$10 rake is brutal, 5x the big blind. In comparison, when I'm playing 2/5, I'm paying ~1.2x the big blind in rake- that's a huge difference. The game will be "beatable" but not for good winrates, I'd personally look for a better game and only play in that one if you're bored- not to make money.

My friends like to call the casino "Phil Galfond" since it decreases your winrate even more than if Phil Galfond was on your left in an unraked home game. Lots of players don't realize this.

@ekigaina: ty for the comments!

You've seen that this guy is willing to double barrel what was probably air, so I prefer to make your decision on the flop because he is very likely to bet the turn. Either fold the flop (I would lean towards doing this), or call all 3 streets. Note I do not advocate this vs. most players, since most players like to bluff once then give up.

Regarding min-raising the button, it is extremely bad. You give yourself no fold equity and are basically just doubling the pot size, which is actually not a bad thing EXCEPT for two things: 1) you let yourself get limp-reraised, 2) you're *only* doubling the pot size- you want to be raising more with your strong hands on the button. With 55, I just limp behind.

Postflop is well-played. I would never even for a split second think about folding that river, the only question is whether to jam for your last $175. Calling is totally fine. I assume you lost the hand since you're asking about it, but if you had folded I would have been like

Live poker variance is just silly. Estimating your winrate after less than 6 months is a completely useless endeavour.

Double side note: is this common? We have it here in Sydney and i think it's ridiculous to have rake that high.

On topic, i admire you OP. HAve a dream and following is a brave move. All the best to you.

Aesah, I agree with you about pre flop.

Look that after the showdown the SB told me he had QQ, i belive it, and he just flat called 2 min raises.

Villain has 88, for a better FH.

The worst part is that he left the game 3 minutes after that, I'm pretty sure he would give much of the money back.

BTW: rake is 5% uncapped + 1% jackpot.

I think 10% is almost unbeatable, just for fun.
Even 5% is too hard, the house takes more than 100/hour.

ty for comments all.

As you may know if you've been following closely, I've been staying in Cleveland for the past a long time (to me, a long time = more than a month) since I met my girlfriend here (who currently grinds PLO). I want to hit the road soon with her though... haven't been back home to visit my friends and family since the start of this blog, so I'm planning on taking a trip down to Little Rock... in one week!!!!

Caesar's has a travel promotion where they give you free moneyz if you visit enough of their locations, so I'll be stopping in their casinos in Indiana, Illinois, St. Louis, and Tunica. That'll be worth about $500 in comps. Since most places I'm guessing will only have 1/2 or 1/3 NLH, it'll be a good time to catch back up on NLH fundamentals after playing PLO for most of my time here.

Afterwards, we'll probably make the trip out to Atlantic City (stopping in Philly and New York along the way) for the additional $250 in comps from 15+ checkpoints, also visiting. I haven't been to the east coast since I was like 10 years old, so I'm pretty excited about that too.

So cool!

Up $623 in 4 hours of PLO. Bought in for $200 (40bb) for lols, flipped my way up to $1500 shoving connected/suited/high card hands. Then played a really bad hand where this guy triple barreled for pot-sized bets a Q9368 board and I called him down with 899T all 3 streets in position. He showed QJT7. I can't realistically beat anything on river since there are no missed flush draws from the flop... river bet was $460 that I should have saved. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Only small consolation I have is that if I repop'd him on the turn he would have called and I would have lost anyway.

Possibly last session at Horseshoe Cleveland for a couple weeks!?

Down $93 in 2 hours at 2/5 NLH. Couple hands.

Hand 1: 5 limps to my BB, I check T3.

Flop J33, pot $30
I check, UTG limper (very loose semi-aggro fish) bets $20, I call.

Turn 6, pot $70
I check, UTG bets $50, I call.

River A, pot $170
I bet $115, UTG calls and shows AJ. I meant to bet more but I miscounted potsize... oops.

Hand 2: Maniac opens to $20 from MP, I make it $60 from MP+1 with AK. Only maniac calls.

Flop KQ9, pot $135
He checks, I check expecting him to barrel turn nearly 100%.

Turn 5, pot $135
He bets $100, I call.

River K, pot $335.
He bets $215, I call. He shows 55. Sigh.

Aesah,

I don't know a lot of PLO, but i'll comment.
What could he have on turn: i see, TP + FD, SET of Q, 2 pair + pair, STR8 drw + pair, some (very few) bluff (pair +inside STR8).
From all of this, you are losing only to set of Q. So why didn't u potted or raise the turn? Your image was so tight? You are hoping he would bluff the river. Giving him a free card put you in a difficult decision on river once some draws are completed. And you won't get paid by any worst, so you are waiting to to bluff again (maybe with what he thinks is the best hand).
That's the problem when we give villain the initiative, if we aren't nuts we and get a bit lost by the river (much more in omaha i think).
Well, i'm a noob, and don't know the reads you had on villain.

I'm really curious about what was your thought on the turn.

Didn't you think about raising the river the second hand?
Sick man.

Lol. Let's raise our trips on a str8 and flush board and see what happens

IMO u gotta ship the turn in that PLO hand just feels so dirty not to. I m PLO pro obv

Re: PLO hand. Yea I don't know why I didn't. To be honest I was kind of scared he had QQ, but really I was just playing bad and not thinking straight. Nothing more to say about that.

If I had QQ I would have raised, which is stupid because 99 is almost just as good.

Re: NLH hand. Actually, vs the maniac in the NLH hand with trips I considered raising as I've seen him play another hand where the action was 3 way, and flop went bet/raise, turn was bet, river went bet/raise and he called and showed AQo on something like AJ75T, can't really remember the exact board. Other guy obviously showed nut straight.

ty for comments.

Don't come to STL until the fall. It's hot as hell here right now! Go somewhere north!

On the road again! Lost $1200 in 3 hours. Sickest 1/2 game ever in Elizabeth, Indiana. I open-shoved A2o unexploitably for 150bb thanks to straddles/blind raises. Sadly I ran bad, AKo < J2o AIPF, etc.

Good luck man, epic swap from 6 figures to live, but do whatever you feel is right

probably already been asked but cba to root through all the posts:

what was your 6 figure job

also, cliffs on how it has gone since you started?

Phone typing so short post:

Job was Bioinformatics/Technical writing with the FDA. Cliffs:

Ran hot for first 200ish hours, then lost a lot in runbad at higher stakes, but still confident+enjoying poker and will get it back

Driving to STL today.

Good luck

You open shoved AKo or A2o?

Both among other hands

Thanks for your reply OP.

Best of luck with this challenge. It's pretty ballsy to quit a 6 figure job and play poker.

How do you find yourself coping with all the annoying things that come with playing live?

*Working throughout the night
*Dealing with the horrendous players that play live and the plays they make

Do you find yourself feeling quite segregated and detached, or do you feel you fit in quite well with the live regs etc?

Hours: I just play whenever, honestly I don't notice much difference at all between friday nights vs tuesday mornings

I love watching live players flat the river with the nuts or raise 30bbs with AA pre, still cracks me up

Down $156 in 4 hours at 5/10 in St Louis, won... I think zero showdowns?

Troubling hand:
I raise pre from MP with AhQd to $30, erratic playing old man (bad overall, mucked river when other guy was playing the board in HU pot...) flats on button, OK-ish guy flats in BB.

Flop Ad 8c 4d, $90 pot
Checked around. I bet here almost always but happen to be mixing it up this hand.

Turn 8s, $90 pot
BB leads $50, call, call.

River 7h, $240 pot
check, I bet $125, BTN raises to $300, fold fold.

????

I used to do this kind of move until recently i realized it is almost always bad (i think its good only in HU games).

I think the worst of it is that you lose completely the read of the situation. Since you didn't represented any strength, what do bad players realize that you have? I guess you make them confused, and they start to play badly, but since they are playing so badly you have no reads anymore.

So, first thing here i think is to bet 100% of this kind of dry flops 3-way. Maybe you lose some value, but whatever.

Very probably you was losing by the river, but i personally hate this felling of didn't know what happened when i have a had that good. Funny tough (i imagine this man having A7 and hitting this "3rd" pair and felling so confident by the river. really having no clue about what he's doing)