Got >6bb at 200z stars and also -38bb in the BB. I know regs with -25, so theres definitely a huge room for improvement for both of us.

What advice?

Lecturing him about his bb. Do you even play poker?

Your reading comprehension is a disaster.

Also, I've asked you to play HU on multiple occasions, so yes I do.

Sick Feb and start to 2019 man. Hope you have the best time in Europe and crush the donkaments you play <3

Been a while since I updated the thread. Going to give the thread a bit more love throughout the next couple of months as I feel like this is the easiest platform to provide updates whilst travelling.

Non Poker Update:

Since arriving in Europe it has been pretty wild. I stayed in Bremen which is about 1.5 hours south of Hamburg (Germany if your geography sucks). Its quite a nice city and is moderately large. During that week I helped record some footage for my friend's music video as well as seeing Raf Camora and Bonez MC (two german music artists). My German friends and I also did a weekend trip to Groningen (which is in the north east of Netherlands). Groningen is basically a student town, so it was basically a weekend to get absolutely pissed (drunk). So basically up until yesterday I have just been going out and very little poker had been played. My sleep schedule seems to be off and I managed to overcome jetlag pretty quickly (I think in the first 2 days).

Poker study

I have been in the lab though, whenever I have had time. In preparation for the many live tournaments I am going to play in Europe, I have been watching quite a few Raise your Edge videos and studying the ranges that they have available. I feel like the post flop stuff hasn't been too helpful (I feel like as a cash game player, as long as I know what preflop ranges both players have and what the SPR is, then the hand is played fairly intuitively) but the preflop content has been extremely helpful. The more I study/watch these RYE videos, the more I realise how complex preflop can be. I have also been doing some postflop stuff in PIO for single raised pots [specifically looking at BB play again].

Poker

So now I am in Venlo, playing a small tournament series here. I started the series off playing a 340 euro entry NLH tournament. My table was very soft but unfortunately I was very card dead. Ended up shoving 10d6d for 12bb BTN vs BB against an older/recreational player who kind of knew what he was doing. Villain had A9o and held.

I then played cash. 2/4 started up as soon I busted which was good. I played 4 handed with a couple of regs for about an hour. Then all the whales/fish started to join the table and my profitability started to ramp up quite a bit. I had a really good seat with a whale to my right and a fish to my left. I only played for 4.5 hours as I was pretty tired from the tournament and ended up +2 buyins.

Then yesterday, I played the main event. A 1.1k euro entry tournament. Had a slightly tougher table than the first tournament. I had 1 good reg and1 really good reg (this guy apparently won the same EPT cup 3 times/years in a row) to compete with. So there were 2 really interesting hands from the tournament which I am going to write up now.

Hand 1

Early in the tournament, I had a fairly large stack at this point. I cannot really remember specific details about my stack size or villain's stack size.

Blinds 100/300 and then a 300 ante from BB.

Preflop:

Hero has AhKd UTG+3? opens to 900
Left of Hero calls
Spaz reg squeezes to 4000
Hero 4bets to 10,500
Left folds
Reg calls pretty quickly

Flop: 4d9d9h - ~22,000

Hero bets 4,500
Reg decides to raise to 11-12,000 (cannot really remember) and did a bit of acting whilst making the raise. It was very very clear he was not good at acting and that he was trying to make himself look a lot stronger than he actually was. I hate writing about reads, because I am not a reads player, but I have seen that many **** movies in my life to know that this was **** acting.

Basically not a spot I expect to get raised that often, particularly when villain is IP. It makes a lot of sense for villain's range to flat at this stack depth. I also know villain is not a very good reg and that they will take very conventional lines. I.e. he isn't thinking about raising with TT+ for protection and will probably flat 9x to trap.

So now I have two options, call or jam. I don't think I am ever folding to this BS line. I ended up deciding to jam because of two reasons. If I call, villain will almost certainly not bluff turn and therefore get to realise equity with its BS range. Secondly, I think they will fold TT or JJ if they do decide to raise to get to showdown, because population probably doesn't bluff this spot once raised in a 4b pot. I also have the king of diamonds so my equity vs TT-KK is pretty good (I discount AA and 9x from villains range).

Anyway I decide to jam (I think the effective jam was for like 55k?). Looking back on it the jam is pretty large but I guess it doesn't really matter if I think this bluff will get a fold like 95% of the time. Reg throws up and starts to groan a bit and reluctantly calls. Now I think I am pretty ****ed vs QQ or KK or something really strong. However villain turns over Ad7d. Turn K, river 2d. Pretty unfortunate way to lose ~250bb this early in the tournament.

After losing that pot I had about 50bb left so still had plenty of chips to navigate.

Managed to last another 4 hours or so after losing that hand. Then the bust out hand occurred about 7.5 hours into the tourney.

Blinds 300/600 with ante of 600 from Big blind.

Hero is in SB with JJ with 45,000

UTG limps to 600
Decent reg isolates from UTG+3 to 2200
Hero SB 3bets to 7500
UTG folds
Reg tank calls

Flop: Qx9c8c - 17,000~

Hero checks
Villain checks

Turn: Qx9c8c9s - 17,000~

Hero checks
Villain bets 6500
Hero calls

River: Qx9c8c9s2s - 30,000~

Hero checks
Villain jams (effective 31k?)
Hero calls

Pretty gross spot... Not sure what sort of hands villain is isolating and then defending to a 3bet. I would assume fairly wide as we were 8 handed. Basically it was a spot where I thought villain would only value jam 9x (13~combos I block j9hh)on river. I think villain probably bets all AQ on flop and maybe even KQ. I think villain is capable of checking some Qx back like QJ and QT but don't think is value jamming those on river. This is actually a board I am really well protected on river. I actually have a lot of strong bluff catchers on river, which are better than JJ. As a result I am not that "high up in range". However I think this is a spot that is significantly overbluffed. During the river decision I thought about the combos of hands I would bluff this river, and I would be significantly overbluffing this spot. Since I assumed that I would overbluff, I assumed he would as well and a result I made the call.

Villain had Jd9d. Rip main.

The profitability of the call really comes down to whether or not villain is capable of checking back strong holdings on the flop. Villain is meant to have a pretty mixed frequency of betting and checking strong holdings. If villain does, then at equilibrium this call is slightly losing.

I then proceeded to go play cash again. I only played for 3 hours but once again managed to win a couple of buyins at 2/4.

So two tournaments down and no cashes as of yet. I have the deepstack tomorrow so I will be playing that. Hopefully can make day 2 of that event and get a cash/win early in the trip.

Anyway that is all for now.

Tldr

Europe has been great fun so far, lots of drinking.
2 Tournaments - busted both
2 Cash game sessions - won both

ok i read it all but post pics next time ****s sake. maybe some hot eu girls, maybe the casino/chips.

Hahaha true. Good idea Kizzah

Interesting spot with the AKdx - do you rip it no diamond?

Probably not. I want to have some equity just in case I do run into 9x. Even though this is a spot where I think we should jam our airrange, I am not sure if I have the balls to rip no diamond A or K for 250 or so bb lol. Obviously against a competent player this is ridiculously spew.

Venlo Update

So my first series of the trip has been completed.

I played 3 tournaments and 3 cash sessions

Tournaments:

340 euro NLH - No Cash
1100 euro Main - No Cash
500 euro Deepstack - Min cash (21st)

Cash sessions

1: +202bb
2: +244bb
3: -133bb

I started the 3rd session pretty tilted since I busted the tourney with a huge stack going into day 2. It was an absolute disaster. After about an hour into my cash session, I realised I wasnt playing well so I went for a walk around the casino got some food and came back playing well.

Review

Overall I thought I played reasonably well across the series. I think if I had to rank the days in order of performance, I would have to say the second day was my best peforming day. I thought I played the main really well and the cash game following that. I still have issues breaking away from playing GTO. I lose too much value / make very slightly marginal EV bluffs that just don't need to be made. I also need to stop ego wars with othe regs.

Away from poker, I had a really great time in Venlo. The casino staff were probably the most friendly casino staff I have ever encountered. They could actually take jokes and actually use common sense to address issues both on and off the tables. All the players there were also very friendly. I made a couple of friends across the series and even one of them dropped me home out of his way so absolute legend.

Review of Venlo Casino

I am going to do a youtube series doing a review of the poker at the casinos I visit. However I will do a quick short summary from my experience.

- Customer friendly Casino staff
- Very accomodating for poker players. Free soft drinks, juice, tea, coffee and fruit (I know Americans are thinking this is standard but in Australia, poker players are treated like ****)
- Big blind ante for tournaments (I am a fan of this, it speeds up the entire ante process)
- Great place for PLO action, regular 5/5, 10/10 and 10/20 tables.
- NLH stakes are 2/2 and 2/4 and 5/T (although 5/T plays short handed quite often. A few decent regs open sit it so be prepared to reg battle a bit)
- Casino is on the border of Germany and Belgium so many of the players travel to come play at this casino. I.e. there are quite a few whales who love to come and punt at tables.
- Cash games generally start around 19:00
-Casino is a bit far from the centre and taxis to and from the casino from the centre are quite pricey.
-No hotels (or accomodation) in walking distance of the casino

Anyway thats all from me for now!

Hey Skuzz...or anybody else that plays Ignition/Bovada.

Does your PokerTracker ever import less hands than your hand converter converts? Or does it always align?

Love the thread btw. Just started playing poker again and started at 25NL but just about ready for 50NL. Cya soon

^ This
Except my pt4 doesnt import any hands at all on zone (i've set up the hand grabber, hands are imported for normal cash tables just not zone)

Any idea how to import hands/track them on zone with pt4?

I am not sure. I always download the hands manually from ignition and then use hand converter and then import into PT4. I have found hand this method to have the least amount of errors.

Sweden Update

So I am currently in Stockholm airport with a bit of time so I thought it would be a good time to write up an update.

Once again productivity this week has been abysmal. I played one tournament and one cash game session over the week. It was probably the worst time (or best depending on how you want to view it) to come to Stockholm as my friend who I had stayed with just finish exams. I.e. him and all his friends were in party mode for this week. As a result we went out chasing Swedish girls almost every night. (Sorry Kiz no photos I can post here)

Poker

I started my stay in Stockholm with a tournament. I played a regular NLH tournament that was a part of the Nordic Masters series. I actually managed to make it to day 2 of the tournament with about 12bb. Unfortunately, 2nd hand of day 2 I jammed 66 into KJcc and busted just 12 places away from the money...

Despite all the partying that I did here, I did manage to put in one cash game session on the Thursday night. The highest cash game stake that was running was a 50/50 Swedish Krona (5/5 USD Approx). However everyone sits really deep. Most people bought in for 300bb but I decided to stick to the 100bb with plenty of reloads ready. This has probably been the toughest lineup so far on the trip (yes its still early days). There were two young Swedes on the table (no Isildur was not on my table) who were regulars and played reasonably well. One of them actually knew how to use overbets and protected his range pretty well so I had to be somewhat balanced vs him. The rest of the table was pretty reggy but I saw them do some "interesting" things.

I had a really interesting hand against a crazy maniac reg.

50/50/100 This hand a straddle was in play

Hero about 13,000

Hero in HJ opens 400 with AcKc
Crazy reg in SB 3bets to 1400
I call

I decide to call because this guy was the biggest spaz, he tried to bluff me every time. I also played him in the tournament for most of day 1 and he just could not help himself. I always just checked my strong holdings vs him to trap because he would almost always blast flop and turn.

Flop - Q63r - 2900~
SB check
Hero check

Turn - Q63Q - turn flush draw hearts - 2900~
SB checks
Hero bets 650
SB raises to 2700
Hero calls

I really don't like my turn bet here. Villain will bluff all their non showdownable hands on flop and has rarely ever checked the flop. Villain most likely has a showdownable hand and is definitely NOT going to fold turn (and most likely not going to fold river) on this type of board. I actually think this is a really big mistake. However villain's check raise/line is so full of ****. He never checks top pair on flop (in fact just never seen him ever check a flop lol). He also likes to flat suited marginal hands from most positions so I think it is highly unlikely he 3bets 66 or 33. The only hand that makes sense in this spot would be quad Queens but then again I dont even think those raise turn.

River - Q63Q2 - No flush - 8300~

Villain bets 7000
Hero tank calls

So here I am now very confused. Flop check and turn check villain most likely has showdowable hands - perhaps something like 88-JJ. However I do not think he is capable of getting thin value like this with these hands. So now its Quad Queens, a weak pair like A3s or A2s turning into a bluff or just a whole load of random BS.

Anyway I sigh called because his line didn't make any sense and he had been bluffing with weird lines/hands. Villain has AhKh so I guess he was bluffing but having to chop this spot sucks...

Ended the cash game session up +136bb.

Casino Review

The casino is quite small with a typical old casino atmosphere. The poker room is on the top two floors, one for tournaments and one for cash. They have some weird rules between tournaments and cash. For example you cannot listen to music in the cash game room but you can do this in the tournament room. This goes for wearing a hat as well.

Despite only playing 1 cash game session, the regs told me that the game doesn't really get any higher than 50/50 Swedish crowns. Since there is nothing higher, the regs sit really deep in this game and encourage straddles so it plays like a 100/100.

Next stop Prague!

So I am currently eating dinner in Kings Casino and thought it would be a good time to do a small update.

After Stockholm I went to Prague where I played a decent amount of poker. Unfortunately nothing higher than 1/2 euro cash runs. There was even a tournament series but nothing really ran. I mainly played the 1/2 games as I didnt really have much to do. One night I went out with a Czech girl and I played a 60euro tourney where I came 5th which was ok.

On Friday I travelled from Prague to Kings casino in Rozvadov. It really is a poker paradise for Europeans. The casino was not as big as I expected but it is definitely very accomodating for poker. The massive poker hall can hold 160ish tables and there is a large cash game section that probably has about 50 or so tables. The tables are really good quality and the chairs are super comfortable. Could honestly sleep in them. The casino also has a buffet 24/7 and has a very good variety. The food is no michellin level but is definitely at a reasonable standard. The service and employees are also very good. Although the casino is very accomodating there are a few issues I have.

The action for anything higher than 1/3 has been awful. Tables break regularly and very difficult to restart one. The games are also very reggy. (Shoutout to all the regs [Russian, German, Hungarian and British] that I befriended in the last few days). For a tournament series as big as the WSOP and the sheer amount of players that have been registering for the tournaments, the cash games have been a super big disappointment. On top of bad cash game action, I have not been running too good in these games. Busted both the Bounty hunter and the mini main in less than 1 hr of registering.

Fortunately I still have 7 more days to turn things around. I had a lot of video ideas planned for this next week but I have been degenning so hard the last 3 days. I literally wake up at 12 then go into the casino and then leave at 4 or 5 am. I have been putting in some serious volume due to my poor volume earlier in the trip. I have had some really interesting hands played, particularly against all the German regs which I am keen to analyse and share with you guys. I will probably do this on one of the weekdays when the action is really poor.

Anyway quick update from me during my dinner. I am currently midway through climbing out of a 2.3k hole I buried myself in earlier today. So hopefully I can turn things around by the end of the night.

Cheers

AND?

hahaha unfortunately I do not have a photo or video of what happened that night

There is always imagination

Never been to King's Casino, but I go to smallers casinos in Czech Republic a few times a year to play live (cash games are illegal in Poland) and I found the game quality to be really hit-and-miss.

It can also be very hard to tell what kind of table you are at right away, one of the best live tables Ive ever played at started with me, 3 good regs and 5 OMCs - but then good regs left for a bigger game, and OMCs started drinking and going absolutely crazy (guess they werent really "OMCs" to begin with), and now good regs are on a waiting lists to come back to our table

Anyway, enjoy your trip and keep writing the updates plz

Yes you are really right about this. The game quality has been really hit and miss. I think I have been doing this all wrong. Instead of trying to play 2/5 I think I should be playing 1/3. The game quality seems to be way better. Even though the stakes are smaller, there are way more recreational players, way more tables and they all sit super deep and spew pretty hard. 2/5 has been an absolute disaster, super reggy and tables keep breaking because bum hunting regs keep leaving and recreational players don't like playing shorthanded against a bunch of young guys.

wow, the things that have killed online poker are creeping into live. great news. people need to be discreet if they're going to bumhunt live (or just don't do it all ffs, play a few hands shorthanded and who knows, a whale might sit)

Yeah it is really worrying. I think tables wouldnt break or at least keep running if regs battle a little bit and show that there is a willingness to play. No recreational is going to sit down on a table with 3 regs sitting out. Its actually ridiculous. Yes I understand that its probably breakeven and neg ev due to rake but not having a table run vs the possibility of recs coming and sitting down is probably better.

Yea, they are super obvious about bumhunting. Not discreet at all....

Idiots
Happy that bovada and global doesn't allow russians and euros

super ****ty behavior. most recs know there are guys making a living off their entertainment/gambling budget, but I expect it leaves a bad taste in their mouth when they're so blatant about it. at least pretend like you're there to play poker too, don't clock in/clock out every time a rec sits then busts. absurd, casinos should start cracking down on it. "you wanna sit out? fine, come back tomorrow"

/rant lol

You nailed it. Some people just don't see the big picture.