Hey guys, well most of April and May has probably been some of the most frustrating poker moments that I have experienced in my career. In fact these two months equal the amount of months over about 6 years of playing for a living that I have lost. The downswing has not come at an ideal time for me, but I also don't think that I have handled it as well as I should. I have become frustrated far too early in sessions, and I have been complaining too much about my poor luck. The last two weeks I have really devoted to some very hard studying and I am hoping that this will pay off in a big way for me. Here are a ton of hands from the past two weeks.
http://weaktight.com/4721567 Don't mind this bluff here, I do think that I make a significant mistake with the bet sizing. I am simply trying to get him to fold draws, a few Qx and a lot of his bluffs which he should have because everyone else has shown such weaknesses. So a bet of 26 is going to be far better than 32.

http://weaktight.com/4721565 I always tell my students, when you sense weakness then pounce on it early! Additionally, I just give my opponent all of the power in this spot. This board just allows my opponent so many maneuvers from bluffs, to value bets. Sort of unlucky how the board ran out, but in a downswing I need to find a fold, probably on turn, his betsizing does not indicate a bluff imo

http://weaktight.com/4721563 Like my play here, I am quite happy that I was able to adapt my plan of firing most but not all turns and on this poor of a turn card I was able to shutdown. I feel like I won money here by not losing more with a bad board runout.

http://weaktight.com/4721560 Man, this would have been a really sick river decision I was facing. Even if I hit a full house on river I would not have been loving life if he overbet shoved. Still happy with my play on every street, but the way he played it I would not be surprised if he has JJJ here.

http://weaktight.com/4721554 Really like my play here, I think it is a good overbet and quite unlucky that he has one of the few combos that he is certain to call with. One thing that I have been working on is making more folds in the sb here with 55, but the bb was a big enough fish that the call was certainly justified

http://weaktight.com/472155 I definitely like my play here

http://weaktight.com/4721551 Very very close but I think he can have enough pair + straight draws here to justify a call against a fish

http://weaktight.com/4721550 Definitely a fold here on the turn, but I think I should be making a good fold on the flop because even though my hand is absolutely quite strong, this player was passive enough that he is going to have far more big hands here than simply A of hearts

http://weaktight.com/4721548 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721546 Happy with my play here

http://weaktight.com/4721544 I was pretty close to 4betting for value against this particular player, so I know that he has a lot of two pair or straight combos here that a lot of tighter players will not have on top of his big hands. I suppose he could be merging here or making a triple barrel, but I am happy with this fold

http://weaktight.com/4721532 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721531 I totally owned him here, and I really cant believe that this is part of his 3bet calling OOP range here as a regular

http://weaktight.com/4721529 One of the new mistakes in the last year of poker that sometimes I really forget is that making too many ill timed double barrels. I definitely think this is the type of hand that is ok to double barrel because I do think the river produces a lot of combos that makes my opponent have a callable hands. If the river was a blank I certainly was going to shove the river. I think I am ok with this play, although it is close and probably could be convinced that shoving here is better than giving up

http://weaktight.com/4721525 Just need to learn in the future that I can triple barrel thinly against this player and need to make fewer bluffs

http://weaktight.com/4721524 Opted to just call here preflop, I am perfectly fine with this play and am quite happy that I folded on river

http://weaktight.com/4721523 Fold the turn to the min CR GRANT! http://weaktight.com/4721522 Again this turn just creates far too many opportunities for my opponent to call, so quite a poor double barrel

*** Quit making so many double barrels without a very good opportunity to triple barrel!!!

http://weaktight.com/4721514 This one I don't mind as much just based on his stats that he floats so many flops http://weaktight.com/4721513 In the past I would absolutely love this triple barrrel, but I think on merge, especially early in a session I should not be expecting my opponent to fold Ax on to a triple barrel

http://weaktight.com/4721511 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721510 Happy with my play here, I think that my read was correct here that this player would not be calling with a ton of 99 or TT and therefore when his turn range is much stronger the river bluff is going to be much less successful unless he is folding a TON of rivers

http://weaktight.com/4721502 Another example of betting two and giving up

http://weaktight.com/4721497 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721494 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721493 At first I was about to type in unlucky again, but man his raise size just appears to be so strong that I think I can deviate from my original plan

http://weaktight.com/4721490 Flop is certainly a call, but I think I can find a fold on turn

http://weaktight.com/4721489 Standard triple barrel and fold to a shove here

http://weaktight.com/4721489 My friends and I disagree here a good bit. There perspective is that when you can beat a decent percentage of your opponent's value range in 3bet pot (AK and AQ), than this should be an easy call considering the overall bluffiness of the current games. I don't believe that all players are going to barrel river with AK or AQ when the obvious draws hit as well as my calling range looks quite strong. Its certainly a close situation, I think I probably need to think more about this.

http://weaktight.com/4721486 Unlucky against a fish, would be a poor turn shove against a good player but I think he can call me with any Jx and Tx with a big spade

http://weaktight.com/4721485 Value owned myself here but I am obviously fine with the play

http://weaktight.com/4721484 Tough spot in this situation, a really good player could certainly triple barrel me on this board with a number of bluffs, but I think more than anything else my hand looks like AQ here, so it is a pretty simple fold on the river. The other thing that I need to think about here is that his betsize is so strong on the flop and turn I think a really good play would be to fold turn instead of folding the river.

http://weaktight.com/4721483 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721482 Gross

http://weaktight.com/4721481 Unlucky weaktight.com/4721479 Was not surprised that he had a big value hand, but obviously top two beats a ot of value hands here

http://weaktight.com/4721478 Definitely know that in the future I should be very scared of min raise from him in 3bet pots, as well as know that he will call extremely lightly in 3bet pots

http://weaktight.com/4721475 ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/4721472 I think this turn is one of the few that I might be better off checking the turn fully expecting to see a cheap river card. I think all one pair hands are going to have a very hard time betting for value, but at the same time this is certainly not the type of card that will really fold out all that many hands. I also think that I should be leaning more towards donk leads here than check raises.
http://weaktight.com/4721467 ughhhh

http://weaktight.com/4721465 Against most players I would be happy with this triple barrel, but against this particular opponent and in particular with my image against him I really am just making this far too easy a call down. In the future I am going to go to extreme lengths to value bet thinly against him

http://weaktight.com/4721462 This guy was certainly fishy enough to justify this call and at the time I was actually happy here and thought that I would be against Kx that I beat a ton of the time, maybe I need to rethink this a little bit just because the turn CR from fishy players is just overwhelmingly big hands

http://weaktight.com/4721461 unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721459 Man this one hurt

http://weaktight.com/4721458 Absolutely 100% FPS here, just overthinking when things are going poorly in general, but if I am playing my best I simply am not going to be taking this line and in particular on this board

http://weaktight.com/4721457 This is a weird dynamic because on another table a few hands ago I donked/3bet this player and took down a pot. I might have taken too much stock in this play, but I really thought he was donk/3betting with a very wide range here, instead I just misinterpreted this play and got stuck. I do prefer sticking the money in here as opposed to calling him down

http://weaktight.com/4721456 Unlucky

http://weaktight.com/4721455 Terrible cooler

http://weaktight.com/4721453 Man I really hate my play here, I think a far better option here is to c-f based on his bet size.

TT < AK

http://weaktight.com/4721450 Unlucky considering how crazy this opponent is. I think looking back that simply calling down 3 streets would show more profit though

http://weaktight.com/4721448 Gross

77 < AK

http://weaktight.com/4721446 Terrible Terrible Terrible call on river

http://weaktight.com/4721444 Pretty interesting hand here, I could certainly check back and disguise the strength of my draw on the turn, bet normally to get him to fold out some ace highs, or my option which was to overbet shove. I opted to overbet here because of my amazing equity vs his overall range, but also because I believed he was rarely folding even AX on turn. I certainly agree with my friends here that my hand looks like a draw, but it was my belief that even if it looks like a draw, I didn't believe that there were that many hands he could call with, and even a hand that seems like it should be easy like 99 would in fact be quite a tough call considering he has certainly not seen me make a move like this in the past. I definitely think the options are between this overbet or checking turn.

http://weaktight.com/4721443 Ive said in some of the previous hh that one of my bigger mistakes was not barreling off, I thought I definitely hit a good board and opponent to barrel off here against, but unfortunately his poor preflop call turned out to be great

http://weaktight.com/4721426 At the time this felt like a bluffy line, but this really just looks incredibly dumb by me now looking back on it. Definitely need to make some bigger folds earlier on here to make some money in these games.

99 < AK

AK < JJ

http://weaktight.com/4721421 Unlucky

AA < KK

http://weaktight.com/4721418 This was definitely a poor adjustment by me against an aggro player who was winning a ton of pots against me. I wanted to be more aggro and I wanted to push smaller edges (I would have been fine if I made this with Kx of hearts or Ax of hearts) but I think this is far too thin and given are dynamics its far too easy for him to get in a hand like 99 here and feel very comfortable

KK < AA

AK < AA



There are a lot of things that I learned from these hands, but some of the biggest ones are: 1) I am double barreling far too often OOP and then shutting down. I need to be very specific about my plans for hands, and to find more spots to either shutdown and save money earlier in hands, or to continue to fire aggressively on the river. 2) I am seeing players consistently call down lighter than I am used to, so I need to fire less bluffs and more importantly find more spots to value bet even thinner than I am used to 3) So many of these losing hands come from playing OOP, I need to decrease my PFR in general OOP and decrease my 3betting OOP. 4) I think with all poker players, I need to work on folding a street earlier with absolute strong hands that relatively are quite weak, especially the type of hands where my plan really relies too much on hoping that my opponents will not fire a third barrel which is becoming increasingly more likely as the player base in general improves, especially on a site like merge where it is mostly consisting of US regs. 5) I NEED TO WORK ON MY TURN AND RIVER PLAY


Going to go play golf in the morning and then grind some after I get back. So far this year, I am pretty solidly shooting under 85, now I need to work on the next goal of consistently breaking 80. I have drastically improved my drives to the point where it is one of the strengths in my game (I can actually draw and fade the ball!) hitting on average about a 290 yard drives. BTW I definitely recommend incredibly highly the R11S from Taylor Made. Now I need to figure out how to hit my irons more consistently now that I hit more draws than fades, and drastically improve my chipping. Good luck to all and I am going to go back to my tried and true method of blogging my losing hands after every session. Thanks for everyone that took a few minutes to read the blog










Salud!