Played for 2 hrs, logged 1.5k hands and finished up about -$70

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3040703 - 200bb Deep vs some guy who is probably a reg, with a somewhat high 3bet freq I think this hand is pretty standard for me, not sure how'd I play it from his shoes, just because its 200bb deep. I guess I'd play it the same from his point of view too though, with 2 overs + NFD + GS on a low board that I'm probably less likely to have a set on (I would have to have called a 3b with 33-55, although I am probably getting the right odds to setmine the lower pairs)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3040715 - Vs a fish who was calling 3bets all the time - I unfortunately hadn't been able to flop any pairs in 3bet pots vs this guy, so I was excited to flop a set vs the guy, only he had a higher set :( oh well - standard stack off anyway

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3040711 - Some guy playing about 30/11 with a low fold to 3bet, once again, pretty standard hand I think

lost flip with TT vs 67bb stack AK AI PF (he had been 4betting somewhat aggressively over the sample I had on the guy so thats why I called his 4bet shove PF, otherwise I'm generally going to be a little uneasy about stacking off vs an unknown for this much with TT). - $67

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3040733 - I think this guy is pretty much your standard loose passive donk type, didn't have a big sample on him but I tried to call him down here 3 handed. I was kinda worried about the straight at the time, I think I should have found the fold on the turn, turn check/minraises from fish are rarely bluffs.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3040740 - vs Bubastar, 2p2er and reg - I'm happy with the hand as played, turn raise might be alright, but I wasn't sure if raising the turn was overrepping my hand so I chose to just call the turn bet and go for a normal value bet on the river if checked to. I expect to get called on the river by hands like A3, AJ, AK, A6, QT, KJ, AQ and c/shoved on by flushes and possibly KJ/AQ (but I doubt it) So given that he chked to me, I guess bet/fold is pretty standard here, I don't expect him to c/shove as a bluff here too often.

So far this month I've played 21k hands, running 5.51 ptbb playing 6-10 tables at a time so I'm pretty happy with how its going.

Stephan

I find that these hand review blog entries I write help me to force myself to analyse my own play a little bit. I feel like just posting hands and writing up what I was thinking at the time helps me.Comments on my play are welcome

So today went pretty well, 2.6k hands, +$622, ran hot as far as hitting good hands goes

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3004562 - I lost $49 on this hand, and I started off by raising the limper with a pretty wide range - something I think can get me into trouble if I'm not careful. I've seen people like Leatherass from stoxpoker isolate limpers with practically any 2 cards and cbet the flop, so I have tried this out myself but I'm not sure if it works too well for me. I generally find myself getting into too many tough spots with TP+no kicker, or 2nd pair where I'm getting check/minraised etc. So anyway, I raised the limper and got called by 2 other players + the original limper. I checked the flop intending to give up unless I improve, I hit trips on the turn so I call easyway777's (running about 17/7) raise and I was in a pretty tough spot on the river because I really feel like he generally has me beat here because a straight draw got there, the flush got there, and my kicker isn't the greatest. I'm not sure I really ever see him value betting a King here, so I think when I call I'm calling purely for the chance that he is either bluffing, or has a worse 6 than I do. That said, I guess he could also play 76/56/ maybe even 86 the same way.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3004589 - lost $51 here, vs a 17/11 player - I guess my play here is relatively standard, sucks to fold top two on the river, but other than a bluff I don't see him raising worse here. I think my flop bet of $5 into $8.50 is too small, I think my bet should really be $6+ here. On the river, I think I have to bet an amount that I think AJ/AQ/maybe AT can call. When he raises, he pretty much has to have the boat or the flush. I think he really wouldn't play any boat like this though, since 22 and 33 would raise earlier in the hand, and I have AK which cuts down on his combos of KK/AA (not to mention the fact that he would generally 3bet those hands PF). So in my mind, this means it's more likely that this river raise is more likely either a flush/bluff. Also, I expect this guy to pretty much never show up with 45 (because he had to call 2 decent sized bets on purely on a GS), unless maybe its 45 of diamonds, so I'm not really worried about a straight here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3004615 - lost $130 on this hand, flopped top two vs the flopped straight on QT8 2 spades. I think this is fairly std on both sides (although I think his PF call with J9o is a bit on the loose side, especially for someone running 18/13). At the time I thought that most players aren't really calling J9 too often (unless its suited), and I have top 2 on a pretty drawy board where he can easily have something like pair+gutter, or fds and so on. The only factor that would make me tend towards a fold here is being somewhat deep, but I think it's still a pretty std stackoff here, if he's calling J9o PF, then he can easily also be calling stuff like T8 (which I beat) and stacking off with it here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3004627 - standard hand that I felt like whinging about, I 3bet KK vs a fish, we get it all in on the flop and he gets there, oh well

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3004638 - I raise a suited ace UTG, get called by 3 ppl, and c/r my FD 4 way after 2 ppl have folded. I especially like the c/r here because the other two have already folded so it makes my c/r lower risk, and because we went to the flop 4 way, I think a c/r here will get some decent amount of respect. On the turn it was interesting with effective stack sizes being about the same as the pot size, I'm not sure if shoving the turn is optimal here, at the time I just thought that maybe I should just c/f (or c/c a small bet) rather than bluffing off the rest of my stack, because after he calls the flop I don't feel that shoving will fold out better hands than mine given the pot/stack sizes. I get there on the river and I just shove it in, luckily he had a lower flush to pay me off with.

I think something that I have slowly learnt over time is that I don't have to automatically c-bet in 3bet pots and certain situations where I have been pretty much auto-firing the whole time. After squeezing with trash, I would often just bluff at pots and spew too much money. I think the key thing to realise here is that moves like squeezing PF/3betting opens PF are supposed to be profitable in their own right (or are at least +ev in a metagame sense), and that you don't have to always cbet and continue with the hand. I feel like this is something that I had read about (in Ryan Fees 6max strategy book), but didn't really practice it correctly until recently. I feel like I am getting more and more experience in playing 3bet pots all the time, so I do feel a steady improvement in this area of my play.

Stephan

Ok just a short morning session, 613 hands and -$249

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2996780 - I flop a set vs ure a towel who flops a flush, I think no matter how I play this I'm getting stacked

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2996783 - I flop an overpair, turn top set and the other guy turns his straight, oh well, he's still stacking off with two pairs, draws and the like

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2996785 - Some guy makes a weird float oop with the idiot end of a gutshot, calls with a pair on the turn and then desperation bluffs the rest of his stack on the river. I didn't 3bet it PF purely because I wanted to keep this dude in the pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2996789 - I flop an A on a mono board with AQ, I think the turn check is a mistake here. The river 9 makes it very easy to define his hand to an ace most of the time, and since I have the 2nd best Ace (and he would have 3bet AK PF most of the time), value betting is a must here imo. Since he has stuff like AQ/AJ/AT himself a lot of the time, and is not likely to be folding, perhaps my river bet should be bigger too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2996782 - I had an aggressive image at the time, something like 25/24 with a 3bet of around 10 over about 100 hands here and by this stage I think I had 4bet once or twice already. I think the turn being a heart and me having the Ace of hearts (+ potential overcard outs) makes this a somewhat standard turn shove. The downside here is my aggressive image is not going to give me much fold equity - I think in the future perhaps I should be a little more wary of this fact, and maybe just c/f the turn when my table image is bad, and be more inclined to shove when it is good. In this specific case villain is never folding since he flopped trips, but perhaps TT/JJ/QQ can find a fold on the turn to my shove.

Uni + revue is making it hard for me to get much time to play poker (maybe thats a good thing :p), so many other things to be doing like rehearsals and homework etc. Bloody uni always makes us have to do group assignments, which are just the most inconvenient thing ever since people live all over the place and we have to correspond by email most of the time. But revue has been a lot of fun so far, and I'm sure we're gonna be able to put on a great show.

Stephan

http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/33302 - Di and Hac Dang Cardplayer interview - This is an awesome interview

here are some hands from today:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972478 - I play a 4bet pot with AA and I was playing a lot of tables at the time and I should've just c/shoved the flop, but it doesn't really make all that much difference, since I only had about $25 in my stack that went in on the turn. I'm still happy with the hand I guess, since most of the money went in while I was ahead and it's not like he's ever folding for $25 more.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972524 - SB vs BB I run QQ into KK AI PF, oh well

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972530 - Some guy turns trips on me and I think this one is kinda tough to laydown because 8x is all he can really have that beats me. I had seen him being aggro before so I thought that maybe I could see a big K like KQ or AK here. Maybe that's just wishful thinking

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972544 - Fishy players almost never 4bet (technically its a 5bet by him, but size wise it's closer to 4bet size). I think I can get away from this one, it just sucks having to fold QQ PF for $13 more when the pot is already like $50.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972551 - Opponent here pays me off with an underpair to the board for 200bbs, so he must have really thought I was full of it. I wasn't all that comfortable putting it all in there with QQ for 200bbs, but I really cannot see this guy flatting KK/AA there.

I haven't been making all that much money at poker the last few days, but I think more importantly, I've been feeling very confident in myself the last few days at the tables. I can honestly say that I've cut down on some other things that I felt were leaky, such as continuing too often in pots without some kind of equity in the hand. I've mostly fixed this by not bluff raising or bluff c/ring so often with air, and waiting for some type of draw or plan in mind before I make a move.

Here are some losing hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2968361 - I wanted to try something a little different and c/r the flop as the PFR with a draw, and I got the money in on the turn with a pretty powerful draw (2 overcards, OESD, FD), and happened to be up against a slowplayed AA. I still think my play here is fine.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2968369 - I think this river playe may be spewy on my part, there isn't much that I beat that will call a raise. Not sure if raising means I'm calling if i get c/red here, which is another consideration. I guess it's easy to just look at the results and think "oh well its obviously raise/fold" or whatever.

Ahh I'm so tired, I guess it's time to go to sleep.

Stephan

So today was my first day back at uni, and this will be my last semester here (if I don't change anything), however I do feel like extending my degree. So I'm considering applying for a change to commerce/arts as opposed to just graduating with only commerce, which will add 2 years to my degree and I'm thinking about choosing either philosophy or psychology as my major within the arts component of my degree. Both of these things have interested me, so it'll be a tough decision, provided that my transfer is accepted. At this time, I really feel like I'm not ready to leave university yet, being so young and having my whole life ahead of me. I feel like staying back at uni for another year or two will allow me to enjoy my time here at uni while I'm young, because I don't feel that the postgraduate experience would really be anywhere near as fun as what it's like to be an undergrad. Maybe one of you guys who studies either philosophy or psych could comment and tell me what it is you like about your major.

On to the hands from today, played about 2 hrs today, 1.8k hands for a profit of $179.70, although I sucked out on people to make money, so it doesn't really feel all that good. Still, some of the money I lost was in spots where I think I really couldn't fold the hand. Here are some big hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2963452 - some player min 3bets with KK oop, so I call and outdraw him to stack him for about 75bb

I suck out with AQ vs somebody's AK AI PF for 100bb stacks - In retrospect I honestly do feel like 5b shoving AQ from the blinds was a mistake because I didn't really have a big enough dynamic to justify doing it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2963461 - my 77 sucks out on this guy's trip Aces, the flop min raise was something I was doing to just screw with him a little, since I had minraised him in another spot or two (some times when I was strong and some times when I was weak) and gotten a fold out of him. I also did witness him just lose a stack and I felt that there was a good chance he'd still be steaming, so this was something that was on my mind at the time too. After he called though, I gave up on the pot, so I checked behind, and sucked out on him on the river, filling up with a 7. However, I did manage to correctly realise that he would almost never be folding an A/flush to me here, so I very quickly overbet shoved the river and he instantly called.

Two big pots that I lost in this session are:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2963477 - limped pot, the SB flopped a higher flush than I did and the money gets all in on the flop. An unfortunate cooler for me here I think.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2963480 - Here I think the play is pretty standard by both parties, and having AJ on a J73J board with 3 spades I think I have to go with my hand because he can easily be raising a worse J, or some type of pair + draw or even bluffing.

Felt like playing some more, so I just put in another 1.6k hands, - $358 Ouch.

Here are some hands cos I like to whinge:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957679 - KK loses to KQo on 8J5 in a 3bet pot where the villain bluffshoved over my flop raise

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957682 - If that's not bad enough for you, very soon afterwards, vs the same villain, AK loses to 99 on a A78r flop, for stacks.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957779 - TAG reg 3bets me from the blinds, we get it in QQ vs J9 on QT7 and he gets there

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957780 - vs the same TAG reg, who squeezed from the blinds (by now we had been battling across different tables PF semi regularly) Here I wanted to get him to barrel me on the turn, and although I was worried he had a bigger overpair than mine, I figured it's just one of those spots where when you have aggressive history with someone you just have to go with it. He ended up hitting on the river, and I'm not really sure if it is a call or not. Alternatively, turn shove would be ok here, and 4bet/call PF would be ok for this situation too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957808 - Once again, the same TAG reg, this time I flop TP with a decent kicker on a board that I felt I could induce bluffs on. On the turn, his line just looks really weird and I guess I have to give him credit for choosing such an awkward way to play his hand because it was what made me pay him off. Checking behind the flop and raising the turn is a weird line to take and I generally find it to be bluffy so I guess curiosity got the better of me here. He definitely ran pretty hot vs me tonight.

ya win some, ya lose some i guess

Ok played 4.7k hands today at 100nl 6max, net result: -$276 I feel like I mostly played pretty well so I'm not too unhappy.

Here are the big losers:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957273 - My top two pair runs into bottom set on AT8 in CO vs BTN vs a TAG reg player, I consider this one a cooler since I think he can easily be stacking off with AK, A8, T8, an fd, combo draw or bluffing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957278 - vs an 18/11 player, I think the river shove here is fine because i can still get looked up by AQ, maybe AT and I feel that those are generally his most likely holdings. The value shove might be thin, but I'm pretty sure it's still +ev.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957283 - I 3bet AQ, check behind and hit the wheel straight on the turn, and because its a 3bet pot it's hard to put him on a 6 here. Unfortunately he had 76 and flopped the nut straight. Still, I did have a flush redraw on the turn which made me feel a little more committed to continuing in the hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957286 - literally 2 hands before this one, I had 3bet this player's UTG open with KK, he shoved and I called and was very surprised to see Q9o. So this play was a little history dependent, CiB was what I felt to be the most +ev line because I felt it had the greatest chance of inducing a shove from something I beat.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957288 - An overpair cracks my top two pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957292 - I'm also happy with this hand, I guess alternatively I could have 3bet PF and folded to a 4bet, but I don't really see anything wrong with this hand as played given the fact that it was vs a relatively weak player who would most likely not be folding a Q or fd here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957303 - vs a weak player I'm mostly happy with this hand, I would have much preferred to just 3bet all in given the fact that villain in this hand is only a 67bb stack

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957306 - once again, I'm happy with my play here I just happened to hit TPGK when the opponent was slowplaying AA PF. I'm confident that I can still get paid by worse here, so oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957309 - not happy with paying off the check/min raise on the river here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2957310 - not happy with my river call, should have folded river here, but I'm a calling station

So uni starts up again for me tomorrow :( But on the positive side, I will be performing in law revue as a cast member again this year. So that'll be a fun production to be a part of, and although it will take up virtually all my time for the next 5-6 weeks, it is some of the most fun I've ever had. I really enjoyed being in this same production last year, and I'm sure I'll love it this year too. I won't be able to play as much poker for this next few weeks, but that's ok I can live with that.

I've been getting into a bit of Ratatat recently, who are this electronica music duo who come up with some of the most catchy tunes I've ever heard. So I'll leave you with one, it's called "Nostrand" and I particularly love 1:54 onwards. Also, check out "Seventeen Years", it's an awesome track (not the official music video, just a youtube that has the song):

Stephan

I feel like I've been playing pretty well for the most part, been able to stay pretty focused on my tables for the most part. Been closing my other windows and doing my best to stay disciplined etc. So far, today hasn't gone too great, it's been pretty swongy but I do feel like I haven't made too many huge mistakes.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909474 - Easily the biggest mistake of today, I correctly decide not to 3bet AQ because the opener was UTG and tight, but then I go and make a huge error by committing on this flop vs a person whose UTG range is something like 5%. There's really no excuse for me doing this, I have positional stats in my HUD for a reason and I really ought to use them correctly. At the time, I somehow thought he could be doing this with a flush draw and that I would have to go with the hand to preserve my equity in the hand. But a 5% UTG range looks something like: AJs+, AQo+, 99+, and after he has bet/3bet this flop, I really do feel like this range can be narrowed down to AA, KK, AQ most of the time. Which means I'm splitting at best, and crushed every other time. This villain is not bluffing enough of the time to profitably continue with the hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909471 - pretty standard to go with it if you hit TPTK in a 3bet pot these days, just unfortunate that he hit a set on me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2907772 - I flop trips vs a tight player who I feel will never really show up with trips, better kicker because of the way the hand played out. I don't think it's likely that he would show up with 9x type hands here because he is tight and raised a bunch of limpers. So this meant that his range is more weighted towards Aces like AJ,AQ,AK which I feel I am able to extract a lot of value from. Unfortunately he happened to have flopped a boat and had me crushed the whole way.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909480 - pretty standard with two overs + NFD, just unfortunate that he has one of the few hands that I'm in bad shape against

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909483 - standard beat - my set vs his combo draw on the turn, 70%-30% I'll lose this one every now and then so oh well

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909487 - my KK runs into AA AI PF, pretty standard - I guess some of the time I will flatcall a 3bet rather than 4bet AA because I'm UTG and it sort of tips off the strength of my hand, but nothing wrong with 4betting since people can still often stack off with AK/QQ/whatever they bluffshove with.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2909488 - nasty cooler with top set in a 3 way pot - I noticed that CreepyDonk timed down for a long time before finally making the call for his stack with bottom set, and I guess it's justified given that all 3 of us are regs, so what the hell can we be stacking off with on this board that he beats here? But in the end, he made the call and I think it's a call that he probably still has to make given the possible draws on this board, I also really don't like his flatcall on the flop on this board, he had no way of knowing that I was going to c/r so he absolutely should have raised the flop here being 3 way on a drawy board. For me though, with top set on a board where someone would need to have played a one gapper and flopped a straight and only being 100bb deep, there's absolutely no chance I can fold here. It's funny that because 2 of the 3 ppl in this hand have sets, we're less likely to fill up now because there are less board pairing cards thanks to card removal. So this fact takes equity away from the sets, and gives even more equity to the made straight on this flop.