Running good, some thanks, and fun hands.

What's up everyone, had another good session this morning winning around $3K in just under 1K hands at 5/10. It was nice, I ran pretty bad at the beginning but I sucked out later in the session to make up for it.

I think for the past few weeks I have been playing some of my best poker ever. My confidence is at an all time high and I probably owe a lot of it to starting to coach. Since I took on my first student a couple months ago, that extra time every week where I am discussing poker in depth with my students is really helping me. I get to talk about interesting spots that come up and I always have to be able to give my student a good argument for making a certain play which helps me think deeper about even spots that seem pretty basic to me. This leads to some potential ah ha moments, where I will be thinking about a spot my student gets himself into and trying to figure out the best play. I will normally have a standard play for the spot, but sometimes I won't be able to make a good argument as to why that play is my "standard" and I will realize that maybe I'm leaking a little bit in that spot. I've also been able to find a couple other lines in certain spots as well as finding spots to exploit regulars a little more effectively.

I have about 8 students right now (2 groups of 3 participating in the group coaching, as well as 2 individual students) and everything seems to be going pretty well. All of my students seem to be enjoying my coaching and learning a decent amount so I'm very interested to see how they progress as players. I'm trying to figure out how many more students I can handle, but I will worry about that as more potential students come forward.

I also owe some of my recent progress to this blog. I originally started it for PokerSwat.com as I waited for them to upgrade their blog software, and I decided to keep it going even when I found out they were being sold. (Hopefully one of the other training sites buys them and I can start making videos against because I really enjoyed them) It's really helped me to go back through just about every one of my sessions, find the interesting hands I played, and then give my thought process for the hand. Sometimes I will look back on hands and say to myself, "what was I thinking?" or "I should have done this here, or this there". Reviewing sessions and avoiding replicating your most common mistakes is something that everyone can benefit from doing.

There were some interesting hands from todays session so I'll go though those now.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($1985)
SB ($2005)
Hero (BB) ($2564)
UTG ($1062)
MP ($1218)
CO ($1132.50)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, 6
2 folds, CO bets $30, 2 folds, Hero calls $20

Flop: ($65) 6, 10, 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($65) K (2 players)
Hero bets $20, CO raises $75,Hero raises $205, CO calls $150

River: ($515) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $330, CO calls $330

Total pot: $1175

Results:
Hero had 6, 6 (three of a kind, sixes).
CO didn't show
Outcome: Hero won $1172

Ok so this hand is against an OK villain. He used to be a huge nit but has recently started to open up his game a little bit. He opens in the CO and I flat 66 from the blinds. I flop a set but unfortunately for me he checks back the flop. The turn is a K that brings a flush draw and I decide to lead really small, to induce a raise from Kx or some sort of draw. Villain obliges and I go ahead and 3 bet him. The river is the somewhat nasty 2s but I decide to bet/fold $330 into the $500ish pot and villain calls relatively quickly with KJ.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($2645.75)
Hero (Button) ($4023.50)
SB ($2031.50)
BB ($2273)
UTG ($2021.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 2, 2
UTG bets $40, 1 fold, Hero calls $40, 2 folds

Flop: ($95) 5, 9, 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($95) 4 (2 players)
UTG bets $70, Hero raises $270, UTG calls $200

River: ($635) 7 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $920, UTG calls $920

Total pot: $2475

Results:
Hero had 2, 2 (three of a kind, twos).
UTG didn't show
Outcome: Hero won $2479.50

This hand is against the same opponent as the first hand and happens about 35 mins after the first. I call his UTG open with 22 here and flop a set. Unfortunately for me villain doesn't even make a continuation bet, which led me to believe he was going to be c/f'ing this flop just about always. Well I didn't want that to happen so I decided to give him a free card to catch up. The turn is a 4 and he leads into me. I decide to raise it up here because by raising I look pretty full of it, since he probably expects me to bet the flop with my good hands. He calls the turn and the river is an offsuit 7. He checks to me and I decide to overbet the river because I think that will be the best way to look like a bluff in his eyes. He tanks for a while and calls me with AQo(lol?) and I win the fairly large pot.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (2 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($2000)
SB ($1988.50)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, 3
SB bets $25, Hero calls $20

Flop: ($60) J, 6, 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $38, Hero calls $38

Turn: ($136) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

River: ($136) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $100, SB raises $350,Hero raises $740, 1 fold

Total pot: $836

Results:
Hero had 3, 3 (two pair, sixes and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $1328.50

This hand was pretty fun. Its against a reg who to my knowledge normally plays 2/4 to 3/6 so he might not be super comfortable playing 5/10. Anyway he opens the button and I call with 33. He cbets the J 6 6 flop and I call. The turn 5 goes check check and unfortunately for me I get counterfeited by the river 5. I decide to lead as a bluff and rep Jx or 77-99. This is where it gets interesting because villain decides to raise. HMMMMMMMM OKKKKKKK. Well I am about 10000% sure that this particular villain would never check the turn with 6x or pocket 5s, so his most likely hand is a bluff or 5x. Since he never has 6x but I can still have 6x I decide to 3 bet the river up to $840 after he raised my $100 bet to $350. Villain tanks for his entire timebank and types "sigh" into the chat pretty much signaling to me that he had 5x. After he typed "sigh" I couldn't help but to show my pocket 3s and hopefully get a little under his skin as we started this little HU match on a 6 handed table.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($1976)
UTG ($2990.40)
Hero (MP) ($2000)
CO ($2109)
Button ($1190)
SB ($1038.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, A
UTG bets $30, Hero calls $30, 4 folds

Flop: ($75) 6, 5, 6 (2 players)
UTG bets $50, Hero raises $175, UTG calls $125

Turn: ($425) 8 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: ($425) 5 (2 players)
UTG bets $110, Hero raises $370,1 fold

Total pot: $645

Results:
Hero had 10, A (two pair, sixes and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $911

Here is another fun river bluff raise. Villain in this hand seems a little fishy which led me to raise the flop because fish love to just bet the flop and fold to raises. I also have some overcards and a back door diamond draw. Villain calls and the turn is the 8c. For some reason I didn't feel like this was a card villain was going to be folding a lot on, and if I bet the turn I think I have to bet the river and that's not really something I wanted to commit too with no reads. So the turn checks through and now the river is another 5. Villain decides to lead out on the river for like 1/4 of the pot. I decide to raise and get him to fold hands like overpairs, 78 and maybeeeeee a flush. I'm not repping too much but I think its fine against slightly fishy opponents (and I think its bad against good opponents and super fishy opponents). Anyway villain tanks for a bit and decides to fold.

Thats all the interesting hands from today's session but I do want to show you this hand from a few days ago which I found pretty funny. Villain is mbolt1, leatherass' protege and all around super bumhunter.

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em ManagerConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($1568)
CO ($1066.50)
Button ($2181)
Hero (SB) ($2304)
BB ($1000)
UTG ($2483)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, A
4 folds, Hero bets $35, BB calls $30

Flop: ($80) 4, K, K (2 players)
Hero bets $50, BB calls $50

Turn: ($180) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $120, BB raises to $300,Hero raises to $480, 1 fold

Total pot: $780

Results:
Hero had 10, A (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $957

I mean it makes absolutely 0 sense for him to be raising the turn with anything for value( im pretty sure he is aware of this), and I don't think he would ever do this with a flushdraw so his range in my eyes was made up of air and.... air. I guess I could have just called the turn and called the river and that would have been cooler, but I couldn't resist clicking it back on the turn and making him look pretty retarded for folding to a minraise.

Well that's all I got for today. Hope the poker players reading this are running good at the tables, and everyone else is running good at life. Talk to you later.