Session 10

Well, once again today the action at highstakes was amazing, so I had to play it. And once again, I played really well all day. And once again I get fucked over.

Heres a graph

Ran under HEM EV a decent amount but I don't really care about that, I care about all the stupid plays I witness and how terrible I run overall. I have to be 300-500K under "actual EV" in my poker career now, and its hard to try and ignore this because it makes me bitter.

Let's take a look at some Pot's I lost:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079614 - losing player 3 betting everyhand, never folding to a 4bet, obv flop
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079616 - same player, stuff like QJo is in his range here (literally not joking)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079617 - another losing player, playing everyhand, obviously nuts versus me though
and etc etc etc etc
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079619
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079620
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079621
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079622
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079623
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079624
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6079625

un-fucking real, the list goes on and on.

I'm not even asking to catch a break in poker, I'm not asking to win the WSOP main, or anything, I just want to run at or near expectation. Given all the 10K's I've bricked, and how I've run at HSNL I would just like to cash in about 400K Sklansky dollars and go on my merry way. I really deserve this given how hard I work, but you just have to sit back and pray to run good in the land of HSNL and HSMTT. And those who run the best are the all-stars. The variance is so much different than masstabling MSNL it's really quite unbelievable.

Session 9

Intense!

Well, seem to be getting farther and farther away from the low variance grind. Today the action at highstakes was amazing. So I figured what the heck! I'm rolled for these games (kinda?), and I'm just going to keep my table count low and try to play every hand perfectly. I played really well today, (A-) but broke about even.

Here is a graph of the day

Today was really disappointing given how amazing the games were. Normally I filter out 50/100+ on Stars and FTP, so I end up playing 25/50 10/20 and such. But there is a sneaky limit that runs on FTP pretty rarely called "40/80" A good game was running with some regs, and an unknown player to me who I am pretty sure was Guy Laliberte (an incredibly successful man who owns Cirdce De Soleil, I love this show make sure you go see it if you have a chance.)
Well eventually I bought in for the full 200BBs (16K!! wow) and although I didn't play any huge or significant pots in terms of big blinds, every hand was really really intense, and it was fun (lol degen) I played a slightly lower variance style to keep my sanity, which most likely cut my edge a little bit, but I was still quite +EV in the game. I just didn't want to get into some ridiculous dynamic where I'm inducing light 5 bets and have to stuff in 16K with QQ. I'll give myself a B+ at 40/80 and an A for all the other games, unfortunately ran kinda bad overall and had a breakeven day.

GL Today!

Session 8

Today was extremely frustrating. I played just under 5K hands at highstakes and won $3500. According to HEM I ran about 28K over EV. Now you might think this means I ran "good" but not exactly. I played my A-/B+ game, something that should return like a $300 hourly, (so yeah I guess I ran "barely good" cus I beat my projected hourly a little) especially in the games today. But my goodness, in 5 years of professional poker, and multiple millions of hands, thousands of sessions, I have never had so many coolers in one day. It was an absolute joke, and incredibly frustrating on so many levels. Usually the EV line is something I can use to guage my play a little bit, what I normally tell people is "it's equal to or more likely to be accurate than your actual winnings but neither of them are accurate for your expectation, obv" Like, if you get dealt KK for 4500 hands in a row, and someone else has AA, if u win half the time ur going to break even but your EV is going into the tank, and, thats literally what happened today, it was an absolute joke and the most extreme session of coolers I have EVER had. I don't make these absolute statements ever unless they are true and I am so tilted right now! 

On the bright side I have a new career peak for PTR on Stars, basically what happened today is I would get some ridiculously stupid and frustrating cooler on FTP, lose a few thousand, then win a flip or two in the capgames on Stars. and repeat repeat repeat. I mixed in some showdown coolers on Stars too though.

In poker sometimes you hit an extreme that you did not think was ever possible before, and for me it just happens so rarely, nowadays, I have a great grasp on variance and whats "supposed to happen" and "how likely is it to happen" and "whats variance like" etc. I have just an incredible understanding of all of these things when it comes to cash poker but my goodness sometimes you just hit an extreme that blows everything out of the water. I played well today, not tip top shape like two of my other sessions, but probably my third best session or so in terms of how I felt about my play. And given how amazing the games were that I played in, and the fact that I never went over 12 tables, I should have crushed today. I even took a break and came back and played 100 hands then quit again because I immidiately lost some more big pots and many of them I had great hands and didn't even end up getting to showdown because of stupid turn/river combos.

TILT TILT TILT TILT

Going to play Starcraft again, maybe I'll start streaming. I have been playing much better lately and won some cool games today. I really like my PvZ and my PvP, my PvT needs probably the most work of the three.

Session 7

Session 7 was Saturday night/ Sunday morning for me.

I didn't really play a lot as Beatty's friends were over and there was sort of chaotic madness at the house. yesterday I ran quite well over an extremely short session in cashgames, and then ran quite badly at tournaments and actually stopped registering after the morning majors because I was too tired to play.

Heres a graph of yesterdays cash session.

BINK! Over EV finally. I gave about half of this back in MTT's though, but still, its nice to run over EV for a session. The pot around hand 200 was a 3bet with Kx sooted from the SB, a CBET on Qxx, and then I turned a flushdraw on a turn jack and double barrelled almost all-in, called off the rest and got there vs KQ. :D mad skills yo!

Most importantly I got some really good sleep yesterday and I feel ready to put in a nice long day today.

Session 6

Yesterday we went to the Heat game, which was an absolute blast. The have so many playmakers on their team. Must've seen like 15 dunks, it was incredible. Something about watching a slam dunk get thrown down makes you feel so good.

This was my favorite play of the night, in person it was soooo sick.

The Heat game was a huge success, it was also my first time at that Arena, very cool. Poker on the other hand was not so successful. I'm not particularly thrilled about this session, just sorta feel blah.

I think I was not functioning quite at the efficiency I need to be able to 24 table. It seems like I'm only "in the zone" maybe half the time I try to masstable with deepstacks, lately. Today I think I'm going to try and open with some 12 tabling, its a super easy/comfortable tile for me and my hourly per table is still pretty near peak. Then if I feel like my level of intensity can handle more tables I'll fire them up, whether its 16 or 20 or 24.

Here is my month so far for cashgames only.

Blah :/

Session 5

Brutal! Didn't get a review up right afterwards because I was kinda tilty and took a nap. Here is a a graph of yesterday.

I played about 10K hands of cash, here is a graph.

I added in some 6max SNG's yesterday, especially when there were not many cash games running, and because the SNGs were really soft.

As you can see, I ran like absolute crap in both game formats. Here is easily the worst beat of the year for me so far.

I started out playing pretty sloppy yesterday, felt like I was playing my C or D game, of course, I ran much much worse than my expectation, but my expectation surely wasn't great and what it normally is. I cleaned up my play as the day went on, and my results got a little better, but a lot of that is just variance too. Not much else to say other than overall I feel like I have played quite well this month with the exception of part of yesterday, and I'm 10K under EV in cashgames, and massively under EV in MTTs and SNGs as well. I'm hoping it will turn around, so we will have to wait and see.

My stats yesterday were 25/21/7/45 VPIP/PFR/3BET/WWSF, and I ended up losing about 5K in total. Hope to have more luck today/tonight.

Session 4

Nice day today, really put in a good amount of hands (9K) and ended up booking a win. Unfortunately I played and bricked the Super Tuesday and the 100r, and also lost a "close to chiplead" pot in the NHG QQ<A9o vs a reg who ended up final tabling it :(. I ended up mincashing.

Heres a graph from today.

I played extremely well today, I brought my A game and definitely my best play in cashgames so far this month. I felt like a puppet master, and everyone was doing exactly what I wanted them to do. Unfortunately as you can see, I ran really far under EV. For some reason I just couldn't get it all in and win today :(. Luckily I heatered for a short while in some 10/20 games which is the only reason I ended up winning today.

Today I ran at 25/21 6.7 3B 45 WWSF

Here are some hands from today.

AJ in 3 bet pot - this hand was one of those hands that just felt great today. It's because this hand is against a reg who I know is making poor adjustments against me, and getting fed up with my play. It feels great to get so much value out of a hand, especially when my absolute hand strength probably doesn't warrant 100BB's in most circumstances.

river C/R bluff - this hand was really nice, my original plan was to barrel a J or heart for value, and a club as a bluff with maybe some tweaked sizing between the two, bluffing is also tempting on a river Q, and T since I block the twopair combos a bit and calling a third barrel on those boards with Ax is kinda gross since some gutters and such get there. I get what is basically the worst river to CBET. So, I plan to C/F, but then right there I realize how strong a CRAI would look here. It's entirely congruent with a hand like 33, 88, KK, and the overfulls A3, AK, A8. All of these hands could check the river to extract value from missed draws, and to extract max value from Ax by going for a CRAI. It's also one of those simple level spots where "omg why would I try to bluff him off (a strong absolute strength hand) trips?"

Session 3

Today I played 7K hands, I booked a very small win, basically broke even all day. I had a small heater near the end but then I got it all in preflop with AK vs AA against an unknown for 100BB's which was probably a mistake, leaving a sour taste to end the day.

Today I ran at 24/21 7.6 3bet 45.8 WWSF

My non showdown winning really took a dive into the tank after I got back from dinner. I was slightly out of sync and the lineup of regs was different. I attacked the wrong spots a few times, and probably wasted a barrel or two where I should have had a strong and strict value range, of course, my showdown winnings were good, and if I had made a few more hands I would have had a nice day. I think I played my B- game today, and I'm not entirely thrilled. Another mistake I made today was calling too many rivers, this tilted me into quitting my session early on and taking a break after this hand.

What happens is I think of tons of really stupid justifications for how I have to call here in order to avoid being exploited, and how he might be bluffing, and how I have a supercharged bluffcatcher and close to the top of my range, but really it's just a bunch of nonsense. My entire game is based on playing exploitable, but constantly staying one level higher than my opponents. I know my opponent is never bluffing here, and I know he never has a worse hand for value (I block the lower flushes, and no its not a set.) I also do this thing where I assume people share the same theory that I do, for instance, I can have an extremely wide checkraising range on this river (both for value and as a bluff,) even things like AK+, and I change how my range is weighted based on my opponent. But other regs just don't do this, they just like to pretend they do in the forums.

So anyways, I was tilted and I made this jaypeg! It's now the wallpaper for each of my 3 30" monitors and it's quite hilarious, and an obnoxious constant reminder to stop paying off uncreative regs (even if it's "exploitable" and I'm bet/folding this river 95%+)

GRRR Sundays!

Session #2 this month was 100% MTTs, I kept it this way because it was a massive Sunday on FTP, with every tourney being multi-entry. I'm not really sure what my total buy-ins were but it was probably somewhere in the 15K range.

I was really proud of my play again today, on a scale of A+ through E, I played my A- game. I got 13th in the multi entry 150r on FTP. First in this tournament was 150K but my cash was insignificant. Even getting 12th would have netted another 5K and I would have been almost even on the day, but as it is... another super frustrating Sunday.

I've never had a cash for more than 50K in my poker career, this is extremely unlucky given all of the high buy-in tournaments I have played, and all the great chances I've given myself. Nonetheless, I know exactly what I'm getting myself into when I register for these MTTs. I just wish that I wasn't on the extreme shit-end of the bell curve for "MTT luck" but, thats why my main game is cash, whether you are on the shit end or the good end of luck, if you play millions of hands each year you will realize your expectation within a couple percents. In MTT's it's more or less lottery and it takes well more than a few lifetimes to realize expectation. I've made this rant 100 times but it still feels good to make it again! I'll continue to make this rant until I realize expectation in MTTs (and then I'll probably still keep doing it!)

1 tabling this $150 tourney on FTP drinking a vodka-cran cus we don't have any beer, there are 73 left, and its 80K for first. I plan on getting 30th or so. It's my last tourney for the day. When this is over I'm gonna play some Starcraft2, take a breather, maybe a shower (this helps me refresh my mind) and then start up a cashgame session for today. I'm still sort of perma-tilted so I dont think I will play my A game, but I'll game select and play a touch lower, I just really need volume right now, to attain the goals I set for myself this month.

Session 2 totals:
infinite MTTs
-6K

some hands from the 150r:
most tilting hand of the day on so many levels
super hood bluff, lol

update, got 22nd in that last tourney and MTTrs ARE SO BAD AT POKER, it's so tilting to watch some of these idiots heater on and win. They have fundamentals that are literally backwards. This idiot valuecut raises turn, I call cus its wa/wb and hes an idiot, then he rivers his TPTK and checks behind in the most obvious valuebet spot ever. Then he stacks me reshoving A5 vs my A7 BvB.... like ggwp BRO. ARGHHH

Blog Outline, April Goals, and April Session #1

I'm going to post a review of all of my sessions here. I think getting my thoughts out of my head and being accountable for results will help me. It's something I'm going to try this month.

April goals,
150K VPP
quality hands

Today was my first session, I ran quite well today, here is a graph.

Today I played almost 10K hands, almost all 6max with a touch of 9max early this morning when not many games were running. I ran at 28% VPIP, 24% PFR, 9% 3bet, 47.7% WWSF. Today I played my "A" game, and it felt great, a fantastic way to start off the month. If I can play the rest of the month how I did today then I will be very happy.


Here are some hands from today.


This was one of the most interesting
------------------

HAND #1
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Poker Stars, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

SB: $156
BB: $2,449.70
Hero (UTG): $470
UTG+1: $466.75
UTG+2: $512
MP1: $400
MP2: $463
CO: $447
BTN: $400

Pre-Flop: Th Td dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $8, 3 folds, MP2 calls $8, 2 folds, SB calls $6, BB calls $4

Flop: ($32) 8d 3d 3c (4 Players)
SB checks, BB bets $16, Hero calls $16, MP2 calls $16, SB folds

Turn: ($80) 5c (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $59, MP2 calls $59, BB folds

River: ($198) 8s (2 Players)
Hero bets $123, MP2 raises to $380 and is All-In, Hero calls $257

Results: $958 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed Th Td and WON $955 (+$492 NET)
MP2 showed 5d 7d and LOST (-$463 NET)



This was the best beat of the day (still feeling really dirty about this shove)
------------------
HAND #2
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Poker Stars, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $1,079.50
SB: $1,102
BB: $1,367.50
UTG: $1,024
MP: $1,317
CO: $2,643.75

Pre-Flop: 4h 5h dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $20, SB raises to $80, BB calls $70, Hero calls $60

Flop: ($240) 9s 9h 5s (3 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $112.50, SB raises to $320, BB folds, Hero raises to $999.50 and is All-In, SB calls $679.50

Turn: ($2,239) Qh (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($2,239) 8h (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,239 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 4h 5h and WON $2,236 (+$1,156.50 NET)
SB showed Ts Td and LOST (-$1,074.50 NET)



This was the biggest pot of the day, these stakes are much higher than normal and I was taking a shot in this game because my opponent was not very good.
------------------
HAND #3
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Poker Stars, $20/$40 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

MP: $8,140
CO: $6,539
BTN: $2,193.50
SB: $4,000
Hero (BB): $4,000
UTG: $3,770

Pre-Flop: Ks Ac dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG raises to $100, 2 folds, BTN calls $100, SB folds, Hero raises to $460, UTG folds, BTN calls $360

Flop: ($1,100) Kh Qh Qc (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $360, Hero calls $360

Turn: ($1,820) 4d (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $360, Hero calls $360

River: ($2,540) 2h (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1,003.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $1,003.50

Results: $4,547 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed 2d Jd and LOST (-$2,183.50 NET)
Hero showed Ks Ac and WON $4,544 (+$2,400.50 NET)

I'm quitting poker

Yep, that's right, I'm sick and tired of being on the shit end of the bell curve every year. I'm thousands of "cashgame hours" under equity in MTTs, and I've never sustained a heater at highstakes so Poker Gods you can go mess with someone else!