I chose to play short stacked with 50BB to at least get a few show downs. Also buying in full and playing LAG does not work if many players are short stacked.

I played TAG raised premium hands and stayed out of marginal hands. The game was soft and there were at least 3 gamblers on the table going all in with crap preflop.
I noted down who are gambling and who are not and my reads were right most of the time.

• Picked up in small blind with one or two limpers. Made it 20 got 1 caller. high Flop was rainbow no draws. Checked it to let the caller bluff because I was committed anyway. Turn brought straight draw so bet pot and took it down.

• Picked up in MP and raised it to 20 after few limpers and took it down.

• Picked up made it 12 after 1 limper, got one caller but limper went all in for 11 more. I asked if I could raise and I could not understand what she said (accent). I should have asked for time and raised and thats where I need to work on live game. The flop came 44K. With out a flush draw or a pair, I check folded it. The caller had K9 and the raiser had 22. I made a good lay down not wanting to spoil my image because this hand was going to showdown.

• Picked up again and re raised a raiser (very short stack ). He called with . I paired my ace on the flop but he made his flush on the river. There was also another player all in with junk. That was a huge pot I lost being a slight favorite. But I never overvalue AQ AK anyway so I was okay with it. But I was upset about being asked to show my losing hand. The donkeys were classless and talked about the casino rules an how you could look at the cards online.

• I was down to 40BB after losing the big pots. I picked up in MP and limped into a family pot . Flop came with giving me straight and flush draws not to mention straight-flush draw. I checked to get a bet and raise all-in. But the flop was checked around. The turn was the magic . I wanted some one to have or and be drawing to nut flush. So I checked it to give free river and caller a small bet. The river was blank. I checked it again to let the better bluff and raised it pot size. He had a Jack high flush. I made a mistake of not raising big because I did not think he had the flush and with my image he will be scared of calling my check/raise which represents at least a nut flush. I made a mistake of overestimating his skill. He was a calling station and he would have called any bet if he had flush and no bet if did not have the flush. A lot of the players are polarized this way and I should lean on big bets especially when there are donkeys around. I took a lot of time trying to decide the right amount on the river and some players not in the hand were out of line blaming me of slow rolling even though I declared straight flush immediately after the call on the river. These were the same players who asked to show my losing hand. Idiots!

• After this hand I was up by 10BB. I stole blinds using my image couple of times. The table got crazy after that with the players calling allin reraises with junk and catching cards. A lot of the players were acting out of line making racist jokes, taking shots at my play and other tight players at the table. I also felt they were helping each other reading hands when only one of them is in the hand.

So I decided to leave right where I started (-1$).
I had 3 hours of fun and lot of practice live with the minimum risk. So I was happy about going home even.
I was also pissed off about all the jerks getting lucky not to mention the gamblers.

I have been playing well online in February and I got a great start for March.
Graphs to follow....
I fixed some of my leaks but the main reason is running good and using some deception to stack some opponents.

I still have leaks related to overplaying , that I noticed in my stats.
But I think they are skewed because of some huge hands I lost when opponents sucked out on me.
Also there were some big hands where my ran into or .
I need at least 50k sample before I can officially call them leaks.

Some recommendations:
(None of this is new but is very important to success)

1. Know when you are running bad. Minimize your losses when running bad and wait for good hands that tend to come in bunches. I used to spew lot of chips when I don't catch cards overplaying some hands and trying big bluffs.

2. Bet sizing is everything. I will try and give recent examples that I remember.
Few examples that actually happned.

• The flop is rainbow and you have . Don't try to slow play. He isn't going to call any bet without {Ax} and when he calls you want to maximize. Yesterday I failed to stack an opponent who had because my betting was on the low side. If he has I will be happy to pay him off.!

• Betting against aggressive opponent
  1. Monster hands/Nuts: Let him do the betting. Yesterday I stacked a guy who was super aggro when I had nut straight by checking the river. He was a donkey doing allin on his rivered set on a board that had several straights.
  2. Mediocre hands on flop/turn: Yesterday I caught a K pair with weak kicker on the turn with a lot of left money left behind. if I lead out the villain might take passive option folding his nothing or middle pair. Or he can take aggro approach by raising with nothing or AK and make you face a tough decision on the river. So I check called turn and river for two purposes - keeping pot small and let him bluff me. He had air and won a small pot with less risk.
  3. When in doubt fold. You can stack him later with some deception.

I wanted to see how I will do in live poker in a casino setting.
So I headed down to Joe's this afternoon.

I sat down at a new table that was being assembled. 1/2/2. (Button pays 1 and blinds 2,2). To limp in it is 5$
I wanted to play deep so bought in for 240.
The game has 6$/30min rake.
The game very very loose and full of fish.
Some instances:
The first few hands preflop raises was to 20 (with marginal hands) and still got 3-4 callers. These first few hands busted atleast 1 player on the table.
This guy raises UTG to 40 and says "I do not want to see the flop" and shows 99.
I was reading players well and knew who were tight and who were donkeys.
I even put the tight players on hands and I was right every time.
I played ultra tight because of the raises in front of me. I never got to open raise on the button or CO.

The game got settled down after some time and people started limping a lot.
I only limped once from blind with A9 when everybody limped.
I was getting bad hands. The best hand I picked up was At which I folded to raise in front of me.

So I was down by 225 after paying the rake and blinds.

Hand #1 (Some pot odds analysis and people analysis)
----------------
Please comment on my line especially preflop.
It was a 10 player table.
I was two positions before the button.

Preflop:

Everybody folded before me.
I pick up

and raise to 10 which was a small raise on this table.
The lady who was running good to the left of me called. (Stack >500 )
The button raised to 30. (Stack 83)
I knew the lady was playing speculative hands so I was not too concerned about her.
I knew the button is playing loose but I thought "he knows I am tight so he cannot raise with crap".
So I put him on 3 hands {AA}, {KK}, {AK} or total junk. So I called to see the flop. If I only put him on AA, KK I would not have called getting no implied odds if I flop a set.
This turned out to be my only mistake (Sklansky mistake - mistake that you would not make if you knew what he had).
The lady on my left called.
So I pot had 95$ already after the flop.

Flop:

The flop comes

giving me top set
Because there was no flush draw I wanted to check and trap the button who after showing strength preflop is likely to fire.
I did not think of potential straight and open ended straight draws at this point which is probably as mistake.
The lady in CO checked and button put in the rest 53$.
So I started thinking about the possible straights. I did not think anyone would in 30$ preflop with J9. So I put the button on AA, KK.
I wanted the lady in CO to call that bet with crap like , or monsters like , .
At this point only hand that beats me is and only big draws that can get there are .
At this point the pot is (3x30+2x53) = 196 and I have 140 left.

To my surprise, the lady loudly said all in.
So the pot is 196+53 lady's call+140 (her allin) = 389
First I was surprised then happy.
So with only one hand that can beat me, I figured my equity was high.
I was also getting great odds (140 into 389) .
My odds to improve were better than that so I insta called.

I turned to the lady and asked "You have the straight?"
She said yes and turned over J9 of hearts.
I was devastated not too surprised.
The turn and river blanked and I lost the biggest amount ever in one hand.
I left immediately because I play bad when I am steaming.
I did not say anything to my opponent because that was her style and this was her day.

What did I learn about live games:

Playing live is so much softer. Fish will pay off their stack to see a showdown.

Even though technically I made mistakes (if I had known their hands) I think I made the right plays against the range of hands the opponents could hold.

I am not complaining about the bad beat / cold deck.
I just wanted to record this big hand and get some feedback from all of you.

What would you have done preflop?

What would you on the flop?

In this post I would like to share my progress in the last few months.
Please feel free to give me suggestions and point my leaks.

After losing $300 in 1/2 NL live I had decided to improve my skill before playing stakes I cannot afford.
My friend who is supernova suggested that I play online in micro stakes.
He also suggested that I play Sngs to build bankroll.

SNG world

I started grinding the micro limits and after 100 Sngs or so I started to get the hang of it. I also referred to 2+2 a lot during my study. My bankroll grew very slowly but I wanted to have enough volume before I could move up. I finally moved up to $5 and started building my bankroll. I ran very good and I was quickly up. Then I started playing turbos to improve my bubble game and thats when the variance and multi tabling brought me down to earth. My ROI went from great to good. The reason I don't want to go back to $5s is the hourly rate. I still play them for fun but I am trying to adjust to turbos.

I am attaching my graph, stats here. Please feel free to comment on the stats especially if you see leaks in the stats.

Graph

Stats

Goals:

1. Adjust to turbos
2. Try playing multi table tournaments where ROI could be huge. But I am worried about the variance. I want to build my bankroll first before taking shots at these.

Cash Game (deep stack)

After I built my bankroll to afford playing cash I started grinding cash - still micro limit. I completed my first 10k hands and so far I have done well. I play deep stack. I also played short stack for a while but it was so boring.

Please feel free to comment on the stats especially if you see leaks in the stats.

Graph

Stats

PokerEV graph

Sklansky Bucks Graph

Goals:

1. Volume
2. Adjust to multi tabling
3. Move up to 50NL