Both of thouse hands blows. You should be betting a lot bigger in the QT hand, you are giving them great odds to call. I would suggest like 70-80% pot, you want to build a pot with your monsters instead of betting half pot.

What is the BR looking like now?

BR is about $650. I've been away on holiday with my parents and really busy at work. I got a promotion and a raise at work as well which is cool. Its significantly -ev for me to ever play cards really I should just prepare for the next day a work or whatever and get more money there. My hourly at work is like £20 or something. I'm not getting that from cards ever!

Also Harv I read your journey cover to cover this week. Bloody awesome. For some reason I'd read it before and must have just hit a dull page as I thought it was a theory thread of people asking you dull questions like can I get away from KK preflop etc. So far from that!

Haha mate. Thanks for the kind words, I am glad you enjoyed it. I am back home now but plan to get back out there ASAP.


£20 is a very nice hourly at work. You should focus on playing poker for fun if you enjoy it rather than looking to make HUGE amounts of money or to become a grinder. I don't play it for a living now but fun. I went from 12 tables to 5 and have much more fun making reads and hero calls.

What do you do mate for work if you don't mind me asking?

Had a great day yesterday and pulled my BR back up to around $710. I've been losing for a 10k hands or so so nice to see a return to progress. Not getting carried away though as last time I got close to $750 and NL25 I engaged run bad and play bad mode and slowly bled off 7BI over the next 10k hands.




Workwise I'm in Commercial Strategy for a multinational FMCG company. I'd rather not give any more details than that as for whatever reason being a poker player would not be something that would help my career. Its a good job and I seem to be good at it but it was never a lifes passion or anything. Basically my job is to figure out how to invest more money than I will ever see in growing volume, sales and profit over the next 1-3 years.

Think your job has a solid cross over to poker. Touching on risk reward, profit and investing. Sounds like a very interesting job indeed. How much do you think companies like this look down on the poker world or any employees who play a lot of it?

Graph is sweet man and its awesome to finally say goodbye to a downswing....how is the month overall looking ?

I think any company looks down on the poker world. Unless the owner is a poker player themselves and even then I think they would distrust poker players as most are losing/degen/odd. Especially if they had ever been on BBV on 2+2. Even poker companies seem to dislike poker players. A bit like the old thing about drug dealers who sample their own product tend to wind up screwed.

Most people outside of poker would think of poker as "its all bluffing isn't it?". It would be very hard to explain the risk/reward work and ev calculations involved in deciding to make that bluff. I would definately never mention it in an interview. Even if its not a negative, its odd and instead of remembering your experience or how great your presentation was they would all remember oh yeah he was that gambler.

This month so far I'm up 3 BI over 5500 hands, 4.5BI EV adjusted so 8.5bb/100. Feb was +15BI over 15k hands +10.5BI ev adjusted so 6.5bb/100. Been a very good run the last couple of months since I went back to Stars. WIth good bonuses and RB on stars (9BI more I think) its my best ever month in Feb. BR is $685 after some bad calls yesterday. I'm still enjoying Zoom though. I think I am a much better player for the time I spent on Ipoker. Not so much in profit (though post RB I did OK) but it forced me to face into some leaks. All that said I know that this is just rungood I'm not good enough to beat Zoom for this bb/100 really. I doubt many people can get 9 bb/100 on Stars Zoom anymore. I do think I'm beating it though and I deserve a bit of rungood as my career overall I still think I've been hugely unlucky in certain stretches and still below average overall.

Rungood is not with me anymore. I have lost 3 sucky hands for 3.5BI with second nuts. All boats vs quads! Weird little run.

So my play has been pretty good recently. Freerolling BR is back up at $725 (i.e. zero net deposits) and I took a short dip into NL25. Went OK but nothing major. I'll take OK though. Still too small a sample to tell if my current strategy is a winning one but early signs at least are good.

Yeh you're right about they only like it if you play it and well bringing it up first would always be a tough thing to do. Yeh i heard that its all bluffing line before.... or the luck/gambling lines. I just nod and say "yeh it can be". I dont mind if they walk away thinking the same. I went through a phase of trying to convince everyone that it was a skill game but i rarely bother. Now tho i will sometimes say "its all just maths and game theory so just like chess the best players will win but yes sometimes they get lucky". This shuts them up as the word chess bores most people

Tough day today again. So much easier to handle though when you've been playing well and booking wins.

Any thoughts on these?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: $14.12 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
SB: $11.50 (VPIP: 17.11, PFR: 11.84, 3Bet Preflop: 8.57, Hands: 79)
BB: $20.51 (VPIP: 30.71, PFR: 26.43, 3Bet Preflop: 10.91, Hands: 146)
UTG: $8.09 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 3)
Hero (MP): $10.13
CO: $10.00 (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 22.22, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has Qs Js
fold, Hero raises to $0.30, fold, fold, fold, BB raises to $1.00, Hero calls $0.70

Flop : ($2.05, 2 players) Jc Ac 6d
BB bets $1.02, Hero calls $1.02

Turn : ($4.09, 2 players) Jh
BB bets $1.70, Hero calls $1.70

River : ($7.49, 2 players) 8h
BB bets $16.79 and is all-in, Hero calls $6.41 and is all-in

BB shows Ad Jd (Full House, Jacks full of Aces)
(Pre 70%, Flop 98%, Turn 100%)

Hero mucks Qs Js (Three of a Kind, Jacks)
(Pre 30%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)

BB wins $19.40

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: $10.59 (VPIP: 15.93, PFR: 10.51, 3Bet Preflop: 5.50, Hands: 301)
SB: $10.00 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
BB: $6.67 (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
UTG: $12.40 (VPIP: 24.09, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 3.80, Hands: 230)
MP: $38.56 (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 18.33, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 62)
Hero (CO): $11.41

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has Ad Ks
fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.30, fold, SB raises to $1.00, fold, Hero calls $0.70

Flop : ($2.10, 2 players) 8s 6s 9s
SB bets $1.05, Hero calls $1.05

Turn : ($4.20, 2 players) Kc
SB checks, Hero bets $2.00, SB calls $2.00

River : ($8.20, 2 players) 4s
SB bets $5.95 and is all-in, Hero calls $5.95

SB shows As Kh (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 50%, Flop 66%, Turn 59%)

Hero mucks Ad Ks (Flush, King High)
(Pre 50%, Flop 34%, Turn 41%)

SB wins $19.20

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $7.68 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
SB: $10.35 (VPIP: 13.94, PFR: 12.02, 3Bet Preflop: 8.11, Hands: 210)
BB: $19.84 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG: $9.55 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP: $10.00 (VPIP: 22.00, PFR: 18.00, 3Bet Preflop: 21.05, Hands: 50)
Hero (CO): $19.75

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop:(pot: $0.15)Hero has A:heart: A:spade:

[color=red]UTG raises to $0.20[/color], fold, [color=red]Hero raises to $0.75[/color], fold, fold, fold, UTG calls $0.55

Flop:($1.65, 2 players) 7:club: 6:spade: 7:diamond:
UTG checks, [color=red]Hero bets $1.15[/color], UTG calls $1.15

Turn:($3.95, 2 players) 5:diamond:
UTG checks, Hero checks

River:($3.95, 2 players) J:diamond:
[color=red]UTG bets $2.82[/color], Hero calls $2.82

UTG shows A:diamond: K:diamond: (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 12%, Flop 5%, Turn 20%)
Hero mucks A:heart: A:spade: (Two Pair, Aces and Sevens)
(Pre 88%, Flop 95%, Turn 80%)
UTG wins $9.16

All pretty damn unlucky looking to me mate. The JQs hand is a really horrid spot when the overjam and you have the top of your range so i guess paying it off is fine.

BTW man you make make this thread so much sexier when posting hands. Use our new HH embedding with WeakTight. You can learn how to do it Here

Weaktight sucks. Dynamic ones don't display properly and even the static ones I hate as it keeps all the names in. I think that is poor form.

I'll stick with PT4 crappy formatting I think. How come it doesn't format like 2+2?

Spew bluff gets lucky!

My reasoning was only 55 or QJ could call that strong a line. JJ+ 3bets pre. I can fold some Jx/Qx, 77-TT and all his current air with equity. Even if he has the nuts I have BD outs so not totally dead.

I can't get good value from betting and check folding sucks with this SPR.

Thoughts?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: $35.80 (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
SB: $17.63 (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 16.36, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 57)
Hero (BB): $10.00
UTG: $10.11 (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: $10.34 (VPIP: 39.39, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 34)
CO: $10.03 (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

SB posts SB $0.05, Hero posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has As Kc
UTG raises to $0.30, MP calls $0.30, fold, BTN calls $0.30, fold, Hero raises to $1.60, fold, MP calls $1.30, BTN calls $1.30

Flop : ($5.15, 3 players) Js 5d Qs
Hero checks, MP checks, BTN bets $2.30, Hero raises to $8.40 and is all-in, fold, fold

Hero wins $9.31

JJ,55,QQ AQ combo draws I think you are getting a lot more calls than you expect here sir! JJ/QQ won't always 3b pre and villain may well stack w/SD+FD NFD so we probs get it in with arounddddd 30% and he folds probably enough to barely make it ok

Yeah definately agree it can happen. Thats why I said spew initially. I think it is close. He can't have that many FD's as I have the As and so none of the NFD's. T9ss maybe? I doubt he has KK+. AxKs maybe for a freeroll.

If I give him half QQ-JJ combos and AK, AJs+, KQs, QJs, JTs, T9s and assume he continues all FD, OESD, 2 pair, Sets and top pair then he is folding 72% of combos which makes it OK and if he does call I have about 22%.

BR just hit $750 so time for NL25 shot. I'm going to do as Cookie spoke about in his thread doing NL25 at the weekend and mix in the week. Going to take a couple of days off now to prepare and study NL25 as busy few days ahead but will be back on Sunday night to go for it!

Good luck taking the shot. Will be sat here with my popcorn waiting on the results.

Shot not started well. Played 1000 hands or so. Got stacked AQ vs AK on A high flop in 3bet pot. AA vs trips in 3bet pot, KK vs flopped quads in 3bet pot and TPTK vs rivered 2 pair after I played too passive on the turn.

It was not coolers though really. Basically I got call happy with good hands pre flop and then couldn't accept I was beat despite triple barrels or river raises.

So far BR is at $710. I think I will quit NL25 if I get to $650.

Thoughts?

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: $23.40 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: 100.00, Hands: 2)
SB: $31.42 (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 30.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
BB: $9.31
UTG: $30.32 (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
MP: $51.40 (VPIP: 5.56, PFR: 5.63, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 76)
Hero (CO): $54.23

SB posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has 7c 7s
fold, fold, Hero raises to $0.75, fold, SB raises to $2.50, fold, Hero calls $1.75

Flop : ($5.25, 2 players) 6s 8h 7h
SB bets $3.30, Hero raises to $9.20, SB calls $5.90

Turn : ($23.65, 2 players) 9c
SB checks, Hero checks

River : ($23.65, 2 players) Jd
SB bets $19.72 and is all-in,?

Sizing at NL25 seems pretty unbalanced actually. So far it seems like people bomb pot bets in with the nuts even vs a weak range and open 4x with KK+. I then level myself into calling down. I need to get my ego in check a bit I think. I assume when I get bombed into on bad flop that it is trying to buy a fold and that I'm getting outplayed. I actually am though just not in the way I expected. There is also a lot less aggro, light shoves etc than I was expecting.

Terrible run out when you flop a set. Do you think he would check the turn with a ten even when you show aggression on the flop? Maybe he seen your turn check as weakness and tried to steal the pot on the river. Saying that that, I can't see him calling the flop with over cards and jamming the river with overcards with a 4 card straight on the board.

I'm not a 25NL player so I don't know how they play.