It's going to be a very long row to hoe if run-of-the-mill things like losing a hand thanks to a big draw not coming in / dude showing a bluff / etc. are steaming you. Those things (draws missing, people showing bluffs, etc.) are going to continue to happen day in / day out for the rest of your days at the poker table. If you don't change how you react in these spots then poker is going to be an unpleasant pursuit.

I know it may seem like we're harping on the negative here, especially when you've said the majority of your time at the table you're fine. But it's really kinda akin to NL itself. You can play great for 99% of your session, but if you **** up that 1% of the time to cost you your stack, then it's a losing session. Same sorta deal with this stuff.

GI'vealwaysthoughtitwas"roadtohoe",lookeditup,andl earnedsomethingtoday,lol@meG

poker might not be his problem. I get really annoyed with most people I deal with everyday running a business, its not an easy thing to change and if you're getting pissed off at poker players you probably have same issue in regular jobs.

Yeah, that's definitely a possibility. The question then becomes is one environment (i.e. a typical work place environment of your choice) less likely to produce these sorts of situations than another environment (i.e. your typical casino poker room environment).

Ggoodluck!G

Up $150 today at a little 1/3 before heading to folks' for Thanksgiving dinner. Invited a couple friends as well. I'm thankful for working through and getting out of my recent depressive slump. Who knows, might have had something to do with my agitation lately.

Couple hands from today's short session:

I am by far the most aggro at the table (just getting good hands). Iso 55, flop 5-3-Qsss.
$20, SB calls. Turn: Kh. $40, call. River: Kc. $60, calls with flopped nut flush.

Iso KQo, two callers, AAQ checks through, A turn, limper $20, only I call. River: 8. Limper $35, I call, MHIG v. 55. Iso 99, one limp/caller short stack, flop Q-5-3r, he open jams $90, I fold, he shows 65ss. One EP raise $10, I call BB (fourth caller) with A3hh, flop A-3-Qr, pfr continues $15, ss with 65 calls, I call. Turn: 5. $20, ss jams $90, I call, pfr folds, lose to AQ.

Open TT, limp/caller calls $20, flop 568. I $20, call. Turn: 6. X/x. River: Kh bringing bd flush, I check, he bets $50, I tank call with h blocker and unblocking 7x, MHIG v. ATo.

A ss opens to $11 (sizing tell, normally bigger), I just posted and 3! $33 with 98cc, he folds.

Flop trips in limped pot with QJo, QQ6hh, 56ss V calls $15, 5c turn, he calls $27, river x/x MHIG. He had $75 behind I guess I should go for value against QT/Q9/Q8s?

That's pretty much it.

I'm gonna be honest here and say I smell the mental leaks from thousands of miles away. The moment you start to acknowledge people getting to you, targeting people etc you're in a wrong place. This is poker, things are going not going to be pretty a lot of times and people won't be nice about it, so either get over it or don't do it. I would have loved to show you a bluff while being down if that means I can crush the spirit of some nitty reg. I would go out of my way to get a bluff to showdown at that point if I knew it was going to get to you and it would impact your mental state. Is that nice? No, but that's what you do to the competition. The same way you seem to respond to off remarks and stuff like that, you're an extraordinarily easy target and I would pound on it until it crumbles, just because you present me the option to do it.

Seriously, the moment I know someone gets off from getting back at me I know I have already won. You're basically target practice if your mindset is this weak.

My mental game is pretty tough, Kelvis. I’m going to keep playing well, even against players who try to get under my skin. And he didn’t “crush my spirit” by showing a bluff. Hardly. Perhaps you misunderstood: I didn’t go on tilt after he showed the bluff. I only thought he was being a jerk for trying to put me on tilt. I’ve been through more in my life already than most people endure over the course of a lifetime and I’ve overcome all of it. No cheap card trick is going to “crush my spirit,” bud.

But I appreciate all the constructive feedback from everyone who chimed in. Today I was running over the table and got called by a couple players, one of whom muttered something to his neighbor and said to me “relax, we’ll get you this time.” I laughed and said “you’ll get me?” When I had j-high at showdown I just said “you got me!”

Just leaving friends’ place. Gonna stop by MGM to give thanks to a few members of the staff who have gone the extra mile for me lately
before heading home.

DT,

Is your SN an euphemism? If so your crush beware!

Couldn't help myself and after tipping some select staff played a little 1/3 for a couple hours, first BB it's limped to me and Ihave J3o and make 3s full of jacks on J3539hhh and c/r river and V folded. Then chopped AA v. QQ in 3! pot on 57896 runout (I had AA). Made a set of 2s and won a smallish pot. That's pretty much it. Up $140.

Like Rick said, why do you think I raise so much? But honestly, 'DumbosTrunk' was the first thing that popped into my crazy brain when thinking of a SN. No conscious rhyme or reason. Subconscious? Perhaps....

Ended the month on a good note, up $400 playing 1/3 NLHE and 4-card PLO mix game (+$215), 5-card (+$285), 1/3 (even) and a little 2/5 where I lost $100. Played well.

Funniest hand: I have 55 in BB, check my option, 5-T-8r, I bet $15, two callers. Turn: T. I bet $30, two callers. River: Q. I bet $40, short stack AI for $38, fold. I lose to quad Ts.

Best hourly last month ever at $34, 189 hours, $6,600 ($100 from lucky table not included in hourly).

By game:

1/3: 70 hours, $30/hr. (10bb/hr.)

2/5: 50 hours, $76/hr. (lots of bb/hr.)

5/10: 13 hours, $30/hr. (little bb/hr. - but not losing for a change!)

Omaha (5/5 and 1/2): 50 hours, 0.64/hr. (very little bb/hr.)

My home games were basically break-even or a little profit last month and the last three hours were last night's mix game.

The depressive episode aside, November was a good month poker-wise. Ran pretty well, reduced the 5-card, focused on 1/3 and 2/5 (with a little 5/10). Probably will become a trend going forward. Less stress, easier, more profitable. All good things. Couldn't beat my October bottom line, hard as a tried for the last couple weeks there, but that's OK, I had a good month. Will go for $8k this month.

Looking forward to December; pro friend says games will be better around the holidays. I anticipate I will play even less omaha this month since it's so volatile and seems to be eating into my win rate. I will keep the focus on 1/3, 2/5, and some 5/10 when game conditions cooperate.

I had the weekend off because of the holiday and I read this entire thread. Holy crap thank you for all your posting. I registered an account just to say thank you DT.

Thank you so much for the positive feedback! Best of luck to you.

And probably for the multiple timeth in this thread, I'm still not sure what's more impressive: your winrate (nice month, imo) or your hours.

Any thoughts on the volume you're putting in? You think you can keep that up or do you think you'll eventually have to reign it back?

Ggogogo,imoG

Thanks, as always. Well I played “only” 189 hours in November compared to around 200-230 the previous few months, so I sorta did scale it back last month. It was a nice change of pace. Probably improved my overall game too, hence the better winrate.

I think that in addition to making more per month, playing less moving forward will also be a goal of mine. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But hopefully as my game continues to improve, the reduced hours will not materially impact my bottom line. Plus I expect by mid-2020 I’ll be playing more 5/10, so for that reason too I won’t need to grind as hard.

Not a whole lot to report the past couple uneventful sessions. Tonight at 5-card a dealer announced a stuck-heaps-rec-player's untabled hand that he was holding up to his face but had not yet tabled (the dealer was seated directly to the player's right and apparently peeked over and saw the hand). I had tabled my entire hand (AA) and was all in. She ignored my cards and just read his (again, untabled) hole cards as the winning hand - "we've got clubs over here." I complained at the table and to the floor afterwards and sat out the rest of her down. Obviously if the player didn't know he had rivered a backdoor flush and mucked I would have won. That's pretty much it. The rest of the session was white noise. I think I may be stuck around $400 this month so far.

the dealer made a mistake but the correct cards won and kicking up a fuss about it with the floor etc when it's a rec player is so stupid and ruins the game especially when you are a nit who never gives any action

I'll be the first to tell you that OP is irrationally uptight, but the dealer broke the rules here and needs to be reprimanded. This is absolutely unacceptable.

I accidentally violated the OPTAH rule myself last session out and felt quite bad about it. Three people are all-in and there's a side pot. Main pot is claimed by a hand that isn't involved in the side pot. Noobish dude sees the tabled hand which he obviously can't beat (but isn't involved in his side pot) and gets up to leave. I think he's forgetting he's got side pot winnings still on the table (and hasn't busted out like he thought he has) and say "dude, you've still got the side pot"). As soon as I speak out I realize my mistake in that he hasn't tabled his hand yet. He then tables his hand to collect the side pot. Whoops, my bad. Dealer really should have reprimanded me but most dealers are clueless in this spot. Losing side pot guy was another noob and had no idea how out-of-line I accidentally was.

GcluelessOPTAHnoobG

Players make this mistake all the time, and often it's done in the interests of keeping the game fair for those who are clearly new to the game. This intention is not so bad.

But dealers should know better. It's especially egregious for a dealer to announce an untabled hand when doing so has the appearance of favoritism, as it did in my case. I'm not surprised a lot of players think the house protects rec players to the detriment of regs. (The 5/10 angry reg's quote, "these f*cking c*cksuckers always get their way" seems apropos in this situation.) I mean, "cards speak at showdown," not when a dealer happens to peek at a player's hand and then essentially play for him.

Also, this player wasn't a noob, he was just stuck heaps and playing badly. No sympathy for him.

Yeah, but it is still up to new users to learn the game themselves and learn from their mistakes. My intention was not to encourage him to table his hand (a clear violation of OPTAH); it was a mistaken attempt to be friendly and let him know he still had chips at his seat.

ETA: The dealer in your case is *way* out-of-line, imo.

GcluelessintentionsnoobG

I don't think this is out of line at all, in fact you probably should have said there was a sidepot. According to protocol the player contesting the main pot shouldn't even turn his cards over yet and the dealer should announce that the showdown is for the sidepot first. Since the dealer apparently failed in conducting proper showdown I think you should step in and ensure that players are aware when they are eligible for pots. This is not the same as the player seeing a hand that beats him in the sidepot, deciding he can't beat it and mucking which would be his own decision.

I'd argue this is pretty much the same as telling the dealer player 1 has a flush when both hands went to showdown and nobody saw it. In this case the player was thrown off by the player that shouldn't have showed his hand yet and a dealer that had no clue how the game works, I think not saying anything would be the bad position.

Some real talk right here...

Actually as long as the dealer sees the cards at showdown it's in play. If the dealer saw a winning hand and the player folded it that would be wrong to not say anything. Do you have any dealer training?

Now if the dealer said something without seeing the cards that would be different. Or if another player chimed in that would be inappropriate. I can understand you being upset here because you don't understand the proper protocols of poker but rest assured you are incorrect in this scenario and the dealer did not act improperly.

If the player had mucked a winning flush that the dealer saw you would not have won. It is the dealer's job to award the pot to the winning hand. It is childish for anyone to sit out for any particular dealer. I always laugh at those people.

The dealer has an obligation to award the pot to the winning hand. Period.
You made yourself look bad in this instance. Be aware of that.

+1. Telling a player there is a side pot does not violate the one player per hand rule. I always tell people there's a side pot whenever someone tables a winning hand for the main pot. Nothing wrong with that.

whether the dealer is right or wrong is not the issue.
if the dealer is wrong take it up with them and the floor privately.
a nit pro player making a big public protest and sitting out a particular dealer is so socially clueless and bad for poker.