...

Things are still utter shite at the tables. Hands like this are so common as to be mundane. 97% favorite on the flop, and I know somehow, the runners are gonna fuck me over...and they do. And the sick thing is, I could easily find several dozen more hands just like this from the past week. And the week before, and before, and before...for 4 months now. It just will not end. I really don't understand what is going on anymore. Just look at my PTR graph...it's a 200k+ hand trainwreck. Such a joke.

Time to whore my music site again. It's just a bunch of hour long dj mixes of house music, mostly tech and deep house to be specific. It's good!

Don is right, I should post more about the NBA, since I don't care to talk much about poker. I liked how so many guys in the media were blasting the Cavs after starting out 0-2. Instantly they were out of the discussion as to who are the elite teams in the NBA. Barkely said it's the Magic and Celtics in the East, and the Spurs and Lakers in the West.

Also, during the Lakers Mavericks game the other night, Mark Jackson said something along the lines of "far and away, the Celtics are the best team in the east."

I find statements like this to be laughable. I mostly chalk them up to speaking loosely, and in the moment. It's different when you're announcing a game and just randomly shooting things off the cuff. But maybe he really believes this, I dunno. It's still a fairly stupid thing to say.

People quickly forget, but the Cavs started out last year poorly as well. They lost to the Celtics on opening night just like this year, then they lost to New Orleans in their third game. So they started 1-2 last year, just like this year.

And what does all this mean? Nothing. An 0-2 start is 2 games. % wise, it's not even equal to half of an NFL game. The NBA season is long. Even the 95 Bulls had a streak of losing 2 games in a row, and they only lost 10 games the whole season. Drawing anything from 2 losses, unless you're in the playoffs, is just a waste of time. And really just highlights how little a lot of media guys have to talk about.

And after tonights win, the Cavs are 2-2, and everyone will forget their 0-2 start in a few weeks when they are 10-3 or whataver. It's a joke.

::

Another thing I find funny is how people don't seem to understand just how much luck there is in basketball. Sure, if you take 2 teams that are mismatched skillwise, the better team will prevail a lot of the time. But take last years Magic Cavs matchup in the playoffs. Prior to the series, most people picked the Cavs to win, though most also said it would be a tough series.

The point is that whichever team you think is best, it's probably a 55/45 type situation. No team was significantly better than the other. And the series could have gone either way. But once it's over, it sort of becomes cemented into peoples minds. "Ah, the Magic won. They are the superior team." And maybe they were, it's difficult to say.

More things worked against the Cavs than non Cavs fans would know about in that series. And luck can take many forms in a playoff series. I consider it bad luck that they swept their first two opponents before playing the Magic. It made for an extra long layoff in between series' as the Magic went to 7 games with the Celtics. The Cavs didn't play for 9 days I think. Now everyone knew this, but few people probably realize how much that effects players like Ilgauskus.

For whatever reason, it always seems like it takes him a game or so to get into the swing of things after a long layoff. That was again evident in opening night this year against the Celtics where he shot terribly. But now he's shooting good again, it just takes him a few games.

Secondly, when you roll through two teams you don't get a chance to feel that unique playoff pressure that accompanies a loss. Losing a playoff game isn't like losing a regular season game. And it shook their confidence a little. The Cavs were riding a high going into that series, and the Magic stealing game in 1, at the Q, where they were virtually unbeatable the whole year, hit them too hard. It would have been much better if they experienced their first loss in the first or second round.

In a way, that makes me happy that they lost the first 2 games of this season. Struggling is how you learn to overcome. No team in the NBA has enough talent to just rip through the playoffs anymore.

In any case, I still think the Cavs are gonna win 60+ this year. Few people seem to think this. Which I also find humorous. They're basically the same team as they were last year, +Shaq. Unless you are of the opinion that Shaq will be more detrimental than helpful (I can see an argument being made for this, though I don't hold this opinion) than it seems absurd to think they won't have about as much success as they did a season ago. FWIW, my prediction for their regular season is 62-20.

::

Lastly, I think the Mavs are gonna surprise a lot of people this year. I honestly believe they could win the West and make the finals.

It's been a while since I've posted. I haven't had much desire to post about poker. It's going as awful as I've ever seen in my 4 years. It's worse than I had even thought was possible to be quite honest. Every session I leave just stunned and confused and full of doubt. And then I regain my composure, look at the hands from the previous day, note that they are all bad beats and cold decks, and then hit the tables again, only to experience another collection of some of the sickest beats imaginable, and in succession.

A quick warning here, I'm sure this whiney post will be absolutely annoying to read. I'm not even posting this shit for the enjoyment of anyone to read. I just need to vent.

From today alone...I was dealt KK twice...

Flop top set in a 3 bet pot...but that's no match against someone with a gutshot!
KK again... but obviously he has AA. I only run into this one every session.

Random hands from the last few months...

Flop top set... which is a marginal hand, but I decide to get frisky and go with it.
KK all in preflop against an erratic 52/36 retard who can't fold. Obv he has to have AA.
Yes, I lucked out cause I'm pretty sure he has AA, KK or QQ. I mean I only lose to one flush, AdKd, cause he's never 3betting a worse 2 diamond hand preflop.

Top set... nope. There isn't much of a chance that is any good.
All in with KK again. I can breathe a sigh of relief...he doesn't have AA. Oh nevermind.
Set of K's vs Set of A's ...lol
QQ v JJ all in preflop ...
Flop top 2... you know he has bottom set. We can safely check/fold probably.

KK... what on earth could he have.
Flop trips against a guy bluffing. Don't worry, he gets there.
Flop trips again... against a guy with lone top pair and no redraws.
TPTK against total air/undercards.

Those are just from this past week...moving along.

One of the grossest hands of my life. Get all in with the nut flush...on the turn for 3 stacks. Ship the $1200 pot to the other guy please.
Top set you say? Yeah I know the drill.
****TOP BOAT? Ok, I finally win a hand. I'm sure of it.
TPTK vs...wtf
AA v AK all in preflop.
KK you say?
rinse repeat

2nd Nut Flush And you know the old saying, if it's not the nuts, it's not a winner.
KK v AA ldo
AA v AK again all in preflop. Not a chance.
this is getting old
Flop a set vs a gutter

You're joking right?
Can I please just take the split?
All in with a set vs a guy with a pair and no draws.
Another failed set.
Not again please.

A ha! This time I have the aces.
Flopped trips vs 2 outs.
Nut flush is not the nuts.
Top 2 is no match against a guy with 3 outs.
Top 2 again...
Top 2 vs bottom set

I honestly have no idea what the hell this is?
Flop broadway against a guy with a pair.
TPTK against...a draw.
Flop a boat in a 3b pot. That's a good thing isn't it?
Flop a set in a 3b pot. Against a guy with a pair.
Heh, I thought making my set was a good thing.
Set. Lose.

Trips over trips, all in. And I'm on the good end of this one, or so I thought.
Another KK all in preflop.
Top set...
AA vs a pair

There are so many more, just from the last 6 weeks. This shit is endless. This is my graph for the last 550k hands or so. To put into perspective how awful I'm running. No previous downswing can match this one...and I'm not even including $2/4 there, where I dropped $15k in 2 weeks to a bag of comparable beats...including my favorite...losing a $1600 pot with AA all in preflop against KK.

Alright, I'm sick of this post already.

I was too tired to blog too much about the tourney. But I went and got some food, and now I'm feeling better, so I wanted to write a little bit more.

People are always touting the Stars software as being the best. That it may be, but I must say that I was quite underwhelmed by a few things in this last tournament.

For one, your time bank never refills throughout the WHOLE tournament. By level 4 I was out, and had to play the final 6 or 7 hours with absolutely no time bank. I actually timed out of two hands, and one of them was very important (the other one I probably would have folded anyways.)

Here is the bad one. I time out with AKs after a raise and a reraise. Now this was likely a very costly fold. This guy had a 3b of 13%, and on the button it was even higher. I'm not very worried that he had a better hand. I was measuring out what I wanted to raise, and just like that it folded me with no warning, due to me not having any time in my time bank...

Which brings me to my main beef with the Stars software. Unlike any. other. poker. site...Stars doesn't feel the need to visually show you or tell you in any way how much time you have. On AP you get a clock shaped ticker. On FTP you get that red to green bar or whatever that is. On Stars you get nothing! You just have to guess how much time you have left to act. And if you have no time bank, you better play like you're on a turbo table.

This is very bad for a WCOOP event. Sometimes you just need a minute to think. I play tournaments very deliberately, since every decision counts so much.

The other hand I timed out was later in the event when I was moderately short stacked. I raised with 77 and got 3b from a tightish player. I was thinking about what to do, and again...timed out. Very frustrating.

It boggles my mind how Stars can have the best customer support, and best software, and a million different options for multi tablers, and yet still doesn't have a rudimentary thing like this. Seriously, this should have been remedied 5 years ago.

Finished 92nd in the 4-Max event, out of 3854. Won a cool $1100 or so. But I'm disappointed. Even a mediocre run of cards would have kept me in a lot longer. I was at several tables with 3 donkish players who would have happily handed me chips if I could either get dealt a hand preflop or make a hand postflop. Lost a bunch of gay hands in the last hour and finally busted with TT v QQ all in pre when I had 10 bb's.

But PokerStars deserves credit for a great structure. I was low for long periods of time, but never had to resort to push/fold tactics. And even still, 92nd isnt terrible.

I'm only scheduled to play one more, but now with $1100 more to work with, I'll probably enter the $1,050 NL Holdem event tomorrow. Although maybe not, as 9 hours of poker today has kinda wore me out.

Finally upgraded my monitor to one of these. It is so much nicer grinding on a 30in monitor. I can easily put 6 tables on it, and 9 if I shrink them just a little bit. Decided that it would probably pay for itself, and make my life easier, so the $1150 expense isn't too bad.

Lately I've been 8 tabling $1/2nl. Might do this for a while. It's much lower stress, and my roll was hit hard last month. But I've cleared 6 or 7k in my first few weeks back here. Starting to feel somewhat normal again. Though still running moderately crappy.

::

Played in the opening WCOOP event. Not much to say, was one of the most boring tourneys I've ever played in. I hovered around even for like 4 hours, then busted on a flip. Didn't get dealt anything the whole time. I believe I had KK once, and everyone folded. Not much to say.

I'm currently in Event 11 of the WCOOP. It's the $530 2-Day event. First place is a sick $472k. But I've drawn probably the worst table in the whole event. Seriously, so far it has been me and 8 other FR grinders. The loosest player is 22/16. The rest are 10/8, 15/8, 7/7...etc etc. It's ridiculous.

Hope I have something nice to post in the next 24 hours.

Things are still pretty crappy at the tables. I'm on the worst downswing of my life at the moment, and it's becoming quite prolonged. I've done everything I can to try and turn things around...but so far it has been futile.

I've even had to drop back down to $1/2nl, to no avail mind you. Somehow, everybody has a set every hand. And I'm in the red with fullhouses for the month, something that I didn't think was even possible.

Despite these things I'm still optimistic. I feel like I've played surprisingly well regardless of how awful things are going. Something I couldn't do in the past. I keep shaking sessions off, getting my mind right, and heading back to the tables to get another ass kicking. Oh well.

I feel like I'll come through this one a better player, and hopefully win at even higher rates than before. I just hope this ends soon.

Ok. I do this every year, so I'll do it again. I think this is my year for the WCOOP. That tourney win gave me a lot of confidence, atleast for other tournaments (things are still in the crapper at the cash tables.)

In any case, here are the list of events I'm playing.

Sept 3, $215 Holdem 6-Max
Sept 4, $109 8-Game
Sept 6, $530 Holdem 2-Day Event
Sept 7, $215 Holdem 4-Max (probably my best chance at winning any of them.)
Sept 20, $215 Holdem $1Million Guaranteed

If I money any of the earlier ones I'll use the winnings to enter a few others. I kinda wanna play the Razz event. It's boring, but full of dead money. And I'd like to maybe play a HORSE one too. A big cash would be nice because then I'd enter the Main Event. Has a $10Million Guaranteed prize pool this year. But I don't feel like tossing $5k out of my bankroll to play it. Hopefully I can make a deep run in the 4 or 6-max event. The 8-game is just for fun, but I'm competent in everything except PLO.

Who knows.

A good one.

I'm very happy with my ability to see through people's bs these days.

Here is another one.

The weird thing is, there's really nothing I can say about the hands that would give insight into why I called down. There's something about poker that a hand history can never capture. I don't even know what that is. But when you play with people for a while, sometimes you just know.

I surprise myself with how often I know exactly where people are at in hands. The hardest part is listening to your intuition. More and more these days I'm just going with whatever my gut tells me. Even if it seems retarded.

Here is one more.

I hope I can get to the point where I totally trust my reads, and I win or lose based on the quality of my reads. There's plenty of money to be made by playing solid, but there's another level beyond that. I've had glimpses of what it's like to play where you know where everyone is at for like 15 minutes or so. It often happens when im not paying attention, but im also not splitting my focus with tv or whatever.

Just shipped my first big cash in a tournament. I suppose it was only a matter of time. Well, not really, I never play these stupid things. I hate tournaments.

But AP started "The Donkament." Buy in was 10,000 FPPs, and it was a $50,000 prize pool. I beat out 563 players. The only thing that is weird is I don't really know how much I won yet. The prize pool in the lobby was also frequent player points. So right now I have 1,400,000 FPPs sitting in my account. (Worth about $10,000.) But it clearly says in many places, that it is a cash tournament with cash prizes. So I think it's just a glitch, due to the incompetence of AP.

Secondly, it was a $50,000 tourney, but there was only $39,000 worth of FPPs in the prize pool. So it's hard to say how much I won yet. But it should be about $12k.

Ship it!

Think I'm gonna take the day off. Things went poorly yesterday as well. I'm lucky that I kept $3,500 sitting in my rakeback account. I always do that so if things go really badly I can stay afloat by withdrawing it all into my poker account.

Here are some of the beats just from yesterday.

Seat 2: SYNODIC ( $412.00 USD )
Seat 3: FLUSHED_OUT25 ( $309.70 USD )
Seat 4: SHOMPI ( $1377.21 USD )
Seat 5: BADBERT18 ( $717.35 USD )
Seat 6: 7TEMPEHEAT7 ( $425.60 USD )
Seat 1: OTSOA69 ( $394.05 USD )
FLUSHED_OUT25 posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SHOMPI posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ 8h 8c ]
BADBERT18 folds
7TEMPEHEAT7 raises [$14.00 USD]
OTSOA69 calls [$14.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$14.00 USD]
FLUSHED_OUT25 folds
SHOMPI calls [$10.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, 8s, Qd ]
SHOMPI checks
7TEMPEHEAT7 checks
OTSOA69 checks
SYNODIC bets [$45.00 USD]
SHOMPI raises [$156.00 USD]
7TEMPEHEAT7 folds
OTSOA69 folds
SYNODIC raises [$353.00 USD]
SHOMPI calls [$242.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]
SYNODIC shows [8h, 8c ]
SHOMPI shows [Qh, 9h ]
SHOMPI wins $851.00 USD from main pot

Seat 3: SYNODIC ( $476.50 USD )
Seat 4: ANYLIVETWO ( $374.30 USD )
Seat 5: ILEMON ( $479.60 USD )
Seat 6: MARCLAR3 ( $417.60 USD )
Seat 1: ULTRALYONS ( $315.75 USD )
Seat 2: THEFLOW ( $403.00 USD )
ANYLIVETWO posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
ILEMON posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Kd Kh ]
MARCLAR3 folds
ULTRALYONS raises [$8.00 USD]
THEFLOW calls [$8.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$38.00 USD]
ANYLIVETWO folds
ILEMON folds
ULTRALYONS calls [$30.00 USD]
THEFLOW calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, Tc, 3s ]
ULTRALYONS checks
THEFLOW checks
SYNODIC bets [$72.00 USD]
ULTRALYONS folds
THEFLOW raises [$365.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$293.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
THEFLOW shows [3c, 3h ]
SYNODIC shows [Kd, Kh ]
THEFLOW wins $846.50 USD from main pot

(the above kinda beat, where I squeeze an overpair prf, and then villain flats with small pair and hits their set, has happened 3 consecutive times.)

as in here...

Seat 5: FLYINGDONUT ( $3.00 USD )
Seat 6: IAMMAVERICK ( $795.00 USD )
Seat 1: SYNODIC ( $419.55 USD )
Seat 2: KASLAN ( $785.10 USD )
Seat 3: KIDCHESS88 ( $933.50 USD )
Seat 4: RON UBL ( $228.50 USD )
SYNODIC posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
KASLAN posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
KIDCHESS88 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
RON UBL posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
FLYINGDONUT posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
IAMMAVERICK posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
IAMMAVERICK posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ As Ah ]
KASLAN raises [$12.00 USD]
KIDCHESS88 folds
RON UBL calls [$12.00 USD]
FLYINGDONUT folds
IAMMAVERICK calls [$10.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$58.00 USD]
KASLAN calls [$50.00 USD]
RON UBL folds
IAMMAVERICK folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 7d, 9c ]
SYNODIC bets [$85.00 USD]
KASLAN raises [$170.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$271.55 USD]
KASLAN calls [$186.55 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
SYNODIC shows [As, Ah ]
KASLAN shows [7s, 7c ]
KASLAN wins $863.60 USD from main pot

and here...(although I would have ran into AA anyways.)

Seat 4: YELLOWDAWG ( $771.00 USD )
Seat 5: MARCLAR3 ( $426.00 USD )
Seat 6: SYNODIC ( $463.00 USD )
Seat 1: BUZZ68 ( $430.75 USD )
Seat 2: CRATERING ( $400.00 USD )
Seat 3: L TAKA ( $916.45 USD )
BUZZ68 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
CRATERING posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
L TAKA posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
YELLOWDAWG posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
MARCLAR3 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
MARCLAR3 posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Kh Ks ]
BUZZ68 raises [$12.00 USD]
CRATERING folds
L TAKA folds
YELLOWDAWG folds
MARCLAR3 calls [$10.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$56.00 USD]
BUZZ68 calls [$48.00 USD]
MARCLAR3 calls [$48.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 6d, 7d ]
MARCLAR3 checks
SYNODIC bets [$115.00 USD]
BUZZ68 raises [$369.75 USD]
MARCLAR3 calls [$365.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$254.75 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
BUZZ68 shows [Ah, Ac ]
MARCLAR3 shows [7h, 7c ]
SYNODIC shows [Kh, Ks ]
BUZZ68 wins $9.48 USD from main pot
MARCLAR3 wins $1277.52 USD from main pot

Seat 2: TUNAPHISH ( $403.00 USD )
Seat 3: SYNODIC ( $858.50 USD )
Seat 4: SOLOD ( $425.50 USD )
Seat 5: COOKEMAN23 ( $1192.75 USD )
Seat 6: GUIGUI_88 ( $432.30 USD )
Seat 1: 7TEMPEHEAT7 ( $400.50 USD )
SYNODIC posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SOLOD posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Ks Kh ]
COOKEMAN23 folds
GUIGUI_88 folds
7TEMPEHEAT7 folds
TUNAPHISH raises [$12.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$38.00 USD]
SOLOD folds
TUNAPHISH calls [$28.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 8c, 9c ]
SYNODIC bets [$57.00 USD]
TUNAPHISH calls [$57.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
SYNODIC checks
TUNAPHISH bets [$111.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$531.00 USD]
TUNAPHISH calls [$195.00 USD]
SYNODIC wins $225.00 USD
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
TUNAPHISH shows [7d, 9d ]
SYNODIC shows [Ks, Kh ]
TUNAPHISH wins $806.50 USD from main pot

Thats enough boring HH's. I'm sure things will turn around at some point. Dunno when that's gonna happen. But atleast I can be happy that I've avoided tilting rather well. I usually tilt much worse when I run bad. I could see being down $20k if I started spewing left and right.

In any case, I still think it's a good idea to take a day off and clear my head. Not think about poker shit for a day if possible.

Wellp, things have taken a turn for the worst. My 2 worst days of my entire career have both happened in the past week and a half. $3k+ losses both times. Just getting destroyed no matter what I have. It's really disgusting.

Think I'm down $15k for the past month. I'm almost to the point where I might have to drop back down to $2nl, which I really really really don't want to do.

The sickest thing of all is that I've been playing quite well. I don't think I've ever played better in my life than I have been the last few months. Been studying like crazy, and really focusing at the tables. I even self banned my own chat so I couldn't get distracted while playing.

Don't even have the motivation to play anymore. I feel defeated. I'll make a sick read on someone, get my whole stack in on the turn against just a draw, and it won't make any difference because draws do not miss against me.

Normally I'd post 20 sick hands, but what's the point. Probably a bad idea to dwell on the awfulness of the past month. All I can really do is just play solid and hope I pull out of this bullshit.

::

On another note, variance is a sicker thing than most people realize. I've been plugging in numbers into this variance simulator that I saw on 2p2. Even 100,000 hands is nearly meaningless. Almost anything can happen.

I'm so sick of some of these people who have run good for a short time and think they are amazing players. And I'm more convinced than ever that the people who carry 5ptbb+ winrates for 250,00 hands or whatever are really just the players who have run the best out of all the regs on a site. Put in 100 3ptbb/100 winners into a variance simulator for a quarter million hands and 8-12 of them always end up winning around double what they should. And a few who win half of what they should.

I'm not saying anything one way or the other about where I fall in there, but I don't think the highest winners at $4nl, atleast on AP, are really that good. A few of them are, but even more of them unwittingly run ungodly well. And for their good fortune, they feel superior to the other regs and talk condescending shit. (Which is a side reason why I keep the chat turned off these days.)

Here is that simulator I was talking about, if anyone is interested. And a normal SD is about 50 for a 6-max NL player.

I just did one simulation, with 10 players. All 4ptbb/100 winners, with a SD of 50, over 250,000 hands.

The lowest $ winner was $5,200, the highest was $18,000. And it's the same skill level. But one player gets 3x the winrate. Why? He ran good. For a quarter million hands. For a lot of players that is atleast 6 months of play...and maybe more. And you can be pretty sure whoever that player is...he's ready to talk shit about everyone else who didn't run as good as he did.

I guess the lesson is, slow and steady wins the race.

Every once in a while I feel like I should post how things are going at the tables. Here are my first 90,000 hands of $4nl since jumping up there this year. Not great, not terrible. I see a lot of room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy that I've been able to maintain almost the same winrate that I had at $2nl. I thought I'd have a sharp drop off.

I'm also happy about my winrate since I practice basically no table selection whatsoever. I'll sit with 5 regs, I don't care. It's not an ego thing, it's probably neutral or slightly -EV, in the short run. But I figure if I'm going to play higher I better get used to playing against regs. So it's good practice if nothing else.

A lot of my previous misconceptions about midstakes games have been shattered. Sure, there are better regs, and more of them. But there are still fish, and reg fish. I'm reminded of something I read from a fellow player on 2p2, who said that as you get better and better you classify more players as fish. I see that happening with myself. A year go, if I saw a table with all 21/17's sitting in, I would run away. Now I look to exploit each players weak tendencies. Some regs fold way too often to c-bets, or not enough. Some fold a ton to river bets, or again, some not enough...etc.

Which ever way it seems like the player leans, I try to push on that. The scary thing is how much room for improvement I still see in my play. I miss value bets frequently, I make calls when I should know better, I chicken out still on calling hands that I'm pretty sure are bluffs, especially if I'm having a bad session. I also need to open up my 3betting more. So I definitely see ways to win at higher and higher rates. I hope I can get there, because my roll is almost ready for $3/6nl.