Low-stakes micros (50NL+) and live cash games (5/5) in the LA area

Here are the hands from today. I played decently well, other than a couple of mistakes, and ran not great in some big spots.

Here is a huge hand, I think I misplayed. Villain was a LAG nit. I think they had stats like 41/11/5. They would play a ton of hands in position and would stab alot if checked to, but they would never put in stacks light and I never saw them do any crazy bluffs. There was a previous hand where I 3b and they cold called on the button. I flopped top set dry board. Checked to them on flop, checked through. Turn came and they turned a set, I bet, they raised immediately, and I jammed. I guess point is, not many people are putting in stacks light. I think my flop 4b size could be a little smaller. I think I could honestly even fold this flop. There are just so few 4b raises on flops like this that are a bluff, especially multiway with a player left to act. I just discounted lower sets bc they 3b me (although it was an insanely small 3b). Oh well, you live and you learn. I feel I should just auto-fold to bets over 50bb without 2pair plus and that would just print money lol:

Hands from today. Poker has felt a lot easier in the last couple days. I took some time off, so maybe that is why. I think I'm folding more when people put in huge bets, it feels easier for some reason though:

Still running not that great, down like 6BI under EV on my new computer.

Here is a hand from today, I'm thinking about. After it checked to me on the river - is my bet too thin? When I didn't get jammed on the turn and since the flop was not 3b, I really thought one of my opponenents had a flush draw that missed, and the other had a Jx which I beat. I really though most 9x would x/r on the turn. That villain that just smooth called was extremely passive though, so maybe I should have been that surprised.

Maybe going for thin value is better than being scared and checking back? I could have gone smaller and snap folded to a raise. Oh well:

My current w/r at 10NL is 6.6BB/100 9 handed, which feels okay (it would be ~12ish if I was running at EV though). I'm also continuing to learn and playing more and more. My current BR is finally close to what it was when I started this blog lol its at ~$179, since I stupidly shot took before I was ready at 25NL and it went really poorly. I said I would move up when I have 20BI saved (which is $500), but if I play like 50k hands at 10NL and am a proven winner of at least 5BB/100, I may just move up anyways and just add to it with my own money instead of waiting for BR to increase.

We need to size down on the turn and river as we want to keep betting. In this way, opponents call more of the weaker Jx.

In your case, opponents come to the river with a fairly narrow and strong range, so I favor a checkback on the river.

Thanks for the advice. My thinking was that since it was multi-way and since both opponents are OOP I would likely have gotten x/r on the turn with all 8x and T9 holdings, since the river will check through a lot. When no one led the river, I thought I could go for some thin value, preparing to bet-fold. I still think that is the correct thinking, but I definitely should have sized down more.

Agree with the above about bet sizing. In this hand I would flat flop with the AJ multiway, board is very dynamic meaning there's so many turn cards that are bad for us. Any club, Q K 9 T even 6/7 aren't great. We don't want to bloat pots like this with single pairs and little redraw potential. We are also potentially raising/barrelling off vs the nut straight/sets/2pairs on flop. As what happened in the hand even supposed good cards for us often aren't when up against multiple opponents. Prob some other reasons not to raise but those are the main ones that come to mind. GL with the grind

Okay, well, what better time to update this thread than a year later! I (obviously) did not do a great job at following through on writing this thread but I did inadvertantly achieve the goals I initially made, but I hope that I will try to make a regular weekly blog, and put updates here.

So what happened over the last year?

From an online perspective:

First, I stopped playing 9max online and switched to 6max. I don't know why I played 9max online, its terribly nitty and just doesnt teach you how to play well imo. I stopped playing on ACR for the most part though. I played some on ignition, playing a ton of tournies, (even binking the minor niner), and playing wayyyy too much zone poker. At one point I had a pretty decent bankroll on Ignition, but dusted almost all of it not playing well+some tilt. Through all of this, I purchased a GTOw cash subscription, and look at it regularly for different spots, ranges, hands I play, to look where bluffs/value are coming from, and think about if opponents are finding enough of those.

Currently, I am playing on coinpoker. I sent some Crypto to the site (maybe $100ish), and spun it up, playing 25NL, 50NL, and 100NL. Currently, I am mainly playing 50 & 100NL.

Here is my graph at coin for 25NL:

Here is 50NL graph:

And 100NL graph:

Currently have ~2.5k on the site (down from peak of 3.5k....games were very good over the holidays).

My current goal is to continue to play 50 & 100NL, and show that I can beat them over a good sample size. I think I still struggle to make disciplined folds sometimes and think very deeply about spots vs just auto piloting them. I am also going to try and play in just max 1.5 hour sessions, since currently I'll just sometimes play aimlessly. Maybe I will try some online courses, but I havent had a ton of motivation previously when doing them.

From a live poker perspective
Live poker went pretty well for me for the past year. I ended up ~$10k for the year. I play some really fun home games in the LA area, but am trying to play more intentional 5/5, since I think I can really crush that stake level. I've gotten quite comfortable with the feel for live poker, and how unbalanced, poor people are with sizings vs online. I feel that if you can beat 25NL, you can pretty easily beat 5/5. I have a friend that doesnt study much, but is a pretty good feel player imo and we go together often. I think I will try to play live 2 times a week, like 10 hours in total.

Overall in poker, I think I should be more structured in my approach, so hoping that rebooting this blog will help me to do that.

Whoops, just realizing it posted 25NL graph twice, here is the 100NL one:

Andddd I should mention this is my live poker stats from the last year. I played a pretty good amount of hours, guess it ended up being almost 3x per week. This year I want to play more games in casinos, and less small home games (although the small home games are a ton of fun+no rake):

IN!

Best of luck in 2025!

Week 2 Recap

I ended up playing way too much online, trying 8 tabling, some downtime at work etc. But game selection was not great, and my focus was pretty terrible. So ended up being super swingy, bailed out by a brief uptick at the end. I also ended up playing 3 cash sessions, played-okay-ish, but ran fairly bad overall.

Online: +$255.4
Live: -$1340

Some online hands:

This was an interesting spot, 3b pot, SB vs HJ, flop, they B40, turn they B50, river they block, in game, it felt like jam>fold>call

Weird spot, this table was breaking and I was just playing this guy HU. SRP, they B25 flop, I float (?), turn they B67 on double FD board (felt like a weird, bad size, since range is probably pure overbetting here), I x/r to like 22bb, river is T, I check, they 1.5x overbet jam, we? I got torn apart in the discord for this one lol.

Live poker sessions
Played a home game on 1/22. ran fairly bad, lost A7 vs A5 on A79 (all in on turn). I like the people at the game but dont think I'll go back. Its a fairly tough 1/2 game (lots of 3 & 4 betting), which I dont mind, but they play 10 handed meaning you have to play impossibly tight, and they have only a button straddle. I may as well just play 5/5. Won a flip AK vs QQ and ended just down ~$70.

1/23, played at Hollywood Park Casino, 5/5. Game was not that great, and I was just mega card dead. Thought action would be better on a Thursday night. 5/5 game went down to like 4 regs, so not much action. Other 5/5 tables didn't look great, so switched to 3/5, which is lower cap, but much better action. Actually saw a river all in bluff, which I was pretty surprised about. Lots of action and lots of nitty players complaining about their good hands getting cracked lol. Ended up -$175 for the night, which wasnt bad. I need to get some peoples numbers when I'm there, since there is a really fun home game on the west side of LA, that some friends organize.

1/25, played at Commerce 5/5. Sat at one table that was terrible action for like an hour. Nitty, abc asian players, lots of SRP, no open limping. I table changed after like an hour, but should have done so much quicker. Next table was a ton of action, but I got wrecked. 2 main hands. One guy, this asian guy on tilt that had been stacked 2 times in a row before this hand. One time jamming J2o in a SRP pot on AAA22 on the river after his boat had been counterfeit (and getting tank called by 33 lol), and the other in a SRP where he rfi 25, 2 calls, and then on J92r, he jam 475 into 75, and gets tank called by AJo and loses with QJo. So this hand, he 25, I 3b KK with a club on the button to 80 (I should just have gone 100, hes never folding here). He call. Flop is AA3cc, he jam 400 into almost 200 in the middle. I tank, but eventually call. Maybe could just sigh lol fold here given stupid price, but given previous hands+other bluffs, its not that worst. He has A4o and scoops.

Like an hour later, same villain rfi 25 on button, I call JTss in SB, BB who is also semi-tilted and fishy, now raise 75, button calls, I could fold here since BB squeeze is strong, but price is good JTss has good equity. Flop is 877ss, I check, BB bets $150, button fold. BB just always has an overpair here for the most part. I don't want to call here oop with just J high and fold on turn, and folding is out of the question, so I jam, thinking maybe he is just monkey c betting with over cards or has an underpair or may fold. He tank calls me with QQ, we brick and he scoops. I don't terribly hate either of those plays, but could maybe just have found a fold on the flop on the first hand and then folded pre on the second. -$1.1k

Goals for the week
-Run 3 times
-Do at least 3 hours of Carrot Corner videos. People in the discord seem to quite like the lectures, so I will watch the videos and take notes
-Don't get fired from my job (lol)

Live poker
-I would like to play at least 2 sessions of 5/5, of at least 10 hours in total
-There is also a commerce $300 mystery bounty $100k tournament this weekend, maybe I'll fire on Sat

Online Poker
-Way less hands then last week!
-More structured sessions (max 1.5 hours), with a timer
-I may stop playing 100NL, I feel like the games are not that great recently, and my edge is small
-Ive been mixing in some 25NL and beating people up on it, which mentally feels pretty good

Any comments/critiques/questions appreciated!

Also, if any mods can help me change the title of this blog, would be much appreciated! Something like 'Low-stakes micros (50NL+) and live cash games (5/5) in the LA area'

Done