how's the bankroll coming along?

Nice pics, I got a little taste of LA traffic the other day. Luckly we can't be "late" for work.

OP, I am in your shoes. I don't think I could earn the same amount of money playing poker as I do now, but I think I would enjoy my life a lot more. Unlike you, since I won't quit, I am secretly hoping to be laid off.

^ Haha just quit! Would you be unable to find something else if poker didn't work out? Keep in mind though while poker has awesome pros (make your own hours, socialize while working, playing a GAME that is FUN), it has some serious cons too.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I just got back from Vegas. Went with non-poker friends so I didn't play much- very briefly played 20/40 @ Bellagio and 2/5 @ Caesar's Palace. Also played PLO at Bike briefly before I left on vacation. Total between these 3 sessions I was down $650 in 3 hours. Spent ~$150 on a meal at Alize (no alcohol even), most I've ever spent on dinner ever. Worth the experience 1 time I guess but won't be doing that again lol.

For the record, the 20/40 game @ Bellagio seemed absolutely atrocious (as in the players were not atrocious) compared to the Commerce games. I did get to witness WCGRider beatbox/rap which was amazing though.

Another funny thing I witnessed: 40 year old middle eastern guy bluffs river, shows his hand to his wife behind him. The other guy is tanking and asks "do you want me to call?...... why did your wife shake her head", then calls. He was real mad at her lol.

LA total: $27567, 232 hours.

Whenever there is a person sweating another player I always look at them for physical tells, since they normally for bother hiding then very well

Playing PLO on LATB right now.

I may not play long this game is trash

Damn... was looking forward to some good PLO action finally

Very cool - I am going to tune in. BTW - what is your name?

... they must delay the webcast? Says "offline"

lots of pros?

Seat 3

Quick update from girl's place. was up $5928 today in 6 hours of straight PLO. Fyeah. Will post hands later.

I heard today's LATB show was AMAZING and you should watch it.

LA total: $33595, 238 hours.

Yea you definitely left too early because that game came alive in the last hour it so

haha well IMO one of the biggest leaks of poker players is playing when the game is good, and not when they want to. In comparison, many jobs have higher overtime pay but you rarely see people working overtime because despite the higher hourly.

Anyway I'm trying to remember some PLO hands that led to my huge win yesterday, but for some reason besides the two big LATB hands (got it in with 45% with QQT8 vs JJ87 on J95r and won for a ~$2300 pot, then got it in with 71% with QJT8 vs AJT9 on Q96r and got 3/4 of a ~$4500 pot), I can only remember 1 other one.

I straddle for $20 (missed blind) from CO, BTN straddles $40. Pretty good pro opens to $125 from UTG, I flat from CO with T877ss, BTN flats.

Flop 9s9s7h, pot $385
Villain bets $210, I flat, BTN folds.

Turn Kh, pot $805
Villain bets $480, I jam for $700 more. He sigh calls and mucks on two blank rivers.

Standard?

In other news, the 2-2 PLO game at the Bike is making great progress with the higher ups. Really hoping to start that soon.

I don't know how much i agree with leaving a good game because you don't want to play, maybe if you think you aren't playing well you could leave a good game. I guess the thinking is the game is always "good" so you can play almost whenever you want? While that makes sense i think it is still a good idea to stay and play if the game is better than normal because you are giving up a good amount potential earnings

I might be a little naive when it comes to this tho since i basically play when i want but if the game is good i stay until the game breaks or i feel way too tired to continue.

Great news with the 2-2 PLO game! Hopefully that gets going soon so i can move my way up to Limon's game (and probably get crushed haha)

Honestly unless there is someone literally shoving 100bb+ blind you can always find an equivalent "good" game. I guarantee you that there is a game as good as the end of LATB literally 24/7 running somewhere in one of LA's 5 major casinos. Finding it is the toughest part, followed by getting a seat but tbh neither are THAT tough.

To continue with the overtime analogy, you're basically saying everyone should take the opportunity to work overtime (at jobs where OT pays a higher hourly). Yet in reality, very, very few people willingly do it- poker players sucker themselves into doing it because their mentality is distorted by the fact their job directly involves money IMO.

Played about 2 hours of NLHE and 2 hours of PLO, was down about $500 from NLHE and up $1000 in PLO. Up $471 total for the session.

The NLHE loss is almost all from 1 hand where I raised pre, fish flats in the blinds. He check/called two streets then led river huge on Jc7c5c6d2h, I called river with 64o and he shows... T7hh. wtf I got owned by button clicking

Glad to be winning at PLO again. I think I lost like 10 PLO sessions in a row at the Bike before yesterday, could check my thread to confirm if that's actually true, but that's what it felt like either way. Biggest hand was going multiway in a single raised pot with AsKs3d2c in position, and raising a flop bet and jamming the turn vs. a fish on 7h3h3xAx. I assume villain had a 3.

LA total: $34066, 242 hours.

Say you have a normal job and your salary is 20/hr and OT is 30/hr. However, in a 5/5 game your theoretical hourly has a way bigger spread maybe 20/hr in a horrible game to 100/hr in a great game and it probably only requires playing your "B" game.

But you are correct, you probably will get in a similar good game again in a few days. So if your tired/don't feel like playing leaving is not a big deal. But staying a bit extra helps your win rate in the long run a bit IMO.

Plus if your not in LA or Vegas big games don't run as often so if you happen to be in an excellent big game staying longer has a bigger benefit because that game is not going to be around tommorrow.

^ yea I only briefly touched upon it, but it's a valid point. Furthermore it's not a polarized decision when you choose to leave or not. If the game is slightly better than average, I'm slightly less inclined to leave. If the game is way worse than average, I'm way more inclined to leave. Other factors include if you have plans/other events you want to go to, etc.

One strategy tidbit I want to mention. Let's say you open with 87s to 4bb, and a guy 3-bets you to 12bb. I've heard misinformation multiple times in the past few days saying you want to be X amount of big blinds (usually like 200) deep to profitably call with suited connectors... and they don't know why they say that.

It's ancient strategy advice based on how deep you need to be to hit 2pair or better to stack an overpair back when people 3-bet usually with only AK/JJ+. When in reality, if you flop even 1 pair you're most likely good. Use your own discretion of course, I'm obviously not advocating flatting 3-bets 100bb deep OOP with 87s vs. TAGs, but I suspect in position this is a profitable call vs. the majority of 5-10 players (including my own 3-betting OOP range, assuming equal skilled players).

Had another good day. Played 3 hours of NLHE and was up roughly $1000, then 6 hours of PLO and was up roughly $400 for $1425 total. Two NLHE hands and three PLO hands for today:

Hand 1: I make it $20 preflop with 99 on the button, both blinds call (both huge fish).

Flop 922, pot $60
Both check, I bet $15, both call.

Turn J, pot $105
Both check, I bet $25, SB folds, BB raises to $100, I raise to $325. He quickly calls.

River K, pot $755
BB checks, I bet $400, BB folds. I showed this hand...

Hand 2: The very next hand, I raised pre with 75s, then bet $15 into a 4-way $100 pot with no pair and absolutely no draws at all and everyone folded. Best pricing on bluff ever.

~~

On to PLO, had 3 big hands. Main villain is one of the bigger spots at the table, a very well-off and nice older guy who plays literally 100% VPIP (he only folded once preflop this session where I limp/raised AA34r to $550 and took it down preflop) but can value bet thin, bluff, and fold postflop as well as play tricky. Loose postflop as well, in both betting frequency and peels flops/turns light. Always wears a Hawaiian-print shirt, let's call him Hawaii.

Hand 3: Hawaii straddles for $25 from the BTN then pots it to $105, only me and the best player at the table limp/call (the only other player I wouldn't consider a fish at the table, the game was absolutely sick today). I have JJT5. Depending on my mood I might fold this pre, /shrug.

Flop J86, pot $325
I check planning to c/r since Hawaii will cbet here a lot, but they both check.

Turn 2, pot $325
I check, pro bets $300, Hawaii folds, I make it $1225 with about $1600 behind. He tanks for an extremely long time and eventually folds.

Hand 4: I just wanted to post this hand because it's spewy. Just a total disaster. Hawaii makes it $60 preflop from the blinds, again me and the pro are only callers. I have Q986. Again I sometimes just fold this pre depending on my mood. We're about $3000 deep.

Flop 874, pot $180
Hawaii bets $180, I call (folding here is probably better), pro folds.

Turn 3, pot $540
Hawaii bets $540, I call. In retrospect I think this is a fold, despite results.

River T, pot $1620
Hawaii checks, I bet $540 (too thin?), Hawaii calls with QJT9 with Q high diamonds. So amazingly I was actually good with my pair of eights on the turn, heh.

Hand 5: This one isn't as interesting but I'm posting it anyway because it's a big pot. I raise with KQJ7, Hawaii calls. HU to the flop.

Flop Q95, pot $120
Hawaii checks, I bet $110, Hawaii calls.

Turn T, pot $340
Hawaii leads for $340, I flat. I pretty much expect him to fold almost 100% of the time if he doesn't have KJxx and I raise here.

River 8, pot $1020
Hawaii checks, I bet $700, Hawaii calls with QJT6. Probably should have bet more since he can really only call with the Q high straight here, which is probably calling a full pot bet.

LA total: $35491, 251 hours.

Hand 3:

I'd fold this hand pre if I'm in EP, esp if a raise is coming often from the btn..

On the flop you have to lead unless you have a strong read that hawaii cbets way too often. He's simply going to check this flop so often. I play with a cbet ~70% and would check back this flop so frequently 3ways IP.

On the turn I like leading unless the pro stabs with air a lot when the flop checks through with the best relative position.

Hand 4:

Flop is close, I lean towards a fold with a player left to act behind.

Turn is close given flop action. I'd probably fold though.

River value bet is good.

Hand 5:

Flop/Turn are good. As you mentioned, the river is a pot bet vs said villain.

Don't ever fold q986ds pre especially vs a fish.

How deep were you on the kjxx hand?

^ About $3000 to start the hand with. While it wasn't a huge concern vs. this villain's insanely wide range, I also didn't want to get freerolled by KJ + something else if I pot the turn and he repots it all in.

Also I forgot to mention an important detail. While Hawaii plays 100% VPIP he has a very tight PFR range (as you can see he had QJT9ss in hand 2, probably something like AKQT in hand 1 given that he didn't cbet). I don't expect him to cbet often with air, but I figure that with his tight range he'll have a lot of overpairs/cards around the J that he will bet with.

In hand 1 the pro does like to stab at turns, especially vs. me since we play so many multi-way pots that I don't usually ever have a check flop/check-continue turn range. However 3-way with these particular players I thought a bet was likely.

Questions...

1. I seriously still don't understand Omaha starting hand ranges at all. Isn't the double gap between the Q and the 9 basically make the Q almost a total dangler, making the hand pretty horrible? AHHH I DONT GET IT

2. I also don't place that much value in the low suits either because most pots will be multi-way so when I flop a low flush draw to go along with whatever else I have, it's often meaningless. Freerolling someone with nuts v. nuts is sooooooo rare too. Is this a mistake?

3. tyty for the comments, especially to tmckendry for detailed analysis. A "silly" question real quick. I always feel like betting full "pot" is really scary to these guys, should I just say "pot" or throw out $1000 if I want a call (and vice versa as a bluff?), or am I totally overthinking this?

Ouch had my roughest day ever on Friday. Lost $3100 playing well, then tilted the last $900 off in a really bad river spot where an aggro fish bet full pot with a non-nut straight on a flush possible board and I hero called with top two. I leveled myself into thinking he was polarized when in reality he doesn't know what that word means- vs. this particular villain it's horrible because he's just clicking buttons and his button-clicking range beats my hand.

Another example of where I keep math-owning myself using combinatorics instead of the simple adage that most players never bet without the nuts on the river:

I limp AJ64 in a $25 straddled pot, 5 ways.

Flop AJ4, pot $130
Old nitty villain checks, I bet $100, everyone else folds, villain calls.

Turn 7, pot $330
Villain checks, I bet $300, villain calls.

River 9, pot $930
Villain leads for $350, I call thinking HOW THE FK can he have T8 here. He would have raised or bet earlier if he had a set, so I figure he has missed hearts or something and tried a small bluff. He shows AT84.

Down $4000 in about 7 hours.

LA total: $31491, 258 hours.

At least you're honest with yourself about the tilting and the loss. That's the best way to prevent it from happening again imo.

Here's to running hot and crushing your next session.

Even though I am a total noob when it comes to PLO I could tell that was a spectacular game and there were at least 4 huge fish in the game (I might have been the 5th).

It was also a bunch of fun playing in that game since it was very talkative and relaxed even though it was a relatively big game

The toughest part about that last hand was the specific villain. He is the kind of player who will triple barrel with air or the nuts but I didn't think he would bet the river for value with less than a flush. Even when you called he acted like it was a bluff so I'm not sure if he really knew why he was betting

Rough session but when games are that good it's only a matter of time before you crush it regularly