Home Game Circuit

Hey all,
I am going to start an OP thread to help keep me accountable for my move to becoming a "semi-pro". First some backround.

I am a 33 year old mortgage banker so lets just say it is time to supplement the income a bit . I have been playing NLHE exclusively for the last year and working on my game seriously for the past 6 months or so. I prefer live play to internet for a couple reasons. First, I am extremely ADD and have an awful time sitting in front of a computer without doing a thousand other things at the same time (watching TV, surfing, ect). I initially thought it would be easier to play online being that I could see a ton more hands than live play and multi table but it is just not fun for me. Second, live is just SOOOO much softer. It's insane how bad the play is!! I have recently started keeping a ledger (mainly to prove to my wife that poker is most certainly not "gambling") and have been beating the games (anywhere from 50NL to 200NL) at an 18BB/hr clip (totally makes up for not being able to multi tabel at 2BB/hr. online).

My plan is to play the weekly game I host (100NL) and mix in some other games (200NL and 400NL) that I have tied into by meeting people at my game (it is amazing the underground network I never knew was out there and only found out about as my home game has evolved) once or twice a month (more if I can get the wife on board).

So there you go. I will pop back in once a week or so and share my exploits with the FTR community (funny hands/stories) and will update once a month with current bankroll, winrate, random thoughts on the month and how my "career" has evolved.

Any advise from members that have done something similar or encouragement is invited. Until next week Gl at the tables!!

Good night last night +$180 in 7.5 hours of 100NL. Only one mistake. KK UTG, raised 3.5BB preflop. 6 handed community pot. Flop comes 3 unders rainbow. I c-bet $25 into $21 pot. CU shoves over for another $36 and I made the call. Villan turns over flopped set. That is not what I expected. Thought 2 pair was his best possible holding ....villan is pretty loose and passive. Really a terrible call by me as I try to justify it in writing. Gotta get away from that one.

Best exchanges of the night:

Donk: "When I go to the casino I'm going to really take my game more seriously"
Me: "Yeah, you're a real student of the game."
Donk: "What, I really take my game very seriously."
Me: "What's the last thing you read?"
Donk: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Exactly!"

After taking down a pot with AA that was limped PF, checked thru the flop and turn, and small bet on the river and being asked why it took him so long to bet/raise..........."I never hit with my big hands"


Going to a new 200NL game tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Wow.....What a crazy game that is. Weird session. 2 hours on the wait list so I got to watch the game quite a bit before I got a seat. although it as a 1/2 game it played more like a 10/20 game. $30 opening was standard. Pot size did not matter at all (I routinly saw 2-3 times the pot sized bets). People chased 2-3 steets with draws with terrible pot odds. I was drooling to sit. Unfortunately, when my seat opened about 40% of the money on the table left. played ABC poker for about 3 hrs and made $100 so I guess it was OK but I was really looking forward to a bigger score. I think this will be a tremendously profitable game in the long run.

Got the regular game on Wed. so I'll talk to you then.

Originally Posted by Primus Sucks

Donk: "When I go to the casino I'm going to really take my game more seriously"
Me: "Yeah, you're a real student of the game."
Donk: "What, I really take my game very seriously."
Me: "What's the last thing you read?"
Donk: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Exactly!"

Do not tap the fish tank unless you want your opponents to leave or get better...

but GL

OK, so the numbers are in for the month.
+$1150 for the month
6 sessions total, 2 50NL, 2100NL, 2 200NL
total 34hrs.

win rates:
Total $33.82/hr or 34/BB/hr

50NL $28/hr or 56BB/hr
100NL $27/hr or 27BBhr
200NL $61/hr or 30.5BB/hr

Overall I am happy. This SCREAMS more hours!!! I am going to try to get to 45 hrs this month minimum. Going to try to play more 200NL than I did last month as well.

So I logged my first losing session last night. Lost my $200 buyin and called it a night. Just wasn't feeling it last night. I didn't adjust well to the way the table was playing at all. I opened for $25 in position and got 5 callers twice in 5 orbits and ended up check/folding the flop both times. Instead of opening smaller and playing more "payoff" type hands , I decided to open for $25 again on the button with AKo and got called in 2 places. Flop came KJ4 rainbow and I got donked into for $25 by the worst player at the table. I put him on AK-AJ and straight cards (he had already caught an OESD and a gut shot in the last 3 orbits) and I pushed for my last $100 or so. He snap called and rolled KJ for top two. What a shitty read. Oh well. Hopefully tonight will be better. Should have a pretty big crowd at my game this week.

Missed a post last week. Things have been busy.

Been a little card dead lately. made $125 at my game last week. Found a game down the street last Friday that is very soft and made $175 to give me a $100 net profit last week (nice comeback from that early session Tues.).

This week I only made $110 at my game but I was in the hole $300 at one point (little too much to drink and I couldn't let go of a couple marginal hands that I bloated to pot too much on early streets and pretty much committed myself to some ghey river crying calls) so I can't really complain too much.

See, this is why I started this blog. I never realized that I have a tendency to do that when I drink at the table (I only drink and play at my house) until I had to explain to the FTR community why I had donked off $300 through bad river calls and needed any excuse as to why. I have been opening my game up quite a bit at lower stakes (anything below 100NL) lately to try to work on my post flop game a lot and the more I think about it maybe the LAGG style and liquid courage don't mix. Perhaps this week I will start out LAGG and switch gears to TAGG as the night wears on. I wish there was a hand history for drunken play in my basement so I could do a better job evaluating.

Anyway, I am rambling now. Stop by and say hi. Talk to you next week.

Good blog so far keep posting. Nice work for the first month of play. Better than ive done :P keep it up!

Originally Posted by dranger7070

Good blog so far keep posting. Nice work for the first month of play. Better than ive done :P keep it up!

Thanks for stopping by dranger. I appreciate the encouragement.

I ended up playing for a few hours at the club last night. lost my initial $200 buy in splashing around and rebought for another $100. Ended out cashing out for $410 after all was said and done. Did catch some jackass that bet $50 blind when I picked up AA in middle position. I pushed another $65 behind and he called me . It seems that the owners are old Foxwoods regs and play on Fridays so I got to sit with some very experianced live players. See ya next week

Gotta love when AA shows up in that situation =).

+$170 last night. I still haven't figured out quite how to play that table. I think I need to make an adjustment but I don't know what. Here's the rub. You CANNOT get anyone to fold preflop. Can't do it. I've experimented with $6-$30 openings (200NL) and will get 3-6 callers regardless of the bet amount, the position I open, or how long it's been since I've played a hand. So what do I do? I have been leaning towards tightening up my pre-flop range and on the larger opening but that feels like a leak because I am forced to check/fold so many flops and I am committing 10-15% of my stack each time and by the time I play a hand post flop I am forced into binary decisions.

Obviously I feel like I have a decent post flop edge against these players so I think that I should probably open smaller and try to add a lot of suited connectors to my range. I just feel like my post flop edge is negated somewhat by the fact that semi bluffs are worthless because of the lack of fold equity at this table. I feel like I am building a big pot with a hand that is all or nothing and that feels too much like gambool for my taste.

Can I get some suggestions? I know you play some B&M Fnord, what would you suggest?

Anyway, got my game tonight and I'll update tomorrow.

bumping for updates...i like the home games...i go play pokers with my brother and at his friends houses and have a steady turnout of at least 5_8 people every thursday.....