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Old 07-28-2012, 03:07 PM   #1
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
LLSNL Poker Journal

LLSNL = Live Lower Stakes No-Limit

Greetings. Thanks for checking this thread out. My purpose is to chronicle my poker journey in a live setting. I recently moved back to the Memphis area, meaning that the Tunica casinos are nearby and offer me an opportunity to play in a Brick & Mortar setting. I have been visiting the casinos on and off since I returned, but I made the decision to set aside some money for a bankroll with the intent of playing around 30 hours every week.

The idea is to play sort of semi-professionally. My wife and I have solid jobs and our combined income is well into the six figures. I am not saying that as a brag, but more along the lines that motivation for this is not entirely financial. There also likely more profitable ways for me to spend 30 hours a week (closer to 36 when I figure in the commute to the casino), but I am enjoying thinking about/playing poker at the moment.

My goal is to make enough cash to pay for the expenses that can be paid in cash every month. This includes bills, groceries, gas, dog food, etc. These expenses generally run a minimum of $1700 a month. I will then take the money saved from those expenses and use it to pay off the debts that we have occurred, with the eventual goal of having my mortgage paid off by the time I am 35. That is roughly seven years from now.

I am starting out playing $1/3. Most of the time, I will be playing at the Horseshoe Tunica, which has a capped buy-in of $300. The other option is to play next door at the GoldStrike Tunica, which has a $1/2 game but you can buy-in for whatever you want. Once I get my bankroll up to $10k and have a couple of months of expenses set aside, I plan on taking a shot at the $2/5 game. Both properties usually spread a $2/5 and there is no max buy-in, so the game can run very deep at times.

I started with about $2900 in my roll. I ran hot the first couple of weekends and made about $1400. But I had some expenses and a losing session on Thursday night (-$178), so my roll sits at $3100 going into this weekend. I have started a bankroll ledger to determine exactly where my roll goes.

I will try to post every day, regardless if I play or not. Part of getting better at poker is putting in more hours away from the table then at the table. It is a commitment. But my wife and I don’t have any kids and my job is a pretty relaxing computer desk job, so I can put in a large numbers of hours improving my game. Here are my current resources:

-Crush Live Poker Videos – These are great and I cannot recommend them enough to anyone who plays live poker in a casino. I download these to my iPod Touch and watch them during slow hours at work.
-Deuce Plays Premium Podcasts – This is another Bart Hanson product. I have only listened to the first couple of podcasts, but so far so good. I also download these to my iPod Touch and listen to them when I am writing code that does not require much thought.
-Various Poker Books – Right now, I am reading Harrington on Cash Games Vo1. I. I will update the thread when I start a new book.
-Two Plus Two threads – This includes the concepts of the week posted in the Micro FR table as well as threads started in the LLSNL forum.

The next installment will be from my Friday night session from July 27th at Horseshoe Tunica.

Term Glossary
C-Bet: Short for continuation bet, it is where you make a bet on the flop when you didn't connect with the board much. You have to make a pre-flop raise for it to be a c-bet and your just continuing the action. There is also a delayed c-bet, where you check the flop and wait until the turn to bet.
Value Bet: Pretty much the same thing as a c-bet, except you made something like top pair and rate your hand to be the best. You typically value bet against players who will call with a worse hand.
Range : The starting hands that we think a player could be playing. We can rarely put a player on an exact hand, but instead we put them on a range. For example, a tight player may be calling with any pocket pair, any broadway, suited aces down to A8, and suited connectors down to 87. He may only be raising with AA-JJ, AK, and AQ.
Wet Board: A flop that is coordinated and could fit a lot of players' ranges. For example, a T97 with two diamonds is a wet board. Anyone with a diamond is drawing to a flush, anyone with an eight or QJ is drawing to an open-ended straight, and there are still various straight draws out there like KQ.
Dry Board: A flop that is not very coordinated and thus no one is really going to continue on with unless they have set or top/middle pair. An example would Q62 rainbow (which just means all the cards are of one suite).
Peeling lightly: When a player peels too lightly, he is calling on a dry board without much of a winning chance. He may have something like bottom pair or a backdoor flush draw.
Double Barrel: A double barrel "firing another bullet" on the turn which means we are trying to get those players off weak hands. We may just have A/K high, but if we can get a player off bottom pair, then our double barrel worked.
Triple Barrel: The same thing, excepting using a third bet on the river to try to make an opponent fold a better hand. It is rare we use it in the lower levels of poker.
Equity: Equity is best defined as our winning chances of the hand. For example, if we think we have eight outs (cards that improve our hand to the winner), then we have roughly 16% chance of winning the hand with one card to come.
Polarization: Basically, it means the nuts or nothing. You see this a lot when players bet on the river. They either have the best hand or they are on a stone cold bluff.
Merging: We merge when we make a value bet on the river with a hand like second pair. Our goal is to get called by a worse hand like Ace high. It is a pretty advanced concept, but it is great way to increase our win-rate in these games. The best time to do it is when an obvious draw missed.
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Old 07-30-2012, 07:54 AM   #2
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
July 27h, 2012 Session

I headed down to Tunica fairly late on Friday night. I always come home and take a nap after work. However, I wanted to watch the Burn Notice episode from the night before since I heard it was interesting. So I watched that and then took a nap.

My mood entering the casino was good. Right now, there are a couple of events going on that are increasing the number of people playing. The World Poker Open is going on at GoldStrike. That has attracted several people from out of town. I played some cash games there last weekend and the action was very good. The other is the Mississippi Women’s Poker Championship, which has attracted a larger than usual female crowd.

I parked in the GS garage and walked by the room to see what was going on. I put my name on the $1/2 list, but it was pretty lengthy. For those who unfamiliar with Tunica, the Horseshoe and the GoldStrike are practically connected. That is good, because these are the two best rooms in Tunica. The walk from one poker room to the other is about 3 minutes, so often I will get up and walk to the other room if I need a break.

I walked over to the Horseshoe and was able to get seated immediately. I recognized one guy that I played with last night who was a bit laggy. To my immediate right is a guy who is saying he is a local now (and really emphasizing that) and that he has houses here, Vegas, and Cario. Right off the bat, I notice that the game is very loose-aggressive which means I am going to play pretty snug.

I raise $15 utg with KQ and get one caller to my immediate left, an older gentleman with a pretty large stack who I had not seen before. But my initial impression was the he was a spot. The flop comes T97 with two diamonds. I fire a c-bet of 20. In hindsight, this was a mistake. The board is very wet and I am not up against a good player, so I don’t need to protect my pre-flop raising range. The turn is a blank and I double-barrel $25 into a $70 pot. Again, this was not really a good spot to do this. We want to double-barrel often against opponents who peel too lightly after the flop, but this board is so coordinated that he is not going away with a flush or straight draw. I check the river and fold to a bet. Ugh.

I had been at the table for about an hour and it continued to be a LAGfest. I don’t mind playing in those games, but the stacks were not really deep enough to get involved with the marginal holdings that can take down huge pots in those types of games. I took a break and headed back over to GS. They had a $1/2 seat open, but I checked the table out and it looked like a bunch of younger guys grinding out a cash game session in-between tournaments. I figure I can do better on a Friday night and head back over to the Shoe.

Let me introduce you to Phil. I have no clue if that his real name or not, but he is wearing a ball cap, wearing sunglasses, and berating what he perceives as a bad players when I sit down at my new table. This was the first time I have seen this guy play and I figure he is in town for the tournament. More on Phil in a bit.

My first serious action at the table is to limp in with 54o from the BB. I flop an open-ended straight draw. The woman to my left, who had been playing pretty nitty, made a pot size bet of about $25. I check her stack and she has me covered (I have about $280 in front). I call and hit the Ace on the turn for the straight. I check and she fires $40. I make it $80 to go. She folds and mutters something about stupid Ace. I think she was oblivous to the fact that I was on a straight and a six would have made me a lot of money.

Phil has to scurry off to the ATM after he busts. He returns minus the sunglasses. The problem for Phil is that he is an awful poker player. He can’t ever find the fold button. He tries to bully the table when the stacks aren’t nearly deep enough to do that. He has no clue about ranges, even when he is involved in pots with nits. In short, he is a dream player to have at a table like this.

Phil has been straddling every time he is on the button. I pick-up AA utg and raise $15. Phil defends his straddle and is the only caller. The flop comes 758r. I bet $20 into him and Phil raises me $45. At this point, I know his range is pretty wide here and there is a chance he has flopped two pair. I go into small hand, small pot mode. I check the turn and Phil bets $55. I call. The river is a T. I check and Phil fires $55 again. There is no way I can get off this hand since I have seen him bluffing several times. I call. Phil flips over T7 for the rivered two pair. He gives a cocky shrug like he knew that was coming.

This is a good time to talk about my best trait as a poker player. I don’t tilt. Ever. I respond to bad beats very well. This is a huge change from when I was grinding limit online poker in college. I would cuss, throw computer equipment at the wall, etc. I don’t know if I matured over the years or what, but it is been a welcome change. I think tilting is the easiest way for a decent player to go to a big loser in a very short time.

My next involvement with Phil is when he posts the straddle again and I raise to $15 with KK utg. He is down to about $100. Phil calls and the nit to my right from the BB also calls. The flop comes 99K. I check and try to slow-play a bit. Unfortunately, it gets checked around. The turn is an ace and I bet out $10. Phil calls and the nit folds. I bet $15 on the river and Phil calls. If Phil had been deeper here, I would have bet more but maybe I needed to anyway. He winds up busting out later on and I see him lingering around the poker room on a bathroom break.

I moved backed to my original table after the one I was on broke. One of the LAGs remained along with the fish who I tried to double barrel earlier, although with a smaller stack size. I limped in with pocket 4s from middle position. The LAG behind me made it 11 to go and there were several callers, including me. The flop was 45Q. I checked/called the flop bet of $30. We were heads-up on the turn, which was another Q. I checked, he bet $40, and I raised it to $100. I bet $50 into the river and he calls. Looking back, I think this was a spot I could have bet more and got called. So I need to make sure I maximize my win-rate here. But he was a thinking player and even said something along the lines after my check-raise on the turn of me flopping a set.

I take a look at the other $1/3 table still running and Phil has rebought over there. About half of the players have on sunglasses. I have a theory that the more sunglasses that are at a $1/3 table the better the action. These guys think they can soul-read but in reality will stack off pretty lightly with a hand like top pair, top kicker.

I picked up 66 in middle position and limp in after a few other players limp in front of me. The flop is K52, with two spades. I figure my hand may be best and bet about $15. The player to my left, who has not been doing anything out of the ordinary, calls. I double-barrel the turn after a non-spade hits, but I get called. I check/fold to a river bet.

In my last involvement of the night, I pick-up KJs from the button. There are four limpers in front and I raise to $12. The flop is all low-cards, none of my suite. I c-bet $20 and get four callers. I check the turn when it is checked around to me. The river is an Ace, which I figure that fits my range pretty well. It is checked around to me and I bet $35 since my hand has no showdown value. Everyone folds and I pick-up a nice sized pot.

Lessons Learned
-I need to evaluate board textures better on when I can double barrel. The ideal time to double barrel is when players are calling after the flop with medium pair, back-door flush draws, etc.
-I need to maximize my bets better when I am in with a good hand. I think I missed value against Phil and the LAG.

I finished the session up $155. I think I was stuck about $300 after my aces were cracked by Phil, so I can’t be too unhappy with that. I played a total of 5.5 hours.
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Old 07-30-2012, 08:59 AM   #3
Subby
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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Great thread, great idea. You said you were going to play 30 hours per week - how does that schedule break down? How many hours at a time? What is your max time limit for a session?

What are your expenses related to poker? What is the transportation (gas + parking) cost and the food cost (do you get comped by the casino)?

Grinding out 30 hours per week seems like a lot, particularly after sitting another 40 hours per week at a computer desk job. Your body can break down quickly. What are you doing to keep that from happening?
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Old 07-30-2012, 11:32 PM   #4
britrock88
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Madison, WI
I thought I might be able to get by without a glossary, but I think there's more description in some of your terms that would add to the reading experience.
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Old 07-31-2012, 08:06 AM   #5
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
July 28th, 2012 Session

As I drove to the casino, I developed a killer headache. I stopped at a convenience store to get an energy drink. I really need to quit drinking those things. I generally love being in the casino, watching all the drunks gamble their money away in the pits and observing the slot zombies being mesmerized. But when you have a headache, it is one of the worse places to be.

I put my name on the list for the $1/3 game at the Horseshoe. I don’t play other games in the casino, but I want to get some better comps for my Vegas trips. So I printed off a cheat-sheet from wizards of odds and sat down to play the video poker machine while I waited for my table. I want to show Caesars that I have a little gamboool in me. I can fly round-trip anywhere in the US for $150 with my company discount. As a result, I plan on going to Vegas three or four times a year. So I am going to try to use VP to increase my ADT to get cheaper rooms. I lost $5 bucks by the time I was called for my seat.

I sat down at about 6:45 and played a couple of orbits. But my head was pounding so I ordered a couple of waters since I thought it was related to being dehydrated. But it did not help. I took about a 20 minute break to walk to the gift shop and buy some medicine with my reward points. In the future, I am going to start taking a backpack with water and various medicines packed in it.

As far as the poker goes, the table I sat at first was filled with old men. I am generally a believer in poker stereotypes and this certainly had its fair share of nits. These nits were talking about Splash Casino, the first one that opened up in Tunica and closed about 15 years ago. One even had his Splash Casino preferred player card and still kept it in his wallet. Apparently, since it was the only casino in the area, there was a $10 cover to get in and the security guards kept .385s in a holster on their waists.

My first action was from the button when I picked up ATo on the button. There were several limpers in front and I made it $12 to go. I wrote in my notes if I should be making a continuation bet into four players. My notes don’t say what happened for the rest of the hand, so I am not sure if I won the pot or not.

My second hand was one where I made several costly mistakes. I look down and find ATo in early position in a straddled pot. I just complete the $6. That was the first mistake. This hand is either a raise or a fold. Just because the pot was straddled does not mean that I don’t need to be aggressive pre-flop. Seven players called the straddle, meaning this was already a bloated pot pre-flop. The flop comes A26 with two spades. I figure my ace is good and bet $30 into the pot. I get two callers. The turn is a 3 and I bet $55. Look at all the river cards that hurt me: any spade, any five, any card that could make a two pair to another ace, and any sort of freakish two pair. That is almost half the remaining deck and I am blowing up the pot. I think this is a clear check/call on the turn. The two other players call me and the river pairs the board with a non-spade 3. I check and one of the player behind me bets $100. I am fine with a call here because this guy had actually shown some bluffs and I thought his range was pretty polarized since the obvious draws missed. I called and he showed 43 for the trips.

I have to add $200 after that and I am down pretty early. I got ATcc again and open-raised $11. I got four callers. The board was J high with two clubs. A nittier player with a good stack bet $20 and I called. He followed up with a $30 bet on the turn and again I called. The river missed and I folded to a bet. I want to say my implied odds were there, but it is so obvious I am on a flush draw that I am not going to get paid off that much when it comes in. I have to add another $100 after that hand.

I finally get paid off a bit when a station raises pre-flop. I get 44 and call his raise. I flop the set and call a bet. I check-raise the turn to $55 and get called. I bet $100 on river and he folds. I am starting a come back against these nits!

Unfortunately, it was short-lived. I get KQs from the button and just call an $6 raise from the player who I made the set against. The flop comes all low-cards and a back-door flush draw for me. I call a $20 bet after another player also calls. I figured I had six outs with the overs and another out with the draw. But in reality, the pre-flop raiser did not raise very often and all six of those outs were not clean. It gets checked around on the turn and the front-door flush draw completes on the river. I decide to rep the hearts and bet $25 on a bluff. The early position raiser calls me and tables QQ to win the pot. I am torn on this one. I need to bluff some and my hand had no showdown value, but I need to nut up and make it more if I am going to do it in this spot.

The last hand at this table came when I got KK utg and raised to $11. I got six callers and folded to a bet when an ace came on the flop. One player bet and another called, so I extracted myself cheaply from the hand. There was not a showdown, so I didn’t get to see if I was correct.

Some of the nits needed to go to bed and their spots were practically all taken by players who had just finished up the women’s poker tournament. I had already asked for a table change and got it pretty quickly. I think the lesson learned here was that I relied on my stereotypes too much. In reality, this was a loose-passive game with a lot of gambling and I should have been able to clean-up at.

The first hand I was involved at the new was with JT on the button. I miss the flop but it gets checked around to me so I take a shot at. A really aggressive player calls. He checks to me on the turn and I fire another bet and I get raised. I can put him on a bluff here but since I have nothing I have to either ship or fold. I fold.

I look down and find rockets and raise and get heads up with the same aggressive player. I flop top set and go to value town. I bet the flop and turn and get called, but when I fire on the river he folds. I wonder if this is a chance where I can check and induce a bluff. But I really have not under-repped my hand and I don’t want to rely on him to make my value bet for me.

The table was starting to get short, so I took around a 10 minute break. I came back and we picked up a couple of new players including a woman to my left who was limping a lot pre-flop but not really playing aggressive. I get KTs and limp-in from late position. The flop comes T97. A player bets $10 into me. I decide to call, which is the worse line I can take here. This is a clear-cut bet or fold situation. If I bet and face heat, I can throw my hand away. But I think since I was stuck I was playing way too passively. I bet the turn when a 3 comes and the girl to my left calls. A K makes me two pair on the river and I bet $25. I get raised to $50 and know I am beat but still call anyway. Gah, I played that band.

That table broke and I should have just gone home down $400. But I went to a different table. At first, it started out well. I made a set of Aces and was able to pick up a couple of small pots and got up about a $100 at the table.

A dealer from another casino was playing at the table. She is not very good, but she is really aggressive which can help balance that out. Anyway, a guy from the casino floor recognizes her and comes and sits at our table. I don’t know his name, but it is pretty obvious he is a tournament pro in town for the week. He is wearing a nice watch and an Armani Exchange shirt, so I am guess he has been fairly successful. A $20-40 limit game breaks and another player from Oklahoma who knows the tourney pro joins us. I peg him for a likely pro as well.

I made a good lay down against the guy from Oklahoma when I raise with TT from the cut-off. The flop comes A62r. I fire a continuation bet and he just smooth calls which is weird since the board was so dry. The turn is another A and I figure he does not have one of those since he did not re-raise preflop. I fire $30 and he check-raises me to $60. After a bit of a tank, I fold my hand and he shows pocket 6s and tells me nice laydown.

The last hand of night I get involved with the suspected tournament pro. He really has not been paying much attention to the action, but I figure his range is probably going to be pretty tight. I get KK utg and make $15. He is the only caller from the BB. The flop is 973. He bets $35 into me. I really have no clue where I am at here. I should probably raise since there are so many combos I am ahead of and I think he would slow-play a set heads-up to an aggressor (this did not cross my mind at the table). But I just smooth call and the turn is an ace. He bets $35 again and I call. He makes the same bet on the river and I call again. He shows AK to take the pot.

I take my final $1 chip I have and toss it to the dealer. I got my tail handed to me, losing a total of $500 on the night.

Lessons Learned
-I think, after being stuck, I became really passive instead of playing aggressively. Playing aggressively is the only real way to make money at this game. For the most part, there is not a lot of deception at this level, and I will find out soon enough if I am beat. I got to be willing to bet/fold and even raise/fold if I know I am no good.
-I need to be more careful about stereotyping unknowns. I could me missing or giving a way a lot of value if I continue to do that.
-Be careful about blowing up pots when my equity is really not good. I tried to protect my hand when there was a good chance I was going to lose, so what I am really protecting it from?
-Go home when the games start to suck. If I am playing late at night when I am tired, I need it to be a really good game where I am not going to be forced into making a lot of decisions. The last table I played was tough and aggressive and the couple of spots at the table did not have a lot of chips.
-I need to get out of the mental fog at the table. I am able to reflect back and find my mistakes after the play pretty quickly. That is an improvement, because I use to not be able to see my mistakes at all, but I need to get to where I can make this kind of analysis in the heat of the moment. An article I read today, which was totally, unrelated to poker, talked about waiting until the last possible second to make a decision. I need to ask myself first how much time I have and then go into the tank and make a rational decision. In other words, there are some forms of procrastination that are okay and this is one of them.
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Old 07-31-2012, 08:26 AM   #6
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
Quote:
Originally Posted by Subby View Post
Great thread, great idea. You said you were going to play 30 hours per week - how does that schedule break down? How many hours at a time? What is your max time limit for a session?

What are your expenses related to poker? What is the transportation (gas + parking) cost and the food cost (do you get comped by the casino)?

Grinding out 30 hours per week seems like a lot, particularly after sitting another 40 hours per week at a computer desk job. Your body can break down quickly. What are you doing to keep that from happening?

Here is my rough outline of my schedule:
Thursday 6:00 PM - 2:00 AM
Thursday's are usually pretty good because the tourists start arriving from out of town early and they still have money to play poker with. But, if there is not a $2/5 game going, then the players from out of town who normally play $2/5 will play in the $1/3 game which makes for a pretty interesting dynamic.
Friday 8:00 PM - 6:00 AM
I am still thinking of tweaking this one. I may go down right after work instead of going home and taking a nap first. As you saw in the previous post, there is no sense in staying in a late night game unless it is a very good game where I don't have to make a lot of complex decisions.
Saturday 2:00 PM - 2:00 AM
This is another one I may tweak as well. I need to see how good the games are during the day on Saturday. That is also when most tournaments are going in Tunica, so many fish are playing in those.

It takes about 4 gallons of gas to the casino and back. Right now gas is about $3.10, so a little over $12. There is no parking cost. I can get comped with a buffet, snack bar, or an excellent Asian place. The problem is I hate eating at the poker table. I am not a germaphobe by any means, but I think the casino chips are pretty nasty.

Thirty hours is going to be a commitment and to be honest I have not done it yet. Not having any kids is a huge plus and my wife seems to be on-board with it so far. Once I move to the $2-5 game, I plan to cut my hours back to 20 or 25 a week.

In an ideal world, I would have enough money to work at home on a college football start-up idea that I have. I could then adjust my sleep schedule and have no problems staying alert well into the night. We could afford to do it once we get everything paid off except our mortgage (doable in a year if this poker stuff works out), but it would be a pretty big risk to quit a cush job at a Fortune 100 company with solid pay and great benefits.
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Old 07-31-2012, 09:49 AM   #7
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
As far as preventing my body from breaking down, that is a great question. I need to start my own shitty habits thread, as my bad habits are pretty similar to yours. I eat poorly, don't exercise on a consistent basis, and get into work late often.

I listened to a podcast that had Tommy Angelo on it, who is one of the better writers on the mental side of the game. He said that the best way to get better poker is to get better at everything else. I think that is solid advice.

So I am going to try to starting eating healthier, exercising consistently, etc. in hopes that it improves my poker game.
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Old 07-31-2012, 10:18 AM   #8
GoldenEagle
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Location: Little Rock, AR
At the suggestion of my wife (who is reading along), I added a term glossary to the first post. I think I covered everything and I will add more when I introduce new terms. If I missed anything and you are not sure what it means, let me know.
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Old 07-31-2012, 06:43 PM   #9
Cap Ologist
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Flower Mound, TX
Pretty sure you proved that you do tilt. Everybody does, there's no shame in it. Just gotta learn how to recognize it quickly and fix it. Anything that's not your A game is tilt, so even if your B and C game are decent, it's still tilt.

I play 2 hours on and then take a break at a dealer change and go for a walk for 30 minutes or go eat. I've found that I'm much more profitable doing that than playing straight through.

Last edited by Cap Ologist : 07-31-2012 at 06:45 PM.
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Old 08-01-2012, 09:44 AM   #10
GoldenEagle
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Join Date: Dec 2002
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cap Ologist View Post
Pretty sure you proved that you do tilt. Everybody does, there's no shame in it. Just gotta learn how to recognize it quickly and fix it. Anything that's not your A game is tilt, so even if your B and C game are decent, it's still tilt.

I play 2 hours on and then take a break at a dealer change and go for a walk for 30 minutes or go eat. I've found that I'm much more profitable doing that than playing straight through.

Yea, under that definition, I was on tilt. I was probably playing my C game. Did you read The Mental Game of Poker?

Taking a break every 30 minutes would be nice, but it would cut into my playing time significantly. I do try to take periodic breaks, but most just ten minutes here and there.

You are in Dallas, right? Do you play at Winstar? I am coming there for the River Series over Labor Day weekend.
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Old 08-01-2012, 02:38 PM   #11
Cap Ologist
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Yeah, i play at Winstar a lot. I'll most likely be there that weekend, so maybe we can meet up or something. A break every 30 minutes would be crazy, just found that after about 2 hours, i start kind of zoning out a little bit. Never read the mental game of poker, i got the idea from elements of poker, have you read it?
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Old 10-18-2012, 10:26 AM   #12
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August 3rd, 2012 Session

These sessions happened several months ago, so I am recapping them from my notes and memory. As a result, some things may be a little fuzzy. Several things have happened since these, but I will get to those in a later post.


I arrived at the casino at around 9:25. The first hand I get involved with is TT. I raise $15 and get six callers. The flop comes 244. I fire a bet of $50 and get no resistance in taking the pot down. My first reaction is that this will be a good table.

The next hand I get involved with is against an unknown villain. I get JTs and limp in. The board pairs my Jack. The turn is a 7 of diamonds. I bet $25 and fold when the villain re-raises me to $70.
I get QJs a little bit later on. My notes say that I didn’t raise with it and I can’t quite remember why. I make top pair, but fold to a straight. I vaguely remember that this was a very good laydown.

I do remember this next hand, because it is something I don’t do that much. I pick-up AQ from the SB and raise to $20. Three players call. I fire a $25 c-bet on the flop and get one caller. I check the turn and he checks as well. I bet $100 on the river into a $110 pot. I didn’t have any of the board.

What I don’t like about the play is that against competent players my range is so polarized. These are the kind of mistakes that I look to exploit against weaker players. But then again, I did win the pot with the bluff. So I am torn on this one.

I change tables at 11:25.

The next hand I open 88 with a $20 bet because of a straddle. There are four callers. The flop is K33. I am not sure if I bet the flop or not. The turn is an A. My notes say that I double barreled, so I must have bet the flop. I get one player to fold, but apparently I lost the split pot. I am not sure what happened there.

The next hand I pick-up 99. An aggressive younger kid has sat down and is playing a wide range. I get pocket 9’s and hit my set on the flop. I get it all in vs an OESD against the kid. He hits on the turn and I can’t fill up on the river. He takes a $500 pot.

I took a fifteen minute break. In hindsight, this was a mistake because when I got back the kid had practically lost all of those chips I gave him.

This next hand was probably some of the best poker I have played. I get pocket Qs. I wish I would have taken more notes, but basically I got three streets of value out of it for a very large pot. The river was a bit scary but I made a thin value bet which increased the size of the pot by about $140.

I had a couple of more hands I took note on, but nothing really important. I don’t know where I ended up money-wise on this session.

Lessons Learned
-Don’t immediately get up from the table after losing a big pot. See if you really need the break. If you do, you may miss someone spewing the chips you just gave him.
-Be careful about polarizing ranges. This is very exploitable by good players.
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Old 11-08-2012, 08:21 AM   #13
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November 7th, 2012 Studying

I am skipping ahead a bit, but I will go back and recap other sessions. One of the things I wanted to do was to recap everyday how I am studying the game. I really didn’t do much of this and I think it affected my game somewhat. I hope these recaps will help with the learning process and prove to myself that I am putting the work in.

CLP videos
For those who don’t know, the CLP videos are done from cash game play from Live at the Bike. The commentator, Bart Hanson, reviews and talks about several hands from the session. It is highly recommended for a live player and only costs $10 a month.
Today, I watched the first episode of the series. I have seen it before but wanted to re-watch it.
-The first hand talks about talks about river polarization and its importance. The hand was raised pre-flop. The board wound-up being double paired. The weaker player in the hand led into the better player on the river after checking the turn. It talked about how this is generally nuts or nothing from a weaker player.
-The second hand further explains the concept of double barreling against players who peel too lightly after the flop. Generally, you want to be able to get these players off of hands by following up with another bet on the turn.
-The third hand is an interesting play. There is a raise pre-flop with several callers. It is checked around to the pre-flop raiser who also checks. The player behind bets into the pot. Bart suggest making a play known as the attacking the field bettor. We want to do this with some equity, but it is going to be hard-pressed for the field bettor to continue on with the hand.
-The next hand discusses thin value betting. A recreational player makes a solid play be merging his range on the river and betting into a solid player. It is a good way to increase your win-rate, but it has to be made against the right kind of player. I need to research more of this, because I am not sure if we make this bet into a calling station. I am thinking the answer is yes.
-The fifth hand talks about a concept that I really need to take to heart. You don’t have to make a hero call on the river, even if the pot odds are very good. Replay the action back in your head and ask yourself if most players are really going to run a three-street bluff.
-The next hand talks about where a player gets AA from EP. He limps in and checks the flop. A player takes a stab at it and another player raises over the top of him. The player with AA check-raises and gets called. It is a situation where only going to get worse to fold and only better to continue. He argues that he should have bet his AA immediately on the flop, especially into multiple players. The more players the less tricky you play.
-The last hand just talks about adding more hands to your limp re-raise range. Hands such as suited A’s or KQ against certain players.

Threads
I read a couple of interesting threads today that I will link to:

Why can't I play LAG? - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

This discusses how a player wanting to play LAG goes into the casino and is basically lost. Others sum it up pretty well in that playing LAG is situational. That style of play does well when you need to get NITs to stack off lightly or stacks are very deep. This is an element that I don’t have in my game but something I would like to be able to do.

I think the OP is just frustrated by playing too tight of a range. This is something I am working on as well. I want to expand my range in late position, but not necessarily play LAG.

Live No Limit Leaks/Suggested Tweeks - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

The next thread discusses live leaks. The OP asks for the three biggest leaks on live NL players. Here are mine:

-Stacking off too lightly with an overpair or top pair, good kicker. We are going to get into more of this in the session recaps, but it is something that I have to fix.
-Not paying enough attention to the game. I usually pay close attention for an hour or so and then slowly drift away. I have some ideas to combat this. I need to learn to be sociable (it does increase your win-rate) AND pay attention to the game.
-C-betting too much into a wet board with multiple opponents.

Book Reading

I am currently reading the Mental Game of Poker. I didn’t get to read much yesterday. I am currently on Chapter 6, which is a chapter entitled Fear. It is something I definitely have in my mental game. Some examples:

-I do constantly check my stack size and like to know if I am up or down in a session.
-I avoid high-variance situations sometimes.
- I do feel overwhelmed about learning the game. There is so much to learn and the game is so complex.
-I do go through a mental fog sometimes at the table in big pots. I think we have discussed that before.

I have only read the first couple of pages. I will dive deeper into it. The previous chapters have covered some other things that I need to recap here. I think the mental game is very important.

Hand Evaluations
I only had the chance to evaluate one hand:
This is why I hate jacks - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

The hero is dealt JJ and is up against a decent player. Here are my thoughts on the hand:

-Raise more pre-flop. A 4BB from UTG is not enough. My standard raise here is $12-15.
-Flop bet is fine. I think we are ahead of a lot of V’s range here. He called from the button and was priced in.
-The turn bet should probably be smaller. A near pot-sized bet is not necessary in this situation. We are still betting for value.
-We need to bet the river to try to get a third street of value. If we are raised, we can re-evaluate. We know he has something, but we are still ahead of much of his range.
-Lastly, we should play this hand exactly as AA. The situation is no different.
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Old 11-18-2012, 06:34 AM   #14
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November 8th, 2012 Studying

Hand Evaluations

what is the right play in this spot?? KJo in cutoff - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

Hero has KJo from the cut-off. He calls a pre-flop raise from a tight regular UTG.

-I think these hands are just folds here before the flop. If we assign V a range of 99+, AQ+, and KQ, then we are getting crushed by that. Furthermore, if we make top pair, we can’t be sure it is good.
-The flop is KJ3 rainbow. The V leads into Hero, who just smooth calls. I think that is ok in a heads-up pot.
-The turn is where things get tricky. V leads into Hero once again. Hero min-raises and V three-bets him. I don’t like the bet sizing here. I want to raise to at least $100. This will commit us to the pot, but I think our two pair is way ahead of most of his range. We are only losing to KK/JJ.
-Another thing we want to keep in mind is the blockers in our hand. There is only two remaining K and J out there making very unlikely he has a set.
But the call pre-flop with a marginal hand lead to a marginal situation. I think this is either a fold pre-flop or a raise if we feel we are ahead of V’s opening range.

1/2 KQs improves on turn, then river, now what? - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

Hero has KQs that makes a pair on the turn and faces a shove on the river.

-This is what I mean when I talk about river polarization so much. Hero is in this hand against an aggressive player. The V is passive until the very end and then shoves the river.
-He either has a near nut hand (something like 85) or pure air. I don’t seem him making a thin bet here with something like a low flush or a single 8.
-It is hard to build a range for him because he could be calling very wide out of the BB.
-His line c/c, c/c, and then shove when the flush completes on the river. It does not quite compute. I think he would go for more value and bet less if he had the nut flush or a boat.
-I think it is a call after adding it all up, but I am not sure I would have the balls to follow through with it. These are the high variance plays I am talking about. I think a call is profitable but I don’t want to lose my stack if I am wrong.
-Reading the responses, I think there is one that makes a lot of sense and that is to check back the turn. On the surface, the Q improved our hand. But it is a subtle situation where we are never going to get value from worse. I don’t think V continues the flop with something like QJ or sees the river with hand like A5.

CLP Video

-The first hand discussed shows an example of how to bet thinly on the river. In this instance, a player had flopped two pair. The river card actually completed the flush, but Bart pointed out that this is an example of where we could bet thinly if the river did not complete the flush. The player still made a thin bet with a wet board with the flush and a one-liner to a straight, but the loser of the hand still called with just top pair.
-There is a quick hand that talks about hand-reading and replaying the entire hand back through your mind when deciding to make a play at the pot. Basically, Ron misses a flush draw and bluffs at a rather large pot. Matt turned quad Aces. The hand was four-way on the flop, Matt made his set of Aces and led into the field. Bart indicates that this is great strength. Always replay the entire action back through your head when trying to hand-read.
-The next hand shows an example of double barreling and how we have to turn our hand into a bluff on the river. Adam has QT and raises pre-flop. Matt calls from the BB with 67o and picks up an OESD draw on the flop. The turn is K, which is a good card to double barrel on which Adam does. The river is another king. Matt checked his busted draw and Adam also checks. Bart argues that he has to bet here because his hand has little showdown value. He has to get Ace high or a low pair to fold.
-Next, Bart talks about a blind v blind scenario. He says he never chops the pot when out of the blinds. I typically do, but maybe I should change that. But the emphasis of the hand is on bet sizing. In particular, a recreational player bets his hand weakly on a wet board to protect his hand, not to gain value. If you can pick-up on this bet sizing tell, you can exploit it by check-raising and getting players off their weak hands. I should note that this is if I check to the player, not if I bet and he min-raises. A wet board is key here as well.
-The next hand once again discusses hand-reading when you are trying to represent a hand. Rich, the pre-flop raiser, has QJ on a A42Q board. The Q on the turn is the third club which Aaron takes a stab at bluffing, but without considering the pre-flop action. We need to analyze what hands a normal pf raiser could have this situation in which he would not bet the flop with an A and a wet board. A Q fits that range perfectly.
-Finally, the last hand discusses a huge hand where a competent player (Adam) limps in UTG with 34s. He winds up flopping two pair. But Matt from the big blind flopped a bigger two pair. Both players bomb the pot, but Adam winds up making a good laydown instead of shoving his hand when he realizes he is beat. The emphasis of the hand is not to overplay your hand (I am very guilty of this). Matt also may have gotten more value out of this by not putting so much heat on the flop.

Deuce Plays Podcast – Adjustments

-The first thing discussed in the podcast is playing weaker hands from up front for a raise like AT. I am not playing hands like this very often from early position anymore and Bart agrees with me on that. Regular players have started playing tighter to pre-flop raises over the years. So if a reg is calling behind us with AJ then we are dominated and he has position, a very bad combination. A winning image can change this to some extent where players are more apt to fold to our bets. But I am going to make sure I continue dumping these unless I have a great image.
-The next hand discusses optimal theory when dealing with donk bets. For those that don’t know, a donk bet is when a player bets into you after you have been the aggressor. He argues that players at the lower levels are more likely to respect a raise to a donk bet on the flop than on the turn or river. So if you are trying to win the pot by bluffing, raise the flop. But if you are value betting with the turn, smooth-call the flop and then bomb the turn. If you want to raise someone off top pair, do it on the flop.
-Next, it is discussed how to deal with maniacs. We want to try to get position on them as much as possible. We want to play snug and only call raises pre-flop with the excellent implied odds like pocket pairs or connected suited connectors. These guys are going to put so much heat on us that we want to generally be in with the best of it.
-The next hand discusses an awkward situation that I seem to find myself very often, but it still worth making a note of. The Hero opens with QJ and gets called by a tighter player. The flop comes J44. The hero leads into the V, but the V bombs for around $100. If the stack sizes were deeper, we could call and evaluate. But this is a capped game, so the stack sizes are short and awkward. This is just a tough situation to be in and it kind of goes back to my downfall of potentially stacking off with nothing but top pair.

Book Reading – Mental Game of Poker
I finished up Chapter 6 of the Mental Game of Poker which is titled Fear. I mentioned some fears that I might have in yesterday’s post. He suggests a general strategy for resolving fear.

Example – Having a losing session

What is the worst thing that can happen? Nothing, really. I have a bankroll that covers losing nights. I know that losing nights are a part of the game and sometimes you are going to run-bad. This is what keeps the fish coming back when they hit that 1 in 10 shot on the river.

Why is that bad? Again, no reason. I do feel guilty when I have losing nights though. Some of this comes from being away from my wife and dogs and feeling like I could have spent the night with them instead of losing $x amount.

What is the solution? Have confidence in my long term ability in the game. Know that I am putting in the work to be a very good player and move up in stakes.

I guess when I have a losing session I wonder how I could have turned it into a winning session and what mistakes I could have avoided. But sometimes you are going to lose a lot of money and play very solid poker. That is just the game.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

Bart tweets out poker advice nearly every day on his Twitter account. I will post those here and give my thoughts on them.

“When raised on the flop vs a polarized range top pair weak kicker is the same as an over pair. #crushlivepoker”

I really haven’t though much about polarization on the flop. But his point here is we are facing heat on a board like J62r and hold something along the lines of JT, this is essentially the same as having pocket Aces if no one raised pre-flop. I really don’t know how to incorporate this into my game at this point.
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Old 11-18-2012, 06:36 AM   #15
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November 9th, 2012 Study Notes

Studying is a little light on Friday’s. I will usually only watch a CLP video in the morning and listen to a podcast. I may get a chance to evaluate some hands. There won’t be any reading at night since I am at the casino on Friday night. Today, I started a CLP video but didn’t get a chance to finish it.

Deuce Plays – Brain Crunch

-The first thing he discusses is something that I have been struggling with and that is stacking off lightly with an over-pair. He suggests reading the board and with a wet board, we just bet and fold if the V min-raises us. If the board is relatively dry, call and evaluate the action.
-In the next hand, he discusses how to bet thin to increase our win rate. This is another concept that is really hammered home. The flop contained two hearts, while he had paired an Ace. The turn went check-check. The river did not complete the flush draw, and Bart led with a large bet to make it look like he had a busted flush draw. He got called by pocket Kings and took in a large pot. He won the pot with A8s without making the flush.
-The hero in the next hand that Bart analyzes has pocket Queens. The flop was KK5 with two suited cards. The sb donked into the hero who just called. This is a situation where if we raise, we are only going to get better to continue and worse to fold. So we call and evaluate. A player behind the hero also calls. The sb checks the turn and our hero bets. Bart suggested we just check here since there is another player left to act behind us and our hand has some showdown value so we don’t have to turn it to a bluff. But our hero bets and the V behind shoves. The hero is getting about 4:1 on a call, but Bart thinks we should fold. It is odd that players at this level would over-call the flop and then run a two-street bluff into two players.
-Next, Bart talks about how he folded to a river bet after he had called the turn. He thinks too many players call a river bet just because they put money in on the turn. In this hand, he had AJ and raised pre-flop. He c-bet the flop into two players because of his winning image and some backdoor equity. On the turn, he picked up some more equity with a straight draw. He check/called a bet. The river was an Ace, but he check/folded to a bet. His reasoning is players don’t bet thinly in this spot. If they are unsure of their hand strength, they just check behind. So he folded a hand that improved on the river.
-The next hand re-enforces the previous thought. The hero has pocket Kings and the board on the river is T3299. The river completed a front door flush draw. The hero value bet the flop and turn correctly but is unsure what do on the river. It is complicated by the fact that the V is a LAG. Bart suggests we still check with the intention of folding but expect to win if the river goes check/check.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

He had two tweets today that I am going to cover:

“Great no limit players turn even strong holdings into bluffs if they think they can fold their opponent’s entire range out. #crushlivepoker”

This one is hard to wrap my head around. If we have a strong holding, don’t we want to get value from it instead of getting our opponents to fold? We bluff when we think our opponent will lay his hand down, but if we have a strong holding, what is our opponent going to lay down that is stronger?

“In a live, small capped, NL game about 80-90% of all mistakes are preflop. #crushlivepoker”

I can agree with this, but I think those small series of mistakes pre-flop put players in bad situations post-flop. For example, yesterday I evaluated the KJ hand. That was a mistake pf, but he flopped a hand so strong there is no way he can get away from it. I don’t know the results of that hand, but it was implied the V had KK for a set. He can avoid all that if he just folds pre-flop.
My pre-flop play is solid, but it is far from perfect. I feel this is something that I can optimize.
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Old 11-18-2012, 08:04 AM   #16
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Thanks for the link, that was a good read. I couldn't help but smile at the "I've been playing the best poker on the table and everyone seems to know it IMHO" comment.

Anyway, I've been reading your dynasty a couple of times. Keep it up.
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Old 11-20-2012, 10:39 PM   #17
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August 4th, 2012 Session

Once again, this session happened quite a bit ago. I wasn’t going to bother recapping them, but they are some major lessons that can be learned here. Some details are going to be fuzzy.

I started at around 6:45 PM. The initial $1/3 table that I sat at was very good. The first hand I get involved with is J9. I flopped top pair and an open-ended straight draw. I make my straight on the turn and bet for value. The river is a scary card, an A. My notes say that I checked instead of betting. Looking back now, this is very bad. We have to get thin value in a situation like this. Yes, the board is scary and if I am raised I can re-evaluate. But you have to go for value in this game.

My next involvement is with pocket Tens. I flopped a set and try to slow-play a bit since I think I was heads-up, but really didn’t get much action.

The next hand thing that happened was something that was inexplicable. I decided to move to the $2/5 game. I don’t know what possessed me to do this. I didn’t have the roll for it but I just decided to take a shot.

My first impression was simply wow. I noticed a guy sitting down that was playing a $1/3 with me last night who was definitely a mark. There was an Asian guy who was gambling with every hand. The pots were huge and the action was mesmerizing. I noticed that my focus on the action was greatly increased.

I sat down in the game for $565. There is no cap on what you can buy in for.

The first hand I played was A5o which I opened from the button and got called by a fishy type player in the small blind. The flop was KQ5. I cbet the flop, checked back the turn, and folded to a river bet. I didn’t note what the other turn/river were.

My second hand involved getting AK and three-betting it pre-flop. I also c-bet the flop and got called. I made the second-nut flush on the river and called a $55 bet, but the other player had the nut flush.

The next hand was, unfortunately, my last at $2/5. I picked up QQ and opened to $25 and got two callers. I get called by a younger guy who had just sat down. The flop came T73. I lead for $50 and get raised to $120. I only had about $205 and decided to just ship the rest of it. The V showed TT and took the pot with a set.

I sat back down at a $1/3 game at around 9 PM, but I should have just gone home. The only hand that I put in my notes is that I had Q8, limped in and made a flush on the turn for a decent sized pot.

I think this hand happened that night, but I can’t remember. The details are a bit fuzzy in my mind, but I know I had JJ and the V wound up having three Tens. I stacked off with just an over-pair when it was painfully obvious that he had a strong hand.

I wound up losing like $1000 this night. I am foreshadowing a bit, but this was the beginning of the end sort of.

Lessons Learned
-Don’t take shots when you are not ready. Looking back now, my game was not in a good spot at this time. I wasn’t really putting in that much work. I was doing decent at $1/3, but I spent a very good portion of my bankroll on this night.
-When players are making min-raises on dry boards, it is almost always indicative of a strong hand. Take my QQ vs set of tens in the $2/5 hand. What can he possibly have there besides a set? The only other thing that even remotely makes sense is AT, but does he call pf raise with that?
-Avoid marginal situations when you are playing on a short roll like the A5o hand.
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Old 11-20-2012, 11:32 PM   #18
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August 11th, 2012 Session

I went down to the casino pretty early and got there at around 2 PM. I decided, at least at first, to update my notes every 30 minutes when there is a dealer shift.

During the first thirty minutes, I won $53. I had KJs and raised $12 and got five callers. The flop was AA2 and I fired a c-bet of $25. I get no resistance and took the pot down. Next, I had KQs and raised $13. The two players who limped in folded and I won the pot without seeing the flop. I also called pf with 84s from the cut-off and folded when I whiffed.

I lost $8 during the next thirty minutes. The only hand I played was A7s UTG (mistake) and folded when it was raised behind me. I missed 17 minutes due to using the restroom.

I had A4s and limped in. The hand gets checked around on the flop and I make a 2 to 6 straight on the turn. The river is unfortunate, as it is a 7 which puts a higher straight than mine on the board. The V bets and I call since I think he is just making a play at the board, but he has an eight and I lose the hand. This is hand is really confusing now that I have recapped it.

I had ATs from the high-jack and raise to $12. Two players call and I flop a gutshot. I called a $15 bet but folded on the turn. I am not sure why I didn’t c-bet with some equity here.

Next, I decided to go play in the tournament that was starting at 4 PM. I am really an awful tournament player and it is really like lighting money on fire. But the level of play was awful. If these players who just play tournaments would ever venture into cash games, then those would be so much better. I actually ran up a decent stack but then lost when I shoved a hand since my M was getting really low.

I put my name on the $1-3 list, but it was pretty long. There was an open seat in the $2-5 game so I decided to only buy in for $300 and play a short stack strategy. This game was not as good as the one last week, but it was still a solid table with a few spots.

My first action was to raise AQs from the small blind and was called five-way. I missed the flop, checked, and folded to a bet.

I played very tight until I picked up 67s in late position. I over-limped with the hand and we went something like four-way to the flop. The board was 445, giving me an open-ended straight draw but not to the nuts. The turn was an 8, giving me the straight. I bet $100 and got called. On the river, I shoved the rest of my stack. I got called by a younger Asian. I was salivating thinking about the nearly $700 in the pot until he flipped over 84 for the full house.

I went home after that, knowing that I would no longer do this to try to help make ends meet. I wasn’t putting the required work into my game and was playing like degenerate instead of a disciplined, hungry player.

Lessons Learned
-I played the entire night like a recreational player, jumping around from game to game and playing in the tournament for the heck of it. I played the $2/5 game so I could get in the action right away.
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Old 11-22-2012, 06:28 AM   #19
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Shreveport/Vegas/Back to Tunica

I didn’t get to go to the tournament over Labor Day weekend in Oklahoma like I wanted to. Instead, I wound up pulling a U-Haul from Houston to Memphis with an overnight stop in Shreveport. There are a couple of casinos which offer poker there, so I took a cab over to the Horseshoe Bosiser City.

I didn’t take notes and only got to play for a couple of hours, but the games were amazing. It was the best $1/3 game I have ever sat in. The pots were routinely about $100 before the flop. Unfortunately, I took a pretty big cooler when a guy made a set on the river in about a $400 pot.

Next, my wife and I took a week-long trip to Vegas. We had a great time, but I didn’t take notes or analyze my play much. I would say I broke about even for the trip in terms of poker. I played at Aria, MGM, Bellagio, and Venetian. I am planning on going back during Memorial Day and will keep detailed notes then.

I went back down to Tunica on November 3rd. It was the first time I had been there in a while. I had a slightly losing session. I had something like a pair of Jacks and looked up a guy who I thought was making an aggressive move on the river. He had Q9 for a full house. The other big hand was when I folded two pair on the flop after a bet/3 bet action.
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Old 11-23-2012, 04:09 PM   #20
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November 9th, 2012 Session

I got to the casino at around 9 PM and had to wait a little bit. I wound being sat around 9:30 in a new game. New games are always kind of weird to start off in. There is no rhythm to the table yet. But everyone’s stack size starts off about the same. I bought in for $300 (the max in a $1/3 game) as did most everyone else at the table.

I over-limp from the cut-off with KTdd. I pick up a flush draw and a backdoor straight draw for some additional equity. A relative unknown player leads into me, but I feel like he is on a top-pair type hand. I call the flop, but is this a situation where I should be raising with my decent equity?

I think a raise here disguises my flush draw somewhat and might get me a free card on the turn. But this is no-limit, where I open the betting back up and could be facing a shove if my opponent is aggressive enough. But I think there was another player to act behind me, so that led me to just call the flop bet.

The turn misses my flush draw and eliminates any backdoor options except for a King. We are now heads-up and my opponent fires another barrel. The immediate odds are not there to continue drawing, but I figure I have some implied odds so I call the turn.

I miss on the river and have to fold as my opponent bets again. This is a situation I need to evaluate more closely. It is so obvious I am on a flush draw that chances are I might not have gotten paid off if I did hit, especially if that card was an Ad or Qd (the top pair on the board was a J). I need to not give myself all nine outs in this situation, which leans me more toward folding this on the turn.

The table was playing loose and aggressive, at least pre-flop. I limped in with pocket 9’s and called a pre-flop raise. The board came A44 and I decided to take a shot at when it was checked around to me. I bet but folded to a raise behind me. This is a fundamental mistake because I played the nine’s to set-mine. If I wanted to take a shot at the board, I should have raised with them pre-flop.

An aggressive player sits down in the 9 seat. He is straddling and defending his straddle with a raise every time. I get pocket 5’s and limp in. The guy in the straddle makes it a $100 to go. I go in the tank for a bit but decide to fold my hand.

The next time he straddles, I call a raise from another aggressive player for $16 with pocket 8’s. The aggressive player from the last hand raises to $45. The original pre-flop raiser folds. After thinking about it for a while, I decide to shove and risk my entire $220 stack. In a vacuum, I think this is profitable play. The guy was raising almost every other hand and was trying to run the table over. He calls and shows QQ and I can’t suck out.

I am not terribly unhappy with my decision there, but it is a very high-variance style and I should have done it with a bit more equity perhaps. At best, I am a 55/45 favorite. I think it does show a profit over the long-term, but there are easier ways to make money at this level. But I am down $400 on the night and haven’t won a single pot all night.

I call a raise with A3s for $13 pre-flop. I pick-up a flush draw on the flop. When it is checked to me, I bet $20 and take down the pot without issue.

My last hand of the night sees me pick up pocket Kings. I raise $25 and get two callers. The flop is 842 or something similar to that. A crazy-aggressive guy leads for $60. The other player folds. I know I am not getting away from this pot. I shove the remainder of my stack, which is about $170. He thinks about it and calls. The turn is an A, which is not a good for me. The river is a 6. The V flips over 86 for the rivered two pair.

That is a cooler. But that is what keeps the weaker players coming back. I got my money in good and that is all you can do. I thought about going to the ATM, but I have a strict stop-gap policy of $600 for now. If I wouldn’t have taken the high variance coin-flip earlier, I could have pulled out more money to play against this guy with.

Overall, it was a frustrating night. I was pretty card dead. I was there for three hours, only played four/five hands post-flop, and lost $600.

Lessons Learned
-I need to remember to adjust outs in drawing situations. Not all of my presumed outs are clean.
-Avoid high variance situations until I have a better roll.
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Old 11-23-2012, 05:34 PM   #21
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November 12th Study Notes

I wasn’t motivated to do much studying after my big loss on Friday night. I spent the rest of the weekend refereeing soccer (bankroll building!) I did not ref a game today, which means I should have put in some serious study time. My goal should be to have a consistent studying effort, no matter what type of results I have.

Book Reading – Mental Game of Poker

I read Chapter 7 today, which is entitled Motivation. I guess that is a fitting chapter for today. Most of the information in this chapter is your typical motivation stuff with a spin on poker. I will admit that I have a laziness and procrastination problem. This is a general life problem that spills over into poker.

The thing about poker though is that there is always something else today. The game is so complex that you can dive into the various different parts. For example, there is always more to study and refine about math, psychology, game theory etc.

I have a general plan that I have highlighted earlier to help me learn how to play the game at an optimal level. Then I plan to refine my understanding of the finer points.

My motivation comes from my love of the game. I am pumped every time I realize I have a spare Friday night to go play poker. But I need to make enough money to make sure I can keep going back, thus why I am putting all this work in. I know sometimes I don’t, but once I make a few life changes (mainly dropping soccer) my belief is that I will develop regular and consistent study habits.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

“Check-calling the river in lower live NL games is usually going to be wrong. Think bet-fold also –ppl don’t bluff enough #crushlivepoker”

Bart has some pretty good theories about river play. The first is that players are showdown monkeys, meaning they usually want to see a showdown via the cheapest route. So as a result, players will rarely bluff-raise the river.
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Old 11-25-2012, 02:13 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MIJB#19 View Post
Thanks for the link, that was a good read. I couldn't help but smile at the "I've been playing the best poker on the table and everyone seems to know it IMHO" comment.

Anyway, I've been reading your dynasty a couple of times. Keep it up.

Thanks for reading and the compliment. It is amazing how overconfident people are at this game. I think Theory of Poker says that players ask for handicaps in games like bowling and golf, but never in poker even though they are way over-matched.

Of course, I have had my fair share of dumb plays, so I can't say much.
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Old 11-26-2012, 08:34 PM   #23
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November 13th Study Notes

CLP Video

-The first hand discusses a heads-up situation when a player has posted a straddle. The better player decides to take a shot at a relatively dry board, but the recreational player calls. The turn pairs the board and the better player checks. The recreational player makes a smallish bet, which Bart says is just a protection bet that he most likely does not have trips or even top pair. The better player calls since his implied odds are decent and can win some money if he makes a hand on the river. Our implied odds are greater when are in the hand with a station-type player.
-The next hand shows a great example of how players who are nitty can never get away from their hands when they are only playing a pot every hour. In the hand, the station that was mentioned in the first hand made trips and bet into the tight player who had QQ. The lesson here is that we have to value bet these players to death when they are in the pot and we have a better hand. They just can’t fold.
-Next, Bart discusses how we need to try to manipulate the pot to get value from a second-nut type hand when we have made the nuts. We need to pass on thin value situations to try to get a player to make a bet with a strong draw when we have already made a better draw. We can go for a check-raise on the turn to build a pot and then hope the V makes his hand.
-One of the major leaks in a good player’s game is that they do not double barrel enough. Players will peel very lightly after the flop, sometimes with bottom pair or a gutshot draw. We have to recognize board textures and which cards are good to double barrel on. We want to do this against bad players who are taken off very lightly.
-Barreling limped pots is a way to increase your win-rate, since no one likes to go broke in a smaller pot. Even if the board pairs, we still need to consider double barreling. If our draw is not going to beat some of the other draws out there, we need to apply pressure to try to make them fold.

Book Reading – Mental Game of Poker

I read the final chapter of the book today, which is titled “Confidence”. We want to avoid tying confidence to our results. That can either lead to over-confidence and entitlement to winnings or not enough confidence which leads to bad play.

Poker is unique because a large sample size is required to determine if you are a consistent winner. As a result, short-term variance can be crippling to our confidence. We want to attempt to have a stable, steady confidence despite whatever variance might send our way.

As a result, negative emotions such as tilt can be kept out of our game if we have confidence. We want to be in the zone and be clearheaded and not overly emotional. This leads to a trusting of our instincts and playing at our highest level.

We want to avoid both under-confidence and over-confidence. Both can lead to negative side effects at the table. Under-confidence can lead to less time spent at the table and a pessimistic and destructive feeling about our game. Over-confidence can lead to the feeling that we can beat anyone and poker is an easy game.

Develop a stable confidence. The best way to do this is to learn to recognize variance, our skill, and our opponents’ skill. By properly recognizing variance, we can determine when we played well but got sucked-out on. Knowing our skill will allow us to identify the levels of unconscious competence in our game. By identifying our opponents’ skill, we are able to accurately assesses their game and exploit their weaknesses.

We can’t always to play our A-game. There are times when we are going to make mistakes, but the trick is learning from them. The book talks about the Adult Learning Model and the inchworm theory. As we improve our A game, so does our C game.

We have to continue learning all our skills until we have mastered them to the level of unconscious competence.

I plan on re-reading this book in the future. I think it was a big help in getting some things straightened out inside of my head. But I do need to dive into the book deeper once I get more experience. I have also read that the author expects to release a sequel next year, so keep your eye out for that.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

Delayed double barreling can be a useful tool in 3 bet pots.”

I should mention that Bart has a new site for his podcasts called Seatopenpoker.net. I guess this is a situation where we check back the flop but bet on the turn. There is more discussion of this on his latest podcast, but it will be a while before I get to that.
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Old 11-26-2012, 08:44 PM   #24
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November 14th Study Notes

Deuce Plays – Capped Games Part 1
-Bart starts off by recapping his tweets from the previous week. Keep in mind this was recorded almost a year ago, so it’s not the tweets that I have been recapping here. Two of them really stood out for me. The first is the time to play long sessions is when you have a winning image. If you have a losing image, you either need to go home or change tables. Players look you up lighter when they assume you are losing. He thinks a winning/losing image is more prevalent than a passive/aggressive one. The second tweet is that we need to be value betting so thinly that we are often value owning ourselves.
-The first hand he talks about is when he gets AJs and flops an Ace and a flush draw on the flop. Remember that the focus for the podcast is capped games. A lady bets and he just shoves. Even though he is maybe a 60/40 dog, he thinks the fold equity makes up the difference. He suggests making a play like this if the V is tight.
-In the second hand, Bart discusses a situation where he has an over-pair. He explains that getting stacks into these games is not an issue. I have certainly discovered that. He has Kings on a T93 dry board. He leads into a $150 pot with a bet of $85 and a guy behind him raises to $200. Bart has something like $400 left so it is essentially an all-in bet. He winds up making the call and loses to a set. He concludes that hands like these are player dependent and I agree with him.
-He finished his discussion on capped games by concluding that our value bets need to be smaller to get called more often and we can raise donk bets aggressively heads-up. He promises more capped game discussion in the future.
-He next discusses an email sent in from a listener. The guy was defending his blinds with a pocket pair and wanted to put some heat on the pf raiser on the flop. The flop was something like T83. Bart suggested that instead of check- raising with a pocket pair, do it with a hand that has more equity, something like QJ which has the two overcards, a gutshot, etc. Pocket pairs only have two outs to improve if we are looked up.
-The next question asks about getting three-bet by a good player when you have opened with a medium pair like 99-QQ. If the stacks are deep enough, you can profitably set mine. But Bart suggests check/calling and “one-timing” the flop. Then check the turn and fold to a bet. He argues that even good players at this level do not double barrel enough.
-The last hand dives into how we need to get players to stack off with a second-nut type hand when we have the nuts. We have to play this a bit deceptively. An example he gave is check-raising the turn and the bombing the river. If we lead the turn, we only get called by most players. But we can do better than just getting some value in these situations.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

Bart didn’t tweet anything out today, so we will pick an older random tweet:

“If you want to win big $$ at live poker you have to learn other intangibles beyond skill. A fun personality always helps. #crushivepoker”

This is so true. I have found that if I am friendly at the table, a lot of players will soft play me. I don’t think it is on purpose, but it is just human nature. I am a pretty-easy going guy and have a lot of interests, so conversation comes pretty easy for me. That being said, if I focus on the game so much I go into a shell. I need to find the right balance.

I also have a habit of soft playing people that I like, so I need to make sure I get rid of that.
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Old 11-26-2012, 10:05 PM   #25
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November 16th Study Notes

CLP Video
-Bart is playing during the session instead of commentating. Bart is the pre-flop raiser with 88 and the board comes 457r. He just checks the flop and looser player named Barry makes a bet. The turn is an Ace and goes check/check. Another five comes on the river and Bart decides to go for a thin value bet. He gets paid off and shows us the importance of thin value bets.
-The next hand shows Bart calling a raise with QJhh. He leads into the board after he made top pair. Aaron picked up a straight flush draw and raised on the flop with his equity. Bart folded his hand and it shows an example of putting our opponent on a range of hands and a bet/fold situation.
-We see a situation of where when the money gets serious, play tends to be more straight-forward. Barry raises Zack with pocket 8’s and makes his set on the flop. Even an aggressive recreational player like Barry does not go for three barrels in a three-bet pot unless he has a very strong hand.
-Next, we get more reinforcement of thin value betting. A solid player named Phil makes a value bet with a pair of Kings and a Jack kicker with an Ace on the board. If we think the V is making a standard c-bet based on the board texture, then we need to be prepared to call a follow-up barrel on the turn. This is more of advanced play though, so it might not be applicable the level I am at right now.
-The next hand discussing a bit of deception in a three-bet pot, which is a line that Bart thinks we can take in lower-limit games. Phil has AQ and makes top pair on a 7AKr board. The flop just gets checked through and Phil also checks the turn. Aaron bets his TT and Phil calls. Phil leads on the river and gets called. The turn brought a BDFD that missed. Bart says that if we see this line, a check/call on the turn and then a lead on the river is almost always a strong line.
-The final hand once again shows an example of value betting. We don’t want to try to build up a small pot against second pair or something similar. We want to bet larger and go for value against a hand that made top pair but that we have dominated. Value, value, value.

Book Reading - Theory of Poker

The next book on my list is the Theory of Poker, authored by David Sklansky. Some of you have read it, as it is one of the classics of poker. The book is outdated, so you have to adjust your mindset when you are reading it. It discusses some games other than no-limit holdem, but it is still worth reading if you can correctly apply the concepts.

Chapter 1 is entitled “Beyond Basic Poker” is just an introductory chapter. He states as a good player, it is more likely that we take bad beats. He talks about some of the basic forms of poker. He reminds us that each individual session is just part of a big game. The only thing we should consider from a monetary standpoint is if we are a favorite or an underdog in the game.
The second chapter discussed mathematical expectation and hourly rates. He talks a bit about the math behind the game, but does not get into too deeply. He just explains the basic concept of expected value, which should be used as a tool to evaluate every gambling decision.

He talks about how once we establish ourselves as a poker player and realize it is a game of skill, that it becomes like any other job where we expect to earn hourly rate. He acknowledges that we just don’t sit down and earn the money, but that it should average out that way over the long run.

Deuce Plays – Fold Equity

-Bart starts off by discussing some situations where he thinks we can pick up dead money. The first is in limped pots. He thinks that most recreational players do not want to go broke in limped pots. The other one is something that I have discussed before, which is attacking a field bettor. If we have some equity, we want to raise limped pots and attack field bettor.
-Next, he discusses raising with a draw for value. He concludes that in big bet poker, we really can’t do this. In some forms of poker, such as limit holdem, that is possible.. In no-limit poker, there are only two reasons we would bet: value or bluff. Thus if we are raising with a draw, we are doing it as a bluff.
-The next hand analyzes board textures on the turn when considering firing a double barrel. Bart had raised pf with AK and was called by both blinds. He fired a c-bet on a T45 board. One opponent folded, the other called. He asked what turn cards should we not double barrel on. I guessed 3, 6, 7, and 8. I was correct, except for the 8. The point of the question was to really evaluate board textures and how they can fit our opponents range after they called on the flop.
-Hand-reading is the next topic that he covers. Bart opens with A7 and gets min three-bet from the small blind. He makes the call and the flop is A95. The V checks and Bart bets. The turn is a J and the V check-calls again. The river is another J and the V bombs the river. Bart says this is always a fold. There are almost no hands in his range that we can beat here when the V takes a c/c, c/c, bet line.
-During the next segment, Bart stresses the importance of avoiding slow-playing and fancy play syndrome at this level. He reiterates that the lower levels of poker are about value, value, value.
-Finally, he talks about when we can shove the turn if we have defined our opponents range to be on a draw or something like a pair and a draw. The example he gave was a hand where had AK. He bet a flop KxQx6d flop. The turn was a 7d and the V donked into him. If we are certain the V is on a draw, than the correct play is to shove the turn. A V would call with something like KTdd here, thus maximizing our value. But another added benefit is we might able to get V to fold AK.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

“Bluffing the unbluffable is generally –EV #crushlivepoker”

This tweet refers to trying to make a play and bluff calling stations. But it does not just refer to stations. If it at any point a player has raised post-flop, he is much more likely to continue on with the hand.
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Old 11-26-2012, 10:46 PM   #26
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November 19th Study Notes

Deuce Plays Podcast – Hero Calls
-In the first hand, Bart discusses a recent hero call he made. He was in the big blind with two red queens and raised pre-flop after a couple players limped in. The flop was Jc8c5d. Bart bet around 2/3 pot on the flop and was min-raised by the player who limped in UTG. On a wet board, this is normally indicative of a top-parish type hand. Bart just called and the turn was a Kd. Bart checked and the V over-bet the pot. Since the V is tight, Bart thought he might be making this play with something like KJ or a flush draw. He called and the river completed the backdoor flush draw with something like a 2d. Bart checked and the V shoved all-in. He though the V might be on AJdd, but didn’t think he would over-bet the turn with that hand since he could still get value out of it. In the end, he called and won a huge pot by reconstructing the hand and determining V was most likely on a busted flush draw.
-The next hand stresses bet sizing and texture when hand-reading. There is a pf raise, a call, and Bart calls from the big blind with A8s. The pot is around $140. Bart checks the AK4hh flop as does the pf raiser. However, the other player bets $30 (becomes a field bettor) and two players call and one player folds. Bart concludes that the pf raiser is weak since he did not bet into the pot with it being multi-way, but that the field bettor is probably on a draw due to the small sizing. The next card is a 6. Bart leads for 150 and the field bettor shoves for 500. Bart concludes he either has a draw or A6.

Book Reading – Theory of Poker

Chapter 3 talks about the fundamental theorem of poker. In typical Sklansky verse, he tends to confuse some people with the concept. But it is actually pretty simple. We gain when our opponents make mistakes and we lose when we make mistakes against our opponents. That is the general gist of it.
He talks about if we don’t chase a draw when being offered correct odds, we are making a mistake and thus making money for our opponent. We can make deceptive plays to force our opponents into mistakes.

An example he gives is when he just over-calls an all in bet on the turn instead of shoving. The play that offered the best odds was the call. His opponent behind called and made his hand, so Sklansky lost the pot. But because he forced his opponent into an incorrect call, he gained.

Chapter 4 is about the ante structure, which of course is not used for the games that I play in. But we can relate it to the pot size. In general, we should tighten up if the ante (pot) is expected to be small. It is not worth letting our opponents in cheaply once the ante (pot) gets up there in size. The last thing I took away was that it does not matter how large the ante (pot) is, if a player plays too loose he will always be a losing player in the long-run.

Pot odds is the topic of Chapter 5. It goes over the basics of odds calculations and offers up some charts showing the percentages that we need when we are drawing. It talks about how extra outs (which we now call backdoor equity) increases our chances of winning the hand, sometimes significantly. He states that the difference between a great player and average one is being able to fold your hand when you realize you are drawing dead.

I got more out of Chapter 6, which explains how we need to consider Effective Odds. I think these are still very important to today’s games. Most of the time when I am calculating my odds for drawing on the flop, I consider the equity as if I have two streets left to make it. While that is true, I am going to be facing additional heat on the turn if my draw misses. I need to keep that in mind when deciding if I am priced in or not.

Chapter 7 covers implied odds and reverse implied odds. Implied odds are useful when drawing and we don’t have the immediate odds to draw. However, we have to be careful not to get carried away. But no-limit poker is a game where implied odds are a factor. We also need to make sure our draw is going to holdup if we make it. That leads into reverse implied odds. If we make our draw but another player makes a stronger hand, then our hand is going to lose money.

Threads


Out of Rhythm / Life Tilt - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

This was a pretty interesting read. A guy ran pretty hot for a while after expanding his game and playing more loose-aggressive. But he hit some serious run-bad and was questioning his poker skills.
My opinion is that the OP expanded his game too much and was trying to play too aggressive for this level. I think a reading of The Mental Game of Poker would get him back on the right track.

Bart’s Tweet of the Day

“On the flop after the preflop raiser has checked the pot is ripe to be taken away #crushlivepoker”

This is the attack the field bettor play that I have talked about. I will probably add this as a task for a future session.
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Old 11-26-2012, 10:59 PM   #27
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November 24th, 2012 Session

I started my session around 10 PM, which is a little late but I had family in town for the holiday and wasn’t sure if I was even going to get to play. I also didn’t study as much as I wanted to this week due to the holiday, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play some cards.

I am going to do something new for this session. In The Mental Game of Poker, it mentions warming yourself up and picking three tasks to work on for the session. I am also going to grade myself at the end of each session and offer up some stats and other closing thoughts.

Three Tasks

Thin Value Betting – I have to make sure I am making thin value bets, to the point of where I am value owning myself. Bart says we should be thin value betting so much that our win at showdown percentage should be somewhere around 55%.

Pattern Recognition – There are all sorts of betting patterns that players will make at this level, such as min-raises on the flop with a wet/dry board, checking back hands on the river, betting hands for three streets, etc. I will try to recap all of these with a future post.

Double Barreling – This is another critical concept that I need to get nailed down. As noted, players peel way too much at this level with all sorts of weird holdings on the flop. We want to continue putting pressure on the turn with the right cards.

My first action is in my second orbit UTG. I pick AK and raise to 15. Two players call including the button who posted a six dollar straddle. The flop is pretty wet, as it comes down 865hh (two hearts). I check and fold when the button makes a bet. I quickly note that this is likely an Asian LAG and that he has about $800 in front of him.

I limp in with 57s from the cut-off. One of the blinds raises to $12 pre-flop and I decide to call with my positional advantage. I whiff the flop and fold to a continuation bet.

I get AQo from the cut-off and raise to $15 with a couple of limpers in front. Two players call and the flop is J63r. One of my opponents, a guy I have tagged as kind of a nitty old man, donks into me for $25. I fold. He later wins the hand with a flopped two pair.

I should note that I bought in for $200 (more on this in a future post). I added $60 more to bring my stack back up to $200.

I over-limp with A9s from UTG+1 (mistake?) and flop top two pair and BDFD in a multi-way pot. I bet $12 and everyone folds.

My next action sees me with AKo from the BB. I raise it up another $15 pre-flop. One player who I have deemed as sort of a spot calls. The flop is T97r. I make a standard c-bet and he folds.

I get A8s from the high-jack and over-limp with several callers in front. The flop is 567, giving me an OESD and some backdoor equity. It is checked to me and I bet 11 and get two callers. The turn is an eight, negating my OESD and putting four to a straight on the board. The Asian LAG bets and I fold.

The next hand is the most interesting action of the night. A younger guy had sat down and I had pinned him as a pretty good player. His pf raising range was kind of wide, but he put pressure on the board and I could tell he was thinking about the game somewhat.

He raises UTG (which means I think he is really strong since it is not a positional raise) to $13 and I am the only caller with pocket 7s. The flop is soaking wet with jT9hh. He fires a c-bet of $30. I think about folding but think there may be a better option here. I decide to raise to $60. My thinking is that even a hand like aces can’t take much heat on this board. He calls. The turn is a blank five. He checks and I bet $70. He folds.

I started a thread on 2p2 asking if this was a good play or a spew. Link - 1/3 - Good play or a spew? - Live Low-stakes No Limit Poker Forum - Live Poker Low-stakes NL

I open to 12 with KJs and an Asian lady immediately to my left calls. The flop comes A54cc. I decide to one-time and lead for 20. She calls. The turn and river go check/check and she has A2 to win the pot.

I get pocket 9’s in UTG +1 and over-limp. The flop is A54cc (not back to back hands). Both blinds and UTG check to me, so I bet $10. I fold to a check-raise from the laggy Asian player.

The very next hand I get pocket 9’s again. This time I decide to raise it to $11. Two players call. The flop is QT8 and I fire a c-bet of $20. The other two players call. The turn is a King and it is checked around. The river was a low card and once again it gets checked around. My hand holds up. I don’t think I could double barrel the turn or bet thinly on the river with fourth pair.
I get KJo from the cut-off and just limp in. I should think about raising these spots in the future. The flop comes 66K with a flush draw. A loose player who was in the blinds bets $12 into me. I go into check/call mode. He leads into me on the turn for $20 and I call. The river completes the flush and he bets into me once again for $25. I call and he has a six to win the pot.

This was my worse play of the entire night. Calling the turn was somewhat debatable but calling the river is just awful. Recreational players don’t go for three streets of value like this unless they are super strong, especially with the flush draw coming in on the river.

This hand is worthy of discussion as well. I am in the BB and pick-up TT. An early position player raises and an older man from the cut-off three bets to 31. He hadn’t raised very much that night, so I thought his three-bet range was probably crushing me. I had about $225 in front and he had me covered, so the odds to set-mine would have been close, but with a player still to act behind me I decided to fold.

I got QTs from the BB and checked my option. The flop was Q88. I bet $11 on the flop and got one caller. I followed up with a $20 bet on the turn and my opponent folded.

I limp in from the high-jack with 76ss. The flop is J64ss. It is checked to me, I bet and take it down with no resistance.

I made a mistake by limping in with JTo UTG. But I made top-pair and bet $11 and won the pot. It may have been ok, since at the time the game was playing passively pre-flop as the younger guy and the Asian LAG had left.

I picked-up KK from the SB with three limpers in front. I raised it $20 and got no callers. I think my sizing may be too much here, but I don’t like playing out of position in a multi-way pot.

I get OJo from the UTG +2 and open to $12. Four players call. The flop is KQ9r. I bet $20 and everyone folds.

The next hand is also worthy of getting some additional opinions on. I get ATs UTG and open to $12. The guy to my left in the big blind calls. The flop is A95r with one heart. I originally pinned the V as a nit, but he was limping with a lot of hands and making smallish raises to $6 before the flop. He checks and I bet $25. He then does something I have not seen him do all night and that is check-raise to $65. I decide to call and evaluate on the turn. The turn is a not a heart and he leads into me for $100. I tank for a while and decide to fold.

I get KK again and raise to $16 pre-flop and get two callers. The flop is JT7cc. I bet $25 and get one caller. The turn is a red 3 and I bet $40 and get called again. The river is a red 2 and I bet $50 and he folds. I like the way I played this hand, going for value all the way.

I get KQs from the BB and decide to check because there were seven players who had limped in, but I probably need to raise here. The flop is AK3cc (I don’t have clubs). It gets checked around on the flop. I lead for $15 on the turn and get one caller. The river is a blank and I fire for $15 and the V folds.

I get QJo and limp in from the cut-off (there was a straddle in the hand). I flop an OESD and bet $12 and get one caller. The turn completes a flush. He checks and I check back the turn. The river is another K. He checks and I decide he is pretty weak and bet $15. He folds.

I raise to $16 UTG with AK and get one caller. The flop is JT8 with a flush draw. I bet $20 and one of the remaining players shoves for $91. I fold and he flips over KJ.

I get AQo from the SB and raise to $15 with two callers. I c-bet $15 on a K high board and get take down the pot.

With the last hand of the night, I get 75s from the cut-off. I flop a flush draw with five other players in the hand and bet $12 when it is checked to me. No one calls.

The table broke after that and I decided to call it a night.

Session Grade: C+

I think I picked up on good spots to bet thinly in, but I really didn’t have that many opportunities. The KK hand is the only one that I can think of where I went for three streets of value. I could have maybe bet with the 99 hand, but like I said I don’t think I ever get called with worse there. I also noticed where other players missed opportunities for thin value bets.

I had some failures with pattern recognition. The one that sticks was paying off a player who bet into me for three streets with just top pair, mediocre kicker. This will remain on the document for the next session.

I really didn’t have much opportunity to double barrel either, but I do think I missed a couple of spots to take advantage of it.

Other Thoughts
-The profit for the session was $131 for 4.5 hours, which works out to be about $25 an hour.
-The poker room was hot for some reason tonight. I wore a pull-over with just a wife beater on underneath. I didn’t want to take my pull-over off, so I had to roll up my sleeves and still sweated. Lesson learned.
-I played ninety minutes at a time and then decided to take a 15 minute break. I did some non-poker research on this and that is what some studies suggested. I will stick with it for now.
-I did a good job of factoring in stack sizes when decided to continue to draw or not. I also thought about blockers I held in my hand and if there was action left behind me.

Some Stats

These are an estimate, but I think they are very close.
Hands played: 185
VPIP: 18%
PFR: 6.4%
CC: 1.6%
C-Bet: 85.7%
W$SD: 33%
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Old 04-13-2015, 05:17 PM   #28
GoldenEagle
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Bump. I have one word after looking back at this thread - wow.

I was not a very good poker player. My ambition of trying to pay for my expenses was way too high. The most LOL part was saying that I never titled. Cap Ologist correctly called me out on it.

But for whatever reason, I stuck with it.

Here are my stats since 12/15/12 when I started using Poker Journal to track my sessions. Note that that was after the creation of this thread:



Around July of last year, I almost exclusively started playing $2/5 as well as $5/5 home game and some shots at $5/10 when in Vegas and other locales. Here are my results from that:



These stats also include some PLO play, which I have lost around $2k at trying to learn the game.

What's next for me? I am not real sure. I have achieved my goal of building a good bankroll and paying for my expenses each month with money won from poker.

I may post some hand histories to this thread or start a new one if there is any interest.
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Old 04-14-2015, 03:01 PM   #29
MIJB#19
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That's impressive, GE.

What are you considerations now? Going to higher stakes, or sticking at the current level and maintaining the balance that you're at? Assuming that playing more isn't an option.
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Old 04-14-2015, 03:45 PM   #30
DavidCorperial
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Definitely interested about reading more of your poker play.
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Old 04-14-2015, 04:23 PM   #31
sabotai
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I'm interested too. Been trying to get back into poker (I'm reading through Phil Gordon's books now), but my crippling social anxiety (not to mention lack of money) makes me go "NOPE!" to going to AC to play live and online seems to be a hassle or a bit sketchy (sites that take more than a month for you to get your withdrawal = "how 'bout no")
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Old 04-15-2015, 01:05 PM   #32
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Originally Posted by MIJB#19 View Post
That's impressive, GE.

What are you considerations now? Going to higher stakes, or sticking at the current level and maintaining the balance that you're at? Assuming that playing more isn't an option.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, I live in a smallish poker market. The $2/5 game is largest spread on a regular basis in my area. It also only runs on the weekend. But there is good news. It is an uncapped game, so at times it plays more like $5/10. It is probably somewhere in-between.

There is a $5/5 home game that I have been going to that plays a little larger, but it looks like its on the brink due to politics.

There is also an occasional $5/5 PLO game that goes on the weekends at the casino. This game plays HUGE. If you know anything about PLO, the variance is greater. I have dabbled in it, but I don't really have the bankroll or the skill to profit long-term from it yet.

The only way I could play more hours is to the full on professional poker route. Even then, I would only be getting around 5-15 more hours a week depending on when the games run and what happens with the home game.

So on the surface, it is not worth quitting my job for only a few more hours a week. But in an earlier post in this thread, I eluded to starting my own business at some point. That might be an eventual goal. Start the business and fund my expenses with poker.

There is also an issue of my wife's future employment. She is currently working as a teacher and taking classes toward her PhD. There are a couple of different routes this could go and that will influence any future decision. If she went the full-time student route, then I obviously couldn't quit my job.
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Old 04-15-2015, 01:06 PM   #33
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Definitely interested about reading more of your poker play.

Thanks. I will probably post some more hands and stuff like that.
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Old 04-15-2015, 01:08 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by sabotai View Post
I'm interested too. Been trying to get back into poker (I'm reading through Phil Gordon's books now), but my crippling social anxiety (not to mention lack of money) makes me go "NOPE!" to going to AC to play live and online seems to be a hassle or a bit sketchy (sites that take more than a month for you to get your withdrawal = "how 'bout no")


I haven't read Phil Gordon's books in awhile, but I remember them being solid.

I would recommend you go the live poker route. There are casinos popping up everywhere in the Northeast US.

If you want to play online, I would recommend Bovada. But you may be restricted from that depending on what state you live in. If you are in NJ there is also the option of completely legal online poker.
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Old 04-15-2015, 06:01 PM   #35
sabotai
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I would recommend you go the live poker route. There are casinos popping up everywhere in the Northeast US.

I'm in NJ, so I've got AC plus a few casinos that have opened in PA (but I think they might just be slots...I haven't checked into them). Plenty of options, just no money or nerves right now.

Quote:
If you want to play online, I would recommend Bovada. But you may be restricted from that depending on what state you live in. If you are in NJ there is also the option of completely legal online poker.

I tried a few of the NJ online ones when they started, but they were buggy as hell and I couldn't get them up and running. I'm planning on giving Borgata online poker a try one of these days, but from what people are saying on twoplustwo, it looks like it crashes a lot.
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Old 04-15-2015, 08:04 PM   #36
Cap Ologist
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Nice work!
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Old 04-20-2015, 03:54 PM   #37
GoldenEagle
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Leveling myself against a nit

For those of you unfamiliar with poker terms, a nit plays very tight. They don't put money into the pot without a big hand. They will generally approach poker as either waiting for big hands and raising pre-flop (although they sometimes wait for a safe flop before putting money in) or playing speculative hands such as pocket pairs and suited Aces that could win a big pot. They very rarely are willing to fire a bluff and usually don't risk much when doing so.

My approach to poker is pretty much the opposite. I play and raise with a ton of hands pre-flop, especially with position. I am not afraid to bluff if I think my opponent is weak. In poker terms, I am generally considered a LAG (loose-aggressive player). But I don't get carried away with it and between you and I, I am really just a positional LAG. That is, I use position to my advantage.

Leveling is where a player talks himself into doing something different based on how he thinks a particular opponent is thinking about the game. There are all these different levels that the poker community has invented but I won't go into them here.

This particular nit showed up in my player pool 5-6 weeks ago. He is a regular now. Nits come in all varieties, but this one fits the stereotypical nit pretty well in the fact that he is older white gentleman.

I am in the cut-off (that is the seat to the right of the button) and it is folded around to me. I open Ac6h to $25. The nit is in the small blind and just calls. We start the hand fairly short. He has around $900 and I cover him (my stack 'covered' his meaning that I had more money on the table than he did).

At this point, I should be putting him on a range of hands that he would complete the SB with. I do this somewhat sub-consciously now. But as I mentioned earlier, he has a tight range. He probably has all combos of pocket pairs and some hands like suited Aces and suited connectors. It is possible that he some suited broadway cards.

Let me get back to the leveling for a second. This guy is a nit and typically that means he is going to be on what we call Level 1. In other words, he is only going to be thinking about his hole cards and how they fit the board.

There was a bit of history before this hand that helped me to level myself. I raised pre-flop with nothing, bet the flop with even more nothing, and I folded when he check-raised me.

The flop is 9c8d6c. He checks and I bet $30 into the $50 pot. In NLHE, you can really only bet for two reasons: as a bluff or for value. If we are bluffing, we expect our opponent to fold better hands. If we are value-betting, then we expect our opponent to call with worse hands.

My c-bet here is a bluff, although it is pretty thin (that is, I don't expect it to show much profit). The fact that I have the nut back-door flush draw (two running clubs would give me the nut flush) makes it slightly more profitable. Some poker players may tell you to bet for 'protection' here since we have a pair, but that is never a reason for betting.

The villain tanks (meaning he thought about his hand for a few seconds) and check-raises me to $140. This is the point where my cards should have snap hit the muck. His thinking is indicative of a value hand and he is trying to decide how much he thinks I will call.

But I leveled myself.

I decided to call. It is probably a mental mistake above all else. I thought he was trying to make a move on me. But if we really think about it, he is never doing this with just nothing. He either has a big hand (two-pair or set since I don't think he called pre-flop with 75s) or even if he was capable of getting out of line with a draw, he simply can't be doing that here (see if you can tell me why).

The turn is a Td. He bets $140 again. This tells me that he doesn't like that card. And with good reason. It is probably one of the worse cards in the deck for him. I decide to raise with $325. This is a pure bluff (I don't have any equity to bail me out now that runner-runner clubs is not possible). My reasoning at the time was "I think he made a move on me on the flop and now he doesn't like that card and I can get him off of something like QQ if he does actually have something".

But against this opponent, my raise is pure spew (we 'spew' off money without a good reason to do so).

The river is a Kd. He checks and I check. If stacks were deeper, there is a chance I can get him to fold his hand. But here, when he only has around $400 left there is simply no chance of him folding.

The lesson learned here is not level ourselves against nits. When we don't stop and consider how this opponent thinks about poker, we are simply lighting money on fire.

Don't pay off nits. Don't bluff nits when they put a significant amount of money into the pot. Nits are these easiest player type to play against except when we get in our own way.
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Old 04-20-2015, 03:55 PM   #38
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Nice work!

Thanks. Are you still playing some at Winstar? I have been over there a few times during the Labor Day tournament series.
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Old 04-23-2015, 12:32 PM   #39
Cap Ologist
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I play there once or twice a month now, during the summer I usually go more often (perk of being a teacher). Let me know next time you'll be there and I'll meet you.
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Old 04-30-2015, 12:56 PM   #40
Raven
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I didn't read this whole thread, but did read a few of your posts. You're EP raising range seems far too wide. For example, KQo, ATs and QJo are folds UTG and UTG+1. The ATs is close, but it's still a fold, unless you are getting to a lot of flops headsup.
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