think that the plays were +ev, I think alot could have been played better (getting into flips with minimal fold equity etc).

Motivation to play since this past Friday has been a bit down, going on a ~-4k downswing after having a pretty consistent 2 months certainly isn't encouraging me to get hands in, so I have been taking it easy and watching instructional videos or looking through my hand database a bit more if I hop on and don't have an immediate desire to get into it.

Been also popping some of the 10-20$ later mtts when stack is in the 20bb range. I know this is far from optimal as far as ROI, but with how bad the play is I absolutely know I still have an edge, and by late registering and typically flipping early on, I get to lower the total time spent leaving more time to focus on my cash games.
Can't imagine how we could get the dataset needed, but I would be interested in seeing the inflection point of when is best to register for a tournament relative to hourly rate (not ROI).

Imagine we have a 100% ROI if we register at level=1, a 60% ROI at level=4 and a 30% ROI at level=10 (all completely hypothetical, no thought values). Provided we are properly rolled for all of them, it would be interesting to see the perspective hourlys. Another thing to work into the equation is if I am starting 200bbs deep, I am less likely to have 8 tables up, however, If I have 4 cash games tables and I late reg 4 mtts with 20bbs each, I expect to probably bust 1-2 relatively quick and at least until finding some doubles/winning no showdown pots, my decisions will be pretty straight forward.

Just a thought experiment at this point as there seems to be too many variables to ever test; I guess we had a large sample of bb/100 won at different stack sizes and applied them to a few different cases we could make a decent guess, but again I think the fact that late registering allows us to have easier decisions early on probably allows for more games played.

Getting started with some cash games, been on the third shift schedule (going to sleep late afternoon, waking up in the evening) so we are basically just starting it off. Missed reg for the plo8 nightly but got in a 3k and 5k that should be fun to have on the side while grinding cash.

graph probably posted tomorrow... I was trying to find some interesting hands but was kind of let down. A majority of the bigger pots have been either coolers/lost flips, or a few that were just obviously bad plays by me, drooling to play a pot with a whale but using hands that are not appropriate.

gl all, thanks for reading.

-Ben

So the good news, had a very productive 6m and full ring cash session.

Unfortunately around 6am EST I checked the heads up lobby and decided to take a seat. I was amazed at how wild this guy was, 3b/5b a crazy high frequency, overbet shoving on odd boards etc. So I'm drooling at this point... needless to say I think we can all tell where this is going. A bunch of hands below, I think plenty of them are a bit spewy, but against this kind of whale that was like overbet 2x potting with one pair, dont think I can find folds anywhere.

I started to play a bit more passive because he was completely ready to just barrel off. For the most part I am chalking most up to coolers, if there are spots I should have played differently please let me know. Just keep in mind that we had played a decent bit of hands and he's clearly an action fish. Love that this type of action is out there, but after already enduring some pretty bad downswinginess, was hoping this guy was going to save me


iPoker - $1 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 257.36 BB (VPIP: 90.48, PFR: 67.86, 3Bet Preflop: 35.14, Hands: 93)
Hero (BB): 107.3 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A 7

SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 7 BB, SB calls 5 BB

Flop: (14 BB, 2 players) A Q 2
Hero bets 9 BB, SB calls 9 BB

Turn: (32 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero checks, SB checks

River: (32 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 23 BB, SB raises to 241.36 BB, Hero calls 68.3 BB

SB shows 5 3 (Straight, Five High)
(Pre 38%, Flop 21%, Turn 100%)
Hero mucks A 7 (Two Pair, Aces and Sevens)
(Pre 62%, Flop 79%, Turn 0%)
SB wins 364.16 BB


iPoker - $1 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 727.66 BB (VPIP: 86.21, PFR: 65.52, 3Bet Preflop: 30.61, Hands: 131)
Hero (BB): 101 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8 7

SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 10 BB, SB calls 8 BB

Flop: (20 BB, 2 players) Q 8 J
Hero checks, SB checks

Turn: (20 BB, 2 players) 7
Hero bets 20 BB, SB calls 20 BB

River: (60 BB, 2 players) 4
Hero bets 71 BB, SB calls 71 BB

SB shows 4 J (Two Pair, Jacks and Fours)
(Pre 57%, Flop 82%, Turn 18%)
Hero mucks 8 7 (Two Pair, Eights and Sevens)
(Pre 43%, Flop 18%, Turn 82%)
SB wins 201.5 BB


iPoker - $1 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 526.66 BB (VPIP: 85.59, PFR: 63.96, 3Bet Preflop: 29.17, Hands: 124)
Hero (BB): 94.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q Q

SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 6 BB, SB calls 4 BB

Flop: (12 BB, 2 players) 5 3 2
Hero checks, SB bets 12 BB, Hero raises to 48 BB, SB raises to 520.66 BB, Hero calls 40.5 BB

Turn: (189 BB, 2 players) 6

River: (189 BB, 2 players) J

SB shows 4 6 (Straight, Six High)
(Pre 18%, Flop 97%, Turn 97%)
Hero mucks Q Q (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 82%, Flop 3%, Turn 3%)
SB wins 620.66 BB


iPoker - $1 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: 538.55 BB (VPIP: 85.82, PFR: 64.00, 3Bet Preflop: 29.25, Hands: 333)
Hero (SB): 347.81 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q A

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 8 Q 5
BB bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

Turn: (18 BB, 2 players) T
BB bets 18 BB, Hero calls 18 BB

River: (54 BB, 2 players) 7
BB bets 54 BB, Hero calls 54 BB

BB shows Q 7 (Two Pair, Queens and Sevens)
(Pre 28%, Flop 18%, Turn 7%)
Hero mucks Q A (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 72%, Flop 82%, Turn 93%)
BB wins 161.5 BB


And now this one.... which was maybe the most frustrating spot I can ever remember being in playing online cash. Guy had been constantly potting turn in 3b pots it was a relatively unconnected brick (3c here is a great example). check/called turn ready to snap call literally every river... including the 7c, 8c, 9c, Tc, Tx, 4... I'm fairly certain he will be betting 100% of the rivers, so easy decision.... Until he jams for 350bbs effective on the 6c river lol.

FWIW, I think I am typically going to make this call against this villain, but with recent downswing I think it influenced me. I don't love it by any means, while he has been nuts, at any given time he can pretty much have atc so he certainly can have it here.

gg crazy bovada whale... until next time.

iPoker - $1 NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 494.06 BB (VPIP: 86.28, PFR: 64.16, 3Bet Preflop: 28.89, Hands: 268)
Hero (BB): 403.9 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, SB calls 7 BB

Flop: (18 BB, 2 players) 2 T 6
Hero bets 11 BB, SB calls 11 BB

Turn: (40 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero checks, SB bets 44 BB, Hero calls 44 BB

River: (128 BB, 2 players) 6
Hero checks, SB bets 430.06 BB, fold


SB wins 557.56 BB