Grinding: live cash and life 2026 and beyond

Another day, another relatively breakeven poker session. +8 hours, +300

This time I wasn't as carddead preflop, but more just went a little up, a little down over and over and then all of a sudden 8 hours had passed without a significant situation. But hey, not complaining to have made 300 bucks a win is a win.

This session I had two interesting hands, both with good reg "greg", and both where I 3bet out of position with a weaker hand and get into annoying spots. I cbf rn but I'll post my thoughts and reasoning on my play at a later time.

Spew 3bet preflop into spew bluff postflop
5/10 1.4k effective
Greg raises BTN to 25, I 3bet BB to 110 with 76cc
(225) Flop Ts 6h 5d I bet 175, BTN calls
(575) Turn Qs I bet 325, BTN calls
(1225) River Jh I jam for 750, BTN folds

Weird bluffcatch spot
5/10 1.1k effective
Greg raises CO to 25, I 3bet SB to 100 with A8ss, Greg calls
(210) Flop Ah 7d 6c I bet 45, Greg calls
(300) Turn 2h x, Greg bets 250, I call
(800) River 2c x, Greg jams 700, I fold

Okie imma go to sleep now, will write up analysis tomorrow if I feel like it

Back again:
Played a thursday 2/5 session turned into a 2/5/10 session, yet again relatively breakeven, +8 hours, +300.
That's usually the way playing live poker, mostly breakeven, small winrates for eternity then a cooler happens or you punt off your stack bluffing. That being said imo this is how winrate is made. Anyone can win a stack with a cooler, that doesn't take skill, but all of the smaller pots are where skill actually exists. So while in the short term your session results are dictated by coolers, in the long term coolers somewhat cancel out and lifetime results are dictated by smaller decisions. That being said, if you play correctly preflop and on earlier streets you end up coolering others more than you get coolered so winrate can be made there too

Still a few interesting pots nonetheless:
River checkraise bluff
800 effective 2/5/10
I raise LJ with A5hh to 25, BTN (meh reg) calls, all else fold
(67) Flop Kh 9h 2d I bet 20, BTN calls
(107) Turn 5d xx
(107) River Kc x, BTN bets 40, I raise to 200, BTN folds

Preflop I'm happy with (obv)
Flop I'm happy with, going to be playing small bet or check here, either fine but vs weaker regs who don't find as many 0 equity stabs I'd rather bet myself and I did.
Turn could do anything, check to try showdown, or bet big or bet small I really don't mind. Against weaker regs I just play faceup here lol I have a weak showdown I check.
River have a pretty clear check. Once again I get into a spot where they bet small, I think they are really capped, and I raise. Also blocker blocker unblocker unblocker A5hh is a great hand to x/r bluff here. It works 😀

THat is all for today

Friday session.
Once again opted to play the 2/5 game as it was imo a bit of a better spot than the 5/10. Some of the table straddling, only 2/5 regs and none of the 5/10 regs, and a few fishies in the mix. Meanwhile, 5/10 was 6 5/10 regs of varying quality and 2 fish. I think I made the right choice.

Worked out well too, another somewhat relaxed and calm session just plugging along, +6 hours, +250. YET AGAIN no major coolers but tbh I can't complain because even with no coolers I'm just plugging along with a respectable winrate and minimal stress.

Too thin?
2/5/10 1.2k effective
I open K8dd in the HJ to 25, SB (meh reg) calls, BB (fish) calls, STR (fish) calls
(100) Flop Ad 7h 6c xx, I bet 25, CO folds, BB folds, STR calls
(150) Turn Kh xx
(150) River 2d x I bet 100, STR snap folds

Honestly think I can just fold pre here, this is bottom of the pure opens in HJ with straddle on, and the table is loose enough where it might not be the best idea to open up these bottom hands and get called by KTo in position.

On the flop, I think this hand makes a bunch of sense to use as a bluff. Nut bdfd, bdsd potential, on an A high board that I can easily rep, vs people who likely called too wide and will overfold from the blinds.
Turn no other option.
River I think I can eek out some thin value, esp facing the straddle, get called by 7x, 6x, in a spot where they don't really have better Kx, and I'm fairly sure they would bet their Ax on the river. They fold v quickly so I guess we'll never know.

Going for ubermax value
2/5 1.2k effective
I open CO to 15 with KhKs, BB (calling station) calls
(32) Flop Ah Kd 4s x, I bet 50, BB calls
(132) Turn 8c x, I bet 200, BB calls
(532) River Th x, I jam for 1000ish, BB folds

This ain't rocket science. I have the nuts vs a calling station. I WANT IT ALL! Overbetting is chill on these sorts of flops, and I think BB is v inelastic to sizing so I bump it up on all streets and try to get called. V happy with this one. In theory for the BB it's mostly a fold with hands as good as A8 and AT, so I think I get called entirely too much here. Shame he folded I assume what was just a shitty ace.

That's all folks

Saturday session:
+7 hours, -1800.

Unideal.

Got coolered for a stack. Could I have folded? Probably not but maybe

Can I fold river?
5/10 1.5k effective
I raise JTss in the HJ to 25, BB (weaker reg) calls
(55) Flop Qc 9d 4s x, I bet 25, call
(105) Turn 7s x, I bet 150, call
(405) River Ks x, I bet 300, BB jams for 1300 effective, I sigh call and get shown Q2ss

Can I fold here? I'm not sure if I beat value but I don't think so? Maybe 9x of spades? Either way this feels really gross and was not by any means a snap for me I think I just get shown Qx of spades A LOT and I ended up getting shown Qx of spades. Lol I just don't think I can fold JTss here. I could see myself easily folding 56ss but this just seems too high up.
That's all folks

These are hard hands to fold but I do agree with your assessment and my own experience. I always talk myself into ''could be bluff so call'' and ''always'' get shown better. Truth is, live regs, no matter how good/bad we think they are, they still underbluff rivers like crazy.

Not hating your call cause I make it too but I do think ur right you just get shown Qxss a lot here.

Nice thread btw, following!

Thanks for the support!

And yeah if I had pretty much anything worse than a T high flush here I think I can find the fold. Maybe just wishful thinking but in a spot where they can have a bunch of Axss and Qxss it feels ****.