I support your revised appraisal of the preflop decision, and I get felted here anyway. Maybe check turn, its fine either way on the turn. I support betting river for thin value as well, maybe sizing more since non-regs are either calling or folding to basically any vbet sizing you choose.


Hang in there, Mr. Suitedjustice!

Um,. forgive me, it's midweek and I'm overworked and slightly drunk but as long as Ive not overlooked too much: You 3bet here purely for value?! You will still get callers and have more money in the pot and also a higher range advantage on average? Not that range advantage counts for much at 1/2, just play your hand. Just my 2c, as played just std cooler, never folding top trips here for that amount

Don't tell H0RUS!

It's results oriented, but I think I'd get a fold from KTo and the blinds with a 3-bet. Then I'd win a small pot pre and wonder if I should have flatted

Correct.

Correct.

Correct.

Range advantage x more money in pot = more money won on average. It's the same for any level. I'm prolly getting folds on this hand, but calls in a bunch of other spots.

I agreed at the time, and thought it was an easy decision, but subsequently I was surprised at how close of a decision it was after punching in the ranges.

If he had, say, $260 behind instead of $215, keeping the action the same and having him shove on the river for $115, I would need 22% equity to call, getting almost 4:1, and it would be a fold if I didn't think he would spazz out with AA or have a crazy check/shove bluffing range.

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day I had just finished an old article by Bart Hanson called flopping trips and folding, so that was on my mind.

The literal thought was:

You were talking about deeper stacks, flopping trips and not turning them, and folding trips with a worse kicker, so **** off with that free knowledge you've given me. I call.

if you give him credit for AJ, then i think you have to add kj, jt as well.

Flatting pre from the cutoff should also get squeezed a lot by any competent button, which would make it very hard to continue profitably.

dealer, may i please have the seat change button.

It's very rare that I'll have a tough reg directly on my left; and more often than not, they'll move before I do.

Yesterday was a day off, during which I grew bored and went on to punt $105 on a tournament at Bally's. I made that back up (but only just) playing cash today. Today was also a challenge day.

Harrah's: 7 hours (Bally's Tournament -$105):
+$2

Challenge:$1/$2 Level:

Starting bankroll: $600
Last week's bankroll: $814
Challenge day progress: +$107
Current bankroll: $921
Bankroll needed for $1/$3: $1125

Draws were the death of me yesterday. I picked up a ton of them: good draws, combo draws, nut draws--I played some fast, I played others passive, and I whiffed on every one of them. That gets expensive quickly.

I also had a nice stack built up in the Harrahs freeroll, and then I ran it into the one bigger stack AA<AK and took a beatdown just before the bubble.

One cash hand sticks out: $1/$3 at the Aria. The cutoff is an okay player. I've already seen him properly pounding on limpers a few times in position, so he can't always have the goods there pre.

EP limps, MP calls and CU raises to $14, I pick up AK on the button and raise to $40. Folds to CU who calls. I have $290 and CU covers me.

(Pot $90)

Flop: T84

CU checks, I bet $50 and CU calls.

(Pot $190)

Turn: 3

CU checks and I bet $100

So I have a low dry board. I've seen a flat to my 3-bet pre and two checks post. Am I out of line here? Who is not trying a second barrel, and why?

Bally's ($1/$2) and Aria ($1/$3): 8 hours:
(-$577)

I think betting is fine, but you should be checking back here often as well.

What hands do you think V flats pre, x/c flop and then decide to x/f turn?

Curious of bet sizing on all 3 streets here and reasons for, is this your typical sizing here when you 3b and get called?

I think AK will peel the flop sometimes, looking to steal if I check back the turn. People have a hard time letting go of pretty starting hands. 99 and JJ are the other two hands being targeted. Possibly QQ gets wobbly when it's a hundo on the turn.

On sizing, I generally go slightly more than half on dryish boards in 3b pots, as a bluff and for value. What's your take on the sizing?

Last night went all right, until I tried to barrel on a nit who was never going to fold the high pair for which he'd been waiting for an hour.

I should really know better by now. You stack these guys when you have something that will beat an overpair to the board, and you get out of the way when you don't. It's not rocket surgery. I simply need to stop barreling the wrong people, and more than 80% of $1/$2 players are the wrong people in this case.

Harrahs: 6 hours:
(+$63)

I'm stealing that.

Rocket surgery confirmed awesome

I made some adjustments and ramped down the aggression, and on Saturday night I went too far and made some really bad folds with top pair and with an overpair. I'm not being results oriented there; they were bad.

When I'm making adjustments, I'm swinging too far in the opposite direction and I'm all over the damn place. In general, I think I may be trying too hard.
Saturday - Bally's: 7 hours:
(-$212)

Today was a challenge day, and I hit the necessary bankroll needed to move up to the next level on the very first hand of the day.

First hand was AA picked up in EP. I opened for $10 and both blinds called. I started with $200 (challenge rules) and the SB, a lady in her 50's whom I'd never played against, had the same or a few dollars less.

(Pot $30) 3 players

Flop T23

Checks to me and I bet $20. SB min-checkraises to $40. BB folds and I call.

Obviously, I'm not going anywhere. But I'm also not repopping and folding out worse.

(Pot $110) 2 players

Turn 8

Check to me. I bet $50 and SB min-checkraises to $100. This is the commitment point. A double min-checkraise on a dry board from an unknown $1/$2 player is polarized to either a flopped set or a herpaderp.

The question of stacking off with a high top pair/overpair hand has been a difficult and a recurring issue for me, and one requiring a lot of analysis; but only when I've had a deeper stack.

As it was, with me rocking 100bbs, and with the nitty folds of Saturday still rattling around my brainpan, my body was ready.

I call.

(Pot $310) 2 players.

River: 5

SB puts me in for my last $50 and I'm only folding if I'm struck by a seizure which causes a very specific arm motion.

(Pot $410) 2 players.

I call.



I played for 2 hours after that, and then decided to give myself the rest of the day off in celebration of moving up to the next level of the challenge. I haven't had much to celebrate lately, and what is the point of taking this job if I can't knock off early from time to time?

Regarding $1/$3 and the challenge: I want to be buying in for $300 in a game where most players are buying in for more. The idea is to use my experience with <100bb stacks to my advantage.

Bellagio and Aria both have a max $300 buyin at their $1/$3. Orleans has a $500 max but most of the players buy in for a lot less. So it's going to be the Wynn/Encore that will host the next leg of the challenge, starting next week.

Flamingo: 2 hours:
+$215

Challenge:$1/$2 Level (completed):

Link to Challenge Rules

Starting bankroll: $600
Last week's bankroll: $921
Challenge day progress: +$204
Current bankroll: $1125
Bankroll needed for $1/$3: $1125

Today was fairly routine. I had one hand that I felt a bit lost in. Villain was a reg whom I believe to be in his 80's or even early 90's, and he's a decent player.

He's pretty aggressive--almost a semi-LAG--and like me, he's on Team Neverlimp for the most part; he almost always brings it in with a raise.

SLAGOMC open limps this time from UTG with $95 behind, and alarm bells are going off as it's folded to me, holding QJ on the button. Dan Harrington, the original TAGOMC, recommends sometimes limping AA up front. I don't do it for various reasons, but I see it from certain OMCs often enough.

I raise to $12, the blinds fold, and UTG calls.

(Pot $27) 2 players.

Flop K44

Check to me. I bet $15. SLAGOMC shoves for $83

(Pot $125) 2 players, one all-in.

So I need to have 35% equity. If the 9 outs on my non-nut flush draw are good, they will just about get me there, assuming that he doesn't have AA only, where I'm a 70/30 dog, or A4s, where I'm 75/25, or God forbid KK, where I'm a gob of spit in a hurricane.

Flamingo: 6 hours:
+$51

If I live to be 90, I wanna be a SLAGOMC.

I would trash talk all the nitregs with my dentures out.

A few years ago I used to play with a guy at The Mirage who was there daily and about that age and similar description who I think was named Dean. He was a friendly and chatty old chap who made me feel similar to how you describe: if I get to that age I want to feel good enough to get out and play some poker and chop it up with people whole lifetimes younger than myself. Old Dean needed some help and had a scooter or mobile wheelchair but he was out there having a good time and SLAGing it up

I don't think it's the same guy. He's not nearly as communicative as the man you mention. It's possible that he had a stroke or something similar in the interim and can't communicate as well. Or maybe he just doesn't like me.

His wife plays $2/$4 limit all day as well. From the local gossip, I've learned that he's supposed to use a cane but refuses. That's all I know. I'll see if I can learn a name, to verify or debunk.

Currently, the SLAGOMC type is rare, but as my GenX cohorts age, I think you'll be finding him and her more often at the tables as time goes on. I hope to be one myself in time.

I folded, and he didn't show, because SLAGOMC is a ****ing badass.

I was the stone first runner knocked out of the Harrahs freeroll this morning, exiting early not for the first, nor likely for the last time. Given the structure and the players in these events, I prefer either to chip up big early or to go broke trying.

I achieved the latter, then moved next store to a very good Flamingo cash game, devoid of the dozens of regs who were still playing the Harrahs freeroll

In prior posts I've covered the work an old tournadonk new to the cash game needs to do with adjusting to deep sracks; and related to that, I've detailed our various initial shortcomings in turn and river play.

There's a third important issue that I haven't covered. It has to do with the tourney player thinking this: Holy ****, it's been almost an hour. I absolutely need to make something happen soon.

Within a tourney framework, this thought is right and useful, and it's deeply ingrained in the tourney player's process, and it's proven to be difficult as hell for me to root out while playing cash.

The lesson is that at $1/$2 and $1/$3, you don't push the action. You sit back, you accumulate reads, and you let the game come to you, no matter how long it takes.

I finally got on board with this today. I was patient, I picked up hands, I value betted the **** out of them, I got calls, and I held.

Easy game.

No real hands of note today, just gravy.

Flamingo: 8 hours: (Harrahs freeroll -$10):
+$544

SJ,

Your guy is a different guy. My guys was widowed and probably based on health and age is no longer with us. But if I see him next month lingering in the Mirage in gonna give him a hug and buy him a meal. I like the geezers and I hope I can be one someday (but like yours where his wife is still around)

If Vegas is still a mecca to visit I guarantee when we're all senile we'll probably be bumping into each other having no idea we once congregated on the world's most enjoyable cesspool.

ALSO CONGRATS ON THE SCORE. Bed time??

Good job yesterday SJ you’re learning and adjusting properly

This life is a grind even at the upper levels.


You’re mind is nearly ready, the middle aged body still needs some fitness prep tho :P (coming from a big guy so no judging)

I’m gonna stack you so many times at Resorts World, Wynn, Bellagio and Aria someday