They spread a 5/5 and a 2/5 PLO game or are those two different structured games?

Haha I was wondering if someone would ask. I use 2/5 colloquially. It’s actually 1/2 with a $5 bring in. It just makes more sense to call it 2/5 since it’s a $5 bring in. And yes they spread 5/5 and 1/2 5. The 5/5 is played with a utg straddle.

Frustrating session at mdl, the pro takeover has occurred in the 5/5 it seems so game quality there has plummeted and I will probably not be playing there for a while. Got AA a lot but didn't improve much, once got 3! small and I had pretty bad AA so I flatted multiway and gii with top and bottom and gutter otf against the other two AA+different gutter+nfd and lost to toxic pro unfortunately who threw in a slowroll for good measure (I hate that a*hole). Then the must move broke and I played 5/5 plo4 which was running instead of playing in the 5/5 plo5 main game (with the $50 sb...not rolled for it) and won AA+wrap against pair+fd, but then lost wrap v. ?? on board pairing turn, and then lost AA in l/rr pot, jammed flop with spr 0.5 three ways and someone made a flush. Raised some more broadway hands and whiffed a lot. At least I made some at 2/5 and 2/2 plo5. Still a decent loss for the day. Oh well.

Made up for yesterday and then some, started off losing $1,000 to a whale with top set and flush blockers against his nfd, then he doubled up through me again when I hit my big wrap and bdfd oft, hit my straight ott and were all in and he rivered quads with bottom set and a weak flush draw and sd. Finally lost AA in 3! pot spr 1.25...iffy spot on JT4ccs with bdnfd and bad gutter, could have checked, but I just went with it and lost. Thankfully I transferred to a bigger game with a blind $10 utg on and quickly tripled up with nut gutter+nfd against a wheel and ??, then won an AA in a 3! pot, rivering top set with nut gutter and nfd otf spr 1.1. Played some 2/5 when the plo game broke due to a straddle nit and made some more there in uneventful ways. The only interesting thing was winning with J-high against a missed straight draw and hearing two players verbally accost each other relentlessly even up until one quit the game and asked the other to "go for a walk" with him.

Went back to plo as game quality deteriorated (and I really went to 2/5 to begin with because I was starting to steam at plo over the straddle nit), won a few more hundo top set and bottom set and nfd against a wrap and worse flush draw. That's pretty much it.

Lucrin bag is still in my browser...if I make $20k this month I may splurge.

Impressive!
Inspirational!

Going back and starting from the beginning!

Thanks so much! I am losing right now at plo starting to tilt and this post made me feel so much better. Gl to you.

Started rocky stuck $2.5k at 1/2/5/10, made it all back and a little more for a small profit. First hand top set +gutter+fd blockers didn't hold ott to gutter plus ndf, then nut straight didn't hold with spr 1.25 in 3! pot to top set + gutter to the chop (someone folded bottom set and top set was blocking his own boat outs with a pair too), then QQ+nut wrap lost to oesd, but then made a big comeback with AJJT9 in backraised $2k pot, turned second nut fush, someone jammed river and I called and scooped against the nut blocker. Nice comeback!

Good 5/5/25 session, up $4,000 overall, much of it from a bomb pot 34458 on 355 versus 5x+overs ai otf and some smaller pots, plus AKK63ds in l/rr 3! pot against maniac on tilt and third V, flop 368r (backdoor clubs), I call all in otf versus psb with bottom two, boated ott, held otr. Threats dude was playing and we seemed to make up in our own way, chatting a little here and there, which was nice. The gravy train continues on, up about $9k on the month already!

Started rough again and I was expecting another reversion to mean session. Bunch of AA got outflopped at 1/2 5, lost $1,500 there in short measure, then at 5/5 got AA997 in 3! pot three ways and with spr under 1 shipped 246r flop with one backdoor flush draw and lost to 44. Stuck $2,500 now I get AAT76 in bomb pot and there is a pot and two calls and I re-ship for side pot on A25hhs (one backdoor flush draw and bdsd) and scoop on 5 river against 34 and two other lesser draws. Won with a monster wrap and K-high flush draw on 37TddQ with 89TJKdd and scooped with the flush. Then win KKT76ds on K-J-7r flop in 3! pot multiway against AAQT and JJ on 7-7 runout for the overkill quads. Then get KQJ87 and get 3! by a short stack and iso, get called for a side pot but no worries because I flop two pair and boat otr and scoop again! I subsequently got KK in the straddle and flopped top set again and bet, checked straight-completing turn (I was blocking it so I should have bet), and boated otr and got called by middle set. Then became utterly card dead for the last hour and began to get tired and left up just shy of $6k in the 5/5.

Looking good for the bag this month! Burgundy, mink/beige, or royal blue? https://www.lucrin.com/luxury-crossb...ed-leather.htm I am open to opinions.

DT, I saw you mentioned game quality dropping because of pros. How strong are these pros? I ask because at my local game, there are some local “pros” who are horrible, but still beating the live game afaik (1/2 uncapped, plays more like 5/10 often with straddle on). And if you were to exploit them could you still make good profits? Sometimes the “pro” is just super nitty and makes it frustrating / not super profitable to play against.

They are two buddies who are pretty good, tight seasoned players. I can hold my own against them but they are -ev compared to any average joe who could be playing instead of them so they definitely impact my bottom line having them both in the game at the same time especially. One of them is the toxic pro who verbally harasses me, has told me to stfu, and always slowrolls me and calls the clock on me as soon as he has the chance. There is a third who is solid too who has been playing lately. They all probably have an online background. Makes for a bad line up when your opposition is mostly reasonably competent mainly because they threaten to stack the fish before I do.

Anyway, weekend is going well, celebrated my rungood with a couple new plants from the hardware store with the bf, who bought some paint (the ficus was doing poorly inside so I moved it outside and it instantly grew three new leaves!).





Who knew the paint color I liked was named this:

Very card dead/boring Sunday session after bday dinner for mom, got very few playable hands and basically broke even on the day minus a little at 5/T/25 and 2/5 (one raise with AKs whiffed multiway at T/25 and nice old lady turned out to be a maniac at 2/5).

I think I caught a dealer swiping half the rake into their box the other day and let mgmnt know. Apparently they have a history of chip swiping. Not a very good dealer to begin with anyway and if they're stealing from the house you better believe they're still willing to steal from players.

Nothing really went my way last session, missed my draws, big pair didn't hold as a favorite all in pre, lost AAT9 in 4! pot on 678r to 67 too - a lot of ordinary runbad. Some random person called me a gambler, saying he liked how I played so aggressively. That one hurt! (He came off as a scared money nit to me who wanted to play a small ball game.) -$2,000.

Stumbled upon your thread today as a microstakes player who took a first trip to MGMNH this past weekend. I know you play higher stakes, but how are the 1/3 games there usually? I was only there for a couple of hours but ran into a table where players seemed to know each other very well and a few were even in a group chat with one another. They didn't seem particularly strong, but definitely not complete donks either. Are most players there regulars?

Not at 1/3, they’re not mostly regs as far as I know. Haven’t played there consistently in ages though. At that level almost everyone is a recreational player. Gl.

At my home poker room the manager absolutely insists on a true $1/$2 PLO game so people typically make it a 2/5. I feel for the poor dealers who have to calculate pot sizes after an open to $7 LOL

Yeah that must take up a lot more time. A lot of them have enough trouble figuring it out in $5 increments.

Last session was fine, 5/5 randomly ran on a Tuesday, played with none other than Ted Forrest who joked about needling legal help after someone mentioned I was a lawyer. Won with AA ai pre three ways, AA once ai HU, and a few smaller postflop pots for a $900 win there, another $550 at 2/5 plo too for a nice comeback after the other night's runbad.

Gave a presentation for work, got good feedback. Our ED said she liked me using humor during our staff meeting today too. It was a cancer joke. We defense lawyers have a sick sense of humor sometimes, comes with the territory.

Ted Forrest stacked me! (But I got it in way good...got him!) Bomb pot, I have some garbage with a 2 and a 4 in my hand and flop 356dd (I have low diamonds). I am in CO and check and it checks through. Turn: T, no bdfd. Forrest pots $350 from MP1, one whale calls, I jam $1,000 and Ted seems annoyed, tanks, and finally re-jams for $1,045 but whale folds. We run it twice and diamond comes on the first river, I say "I have diamonds," after the first one, Ted says "K-high," and tables K-high diamonds and top two...on both runouts. :/ He hits and runs for the big mixed game...about an hour later. I beat the best...in Sklansky dollars.

Cool thing is that I won an even bigger pot with top set 20 minutes later on K65cch with KKT94 with backdoor hearts and blockers to the wrap, three ways, jammed board-pairing 5 ott and got called by trips for a dry side pot. Ended up $1,100. They have the time-raked/high limit games behind black curtains on the elevated platform now. I think it's an improvement. We can eat there too now.

Played a fun home game with friends for .25/.5 for a couple hours too, had cheesecake, made $90. Good times!

I think I will buy a lucrin nylon bag...much cheaper and still nice looking.

Boring session, stated off well enough, played in the 20/40 limit hold 'em for a little until it got short-handed and ran well there, making top pairs with KQ and holding with JJ, flopping top boat with AA, then back to plo where I got dsAA and it went 35-->85 (me)-->call-->call-->$300-->$1,000 (me) all in-->call/fold. The only guy who called me all in for the side had AQQxx and he spiked his Q anyway. Oh well.

Spent the rest of the night rebounding from that and ended down just $150 on the plo session, plus the $350 I made at limit for a small win.

Up $15k so far this month...about halfway through the month...would like to get into the $20s so I can buy that new bag. Remember that goal for the year of $150k? It is looking more realistic, although still somewhat of a reach that depends heavily on the next few months of the year. If I can top $100k I will be happy. Other goals in review: I am certainly spazzing less pre and limp/folding less too. The make $10k+ a month goal has been met. I think we're going to have to bump that up though. Playing much less hold 'em too (and running better). My mental health has been in great shape the past several months ever since I switched doses and may relate to why I am performing so well at the tables. Pre-session routine top notch too. Gogogo!

I feel like I need to get even better than I am and for all my recent success I still have quite a bit of room to improve. I have to be honest, I am getting bored and feel like I am starting to plateau again. I am not motivated to play today...I left the house and saw traffic was an hour commute and just decided to eat and play magic....poker later after traffic subsides even if it means a longer wait to get into the game. I am already up heaps this month.

Areas I can work on: bluff-catching, blocker bluffs (frequency especially and best candidates...straight blockers in particular), preflop, especially EP opening ranges and limping ranges, defending ranges in the straddle.

Perhaps attentive readers of the blog will have noticed some leaks of mine and can chime in with feedback? It can be about anything - poker strategy, mental game, or anything else you've picked up on that you believe I can work on. Perhaps you have your own strategies in these areas as well.

Thanks!

Played magic, made a solid red/black/blue creature kill/control/flier deck and 2-0-1 for some store credit. Then it was time for poker.

Started at the 10/25 for one hand before I got called for 5/5...yeesh, that was a mistake. I immediately get dealt JJ on the button and there are two limpers before me, I raise to $175, first limper folds, second limper in MP backraises all in for my $1,500 eff. (60 bb), I think I had seen him do something like this with big pairs before but I was the effective stack and short so I went with it and lost to AA. Not how I wanted to start my 5/5 session!

I immediately get felted again with wrap+fd against a set (overplay, perhaps steaming from the JJ hand) and lose second nut straight to nut straight otr against a blockish-type sizing, and my trip aces was rivered by a worse kicker. Not a great start at all. Got a double with AA, got quartered with two pair and nut straight ott against straight+fd, then GII with top and bottom and nfd and backdoor diamonds against bare top pair, oesd, and a couple overs to my second pair and V made a better two pair. Got stacked with AA again, then got a double with it. I was stuck close to $4k now and the game broke and I played 5/T/25 where I ran pure in a lot of smaller pots (66 holding on J52 and the like) and quickly made $1,800 and called it after a little 1/2 plo5.

I think I probably expended quite a bit of mental energy playing magic and wasn't as fresh as I should have been, so did not play my best. At least I clawed back to get unstuck some near the end.

I do something similar when I’m winning I start taking days off and getting complacent..

I think it’s important to stay sharp and get in there and battle.

I hope to make a trip back down to Maryland in November.

Also I was thinking about it…

Should we mix in J and 9 hi rundowns into our 3b! Or squeeze Range so that we have board coverage and become less predictable?

Yeah I didn't take a day off, but I did play magic and I think it threw me off my routine a little. Oh well. Pre-session routine FTW!

I like doing this with the double-suited pure and completely connected hands like JT987ds from time to time...they make you less predictable like you said. I don't think you need to go as low as 9-high...J Q and K are fine. It's hard to be dealt these hands anyway but having them in there is not a bad idea. I would not go too crazy with these hands all the time, they are easily dominated by better rundowns especially in line ups where people are seeing multiway flops and don't fold pre. If you get get it HU, much better. These are sorta like suited connectors in hold 'em...they are more like steal hands. Unlike suited connectors, they usually have good equity against your opponents' 3! range. You are going to flop nothing on a lot of flops too, whereas with big pairs you will still have showdown value.

Talked to another pro buddy of mine who plays full time in Florida and he said $200k a year is reasonable playing 5/5/straddle as your main game. I guess given that it does not run as frequently here I am doing rather well!