It was general but more specific to Wynn game. People are calling $25-40 pre all day in that game with Q8o J7s etc etc so imo should raise bigger, not bc of making that hand any different

Good luck OP! Subscribed.

Has anyone else had the volume issue? I get that sometimes "dragging" oneself to the card room for the 5th night in a row can be tough, but once there, I'm not so sure. Personally, once I sit down, five hours seems to come and go in no time. Shouldn't the first few months in the pursuit of a dream be the most motivating and passionate months?

IMHO, if you don't love what you do, you should find something else to do full time. Nothing wrong with a hobby.

Good news.
I'm improving!
I notice myself being more aware, avoiding bad spots, paying more attention to the game and taking more time to think when making decisions.

I'm also table/game selecting well which I believe is important if you want to maximize your win rate.

I was at an obviously good table last night while the table right next to mine had several grinders/regs that didn't even glance at my game.
I was happy about it but I still don't understand why they wouldn't take advantage of the situation. For me the great thing about Vegas is the amount of games you have to choose from. Staying in a mediocre/bad game seems terrible to me.
Chip Porn!


I started off with $400, doubled to $800, went down to $500ish and ended at my peak which was $1500+.
I played 6 hours and was prepared to play all night but the action players left so I called it a night.

Great journey...subbed and GL!

Sent from my SM-T211 using 2+2 Forums

Hey Sammyz, good luck and keep up the great job.I will be moving to vegas on March 19 to begin my own 1/2 journey in hopes of achieving 10 k every 3 months or so grinding live 1/2.

Nice session man, glad to see you are getting into a groove and playing well!

Awesome thread OP. Keep it up and good luck.

Thanks guys!

Today's session didn't go very well.

Flopped a set, Bet/Bet/Bet lose to a gut shot.

Top up. Flop 2 pair with 89 vs an obvious over pair.
Get all the $ in on 8923 and river is a 3.

At this point the game was 6 handed and 3 players were just hitting it up so I quit the game.

-$700 in 1.5 hours

I've been back living in California for about a week now.
I intended to stay through June but some things didn't go as planned and
the games in Vegas just weren't as "good" as I expected.

I really enjoyed living in Las Vegas but at this point in my life I feel like I need to make as much money as possible and LV just isn't the place for me to do it.
I plan to go back and play the colossus event and put some hours in playing cash to see if the games are all they're hyped up to be. Besides that I don't have any interest in going back.

Overall it was a good experience and I got to meet some great people.
I might even be taking another shot at a new place in the near future depending on how things go here in Cali.

Thanks to everyone that followed along! If anyone has questions feel free to post here or PM me.

Sammy I've been following your thread for a while now. Couple questions based on your last post.

Will you continue to post updates?

Will poker be your primary source of income in California?

I wasn't planning to but if people show interest, I will.
I actually think the posts would be a lot more interesting since there's quite a few characters where I frequently play in Cali. Just the other night some guy ( a very "odd" regular) flipped out on me and got kicked out for the day. Then I tilted/stacked a poker friend who has bad emotional control, which is the reason I always mess with him.
Plus the hand history's would be better as well. You guys wouldn't believe how bad some of these players are..

Yes, poker will be my primary source of income in CA. Ideally I would like to have a part time job to put some money in the bank, but the past few times I tried that it just didn't seem like the money was worth the time.

Nice meeting you man, the games are probably softer pretty much everywhere outside of Vegas besides during WSOP.
Would love to hear some poker tales/ hh from your stomping grounds in CA.

Same here. I think even though you're not in Vegas, you should definitely continue to keep us updated! Good luck.

So far everything has been going well. 8/9 winning sessions + 1 break even session. No huge wins yet but it's nice not having any losing days so far. Hopefully I didn't just flip the doom switch by talking about it lol.

Every Friday/Saturday they have cash drawings at my local casino and it brings a lot of people in. They start at 5pm and end at 1am so I plan to play 8 hour sessions both days.
That should make hitting my goal of 30+ Hrs/week a lot easier.

No really interesting hands yet. Most of the players are bad regulars and they still have the same tendencies and play style.
When I play a pot bigger than 100BB I want to copy it to my notes and post them all here. Even if it's a fairly simple hand there's always room for improvement.

I also started reading Ed Millers 1% book and Playing The Player. When I'm done I'll post my thoughts here.

Congrats! Nicely done. It feels great to string multiple winning sessions together.

I too am reading/have read Poker's 1%. Worthwhile investment. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Keep it rollin Sammy! Good luck

Thanks!

Everything has continued to go well.

People continue to tilt and flip out on me.
Just yesterday I played a $135 satellite (10 players/10 tables/1 person advances to a final table/winner gets 10k) and this middle aged guy who plays these ****ty $40-$60 tournaments every day just went nuts.
I call his raise (3x?) heads up from the BB with Q10o. Flop comes Q 7 4 rainbow. I check he shoves like I expected him to and I call. He has JJ I win and he flips out. Cusses me out for a solid 5 minutes saying the most vulgar things I've heard in the poker room and the "tournament director" just gives him multiple warnings but no penalties. Even after his "last warning" he flips me off in front of the TD and still nothing happens. Gotta love this casino staff!

Here's some #s!

From 4/3-4/18
I'm +$3,005 over 67 hours which is about $100 less than I made the whole time I was in Vegas.
I definitely feel like I made the right decision coming back to California.
My expenses have also decreased which is another benefit.

I recently had to switch phones (iPhone 5-6) and when I tried to export/import Poker Journal my whole month of April was lost. I tried multiple times with no luck.
I like the app and previously I would of recommend it but I've lost multiple months of data due to iPhone updates that render the app useless and now it won't export/import properly. I suggest anyone reading this thinking about purchasing the app stays away from it.

Here's a HH.

A A in the BB $300 stack

4 limpers Utg / +1 / +2 / CO
I make it $20 from BB (could of sized it bigger)

First 3 players call. CO folds.

Flop:

K 6 4

I lead $45. Utg calls / UTG +1 ships $105 / UTG +2 snap makes it $230 with about $150 behind.
I Fold. UTG goes all in for ~$260.

UTG has 7 8

UTG +1 has K10o

UTG + 2 has K J and holds.

So much for Bet/Folding 😅

Booked another decent win today.

(-69) @ 1/2 1:19

Lost one big pot.

1 limp I make it $12 with JJ. $100 eff.
Good/Thinking player flats next to act.
Titled player ships $100. I shove. Thinking player calls with AKo and hits an Ace to win. Tilted guy had 77.

+605 @ 2/3 5:39

Biggest pot I won was:

~$375
Complete 7 9 from the small blind with about 3 limpers. Bb checks.

Flop 10 8 5

I ($375) lead $12 into ~ $15
Bb calls ($85)
UTG calls ($200)
V - UTG +1 ($700) makes it $60 total.

He's a terrible player. I figure he has 2 pair or a set here and is never folding.
I also figure if I call the others might tag along.

I call $48 more with $300+ behind.
The short stack calls with ~$26 left and the other player folds.

Pot: $195

Turn: J

I check / short stack checks / V bets $100.
I check raise all in for ~$210 more. Short stack calls off $26 and V calls.

River K

V shows QQ. SS mucks.

Booked an L last night.
-$440 total over ~6/7 hours

Ran into a bunch of hands that beat me.
Isod a terrible reg who straddled with K9dd. Flop J 10 6

She chk/calls

Turn A

Chk/ I bet $60 she min raises/ I go all in she calls ~200 total.

River 4

She shows A K

Later on she straddled and I opened 10J dd 1 other caller, she calls.

Flop a FD. She chk/calls.

Turn flush she chks I bet $65 she makes it $200 I fold. She has Q6dd.

At one point I was in for 1k and down to $160. Even though I have been doing well and making a decent hourly my mental game started to slip. My confidence was low and I thought about just cashing out the $160 so I could cut my losses. The thought of a -1k day was horrific at the moment. Remembering I just won $500+ the previous day helped me escape that mind set so I kept grinding till the game broke and cashed out $580.

So I've been doing much better in California. This past month I won twice as much as I made in Vegas the 2.5 months I was there.

I went out to Vegas last Wednesday to play Colossus which was my first time playing a WSOP event.
I registered for the 2 6PM flights & expected to get a soft table. After all, it's a $565 buy in with 23k people. There has to be a lot of rec players right?

Well I was in for a surprise.
My first table had a former local player Jordan Cristos who was really cool btw, Mauirice Hawkins who final tabled the milli maker last year, and a few others that had 300k+ in tournament earnings. A solid table all around...


Despite the ****ty table draw I was in the zone! I only lost one hand up until the first break and that was QQ vs Jordan's AQo (he shipped 2400? pre over my raise)
After the break I started losing a few hands, played one hand bad to double up a short stack, and then got busted by the same guy with AK vs 88 on K83 J.

The highlight of the day for me to was knocking out Maurice Hawkins.
He seemed like a cool guy to me but he was getting under other players skin a lot (which I liked). I opened 3x with 99 he min raises me from Sb I call. Heads up. flop was Q9x rainbow. He checks, I bet, he ships I call. He had KK and I held.

After a night of bitching about the table I got I get back to the Rio and I'm delighted to see the first 3 players at the table seem like rec players. One seemed like a wannabe grinder but I was happy with that. Then the table starts to fill and Here we go again..


Antonio Esfandiari sits in seat 10.

Then the rest of the table get filled with solid players.
I doubled once through Antonio (44 vs A2 on 246 A) to 9k leaving him with like 125 chips. After that I couldn't do anything going.. Never broke 10k in chips and eventually got short and lost with AQ vs 1010.

Stayed in LV from Wednesday-Tuesday and I'm still recovering from the trip. I'm ready to grind cash here, hopefully crush, and then take a shot at the monster stack.