I recently played another cash Poker Focus Session, this time at 10NL.  My main focus in the session was once again on opening hands.

Opening is the most common play in poker.  The more I'm acquainted w/opening, the better my overall game will be.  This is a minimum effective dose (MED) for poker and everyone should work on it.  I opened a very wide range of hands (lots aren't in my normal opening range) in an attempt to better understand how opp's react to my opens and how the hands fare post-flop.

I recorded the focus session first, then the next day made the Hand History Review video below.

Poker Focus Session 2a

This was a profitable session, albeit pretty short at only 30 minutes and 50 hands.  I played well and took down lots of pots post-flop w/ standard cbets on boards that were pretty hard to hit.

I wasn't so concerned with my opponents when I was opening, just with the hand strength.  You can see that I opened some pretty vulnerable hands, but due to the weak passivity of my opponents I was able to make these profitable.

Most of my winnings came from one player just going ballistic w/2nd pair weak kicker, but the only reason I was in that hand was b/c I was experimenting w/opening a wider range.  Would I normally open Q2s?  No way, but when you're up against the right opponents some hands that have very little post-flop playability are totally worth playing.

Hand History Review Session 2b

I found one glaring mistake when I failed to cbet in position (IP) vs a weak player who folds too often to cbets.  This should've been a no-brainer cbet, but I overlooked it.

There was also another spot when I opened w/99 and faced a 3bet squeeze.  Depending on the range I give this player (who could've been tilting off his stack w/22 or A4s for all I knew), this could've been a profitable call.  It's kind of a toss up as whether to call or now as he could've been using his LAG and tilty image to value shove.

If you felt this was a mistake, please let me know why in the comments below as maybe you're seeing something that I'm missing.  Let's help each other out!

What other videos would you like to see?  Please check out my YouTube Channel for more videos from me.

I hope these videos inspire you to create your own Poker Focus Session videos.

Until next time, study smart, play hard and make your next session the best one yet!