Not trying to be a douche, I'm just very blunt and want you to make it. Ive seen a lot of guys crash and burn. GL

No hard feelings, just letting you know how I took the tone of the post. I know you've posted in the past good stuff so I guess we'll just agree to disagree on some points.

Thanks for the GL!

Apologize for the personal net worth question, had a few drinks in me at the time.

Oh 15-20k seems very reasonable, enjoy! Weddings are the nuts. The few days surrounding my wedding were ridiculously fun. The day after was actually the happiest day of my life. GL!


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It's no big deal! Just don't want to give a specific number out for anything, especially money outside my poker roll.

I would say 15-20k feels conservative estimate by me. I have a huge family so wouldn't be shocked if we broke even either. Not expecting any money back, just so it's easier to plan, but yeah the 65k OOP is not the reality of the situation.

Yeah, I am really looking forward to it as well
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 16: 4/15-4/21

1.) 1h 10m of mediation Yearly Goal: 7.83/50

2.) 2h of Yoga Yearly Goal: 3.74/60

3.) 38.07 hours of work Yearly Goal: 435.19/1200


A slight return to normalcy this week as the doctors visits vanished. It felt really great to be back in the swing of things. Worked 6 days this week only taking off Easter Sunday and while it was a slog made a bit of money.

Went super hard to work on my body as I doubled the amount of time this year spent on yoga in one week.

The time spent on meditation +yoga really helps me curb any tilt issues that come up. I'm still not playing great, for every 1 hand I play at a high level I seem to make 1-2 silly mistakes on top of it.

IVF

Doctors are very happy with how things are going on this end, so hopefully good news to come.


Health

I've hit the gym pretty hard this year but have probably not been watching what I've eaten as well. I'm up 25lbs this year and just had to donate 90% of my jeans since they don't fit any more.

Not fat but not exactly my lean self so gonna start doing a bit of cardio etc.

Sounds like you could get a pretty sweet ROI from this wedding if you rented out the back of a Denny's and crammed the 250 people in there!

Well we had our engagement party this weekend and we got more than expected, I would not be shocked if we broke even. I love Denny's though so there are worse ideas!

Week 17:4/15-4/21

1.) 30m of meditation Yearly Goal: 8.37/50

2.) 30m of Yoga Yearly Goal: 4.24/60

3.) 17.05 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 452.24/2200


Poker Pain Doesn't Ruin a Great Week

Got absolutely slaughtered this week through minimal volume and had my worst week of the year. A nice -$6,500 downer.

This was all mitigated by by mostly being poker free since Thursday night. Thursday I watched Avengers: EndGame (fantastic) and then headed to my in-laws for me and my wife to be's engagement party.

The engagment party was great as we had tons of food and around 80 of our closest friends and family come out. It was really nice to catch up with so many of close friends and family all at once and got way more gifts/rakeback than I thought

Came back Sunday, cleaned the appt, watched GOT and just put in a short session where I dusted off -$2k in a lot of standard spots + a few misplays.

So yeah this month will be worst of the year (but still won) but overall very content with my life. I feel like I haven't put as much time as I've liked with Poker but it's more of me being very busy with other life stuff than being lazy.


First Trimester Review: January-April

Minimal Volume leads to fantastic results. I started the year off with my 2nd-3rd best months of my career back to back. Those months have carried me big time so far as I've posted back to back mediocre months.

I'm still above pace of where I want to be financially which is great since I didn't meet a lot of pacing goals.

Health wise, I gained a lot of muscle (and fat tbh) and am stronger than I ever have been. Have definitely noticed an energy boost. But after 25lbs gained, I also had to throw out a bunch of clothes which is a bummer.

Despite a very successful year, I'm on pace for a huge year, I'm still very blunt with myself with poker. I'm probably one of the most inconsistent players in my pool. When I am playing my best I think I'm definitely a handful to handle.

But there are too many sessions where I auto-pilot and it usually leads to a general passivity where I'm not going for minor spots or exploiting tendencies in regs as much as I should and being as aggressive as I need to be too.


What's Ahead

A lot more poker headed into Spring/Summer. Me and Victoria decided we would take a small break before our next try if IVF didn't work out.



Miscellaneous Tidbits


-Getting legally married today! This should get me on my wife's insurance and I can get my **** fixed without breaking my balls financially

-Headed to Vegas June 15-July 3rd with my favorite Scottish man, Gazzy B, and our mutual friend TS, looking very forward to it.

GL at the tables everyone!
-

See you over there! I arrive June 5


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Not playing the MAIN?

Not in my best interest to post this but you should self-assess relative to volume/hours played goals instead of annual dollar pace. Poker has a nasty habit of becoming impossible as soon as you feel the need to earn (I am sure you have experienced this).

To clarify, IMO, you should not consider $-earned as part of the analysis for fractions of the year.

That said, take and enjoy the time off for the real life milestones as they do not come around too often!

My cousin is getting married July 5th-July 7th so I'll be coming back for that, family first ya know!

Hey, I briefly touched on it in a previous post but not using my current results as a pace maker. Just meant I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be financially at this point while also being completely cognizant that I ran well above-average.

I know you know that win-rate/hourly is a very big variable that is influenced by how well we are playing/the average skill level of pool/ hands per hour etc etc.

I definitely agree that poker is a lot less fun when the pressure to make $ is on.

I do expect to put in a significant more volume Trimester #2 than #1; I very well may make less money than Tri. #1.

Thanks for the input as well

Week 18: 4/29-5/5

1.) 30m of meditation Yearly Goal: 8.87/50

2.) 30m of Yoga Yearly Goal: 4.74/60

3.)41.76 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 494/2200


Poker returned to going well for me financially, have ran fairly smooth at 1k this year and am playing some 2k as well. Ironically, I am in the worst EV stretch of my career, but I have been playing v well this past week so I am happy all things considered


IVF

Me and Victoria got the call from our Doctor today and we have 7 healthy, whole embryos for us. Such an emotionally happy moment for both of us and we could not be more thrilled.

We had great support from family and friends and I even had some readers on here reach out to me. Thank you to everyone for their support along the way.

In the meantime, we will freeze the embryos and decided to not know the gender of each embryo until we look for a surrogate in the next few years.


House Hunting

Right into my next big adult venture. We went to our first open house this weekend to get a good feel of what we like. Have put in a decent amount of thought with this but its cool to know I'm gonna be able to finance this through poker.


NJSCOOP Competition

Breaking up the cash grind a bit, I entered a competition, along with the top tournament players in the state for a little bragging competition based on the tournament series Stars offers.

My team is absolutely loaded (as our a bunch of others), and it's a nice shot of friendly competition.

I added my first title tonight to hopefully help the team out a bit.







Hands of the week

1.) One of the few HU hands I managed to win vs reg

PokerStars Hand #199345197933: Hold'em No Limit ($5/$10 USD) - 2019/05/02 22:44:37 ET
Table 'Aegle' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 4: bbissick ($1068.70 in chips)
Seat 6: BOnEheAd109 ($1781.06 in chips)
BOnEheAd109: posts small blind $5
bbissick: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bbissick [Js Qh]
BOnEheAd109: raises $13.30 to $23.30
bbissick: raises $76.70 to $100
BOnEheAd109: calls $76.70
*** FLOP *** [5h 9s 3c]
bbissick: bets $65.67
BOnEheAd109: calls $65.67
*** TURN *** [5h 9s 3c] [9d]
bbissick: bets $110
BOnEheAd109: calls $110
*** RIVER *** [5h 9s 3c 9d] [2s]
bbissick: bets $340
BOnEheAd109: folds
Uncalled bet ($340) returned to bbissick
bbissick collected $550.34 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $551.34 | Rake $1
Board [5h 9s 3c 9d 2s]
Seat 4: bbissick (big blind) collected ($550.34)
Seat 6: BOnEheAd109 (button) (small blind) folded on the River


2.) Interesting One!

PokerStars - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $535.68 (VPIP: 25.79, PFR: 17.69, 3Bet Preflop: 8.71, Hands: 1,533)
BB: $444.28 (VPIP: 28.77, PFR: 18.38, 3Bet Preflop: 12.32, Hands: 738)
UTG: $863.37 (VPIP: 26.52, PFR: 20.32, 3Bet Preflop: 8.47, Hands: 116,158)
MP: $552.00 (VPIP: 29.39, PFR: 23.54, 3Bet Preflop: 11.47, Hands: 44,414)
Hero (CO): $507.50
BTN: $540.39 (VPIP: 27.81, PFR: 19.69, 3Bet Preflop: 8.30, Hands: 48,069)

SB posts SB $2.50, BB posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has T 9

fold, fold, Hero raises to $12.50, BTN calls $12.50, fold, fold

Flop: ($32.50, 2 players) 6 8 K
Hero checks, BTN bets $10.19, Hero raises to $40.00, BTN calls $29.81

Turn: ($112.50, 2 players) 7
Hero bets $36.14, BTN calls $36.14

River: ($184.78, 2 players) T
Hero checks, BTN bets $145.42, Hero calls $145.42

BTN shows A Q (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 59%, Flop 60%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows T 9 (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 41%, Flop 40%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins $472.62


3.) vs reg

partypoker - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): $772.97
BB: $1,436.42 (VPIP: 30.45, PFR: 24.04, 3Bet Preflop: 6.80, Hands: 329)

Hero posts SB $2.50, BB posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has A J

Hero raises to $10.00, BB calls $5.00

Flop: ($20.00, 2 players) 9 7 4
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($20.00, 2 players) J
BB bets $12.50, Hero raises to $44.00, BB calls $31.50

River: ($108.00, 2 players) 7
BB checks, Hero bets $158.00, BB calls $158.00

Hero shows A J (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 73%, Flop 80%, Turn 93%)
BB mucks J 5 (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 27%, Flop 20%, Turn 7%)
Hero wins $423.50


4.)

partypoker - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $555.73 (VPIP: 36.91, PFR: 25.97, 3Bet Preflop: 10.46, Hands: 23,436)
Hero (BB): $627.84
BTN: $475.57 (VPIP: 35.33, PFR: 22.16, 3Bet Preflop: 5.59, Hands: 6,221)

SB posts SB $2.50, Hero posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has 2 5

fold, SB raises to $15.00, Hero raises to $45.00, SB calls $30.00

Flop: ($90.00, 2 players) 4 6 J
SB checks, Hero bets $29.04, SB calls $29.04

Turn: ($148.08, 2 players) T
SB checks, Hero bets $109.56, SB calls $109.56

River: ($367.20, 2 players) 8
SB checks, Hero bets $444.24 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $809.44



Hopefully can build on this past week!

in glgl

Thank you!

I will do a 2 week review this upcoming Monday, The last 2 weeks have been some of the busiest of my life and I'm grinding my ass off with real life stuff and poker!

I just put in an offer to buy a home for me and my wife and have spent quite a bit of time on the housing front.

Poker wise I can't win a hand in cash (I'm playing awesome though) but have been running well on the tournament front and have had a few 4 figure scores to keep the year buzzing along well.


Feels great to be able to afford a wedding and an actual home (Offer might not get accepted, but I can afford it) because of a card game I love playing.

Will have a fully fleshed out recap Monday.

Week 19-23: 5/6-6/9... So What's been going on?

1.) 0 mins of meditation Yearly Goal: 8.87/50

2.) 0 mins of Yoga Yearly Goal: 4.74/60

3.) 180.42 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 674.42/2200


So a lot of my daily habits have clearly fallen apart the past month. I was doing very well between going to the gym, meditating, and mostly managing my time well.

[B]I have not been lazy[B] but I have not managed my time great and it's mostly been a chaotic scramble of doing whatever's next on my plate.

From the Mattress on my Floor to a Home

And the big reason why I've had so much on my plate is I am (still) in the process of purchasing my first home with my wife. With a purchase this big (and obviously biggest financial decision in my life I think) I wanted to educate myself/ be very careful throughout the process.

I can say that the whole home buying process is a big pain in the ass, especially when you play Poker. So there have been hassles. The house is 3br, 2bathroom family home in suburbia of NJ, so definitely a big change to what I'm used to being right outside NYC.

We finished attorney review and I just got the home inspected so there is still work to do but I am very excited to have my own home (and my own office for poker!). I'll save photos for when everything is 100% set as I don't want to jinx anything but if all holds we will close in August and we'll be moving in October.

Thankfully, we are able to put 20% down which will help with the mortgage as well.

Poker

So with me purchasing a home and having a nice wedding, it is fairly safe to say this year has been everything I needed it to be. I have already annihilated my career best year. Highest hourly. Highest Winrate (despite just having a brutal 68k BE stretch). I can't help but be pleased with the results.

AT THE SAME TIME, I'm not really satisfied with the process which I think stems all long term results. I haven't meditated or gone to the gym in a month, and I've definitely noticed me being a bit exasperated way more quickly from not meditating not taking care of myself. In general, I am playing pretty well and when I'm locked in I feel like I can compete and win in the highest stakes games that run in America.

Of course buying a home you need money and with my purchase I dipped from solidly rolled for 2k to well rolled for 500 and moderately rolled for 1k. Hopefully, this will be the last time I have to rebuild to reach highstakes

That being said 500 is much more variance free which is nice.


Tournament Poker and NJ SCOOP



As I mentioned before, One of the best tournament regs, AvaGray, got a competition going with NJ's best players to run during NJSCOOP. I was getting a little tired of getting throttled in cash so thought it would be a good mix up to battle.

I ended up finishing 2nd in points and cashes out of 35 and cleared about 20ish k in profit throughout the month due to tournies (biggest bink was about 5.7k) I had a lot of help from my teammates giving me a bit of free advice as well (shoutout to my dude Bex!) This nice tourney boost def helped a fairly small cash month.

In general, I've done a much better job just exploiting population tendencies and being more aggressive in re stealing spots etc.

Vegas

I leave Friday night and am so excited to just get to focus on Poker for 3 weeks. Excited to see all my European friends I only see 1x a year and ofc live with the legends Gazzy B and TS.

I decided to sell a small tournament package on twitter and sold out in about 4 minutes which was also a nice little confidence boost.

I know Gaz has been having some epic updates so I think I will also try to follow suit, will definitely share some photos of the trip as well

Hands!

1.) Yelling at my computer screen " I HAVE NO BLUFFS" and was rewarded tank fold

PokerStars - $20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: $2,883.10 (VPIP: 30.99, PFR: 23.81, 3Bet Preflop: 10.44, Hands: 1,508)
CO: $2,354.43 (VPIP: 35.11, PFR: 22.76, 3Bet Preflop: 6.59, Hands: 2,249)
BTN: $1,130.80 (VPIP: 33.94, PFR: 22.11, 3Bet Preflop: 7.33, Hands: 1,141)
SB: $2,000.00 (VPIP: 29.12, PFR: 19.94, 3Bet Preflop: 7.42, Hands: 8,971)
Hero (BB): $2,203.00
UTG: $4,360.18 (VPIP: 25.64, PFR: 19.79, 3Bet Preflop: 8.19, Hands: 44,910)

SB posts SB $10.00, Hero posts BB $20.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $30.00) Hero has 7 8

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $53.20, Hero raises to $180.00, SB calls $126.80

Flop: ($360.00, 2 players) 8 Q Q
SB checks, Hero bets $117.65, SB raises to $380.00, Hero calls $262.35

Turn: ($1,120.00, 2 players) 5
SB bets $440.00, Hero calls $440.00

River: ($2,000.00, 2 players) J
SB checks, Hero bets $1,203.00 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $1,996.50


2.) Cooler reg and still can't get stacks

PokerStars - $20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: $2,883.10 (VPIP: 30.99, PFR: 23.81, 3Bet Preflop: 10.44, Hands: 1,508)
CO: $2,354.43 (VPIP: 35.11, PFR: 22.76, 3Bet Preflop: 6.59, Hands: 2,249)
BTN: $1,130.80 (VPIP: 33.94, PFR: 22.11, 3Bet Preflop: 7.33, Hands: 1,141)
SB: $2,000.00 (VPIP: 29.12, PFR: 19.94, 3Bet Preflop: 7.42, Hands: 8,971)
Hero (BB): $2,203.00
UTG: $4,360.18 (VPIP: 25.64, PFR: 19.79, 3Bet Preflop: 8.19, Hands: 44,910)

SB posts SB $10.00, Hero posts BB $20.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $30.00) Hero has 7 8

fold, fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $53.20, Hero raises to $180.00, SB calls $126.80

Flop: ($360.00, 2 players) 8 Q Q
SB checks, Hero bets $117.65, SB raises to $380.00, Hero calls $262.35

Turn: ($1,120.00, 2 players) 5
SB bets $440.00, Hero calls $440.00

River: ($2,000.00, 2 players) J
SB checks, Hero bets $1,203.00 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $1,996.50


3.) Thin

partypoker - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BB): $997.53
BTN: $569.39 (VPIP: 26.55, PFR: 19.35, 3Bet Preflop: 7.83, Hands: 82,747)
SB: $610.49 (VPIP: 36.02, PFR: 16.68, 3Bet Preflop: 1.12, Hands: 1,841)

SB posts SB $2.50, Hero posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has K 7

BTN raises to $15.00, fold, Hero raises to $55.00, BTN calls $40.00

Flop: ($112.50, 2 players) T 6 4
Hero bets $55.00, BTN calls $55.00

Turn: ($222.50, 2 players) 8
Hero bets $110.00, BTN calls $110.00

River: ($442.50, 2 players) K
Hero bets $777.53 and is all-in, BTN calls $349.39 and is all-in

Hero shows K 7 (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 68%, Flop 70%, Turn 3%)
BTN shows 9 7 (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 32%, Flop 30%, Turn 97%)
Hero wins $428.14
BTN wins $1,139.28


4.) When in doubt all in

PokerStars - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $675.98
BB: $598.75 (VPIP: 44.58, PFR: 17.38, 3Bet Preflop: 7.22, Hands: 412)
UTG: $800.42 (VPIP: 35.16, PFR: 10.16, 3Bet Preflop: 1.56, Hands: 132)
CO: $500.00 (VPIP: 28.65, PFR: 19.76, 3Bet Preflop: 6.40, Hands: 2,265)
Hero (BTN): $500.00

SB posts SB $2.50, BB posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has T 9

fold, CO raises to $12.50, Hero raises to $37.00, fold, fold, CO raises to $104.00, Hero calls $67.00

Flop: ($215.50, 2 players) 5 Q T
CO bets $396.00 and is all-in, Hero calls $396.00 and is all-in

Turn: ($1,007.50, 2 players) 2

River: ($1,007.50, 2 players) K

CO shows K A (One Pair, Kings)

Hero shows T 9 (One Pair, Tens)

CO wins $1,004.50


5.) vs reg

partypoker - $5 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BB: $507.50 (VPIP: 24.51, PFR: 17.47, 3Bet Preflop: 7.82, Hands: 9,410)
UTG: $647.00 (VPIP: 26.80, PFR: 19.13, 3Bet Preflop: 7.13, Hands: 16,213)
Hero (CO): $709.27
BTN: $555.31 (VPIP: 30.29, PFR: 7.44, 3Bet Preflop: 2.21, Hands: 668)
SB: $1,039.06 (VPIP: 32.70, PFR: 24.92, 3Bet Preflop: 9.11, Hands: 37,985)

SB posts SB $2.50, BB posts BB $5.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $7.50) Hero has A 5

fold, Hero raises to $12.50, fold, fold, BB calls $7.50

Flop: ($27.50, 2 players) 4 2 8
BB checks, Hero bets $8.57, BB calls $8.57

Turn: ($44.64, 2 players) Q
BB checks, Hero bets $64.00, BB calls $64.00

River: ($172.64, 2 players) 7
BB checks, Hero bets $624.20 and is all-in, fold

Hero wins $793.84

Looks like you pasted the same HH in twice. Fun hands though. Congrats on the house.

How's the traffic in NJ? I live in PA which is launching soon, curious what it's been like in other U.S. states.

Congrats on the house and gl in vegas! The liquidity of the new jersey sites seems pretty interesting. It seems like the actual player pool isn't that large but there seems to be a decent amount of weak money that cycles through the games. It's pretty nice that if people cheat on those sites they face actual legal repercussions, all these unregulated sites/apps are so wild west right now. Hope CT gets their act together at some point and joins in on the legal poker/sportsbetting.

I guess it all depends on stakes. Tough to get volume in midstakes, especially with the standalone sites in NJ. But you can get plenty of volume upto 200NL



Thanks man! Yes, the regulatory fact is definitely very soothing, BUT the sites still have tons of issues, and IMO not very well organized/ run

To illustrate, Borgata makes an update about a month and a half ago changing layout to site, with this change a new bug/glitch/whatever you wanna call it came up where the frequency of players getting geolocated (kicked) became super high.

I get booted off every 1.5 hours and this happens to many other regs as well. Borgata hasn't even acknowledged or let the public know they are attempting to fix it (in over 1.5 months!!!). So yeah customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

Intrastate has been a big boon though, especially to the tournament players. Back to back weeks with 1st place getting 6 figures in the WSOP tournaments is really great and I have moved some more volume over there, even though the games are more difficult

I am cutting my Vegas trip a bit short as I’m flying home Thursday as some things have come up that I need to take care of family wise.

I will do a complete write up as I still have a lot to tell over 13 days.

But a few cliffs:

-Cash games were brutal this summer, I managed to do quite well but def the toughest I’ve seen. As a result, I mostly own dimed it and only played a few sessions of 10/20 plus.

-Got to play against Jason Koon and €uropean. Koon might be one of the most pleasant guys Ive ever had at the table. Def an easy guy to root for.

I got to play against €uropean in the Venetian 1600 and we flashed a few times in some interesting spots. It didn’t take long to see he was a dominant player (also might have been the toughest table I’ve ever played in)

-2 small runs in WSOP events. Got 490th in Monster Stack where I ran great for 95% of the tournament and then 140th with my man GazzyB in the tag team. I think there’s a chance I take some shots next year in some events

Don't go :'(

Back in NJ after a very short Vegas trip. Life gets in the way sometimes and there are some issues going on with the home purchase.

I was having a decent trip but then got wrecked my last night and lost 11k at 20/40 my last session, most vs a well known female live grinder. I had good amount of action sold, but made a pretty brutal sizing mistake where I had to b/f tons of equity for my one major mistake.

Will get back on the horse here with updates going forward, starting with the usual routine on Monday.

Time to tell the thrice story in your thread!

Kelly Minkin?

sick. sry bro. can't imagine.

No, was Kym Lim. Really not a big deal with the poker, more worried about the house atm.

Getting my life organized together tonight, but ready to get back to online poker tomorrow

For the first time in my career, I'm going to put some work into both my HU game and Tournament poker as I will probably be mixing in tournaments 2-3 days of the week going forward.

Week 24-26

Hours of Yoga: 0

Hours of Meditation: 0

Hours dedicated to Poker: 114.17 hours Yearly Goal: 788.59



Vegas, Vegas, Vegas

2019 brought to me my 5th trip to LV, and 4th as a full time pro. There's something always exhilarating about entering the city despite it's familiarity. Away for a trip to see friends you haven't seen last year plus the allure of possible huge binks ahead (that almost never pan out, but alas)

Safe to say, I was excited to get here. It felt for the first time this year, I could go and just focus on poker and not have IVF, or a wedding, or a house on mind. It was a welcome relief.

I get in at midnight, after Gazzy B and TS graciously let me crash at their air bnb for a night before we move in together the next day.

Normally, I'd be extremely fired up to just start playing immediately but after a long flight next to a possible contestant on biggest loser and a guy who's dreads kept smacking me in the face on the flight there I was ready for bed.

First few days are fairly standard, I'm playing upto 5/10 on my own dime and then have action sold if anything better comes up in the bigger game (it rarely did). The games are fairly strong for a live game (tons of bad regs but no big donators) but get off to a nice start playing fairly strong.

Third day comes in and I get in a great 5/10 game.

It's 7 handed. Rec limps. Asian BU reg iso's and I 3bet to 300 with T T (1700 eff), just reg calls and the flop comes down

K65

I cbet 225 and regs just rips about 1400 in. I tank and then decide I didn't come to Vegas to fold and somehow hold vs QJhh.

VERY NEXT HAND.

Same Rec limps, Asian Reg iso's again (rebought for 1500) to 50, Asian Reg#2 3bets to 200, Fish CC, Asian Reg #1 jams to 1500, ASR #2 folds and then we get a tank... a long tank....

Usually I'm a bit annoyed with these spots as people tank and almost always fold.

But then I hear him saying "I just know it's gonna hit...I know it" "OK CALL"

and 3 hands into the session I'm witnessing back to back 3k pots.

Flop comes T94

Rec 'pipes' not bad

Turn comes 6

"Ok no heart please"

River, Brick.

"Let's Go!!!!" Rec slams down 43hh and scoops the massive pot. Reg has a kind of mix of bewilderment that just turns into a shrug. He gets up to leave and say's he'll be back in a sec.

Table is a lot of fun in general with banter between everybody and lot of action between everyone. About 10 minutes after said hand, Asian reg comes back with a bag, walks up to the rec and tells him he has a present.

Rec opens the bag and shows the table a large black shirt with the letters "BUT IT WAS SUITED".

Whole table got a kick out of that and I thought it was a really awesome gesture by the reg to kinda make the most out of a sigh spot. Kudos to him!


The one party day and the most obvious drug deal in poker history

After moving into our place, we decide to get the boys out for a night out. I'm not a big partier anymore but was pretty amped to just spend a night out with a bunch of the guys.

As Gazzy's graph went lower and lower his need to get higher and higher reached a peak and he asked me if I would take any molly. I of course oblige and he says ok the guy is super trust worthy and he'll be here shortly.

*Side Note- Our Air BNB locale was mostly retirees and the summer weather wasn't too hot, so imagine the scene with a few of these guys on there porch as the below scene unfolds.

I step outside the Apt. with Gaz as he asks to not be alone. I retort that his friend is trustworthy and he fires back that this is drug dealing 101. Touche.

We wait for said guy to come but cant see a car. Finally, a beam of lights approach us up the street and it looks like large taxi van approaches.

A middle age white man is driving, looking a bit confused. The back door springs open and our dealer jumps out higher than Everest to dap us up. He quickly shouts at the driver to stay since he needs a ride out of here.

So now we're in the middle of the street and eyes are definitely on us as guy fumbles though his pockets, not once, not twice, but at least 6 different baggies before handing us the bag.

As he turns to leave, he looks at me and Gaz

"You sure you don't want coke"

"Erm, thanks but we're good"

I unfortunately didn't get to see the taxi drivers face but I could only imagine what he was thinking after this scene.



Tourney Time

After first week of cash, I had 3 tournaments lined up to play. First was the Venetian $1600 $3mil GTD. I had an amazing table draw but busted shortly after getting in an 80k pot at 150/300 (!!!) with Q9o vs KK vs A4ss on Q94ss.

It was still early, when I got to my 2nd table. It was a young table and first orbit the hands I noticed were all played well IMO.

A young guy, about my age in particular, plays a hand where he goes polarized on river where just most players are not using said sizing, he's also wearing a bitb staking patch. Reporter is there and puts the name on the blog.

I of course Hendon and see modest reports live but nothing crazy, but the link below I see the SN "{uropean" and I know my draw got way tougher.

Had a few hands in a row where I OB and then got to the river and bet 75%, I kinda realized as I bet that it should be a jam and he immediately says "Strange you didn't jam here "

Anyway was really cool to play against observe one of the best MTT players of the world. Was very insightful.

Regardless, I played well but got v card dead in the end and busted last level of the night.

Monster Stack

I played this last year and ran fairly deep (367th) after losing a brutal beat at the end of day 2. This year had a fairly similar conclusion.

I early reg, prepared to endure 10h poker at 10 AM. I am rewarded with 6 max play the first 2 hours of the day with a table full of recs.

Unfortunately, the guy to my right had one of the worst smells I had ever experienced. I'm talking a smell that actually ingrains itself into your brain, where you can't even think.

Eventually, me and another player had to get the floor to have him mask it. It was really that bad.

First half of the Day was fairly uneventful, I ran a bluff with great blockers vs whale where he was extremely capped and I was rightfully punished. Don't bluff whales.

I survived and got to level 7 at about 60k from 50k starting. I moved tables and get moved next to a loud Irish man who looks vaguely familiar. First hand I fold, and proceed to see young kid make a big punt that was truly one of the worst poker hands I've ever seen, lucky for him...and me he still had 40k left at 400/800

Anyway, next hand comes and folds to me in Hijack, I open K4cc to 1700, young kid flats, SB calls and BB folds.


Flop comes 7 4 2

Checks to me and I bet 2k into around 6.5k. Young kid snap makes it 6k and I have him covered by about 20k.

Think decision point is fine between calling or 3bing small. I decide to flat.

Turn is the T

I check and he jams 2x pot after about 5 seconds. His whole line is FOS but it's still for most of my chips, the FD is cherry on top but I probably would call without it. I call and I see him turn over the beautiful 54dd for a bizarre hand.

I avoid suckout and end up chipping upto 180k (after sucking out QQ>AA vs Martjin Gerrits) I start talking to the Irish guy next to me and having a few drinks with him when I realize it's the legend Andy Black. Really nice guy.

I ended up bagging about 152k for day 2 and surviving 10h poker.


Day 2

Shannon Shorr is to my right, very nice guy. I'm wearing a Bama shirt and there's another big bama fan there which gets us all talking Bama and CBB. Meanwhile, I flop top set on 863 FD against two other people who have sets.

EZ GAME.

I ended up peaking at about 650k at 1200/2400 but mostly went downhill from there and couldn't make much hands after. I lost a flip with AK<44, to get me short and stayed there most of the way til my QQ< KK for 9bbs.

Ended up 490th for solid run but no cigar. The most tilting thing by far was playing 10 handed poker in a Day 2 when there was 500 people left out of 6,000 but such is life.

Tag Team with Gaz

Gonna keep this short cause I am extremely tired but what a fun tournament this one was. We kept cycling in and out after 30 mins. We both got to play with Jason Koon, who honestly was an extremely genuine dude, awesome time playing with him and his partner.

We ended up essentially folding to the money, but the atmosphere of this tourney was awesome, just lot of people having fun, ZERO tanking, lots of needling. Best atmosphere of the summer.


Leaving Early

Through all the fun I was having, my wife was being an absolute kickass trooper, handling the house, the lawyers, the realtors and everything in between. She got a few medical issues in between (nothing serious thankfully) that just had her down.

When you know a person as well as your spouse, you know when they need you even if they don't say it. Wife needed me home as our housing deal was falling apart (more to this to come) so I decided to end the trip and get back home. She felt terrible but was 100% the right move for me and had no regrets.


There's probably a 100 or so little stories that I'll remember and want to share but for now that's all I got, will follow up later today with my 2nd half of the year plans that includes some detours.

GL at the tables Everyone.


Gotta have your eyes on the prize (my engagement photos came in)

Solid write up looking forward to next trip!