Last night went to bjj class, got my work out, learned some, felt accomplished in that I took care of myself and so was in a good mindset to play. Definitely played well, results didn't reflect it this time, down $700. Lost $100 in 2/5 at god awful table I was sent to after omaha broke and I was on waiting list for last 5-card table, get QQ, flat UTG open UTG+1, SB calls, flop 7-8-3ddh. Pfr checks, I bet $40 into $60, only SB calls. Turn: 4h. X/x (56 got there, pot control is OK?), river: Jh. SB donks $125, I snap, he has AQhh for bdnf. :/ Honestly I was expecting a straight before a flush with AQhh. Questionable call if he doesn't do this with busted diamonds.

Omaha GII against maniac gambooler with bad AA against his double-paired/connected hand and lost to a boat (7s full). Third time lately my AAs have been cracked by 77 lol. Not a whole lot else really, bunch of smaller losses missing draws. Finally called it when we were short handed and I started getting crap for raising by this mean old lady who said I was going to lose the hand because I raised. This other fish later made a similar comment. I left and told everyone they’d have more fun without me three-handed.

Only other consistently playing pro I see at the Omaha tables is this Asian chick named X. I really admire her. She’s of course a solid player with a stoic demeanor. She puts in the hours. Definitely someone I try to emulate and play with to pick up strategy. She’s married and her husband plays weekends. I am super friendly with her...hopefully she doesn’t think I’m making a pass lol.

Now off for another walk on a gorgeous day to get into the right mindset before heading out again.

Another loss, $700. -$150 at 2/5, 3! AKo BB, pfr folds, fun SB calls, QJ5r flop, $60, he calls. Turn: 9d bdfd, he jams for my last $175. Fold.

There was a whale at our PLO table so I bought in max $700. Sadly, all of my made hands got outdrawn, top set AA, turn broadway, x/f to pot bet (V claimed all he had was a set of kings and he bluffed me off of top set because that was the only way he could win the hand...), another AA whiffed in l/rr 3! pot once, then I open AAKJx in single-raised pot, flop joint on 9TQhhd (no flush draw for me), checks through once, turn brings bdfd too, I pot $100, one fish/caller, he hits his backdoor 7-high flush. -$550 overall in PLO. That's pretty much it. Seems like another downswing/breakeven stretch, but what's new in this game, amirite? Thank you bankroll and tilt control! I picked up to meet a friend for dinner rather than chase my losses. I had reached my stop loss anyway. Went for a head-clearing walk after that AA hand, kinda tilted when V said he bluffed me and this other annoying reg next to him said yeah, he only had a a set of kings, I saw. Jerks.

On the bright side, I woke up relatively early today so my schedule is no longer upside down. Hooray! Now off to "therapy" (really, just talking with a social worker for about an hour about my month and setting a couple goals for myself).

Why are you seeing a social worker?

Just part of staying healthy. If you’ve read the thread you know I suffered from a mental health crisis a few years ago. This is just part of my ongoing mental health care.

Tonight played well, ran it up $500 in PLO until huge l/rr pot with AA872sssdd to $250, four callers, flop Ts9s4d, pro X donk jams $420, I re-jam $640 with nfd, bdnfd, OESD, and OP, and her set of Ts hold. Admire her, but also kinda hated her for calling off 1/3 of her stack with ATT9x and binking. :/ Now I was stuck, poker felt unfair in the moment, especially coming off two session losses in a row (and she'd been running really well lately too), so I immediately took a walk around the casino floor to try to cool off. I got back to the table and was still steaming so I took a bathroom break, got my food, ate, didn't play a hand for around 20 minutes. Good mental game. Ran it up to $1,250 with AA AI pre against rich Asian gambooler, also wrap+fd+bdfd won against middle set, so up $810 on the night in the end.

Very happy with how I handled the big loss in that big pot and didn't go off the rail and kept paying well. Now a little spent from all the swings. Gonna watch some loose cannon/big game reruns with the little dog next to me and call it another successful day.

I’m setting a modest $60k br challenge for myself by the end of the year.

Woke up early today, headed out for walk on nice sunny day, gonna go to Vegas in November again this year for bar poker tourneys and cash games, probably focus on PLO if games look good, but will see.

Home game tonight, a little mgm action beforehand.

Joey Ingrahm is quitting live poker. Another high stakes pro throws in the towel. Funny because he was always sooo in love with the great game. Thankfully my swings are minuscule compared to his so I don’t have a mental breakdown every time I go on a downswing. #sticktomidstakesbro

Rough early going at 5-card. Lost a couple “57/43s,” two as favorite. Wrap plus fd (50/50 flop, 40/60 turn), and wrap plus straight flush draw and middle set (60 favorite otf) both against top set, both missed. Then GII against shorty with top two on A-6-3 (60/40 fav) and runner runner Ks, his AQ plays. -$650. Could have played fewer hands to avoid this, but it was a very soft table and I felt like I had an edge post-flop. Got it in good a couple times even though I lost so I guess I was right.

Now at 1/3 to stem the bleeding until home game.

Not tilted. It’s not that I don’t care about losing at all - you need the desire to win to succeed at this - it just doesn’t make me play poorly like it once did.

Gl on the challenge dumbo. And have fun in vegas!

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Thanks mommy. R u really a mom?

Playing 1/3 next to the high limit tables and this pro looks at me and the table placard as he walks by me and shakes his head and of course now I feel like a complete wannabe here at the rake trap and wanna cry. Kill me...!

At least this shows how far I’ve come if I feel this way.

Lmfao. No i just chose that name after one drunk night of poker followed by a conversation with my mom. I honestly wish i could change it.... Im a single early 20's black guy with no kids living in vegas grinding the O8 at orleans. I remember making plans with you for vegas last year when i wasnt living here and couldn't quiet make it in time to meet up with you.
Well i live here now so when you visit in november id be happy to meet up and play some poker/chill.

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Haha! Sounds good!
.

it's the only game you might be good enough to beat so don't make to many jokes.

Touche. Now go - away!

And it's spelled 'too,' by the way.

But who's counting, anyway.

I rhymed this way to make fun of you today. Hip hip hooray!

Home game went bleh, flopped top set in 3! pot and jammed turn A, he snapped with AKss and rivered flush. Womp womp.

1/3 just played solid (=folded a lot), nothing really happened. Rad bad in home game too, -$80. After lost with that set of 5s, nothing else for the rest of the night really, no big hands. At one point this first-time player (OMC) at the game whom I've seen at MGM started eating a meatball sub and licking his fingers...and touching the cards. Gross. Table change!

Thankfully it was all well worth it because my buddy Dennis graciously lent me his copy of Tendler's The Mental Game of Poker, and this is absolutely the perfect time to finally crack it open because I am probably going through the worst stretch of run bad I've had in a while.

I can't control results, but I can control my reaction to them. So I guess my goal during this stretch is to keep playing well. I consider this a challenge greater than any BR challenge. So far I am succeeding.

Gonna meet friends at MGM who are there for promos while I'll be doing my thing at 5-card. Finishing up an episode on Nandez on BB defense first.

Hey man just keep calm and play on... Let us know how tendlers book reads. Ive heard a lot of great reviews

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Yesterday played 1/3 with friends Jeff and Veronica (her first time at a casino), "staked" Veronica for a small buy in lol. (She did really well!) Of course I played at the same table with her to protect my investment hehe. I ended up $100 there; oversetted someone.

PLO nothing really until l/rr AAss and guy who never folds calls, flop KJ3ss and we GII and he makes jacks full with JJ789. :/ Down $300 in omaha.

Played well, bad results. Starting to seem like par for the course lately.

More nandez, then tennis with sis later, and then back at it. Haven't looked at my graph or stats in a while. #terrified This month might be break even....

Reading some of Tendler's book on reacting to variance reinforces that I have a much more solid mental game than I once did. I know this accounts for a lot of my edge. He says, when going through a downswing:

"Look at the high and low points of your results at different points in your career. . . . When losing in the past, you assumed losing would continue. But it didn't. Remind yourself of this fact. . . ."

Although I haven't looked at it lately, I know my graph trends at around a 45 degree angle.

and

"If you lost making profitable plays, losing is temporary as long as you keep playing well and improving."

Getting AA all in pre as a 60%+ favorite several times (and losing to 77, JJ, T9875, or whatever other crap) certainly qualifies for this last statement. I didn't downgrade my play because I was losing with AA in AIs. I didn't play scared. I kept getting it in. And in that way, I "won" because I kept playing well and didn't let losing impact my play. Over the long run, getting it in as a 60%+ favorite is winning poker.

So I keep focusing on the long-term. I have had downswings and break-even stretches before, but my graph trends upwards over time, and that's the real metric, not the peaks and valleys along the way. Also why I focus on how I played, not results. This too shall pass! Another period of growth for DT.

Tonight lost a little at 2/5 while waiting for PLO, omaha limped KKQQ5ds and rec pots it $30 with $100 total, folds to another rec who calls, I re-jam $185 to win side pot against second V with a chance at main too, first V calls AI as expected and thankfully second V reluctantly calls too, and I am against first V's AA and second V's AT33x and I lose side pot to a set of 3s. :/

Lose most of second BI chasing set/boat and nut flush draws ott to pot bet from straight, missed. Never folding nfd+set ott.

Ran up third BI a few hundred and then got a little out of line raising AsTd7d6s4c, a few callers, flop KQ3ssd, checks through, turn 8d, giving me nut flush draw, backdoor T-high diamond draw, and gutshot to broadway, short stack pots from SB, I isolate, third V behind me apparently woke up with something because he re-jams, and of course I call the extra $100 and river is Kh and I lose to shorty's KQ and second V's 88. My diamonds were not live so this was a marginal spot at best and likely just a mistake to raise turn here. Possibly tilt-induced.

Lost last BI GII with top set KKK on KhJh3s (I had bd spades too) and lost to nut flush. -$680 PLO, $100 2/5.

Tonight was a mix of runbad and playing badly that hand with the two flush draws ott. I'd say 50% bad play and the rest runbad. Also a little frustrating to see two pros at the table run extremely well with AA AI pre and nfds while I have been running poorly in similar spots. Just gotta wait my turn I guess.

Its good you havent been looking at your stats. Seeing exactly how bad youve been running on paper is always a mind f*ck. I would definetely wait until the downswing ends to look

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Woke up early, had trouble getting back to bed thinking about running bad. Runbad really does bleed into your entire life no matter how strong willed you think you are.

Finally got to sleep, got my "hours" in, woke up well-rested and in decent spirits. Got my latte from the espresso machine. Sent a couple work-related emails out on my to do list. Now listening to good old beats (perasma swing 2 harmony), gonna watch a nandez module on postflop play. Been looking forward to this video. Then off to the races again.

Last night I was thinking about stepping back down to 1/3 for a while. Don't know if this is the right solution given that I know I have an edge at 5-card and so far I am not playing too poorly. Last night I did spew that one hand though.... I will give it another shot today and see how it goes with a goal of playing well and not spewing with flush draws ott.

Pro X the other night was asked if she was going to pay 5-5 5-card that night and she said "No, I'm staying here. This game is easy." Yeah, I feel the same way when I'm running like GOD. It's when the game is no longer an ATM when you rethink whether the game is so "easy." It may be easy to beat running normal or above-average, but when you start losing 60/40s and coinflips repeatedly you no longer feel like it's so easy.... Hopefully a month from now all this downswinging will be a blip on the radar.

Talked to buddy Franco before session today to vent about runbad and it helped. He’s also going though a PLO downswing (online). We agreed we just need to keep playing through it. Also perspective was for running bad I am still breaking even this month so it could be worse. Now at 5-card folding almost every hand, playing well.

Great session, up $1,600 (would have been +$3,000 if I hadn't lost set over set with top set against middle set and flush draw, fd got there). Oh, and I beat X! Definitely a confidence booster to take money from one of the best 5-card players in the room.

Gotta keep playing well, don't force it, let the game come to me. Long term thinking....

He'll yeah bro! I can sense am upswing around the corner

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and I sense Dumbo quitting poker over the next 6 months