playing a game for a living = +EV

So today I booked 2 solid winning sessions, for a total of 1000 bux. Played pretty flawlessly, felt very comfortable with my game, and ran pretty good. Since I’m taking more time to think about hands, I’m getting less hands per hour, around 800. So in order to get 40,000 hands a week in, I’ll need to play 50 hours a week. Which is definately doable. Its much easier to play long sessions when I’m not making big mistakes, and I hardly made any mistakes today.

Put a new stat on my HUD, fold BB to steal. Its an amazing stat. If this is around 75% or more, I can profitably open 27 offsuit from the button, the worse hand in poker. The villain will fold enough that just the act of opening the button creates an instant profit. Likewise, I can steal from the SB a ton, which I have not been doing. Stealing from the SB is extremely exploitable, and any thinking regular will be able to make it an unprofitable play. But, most people at 100NL are not solid thinking regulars, and will not exploit you I have found. Previously I had been quick folding most of my small blinds, but now I look to my left and if the villain folds to too many steals or is a weak player and will call and fold to cbets, I wait around for the oppurtunity to steal with most of my range. In regular 6max, a thinking regular will adjust to your button steals and SB stealz by 3 betting you a ton. But in rush, they can’t adjust to you specifcally, they can only adjust by looking at your stats. And theres two main types of blind defense villains in rush. Those who play tight from the blinds, and you can steal from them with any two cards. I am one of these, because being out of position sucks, and I would rather steal peoples blinds than play inflated pots out of position. I will call a variety hands against certain weak players, and check raise a variety of flops. I also 3bet a ton of random trash against other players who fold to 3bets 70+%. Then obviously 3bet my value hands. Then there is the other type, the players who 3bet a ton from the blinds. These players are extremely exploitable, and 3bet way too much out of position, and don’t know how to play postflop if called. I can 4bet them a ton, or play pots in position. I also open the button less vs these lagtards, and they will be looking at my stats getting a wrong steal number. My steal% from button is probably something like 60%+. But vs these guys, its probably 30%, and I can 4bet for value and call 3bets with more hands than my typical button stealing range. Vs most players I open any 2 cards. Its a different game, because there is no game flow, but there are a variety of ways to exploit opponents in regards to stealing and restealing. Preflop play isn’t too challenging though, and though some money can be made, the majority of money comes from postflop play. Regulars at 100NL have a ton of massive leaks postflop, and I feel I really played well in the postflop realm today.

I started grinding a lot of poker back in August, and played heads up until January, logging about 200,000 hands and beat the game for 4-5ptBB/100. I made quite a bit of money, of which I never withdrew. I withdrew a couple hundred whenever I had a friend ask me to transfer them money and they gave me cash, but besides that I left it all in my bankroll, so I could feel comfortable with playing heads up, having between 100 and 200 buyins. Huge bankroll nit lol. And I didn’t want to be tempted to spend money that I knew I needed to save up. But now that I’m playing 6max, I’m going to withdraw a large chunk of change from my bankroll, because I don’t need that much online. And also I have to pay the IRS like 5 grand in a month. So I finally set things up so that I can withdraw checks, and requested my first one today. Full tilt will ship me my moneyz, which I can put in da bank, and I’m pretty stoked. Living in California is gonna be pretty expensive, and I need all the money I can get. So probably gonna take about 15 grand out of my bankroll.

Gonna start running on Sunday or Monday, and also start lifting. Exercise is great for the mind, and I was running every day for most of the summer and last semester, but then stopped in December once it got cold. I need to just stop bein a little bitch and start hittin up the gym again. Gonna try to go every day right when I wake up, and make it party of my daily routine. Work out, get coffee, eat breakfast, meditate, then play poker. Being out of shape sucks, and running is going to be painful for at least a month. But I need to do it, and theres no reason not to! I dropped about 25 pounds last semester due to running and eating healthy. I stepped on the scale the other day, and I weigh the same as when I stopped running! This was good news, and is likely because I am vegan, eating healthy, and not putting pounds on, maintaining weight. I want to try to drop another 15-20 pounds before I move to Cali, because weighing less also makes me feel better. I’ll weigh less than I have in 5-6 years! I already weigh less than I did all through college.

I’m going to bed. Yay for poker.