Day 4:

The plan for Friday was to to try to find the sweet spot where I wouldn't have to make three trips to and from the casino to get on the list and in the game, and also fade paying for a hotel, but I've been so behind in sleep that I skipped the morning slot and showed up later in the afternoon when I thought a seat would free up.
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Got in no problem, and managed to dig myself a hole out of the gate. It took me a good 30 minutes to settle in and quit butchering spots. I'd guess that I found a problem with 5 of the first 8 hands that I played, again not giving myself enough time to think, or leveling myself with my own unnecessary false tells.
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Eventually I settled in and played a solid B game for the majority of the night. A 800/1600 HOREBT game opened up that often times looked better than our 400/800, but if one of us left it would break the table and screw over the other players, so we coasted on our gentleman's agreement.
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Really I can't think of the last time I thought I played a great complete day of mixed outside of one 75/150 in early 2016, and a 40/80 session 3 years earlier. I'm pretty critical of myself, but it's definitely an accurate statement, and I wonder if some of the guys I respect feel this way when there are 10+ games alternating. I'm not saying a perfect game, but a perfect game to the best of my abilities. I imagine most entries could be me kicking myself for a handful of **** ups, so let's just note that this part is implied moving forward.
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We were 4 handed around 7am when I felt myself really getting tired, and coming to the conclusion that shorthanded **** ups would make me hate life, so I booked a win. Never feel bad about booking a win, fam. People who call people fam probably book wins all the time. Disgusting.



Day:+$20,450

Total +$23,373

Great thread man,

Where would you send a player if he wanted to fully commit to being a crusher at mixed games? Obviously the learning platform for these games TINY.

Awesome. I'm going to work "murdery" into my normal household lexicon.

The whole day 3 post was great but the above image is priceless.

The ebb after the apex is ineludible. Into oblivion we charge. #nihilistpoker

There aren't many below 40/80 live unless you want to play on swcpker.eu that is a BTC site that spreads 12 game (including Bd, Ba, SD, HORSE, NL/PLO,TB).

At 40/80 you can play at turning stick in Arizona or Chicago has similar games (as Brandon and electrical have mentioned).

Awesome thread. I've done the Commerce grind a couple times at 40/80-1/2 during LAPC and I really think you need to be staying there if you want to stay sharp, get enough rest, and not spread yourself so thin.

One and only time I played Archie it was 9s or higher to qualify and 9 or lower.

There are just so many more games than standard stars 8g for instance, it must really make you analyze every spot as if it's never been analyzed before (cuz it prob hasn't lol). Like in lhe if CO opens we have A10ss on btn its a spot no pro would disagree about but these crazy games are still poker and you have to find the map towards beating them.

check out culver city for a place to live. gl

I meant more on the idea where he would send someone if they wanted to LEARN the format of the games, not location. ;P

hi knittle,

mix games are generally popular because they include a lot of games that aren't easily solvable via studying the 2+2 / training video hivemind. some of these games you just gotta learn on the fly and study at home.

higher stakes regs have gotten wise to what's happened with holdem (and to a lesser extent PLO) and how public training has made edges smaller, so they are obv wiser to not let this happen again with newer games in mixes. you aren't going to find a lot of material online, even on 2+2's Other Poker Forums

idk what you're looking to accomplish (making a living at mix, or just being good enough that you can sit in a game and not be the fish) but a lot of it is just elbow grease. mix isn't consistent popular/soft year round in any particular city such that you could start at the bottom and grind your way up for a living solely via mix.

Appreciate the really in-depth post man!
Answered exactly what I wanted.

Seems that there would be a lot of money to be made from regs just grinding lower cash games because the lack of knowledge..

You would make Joey's show better, but that's on him to figure out. If he cared about overexposure, then explain all the Cate/Kassouf/Doug repeats?
You just keep doing your thing. Don't worry about breaking the game (that's Commerce's job) and don't be so self-critical. gl

Damn, awesome thread, subbed and in for the ride! Great to see a non-holdem focused thread too.

As a budding mixed games player, I love hearing about the high stakes mixes. I didn't realize such a degen mix even runs and at such high stakes. Seems like the floor could be more active with watching sit outs but I'm not surprised there's politics.

1k/2k been running at both commerce and bellagio this week

Really, I would pick one of the most frequented games, and watch/read all I could on that one game, then play a ****load of just that one game, and note small spots and little epiphanies until you're a winner, and feel you have a grasp of most situations, then move on to the next one.

I've been lazy on the reading and video, and just grind/write stuff down.

Find people you trust and respect and pick their brains. Well prepared coaching and playing is probably the fastest way to go about learning.

!! Good to have you back =)

Thanks, I've been just playing the later shifts recently, but considering getting a room a few nights a week when I think the morning game will run, or just showing up medium early and hoping I can get in without making 3 trips.

Good to see your name again! I'll keep Culver City in mind thanks!

Agree, really good post Clayton.

RIO seems to have some guys on their roster that can give you some nice insight. I've always been bad at videos, but I remember watching Eric Rodawig's 3 part Stud8 series on Cardrunners, and thought it was fantastic.

Now that they're showing hole cards for mixed in WSOP events, those should be good learning tools as well. Don't take people's play or commentary as fact of course, but always good to observe.

Thanks Sean, that's kind of you. All good regardless. I was a better interview before I got into poker anyhow.

<3 on the rest. glgl!

Thanks much!!

Yeah, it's sketch as **** there. Thanks for checking the thread out.

I'm super behind. After today I'll need to make up 4 posts. I intended to just put up totals if it got like this, but I like giving some of the story, so I'll need a tiny bit of down time.

The last week and half has been really hard dealing with certain people in the mix. I will expand, but independent of results, it's been the most unpleasant 2 weeks of poker I've ever experienced. We've been playing 800/1600, so i should be having fun =/

Talk to you soon friends!

Really enjoying your blog thus far mate.

Are you going to be making trips to Vegas if big games are running? I'm not sure what the mixed game scene there is compared to Commerce.

Day 5:




You know those films that start with the ending, then they go through the story until you get back to the opening scene, only to find out that the opening scene wasn't actually the ending, and that there's plenty more weird **** to follow?

I showed up at The Commerce around 3 in the afternoon to find the morning game hadn't run, and a 800/1600 Super Stud8 game had been underway from the previous night until about 9am. I joined a 150/300 must move for a few orbits until a 400/800 started up with a friendly and very gamble-y guy I've seen play in the big Las Vegas mixes.

At the same time a 1k/2k PLO/2-7 TD mix was kicking up, and it wasn't 20 minutes before our Las Vegas friend opted out of our game in favor of that one. Typical of the Commerce scene, suddenly the game was threatening to break, but a few other characters said they would fill in the gaps if we changed the mix some and kicked up the limits.The table obliges and I record a +$1,675 win in the 4/8.

Our 2 hours a night fly-by 'VIP' was due to show up, and it was understood that the game would be bumped to 800/1600 when he arrived - Very exciting! In both the 500/1000 and 800/1600 I once again underperformed, but ran horrendously acting as everybody's second best hand, minus a couple of Badugi pots. Coolers aside, 7th street was notoriously brutal, as I watched multiple three way hands I was designed to scoop go the other way at the last minute. Obviously part of the experience, but I was aching to collect a massive pot stuffed with $500 lavender chips.

I finished down $19,100 before we jumped to 800/1600, and lost an additional $10,900 when 2 hour fly-by quit the game. Players began racking up their chips ( I did not need a rack =) ) when the Super Stud 8 squad appeared thirsty for action. This is great!

I scooped one single pot for the full 3 hours, where all of my money went in by 5th street. Absolute torture, and I didn't feel like there was much I could've done differently. Add an additional $44,300 to our aforementioned losses, and I've nearly doubled my worst losing day ever.



That's it, the twist is that there is no twist, and the opening scene of the ending scene is all I can give you for Sunday's session. Valentine's Day Eve, you just made the list mother****er.

Day: -72,625
Total: -49,252

Sorry to hear, brutal session. Nothing much we can say to make it better but keep putting yourself in good spots and you'll make it back with interest.

Keep up the awesome thread, both content and writing style are great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sucks man.

Was the 2-7TD played PL when mixed with PLO?

You said a mouthful, Brandon. Save that post for when your future offspring ask if they should play poker.
(If that's Angry John, I take back whatever I said about him.)

charge your phone, fish

ldo

Brandon,

I'm sorry for your negative experience last week. I mean, really, what can you say to a guy who just lost 70 grand.

"It will probably never be this bad again".

Good luck man, I'm sure you've already turned it around since your last post.

The ascent after oblivion is inevitable. Variance knows not of forsake. #nihilistpoker

Appreciate the words of encouragement, thanks much! I've been away for a bit, and I'll address it in the following posts. I don't intend for this thread to die off.

Just limit, there was some PL draw in last year's 200/400 mix. NL 2-7 in this one.

Haha. Yeah that text was Monette. I definitely appreciated the sentiment.

!!

<3 <3 Thanks

Gonna post next entry now, and prepare the following one as well for Sun or Monday. My love to you all.

Day 6:

After a day off from the worst loss of my career, I was looking forward to redemption, but when I got to the Commerce nobody was around to play. Some time passed and a few guys were interested in starting 3 handed and seeing what might come from it.

I intend on preserving the anonymity of the players of these games out of respect to them, but quite frankly only a handful of them deserve it if I'm being honest, and it's not like I'm reaping the great rewards of good etiquette, but still I will try to honor the intent unless I know it doesn't matter, or they deserve the call out ( next post ).
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In any case we started 400/800 with one of the few people in this game I feel close with, who happens to be a very strong player, along with a kid I'll call 'Smug Mango' ( he's ****ing smug and eats a lot of mango ). An hour or so went by, I played alright, and ran good booking a $17,100 win before SM wandered off silently with no plan to return. My friend and I sat and talked, waiting to see if SM was coming back - it was his request to start the game - but not to be.
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At this point my girlfriend showed up to surprise me, and my friend decided to head back to his room. I was still planning on hanging around in case 800/1600 started, but we wanted food, and I figured I'd drive her home and let her have the car for the rest of the day. I inform the floor-person of what I'm doing and ask that I be contacted if the big game begins to form. He assures me it won't be a problem.
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Of course I'm tragic, and what winds up happening is we begin driving home, my gf says she's thinking about just staying at Commerce with me and getting some work done on her laptop. I suggest we just turn around and eat in the restaurant, but she wants to let the dogs pee which is reasonable of course. I know in my gut I'm being an idiot, and sure enough 90 minutes later I'm locked out of the 800/1600 with no warning; I totally deserve this.
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I play some 25/50 PLO in the meantime, and do fine ( PLO results under 50/100 not included in these posts ) when old FTP Pro shows up and suggests starting a HU 400/800 Super Stud 8/Badeucey mix which sounds great! I treaded water in SS8, but I'm on a huge 'impossible to make a Badugi in Badeucey' dry spell, and my opponent is having a field day with 9/9s.
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I'm stuck $23,500 after a few hours, but still pretty happy with my spot, although FTP pro's play has slowed down considerably, and he's asking me the mundane questions people ask you when they think you're a fish: "So where are you from? Do you like skiing?"
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At this point the catalyst for the 800/1600 game has left and some of the guys join our table asking if we want to start a new 800/1600 mix. We oblige although I'm $28,500 away from running through the money I have on hand so I'm not working with many bets. I lose a Badugi hand with a dealt 8 perfect, get called by Ace high in Stud 8 correctly, and I'm out the door.



I obviously hadn't intended on taking so long to update this, but the next entry will explain my absence, and while it involves poker, it has nothing to do with the results. I'll be catching up quickly friends; thanks for hanging in there. <3 <3

Day: -34,900
Total: -84,152

stay strong bro

Love reading this. Hope you're doing ok. Thanks for the updates.

=) Thanks man. Happy Sunday hunting! Keep up the good work!

Really appreciate it, thanks. Just finishing the next one; it'll be up today.