***PRO-TIP***
There are cliffs.

**cue epic intro music**

What am I saying? Here you go:

You Tube

Hey! My name's Matt Vaughan! What's yours?! Before I go any further, if you'd like some semblance of a clue to how we got here, but not the whole picture, feel free to check out my previous progress thread where I went over my live poker journey.

With that out of the way... WHY in the hell am I starting a new thread instead of necroing my old one like a BAWS????

First of all, that thread is DEAD. And I don't mess with dead stuff. My mom taught me that.

Second, if I necro that thread, I'll keep getting people looking at the literal 5.5-year-old OP going "good luck as you start this live poker journey!!" trying desperately to hit their 30-post requirement, or whatever it is nowadays to get into the freeroll club.

Third... I'm a self-interested SOB and I want a new thread, alright?? So just... okay?!

Lastly, things are actually pretty different for me since I started that thread AND since I let it crash and burn. Here's how:

BC: Before (thread) Crash

• I was first in college and then worked a standard 9-5 in healthcare IT.
• I spent all my free time playing poker.
• I had no clue what I was doing in the game.

AD: After (thread) Death

• I work for a poker training site, play poker, and vlog about it. Sometimes I stream.
• I spend my free time doing almost anything but poker. But also sometimes poker.
• ... Some things never change.

The point is, I'm different in a lot of ways now, and the ways I interact with the game and its players and fans are different now. So we're sailing this ship straight ahead, matey. That's nautical-speak for I'm going ahead with this whether you like it or not. So get used to it. Or don't. It won't keep me up at night one way or the other.

The Dirty Details

I currently play a weird mixture of stuff. About 12 of the last 18 months, I spent grinding solely online MTT's primarily on Ignition. Then I binked their 100k GTD and found out you can't play on the site if you live in Maryland (where I live). I got paid out, but bye bye Ignition. I moved most of my volume to BetOnline, then ACR, with reasonable success, but nothing insane.

I played this past year's 2019 WSOP, and pretty much bricked out. It was my first time having close to all of myself. Figures it's basically my first losing WSOP ever. Sucks to suck I guess.

Since returning home, I've dived fully back into online cash games - something I haven't dedicated myself to since maybe 2012 (check some of my old threads, they are hilarious in a very cringe-worthy sort of way) - on a site called PKC. It's a US-facing site that plays with a primarily Chinese player pool, making it, imo, one of the softest options out there for US players. Oh and we let in Canadians, too. God knows why.

But the important bit is this: The site is endorsed by Bart Hanson, owner/founder of Crush Live Poker, and a super reputable guy in the industry. He personally knows the head of security and the general manager of PKC, which makes this probably the safest US-facing site out there by itself, and on top of that their focus is basically all game integrity. No bots, no collusion, etc. It ain't Pokerstars... but it's home for me now.

It's all cash games on there, so that's what I've been grinding, playing primarily 5/10/20 ¥ with a ¥ ante. (That's Chinese yuan btw, which is roughly a 7 to 1 conversion to USD.) That game with antes effectively plays with a $3 mandatory straddle, but plays closer to a shallow $3/$6 NL game because of the antes.

I shotted 10/20/40 ¥, it went pretty badly, but was also a pretty horrific run of variance on top of some personal stuff going on in my life that compounded into play bad. No excuses. I should have taken more days off. I didn't. It's water under the bridge. But I really wish some of those sessions would have walked the damn plan-- you know what, I KNOW I'm overdoing the nautical shit, okay? Don't get in a damn uproar about it.

So anyway, I'm back down to 5/10/20¥ with my tail between my legs. (I didn't have a good nautical version of that... but now that I think of it "with my mast in shambles" mighta been good. Oh well). The goal is to basically get something like 60-100k¥ profit before I shot 10/20/40¥ again since I didn't feel comfortably rolled last time.

The plan for this thread is to post hand histories, bitch and moan about how bad I'm running, and generally get lots of you playing on PKC with me.

So to kick it off, here are a couple fun hands I've played so far in my next couple of posts.

Cliffs:

• My name's Matt Vaughan
• I've played poker a surprisingly long time
• I used to suck
• I only kind of suck now
• I might keep throwing nautical references in here for fun
• LFGGGGG

So without further ado... let's set sail for the distant horizon!! y:

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First hand, fun little spot with 65ss in a 3bet pot. Preflop I could definitely just fold, but HJ vs SB I figure it can't be terribad at these depths. Flop call seems standard. Turn definitely closer but he's pretty active, and reasonably aggro.

You Tube

Second hand, this one we're OOP and flop top pair. Flop could be a lead sometimes but vs an UTG open I prefer a x call. As played betting turn seems standard. I'm not really targeting UTG's range though so when they call I kind of feel like river might be a xf, and we call with the stronger holdings maybe.



In any case, let me know if you guys are cool with this format, or would prefer text written out. It's sort of faster/easier for me to just screen capture these after the fact, but I could potentially do a mixture of both if people like.

In!
GLGL!!!

in, 65s i dont love the line, I always think paired flops tilt the equity towards the aggressor because we dont have additional pair outs ever. I probably find a fold pre just because of stack sizes.

JTs i think i like a smaller sizing on the turn, but calling river looks fine to me

Originally Posted by Alucard

In!
GLGL!!!

Ty sir!

Originally Posted by duggs

in, 65s i dont love the line, I always think paired flops tilt the equity towards the aggressor because we dont have additional pair outs ever. I probably find a fold pre just because of stack sizes.

JTs i think i like a smaller sizing on the turn, but calling river looks fine to me

Yeah it's been a struggle adjusting to these games because the price I'm getting pre is sometimes misleading due to the pot bloating from the antes. Are you just basically folding turn as played though?

JTs hand I think I just sized that way since we unblock all flush draws, but that might be less relevant than I think since people prob overcbet those into multiway pots anyway.

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Here's another one. I think pre and flop are very standard, but turn I'm unsure if maybe I should be check calling. Also wondering what you think about sizings vs a whale. Like I always feel maybe I can size larger.

I felt pretty okay about folding to this player type as he can have all two pairs, most if not all straights, 88, and maybe 77 and 66 sometimes. I unblock draws but there's decent money still behind and we have a high likelihood of a terrible card coming.

Great to see you back!

In. Will need to catch up later though.....

It looks well organized and well written.

You have bullet points ffs.

Nice.

In.

Yea in game i play it the same with 65s I just think its one of my leaks, we should get away pre and play slightly better hands imo. Turn is yuck, sometimes we have 6 outs, other times we are fading 6, i think its all bar 16 combos of the former.

AK looks good to me. bet/fold every street.

Originally Posted by Beanfacekilla

In. Will need to catch up later though.....

It looks well organized and well written.

You have bullet points ffs.

Nice.

In.

I'm hardly organized, but I appreciate it haha. Hoping to just have an outlet for posting these hands. Anyone just like getting this in pre? I figured UTG vs MP this was a pretty good just flat the 4b spot.

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im gii pre but flatting cant be terrible, im much much much more inclined to flat AA than KK

Also, I just got done getting interviewed by Andrew Brokos for the Thinking Poker Podcast. Was a listener from waaaaaay back in the day, so I'm super pumped to be featured!! So crazy!

Originally Posted by duggs

im gii pre but flatting cant be terrible, im much much much more inclined to flat AA than KK

So do you not have a flatting range here then? And are you just flatting say, JJ, TT, AQ to his open in the first place then? It's something I'm still trying to decide how I want to handle in these games, but it's frankly pretty rare to be in a spot like this (in this exact configuration UTG vs MP).

What kind of game to start with? Regular, Turbo, Hyper, etc ...

Im flatting AK AA and thats it probably I dont think i 3bet anything esle that needs to call

Originally Posted by Elisondjp

What kind of game to start with? Regular, Turbo, Hyper, etc ...

Not sure what you mean. It's an 8-max, 3-blind game with antes. Not a tournament or sit'n'go. You can see the action in the videos.

Originally Posted by duggs

Im flatting AK AA and thats it probably I dont think i 3bet anything esle that needs to call

Cool. Great to have you back around btw.

Thank you

I need training can someone tell me what is the best way to train in poker?

Originally Posted by Scourrge

Not sure what you mean. It's an 8-max, 3-blind game with antes. Not a tournament or sit'n'go. You can see the action in the videos.



Cool. Great to have you back around btw.

my poker questions can i post here?

Originally Posted by Scourrge

Also, I just got done getting interviewed by Andrew Brokos for the Thinking Poker Podcast. Was a listener from waaaaaay back in the day, so I'm super pumped to be featured!! So crazy!

What is the worst mistake a poker player can make?

Nice thread enjoying the clips and hand discussions.

Originally Posted by Elisondjp

Thank you

I need training can someone tell me what is the best way to train in poker?

my poker questions can i post here?

What is the worst mistake a poker player can make?

You can post some questions here, but they are better placed in the appropriate places in the forum, not here. This is a progress thread, not really a strategy Q&A area.

But to briefly answer you, there's no single best way to train in poker. I recommend joining a poker training site, but the best fit one is up to you to decide for yourself.

Originally Posted by hugh blair

Nice thread enjoying the clips and hand discussions.

Thanks!

I'm in!

the 65s hand I think we should get away preflop.

JT i like the flop check and turn lead. river I think we can check call a smaller size but as played I think I check fold river.

AK seems like you played it well by bet folding turn.

the KK hand I will get it in pre 2/3 and flat 1/3 in these EP vs EP spots.

and also.....cool about thinking poker! I'll look for your episode. I usually listen to them all anyways but sometimes I let them stack up for a few weeks. I'll find this one sooner!

Originally Posted by Jacki Burkhart

I'm in!

the 65s hand I think we should get away preflop.

JT i like the flop check and turn lead. river I think we can check call a smaller size but as played I think I check fold river.

AK seems like you played it well by bet folding turn.

the KK hand I will get it in pre 2/3 and flat 1/3 in these EP vs EP spots.

and also.....cool about thinking poker! I'll look for your episode. I usually listen to them all anyways but sometimes I let them stack up for a few weeks. I'll find this one sooner!

Thanks for the input! It's interesting to hear the splits on some of these from various players I respect. Cool stuff!

And yeah I'll post it here too when it's out, but shouldn't be too long! It was so cool to check out their website for the first time in a while and see Phil Galfond as the most recent episode - just 2 episodes ahead of me.

Loved the original post.
You mention Brokos, ha e you read his new book?
Please post a link to the podcast when available.

Good to be back man, hopefully ill remember to hang around this time!

Originally Posted by Figaroo2

Loved the original post.
You mention Brokos, ha e you read his new book?
Please post a link to the podcast when available.

Will do! I haven't read the book but I've been meaning to pick it up, especially as I'm picking up more online cash game volume again for the first time in ages.

Originally Posted by duggs

Good to be back man, hopefully ill remember to hang around this time!

You'd better!

In. Haven't been foruming too much lately but do come by most days.

Originally Posted by Jillychemung

In. Haven't been foruming too much lately but do come by most days.

Just like old times!!

Honestly didn't even think this was a hard call... then saw his hand and questioned my whole life.

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I read everything very interesting in places funny. each has its own style of play, so to speak. human behavior in a particular situation and it is very interesting to observe ... when you see from the side of the game, analysis always turns on how you would act in such a situation))) in general, continue to cheerfully continue in the same vein. good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGkJ6bezDQ

I usually fold AJos utg 9 handed now as it can rarely stand a raise, table dependent of course. And if you do call a raise you are often oop and dominated by a better ace.


Personally Id want a better bluff catcher before calling a river overbet of that size.

Originally Posted by Figaroo2

I usually fold AJos utg 9 handed now as it can rarely stand a raise, table dependent of course. And if you do call a raise you are often oop and dominated by a better ace.


Personally Id want a better bluff catcher before calling a river overbet of that size.

Yeah river is obviously not mandatory at all, it's a huge exploit. But also I'm not really putting him on any value besides a rivered set, or maybe AA, which we block.

Second, we're not UTG. We're in the ST, defending against a BTN open, so it's not quite the same. Ranges should be far wider in this spot.

Also, these are 8-handed, 3-blind games WITH ante, so we're pretty incentivized to play more hands pre. I totally get it though, and AJo is basically the bottom of my range UTG if that was the actual spot.

Pre is good. I like every street except river where I would be worried about alot of rivered 2 pairs, the occassional straight or rivered set. Those combos add up and we also have to worry that he might bluff with something that beats us (although unlikely). I just dont see enough bluffs that want to take this line that wouldnt love to bet the turn.

Range wise we have to be somewhere near the bottom right? Since alot of our worse hands will bluff river and better will value bet. lots of low pairs we dont want to vbet.

Originally Posted by Scourrge

Honestly didn't even think this was a hard call... then saw his hand and questioned my whole life.

I think it's an easy fold considering he doesn't have many bluffs there other than total air
Also it's the chinese apps & I've seen the weirdest shit on those than any other site

Originally Posted by duggs

Pre is good. I like every street except river where I would be worried about alot of rivered 2 pairs, the occassional straight or rivered set. Those combos add up and we also have to worry that he might bluff with something that beats us (although unlikely). I just dont see enough bluffs that want to take this line that wouldnt love to bet the turn.

Range wise we have to be somewhere near the bottom right? Since alot of our worse hands will bluff river and better will value bet. lots of low pairs we dont want to vbet.

Originally Posted by Alucard

I think it's an easy fold considering he doesn't have many bluffs there other than total air
Also it's the chinese apps & I've seen the weirdest shit on those than any other site

Yeah I mean the issue is that my perception of pool tendencies is that almost no one is going this size with two pair or overpairs. That they are hyper polarizing in this spot even more than they "should" be. That being said I should still be having a higher threshold for call offs here.

I like the play up to the river. I MIGHT occasionally call river with a better ace high if I can ever get to the river with one (AK I probably 3bet preflop so that only leaves AQ) but I think the best bluff catching hands would be 33 or A5, or 56 as they have slightly relevant blockers and with a 2x pot bet he is so polarized that having relevant blockers trumps the actual hand strength. I would call with A5 or 33 rather than 6x or 7x in this spot.

Listening to episode #307 of thinking poker podcast right now!!

Originally Posted by Jacki Burkhart

Listening to episode #307 of thinking poker podcast right now!!

<3

If anyone else is interested: https://www.thinkingpoker.net/2019/09/episode-307-matt-vaughan/

I also reviewed some hands in a shotgun format with very minimal commentary, so you can watch/listen to that here and feel free to comment on any/all of the hands.

You Tube

Originally Posted by Scourrge

and generally get lots of you playing on PKC with me.

Enjoying the thread so far

Haven't listened to the podcast over at Thinkingpoker yet... but will. I'm a huge fan of Andrew's since the beginning of time.

How does one go about playing on PK? Do I need to go through an agent or something like that? (I know very little about it).
What do the stakes start at?
How do I deposit?

Anyways, I'm interested. Perhaps you could hit me up in a pm on here? (I'd appreciate it )
Thanks.

I'm actually not allowed to discuss it here but there's info below all my youtube videos.

I've not played much lately. Been on a downswing and while I think I mostly played alright through it, I was definitely pressing some spots I didn't need to.

So I'm on something like 3 full days off and the last day I played I just played about an hour and a half short handed with 2 whales while trying to help one of my players get a game going.

Planning to get back to it this week though, so hopefully some more hands incoming. Even debating kicking off something of a hand review "podcast" where I discuss hands I've played. But I already have a lot going on, so I'm not sure if I'll follow through on that yet or not.

Originally Posted by Scourrge

I'm actually not allowed to discuss it here but there's info below all my youtube videos.

Ok. Thank-you. (had no clue it's not allowed to be discussed on here)

How is it going Matt?

Have still been on a bit of a hiatus. Played a couple times one-tabling while multi-tasking and felt I played better but just got hit by variance. Frustrating, but it happens.

Was on a mini-vacation this week, which def was good for getting my head back on straight, but I have a lot of work to catch up on now, so we'll see if I'm able to get in any hours. I'm hoping that by Monday I'll be back to grinding a minimum of a few hours a day, several days a week.

sup

So PKC has been so far on the back burner as of late, I'm embarrassed to even have this thread lol.

I've actually probably played more live sessions this month than I've played online sessions in the last 2.

And it's been going well. When PKC started going badly, I honestly lost a LOT of motivation. And since live has been going well, I've just been rolling with that because it's easier to get motivated to go play.

I had a couple good 2/5 wins including a +$3.5k day, and also played 5/10 in Portland and at Maryland Live, both times booking mid sized wins. So it's been going well, to say the least.

I have some trips coming up too, to Vegas, so that should be fun. It's mostly for work/training stuff but I might get to play a few sessions. And the 5/10 is running roughly weekly at MD Live, so that's something I want to start playing more regularly.

Originally Posted by Scourrge

So PKC has been so far on the back burner as of late, I'm embarrassed to even have this thread lol.

I've actually probably played more live sessions this month than I've played online sessions in the last 2.

And it's been going well. When PKC started going badly, I honestly lost a LOT of motivation. And since live has been going well, I've just been rolling with that because it's easier to get motivated to go play.

I had a couple good 2/5 wins including a +$3.5k day, and also played 5/10 in Portland and at Maryland Live, both times booking mid sized wins. So it's been going well, to say the least.

I have some trips coming up too, to Vegas, so that should be fun. It's mostly for work/training stuff but I might get to play a few sessions. And the 5/10 is running roughly weekly at MD Live, so that's something I want to start playing more regularly.

I need some of that live run good man🤑

Originally Posted by Beanfacekilla

I need some of that live run good man🤑

Lol yeah it's been nice. Also played a 1/2 NL home game I haven't played in a while due to it not running or schedule conflicts. It's soft, but the game was largely built around 1 whale. They are all friends, but most of them are at least not TERRIBLE players. Not good, but not "feeding the game" enough for me to go out of my way for the game except that I enjoy their company.

He finally made it back to the game. And he was indeed missed. I'm talking blind jams pre regardless of action for $200-500 at a time.

And almost no one is willing to call off vs him without the GOODS except me. So he LOVES me because of the action I give. At one point he jammed blind $250 first to act and it folded to me in the BB and I told him I'd call blind if he wanted. He says "of course! I don't give a ****!" So called and made 2 pair or something with 63o. Turns out he had AQo.

In another hand, he had just topped up for $500 a few hands prior and already jammed all in blind with no action. In this hand he's straddling. In a few hands where I've limped, he has started to just limp behind more - maybe because he's losing steam, maybe because he has a sense that I may do this to induce jams with the top of my range.

So when there's 2 limps to me in the BB, I look down at KK. Decide not to complete - I make it $20 (over the $6 straddle and 2 limps). And sure enough, he blind jams his $500. Both other players fold and I call. I know there are a billion ways I COULD lose this hand, don't even know what I need to dodge lol.

Board runs out J7524 and he shouts "STRAIGHT" - showing me 63o. Fun.

I won and lost probably a couple thousand through this player last night lol. Ended the night in for $1,000 and out for $1,635 so the heater continues, but I was THIS close to booking a seemingly impossible $2.5k+ win in that game if I stack him on the KK vs 63 hand.

Good times!

Originally Posted by Scourrge

Lol yeah it's been nice. Also played a 1/2 NL home game I haven't played in a while due to it not running or schedule conflicts. It's soft, but the game was largely built around 1 whale. They are all friends, but most of them are at least not TERRIBLE players. Not good, but not "feeding the game" enough for me to go out of my way for the game except that I enjoy their company.

He finally made it back to the game. And he was indeed missed. I'm talking blind jams pre regardless of action for $200-500 at a time.

And almost no one is willing to call off vs him without the GOODS except me. So he LOVES me because of the action I give. At one point he jammed blind $250 first to act and it folded to me in the BB and I told him I'd call blind if he wanted. He says "of course! I don't give a ****!" So called and made 2 pair or something with 63o. Turns out he had AQo.

In another hand, he had just topped up for $500 a few hands prior and already jammed all in blind with no action. In this hand he's straddling. In a few hands where I've limped, he has started to just limp behind more - maybe because he's losing steam, maybe because he has a sense that I may do this to induce jams with the top of my range.

So when there's 2 limps to me in the BB, I look down at KK. Decide not to complete - I make it $20 (over the $6 straddle and 2 limps). And sure enough, he blind jams his $500. Both other players fold and I call. I know there are a billion ways I COULD lose this hand, don't even know what I need to dodge lol.

Board runs out J7524 and he shouts "STRAIGHT" - showing me 63o. Fun.

I won and lost probably a couple thousand through this player last night lol. Ended the night in for $1,000 and out for $1,635 so the heater continues, but I was THIS close to booking a seemingly impossible $2.5k+ win in that game if I stack him on the KK vs 63 hand.

Good times!

I've realized in the last year or so we have to give action to get action.... it is def more fun than just all business all the time.

My month has been mostly break even and now negative about 1k after recent loss.

I'm hoping things will improve soon. Trying to keep a good mindset.

I'm getting better, but I'm still not there yet.

Man I can't believe it's been months since I bumped this thread.

Ever since PKC segregated the stakes I was playing, I stopped really playing much online, and then coronavirus happened, so live play stopped.

I came back to online just to have SOME volume, and it's been a mix of club games, small grey sites that I have personal connections to, and then ACR for MTT's.

MTT grind has been okay, not great. I have something like 300 played since quarantine began. Cash games I'm definitely up but I didn't start tracking till I was stuck like 2.5k playing a mix of 100nl and 200nl/plo mix. Ever since then the boom switch has been on and since starting tracking I'm up something like 4.5k.

Nice life, I know. If it makes you feel any better, my Sharkscope says I'm stuck like 2k across that sample, but on untracked sites I'm up like 6k? It's hard to keep track, so I'm looking at bringing my entire 2020 Sharkscope sample into my personal spreadsheet so I can combine everything.

Tbh I don't even know what to post here lol. Feels like it's been so long since I was active idk who even remembers me.... but that may be the quarantine talking lol.

Anyway hope all the old guard and everyone else are doing okay in their various stages of lockdown. I know for myself my life hasn't changed THAT much seeing as I've worked from home the past few years and am a bit of a home body anyway, but I'm still going a bit stir crazy for sure.

I hope to post something with ALL my recent MTT results including the untracked sites at some point too, but I haven't gotten around to integrating my ACR results with them yet, so for now you just get to see my ugly, ugly Sharkscope graph.

First graph is the last couple months, which is basically all the volume I've played on AmericasCardRoom (ACR) and BetOnline (BOL). I've kind of stopped playing BOL though because it's not enough higher value guarantees and my computer doesn't love running multiple sites simultaneously. So just not really worth it when ACR has enough volume.


Second graph is my lifetime across all accounts, all stakes. Just think it's kind of funny. Obv doesn't include live results or cash games. So there's random leaps up in stakes that aren't based on my online MTT results, and are literally spread years apart. The first ~40 tournaments on that graph are Pokerstars freerolls from literally December 2011. Good times. Ten year graph in the making here lol.



P.S. Does anyone know how to get images to resize properly in CC? They always turn out janky and I have to like deliberately make them lower resolution.

Enjoyed reading the thread. Keep updating it and I'll try to check back in regularly!