It's never easy

The hardest things you have to deal with as a poker player are the downswings. I'm on a fairly massive one. I feel like I've been beat up for a month straight. Sometimes you run into better players, sometimes you run into better cards, and sometimes you let it go to your head and start playing poorly. I think I'm dealing with a mixture of all three. Yesterday I had an easy mark. Complete calling station, but I just couldn't get any cards... so I tried to make a couple bluffs. Huge mistake, because I have him pegged as a calling station. Even worse, the I lose all three big hands of the session. All three hands I knew I was beat and should have laid down. Lost boat over boat. Lost K hi flush to A hi flush. Lost straight to straight. The straight was especially brutal, because I flopped a 4way wrap and he went runner runner for a bigger straight. I might drop down to lower stakes for a while just to get my head on straight.
That being said I really like this hand. I raise my button. He calls. Flop is 9 5 4 two dimes. I make my standard cbet he minraises. He's been checkraising me about 25% which is really aggressive. It is much too frequent for him to be doing with big hands every time. If he fullpots I probably fold here, but since it is a minraise, my button, and I don't think he has a set I float. The turn is a Qx. He checks. This looks really weak. I could bet here, but I can't be sure I am ahead and I'm pretty sure he has at least the dime draw. The river is another Qx. He leads pot. I really like my call here. I'm pretty sure he's missed his draw and it feels good to be right! I don't run a lot of bluffcatchers, because normally I am betting those types of hand, but it's good to be capable of anything.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5389385

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Pot Control or I'm a Nit...?

I'm not sure if I like my play here or not. I think I might have been a little shellshocked from an earlier session. In the earlier session the villain would minbet his button on the flop after limping. I started calling really light. His cbet on the turn gave his hand away, if he minbet turn he was weak if he halfpot turn he was strong. He was also incredibly passive on my button and semiloose. These reads should have been enough for me to crush him, but... somehow he managed to chip back every time I had him close to busto. It took me 150 hands of utter frustration to finally bust him.
So I think I started this session a little shellshocked. Shellshocked is the term I use when I expect to be outdrawn every hand. I took an early lead in this session until I ran into quads twice. Luckily, I lost only medium size pots each time. I ground back to slightly ahead and took a decent lead when my top two backdoored a flush and I induced him to bluff.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5374609

I think he was frustrated here. I float the flop, because he is 3betting 20% and I think his range is very polarized to high pockets (AA KK QQ). Yahtzi on the turn. I am fairly sure I have him beat at this point. I'm a little scared of QQ on the river, but no way I can fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5374611

I really play the next hand exceptionally nitty. He raises from his button and I flop a full house. I checkraise and he calls. This is my standard play from oop when I flop a full house. I would play it the same with 33 here as well. When he calls the flop I am worried he has an 8. Since the turn makes a possible bigger boat I want to pot control this hand, so I just check. If he bets I am definitely calling down, but I'm not too happy about it. After he checks turn I make a better boat on river. I bet and he pays me off with trips with a very weak kicker. It might actually be better to jam the turn, but when you get reraised it is a very tough position to be in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5374586

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Easy Game

I like this hand and my thought process a lot. I flop bottom set + a blocker to middle set on a A 6 3 board. This guy 3bets 20% of the time, so I don't think there is any way he can have AA when he repots the flop, and since I have a 6 as well it makes it less likely for him to have 66, so I'm fairly confident he has a hand like 7 5 4 or 5 4 2, which is why I repot the flop. The turn comes 9. He checks and I shove. He calls. Yahtzi! It's interesting to note that the odds don't change a ton between the flop 61% and the turn 67.6%. Also, the villain is getting the correct odds to call both streets.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5341390

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Finally

I've been very frustrated the last two weeks, but today I finally found myself in a really good spot. I was playing a guy that I used to play 6max against. This was probably close to a year ago and I thought he was really bad, however, he started to show signs of improvement. I started out the session and won a few small pots and a decent pot with the 2nd nut flush. I didn't know much about his HU style, so I was being aggressive to see how he would react.
The hand I'm going to discuss happened about 20 hands in to the session. This was the first time he 3bet me and then he followed it up with 1/2 pot. I think 1/2 pot cbets are really weak. I have bottom pair + gutshot + flush draw. I think he probably only has an overpair. I'm only really worried about overpair with flush draw. So I decide to shove. He comes over the top and there is no way I am folding, even if he has overs and better flush draw I am still getting the right odds to call at this point.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5338426

If you look at the % notice I am only a small dog preflop to an overpair. After the flop I become a 63% favorite, which is a pretty big edge in omaha. Against a 'better' opponent I would be worried about hands like JT98 or something similar, but from what I knew of this guy I felt pretty safe shipping it in. He rebought for another $300 and I ground him down to nothing over the course of another 200 hands. It was the best spot I've been in for weeks.

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O8

So I've started to learn PLO8. Today was fairly disastrous. I felt like I had huge edges but I dropped 6bi to a shortstacker. UGH! He had no idea of hand values and made so many hero calls when I had the nut low and he had very weak high hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5334546

Apparently pokerhand.org doesn't support O8. It treats it like an Omaha HI hand so you don't get the proper odds. According to hold'em manager I have 65% equity in this hand.

The opponent was way out of line aggro. I think this is a standard raise pre from my button. I flop a 4way wrap. If this was omaha hi I would be worried about higher wraps, but in O8 I am less worried, because I would make a better low against most higher wraps. I also have a pair of sixes might seem insignificant, but gives me an advantage against hands like A 2 3 x that are drawing to a better low. My opponent donkleads pot. He's way out of line aggro, so I think my shove here is good. I am surprised by his shove, but definitely have the right odds to call. Turns out I have 65% ev and am well ahead.

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EV

Ran 30 buyins below ev last month... pretty sick. Also why I haven't posted. One of my biggest weaknesses is that I am too easily frustrated. Obviously something I need to work on. I accidentally sat down on a HUPLO H/L table this morning and proceeded to double up a complete idiot x2. Normally I don't play H/L, but I decided this guy was really bad, and I was smarting a bit. I was playing very aggressive 3betting a ton. I have pretty much the absolute best hand in H/L when he decides to 3bet me. I think the hand plays itself from here. Can't believe he calls with KKxx.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5322527

Might take a break and try to learn a bit of H/L today. There is actually a surprising ammount of H/L action on the Cereus network, and it looks really soft.

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