Ah damn, so PLO got going?

Game sounds sick, will have to go soon

Rungood day. Up $1427 in 5 hours.

PLO8: $6 straddle, 1 limp, Hero raises to $28 with AK42 on BTN, 3 callers.

Flop T32, pot $115
Checks to hero who bets $115, fold, V1 c/r's all in for $200 more, V2 calls for about $200. Hero calls.

Turn Q
River 9

Hero wins the 3-way all in somehow

Ha, gotta love lowtards. I wish I could play PLO8 every day.

Both have A456 or the like?
Is that the 1/3 PLO/plo8 at commerce?
There is a great 5/10 half and half at agua caliente in palm desert if you're ever out that way.

don't get banned there

Had the pleasure of playing the amazing games and aren't allowed back?
Sorry to hear.
That half and half, and also 10/25 PLO are some of the best non-private games I've played.

One guy had A45J, other had 4568

A whale in my game just introduced a new PLO concept to me: bluffing with the bare nut flush draw blocker on a two-tone flop

Thinking one street ahead obv, hoping for a another card in his suit to come on the next card to continue the bluff - a little optimistic I suppose

Lol it was an all in

Well that was REALLY optimistic

loollll

If you ever played the game unless it was in the last 2 months, I would recognize you or you would know who I am.

I created and hosted that game starting in 2010. I may do a big write-up on it at some point in the local newspaper out there or just here on 2p2 but was waiting on it because I was pursuing a defamation of character suit. But the gist is, I started the 10/25 PLO PLO8 game because a recreational player out there who I was friendly with played the game back home in Midwest and wanted to play it in his winter months in the desert as well. My buddy and I lived in Palm Desert for 5 months of the year to play the game and did very well. The game caught on with some of the lower stakes players and soon there was no NLHE games left and instead a 2/5 and 5/10 PLO/PLO8. One particular fulltime reg Steve Rado didnt like having us out there more than others. He is a tight small winner in the games normally but with myself and my equally skilled friend in the game he went from a small winner to a loser. He began spreading rumours that we were cheating and signaling each other. He warned others not to play. We did everything we could including approaching him, setting up meetings with management to clear our names, etc. Management said they didn't believe there was any wrong doing. It never became too much of an issue except this season, the main player in our big game became ill and wasnt able to play for the first few months of the season. Accordingly, my buddy and I played in the smaller 5/10 game for a few weeks since he and a few other snowbirds hadn't arrived to the desert yet. This encroached too far on Steve's territory and he rallied his cohorts together to boycott playing with my buddy and I. I wrote letter and conversed with the GM of the casino to rectify the situation and to stop Steve from causing us issue. We even offered to sit in separate games. The GM of the poker room said he would talk it over with his uppers and see if it came to that. Next thing, he informs us we are both banned from the poker room. There is more to it with a lot of shady info about Steve from years back as well. I may do a full writeup if I get the time but Ive finally moved on from it. Although, I think its best he and the poor presidence of the casino management be be outted so hopefully I'll get around to it soon. The game now goes as 5/10 and its still good but not what it was with a few of the key players no longer frequenting.

FK YEA RUNGOOD. Up $3375 in 11 hours.

It's my birthday!

Working on your bday tho?

Well, that session was yesterday, TODAY is my birthday lol. But I dunno I'll probably end up going the the casino anyway we'll see.

Incoming short story about the daily life of a poker pro, readable by regular people not fluent in poker. Note: I don't really have such a predatory view of the poker world, that's just how the story happened to turn out.

The best part about being a poker professional is waking up whenever your body decides it's ready to wake up. I literally never realized what it felt like to be fully rested for the first 24 years of my life- this is 100% true no exaggeration. Once I quit my nine to five, holy crap I felt like I was, you know, actually awake when I was technically awake because looking back, I sure as hell never felt awake when I was working full time. And by sure as hell, I mean sure as science, because hell is pretty goddamned uncertain.

Today I woke up at 2 PM. Plenty of time to shower and miss the Los Angeles rush hour which means I get to drive 30 mph (if I'm lucky) on the freeway instead of 5 mph. So yea anyway I catch up on my favorite blogs at leisurely pace while my roommate gets ready, and soon enough we're off to go print money at the Bicycle Casino.

Another great part about poker is the freedom to live almost anywhere you want. In just the past year alone I’ve called quite a few places home including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Tampa Bay, Hong Kong, Macau, and my hometown, Little Rock.

When I arrive I see the same security guard who I've seen there every day this week- and yes, I've been to the casino every day this week. What can I say, I love my job- play a game I love while socializing with a diverse crowd of people. Anyway this fricking guy insists I show my ID to him again, despite my appeal for him to recall our encounter yesterday. He makes up an excuse that he has to ID anyone who looks young even if he knows me because there's a bunch of cameras watching him and he wants to keep his job.

It's OK man you can just say you don't remember. I won't be offended, I'm very aware of the fact that I wasn't given the gift of striking, memorable physical features at birth. Unlucky? Nope not at all, because I *was* given the gift of functional eyes, ears, and legs. Given how many people weren't so lucky, how can I possibly complain?

There are roughly a thousand poker players at the Bike today spread over a ton of tables, each with a maximum of 9 people per table. However, the vast majority of these tables are low stakes games filled with recreational players who either don’t want to risk or don’t have a lot of money. It’s impossible to make a decent living by winning in these games simply because there’s not enough money to be won. So despite the crowded casino, there are really only 5 tables that I’m really taking into consideration as a poker professional.

Poker players are primarily divided into two types: professional players and recreational players. Pros are there to make money, recs are there to have fun. Our job as pros is primarily to just be there, and ensure that the recreational player can feel comfortable showing up at a casino any hour, any day and he will be able to play poker. Good poker pros also treat recs like our friends, our customers- we depend on them for our livelihood, meaning we depend on them coming back, meaning we depend on them having a good time.

Sometimes the best table choice is a relaxing, simple game filled with mediocre recs and no other pros. Sometimes it’s a game with a couple other pros but very bad recs. As I assess the tables today though, there is one clear choice- a high stakes game with only 4 players, 3 of whom are pros and only 1 of whom is a rec. However the rec isn’t just any average rec- he is a whale.

Poker tables are often likened to ponds where the sharks (pros) feed on the fish (recs). In shark-infested waters, the biggest shark can theoretically feed off the smaller sharks if it absolutely has to, but it’s not easy, desirable, or even sustainable. Sharks can really only survive by feeding off either a bunch of small fish, a medium amount of medium-sized fish, or perhaps just one massive whale that can singlehandedly sustain several sharks.

The whale in this game is James. He’s not like our usual whales though, kings with millions upon millions of dollars who are more than happy to lose a few thousand a week to their jesters in exchange for a good show. James isn’t a king though, he’s a degenerate gambler who happens to have a lot of cash on hand today- a rare Christmas gift. I would venture a guess that he gets maybe a thousand dollar paycheck every couple weeks and takes as much as he can straight to the casino every time. Today he's telling a story about how he ran $1000 up to $21,000 yesterday. Good for him, except now he's going to be buying in to even bigger games, and this guy’s poker skills are horrendous. It's possible he'll win today, it’s possible he’ll win tomorrow, but knowing James, it's almost certain he'll be broke and on the verge of tears within the next couple weeks.

James won $20,000 yesterday. That's probably like half a year's pay for the guy. He could really improve his life with that if he swore off casinos. Is it unethical to bankrupt this guy? Should I try to explain to him he has a gambling addiction? No, I can’t. I have myself as well as my peers to look out for. If I were to ever to start telling James how he’d probably be happier if he quit poker, everyone else at the table would be staring daggers at me, wondering why the hell am I trying to cancel Christmas. "The man’s having fun, let him do what he wants”. The problem is James doesn't know what he really wants. He thinks he gets his jollies through these massive degenerate highs and lows, but he really doesn't. The highs are high, but the lows- the INEVITABLE lows- are soul-crushing.

Truthfully though, it wouldn’t matter at all even if I were to try to do James a favor. There's basically a 0% chance he would listen to me. In general, no one likes taking advice from people younger than them, and in general, no one should ever take advice from anyone else at a casino. Since I know he's going to lose that money anyway, might as well let it be to me. So instead, I just focus my attention on making him laugh.

Rewind several years. I’m trying my best to comfort a college girl who thought her life was over when her boyfriend left her. At first I try to explain to her how basically 100% of people go through that stage in their life where you think you know yourself better than anyone else, but you realize you’re wrong when you get older. After I get started though, I realize there’s like a 0% chance she’s going to believe that- I definitely wouldn’t back when I was in her shoes. Instead, I just focus my attention on making her laugh.

Fast forward several hours. The table has filled to a full 9 players with a fairly long waitlist once people see how poorly James is playing for sizeable amounts of money. For the 4th time, James loses his $1000 buy-in. At this point he’s lost about $4000 when he counts the rest of his money and decides to save it for another day, which is actually a wiser decision than most would make in his spot. I didn’t get too much this Christmas, only being up $200 for the day- well below my expected dollars per hour. I can’t really complain though, as one of the other very good sharks lost $5000 today due to variance. As James leaves the table, a couple of the less respectful players also immediately leave. I stick around and play some small pots for another half an hour or so, mostly out of politeness to disguise the fact that I’m really only interested in playing with James, but also with a small shred of hope that James will come back in full-blown gamble mode.

Poker is an extremely complex game that requires intense concentration, mathematical prowess, logical reasoning abilities, understanding of the human psyche, and most importantly of all, discipline. It's a game that a professional player, a student of the game who studies the intricacies day in and day out, will always have some advantage over a recreational player who plays for fun. However, the biggest profits in poker lies not in the fact that a grandmaster of the game can beat a mere master, but in the fact that poker is, at the base, a gambling game. A poker professional is attuned to the gambling nature of the game; we call it variance. We’ve lost thousands in a day and won thousands in a day countless times, so it doesn’t- well, shouldn’t- affect our mental state, it’s just part of the game. We can only do our best to continue to make the right decisions, knowing we'll win money in the long run. However, when a recreational player loses a thousand bucks or so, they might view it as a couple weeks paycheck, a months rent, and be desperate to win it back. They think it's "their" money when in reality it no longer is- and the nature of poker allows that desperation to fester. When someone just wants to get back to even, they may be willing to get their money in as a 45% to 55% underdog. 9 out of 20 times doesn't sound that bad to the desperate man, he's willing to take it- what he doesn't realize is if he's risking his $1000 stack to be a 45% underdog to win $2000, he's losing $100 on average every time he does so. Of course the effects of this aren't truly apparent- especially if he happens to win the first few times!- but after doing this day after day, eventually hundreds of times, he'll have expected to have donated tens of thousands of dollars.

As time passes, it becomes apparent that James probably isn’t coming back today. As I go to cash out, I make a mental note to get to the casino early tomorrow so I’m there when he shows up, as his extra cash definitely won’t last long.

happy birthday aesah

Good post : bumhunter

One of the best excerpts I've ever read on this site.

The whole post was excellent, but the above section is truly gold.

When I was younger, my mother used to scold me for playing poker, because it's a "dirty" game. She's never been interested in the whole profitability of the game. In fact, over years and years of watching me consistently beat the game, she's come to realize that I do in fact make a nice side income from poker (just as my her father did when he was still alive).

The real qualm she has with poker is that it involves taking money away from others. She knows that I could be doing much more "productive" things with my time (and I happen to agree with her on some level, ie. I could be helping people in need, or doing something 'good', etc.).

Why spend my time sucking money out of the hands of others? As you stated, Aesah, we aren't taking money away from others. They are handing it to us on a silver platter.

As long as capitalism exists, gambling will, too. There will always be fish sitting at a poker table, waiting to gamble it up. There is nothing unethical about the decision to join them.

happy bday! Thanks for the great post. A lot to think about here.

good pros treat recs like friends--but only in order to take their money. Does this rule out genuine friendship?


FYP...maybe

CHEERS! GOOD LUCK!

Sup Aesah. I've played HoN with you before. You're a big inspiration to me man. Keep ****ing them up!

Great post, Aesah. When I first started playing I used to not worry about being social or making rec players feel comfortable/happy. Now that's one of the best parts of my game IMO.

These people have excess disposable income that they choose to "spend" at the casino. They could go shopping, vacation, play other games at the casino but they chose to play poker this time and I want to make sure they come back.

Happy birthday!

This is a great question. My original short story (which was about 2-3 times as long before I trimmed it) actually contained a ton of answers to this. I'll very quickly re-summarize:

I figure if I'm spending all this time with these people, I might as well enjoy their company- I truly do enjoy the company of 99% of people at the poker table. I know some pros who stick in their headphones and dread the company of the casino crowd, and IMO those guys should probably just quit poker (unless they have absolutely no other option). I personally do consider everyone I play with regularly, sharks and fish alike, to be my friends. I am aware that some of them don't view me the same way though

As for the ethics/what we offer to the world, I often use Michael Phelps as a comparison. He's revered by most people for simply swimming back and forth in a pool. I don't have any problems with what he does- he's part of the entertainment industry which is mandatory (imagine life without it). However, poker players are also part of the entertainment industry. People like me are what eventually allows poker to be televised on ESPN, it allows doctors and lawyers to play poker whenever they want instead of having to schedule games, etc.

Also where do you draw the line? Phelps is the single most successful guy in swimming so his impact on the entertainment industry is huge. What about the 10th best swimmer in the US who is a complete unknown then? Are we saying what Phelps does is OK because he inspires millions people on international TV, but what that unknown guy is doing NOT ok? In fact we can take the example even more directly to poker- many people respect Brunson, Negreanu, Ivey, Hellmuth (lol), Harman, etc. However if you respect those guys, then IMO it's extremely unfair to disrespect the career choice of an unknown 2/5 grinder simply because he's not as talented, or possibly just on the wrong side of variance!

(The counter argument involves degenerates like James. Well yea sure, the existence of the gambling world is unfortunate for people like him, I agree. Now how about those 3000+ drowning deaths in just the USA per year?)

Great analogy