Review Time

A couple of losing sessions in a row, so I need to play a session where I take my time over everything and then review here....... I usually find this a great way to nip downswings in the bud before they escalate into 25 BIs etc.

Review to follow.......session will be strictly 25 minutes long.


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Bleh, not a good session! Looking through the hands, it's clear I could've saved *some* money, but I just simply didn't win over $25 in any particular hand. 'Not winning hands' can get endemic, which is why I've endeavoured to loosen up my image a ton through (potentially breakeven in a vacuum) flop raises, turn check raises, etc etc. Unfortunately, if the situations don't come up then they don't come up.

I certainly could've folded this river (although Sauce would not have done). One thing I need to learn to balance is that..... the mode of play whereby we make plenty of bluffs does not disqualify us from also making the same number of obvious folds that we did previously. It does enable us to get in the money lighter, but only in spots where we are the aggressor, ie we can suddenly treble tp3k for a value in a 3bet pot. Spots like the above, especially on the river are just *classic* ssnl folds all day.

So yeah, I'm all about being very hard on myself at the moment, but I think this session and the ones preceding it are simply about pure runbad in the 'not having good situations' sense. I'm going to endeavour to fold more rivers though, but just continue to do what I'm doing and grind through it.

I'll play another 60 minute session after a short break. Goals are to time on decisions, have a video narrative on medium-big decisions, and probably look to fold rivers more. Review to follow.

Session #3

$30 won on the session! EV of $215....... a sad last minute beat to destroy my dreams

http://weaktight.com/5608552

Was super happy with the session though, basically a textbook example of how I want to be playing, decent amount of 3betting, delayed bluffs, and flop raises but without venturing into spew.

Feel like I should walk my dogs. Hmm, really can't be bothered. Meh, actually the mental inner peace it gives me will probably help me. So yeah, gonna walk em.

Session #2

Lost $130 or so, but an ubercooler accounted for all that btn-sb QQ vs KK. Although, maybe it's not that much of a cooler, I need to start 4betting a ton there probably to be thrilled getting in even QQ at Zoom these days with the lack of dynamics. But meh, still a cooler, he was like 13% from that spot.

Lost with 33 on t32r A too a big pot, and then bottled calling the river here http://weaktight.com/5608414 . Yes it doesn't look like a call, but I had strong spidey senses on this guy, but my desire to play solid meant I folded......... I like the turn bet by the way in case anyone's wondering.

Basically a load of sorta unavoidable big pots totalled $230, and I lost only $130, and so kinda happy.

For session 3, plan is just more of the same, avoid making mistakes and keep looking for spots to apply pressure.

Session Review

Still struggling along at the moment. $7k under EV for the year, and then the confidence issues that result, have left me pretty poor. I NEED to write more of these blogs I think, I've been stuck in a bit of a grinder's rut 'get in dems hands' which isn't healthy. Well, it might be healthy for a while, like if you find a style that works and hammer it, but eventually things and regs change and some adjustment might be needed.

I think for a while at 200 I was hammering the 'fold everything, make the nuts' style, but I'm sure I'm not imagining things when I say lately I'm finding it a little difficult to get paid off. I think my image has probably just evolved to the point where every check raise gets a snap fold, every 4bet a snap fold. I basically haven't been very balanced, just relying on coolering people and then avoiding the re-coolers.

The other problem with this style is, that it's a bit 'card dependent' if you know what I mean. I don't sit down expecting to print money, I just hope I'll get some semi cooler situations and then make the big folds in reverse. Consequently WWSF has gone under 50 the last month, down to 45 or so. Red line (red herring a lot obv but still) winnings also plummeting at a large rate.

Where I'm going with this, is that I want to change my in-game outlook slightly to have more of a 'non showdown' mentality. This doesn't just mean start going crazy, but it does mean planning the hand with an eye on winning without showdown at some point. Playing one session like this felt much better, I was much more vigilant in looking for good situations rather than just going through the motions.

Thinking through the hand probably takes care of a few PF leaks as well, overcalling KQo in SB when the postflop situations are mostly pretty poor for us, etc.

http://weaktight.com/5607810 - important to pick my opponents better! But yeah, I think in the past I just try to show this down or something. Weak flop CB and weak turn bet though and it's just a good river bluff spot VS most when we bomb it.

So yeah, that's it for now. Just going to get more sessions in and keep reviewing and try to turn this around!