The Endless River

blinds @50/100mxn min buy-in 10k
13mxn=1usd so this is like playing 4/8

Session started pretty good for me, my third hand straddle is on, utg limps, I make it 1100 from utg+1 with KK, btn and limper calls, 3 way flop 898r, checks to me I fire 1800 they both fold. Was nice to be able to pickup a hand and show aggression at the beginning of the session, again I felt very comfortable playing this table even tho I'm not rolled as I'd like to play it but there was really no good players as I could see so far the level is equal to a nl200 table, or at least that's how I feel in that game, very small sample tho, the only con this table has is that dealers are damn slooow! but besides that the action is good, there are fishes around, and everyone's at least 100bb deep, rake is ok.

So after a couple of orbits I'm up a bit, the guy on my right was catching some good cards and he was vbetting his hands correctly, he's the only one I would be aware of and being in position was good, after an hour he racks up and leave with a good profit, I hear the table says something about another player coming they call "gringo" (that's how we mexicans call north-americans), so el gringo shows up and to my surprise I recognize him as he's a well known tournament pro, so in my mind I'm like.. wtf is this guy doing here? he buys in for 10k and sits right next to me, just his second hand he gets dealt he opens up to 400 from UTG, guy in late position 3bets to 1400, he quickly 4bets to 2900 *inside my head I'm thinking haha! this motherf*cker probably has air right now* but no, it goes insta shove call, kings over ases gg, he just turns and look at me with a small smile on his face like saying really?? I smiled back like.. yeah.. lmao.

A couple of orbits later we're down to 6handed and I'm thinking about leaving since most of the moneys from the fishes is already off the table, I pick up TT in the btn all limps and I raise to 800, two callers flop comes K73r I cbet and take it down.
One orbit later pro raises over a limper to 600 in the cutoff, I'm on the btn with Ac9c, my first thought was to 3bet and try to take down the pot right there, at this point I know he has the highest PFR from the table and I was confident he was just isolating the fish but then I gave it a 2nd thought and decided I didn't want to play a big pot and probably wouldn't know what to do against a 4-bet plus A9s plays good postflop shorthanded, so I didn't put myself on gay position and just call, even tho I think a raise was good also, blinds folds and limper (lose passive fish) calls. 3way flop J73r one club, fish checks pro tanks 5 secs and checks to me, I'm thinking it's a good spot to rep JX since I've been playing snug my image was good for me to fire flop and was planning on firing turn on any clubs or overcards if heads up, also their range will be very narrow if they go ch call on that dry board so it's easier for me to play the hand this way, I bet 950 into 1950, fish thinks a bit and call, pro acting very casually looking at some college football on tv calls as well (wtf no cbet but calling over?), turn is a Jd, again both check to me and I quickly realize how good that J was, I was giving up on most turns but not on that J, I bet 2100 very confident knowing they almost never have JX and since there are no draws I don't expect them to put the sheriff hat and call me down with middle pair or low pps, both insta folded, I left a couple of hands later, cashed out 15kish.

after 4 sessions
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graph shown in USD

I'll be on Vegas next week, I'm planning on playing some wsopc low buy-in events @planet hollywood, hopefully get a good score that boosts my roll, also I'll be grinding NL1/3 2/5, if the run good is with me and I'm feeling confident with my game as I am so far I'll try a shot @5/10 but its all castles in the sky right now, I'll try to make a trip report when I come back, if anyone wanna catch up @Vegas just let me know, I'll be from Nov 12-18.


Cheers LP,
Carlos

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Comments (5)

Hi fellas, It's been 7 months since my last entry and it's because I kind of lost motivation for the game, you know that feeling of excitement you get when you're about to play just wasn't there.

I'll just try to resume very short the past 7 months or so.

After half a year of grinding live tables I started to play online again in May and after a few years off the online tables I didn't felt too rusty, went straight to play nl50 zoom (I liked zoom, it's like a hard training) and after a couple of days I was back to the old grind, 4 tables daily for hours, I played over 100k hands in 1 month, ended up a few buyins bellow, even after rakeback. I was burned out after those 100k hands and I just decided to stop playing online and stick to live poker for the next couple months with slight winnings.

A new local casino began to offer poker with nl200 and nl800 tables that run daily, this was great news to me since I now was able to play with new locals and also give a shot to higher stakes without having to go to the US. so far so good, I won a few buyins and took the shot @800, never played this stakes before but I felt really comfortable since I knew the level of my opponents wasn't big deal, it didn't go well and I lost 300ish that session but I wasn't hurt at all, overall I played well but cards didn't go my way that time, I took the second shot early October and it went better, I won 3 buyins which felt nice obviously. I've also been playing at Phoenix, Arizona lately at the Talking Stick Casino, huge poker room with lots of games and stakes which feels like a whole new experience.

My goal for the year was to reach 16.5k, I didn't make it but overall I can say I'm glad because for now the love for the game is back and I know it's because of the higher stakes I can and will play now, it's like jumping into a whole new ocean, the truth is I don't play this game for the money, I see the money just as a measure of how good/bad I do at this game, what really drives me is the competition with myself, to push myself higher into the ladder.

Live
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Zoom
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Bonus: I'll just drop this in here.
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go HD

Cheers,
Carlos

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Comments (3)

So I went to Vegas as planned, first two days I played 200NL at MGM and I won $700, so I decided to walk to the Wynn to get higher action and somehow I ended up @Aria playing 1/3, table was tough, full of regs only 1 fish at the table, everyone was pretty deep so I bought 300, lot of PF action 3bets 4bets, not what I'm used to at 200NL lol, I didn't want to play scared money so I just went there and try to play my game which didn't result well, I got caught bluffing (I still think was a good bluff, reg tanked for about 4 mins and made a cry call with babyflush on a paired board) then I lost another buyin I got it allin on the turn with ases up on a 3bet pot (A7 on A754 board, A8 made the call, 6 on the river, gg) so I dropped 2 buyins and I ended up almost even lol, I usually dont drink while play but @Vegas I just couldn't help it so I dont know if it affected my game but meh, I fell in love with Stella Artois lol, so I just got a 24.
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I just came back from Tucson where I usually play and did well, after 250 hours I finally got a high hand, I made a straight flush with 6c4c which got me an extra $200 :D
200NL
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Overall
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My goal for this year (September 2013-2014) is to hit $215,000mxn = 16.5Kusd so I'm in good pace to reach it since I'm planning to do one more visit in February to Tucson.
Thanks for reading, GL all.

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Comments (8)

Hey,

It's been a long since I don't play online, I used to be a breakeven player, used to make around 700-1k/month with rb grinding micros-mid stakes, quit 2-3 yrs ago.
I think it is worth a mention poker has always been my 2nd income.
I kept playing live just because I really love the game, I've more success playing live, since September 2013 I started keeping track of my live sessions since I started to visit a casino at the US, so far I've been playing NL200 at Casino del Sol @ Tucson, Arizona. I live in the north of México, it's a 4 hours drive to get there and I usually stay there for 3-4 nights (I get free room for 5 hours @ poker daily)
So far I've done 7 visits and these are the results:

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This is in $MXN, 1USD = 13MXN so it's around 6k usd which for 5 months of playing is almost 3x the std salary where I live for a 180hours/month job.

Gotta say the obvious, live is much easier than online as I can recall, I play much less hours and make more profit, games are pretty easy there, mostly play vs 50+ old pals which has no clue what they're doing, I just play ABC, value all my hands, make discipline folds and I never get out of line, I barely bluff, I've gained a lot of discipline which I lacked of in my online years.

I know nothing about live bankroll management but I have 5.2k in my bankroll and I just got a couple of nights very cheap @Vegas (22usd @hooters) next week, so instead of staying in Tucson I decided to give NL500 a shot, since there's only NL200 in Tucson, any recommendation would be great of where to play in Vegas.
I've been there 2 times and mostly played NL200@MGM in which I think games were pretty soft, but have 0 experience @NL500.

Anyway that's it so far, I will keep blogging to keep track of my thoughts/results about poker and hopefully I'll write more about my life since I think it's a good excercise, not for you but for me

GL n HF at life.

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Comments (3)

Hi, as I've seen some guys who invests in the market I was looking for any information could be helpful to get started,
like a good/safe site? restrictions law/country stuff?

thanks.

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Comments (7)

Hi, I would like to deposit to start grinding again (I quit few months ago) I still have a deal @ ongame with 45% rb and its payed monthly, I am looking to start a new account in maybe a diferent site, im just looking for a better deal, I usually play around 40-50k hands per month and I would start @ nl10-nl20, if anyone could help pm me plz thanks in advance.

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Comments (1)