Played 4 1/2 hours last night. Was really focused and developed great reads. Unfortunately it was one of those donkfests that required an ultra-TAG game, and I was super super card dead. All night I saw horrible betsizing, face-up play, and inelastic limp-calling ranges (meaning they'll call pretty much any raise size). There was plenty of straddling going on, too. On my button!!! And I kept looking down at 82, J3, K5, just garbage hands. It was somewhat painful to sit there and fold all night, but it was the right thing to do. Ended the night down $14. A couple of hands to recap the night:

Hand 1:

7 limps to Hero in BB who checks his option with A3.

Flop ($17): 2 4 5

Check, Hero bets $15, gets 4 callers.

Turn ($90): 2 4 5 A

Hero bets $40, gets 2 callers.

River ($200): 2 4 5 A Q

Hero bets $55, gets one caller. V shows 93o (from UTG+1) and we chop.


Hand 2:

5 limps to Hero who checks his option in BB with J3.

Flop ($12): J 5 3

Check, Hero bets $12, 3 callers.

Turn ($58): J 5 3 Q

Hero bets $40, gets 1 caller from tight older player.

River ($138): J 5 3 Q 5

Hero checks, V checks and shows KQ and takes the pot.

So next month I'll be in Vegas for March Madness and I want to study up on PLO before I go. I going to re-read Donkr's "PLO from scratch" and go through some of the math in here to prepare for some live PLO action. The goal is to have 2 good PLO strat posts before leaving for Vegas.

Going to try to put in 15-20 hours a week at the live tables as well. Will update progress as always.

I keep getting these good table lineups- loose passive and not very prone to value bet thinly- and haven't been able to cash in.

Started the night even after getting into a few confrontations. One raise, c-bet take it down, one raise, got called, c/f a bad flop against a LP, then this hand:

Loose player to my right ($175) had just won a decent pot after raising to $10. V was open limping a bunch prior and showed a lot of LP behavior (weak bet sizing, check-calling too wide).

V raises to $12 in MP, Hero, next to act, makes it $40 with AK. Folds to V who calls.

Flop ($84): K Q J

V open ships in ~ 2 secs for $135, Hero tank folds.

Next hand I pick up AA and take a pot down OTF after getting called in 2 spots pre.

About two orbits of folding go by before I ISO in position twice. One flop cbet got through on a low paired board. The other I c/f a J8xdd flop after getting called pre.

Next hand I pick up AA in EP, Hero opens to $20, got called by 2 opponents. V on BTN seemed slightly tighter preflop and much tighter post. Both around $285-$300 deep. V on BTN took a while to call. Cut a stack of $60 out before just calling.

Flop ($60): T 8 4

Hero bets $40, 1 fold, BTN calls.

Turn ($140): T 8 4 6

Hero bets $80, BTN ships for $225, Hero calls. River brick, BTN shows QQ, Hero scoops.


3-4 orbits later, Hero ($585) opens $20 UTG with KK, gets two callers in position.

Flop ($60): 8 6 4

Hero bets $35, V ($240), been at table 2 orbits or so, limp-calls pre, no showdowns, raises to $70, Hero ships, V calls and shows AA.

The rest of the night for me didn't see another showdown. A few more abusing the limper situations in which there weren't that many interesting spots. Ultimately cashed out with $265 for a -$35 night after 4 hours.

Was able to play twice this past weekend. Enjoyed playing a lot more because I wasn't super card dead preflop. Even got a bit of shorthanded action in.

Found one perfect squeeze spot early in a session. I had been sitting for about four orbits and had been watching the action closely. Open raiser, who had been opening often from late position anywhere from $10-13, raises to $10, one older guy who is pretty tight post-flop calls, loose-aggressive player calls from SB, I make it $50 from the BB. The table knew I hadn't played a hand yet and gave me credit, getting 3 folds. It was one of those reads where I knew the open raiser didn't like to commit his stack without the goods and I knew that neither of the other two wanted a HU situation. Decided to show the 65o to get a more actiony dynamic later on. I did end up getting paid off on a few value hands afterward, but I doubt showing the bluff had too much to do with it.

At the very beginning of another session, I look down at AK early on in the BB after a TAG-seeming younger player opened the action to $15 and a loose-passive pre short-stack called. I made it $51 from BB for value, hoping to get called by the short-stack. Instead, they both flat (young TAG guy says something about the extra $1 before calling) and I took it down with an $80 c-bet on a 722 board. Short-stack had like $120 behind and would have stacked off with the overcards, but he did not continue.

About 3 hands later I look down at AA in the CO and raise a couple of limpers to $22. I get two calls from the young short-stack and another LP older guy. 973 flop. Checks to me, I bet $41 kind of spashy to play off a bluffy image and got looked up by the younger guy. After the call he checks dark and asks if I want to check it down. I shake my head and put him all-in; he calls and shows a Q (was he trying to say he was trapping me with QQ?) and mucks.

Might try some additional experiments with bet sizing, specifically adding $1s on top to see if it gets a reaction from people. I've only seen total donks and maniacs do it with like $10 in white chips on top of a stack of red. Maybe it'll be perceived as bluffy.

Posted an additional hand in LLSNL for reference.

On the weekend: 3 sessions, 10.5 hrs, +$462.

Only played a couple of short sessions last weekend. No real noteworthy hands to post. A couple of the ones from the week prior were posted in LLSNL for reference. Overall was +$84 over 6 1/2 hrs. The session chart looks pretty flat right now but it's trending in the right direction:



Taking my talents to Vegas this week. Had a long standing plan with friends to do March Madness out there. Not everybody's going to be able to come out but it will be major grind/fun times.

The plan:

1) Play some 1/2 PLO live at Caesar's, V or Bellagio.
2) Play at least one deepstack tournament. Probably the $200 VDS or Wynn.
3) Watch as much basketball as possible.
4) Try to run up a stack playing 1/2 NL.

If things go well:

1) Play the VDS $600 400k guar.
2) Play 1/3 PLO at Aria.
3) Take a shot at a juicy looking 2/5 game or 1/3 at the Wynn.

If things don't go well:

Don't worry about it too much, enjoy the basketball, have fun at the 1/2 tables.

Updates (hopefully with some nice chipstack pics) next week!

No chip pics, but I do have an update after the Vegas trip:

1/2 PLO: 3 hours, -$385
1/2, 1/3 NL: 12.25 hrs, +$591
1 Tourney played, cashed pretty deep for ~+1k net

Overall a fun poker week and had a blast watching as much hoops as I could. Will post a couple of 1/3 NL Aria hands later (they're pretty good).

Best NL sessions were at Caesar's and Venetian. Won at least a little in each NL session. Played super tight and aggressive in PLO but bricked pretty much everything and lost a decent amount in very few hands. They were some great PLO tables though.

So I played Aria 1/3 cash games for a good bit of the trip. The fun part of Aria cash games is running into some good, thinking players and testing out some plays that most definitely do not work on 98% of players back home. There were only two hands that I felt like the spot was good enough to try, and both of them ended up working.

Hand 1:

Hero just sat down an orbit ago. Notices a pretty young, attentive, aggressive table. Mostly full stacks.

Preflop: Young guy with $350 raises to $10 UTG+2, folds to Hero who 3bets to $27 from CO with K5, two folds, SB, another young guy with roughly $300 cold calls, UTG+2 folds.

Flop ($68): A J J

SB checks, Hero bets $25, SB raises to $50, Hero 3bets to $85, SB instafolds.

One of those spots where on a locked down board that seems to hit most of my range pretty hard, I figured my sizing could be pretty small here. Once SB min-raises, I realize that he likely knows the same thing and could be attempting a cheap bluff with a missed PP or other type of air. I find it unlikely that he'd be raising here with any ace and he doesn't have many jacks in his range. I gave myself a great price at a re-bluff ($60 to win $142) knowing that I'd be shutting down if he shoves or calls flop.


Hand 2:

Table that I've been playing on for about 1.5 hours. I know the styles of every player and have a good idea on how to attack. A mix of bad loose-passives postflop and decent tighter players. One of the weaker players had just raised pre for the third time in a row (all to $7) in early position. Had been showing down weak broadway hands (KJo and J9) in similar spots.

Preflop: Weak player ($500) raises to $7 UTG, TAG ($300) that just sat down 2 orbits ago and raised pre a couple of times in late position (no showdown) raises to $20 in MP, folds to Hero ($350) in CO who 4bets to $55 with 52, folds to TAG to thinks for a bit and calls.

Flop ($121) Q 9 5

MP checks, I bet $65, MP folds.

Once TAG calls and this flop comes I think it's difficult for him to continue with anything but AA, KK, QQ, 99 and AQ. I think betting 1/2 pot to fold out the rest of his range makes money here.

Brief update on results since the Vegas trip: 16.5 hours, +$477.

Haven't been able to get many hours in lately, but planning on getting 10 or so in this weekend.

I remember thinking about my play recently and wondering if not getting to showdown was a quality of my game, a result of the player pool for a brief period, or just unusual variance. But my last ~8 hours of play or so have not seen a showdown. Actually I take that back. Maybe 1 or 2.

If I find that the trend continues I'll talk about it more here and add some hand histories. Once I reach 150 hours or so (currently at 77 hours since I started playing live this year) I'll do a larger post about play, goals, etc.

So it will be a while before reaching 150 hours. Since Vegas I've made it a goal to get 10 hours in per week, but haven't been living up to that lately. I've made some adjustments to my schedule planning, so from now on I will be hitting 10 live hours per week. I'll also be sharing one or two interesting hands per week.

Over the past few sessions I've thought a lot about image and fold equity. I go back and forth on it but understanding player tendencies is just so much more valuable (i.e. what is a player doing in general with XX on certain boards) rather than assuming he's thinking about my play.

There was a stretch where I felt that I wasn't going to get paid in certain value spots, which led me to attempting more bluffs. Once I got caught 3 barrelling tight players off of TPGK, it was a good reminder that those value spots are usually going to be there; I just have to be patient and continue to find thinner spots.

Funny how I was talking about not getting paid in value spots in my last post, because there was a hand that I''ll discuss that sums that up pretty well (Hand 3).

Hand 1:

V1 ($650) BTN Older guy (50s) with a Wynn hat on. No history, just got to the table.

V2 ($200) SB Younger guy no history.

Hero ($300) BB

Preflop: Folds to BTN who raises to $7. SB calls, I call with 98. 3 to flop.

Flop ($18) 974

SB checks, I check, BTN bets $10, SB folds, I call.

Turn ($38) 9744

I decide to lead here for value, as BTN is likely checking behind with overcards, possible flush draws. I bet $25, BTN makes it $50 within 10 seconds. I think about it for a bit and fold.

Overall I rarely see older players button steal wide. I think it's unlikely he's raising turn without an overpair. I think lead/folding turn for value is still better than c/c or c/eval.

Hand 2:

V1 and V2 limp from CO and BTN. I have AK in the SB and raise to $18. BB folds, V1 and V2 call.

Flop ($51) KQ5

Hero bets $27, V1 calls, V2 folds.

Turn ($105): KQ59

Hero bets $60, V1 calls.

River ($225) KQ599

Hero thinks for 10-12 seconds and checks, V1 insta bets $150, I snap. V1 shows Q8, MHIG.

Not sure what made him think to bet river, but I think checking is best there enough times given it'll be harder for me to get value from worse than it would be to get worse to bet.

Hand 3:

New table at the end of the night for me. I table changed here after seeing loads of chips on the table. Two of the bigger stacks have cashed out for the night, but the biggest with over $2300 is still sitting down. I've been at the table now for 3 1/2 hours. Before I decided to table change I saw him call a 4bet pre $900 effective OOP, then take it down OTR on a JxxQx board. Line went x/x, b/c, b/f.

Overall V is loose-passive preflop but not exclusively limping, he'll mix it up with a raise. Mostly he's gotten respect preflop and taken it down in those cases. He did show down AQ for top pair in a spot where he played it pretty fast, betting 3 streets for value. He hasn't gotten too involved while I've been at the table so maybe there was a huge donator in the game earlier, who knows. He seems somewhat sticky postflop and has gotten 'caught' spazz 4bet shoving AKo over a l/rr from a tight player.

Preflop: Hero ($415) opens to $15 UTG with QQ, V calls on BTN, blinds fold, HU.

Flop ($28): J57

Hero bets $20, V calls.

Turn ($68): J57Q

Hero bets $45, V raises to $100, Hero jams for $280 more. V tank-folded.

Not sure what V would be raising turn with against me and against my range that wouldn't be calling the shove. He didn't show any kind of hints at raising for info earlier so I figured his turn raising range was value-heavy. Plus he had over $2k in front to calling $280 more didn't figure to mean that much to him. Not sure if 3betting small to $165 or something then shoving all rivers would be best.

Made a few mistakes in a session last night. They weren't really costly or anything, but I made an assumption about a splashy player making a hand and I should have at least considered if he was spazzing. The real mistake was not taking the extra 10 seconds to make the right decision, even if it was the same one.

I also played 3/5 spread Omaha hi a couple of days ago to check the game out and get a feel for the players there. I really enjoyed the game even if it's way to big for me to be playing. I'll continue to pop in there once every 20 or so sessions because those games always feature at least 2 donators and I'm not afreaid of the regs either.

Update on the NL/Spread HE graph after 110 hours (all 1/2 and 2/3):

Played again yesterday to make it four days in a row and booked another solid win.

Hand of the day was super early in the session. Folded to me in CO, I open with 78 because two players on my left are quite tight and I decided to steal. Ended up getting called 3 ways, so four to flop:

693

Checked to me. I bet $20 into $40, BTN is an older lady who is super tight makes it $55, guy in BB flats, I call for $35 more.

Turn is the beautiful T

We GII 3 ways and I dodge an 8 outer to turn $300 into $725.

Now at this point I really want to be playing nearly every day but my other life goals (fitness, work etc) take a hit whenever I put in hours that bleed into what my normal sleep schedule should be. I have off of work on Memorial Day so I'll probably get a few hours in tomorrow.

Also, I've been thinking about how I should incorporate moving up into my plans for the future. I'm right where I was planning to be bankroll-wise at this point (6k making roughly 1k/mo) and though 2/3 provides great games and a solid hourly expectation, 3/5 plays much deeper and I wonder what is possible at that limit.

I think I should have >20 buyins ($10k) before playing primarily 3/5. That game allows buy-ins up to $1k but I'll be starting at 100BBs until I'm comfortable playing that level. Until then I'll only play if I see a really juicy table.

So I had a brief conversation with a friend of mine last night about table selection. He had gotten called over to my table and we played a few orbits together. I'd describe the table as older (out of the other 7, there was one youngish guy and the rest were 50+), loose-passive pre and passive post. Some were shorter stacked. Some had 100BBs, but there were no big stacks. I'd say average for the table was $250.

I had told my friend that I'd change tables, and I went to look at a few of the other games. The first one that I noticed had somewhere between $4-5k on it with a couple being bad regs and one being a new face to me. Now THAT's a table that I want to be on. I ended up changing to that table.

This got me thinking: what are the most important aspects that I consider in table selecting? Here's what I've come up with:

1) Money on the table. Has to be #1. Unless we have info that suggests that there are degen fish punting and reloading 30BBs at a time, our opponents having money on the table is the most important variable.

2) Table VPIP. How often the other players are playing hands is critically important to making money in Live NL. An overwhelming majority of our profits come from getting value, and we want players in the hand with us to get value from.

3) Table skill level. I thought about putting this at number two, and we should note here that skill level and VPIP often go hand-in-hand; having the discipline to play fewer hands can be considered a skill. But in this case I'm talking about post-flop skill level specifically. Would you like to play someone who never bluffs, plays OOP a lot and checks to the raiser? This is someone we can print money off of and allows us to play all kinds of hands in position against them. Is the person on your right hugely fit-or-fold? This is someone we can look to isolate in later positions.

4) Tilt-factor. For players that you recognize, have you seen them blow through 3 buyins in half an hour? Do they tend to reload and start changing gears trying to get even? Can you point to a time where they were clearly frustrated, you noticed their patterns and started reading them better? That's the kind of player I want at the table.

I can't think of that many more important factors. Of course, we have pretty limited info just from walking around and observing, but if you can infer from #s 1 and 2, you can figure out 3 and 4 at the table.

Quick update:

Through nearly 140 hours this year at 2/3 I'm right at $30/hr. Some brief and modest success at 3/5 and in Omaha hi as well. Will update every couple of weeks here over the summer.