Latest Update

Sorry for not posting in a while. I want to keep this blog active and I have just been busy. But I thought I share some updates with you guys.

So far this year I have only managed two ITMs which is definitely not what I was hoping for. But I am happy that I played reasonably well. I just re-watched one of the live streams I was in and it was cool to hear comments from Jason Sommerville and the RunItUp team. They agreed with some of my moves but also have mixed comments about the others. I definitely learned a lot from listening to them. Before you say I am gonna moan about my bad beats, which I had my fair share of them this year, but I had some good hands as well so it kinda evens out. I couldn't win a flip with QJss on a T9x flop vs Ah all in preflop to finish 2nd in a recent tournament. But I was happy to be on the ft again and I like the new way I am playing.

Unfortunately I did not finish 2nd in this event

This year I have been playing more cash games and have done well. So far the winnings have been sustaining my living costs and a bit more, including tournament buy ins so I am pretty happy. This year I set out to be degen-free and I am proud to say despite visiting a few casinos, I have kept myself away from any table games, sports bets, etc.

Yesterday I sat down on a 1/3 table waiting for a spot on 2/5 when this uncle who seems drunk sits down with 1k chips. Not particularly trying to target him, but I like to cover everyone on the table so I matched his buy in. Soon enough I got into big hands with him and he would reload for the max, sometimes trying to sneak in more than the max. I was up 600bb in less than an hour. But I can feel that he was upset and he seemed like a nice guy. I tried to chat him up and at one point I even check back a full house and showed him. There were comments of why I didn't go for value. Well first of all I put him on a range where he couldn't call any bets on the river. Even if he could, it was maximum like $40 I could have gotten from him. Instead I felt that being a gentleman to him and possibly losing $40 of value was the better move. You might think that I did that so that I can extract future value from him, and maybe so, but genuinely in my mind I was trying to be nice. Comes back to a post I made a couple of months ago about me being too nice. You can read that HERE if you missed it. Being nice actually saved me some money a few hands before this one.

Preflop UTG tight player opens. I have AK on the button I usually would raise here but I elected to flat. Uncle completes on the bb. Flop 866. Initial raiser cbets I float, uncle calls. Turn A. All checked. (I elected to hide my AK so I thought I continue with that story to get value on river). River is a T. Uncle donks out 70% of the pot. After winning 600bb from him I thought I should just call. He rarely has a hand that beats me, but I chose not to value raise. He flips over TT. Say what you like but I rather be a nice guy and still play for a living. Unlike some pros who are assholes on the table. They think they are better than everyone else, not just poker wise but as a human being.

Did well one night when a few bosses were tilted

This year I have been to 7 countries in 2 months. Luckily I do love travelling. But travel comes with a cost, and most places I go to do not have legal cash games. So I do have a high opportunity cost when it comes to playing tournaments. However I still would like to play a bit more but then again, if I don't bink one soon then I am gonna have to play cash games only instead.