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

[Mr Sandbag]

Thanks guys! Writing that post is making me want to write some more blogs. Maybe I'll try to pick that up again a bit more often.

I support this idea.

 

[vinylspiros]

Thanks guys! Writing that post is making me want to write some more blogs. Maybe I'll try to pick that up again a bit more often.

you write it. we read it.

 

[xdeucesx]

Im seriously still in shock. Like, I had heard that term a million times from this one reg and always wondered where it came from. Ho chunk nuts, damn. Now I finally know

 

[Matt Vaughan]

I support this idea.

you write it. we read it.

THanks.

Im seriously still in shock. Like, I had heard that term a million times from this one reg and always wondered where it came from. Ho chunk nuts, damn. Now I finally know

Haha pretty funny - I'm surprised the idea/name travelled so far.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Played MSPT this weekend. Second tourney in a row where I make it to the 2nd to last level of the day but don't bag. Oh well. In other news, I'm apparently now a "notable" in the MSPT world: http://msptpoker.com/Pages/LiveReportDetail.aspx?nid=79&eventID=160 (scroll down to the bottom)

Some pretty frustrating spots, and the third tourney in a row where I've been busted by KK in a spot where the villain could easily have tons of worse hands. I actually played reasonably solid all day though, which is good, and I only fired one bullet at least, which came from my satellite last weekend. So only $520 invested, and I actually won $460 playing cash Friday night, so it kind of feels like I broke even on the last few months.

Next weekend I have no plans (poker or otherwise), so might just take it easy, but then the following weekend I'm traveling to the Baltimore area and will be playing for several days at Maryland Live.

 

[Jillychemung]

will be playing for several days at Maryland Live.

I'm jealous!! Enjoy and GL!

 

[Matt Vaughan]

wsop SCHEDULE IS OUT

Will be working on tentative schedule over the next <insert period of time here>.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Public Service Announcement: I am staying in Baltimore this weekend, and will be playing at Maryland Live starting today.

It's 9:25am, and there are 15 games running, 4 of which are 2/5. I'm pretty pumped to play, though it's been kind of a weird trip so far. GF is out here for a swing dance convention, and I'm basically just tagging along for teh pokerz. My parents decided to fly out during the same time because it's cheap for them to fly from Boston. So spent lots of time with them so far, but the next couple days should be grind days. Hopefully good updates incoming - games are supposed to be sick here.

 

[Mr Sandbag]

games are supposed to be sick here.

I heard the 4/8 limit games are juicy if you want to shot take.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

I heard the 4/8 limit games are juicy if you want to shot take.

Not sure if my BR can handle that.

So, I finally put in my first session. Game was crazy good, might post a few hands later, but the cliffs are that there were several VERY weak players in my 2/5 game. One guy basically misplayed every single hand against me and just couldn't ever find folds (except for the one time I was bluffing him, somehow). Only one to two particularly decent players. Overall it played pretty similarly to 1/3 in Milwaukee.

On top of that, I ran crazy hot - like CRAZY hot. Over a 16-hour session, I made at least 6 sets, and got a lot of action on several of them. It also sort of takes the sideline when I run this hot, but I did also play quite well. In several spots where in the past I would have paid off one more bet OTR against someone who isn't bluffing, I just folded. It's a really good feeling, and it's been happening more and more for me lately. I think I'm slowly but surely pushing through some of my worst poker habits.

Lastly, numbers are fun:
Hours of play = 16.5
Initial buy-in = $400
Rebuys = $0
Cash out = $3,800
Profit = $3,400
Hourly rate = $206.06

Here's to another similar session when I go back tonight.

 

[Mr Sandbag]

Just...sick. Scourrge is gonna leave the entire Maryland economy in shambles by the time he leaves.

 

[Marginal]

Confirmed Scourrge is playing 10/25/50 right now.

 

[xdeucesx]

Weeeeeee always fun to have big sessions like that. Reminds you why poker is enjoyable and not always a ****ing grind

 

[Marginal]

Confirmed matt lost his shirt in a 25/50 game and sold his computer to pay his debts hence him not posting.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Man, I should make more posts about winning in this thread - suddenly I've got all the love and weird posts again!

... But then again I guess I have to win more.

But yah, it was solid. Ironically, I only got that one session in. I am a bit out of practice at playing mega-sessions, so it wore me out a bit, and frankly I was playing way more hands (cause I ran so hot) and was more on my A-game than usual, which is more draining.

Met a couple regs, which was cool, and got some of the info about the casino and the area. Legit want to move there like... NOW.

Also got to spend a ton of time with my parents, which was really nice. Weirdly didn't get to hang out with my gf much cause she was at the swing dance event most of the time, but traveling together is way nicer than going alone. Hoping I can get back there sometime soon, but realistically it's tough to go without taking vacation time, and it's not super cheap to fly there anymore for some reason.

In b4 my next 4 sessions are -2k each.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Do they ever offer any mixed games (Horse) at Potawatomi Poker room? Every time I go all they run is NL Holdem games. Or they have 1 game of PLO, they lack a variety of games. Or maybe people just don't know any other games.

NL is def the biggest game. Not sure what to tell you though - they lack a variety of games because there is no demand for them. The demand is for NLHE and PLO, so that's what runs. The casino (within reason), should run whatever people want to play.

I've never really seen mixed games, except maybe a round-by-round NL/PLO or PLO/PLO8 once in a while.

 

[Marginal]

Confirmed Scourrge's Girlfriend is the north American swing dancing champion and 2012 world swing dancing champion

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Do they ever offer any mixed games (Horse) at Potawatomi Poker room? Every time I go all they run is NL Holdem games. Or they have 1 game of PLO, they lack a variety of games. Or maybe people just don't know any other games.

NL is def the biggest game. Not sure what to tell you though - they lack a variety of games because there is no demand for them. The demand is for NLHE and PLO, so that's what runs. The casino (within reason), should run whatever people want to play.

I've never really seen mixed games, except maybe a round-by-round NL/PLO or PLO/PLO8 once in a while.

Do they ever offer any mixed games (Horse) at Potawatomi Poker room? Every time I go all they run is NL Holdem games. Or they have 1 game of PLO, they lack a variety of games. Or maybe people just don't know any other games.

Great.... Here we go with the weirdo-posting.

Sand asked if I had posted this hand to CC, and at first I was like "meh," but I guess I haven't posted anything in ages, so why not. This hand needs some lead-in though:

- Villain never seems to know where he's at in a hand, OR knows and pays off anyway.
- We've played a lot of hands together already, and I've won most of them. Many of these involved me getting to showdown and showing down a pretty strong hand.
- Villain is somewhat fit-or-fold in the sense of needing to connect with the board to continue, but his requirements for "connecting" are low - so he continues wide.

History:

EP limps, the villain limps in MP, and I make it $30 immediately after with . I’ve been isolating him a ton, and he’s been calling tons so I thought it was slam-dunk for value. He has yet to 3bet me so I had no reason not to keep doing this. The first limper folds, and the villain calls.

Flop (~$70)
Villain checks, I bet $45, and he calls.

Turn (~$160)
Villain leads for $45. I honestly have no clue what his lead range looks like here - it’s not a line I’ve seen him take yet. I make it $140, and he calls.

River (~$440)
Villain checks, and I eventually bet $280. He doesn’t take that long, and calls with Q9o. I take down a big pot.

He was pretty disheartened in that spot, and kept saying conflicting things like he knew he should have folded, but he just didn’t put me on an ace. The hand was clearly bothering him, and he kept talking about “his” $280 that I owed him.


Then he changed seats and was two to my left. We were 6-handed. I open UTG to $25, and villain is the only caller in the CO. We’re about $1,500 deep to start the hand.

Flop ($50)
I cbet $35. He fairly quickly makes it $125. He could potentially have mega draws here but he tends to call without made hands, so it’s more likely he has two pair or TT. I don’t think he’s really ever getting away from two pair, so I make it $275. He immediately shows some discomfort around the reraise, and because of this I’m able to completely discount TT - I’m putting him solidly on AT. He does find a call.

Turn ($600)
I make it $320, and he still seems uncomfortable, but it doesn’t look like he can fold. It’s very clear he’s unsure if he’s ahead, and I’m even more certain he can’t possibly have TT.

River ($1,240)
We have about $900 behind at this point, but I’m a bit worried about missing value if I go too big (a problem I’ve had playing 2/5 in Milwaukee). Shipping seems like overkill, but I figure I can get more than the ~$300 I got on the turn. I end up betting $475.

He actually didn't think that long before calling with AT, but he did seem conflicted. The hand has been bugging me because I think I could have made more money, but I was obviously still pleased with the outcome.



In other news, I'm in the Chicago area for the weekend, and considering playing at the Chicago Poker Classic. There's a 2k entry with a pretty sick structure: https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn....=95b82ebba2609bf25b5e1cb436bff4de&oe=5753028E

Thoughts? It's definitely bigger than I normally play, but that structure is amazing... I'm salivating just thinking about it. Anyway I should be playing some cash games tonight at minimum, and if I don't play the tourney there'll be more of that to come. Can't wait!

 

[Marginal]

seems terrible, play the side games. ALthough this is chicago, so your probably gonna get stabbed if you win any sort of money.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Played some 5/10 last night. Nothing too eventful: bled most of the night not picking up many spots, then won a reasonably large pot when I flopped middle pair, turned trips, and got a big bet in on each street against top pair. Table got better the later it got as random guys showed up and some professionals called it quits for the night. Ended up booking a win, nothing too big or special. In for 2,200, out for 2,665, and I played from about midnight to 5:30am.

Most likely going to late reg the 2k main today since I'll be able to get in with over 50bb and the structure is really good. Really needed the sleep more than I needed to be 160+bb deep for 2.5 hours lol.

 

[duggs]

AT just feels like a shove on the river, I dont think his inflection point is somewhere on the river at all, like the rest of the hand and agree with reasoning

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Yeah idk. I do wish I had made it more like 650, but I think in live games it's a little different, and people feel different about shipping their stack in compared to like 80% of stack and still being "able to play." OTOH he had punted his stack in before. It's a little hard to explain but in these games, it's unbelievably uncommon to get into spots where we are betting 200bb OTR, and people tend to fold EVERYTHING to "big" bets (by dollar amount). Against this particular guy though, you may well be correct. I definitely missed several hundred bucks of value at minimum.

I late regged the 2k, getting there at 150/300/25a with a 25k stack. Chipped up a bit to about 27k and this hand happened at 200/400/25a:

Hero opens to 1k UTG. Action folds to BTN, who calls. General notes are that the whole table is generally young, reggy, and not terrible, but the BTN has stacked off with the NFD and got there against AA in an earlier hand, and while fairly tight pre, is the only one who seems to be swinging chips around more postflop. Lots of 3bets pre, not many limped pots.

Flop (~2.8k)
We cbet 1.3k, villain tanks and makes it 3.7k. We tank and make it 8.7k. He fairly quickly ships all in, and we obviously call. Villain has 77.

Long and the short of it is that the turn was an offsuit A and the river was a 3, pairing the board and giving the villain a full house. he covered me by a decent amount, so instead of doubling up to like 130bb, I was out.

Then played 2/5 after and ran like garbage for a pretty sustained period. Mostly getting best-handed in spots where I was doing well against villains' ranges, but a number of bad beats as well. Definitely spewed a bit early - probably should have taken a break after busting the tourney like I did - but I reigned it in and mostly played quite well I thought. At one point I was stuck 2.1k, in the game for 2.5k, but I managed to build it back up and end my 14-hour session at -$950. I'll take it.

All-in-all, a frustrating weekend from a profit perspective, but I was really happy with my play across the different games and formats, and I was really pleased that even when I did start to tilt once or twice, I was aware of it, and was able to refocus and get back to my B+/A- game. I think it bodes really well for the MSPT coming up next weekend at Meskwacki in Tama, Iowa, and I'm feeling more confident all the time that I'll keep playing closer to my A-game more of the time.

 

[duggs]

as a counterfactual, how often are you bluffing with JQ on the AT9 hand on the river v another opponent?

 

[Trabendo_daze]

If he was, I think his river sizing should've given it away to villain, right? Sorry for popping in here I've been lurking this thread for a while. It's really great.

 

[duggs]

more saying this is a spot where we claim we cant get value but its also not a spot we want to bluff, one has to be wrong