Running HOT!!!

So I spewed off a few buy-ins semi-bluffing in the deepstack games, but I've rebuilt, and since then, I've been running super hot at 10NL. I'm actually up to $380ish. After breaking-even for a while, winning some, losing some, I've finally got my act together and have been playing really well. I've posted a few hands over at 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/10nl-one-where-i-want-fold-set-824490/

Yes, I did actually fold here, although in retrospect, I feel this was more of a brain-fart than a sick read. At the time, it just seemed that any one-pair hand that would 3b there would have bet that flop, and when he bets the turn, I felt (at the time) that his range became more weighted to sets/AJ. However, in looking it over, I think most sets are betting that flop as well, and the turn is more like AQ, AJ, JJ, AT, and maybe some pure bluffs (like weak Ax hands he squeezed with). Honestly, I'm not really sure. But I did fold, so I guess I'll never know.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/10nl-flopped-trips-3way-limped-pot-825778/

As the first (and only) poster says, yes, I really did butcher the shit out of this one. I don't mind the flop flat initially, but when it get minraised and called, I should have 3bet. This is a tragedy of too many tables, honestly, and I'm starting to use PokerTracker, so I was trying to configure it and not playing as well as I could have. Play it fast, get called by fish, that's what I should have done.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/10nl-qq-bad-river-card-825774

I explain exactly what my thought process was in the thread:

Villain is 20/17, 50% fold to 3b over 250ish hands. He willing to semi-bluff his draws, and I've seen him bluff at scary boards (bluffraised an Ahi flop, c/r as a semi-bluff w a FD on another Ahi flop; in both of those hands, his villains were stationy), but neither of those are in 3b/4b pots, so I'm not sure how he plays in those, if he plays any different.

I also have a hand vs him where he c/r me when a flush came in after I flat the flop.

I just felt that I was way behind his 4b for value range, and that the best way to get value out of his bluffing range was to let him bluff. It's also not a CO v BTN situation, it's MP v CO, so I don't expect him to view my 3b range from the CO v MP as particularly bluffy, but I called preflop because the 4b looked weak (raising $1 to $2). When he checked the flop and then bet the turn, I felt even more like he was bluffing, and as I said, I would call any river shove. Unfortunately, the K popped, and I was now behind AK as well as some other weak Kx hands he may have 4b as a bluff, so I folded.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/10nl-river-bluffraise-spew-826130/

I actually love this play. It did work, but I was wondering if I'm being too proud of myself or if it was actually a good play. Again my thoughts are in the thread:

His range seems heavily weighted to weak one-pair hands, and my range looks like I was drawing or slow-playing a big hand which I popped on the river.

Life is good. Still need to do a review of the next round of the quintuple shootout I won. Other than that, just chugging along. Hoping to get to 25NL soon. That would be sweet...

Review of the Quintuple Shootout - Round 1

I know it's been a few days since I posted. 10NL has still been pretty swingy, still around where I started. I play very well when I'm focused, winning 4-5 buyins in a couple hours, but when I'm not focused, I drop that same amount in a much shorter period of time, so it's been pretty difficult to build up my bankroll. I'm going to review the Quintuple Shootout victory. It wasn't exactly a Quintuple Shootout, as I got a bye the first round.

First hand of the "second" round, I get AA, raise in the CO (since it's 4-max, it's CO, BTN, SB, BB), get two callers, bet a KJK flop, and take it down. Not too shabby.

Second hand, we get to see how fishy some of these players are:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1480)
Hero (BB) (t1640)
UTG (t1440)
Button (t1440)

Hero's M: 54.67

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4♣, 10♣
1 fold, Button bets t40, SB raises to t100, 1 fold, Button calls t60

Flop: (t220) 2♥, 10♥, 3♦ (2 players)
SB bets t120, Button raises to t240, SB calls t120

Turn: (t700) 4♠ (2 players)
SB checks, Button bets t260, SB calls t260

River: (t1220) 4♥ (2 players)
SB checks, Button checks

Total pot: t1220

Results:
Button had A♣, 10♦ (two pair, tens and fours).
SB had 9♦, 9♣ (two pair, nines and fours).
Outcome: Button won t1220

3rd hand in, big stackoff on a huge cooler:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t880)
Hero (SB) (t1620)
BB (t1440)
UTG (t2060)

Hero's M: 54.00

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8♣, K♠
1 fold, Button calls t20, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: (t50) 5♥, 6♦, 10♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets t40, BB calls t40

Turn: (t130) 6♣ (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets t80, BB calls t80

River: (t290) 10♣ (2 players)
BB bets t310, Button raises to t620, BB raises to t1300 (All-In), Button calls t120 (All-In)

Total pot: t1770

Results:
Button had 6♠, 6♥ (four of a kind, sixes).
BB had 7♦, 10♥ (full house, tens over sixes).
Outcome: Button won t1770

I 3-barrel here to push someone off a busted FD or middle-pair type hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1750)
Hero (BB) (t1700)
UTG (t520)
Button (t2030)

Hero's M: 56.67

Preflop: Hero is BB with J♦, K♥
1 fold, Button calls t20, 1 fold, Hero bets t60, Button calls t40

Flop: (t130) 9♦, 10♠, 5♦ (2 players)
Hero bets t80, Button calls t80

Turn: (t290) A♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t180, Button calls t180

River: (t650) 3♠ (2 players)
Hero bets t400, 1 fold

Total pot: t650

Results:
Hero didn't show J♦, K♥ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t650

I play a pretty aggressive game, and I saw this guy minraise in position with top pair just a few minutes ago, so I didn't really think he had anything decent by the time I got to the river, so the third barrel felt like the right play. Betting the turn scarecard is standard. Can't win by checking, right?

After getting coolered, the shortstack had been struggling to find some spots to chip up. He picked this one (a bad one) and lost:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t1365)
Hero (Button) (t2495)
SB (t490)
BB (t1650)

Hero's M: 55.44

Preflop: Hero is Button with J♦, 3♣
2 folds, SB bets t90, BB raises to t150, SB raises to t490 (All-In), BB calls t340

Flop: (t980) 2♥, 5♦, 9♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t980) 4♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t980) 6♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t980

Results:
SB had A♣, 7♣ (high card, Ace).
BB had 10♣, 10♦ (one pair, tens).
Outcome: BB won t980

Down to 3 handed. Nothing special happened until this hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1545)
Hero (SB) (t2390)
BB (t2065)

Hero's M: 53.11

Preflop: Hero is SB with J♠, 9♠
Button bets t90, Hero calls t75, BB calls t60

Flop: (t270) 9♣, 5♠, J♥ (3 players)
Hero bets t150, BB calls t150, Button calls t150

Turn: (t720) 4♦ (3 players)
Hero bets t540, 1 fold, Button calls t540

River: (t1800) 7♦ (2 players)
Hero bets t765, 1 fold

Total pot: t1800

Results:
Hero didn't show J♠, 9♠ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t1800

Flopped a big hand, bet right out, and expected to bust the villain on the river and be shown AJ. Give the fold, he probably had another middle-pair type hand or a busted draw like QT or even KQ (T8 got there, which would have sucked).

I now have a decent chip lead, with more than half of the chips on the table. This one's just funny because of the board (I wish someone had a Ac):

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t765)
Hero (SB) (t3310)
BB (t1925)

Hero's M: 44.13

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♦, J♣
Button bets t150, 1 fold, BB raises to t300, Button raises to t765 (All-In), BB calls t465

Flop: (t1555) 9♠, J♠, 10♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1555) Q♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1555) K♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t1555

Results:
Button had 10♦, A♦ (straight flush, King high).
BB had A♥, K♣ (straight flush, King high).
Outcome: Button won t777, BB won t778

Middle stack loses some chips, shorty and I pick up some chips from him, then this big flip happens:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t1002)
Hero (Button) (t3735)
SB (t1263)

Hero's M: 24.90

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q♠, A♠
Hero bets t300, SB calls t250, BB raises to t1002 (All-In), Hero raises to t3735 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t2304) 7♠, 2♠, 10♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t2304) 7♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t2304) 6♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t2304

Results:
Hero had Q♠, A♠ (one pair, sevens).
BB had 9♥, 9♣ (two pair, nines and sevens).
Outcome: BB won t2304

Such a good flop, but no dice! I'm now about even with the once short-stack. The new short stack is doing a terrible job of picking up chips, until he doubles up through me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2404)
Hero (SB) (t2833)
BB (t763)

Hero's M: 18.89

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5♥, A♥
1 fold, Hero bets t300, BB raises to t763 (All-In), Hero calls t463

Flop: (t1526) 10♦, J♦, 4♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1526) 3♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1526) 5♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t1526

Results:
Hero had 5♥, A♥ (one pair, fives).
BB had 6♦, 6♣ (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: BB won t1526

We're a bit closer to even, the antes start to kick in, and I make my second big bluff:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2254)
Hero (SB) (t1970)
BB (t1776)

Hero's M: 13.13

Preflop: Hero is SB with J♣, K♠
Button calls t100, Hero bets t300, BB calls t200, Button calls t200

Flop: (t900) 2♠, Q♥, Q♠ (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, Button checks

Turn: (t900) 7♥ (3 players)
Hero bets t500, 1 fold, Button calls t500

River: (t1900) 7♠ (2 players)
Hero bets t1170 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t1900

Results:
Hero didn't show J♣, K♠ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t1900

After the flop gets checked through, I didn't think anyone had the Q. Leading OOP looks super strong, and once I hit the river, I feel like the villain has a low pocket pair he's going to be willing to fold, given the action. Ultimately, I'm not REALLY sure, but I just didn't think he had the queen, and would fold to a shove there.

That puts be back on top with around 3k in chips. I call the flop here pretty light :):

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1754)
Hero (BB) (t3070)
Button (t1176)

Hero's M: 13.64

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3♣, K♣
Button calls t150, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: (t375) 3♦, 4♥, J♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t150, Hero calls t150

Turn: (t675) Q♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (t675) J♥ (2 players)
Hero bets t300, 1 fold

Total pot: t675

Results:
Hero didn't show 3♣, K♣ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t675

Villain had been making these "stabby" looking bets in limped pots a few times, and I didn't necessarily think he had anything. When I got to the river, I figured I was marginally ahead (of like an A hi hand or busted FD) or marginally behind (of a pair of 4s or maybe a small pair), so betting the river was to take it down right there, instead of being annoyed to find I'm behind something he would have folded.

Another shorty double-up:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1679)
Hero (SB) (t3445)
BB (t876)

Hero's M: 15.31

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6♥, 4♦
Button bets t450, 1 fold, BB raises to t876 (All-In), Button calls t426

Flop: (t1827) 9♥, 7♣, 6♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1827) 4♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1827) 10♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t1827

Results:
Button had Q♠, J♣ (high card, Queen).
BB had A♣, Q♥ (high card, Ace).
Outcome: BB won t1827

Here, I'm not even sure if I'm value betting or bluffing (are there worse 2 pair that will call?):

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t653)
Hero (BB) (t3070)
Button (t2277)

Hero's M: 13.64

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8♣, 9♠
Button calls t150, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: (t375) 7♦, 3♣, 8♥ (2 players)
Hero bets t300, Button calls t300

Turn: (t975) 10♥ (2 players)
Hero bets t450, Button calls t450

River: (t1875) 9♣ (2 players)
Hero bets t1350, 1 fold

Total pot: t1875

Results:
Hero didn't show 8♣, 9♠ (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t1875

Shortstack sucks at picking up chips, and finally gets it in here (ahead, but loses):

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds (3 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t631)
Hero (SB) (t3992)
BB (t1377)

Hero's M: 17.74

Preflop: Hero is SB with J♥, 10♥
Button bets t631 (All-In), Hero calls t556, 1 fold

Flop: (t1412) 2♥, 6♣, K♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1412) Q♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1412) 5♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t1412

Results:
Button had 10♣, K♣ (one pair, Kings).
Hero had J♥, 10♥ (flush, King high).
Outcome: Hero won t1412

And we are down to HU with a 3:1 chiplead.

As as soon as it starts, it's over:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t3648)
SB (t2352)

Hero's M: 12.16

Preflop: Hero is BB with A♣, A♦
SB bets t400, Hero raises to t600, SB raises to t2352 (All-In), Hero calls t1752

Flop: (t4704) A♥, J♦, 9♥ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t4704) J♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t4704) 10♣ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t4704

Results:
SB had 8♦, 8♣ (two pair, Jacks and eights).
Hero had A♣, A♦ (full house, Aces over Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won t4704

The min3b was intended to get him to spazz shove or just call, as I felt it was more likely that he would shove himself than call off a shove (like if he minraised QJo or something, he may spazz-shove or just call and take a flop). Given what he showed up with, it probably mattered very little what I did, as long as I raised.

So goes round 1. I'll do an overview of round 2 later. Right now, my internet is giving me issues, so I need to go take a look at that and run a few errands. I'll keep you posted as to how the cash games are going.

I haven't played at all today. I'm trying to find a good workflow for doing review. I spent an hour or so going through some of the villains I have a ton of hands on, looking at the hands that went to showdown, and drawing reads from them. I'm playing around with PokerTracker, now that they have a Mac version, as I want the positional stats (raising, 3betting, limping and coldcalling by position vs. positional opening) for preflop, and right now, PokerCopilot doesn't have it. I've emailed the developer a few times about it, and he's mentioned it as an upcoming possibility, but I'm going to play around with the trial of PT and see if I like it. It's a pretty complicated program, but it may work better. I've imported all the hands into the database, and right now, the program is updating the cache. Hopefully, it won't take TOO long and I'll be able to play today.

Brief Update

10NL has been pretty break-even overall. I had a big initial upswing, where I got up to around $280ish, then dropped a whole bunch of it getting waaaay too loose for the limit. I'm sitting on around $167 right now. I'm closing in on enough FPPs for the $50 bonus from the VIP store, and I'm about halfway to the next VIP stellar reward. I think I'm going to extend the amount of my roll I'm going to save up until I move up to the next limit, as I can see myself spewing off a lot in terrible spots and blowing my whole roll at 25NL (which I've done before). I feel like I'm playing a much better game, although I'm definitely waaay too stationy as well.

I've played some hands on the deepstack tables, and it's a fucking goldmine. Everyone is extremely weak-tight, and if you're a decent handreader, it's really not difficult to pick a few good spots to bluff, and at the deepstack tables, people will fold TP/MP to 3 barrels. Just gotta pick your spots well.

Going to do some work, as well as some review. I'm going to go through some hands from the tourny I shipped and talk about them a bit. So there's something to look forward to :).

Boo-yah

PokerStars Tournament #284580135, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
368 players
Total Prize Pool: $736.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/06/23 20:15:00 ET


Dear NimhOfJoy,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 117.76 award has been credited to your Real Money account.



Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

Woot! Moving up to 10NL now. I have $180. Enough 5NL, now I'm getting somewhere!

Back Down to $70

I played a bunch of tournaments last night and bricked 'em all, so that cost me like $25 (I need to stick to the cheaper ones until I get to a point where that's not such a huge portion of my bankroll; I play the $8.80 6-max @ 9:40, as well as a few MTT SnGs). I then played cash and was playing break-evenish until I made a few spazzy bluffs and immediately shut it down. That's what I get for playing tired. Bad news bears.

I did play a little this morning, and won back a buy in+, so I know for certain I'm getting the hang of playing down here; I just need to not play tired (obviously) and stick to the limits of my roll for tournaments. Unfortunately, Stars doesn't have a lot in the way of 6-max tournaments, so I try and play in as many of those as possible, and some of them are really beyond my roll right now.

It's too bad this blog doesn't have more strategy; it's just that there's not a lot of strategy to be discussed down here. Bet you decent made hands until they give you a reason not to; I semi-bluff a bit, but mostly just stick to value spots. Players call 3 streets with middle pair, so just bet bet shove, and make manies :).

Back Over $100!

Yup, title says it all. I tightened up my game, bumped up the number of tables, and I climbed over the hump. I'm back over $100 and feeling really good about myself. I just gotta stop getting mad that players don't fold TPTK and start exploiting them for it:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (5 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($6.94)
SB ($7.13)
BB ($5.96)
UTG ($9.11)
MP ($0.43)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8♠, 8♥
UTG bets $0.10, MP calls $0.10, Hero calls $0.10, 1 fold, BB calls $0.05

Flop: ($0.42) 9♥, A♦, 8♦ (4 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $0.15, MP calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.55, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.40, MP calls $0.18 (All-In)

Turn: ($1.85) 7♠ (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG bets $0.20, Hero raises to $1.35, UTG calls $1.15

River: ($4.55) 5♥ (3 players, 1 all-in)
UTG checks, Hero bets $4.94 (All-In), UTG calls $4.94

Total pot: $14.43 | Rake: $0.71

Results:
Hero had 8♠, 8♥ (three of a kind, eights).
UTG had A♣, K♣ (one pair, Aces).
MP had Q♦, 9♣ (one pair, nines).
Outcome: Hero won $13.72

(Yes, I mis-sized my turn raise, I thought it was big enough at the time to get to the river with a pot-sized bet left, but I did the math wrong :(... still, it worked out for me.)

Breakever Over 8 SnGs

Yup. Broke even. I definitely feel I am much better at cash games than SnGs. I just think I need to learn SnGs, as the home game I'm playing at might be switching to that format. Maybe I'll play SnGs more, get some experience before this weekend.

New Layout

I hope you like the new layout. I'm playing 8 tables of $3.40 SnGs. After I'm done with that, I'm out to run some errands. Wish me luck!

Short, Nice Session

Made like $18 today, which is nice. Puts me just around $80. I'm taking a break today, as I have some work to do. Will be doing some session review throughout the day (to take a break from the work). I've posted some hands @ 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-ato-flops-trips-value-line-809116/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-qq-good-fold-vs-unknown-808364/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/5nl-set-vs-river-overshove-806795/

Another Few Short Sessions - Still Breaking Even

Title says it all. I was playing a short session this morning, I was up a little bit towards the end of the session, and just as I was wrapping up, this hand happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($12.48)
Button ($7.02)
Hero (SB) ($5.76)
BB ($1.88)
UTG ($10.28)
Villain (MP) ($5.15)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q♣, Q♦
UTG bets $0.20, Villain calls $0.20, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.85, 1 fold, UTG calls $0.65, Villain calls $0.65

Flop: ($2.60) 7♠, 2♠, J♥ (3 players)
Hero bets $1.75, 1 fold, Villain raises to $4.30 (All-In), Hero calls $2.55

Turn: ($11.20) A♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($11.20) 10♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $11.20 | Rake: $0.55

Results:
Hero had Q♣, Q♦ (one pair, Queens).
Villain had J♦, A♣ (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Outcome: Villain won $10.65

I know I shouldn't be using this blog as a place for me to complain. I just don't know how to get past 5NL with this shit happening. It's making it very difficult for me to keep a level head when suckouts of this nature are constant. The amount of times I've had something like this happen (i.e. recent hand where I had AA, villain l/c w T5o, calls 2 streets on TJxx rainbow, and rivers his 5) makes it difficult for me to feel comfortable going to value bets in spots where I probably should be. It's hard for me to say "I'm ahead of his range here" because their range is FUCKING ANYTHING.

Like this shove. Higher levels, villain is flatting flop, shipping turn when he improves (or folding turn if he doesn't). If the villain is shipping this spot at 25NL, it's more likely he's got a set and I should probably fold. Down here, though, TPTK is the nuts, nobody folds 2nd pair to 2 bets, it's crazy. And if that's the case, I don't know if I should value bet rivers sometimes w TPTK or TP2K, because people will hit all sorts of stuff. It's crazy, and I'm finding it difficult to adjust.

I've also been looking at my EV graph, and I'm running like $500 below EV over the past 3 months. Granted, it's at various limits (and I know A LOT of that was the short stint I did at FTP; god, the downswing I had when I moved over there was RIDICULOUS - never going back), but still, knowing that you're getting it in ahead a lot and getting screwed is both comforting and frustrating at the same time. Just have to remember that if you keep playing well, you'll get there.

In more positive news, I played a live game and walked off with all the chips yesterday. Made $79. At least I know my live game is improving tremendously. The guy who hosts the game suggested switching it to a SnG tourny structure instead, so that other people have a chance to make money, as I've won all the money 2 out of the 3 times we've played. I'm not as much of a SnG specialist, but if it keeps the game running, I'm down.

I've got commitments for today, but if I get a chance, I'm going to do some review.

To update, I am at $63ish right now. I've been swinging up and down between $60 and $80. If this upswing in the live game continues, I'm going to take some of that money and put it online. I want to play 10NL. (Really, I want to go back to 25NL, but I want to work my way up there on my own.)

That's all for now. I feel I'm remaining generally calmish, but I shut down the game after the above suckout, because it totally ruined my session. Oh well, what can you do? Just gotta stay positive.