Devils may cry and stand up one MORE time than the rest

Tx Yozan. i think the force was with me ♦

I played 5k hands. i haven't done a full day of grind for a year now and it felt: good, boring, tilty, good, very good, meah (in this order).

As for the sessions, I'm writting this before looking at the graph. I think my red line is above the blue one ( due to the fact that at SD i had the 2nd best hand) and the green line is slightly above or under 0 (BE day:D)

After the 2nd session I had a 'fuck it" moment. I don't care about the money, but is depressing playing micro and not sensing that I'm doing something with my time. Having long stretches of BE dowsn't feel that good. I want to end this 60 days with a 10bb/100 wr overall, and right now I'm 7-8bb/100. From now on, God mode activated ! ♠_biggrin:

Ok, and now let's look at the graph.

Actually, I did spew at SD 10$ or so (I remembered some hands, one of them being a shove missclick OTT with QJ air )

After I've seen the graph
-in bbs - Oh boy, oh boy
-in $ - meah, it's fine, I guess. At least I didn't lose.

DAY 12

Played today 1k hands and yesterday around 500. My mom is in visit until tomorrow, so i played less yesterday.

Regarding the homework stuff, I won't go to my next theme until I will make a more complex review for BvB situations. Since last week, I'm playing looser from Bb and haven't really got time to analyze them. I hope this week will be the last when I put that much of my energy at work.

After this week I'll try to be more organized in this blog. Until now, I chose to be more active at the tables and play as much as I can and then sumarize in this blog. If my time permits, this thing will change from next week.

DAY 13

Another day, another 1k hands ♦
For the moment, I'm enjoying the heater and enjoy playing in general. I have less and less moments when i tilt and feel more confident on my actions.

For today, I have 2 hands where I need some other opinions.

1.
Poker Stars $5.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2276535
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $5.11 - VPIP: 21, PFR: 18, 3B: 6, AF: 3.4, Hands: 244
Hero (SB): $7.44 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 24, 3B: 9, AF: 4.2, Hands: 44542
BB: $4.73 - VPIP: 17, PFR: 17, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 6
UTG: $4.95 - VPIP: 9, PFR: 9, 3B: 14, AF: 0.0, Hands: 22
MP: $10.56 - VPIP: 23, PFR: 17, 3B: 1, AF: 1.5, Hands: 179
CO: $6.49 - VPIP: 0, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 28

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is SB with T J
3 folds, BTN raises to $0.15, Hero raises to $0.50, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.05) 6 7 J (2 players)
Hero bets $0.60, BTN calls $0.60

Turn: ($2.25) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $1.04, Hero raises to $4.22, BTN calls $2.97 all in

River: ($10.27) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

I 3bet pre such a weak hands because he's folding very much, 70%+ until now
OTT, I don't know if it's better to x/shove or to continue betting. I think x/shove is better, because there are so many draws and there will be a significant number of river where I'm x/folding and have no clue with what villain is betting.
x/call, in my opinion, is the worse play here.

2.
Poker Stars $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2276553
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP: $10.21 - VPIP: 29, PFR: 19, 3B: 7, AF: 1.0, Hands: 246
Hero (CO): $10.00 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 24, 3B: 9, AF: 4.2, Hands: 44542
BTN: $15.79 - VPIP: 20, PFR: 17, 3B: 12, AF: 4.5, Hands: 104
SB: $12.77 - VPIP: 15, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 3.3, Hands: 275
BB: $13.27 - VPIP: 70, PFR: 13, 3B: 17, AF: 0.0, Hands: 23
UTG: $2.55 - VPIP: 62, PFR: 48, 3B: 33, AF: 4.3, Hands: 52

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is CO with A Q
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, BTN calls $0.30, 2 folds

Flop: ($0.75) 9 Q 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.50, BTN calls $0.50

Turn: ($1.75) T (2 players)
Hero bets $1.10, BTN calls $1.10

River: ($3.95) A (2 players)
Hero bets $1.60, BTN raises to $5, Hero calls $3.40

Here i want to discuss only the river call. Can I call here with top 2p or is a crying fold?
I don't have many hands with villain, but let's assume that he'll have some bluffs on the river and is, from time to time, capable of bluff raising OTR.

Day 15

I opened Pokerstars this evening and thought 1 min while looking at the lobby,trying to figure if to play or not. i decided I won't play today, instead I'll go to sleep at 10PM and wake up at 6 tomorrow morning, and will do some analysis for 1.5h.
I'm too damn tired today and the most +EV is to get some sleep.

Didn't play today, but looked over some hands.
Even if I took some breaks this weak, I'm on peace with my program. I have a deal and it consist of playing at least 30k hands in a month. Now I have 23k with 3 more days to play, including weeked (when I intend to play 10k hands ♠_biggrin: ). So for the first month things are looking good in my perspective.
For the next month, I think the goal will be to play 40k hands, and cover the theory for all late positions.

For the moment I'm feeling quite happy:D

DAY 17

I'm mixing from today nl5 zoom with nl10 zoom. Can't wait to skip these limits:)). This evening I'm really fulfilled about one thing: didn't really feel the need to look at graph while playing. I just wanted to play my 1k hands for the day, no matter of badbeats or "goodbeats"

.
I felt like I really enjoy poker and the results didn't matter.

As for the session, I ran pretty good at nl10 and bad at nl5, but it was a normal session. I'm glad that since middle of july until now my redline runs much smoother to the BE point, without me doing any fancy stuff. I'm just playing my normal game. The problem is that I somehow play more automatically, meaning i almost have the same ranges vs every type of reg.
Time to do more hh reviews.

Day 19

I played yesterday 1k+ hands, but ended my session very late and I felt too tired to update.
Last night i was in the mood for normal tables and loaded 4 on them. I've hit big 150bb deep 3way in a big pot and ended my session with a nice win.

Also, my first month is over. I'm pretty close of my goal, which is having a 10bb/100 winrate(but due to sample size, results are not very conclusive). i know I played some spots pretty bad, done some overplay and not valuebetting enough, but variance was on my side this month.

I want to add nl16 tables and play 40k hands until 11 September(spooky coincidence). Also, I must put my sh%t togheter and start doing some exercises.

Day 20

I'm not verry happy about my learning progress so far. After posting hands where i steal from SB, things got out of control and the lessons are kinda messy in my head. So, starting tomorrow, I'll take 3 villains (with 300+ hands sample) and make preflop ranges vs them.

Talking about this day, I've played 600 hands. Volume is down a bit, because I'm playing 4 reg tables and 1 zoom. Good side is that all are NL10 and, in the near future I'll add NL16. I'll take shots at 35BIs.

DAY 21

I failed today, because i didn't do my lesson.
On the good part, I've played some hands, participated in a meeting for 1hour, so it's pretty good.

As for today's play, I've had a nasty spot.

Poker Stars $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2281576
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $4.31 - VPIP: 42, PFR: 25, 3B: 29, AF: 0.0, Hands: 12
Hero (SB): $13.64 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 23, 3B: 9, AF: 4.3, Hands: 48737
BB: $16.39 - VPIP: 6, PFR: 6, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 16
UTG: $37.42 - VPIP: 33, PFR: 17, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 6
MP: $9.97 - VPIP: 25, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.3, Hands: 4
CO: $9.32 - VPIP: 9, PFR: 5, 3B: 11, AF: 0.0, Hands: 22

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with J J
UTG raises to $0.30, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.25, 1 fold

Flop: ($0.70) 9 Q 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.55, Hero calls $0.55

Turn: ($1.80) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.00, Hero calls $1

River: ($3.80) J (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.90, Hero raises to $5.95, UTG raises to $13.35, Hero calls $5.84 all in

Probably OTT is a ch/fold, I don't know why I was so stubborn and called so fast. I think 2nd p with FD can be in my x/calling range, but must think about it. And on the river, i think i have a clear x/raise spot. X/shove may be too much and villain can fold AA,KK, but he's calling with flushes and QQ. Max he can have 5 flushes, let's say, but aren't enough to justify a x/shove.

On the other side, when I face a 3bet OTR, I think I'm behind most of the time, but probablu get enough pot odds to call.

Today is DAY 24.

Last 2 days I didn’t play at all or managed to do something poker related. I was stuck 12h at my job and didn’t have the power to enjoy poker.
And if that wasn’t enough, something else happened: my brothers’ problems relapsed. 10 minutes after hearing this, I felt like I want to break something (mirror, table, remote control, anything). Instead, I went to sleep thinking about quitting poker. The reasons for this decision are that, as little as they are, that money can be a real help for my family (I live in Romania, where a new pair of glasses cost 50% of my salary - in the low end. So imagine the costs for more serious problems).

Another reason is that I can’t be very focused on playing and I'm afraid of not playing as best as I can, thus reaching to above mentioned issue. Last time I secluded myself in books and movies, just because they were my only way out (or so I thought).

But this morning I woke up with another plan: I WON’T SURRENDER. I will continue playing as best I can, for as much as I can. If I stay and do nothing, I won’t be of any help so I might as well try to do something. If there will be need for money, I’ll withdraw, but until then, I’ll continue playing, with more motivation than ever. I’m sick of being in this posture, where all that I can think of doing, money comes in and shut me down.

So from tonight I’ll resume my goal and will put 1k hands. Because my volume this week is so low, tomorrow I’ll try to play 5k hands.
Also, I did find an interesting site about preflop play. The reviews were not so great, but it’s a starting point and forces me to think, instead of just copy the ideas.

The last thing in this post will be a request: I don’t want to receive replies about my real life problems, of any kind, at least for now. All the discussion I prefer to be poker related.
Thanks and GL at tables. Time for some ‘running hot’ ♦

DAY 25

I'm behind pace this week 3.5k hands. Hopefully I can play them tomorrow to be on schedule.

I'm running "not hot enough" for my taste, but will try so sockout more from now on ♦

DAY 26

Didn't start to well today, I had lots on my mind and got coolered at the tables. Kinda like this:

Poker Stars $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2286385
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $11.55 - VPIP: 27, PFR: 23, 3B: 9, AF: 4.3, Hands: 54385
SB: $19.94 - VPIP: 18, PFR: 12, 3B: 3, AF: 3.6, Hands: 559
BB: $13.16 - VPIP: 19, PFR: 16, 3B: 14, AF: 0.0, Hands: 31
UTG: $9.59 - VPIP: 46, PFR: 25, 3B: 0, AF: 0.9, Hands: 28
MP: $1.75 - VPIP: 0, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 6
CO: $51.54 - VPIP: 50, PFR: 0, 3B: 0, AF: 0.0, Hands: 2

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with 9 T
UTG calls $0.10, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 2 folds, UTG raises to $0.50, Hero calls $0.20

Flop: ($1.15) T 9 T (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($1.15) A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.82, UTG raises to $1.70, Hero raises to $3.75, UTG raises to $6, Hero raises to $11.05, UTG calls $3.09 all in

River: ($19.33) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

But in the evening i decided that I'll play only regular tables and this happend:

All in all, I've hit my target of 7k hands this week. At the job things don't seem to improve, so I won't have time to play during the day. Last two weeks I searched the web and PS videos for some logic behind 3bets. I found a great video here and some nice stuff over the internet. Seems like the more i read, the luckier I get

Well, I think this challenge has met it's end. My brothers' health problem is quite serious and he must have a surgery. The problem is that the surgery is a very tough one, and the doctor (who is probably the best in the country in his domain) is quite reluctant in doing it.
So, I've withdrawn my money and won't play for a period of time. I'll probably take a break from poker this period.

I leave you with my graph since the beginning of summer. From 40k+ hands I've been in a coaching group organized by a coach from romanian comunity. I have to say that he's an excellent coach and you can judge that from my graph. I'm sure that the things would've gone only up. ♦

Best of luck at the tables