Played two days in a row last week. +350BB over two sessions. I flopped a set in a 3 bet pot 350BB deep on my last hand of the night on night #2 and lost to runner runner flush vs overpair. I only lost 100BB however so actually a successful hand. The worst possible turn and river prevented a likely $1500 pot for me. Oh well. That's the game. As is, I'm almost exactly halfway to my goal of 20BI for 2/5. I'll be around the forums more now that I'm into the new place with a valid internet connection. We'll see about getting some more time in at the tables if I can. My fingers itch.

I had a guy call a shove the other night with A6 on a 2365hh board because he figured I "had to be on a flush draw." I wasn't. I flopped it with 45. I had identified him as a big mark early with a big stack. The lesson here is not to be afraid to make large bets against guys who you think will call. Often, they'll call way more than you will believe. I had a guy call 2x pot on the river the next night with trips on straight and flush board. He said he wanted to go all in. These are the guys you should be seeking out. If you see one, get to his table as fast as possible. Also seat change without shame to get on his left. Who cares if half the table knows why you moved. If they were smart they would have done it too. That is all.

Now to get ice cream with my son and then put some crap away. The older you get, the more work moving becomes.

6/13

Didn't get out of work until midnight, but didn't have to work until Saturday night so I decided to play. I had no less than 6 different games to choose from. Let me just stop there for a second. I am truly blessed to live in an era and location where I can pick from several venues. I know some people have to work hard just to find a game. I can play in 5-6 legitimate games and 2-3 underground games literally anytime I want. It's a blessing that a lot of people around my parts take for granted. That being said, picking the best game is crucial. Figure out which one will be most profitable and play it. There's no such thing as playing tougher competition to get better. You get better by beating bad players and learning how to adjust to better players as you go. Target selection is far more important than anything else. Why grind rocks when you can chew fat? Now back to the story.

I chose to play in a backroom round by round this particular evenning and it proved to be relatively juicy. I'm not a very skilled PLO player, but I can hold my own vs. this level of competition. I basically just play tight, wait for great PLO hands and try to hit the nuts. I've learned that it's very important to stay disciplined in PLO because alot of hands can start to look good when really they're just setting you up to lose money in chunks. My bread and butter in these gaes is still NLH and that's where most of my profits were made. MY big score for the night came from a questionable preflop call, but it worked out.

Hand:

V1: Megadonk. He's just beggin someone to take his money. He's foolishly aggressive with no sense for bet sizing, and calls large bets midlessly.

Effective stacks: $432

Preflop: Hero straddles button to $5. Couple limps to V who raises to $10. 1 call. Hero calls with 8T. 2 more calls.

Not great, but he's such a fish I was looking for every opportunity to hit something with him and I'm getting a discount.

Flop: 779 ($50)
Checks around to Hero. Bets $10. FOlds to V who raises to $45. Folds to hero who calls.


Bet small to build pot a little since they can't read it for what it is. Surprised by his c/r but it's obviously a 7 and since he has no clue of odds has actually given me the implied's to draw.

Turn: 779J ($140)
V bets $100. Hero goes all in for $367. V thinks and mutters for a minute or two and then calls showing 75.

And that was how I turned a 200BB profit for the night. The beat goes on. Very close to a legitimate shot at 2/5 soon. Woo!

I worked an unusual shift today at the poker room. I had today free of responsibility but have to work tomorrow morning so I went in to play with the afternoon crowd. They were slightly less wild but still very beatable. I put on my aggrotard cap for a while and ground up several hundred dollars. I had to adjust somehwat later on as a couple of maniacs sat down. After an hour or two of card deadedness and getting every cbet raised, I stuck it to a few people and left at 1030PM. It hurt to get up as the games were beginning to approach their normal juiciness, but priorities must remain in place. It's easier to get up too when you've booked a $900 win. I think my favorite hand of the day went like this:

Preflop: I straddle $4 on the button. HJ ($164) and CO ($75) limp to me and I make it $20 with k7. Both call.

Both are pretty drooly. One was somewhat unknown but clearly fishy and the other is just a bizarre player. BOth donating to the table. Nice guys.

Flop: K75 ($63).
HJ checks. CO bets $22. I call. HJ raises to $80. CO calls. I shove. HJ calls.

HJ has 75o. CO claims to have had AKo. I hold and felt them both. Luckily, they both rebought and lost some more. HJ kept talking for the next hour how he couldn't believe I raised K7s to $20. Nevermind, that it was a straddled pot with two limpers and I had the button. CO thinks I raise any two cards after many sessions. It's a great image to have. I get payed off by spew monkeys and regs alike due to this perception. A different reggy guy called a double barrel shove tonight with Tp3k because for whatever reason he thinks I'm bluffing even though I have never bluffed all in against him that he's seen ever. I think because he is constantly bluffing rivers, he assumes others are as well. Knowing what players think about really helps you play them.

I played last night for a while and eeked out $100 win. Along with tonight's big win that's another $1K to the roll and I think I can safely take a shot at 2/5. Still deciding exactly how much to put in play there. We'll see.

The usual spot?

How early was a game actually running and was there more than one table?

Every time I have a full day to play I end up down town, but a local option would be nice too.

Historically, those games start at 330-4p but I hear that of late they haven't been going til 6p. I sense it's variable. The afternoon game is similar to other games in the area and you have the benefit of a seat when the craziness begins later on. Just one table until 8 or so there. Still wildly profitable.

Tonight, I'm going to put in as close to an 8 hr session as I can. I don't get chances to do that very often these days so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also going to be trying out a new venue. I moved recently and it brought several previously out of range games into play. A fresh pool to patrol might be good. I'm going to make an effort to record my small blind limp stats and any interesting hands tonight as I've fallen off that a bit lately. Also looking for a good spot to take a shot at 2/5. Once I get one, I'm going to take it. Time to move on up!

Update: potential epic night. The new venue produced a $1457 win ($1/2) in 2.75 hours. Then received a text for a 2/5 game in which I know all the players. Perfect set up for a shot. Roll up to ~$7500.

Taking an Arby's break and then swimming with the big fish!

Finally updating the past week's action.

The epic night ended a little early so I finished right where I posted, around $1500. That's a record $1/2 night for me. The next couple nights I won some and lost some to ~break even. Played last night after work and found myself sitting next to a fellow 2+2'er which is always fun. The table did not disappoint. There was a guy playing 95% of his hands and shoving in ridiculous spots. I managed to stack him a couple times. There were a couple of spots where guys made really weird plays that I folded to knowing that there was a good chance that I had them crushed. It turns out I was right, but I generally fold when really confused until I've confirmed exactly what is going on. Example, I raise my BB over several limpers with JJ and get 3 bet by the CO and the Btn (drooling) goes all in for ~50bb. Both limped in lp and then decided to go berserk. I knew I was miles ahead of the Btn, but didn't know the CO well enough to make any sense of what he was doing. So I took the safe route and folded. Turns out I was way ahead of both. Now I know. Overall, I played well and booked another $500 for the night. So, from last Wednesday to this Wednesday I had a $2100+ profit over 24 hours of play. That's pretty awesome. I more than doubled my lofty goal of $1000 in a week. I can't expect to run that well forever so I am enjoying it while it lasts.

A couple of big hands from the run:

Hero is BTN and straddles to $5. Sitting on $384. Aggressive big stack in sb calls. three others call and I check with 97.

Flop: 862 ($25)
SB checks. Aggressive MP player bets $15. One call. I call. SB raises to $65. Folds to me. Now I'm looking at $55 to win $135. The question now is can I win that $85 extra I need when I hit to make it profitable. He has me covered and I sense from his earlier play that he's likely going to overplay whatever he has. So, it's a call.

Turn: 8625 ($185)
SB checks. Hero bets $70. SB thinks and calls.

Sizing based on what I think he'll call while thinking he's ahead and what will set up a river shove. In hindsight I would have liked to have made it a little bigger.

River: 8625 ($325)
SB checks. Hero shoves $244. SB tanks. Calls out 97 and then calls. Hero wins.


I took out a wild player a few minutes later and had a big night. The last fwe nights have been mostly good with the exception of one session. It was a high variance table and I got into some high variance spots that didn't work out. I think I was a little bit too out there though. I was trying something out where instead of tightening up and playing strong hands against them I was 3 betting anything that was better than their opening ranges (in some cases ATC) attempting to isolate them in more marginal spots and play better. I lost a couple of these pots and then started playing poorly. I should have gotten up more quickly than I did. I'm still tinkering with this method. I think if done under control it could really be profitable.

My oldest and biggest leak is showing up again. I call way too lightly on the river with marginal hands. I tend to talk myself into a call because I beat a small part of their range, they could be bluffing, and I'm getting X% on the pot. Usually it just ends up being a bad call. So, there's something I can consciously work on. The key is not to think of it as folding the river more, but getting rid of the thought processes that cause my generally good analysis to go bad. You shouldn't fear calling the river. It just needs to be well considered.

Might not play for a few days but that's OK. Life comes first. Roll is healthy in the $8500 range. Still looking for a good spot to take a 2/5 shot.

Hurray for variance!

Played again and ran into the tip top of ranges on several occasions while semibluffing. Coupled with run bad and questionable play, I had a hefty loss for the evening. Have a couple of leaks which for whatever reason busted wide open. Will work to clear those up. Lost a few buy ins for my last session. Nothing catastrophic, just a bump in the road. The irritating thing as that a lot of it probably should have been avoided. Oh well. The good news is that I got up before it got too serious. Will likely play some afternoon sessions my next few times out so we'll see how that goes. The goal is to play a little more under control. I've been experimenting with opening wide up and playing every single edge that comes my way. Sometimes, it's worked and others it hasn't. Will continue to experiment with it, but need to maintain that fine line of control and spew. Checking out now.

Yesterday was an irritating session. I was card dead for most I the session but still found myself up a buy in due to 2 big hands. Then I got it in really good against a whale and lost. Then missed a draw against the whale and topped up. Then I got it in 3 ways even in te main with >2:1 EV on the overlay with the whale and lost the whole thing. Then since I had $60 left and a couple hands before my BB I decided to short stack it until the freebies were over. I was still feeling ok and not tilting. I folded a couple times then looked down at a big ace utg and made it $20. I got called in 4 places. I ended up losing to Q6o after my flop shove. Left SMH. -$300 for the day. Solid. I actually played quite well wih the exception of one questionable move but even that wasn't horrible. This negative variance thing can end anytime.

I am on the second extended downswing of my career (maybe third). This has only covered a few sessions but I'm not used to losing more than here and there. I can honestly say that the beginning of the slide was mostly due to bad play. It's not that the moves I made were horrible, they were just unnecessary an o course they don't work out. Since then I've straightened things up pretty well but the results have continued. I've lost my last 4 hands with aces, only once getting them in behind and that spot was probably a good call vs. Vs range. The last of which was particularly entertaining.

Couple of limps to hero with AA makes it $15. 3 players call (of course).

Flop: 862r. ($62)
Major donk bets $15. Called by another major donk. Hero raises to $55. Major donk #1 calls.

Turn: 862Tr ($187)
Donk checks. Hero all in for $100. Donk calls.

River: 862T2r ($387)
Donk says, "you're going to hate me." Turns over 24o and says, "I put you on AK."

He was surprised that I wasn't angry. I went outside and laughed. I later lost a couple more hands with solid advantages and went home. I've even been running super bad online 5NL. It will likely end soon and ill start climbing up again. Here's hoping its tonight. I plan to play a pretty long session today. Updates to follow. I know you're all waiting.

Update: the downswing has continued. I do book one winning session a while back but otherwise I've been losing consistently. Most has been bad luck, but there are a few things I need to shore up. Ill focus on those and not on flopping trips vs. boats a couple of times. Ill be playing in a different venue tonight. Should be fun although I forgot to bring my signature baseball cap with me today. Hopefully it doesn't take me too far out of my comfort zone. My BR is still totally fine for $1/2 but te downswing has postponed my $2/5 hot taking plan. Ill get there. You can't run good all the time. It's kind of fun to see how little you can lose when running bad. I'm pretty good at maxing profits. I think I still have some things to learn about minimizing losses. It's a side of the game that isn't as fun. People don't enjoy discussing it but its equally important. Now back to work.

Greetings to my loyal follower or two. As previously noted I had been on quite a nice little nose dive recently. Luckily, life got busy and I was forced to take about a month off which didn't bother me too much. I know it's not supposed to make a difference, but I've found a break seems to shake up the luck. It also gets me refocused and out of whatever bad habits I may have developed to contribute to the slide. I played again on Wednesday night and the break seemed to have worked. I won an early coin flip and then took a couple other sizable pots in a short 3 hour session. I earned back about 4 buy ins and hopefully that'll be the end of my downswing. I plan to play again tonight for a few hours. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to try to post a hand here soon. I just have to dig into my notes and pick one. Possibly the coin flip hand if I can get the details straight. I'm trying to simplify a bit. After some reflection, I may have just been trying to ge a little too fancy with unsophisticated players, where a straightforward fat value approach is usually best. We'll see hoe things go.

It's Tuesday night. Tuesday night is bachelor night for me. No girl. No kid. That usually means poker night. So, with my recent downswing behind me (roll back to pre run bad levels) and a free opportunity, I find myself winging toward the city with two grand in my pocket and a smile on my face. That's right friends. It's shot taking time. I'm not 100% rolled for 2/5 but I'm close. It's time to get my feet wet in a bigger game. If things don't go we'll I have no problem dropping back down, but I'm confident and I'd like to really start adding some beef to my roll. Tuesday night isn't te ideal time to take a shot but its what's available for now so well see how it goes. Aside from winning, tonight is about gettig comfortable with different betting amounts. I'm not wearing grinder or tourist clothes, just my UM hat and a stone cold stare. Here goes!

gl spike, subbed (finally). I enjoy your posts and look forward to following. and GL with the 2/5 shot!

Several things to talk about today.

The 2/5 shot didn't go too well. I lost one buy in. I ran into a couple of weird spots. Toward the end, I recognized that I was not playing well anymore so I got up, messed around in the pit for a little bit to just relax and have some fun and then went home. It wasn't a catastrophic loss or anything. It was also a Tuesday early evening which is nowhere near peak time to play. So, I'll rebuild a little bit and take another crack soon. I was able to recoup some of the losses the next night at the 1/2 tables. Overall, BR is still quite healthy.


I went on vacation this week. Highlights included seeing some really cool waterfalls in the U.P. and the Pictured Rocks cliffs along Lake Superior. That was pretty awesome. I also got engaged, which has never happened to me before. Discussing plans with the wifey to be made me realize just how much money it's going to cost to put this F'er together. With that said, I decided to take most of my profits for the next few months and put them toward the wedding and maybe a house down payment. I'll still add to the roll as I go, but I'll be diverting some cash to life. THe roll is at a point where it can easily sustain that. Over a pretty large sample I'm making >$25/hr so it should just be extra money in our pockets.


During my vacation, I was able to relax and do some reading. I got back into PNLH and rehashed some pretty basic principles. I've decided to make a list of my current big leaks and see if i can start eliminating them. The interesting thing is that these are things that I haven't always struggled with, but they've cropped up in the last few months for whatever reason.

1. Not taking breaks regularly. Not evaluating game/tables regularly. Not taking notes.
I used to do this religiously. For reasons unknown I kind of stopped. It's a critical habit and I'm vowing here and now to get back into it. In "Your Worst Poker Enemy," Alan Schoonmaker talks about evaluating table conditions every hour. That includes how you're playing personally. It is such a huge advantage to be able to stop yourself when you're no longer in a +EV situation. I need to be more conscious of this in myself. I also used to record all of my big hands for later analysis. It also makes it way easier to post them here. I'm going to get back into the habit of that as well.

2. Playing to loose after a couple of hours.
This goes right along with #1. After a couple of hours I usually have a deeper stack and there's usually a few others as well. I find myself limping in with things that can make straights from EP trying to catch the deeper stacks. This concept isn't terrible, but I'm misapplying it. I need to be more intentional and have more of a plan then just playing more hands badly. With more strict adherence to #1, #2 should fall into line.

3. Calling off with overpairs when facing big all ins.
Against some players this is a great spot, but most of the time you're drawing to two outs or less. Lately, I've been playing like a bad TAG instead of a good poker players in these spots. I need to just accept that sometimes aces get outdrawn. That's not to say I need to turn into a total MUBS nit, but a little common sense should save me some dollars. Money not lost is just as good as money gained.

4. Calling river bets when obviously behind.
I think for a while I was experiencing some positive variance in regards to #3 and #4. I can't really rely on that though. Generally, calling river bets with marginal hands vs. average passive players is going to get you stuck. I've actually done much better at this lately, but it still tends to bite me sometimes. It's simply a matter of ranging and discipline.

5. Not actively ranging people and playing too much on autopilot.

This is something that I am feeling particularly strong about. After reading PLNH again, I realized that I'm often not being specific in my thoght process during a hand. I can beat 1/2 without really doing a whole lot of thinking and that's made me lazy. If I want to improve and crush 2/5 5/T, I need to be actively doing the work during the hand. The fact that i know how is a huge advantage over my opponents. I just need to implement it more regularly. Again these things are related. Better adherence to #1 will help with #2 and #5. More effective use of #5 will help with #3 and #4. It's a lot more work than most are willing to put in, but I'm up for it. I have a wedding to pay for after all.


Tonight, I will try to put in a good session at 1/2. If that goes well I'll likely try to take a peak hours shot at 2/5 again. If I can start hitting those games, I should be able to pay for this life stuff pretty easily.

Spike, great listing of thoughts and things to work on! Congrats on your engagement and gl with your shot taking.

Sent from my XT1032 using 2+2 Forums

I get the impression that we all go through periods with some variation of all of these leaks. During a couple of nasty downswings I definitely was guilty of #3 and #4.

If you're going back to previously read concepts, I'd recommend re-reading Tendler's "Mental Game of Poker". That's always help re-center my game when I start playing poorly.

Thanks guys.

So I was up 2 buy ins within an hour and a half last night. And then I flipped a switch and exhibited 4/5 of my big leaks for the next couple hours and ended up losing. I raised two hands that I Should not have preflop and ended up calling large river bets when obviously beat. I did take breaks but I knew I should quit cuz I was sick and tired but kept playing. I ended up getting very unlucky a couple of times after that and poof. My good night was suddenly a bad night. I'm pretty angry at myself because its completely my fault. Yes, I got sucked out a couple times, but I shouldn't have been there anymore.

There's the lesson that we all need to be reminded of sometimes. It's never worth it to keep playing if you're not in the right state of mind to make good decisions. I was so irritated at the end because I was sitting at a table of players who were making epic mistakes in almost every hand and were being rewarded. Meanwhile, I was playing well relative to them but was getting punished for every single mistake I made and also punished when I did everything right. That's when I got up and went home. So irritated with myself.

Some get angry at life and the poker gods. On my last hand of the night, I shoved $111 over a $25 raise and two $5 limps with A3ss. I got called by QJo. Of course I didn't win, and the play was actually correct, but I was so upset wih how I was playing overall and losing that hand too that I just left with two hours left in the night. Who knows how much I would have lost had I stayed. I don't blame the poker gods. I was getting what I deserved for sitting at the table when I should have been in my bed.

Solution: rehash my big leaks and be sure to follow my own advice next time. I went out and bought Skyrim in the middle of the night and will be playing that for a bit to cool off and fix my mental state which apparently needs some work.

Cliffs: ugh i suck sometimes.

I have played quite a bit this past week or so since returning from vacation with mixed results. Some of it is running bad and some is playing bad. I do feel like I'm working myself out of it however. As far as my listed leaks go, I am making some progress, but it's just something that I'll have to stay on top of over time.

I have started playing in a new player pool a lot more recently and I have some observations on that.

I believe that my home player pool is much different than the new one. Both can be profitable, but in different ways. In the one I'm used to playing, I am vastly more skilled then my opponents and as such, I make a lot of money just by raising anything even remotely playable. Because they make such huge mistakes post flop I really make a lot of money just by being in pots even if my pre flop range is not very strong. Over time I've transitioned from waiting for them to give me their money to actively just taking it no matter what my cards are doing. I'd say my baseline game at this time is right on the edge of spew and max profit with these particular players.

The new pool is much more weak passive and that's actually causing me some post flop problems. In my normal game, calling off with TPTK will often net you a stack. In the new pool there is virtually no light raising. With my propensity for calling when I shouldn't, that's added up to some yoyo sessions. I'm having to adjust my postflop play to match the new pool and it's a work in progress. I've toned my aggression preflop waaay down and I'm learning to slow down when called without >1 pair and drop out completely if faced with aggression most of the time.

The good news is that these adjustments are making me a much more dangerous player as I'm becoming more diverse, and am being forced to reapply fundamental range and hand reading skills for more than one player and game type. This can only aid me as I move up in levels.

My recent break even stretch has also been influenced heavily by my availability. I'm being forced to play much earlier in the day right now which lends itself to a much more weak passive tables, which while lower variance are not as profitable overall.

When I step back and evaluate, I'm not surprised that my win rate has slowed some as I transition into a deeper player pool. I've got solid reads on almost every villain in my home circuit and that has translated into very profitable exploitive play. I'm just not there yet with the new group so I'm having to stick to standard ABC optimal lines that mare missing EV. The only thing I can do right now is keep grinfing away and plugging those leaks. They will make a huge difference in my win rate no matter where I play.

One thing that is very gratifying is that no matter where I play, everyone finds it very difficult to play with/against me. I tend to dominate tables with my style. I'm not necessarily LAGy but I always seem to control what people are doing after an hour or so. That can only work in my favor. It comes from an attitude and demeanor that I have developed which is basically fearless and foreboding. When people play pots with me they know that it will likely require all of their chips and several decisions where they don't know which side of the pot they're on. Occasionally, this leads to spew from me, but more often I'm finding that the spew is blowing in my direction (about the only context in which that is ever good).

Roll has stayed about the same for the last month or so. It's been up and down, but not much movement over time. Hopefully, that changes soon. I'll be trying out a new room tonight which should have a mix of known players and new faces. Should be fun. I also will likely hit up a home game that has provem to be crazy profitable. Last night I sat at a ten handed table where 7 of the 9 seats were occupied by people that i would hand pick myself to play with if i could set up a dream game. It resulted in a $300 win despite getting sucked out on a 8:1 preflop domination. Let's hope this is the start of another crazy upswing.

That's pretty interesting.

When I started playing I put in a LOT of hours in the weak/tight/passive type games that you've just gotten into. It shaped my game and my 'default' reads/lines. So when I started putting in more hours in the "home pool" I lost a lot of value by *not* calling off a stack with TPTK.

Most of the places I've played tend to be much more like the MCC/MGM games. Weak, tight, passive, not a lot of bluffing from most of the players. Seen it in LV, AC, PA, and the little I've gotten to play in CA. Seems like a good default until you see evidence that the table is wilder.

Angrist: I've found the weak passive tables a re a lot easier to play because you can stick to default strategies and never really have to worry about being put to many decisions. The players are very predictable so you can almost shut your brain down and just play based on what they do. If they call, they have a draw or OK hand. If they raise (seldom) They likely have you beat and you can confidently fold. While easier, these conditions are not as profitable. The wild crazy games are filled with swings and decisions. Since most of the players making these plays are horrible, you stand to make MUCH more money over the same period of time, but it's not always going to be comfortable. I've grown so accustomed to it that I'm not even fazed anymore.


My last session was very disappointing. I never had a hand better than AK. My highest PP was 77. I played pretty well for most of the night but gave away my profits in one really bad 3 barrel bluff. The opponent was unknown and I just made a bad read that he would fold. It turned out that he was a huge whale and he went on a heater and hit everything he played, which was every hand he got. With my current information I would never attempt even a one street bluff against him let alone three.

Therein lies my current game. Play well or long stretches and then have a blow up hand. I've been through it before. The good news is that I'm not playing badly in stretches anymore so there is improvement. Usually, these single blow up hand sessions are followed by a long string of really good play. I am very good at maximizing value. I just need to continue to concentrate on minimizing losses. It's coming. I'm ready for another nice BR bump. I'm one good swing away from playing 2/5 a lot.

Value hand of the night:

Preflop: Btn straddle. Hero calls in BB with 77. 7 players to flop.

Flop: A59 ($36)
checks around.

Turn: A593 ($36)
checks around

River: A5937 ($36)
Hero bets $55. Folds to massive tilting whale who shoves for $125. Hero calls. Whale flips A3....

That's why we win.



Spew of the night.

preflop: Folds to hero in CO with A8. Raises to $15. Btn calls. BB calls.

Flop: 556 ($46)
BB checks. Hero bets $30. Btn calls. BB folds.

Turn: 5567 ($106)
Hero bets $65. Btn calls.

River: 5567Q ($236)
Hero bets $95. Btn calls with 45o....


This is why we don't make money.


Against someone with a reasonable preflop range and a fold button, it's not the worst thing ever. Against an unknown it's stupid and because of it my nightly profit was $1.

Roll on the rise yaaaay.

No play since last update.

I've gotten back into Bovada alittle bit to try to keep my brain moving. For whatever reason, I run insanely bad on that site. Hopefully, I can shake it off and move past 5NL haha.

I currently have several books that I need to read/finish and its just a matter of discipline to actually do it. here's my list.

1. PNLH- Flynn, Mehta, Miller
2. Your worst poker enemy- Schoonmaker
3. Reading Poker Tells- Elwood

These three books cover three major areas of poker that almost everyone in LLSNL needs work on.
1. Fundamentals
2. Mental control
3. Hand/tell reading

Every single one of these can result in huge increases in win rate. I plan to realize improvements in all of these areas.

I've also renewed my subscription to deuces cracked. A little study time with the books and training videos will be good for me. After this week, my work schedule will allow me to play a lot more or the next month or so. It's time to push that BR up over $10k. I've got work to do!

Adding to my reading list.

Black Rain's "Crushing the Micros."

Also, the entire COTM series in the BQ forum. I never actually made it through all of them.

My plan for each day that I'm not playing:
Read a chapter of whatever book I'm currently on.
Read one COTW/COTM
Watch one DC video.


We'll see how disciplined I can be.

Played on a whim tonight for a ouple of hours because I felt like the last week has been very productive mentally for me as far as figuring some things out.

Of course, the cards decided to send me into high variance shove fest mode. I can honestly say that I only made one bad preflop raise. Unfortunately, every time I raised I got called in about 5 places for whatever reason. It was a good table. I lost $250 with FD as the PFR in a straddled pot by flopping a flush draw and BDSD vs. a flopped set. I overshipped the flop for $239 into $150 because most of the players were short and the only two who covered me had played the hand very passively. Of course one of them had hit a set, but his set mine was pretty awful so really I made money just by gtting him to call.

I rebought and made it all back and then some with some high variance goodness.

There was only one semi interesting hand tonight. The rest were just shoving money in with draws and either hitting or not hitting.

1/2

V (MP) Tight and up a lot. Just lost an all in vs. a 50BB drooler who shoved against his open with 86o. V had AQs. He strikes me as generally a straight forward tight player. Have not seen him in 3 bet pots but my strong assumption is that he's goign to be straight up.
Covers.

H (MP+1) Haven't been seen to do anything totally wild although I have been shoveling chips in at a high rate. Lost with a FD vs. flopped set as PFR in a straddled multiway pot about 20 minutes ago. ($386)

$5 straddle. 2 limps. V opens to $25 (his standard straddle open). I 3 bet KQ to $70. He calls.

Flop: 954 ($151)
V checks. I bet $75. He calls.

Turn: 9545 ($301)
V checks. I ship for $241.

Is this spew?

Pre I'm thinking 99+ AQs+ AKo
Flop likely 99+. Blocking KK,QQ. Discounting KK+ due to preflop and flop.

I've yet to fully analyze this hand. For now I like it as long as my assumptions about the V are correct. We'll see.


Up +$200 tonight in just a couple hours. A much needed win. Tomorrow I plan on playing a nice long session. If luck is with me I'll be able to add a nice chunk to the ol' BR.