Hey guys, really important day in my life, first year anniversary with my wife. Had a really nice quick beach weekend in Virginia Beach that was really great (except for the funny sunglasses tan). Sort of a weird time in my life because literally everything is going so great except for poker. It's rather surreal watching some of the WSOP coverage because it feels like I am so far removed from those stakes. Ever since 2006 when I was grinding tournies very hard, playing over my bankroll because I didn't know any better, and lost pair over pair for the chip lead 3 times with under 100 people left at the wsop, I sort of looked at tournaments as gambling and not real poker compared to cash games. While I still believe that to a large extent, from 2007 on I had enough money to play these tournies and opted to only do that in limited fashion. For the first time in my life I am looking at these people and can't believe how limited my bankroll is now. I think in some part my money struggles and all the shit that went down with FTP has hurt my play a little bit. After losing 4.5 buyins today, I was really effected by the loss more than I almost ever am. I don't know if it had to do with today being my anniversary or what, but I really need to be more level headed after my losing sessions. While I am not tilting while playing, I have just been down in the dumps far too much after losing sessions recently and that needs to stop. I have a lot of great things going on in my life, poker has treated me very well and I just need to know that if I put in the effort and work things will definitely turn around. Here is a look at the losing hands from today.

http://weaktight.com/4756825

After facing a 4bet in the first 4 hands of our heads up match, this becomes an absolute no brainer get in spot

http://weaktight.com/4756826

Against a lot of regulars, this is an absolute snap get in spot, even if it was 6 handed, let alone 4 handed. But this guy just didnt have the stats to back this play up. He was only 3betting 6% from the bb, and after 150 hands had yet to 4bet. Now of course this just could be random variance, but he really didn't have the overall aggression to make this as a pure bluff. I pretty much thought at most he had 5% bluff hands here. So my next thought was could I beat his value hands. I definitely thought at the time he could have all JJ and AK type hands, but in reality I think if I was thinking exceptionally clearly I think this sort of guy cold calls those hands quite a bit. Finally, when faced with these close decisions, I always go back to what Scott Augstine taught me during a lesson: if a decision is close, how will it effect you going forward. The obvious answer here was that I would have to quit my session and overall be exceptionally frustrated in general. Very tough but I need to fold.

http://weaktight.com/4756827

At the time, I was trying to talk myself into the idea that my range contains a lot of 88-JJ type hands so with the big gap in the flop, he would be increasing his double barrel range. While that is certainly true, I was worried about his tight range preflop already, so there is no need to combat is already tight range with the weaker part of my range.

http://weaktight.com/4756828

Pretty standard play here I think, although I was certainly a little more then tempted to find a call here. He was on the aggro side, and I certainly was getting the better of him so I thought his mentality could turn a hand like 99 or TT into a bluff here, but I think ultimately I just have to give him credit that either he has a hand or he made a great play here because my ranges are certainly wide enough that I can have more straights than most in this spot.

http://weaktight.com/4756829

Tough spot that seems to come up more when you are not playing/running the best. This player was opening 55% of hands and was never folding to 3bets. My original plan was to call one and fold to turn if he shoved. When he overbet, I definitely thought his value range consisted of only the bad ax hands, and his bluffs. I thought he would shove a decent amount of 9x and 6x, along with just a really weird combo of hands. I think this is a call against such a loose maniac, but its definitely closer than I originally thought because on one hand I saw him call 52ss in pos and show it down without a pair. With the info I had at the time, I still am fine with this play.

http://weaktight.com/4756830

Not a hand that I really ever 3bet, but this player was folding to 85% of 3bets over a large sample so I was just hammering him with 3bets in just about every spot. I felt like he was sort of catching on in the more obvious spots so I was expanding it to 3betting him more in early position. When he called I gave him a range of 77-JJ, AQ, Ajss, and maybe a few KQ or Kjss. On the flop I felt like I could pretty easily rep AK and win the hand on later streets. On the turn, I felt like his range consisted of almost entirely the non pair type hands, and maybe 77. So I felt like it was a pretty easy value bet that would get called by worse occasionally when he had AQ or AJ. Instead he checkraised which was pretty surprising based on his range and the type of player he was. I was sort of stuck between two conflicting thoughts. Either 1) my range looks really fucking weak and he still can have some flush draw combos that would play this hand this way, as well as a few outright bluffs that didn't have showdown, 2) My range looks really capped and a hand like 99 or TT becomes a really easy CR and get it in on the river. Ultimately I just thought this was the type of guy that doesn't have a lot of heart and would shut down on rivers a ton of the time if he misses. I think this line of thought was correct, but I misapplied. I think he just doesn't have a ton of heart and therefore would not try to bluff in this spot. Finally I think with such a freaking high fold to 3bet, his range can also have some KK or AA in it.

http://weaktight.com/4756831

Against a weak player who was calling 100% of my sb opens in bb, and never folded a flop, I thought he had so many floats that would bluff that this hand was the ideal bluff catcher. One thing I need to point out to myself here is that I definitely did not tighten up my range. I thought to myself, this guy is bad so I am going to open a pretty wide range here. I talk about this ALL THE TIME in my videos that often bad players are equally tough to play against when you are OOP as a good player. He won't fold many flops and turns, so you need to tighten up in obvious spots they are calling preflop and player value poker. Definitely burned close to a buy in playing suboptimal poker against him.

http://weaktight.com/4756832

Man, I told myself before he even bet the turn that if he triple barrels I need to find a fold. Then on the river he timed down to one second and I talked myself into him thinking he needed to value bet AA or AK or QJ and taking the whole time to do so. Really bad job by me relying on a timing tell instead of everything else about the hand.

http://weaktight.com/4756833

4bet or fold this GRANT!!!!!!

My wife and I went to Morton's today to celebrate our anniversary. Morton's is definitely our spot and we have been going maybe once every two months or so since we graduated from college. We really love the old school feel of the place: the Sinatra music playing in the background, the dim lighting, and the great basic old school steakhouse dishes. At the beginning of the year, Landry's (Golden Nugget, Vic and Anthony's, Rainforest Cafe, McCormick and Schmicks) bought Morton's. Last time I was there they introduced a few new menu items and they were fine. Now I go this time, and a number of things changed. First of all, when we arrived the amazing onion bread that they give you has shrunk in size. Next, even though I have been there over 50 times, my wife and I really love the menu presentation that they have where they display all of the food they have available, including a couple of specials. When we were just presented the menus I was pretty shocked because this is an absolute Morton's staple. As I looked over the menu, it looks like just about everything has been increased in price, including steaks that moved from about $45-48 to now $55-58. All the sides have increased a dollar or two, which doesn't sound like much unless you consider I paid $12 for an order of truffle french fries, as well as $12 for a huge baked potato. Afterwards I was talking with the manager who I know quite well by now and he was telling me how they were trying to modernize Morton's on a corporate level and more changes were probably coming including the atmosphere (he did not hide his frustration over this). It's really a shame because even though Morton's is a gigantic chain, they do an amazing job of making it a much more intimate atmosphere. I hope a lot of people show their displeasure with the changes and it resorts back to the restaurant that I love.

Next few weeks will be non stop grinding poker, both studying and playing. Also my latest video was just released.

Salud!