Live Grind: How to Fall Asleep at the Table (Without Getting Caught)

[Matt Vaughan]

You said "other guy has $700-800," and I misread who shipped turn so I thought it was the PFR, my bad. Truth is that pre is still bad 160bb deep, and multiway. Suited this hand plays 5x better multiway. HU - assume it folds to you on the button - you could make a case for flatting since you have more maneuverability post. (Kinda sketchy since blinds will call a lot too.) But offsuit and multiway you're basically hoping to flop trips and pray you have the best kicker, or a draw with KJ or J9, and multiway like this you have to hit because you will almost never get folds OTF - someone will basically always have TP on a K-hi or J-hi board.

 

[Beanfacekilla]

You said "other guy has $700-800," and I misread who shipped turn so I thought it was the PFR, my bad. Truth is that pre is still bad 160bb deep, and multiway. Suited this hand plays 5x better multiway. HU - assume it folds to you on the button - you could make a case for flatting since you have more maneuverability post. (Kinda sketchy since blinds will call a lot too.) But offsuit and multiway you're basically hoping to flop trips and pray you have the best kicker, or a draw with KJ or J9, and multiway like this you have to hit because you will almost never get folds OTF - someone will basically always have TP on a K-hi or J-hi board.

Yeah I definitely agree preflop is bad. It leads to this particular spot, and I get sucked in by pot odds and so forth.

 

[joe31705]

Yeah i had QQ which was the overpair with the diamond draw. I didnt remember it was 3 handed. I assume a made flush is the most likely what you hold by a fair margin. I was hoping you told me you had AJ haha.

I have had my bankroll decimated. I had aa beaten 11 times in a row. The last time a guy called me with k7 high and back doored a straight. And this past weekend.

I had qq beaten by q10. All in preflop and he hits a straight

 

[Matt Vaughan]

So after one of my worst poker weekends ever last week, I thought I was finally going to book a solid win last night. I made a 125bb hero call based on a live read and was right, made several light calldowns based on bet size tells that sometimes I would have just made a tight fold against, and overall just played really well in the NL hands in my normal, Friday night uncapped 1/2 game.

But I played pretty piss poor in PLO. Which, combined with not really ever getting there in spots where I had 25-50% equity, was enough to take me from my peak of 1.4k all the way down to zero. Was in for 300 before getting to my peak, ended up rebuying 300 near the end and busted that super quick when I gii OTT with NFD and a weak two pair. It was a bad spot, but in that particular setting, villain's line was terrible, because he snap potted the turn with first and third pair, which on most other nights will allow me to correctly fold anything that's behind.

Instead last night I ended up shipping it with with only 11 outs, and I bricked. In addition to that hand I managed to gii with middle pair, a gutshot, a FD, and multiple two pair outs against a short stack who had a worse gutter, an "overpair" to middle pair and bottom pair. I bricked everything there too, where I was an ~% favorite. Not a huge deal, just ended up being a very bloated pot, and he shipped it in a spot where he's not going to have loads of FE and his pot equity will often be very bad when called.

In one other spot I got it in with the current nut straight, a flush draw, and two pair. Villain had the current nuts and a gutshot to a higher straight. So he had 3 outs to win, I had 12 outs to win. We ended up chopping. It's the "standard" outcome, but still yet another hand below EV or whatever.

What felt like the epitome of the night was where I tried to limp/reraise AA76 single suited, and we went 5-way to flop of A33. I check called two streets (blank on turn), and then another 3 hit the river. I check called being pretty sure I was behind, and indeed I had been 1-outed by A3xx.

Overall it was really frustrating to just consistently lose every pot where I had equity, and simultaneously be card dead in the NL rounds. Heading to Milwaukee in a couple hours to try to turn this weekend around.

 

[xdeucesx]

In b4 turnaround post. Sending rungoood

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Rungood didn't take, apparently. I played like 8 hands of NL, then 4 hours of PLO. Didn't win a pot > 20bb at PLO, and got it in as an absurd favorite several times. All in pre 3-ways, I was a 42% fave; in a 3bet pot I managed to gii OTF with 92% equity and the other guy went runner runner trips to win. Just seeing the "fun" side of PLO, and I know that, but in combination with the losses I've had at 2/5, it's really frustrating.

 

[Beanfacekilla]

Just hang in there and continue playing well. Review your sessions. Take time off if you need to reset.

I have been there too many times.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Another fun session. Will spare the gory details, but it was +500 at 1/3 in like an hour, and then -1,500 at 2/5 over 6.5 hours.

So, I've had two of my worst poker weekends lifetime... back-to-back. Fun times indeed. Roll is starting to enter the "decimated" category. It's at least encouraging to see obvious situations where variance is slapping me in the face, but it's starting to affect my play. It's a good thing I have a forced 5-day break minimum, but I'm also considering taking next weekend off entirely.

 

[clarence crumpet]

Only on page 5, but this is some fantastic reading.

 

[Jillychemung]

It's at least encouraging to see obvious situations where variance is slapping me in the face, but it's starting to affect my play. It's a good thing I have a forced 5-day break minimum, but I'm also considering taking next weekend off entirely.

Do what you need to keep your head right and in the game.

I had this stretch last year and it is hard to work thru it.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Do what you need to keep your head right and in the game.

I had this stretch last year and it is hard to work thru it.

Thanks Jilly. It's hard b/c despite tourney binkage, I was already on like a 400 hour breakeven stretch. To then add 100 hours of pure nonsense downswing is difficult to manage. But I am certainly handling it far better than I could have even 12 months ago. So I guess that's something.

Only on page 5, but this is some fantastic reading.

Thanks for reading crumpet - this really brightened an otherwise pretty bad day.


Work's been a bit of a bitch as of late, and I'm sure it's bleeding into poker and vice versa a bit. Just frustrating to feel constantly behind, despite working hard and trying to improve my work ethic and become more efficient every day.

Girlfriend is gone this week on a work trip as well, which is both bad and good. Bad because at this point it's tough to not have her around - we've been together over five years now, and living together for close to 10 months. I miss her and it's always tough to have her away. It's also good though, because it gives me some forced alone time - time I've been spending reflecting on poker. My leaks, my goals, etc. Also, I recently decided to purchase some private coaching. It's kind of a 1-time deal sort of thing, so we'll see how it goes, but I have high expectations for it. Hopefully will give some more deets as it progresses.

For now, gl everyone, and keep an eye out for my next blog post. It will be some recap from my MSPT run back in April. It'll be split out into a number of posts, but I should have them up within a shorter span of time.

'Til next time.

 

[Mr Sandbag]

But I am certainly handling it far better than I could have even 12 months ago. So I guess that's something.

Def something. Mental game ftw!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Quick FYI that my new blog post is up. Will post a link tonight when I'm on my comp and not phone, but you should be able to find it from the blog tab on the home page, or cardschat.com/blogs

 

[BluffMeAllIn]

Great entry as always, even if it was just a teaser part 1

here is the link:
https://www.cardschat.com/blog/mspt-coming-up-short-part-1/

 

[Mr Sandbag]

Forgot about that Allen Kessler thing. So awesome.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Great entry as always, even if it was just a teaser part 1

here is the link:
https://www.cardschat.com/blog/mspt-coming-up-short-part-1/

Hahaha! Thanks for posting before I was able to - today was another long day at work. Got called at 5pm by a customer and we were on the phone for ages. I wasn't exactly the right person to help either, but luckily I was able to find someone still in the office at 6:30pm to help out. This nameless person will be receiving cookies of the highest class (yeah, probably chocolate chip).

As for the teaser-ness of my post, it was hard to avoid. I was going to have to chop it up somewhere, and that seemed the best point to end part 1. I do have some more of it already written though, so I'm hoping to upload at least once a week or so, give or take. Keep your eyes peeled for part 2!!

Forgot about that Allen Kessler thing. So awesome.

Yeah, it's kind of weird to look back on it. It's one of those stories that felt really dumb as it was happening, but pretty funny in retrospect.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Well, I finally managed to book a winning day! Nothing amazing, just +$575 in the uncapped 1/2 home game, but it was nice to have a win for sure. Was actually a pretty boring session overall - nothing that interesting happened, and I was bleeding or breakeven for the majority of the session.

We ended up playing PLO three-handed. I probably shouldn't really be doing this, as the other two players are probably both winners in that player pool, but oh well. Degens gonna degen I guess. Every pot was straddled (which is on the button when three-handed), and maybe 60% of pots were raised pre. So many pots were $45-60 pre when nobody folded. (They were each playing close to 100% of hands. I was playing probably 60-75%.)

Got into one interesting pot. Was planning on leaving soon. Picked up KQT8sshh in the SB and limped in. I could have raised it, but I felt OOP limping was fine too since basically every pot I was in was going three ways. BB completed, straddler made it $20, and we all called.

The flop came T83r, and I opted to check. I figured on this board the BTN would be cbetting fairly wide, and with an SPR of < 10, I could x/r and often gii against an overpair that had any kind of connectedness with the board. It checked to the BTN, and sure enough he bet $40 into $60. I could have made a pot-sized raise of up to $140 more, or $180 total. I made it $170, which may have been too big, since it pretty clearly indicated I was never folding. The BB tanked and folded. The BTN thought for a little while, then basically shrugged and moved all in for about $300 more. I re-checked my cards and called.

We decided to run it twice, and the board ran out 5d 2d with a possible backdoor flush on the first run. Then 5c Ah. I was pretty worried my hand was going to be no good on the second run, and having the flush get there on the first run was bad, but I turned my hand over. Turns out the BTN had JT97 for top pair, an over, and a wrap. I had pretty much faded the world, since he had a 17-card wrap and a 3 outs to a better two pair. I would have had a redraw no matter what, but still.

The sickest thing wasn't that I won both halves of the pot though. It turned out that the BB had actually folded bottom set to my x/r - and he was only about $350 deep to start the hand.

So I was a 55:45 dog when the money went in against the BTN, was absolutely crushed by the BB's hand, and I somehow won the entire pot. Pretty fortunate, but given that I hadn't won a showdown worth more than $100 playing PLO my last three sessions, I didn't feel as sheepish as I maybe otherwise would have when getting that lucky.

Aside from having a winning session, I also felt reasonably good about how I had played. I still made several mistakes, but they were on the manageable end of the spectrum, and I was better about taking notes on hands during the session too. All in all, I'm looking forward to putting in more hours in this home game in particular, but also at 2/5 at Potawatomi.

 

[Jzona1]

Well, I finally managed to book a winning day! Nothing amazing, just +$575 in the uncapped 1/2 home game, but it was nice to have a win for sure. Was actually a pretty boring session overall - nothing that interesting happened, and I was bleeding or breakeven for the majority of the session.

We ended up playing PLO three-handed. I probably shouldn't really be doing this, as the other two players are probably both winners in that player pool, but oh well. Degens gonna degen I guess. Every pot was straddled (which is on the button when three-handed), and maybe 60% of pots were raised pre. So many pots were $45-60 pre when nobody folded. (They were each playing close to 100% of hands. I was playing probably 60-75%.)

Got into one interesting pot. Was planning on leaving soon. Picked up KQT8sshh in the SB and limped in. I could have raised it, but I felt OOP limping was fine too since basically every pot I was in was going three ways. BB completed, straddler made it $20, and we all called.

The flop came T83r, and I opted to check. I figured on this board the BTN would be cbetting fairly wide, and with an SPR of < 10, I could x/r and often gii against an overpair that had any kind of connectedness with the board. It checked to the BTN, and sure enough he bet $40 into $60. I could have made a pot-sized raise of up to $140 more, or $180 total. I made it $170, which may have been too big, since it pretty clearly indicated I was never folding. The BB tanked and folded. The BTN thought for a little while, then basically shrugged and moved all in for about $300 more. I re-checked my cards and called.

We decided to run it twice, and the board ran out 5d 2d with a possible backdoor flush on the first run. Then 5c Ah. I was pretty worried my hand was going to be no good on the second run, and having the flush get there on the first run was bad, but I turned my hand over. Turns out the BTN had JT97 for top pair, an over, and a wrap. I had pretty much faded the world, since he had a 17-card wrap and a 3 outs to a better two pair. I would have had a redraw no matter what, but still.

The sickest thing wasn't that I won both halves of the pot though. It turned out that the BB had actually folded bottom set to my x/r - and he was only about $350 deep to start the hand.

So I was a 55:45 dog when the money went in against the BTN, was absolutely crushed by the BB's hand, and I somehow won the entire pot. Pretty fortunate, but given that I hadn't won a showdown worth more than $100 playing PLO my last three sessions, I didn't feel as sheepish as I maybe otherwise would have when getting that lucky.

Aside from having a winning session, I also felt reasonably good about how I had played. I still made several mistakes, but they were on the manageable end of the spectrum, and I was better about taking notes on hands during the session too. All in all, I'm looking forward to putting in more hours in this home game in particular, but also at 2/5 at Potawatomi.

Nice to hear you booked a winning session. I just moved to LA this week and have played 2 shorter sessions for essentially breakeven. The casinos rake out here is absurd. I'm not even sure on the structure but its 6 dollars a hand with no jackpot and 7 with it and they will rake 5 dollars on the flop regardless of pot size. Also 1 dollar for a chop. The one upside to this is it cuts down a lot on the limped pots you see.

Another thing is the table culture here is really toxic. None of the dealers speak good english, most the players are assholes. Ive also never seen so much angling. Interesting thing happened this guy preflop whispers all in and puts out 15 USD. While the dealer is still confirming his all in the next guy throws in chips. Shit storm erupts eventually it's ruled a call but just so dirty in general. Even though I've only only booked 2 sessions I've played in LA a couple other times and this is always the vibe I get.

I think I'll play live at the bike on Tuesday assuming it's 5/5. I feel as though it's pretty +EV to be able to go back and see what opponents had and also watch your own facial reactions and things. + Life EV to tell your friends you are playing poker on TV too.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Nice to hear you booked a winning session. I just moved to LA this week and have played 2 shorter sessions for essentially breakeven. The casinos rake out here is absurd. I'm not even sure on the structure but its 6 dollars a hand with no jackpot and 7 with it and they will rake 5 dollars on the flop regardless of pot size. Also 1 dollar for a chop. The one upside to this is it cuts down a lot on the limped pots you see.

Another thing is the table culture here is really toxic. None of the dealers speak good english, most the players are assholes. Ive also never seen so much angling. Interesting thing happened this guy preflop whispers all in and puts out 15 USD. While the dealer is still confirming his all in the next guy throws in chips. Shit storm erupts eventually it's ruled a call but just so dirty in general. Even though I've only only booked 2 sessions I've played in LA a couple other times and this is always the vibe I get.

I think I'll play live at the bike on Tuesday assuming it's 5/5. I feel as though it's pretty +EV to be able to go back and see what opponents had and also watch your own facial reactions and things. + Life EV to tell your friends you are playing poker on TV too.

Jeez, that just sounds awful tbh. The whole angling thing pissed me off. A somewhat well-known pro angle-shot me in Vegas during a cash game while the wsop was going on. Just so absurd. What brought you out to LA?

Let us know if you do end up playing Tuesday - would be cool to watch, and I'd love to give feedback if you're open to that.

 

[Jzona1]

Jeez, that just sounds awful tbh. The whole angling thing pissed me off. A somewhat well-known pro angle-shot me in Vegas during a cash game while the WSOP was going on. Just so absurd. What brought you out to LA?

Let us know if you do end up playing Tuesday - would be cool to watch, and I'd love to give feedback if you're open to that.

That's funny that a pro would angle maybe that's all it takes to be pro I'll stop studying hand histories and start studying angling haha... works for ivey I hear

I just needed to get away from chicago and it made the most sense currently. (No girlfriend, No job, Just graduated, decent amount of savings) Its not a long term thing but living 4 blocks from the ocean is really peacefull.

Yeah ill post here if I'm playing Tuesday earlier In the day. It's my understanding you have to get there fairly early to get on the list and a reg told me itill be 5/5 most likely for the foreseable future though id consider taking a shot at 5/10 is thats what they ran it at. Id love feedback, if someone could tell me what i do wrong every hand that would really speed up the learning curve haha.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

By the way, the pro was Sofia Lovgren. Hand incoming tomorrow from tonight's session. Can't bring myself to write it out right now, but it was a doozy.

 

[xdeucesx]

By the way, the pro was Sofia Lovgren. Hand incoming tomorrow from tonight's session. Can't bring myself to write it out right now, but it was a doozy.

I'd let her angle shoot me

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Hand from uncapped 1/2 this week:

I'm 1,350 deep to start the hand. I'm about to straddle UTG but see that the player on my immediate left is blind shipping in his last $64, so I don't straddle. Instead I look down at black aces, and limp for $2. The $64 ship stands, and it's folded to the SB, who flats.

The SB is a strong, thinking player. He's very capable of making moves, particularly in large pots, is a capable hand reader, and happens to cover me this hand. I opt to make it $194, and the SB calls.

The flop comes T63 with two diamonds and a heart, and the SB tank checks. I think for a while and bet $245 into (~$195 main + $260 side) ~$455. SB tanks for a while and ships it all in.

Do you call? What range do you give him pre, and after he ships it all in?

 

[xdeucesx]

Weird spot, but I probably just fold, as much as it hurts. If he's capable and thinking, he realizes your limping range is super strong, since you know it's going to be 64$ more. You're hand looks like QQ+ when you limp, re-raise the 64$, so I can't imagine he honestly thinks he can take you off anything on this dry, boring flop.

If I had TT/66/33, I'd play it exactly the same way tbh. I'd just fold pre to the 3bet, but if we get to the flop, most players are not going to be able to fold an overpair here, since its a tough spot.


If he plays JJ+ like this, he's an idiot, since you obviously fold out everything behind and call off everything ahead. If he's as capable as you say, maybe he can bluff and push you off AA, but again, seems like it's far more likely he just has TT/66/33 and binked in a gross spot vs us.

 

[Marginal]

Live 1/2 there are loads of JJ TO KK here. Thinks it's fine to call off.

It's pretty much flip a coin an decide what to do I think fold is exploitAble