The Slow March (Happy New Year)

This is going to take a while. I'll be lucky to get 3 hours a week to play!Family life has made it difficult to find the time to get back into playing, but now I'd like to at least put some money on the table again.

Last time I was playing "seriously" I played during the Party Poker domination days, and Tripled my starting bankroll playing very occasionally. I'd like to think I knew what I was doing then, so I'm going to start again. I'll start at 4-tabling $5NL to get my feet wet, and when I get to $10NL it'll be time to purchase PokerTracker and a Hud. It'll be a long road to $100NL at this pace, and this will be very infrequently updated.

This will be used as more of a blog of my session thoughts, as any questionable hands, I'll post in the appropriate forums. I don't expect this will be super insightful, but we'll see what develops over the next couple years!

BR: $100

Wow. It's nice to be playing again. It's still amazing to me how weak and passive the low limit games are so far. It just blows my mind that people seem to be playing with scared money at $5NL. I hope to be able to find another hour or two to play this weekend. When I said a slow march, I really meant a SLOW march!

BR: $110

GL with this.
If u want a free hud for now get realtime.
http://www.holdemranger.com/realtime.html

Thanks wesrman. I'll look into that for sure. Though I don't imagine it'll take too long till the bankroll can afford the "real stuff". Though then again, I might just hold out until PT3 is released... Shit, I'll just use the beta for now why not?

Anyways, poker. I didn't get to play but even an hour last weekend. My Son turned 2 on Saturday, and we had a Friend and his 5(!) kids come over on Sunday. On the plus side, I went up 4-5 buy-ins in that hour! Mostly just being aggressive in position, calling the short stacks lightly when they push, nothing much special. Though there was this 3-barrel A2C bluff that I pulled that was kinda interesting. I had a read on a call station that I tried to exploit and it worked, though looking back at it, I'm not sure that it was a good play or just lucky that he decided to fold to my push. I'm sure this guys stats were near 85/0/1 or something. Oh well, I'll be more sure of the stats in a little while when I get PT up and going. I doubt I'll be able to play much this weekend, so this will probably fall off for a week or two.

BR: $145

I was able to get a session in today. Couldn't get anything going.

Looking at my HH I was maybe playing a little looser than normal, and bluffing a little more. But I also didn't hardly hit any hands in the couple hours I played... Oh well. -2BI I think I'll tighten up a little bit for the next session.

BR: $135

Ok. Well, I'm at least updating this like a blog. Wish that I had more time to play poker!

Downloaded and installed PT3 beta and imported all my hands since March 1st. I was honestly a little surprised at my stats for my small sample. Over my first 1500 hands I'm running at 25/12/2.3, which is telling me that I'm too loose and not raising enough from the get go, and I need to get a little more aggressive. It's wierd, cause it feels like I do a LOT of PFRs followed by a C-bet which usually takes down the pot. Often doing this just because I was checked to. My button stats are an abnoxious 41/17. I'm limping behind with 1 and 2 gappers a lot I guess. That can't be all that bad...

Ok, so I've gotta make some goals for this then. I want to be running closer to 19/15 or so eventually, which means I've gotta stop playing around from MP and UTG. 19/15 is my current UTG+1 stats, so I've got a bit of work to do here. I want to work on getting my ABC game back into order before I start messing with the formula like I used to...

Tested out the PT3 auto import feature and put in a small session tonight also. Stats over 370 hands (24/16/2.6) That'll be a challenge to me I guess, This old (not really) dog doesn't want to learn a new trick...

BR: $147

Got a couple Midnight sessions in the last couple days. Wow do the freaks come out at night!

After further review of these last couple of sessions, I think I'll stick to my stats for now, and just try to increase my PFR a little bit. I'm playing VERY good Post-Flop right now, AND I'm on a little bit of a heater for sure.

Favorite hand of late, I knew EXACTLY what villian had here due to his timing. Sometimes he would've had AA, but I was very sure he had the boys... Perfect Pre-flop implied odds hmm?

PokerStars 5NL (.02/.05)

MP2 ($7.01)
Hero ($6.28)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 7, 7.
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.2, 1 fold, MP2 raises to $0.6, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.27) 7, 3, T (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $0.7, Hero raises to $5.68, MP2 calls $4.98.
Turn: ($12.63) 2 (2 players)
River: ($12.63) 5 (2 players)

Hero has 7d 7c (three of a kind, sevens).
MP2 doesn't show. (Ks Kd)
Outcome: Hero wins $12.63.

BR: $187

Quite the up-n-down weekend. Up 2 BI's then down 5 or 6, then back up 3-4 to break even for the weekend.

Made a couple HUGE mistakes with AJo carrying TPTK WAY too far. I turned into a FLASHY FISH at one point and gave my 150BB stack away. Thankfully I stopped at that point, reviewed that horrible session, and got back on the bandwagon.

Don't have the hand history, I'll update this later, but I definitely remember the hand. I played it so passive looking back, I wonder what I was thinking...

I have AJo on the button, two limpers in EP, and then the solid CO (18/12 or so) makes a standard raise to 6BB. I call, blinds fold and the limpers both call.

Flop: 9TJ rainbow. Action: Check, check, CO bets pot, I call, fold, fold

Heads up to turn: 4 or something: CO bets pot again. I stupidly call, it's usually raise or fold time here.

River is nothing: CO puts me ALL IN. I hem and haw, and somehow convince myself that he's bluffing AKs or something and Call. CO flips KQ for the flopped straight, and I kick myself for the hero call. I mean, the ONLY thing in villians range that I beat was AK or KJ. Everything else had me crushed, so the river was an EASY fold, oh well.

Stats for the weekend something like 24/20/2.5 Just attacking the weak/passives.

BR: $185

Played a little this week (probably should've been sleeping instead.) Was playing just barely more than break-even poker until I made a couple HORRIBLE hero calls, 1 of em 200BB deep. I got way too attached to AA and, well, here ya go...

Villian was loose and we had been tangling a bit, but hadn't gotten real serious yet. He got his mega stack after calling a huge (20BB) PFR with A5o and flopped the wheel, and then got it all in with 3(!!) others with deepish stacks (2 had sets! 1 had AA) He's probably running about 45/15, I'll have to check when I get back to PokerTracker.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

CO ($5.99)
Hero ($10.83)
SB ($10.85)
BB ($10.05)
UTG ($10.69)
UTG+1 ($4.68)
MP1 ($5.95)
MP2 ($32.96)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A.
3 folds, MP2 calls $0.05,1 fold, Hero raises to $0.25, 2 folds, MP2 calls $0.20.

Flop: ($0.52) 4, 2, 8(2 players)
MP2 bets $0.25, Hero raises to $1.25, MP2 calls $1.

Turn: ($3.02) 6 (2 players)
MP2 bets $31.46 (All-In), Hero calls $9.33 (All-In).

River: ($21.68) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $21.68

MP2 has 6s 4c (two pair, sixes and fours).
Hero has Ac Ad (one pair, aces).
Outcome: MP2 wins $43.81.

I snap called the turn. Had I put any thought into it, it should've been an EASY fold. oh well. After I realized what I had just called with, I really expected a set or a straight there, not two pair. Unfortunately, this donk left the table very soon afterwards.

Fortunately, I rallied back and posted a win for the session, in no small part to this fun hand! I'm being quite aggressive at the table, so if someone flat calls my c-bet and I have a draw, I'll tend to take the free card on the turn, otherwise, I've 3-barreled with air on occasion. The missed c/r is obvious on the river, too bad I sucked out on his slowplayin ass huh?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (7 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

CO ($6.10)
Hero ($14.69)
SB ($4.19)
BB ($8.88)
UTG ($2.18)
MP1 ($12.55)
MP2 ($4.29)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, 5.
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, BB calls $0.10.

Flop: ($0.32) A, 3, T (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.3, BB calls $0.30.

Turn: ($0.92) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($0.92) K (2 players)
BB bets $1.35, Hero raises to $10, BB calls $7.08 (All-In).

Final Pot: $17.78

BB has Th Ts (three of a kind, tens).
Hero has Qd 5d (flush, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins $19.35.

BR: $188

March! Ok, yes sir. Here are my march stats, courtesy of the PT3 beta.





Overall, I'm pleased. Had a bit of a breakeven stretch going on for the last bit, but I'm still happy. AA was actually a slight loser for the whole month!! KK was my workhorse, bringing in approximately 35% of my winnings.

April is already off to a good start also! Up 3BI yesterday, and almost ready to start taking a crack at $10NL, just a couple more BIs

BR: $201

Something I meant to do in my last post was identify my short term (April) goals.

So...

1. Move up to $10NL. Move up when BR is at $220, and back down with a $160 Stoploss.
2. Tighten up the stats slightly. I'm slightly LAGGy right now, and I like this style, but I think I'm cold calling raises too much in position with mediocre hands, and then letting go very quickly if I don't hit.. Want to be running closer to 20/17 or so. This will also in-effect artificially increase my AF, as I won't be checking down the hands that I Cold-called PF.
3. Put in more-or-less the same amount of hands.
4. Stop squeezing from the SB so much, and squeez from the BB more. I noticed that I'm more inclined to Raise the limpers from the SB than I am from the BB, I wonder why this is...
5. Go on a heater. (Hey, I can dream right??)

These aren't tough goals for me, but then again, this is a HOBBY, so I don't want to be stressing over meeting my goals! GL me!

BR: $206

Another week gone by, and I've played a bit more than normal probably. Finding some time in the morning before the house gets going to get a session in. I moved up yesterday, so I am now playing $10NL unless my BR drops down to $160. Due to the quality of players at these lower levels, I would find it unlikely that I will be dropping down anytime soon. I'm playing mostly between 4 and 6 tables of FR, and will continue to do so until I get a computer with a higher resolution monitor.

At the beginning of this OP I said I would get Poker Tracker and a HUD when I moved up to $10NL, and I will, just not quite yet. I will probably wait until either a.) PT3 is released or b.) Stars $50 bonus is cleared, whichever comes soonest. I'm using the beta of PT3 right now, and it is very helpful in and of itself.

As far as poker goes, in the last week, it's been up and down. I've noticed that I'm being called down a lot lighter than I remember, so I've found myself checking and slowing down a bit after my C-Bets are called. With hands, and occasionally air, I'm 2nd barreling (and rarely the 3rd barrel without the goods). I'd like to start ramping this aggression up again, but I'm hesitant to the inevitable variance that this style will incur. My C-Bet is probably quite high, probably between 90-95%, I'll have to look harder to see if I can determine what my 2nd barrel rate is. Otherwise, I've got my stats getting closer to what I like, Running now about 23/17 over all, and about 19/17 in the last week.

Here's a hand I had a tough choice with. Villian is running 18/9 over about 150 hands, and My notes on him say "Seems pretty solid". I haven't seen him do anything out of line up to this point. This hand came at the very end of my session, and I wonder if I talked myself out of making the call due to that also.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed)

UTG+1 ($7.40)
MP1 ($7.55)
MP2 ($10.40)
MP3 ($10.40)
Hero ($14.10)
Button ($10)
SB ($10)
BB ($12.80)
UTG ($15.20)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K.
UTG raises to $0.4, 4 folds, Hero raises to $1, 3 folds, UTG calls $0.60.

Flop: ($2.15) 6, T, 2(2 players)
UTG bets $1, Hero raises to $3, UTG raises to $14.2, Hero checks UTG's stats and notes, and slowly folds.

Final Pot: $8.15

I think I should've raised to $4 instead, but I think that is a minor mistake. All I see is an UTG raise, and a call, then a strongish lead on a pretty safe flop. With villians stats and read, I don't mind the fold, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth...

Thankfully I had this hand going on at about the same time on a different table!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed)

UTG+1 ($15)
MP1 ($7.55)
Hero ($15.05)
MP3 ($10.60)
CO ($2.90)
Button ($2.10)
SB ($13.45)
BB ($10.30)
UTG ($10)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with , .
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.4, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.1, 5 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.70.

Flop: ($2.35) , , (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $2, UTG+1 calls $2.

Turn: ($6.35) (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $6, UTG+1 calls $6.

River: ($18.35) (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $5.95 (All-In), UTG+1 calls $5.90 (All-In).

Final Pot: $30.15

UTG+1 has 5d 5h (full house, fives full of jacks).
Hero has Ac Ah (full house, aces full of jacks).
Outcome: Hero wins $28.70.

Fun fun!

BR: $228

Looks like Thursdays are the day for updates!

Had a pretty good week at poker. PT3 Beta 8 was released with the HUD, and I must say that it's just as useful as I remember PAHUD being, except now it's integrated! Couple nitpicks with it such as the HUD not resizing with the table, or not moving stats if you click "Sit Here" for moving your seat to the bottom of the table. But overall it's everything you should expect from it and I expect these nitpicks will be resolved in the retail version.

Well, I've been tightening up my stats in the last week for sure. They were 20/17/3.6 over 2K hands. That's really not tight, but it's not quite as laggy as I when I started. Today I was even playing 17/12/4.3 which is very tight in comparison. I'm still breaking even mostly on Non-showdown pots, maybe up a BI or so, so I'm not bluffing as successfully right now. I'm picking my spots, but I've also seen some pretty crazy calls also. For instance:

Villian is running 24/4/1, and my notes say "Very weak/passive, haven't seen him past the flop more than once" I don't mind how I played it, I would've played AK the same.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver Cards)

Button ($6.10)
SB ($20.05)
BB ($5.05)
UTG ($8.85)
UTG+1 ($5.30)
MP1 ($9.15)
MP2 ($2.50)
Hero ($22.30)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7 6.
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.5, 3 folds, MP1 calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.15) 6, 2, A (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $1.1, MP1 calls $1.10.

Turn: ($3.35) K (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $2.3, MP1 calls $2.30.

River: ($7.95) 8(2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $4.3, MP1 calls $4.30.

Final Pot: $16.55

MP1 has T A (one pair, aces).
Hero has 7 6 (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: MP1 wins $16.55.

But sometimes, the cards just come your way (and the money). This was like the 3rd or 4th hand into my session! Nice start! Villan was running 6/4/4, so not getting it in Pre-flop was my mistake, I don't know what I was thinking. I was very lucky to string him along, my timing and size of the flop bet probably threw him off enough to commit.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (8 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

SB ($3)
BB ($2.85)
UTG ($8.10)
UTG+1 ($1.10)
MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($11.40)
Hero ($9.75)
Button ($7.70)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A, A.
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP1 raises to $0.5, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.1, 3 folds, UTG folds, MP1 raises to $2.5, Hero calls $1.40.

Flop: ($5.25) A, A, 3 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $2, MP1 raises to $4, Hero calls $2.

Turn: ($13.25) 7 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks.

River: ($13.25) T (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $3.25 (All-In), MP1 calls $3.25.

Final Pot: $19.75

Results in white below:
MP1 doesn't show. (K K)
Hero has A A (four of a kind, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins $19.75.

BR: $278

Didn't get a lot of play time this last week, maybe 3 sessions, so about 500 hands or so. Started off not so great as I lost about 3BI's KK<AA, QQ<AA (Villian 74/30 ) and other random nonsense. Crawled my way back pretty quickly though, and found a couple of nice fish to donate to my cause. The Bankroll creeped above $300 for the first time, yea!

Checking my stats, I'm liking what I'm seeing, (21/17/5) but I'm slightly confused about my graph right now. I'm running a little tighter, with more PFR's, and I'm more aggressive, BUT, my Non-Showdown winnings have been flatlining for the last 8000 hands or so. I think I'm just getting played back at more at this level, people floating (villians problably don't know what that means) and Check/Raising my C-Bets. I think that this is stemming from C-betting too frequently without a hand and not HU. But then again, that's probably too specific of a situation to concentrate on. I'll just ride it out a little bit, and maybe I'll be able to pick up on why I'm not winning anything in Non-Showdown spots right now. Maybe I'm folding a little too much? No, that doesn't sound right. Hmmm.

BR: $305

This will be a long post. Fair warning!

First off, It was a good week. Played about 1500 hands in 3 sessions, and won almost $100 (32 BB/100!), bringing my BR over $400. Nice fun little heater. Starting to galvanize my stats to 21/17/3.5. Didn't really have any mistakes, and the cards (and the idiots) just fell into place. For instance, I really thought that I was bluffing here, villian was running 39/17 over a small sample…

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (7 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($22.90)
UTG ($4.85)
MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($9.40)
CO ($6.85)
Button ($13.50)
SB ($14.05)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, Q.
UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, CO raises to $0.3, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.1, UTG calls $1, CO calls $0.80.

Flop: ($3.35) 7, 8, T (3 players)
Hero bets $2.3, UTG folds, CO calls $2.30.

Turn: ($7.95) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $3.5, CO calls $3.45 (All-In).

River: ($14.85) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $14.85

Hero has A Q (one pair, sevens).
CO doesn't show. ( K J )
Outcome: Hero wins $14.89.

Add in a couple set over sets (and set over airs) and KK>QQ and the like, and you have a very easy week!

So, now for the month of April stats.







So, 21/17/3.3 seems to be a good feeling for me right now. Just the right balance of LAGG and TAGG, which I am adjusting slightly depending on the table I find myself at. I think it's AWESOME that I was able to beat the blinds in the SB, I'm quite loose there actually! Looking back at last months stats though, I don't know how I didn't notice that I beat the blinds in the BB??!! But I'm not sure what I need to do with my BB though; My Aggression in this position is noticably lower than all other postions, AND the stats are much fishier…I've gotta ramp that up. Overall, my aggression ramped up on all streets a notch this last month, I like it! I'm still baffled by my non-showdown line though. I've analyzed my play from before and after the first 5000 hands (Approximately when my non-showdown line started flatlining) and not seeing a lot of differences in play style. I really think it had to do with me having been looser PF and being on the positive variance side of bluffing. I guess as long as I am not LOSING significant money in Non-showdown pots, I'm not going to put any more analysis into this for now. FGators I am not.

Now to review the April goals and set new ones.

1. Move up to $10NL. Done!
2. Tighten up stats slightly. Done! (Didn't understand how AF was calculated, so that particular comment is N/A)
3. Same # hands. Pretty much Done! Close enough for me.
4. Squeez more from BB, not SB. Whoops. Hmm. I know that I kept this in mind while playing, just nothing came from it.
5. Go on Heater. Done! Wheeeee!

Goals for May.
1. Win $200
2. "Tighten up" the BB. I need to get more aggressive when I decide to play out of there. Must get the PFR closer to the VPIP, so stop calling raises basically.
3. Play at least 7000 hands. This will be a stretch for me knowing my schedule for this month, but doable.
4. Continue, or start another heater! (It worked last time!)

And, just in case, here is my moving up plan. If BR reaches $625, move up to $25NL, with a Stoploss set at $450 (7 BI).

BR: $403

Nice job...PLAY MORE

Wow well done Chris, glad to have contributed to your successes! :P

I'll probably continue to plod along behind you but only doing 4-5k hands per month. I've moved up myself to 5/10c poker but am a lot tighter than you are! I do love your aggressiveness.

about me: (@5/10c £320 atm only 2.5k hands @ 8ptbb)

Thanks kmind. Would love to play more. Maybe I'll sleep less...

Hi there Muddy, thanks! I've been playing at a much different time of the day, (about 11-12 am your time) so I haven't been able to take more of your moneyz . What's with this "plodding" stuff? Doesn't sound aggressive enough for me obviously...

Finally cleared the Stars $50 bonus this morning (as well as +$12 in teh pokerz), but I won't be including that in my BR because it is going directly towards the purchase of PT3 when it comes out. In the meantime, I am of course USING the PT3 beta, which for my purposes is nearly equivalent to PT2 and PAHUD. I anticipate that PT3 will cost between $70-80 when it is released, which should be VERY SOON?? They keep pushing back the release date. Being in the software industry myself, I can fully understand how estimates become overrun... Oh well, when it's ready, my money will be ready!

BR: $415 (+$50)

Edit: Wow, that's quite the story there! I hope I find it insightful. (Yes, I'm writing this for me... not you...)

Up about 3BI's for the last week. Mostly just cruising on a little heater at first, however my last two sessions have not been so super.

Everybody has a tilt monster. I don't see mine very often thankfully, and even when I do, he's small, cute and cuddly. Ok, well, maybe not so cute and cuddly...but he is small!!

I don't tilt very easily, but I did a little bit this morning which caused me to break even for the session. I hope that writing this down will help me to analyze this further and find the cause. Everything was going just fine at the tables, playing my usual game, and I was quickly up about 2.5BIs, cruising on 1 table with a 300BB stack after I stacked two people with middle set (against bottom set and TPTK). On this particular table, the person who stacked off with TPTK was a 62/2/0.8 drooler. The only unfortunate part about this was that he was seated directly to my left with a deep stack himself (he still covered me after this hand). A few hands later I picked up AKo and I open raised my normal from MP. My only caller was our drooler in position to my left. Heads up to a flop (two tone with 2 hearts) and I C-Bet with a PSB, Drooler calls. Turn is a blank, and I continue again with 3/4s or so Pot, Drooler calls again. River completes the heart flush draw and leaves me with A high, I 3-barrel block bet with a little over 1/2 pot, and he min-raises his obvious completed flush or whatever is better than A-high. I hem and haw, and regretfully fold.

STOP. In and of itself, this hand did not tilt me. The combination with watching the drooler get lucky against myself and others and this hand is for sure what caused it. Sure I lost about a BI to what amounted to a bluff, but the only problem was that I still believed I could bluff him. Why? My little tilt monster, that's why. My little tilt monster encouraged me to uncheck the box I had just checked to "Sit out next blind" because I was sitting next to a lucky idiot that folded to a lot of my C-Bets. And for whatever reason (tilt), I didn't want to let him give his money away to anyone but me. Just one more quick orbit, and I can stack this guy again at the end of my session! (Warning bells are ringing, but the tilt monster put on my earmuffs)

The Session Ender: I pickup JTs 200BB deep in the CO and Raise like normal. Again HU to the flop. KQQ. Weee, that flop hit my range HARD, the problem is, Mr. Drooler over there has no idea what a range is... I lead out again for a PSB, Call. Turn is an 8, just missed, and this is my big mistake in the hand, I shoot the 2nd Barrel again; Call!?#@. (Never do this again with air against a call station) River is what should be a beautiful K, Just the scare card I think I need, so I 3-barrel again, AND get min-raised again! I time down, and my tilt monster convinces me he's bluffing somehow with 99, or A-high (I know...WTF?) so I push (ugh), and the drooler flips over K5o...duh...

A 62/2/0.8 drooler is a laughable player. But you still need to be patient to take his money. I became impatient at the end of my session, and in trying to out-level an idiot, I out-leveled myself. I know how to beat these guys, and I am beating them! Ahhh, I feel better now, and my tilt monster is cute and cuddly again...

BR: $440 (+50)

Also, I read on 2+2 that the release date for PT3 is going to be on May 15th. Coming right up! No pricing released yet.

And there is going to be a "Significant" feature in the release version that is not in the Beta's. They are just trying to get the Hype fire started, even though it's really unnecesary with the quality product that they have...

Another week gone by. Down a BI over the last week.

Running below equity from what I can tell. Just hitting a lot of coolers, and the idiot chasers getting there on the river. My graph for non-showdown hands is actually up about $20 (so I'm staying aggressive), but I've been losing quite heavily in showdown pots. KK was an overall loser for the week (KK < AA, KK < JJ). It just seemed like I had all the setups that I wanted, but kept getting sucked out on. Oh well, I know it'll turn around soon, just sucks to be playing basically Break-even after the heater that I was on. 2000 hands BE isn't even a drop in the bucket for many players, but when I'm only playing between 2-400 hands a day, it drags on a lot longer for me!

Good thing is, I'm not tilting. My play has been solid, and I've reviewed my last weeks sessions, and didn't find any glaring errors, and most of my "big" mistakes were against half or shorter stacks. Even when I'm getting a bad-beat or cooler, I find myself laughing and having FUN, and NOT groaning or "Of course"ing. The hands that some of these idiots decide to play to a raise are beyond funny.

PokerTracker 3 is being released today. Price for it is $90 (sorry $89.99), so that's another buyin more than I expected. No big deal, It's worth it. It'll really only be a 4-buyin hit to my BR since I'm using the $50 stars bonus, so no complaints there. This will be taken care of tomorrow or this weekend sometime.

Time for me to hit another heater though If I want to make another $200 this month! Since May 1st, I'm only up 2 buyins! Lets Gogogo

BR $426 (+50)

Purchased PT3 today, so that money is now gone. That "big" new feature turned out to be a Table Searcher central database thingy that doesn't even work for PokerStars. Big deal. Slight hit to the BR, but I like to think that it's a necessary purchace

Nothing much happened this morning. Guess I'll fill up this post with a couple fun hands from the last weeks. Villian is a 79/3 cockroach...

Hero ($9.85)
BB ($12.90)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, J.
6 folds, Hero raises to $0.4, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30.

Flop: ($0.85) 4, 8, T (2 players)
BB bets $0.4, Hero calls $0.40.

Turn: ($1.65) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $0.8, Hero calls $0.80.

River: ($3.25) Q (2 players)
BB bets $3.2, Hero raises to $8.25, BB calls $5.05.

Final Pot: $19.75

BB doesn't show. (8 4)
Hero has 9 J (straight, queen high).


And this is just FUN

MP2 ($11.70)
Hero ($10.45)
Button ($8.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7, 7.
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.6, Button calls $0.60, 2 folds, UTG folds, MP2 calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.05) 6, 7, A (3 players)
MP2 bets $1.5, Hero raises to $4, Button calls $4, MP2 raises to $11.1, Hero calls $5.85 (All-In), Button calls $3.80 (All-In).

Turn: ($29.55) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($29.55) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $29.55

MP2 has 6 6 (full house, sixes full of queens).
Hero has 7 7 (full house, sevens full of queens).
Button has K A (two pair, aces and queens).

BR: $396

Hey chris, its been a little while but I thought I would let you know Im back. I decided to start at the very bottom and grind out a BR from $50 starting at 2NL and working my way up. Im not playing near the amount of hands I use to play, just trying to keep it casual. I really see no need to post any hands up, so I will probably just lurk around the board for quite a while untill I make it back up to 50NL. I feel like I have a very good understanding of low limit poker, and Im currently running at like 15 pt/bb at 2NL, which I really think can be better (2NL is super exploitable). Anyways I thought I would stop in and let you know that it looks your doing a good job. Send me a PM everyonce in a while or catch me on one of the IM's.

Originally Posted by ChrisBCritter

Purchased PT3 today, so that money is now gone. That "big" new feature turned out to be a Table Searcher central database thingy that doesn't even work for PokerStars. Big deal. Slight hit to the BR, but I like to think that it's a necessary purchace

Nothing much happened this morning. Guess I'll fill up this post with a couple fun hands from the last weeks. Villian is a 79/3 cockroach...

Hero ($9.85)
BB ($12.90)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, J.
6 folds, Hero raises to $0.4, 1 fold, BB calls $0.30.

Flop: ($0.85) 4, 8, T (2 players)
BB bets $0.4, Hero calls $0.40.

Turn: ($1.65) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $0.8, Hero calls $0.80.

River: ($3.25) Q (2 players)
BB bets $3.2, Hero raises to $8.25, BB calls $5.05.

Final Pot: $19.75

BB doesn't show. (8 4)
Hero has 9 J (straight, queen high).


And this is just FUN

MP2 ($11.70)
Hero ($10.45)
Button ($8.40)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 7, 7.
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.6, Button calls $0.60, 2 folds, UTG folds, MP2 calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.05) 6, 7, A (3 players)
MP2 bets $1.5, Hero raises to $4, Button calls $4, MP2 raises to $11.1, Hero calls $5.85 (All-In), Button calls $3.80 (All-In).

Turn: ($29.55) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($29.55) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $29.55

MP2 has 6 6 (full house, sixes full of queens).
Hero has 7 7 (full house, sevens full of queens).
Button has K A (two pair, aces and queens).

BR: $396

Two nice hands there Chris, thanks again for taking the time out of your playing schedule to help me, stick with them KK's, they will turn around.

Welcome back Jason! $2NL is very exploitable. Of course! It's almost as easy as play-money. Your a shark in that pool. Let's get you back to $25NL and above ASAP!

You're Welcome Monty, I HOPE I'm helping! And about those KK's, I've been just open folding them for the last couple days, just not worth it...J/K...

Decent session this morning, getting back on track (I even won $0.25 with KK!)

BR: $404

Well, I'm playing almost every day! But down almost 3 BI's in the last week which puts me at Break-even so far for May. (-4 BI for the purchase of PT3)

I'm not sure what, if anything I need to change. I'm getting about an hour to play every day, but it's fairly early in the morning, and there doesn't seem to be as many uber-fish out and about at this time. Don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of bad players, and I've had my share of bad beats and coolers lately. So I guess I just need to ride it out for now, my sample size is too small to make any assumptions. Most of the other players I'm playing against are passive 22/8/0.5 who very rarely bluff, so it's easy to play against them. Just get out of their way when they bet into me, unless I have something real. I'm giving the Short-Stackers high variance, and probably breaking even against them right now. I also noticed I've been out kicked a lot in medium pots lately (AJ < AQ, KQ < AQ, 89 < J8 etc.) Nothing to write home about, just annoying. It's weird though, I'm not losing money, but it feels like I am. This is why it's called a grind I guess!

I had planned on playing in the Guantlet last night, but family issues prevented that from happening. I'll try and play next wednesday's game, as the Sunday games will probably not work for me at all. We'll see.

To break things up a little bit for the next week, I'm going to move to 6-max for the next week. FR is just getting a little too tedious, and I think my play style translates well to 6-max. Maybe take a day and play some Omaha down at the $2 level also (I haven't played Omaha for real money yet) I won't even think about Razz or 7CS yet, but I will have to eventually.

BR: $364

Took a couple days off last week, and started playing 6-max when I came back. Had a very short session at Omaha, I'll have to play this at the $2 level for a while to get the hang of it. My downswing is continuing, but I think (hope) I've hit the bottom! My play is mostly solid, not very much spew going on from what I can tell. Just still running into small (and large) coolers and bad-beats, and the occasional bluff-catcher.

Played in the guantlet last night, and at first I was doing fine. Caught a couple cards early, and had a respectable stack going into 50/100 blinds. Then I just threw everything away on a CiB hand for no logical reason other than to "please the crowd". I really wanted to play better, I just got caught up in the theatric mood I guess... darn.

I think I'm going to continue playing 6-max. The variance is probably higher, but I think my win-rate will be stronger there also, and it's also good prep-work for higher levels. We'll see.

Heading down to NewYork for a graduation party this weekend, going to shut down a bar for a few hours! Probably going to take the kids to see Mrs. Liberty also at some point. Should be fun!

BR: $336

Another novel below, put on your reading glasses!

Now, I've heard and seen that some winning players have long break-even stretches lasting 10's of thousands of hands (up to even 50K!). While that is encouraging on the whole for me, I have a feeling that's not the whole story with my current stretch; simply because I'm only at $10NL right now, I'm still playing in a very fish-rich environment. While I'm not exactly sure what my leak is, I would like to find an avenue to determining what it is, so I'm going to start going backwards a little bit. First thing. Turn off the HUD for any opponents that I have less than 100 hands on. I think that I read into stats a little too much when I don't have a good sample size. 2nd thing is to go back to 2-tabling. Once I've proved to myself that I'm winning again, I can add the tables back in. This will in-effect reduce the # of hands I play, but to be honest, that's not a useful goal for me right now.

Let's look at some stats.




First thing to notice is that I had a losing month! boo... Ok, now that that is over with let's move on. I went away from FR and played some 6-max towards the end of the month which skewed my stats a little bit, as I play slightly looser (this is normal) at 6-max. I'm going to stop this for right now. I will take a month to play exclusively 6-max in July, so long as I make some progress in June. For June, I want to concentrate on FR and get back into the swing of things. One stat that jumps out at me is my "Att. to Steal". It jumped almost 10%. So, in essence I've introduced even MORE variance in my game. I might even get too attached when I do this with mediocre holdings. Ok, so that's probably a place to start... Tighten up my blind steals some...Don't continue after the flop C-Bet without a hand or a good draw; I've been caught 2nd and 3rd barreling a few times, which means I'm probably doing it too often. Remember that a lot of the players down here are weak/passive, bet for VALUE, bluff less frequently.

Goal Review

1. Win $200 Nope. Not even close
2. "Tighten up" the BB. Slightly...Hmm. I don't think this is a problem now
3. Play at least 7000 hands. Done! Hey 1 out of 4 ain't bad
4. Continue, or start another heater! Um.. not so much

Goals for June.
1. Find my groove. If that means tightening up to stop spewing, so be it. I'm probably playing too many levels above my opponents, stop this.
2. Slow down on the Blind steals. Don't stop! Just bring the thottle back down 10%
3. Play exclusively FR. I need to have some stability which I lost at the latter half of May.
4. Have fun! I still had fun in May, but it wasn't a goal.
5. $100. I Don't know if I need to have a monetary goal or not. Since the entire goal of this poker thing is to win money, this is a big part of it, so yes.
6. Stay away from the Gauntlet. It's fun, but for right now, it really is a different type of poker that I'm not used to playing.

I'm not going to put a # of hands goal in this month. I want a positive win-rate before I do anything like that. That'll do it as far as poker goes.

New York was ok. It was nice to see my sister and friends, and the party at the bar was quite fun even with all the kiddos there. Some other aspects of the trip left a little to be desired though. (Car-sickness FTW). June is going to be very stressful outside of poker. We have a bunch of visitors coming, so there's going to be a lot of activity. Poker will be a stress reliever for me, and that's how I'm going to approach it. Variance will either like me or not, we'll see.

BR: $336

Visitors can throw a loop into things, that is for sure. Plus family issues can dramatically impact the game. Your comment about blind steals is interesting to me, have been trying to follow your advice and find that spot where it all 'clicks' and makes sense. Keep up the good work and if there is anything a donk like me can contribute, just ask

lo Chris.

small sample blah blah but in my experience of 10nl fr...

attention to steal is massive for 10c, I used to aim for 30% but am beginning to think it should be less at this level. Fair enuff some tables you can do it all day long, every time.

Playing 30% of hands when bet at from the BB this has to be bleeding money. Playing that many hands oop, when someone basically says I have pretty cards....

CBET 75% probably to high, your basically doing it nearly all the time. mine is 70% and i think it is too high/predictable..

Did you notice your AF in position 3/4/5/6 is huge compared to button/1/2? I wonder why this is.

some of this maybe just a difference in styles but I hope it helps,.

Originally Posted by MuddyWicket

attention to steal is massive for 10c, I used to aim for 30% but am beginning to think it should be less at this level. Fair enuff some tables you can do it all day long, every time.

Attempt to steal I agree, I think this is a leak that I will work on this month.

Originally Posted by MuddyWicket

Playing 30% of hands when bet at from the BB this has to be bleeding money. Playing that many hands oop, when someone basically says I have pretty cards....

You know what, you might be onto something there. I don't think it's a big leak (still only playing 13/5 from the BB after all) but I'll have to take a look at that. Let's see how good I am with PT3 filtering!

Originally Posted by MuddyWicket

CBET 75% probably to high, your basically doing it nearly all the time. mine is 70% and i think it is too high/predictable..

Actually CBET is at 87% for $10NL FR, and no, I don't think this is too high at all. I'm letting everybody know "Don't fuck with me unless you think you can beat me, cause it's gonna get expensive!" It's part of playing LAGG, and I'm sure that this isn't a problem at this time.

Originally Posted by MuddyWicket

Did you notice your AF in position 3/4/5/6 is huge compared to button/1/2? I wonder why this is.

Simple. In earlier positions, I'm betting and folding, not a whole lot of calling going on. In later positions, I can call more often with implied odds. Except for MP3 (WTF 10.56 AF?) I don't see much of a problem here yet. I play pretty aggressively overall, which can bite me in the butt sometimes. I'll keep an eye on it, but it's not a big concern yet. Thanks!

How's your operation going (you need a blog thread also!)

Originally Posted by Monty3038

Visitors can throw a loop into things, that is for sure. Plus family issues can dramatically impact the game. Your comment about blind steals is interesting to me, have been trying to follow your advice and find that spot where it all 'clicks' and makes sense. Keep up the good work and if there is anything a donk like me can contribute, just ask

It's going to be a whirlwind of a month. I'm also turning 30 at the end of it. Gonna be old all of a sudden LOL.

Be careful about using/applying my comments in here, I'm not writing them with SnG's in mind at all, and they may throw you off! TAGG is much more applicable for SnG's than LAGG. I might have to mix it up later this year and do a month of SnG's for fun. Sure, why not. We'll see, as long as I still have a BR!

[quote="ChrisBCritter"]

Originally Posted by Monty3038

Gonna be old all of a sudden LOL.

Umm... well... shut up.

Just kidding, but 30 isn't old... I'm pushing 40. And I'm not OLD... YET!

yeah pushing 40 myself...(well a couple of years yet..)

me: 4k hands last month @8ptbb with huge swings up and down, currently wavering around $400.

You:
Your PFR probably means you have to double barrel a lot more, not doing so might be a mistake..

actually from the BB your loss in ptbb -0.04 is not that bad, at least compared to me.

ROFL. 30 isn't old. I overheard a conversation from a younger person (8-10 yo.) that said something to the effect of, "... when I'm old, like 30 or so..." and I busted out laughing. Of course they looked at me strangely, and I started crying on the inside, while still laughing...

Muddy: As you can see in my April stats (~20ptbb/100) and March (~11ptbb/100) my style is probably a LOT more swingy than yours! Looking at it that way, I'm just hitting the bottom of my standard deviation right now. It'll all come around I'm sure!

I do 2-barrel a lot, and mostly it is successful, but of course, on the days when it isn't, it becomes expensive rather quickly. I'm sure this is fine for when I get up to NL$200, so it's good practice, but I think I'll conciously tone it down this month some. The passives are letting me do their value-betting.

So, get yerself a operations thread stat!

BTW, you guys are old!

Ok. A week has gone by. Very fast. +2.5BI over maybe 600 hands, I didn't check exactly how many hands I played, but it wasn't much. Got coolered twice in the last two days for full stacks though, so it was almost more like +4.5BI up to sunday...oh well.

So, a week of 2-tabling felt about the same, only a LOT slower. I didn't really feel that my decisions were any easier with more time to think about them, just that they came around a lot less often. I'm going to pick the pace back up (table-wise) for the next week, back to 4-tabling! It never felt rushed before, so I don't think that my decisions are affected by it. We shall see. If I find myself making glaring mistakes, then I guess 2-tabling is my limit, even if it is slow...

Genitruc just updated his operation this morning also, http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...46595-140.html and I found myself looking at a very similar play style and thought process to what I have (even though 6-max). I think that one thing that I really have to work on for my own game is using a value-oriented bet more often. I find myself betting hard a lot trying to chase out the draws, but at the same time this tends to commit me to the pot more often with middle holdings if we get to the river where sometimes the effective stack is less than a PSB. I may need to work on "the setup" more when deciding my turn bet size. Now is not the time to think about this a lot, I have to first make sure that my game is solid and I'm not making stupid mistakes first before I add this facet to my repertoire.

Outside of poker, I went down to Boston on Tuesday to pick up two teenage visitors that will be with us for the next month. So far so good. We have them sleeping outside in a tent actually, so it actually isn't cluttering up the house much yet. They are picking up after themselves and not making a nuisance, so no stress added yet (except for shower time...) Hopefully the excitement of being in america doesn't wear off for a while. Also, we had a new metal roof installed on the house this weekend! Wow, what a difference! We had quite the ice-dam this past winter with a little leaking going on, and we knew that we would have to do something about it this year. So we looked at the options and went with the standing seam route instead of shingles. It looks much better than my wife and I thought it would, so we're happy! Now I just have to play a LOT more poker to pay this off!

BR: $361

Summer is here, and June is going great so far! Jeez the weather up here has been beautiful this last week, up until yesterday. Time for some rain the next few days.

As hinted in my last entry, it's getting busy around the household right now. I've aborted a couple sessions before even starting because I knew I would not be optimally rested. However, the sessions that I have played have been great; a nice and refreshing 25ptBB/100 ride which has pushed me back over the $400 mark. I think I had 1 full stack All In pot (AA > AK), but the rest were against half-stacks or less where I was doing better than flipping most of the time. A lot of these situations are similar so I'll generalize it here:

I have a full stack in MP and open raise to $0.40 with 99. Folds, or 1 to 2 callers to BU, SB, or BB with a $2-4 stack who 3-bet pushes. I instacall and hold up against the idiots K7o (sometimes better, sometimes worse)

It's amazing how often this situation has come up in the last week or so, actually now that I think of it, the last month or so. I do selectively remember getting sucked out on a little bit more before, just hasn't happened as frequently the last couple weeks. GOOD! Over the short term of the last week my stats opened up a little bit to 21/15 or so. I noticed that while playing, there were a lot more implied odds opportunites in which I had position with suited connectors or small PPs after a raise and a couple callers. I'm fine with this, just gotta play as the situation warrants, gotta be flexible.

My plan for this week is to play at least 4-5 sessions. That should be doable, but I won't pressure myself if it doesn't happen, family is more important. 20 BI's to go until $25NL, let's get it on!

BR: $426

Originally Posted by ChrisBCritter

Originally Posted by MuddyWicket

Playing 30% of hands when bet at from the BB this has to be bleeding money. Playing that many hands oop, when someone basically says I have pretty cards....

You know what, you might be onto something there. I don't think it's a big leak (still only playing 13/5 from the BB after all) but I'll have to take a look at that. Let's see how good I am with PT3 filtering!

Forgot to follow up with this.

I filtered the hands in may for all hands that I defended my BB by not folding to a steal (either calling or re-raising). I didn't find anything noteworthy. Looking at it holistically, out of 1K+ hands from the BB I only raised or called a raise with 13% of my hands. According to PokerStove, 13% is: 77+,A8s+,K9s+,QTs+,JTs,ATo+,KJo+ That range is pure numbers though, and doesn't represent my actual range which is probably closer to: 22+, AJs+, KJs+, QJs (maybe), AQo+, KQo (maybe). So I'm defending my blinds with good hands that have potential to hit monsters, not spewing (Preflop anyways). Taken out of context, some of these could be folded, but I honestly didn't find a single hand that I would've played differently in the group. Oh well. Seeing how June is going so far, I'm going to chalk May up to variance, and a "Cashout Curse" (buying PT3) We'll have to see how my June stats turn out...

BR: $449

Almost 1500 hands and nearly +5 Buy-Ins in the last week. June has certainly been refreshing after that painful stretch in May.

And it's been relatively easy. There haven't been any real tough decisions, most of my C-Bets are taking down the pot on the flop, and when I get looked up, I seem to have the goods more often than not. I've really paid attention to any FPS (Fancy Pants Syndrome) plays that I make, and make sure that I have a reason to do it. Most of the time, there is no reason, so I try to make sure I refrain from it.

I'm going to try something new with my weekly update, just for the heck of it. Here is my biggest winning and losing hands of the last week...

Villian was playing pretty loose/aggressive, right around 35/30 or so. My flop call is debateable, it's a little on the fence. But with how villian was mostly playing post-flop, I believed I would not see a second barrel a lot, and I easily had the implied odds to hit my flush.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($10.45)
SB ($10.20)
BB ($17.70)
UTG ($10.70)
UTG+1 ($11.55)
MP1 ($3.55)
MP2 ($6.95)
MP3 ($10.55)
CO ($6.20)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 4, A.
UTG calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP3 calls $0.10, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.10, SB raises to $0.7, 1 fold, UTG folds, MP1 calls $0.60, MP3 folds, Hero calls $0.60.

Flop: ($2.40) J, 8, 2 (3 players)
SB bets $1.5, MP1 folds, Hero calls $1.50.

Turn: ($5.40) 8 (2 players)
SB bets $2.5, Hero raises to $8.25, SB calls $5.50 (All-In).

River: ($21.40) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

SB has J A (two pair, jacks and eights).
Hero has 4 A (flush, ace high).
Outcome: Hero wins $21.65.

Biggest Loss of the week: Villian had to have been drunk. Seriously, his stats over just 50 hands or so were 80/15!!! The hands that this guy was showing down were just laughable. Oh well, at least he didn't have a full stack here...Against a sane person, I could probably fold the turn, or call it down, but not against him though, his range was anything from J-high to the nut straight, with no way of telling which was which. Looking at it again now, I'm not crazy about the turn raise with UTG still in there, maybe I should've raised the flop... small mistakes...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Button ($14.80)
SB ($5.90)
BB ($9.95)
UTG ($4.30)
UTG+1 ($11.40)
MP1 ($1.85)
MP2 ($6.35)
MP3 ($6.35)
Hero ($17.80)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 8, 7.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.4, 2 folds, MP3 calls $0.40, Hero calls $0.40, 3 folds.

Flop: ($1.35) 6, 9, 7 (3 players)
UTG+1 bets $1, MP3 calls $1, Hero calls $1.

Turn: ($4.35) 8 (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets $1.3, Hero raises to $4, UTG+1 folds, MP3 calls $2.70.

River: ($12.35) 4 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets $1, MP3 calls $0.95 (All-In).

MP3 has 5 K (straight, nine high).
Hero has 8 7 (two pair, eights and sevens).
Outcome: MP3 wins $14.25.

Back to real life, the final installment of visitors has arrived for the summer! We now have more visitors in the house ( 5! ) than we have in my core family ( 4 ). It's going fine so far, nobody has stepped on anyones toes yet. On wednesday or thursday though, we are going to have to have a sit-down to ensure there are some ground-rules for the next couple weeks. Going down to boston to do the touristy thing either this weekend or the next. Going on the Freedom Trail, and the Aquarium. That'll probably be a full enough day for the little ones. We'll catch the Museum of Science next time. Fun Fun!

BR: $474

June is over already! I think I met most if not all of my goals pokerwise.

Let's check it out...




I played a decent number of hands considering how busy it's been around the household. I'm happy with how it went, Except for showing down when UTG, that sucked. PreFlop stats are starting to get a little passive, maybe I'll work on that some to call a little less frequently. I think I'm over-convincing myself about implied odds in many situations while in position. The last week or so has been a bit of a downer (~-5BI), but objectively, it's only 1500 hands or so, nothing to worry about yet, I only saw one hand that I really spewed on, and it was semi-bluffing into a call-station (looking at it another way, I might've thought I was betting for value though...)

Goal Review:
1. Find My Groove. Yup. A subjective goal to say the least
2. Slow down Blind Steals. Yes. Brought this back to "normal"
3. Play FR Only Yup.
4. Have Fun! Easy one!
5. $100 Chaching! almost 10 ptBB/100, really nothing to complain about. Wait a sec though... By BR comparison to the May update, I'm only up $94?? Hmmm, somehow must be missing some hands in the DB.
6. No Gauntlet I was good, and stayed away...

Goals for July:
1. Play 6-max exclusively
2. $150
3. Get more aggressive PF.

It's time to move to 6-max. I'm going over to the dark-side for the month of July, and I hope to get a lot of hands in. The house will be emptying soon, and PokerStars is having a bunch of "2X" promotions that I'd be dumb not to try and take advantage of. I want to tighten my stats back up a little bit, though, with playing 6-max, these stats won't really be comparable to all my previous months. We'll see.

We still have a pretty full household for the moment, but that is all going to end next week, and then it will be "normal" once again. Between that, and moving to 6-max, I may have a record number of hands this month! Boston was very nice this last weekend, we started a little late though, and had quite a little adventure finding parking, so we only did the Freedom trail. It was MORE than enough for the two little kiddos. Besides, if we're going to spend $20 per person to go to the aquarium, we should stay there the whole day. Maybe we'll go down again this weekend? Who knows.

BR: $430

Congrats on a solid June! Hope July is even better. GL with 6max too, kill it!

Didn't get as many hands in as I thought I could last week, I think just over 1000? I'll have to check PokerTracker... 6-max is very swingy for me. Villians seem to be MUCH looser on average, stacking off very easily. I didn't adjust at first, and was very surprised at what I was being called down with. We'll see if I can make the adjustment for the rest of the month.

I already broke my 6-Max only goal though! I had an unexpected session last night, and for no particular reason I entered a $4.40 180 man. I finished exactly on the bubble in 18th place, cause I was going for 1st. Earlier on I had won a 40/60, and then a 60/40 not long afterwards to give me the chip lead in the middle stages. At the end though, it just didn't work out. Was it a waste of time? Yes and No. Yes because I probably would've made more $$ at cash, but No, because I still managed to have some fun.

With 20 left and about 16K in chips (Average 12K) and blinds at 200/400 ante 50 I went for a blind steal from the CO with TJs. Raised to 1300. Button (8K stack) flat called, and BB (4.5K stack) Pushed over. I called, but the Button inexplicably folded. BB flips QQ, and I never catch up, darn. 2 hands later I get 99 and raise it up, A different BB with about half my stack pushes back into me, I of course call, and he shows KK. GAAHHH! I only have 5K left now, we are 1 away from the bubble, and blinds just went up to 300/600. AKo very next hand! POOOSH! Severely shortstacked BB calls me, and his Q8 doesn't beat me. Bubble bursts and I have KQs in MP1 or UTG+1 with an M=~6. I go for the win, and go for a race against 88. He flops quads. gg me.

A very busy week outside of poker though. I built a woodshed with my father-in-law, we had his 60th birthday party, 4th of July fireworks (PERFECT weather and show). And we went up to Boothbay harbor, and also down to Two Lights State park one day. Jeez, no wonder I couldn't drag myself out to play some poker. All of the teenagers are out of the house now though, and my wifes parents will be leaving this week also. After all this, taking care of two little kids will be a breeze! (Yea right...)

BR: $440

Congrats on living life and still finding some time for poker Chris, it has been hectic it sounds and I understand that. The quads... man, nothing you can do there

Keep plugging away, fun is a major factor I've learned, and if it isn't fun, it isn't worth it. Poker as a job would suck.

6-max is swingy! And WOW, is there a lot of action; Lot's of fun! The house is empty of all visitors finally, so I got in over 2000 hands last week.(a lot for me!) At one point, the BR peaked over $500, but I lost a little with a couple bad beats and one bad play.

It's crazy what some people, a lot of people for that matter, are 4-bet pushing with PF. Suited QX, 98o! It's just super easy sometimes, but granted, they could be playing back at my LAGG style. The hard part is finding out if you are in a hand vs. a flesh puppet with or without a brain cell, because 9/10ths of the time, they don't have one (Limp Calling UTG with 94s? WTF). I'm playing pretty LAGG, running about 30/22 or so I think. And it's not uncommon for me to have to C-bet into 3 or 4 opponents. That leads to high variance for sure, but I'm mostly getting my money in good. The fun-factor seems to be significantly higher than FR (Full Ring), but that probably has a lot to do with the action.

I don't have the hand histories, but I'll illustrate a couple fun hands from this morning that I remember.

6-Handed $0.10 NL
Hero (~$15) [ QQ ]
Villian (~$15)

I'm UTG with the ladies, and make a standard raise to $0.40, Folds to the BB (Only have 5 hands on him, but he's played every single one, and aggressively), he 3-bets to $1.2. I think about 4-betting, but decide to see a flop since we're deep.

Flop comes T-high, like T73 or something. Pot is about $3 or so, and the villian INSTA-PUSHES for about $13! Now, in full ring, I would've probably folded nearly all the time, and MOST of the time I would fold here also. But I went with my gut, and snapped off his JJ, taking down a nice 300BB pot.

On the flip side of this at another table, I'm in the BB with AA and a $10 stack, UTG limps, and maybe one other limper. I raise to $0.50 or .60, and UTG calls, and we're heads up to the flop which comes KQJ rainbow. My gut says YUCK, but I bet anyways. UTG min-raises (or not much more) and I tank. My gut says fold, but I don't want to listen to him anymore, I've got ROCKETS! They're unbeatable! POOOSH!!! Ooops, he had KJo.

So my instincts are working pretty good, I just need to make sure that I'm paying attention to them.

Finished up the floor of the Woodshed this weekend, and am starting to chop and load the first cord and a half into it. This thing is big enough to hold probably 8-9 cords, so I'll have my work cut out for me for my next few months. Had quite the adventure getting my parents-in-law on the plane back to Germany; They misread their travel plans, and we arrived at the airport when their plane was leaving, oops. Apart from all that, It's kinda eerie quiet in the house now. I'm wondering when it will start to feel "normal" again.

BR: $483

If I didn't say so already, 6-max is swingy. Lots of action, and lots of fun! Overall up about another Buy-in over the week.

I've been playing TOO loose! I reviewed my month up to this point before the weekend, and noticed that i'm getting CREAMED in Non-showdown pots. I have been taking mediocre hands too far against a bunch of Call stations and Aggressors. So over the weekend I tightened up a little bit, and stopped bluffing more than one street so often. I just need to pick my spots better to double or triple barrel. Don't do it against a 55/2 without at least TPTK. Now then, I'm against a 14/5? Bluff-town baby! I think I'm going to stick it out with 6-max for a while; there's lots of profit to be made here. I'm finding my groove, just need to get the hands behind me. I'm ready for a heater too!

1st cord of wood is chopped and stacked, I've got another 1/2 cord in the Garage that I need to move out there also, at least all of it is out of the rain now. Things are starting to get back to "normal" around the household. Trying to have fun with the kiddos when I can! Also, I've been feeling a little sluggish, and my wife says that I'm snoring much more than before, so I'm going to get back into running to try and tone up some. I wasn't snoring as much when I was in the military (says my wife), but I was also more "fit" then. I'm about the same weight, but I probably have more fat now. As far as poker goes then, I'll probably be reducing that time even further to make room for this. Oh well. I'll play when I can.

BR: $498

Say hello to Mr. "Harley Henry". A min-raising 85/40 action monkey I met after the gauntlet Wednesday night. I had to stay up until all his money was gone...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)
MP ($10.70)
Button ($9.95)
SB ($19.35)
Hero ($19.70)
Harley Henry ($12.40)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, 2.
Harley Henry raises to $0.2, MP calls $0.20, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.10.

Flop: ($0.65) 4, 4, 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, Harley Henry bets $0.1, MP raises to $0.8, Hero folds, Harley Henry calls $0.70.

Turn: ($2.25) Q (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $0.1, MP raises to $2.9, Harley Henry calls $2.80.

River: ($8.05) 2 (2 players)
Harley Henry checks, MP bets $6.8 (All-In), Harley Henry calls $6.80.

Final Pot: $21.65

Harley Henry has 9c 5c (flush, queen high).
MP has Jc Ts (one pair, fours).
Outcome: UTG wins $21.65.

BB ($21.35)
UTG ($6.70)
MP ($17)
CO ($10)
Hero ($15.90)
Harley Henry ($24.55)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, A.
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.5, Harley Henry calls $0.45, 1 fold.

Flop: ($1.10) J, A, 6 (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $0.5, Hero raises to $1.5, Harley Henry calls $1.

Turn: ($4.10) J (2 players)
Harley Henry checks, Hero bets $3, Harley Henry calls $3.

River: ($10.10) 2 (2 players)
Harley Henry checks, Hero bets $5, Harley Henry calls $5.

Final Pot: $20.10

Harley Henry doesn't show. (As 8d)
Hero has Ks Ah (two pair, aces and jacks).
Outcome: Hero wins $20.10.

UTG ($20.50)
MP ($3.85)
CO ($16.85)
Button ($9.35)
Hero ($24.95)
Harley Henry ($16.30)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, 3.
1 fold, MP calls $0.10, 1 fold, Button raises to $0.4, 1 fold, Harley Henry raises to $0.7, MP calls $0.60, Button calls $0.30.

Flop: ($2.15) 9, 5, 8 (3 players)
Harley Henry bets $0.8, MP folds, Button calls $0.80.

Turn: ($3.75) 8 (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $1, Button raises to $7.85, Harley Henry calls $6.85.

River: ($19.45) J (2 players)

Final Pot: $19.45

Harley Henry has 3d 3c (two pair, eights and threes).
Button has Ah 9d (two pair, nines and eights).
Outcome: Button wins $19.45.

Button ($13.90)
SB ($9.90)
BB ($17.15)
UTG ($10.50)
Hero ($16.85)
Harley Henry ($26)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, 8.
2 folds, Harley Henry calls $0.10, Button raises to $0.5, 2 folds, Harley Henry calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.15) 3, J, 4 (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $1.5, Button calls $1.50.

Turn: ($4.15) K (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $1.4, Button calls $1.40.

River: ($6.95) 4 (2 players)
Harley Henry bets $1.5, Button raises to $3.6, Harley Henry calls $2.10.

Final Pot: $14.15

Harley Henry doesn't show. (6h Js)
Button has Ad 4s (three of a kind, fours).
Outcome: Button wins $14.15.

Fun Stuff. Unfortunately this morning I lost 2 BI's though...
BR: $490

10,000 hands.

It's funny, Yesterday I had an AWESOME short session to end my month, won about 4.5 BI's in only 250 hands or so (95BB/100!!!) After that I went to look at my stats for the month, and noticed I had 9988 hands for July, so I just HAD to play 12 more! 6-Max is VERY loose over all. I think that I'm finally adjusting to it, but it has definitely been a learning month. Let's look at some numbers




As you can see, I'm overall a bit looser than I was at FR, I think this is a necessary part of 6-max, because the blinds come around a LOT more often. I'm STILL not raising enough from the BB. I just am too damn curious from that position! For the first part of the month, I was playing really loose and reckless, and got into some pretty hairy spots. Then at about 4000 hands in, it LOOKS like something changed. I did start playing a "little" tighter, but my aggression was the same, and I didn't feel like I was playing any differently. The problem, if you will, was that I was playing against some maniacs who were getting the best of me in Non-showdown spots. Or the odd call-station that re-pops my river ONLY when I've been bluffing. Of course, there was definitely some spew there also. For a while there, it just felt like my hands were face-up, the way that the other players were reacting. It was really frustrating to get 4-6 callers of my PFR with AJo, but everyone folds when I do the same thing with KK. Argh. Fortunately I was still playing against idiots. Here is the biggest winner and loser of the last week, just happens to be against the same villian who was running an obcene 80/40 or so...most of my 300BB stack is from him...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($29.60)
MP ($15.55)
CO ($9.85)
Button ($9.85)
SB ($9.95)
BB ($10.95)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with T, T.
Hero raises to $0.4, MP raises to $1.4, CO raises to $9.85, 3 folds, Hero raises to $29.6, MP folds.

Flop: ($41) 6, Q, 5 (2 players)

Turn: ($41) T (2 players)

River: ($41) 9 (2 players)

Hero has Ts Td (three of a kind, tens).
CO doesn't show. (7s 7d)
Outcome: Hero wins $21.25.

And against the same villian later on:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

Hero ($42.90)
UTG ($43.70)
MP ($16.25)
CO ($9.70)
Button ($9.65)
SB ($11.70)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A.
1 fold, MP calls $0.10, CO calls $0.10, Button calls $0.10, SB completes, Hero raises to $1, MP calls $0.90, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds.

Flop: ($2.40) T, 7, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, MP calls $2.

Turn: ($6.40) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $6, MP calls $6.

River: ($18.40) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $8, MP calls $7.25 (All-In).

Final Pot: $32.90

Hero has Ac Ad (two pair, aces and sevens).
MP has 9h 2h (straight, ten high).
Outcome: MP wins $32.90.

Such a heartbreaker, cause there is SO much in his range besides a 9...

Anyways, Goal review time!
1) Play 6-max exclusively Almost! Played a couple SnGs and Tourneys also. Good enough.
2) $150 Nope, but $100 was made looking at the BR. Stats show $70, but I guess I did pretty good on my forays outside of the Cash games
3) Get more aggressive PF Hmm, I'm not sure why I set this goal now. I'm pretty aggressive PF for the most part, I'll say I met this one?

August Goals:
1) Stick with 6-max. I can play other games also, but I'd like this to become my bread-and-butter. It will help me a lot, especially when short-handed.
2)$100.
3) Move to $25NL. That is my BIG goal for the month, and it should be doable, unless I hit some bad variance. At $625 I will move up, with a 9BI stoploss (i.e. if my BR drops back down to $400, I go back to $10NL)

So, that covers July poker-wise. My house is EMPTY finally. And it's about to get even more empty in August. My wife is taking a trip to San-Francisco for a class, and she'll be gone for about 2 weeks. I have a feeling I will be playing more poker than "normal" due to this, but I've gotta be careful not to burn myself out by playing too much, we'll see. Going to take the kids to an Animal Farm this weekend, and I think we'll have a Ping-pong tournament with some friends and family!

BR: $534

Congrats on a good month... I didn't make my goals for the month but have been improving. The bump from the FTR300 helped immensely as I'm still learning. I find myself liking 6-max as well but sticking to FR for a while... good job and good cards for the next month!

Thanks Monty, 6-max is definitely much more action packed. I guess that's why Heads-Up is so much more popular at the moment also, tons of action! Higher variance though for sure! I'll have to wait a while for HU matches though, I think the smallest limit for those is $50NL...

Just read through your whole topic.

Good stuff. Looks like I'm trying to do the same thing as you. So GL and we are both going to get up there!

Thanks CBAT. U2

First week of August was profitable. Up about 4.5 BI's over about 3000 hands. Felt crazy up and down though. In my first session I had AA 4 times, KK 6 times, and QQ twice. I won one big pot, a couple small ones, and the rest got coolered or sucked out on. It was a very frustrating start to August. Things came around, and I just decided not to force the issue, and let the cards fall where they may. Been kinda crazy.

Winner and Loser of the week:

Villian is your standard idiot. Only got 25 hands on him before he left, but he was spewing pretty good. (With a name like poker_god171, you have to be bad...)

BB ($1.90)
UTG ($5.60)
Hero ($17.60)
CO ($12.20)
Button ($12.80)
SB ($24.20)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, K.
UTG calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.5, 1 fold, Button calls $0.50, 2 folds, UTG folds.

Flop: ($1.25) 3, 8, K (2 players)
Hero bets $0.7, Button calls $0.70.

Turn: ($2.65) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2, Hero raises to $5, Button calls $3.

River: ($12.65) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $11, Button calls $6.60 (All-In).

Final Pot: $25.85

Hero has Ks Kc (full house, kings full of nines).
Button doesn't show. (9h Tc)
Outcome: Hero wins $25.85.

Big Loser of the week (Same day)

This guy was the table target, playing 54/22 and bluffing/spewing EVERYWHERE. I thought even my Q-high might've been good. I figured at best he had Top pair, giving me 19! outs on the flop, shoulda pushed myself there, but I thought I could stop and go to the turn...That didn't work, and I hesitated to call on the turn, but it really felt like a good call against this guy...I'll get him next time.

Hero ($12.50)
SB ($17.25)
BB ($5.15)
UTG ($19.70)
MP ($10.50)
CO ($9.75)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, T.
UTG raises to $0.3, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.30, 2 folds.

Flop: ($0.75) 8, 6, 7 (2 players)
UTG bets $0.8, Hero raises to $2.1, UTG raises to $4.1, Hero calls $2.

Turn: ($8.95) A (2 players)
UTG bets $15.3 (All-In), Hero calls $8.10 (All-In).

River: ($32.35) J (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $25.15

UTG has 9d Td (straight, jack high).
Hero has Qh Th (high card, ace).
Outcome: UTG wins $25.15.

Wow has it been raining up here for the last couple weeks. I'm ready for the sun to come out again! Planning on going to FunTown this weekend (an amusement park) so the rain better freakin stay away! Not much else new on the homefront, I'll be a single parent for a little while starting on Wednesday. This should be interesting!

BR: $579

WOW. What a weekend.

Friday night and 2 small sessions on Saturday, and I was up 9.5 BI's in a little over 800 hands (> 50 BB/100). Moved to $25NL on Sunday and continued to run good until last night (17 BB/100 over 2000 hands). The bankroll exploded by about 35% in just a few days, it even peaked over $800 for a little while yesterday. Just absolute craziness. I'm still trying to get comfortable at the new limit, but so far, it's the same game, just more money.

Obviously my Biggest winners and losers of the week are at a new limit!

Villian was very tight for 6-max, running 13/8 or so...He's drawing DEAD on the turn.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

CO ($107.90)
Hero ($28.65)
SB ($25.55)
BB ($7.75)
UTG ($31.30)
MP ($46.75)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, T.
UTG raises to $1, 2 folds, Hero calls $1, 2 folds.

Flop: ($2.35) 7, J, K (2 players)
UTG bets $1.75, Hero calls $1.75.

Turn: ($5.85) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3, UTG raises to $13.5, Hero raises to $25.9, UTG calls $12.40.

River: ($57.65) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: $57.65

UTG has Kh Ad (one pair, kings).
Hero has Qd Td (straight, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins $57.65.

I was TRAPPED! But I'd do it again the same way! No read yet on villian, got a decent one after this though...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB ($30.30)
UTG ($31.05)
MP ($26.95)
Button ($23.75)
Hero ($28.45)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, K.
UTG calls $0.25, 2 folds, Hero raises to $1.25, 1 fold, UTG calls $1.

Flop: ($2.85) T, Q, J (2 players)
Hero bets $2.5, UTG raises to $7.5, Hero raises to $27.2, UTG calls $19.70.

Turn: ($57.25) 3 (2 players)

River: ($57.25) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: $57.25

UTG has Ad As (one pair, aces).
Hero has Qs Kc (one pair, queens).
Outcome: UTG wins $57.25.

In my very short time so far at $25NL, my impression is that the players are a little bit weaker overall, and know where the fold button is. My Non-Showdown pots are going back up considerably due to this, I hope I'm not being overly aggressive? This might just be due to table selection and luck of the fish, so we'll see what happens.

Played in the gauntlet last night, and nitted it up quite well (Ran 10/8 for the tourney!). Actually just had a really shitty run of cards early on, and didn't want to steal itty bitty blinds with crap. Rilla was the bounty, and he was LAGGing it up pretty good, eventually taking me out with 67o vs my JJ AIPF shortly after the first break. I earned a nickname from him also: ChrisBNitter... hmph. I'm not used to tourney play anymore, and always having a short-stack (relative to the blinds) doesn't lend well to my cash-game style. I was really just there kinda to hang out, so playing nitty ensured that I could stay reasonably long. Maybe I'll be "rushed" next time, we'll see.

My wife is now in California, so I'm a single parent for the next couple weeks. I've got really good kids, so I don't think this'll be much, if any, of a problem. The weather did thankfully hold off on the weekend, so we had a great (albeit short) time at FunTown. The kids went on probably every single kiddie-ride they had, and had a lot of fun. They went to sleep very easily that night. I'll be having a LOT of free time in the evenings now when the kids go to bed, so I'll be playing a LOT for sure in the next couple weeks. Look here for more updates!

BR: $773

wow, great run!

I agree/like the plays on both hands!

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH! Down about 6 BI's in the last week, and played over 5000 hands to do that... Only a couple minor cases of tilt, but I really don't think that I was playing THAT bad. Actually was close to breaking even for the week two days ago, but just had a really rough last couple days. Nearly every time I bluffed, I was called or raised, but of course when I actually had a hand, they folded like a cheap suit. My Non-showdown losses in the last two days alone account for about 4BI's! It's been a rough couple days, and I'm taking tonight and maybe tomorrow off to play some video games, and clear my head.

Here's the Biggest winner and losers of the last week!

This seemed to be the only way I could win last week, making incredibly difficult calls, or crazy bluffs (even this against a 70/20 idiot).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($46.15)
Hero (Button) ($36.55)
SB ($24.50)
BB ($22.40)
UTG ($38.75)
MP ($27.30)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q A
2 folds, CO calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.25, 2 folds, CO calls $1.00

Flop: ($2.85) 9 K A (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $2.25, CO raises to $7.50, Hero calls $5.25

Turn: ($17.85) 3 (2 players)
CO bets $37.40 (All-In), Hero mumbles, curses, and calls $27.80 (All-In)

River: ($73.45) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $73.45 | Rake: $3.00

Hero had Q A (one pair, Aces)
CO had 5 Q (one pair, fives)
Outcome: Hero won $70.45

While monetarily wise, this isn't the largest loss of the week (That belongs to KK < AA with a $28 stack) this was easily the most soul crushing loss...enjoy...villian was 38/24 over 80, but was playing REALLY idiotically mostly, evidence below...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($28.30)
Hero (BB) ($27.70)
UTG ($26.25)
Button ($49.75)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K 10
UTG raises to $0.75, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.25, UTG calls $1.50

Flop: ($4.60) 8 Q A (2 players)
Hero bets $3.75, UTG calls $3.75

Turn: ($12.10) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $8.75, UTG calls $8.75

River: ($29.60) K (2 players)
Hero bets $12.95 (All-In), UTG calls $11.50 (All-In)

Total pot: $52.60 | Rake: $2.00

Hero had K 10 (one pair, Kings)
UTG had J 10 (straight, Ace high)
Outcome: UTG won $50.60

So... That was a lot of hands for me in the last week. I'm dissapointed that it wasn't profitable, but I've looked my stats over, and reviewed my sessions, and there really wasn't much that I think I should've changed. I could have played a little tighter in spots, but that's really nit picking, I really just had a horrible luck streak. I'll pick it back up, and I'm ready for some winning!

Went up to a Hot-air balloon festival last weekend, the Kids (and Dad and Grampie) had a great time watching these things up close. Then there was the Firetruck Monster truck, and the playground, and well, the kids went to bed real easy that night. Not much planned for this weekend, but I've got a lot of cleaning and other housework that I need to catch up on for sure. Maybe I'll play some poker if I think I want to... we'll see.

BR: $625

Got a little flushstraighted with the craziness of 6-max, so I went over to FR to try to calm the action down a little bit. What a mistake that was...

Middle Set < Q-high Flush Draw All-IN on turn
1 card OESFD + Ace overcard on flop < 80/10's flopped K-high flush
AQs < 85o < 88 < KTs (same suit as me BTW) AIPF against a bunch of morons for a half stack each...
TPGK < one card A-high flush draw calling PSB's to river...
Top 2-pair < Gutshot All-in on flop

I just got off of a farkin break from this shit, and Now I'm all worked up and need to take another one. -40ptBB/100 over only 450 hands messes with your head quite a bit. 36% W$SD is a wonderful thing don't you think?! wahoo!

BR: $635

Originally Posted by ChrisBCritter

Hero had K 10 (one pair, Kings)
UTG had J 10 (straight, Ace high)
Outcome: UTG won $50.60

THat is just ridiculous. There is no better way to play that hand.

You'll dig outta this cooler in no time. Just keep pluggin away.

Originally Posted by CBAT

Originally Posted by ChrisBCritter

Hero had K 10 (one pair, Kings)
UTG had J 10 (straight, Ace high)
Outcome: UTG won $50.60

THat is just ridiculous. There is no better way to play that hand.

You'll dig outta this cooler in no time. Just keep pluggin away.

I disagree, i think that hand is badly played by both players. Why double-barrel a moron with K high? It's just not necessary, they'll pay u off when u actually have a hand.

Originally Posted by kettleofish

I disagree, i think that hand is badly played by both players. Why double-barrel a moron with K high? It's just not necessary, they'll pay u off when u actually have a hand.

You're welcome to disagree, but I'm not too unhappy with how I played this hand honestly. First off, we're 4-handed, and the table was playing pretty tight, so a 3-bet usually meant something. Mostly this guy had folded to my 2-barrels when I didn't have air, and also, he had shown a propensity to get frisky with a real hand. So I really just put him on a Q or an 8 that I could probably get him off of with the 2nd barrel. And once the K hit the river, putting the rest in was a no-brainer for value most of the time. If he's going to continue raising and calling a 3-bet PF with JTo from UTG, I'm going to continue playing like this against him...Cheers.

Go right ahead, that's your choice. I think you are letting what he turned over affect your opinion though. Honestly, before u saw his hand, u were hoping that he was gonna call 3-barrels with a Q on a A8Q4K board, in a 3-bet pot? When he's folded to 2-barrels before u think he's gonna call ur river bet with worse than ur hand? You are bluffing the river IMO. I'm not trying to be a dick, and maybe everyone else disagrees with me? But i reckon without results being posted not many ppl would've provided a range for villain that calls ur river bet that ur ahead of.

Originally Posted by kettleofish

Originally Posted by CBAT

Originally Posted by ChrisBCritter

Hero had K 10 (one pair, Kings)
UTG had J 10 (straight, Ace high)
Outcome: UTG won $50.60

THat is just ridiculous. There is no better way to play that hand.

You'll dig outta this cooler in no time. Just keep pluggin away.

I disagree, i think that hand is badly played by both players. Why double-barrel a moron with K high? It's just not necessary, they'll pay u off when u actually have a hand.

I don't mind the double barrel, but I probably just check fold the river. Or, if you do want to get it in/think he's got a Q or less, check call the river. But it looks like a poorly played weak A before seeing the results...against a better player this double barrel probably works.
But really great run lately Chris, keep it up man!

Well, since the last "real" update on the 21st, I'm down a little over 2 BIs. I played a little FR to try and calm myself down a little bit, but losing over $87 in 455 hands didn't do anything to calm me down. So, I just took a break for a while, haven't played a hand since the Guantlet on Wednesday (Where I lost a 90/10 on the turn early for all my chips..) My stats haven't changed much, I just had an awesome start to get into $25NL, but have fizzled a lot since then. Here's the stats:





Pretty crazy huh? I'm going to just leave FR alone for a while and keep concentrating on the madness of 6-max. Most hands in a month, but I probably wouldn't had close to 20K if I had played at all in the last week or so... I'm going to stay on my break for a few more days until I get the itch again, I've got other stuff to do, and I'm not ready for more craziness.

Biggest Winner and loser of last week... Couldn't believe he didn't have exactly TT here...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($25.30)
SB ($25.90)
BB ($25.90)
UTG ($14.65)
Hero (MP) ($28.50)
CO ($17.90)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 8 8
UTG calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.25, 1 fold, Button calls $1.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1

Flop: ($4.10) Q 8 9 (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3.25, Button calls $3.25, UTG calls $3.25

Turn: ($13.85) J (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $12, Button raises to $20.80 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls $8.80

River: ($55.45) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $55.45 | Rake: $2.70

Button mucked J 7 (one pair, Jacks).
Hero had 8 8 (three of a kind, eights).
Outcome: Hero won $52.75

Meh...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($36.35)
MP ($56.40)
CO ($25.75)
Button ($23.75)
Hero (SB) ($27)
BB ($14.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A K
1 fold, MP raises to $1, 2 folds, Hero raises to $3, BB calls $2.75, MP calls $2

Flop: ($9) 9 A 10 (3 players)
Hero bets $7.50, 1 fold, MP raises to $30, Hero calls $16.50 (All-In)

Turn: ($57) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($57) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $57 | Rake: $2.80

Hero had A K (two pair, Aces and fours).
MP had A 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).
Outcome: MP won $54.20

My battles against the shortstacks were also not going very well, I lost a lot of 1/4 to 1/2 stack battles where I was hitting the top of their range or getting sucked out on also. I'm not worried, I know it's just variance, Just like May was. I'll get back on track, but don't expect to see any big numbers this month!

Goal Review:
1)Stick with 6-max The majority of the month was in 6-max. Foray's outside of this were not profitable (FR, Guantlet)
2) $100 Yup, but not really when taking into account the Guantlet losses.
3) Move to $25NL Completed, but what a roller-coaster

September Goals:
1) Stay at $25NL. My stop loss is set at $400, I REALLY hope I don't go down even close to that, but I WILL move down if that happens.
2) $150. That's a modest goal, but I will not be putting in the same volume of hands this month for sure.
3) NO foray's outside of 6-max. It seems that everytime I disobey this goal I get slammed.

The household is back together again now. It's a relief, but it'll take a while to acclimate back to any sence of normality. At this point, I don't even know what normal will feel like. We'll see. Got another cord of wood to stack and split, but the wheel for the wheelbarrow is flat. Off to home-depot!

BR: $615

As you probably could tell from the lack of updates, I didn't play much in September... Tough times in the marital department left me too out of control emotionally to dare to play hardly.

Stats:




Ugh. Not my happiest month. Stats wise, I loosened up too much. Just played passive. Just look at my Fold 3bet stats... EWWW, I was really trying to get lucky. I'm really glad though that I didn't lose more. I controlled my degenerate desires to move up in stakes to try and go robusto. I might be able to play a little more this month, but I need to make sure that I'm in a good frame of mind before I start. We'll see what happens.

Biggest winner of month: Standard against a 37/4...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

SB ($25.10)
BB ($54.30)
UTG ($60.45)
Hero (MP) ($29.10)
CO ($24.40)
Button ($62.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 2, 2
UTG calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.25, 4 folds, UTG calls $1

Flop: ($2.85) 7, 2, 7 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2, UTG calls $2

Turn: ($6.85) Q (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $6, UTG calls $6

River: ($18.85) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $19.85 (All-In), UTG calls $19.85

Total pot: $58.55 | Rake: $2.85

UTG had K, K (two pair, Kings and sevens).
Hero had 2, 2 (full house, twos over sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $55.70

Biggest loser: A heart-breaker against a 41/14 call station.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

SB ($23.40)
BB ($30.30)
UTG ($29.05)
MP ($27.55)
CO ($17.10)
Hero (Button) ($30.80)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
1 fold, MP calls $0.25, CO raises to $1.25, Hero raises to $3.75, 1 fold, BB calls $3.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($9.10) 9, 7, 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8, BB calls $8

Turn: ($25.10) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $19.05 (All-In), BB calls $18.55 (All-In)

River: ($62.20) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $62.20 | Rake: $3

Results in white below:
Hero mucked K, K (one pair, Kings).
BB had 8, 8 (straight, nine high).
Outcome: BB won $59.20

Goal Review.
1) Stay at $25NL. Yup
2) $150 Nope
3) Stay at 6-max Yup

October Goals.
1) Play when focused. DO NOT play in an adverse emotional state.
2) $150. Let's do this.
3) Tighten those stats back up dumbass. Get back to playing a profitable style.

4.5 cords of wood is split and stacked. I'm not going to go much deeper into my current "outside of poker" life, as I'm working on it right now. I will say that I got back into bowling at the beginning of September. I'm in a league on Monday nights, and went right back to my average of about 175. Nothing too special, but decent, at least I'm having fun with it.

BR: $610

At least I rule at Werewolf...

Well, this sucks... I'm moving back down to $10NL for a while, probably a LONG while. I've been having some life issues, so I've tried not to play very much, and only when I'm mentally ready. Was starting to go a little downhill after 1500 hands in the early part of the month, but last weekend I went back up 7 BI's and I thought I was on my way back into the swing of things. How wrong I was. Yesterday and today I lost 10 buyins, and dropped below $500 for the first time in a long time. Early in my session tonight, I stepped back for a sec, and just noticed that I was bluffing a LOT more than I was value betting. So I stopped that, but then got hit with 30% W$SD. Fuckin Variance. Couldn't win a 60/40, 70/30 or 80/20 if my life depended on it.

So. I'm withdrawing $200, right now. My initial deposit back in March was $100, so I made 100% return, and now I'm playing for free from now on. I will dominate $10NL 6-max, until I reach $750. This is not debatable, I need to work on my game some, and with my current bankroll falling over itself, it's time to change the formula.

So far in Oct, I've played 3800 hands or so running 25/18/2.5 but the stats are obviously not telling me anything much here (slightly looser, but meh) I'm going to adjust some things as I'm moving down, and hopefully they will change things for the better. The road to $100NL just got a lot longer.

Worst Hand: What am I doing here? Ugh. Admittedly bad PFR, But once I hit the flop against this 50/0/2 drooler (yes that's a ZERO) I was ahead of a lot of his range which had plenty of flushes (and flush-draws) lower than mine... oh well.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($24.35)
MP ($32.25)
Hero (CO) ($29.15)
Button ($15.30)
SB ($58.60)
BB ($15)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 5, J
2 folds, Hero raises to $1, 1 fold, SB calls $0.90, 1 fold

Flop: ($2.25) 9, 3, 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2, SB raises to $4, Hero raises to $12, SB raises to $20, Hero raises to $28.15 (All-In), SB calls $8.15

Turn: ($58.55) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($58.55) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $58.55 | Rake: $2.90

SB had K, 10 (flush, King high).
Hero mucked 5, J (flush, Jack high).
Outcome: SB won $55.65

Best Hand: I posted this in tales. I just happened to hit the top of the ranges of both these 40/4 gremlins. Sucked out with a 1 outer though, thanks!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($16.80)
BB ($12.80)
Hero (UTG) ($59)
MP ($25)
CO ($24.25)
Button ($12)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, Q
Hero raises to $1, 2 folds, Button calls $1, SB calls $0.90, BB raises to $3.25, Hero raises to $28.25, 1 fold, SB calls $15.80 (All-In), BB calls $9.55 (All-In)

Flop: ($47.40) 9, 7, 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($47.40) 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($47.40) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $47.40 | Rake: $2.35

SB had A, Q (two pair, Queens and nines).
BB mucked K, K (two pair, Kings and nines).
Hero had Q, Q (full house, Queens over nines).
Outcome: Hero won $45.05

Regardless, I'm moving down at the next session I play, which with my current state of mind will probably be in November. Or I'll play some drunken .10/.20 HORSE for inconsequential money. Or some SnG's, I dunno, but $25NL is off-limits for a while.

BR: $274 (After withdrawl)

WEEEE!!! 10NL likes me a lot apparently, ran 43ptBB/100 for 800 hands for more than 6 BI's. Oh and placing 14/2232 in a $8 MTT helps also for $116... could've been higher had my hands held up at the end... Hard to let go of AQs with 10BB effective stacks. Unfortunately ran into QQ and lost 2/3ds of my stack oh well, can't complain overall though. Had fun going deep in a MTT, that's a rush like no other, esp when you only play 20-30 of them in a year... Lee Jones just didn't like me enough at the end IMO...Oh and K6s < J8o also FTW.. Don't mind me, I'm just a little tilted and tired...

That is all!

BR: $445

OMFG.

Last night was EPIC. First the good news, then the unbelievable. The good news is that I continued to run good at 10NL running at around 40ptBB/100 for 350 hands or so, good for 3 buyins. But the unbelievable news is that I entered the 8PM $3 R+A , and didn't stop playing until 5AM.

I took 6/3636 for $1204.21 HELL YEA BABY! Bankroll increase by 300%

I almost even folded my last hand, but just ended up getting coolered by the table bully --> AJ < AQ on AK_ flop... Still happy with how I played, and got lucky at all the right times up until then...

So... I guess I'm back to $25NL for a little while. My BR is now even good for $50NL! YEA, but I want to play 10K hands of winning poker at $25NL before I move up, considering how badly my first shot there went...

Holy shit.

BR: $1665

heyho ,

congratulations to your epic success; been reading through your op-thread today. we might have met @stars 5/10, cant be too sure about it cause i play FR exclusively. anyways, gl for nl25; it will take me another 1.5 months to get there.

hags

MAINE LOVE BABY!!!! Nice win!!!

Thanks for the congrats Hag... I couldn't find you in my DB, assuming that your screenname is the same, but maybe we'll meet in the future! Ya neva know! You're gonna have to come to 6-max though, I don't play FR much anymore..

Originally Posted by kingnat

MAINE LOVE BABY!!!! Nice win!!!

Ahhh, Maine love, the best kind. Back atcha man!

Thought about this a bunch today, and have decided to take out a few hundro to buy something on my wishlist. Seeing as this was a sudden windfall, there's no need for me not to enjoy it. This way, I'll "earn" my way up to $50NL when I get there. Wee was that fun, but I need to recover my sleep some more again tonight...

Well, that was a crazy october. Didn't play a ton of hands, but more than last month! Unfortunately I was self-destructing myself at $25NL for sure. After dropping down to $10NL, I adjusted a few things that should help -- I was trying to bluff too much is the overall theme though. My adjustments worked really quickly at $10NL, so let's carry that over back into $25NL for November!

Lets look at some stats!




Pay no attention to those $50NL hands, that was just a very tilty night (before my tourney win) and I stopped playing very soon after I started, as you can see. Obviously my Non-showdown hands are a problem, this stems from bluffing too much and getting called down too often. So, I've started limiting my C-bets OOP against more than 1 villian, and greatly reducing my 2-barreling (and 3-barreling) with air (A-high). Over a small sample, this looks more like what I want to do. We'll see what happens.

Biggest Loser: Not the biggest loser money wise (That belongs to QQ < AKs AIPF), but easily the most soul crushing. Enjoy. Villian was running 27/4 over a small sample and was a call station as those numbers suggest... what a lucky ass river for him.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($45.35)
BB ($24.65)
UTG ($25.35)
Hero (MP) ($44.80)
CO ($15.70)
Button ($49.10)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 6, 6
1 fold, Hero raises to $1, 3 folds, BB calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.10) K, 3, 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1.75, BB calls $1.75

Turn: ($5.60) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($5.60) 6 (2 players)
BB bets $3, Hero raises to $42.05 (All-In), BB calls $18.90 (All-In)

Total pot: $49.40 | Rake: $2.45

BB had K, K (full house, Kings over threes).
Hero had 6, 6 (full house, sixes over threes).
Outcome: BB won $46.95


Biggest Winner: Villian left right after this, lol, only played 17 hands with him at 29/11. Sucks that my biggest pot of the last week wasn't even a full buyin...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($57.10)
Hero (BB) ($25)
UTG ($22.40)
MP ($25)
CO ($30.85)
Button ($25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 10
UTG raises to $0.50, 4 folds, Hero calls $0.25

Flop: ($1.10) 10, 8, 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, UTG raises to $2, Hero raises to $5, UTG raises to $21.90 (All-In), Hero calls $16.90

Turn: ($44.90) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($44.90) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $44.90 | Rake: $2.20

Hero had 8, 10 (two pair, tens and eights).
UTG mucked K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $42.70

Ok, Goal review time:
1) Play when Focused. I think I did this mostly, just picked all the wrong spots...
2) $150. Yea, just barely...
3) Tighten stats Nope. In fact I did worse!? Whoops

November Goals:
1) Reduce the bluffing (2-barreling with nothing)
2) Pay attention or leave. Notice who the "regs" are and try to avoid them for now without the goods.
3) $200. I'll have to play more hands for that to be feasable, but it's getting colder outside now, which means more time inside.

So, I withdrew $500 of my winnings to leave a 40+ BI bankroll for $25NL. I'm buying a new bowling ball for my monday league, and probably a bunch of other little things. Maybe I'll get lucky one night and go deep in another tourney! I think I would have to stop playing cash at that point!

BR: $1134

I guess it's time for an update. Down almost a Buyin at $25NL over about 2000 hands in november so far, but I'm playing good. Looking at my big hands, I was mostly either coolered or had a bad beat when I lost, so I can't complain, that and my Non-showdown line is hovering at ZERO, so I've started to fix that leak finally.

I've finished out of the money in 3 different tournaments also last weekend for about $50 in buyins lost ($25+3, $15+2, $3R+A), but I'm happy in how I finished in them, getting fairly deep, just not winning my 60/40's or better at the end (330/1872, 153/486, 741/3816). I'm still way above the curve right now though, I'd like to FT another one though! My ROI at www.officialpokerrankings.com (username: ChrisBCriter) is sitting at 778%... That's pretty good!


Here are the most dramatic winners and losers of the past 10 days... Not always the biggest, cause sometimes the biggest ones are pretty simple hands.

Literally only had 12 hands on villian running 58/33, not that it matters. Push was kinda thin on river but WTF? Villian left RIGHT after this hand... ass.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($27.25)
SB ($4.65)
BB ($11.75)
UTG ($27.50)
MP ($25.85)
CO ($50.10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, J
1 fold, MP raises to $0.65, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.65, 2 folds

Flop: ($1.65) 10, A, 7 (2 players)
MP bets $0.90, Hero calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.45) Q (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $2, MP calls $2

River: ($7.45) 4 (2 players)
MP bets $6, Hero raises to $23.70 (All-In), MP calls $16.30 (All-In)

Total pot: $52.05 | Rake: $2.55

Hero had K, J (straight, Ace high).
MP had 3, 5 (flush, Queen high).
Outcome: MP won $49.50

Biggest winner. This guy was a SERIOUS thorn in my side, so I was very happy to be able to double up through him. He was running 43/28, and aggressive as hell nearly always. Unfortunately, just like this hand, he was showing down some AWESOME hands when he got to the river. Everyone at the table was getting coolered by this guy, so this was a nice change... Pre-flop looks horrible, and it is, I think I was just tilting a little at that point.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($28.50)
SB ($100.60)
BB ($29.40)
UTG ($25)
MP ($27.40)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 5
2 folds, Hero raises to $1, SB raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $3

Flop: ($8.25) K, 3, J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($8.25) 2 (2 players)
SB bets $5, Hero calls $5

River: ($18.25) 4 (2 players)
SB bets $11, Hero raises to $19.50 (All-In), SB calls $8.50

Total pot: $57.25 | Rake: $2

Hero had A, 5 (straight, five high).
SB mucked K, K (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $55.25

Hopefully I'll get a couple hours to play later this week. I wanna do a couple serious hours of grinding at least 2 nights later on. Bowling sucked again tonight, I dropped my average another pin again. Still respectable, at 174, but I just need to get my spares in order again, I left too many open frames tonight. 162, 179, 159 for an even 500 series. Can't complain TOO much as a 500 series is my goal, but it really could've been a lot better. New ball should be coming in sometime next week, I can't wait!!

BR: $1054

Nice rebuy score I see

I think in hand 1 i'm not floating that flop. Maybe i'd call if i knew he cbet alot then gave up when called, but after 12 hands u can't know that.

Hand 2 I'd lean towards folding the turn. It's barely profitable to call there even if u know you're getting payed off fully every time u hit, but that's a bit of a stretch. His turn betting range likely includes bluffs or PPs less than a K that won't pay off river (especially a heart river).

11/11/11 was played last night, just kinda fell into place for me. Played stupid/crazy 66/46 or something, was just having a fun time. Nobody adjusted really either... Was also playing the 25+3 and 3R+A 40K guaranteeds again went fairly deep in both. Just out of the money in the freezeout, and ~200/4000 in the $3R+A for about $60. That tourney is good to me, I need to play it more often! Going to play cash in my next session I think, I don't want to take another chance on having to be up until 4 in the morning on a weekday again.

Originally Posted by kettleofish

Nice rebuy score I see

Yes!! Thanks!!

Originally Posted by kettleofish

I think in hand 1 i'm not floating that flop. Maybe i'd call if i knew he cbet alot then gave up when called, but after 12 hands u can't know that.

It wasn't so much of a float as it was a "That's a weak C-bet, I think my K-high is good, and I have outs if it's not" call. when he checked the turn, I was really hoping for a check-raise, but inadvertantly gave him odds to call. River push, as said, was kinda thin, but he looked like a slow-played set or 2-pair there at the time, and I thought a flush was a very small part of his range. I'm not worried about it, considering what he showed down, my thought processes were working for the most part.

Originally Posted by kettleofish

Hand 2 I'd lean towards folding the turn. It's barely profitable to call there even if u know you're getting payed off fully every time u hit, but that's a bit of a stretch. His turn betting range likely includes bluffs or PPs less than a K that won't pay off river (especially a heart river).

No... Pre-flop is the worst street by far. As aggressive as he was, I had NO DOUBT I would get paid if I hit my 13 outer on the river (Against his range, I can't really use the 3 Aces as outs). That made the turn an EASY call. $5 to win $13 is over 2.5:1, add in some implied odds and it gets even better.

BR: $1070

Well hell if ur sure he's paying u off then there's no probs with the call As for hand 1 i'd shove river as played as well, just think i'd default to folding flop.

Well, that was a pretty good week! Played a couple more of the $3R+A nightly tourneys, and cashed in each of them. The players are SO bad in there, as long as you are winning all your 80/20's your gonna go deep really easily! Add 6 or 7 BI's from $25NL 6-max, and you have a pretty good weekend! I'm above my personal BR requirement for $50NL now (again), So I think I will move up this coming weekend (Only play $25NL through the week if I decide to play) I'll set the Stoploss at $900, so I'd have to drop almost 10BI's at the new limit before moving back down. gogogo!

Biggest Winners and losers:

Posted this in tales... I was scared when the river paired... My first 400BB pot at $25NL and my first $100 pot!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO ($12.85)
Button ($64.75)
SB ($28.75)
BB ($14.95)
UTG ($24)
Hero (MP) ($52.30)

Preflop: Hero is MP with J, A
1 fold, Hero raises to $1, 1 fold, Button calls $1, 2 folds
Flop: ($2.35) 3, 9, Q (2 players)
Hero bets $2, Button calls $2
Turn: ($6.35) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $6, Hero raises to $15, Button raises to $61.75 (All-In), Hero calls $34.30 (All-In)
River: ($104.95) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Button mucked 10, Q (two pair, Queens and tens).
Hero had J, A (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won $101.95

I need to work on my HU game. I had made a HUGE call down against him a few hands earlier with TPTK for an over 200BB pot, but I let my aggression get the best of me here... Still though, my biggest loser wasn't even a Buyin! Gotta like that!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($31.50)
Hero (SB) ($77.10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 4, A
Button raises to $1, Hero raises to $3.25, Button calls $2.25
Flop: ($6.50) 8, 9, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $5.25, Button calls $5.25
Turn: ($17) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $11.25, Button raises to $23 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: $39.50 | Rake: $1

Busy week ahead of me at work. I'm going to try and refrain from poker until the weekend, and then move up!

BR: $1381