Long-time lurker here who has never been motivated to start my own PG&C thread until now. Still slightly ambivalent about the concept, but I'm charging ahead nonetheless. Let's see how it plays out.

And I'm not a particularly talented at poker. My screen name here is the same one I used on all of the major sites when they were still available to us Yanks. I might have remained slightly profitable at MTTs on PS when it went away, but I'm not bothering to look it up. That was then, this is now.

I was a lifetime loser in MTTs on FT, and the only cash game I was ever profitable at was $1/2 6max limit on Party, further proof that even droolers like me could make money there.

Overall, I'm pretty sure I'm in the black live, playing mostly in our vibrant home game group here on the beautiful North Coast (Cleveland Poker Meetup Group). I've not kept accurate records, so I can't say with any certainty.

So why my own thread? Because I feel it's good to give back to the community that has meant much to my poker education and entertainment. I do have something to say.

After dabbling for a time at microlimit PLO a few years back, it's the game I find most interesting and challenging. I'm back on Lock under an assumed identity that I'll likely reveal at a later date. My small bankroll as of this writing --$260.48 -- leaves me unafraid of DOJ shenanigans. And I do have people within the CPMG that I can sell to if I luckbox my way into some actual profit.

Personal Cliffs: Wife, house, two kids, a job I like. And I'm downright ancient. (I'm 52, soon to be 53) But poker, I daresay, has helped keep me young. I was a good athlete, never great at any one sport, but played long and hard enough to require to burn up most of the cartilage in my left knee so that I need a complete replacement three years ago. At least I can play golf without pain now (I'm a legitimate 10 handicap -- woot! As with so many ex- and aging athletes, poker is my way to compete. Just need to get better and I'm expecting you degens to help a brotha out.

In the interest of keep you and the mods happy, here are my goals:

***Move up when I reach 40 BI, move back down when I hit 30. Yeah, I'm only starting with 26 at $10 PLO, but that's the way I stumble. Started a few days ago with only 16 at $25 PLO, but have experienced a downswong, necessitating implementation of a (slightly) sounder BRM strategy and a move back to $10.)

***Study a half hour a day at least five days a week. That means reviewing hand histories on PT3, spending time on the low-stakes PLO forum and getting the Hwang of things from his book. I've learned from hard experience that half-baked instincts and poor study habits have not gotten the job done. No accident that I became a winning player at $1/$2 6max limit after devout study of 2+2 forums

***Become more aggressive, raise my 3-bet and (what?) 4-bet stats. Sounds simple to you ballas. But think "old" nit playing ABC poker that you read about in trip reports. All of the imagination of the Kardashian sisters combined.

***Play low-limit MTTs (mostly the $5.50 and $3.30 NLHE rebuys and some PLO/PLO8 when I have the time, energy and patience.

***Remind you degens to A) quit smoking or B) never start.

***Make it through the next four months of chemotherapy and radiation to hear from the docs that I'm free of the nasty-ass lung cancer that decided to take root in the upper lobe of my left lung and one of my lymph nodes nearby. For those of you keeping score at home, cancer sucks. Pot odds? Meta-analysis shows that people with my flavor of cancer are coin flips 2 1/2 years after diagnosis and a 70-30 'dog after five years. Have a few things in my favor. Caught kind of early and ... I dodge bullets, baby! (I hope.)

So … yeah. This PC&G thread will be a little different, but not all that much. Trust me, it will be heavy on PLO and light on the crappy cancer stuff. Don't do grim.

Until the mods tell me to go away, I'll try my best to keep it interesting and play and post as much as possible.

first! gl man!

Taking full advantage of first-thread run good, I slammed fools fools left and right after putting up my OP .... sorta.

Signed up for the $400G PLO tournament ($6.60 BI) at 2250 and managed to remain in the tournament for nearly an hour without winning ... one ... single ... hand. (I have had some success in this tourney, but my cards truly did suck.)

Two-tabled some $10 PLO at the same time and booked a minuscule win, mostly wac-a-moling short-stackers. After tourney bustout, wanted to keep a table or two and keep playing, but fatigue ordered me to shut it down. Was liking my aggressive mind set.

It felt good to be that guy, the bully who keeps three-betting and using position to punish any sign of perceived weakness. Yeah, I had some good cards along the way and playing two tables for not quite an hour obviously means nothing. But it's a start.

STARTING BANKROLL: $260.48
ENDING BANKROLL: $261.73

Any questions anyone has along the way about my situation, resources available to stop smoking or to get help for loved ones, please feel free to ask. Don't intend to turn this into a well, but if I can help in any way, I will. (Alll PMs will be answered.) Please bear in mind, there's only one plausible reason I have cancer -- 35-plus years of smoking.

Nicotine, I've come to realize, is an insidious drug addiction that the medical community still does not take seriously enough. I'm on a mission to change that.

My most important stat won't show up on PT3. I've now 410 hours tobacco free and it's been very, very difficult, but know I've got to stay strong.

Finally fired up Lock at around 6:15 p.m. after a full day that started at 8:20 a.m. with radiation (about 15 min. total time on the table) at one hospital; a 30-minute drive to another hospital for a two-hour chemo session; home for lunch, e-mail writing and an hourlong nap; an hour's round trip and wait time to pick up my new prescription Oakleys (yes!); and squeezing out around 2,500 words written for the day job.

Started with the $3.30 rebuy at 1815 and the $3.30 PLO that starts five minutes later. Added one $10 PLO table, which was about all my addled brain could handle. I don't mind mixing two different tournament formats, but prefer not to play cash and tournaments at the same time. I'm easily confused.

I lasted around an hour in the rebuy with my original buy-in and the add-on and finished 7th in the PLO (56 runners) for an astonishing $7.80 payout. I added a second table of PLO after busting the rebuy, but that game broke with me holding a $5 profit.

Started well on the other table, but then things went south with this hand and bled off a little here and a little there. Hand No. 1 shown below began the slide. (I looked around for a Merge hand converter for PT3, but couldn't find anything and hope someone out there can point the way.

So here are the simple text versions. I'm not leaving out the results of the first hand because it seems to me so standard. Have to get my monies in there on the flop, right?

I'm interested in hearing any comments on hand No. 2. Villain in the hand was kind of an aggro spewtard who ended up at 44/16/14 over 75 hands.

Hand No. 1
Merge - $0.10 PL Hi (6 max) - Omaha - 5 players

Hero (UTG): $16.71
CO: $9.85
BTN: $10.18
SB: $8.81
BB: $6.21

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero has 9c 8d Ts Ac

Hero raises to $0.35, CO calls $0.35, BTN raises to $1.55, fold, fold, Hero calls $1.20, fold

Flop: ($3.60, 2 players) 4c 3h Tc
Hero bets $1.80, BTN raises to $8.63 and is all-in, Hero calls $6.83

Turn: ($20.86, 2 players) 5s

River: ($20.86, 2 players) Ks

Hero shows 9c 8d Ts Ac (One Pair, Tens) (Pre 35%, Flop 58%, Turn 38%)
BTN shows Ah 9h As 4s (One Pair, Aces) (Pre 65%, Flop 42%, Turn 63%)
BTN wins $19.82

Seems standard. Table went south after that. Only one other hand worth noting:

Hand No. 2
Merge - $0.10 PL Hi (6 max) - Omaha - 6 players

Hero (UTG): $9.78
MP: $11.27
CO: $18.92
BTN: $4.42
SB: $10.00
BB: $13.20

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero has 9d Qc Jh Qd

Hero raises to $0.35, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls $0.25

Flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Kd Ad 3c
BB checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75

Turn: ($2.25, 2 players) Qh
BB checks, Hero bets $2.25, BB calls $2.25

River: ($6.75, 2 players) Jc
BB bets $4.50, Hero?
[/B]

Lighter schedule tomorrow on a number of different fronts, so I hope to play more than the 227 hands of cash I played today. (I have radiation 5 days a week for a total of 11 weeks. This is week No. 2. I'm scheduled for six sessions of chemo -- which is three days a week every three weeks. Today marked the end of session No. 2. My day job consists of writing something pretty much seven days a week.)

Beginning bankroll: $261.73
Ending bankroll: $249.32

Chemo days have their own specific complications, including the need for steroids to combat nausea, a situation that creates a mild case of 'roid rage. The 'roids mostly manifest themselves via insomnia. (No immediate reports on increases in bat speed, testicular shrinkage or hat size increase.)

You try to combat the effects with mild little HORSE TRANQUILIZERS like Xanax. But tonight, the 'roids won after a couple of hours of sleep leaving a degen with not much choice but to degen. I fired up three tables of $10 PLO and hung in for 244 hands over a 90-minute period and a $20.82 profit. Nearlly all of that came from one spewtard and, had his issues. The roll got another small $5 boost in the form of some of sign-up bonus cash.

Now, let's hope for a couple hours of sleep before I schlep over to the Clinic for my morning dose of moon beams and a series of meetings in the office afterward.

Beginning bankroll: $249.32
Ending bankroll: $273.65

Best of luck with everything dude.

Thanks, dude. Appreciated. Got those couple of hours I'd hoped for.

I'm strong in body, mind and spirit. A warrior. Can't emphasize enough how this poker thing (and even Lock's crappy software) have been a mighty contributor to my cause.

I'm not certain how this thread will work out, but I'm willing to keep plugging along for awhile, hoping there are a few of you out there reading. And what they hell, I got legitimate goals and challenges.

Yeah, cancer sucks. But trust me, I'm celebrating life right now. You'll know I've been driven to the dark side of despair when I write about getting up in the middle of the night to play 7 stud hi-lo.

A short, reg-filled session of 330 hands played when I should have been writing. (Four-tabled most of the time, but still more comfortable with just three.)

Most of the profit came from this hand. Villain is a big-time LAG at 56/21/9. Caught a break, I guess, when he just C/C the flop. A lead or a C/R would have obviously sent me packing on that board.

Merge - $0.10 PL Hi (6 max) - Omaha - 3 players

Hero (BB): $14.09
SB: $7.38
BB: $15.74

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10
Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero has 7s Kd 9d 9s
Hero raises to $0.35, fold, BB calls $0.25

Flop: ($0.75, 2 players) Qh 9h Jc
BB checks, Hero bets $0.75, BB calls $0.75

Turn: ($2.25, 2 players) 9c
BB checks, Hero bets $1.12, BB raises to $3.36, Hero calls $2.24

River: ($8.97, 2 players) Qc
BB bets $4.48, Hero raises to $9.63 and is all-in, BB calls $5.15

Hero shows 7s Kd 9d 9s (Four of a Kind, Nines)
BB shows Jh 5c 6d Jd (Full House, Jacks full of Queens)
Hero wins $27.23

BEGINNING BANKROLL: $273.65
ENDING BANKROLL: $288.71

(Apologies for some of the sloppiness in my previous posts, which were written in haste or when I was too tired or lazy to edit. Hate that.)

Fairly light day today: Radiation, a couple of meetings in the office, my weekly pho (Vietnamese noodles) lunch with one of my best friends, and an appointment with a nutritionist to discuss maintaining my weight in a healthy fashion during treatment.

While radiation does a good job destroying cancer cells, a smaller number of healthy cells also are damaged. The DNA contained within those cells send out repair orders within 2 to 6 hours, which requires large amounts of energy.

Yet another life lesson on what happens when you smoke cigarettes and catch a case of lung cancer. I would suggest you avoid both.

Hope to get in another session later tonight after I get some writing done.

Writing pretty much caught up for the day, I decided I had enough energy left to enter the $5.50 PLO at 2240 and the $6.60 PLO at 2245.

Finished 25th out of 40 runners in the $5.50 when I ignored instincts by pushing pushing with top and bottom pair and the 2nd best nut flush draw on the flop. The first-best FD got there on the turn, sending me to the rail 25/40.

Oh well. Still had a double-plus stack in the $6.60 after 45 minutes thanks to a poor bastard I coolered not once, but twice in a span of five minutes.

LOL. As soon as I typed the paragraph above, I was eliminated with this beauty of a hand:

Merge - $6+$.60|<> PL Hi - Omaha - 9 players

BB: 3,170.00
UTG: 1,900.00
UTG+1: 4,413.00
MP: 3,000.00
MP+1: 2,905.00
Hero (LP): 6,852.00
CO: 2,151.00
BTN: 4,913.00
SB: 7,824.00

SB posts SB 25.00, BB posts BB 50.00

Pre Flop: (75.00) Hero has Kh 3c Ks Ad

UTG calls 50.00, fold, MP calls 50.00, fold, Hero calls 50.00, fold, fold, SB raises to 300.00, fold, UTG calls 250.00, MP calls 250.00, Hero calls 250.00

Flop: (1250.00, 4 players) 7s Kc 9d
SB bets 1,250.00, UTG raises to 1,600.00 and is all-in, MP raises to 2,700.00 and is all-in, Hero raises to 6,552.00 and is all-in, SB calls 5,302.00

Turn: (18654.00, 4 players) Qd

River: (18654.00, 4 players) 3h

UTG shows Qh Td As 3d (Two Pair, Queens and Threes) (Pre 19%, Flop 16%, Turn 22%)
MP shows Ac 9h 7c 7d (Three of a Kind, Sevens) (Pre 25%, Flop 9%, Turn 3%)
Hero shows Kh 3c Ks Ad (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 35%, Flop 36%, Turn 16%)
SB shows Ah Jh Tc 8c (Straight, King High) (Pre 21%, Flop 39%, Turn 59%)
SB wins 7,704.00
SB wins 3,300.00
SB wins 7,650.00

Guess I didn't have quite as much equity as I imagined after flopping top set. No reason not to get my chips in there, right? Thought my push would drive out the big stack.

Time to fire up some $10 tables. (Damn. Reg-infested still. I'd be moving to Canada or Mexico for access to Stars' bigger player base if it weren't for the stupid medical insurance that makes my treatment affordable, my wife, kids, job, house and all of that other trivial stuff.)

Fast forward 40 minutes: I'm bagging it for the night after playing only 130 hands on 3 tables. Too tired to concentrate. Crap. Hope to block off some time this weekend for a few solid sessions.

BEGINNING BANKROLL: $288.71
ENDING BANKROLL: $280.15

Good luck with all your goals - I'm a smoker myself, and am giving myself 2 years to quit - know it's a terrible habit, but its so f*cking hard to quit!

Cool thread, want to start getting into PLO when I get a chance - any recomended reading on how to learn the game?

Will be following - so keep the posts coming!

I smoked for 35-years plus. The thought that I'd catch a bad disease from smoking remained an abstraction. Wrong. Very, very wrong.

So don't wait two years, my friend. Start now. There are resources out there that can help you. Find them, embrace them. Enlist families and friends and have them nag the sh*t out of you to stop. Research has shown their support is crucial in helping people overcome nicotine addiction.

As for PLO ... I'm a just a newb feeling my way through the game, trying to add "C" to my tentative grasp of "A" and the "B."

Jeff Hwang's "The Big Play Strategy" has helped me quite a bit. The low-stakes PLO forum here is another great resource.

Kila la kheri! Thanks for reading.

It ain't first, but it ain't last, either. Played well for the most part and second was a big boost money-wise over third place. (That's me -- neilcassidy) It's a small step toward the promised land of $1,000 and the 40BI mark for PLO25.



Flamed out in the $3.30 RB at 1815 and played a short, break-even session of PLO10 earlier in the day. Pllans for a light, restorative Friday were overtaken by the demands of writing and work, and that was okay. Got a lot accomplished.

I had signed up for a home-game tourney tonight, but begged off when I realized I needed a nap after taking a nap. This little tourney cash is a small consolation prize. Feel like I have enough energy to get in a few hundred hands of cash. We'll see.

This 40BI mark is important to me. Like in life, I've muddled for too long in poker without the discipline needed to fully meet not only only my own expectations, but my actual potential. Underachievement has long been my specialty in many regards.

I'm not wrapping my self-worth in this thread and what I do or do not accomplish on the virtual felt. I've got far bigger fish to fly, obviously.

But this thread is a small part of something larger and and significant -- my very existence. But, just for fun, let's see where this tiny corner of my universe takes me.

BEGINNING BANKROLL: $271.21
ENDING BANKROLL: $306.61

I'm not quite certain where I last left this fledgling effort. I remember spewing some of my tournament winnings (flush draws always seem to get there against me), earning some back, taking the wife out to dinner tonight, perfecting cold fusion. Just a typical day in Hacker's oddly constructed neighborhood.

Playing both the 2240 and 2245 PLO tournaments on LOCK, going nowhere fast. But that's okay. I'm feeling serene, my head in a much better place than it was earlier in the day. Who knows? I might even get some cards and stick around for awhile.

And since this is a PG&C thread, I figured I'd throw in a PLO10 graph 'cuz that's what the cool kids do, right? Don't mind the slow, steady climb. Just need to keep moving.



ENDING BANKROLL: $298.10 (+$12.10 in tournament entries in play)

you write too much,lol. gl anyway.

LOL. Guilty as charged. Degens gotta degen. Writers gotta write.