Money Printed and Parties Thrown: Session Reviews.

I played two very long sessions today totalling 2600 hands. In the first one, I dropped five buy-ins. In the second I made five buyins and a little sugar. I think it was mostly luck that made the difference, but that's ok.

Some things I noticed.

I did make a few "decision was wrong, hand read was correct" errors. This means I called because I was supposed to, or folded because I was supposed, not that I made the "good poker" decision.

My hand range is still way too loose UTG and in the HJ (VPIP 20 and 22).

I think I am raising too large with hands that should stay the nuts and not sizing some bets correctly.

I'm pleased that I was able to sit down and power through some hands.

I hate 4th place.

This morning I played mayber 12 SNGs. I bubbled or busted out marginally in 11 of them. At least I manhandled the 12th.

Stupid downswing.

Short session.

This evening I played one swingy hour of 25 NL. I lost and then made back a ton of money. I was playing too fast at first. Nonetheless, I felt like I stabilized and then got back on the wagon. I started to play solid aggressive poker and I did not tilt.

Whoops.

I just played a HU session with a guy who kicked my butt. He was good. It was hypnotic almost how badly I was letting him beat me. There go 35 big bets.

Mini-sesh: HU and 6max limit.

During my lunch break I played some HU and 6max limit hold em. Swongy swong swong. It's hard for me to make dead reads against some of these guys and I wind up on the unerlaggy side of things, letting weak-tight opponents just induce semibluffs from me street after street. Boo!

I did try some 1/2 HU. Man, the deck can KILL you in that game. One guy was running great against me for half the session but then slipped out of focus. He was definitely more experienced than me, but probably less adept in actual poker decision making (hands he took to showdown and where he chose to bluff all seemed odd and too... predictably devious, maybe?). He played maybe 40 minutes of hands against me and it was a battle. Beyond a doubt, I had the edge by the end. I think he lost sight of my hand ranges in the end of the game and resorted to spewy play. I had to go back to work, so I said "peace" in the chatbox and that I thought I was very lucky to have beat him (didn't say: by that much).

Shortly after I finished typing my farewell in, he said "F U Peace". Oh boy, did that make me a little up set. I wanted to put the hurt on him so bad. Any time something like that happens, I go online and check to see if he was a winner. It looks like he's a marginal tournament winner and has his nose open in the middle and low limit shorthanded and HU games. He's down about the amount he's paid in rake, according to the site. I can believe it.

Now I feel sympathy for the guy. I figured he was a slight winner if he game selected well, but the data indicates he pays a double rake.

The lesson to learn: these aren't friendships, these are transactions. Like an insurance adjuster or a judge, the professional objective is to be courteous and quick in doing your job no matter how you feel about the people you are dealing with. "The Professional" knows that there's no point in looking for sympathy at the table. I should trust him.

Session Report 5:45-6:14

I played 319 hand on stars and FTP before it was dinner time.

I hads 3 goals:

1. Sound moments of mindfulness, lost and found... a la Tommy Angelo. I deliberately tried to cultivate an active presence in the moment by attending to my breath and the position of my hands and feet. For the first 10 minutes, I only had 4 tables open and I drited off only once. As I added tables, the drifting became more frequent, possibly twice more. I also found myself correctly re-centering myself after I spaced twice. Once was after a big cooler.
2. Play for 1 hour or until dinner. Success! No tilt, slight profit.
3. Play tighter in UTG position. I raised 7/21 times and adjusted to my new standards fairly well. I only got out of line twice.

So put it in the books. I logged a nice winner before a decent meal.

I'm going to post a few hands on value betting.