moving along

Today was a slightly down day about half a buyin before my rakeback. I have established the routine of playing first thing in the morning. However, today that was not possible. I had to get my car repaired and the appointment was for 7:30am in the morning.

I was tempted to not play today as I knew that I was not at my best this afternoon. In the end I decided that it was more important to maintain my 30 day challenge than whether or not I had a bad session. If I am going to establish myself as a high volume grinder than I am going to have days where I am not at my best and the day is not perfectly set up yet I still have to play. This is one of the differences between a serious player and a recreational player.

As for my actual play I have been extremely tight in early and middle position. This is helping me to stay out of marginal situations. When I am playing higher stakes against more aggressive, thinking players I will have to introduce more risk into my play. Right now, however, my goal is purely to get in volume and move up out of 4NL. I don't need to take risks to do this. All I have to do is play my good hands strongly in position. One thing that Baluga whale emphasizes is that if you want to win more money than you need to bet bigger. The average bad micro player is not basing his decision to call or fold as much on your bet size as on their cards. Therefore I don't have to be deceptive in my bet sizing. Bet bigger with my good hands and set myself up to get stacks in easily with good hands. Ideally, with my two pair or better hands I should be looking to bet flop bet turn shove river and print money.

Baluga whale is releasing a third edition of his book Easy game: making sense of No Limit Hold em. The first edition of his book cost around 500 dollars. I could not afford this but I have studied his videos exhaustively as I feel that he is the best poker coach/writer out there for small stakes players. I got a copy of the second edition of his book off of the Internet. I'm sorry to say that I downloaded it from a site for free. My only defense is at the time I could not find a place where Baluga was selling the book himself and frankly it had been uploaded so many times that at this point figured I was just one of many. It doesn't make it right however.

Anyways, the book was/is amazing and I am thrilled to have it. Now that he is releasing a third edition at a much lower price, 50 dollars for the PDF if preordered from him, I will buy this edition and feel a little better about my self.

My goal for my next session is to fold on the river when the villain obviously has it. Don't pay off the fish when he hits. Also, on any hands with two pair or better I am going to try to bet bet and shove the river. I will review some of Baluga's material to make sure I am sizing my bets appropriately.