July: Burnout & Failed Goals (2015)
Up until recently I agreed with the notion that buying in for the max is an ego thing and that overall it is much more productive to play a ~100bb stack since you can get paid off much lighter and your decisions are much more straightforward. This is a terrible way to approach the game. Yes there are some fundamentally unexploitable advantages to playing a short-stack, but this is exactly the type of reasoning that shitregs use to hide the fact that they don't actually know how to play poker. Anyone who is truly crushing the game is chipping up to cover the fish.
I have almost always been the chipleader of any given table I was on for the entire month. A few players have flat out told me that they leave the table because they know I chip up and gun for them. The purpose of me going north is not to spook the fish like this, but it just shows how uncomfortable I really make them, which is obviously something I take full advantage of.
2775/1700 BTN tryhard straddle I open QQ 35 in BB MP unknown 3b 80 CO passive whale flat BTN retard flat I 4b 1235 unknown calls 270 whale calls 300 tryhard shoves 1700 I call. Lose main to unknown KK win sidepot mucks. J52-K-T runout.
I obviously 4b to isolate the 2 shortstacks. However, because I acted so quickly and used 12 black chips the kid could have easily misunderstood the situation and tried to isolate himself without grasping what I just did. Based on the runout he could only be holding AJ, 99, or 88, but given how clueless he was it wouldn't be that surprising if he folded the huge side pot winner after seeing KK turn a set.
4200/1975 2 limps HJ tryhard raise 75 I 3b red KK 225 in SB UTG whale call tryhard 4b 900 I shove whale folds he snaps AKo. Run twice AKo wins both.
1875/1875 BTN maniac Kasey straddle 2 calls I raise ThTs 105 in UTG all call. 4way 863ssc I bet 205 Kasey raises 500 rest fold I jam 1750 she snaps 77. Run it once I hold.
1950/1400 BTN whale straddle SB shitreg open 30 I 3b AQcc 90 in UTG1 only shitreg call. T93rc I bet 110. Turn 5c I bet 265. Riv 2x I tank chk back lose to 88.
I 3b preflop in EP mainly because I want to play HU with position on the shitreg rather than playing a 5way pot out of position. Flop is a standard cbet as there is a lot of backdoor potential. On the turn I know that checking back to realize our equity and avoid a disastrous check-raise is absolutely fine, but I just want to take the most EV line possible regardless of the fact that it is high variance. I give up on the river because it is a complete blank and it is hard to get him off of the range I assigned him (QQ/JJ/Tx since he is never flatting set ott then checking riv), but the fact that he showed up with 88 means his range is much wider than I gave him credit for so I should have significantly more fold equity.
1350/1350 EP pakistani tricky fish open 25 I 3b KTcc 75 in MP. HU KQThhd he donks 100 I raise 300 he tank raises 600 I fold.
I 3b here for the same reason as the last hand, to get HU and take initiative in position. I raise the flop because there is value to extract from draws and so many bad cards will leave me guessing. I plan to overbet shove a blank turn and expect to get called lightly. Without sounding like I raised the flop without a plan, this click-raise just screams so much more strength than a shove that my gut feeling just begged me to fold. After discussing this hand with a few people I respect I much prefer the line of flatting the flop, then either calling down both turn and river (on blanks) or raising the turn to play for stacks if his sizing is small enough that I interpret it as a blocking bet.
1500/1400 UTG wheelchair shitreg open 20 I call 44 in CO. 3way 942rs he bets 40 I flat. Turn 9s he bets 65 I raise 175. Riv Js he bets 125 I raise 325 he jams 1150 I call lose to JJ.
My first reaction was to chalk this up as a huge cooler. However, no one is 3betting rivers without the immortal nuts. In actuality, 22 is most likely flatting my river raise. This is a very good example of my inexperience playing deep. My logic behind flatting the flop was that since the board is absurdly dry my raise looks very strong and it is hard to get action from worse. However, this is terrible reasoning. Because it is a single raised pot the SPR is so high that I cannot ever extract maximum value and play for stacks without getting a raise in on the flop.
Most people would be stoked to make over $8000 in a month, but I am not one of those people. Going into this month my goal was to put in 300hrs and profit close to $15000, give or take. Although I only managed to put in 224 hours, I know that I still ran well below EV. I understand that variance in poker means every month will be drastically different but it is still frustrating to see a shitreg have a bigger month than me putting in fewer hours...and yes I realize how much of a whiny bitch I sound like saying this. If I had pulled the same figure putting in 100 less hours I would be happy with the result.
To be fair, it would be unreasonable to blame my results on negative variance that is out of my control. Overall I played poorly this month due to all the burnout. By coming in to play in the early afternoons and walking out before midnight I put in big hours at the wrong times, giving it my all in the bad games where there just wasn't any money to be made, then being stuck and frustrated heading into the much more profitable night games. When I was stuck I would often skip meals and refuse to eat for 10 hours straight, but this unhealthy obsession certainly had adverse affects as it affected my play whether I was aware of it or not. Many opponents started to adjust to my high PFR frequency in LP by habitually limp re-raising me. By sticking with my lead foot and failing to tone it down a notch I failed to properly counter-adjust.
I am targeted for money very often. It definitely has a lot to do with the fact that I give shady people the time of day and don't tell people to fuck off when it needs to be said. A scumbag could go around asking for money and quickly give up when they are told no, but for some reason when I tell them no they just do not let up. My history shows that I am a bad judge of character but there has to be some type of vibe I give off that lets people know this. It's probably because if I am approached in public I hear what they have to say before going about my day, where as other people instantly respond with something like "back the fuck up before I knock your teeth out." If you think about it, 99% of the time nothing good can come from some stranger walking up to you in public.
My 15k goal was well within reach. In my last 5/T session I lost a 4.1k pot KK<AKo running it twice AIPF and a 2.3k pot AK<97o AIPF. Had I held in these spots I would have reached my goal. Had I not let others tell me when to get on/off the table I would be well over 10k for the month. I am not saying these things to dwell on pots I ran terribly in or place the blame on others. I am writing this down so I do not make the same mistakes next month. If I feel I am playing poorly because I've been there 10hrs and am just miserable being there I'm not going to let what anyone says change my decision to leave. I am not going to get up off the table to go have a chat with someone when the game is exceptionally good.