easily the stupidest ****ing bet I've ever seen anybody make who is trying to grind up a roll to earn a living.

Dude people play blackjack

I like your honesty and enjoyed the post. There is a seven in a lot of us and I know tha sick feeling. It's why I was attracted to poker in the first place. I have yet to go to Vegas and no turn into a degen even on my solo "just poker" trips.

Im aware people play blackjack and the bet might have positive expected value bit your roi on it is low and the variance is very high. You risked 15% of everything you owned to make like 2 hours worth of work at the table? It's really dumb.

highly unlikely his blackjack wagering had positive expected value. One of the countless reasons why so many fail at becoming a pro gambooler is the inability to have impulse control.

I have never played blackjack

I'm just saying people have made dumber bets than I have

I've bet on a total of 4 games. 3 have been freerolls

I misread the bet structure

Damn, tough hand with the AT. GL in your journey, sorry about Duke losing to Mercer. My Cuse boys fizzled as well so we have that going for us.

Yeah it was a rough ending for 'Cuse, and now Ennis left too... ugh.

Duke, those freeroll sports bets are fine - just don't get hooked in to making other ones! I know sports so well and I can't bet sports worth anything, it's amazing how hard it is.

.

So the Vegas trip is officially OVER!

Way before schedule... but also right on time if you know what I mean. The games are just pathetic over here compared to what I'm used to in Philly, Atlantic City, South Florida, and my brief stint in California.

"**** that noise" as fogodchao would say.

I'm hoping on a Greyhound headed for the City of Angels bright and early at 8AM tomorrow morning! I'm ready to grind some 5/5 noooo limits like the ruthless degen I am for a few weeks, jam ATo into people's mouths before the community cards are dealt, and win ALL THE GALFOND DOLLHAIRZ.

GL ME!

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However, despite that, this past month in Vegas was an absolute blast. I met a lot of cool 2p2ers over the last 40 days including Pure Aggression, RobFarha, Cushlash, DHCG, and Bushe2417. All of them taught me a little something that I can carry with me for the rest of my career...

- attitude/positive-thinking (Pure)
- how to not get ripped off by your backer (dhcg)
- mental game strategies (Busche)
- adjusting to Vegas poker (Cushlash)
- and remaining humble and level-headed through both the wins and losses (Rob and Squid).

So thanks to everyone who has helped me with my game out here on the West Coast. I definitely think I'm a better overall poker player today on April 1st than I was when I was when I was just stepping off the plane in late February.

That said, here is a quick rundown of the Vegas journey:

Earnings: +$5,058 (includes +$250 in Treasure Island rakeback and +$203 on WSOP.com)

Volume: 168.21 hours

Hourly: +$30.07/hr

Winrate: +8.59 BB/hr (about 70% 1/3 and 30% 2/5)

-------------------------------------------

Good ****, man. I like $5k months.

Could have been an even sicker month if I didn't spew off $1000+ in various spots and if I could have held up with AA vs. ATs all in before the flop for $1350 (and then QQ vs. 99 all in pre the very next night for $450).

$2700 swing in the AA hand and a $900 swing in the QQ hand. Would have had a $8600 month with a sick sickkkkk $51 hourly and a disgoooosting 13bb/hr winrate. Like its so ****ing gross. Fogo gets thousands of dollars in the middle sooooo bad and makes $100+/hr and I get thousands of dollars in so goooood and am typing up this report at Starbucks because I'm too poor to afford internet that actually works. WHAT GIVES!!!!

Oh, well. **** happens. Where do I spend the Galfond dollars? Anyone wanna trade for Paypal???

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Ok so, March is complete. April has begun with a day off.

My plan is to grind heavily from April 2nd - April 23rd in Los Angeles. I'll be playing mainly $5/$5 $500-cap at the Commerce Casino.

I'll be bum-hunting Aesah, ATsai, and Fogo a lot through the next month so I'm expecting it to rainnnnnn Benjamin's for the next 22 days.

After that, Pure Aggression and I will be taking a trip to Phoenix, Arizona from Apri 24th - April 30th and grinding the $2/$3 $300-cap and $3/$5 $500-cap at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale. We'll also be checking out the Grand Canyon one day late this month so that'll be Happy Tymes. I'll be sure to upload lots of visuals ITT when we do that because I am definitely lacking in that department compared to PA.

After THAT, I'm not sure what's going to happen in May. If Arizona goes well, the games are good, and I've got a nice bankroll, I might just stick around in Phoenix until the World Series. But either way, I'm definitely trying to stay on that west coast ish so that I don't have to make any long, expensive trips back to Vegas in late May for the World Series; I need to be absolutely 100% rested so I can ship the Milly Maker.

So someone should give me suggestions on what I should do in May. It has to be on the west coast. It has to have good poker at the 1/2, 1/3 level. And it has to have some other **** I can do besides poker. So no, I'm not going to Idaho to grind at some potato farm - even though potato farmers are the worst poker players on the planet.

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Ok, good ****. I'm off to Walgreens to buy some **** that can carry all my stuff, then go home to pack my **** up, and then head over to the bus station. I'll be arriving in LA at around 1-2 PM Wednesday and will be headed straight to Commerce to put in a marathon all-nighter 5/5 session. Then I check into my hotel Thursday morning, sleep it off, and rinse/repeat for the next three weeks.

GL everyone!

Bankroll: $12,550

I haven't laughed so hard in 2014.

Seriously, though, you are staying in a hotel in LA the whole time?

Laugh if you want at my attempt to constantly improve myself as a person; its all a work in progress.

Not the whole time. April 2-7 in a hotel, April 8-23 with fogodchao and tmckendry

i laugh because you have no humility whatsoever.

Jealous you are meeting a lot of 2+2ers,seems like a blast talking to all them guys. Keep doin work and gl

why would you ever get it all in pre vs AT? smh.

good luck my man. Hope you do stay humble and focused. I just finished a 47k heater with my worst week ever at 2/5. Everything bricked. every big pair cracked no matter how much 3! pre. Every bluff picked off and every one got there. -4.5k in 5 days. As I said before just when you think you got it dicked...you get bitch slapped HARD

currently getting hammered on wine and eating cheetos

but he's a poker player, isn't that typical?

Haha, love that description.

Good luck Duke, enjoyed that trip report-ish post.

I cannot imagine this ending well

Sounds like an epic adventure. Careful with the roll if you are serious about making it in poker, your mentality and play seem a little wack. Buying part of Fogo for T/20 with your roll size is terrible. The not planning mentality: cool, but going to hurt you in your poker pursuits.

The fact that you calculated and posted this is smh bad. Then again, if you are just on board for an as-long-as-it-lasts adventure, full steam ahead and looking forward to some epic TR's

Yep, don't count chickens that didn't even hatch.

Los Angeles - the Start of the Latest Adventure

The beginning of a new adventure is always the most exciting for me. I actually suffer from a massive amount of nerves whenever I'm diving into anything new. The first time I played live poker, the first night I played it as my sole source of income, my first time in Atlantic City, my first time playing 2/5, my first time in Las Vegas... every new adventure just makes my stomach turn with an excruciating feeling of nervousness.

Its about the same feeling I had when I lost my virginity lol.

I can't really describe why I'm feeling it or what it even is exactly that causes me to feel that way, but I know its there every single time. The uneasiness, the discomfort, the worry...

Sitting down at my first table at the 5/5 game at Commerce was no different.

I have a few friends who are regulars in the L.A. poker scene - ATsai, Fogodchao, Aesah, and ticketmaster - and all of them told me numerous times to get the **** over to Los Angeles and to stop wasting my time in the City of Sin.

Holy ****, were they right!

I looked around at the faces and the line up seemed pretty soft. A lot of guys wearing dress clothes, a lot of guys middle-aged and drinking, a couple of fake tough guys, and some loud older guys speaking a different language. Nobody seemed to notice me - which is just how I like it (for now ).

I couldn't imagine the magnitude of softness that I was about to deal with.

For the next hour or so, I see two players who are calling 8x raises with literally any two cards. They call overbet jams with open enders on the turn, they call down with bottom pair, they bluff in spots where they represent absolutely nothing. Its insane how much more spewy these players are than their Vegas counter-parts.

At a 5/5 game, the standard open is $40. Even THAT is getting 3-4 callers.

In one hand, this very loose/bad-aggressive player opens to $40. Mr. ATC who has called raises with 42o before makes the call. I 3-bet with AKo to $160. The entire table laughs about how tight I am and someone makes a comment, "How many aces you have? 3?" Then both players call. I lose the hand but afterwards I find out they had AQo and JTs. LOL.

I see one player who is opening literally any two cards. So I 3-bet him with A8o, A6o, QJo, and AJo for VALUE... while the other grinder/reg/pros at my table are sitting around waiting to stack him with AA LOL.

Then I play this hand against him:

Preflop: 99 UTG. Hero limps. 6 limps. Villain checks SB. BB checks.

Flop: ($35) 953 Hero bets $25. 2 calls. Villain calls. BB calls.

[i]Before I bet, I thought to myself, "Good flop, but I'll be lucky to get action since the board is so dry." Then four people call me... despite the fact that they have been giggling about how super tight I am.

Turn: ($160) 4 Villain donk-leads $50. BB calls. Hero raises to $165. Villain calls.

River: ($540) K Villain SNAP jams $580 total. Hero calls.

My butt cheeks clench.

"Good call." I hear from across the table.

He shows me 73 WAT!

So, yea, that's how it went.

I soon got a text from ATsai. "Sanket, are you spoiled by the 5/5 LA games yet?"

"****, yeah, I am!"

For the rest of the night, I wasn't able to get much going after the big hand with top set. I decided to get up after all the whales busted out because the game went to **** and I was super sleepy. I checked into a cheap motel, chatted up some Hispanic LA ladies (Mexican girls love me, not sure why) on OKCupid, re-connected with my middle-school love who is here in LA for an internship on the Arsenio Hall show, and went to sleep early to prepare for a day of grinding...

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I just got back from that "day of grinding"... a short graveyard session at Commerce Casino... The "day of grinding" actually never came together. I spent the day hanging out with some friends at a BBQ and didn't head out to Commerce until after 9 PM. By 10 PM, I was at a table. Not nervous, not intimidated, not scared, not worried. All it took was one session, I had my confidence back, and I was on that A-game.

Here are a few hands from tonight's session:

HAND 1

Reads: Villain ($500) is a younger white male wearing headphones and sunglasses. He looks like a grinder to me. I have seen him 3-bet once before about 1 or 2 orbits ago. He has taken aggressive actions a couple of times - much more so than your average fish would.

Preflop: QT OTB. Fish limps MP. Hero raises to $30. Villain 3-bets to $80. Fish folds. Hero 4-bets to $225. Villain tank-folds.

I just wanted to text Fogodchao and tell him I 4-bet bluffed with QTo so he can stick his ATo up his ass.

In all seriousness, I felt this was a good spot for Villain to 3-bet me light. I was obviously going to be opening a wide range on my button especially since I have a weak player limping in front of me that I want to isolate. His sizing is actually probably what he would make it with AA/KK. But it could also be something like a weak ace or suited king that he wants to cheaply bluff with. Since I block 50% of QQ combos and the sizing makes it unlikely he has a vulnerable value hand like JJ/AK, maybe I could have sized my 4-bet smaller to get a better price on my bluff? I just don't want this dude flatting me with whatever bull**** he has - which I think live players are prone to doing. I want him to decide right now if he wants to play for stacks with his hand. Unless its AA/KK, he probably doesn't want to. So I get a worse price on my bluff, but I think I get flatted less often?

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HAND 2

Reads: Villain A UTG+1 ($500) is a huge calling station. He'll call down with literally any piece of the board. QTxK board, he calls down with 44.

Villain B BB ($500) is a 30-40 year old woman. She is playing solidly.

Preflop: KQ UTG. Hero raises to $25. Villain A calls. Villain B calls.

Flop: ($75) K43 Villain B checks. (Villain A is already reaching for chips to bet thinking its his turn) Hero bets $60. Villain A calls. Villain B tank tank calls.

Turn: ($255) 6 Villain B checks. Hero checks. Villain A bets $50. Villain B calls. Hero calls.

Villain B tank tank calling made me very suspicious that she had flopped a set. I don't think she would take THAT long to call if she had Kx or a flush draw. I think if she had 99-JJ, she would fold pretty quickly. I decided to check rather than go for value. When Villain A sizes it so small, and Villain B just flat-calls, I think I'm probably good here but not confident enough to raise for thin value since live players do weird **** all the time.

River: ($405) 3 Villain B checks. Hero bets $140. Villain A calls. Villain B calls.

When Villain B checks, now I know I can go for value from KJ-K9. Villain A is bad enough to even have TT-QQ here that I can get value from. I sized it smaller because its now obvious that Villain B was thinking about folding the flop so she might fold the river to a bigger bet. However, since Villain A is such a big donkey, maybe betting bigger is better. I know his range is pretty weak, though, so I sized it smaller since the value would be thin.

---------------------------------------------

HAND 3

Reads: Villain ($425) is a young-middle aged black guy. He is not paying attention to the action. The dealer has to tell him its his turn every hand because he is on his I-Phone. He opens quite a bit from all positions. I have 3-bet him before, recently as 1 orbit ago, and he snap called from UTG vs. UTG+1. He snap folded to a c-bet on a T74dd board so I know he is calling wide.

Preflop: QQ SB. 2 limps. Villain raises to $25. Hero 3-bets to $100. Villain calls.

I sized it larger than standard since I am out of position and he is calling me with a wide range.

Flop: ($215) KJ9 Hero checks. Villain snap-checks.

Turn: ($215) 7 Hero checks. Villain bets $150. Hero calls.

I don't think he has a King here. He probably at least considers a bet on the flop if he had one. I also feel the same way about a flush draw or straight draw for the same reason. Since all the high card clubs (except A) are out, I also think that diminishes the amount of flush draws he can have. His hand seems like Jx, TT, or air to me. There is obviously not too much value to be had from that range so I choose to check/call.

River: ($515) 8 Hero checks. Villain checks.

I probably don't get any value from Jx or TT. If he did somehow happen to have a draw, it missed. So I decide to let him bluff it off. He does not.

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HAND 4

Reads: Villain ($650 eff) is a bad-aggressive player. He said earlier to another reg, "I don't bluff that much, so when I DO bluff, I show it so I can get paid when I do have a big hand." So, what I gathered from that is... he bluffs a lot. He has already called one of my raises with 43o and then called flop on a J54 board. We checked down the turn, and I rivered a T and he seemed annoyed.

Preflop: 6-handed. KQ OTB. Villain raises to $20 from CO. Hero calls. SB calls.

Flop: ($60) JJ6 SB checks. Villain checks. Hero bets $45. SB folds. Villain calls.

I think Villain would bet any good pocket pair and any flush draw. When he checks, I think I can profitably bluff and credibly represent something like TT or AJ since SB will miss this flop a good portion of the time.

Turn: ($150) Q Villain bets $80. Hero calls.

Luckily, we bink. I'm mildly concerned that Villain has Jx. But its pretty hard to make a triple play in both baseball and poker, so I decide to call since his range will include a lot of bull**** like 22-55 or whatever he's trying to bluff with. I also think he'd check/raise turn with a flush since I could easily have Jx and keep betting.

River: ($310) 7 Villain checks. Hero checks.

Not really too much value to be had here so I just check it back in case he has something stupid like AQ or a weak Jx.

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Results from my first two sessions playing at Commerce Casino:

April 2nd Day 1: 2:31, +$799
April 3rd Day 2: 4:50, +$423

Two winning days in a row! Snaps a little 65 hour break-even stretch that was irritating me. Hopefully back to crush-city now!

Back at it tomorrow (later today)!

Bankroll: $13,600

**** VEGAS

you should play on LATB while you are in LA