I guess I'll toss my bust-out hand out there: with 10bbs to go, I decided to run it with AJ107ddd. I pot almost half of my stack from MP after a limp. Flop is K64dd I open jam and get called by AK65. 6 turn. Diamond river irrelevant.

Subscribed, just a southern poker journeyman who made a pitstop in Htine for a few years (donating mostly), we didn't cross paths but having dealt and/or played in most of the clubs (above and below the earth). I've seen some wild games (celebs/pro players/pro athletes) and PLO and PLO5 action that is probably not going to be found anywhere except FL and some backwoods TN/KY areas.

I will say this (also alluded to earlier in the post)...

As you become a familiar face, and eventually interpreted by the donks as a winning player, stay aware about what occurs in hands, I have no exact examples to share here but I do believe inside and outside of these social clubs there is collusion between players and dealers (of course this is reasonable to believe in any poker environment). The incorporations of different rooms is a good idea in my mind. Tip your dealers well, this can potentially help avoid being targeted, the community of dealers (crooks or not) talk.

Speaking to safety concerns, I never moved around with anything more than $2k while there, but chances of getting robbed I believe are a lot lower than people perceive, and I have been in the sketchiest of places.

The staking situation, I say check it out and find out if you are there for seat filling, which is what it sounds like to me, or because the proprietor wants more money (also the money taken off the table at a private game is considerable in my experiences) a swingy action game can lose players quickly or the fish only come once 4-5 people already in the building.

As it pertains about the plants, a retired cop once told me "Houston has crime not occurring at street level that the average joe cannot comprehend, the majority of our time is spent on bigger things than a bag of ____"

I was kind of thinking that TCH Spring wouldn't survive because the majority of traffic for some time was the janky daily tourney seems that the PLO is helping it stay afloat.

*Forgot....I see you come from an online background, but those tablet/phone poker apps....I'll just say do your research*

Run Good

The game he is talking about does take a heavy rake but there are a lot of fish in it including Jared who organizes it. My suggestion is to take the deal and give it a shot. Play your normal tight game and you will most likely be a winner.

Regarding safety the most important thing is to just pay attention to your surroundings and make sure you aren’t being followed when you leave any of these places. Also if you play during the day like OP does chances of getting robbed are very slim. Most have happened late night/early morning

I appreciate you reading and leaving this reply, firstly! Thanks.

I have only felt colluded against at Legends in the $1/$3 game. I think Legends' $1/$3 may be rife with cheating and collusion between players although I hear the $1/$3/$6 game is still amazing. You'd be making a huge mistake not looking out for this anywhere you go. Chase Bianchi, a former MTT pro, had very wise words of caution to anyone playing in Texas rooms. They're quite relevant, so I'll head to his Twitter and track down those tweets....

The big game invite I 100% agree is a seat filling situation. This guy definitely has millions. He's not living and dying on a $5K loss if I was to torch his 50%. He has a game to fill, and it obviously needs players as it didn't run last week.

I think Spring is good in general regardless of the PLO action. They are the premiere location in north Houston without question. There is $1/$3 hold'em 24/7 and PLO usually going by noon. The only other room I can think of that can boast 24/7 action is Legends, but, as mentioned, their $1/$3 is not great and often filled with players somehow associated with management.

I actually had a big downswing on the app and have stopped playing. I don't think it was any collusion or anything like that, though. I think I got my ass handed to me by a significantly better player. Definitely not trying to grind cash in any of the big PokerBros unions anytime soon, lol. Collusion city. If I play in app games, they will be small, private clubs with people I know.

Thanks again for your post man. I see you were playing at The Garage in 2018. Place is still kickin'. I've never been but the $1/$3 PLO allegedly plays like $5/$10 and there's always good action. Ownership is very friendly when they play at Spring, too.

Sounds like you have solid understanding, Bull I don't recognize the name Jared, I was probably apart of diff sector of the community pre-"legalization", spent a good amount of time at DR for the tourneys then transitioned to lesser known big games, then to the social clubs when they opened. There is a pretty hard line for the poker demos in Houston that has nothing to do with poker, mostly has to do with attitude towards the game and psychosocioeconomic (is that a word) aspects of the country, it really is astounding how the game can bring together people who would never meet but also segregate regardless of the cards in the air.

I remember the garage as being a "reg fest" people trying to rack up hrs for promos and waiting for coolers (mostly holdem), there are probably 2-3 $2/$5 (that play $2/$5/$10/$25) floating around but it moves, invites, etc.

Did you get a chance to play Lions (did it close), I remember that was where the PLO action was when I left, Sammy and a few other known faces were bum-hunting during those days.

Finished up May -$305. May joins February and March in being a losing month.



Had a couple of big spots in a cash game at the end of the month... I have A765ddcc in late position. I have $550. UTG+2 raises to 30, I make it $100 from the HJ. CO calls, BU calls, BB calls, UTG+2 calls. Flop 5d7dJh. UTG+2 leads for $300. I stick my remaining $450 in. Everyone calls. Turn is a 8d, so we have the nut flush and it checks around. River pairs the board with a 7c. I have a 7 in my hand, and I'm naively hopeful when river checks around. "Full house!" BB says. He turns over 78910 all hearts.

In the same timeframe I made $20K last year, I have only made $5K this year. A sobering, yet unsurprising reminder of the variance in this game. I think I have improved bigtime (laughing at my earlier posts really overvaluing terrible pocket pairs from oop, etc.) and the games are still good to play in. Still continuing to try and be less focused on dollar amount and more on playing well and finding good spots.

I read Jeff Hwang's PLO Big Play Strategy book and made some sticky notes that I've attached to my computer with some of the book's heuristics. I'm at my desk more often than not, so just drilling these into my brain for a bit before the stickyness wears off.

Next week I'm playing in the $1K PLO WSOP event on Thursday and grinding cash for the rest of the weekend if I bust. Heading to Vegas Wednesday - back to Houston Sunday eve.

That's awesome!

I'm there June 6-14th so playing the $1500 Badugi on the 7th and may play the 8 max PLO 1K buyin on the 8th if I don't make Day 2 in Badugi.

Hope to finally meet ya!

Sounds good, Jeezus. I'm gonna need every seat on my PLO tables to be filled with - well, not you. Would love to shake hands and say hello, of course!

I'm thinking of adding PLO10 and PLO20 to my grinding. I did some research today and it seems like Global might be a good option. I see on GlobalPoker, they have these running - 5-6 tables of each. I don't even know if I'm a winner in these games. $1/$3 PLO in Houston is much softer; I can tell by spectating these tables. It will be awesome for me to get hands in at this level.l. I want to get more volume in as I feel it would refine my game at a more rapid rate than playing live and seeing 15 hands an hour. I'm going to be doing my research on Global beforehand, but if anyone has any personal anecdotes they feel would be helpful, let me know.

Winning $25K in 10 months in the Texas games will be a piece of cake compared to being a winner at any stake online. Time to find out how good (or more likely, how bad) I am at PLO.

8K hands into grinding PLO10 on Global and down 1 BI. Honestly.... still trying to nail down my preflop ranges in online 6 max >_< It's just a matter of reviewing the charts and drilling preflop over and over. I really need to get back at it with Masterclass. I'm thinking about getting RIO's Vision as well.

I also need to look on the forum for how others are hand tracking on Global. Maybe there's an easy answer I'm unaware of.

Taking $5K to Vegas. My gameplan for the first night and following afternoon: arrive tomorrow at Harry Reid around 6 PM local time with 20% of my bankroll and a dream. Get to the room (Flamingo). Call Wynn Poker Room and get on the $1/$2 $5 PLO list. Enjoy a walk on The Strip to Horseshoe and find quick, light food along the way if I'm hungry. Get on the list for $1/$3 PLO at the WSOP. Take in the atmosphere at The World Series, and hopefully run into some familiar Houston faces and PLO faces. Play PLO at whichever place I get called to first until about 12-1 AM. Head back to Flamingo and rest up to register for the $1K the following day.

You know, I was really evaluating my poker these past few days playing online, and there are still so many spots I am unsure of. 8K hands is no real sample, and I may very well be a winner in the pool, but it made me consider that I'm not the poker player I want to be, nor am I putting in the work to become that. I am not looking at tough spots I encounter enough. With this online play and at WSOP, I plan to log hands and hire a PLO coach to have a session with them to go over the spots. I also need to hit the training sites over again and review.

As mentioned in my last post, I do believe I have improved in these 10 1/2 months.... but I also acknowledge that I have a long way to go to be the crusher I want to be. I know what needs to be done to become that. I just need to goddamn do it.

-$950 the first night here playing cash games in the Horseshoe Ballroom. The $1/$2/$5 PLO table I was placed at was pretty good at first, but really tightened up at the end with new, better players. At the same time, I also lost focus and made some poor plays that cost me about $350, and the rest I lost in two hands bluffing with blockers into the nuts. Considering not even firing the $1K and just playing cash. I'm not feeling confident about my ability to focus and play well for three straight days for long hours, which is devastating for me to admit, but truer than true. I may rather just want to save my energy for cash games that I'm more confident in, and can come and go from as I please. We'll see.

Ran into some Houston faces. Also a dealer and player told me they enjoyed the blog! Hallo hallo.

Has anyone else heard of Poker Boy? I had this dealer, Jack, aka Poker Boy, who rapped for an entire hand - poker related lyrics - and it was actually good. Was the best dealer in general that I had tonight. Definitely the highlight of my night.

Day 2 was yesterday. I ended up not firing in the $1K 8 handed, and instead went to Wynn and played $5/$5 PLO. I had an insane $4500 session. Most came from getting absurdly lucky in a bomb pot. I have Q1032, flops are 10103 and AK4. I get it all in against AA10x and hold on the top and pick up my wheel gutter on the bottom. That was about a $3100 pot.

Today, I woke up at 6:30 AM and felt well-rested, so I got up and headed to Paris to check out the cash action. Not that I was too surprised, but it was a bit jarring to see a ballroom full of 280 poker tables and only one running - a Big O game. Tempting as I had already walked there, I'm even less versed in the 5 card streets than I am at 4 card. I walked to Encore and sat down at another $5/$5 game for a few hours. Finished up about $600. Met a Polish fellow to the right of me at the table named Marius that told me to check out yerbamate as we had bonded over our distaste for coffee.

To our left in seat 8, there was a Canadian rec player who played a funny hand. On the turn of a A47Q board that brought in a flush, his villain leads for $400 from seat 1. Canada goes, "Welp, I'm not going anywhere" and gets in his $950 stack. Villain snaps and tables his hand - the nut flush. "Aaaa, ya got me. Once or twice?" Canada asks as he reveals AAragrag for a set. "Twice is fine," Mr. Nuts replies. Both rivers pair the board, and Marius and I can't help but giggle. Bad look on my part. Anyway, seat 1 had to get up and walk that one off.

So, to recap:

Day 1: -$950
Day 2: $4500
Day 3 (so far): $600

Tonight, I'm seeing Seinfeld do standup at Caesars on a whim. The plan after is more cash action, but I'm going back to Paris despite my solid results at Wynn. The games that I played in at Wynn were harder and had more pros than the WSOP tables. With it being a Friday night and the final flight of the $300 Gladiator, I'm thinking there will be some awesome action tonight.

Day 3 concluded for me after seeing Seinfeld, who was excellent. I was too sleepy to start another session, so we concluded Friday up $600 from $5/$5 at The Wynn. My game plan for yesterday, Day 4, was to grind $1/$2/$5 all day at the WSOP ballroom, but the record turnout for Flight D of The Gladiator forced WSOP to utilize the cash tables for the tournament for most of the day. You of course can't call into poker rooms during WSOP, so I walked to Encore and got on the list, but after 45 minutes of waiting and not much list movement, I decided to call it a wash and just hang out here and there until WSOP cash opens back up. Along with not feeling like a winner in The Wynn $5/$5 game, I didn't care to hang around a casino and wait for a seat for over an hour. I assumed that the tables at WSOP would open up later on, and I was correct. I sat down at a table at around 7:30 with a German, a Mexican, two guys who didn't know each other from London, and a Brazilian. Love WSOP.

We were in for $800 and cashed out for $2755. Along with picking up pots while making hands, we have another nice bomb pot scoop, although this one required a large river bet OOP to scoop because I had K high on one of the boards. I bluffed with the nut flush blocker a couple of times just taking large sizings on the river when doing so. The Brazilian was pretty aggressive, and the other Americans were playing too many hands preflop - a lot of limping and raising too much. A couple of them were happy to explain that they were hold'em players and didn't play much PLO.





WSOP '23 Part 1 Results:
Day 1: -$950
Day 2: +$4500
Day 3: +$595
Day 4: +$1955
TOTAL: $6100

I'll be back in 24 days! Maybe I'll actually fire in a tournament this time - but maybe I won't! I felt really comfortable at the cash game tables and think I would have felt this way even without the rungood.

Meanwhile, I've got about 12K hands on Global and up 2BI for PLO10. In between now and my next Vegas trip, I plan to hire a coach and have a session to go over these and other general PLO stuff. I've had a PLO coach before, but it was very elementary and introductory, so I think I'll look elsewhere this time around.

Additional trip notes:

I stayed at The Flamingo and would do it again for WSOP. I was about a 7 minute walk from the action once I gound the most optimal route. The Flamingo also has access to cheaper Strip food of all varieties on The Promenade. My room was very solid and affordable even without using Caesars Rewards (don't worry - I'm accumulating those deals now, damn it!)

The $5/$5 game at The Wynn was more pro-infested than I had ever seen it. Small sample size and many things to attribute this to. From what I see, it's definitely ok to stay put when you bust from a WSOP event if you're looking for the best PLO action in town.

WSOP Cafe: Home of the $5 banana

Downloaded RIO's Vision Trainer and been running the Streak practice all day. I put around 2400 reps in and I'm about 78% accurate in my decision making. Can't hold my hat on that too much though considering the real tables aren't multiple choice! I put in a couple of hands for review as well and need to do more of that. Still need to use the tutorial videos to become more efficient with it. I'll start posting PLO10 and PLO20 hands. No HH on Global so you'll have to deal with the shoddy format. 14K hands in, down 1 PLO10 BI.

I forsee less live poker for the next three weeks before Vegas again because of my new focus on Vision and PLO micros in an effort to more rapidly improve.

Really enjoying following along with damhill's DoorDash bankroll challenge. His thread (and stream) is far more entertaining than mine.

Damn, we missed one another while I was out there.

I arrived on the 6th and played the Badugi tournament on the 7th. I immediately fell ill the very next day and was holed up in my room for three solid days recuperating from the WSOPFlueEnza

That meant I missed both the PLO and Gladiators events at the WSOP. I subbed in a 2-7 triple draw lowball event at MGM Grand but no bueno when I made a #3 on the final draw only to run into a #1

My best result in a tourney was the PLO8 at MGM where they had 200 entries for a 10k guaranteed (first place wound up being over 11k just on its own!)

In the end I had to make a stand UTG with KQQJ one suit as the blinds were going up next hand, got three callers of my shove, I flop Qxx with two low and flush cards out there, guy with nut low and nut flush draw bets to iso me, turn is a 9 which is clean but he rivers the 8 AND it's a club giving him nut-nut to send me to the rail in 42nd place (top 25 paid)

A PLO cash game had broken out at MGM on a previous day and the game was great, lots of passive/weak play from many of the players. The cash games at the RIO (PLO and Big O) were hit or miss, with plenty of competent players in the mix as well unfortunately.

Was cool to see a ton of people I know from poker though, including people from Tampa, Austin, watchers of my vlog, etc.

One of my buddies gave me a sage piece of advice afterwards:

"Make sure you get sick before your trip so you aren't sick on your trip"

Subbed, sending run good vibes your way bro

Back in Houston still grinding PLO10 and 20 which is going well. I've been lazy about looking into how people typically log their progress on Global. I can see the amount going up in my account and have links to hands but that's about it.

15,000 preflop reps in Vision have taught me the value of double suited straightened hands against 4bet ranges, as well as solidified the lack of value in high pairs with nothing else going on in 3bet spots.

-$450 session at Legends this past Sunday. Made some bad bluffs when villain's range was capped. They called with marginal holdings. Need to realize that even if I'm getting those folds online, I have no business increasing my bluff frequency live in most of these games.

I'm at TCH Spring right now, just lost a big hand. I had about $800 and got A1045ssdd in on 9s10s2h against QsQd6s3h. I repot after a lady who can have any 4 got in her last $75 on this flop, two callers, and I pot. I get a repot behind me from an Asian player who is solid but also capable of getting way out of line; one of those types of folks that knows the game, but will get out of line and gamble. there's an offsuit 3 on the turn to give me more equity, but I brick the river. -$1000, in for another $1000 now. Great table, though. Just need to get my head straight and keep playing.

I saw a clip from Jungleman's podcast interviewing Melanie Weisner who brought up a point that I found relevant to my game. She mentioned that several pros she knows claim to be tilt proof, claim to not tilt, etc. when the reality is everybody tilts, and you need to find some kind of outlet to deal with said tilt. I have claimed to not tilt for the past 4-5 years of my career and am starting to understand what a detriment this 'tilt denial' is. Need to be more introspective about this and figure it out.

Turned it around! Won 3/4 of a double board bomb pot three ways all in. I have T736. Flops come 245 and QJ7, both rainbow. It checks around. Didn't want to lead with nothing on the bottom aside from bottom pair. Turns bring a K completing the rainbow on top, and a 10d giving me 2 pair and a 6hi diamond draw. Early position bets $75, guy in front of my calls, and I pot. The original better shoves, guy in front of me calls (he's all in) and I call. River on top leaves me with the nuts, 2-6 straight, and I river a 6 hi flush on bottom. Early position guy mucks, and the guy next to me turns over the 36 for the same hand on the top board, but only a pair of 10s and queens on the bottom. $2600 my way which we ran up to $3490.





At a food truck now 10 minutes away taking a break. My buddy who also plays poker just moved here from New Jersey for work, and he was also at Spring. We're at a food truck now. We're gonna go back, and he's gonna grind the $5K GTD tourney, and I'm gonna jump back in PLO cash.

Had a really solid couple of sessions today only to come out and find my tire is flat I'm waiting for AAA as I used my donut awhile back and didn't replace it like an ass.



Looking at my total results since mid July while waiting. Always nice to check out during a string of mostly good sessions We are peaking since our PLO journey began!

-$2K at TCH Spring today. Made one of the dumbest bluffs of all time to start off. JJ86ds, I call a raise in late position, BU 3b to $80 and gets 3 callers including me. Flop comes AKQ, and although I put button on AAxx (no one's 3b range gets wider than that 'til they prove it to me in this game) I decide he can also let go of it, completely going against my thoughts from this past weekend regarding increasing my bluffing frequency. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Donated $800 right away. In for my last $1200, I make top set a couple of times and bluff on a monotone flop with the K to take down a 3b pot pre. I work my way up to about $1530.

In the meantime, there are 3 regulars of the game who are 5 tequila shots deep and counting - Razul the Russian, Blake, an early 30s father of two always good for a gamble and has no problem telling you about his current Tinder escapade, and Rudy, an older Hispanic man who has been suspended from the room a couple of times for drunken antics. Razul and Blake are acting as if they are instigating with the rounds shots by getting Rudy drunk, but the fact of the matter is they were both also plastered. Rudy kept telling everyone he was going to "pop their ass" in the context of taking all their chips, which he was perfectly capable of doing with a $6K stack in front of him. Razul would jokingly question every now and then, "What does this mean, 'pop ass?' You popping my ass, what are you really doing?" Rudy would just respond, "I'm gonna pop your ass bro."

Ass popping aside, we look down at AA78cc with nut clubs and the Ah in the small blind. $6 straddle on the button so we make it $30. Razul, who is a good player but very capable of getting out of line, especially factoring in his tequila range, makes it $100. Blake calls $100. Folds to Rudy who says "These are the two guys I wanna pop ass with. I mean, I wanna pop their asses the most." He's faded as hell. He looks like he considers folding, but then makes it $400. it folds to me and I pot it. Razul and Blake instafold. Suddenly, Rudy gets really mean and starts bullying me. Pelirojo estupido, Chucky, firecrotch. After a couple minutes, he sticks in the $1440 call. I have $90 back. Flop is KQJhhh, we get the rest in, K3 turn and river. He's good with 88910 for a flopped lower straight. He kept bullying me as he dragged it in. I think Razul could tell it was bothering me, because he suddenly turned on Rudy and got angry with him and told him to shut his mouth and just rake the pot.

Didn't hear much else as I walked away from the table quickly. That annoyed and frustrated me more than I care to admit - even more than thinking about how I bluffed with JJ blocker into top set knowingly.

Having a long session at Legends on Saturday. They're giving away a Benz at the end of the night. I've got 6 raffle tickets and a dream! I'd absolutely just sell it, of course. My friend who moved from Jersey has been grinding Legends each day for the past week. Although I'm down $4300 there, the hand histories he has described are insane. I desperately need to remember to pull the trigger and ask for a seat change up there. That's the advantage about Legends vs. other places - no must move table, just 6 tables you can move to and from.

My buddy also told me about a $25,000 pot he witnessed at the $1/$3/$6 table today. Top set vs full wrap. They get it all in on the flop. Full wrap spikes the nut gutter, and the player with top set starts... bawling. Like absolutely crying hard and loud. I was trying to think if, in 8 years of live play, I had seen anyone cry at the table. Don't think I have. Also, allegedly, there is a guy who is down $2M this year alone in the $5/$5/$10 game.

6 days 'til I'm back in Vegas for more cash game action during the WSOP! My non poker buddy will be there with me. Will be nice to have someone to take some time off the felt & chill with.

Wow, can’t imagine how I’d feel watching a grown man cry at the poker table. Would be rough.

Update: So the guy who lost the $25,000 pot is the same guy who has alledgedly lost $2M. And it doesn't seem so alleged anymore... texting my friend from Jersey, Sam, while he's at Legends now:



P.S. If you happen to come to Vegas next week, would love to meet up. I'll keep following your blog and PM you if it looks like you're heading back down.

Glad you typed this, a few years back I ran some hand histories in LLSNL about playing some NL/PLO round for round games and the sizes of pots and how much people could lose in a single session and they laughed at me. "I would love to see this imaginary game you speak of....". Just another day of poker in Tx.

Clearly the action is alive and well in HTine, as long as you can keep those types of players at the lower stakes they will see it as a "monthly" expense (until you reach 7 figs), if they were in a bigger poker market where one buy in is 25k they would likely become better players or stop altogether. It's an amazing dynamic, the psychology of someone who can obtain that amount of money, and become interested in poker (whether they can afford to lose it or not) are usually intelligent and not used to losing in a skill based arena. When they find themselves in a hole they see that the money is there to potentially win back but I'm not sure they can truly see that the players around them have studied his tendencies and have effectively cornered him where it would be very difficult for him to win unless he was to change his strategy drastically (become super aggro or super nitty). Or just cannot reason with themselves to try and win the money back slowly.

Working/playing in that market I never saw someone beyond properly bankrolled lose consistently and become better even though they were intelligent and successful away from the table. Every once in a while a doc/lawyer/business man type would be a profitable player but they were always super nitty and never booked huge wins, never really talked about how wealthy they were, and cashed out money that they maybe gave their wife or spent on golf clubs.

I've heard that Legends pays a TON of prop players each week to fill a lot of their tables and they aren't naturally as busy as you'd think, you're up against a stable of like 40 prop players in that room.