The good; My first lessons went pretty great I think. Four students went for the 5-pack lessons and I think they are all bright dudes with as good of poker prospects as any. I did some sweats and some student video review, and I think I managed to find some big leaks and suggest some pretty cutting edge stuff. I also just am having fun with it, which is such a welcome change of pace given how poker things have been going otherwise. So far I think everyone has been really happy and I'd be pretty shocked if all my students don't realize a higher winrate and potentially climb stakes by the time their lessons are done.

The bad; playing poker has been absolutely miserable for the past two weeks. It's just one of those stretches where nothing goes right. I still find myself making some questionably credible bluffs that just don't fold out enough to be profitable, and I think this is probably my biggest leak since that can burn 100bb+ in a single play. I'm losing to a lot of two outers, my preflop value range is getting notched all day (i.e. KK v AA, JJ v QQ), I'm running about 2.6k below ev (7-10 buy ins at the stakes represented in the sample) not making hands; I guess it happens to everyone so we all know the song and dance, but it just makes life pretty miserable and it's difficult to keep poker unhappiness insulated from general sense of wellbeing and excitement about life. At least for me.

On a more constructive note, I'm trying out a strategy to address one of my other leaks which I think is working really well. I've had this bad habit of just never believing people which I think is a byproduct of the switch I made from TAG to LAG. Lag kind of reinforced this idea that it's hard to make a hand in poker, and caused me to start calling A LOT more. However, there is a balance, and there are times when just because somebody only reps a couple hands for value, it doesn't mean that they have a bluff range to go along with it. It sounds simple, but in the game time situation, I see regs making absurd call downs versus fish and eachother all the time. So I'm trying to play a game where I try to find at least one or two tough folds per session actively instead of passively if that makes sense. A hide and seek of sorts. It might cause me to fold the best hand a bit, but I think it's also encouraged me to be more honest about ranges in marginal EV situations. I'm always looking for ways to decrease variance and obviously increase winrate, and I think that this is going to be a good habit for me to get into.

Otherwise, all is well. I'm at home in Chapel Hill and hanging out with the family. I'll be leaving for a cruise to Mexico/Central America soon which should be fun. Cruises are just about my least preferred mode of travel and I have some issues with the way they are run (environmental impact, racial caste of employees, etc) but I'm going to try to turn off the 'deconstruct-everything' switch that you get as an English major and just enjoy some poker free R & R. Pics soon.

peace,
B