Friday, June 17, 2011

6/17/2011

Hey Gang,

Just got back from a session at the casino and it was pretty meh. I was put on a great table but just couldn't get anything going. I won a few small pots uncontested and slowly chipped up. Got AIPF with QQ < JJ and things just sorta got worse from there. The table ended up being mostly regs with a few soft spots and I just nitted it up for a while. The only memorable hand of the night was actually my last. I opened TT UTG shorthanded and the BTN and the Cowboy calls from the SB. Flop comes T72r and I cb 45 and they both call. The turn is a Jx and I cb 140, which left me with about 300 behind. The BTN folds but the Cowboy calls. At this point I figure the Cowboy to have a pair with a straight draw or some shit. This guy is pretty bad and can honestly show up with anything here. I figured if he hit a straight he would have raised OTT as well. The river was a 3x and he checked to me. I thought for a while and decided shoving was the best play. He could call with any pair and it might make my hand look bluffy. He ended up tank folding and I racked up and left for the night. That last hand got me unstuck and I even got a steak dinner paid for as well.

Session 9 Recap-
Time: 5.5 hours
Buyin: $800
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $805
Profit: +5

I'm just glad that even though I ran pretty shitty, I climbed back out of the hole. I know it's just a matter of time before I just crush everyone.

Cheers,

mazzler

Thursday, June 16, 2011

6/16/2011

Hey Gang,

Just got back from Tulalip and I just got crushed. Pretty much dropped 1k with the table not even being that tough. I just put myself in shitty spots and called off my chips way too much. Not going to bore you with the hand histories, it was just me spewing and paying everyone off.

Session 8 Recap-
Time: 5 hours
Buyin: $1000
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $50
Profit: -950

Hopefully I can turn things around tomorrow.

Cheers,

mazzler

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Update 6/15/2011

Hey Gang,

Been a while since my last update. I just wanted to give you guys a quick rundown of what I've been up to since I last posted. Since the last entry I have played about 4 sessions. I played a home game on Tuesday with a group of guys I met at the casino. The game was pretty laggy even though it was just a .50/1 game. Straddles and double straddles were frequent which built the pots up pretty quickly. Long story short, I ended up dropping $350 in no time and at the end of the night I ended +190. It's a great group of guys and the games at the casino on Tuesdays isn't exactly that great either. The game is right down the street from my house so I will be definitely playing in this game more often if I continue to get invited.

The next few sessions at the casino weren't too much to write home about. I went the next day on Wednesday and actually ran into one of the guys in the home game. The game was really good and I think I ended the night +1600 or so. Thursday I remember going but I don't really remember what happened.

After baseball and a bbq on Saturday, some of the people I was with wanted to hit up the casino so I took the chance to grind on the weekend. I mainly just play during the weekdays so I can spend the weekends with my gf, but since she was amongst the group that wanted to go, I finally got to play on the weekend. I immediately got seated at a table with a couple of my friend's friends. Just a couple standard younger asian guys. First hand I played vs one of them I opened 99 from UTG and got flatted in MP. Comes down T82r and goes check, check. Turn is Jx and I c/c a bet of 40. River is a 3x and I figured he might just be bluffing and he could only bet a straight or a Jack and he ended up showing me AJo. OOPS. I then proceeded to 3b the hell out of the other guy and he folded every single time to me. This chipped me back up to my original buyin of $500. The next hand of interest came against the same guy I was 3b'n relentlessly. I opened CO with 87dd and got a caller on the BTN and the guy squeezes to 70. I flat because we both got about $600 and the BTN was a pretty bad player. BTN flats and flop comes Q45dd. Squeezer checks and I bet $110 and take it down. Little later in the night the guy to my right had shown a propensity to bluff a ton and really wanted to get in a hand with him. The time came when he opened CO and I flatted 96cc on BTN and one of the blinds came along. Flop comes 962ss and the original raiser bet $25 and I raised to $75 which he flatted. Turn was a 3s and he led into me for about $110 with about $250 behind. I decided to flat and reevaluate on the river. The river brought a 3x and he shoved and I tank called after about 2 minutes and he showed me the Qd and mucks. I'm not sure if he had QQ or just air. After this hand I just slowly chipped up and decided to quit after about a couple hours to catch up with the rest of the gang. Ended the session +900.

The last session I played was just last night. I quickly found out that Monday nights/Tuesday mornings are REALLY slow. There were only two tables on 3/5 running and both were shorthanded. I got placed on the asian gambling table it seemed. There were 5 of us and it seemed every pot had at least a $100 preflop and all ins were very frequent. It took me a while to adjust since most of the players aren't this aggressive so I slowly bled chips trying to figure out how to play against this lineup. I got down to about $230 from my original buyin of $500 when the pot was straddled and opened to $30 and every at the table called. I decided this was a good squeeze spot. I looked down in the straddle and saw the Ace of clubs and shoved. I was met by a reraise and was up against QQ. I actually got lucky against my opponent and took it down with A3o. The guy to my right looked at me befuddled as to why I would ship with A3o lol. I told him I just was squeezing and he didn't seem to understand. The very next hand they had a cowboy come over to our table and he immediately raises to $30 and I look down at AA in the SB and 3b to $120 with about $500 effective. He flats and we see a flop of 532dd. I decided to just open shove to make my hand look bluffy and he might call with an overpair. He did decide to call and the board ran out Tx, Tx, and I scooped the pot. After this hand they combined both tables it was just a rollercoaster for me. My stack fluctuated from 1k to 500 for most of the night. I eventually got down to $250 after an ill advised bluff vs the cowboy. I ended up getting my stack in AK v AA and almost decided to leave after dropping $500. I decided to reload and a new player sat down who turned out to be very gambly. He had about $250 left in his straddle and I open AQo to $30 and he shoves and I call. He turns over 96cc and I hold. The very next hand I open AKo UTG and the same guy squeezes to 120. He has about $400 total and I just ship and he calls with 64o and I hold again. After a few orbits this guy ends up leaving and I am dead tired by this time. I played for about 6 hours and wanted to beat traffic on the way home. I ended up cashing out $1130 for a profit of $130. This was by far the hardest day for me. I was card dead for a long time and the competition was just a lot better than usual. I am hoping this trend isn't going to continue and that I can get on some softer tables.


Session 3 Recap-

Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: .5/1 Home Game
Cashout: $680
Profit: +180


Session 4 Recap-

Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $2100
Profit: +1600

Session 5 Recap-
Don't remember

Session 6 Recap-
Time: 2 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5NL
Cashout: $1400
Profit: +900

Session 7 Recap-
Time: 6 hours
Buyin: $1000
Stakes 3/5NL
Cashout: $1130
Profit: $130

Here's hoping that Monday won't happen again!

Cheers,

mazzler

Monday, June 6, 2011

6/6/2011

Hey Gang,

Just got back from Tulalip after a day of doing nothing. That's my idea of perfect Sunday! Anyway I made the drive up north and saw that there were a lot more tables on this night than the Thursday night I played last time. I was on the waitlist for about 30 minutes before getting onto a table. The first table I was at seemed okay from the look of it. The first hand I played, I iso'd to 25 w/ 33 in MP v an UTG limper. Flop came KK5hh and the limper c/c my bet of 35. Turn was a 8x and the limper again c/c for 65. River was a 3x and this guy c/c a $200 shove with KQ. That got me up to about 800 and got berated for a while. It's always fun to get berated because the people that do it are always so bad. My last hand at this table happened against this guy that had been drinking for a bit but actually seemed like the only one that knew what he was doing. I opened QQ from UTG to 20 and get him to call from the SB. Flop comes Q76 and drunk guy c/c $25. Turn is a nice 2x which the drunk again c/c $65. The river was a Kx and for some reason he led for $225 which left him with about $125 behind. I shoved after a couple seconds and gives a speech about me having KQ or something but he mucked pretty quick after that.

Our table broke after a while and I got moved to another table and scanned around the table. I had a guy wearing some Las Vegas hat to my right and one other player a two seats to my right that looked reggish. When I say reggish, I mean he looked young and had a big stack. Turned out that this guy was pretty good so I chose my spots against this particular player. After a couple orbits of mucking, I picked up AQo from the BB. The reggy guy opens to $15 on BTN, asian SB flats, and I 3b to $55. The SB overcalls and the flop comes K77 and the SB c/c $50. Turn is 8x and SB c/f to a bet of $120. I figure he flats with a lot of small PP and double barreling will get him off most of those hands. A few hands later I pick up AA in MP and I squeeze the reg and SB and get no action. The very next hand I pick up AKss and squeeze the same two guys again by the SB overcalls. We were both about $1600 deep at this point. Flop comes 722cc and SB leads for $300. At this point I'm like wtf. It looks so much like 99-JJ but I'm not sure if he is folding to a raise. I contemplated just flatting but in the end I just mucked because I told myself I should avoid those marginal situations. There was one really huge whale at the table that would L/C pretty much his whole range. He got c/r on a KQJT9sss and actually shoved with JTo. LOL.

The most interesting hand of the night was when I got into a hand with the reggy looking guy. He opened CO to $20 and I 3b to $55 on BTN w/ K7ss. He 4b to $160 and for some reason in Washington, you can only put in 3 raises. He had about $600 total and I had him covered. I elected to flat because it looks super strong on my end and I had position. Flop comes 852r and he checks. I decided to bet $110 and he tanked for about 5 minutes before folding. The reason I 3b and flatted was because I had already 3b him about 3 or 4 times beforehand and he always folded. I feel like he was positionally aware that I could show up light so I think he could be 4b'n light as well. When he checks, I am only worried he played AA tricky and would c/r but I still elected to bet because I am obv never going to win that pot at showdown and needed to put maximum pressure on him.

Session 2 Recap-
Time: 4 hours
Buyin: $500
Stakes: 3/5
Cashout: $1515
Profit: +1015

Just need to keep grinding and I feel like I have a huge edge in these games. I am hoping the games are this good on the other days I plan on going. Good luck at the tables.

Cheers,

mazzler

Friday, June 3, 2011

Resurrection

Hey Gang,

Long time no post! Since my last post a lot has gone down. I was doing pretty well up until April, playing mostly 200NL and 400NL. Then Black Friday hit and everyone just got shitted on. I have to admit that this was pretty depressing and I took the next few weeks off to try and just figure out what to do next. Along with poker, I do financial planning on the side that I could always fall back on. Just last week though I decided I would try to do the live grind for a month to see how I would do and re-access at the end of the month.

This blog is going to mainly talk about my live sessions and just a way for me to record keep for myself. There are a couple casinos within 30-40 minutes of me that I have to choose from but I have decided to grind mostly at Tulalip Casino. The reason I chose Tulalip over Snoqualmie is because of the $500 max buy at the 3/5 game as opposed to only $300 max at Sno. The poker room is also better IMO because of the spaciousness of Tulalip. The Sno poker room is like a sardine can where every table is squished right next to each other and it is cold as hell in there.

I had my first session of the month last night and found out that Tulalip has a hourly high hand promotion worth $200. This was the cherry on top of everything I mentioned previously about Tulalip. I took a look at the waitlists and decided to hop on the 3/5 game to shake the rust off my live game before diving into 5/10. I usually play a little tighter when I first get to the table just to get a feel for my opponents. I quickly found that there were 2 solid players at my table and the rest were pretty big fish. The first hand of note happened about 5 minutes after I sat down. I iso'd a UTG+1 and MP limp with J8cc on BTN to 25. Flop came Ax7s2s; I got c/c by UTG+1 for 40. Turn was another Ace. UTG+1 c/c again for 95. I cbet here because he might dump his FD with the board pairing and even if he has an ace, I don't think he has a very strong kicker. The river came a 9x. I bet 185 this time thinking he was going to fold all his small aces but he actually tank called after about 5 minutes with A8ss. I guess I'm just a fish and I shouldn't try to bluff so much. This helped me build an aggro image though because it seemed as though I was the only person at the table willing to bluff. After this hand I topped off to 500 again.

No other hands of note really came up for the next few hours but I slowly chipped up to even with about a $800 stack. The next hand of interest began when it got limped around to me in the SB and I woke up with KK. I raise it up to 35 and got 1 call by a nit reg. Flop came down Q99r and I elected to check because I think his hand consists of a lot of pocket pairs and I only really get value from some Q's and JT. Nitreg checked back and the turn was a 3x. I cb 45 and got called. River is a 7x which I wasn't entirely happy about but I bet 80 and was prepared to fold to a raise but he just flatted and mucked.

The game ran pretty shorthanded for a while, having usually 4-5 players until the end of the night where they combined another table with ours. It was just playing as many hands as possible against the fish and value betting as best I could. There was one guy that would never bet his strong hands and would c/c his mid set vs TP. It made it a lot easier for me to play against him because he played so passively. I was able to pick my spots carefully and ended the night with about a $1250 stack. After my total buyin of $800, I was up about $450 after about 5 hours of grinding.

Overall I'm happy with how I played because the table wasn't exactly the best since there were actually a few good players at the table. I plan on playing Sunday-Thursday between 11pm-5am. I'm hoping the games will be running during those times as its the only time I can really go.

Session 1 Recap-
Time: 5 hours
Buyin: $800
Cashout: $1250
Profit: +450

Hopefully we can get some rungood and crush this month.

Cheers,

mazzler