CRUSHED on Stars!

I played 5,400 hands today and booked a $3.7k win. Very solid session. I made one big mistake that cost me half a buyin, other than that I played great.

I played a mix of $2/4 NL 6 Max and $3/6 NL 6 Max and a lot of my winnings came from a huge fish on one of my $3/6 NL tables... he was terrible.


Here is the one hand I messed up in... The villain plays like 12-18 tables all the time so he's never bluffing here so I should have probably bet/folded the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3124641


This was one of my bigger winning hands against the huge donkey at my $3/6 NL table.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3124671

10th best 200NL winrate on FTP

One of my students, Rob, mentioned that I was in a datamined list from a 2+2 forum post about the biggest winners at $1/2 NL 6 Max so I went to check it out. I found the post, and the stats listed the players with the top ptbb/100 (winrate) with 75,000 + hands played over the last 6 months (since 3-19-08).

I was 10th on the list and this is a pretty decent accomplishment since the datamines are normally accurate. There are a LOT of players who play 200NL on FTP so I'm glad to see some hard data that proves I am one of the best at that level.

Here is the picture of the datamine:



(it is also posted on the right hand side of my site, underneath the other statistics)

Decent session at $2/4 NL

I played pretty well today and ended up winning $2,000 over 1.4k hands on Stars. I'm proud of the fact that I never got felted and really did not lose any big pots. The most I ever lost from a single hand was $100 (1/4 of a buyin) and I did that three times.


I was not involved in this hand but it was pretty LOL.... the guy who shoved all in only raised 8% of his hands (16/8 AF 2.2 over 1.7k hands, 3-bet of 5.4% and a 3-bet from BB stat of 6%). I've played against this guy a lot in the past, also back in the day when I played $2/4 NL Full Ring and I always wondered what he was doing this with... now I know, LOL!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3111414


Here is my biggest hand of the night. I played this one perfectly and I called pre-flop because he was a weaker player. His play here is beyond terrible...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3111436


I met with my poker group earlier on tonight and we had an interesting meeting because we did one of those "Reg Crusher" sessions where we analyzed the play of a regular. It went really well and now I have a really good idea of how to play against that player.

Decided to start coaching

In my lesson today with Nutedawg, he suggested that it's very possible I could be playing TOO many hands! He hypothesized that I'm not playing my "A" game often enough and that it's possible I might not be gaining much of an advantage by putting in ultra long hours playing if I am running on autopilot. He suggested I find other poker related ways to spend my time, such as watching more videos, posting on the forums and coaching. I think I'm going to do all of the three things he mentioned.

In fact, I got a coaching request from a $0.25/$0.50 NL player on Cardrunners who is transitioning into $0.5/$1 NL. He contacted me about a week ago and we had our first lesson today. I though it went pretty well and I hope he got something out of it. I am really excited after seeing his game because I think he has some real potential to be an outstanding player. He's really solid for a $50NL player. I still have a lot of things I can teach him, however, as he moves up in stakes.

I think coaching will be a way to get the need fulfillment of "accomplishment" as a poker player. Making money is an accomplishment, but it really doesn't help anyone but myself. A doctor gets a feeling of accomplisment when he helps repair an injured athlete's ankle to get him back on the playing field. Coaching poker can be my way of helping people enrich their lives and have fun while making money at one of the best hobbies in the world. Seeing my teaching help out my students will be very fulfilling for me.

I played a short session late tonight and played 800 hands finishing up $700. I only played 4 tables and that is going to continue from now on. I'm not going to deviate from this no matter how many donks are on the other tables (lol this is like the 50th time I've said this but I really mean it now).


Here's a few hands from my session:

This one was sick, I got it in with Queen high and had the best hand on the flop (57% to win) and lost.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3106907


This hand was weird, as the guy 3-bets a lot but his PFR stat and VPIP stats indicate that he's really nitty. I think I should call flop once and fold to a large turn bet... jamming isn't great but it looks like I have a draw and he probably would call with 99 and TT. He was 14/12 AF 2.3 over 1.5k hands, and a 3-bet stat of 9% from the BB. Overall 3-bet stat of 8.1%. I am pretty sure that his pre-flop nittyness should override any 3-bet stats here and I should play this more cautiously.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3106912


Those were the only big losers I had really, here's a winning hand:

This guy's stack off here is pretty retarded IMO. I guess I'm calling maybe with AxKc but I don't know wtf else he's getting value from that he beats. I have a flopped set, higher two pair (A9 or A5) or a flush here a lot of the time when I bet the turn. His pre-flop call is also terrible against me since he's OOP.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3106915


So yea, all the information about my coaching service is listed on the right side of my blog. If you are interested don't be shy, go ahead and contact me and we can work something out.

GL at the tables.

Ended up playing a bit more today...

I realized that my internet card worked last time I was in this motel a few months ago... but I recalled that I was playing on FTP at that time and not Stars. For some reason, the connection isn't quite good enough to play on Stars but it works on FTP... weird.

Anyways, after taking a break after my frustrating session on Stars I managed to salvage the day by winning two buyins on FTP to finish even for the day.

FUCK MY VERIZON INTERNET CARD

I tried to play today but my dad, brother, and I are in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota for our shooting lessons tomorrow... I kept consistently timing out on Stars when I was trying to play... It would work fine for about 10 minutes then for about 2 minutes it would completely crap out on my and I'd time out from all my tables. I tried moving outside to play but it didn't help. We're staying at the only motel and town and it is ghetto so obviously doesn't have wireless internet.

I quit because I was steaming after I picked up KK in position against an UTG LAG and disconnected and timed out... I time back in just to find out that my King's have been folded and two people got all in with QQ and TT and I woulda won with top set. OMG!

I did however play earlier today when we were driving around and happened to lose two flips: one 66 vs AQ against a ridiculously frequent squeezer and once with TPTK on an AXX flushdraw board and I lost to A3 sooooooted he binked his flush on the turn. That left me down about $900 for the day. And as of now I can't even play anymore because of this stupid internet situation. I'm really pissed off right now as I pay $60 a month for this piece of shit internet card that performs sometimes worse than 56k dial up internet.

I'm gonna look into different internet options for my laptop as this is verizon internet card only works wherever you can get cell phone service, and where I live the cell phone service isn't great really anywhere outside of a decently large city. Even when it does work it is so slow and laggy that it is tilting to play sometimes. I don't know if there are any other options for completely mobile internet, but if anyone is aware of anything let me know because it would definitely be worth it to upgrade.

In the Cities

I'm in Minneapolis right now with my dad and brother. We attended a funeral today of one of the guys we shoot sporting clays with; it was a pretty sad deal as he was only 40 years old.

Anyways, on Monday we are seeing Dan Carlsile (the top sporting clays instructor in the U.S.) That should be a lot of fun, and I'll be back in town late Monday night.

I played a 1,800 hand session on Stars today at $2/4 NL 6 Max and finished up $1.5k. It was nice to have a solid winning session after having a rough day yesterday.

I'm exhausted so I'm going to sleep now.

Later

Rough day on Stars yesterday...

I played a 3,000 hand session on Stars yesterday and had a poor result. I lost $2.5k playing $2/4 NL 6 Max and just ran into a bunch of bad spots. I also misplayed a few hands, which I'll talk about below.



If this is too small to watch or see the bet sizing you can go here to download the short 5 min HH replayer vid:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RFZN9NMY

The TT hand was against a huge fish and I should have just 4-bet huge and got it in pre-flop since his 3-bet stat was over 40%. I didn't really want to have a huge flip against him because I thought I had an edge postflop, so I ended up calling... I think check-raising the flop and betting out the turn is fine because I can see him calling me down with 9X pretty easily or calling the flop and turn with some type of draw (flushdraw, 98, etc.).

The next hand, I don't think my line was terrible, but after reviewing the hand with Noel, a poker friend from my poker group "Destined2pwn," we decided that on this board it is probably less likely for the villain to raise my donk as a bluff. This was because it looks like a board that hits my range pretty hard and I could be going for a bet/3-bet all in (which was what I was doing). A check/call on this flop is probably better in this situation and would definitely reduce variance. Of course, I'm still going to be bet/3-betting these types of hands but probably at a lot lower frequency than I have been doing it.

This hand I should have just got it all in on the flop, but I think I played the hand fine... I got the money in good and it was a bad beat. I don't know if we can rely on him betting the turn, so that's why getting it in on the flop is probably best.

The AJ hand was against a guy who is a 3-bet monkey... he 3-bets 20% of his hands pre-flop so I decided AJ was ahead of his range and wanted to take a flop. He c-bets most of the time after he 3-bets and I've seen him fold a decent amount to a raise in situations like this so I decided I had enough equity to shove on him here. I think my play is fine here, but very high variance. That's the problem with playing against very aggro regs like this... sooner or later you are going to have to take a stand like this so you are not getting run over. 4-betting was an option here pre-flop but I'd rather do it with slightly better hands that I'm more willing to stack off with or worse hands that I can fold easily if he 5-bet shoves (A2o, A5o, etc).

The 88 hand is very similar to the earlier KJ hand. I like a c/c on the flop here as well because it allows him to c-bet as a bluff and he double barrels a lot so I could even c/c turn and pick off some bluffs here as well if he shuts down on the river. I got it in with decent equity so it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Villain played this hand well against me... I expected him to be floating on the flop a lot but once I do a silly mini check-raise on the turn (to induce him to be spewy or shove AJ, etc.) I have to call off because I'm pretty much committed at that point.

This AA hand was just weird, he's a fish and I have an overpair... he probably has JT here or other weak TX hands more often then a slowplayed top set.

This hand I like my play up to the river, where I should have raised a bit smaller but the fold to the river shove is fine. It's unlikely he has the balls to turn his hand into a bluff on that river.

Just a bad beat here with a set of 2's against the shortstacked fish.

Another weird hand against a shortstack where I'm just going for max value and am committed to the hand after betting the turn.


I'm gonna play some more tonight and see if I can run a bit better and book a nice win.

OMG I got stacked a lot today...

I played 3000 hands, most of them at $2/4 NL 6 Max on Stars and finished up $500. This was a disgusting session as I lost a ton of all ins that I probably should have won.

I played $3/6 NL 6 Max for a bit chasing a big fish... here he is getting there against me. I should have just shoved all in on the flop instead of raising to 2.4xs what he put in... I'm pretty sure he woulda snapped a shove here with what he had anyways, which would have amplified his mistake.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3083287


This hand was against the same dude about 20 minutes later. I was not happy after this. I think I did the right thing by just calling his turn overbet because I know if he had missed the heart draw on the river he woulda shoved or bet big anyways, so I wanted to let him hang himself. The river is, of course, the worst card in the deck and I decided to shove anyways because he would have called me with any two pair because he's so terrible.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3083294


I did manage to recover one buyin from him however.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3083295


I also got felted 6 times at 400NL: lost twice AIPF KK vs AK, once with QQ vs KK AIPF, lost with top two pair all in on flop vs AA (he got a runner runner flush), and lost with a low flopped flush after someone had min 3-bet me from the blinds (they had AA obv with the heart re-draw and spiked it on the river). Made one terrible river call with TPTK after maniacal fish check-raised my river value bet huge when bottom pair on flop rivered trips (obv he had it, but his river AF was 25 over a decent sample, and had check raised the river 4/8 possible times).

No point in posting any of those hands, most of them are just coolers/bad beats.

Crazy session

I just had a wacko session on Stars playing $2/4 NL 6 Max... I played a lot of hands (5k) and finished up $600... at a few points I was down $2k. I ran about $800 below expectations in all ins again, I don't even know why I expect to someday run average in all ins lol.... but if I had run average today I would have been up $1.4k. But I really need to re-read the poker mindset so I stop worrying about luck, getting bad beat, coolered, etc.

I messed up a few hands pretty hardcore in the session but started out with these three hands, which didn't help matters:

Not much to talk about with these first three hands, but you can see what I had to deal with to start off my session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078040

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078043

This hand was especially disgusting, since I just owned the villain so much.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078048


Now for some hands with educational value:

I think I messed this hand up royally... the villain had not 4-bet yet according to his stats, which make it pretty unlikely that he's just gonna randomly throw in a cold, 4-bet bluff... However I did see him 4-bet jam AJ pre-flop later on in the sesson, but I think at the time I should fold my hand in this particular spot without any history. It sucks, but a lot of people would fold JJ on down and maybe even consider mucking AK or AQ pre-flop instead of 4-betting... so I'd say an unknown's range is pretty tight here... but if Sweetkr or some other reg 4-bet this I'd gleefully stick it in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078059


This hand was just plain sickening... I raised him on the flop because I didn't think he had a King since he bet so small... and I could easily have KQ or KJ here a lot of the time and raising it up here. I didn't think the Ace helped him after he just called my flop raise because it's likely he'd just stick in AK on the flop. So after he called my flop raise I knew pretty much precisely what he had... I put him on QQ or JJ or possibly a flopped boat. Obviously the flopped boat is unlikely, my hand can't win at showdown if I think he has a QQ or JJ type hand, and there are now two overcards to his likely holdings... SO I turn my hand into a bluff and stick it in and he makes the call. I don't know if my play here is terrible or not, but if I had to do it over again I would check the turn to make it look like I'm pot controlling with a K then shove the river if he checked to me. I think that would have got him to fold JJ (one disadvantage of this is if the clubs missed he might put me on a missed flush draw, so maybe shoving the turn is best after all).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078071


Now a few winning hands (like all of these are vs. a single villain... he was running 26/20 AF 2.4 over 2.3k hands)... Now note normally I wouldn't try half of this stuff below but this guy was playing too many tables at once and I was able to exploit him... he also was mindlessly double barreling almost any turn card. In most of these hands, when I make the bluff-raise on the turn I will normally have exactly what I should have, like QJ for the straight in one hand below or the turned flush, etc. That's why it was so dangerous for him to try and figure out when I had it and when I didn't. I totally annihilated this guy...

I played this perfectly, I'd been giving this regular major hell all night, raising his c-bets, bluffraising him on turn with air, 3-betting him a lot, and all sorts of shit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078084


Here is a hand that I played against the same villain that sets up the hand after this one... I just called PF with AK to mix it up, normally it's a 3-bet obviously.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078139


This is against the same guy about an hour later, lol. I guess he couldn't take it anymore and thought I was full of shit. I love the way I played this one as well. Notice how I took like the exact same line, aside from being in position one time and OOP the other, as in the hand above (in the hand above he never saw my cards so I could have been bluffing in his mind).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078085


I was owning this guy, lol... I saw him 4-bet and fold quite a bit from MP and the CO so I gave this a shot...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078098


More ownage vs same villain:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078103


LOL

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078110


Bad time to make a stand buddy!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078119


Pushover

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078128


Another one

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078131


Ok, I need to stop somewhere, I could post ownage hands vs this guy all night! I don't know if he calls any more on the river after he raises me... I doubt it, plus the board is paired to so I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to re-raise here in case he has some random set that he checked back on the turn (very unlikely though).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3078132


Believe it or not, that reg who I owned above actually finished up for the session!!! I have him at 2.2k hands and he won $200 and finished with stats of 26/20 AF 2.44 and a 3-bet of 8.4%. He must be a pretty good player anyways if he was able to overcome all those losses he had against me. He also had a really high W$WSF stat, it was 46%.


Anyways, I had a few more times where I got stacked AK vs AA AIPF, QQ vs AA a few more times AIPF (I can't really fold in those spots, like I pulled a huge squeeze with QQ when I was playing like lag, like 24/20... and ran into AA). Lost a few flips, one with AQ vs JJ and the rest is history.


Oh yea, almost forgot... the session's graph! Rollercoaster! Top line is all in EV bottom line is actual winnings/losses.


Here are my stats for August up to today (I wish I ran at expectation in all ins! I'd have a decent winrate then lol). The stats could be a lot better and getting killed at $5/10 NL for one session definitely doesn't help matters...




I need to work hard on minimizing my biggest leak to improve my winrate. My biggest leak is something I call Multi-table tilt... whenever I'm stuck or just not getting any hands or frustrated for any reason really I'll fire up way too many tables than I should (normally 8 at once). Doing this is never a good idea because it takes away from my decision making processes and reduces my winrate significantly. I would be willing to guess that my hourly rate is actually better with 4 tables at once than with 8... but for some reason I just can't knock this habit off, I keep on firing up 8 tables on Friday nights when there are 60 VPIPs all over the place but I should just keep it to four to maximize my earnings.


Last one, monthly graph up to today:



This was probably my longest blog post ever. If you made it to the end, hopefully you enjoyed it. I'm going to get some sleep now because I'm exhausted.

Moving on up in stakes

I've decided that my game is advanced enough to move up to $2/4 NL 6 Max. I also have spoken to a few poker friends about this and they agree that I'm ready to take the next step. I've kind of been putting moving up off for a few reasons over the past few months, but I'm just going to plunge into it and see how I do. I'm going to give myself about a 10 buy in shot... so in other words if I lose $4k then I'm back down to $1/2 NL for a bit.

I think I'll be fine at this new level, as I have never really even tried $2/4 NL and played there for any extended period of time. I have just been a huge bankroll nit but now it's about time I start advancing through the ranks as I feel my game is becoming very solid.

I played my first session today at the new stakes on Ultimate Bet (I also played some $3/6 NL 6 Max). I ended up $1.4k over 2,300 hands so I had a good result for my first day after my self-given promotion.

I'm going to be playing on Stars quite a bit in the upcoming few weeks, as I need to generate funds for Pokerswaps.com (I'm a wholesaler for them) because everyone is going to be wanting Stars money for the WCOOP coming up soon.

Just got back from a sporting clays shoot

My Dad, brother, and I just got home from the Minnesota State Sporting Clays Championship. It was held at the Horse & Hunt Club near Minneapolis.

Sporting Clays is a game where you shoot at orange flying clay discs with a shotgun. Unlike Trap or Skeet, the targets on a sporting clays course can be coming from a wide variety of angles, speeds, and distances. There are numerous stations, which are like holes on a golf course, where you shoot at a different presentation for each of the stations.

The targets at this tournament were very challenging and very hittable at the same time. I didn't shoot as well as I could have in the main event, especially the final 100 birds... I had way too many stations where I missed multiple birds. I ended up shooting a 163/200 in the main event (which is lower than what I normally average, which is hitting around 90% of the targets). I still had a lot of fun at the shoot, however, and we have many friends that we see at these events.

I'm in the highest class (Master) so I pretty much need to perform flawlessly to have a shot at winning. The classes run from E (the lowest), to D, C, B, A, AA, and then Master as the highest attainable class. I started in E class many years ago, in 2000, and worked my way up the ranks and got to Master class a few years ago. It's an unfortunate class to be in for a major shoot (like the U.S. Open or the National Championship) because there are actually "pros" that I'm shooting against and have to beat out to win anything.


Here are some pics and video of the weekend, to give you a taste of what sporting clays is all about.

Video of myself shooting

- I hit 6 out of 6 targets on this station! -

Myself shooting at some targets

My brother, Chad, shooting at a "pair in the air"

My Dad shooting at a target screaming away from him

Main event squad

(from left to right: myself, our friend Jeremy, my Dad, and Chad)

Clay Target

- the thing flying through the air we're trying to hit! -

Sporting Clays Trap

- This is what launches the clay target which allows it to fly through the air -

Scenery Picture

My dad, brother, and I are going to see one of the top sporting clays instructors in the U.S. next week on Monday. My dad and I have taken lessons from him before and it's really helped my shooting, so I'm pretty excited for that.

My Dad and I only have one major shoot left on the year, and that is the largest shoot in the country... the NSCA National Sporting Clays Championship in San Antonio, Texas. So hopefully the lessons are helpful and I can at least shoot decent at the final shoot of the year.

To finish up this longer than normal post, I'd like to add that I was even able to get in a few short sessions of poker this weekend on my laptop. I broke even in the first two short sessions (received a few dirty beats), but was able to win about $500 in a few hours on the drive home today while I was a passenger in the van. My Verizon internet card proved its worth there.

I'm going to finish the month off strong and try and put in a ton more hands and see how it goes.

Did well on Stars today

I won $1,500 on Stars playing 200NL. I won four buyins from 6 max (about 1,700 hands) and I also played some HU and won 4 buyins there as well (over 500 hands).

I'm really amazed at how well I did at HU... I really dominated. The only pots I really lost were a flop JJ vs AQ all in pre-flop and a weird hand where i had an overpair on a rag flop 88 and the villain had an odd two pair, 73o I think... he wasn't full stacked so that wasn't that big of a deal anyways.


This hand was my biggest loser of the session... I lost it to a pretty big donkey (he was 80/1 AF 1.5 over 318 hands). I was pretty much committed to go all in on any non diamond turn since I was sure he either had QX or a diamond draw, both of which I'm way ahead of... he happened to have both however and hit his two pair out on the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3039743


This is the HU hand where I got felted with 88... I think my play is OK here since he can have something like A7 or even some type of straight of flush draw. Villain was 61/40 AF 2.4 over 196 hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3039747


Other than these two hands I really didn't lose all that much, which is good because I'm really trying hard to avoid getting felted a ton of times during a session like I have in the past. I played pretty well overall.

I'm excited to get my video reviewed today by John and Noel during our Destined2pwn group meeting. I played pretty aggro and I'm sure John will be a bit surprised by a few of the things I pull off in the video.

Booked another win

Played 3,000 hands on FTP at 200NL 6 max today and finished up $1.2k. I played pretty well aside from a spewy 5-bet bluffshove, lol. I thought the timing was right for it as I really felt he was getting fed up with my 3-betting and was ready to 4-bet bluff me. I guess it wasn't the end of the world since I still had decent equity pre-flop and now that reg will probably never 4-bet bluff me now.

Here's the HH to that:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3034863

That's it for now, this is gonna be a short post because I'm pretty tired.

I've been awake for over 38 hrs straight

I forgot to sleep on Saturday night and went to that sporting clays shoot in Crookston. I got 2nd overall with a 90/100 and didn't shoot even close to as well as I should have. My dad ended up getting 1st overall with a score of 92/100. I did win the 20 ga event with a 40/50.

So I got home from that and played a little poker. I played 2,400 hands and finished up $1.3k all at 200NL 6 max. I played really solid and totally owned a fish twice. Here are those two hands:


I played this hand perfectly... did the bluffy looking overbet jam on the river hoping he would call with KX or even maybe an Ace (thinking I missed my flushdraw). Note the overbet on the turn so I would be able to build the pot more, cuz he's never folding if he has a decent piece of this board no matter how large the turn bet is probably.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3029170


I probably would never play this hand this ass-backwards against a different opponent, but this is the same fish from the previous hand and I had notes on him from a few days ago that said he loves to barrel bluff when checked to.... So I let him hang himself, lol.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3029171


This is the only hand where I got felted, which is a huge victory for me because normally I'll get stacked multiple times over a session this long. I even got it all in way ahead too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3029176


So overall, I've been up for about the past 38 hours and in that time frame I have played 8,500 hands and won about $2,900. I'm definitely on the right track to turn this month around.

Another solid session

Played just over 6k hands today and finished up $1,500. Most of the hands were at 200NL, a few at 400NL, and I played in a 600NL game to chase a fish (which actually worked out quite well). I played decent, but I still can do better.

Mainly, I'm disappointed that I forgot to follow my friend Adam's advice about not wanting to just go for all in flips... I messed up big in this hand against the fish I was chasing at 400NL. I should just call his mini check-raise and see a turn. I'm going to really work on trying to control this urge I have to shove over flop raises with a hand that "looks good" next session I play. Villain is 44/18 AF 2 over 1.1k hands, Check-raises flop 16% of the time...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3024364


This is another example of me not following the above advice... this probably isn't as bad to get this in though because I'm OOP and it's a wet flop.... No reads on villain he just recently joined the table.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3024382


A big hand from my 600NL table... I still managed to win the side pot even though I lost the main pot due to getting sucked out on.... The villain who shoved $1,200 was a massive fish and he was open shoving 200bbs whenever a few people limped and showing rags when everyone folded... he did this like 15 times or so before this hand... so obviously I limped my KK to trap him and induce a shove... worked out perfect except the other player in the hand decided to call all in with 22 LOL...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3023668


I'm not sure if I made the correct play here on the river... I think I'll post this hand to the CR forums. Villain is 35/20 AF 2.1 over 2.7k hands, river AF 2.2 and is a consistent small leaking loser... a fish but he loses his money gradually. We have some history, in that he realizes I've griefed him before (joined all his tables and got position on him). So I think he knows that I know what I'm doing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3024369


This is the kind of shit I need to cut out of my game... people just don't like to fold... This was a standard reg, 22/17 AF 2.6 over 700 hands... maybe this bluff is just way too unbelievable, I guess I'm repping a set or a picked up pair with a flushdraw or something on the turn... maybe I just ran into the top of his range here and he would fold other hands I don't know.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3024377


This hand was just stupid, I think I played it fine despite getting it in nearly drawing dead... Villain was 27/23 AF 1.9 over 180 hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3024387


I haven't slept yet tonight... and I'm headed right out to a sporting clays fun shoot in Crookston, MN this morning. I'll probably come home in the afternoon, take a nap, then hop back on the tables.

Sick life

I go from losing $2.1k yesterday, to having a winning session of $1.6k... mostly all at 200 NL 6 Max...

I played pretty aggro, 25/17 AF 3.6 over 5k hands, made some mistakes, saw some ridiculous hands, and obviously ran well below expectation in all ins again (I would have won $2,400 if I had average luck in all ins)

This is my favorite hand from the session. Snake is a huge donk (51/2 AF 1.3 over 91 hands)... ahhyea definitely is iso-raising this donk light, and white knows this and is probably 3-betting a lot lighter than normal... which is why I even bothered to 4-bet AK here because sometimes I would just consider folding. Decent flop for my hand, Snake probably has something like 77 and is never folding, but there is a buyin in the pot already and I probably have 10 outs if called... look what he wakes up with and snaps me off with lol... (btw I'm not worried about white having AA or KK really, he'd re-raise again pre-flop and shove probably).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3019989


This one I'm just including for pure sickness value... I run goot

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3019992


This hand is a small one but my read was dead on that he was on the flushdraw and this was a perfect triple barrel... except he got lucky and hit 3rd pair on the river LOL...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3019998


That's it for now, I'm pretty proud of myself that I was able to come back from such a shitty session yesterday. I still have some things to work on, such as not running KK into AA all the time pre-flop and not triple barrel bluffing calling stations with VPIP's of over 60... And just avoiding other types of spew basically.

Bad start to August

I have been putting off an update for the past couple of days because I haven't really wanted to discuss the disasters that have happened so far this month.

Anyways, first off yesterday I played some 5/10 NL 6 Max which resulted in me losing about $3.7k after 1,000 hands... I played OK but just never won any big pots with my monsters. I lost KK vs AA all in pre-flop in the SB vs the BB.... it went button mini-raise, I 3-bet to like $90, BB 4-bets to $300, I jam he snapcalls and I lose. I also lost a pot with TPTK AK on KXXJX board vs an UTG 3 barrel... he happened to have a set.

So I figured I would just play 200NL today on FTP to get back in the swing of things and win a bit to make up for my losses the other day. Well play I did, win I did not. I lost about $2.1k over 2,600 hands. Why did I lose? I didn't know for sure so I had one of my poker friends, John, review my session with me using Holdem Manager. John is a very solid player and plays up to $5/10 NL 6 Max on FTP and Stars.

We looked through all the hands, realized that I ran KK into AA all in pre-flop four times and lost every one. Also lost AA vs 99 essentially all in pre-flop. After looking through about 20 hands or so with John, he decided I played most of them fine and he would have played only 2 or 3 hands differently. There was one spot I got too over aggressive with two pair in an unraised pot that I think was a mistake. Also, I have a few spewy 3-bet pot situations. As far as winning pots... well I had very few hands where I actually stacked anyone, which compounded with getting stacked so often resulted in the 10 buyin loss.

It didn't help that I ran well below expectation in all ins as well (lost with a set on the flop for a few buyins). I should have only lost about $1.3k had I ran average in all ins.

I'm pretty disappointed now, as I wanted to move up to $2/4 NL 6 max sometime soon... but with the way I'm running and not winning I have no choice but to keep on playing $1/2 NL until I recover from my terrible start to the month.

I've had my worst start to a month that I can ever remember and I'm looking to dig myself out of a $6.4k deficit...