Operation: $$ accumulation

haven't played much yet this month, but i have gone away climbing two weekends and life is feeling good. I'm up about $1.2k after rakeback/bonus, and i've played 27k hands, about half at 25nl and the rest now i'm feeling good at 50nl. I've made a few changes to my game and it's interesting seeing that my redline slopes downward a lot less sharply, hell, i've even had sessions of 2k hands and a +ve redline on occasion lately.

anyway, volume to come later. Now it's time to enjoy the sunshine.

i've been thinking a lot about poker of late. It's still a fascinating journey. At the moment i'm trying to figure out what things i want to fill the rest of my day-to-day life with. I don't want to simply fall into a habit of 'meh, not sure what to do right now - I'll play some poker'

<daven> it's weird
<daven> i think poker is dangerous/insidious when it's a filling in time thing
<daven> even if the filling in time is profitable
<Zill4> pretty bad idea for me
<Zill4> edges too thin to be playing badly
<daven> bad idea for me
<daven> same reason, different stakes
<Zill4> pretty much anyone really

As zill4 implied above, not only is playing poker to fill in time unhealthy, but it is also likely to have a significant effect on overall poker profitability. Like, even if the session where you play b-game is profitable, it doesn't mean t's a good decision to play from even a $$ perspective due to opportunity cost. If there is a limit to how many hours you can play in a day before you start to burnout or lose focus, then surely it's better to put in those hours where everything is in favour of a-game being played. Even more so if these 'filling in time' sessions occur when games quality is poor.

also

Originally Posted by Fnord

You under-estimate how much of your profit comes from players that suck worse than you and fail to seek them out.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (7 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($169.80)
Hero (Button) ($50)
SB ($50.70)
BB ($34.10)
UTG ($21)
MP1 ($13)
MP2 ($52.95)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, K
2 folds, MP2 bets $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $6.25, 2 folds, MP2 calls $4.25

Flop: ($13.25) A, A, J (2 players)
MP2 bets $46.70 (All-In), Hero calls $43.75 (All-In)

Turn: ($100.75) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($100.75) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $100.75 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A, K (three of a kind, Aces).
MP2 had 5, 8 (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $97.75

Time to post a hand that has some pretty interesting range considerations. Villain is 10-8, about 6-6 from ep, has 60%cbet, 40% turn cbet, 54% W$WSD and generally an all-round winning nit.
So, preflop and his range is something like 77+, AQs+, KQs, AKo. His c-bet range is AA, AK, AQ, maybe JJ-KK sometimes (discounted), TT, KsQs. What this means is that I have very little concern about being sucked out on cos he basically doesn't have hands that can improve to endanger me in his range. Calling this flop also masks my set quite well as he knows that i'm a reg and regs raise drawy flops - he won't consider that his range is nearly draw-free. Raising this flop will fold out most of the hands that I beat. 5c is about as blank as the turn can be and when he barrels the turn he defines his range quite clearly, it's only value = AK, AQ, AA, TT - obviously I beat most of this range. However, his calling range to a raise here is narrow - he's going to be struggling to call many of the hands i beat. So, this turn may also be a call. With a plan? gets interesting. Any thoughts on this? am I out-levelling myself?

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (7 handed) - Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP2) ($54.05)
CO ($52)
Button ($56.10)
SB ($25)
BB ($52.60)
UTG ($50)
MP1 ($75.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 4, 4
UTG bets $1.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $1.50, 4 folds

Flop: ($3.75) A, 4, 10 (2 players)
UTG bets $3.75, Hero calls $3.75

Turn: ($11.25) 5 (2 players)
UTG bets $7, level-a-ments...