Hello friends, I'm bani. Making this thread mostly for myself to hopefully keep track of my progress and be accountable with my goals.

A little about me: 22, from Sydney Australia and in final year of uni studying applied chem. Started messing around with poker about a year ago with friends in local pub tournaments. After studying the game a bit and having decent success in some live tournaments, I decided to start grinding at my local casino/online and have been doing pretty well. Currently averaging 9bb/hr at 2/3 (600hrs) and 9bb/hr at 2/5 (180hrs). The game i play is raked pretty heavily (10% capped at $10 with a $5/hr timecharge) but I feel like if I address my leaks and my degen personality I might be able to beat the game for a better hourly than I currently have. I'm also currently playing 30-50nl 6max snap (888's version of zoom) to help improve my game and hopefully run up a decent online bankroll.

Goals:stop being ****
Live:
- Put myself in most +EV spots (table selection, playing when mentally strong and leaving when not playing well). I tend to think of a session's poor results instead of the long term goal (increase BR) which causes me to play badly to try and get even when im stuck

- Think through ranges and all available information better to make tough decisions easier

- Study/post hands I could've played better

- Shot take 5/5 when game is juicy

- Play some live tournies and hopefully bink something - there's a $330 buy in weekly tournament that I usually play and a tournament series coming up that I'm also looking to play. Even though cash is my main game I still think I'm +EV in the weak live tournament fields.

Online:
- 10k hands of snap by the end of the month. Currently: 2427/10000.

- Watch some essential RIO videos


Current live roll = $25300 and online 888 roll = $1063.33 USD

An interesting/poorly played hand I played yesterday that I wan't to go over:

2/5, 450 eff. stack, I've been pretty card dead so i have a perceived tight image, v1 is tight passive older reg.

OTTH: Hero has 10Q in the BB. 2 limpers including V1, I make it $35. Folds to v1 in CO who calls $30 more and says "only because I have position" (he probably thinks i'm a nit).
Flop ($77): 10A7. I check, he checks behind.
Turn ($77): 10. I bet $55. He calls.
River ($187): J. I tank bet $125. He hollywoods for a bit and then jams for $350 total. I call. V1 had 77.

Analysis: pre i think is fine to use my image to scoop up dead money/win post flop. i didn't c bet flop because i didn't want to semi bluff with SDV. turn i think is standard value bet, same with river. when he jams with the hollywood and taking into account his tight-passive play and my tight image, his range looks something like: 77 (3combos) , 10Jcc (1), a10(3), not that many K high flushes imo maybe like K9dd (1). Trying not to be results orientated here but I don't think he jams worse flushes like 98dd, 65dd, any worse 10's like 109cc or even 89s. I think I overvalued my 10 blocker and should probably fold when tight older reg raise jams river.

4 hr session of 2/5, -$1200. Kinda on a 10 BI downswing atm at 2/5, can't really tell if i'm playing bad or just running bad (or both). It's why i created this thread.

The two hands that i got stacked on:

1) 10Qdd (again) ep, open to 20. TAG image, 8 handed table. Aggro asian fish flats behind, and calling station calls in the BB. Flop: 10cQc9h. I c bet 45, aggro asian raises to 125 (he's done this A LOT in the past couple of hours so it's looking very sus atm), calling station raises to 300. Calling st. has commented before on how aggro the aggro asian is. I jam my $500 stack. They both call. Board bricks and calling st. shows qq and takes the pot.

2) JQss, SB. Tag Image. UTG straddles 15. 4 callers, i squeeze to 105. UTG once defended his straddle with 35o. He also bluffed with position heads up when checked to him. Everyone else folds. Flop: JcKs4s. I check call $200 bet. Turn Jh. Check check. I jam brick river. He calls and shows KK.

Pretty sure it isn't possible to go on this big of a downswing and tell myself i'm running bad. Going to focus more on 2/3 until I feel happy and confident with my play again.

h1 i think i can fold once calling st takes this line. rec players never cold 3 bet on the flop. im crushed by straights, sets and combo draws have pretty good equity against me. he would do this with worse two pair but with my blockers that makes up a small part of his range. str8s: (32), sets (5), worse 2p (12). this is ignoring aggro asian who could DEFINITELY have a hand here. this seems such a std. fold i should have but i think this downswing is affecting my decision making. i would def fold this a month or two ago.

h2 i think is a good spot to squeeze pre with all the dead money. it might be good to take this multi way with a hand like this but i decided to use my image to steal some $. even though UTG likes defending his straddle, it's still a big raise so he could have something decent here, but could also just have nothing again. UTG takes same line on the flop that he took earlier against me where he bet when i checked to him - and he probably knows this. when he bets $200 into like $270 when checked to him, there's a chance he's using his previous play to his adv. it's also a pretty big bet. nonetheless, i call because he could easily be doing this with something like j10,j9, or air. turn and river play i think is fine by me.


today: play 1hr of snap, do some study, play some 2/3 live,

Fold hand 1 for sure after the passive guy 3 bets the flop, you have sets/straights in your range here, this seems a trivial bet/fold. Hand 2 is played fine.

Last time i played live at the star was a year or 2 ago and the games were just filled tight/awful nitty old guys (albeit that was middle of the day game).

thanks for the reply.

yeah exactly. h1 was massive spew by me. i have no doubt that this downswing is making me play my C game. this is why i think that most people who blames variance on massive downswings are probably running bad but most likely the run bad is causing them to also play bad. i just don't think it's possible to have a big downswing or a losing month playing your A game in soft games.

yeah the star during the day, especially on weekdays has a ton of nits and bad older regs. they're still generally easy to run over but its probably a better idea to start playing in the late afternoon

Played 2/3 for a few hours, -$100. Moved to 2/5 because it looked pretty soft and ended up +$600. Some key hands include losing a $1300 pot with top set against NFD all in on the flop in a 3 bet pot and hero calling aggro with A high on 567sss 9h 2d after he checked flop and bet bet turn and river in a 3 bet pot and being right.

today: play 1hr of snap, do some study and get to cas b4 midnight for that graveyard shift grind

also noticing that it's much easier to play my A game when i'm having fun on a table with people i like. like last night for example i went from a miserable 2/3 table with some nit asian reg playing 30/4 telling everyone else how to play to a 2/5 table with some entertaining people all watching the euros final together. i felt like i was playing much better with clearer decision making on the entertaining table than the miserable 2/3 table. going to try and take into account entertaining tables in my table selection process

got to the casino after 1am, grinded 2/3 till 10am and ended profiting $1250. played A game for the first few hours and slowly deteriorated to B-C game as the session went on. should've cut it way shorter than 9 hours.

the most interesting hand of the night: hero in SB with Q9 spades, LAGGY image. 3 limpers, i make it 25. EP limper calls rest fold. V is on the tight side. Flop jh10s7s. I check, he bets 35, i raise to 110, he calls. turn 4h. i overbet jam for 450 effective and he tank squirm folds.

another good 2/3 session. got to cas at 2am grinded till 10am. ended up profiting 1450ish by the end. again, should've ended session a couple hours short but i was waiting for this chinese place to open so i can order 10am dinner (lol). overall A-B game up until the end of the session where i started getting sloppy.

played 1 hand really badly: AA ep open to 22, calling st flats in mp and fish flats BB. my image is TAG. flop Ac8c6h. I c bet 50, calling st flats and fish folds. Turn Kx. I make it 130 calling st calls. river 8h. I overbet jam 520 effective, he folds. I should let him bluff his missed draws since he's never checking behind boats. not so sure he bluffs his miss draws but im free rolling if he does. maybe he has enough Ax in his range that thinks im getting him off a chop that calls since he's a station but at the same time it might just be better to value bet 2/3rds pot.

Played 7 hrs lost 1k. Was playing c game throughout but table got really good so i stuck it out. Ended up losing though. Need to stop swinging so much lol

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last 3 sessions (all 2/3) at graveyard shift: 7hrs +500, 6 hrs +180, 6hrs +430. Casino introducing 500max 2/3 and 1k max 2/5 tomorrow which should be good

need to start sessions around 11pm instead of 3-4am to maximise EV

Do they have the stupid rule where u can only play like 6 hours or so then they make u take a break?