Final July session and month-end results

Another good session to put a close on this frustrating month, just shy of 1500 hands for $633, 10.59PTBB/hr. As seems to be my tradition I stacked off early, 4bet shoving JJ in a button v BB spot against an aggro reg, and having him make a good call with QQ. Spewy shove imo as the reg in question is an 84% fold-to-3bet. Big mistake.

Lost big pots with a 66 3bet-bluff line gone horribly wrong against a reg (cr'd flop, big donk bet on turn that he called, river check-fold), called an overshove from a spewy donk with TP when he had KK three-handed, lost a big one with AT against AQ after turning TP and rivering trips (he floated the flop with AQ hi, the bastard), and an AA that I had the sense to fold on the river against what seemed a pretty obvious flush.

Stacks I won:

TT raised EP, MP and button called, flopped top set, bet, he called. Turn, bet, he raised pretty big, I shoved, he called with AA. River an unneeded but somewhat humorous T. FPS FTL.

88 facing KQs on an 8QK flop.

Button good TAG reg steals from button, I defend SB with AsQh. Flop 2TJ rainbow. I check he bets I call - not going anywhere with the gutshot+overs that are often good, not to mention no law says I can't have the best hand right now. Turn K. Woot :) I CR he calls, river offsuit 3 brick, I VB $108 into $142 pot, he calls with KJ. Implied odds FTW.

3 limpers, I overraise the SB to $18 with KhKd. Donkey in MP calls, flop 6QKcc. I bet $25 into $42 he calls, turn Jd. I push $78 into $92, he instacalls with JcAc, reasonable but very low EV call in this spot. River 9d.

AcKc in the BB. EP raise to $6, one cold-caller, I pop to $25. Coldcaller calls. Flopo 67Qcc. I bet $40, half the guy's remaining stack, he instashoves, I instacall, he tables AhQh and is ahead, but I turn the 2c.

I open MP2 with QQ, SB defends, flop 6QJ. 1/2 pot vbet on flop, called, turn A, 1/2 pot vbet, opponent minraised, I shoved, he called with AJ, I dodged his 2-outer.

For the month in cash games I finished +$2,598.90 for 1.85PTBB/100 over 35,056 hands. I definitely lost money in tournaments this month too, though exactly how much I'm not quite sure. A couple hundred, maybe.

It's funny. In terms of raw $$ this was actually a more profitable month than June, though I don't feel nearly as good about it becase last month I ran 5.93PTBB/100 and could basically do no wrong, whereas this month I ran 1.85PTBB/100 over 15k more hands for an hourly rate of much less ($63.97 last month compared to $41.09 this month).

Looking for a positive, though, I feel like my psychological fortitude is much tougher than it was earlier in the year and even when I was swinging downward, I never really let my emotions get the best of me, nor did I make major adjustments to my play in the spirit of trying to "catch up", which is what I'm pretty sure got me into so much trouble in the February-March timeframe. On balance it was a successful but frustrating month, and what I have to do, I think, is just remind myself that I'm making money playing a game, only "working" for 63 hours this month and still making enough to get by.

My graph for the month is a little crazy. LOL SineWaveAments.



Although I'm playing many less hands than a great many "pros", I will probably get fewer hands in over August as I will be preparing to move back to Wisconsin. Big month in terms of volume, and my first month spent entirely at 1-2.

Some of it is back

1400 hands for $634 today, winning my two biggest pots with aces. One was against an absolute donkey who cold-called from position, called a cbet on a Jd 8h 4d flop, called a huge cbet on a 2c turn, and stacked off a half-PSB river bet on a Js river. His hand? 8d 7d!!! LOL. I guess he put me on AK? The sick thing was even after the J paired my bet was still a v-bet. This guy just didn't fold. He was a pretty decent favorite on that flop but maybe didn't understand he didn't get another card :)

Another one was a generic AA v QQ where the dude overplayed it terribly on an undercard flop. Tables were really donkalicious tonight.

I also won about $165 on Sunday night, but that really only made back what I blew in donkaments, without a single cash. One of them, a $24 buyin with 800ish entrants, I bubbled, busting 5 from the money, when a donkey open-shoved from the button with JTo for 15bb. I snapcalled from the BB with AK and lost. That tilted me *hard*, I'd have had a top 10 stack at that point and had a very good shot to go deep. Such a sick game.

MTD is +$1965 for 1.46PTBB/100, minus maybe $150 in donkament losses. One more day to bet back to a respectable month.

Back down...

1,982 hands today, down another $750. Getting fucking tired of this shit.

Stacks I lost:

AA < QQ for 125bb
AK < AA on an A high flop
KK < AA, AIPF, overaggroo button vs. my SB
AK < AA, AIPF after 4betting a PF-3bet spewmonkey whose PF3B was 8%.

Stacks I won:
AA > QQ, 3bet preflop, AI on 9 high flop
AK > TT for 70bb, dude limp-called with TT, check-called 2 streets on K hi flop, donkshoved river when an undercard paired.
KK > 88 for 61bb, dude limp-called, donked a 7 hi flop, called my raise, donked again and called my AI.

Just so fucking disgusting. Between last night and today, monthly profit is down to $1,162 over 31,406 hands. 0.93PTBB/100 for those keeping track, a pathetic $20.59/hr.

I honestly don't think I'm playing bad, just running like shit over the past 24 hours.

When I said I was tired of breaking even, this is not the result I had in mind...

2,263 hands last night, -$443.15. Friday night variance. Lost a stack to an overset, lost quite a bit trying to pound through nitty players that actually turned out to have flopped huge hands, and lost a lot after having made sick value bets only to have my donkey opponents catch their 4-outers. Those sorts of things add up quickly, and while I wasn't playing great, definitely got unlucky.

Back to the tables for some Saturday afternoon action, though.

Moar breakeven prz!

866 hands for +$13.55. Over double yesterday's winrate! Yesterday was 0.18PTBB/100. Today was 0.39PTBB/100!

Every big hand I played and lost was either some kind of ridiculous bad beat or a fucked-up hand where my opponent had something completely screwy:

I open MP1 to $7 with 77, BB 3bets me to $20. We're 120BB deep so this is retarded. I call. Flop: 7JK rainbow. BB bets $25 into $41 pot, I raise to $100, he pushes ($108 more), I instacall. He shows Ad Kc. Turn Td, River Qd, gg me.

I open MP3 to $7 with Ah Kd. CO, a 13/9/unstable who I note overplays TP 3bets me to $24. Folded to me, I call. Flop Ac 3h 5h. I check he bets $28. I call. Turn Qc. I check he checks. River 8c. I bet $20 into $107, he gross-raises me to $79. Because he's unstable I call, he tables Qs 8s. WTF?

OTB with 7d 8d. HJ limps, CO (total 65/10 spewbox station with 70bb) limps, I limp, SB limps, BB checks. Flop: 3d 4c Td. Checked to CO who bets $10 (PSB), I raise to $30, folded to him, he calls. Turn 5d. He checks, I bet $40, he minraises to $80, I push for $13 more, he calls, tables Ts 3s for top/bottom pair. River 3c. gg me.

MP1, a horrible, spewy SS with 25bb, limps. MP3 limps, I raise the HJ to $11 with Ac Kd. Folded to the limpers who both call. Flop 5d 6d Ks. Spewbox shortie instapushes for $38, $1 more than a PSB, I instacall. Spewbox shows 7c 8s (nice limp-call with 25bb!) Turn 5c, River 4c. gg me.

I limp UTG with 2c 2d. UTG+1, a pretty decent player, limps. Folded to the BB who checks. UTG+1 and I are 210bb deep. Flop 2h Qd Ah. Checked to me, I bet $4 (into $7), UTG+1 calls, BB folds. Turn Ks. I bet $10, UTG+1 raises to 30, I call. River 8d. I check to him, he overbets the pot, $100 into $75. I smell the nuts and fold.

Folding bottom set isn't something I do, particularly when i need to put my opponent exactly on TJ to do so, but here I thought it was absolutely correct as this villain isn't overbetting the pot without the nuts here, and as deep as we are his call on the flop is perfectly justifiable and in fact mandatory IMO. Maybe he VERY rarely shows up with two pair here, but this is basically never a bluff and I don't know that I ever really beat anything here. I feel very confident about the correctness of the fold.

That's every pot I lost in which I lost over $30. Sick. To offset it, I stacked two guys holding sets (once against KK overs, once against an overplayed AQ on a Q96 flop). KK on a 4A8 flop was good (don't know what the other guy had, 3bet pot pre he checked to me I checked back, he bet $38 into the $65 pot on a turn of 4c, I raised, and he folded for his last $18 into a $156 pot, LOL. 8d 9d made a flush against the spewbox that 4-outed me against a made flush earlier, got him to fold a big pot on the river. As Qh was good on a 9c 2d Ac Qs board (dude folded on the turn), and Kh Ks turned a boat when I'm pretty sure I was good anyway.

I flopped a lot of sets today, but thanks for the horrific runner-runner beat for 110bb and the other assorted craziness I was way, way below expectation.

Hey, though, at least I'm pulling breakeven sessions out of this bullshit.

Bbbbbbbbbbreakeven!

Played 1,684 hands today to win a grand total of $12.40, and I hate myself for it because I spewed off a stack completely unnecessarily. I defended an mp raise with AQo in the BB against a kinda spewy player, and then proceeded to call pot, pot, AI an on AAxxx from the preflop raiser. This guy didn't know how to do anything other than pot, so I thought he was still doing that with various aces, but of course he had AK. Why do I do stupid shit like that?

Got oversetted for another buyin, then played a weird hand with 7x7s where I raised UTG and a tight player called from MP. Flop came Qc6sKs, I bet he calls. Turn is As, I think, good card to 2barrel, bet 40 he calls. I decide he must actually think he has something. River comes 8s tho, I check he bets 80, and I just think he's bluffing because I can't see how any good spade hand actually got there. Maybe AQs, but this player was tight enough that I really didn't think AQo was a hand he cold-called an EP raise with a tight player. I feel like he's disgusted with AK and can't possibly have the flush, and call. He has QxQs. Doh.

I take a beat with KQo, shorthanded pot against a donkey that overplays everything. I raise, button calls, flop 4TK rainbow. Cbet 10, he calls, turn 7. Bet 20, he raises AI (34 more), snapcall, he shows AT, river T. FAWK.

$140 more at the same shorthanded table. Another big time overplayer, huge payoff wizard. He raises button, I oversize a 3bet from the BB with QQ, he snapcalls. Flop 557. I bet 40 into 57, he calls. Turn 3, I shove 74, he calls, shows 55. Doh.

At my low point I was down about $540. Then I have a nice one. Folded to CO whose ASB was 40%, he raises, I 3bet him with 66 on the button. Blinds fold, he calls. His fold-to-3bet was like 90% so I figure he actually has something. Flop 256 rainbow. Nice :). He CR's me AI, snapcall, he says "..." Bad luck for him, but it's an auto 3bet of course. No law says he can't 4bet it.

Then I played what may be my most interesting hand of the year. Still thinking about it.

A very tight 11/6 player opens UTG+1 for $8, folded to me in the BB where I call with 2s 2d. Flop comes Jh 3c 6h. I check, he bets $12 (into $17), and I decide to raise to $36. This is something I almost never do but like to do once in a while against a player that is very nitty and hates stacking off w/overpairs. That's my read here so I go with it. Unfortunately he calls.

Turn is 5h. Even if I was planning on turning my cr into a multistreet bluff, this is a good card to hit the brakes with as a hand like AhKh or AhQh is very much in his range, plus if we think he has an AA or KK overpair, half the time it'll have a big heart which we're not often getting to fold. I wasn't really planning to run a big multistreet bluff anyway, and check.

Curiously, he checks back. Odd, I think, but in my mind I'm still done with the hand. I don't think he has the flush as if he believes there's a decent chance I have a set, he absolutely must bet here to charge a draw to the boat. If he thinks there's a good chance he has the best hand, I'd say he has a big heart. Curious.

River is the 4d, giving me the bottom end of a miracle runner-runner straight. I think I'm absolutely golden, and bet $45 into the $89 pot.

Dude raises me to $125!!! This leaves me reeling. Obviously representing the flush. But I just thought on the turn, no way does he have the flush! So weird. He's not on the level in one of his two moves, either the turn check or the river raise. I tank. Which is less characteristic of this guy? That timer ticks down so f'ing fast. Finally I decided to go with my read on the turn, which was that he had like AhAx or possibly KhKx. I call. He flips over Ah As and I drag the $326 pot.

Obv I got sickly lucky but I really don't think I like his river raise. I mean, I get that he thinks his AA has absolutely no showdown value and is going for the only way he can win the pot, but it's just not a credible representation of the flush imo, the turn gives him away. Folding is sick too. Gross spot for villain on river, but I think I just cry and call with the AA, I think it has some showdown value.

Very interesting hand.

Downswing? What downswing?

Very brief sessions both yesterday and today: 487 hands yesterday for -$45 (dropped a buyin TT<AK pre, won a buyin 9Js>QQ on 8TAQ board (ouch on turn for opponent), lost 1/4 a buyin in the ebb and flow.

Today I was feeling like shit and didn't want to play at all, but wanted to qualify for my ironman for the day. 395 hands, +$567.55. Ran like God. Perhaps even ran like Patrik Antonius.

Big hands were: AdKd>QQ on Qd4d3d flop (phew! it held!), KcAc>AA on 2cTs8c flop (phew! I sucked out!), 44>AA on K84 flop. Biggest hand I lost was QQ AIPF against AK for $70ish.

Here's my graph for the past four days. This shit is bananas.

~9k of breakeven? Sure, happens all the time!