Well today started off terribly. I got down almost 4 buyins really quickly and once again had to stop. After a couple hours off, however, I decided to give it another shot. Things went quite well and I brought it all the way back to being down just a buyin. I was planning on continuing to play for at least a couple more hours when full tilt crashed and has been down ever since. While I'm deffinitely happy about the comeback, I had the jesus seat at a couple of tables and was pretty pissed I didn't get to bring the day back into the green.

4 losing hands to post today and I deffinitely think there's at least one mistake.

http://weaktight.com/2440249
This is totally standard until the river, but I'm pretty certain the river is a check back. Villain was a pretty bad player, I thought he would place a lot of value in not getting stacked (he wasn't auto reloading) and I figured his Js9h or 5h6h type hands would fold. I really don't know. Part of me thinks if he had the Ah he would lead the river since my hand looks like 2pair+ and thus I'll probably check back but I kind of feel like I'm just justifying a slightly tilty play. Obviously it sucks that the board ran out like that because I'm stacking villain on any other turn/river.

http://weaktight.com/2440255
Villain here is 38/21 and kind of a maniac. If he was tighter I could maybe find a fold but as played I think he has a draw far more often than a 9. The fact that he called me preflop w/ J9o means he can have A2s-A8s,K2s-K8s,suited connectors and one gappers,QJ,KJ,J8,Q8 and more so I think getting it in is correct. But damn, when villains range is a draw or a monster I haven't seen a draw in a while.

http://weaktight.com/2440262
Here Villain is really aggressive and had been opening and 3betting a ton. When he 4bets so small I think it's worth calling to see if I hit a good flop and shove over his cbet. I'm kind of uncertain as to how happy I am going with my hand on this flop since I think he has some A9+ hands he is not folding (if I'm not shoving this flop though, i deffinitely need to fold preflop). At the same time I've got 32% equity against 88-KK and I can feasibly rep a set or AQ. Again, I'm not sure.

http://weaktight.com/2440268
No dilemna here, just me getting sucked out on.

With the server crashing I only got in 400 hands today. Between yesterday and today I thought I could get 3k+ hands and instead got only 1500. I've got some work to do...

Well today went pretty poorly. I finished down $356 in 1094 hands. I was pretty disappointed to hit my stop loss especially since I had time to play another 1k ish hands. Either way I'm glad I had the discipline to stop and I'll have time to play another big session tomorrow. After this post I may try 6-tabling some 25nl just to work on my multi-tabling skills (I usually just play 4). And now some hands:

Losers:

http://weaktight.com/2437905
Almost the exact opposite cards of the hand I posted yesterday. Totally standard.

http://weaktight.com/2437906
Here I raise AQ UTG and get two callers. On the flop I lead to protect my hand. I get called by the CO who is 19/14 and quite aggressive. When he calls I think his range is heavily weighted towards marginal aces and draws (not sets or two pairs). I think it would be really hard for him to flat a monster on this draw heavy board, especially with the button left to act. When the turn bricks, I decide to check/shove, expecting him to bet all his draws and the probably find a crying call. If he has a weak ace, I'm only getting at most one more street of value anyway so checking the turn and then leading the river will maximize value.

I'm really surprised with what he showed up with but still like my line. FWIW I was planning on folding the flop if the CO raised and planning on getting it in if the Button raised,

http://weaktight.com/2437909
Cooler


Interesting Hands:

http://weaktight.com/2437912
Villain here has just sat down and seems like a weaker player (not a full stack). When he calls my 3bet I think his range is decently wide so I cbet the flop expecting to take it down. When he minraises me i wasn't really sure what to think. On the one hand he could have something and be trying to induce a shove but he's short I think at least sometimes he would just shove. On the other hand, he could just be a weaker player saying "I put him on AK" and be trying to bluff for cheap. He's getting great odds to call my shove but with a total airball he'll probably fold and maybe he would even call with a worse A high. Against a J I still have 25% equity so I decided to shove.

http://weaktight.com/2437917
Here villain is a LAGish reg who is opening a lot from late position. I think QJ is a great hand to 3bet with especially when he's isolating a limper since his range is super wide. I cbet the flop thinking he probably missed and will fold and instead get raised. I ended up just folding but at the time I pondered re raising. I think the only aces in his range are AT, AJ and AQ (maybe) since he probably folds A9 and 4 bets AK. With that said, I don't see why he would raise any of those aces for value. He could have 55 or 77 but that's just not very many combos and the rest of the time I think he's bluffing. There's no real draws for him to be semi-bluffing, however, and I'm not sure he'd bluff total air. Thoughts?

http://weaktight.com/2437920
Same type of spot. This villain, however, is not as aggro. I folded again but I kind of feel like I'm getting run over in some of these hands.

A Couple Good Bluffs:
http://weaktight.com/2437923
http://weaktight.com/2437924

I think I get folds 95%+ of the time in both spots. In the first hand I can kind of rep a big flush (and villain almost never has it). In hand 2, while I dont rep much, when he flats me on the flop, then checks turn and river, on that drawy board, he's not comfortable with his hand and will fold to an over bet.

This has been a pretty long post but has helped refresh my mind after the loss. Until tomorrow...

So June ended with my worst downswing ever but that's ok. It made me step back and reconsider some parts of my game that were weak. I know what my biggest leaks are right now and I'm going to work on them relentlessly going forward.

So far in July I'm up $526 (before rakeback) in 2890 hands. I thought was going to get a lot of volume this weekend but failed when I ended up going away with some friends to celebrate the 4th of July. My minimum goal is to get 30k hands on the month and I'd much rather get 40k+. If I gain confidence 6 tabling and put in a couple marathon sessions that should be quite doable.

As another goal, I want to make $3k. That would be my best month ever by a good bit and I think it's deffinitely doable if I get in the volume and keep my mindset right. In reviewing my downswing I realized how much of my losses have really just been bad play. If I can cut that out as much as possible I should be able to crush. To help hold myself accountable, I plan on posting every single hand where I lose 80bb or more on this blog. Feel free to log on a flame away.

I also plan on working a lot with my coach, fishingmonk on CR. He's been really helpful so far in my poker development and over the next couple months will help me get to the next level.

Here are a couple of hands from my last 2 days:

Losers:
http://weaktight.com/2435471
I raise QQ preflop and get two callers. The button is playing 47/30 and very aggressive while the BB is 20/14 and also quite aggressive. When the BB leads I think he rarely has a set or a straight since he could almost certainly c/r those with me and the aggro button behind. Because of that, I decide to raise since his pair+draw hands will continue and I want to charge them to draw. When the button ships, given that he's really aggressive and kind of crazy, I think his range has straights and sets, but also hands like QhJh or pair + draw type hands. I have well more than 40% equity against that range so it's a call and I happen to run into the nuts.

http://weaktight.com/2435475
I don't hate my line here but I'm wondering if there is a better way to play it. Is there any merit in calling the raise and c/shoving a blank turn?

http://weaktight.com/2435478
This villain is really aggressive, espesially against me. I think with no history I should have raise/folded the flop, against this villain I really like my line. It's kinda high varience since he'll stack me with all his legitimate hands, he'll also barrel off with air quite a bit.

http://weaktight.com/2435479
Here I made a non standard play. In my first 2 orbits at the table I had lost half a buyin between 3 or 4 non-showdown hands. I thought overbet shoving here would look like I was just fed up and I could get called really light. Didn't quite work but I think I like my thought process.

http://weaktight.com/2435482
I think this is standard with an aggressive dynamic button vs. blinds. AQo has 32.6% equity against 99+,AK which means villain has to fold 32.1% of the time which I think he easily does.

I have a couple more interesting hands to post but I'm going to revisit them tomorrow.

Run good everyone.

Bankroll = $4,842.11

Hey guys. After taking the end of May and beginning of June off to take exams and travel I'm back playing again. Over the last 10 days I've worked my way back up from 25nl to 100nl and have booked 7 consecutive winning days. I'm obviously running well but am working hard to keep refining my game. On Thursday I had a coaching session with Mike (Fishing Monk) and it really helped pin point a couple areas in which I've gotten sloppy after my time off. I need to do a better job reading board textures, keeping track of opponents tendencies, and noticing good spots to barrel post flop.

Here are a couple hands I've been wondering about from my past few sessions:

http://weaktight.com/2393366
Here was a spot I was really lost. I 3bet a tag's button open and hit a pretty good flop for my hand. After my cbet he snap called. I think the legitimate hands he flats with are 88+ (with QQ+ discounted because he probably 4bets me pre flop or raises flop). I think he doesn't have many suited connectors because I expect he would just raise any pair + draw type hand. The turn is a Jack and he bets really small instantly. At the time I thought that meant he probably had a monster or a combo draw but thinking about it now there are really no combo draws or monsters in his range. He certainly could have 88-TT but he might think for longer before making a small bet to get to a cheap showdown. The speed of his actions might also suggest he just floated the flop to try and make me fold later.

With all of that analysis, I think I should have shoved over him. If he has any bluffs in his range they will surely fold. Also, I can still rep QQ+ so his mediocre pairs will probably fold and even if they don't I have some equity. Thoughts?

http://weaktight.com/2393384
Here villain is 15/11 with a really low aggression factor. When I hit 2 pair on the turn I bet for value but getting c/raised in this spot makes no sense. I can't think of any legitimate hands in his range but playing so passively I can't imagine him bluffing here. In any event, I think I should have called planning to call any river bet. Shoving over him wins no more against his bluffs and loses the maximum against his made hands that beat me.

http://weaktight.com/2393396
Here I squeezed 3 people pre flop and got 1 caller. Since villain called twice pre flop I think he has some kind of medium pocket pair. On the flop I cbet expecting to get called a lot but thinking I can barrel any turn and his 55-TT type hands will fold then. The turn was not a great card for me but I think barelling is still right. When villain calls turn and ships river what can he possibly have? It's obviously a fold but I don't really know what his range is there.


Hope everyones running good

Bankroll = $4,585.43

Hey everyone, its been a while since I've updated this. With the new site and final exams I figured I'd hold off on blogging for a couple weeks. School's all done now and I'm back playing till the end of the month.

So far up I'm up almost 18 buyins at 100nl in 12.5k hands. I've obviously running really well. Despite the success, however, i feel like my game is deteriorating. Tomorrow I'm going to watch a video before my session, and my goal for the day will be just to think about making good decisions.

Bankroll = $3,726.69

I played two sessions today and did break the 1k hand mark for the first time in almost two weeks. I was pleased to get the volume but was not pleased with my quality of play. While I did book a small win, there were a number of times I let myself get a little bit distracted and as such didn't play my best.

Also, I've noticed that I'm turning in to a little bit of a calling station. As I've ramped up my aggression I've been get played back at lighter in general and thus have been adjusting by making lighter calls. While that is all fine, when a nit 3 barrels me, it doesn't matter that a flush draw missed on the river, I can't call with second pair. I need to think about ranges precisely and give certain opponents more credit.

Tomorrow I'm hoping for another 1k hands and some sharper decision making.

Bankroll = $3,695.49

My volume has been lacking recently. I checked HEM and I haven't played 1k hands in a day since April 14. For April so far I have nearly 20k hands played so I'm setting a goal for myself of hitting 25k by the end of the month. It's going to be a busy week of school so I will need to be quite diligent to get this done but I think I can do it.

In terms of actual play things have been going quite well. My bankroll is back to a new all time high and I'm looking forward to pushing it further. I'm also working on building up to 6 tables when the games are good instead of my usual 4. After good stretches like I've had for the last 10 days I've often let my game stagnate but this time I won't.

Run good everyone.

Bankroll = $3,493.83

I moved back up to 100nl a couple days ago and after a rough first day I'm now up around 5 buyins. All of that came today as I booked a $512 win in 822 hands.

After a couple of failed shots I'm confident this one will be different. I'm really starting to feel comfortable at 100nl. I've won and lost big flips, been sucked out on in gross spots, run good and run bad. I know I can beat these players and I plan on doing so.

Hopefully I can beat up on the games this weekend.

Bankroll = $3,004.23

Here's a graph of my hands this year at 50nl. I've been pretty much crushing it. I feel totally on top of my game and need to bring it tomorrow as I step back up to 100nl. I've got a sweat session with my coach at 1pm and will hopefully get a lot of quality hands in. Hopefully my next 50k hands can be played without moving back down and look this good at 100nl. Good luck everyone.

Bankroll = 2,888.93

Well the last few days have been quite the poker roller coaster. After my last post I lost 6 buyins at 100nl, 4 of which were with my coach sweating. I think I played really well, the cards just weren't there. The next day I moved back to 50nl and promptly won 8 buyins in around 500 hands. It was the most buyins I had ever won in a day and really restored my confidence. I took yesterday off then today played 50nl and dabbled back in the 100nl games.

This morning I watched a video review that my coach made of one of my earlier sessions. He noticed a number of mistakes I was making, and with Mike's help, I am gradually transforming all my poker though processes. Here's a hand I played today where I took a line I would rarely have taken before:

weaktight.com/2250907

Villain is a taggish reg. I decided to rep clubs and just bomb away. I don't think I ever stack villian here by playing slower as eventually I have to turn my hand face up. As played, I think he can look me up really light because I "never" have a set.

I've also been thinking a lot recently about bet sizing. I've deffinitely got work to do in figuring out the best sizes vs. specific opponents but the fact that I'm thinking about it is a good first step.

I've got a pretty busy week coming up but I think I'll be able to find the time to play plenty of hands. I'll be at 50nl but will monitor 100nl for soft spots and hopefully have a couple of breakout sessions.

Run good everyone.