Good sesh to start the month off on a high note, up around $4.2k from omaha (AA held AI pre, made the nuts postflop), down $1.3k from HE. (Ran AKdd into 52 on K52ss against losing player, one of the whales that helped build my BR at 2/5 back in the day. Ordinarily a fold, but not against him.)

Officially out of the downswing again. Now it's just a 200-hour BE stretch. Lol.

To the folks who say I am too emotional.

I really don’t know how to solve this so-called “problem,” and some might say it’s not actually a problem to be emotional. Frankly I think the whole notion that emotions are bad is hooey. I agree that you should endeavor not to let emotions impact your play and I don’t think I let that happen a whole lot.

Emotions happen to everyone and some people suppress them while other (probably happier) people have them, acknowledge them, and roll with it. In fact, being aware that you’re feeling off in some way is really important to playing well. Are you saying I am playing worse due to emotional responses? Or just that emotions are bad in general.

Also remember that I have a mood disorder that probably impacts how often I have emotional swings in general, so there’s that too. Faulting me for being overly emotional is like blaming the Sahara for being hot.

I agree that I definitely need to ignore other (negative) people more and not let them influence me. I am working on that! Also being less confrontational in general even when I think I’ve been slighted.

I'd meant to respond to that post of your asking for strength/weakness...

Since you already mentioned the mental stuff, I'll just say it doesn't seem like you're interested in becoming better which holds and will hold you back a lot. You make very fundamental mistakes. You can have a lot better hourly. I promise you that.

A strength of yours is being nitty and this goes with your mental game (which I do think is a leak). This by itself gives you an advantage on the majority of players in PLO, especially 5 card because they view it as a gambling game taking a bunch of flips with a bunch of variance when in reality, it isn't or shouldn't be.

It's funny because I was just about to post a thank you to everyone for the feedback. And I asked for feedback specifically to become better. I just don't want people to conflate being emotional with playing poorly, but maybe it affects me more than I realize. I think a person can be emotional as long as they are aware of it and don't act on their feelings. Also, "emotions" is obviously a sore subject for me given my mental health issues, as you can probably tell.

As for the bolded, care to elaborate?

Chiiiiips...! Get in my belly!

Have not been sleeping well at all the last couple weeks, lots of mental anxiety and stress over the whole threats episode. I approached him once on someone’s suggestion to smooth tings over and he said he didn’t want to talk so I’m just ignoring him. Been doing little things to keep my distance like wearing glasses and not playing the same games as him. The dude keeps needling me when he is around me, and he goes out of his way to approach me and say intimidating things like “that’s the lawyer. Take his money.” And “what the f are you looking at.” He talks to random people I’ve never seen in the poker room, points me out, and they stare at me. I keep quiet. But I don’t want to stop playing here. Doesn’t seem fair me to change my life because of his bad actions. But it’s pretty stressful and distracting. Sigh.

What’s he doing to needle you?

Why are you so focused on him? It seems like you are perpetuating this in your head tbh.

Just go and play. If you can avoid him great, if not sit down, do you, and ignore him.

You’re making mountains out of molehills


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Obviously if he's acting in the way you say he is that's super out of line. But I think through reading your posts I've come to understand you're a massive nit. You're effectively making yourself the enemy of a lot of people in a poker environment. Might not be fair...might also have to be expected.

You all have probably never been threatened before? It fks with your head.

To even suggest that someone deserves that kind of treatment because of their (winning) playing style is absolutely appalling.

Using that logic, I suppose Elon Musk deserves hate mail because he’s good at making electric cars that people want to drive.

I have been seriously threatened twice playing live, and i'm only 22. All for showing bluffs. I'm now friendly with the two people responsible. I'm sure elon musk gets a ton of hate mail. and btw... nut peddling in 5 card/gii with good aces is hardly making the first marketable consumer electric vehicle. Be humble in your nittiness.

I’m not saying I’m anywhere near that level it was just to make a point which you never addressed that people who are good at what they do don’t deserve to be harmed for it. Like you wouldn’t say you deserved those threats for showing those bluffs, right?

Playing tight and “nitty” is what winning poker is largely about.

Being nice and getting along with the fish is part of being good at the game, you're not good at what you do if you can't do that.

DT, you must have more negative interactions at the poker tables than anyone in the country. It really is remarkable. My guess is your nitty play is part of it but, it must be more than just being nitty because the room is full of nitty regs. I have played with you a few times and I didn't notice you doing anything that would get other players worked up. I have no clue what the deal is. Best of luck with getting things worked out going forward.

Do other nitty winning players have constant beef with other players too? What about with dealers? You seem to have had many conflicts with dealers as well, saw your post about a “dealer with a grudge” in the casino poker forum. I know many winning nit regs who get along well with everyone so I suspect the cause of your conflicts might not be due to being a winning nit

No, nittiness is a losing trait. You win despite nittiness, not because of it. It's not the same as simply being tight. It's more about risk averseness and avoiding marginal situations.

I wouldn't call you a nit because you do a lot of things true nits don't do, but I've certainly seen you be guilty of a nitty mindset at times, both in terms of being overly risk averse and being overly tight.

You’re way off. First of all the past minor conflicts I have had with other players happened rarely and they never escalated in the way this one did. And I didn’t get into a conflict with that “grudge” dealer. I just was offended that they expressed a disapproval of gay marriage in front of the entire table. I didn’t even confront them about it, just sat out a couple of their downs.

Browni: no, I’m not a true nit as you said. Still, playing tight - or “nitty” - is really important to winning. Not being able to sit patiently waiting for good hands is why most players lose, as we all know.

Good 5/5 sesh following a short 5/T where I booked a decent win. Staying grateful even with this cloud looming over my head. Been putting small chips on top of my black chips lately so I'm not as concerned about losing count/people swiping them off the top. There was a "back chip bandit" a while back.

Just remembered a really nice moment in an MDL 1/3 game a couple weeks ago when I was taking some time off from MGM. Presumably mother and her adult daughter, who has a cognitive/physical disability, are at table, mom sitting behind daughter to help her read cards and play. It was really touching to see mom helping her do something she enjoyed and to watch the daughter playing in spite of her limitations. She didn't let them hold her back from enjoying life. Funny too, because the player was wearing a bar poker shirt, where my journey pretty much started. I am pretty glad I didn't get involved in any hands with her, would have felt really bad. Definitely a good reminder of how family support has been important for me, and how I've also persevered a lot to get to where I am and have not let my own disability prevent me from enjoying life. This guy let me borrow his charger last night too. Despite recent events, poker ain't all that bad. And I am on the upswing again, thankfully.

Sadly, my mental health is still really suffering, but it helped a lot not to play at MGM last night. Things tend to take a bad turn whenever I run into the threats guy.

"Things can always get worse." Uttered by a player in the 5/5 game a week or two ago, they stuck with me. My dad suffered from a heart attack yesterday morning and I rushed him to the ER as he lay in agony in the back seat. I think I ran six red lights and was certainly speeding. He lost consciousness shortly before we got to the hospital. I pulled up to the ER and shouted for help for what seemed like an eternity. I started CPR in the back seat until nurses took over.

The nurse in his ICU room said "that must have been scary." I was so shell-shocked, all I could muster was "it was different, I'm not trained in medicine." "It's scary for us," she replied. Truth was I was terrified and still am.

I'm grateful I was there to help my dad. I wish we'd waited for the ambulance, but he insisted this would be faster and we weren't sure how bad it would get. His last heart episode was not nearly as serious. Only downside was that they could have worked on him in the ambulance whereas I could not while driving. Will not know whether it made a difference.

I did not play the 5/5 after a home game the night before so I was just barely rested enough to pull this off. It helped that dad swallowed a few aspirin and copious water beforehand. He's a doc so he knew exactly what was happening with the bad chest pain and immediately said he needed to go to the hospital. He is still in ICU but intubation is out now and things are hopeful. Doc is cautiously optimistic.

Only one visitor in room at a time (that's mom), so I played a short session last night to distract me and booked a $3k win. (Thanks for the positive energy, dad.) I am still haunted by the scene in the car, I saw my dad hanging on by a thread, but remind myself that that is not reality anymore, that he's stable, and I helped achieve that.

Just be grateful for what you have, especially your family. It could be gone in an instant.

Wow, that's scary. Good luck to your dad!

GlifeistooshortG

Best wishes to your dad

Thanks ya'll, and thanks to those who sent positive vibes off-thread too. Dad is getting stronger and looking better by the day. Still in ICU monitoring his condition but no setbacks thus far. Counting our blessings, it could have gone the other way. Incredibly scary experience, for him and us. My own chest discomfort is back with all the stress as well. What an insane few weeks. At least I took time off from work.

Glad he’s improving

I pointed something similar to this out way earlier in this thready (two years ago or so). At the time Dumbo was asking about a hand in the strategy forums and several people felt that he angled the guy and Dumbo went out of his way to find the one guy that agreed with him and basically said everyone was dumb and wrong because that guy said he didn't angle.

Of course, we have no way of truly knowing what happened and Dumbo could be totally in the right and correct, but it does show his need to have affirmation of his actions and his play. Someone acting like that at the tables can get very annoying at the tables. Having never met Dumbo I have no idea if that is what happens or not, but reading through his thread he reminds me a lot of a player at my local casino. He also claims to have some mental issues. He can be really painful to play with though and no matter how much you try to talk to him about it he thinks he is in the right in every situation. He slows down every game he plays in and makes it a generally unpleasant game to play in, especially for recreational players. He doesn't realize this though.

Dumbo, I would make sure you get whatever mental issues you have looked at and taken care of. Playing poker is not a great choice for someone with mental issues. You may be able to make good money, but at what cost? If you have all these issues and run ins are you actually happy playing?