session review with sean

played pretty well today

just did a session review with sean of all my pots over 20bb today and i was fairly happy with everything

i did donk it up pretty hard with a NFD in a spot where it was very clear i had no fold equity on the turn and my flop line wasn't optimal either - so roughly 50bb or 60bb of spew

that hand was atrocious but the rest of my session was pretty decent

short day

didnt play a ton yesterday kept getting interrupted got at least 1.5k hands in tho

- 99 bvb flop T95 bet/call turn Q i bet he small raises i call and x/c the psb river jam. kind of a cooler but this guy is also kind of nitty postflop. he might play 55 or QT that way for value but my spidey sense told me to fold river. call it 20bb of spew.

- 5bet jammed AQ over someone i had been 3betting a lot seemed like a good spot but maybe he's  too nitty to 4bet bluff there ever. given my equity vs his calling range and the folds i get call it 15bb of spew.

- i made a thin river value bet on a 4straight river where i think it's more of a x/f call it 15bb of spew

- flatted a small 4bet oop a bit too light and called a 1/4 cbet and folded turn i think i should have folded pre call it 15bb of spew

rest of it looks fine

total of 65bb of spew

not my best effort but getting back on track

better...

played another session. played better. not my best but better.

- check shoved pair+fdraw in 4bet pot on the turn after flops checks and ran into top set. didnt have quite the dynamic in place to be doing this but it was close. call it 25bb spew.

- peeled vs an aggro player's flop x/r with overs and a double gutter turned tp and called again river was another overcard and i called a big river bet with 2nd pair. i think flop and turn are standard but i think he gives up very often on the river so the 35bb river call is probably 25bb of spew

- there are a few more hands where i think my play is ok but maybe not optimal in small pots, about 5bb per hand in like 3 or 4 small hands of spew

TOTAL: 70bb spew

hopefully tomorrow i play well

Spew Review

It's been a while, but it's time for a SPEW REVIEW!

I'm building up a new a bankroll on Merge since I don't want to play live anymore.

I hit a bad stretch of running -EV and it has frustrated me since I'm losing at stakes I know I can crush and also because I'm trying hard to build a bankroll quickly.

Today I lost a few unlucky early pots and got on tilt and spewed pretty hard. I've seen spewing off and on lately, and I need to get myself under control ASAP.

So, I'm back to daily spew reviews until I'm back on track.

--- 7/12/2012 ---

- ATs - 130bb deep bet/call flop TP+NFD check/minraise all in turn in spot where i was fairly certain he had a set - hard to calculate exact spewage vs his range here but we'll call it 50bb of spew

- JJ - called a 3bet vs a nit in a spot and stacked off with an overpair on 982ss vs his AA. some FE sometimes get in as flop but his range so strong about 50bb of spew

- ran a 3barrel bluff vs a fish in a 3bet pot with a missed flush draw. i have equity and implied odds on earlier streets but the river 50bb hopeless shove is spew

- stacked off with overpair KK in multiway pot where flop action was obvious that i was dead and i just spite stacked. i started with a bit over 100bb stacks so here is a full 100bb of spew.

- 3bet/5bet with 66 pre btn vs blind in a spot where it was too early vs a reg. i get some folds and i have equity vs his calling range so all told 25bb of spew here.

- ran a 3barrel bluff vs a weakish reg in a 3bet pot where i suspected he would tank/sigh call his pair and i did it anyways. 50bb of spew overall

- unknown tag x/r with set on dry board and bet turn shove river and i called down light convincing myself that he was polarized and had a bluff range but really i didnt know anything about the guy and just couldnt fold due to tilt. 75bb of spew

- slightly misplayed 88 in a 3bet pot but it was mostly fine maybe 10bb of spew

- paid off a 20bb river bet in a spot he's never bluffing 20bb of spew

- got in 55 preflop kinda spewy vs two halfstackers maybe 20bb of spew

- x/c a 10bb river bet where i'm never good

- made a lightish calldown that is good sometimes but still too thin 15bb spew

- made a bad big cbet in a 3bet squeezed pot in a bad spot/board 15bb spew

Total: 440bb

That's 4.4BI of spew in ONE SESSION.

Going to take a break and then play again in a little while and see if I can get this thing under control.

Atlantic City

Heading out today to Atlantic City for a couple weeks!

My favorite band, Phish, is playing a 3-night run this weekend. I'm seeing the shows, and will be in AC grinding live the rest of the time. I will be mostly at the Borgata. I'll try to post some updates of my results and how the games are playing over my stay.

I put a very small deposit of 50 bucks on Merge recently in order to grind up a secondary roll and stay in close touch with the state of the micros. It's no big accomplishment for me to beat up on the smallest stakes available, but it's fun nonetheless! :)

Live Poker

I've been playing a lot of live poker lately.

I'm not abandoning online play by any means, but I'm trying to sharpen up my live skills and build a live poker bankroll and just ensure that I'm ready for whatever the USA poker landscape brings in the future. Truth be told, I've managed to grow to enjoy live play a fair amount as well (lol).

Where I live, the nearest casino is almost a 2 hour drive. When considering the time it takes for travel, plus gas and tolls, it's not really feasible for me to go to the casino regularly. So, I'm forced to play in local underground games. These games have extremely high rake structures, which is quite frustrating, but there are definitely some weak players in the games that help compensate for the absurdly high rake.

About a month ago I got an iPhone app to track my live poker play called Poker Journal. Here are my cash game results over that time period:

I also played in a few live tournaments recently. I managed to cash a smaller tournament for a profit of 1650, so I decided to play the main even of that tournament series which was a 500+60 event. I ended up busting just short of the money after a frustrating 12 hours of grinding, but it was still a good experience. I was very surprised to see how soft the field was for a relatively high dollar amount tournament.

Had a funny hand the other night at a local cash game - I raised over a limper or two in LP got a couple callers and went 3 or 4 handed to the flop. Flop comes ATTss and someone leads out into me for 1/2 pot. I call and it's HU going to the turn. He asks the dealer to wait a moment before dealing the turn, and exposes an offsuit ace to me and asks me if I want to check it down?! Umm, no thank you sir. The board ran out scary so obv I bombed turn and river and he folded on end.

I'm probably going to get some online grinding in again soon just to keep my online skills sharp. I'm still doing coaching and working with students actively, and have also done some sweats, so I feel I'm very much in touch with how the games are playing - but I suppose there is no true substitute to putting in the volume.

I also have a trip planned to Atlantic City in mid-June for a couple weeks. My favorite band, Phish, is playing a 3 night run, and I'm staying down there an extra week or two just to grind. Should be a good time.

Happy grinding! :)

Lack of Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates guys. Things have been unsteady in terms of the grind since the whole Everleaf debacle. Working on getting my money out of there and starting fresh on a new network soon. Have been playing a bit here and there on some side networks, but no major grinding and keeping busy with V2P stuff. I should have a new home finalized by the end of the month though!

Comeback

Played well today. Was at nl25 again after my spewy day yesterday. Trying to build up a roll on another site on this secondary site while cashout issues on my main site are sorted out. Played an early session and broke even despite running poorly, and then played a second session where I won back everything I lost yesterday. No real spew and stayed on top of my game - back on track!

Spew

Had a very tilty day yesterday. I was playing on a secondary site and playing below my normal stakes, and ended up with a bad mixture of trying to too hard to run over the table coupled with always turning up with second best value hands, and ended up down around 8bi. This was my first truly BAD day of the month - I had a couple days mid-month where I misplayed a few hands here and there, but on the whole I've been on top of my game this month. This is a frustrating set back, but it's really not surprising. I wasn't treating the games with respect, and wasn't approaching it like I approach my normal grind. I was moreso looking to play for "fun" - but really it's just not fun to play like a monkey and lose buyin after buyin now is it? I'm going to play these stakes again today and focus on having a positive grind and play my best just to get back on track and not allow myself to feel OK about this poor approach, even if it was just one day.

Oh well, things were going so smoothly this month I needed a little dose of reality anyways to remind me that sometimes things can badly and you have to always be on top of your game.

Keeping Busy

Off to a great start this year! :)

I've been very busy with coaching, developing new content for our future group coaching seminars, website development, and general Version2Poker administration.

I have found some time to grind, though. I've played one session of live poker at Turning Stone where I won a bit over $400. I'm up a couple hundred on a minor side network that I play on for fun from time to time.

Here is my graph for my main "grind" (it's hard to call my low volume these days a grind!) so far in January - this is all nl50 on Everleaf:

If you are reading this and plan on signing up for an Everleaf account, please use our affiliate link! :)

https://www.colossalpoker.com/en.get-started.sign-up?bonus=v2p

Hopefully I can keep this positive momentum rolling.

LET'S GO 2012!!!

Minor Spew

Had a little bit of spew yesterday. Nothing too major, but I started out the session running bad and definitely let it affect me and didn't play my best. I ended up making one hero call that I don't necessarily mind as played, but I don't love my play leading up to the river and I shouldn't have been in that spot to start with, I was pressing the action a little too much. I also paid off a fish light on the river facing a 1/4 pot bet in a medium pot when I was 100% certain I was beat, but I was frustrated and said "lol pot odds" and clicked call anyways.

Going to start a session soon, and I wanted to put yesterday's poor play to rest by reviewing the hands and blogging about them briefly. If you do play badly on a given day, it's very important to admit it yourself and understand what you did wrong, and then accept it and move on and try to play your best again.

Hopefully today I can stay on point and get things back on track!

Coached by Grindcore

Just got coached by Grindcore, it was awesome!! :)

Good Start to the Year on Everleaf

Here is my play so far this year at Everleaf nl50:

They have a winnings cap of 750 euro per week, after which you are banned from the tables. Kind of lame obviously, but I understand their reasons even if I don't like them. That has naturally hurt my volume quite a bit. I'm working on grinding up a roll on another small network so I have somewhere else to play when I get banned for winning too much.

Good start! Let's go 2012!

Comeback!

Played a short session and won back what I lost today - breakeven before rakeback.

Little Bit Spewy - Not Too Bad

Got a tiny bit spewy today. Nothing major, but I did go for a few postflop bluffs that were kind of optimistic. I also stacked with TT once in a close spot but it wasn't too bad. Ran quite poorly so that wore me down, and my session probably went on too long. I think I started to play worse when after the third hour.

Starting Off 2012

First two sessions of 2012 under my belt at this point.

I've been playing quite well the last few days, hopefully I can keep it up. I've been fortunate enough to catch a little rungood as well. If you are part of the Version2Poker community, you can view the goals thread I created here:

http://client6g1p.freeforums.org/official-goals-thread-t240.html

Because I didn't feel satisfied with my run at nl50 at the end of our micro challenge, I'm planning on spending a bit more time there before moving back up, just to make sure I am crushing and confident and my game is in proper shape.

Here's my graph so far:

LET'S GO!!!

btw - I think Sean and I are going to record one last video for that challenge thread over the next few days - keep an eye out for it's release over the next couple weeks!