Yo! Love the thread title and the story behind it! It will become one of those songs now which always reminds you of creating this journey in poker!

The graphs look super solid bro and yeh SJ is way softer and with our rb and promos you are onto a real winner!

What do you do outside of poker?

Hi Jon. Thx for encourigments.
As said in above post my profession is software development , as if I didn had enough schooling already in my life this year I am attending first year of mastery in computer science.Besides that I love martial arts.My "profession" is muay thai where I trained for 7 years and have over 50 amateur and professional fights .Knee injury prevented me to prsue that on more serious level so last 2 years I am more training for myself to say.To stay in shape and in touch with fellas from local gym.Aside of that I am die hard Arsenal FC fan so at least once every week I enoy myself watching match of football.I am also married so on top of everything I am fullfilling the role of loving, supporting husbant to my wife and proud owner of American Staffordshire Terrier dog name Lajka. That pretty much sums it up

Sometimes this game feels so easy and sometimes its real pain in the ass.
I am running pretty poorly lateley which is impacting my patience and mental game I think I am tilting easily but its not tilt as being angry I remain calm but I cant belive how good oppoent run vs me and I am paying all raises to see over and over that they simply always have it .2 times I payed 35bb river pot just to see how bad I run and how lucky they are .
Just played a session of 100 hands which was soul crushing. Lost 300bb and whats most dissapointing that at least 50% of those losses were preventable.
In moments like these I feel like I am biggest enemy to myself. Planned to play 3hr sesion tonight and had to end it after 20 mins. Feel soooo dissapointing about myself atm.I am not even angry at cards but how poorly and naivley I reacted to those situation which could be so easily avoided.
What is worse that I lose belive in my decision making.Like I dont trust myself that I can play better poker .Totally weird feeling.
I guess well fight another day.

Goals for March or whats left of oit

Play 20k hands
Finish reading Poker workbook for math geeks
Update blog after every session with 1 or 2 hand analsys form that session
Find someone better than me for sweat sessions


Here those are rough goals which should get me ocupied with poker for quiet some time. I expect some other tihngs are popup along the way (like 3b pots, etc ) but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Usually I play 3 tables for first 30 mins or so than I add up 3 more which I play for rest ofthe session.I have noticed that I missed some good spots and made some not so good folds recently due to lack of concentration of too many tables.So yesterday I have played only 2 tables for entire session.
Tried to focus soley on hand reading and getting maximum value. Made one few big mistakes regardless.I am running horribly bad, always outdrawned,missing the boards etc noone is folding to my 3b bluffs nor cbet so my confidence is at the lowest point ever where I just assume everyone is bluffing me and when I call I see they just hit the river or FH otf and check turn for deception.THere is A LOT in this game I have to learn!.
Guess good run carried me to the point where I thought that I am too good for NL10 and I will simply crouse to nl20 by end of the month.

Here is the biggest mistake I have played yesterday :



Villains stats : 30% sb or , 65% f3b, 4b 0 Afreq 46.
I think 3b this for value is ok play, he will have so many hands in hes range and I have in notes that he calls 3b oop with A4s, Q9o.But once he 4b me I should be more crirical than I was!
Over 800 hands he never 4b and hes not that agressive preflop with 46 Afq.The most weird part is that I was aware of all of that at the time I was playing the hand same as I am now.
I am against JJ+,AK ! No other way.
But there was that skinky little voice in the back of my head who said :
"This is first hand in the session , he cant have it.! You cant fold AQ pf!Cmon you cant be runnign that bad!" and I took that as an excuse to 5bp jam to see the voice was wrong as many times before.
I think this is one of 2 weakest points I have and they go hand in hand .First is being afraid to being bluffed to the point where I call in spots where I am beating . Second is that too often I dont put ppl on ranges during the hand properly.I think the easier part to decribe it would be to say I am Level 1.5 thinker. When I try to estimate someones range I am usually pretty good at it, but I dont do it as often as I should.
Like I would cbet with TPGK and until I get raised I dont question villains calling range.Perhaps otr when I decide should I 3barrel or not, but usually I check to see I missed some value .

Woke up with the nastiest neck sprain in my life yesterday. I literally couldnt do ntohing but lying down.Pain in my neck,shoulder and back was intense and awfull.So I watched some poker videos and analysed my own game quiet a bit.Found out that my ranges need bit of tweaking and I need amp up my 3bets IP and also fold to 3b. Besides spewing a bit everything else seems fine .
This Weazel coach is great , watched 2 of hes videos . Check /raising the flop an TallPaul review. Hopefully I will get hands on hes preflop ranges and implement them in my own game.I am fallign behing my schedule so hope that I can put some decent volume tmorow.
Have quiet enough to catch up .

Ouch sounds painful and have been there before myself! Pain from sleeping - who knew?!?!

Yeh weasel is the man! Plenty more videos and articles coming from him.

Ye its all good now, so back in action.
Neck is good, school obligations fullfiled, marrige obligations as well, so back in grinding mode from tonight on.
Its funny how I have noticed that every time I have downswing and take a break out of it I am somehow afraid to come back and play .
Its like fear of running bad or make really ridicilus spews.

Seems like I wont be seeing nl20 this month ether , due to other obligations and bunch of procrastination issues, but its is how it is.
Put a short session last night with a interestign hand to show, where I am not quiet sure I habe played it most optimally .
Here it is :



Villain is unkown.We cant assume he is a fish due to hes stack sizes and all 0s over 8 hands.
Preflop , this is my standard line with such a hand sb vs btn. IF I was bb I would just call,but from sb I 3bet.
Flop comes decent and I decided to fire a cbet and didnt expect to see a raise here.Thinking it now I belive cbeting flop was a mistake, since we have very little fold equity on such a board and it hits hes calling range better than mine .
Her raising on such a board seems kinda bluffy as well.
I think QQ+ would give me 4b preflop, so only "valid hand he is raising is a AQ, 55 and 22.Pocket pairs would defoo just call, so only thing he might have here are Axs which call 3b.Like ATs,AJs.
with 3:1 odds and my about 20% to hit with some implied I decided to call.
Turn I cheked and he bets 1/2 psb which I cannot pay.
There are 2 things which bother me in this hand :

First one is should I skipp a cbet in this spot,since we dont have much fe anyways and gor for x/c ?
And after I got raised should I played it differently?
I was thinking to 3b him ,but thing is I dont even have a nut flush so I dont block that , and I am huuge underdog.
That is perhaps same argument for folding it ether, couse if I hit I might be in big troubles as well.
I posted a hand on hand evaluation forums but if anyone is reading this except me , feel free to give your opinon.
It would be much appreciated.
This was a sort of warmup form my next session, so I am off to grind it off.
Wish me luck

@Sharky

Nice graphs man!

If I could do that I'd be satisfied.

Best of luck.

On the hand above you might consider taking a check-raise line on the flop (as you said). I know it looks lame but being against an unknown I might play it a bit safer and go for a flop check-call instead. And your opponent may bet smaller if they take the flush draw out of you're range. At these stakes players with initiative IP or Oop usually always bet their flush draws...

Also I wouldn't be 3betting K8s from the SB against someone I don't have a reason to believe is a fish. As you mentioned he hadn't played a hand. I may 3 bet it, in consideration of game flow or if something funky is going on at the table, but I to my limited experience its still a tough spot to put yourself in...

GOOD LUCK

Thx a lot for stoping by man.
Ye there is always someone who isnt satisfied where he is , and someone who wish could be in hes shoes somehow.I guess its how world goes.
Regardless I dont think I am an worthy example of it. I am winning at lowest possible games found in poker, I dont have discipline, play small volume and spew a lot.Not a place I would consider successfull anyhow.
About the hand I am always afraid to drop cbet option and here I have decent equity ,thats how I justified a cbet.
See, we have diferend opinons abotu 3b this hand pre.I woudlnt 3b it vs fish, couse they mostly have passive tendencies , and dont like to fold.
So opening btn from fish seems stronger to me than opening from a reg. Couse most regs open really wide from btn and fold often to 3b.
And we dont know anything about bb as well so calling might get us squeezed .Postflop I agree with you that safest route imo is to x/c and hope to hit .

Thx a lot man. Perhaps you could evaluate my above posted hand, sicne I know you know the game ( I watch your videos and really like your thinking processes ) .

@Sharky

I'm ok where I'm at (Poker wise) as long as I am working on my game.

That's all we should be doing.

I am glad to hear that . As I wrote in my opening post, I take game as a hobby and not too seriously, so I feel I dont play and improve as much as I need to improve in limits.Also as soon as I hit downswing I get really demotivated and dont play for a days or even weeks.
What limits do you play bro ? Also do you have a blog of your own that I could follow or smth ?

Finally put a worth mentioning session .Played for 3 hrs last night.
Only 4 tables couse I find my ranges to be bit rusty and I had to look at chart helper all the time, so didnt felt I am ready for anything more than 4 tables.
I got riased and 3betted all the time in first hour of the session so I felt like I was away for 2 years or so.My initial thoughts were that everyone is bluffing me , yet to see they are value heavy.Besides of few strange calls I feel I played pretty okish session.

Here is an interesting hand vs a regular.

[divbox=#eeeeee]River
2$2.705
Zloy_Gnom bets $1.70, Hero calls$1.70

Villain is 25/21, Af:42 regular. Hand sample 679. sb vs btn 3b 18% , cbf 57/tcb 43
Preflop and flop I think are fine, however I am not sure I played turn correctly.
I was misslead by false feeling that I should go for pot control couse he might call me with Ax,Qx ,Tx or FD.ITs strange I felt that way couse I want all of those hands to call my bet , thats why its called value bet, right.Anyways I went for cheking behind.
River bricks and he bets 2/3 psb.
Reason I called the river was that when he bets I feel hes range is polarised.
He might have nut flush or nothing at all.Couse anything in between he would habe bet ott for value/protection.

I feel I need to find some suitable studying method for myself, couse I dont feel I learn much from watching the videos.Always belived that those can carry you till some point where you need to turn your brain and work your way up. I am trying to analyse my marked hands after session and see what will come out of it.If anyone has any better method please share it with me.
Cheers

Played a session yesterday and figured out quiet few things about my game.
First and most important is that I dont know my ranges very well.
I am using this program called ChartHelper, where I have all of my ranges put and I rely upon it heavily.
Yesterday I tried to play without it and struggled a lot.I mean its wonderfull program, which packs everything nicely,however being almost dependent on it sux big time.I also cant imagine my oppoents ranges without it , when analysing hands so its a must fix situation.
Another thing I learned about my game last night was that I when I am faced with tough decisions my mind goes blank and I usually do things without much thinking.Dont know how to explain but like illogical clicking buttons.
Heres is an example:



I really cant say why I raised this turn, when its really bad card for me .For some reason I saw I have OP I have GS and somehow assumed that player is bluffing, which was wrong, he had AA.And spew a bi just like that.
I am not frustrated by this I guess couse its not smth which happens that often, and I guess its normal part of learning curve, but I find it very winrate killing as well.

My playing mood tends to get depended upon my results ,since I keep looking at my graph during and after session.
I have to say that that doesnt always happen.For example at begining of the month when I was like 20 bi up I never cared much about session results.
But after I lost 8 bi on nl10 I am kinda worried about my winrate and my mood and playstyle are kinda depended on it.
Good thing was that after I lost 3bi in first 30mins of session I kept playing, eventually calmed myself and played for another 2hours. relativly calmly and ended session in green.

At the begining of this month I was optimistic that I could cross to nl20 when I reach my roll of 400 which was 100$ shy,but its evident that wont be the case.
Couse of my weak mindset, which coused me to play super low volume couse of downswing and also my leaks , those mentioned above and those which are yet to be revealed.
But thats ok , I am satisfied atz microgaming and found ares where I need to improve before I go to play with boys from higher limits.
So lets go

Nice post there - super honest and deffs something you can look back on to help you improve and grow as a player!

THx Jon.
I am sure there are many more leaks to come, but I guess I need to work on those ones first. And hope to climb some stakes.