given your image 3b calling might be bad,but 3bet folding is pbb even worse with hand as strong in btn vs blinds dynamics as 88 is,and if we know that villain can snap 4bshove 22+ in this spot. also, given your image, i wouldnt be trying to induce shove with a worse hand with hand like 88 because it can be double-edged sword in this case, since in btns shoes i wouldnt 4bet shove same range vs perceived weak/tight player as i would vs active one.

this is pretty easy and standard 3bet shove preflop imo.

Hey man thank you 4 ur post and thoughts.

I get what ure saying and i can clearly remember me thinking in actual play "i can easily 3bet here as i dont expect light 4bets with my image". Although villain almost snapshove indeed. Do we ever have a flat button's raise here ? I just thought in play that flating at that point was puke-ish.

Must admit, no need to hide it here, that after being in such a big swing lately, money mattered at that point and got a bit "under my skin". I just also wanna know if ICM goes into big play at this spot and if its something i have to strongly consider or slightly less.

I can very easily see myself 3bet/induce in my standar schedule at maybe a "smaller" tournament, as in this particular one money were quite decent for top3.

Shouldnt being playing like that OBViously, and honestly wasnt, until that point, but obv trying to improve all aspects of my game and that was an issue on this specific spot.

Hope my post makes sense as i write on my phone after gym

Tnx again buddy! Really i do appreciate it.

if that's the case than shoving is definitly best, but what is most important is to know that in every spot anywhere u always have few options, now u gotta know before the hand how every of those options are working out in what case and then make final decision. thats how i percieve playing winning poker is

Indeed cant argue there! Hopefully more interesting spots and runs on weekend. Will check the hands u posted later on (read ur post from office this morning but didnt have the time to check ur hands).

Thank u 4 ur time man and best of luck Sunday!

I think this is probably as good as advice you are gonna get for free. The specific spot with 88 everything is viable, as long as you don't fold. You can and should def have a flatting range here fwiw, but pocket eights is too strong/vulnerable to include that. I think in an ICM setup shove is most likely the best play, since given the stacks you don't really want to induce a lot of (light) 4b shoves from hands like kq etc so I think with 88 it's important to get in the last bet instead of calling it off, especially in an icm heavy situation.

You shouldn't feel obligated to review immediately after your session. If you do it the next day or next week, then that's fine too as long as you take a look at it and try to understand where and why you were struggling and how you are gonna struggle less the next time you face this certain spot.

Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate that. To be honest I'm not entirely sure yet what I'm gonna do after I graduate. I do know my parents would really hate the thought of me 'turning pro' so that's def one thing that's holding me back. I think I will review once I graduate where I want to head next. I think I am pretty certain that I'm gonna do an extra study though, just not sure when but most likely next september where I'll be specializing further in finance/direction of my current study. But as I said, I'll review this once I'm actually graduated. If I for example have had some amazing months in the meantime, I might postpone my study with one more year or work out something like that.

Hey buddy,

Thank you for your answer seriously i really appreciate it! This kind of interaction make me feel so happy 4 starting this thread. I really look forward to some more!

I really hope to look back in this in 1-2 years time or whatever and find myself progressed a lot!!

Maybe u can relate with this feeling, since you too have a thread here, but for me this thread is unbelievably helpful in "bad days" and i honestly cant wait to re-check in here whenever i post a hand, or had an interesting conversation with some1

Anyway tnx again 4 your time buddy! I ll be back soon

Best of luck 2night!

PS: Finish the thesis strong!!!!

October Week#4

Sessions: 1/3

Gym: 3/3

Study hours: 1/3

Hey boyz and gals,

Last week was a bit poor volumise. I managed to put only1 big-ish session that also ended up in green which was much needed and felt pretty good!

I had many things outside poker this weekend too, that just seemed impossible to fit everything in schedule. Last day of the month is tommorow and i will be putting my last session of the month.

I am currently at 197/250 games for the month so its impossible to reach them with just 1 more session, as i play 20-25 games/session. On the other hand, reaching almost 200 games with 2 missed/skipped sessions last week is a very good thing and it shows that this number its not at all unreachable with my standar schedule and circumstances which is cool

I didnt put much study as well. I just spent 1 hour to review my sess and some marked hands

I ll get back on track strong this month and do a small recap of my initial "4 month challenge" on November 1st! (Half-way)

So i guess this is it 4 now. Take care everyone and stay strong!

Peace!!

Hello everyone,

Finished the month with a nice green session yesterday.

Didnt reach the 250mtts/month goal but i played 214/250 with 2 lost/skipped sessions which makes me feel that i can really do this!

Feeling a lot better mentally after my huge swing and i really really enjoy this journey so far. I would love to study more and i will really try to put more study hours as i enjoy it a ton!!

I wanna and I m gonna give it my all in these last two months of the year! I already booked the days im off-work which is cool! I won't be sitting at my office during xmas for at least 10 days! ^_^

In other news, my leg injury feels much better, so tonight i have a football match with my buddies at a local championship and after that ima gonna enjoy the Champions League games

If i have time to place any small bets i will share them here.

I really wanna thank you guyz for being active in this thread and keep having this interaction! I honestly enjoy this VERY much and hope it will get even better in the future!

Aight, so this is it. Lets make November count!

Glgl to all the heroes!

LFG!!!!!

November Week #1

Sessions: 3/3
Gym: 1/3 + a football match
Study hours: 2/3

Hey wasup guyz,

November started out quite good both results and volume wise.

I am satisfied with my volume and i try to improve my game even more. I have been studying and reviewing some marked hands as well as discussing some hhs with a buddy of mine.

Been doing some ICMizer work also and starting to feel better with spots, as i seem to miss fewer and fewer and generally understand some hands' ev better than i used to.

Didnt see any videos though again this week which is the only thing i m kinda disappointed, as i really enjoyed it the last time and think it is very beneficial. Have to push a lil more myself to find that extra hour/week.

IRL i went to a party on Saturday night with my gf and my bros and had a blast! A friend of mine has a gym - dance center and was having a 3 years anniversary celebration! As you can guess a looooot of dancing took place

I also had my father visiting from Belgium on Thursday and we had some very interesting conversations. I havent seen him for some months now so i was happy to see him in person.

Pokerwise, as i stated on my original 4-months-mini-challenge, i would also like to play a live timby in this 4 month period (mostly 4 fun) and i am happy to inform you that i have found the timby i wanna play .

Theres a local live timby at the end of the month here, with a pretty nice structure and guarantee, plus the live sats are like the softest live fields in any casino i imagine...So gonna fire a bullet on the satty If i dont win the satty though i will remain strict with my Brm and won't sell anything to just play the timby and yolo it (as done in the past obv) cause this is waaaaaay out of my budget (1.100€). I have to do this at this point if i wanna respect my efforts so far. Satty is in 2 weeks so ima let you know then

Today i have my best friend coming over in the afternoon to review yesterday's hands (both mine and his). I will share some here as well in my next update from my pc

If i feel rested enough, i would snap jump to gym after work also.

Pretty excited 4 this month LFG!

Peace yo!

Hello again guyz,

Some hands from yesterday's session.

Hand#1
Villain is a winning reg. I wanted to make him lay down a one-pair kinda hand OTR and i thought he had sth like AA,KK and good Qs. i rarely overbet shove as a bluff which in my mind should have made him have tough time calling with the above holdings? Do u thing betting a smaller ammount accomplishes the same? Maybe my shove seems "fishy" i dont know but some players call easier shoves than v-bets on rivers. Appreciate your thoughts.

Hero (BTN): 9,430
SB: 1,752 (VPIP: 17.05, PFR: 12.30, 3Bet Preflop: 5.69, Hands: 3,250)
BB: 10,019 (VPIP: 31.46, PFR: 21.98, 3Bet Preflop: 7.55, Hands: 1,612)
UTG: 18,178 (VPIP: 23.17, PFR: 17.49, 3Bet Preflop: 8.13, Hands: 411)
UTG+1: 10,200 (VPIP: 18.97, PFR: 13.58, 3Bet Preflop: 7.84, Hands: 392)
MP: 10,298 (VPIP: 38.36, PFR: 13.51, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 162)
CO: 21,182 (VPIP: 43.75, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 48)

7 players post ante of 20, SB posts SB 100, BB posts BB 200

Pre Flop: (pot: 440) Hero has J K

UTG raises to 455, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 455, fold, fold

Flop: (1,350, 2 players) T T Q
UTG bets 525, Hero calls 525

Turn: (2,400, 2 players) 3
UTG checks, Hero bets 1,325, UTG calls 1,325

River: (5,050, 2 players) 6
UTG checks, Hero bets 7,105 and is all-in



Hand#2
The hand is on stone cold bubble. Button is loose-bad and i have 0 info whatsoever about SB. Your thoughts?

CO: 21,977 (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 16.35, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 106)
BTN: 92,864 (VPIP: 44.17, PFR: 16.56, 3Bet Preflop: 6.92, Hands: 330)
SB: 68,567 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
Hero (BB): 27,740
UTG: 36,919 (VPIP: 30.55, PFR: 22.09, 3Bet Preflop: 7.42, Hands: 1,176)
MP: 33,995 (VPIP: 24.14, PFR: 18.61, 3Bet Preflop: 6.43, Hands: 2,310)

6 players post ante of 200, SB posts SB 1,000, Hero posts BB 2,000

Pre Flop: (pot: 4,200) Hero has T Q

fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 4,000, SB calls 3,000, Hero calls 2,000

Flop: (13,200, 3 players) T 9 Q
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 7,000, SB raises to 34,200, Hero ??


Thank you in advance for your time and thoughts

Peace all!

H2: without any info I call here because he could be doing this with J+pair hands, JsXs, naked Q or lesser 2 pair. His sets are pretty much only 99 so yea, go with it unless its a bubble for 10% of your BR. Also, some people dont even know its bubble so that might have no weight in his raise

November Week#2

Sessions: 3/3

Gym: 2/3

Study hours: 3/3

Hello everyone,

The past week was a mixture of feelings. I played a lot, studied but also got a bit sick so skipped 1 gym session.

Im writing this update still being a bit sick and only slept like 4 hours so...

I will share some hhs from yesterday later on today in the afternoon. If i feel better i will hit the gym.

We are approaching the end of the year and im getting really anxious about 2018. Hopefully at the end of this month im gonna put down all my thoughts and my future plans and give it my all.

Feeling super tired atm so thats gonna be it.

Ill be back soon.
Peace all!

I don't mind H1 too much, think pre is on the loose side though vs utg but might be fine at your stakes. Postflop seems whatever/ok to me. I kind of like the combo you went with on this runout. H2 is silly, I kind of lean towards a fold on bubble.

Thank you guys for your answers! I know ive been saying this a lot in past posts but honestly i REALLY appreciate the time u put and the effort to try and explain your logic in certain hands.

I had a really disappointing session yesterday when i had super good stacks on last 3 timbys of the day, in all 3 of them, but just managed a slightly bigger than min cash score in just 1 of them. (2 of them having 4figures up top).

I really need your thoughts/2cents on this one as i view it as a major hand so deep and had a tough time playing it.

Im on my phone and i wont really be available in the afternoon so im gonna post the HH manually! I remember the hand almost 100% though so it should be ok.

Hand #1

Villain is a reg with total understanding of bubble/icm dynamics and been raising last orbit quite a lot!

I have sth like 500hands with him with way less aggro stats (sth like 22/14/8) than this past orbit (which we were 3-4spots off the bubble).

Blinds 1000/2000 ante200 - 8handed table

Hero has ~105k (3rd stack on the table - far from rest 5 players)
Villain has ~ 130k (1st stack on the table)

Hero is SB with AhAc

Everyone folds to Villain on the CO who opens 4700.

DB folds

Hero 3 bets to 14500 (Thoughts on sizing here? Kinda regret it when i review it.)

BB folds, Villain calls.

FLOP ~ 32.000: 9hJd3d

What line do u prefer here. In my mind this flop is not the greatest but ok-ish atm.
Bet? If bet, what size and with what intention on several turns - rivers? Check? and with what intention?

I cbet 12500 and Villain calls.

TURN ~ 57k (hero ~75k left): 9hJd3d 7s

Action Hero??

I guess my range is pretty capped at this point and its kinda growse at this stage.

I shall stop the action here as i had a hard time on this Turn and i would like to hear your thoughts and course of actions at this point and on. After your feedback i shall continue the hand. (Hope that this is ok)

Thank u guyz in advance!

i prefer larger sizing pre but i dont mind yours.

what i do mind most in this hand is your flop cbet sizing. it is really bad to cbet your range ( thats what 1/3 pot sizing suggests ) OOP on drawy boards vs good opponents. you let them to realise their equity for really cheap price and put yourself in tough spot on later streets since u keep their range pretty wide and on a lot of runouts u ll have tough decisions.

so my line would be 3bet in 16-20k range, then cbet 50-70% of the pot then shove most of the turns ( maybe not diamonds / im not sure about this ). u made your life more difficult here with your SPR. also why u think u re capped here ? from that sentence im not sure tha u understand what being capped means, u still have a lot of strong hands in your range so most def u re not capped here. i mean u have overpairs 99 and JJ and AJ.. my strategy would be to cb flop jam turn with all of theese + put some draws in the same line...

i dont have enough time to explain everything to the details but if u have any questions shoot

Yeah re-viewing this thought "fu.ck this why im capped" so have to aggree with that obv.

I also aggree with larger size pre + for SPR reasons as u mentioned indeed is troublesome.

Regarding cbet i kinda thought was okish even though on the smaller side. Do u like this size with the intention to bomb turns? Even overbet?

Do u like checking OTT with intention to c/shove?

Thanx 4 ur time and answer.

if u set your SPR right u will get calls from weaker hands more often.

as played, if u cbet 30% and overbet the turn he might fold some hands that would call 70%/jam. i most def dont like checking the turn and giving guy a free card, there are a lot of rivers that will improve his range dramaticly ( make him 2p/straight/flush )

agree that we should size this flop up in general, also helps that you don't hold ace of diamonds so I like aces without a diamond def as a fastplay. Pbb sizing flop anywhere between 50% and 80% with this hand. As played turn I don't think changes very much/anything at all so would just keep betting somewhere around half pot and calling it off. Funnily enough pio seems to be checking quite a lot with aces on this turn, indicating that it is pretty much invulnerable at this point and using it as a trap/xrai on the turn, so if you expect villain is gonna stab a lot on the turn (which will mostly be for a small sizing I imagine) I'd x/rai, otherwise bet and call it off is fine as well obv. Pio just does this for balancing purposes anyway, and since it is unblocking almost all of the hands villain will be betting on the turn, both value and blufs.

November week #3

Sessions: 3/3

Gym: 3/3

Study hours: 1/3

Hey-llo boyz,

Past week was pretty good 4 me and im even more excited 4 this one.

I didnt study as much and didnt mark many hands, but actually had some nice conversations with my poker buddies and a top class player about some hands which helped me even more with my thinking process.

I hit the gym hard after some time, especially Saturday and man that felt good! Hopefully i can reach my top performance again soon and this time try even harder to surpass it.

This week is also the live satty ima gonna play and hopefully i d have some nice pics to post this weekend #chippornzfromft1time

I have 2 more things to cover in this update :

1) do you guys prefer living/playing in a grind house or on ur own? One of the things i miss most is these super nice conversations with other poker players and with such a busy schedule i am a bit restricted in this area :/

Having this thread and talking hands/whatever with guyz like LittleGoliath, nomalice, abecede etc honestly mean SO much to me. I really adore this process, cheers to u guyz!

2) I started watching Stranger Things with my gf and man i loved it!
Its been quite some time since i trully enjoyed a tv series and having ~50mins free time is way easier than 2-3hours, esp a week day, so i ve been really enjoying it!

I recomend it 100%!!

Thats it 4 now! I ll be back soon, hopefully after booking fridays tickets (oh come on lets have some sweat in here!)

Peace yall!

Hey guyz,

Fell just a little short off the tckt unfortunatelly so no "live" sweat on the weekend #siiiiigh

Lets gettem on the virtual scene

Im off work from tommorow until Monday so hopefully gonna put at least 2 sessions in.

Gl to all da heroes

November week #4

Sessions: 2/3

Gym: 2/3

Study hours: 0/3

Hey fellas,

Wasup everyone? Missed my yesterday's standard update but thats was due to how the whole 4-days-off went down.

I had an off-work Friday and Monday so past 4 days were mostly fun. Despite that, my volume goals seem more doable than ever and by Friday i should be able to claim my first 250/250 month, after 3 past (close) failures, which feels good!

I had a great great time though so i cant feel too bad for the horendous 0/3h week study and the other 2 missed goals.

On Friday i went shopping with my gf and she got some new clothes plus i got a new pair of sneakers (photo next post ). We also saw "Justice League" which i liked "ok". We both liked Flash very much but i personally found the script a bit "meeeh" and kinda poor, plus the main villain was a bit poor as well imo.

On Saturday we went to a dance contest-party, not to participate on the battles but 4 fun and had a super time!

Sunday was session day and yesterday i was on a massive errand-mode and finished some things ive postponed 4 some time, wich was good. In the afrernoon i had a football match on our local league and i definately saw improvements there both in my stamina and in the condition of my right foot's injury We gottem 3 - 0

Back to buziness today with an afternoon session. Lets gettem boyz and finish November super strong!!

Peace all and run pure!

Aaaaaaaaaall right!!! Come on!!!

November was one of my best months so far in this 1-year-challenge and i finally hit that volume goal!

Its official! November count 254/250!
This feels super good!

I will do a small sum up of my road so far, leggo:

● I started out super rusty
● hit an upswing early on
● thought i was "the boss"
● got lazy and super lol volume
● found motivation to grind super hard with your precious help
● enjoyed studying BEYOND belief for the 1st time
● break even streeeetch
● holidays
● back with "boss" mentality
● hit my worst downswing ever
● reality check - get back down to the ground and study - understand the game better
● got stubborn and study and play even more
● managed to increase my table count (Since May 2017) from playing comfortably 4 tables and struggle at 6+, to play comfortably 8 tables and put a stop at 10 in order to avoid blind button clicking.
● found a very nice upswing again

Ok so after six calendar months (unfortunatelly 4 including poker) i can say that i am trully enjoying this process and i am thirsty AF to learn waaaaaay more and improve.

I decided that January is too soon to just go all in with poker and that i will stick to the original plan and take it from there (May 2017 - May 2018).

I really do appreciate all the feedback you guys keep puting in this thread! I cant thank you enough and i hope i can meet you in person sometime in the near future @ some live timby or sth.

Future short term plans:

1) Finish December and the "mini-challenge" strong
2) plan at least 1 trip for next year
3) Finish "Think and Grow Rich" by the end of the year
4) Study as much as possible
5) Spend at least 5 whole days with my loved ones during my x-mas holidays
6)Make new year's enhanced master-plan
7) ENJOY this ride!!

I will NOT stop until i touch, feel and taste my dreams! No time to rest!

"Fly, if you cant fly
Run, if you cant run
Walk, if you cant walk,
Crawl, but whatever you do,
Keep Moving Forward!"

December week#1

Sessions: 3/3

Gym: 2/3 + football match

Study hours: 0/3

Hello guyz whats up all?

Last 10 days have been SUPER busy @ my day job and i ve been struggling a lot to find some time and post in here.

Been thinking about it, but honestly was swamped with tasks + nothing "super big" has happened, so i was kinda not prioritizing it.

Anywayz im here now so gonna put some small update down for those who still read this

I must admit i am a bit tired from my everyday routine but running good @ the tables lately has been a well timed and welcomed fact and it helped me stay true to my goals and my efforts.

Xmas is almost here and im very excited.
I will have almost 10 days off work (including weekends) and i will take a break from the online battlefield as well.

My main focus will be to my family, my gf and my best friends and i ll try to make the best memmories possible during this period with loads of fun and good vibes.

I will (most likely) have quite a lot of free time (no poker no work and probably no gym) so i will also try to catch up with some "long time no see" friends and relatives + do all the "i will do it when i have the time" things, that i have postponed for so long .

I plan to make some small gifts to my loved ones, including a music CD for my beloved grandma that she asked me for ^_^

Poker wise the plan is:

● Play at least 4 more sessions until 25/12 (try to squeeze 5 but i wont feel bad otherwise)

● Total online break from 25/12 - 2/1

● 1 local live timby (150€ FO 20kgtd) 26/12


Ok so thats it for now.

I will come back next week for the last update of 2017 and a small recap of the last 4 months

Peace y' all!!

hey man just got on this thread really good read man keep it up!

r.e the AA agree with other guys, just try to make sure on the flop you build a plan for the whole hand. Break down both ranges, work out what highest ev line will be/ best strategy with each of your hands, how static the board is/ how many turns change hand values (j96 changes much more then a22 ect)

Thanx a lot m8, gl with your efforts as well!

Been away for a while during holidays. Will come back strong in 2018

Peace!