Thanks. And I hear you. I did try to incorporate my "at the time" thought process somewhat, but I'll try to do a real-time vid soooooon. Session reviews just help me so much personally because I'm forced to really judge my own play objectively and it helps me tweak stuff.
You think I'm cbetting too much? Is that your point? It's so tough because everyone is an unknown, and obviously vs. certain player types we can change our frequencies a lot, but at Bovada we kind of have to assume "fish" unless proven otherwise. A lot of them are playing so fit or fold that it seems criminal not to cbet much, but tbf I was getting about 3-4x more folds at 10nl than 5nl.
Sorry I just decided to post every big hand where I was 100% sure of how I felt the action had gone (ie "I just spewed" or "It was just a cooler").
I agree - Hand 2 was absolutely spew. Should be pointed out that these are in reverse chronological order, so the fish in Hand 2 had already won 2 stacks off me in approximately 1 minute.
What's wrong with 3betting pre? Should note that the BTN opener was folding a lot to my 3bets.
Frankly I was really proud of myself this session. Frustrating as hell in spots for sure, and I did spew off in that AK hand, but for the most part I played it close to the vest and didn't go on monkey tilt despite losing 5 BI's in very close succession. I even managed to win about 150 bb back from the guy I lost 4 BI's to in < 10 minutes. It was spread over a number of hands where he would call my 5x pre and call pot sized value bets, either folding on the turn or river. If he hadn't left I am 100% confident I would have won another 100 bb or so, because no one else at the table was exploiting him well enough, and he was still sitting on a 250 bb stack.
Yeah Aleksei, it's from weaktight.com as you probably figured out, and I really like their converter. Only annoying thing is that if you preview your post, it changes things so the font gets a little weird. So you have to be sure you're posting it the way you want.
Also, kind of random, but does anyone have any ideas for concept-type blog posts they'd be interested in seeing? I'm planning on doing a "Morality of Poker" post soon, but I'm also open to writing some more traditional strategy type stuff. Let me know what you'd be interested in reading!!
If BTN is folding a tonne then it's a fine hand/spot to 3bet. I just didn't like his stack size, the fact that he has position, and my default assumption about the micros is that they will bloody well call lol
I've had similar sessions. You've got to stay even keeled, or you'll turn into a spew monkey/station.
Morality of Poker. Do you listen to the Thinking Poker Podcast? They talked about this (well, it was strictly speaking an ethical dilemma I guess) with regard to playing against drunks live. I've got to admit that I hadn't given it much thought until then.
Thanks for giving it some thought, Cafe I do have a fair number of ideas for blog posts, but I don't really want to ever run out and have to think of things on the spot if that makes sense... I like to have an idea in mind ahead of time.
I haven't gotten around to listening to the Thinking Poker podcast but it's been on my to-do list for a while. I've been slowly, sloooowly making my way through the Deuce Plays podcast, but it's old and has a million episodes, so I may mix before I finish it. When I say "morality" I definitely am including ethics in that. Less the morality of poker, and more the ethics/morality of the fact that we play for money - and if we're playing with bad players, we have every expectation of taking their money. If it's live, it can be significant amounts as well. I'll be sure to give some thought to drunk players too. I've run into a spot or two that pertained to it live, but I'll revisit it and reflect.
Facing donk bets/when to donk bet is definitely a tricky topic, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to shed much light on it, but that's a really good idea and hopefully I'll address it. It'll probably help my game just thinking about it, so thanks again
Cliffs on my life:
- I'm back for my last year of school before real life hits me in the face
- I'm still playing poker and feel I progressed a lot over the summer by playing online
- I'm back to playing live with a vengeance - while I haven't put in a ton of hours yet, I've felt pretty good upon returning despite multiple half-grand losing days so far
My first few sessions back at the Cleveland Horseshoe were pretty brutal. I was really running into tops of ranges, and just some really ugly spots, epitomized by when I tried to bluff catch against someone I had a very solid read on. It was on a 4-flush board and I had just top pair and I was facing a shove, getting about 3.5:1. I was very confident that he was bluffing, so I called. Turns out he was bluffing - with a set.
I had 5 losing sessions in a row right at the end of August, three of which were -2 or more BI days. I closed out the month with a +1.5 BI day, but my first week back left me wondering if I was playing as solid poker as I thought. I did some review and reflection on specific hands, and also planned to tighten up as much as possible out of position while still playing solid implied odds hands in late position.
So far for September I've had 5 sessions, 4 of them winners. Although my biggest winner was my most recent one, at +$490, I was most proud of my second to last session. I started the session by losing a $300 pot when I 3bet KK in the BB to $37 and got two callers to a 7-high rainbow board and got all in against AQ - which rivered its 3-outer. Then less than half an hour later I got it in on a KQT two-tone flop holding J9 against AJ with a redraw to the nuts, as well as an unknown hand. That was a full stack down the drain. Almost immediately in the game for $450, I got away multiple times with top pair when gutshots hit against me and disciplined lay downs dominated my play for the following few hours. I then turned it around and slowly grinded my way back to even against my VERY soft table. The next time that I got the 2nd nut straight on the board I was able to get it in against the third nut straight and hold for a nice pot. I continued value betting thinly against my mostly passive opponents, and getting away when I faced too much resistance. All-in-all, I played very solid for about 8 hours, despite facing two fairly gross beats and a series of hairy spots postflop. I also managed to post a $170 profit.
The moral of the story was essentially that I need to keep playing solid poker no matter how I run, and no matter what has gone before. I actually believe that the hand where I got it in with J9 on the KQT board was a mistake and I could have gotten away based on the dynamics of the multiway pot I was in. But I was able to let go of that mis-step, and instead of just getting frustrated with myself, I turned that mistake into a reminder to slow down and think through ranges before making decisions - especially in bigger pots and non-standard spots.
I'm looking forward to continuing the grind, and honing my game both live and on the online virtual felt. Be sure to look for more updates here soon folks.
I actually believe that the hand where I got it in with J9 on the KQT board was a mistake and I could have gotten away based on the dynamics of the multiway pot I was in.
The tricky thing about the hand was that I had alarm bells going off. The actual action was that there were 3 limpers to me on the BTN - EP, MP, and CO, and I had J9s and raised to try to isolate. Naturally I was called by the SB, EP, and CO haha. I flopped the straight on KQT. SB checked, EP led for something absurd like $10 into a ~$50 pot - but this was normal for her when she had any piece of something. CO min-raised to $20, and trying not to blow everyone out of the pot, I raised it to $45 with about $150 or so behind, planning to shove all turns if I got 2 callers. Then SB actually FLATTED my flop cold 3bet. SB was a tight player, and if he had 2pair or a set here he would not have just flatted the 3b but rather raised small or shoved. He was literally only ever doing this with AJ imo. In any case, EP folded, and CO jammed for $100 total. So it was $55 to call, and I decided to just re-jam. I was snapped off by the SB of course with AJdd: broadway + royal flush draw.
And I hear you. I did try to incorporate my "at the time" thought process somewhat, but I'll try to do a real-time vid soooooon. Session reviews just help me so much personally because I'm forced to really judge my own play objectively and it helps me tweak stuff.
