Random and Infrequent Update Thread
07-14-2021
, 08:31 PM
07-15-2021
, 10:11 PM
08-27-2021
, 01:20 AM
PLO 2021, short lived
My PLO adventures have come to an abrupt end after 6 grueling weeks. I jumped in and lost 10 full buyins short-stacking at PLO200 then bought some courses and really immersed myself. (I played my daytime volume exclusively at PLO and NL exclusively at night). The games I played in were really soft, but I could not find my edge. I raked a tonnnnn over the sample, ~$6k, playing PLO50-200. I can see why PLO is said to be a giant rake trap til you play bigger. I'm fully aware 70k is a lolsample for PLO (some smart poker ppl have told me it doesn't converge til 2Million hands) but I'm throwing in the towel here.
I found my NL game to be getting sloppy. And I'm not ready to give up NL to focus on PLO, so PLO is going back on the shelf indefinitely. While the fish put it in badly in PLO, the NL mistakes seem to come around more frequently.
This year my NL results have been pretty typical. Volume is down compared to last year, but no complaints, spending some time in the real world. Games have been a little dry this summer too, unfortunately, which is pretty normal for non-covid summers on the USA sites. Looking forward to a final fall/winter push to close out a decent 2021.
My gold and gold miner trade has stalled out pretty hard this year. Not sure why, because imo the fundamentals are stronger than ever. The charts still look okay to me, so hoping this turns around. Had I piled it into crypto and NFT I could probably retire
.
Last edited by pokerarb; 08-27-2021 at 01:39 AM.
12-31-2021
, 06:01 PM
2021 Update
Happy NYE to all celebrating. Unfortunately, mine will be spent in quarantine. Came down with Covid after Christmas. Doing well now, I had a fairly mild reaction and should be 100% by next week.
Congrats to all the grinders who posted sick results in this forum. Especially you RoW guys, very inspiring to see. Amazing that poker is still thriving after years of hearing about how poker is dead and dying. How solvers will kill the game etc
My Results
Similar to the last few years, I am going to keep my exact results private. The graph above also contains ~100k hands of micro/small stakes PLO in which I lost. I also played a chunk of an untracked site for most of this year. My NL average winrate across stakes was 6bb/100, which I am proud of. There are bigger winners in my pool, but I'd be surprised if any regular won more big blinds than I did this year (or last year for that matter).
Coming off 2020, I wanted to work hard, but prioritize other things in my life outside of poker. I took many trips this year across the country for weddings, bachelor parties, and catch up with friends. I also took a 2 week trip to Europe for vacation. Life and work balance felt pretty good.
As such I did not really push myself in poker. I played very comfortable games and stakes. This has been pretty much my largest potential leak in my poker career. I lack some of that hunger or ambition that I see the bigger/better regs display, both within my game itself and in my life at large. Looking back though, 10 years ago a bulk of my volume came at NL50, 5 years ago at 100, and now 200 feels really small. So I am trending in the right direction.
Plans for Next Year
On the poker front, more of the same. I've been playing and enjoying (somehow) MTTs on Sundays and plan to do that next year as I'm able. I am going to continue to tiptoe into higher stakes as the year progresses, but that process will continue to be slow for me. I think I've also finally given up on PLO for good this time.
On the life front, my girlfriend (different one than mentioned in previous posts) is likely to be moving in June for professional reasons. However, there's a good chance it will be within the tristate area, so I may move back to the New Jersey regulated market at that point. Nothing set in stone yet and it's a big sweat, which unfortunately she does not have much control over.
On the investing front, same old. Still holding precious metals heavily. While they had a crappy year and the narrative is that gold is dead, I actually think the charts look quite constructive and healthy for a nice move in the upwards direction.
Recalling this graph I posted a few years ago
I think this is playing out before our eyes, however on a slightly different scale and time horizon than I forecasted. To me, the current action in gold looks like a monster cup and handle consolidation over the key 1800 level from 2011. I am still very bullish going forward.
For comparison, here is that analysis visually.
Thank you for reading! Happy 2022 to all and good luck
Happy NYE to all celebrating. Unfortunately, mine will be spent in quarantine. Came down with Covid after Christmas. Doing well now, I had a fairly mild reaction and should be 100% by next week.
Congrats to all the grinders who posted sick results in this forum. Especially you RoW guys, very inspiring to see. Amazing that poker is still thriving after years of hearing about how poker is dead and dying. How solvers will kill the game etc
My Results
Similar to the last few years, I am going to keep my exact results private. The graph above also contains ~100k hands of micro/small stakes PLO in which I lost. I also played a chunk of an untracked site for most of this year. My NL average winrate across stakes was 6bb/100, which I am proud of. There are bigger winners in my pool, but I'd be surprised if any regular won more big blinds than I did this year (or last year for that matter).
Coming off 2020, I wanted to work hard, but prioritize other things in my life outside of poker. I took many trips this year across the country for weddings, bachelor parties, and catch up with friends. I also took a 2 week trip to Europe for vacation. Life and work balance felt pretty good.
As such I did not really push myself in poker. I played very comfortable games and stakes. This has been pretty much my largest potential leak in my poker career. I lack some of that hunger or ambition that I see the bigger/better regs display, both within my game itself and in my life at large. Looking back though, 10 years ago a bulk of my volume came at NL50, 5 years ago at 100, and now 200 feels really small. So I am trending in the right direction.
Plans for Next Year
On the poker front, more of the same. I've been playing and enjoying (somehow) MTTs on Sundays and plan to do that next year as I'm able. I am going to continue to tiptoe into higher stakes as the year progresses, but that process will continue to be slow for me. I think I've also finally given up on PLO for good this time.
On the life front, my girlfriend (different one than mentioned in previous posts) is likely to be moving in June for professional reasons. However, there's a good chance it will be within the tristate area, so I may move back to the New Jersey regulated market at that point. Nothing set in stone yet and it's a big sweat, which unfortunately she does not have much control over.
On the investing front, same old. Still holding precious metals heavily. While they had a crappy year and the narrative is that gold is dead, I actually think the charts look quite constructive and healthy for a nice move in the upwards direction.
Recalling this graph I posted a few years ago
I think this is playing out before our eyes, however on a slightly different scale and time horizon than I forecasted. To me, the current action in gold looks like a monster cup and handle consolidation over the key 1800 level from 2011. I am still very bullish going forward.
For comparison, here is that analysis visually.
Thank you for reading! Happy 2022 to all and good luck
Last edited by pokerarb; 12-31-2021 at 06:15 PM.
12-31-2021
, 06:25 PM
01-01-2022
, 05:52 PM
600 bis is a lot 
Glgl in 2022, nice year
Glgl in 2022, nice year
12-01-2023
, 03:12 PM
Hi all. Hope the year has treated you well. This will not be a poker related update, but I wanted to shamelessly pump my bags on my precious metal position given the recent up-tick. It took longer than I anticipated, but after a long three year consolidation Gold finally seems to be breaking out. I own the higher beta plays relative to gold, silver in $PSLV form and gold mining shares, which have performed abysmally over the last few years. However, and this is not financial advice, it is my opinion that the sector is poised for a fantastic run over the next few years. I have a sizable portion of my portfolio on the line, hoping these positions perform well and I have the discipline to scale out appropriately.
12-01-2023
, 05:16 PM
