Gifts and Curses

As I sort of assumed, the Double VPP week is very nearly as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The extremely high rakeback encourages regulars to try to play as many hands as possible, which reduces the quality of the games significantly.

Despite the poor games, I put in a 3.5k hand session last night earning myself 2.5k VPPs (6.25k FPPs, ~$94 in rakeback) and ended up +4.25 BIs thanks to running well. I was focused on implementing the changes mentioned in my July Goals post, and found myself being more aggressive from position, and stealing the blinds more. The game environment was prime for this, as blind stealing is most effective against nitty regulars.

I've also found myself both bluffing and making thin value bets more often on the river lately. As a result of this combined with the rock garden environment, my $ won without showdown (which has commonly been negative throughout my poker career so far, which is typical for a TAG at micro/small stakes) was significantly positive. While I'm not too concerned about keeping this trend going (as even at $100NL, much of a TAG's income comes from valuetowning fish who don't fold and go to showdown), I find it encouraging that I'm picking good spots to make regs fold the best hand.

I intend to try to play another ~3-4k hand session tonight, despite the certainty that the games will suck again. Hopefully they improve a bunch by Friday (an American holiday) which I have off from work.