I took more days off than usual in last month, but actually put more hours in volume. I generally don’t 3 bet UTG open very often, like half/half. It’s interesting to decide keeping the ranges wide or uncapped while playing deep.

Played two sessions, -800 at Aria and +1430 at Encore. It felt no difference that last month, still bleeding and even bleeding faster when 7x isolation would go 4 way often and missed the flop. So I decided to change the venue. Honestly I thought I played worse than the first session but somehow booked a 4 figure win, peaked at 2 K profit but took some hit like top two pair ran into backdoor gutshot. At on point, my table became reggy-heavy, all 9 players are regular. I immediately asked for a table change after the latest must move game became main game lol.

You're replying to a guy who likes to 3x the UTG player with KJs. Flatting AKo just wouldn't make any sense to him. But, for non-LAGtards, it makes perfect sense

Officially confirmed I cannot beat 1/3 lol. I sat down at a 1/3 game at Encore last night after the 2/5 dried up to get more hours in (I need 30 hrs per month to secure a box here). Lost 200 and I think I lost almost a thousand in my last three 1/3 sessions. Couldn't get anything going but opening UTG with TT and triple barreling on a 9 high board and get called down by someone's AA and he immediately racked up. I really had no idea what's wrong with the people who claimed they "always play no chop" in 1/3 with 10% rake 5 max? They really think they have such a huge edge? Well whatever, it is just so annoying.

Overall it is a decent week. Need another 2600 to hit 40K profit for the year.

I played two sessions yesterday and suddenly hit the 40K mark!

Stopped by at Venetian first cuz bravo said they had 6 2/5 games ongoing. Played 2hrs and up ~250 then decided to head to Bellagio to check out 3 5/T tables there. "Well, that's not good enough for me" when I saw there is only 1 rec at the must move table. As an alternative, I walked to Aria and played a crazy session here.

My first table was boring and at some point had 7 competent pros. The game was played like a 9 handed chess. I requested a table change to follow a loose player with a big stack who just left us.

H1. 1K Effective.
Folds to SB who open 15, I 3bet to 45 with 88 in BB, SB flats.
Flop 90: 458r, x, x.
Turn 90: Jcc, 35, I flat.
River 160: Q, 85, I 320, tank and sigh fold.
All I call guarantee is that my line seems weird as hell. SB said he was supposed to call in that spot but just couldn't pull the trigger.

"Calvin table change to 10." I thumb up to the floor and headed to my new battlefield. It turned out a very wild game. There was another guy playing every hand and already re-bought for several times. At the beginning, I was card dead for a while and made a stupid call. By saying stupid, I mean when my opponent flipped over nut flush, somehow I thought it was a busted draw and turned over my top pair lol. It was really awkward. Maybe I was too tired? Hey hang on there and keep grinding. And then I suddenly woke up and found myself on a rising skyrocket.

H2: 1.1K Effective,
1 limp, I 25 in MP with JJ, 4 callers.
Flop 125: J42r, 3 checks to me, I 55, 3 callers??
Turn 345: 8cc, 2 checks to me, I 175, only BB call.
River 695: 5, I bet 235 to target the case Jack, and BB check-shove for all my remaining chips. I call and he shows 22, no good man.
That's the very first set over set where I have the higher set since I moved to Vegas, just in time.

Right next to JJ hand, I got dealt QQ and flopped another set on AQJhh flop. Money went in on turn and held against a claimed combo draw. Then next hand I folded J8hh UTG and I would flop a flush in a multi-way 3 bet pot. Mr. VPIP100% shoved 400 with Ad2c on 457hhh flop, got called by 3 bettor's KK and caught an A on the river.

Our table dwindled down to 4 handed, and a rec wanted to break the table. Usually I would agree with him because my short handed game sucks compared to my full ring. However, that's not gonna happen tonight, Mr. VPIP100% still wanted to play and he had over 1K in front of him. Let's go 4 handed!

H3 1350 Effective,
The first hand of 4 handed battle. Mr. VPIP100% straddle UTG, BTN made it 40, and I 3bet 115 in SB with black KK, he cold call and so does BTN.
Flop 350: 234hh, I bet 100, and Mr. VPIP100% 300, BTN fold. Back to me, I reraise to 700. All the money going to the middle very quickly. The turn is 7c and river is 9s. Phew, looks like a clean runout and Mr. VPIP100% turned over.......A2ss??? Anyway I raked in a monster pot with one pair and he finally decided to call it a night. After his takeoff, we played a few more meaningless hands and broke the table.

Very entertaining journey thus far. I enjoy your writing and the details you provide. Keep it up! Will be in Vegas shortly to get my poker grind on as well.

I guess I got caught by a cold while waiting the valet outside of the casino after my Tuesday session. After popping an advil, I tried returning to Aria the next afternoon. However, I was really unfocused and made some bad plays, like calling a 3bet OOP with A9off because I thought villain was 3 betting light (which he actually did, I won a big pot A9 over J9 on Q95AJ). My preflop decision was highly questionable so I racked up a 1 K profit after 3 hours.

While resting at home these days, I found Bellagio got at least 5 5/10 tables running per day. Guess veteran weekend? It feels really dead when actions all over the strip and I could only crash on my bed all day long. Definitely need more frequent workouts. Be ready to return to felt today.

The first session after break is a short and coughing one, booking a small profit after 2 hrs. Running into a very funny old rec players. He had three 30 high red chip stacks in front of him and maybe couple of green chips behind the towers (He's in seat 8 and I was in 4, so not sure by this point).
H1: I post $7 before the btn after a bathroom break. 2 limps, old guy make 25, I call with 55 and 2 limpers call as well.
Flop 100: J75hh, check to old guy bet 50 in red chips, I thought he started with around 650 so I raise to 200 and setup a pot size jam on the turn. 2 other players fold and he put out another 50 in red. Dealer told him he needed another 100 bucks to call and he took out 4 green chips behind tower. OK. Suddenly Jerry on my left said "you need to put your big chips visible" and old guy took a whole stack of green chips to the front of red chips...Wait. He got me covered?
Turn 500: 3 offsuit. I was in the tank because the effective stack changed immediately. Should I bet like 300 and jam river or still stick to jamming turn plan? I probably changed the gesture how I sat while tanking, but I DIDN'T check yet. Old guy bet 150 out of turn. OKAY, solution found. "I am all in" I said to the dealer. He called rather quickly and river was a seeming harmless 9 offsuit. I tabled my hand and now the old guy...went into a tank??? He looked my hand, his hand, and the board. Back and forth. By seeing his face, I swear he's a subscriber of slowrollmaster.com. After like 30 seconds he finally released his hand and gave me an early double.

Soon after I found he IS a subscriber lol.

H2: I iso 25 over a limp with KdKs, old guy made it 50 on the btn. At this point he had busted once, rebought a thousand and down to around 650. I 4bet to 175, he called.
Flop 360: AcQc9s...OMG, how many times I flop an A in a 4bet pot with KK in the past month. I check and old guy shoves 475. I make the call rather quickly because of his table image. Board runs out 3 offsuit and 6 club. I hold my cards across the line, knowing I'm likely beat. "I don't have the A..." He announced. "I knew it that's why I call the shove." I roar inside. "...but I have flush" OKAY, nice hand. I guess we can call it even. I am actually pretty proud of myself for not being tilted at all, probably a bit sad for not holding up against his pair flush draw.

Old guy ran pretty hot and had around 1700 atm.
H3: Jerry limps HJ and old guy limp otb. 6 way limp pot.
Board: 4d5c7c Qs 9c, old guy call the flop and turn, bet the river when Jerry check and 3 bet shove after Jerry's check raise. Now it is show time again. "I just have a Queen.." said by old guy, "..and a King..and two clubs" He was literally enjoying his time by slowrolling again. However, somehow he didn't see Jerry already tabled his hand, 68cc, the ultimate nuts.

LOL, pay this man his money.

Finally fully recovered from my cold. Played a short session at Encore on Wednesday night, pretty uneventful and down 420. Got owned by a young Caucasian rec who floated with 9 high on 7 high board, hit a 9 on turn and raised my bet lol. Played a solid 8hrs session at Aria last night and booked a nice 4-figure win, got 1 4bet bluff thru #confidence boost.

My roommate Jerry is driving a massive swing recently:+5K, -3K, +1K, +1K, -4K, -5K, +5K. He is the nuts.

Trying to maintain a 5am-12pm sleep schedule. Need to work harder in the rest of this month. Only logged 45 hrs of play so far due to illness.

hey man enjoying the thread! I am heading to vegas in 2 weeks to play 1-3 -2-5 NL … where are the best places to play? Haven't been out in a couple years and my bankroll could def use some good game selection. Will be out a Thurs-Sun in a couple weeks. Thanks and GL to you and Jerry out there!!

For 2/5 games,
Venetian could be the softest, but often nitty as well, especially morning games, late night would be much better.
Aria has the most frequent decent action imo, but sometimes recs would make very weird play, definitely a variance test. The waiting list could be crazy during 5pm, so call in or show up early or lately.
Encore/Wynn is worth a visit when they have 4+ 2/5 games running, best room in vegas imo. Table selection is important here due to must-move system.
Bellagio..well considering I'm down 5k this year in Bellagio, my opinion probably would be biased, but 2 weeks later is five diamond series, it could be pretty good, but I have never played in this period before.

For 1/3 games, like I said..I am officially confirmed a loser at 1/3 lol, but my friends said Encore's 1/3 has great value.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Visited DMV to apply for a license transfer yesterday, took me 6 hours to be called, GG. Considering thxgiving is coming, plan is to play at least 60 hours in the next 10 days to catch up some volume. Started at 12 pm today at Aria, quickly got stuck due to a bad call against a fun player who overbet 3x pot all in on KQT5dd board when I had KQo no diamond. I thought it was a break even call and he did similar move 2 times before but not got called yet. However, when I got home checking with equilab, it actually was a slightly losing call and based on the fact that it's a 3x pot shove, I should fold to avoid unnecessary variance. Lesson learned.

On my way to Encore to play another session. Hope can book a win this time.

Why avoid unnecessary variance?

Why not?

Variance should affect our opponents more negatively than us.

Sent from my KIW-L24 using Tapatalk

Actually this is a very solid point. Guessing my point was focusing on "unnecessary". I mean I could have done something different in the given spot (43% equity needed vs 40% against really loose all in range). It costs me a bad sleep last night lol.

I think one reason we should fold in high variance spots like this is that it is likely that we are being overly optimistic about hand ranges..ie a spot we may think is +EV may actually be -EV. Actually, I think this is a major reason we should fold in spots like this.

Another reason for folding would be if a bet is so large that it affects our ability to make money in future hands. For instance if you and multiple fun players have $1500 stacks in a $500 cap game and you are now facing a $1500 bet it may be more profitable to fold even if the spot is +EV.

A 3rd reason for folding is if losing the hand will put us on tilt. Ideally though we should be more than comfortable losing in these high variance spots and it is our opponents who should be far more likely to go on tilt due to these spots.

If the opposing player is likely to continue to play after a big hand, potentially gambling it up more then that would be relevant compared to a player likely to hit and run if he wins or leave broke if he loses.

If we are confident the spot is +EV, I think we should be embracing these high variance spots in order to maximize our success. The more we do embrace them the more comfortable we will be with them. Of course, you determined this spot to be -EV so it's a no-brainer fold although under certain circumstances it could actually be profitable to make slightly -EV calls/plays.

...and it may make more sense to avoid high variance spots in lower stakes games where there are so many easy spots to make money. At the same time it may make more sense to embrace these high variance spots in the mid to high stakes games where it becomes a race for the recreational player's money and where the recreational players are more likely to want to battle.

Yes I totally agree with you. I had less equity than needed even when I assign my opponent a really wide gii range. Make a trivial fold, move on, find better spots, and make my life easier. Glad I wasn't tilted at all, play another 6hrs and recover. Bad news is V racked up shortly after this hand. It is pretty interesting to see the analysis of player's tendency about h&r haha, thanks mate!

Thanksgiving Update Day 3/11 Hours 24/60 Progress down 1Kish
"Had a really bad downswing immediately after setting poker goals?"

I started this thxgiving grind by running into some really tough spots and card dead on the other part of time. AQhh v JJ on J53hhQ5, JJ v AA on T high board, 3bet pot bvb AQcc on A89Ksss. Stuck 2K in first 2 sessions, but luckily half recovered already. I found the daytime game is nitty and late night way crazier, so probably gonna adjust my starting time.

Yesterday I receive my thxgiving gift from a tourist in the day session:
UTG limp 5, I iso 25 from MP with TT, btn and UTG call.
Flop 65: QQTss, UTG check, I 20, btn fold and UTG call.
Turn 105: 7d, UTG check, I 50, UTG raise to 100 with 700 behind, I click back to 250.
River 605: 2h, UTG open jam 500ish and I snap, get shown A7ss. Thanks mate.

After the day session I go out with friends coming to visit. We had a nice dinner and hang out a bit. Took a nap at their hotel room then played a late night session. It turns out a very wild table, but I was card dead for the most time. I managed to all in preflop with JJ against a shortstack's...98o? And of course, v won with a backdoor straight. There was a 4 way 3 bet pot, pro's KK got cracked by Q9o for the main and 92s for the side, board was 982Q4 lol.

The grind continues...

Thanksgiving Update finished Day 9/11 Hours 61/60 Progress down 1.8K
11.23: -1408, played a night session at Aria and ran super bad. Had AA 4 times, picked up blinds 3 times, and couldn't hold against a combo draw for 2k pot last time. One of my friend told me I was looked visibly unhappy at the table..
11.24: -1472, played 5/10 at Bellagio. Got dealt 17 pocket pairs in 6 and half hours and 0 set on flop (won 3 of them, picked up blinds with AA, a 200 pot with JJ, and a 700 pot with 99). And got 2 outed 3 times.
11.25: day off.
11.26: +1027, thanks to a 5/10 pro 3 betting me from SB vs my MP open with JTcc and triple barrel bluff into me when he really didn't have to imo.
11.27: day off.
11.28/29: +203/+231, digged a hole at the beginning by bleeding and climbed it out.
11.30: +735. Played a short session at Venetian, won 192. Table became bad after a clueless rec busted (3betting all in on TT6 flop with AA and of course the other guy had a T). Jerry wanted to check out Bellagio's 5 5/T game running so we took off. At the beginning I didn't feel I want to play 5/T so I sat at a 2/5 game. Lost 160 in 30 mins (AQ/AJ/AJs all miss) and I got pretty tilted atm. I walked to the podium, asked for a 5/T seat at must move, and found it was a 4 handed game, Jerry, me and 2 short stack recs. I quickly lost a 1K pot with 80% favorite gii on flop. Then Jerry moved to main. I busted 2 recs. A9 with unknown on AKTss37 and TT v A7o aipf). It is the first time I want to improve my shorthanded/HU game. There is great value in this scene.

Overall I finish this month with a $45 hourly. Looking to improve volume and mental health again. Get ready for the 5 diamond series!

It took me 20 days, a series of mediocre 3-figure sessions, to recover from the thxgiving downswing and reach all-time high again, then... took another hit today, my biggest loss at 2/5 of the year.

Decided to check out Caesars today, it got 3 2/5 tables running and a 5/10 interest list, probably due to 5di event at Bellagio. When we arrived, there was still couple of names ahead of us, sad I don't have a diamond card to jump line anymore. So play 1/2 while waiting that's the plan.

First orbit in, straddle is on, UTG2 open 18, I 3bet 50 on btn with QQ, SB cold call, and UTG2 call as well.
Flop 155: 952r, UTG2 donk lead 150, I hollywood a bit and shove 250, SB snap re-shove, that's not good. And UTG2 decides to call it off.
Board runs out J high. UTG2 had AJo and SB had KK. Good game.

Then I got called for 2/5, must move #1. By that point, in for 1400 and sitting on 1k. another new player open 15 HJ, I 3bet 60 in SB with AKss. Back to him, he make it 175 and I shove his 500 effective got snapped by KK. We decide to run it twice. I flop a royal draw on first board but brick it out and second board has 3 diamond and it's 9 high. Good game.

When I was called for second must move, I in for 2100 already. Open btn with KhTd to 15 and euro pro in SB 3bet to 60. I flat.
Flop 125: QThh4, check thru.
Turn 125: 8h, he 90, I peel.
River 305: Jh, he check, I think a bit and value cut myself 125 got called by Ah6h. Good game.

I had to admit that I was pretty tilted and even did't want to top off anymore. Pick up some small pots and got called for my destination of tonight, the final main game. When I just sat down, I witnessed a 3k5 pot shipping to the player on my left, chipping his stack up to 5k5. I guess that's why nobody wanted to take this seat, perfect.

2 orbits later, I open MP to 20 with 33, chip leader flats and btn, a fairly tight player, 3bets to 75. Figuring he had a big pair, CL and me both call.
Flop 230: 872r, perfect, but action was checked thru.
Turn 230: 3hh, Bang! I check, CL bet 155, btn call, I jam 570 more. They both fold. Good game.

Turns out this table is the toughest one I play for a while. I only involved about 5 or 6 hands and they all got 3bet. When I raised SB's 40 dollar downbet on AJ4dd with A7dd after he 3bet my open preflop and took it down, Jerry texted me that he's down to final 3 in daily tournament. Only top 2 got paid.

The final hand. UTG1 open 20, I 3bet next to 65 with AKhh, CL cold call on my left, UTG 1 call as well.

Flop 190: 994hh, UTG1 check, I decide to bet 90, V snap raises to 300. Back to me, I go thru all my options and honestly I hate them all. I end up with choosing the least painful one, I shove.

Got snapped by 44. Good game. I thought CL guy's stack was just hundreds shy of 9000 by this point. When I walked out, Jerry bubbled just in time. A bad day for us.




It was so disappointing. the last 10 weeks probably be the worst period of my short career. ~15 struggling sessions bring me back to the peak and suddenly one big hit takes 80% of my profit for this month by far. I think I need to take a break from this. I can't help myself but think about last session of year 2017 in Aria. It took me 3 hands in a row to lose my 1500 stack and call it a year. Probably won't play anymore until Friday I am going to LA for the weekend, another variance test. Wish me luck.

2.5-3k down isn't too bad of a loss for a 1k deep 2/5 game.

I've also noticed for whatever reason caesar's 2/5 game is more reggy than other places. I much prefer aria or venetian.

Also as far as improving your shorthanded/HU game, i love playing shorthanded live. Most of my shorthand volume is at aria 2/5/10 PLO and I start a lot of games and PLO short handed/HU is way more fun. Since its a timed game, the floor usually will give a lot of passes on the timed rake so you're playing a lot of free poker in a short handed setting where your winrate is just better overall. You also get to start games and don't have to waste time waiting around for a game to fill up or start if you aren't comfortable with short.

Thanks, by saying its largest loss, it reflects I am playing a very conservative style overall. And I just realize I lost ~350 in 1/2 while waiting for 2/5 so it is actually only the 2nd biggest loss haha.

And yes, by one point, I could recognize over 10 familiar faces in this 3 2/5 tables. In the QQvKK hand, it was one of euro pros who's also waiting for 2/5 (we battled a lot in other places) straddling, otherwise I may have a way to get away from being felted lol. Gonna head back to Venetian later and need another series of winning session to recover.

Well, what a very impressive course! I wish you good luck in your goal.