Quick blog here, but my latest video was just released. I think I take a pretty unique take on classifying your opponents. It might not be my most adanced theory video, but I think it challenges you guys to take some different approaches to understanding the mentalities and the way your opponents think about poker.

Also, if you didn't see the fight tonight on fuel tv (almost no one has fuel tv as part of their cable package), do yourself a favor and search: "poirier, chang sung jong, fight replay". This is the early fight of the year and I already have watched it twice, really a great performance by both guys and it proves once again that the Korean Zombie fights are always must see tv. Hopefully he gets the next title shot at 145lbs.

Currently I am going through one of the roughest poker periods of my life, but I feel like my game has been at a really high level even though the results have not been there. Hopefully a blog turns around my luck.



Salud!

Hey guys, well today I am officially old in the poker world. I am 28 and have been playing for a living since I graduated college at 22. I definitely tend to look at these memorable dates and attempt to set lofty goals for myself for the next year. So here it goes, sorry if this is a boring blog:

I Would like to be playing 2-4 as my standard game by this time next year or as a fall back a 5-10nl live player- this has probably been a goal of mine for the last few years, and while I have certainly made a great living for myself without a post graduate degree, I really want to become an elite guy at my profession and I think regardless of how much I can make at 1-2 I will never think of myself as a great player without some progression

I need to get out of my current credit card debt- obviously Black Friday could not have come at a worse time considering I got married and paid for a honeymoon in June, but I need to get out from under this

I want to be considered one of if not the best low stakes coaches- I think I achieved this prior to Black Friday considering the success of my students and coaching forums, but I hope to regain this status through not only 1 on 1 coaching, but also the quality of my CR videos.

I want to have the confidence to take some shots at some bigger games whether they be live or online- this has always held back my net profit in poker, I have been so confident in my current games and not trusted my skills to take shots when necessary. All of the true greats of poker have all taken advanced shot with their rolls, and I need to do the same

I want my parents to see my in a televised tournament- I know this is by far the least likely of the goals I have set out considering how few tournies I play, but it really means a lot to my parents and thus to me to show to others that I am able to make a living at poker. On top of that, I really think that lower to midstakes cash game big winners are some of the best poker players, but it is tough to prove that considering they are rarely on televised poker and are never mentioned in the elite players.

I want to be ready to purchase my first house/apartment- obviously this is a goal that ties into a lot of the above goals, but I think I am really immature in this regard. I am 28 and married but am still blowing a shitload of money on rent each month. I need to take the next step and set my wife and I up in a situation so that we can start a family

I want to maintain a stable weight below 250lbs- currently I am at 290, I starved myself and worked out just about every day for my wedding to get down to 225 but it was really unhealthy the way I did it. This is a really tough thing for me considering how much I love tasty food, I think I was about 180lbs in 8th grade, and my natural body weight just seems to be way more than most guys that are 6'. I definitely need to make exercise (outside of walking golf courses) a bigger part of my life and think about my health some more.

I want to get below a 10 handicap at golf- I certainly play enough so this shouldn't be that tough, but damn golf is a tough game! On top of that, there are so many things in my game that can go wrong. I hit the ball a ton, but have a terrible slice and even on good shots fade the ball far too much and can never move the ball left to right and my chipping leaves a lot to be desired. Obviously this doesn't hold the weight of the other goals, but I have never experienced something that I spend this much time on that I fail so much, especially considering earlier in my life I was far better.

I want to become closer to the Catholic Church- since I graduated college, I definitely have become far more selfish in my everyday life. I think I am a good husband, son, and brother, but for the most part am quite a self person. I focus far too much of my everyday life around myself and that needs to change. I made a small step with giving up something for Lent, but even failed to attend Easter mass. I think getting a better relationship with God will aid me not only personally, but also will make me a better person and a better family man.

In general I need to become more up to date in current events- While I was immersed in studies in high school and college, I pretty much read everything available. I was very up to date in current events, and envisioned myself on Jeopardy at one time. I was watching Jeopardy the last week and struggled to answer even on some of the simplest questions. I would definitely like to expand beyond just reading the Drudge Report headlines and reading things that are deeper than just older footballs books.

Obviously these issues are not in an order of importance, but simply what came to my mind (this certainly illustrates some of the problems in my life). I hope to come back to this post every 3 and 4 months and see some rapid improvements in all areas. Hope you all are well.

Salud!

Happy Easter to everyone, hope you celebrate Christ's resurrection with your families and loved ones and give thanks for all that we have.

I think I should take this time to brag about my Orioles leading the entire American League with a whopping 2-0 record, only 160 games to go! I obviously realize how horrid this team is, but it is fun to give my diehard Red Sox fan wife crap for the first 2 games of the season.

This week has been a very frustrating grind for me, so I have been playing very little and working hard away from the tables. If you guys have been slacking with watching videos recently, I would highly recommend anything from Irock, Dintyo, and Matthew Janda. They have all helped me in certain ways to tighten up leaks in my game while challenging my thought processes. Even the videos directed at lower stakes have provided me with a lot of interesting material. Hopefully my next few video releases add to the high instructional content of CR.

Tomorrow should be a lot of fun with Easter dinner that my should be chef of a sister is preparing for my family, smoking some Easter cigars with Dad, and watching the Masters. Also I am going to eat some bacon after giving it up for Lent! My good buddy and I have a big cigar bet on the Masters that we made on Friday. I took Rory McElroy heads up against Tiger for who finishes highest. I saw how messed up Tiger's swing was on Thursday and thought I was stealing money from him. It looked even better after Tiger finished up +3 on Saturday and Rory was yet to tee off at -4. Of course I did not expect him to shoot a lovely 77! Now the two of us have a nice sweat that will probably be over before the leaders even tee off on Sunday. Happy Easter everyone!

Salud!

Hey guys, just finished watching the whole series of Friday Night Lights which ESPN Classic has been showing on Thursday nights for the last year or so. If you haven't seen this show, please check it out because in my humble opinion it is one of the top 5 or 10 shows of all time. My wife and I originally started watching this show on NBC because of the football element but even though it was in the title and there was at least some football action in just about every episode, it was actually the weakness of the show (realistic endings to football games was a struggle). The strength of the show was portaying ordinary life in a small Texas town which was heavily invested in high school football and a solid family structure (the Taylors are probably the best husband/wife duo in the history of tv). The show was actually good enough after season three to phase out most of the original high school characters and not miss a beat with a new batch that offered different compelling reasons to watch It is pretty amazing how much this show struggled in the ratings and I really can't convince any of my close friends to give it a shot, but I am currently watching Mad Men for the first time and Friday Night Lights blows it away in terms of interesting characters and plot development.

For those that have watched the show or are interested in it, check out this article that talks about the making of it and the struggles they went through, really interesting read:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6766070/clear-eyes-full-hearts-lose

In poker news, I was in the middle of an 18bi downswing for three or four days, culminating in a Tuesday session where I ran 13 buy ins below ev and had a night session that was just a joke how terrible I ran in 800 hands. I decided to take a day off to get some non poker shit done, as well as making 2 videos for you guys that should be coming out towards the end of the month. I also watched a couple CR videos and it prepared me nicely I think for a very focused day of poker where I won 10bi. This weekend I will be devoting to watching the Masters, playing poker, and enjoying Easter with my family. GL at the tables and happy Easter everyone.

Salud!

Hey guys, so far so good since I have a new computer up and running. I am up 40bi in 3 days at 100nl so I am quite happy with that. There is definitely a learning curve because I am just starting to use Poker Tracker 4, moving on from the original HEM, and I am for sure driving one of my buddies crazy with all of the questions I am asking. So far I have not been delving into the stats much at all because I am using his setup and I am not used to it yet, but ultimately I can definitely see PT4 improving my play. There are a number of stats that I didn't have available on HEM, and once I learn to use the HUD time effectively during the sessions as well as all of the options for reviewing my play after the session I think my game should improve a lot.

I have been thinking a lot about the world series of poker main event this year. Although I would absolutely love to play the main event for the fifth time (and finally make some money), it is going to be very hard for me to do so. Having most of my money on FTP and also paying for a wedding and a honeymoon put a pretty incredible strain on my life. On top of that in all honesty I was just feeling sorry for myself for too long and lost 6 months of winnings that I could have by just grinding my ass off on merge. I plan to put in 100k hands minimum each month for the next three months and one of my longterm goals will be to compile enough money together to play in it or at least make an enticing package for investors. If anyone reading this has any ideas or friends for backers, how to present a package, or any other insight it would be really appreciated. Hopefully by working hard, and also searching and planning for the main event I can participate again.

Finally, since I lost two videos due to my computer disaster, I will be remaking them sometime this week so hopefully you can get some more content from me in April. Additionally, my game is in good form and am ready to take on some more students. Due to the Black Friday circumstances, I am offering some highly reduced packages so pm or leave a comment if you are interested.

Unfortunately the weather is going to be shitty this weekend so I am also missing out on a nice golf weekend. I really love college basketball, but the way Duke went out of the tourney this year makes watching the rest of the games just not the same so I think a ton of cigars and poker are in my immediate future. One of the bigger challenges I am going to face in the next two days is to break a terrible trend. It seems like I always tend to lose money when my wife is out of town and I have nothing but time to play poker. On top of that, I also am cursing myself by blogging during a big upswing. Maybe the two bad trends will cancel each other out?

Salud!

Hey guys, well I just finished going through one of the biggest frustrations that I can as a poker player. First of all I must say that I am exceptionally technologically challenged. It's a minor miracle that I was able to set up my universal remote, and that is about the extent of my knowledge. For a guy that is now 27, grew up in probably the first generation when computer competency was really stressed, and makes a living online, I really am a computer idiot. I tend to have laptops that last about two years maximum, but about ten days ago I had my worst computer error that I have experienced. On Wednesday night I had numerous "blue screens of death" appear but was able to use the one tool that seemed to always bail me out in the past and was able to system restore it to health. Then on Friday the same problem appeared but this time system restore was not even an available option. I knew I was in big trouble, brought my computer to the bar with one of my buddies to pay for his drinks and pray that he could fix the problems. He told me of about ten problems my computer was facing, spent the weekend trying to fix it, and then ultimately said I was going to be forced to factory restore the computer and lose all of my data. I saved all of my important documents to an external drive and attempted to restore the computer. Even that somehow failed, making my laptop completely useless. On top of this, after buying a new desktop that I will use only for poker, I realize that none of the data transferred over to my external hard drive, meaning that I lost every important document, two videos that were just about ready for CR, over 3 million FTP hands and a ton of merge hands, all of my notes and stats on players, SO TILTING!!!! Of course after this realization, it took me another three days until one of my buddies, former students, and currently the absolute man helped me out with setting up PT4. I pray I can finally get back to the tables tomorrow, I will really be working my ass off.

Of course to top off the week, my Duke Blue Devils who I told everyone that would listen that they were really a god awful team proved it in stunning fashion by losing to the 15th seed Lehigh team. I think in terms of regular season wins, they got the absolute maximum out of this team which for a Duke team was the least talented across the board in the last 17 years. But it was incredibly obvious the direction the team was headed in. The best player on the team Austin Rivers was a blackhole with the basketball, and never learned how to make the team better. Our lowpost players, the infamous Plumlee Brothers, were two walking turnover disasters that never could be relied on for a big defensive play or easy bucket. The upperclassmen wing players seemed to take rather large steps back this year, and overall the team desperately lacked strong defense and a real leader. Coach K who I think is one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport did a great job with them in the regular season, did a really poor job in this one game. I think he was attempting to challenge his team and not take timeouts in obvious spots in order to give them pressure for later on in the tourney. Of course what happened was that in the second half Lehigh had all of the confidence in the world, along with the best player on the court during that game, and when it mattered Duke tightened up, Austin Rivers couldn't get by his man 1 on 1, and absolutely no one else stepped up.

The nice thing about having so much time off for computer issues was that the weather in DC has been amazing and I have played a lot of golf, the bad news is that I am regressing as a player. Pretty much in life, if you do something more and get worse, you are simply not good at that activity. This is the way I feel about my golf game. Throughout my life, I have always had a very mediocre swing but have always managed to find ways to be about a 15 handicap and when I was in my teenage years caddying and then playing 27 holes of golf just about every day during the summer, I was consistently in the mid 70s. This has been the worst stretch of playing golf I have experienced in my life, and I just have found ways to shoot high 90s and even a few three digit rounds. Its weird, that over the past 6 months I have learned more and studied more about the golf swing than I ever knew before, and it seems to have all hurt me. I have a terrible slice off the tee that I cannot seem to correct whatever I do, and having terrible tee shots just seems to put me in a really bad mindset which has led me to tilt sessions on the golf course. In the past my short game and ability to hit the ball a long way has always seemed to bail me out but that ability seems to have been lost. All in all it has been a great time finding a bunch of my cigar buddies to play golf with, but it is costing me a lot of cigars the way I am playing, and even more ball busting from one guy who has consistently kicked my ass this year. Fingers crossed things turn around if my wife gets me the TaylorMade R11S for my bday.

I guess I will finish the blog off on a high note. I put in a record amount of hands for me lifetime in a 30 day period and had a really massive month considering most of my play was at 100nl. Hopefully my game continues on a high level after being gone for awhile.

Salud!

Hey guys, well the second session of yesterday was probably my worst 3k hands of poker that I have played in at least the last two years. For some reason whenever I have moved up in stakes in my life I have played far worse than I expect to. There is some weird part of my brain that makes me want to make different plays then what has led me to success in the past. I took so many weird bad lines, made some terrible call downs, was aggro in some terrible spots, just overall a very bad feel for the games. Really disappointed with my play, here are the hands and I will talk about my goals going forward.

http://weaktight.com/4424083

So this line in itself is not necessarily bad, but there are a couple of bad things about it. First of all I am pretty sure all regs are capable at 200nl at this point to 3bet bluff this flop, but I had no specific reads that he would do this more often than not or that I have a very bluffy image in his mind. Secondly I have not made this play in the month and a half since Ive been back. There is no reason to employ a play I haven't tried at lower levels when I am moving up, just doesn't make sense.

http://weaktight.com/4424085

Fuck I am just an idiot, same exact thing as before, not a ton of reads on the opponent, a weird line that I wouldn't normally use. Just fucking stupidity.

http://weaktight.com/4424087

He is too fucking tight to be floating flops against him. Just fucking awful, he might be tight enough with 7% 3bet that I should just be folding preflop, but to then forget about that and float flops like this is simply terrible.

http://weaktight.com/4424088

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/4424091

I know I got unlucky here, and the hand he ended up with was quite surprising, but again donking a merged sort of range against a player you have absolutely no idea how he will respond is not a great idea. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. Once I get far more reads on the players, I can use most of these plays but I am far better with my fundamentals and exploiting basic weaknesses than these other regs are, there is no reason to get crazy fancy with plays.

http://weaktight.com/4424096

http://weaktight.com/4424098

Sort of just situationally unlucky. I definitely could just cold 3bet shove the flop, but I thought both players were capable of checking down turn to let me see two cards. Once two people shoved I think I am getting the right odds to call. I just did pokerstove now, the range I gave the two players were:

UTG: KK,99, 88, K9ss, 98ss, Qjcc, AK, AA, 76cc, 87cc = 30%

CO: 99, 88, 98ss, Qjcc, 76cc, 87cc = 39%

I'm about 30% and I am getting 35% to call so I think I made the right call, I definitely think that it is the right call, and it definitely is the best play if I think that the players will play passively on the turn.

http://weaktight.com/4424099

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/4424101

Same guy that I fucked up with KQ. Again I was close to folding pre and I went against my intuition. After he checks the flop I put him on JJ or Tx. I thought that I could rep AQ, KQ or TTT pretty credibly but I think the problem is that 1) I already showed him a crazy play in a 3bet pot in the same situation, and 2) I am not sure he knows that I would barrel AQ or KQ for value.

http://weaktight.com/4424128

Against a mediocre player when every obvious draw in the world misses, this is simply not a triple barrel spot, hell the draws are so obvious that maybe I should be checking against all but the squeeky tightest players. Another bad mistake.

http://weaktight.com/4424103

Fuck fuck fuck fold the river. God I don't have enough reads on these people to think they will triple barrel, just because I move up a level in no way means they are capable of totally insane plays that just one level below are incapable of, especially considering a lot of the players I am playing with at both levels.

http://weaktight.com/4424105

WOW, what are people doing?

http://weaktight.com/4424124

Btw, this is a great line to use for me, but when he shoves the fucking river, it is a great line because I can lose the minimum or get calls from QQ or KK. Fucking awful awful awful call on river, total brainfart, definitely one of those insta calls that I should have thought deeply about and then folded.

http://weaktight.com/4424125

88 < AK

http://weaktight.com/4424131

KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/4424133

Man this was unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4424134

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/4424136

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/4424137

I think pretty standard play all around considering I have a great hand to play deep in position and the other guy is a big fish, was quite surprised that he wouldn't shove TT on flop, but happy the way I played this one.

http://weaktight.com/4424139

Unlucky spot

http://weaktight.com/4424141

Lol of course

http://weaktight.com/4424143

I made a weird bet size on the river and did the classic justification for a call, but this is simply a fold, really bad play here

http://weaktight.com/4424145

Total fish in first 5 or 6 hands at the table, I thought it was a good chance to catch him losing his mind.

http://weaktight.com/4424146

Why the fuck am I calling down here? I mean what the fuck? I know he is an aggro fish but there are so many better spots to call down. Chalk up another awful play for me.

http://weaktight.com/4424148

Weird unlucky spot against a fish, happy I didn't shove river though for value.

http://weaktight.com/4424149

Man why am I barreling turn. There are some very good cards to barrel, but this is one of the nut worst cards, its great to have a plan but deviate from it based on board texture.

http://weaktight.com/4424150

I think calling here is far superior to 3bet bluffing, because if he is bluffing the flop, I think he shuts down turn and I can bluff river, as opposed to here I am just praying he is bluff raising all leads.

Man that was just horrendous, so many weak mental plays, some tilt, some terrible fundamentals, not adjusting well to the image I was creating, and most importantly forgetting what got me to the dance. Alright I need to make some immediate adjustments.

At 200nl, play a max of 12 tables

Do not use lines that you have not experimented with or thought a lot about

The players might be a little more aggro, but its not like all of the sudden I am playing absolutely elite poker players, it is just better to assume they have the same capabilties and limitations as the players at 100nl.

Understand that your image is quite bluffy, so use that to your advantage.

I have far better fundamentals and an overall feel for the game, especially postflop than these players, use those advantages.

If you are tempted to make more advanced plays, make sure you have a good feel for the player, not just his stats.

Remember all in all things have really gone great so far, don't dwell too much on your mistakes or one or two bad days, but learn from them

I am going to grind hard today at 100nl, my goal is to get even from yesterday's -6bi and tomorrow come back strong.

Salud!

Hey guys, well the second session of yesterday was probably my worst 3k hands of poker that I have played in at least the last two years. For some reason whenever I have moved up in stakes in my life I have played far worse than I expect to. There is some weird part of my brain that makes me want to make different plays then what has led me to success in the past. I took so many weird bad lines, made some terrible call downs, was aggro in some terrible spots, just overall a very bad feel for the games. Really disappointed with my play, here are the hands and I will talk about my goals going forward.

http://weaktight.com/4424083

So this line in itself is not necessarily bad, but there are a couple of bad things about it. First of all I am pretty sure all regs are capable at 200nl at this point to 3bet bluff this flop, but I had no specific reads that he would do this more often than not or that I have a very bluffy image in his mind. Secondly I have not made this play in the month and a half since Ive been back. There is no reason to employ a play I haven't tried at lower levels when I am moving up, just doesn't make sense.

http://weaktight.com/4424085

Fuck I am just an idiot, same exact thing as before, not a ton of reads on the opponent, a weird line that I wouldn't normally use. Just fucking stupidity.

http://weaktight.com/4424087

He is too fucking tight to be floating flops against him. Just fucking awful, he might be tight enough with 7% 3bet that I should just be folding preflop, but to then forget about that and float flops like this is simply terrible.

http://weaktight.com/4424088

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/4424091

I know I got unlucky here, and the hand he ended up with was quite surprising, but again donking a merged sort of range against a player you have absolutely no idea how he will respond is not a great idea. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID. Once I get far more reads on the players, I can use most of these plays but I am far better with my fundamentals and exploiting basic weaknesses than these other regs are, there is no reason to get crazy fancy with plays.

http://weaktight.com/4424096

http://weaktight.com/4424098

Sort of just situationally unlucky. I definitely could just cold 3bet shove the flop, but I thought both players were capable of checking down turn to let me see two cards. Once two people shoved I think I am getting the right odds to call. I just did pokerstove now, the range I gave the two players were:

UTG: KK,99, 88, K9ss, 98ss, Qjcc, AK, AA, 76cc, 87cc = 30%

CO: 99, 88, 98ss, Qjcc, 76cc, 87cc = 39%

I'm about 30% and I am getting 35% to call so I think I made the right call, I definitely think that it is the right call, and it definitely is the best play if I think that the players will play passively on the turn.

http://weaktight.com/4424099

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/4424101

Same guy that I fucked up with KQ. Again I was close to folding pre and I went against my intuition. After he checks the flop I put him on JJ or Tx. I thought that I could rep AQ, KQ or TTT pretty credibly but I think the problem is that 1) I already showed him a crazy play in a 3bet pot in the same situation, and 2) I am not sure he knows that I would barrel AQ or KQ for value.

http://weaktight.com/4424128

Against a mediocre player when every obvious draw in the world misses, this is simply not a triple barrel spot, hell the draws are so obvious that maybe I should be checking against all but the squeeky tightest players. Another bad mistake.

http://weaktight.com/4424103

Fuck fuck fuck fold the river. God I don't have enough reads on these people to think they will triple barrel, just because I move up a level in no way means they are capable of totally insane plays that just one level below are incapable of, especially considering a lot of the players I am playing with at both levels.

http://weaktight.com/4424105

WOW, what are people doing?

http://weaktight.com/4424124

Btw, this is a great line to use for me, but when he shoves the fucking river, it is a great line because I can lose the minimum or get calls from QQ or KK. Fucking awful awful awful call on river, total brainfart, definitely one of those insta calls that I should have thought deeply about and then folded.

http://weaktight.com/4424125

88 < AK

http://weaktight.com/4424131

KK < AA

http://weaktight.com/4424133

Man this was unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4424134

Cooler

http://weaktight.com/4424136

JJ < AK

http://weaktight.com/4424137

I think pretty standard play all around considering I have a great hand to play deep in position and the other guy is a big fish, was quite surprised that he wouldn't shove TT on flop, but happy the way I played this one.

http://weaktight.com/4424139

Unlucky spot

http://weaktight.com/4424141

Lol of course

http://weaktight.com/4424143

I made a weird bet size on the river and did the classic justification for a call, but this is simply a fold, really bad play here

http://weaktight.com/4424145

Total fish in first 5 or 6 hands at the table, I thought it was a good chance to catch him losing his mind.

http://weaktight.com/4424146

Why the fuck am I calling down here? I mean what the fuck? I know he is an aggro fish but there are so many better spots to call down. Chalk up another awful play for me.

http://weaktight.com/4424148

Weird unlucky spot against a fish, happy I didn't shove river though for value.

http://weaktight.com/4424149

Man why am I barreling turn. There are some very good cards to barrel, but this is one of the nut worst cards, its great to have a plan but deviate from it based on board texture.

http://weaktight.com/4424150

I think calling here is far superior to 3bet bluffing, because if he is bluffing the flop, I think he shuts down turn and I can bluff river, as opposed to here I am just praying he is bluff raising all leads.

Man that was just horrendous, so many weak mental plays, some tilt, some terrible fundamentals, not adjusting well to the image I was creating, and most importantly forgetting what got me to the dance. Alright I need to make some immediate adjustments.

At 200nl, play a max of 12 tables

Do not use lines that you have not experimented with or thought a lot about

The players might be a little more aggro, but its not like all of the sudden I am playing absolutely elite poker players, it is just better to assume they have the same capabilties and limitations as the players at 100nl.

Understand that your image is quite bluffy, so use that to your advantage.

I have far better fundamentals and an overall feel for the game, especially postflop than these players, use those advantages.

If you are tempted to make more advanced plays, make sure you have a good feel for the player, not just his stats.

Remember all in all things have really gone great so far, don't dwell too much on your mistakes or one or two bad days, but learn from them

I am going to grind hard today at 100nl, my goal is to get even from yesterday's -6bi and tomorrow come back strong.

Btw, please check out my recent video, I think it will offer a lot of really good content and am quite happy with the final product, it took a lot of work but I think it was definitely worth it.

Salud!

Hey guys, just finished up reviewing hands from the last 4 or 5 days and enjoying a cigar before a big grind day today. Overall I am up 20bis at 100nl and 10bi at 200nl. Still feel there are a lot of leaks in my game in particular I am not playing as well as I should be in the smaller pots which is my bread and butter. I definitely need to improve that going forward. At 200nl, the player pool is much stronger so I need to put in a lot of work away from the tables to study the primary regs games. What I am really happy about is that I had a session on thursday where I was supposed to play golf, that got cancelled and instead I lost 8bi at 200nl. It was super frustrating but I came back refreshed later that night and won half of it back with some bad luck and after friday night was still a winnner over the last two days so that was really a big win for me. Here are the losers:

http://weaktight.com/4399373

I can't seem to win with AA AI PRE

http://weaktight.com/4399375

standard stackoff against an aggro checkraising fish

http://weaktight.com/4399376

not my favorite triple barrel in a 3bet pot, I know that he floats in 3bet pots a lot so he will never be a terrible guy to barrel against, but at the same time the chance that he has KQ or AQ a lot here is quite high so I would prefer to give up on the turn or certainly the river here

http://weaktight.com/4399378

WHAT A WAY TO END MY SESSION!!!!!!

http://weaktight.com/4399379

Trying to get him off what I thought his whole range consisted of 88-JJ, didn't know he would call a 3bet in position with AK

http://weaktight.com/4399381

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4399384

Against a fishy player who absolutely has a very wide range here. Unfortunately I just took the easy mindless way out and decided to shove. I think he is passive enough that I can get the pot checked down if he has a hand like AT, AQ, etc. Additionally just too many hands hit and it sucks when you finally get dealt a premium hand against a big fish, but there are spots I just need to fold and this is certainly one of them, really bad play on my part

http://weaktight.com/4399386

Obviously this is a big fish who I was 3betting because I thought his wide opening range would be his 3bet calling range which I could beat. The turn bet is pretty thin but I think it is a good thin value spot, on the river, I think he could still be shoving AJ, KJ, missed A of club type hands so I had to call, if this bet was 15-20bbs bigger or more I would fold

http://weaktight.com/4399390

Man sort of a gross spot, but I should have shoved with the stacksizes behind me instead of call and then call the 30 more

http://weaktight.com/4399392

YES lost the min

http://weaktight.com/4399394

failed triple barrel but love this spot to do so

http://weaktight.com/4399397

AK < AA

http://weaktight.com/4399403

ughhhhh

http://weaktight.com/4399404

I am actually going to make a video about all the really tough spots I was in one day. Honestly two days ago I had more hard decisions than I would have a lot of weeks in poker. Really was an absolutely crazy day so I think it would be interesting to go over the 10-12 super tough hands I was facing.

http://weaktight.com/4399406

Terrible read on this situation, I know this is a play that a lot of regs make, but I thought he was far more draw oriented range than most but I guess I'm wrong

http://weaktight.com/4399407

AK < AA

http://weaktight.com/4399410

lol kill me

http://weaktight.com/4399412

Damnit this was a good call, unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4399414

another crazy tough spot that I will make a video about

http://weaktight.com/4399416

Same thing, for the video

http://weaktight.com/4399418

Definitely a river fold, he was such a big fish it was tough for me, but this is the nut worst river card and definitely should be a fold

http://weaktight.com/4399419

Well I guess I should thank him for not allowing me to triple barrel off here

http://weaktight.com/4399422

one final one for the video

http://weaktight.com/4414854

Man this player is very aggro when he has the betting lead, I think the far better play here is to just call in position, he can easily bluff off two streets on dry board or he could rep hearts the whole way, so I think drastically narrowing his range here was a pretty big mistake.

AK < TT

http://weaktight.com/4414856

http://weaktight.com/4414862

So based on these two hands I obviously thought he was a total nut, which he certainly is 50bbs deep or less, but at 100 he is much tighter and I need to make some major adjustments to how I play him postflop in 3bet pots, also need to be a little tighter with my calling ranges in position.

http://weaktight.com/4414857

Its interesting moving up to 200nl where the player pool is smaller and more importantly there are just a few people that pretty much create all of the action in the games. I need to put a lot of research in on a few guys so that I know exactly how to attack them, I think this spot is pretty standard though

http://weaktight.com/4414859

ughhh

http://weaktight.com/4414872

ughhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://weaktight.com/4414918

WOW great call by my opponent here

AQ < AK sb vs BUT

http://weaktight.com/4414925

So probably the hand I will be thinking about for a very long time. This player was constantly making huge raises PRE and postflop, he had shoved at least 7 times deep like this on the flop and no one had called him yet. Additionally I CR AI on turn of A763 and he called me with 27 so this player was really out of his mind, 80 VPIP. I typically don't go against my instincts on difficult calls and I really thought he had made this play just so many times that he has AQ and AK here quite a bit, so I opted ot call rather fast and this fish definitely made me look like the fish, obviously had to end my session on this note. Still dont mind my thought process and my play throughout

http://weaktight.com/4414930

Im confused

http://weaktight.com/4414932

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4414935

God damnit, how much have I told ym students and in my CR videos about this line and still I make a really bad call off? CMON GRANT

http://weaktight.com/4414938

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4414941

Really tough board runout to not call with AA here

http://weaktight.com/4414942

Im definitely scared here, but I think that I can beat his value range as a fish who can have AJ QJ and 33 in this spot.

http://weaktight.com/4414943

ughhhhhhhhhhhhh

http://weaktight.com/4414945

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4414947

Not a great board run out, very nice bet sizing by him imo here

http://weaktight.com/4414949

The board runout against an aggro player who has a lot of triple barrels in his range on this board texture makes this a simple call

http://weaktight.com/4414952

While I have shown a number of river call downs that I was totally happy with, this is certainly not one of them because his value range is so wide and while his bluff range is decently wide as well this board texture is just so easy to value bet thinner than on most boards

99 < AK

JJ < 77

This one particularly hurt because I had all the momentum going and we are playing on every table, so it really hurt and against an aggro 3better it gave him free range to increase his aggression

http://weaktight.com/4414964

Against the same player as the 77, he is so aggro that I thought he was very capable of turning a lot of hands into bluffs, still not sure if he doesnt make this same play on a lot of other different cards, I mean he did double float so I think an aggressive player is not simply double floating in order to fold river

http://weaktight.com/4414965

Tilting

http://weaktight.com/4414966

Super weird hand here. Ok this player is very competent but can call down light. The hands I was attempting to get value from here were AJ specifically, and to lesser notes the few times he calls with AK in position and a few hero calls (I have seen him call me down with ace high for 3 streets). On the other hand the only hands I am really worried about here is AQ specifically and to a lesser extent TT and ATss. I think he calls in pos with AQ almost all the time and can get to the river by slowplaying both. I think the tough but really best play here is to C-F. I know that he knows that I can check a big hand on the river to him so he won't be shoving AJ all that much, and he never shoves his bluff catchers, so I think a really high level play would be to check fold river.

http://weaktight.com/4414966

Based on immediate history in the 15 minutes that I ran him over with 3 and 4bets, and his affinity for 4bet bluffing out of frustration I was very irritated he actually found a hand here

http://weaktight.com/4414971

First hand of HU, I think most players like to start out with an aggro 3bet in the first few hands so thrilled to shove here with 77 and surprised he called with KQ

http://weaktight.com/4414973

FUCKING FUCKING AWFUL CALL DOWN BY ME. This player is crazy aggro, but Ive never seen a play like this at all from him, so this was a pretty easy weird line = big hand from reg type of line.

JJ < KK

AA < QQ

QQ < KK

http://weaktight.com/4414980

Normally I call down in this spot instead of fast playing, based on this hand I think this was absolutely the wrong type of player to play for stacks with this hand

AA < 99

JJ < TT

AK < AA

http://weaktight.com/4414989

Interesting hand here, playing against a pretty straight forward reg and a big fish. I thought after the turn the ranges of each player are:

REG: JJ-AA, AT, Kqdd, 78dd, 98dd

Fish: any flush draw, Tx, 9x, QJ, 78, 45

Obviously I am happy with my abilities to barrel missed draws and hit my big hand as well, really surprised with how wet the board is and how strong my hand appears to be that the reg would not raise the turn.

http://weaktight.com/4414994

Ughhh, made a really nice call and was not rewarded

http://weaktight.com/4414996

Fish owns me, situation owns me a little bit too

http://weaktight.com/4414997

This is thinnish, but as I always tell my students, I would much rather you make mistakes value betting too thinly rather than playing too passively

http://weaktight.com/4415001

This is a struggle for most regs I think is playing against an unknown fish and really not understanding his range on the river, all in all I think this is just a terrible card and as we all know but sometimes forget fish can hit hands too.

Sorry the blog has been so poker oriented and as my wife has reminded me multiple times it is pretty boring so I will try to step it up in the future with more interesting content, gl everyone with the big sunday grind

Salud!

Oh the curse of the blog! 10K hands this sunday and lost 5bi, 12 bi below EV. To save myself some pain, I will not be listing any of the 9 or 10 AA or KK hands AI that I lost. Proud of my play most of the day, and I even was one tabling till 7am to grab 2.5 bi off of a 98% vpip fish who was deep and directly to my right. Also happy with my play against him, because he played a crazy high variance game that would build massive pots and I never hit a big hand against him, but grinded him down with super thin value. Here are some of the lowlights from my 10k hands:

http://weaktight.com/4393453

AK vs KK

http://weaktight.com/4393531

I know I seem to talk about in every blog I need to reduce my 5bet bluff shoves, I stand by this assertion and goal but I will not entirely eliminate them from my game and I really like this spot to do so, I think it was a very unlucky spot because this player has adjusted to me by drastically increasing his 4betting range and frequency

http://weaktight.com/4393533

This one is reaalllly close, I tanked for the whole 90 seconds. I have notes on this player that he has floated Ax boards in 3bet pots before. So one play could obviously be to bet turn as the easy way out, but I felt this line would allow me to show more profitability, especially considering I have card removal with Ax, and I thought really the only value range he could have here is exactly AQ. Ultimately I decided to call because I thought AQ would range a decent amount on this board

http://weaktight.com/4393534

ughhh, dont think my opponent could play it worse and yet this was the only way he could get my stack

http://weaktight.com/4393536

fsahfalsghlsdfsjsklfjgas, man I love my play, so unlucky here

http://weaktight.com/4393537

ughhh

http://weaktight.com/4393538

rather not comment on this one but I like my play

http://weaktight.com/4393540

standard but vs blinds against an aggro opponent when I have an aggro image

http://weaktight.com/4393542

AK vs KK

http://weaktight.com/4393555

flush over flush

http://weaktight.com/4393557

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4393558

unlucky against a big fish

http://weaktight.com/4393562

I think I am one of the few people that think triple barrel bluffing fish is a decent idea in moderation with a good image because their ranges are just so wide and loose by the river. With that said, I made a really fundamentally huge mistake here because I violated a basic rule of my own that fish can have Ax in just about any situation, so I should not be bluffing when A comes on turn, as opposed to a good board to bluff would be something like 954 when King hits turn.

http://weaktight.com/4393567

against an aggro fish I don't see myself ever folding here

http://weaktight.com/4393569

I miss combo draw 100 on the day here lol

http://weaktight.com/4393572

In future this will be a great guy to represent certain hands because he didnt CR all in because he was aware of the backdoor flush draw that got there

http://weaktight.com/4393585

The fish just lost a big pot, so I thought his range was super wide here, even though he only 3bet 7% overall. Bad timing

http://weaktight.com/4393586

lost the min

http://weaktight.com/4393587

Against some players I would not play for stacks immediately, but agianst this player I was thrilled to

http://weaktight.com/4393589

missed another draw

http://weaktight.com/4393594

ughhh

sorry for the bitching, I should have expected to write about a ton of unlucky spots considering how far under ev I was

http://weaktight.com/4393595

lol woops, refer to my thoughts about bluffing fish for why I like my play here and not on the other bluff fishing hand

http://weaktight.com/4393597

JJ vs AK

http://weaktight.com/4393599

Interesting the way my opponent played this hand, I was very close ot checking turn fwiw

http://weaktight.com/4393602

My absolute worst play of the day. This player is a fish, so its possible that he is shoving worse, but cmon, any beginning poker player can see he called turn with a flush draw and would only raise river with it. Horrendous call on my part, I am sure that losing all of the hands previously to this added up my bad call

http://weaktight.com/4393612

Appropriate way to end

All in all, very happy with not only my play, but my mental focus during the day. I went through a lot of shit, but I think I at least played my A- game, and hell I played so many hands my losses cant be that huge considering I get some rakeback. Just about to start up another session

Salud!

Hey guys, I have been on a hell of a heater, something like 53bi over 5 days. Yesterday I put in the most volume I have ever done, mostly thanks to all of the fish that would not leave the tables till 4 in the morning. It was a pretty swingy day which I think that I could have made a lot better if not for a few really poor calls, and not playing my absolute best in smaller pots, and a misclick that cost me a buyin. Overall still happy with my game and how the month has been going so far. Here are the losing hands:

http://weaktight.com/4378609

Just really gross and we definitely have the dymanics that he could even call me here with 99 or TT, so I think shoving here is by far superior to check folding or check calling. Really I am only worried about 77 and 76ss.

http://weaktight.com/4378612

aghsgkhaslfjdsghgdjfas fucking misclick, so annoying

http://weaktight.com/4378613

Obviously when I hit this sort of flop against a loose player there is really nothing I can do but to play for stacks, but I think I much prefer Cring in this spot than I would to 3betting AI

http://weaktight.com/4378613

So normally once you hit AK in a 3bet pot then you are thrilled to go with your hand, but I think the combination of this board and his scary line makes this a pretty easy fold and really bad play on my part. I also think that when players hit big hands in 3bet pots they are making it so obvious that I need to totally ignore my hand and think about the strength of their line.

http://weaktight.com/4378615

set over set

http://weaktight.com/4378616

Surprising and probably a really bad backshove by my opponent considering I am squeezing with a massive fish and he will call such a wide range that I shouldnt be bluffing here and my range is stronger than normal

http://weaktight.com/4378619

Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4378621

unlucky and what the hell is my opponent doing here?

http://weaktight.com/4378623

QQ < TT

http://weaktight.com/4378624

So some back history, this guy is a nut, and will barrel whenever checked to. I thought the board was so dry that I would be better off just calling off with KK on a low board rather than try to value own him which he was folding 45% of flops. I was obviously very worried about the bet size on the river, but I justified it by saying that it looked my like I was headed to showdown so he would need to bet bigger to get me off the hand. In reality, that is a terrible thought process because he is a 50 VPIP guy, and is not thinking about my hand in the least. This line just makes a ton of sense for having a flush and even though its a really sick feeling when you keep having to fold to crazy fish because you can't hit a hand against them, I can't let that get in my head and make -EV calls

http://weaktight.com/4378627

Well I saw him min CR with top pair deuce kicker before so I really wasn't in a big mood to fold against a huge fish, but when I hit the turn there was no doubt I was going with the hand and I could beat some pure value hands like T7, 76, T6

http://weaktight.com/4378631

Fucking terrible terrible call here, another different fish but he is a calling station fish who could call with middle pair here, but he is not a super aggro raising fish, really awful call

http://weaktight.com/4378633

kk < AA

http://weaktight.com/4378635

Unlucky against a major fish

http://weaktight.com/4378643

I had notes on this player that he floats in 3bet pots so I tried to make my hand look as weak as possible and definitely think I lost the min here

http://weaktight.com/4378644

So same thing with KK guy I called down earlier.

http://weaktight.com/4378645

I am a big fan of making pretty big call downs against fish, especially when you give up the lead because a lot of them can barrel with absolutely no equity, but this hand looks exactly like what it is, fold the river if not the turn!

http://weaktight.com/4378651

lol another fish gets me, man if I could have beaten the fish more this session I really would have had something

http://weaktight.com/4378652

YES lost the min with set over set

http://weaktight.com/4378653

another fish gets me, btw as you can see the games are pretty good right now

http://weaktight.com/4378656

id bet money he has 33 here, still don't mind the spot for a triple barrel

http://weaktight.com/4378658

unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4378659

ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/4378662

really good spot to triple barrel, unfortunate I ran into just about the top of his range

Sorry the blogs have been so boring, but literally my life during the week consists of a few cigars, 6k hands of poker a day, and some time with my wife. Looking forward to golf tomorrow and having a nice dinner with my parents on Saturday. My newest video I think is one of my best so check that out, and I should have a new one coming out in the next couple of weeks that is on a similar topic. As always, pm me about coaching.

Salud!