Wow!!! Its been almost a month since I played last. I have been really busy with landscaping and most days, it leaves me so tired that I don’t feel like doing anything but laying on the couch.

Today was the first time in a while that I’ve had some free time. I ended up watching a couple poker videos and that got me inspired to play.

I played for about 2.5 hours today and played very very well. Here are my results:

I ran quite well this session.  I didn’t have any coin flips preflop, and managed to dodge a lot of outs on a couple occasions post flop.  I was also sitting at some pretty good tables with some pretty fishy players, and managed to get paid off a lot more than normal.

I didn’t really have too many interesting hands.  Most were very standard.

In non poker related news, I had a pretty interesting experience at the dog park yesterday.  I took my dog Dexter there.  He’s a little Shih Tzu with a ton of energy.  He loves going to the dog park and playing with the bigger dogs.  My friend and her dog happened to be there.  She has a Boxer named Leela.  We were hanging out and our dogs were playing and having fun, when this man came in carrying his little kid.  He had a little dog with him too, but I’m not sure what breed.  Anyway, when he walks in, he is near two large Boxers (one of which is Leela) and he sees them.  He turns to get his dogs attention, but his dog is not listening to him, so he sets his kid down and turns back to the dog.  Leela heads over to check out this little kid, and as soon as she gets there the kid starts crying (she’s taller on all fours than the kid is, and probably weighs twice what the kid does) so the father turns back and picks his kid up, as my friend goes to get her dog.  She sends her dog back to play with the other boxers.  They’re still very close to where this man and his kid are though.  So this man gets back to trying to get his dogs attention and puts his kid down again.  This time Leela inadvertently knocks the kid over, and the kid starts crying.  The father turns and gives my friend an evil glare while picking up his kid.  She apologizes for her dog and gets her away from the kid.  As we’re walking away from them, we hear him say to his kid “Its ok, its just a poorly trained dog”

This pissed me off.  I turned to him and said “you know, its probably not very good parenting to bring your little kid to an off leash dog park where he is out weighed by 90% of the dogs in here, and then set him down on the ground and leave him unattended while you try and get your poorly trained dog’s attention”

There was more arguing that didn’t really matter, he ended up leaving cause his kid was still crying and his dog wasn’t listening to him.  He left muttering profanities about us “stupid fucking kids and their dumb dogs” or something like that.  This guy just made me laugh.  He clearly has little, to no common sense.  And yet even when he knew he was in the wrong, he would never admit it and continued to blame my friend for his stupidity.

The lesson here: Parents, please don’t take a small defenseless child to an off leash dog park where dogs are allowed to run around and play with other dogs.  And if you do decide to do this, please, please PLEASE! don’t set him down and leave him unattended.  You’re just asking for your kid to get hurt.

1st week – 200NL

I played 3 sessions over the week.  It was a little swingy, but each session was a winning session.

I played looser than normal overall with 32/24/3 over 4200 hands.

Here are my results:

There weren’t too many really interesting hands.  I ran into a couple cooler situations and got sucked out on a bit, but i felt like i played my A game througout.  In the last session I played, i was at one table with a VERY loose player to my left.  Not the most ideal situation, but I’ll take it every day.  I will post a couple of hands from this session:

CO: $200.00
BTN: $589.75
SB: $1152.80
BB: $1319.80
Hero (UTG): $594.55
CO posts a big blind ($2)
Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is UTG with J J
CO raises to $4, 1 fold, BB raises to $15, Hero raises to $43, CO calls $39, 1 fold

So the villan in this hand is the reason I’m at the table.  He’s super loose, and VERY aggro on the turn and river.  He can’t fold much and is the definition of a payoff wizzard.  He also has YET to fold to a 3bet over about 150 hands that i’ve played with him.  So I 3bet pretty big to isolate.

Flop: ($102.00) 6 4 J (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

The flop rapes me in the face.  I have the nuts here and a bet here against him might get some folds.  There is no turn card i’m scared of, so i elect to check OOP and let him bet.

Turn: ($102.00) 6 (3 players)
Hero bets $45, CO calls $45

My plan on the flop fails, but its not the worst thing in the world.  He can still have any two cards here but i wanna build a really big pot here, so i decide to bet a little less than half pot.  He snap called my bet.

River: ($192.00) T (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $98, Hero raises to $196, CO calls $13 all in

His snap call on the turn tells me that he either has a straight draw with 53 or 57, or he has a 6.  He can have a 4 some here too.  When he leads for about half pot on the river, it tells me that his hand improved.  I only lose to 66, which i highly doubt he has.  He could have T6, or TT or T4.  I decide that since i’m sure his hand improved on the river, I can easily shove here and get called a ton, so i tanked a bit and shoved.  He insta-called, and I expected to see at least a 6.  surprisingly, he rolls over T4o.  Which is terrible, since any J beats him, but this hand kinda proves my suspision that he is a very low level thinking player.

Final Pot: $414.00
CO mucks 4 T
Hero shows J J (a full house, Jacks full of Sixes)
Hero wins $412.00
(Rake: $2.00)

This next hand is pretty interesting.  Villan is the same as the previous hand:

BB: $475.30
UTG: $200.00
CO: $261.00
BTN: $200.00
Hero (SB): $371.20

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with 8 Q
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4

Flop: ($12.00) 7 T 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $8, BB calls $8

In retorspect, I don’t really like my cbet that much.  I only have 3 outs that I like, and he’s gonna call with a lot of hands.  I think betting smaller or checking is better.  When I decided to cbet the flop, I decided that I wanted to lead, to avoid him potting the flop after I check to him.

Turn: ($28.00) J (2 players)
Hero bets $18, BB raises to $36, Hero calls $18

When he calls my cbet on the flop, he can have a ton of hands from the nuts, to 2 overs.  This is part of the problem with playing players like this.  Their range is so wide a lot of the time.  I was lucky enough to hit a gin turn card.  I now have the 2nd nuts.  When he min raises me, he could have QK, or an 8.  There are way more 8x hands in his range than QK hands, so I had basically decided to go with this hand.  My only decision now, was how to get the money in.  Since I know he’s aggro on the turn and river, I decide that he’s betting 100% of the time on the river.  So flat calling his turn minraise, and checking non heart rivers to him is optimal.  If its a river heart, I might lead more often.  So i call his raise praying for no heart

River: ($100.00) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $100, Hero raises to $321.20 all in, BB calls $221.20

My prayers are answered, and I proceed with my plan.  He bets exactly pot and I know that I’m getting called every time I shove on the river.  I lose to one hand, and win against any 8x hand he has, so its an easy shove for me.  To my surprise, he tanked a bit before calling, which told me he didnt have me beat.

Final Pot: $742.40
BB mucks 6 8
Hero shows 8 Q (a straight, Queen high)
Hero wins $739.40
(Rake: $3.00)

History

A little bit about me:

I have been playing poker for about 4 years.  I started taking it seriously about 2 years ago when I deposited $500  and played online starting at 25NL playing 6max cash games.  I flew through 25NL – 100NL in less than 2 months.  It took another 2 months for me to get past 2ooNL, but ran into a roadblock at 400NL.  Over the last year, I’ve been back and forth between 200NL and 400NL.  Right now I have been playing 200NL with decent results.  I play a fairly loose style and tend to be a little more swingy than i would like, but I’m working on that.

I own a landscaping company and in the winter, I play poker.  Last winter was decent for me, but not as good as I would have liked.  Our landscaping season will be winding down around October, and I plan on playing poker over the winter again.  This time I will try and be much more disciplined than I was last winter.

This is where I am at right now.  I plan on updating this thing after each session I play.  During landscaping season, this will be pretty sporadic, but over the winter, i should be much more consistent.