Thanks man. Yes I will definitely message you when I head up to MGMNH. I really like it there. Thanks for the heads up about the rake trap with low buy in tournaments. I’ve never even heard of that as playing in the PPO was my first ever playing at a casino. Best of luck to you as well.

Good weekend. Home game Friday (+$110 cash, -$30 tourney), no MGM afterwards, so technically a night off. Also, no beach (!); instead, hike through Rock Creek Park on a beautiful day. Fresh air, exercise, nice change of pace. (Couldn't find a hotel room in Rehoboth.)

Saturday night put in a short-ish session. 2/5 card dead, a couple PPs missed, down $70 Omaha, up $270. Big draw (wrap+fd) got there against top set, won smaller pot flopping three pair with AA against ? Could have stayed longer to keep playing with fun player but I wasn't interested in a long session this time. Also, switched tables and the player I wanted to get involved with pretty much immediately transferred to the table I just left. :/ Doh! Serves me right for bum-hunting!

Little milestone: after last night's session overall WR across all games an stakes passed the 6bb/hr. mark, no doubt due to improvement in Omaha. 5/10 is my worst game (I like to think due to runbad), 2/5 best, 1/3 and PLO in the middle.

Ordered a man bag from Amazon ("Nunnuburn" anti-theft, green), single strap, compact, should be arriving in the next week or so. Last two bags are flimsy and I am counting the days until the strings on my current one give way. Also started using a pillowcase holder as a chip satchel. Easier than cashing in/out every day, plus I don't have random chips spilling out of my larger bag every time I do cash out. That used to be a cluster. Do I now give off a somewhat douchetastic reg vibe? Probably. Do I care? No.

Went for another short hike today, then Omaha for 5 hours, +$70. First AA l/rr and flopped top set three ways, jam my last $95, one call, one pot-sized iso raise, I'm against middle set and top plair+ OESD and the straight gets there. Second AA l/rr and win with a flush. Then nothing for several hours. That's all.

Was not really enjoying the session today, maybe I really needed that beach trip. Thinking I will do beach trip by myself. Should be plenty of hotels available during the week.

Today started well, woke up with plenty of sleep, the usual coffees+milk, no food, watched some Jnandez, decided to go to the gym for a quick workout, then listened to a couple of Jared Tendler's podcasts (Lex Veldhuis and Vanessa Selbst) (per Jnandez's advice). Could relate to Lex as when his interview took place he was transitioning from NLHE to PLO. Both of them had instructive things to say about controlling tilt and trying to play well. If I had to guess, my biggest tilt factor is playing scared money when I am wrapping up a session up a decent clip and don't take every spot since I am playing very low risk in order to book a win. But I doubt that's unusual.

By the time I was about to leave for poker I was feeling good/ready to play. Important to be in the right mindset. Anyway, 5-card GII with toppest set against fd+sd and I boated, bled down a little, left up $150, then played some 2/5 and nothing really worth mentioning happened except I got to witness this mixed games pro go on a heater and stack almost half the table. Lost $50 at 2/5. Ended up $100 on the day.

If I am going to keep this up I will need to do something daily for my well-being (a hike, bike ride, gym, walk downtown for a coffee, etc.) or else I am probably going to burn out and lose motivation. FWIW, in the Nandez course he asks us to list our goals and I chose earn up to $10k/mo. So that's something to aspire to looking forward.

Today was a good day. Woke up to another Tendler podcast (Negraneau), went to therapy, set a couple goals for the month (career and well being), took a shot and played 5-5-10 PLO (4-card), won $650 (KK v. 2x on K22), and lost $90 at 1-2 5-card missing a couple draws.

Someone held up play at 1-2 for - I kid you not - over TWENTY minutes over a $100 difference in the announced bet by the dealer and the actual bet (which was all in) in a $1,200 pot, then called the additional $100, but only after calling the floor and demanding to check the cameras. Someone (me? ... maybe) encouraged him to call the $100 so we could finish the hand. After he chopped he hit and run, but not before telling everyone he had been institutionalized, was the only gangster at the table, and we were all SOL "on the streets." Where do they find these people? Smh. (I can't wait to play higher limits exclusively so I no longer run into these situations.)

Gonna look for a new dojo in which to take up tae kwon do again. That was a great workout and lots of fun/confidence-boosting a few years back. Hurt my knee one day and then had my breakdown. Will be nice to get back into it after so long and will hopefully provide the balance I need to keep playing poker for money. These little workouts around the house and going to the gym twice a month just aren't cutting it.

Up about $200 today, all from 5-card. No really big hands except one double with AK974 on KK2, GII flop and made bigger boat. Bled down a little at 2/5 after, played some more Omaha later on but nothing materialized in round 2.

The nandez “10-week transformation” has introduced some useful concepts and will definitely help me continue to set goals and improve my emotional stability, including by ignoring outsiders who try to interfere with my aspirations. The more I think about it the more I want to become a high stakes pro (or semi, depending on where career goes), and if I end up making it big enough consider moving on to other things.

Couple downsides: my legal career will stagnate, my parents (who put me through school) will be disappointed. Upsides: more freedom, potentially make lots more $$, use money down the line to do whatever I want (like start a firm focusing on issues I am passionate about). But it’s baby steps and I’m not about to start playing 25-50 tomorrow lol.

Fine day. Earlier start, out the door just before rush hour hit, up $310 1-2 5-card, down $110 5-5-10 4-card PLO (no hands, bled down over a few orbits relatively short handed, not ideal dynamics for short stack, plus a couple 5/10 NLHE regs were playing the game for some reason...bleh), so up close to $200 overall. Left early for my first Brazilian jiu jitsu lesson which went as expected: I was clueless and completely out of shape and barely made it through the lesson. But I learned something new and the instructors and students were really friendly and welcoming. While they were sparring I found myself wandering over to the kickboxing bags and trying out a couple old tae kwon do moves. I think that's where my martial arts heart lies.

As a practical matter, which form of martial arts do you think will better defend you? One where you need to be close to your attacker in order to submit him, or one where you can be within kicking distance? I suppose both have their merits in different situations. I'm probably just biased since I have spent much more time on tkd than bjj.

Home now, totally spent (and not because of poker burn out). A good feeling.

are you really having posts removed DT?

I am setting a monetary goal for August: $7,500. I'm almost halfway there. Changed my mind and gonna keep the focus on improving my 5-card game. Lately the 2/5 has been drying up. I don't see as many of the regular donors in the room as I used to, perhaps because I am not playing the graveyard shift anymore. Also, the regs are adapting to my playing style.

Let's goooo!

Graph to date:



Car I didn't buy (overpriced):



Tilt control:

Dumbo sure took flight today. Ran well at 1-2 5-card, up $2,500 in 3 hours. Biggest hand was AA933 AI pre three ways (over $500 apiece) against two nonbelievers and I flopped a flush with my sidecards and held. I felt like my work was paying off and got slightly emotional lol. Also made a couple great plays getting Vs to call with reverse tells. Feel really good about my progress...!

Up in the middle of the night/early morning, probably has something to do with being so sore from my bjj lesson the other night. Being thrown around on a mat for an hour will do that to you, especially once you are in your early 30s (your body is not *quite* as forgiving as it was in your 20s).

Neglected to mention that I actually got stacked my first hand of the session yesterday, wrap+fd against lower wrap+lower fd AI ott and V backdoored a different (bad) flush. Thankfully I took a few seconds to observe his whole hand after he tabled and realized he was just here to gamble and therefore a very good reason to keep playing. I later got it all back and then some in the AA hand (he 3!/5! jammed 99778ds...hehe). The important thing is that I never got mad at this player, just said "nice hand" or "good hand" every time he won, even defended him when another player told him he got lucky one hand rivering quads against top set.

I popped a few ibuprofen, hopefully they will start taking effect soon....

Here's some chip pron halfway through the session (playing with my first pumpkin chip on the felt):



More chippies:



MGM in summertime:



A random pretty tree (I'd like to have these in a garden someday):

Today not so hot. Lost $625 Omaha, once lost it all with AA in 4! Pot with $100 behind on K-8-3r flop (AAT94 backdoor fd), pfr/V called after I 4! a 3! and had TT83x and turned threes full lol.

Then lost another BI with top set KKK on fd flop and V turned the flush and I (priced in) didn’t boat. 2/5 for a couple hours up $70. Lost $50 1/3 too. That’s all. Although today was a loss (variance), at this rate I might just have a $10k month! Up $5k now. At least the $7,500 challenge is looking good.

The good news is that I’m still winning. The bad news is, not today. Down $650 1-2 Omaha, $100 5-5 Omaha, now at 2/5. Missed a lot of draws today, l/rr KK over very action player’s expected raise in his straddle, lost to A9Txx on Q78. And one failed bluff I probably wouldn’t normally make except I was a little tilted. Oh well. :/ Just blows to go on a downswing immediately after such a huge score. Would have been nice to keep up the momentum. Maybe I’ll stick to 2/5 for the remainder of the month.

Neither. It is the one that teaches you how to run faster than the attacker.

Jury duty this morning. Second year in a row I was called to report. Second year in a row I won’t even be chosen to report to a courtroom...just waiting in the jury lounge for hours - not even a new experience to show for it. #wasteoftime

I think about half of my losses yesterday at Omaha were due to some tilt. So I’m probably going to play 2/5 today, assuming I don’t die of boredom here.

Lol, I just got summoned for jury duty; says on the form that the trial is estimated to take a month. I'm going to get my boss to get me out of it.

GcluelessjurornoobG

RUN FU

Just got back from tennis with my little sister. A recent hobby we've started together. Too bad it's so muggy outside. At least we're spending quality time together.

Up $600, $700 1-2 PLO, down $100 5-5 PLO. Too tired to go into too much detail. Suffice it to say I ran well enough and didn't make any huge mistakes.

any pics?

Another good day, up just shy of $600. Up almost $700 1-2 omaha, down $140 1/3 (QQ ran into KK on J-high two-diamond flop when V flatted pre and jammed flop for $140), up $40 2/5. PLO game went to the birds - fun players busted, replaced by pros/solid players - and I switched over to 2/5 for my last half hour or so until I left for jiu jitsu. (Yes, I am going to continue this at least until they start up kickboxing classes again next month. I'm sore once again from getting tossed around a bunch, but I learned a couple new take-downs and got a good workout.)

And no, no pics of my sister...! She has a boyfriend anyway.

Pretty bad Omaha day. -$725. Noteworthy: GII wrap+flush blockers and nut flush gets there. Double suited AA three hands in a row, chop first one against unsuited AA, scoop three-way AI with second one, then lose third three-way AI with the third. Unfortunately, the third one was the biggest ($450) and V had me covered with AKJxx and rivered the straight.

Some 2/5 after, broke even.

5 card PLO just sounds like insane variance, especially when it's live and you only see maybe 20 hands per hours. You're gonna be forced to gamble for your stack in a lot of 60/40 situations. It's nice when you have the 60%, but when you only get a few of those all in situations per session, it may take many sessions before you can start realizing your edge. You can easily lose 20 of those 60/40 flips in a row, going on downswings lasting weeks. I know some 4 card PLO pros who have had those kind of runs, it's so demoralizing that some of them quit. I can only imagine it being worse at 5 card PLO. Sure, it's nice when you're running good and quickly run it up by winning those multiway all ins, but a nasty downswing is always easily around the corner. It's definitely not easy money when no ones ever that far behind with their combo draws and backdoors.

If you have the patience, discipline, and skills, NL seems like the way to go. You have people putting money in with only 3 outs or bluffing off their whole stack to you drawing dead. That's probably why there are so many more NL pros than PLO, AINEC. I actually don't even know any 5 card PLO pros who have been successful long term. It might not even be doable. If it was consistently profitable I'm sure you would see many more pros like in NL.

So, in line with the above post, I started my session playing 2/5 today, thinking lower variance. Went well for the first couple hours, breaking even, nothing too noteworthy. Then get KK, l/rr decently active rec to my immediate left to $125, he seems frustrated and calls. Flop T-6-2r, I just jam $250, he again frustratingly calls. Runout: 5-T. I table expecting to be good against QQ or JJ most of the time, he tables JTcc. :/ So much for lower variance, can't even win an 80/20 today! Ridiculous.

Head to 5-card after playing a couple more orbits of 2/5, get AA AI pre three ways and lose to JT for main pot and KK for the side pot (case king...I had K9 for two pair). Then bleed down a little on my second buy-in until I get AAds and raise and finally flop something, the ndf and bdnfd with top pair, GII against middle set and turn two fds but she rivers quads. Sad. Called it a night stuck $380 in 2/5 and $500 in PLO.

To top it all off, after my last jiu jitsu lesson my thighs feel like they've been recently stabbed several times with a bum-hunting knife. Motrin isn't even doing a thing. Damn. Hosting a home game tomorrow. Might squeeze in a session in the AM. This poker thing is hard.

I'm currently on a fun little downswing over 4 sessions. Each session I've more-or-less only managed to get my stack in ~once, with these being the those spots:

1) KK vs 75 all-in preflop for $150 with $40 dead money. 82% fave.

2) 44 vs JJ (with another JJ folding the flop) all-in for $240 on 874dd with $75 dead money. 93% fave.

3) 99 vs KQ all-in preflop for $200 with $60 dead money. 56% fave.

Even as the 93% fave, I'm still going to lose 1 outta 14 times. As the 82% fave, still going to lose a rather run-of-the-mill 1 outta 5 times. And as the 56%, even though it's a really nice +EV spot, it's still just a ~flip as to whether I win the hand.

These things happen all the time. The fun thing you then have to learn to deal with is when they all seem to occur one-after-another-after-another, especially when they're basically the only spots you're putting big chips in, especially in a LLSNL conditions where you're very rarely in these spots versus the number of long drawn out hours you're playing.

My guess is that perhaps the biggest advantage winning players have over losing players (even outweighing their differences in overall strategy) is how they deal with this stuff compared to their opponents.

Ggetusedtoit,cuzitdoesn'tgetanyeasier!goodluck!G

Playing on this PLO poker app today I heard about through another regular. Will see how it goes. So far have run second nut flush into nut flush against (according to app host) an alleged "whale." Lol. Will see how long this lasts. They take a small "tip" out of each pot up to 8% ($2 max). Lost $80 my first short session, then left once it got HU.