Hey everyone, first post here on 2+2, but been lurking for a while and reading a tonne of PG&C's which have inspired me to start this one. Shoutout to bena, mixgrill, Oladipo + many others.

Background:

Being new to 2+2, I'll give a bit of background on myself. I'm 23, based in Brisbane, Australia. Over the last four years, I've been trying to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Men's Laser Class, a single handed (one person per boat) sailing event. Whilst I wasn't successful in qualifying, I'm pretty young for the sport and 2020 was always going to be a long shot. In that time, I've also set up my own business - turns out most Olympic sports don't pay that well, and finished a degree in Actuarial Science.

Enough about that, back to the pokers.

I started playing late last year after I'd been vaguely aware of the game for a while, but had never considered playing. I started playing on some play money sites and was winning over a tiny sample, thinking I could become the next crusher. Shortly after, I started playing for real moniez and busted a few $50 deposits playing a mix of cash, MTTs and SNGs. I've now started taking the game way more seriously, getting a RIO subscription, and focussing on cash playing mostly 5NL on ACR.

With COVID putting a halt on most of my training and competition plans for the year, I've had a fair bit of time to dedicate to poker, and I'm trying to move through the stakes as quickly as possible. The goal of the thread is to try and get some feedback from the community, and offer a bit of insight in to the journey. I can also talk a bit about the sporting stuff, if anyone's interested.

Graph:



As you can see, I've essentially been breakeven over the last 75,000 hands, with a fair bit of run good. At the moment, I'm trying to improve that red line (as most of us are).

I came to the conclusion I wasn't being aggressive enough postflop, running an AF of 1.87 or so. So over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to focus on x/raising and float betting flops, and probing turns. I suspect I'm losing a lot from multiway pots...pretty common at 5NL!

Anyway, that's all for now, thanks for reading and I'll try to update regularly!

why not play mtts?

Remember if you don't finish first your last.

I think you're confusing mtt's with HU sng's

I did consider it seriously, and I do love playing MTTs but I think the time requirement is just too significant/inflexible.

If I decide on going for another Olympic campaing (I'm at a bit of a turning point at the moment), I don't think I'd have the time to put in a decent amount of volume for MTTs

Only a short session today, pretty much breakeven, and played decently. A few interesting hands from the day;


Double X/R? Run for the hills?
Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 100 BB
CO: 98.6 BB
BTN: 72.6 BB
SB: 86.6 BB
BB: 166.2 BB
Hero (UTG): 117.4 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (5.2 BB, 2 players) 2 K K
BB checks, Hero bets 1.6 BB, BB raises to 3.2 BB, Hero calls 1.6 BB

Turn: (11.6 BB, 2 players) J
BB checks, Hero bets 5.8 BB, BB raises to 11.6 BB, Hero calls 5.8 BB

River: (34.8 BB, 2 players) 6
BB checks, Hero checks



Thoughts on this BvB? Villain a F3B of 80 of 222 hands, so likely they only have premiums once they 4b.

Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

SB: 216.8 BB
Hero (BB): 100 BB
UTG: 141 BB
CO: 113.2 BB
BTN: 164.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 9 9

fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 3.2 BB, Hero raises to 12.4 BB, SB raises to 27.6 BB, Hero??



Turn: (200 BB, 2 players) J

River: (200 BB, 2 players) T




Include a quads hand for fun
Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players


CO: 133.8 BB
BTN: 69.8 BB
SB: 134 BB
Hero (BB): 156.6 BB
UTG: 100 BB
MP: 106.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 8 8

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 8.2 BB, SB calls 6.2 BB

Flop: (16.4 BB, 2 players) 9 6 8
SB checks, Hero bets 12.2 BB, SB calls 12.2 BB

Turn: (40.8 BB, 2 players) 3
SB checks, Hero bets 30.6 BB, SB calls 30.6 BB

River: (102 BB, 2 players) 8
SB bets 25.4 BB, Hero raises to 105.6 BB and is all-in, fold


Either an solid laydown by villain or a poorly timed bluff.

In other news, thought I might upload a few photos of some Laser racing given I'm sure most out there have no idea what it would look like, and are under the impression that we're just out for a cruise on our yachts drinking champagne





Any feedback on the hands appreciated, thanks for reading and gl at the tables!

Would highly, highly, highly recommend getting your hands on some preflop ranges to take the guesswork out of preflop decisions.

I probably check the turn with AA after flop c/r

GL

Thanks man, I take it there are ranges out there for BvB vs 3b/4b etc?

Your thread was a big driver for starting my own, I think I read your entire thread over the course of a couple of hours. Thanks again!

Pretty solid weekend on the grind, was sleeping pretty meh (I've always been an early riser, but was waking up even earlier than usual) but still managed to put together a few decent sessions. One of the benefits of being an early riser is being able to grind ACR during US afternoon/evening times. This weekend, there were plenty of fish in the 5NL streets and in particular, one crazy table that I played at today.

The first big interaction I had with the main villain at the table was when I was dealt AA in the BB - for some reason PT4 didn't pick up this hand, and isn't importing it from the directory. Villain opens 3x from MP, BTN 3b to like 10 bb, and I 4b to 22. MP calls, BTN folds. Flop comes AJcAc, I check, villain bets like 55bb with 10 left behind. Obv shipped it all, and turn/river brick.



After that, the MP villain started going crazy, essentially open shoving ATC (Paisting strat?), and when he wasn't doing that, he was 3b for 10x or opening to 50bb. I nitted it up, pretty card dead waiting for a decent hand for villain to GII with vs crazy villain. Over that time, villain had managed to run up a decent stack winning heaps of flips and running like god. Then this hand came up;

Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players


UTG: 100 BB
MP: 194 BB
CO: 408 BB
BTN: 100 BB
SB: 143 BB
Hero (BB): 235 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has J J

UTG raises to 2.8 BB, MP calls 2.8 BB, CO raises to 51.2 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 235 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 97.2 BB and is all-in, fold, CO calls 183.8 BB

Flop: (573.2 BB, 3 players) 2 4 A

Turn: (573.2 BB, 3 players) 4

River: (573.2 BB, 3 players) 8




I also ran this bluff on another table which I'd like a bit of feedback on;
Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

Hero (UTG): 100 BB
CO: 100 BB
BTN: 101 BB
SB: 102.4 BB
BB: 146 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K A

Hero raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, SB raises to 8.2 BB, fold, Hero raises to 21 BB, SB calls 12.8 BB

Flop: (43 BB, 2 players) 2 9 3
SB checks, Hero bets 11.6 BB, SB calls 11.6 BB

Turn: (66.2 BB, 2 players) J
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (66.2 BB, 2 players) 2
SB checks, Hero bets 67.4 BB and is all-in, SB calls 67.4 BB



I think with the As it's a decent bluff choice, but pretty hard to pull of with such a small SPR.

AA hand, just check back turn. You won't be exploited by fish here and you'll save yourself money.

Thanks! Seems to be the consensus

Thought it's about time for a weekly update.

Got in some decent volume this week, still playing a little too 'weak', but also running pretty average. Took a shot at 10NL and was going pretty well I until had a boat over boat which was a bit painful...

But I don't want to linger on bad beats too much, so here's a giraffe for the last week, and some classic 5NL hands which you guys might find entertaining




I had two overs...
Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players


CO: 100 BB
BTN: 92 BB
Hero (SB): 129 BB
BB: 102.8 BB
UTG: 65.8 BB
MP: 42.4 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

fold, MP raises to 2 BB, CO calls 2 BB, BTN calls 2 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 10 BB

Flop: (29 BB, 2 players) 3 4 2
Hero bets 9.2 BB, BTN raises to 18.4 BB, Hero raises to 117 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 61.6 BB and is all-in

Turn: (189 BB, 2 players) J

River: (189 BB, 2 players) Q




You can't win by checking

Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players


CO: 158.2 BB
BTN: 132.8 BB
SB: 66 BB
Hero (BB): 101.6 BB
UTG: 96.2 BB
MP: 163.2 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

fold, fold, CO raises to 2.8 BB, fold, SB calls 2.4 BB, Hero raises to 14.6 BB, fold, SB calls 11.8 BB

Flop: (32 BB, 2 players) 7 K Q
SB bets 51.4 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 51.4 BB

Turn: (134.8 BB, 2 players) J

River: (134.8 BB, 2 players) 5



Thanks for reading!

Sub'd and we're both on the same tables occasionally @ACR. PM if you're interested in getting better together!

Time for another weekly update!

Volume was a bit lower this week, managed to punt off a few stacks on Friday, but other than that I feel like my game is improving a lot. I went through my DB and found that I'm losing a decent amount from EP. My suspcion is that I'm not playing very well vs cold callers/OOP, so my focus of late has been working on/studying OOP play.

Graph for the week;



Funny hand for the week;

Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

BTN: 100.8 BB
SB: 89.4 BB
BB: 109.8 BB
Hero (UTG): 129.2 BB
CO: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has 8 7

Hero raises to 2.8 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.8 BB

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) T 5 9
BB checks, Hero bets 3.8 BB, BB raises to 14 BB, Hero calls 10.2 BB

Turn: (34 BB, 2 players) 6



I also thought that instead of just posting results and hands every week, it might interest everyone reading to hear some of my thoughts about the similarities between life as an elite athlete, and a poker player, and some of the things I’ve learnt as an athlete which can be beneficial in poker.

I’ll start this series off by talking a bit about the sport of sailing. Sailing is one of the few sports which has featured in the Olympics since the inception of the modern Olympic movement. There are many different paths to professional sailing outside of the Olympics, but Olympic sailing is considered one of the ‘purest forms’.

Somewhat similar to an MTT, sailing is a sport which favours consistency over the course of a long event. During a competition, there will be a number of individual races where you score points based on your finishing position – ie first = 1st point, 2nd = 2 points so on and so forth. At the end of the competition, your points from each race are added together to give your total score. These are then all ranked in ascending order; the person with the lowest points wins the competition. This format requires continuous assessment of when to take large risks, or when to race conservatively and take the lower variance approach.

Results in sailing are determined by another of factors, some which you can control, and some which you can’t control. Things like boat speed (related to fitness and technique), tactics (boat on boat positioning) and psychology are all in your control, and you aim to perform to the best of your ability in those elements to negate the effects of things you can’t control. As you can probably imagine, there are a huge amount of things in sailing which are out of your control including the wind, the water/waves/current, race officials, and other competitors, to name a few. Similar to poker, you know that these things are going to vary, and have a massive impact on your individual race results, but if you continually nail the controllable aspects, and make the most +EV decisions with respect to the uncontrollables, you’ll achieve results in the long run.

Ultimately, both sailing and poker are games where short term variance has a massive impact on results, but clear and logical decision making under pressure consistently leads to good results.

If everyone enjoys these sort of posts, I've got a few more ideas about posts regarding the lessons I've learnt from being an athlete which can help improve your poker game

You've got me hooked with that post. But you knew that anyway...

Well…another week has come to an end, and it’s been a pretty huge week in poker for me. Not only have I gone on a massive heater (with slightly less volume than usual), I’ve also begun cross-posting this thread in the RIO forum, and got some great feedback on it there. Go check it out in the “Poker Journals” page. I also caught up with theSimonMan over Skype, and we talked everything mental and technical game. It was really eye opening to chat to someone with his experience, and I can’t thank him enough for taking the time to do so.

I’ve been mixing up a few stakes this week, including some 2NL whilst 5NL games have been full, and shot taking some 10NL towards the end of the week. My first shot didn’t go so great, I joined one of the new ‘Bomb Pot’ tables on ACR, and my first hand I got dealt was a bomb pot. I stacked off with TP vs middle 2p, and quickly decided that the added variance wasn’t for me (obviously also butchered the hand though).
Graph for the week;

[IMG][/IMG]

Pretty stoked to have a flattish red line for probably the first time ever.
So what else changed this week? For starters, I stopped playing like such a nit. I came to the conclusion that I was overfolding vs whales and it was part of what was leading to my cliff jumping red line. I also began c-betting a lot less from OOP (big part of what I talked about with Simon), and barrelling more whilst IP.

Another interesting, and unintentional change was me not looking at results as frequently. After the beginning of the week, where I thought the downswing was continuing, I stopped caring as much about results as I knew I was running below EV. When I first caught a glimpse of my account balance towards the end of the week, and it was nearly 50% higher than when I’d last checked, it got me thinking about something which is one of the cornerstones to mental game, and something I’d learnt about early on in my sailing career – controllables.

In poker, there are many things which we can’t control – card distribution, our opponent’s play, who sits down on our left, what people type in the chat box, what your significant other thinks about your grinding habits, the list goes on. These are all things which tilt us, but there’s literally nothing we can do about them. There is also one other massive uncontrollable – results. That’s right, no matter what you do during the game, you simply can’t control results. You can put yourself in the best position and the best situations to obtain the results you desire, but ultimately, you don’t decide what your results are. Throughout my sailing career, I’ve struggled with being far too results oriented, and one of the things I experimented with was not checking the day to day results during a competition. This helped, but ultimately didn’t completely stop me from analysing the results of an endeavour which I’d essentially spent my entire adult life trying to succeed at. If we want to become less results oriented, we need to focus on the things that we have direct control over, and can help lead to good results ie ‘the process’. What are some these things? We can focus on controlling our diet, our grind routine, our sleep habits, our study program etc. There are many others which I’ve failed to list, but I’m sure you can come up with them for yourself.

Now I realise the irony of me writing about not being results oriented after having a massive heater of a week. I’m far from free of the mental burden of worrying about results, but it’s something that we can work on every day on the path to becoming better poker players.

Now that you’ve finished reading that, here’s a couple of fun hands from the week;

Short-handed vs Recs

Yatahay Network - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players

SB: 79.8 BB
BB: 103.8 BB
Hero (BTN): 189.6 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

Hero raises to 2.4 BB, SB calls 2 BB, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop: (7.2 BB, 3 players) 7 5 Q
SB bets 5.4 BB, BB calls 5.4 BB, Hero calls 5.4 BB

Turn: (23.4 BB, 3 players) 8
SB bets 11.6 BB, BB raises to 24.8 BB, Hero raises to 181.8 BB and is all-in, SB calls 60.4 BB and is all-in, BB calls 71.2 BB and is all-in

River: (287.4 BB, 3 players) T




This is a spot where in the past, I honestly would've considered folding. I'd think something like 'one of them must have a set or 2p'.

Bluff catch w/K-high


UTG: 54.4 BB
Hero (MP): 100 BB
CO: 94.4 BB
BTN: 192.2 BB
SB: 112 BB
BB: 144.8 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has K Q

fold, Hero raises to 2.4 BB, fold, BTN raises to 5.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 3 BB

Flop: (12.2 BB, 2 players) T 3 4
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: (12.2 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

River: (24.2 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero checks, BTN bets 14 BB, Hero calls 14 BB



Another hand where I also would've folded in the past, but this villain runs 63/41 and have noted that they have 'random bluffs', so I gave calling it down a shot.

Getting greedy on the perfect river

Hero (SB): 294.6 BB
BB: 135 BB
BTN: 166.6 BB

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A A

BTN raises to 2.8 BB, Hero raises to 11.6 BB, fold, BTN calls 8.8 BB

Flop: (24.2 BB, 2 players) 6 4 2
Hero bets 12 BB, BTN calls 12 BB

Turn: (48.2 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: (48.2 BB, 2 players) 7




Obviously these HH are all super results-oriented, but I'm over the moon with how these week went, and I thought you guys might find these entertaining. Thanks for reading!

Hey 2p2! Hope you all had a good week at the tables!

It was a pretty swingy week for me with my heater from last week continuing for the first half of the week, followed by a lot of donating whilst aggressively shot taking 10NL. Towards the end of the week, I got a little overconfident and my play got sloppy. I've decided now to limit my 10NL shot taking to 2 x reg tables alongside my 5-6 5NL reg tables. Not to worry, the heat has turned back on today! (but will feature in next week's graph)

[IMG][/IMG]

My volume this week has been a little reduced, and probably will stay that way for a while as my sailing training begins to ramp up. Whilst Australia was in stricter lockdown, our on water training was limited to 2-3 sessions a week, with most of our training being home gym/cardio workouts. As our restrictions are beginning to lift, we're increasing our training volume to 4-5 sessions/week on the water, alongside all of our cross training. My next big event is in early July, where I'll be joining the Australian Sailing Team for a training camp to help our Olympic nominee continue his preparation for the Olympics.

I've also joined a new study group, and we're going over the FTGU course on RIO. I've watched most of the course already, but it's great to get a second opinion on some of the material, and cover it a bit more in depth. I'm at a stage in my progression where I think being able to nail down the fundamentals will provide the most bang for buck study wise. It's a great group of guys, and I'm keen to work with them more in the future.

That's all for this week, thanks for reading and GL all!

You shouldn’t be playing more than 4 tables until you fix your redline, that will dictate your winrate far more than running good or bad

Raise flop with aces 100% of time vs the 2 whales, don’t let them donk and realize any equity

Thanks man, I think I've started to sort out my red line issues - just need to stay consistent with my play!

Another solid week at the tables, with the 10NL shot takes going pretty well. Ran below EV which is a bit meh, but also ran super well in general, so I don't think I can complain

[IMG][/IMG]

I had another coaching session with theSimonMan during the week, and we talked a lot about how to structure ranges on the turn. He taught me a heap again, and I'm keen to work on this during this coming week.

Goals

One of the things I also haven't done in this thread is explicitly outline some of my goals for the thread.

My overarching goal is to start shot taking 50NL by the end of the year. So how do I plan on achieving that? As I've mentioned earlier, one of the big things I wanted to fix was my redline, which I've made a lot of progress towards, and will keep working on. Another process I want to work on is ensuring that I structure my sessions to help put me in the best mindset possible for playing. Finally, I want to continue to try and get as much volume in as possible around my other commitments.

I'll also talk briefly about some of my goals outside of poker. In the past, I've set results goals for myself for sailing, and it's put a massive mental burden on me when it came time to perform. I know it's ironic after having just talked about setting a somewhat results-oriented goal poker. At the moment, I'm just trying to enjoy my sailing as much as I can, but I do have some fitness/process related goals.

1. 330 watts average on a 20 minute bike test. I'm testing this on Wednesday, so I'll let you guys know how that goes!

2. Level 22 on hiking bench test. This one's going to be a little confusing to most. In sailing 'hiking' is the movement we do to help counteract the force of the wind from knocking the boat over - this has been a weakness of mine in the past. It relies a lot on core and quad strength/endurance, and to train for it, we have a 'hiking bench' which is essentially a simulator for hiking. There's 26 levels (increasing in increments of 2), and so far I've gotten close to halfway through level 20.

3. 20 bodyweight chin up in a max reps test. My PB in the past was 16 reps, so looking to build on that.

That's all for this update, thanks for reading!

Great confidence. Keep it up and keep posting man!

Thanks man, appreciate all you help!

With the first half of the year coming to an end, I thought I might do an 'end of month' post rather than an 'end of the week' post. It was a really solid month overall, with a heap of run good, but also a good amount of improvement in my game. Note that I've converted my PT4 from AUD to USD to help with BR tracking.



My transition to 10NL is also going well, with an EV adjusted wr of 7.6bb/100 over the last month - which I'm pretty stoked about. With continuous improvement in mind, I decided to post a few of my stats, and any feedback on them would be massively appreciated. It looks like my Cbet Turn stat is a little out of line, being significantly reduced compared to CBet F and CBet R.




Off the felt, I completed both my bike test, and my 'hiking test' goals last week. I managed to grind out 334 watts on the bike test, and got about 1/4 of the way through level 22 on the 'hiking test'. My new goals for each of these will be;
- Bike test - 345 watts
- Hiking test - complete level 22/start level 24.
I'll be testing these again in roughly 2 months, so I'll let you guys know how I get on with that.

My training camp with the national team starts today, and runs until next Friday, so I won't be able to put in too much volume over these two weeks. My plan is continue studying a heap during the camp, and then get back on the grind afterwards.

Cheers for reading!

Hey Everyone,
Been a while since my last update, and a fair bit has happened, but not that much in the poker world (for me at least). After my last update, I started the first post-lockdown training camp with the national team. It was good to reconnect with the other guys from around the country and see how everyone was going after such a long time since our last competition. Most training camps with national team usually take place in Sydney, but this one took place in Coffs Harbour – halfway between Brisbane and Sydney. Being in the middle of winter, the weather in Coffs Harbour (further north) is a little better than that of Sydney, and we managed to get a good window of wind to go along with the warmer temperatures. Not only did we luck in weather wise, we also ran pretty well to get plenty of glimpses of the Humpback Whales making their annual migration up Australia’s east coast. It was the first time I’d gotten this close to whales whilst sailing, and it was pretty concerning at times when they would randomly pop up beside you in our small, fibreglass boats.




After that, I had a couple weeks off where I put in the majority of this month’s volume, but wasn’t able to get as much in as previous months. There was a decent stretch there where I was playing a little too station-y especially OOP, so I’ve been working on rectifying that. I’ve also been doing a bit of work on PreflopGuru to try and dial in my preflop ranges, especially when it comes to responding to 3bets. These ranges seem a little bit looser than what I’ve been playing, and I’m interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts on whether these ranges are suitable for micros. Another area I’ve been working on is finding a few more ‘creative’ bluffs, probably not necessary at these stakes, but I’m keen to hear some opinions on the following hand;

Yatahay Network - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players

CO: 55 BB
BTN: 116.7 BB
SB: 82.9 BB
BB: 123.7 BB
Hero (UTG): 101 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 5 6

Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, fold, SB raises to 4 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop: (9 BB, 2 players) 4 A 6
SB bets 2.2 BB, Hero calls 2.2 BB

Turn: (13.4 BB, 2 players) 7
SB bets 6.7 BB, Hero calls 6.7 BB

River: (26.8 BB, 2 players) 4
SB bets 13.4 BB, Hero raises to 88.1 BB and is all-in

This was played against a looser rec player, so probably not the best villain to be bluffing, but seemed like I could rep most of the boats here, however blocking some of villain’s bluffs. Villain’s sizing didn’t seem to indicate any decent Ax, so I thought I might be able to get them off something like 88-JJ.

I’m currently in the middle of the second national team camp of the winter, this time on the Sunshine Coast – a bit closer to home. We’ve had great conditions so far, and with a good southerly swell rolling through late last week, my coach was able to snap this pic of me which has gone sorta viral throughout the sailing world.



That’s all for this update, with my volume being a bit less with the camps, I might keep these posts to once a month, with any random ramblings which come to mind scattered in between.

Thanks for reading and GL!

dsailor like the updates. What do you think of the player pool at 10NL on ACR? Who do you think are some of the good regs or players you have run into?

Sorry for the delay in replying, but thanks for reading! I'm guessing we've played before, but some names that come to mind would be TheActuary, SoulReader, antonnn6 et al. Overall pool seems decent, a few less fish than 10NL, but nothing that you wouldn't expect.

August Update

My month started off with a bit of run bad/punting off a few stacks, but I ran like absolute fire in the last few days to finish the month off break even. I still need to do quite a bit of work on maintaining aggressiveness, especially attacking the weak checking ranges of my opponents and trying to deny their equity more effectively. I've cut back the number of tables that I'm playing, and it's really helped me focus on spots for upping my aggression, and thinking about range vs range interaction on various boards.



I've also started experimenting with only playing up until midday, which I'm going to try for the whole of September. I've found that I have a solid win rate in the AM @ 4.4bb/100, but I'm losing a heap in the afternoon at -2.7bb/100, both over decent samples. Could be mental game leaks (scared about donating back my wins from earlier sessions), could be fatigue (I'm naturally a morning person), could also be player pool composition (AM in AUS is equivalent to afternoon/evening in the US when ACR has the most traffic). I'll be heading to Europe later this week, so I'll be able to test out the player pool hypothesis - grinding in the AM EU time will be early hours of the morning US time. This will also result in a bit less volume, but I'm hoping that an increase in win rate more than makes up for it.

I've got a couple of interesting hands from this month, that have been somewhat controversial when I've asked for other opinions.

Yatahay Network - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

SB: 28.7 BB
Hero (BB): 219.9 BB
UTG: 126.1 BB
MP: 163.2 BB
CO: 127.3 BB
BTN: 101.5 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, MP raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop: (4.9 BB, 2 players) 4 8 2
Hero checks, MP bets 1.7 BB, Hero raises to 5.8 BB, MP calls 4.1 BB

Turn: (16.5 BB, 2 players) 3
Hero bets 12.3 BB, MP calls 12.3 BB

River: (41.1 BB, 2 players) 9
Hero bets 11.2 BB, MP calls 11.2 BB



This was played vs a reg. Preflop, I think this hand is towards the bottom of our calling range, but it's pretty high up our range on the flop. This doesn't seem like a board where villain can bet 1/3 with full frequency, and I'd expect he'd size up a bit with his overpairs. On the turn, I think this sizing was a mistake, and I should probably split my range between block bet and big bet, with this hand going more towards the block sizing or check. I imagine villain would continue on the turn with any Ax, especially with spades. On the river, I'd expect we're mostly going to run in to villain overpairs, but I didn't like the idea of x/calling.

Yatahay Network - $0.10 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BB: 100 BB
UTG: 115.2 BB
MP: 113.5 BB
Hero (CO): 255.3 BB
BTN: 101.5 BB
SB: 100 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 6.5 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 9 J 6
Hero checks, BTN bets 7.8 BB, Hero raises to 25.3 BB, BTN calls 17.5 BB

Turn: (70.1 BB, 2 players) 5
Hero bets 221 BB and is all-in, fold



Another hand played against a reg. This should probably be mostly folded preflop, as villain has a lowish 3b% of 9.3%. I think at equilibrium, it would be a mix. This also seems like a board which is decent for our range, as we'll have all the sets, straight draws and even J9s at some freq. On the turn, I thought we'd be able to fold out a lot of villains PPs, and overcards that are ahead of us. It also helps that we block some of villain's best Jx.

Thanks for reading, and happy grinding!

Are those people in kayaks right next to the whales surfacing? That has to be completely amazing to see up close

I would worry one would blast me though

That's us training with the sails, and then you can see the coaches in the powerboat taking photos. It did get pretty scary at times when the whales would pop up beside you unexpectedly