JeffreyLipsey.com

Man I’ve heard so much talk about ‘quitting when you’re not playing your A game’ or ‘improving your c game’ and while I understand it as a concept I feel like its retarded to think of it as a literal reality to which we can actively control. But then I thought what if I could actually create my “A,” “B,” and “C” games so I know when I’m playing like that and can both 1) quit when I’m not playing at a certain level (short term) and 2) work on improving that level (long term).



So here goes my attempt at my own play to find out what stage of play I’m at. I’ll try and do + or – for each level too as well as possible hourly rates but we’ll see.



C Game or Worse



I am not putting opponents on ranges. I’m instead ‘playing my cards’ and hoping to hit something so I can when a big pot. I am:


1. Not making any adjustments. I win when the player type matches up well with the current style I am playing; I lose when the player doesn’t match up well.
2. Incorrectly determining the value of hands. I determine on the flop how many streets of value I plan to get and follow those guidelines through out the entire hand:

3. I take bad betting lines to achieve these value standards definied above. I pot control too much and allow opponents with either balanced betting ranges or purely value ranges to influence my own play. Generally, they call more than they bet so I should be the one betting especially out of position.
4. I miss value with my strong hands on the river when a scare card doesn’t hit and my opponent will only raise with the nuts.
5. I make bad bluffs against opponents with no reads and they’re usually expensive. I then continue bluffing instead of tightening up.
6. I always think opponents are bluffing me and then become a calling station with MP/BP on more than 1 street especially after a tendancy of already calling down once or twice.




B Game



I’m trying to put opponents on ranges but am not doing so successfully. I then:


1. Make bad adjustments while trying to see a showdown
2. Giving inaccurate labels to players over a small sample of hands and keeping me from entering the A game
3. I improve the value lines above to:

4. I value bet too thin on the river on scary boards. Usually this is with two pair on 4 straight boards
5. I don’t let my opponent bluff into me when he’s shown aggression and I have the nuts and its easy to get stacks in.
6. I take small stabs at pots but give up after my opponent calls after showing weakness. I continue to just take small stabs.



A Game



I am accurately putting my opponents on ranges to the river:


1. I’m making good folds on the Turn/River and only because I can put him on an accurate range
2. I’m making good call downs with weak hands such as 3rd pair/Ace high
3. I can value bet 3rd pair/Ace high on the turn after checking the flop and not value-town myself
4. I can value bet 3 streets with top pair hands
5. I take good bluff lines and if I get caught I stop, tighten up and get value



I’m putting the A Game last only because I feel it deserves the least amount of importance. If we know that we’ll always play when we’re at least playing at a “B” level where we are showing a high hourly then knowing the difference between an A+ and A- game seems negligible. Especially when we should be spending most of our time improving the C and B game that we play.



Conclusion



I feel like over an entire heads-up match I go through all of the various game types. I usually start in my C game looking at how my opponent is playing. I then go into my B game and start adjusting and I keep adjusting until I am able to get into my A game and eventually stack him.



On my ‘C’ days that I play I take too long to make any adjustments or notice the adjustments to make. The longer it takes to go from C game to A game the more money I lose making incorrect adjustments and getting to showdown. By the time I hit my A game and start to win money back I have to hope I’ve not lost enough that my opponent hits and runs when he will feel like he’s getting outplayed.

Marlyn looked at the Kohl’s Ad in yesterday’s Washington Post and noticed a Kitchen Aid Stand mixer on sale. Link

Plus you get an additional $20 off mail in rebate. So how did I get mine for $120? Well, if you sign up for a kohl’s credit card you get an additional 15% off that purchase price so that’s $30. On top of that every $50 you spend at Kohl’s you get a free $10 gift card to be used in the next couple weeks.


So $260 stand mixer on sale for $200, minus $20 mail in rebate, minus $30 discount from credit card, minus the $30 in gift card = $120.


More about the Stand Mixer:


The stand mixer definitely is not the $500 one that is probably worth the money if you could afford it. The two big differences between the $500 mixer and $260 mixer is the wattage and the size of the bowl. The $500 mixer has 550 watts of power whereas the $260 only has 275 watts, or pretty much half the power. I have no idea how the difference in power would effect anything as I would have to run tests to find out; if you want to listen to the sales clerk who said that the lower power wont allow you to make as big of batches when you cook then you may.


The size of the bowl matters too. The $500 mixer gets you a 6 quart bowl in comparison to the 4.5 quart bowl you get with the $260 version. I think 4.5 quarts is enough for my personal use but I would plan on buying the best one I can afford when this one wears out (hopefully 10 years or so). Also the $500 mixer comes with a $20 plastic pour spout that I’ve never seen anyone use before.


Attachments:


In terms of attachments the $260 version and the $500 version should run all the same attachments. Power-intensive attachments such as the meat grinder might wear down the motor more in the cheaper version and that is where the more wattage would come handy. Unfortunately attachments of all kinds are expensive and in some cases more than the cost of our machine itself. I was looking into getting the meat grinder but I’ll probably just use the food processor for the time being; I’ve already got a manual pasta roller and I don’t find it cost-efficient to pay $120 for a new set. If there was a converter out there that allowed you to use the manual pasta maker in the stand mixer that could be cool.


How’s poker been going? Don’t ask. My mom is visiting the first week of November; I’ll be in Denver the 2nd week and in Indianapolis for Thanksgiving.


Jeff

Now that Marlyn is going back to school, she’ll be sequestering her laptop back and I’ll be without one. I don’t need a big one just one to surf the net and maybe use as a poker base for when I’m traveling. I’m looking at 4 right now:


MSI – Wind Netbook
Gateway Netbook
Acer- Aspire One Netbook
Asus – Eee PC Netbook


I’m moving towards the Asus right now but they’re all pretty comparable in terms of specs and stuff. The biggest difference would be the extra hour of battery life they advertise–4.2 hours compared to 3.05 of the others. Reviews have the same pluses/minuses for each too so I don’t know if it matters much.

I would have screen shot it had I not been playing other tables. I also turned my head once I saw I nailed the flush on the turn and didn’t even know it was a royal until 5 minutes later.


***** Hand History for Game 31513771129 ***** (Poker Stars)
$100.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Tuesday, August 11, 03:55:57 ET 2009
Table Numerowia IV (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: CodeRedRulez ( $193.50 USD )
Seat 2: Remichl ( $25.55 USD )
CodeRedRulez posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
Remichl posts big blind [$1.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to CodeRedRulez [ Jd Ad ]
CodeRedRulez raises [$1.50 USD]
Remichl raises [$4.00 USD]
CodeRedRulez raises [$36.00 USD]
Remichl calls [$20.55 USD]
CodeRedRulez wins $12.45 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qd, Ac, 2d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
Remichl shows [Qc, 8c ]
CodeRedRulez shows [Jd, Ad ]
CodeRedRulez wins $50.60 USD from main pot

Q

Ended the downswing about a week after it started and I’ve just been grinding like crazy the last 2 weeks to make a profit. In the end I’ve had a good month and I’m ready to start August. I’ll be going to Norfolk on Sunday for a few days with Marlyn so I don’t know the volume I can put in there while she’s in conferences but I do expect at least a couple hours of play in.


Notes for the past couple weeks:

07/21

Before bluffing donk bets first determine your opponent’s frequency and the board textures and range that he is likely to bet/fold with. If after 2-3 times of your opponent not bet/folding his donk bets it is clear he is doing it with pairs that he is not willing to fold.

————————————————————————

07/20

assuming deeper stacks, button limp/reraise large is stronger hand, limp/reraise weak is weaker hand

when your opponent pauses before betting a scare card on the turn, its more likely to be because he’s deciding whether to valuebet or not. Bluffs would probably be more quicker and not as hard of a decision.

————————————————————————

07/17

Players who have shown the tendancy to slowplay their big hands habitually tend to have a weak range when they fast play very dry and bluffable boards

Instant checks on any street seem to be very weak, especially in position

weak turn bet by donk followed by big river bet = nuts?

put players on tilt by calling with weak and marginal hands then hitting, draws too

guys who try to berate their opponent might be more susceptible to tilt

————————————————————————

07/16

players with wide ranges can also value bet thinner, this is why calling down more than 1 street with bottom pair or ace high vs opponents with such wide ranges generally isn’t a good idea.

With effective stacks 150 bb+ and against players who don’t fold to 3bets: make reraise sizes larger, from 3x to 4x etc.

Due to some server issues Grinderschool members are being redirected to this site for all of July’s released videos. I welcome you all here and hopefully you guys understand our situation. While you’re here don’t be afraid to check out the other content available to you including a dozen other videos not released on Grinderschool.

Hopefully you guys don’t have to be here for long but I am glad to have you for as long as necessary. Enjoy!

Now the the future other-side-of-the-family has left after a two week stay, it is time for me to get down to business. This week has been the most productive hours wise, but least productive dollars wise, this year. Prior to today, the past 3 sessions this week I averaged over 5 hours/day and -500/day which isn’t a good number to produce.


I ran real good for a couple months over a smaller sample so its possible its just correcting itself, although I’ve looked over some of my Hand histories and I’m not playing nearly optimal either. So until I’ve made back what I dropped as a downswing I wont be adding in any 200 NL and just stick to the 100 NL tables.


I’ve been taking some notes though as I play so maybe I’ll use this space for that. Here’s what I have so far with the dates:

07/17

Players who have shown the tendancy to slowplay their big hands

habitually tend to have a weak range when they fast play very dry and

bluffable boards

Instant checks on any street seem to be very weak, especially in position

weak turn bet by donk followed by big river bet = nuts?

put players on tilt by calling with weak and marginal hands then hitting,

draws too

guys who try to berate their opponent might be more susceptible to tilt

————————————————————————

07/16

players with wide ranges can also value bet thinner, this is why calling

down more than 1 street with bottom pair or ace high vs opponents with

such wide ranges generally isn’t a good idea.

With effective stacks 150 bb+ and against players who don’t fold to

3bets: make reraise sizes larger, from 3x to 4x etc.

————————————————————————

07/15

against players with tight BB calling ranges OOP, they are probably less

likely to fold to flop cbets due to their higher range

players who raise every button and cbet a high % have air a lot in their

range, these guys are good to check/raise draws

flop check then turn raise line usually air? depends on board texture i

think: flush comes in air

if someone (donkish) normally 3bets a std size then makes it

smaller/larger how does that effect the strength of his hand?

how to play against min4bet

Its not finished or anything mainly because I just copy/paste it from note pad and its nothing more than the thoughts going through my head while I’m playing.

For the first time in several days I’m starting this tournament not feeling bad so I take my seat. It wasn’t long before I realized I had a horrible table draw. The three guys to my left were all online regulars and the player to my right was a solid player from the day before. Out of a field of 600 I got stuck with probably the toughest table of the entire tournament.


There weren’t too many hands today, although I don’t think I won any that saw a flop. There was a player from New York to my left who knew his terminology and could accurately describe ranges, he just wasn’t that great and he liked to talk a lot. He lost 1/2 his stack when he 4bet/folded QQ vs the internet kid to his left. On a hierarchy of bad plays, 4bet/folding QQ is much, much worse than 3bet/folding and I don’t think there is a worse way to actually play the hand (open folding saves you 4000 chips lmao).


So the New Yorker was down to only 9000 chips and everyone else had 15,000 or so. UTG open raises and he’s an OK player, I have no idea what his UTG raising range is but when I see AK I don’t want to make the mistake of 3bet/folding AK. It’s a very standard situation for me to just call and keep all his dominated hands in his range as well as use some deception. So i call the t450 raise and the New Yorker to my left reraises 1/2 his stack up to 5000 even. UTG thinks and then folds and I said “I’ll gamble with you” and ship it in. Both of us flip over AKo and I managed to dodge a flush by him to chop the pot.


That hand sets me up for my next scenario. I get QQ and I face an MP raise; his range is somewhat wide but I don’t think his calling 3bet range is that wide and frankly we’re 100 bb deep. I decide to cold call his 5bb open raise (although sometimes I’ll reraise with a better read) and the New Yorker behind me rather quickly shoves in all his chips, approximately 7000 at blinds of 75/150. The original preflop raiser hemmed and heehawed enough for me to know that if he calls all in then I’ll be shipping afterwards because I have him crushed. He folded though (I later found out he had 99) and I again said “I’ll gamble with you” and flip over QQ. To my surprise the New Yorker actually had KK. The board ran out: A2345 and we chop the pot; I got lucky but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I was thinking later about how good players make their hands easy to play by not putting themselves in difficult situations. If I reraise the MP opener and the guy behind me open 4bets then I’m in a real shitty spot. By flatting the original raise my call is pretty standard there given the over shove behind me. Granted, I didn’t know that he had KK but it really didn’t matter either.


I got into the first break doing OK with 16,000 chips but we’ll know by the end of this next hour where I’ll stand for the rest of the tournament. I pretty much blind down 12,000 before the end of 200/400/25 when an EP raiser makes it a very small 875 and I’m in the big blind with T8s. I call here and plan to play it carefully:
EP Raises to 875, Hero in the BB calls.
Flop: Q87ss (Pot 2600)
Hero Checks, EP Checks
Turn: 9s (Pot 2600)
Hero Checks, EP Bets 1100, Hero Calls
River: 7x (Pot 4800)
Hero Checks, EP Bets 3500, Hero thinks, and calls.


Opponent had been fairly aggressive and from listening to him he plays mid-high shorthanded cash online at FTP, although the way he brags he also plays HU. He has no idea what level I’m on because I never say anything anyway but I assume he thinks I’m a tight reg. His big river bet in comparison to his small turn bet was a bit fishy, especially when the 7 paired. When he checks the flop he either has Qx with no kicker or 99-JJ or maybe a set or missed overs, although I’m thinking he would bet the Qx and the sets to protect against all the draws all out there so mainly 99-JJ or overs. His small turn bet could very easily be a value bet now with 99-JJ but also with any AT, KT and AsJx, AsKx so that’s why I called. The river seemed to help me more than him and his big river bet was not indicative of TT-JJ value-towning me so really his range is 99 (maybe 88) or a missed draw. Given that I was getting over 2-1 on a call he very rarely needs to be bluffing there (6 combos of value max he only need 6 combos for a bluff and either the missed FD or missed straight draw there will be enough to make the call). Unfortunately for me he did have 99 and turned his hand and I missed my redraw. Now I’m down to 7000 chips.


Blinds go up to 300/600/50 and a couple new players sit down, one has a ginormous stack but is also rather older. He’s either good and solid aggro, an old nit, or a donk combination of the two. I pick up QJs in the BB and he makes a standard open of 2.5 bb and I’m in a bit of a quandry. If I shove I’m practically giving him 2-1 on a call so I don’t expect him to fold (although he might if he’s bad). He made it 1600, my shove would be for 6600 and he would have to call 5000 to win 9000; since he has the monster stack I don’t expect him to fold so I had to let it go. If I had 2-3 bb more I could feel more confident with a reshove there and have fold equity but with no fold equity I just let it go.
I did make one shortstack shove on the button for 10 bb, I had Q4s and stuck it in and took it down. 6 hands later I would get 77 UTG+1 with 12 bb and make the standard shove; I run into KK and that's good game/summer. That makes it 2 weeks without even a day 2, let alone a cash. Better luck next year I guess, if I decide to come.

Today’s tournament didn’t start like the others have: I didn’t have a lot of success early. I had quite a few marginal hands that didn’t go my way and a couple big ones that didn’t either.


I did my share of isolating and continuation betting the first 2 rounds, but I don’t think I took down a pot. I was picking text-book boards to do it on but nothing really went in my favor. The first big hand was at 100/200 and I’ve got 12,000 chips after starting with 15,000.


There had been a lot of limping and horrible play on my table, including people turning made hands into bluffs and really no idea at all on how to play poker. In this hand, UTG raises to 525 and a big donkey in MP, tired of losing his pots postflop, has decided to just shove preflop when he wants to play a hand. He’s down to 6,000 chips and just shoves them all in at 100/200 with no antes. I look down in the SB with KK and snap call; UTG folds and the MP Donkey flips up AJo… a pretty bad shove and standard fold in that spot. Flop comes Axx and I brick out and lose to the bad beat and I’m down to 6000 chips.


We’re still at 100/200 no antes and I pick up AJo on the button, it folds to CO who open limps and I raise to 800. My plan was to check behind any flop I wasn’t prepared to get it all in with since I have position and my opponent seemed like a donkey. He calls and the flop comes 9s 7c 3c; CO Checks, I check. Turn brings the Js; CO Checks I bet 1000 into the 1900 pot and CO Calls. I don’t put him on any kind of flush draw as if he had the draw there would be a real good chance he’d bet that turn into me instead of c/c. He can’t have much more than just TP because he would raise any two pair/set given the stack sizes and the drawy boards so I figure I have pretty much the near nuts. The river brings the 2c and he fires 2300 into the 3900 pot and I’m confused. Even though the flush hit I’m fairly confident he doesn’t have it. I think he is just block betting me with a worse J but he wont call a shove with much worse than 2 pair so I decide to flat. CO shows Jh 2h for the concealed river two pair and I am confirmed on his donkey status; also my read was right but who puts anyone on J2? He said later it was his favorite hand.


Now I’m down to 2000 chips and EP open limps–I pick up TT in Late Position and just stick it in. For some reason EP decided to bluff catch with KJo and I win my coin flip and double up to 4000 chips right before break.


I’m still not out of the water or anything; blinds are going to 100/200 after break and I’ll pretty much be in push/fold mode. Within 5 minutes after break though the same guy who limp/called the KJ now open shoves his stack (roughly 4200) and I look down and see AA. Nice. I get my chips in and he has me covered by only 1 BB or so–What’s this?! A lady over calls behind and we have a 3-way all-in! Woot! The original raiser had 88 and the overcaller behind had JJ, fairly standard IMO other than the guy’s open shove with 88. I flop top set and hold on to triple up to 12,000 chips; I’m still not at my starting stack but compared to 2000 chips 12,000 sure feels like a lot.


Here’s where the wheels fall off unfortunately. Blinds are still 100/200/25 but it is the last hand before going up to 200/400/25, so I’ll be going from 60 bb to 30 bb. I pick up Tc6c in the big blind and UTG makes it real cheap, like 525 to my left and gets a cold caller. I figure now’s probably the last time I’ll be able to see a cheap flop multiway with a hand like this so I take the opportunity. The flop comes 4d4s3c and I check, UTG raiser checks and the cold caller checks behind; I figure everyone bricked and I’ll be leading most non J+ boards on the turn and take it down quite often. Fortunately for me I pick up a monster draw on the turn: 5c, giving me the open-ended straight and flush draw. I bet 1500 into the 2000 pot to discourage a loose call and I was surprised to see the original preflop raiser make the call. He can’t have much in this spot, possibly on the very bottom of his value calling range and not willing to go much farther. He either has like Ace high or another type of draw that, even if I miss if I fire again I’ll be able to take it down; if I hit a 6 or a T for top pair I’ll probably c/c. The river brings an offsuit Q; I guess it completes a couple of his TP to go with his draws but that would only be like AQ/KcQc/QcJc and that isn’t very many combinations. I fire 2300 into 5000 pot, a very intentional small bet but looking back at it now I thought the pot was 4000 and not 5000. Making it under half pot there on the river is asking for a lot of trouble but to be honest I wasn’t expecting my opponent to fold a pair regardless and I wanted to look like I was going for small value. My opponent quickly calls and shows TT and I was very confused. I didn’t expect him to check that weak of an overpair on the flop multiway but it is possible that I don’t have enough value betting ranges in me that my hand looked like a bluff. Either way I lost 1/3 of my stack and I’m down to 8000 chips.


I was able maintain my chip stack at 8000 until 300/600/50, giving me 12.5 bb. UTG Shoves all in for 13,000 chips; something that he had done previously and is the same guy who cracked my KK earlier with AJo. I was really up in the air on if I should get this hand in or not (I had 88), especially since the blinds are going up to 400/800/100 in less than 5 minutes and I’m going to be on life support soon. I take a minute to think about it; he basically never has QQ-AA maybe even JJ in this spot because he’s going to want action on those–even if he is extremely weak and poor. So the hands that he has me crushed are pretty much 99-TT and maybe JJ 50% of the time or so; if he ever shoves there with 66-77 then it basically counteracts the equity from the domination. There might be 3-6 dangling combinations where I have only 20% equity. However, if you throw in the AJ+ of his shoves and maybe even KQ (which would be fairly standard for the player that weak) then that is 48 maybe 64 combinations where I’m a 55% favorite. So if you include KQ I’m a 55% favorite 90% of the time and 20% favorite 10% of the time which gives me: (55*.9 + 2*.1) or 51.5 % equity(ish) and I make the call. Obviously I didn’t do that in my head at the table but that is what I was thinking about and now that I think about it it was a standard call. My opponent flips up TT and I don’t catch up and bust out just before the 2nd break.


Whatever bug I had seems to be letting up, even if only marginally. I had only a few ill feelings during today’s 4 hour session so it looks like I will be finishing up the day tomorrow with another $560. Finally, I’d like to mention I did get 1 walk in the big blind at 300/600/50 with only 15 minutes and it was the only one of the entire tournament. Unfortunately I had KK in the big blind, which pretty much was a spit in the face given that at least 1 person was raising every other hand before and after that.

I didn’t spend much time at the Venetian today, busted in the 3rd hour and what is now my quickest bust yet. I had several interesting hands though, much different from my other tourneys before the first break. Unfortunately my day off resting yesterday did nothing to help my sickness as I felt queezy the entire time again as soon as I sat down. I had to send back my diet Pepsi because I just couldn’t drink it; the waitress brought me a soda w/alka seltzer which tasted bad but she assured me it would work. Well, I didn’t get to finish it in time before I busted so I guess we wont know until later lol.


The very first hand of the tournament I pick up AA and squeeze two opponents, both of which fold. Blinds are 50/100 and we’re all 15,000 chips deep and it was a good start to the day. Meanwhile, an aggressive asian had been raising nearly 30-40% of hands and folding when played back at, so he’s not doing it with too strong of a range (keep this in mind for later). Eight hands later I’m in the BB and squeeze the asian and a donk cold-caller to my right (he was very bad) with AKo and they both fold.


I get AA again in EP with blinds of 50/100 so I open to t300, I get reraised by the aggressive asian so I call knowing he’s at the top of his range and not wanting him to fold QQ/AK to my 4bet. My plan was to c/r any non-Q flop and build the pot that way; unfortunately for me I flop top set with the flush redraw so I practically have the nuts (and changes the way I play the hand. I am trying to do as much acting as possible to make it seem weak and I did get my opponent to cbet the Ace. I called and the turn brought a blank and it went check/check. The river brought another blank and I tried to represent a missed Flush Draw somehow by betting nearly full pot, hoping for a hero call. It didn’t work out and he folded so I’m assuming he had QQ-KK and played it bad on that flop. I’m up to 17,000 chips and feeling good.


Blinds go up to 75/150 and I pick up K7s in the SB. It is 5 way limped so I complete and the flop comes K93 rainbow; I check to pot control my hand and see where the action goes. UTG, who had been fairly weak/tight so far, bets t700 into the t900 pot and I wanted to fold but couldn’t help but feel exploitable if I just c/f TP everytime there. If someone else had come along then I throw it into the muck and not feel too bad about it. I call and the turn gives me two pair and completing the rainbow with the 7. So now the board reads: K937; I’ve got this guy covered probably 2-1 so I was up in the air on whether I wanted to c/r or just c/c down. The pot is t2300 and he bets 1500 into it; he could have a wide range in that position: 33, 99, K9, KQ+ and maybe even KK+ depending if he was going for a limp/reraise preflop. Using those calculations I’m not liking my equity when my shove gets called so I again c/c. The river is a blank and I check to him and he bets t5000 into the t5300 pot and I don’t think he’s bluffing; I have a hard time folding two pair so I call and hope to see AA but my read was right: he had 99 for middle set. It was kind of a cooler and I don’t know if I can fold two pair there given I’m representing a weak King and can beat AA which is still in his range.


That takes me down to t10,000 chips and I get AK in the big blind with blinds of 100/200. I’m not feeling very well and at the same time I’m having a conversation with the noob to my right about how he cheated once in online poker. There was an EP raise to t550 and the donk to my right called and I make a horrible reraise to only t1200 for some reason. I totally forgot about the person I raised and as soon as I made the raise I was like ‘fuck me’ because I new I made a mistake. I was then hoping that I would induce a light shove or something but that wasn’t going to happen; both players call and I’m facing a 3 way pot of t3900. The flop comes 953r and even though I can’t represent anything than a monster pair I decide to cbet it to t2300. It was an OK cbet since my reraise size was so small I know the guy to my right never has a hand and the original PFRer might fold a small pair although it is unlikely. The original raiser called though and we both check the turn, then he puts a small 1/2 pot river bet out there and I’m forced to fold. I’m down to 6500 chips.


I pick up 22 UTG and raise it up to t600; not the greatest raise and probably is a fold given my stack size. I get cold called by asian girl to my left but I’m not too worried because she’s a huge station preflop but has played well postflop. The flop comes A96 rainbow and is the textbook board for me to cbet my crappy pair on and hope to get 33-88 to let it go. I cbet to 1000 and she looks at my stack then calls. The turn brings another ace and I just check/fold; I’ve got a little over 5000 left going into the first break.


At this point I text Adil saying I’m playing like shit, he just texted me back saying “stop it” and I lol. Anyway, blinds are now 100/200/25 and I pick up JJ UTG+1 and raise it up to 600. The aggressive asian looks at my stack and then calls, the pot is 1700 and the flop comes Q92 rainbow. I check to him and he bets t700 and I call. The turn brings the 8d which puts the flush draw out there; I check him again and he bets 3000–nearly full pot. I really want to call here as he could have a lot of hands; his weak flop bet followed up by a big turn bet with little to no money behind doesn’t make too much sense for value. I also had the thought in my head where if I fold I can keep playing but with only 3700 chips; I didn’t like that idea and he was aggressive so I stick in my remaining 700 chips and go all in. He calls quickly and for a second there I thought I was behind, but when I flipped up my JJ he had the Ad4d for the flush draw and I hold. I’m up to t10,000 chips and feeling like I’m finally playing well again.


The very next hand I get KK UTG and I’m not even done stacking my chips yet. I raise it to 600 again and get FIVE CALLERS and I’m like ‘Oh shit.’ With an SPR of 3 I’m going to need to play this hand correctly or risk getting owned hard core by a nut camper. The flop comes Q55 with a pot of t3900; I think the best way to play my hand right now is to NOT continuation bet. If I check I get to see what the action is and if I bet I’m representing a monster hand. With only the Ace that I’m afraid of coming on the turn there aren’t many collective cards out there to hurt me if I am ahead. So I check and the very first cold caller, two my right asks how much is in the pot but before he can count it he throws a t5000 chip out there. I’m fairly confident that I have this guy crushed as it makes no sense for this guy to bet a 5 this way; also, if someone comes in and calls that big ass bet (t5000 into a t3900 pot) then I can fold my hand. Everyone folded though so I check/raise all in, knowing he’s committed himself with all his Qx hands. He instantly calls (this was the same guy who open limped the 99 and flopped the set vs me above) and he shows QQ, for the flopped boat. GG. I’m not folding there to the first guy who cold called and vs his massive overbet it would make no sense to.


I might play tomorrow if I’m feeling well enough; I realized today that I was not fit for playing but not until after I sat down. I know if I feel the same way tomorrow as I did this morning (I thought I would be OK) then I will know to not play.