Cool, I think we have actually played a lot together out there. Your name isn't Bi is it? I just recently decided to play poker as a "second job" and start tracking my results. I've only logged about 100 hours in the past month but have had a decent start. I'm really excited about the possibilities!

I will PM you

oh I can't you only have 2 posts. lol.

100 hours in a month if you already have a job is cool. Sounds like you're where I was back in March, haha. I'm still convinced Oaklawn is one of the greatest places to do it at, the level of play is significantly worse than 1/2 anywhere else I've played at, and electronic tables are great for so many reasons. Good luck!

Anyway I won't be at Oaklawn for probably, at minimum, half a year. Maybe much longer. Moving to LA in just a couple days =)

I hate to hear you're moving. I totally agree that Oaklawn is a great place to build a roll. I don't know if you'll remember me, but I play under my real name, Brent. Hope you haven't been referring to me when detailing past hands and describing the fish I had no idea you had the experience I've read throughout this thread when we played together. Wish I would've so I could've picked your brain (which is why I hate to hear you're moving and won't be playing there for a while).

just read this whole thread from page 1.. definitely admire chasing what you truly love to do and wish you all the luck you can get!

nice flop, but I agree you should have checked, gotta be pretty sure youre not beaten. great thread, hoep to keep seeing updates.

Sorry I can't say I remember =/ You mentioned you played a lot in the past month, I have hardly played at all during that time frame. When I do play it's usually from 2:00 to 6:00-ish. If you don't remember any specific hands then it's totally possible we haven't played together, I'll go ahead and say my name starts with a D, heh.

Anyway, hope you're surviving the snowstorm alright. I just took a shower for the first time in 3 days due to losing power, it was glorious.

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm not beaten, but I think described villain would check behind a hand like KQ but call a river shove. However I think there are more missed draws than strong hands in his range here.

Thanks for the comments guys!

mad respect to quit a 6 figure job to play live pokerz... not alot of people have the guts to do that.

Hah, thanks. I feel like I can't really take credit for that compliment, to be honest it's more the fortune of never having anything to worry about throughout my life. Always had pretty much everything I wanted (except when it comes to girls, but yea literally pretty much everything else I have really wanted). So... I guess for me it was either continuing a job I didn't really like vs. a TINY chance of financial hardship in the future. I say tiny because of several reasons: 1) I've always been good at games similar to poker and figured I'd be good at poker, 2) I had a lot of savings, and 3) I have a fairly strong resume if I absolutely must get back into what I was doing before.

Really I'm just a lucky person. Sometimes I get a bit annoyed my poker bankroll is like half of what it would have been if I didn't run under EV at the higher stakes games, but really how can anyone in my shoes complain about bad luck even if I was running 100 buy-ins under AIEV. I'm healthy, not freezing/starving, etc. I feel like people in general, and I am guilty of this often, always love to look at their lives and complain about what could be better but never often enough think of how great it is that they know how to read, can move around without a wheelchair, can even afford a wheelchair if they needed one, etc.

Anyway, in terms of not making as much money as I used to, I'm still 100000% fine with that. My living expenses still remain as low as always, never cared much for fancy restaurants/hotels/liquor/nightclubs/clothing/etc. Just for example, the last 3 days I spent without electricity were some the best days I've had all year, and not just because it was Christmas. Despite being pretty cold, snowed in, unable to change or shower, and stuck in the dark, just sitting with my friends around some candles playing charades and telling stories was just TOO MUCH FUN.

Also, I've recently considered playing League of Legends professionally. Spoiler for gamer-lingo details.

Hey man, I had you mixed up with another guy I've actually played a lot with down there named Bi.

I lucked out on the snow storm (which I'm in Little Rock too - we should've been carpooling! I packed up the family and we came to Branson, MO for the holiday. We may have missed out on the white Christmas, but we were able to take warm showers all week!

It's funny you said you normally play from 2-6. I normally play from 6-12ish. Looks like we've either been just missing each other, or it's like you said and you haven't been there much the past month anyway. I'm going to try and get in a good, long session and be playing there tomorrow. Have you moved yet? I would love if you could make it out if you haven't! We need to get together and discuss strat, on the felt and off!

the barrier to entry to be a lol pro is huge, in the sense of the big teams were formed prior to s1 in north america atleast - the latest new comer to a premier NA team is doublelift and he joined middle of season 1. Like regi/oddone/scarra isn't top of the lol world in terms of individual skill, thats just how inficient the competetive scene in North America is (aphromoo is pretty high up though, although he really isn't on a major team)

its kinda embarrasing how regi/scarra can't even lane in major tournies vs froggen or toyz but they're never gonna get replaced because you know they found the teams

if you are a personable guy, who can get highish 2000+ elo you can make money streaming though. but the upside isn't too high

^ Don't want to go TOO in depth about LoL here, but streamers make $10 per hour per 1000 viewers WITHOUT *******. That's... just about no one, even the top streamers don't average that high (they hit like 20k during their peaks, but it's rare. Right now TheOddOne has 12k but he averages ~1k total). It's pretty grim.

Anyway I figure the first step to going pro in LoL is to get #1 on the NA soloQ ladder or at least like top10 minimum so I might go for that, although like I said it would probably be healthiest to just cut videogames out entirely.

Edit: wtf did "*******" get censored

Edit 2: ^ LOL WTF. That says "Adbloc.k"

well you know, you could play league casually for fun w/o expectation of profit

@Brent, I am in Little Rock until just a bit after new years, but I'm not sure if I want to play poker in my last few days here (for awhile, at least). I'll let you know if I do, thanks for the invite.

Oh I do. Too much

Wow, crazy thing happened. the guy I was gonna drive to LA and live with had a change of plans and is flying instead (his azn parents don't want him driving in this weather LOL)... so now my plans that were previously set in stone are, well, no longer set in stone.

So I mean driving by myself to LA is no big deal. But.... the thing is upon hearing the news I'm having second doubts. As I may have mentioned before I'm super super super indecisive, but damn I don't know what I want to do now.

damnit. i'm so confused.

Update on my phone. More details to come later, but I will be in LA tomorrow.

Played at Sandia (near Albequerque, NM) today for 7 hours. Most questionable hand:

4 limps, I check Ah7s in BB.

Flop JT3hhh
Old guy leads for 15, I raise to 40. He calls, rest fold.

Turn 9h
He leads for 50, I flat (?)

River 3s
He leads for 100 with 250 behind, I flat (?)

He shows Qh6h. Feel like I misplayed vs. his range. Was worried a turn raise was too face up, but meh. I will be back in practice and rdy to crush soon!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO IN LA. Probably no poker tomorrow, but most likely will play Monday.

Yea posting from phone sucks. In that last hand, I think river is a raise, because seriously who is going to lead the turn with a set there with 4 hearts on the board. Turn is a possible raise since a lot of his range has a straight flush draw (he happened to have the open ended one!) and maybe people don't fold those??? Not sure.

Interestingly, I left about from Little Rock about 60 hours ago with absolutely zero knowledge of my roommate's schedule, and I arrived within 5 minutes of him at LAX to pick him up from the airport so he didn't have to taxi. Chances of that happening... wish I used that luck on the BBJ

Oh, one more hand that I played at Sandia, which I'm not proud of, but it is what it is. I have my reasons for all streets, but not going to say too much except I really felt like he did NOT want to lose this pot. Anyway I blame this hand on being out of practice (or maybe I'm secretly a soul reading god)

Folds to me in SB, I look over to my left at a guy who sat down only 15 minutes ago but I suspect may be a pro, young guy dressed in sports attire who bought in for 200bb. He actually seat changed to my left, maybe because I was one of the few players at the table with 200bb+. Says he doesn't chop. Alright, sure.

I have A5, I call. He makes it $20. I call.

Flop 974 pot $40
I check, he bets $25, I call.

Turn 5 pot $90
I bet $60, he raises to $150 total, I call.

River Q pot $390
I check. He bets $230, I call. He shows 64. lulz

1 more comment about Sandia Casino. THE RAKE IS $3 CAP AT 2/5, THAT IS SICK.

I'm pretty sure the top streamers make way more than you're thinking. Like close to the 100k a year range.

http://www.mysig.de/images/userpics/hsgg.jpg

bro that's the combined income of the entire CLG team + staff + backups + friends

that A5 hand is wack. what was his response? lol

Yea haha it was definitely wack. He immediately tabled his hand and muttered nice call. I said thanks, tabled mine, and he paused for a few seconds in disbelief and said nice call a second time. I'm not sure if he thought I was a mega-fish or something because like 30 minutes later he tried to recruit me into some other 2/5 games during the week LOL. Maybe I'm being too cynical and he was just being nice to a fellow youngster at 2/5 near ABQ which I think we were the only two.

Having a blast in LA so far. Met up with a friend at Caltech (actually, my ex mentioned in the OP of this thread) to play Super Smash Bros. Melee, then met some of my roommate's friends to play basketball. Most likely visiting the Commerce tomorrow.

Feelgood moment: when I was buying a dresser/mattress and my credit card was rejected (fraud protection, forgot to tell them I'm traveling), I just got out $300 to pay in cash like nbd. Obv nothing for a poker player but it felt baller.

what's your reasoning behind not raising pre + leading the turn?