No poker for a couple days

We're flying back to the U.S. tomorrow for a couple months. Had to get papers for the dogs to travel and passport pages added so I didn't have much time to play poker. We still have to pack our bags before flying out tomorrow. We'll be flying into Las Vegas, my girlfriend's hometown. I don't think I'll be playing any live poker.

I was really hoping to play a decent amount of hands and post/comment a lot during the July LL grinders experiment. Now that I'm getting ready to leave, it's harder to find time to play. We're hiking the John Muir Trail in California during most of August and I feel like planning for the hike is going to eat up a lot my time the last two weeks of July. I'll try to stay as active as possible.

Thanks for all the comments so far. You guys have helped my game out tremendously!

Down a couple buy-ins

Played about 1700 hands today dropping little bit more than 2 buyins. Can't win every session, but it never feels good to lose. Getting tricky right out of the gate is not a good. I think it really messes with me psychologically having to climb out of a hole from the first minutes of a session.
Here I thought I saw a good opportunity to squeeze. When it doesn't work out, it just keeps getting worse. The worst part was I didn't have any stats on button, he was completely unknown. I really need to let a few orbits go around before trying this type of stuff. When he checks behind on the turn, I figured I was good to snag this pot on the river when I saw a harmless deuce.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1264894

Then I get this hand. I like potting the flop when I hit a flush because it disguises my hand I usually make a huge pot this way. He min-raises me on the turn indicating a strong hand. I put him on a straight, 2 pair, or a nut flush draw, so I figured shoving was my best action. I really thought I had the best hand until he turned his cards over.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1264893

Halfway through the month and I'm not really too happy with my numbers. I've played 22K hands, which is quite good. I was aiming for 40K hands playing 6 tables, but I'm right on track just playing 4 tables. I'm only up $176 or 0.40 BB/100 which is a bit lower than I hoped. Anyway, we still have the rest of the month to get that number up.

Slowly but surely

Played 1100 hands up for +$150. Nothing interesting as far as hands. I had a pretty clear idea how to play most of my hands, as they were pretty standard.

Here's a hand where I think I missed a turn bet. I generally don't fire a second barrel, because it's so hard to push people off a hand at this level. I think I should have tried here because the turn was a scare card and villain could be on a draw. Too results oriented maybe.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1260707

Anyway, I would like to get more sweat sessions going. For those of you posting comments, email me at michaeyk@gmail.com to arrange one.

Had to withdraw a bit for bread and wine.
BR:2576

Barely a good day

Had a sweat set up with Liquigas today, but couldn't have it due to skype problems. We'll try again some other time.

Played about 1900 hands today. Only up $21, but I guess it's better than posting a loss. I think I played pretty good today. I didn't really have any tough situations, in that I think I played most of my biggest losers correctly. Unfortunately they were the kind of hands that cost you a lot.

I really feel like I could have gotten away from this hand. His 1/2 pot raise was suspicious. He just called my raise preflop, making big pairs unlikely. He check-raised me all in, even when I raised him 5x. These facts taken together I think a fold was in order. My biggest loser as well.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1255488

Here are two interesting hands. On the turn, I just raised him all in because if I felt that if I check called, I would be facing an all-in bet anyway. I figure take the fold equity as well and just bet out.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1255521

Same thing here, bad outcome. I can apply the same thinking as in the previous hand, right?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1255512

My worst hand. I should have raised the flop to see where I was instead of taking such a passive line. Still learning.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1255865

A great sweat session with Disconnected

Had a sweat session with Disconnected today for about an hour. He watched me play 4 tables 100nl . We ended +$269 even after a runner-runner suck out and losing a stack w/ AA vs. AK. I will be watching him play next week. So far every sweat session has been in the plus. If anyone is interested, let me know.

Here's an interesting hand from today. I think these spots come up a lot in at the low levels. I had a similar hand just moments earlier when I had a non-nut flush. I decided to call and lost. I decided that a raise would have been better, then this hand come up. I think min blocking bets should generally be raised.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1252175

Disconnected will tell you that the cards were hot. We ran so well that during a lapse of attention, I let the timer run out on a set to a min raise. He even says, "you could have been out kicked anyway, don't worry ," after I miss a likely huge pot.

Here's the biggest hand from our session. We discussed his possible holdings for a second and fired. Pretty ABC.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1252263

Stats for the day: 988 hands, 18.7/14.3/3.6 11.81 BB/100.

Really tried forcing things today

Down about $90. Played 1600 hands and played poorly.

Here's where it started. I wasn't getting much in the way of hands, so I decided to do this on a gut feeling that I would draw out on him.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1248951

This hand bothered me. Bigger turn bet? Shove?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1248959

It's amazing how long it takes to get yourself back into green after dropping early in a session. I buckled down and started playing my game. I even got cards and managed to find myself w/ more than 3 buyins on one table and 2 1/2 on another. I was really surprised to see that I was still down when I ended my session.

A couple more winning days

I'm doing a little better lately. I played about 800 hands Saturday for $174. Today I played another 800 hands for $94. Didn't really feel like playing this weekend but I've got my eye on something in the FTP store. Stupid Ironman medals keep me disciplined.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1246345
I had KK run into AA against a short stack. The fourth raise PF indicates AA and I usually fold my KK in these cases. But the guy only had $27 left when he shoved it all in, so I called. Looking back I think I should have just folded.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1246377
I don't feel bad laying hands like this down at all. I know some of you guys never fold KK.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1246321
I guess this hand is pretty routine, but it was my biggest loser for the session. Villain was 34/20 for 79 hands. I was considering double barreling here but I just didn't think I could get him off his hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1246358
Biggest winner. As standard as it gets. I have 1 hand on him, this one. I was so shocked when I saw his cards, I forgot to put a note on him.

BR:2405