davidnso

You have a way with words that makes me wet, Phil.

July Summary

A breakeven month. The image above highlights the sessions of the month -- steady winning sessions, then two complete disasters. The 30 minute session outlines the worst runbad I've experienced; QQQ < bdfd OTF, KK < AA 2x, AQ > AK. Now, the second worst session of the month was just a tilt session. I started back up winning 12 stacks within a week.

This exemplifies the importance of not spewing, and maintaining your composure. Aside from the two fuckeries noted above, the month would've been solid.

Other than that, felt good about my routine. Back in with studying, meditating, and overall good mentality going. Found that breaks away from poker are good for sessions, who knew. Need to reach 50nl by the end of the month, and 100nl soon thereafter. My study group is making gains and my mental game is keeping me at a stand still.

Simple August Goals:
- Keep up the routine
- Beat 3bb+/100 at 25nl
- Get into 50nl
- Study every topic for my board examination

Haven't updated in nearly a month; partly because I have been busy, and mainly because I was embarrassed of my results.

Worst month, ever.

I was trying to squeeze in maximum volume, consistently trying to chase losses throughout the month, and more importantly it was the last stretch of wedding planning -- I got married on July 9, 2017!

That said, I took a break from poker for 1.5 weeks the beginning of this month to focus on the wedding.

In retrospect, everything leading up to the wedding was very stressful internally; even though I would say my natural outward demeanor is pretty calm and chill. I was blind to this and still attempted to fit in everything at once, leading to a terribly, bad, worst-month-ever result after winning at 5bb/100 and 3.xbb/100 in the two months prior.

No surprise, quick HH review revealed a lot of mindless spew and button-clicking calldowns. I was NOT focused.

To my surprise, doing a statistical analysis versus some crushers, my stats are in line with a lot of important areas with only a few minor tweaks here and there. It makes you wonder, and probably lead your mind towards the fact that crushers rarely spew, tilt, and do mindless calldowns.

I feel like I am not too far from crushing, as others in my poker study group have jumped up from 50z to 100z in the weeks I stopped playing and is up like 65+ stacks.

Not to babble too long, we'll turn it around this month. For real this time. ;)

Thanks mate! Appreciate you reading.

Through not even the first week of the month, 10+ BI down. Haven't had a downswing like this in a while. Tilt started inching in after consistently getting battered. Ironic because I felt my I had an A+ mental game in May. Gotta remember, it's The Continuous Struggle.

In other news, on Saturday someone pulled out and gave me their bib to do a half-marathon on Sunday. The past 3 weeks I have only been drinking with no training whatsoever. I guess you can say I've been carbo-loading for the past 3 months to prepare. ;) Amazingly, I jogged 11.5 miles straight with a respectable time until both my legs cramped up; I wasn't out of breath or tired at all and felt like I could run for days, but my body just wasn't conditioned for it. I had to limp the rest of the way across the 13.1 mile finish line. In the end, I did finish.

(insert poker metaphor here) :)

Glgl everyone, still aiming for a 7bb/100 month!

May Summary

Graph

Stake Breakdown

Goals
[X] 30k hands
[ ] Meditate daily
[X] Continue to win at 25nl
[ ] Shot 50nl only when your head is clear, and the games are good
[X] Focus on improving the analysis stats above; with an emphasis on BB, SB play
[ ] Clean up professional resume, apply for jobs, study for license exam

Met half of my goals for the month. Had a very busy month with graduating, and 2 mini-vacations so my routine & flow was interrupted. Couldn't meditate daily with the 2 weeks of drinking that I did, and didn't really set aside time to focus on getting a job yet. That should all change in June.

The first half of May was meh, but I am really happy with the second half where I feel like I refocused and played quality sessions. This is evident if you look on the graph at around the 15.5k hand mark, where my redline is pretty steady for the rest of the time through. Really hope this trend continues all through June. If it does, I think we can move to 50nl pretty comfortably very soon.

We are doing okay but nothing amazing. I'm not improving at the rate that I thought I would; however, 100nl by the end of the year is definitely possible. I have been studying everyday (HH, theory, mental game, stats analysis, leakfinders), and still find there are holes in my thought process that the crushers have, i.e., identifying combos with better blockers to determine sizing and lines, etc. Debating if I should sacrifice volume for more study time. This may be ambitious because studying takes a ton of mental energy & discipline, so it is definitely draining.

We recently rostucko'd 25nl, now we just have to reach 5bb/100 to climb up to 50nl (our goal is really 3bb/100, but I feel like to beat the next stake we should aim higher). Again, when that time comes to move up permanently in stakes, the biggest obstacle for me will be mental game -- as having to lose one buy-in take a larger percentage of your bankroll feels devastating even though it is inevitable.

Progress since our journal started

Got a wedding coming up in July, bills to pay for (yay -- not sure I'm going to do this with no income at the moment LOL!). Going to try to grind some live for some easy $. If things go well, I might make a week trip to WSOP to yolo it.

Good luck, everyone!

June Poker Goals + non-poker related
- 30k hands
- Study poker daily (1 hour)
- Meditate daily (5 - 15 minutes)
- Exercise daily (1 hour)
- Shot 50nl only after you've achieved 3bb/100 when your head is clear, and the games are good
- Sign up for licensure exam, apply for jobs, study for license exam (4 hours/day, 5 days/week)

I finally found the time to update this thing after my vacation/graduation. Figure I would use it to answer the 3-week late Poker Question of the Month for April, which was "How often do we x/r on A-high textures defending in SRP BB vs EP?"

I ran some PIO sims for BBvsEP SRP (using a 11 flop A-high subset) facing a 1/3psb strategy and was surprised at first. Initially, I thought that we would be having a very call-heavy strategy (60% -- call me a passive nit!), with very minimal raising being done; however, upon further review we see that the average raising frequency in this spot is 9.74%. While this isn't astronomically high, I was honestly expecting around the 5-6% range at most. We are calling a fair amount of cbets as well at 53%, and folding only 37% of our range. As expected, IP is pushing very heavy equity at (55.9%) so in general, we are going to be doing a lot of checking.

Now to answer the question. What combos do we decide to attack with in our raising range across these textures? Try to answer this yourself by working some of the flops in Flopzilla to compare what PIO comes up with. It's a way to test yourself and see where we went wrong in our thought process, and why. Best way to learn is to give effort! Anyway, we'll take a closer look at three flops. One with the highest raising frequency and one with the lowest of this 11 flop subset is, I'm sure you guys can figure out everything in between. ;)

Highest raising frequency: 13.81% on As Jd 7s

Value raises: AJx, JJ (50%), 77.
Bluffs: T8(ss/dd), T9(ss/dd), 97dd, 87dd, KTss, KTdd (50%), QTss, QTdd (35%), and some JsTx, QsTx, KsTx.

The value raises are self-explanatory. The bluffs include a lot of the gutshot + fd/bdfd type combos that also block villain's continuing middling range. The pair + bdfd with the 97dd, 87dd. I'm surprised to see KTs being x/r more than QTs, as I would've guessed Kx would be preferred more as a x/c with it's slightly better SDV. The Js/Qs/Ks-Tx hands are raised at a reasonable frequency as well, but I don't see myself pulling the trigger on these combos in my games too often as it would just set up for more complex decisions on future streets.

Lowest raising frequency: 6.83% on Ad Js Ts

Value raises: KQo (30% at most!), KQs (spades only at 50%, calling the rest), JJ (20%). Not much!
Bluffs: K9ss/dd, K8ss/dd, K7ss, Q9ss/dd, Q8ss/dd

This makes the most sense. As the broadways should interact with IP's range very hard, although we have a fair amount of it as well only without the AA nutted set, but we do have all combos of KQx, JTx, AJx, ATx, JJ (sometimes), and TT. That said, I'm surprised that almost all of our sets are checking a lot and we're not opt to fast play our nuts on this flop, making our calling range is pretty nutted. What does this tell us? IP should proceed very cautiously on future streets if called. Again, our bluffs include some higher equity hands that have blockers to villain's continuing range and some backdoor potential.

Keep in mind these are versus a 1/3psb strategy. When analyzed going against a 2/3psb strategy, our x/r, x/c, and x/f frequencies change substantially, and as I initially thought on the lower side outlined below. Obviously, our counter-strategy is dependent on villain and this changes the whole landscape and while it's another discussion, intuitively you guys should get the point. :)

Well, that's it for now. Going to save the graph update for next week since it's almost the end of the month. Hope this helped someone. If there's any questions, comments, or errors you found lmk and I'll be happy to take another look at these solutions.

April Summary

Short-term goals:
[X] Organization - Create a solid structure for grinding/studying
[X] Confidence Booster - End the month with a profit (even if it is 0.5bb/100!)
[ ] Mindfulness - Meditate before each grind, and workout at least 4x/week

Long-term goals:
[X] Don't move up stakes until you are a 3bb/100 winner over at least 50k hands
[X] Put in at least 30k hands per month (regular tables)
[ ] Go from 10NL to 100NL by the end of 2017
[ ] Be a winning player at the end of 2017
[ ] Become a PIO guru

Graph since thread started, three and a half months in

Goals that we did well on
We profited! Ended the month with a solid sample of 25nl at over 5bb/100, and towards the end that brought me over my 3bb/100 over the last 50k hands so I shotted 50nl for a session or two and ran bad there. Although, I do feel like I should slow down in moving up to 50nl because my Non Showdown winnings aren't where I would like them to be at 25nl, and the regs at 50nl considerably defend attacks more.

Goals that need improvement
Fell off the meditation routine in April, time to get back on the train for May with it daily. Did not work on PIO as much this past month either; however, I have been watching videos and taking notes everyday so that surely makes up for it (some videos focusing on PIO).

What to look for this month
Volume will surely be down this month, as I am graduating and flying out for about 1.5 weeks, which is part of the reason why I played almost double my usual volume to meet my quota. In addition, that means I have to start replacing poker study time with actual study time for my license exam which I plan on taking in late June or July. Also, I have to set aside time to finally start applying for full-time jobs. It's going to be a busy month.

May Goals + non-poker related
- 30k hands
- Meditate daily
- Continue to win at 25nl
- Shot 50nl only when your head is clear, and the games are good
- Focus on improving the analysis stats above; with an emphasis on BB, SB play
- Clean up professional resume, apply for jobs, study for license exam

To keep this short, I will answer the April Poker Question of the Month in a few days, I will also have to think of a question for May as well.

Until then, thanks for reading & glgl fellas!

Good luck JC! We're on a similar journey, will be following.

@quido: thanks bud, cheers! ;)

@luigi/@quido: My EP RFI is definitely on the higher side at 18.7, over the past 100k hands. I recently eliminated a couple offsuit combos from my range as I saw that I was losing with them -- maybe this does contribute to it. Sample may also be a factor as well, over the past 140k hands, got a 12k sample in EP.

Not totally sure what the difference is b/w 4b range and 4b tot, but I was referring to 4b tot. I just checked and my 4b range is at 3.7 in this position so definitely not adding bluffs, or attacking certain players enough.

Appreciate the feedback guys!

April 3rd Week Progress

So I accidentally hopped into a 5/10 game, clicked 'Join Table' instead of 'View Table' and there was one guy sitting (other two were sitting out) so it automatically posted my BB. I was dealt 44 and he minraised. Flop came AA4; I said "well fuck me." Turn/River Kx-5x. Ended up winning but I played the boat like I had TPWK and didn't want to risk getting coolered over something foolish.

April Stats Analysis: Things to improve on
1. Increase BB 3b vs BTN/CO/SB steal
2. Biggest positional EV bb/100 to work on: SB, EP. They're both at -15 and 2.4, respectively. I have no idea why my EP EV bb/100 is so damn low.
3. Increase 4bet from BTN vs resteal, currently only at 5% and doubling this would be ideal
4. Identify textures where the turn favors our range to barrel more liberally
5. Increase bet turn vs skipped cbet
6. Still folding too much in the BB
7. Increase x/r OTF as PFR

Thanks for reading, gl all.

Quick April Update

25NL going well, 10NL I spewed 8-10 stacks last night. Even you can lose at micros when you don't focus. When I'm focused, I'm winning. When I try to chase losses, I lose more. Not much else to add, but I have stalled in answering the March Question, so here it is:

March Question of the Month: When to check back or bluff with Ax high?

Objectives
1. Things to consider: Why do we normally decide to x/b or bluff with some parts of our range?
2. Range considerations
3. Population tendencies

Things to consider: When we normally bet

In general, we usually check back the middle part of our range that has enough SDV, and decide to bluff with the bottom part of our range that would like to fold out some of villain’s middling range as well. What I’ve seen so far through PIO and flopzilla is that when we consider this with the Ax part of our range we want to consider to main things: 1) Range vs range and 2) Specific reads on villain. We’ll assume that this is versus regs.

Hand 1: Hero opens EP vs Villain CC in BTN SRP.

Hero has standard EP range of 16-18% of hands. Villain’s CC frequency in these positions is around 5-6%.

Preflop Equity:

Flop: J53r – Hero check, V bets 1/3, Hero calls

Flop Equity:

Even though villain lacks top 3% of range, I initially thought we’re still at a range disadvantage as their range is super narrow and we’re not looking to pile money into the pot on this texture. However, after running this through equilab it is a rather neutral texture. Either way, usually we can keep it simple and check most of our range OOP. If we do bet all the time, it would be borderline spew to always attack these aggressively. So naturally we decide to x/c OTF on this rather dry texture, and we’d be continuing with a good portion of our range here vs 1/3psb.

Turn: Qx – Hero check, V check

This is a card that hits our continuing range v v hard, one that would make us keen to attack a lot of rivers when villains checks it back. When the river comes a blank, we can even consider putting in a 1/2psb or less with AKx, ATx, and A5s-A2s. Our goal here is to fold out TT-77, and all the single underpairs that make up a good portion of their range when they take this line.

Of course, we would do this only versus most regs and would have to tailor it specific to reads and stats. So some stats to consider: WTSD, Fold 2 river bet (in this case, v river bet - SRP IP), fold vs turn/river probe. I think these are the main ones to look at that would give us a good idea.

Finally, when do we check back our Ax? Pretty much the opposite reason of why we should consider checking. We check back the stronger part of our unpaired, Ax range that has plenty of showdown value. The top Ax of our range doesn’t hold for our argument with the example above as I suggested even AKx and ATx could be considered bets with the line taken, but I think on similar textures where it just obv goes x/x/x or x/b/x and they’re betting OTT and have a high delayed turn cbet stat and low river bet then that’s when we consider that as well. To sum it up, checking back Ax occurs on naturally passive runouts anyway.

Drafted this up pretty quick as it’s already over a week into April, but hope this helped someone – if something didn’t make sense, raised additional questions, or if you think I missed anything completely let me know and we can work it out.

Thanks & gl!

April Question:
How often do we x/r on two-tone, A-high textures defending in BB vs EP?

March Summary
Overall a pretty swingy month - Beasted 10NL and 25NL was a rollercoaster. Also put in the most volume I ever have in a month.

Short-term goals:
[X] Organization - Create a solid structure for grinding/studying
[ ] Confidence Booster - End the month with a profit (even if it is 0.5bb/100!)
[X] Mindfulness - Meditate before each grind, and workout at least 4x/week

Long-term goals:
[X] Don't move up stakes until you are a 3bb/100 winner over at least 50k hands
[X] Put in at least 30k hands per month (regular tables)
[ ] Go from 10NL to 100NL by the end of 2017
[ ] Be a winning player at the end of 2017
[ ] Become a PIO guru

Didn't end the month in profit, which comes with the territory of challenging yourself -- down, but not out! Otherwise I've been having more time to play/study, integrating slightly longer daily meditation sessions. 3 of the long-term goals are obv a work in progress.

Obviously my skill level lies somewhere in between, however I still think my biggest leak is mental rather than technical. I noticed some things in my last few sessions of the month that I think could significantly improve my play/WR.

25NL pool tendencies:
- Overall more solid player pool with a mix of solid preflop ranged players (~22/17 type players) to more LAG (~29/22) type of players, then the occasional whale. My site is very reg-heavy.
- Biggest winners I've observed so far are the 22/17 players (less than a handful); for the record, not the type of player I'm looking to be :D

25NL biggest leaks:
- Bluffcatching too often in spots where it theoretically makes sense, but should be tailored to specific villain (symptom of autopiloting and short timebank)
- Lacking discipline in obv fold situations (spots where I verbally tell myself: "Okay if he bets 1/2 pot or less we can call, but if he overbet shoves here we have to fold." They end up shoving and we still level ourselves into calling)
- Calling down light, especially in 3bp. Need to do some more lab work in this area, I've been calling too liberally with backdoors.
- Adding on to the previous bullet point, whenever I defend too light I try to force myself to win the pot, which I haven't even be involved in the first place. A -3bb losing pot turns into a -25bb losing pot, etc.
- Losing back to back flips vs fish has considerable effect on my tilt level, which in turn makes myself into a spewtard

Overall I think I am on the cusp of winning 25NL. I recognize the overall player pool, and still think they're weak -- which means I'm weaker since I'm slightly losing player here. For whatever reason my mental game is thrown out the window when playing this stake, so if I improve in this area alone I feel like I will be a winner. Also, I've been very stubborn in pots with the mindset of fighting for every pot and having to win each one. So If I'm more selective with hands and villains I think our WR will improve dramatically.

You can see from the graph at around 24-25k hands where I moved up in stakes. Also had some IRL things that kinda brought my mood down, but I've accepted it now so hopefully it won't affect April results.

I'm going to take a few days off. Going to attend my friend's bachelor party this weekend in Vegas so maybe I'll get the degen out of the way there. :)

When I get back, I already know areas that I will be dissecting and looking to improve on, which are:

1) Stats analysis - haven't done this in a couple months so interested to see how I've progressed
2) Small pots - I'm a 50bb/100 winner in 10NL in this area, but running a -10bb/100 in the sample I have for 25NL.
3) Updating my HUD - I find myself looking for the same stats that aren't on my main HUD but rather in the popups, which takes up valuable time. Going to revamp it and add some stuff (cb flop then skip cb fold, skip cb and fold, and others)
4) Visualization - Found that I'm rusted on some simple shit like visualizing combos and ranges with regards to pot odds; even the rudimentary stuff needs to be practiced from time to time to stay sharp.

25NL seems to my kryptonite, and my only goal for April is to be a winner -- I am determined to defeat our 25NL kryptonite this month.

Us now:

End of April:

Good luck everyone, and thanks for keeping up.

P.S. Did some work on the March Poker Question of the Month and drew some general conclusions, but haven't really written anything up yet so will update that as well when I get back and come up with another one to ponder for April.

One thing I've been trying to improve is not only winning the big pots, but trying to get my game to where we fight for every little EV possible especially the 3 - 10bb smaller pots. Filtering my DB, my current WR in these pots is -17bb/100, whereas I've looked at midstakes winners and theirs is +20bb/100 here; means we're not fighting for enough of these pots even though our overall WWSF is 46-47. Maybe not the most important aspect, but something definitely to look into. What you said kind of makes sense... Whatever I find, I'll let you know by the end of the month. :)

Other areas of priority are getting my my probe bets (still need to add this stat to my HUD, I think it's "fold after missing flop cbet") up, 3b frequencies up to where they should be in each position vs each opening position, and also improving my positional WR as they are all far too low at the moment. I think increasing my 3b/sqz will naturally help this area out.

Oh, but I did. Maybe I didn't make it clear in previous posts, but here are my NL10 results since the start of thread :)

Agree with you on the hiding losses part, I feel like I play and improve at a faster rate when I am honest with myself. No need to hide anything through the struggle, got to embrace it.

Thanks for the feedback mate, cheers!

Well that didn't last long. Moving back down. This limit tilts me so much for some reason, can't put my finger on it.

All of my sessions were BE (in rollercoaster fashion, but BE nonetheless) for the majority of playing. In three out of the five sessions, in the last 5 minutes of playing, I literally got dealt hands that I could not get away from and it ultimately led to bigger spews.

Big mental and execution leak here... Maybe I have to decrease my playing to 45 minutes at a time until I get comfortable with the limit then increase it back to my usual 90 minutes.

Until then, and until I build up another roll, NL10 here I am once again.

Thoroughly disappointed.

@Hans, @JcJordy -- thanks for checkin' in and for the advice, will definitely take this into account moving forward :)

Mid March Results

I've been inactive in terms of posting for the month, but my volume is as high as its been. I usually do 30k per month, so I'm well past my volume goal. Did not have a smooth transition from Feb to March, as you can see the first 19k hands were BE; imo a combination of variance and two spew sessions of losing 5 BI during that timeframe. Regained focus and got it to where we are right now.

With the rocky start, I haven't made the full transition to 25NL. Although I am feeling comfortable and will probably start tomorrow. I dabbled in the pool and while the regs are a bit tougher defending preflop/3b, I believe I can make the proper adjustments. The biggest test will be my mental game to see if I could withstand -5BI downswings here.

Since I will be making the full transition, and I don't think I made it clear earlier, but officially ending the 10NL freeroll here. Thanks for participating and we'll see if there are any more in the future. =)

Just a quick recap of my progression:

Top 3 things I've improved on
1) *Focus*
I am more mindful of when I just spew, and make bad bluffs that do not make any sense at all. I am also more aware of the dynamics happening around the table -- see 2.

2) Using stats to liberally open, or 3b*
I know this sounds very obvious, and is known by pretty much everybody. It's basic knowledge; however, up until now I've realized that I have more or less been a mere button-clicking adventurer.

3) Volume*
I've never ever been a volume dude, but this month obviously says something different for a guy who is playing part-time and 9-tabling. Just a highlight, but definitely not a consistent goal that I am aiming at. Maybe it is because I am comfortable at current stake.

Top 3 things I can improve on
1) *Discipline*
Haven't been totally on point with my exercise, study, reading, and overall weekly schedule. Discipline is the most important aspect to succeeding our goals, must maintain it.

2) Exercise*
Fell off the wagon for a bit in terms of a consistent weekly workout routine. It is kinda hard after a full day of work, trying to squeeze in some poker studies, and a playing session as well.

3) Study*
Study structure crumbled a bit, got complacent looking at PIO solutions and HH reviews. Been trying to gather different methods and some friends helped with activities I can work into my study time to practice my poker critical thinking skills -- just have to organize everything and set the routine again. Got me thinking that I should adjust my study routine at least monthly to keep it interesting, and fresh.

Here's a little something I'll introduce, I'll call it the "Poker Question of the Month." Pretty much one thing I've noticed in my games that has me asking a question that I don't know an answer to, and I'll share what I find by the end of the month. So...

March Poker Question of the Month

On what textures do we decide to check and get to showdown with Ax, and when do we use Ax to bluff out underpairs?

Cheers, thanks for reading guys. Glglgl at the tables!

End of February

In total I have about 45k hands since the challenge started, totaling around 6bb/100. If I keep my winrate above 5bb/100 after 50k hands, then I will be moving up to 25nl. Also trying to keep my redline to be around -10bb/100, for the month of February it is -9.15bb/100 so we are on the right track.

Not sure if I will have another freeroll due to lack of replies, but we'll see -- I feel like as I win, the replies will come.

Mental game has definitely improved. Studying has improved; had a v v nice deep hand analysis breakdown with one of my poker skype buddies. Here's to keeping it consistent into 25nl.

I'll just leave this here, something I read that resonated with me:

It's one thing to feel confident of your knowledge; it's something else to demonstrate mastery.

Glgl all!

February Progress

Still need to fix my redline. Overall, more focused sessions with a sprinkle of distraction and forced aggression.

It's one thing to feel confident of your knowledge; it's something else to demonstrate mastery.

I feel like I am making this transition.

What do you guys want to hear about in this blog? How I study? What I'm studying? Hands? Personal life? Random pawg pics?

Find it hard to update since I've never been a volume guy. Any input would be appreciated to aid more involvement!

-End of the month update-

Short-term goals (January):

[X] Organization - Create a solid structure for grinding/studying

At this point, we're definitely more organized! I mentioned before that I have a 75% play, 25% learn schedule. Working out to about 15-18 hours of poker a week.

Monday: 90 min. play
Tuesday: 90 min. play; 30 min. theory study
Wednesday: 90 min. play; 30 min. HH, 30 min. PIO work
Thursday: 90 min. play; 30 min. theory
Friday: 90 min. play
Saturday: 120 min. play; 75 min. PIO/HH -- rest of day off
Sunday: 180 min. play; 75 min. theory/PIO

I set it up so I interleave my study topics, meaning I always switch up topics, trying to weave in what I learned before and integrate that knowledge into the new concept I am trying to learn. I've been reading a book called "Make it stick," which is pretty much the science of learning. Basically learning is a skill, and the process of forgetting, and recalling something actually helps things burn into your mind better. This goes against popular study convention of cramming, reading things over and over, and just trying to memorize things -- very good for short term memory, and usually what college students do for exams. What happens after? They forget everything.

This process is slower, but it is definitely better. Learning is an investment in yourself, it takes time and effort -- you will eventually reap the benefits.

[X] Confidence Booster - End the month with a profit (even if it is
0.5bb/100!)

So I did end the month with a small profit (a whopping 0.35bb/100 WR over 12k hands). It was actually a bit more swingy than I thought it'd be. However, the skill difference is definitely noticeable.

Confidence Booster Activated!

[X] Mindfulness - Meditate before each grind, and workout at least
4x/week

I've been doing well here -- gym, jog, dive most days of the week. I have a few videos bookmarked on YouTube for guided meditation, and I also have just recently downloaded the "Headspace" app to make meditating a daily routine for me. My head has definitely been a lot more clear during my sessions these past couple weeks.

Since we're still in the early stages of the thread, I don't want to change much at all. I am going to keep the goals the same since I am still settling into them.

Clear mind, notice and let go.

February Goals:
[ ] Discipline - Keep up the solid structure for grinding/studying
[ ] Maintain Confidence - End the month with a profit
[ ] Mindfulness - Meditate before each grind, and workout at least 4x/week

The January "Omg I am pretty much BE and have 7 people booked for my freeroll; we're in this for the sweat" Graph:

Alright gentlemen, we're in for a sweat.

H1: Eeek!
WPN, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

MP: $13.41 (134.1 bb)
CO: $20.11 (201.1 bb)
BTN: $12.08 (120.8 bb)
SB: $12.97 (129.7 bb)
BB: $10 (100 bb)
Hero (UTG): $10.96 (109.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 5 A
Hero raises to $0.30, 3 folds, SB calls $0.25, BB folds

Flop: ($0.70) 3 4 8 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.22, SB raises to $0.76, Hero calls $0.54

Turn: ($2.22) 2 (2 players)
SB bets $2, Hero raises to $4.50, SB raises to $11.91 and is all-in, Hero calls $5.40 and is all-in

River: ($22.02) 4 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $22.02 pot ($1.10 rake)
Final Board: 3 4 8 2 4
SB showed 3 3 and won $20.92 ($9.96 net)
Hero showed 5 A and lost (-$10.96 net)

H2: the consistent test on my mental game here...

WPN, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 3 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

SB: $10.64 (106.4 bb)
Hero (BB): $10.86 (108.6 bb)
BTN: $10 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A A
BTN folds, SB raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $0.90, SB raises to $2.30, Hero calls $1.40

Flop: ($4.60) J 4 2 (2 players)
SB bets $2.20, Hero raises to $8.56 and is all-in, SB calls $6.14 and is all-in

Turn: ($21.28) 2 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: ($21.28) Q (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $21.28 pot ($1.00 rake)
Final Board: J 4 2 2 Q
SB showed J J and won $20.28 ($9.64 net)
Hero showed A A and lost (-$10.64 net)

H3: didn't expect his sets to not raise flop

WPN, $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

BB: $13.66 (136.6 bb)
UTG: $7.44 (74.4 bb)
MP: $19.56 (195.6 bb)
Hero (CO): $13.16 (131.6 bb)
BTN: $10.03 (100.3 bb)
SB: $12.54 (125.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A Q
UTG folds, MP raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $0.90, BTN calls $0.90, 2 folds, MP calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.85) Q 7 4 (3 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $1.35, BTN calls $1.35, MP folds

Turn: ($5.55) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $3.52, Hero raises to $10.91 and is all-in, BTN calls $4.26 and is all-in

River: ($21.11) 8 (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: $21.11 pot ($1.05 rake)
Final Board: Q 7 4 A 8
Hero showed A Q and lost (-$10.03 net)
BTN showed 7 7 and won $20.06 ($10.03 net)

Here's a good start:

http://www.runitonce.com/poker-training/videos/overbetting-the-turn-vs-a-capped-range/

FWIW, I don't think hand example you gave would be a good candidate to overbet.

Reflection is a form of practice that is essential to learning.

Too often I got caught up in the playing phase, with not enough of the practice phase. It is something that plagues many poker players. Initial motivation is there, knowledge builds, money comes -- then, we want money to come faster, complacency sneaks in, knowledge plateaus, we lose. We blame everything. We're blind to our ourselves.

This requires us to remain proactive to succeed. I am going to reflect each week to improve my retention of learned material, and find direction to build a foundation where concepts are unclear. Some questions I had this week, followed up by my initial thoughts (will work it out later, and see the difference in answer):

As the SB in a 3bp vs BTN, do we attack textures similar to that of when we are PFR in a SRP SBvsBB? Are there any big differences in bet sizing due to SPR?

Intuitively, I want to say yes; however, the ranges in 3bp are so much more narrow I don't know to what extent we can take this idea. I don't think bet sizings would matter too much.

Do we raise bottom 2p on 876tt?

My initial impression is no, the board is so dynamic that ranges will shift dramatically making our lives harder on future streets

Do we ever raise bottom pair as BB in BvB pot?

I can't find a reason to ever raise bot pair, probably just keep it simple and pot control.

Short-term goals (January):

[X] Organization - Create a solid structure for grinding/studying

Pretty sure I got this down, going with a 3:1, 75% PLAY ;), 25% study routine. I feel I need to focus a bit heavy on the study side since time is lacking, so the off-the-felt work would help me keep more sharp during my sessions.

[/] Confidence Booster - End the month with a profit (even if it is
0.5bb/100!)

On the way there!

[ ] Mindfulness - Meditate before each grind, and workout at least
4x/week!

Definitely missed a meditation for a couple sessions, mainly cause I did not have the privacy to do so. We got the workouts in this week though; squats/cardio, chest, back, chest.

Graph:

Booked for end of March freeroll:

Bluetwopac
Justbluff
Payformyalienware
JCJordypants
Luigi90250
SeacombePLO
Saulo

Yes, it's two more, but I'm feeling jolly. Gl all.

Pro tip noted, positive verbiage from now on =)

thanks man, appreciate it!

tyty gl!

ty bud!

In! Good luck man, keep it steady and realise that variance is a thing so don't be disheartened if January doesn't go as planned - sometimes things just don't go our way!

So true, something I need to work on for sure -- tx for stopping in!

ty, gl!