Final Straight of 30k Hand Challenge

I have 2513 hands left to play of the 30k 200nl hands. All in all I think I've ran slightly below average situationally and certainly in terms of all in EV, but I still could've done a lot better had I identified certain leaks sooner.

I am at the very least happy that (barring any last minute disasters) it's done the jobs of making some money, helping me experiment a little at a lower level, and allowing me to identify and iron out a ton of leaks that have crept in.

So I have a slight feel of just wanting to finish the quota of hands so I can get back to 400nl and start a new challenge, but for now I really need to fight that and focus 100% on the remaining hands.

My current session goals are the same:

Stop the PF spew for 100bbs

Adjust to villain, plan hand all the way from PF depending on villain

PSR planning

Don't build big pots then fold, don't build big pots without a decent plan to win the hand.

Soulread based on betsizing.

Positional Awareness

Stop overbetting for value as much, and think on rivers

Early flop folds when raised

However I am failing badly on the last one....... I'm ~$800 up for the day, but I couple of 200bb river bluff shoves means I should be a whole lot more. Now, the shoves by themselves I don't hate and indeed would do again if I found myself in the spot, but the mistake in both cases was not making an extremely early flop fold.

The mistake that's crept in is to cbet say, 99 on A82hh, then I get minraised by moderately aggro fishy type, and I say to myself "ah I'll flat and win this pot somehow on the river". Thus I get to the river having to shove over a weak bet to win the pot.

So something that I think is really important in poker is this. A lot of people in the above hand would focus on the river shove rather than what is a whole ton more important, namely in this case the flop action, but often even so far back as PF.

What I need to realise about bluffing and shoving to win pots is that while I should definitely be doing it wherever I see a good spot, it should be as a last resort when other decent options, including big flop folds, have been exhausted. Planning to do so on the flop in a pot we're we've invested 7BBs is not the way to go about it.

However a turn spot in a big pot with maybe 2nd pair would still be fine to maybe call another barrel then shove the river if he bets again, as we have a plan to win at showdown if he checks gives up the river, while the risk reward is clearly skewed much more in our favour given the money already invested on the flop.

So for the rest of the hands I'll be checking my current goals text file very often, but the one on which I'm truly judging myself until the next blog is the big early flop folds one.............

dan