Grinding: live cash and life 2026 and beyond

actually im from london!

would someone from the us be able to post at this time of night, I think not!

or maybe im from australia

or austria

or spain

youll never know

another day another post.

laziness compels me to keep this one short.

The end

Very extraordinarily late but I digress.

The reg battling hand histories continue…

Once again vs my nemesis the very good reg, I will now shorten this to Greg to add some flavour and continuity to my posts for this likely very recurring character.

And once again, Greg absolutely ****ing launches it in vs me and I have a bluffcatcher, and once again I call. A small single raise pot in the big blind ends up with Greg putting 110bb in the middle and me having a decision.

5/10 1.1k effective
Greg opens to 25, I call in the BB with A2s
(55) A92r he bets 20, I call
(95) 6r he bets 150 I call
(395) 8 he jams 900 effective, I tank call and win vs 54s
cbf to analyse in depth but **** river spot, land on call and we win a grand!

That is all.

Daily insanely late at night Greg appreciation post 😀 I love Greg so much I can't wait to be a recreational and give all of my hard earned money to Greg when I get a real job.

This time with a slight bit of analysis:

5/10 1k effective - sidenote: also literally the first hand I play so I know it's exactly 1k
Greg opens CO to 25, I call in the BB with 65hh
(55) Flop Th 6d 2s x, Greg bets 70, I call
(195) Turn 4h x Greg bets 240, I jam 905, Greg tanks 1 min and calls
River 8d Greg wins with QdQc :(

You know the drill. Vs Greg I kinda just try to play like a robot. Preflop mixing 50% call 50% 3bet with 65s vs CO. Land on call. Flop I pure called. Turn I mixed 50% jam, 50% call with my combo. He called with a hand that should call, and wins.

In solver's opinion Greg played fine and I played fine. Preflop was roughly correct mix. Flop mixing v infrequent raise with 6x but pure call seems reasonable. On turn apparently my hand is close to a pure jam. 6x of hearts with better kickers and without the gutter are mixing low frequency jam, but 65hh and 63hh (as well as 52hh and 32hh) are close to pure jams. Was surprised hands as high up as 6x of hearts were pure jamming even with low kicker and gutter, but oh well. I rolled jam anyway and got butt****ed by QQ, such is life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2p2!!

After spending the past couple of days drinking, the serious challenge has kinda begun. I arrive back to my live poker stomping grounds in around a week, but before that, the revamped poker study lock in begins.

Expect a more all-over-the-place and less structured system of daily posting. This will typically include some non-poker thoughts but always some poker thoughts - interesting hand histories, study, results, session reporting or whatever comes to mind that day.

Let's get it done.

Also another Greg the good reg appreciation post 😀
Won't post on New Year's so this is that post (it is what normal people call the morning of New Year's Eve anyway)

I promise my posts next year (just a day away) will not just be about my love of Good Reg. But I am at home with family with no live poker to play and no study to do.

Getting Trappy with it
5/10 1.1k effective
Greg opens CO to 25, (fish) BTN calls, I 3b SB to 150 with AsAc, Greg calls, BTN folds
(330) Flop 6s 6c 4d I check, Greg bets 70 I call
(470) Turn 3d I check, Greg bets 250, I call
(970) River 6h I check, Greg jams 650ish, I call (obv) and win vs TT 😀

I love free money 😀 just a cooler but I still love free money 😀 Happy to have found a trap here, even if it didn't make a difference at all in this specific hand.

Putting Greg in the blender (with the nuts)
5/10 2k effective - i know exactly 2k cos i just reloaded lol i got stacked by a ****wit fish with set over set
I raise BTN with KdKs to 25, Greggyboi calls BB
(55) Flop As Kh 6d x, I bet 70 Greggyboi calls
(195) Turn 8s x, I bet 340 Greggyboi calls
(875) River Th x, I jam 1615 Greggyboi spends what I assume is like 5 mins but is probs less but nonetheless I was bored, I call clock, and he end of clock calls AhQs
Yay. Hard to fault my play, but also I have the nuts and went overbet overbet overbet so hard to go wrong. Greggyboi had a mix and played as such.
Thaaaaaaaanks Greg you will get all the money in the end but it's nice to temporarily loan me some in the meantime when I stack you with the nuts.

As of now we officially start the grind and happy NY to all of ya'll. Maybe if ur lucky I'll give another Greg HH tomorrow/today. I love Greg not in a sexual way but Greg is my king he will get all the money ini the end and he's such a fun guy good on the lad. Out of the 365 days next year I estimate there will be roughly 200 Greg hand histories, and hopefully some productive activities beyond that as well

Are we always going to be calling the 4th best hand "the nuts"?

when he cant really have the QJ, 97 or AA that beat me then yeah I'd call it the nuts

The agenda for today:

Daily hand history
A NON GREG HAND HISTORY!
2/5/10 (2/5 table been straddling consistently) 1.5k effective
HJ (shitreg) opens to 20, I call STR with 87dd
(55) Flop As 6s 3d x, HJ bets 15, I call
(85) Turn 7h xx
(85) river 7s I bet 120, HJ shitreg calls A5cc

Should I 3bet pre? Theory don't ****ing matter for **** vs this absolute dogshit reg and either option is fine, but I decide on call bcos this guy aint folding enough to 3bet after opening HJ.
Flop am I a station for calling? Seems very thin, could fold, or could even consider raise. I know it will at least mix calls in theory with the pure bdsd, and a bdfd. Think shitreg sees A high board and cbets too often and yada yada skill edge blah blah live pro can outplay on later streets I call.
Turn playing no donks seems correct.
River seems fine, I bet big and get called by a hand that should probably fold 😀

I frankly can't be ****ed to write much else today so that is all

Still not back to the live arena, have played a bit more online, and gotten back into the college study grind. Study grind has gotten to me recently, so all I have time to do is a sneaky hand history. V fun hand history I forgot about, was quite happy with the result.

Sending the Euros back home
5/10 2k effective with all opponents
I raise CO to 25 with J9dd, BTN (Euro Reg) calls, BB (fish) calls
(80) Jc 5d 4d xx BTN bets 20, BB cal
CO (Euro Reg) raises to 30, I call BTN with AJdd, SB (fish) calls, BB (fish) calls
(120) Jc 5d 4d xxx I bet 30, SB calls, BB calls, CO raises to 150, I call, SB calls, BB calls
(720) 9h xxx I bet 250, SB folds, BB calls, CO calls
(1470) 9d BB bets 300, CO folds, I jam, BB folds

Weird ****ing hand.

More college study, and another hand history, this time with a slight bit of review.

Playing first live sessions of the year on Friday, Saturday.

Battling with Greg (again)
5/10 1.8k effective
Greg opens LJ to 25, I call HJ with QhQd, players behind fold
(65) Jh Td 9h xx
(65) 4d x I bet 50, call
(165) 2c x I bet 100, Greg calls AJcc

Before you call me a disgusting nit for the QQ flat pre pls listen.
1. We are 200bb deep, in early position
- am I really happy if I get 4bet here? no, his 4bet value range should be approx KK+, AK+.
- 200bb deep I want to be playing some flats, including with hands up to QQ and AKo even in theory. QQ is a theory mix roughly 50/50 between flat and 3bet here.
2. Fishy players behind incentivise us to call
- there are a couple of well known tards in the pool during this hand still yet to act. I want to let tards tard and squeeze too loose behind vs a flat that - for the first time in the history of live poker - isn't entirely capped.

All in all worked out well and I played the hand largely theory approved, although believe it or not the river bet is almost too thin in theory! QQ is mixing mainly check!
So before you call me a nit, let it be known that the solver is even more nitty!

WIll come back with a live session review over the weekend, and some more hand history in the meantime.
Adios

Got back and of course hopped into a Tuesday session last night to begin the year. The 5/10 was quite reggy and **** night, so just played 2/5 instead. Was a good game, but ended up losing 1100 nonetheless in about 8 hours of gameplay. lol

What a start to the year. :(

Think I still played well overall and was certainly beating the game nonetheless. I won't bore you with a KK under AK preflop for 100bb or a set under set on a dry board that were the majority of the losses, some other interesting hands occured where I am much less sure of my play. Lots of limping, and lots of me making crap up as I go in response to said limping, just kinda going back to basics and playing aggressively with decent hands in position for the most part.

Limps make my head hurt cos no solver
2/5 1.1k effective
LJ (fish) limps, CO (meh reg) limps, I raise BTN with 65cc to 25, blinds fold, LJ calls, CO folds
(57) Ad 9d 4s x, I bet 20, call
(97) 2c x, I bet 100, call
(297) 6h xx I lose to AhTs

Again I have no real idea how to play vs limps, so I kinda just try to intuition my way through. Having played with these two for a few hours, I think LJ limp is really capped and CO overlimp is just dead money, so I'm just gonna raise a wide range of good hands that want fold equity (all my great hands, and some suited connectors), and overlimp hands that are happy to go multiway like mid pairs, low suited Ax, and shitter suited broadways (ie QJs that realistically isnt folding out AJo or KQo). So we raise.
Happy with how I played it postflop, can fold out broadway air on the flop, can fold out mid pairs, 9x, v weak Ax on the turn and have showdown on the river, although turn seems like I for sure could've checked back as well. I just don't know what their range is whatsoever so this could have been v bad or v good.

Limps make my head hurt cos no solver part 2
2/5 600 effective
UTG-7 (fish limps), BTN (meh reg) limps, I overlimp SB with A7ss, BB checks
(20) Qd 7h 3s xx UTG-7 bets 5, BTN folds, I call, BB folds
(30) 2s xx
(20) 9s x UTG-7 bets 10 I raise to 50, UTG-7 calls KdQc

Once again I am clueless vs limps. A7s seems like a v intuitive hand to just call tho, and just be prepared to fold top pair v quickly on an A high board to major aggression in a 4 way pot.
Once again, I am clueless in a 4 way pot. Vs 1/4 pot this seems good enough to call with nut bdfd potential, nut second pair, and outs and LIVE PRO SKILL EDGE but frankly I have no idea.
On river, I have the nuts and I want to get the max. I think he still has a bunch of Qx to bet (a read on this specific player helps me know this), and so I check, and it works out.

Limps make my head hurt cos no solver part 3
2/5 700 effective
HJ (fish/shitreg) limps, I raise BTN with KdQc to 20, HJ calls
(47) Jd 8d 4c x, I bet 15, HJ calls
(77) Ad x, I bet 60, HJ calls
(197) 2d x, I bet 90, HJ calls AJcc
I think this is max value? I'm happy to raise this hand pre, get called by dominated hands and have some fold equity, and easily fold to a 3bet.
Flop against fish I just bet small and frequent on most boards in most situations. We also have a v good cbet hand to set up future barrels.
Turn I know my range and this is really my only offsuit Kd X bluff (I don't iso KTo here), and also just seems like a good spot to barrel with this hand.
River unfortunately it's v hard for them to have a flush here with holding the K of diamonds, and 4 flush boards are v overfolded by fish imo esp when the relevant A, K and J are covered, so I bet small to try get called by potential 2 pair or Ax and it works 😀 Surprisingly strong limp from him but we get away with it anyway.

Limps make my head hurt cos no solver part 4
2/5 700 effective
HJ (same fish/shitreg as prev hand) limps, I raise BTN with JdJc to 20, SB (decent reg) 3bets to 75, HJ folds, I call
(160) Qc 4h 2c xx
(160) 7d xx
(160) Qd x, I bet 250, SB tank calls 76hh

Tally for the year:
-1100 in 8 hours

Have you thought about not sitting at a table with Greg?

JK, great thread subbed. Very high level play, impressive for a live player. Please don't drop out of college, I'm certain you will make way more $$ in whichever profession you end up choosing!

lmao unfortunately greg the good reg is ubiquitous in the best game at the time. If there's a massive juicy game he will be gone, but I am usually sitting in the best game 5/10 or below and unfortunately Greg sometimes is too, but with the volume he plays that adds up. Also I'm mainly posting greg hand histories because I actually have to think the hardest during these, and these are often the most interesting.

not dropping out of college, even after a 4 buyin (4.2k) friday night session I just finished. will write up a session report at some point soon.

what a session, +11 hours, +4.2k.

Obviously upswinging that hard that quickly is more about sheer luck than skill but I'm happy with how I played as well.

Very juicy game, where it was primarily running around 1 particular well known whale who mainly plays 5/10, as well as a couple of fishies. The only person in the game I would describe as a winning reg would be Greg (ofc he is here).

Hands get weird and multiway as a result of the whale, creating weird dynamics even after they fold bcos people can be too value heavy or faceup on earlier streets.

I won't bore you with the standard coolers and valuebetting that of course make up the majority of a winning session because those hands were largely just obvious and normal and noone cares that I won a buyin with a fullhouse vs trips top kicker, or winning KK vs AK preflop etc.

Likely punt vs good reg greg
5/10, with 20 straddle (I have 2.5k, Greg has 2.2k, Whale has 1k)
I open CO to 50 with TdTc, Greg in the SB 3bets to 200, whale calls STR, I call
(610) Flop Ad Jd 9d, Greg bets 150, STR whale folds, I call
(910) Turn 8h Greg checks I bet 500, Greg calls
(1910) River Kh Greg checks, I jam 1.3k ish, Greg folds somewhat quickly

Spot made v weird by whale in the straddle. I think Greg 3bets stronger than "correct" here, and is playing relatively faceup betting a good hand with equity on the flop.
I still think I have a hand that should call, and hit a diamond or bluff it off later. This is about the worst hand I call though, folding all worse pp with diamond, folding 9x, Jx that will have no diamond, even potentially folding Ax no diamond here and not having any offsuit broadways with 1 diamond to float and bluff off later.
Monotone boards are v weird, and this is made weirder by the whale in the mix, and multiway flop action.
I proceed to bluff it off later in a runout that leaves me with v little bluffs apart from this hand.

The poker gods aren't letting me punt
* Just before this hand I move to the direct left of the whale* so whale is in the SB
5/10 2k effective with main villian
BTN (meh reg) opens to 20, I call BB with As7h
(45) Flop Qh 6s 5s BTN bets 15, I raise to 75, BTN calls
(195) Turn 4h I bet 200, BTN calls
(595) river Ad xx, I win vs QsJc

I think BTN is intentionally min opening, and opening extremely wide, to try and play pots with the whale in the SB. Ultimately that fails. Am getting an obscene price here to min, so I call. FWIW I think live players play far too loose from the BB usually (for example, there are very few who would fold AJo vs a 2.5x open from UTG-8 but it is a correct play , but vs the BTN and a minraise at that A7o is just too good to fold.

Shitreg likely tries to rangebet small in a spot that should not be a rangebet or small bet. What's new? I attempt to punish it with a theory approved mix using dusty hand and very out of line bluff frequencies by using all my bluffs pure, what else is new?
Turn I just have an amazing hand to barrel with on a card that is great for both my hand and my range.
River I was planning on following through on spades, or giving up, but get bailed out by an ace and have showdown. In hindsight they have a bunch of Qx I can still get value from for a block sizing, but such is life I win 300 bucks off of my opponent at showdown despite bluffing off prior 2 streets can't complain too hard.

Multiway Preflop Shenanigans
5/10 3k effective with main villain (CO), 2k with SB
I open HJ to 25 with AQhh, CO 3bets (meh reg) to 75, SB (fish) calls, I 4bet to 300, CO calls, SB calls
(910) Flop Td 5h 2s check, check, check
(910) Turn Ac check, check, check
(910) River 7d I bet 200, fold, fold
Weird hand. SB cold calls are obviously not a "thing" in theory, but having played with this player a bunch I know it is very rarely QQ+ or AK, and mainly suited broadways, and 99-JJ. It's a spot where I think I can just put more money in knowing I'm always good and IP vs the SB, and the CO will fold v often. Also we are deep as tits and it's useful to have some unexpected hands this deep.
Flop not cbetting at all out of position to 2 players who can have a bunch of TT, and JJ-QQ.
Turn they can have some AK and again out of position to 2 players gonna be checking a lot.
River I think I have the best hand a lot but hard to get paid by worse for any big size. Go small to get called by Ax and the occasional KK-JJ given obscene price.

That is all, taking tonight off to go for beers.

Taking a stab at analyzing the multi way pot using GTOW.

Str cold call is a thing here but I widened SB to call more AJs/AQs and TT-QQ

First - level setting with GTO strat

This flop is actually great for all 3 players, SB should be checking quite a bit

Vs this balanced cbet range, we in CO should mix calling and folding

Second - UTG stronger range

I gave greg a stronger range with 2p+, and mostly combo and nut flush draws as bluffs to mimic in game dynamics

And hero responds by actually calling range, even raising to deny equity

On the turn hero barrels all the TdTx (and Greg should be jamming sets while flatting 2p and QT straights). In game not sure what live reg does so I kept it the same.

On the river we putr jam TdTx as our only bluff, consisting of 36% of our river jams

Surprisingly well played!

--------

Other interesting tibit- if SB is a thinking player, SB can bet 100% of range when Greg checks this flop with his weakened range even with CO yet to act

Vs Turn stab, SB needs to start folding 75% 2p combos, including A9 pure. Not sure if this happens at all in game, possibly making a river bluff much more profitable

haha thanks for chekcing this spot when I was too lazy to given a whale involved, and glad to see there was some method to the madness!

Where I think the sim is wrong from reality:
- accounting for how the whale plays postflop, and our response to it (mostly playing more high equity with bets and weaker checks).
- Good reg's 3bet range will be fairly different (I imagine tighter given the possible STR cold calls by whale making it harder to bluff pre as well as probably having a flatting range that I doubt he has from the SB in a 3 blind game usually). I would be surprised if he had as many A9s, JTs, 66-88 and suited connectors as the solver
- As a result I also have a tighter and different range, due to both the whale and Greg's tighter range. Against the common intuition, I'm playing tighter when the whale is involved with a large portion of range. Having QJs, KTs, ATs is **** when this whale has AQo, AJo, KQo, KJo likely pure that dominate us.

Haven't really delved into multiway solver work yet, especially as multiway spots so often have a fish involved and are really finicky, making it a pain in the ass to solve, I kinda just freestyle as I did here, and if in doubt just bet with equity and fold any close decisions - ignore the TT, do as I say not as I do!

In the spirit of learning about dumb, confusing multiway spots, except this time it's against good regs so I try and probably fail to play properly
5/10 1.1k ish effective vs both
I open LJ to 25 with Q9ss, BTN (nongregreg) calls, bb (gregreg) calls
(80) Flop 9c 3s 2c xx nongregreg bets 20, greg calls, I raise to 80, nongreg folds, greg calls
(260) Turn 5h xx
(260) river 3d greg bets 50, I call and I lose to Ac9h

Makes sense, any small changes to assumptions will vastly alter the strategy. I do highly recommend the GTOW AI tho, its quite amazing how well it solves for the maximum exploit strategy

Thanks for the advice, I do already use GTOW AI, I just mainly study heads up spots lol, probably something I should work on but tbh I think I already play quite well in multiway spots for a couple of reasons:

1. I am a nit preflop
- Playing correct preflop ranges simply makes you the tightest player at the table apart from the occasional OMC. Especially from the big blind, I seem to play far tighter than my opponents, despite just playing somewhat correctly (which in itself includes playing tighter after flat calls)

2. I don't play flats anywhere but the big blind preflop at 100bb
- My standard is to not play flats except for the BB unless given a reason to deviate, so I generally just play fewer multiway spots. This is an acceptable solver approved way to play don't hate the player hate the game. Yes there are exceptions if playing deeper stacked (see the QQ flat at 200bb in a HH earlier) , there was an open limp, or there is a massive whale yet to act, but in general when combined with correct big blind ranged pre I probably play the fewest preflop calls of anyone at the table.

3. I am a nit postflop (especially multiway)
- In the majority of spots that do go multiway, I've often set myself up with hands that have good equity realisation multiway, and implied odds, and if there's a close decision, I just fold. I think I've folded top pair **** kicker in a multiway pot at a higher rate than any other human being on the planet. If it barely beats their value bets, and there's 3 players left to act behind, it's just a fold - I will go into a controversial (but correct) recent multiway fold I made later in this post. Along the same lines, multiway I only ever bet with good, better, best (this includes high equity bluffs though I 'm not a monster).

Put simply, I just avoid difficult multiway spots whenever reasonable, and it's worked out well for me so far, so I don't really see the need for multiway study.

Thanks to talking about multiway, reminded me of a weird multiway fold I made in the first session of the year:
4 ways in a 3bet pot?
2/5 $10 straddle on (the table fish was the only one straddling lol i felt bad)
LJ (fish) limps, I raise AJhh in the CO to 30, SB (nonpunty, not top tier reg) 3bets to 120, STR (fish) calls, LJ calls, I call
(487) Flop As 9c 2c SB bets 150, STR calls, LJ calls, I fold
(937) Turn 4s SB jams, STR folds, LJ calls
SB wins with AK

This is the classic dilemma again of how do regs change their range when a fish (or two) is in the pot. SB is not rangbetting here. Pretty simply when he bets it's Ax or a bluff. And when two more players call behind I honestly have no idea what to do. AK is obviously snap call (or raise) It feels like AQ would be a fine call, safely being ahead of (or at least chopping with) STR and LJ. AJ just feels like the pain one. When two separate players call, someone's got something - a very technical analysis of the situation - and i fold correctly 😀 .

That is all for today, will provide some more session histories and broader updates towards the end of this week.

playing a session on friday, and saturday probably, we wiil see

ngf26, big fan of your analysis and I think you're thinking about the game the right way. Do you think you're leaving money on the table by not flatting low pocket pairs/suited Ax/suited connectors if population at 2/5 isn't 3betting enough? I also don't play cold calls 100 deep playing online but live I have a hard time sometimes figuring out how much to widen my range. Against softer lineups, I think flatting above hand classes in LP can be good but interested to hear your thoughts

Will pm you

Firstly thanks for the kind and undeserved words. I can already feel that writing out my analysis has helped me articulate and practice my poker thoughts in a productive way and I'm glad it had helped someone else as well 😀

uhhhh, what I'm gonna say below is my thoughts on in position flatting. With no ante and with high rake, flatting the SB is dumb and a conspiracy theory made up by tourney regs to justify their cash game punts.

A couple reasons why I play that way (i put it under spoiler tag because it ended up being quite long):

In terms of your second point about widening your range to have weak IP flats:
- I only ever flat IP on the BTN at 100bb, no other positions
- Until given a reason to I don't
- If given a reason to flat wider on the BTN, I just pure flat hands that mix in theory, and/or take hands that pure 3bet into flat range
I take this approach with a lot of exploits, just changing frequencies to be pure in one direction, and that's as far as I'll go vs normal non whales.

ok im now bored of writing

Curious what about adjustments to EP open with the $2 preflop rake and tendency to go multiway. Do you advocate folding AJo/KQo UTG? The counter argument is that people suck thus you can open -ev hands wider OOP.

I'm guessing you meant to msg OP? I have not received any PMs

I personally usually fold AJo and KQo under most circumstances, and if I'm tired, or need to go to the bathroom, or the table is extra loose I'll even consider folding AQo. Part of why AJo, KQo isn't -ev to open in theory is that everyone before the btn should be pure folding AQo, but in live games people play it pretty much pure from all positions meaning you get screwed and dominated. Imo anyone but an absolutely top reg would be better off just playing preflop correctly, or a pip tighter even.

People do suck, but in my humble opinion it doesn't make you want to play wider because they suck in ways that are annoying for marginal hands but make you more money with your very top hands. For example, opening 74s on the BTN is **** when the BB doesn't fold all the offsuit 7x they're supposed to, or the previous AJo open from UTG when they never fold AQo, but it's nice when KJo calls a 3bet OOP when you have aces.

So as a result I kinda just try to play correctly preflop, and just go one way or the other with the 0ev mixes. Usually that means opening more of the pocket pairs and suited hands that mix, and less of the offsuit broadways and low suited connectors that mix.