exactly this. funny enough I also tried making it through the interview with no success and almost no recollection of it.

You should probably post video regardless of embarrassment factor, it seems +EV to me lol. Glad you enjoyed your bi-annual cannabis adventure.

yeah I've ultimately decided it's too goo not to post, just have to figure out how to get it form an iphone to here.



Been running and playing well at the tables this week and should clear $1500+ after tonight, when VDS starts late Jan I'll most definitely be mostly focused on and prioritizing the tournaments so it will be interesting to see the effect that has on my cash games, outside of the obvious lower volume.

Yootoob, obv.

Ok, took a month but finally read from post one til now. After throwing in on the VDS package I wanted to get a good feel of where the $'s are going. lol. Feeling pretty good about it right now.

Enjoy the hand analysis. I really don't play much poker but have managed a ring (proves anyone can win one) and deep wsop 1k run. You seem to be at a high level right now, way above what level I play at. I make 3 or 4 trips to Vegas per year from Colo, (No readers, I will not bring you anything extra on my drive out, lol) just to play a few small tourneys for the fun of it.

Remembered the one pic from the old AVP days on Davies's blog. By the way, he took me to some small out of the way BBQ place, somewhere north of Circus Circus I think, that reminded me of the Texas BBQ i used to get in my college days. You being a local probably know which one.

Speaking of food. Going to try some of the restaurants you "review". Had to laugh at the asain noodle (?) next to the V poker room comments. I love their crab ran-goons and eat way too many when I'm there.

This feels a lot like three years ago reading S Davies blog, right after he moved out to Vegas, played a bunch of cash games, worked on his game and worked his way into bigger and bigger tournaments. The HPT was a great test and you seemed pretty confident afterwords with your play. Why not you and why not now! Sky's the limit!

Enjoyed the read, looking forward to some good sweats during VDS. Probably going to play some VDS beginning SB sunday, I'll intro myself if i see you in the room. GL, rock on!

GL in the tourneys man! My clock is counting, 2 months or less now for the move so looking forward to following along with LVL an having input of my own to share! Started my own PGC thread actually which no doubt will have some crossover with some live LVL shenanigans, including but no where near as good as what you have going on in here! Keep up the great work and see ya out there in the grind soon!!

Thx for reading and your encouragement. I'm on iPad so can't post much right now but I've been taking some detailed notes and will be doing a big poker content post in the next few days detailing some line variations for value and even a question of morality posed by some players in last nights session. Unfortunately fell shy of my 1500$+ expectation on the week after last nights 4 hours produced a measly +$12 totaling about $1375 on the week. Always this week. Should also have a free roll or 2 to play this week and then will likely hit (and ship obviously) the Orleans Fri and/or an Aria 7pm or two for last minute tuneup before series

What's your thoughts on the Aria 7pm vs 1pm. The afternoon one always seems to have more runners, but I was never sure why. Personally, I'm with you on hitting the evening one, although I seem to have better success on cash games there. A serious run good gave me my best ever 1-2/1-3 result at +1670. Love that place...

yeah the $ games can be juicy there, more disposable $ on the casual player base clientele would be my assumption. obviously along with that comes some swingy gambly spots but lucrative for sure. as for the time differences, the 7pm in more convenient for me since I'm just getting up at 1, and the players not used to long hours take an increased blow with those late hours being in the early a.m on the 7pm one. in other words, the late stages of the 7pm one a lot of otherwise ok players are compromised from fatigue which may increase edge a little in some push/shove decisions...just my take on it anyhow.

funny you should say that because me and Scott share a lot of parallels. we got here in Vegas at around the same time, targeted some of the same low cash games, and even hung out a few times away from the tables. we even dabbled in many of the same low buyin mtts for awhile but he definitely stuck to those a bit more. I feel like Scott was a lot hungrier at the time for the bigger mtts and took a number of shots that he was able to roll some success with and I respect him immensely for doing just that +if you know him it's impossible to be remotely jealous of his success, he's super modest/humble and nice guy who's positive energy for the game is refreshing amidst what sometimes seems like a sea of jaded grinders. that said, my drive for the game, tournaments and otherwise is very strong now and I look forward to the chance to catch up with him haha

nice, looking forward to seeing you here, I can undoubtedly help you with some game selection and just general advise on keeping to the grind and avoiding pitfalls if you're interested.

almost forgot, last week met up with crashwhips again, we were supposed to shoot some baskets maybe do some tennis but ended up playing some pickup bball games at the gym. i'm horrendous at basketball but we crushed the first 4v4 with me working the rebound (one of my limited abilities) and crashwhips crushing 3 pointers. second game was 5v5 and they won, largely due to this 5'0 Filipino dude on other team that could not miss a single shot. final 5v5 game ran really close and we had the go ahead chance a few times but 2 guys on our team refused to ever pass so we lost by one. good news is we held up well conditioning-wise through three pretty intense games while some of the other players were gasping for breath and a few had to stop and puke so that's a win. We were going to hoke Redrock a bit on thurs but I think that's around the time I was stoned out of my mind for 2 days so I had to bail, hoping he comes back in warm weather so we can rent a boat or something for some lake shenanigans.

Where'd you (do you) play basketball at?

Lifetime @GVR...I get something like 8 guest passes a year so does gf so 16.

Ugh been caught up with some run bad last few sessions...only stuck 280bbs or so but sucks because I'm playing solid and getting value in so many spots purely on play ect...unfortunately that hasn't been enough to marginalize the loss of some nasty suck outs and lost flips. Lost a few flopped sets and ppAA to running 4 card flushes and straights on boards and the likes...ah we'll I feel like I'll have a big weekend, maybe run over a 2-5 game.

So will do one more big update after the weekend with a ton of stuff from my notes and what I've been up to then will likely be a lot of tournament hands and updates until VDS is over.

Your determination to plow through the bad sessions is what keeps you living the life we're all jealous of. Hope you slaughter the 2-5 this weekend.

man this thread is ****ing awesome, came home intoxicated and stumbled upon it, definitely going to look through it tomorrow man

thx, grind grind grind.

nice, thx for reading.



So how the hell did I end up in for $134 in a $289 pot preflop with Q10os tonight? Definitely a hand I'll be adding to the big update after weekend to try to justify my actions.

+1 on keeping a level head thru the runbad. Maintaining emotional stability and control and not letting it derail your play is what separates the men from the boys. Well, that and good bankroll management.

Keep crushing it, whey.

thx



tonight was one of those sessions where its really a grind, I made a poor 3 barrel bluff attempt (first 2 were ok and in a bubble the line was fine BUT the guy was all but advertising a snap call on river and I disregarded that info and just stuck to the line) and then flopped a flush to bet it out to river vs the A draw and a flopped set but the 4th suit came in on river to ship it to the A draw...those 2 things set me back out of the gait but shook it off to grind out a very small profit, might get the opportunity for a big session tomorrow as I'm playing sharp (other than the botched 3 barrel mishap)

Will be railing my $ sessions tonight and tomorrow night on twitter @wheydacheese if anyone's interested

Do these include hardly dressed broads?? Either way I'll follow while sweating the basketball

^lol not in the winter unfortunently...

We'll I'm halfway through writing a big update but I'm oddly tired and kick off the VDS tomorrow morning so have to bail, I have all day Wednesday off to finish it, hopefully with some inclusion about heading into day 2 of this 500k with the chip lead.

Put in around 12 hours this weekend for +$600ish, I decided against a 2-5 at Redrock today bc there was a big donator at the 1-2, played 100 minutes for +$176

OK so bust out hand from yesterday's VDS event to start things off...end of second level, starting stacks were 15k I've run mine to about 23k average is probably 16-17k. I've been active but have shown enough strength at the limited showdowns to maintain a decent image. recently called down a 3 barrel bluff oop with A high so no one's really messing with me much. I am second in chips at table and V is first with 25k or so. I open from the hi-jack with KQ a little on the larger side 400 over one limped @blinds of 75-150. our V, a grumpy old man with a proven propensity to overvalue hands makes it 1000 from the button. folding isn't terrible but with his over-valuing he can have as bad as 99/A-paint suited ect. I flat because I want to play a big pot vs the other big stack. Flop comes 10J8, normally I would lead here but I check and he bets another 1000, I c/r to 2500, he rrs to 6000 leaving himself with 18k behind, I really think at this point he has AA, possibility of KK/QQ but I am blocking a bit, he IS bad enough to have AJ here. I have 19.5k or something behind before a call or action and I'm NEVER leaving this spot to take enough of a lead to start steamrolling this table a bit. I !5 shove all in and expect to have a ton of fold equity...I'm basically repping sets, strs (unlikely), rarely the exact hand I have, and if hes super overly optimistic I suppose he could 'think' I had AsXs...I'm just never !5 here with a one pair hand like JA or even AA so I expect to fold out most all of his hands that are beating us (which is of course all his hands currently) specifically targeting like AA. I expect hel call quick enough with a set of 10s or Js which is a possibility but I'm still not in terrible shape so I really think the c/r (or lead out),rr, !5, given his remaining chip stack and what I'm putting him on (AA) is far superior. He ends up calling it off with pp KK and I don't improve. I'm sure some will disagree but I thought it was a terrible call as he's crushed by the vast majority of my range given this line and flip vs something like AsXs...I really don't think I EVER have an air range as played. Anyhow, a guy from my table on break shortly after told me the guy quickly stationed off ALL those chips and went bust.



Now for the big update; This will be sort of a big mess and not particularly a linear timetable since I jsut want to get a few hands from my notes posted, some pics, and a bit of what I have been up to.

I have to many hands written down to type them all up in this update, so I'm just going to try and do them in installments under topics that I group relevant hands in.

GETTING MAX VALUE VS 'MANIACS'

Hand 1, 1-2 nl, $430 stack, V covers.
V in this hand is a mid-aged Israeli man we would consider a 'maniac', simply meaning he opens with a limitless range of cards and most any position preflop, and continues aggression unless he runs into opposition (and sometimes even then). Getting value from a maniac isn't about waiting for some nutted hand to get paid off his strong hand, it's getting sick value on marginal hands off of his betting patterns, sometimes it bites you because the playing many pots against such a player will be high variance but almost always profitable. I have been watching this guy run over the table for about 30 minutes and he has about 900 behind, he rarely goes to showdown and the few that have he has all but insta-mucked.

I am in the BB with K10os, a guy opens light in MP for $8, folds to V in the cutoff who makes it $35. I look at the original raiser and hes telegraphing a fold, some history: V has come overtop of just about every small open, so I feel my cards are pretty irrelevant as we are both pretty deepish. Folded to me and I flat (I'd actually RATHER have some like 6-7s) from the BB, everyone else folds. I'm usually going to miss here so making this call I 100% intend to re-steal the pot somewhere along the hand, this is something that can be very dangerous as it is more read dependent. That becomes an afterthought, however, when the flop comes 10-7-2 with 2 spades. I check and he bets out $65, I insta-call knowing he will read that as draw'ish, instacalls are often indicative of weakness and/or drawing hands since a real hand would consider the action. The turn comes Jh and I check, he checks behind which is a surprise to me...still I need to check river, you don't bet thin value into a maniac, they are NOT stations if they are even semi-competent and they would much rather have no hand and initiative then a value hand vs strength shown. The river is J of clubs, I check and now he decides to bet out $165, not terrible as I should never have a J and the draws missed, BUT as I said I've been watching and expecting this so it's an easy snap. He insta mucks his cards down but they catch and flip showing 5-6os...as I said, if I missed board I can be willing to win this with a committing lead out on turn, or a big overbet c/r on flop...once again Maniacs are NOT stations, they don't even WANT to hit marginal value they just want to win without confrontation/showdown.

The point of this hand though is to maximize value from such a V, you need to be willing to give them rope when you have a hand with showdown value, especially if they have position.

Hand 2 1-2nl $300 behind, V covers.

This hand fits in with the 'Maniac' category but illustrates the other side of the coin when you have no real showdown value. You also need to be sure your dealing with a maniac, not a decent LAG/SLAG player since they might very will put it together that a line like this makes little sense.

This hand is a little unique because it was my first hand at this table and I usually need to watch 15-20 minutes to have reads on the players. I sit down and get AJos in the cutoff and am about to fold to an early position V's $10 open when the button on my left who's looking frustrated mutters "he does this almost every hand" ...now that is some lucrative info so it's an easy call (or raise but I call). Only me and V go to flop and it comes out 4-5-6 2 hearts. He leads out instantly $30, as I'm thinking the button mutters again "yuuup and he does this every hand" making it another easy call for me. The turn is a non heart 8, he instantly leads out $65, he's not even looking at the texture of the board which screams air/0 value hand...I can actually call him here and snap river for more value but he could hit a pair with his hand and I would still commit to call or there's always the small chance he's bluffing with the best hand, +I haven't seen if he fires a river bullet often or not, so decide to raise a stack of $100 on top of the $65. By looking super committed you don't leave the maniac with what he can see as any viable way now to win with what he perceives as a worse hand, when in truth if he put me all in I would fake-tank and muck. He folds quickly laughing about betting into a monster.

***playing this way vs a maniac is very read dependent and potentially swingy, you also need to be sure you account for stack sizes if you are going to play back at a maniac since a truly sick maniac will look for space to make one more offensive move that could make you fold the better hand IF he sees there is room for it with stack/pot/bet ratios.



I guess that's the hands section for now, so last 2 weeks have been good on the cash games, I'm feeling really sharp and playing well +genuinely having a good time at the tables. I had some sort of cold for 4-5 days which took me out of the gym but I'm all but over it now. Like I'm not going to bother with the linear storyline of this update, I may have posted some results after some sessions itt but would need to pull out my ipad to be more precise. Up something like $2700 for the past couple weeks after that one run-bad week. I tried to remember to take some pics but have been slacking on that too, no help from my apparently defective phone battery that dies way too fast. Anyhow I'm just going to post all the pics I have from this and some of last week semi-randomly.

On the roof at Flamingo garage, I always park on roof levels since I like to look out at the strips but also ever since I lost my car for like an hour in the MGM grand lot after a sick 30 or so hour session years ago.



Flamingo Room...yeah it's not much, probably will play for the freeroll again this week though since my Friday should be free



Grabbing 3:00 A.M. curry chicken and wonton soup at one of my favorite late night spots in Chinatown...driving me crazy I cant recall the name.





Mostly been playing @GVR this month


The new'ish' poker room at Caesars the other night, glad they kept the sports photos. Action was nice and 2 good looking 2-5 games though I played 1-2.



I always end up at Excalibur a few times a month


Looking like a scruffy hippy pumped up for the VDS series start



Buuuuuuuuuuuut as I said, I busted at the end of second level on this first one, so had to be content with playing Ipad and crushing some cash games for the day



Went to Noodle House for dinner got the 'snow-cabbage soup' since I wanted something light, not terrible but there are much better things there so wouldn't recommend


That's about it since I've been slacking on pics. Need some chicks itt obviously but taking pics of girls on the strip in the winter just looks like an L.L. Bean catalog...

saw this Rubicon made me miss my Wrangler a bit

Almost forgot, I busted back over the $25/hour for recorded (thousands of hours) 1-2 this week so that was cool. Need to gtfo up to 2-5 obviously but keeping the transition plan I mentioned earlier itt in place for now. I'll be slumming it mid strip tonight doing free roll hours, we'll see if anything interesting pops up then it's second bullet at the VDS 500k, I really want to make Day 2 so will be bringing it strong though perhaps tempered with a tad more caution...maybe.

Hmm so $25/hour at $1-$2 in Vegas is possible? I've been inspired!

For the record, I personally thought it is possible being that I like to play deep and find looser games to maximize wins, but people have been telling me I can't make a living playing $1-$2. Nonsense I say!

It's possible, Play deep, bum hunt, and play Situationally creative; which can range from super nit to ruthless lagro depending on the game.

*also that is post tips but pre other costs (gas,food)