Yeh you could beat those games easily with a shove fold chart and a bit of luck. ANZPT is probably near the best tournament you could play in sydney.
I got introduced to poker playing at the freerolls APL holds. since then i've tried all the others, all being quite similar with rounders being one of the better structured mtt(slightly more expensive, they have a dealer). Other than that sydney doesn't offer a whole lot for more serious poker players. I know the crown casino in melbourne holds wsop apac events for one day when you have the roll

recently however I've started playing the cash games at the star despite the rake being difficult to beat. I'm still adjusting to live cash games after primarily playing online so my winrate is roughly break even or positive by a bit. Will begin using a tracking app on my phone to better record the grind.

Bricked the $10 1R1A on Tuesday after shoving AJo from SB 15bb over a CO open and getting called by QTo. He declared he was spite-calling me because it was the second time I shoved on him in one orbit, oh my.
Thursday I was the first one out after villain checkshoved the turn on A8KQ board with KQ (bluff or value?) and got there on the river vs my 88 for 160bb pot. Today I played an online session, but to be honest I enjoy playing live much more so I might skip playing online for a while.

Monthly Recap
Played mainly live this month, for a total of 9 games. Total buy-ins $193, cashed for $1080, so I ran hot again. This includes some tickets for bigger games in March, hopefully I can ship on of those and make Vegas 2015 a possibility. Since the volume is obviously small, I'll just leave my YTD live graph here:



In March I'll play a $55 regional final and a $110 High Roller for which I have won tickets. I wanted to play the $330 ANZPT repechage, but I have stuff to do on day two of that event. Depending on how things go I might play the $550 KO ANZPT on the last day of the series. I will 100% play it of I have a live bankroll of >$3k.

Online bankroll: $435
Live bankroll: $1682

Just busted first game of the month, $22 freezout that I won last week. Had a couple interesting hands:

blinds 300/600
UTG limp, capable UTG+1 raises to 2200, I'm in MP with 99 and call. Folds around to UTG who calls.
Flop 542sss, pot 7k. I have 9d9c. Checks to me, I bet 4500, UTG+1 calls.
Turn 8d, pot 16k. Checks to me, I'm pretty sure I'm ahead but villain is a tricky player who plays a wide range and I know a checkraise is a possibility and I don't think my hand holds up well all in. I chicken out and check behind.
River 9s pot 16k, villain checks. Really unsure here whether to check behind or bet to fold out small flushes. I decide to do that, bet 7k, and he raises to 16k. I get such a good prize he can have so many flushes here. I fold, he shows KT, no spade... Nice hand.

Blinds 400/800
Folds to me in MP and I make it 2k with T7cc. BTN calls, this is a lady who gotten AA three times and KK two times today and every single time shoved them pre with stacks as large 100bb saying, "I don't care, I'm all in" every single time. Terrible player.
Flop comes 643sss, pot 5200. I bet 2400 expecting plenty of folds as well as chasing calls that I can bomb out on the turn. She calls.
Turn 8d, pot 10k. I turn a double gutter and I feel pretty confident villain has a lot of air/spade draws. I bet 6k, she calls.
River Qh, pot 22k. I miss but so does the flush draw. I bet the turn planning to check/give up any spade since she's clearly drawing, check/call a T, bet/fold offsuit 9 or 5 that makes my straight and barrel everything else. I bet 15k, she calls and shows QcTs for a weak flush draw and a rivered Q. JFC...

Bubbled the $10 1R1A final table last night, and the first time I couldn't suppress a swear:

blinds 5k/10k
UTG (~150k) limps in, folds around and I (105k) check in BB with T5
Flop 653ss, pot 25k.
Limping in happens a lot at these blind levels, I think he has broadway cards (or atleast two overcards) here a lot. Also slowplaying a big pair is possible. I bet 10k to fold out overcards (a bit bigger would be better I think) and I'll probably fold to a raise. Villain snap calls.
Turn T, pot 45k, I have 95k. Great turn for me. With two flush draws on board I don't mind getting it in here. Both his overpairs and flush draws will bet when checked to, since my flop stab was pretty weak, and I can get it in. I check, he quickly bets 10k (sizing?), and now I really put him on an overpair. I jam, he snaps with KK.
River 3, puke.

I've had plenty of rungood so far of course. Compared to online play busting the only tournament you're playing due to villains playing their hand very poorly but getting there, which is what happened the last three tournaments, is definitely pretty annoying. Ah well, I really enjoy it still and I feel very comfortable with my play and reads. I just need to pay a bit more attention to stack sizes late game, I made two unnecessary mistakes last week by not taking my own and/or villains short stacks into account.

Online bankroll: $435
Live bankroll: $1639

Nice progress did you read any books or anything or just trial and error?

Where in Sydney are you living mate. I'm from northern beaches originally but living in London at the moment.

Will hit you up for a paddle when I'm back, unless your still too busy crushing

Thanks! I actually have played quite a bunch online and have held my own throughout. I've read a number of books, been member of Run It Once, and have had around 20 hrs of coaching. Mind you, this was not nearly enough study to actually get properly good, that definitely involves way more work. I guess most of my poker game is based on playing actual hands. Self discipline is hard...

Sounds good, let me know. I live in Chatswood at the moment, location wise it works pretty well for me.

Busted the $110 High roller today in 17th out of 85, 10 got paid. A bit tilting to play for 7 hours and not cash, but to be honest I never really got a stack going. In the first few hours I made some mistakes that were inexcusable, I still have to work on my patience a little I guess. The last few hours I was short and reshoved on a button shove with A3o and lost to 97o. The button looked so confused when I showed my hand and kept telling me that A3 couldn't be part of my range, pretty funny.

Some hands:

blinds 1k/2k
UTG+1 opens to 7k, leaving 33k behind. I have 60k and next to act with AKo. A big open generally indicates strength with these players. I think about 3betting to 15k, but I kinda want to see all 5 cards and also have fold equity vs TT or JJ type hands (weird, I know, but people actually fold this with 20bb). So I jam 60k. UTG+1 tanks for maybe 3 minutes, calls and asks if I have AA. He shows KK. Seriously...

blinds 2k/4k
UTG bets 12k, leaving herself 2k behind. HJ calls, BB calls.
Flop 235ss, pot 38k. BB jams for around pot, UTG folds (!!!!) leaving herself 2k. She claimed she had 88, which must be bullcrap, but any hand should obviously call there.

3k/6k
Folds to BTN, who has 70k. He opens for 36k (!?) which causes SB to fold 77. Rightly so, after BTN proudly shows KK...

3k/6k
HJ opens to 17k, fold to me on the BTN, I have ATo and 48k. HJ has shown some big hand and he always bet them way bigger, so I feel fine getting it in there versus his range. Folds to him, pot is 74k, he needs to call 31k. Too much apparently, and he folds.

Not much happened this month, I played 8 live games and bricked every single one. Also played one online session and ran up some stacks, but due to some unnecessary moves managed to finish 12th in an FTP bowl after being 1/14 to pretty much break even.

Live I played fine, but with the structure of these games being what it is the variance will stay high, so I'm not worried about bricking everything. Last Tuesday I started a FT in chiplead with a third of the chips in play (which was 18bb...). Proceeded to lose 77>33 aipf, and then called off a 6bb shove (which was one of the bigger stacks at that stage) with TT and lost to AK. Not much you can do.
The level of play is so awful, that sometimes when I'm tired I find it hard to stand it. When someone check-raise-calls for 80% of his stack on a KK5hh flop and then folds to a shove on the turn on a blank getting 10-1, it's hard to resist the urge to sigh very loudly. I never ever berate people, but the verbal poker diarrhea that people spout to justify their outrageous plays makes me understand why some players even bring headphones to friendly pub games.
On the positive side, there is a new guy who I can talk a bit of poker with who doesn't make me cringe every other sentence, so that's pretty fun. It doesn't make the game easier, but definitely more interesting. He clearly knows what he's doing and the +EV thing would be not to battle with him too much, but it would be a nice change of pace from taking chips from droolers. After all, this is supposed to be fun.

Anyway, obligatory end of the month YTD graph:



Online bankroll: $409
Live bankroll: $1349

Hey all, it's been a while since I updated this thread since it's been a while since I played. Last month my girlfriend was visiting for three weeks so obviously I wasn't going to spend my evenings playing live poker. She left earlier this week so I played both the Tuesday and Thursday game. Ran deepish in both but busted the Tuesday game with TT vs A4o for a big stack and just now busted after calling the third blind shove in a row by a guy who had to go home. My 99 vs his Q2o and he spiked a Q. Sigh.

A couple hands:

200/400, avg stack 35k. UTG limps and folds to me on BTN. I have 52. Obviously trash but given the time you get to think playing live I like to test out my postflop game, I have position and villain is weak-tight. I make it 1600, SB calls, UTG calls. SB is a young thinking player who does not cold call in SB with trash.
Flop AJ7xx, pot 5200. SB, UTG checks, I make it 2500. I can pick up the pot right here and with position maybe fire 2 barrels. SB calls, UTG folds.
Turn 4, pot 10k. SB checks, I check. I pick up a few outs I guess, but mostly I think I don't get many folds here. I would check behind a bunch of made hands here too, there are few draws and I don't see getting three streets of value vs a lot of his range.
River K, pot 10k. SB now bets 5500. Usually I would just fold here, but lately I've realized I'm never bluffraising rivers or even considering it. Here I think the K is good for me, not so much for him. AK he would have 3bet pre same as AA, KK, JJ. I can see him having AQ, AJ, AT, maybe KQ/KJ/QJ, or air. I still could have AK here for sure, potcontrolling on the turn, the same as slowplaying sets or even QT. I shove for 13.5k more, he tankfolds.

500/1k, average stack 40k. UTG (very fishy) limps in with 15k behind, HJ calls, BTN calls, I call in SB with K5, BB checks.
Flop A52, pot 5k. I lead out 2200, I expect a lot of dead money and if called I have a bunch of favourable turns. UTG calls, rest folds.
Turn 5, pot 9400. I bet 3500, UTG shoves 9k more, I snap call, he shows K2. River J. Limping K2 UTG off of a 16bb stack is something I'll never understand, but obviously great for me (just not this time).

Comments always welcome by the way.

Quick update, still running pretty poor. Ran QQ into KK on FT bubble on Thursday for chiplead stack, then on Sunday my AA got cracked by JJ aipf on FT bubble for chiplead stack. Yay.

Yesterday I did manage to fade the FT bubble and finished 4th for $100 after 66<AQ for 60% of chips in play. Ah well, atleast I ended my dry spell.

After bricking 17 live games in a row, this week I finally got some rungood. Finishing 4th on Tuesday in the $10 1R1A was slightly disappointing, but yesterday I chopped the $25 freezeout for $300. Final table was fun and swingy, I declined a deal 3-handed twice to immediately lose a flip the very next hand, but I managed to run it up each time. Heads up I agreed to an even chop with a chip disadvantage, since it was already getting late.

Some fun hands:

50/100, average stack 30k. I open T8 to 300 in late position, 3 calls.
Flop T75, pot 1200. Checks to me, I bet 600, everyone calls.
Turn J, pot 3600. Everyone checks, I check behind.
River 6, pot 3600. Checks to me and I fire 2000. Dunno about sizing, at the time I figured I could get a better T to fold or a hero call from a worse hand, but given these players that's not very likely. It folds to BB who makes it 4k. This makes no sense at all, he would have bet out on the river with a strong hand after turn checks through. On the other hand the click back feels very strong. Villain is a bit of a drooler though, who has no clue when to bluff. I call, he shows A6.

75/150, average stack 35k. UTG limps in (as happens a lot here), I have KK in mp. At the early blind levels players love to call any bet with trash if it's just the one bet. This makes playing big pairs a bit tricky, since you're seeing flops multiway often and these players don't like to fold any draw. Anyway, therefore I make it a bit bigger to build a pot/thin the field a bit, I raise to 700. SB calls, UTG backraises to 2100. UTG is pretty solid and aggro, but bluffs too often in weird spots. Of course a monster is possible here too, either way I think a smooth call in position is best here. SB folds.
Flop AKT, pot 5150. UTG bets 3300, I call. I want to keep his bluffs in and pot control for the times he does have AA here (unlikely I know, but a limp-backraise UTG in this game screams monster).
Turn 8, pot 11750. UTG bets 4500, I call. Some logic really, not a lot of value hands that he can have here that he will call a raise here OOP with, since I block most AK. Other options are TT and AA or QJ, the rest he'll fold.
River 5, pot 20750. UTG bets 6200, I call. A bit tight, but not sure what hands he'll call a raise with here. He shows J4 for a random triple barrel.

And finally on the FT:
15k/30k, I'm on the button with 220k, SB has 90k, BB has 110k. I have AT and open ship, SB tanks and sighs forever and folds TT with 3bb behind because he was worried with BB still in it too. Just unbelievable...

Played a short and sweet session online. The few times I played in the last month I ran poor and didn't care enough about BRM to start playing $2 tournaments so I almost busted my online roll. Tonight I stuck to $2.5 180-mans and $5 spin&go's. Never really played the latter and ran pretty good, also level of play is pretty awful. Played 19, shipped 15 and 4 of the 5 $20 ones . Also shipped a $2.5 180-man so doubled my online bankroll.


Online bankroll: $285
Live bankroll: $1534

Nice, I just shipped a $7.5 deep turbo to a SCOOP Sunday Million ticket, tripled my online roll this weekend

Online bankroll: $480
Live bankroll: $1534

Subbed enjoying this thread keep up the good work! GLGL

Thanks! Feeling pretty good about my game and psyched to play some more after a $700 week. Hopefully I can run up my online roll this time instead of running it into the ground.

And it won't come as a surprise to anyone that WSOP this year is not happening, but that was optimistic any way. Instead I'm traveling the whole month of June to visit family back home and also present work at a couple of conferences (astrophyiscs) in Finland and Perth. WSOP 2016 is definitely the plan!

Sounds good, Hopefully ill see you at WSOP 2016 hoping to do something similar to you, Never really followed strict BRM before but I'm getting a nice little setup rather than a laptop hopefully that will keep me in line! Haha..

Whats your Stars name KoolCaliban?

Ugh, playing the Tuesday game now with the biggest fish ever, pretty sure he's wasted. He calls anything anytime, I get trash so can't really take advantage. Finally pick up a hand, AA, with fish in BB. Folds to him, he picks up calling chips and then dealer (a player) says he can fold too, causing fish to fold. So tilted at dealer, wtf.

I did manage to run up a stack last night, but then spazzed in a very unnecessary spot. Ah well, live and learn.

Some hands:
Blinds 1k/2k, UTG limps, followed by 2/3 more limps. I'm in SB with 31k and 82. My stack feels just the right size to jam ATC here to pick up a 10k limped pot, too bad my hand is just horrible. Anyway, I jam, BB sighs and folds 77, UTG folds but MP who has been in a very gambly mood calls A2. I think think this is a terrible call, but he actually crushes me here. I win showdown when my 2 turns a flush

Blinds 3k/6k, 6 handed, average stack ~70k. UTG limps in, I'm next and have A8 and just call with 85k behind. Not sure here, I call so I'm not comitted to shoves from the droolers who'll always have it and I have position on 3 out of 5 players so I don't mind seeing a flop. Either way, next player fold, BTN calls, SB jams 56k, folds to me. SB is the only player that I see jamming wide here and it is a good spot for sure. I tank for a bit and reshove, last player folds. SB show Q9 and my hand holds.

And the punt of the night:
Blinds 5k/10k, F2T, average stack ~150k. Folds to me in CO, I open to 23k with A6 and 175k behind. I just arrived to this table and have been very active, I won the previous hand opening with T4 on a nits BB who check-folded on K62. In this hand BTN and SB folds and BB calls (140k behind). He is one of a bunch of younger players, some of them are solid, others prone to fancy play syndrome.
Flop K72, pot 49k. BB leads out with 25k, leaving 90k behind. I have nothing here but I think villain is not poker savvy enough to donk here with a made hand to induce, or bad enough to donk because he "made his hand!". I finally jam over his donk, he snapcalls with K5 and fades an ace. In hindsight I'm not sure if I can even get him off a 7, as I'm repping very thin here. Basically I would just call with a K here on such a dry board, so my jam makes little sense. Also my read about his skill level needs to be just right, and even then is he really leading out with air just because he wants to put me in my place? Probably not.

dont really understand why you want to be grinding pub poker, edges are ok until you have like 5bb, your better off grinding cash games at the star, they have changed the structure so that all 1/2 games are 3/3 so anyone grinding those games just got really great table selection + hourly increased.

Fair enough, but honestly I'm not looking to grind anything really. My main priority is my full-time PhD, and I play poker on the side because I really enjoy the game. Which means I rather play a small tournament vs. casual and fun players a 10 minute walk from where I live, than go all the way to the Star to play cash. Above all I don't want poker to feel like work, I work plenty as it is.

Just finished my first reasonably solid day of online play this year, 8 hours . I really can't make myself play $2.2 tournaments and all those $11 tourneys look so juicy so I think half my online roll was at stake today, oops. Wasn't going extremely well, but I found a daysaver on FTP:


On Thursday I managed to bust the freezeout in 50 minutes, new record. Played a funny hand:

500/1k UTG limps in, I'm in UTG+2 with AQ, I make it 3500. Three (!) players call behind (mind you the average stack is ~30bb) and SB shoves for 13k. UTG folds and this is just a perfect reshoving spot with so much dead money in there, so I jam. Everyone folds and I win vs AJ. Then the players that I folded out of the pot start muttering, they thought I would have AA or KK there, "a decent hand". What am I doing with AQ there, that isn't a decent hand, that's "a calling hand". God, I love these games.


Online bankroll: $605
Live bankroll: $1489

Finally got round to reading your posts, keep up the good work!

Nice! You get around to playing at all? With the WSOP started yesterday I'm so psyched going to Vegas next year and see it for myself! Still some bankroll-building to do until then.

I bricked both games this week, ran up stacks in both but lost the flips. Pretty pleased with my game, but I'm trying to force myself to take a bit longer on my all-in decisions. It sucks to be walking home and coming to the conclusion that a spot was bad/too thin.

Some set over set action from last night:

Blinds 100/200, I'm sitting at the old nits table so I've been very active. I open from CO with 55, both BTN and BB call.
Flop 652, pot 2200. BB checks, I bet 1200, BTN folds, BB checkraises to 3000. This is the spazz from a couple weeks ago that tried to bluffminraise river, definitely taking weird lines. I don't want to raise him off all the random crap that he's doing this with, so I call.
Turn 6, pot 8200. BB bets 6000, I call. I guess I could raise here to charge his draws a bit more, but I know this player can't stop betting so I'm expecting an extra bet on river by just calling.
River 4, pot 20k. BB bets 6k again. Sizing it the same as on turn feels like a strong hand getting value, such as a 6, some of which will be better full houses, or a 3. I want to get value from the naked 6s and straights, so I don't shove for full 30k but make it 15k instead. He snap calls with 44. He definitely would have called a shove, but I like my sizing nonetheless.

Blinds 300/600, I'm UTG with 33. With the players being so call happy and OOP I want to raise but not too much. Basically I'm opening here to flop a set in a multiway pot and start barreling. I open to 1200, 3 callers.
Flop 36T, pot 5100. I make my set on a wet board, I bet 2500, 1 call. Could size it bigger I guess, but don't mind several people chasing s/sighcalling a T.
Turn K, pot 10k. Board gets a bit wetter, with one villain I can make it a bit bigger and get called easily by broadway cards with a big , I bet 6500, villain calls.
River 9, pot 23k. I probably should lead out here given my aggro image, but he called so easily on both streets that I wouldn't be surprised to see a bet by worse if I check and I get of cheaply versus made flushes by check-calling. Dunno really, still unsure here. Anyway I check, and he checks 66 behind. I guess I'm a wizard. Reeeaaally surprised seeing the check behind, turns out he was scared about the flush/backdoor straight. Nits everywhere!

Won (almost) the most in the first hand with the bigger set and clearly lost the least in the second, pretty pleased about that. However, if the board had paired I probably wouldn't had gotten away with it, but whatever.

Just played at a new venue where they have two $22 games which are basically 18-mans. Also for some reason the waitresses are only in lingerie, I'm not complaining.

I bubbled the first one and shipped the second tournament for $190. Pretty standard hands all around with my TJ outflopping KQ, I shipped all in pre for 7bb or so.

Only hand of interest:
Blinds 2k/4k, I have 90k (avg stack 75k) in the BB with A4. CO opens to 14k, folds to me, I call. I play a lot with villain and consider him one of the better regs in the game.
Flop comes AT7, pot 30k. I check and villain bets 14k, I call. Pre I call because I know he is pretty wide, not folding this flop obviously.
Turn 6, pot 58k. I check, villain bets 27k, I have 63k behind. With the wet board structure this is an all in or fold, I'm either way behind or reasonably ahead here. I know villain barrels a lot here, and I have an ace blocker, but I'm never way ahead and I have no fold equity clearly. I tank, clock gets called on me and I fold. Ugh.

Could use some input here, I'll let you guys know what he had in a couple days.


Online bankroll: $605
Live bankroll: $1565