There Was a Time...

"I just had like the worst swim in a long time. So many people in the pool, lots of slower swimmers. It was awful.", I text my wife from the gas station where I stopped to refill my car before heading to the poker game. In my mind I told myself that a shitty workout is still much better than no workout at all, and if I ran that bad in swimming, I hopefully will run better at poker. Some time my bad run/bad play/general fishiness has to end, right?

***

As I arrive to the game, we are only three players, but we choose to start it shorthanded anyway. The other two guys buy in for 200, so I do the same with another 400-ish in my pocket. The second hand we play PLO, I pick up shitty kings on the button straddle (blinds are 1/1/2), so I pot it. Shitty hands on the button three-handed I´ll pot preflop after limped to each and every time. Both players call. The flop comes AK6 with two hearts. Since there was no action preflop I am pretty damn sure I have the nuts, so when it checks to me I bet 15 and get one caller. The turn is an offsuit five, which is just great, so when my opponent checks to me I bet close to full pot - 45. He tank-calls and I am still feeling great, just need to fade a heart now. The river is more or less blank, a black eight. I think about sizing and choose to go for around half pot and bet out something like 50. My opponent quite quickly calls and I table the effective nuts.

Except for the fact that he now turns over a hand containing 765, no flushdraw. For ****´s sake. He called the flop with bottom pair, the turn with bottom two and a gutshot and got there on the river.

So much for running good in poker after that shitty swim.

***

I added on for 100 more after that hand, or maybe 150, I don´t remember. We are playing three-card texas and I make a donation to the player that stacked me by playing a hand too aggressively - I had something like Q64 on a Qx4 board with two hearts (again those ****ing hearts), I hold none. I check, my opponent bets, I check-raise and he goes all-in. In this spot I kind of think that this is a fold, although it´s hard to fold two pair on a board with draws. But top and bottom with no redraws sucks. I am slightly tilted and call, he has QQ and I am basically drawing dead.

I rebuy for 250 more. I had brought 600 in cash and am now in for 550.

***

I do manage do win a few pots before I give it all back on a bluff-catch. Again, three-card texas, on the turn I have top two, when the flush comes. The preflop aggressor bets when checked to, I believe that his most likely hand here is an overpair. I made it 75 to go after his bet and after a while of tanking he makes the call. The river is a blank and I check, now he fires out a bet of 211. Very polarising. I go into the tank, I tell him that I am quite sure he has aces with the ace of diamonds. But does he have the other diamond to go with it?

Yeah, of course, I hero-call, of course he has AA9 with A9 of diamonds. I mean, this player is surely capable of pulling off a bluff here with AA w/ Ad, but I am not quite sure he would against me.

***

Bomb pot, 100 left in my stack after the hand above. Turn checks around, the river basically gives me monster draws on both boards, I pot and get three callers. The river pairs the board on one board and I miss on the other, I check, there´s a bet and a call. I fold with 85 left in my stack. A few hands later there´s a an open to 6 in three-card texas, I call with random crap (J86 with two hearts), there´s a three-bet to 27, so I just push my last 83 in against a likely overpair and can´t suck out on KK.

At least I for once find myself having the mental capability of an adult and I don´t walk to the ATM to take out another 500 in cash to sit back in, although the game seemed quite decent.

***

As I sit in my car and drive home I remember a distant time, a time where I actually won at poker at times. And didn´t punt off 550 at a 1/1 game (okay, most of the hands are 1/1/2 and it´s an action game) in 90 minutes. Although I don´t really keep records, I am still upp for the year thanks to that one big score I had at 5/10 PLO back in spring. But damn, if I run and play this bad in Barcelona, I´ll be stuck big time for the year for sure. Actually, if I lose 500 each time I go playing poker, which is more or less once a week, I´ll be stuck before I even travel there.

Certified Internet Pro Is No More

Basically my October results have been totally awful. In three months of playing, I am down a total of 1100 USD over 8,2k hands. Break even before rake, but that is scant consolation. The more I've played the more I've come to the realisation that I won't be able go beat this game, so today was basically the last money I deposited on Stars to play HU PLO. And it is basically all down to a single hand - I think that if I had won this one, I might have tried to delude myself that I could win in the future for another couple of weeks.

PokerStars - $0.50 PL Hi FAST (2 max) - Omaha Hi - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 129.04 BB
BB: 168.5 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Q 2 A A

Hero raises to 3 BB, BB raises to 9 BB, Hero raises to 27 BB, BB calls 18 BB

Flop: (54 BB, 2 players) Q T 2
BB bets 52.5 BB, Hero raises to 102.04 BB and is all-in, BB calls 49.54 BB

Turn: (258.08 BB, 2 players) T

River: (258.08 BB, 2 players) 3

BB shows 2 A T 5 (Full House, Tens full of Twos)
(Pre 24%, Flop 12%, Turn 93%)
Hero shows Q 2 A A (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 76%, Flop 88%, Turn 8%)
BB wins 256.58 BB

This hand was against the weakest player I've played against in this pool and I got it in extremely good (and having 76% equity preflop in PLO isn't that common either), but hey, that's poker for you. It's not like I've never sucked brutally sucked out on other players before. I blocked myself from the cash tables on Stars, since if I don't I'll probably return to the HU tables because outside of MTT:s that's basically the only thing that is fun in online poker. Might donk a few MTT:s now and then just for fun, but no more PLO. It's just not worth it and live poker is at least social and fun (mostly) even if you lose (which I've managed to do like every time I play for the past months).

No live poker for me this week, wifey leaves for Venice tomorrow morning to enjoy a well-earned break and I'll spend my week juggling work and the kids. Football Manager 23 got released a week or so ago and as usual the new release of this game is brutally messing with my sleep schedule. "Just one more game..." becomes "okay, I have this big game in two fixtures, I'll just play that one and then I am off to bed for sure" only to end up in "oh, look, it's 3 AM and I have to get up in four hours!"

One of Those Nights Again?

I´ve been playing for a little less than an hour, up a hundred or so from my 350 EUR buy-in. The game in this place is, as always, played dealer´s choice, with the button picking the game each time. There aren´t that many players who prefer to play PLO, and I feel it gives me a great advantage, since of the max two PLO deals per round I will have the button in one of them and as any PLO player will tell you, position is king in PLO. And much more important than in NLT. Of course, since most players prefer to play NLT or some variation thereof, I also assume that they aren´t really that adept at PLO.

So, I look down at KK87ds to the kings, and I of course pot it from my button and get some callers. Flop isn´t good, but isn´t terrible either - J95 rainbow, with a backdoor flushdraw for me. It checks to the player two seats to the right of me, who bets 20. Now, when it gets back to me, I have a decision to make. This player is aggressive, and has one of the bigger stacks at the table, almost as big as mine. I could just call and see what develops, however, I will likely be faced with a largish bet and a marginal hand on most turns. And if I call, there´s a good chance that some more players will join the party, which would be terrible for my particular hand, since I only have four outs to the nuts.

So, I bump it up to 75. If I get it heads up, I think there is quite a good chance that the sucker straight will be good as well, especially since I double-block the nuts if a ten peels, and I also block outs for the high wrap, so if he re-pots it he should only have JJ/99 here (or the high wrap once in a while) and I can fold. But I am quite sure that his range is much wider than that - so it is concievable that I can win the pot right here, or, if he calls, re-evaluate. It folds around to him and he thinks for a while before calling.

The turn is the magical 6, giving me the indisputable nuts. He checks it over to me, I bet 200, he has something like 300 behind and I cover. He tanks, tanks, tanks some more... and then pushes it in. We decide to run it twice. He has J96 for three pair, so I am an 88% favourite to win a huge pot. I am feeling great... until the dealer flips over a nine on the first river. Luckily, lightning doesn´t strike twice and we chop it up, however my mindset takes a nasty blow and I am now thinking - is it going to be one of THOSE nights AGAIN?

***

"You know that your vape pen has the same amount of nicotine as more than two packs of cigarettes, right?", the player to my left asks. He and another guy has been discussing the nicotine content of the tobacco-less pouches you put under your lip for a while, and now the nicotine content discussion widens.
"No, man, it´s like six or seven cigarettes", I confidently reply.
"Want to bet? It´s more like fifty!

Now I am getting unsure. I know that I have made the calculations before, but I check the packaging of my unopened vape pen and start to do the numbers. 2 ml of nicotine @ 20 mg = 40 mg. And I do a quick google of how much nicotine a Marlboro Gold has (or Marlboro Light, as it was called when I still was a smoker). And... it´s somewhere around 0,6-0,7! **** me. I now realise my mistake - when I previously calculated this, I must have taken the values for tar (which is measured in full miligrams) instead of nicotine, which is measured in fractions.

Reality hits me hard. My current nicotine habit amounts to something like 100-150 cigarettes per day. Of course, the vaping is much less harmful, bla bla bla, but still. I can´t imagine that such an amount of nicotine on a daily basis isn´t really ****ing bad for one´s health.

***

My worries about it being another one of THOSE nights seems to be unfounded. I am making hands, getting some bluffs through and also getting paid. Most of the regs seem to think that I bluff much more often than I actually do, especially on the river, and I try to utilize it to my advantage. Of course, when I get a river fold, I smile and when someone says "show the bluff" I quickly muck my cards and then smirk and say "sorry, don´t remember what I had", and in general try to give off bluffy vibes although I am a bit pissed that my river bet with the nuts didn´t get called. But image is everything and I want to look like a maniac, although in reality I am only a half-maniac. But raising a lot pre-flop and not being afraid of big bets will give you a good table image, so as long as they don´t adjust I´ll just go with it.

I open 54 to 10 from MP, we are now playing NLT, and one of the blinds three-bets to 31. It folds to me and although 54 is too weak to defend, I do so anyway. And get instantly rewarded for my play as the board is a beautiful 763 rainbow. He c-bets for 32 and I call. The turn is a ten, he checks and now I decide to check behind. I won´t get max value from KK/AA this way, but he has a lot of other holdings that might call a river bet, but fold OTT. And besides, against me I think this player would bet the bigger overpairs for value. The river is another ten, he checks again and now I fire 100. He goes into the tank for a while before calling. I flip over my flopped straight and he laments calling me down with ace high. I say, "well, it´s either a bluff or something really good, I was hoping you had an overpair" to which he replies "I wouldn´t tank that long with an overpair, I was afraid that I would lose to some of your bluffs". Good times.

At this point I am sitting on a stack of around 800 - not bad for a 1/1 game (although it´s mostly 1/1/2 with the occasional double straddle thrown in as well):


***

It´s getting quite late, half an hour ago I told the table that I´ll be leaving around 1:30 AM. Have had way too little sleep the past week, mainly due to playing Football Manager 23 after the kids to go bed, and I need to get up a 7 AM. A beginner player, who seems to have only played NLT and isn´t too good at it either, has joined our table a while ago and we are once again playing PLO and I am once again playing on the button. The limpfest begins and as usual I am hoping for something decent enough to raise up with, and I find AT76, single suited to the ace. I make it 10 and four other players join the party.

The flop looks very nice - AT8 with two clubs (I don´t have the flush draw). The clueless guy leads for 10 into 50 with a little less than 200 behind, gets two callers (stack - 300ish, knows how to play PLO, and stack 200ish, mainly an NLT player) and it is up to me again. It is such a wet board and I have top two, so there is really no other option than to raise. I would hate getting back-raised by the 300 stack, but most likely he won´t have sets here with a cold call in EP on such a a wet board. I make it 75 to go, the original raiser calls, but the other two players fold. We go heads up to the turn, which comes down a nine, giving me the most suckerish of sucker straights. Now the clueless guy donks all-in for a little over 100, for a while I consider QJ, but hey, if he has QJ, **** happens. I call and he... flips over AAxx for top set.

Wow, did I get lucky or what? I really didn´t see AA coming here, since I´d expect most NLT players to raise aces preflop, and I block top set. But I won´t complain, I have more than 80% equity here after hitting my lucky four-outer. We run it twice. On the first board, the dealer puts out an eight, but I dodge the double suck-out and we split it up.

***

As I am driving home my thinking is quite divided. I am happy - very happy - with FINALLY booking a win. I think I had something like four-five losing sessions (although many of the losses were small) in a row, and now I was in for 350 and left with 680 after 4,5 hours of play. So it is a very nice result. On the other hand, I had almost 90% equity in an 800 EUR pot which we split, and over 80% equity in a 500 EUR pot which we split. With clean runouts here my win would be 1000:ish.

Whining about running bad would be absurd though, since I could have easily lost both these pots and booked another loss if we hadn´t ran it twice. And in the second pot, I was actually the one getting insanely lucky - there is no way that I fold the flop with top two in that spot if he pushes, and he called for 40% of his stack on the flop as an 80% favorite.

I park my car, get home. My wife is brushing her teeth, she asks me how it went, I reply that I ended up 330 EUR in the green and she congratulates me. This is the final nail in the coffin of doubt - I booked a nice win and I am happy about it. I ended my losing streak and I am extremely happy about this, and although I could have won more, my win was saved only thanks to running it twice.

All in all, a pretty good night. And I have cut down my vaping habit to one vape pen a day for two days now - hoping to quit altogether soon.

Really enjoy your posts, keep it up

Thanks! Always nice to hear that someone reads my ramblings

Really surprised this thread isn’t more popular. Well-written funny degen stories. gl out there.

Thanks! Glad to hear that people actually do read my write-ups!

Let's Degen Some Sportsbets, Shall We?

In two weeks time, I will land in Barcelona Airport at right about this time. It's either a cheap bus ride to town and a 30 minute walk to the hotel or a taxi, I'll hopefully opt for the walk - not that the money matters, but it would be nice to start the trip with some sightseeing. And a walk by the casino to check out how their waiting list system works and so on. Hopefully they have some digital version so I can chill in my hotel room until a spot pops up (or I get to the front of the list) since I don't really feel like hanging out in a casino for hours before getting a seat. That can also turn out quite expensive if things like table games and slots turn on the doomswitch.

I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do down there, except spending a few evenings (at least) degening PLO (and maybe some NLT) at the casino. If the weather isn't lousy, I'll go to that Montserat place (at least I think it was called that - have to check previous posts). A refreshing hike in nature would probably do me a lot of good.

***

Most likely there will be a game running tomorrow, but once again my ****ing Football Manager addiction is costing me sleep and I am tired. Also my wife has started working again after her holiday and her work schedule combined with the kids' practice schedules is keeping me away from the swimming pool, so on top of little sleep I am also getting no excercise, which is a lousy combination. Hopefully I'll be able to hit the pool on Wednesday and Saturday at least, although twice a week is way too little. Three is okay, four is good.

So, should I go and play tired and, if I don't run terribly, dig an even deeper hole in my sleep schedule?

***

An acquaintance message me today, asking if I want to join his fantasy football pool for the Qatar World Cup. "A chance to degen off 30 EUR? Of course I am in!" was my reply. As the World Cup approaches, I also raised my deposit limit at the only local bookie I keep an account at - they have some type of promo where you get free bets for betting the World Cup, the higher the turnover, the more you get. I think an 80k turnover nets something like 2-3k in total freebets, 750 EUR in clothes, a dinner and some other cool stuff. No way I will reach that level though - I will probably start with a 300 or 500 EUR bankroll and take it from there. Have to deposit enough money to make playing singles worthwile, otherwise I can't be assed with doing singles - I mean, betting 10 EUR to win 18? There's no gamble in that. Betting 100 to win 180 on the other hand...

Unless I start posting about me degening off my money on lousy sports picks, I guess this blog will stay quiet until Barcelona. Not sure I can manage to get some degen sessions in before that, at least not when I am sleeping max 6 hours per day.

Oh, and talking about the World Cup. The lines on U2,5 goals look just absolutely horrible. As the African Cup of Nations shows, games played in high heat are often low-scoring affairs, but the bookies have set their prices accordingly. I mean, U2,5 in England-Iran is priced at ****ing 1,68. So much for trying to squeeze out some value on the unders.

EDIT: Germany-Japan U3 at 1,72 (I´m sure there are better odds available if you shop around) looks promising though.

Who is your favorite in this World Cup?

Have a good trip!

Thanks!

I actually think Argentina have a really good chance of a strong showing - they have an easy group, should also get an easy match in the Round of 16. I assume - though I am not 100% sure of this - that the South American teams will have an easier time coping with the heat than the European teams as well. Not something I´d wager money on though, the odds are too low to account for the randomness IMHO.

I like Belgium as outsiders, a top 4 finish might not be out of the question.

So, the local casino seems to have finally solved their dealer shortage, at least partially. Weekends now have two tables of 5/5 NLT, and tournaments are back, albeit with a 30 player maximum limit. However, right now I don´t feel comfortable losing 2-3k in a night, so 5/5 is out of the question (I need money to burn in Barcelona) and I kind of don´t really feel like playing either. Not sure why, maybe because the World Cup is nearing, maybe because I sleep too little due to my Football Manager addiction? Tomorrow there´s a 125 EUR buy-in at the casino, I considered playing it, but those tournaments usually go long into the night and I need to catch up on some sleep.

I did, however, place my first WC bet:


My deposit limit for my local bookie account is yet to be increased (seven day waiting period for increases), but I did have the ability to deposit 25 EUR on Betfair (haven´t played there in ages, but turns out I have a monthly limit of 25 set there for some reason, and yes, I did log on to the 3-4 sites I know I have played on in the past to see if I can get some money in for urgent sportsbet degeneration) so I went with it.

In theory, I feel that Ecuador -1 is a really good bet. It´s an evening game, so the heat should not be that big of an issue, and Ecuador has, at least in my opinion, a better team than Qatar. Of course, the bet is much more likely to push than to come through, but the odds feel good. If Ecuador take the lead, Qatar would have to push, and that could lead to counter-attacking opportunities.

Now, in practice, I actually feel that the bet might be lousy despite my analysis. I have a friend, who at times has been a professional sportsbettor and has worked as a bookmaker as well, and he has a lot of good contacts with regards to betting (he still bets quite a bit). I asked him, he checked with some of his contacts - a guy he says knows Latin American football is really unimpressed by Ecuador, and a guy who follows Middle Eastern football feels that Qatar at home turf could be somewhat of a dark horse and actually have a chance of qualifying from their group. To make matters worse, there is this tweet from a supposedly reputable account:



Now, I don´t really think that the European pros in Qatar would take a bribe. I mean, a little less than 1M to throw a game if you are playing in the Premier League, where your annual salary is something like 2-4M even if you are just a rotation level player, seems way too low to even consider, especially given the ramifications if caught. However, they do have a bunch of players playing in the LATAM leagues, and for them I assume 1M is a huge amount of money. And if Qatar could buy a whole ****ing World Cup, why shouldn´t they be able to buy a game? I mean, I would definately not be surprised to see some dubious refereeing in favour of the hosts.

Anyway, we'll see what Sunday brings - although I'm not as psyched as usual due to all the corruption and other issues with this World Cup, the World Cup is still the World Cup!

There was a game running on Saturday, but I chose Football Manager and nine hours of sleep instead of playing poker into the wee hours. After all, in nine days I leave for Barcelona and then I can go play every night if I feel like it. If I don´t lose an obscene amount of money the first night and feel too bankrupt to play, that is.

Ecuador -1,0 came through - turns out my fears were unfounded, Qatar were as bad as I expected and Ecuador did a good job of killing off the game in the second half. Will try to parlay my winnings for tomorrow´s games:



England-Iran is a stretch and maybe I should have took an O3 line instead, heat will be much more of an issue in the England game than it was today, but Iran aren´t good and I don´t think the political turmoil at home will leave the players unaffected. Hopefully Iran will be able to score a fluke to not allow England to just close out the game at 2-0 or something. Senegal without Mané - well, my bet feels safe. The Netherlands can easily win this by more than one, I don´t see them losing (Senegal I feel are one of the more overrated teams in the WC) and if they only win by one, well, I´ll take the push.

USA-Wales I think will be a tight game, if goals come early I can see this one being goal-friendly as well. But no bets here yet.

Finally Some Real Rungood

"-200 would be fair, with -50 I´d be delighted, but now I won 290 instead", I write in a message to my friend. And that is so true. Of course, I am not talking about poker, but sportsbetting. After hitting my first 25 EUR bet, I placed the bets above. As those who follow the World Cup will know, they both came through. However, after easily hitting the England bet, I went more or less all-in on the Netherlands. I added on for 100 on Netherlands -1 at 2,3 and also put 50 on -1,5. All those bets came through - given how the game went, that´s more or less like hitting a runner runner flush in poker.

Senegal were much, much better than expected, especially in their defensive and pressing game. The Netherlands had huge problems offensively, they were stale and slow going forward while Senegal were playing with flair and creativity on the offense. But football - like poker - oftentimes isn´t fair. With the game time running out and Senegal looking the much better team, Netherlands manage to score on the counter attack. Now I am only losing on my -1,5 bet, and I message my friend who is into football and betting that I just lucked out on a push.

Of course, Senegal push forward, Netherlands kill time... and then it happens. In the very last minute of stoppage time, the Netherlands have a counter-attacking opportunity and score. 2-0 in the 98th minute to turn this game into a hugely profitable one for me. I just hit the runner runner flush and stacked my opponent. I lost my bets on the evening game, but end the second day of the World Cup with a 400 EUR balance to gamble with - not bad at all, considering that I started with 25 EUR on Sunday.


***

For the first two games today I tried to find some value, but it was really hard. In the end I settled for a few longshots:




I mean, the first one actually has a chance. Argentina are a technical side and Saudi Arabia will be on the defensive end for most of the game. O2,5 cards seems quite likely to hit, the corners are a different question - depends on how Saudi will defend and how much Argentina will attack down the flanks. Nine corners though? I think I might have pushed it too much, probably should have settled for O6,5 or O7,5 at lower odds. Nine is a stretch. And yeah, when I saw the odds for O6,5 cards I just couldn't resist. Very unlikely to come through, but one of the favourites for the championship against a crappy Saudi side? Could probably hit once in 50 games or so, and now I get 67x my bet back

For the second game I settled for two correct score bets. These are always shady, but the odds were good and Tunisia aren't really a great side. Neither is Denmark though, although they should be better than Tunisia and if they manage to score first, I am not sure that the Tunisian defense will hold up:



***

Not much going on life-wise. Work during the day, family stuff after work. On Friday we´ll go to a mini holiday to Pärnu, a small coastal city in Estonia, a couple of hours drive from where we live. We´re staying in a place we haven´t been at since Covid, a spa-hotel with a waterpark on the premises. Actually, the last time we planned to go there was right about the time when Covid hit. Our initial plan was to drive to Berlin, live for a couple of days at a huge waterpark-hotel outside of the city and then spend a day or two in Berlin as well, but Germany closed down. So we re-booked to this place in Pärnu on short notice and right before our visit, Estonia also shut down. Anyway, should be a fun time and nice to get away from the regular life-grind for a family weekend. And, of course, in a week I head for Barcelona.

I actually don´t think I´ve had this much of alone time since we had kids - the most I´ve been away is 3-4 days, now I´ll be gone for almost a whole week.

Oh, and I also figured out what to give my wife for Christmas. A colleague suggested this when we were talking about Christmas gifts (and gifts in general) for our spouses and I think it will be realistic - to gift my wife (and me) a weekend trip somewhere. I checked with my mother, she´ll take our son in for the weekend, and my mother-in-law will take my daughter (haven´t spoke to her about this yet, but I´m sure she´ll agree). Splitting up the kids is so much easier for the grandparents - if they both are together, they fight and bicker so ****ing much, but when they are alone they are angels most of the time.

The number of places we can go where we haven´t been and where the flight times are good (morning flight out Friday, afternoon/evening flight home Sunday) is quite limited, but the flight times for Zürich are more or less perfect, so I´ll think I´ll go for a short Swiss citybreak.

P.S. Sorry about the non-poker content. I'm just not playing any poker at the moment due to family commitments, the World Cup and my upcoming Barcelona trip, but still feel the need to write about my sportsbetting degening once in a while.

I mean, the sunrun just continues. One card away from hittting that 66 to 1 shot, but as Argentina chased the equaliser the corners+cards bet came through in the final minutes. Was kind of hard to believe with only two Argentina corners and no cards for Saudi coming into the second half.


I added this bet to the correct scores bets on DEN-TUN, quite a lot of games with a decent amount of bookings so far, so at 2.46 it seems a good bet to me:


Bankroll is 650 (+625) with 117 wagered on DEN-TUN. Twenty five minutes until kick-off!

A Night of Degeneracy in Barcelona

I wake up. My head hurts. I take a look at my phone - it´s nearly 2 PM. My brilliant plan of visiting Montserrat today has been shot to hell. Now the memories start to pour in. ****, I was in for over 5k at the PLO game yesterday. But I recall that I turned it around and cashed out a night amount at the end. But is that really so or is it something my brain has just fabricated during sleep? I turn over and see a pile of cash dumped on the bed (the bed in my hotel is a large double) - okay, all is fine. I guess.

I stumble to the toilet, drink some water, curse myself for drinking alcohol yesterday and then focus my attention to the pile of cash. I see 200 EUR bills. That´s good. 200 EUR bills are good. I see some hundreds. That´s also good. We like big bills. I proceed to sort the bills and then start the count.

3420 EUR. Not bad, considering I only hade like 1k with me going to the casino. Oh, but didn´t I at one point re-buy chips to stay in action? I think I did. So I check my internet bank - yup, I did also purchase 1k of chips. But still - I managed to win nearly 1500 EUR, while being drunk out of my mind.

Score it as a win for Team Degen.

***

On the flight over to Spain I feel lightly euphoric. I will have five days of me-time, all to myself, no kids to drive to and from practices, no "Daddy, I´m hungry", no "Dad, my sister hit me", just pure relaxing. I look out over the Mediterranean Sea and smile. 40 minutes to go and I´ll be in Barcelona for the first time in my life. I get off the plane and make my way to the bus - I chose to ride the bus into town and then walk the 2+ kilometres to my hotel, so I manage to do some sightseeing on my way.

I instantly take a liking to the city - it´s vibrant and full of life, the architecture is interesting and somehow I just got good vibes from the very moment I got off the bus. I´ve heard a lot from friends about hustlers and pick-pockets in the city (and a local at the poker table last night also said that pick-pockets are a huge problem here) but didn´t notice anything on my way to the hotel.


***

My first plan was to check in, do some sightseeing and find a place to watch the football, but I feel a bit worn out after the travelling so I choose to watch the first games from the comfort of my hotel room instead. Since I haven´t eaten anything since a morning sandwich at the airport, I am very hungry. I open Google Maps and look for restaurants in the viccinity and I do manage to find a small and un-pretentious looking place nearby with a good rating, so I head over there.

I was not disappointed. I had fried squid and entrecote - the steak was very good, the squid too and since I hadn´t eaten since breakfast I actually managed to finish the entire portion.



And the most schocking aspect? The price. The steak was only 13 EUR, the squid 7 EUR!

***

"We have a seat open at 2/2 PLO or at 5/10 NLT", the floor tells me. Playing 2/2 PLO would be the rational choice, but hell, did I come to Barcelona not to take a shot at a bigger game? I was also feeling great, since the first thing I did after arriving at the casino was to try my luck at some random slot:



So yeah, I had put 100 EUR in and cashed out 1300, so how can I not shot-take at a 5/10 game after having just won a buy-in on the slots? I tell the floor I want to play 5/10, grab a beer and head over to the table.

I get off to a lousy start. CO opens, I look down at ATo on the button, so I three-bet and CO makes the call. Flop is king high, he checks, I c-bet, he calls. Turn is a brick, he checks, I check behind, and the river also goes check-check and his AJo wins. A few orbits later I look down at pocket kings - I three-bet and only the player to the right of me calls, as we battle yet again. Flop is a bunch of low cards, he checks, I bet, he calls. The turn is an ace. Yuck. Not the card I wanted to see with kings, however, when my opponent checks it to me I feel that I need to bet, since that ace is a good card for my range. I put out a bet of 220, my opponent tanks, and then calls. River is a queen. My opponent checks, but with the pot being at over 700 EUR and me only having something like 400 behind I feel that turning my hand into a bluff won´t work often enough. I check behind, he flips over AT and tells me he would have folded if I had shoved the river. Maybe he would have - who knows?

I order another beer and head over to the cashier to add on to my stack. Nothing really happens and I bleed my stack down to something like 600. It looks as though my dream of a big score at 5/10 will remain just another degenerate pipe dream.

***

"There is no 5/5 PLO game running, but you can take a seat at 5/10 if you wish", the floor tells me. It is quite late, I am unfortunately quite drunk, but instead of calling at a night I head over to the 5/10 PLO table and sit down with 2k. I don´t remember how I lost them, but they are gone pretty quickly. Rebuy. Now, I do recall how I lost most of the money I re-bought for - I potted the river with a blocker and got called by a better hand. I head to the cashier and buy another thousand in chips using my card.

But before I head to the smoking room to vape. You remember the slot bink at the start of this post? Yeah, the smoking room, unfortunately, is filled with slots. So basically every smoke break costs me somewhere between 50-100 EUR. I did hit something once and got 300 EUR back, but I most have lost at least 500 on the slots in the smoking room. Degeneracy at it´s finest.

I return to the table in a dejected mood, order another beer (this time I do a combo - espresso, mineral water and beer). My recall from this part of the night is very hazy, I don´t remember any particular hands, but I did manage to claw back a lot of my losses. At 5AM the casino starts to close and the games break. I head to the smoking room to vape and to try to get a nice slot bink to end my night, but this fails as I have been playing for only a couple of minutes (and am up 10 EUR) when a guard shows up and says that the casino is closing and that I need to cash out. "Just a few more spins, okay?" I say in true degenerate style, but he says, sorry, no, you need to leave, we are closing, please cash out.

So I do - as I head to the cage, I notice that I have a few more slot winnings in my wallet - obviously from degening during smoking breaks. I get 400ish EUR from my slot tickets, although I think I must have put at least a thousand in.

***

There is an open to 30 and four callers as I look down at AQ in the big blind. I have only around 500ish in my stack, so I push and everyone folds. A few hands later, there is an open, and a three-bet from MP, and I look down at AK of hearts. I push and the three-bettor calls... with A4s? I didn´t expect to see such a call at 5/10. We run it twice and I win on both boards. Back in business again. The degenerate pipe dream is alive again.



Now I all of a sudden feel good again. I manage to stack a shortstack when I pick up aces, and now my stack is looking quite healthy. Now, the game was playing quite tight preflop, which I guess is to be expected, and most players I would classify as good, but I do feel that I can hold my own. Probably due to all the beers that I had drank, they do wonders for your self-confidence. The table agrees to do a round of mandatory straddles, and that grows into three-four orbits of mandatory straddles before the game gets change to 10/20. So now I am officially playing with the highest blinds of my life (although the PLO game I played in Sweden in spring was way bigger than this game). Right before the blinds got changed I played the biggest pot of the night:

It folds to the SB who opens to 50. I look down at J3o in the straddle, but I have been card dead for a while, and all hands I have shown down have been good, and although I have been drinking I haven't been three-betting lose (or playing loose pre). So I make it 150. The SB tanks for a while, but then makes the call. Tilt. However, my feelings of tilt are quickly replace with feelings of joy as the flop comes down JJ8 with two clubs. SB checks and here I choose to check it back. Mostly for deception but also to hopefully get the SB to blast off if he has air. The turn is a queen, now the SB bets out 200. Now, I feel that I can't do much else but to call here - if he is bluffing, I beat him anyway, but if I raise, what hands can he possibly continue with that I beat? I mean, would he make a loose call with like TT or something on this board? AQ? KQ? Maybe. But what do I do if he pushes on me?

So, I call, and the river is the magical three of clubs, giving me a full house and completing the flushdraw. And what's even better, now my opponent bets 400. Does he really have anything? Does he maybe have me beat? Are there any hands he can call a push with? But, of course, there are hands that I beat that he will call with, and if he has QQ/QJ, well, so be it. I announce all-in, he immediately sighs and then says that he has a full house. My first reaction is fear. But... he didn't snap-call. So this must mean that I have him beat. QQ/QJ would have snapped and I assume that he wouldn't tank with J8 (if he somehow ended up defending this hand to my three-bet) either, so I deduce that he most likely has 88 for the flopped boat or an unlikely 33 for a rivered one.

After a minute or so he calls and I show him the bad news. He, of course, had 88 and I hit a magical three-outer to win a 3,5k pot.

A while later, as the game is now shorthanded, I open TT on the button to 50 or 60, I had now been active in my opens, so when the BB decides to three-bet I do an unstandard move and four-bet to 400. My opponent tanks and then calls. The flop is low with two hearts, he checks it over to me and I decide to keep playing as if I had aces and down-bet to something like 250-300. He calls. The turn is another low card, he checks again and now I have a decision to make between checking it back and evaluating river, and betting it again. I decide to do what drunk degenerates do and bet 900, he tanks for a long while before finally calling. Now I don't like this one bit. He could easily have JJ/QQ here, or a flopped set, or a turned straight, or some nasty two pair hand that beats me. River is another low card, my opponent tanks and I am begging for a check, and after a while he finally checks. I quickly check it back, he turns over... 88! And I win another large pot.

After this hand, my degen pipe dream is alive and kicking, as my stack is now over 6k.



***

I force myself out for some dinner as I think back about yesterday. Yesterday was basically the essence of why I almost never drink anymore - I have trouble stopping when I start and I end up doing stupid degenerate things. Quitting the 10/20 game when it started playing more or less 10/20/40 (with discussions of turning it into a permanent 20/40) was not a stupid degenerate thing - that was a smart and responsible thing to do, as when I quit the 10/20 my stack was slightly over 5000 EUR and I was something like 4000 in the green. Vacation paid, bankroll for upcoming poker sessions secured, life is good, right?

But sitting at 5/10 PLO, drunk. That was a totally stupid degenerate thing to do, and a thing that almost turned a 4000 EUR profit into a 2000 EUR loss. Luckily it didn't come to this, as I managed to win most of my losses back, despite being in for 6k in that game I did turn it around and cashed out 3k in the end. Of course, being up 1420 EUR instead of 4000 EUR really sucks, but being up 1420 EUR is almost infinately better than being down 2000 EUR (and thus also more or less out of action for this trip, at least for higher limits than 1/3 or 2/2). After all, this is my second biggest single session win this year.

I am not proud of myself, especially with regards to drinking, and I fully intend to keep my life more or less sober in the future as well - going down the alcoholism path is not something I want to do in my life. Been there, done that, it was bad. Quitting drinking has been one of the better decisions I have made in my life and I intend to keep it that way. There is just too much risk involved with drinking for me and it is so not worth it, especially when you take into account that alcohol free beers are plentiful nowadays and also taste very good. And I do love beer.

So, I walk along the beach, looking at Google Maps to help me out with a nice place for dinner. I have mixed feelings, since this was the third time I got drunk this year. Well, only the second time I got really drunk, but still. That is too much, at least for me. Yeah, when I was in my twenties, I often got drunk more times than that in just a single week, but in the place I am in my life right now, there just isn't any room for getting drunk.

I walk past several tourist traps with low ratings. Google Maps promises a seafood restaurant with a decent 4.2 rating a few hundred metres ahead, so I keep walking along the beach promenade as the sun starts to set over beautiful Barcelona. The restaurant didn't disappoint - I had a seafood paella for 24 EUR, it was so big that I couldn't manage to finish it all although I hadn't eaten all day.

Tomorrow promises to be the last completely sunny day of my trips, so unless I brutally oversleep I am heading to Montserrat for some hiking in the nature. It will take me about one hour to walk to the train station, which I intend to do so I also get some more sightseeing done, then it's a one hour train ride to Montserrat. Looking forward to a nice day trip and some fresh air - and if I feel good in the evening, I'll hit the casino once again. This time I will stick to 2/5 NLT or maybe even 2/2 PLO. Of course, if I manage to bink a nice profit at the lower limits, I might decide to donk off the winnings in a 5/10 game, but most likely I will just stick to the lower limits instead. Relax, watch the football, play some cards. Sounds like a plan, right?

Just a small pic dump from stunning Montserrat before I head to the casino. A lovely 10km hike in beautiful surroundings was how I spent my day.

Games were bad, won some in 2/5 NLT (in for 700 out for around 1k), but game was lousy so played PLO and lost some in 2/2 PLO - in for around 1000, out for 400ish there. Got lucky in one big pot - six ways to the flop with shortstack on the button with obvious overpair, flop T72, I have bottom pair, a gutshot and a dream, checks to shortie who pushes his last 50 into 200, folds to me with only one player behind, so I shove to fold out his random holdings that would continue for 50, he snaps me off with T7xx, but I bink a deuce on the turn for trips and then also river the gutshot. After a while the game got quite bad with little action, especially postflop, I raised some DS trash and got re-raised by obvious aces, flop gutshot and flushdraw so we GII @ 1,5 SPR (he had a tad over 300 OTF, I covered), run it twice but fail to improve and he wins a pot of over 800. Should have just folded pre, but w/e. Soon after I left the table. Binked some slot wins but lost it all back. Still around 1k plus for the trip and I don’t think I will play tomorrow, I will just lock up the win - vacation paid for, I’ll just take that W instead of donking it away.

Funny though, the 5/10 games were more fun and action than the 2/5 I played today and except for a few clueless ones (who mostly bought in short) the 2/2 PLO was even worse. Don’t think I’ve played such a bad game in a while - I mean, if a certified degen like me got up and left in the red… that says a lot. 5/5 looked much better from the little I could tell watching the table next to mine, but not really sure about that.

Haha a familiar story, especially when you work remotely from home

Yeah, it's better to keep the alcohol a tight rein. You are lucky to get off with a whole skin.

Getting Home, Horse Racing and Covid-19

It´s Saturday evening and it´s snowing in Riga. Quite a contrast to the sunny +14 degrees that I had in Barcelona. My plane has just landed, I switch off flight mode and the first thing I do is open WhatsApp. I text my wife that my plane is on the ground and check my other messages. There´s a really nice one from my childhood friend in Sweden. "Looking good after four races, the 15 just won, yeah!" is his last message.

Now, for some background. I grew up in Sweden and harness racing is really popular there. The biggest bet is the so called V75, which basically is a Pick 7 bet - pick the winner in seven races. When the pandemic started, me and two childhood friends started playing the V75. We put somewhere around 30-50 EUR each and then made the tickets. Now, for a while we didn´t hit anything, until we hit a win for around 250 000 SEK (around 23 000 EUR with today´s exchange rate). After a while we became only two players as our third friend dropped out, and we decided that we will bet big only when there´s a carryover. Basically, if no-one finds the seven winners (doesn´t happen too often) or too many favourites win and the payout for 5 correct picks is lower than the minimum payout limit (I think it is 10 SEK/0,9 EUR), which happens quite often, the money in this pool is carried forward to the next weekend. This, of course, provides a very good return (something like 90% or more, depending on turnover) and great value.

We haven´t been running too hot lately, although we had a 60 000 SEK score this year. More recently we hit a small win for 7000 SEK or so, and this money we, of course, left in our bankroll. So this Saturday our total amount wagered was 2400 - and I check the results myself after the text from my friend, and, yeah, it is looking really good, with the last two races won by outsiders. The next race will be key - we have two horses, none of them are the favourite.

***

It´s Thursday and I am still coughing. Luckily I have my voice back and can talk more or less freely, but the cough is dry and disgusting. The fatigue is starting to drop off, although it has been an extremely unproductive week at work - after my vacation I needed the opposite, but what can you do if you fall ill? Not much, not much.

I am pretty sure I am sick with Covid-19 for the second time in my life (as far as I know). The symptoms are exactly the same as last time, although milder. The first time I was sick my voice was ****ed for 2-3 days, this time for one and a half day. I was very fatigued for a couple of days, when I was sick the first time it was something like 3-4 days of fatigue.

I did take a home test on Monday, when my wife was at work. She told me to do it, I asked why? What difference does it make if it is Covid-19 or some other virus? "None", she answered, "I´m just curious!"

So I did take a home test, but it turned up negative. Not sure I didn´t **** it up though - I am not used to sticking things up my nose that aren´t fine powders, so perhaps I didn´t stick the pin up far enough. Or perhaps it was a false negative. Or perhaps I don´t have C19, but some other virus.

But I mean, what difference does it make? Basically none.

***

My wife and son (daughter is with her grandma) are waiting for me in the arrivals hall, which of course makes me very happy - after spending almost five days solo I really miss my family. I´ve gotten my degenerate gambling fix, I´ve gotten my relaxation fix, I feel great seeing them, although I do feel a bit worn out. I chalk it down to the travelling and head off to the car.

"Oh, for ****´s sake", my wife sounds a bit pissed, "you haven´t seen us in almost a week and you´re going to watch ****ing horse racing in the car home?"
"Well, it´s only this one race, and we are in great shape, it´s a carryover today you know", I try to wriggle my way out of if, while still watching the horses. The start was awful, both of our horses are in bad positions, and there´s no pace up front.
"If you wanted to watch horse racing you could´ve taken a taxi. Come on, turn it off!"

Well, I totally understand the position of my wife, and I do the wise thing and switch the horse racing off mid-race. Mid-****ing-race. My inner degen is screaming with fury, but it is what it is - I go back to chatting with my family and nervously await a notification from my friend, who I know is watching the races. A couple of minutes pass... and there it is:

"HELL ****ING YEAH! WHAT A RACE!"

***

I hadn´t planned on visiting the casino on Friday. After taking a long walk through town, doing some more sightseeing and picking up souvenirs, I return to my hotel. It is early in the afternoon, I chill out a bit, play Football Manager on the computer and actually check my work e-mail for the first time since arriving in Barcelona. But an hour or so later I find myself... bored.

I think about how I am a shitty tourist. I mean, the highlight of my Barcelona trip was my hike in the mountains of Montserrat. I really enjoyed the city, the architecture, the sights and so on - but I didn´t visit one museum, art gallery, not one tourist attraction. I just walked around. Sat at cafés when I felt like it. Ate great food when I was hungry. And when I was bored... well, I hit the casino.

As I enter, there are waiting lists for all tables. I join a couple of them, and ask the floor, what game will be starting first? He answers that they´ll start a 5/5 PLO as soon as one more player joins, now that is one waiting list I did not sign up for since I preferred to play lower limits (signed up for 2/2 PLO and 2/5 NLT) for my last day. I also didn´t have too much money with me (wanted to make sure I will still book a small profit even if I lose all that I bring) and, well, PLO is so much more swingy than NLT. Buuut... getting a seat right away vs waiting? Of course I tell the floor to sign me up for 5/5 PLO and get the game going.

***

When I get home, I re-watch the race. The number eight was among the last horses through the final bend, the pace wasn´t too fast up front, so it should have been an impossible task. But one by one he gets past the other horses over the stretch - and comes in as a winner. Now we are close to big money - the worth after five races is 55 000 SEK, which is quite high (this is calculated by dividing the total money in the pool for 7 correct with the number of surviving tickets). In the next race there is a big favourite, but we have decided to play against him for reasons that I won´t go into here, since that would mean explaining the technicalities of harness racing. The short version is that the favourite had a 40 metre handicap, ie he started 40 metres behind the horses in the first band.

The worth after Race 6 will be around 70 000 SEK if the big favourite wins, but all other horses are marked with an asterix. This means that if any of them win, each ticket will be worth at least 200 000 SEK. They don´t show exact numbers when it goes over 200 000 SEK to avoid possible collusion and market manipulation, but in this race we have five horses - so if one of the non-favourites would win, we are looking at a big score.

The number five horse from the first band takes the lead in the first band. And... stays there until the very end, despite a strong finish from the favourite, the five held on for a win. Now we are one race away from a really, really big score. One ****ing time, let us hit it, okay? In the last race we only have one horse - the favourite (although a quite slight one), Laradja Vrijthout. According to my analysis, the horse should be able to force itself to the lead and the other horses shouldn´t stand a chance if it is at it´s best. Also, the trainer of the horse is based over 800 km away - and he has only brought two horses along for the long trip. I doubt he would make this ride if the horse wasn´t in good shape. But you never know.

***

The game is loose-passive pre, with most pots going 4-5 ways to the flop for a single raise at most. Threebets are mostly AA hands, mostly from shorter stacks. And it is not a particularly deep game. Or good, for that matter. What makes it worse is that I can´t hit a single hand. I mean, I just miss and miss and miss. My stack dies the death by a thousand cuts.

And when I do get some action, I get it in bad. First I check-raise a wrap OTT, get called by two players. The first caller had top set, the second one only the low open-ender? Like J9 on a QTx board. We run it twice and I hit on one board. And then back to death by a thousand cuts. Until I pick up a real premium, AAQTds. There is a raise and a multitude of callers ahead of me (I am in the SB), so I get an 80-EUR three-bet through, and get four callers. Flop is K9x rainbow, pot is 400, I have a bit over 300 left, so I stick it in, the initial pre-flop raiser calls and the others fold. "You got kings, right?" I ask, and he says "yeah". Well, six outs plus backdoors is not that bad, right? We run it twice and split it after I make a straight on one of the boards.

And then... back to the ****ing thousand cuts. I lose some pots, pick up a small one here and there, but can´t really hit ****. An aggro player who was ran red hot (sat with 300, an hour later he has around 1500) opens, some callers, I call. Flop is 864 with two clubs, I have bottom two, a flush draw and a dream, check to the aggro player who pots it, folds to me, I re-pot it, he goes all-in, we run it once. Turn is a brick, river is an 8, killing the little hope I had that two pair might be good if I brick the flush draw. Two pair wasn´t good, he had 75 for the straight with no redraws, I haven´t ran the equities but that hand is more or less a coinflip with me having 13 outs and maybe some backdoor as well.

I leave, have dinner at the same restaurant I ate at the first night, chat a bit with the waitress and the owner (who both seem to remember me) and return to my hotel room right on time for the evening football game.

***

The initial part of the race - a sprint race over 1640 metres - goes according to plan. The horses from the inner starting positions take the lead, but Laradja Vrijthout, starting from gate 7 (the second outermost) is pushing forward. And keeps pushing. And takes over the lead. However, the first 500 metres were opened at an extremely hard pace - so now the question is, will he be able to slow the tempo down a bit and also hold all the way? The second 500 nothing really changes, the tempo is dropped a bit, but still fast for the class and time of year. As the final straight approaches, Laradja is looking good. The horse in the pocket gets out, tries to close in... but no. Not this time. Laradja Vrijthout wins by a safe margin of two-three lengths...

...AND WE HAVE BINKED THE V75 BET!

I call my friend, we chat a bit, and then I wait for the final payout to be shown. And it is massive - I was expecting around 350 000 SEK (ca 30 000 EUR), but seven correct pays a tad over 540 000 SEK, almost 50 000 EUR! In total, our ticket is worth 59 000 EUR - a massive payday for me and my friend. With this hit our total income from the horse races are now over the 1 000 000 SEK (92 000 EUR) mark in two and a half years. No idea of our total bets, but it shouldn´t be more than maybe 200 000 SEK, so we are massively in the green.

The V75 bet is huge variance though - 90% of our winnings come from two big hits. We have played maybe 100 times and it is two hits that account for almost all of the winnings. Anyway, we decide to withdraw most of the money, but leave a tad under 30 000 SEK in our bankroll.

***

"You should put that money aside for home improvements, for renovating our summer hourse", my always wise wife says.
"Come on, honey, it´s gambling money!"
"You can´t seriously tell me that you are going to need, what, 20 or 25 000 EUR for gambling?"
"Well, of course not, but... you know, since it´s gambling money, I´ll never be able to invest it wisely. I´ll buy crypto and some meme stocks and hope that they deliver. If they don´t, well..."
"Come on, you know we will need to improve our summer house. Let´s use the money for this purpose."
"Fine, but then I´ll wire it to you. You do whatever you want with it, okay? But don´t let the burden of keeping the cash be on me."

And so, when the first part of the money (something like 15k) arrives in my account, I instantly wire 10k to my wife. It does sting a bit, although I do realise that it is much wiser to just stick that money in savings and use it for future expenses. I mean, depending on how much we want to do on our summer house, the expenses can easily be 10 or 20k or even more. But I really do not want to have the responsibility of safe-keeping that money, not when it is gambling money, which doesn´t count as real money. I mean, I wouldn´t go to Vegas and degen it all away during a week of debauchery... OK, I mean, I totally would if I wouldn´t have a family... but still. There is like no chance I would not dip in to that money if I wanted something, no matter what. Even something as silly as a business class upgrade on a flight, or just splurging on whatever, or if I wanted to go play 5/5 at the casino with a deep stack.

So yeah, most of the winnings will go to my wife for safekeeping and investments in our properties (our apartment needs some refurbishment too). Part of it I will keep, of course, but I´ll send her at least 18-20k of the ca 28k we have cashed out.

Oh, and if you are wondering why the transfers are split up - well, I don´t want any scrutiny on the transfers from my bank or the tax agency. The rules here are utterly stupid, I can´t accept a gift from my friend without paying 25% tax, he can´t just send it as gambling winnings (25% tax here, although winnings aren´t taxed in Sweden I think that the tax agency might want to look at a transaction that big), so basically he writes LOAN in the message and sends it in 2x2 parts - one to my main account and one to my Lithuanian (Revolut) account, which I use for gambling, and twice, a month or so apart. No need to draw unnecessary attention to oneself, right? Loans aren´t taxed and after all, who better to loan money from than a childhood friend who has just binked the V75 bet?

Anyway, when it comes to gambling, this year looks to be great. Poker winnings are probably somewhere around 1-2k, non-poker at around 25k or so. Pretty sweet.

So, there´s a home game running tonight, not sure about the blinds, but I assume something like 1/1/2 (straddle optional, but most hands straddled) with deep stacks. Probably will drive over to play a little tonight.

One advantage of being a gambling degen is that you completely forget about money at times. "I´ll probably need to hit the ATM before I go play", I think to myself, "since I think I only have like a hundred in my wallet."

I go and check, and see that I have 800-and-change in my wallet. At first I am a bit surprised, but then I remember that I have barely left the house the entire week (basically drove kids to kindergarten/practice a few times and got take-out lunch now and then) due to being sick, so I guess I just forgot that I had cash from Barcelona still in my wallet. I actually had completely forgot that I had cash from Barcelona with me home - somehow this cash evaporated from my mind. I did remember giving some cash to wifey when I got back, but not that I actually had any money of my own left.

So yeah, I just "found" 800+ EUR in my wallet. Guess there´s absolutely no reason not to go torch it tonight!

The Ups and Downs of Gambling

"If I can't beat THIS ****ing game, maybe I should just quit?" is basically the question I ask myself as I am driving home at 4 AM. I managed to lose 1500 EUR in a 1/1 game and I am seriously questioning my life choices. Of course, the game didn't play as a 1/1, very far from it, with most hands being straddled, a few times up to 1/1/2/4/8/16, and the standard open in the few unstraddled hands was usually 8-10 EUR. Oh, and a 5 EUR double board bomb pot (mostly played as PLO5) every orbit. And the Seven Deuce game in Texas as well.

"But still", my mind continues to question me, "half the table are drunk and taking breaks every 30-40 minutes to do another line of coke, and of the players at the table who didn´t do coke only one more was sober. If you can´t beat a game like this, what can you beat?"

***

I arrive at the home game in a studio on the outskirts of town. The set-up is nice, there´s a dealer and the stacks are already deep when I arrive at 10 PM. I find out that a few of the players have been gambling for 50 hours straight and right away I notice that the game is playing deep, splashy and aggressive. The blinds are 1/1 but it is playing like a much, much bigger game. I buy in for 350 and start playing. Pretty soon there is a pot that is straddled to 16, I am in the first straddle for 2. It folds to me and I look down at 65o, so I make it 66 to go and take it down. I proudly show my hand to the table.

The next hand I am in the big blind and the final straddle is 8. There´s a limp and I look down at AQo. Sweet. I make it something like 50-60 to go, the final straddle - one of the guys that have been playing for 50 hours straight - jams on me for 250 and I of course snap him off. He has ATo and I win both runouts. Nice to be off to a good start.

Nothing much happens for a while and then this hand comes up. My stack is now 680 EUR. It is a double-board PLO bomb pot and I look down at A J 8 7. A pretty sweet hand, and it gets better as the first board is 8 4 2 and the second board T 9 5. So I flop top pair and the nut flush draw on the first board and the low wrap on the second board, which is rainbow as well.

I lead out for something like 30, the guy to my left makes it 100 (covers me, high), gets a call from the person who has been playing for 50 hours straight (who rebought for 1000 when I stacked him), and the shortstack to my left pushes for 150 or so. Now I am faced with a decision, do I just cold call and see a turn or do I jam? The good part of jamming is that I get to see both cards and realise my equity, and I might also get the pot heads up with 200 dead in the pot. The bad part of jamming is that if I get called, it´s basically a huge flip for piles of chips. After thinking it over for a bit I decide to re-pot for 675 total, the guy to my left calls but the next guy folds.

Here is a picture of the winning hand:


And yeah, it ain´t mine. The guy to my left had top set on one board, nothing but a pair of eights on the other board, and no problems with winning both boards against me, as I don´t improve on either board and his pair of eights is good enough to scoop the side pot. The main pot he split with the short stack. (Oh, and the beer is an alcohol free one - as I said, I was sober, and driving, so not a chance I would use alcohol/drugs.)

In play, I thought that I had an equity advantage in this hand, but when I ran the hand in an equity calculator at home it actually turns out I got it in quite bad - 30% on one board and something like 52% on the other thanks to his hand blocking two of my straight outs (the eights) and the four jacks as outs on the second board, as he would hit a higher straight. And the short stack had the second nut flush draw on the first board so he was also blocking some of my flush outs.

I am actually not sure how I should play this hand - if I don´t jam, I am OOP for the rest of the hand against two stacks that cover me. And it seems too good to just call and check-fold unimproved turns, although that might be the best play. However, I will end up in a lot of shitty spots, like if both boards blank OTT and one of the other players bets a size that is like 40-50% pot - in theory, I probably should call given the price I get, but in practice I am calling off half my stack with a draw with only one card to go. Of course, against a pot bet I need to fold unimproved, and if I improve I can just jam and hope to get called. But yeah, it´s a tricky spot, and a huge pot where I didn´t have any luck.

***

My next buy-in I lose in yet another bomb pot. This time it was a real coinflip (against the only other sober player in the room). I had a made hand (nuts!) on the first board and a decent draw on the second board, my opponent had a made hand (nuts!) on the second board and a decent draw on the other board. Of course, my made hand failed to hold and my draw failed to hit, while his made hand held and his draw hit. **** happens, but now it is around midnight and I am stuck 800 and out of cash.

Time to head home? Nah. One of the players gives me 700 EUR in cash and I wire transfer the money to him right away to keep playing. I am not leaving this game, there is actually not a chance in hell I am leaving this game. Since I was sober and had a car, I would have driven to the nearest ATM if I would have needed to.

***

I am down to something like 500. We are playing three-card texas, I look down at AKQr. I open to 10, straddle three-bets to 35, I make it 100 to go, straddle calls. Flop is three low cards. Straddle checks, I check back. Turn is an ace and now straddle bets a tad under pot. He could very well be bluffing here, although betting into the ace screams extreme strength. After thinking for a long while, and also trying to run through what rivers I would be ready to commit on (has to be a lot if I call this turn bet) I finally call. The river is a blank. He checks, I check behind, my hand is good.

A few hands later I look down at AKo and open to 10 pre. I get five callers. Flop is T8x, I check, the guy to my left (who recently has said that the only reason to do coke is to be able to drink heavily without becoming completely wasted, proudly annoucing that he has drank a litre of whiskey and would be completely unable to play if not for the coke) leads for 20 and it folds to me. With such a small bet and a loose and high player betting, I feel that I need to peel. Turn is a Q, improving me to a gutshot. I check, he once again bets 20, and this screams weakness so I check-raise to 80. He calls quite quickly and I intend to bluff a lot of rivers, but as the river is a J giving me the absolute nuts, I now have another problem - how much to bet for value?

I lead for 250 and he quickly announces all-in. I make a quick check of my cards and the board, and yes, I have not mis-read anything. I call, he says "I guess we split" and I show my cards, a bit surprised he played AK this way, but then he flips over T9o for the sucker straight. Talk about an overplay, but I won´t complain. On the river I had 675 EUR left, so after winning this pot I am now actually a slight winner, despite being in for 1500 EUR.

***

I. Just. Can´t. Make. A. ****ing. Hand! The game doesn´t change in character, it is wild and splashy with huge pots being the norm. We are playing eight-handed and there is something like 8k on the table in chips. Sure, the blinds are 1/1, but what does it matter when the stacks are deep and all that a 10x BB raise accomplishes is bloat the pot preflop? But. I. Just. Can´t. Make. A. ****ing. Hand!

And it slowly adds up. My stack starts to dwindle. 50 eur here. 30 eur there. Another 100 gone in a bomb pot when I fail to improve and am forced to fold the turn. I turn two pair in texas, the opponent bets into me, I just call to keep his bluffs in (and because I don´t think he will call with too many worse hands), the river is a fourth spade, he pushes and I fold - and he shows 72o, so I not only lose the pot, but send another five EUR his way. I don´t know if he would bluff any other cards, but I was basically folding only to a spade or to a higher board-pairing card that would counterfeit my two pair. But he hit the spade and I can´t call a 400 EUR bet with four spades on the board with just two pair.

Another bomb pot, this time I make the nuts with 84 on 884 on one board, and have a pair, straight draw and backdoor flush draw on the other. There´s a bet and a call, I raise, then there´s all all-in and I of course call. The other guy says he has 84, I say that I do as well, he asks if I want to do an all-in for less instead of flipping for 1k each, we agree to put 250 each in the pot. He quarters me, so I a lucky that he suggested we run it for a smaller amount, but it still is a big loss.

Then I get called when bluffing, which I didn´t do often for obvious reasons. I mean, when I three-bet AQ and get called in three places and the flop is three low cards, bluffing is just suicidal so those hands I just check-folded. Then I turn a straight but lose to a rivered boat and I am all of a sudden down to 500 EUR and in dire straights.

And.I. Just. Can´t. Make. A. ****ing. Hand! The memory is a bit hazy - I don´t really recall how I dwindled my stack down to 110, but I did. It was now late, re-buying was out of the question, so I just waited for an orbit for a hand to push pre, and found ATo against an open to 12. I get called by J8s and lose and leave the table dejected.

***

I did not play that good when my stack started to go downhill - I played too many hands trying to hit something, but I also ran bad in all the bigger pots. Of course, with some perspective, I am not quitting, and after all money isn´t that big of an issue right now thanks to our horce racing win that I posted about in the second to last post. Although most of that money has gone to our home improvement fund and I won´t get the last of it before New Year since I want to split the payments up with a month apart, I can still afford to play and lose. So hopefully I will have the chance to gamble again if there is a game running in the weekend, if my wife isn´t working. I might actually consider heading down to the casino for a change and play their 5/5 game which runs on weekeds. Probably won´t be a good game and probably won´t have a great atmosphere like this home game, but NLT only and higher stakes means that I play way tighter preflop (like I did when I played the big NLT game in Barcelona) which of course improves my odds. And it´s a bit easier getting bluffs through when most pots are HU or three-ways postflop, instead of 4-6 players seeing each flop.

But yeah, I lost 1500 EUR in a 1/1 game and that kind of stings and takes some self-confidence away. Hope the few of you who read this enjoyed the write-up!

Too lazy to do a long write-up. Played for something like 6,5 hours yesterday, lost 300. I had a little bit of rungood in a huge bomb pot, where I had the nut straight on one board and a gutshot and a flushdraw on the other one. One player had bottom set on both boards, another player had the same straight as me and a redraw to the flush plus some sort of made hand better than mine on the board where I had the draw. His draw missed, my draw hit, I got 75% instead of 0-50%. Had some rungood in another small pot, where I had a wrap+double backdoor flushdraws against an overpair all-in on the flop and won both boards (backdoor flush hit on one, runner-runner two pair on the other). But then I also had these beauties:

1) Super Texas (thee-card Texas)
I don't quite recall the preflop action, but I was the agressor with AT9, I think I three-bet to something like 20. Flop is AT4 with two spades, I c-bet 20 into 70, my opponent raises to 60. We are something like 400 deep at this point. The opponent was losing badly, and I wouldn't say he was playing well - for example, he shoved with a flushdraw on a paired board on the flop in Super Texas and made other dubious plays. He has won some back now, but is still stuck. Of course, I am not folding top two, but here I ponder putting in another raise vs just calling. In theory, his play screams strength as he is raising into a board that should favour me as the three-bettor heavily (even though I had played quite loose pre). But he could easily have a draw or some pair+flushdraw type hand. But if I raise, I am basically committing to play for stacks, an all-in would be an overbet and I am not sure I get called by worse here.

Anyway, the turn is a total blank, I check, now he bets 100. He has a bit over 250 left. Now, what should I do here? Just call and hope to see a safe river? Push to deny equity to his draws and maybe get called by a worse two pair? I am considering both options here, but given how he has played until now, I choose to push.

He tanks... and calls. So I am now feeling quite good about myself, especially when he asks if we can run it three times. Then we flip over our cards... and he has ****ing TT for the set?

2) Crazy Pineapple
The game was getting really loose and splashy now, so when it is straddled to 8 before me, I say **** it and put on the 16 straddle. It folds to the same villain as in the previous hand, who now covers me (I am sitting a bit over 700 deep now after losing the pot above). He opens to 50 and I peel... AA9! Sweet. I make it 175 to go, he goes into the tank and in my head I run through different board texture, how to act on them and so on, but he relieves me of these thoughts by announcing all-in. I instacall. The flop is 775, quite decent for me, until we flip over our cards and he shows ****ing A7. Yeah, he pushed with AK7 and hit ****ing trips. And to make matters worse, turn and river is 9 and 9, so had we played three-card Texas instead I would have won. Yeah, the blinds are nominally 1/1, but as you can see, the game plays much bigger than this - but it really ****ing sucks to lose the biggest pot of the night by far when getting it in so good. It´s not often you get over 700

After my rebuy, I am in for a ****ing 1000 EUR (man, I might have to start to bring more cash to these games, 1k:ish is just not enough - would have liked to rebuy to cover the Villain, but I hunker down and grind it out. In the end, I cash out for precisely 700 our some three hours later. Not bad, considering how it went and the huge pot above that I lost. Would have cashed out a bit more, but I lost a 100 in a two-street bluff with blockers in a bomb pot at the very end - maybe a bit unnecessary, as although I was double blocking everything, my opponent of course had it on one board and since I was playing only blockers on the other board, he scooped me. Oh, well, can´t win them all.

Some Strategy Thoughts

One think made me a bit suspicious in the last game I played. One of the guys - a young, quite competent mostly TAG but sometimes prone to moves (for example, earlier on in Super Texas I three-bet KK2, he four-bet me, I called, flop was Kxx with two hearts, I checked, he bet, I put him all-in for something like 2,5-3x his bet, he called it off with a crappy hand that flopped a flush draw and we split, he made a light four-bet as I was three-betting a lot) reg in the games I play nearly folded a set against me on the turn. We were playing Super Texas, it folded to me in the SB and I raised to 10 with AAx, BB called and he called from the straddle. Flop was A6x, I checked, he bet quite big, i called. Turn was a J, I checked, he bet something like 50, I check-raised to 175 or 200. He tanked for a long time, but finally called. River was a K bringing in some backdoor draws, I chickened out and checked, he checked behind and then lamented that he was so close to folding, that he had a feeling I was strong, that he only called because of the off chance that I was doing this with AJx and that he should have trusted his instincts.

Of course, I still won a pretty sizeable pot, but this situation makes me a bit wary. For him it would have been better if he had said nothing, of course. But what this means is that he has picked up on what I have been doing in the games lately, which is almost never check-raise or bet big as a bluff. I did bluff another player after this pot, but it was a different spot, and I showed after my river overbet got a fold. In general, I think that having mostly (against some players almost exclusively) value for the big bets is the way to go, since I open a lot of pots and three-bet a lot which means that I do get paid quite a lot when I have it, but this spot still made me think a bit on how I need to adjust my strategies at least against him.

But until most players pick up, I think betting big with like 80-90% value is the way to go in these games.

Meh. Yesterday was my last chance to play before Christmas. Quickly dug a hole by losing AAx vs KKx and a random hand aipf in Super Texas, and then by losing AQQ to KKx aipf (raise to 16 and a couple of callers, I make it 102 to go, get shoved on by one of the callers for 200 more). Re bought for 800, hit 1000 (-300) as the high point, cashed out for 600 at 3:30 AM when I had to leave so I could get at least three hours of sleep. Had a fun pot in crazy pineapple with 887 vs QQx on a Q88 flop, unfortunately for me the player with queens only had 100 behind. Missed value in a few spots which irks me a bit.

No more poker before Christmas - hope everyone reading will have nice and relaxing holidays!