Thanks !!

The highest stakes I would play right now is 5/10 (2500 max ) as a shot take. For me shot taking feels like something I would do when traveling, because it feels like after playing higher stakes ( and potentially doing well); it could be a mental hurdle to come back and stay disciplined in the 2/2/5 1k cap buyin games that are in my area.

I studied a lot of GTO in 2020 for Online purposes, and have found it very helpful.

Thanks for following !

Got out of work Thursday and was able to get in some solid volume. Made $1839 over the 4 days with 4 live sessions and 3 online.

Ran two big bluffs with one working out, and one not working out ( but good range balancer ) in the live streets. Profit roll up to $52,997 over 2200 hours. Will update some hands from the weekend when on a computer.

Encore Boston poker has been up and running again and is definitely adding another variable to New England PLO. Have not been back myself yet. $10 rake and only running 10 AM- 8 PM M-TH.

Meditation game has been best it’s been for a few months and it’s showing in my results.

3 Big hands from weekend

( I am totally drawing a blank on how to insert suits of cards into the text )

Balancing paired boards

Hero (2k) Q10106cc, limps $5 button, villain raises $25 SB (680). One call and we call.

(80) 556r

Villains leads 60, fold, and we make it 130 ( 6 blocker), this particular villain probably only raising blinds with big pocket pairs so this board favors us.

Villian calls, expected him to peel one even with like AA74.

(340) 5562hh

checks to us, we bet 170, trying to leave enough back on the river to get him off the hand, if we bet too much on turn we dont leave enough bluff $$ back

he calls.

(680) 55629 no flush board

he checks, I bet 350 and essentially put him allin.

At this point in the hand I put him on like AA5x. Seems really hard to call river bet with a bare 5.

He says pocket 6's I guess right, takes about 90 seconds, just kind of smiles, says he hit the high hand anyways, and calls.

Good call by him. He was at the top of his range with KK52, so I think the turn 2 was the difference on this hand.

KK52> Q10106 on 55629 (1360)

PLO player trying to play AK in holdem LOL

I rarely play any type of holdem, am sitting in the mixed game that is 2/5/10 holdem and 2/5 PLO. Up to 1700 because I coolered someone 33 versus AQ on Q439Q.

I have AdKh in SB, we 3! a loose aggro (1700) to 235 over his 65 open. He calls MP+1.

(505) J87ddh. We go check/check.

(505) J875ddhh. I bet 175 and he calls.

(855) J8753hhh. I bet 375 ( which is LOL small, we both started hand with about 1700.... in PLO I think the sizing matters so little on flush rivers that I just really whiffed on my bet sizing here and I am representing nothing. ANYWAYS.... he calls.

(1605) We show our AK, he says "OH BLUFF".... and I nod.... he looks back at his hand, looks again at board, and then flips over A9spades and says he misread. Believed him that he misread.

SO we completely luckbox this terrible bluff.

First Top set AA and nut flush draw of 2022

Hero 3! a strong reg with AA2Jssdd to 50. 2 cold calls and strong reg calls. Hero covers all with 1500.

(200) A86ss

Checks to us and we bet 130. fold, fold, strong reg (1k) calls.

(460) A86ss4.

He leads 275, pretty easy flat, he has 75 wrap here 95% of time.

We call.

(1010) A8642sss.

He checks, we bet 375 and he snap folds.

Pretty looking hand.

Solid weekend overall, ran super well on that goofy holdem bluff, I do like the Q10106 bluff overall, hard to find those uncomfortable spots on paired boards to balance and think that fit the criteria.

Cheers !

Driving down to get some 5/10 PLO in tonight at Foxwoods.

Roll at $52,300.

Poker is pretty wild, did not think I would be playing 5/10 PLO during the days of grinding out the 1/2 and 1/3 holdem streets just over 2 years ago.

With my stake split we take on 60% of our losses. It allows me to buyin to games for 2k range and still be under 2.5% of my total profit.

We do get a % bump closer to 70% on 50 hour winning periods. This stake has been an absolute win/ win for my closer friend and I who share it. Allows me to get into bigger games while giving him a nice passive income stream. I think we are at just about 875 hours since we started it. Super grateful for our relationship.

Anyways, will check out the room, last time I was down at Foxwoods the 2/5 PLO was very passive and not a good game to play in. So I am hoping 5/10 will run and we can get a seat.

Cool journey, excited to play.

Want to recap my foxwoods trip;

Was able to play 7 hours of 5/10 PLO. Game was short for awhile but was definitely getting good. We had one river call and one turn bet that I felt we made mistakes on but other than that felt pretty solidly overall.

We played 2 big pots overall.

1. While still short handed we had AJ102ddhh (2k)and opened to 40 in HJ with 3 calls.

(160) Flop J65ddh. SB (950) who is aggressive and had just lost pot leads for 135, fold, we reraise to 525, fold and he shoves and we call. We end up running it twice. He has KQJ5 all black cards. We are 60% favorite.

(2060) Run- out 1: J65ddh 5c 3c
Run- out 2: J65ddh 2c Kc

So we lose both run outs there. Pretty frustrating.

We had won a few pots early so had run stack from 1500 up to 2800. Made a questionable river call in a 3! Pot with AAQ7 heads up and OOP on a 8810KJ board. We 3! Pre out of SB ina heads up spot. Flop went check/ check. Turn went check/ call 175. And River went check/ call 375. Kind of a shitty run out and he had 1010Qx I believe. Unsure of my river call, it is a good bluff spot for him against AA, in hindsight against this opponent I would have rather flatted pre.

2. The biggest hand I have played up to this point in my journey.

We are into game for 3k, 1800 of my own roll.

KK75hh, in SB. We start the hand with l1250. MP makes it 50 over a limp, 2 calls, we call 50, and UTG short stacker limp reraises as last to act for $270. 3 calls and we close the action with a call.

($1350) 643r .. so we flop nuts, first to act and less than 1 PSB, we check to induce as UTG only has 130 left, so we check, he goes allin for 130, MP who slightly has us covered makes it 400, folds to us and we shove, MP calls.

Main ($1740) side ($1700)

Limp UTG has AA22cchh
MP who we have side pot with has Q1066.

So we are about 60% with our nut straight.

($1740) ($1700) 6538hh and MP says pair the board and river is a 3…

So tough river, did not run great over the trip. Great experience tho. Had been running good for awhile so regression to mean is part of the deal.

Roll is at $50,442. Still up for 2022 but those 2 pots were tough spots, great for overall character building.

Cheers !

After foxwoods, we lost a 3 way $2500 pot as a 58% favorite during the second orbit of 2/5 NL/PLO. Lost to a hand with four of a suit (AK53cccc) on J95cc 4 7c. Bet $625 (pot) on turn and got called by AK53cccc and 10855… So a not ideal river but it happens. We had AA99.

Bankroll dipped to low 49k and then we managed to run one of our .3/.6 120 max stacks online to about $650. Pretty wild to make almost 1k big blinds in any game.

The big hand came at .3/6. when we 3! 8753hh to $7, got cold called, and original raisor who barely covers us makes it $25. We call and third player calls AI. We are IP and rarely get out of line. So now knowing he has AAxx I know the low boards he anticipates will be good board textures for him are going to connect with us. Get a fortunate flop of 1088 he pots $75 into us and we go allin for $140. He snap calls with AAQ6hh and we hold for a $355 pot at .3/.6. My VPIP is about 23% over 100k hands so not a play I make often by any means but it’s good to make these plays as a super reg as it changes image. We were 39% preflop against his AAQ6 and had 2 SPR with the knowledge he’s almost always leading low boards he anticipates being good for him.

Looking to get back down to foxwoods this weekend and probably play NH as well.

Nicer weather vibes are so massive up in MA right now !

The wrong side of variance stage of my journey has continued..... last Friday night we lost some pretty cooler spots; one being KK54hh versus probably most aggro regular in the player pool, on 972hh Ks 5h..... he was CO, and I was button in a 4 way $25 pre from MP pot. Flop he checked which is super rare for him to do with his nut flush/ top pair combo. I bet flop 75 into 100, and turn 250 into 250. River he open shoved 655 and its just one of those spots that he is too capable, and my range doesnt contain a ton of K high hearts, its probably more weighed to sets and wrap type hands. He ends up showing A39xhh. Very much a setup hand for me to hit top set on the turn cause I am checking back so many turns due to his high check raising frequencies.

Went down to foxwoods and broke pretty much even on 19 hours, played some 5/10 and mostly 2/5. At 2/5 we had built our stack from 1k to 1500, got involved in a 3 way $850 allin spot, we had AA73hh and up against KK109hhcc and AKK2hhdd and we lose as a 51% preflop favorite on a board of 863r 7cc 4ccc. A high variance spot, but we win that pot and our stack is up over 3k while still at must move.... bummer.

The amazing spot of the trip, was that my close friend I went down with, ended up chopping the Sunday $500 for just over 10k !!! It was super fun to rail him and follow along with.

Played a really bad online session where I dumped $280, just playing my C game. Always humbling and a great reminder to stay focused. Worst downswing was just over $5k a few months back and we are at a downswing of $4900ish right now. Profit is $48,117/ 2262 hours.

We also got into a pretty big altercation in the cash out line at Foxwoods on sunday night. An older guy was yelling at the employees behind the glass at how f*cking slow they were. I am a pure libra personality, and I confronted him about how absurd he was being and how they are working a late night shift on a long weekend, probably doing the best they can. Unfortunately we both escalated a bit and were yelling back and forth at each other, and eventually security walked by as a sign to both of us to chill out. I genuinely hate bullies man, and although I am glad I spoke up, wish I had got my message through a little better before we escalated to just yelling F bombs at one another.

Unable to edit this as I am at work now, cheers to the journey.

Had a really awesome weekend in NY for my girlfriends 28th birthday. Was good to take a break from poker for a few days.

Doing some reflecting; the live games are definitely harder than they have ever been. You don’t get as many of the easy stack offs set over set ( or set versus naked two pair ) as frequently as past. I think as the games get harder live and people learn more about PLO, it just makes it even more important to play more pots in position.

The card equity is mattering less as people realize how important denying equity is in live settings; merged with realizing how to better deal with changing board textures…

The positive of this… is that pure NITS are getting paid off less and less. I am definitely one of the tighter preflop players in my pool; but do have a lot of balance and will bluff appropriate situations ( Ace flush blocker, nut straight blockers, nut full house blocker, etc.. ).

The other positive is… I noticed this a TON at foxwoods. You can stab in multi-way and give yourself a GREAT price… Was able to get some ridiculous stabs through, things like $65 into $175 into 3 players and the tight players just don’t want to reverse float you… no matter how good the price. So you can manipulate your image with small stabs very profitably, and that’s a big tool for balancing live image.

I do think games in New England are more challenging than some of the other games ( such as Florida and Texas ). (( Not that I’ve played in Texas but I have Florida)). Anyways back at it tmrw, stay grateful my friends.

Felt the best I have mentally today all winter. Really felt a jolt to my system from socializing this weekend; as well as meditating 10 mins a day/ cold end to showers.

Have had a bit of a gratitude shift and perspective shift from where I was earlier in the winter, and am very grateful for that.

Heard Dylan Weisman talk about letting the script play out, and that really hit me. Play well and let the script play out. Do your best to be prepared technically before you actually sit down.

Cheers !

Enjoy reading the posts! Keep it up.
I'm actually at a comparable level as you are, BR and stakes wise, so nice follow!

GL

"ridiculous stabs through, things like $65 into $175 into 3 players and the tight players just don’t want to reverse float you…"


Good point.

Yeah its wild, just things you would never get away with online. Some of these stab spots, the sizing does not matter for 40-50% of the player pool's eyes. Betting $125 into $175 versus $65 is essentially going to elicit the same amount folds ( for certain player ((rock)) types )...... either they were continuing or they were not. Obviously you need to know the player's and do it on appropriate board textures.

Love that !! Good luck

The deeper I get into this, the more I realize it is about discipline and consistency.

The law of familiarity is something I can struggle with sometimes...... it used to seem unattainable to play these stakes all the time (1k PLO)... but then you get so used to it.... that you almost find yourself forgetting that. Its a delicate balance because ( for me )... I want to keep progressing, while simultaneously staying grateful.

I am a way better poker player when I come from a place of gratitude and respect for myself and the game.

Had a great session last Monday after NY.

Doubled up early in the session with AA96dd (4!) to 300 after I opened MP and CO 3! (1k effective)

Flop: (615) 944r check/ check

Turn: (615) 944Jdd

We lead 425 with nut diamond draw, he shoves and we call our last 275. River offsuit 5. AA96> KKQ10

Excited to get back into a potentially heavier volume poker weekend

Meditating 20 minutes a day on headspace and been writing my gratitude lists on the gratitude app.

Mindfulness is a super power in life and on the poker table.

Had another great session last night, in for 1550 out for 2075. It’s 1k cap so dug myself out of a -500 hole to a +525 finish. Also binked a royal and received 250 for that.

This idea of “allowing the script to play out”….. has been a huge poker epiphany for me. The more I think about this simple statement in my brain the more I feel well equipped.

Very similar BR and stakes played here as well!

I agree that it is all about consistency and discipline.

Done right, winning at poker can actually make you a better version of your self.

The level of self reflection and life management required to excel at the game affects all aspects of your life.

Could poker be a GURU in disguise?

Maybe everything is if treated as such..

Have you ever spelled the word GURU out loud, slowly?

GEE YOU ARE YOU !! Guru vibes

Yeah Poker is a great self exploration tool. Poker and life are both games of compounding decisions adding up to provide better chances of success, while also dealing with variance of bad decisions working out great and great decisions working out bad.

Thanks for following and definitely agree with your insight. Good luck at the tables !

Back over 50k which is very exciting. Had a fantastic weekend. Played Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday for a total of 38 hours. Managed to hit a $250 royal flush bonus on Saturday as well as a 1k high hand ( quad KINGS ) on Sunday night.. Went 3/4 winning sessions, with Monday being our second best cash game session ever.

Quad Kings were the big hands this weekend/ hands below both from Monday...

1.KK53dddh (1200)

Call 20 on the button at a aggressive must move. Go multiway to flop.

(100) K95ss, SB leads 35, 3 calls, and we make it 250, folds around to CO who calls us. He has 400 behind.

(750) K95ss 5... so we turn the nut full house with quad blocker. He checks to me, I bet 85 and he min raises back to 200. We call. River is a Q. He checks, we bet 200 and he folds.

2. KKQ5 (2100)
Table is WILD... Call in CO, $30, 6 ways,

Flop (185) k104r.... checks to us, we bet 125, SB aggro calls, and straddle pots to 685 with 150ish behind. We make it 1700 and SB folds K1089 (1k), and straddle calls his last 150.

(2075) Board runs out K104r 7hh Jhhh.... not ideal...... SB says he would have hit a straight... I turn over KK and straddle turns over 4466 and we manage to hold on.

After first week of March we just about cancelled out February's loss (February was my worst poker month ever )...

Over the last 8 days I have been privileged to get 20 minutes of meditation in everyday, as long as writing a gratitude list. Been an amazing practice and I am super grateful for it.

Cheers !

Super hot start to March. Since I have gotten back from NY for a weekend to celebrate my GFs birthday; have been on a heater and playing some mindful poker. +++4018 since Feb. 28.

Came home from a nice +360 session at the local PLO game last night, jumped into some .3/.6 and games were super bad; got a little stuck and noticed some 1/2 PLO6 H/L games looked loose. Ran super well and made like 1k over 3 tables just making the lock low and nut high over and over.

Will be in Tampa next Thursday- Tuesday for my buddies Bacheloer party. Staying an extra 48 hours after everyone else leaves to get in some PLO and golf.

Can really feel the benefits of the 20 minute mediation daily/ mixed with gratitude list. I use headspace and gratitude app.

Will get in some more volume this weekend.

Cheers !

Have had some realizations lately.

1. Playing in a poker room as a regular is tough. I am someone who has always loved people, and it is in my nature to make friends ( or try to )... with mostly everyone.

I have some people pleasing tendencies that I have worked on a lot as I have gotten older... but those things are still there and people are perceptive and can sense that. I had one of the regulars ask me to leave the other day cause I was up $1800 and it put me in a really weird spot.... I did end up leaving at the end of that high hand period cause we have a pretty friendly relationship........ long term just not a pressure I can be giving into on a regular basis.

I will always be closer to the side of the spectrum that wants poker to be a social game but this might be a lesson that I need to be more careful of how I socially position myself in these environments. There are other regulars that people would never ask to leave who are considerably tighter than I am.

2. My fitness strength is really low right now. Pre-Covid was pretty comfortable repping the 70-75lb DBs for chest press and after coming off a slight shoulder irritation.... was struggling to get to 10 reps with the 50lb weights by the third set. Uncomfortable spot to be in as a fitness trainer. My nutrition is pretty good, so I am on the lean side but lacking a lot of muscle compared to what my standards are.

3. I need to find another regular game to help diversify my hours. Online is really dry right now compared to what it is. The ceiling for an hourly just is not there ( at least on POKERBROS )..... I am at like $8/hr over my last 400 or so hours..... the rake is too high and the regulars are too competent to play higher than .3/.6 as a profitable regular.

4. My work schedule right now is Tues (7-1030)/(4-815)... Wed (6-12)/(4-8)....Thurs (6-12).... and the hourly is not great given the current inflation rate. Exploring the idea of cutting out my Tuesdays so that I have more energy and more flexibility. Even if it just the later shift on Tuesday as it ties my day up to leave one job at 11 and have 5 hours off before only logging 4 hours but getting home at 9pm to wake up at 445Am.....

Will be in Tampa this week, very exciting, love the Hard Rock Seminole. Seems like Hard Rock Hollywood is moving a lot to PLO5..... will be interesting to see if other PLO hub casinos start to do the same ? Less variance in PLO4 so I prefer that now.... but there could more edge in PLO5.... who knows how it will play out.... need to not stress myself out trying to predict how it will play out.... our human fear based brain can be difficult to navigate.

5. Gratitude and meditation continues to be huge for my mindset, recommend it to everyone to use headspace/gratitude app combo.

Cheers !

A few bluff/semi bluff spots that I found interesting over the last few weeks.... some went well... some not so well.

1. QJ87hhhd, limp/call the button in a 5 handed aggro game. 3 ways to a flop of 10106ddc. Checks to us, we bet $35 into $60. Aggro BB who raised and is a thinking reg calls, other folds.

10106 Jddd.... (130)... he checks, we bet $85 into $130..... he calls.....

(300) 10106 J 9 ddd.... he checks..... we continue with the J blocker and bet 175 and he snap folds AJ85dd. We show bluff and just a good balancing spot against a solid player. This board definitely favors our limp/calling range and probably would have given up on the turn if it was not a Jack....

2. AQJ10ddd call 30 in SB at super aggro table. We go to the flop 6 ways.

(180) J65r... checks thru...... j65 K completing the rainbow..... I lead 150..... I should be uncapped here and the thinking guys understand this...... I get one call... its unfortunate cause its one of the tighter regs.

(480) J65K6...... I lead 225.... figuring I give myself a good price on the bluff and it also isnt the worst bluff to show if I do get called. Pretty much exactly how I would play JJ here...

He takes 20 seconds and calls with 55xx.

3. 6543ddcc

Aggro player in town from Texas open to 15, I make it 50 CO. Button 4! to 125.... aggro folds and we call. We both start hand with 1100 or so....

(j66) r (270).... I check... he bets 125..... I am trying to get it in against AA, c/raise to 375.... he takes 15 seconds and shoves.... and now I am like... did I overplay this spot... what is he shoving with ? I take a full minute and call ( may have been a Nitroll, and I apologized for it).... I call and instantly say I have a 6....... He shows AAJx...

(2070) J66K5... we scoop.

In Uber to HardRock Tampa, just finished a bachelor weekend for my buddy with 12 of my HS friends…. Absolutely amazing time, so grateful for it. We went to Valspar Friday and played 18 on Saturday/ went out in Tanpa. So great to be able to connect for 2.5 days straight with people you really care about.

Staying in Tampa by myself for the next 2 days, planning on hitting HardRock today and tomorrow. They run some awesome 2/2 and 5/5 PLO games, both with a rock.

Feeling very grateful

Played 2/2 w/ rock for about 2 hours last night and then got called for 5/5 w/ rock at HardRock Tampa…

So some thoughts …

Not as many action bad players are in the player pool as when I was here last year this time.

The PLO game contains some very strong regulars. I think anyone who has played the 5/5 or higher will probably know the 3 or 4 players I am referring to. Kudos to them for not only being pros but being pretty aggro pros too; that’s something we don’t really have in the public casino PLO games in New England.

Anyways… we finished up 160 in 2/2… went to 5/5 and had a tough spot I’ll post in omaha sun forum in more depth… basically AJ98cccs in CO, flop 6710ccs… straddle raisor UTG1 leads 100/250, I make it 350 with 800 behind… folds to him and he calls. Turn 950 ( 1067ccs 6d)… he leads 200/950…. Too exploitable to fold and I don’t see merit to raising much… I call. River is a red 2 and he shoves for our stack…. I end up folding… like his turn bet a lot.

Got most of it back in a $50 bomb pot.. the time $ is $8 and they do a bomb pot every 30 minutes to pay it if it’s the regs.

Q1076 in bomb pot on button,

250 (984)r… aggro leads 150, we call and SB calls.
700 (984r 5dd)SB checks, aggro leads 450 and we shove for 1600 and both fold.

Was in for $2850 and out for $2712… solid comeback… but overall my game was very nitty and pretty exploitable for the good regs. I am used to 1k cap PLO so this was higher stakes and was narrowing my range a good bit ( without being super rock )… being an outside in a new player pool is unique navigating when it’s for higher stakes than I am used to.

Last night here after a great trip, in Uber to Hardrock… current bankroll is

$51,841 over 2344 hours

Since recommitting to daily meditation and a daily gratitude list… have been +++$3510 over 70 hours of live play. Participating in a second bankroll tracker that I only input sessions on days I have completed my meditation and gratitude routine.

Cheers !

Had my biggest cash game session last night. Played 2/2 w/ rock, in for $1200 out for $3787.

Three big hands

1. AA54dddh, Hero (1500) opens to 30 over a blind $10, call, call, call and button makes it $155, folds to us, we repot and short stack allin for $245 and button allin for $370. We run it twice.

($ 1055) Board 1: Q84cc 8 Q
Board 2: KJ7dd810…
Button has Q7AAhh and scoops both over us and KK87sscc

2. J10Q7ss, Hero (1050) calls $50 from a blind $10 that got 3! to $50 from a aggro regular, call, and blind raisor pots it, short stack repots it, and aggro goes allin. So basically they all have anywhere from $300-$460… we are closing action for $350 more 4 ways… table is off the rails, a Kd is already a dead card…. I elect to call given the price and thinking I flop well against their hands…

($1500) K104r, last other player with chips goes allin for $60 and we call.

($1620) K104r 6cc Q

I flip Q10, other player allin with the small side with me shows a King, and then 973.. so we good there, aggro shows JJ53… still good… blind allin flips a Q…. Then 2, 5, and Ace…. So we get positive variance here and scoop a big one.

3. 9875hhdd Hero ($2100) opens to $25, 3 calls and BB ( $900) makes it $155, folds to us, we call, and one short stack allin for $145…

( $525) J88ss BB open leads for pot, we repot it, he calls….

($2015) J88ss we all decide to run it twice, which at this point I say I have an 8 and BB says you’re good… I have AA

Board 1: J88ss 2 4sss
Board 2: J88ss 5 3

Scoop both !

Overall great game, glad I elected to play the 2/2/5 given the result and just how I felt I had a greater edge in the game. Lot of positive variance can go a long way too….

Headed back to Boston, really enjoyed my trip… got in 18 holes yesterday as well, 18 w/ a cart was like $39 LOL… won’t see those prices in New England… shot a 91… bogey golf is where I’m at.

Final tabled the PokerBros $150 PLO 6 max last night for $4,770 ! Very exciting stuff, in for $300, 419 entries. Thought I did well with ICM considerations while also giving myself a chance to make a run. As with any tournament I ran very well given their quick blind structures.

Currently in the biggest poker month of my life, up $9,141/ 109 hours in March. Coming off the heels of maybe my worst month ever in February.

Total profit roll is now $57,858/ 2380 hours.

Meditation and gratitude lists as well as getting back into the gym have really helped mindset a lot.