Never confuse motion with action

Pretty standard week for the most part. The 2/4 and 3/6 games on FTP have been pretty good the past two weeks or so. Even the TAGfish are probably donning a comfortable win rate in those games for the past couple weeks. Hands to follow.

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

CO: $167.30
BTN: $670.30
Hero (SB): $764.80
BB: $615
UTG: $654.70

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG calls $6, CO folds, BTN calls $6, Hero raises to $38, 2 folds, BTN calls $32

Flop: ($88) 8 4 A (2 Players)
Hero bets $60, BTN raises to $120, Hero raises to $228, BTN raises to $632.30 and is All-In, Hero calls $404.30

Turn: ($1,352.60) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($1,352.60) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: $1,352.60 Pot ($3 Rake)

BTN showed K Q (a pair of Eights) and LOST (-$670.30 NET)
Hero showed A A (a full house, Aces full of Eights) and WON $1,349.60 (+$679.30 NET)

The fruits of playing LAG and pissing off donkies. Easiest $680 I've ever made. The holidays must have really had him in the giving spirit.

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

BTN: $257.90
SB: $396
BB: $549
Hero (UTG): $826.20
CO: $446.50

Pre-Flop: 5 5 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $14, CO folds, BTN calls $14, SB folds, BB raises to $52, Hero calls $38, BTN calls $38

BB is a solid TAG. We've tangoed a bit in the past and I had been involved in a hand with him where I made a very aggressive play and won a $500 pot without showdown. BTN is your standard LAP donk. BB makes the mistake of granting me the implied odds I need to set mine.

Flop: ($158) 5 A 7 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

BB hesitates and checks. I opt to check behind bc I assume that he leads AK-Q here. I weigh his range towards KK-QQ. I didnt want to blow him off of it so I check behind trying to rep KK-88.

Turn: ($158) 5 (3 Players)
BB bets $77, Hero calls $77, BTN calls $77

Even better. Once again, my turn logic is consistent with my logic on the flop.

River: ($389) A (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $697.20 and is All-In, BTN folds, BB calls $420 and is All-In

At this point, I have to bet. He's obviously calling if he slowplayed his AK-Q. The only way I would get value from KK-QQ is if he felt I was bluffing. If I were to bluff, I wouldn't VB so I opted to shove.

Results: $1,229 Pot ($3 Rake)
BB mucked J J (two pair, Aces and Jacks) and LOST (-$549 NET)
Hero showed 5 5 (four of a kind, Fives) and WON $1,226 (+$677 NET)

This opponent really played this hand bad. By checking the flop, he opened himself up for disaster. Its going to be very difficult to get value with JJ OOP against two other opponents. Lead the flop here and let the hand play itself. If he receives any action, it should be obvious that hes behind. He turned what should have been an easy decision into a difficult one and convinced himself that I was bluffing.

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Player

SB: $594
BB: $214
UTG: $1,069.40
MP: $279
CO: $311.35
Hero (BTN): $878.55

Pre-Flop: T J dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB folds, BB calls $15

BB is a tight passive short stacker running 21/10/1.7. I have a note on him that he bluffed the turn and river when I checked the flop behind.

Flop: ($45) A 6 J (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks

By betting Im not getting called by anything Im ahead of, and at the same time, Im folding out anything that I beat. No draws other than a gutter. Safe check. Im willing to make a very small mistake to potentially induce a larger mistake on his part.

Turn: ($45) 4 (2 Players)
BB bets $40, Hero calls $40

Uh oh. Ive seen this line before.

River: ($125) 6 (2 Players)
BB bets $153 and is All-In, Hero calls $153

I can only beat a bluff, but based on his quick timing, I went with my read.

Results: $431 Pot ($3 Rake)

BB showed T Q (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-$214 NET)
Hero showed T J (two pair, Jacks and Sixes) and WON $428 (+$214 NET)

In terms of monetary gain, this was an insignificant hand. However, this was a confidence boost because I was able to make a call based on his timing and a read.


Picture with my buddy from his 21st birthday celebration.

After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser

I arrived home on Saturday evening. The drive back from school wasn't bad because I didn't hit any traffic in DC. Finals were pretty rough but I did good. I received my final grades from three courses so far. I'm still waiting on one final grade, though. If I can pull out an A- then I'll make the Dean's List for the first time. Right now I think its borderline between an A- or a B+. Say a prayer for me.

Ive been able to log some hands since getting home but not as many as I would like. The times have been quite hectic around here. Last night was my best friend's and my sister's birthday. My sister turned 20, Ill be celebrating her birthday on Friday with some of her sorority sisters. Last night was my friend's 21st, so we went out last night relatively low key, but he has an entire evening of festivities planned for Saturday night. Some great times ahead in the near future.

Anyways, I played on Sunday night and lost about $700 over 2k hands. Not too bad considering I was down $1.8k about 1200 hands into the session. I took some donk for a BI and a half at a 3-6 table when it broke and left us heads up. Beautiful. Monday night I came back with a vengeance. Was playing really LAG and started catching hands at the perfect time. I cant believe how many bluffs I induced. People were putting their stacks in the middle with absolutely nothing and I happened to have a hand. Finished up $3.8k in 700 hands. $1.9k at both the 400s and 600s. Best night yet.

My coach is excellent in keeping things in perspective because he has emphasized that the good and bad nights are only a small squiggle on a long term graph. Yes, its cool to win nearly 4k in one night, but its tough to quantify because its only a number. I want to get to 5-10 as soon as possible, so this is yet another step in the right direction. I'll never be complacent with my results because satisfaction is only good for stalemating my progression as a player. Ive seen it several times in the poker community already where someone experiences substantial success for the first time and automatically assume that their abilities are near perfect.

Too many players worry about winning and losing. They think, "If I run good..." or even worse "If I don't run bad..." This is a loser's mentality; one who is not confident in their abilities. If you are truly confident in your abilities as a player, you should focus on playing your best. Playing your best and losing is fine. However, playing bad with bad results is obviously not OK. Some people even play bad and win, thus allowing them to believe their play is Hellmuth-esque. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that if you feel you have an edge in a game, then you should really focus on playing your best and nothing else.

Well done is better than well said.

Finals have begun. I have two final exams and two final papers. One paper is ten pages in length and the other is twenty. Ive put a good dent in everything except the twenty pager. I have all of my research done for it and there is alot of material to write about. Its due Thursday so Ill be fine.

After spending all day and the majority of he evening in the library, I logged 1k hands while 4-6 tabling. I had my biggest night yet, $2.75k. I also eclipsed the $20k BR mark. As Im writing this, I'm not really experiencing any feelings of excitement. I haven't accomplished my goals yet, so there is nothing to cheer about. It is simply a step in the right direction.


Weekend was a good time. Friday night was LAXmas. The lacrosse team's annual Christmas party. I live with the lax guys in my class so Friday night was standard procedure for the most part. Saturday afternoon was spent in Cameron Indoor for a matchup against Michigan. A close friend of mine got hooked up with some tickets.

Drive thy business; let it not drive thee

Since my last update Ive learned alot about 2-4. I need to keep logging hands, because I learn so much by playing. Im still trying to find the right balance in my game. This is the first limit I have played at that requires me to get into the head of my opponent. Its alot of fun, but it can also be mentally draining. My sessions are usually around an hour long at 2-4, which relative to the past, isnt that long for me. However, once I feel my mind tire I stop playing and take a nice break. Poker is tough because if you aren't playing at 100%, then you're losing money.

I want to exceed 25k hands this month. Im going to hit a rough patch once finals roll around. I should be able to log a decent sample while I am home for winter break.

Edit: I just read Martin's blog (Dodgyken) and he wants me to post a hand from a sweat.

Villain is a regular running at 27/21/3 over 1.3k hands. We have some history. This session I outplayed him twice in decent sized pots and he knew it. It seemed like he had it out for me after that. I had also been playing a bit looser than usual.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Full Tilt

SB ($431)
BB ($745.30)
UTG ($142)
MP ($427.90)
CO ($397.55)
Hero ($469.40)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kh, Td.
3 folds, Button raises to $14, 1 fold, BB calls $10.

Flop: ($30) 2s, 9d, Ks (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets $22, BB raises to $58, Hero calls $36.

A decent board for him to c/r me on considering I'll have a hard time continuing without a K or better. Its tough for me to put him on a set. He's repping 22, a draw, or air. He three bets 99+ based on my image.

Turn: ($146) Jd (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets $92, BB raises to $422, Hero calls $305.40 (All-In).

I decide to bet bc I wanted to protect against draws, which I felt occupied the majority of his range. He c/r all in while the majority my range is clearly top pair. His turn c/r represents 22, KJ, and J9. I discounted KJ and J9 because he practically never c/r those hands on that flop. So it was either 22 or a draw. I figured that he figured he could maximize his fold equity with a draw bc one pair typically has a tough time finding a call to a turn c/r.

River: ($940.80) Qc (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $940.80

Fortunately, he was drawing. To be specific, he was drawing to 2 outs after he showed his 55. The most important variables in the hand were my image and his psychological state.