Short Session

I played a quick session last night. Only about 600 hands, but put together a +1 buyin session. I need to start putting in at least 10-12 hours per week. The rakeback is a great bonus, especially because I am trying to get to my goal of jumping levels. So I 6 tabled for about an hour and a half. Early on, didn't get much, and just folded. I was trying to just grind a profit, then open up the game a little. So I pick up QQ in the second orbit and raise. I get no action. I was running pretty TAG at most of the tables, and noticed that a couple of the tables were pretty squeaky tight and played a little more LAG. I showed a profit on every table except for 1. Of course it was because my AA ran into a set, but I did lose the min and not my stack. Pretty dangerous board and just check called OOP to lose the min. No biggy.

A few orbits later, I pick up some blinds with nothing, then raise with AK off in late. I get called, then donk bet into on a 9 high board. Most donk bets don't mean great strength, but I decided to just let it go. Then I pick up JJ in the BB and flat a very loose player. Queen hits the flop, and I check raise his CBET and take down a little pot. Against a tight player, I might have respected the CBET but when you're playing 45% of the hands, you will miss more than you hit. Throughout my session, I made some really silly CBETs that cost me some money. When playing low stakes, you have to throttle back your CBETs and look to value bet more. Because you will run into a lot more loose calling stations, just value bet more and bluff less.

The first big hand came up with a short stacker limping in late. There were already two other limpers, so I bump it up to 7X with AA in the BB. SS'er calls and the flop comes Q105 with two hearts. He had less than the pot, so I decided to open shove, to make it look like a bluff. I figured if he had a 10 he might call, but would definitely call with a Queen. Sure enough, he calls off his stack with 910 SOOTED....lol. After that it was pretty uneventful for a few orbits. Raise IP and CBET to take down small pots, and get some big hands that give some decent ones.

The first 100 BB pot I won was with QQ. A guy playing 57/35 raised 4X, so you know he's getting re-raised opens. I 3 bet and the SB flats, the raiser folds. Flop comes Queen high and SB check raises all in. Top set, gee what should I do? He has AQ SOOTED, and gets stacked and then bitches about what a "cooler" it was. HAHAHAHA. What the hell were you doing calling a 3 bet with AQ OOP?

Other than that, it was pretty uneventful. I stacked another guy later on with QQ again when he tried to slowplay AK on the flop with a king. I raised, he flat called IP and flopped top pair. I CBET, he flatted again. I was ready to shutdown and fold to his bet on the turn, when presto a two outer. So I bet the turn like I was trying to push him out with a draw, he flatted again. Blank on the river, I shoved for a little more than the pot. At this point, I knew he probably had top pair because there weren't any draws but a flush draw and his numbers were pretty tight. I knew he probably wasn't chasing a flush draw and thought I might get paid off. Sure enough, he paid off the shove with top pair.

Finally, to finish the session, I made a really stupid 3 barrel bluff into a calling station. It was really ridiculous. I lost a little, but was still able to book a win. So all went well, and now I just need to get ready for my next session. Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling and get to the next level soon enough. On a different note, I'm reading T.J. Cloutier's book on Omaha. I'm really interested in that game, and will probably test the waters out soon enough. I'm not a noob, I've played it quite a bit, but want to learn the proper strategies. It's been a good book so far, especially because it covers all forms of Omaha.

Our puppy is doing well, she's already up to 15 lbs. She was a whopping 5 lbs when we got her 6 weeks ago. Such a cute dog, but a little firecracker to say the least. Hopefully when the puppy energy runs out she will calm down. Right now she is a little barker and rogue. Still love her though. Married life is great as well. I try to take care of the house a lot more often because she gets so busy with work. I don't like her coming home and being stressed out, so poker might have to take a backseat this weekend, we'll see. She is the best wife I could ever ask for.

So my list of things for February:
1. Play at least 3 sessions per week, hopefully more so I can get my ironman status back. I haven't qualified for ironman since July.
2. Get to the next level by March.
3. Lower the number of bluffs I make and stay out of marginal positions OOP.
4. Write at least 1 blog post per week, and upload some hands and graphs.
5. Finish reading Championship Omaha, Bill Chen's book on poker math, and Owning the Dragon.
6. Play more than 20,000 hands in February.

Late Night Session

I played a little over 1,000 hands tonight. I knew I was going to play for about 2-3 hours, so for the first 10-15 minutes, I was trying to set up an image contrary to how I normally play. I was playing anywhere from 18/15 on one table to 25/19 on another. I then geared down and waited to get PAID. And did I. On the table that I was playing the most LAG, I pick up KK in late position. There were 3 limpers and I raised it up the pot plus 2 BB's. Pretty standard raise, just trying to get rid of some junk aces and narrow the field, while having position. Sure enough, two people OOP call. The flop came J-8-4 rainbow. It checks to me, and I bet out 2/3 the pot and get check raised all in. Pretty easy call, he's probably sitting on a decent jack like AJ, KJ, or J10. Sure enough, J10 and he gets stacked. From there I was playing really well and was up 3 buyins in no time.

The thing that sucked about the games tonight was that there were so many limpers in every hand. Not only that, but some of the players were playing ultra tight. There were a couple of players playing between a 3/3 and 5/5. If they were interested in the pot, just let it go, unless I flopped a monster. If they were raising, I was folding, I even folded 9's, 7's, and AQ, pretty easy folds when you're facing a player playing 3 to 5% of their hands. Honestly, what could they have? Their range is pretty simple: QQ+ and AK, maybe AQ suited, but that's about all they are playing.

So things were going great, until the LAGTARD in me just had to keep pushing later on. I was still up about 3 buyins and lost with AA to KJ, AJ to AK (stupid push pre), QQ to K4 suited, and JJ to A8 off. I reviewed my session and couldn't believe how many times I had a big pocket pair and of course an over came out and they connected with a junk hand. I also noticed that players were calling down super light, with junk hands like K5 suited from UTG, Q7 off from middle and a bunch of other crap. So I just need to idle it back a little and wait for some good opportunities. I did make a great play against an opponent I had some notes on. He loves to raise when he thinks everyone is weak and when it's blind versus blind. So I'm in the BB with J10 off, and he raises me again. I flat call and see a flop. The flop came 9-4-2 with two hearts. He bets 2/3 the pot, and I decide to make it look like a draw, even though I have nothing and quickly call. The turn brings a queen of hearts, and he bets out again. Now I have a legitimate draw and have some bluff outs. The river brings the 3 of hearts, a perfect card, and he bets it one more time. One thing I noticed was that on the turn and river, his bets got much smaller in comparison to the pot. I read it as a blocking bet, and decided that since I played the hand like a draw, I would push on him now. I raised him 4 times his bet and he went to the tank. I was praying to myself, "Fold, fold, fold, dear god please fold." Sure enough he uses his timebank and eventually folds. WHEW!!

There were a couple of players who were playing incredibly loose passive. They were playing 45 and 89% of their hands. I caught some great betting tells on the super loose one, and the other one just overvalued top pair hands and would call down. So I took some notes on them and can't wait to get them on my table again.

I'm reading Harrington on Cash Games right now, and I do have to say that it's a great book so far. I finished volume I, which is mostly about preflop play and flop play. Volume II covers post flop play and reading players. So I have taken a lot of great info from them so far. I just need to apply small ball and look to play my hands in position much better. I made a little over a buyin after all the dust settled, which is pretty frustrating. Especially since I am getting close moving up to the next level. I just have to keep putting some good sessions together and let the rest take care of itself. So far I have had 3 out of 4 winning sessions.

My rakeback site gives me my rakeback every week, so that is a great bonus. I've only played one session a week so far, but if I put together a couple of days a week, I should get a couple of buyins back just from rakeback. At that rate, I would be at the next level within a couple of months. It's time to get some sleep. In summation, I need to focus on playing in position better and look to exploit players tendencies and patterns more. I've been three betting and isolating really well. Now I just need to put the rest together and get some sessions together.

Fucking Snow

Beautiful, yet cold Sunday morning. Head off to work at about 11. Little cloudy outside, but nothing unusual for Washington State. Next thing I know, it starts to dump down snow at about 3 in the afternoon. I finally get out of work at about 7, and the streets are undriveable. I try to make it home, but get stuck on just about every intersection and just about every hill. If I even think about hitting the gas, it does nothing but spins the wheels. So GG me. I guess that will teach me to buy a Corvette. I really need to get a better winter car, maybe a Jeep. I guess now is the best time to get one. Of course knowing my luck we will never see another snowflake. But enough of me bitching and rambling. I'm gonna try and put a session together tonight, so we'll see.

Back to the Grind

I finally put in a good session. Albeit and very spewy session, but I put in a session. I played a little over 1000 hands, and was down a little over 2 buyins at one point. I have taken so much time off from poker, that I was spewing chips left and right. I was pushing with some great draws, but didn't take the time to read through the hands the right way. I pushed with AK suited with two overs and a flush draw, only to be up against a set for a buyin. I need to get back to playing small ball.

I got into the groove later on and ended up only down about 1/3 of a buyin total. So once I take rakeback into account, my session was a little below even. However, I was getting into the groove later in the session. There were quite a few hands in which my position and my aggression were getting me paid off. For instance, there was one hand in particular where I get AA in the BB. The button min raises, and the SB just calls. I repop it to 6 times his raise and the SB flat calls and the button folds. Right then and there I put him on 77-JJ. The flop came 3-7-9 and he checked it to me. I CBET the flop and he check raised the pot. I was thinking he might have flopped a set of 7's or 9's, but thought that if he had, he would have just called and then made a move on the turn. That's what most players do. When they flop a set, they slowplay the flop then lead the turn. So the check raise meant 10-QQ to me. So I shove to his check raise and he calls to show JJ. He bricked out and I was up quite a bit.

There were so many pots in which I was a good favorite when the money went in, but I just couldn't get it to hold. My All-in EV equity was about 3 buyins in the positive, but I ended the session down just a bit. I chalked up most of the losses to it being Saturday night and people were just either really bad and getting lucky or just tilting off and getting paid. So I am proud of the way I played, just couldn't get any traction to stick. I would get up a buyin then lose it back to a suckout a few hands later. Overall, my table image was pretty solid and I don't think the others really knew where I was coming from. They were playing very passive on flops and calling down with second and third pairs. I probably bluffed too much, but with the hands I was facing, I'm surprised they called me to the river with a lot of their hands.

So, some things to think about for the next session:
1. I need to focus on playing position strong and knowing who I can get to fold both before the flop and with a CBET.
2. I need to pull back the preflop aggression and look to get more value for my strong hands and not bluff as much as I did this session.
3. Play more small ball and control the pot more often.
4. Most of all, don't overvalue very marginal hands or marginal situations.

So those are some of the things I need to focus on for the next session. Hopefully I can get the train rolling again and get to the next level. I need to win about 15-16 buyins before I take a shot at the next level. When I do get to the next level, and I get to a specific amount I will drop down to the previous level. So time to get back to the grind and focus on making the right decisions.