And she learned that you couldn’t stockpile anything that mattered, really. Feelings, people, songs, sex, fireworks: they only existed in time, and when it was over, so were they.
- Garth Risk Hallberg, City on Fire



Looking back on this thread, the updates have been too few and far between. I’ve got a lot of stories to tell but need to do a better job writing them.



Some introspection after I read through my old posts (and the love from the few readers in here): I cannot believe which things I find important now compared to the pursuits that used to mean everything to me. Regrets and nostalgia swirl constantly like leaves in the wind, but I remain at peace with the present.



They say the best laid plans often go awry. What about poorly thought out plans? Still, I move forward in time and bad things have yet to occur to me. Am I running hot in life, is my perspective perpetually positive? I remain optimistic...

No offence man but how were u winning at 200z or 500z looks like u can barely beat 50nl...

Damn dude.

I dont mean to sht on you but damn do u play mtt's as well?

Also there are cash games on WSOP??? There never seem to be any running only PLO

I’m a mere recreational player who can afford to punt it time to time, but my graphs (yes tiny sample size) speak for themselves. I think I’m a bad MTT player but I have confidence in myself to adapt to any NLHE table I’ve ever played at, live or online.

Feel free to lmk when you would like to play 400hunl on wsop any time

Well i thought u were mainly an MTT player i mean you 3! A7o bbvslp :d

Dude i totally will man

Just letting u know playing 5/10 200bb+ deep like that (vs. the right people) will get u killed Ax offsuit hands (including AK)< 32s imo.

Trust me u dont want to be 5! shoving AK 200bb deep+ or even 4!ing it to a small sizing sht hurts

It appears every time you play big 3bet pots OOP with A7o your opponent always has a dominated seven, so keep up the good work!

Ya, I mean I didn’t want to comment either but reading through the hands last night at work I was definitely thinking “yikes” at least a few times.

I do really enjoy the writing and the stories though, and you’ve quoted a few of my favourite books in the thread (DFW and DeLillo) so it’s hard not to root for you to do well. GL OP.

I appreciate the sentiment - honestly, my ego enjoys the writing compliments more than the poker support.

I will take a moment to humble myself - if you guys look through the rest of the thread you’ll see wayyy bigger punts than 3b A7o bb v btn, in particular there’s a 53s triple float hand I’m still ashamed of winning over a year later. I try to ascribe the “black magic”/soul gaze/live read part of my game to game flow but the truth is simply luck of course - I don’t run into the hands I deserve to run into, or I call when I happen to find the bottom of someone’s bluff range.

I only have the fact that this is just a game to me - a game I have won at thus far, but not my livelihood (I am not sweating rent money, I am not worried about proper BRM, and most of all I am not worried about results).

I hope to entertain myself, a few close friends, and the positive lurkers who read the thread when I post. I want to improve my poker ability constantly, of course, and I learn from constructive criticism... but above all else, I aim to play aggressively. Is it a misconceived ideal of heart, is it stupid, am I lighting money on fire?



Yes. But I have managed to survive and play on nonetheless. I’ll be back at the B swimming with the 5/10 pool this week, expect another update shortly. Until then, run well my friends.

Hahahahaha, ya the 53 hand was definitely one of the “yikes” hands I was meaning. But it does take some to pull some ridiculous **** like that.

Glad you took the writing compliment over the poker comment. Infinite Jest and White Noise are both in my top 10 books ever read for sure.

Sounds like you have good taste... care to share the rest of the top 10?

My sn on wsop is "omg240sx"

Pm me when u wanna play HU on here add me ill pm u my skype

subbed, gl OP.

More 2/5 live hands!

Love the aggression man.

Not surprised to see the A5s 5-bet by the grinder type and some of the other weird spazz bluffs like the flop minraise/turn jam in the 99s hand. Think it illustrates that these live 2/5 players don’t just always have it.... all so situational.

I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one’s past for such turning points, one is apt to start seeing them everywhere.
- Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day



A protracted 5/T NL session at the Bellagio today... I thought I would play quickly before dinner, but getting stuck early does that to you...






We ate at Hugo’s Cellar tonight, downtown at the Four Queens. Pretty bad service but the Old Fashioned was solid, the tableside Caesar was really good, and the bread (lavash? flatbread cracker) killed it. Prime rib and mashed potatoes were worth it, but the Beef Wellington very disappointingly undercooked in the puff pastry and had mushrooms just lying whole between the steak and puff pastry - no duxelles to be found. Will probably not go back, despite the value of going to downtown steakhouses and the star of the meal - the Lobster Bisque.



Into the $2/$5 waiting for my seat at the $5/T and somehow I find the biggest group of nits at the Bellagio.

I open A3s to $15 from MP, CO calls, BTN calls, SB raises to $75, I 4b to $185 and take it down.

I have red QQ on the button and open to $25 over a limp.
SB calls, BB calls, MP calls.
Flop KT7ss checks to MP who bets $75. I fold and SB calls.
Turn 9s checks through.
River T SB leads $250 and MP folds.

New guy appears at the table, V for next hand.

UTG limps off $550, I raise CO with 88 (8d) to $20, he calls.
Flop K42dd checks through.
Turn 3d UTG leads $15, I call.
River 7s UTG bets $75, I call.
He shows J5dd.

Now that the new guy is chasing every flush draw and limp/calling J5s from UTG, he’s the target:

Same player limps EP an orbit later, I open A8dd on the button to $25, SB calls, EP calls.
Flop 752dd checks through.
Turn As. EP bets $60 and I call. SB fold.
River J offsuit. EP checks and I check back to see 96dd.

When my name is called for 5/T, I’m out of the $2/5 after an hour for $501. One dollar profit after tips - quite the session.



I’m on a bit of an Asian fiction kick lately. After Pachinko, I tore through Murakami’s oeuvre (littered with wins, 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle being my favorite), The Sympathizer (a satirical Vietnamese perspective), Territory of Light (10/10 and under 200 pages...), and Convenience Store Woman (a brilliant book about a Japanese woman who does nothing).

The Remains of the Day will not be my last Ishiguro book I read. I have felt so tranquil laying in bed with a book lately - maybe it’s the fact I’m procrastinating studying to read, or the fact that I haven’t been reading enough. I still have a heap to work my way through before I go on my christmas spree buying fiction from the last couple years.

If nothing else, I’ll be the most well-read unemployed lawyer.



Into the $5/10 (in for $2300):
Seated between two action freaks. First three bet with AJo gets called by 6 people and I fold flop.

AT in MP, I open to $40 and get called in four spots.
T42hh flop I continue for $80 and get called by BB, who was short to start the hand.
2o turn checks to me, I bet $120, he jams for $500. I tank call to see 52 and don’t improve on river.

EP opens to $30 and gets called by the maniac to my right. I three bet the button to $170 with JTss and get called by EP only.
Flop 852cc EP checks, I continue for $120 with bdfd and get called.
Turn 9x checks through.
River K EP checks and I bomb for $500. He tank folds.

An orbit later, same EP opens to $30 and I 3b the button with KQhh to $130. He calls.
Flop K74 one heart checks through.
Turn 8h he leads $120 and I call.
River 8x he continues for $340 and I call. He mucks instantly.

I’m very aggressive the next couple orbits picking, 3 betting from the button and cutoff and opening wide from every position (JTo from MP made the cut, as did utg 22). My stack is slowly growing before the next two hands...

K8ss in the SB. Psycho and tilted button opens to $30 off $350, I 3b to $150, BB cold calls, BTN calls.
Flop A87hh checks to BTN who rips in $200 more. I am faced with a very unpleasant decision with BB to act behind me, as they cover my $2600ish stack. I end up calling and BB calls. I am done with the hand.
Turn Ax checks through.
River 6x BB leads for $250... I beat nothing and fold. Until BTN rolls over 85o... and BB doesn’t show her hand immediately... and I’m staring at her cards that bluffed me out of a $0 USD side pot... and she mucks. I fake smile under my mask and tell the BB nh... but wtf was that.

Maybe a little tilted, I play the next orbit instead of getting up and going to the bathroom. A fatal mistake:

Red TT in BTN, $1500 eff.
CO opens to $30, I 3b to $150, he calls.
Flop QJ9hh checks through.
Turn Jc he bets $140, I raise to $420, he calls.
River 9h he checks, I bet $600, he calls with black KK.

That’s a big oof from me... I rack it and go out for $2120. Dumped my winnings back and then some, but I’ll be back soon. If I scale back the psychosis in big pots, I will feel strong again.

Dope thread. Popped in to read just a couple posts and ended up reading the whole thing. Your writing is exceptional. Keep it up.

Sorry, forgot to reply to this.
I wouldn’t say I actually have a top ten, I was just using the phrase in the ‘these are what I would want on an island’ sort of way.

Here are some top tier novels imo:

Underworld - Don DeLillo
Master & Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
Sputnik Sweetheart/Wind-up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami
Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov
Hopscotch - Julio Cortazar

Also, any collection of short stories you can find by Jorge Luis Borge would be excellent. And of course many of these authors have written many great novels, including DFW, I just picked one from each.

That clean but lonely feeling when there are no other cars. The traffic lights changing just for you.
-Don Delillo, Libra



Pretty tumultuous week, figured I’d get a session in after Christmas. I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and if not, at least get the New Year started right.
I made prime rib again and got housed the next night with some friends who were in town for a the holiday at Musashi, but got crushed playing wsop.com tournaments. I’m really not a good tournament player...



$2/5 at the Wynn, in for $1000

As soon as I sit down I take the BB and peek two red Queens. UTG opens to $15 and gets four callers, I pump it to $90, UTG folds, two limp/callers.
Flop AA5dd checks through.
Turn Jd checks to the CO who ships 2x pot, like $500ish, I fold and MP folds.

Two hands later..
MP opens to $20, CO calls, I squeeze button with 99 to $80, MP calls and CO calls again.
Flop JT9r and I continue for $110, both check/call.
Turn Ao MP leads $150, CO calls, I don’t know what to do and call again.
River K MP jams like $550, CO calls and I fold. Both chop with AQ and KQ respectively.

After defending my straddle and folding a flop with KJo I reload after an orbit, already down $500. I’m sitting on $1k and slowly grind back to $1200 after an hour when I get a run of cards:

87s in CO. I open to $20, both blinds call
Flop A87 I continue for $35, both blinds call again.
Turn 2 bringing backdoor flush draw. I bet $100 and BB calls after SB folds.
River 2 checks to me and I want to bomb it but don’t believe this guy is ever folding an Ace. I check back to see BB roll 76s.



I’m in quite a nice lull in my life. Between school semesters, no job, and no extracurricular commitments mean my days are free for me to lounge about. I don’t feel the isolation of quarantine nor do I feel bored - the NBA coming back helps too. I tried Oscar’s, the steakhouse at the Plaza, and played bingo with my girlfriend afterword. Both were just ok - the electronic bingo isn’t as fun as the paper bingo at Sunset, and Oscar’s didn’t impress. The mac and cheese and cookie dessert were great though, and the Tomahawk was prepared excellently. I just dislike when Caesar salads are served with uncut stalks of lettuce - like I have to make the salad myself.

Regardless, things have been slow beyond food and poker.



JTdd in the big blind. Five limpers to SB who raises to $30. I call and see calls by four of the five limpers as well.
Q99 flop checks to BTN who bets $50. SB calls, I call, MP calls.
Turn A checks through.
River K checks to me, I bet $150. BTN calls and everyone else folds, he shows 98.

Straddle is on and I look down at AcAd in the cutoff. MP, young dude who talks about playing online, raises to $30 off like $450. I 3b to $90, MP four bets to $210. I call.

Flop J53 he continues for $110 and I call.
Turn 7 no flush draw. He jams and I call. He asks, “do you have a pair?” I roll my aces and fade whatever out he might have had; he mucks after seeing the Q river.

Overall I only played a couple more orbits - about three hours total. It felt pretty good to leave with a winning session, in for $1500 and out for $1995.

“Intuitively, I knew how easily distances could harden and become permanent.”
- Junot Diaz, Drown



Time between people and places has warped perceptibly during the final throes of this pandemic; my daily routine feels sluggish but the months slip by quickly. I cannot explain this phenomenon, but I believe Zoom classes, not seeing many people IRL, and my endless job search have exacerbated it. I am in the midst of my 2L year in law school, nowhere near where I wanted to be in my career or professional goals, but at peace with myself nonetheless. I have been able to scrounge enough side-hustles and poker sessions (mainly online, but a couple live) to keep the bankroll alive, although I do feel like a scavenger playing $1/$3 sometimes.



Caesar’s 1/3 & 2/5
$1/$3 $700 eff with drunk middle aged middle eastern man. He’s very active and not good, but a fun guy for the table buying wine. We’re the only two straddling / giving action.
He button straddles to $6. Folds to SB who limps, I overlimp the 53ss, BTN raises to $12 (?), we both call.
Flop AJ7ss checks to BTN who bets $17. I call.
River 4s. X, BTN bet $40, I raise to $130, he checks his cards like 4 times then rips in $530ish more. I think for a bit and mess with him a bit but I’m never folding vs this guy here. I call to see red Aces.
River 4

I only really remembered that hand from the $1/3 despite playing for nearly 2 hours waiting for a $2/5 seat - I blame the G&Ts (two limes always). Into the Caesar’s library:

$2/$5/$10 straddle on
QTss in SB.
CO opens to $30, I 3b to $130, he calls.
Flop AJ9r I continue for $150, he tank calls.
Turn low brick checks through.
River 9x I bet $300 and get a fold from a face up QQ. He says “Ace King is good” and I roll the bluff. He gets enraged and tells me that I’m an idiot poker player.

Two hands later:
I’m in UTG $10 straddle with 77 and BTN opens to $30. SB (same V) calls and I call to close the action.
Flop 432fd checks through.
Turn 4x. SB checks, I bet $50, BTN folds and SB calls.
River 3. SB leads $200 and I snap to see him sheepishly roll over an ace to say “ace high”. I sit silently until I see both of his cards and make him wait a few more seconds - once he flips the harmless Ten, I show the 7s. He gets so mad that he leaves the table and throws a “How do you call with that?” aimed at nobody in particular on his way out.

I cash out shortly thereafter, up $250 on the night (including the boat over flush bad beat). Not bad for some drunk 3am Caesars action.

The rest of my weekend staycation at Caesar’s was uneventful. My girlfriend hit some crushers in Ultimate Texas Holdem, painted all the numbers for me in craps (including some sexy hard 6s along the way), and got us crushed by making me learn Crazy 4 poker (seems trash).

We tried Ramsey’s restaurant outside Caesar’s (solid albeit not spectacular), Giada’s at the Cromwell (amazing food and cocktails, meh atmosphere), and got some clothes in the Forum Shoppes. A relaxing trip with no dog to take care of and no worries allowed to linger, I felt peace for the first time in months.

For some reason - maybe it’s my history of traveling for work, maybe it’s my degenerate tendencies, maybe it’s not having to clean anything - I am comforted on a spiritual level by staying in a hotel room. I alternate between tipsy and hungover, and lose my perception of time. Before I know it, Monday morning sweeps me back to regular life.



I contracted COVID-19 recently (weirdly enough, not within 10 days of my staycation at Caesar’s, but a couple days after I visited Crown & Anchor for fish & chips & Thursday night trivia). I felt sluggish and had stuffy sinuses, went to bed thinking I caught a cold, and woke up the next day with greatly diminished senses of taste/smell and a 101 degree fever. I got the test that afternoon and the bad news that night - I remember thinking I deserved the virus for making light of my situation and not taking staying home seriously.

For those of you who have been fortunate not to be afflicted - the worst part for me was my inability to keep food or drinks down. I’ll keep this blog clean, but I could paint a very nasty picture of the unpleasantness that I experienced any time I tried to consume nutrients to aid my illness.

Overall, it was a terrible experience but not the worst sickness I’ve ever felt. The lethargy lent itself to relaxing and watching a lot of basketball & LCK playoffs, and my classes are online anyway. I faded the worst symptoms and more serious complications, and for that I am thankful. The virus has permitted me more time on this planet - I don’t deserve it any more than some of the great people I knew who succumbed to corona, but I can appreciate it.



WSOP $400HUNL session (all same V)
Btn opens $9
I 3b ATs to $36 BTN calls.
Flop J97r checks through.
Turn Jh bdfd checks.
River 2o V bets $36 I call. He shows 53ss.

BTN opens $9
I call 52hh.
Flop T53h checks through.
Turn Kh I bet $15, BTN calls.
River 8h I check, BTN bets $40, I raise to $120 and get called by K9.

BTN opens $9
I 3b ATss to $36
BTN 4b to $90. I regret 3betting and call anyways.
Flop KT9 checks through.
Turn 5, BTN bets $110 and I call.
River J and BTN shoves for $200 more. I curse at myself for how badly I’ve butchered the hand and let my time bank run while I try desperately to imagine what bluffs he has left. I can’t find any - 98s?
Of course, I’m a huge fish so I call it off... to see AQo. Oof.

I get my revenge with AQ a few hands later; a preflop raising war culminates in V 5b ripping JJ and me calling with AQ to spike the river Ace.

I open Qh 7s to $10, BB calls.
Flop 986hh checks through.
Turn 2x BB bets $20, I call with devious intentions for the final street. Surely, a stupid ass idea that will deservedly backfire...
River Kh. BB bets $45, I raise to $120, he calls with 53hh. Yup. I do like my hand as a river bluffing candidate blocking everything, but the turn peel was self-sabotage.

One more big hand before I end +3bi and dip to get some sleep:

$500 effective
BTN opens to $9, I call with 22.
Flop A92. I check, BTN bets $15, I call
Turn 9. I check, BTN bets $25, I raise to $85, BTN calls.
River J. I debate between a large and a small sizing and ultimately decide on smaller; I don’t have AA JJ 99 after not 3b pre. I bet $98 and get snapped by 96o.

Overall, a good HU session for me despite a couple rather significant punts.



I don’t anticipate much happening for the next month as I continue to look high and low for gainful legal employment and finals looming on the horizon of April, but some of my vaccinated college friends are coming to Vegas for Cinco de Mayo weekend. We’ll be staying at Caesar’s, eating at some new restaurants, and gambling everywhere.

I’ll try to post more - until then, stay safe out there. You won’t want to miss the next installment

Finally, to the poster above: I got Hopscotch based on your recommendation. I’ll try to get through it by next time so I can lead with a quote for my epigraph.