Nice cush! Congrats on the house. LVL cookout to kick off the WSOP at your place!

I just finished up a long, hard working tax season and it was nice to catch up with your post.

Good luck on the house.

Hey guys, my posts on here, much like my poker sessions, have become much fewer and farther between as this year has gone on. This has been my lowest volume month in a very long time, and will likely stay where its at as I have non-poker activities on tues/wed and am fairly unlikely to play today.

After the big loser I took at 5/10 last time I updated, I went on a tear at over my next 3-4 sessions of 2/5, getting that loss back and then some.

Unfortunately got kicked in the teeth again this week, took a mild loss at 2/5 and then yesterday took another big hit at 5/10. My last four 5/10 sessions have been -1.6k, -3k, -2k, -2.5k. This has been spread over the last month and a half or so with some redeeming 2/5 results to soften the blow but its still pretty discouraging. Running like **** at 5/10 and then regressing to the mean at half the stakes at 2/5 is pretty annoying.

Because I haven't been playing a ton I for sure haven't been playing my best but I've also run bad over that short sample.

I've been doing a lot of run-around/administrative stuff with the house I'm buying. Everything's coming along pretty well with that and should be closing as planned mid-May. I'm really excited to get in the house and do the few miscellaneous repairs it needs and get everything the way I want it. I have a feeling it will jump-start my motivation as well because right now I haven't been all that excited to play poker so perhaps seeing the hit from my bankroll of the down payment will light a fire under my arse.

I've also been doing some coaching, which has gone well. Its can be challenging to explain topics that are ingrained in my head to someone who is new to them, but I think it will make me better as well having to do that. It also gets me talking about poker, which is good because lately I've been pretty bored with playing so talking through hands with friends or while coaching can rekindle the flame a bit.

So despite the poor volume and results lately, I'm trying my best to keep up some semblance of a work ethic. The reality is that lately I haven't wanted to play much and so have done other things. Since my monthly nut is so low I'm still playing enough to pay my bills in the long run so for now thats going to have to do until I figure out exactly how I want to move forward.

I know how those 5/10 body slams hurt... first hand.

the suck is as competitive players/people, we all hate to loose and it's really exacerbated by the realization that real capital is behind those cheques we bet with after the loss is locked in.

where are you in your escrow?

I would be willing to bet that you have a lot on your plate and poker can suffer from that.

Getting the appraisal done this week and just received the resale package with HOA info.

Yea there's definitely some truth to the bolded. Some days I'm just preoccupied with the house (making calls, signing absurd number of documents) and either don't play at all or don't play well.

Its not a valid excuse really but I'm a bit of a worrier/have paranoid tendencies so with something like buying a house even a small thing I have to do in regards to it during the day can suck up all my energy just from thinking about it too much.

you'll be alright dude... rest assured, you're doing the right thing. Poker will still be there when you get around to it.

Your recent 5/10 losses are really humbling to me. I've had four session stretches with those numbers at 2/5. (Of course, I'm pretty bad.)

lol yea well I'm a huge nit so my swings tend to me lower than most of my peers. My biggest win and biggest loss at 2/5 is roughly half of that of some of the guys I talk with on a regular basis.

Side note: My coaching client (Jim_Beam) is doing a thread chronicling his path to profitability here.

May I ask where are you playing 5/10?

Just a general question since the $1500 Cap Bellagio, $4k Capped Venetian, and Un-capped games all play so different.

Are you taking shots with the right mind frame? If you are as nitty as you say. What is your three bet range, and responding to late position 3 bets to your early position open raises? 4 bet light range?

Are you isoing the tourists? Avoiding trap hands against the nit/fish regs?

I've played 5/10 everywhere, most of my sessions are at Venetian and I play 2/5 more often than not

Playing 5/10 is not a shot. I'm over rolled for the game, I just don't play it when its not good because there's no good reason to play in reggy games when there are soft 2/5 games available.

I don't really discuss strategy on here. Your questions are pretty open ended and to answer them properly I'd have to include a lot of "it depends". The short answers to your questions (in order starting with the 3bet range question) are it depends, usually folding, narrow, sometimes, and usually yes.

No doubt the issue has been a mental one rather than a technical one, but shot taking hasn't had anything to do with it since its been a problem at 2/5 and 5/10. Additionally, like I said before, 5/10 is not "taking a shot" for me. Its just playing in the best game that day that I'm rolled for.

I feel like Cushlash just pulled a David Stern on Shag as far as explaining oneself goes. Except there were no sighs indicating condescension

Fair answers to all. Open ended questions were meant to see a general response vs specific.

Why the V's 5/10? One table (maybe 2) max at peak times. Not running for extended periods of times without certain players? Not enough casual players taking shots, even when they lowered the buy in to 2k. Nothing is worse than finally getting un stuck and getting traction with hands and then the table breaks.

haha thanks, not too familiar with Stern but I am a fan of this comparison.

Well since 5/10 games everywhere are pretty hit or miss (mostly miss ime) I play mostly 2/5 and I like the V's room the best. It has nothing to do with games being better, I just like it. More space, good food, competent staff, etc. I like consistency and since I feel 2/5 games are more or less the same on average throughout Vegas I just picked my favorite room and reg it up.

Wow... I wish I could get my swings to half those numbers. I see those numbers on a regular basis at times, but I also know I play higher variance style than you do.

they seem to go in series... small swings with larger ones mixed in then all of a sudden, wham -1500,-2500,-1800,-1200 all in a row.

Yo, been a while since my last update here. Still have not been playing all that much but I'm gearing up for WSOP so the volume will start kicking up.

Off the felt I just closed on my house today, so I'm officially a homeowner! For the next week or so my focus is gonna be getting everything settled on that front so it will all be set come WSOP time. I'm pretty excited and will be starting tomorrow on preparing to move and getting some maintenance type stuff done.

Poker-wise I had been playing online a bunch and its gone pretty horrifically. I'm not down all that much but I'm pretty clearly not much of a favorite, if at all, in the 6max games that run on WSOP.com at 1/2+. I don't see much reason to crack those games since I don't particularly enjoy playing holdem in that format and could make more live. Who knows though, they do seem to be pushing the site for the WSOP so if a parade of fish come through it might be worth it. For now though I'm just gonna use it for some Main Event satellites they are running.

I've only played 2 live NL sessions this month, both at 2/5 at V. Booked one big winner which was nice. Also flopped a full house in my last orbit of the second session and was drawing stone dead (66<96 on 996) causing me to book a significant loser after battling back for several hours to get unstuck. Usually when I'm not playing that often and this happens I get mad but I took it in stride and was laughing about it after with the guys at my table who I'd been talking with all session. I was planning to leave that orbit regardless so I didn't quit because of it. I left the casino feeling great about my session and how I played despite losing, which oddly is one of the best feelings as a poker player.

The rest of my sessions have been in the 9/18 mix at Aria. I've been trying to learn the games and am having a fun time figuring it out. Due to a couple losing sessions recently, I'm now down about 200 lifetime in the game but I've made tons of mistakes (also lol sample size) so I'm pretty happy with that. I've been reading and studying some of the games but lots of them have pretty much no info available so I'm just learning by playing. Its tough because with a 10-game mix I don't get into a rhythm with any game so its tough to get much volume to learn. Unfortunately thats my only low-stakes option so I just have to roll with it for now.

This sort of leads to my poker plan for the WSOP. I remember last year that towards the end I was pretty sick of the grind and don't know that with my current mindset I could go and grind out the NL games the whole time. As far as tournaments go I'm still going to play the Millionaire Maker and a few ME satellites. For cash though, I'm tentatively planning to scope out the mid-limit mix games around the 20/40 level and try to cut my teeth so I can play 40/80+ post series. Basically I'm just trying to bridge the gap between the 9/18 at Aria and the next biggest game, which is 40/80 at B. Emphasis will be on learning because I could probably make more money at NL, especially if I played 5/10. Right now though I'm having fun playing these other games and it actually has me excited to play poker, an effect NLHE hasn't had for a while. I also feel like getting the perspective of these other games will improve my poker game in general and likely will renew my interest in NL at some point.

This is a pretty tentative plan though and may go completely to shyt for various reasons but ideally thats what I'd like to do. My fallback is to play NL and "stack some paper" as the Iceman says. Either way, post WSOP I'm gonna have some re-evaluation to do but right now my focus is on getting my house taken care of and crushing whatever game(s) I end up playing for the 7 weeks of WSOP.

Dude... post picture of the new place.

that wsop online game is Eh... it's just not the same without the ROW players to bum hunt.

Another quick update. I've been doing an internship with Rakeback.com since March. We just finished up a pretty major project that I was a part of. Site is now live here. I wrote the reviews for 19 of the sites.

Nice... do any of those "online" places you reviewed allow for put/call hedging, either partial or total?

Hey what games are in the Aria mix? 9/18 is really the perfect limit to get your feet wet in. Big enough where you can make a decently hourly while you learn and improve and small enough that there's zero risk of ruin.

They are not like traditional options. Everything is simplified to appeal to laymen investors so even though they use the call/put terminology, you are not technically buying a call or a put.

Yea its a perfect limit for getting started.

Was a 9 game mix, now 10. Its 2-7 TD, A-5TD, Badacey, Badeucey, Badugi, Omaha 8, Super Stud 8, Super Stud hi/lo regular, Super Razzdeucey, and Crazy Pineapple hi/lo 8 or better.

right... seems as though you are basically paying a vig (by giving up some measure of EV) to be able to wager on an options movement based on very short/incremental Expiration times.

do these brokers offer up drink services and cute waitresses like a casino property?

Hey cushlash. Great thread, and you seem like a level headed person, which is probably why you're able to make a living of poker of course.

I'm just curious to which games are in the 10-game mix at Aria? I assume all the standard 8-game ones (LHE, NLH, PLO, Omaha hi/lo, Razz, Stud, Stud hi/lo and 2-7 triple draw). But which two are the last ones? (probably badugi/baduecy or similar?).

Also, what would a 'normal' buy-in for that game be, and how often does it run (Can't recall seeing it on Bravo too often)? Reading about it kinda makes me want to try it out the next time I'm in Vegas, although it could be a costly experience...

Post 1170

Well they have long term expiry times too, some up to 1 year or more. Of course you're giving up EV compared to regular options trading, but your downside is limited too. I wouldn't recommend these sites as a money-making venture, but for a laymen who wants to gamble in the stock market, they would probably lose less on these sites than if they did regular trading.

lol cocktail services. I mean like I said, I have similar feelings but the point is to offer unbiased info for people that want it.

See above post for games (thanks Brownkeeper )

Game runs most days, starts between 4 and 7pm usually. I buy in for 2 racks, which is 600 since they use $3 chips and thats plenty. People either buy in for 1 or 2 racks. I'd definitely recommend checking it out, game is a lot of fun and even if you get smacked it won't be worse than a bad day of 1/2-1/3.

post HHs where rob owns you online. We want to see those