New day, well-rested albeit it off my schedule, eager to hit the tables despite last night's debacle with AK. Also lost my freeroll at 5/5/25 with T9876sss against AQ986cc on 5739sscc - top two flush draw and higher straight draw against just V's flush draw, ran it twice and got quartered. That one was super frustrating.

Posted for some feedback about the AK 5/T hand in strat forum and asked a friend, sounds like raising flop is fine and jamming turn ok, some said don't raise flop and when cold called I am behind and should check to induce.... I wasn't able to get away from this one, and I am a very good player (if may say so myself!). With such a low spr I was happy to play for stacks, we were not that deep. I think he has enough flush draws and KQ/KJ that can call to make this profitable. A good player at the table remarked it was a bad beat...maybe being nice, but it certainly felt that way when my chips were being pushed in V's direction.

Edit: oatmeal for breakfast a la dgens...he inspired me.

Played a loooong session overnight into the next afternoon, up $900 or so somehow. It was swingy. Biggest pot was KKJT9 in backraised 4! pot on K8Qr against two inside wraps so they were both drawing to a chop and we all chopped the $3k pot. Womp-womp. :/ Lost AA v. AA v. ?? pre, lost middle set over top set in 3! pot with spr under 1 on KQ2r (could not find the fold as much as I tried initially), chopped top set+nut straight+higher gutshot to same straight flush draw and straight draw. Chopped nut straight plus K-high flush draw plus wrap against two bare straights and the naked nut flush draw bricked. Definitely ran well below EV in all my freerolls today, sigh. Could have been a huge day, wasn't meant to be.

Slept for 18 hours...very nice. Had strange dream I killed a serial killer by cutting his head off with a pair of scissors...yeesh...then a doctor sewed his head back on and he was alive again and I was upset at the doctor. Now that I read this it's friggin' hilarious.

Have a new poker chat buddy I exchange HHs with, he is a winning player he tells me too and I noticed he plays well so I am happy to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Shared with him some 5/5 drama...player A sat down with over table max (max is $2.5k and he sat with $4k) after being picked up earlier with $8k on table and another player B was sitting to his right and didn't say anything. 30 minutes go by and they get involved in a big pot where player B tried to bluff with naked A and player A called it off with second nut flush and a set. Player B immediately called floor to complain about player A buying in over table max in an effort not to have to pay full amount. Floor didn't do anything as it shouldn't have. I tell player B floor would not do anything so no need to hold up game and he says "stfu and play a hand." Game breaks.

I'm sure in spots where you have enough equity to call all in with a draw the solver prefers semi-bluffing/aggression to checking near 100% if you have any reasonable fold equity too. You probably have tons of value hands you'd want to be jamming too for balance.

Not sure why you would think you have to get involved here when it appears it's being handled appropriately by those in charge. You're only inflaming the incident when tensions are high with an all-in loss. Losing players response to you seems understandable.

losing player is a perpetual sore loser, that’s why..totally called for under the circumstances. I was happy to try to move the game along rather than make everyone wait on his stupid account. What he was asking was just incredibly unreasonable and he was just blinded by his own tilt. No floor on earth was ever giving him a dime back of that pot and he knew it.

Also funny you choose to call me out rather than his scum move to try to get his money back…as if he was ever calling floor had he won the hand.

This, this, this. It's easy to be results oriented. Focus on making the right decisions.

Makes sense, thanks! Hope all well.

Thanks! I’ve been trying not to focus on results, especially not the last session I played of 5/T/25. I lost AA v AKs all in pre on bottom runout, he riveted Broadway. Lost 77 v QTs all in pre on both run outs too, I knew V was not strong and my read was correct and I got him to make a pretty bad call pre and he was lucky I was this low in my range and he was only a slight dog. -$450 hold em, not bad for those stakes. I think I played well and ran bad. It was a great line up.

Won $1,500 at plo, top set cracked AA in 4! pot and AAJ22 held in 3! pot with nfd nut gutter and backdoor boat draw which got there otr on QT8 versus QTJ9. That’s about it.

Up around $450 at plo, $15 at 2/5 for a decent profit on the session. No difficult spots, small ball poker. Was at good 2/5 game - plo got nitty - but sadly could not capitalize, not getting many playable hands at all. Played 2/5 with a local pro who was in the 25/50 and he said he booked a "small" win back there - $5k!

Had a nice date night after work, then hit the tables where 5/5 was running and I lost with top set against a straight and chopped with top set against AA+nfd for a small loss before the game broke. Played 2/5 briefly, got A5dd, raised utg1, co 3!, I put in the 4! bluff and he called unfortunately and I whiffed and x/folded. Next hand picked up JJ utg1 and utg opened, I just jammed my last $300 or so and got called by SB with AKo and I lost. Left for smaller plo game which opened up where I was largely card dead until I limped otb with a speculative T9862ds and as expected action V raised BB pot, a few callers and I saw a squeeze opportunity to get it in heads up so I backraised and V jammed after some thought, surprisingly one of the EP limpers called and I thought I had some fold equity so I jammed for $800 but he snap called. Oops! Luckily I made a straight and scooped. I am pretty sure card removal was in my favor this hand as there were a lot of high cards out in the field so my middling rundown was in good shape. Didn't really get many playable hands, but finished the session up $260 or so. If I make around $300 a day for the rest of the year I will attain my annual goal.

Up $30 1/3, up $225 2/5, up $275 plo, up $700 5/5 plo, down $450 20/40 limit mix for a nice profit on the day! Got late dinner (kabob) with my new poker friend where we chatted hands and stuff, we laughed, was a good time!

A losing session to start off the weekend, mainly towards the end of my 2/5 plo session in an action game; was quite card dead and lost top set AA against inside wrap in 4! pot and a couple 3!/4!bet pots with KK to iso maniac or AQQ sort of hands, did not connect after the flop or got 4! off the hand pre by someone with AA. Day one dealer (i.e., a dealer who has been dealing at mgm since opening day) was being verbally insulted by action player who cursed when he lost, she eventually told him to stop and she'd call the floor and said I was her witness, "he plays here a lot." Kinda put me on the spot to have to take sides between the dealer and the maniac who everyone wanted to stay and continue to donate but it didn't come to that because the dealer understood the circumstances and said she'd let it slide out of respect for us players. Good dealer!

Made a little at 5/5 at least but game has been mediocre lately and has been breaking early. Someone mean in the 5/5 game was not saying nice things about me (the dude who tried to get his money back a few days ago from the player who bough in over the max) and the game was bad and short-handed so I quit shortly before the game broke.

Mom is back from Mexico, nice to have her back home. And she brought me a new Mexican bag!

This month I have been pretty card dead and I am just struggling to break even, but at least I am not losing my mind too much and going on a downswing. Maybe the beach trip helped with my mental game? I will do my best to lose the minimum until the next upswing comes, hopefully soon!

Was stylin' with my new Mexican bag last night.

Ran well at 5/T/25, flopped 2p with K2s straddle v. bb against AK and 3! AA, got cold called and called by original raiser and they both folded flop. Also won some pre, btn v. sb 3!/I 4! jammed and took it down pre. Lost middle set versus bottom set against table spot...he went runner runner flush and won bottom set versus my wrap and two back door flush draws (he never folds bottom set). He hit and run against me again as he always does, only to return two hours later with the min buy in, basically a form of going south that is unfortunately not against the rules. I called him out for it and said it was bad poker etiquette and he got super pissed and called the floor on me lol and implied I was only calling him out because of the color of his skin. In fact, he's one of the only regs who consistently does this. He also happens to be terrible at plo.

Lost QJcc on AKTcc versus KK and nut flush draw as well and AA in 3! pot with spr 1.3 versus a flopped 2p heads up. Ran well at 5/5/15 plo even while toxic pro kept berating me, asking why I was there and telling me to go play 2/5 plo because "you'll have more fun there you can play more hands." Lol. Won with dsAA all in pre and a good pot postflop with dsKK, rivering the second nut flush. Game broke and I left for 2/5 plo. Made a good profit on the day, upwards of 2k I believe overall, despite some run bad at 2/5 plo.

Someone at 5/t mentioned the blog and asked if I was dumbostrunk...we chatted, nice guy even though I was initially pissed at him for calling clock on me once. Funny, I never know who reads this. Always nice to know people appreciate the blog!

Even stuck $4.5k from a lame 5/T/25 session I’ve still got that “world class” skillset to fall back on at plo…

Limps to me I iso AKTT2ds get three callers. Flop AQ4 with two of my back door flush draws and top set blocker and nut gutter, fun player bets $30, rec isos to $100, I 3! to $350, fun player calls and rec folds QQ face up. I win at showdown against fun player’s inside wrap. Go dumbo!

Edit: either world class or I got lucky. Lol. Either way, incredibly proud of myself for how I handled today. Growth!

Played 5/T/25 in what looked like a good game, basically got torched almost every hand I played: QQ<AK/JJ ai pre, QTcc light 3! < AA on A-J-7cc (AA didn't cold 4!), 88 chopped with KQ, AQ<TT, ATs<66. These were all losses running it twice too, except for the QQ hand which was three ways so we could only run it once. Lost most of my flips and as the short stack I was 3!/folding for the most part. Ran AQs into KK but got away from it preflop. I once chopped 44 v. AA but that was the one time I got it in really bad but I was super short (20bb). No AA/KK dealt to me this session. One guy in the game said he'd been dealt KK 8 time that day. Omg!

Left for plo where I very quickly incinerated another $1,000 with an action V, 3! basically anything good against his insanely loose raises. Lost a dsAA, a couple good A-high rundowns, a big draw with nut flush draw top pair and oeds which I bet ott when checked to and bricked. Played through it and made most of it back and ended down $400 at plo.

Talked to a great hold ‘em player tonight who said I played 95/100 well my 5/t/25 session last night. Nice to hear! He’s also a good friend who is following my path to become a lawyer and poker player. Thanks sir!

Hi Dumbo, been following your blog for a while. I remember you said you used to always do this? Hit and run then come back for the minimum? You said it’s an acceptable strategy to protect and build your bankroll and you still do it to this day when you play higher steaks but maybe you do it more discretely like pretend to go eat or play a diffent game then come back so it doesn’t look like bad etiquette. Why the hypocrisy in calling the brotha out? I aspire to be a successful pro like you and want to hear your thoughts on that

Was looking for info on the 5/10 cheating scandal and came across this. You left value on the table against me when you called K2 in the straddle at 5/10/25 and flooped the world and just flatted every street. Don’t know if you have much experience up there but blind vs blind at these stakes the range gets a lot wider.

QUOTE=DumbosTrunk;57920137]Was stylin' with my new Mexican bag last night.

Ran well at 5/T/25, flopped 2p with K2s straddle v. bb against AK and 3! AA, got cold called and called by original raiser and they both folded flop. Also won some pre, btn v. sb 3!/I 4! jammed and took it down pre. Lost middle set versus bottom set against table spot...he went runner runner flush and won bottom set versus my wrap and two back door flush draws (he never folds bottom set). He hit and run against me again as he always does, only to return two hours later with the min buy in, basically a form of going south that is unfortunately not against the rules. I called him out for it and said it was bad poker etiquette and he got super pissed and called the floor on me lol and implied I was only calling him out because of the color of his skin. In fact, he's one of the only regs who consistently does this. He also happens to be terrible at plo.

Lost QJcc on AKTcc versus KK and nut flush draw as well and AA in 3! pot with spr 1.3 versus a flopped 2p heads up. Ran well at 5/5/15 plo even while toxic pro kept berating me, asking why I was there and telling me to go play 2/5 plo because "you'll have more fun there you can play more hands." Lol. Won with dsAA all in pre and a good pot postflop with dsKK, rivering the second nut flush. Game broke and I left for 2/5 plo. Made a good profit on the day, upwards of 2k I believe overall, despite some run bad at 2/5 plo.

Someone at 5/t mentioned the blog and asked if I was dumbostrunk...we chatted, nice guy even though I was initially pissed at him for calling clock on me once. Funny, I never know who reads this. Always nice to know people appreciate the blog![/QUOTE]

Also Dumbo bought in for way less than the max 2500 and left within an hour or two after running up said stack so yes this is hypocrisy. Man I don’t miss two plus two lol.

Well I had been playing for 20 hours at that point. Sorry if I couldn’t last another hour. I was exhausted bro.

When you’re building your roll and are relatively poor I think it’s fine to rathole. When I hit and run years ago, the money was a sizable portion of my very limited bankroll. We’re talking one buy in was 1/20 of my roll in the beginning. A double up was 10% of my roll. You should not play with more than 5% of your roll on the table.

The thing is, this guy is not building a roll. He’s got money. He’s well into his 50s. He’s terrible at plo and is probably well aware that he’s more likely to lose it if he keeps playing with that much in front of him. He’s not using it as a bankroll building tool. He’s not even a winning player. So that’s not a valid reason in his case. I think it’s bad etiquette no matter who does it, but it’s worse in my view when there are no financial reasons for it. It’s detrimental to the people who lose without any real gain for the ratholer who is just going to blow it all eventually anyway. (Now that I say this I realize it probably does not matter that this player basically goes south in this systematic fashion.)

Now that I have built my roll I don’t need to do this anymore. Also, when I did leave, especially in my early years playing 1/3, it was after an appropriate amount of time. I didn’t do it literally as soon as I stacked my chips. I used appropriate etiquette and gave it an orbit or so. This guy leaves that same hand. He also apparently flouts the rules and comes back less than two hours later, according to another reg who he says “hates” him.

When I leave a game now for a different game - ie switch from plo to hold ‘em or vice versa - I normally don’t come back to play the earlier game, and if I do I don’t come in for the minimum. Cases where I come back normally involve the other game breaking, or I start to lose. I don’t really rathole anymore to be frank. I do enjoy a variety of games and sometimes, especially when losing, I will switch games. It’s usually not when winning that I change tables these days, it’s when running bad.

Also I didn’t hit and run right after winning that pot off you with K2…and I was done for the day. I didn’t rathole and play a different game only to come back two hours later like the other guy.

[QUOTE=wiznbadonks;57922648]Was looking for info on the 5/10 cheating scandal and came across this. You left value on the table against me when you called K2 in the straddle at 5/10/25 and flooped the world and just flatted every street. Don’t know if you have much experience up there but blind vs blind at these stakes the range gets a lot wider.

I was tired and probably should have gone all in on the river that hand for my last $800 but I just autocalled and didn’t want to lose the max if I was beat. I had top and bottom on the flop and I actually thought you were bluffing so I didn’t want to blow you off your bluff. I could have raised river, but I wasnt sure I’d be called by worse after you triple barreled. I think you bet $450 into $800 on the river. Take that as a compliment. Sorry I had to leave not long after but like I said it had been a looooong session and I believe your session was just beginning. Fwiw I play here a lot so we may cross paths again.

Last night's session was pretty boring, not many big hands, just a lot of smaller ones, for a $550 profit from plo. Lost my only dsAA all in pre three ways to two Vs who were blocking themselves (both made a Q8 straight). People folded to me a lot in the bigger pots, so the games were not great.

Nice thing was I got a free session review from a friend and a really good hold 'em player to evaluate my play in that rough 5/t/25 session the other night. Seems like I played fine but ran bad, and in a game of that size you can lose a lot pretty quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!